Star Crossed Anime

Pet

Short Synopsis: A crime boss uses perception-altering psychic henchmen to erase evidence of his wrongdoing.

Amun’s review:

First of all, I think my colleague below may have missed that the punk in the car from the second half is the boy staring at the television (at least, I think – they both had head scars. Also the smoking guy was at the hospital, and I’m assuming the long haired fellow is the boss). Otherwise, I pretty much agree – this was a bit fast and loose for a first episode. So far, I’m reminded of a terrible show I dropped called Banana Fish, so I’m not feeling very confident in the long run. Who knows, maybe it’s just enough of a mess that it all works out in the end. Probably not.

Potential: 10%

Wooper’s review:

I imagine that a lot of initial reactions to Pet will take issue with its narrative presentation, since it opens with a five-minute sequence that’s not clearly related to what follows. Even the main story takes its sweet time getting to the point, centering on the victim of the main characters’ mental manipulations, rather than the manipulators themselves. Those were both problems for me as well, but my biggest gripe with this show is that it’s boring to look at. Skip to any frame in this episode and watch five sequential cuts, and you’re likely to see five sterile-looking backgrounds, with people and objects arranged unimaginatively on top. The only shot I liked was the airborne cigarette scene, not just because it was the best bit of animation on display, but because there’s purpose to its composition. The water reflects sunlight, encroaching on the left side of the frame; the guard rail in the background is curved, suggesting a diversion from the norm; birds in the background move in slow motion, highlighting Katsuragi’s control of his target’s senses. Nearly every other scene in the episode paled in comparison to this one. The whole show suffers for its poor layout design, leaving me with no faith that it will make good visual use of its unique concept.

Potential: 25%

 

Murenase! Seton Gakuen

Short Synopsis: An animal-hating high school boy enrolls at a high school full of animals.

Wooper’s review:

Murenase Seton Gakuen is a silly, otaku-baiting comedy with its heart in the right place. Most of the male characters have purely animal appearances, while most of the girls are humanoid with furry ears and tails – the demographic for these designs couldn’t be clearer. There’s a scene where a zebra girl has her panties exposed (and they’re not black and white striped for some reason). When anime is so deliberately slanted towards a subset of its viewership, it often feels stupid, or worse, insulting, but this one largely avoids that problem. There’s some good humor here (the donkeys being MTG-playing nerds was my favorite gag), but the show’s saving grace is its emotional core. Yes, really. Wolf girl Ranka’s search for acceptance in someone’s “pack” will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever felt isolated or ostracized. The male lead Jin thinks mostly of his own convenience, but ultimately decides to join her pack as thanks for her courage in standing up to a group of bears. Even the moment where she licks his face in happiness is rooted in their character dynamic, despite being so strange on the surface. I doubt Murenase will be one of the season’s best shows, but it’s certainly better than any key visual or PV would suggest.

Potential: 40%

Lenlo’s review:

Christ on a cracker, THIS was not my show. You’d think after Beastars or Africa no Salaryman last season I would be more open to this kind of stuff, but nope. Murenase is just Kemono Friends as an ecchi comedy series. Yes, there is some comedy that I found amusing when it really incorporated animal facts and such. It was unexpectedly smart about that. But the rest of it was your classic slapstick/ecchi stuff, which I tend to ignore because I don’t like it. But then Murenase tries to have some sort of character drama, and it just clashes for me. Like some kind of whiplash, I just didn’t like it. It felt out of place to me, compared to the two shows I mentioned earlier, both of which did either drama or comedy with animals far better. So, the long and short of it is, if you have seen and enjoyed ecchi comedies before, you will probably like Murenase. If you are like me and can’t be bothered to waste your time on 99% of them, then Murenase won’t be changing that now.

Potential: 5%

Amun’s review:
I will show up and write a blurb that I didn’t sign up for just to disagree with Lenlo on this one! Yes, this was a high school setting, yes we just saw a much MUCH better version of this conflict in Beastars. But come on now, if this didn’t tug on your heartstrings a little, go watch Usagi Drop or something for therapy (if you haven’t seen it, by the way, seriously, go watch it). I’m watching and rooting for this show because of HEART. This show may not have the most talent (obviously) – my brain says no, but my heart, my heart says yes. I’m hoping for something like Kaguya-sama: Love is War – on paper quite flat, but where all the elements pull together and become greater than the sum of their parts. Like a pack, one could say!

Potential: 75%

 

Majutsushi Orphen Hagure Tabi

Short Synopsis: An outcast sorcerer bums about town before encountering a dragon from his past.

Mario’s review:

Orphen fails at the most important element: creating engaging characters. There is not a single memorable character, and the main character’s main mode is shouting like there’s no tomorrow. It speaks to the age of the source material, as well. The shouting match fits to early 00s anime like a glove, and the plot so far is too busy establishing the world that it forgets to tell it cohesively. For this first episode for example, the pacing is all over the place. There are many “random” moments, and we can’t feel the impact the girl turning into a dragon has on our main character since we don’t know anything about her, nor their relationship at all. The production is average, points given for the hand-drawn dragon, but apart from that it doesn’t have much to write home about. With the current trend of rebooting the old classic material, Orphen is sadly one of the least memorable ones.

Potential: 10%

Wooper’s review:

When it comes to rebooting classic anime properties, there are two schools of thought. One opts for modernization, changing the character designs, art style, setting, and even tweaking the story for the sake of current audiences (e.g. Parasyte, which was adapted from a manga but fits my criteria). The other recreates the original as best it can, gambling that there’s enough fondness out there for the first version to keep things the same. Orphen definitely falls into the second category, and is probably better for it. The 90s aesthetic gives the characters a cartoony expressiveness while allowing them to exist in a high fantasy series. The backgrounds are more detailed than your average TV show, though their painterly appearance is likely a digital trick. The soundtrack, especially, feels as though it was taken straight from the 1998 version. I’ve never seen it, but I doubt the disco-adjacent track that played in the pub would be composed from scratch for a 2020 anime series. There’s not much to say about the story at this point – here there be mages, dragons, swords, street urchins, etc. It feels familiar, even without having watched the original. As a matter of fact, I’d recommend watching the 90s version instead of this one – at least you’ll get some cel animation out of the experience that way.

Potential: 40%

Magia Record: Madoka Magica Gaiden

Short Synopsis: Two magical girls travel to a city that appears in their dreams, promising that they can be saved.

Wooper’s review:

I’m a fan of the original Madoka series, but without Shinbo, Urobuchi, or Kajiura aboard the creative team here, I was ready for disappointment. Thankfully, though, this was a pretty good episode! It certainly doesn’t ease you into things the way 2011 Madoka did – the plot is more upfront with its intentions thanks to the whole “In Kamihama City, magical girls can be saved” tag line. That’s not a dealbreaker for me, as Magia Record’s beautiful backdrops and eerie atmosphere combine to offset its accelerated start. That things are not quite right is obvious, since all traces of magical girl Iroha’s sister have been wiped from existence, and there’s a second Kyubey at work that only she can sense. The show does more than obsess over those facts, however – it plasters the facades of buildings with the wishes of magical girls, and bathes key scenes in a haunting twilight gold to great effect. Gekidan Inu Curry (the art duo who created the labyrinths from the original series) definitely brought their A-game as full series directors here. They’re also listed as the project’s head writers, so their compositional chops will be tested in the coming months. After this premiere, though, I’m throwing caution to the wind and approaching Magia Record with full-blown optimism.

Potential: 80%

Lenlo’s review:

Similarly to Wooper, I am also a fan of the original Madoka Magica series, and was worried about Urobuchi and co’s absence. And while my fears have not completely disappeared, I did enjoy the opening episode of Magia Record. I think the directors did a great job of keeping the atmosphere and general feel of the original series. The mixed-media segments as well were splendidly done, really brought me back and are still like nothing else you really see in anime. Really, Wooper pretty much hit the nail on the head above. Personally, my only concern is whether or not Magia Record can manage to not become what Madoka Magica originally satirized. Whether or not it can manage to avoid becoming a basic monster of the week story of magical girl show, with a slightly darker tint. So long as it avoids that pitfall, I have no reason to think this won’t be a good series.

Potential: 80%

 

Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!

Short Synopsis: Three high school girls living in a densely organized seaside town decide to make an anime together.

Wooper’s review:

I think it’s safe to say that Eizouken’s release marks the most spartan phase of Yuasa’s anime career. Here there is no trace of Mind Game’s messiness, Tatami Galaxy’s multimedia experimentation, or Devilman Crybaby’s elastic psychosis. There are chase scenes and wonderfully lived-in backgrounds – both staples of his previous work – but the simplicity of the character designs isn’t pushed to its limits. That doesn’t mean they’re boring; on the contrary, their Dragon Pilot-inspired features and varying heights make Eizouken’s unlikely leading trio fun to root for. The stakes are very low, however, as the story hasn’t presented us with much more than their desire to make anime. There’s a direct Future Boy Conan reference, a handful of big animator namedrops, and some very nerdy dialogue about how anime uses plausible movement as a basis for impossible movement – but not much in the way of story. We’ll get there in time, I suppose, and until then we can busy ourselves by studying the Where’s Waldo-esque backgrounds and loosely colored fantasy sequences where the characters’ concept designs come to life. I’ll be watching this one going forward, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed by its ordinary nature.

Potential: 70%

Mario’s review:

Anyone who loves and is inspired by Future Boy Conan gets a thumb of approval from me.

Watching this first episode I can totally see why Yuusa would want to adapt it. The looseness of the characters’ designs fits his fluid animation well, and when it comes to the anime-filled imagination he can stretch the muscle to go wild. What I found the most noticeable is his restraint. Not experimental in any nature, no wild visuals or colorful palette; he instead tones down to fit the material, and for me this is a big plus. The show so far has two main parts: the real world where three girls with different personalities and skills join up to make their own anime (I found the whole rich girl runaway from her bodyguards a bit over the top but… well), and their anime “production” that makes full use of the main girl’s concept art – something I really want to see more of. Not a totally knockout premiere, but it has many bright parts that I am happy to follow it along the way.

Potential: 75%

 

ID: Invaded

Short Synopsis: A self-proclaimed Master Detective goes into the subconscious of a serial killer in order to solve the case.

Mario’s review:

ID:Invaded is a hot mess. Well, parts of it are by design, but when you have an episode (I only watched the first one) of a dreamstate of floating objects, a real life crime procedural and all the too-important-and-not-funny-at-all talks between a dozen characters, it’s a bit too much. The very concept is intriguing – a mixture of 18if and Psycho-Pass – that can push the story into interesting territories. While it does what it could to visualize the fragmented dream world, there are some drawbacks to that. First, on the technical level the CG can be bland and noticeable at times. The CG of the loose body parts are fine, but the character models suffer badly. Second, for the amount of time that we are inside the killer’s mind, we sadly don’t know much about him, or any character at all. The narrative functions as establishing the rules and its worldbuilding more than it cares enough to build any believable or relatable character. Still, it’s interesting enough for me to give this show another try.

Potential: 40%

Amun’s review:

I came into this show (a double feature at that) with the lowest expectations. I hated the character designs in the preview and we just came off some terribly disappointing detective shows in Sherlock and Psycho Pass (not Season 1). But ID: Invaded caught me by surprise: this wasn’t the cleanest pair of episodes by any means, but I’m hooked for at least a few more. The CG doesn’t annoy me as much as I thought, and the character designs are dulled after a while like olfactory fatigue. What shines here is the general world concept (more Minority Report than Psycho Pass in my opinion), and I surprisingly liked the characters, despite their looks and the overall brief interactions. Even the villain had more depth than expected for a guy who drilled a hole in his own head – maybe it’s just a talented VA? Anyways, I’m around for a few more – just don’t hoodwink me like Sherlock did.

Potential: 65%

Somali to Mori no Kamisama

Short Synopsis: A self-described emotionless golem cares for a human child after discovering him alone in a forest.

Amun’s review:

Somali to Mori no Kamisama started off…interestingly. In a world where humans have been vanquished, a forest golem is wandering about with a child hellbent on getting eaten or generally dying. Actually, if you’ve ever had a child of your own, that seems about right. Also, this show has a jackalope – for that reason alone I might watch it. In all seriousness, this looks a bit more like Ancient Magus Bride meets Kino’s Journey than my initial thought of Natsume’s Book of Friends. I like the golem (no emotions but definitely street smart) and hate the kid. I think this show lives or dies on the dynamic between the two (moreso even than Kino and Hermes), but looks okay so far – and I love the supporting characters and world/scenery. I’m a little worried the ceiling is low and we might fizz out like Ancient Magus Bride did in the second half. Still seems worth at least a few episodes though.

Potential: 75%

Wooper’s review:

Why, Kenji Yasuda? Why would you pollute your show’s beautiful backgrounds with those ugly sunbeams? The world of Somali to Mori no Kamisama looks as though it was plucked straight from a book of fairy tales, and it boasts lots of creative creature designs to match. But I can’t get over those gaudy light rays – they’re present in every single exterior shot, so it’s not as though they’re easy to overlook. Oh well, there’s more to anime than composition and photography. Characters, for example, are quite important, and Somali’s are decent. The kid’s nonstop enthusiasm is cloying, but I’m a softie when it comes to that sort of thing, and so is the golem (despite his protests to the contrary). The golem’s design is awesome, from his laced mask to the all-seeing eye that rests beneath it. The orchestral score is also quite nice, bearing some eastern influence that makes Somali’s fantasy world feel distinct. This episode wasn’t a slam dunk by any means, but it was good enough that I’m likely to try another one.

Potential: 60%

 

Koisuru Asteroid

Short Synopsis: When a high school’s geology and astronomy clubs are combined, their members must learn to work together.

Mario’s review:

Koisuru Asteroid is your average CGDCT anime, nothing more, nothing less. Like a typical offering of the genre, we have a club with a varied set of characters, although the main focus is on the two new members who met before in their childhood. Those two share a solid chemistry, and the fact that this club is a joint club between astronomy and geology is interesting. At least so far the cast doesn’t overplay the cuteness (and silliness), and in addition the show handles the girls’ expression/reaction quite well (the hamburger remark, for example). While there isn’t much else from the show that could raise the bar into the exceptional level, if you’re into CGDCT anime then Koisuru Asteroid will do the job. Don’t expect it to cross over, though.

Potential: 20%

Wooper’s review:

Koisuru Asteroid borrows from a lot of other anime and surpasses none of them. The characters and their designs remind me of previous Doga Kobo series (especially New Game), so that’s nothing new. There are depth of field shots that go for the filmic look of Naoko Yamada’s work, but they don’t appear frequently enough to give the show that sort of visual identity. The music is reminiscent of Hourou Musuko’s piano-based soundtrack, which isn’t a bad thing by any means, but neither does it help the show stand out. The one thing I can wholeheartedly praise are the handful of scenes where the characters look up at the stars. The night skies in this show are very pretty, and the way the girls glow in the dark creates an appealing (if not necessarily realistic) contrast. As for their personalities and relationships, though, they could hardly keep my attention throughout the episode. I’m not opposed to cute girl shows on principle, but they have to exceed expectations for me to continue with them, and Koisuru Asteroid didn’t manage that.

Potential: 30%

 

Darwin’s Game

Short Synopsis: Cell phone game leads to death duels and…encounters of fate?

Lenlo’s review:

My first thought when watching Darwin’s Game was that it was a mediocre Mirai Nikki. Which considering my opinion of Mirai is a bit of an accomplishment. Really, I don’t know why this needed to be a double feature. It’s just two episodes smashed together, with clear endings and plots for each. Darwin’s Game doesn’t do anything interesting, or slow build the tension with the extra time at all. Like it could have spent the whole feature building up the tension with Banda. As far as production it was… alright, if you consider that it was basically made by 6 animators. Take that away and it’s pretty poor, but credit where it’s due for those poor folks who were understaffed for this. Meanwhile all the character designs all look very… squishy to me, very soft. As far as the show itself goes, eh. It seems like a pretty run of the mill death game. If you liked Mirai Nikki you might like this, if you didn’t like Mirai Nikki like myself, then this isn’t going to be for you.

Potential: 5%

Amun’s review:

Hey this wasn’t that bad! For the rumored lack of animators (apparently only 6), the double length feature, and a Gacha game, Darwin’s Game didn’t look promising. And okay, it wasn’t the most spectacular first episode – but for that few animators, it was great. You could tell there were some clever shortcuts (killing the lights to remove the need for backgrounds and a lot of closeups), but those were minor complaints. I will say, Blonde Yuno-lite had a few odd motions, and I think as the show goes on, those CG assists will show through more. Sadly, the plot looks pretty bland. Instead of capturing the magic of Mirai Nikki, this looks a bit more like One True Tatsuya plays a cellphone game. Here’s the plot: innately talented rookie assembles super team to defeat low rent baddies who cut off people’s fingers – all while discovering glimpses of the world’s secrets. I’m afraid there’s nothing here we haven’t seen before, but if you’re looking for low-brow, low-budget action, I guess this is for you?

Potential: 10%