Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Planet With – 09[Messenger of Awakening]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

This week on Planet With, wimpy paladin decides to take on a sealing device, becomes an antagonist and…wins? I mean wow, I never saw this coming. Yousuke generally felt to me to be the gentle sort who was looking out for others but once Benika fell prey to her own sealing device causing her to lose all drive and motivation, Yousuke just went full villain. Not that I don’t understand his motivation here, he lost his brother and now the woman he loves is stuck in a eternal dream with that same brother so the only way he can see himself being happy is joining Benika in that dream. Of course the sealing faction won’t do that for free so Yousuke needs to seal the earth in Benika’s place, essentially fulfilling her last wish before falling to the sealing device. The parallel between him and Souya’s current mental state is interesting as both lost everything they care about and no longer care what happens to the world. So I love that Yousuke actually turned out to be the greatest threat to the earth despite being the more timid paladin solely because he didn’t approach the objective of sealing the earth with half hearted feelings. Benika didn’t truly want to seal the world and the sealing faction themselves seem torn on the idea with Generalissimo holding great respect for cat sensei’s wishes and Shiraishi not quite keen on the idea herself as she didn’t really want earth to go down without a fight. Yousuke on the other hand has strong conviction, kicks all the other paladins ass and accomplishes the goal.

If there is some spirit being channeled in this episode it’s hot blooded robot anime as what happens after this is true super robot action with all it’s cheesy glory. I am a little disappointed that Nozomi’s role remains firmly in the love interest alone category but damn if the second half of this episode was some truly hype action. Seeing what happens to a world that’s been sealed was interesting as it felt as though time had stopped and the direction from that to Souya pulling everyone out of the dream was excellent. Souya’s new found conviction was a little on the sudden side but I can see how he reached it and hopefully the people of paradise don’t end up some massive deus ex machina for the rest of the series but looks like this will be the one and only time they will lend a hand. It’s been very much an unsung hero of the series but the sound design is absolutely excellent. It can be easy to overlook such a thing but it can really make the difference when action is on screen. I have been taken out of the moment at times when I happened to recognized a stock effect being used.

I recall a show I watched were it showed a laser about to fire and I noticed that the power up noise was literally Samus’s arm cannon charge sound effect from Metroid Prime. Here through you can really feel those blows and the impacts. I recommend watching this series with headphones as it is certainly an experience. It’s a shame that the CGI cannot match that level of quality, I have gotten used to it for the most part but I find myself thinking of how much better things would looking if they animated the fights in 2D instead of 3D. My apologies to the CGI team of this show but these robots just don’t fit in this series they are far too out of place so it would have been better they someone made some filter to help them blend better or just scrapped CGI entirely. Well the Paladins are all down and that leaves just the sealing faction and the Dragon left to take down. So how hype will those fights be? Considering the scale of escalation it’s looking like the Generalissimo fight will be in space with them ending with fighting the dragon on the moon, which sounds pretty hype to me.

Planet With – 08[Power Is What Dwells Within Your Own Self]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

Why is it that no one is watching this show, as it is legitimately great. Looking online it’s sad to see that this show has pretty much no hype around it whatsoever. Those that stuck with it look to be pleasantly surprised but it seems that many got turned off by it’s first episode. It’s a shame truly as this show really has come into its own. It could be that Satoshi’s nature of making use of tropes and subverting them is working against him as viewer deem him as unoriginal before he managed to go against expectation. Take for example this episode where it has Souya refusing to fight the Sealing faction because his revenge is essentially complete now that the dragons power has been collected. Souya has no real reason to fight anymore and points out that everything he ever knew or loved is gone. Sure he has new friends on earth but the fact of the matter is that he truly lost everything before coming to earth. Any other anime the characters would start kicking the kid when he’s down and telling him to man up and fight the alien. Even in Evangelion they go out of their way to berate Shinji for not wanting to pilot a robot. Here it looks like they are heading in the same direction with even a member of the sealing faction questioning just why he isn’t fighting. But here one of the former paladins releases that Souya is just a kid and takes up the responsibility to fight the battle. Regardless it looks like Souya is going to get dragged into the battle no matter what as the paradise race tell him that the dragon is coming back at the dark side of the moon.

Benika got some development this week as she relates the story of a detective she used to admire who was killed by a kid with a gun. Making the reason why she joined the sealing faction being that she doesn’t trust humanity with power and believe that they will lose control like that kid who got his hands on a gun. What’s more it looks like the detective is the brother of Yousuke who likes Benika but looks like he feels he can’t measure up to the memory of his brother. on that if I am not mistaken it Benika looks to have feelings for Hideo and may have subconsciously wanted him to defeat her. Oh and great callback to him being the strongest of the paladins and having him defeat her. I thought that with the first half over and the paladins defeated that the op would need to be updated but they are gearing up to play a role in the second half of the series too. Comedy was on point here too with Souya seeing through Shiraishi’s illusion and having a mental crysis over whether real or illusionary boobs are better when she pressed up against him. Again, it starts as a common trope but then twists it in such an interesting way. Not to mention that cheeky little ghost in the shell reference at the beginning.

Overall I like that the paladins are coming back into the story as new warriors to fight the sealing faction and Souya’s growing psychic powers. Little disappointed that Nozomi didn’t take up the position of protecting the town but there does seem to be hints of her taking a more active role besides romantic interest. The comedy still makes things quite fun with even the antagonists lightening up like Shiraishi buting green with envy over Souya and Nozomi’s date. Benika looks like she’s out of the sealing faction so I wonder just what she will do now after being defeated. Well who knows what could happen in the best show that no one is watching.

Planet With – 07[Sirius]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

With that conclusive finale last episode, many of us were left wondering just where things go from here. As it turns out, our main protagonist Souya thought the same. The answer as it turns out is that with the palidains taken down, the sealing faction has risen up to become the new antagonist of the series. The former secretary of the paladins and member of the sealing faction has infiltrated Souya’s school as a student, which many joke that she is far too old to be pretending to be a student, and is brainwashing people into thinking she just transferred in. He little brainwashing power works on Souya but in a strange turn of events Nozomi isn’t affected by the power which either suggests that there is more to her than one would think or else her glasses managed to block out the power. It’s also nice to see that the two palidains that didn’t fight in the previous arc have joined the sealing faction and now Souya will be fighting them once again. On top of all this we have the introduction of a brand new mysterious figure who claims to be the oldest race in the universe. Seems he can only be seen by Souya and takes on the form of Souya’s brother with chances being higher that they were the ones to cause the dragon to go berserk in the first place.

We have gotten background on what happened to Sirius as well as who the odd maid girl(Ginko) who takes care of Souya is. Turns out that Ginko is a space princess(No matter how I say that it will always sound silly but hey we got mascot costume aliens so…) and at the time of the dragon attack Sirius was invading her planet. Looks like Sirius gains psychic power and started invading other planets to conquer. Which caused the dragon to deem them beyond salvation and thus wiped them out. Nya Sensei for once talks by himself in this episode and tried to prevent all this from happening but was ultimately too late, only managing to save Souya. It’s a bit sad that nya sensei wasn’t able to truly affect the outcome but I don’t truly see his actions as pointless. For one i actually believe that what he said to the dragon truly made a difference as if Tesuza was the reincarnation of the dragon it could mean that Nya Sensei’s words changed his opinion. So he sought to rule over earth rather than destroy it after seeing them close to taking the same path as Sirius.

In fact that is the entire reason that the sealing faction is the new antagonist as earth is close to awakening psychic powers and the sealing faction fully believes that once they do then they will repeat the mistakes of Sirius and start trying to conquer other star systems. Souya also looks to have awakened psychic power which has me wondering as to what role that will play. Seems there is some theory going around that Nozomi is going to take over the protagonist role now that Souya has decided this all has nothing to do with him.

Planet With – 05/06[Paladin Break 1/Paladin Break 2]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

Well that’s the end of Planet With and what a satisfying ending it was. I mean that final fight was something that would do Gurren Lagann proud and while there are some loose ends the majority of things were tied up quite nice…what do you mean this is only episode six? Hold on, there are six episodes left?! Um…alright, that are a rather conclusive way to hit the midpoint of the series and I truly have no idea of just where it will go from here. But I must say that if this was the ending of the series I would actually be alright with that. Yes Planet With hasn’t quite reached the heights of Satoshi’s other work but it has proved to be a fun series and that last episode was truly marvelous. After watching Fate/Extra’s lackluster conclusion this episode managed to pull off what it couldn’t with a incredibly satisfying final fight against the big bad. It is no joke that this was the absolute best episode of the series so far and has me very interested to see where this could go.

There is a some casualty to this midway conclusion as two of the paladins just straight up give up their powers without a fight. One rejected the leaders ideals and tossed aside her power at the end of episode four and the other just handed over his after the old man fell, stating that he was only staying to help take care of him. It is a little on the disappointing side but when thinking about it this series was making it a bit of a formula with the defeat of the paladins. It could have gotten a bit tiresome to run through the same motions with two other paladins. The old man’s fight against Souya was build up quite a bit in episode five but ended in a single strike in the first minutes of episode six but the fight against Takashi more than made up for that. Takashi’s father, Takezo, had me worried that like Nezuya that he would be a joke character as his alien flashback was just him hanging out with women and eating great food. But he brushed off that pretty easy and showed that there was more to him than he let on. Another nice surprise was that when Nozomi figured out Souya’s connection to the aliens and Souya even telling her who he was. Something like that is normally left for the final episodes which again makes this midpoint ending feel all the more final despite it not even being the real ending. But again it’s refreshing to she Satoshi set up what could be a tired cliche and end up turning it into a true moment of character growth.

But man that final fight. I am serious when I say that I haven’t felt this satisfied after a good punch up since Gurren Lagann. You can argue that it followed predictable beats but I felt it subverted enough to keep things interesting and the fight remained pretty high octane. The best part being the final strike where Souya from nowhere brings back the joke about the clogs and uses one as a makeshift brass knuckle to land the final punch. That was simultaneously hilarious and pretty badass that I was caught between hype, laughter and surprise. Having Souya completely mess up the message Takezo gave him to pass on to his son was also great but even the humor managed to lead to a good moment where Souya at least conveys the intent causing Takshi to admit that his father might have been right. After that he dies, yes, our protagonist accidently killed the guy. Well it’s likely his death was more the result of him overusing the dragons power but it does seem like this is going to weight pretty heavy on Souya. If there was a flaw in this episode it would be that rather hasty exposition dump about the nature of the dragon and how the sealing faction “absolutely destroyed” it. Sure they did, certainly that dragon ain’t coming back in any shape or form right? Well even the General even seems to doubt that point and convincing himself of it. To me this episode shows the true potential of a Satoshi’s writing could have for anime and how good he is at planning out concise and focused stories. The director is stating that things are going to get real crazy after this and you know what? I can’t wait.

Fate/Extra Last Encore Anime Review – 40/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Fate/Extra Last Encore, Reviews by AidanAK47

To many the Fate series is daunting with its numerous incarnations and spinoffs and here in the year of many a Fate adaption we get another one by Studio Shaft which was first thought to adapt the story of the PSP game Fate/Extra. Fate/Extra could basically be considered Fate with a sci-fi twist as this entire series takes place in a virtual reality where a massive Holy Grail War is taking place. The protagonist Hakuno and his Saber Servant must advance up seven Floors while defeating the servant and master that guards each floor to reach the Holy Grail at the top. The scenario itself certainly feels like that of a video game but this anime is not actually an adaption of the PSP game but instead an alternate retelling/sequel to that game. Despite claims from the writer that this anime could be experienced blind, the story itself does require context from the game to understand the story as a whole.

I will say that the story of this anime does sound good on paper and I am sure if you read summaries on each episode you would find yourself interested as the events of this anime do sound exciting, at least on paper. However the execution is botched heavily as the story was essentially a novel written by the author and handed over to be adapted into a anime screenplay. It’s source trappings remain in the show as Fate/Extra is an anime that prefers to tell you it’s story rather than show you it. There is an unforgivable amount of exposition and characters are not developed enough to make such copious amount of exposition interesting. The main character is essentially characterised as having no personality besides a vague anger which makes him a poor foil to the heroine of the series who mainly acts as fanservice. The massive amount of dialogue and Shaft being the animation studio has had people referring to this anime as Fatemonogatari which certainly seems like an apt comparison. The show is mainly dialogue and the battles between servants and masters on each floor all feel uninvolving and anticlimactic. Not helped when each fight either boils down to the protagonists trying harder or pulling out some previously unmentioned dues ex machina. I will say that Shaft make the show quite visually striking and there is some legitimately beautiful aspects like the illustration of the servant master duos in the episode endings. However the animation isn’t as strong as some other Fate entries and this series can take a bit too many of Shafts quirks as an anime studio.

The show follows a fairly formulaic pattern which makes the show feel vacuous as it continues to progress but the characters on screen remain machines for exposition or meaningless dialogue. What is likely intended to be the driving force of the series is the mystery behind what is actually happening as the story itself is very stingy on the details of what is actually happening causing many a viewer to just think “What?” which is the intention of the author but sadly backfired. Anytime you feel you are beginning to understand just what is happening in this show, it throws another curve ball and leaves you trying to figure it out all over again. Once pieced together the story becomes more straightforward but instead of being a rewarding experience to puzzle out it just becomes a reason why the viewer becomes so disconnected to the events on screen as we can’t engage if we are too busy trying to get to grips with what the plot even is. Upon its conclusion it just feels empty and meaningless, providing nothing of worth nor entertainment. Music didn’t leave much of an impression either. Overall there does feel to be a story under all this which could have made for a pretty good anime but the execution of it’s ideas where botched to the point that it just feels soulless and vacant , lacking anything which makes it recommendable besides finding out where that girl who looks exactly like Saber but in a red dress came from. Even then playing the Fate/Extra game would be a better experience even if that too isn’t perfect. So I pray…for Fate/Extra CCC to be localised for that certainly seems like it would beat out both the previous game and the anime. So get on it Marvelous or Xseed.

Fate/Extra Last Encore – 11-13[Resurrected Sword of Victory – Excalibur Galatine -/Turner of the Wheel – Chakravartin -]

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

It’s been a while but the final episodes of Fate/Extra are out and I thought that I couldn’t really add anything to what I previously said about this series. The last three episodes did nothing to change my opinion on the series as a whole, if anything it solidified my previous opinion and pretty much confirmed that the series as a whole was a rather pointless addition to the Nasuverse. But I happened upon this quote from a blog post that Nasu wrote before the first episode aired. And I quote:

“And this is how I got my engine running, but since I have no experience with writing anime scenarios, I wrote the source novel-ish book for “Last Encore”, and had Sakurai-san help me adapt and adjust that into anime scenario format.”

Thus like a thunderbolt it hit me and suddenly everything wrong with Fate/Extra Last Encore makes sense. Even in my previous posts about this series I remarked that it was far too much tell and no show but of course it is, for the source is a book. Also Sakurai was involved and I swear this woman is involved with some of the worst the Nasuverse has to offer, she has proven time and time again to be a terrible writer. Of course I am not pinning the blame entirely on her, her fault is in poorly adjusting Nasu’s novel to an anime format. Nasu is at fault for writing a novel when he’s supposed to write a screenplay, clearly he wrote too much to be conveyed and didn’t make use of the visual medium of anime to tell the story through other methods besides excessive exposition. The director is at fault for not making the fights stand out animation wise and ending anticlimactically. But these flaws all originated from this supposed to be anime original adaption turning out to be a adaption of a novel. Thus i must ask…if you had time to write a novel for Fate/Extra then why the hell is the Tsukihime remake a decade late at this point?!

The final episodes focus on Hakuno and Nero taking on the final floor master and the mastermind behind everything. The fights themselves lack any real gravitas as while the two lost to Gaiwen at first, they effectively beat him the second time by…trying harder? Oh and Gaiwens master decided that he wasn’t going to fight Hakuno and just stand there unlike the first time where he took an active place in the battle. Not much f worth happens, it plays out much like any other floor master with two episodes, heavy amount of exposition to explain everything and a anticlimactic fight. The final battle against twice Pieceman, or to be exact Twice Piecemans deadface, was made fair less exciting when he revealed that his Servant who was shown at the beginning of the series pretty much left offscreen and just handed over his Noble Phantasm to Twice. The final boss of the anime essentially abandoned the story and I don’t understand how that could be see as anything but disappointing. So the climax hits and I still don’t give a damn about Nero or Hakuno so their noble sacrifices mean nothing to me.

The final twist was pretty much expected with the earth being beyond help and practically ended but Hakuno decided to use the Moon Cell to create a virtual paradise which the remaining people on earth struggling to survive can escape to. I am reminded of the end of Apocrypha which also had the main character sacrifice himself in order to save the world and much like that series I find that the the character being sacrificed doesn’t have enough character to make me care. The end result of this series is that despite Nasu saying it would be a good entry point into the Extra spinoff of Fate, he was blatantly lying as without playing the Fate/Extra game this anime is missing valuable context. The semi sequel/Alternative path nature of the series makes it not an adaption of Fate/Extra nor providing anything of worth to the lore as a whole besides some Deadface ability which seemed to be invented for the sole purpose of trying to make Hakuno interesting. A straight adaption of Fate/Extra, which is briefly shown with flashbacks to Hakunon, actually looked to make for a far more interesting story than the one we got here. Not to mention a complete missed opportunity to have a Fate anime with a female protagonist. It’s sad really and this anime marks a pretty low note for the year of Fate Adaptations to end on. Well…at least Heaven’s Feel is pretty damn great.

Planet With – 03/04[Avenger 1/Avenger 2]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

Missed a week thanks to work being a hectic mess but I can say that it’s not due to a lack of interest in this show. For this show actually gets better and better each week. The backstory of what is going on is still rather vague but we at least know now that the main protagonist is an alien whose home planet was destroyed by a giant dragon. It seems that the heroes are currently making use of the dragons remains to be able to summon god armour to combat the Nebula sealers sending down the weird monsters which give people visions. Said sealers all appear to look like mascot characters and the cat sensei branched off into his own faction after failing to stop the dragon from destroying the main protagonists homeworld. Now he enlists his help because working with the boy ampilies his own powers and he wants the kid to start a new life on earth. Meanwhile the paladins leader appears to have the goal of using the dragons power to take over the world to form world peace which has caused a rift to form between him and one of the remaining paladins.

Episode four certainly shows the dangers of using the dragons power and I find it interesting in that this girl was essential repeating her past of wanting to avenger her best friend and despite events playing out similarly, the end result was far more disastrous. I am a little disappointed that they threw out some haphazard explanation about the area she shot a fireball at having be evacuated insuring no was hurt but I suppose it would have been a bit too much of a dark turn for this series.

It’s a bit of a shame that Nezuya didn’t happen to get his characterisation moment with the Sealer vision and looks to be confirmed to just be a big joke character as his vision just has to do with him wishing to be a harem protagonist like any anime very clearly catered to his demographic. If there is a weak link in this show I would say it’s him as he’s a comic relief character whose just not very comedic. I got more laughs out of Souya’s reaction to the “Cat Doping” transformation with him just echoing the thoughts of the audience as Cat sensei swallows what is essentially steroids. Not to mention that the aftereffects of it is a massive hangover which sort of is the opposite of berserker dragon Harumi who came out of this better. I do actually question her friendship with Miu and while I normally don’t go into these kinds of assumptions as I feel it’s short sighted and generally unfounded, here I think there is some evidence to suggest Harumi’s feelings for Miu go beyond simple friendship. I mean in her vision she saw herself as a princess with Miu being her prince which certainly is quite suggestive. So we have hit episode four and the paladins have been brought down to two not counting the president. This series has yet to truly excel yet so can it change from good to great with it’s remaining eight episodes?

Planet With – 02[Nebula Soldiers]

by AidanAK47, posted in Planet With

“So they managed to defeat Torai huh. Well he was the weakest of us.”

“Actually he was the strongest.”

“Wait! Huh?”

Now that’s part of why I love you Satoshi, you lay out a shounen cliche and subvert the hell out of it. Even having Torai in the room about to leave the group only for the leader to say that he could still help them goes against the usual foil of someone getting expelled out of the organization after defeat. It’s been one episode and already love these Paladin guys, for considering they are supposed to be the villains(?) they all hang out like ordinary people. For they don’t think of themselves as villains and actually see themselves as heroes which by all accounts they could very well be. So here’s the rundown as it stands now, we have three factions, the Nebula sealing faction(The weird ass aliens) which seeks to stop humanities evolution due to fear they will take the wrong path, the Nebula Soldiers faction(Souya and cat sensei) who wish to watch over humanity passively without interfering and the Paladins whose goal isn’t quite certain yet. It could have something to do with what the maid mentioned about Humanity taking the evolution of Love or the evolution of power. The leader of the Paladins looked to nearly spill the beans as he looked over the city and declared his determination to defeat the Nebula soldiers…but then he was interrupted by his dad hitting on the secretary. Honestly laughed with him getting exasperated and shouting “Would you knock it the fu-”

So there is a bit of formula going here with another Alien showing up with another Hero getting an illusion shown to her followed by Souya and crew defeating her afterwards. But by all accounts the heroes made some smart moves here for one they got everyone to go home in pairs so Souya had to fight two of them and it seems they laid down an ambush where all the heroes trapped him by episodes end. Pretty clever, others should take notes that instead of letting someone whittle down your forces one by one, maybe just attack them with everyone from the start. As for the flashback within the Alien I actually kinda like these as they act as good spitfire ways of knocking out some development for the Paladins. With it we at least know Miu has a complex over strength and used to fight in Judo tournament with the shy Paladin she’s paired up with. It’s funny that the girl was trying to show her determination to break out of the illusion as something heroic by claiming she has real power now but that certainly seems like a flawed resolution. The Illusion was trying to convince that she doesn’t need to be strong and that it’s okay to be weak and she demissed that by running away to the supernatural power she has gained, one which was all too easily stripped away by episodes end.

Overall I say this show is getting more and more interesting, so it’s a shame that the negative factor would be the action of the show itself. The fight choreography is actually good with two people fight at once instead of having one standby. Even the dialogue and sound is on point. The only problem is that I wish this team could have stolen a mecha animator from the new season of Full Metal Panic or hell even someone from Ufotable because these mecha look bad and there movement is jank. It’s a shame because the action in this series could be so very good but with these CGI models you might as well be slaping plastic figurines together. The CGI actually detracts from the design of the mecha themselves as this is what they look like in the manga. I in particular don’t understand why they took away each mechs individual colour and just gave them all some rainbow energy stuff. The different colours helped them look more distinct. Well dodgy CGI aside this show is getting quite a bit interesting, I for one wonder why they insist on not feeding any meat to Souya. Hopefully the steady uprise of quality continues and this becomes something rather special.

Darling in the Franxx – 24[Never Let Me Go]

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

And it’s time for Darling in the sorry I just can’t bring myself to care anymore Franxx. Well once again my previous assertions of what this episode was to be turned out half true and half false. For one they actually did show the final confrontation against VIRM and it was just as disappointing as I could have expected. This episode really was is just a hodgepodge of moments that just felt really familiar for you have seen this plenty of times before. Even the final revelation of Hiro and Zero two being reincarnated just feels so bloody token. The final confrontation basically boils down to Zero Two floating about the place for years and finally finding the VIRM home planet. VIRM then doing something to Hiro to try to prove to be a credible threat and our heroes overcoming things with the power of friendship which didn’t seem to be happening in a moment, so VIRM once again had Zero Two at their mercy for days and still managed to do diddly squat. Seriously why don’t we just head back to earth, it would likely take VIRM a couple of centuries to throw together a new plan and even then they wouldn’t be a

threat. So power of friendship, impregnating a planet with a bomb and the home planet is destroyed along with Hiro and Zero Two. Only for VIRM to show right the back up and state that they would get those pesky humans next time. So fantastic, that heroic sacrifice our heroes did was completely pointless besides buying a bit more time, which they already kinda had cause VIRM got their asses kicked already and likely wouldn’t return for a couple of centuries regardless. This was all just routine, VIRM were a crappy version of anti-spirals and never posed a significant threat and even the battle itself wasn’t even hype cause Strelizia prime can’t do anything fancy. It really did feel like this show wanted to get it over with which makes me wonder why they bothered showing the VIRM battle in the first place.

On Zero Two and Hiro’s sacrifice I must admit to something and that is that these two certainly became very boring didn’t they? I mean Hiro was never anything special but flashbacks showed that once upon a time he had at least a more interesting and bold character which could have resurfaced but instead we are stuck with a wet paper towel for the rest of the series. But the greatest sacrifice is Zero Two because at the beginning of this series this girl did have character but by series end? What happened to you girl? I remember it feeling jarring when Zero Two did a sudden character shift but I at least was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt as it seemed there were some semblance of it going somewhere. Such as that small nightmare sequence she had with all the pilots she killed from years of piloting a Franxx haunting her.(Funny how we danced over that particular plot point isn’t it? Zero Two has killed a lot of people and she was very much about to do the same to Hiro too if he didn’t remember.) But that lead nowhere, it was never brought up again. Instead we are left with a dull boring Zero Two whose personality boils down to “Loves Hiro” and that’s it.

As for the group on earth we just get time skip after time skip with little emotional weight. Klax bring back greenery to the earth so the whole harsh survival aspect is pretty much thrown out the window so that whole episode painting dark tidings of the planet being too far gone to support life is rendered a big pile of pointless. Oh and Ikuno fixed everyone’s life expectancy so they get to live full lives. Well except her own of course because the future has no need for lesbains that ain’t making babies. Ah yes that’s another thing we need to talk about isn’t it? I have stated before that I normally don’t look very deep for sexism or discrimination with character roles in media as it normally is something where no clear line is defined and must come down to the perspective of the viewer themselves. But there are cases where such aspects are so apparent that even I must find it questionable and Ikuno’s fate is something that really rubs me the wrong way. The reasoning behind her shortened lifespan is arbitrary and asinine and when you see all the other characters getting married and having children, then see Ikuno lying in a hospital bed dying and you can’t help but feel it’s hateful undertone.

Well it’s over and I see people pointing the finger at A-1 pictures for the decline of this series from the halfway point. I personally though don’t as this was one main guys passion project so if anything the blame falls on him but I also see a trend in this that could very well be the downfall of trigger. In the past few trigger works there has been a certain reliance on fan pandering. More and more they seem to be relying on past glory to heighten their new series and that is very much the downfall of Franxx as it abandoned what it’s identity was and became a knockoff of Gurren Lagann. Even Little Witch Academia has the same problem as Franxx in abandoning potentially great story threads for the safer route. I may be off base here but I think I see signs which could indicate Trigger no longer being hailed as the savior of anime.

Hisone to Masotan (2018 Spring) Review – 73/100

by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Hisone to Masotan, Reviews by SuperMario

Coming off as one of my most anticipated anime out of this last Spring Season, based solely on staffs involved alone – after all, an original anime written by Mari Okada and produced by Bones (which I regarded as one of the best anime studio working right now) – I can’t help but feel let down towards how HisoMaso progresses and wraps up. It’s a show with many highlights, mind you, as I consider the production as one of the best of the year so far: simple yet expressive character designs, stunning backgrounds and crisp animation. All you could ask for really. It has some interesting ideas, but that precisely pains me even more that the world-building just doesn’t support the ideas HisoMaso has.

To begin with, let’s address my main issues regarding this production. Unlike other anime shows which bring themselves down by treading the same tired path, HisoMaso is a show with many fresh concepts. I would applaud anyone who can think of the idea of them inside the dragons and piloting (note: not riding) as a military fighter jet. It’s a wonderful and whimsical mix concept that fit into the easy-going tone and the simple character designs. In fact, the first few episodes still carry this concept forward due to the fact that it never takes itself seriously. That’s when the issue arises when we need something more substantial when the appeal wears out, and it becomes increasingly frustrated to see the plot progresses without any backup. As an example, the show introduces the whole “ritual” concerning the whole giant dragon which “wakes up” every 82 years. It opens a whole new can of worms regarding the whole village who dedicated themselves solely for this event and even the process of it all. Equally under-developed and underwhelmed is the anastomosis bit, which for me is the prime example of creating conflicts solely for the sake if conflicts. As it stands, HisoMaso often feels like a first draft on a novel, many wonderful ideas but all of them are half-baked because the creators just don’t spend enough time to think this through.

The half-baked approach spread into the characters themselves. These girls have many quirks that distinct them to the rest of the cast, but at the end of the day there simply isn’t much development for them, or the development feel calculated and forced. Take Kinutsugai and Hitomi, the D-pilots who appear at the poster and the ED, HisoMaso just doesn’t know what to do with them. Same thing regarding the dragons, which feel more like mascots. The main lead Hisone embraces what could be the worst tendency of HisoMaso’s attempt of developing characters. Like the show, she tends to tell us out loud what her issues are, and like the show she tends to make rather weird decisions. Many of her conflicts are raised and solved within an episode, as a result the development doesn’t feel earned.

Speaking about making weird decisions, I can’t still put my fingers on the central message of HisoMaso. In some ways, Mari Osada underlines the struggles of working women in Japanese society, as they have to choose between career and family. Having Hisone and Hoshino fall in love that could potentially cause negative impact on piloting the dragons is part of that strategy. But how do they deal with it? By having the entire army unit work on “make them fall in love then crush their love apart”. That’s mean-spirited to the point of stupidity. On that note, they didn’t resolve the love’s conflict thoroughly either. Second, HisoMaso marks the relationship between the dragons and their pilots, as we see in how Hoshino struggling as she considers herself “a pilot” – not dragon caretaker; and we see the theme reflected by the titular characters. But the problem with its is the way Hisone regards her dragon. She considers Masotan as someone who see the specialness in her, and piloting dragon is something that make her worthwhile, as a result in episode 3 we have something as obscure as her demanding Masotan to “take responsibility” because he picked her. That level of dependence repeats later on, when Hisone argues with another girl solely about a boy. This questionable treatment to women is unacceptable, especially with a show about adult women written by an adult woman. As a result, HisoMaso become the first show from 2018 that receive a minus (-) mark from me.

But what HisoMaso makes up for the under-cooked story is the sheer power of visual presentation. Everything looks great, the characters are on the simple design, but that’s exactly why the studio can go wild on their facial expressions and characters movement. What it’s lack from the character depth is replaced by their mannerism, in which each character moves differently and has different tones. The background designs are simply gorgeous with bright color palette, and the animation are crisp and a feast to an eye. If you don’t mind the lack of deeper layer, HisoMaso’s aesthetic alone would serve as a visual treat. Indeed, at top of my mind only the recent FLCL’s production is on the same level with this show for the first half of this 2018 calendar year.

So yeah, HisoMaso is a show with many highs and lows. Its visual strength is amongst the best of the industry right now, and it’s an easy watch all around with some emotional resonance. The lack of a well thought-out world, however, hurts the show since it’s crumble as it moves along. It’s still a show worth checking out, but don’t delve too deeply into it.