Category: Series which were Dropped

Your Lie in April – 02 & 03

by LightningBolt, posted in Currently Watching:, Your Lie in April

Your Lie in April has emerged as a bit of a nice surprise in this young season. The fairly popular noitaminA programming block has been pretty hit-and-miss of late, with some very good shows here and there but a much higher rate of complete duds compared to the block’s past. For this reason I approached Your Lie in April not so convinced that I was going to be a fan, despite a decent (though hardly groundbreaking) premise. Thankfully, through three episodes, the show has settled into a nice groove and has brought some pretty good drama and music to the table each week.

In episodes 2 and 3 of Your Lie in April we’ve gotten through character introductions and have seen beginnings of the various relationships present in the show. Our two leads, Kousei and Kaori, have gotten over their initial but shortlived hostility towards one another that stemmed from their meeting and have begun interacting on more friendly and deeper grounds. The writers didn’t waste much time in addressing Kousei’s trauma related to his piano playing and have faced it head-on in these episodes, ending with episode 3 having Kousei ready to accompany Kaori in her next performance. While there’s not much reason to believe Kousei’s over his trauma, it is refreshing that it hasn’t been dragged out as long as it could have (and as long as I was personally expecting) and that, whether things go smoothly during this performance or not, some kind of progress should be made in the next episode on this front, just as there was progress made in this latest episode. Perhaps this is one of the better aspects of Your Lie in April – there’s been consistent progress made in the story over all three episodes so far without a lot of the dragging out that plagues many stories, especially ones that touch on romance.

Not all is good in Your Lie in April, unfortunately. The main thing that sticks out to me as not being particularly well done is the comedy. While comedy is wildly subjective and difficult to critique without going to vague points, I do think the show’s comedy fails on most levels. In most comedic moments, the art style resorts to a more crude and simple style which tends to clash pretty strongly with the show’s normal highly detailed and well-done presentation. Most of the comedy also seems to be of the slapstick variety, which has never been a favorite of mine on a personal level. In episode 3 we had such moments like Kaori throwing a shoe at Kousei and giving him a heel drop at the end. Our female lead is quite the violent one. There are also a few other problems, though they aren’t very numerous and don’t detract too much from the experience. One such problem was the unnecessary “Friend A” thing thrown around so far. I immediately related it to the all-too-common character trope anime uses with lead characters who are super ordinary and live super normal lives. The thing is that Kousei isn’t that character. He’s already been through a lot as a person, he has a remarkable and outstanding talent, and, as mentioned in episode 3, he’s seen as a bit of a celebrity among musicians from his age group. I just don’t really understand where that whole “Friend A” thing came from that paints him as some forgettable background character.

Overall, Your Lie in April has been a pretty good watch through three weeks. I wouldn’t recommend it to the whole anime-watching world as of now, but I’m sure a lot of people would enjoy it so far. If you’re into drama/romance anime, then you might want to pick it up.

Akatsuki no Yona – 03

by ninjarealist, posted in Akatsuki no Yona

Hak and Yona flee Soo-Won’s men, but Yona’s mental and physical condition continue to deteriorate. Yona and Hak are both haunted by memories from the past. This was easily the best episode in the series so far. Whereas the first two episodes primarily took place in the present or the future, this episode is mostly spent in the past and it’s a great choice. A lot has happened already and I was concerned that the characters might start to wear thin if the action continued unabated for another episode. Thankfully, the staff realize this, and have devoted an entire episode to fleshing out Hak and Yona.

For example, in the first two episodes, it’s implied that Hak has romantic feelings for Yona. The flashback in this episode made it abundantly clear that this is absolutely the case, and raises bigger questions about the nature of their relationship. For example, how does Hak feel about the fact that his hands are clearly tied both by duty and friendship? We also get hints at the true nature of King Il and Soo-Won’s father, suggesting that the picture might indeed be more complicated than either Yona or Hak appreciate.

As a backdrop to this, we get Yona and Hak’s travails as they flee through the woods. It’s an interesting juxtaposition. Yona’s idyllic memories of childhood are contrasted with her haggard and borderline-catatonic appearance in the present. This contrast helps reinforce how emotionally devastating all of this is for Yona. In one memorable scene, Yona is covered in leeches while bathing. She reacts feebly and is too weary to even remove them from her body. Hak is forced to do it for her. It’s a sad moment that conveys how drastically Yona has changed from the happy-go-lucky character in the first episode.

I’m really excited to see where this series goes if it continues to be this good.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis- 03

by K-Off, posted in Shingeki no Bahamut

Okay, so this episode didn’t focus on Leone and Amira’s adventure. Instead, it focuses on building Kaisar’s character and it does so a bit awkwardly.

This episode takes Kaisar and puts him into an overly bombastic situation in order to tell us about Kaisar’s past family problems, but it was so out of tone from the last two episodes that I didn’t care as much as the episode wanted me to do. The last two episodes added an intrepid tone to the show with Leone and Amira’s introductions, but this one tried to add a somber element that really should have been held off until later on.

In any case, this episode was a great one if I see it as the last preparation for the upcoming adventure. When Leone and Amira finally confront the main villains of the story and actually start their journey, we’ll know if this is a show worth continuing or not. However, this episode really answered the lingering questions left by the last two episodes, which I’d say is good for now.

I should also add that I like how this series has a very strong concept of foreshadowing: it doesn’t necessarily have huge cliff-hangers, but it ends every episode with the promise of major developments. The first episode promised a ton of intrigue, the second episode promised change, and now this episode is promising that next week, we’ll get to see what the villains are all about. After all, there’s no way that Satou will wait that out. Overall, this episode was definitely weaker than the last two, but it wasn’t a very big negative to my view on the series as a whole.

Gugure! Kokkuri-San- 03

by K-Off, posted in Gugure! Kokkuri-San

This show has a great cast, but some chinks in the armor are starting to appear in the comedy.

So far, this anime seems to lack a consistent tone, which shows through just how hit-and-miss the comedy is. It attempts to mix elements of light and dark comedy along with slice-of-life and tries to excel in all three of them, but, it feels cheap and under-delivered at times. These past three episodes were definitely good, but they suffer from some minor problems in the show’s overall comedic voice that keep it from its full potential.

I was really wondering how the creators would go forward with the show, and while the show does indeed have plenty of good laughs (especially Inugami), the inconsistency is a definite negative and a big reason for my exponentially increasing lack of interest. While comedies don’t need to concentrate so much as delivering the comedic elements well, an irresolute show like Kokkuri-San needs to find focus if it doesn’t want to devolve into a confusing mix of numerous comedic elements.

However as I stated earlier, this episode was generally funny and chock full of premium meme material. As for the acting, Kokkuri-San aside, the voices were charismatic and added a level of quirkiness to most of the cast. This show really knows how to handle its characters well; you can see the ship-worthy relationship between Inugami and Kokkuri-san continue to grow as they get to know each other better as rivals for Kohina. It was completely awesome to see Inugami’s gender-bend ability not being overused as fan service here, although I don’t know how far that’ll hold moving forward. Yes, this shows just how little faith I (along with most others) have in gender bending.

The point is, this show has problems that can easily go away once it finds a clear comedic voice for itself. Both the characters and production are excellently done, so give credit where it is due, because I remain fairly interested in this show.

Psycho Pass 2 – 02

by ninjarealist, posted in Psycho Pass 2

Episode two continues right where episode one left off and progresses about how you might have guessed. Akane chases the mysterious villain pulling the strings, getting only cryptic responses from Kitazawa. Shimotsuki confronts Akane with her misgivings about Akane’s handling of the arrest. And we finally get some subtle hints towards Kougami’s existence and how his disappearance might be affecting Akane. The first suggestions of Kougami were handled quite well. We never hear mention of his name, but we do get a nice pair of scenes that suggest Akane does indeed miss him a lot. In the first scene Akane visits a therapist to gather information about Kitazawa. The therapist suggests that Akane should take time off work, which she does, in another scene. This leads into a beautiful scene where Akane is second-hand smoking the same brand of cigarettes that Kougami liked. It’s a striking scene, because Akane and her apartment have never looked more gloomy or depressing. She de-activates the holo in her room, when her computer notices damage to her wall, and you can see that beneath all the holographic effects, her apartment is just a dingy room, with some tables and pillows. To me it felt like the writers might have been making a statement about how, beneath the perfect exterior, Akane is indeed human and potentially starting to show signs of deterioration. This is a nice change from her portrayal in the first episode, which seemed a little too Mary Sue.

This episode was mostly Akane, but the other characters also get some development. It’s a mixed bag. The biggest disappointment for me is the handling of Shimotsuki’s character in this episode, which just felt a little clumsy. In the first episode they set her up to be this big rival for Akane and there was lots of foreshadowing that suggested she would display some serious antagonism towards her superior. Based on her sordid history with Akane and Kougami in the first season, I expected her to display a lot more malice and intensity towards Akane’s forgiving attitude with Kitazawa. But in the second episode, Shimotsuki is effectively just played for laughs and cheap fanservice. Her “big challenge” to Akane has so far amounted to her sending a negative report to Akane’s superiors. Even Akane seems to find this response laughably limp-wristed, although, in defense of Shimotsuki, I’m sure she doesn’t realize how intimate Akane is with the Sybil System. And predictably, we get a flirtatious moment between Shimotsuki and Yayoi, who seem already destined for some type of romance. The new enforcers are ok. Hinakawa is essentially a non-character at this point but Tougane gets some development in this episode and I found him to be quite the intriguing character. He’s a former therapist, an heir to a powerful industrialist family, and it’s repeatedly suggested, in both the OP and the cinematography of the episode itself (such as the screenshot of him I posted), to have some sinister secret. That’s an interesting mix of attributes. And Keiji Fujiwara does a great job with this role. The voice acting in general in this new season is very good but his role stands out to me as the best.

We also get some more development of the new villain and I like the direction they’re going with him. In the first episode he seemed too similar to Makishima, another cold, calculating, techno-genius manipulating other nefarious characters to do his bidding. However, in this episode we begin to see that the new villain is actually quite sentimental, and potentially suffers from some type of mental instability. It’s revealed that the undidentifiable holo he used in the first episode was made using a dead girl as a model and projecting what she would have grown up to look like (pretty nifty). At one point in the episode he even cries on-screen, which is something that Makishima would have never done sincerely. So it seems that while this new villain does have many of the same types of skills that Makishima had (and some even more incredible ones) his personality is starting to seem much more human. Probably the most vexing new character is Aoyanagi (who, like Shimotsuki, was a minor character in season 1). I’m not really sure why they brought this character back when they’re already using Shimotsuki’s character to fill the role of “pro-Sybil inspector giving Akane a hard time”. Aoyanagi is far more ruthless than Shimotsuki, and her position as Akane’s equal (whereas Shimotsuki is a subordinate) gives her much wider latitude to oppose Akane. Still, in a 13 episode series that has so much ground to cover, and given that they’re already doing such a weak job of developing Shimotsuki, I can’t help but feel they should have left one of these characters out.

In general, this was a good episode. I like how most of the new (and sort of new) characters are being developed and I like that this season seems to be establishing a different kind of thematic heart than the first series. For me, the first series was more about looking at whether an industrialized society is better served by ethics that support human agency or ethics that support utilization of knowledge to organize society most efficiently. It offered a lot of compelling arguments both for and against the Sibyl system and the way that it sacrificed human agency in favour of a more efficient society. Psycho Pass 2 seems so far to be less concerned with the social ramifications of the Sibyl system and more concerned with the questions of justice raised by the crime coefficient. It’s the age old question of what purpose the justice system serves. Does it exist to reform criminals? Does it exist to punish them? Does it exist to protect the dominant social order from dangerous elements? The first series established that the Sibyl system is a mix of all three that masquerades as a reformatory system. And it seems like this season’s villain wants to demonstrate that, if the Sibyl system truly wants to reform people, the use of the lethal eliminators is wrong. I think that’s a great direction to take this show because that was the biggest question mark from the first season? We repeatedly see all of these people get killed off in brutal, some times arbitrary, fashion, and there frankly wasn’t enough serious interrogation of whether such overwhelming force was justifiable. So I’m glad that this second season seems to be primarily considered with examining that question.

I also think the cinematography, animation, and sound all continue to be quite good in this new season. Nonetheless, this episode still had a little bit of that same lifeless feel I complained about in the first episode. The events just progress too quickly and mechanically, and there is just not enough breathing room to let the atmosphere develop properly. This is a shame because you can tell that the staff have done such a great job on all the production aspects. But so far it really seems like this new season might have been better served by two cours. Still, I was impressed by the writing in this episode. It was definitely a big improvement from the first one.

Akatsuki no Yona – 02

by ninjarealist, posted in Akatsuki no Yona

In the first impression I said I didn’t expect Akatsuki no Yona to succeed if it went down the serious drama route. However, after watching the second episode, I’m starting to think I might have been wrong about that. There were still a lot of moments that felt corny or derivative to me, such as the stand-off between Hak and Soo-won in the middle of the episode and the flash-forward at the very end (I don’t really think the flash forwards have been very effective as a narrative device), but the writers made some inspired choices with the main characters that left me feeling encouraged about the direction this show is headed. I really like how they’ve handled Soo-won’s character. A story like this can live or die by the quality of its villain. If the villain is too sympathetic it can lighten the dramatic heft of the narrative, which can be really bad news for these type of operatic, character-driven, period pieces. If the villain is too sociopathic they can rapidly wear thin. However, the character of Soo-won strikes a nice balance between this. He’s a very cold person, to be sure, and it’s hard to empathize with his methods, but his motives honestly feel pretty reasonable to me. It’s easy for me to imagine the bitterness he would feel looking at Yona’s peaceful castle life and knowing that it was built on the violence and subterfuge that killed his father. I mean maybe we’ll find out later in the show that Yona’s father didn’t actually kill Soo-won’s father, but I hope the writers don’t go that route because honestly, it feels like a very believable backstory in my opinion. And it’s a backstory that really forces you to think about whether Yona is actually in the right here. If what Soo-won said is true, then perhaps Yona bears some form of guilt by association? I also like how we see moments of remorse peeking through Soo-won’s cold facade, like when you can see him wince momentarily after Yona tells him how she planned to confront her father about denying Yona the chance to marry her. It shows that there is a feeling person under there but those feelings have been buried under mountains of circumstances. And it makes for an interesting dynamic between him and Kye-sook, because even though Soo-won seems to be firmly in control of his fate, you can tell that Kye-sook is a Lady Macbeth type of character, prodding him to be more and more ruthless.

I also like how they handled Yona’s character in this episode. Often times, when shows portrays these types of “Princess forced out of the castle” situations the writers struggle so hard to make the trauma seem intense that the protagonist can seem unbearably histrionic or downright schizophrenic in their inconsistent and constantly changing reactions. I thought Yona went through a very nice and clear transition from initial shock at learning her father was killed, to denial of the situation, to fear that her own life was in danger, to anger and frustration that her osananajimi had betrayed her, and finally to a near catatonic breaking point as the fatigue and despair begin to set in. Throughout it all, her responses felt very natural and understandable for someone in her position. And the writers didn’t overdo it with the screaming and crying. I felt like most of the time Yona just seemed lost in her thoughts, almost unable to comprehend what was going on around her. Indeed, rather than being a player in the events of this episode, Yona is mostly just swept along in the torrent of events. I like this understated approach because it makes for some really powerful moments when Yona’s emotions come to the surface. I mean that hug at the end was so powerful and heart-warming. The entire episode Yona is just buffeted about by various people objectifying her and trying to kill her for reasons that have nothing to do with her personal life. You can see that by the end her sanity is about to break entirely because she feels just completely helpless and alone in a world that has completely changed for her in the span of a few hours. And then Hak, who despite his white knight persona had been pretty business-like towards Yona throughout this episode, lets down his own defenses to give Yona a moment of warmth and vulnerability with that hug. It was as if he was trying to say to her, “Don’t worry. Even if everyone else is treating you like a political figurehead, you’re still a human being to me.”

My biggest gripe with this episode, which was also a gripe I had with the first episode, was the terrible fight scenes. And I’m sorry if you liked them, but from my perspective after two episodes they’re just downright bad. I don’t mind that the fight scenes are short, or that the main characters don’t shoot fireballs out of their swords (at least not yet). I think those were both great choices. The problem is that the fight scenes just don’t feel real. Sure, there is blood and screaming, and loud sound effects when Hak swings his glaive around, but it just feels cartoony to me. I chalk a lot of this up to the fact that, although other aspects of the fight choreography feel more grounded and realistic, the actual physics of how the weapons impact and how the corpses are tossed through the air like volleyballs, is just comically unrealistic. And in spite of how well animated most of this show is, the animators do a really uninspired job with the death animations of all those nameless grunts that are constantly getting killed off. It makes the fight scenes feel like you’re watching someone play Dynasty Warriors (and no that’s not a compliment). The big issue here is not that the fight scenes themselves are bad, it’s that the bad fight scenes and comical death animations really take you out of the moment and just kill the serious atmosphere that the creators have otherwise done a great job building with the excellent soundtrack and cinematography.

Still, this was a good episode that really left me encouraged about where this show is going.

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis- 02

by K-Off, posted in Shingeki no Bahamut

This episode devotes its entirety setting up the characters as well as the journey coming ahead, and it does so very well.

Here’s the thing-this season, we have a ton of shows packed with great style, animation, and direction, but none are as stylistic as Shingeki no Bahamut. I remember a few months ago when I watched the premier of Blade and Soul, and I was genuinely impressed with it- the pacing was solid, the art was decent, and the characters were mildly interesting…. However, starting with episode 2, I lost all interest and moved on, and I never bothered figuring out why. But, after watching this episode, I now know why that was. Unlike Blade and Soul, this show knows not to take itself too seriously. The completely serious Amira turns into a very light-hearted, rather amusing character who really lightens up the entire episode, and Leone/Kaisar’s bouts are, once again, very entertaining to watch.

The highlight of this episode was, without a doubt, Amira, because I did not expect her character to change as abruptly as she did. It’s quite astounding what adding a little flare to a character can do, because although I still don’t give a crap about her background, she manages to give depth to our little maverick in a way that didn’t feel overly cheesy or dull (I won’t spoil). This show has found a way to be charming whilst completely avoiding cheese.

I’m always keeping an eye out for great artists who keep trying out different things, and with Keiichi Sato, Mappa has struck gold. Now, we can only hope that he will keep this passion of his, and keep landing jobs as a director for non-mecha productions like this. His mecha productions may be quite notorious, but he hasn’t really produced anything worthwhile since Tiger and Bunny anyways, so it’s time to move the hell on. He has the potential to really make this series shine.

Gugure! Kokkuri-San- 02

by K-Off, posted in Gugure! Kokkuri-San


Now, TMS Entertainment is a studio that covers a wide range of different shows, and over the years, I’ve known that they can make good shows-but they just weren’t making them like they used to. However, I can safely say that it is different with this one. Despite their most recent failures like The Pilot’s Love Song, Yowamushi Pedal ( which I actually liked the first 2 episodes of), and SeHa Girl, it’s a good thing that they managed to pull off a comedy series like Kokkuri-San well enough to keep me interested.

The point is, this episode was funny. What makes Gugure! Kokkuri-San enjoyable so far are the interpersonal relationships between all of our characters, and this episode had a lot of that, by introducing us to yet another interesting person from Japanese folklore. Unlike the first episode, which was a rather mixed bag, this episode was far superior in terms of comedy, and the animation brings it out really well. This anime was directed by Yoshimasa Hiraike, director of the first season of Wagnaria, so no wonder this show was executed so well this far.

The dark humor really works in this series, and finally, it’s about time we got another one. Now, don’t get me wrong, this show isn’t dark enough to be considered a true dark comedy, but hell, it’s been too long since Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei and I need my dark humor fix. It’s a very nice way of bringing out the heavier tone that a premise based on the children’s game this show is based on brings along, while managing to stay humorous and putting a twist on folklore in a way that isn’t annoying as f*ck. That’s how you turn your Japanese folklore into comedy.

Some Quick First Impressions: Shingeki no Bahamut, Parasyte, Gugure! Kokkuri-san, Cross Ange

by K-Off, posted in Gugure! Kokkuri-San, Parasyte, Shingeki no Bahamut, Some Quick First Impressions

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a bounty hunter.
Impressions: This show gets how to make a first episode, Keiichi Satou does a superb job in introducing us to the world of Mistarcia. The various character introductions are just as well done, and the 17th Century Spain-like setting really sets the tone for the anime. The anime borrows the styles of some of my favorite Westerns and swashbuckler films, like Ivanhoe, True Grit, Three Musketeers, and The Master of Ballantrae, which I cannot praise enough for having the balls to do. This episode showed me that the series knows how to borrow those styles correctly, and as a fan of 20th Century Westerns & swashbucklers myself, I appreciated the homage. On top of that, this series really knows that it’s an anime, and you can see a lot of personality in the characters which I thought that even some Westerns lacked. This episode had a lot of things happen in 20 minutes or so, but it knows how to pace itself relatively well, using that time in the most optimal manner to show as much personality in the characters as it possibly could.  Lastly, I feel like I have to mention the soundtrack, which is yet another great homage to my favorite Spanish films from the 50’s and 70’s.

ED: A nice listen.

Potential: 90%

Parasyte

Short Synopsis: Our lead character’s right hand becomes sentient
Impressions: Okay, the marketing department really did this anime injustice; the trailer for this show sucked and pretty much failed to garner much interest (aside from fans of the manga/people who pay attention to these things). However, who cares? The first episode was great, and despite the complaints pouring in from the raging idiots about the “modernized” character designs, the animation and art were very solid. Other than that, I just need to see that the creators know what they’re doing going forward. The episode had it’s problems, but at the same time, I saw clear efforts on the part of Kenichi Shimuzu  in making this story resonate with today’s audiences to the best of his budget. Both the pacing & character introductions were very well done, succeeding without having to put in much dialogue between the characters themselves-which ultimately allowed tons of things to happen in just one episode. It’s quite a shame, really, that this sub-genre of horror (with the exception being the works of Junji Ito) hasn’t been done very well since 95′, because it’s still pretty much uncharted territory at this point. Hell, there is real potential here.

OP: Not really my kind of song.

ED: Safe

Potential: 85%

 

Gugure! Kokkuri-san

Short Synopsis: Our lead character summons Kokkuri-san.
Impressions: Okay, so this show knows how to use the comedic formula, a pleasant surprise after being months without a decent comedy since Spring. Regardless, I  have to point out the fact that this appears to be one of those comedies that are VERY hit-or-miss. I’ve read about people on forums being put off by it’s deadpan humor and the shortage of background music-which I found rather appealing, because the anime quickly sets the tone for itself within the first half of the episode. Unlike the manga, which is rather episodic in nature as all 4koma tend to be, the anime manages to keep itself from appearing too episodic, smoothly transitioning between one deadpan comedy sequence to the next. So in that sense, I was relatively pleased; the episode is largely consistent in it’s humor. Really, the only faults I can find is that it is rather boring at times, and the jokes are occasionally under delivered, leaving these uncomfortable moments when I’m trying to figure out if I was supposed to have laughed or not . For what it is worth though, the episode is fairly solid, and it might turn out to be a relatively strong comedy…But I do worry about the jokes drying up, although that’s likely an unnecessary concern, seeing how there are much more characters yet to be introduced.

ED: Bit annoying, actually.

Potential: 70%

 

Cross Ange

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is yet another Princess.
Impressions: Of course, what a great impression to make, starting off your main character’s introduction with fan service. The episode starts off with a terrible cg battle, then takes a few steps back in the timeline to fully introduce our heroine, who is yet another princess. Frankly, after the Martian princess from Aldnoah Zero, I don’t think I can stomach yet another heroine who’s a princess. Basically, the main character is painfully uninteresting, and the “twist” is so damn stereotypical that I cannot take it seriously. Who are these people? How does Ange not figure out she cannot use magic until she’s f*king 16 years old?! The entire episode’s climax revolves around the fact that Ange realizes that she cannot use magic and is therefore a Norma (a person who cannot use magic), which is why a coupe even occurs. So for the last 16 years, she herself does not figure out that she cannot use magic, while a goddamn baby gets discovered to be a Norma in the middle of the street? The only positive aspect I can squeeze out this episode is that it had dragons in it for a few seconds. Nothing else.

OP: Embarrassingly bad

ED: Generic, nothing worth noting.

Potential: 20%

Dropping Captain Earth

by psgels, posted in Captain Earth

Captain Earth had a really good first episode, so I was psyched to coninue with it, purely based on storytelling reasons: it knew how to deliver its plot in an interesting way by throwing in many flash-forwards, flashbacks, hints and whatnot. Now that I’ve seen about four and a half episodes of the series I’ve got a bit of a better image of what the actual storyline is about, and I’m dropping it. There are many reasons for this, and I did feel compelled to write about them.

First of all, the self-referencing? The hints? Well, they’re gone. Like, completely. Episode four was very straightforward and didn’t really leave anything to your imagination: the aliens want their kin back, purple-haired kid is part of their kin, and the main kid has this really powerful robot that can kick their asses. Where the presentation was so interesting in episode 1, I felt myself getting really bored here.

What was the straw though, was the underlying story which became clear to me about halway through episode four. When you ignore the mood, then Captain Earth is really a cross between Eureka Seven Ao and Star Driver, and its underlying themes are a combination between the two: on one hand we have the focus on childish innocence: children should be protected, and on the other we have the themes of adolescence and sexuality in the way it talks about libido and all.

When I started to think about them, they just didn’t mesh. One one hand this series wants to be like Eureka Seven Ao, in its themes that no children should be forced in adult situations, and when you do you had better take responsibility. The thing here though, that the themes of parenthood are much better explored because of how good the characters of Ao’s parents are. What do we know about the main guy’s parents at this point? Heck, has the existance of mothers actually been alluded yet? If it did then I totally forgotten about it, which is a bad sign for both my memory and the series itself.

Also adding to the themes are the villains here, who feed off the libido of humans. Okay, so this could mean that this show is a social commentary on how children are way too often sexualized and the main characters are trying to fight that idea. I actually really like that because they do have a very big point… only the show completely screws that up with the lame bellybutton joke and sexualizes their children anyway.

So with that my only conclusion is that the villains represent adolescence: the characters are young and they are about to change majorly and experience sexuality and stuff. So yeah, it’s a coming of age series. It’s a theme that’s been done many times before, and by series that had much more interesting first four episodes. Take Utena for example, Enokido there actually wrote a setting that’s interesting, imaginative and full of symbolism that wasn’t overdone. I know that we’re fifteen years later, but even by those standards Utena’s opening episodes stand out as unique while Captain Earth combines many things that have been done to death now.

I’m a fan of the mecha genre because it offers intelligent series, if doesn’t matter how old the characters are:
– Bokura no is a fascinating story about putting huge weapons in the hands of children.
– Patlabor is a hilarious and personal look at the police in a day in which mechas are standardly used.
– Fafner in the Azure actually asks the question of who you should fight for
– RahXephon explores coming of age with actual human characters who talk at least a bit normally.
– When you really want an over the top series, go for Giant Robo, the New Mazinger or Star Driver which are made to be flashy and over the top and enjoyable to watch.
– The good Gundam and Votoms series are good for a realistic look at war (War in the Pocket, Turn A, the Votoms TV-series)

You can do a lot with the genre, and you chose the most boring one. That’s a problem I have with a lot of anime nowadays. You can do better than this, I know that of everyone involved in this project.