Hey everyone, I participated in Deadlight’s podcast again. This time about crappy Fall series that we initially liked, Studio Gonzo and their new film, a video game adaptation, Bayonetta. Listen here!
Author: psgels
Kyousogiga – 06
Toei, I applaud you. This episode was once again amazing. Seriously, I’m really quite astounded: Kyousogiga is one of the very few series that gets just about everything right. Kill La Kill and Samurai Flamenco: I can both name issues I have with them. Kyousogiga: none whatsoever. You could say that some things make no sense, and here the first half of this episode comes and fills in some big gaps in the monk’s backstory so that it makes complete sense. With this, the plot has this amazing balance of explaining things, and leaving things up for interpretation.
The direction was also fantastic here. It even goes beyond Kill la Kill at this point, first with its use of facial expressions that get the most out of the non-verbal communication between the characters, and second because of how in the second half, it actually blended in the two fights that were going on masterfully, often showing them in the same screen but having one in the foreground, and another in the back. That’s something I have yet to see in anime.
Then, this episode did make use of repetition, but it did so in the good way: when you notice the repetition, things all make sense in terms of the monk’s backstory. The entire series has basically been doing that. The same goes for the music, I guess. There really aren’t that many tracks in Kyousogiga’s soundtrack. But they are all wonderful, and they are also used at the perfect times!
Last week was a recap, but I’d say for that: who cares? If that is this series’ solution for having only ten episodes, I’d say let it do that! It’s the first series in years that I’ve seen that actually tried to have a different number of episodes than 13/12, 25/26, the occasional Noitamina-length of 11 and 22 episodes or an infinite amount of episodes. It’s exactly as long as it needs to be, give or take 20 minutes or something.
I’m always keeping an eye out for new masterful directors to start showing themselves. And with Rie Matsumoto, Toei Animation has struck gold, but she’s also working with a wonderful team of animators. But yeah, so far anything she has touched became gold. Now we can only hope that she will keep this passion of hers, and keep landing jobs as a director. If she can, then she can make it really big. I mean, this show is the textbook example of what I look for in a great anime.
Rating: 7/8 (Fantastic)
Samurai Flamenco – 07
Samurai Flamenco: you are awesome! This episode was glorious on all levels! If you haven’t seen the episode yet: close this browser at once and get to it! This is one episode you do not want to be spoiled on!
I had seen pretty much everyone freaking out about this particular episode, so when I sat down to watch it, I already had the mindset of “well this twist has to be pretty damn major here”. It was. At first I thought that it was about Masayoshi finding out that his parents had been mugged instead of died from an illness like what he thought. That already was amazing to watch, due to how it was revealed.
I especially liked how Masayoshi was in conflict about himself: his parents died when he was two years old. It’s normal for him to not feel bothered by tracking down those criminals (finally lhe’s doing something normal!). It conflicted with his desire to be a hero, though his version of being a hero focused on the part of protecting justice, not the parts of heroes that focused on tragic backstories and personal revenge. Also: small touches like the title of this series coming from Masayoshi’s grandmother who used to be a flamenco dancer. I love how these series explain their own titles and have them make total sense.
But yeah. The twist. I applaud this series for doing this. For being completely realistic without any supernatural powers whatsoever aside perhaps from a few far-fetched ideas for gadgets. And then going completely berserk with this episode when THAT happened. It worked so well: everything that happened there was of such a completely different scale than what we’ve been used to. It’s a brilliant twist that just would not have worked without all that build-up. That was a wonderful example of how you escalate a story!
Rating: 7/8 (Fantastic)
Kill La Kill – 08
So Kill la Kill? This episode really shows that it’s written by someone who DOES know what he’s doing. The balance is all there, and despite the simple plot, he knows how to use it. This episode for example needed to be a bit of an intermezzo inbetween the major fights in order to build up the atmosphere and tension. The big problem with these kinds of episodes though is that they’re boring and don’t really do anything. So the solution of this series? Just show a bit of character background. And with that you’ve got a perfectly fine building-up episode that was really fun to watch.
And the homages! The wonderful homages. This episode really managed to pay a wonderful tribute to school series like Utena, while at the same time doing them with a huge tongue in their cheek. Everything is taken completely over the top as usual, but the characters are also aware of this. The high school student being 20 years was a really nice addition: tons of high school characters in anime look way too old for their ages. This one actually has a reason for it. Another nice detail was the car, which at the end of the episode was completely wrecked. A big reference to Utena’s car symbolism that was everywhere, yet in Utena, cars fell apart at times. We never see them all dented up like here. This is a great example of taking ideas and cues from other series: sure, parts here have been done before, but this series uses them in its completely own way. This distinguishes the masterpieces from the ripoffs. It’s of course too early to tell whether Kill la Kill will become a masterpiece and it’s got a long way to go for that, but you get what I mean.
Ryuko’s past also didn’t add much extra, however it was also very much appreciated because we did get a glimpse of how she grew up, and why she ended up as the character she did. She clearly explained why she’s doing what she’s doing. This series really brings back the flaws that a lot of older series had, and fixes them. It’s combining the power of old series together with the power of new series. It’s full of these neat little details that make me quite excited to follow this.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)
Nagi no Asukara – 05 – 07
Well, so I thought that I’d check out what Nagi no Asukara was up to lately, so I set down to watch this. And boy, it actually took a long while for me to actually start the thing. Today I finally managed to finish the latest three episodes because otherwise I’d never be able to move on, but it did make me ask a question: why am I still watching this?
It’s episode seven, so at this point we have a pretty good idea of the nature of this show. For the past few weeks I really started looking at anime in a different way, and I asked the above question for a lot of other series. Is it really worth it to watch so many series that contain such lazy writing that contains so many glaring flaws, just for a few things they do well? The key again is balance. Does Nagi no Asukara have that? I’m afraid not.
The thing with drama is: you take a few ingredients, juggle them together and let them culminate into a powerful climax, with some mid-climaxees inbetween. What Nagi no Asukara does is having way too many of these ingredients, overcomplicating the dish. Every episode it finds some contrived reason to create as much drama as possible, ranging from a love polygon that’s triggered way too easily to people behaving like arrogant pricks who can’t use their head for one second. A bit of this is fine and all, but this just kept on coming with the drama, there was hardly any variation to what went on. It’s all just teenaged drama.
Especially now that Hikaru has developed, things should have been more bearable, since he isn’t annoying anymore and he actually tries to take care of his loved ones, and he actually can shut up at once, but… meh. It’s all just so gloomy. Episode seven with those fishermen for example. That came out of nowhere, but these guys acted just as bigoted as he did a few episodes ago. These three episodes consistently bored me because they had nothing going on here. Only episode seven had something noteworthy when Hikaru and his sister actually left their home. That was something different, but getting less and less sure whether it’s worth it.
I think Mari Okada overshot herself with this series. In this series, and with Sakurasou too by the way, she focuses too much on one-sided drama that is in most cases really quite stupid. Compare that to three series of her that did work: Hana-Saku Iroha, True Tears and Ano Hana. Hana-Saku Iroha knew how to spice things up. It might have been a bit boring around this point, but at least it used this time to show what everyday life is for the cast, so it could use that for some very effective climaxes. The sm-episode came out of nowhere, but it took guts and stood out. True Tears also had lots of drama, but it was calculated: slow paced and it knew exactly what to do to remain interesting, again with great characterization. Ano Hana also had tons of drama at a fast pace, but it also delivered many twists that really got the best out of the characters. The cast was well balanced and every character was different, and the drama kept moving forward. It had strange twists, but these twists went together with the characters. It didn’t throw in stuff for the sake of throwing in stuff like what Nagi no Asukara is doing.
The animation in anime is consistently improving: people are really innovating there to create graphics that are really gorgeous, and you see this more and more. That’s good. Now transfer that mentality over to the writing departments. Force them to think logically about what they’re doing. We need more people like Gen Urobuchi, who are celebrated for their writing talents. There doesn’t seem to be any glamour to the writing business and to be honest, the whole scene seems quite a bit closed off. Because of this you have one group of writers who gets picked over and over to write and adapt these series, and there hardly seems any incentive to attract new talent or cultivate it. That really needs to change, because as I see it, it’s the biggest thing holding anime in general back right now.
Rating: 3/8 (Mediocre)
Kill la Kill – 07
Okay, so I guess everyone is waiting for what that infamous episode 8 is going to do. Anyone who has seen Gurren Lagann knows what I’m talking about. However, I think that the twist isn’t the most important, and only a means to an end. I’m one of the people who wasn’t a big fan of that “twist” (not that the twist wasn’t good, but it didn’t improve things in the long run to me).
But yeah, this episode: I have no idea why but it worked. Again on paper it sucks: poor people taste the life of high standards and learn to appreciate being poor with drama, and at the end of the episode they revert again like nothing happened. If there ever was a whiplash episode, it’d be this one.
And yet, I liked this. Perhaps it was a combination between the premise being so ridiculous that it worked (which fits perfectly with the rest of this series of taking just about everything over the top), along with the actual context of this episode: the entire school is going to change and be rebuilt. I’m actually pretty excited for what they’re planning to turn it into. And at the same time they ended up giving a very good solution for the fears that everyone had been having of this series devolving into a formulaic monster of the week.
Knowing Hiroyuki Imaishi, there are two things that he’s probably going to turn up to eleven: the school and the clothing. On one hand this school will either drill into heaven, or will become the visual embodyment of hell times the power of infinity, and in terms of clothing everyone will end up either running around naked or with some of the most ridiculous costumes imaginable. I’m currently putting my money on 1 and 2 respectively.
Oh yeah, and am I the only one who thinks that the setting here is a big wink to Revolutionary Girl Utena?
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)
Samurai Flamenco – 06
Samurai Flamenco is a series that very cleverly keeps escalating. And this episode was a good example of this: the reward on Samurai Flamenco’s identity got bigger, he got more famous, the force used against him becomes more lethal, his gadgets get upgraded, people gang up on him more, more other superheroes enter the picture with the arrival of the other two flamenco girls. The only thing that doesn’t escalate is goto’s relationship with his girlfriend, which seems to have gone back to normal after their difficult time earlier. That’s an interesting development: a stable relationship. or at least one that looks like it so far.
At this point in the series it’s a bit too early whether this approach really works in the long run. For that we need a bit more time to see what it’s building up for. This episode’s main purpose was escalating and building up, even though a lot seemed to happen into it. Masayoshi in any case continues to stay true to himself with how he doesn’t doubt anyone on purpose, but the question is how long he can keep this up.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)
Yozakura Quartet – Hana no Uta – 05 & 06
You can really see that Yozakura Quartet is based on a manga that is quite old already: when people think of a high spot in the center of Tokyo, the thing that immediately comes to their mind is Tokyo Tower. Not the Tokyo Skytree. This also is a bit of an example of creators adhering a little too much to their source material. What difference would it have made to the story to update to the new highest building in Tokyo? And yet it would have added quite a bit to the immersion as a nice detail.
Also, you don’t need to foreshadow everything. If your character is like “Ha! I took your course of action into account and therefore I took the necessary precautions for it!”, then that’s awesome. When an old couple suddenly reveals that they’ve been holding onto this really incredible power for years that’s given to her just as she’s going to be beaten, then you really have to build that up well. You can’t just show a bunch of shots of that couple here and there. It indeed signifies that they were planning on something, but not that they were going to pull something so convenient for the plot out of their asses.
Now, this is nit-picking, so let me get to the point: I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a series great, and I’m pretty sure that the answer is balance: a harmony between every single part. And that’s not there for this series. On one hand you can see lots of attention spent on the animation, but not a lot on the script. The characters all have tragic backstories, but there’s not much variety in it. Everyone’s sortof vaguely bothered by “being a demon is annoying”, and lots of characters blend together because of weak characterization. The OVA was short, dynamic and to the point and therefore didn’t have that problem.
But I think a better comparison is with the second season of Birdy the Mighty Decode (not the first, because it didn’t have the incredible animation). Both series have a true master behind the action scenes, however Birdy uses this as a means, while Yozakura Quartet makes it an end. With Birdy the Mighty, you can mention a ton of other reasons to make it worth watching: the character-development, the incredibly dark turns, the way it brought its setting alive, the chemistry and much more. Yozakura quartet… eh… I mean the OVA is awesome due to the characters and the chemistry of the characters, but the TV-series doesn’t have that as much.
Sure, stuff happened in these two episodes, but I’m not really impressed to be honest. There was fighting… and more fighting, but I found the context of it to be rather weak. And it’s not like the conflict is too simple: Kill la Kill has that too. The difference, I think is that that series knows what it wants. It’s also deliberately paced, and knows where to add symbolism where it needs to. The episodes flow right and they know when to show action and when to show building up, instead of showing flashbacks right in the middle of a huge fight, or finding some weird excuse to have a pause in the middle of action (gee, it’s a good thing those monsters don’t attack us while we’re talking, being sentimental, and not keeping our eyes on them). I know, a lot of this is nitpicking, and alone these issues wouldn’t be a problem, but it’s the big picture I’m trying to sketch here.
Another interesting comparison with this series would be to White Album 2. Why? Because both series feature a director who previously was one of the best animation directors for TV-series out there. The big difference is that White Album specifically does not focus on its animation, but more on making the different parts work together. I haven’t completely caught up, but it seems to do a better job. Let me put it this way: if I had to pick one element of these two series that stands out the most, then it’s the animation of Yozakura Quartet. However in terms of the big picture, White Album has it beaten at this point.
Rating: 3,5/8 (Enjoyable)
Noucome – 05
I’m not blogging this series, but this episode was too interesting to pass up. I’m quite behind on a lot of series, so unfortunately it might take a while before I’m caught up with everything again, so I’m just going to continue the Kaleidoscope in whichever way is the most handy.
Noucome is definitely my guilty pleasure of the season. There is a lot wrong with it. For starters: remove the dog girl and this series would already be lots and lots better. Every major character in this series is a clever play on stereotypes, but she’s just there for dumb moron-jokes and fanservice that we’ve seen way too many times before. This series also has some moments at which it’s just random for the sake of being random. That also could have been toned down.
But yeah, this episode in particular had some pretty sharp parodies. It was actually a breath of fresh air to finally have a series address the stupidity of some overused cliches and bad plot devices that plague the romance and harem scene. I mean, I’ve said before that a good parody is one that really pokes fun at its subject material, instead of just copying things.
The Shaft and the Sister parodies worked surprisingly well. This probably is the first time that I’ve seen a Shaft parody work so well, pointing out how silly it is to just watch a bunch of dialogue while the camera focuses on random details in the background that make no sense. Very clever. And on the other side of the coin, it was so satisfying to finally have someone call out on the bloody sister-cliche! I cringed when the sister first appeared, but the entire character is a very successful parody who just calls everyone her sibling. The best part was that one member of the student council who finally showed a bit of a realistic reaction of having younger siblings as a teenager.
Beyond that, there actually is a romance series that distinguishes between liking someone and loving someone. Yukihira meanwhile continues to take the piss out of the typical character who has a crush on the male lead by getting into his way in quite some creative ways.
Overall this was a very inspired episode. It’s not perfect obviously, for example that Maria-Sama ga Miteru bit was just a random reference that had no purpose of being there, and the rich posh girl with huge boobs was just another rich posh girl with huge boobs, but for a comedy to be consistently funny for five episodes, with such a questionable subject material. I consider that quite a job well done.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)
Kill La Kill – 06
Apologies for the few posts lately, with rather weird content. I’m currently in a big introspective period. I’ve been thinking a lot about who I am, and why I watch anime. And I’ve also discovered one of the many evil websites on the web: Reddit. Right now I finally managed to be able to block this time eating thing that at the same time made me learn a lot about myself, so I should be sortof back now, though I’m still trying to figure out the best schedule that will also allow me to cover movies again.
In any case, why do I watch anime? Because of series like Kyousogiga, Samurai Flamenco and Kill la Kill. This episode was really good, despite being really boring on paper. I mean, how often have we seen an episode with this premise: “the protagonist and some mid-boss fight with each other but right before resolving anything something conveniently breaks down allowing both parties to escape unscathed”. This is of course boring, but this episode showed how far the right execution can get you.
This also showed that this show is currently developing characters for the long run. Even when ‘defeated’, this guy without eyes will continue to play a big role, probably. Ryuko meanwhile really got lucky with this, but this episode just showed how outclassed she gets when the enemies start getting cornered.
And the music! Holy crap, it got even better than what it was before. I mean, that’s what I at least assume: it wasn’t this good in the past, was it? And heck, it worked wonders: it brought out even more emotions than usual.
And with that I mean how everything comes together: characters, animation, music, symbolism, style, development, acting, personality. The creators were having a lot of fun making this, and that’s what shows. That’s what currently energizing me to watch more anime. Six episodes in and despite the simple storyline here, it remained varied and fun without any signs of slowing down.
Rating: 6/8 (Awesome)