Author: SuperWooper

State of the Season – Summer 2021

by SuperWooper, posted in State of the Season

Mario: This surely is one of the sparest seasons in recent memory. Ironically, with the current lockdown in my city, I managed to touch base with all the goods of this season in the last few days and truly attained the life of a shut-in (hey, it’s not that bad). There’s only one show that I consider a standout of the season so far, and even that show is divisive amongst the writers. On the whole, I’d say that this season serves as a perfect opportunity for all of us to slow down and catch up with our backlogs. Read on to find out what we think about the summer season at the halfway mark (and be sure to check out the new release of Fena: Pirate Princess, which is rolling out at the time of this writing).

What show are you enjoying that you’re not reviewing?

Wooper: Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi. Its stylized violence and daring use of color combine to create a one-of-a-kind viewing experience. Even if the story is unlikely to go anywhere interesting, the episodes themselves are never boring, since the show restlessly experiments with its own presentation.

Lenlo: I’m rewatching Hajime no Ippo and that’s been a good time, but that’s about it. Nothing this season is really popping out or inspiring me, and with old favorites like MHA getting screwed over for their movies it’s just not a good time to be me.

Mario: It’s Sonny Boy & Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi vs. the rest for me so far. We will talk more about Sonny Boy below, so allow me to sing Heion Sedai’s praises. For me, it’s a perfect marriage between the old style and the new. The slapstick nature, the simple character designs and even its premise bring you the feel of old Dragon Ball adventures, but the show updates it with vibrant colors and fast-forward tweaks when it comes to info-dumping. All that makes it a fun and memorable watch.

Amun: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun, Hamefura, and Slime Isekai are carrying this season for me.

Continue reading “State of the Season – Summer 2021” →

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S – 5-6

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama, Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S

It can be easy to forget just how big Dragon Maid’s cast is, since a lot of its supporting members are pretty one-note, but these two episodes did a great job of checking in with (nearly) all of them. Some of those check-ins were better than others, though, particularly the imaginative and revelatory trip down Tohru and Elma’s shared memory lane. I think I mentioned this earlier in my coverage of the series, but I’ve never paid much attention to its lore, so it’s possible that we already knew about this chapter of their lives and this episode merely gave us a longer look. Whether it was brand new or a simple expansion, the beautiful Middle Eastern setting gave the dragons’ first meeting a visual specificity that I loved. Tohru and Elma would have sought out the relative freedom of the human world millennia ago, given their loose alignment with their clans’ value systems, so the fact that they crossed paths in proximity to the fertile crescent made all the sense in the world.

Continue reading “Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S – 5-6” →

Fumetsu no Anata e – 13-15 [Dropped]

by SuperWooper, posted in Fumetsu no Anata e, Series which were Dropped

This will be my last time writing about Fumetsu no Anata e. Several of its recent episodes have left me without a single positive thing to say, and while I’m regularly critical of anime, there’s no value in unchecked negativity. I flirted with the idea of throwing this post in the trash as well, but I’ll just throw up a warning here instead: only venture beyond this sentence if you’re as frustrated with the show as you imagine me to be.

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Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S – 3-4

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama, Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S

One thing I’ve always enjoyed about Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is its energetic commentary on the human experience. It’s interested in topics such as friendship, work-life balance, and finding greater purpose, but it always presents them with gusto, never using them as an excuse to drone in your ear. Ironically, nonhuman characters such as this series’ dragons are great tools to explore these issues – their lack of familiarity with human customs and behavior lets the show be a bit more direct in its messaging. Other anime with anthropomorphized casts tend to use their animal natures to drive the story, which often results in sensationalist plotting, but that’s not the case here. Miss Kobayashi’s dragons exist in the real world (or an ideal version of it) and seek fulfillment in ordinary life, despite their unearthly proficiency at nearly every task they try.

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Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S – 02 [Hot Guy Kobayashi!]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama, Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S

After a week of the Internet wringing its collective hands over the “gift” given to Kobayashi-san in the previous episode, it only lasted for seven minutes of this one. I had little doubt that this adaptation would resolve the issue quickly (its first season apparently skirted a lot of weirdness from the manga, as well), but I’m pleased nonetheless. Dragon Maid is an anime with a lot going for it, but those positives are already difficult enough for traditional audiences to glimpse without the author’s fetishes further clouding their vision. Of course, we had to go through Kobayashi’s trials as the new owner of a dangling appendage first, with a new waste disposal routine and her roommate’s bountiful breasts to threaten the status quo, but all was resolved before long. I think we were meant to infer that Tohru shedding her precious outfit was what restored a disappointed Kobayashi to her former self – in the end she’s just a maidsexual programmer, regardless of whatever biological forces are imposed on her.

Continue reading “Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S – 02 [Hot Guy Kobayashi!]” →

Summer 2021 Coverage & First Episode Awards

by SuperWooper, posted in Uncategorized

I’ll spare you the doom and gloom about this season’s anime lineup. Putting aside the dearth of worthwhile new series, summer is a time to relax and unwind, and it’s in that spirit that we’re only picking up three new shows: Sonny Boy, Aquatope, and Dragon Maid. Are there a handful of other bloggable titles among the weeds? For sure, but that’s why we have a Weekly Summary column, which Amun has volunteered to run this quarter. Apart from that, Star Crossed Anime’s next three months will be lighter than usual, but hey, fewer posts to read (and write) means more time to spend wrangling our unwieldy backlogs. Seasonal stuff will start coming down the pipe soon – hope you have a breezy summer.

EDIT: After a seismic third episode, it looks like Armitage now intends to blog Kageki Shoujo on a regular basis, so we’re one step closer to full strength. You love to see it!

Summer 2021 Lineup

Lenlo
– Sonny Boy
– New Throwback Thursday series (vote here)

Wooper
– Fumetsu no Anata e
– Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S

Mario
– Shiroi Suna no Aquatope

Armitage
– Kageki Shoujo

Amun
– Weekly Summary column

Continue reading “Summer 2021 Coverage & First Episode Awards” →

Summer 2021 First Impressions: D_Cide Traumerei, Deatte 5-byou de Battle, Night Head 2041

by SuperWooper, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

D_Cide Traumerei the Animation

Short Synopsis: Handsome fighter fights some hands.

Mario: I’m most forgiving of fully-3D shows compared to the rest of the writers here, so I tend to be in favor of Sanzigen’s products, no matter how off-putting they look. D_Cide looks solid as I’m in tune with its aesthetic, and occasionally its use of color looks impressive to me. What I’m not sold on at all is the story, as so far it’s nothing to speak of. The main character jumps between dreams and reality – an intriguing plot in its own right – but sadly the show uses it more as a plot device to bring him to battle with CG monsters. The only storytelling beat where I feel the show gets it right is when our protagonist practices kick-boxing before all this happens. That scene speaks to me as I can see his personality right there, making his grief for his brother’s passing part of his routine, while at the same time foreshadowing his ability at the end. His war cry of “KNOCKER UP” kills the vibe a tad bit, but as things stand I am willing to give the show a few more episodes.

Potential: 30%

Wooper: Of all the stupid battle-oriented CG anime I’ve sampled over the years, D_Cide is among the stupidest. To provide a bit of context, I can’t decide whether it’s better or worse than this season’s Scarlet Nexus, which was terrible in its own right. Everything from the main character’s scalene triangle earring to the female characters’ overwrought designs to the good guys’ combat titles (Knocker-ups) are dumb with a capital “D”. The only thing I liked about the story was the main character’s martial artistry, which provides some insight into how he processed his brother’s passing – taking his departed sibling’s passion and making it his own. That fighting style is carried into his Knocker-up form, allowing him to punch giant hand monsters right in their smug zipper mouths. Those scenes are about as nonsensical as they sound, and the show’s flirtation with dreams and portals will surely muddy the waters as D_Cide progresses. Between its strange mishmash of visual ideas and its relative lack of interest in character building, there’s not a lot here to hope for. When the best thing about an anime is the ten second piano/guitar lick at the start of the OP, you know it’s a skippable experience.

Potential: 10%

Deatte 5-byou de Battle

Short Synopsis: A lone gamer dies and is summoned to a Gantz-like world for a battle royale (I made it sound more interesting than it really is).

Lenlo: I don’t know if I like Deatte or if it’s just one of the least-bad things I’ve seen so far this season. Visually it’s a mess. Deatte can’t seem to figure out how people move, how objects interact with each other or that desks don’t just fall through people. Meanwhile the characters are about as shallow as you would expect from a “death battle with super powers” style anime. Maybe some fun will be had with our borderline autistic MC who has no emotions and can’t view the world as anything other than a game, but I doubt it. No, the only value in Deatte will come from how interesting it can make its battles. The MC’s power is actually rather clever and I think if utilized well it can lead to some fun mind games. There issue there though is that I have 0 faith in Deatte to be able to avoid bullshiting its own system. For now though I can at least give it the benefit of the doubt in this drought of a season, and listen to some… interesting (?) cat girl voicework along the way.

Potential: 10%

Mario: If there’s ever been a subgenre that I don’t give a damn about, it’s Death Games. The premise for these kinds of shows is simple: you need to clear several missions, or you’re dead. While they provide many fun twists and turns, they suffer in almost every other arena. The characters are cardboard cutouts. The story runs on game logic, and has plot holes and inconsistencies all over the place. The lead boy is charmless and even unlikeable. The same extends to the whole cast and even the cat girl who pushes the boundaries of annoying voicework. Deatte 5-byou is a good example of all the ways this subgenre can screw up. It’s a silly premise with an empty cast and mediocre production. No reason to revisit this one.

Potential: 5%

Night Head 2041

Short Synopsis: Psychics time travel to a futuristic post-WW3 city and go up against a team of cyberpunk super soldiers.

Armitage: Apart from having a title that can be easily mistaken for a hentai doujin, this show doesn’t do a whole lot more to stand out. Still, it’s just the absolute mediocrity of this season that had me getting some sort of enjoyment out of its runtime. The premise is right out of a 12-year-old’s fever dream but apparently the writer who came up with that storyline forgot to think about any characters who would carry said story. That’s why most of the characters end up feeling stiff CGI caricatures simply present to list out names and motivations of other characters, most of whom never even get introduced during the premiere. The writing in general is very obtuse and expository and might very well alienate its target audience. The one positive is definitely the setting. “That’s cool and all, but make it cyberpunk” seems to be the new narrative model of late when it comes to entertainment media but thankfully Night Head 2041 does seem to get the environmental ambiance right most of the time. The CGI while still very noticeable doesn’t look nearly as bad as Ex-Arm. So that’s… good. I guess?

Potential: 35%

Lenlo: Night Head is a weird show. Visually it’s all over the place. The CGI characters, as CGI does in Japan, look stiff and lifeless 90% of the time. Meanwhile the backgrounds and general aesthetic of the show look quite nice! The lighting and diffusion, backgrounds, some fun camera shots/movements that can’t easily be done in 2D. Night Head was clearly envisioned as 3D from the beginning and makes use of that but is limited by the CGI anime pipeline. On the story side of things I think it’s… fine? It’s basically the X-Men, which I’m down for. But I’m unfamiliar with author George Iida’s other works, so I don’t know how it will pan out. For now though I’m curious enough to give it a shot, if only to see what the director can do in his debut.

Potential: 20%

Fumetsu no Anata e – 10-12

by SuperWooper, posted in Fumetsu no Anata e, Series which were Dropped

After the severe disappointment of Fumetsu no Anata e’s late May to early June run, I wasn’t particularly eager to revisit the series, but I knew that its style of storytelling would lead to a conclusion for Gugu’s arc before too long. That conclusion arrived a couple weeks ago, and though it didn’t bowl me over like March’s sendoff, I was happy with it. (There’s your TL;DR if you needed one.) Synthesizing the content of these three episodes in a longer, more holistic piece would be ideal, but it’s been weeks since I’ve seen the older ones, so I’m just going to touch on the highlights and lowlights of each. Thoughts on the second half of Gugu’s story begin after the jump, so click on through if you Do Read posts that aren’t Too Long.

Continue reading “Fumetsu no Anata e – 10-12” →

Summer 2021 First Impressions: Kobayashi-san’s Dragon Maid S, Seirei Gensouki, Isekai ni Tsukurou Drugstore

by SuperWooper, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S

Short Synopsis: A programmer and her live-in maid are threatened by a bizarrely proportioned interloper (who gives Kobayashi-san an unexpected package).

Wooper: You can’t keep a good studio down, and with all the dirt we’ve learned about the anime industry in recent years, Kyoto Animation might be the only good studio left in the game. Their TV comeback would be worth celebrating no matter what form it took, but thankfully it took Dragon Maid form – the sequel to my favorite recent show of theirs. The changes in series and art directors didn’t stop this episode from looking fabulous, from well-timed comedic gestures to meticulous background design to the effects-heavy dragon duel during the second act. My favorite part of this premiere had to be Tohru’s employment at a maid cafe, as it made excellent use of her personal pride and high-energy temperament. Everything to do with newcomer Ilulu is where I’m more mixed, and not just because her aggressive attitude threatens the series’ trademark domesticity. It’s more that her tire-sized tits and pubic pranks mark her as an obvious conduit for the author’s fetishes, which aren’t exactly up my alley. I have faith that her interest in Miss Kobayashi will eventually exit the sexual realm, but it’s hard to get too hyped for the rest of this season when a prominent new character seems intent on perverting as much of it as she can.

Potential: 70%

Amun: If you’re not cheering for KyoAni to get back on their feet, then you’re not an anime fan. Period. And what better show to do it with than the warm and fuzzy, feel-good story of Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid? A wholesome show of the everyday-life interactions between a powerless human and her ridiculously overpowered, but platonically playful, live-in dragon maid. Well….that was the plan anyways until a busty, pants-less loli shows up and causes our heroine to grow a new member. I’m sorry, what?! Everything else was fine – this first episode looked gorgeous, the fight scene was great, nice reintroduction to all the dragons around town….but yeah. I just foresee this going down an oddly specific route, and that’s not necessary – service didn’t make the first season succeed. Honestly, I’m a little upset – there’s just no need to do that and ruin a perfectly good thing (that’s what Miss Kobayashi said ^_^). I’d even say this was the best slice of life setup currently airing. Most seasonal watchers are counting on Kobayashi-san to carry as one of the few tent poles this season, but suddenly I’m concerned about the only show I thought was a guaranteed win.

Potential: I don’t even know.

Seirei Gensouki

Short Synopsis: I forgot so I had to google it – some generic isekai, childhood friend, magic, torture, revenge crap.

Amun: Man, Wooper had his old man rant in the last post – at that point, this season had still not broken me. After watching Seirei Gensouki, that all changes. It’s as if the creator thought “if I pour every component of every isekai into one, surely it will have a soul.” Friend, that’s actually a homunculus, and FMA – an actually good show – discussed how that all turns out. Seirei Gensouki is just regurgitated garbage with new characters, old plotlines that we’re supposed to care about – despite seeing these tropes many, many times – in fact, there are better versions this season. Despite that, there’s at least one fan – and they’ve written a tremendous character summary on Wikipedia. Not that it entices me to watch the show, but wow, someone cared enough to type all that out. Maybe I should take up golf as my hobby instead…

Potential: Get off my lawn

Armitage: See, there’s ‘MC getting into an accident and waking up in a fantasy world’ and then there’s ‘a whole moving bus being side-rammed by a ZOOMING FREIGHT TRAIN and the MC still waking up in a fantasy world’. And since the latter does happen in Seirei Gensouki, it’s one of the first signs that just mayyybe, this isn’t a very subtle show. But you know, first impressions can be deceptive. Let’s give it a fair shot. So, our protagonist needs to protect the female lead who was his childhood friend? Well, sure. We need to give the audience something to relate to, obviously. What’s that? He also needs to take revenge for his mother?? Oh, uh, okay. Guess he’s a savior-of-all-women type. Sure… Huh? What’s that you say? He’s also an immigrant (a term defined in the MC’s own words as someone who “lives in slums and wears dirty, tattered clothes”) and named after the most famous city in South America?! Um, just try and be somewhat careful of the ground you’re treading on her— and we now have the immigrants massacred. So, the boy gotta take revenge for that too. Brilliant. Remind me when the aliens show up to teach our MC time travel, will ya?

Potential: Generic isekai trash: Model #242

Cheat Kusushi no Slow Life: Isekai ni Tsukurou Drugstore

Short Synopsis: Unnecessary isekai about a drug store.

Amun: Ah, instead of Isekai Restaurant simulator, we get Isekai drugstore simulator. Oh, so it’s going to be like that Monster Musume Doctor show? Wait, there’s only 3 characters? And they were designed in Microsoft Paint? Also, what’s up with the love of energy drinks? Last season’s second slime isekai (no, not the good one) had an energy drink vendor there too. Oh there’s a dog-girl…I feel as if those have supplanted cat-girls. I also really enjoy watching like 5 minute meltdowns of characters I just met. You know, this show isn’t funny – this is some uncomfortable emotional trauma. By the way, these are actually a bunch of shorts bundled into a full time slot. Hey look, it’s over. I hope reading this meandering paragraph convinced you never to watch this show.

Potential: 0%

Mario: Some would argue that Drugstore Isekai is unassumed and relaxed, for me it’s just lazy. And it’s funny how watching the entire first episode I still don’t get where the “Cheat” in the title came from, guess I’ll never find that out anymore (they missed their chance to call it Drugstore Cowboy!!!). Like any generic isekai, our transported protagonist has it a bit too easy – by the time the episode begins, he’s already famous to the point that every villager compliments his products as “delicious” – weird considering it’s medicine he’s selling. Then there’s the shameless fan-service as he already has cute animal girls working for him, causing me to shrug when I saw half a dozen other girls lining up in the OP. The show tries hard to please people – to put audiences into their comfort zone, but it’s just too broad to leave any lasting impact. It might put viewers to sleep, though, and if that’s the goal, it does its job miraculously (or is it his “delicious” potions at play?).

Potential: zzz

Summer 2021 First Impressions: Getter Robo Arc, Tantei wa Mou Shindeiru, Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha

by SuperWooper, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Getter Robo Arc

Short Synopsis: An irradiated human being teams up with a part-dinosaur pilot to defend Earth from an alien invasion.

Wooper: Arc is the fifth installment in Ken Ishikawa’s Getter Robo series, starring the son of a major character and a pilot from the original series who now plays the role of brilliant scientist. You need some prior Getter knowledge to make these connections, but they aren’t vital to understanding what’s going on, because what’s going on is simple: aliens are attacking, and they have to be stopped. There’s a crudeness to the art in this new series that makes it look like a cheap Saturday morning cartoon, but it’s synergistic in a way – most of the characters are the rough-and-tumble sort (especially Takuma), and the ruined future where the series takes place doesn’t exactly require a polished rendering. The biker gangs and junkyard mafias who populate this new Earth might have some facial features out of place, but since their faces exist to get punched, that’s no big loss. Even the CG used for the Getter mechs is a step up from what we saw in the original PV. It’s weird to see Ryoma’s son say that something looks “jank as hell,” but liberties in translation aside, Arc is still the Getter you remember – for better and for worse.

Potential: 50%

Mario: I honestly wasn’t aware of the Getter Robo franchise before watching this, but the old-school artstyle and designs and its epic battles remind me a good deal of Giant Robo. Had it stuck to the “old-school” all the way, the episode would fare much better than this. One of the first issues with Getter Robo Arc is that the obvious CG alien design doesn’t mesh very well with the rest of the story. It feels as if we are watching two different shows altogether. The second issue lies in its pacing. The show assumes the audience has basic knowledge of the characters and their abilities beforehand (I presume?), because it proceeds almost incomprehensibly. Many things are unclear: the main characters’ relationship is unexplained, the reason why they have to fight the aliens is never explained, and what the heck is the mecha that they pilot? All these make it a premiere that is epic in concept, occasionally interesting to watch, and totally unattached when it comes to emotional connection. Too bad!

Potential: Too bad!

Tantei wa mou, Shindeiru

Short Synopsis: An extremely unlucky middle schooler is conscripted into being a now-deceased detective’s assistant.

Armitage: I must really be losing my ability to overlook how juvenile LN writing can be at times because I lost count of the number of times I rolled my eyes at the screen in this premiere. The fact that it was an hour long special didn’t help its case either as so much of it felt like needless padding. The show tries to make its lead into a “quirky” detective with deadpan quips like she’s the anime embodiment of RDJ from those sub-standard Sherlock movies, but it just doesn’t work. The very few times I laughed during most of the runtime, I was left wondering if it was a joke that the characters played off as or were they being deadly serious?? And most of the time, they are being deadly serious. This is a show that makes you feel dumb by pretending to be wayyy smarter than it is. While in reality, it’s kind of a poor-man’s Elementary with almost none of the charm. Either way, I personally would not be watching any more of it.

Potential: 15%

Amun: Ah. This is familiar ENGI studio fare. If you’re worried about the opening quality – you should be, it’s a bad sign. I see all the hallmarks of animation overambition and shortcuts to try and make it work. The result is an almost passable episode that I have no faith in going forward. I will say that the premiere itself was handled pretty well in terms of direction and adapting sub-par source material. The dialogue didn’t drag on like in the manga and the banter was halfway decent. The problem is the chemistry between the leads will be entirely gone next episode as, well, the detective is already dead. I’m normally pretty optimistic, but this is a sinking ship, no two ways about it.

Potential: 30%

Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki

Short Synopsis: High Schooler who read half of “The Prince” is better at ruling a country than a 13th generation monarch.

Amun: (I will not mention Amagi Brilliant Park, I will not mention Amagi Brilliant Park…). So I have actually read some of the source material here…and truthfully, it was better than this premiere. I mean, it didn’t really make sense in paper form, and it sure doesn’t make a lot of sense in moving pictures (what on earth does finding a family have to do with running a country?). That said, this should be pretty hard to screw up – a studious, overly serious Japanese man brings order to a bunch of idiots and accidentally gets a harem on the way. You won’t win any points for originality, but there are worse ideas for a show (like, this season. There are worse ideas this season). It doesn’t look that bad either – some of the character designs have some rough moments, but overall I think this level of quality should be doable for thirteen episodes. The bar is just set so low, that I think if it can manage this level of animation and maybe a slightly more interesting plot (just throw new characters at it, it’ll be fine), then I’ll see this one through. Goodness, this season is terrible.

Potential: 60% (any other season would be 20%)

Wooper: Do you all ever stop and think about the consequences of all these isekai adaptations for anime fandom as a whole? Most people who still read text blogs are on the older side, meaning we formed an image of what anime was in our youth, but there are thousands of kids coming to anime every day without any such preconceptions. They’re not going through the Toonami gauntlet or watching whatever gets dubbed in their native language – they’re typing “watch anime” into Google, settling on the most operable pirate site they can find, and clicking on whatever looks cool. And really, what’s cooler than a thumbnail of a normal-looking guy surrounded by cute girls in appealing fantasy outfits? What choice could be safer than a show whose title makes it sound like a gamer’s dream? For some of these teenage newcomers, this subgenre is not just a corner of the anime market; it’s the cornerstone of their pop culture diet. Ask them what anime is, and once you get past its country of origin and general aesthetic, words like “reincarnation” and “summoning” are likely to crop up. There’s a potential future out there where isekai supplants shounen as top dog, which would result in a lot more Genjitsu Shugi Yuushas – and given how unspeakably dull this one was, I’m not eager to see that future realized.

Potential: None for me