Author: AidanAK47

Fate/Extra Last Encore – 02[Dead Face]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/Extra Last Encore

I would say if this series had a element that could become a major problem it’s going to be Shinbo’s directing style. It’s sort of a given when you walk into a Shaft series that you are going to have people tilting their heads in awkward angles alongside talkative characters where the camera shots jump around as to show as little movement as possible. Still so far it’s at a tolerable level and it may even be a positive for those who are fans of the monogatari series as I can see people labeling this Fatemonogatari. But dear readers it’s time for the million dollar question, namely just what the hell is going on? Casual viewers are confused, Fate fans are confused and even those that played the game this is adapting are confused. Of course it’s already been made clear that Nasu intents this to be an anime original take on the game but what he has planned is certainly got everyone tilting their heads in bafflement. So let me round this up. We have a number of exposition scenes with the first taking place in a bath as a buck nude Saber explains the bare necessities to Hakuno. Honestly questioning just why this had to take place in a bath but I guess we gotta get Nero naked somehow. Can’t say it’s out of character for her to bath with Hakuno without a shred of embarrassment and more importantly this does appear to be Fate/Extra Nero and not Fate/Extella Nero.

Roman public baths are a thing and Nero is cocky enough that being naked in front of people is no concern to her. It does seem like a blatant show of fanservice but at least it’s not at the levels of Fate/Extella where Nero seems like she made every line either about wanting to screw you senseless or toot her own horn. So we get the usual rundown, Holy grail, Masters and servants, Battle royale to the death. The big info here is the reveal that all this is taking place in cyberspace, virtual reality. All which a some supercomputer called the moon cell is doing to determine the master of the Holy Grail. Thus what was supposed to follow was that Hakuno and Nero would fight their way up seven levels to make it to the top and claim the grail. But instead are greeted with a bustling town on the first level which has all the masters that decided to just give up on the grail and hang out on the bottom floor. The mayor of this town being Shinji of all people whom is asking people to sell off their servants in exchange for just having fun on the bottom floor. Already it appears that a significant amount of time has passed between the massacre in the school simulation and Hakuno’s elevator trip up to the first floor. I don’t really have an explanation on why there is a time difference but I think I understand what is going on in this first floor at least.

From my guess it appears Shinji is busy trying to con people into selling him their servants so he can use them to make it to the top floor. I don’t really think there are any masters on the first floor as the town does seem quite empty but I am not sure if that’s intentional or just Shaft making things look spacious and empty for style. It does make sense that Shinji’s first move would be to try and nab as many servants as possible as even at the beginning of Fate/Stay Night he tried to make alliances with Rin and Shirou. As for the final episode twist which brings back Hakuno’s odd durability it appears that they are hinting him to be some sort of combination of all the dead masters that failed to reach the grail. Interesting as Jack from Apocrypha was also that kind of entity as she was created from the grudges of dead and abandoned children in london. It’s a decent twist but Hakuno does remain a bit too much of a non character to really relate to. I would like him to gain more personality as I don’t really buy his sudden attachment to Nero and for Nero to really shine she needs a foil she can work off of. Just make him more suave and snarky and he will do just fine, already winning points for being fairly nonchalant with a nude Nero in front of him.

The opening for this series is a strange one as it appears to be just Nero fighting shadows in a colosseum with a decent song in the background. Her fight choreography is good but it just seems rather barebones at the moment. The could come to change as more servants are introduced as I have a feeling the opening with include them as they are introduced, turning the opening into one big free for all between Nero and the servants of Fate/Extra. I will keep my mouth shut on who the servants are for now but if you played Fate/Extra or Fate/Grand order then you likely spotted some familiar faces here. Also even if I do keep things secret there is not a chance in hell you will end up guessing these servants because Fate/Extra’s servants are….weird. You may be thinking “What, weirder than female frankenstein’s monster or stripper loli Jack the Ripper from Apocrypha?” and the answer is kinda. See Fate/Extra’s servants are either famous names whose design has been changed so drastically that they are unrecognisable or names so obscure and out there that no one could ever figure it out. Either way I am interested in where this is going. Fate/Extra Last Encore isn’t blowing me away yet but so far it’s been solid enough to keep me invested.

Junji Ito Collection – 05[Further Tales of Oshikiri/Cloth Teacher]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Junji Ito Collection

At this point I have pretty much given up on Junji Ito’s work ever transfering well to an animated medium. It is true that maybe with higher production values and a more talented team than his work could potentially be brought to life but even with that I still think it would come up short. Not because Ito’s work is of such polished perfection that nothing other than manga drawings could capture it, actually it may be the opposite. Junji Ito’s work is very much pulp fiction(The term, not the movie) in that the stories themselves nor the characters are not the true selling point. I would compare Ito very much to HP Lovecraft whose work is often highly regarded due to its influential ideas but when judged on his actual quality they too are essentially pulp fiction short horror stories of hit or miss quality. The strength is in the presentation and ideas of the work but not so much on its narrative quality. Indeed Ito tends to rely to heavily on body horror and his stories can veer into goofiness when attempting to be unnerving and surreal. Thus a Junji Ito story without the high detail of his art and the paneling of a manga is like a lovecraft story without the inner monologue of the narrators building madness. Essentially a silly monster movie.

But well we have two stories today and the first one is rather interesting as it deals with the main protagonists house being connected to other worlds. In this case the protagonist Oshikiri is finding alternative world versions of his classmates which all seem to be either terrified of him or wishing revenge on him. The actual concept is fascinating but the story does have its fair share of holes. For one if Oshikiri is aware that his house is a portal to other dimensions then why in god’s name is he still living in it? The big twist as well is that there are alternative world versions of himself which are murderers experimenting with humans in order to make a formula to make humans grow taller. It doesn’t really make sense that a teenager would be fooling around with science, especially one that doesn’t seem all that gifted intellectually and the killer Oshikiri’s motivation is just absolutely juvenile. Still I liked the final climax with Oshikiri and the girl trapped in the house wandering through infinite worlds potentially filled with killer Oshikiris. Also from the look of things there appears to be a sequel story to this so I wonder just where it will go with that.

And for the second story we have a return to the nail biting teenager chuunibyou whose fond of casting life threatening curses on his classmates. It’s clear by the presentation that his actions are more for black comedy than genuine horror but I find it falling flat on both fronts. The comedy is well…childish at best as we are apparently supposed to laugh over Souchi pants being pulled down? I mean yeah, I suppose it’s good to see this kid get some comeupence but this is some Dennis the menace level humor here.As for the horror I just find it offset by the comedy as it’s trying to push it as light hearted but the truth of this matter is that this kid has attempted to kill a lot of people. Yet others seem to be letting him off fairly easy for it. He gets a few nails to the butt and that’s it? If this kid got his way his two teachers and a student would be dead. I just can’t really enjoy this kids antics when he’s such an unlikeable wart of a character. So I hope he doesn’t have too many stories left in this season as they are clearly not gelling with the horror that the series is going for.

Darling in the Franxx – 04[Flap, Flap]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Darling in the Franxx

Today on Darling in the Franxx, Hiro gets laid. Truth be told I have been trying to get my thoughts together on just what I think about this show. As far as general consensus goes it’s been rather passable. Decent entertainment with some impressive animation and a plot which is predictable but nonetheless satisfactory. These past two episodes really have dialed back on the fanservice as well as the sex jokes and general nudity are less prominent. They are still there of course what with Zero Two’s suggestive “You wanna ride me, Huh?” to Hiro’s “I feel myself going deeper inside you” but it’s on a level with can at least allow you to take the plot seriously. Though as I previously state, I am not all that interested in the plot of Franxx. For one the organisation seem both stereotypical and stupid as they refuse to test out Hiro and Zero Two’s compatibility again and instead dismiss it as a fluke based on two tests where they made them ride with different pilots. Content just to throw Zero Two on to the front lines with her going through pilots like lunchtime meals. It is a question just why they brought Zero Two to the plantation in the first place and i can’t help but feel some plot contrivance in this situation with how dramatic they made these twos first real fight together. I even much question just why it was that Hiro lost his memory of the first time piloting with her when here he had no trouble at all remembering. Could be a future twist as they are already hinting that Hiro also can only ride with Zero Two a certain amount of times before he’s killed as well.

This episode was mainly animated by trigger which does explain some choppy moments during the fight scene and also why the fight scene had a lot more impact. Not to say the A-1 animation team where doing a bad job, if anything this are on par but Trigger just seems to have mastered the art of dailing things up to eleven and getting the viewer pumped. So plot wise this was essentially a confession episode as Hiro admitted that he wants to ride Zero Two not for the sake of humanity or anything grand but rather because he enjoys piloting with her and only her. There may have been some manipulation on Zero Two’s part to get to this but it does seem that she was feeling uncertain because she thought that Hiro was getting scared by the rumors and the fact that she has klaxosaur blood. Again it’s decent writing but it just feels oh so very predictable. Trigger works aren’t exactly known for their writing as the stories are generally simple and follow formula but generally the impact of the show is enough to brush aside it’s predictability and there are often elements of intrigue thrown in or at least things to speculate on.

But like i said, the organization is boring, I don’t care what they are planning because they are a faceless personality lacking entity which is clearly up to no good. It’s pretty clear that Hiro and the others were genetically engineered to fight and there is a distinct lack of actual people in this world with the only evidence of their existence an empty yellow city in the plantations depths. klaxosaur we know next to nothing about other than them being the main threat in this world.Other than that there isn’t much to speculate on here and we are basically dragged along in a fight where we do not know the stakes nor the goal. The only thing that keeps these fights from being flashy fodder is the character dynamics. The characters do show potential for grown, for one Mitsuru’s partner not only didn’t break down but actually stepped up to support him after his embarrassing ride with Zero Two. Ichigo is playing the role of the responsible leader but it’s clear there is tension between her and Zero Two over Hiro. The smug mech smile of Zero Two’s as she passed Ichigo was quite telling. The development of the team is going to have to be a big thing as at this rate they will be playing second fiddle to Strelizia so it could be quite entertaining to see they each step up to the challenge.

Darling in the Franxx – 03[Fighting Puppet]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Darling in the Franxx

Today on relationship symbolism with Darling in the Franxx, NTR. Well jokes aside this episode was easier to take seriously as there were less sex jokes and more drama. Not quite certain what to make of it as I still find the robots a bit too silly to take seriously and overall the plot is just fine if a bit predictable. For example, we knew exactly what was going to happen when Mitsuru decided to control the Franxx with Zero Two. It was obvious from the word go that this was to prove that Hiro was the only one who can handle her in a cockpit. Same with the newbie robot pilots going out on their first missions, obviously something was going to go wrong which would push for Hiro and Zero Two to be sent out. It’s understandable why they are taking the story this way but rather annoying when the reasons for doing so seem rather forced. For example, there is no reason whatsoever for command to be reluctant to send out Hiro wit Zero Two. Not even to fight but just for a test run would be good enough as he’s already proven that he can handle her and the only reason he’s getting shafted is due to him not being an official pilot. But it just seems so arbitrary when they are willing to send out a rookie with her despite Hiro having proven combat experience with her.

Point is that we all know that Hiro’s going to end out piloting with Zero Two and these events are just delaying the inevitable fact. Though this delay does give us some perspective from the other pilots in which it seems that Hiro was originally the golden boy who happened to give them all their names. But after Hiro ended up not being able to handle a robot he was tossed aside but still given special treatment despite his failures. So the other pilots, at least Zorome and Mitsuru appear to resent him for that. They place their hopes on him and he ended up disappointing. Though in Mitsuru’s case it appears he has a bit of an complex due to being stuck with Ikuno and his performance being shaky. The obvious factor is likely due to Ikuno feeling like the a weak link and the two not really having much of a connection. Very much like a couple that were pushed into an awkward relationship. It seems obvious that performance is based on how well the two pilots get along with each other and can be shaken when one loses trust in the other.

So Mitsuru’s performance is going to take a nosedive because of him openly revealing that he does believe that Ikuno is the reason behind their lacking performance and confirming her insecurities. If that’s the case there relationship could take a rather sour turn. On the upside Zorome seems to be growing more attached to Miku and easing up on the cocky little shit act which is promising. Though Ichigo looked to be having some backlash due to her failure with Hiro. I feel sorry for Goro in this situation as it looks like he’s the third wheel and is fully aware of it. I also wonder what is going on with this strange letterboxing in certain scenes. Is it to make it seem more cinematic or place extra emphasis on what is being said in this scene?

Junji Ito Collection – 04[Shiver / Marionette Mansion]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Junji Ito Collection

Today’s stories fell a bit flat for me as one of Ito’s tendencies to not explain his horrors actually somewhat backfired. In the first story we had a tale about a jade stone which cursed people with a disease that causes holes to open up on their body. The story itself was relatively simple but I can’t help but notice some logical inconsistencies. For one they state that the girl next door had been afflicted with this hole disease for all her life and yet when other people are infected they die within days. So what was this girl so special that she lived so long with the disease? The disease itself doesn’t make much sense either and while Ito does tend to stretch credibility to make his monsters come to life, here is another example where I feel he pushing things too far. This hole disease does create holes in the body as shown by the last victim who even had one of his eyeballs falling out of it’s socket due to a hole under his eye. Yet the victim can still somehow live which makes me wonder just how blood circulation works when the body is full of holes. Who was the doctor and why was he connected with the stone? Frankly I feel the horror of the story fails because we as the audience just know far too little of the situation to get what is even happening. At most we can speculate and even with that we have far too little information.

The Marionette Mansion story also has issues but at least there is more to work with when it comes to that story. Being about a brother that comes back to town and mysteriously his family are controlled by strings like puppets. The key factor her appears to be the puppet at the end who somehow must have been in control of all the strings. If i had to guess I would believe that the brother never actually came back to the town and the family which our protagonist was talking to was just puppets controlled by Jean-Pierre. The reason I believe was to somehow trick the protagonist and his sister into joining the house as it appears the older brother abandoned the puppet, he needs a human to be “complete” so to speak. Though in this puppets case he wanted the roles to be reversed. Again this story has it’s holes, namely that if the main protagonist found the house to be so suspicious then why did he keep coming back to it? He was clearly wary of the house and it’s puppet antics and yet he still let his sister stay there and kept coming back. Also why did the puppet freak out so much over the jealous girlfriend and attack the protag? How does the house ever work in regards to being controlled by strings all day? How do the puppeteers know what they want to do? The final reveal just kinda felt on the weak side as it was pretty obvious that was the case.

If there is a big flaw with these stories though it would be the endings. I have noticed this so far with all the stories but they tend to end far too suddenly. There isn’t really a sense of finality to the conclusion, instead it feels like the story just stops suddenly and is rather unsatisfying as a result. Even if that is the stories ending in the manga it would be better to dwell on it a bit to let the ending sink in before cutting to the credits. Another issue is with the presentation which while fine is still far too similar to watching a slideshow of the manga. Their is very little animation or attempts to truly adapt these stories to screen. They are essentially the manga put into an animated format without any real adjustment. Which may be fine for purests but when the anime just ends up an inferior version of the manga then people might as well just read the manga instead.

Fate/Extra Last Encore – 01[The Present Lies at the Bottom of an Olden Limbo]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/Extra Last Encore

To newcomers of the series this first episode of Fate/Extra must have you thinking “Just what in the hell is going on?” but have no fear for as this sites resident Fate expect I can safely tell you that…yeah, I have no idea either. While this is Fate/Extra, it has been confirmed that Nasu is writing a brand new story for this one so while some beats of Extra may be followed, the story may end up being very different. An important thing to note is that despite familiar faces showing up here, this is indeed an entirely different world and therefore that means that even though Rin is here, she is not the same Rin who went through the events of any of the other Fate Adaptations. The same goes for Kirei though it seems that no matter what world he is in, Shinji is always Shinji. We have less animation this time around but I do admit that Shaft makes up for it with style though this episode was unfortunately dampened thanks to the dimming of action scenes due to epilepsy concerns. For a first episode this is a strong effort as while the characters are not particularly interesting yet, there is air of mystery and intrigue that keeps you sucked in. This anime appears to be building on Extra’s story and adding another layer to it as the opening starts off with the female protagonist getting decimated before changing to the male protagonist. I hope there is a greater effort to characterise him as the protagonist of Extra was very much a blank slate for the player to insert himself into and after Apocrypha I really don’t want another one of those.

However the protagonist isn’t the only one I am worried about here as this success of this series does depend on him and also on Nero, otherwise known as Red Saber. I don’t really think I need to hide her identity considering that it’s widely known and otherwise impossible to guess. But yes, the success of this series depends partly on her or to be more exact, which Nero is here. What do I mean? Well my friends let me tell you a tale of Nero from Extra. Nero was a cocky little narcissist who loved tooting her own horn and that was actually quite charming. She came across as what would happen if you injected some of Gilgamesh’s ego into Blue Saber and ended up a loveable dolt who had the kind of confidence you just wish you had. I mean the woman wears a see through dress because she thought it would be a shame to deprive the world the beauty of her thighs. What made her particular fun was when she spoke pure bullshit on her achievements and if you called her out on it she would get meek and sullen.

I actually quite liked her then but it seems I didn’t nearly like her as much as the writer Hikaru Sakurai does. The writer of Fate/Extella and the Septem section of Fate Go, Sakurai has proven that she quite likes Nero. In fact, she absolutely adores her but sadly this results in Nero undergoing a massive character shift when one plays Extella or Septem. For Fate/Extra’s Nero was a cocky loveable brat who always touted herself as the best thing since sliced bread but Fate/Extella’s Nero is not only being claimed to be just as great as she makes herself out to be but actually even underselling her godly essence. Sakurai’s Nero is a mary sue of the highest caliber and the plot does nothing but to constantly wax on about how great and magnificent Nero is that it turned my opinion on her from like to hate. With Nasu writing this instead of Sakurai I am hoping for a return of the Nero that I liked provided that Nasu isn’t getting Sakurai to ghostwrite for him.

So what exactly happened here in this episode? Well it appears to be some sort of elimination round before the holy grail war. They got a hefty amount of masters here so they are whittling them down to a certain number of masters to fight in the war. The process appears to be sticking them in some sort of school simulation and having them eliminate each other through tests? Seems like for a while that people were getting killed off and brought to the infirmary before being thrown into the incinerator. This has been going on for a while until Kirei pulls sudden death with the last masters being chosen based on whoever kills someone else first. The good news is that the school setting appears to be gone though I do believe that the series is really pushing sense of disbelief with the main characters durability. Guy was stabbed several times, fell down a hole, pierced through with an arrow and even after all that the man is still kicking.

Part of this is sort of justified by the digital looking nature of the world but still, with that level of damage the MC should have been long dead. As a last note, I really like that the stone servent that brought the main character near death before summoning a servant was Archer from Fate/Stay Night. As in Fate/Stay Night it was Cu who wounded Shirou before he summoned a Saber which is whom Archer was fighting when Shirou saw them. So it makes for a nice parallel to have Archer instead be the one to chase down the MC before he summons a Saber. Even the stone nature of the servant referring to his position as a counter guardian and that he was also a servant you could choose in Fate/Extra. Sadly like Tamamo and the alternative Female MC, he appears to have been Shafted.(Pun not intended)

2017 Anime Summary

by AidanAK47, posted in Yearly Summaries

Aidan: Another year and another tick down on the death counter but it certainly has been a pretty good year for anime. We had some stinkers, some major disappointments but there were certainly shows that will be remembered and even some that will be touted as being the best of the best.

The other writers and I have decided that the choices for this list will be based on majority vote between the five of us. You can complain that your own preferred show didn’t make the final list but there is a very good chance that it was nominated and slowly knocked out as we tallied the votes together. Also, do take note that we haven’t seen everything this year had to offer so there are anime that have slipped under the radar. It is only our opinion and thus is nothing ironclad nor is it contractually binding. You may like something that we hate and that is perfectly fine (provided it’s not Eromanga Sensei because bloody hell…).

Each writer has taken it upon himself to write a section about the winners but keep in mind that just because someone wrote it, does not mean they specifically nominated it. Down below, you will see each of the writer’s ballot for their own top ten choices. With that being said, let’s put Star Crossed Blog’s final stamp on the anime year of 2017.

Worst of the Worst

Worst Show: Hand Shakers

Mario: I’m not at all exaggerating when I consider that encountering a total wreck like Hand Shakers is as rare as running across any modern classic. For Hand Shakers to be a product that goes wrong in almost every department, with its rage-inducing visual mess with fisheye lens, random camera zoom, distracting CG that moves on different frame rate than the 2D models, incompetent writing filled with of illogical leaps, INCEST, terrible treatment to the female cast, the consistently one-dimensional outlandish characters, and softcore porno sounding OST. Given the main theme of the show is about meshing connections, it’s rather remarkable how the presentation is this constant battle between all the elements of the show trying to intertwine with each other. Hand Shakers is also a glaring example of how an anime studio pushed way too hard on showing off their “signature’ style without considering if it fits the material to the point where it becomes a gimmick (Shaft, beware!). The saddest thing is that its failure doesn’t come from a lack of care, as I can see real effort were put into it, but to make a show this terrible is no small feat. Hand Shakers redefines what we perceive as bad, and maybe THAT is how it will be remembered for years to come.

Runner-ups: Berserk (2017) – For poorly adapting of one of the most acclaimed manga ever written.  Eromanga Sensei – For the exact opposite reason of Berserk (2017), where there were solid production values for a show that represents everything that is wrong about modern anime, which makes it even more painful to watch than forgettable fluff.

 

Biggest Disappointment:
Seikaisuru Kado

Lenlo: It’s difficult to write this category, because for all of its faults, I still enjoyed Seikaisuru Kado. The problem is that it could have been so much more. For the first half of its run, Kado did a great job of setting up its characters and running with the theme of “alien contact changing our world”. The CGI, while not beautiful like Houseki no Kuni, was used inventively to simulate 3D shapes in creating interesting scenes. However, in a single episode, it plummeted from being an intriguing sci-fiction to an unmitigated disaster of a shounen. Plot threads got abandoned, dialogue was thrown out the window in favor of flashy combat and the philosophizing was pointless. Because of its fantastic start and subsequent disgusting end, Seikaisuru Kado is the most disappointing and soul-crushing anime of 2017. It only beats out Berserk (2017) because no one expected anything from that trainwreck in the first place.

Runner-up: Berserk (2017)
Continue reading “2017 Anime Summary” →

Darling in the Franxx – 02[What it means to connect]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Darling in the Franxx

As it stands now, this is essentially an animated version of a double entendre. Each line is laced with a double meaning so heavy that you can postface lines with the words “That’s what she said.” and it would fit perfectly. I find my stance on this to be rather mixed as while the fanservice is ridiculously blatant what with it’s robots piloted by ass controls and changing room boob groping, it feels like the show itself recognises just how silly it all is. Let me put it this way, shows like Cross Ange present their fanservice with a straight face as it has the age old cliches we all know and hate while Franxx seems to be having fun in acknowledging its own absurdity. I honestly chuckled when one of the pilot said upon starting his machine “Did I do it right? I didn’t suck?” and having his partner reassure him that he did fine. Still while this playfulness is rather comical, it does conflict with the serious plot the story appears to be trying to present. For you see, when you are trying to make a point, it can be difficult to be taken seriously when your statements sound like a sex joke. I mean Franxx doesn’t suck hard but it does suck a little, and while sucking a little can be enough to satisfy some people, I know there are those of us who would prefer it to perform better so that we aren’t left limp when the time comes for it to go fast and heavy. You may be beginning to see my point.

It is pretty apparent that this series is paying homage to mecha series like Evangelion and its contemporaries and as odd as it may be to say, I think that it would be a mistake for this series to attempt to take a darker turn in it’s later episodes and attempt an Evangelion. For you see, nothing will top Evangelion, it is on a pedestal so high and fortified by age, legacy and nostalgia that even if you made a series that was objectively a better version of it in every way, it still wouldn’t top Evangelion. Even Evangelion couldn’t top Evangelion, that’s the point we are at. Attempting to do so would just make this another one of those shows that followed it can came up short and i feel that the idea’s have really all been done. So while this may sound ludicrous to you readers, I believe Franxx should put it’s focus on it’s other aspect which happens to be using mecha as allegory for relationships. I know it sound odd for me to suggest this considering my rant above about this series approach to sex but I feel this is the only real path for Franxx to be its own entity. Mecha and sex have been previously compared before and even the idea of using them as pseudo relationships, off the top of my head I can name Aquarion Evol which dabbled in this. But if there is one aspect that anime has hardly explored, it’s the nature of relationships. In anime, a relationship has a beginning and an end but never a middle. Romance anime either end at the confession or time skip to the marriage and very little of the rather tremulous ground that is the relationship itself is covered. So if this anime can somehow use the ground of mecha to explore sexual relations then this could turn out rather interesting.

Already we have some ammo for this kind of story as this episode can essentially be taken as a tale of erectile dysfunction. The main has to prove his worth by trying to pilot a franxx again but this time he is paired up with another girl called Ichigo who seems to be romantically interested in him. Despite a promising start the robot ends up rejecting the connection leading to the girl trying to get the main “in the mood” so to speak. I am not really pushing to make this symbolic connection either, in fact it’s rather obvious this is what it’s alluding to. Being “in the mood” is looking to be a big factor when piloting these robots as his opponent, cocky little upstart he is, effectively kills the mode in his robot when he openly admits that he would take the Ichigo as his partner, essentially the equivalent of calling out another woman’s name during intercourse. This pisses off his partner, shuts down the robot and we have an ending with Ichigo making the rather suggestive comment that the main was “awful”.

So we have a love triangle here, Zero two is the dangerous girl whose been with a number of guys and is experienced, exciting and spontaneous. Not to mention she’s a dominant bold partner in piloting which may be a factor in getting the main ”in the mood”. Ichigo on the other hand is a submissive partner whose boring, predictable and ordinary, essentially the safe relationship option. But we also have the issue of cheating as Ichigo already has a partner whom she is highly compatible with and well he seems to be aware of her feelings. I admit this may be me simply trying to justify the high amount of suggestive fanservice into something more acceptable as people did with Kill La Kill and I fully admit that this might not be the intended focus of the series. But it certainly would give me something more interesting to talk about.

Junji Ito Collection – 03[The Crossroads Pretty boy – The lovesick dead, Slug Girl]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Junji Ito Collection

Our two stories today regard the handsome man at the crossroads and slug girl. The handsome man story was given the most screen time and it is a decent story, albeit unfinished. What was presented here was only the first part of the story and I believe it will be continued in later episodes. But what we have here is a town haunted by a mysterious figure whom people have taken to asking about their love life. Which would be fine if the mysterious figure didn’t always claim that their love would be unfulfilled and his words have such an effect that the girls commit suicide. There’s never really and explanation as to why or how this monsters came to be but if I had to make a guess I would say the monster of this town is the mysterious fog that appears whenever the pretty boy is walking about. The catalyst for these events seems to be an incident in the main characters past, where he told a pregnant woman that her love was doomed and that caused her to commit suicide. This appears to have given the fog a taste for blood as it appears to be trying to trap more girls souls within it by spawning the pretty boy and having him make girls commit suicide. At least that’s my interpretation though it doesn’t quite explain that the murders seems to only start up once the main character moved back into town.

The big question here is whether the handsome mans words are some kind of mind control considering the effect he has on his victims or if the mans words only have such an effect because they cause the victim to realise something. We have a case here of a girls friend asking the pretty boy about her friends love life only for the pretty boy to say that she should worry about her own. His words causing the girl to aggressively pursue the main character as though he were her last chance at love. Eventually leading to her suicide when he rejects her numerous advances. Considering how the girl becomes like a woman possessed as she transforms into a ugly visage of herself it would be easy to say that it’s all just some form of mind control. However it could be that this girl did have worries about her own love life and the pretty boy’s words merely confirmed her greatest fears of never finding love. Thus she pushes herself to find love no matter what and her efforts just backfired disastrously. Though it could be some kind of primal instinct stimulated that pushes for the ultimatum of either procreate or die. Thus this begs the question that if the main character did accept her advances then could she have potentially gone back to normal?

Slug girl was given the shorter runtime of five minutes but the story it presents is a rather good example of Junji’s approach to absurdist horror. There is no explanation as to why it happened but for some reason a girls tongue turned into a slug. While the first transformation was horric, the second does bring to light a certain problem I have with Junji ito’s works. Name that Ito has a tendency to go a bit too silly with his ideas. An example would be a chapter from his work Uzumaki where the people of the town gain the ability to create whirlwinds by spinning their fingers. A rather weird tonal shift for what was a rather tense grim story. Here we have the parents of the girl convince her to bath in a bath full of salt to kill the slug. I feel the parents went a bit overkill by having her bath in salt considering that her mouth was the main area affected and oddly enough this resulted in the girls body completely disappearing, leaving her as just a head with a slug coming out of its mouth like some kind of messed up snail. The implication that the girl is somehow still alive despite being reduced to a snail shell is a rather disturbing concept but I just find the logic of it to be rather flimsy. Sure it’s all fiction and it doesn’t make sense to have her tongue turn into a slug in the first place but it just feels like Junji had a disturbing idea and took it to too much of an extreme to be taken seriously.

Junji Ito Collection – 02[Fashion Model, Long Dreams]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Junji Ito Collection

After the first episode started off as a black comedy, I was worried that this series may suffer the same problem as Kino’s Journey in that the weaker stories in his work would be chosen for adaption. Lucky this does not appear to be the case but there is another problem which is not quite as easy to resolve. Junji Ito’s work has always faced problems regarding his work getting adapted, much in the same way that Stephen King’s work has had a lineup of failed adaptions. The big issue with Ito’s work is that the quality of it isn’t so much in the characters and writing but rather the idea and artistic value. Ito knows how to think up disturbing and strange horror concepts and work to illustrate and panel them to become massively unnerving. However when you strip away his artstyle, the apparent silliness of his ideas becomes more visible. Much like how Ufotables adaption of Gyo turned out, which was an admirable effort but sadly didn’t quite succeed. The live action efforts are marred by bad CGI and other factors, though the Tomie movies seem to have succeeded to a degree. Now Deen are taking a stab at it and their take appears to be sacrificing movement for detail. This has been a double edged sword as while this anime may be the closest to Ito’s style, the lack of movement makes it very much like a slideshow of the manga at times.

Our first story brings to front Ito’s style of using unconventional and sometimes humorously strange monsterities. It features a horrifically monstrous model whom a college film crew decide to include in their movie. Without Ito’s signature style this story could very easily fall flat on its face but it actually succeeds in being rather creepy here. I like it for being a bit of the subversion of the heart of gold trope in that usually in anime and media, a monstrously ugly person actually turns out to be nice and misunderstood. However in this episode we have a monstrous looking woman whom everyone gives the benefit of the doubt but really turns out to be just as horrific a monster as she appears. For judging book by its cover is bad but that doesn’t mean that someone can’t have an ugly appearance and an ugly personality as well. It also shows the deep discomfort of having caught the undivided attention of someone whom you don’t find attractive or the torment of being stalked. The main character has caught the attention of this monstrous creature and it’s quite disturbing to think that this woman won’t so much rip him apart with her fangs but instead…ugh…eat him in another sense. If i had a problem with the stories presentation it would be that the ending was rather abrupt and parts of the original story showing how the main distorted the women’s image in his head was missing but otherwise it was strongly shown how uncomfortable the situation was.

The second story is Ito at his best as while not really scary in the usual sense but the very idea of it is deeply unsettling. Detailing a story about a hospital patient who is experiencing long dreams, dreaming in which he spends large amounts of time stuck in and growing longer by the day. While time passes normally for everyone else, the patient goes to sleep and lives through 8 years in his dream. This is contrast by another woman whom has a massive fear of death and believes she will die soon. One is scared of their time getting cut short while another is terrified that their dream will continue for eternity. It’s a pity that the anime cut out a few panels with the patient describing his dreams such as 10 years as a soldier wandering a jungle, 6 years cramming for student tests and 8 years with a full bladder searching for a toilet that doesn’t exist. Made worse when his body begins to adjust to the time he spends in dreams and age prematurely, eventually transforming into a macabre husk. Leaving only dust and strange crystals behind. The last scene make for an interesting twist as the doctor treating him administers the crystals to the woman which in turn gives her long dreams as well. The doctor rationalises this that a eternal nightmare is better than the void of nothingness that death could very well be. Personally I find the idea of being trapped in my own mind for a century in a single night to be a atrocious alternative to death. But well if you can get the internet in there, maybe I would think about it. The presentation falls a bit shorter in this story but luckily the story itself is enough to carry it.