Some Quick First Impressions: Gundam Build Divers, 3D Kanojo Real Girl and Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Gundam Build Divers

Short Synopsis: Some kids buy some Gunpla figures to play with in a virtual reality game

Aidan’s review

Once upon a time there was a show called Gundam which was made with the intent to sell toys but the animators decided to make a serious story about war, hence kickstarting it’s legacy. Now in the future, a Gundam show takes that legacy and uses it to sell toys. We have gone full circle here people. Anyway as for the show itself it’s basically one big advertisement for Gunpla models that happens to have some rather well animated mecha battle scenes. Storywise though this is about a bunch of kids taking a virtual reality game way too damn seriously. No stakes and it looks like it’s just gonna be about this kid becoming the best Gunpla pilot, like no one ever was.

Potential: 0%

 

Mario’s review

Words can’t even describe how little I care about this Gunpla universe. This first episode plays like some promotional material for Gunpla, as a consequence there’s little to no identity regarding the show itself. Characters have little personality besides “Gundam models are A-mazing” and the only real story this show has so far involve the mysterious amnesiac girl that somehow I thought she was muted (despite have some talking lines now that I recall it), just to show how forgettable all those characters are. It’s a kiddie show so I’m not going to be harsh on it, but it still remains a forgettable kiddie show at best.

Potential: 0%

 

3D Kanojo Real Girl

Short Synopsis: An otaku boy falls for a girl after they clean a pool together.

Aidan’s review

Yeah, this really isn’t for me. The developments are just contrived and the romance is forced as best. Boy isn’t it romantic when the guy you ask out rejects you in front of the class and then proceeds to stalk you after school? We had several situations that broke suspension of disbelief completely for the sole purpose of making one of them look good in front of the other in order to sell that their relationship was “Real” Thing is that examining all there intereacts I don’t see these two having anything in common or a drop of chemistry. I can’t even imagine what these two would talk about when the relationship drama dies down. But of course it won’t die down because this is shoujo and here someone will always have something to get their knickers in a twist over. Some may get something out of this but honestly a better romance anime is coming.

Potential: 0%

 

Mario’s review

This is a story of a boy meets girl and through many trials and tests they come to like each other. Happy ending. Except that this show wanted to be a realistic portrayal of nerdy otaku who find love in real life and boy, “realistic” is never in its DNA. First, the boy is a pitiful mess, not because he’s a nerd with weird hobby, but because he holes up into his shell and blames others for making him feel that way. The show, in its defense, understands that but it overplays that insecurity too many times within this first episode. They make it worse by making side characters act like true asshole to bring up that point. A boy physically abuses Iroha at school because he thinks she’s a slut? An ex-classmate meets the main character after many years and her first reaction was: “You’re still gross!”. Or later the event at the bookstore when Iroha reacts to the shoplift accusation by… undressing herself. It’s a ham-fisted way of storytelling that I just feel every development is so contrived. The main leads at the end have some good bonding (hence the 10%) but even with the girl, I don’t find her character that much appealing so there’s little in this show that makes me want to watch more here.

Potential: 10%

 

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai

Short Synopsis: A teenage boy continually runs into a pretty foreign girl around town, and eventually brings her to his family’s coffee shop.

Wooper’s review

This is another romcom from the same studio and director that did Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun in 2014. While that show was more focused on the “com” part of the genre, though, Tada-kun will probably be heading deeper into “rom” territory – at least, that’s the route I’d take, since I don’t find it the least bit funny. The humor in this show mostly comes from its characters acting wacky, like the craaazy gaijin girl who’s constantly getting lost, or the flamboyant best friend who thinks he’s God’s gift to women. That would be fine, except that there’s nothing comical about the situations depicted in the show, which are just a series of coincidental meetups between the two leads. Think back to the premise of Nozaki-kun: a girl tries to confess her love for a boy (who is secretly a shoujo manga artist), but he mistakes her confession as an offer to work as his assistant. Even if you think that’s the dumbest idea on earth, there is at least a potential for comedy there. In Tada-kun, there’s nothing of the sort, unless you count the hints that Teresa is of royal descent. Even that idea would be more appropriate in a romance than a comedy, though, so let’s hope the show gets there eventually.

Potential: 30%

 

Mario’s review

An original anime from the team behind Nozaki-kun should tell us a bit on what to expect about this show. As it turns out, Tada-kun’s premiere has its fair shares of ups and downs. On the good side, the blonde lead girl – which might or might not be a princess of little unknown Europe country which is “Larsenburg” (my sub), and I really hope the show trolls us there – comes off as quirky charming (chief among them is her passion about a Japanese TV drama: Rainbow Shogun, which brings me many good laugh) and she sure brightens the screen with her presence here. She and the male lead also share some moderate chemistry and I can see the romance between them has some potential to grow. I also enjoy the visual timing of Tada-kun, in addition. My favorite visual gags from this show, for example, is how Terasa miraculously appears on the male lead’s camera multiple times. The titular male lead, on the opposite side of good, is rather bland and feel much like an self-insert type protagonist. It could benefit the show if they spend some times instead fleshing out him before he met Teresa. Moreover, I have a mixed feeling regarding the supporting cast. His male friend, Mitsuyoshi with his over the top antics was so off-putting that he could be a make-or-break point for me. The same can be said for that Nyanko Big cat (geez, he’s annoying) and the plot so far is generic and fairly routine (the leads happen to run into each other too many times, they happen to live close together, she happens to be a transfer student who study on the same class. NO). I will continue watching it as the parts I enjoyed, I did really enjoy, so I hope the show just tone down all the unnecessary and tonal-whiplash antics from certain supporting cast.

Potential: 50%

Fate/Extra Last Encore – 08-10[No Second Strike ― Dead End ― /Golden Theater of the Deranged ― Aestus Domus Aurea ― /Unlimited――― ― Unlimited/ Raise・Dead ―]

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

It hard to have an opinion on the last three episodes of Fate/Extra when the content has been quite similar to the previous episodes of the cour. For now the series has ended with the remaining episodes coming as a special later. Still unknown if that was the actual special broadcast that was originally considered a second cour. These three episodes mainly dealt with our protagonist getting through the fifth and sixth floors and yes, the fourth floor was rather shamelessly skipped over and only spoken about at the beginning of episode 8 as being “No big deal”. They essentially pulled a Katanagatari on it and to a degree I understand as the fourth master really was someone not really worth caring about. In fact depending on what route you took in the game the fourth master could be one of two different people, neither of which are particularly interesting. Only real thing of note was that one of the servants was actually Arcueid from Tsukihime which was rather neat.

Despite the different episode number the problems of the series remain the same. The fifth floor attempted to give some characterization to the protagonist and even featured female Hakuno for a brief time but ultimately Hakuno just remains a bland faceless void that you can’t really care about. Again the Scenario is interesting but the execution is lacking and it really does bug me about how that became a running theme. Really, looking at the story of Fate/Extra purely on paper it’s hard to imagine that it would be as lifeless as it is. Let us recap, the first floor had a city set up to harber masters that gave up on the war which culminated in the entire city getting flooded and Nero fighting a pirate ship on top of the ruined city. The second floor featured a forest with a sniper whose been killing people for a thousand years with a servant who can turn invisible. The third featured a cyber ghost girl in a weird wonderland who has been twisted into a monstrous abomination while waiting for the return of a friend. The fifth featured a master who was also a dead face, causing the protagonist to question his very existence and find new meaning to his mission all while finished with a battle on top of skyscrapers between master and master with servant vs servant. The ice landscape sixth floor had two masters who fought each other to a tie and ended up becoming the floor itself spawning hundreds of soldiers to fight each other for a thousand years only to finally gain enough sanity to guide Hakuno to the sixth floor just so he can end the long standing tie. Looking at all this , it all sounds very interesting and even great so why is it that I only remember feeling apathetic while watching previous episodes? By all accounts this should be engaging, it should have me anticipating the next episode with excited glee. Yet, much like the personality of Hakuno, I just feel it’s been a lifeless void.

I believe i have more or less covered why but seeing as this is the last episode for a while I might as well do a roundup. I can point three things that are messing up this story. One is that this story is almost 90% told through exposition. The exposition dumps are egregiously bad so as to have the setting, characters and current events all told through whatever is deemed to be the mouthpiece of the author. Too much effort has been put into explaining the story over telling it and despite all this it still remains a confusing mess at times because it fails to establish a foundation. Just when you think you know what is what, the story flings another conundrum for you to place and gives little motivation to do so. The second thing is characters with a big offender being Hakuno the blank nobody character. Nero admittedly is pretty tiresome as well considering her main roles is to do the fighting and be waifu fanservice. I am actually having trouble placing who is a worse protagonist, Sieg from Apocrypha or Hakuno from Extra but in truth they are remarkably similar in how they are both non characters with some existential dilemma of their manufactured existence that ultimately leads them to become stereotypical hero archetypes. Though while the main reason for hating Sieg is that he took screentime from much more interesting characters, the characters of Fate/Extra outside of Hakuno and Nero are really just exposition devices in human clothing. These creatures spout exposition about the nature of their character, the world and magic without much emotion. Indeed even in face of their own death they speak there last words like reciting a shopping list. That’s not how humans talk, we don’t just have prepared speeches and lectures ready to be fired off with perfect clarity and precision when first questioned. Our emotion comes out in how we speak, even how we respond to certain topics is within our character. Nobody stands like a mannequin reciting hamlet from memory. Of course some may argue that in this series everyone has lived a thousand years and their dehumanization is the result of dealing with a unwinnable situation for so very long. To which I say fair enough but it means that nobody here cares about what is going on and if they don’t care, why should I?

Then comes the third problem, the animation. Now it actually has be wanted by fans for quite a long time for Shaft to do an adaption of Fate/Extra, a sentiment that I never truly understood. Maybe it was because Shaft animated the openings for the Fate/Extra games but I honestly felt they were a mismatch. Shaft are about artistic animation saving techniques, you can have an opinion on the expression that Shafts style brings but the ultimate goal is mainly to present a show in a matter that’s least troublesome to animate. Considering that the Fate series has a pendant for ridiculously impressive animation it seems like a odd choice to go for a studio that uses style to cover for animation workload. Maybe it was because Fate/Extra was considered more avantgarde? Like hell it is. While exposition scenes are made a bit more interesting with their visual experimentation, ultimately it makes all the fight scenes of this anime feel ridiculously anticlimactic. I once thought Fate/Zero was too anticlimactic, oh what a sweet summer child I was for Fate/Extra truly embodies the word. Not a single fight in this series is remotely satisfying. So the fighting stinks, the story told primarily through exposition and the characters are too apathetic and soulless. So on a last note I will say I did at least like the presentation of Nero’s backstory, female Hakuno showing up briefly and that one small moment where Rin describes her hellish situation with a pained smile. Emotion, makes all the difference.

Junji Ito Collection Anime Review – 40/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Junji Ito Collection, Reviews by AidanAK47

In the realm of manga there is a man whose name is inescapable when the genre of horror is brought up. That man is Junji Ito and his work is considered legendary for its artistic detail, mastery of manga paneling and it’s outlandish imaginative concepts. Up till now his work has yet to have an adaptation that fits his legacy despite a number of attempts to do so. And now with completion of the Junji Ito Collection anime I can sadly say that fact still remains. This animes greatest failing is the lack of effort to truly adaption Junji Ito’s work to animation with the animation being bare bones to truly awful and the art not even coming close to his iconic style. This anime at least can be watchable due to the creativeness of the material but having passable animation, voice acting and music isn’t a good enough trade for the quality of the source itself.

The stories all have a problem with endings where many of them just cut off abruptly and move on to the next tale without much breathing room. Few have conclusive ends to the story being told and can feel like they were cut off in the middle of the tale. Some stories also are questionable choices with the main examples being the Souichi stories when are more black comedy than horror and stick out awkwardly when compared to the other content. The horror stories themselves fail to be scary though some do have some disturbing ideas while others prove to be far too silly to be taken seriously. Otherwise Ito’s general weakness with characterisation can have people acting in awkward or idiotic ways.

Horror anime is unfortunately a rarity and it was a solemn hope of mine that this could be something special despite skepticism. Sadly be it due to staff or studio there felt like no real heart put into this production. A meer attempt to cash in on the legacy of some who puts tremendous effort and time into his craft. A man that deserved better than this.The soundtrack has no notable tracks, the opening is a questionable rock song and the presentation weakens the content that while not making a terrible show, unfortunately turns it into a mediocre one. I do not recommend this be your first introduction to the works of Junji Ito and this isn’t really an anime worth watching, nor remembering.

Some Quick First Impressions: Legend of the Galactic Heroes – Die Neue These, Mahou Shoujo Ore and Captain Tsubasa (2018)

by SuperMario, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Legend of the Galactic Heroes – Die Neue These

Short Synopsis: A young upstart General overturns a space battle to his favor

Aidan’s review
Comparing this to its older OVA predecessor I actually find this a very strong start to the series. With the old series I only truly got engaged with the third episode while the space battle that took up the first two episodes failed to grip me. It could be my foreknowledge but the presentation in this new series worked better due to focusing on only one side of the conflict instead of jumping between the two. Besides minor elements this is looking to be a pretty faithful adaptation which isn’t rushing the source material and I am actually gaining some hope for this series. Only flaws I found is a rather intrusive piano theme in the middle of the episode which I hope they don’t overuse and that some of the character designs still throw me off a bit. kircheis just looks so strange to me. I am still a bit wary and feel that won’t go away until episode three or beyond but so far I would consider this something worth keeping an eye on this season.
Potential: 80%

Mario’s review
Unlike Aidan, I’m a complete LoGH novice here so I can offer my thoughts without any prior knowledge from the original. I was inherently worried that this show might turn out like last year’s Kino Journey, a reboot that look prettier but with much less impact. This episode sets a nice hook that not only underline the tactical aspect of this space opera, but also set up the great rivalry between Reinhard and Yang Wen Li, both of them proved to be smart, awesome and ambitious. If you’re looking for an action show or a pure sci-fi show, you’d end up disappointed because the closest thing this show reminds me of is watching two talented person playing chess. As far as I concern, this is a great start for what would be an epic battle, but there are some issues remain. First, the updated part, the CG animation doesn’t do a good job at animating the characters (they look on par in battleships, though), as I feel the animation for the parts with human involved pretty wonky. And second, with only 12 episodes how the hell this new show can fully adapt the scope of this epic war? Only time can tell I suppose.
Potential: 80%

 

Mahou Shoujo Ore

Short Synopsis: A girl is scouted to become a magical boy

Aidan’s review
Here’s how to come up with the idea of this show. Write a standard magical girl synopsis, then use find and replace to switch words with more outlandish counterparts. Then sit back and pray people find it funny. Unfortunately this kind of comedy isn’t really my thing and only gets less funny when animated as everything seems to follow a Boke and Tsukkomi routine. The meta jokes are just trying too damn hard and the references are the kind that would go over most viewers heads. I can see it maybe being a guilty pleasure for some but it’s pretty poor as a parody, satire and a comedy.
Potential: 0%

Mario’s review
There is a difference between good and mediocre satire. A good satire not only makes the twist fresh and unpredictable, it also addresses the issues behind the subject they are making fun of (for a good example you can check out the premiere of Osomatsu-san few years back). Mahou Shoujo Ore does neither of these. While I can see where those jokes (especially the meta-joke in the beginning) come from, the jokes are fairly predictable and the show is more happy just to twist around mahou shoujo’s genre tropes than have any concrete thing to say. What is the significance behind turning them in a boy for example? Why idols again? Jokes without substance like this get dull fast and I find myself bored watching this. It doesn’t help that the production is below par and the characters all have paper-thin personalities. Stay far out from this.
Potential: 0%

 

Captain Tsubasa (2018)

Short Synopsis: A soccer prodigy moves to a new town and challenges the local hotshot goalkeeper to a match.

Aidan’s review
This is a throwback in more ways than one with the series being nearly forty years old and the general writing of the show. But it seems that David production have not only done a throwback with adapting such and old property but even animating it like one too. There are an abundance of animation saving techniques in this one with the abundance of still shots and event the return of anime speed lines. To some it may be a charm point but to me it just looks like a slightly cleaner version of a 80’s anime. The events of the show go to ridiculously levels with a goalkeeper deflecting javelins and a kid somehow surviving getting hit by a truck because it was cushioned by a soccer ball? I say this one is for fans of the original or those feeling rather nostalgic.
Potential: 10%

Wooper’s review
It’s reboot o’clock once again, this time for the 1980s franchise Captain Tsubasa. Though Gegege no Kitarou is the older of the two series, Tsubasa’s legacy far surpasses it, having developed a worldwide following since it burst onto the scene 30-some years ago. Even professional soccer players have credited Captain Tsubasa with kindling their childhood interest in the sport, so it can scarcely be imagined how many other kids it inspired. With that in mind, it doesn’t seem appropriate to nitpick the show too harshly. Something I will note, however, is the inclusion of bombastic sound effects by David Production, which you’d assume were from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure if you had your eyes closed. I wonder whether those bassy, bone-crunching noises will be attractive to young soccer enthusiasts, rather than manchildren hopped up on caffeine and Transformers films. Some of the directorial tricks from JoJo (most notably a speaking character’s translucent face imposed on top of a still shot) make an appearance here too, but they aren’t nearly as distracting. On balance, the show doesn’t look or sound very good, and there are moments of utter nonsense sprinkled throughout its first episode. But it’s about a boy who loves soccer more than anything in the world, and for some viewers, that’s all it needs to be.
Potential: 25%

Some Quick First Impressions: Gegege no Kitarou (2018), Uma Musume – Pretty Derby and Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Gegege no Kitarou (2018)

Short Synopsis: A young girl enlists the help of a youkai expert to cure her city’s Vampire Tree epidemic.

Aidan’s review

Not particularly special in its own right but I found this show to be decently enjoyable and far more comprehensible than its manga counterpart. Its biggest flaw is that it suffers from the Seinfeld is unfunny trope. Namely that everything done here has been done again and done better. Making this show as standard as you can get. I also could never truly get into shows about Youkai as I find the concept of them to be too silly to take seriously. So far it’s decently fun to watch but I feel it will lose a lot of its appeal once the nostalgia peels off and you are left with an episodic run of the mill show with nothing to offer.

Potential: 20%

Wooper’s review

Gegege no Kitarou is a franchise that dates all the way back to the 1960s, and it certainly shows its age in this newest reboot. Despite the focus on cell phones as a way of modernizing the series (the episode opens with a Youtuber ignoring traffic while filming himself, then turning into a cursed tree in the middle of an intersection), the whole production feels bog standard. There are bullies who pick on the weird kid who believes in youkai, a main character who uses special attacks (several involving his hair or finger guns) to defeat evil spirits, and a monster of the week format that contains not a whiff of a larger story. If you’ve been watching anime for any length of time, you’ve probably seen all of this before. There’s a cliffhanger at the end of the episode that I won’t spoil in case you’re a Kitarou devotee, but if you’re not, this incarnation of the franchise is unlikely to convert you.

Potential: 10%

 

Uma Musume – Pretty Derby

Short Synopsis: Our sparkly-eyed main character attends a horse race, a horse idol concert, and a school for other horse girls.

Mario’s review

Aussie culture has a strong and proud tradition when it comes to horse-racing. Let’s just say we’re crazy about horse racing and even I am not a proactive guy when it comes to the sport, the atmosphere of dozen of horses preparing to kick off always makes my heart pouncing. And that was the only aspect I remotely like in Uma Musume (oh, and the names. Since you’re horse girl, you’re allowed to have some crazy names like Special Week and Vodka and in case you don’t know: these girls are modelled after real racing horses). First, I still can’t comprehend why the heck they include idols part into the show, the one that clearly feel out of place. Then, the only male character in this first episode is badly portrayed that he leaves a bad taste in the mouth. And somehow our innocent girl falls for it??? The settings doesn’t have anything special enough to stand out and the main lead girl can get to your nerve at any time. I have zero interest between her yet-to-come chemistry with Silence Suzuka or anyone else in her team. Which actually can be appropriate since all I can do now regarding this show is fall silent.

Potential: 10%

Wooper’s review

Within the first five minutes of this premiere, a man with a ridiculous haircut and a lollipop in his mouth sneaked behind our main character and started massaging her legs, commenting on what a perfect horse girl she was. Embarrassed and violated, she kicked him in the head and he flew backwards ten feet or so, knocked unconscious by the force of the blow. When she trotted over and asked whether he was still alive, I was struck by the realization that a handful of people must die from getting kicked by horses each year. This was the show’s big chance to sell me on the concept of horse girls. If Ponytail McMolester would just stay down for the count, I’d swallow every other contrived, pandering bit of bullshit this script had to offer. The seconds wore on, and he still wasn’t getting up. P.A. Works was just moments away from becoming the most subversive studio of the season. Please just kill this useless character, I prayed, and rescue your godawful production from the growing trash heap of instantly forgettable 2010s TV anime!

Then he sprang into a standing position, apparently uninjured, and started wiggling his fingers and eyeing her boobs. Generic character designs, ass shots, and an idol concert followed. Don’t watch this series if you value your time or life.

Potential: Horse shit/10

 

Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi

Short Synopsis: A woman who can see spirits finds a job in another realm to avoid marrying a mask-wearing ogre.

Mario’s review

I figure you’d call this a Mahoutsukai no Yome that set in the world settings of Spirited Away, although I admit that if you put it that way then this show just looks pale in comparision. It’s simply on a lower caliber here. The main girl experienced a childhood just like Chise, albeit without the self-hatred. Just like Mahoutsukai the romance part gives a lot of head-scratching development and it is easily my least favorite part of the show. That oni master is just… unbearable from his character design to his attitude. We have quite a strong female lead this time, which I’m glad and the concept of her finding job in an inn of the spirit world has some potential, although towards the end it comes to the light food-porn that generally turn me away. The world building of this spirit world is another part that the show done well so far, with the world is vivid and different from the normal world in the first few minutes. Not a fan at all of the character designs, however, and the romance saga including the “selling off my sweet granddaughter” subplot will need to some serious improvement to get me hooked again. Overall not a bad start, but I don’t see myself coming back for it.

Potential: 30%

Wooper’s review

How many anime have there been where the main character “can see things that other people can’t?” What percentage of those have given their protagonists tragic backstories because of their abilities? And what percentage of those have included a sexy love interest who wants to marry the protagonist right off the bat? We’re still talking about thirty or forty series, I’d wager, and this must be one of the cheapest attempts at telling this ultra-specific story. The unlucky girl in this particular yarn was sold to a bishounen ogre (or, to use the technical term, bishogre) to pay off her grandfather’s gambling debt, but she negotiates her way into a cooking job at an otherworldly inn instead. Here’s where I’d typically say that the usual assortment of youkai made their appearance, but the majority of the spirits in this show are human-looking, with only a mask or horns or a pair of fox ears to distinguish them from each other. What’s worse, the tracks that play behind the characters’ conversations are somehow such boilerplate throwaways that they stand out like sore thumbs. There’s just a general lack of care to be found in every aspect of this episode, which doesn’t bode well for the next 25. If you want to watch something similar, but with improved visuals and more personality, try Kamisama Hajimemashita instead.

Potential: 0%

Darling in the Franxx – 10-12[The City of Eternity/Partner Shuffle/The Garden Where It All Began]

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

Three episode coverage this week as many things got in the way of my casual blogging, the much late preview being one of them. I must say that the last few episodes of Franxx have been quite strong as we have had a string of character development episodes which have really fleshed out the cast. As well as shed some light on the situation of the world itself. First up we have Zoromes episode where he manages to meet what may be his biological mother in the lower city plantation and through talking with her found that becoming an adult isn’t quite what he expected. My previous theory of there being no true humans in the city turned out to not be true and instead it seems that adults just spend their time in a machine that partially drugs them with doses of happiness. Social interaction has more or less disappeared as the woman states she hasn’t talked with her husband in years. Ultimately it seems that the children above are distinctly more human than the seemingly privileged adults living in the plantation. By episodes end it seems Zorome stopped caring about becoming an adult and prefers to enjoy his time up with the others, even mentioning his fondness for arguing with Miku. While locking away his memories of something devastating the woman told him and the way the officers treated him like some kind of contaminant.

Our second episode mainly focuses on Kokoro, Mitsuru and Futoshi with a rather disheartening route as Kokoro chooses to swap partners so she can work with Mitsuru, leaving Futoshi devastated. While in one way this could be considered a betrayal on Kokoro’s part as before there relationship was shown to be rather wholesome, it does bring some more context to those previous interactions. Futoshi is obviously head over heels for Kokoro but when examining previous interaction it does feel like a one sided arrangement. Kokoro very much puts up with Futoshi and his general overbearing affection most likely pushed Kokoro away. Whereas Mitsuru gives her space and doesn’t treat her like everyone else does. Seeing the greenhouse conversations I felt things were moving in this direction but you still feel bad for Futoshi. Though hopefully this is a good lesson for him. As for Ikuno this episode gave more credence to the theory of her being a lesbian considering her attempting a girl on girl control of a Franxx. I am not quite sold on her batting for the other team considering there is little evidence of her having sexual interest in women. I feel the internet is jumping to extremes again. It’s clear she holds a disdain for boys, likely thanks to Mitsuru, but just because she doesn’t like boys doesn’t mean she wants to pull ichigo under the covers. In the same way that just because Mitsuru is salty over Hiro forgetting their promise to pilot together doesn’t mean he’s secretly thirsty for man meat. Though considering that the mechs are often used as a metaphor for sexual intercourse I can’t say that people are wrong for coming to these conclusions.

The third episode focuses on Zero Two and has thrown the Red and Blue Oni theory back on the table. With her going increasingly more out of control and monstrous shes pushing aside her own teammates. Ultimately her fixtation to become human is pushing her to kill Klaxosaurs while being unaware that her fixation is only making her less human. But what makes this rather interesting is that Zero Two apparently met Hiro back then at a point where he was a golden boy and lost his memories. Theories are going around that Hiro might be a clone and that Zero Two is attempting to find the original Hiro who died through him. Either way we basically find that the squad of the series is indeed an oddball within the facility as they see children who go through much more rigorous testing to make them nice little puppets. The fact that the kids developed more human charistics may indeed be some sort of plan by Franxx, either because of curiously or some end goal. It’s clear the man wants these kids to be human and is slowly letting them know of society. Perhaps so they can judge it? We reach the middle point of Franxx and if there is to be a turning point, this is most likely it. This show could potentially become something else entirely in it’s next cour or we could just continue as things have been. What’s your move Franxx?

“I wallow in anime mediocrity”

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:

For me a mediocre show is one that I can watch and enjoy, but which does not really break new ground in elements of animation, story, or cinematography, or does not “move” me. It does not if you will touch the “higher” emotions and faculties of who I am, but does leave me satisfied at having some fun. This season I followed three mediocre shows. These were B: The Beginning, Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens, and Classicaloid Season 2.  Here I will give brief reviews. All these shows score a C on my grading system.

B: The Beginning

The fun part of the show

What it claims to be about: In a fictional contemporary setting , the archipelagic Kingdom of Cremona, there are periodic murder sprees by serial killers. A special force of the Royal Police, together with the genius detective Keith try to solve the secret behind the crimes. At the same time a winged avenger directly interferes in the solution of crimes, engaged in a running battle with secretive group with government ties.  It turns out that Keith and the winged avenger also share a tie, which is part of a wider triangle with Keith’s college friend, and the murder of his sister years ago.

Essentially B: The Beginning tries to tell a series that combines a supernatural  action show, with a police detective story.

What is it really about: Two separate stories badly tied together.  The police detective story is not that bad.  There are attempts at resolving the crimes, and wider mystery behind. They use some of the recent Sherlock series gimmicks to spice things up. In general the characters in the police detective ark, that is the unit of which Keith is part of, are interesting (especially Lily, Kaela, and Erik), have good chemistry, and work well as a group. The supernatural action story is a mess. A already convoluted plotline is made more convoluted for cheap twists. None of the characters in that part are really interesting, and their interactions are boring. Now it is true the action scenes are well done, but again you do not really get the point of why this is part of this anime. Do not get me wrong. The anime tries to tie the two stories together in the face of the big bad. It just does a terrible job at it. The big bad itself is not too bad, but trying to shoehorn the supernatural  into his modus operandi just ruined the potential. Now, there are series that do this well. Full Metal Alchemist is ultimately an action series tied to a  political conspiracy thriller. It works for me. But it did not work here.

Why you should watch it: The detective part of the story is good, and the characters in the investigation unit are great with good chemistry. Animation, music (especially the ending theme song) , character art, and art in general are very good.  It is good enough I am willing to give a sequel a try.

Why is it mediocre: The supernatural action plotline is substandard, with boring characters. The attempt to mesh the two together fails. The ultimate villain is a boring idiot.

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens

Did we tell you about Hakata’s great baseball?

What it claims to be about: A all-ensemble cast story in the vein of Durarara! and Baccano! Cool characters interacting in a city of crime and mystery! Cool action! Hakata is Cool! Lin, a cross-dressing assassin, teams up with Banba, a private detective, and his cute bunch of frenemies, including a genius hacker, a friendly torturer, a guy who gets paid to do revenge, and others, try to survive in the deadly, sunny, rather clean streets of Hakata,Japan. There is ramen!

What is it really about: An attempt to advertise the city of Hakata. Which is not that remarkable. By presenting it as a place were 1 in 10 people are professional killers. Come see our City! Don’t mind the body! Careful to not die. I have no idea why anybody thought this would be a good way to raise tourist interest about a city. Ah well, the show is not half bad. Essentially you have a bunch of people who are trying to be cool, and are self-conscious about it-so at least you get an answer about why some of the things they do are idiotic, doing cool stuff (at least in their eyes). Most of the cast does not get much development, and some of it really has no real purpose.  The problem here is this. The key to the success of a show like Baccano! was the chemistry of the characters. While not all were equally developed, the plot provide some common development that tied everyone together. Hakta fails at that. Some of the characters get good development (Lin, the hacker guy). Some of them have some good chemistry. But most of them are really just cardboards of “coolness”.  The action and stories are so-so, as the adversaries border on the ridiculous, and our heroes are just so “cool” that one never feels they are in danger. As a result this is not a show of tension. You can enjoy it as a mild entertainment with a nice beer, and then reminisce about how much more fun Baccano! was.

Why you should watch it: It is fun enough, and the some of the main characters interesting enough to provide some mild entertainment. You really want to know a bit about Hakata. The Opening song is not too bad. Animation is serviceable.

Why is it mediocre: Hakata is boring. Most of the characters are boring. The storylines are not really much to write about.  If the goal was to get me to read the light novels it failed miserably.

Classicaloid Season 2

Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven. Luminaries of Classical European Music.

What it claims to be about:  The first season was a show pgsels liked, but the rest of the blog group did not care much about. Since it seemed to be absurdist comedy, and since I like that a bit (Cromartie High FOREVER!), I decided to give it a try. It was fun. The 2nd Season continued the same story. A bunch of artificial humans that have the personalities of great classical conductors live in the same house and interact. The addition of a new character based on Wanger, and his attempts to win acclamation provides the central theme for these seasons, as Bach’s machinations did in the first. All characters come to learn something important, and young Wagner grows up. Or something like that.

What is it really about: Absurdist Comedy in the service of getting you to learn or care more for some of the great composers of the classical European music era. The first and 2nd seasons do not change much in style. Most characters behave the same, and I must confess in the second seasons some of those characters became irritating (Mozart, Sosuke and Schubert mostly). The show is still fun but the Wagner sub-story felt a waste of time. Ultimately this is mindless fun, and sometimes it dragged.

Why you should watch it: It can still get you laughing hard. It did get me to look more into some of the composers. The music is good and sometimes the variations on classics are very interesting. Art is colorful and fun.

Why is it mediocre: No real growth makes many of the characters irritating this seasons. A pointless and boring central plotline.

 

3-gatsu no Lion – 39/40 [Burnt Field]

by SuperWooper, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

Another month, another 3-gatsu post for episodes that aired a month ago. And what a couple of episodes they were – the “Burnt Field” chapters are among my favorite in the manga, and though the anime treatment didn’t stun me as the source material first did, it still managed to create an emotionally dense hour of television for which Shaft can be proud. The title of this miniature arc comes from the mouth of Yanagihara’s old friend Gan-chan, who describes his post-layoff sense of purposelessness as being in the middle of a burnt field. Something I’ve always appreciated about 3-gatsu is its presentation of diverse perspectives, and that continues here as the story chronicles the Kishou Championship fought between two older men, one of whom is the most senior Class A player in their region, if not all of Japan.

The night before the last game of their best-of-5 match, Shimada (the challenger) complains of the “away game feeling” that Yanagihara creates by inviting so many of his friends and contacts to drink at the championship venue. Despite the apparent advantage gained from that warm, lively environment, however, both Gan-chan and Yanagihara himself feel isolated by their age and circumstances. Gan-chan is uncertain of what his future will look like in the wake of his forced retirement, but Yanagihara has the opposite problem; as the oldest remaining player of his caliber, he is forced to carry the hopes and dreams of countless retired professionals. Umino-sensei visualizes these burdensome dreams as tasuki, best translated as “sash,” and that’s the word that Crunchyroll used in their translation of the anime. Seeing Yanagihara swallowed up by these white sashes is striking enough when you consider what they represent in 3-gatsu, but understanding their common use gives the scene a new dimension. Tasuki is (among other things) the term used for a sash passed between runners in long-distance relays, so Yanagihara’s possession of so many sashes indicates that he’s the only man still running in a race he once shared with dozens of competitors and friends. Contrast this lonely sense of duty with the fun party about which Shimada gripes, and it becomes clear that the older man is struggling with a burden his opponent can’t yet understand.

The tasuki metaphor isn’t the only sign of weariness that the show provides for us. We get an intimate look at Yanagihara’s morning routine, which includes the taking of various pills, medicines, eye drops, and the application of pain patches to his shoulders and back. He moves slowly through the entire process, and later, once the fifth and final game is underway, he slumps forward onto an armrest, his body wracked with pain and exhaustion. Though Shimada also lives with debilitating physical pain, he plays the role of young upstart in this fight, and seems at multiple points to have the upper hand. But the turning point comes when Yanagihara inwardly embraces his role as a representative for his generation, clutches the tasuki that once constricted him, and turns to run in the opposite direction (calling the “race” idea to mind once more). 3-gatsu has always done well at leveraging these metaphors so the uninitiated viewer can follow its shogi matches, and this episode was no exception. As Yanagihara brought his king further up the board, I was excited to see which player would triumph, even though I don’t possess an ounce of knowledge about the game. The poster for the Kishou Championship may have been on the dull side, but the contest itself was anything but.

After 169 moves, Yanagihara wins the game and the title of Eternal Kishou, having defended his position for ten consecutive years. With his legacy cemented this way, the moment must have been among the proudest of his life, and he opts to share it with all the people whose faith in him was rewarded. If I had been under that much external pressure, I can confidently say that my decision would have been to sit for the post-mortem and make everyone wait for me, their new shogi god, rather than spend that time justifying their abandonment of the game I love. The thing about Yanagihara, though, is that he plays not just for the love of the game, but for the love of others, difficult as that may be. He even invites Shimada to be in the photo commemorating his big win – but he’s not so gracious that he won’t bitch to the Chairman over drinks that everyone expects too much of him. It’s an interesting way to end the episode, given how profound his moment of acceptance was, but that’s another thing I really like about this series; nearly all of its characters are made to suffer at some point, but rather than escaping their pain and revolutionizing their lives, they must settle for merely continuing to live. Yanagihara’s aching bones won’t heal as a result of his victory, nor will the solitude of his position in the shogi world be abated. Instead, he’ll keep complaining to his close friends about whatever’s bothering him, and keep fighting for the people and things he believes in.

A Reflection: Ode to the other Mom in 3-gatsu no Lion

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Special Articles

3-gatsu no Lion has just finished its 2nd season (on that notes, rest assured that Wooper will cover it till the end of this season and I’ll chime in to give a full post). After Burnt Field mini-arc – which was a solid arc by all means – it came rather natural that the last few episodes focus more on low-key drama instead of focus on another arc. All the better in my opinions since these last episodes elevate Hinata as one of the best girl on Earth and one side chapter that hit me hard on a personal level. So much that despite my laptop is currently broken and I still have two full reviews to write (that’ll come, I promise), I just wanna let this all out first. Keep in mind this is not a review, nor does this reflection piece have any point to make; just merely what I feel about it.

Consider how the second season ends in a satisfying note, I was quite surprised the show follows very closely to the manga’s structure, with only one chapter was adapted out of its order, and that chapter was “Other Home”, and for me it’s probably the best choice that Shaft made. Other Home sheds some more light to the crippled relationships and between him and the family members and the breakdown of the family. The trick here is the shift of perspective. This chapter gives a voice to the voiceless member of the his foster family. Damnit it’s such a brilliant character study in display here. The first notion that really grabs me personally is how this family represents accurately the family dynamic of Asian culture (East Asia to be more specific), so much so that it reminds me a great deal of my own and the one that the more I grow apart from it, the more I can look at it with different perspective. We have a Father who decides the best method to teach his own kids how to face their problem is to smirk “haha” and does nothing. We have a Wife who does housework everyday, stands there in the kitchen making dinner and wait for her husband and kids come home, even without anyone contact her. We have a Mother who constantly blames herself for raising her kids the wrong way, as if the way they turn out HAS ANYTHING TO DO with the way she raises them. And we have the only one member that tries her best to hold everything together since everyone else just stuck up in their own little worlds.

The framing device is pretty on point as well. We don’t hear any conversation between her and Rei, as if their conversation is just merely a facade, the mask that both of them put on. Throughout the chapter we rarely see her face, we see mostly behind her back, when she’s busy doing housework. Those motifs match with the way she smiles, and all the formal lines she about to say, but holds back. Here they sit, opposite to each other, afraid to look at each other’s eyes, and words come out their mouth are pointless. The home that never feels like a home. And it certainly shreds my heart when I realize that the only member Rei feels like his real family is their old dog.

And that comes to another brilliant part of this chapter, the chemistry (or the lack thereof) between Rei and her. I am always find one of the most intriguing relationship is the one like this. The one that always rely on other factors to work, and then when you pull these factors out of the equation, what’s left between them? From her perspective, her husband just agrees to bring another boy to live as a family, so what she’d do best is to support him. Then she sees her own children crumbled right before her eyes because of the presence of that boy, and the family keeps falling apart beyond her hands. Underneath all that she knows it all and she knows that Rei understands it too. What kind of emotions and what kind of behaviour will she act when she meets Rei alone, then? I love it that she has a dream that night that Rei were her own child. That maybe the closest distance that she ever regards him to be.

Violet Evergarden – 12

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Violet Evergarden

Violet Evergarden finally reaches its finale arc, and unsurprisingly, the Peace-opposition rebel and Gilbert’s brother Diethard come into play. In an essence, Violet is fighting two wars: the war against the bad guys who want disrupt the peace, and a war against Diethard to recognise her as something more than a war tool, as a human being. Not to say this episode totally won me over, but I can say at least I am invested enough to see how it all turns out. It’s inevitable to put Diethard as the main obstacle for our Violet here, as he has always seen Violet as a killing machine, and that conflict now is peppered with the pain that his brother died while she’s still alive. Diethard repeatedly regards her as “a tool”, and further despises her for her Doll job. He blames Violet for the loss of his brother, but we can see a lot more of emotions in him going on beneath the ground. Through the course of the mission, however, he can see that Violet has changed in a lot of ways. She’s more expressive, and now she refuses to kill anyone anymore. That is when the show lost me a little. Violet is basically going through Rurouni Kenshin’s arc now, and that makes sense. But the reason she gives, the reason why she doesn’t take orders from Diethard anymore, is because it’s an order from Gilbert entails that she had to live. WHAT? So all her development from previous episodes come down to this conclusion? That she still rely to some dead man’s words to live? Yare Yare

Putting that aside, I have a slight concerns with how Violet Evergarden portraits the Anti-Peace army. Most of them turn out just as ruthless, pathetic soldiers who can’t get on with the Peace because they stay too long at war. The bad guy from the last episode returns, and guess what, he’s even more merciless. It’s such a clear cut between good and bad that it leaves the ambiguity out the window. Nevertheless, the fights at the end really got me. For once, Violet decides not to kill any enemy, and it’s clear that it does her more harm than good. In a battlefield, basically everyone is an enemy and if she doesn’t kill them, they will all come fighting back at her. The way Diethard saves her was good because at a glimpse I almost think that it was Gilbert who saved her (thank God it’s not the case), and finally the closing shot where Violet saves him by her robotic hands really hit its powerful notes. It takes the mechanical hands to remind Diethard that Violet has grown into a fully-formed human. It takes the hands that write letters and save people in its own ways to save him. It’s certainly one of Violet Evergarden’s best moments.

Certainly not a bad way to start off the final arc, now that the anti-Peace soldiers are gone, the stakes might raise higher with the peace treaty (that might need someone’s letter here), together with Diethard and Violet’s own fights. She has done a tremendous development throughout the series, so it’s now the time for everyone to fully acknowledge it.