AidanAK47, Author at Star Crossed Anime

Kino’s Journey -The Beautiful World Anime Review – 73/100

One of the surprises of the year was to see the return of Kino’s Journey, a very well regarded and more unique anime among those deemed classic. Many, myself included, were very much looking forward to the return of Kino and her talking Motorrad. Though due to some factors this series doesn’t quite live up to the pedigree of its former season. One factor is that it is somewhat a mix of a remake and a sequel as some old stories from the original 2003 series are remade while other new stories make an appearance. Those fond of kIno for it’s morally ambiguous parables will find the new series to be less focused on that and more on lighthearted little tales with Kino and other protagonists. There are of course dark moments but overall this series has more of an optimistic tone when compared to the previous seasons nihilistic outlook. This could be quite a turn off for old fans but there are indeed still good stories here.

However the choice of stories and their structure in the series doesn’t appear to have been thought out well as stories appear to be chosen based more on Kino and other fan favorites getting the spotlight rather than meaningful allegories on life. Quite a pity as there are well over 200 stories and yet the ones featured here appear to be the weaker ones of a long running series. Stories are placed one after another haphazardly without considering the tone or overall structure. For example, two of the remake episodes are A Kind Land and the Country of Adults. A kind land was the previous seasons finale but is placed in the middle of the series and is followed by Kino’s Origin which would have been more beneficial to place before A Kind Land. On top of which this season decides to finish on what amounts to a joke episode which again is a odd decision that seems to misunderstand the very intent of Kino’s story. Nonetheless there are some standout stories such as the Country of Lies and In the clouds.

That said while we have a B-class selection of stories, the presentation at least does them justice. Aside from some rather awkward CGI, this season of Kino is a visual improvement over its predecessors intentional but rather dated look. I didn’t notice anything noteworthy music wise and the opening is just alright. Characters can act a bit over the top and unrealistic, which is different from the original series more monotone delivery but that can result in some more emotional moments hitting harder. As such if a another season was made with better story selection I believe it could very well match the original. Though sadly this may be the last we see of Kino for a very long time. To sum things up, this series doesn’t hold a candle to the original but it’s still a worthwhile watch.

Kino’s Journey -The Beautiful World- – 12[Fields of Sheep]

December 30, 2017 by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Kino’s Journey -The Beautiful World-

Thus with todays episode, Kino mets her greatest adversary, one to test her to her very limits and be her greatest obstacle on her journey so far. Kino’s Arch Nemesis is…Sheep. Yes, sheep. Of all the stories that could have been chosen for the finale for Kino, this has to be one of the most bizarre choices. Kino gets attacked by Sheep and must fight them off to escape with Hermes. What unfolds is a strange yet somewhat hilarious battle between them. This would have made for a excellent breather episode in the middle of the season and yet here it is right at the end. Besides so awkward CGI it’s an enjoyable episode but much likely my previous complaints about episodes like this, this isn’t what I watch Kino for. There isn’t really a deeper meaning to this one, only a action scene and the humor of Kino taking on sheep.

The only thing I found to be a interesting observation was the final revelation that those sheep were used to fight each other in a nearby country but were released into the wild due to animal rights groups. Now that country is oblivious to the fact that those sheep hang around outside and attack any travelers that come near. Even killing what is likely quite a number of people. An old tale of good intentions going wrong, in this case animal rights groups simply assuming that the sheep would forgot their fighting ways and go back to being docile naturally. Guess the lesson is that if you are going to do a good deed, make sure to consider all potential consequences of your actions.

My feelings towards Kino’s Journey 2017 are complicated. I will most certainly say this is not a bad season but when held up against its predecessor, it is a weaker one. The odd thing is that I don’t believe that it was how these episodes where adapted that was the problem. In fact I would consider the adaptations of these stories to be rather strong. No, the problem lies in the stories themselves and how they were laid out in this season is the thing that truly brings this season down. While Kino is an episodic series, there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to how these stories flow into one another. A perfect example is the episode showing various countries, were in a batch of comedic and lighthearted stories is one rather dark tale that it was almost mood whiplash. The stories where very poor choices as well, seemly chosen for making Kino look cool or showing off fan favorite characters.

This is the problem when you decide based on popular vote instead of actual quality. There are well over 200 stories written in Kino and yet the story choice in this season consisted of three remakes that frankly were not needed and far too many lighthearted/comedy episodes. I think that any new viewer would walk away from this series with a massive misunderstanding of just what Kino is actually about. I believe they would be quite surprised if they went back and watched the 2003 version to find it being a much darker introspective beast. Still I would like Lerche to take another shot at Kino as they have show they can adapt it. All they really need to do for another season is choose more wisely from Kino’s selection of stories and consider how they fit together in a season as a whole.

Two tales of War: Reviewing The Heroic Legend of Arslan and Altair: A Record of Battles

December 29, 2017 by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Shoukoku no Altair

It would not be an exaggeration to say that my favorite type of anime is the political-military epic. This comes partly out of my profession, I study war and politics, but also my hobby, as military and political history is something I enjoy. When it comes to anime there is a clear sub-category that can be called political-military epics that covers elements of politics and war. These shows are characterized by some commonalities. First of all direction wise, is the large cast. When your characters are introduced with subscripts for titles, you know you are in political-military epic territory. Second, there is narrator who plays a crucial role in moving the story along.

Story wise the shows can be place into a continuum anchored by the great Chinese epics. On the one side you have those stories which are closer to the thematic of the Chinese “Journey to the West”. Political and Military events provide a backdrop, but the stories essentially focus on the story of a hero within the world. On the other side are stories in which the politics and the military events are the protagonist. There is no real protagonist per se, but instead central characters through which we see the events unfurl. The literary example of this in Chinese cultures is “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. Stories that go further and relegate characters to a truly secondary role cross into thematic territory that is more in synch with the ancient Greek history, “The Peloponnesian War”. Anime wise, a recent example of the first type was “Akatsuki no Yona”. Stories in the theme of the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, including directly based on it abound in anime, with “Shouten Kouro” being the most recent example in my mind. Finally, “Legend of Galactic Heroes” stands the closest to the “Peloponnesian War”, though it is still anchored around two protagonists.

Due the central role of the politics and military events in these stories, characters are either decision makers, or people who are privy to decisions. This is what differentiates from me the political-military epic, from what I would call only military anime (in which many times the characters are not privy to decisions-for example a lot of the Gundam franchise). Thus are protagonists are ministers, princes, kings, and generals, or the people who put into effect the decisions of such personages.

The two shows I will review here both wish to tell an epic story of politics and war. The Heroic Legend of Arslan (Arslan Senki) is the creation of the author behind Legend of Galactic Heroes, Yoshiki Tanaka. Thus we have a author who has experience in telling such epic tales. The animated version I am looking at is the recent one directed by Noriyuki Abe, based on the manga interpretation by Hiromu Arakawa, of Full Metal Alchemist fame. This is quite the pedigree of creators. There was an older anime based on Tanaka’s work, which I personally liked a lot, but which did not cover much of story (which is in progress). So I was looking forward to this new interpretation. The other show is based on a manga by Kotono Kato, a historian by trade, and is their first work of note. The anime was directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi who has some solid work behind them, but nothing exceptional per se. SuperWooper reviewed the first 12 episodes, but I decided that show deserves a full review, and he kindly let me take care of it.

Before going into the particulars let me summarize my review. Both shows suffered from a number of issues that denied them the character great, let alone exceptional. But ultimately I felt that Altair promises a lot more, and was able to craft the more interesting story. This was surprising, and to be frank after watching Arslan Senki I wondered if it really was written by the same person who wrote Legend of Galactic Heroes. It is not that it is per se a bad story, but quite underwhelming especially in the crucial area of characters. So let us go a bit more into the reasons for my conclusion.

Story

Ultimately a good political-military epic tells a good story. It posits a conflict that is both expansive and epic, but something that is beyond just a mere territorial spat. In LOGH Tanaka weaved into the story a whole semester worth of political science material ranging from questions about the trajectory of history, the meaning of war, to the relative merits of democracy and enlightened autocracy. I literally use parts of it in my lectures. Altair as a show is much closer to LOGH and the “Peloponnesian War” or the “Record of Three Kingdoms” than Arslan is. The word is more expansive, with many more powers, the politics are thus richer. Both shows try to invoke uniqueness by using as the basis of their world historical cultures that are not the usual staple of anime (or even western media). In Altair our protagonists are part of an idealized Ottoman Empire, active in a world with state that are inspired by ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy, and with the antagonist being a much more aggressive version for the Holy Roman Empire. In Arslan, the titular character is a prince of Pars, a setting inspired by Sassanid Persia, facing a fanatical stand-in for European Crusaders, and surrounded by states inspired by Turkish and Hunnish tribes, and Indian medieval princes.

While both settings work to enrich their regions, I ultimately felt that Altair did a better job of showcasing its world, compared to Arslan. And this is despite its pacing issues it has (more on this later). To put it simply, I found the city -tates, empires and kingdoms of Altair much more intriguing, than those of Arslan. A lot of this might be though that Arslan in its first arc is more like a “Journey to the West” story, focusing on the travels of the protagonist and his coterie of characters. Now, Altair also does this. But here is the difference. In Altair the story of individual travel is well-meshed to the story of the politics. In Arslan it is not. Turghil Pasha in his travels not only to get companions, he crucially meets decision makers and comes to understand, and show us, the politics of his world. In Arslan, Arslan meets companions, and he learns about the world, but he learns by being told about it by said companions, rather than by experiencing it. This was crucial difference.

I also felt that despite the pacing issues of Altair, the political decisions there made sense. That was not always the case with Arslan.

The different approach to the story also meant that Altair could get way with weak characters, while in Arslan they doomed it. In Altair, you could forgive some of the characters because the characters were always enriched by the environment. The cultures of Rumeliana (the Europe of Altair) were all so unique and interesting, that they enriched characters who stood as their proxies. In Arslan that was not the case. In general I felt the story of Altair to be richer, and more intriguing, than that of Arslan. While both had an element of a coming to age story, I felt that Altair was more able to mesh it to the political and military situation. And this helped the characters. Speaking of characters,

Characters

It is unavoidable that with their massive casts, political-military anime while have a slew of underdeveloped characters. As long as those characters are given some singular trait that makes them interesting, and as long as the protagonists are fleshed out, this is not an issue. As long as characters are not caricatures, they can be forgiven a bit of thinness. This is why story and environment play such an important role. This of course cannot be forgiven with the protagonists. A good political-military anime will have multiple protagonists, shared by the two main warring factions, and even more. They will be decision makers, or close allies of decision makers. They will be essentially our eyes and ears into why things happen, and provide some investment in the politics by having their fate and beings tied to it. The problems start when the central characters are either uninteresting, or relegated to a secondary role by the other protagonists. Altair succeeds in avoiding this, while Arslan fails.

Now both Mahmud Turghil Pasha and Prince Arslan share some character traits. They are both seen as politically naïve by others, and they are both struggling to find their place in a complex world. The starting arcs of both anime are focused on their journey to maturity and wisdom. The problem is that while we can see and appreciate Turghil Pasha’s growth, Arslan’s is not as easy to learn. This is not because he does not grow. But his growth is tethered and ultimately smothered by his companions. Too much of Arslan is about Arslan asking his chief strategist Narsus (a bad character inspired for Zhuge Liang from “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”) about what to do. There is a lot of that. As a result, Arslan’s growth is always feeling as pedestrian, predicted, boring. Turghil Pasha is never completely eclipsed like that. His growth is not always predictable, and we always see it in action.

It does not help that by a large the secondary cast in Arslan is boring. Of his companions that only two I found interesting are the warrior Daryun, who is not a rich character, but he is a well done example of the warrior template, and the fun and adventurous bard Gieve. The others did not stand out. This expands to the secondary characters on the side of the heroes. Most are bland, and boring. In Altair, despite the fact that many of the secondary characters are just as “thin”, I did not find them boring. Whether Halil Pasha, Suleiman Pasha, or Kiros and Abriga, they never seemed to hold the show down. The mayors, princes, kings that populate Rumeliana are not anymore developed than the characters in Arslan, but the combination of smart focusing on a specific trait, and their close connection to their cultures makes them interesting.

The issue becomes worse for Arslan when it comes to the question of antagonist. Now it is true that neither show comes close to the almost excellent balance of characters on both sides that LOGH had. But Altair comes closer. To put it simply ad brutally, the enemy in Arslan is boring. You have the always scowling, yelling, always angry Prince Hermes. You have the scheming, scowling, perpetually frustrated Guiscard. You have the caricature coward, scowling Bodin. Indeed there is a lot of scowling and furrowing of brows, and yelling going on. And that that is it. None of these people are remotely interesting. What drives them is boring, and thus their schemes are boring. No great questions can be put forward by such characters, and thus the battle really is more like a black and white fight, despite the continuous talk by characters that this is not the case (for the sake of all that is holy, one of the secondary antagonists chose the enemy side simply because he felt it would not be fair if there is no one on the side of the guy with he himself does not consider ready to be a king!). Hell, the most interesting opponent of Arslan is his frenemy Rajendra, who is pretty much an interesting character because he has a level head on his shoulders. The more interesting questions in Arslan are always about Arslan’s plans for the future of Pars, and that is pretty much an intra-ally discussion.

On a first glance Altair could also be considered weak on the enemy front. If there is one criminal failure for Altair, is that it never invests as much as it should in the enigmatic figure of Prime Minister Louis (a characterized for Machiavelli and Richelieu). This is partly because for a long part of the anime the “antagonist” is the equally interesting Zaganos Pasha. But the show in its second course presents us with an interesting array of Imperial opponents that give us an insight into what drives the Balt-Rhein empire forward. Their motives are much better than those of Arslan’s foes, and between Turghil, Zaganos, and Louis some major questions are put forward about the nature of hegemony, pacifism, and practical politics. The contrast between the perpetually yelling Hermes and Guiscard, and the calm Zaganos and Louis (whose voice actor is great) is in a way the encapsulation of the difference between the two shows.

Direction

Both shows suffer from direction issues. In a way they suffer for exactly opposite reasons. Altair suffers from an insane pacing, which leaves one bewildered about why and how things happen. Characters enter and leave before we have a chance to understand them or their place in the story. Essentially the fact that Altair is an advertisement for the manga can be seen in the terrible pacing, which tries to cram as much material as possible into the 24 episodes. . Arslan on the other hand, has pacing that is too slow, which means we get too much Narsus, being Mr.Perfect (I dislike Narsus, don’t I?), or Hermes scowling (GGRRR GRRRR). The pacing issues in Altair ruin a bit the enjoyment of unraveling the politics behind the scenes. But at least the politics unravels. In Arslan , we go through 36 episodes to just get back were we started, Arslan and companions on a trip.

Speaking of direction, the narrator, which is a character in these shows, was a bit more useful in Altair than that in Arslan. Also despite it pacing issues, I felt Altair was able to create some set-pieces that were quite nice, more often than Arslan. That said there was only so much the direction could do with the animation the shows got.

Animation

Well to put it simply animation in both cases was not something to write home about. While there were some well animated scenes (the fight between Turghil Pasha and Rod Orm, the fights between Hermes and Daryum), in general the animation was lackluster. Massive battles are the bread and butter of these shows and neither did a good job at it. Arslan opted for using CGI graphics, and the battles ended up having a rather Total War Rome feel to them (only TWR had more model variation). Altair, perhaps wisely, eschewed that for mostly still frames and traditional animation. They both get their story across, but there is none of that wow I got from the massive battles of LOGH.

Art

While I like Arakawa’s art I felt it plain compared to that of Altair. In general the world of Altair was more colorful and varied than that of Arslan. The Turkish, and Italian Renaissance basis of the clothes showed in Altair. There were some bad choices (the naval uniforms are too much One Piece like for my taste, and the uniform of the officers of the Balt-Rhein empire too LOGH Empire style) but in general they nailed the look. In Arslan the looks are servisable, but that is about it. One of the other blog commentators said that there was something whimsical in the art of Altair, and while initially I did not like it, it came to grow on me. I believe that if Altair had the animation budget of Arslan it would had been a much more beautiful show.

Music

The Opening and Endings of Arslan and Altair were in general generic and boring. I found the second Opening of Altair the most interesting, partly due to the good direction. When it came to soundtrack, Arslan had the better one, with the track Tenchi Rai Sanka standing out and being well used in the series for memorable scenes (Sher Senani! Sher Senani!). Altair was not graced with a soundtrack that was as good. It does its job, but that is it.

Final “Feel”

Ultimately I felt that the story that Altair tried to tell was a more epic and nuanced story, in a richer world. I felt that the political principles at stake were more expansive and interesting. It is not that Arslan does not have a good question at its center (the nature of kingship). It is more that the story failed to work with it well (since Narsus, has all the answers!). To be fair, nor does Altair really do a good job fully exploring its question. Indeed it more teases it. Perhaps the biggest thing holding Altair back, is that it is an anime conceived as a advertisement for the manga, with all associated issues in pacing, characterization etc. And to be frank it does that job well. Despite my initial dislike of the manga art, I came to be interested in it. Arslan’s issue is much more fundamental. It does not know what it wants to be. Is it a story of development like “Journey to the West”, or a war and political epic like “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. This is never clear, and to be frank from some summaries I have read of the books not animated, it gets worse, with fantasy elements invading with increasing vehemence.

Thus both shows fail to reach their potential. And perhaps I ask for too much. I mean LOGH had over 150 episodes to develop a sweeping and epic tale. That would be a fair rejoinder. But not in a world with Tanya Senki (Tale of Tanya the Evil). Tanya Senki is also a political-military epic. And despite its short course of 12 episodes, tight direction gave us tale that was rich enough. Tanya proves that you can tell a good political-military epic in 12 episodes. And thus the inability of both shows to do better in double the episode length is disappointing. With that said though, I believe Altair has the promise to tell a tale worthy of LOGH down the way. Arslan less likely.

Final Scores
Characters: Altair Record of Battles: 80/100; Heroic Legend of Arslan:70/100
Plot: Altair Record of Battles:80/100; Heroic Legend of Arslan: 70/100
Art: Altair Record of Battles: 70/100 ;Heroic Legend of Arslan: 70/100
Sound-Music: Altair Record of Battles: 70/100 /Heroic Legend of Arslan: 75/100
Final:
Altair Record of Battles: 75/100
Heroic Legend of Arslan: 70/100

Winter Season 2018 Preview

December 24, 2017 by AidanAK47, posted in Seasonal Previews

We reach years’ end and looking over it we got a pretty good year of anime. Quite a lot that I actually need to catch up on and this winter season might give me a chance to do so. I don’t mean to say this upcoming season is bad, but rather it’s just looking to be a season full of shows that don’t appeal to me personally. There is a large portion of slice of life feel-good anime here which isn’t really to my tastes. Even without that, we just came off what I consider to be a pretty great season of anime so anything after that is going to be a step down no matter what you do.

Anyway let’s lay down the ground rules. Naturally I checked out all the source material I could so I can give you all an idea of what we are in for. Vote for as many shows you like in the poll below and the writers will use that as a guide for what shows to cover.

Let the games begin.

The sequels/Shorts I don’t care about

25-sai no Joshikousei (short)

Ashita wa Doyoubi

Basilisk: Ouka Ninpou Chou

Dagashi Kashi 2nd Season

gdgd men’s party (short)

Gin no Guardian 2nd Season

Gintama. Gin no Tamashii-hen

Hataraku Onii-san!

Kaijuu Girls 2nd Season

Mameneko

Overlord 2nd Season

Pochitto Hatsumei: Pikachin-Kit

Saiki Kusuo no Ψ Nan

Takunomi. (short)

Yowamushi Pedal: Glory Line

Zoku Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru

Series I don’t care about

Dame x Prince Anime Caravan

Studio: Studio Flad
Director: Makoto Hoshino
Script/Series composer: Naruaki Kobayashi
Source: Video Game
The story of the game follows Ani, a princess from the minor nation of Inako. Ani is sent to the signing ceremony that will bring peace to the rival nations of Mildonia, a mighty military country, and Selenfaren, a powerful theocracy. Ani is supposed to help steer the signing ceremony along, but she runs into trouble when she encounters a handful of obstinate princes.

It’s an otome game adaption, therefore it’s terrible. Now I wouldn’t be judging a book on the cover here normally but frankly I have yet to see a good otome adaption. Maybe it’s a fault with the source material or something but these anime adaptions just end up pretty bad. This most certainly looks to be falling into the same pitfalls as its predecessors. Director of Uta no Prince-sama and Series composer did Nanoha Vivid. Sorry but I really don’t see this changing my opinion on Otome adaptations.

Death March kara Hajimaru Isekai Kyousoukyoku

Studio: Silver Link.
Director: Shin Oonuna
Script/Series composer: N/A
Source: Light Novel
29-year-old programmer Suzuki Ichirou finds himself transported into a fantasy RPG. Within the game, he’s a 15-year-old named Satou. At first he thinks he’s dreaming, but his experiences seem very real. Due to a powerful ability he possesses with limited use, he ends up wiping out an army of lizard men and becomes a high leveled adventurer. Satou decides to hide his level, and plans to live peacefully and meet new people. However, developments in the game’s story, such as the return of a demon king, may cause a nuisance to Satou’s plans.

And the Isekai quota for the season is filled. Yep, this is an Isekai anime alright. Everything you would expect from one. Protagonist is transported to another world, this time no real explanation as he falls asleep at the job and bam! Isekai-ed. WIthin minutes in the world he becomes a overpowered god. Enter harem and from there it’s the escapist fantasy adventures of everyone bowing before the protagonist’s glory. I read a bit far in this one but I certainly got bored fast. The big problem with this Isekai besides the usual stuff is that it lacks any sort of direction. It’s never really made clear what the protagonist’s objective is in this world, and as the story goes along it becomes clear that there wasn’t much thought put into what the protagonist should even do in the fantasy world. Also fair warning, if the slavery aspect of Magus Bride rubbed you the wrong way then this will most definitely condemn this series. For out of the harem of girls the protagonist acquires, five of them are his literal slaves. The story goes out to say he has no intent of sleeping with them but this aspect is rather sleazy nonetheless. We got the director of Baka no test, Prisma Illya, A sister’s all you need, Watamote and Ef. Certainly a divisive portfolio. Unless you happen to like Isekai no matter what I wouldn’t recommend this, and even then I am sure your Isekai fix is satisfied with Overlord 2.

Continue reading “Winter Season 2018 Preview” →

Kino’s Journey -The Beautiful World- – 11[Country of Adults]

December 20, 2017 by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Kino’s Journey -The Beautiful World-

Yet another remake of an old episode that I don’t think we really needed. Besides a visual upgrade these remake episodes do seem to feel like a waste of resources and if we must gets remakes of old episodes, it would be wiser to actually pick the best episodes. Colosseum was the weakest story in the original series, a kind land makes a good finale but doesn’t quite work as well without a foundation from other episodes and now we have the country of Adults which basically just establishes Kino’s backstory. However unlike kind country there is at least some intellectual fodder to be gathered from this episode and the message of the day is false maturity. Our story takes place in a country where children are given a operation at a certain age which would turn them into “proper adults” and while the original series did a better job of making this seem to not be quite a bad, the new series turns it into a more black and white affair. You can gather a number of messages from this such as the way parents tend to force their own experiences onto children as that is how they believe children should be raised regardless of whether it is truly correct or not.

But instead I think I will focus on the matter of what exactly makes for a proper adult. As a child, a adult seems like a no brainer concept, they always know what to do, they generally deal with matters maturely and they are bigger and wiser about the world. A proper adult is what we as kids are supposed to grow into and our parents are to be role models to help show us the way to that goal. However as you grow up and learn about the world in your own way you come to learn something crucial and rather terrifying about this world of ours. As a man of 29 years of age, I have worked with a large amount of people, talked with a large amount of people and as I live in a house share, I have also lived with a large variety of people. Thus in doing so I have learned one simple thing. There are no adults, only bigger children. They say with age comes wisdom but I have seen a woman twice my age throw a hissy fit because she couldn’t get her way. I have seen a man double my age who ran around the house making noise like a toddler. Young men with the ideology of teenagers, men in there seniority who act like spoilt brats, men who try to cover up their mistakes by throwing newspaper over it. As I am often the youngest around, these so called adults attempt to lecture me on their so called wisdom as they attempt to convince me that 9/11 was an inside job and there is special electric water that can cure all diseases. In all the teams I have worked with, I find it amazing that we as a species can get anything done considering how humans always find a way to screw up.

Please note that I am not putting myself above this, I am no more a proper adult that any of them. Still I at least would like to believe that I am a little bit wiser or at least conscious of my own failings and how they affect other people. Aspects which a surprisingly large frequency of people tenditively lack. But what does this long winded rant have to do with this episode? Well it’s that in this episode the people of this country assume they have become adults simply because they had an operation and in reality they people are far more childish than the Traveler and the girl who is to become Kino. Much like those that assume they have obtained maturity just by the act of there bodies aging, these people are children who believe they grew up and thus are wholly ignorant of their own immaturity. They only follow the person in power, whenever someone challenges them they shout them down and immediately resort to violence. They are those who flaunt superiority over their indoctrinated values of perceived adulthood. Without true empathy or caring for those around them. Children with delusions of maturity are dangerous things indeed. I apologize for what is likely a rather pretentious excuse for an episode review but my original intent upon covering this series was to delve a bit into the things it made me think about. Sadly this series hasn’t given me as much as I thought it would in that regard and I don’t really feel like taking the easy route and just recapping the episodes content. So I guess I will leave it at this one final note. The original name of Kino is Sakura and that’s why she reacted so strongly to Sakura’s name in Kind Country.

Fate/Apocrypha – 23[Going Beyond]

December 18, 2017 by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/Apocrypha

Thus the best master and servant duo sign out of the war and I certainly will miss them. They truly deserved better than this and when tomorrow comes I am certainly going to try my hardest to roll for Mordred in Fate GO but nonetheless this isn’t a bad way for them to go out. They still show in this episode that they had the best chemistry out of all the masters and servants, to a degree that I still wonder why they were not made the main characters instead of you know who. The fight between Mordred and Semiramis was suitable epic though again A-1 animators can’t match up to what Ufotable could have done with this scene, though it is an admirable effort regardless. Though a bit chaotic at times and editing could be a bit too quick. I might as well clarify a few things here and mention that while Semiramis is constantly mentioned to be one of the world’s first poisoners, but this isn’t really the case with her legend.

The matter of her poisoning the king actually came from a tragedy written by Voltaire on her legend and she wasn’t really well known for using poison. This can be somewhat forgiven by the nature of servants being based on people’s perception of them rather than the actual figures, hence why Vlad could turn into a vampire and Shakespeare’s general magic powers. But again Semiramis isn’t famously associated with poison so there is some pretty big liberties being taken here which is oddly not often the case with Fate Servants in general. You can certainly give Type Moon flak for character designs and their personal quirks but in general they do stick to the history of the character, even if they have to tweak events a bit so that they still work.

The second thing is that the stuff that Sisgou injected into Mordred’s neck was an antidote for the hydra poisoning, made using the hydra head he got way back in episode one. The anime really glossed over just why Sisgou wanted that head and why he had this antidote in the first place but well A-1 has done a pretty poor job portraying the finer details of this story, even if I think the general things I dislike about it are the same. Still I really did love this for the symbolism of having Mordred take down another ruler for her final showdown and having the knight of treachery die because of her loyalty to her original master. Sisgou’s situation is far more vague in the series due to a lack of screen time but it appears both he and Mordred misunderstood just what they really wanted out of this war. Mordred just wanted to take away some of her father’s burden and Sisgou didn’t want not to continue the mage line of his family but instead just wanted his daughter back. There death scene was actually a big highlight of this series for me and makes it once again hard to categorize this show as a good or bad series.

Finally we have Joan vs Shakespeare in which Shakespeare reveals that his method of defeating her is through mindfuckery. It is rather amusing to have Shakespeare try to guilt her over her past only to have her break down when he calls her out on her affection for Sieg. Now it has been brought up that her feelings for Sieg are influenced by the girl Laeticia, whom she is possessing, though I think there is something later to say that Joan has her own feelings for Sieg as well. Personally I prefer to think it’s all Laeticia as I annoys me to think that Joan of Arc is unaffected by her mother, the war, being burned alive or even Gils horrible child murdering and yet gets mind broken because she wanted to get with a piece of cardboard called Sieg. I never was in favor of this relationship hinting as it is rather annoying to have a strong(Though rather boring) character like Joan get taken down a peg over a man. Still it was nice to see Saber Gils show up and even show him slowly twisting into the Gils we see in Fate/Zero. So we are near the finale and aside from Shakespeare, all the interesting characters are pretty much dead.(Sorry Astolfo fans but while he has moments, I still don’t find him all that interesting.) I have heard some rather unfortunate things about the ending to come and I just hope it’s not quite as bad as people make it out to be.

Dies Irae – 09[A Mother’s Sins]

December 14, 2017 by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Dies Irae

DIes Irae isn’t making this easy for the anime only watcher, as we get confused montages of Lisa’s backstory and oddly of a character whose relevance doesn’t come till a much later date. I would say it’s rather spoiler-ish if the info wasn’t presented in such a haphazard way that no one could really decode its contents. I will leave Rens dream for another time and instead let me lay out Lisa’s backstory so that the events of this episode start making some kind of sense. Put simply, Lisa isn’t like the other members of the Obsidian round table who primarily specialize in offense. Instead Lisa’s role in the group was running a special kind of orphanage, one dedicated towards human experimentation. The goal was the creation of a Ubermensch, otherwise known as a superhuman being, so the children in this orphanage were genetically altered to gain psychic powers and trained in them. Thing is that such genetic alteration didn’t come at a cost as the children all died at young ages which Lisa deeply regrets. However she continued her horrific experimentation because at the end goal she could wish all the dead children back to life.

All these experiments where to ensure that when it came time for Lisa to give birth that all the factors would be optimal and she would birth the child that would power Reinhard’s giant gold death castle. She succeeded in birthing that child but managed to have twins, one the genetic abomination that grew fast into adulthood and one completely normal child unaffected by the experimentation. Lisa ultimately decided to hide the existence of the normal child and sent them away while sacrificing the altered child to Reinhard. The normal child grew up in Japan, got married and had Kasumi while Lisa took care of her other granddaughter Rea. Thus due to circumstances both Kasumi and Rea are suitable to be sacrificed to bring Reinhard down to the world. Lisa wants to sacrifice Rea and get her wish so she can bring back all the children she has killed to get to this point while Kristof wants to sacrifice Kasumi in order to save Rea’s life. There is also a number of underlying motivations here like Lisa being terrified of Reinhard which causes her to shun both Johan and Rea due to them reminding her of the man she slept with. Likewise Kristof currently inhabits the body of Reinhard and he in turn wants to prove whether his love for Rea is genuine or some paternal instinct of the body he inhabits.

We also have Kei admitting that she’s doing all this to bring back her loved ones while Rin points out the simple truth that if bringing back someone was that easy then they wouldn’t be truly precious in the first place. Kei is also Shana now can goes all flaming hair red eyes and i must admit that my attention span is slowly drifting away. Kei can basically be considered a protagonist due to her different roles in the Visual Novel and as I mentioned before, the protagonists of this story are not very interesting. Even looking at the above paragraph I wrote goes to show just how complex and nuanced the villain’s motivation is when compared to Kei’s shortsighted and childish desire. Even Marie here just goes and points out the obvious detail that ever since Reinhard stab his big spear into her, shes started feeling feelings she never felt before. Is it bad that she got something good from an evil persons actions?

Afraid I don’t really care all that much because I don’t really understand how getting stabbed gave her emotions in the first place. I admit that this post has more or less been an explanation of the episode itself rather than a review of it but truth be told I don’t particularly have any real thoughts on the episode. Partly out of apathy and partly cause the Dies Irae kickstarter has once again screwed up and left me feeling rather irritated with the company that made it. I can’t say my impression with Light as a company is a positive one considering how rather slapdash this adaptation is and the handling of the Visual novel kickstarter. Well I suppose I got to read this story, even if getting it was harder than it needed to be and this anime did at least get some people to check out the source so it at least accomplished something. Well next episode we get get to see the first of the big three enter the scene with Balalaika impersonator Elenore.

Kino’s Journey -The Beautiful World- – 10[Kind Country]

December 12, 2017 by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Kino’s Journey -The Beautiful World-

Another remake of a story from the old series and while this one is adapted quite well, maybe even arguably better than the old version, it unfortunately lacks the same impact. The main problem comes back to the thing which ultimately holds back this season as a whole, story choice. For you see in the old series the stories were much darker and there were few stories which had countries that welcomed Kino warmly. Most were cold and formal with how they treated Kino and the general tone was more grim. The old series also established the importance of Kino’s three day rule and showed her past. So after going through a season of that and ending with this story about a kind country truly made for a great finale due to the nature of the episodes before it. The new series doesn’t have that same weight to it. it’s already shown Kino violating her three day rule and also failed to show its importance. Kinos past has instead been reserved for next episode and the stories of this season have been much more light hearted than the previous season. What made this episode great before was that it came after a season cour of Kino traveling to flawed country after flawed country. Thus the one time when she finds a truly wholesome and welcoming country it is tragically destroyed before her very eyes. A small piece of beauty in a otherwise cruel world and something that gives meaning to the subtitle of this series.

I don’t really understand the logic of having this story here in the middle of the series and not to mention animating the country of adults right after it. Overall the structure of this seasons stories has not really been very thought out and seems to be just following the notion of animating popular stories without considering their context. Not to mention adapting stories which don’t really require a new adaption. Still regardless this is a good story and the final twist still hit hard. The basic story being Kino traveling to a country widely rumored to be horrible to travelers only to find they welcoming and kind. The whole way through the episode you are waiting for a dark twist, just waiting for the gut punch that turns all their kindness insincere but that doesn’t come. Instead we get the reveal that the country was doomed to be destroyed in a volcanic eruption and the people of the land made there peace with it. The children remained oblivious to their impending death as the tour guide girl lead Kino around happily unknowingly of what awaited in a few days. As Kino was the last visitor to their country they wanted her to leave with good memories of the place. Just when you think that’s the only hard hitting moment there is the second revelation that the tour guide girl knew full well that everyone was going to die and yet despite given the opportunity to leave still chose to stay and die with her family. I didn’t feel much at the first reveal but the second managed to make me feel something.

Admittedly there isn’t all that much to this story other than the emotional factor and the final twist. That kind of what made it a better finale due to its simplicity and sense of finality. The only other thing to be gleaned from it is that the man who gave Kino the woodsman and cleaned her gun also happen to be her Masters former assistant. Bit odd to see Kino only receive the woodsman here as in previous episodes she already had it but Kino doesn’t play out in chronological order. So other than finding out what happened to the masters assistant it’s just a tragic story of Kino finding a kind place. So it doesn’t have the same kind of thought provoking undercurrents as other Kino stories would. Truly this story was more about Kino and how she changed as a result of this place which again makes the placement of this story here weird. Still the next stories placement is even weirder and I don’t really understand why it’s being remade in the first place. With this, one fourth of this cour is remakes of episodes from the old series and sadly not even the best episodes. I am really hoping that another season of Kino is on the way as it would be a real shame to just leave it at this

Fate/Apocrypha – 22[Reunion and Farewell]

December 10, 2017 by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/Apocrypha

Breaking my usual routine today just to give an opinion on this episode but this episode made me feel compelled to get out my opinion. We have another action packed episode with three contestants out of the war and boy did they go out with a bang. Many will notice that the animation for this episode was very different from what we are accustomed to and from my information we have Hakuyu Go(A talented taiwanese webgen animator) with friends to thank for the amount of work that went into this one episode. Indeed out of the episodes of Apocrypha so far this may be the best animated one to date but alas this comes with a bit of a cost. The animation in this episode will certainly be a divisive topic and sadly I find myself on the side that dislikes it. Mainly that this emphasizes movement over art and as a result we have a episode with a large amount of movement but character go off model and look rough far too often. I have never been too fond of this animation style as I find the off model characters to be a major immersion breaker but in this case there is a second much more problematic aspect.

Let me put it this way, today I watched a epic fight between Siegfried and Karna. What happened in that fight? Well…um…Karna unleashed his noble phantasm…something happened…then rider came and unleashed a noble phantasm…explosions…um…huh? Dear reader, what do you remember of this fight? Cause I fully admit that upon watching this that I had to truly struggle just to comprehend just what was even happening. The soundtrack and passion of the scene certainly got through but eventually what happened on screen just became a big ball of chaos and explosions. The Atlanta fights fared better as the fight was on a lower scale than Siegfried vs Karna but I do wonder just where these giant voids of space appeared from in the hanging Gardens of Babylon. Sources claim that Semiramis can change the space instead the gardens which could have resulted in these large rooms but the anime really hasn’t gone into detail on all the capability the gardens give her.

But regardless the fights in this episode remind of something and I think this could be considered the anime version of shaky cam sequences. Indeed the fast cuts and general chaos is very much like a shaky cam fight sequence and I have never truly liked those. I am more a person who enjoys good fight choreography over flashy explosion fests so it is my opinion that I actually enjoyed the Achilles vs Chiron fight in the previous episode much more than the chaotic lightshow that was Siegfried vs Karna. I do admire the effort put into this episode but I fear it will have a hit or miss quality with people. I just hope that those that don’t like it don’t do that idiotic thing of screenshoting inbetween frames and using it as evidence for bad animation. Cause hey morons, that’s not how you critique animation.

A small correction to something I previously stated in my last posts about Achilles and Atalanta. I previously said that Achilles teacher told him stories about Atalanta but it was in fact his father, whom had taken part in Calydonian Boar Hunt and The Argonaut Expedition, both of which Atalanta participated. Thus he heard stories about her and had a childhood crush on her, it’s this piece of information that makes his efforts to stop Atalanta from destroying herself and the final farewell hit so much harder. I really do adore that final scene between the two of them and I also really like how much of Karna’s character came through in his final moments. Loyal to a fault that one and honorable to the end. They say Karna can match Gilgamesh in a fight and yet he is a polar opposite to him in regards to how he treats his masters. We near the finale of the series and it looks like Rulers greatest foe is…Shakespeare? Well I did say I wanted more Shakespeare.

Fate/Apocrypha – 21[Antares Snipe]

December 9, 2017 by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/Apocrypha

When Apocrypha slows down, it’s story shows it’s cracks. But when it’s an action showcase it actually becomes quite entertaining. The characters don’t have the time to be developed but they shine in combat when they clash, sometimes showing parts of themselves the series otherwise doesn’t allow for. Astolfo for one was actually useful for once and I found myself invested in his struggle to disarm the Hanging Gardens beam cannons. Part of the reason is because Astolfo isn’t acting his usual aloof self due to a new moon being out. As the legend goes, Astoflo’s sanity was taken by the moon and when a new moon is out he temporarily regains his sanity along with his noble phantasm.

So instead of the fearless comic relief he has been throughout the series, he’s much more serious and even feels fear. This gives his fight to take out the gardens some rela weight and i was genuine tension in the scene. Well…it was also partly helped by Sieg running off to fight Karna. I don’t know what it is but that kid can suck the emotion and fun out of a scene in a instant. I was convinced that this was Astoflo’s last stand and that he was about to exit the war but he surprised me by surviving. It certainly was amusing to see Seramus also mistake him for a girl before getting dive bombed by Mordred.

They follow this is what is by far the best fight scene Apocrypha has had yet and likely the best fight in the series as Achilles uses his noble Phantasm to stop time around the plane, making it that the only way Chiron and him can fight is through hand to hand combat.(Mortal Kombat if you will) I must say that was one fantastic fight scene seeing Chiron and Achillies beat the hell out of each other in the stopped time. Sure the animation and art could have been better but it still managed to make this one hell of an anime fight. Special mention to Chiron stomping on Achilies scarf to make him into his personal punching bag.

Alas Achilies comes out on top and Chiron exits the war, although Chiron manages to use his noble phantasm to remove Achilies protection by striking his heel. Chiron even manages to get Achilies to promise to hand over one of his noble phantasms to the black team and oddly enough the end credits sequence shows that he’s keeping to it, likely giving his chariot to Astolfo. This series has it’s ups and downs as well as not living up to the potential it truly had, but it’s episodes like this that make me glad I stuck with it. There is a few great moments in this series for a Fate fan and though it likely won’t be as highly regarded as other works, it’s still a worthwhile watch.