Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These – 4[The Unbeatable Magician]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These

With the previous episode we got the backstory of Reinhard and with episode and the next we are getting the backstory of Yang. I know it’s likely a rather typical response to the “Who is my favorite character from LOGH?” but I really do love Yang. This episode actually did a better job of introducing him than the previous series did as before his past was relegated to a prequel series made afterwards. The pacing was a bit fast but otherwise this does a great job of setting up Yangs character. Yang is a man who wants to study history but finds himself more often than not forced to make it. Almost a polar opposite of Reinhard, he isn’t an overachiever and is lazy to a fault while only harboring the ambition to use the military as a means to obtain a paycheck so he can study history. Yet because he’s such a history buff he has a gift for tactical strategy which unfortunately pushes him up the ranks and some serious bad luck. For example she was positioned in the military at El Facil in this episode and found himself in lead command after the army abandoned the people. Though his wit he managed to use the escaping army as a decoy and evacuated the population. Now this event was still a big loss for the Free Planets Alliance but to divert attention away from that they focused public attention on Yangs evacuation and thus he was propelled to the status of the Hero of El Facil.

Honestly I love his demeanor of calm easy going mood even during the most dire of situations while still being rather socially awkward. This episode mainly set up his love for history and his friendship with Jessaia and Jean. I particularly liked how Yang tended to support Jean in pursuing Jessica romantically while signifying that he too may harbor romantic feelings for her. If there was certainly something I adored from the OVA series it was Yangs speeches on history and in this episode his opinion(Or rather his dad’s opinion) on Rudolf is oddly chilling. “People supported him…because they wanted their lives to be easy”, “Rather than solving their problems on their own, they were waiting for some superhero or saint to show up and take it all on single handedly. Rudolf took advantage of that”…my friends do these words seem oddly relevant? For these are lines taken word from word from a novel written in the 1980’s. Thus much like Yangs opinion on strategy, If one knows the past then it makes you better at predicting the future.

Now I have heard complaints that the strategy in this series is somewhat dependent on rather obvious tactics made brilliant by the incompetence of the opponent and I do see where that is coming from. It was rather odd that the best student in the school had the basic strategy of fighting Yang head on without considering to defend his supply lines. However while I admit the tactics of this show are a bit basic, I have two points which I feel negates that somewhat. One is that this series isn’t really about the space battles themselves but rather the politics around them so high level strategy isn’t so much needed when it’s the outcome of the battle on the political landscape which matters to the overall plot. The second point is that there is some claim that the author based these battles on real historical battles which I too suspected so. As I stated previously, stupid people in high positions is quite the common theme within history, you would be rather shocked how often it comes up. So I find the idea of Yang and Reinhard facing incompetent commanders to be at least fairly feasible. As a final note, the last episode showed us that the Galactic Empire has is dark sides to it’s society and this episode does give a glimpse that the Free Planets Alliance has its fair share of darkness too. While less constrictive that the Empire and closer to our current society, there is mention of a war orphans provision which basically amounts to soldiers being able to raise orphans and have a loan lent out by the Government. Then when the kid turns 15 they can veto the payback of the loan by joining the military. Essentially grooming war orphans into future soldiers. A democracy the Free Planets Alliance may be, but it is one that makes becoming a soldier the most attractive and in some cases, only option.

Steins;Gate 0 – 3 [Protocol of the Two-sided Gospel -X-day Protocol-]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Steins;Gate 0

Welcome to another episode of Steins;Gate 0. This week we have suffering Okabe, suffering Mayushii and, oh yeah, suffering viewer. It’s a good week to be a Steins;Gate fan. Lets jump in!

This episode hit me about as hard as it hit Okabe, for one simple reason. I fell for the exact same trap he did. Throughout the entire episode Okabe is talking with Amadeus, more than any other cast member. He speaks to her before/after class, during lunch, before dates, while just walking around town. Both Okabe and we, the viewer, get more and more comfortable with Amadeus and we watch him get more and more animated. It gets to the point where he leaves a Christmas party just to talk to her, hes like an addict and shes his drug. And I loved it. Steins;Gate 0 used the entire episode to build up to one simple reminder: Kurisu is dead and shes not coming back. S;G 0 is determined to break us down before getting to time travel shenanigans and its working.

Continue reading “Steins;Gate 0 – 3 [Protocol of the Two-sided Gospel -X-day Protocol-]” →

Golden Kamuy – 03 [Kamuy Moshir]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Golden Kamuy

We have a sparser episode compared to the one last week, but believe me it’s still a dense episode with many seeds being planted and this week is essentially your Ainu 101 episode. The mangaka does a thoroughly research over Ainu culture, and he’s more than happy to show off here. But apart from the Ainu cooking porn in which I still feel out of place, Golden Kamuy uses the Ainu traditions and their culture to inform us about who Asirpa is and where her perspective comes from. Take the matter of rising a cub for example, Anui’s belief is to raise them and send them back to their kamuy (Anui’s god) life through sacrifice. It’s a fascinating view to how they approach life and death and I do really respect their belief. Asirpa belief grows beyond that view, the way she approaches it more realistically and she says it best herself “Our beliefs contain our way of life”. It could apply to any culture, to any individual belief out there. She really is mature and wise beyond her age.

Plot-wise, the duo gets chased down by more members of 7th Hokkaido unit, this time they all meet their miserable end, but not without a good fight. There of the soldiers are in hot pursuit for Sugimoto, and he escapes them just by a hair only because of Asirpa’s wisdom (although I like his quick resolve I have to say the “Bears won’t attack people who enter their hole” setup was hastily set up here). And the three still manage to take down the bear before dying themselves, just to show us the fighting spirits of those men (one of the men even had his face ripped off. Badass). Another soldier pursuits Asirpa and nearly kills her when he realized that she’s involved, but soon taken by the white wolf, Retar. If there is one central moral of this Golden Kamuy story, it is you need to kill your opponent properly because otherwise they’ll come back to haunt you. Asirpa leaves that poor soldier Tanigaki alive, and he vows to kill the wolf at all cost. I’m not keen on this development at all. It means trouble.

Speaking of Sugimoto and Asirpa’s real troubles, I’m worried for Asirpa’s kotan right now as the two seems to forget that they are being followed by a bunch of ruthless and skilful teams. The enemies’ character designs have now gotten to Rurouni Kenshin’s level of ridiculousness, which personally I’m not fond of, but well I can’t disagree that both teams following our duo are badass and will prove to be real threats. On the one hand, we have the army unit, lead by a “missing-the-front-of-his skull” Tsurumi, so you know he’s mad as hell, and on the other we have Hijikata himself, who figures out the way to take the tattoo NOT by skinning them off, so naturally he just kills for the fun of it (that’s half-true though). The next step should be for those two hot pursuers to kill off each other, right?

Hisone to Masotan – 02 [I’ll Name the Dragon Masotan]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hisone to Masotan

It’s already 2 episodes in and I still have absolute no idea what HisoMaso’s overarching theme is going to be, which might no be a bad thing given I enjoy the show for what it is so far. HisoMaso’s main concept is quite silly when you think about it. A dragon camouflages as a military aircraft in which the person pilots it inside its organs. Yuck. And you see how he throws Hisone up? The show could easily fall apart if they take that concept seriously, yet so far they manage to get away with it. Even heaps of scenes in this episode could be viewed as workplace sexual harassment with all the touching, sexual innuendo (not to the level of FranXX but still,) and fetish-fuel suits, yet somehow they still work? Why then? I have no clue, but if I have to guess, it’s because of the show’s subtle parodical tone. Main characters, for example, have betrayed their common archetype tropes: Hisone is first seen as a character who have no qualms to be pushed around, turns out she’s the blabbermouth who says all negative things without thinking. Likewise, with Nao appears as your typical grumpy but kind-hearted partner, but this episode goes a long way to establish that she’s mean to Hisone through and through. Or even with the yoghurt lady who supposed to be a source of wisdom, turns out she just gives Hisone some random food (or is it not) and it’s Hisone who tries to make the meaning out of it.

Then again, I figure our best approach to HisoMaso should be don’t delve too deep into it and just enjoy the simple yet absolutely outstanding visual wash over you with some mild emotional core and some tweaks at the common tropes. And on that front HisoMaso more than shine through. This episode is all about Nao the delinquent who unsuccessfully bullying our main girl, but successfully steals a scooter and gets herself swallowed by the dragon (yay!). Her arc involves how Nao feels insecure with her position after Hisone becomes a main pilot. Ignored by her idol and had her rival standing up for her for all the wrong reasons, it comes to the breaking point where she need to revenge. Vengeance is the best cold dish there is. But why Nao, why do you have to go all the way to cook a meal for your rival? But further down the line and you realize that what Nao afraid the most is not living up to her mother. Kakiyasu the Captain does a crappy job to remind that her every single goddamn time. There’s a subtle hint that Kakiyasu used to be Nao’s mother junior, hence she understands what Nao is going through right now. But what she doesn’t understand is Nao the person, as the girl lashes out and runaways. Okay, Nao is pretty much a meanie but her character ticks with me through her little adorable details: her sketchbook with all the drawings are kawaii (with a commentary to boost), reading Princess Tutu / Black Swan manga, the way when she’s hurt she calls out for her Mama (big girl always calls out for Mama)

Judging from the OP and ED, there going to be three more additions that it makes me wonder if there is going to be another dragon appear. As I said earlier I absolutely have no clue whether HisoMaso will be more serious later on. I hope it’s not as for the moment I enjoy the chemistry between the titular characters, the bright and impressive visuals and I have a fondness for these quirky characters with no nose. The same can be said for its catchy French ED (I love French Pop, their sounds always remind me of bright summertime. German always sounds to angry for me – fitting for Metal music). One thing for sure is that whichever direction HisoMaso going to head, I am gonna be happily on board.

Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory – 02[Damage Control]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory

A long awaited return of an old favorite is quite enough to make me smile but this episode makes it clear that this will not be the same happy go lucky FMP of the past. The light hearted shenanigans of the old series are pretty much gone now with Kaname coming to grips with several things that she has been ignoring to this point. That her status as whispered puts everyone around her in danger, that her normal life has officially ended and that the boy that she smacked on the head with a paper fan is in fact a killer. This new direction could be a turn off for some but I personally welcome it, even though it wasn’t clearly planned to be as such, it’s like FMP matured with the audience that watched it so long ago thus it decided to push for a more mature tone. Seeing Kaname get freaked out over Sousuke ignoring injured pedestrians and even smiling over enemy soldiers getting mowed down with gunfire felt like something a long time coming. Because Sousuke’s military nature was always played for laughs and she got desensitized to it but now that she’s right in the thick of it she truly understands that for all his eccentricity, Sousuke truly has killed a lot of people, some of which being innocent people.

Naturally I will have to bring up that rather awkward chase scene. Xebec so far has been doing a pretty good job, not KyoAni level but they do at least seem to be aiming for that level of quality. Naturally compromises have to be made like the CGI mecha but I personally don’t mind that as the mecha have looked pretty good for the most part. I understand that this series is likely a demanding one as far as action goes and this will be action heavy season yet. But that chase scene was just…terrible looking. Like on the level of PS2 gameplay. The cars felt floaty and the background was full CGI that didn’t feel convincing in the slightest. It’s my hope they fix this for the Blu-Ray release because the scene itself was fine, great even. But it just didn’t look right as all, nearly on the level of the CGI Bears of Golden Kamuy.

Tessa also has her moments here as the series goes to lengths to show us that she is the leader of Mythril for a reason. I will say the means of doing so was rather contrived, namely through a random soldier suddenly proposing mutiny against her and Tessa conventently showing up to put him in his place. Indeed it was a forced circumstance but nonetheless it achieved the goal of making Tessa look good. Basically with her declaring that she would kill any traitor without hesitation personally and reminding them that this isn’t some Tessa fan club but a military organisation. You can argue her methods are extreme and the threat was an empty one at best but it still is a badass moment for Tessa. She even reenacted the “Say my name” scene from Breaking Bad…about eight years before Breaking Bad did it. Huh…wonder if this is were they got the idea…likely not. So shit has hit the fan for Mythril and now it looks like even Sousukes classmates may come to know the truth about him. With the fun and games behind us, where will FMP go?

Darling in the Franxx – 15[Jian]

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

Alright Franxx, you are forgiven for episode 14 and thank god this whole mess was sorted out relatively fast. I was truly prepared for this to drag on for several episodes but looks like they had the sense to cut it short and give the audience what it wants. So we get an animation extravaganza with a grand battle against what looks to be Klax headquarters. So it’s actually understandable why the previous episode felt a bit forced, they needed to split these two so that they could get the real fireworks ready for a full reunion and confession. Honestly I don’t think that aspect was handled well as the breakup just made everyone look bad with how sudden it was. The resolution does make for a bombastic spectacle but the means to get to it was clunky.

Goro wins the best character of the episode award for seeing Ichigo once again be ready to block HIro from getting to Zero Two and making the best call for the situation. So much so that I wonder just why Ichigo is squad leader when Goro is clearly more qualified for the position. When this episode was about to go down a long and annoying road Goro stepped in and decided to put a stop to it. And thanks to Hiro riding with Ichigo she was able to see that she pretty much didn’t have a hope in hell with him, finally allowing her to get over her crush and make the right call. Albeit with a little bit of a sore loser attitude. Thus does Hiro and Zero Two do what any couple should do regarding a misunderstanding like this and talk. Cue emotional confessions, crying, kissing and a metaphoral representation of what sounded like really good sex.

So as we can see the major character conflicts have been resolved, Ichigo has given up on Hiro(Or at least I hope she has by this point), the team have worked out their differences and Hiro and Zero Two are together again fully embracing their love for one another. By all accounts you would think this is where the series would end and yet we still got nine more episodes to go. So here’s my take, throughout the series Franxx has been teasing a dark turn of storytelling, several hints have been dropped to that effect for in this episode alone we have the higher ups suicide bombing both pilots and adults for their own agenda and the human like cocoon that dropped out of a Klax core.(Klax being humans is a rather predictable turn of events but hey it could lead to some good story development.) If there was any point where Darling in the Franxx would shift to a darker toned story then this would undoubtedly be it.

We got confirmation of a new threat but with Strelizia’s new upgrade in power I see this going either the way of Gurren Lagann whether the threat gets massively overpowered and needs the power of love to upgrade everyone to defeat it or we are going to go the road of Evangelion where in the challenges become more mental and the organisations cruelty and hidden agendas comes to light. As far as the adults are concerned, I previously stated that I don’t care and I still don’t. The thing that carries this show and keeps me coming back is the characters so my primary focus is just how much this change of tone is going to affect them. Considering episode 14 I fear they may botch it but making developments purposefully infruitating. Still I am interesting in just where this is going, sadly though we won’t get to see this next Saturday as likely to recover from the animation explosion that was this episode, no Franxx episode will air. Instead we got to wait an extra week for the next episode. I don’t mind leaving it at this for now but truly were is this going to go once things start up again?

Megalo Box – 3 [Gear Is Dead]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Action, Megalo Box

Another week, another good episode of Megalo Box. Its like dose of old school action. This week we get a subversion of the “upgrade” and some evidence of how bad life in the slums really is. Lets jump in!

So my first thought after finishing this episode was, wow there are some awesome camera shots in here. Cutting from a cross hanging in a car to Yuri resting on the ropes? Joe examining his cut in the rearview mirror? And how about Joe standing, with no gear, before Potemkin? Each of them convey so much beyond the basic information they needed to get across. They sell Yuri’s already massive power or the David vs Goliath feeling against Potemkin. The shot with the rearview mirror puts us in Joe’s shoes as we see him how he sees himself, not to mention it’s just interesting to look at. Its angles and direction like this that can make even the stillest or low-res anime interesting to watch. For more proof of that just go watch Monster. Another example of the effect of great direction. That’s not all Megalo Box gets right though.

Continue reading “Megalo Box – 3 [Gear Is Dead]” →

Hinamatsuri – 03 [Hobo Life 101]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hinamatsuri

Hinamatsuri week 3 plays like an extension to Anzu and Hitomi’s stories last week. It’s like two sides of a same coin where you can see these girls grow in a direction you don’t expect (NO innuendo here), albeit at the cost of the central chemistry between Nitta and Hina. Here’s the trick to why Hinamatsuri has such refreshing cast: establish a typical stock character, put them into situations that completely out of their comfort zone, and their real characteristic emerges. Hinmatsuri is interested in the way those characters behave and act in such situations, and the source of humor come from how they define their own characteristics. Take Anzu in this first half, the self-centred Anzu learns a long way about the value of work and the value of money by joining in the homeless community. It’s a neat idea the show explores here, since usually the way the normal Anzu type just couldn’t care less about all this, yet our homeless girl not only starts from the very bottom and adapts well, but finds true meaning behind it. Kudos to Yassan who provide a fatherly figure to our Anzu and shows her the way of how the homeless makes their own money. We see how she works to get the cash: collecting cans, looking for loose coins and walking for hours to receive just a few hundred yen. It doesn’t worth it, as it shouldn’t be, but this hard labour makes her realize how hard it is to make her own money, and how “wrong” she was for stealing foods.

She receives a cold shoulder from the homeless guys at first, who aren’t keen on taking young girl to their clan, but they all change their mind after her singing, which remind them of their grandkid. I especially like the song she sings, of course it makes sense for a person without food to sing a song about the hungry wolf goes munch, munch, munch right? And especially they are literally the lowest of the foodchain here (they’re the little pigs in the song). Her singing is just like mine, which to say horrible (thumbs up for the VA who nailed it on singing with wrong beats here). Being accepted to the homeless group also means she becomes one of them, and at that moment she grows attachment to them to the point that she would swallow her childish pride to accept the money for Nitta, since she knows that money can support the tribe greatly. All of her efforts come to naught, however, when Usako and the district people caught her and made her pay for the amount she stole. My favorite bit amongst this chase is when Usako won’t call it quit and spits when hearing the police; somehow all this fits her character (and somehow it rhymes). Ohh and Usako has a history with cops. I’m waiting for that episode right now. Getting caught is actually NOT a bad thing, since now Anzu pays off her debt and can have a fresh start as a homeless girl. This is a surprisingly touching tale about a girl who learns love and the value of effort in the damnedest place. Hinamatsuri continues to surprise me.

On the other side of coin, the second half is narrated by my girl Hitomi, who moonlight as a bartender at night. Despite her efforts not to work in the bar with hilarious mind games with Usako (damn, this girl learns fast), through many unforeseeable circumstances (including being blackmailed twice by Usako), she ends up working as a bartender, and needless to say, the customers, even Usako are fond of her bartending. The way her good-girl trait plays very well in contrast with everyone around her. The troubles come when her homeroom teacher comes to the bar, so the gags involve around the teacher’s suspicion of Hitomi, as well as challenge Hitomi to hit him with her best shots. Hit him with her best shots she did marvellously. There’s many play on words here: with Mishima- Million Dollar, Baka na? “Impossible” – Bartender. There’s also a wordplay in manga source only that has the vice president says Bartender – Tender bras. My favorite part is the elegant way Hitomi shaking her milkshake cocktail in a glorious animation by feel Studio. It’s certainly satisfying to see how Hitomi has changed since we meet her, but this section lacks the nuance the first half had done so well.

The last part focuses back to our main duo Nitta and Hina, although for me it’s the weakest part of the show so far. We have seen all this before, Hina tries to be a good girl (but I enjoyed her little nightmare here), ends up wrecking every single thing in the house. The most genius part for me is the way the show leaves Nitta’s reaction open-ended, because normal anime loves to show’s characters exaggerated reactions even stupidest jokes. Not here. We won’t know exactly but we have a pretty good idea on how Nitta will react. And sometimes by doing less, it matters so much more given now we have to fill the gap ourselves about what might happen to Hina afterwards.

Violet Evergarden (2018 Winter) Review – 76/100

by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by SuperMario, Violet Evergarden

Violet Evergarden’s existence has surely been a public one. Acclaimed before everyone lick a taste of it (it was awarded for grand prize in the fifth Kyoto Animation Award’s novel category in 2014 – read, KyoAni awards), it goes without saying that Violet Evergarden is one of the most anticipated show of the sparse Winter 2018 season. As with my first impression, I left the show feeling a bit torn about it. On one hand, the production is top notch and when the show hits right, it sweeps you right away. On the other hand, I don’t buy much of Violet’s central conflicts and the show has a tendency to go over-soapiness and try to explain too much, which I never fond of. To be fair, Violet Evergarden has never known for its subtlety, its intend is always to pull as many punch as possible. Violet Evergarden, therefore, is at its strongest when it uses Violet as an observer, to put her as a background for characters with their own struggles have to finds ways to overcome. When she stays in the spotlight, however, the amount of predictable development and cheesy moments always overwhelm the show’s own emotions.

Let’s begin our journey with the way KyoAni adapts these Light Novels into anime form. The Light Novels start with Violet as an already established Memory Doll, and makes it ambiguous as to whether Violet is a robot or a human. Throughout many encounters with clients should we learn more about the violent pass of Violet, and her super-soldier self. To put it another way the Light Novels uses her more as a reporter with set personality. In the anime version however, KyoAni decides to shift the focus to the whole character arc of Violet. Make her vulnerable at first, and then build her character gradually. I appreciate the intention (in fact about half of their episodes are original material. Impressive), since anime medium works different than written form so it’s always a wise move to modify the content, so it’d fit with the visual medium; BUT I’m not sure if these changes improve the narrative. The thing is, Violet as a central narrative is a boring lead and she’s utterly unrelatable. She doesn’t possess any personality traits and repetitive responses get pale really, really fast.

But to build Violet the character from ground zero also means that when she changes, the changes will be massive. Violet is suppose to be a robot, at least in terms of narrative sense. Everyone regards her as a killing machine, she sees herself as someone’s royal dog, the show visualizes her as a bleeding doll, and the novel purposely frames her as a robot, anything but a human. It’s also the show’s narrative that Violet needs to learn these emotions in order to truly become a full-fledged human. There are some neat ideas behind it, namely the way she realizes the bad deeds she has done in the past. When she doesn’t realize, it’s okay to live on, but when she does, the fact that she ends many people’s lives comes back to hurt her. Relying on someone else to live (in this case, Gilbert), is as sad and unbalanced as it might get, and her own arc has to do with her coming to terms with the fact that Gilbert is no longer there for her and raise independent on her own. It comes to episode 8 and 9 which feature one huge flashback to the day Gilbert died and Violet experiencing her grieving process. While I personally feel this flashback a huge waste of time given we don’t learn anything new, it feels like a complete arc for Violet. That is the reason why the real climax in the end doesn’t do much to me since we already see her arc done in previous episodes.

Violet Evergarden’s best parts are the standalone episodes where Violet doing her jobs – reciting or writing letters for their clients. At heart, these letters represent the desire to connect between people, they represent all those raw feelings that can’t be said out loud, and Violet is in middle of its own trying to translate those feelings into written words, and learn about emotions in the process. All these little stories, from a playwright making a new children-play, to the sick mother write future letters for her daughter, to write love letters from the heirs of two nations, each of them adds more layer to the concept of ghostwriting and her job of connecting the hearts of people together and most of them give a satisfying emotion to their story. The best episodes amongst them are episode 10 (sick mother and her daughter) and episode 7 (playwright).

The production by and large is impressive with detailed character designs (it’s one rare production where all the background characters are fully portraited with their own costumes and figures), consistent animation and striking background designs. Each story where Violet performs her jobs has different kind of settings, and Violet Evergarden really gives it their own on breathing life to those places. The lighting, however, doesn’t give the show a justice here. All interior scenes feel too dark, for one thing, and the way Violet Evergarden uses their focus lenses which make the centre of focus detailed and the rest blurred) hurts the show more than support it. It’s one of the case where I consider they over-playing with post-production. Such a shame since it feels like they don’t have enough confidence to their raw production.

As for characters, it pains me to say that the supporting cast doesn’t reach their full potential either. There are many anime original characters, and most of them have their own episodes to shine. But Hodgins and Cattleya are surprisingly underdeveloped despite appear almost in all episodes. Gilbert is just a vessel for Violet’s personal growth and the appearance of Dietfried in the end doesn’t leave much impact either. There is a hint of the aftermath of postwar era, which I somewhat enjoy but I don’t feel that it reaches its full potential. And all the drama is over-blown, which kind of bang me hard in the head.

All in all, Violet Evergarden is a roller coaster of emotions, in more ways than one. It either sweeps you away with its grandeur approach, or it doesn’t (like myself). The central development is a conventional and predictable one, and the show’s best moments are the ones where they move away from Violet as the central conflict. Despite my grumpy it’s still a solid made and worth watching at least one, if only for the beautiful CG-animated mechanical hands of Violet.

A Place Further than the Universe (Winter 2018) Review – 77/100

by SuperMario, posted in A Place Further than the Universe, Anime Reviews, Reviews by SuperMario

Cute girls doing cute things is a genre that been done to death at this point. Even within this Winter 2018 we had been overloaded with big eyes fluffy face girls doing a lot of different things of interest. It takes a standout concept or a deeper narrative to make one stand out from this crowded pack. Enters Universe, an original show from Madhouse that has both of these. The show’s concept, after all, is about a group of high school girls making their trip to Antarctica, also known as the place further than the universe. Universe isn’t without its issues, the pacing in particular takes the girls way too long until they reach the destination. But to its defense this show is always more about the journey than the destination. It’s about experience life to the fullest and make friends who share the same interest in the process. The “friendship” bits can be contrived at times, but even with me (who isn’t that enthusiastic about it) realizes that the drama in this series is done quite well, as it always gives a satisfying emotional response to the conflicts it creates.

If there is one thing that I’m sure this show will be remembered for years to come, it’s the concept. Touring oversea isn’t that difficult nowadays compare to say, 20, 30 years ago, but a trip to Antarctica? Really? High school girls you say? What’s there to see in that icy place? How the hell do they get in there? Money? Lots of questions bound to come up upon hearing this premise and I’m happy to say that Universe never glosses over those issues, but instead approach them with a thoroughly research. Every stage of the trip is planned carefully, they never make light comments about high-school girls going for such harsh trip and indeed, they point out many times how extreme this trip can be. The expedition ship and the Antarctica place are so detailed that it’s easy to see the staffs made the same trip for their own research. It’s a joy to watch and know more about this little unheard place, to the point sometimes I feel this show is an advertisement for Antarctica (well, I’m sold). Moreover, a show that gives a detailed treatment to Singapore is always a plus (and I love durian!!).

What Universe also sells us is the way they frame this trip as a self-discovery, as a way to embrace the youth to their heart’s content. Mari, the show’s protagonist, is the perfect character for this trip. She worries about how she steps out of her comfort zone, and this trip makes a life-changing event, not necessary in terms of the specialty of Antarctica, but more about maturity. It also helps that the girls’ goal to reach the South Pole is much more than just “follow your own dreams”. Shirase is a girl that had her Mother disappeared in that very place, and it’s one of her resolve to go there just to be closer to her Mom. There’s also Hina who takes high school off but wants to experience something before college and most importantly, there’s Yuzuki, an idol who gets caught up with this trip and just tag along because she wants to travel with her new friends. And those make this trip a bit richer because doesn’t matter their own intention is, it’s the experience that they share together is the most important factor.

The girls make up a great central cast for us to follow. All 4 of the girls have different personalities, they have their own goals and their own backstories, and they have their own voices. Shirase, for example, is a no-nonsense but extremely unstable girl, whereas Mari is cheerful and acts like the emotional force of the group. Hina, my favorite character, has a wise (and bullying) side of her and Yuzuki somehow feels much more relatable through the way she loathes her “star” identity. Moreover, they bounce off extremely well and it’s a blast just to see the four girls interacting with each other. But most important of all, each of them has their own arc to overcome, and while some it I felt were made for the sake of creating conflict (in other words, unnatural), they always have a satisfying ending that elevate the shortcomings of the conflicts.

While the main theme is about self-discovery, I was a bit surprised to find out most of the show’s episodic conflicts are about the notion of friendships. Mari’s drama with her best friend, Megumi, for example, cuts unexpectedly but it cuts deep, mind you. Or Yuzuki’s little drama about “When will we know if we are friends” or Hina’s past issues with her secondary school friends. As a whole, I find the concentration to friendships theme a bit overplayed. Granted, their friendships in a nutshell are interesting ones. They haven’t known each other for so long and apart from this trip, they have very different lives. Yet Universe argues that as long as they share something together – be it getting seasick, eating a thousand-year-old snow corn or enjoying a view of mystical Southern light– they will always have a special place in each other’s heart.

The character designs and the production in general are in the more conservative side, but taken as a whole it fulfils its jobs nicely. There is a large amount of insert songs – most of them pretty heart-warming- so the music of Universe is solid overall. The pacing remains its biggest issue, as it takes until the end of episode 9 for the crew to finally takes their feet onto Antarctica icy ground. They could do it much better if they cut a bit of a transit section (Singapore and Australia, as well as on a ship section – another 2 episodes). Ultimately, Universe is a journey itself. It remains a feel-good show with relatable message of enjoying youth to the fullest and the girls make the most of their time on-screen. Certainly amongst the top tier of its cute girls pack.