My Hero Academia is the forerunner of modern shounen – the descendant, if you will, of Bleach, HxH, One Piece, and Fairy Tale. With 2 movies, 4 seasons, infinite merch and cosplay, MHA is a force to be reckoned with. With that in mind, Season 4 proved to be a transitional season, with our lead Midoriya moving forward in the world of heroes and All-Might fading, set against a backdrop of a world trying to cope.
(I’m also part of the movement to make 50 the new average score, not 70.)
(Little side note: Not meant to start a civil war between us writers but I’m a firm follower of 60 being a line that separates recommendable to mediocre shows. You pass your subjects if you get over 60%, right? Review-aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritics also use 60 as their middle line. So 65/100 means it’s slightly above average)
Magia Record has a huge hurdle to clear: being a spin-off of one of the most talk-about anime in the last 10 years. This new adaptation doesn’t have the original writer Gen Urobuchi on board, but the background duo of the original Gekidan Inu Curry helm the project with Shaft returning to produce it. The result is a good indication of this transition and of the fact that Magia Record is based on a gacha game. Magia Record has some stunning art designs that fit its dark themes like a T and Shaft does a pretty decent job in terms of visual directing, soundtracking and shot composing, but the show suffers from its lack of focus to the main story, and introduces far too many characters that aren’t well developed. Magia Record uses the settings set by the original quite consistently, with some brand new updated concepts such as uwasa (manifestations of actual rumors) and doppel (materialization of despair from the magical girls), but as the story progresses it feels as if Iroha the main character wanders around for side quests rather than her main quest of finding lost sister Ui whom she has no memory of, as a result Magia Record feels hollow, superfluous and incomplete.
I love yokai shows. Almost every season, sandwiched between your generic isekai and the high school drama, you’ll find some spooky yokai and poor humans who have to navigate the two worlds. This season, In/Spectre filled that niche, as something of a cross between Bakemonogatari and Natsume’s Book of Friends.
(I’m also part of the movement to make 50 the new average score, not 70.)
In late December of last year, I labeled Dorohedoro one of my most anticipated series of winter 2020. Honestly, that was a poser move. I’m not a manga reader, so my high expectations were based largely on secondhand praise, plus the potential for bloody irreverence promised by the PV and synopsis. There was one element of the show’s production, though, that I was confident would give it a unique appeal: the involvement of Shinji Kimura, background artist for such films as My Neighbor Totoro and Akira. He’s done plenty of great work as an art director, too, which was his role on this project. Sure enough, Dorohedoro’s grimy cityscapes and ramshackle interiors were uncommonly polished for a TV production – but the show had much more going for it than detailed backgrounds. A potpourri of violence, mystery, and a strangely loveable cast, Dorohedoro proved itself as one of this season’s strongest offerings, despite its task of adapting an unadaptable story.
It’s hard to deny, this was a pretty good season for anime. From my personal favorites of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! and Dorohedoro to returning series like Haikyuu and My Hero Academia. Standing out amidst this crowd of new and returning anime was going to be difficult. With an acclaimed Manga at your back and a decent amount of fanfair though, you would think a series might have a chance. Sadly, that is not the case for Runway de Waratte. Even going so far as to say the odds were stacked against it from the start doesn’t really explain the trainwreck that is series. So what happened? Was it that this was only Studio Ezo’la’s third production? It probably isn’t Director Nobuyoshi Nagayama’s inexperience, this isn’t his first rodeo. Or does it go deeper, all the way to the source material? Let’s dive in and find out, shall we?
And fair warning, this will contain minor spoilers for Runway de Waratte!
It’s not often an adaptation suits a Director as perfectly as Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken suits Masaki Yuasa. Of course you have works like Gen Urobuchi’s Puella Magi Madoka Magica or Satoshi Kon’s Paranoia Agent. Yet those works were originals, dreamed and created from the ground up by the directors for the anime. Yet here we have someone else’s manga, their work, fitting together perfectly with a renowned industry veteran. Everything from the narrative to the visual aesthetic of the series seem tailor made for him. The highly detailed backgrounds and setting to the rough character designs. The subject material and focus on animation itself to Yuasa’s own life experience in the industry. It’s an aligning of the stars that oh so rarely happens, yet when it does we get something amazing. And that’s what we got this season with Eizouken. Let’s dive in.
Back in October of last year, I wondered whether Chihayafuru’s foundation of unceasing karuta matchups and unrequited love would have lost its luster by the third season’s end. Now that we’ve reached that point, I have to say that the series approached that limit several times over these last 24 episodes. When it first reappeared on screen after a six year hiatus, I was taken aback by its consistency, but small issues cropped up as the story ran its course (more on those in a bit). These problems were cause for reflection – was the 2019 incarnation of this show really that different, or had my expectations changed? After some thought, I arrived at an answer: the show was, in fact, different, but it still met my primary expectation. Despite some stumbles in its third season, Chihayafuru’s continued success aligns with my core belief about narrative fiction: character is king.
During my previous review of Neon Genesis Evangelion, I criticised it for a lot of things. The tanked production value as the series ran on and Studio Gainax ran out of funding/time. Anno’s often insane direction or story, which sometimes made sense and sometimes didn’t. Most of all though, I criticised it for it’s ending, which effectively left Evangelion as a slightly disappointing unfinished product. But what would happen if Gainax… didn’t run out of time? If Anno had another chance after the original divisive ending? What if they just made two, completely new 40 minute episodes to replace it? Well ladies and gentleman, that’s how you get End of Evangelion. Is this finale to the fabled series a roar, to replace its previous whimper? Does it make any more sense than the TV finale? Will Shinji get in the damn robot? Let’s dive in and find out.
And one last thing! There will be spoilers so we can talk about the work in its entirety, both the TV series and End of Evangelion, no vagueness here. You have been warned.
It’s not often that I get to review seminal works in a medium. I read and watch them often. Vagabond, Monster and Berserk are some of my favorite manga. Meanwhile Fullmetal Alchemist is perhaps the epitome of Shounen. But not once have I thought I could, and should, transcribe my thoughts about them into a single review. To boil down my feelings on them to a scant 4,000 or so words and a final, numerical score. Yet here I am having to do the same for a work arguably more important than any of the ones I mentioned previously. A work so universally known in the community that its like Japan’s Star Wars. I am of course talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion (Director’s Cut), directed by Hideaki Anno and made by the now fallen from grace Studio Gainax. With that, there is no point to dawdling anymore. Let’s dive in.
And one last thing! An End of Evangelion review will soon follow this. I am aware it completes the story, but this review is for the TV anime and that alone. I have not watched it yet. The movie will cover everything and how it completes the series as a whole. Also there will be spoilers so we can talk about the work in its entirety, minimal vagueness here. You have been warned.
The excuses for my tardiness from my other post are that I’ve been away travelling and a bit sick – but no matter, because Fire Force is getting a SUPER post! What’s a super post?! It’s both episodes 23 and 24 (which Fire Force unsportingly released at once over Christmas) AND the overall series review. Can one single post handle such heat? We’ll find out!
Continue reading “Fire Force – SUPER Post (23/24 and Season Review)”