Star Crossed Anime

Chinese Animation Guide – Part 1: Computer Animated Wuxia shows

May 11, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by SuperMario, World Animation

If anyone have been followed animation closely for the last few years, they will notice a recent rise of Chinese animation (call it a wave if you like), both in feature and in series. While it does not have much of an impact in any English speaking world like anime has been, they are really popular in their mainland and some parts of Asian countries. With the success of Kung Fu Panda (half-produced by China) and its power on movies industry (China IS the main market for feature films now), it is worth it to take a look on this current trend and see how they are different from anime.

While my fellow bloggers are the ones who more specialize in Games and Manga, I will be the one who cover World Animation (by that I mean anything animated other than anime and American big studio animation – they got way too much coverage already). Like majority of you guys I am not from China, my Chinese is as good as my Japanese (which is to say NONE), so this is actually goddamn difficult to look for titles, and the information I could find are sacred here on top of that find a suitable sub for it, most of them does not even have an English name, thus the title and the synopsis that I give you here are just a rough translation. So behold. This is our very first attempt to cover the animation of china.

Part 1: Computer Animated Wuxia shows

This is a staple genre in Chinese animation, the combination of modern revisit of traditional wuxia genre, together with the rise computer animation and the boom of RPG online game in China make this a very distinctive animation genre, and the fighting scenes are somewhat a trademark for Chinese animation shows. Here are the 6 shows in no particular order:

The Legend of Qin (秦时明月)

Let begin with a blast, The Legend of Qin, or Qin’s Moon, is the most popular show right now, both in their mainland and in international appeal. As of this writing the season 5 have been aired and the live action series are underway, and that happens for a reason. The first episode introduces a young boy (Jing Tiaming) and his master (Ge Nie) are ambushed in the desert. After fending the enemy troops off, Ge Nie is injured and is found, along with Tianming, by the Royal Tribe of Chu. Set in the rich time of Qin dynasty, Qin’s Moon already had a strong backstory. I like both the two main characters, and the story while dense at times, so far is easy to follow. If you want to check out the Chinese animation, make this one your first.

Swords of Half of a Man-ho (三剑豪之半面人)

The story seems to be about a young man who eventually become a master swordsman, but we didn’t learn that in this first episode. There’s already a fighting scene in the very beginning of the show, which we don’t even know who the main characters are so why do we care? There is a lot of action but the choreography is clumsy at best and stupid at worst. I mean there is an assassin and she easily took down our main character, but then for no reason she would turn her back on him so he could punch her in the back, all that so the assassin would lose it and tried to kill our main character, but ends up that his lover’s got knifed. WHAT? The second half of this busy episode we have a chance to see a mysterious girl, a talkative boy and again a fight at the end. None of them act like normal people. Even the main protagonist just come off as bland. The only point I can give is the above average character design.

Shalen (侠岚)

The story is about a young boy called ZhanChi, who fated to become “one of the heroes who hold the fortune of the world” (by a weird mark in his left hand). When he was 5, his sister got kidnapped by a monster, people called them ling. He promises he will recuse his sister back someday. When he was 15, his second mother finally lets him go. This first episode plays like a prelude, telling us a story of Zhanchi before he began his adventure. While this may feel like your typical plot: he wants to get out of the house to join the heroes gang, his second mother puts him off every time by any means necessary, even to trick him. What makes it a success is its focus on the mother/ child relationship, yes she is not his own mother, but she loves him all the same and she just scare if there something will happen to him out there. I love how the show places the emotions here. His mini adventure is enjoyable as well. This is a winner for me.

Spirit of the Main Rivers and Lakes – Hua Jianghu Zhi Ling Zhu (画江湖之灵主)

There are two types of people, one for the living things, and the other for the dead to do bad. Through a series of events and learned of the existence of psychic and spiritual master of believers, and to eliminate their exposure to the responsibility of the mysterious organization ” Yu Ling group.” With a pile of mystery cracks, they get closer to the truth. The story is a classic wuxia, but the animation was so great and the production design was excellent that I can’t help but enjoy it anyway. The fighting scenes technically is among the best of its genres, every fight is so breathtaking and awe-inspiring, like some of the more intense action scenes, the screen would turn to black and white. There were fast forward and slow motion as well. In other word the actions are as in your face as you would get, but because they do it right, it still an impressive work. The story itself is a bit busy, with already many side stories and a huge casts of characters, but in all this could be a fun adventure and I’m eager to check out more of this.

Magical Legend (太乙仙魔录)

Here comes the worst show I see out of this guide, not simply because it’s bad (it is), it’s just uninspiring and will likely to be forgotten anytime soon. The episode follows a young female warrior, who pretty much unsure about herself and what she is good at. Her master, decided to go back to her past lives for whatever purposes it might be. They tried to cute-out the two main characters (by having the main girl standing in a branch of big tree and having cute music for the majority of runtime). The fighting between them are stupid and I don’t even care about why they want to learn her past’s life. And this training ends with the master hold the girl gently in his arms. What the heck? NO NO NO

Zetianji (择天记 第)

A boy orphan Chen Changsheng, left the master and brothers, with a marriage promises to an unknown girl. During this stunning journey, he met a handsome bearded wealthy son, received a mysterious lovely girl as an apprentice, and they were forced to fight with the dragon and all the mysterious force. This is the only hand-drawn wuxia from this list, but the art style is so familiar that I have to include it here anyway. This is a slightly above the middle line of quality here. The two young boys make up for the main casts are different in terms of personality and their gestures are fun to watch. One of them is arranged to marriage an unknown girl, and it seems like the girl will be the main cast as well. I like what I see so far so I could give this a second look.

~SuperMario~

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World – 06

May 10, 2016 by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World

I swear, this show makes me want to jump into the manga and read ahead because I simply can’t handle the week long wait between episodes. Today the culprit behind Subaru’s death is revealed to be none other than Rem. Now I know what you are thinking. Which one is Rem? I don’t blame you on that as I too get mixed up on which is which and this is further confused by the similar nature of R and L in Japanese. Basically you can call them Rem and Ram or Lem and Lam as both are technically correct. For these reviews I will be going with the R version and I have a means to remember it. Simply recall this sentence. “Rem is not red.” So this reveal is pretty surprising as I was hedging my bets on Ram(Pink hair) being the mysterious killer and yet out of the woods comes Rem(Blue hair) swinging a flail like Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill. So it seems that Ram truly is good for nothing as Rem is the cook, cleaner and assassin all rolled into one. Though her level of proficiency makes me think her skill is otherworldly. There is definitely is something off about these sisters. Considering Rams reaction to Subaru telling the tale of the red and blue oni, I believe this story hits a bit too close to home for them. Maybe Roswell is a demon and Rem made a deal with him in order to save Rams life? Either way these two seem related to demons and I am willing to bet they are some kind of demon or variant. One thing I noticed which is odd is something that happens when Subaru declares his reward at the dinner table. The first time he did it, Ram sneezed. The second time, she hiccuped. And the third she yawned. It could simply be a joke on the animators part or it could suggest that Ram remembers the previous time loops. When Subaru attempted to retrace his steps in the last run, Ram was the one who set him off track and made him do different things. There is also the fact that in this run Rem avoided him while Ram got closer to him. She could be a future allie in this regard or maybe this is all just done subconsciously.

Subaru’s killer came after him much faster this time around as he was acting a lot more suspicious in this run. He woke up screaming, scaring the hell out of Rem and Ram. He asked to be a houseguest instead of a worker and spent his time sneaking around the mansion and trying to talk to Rem and Ram. Even Roswell seemed a lot more wary of him and it’s likely that hush money he gave him was simply a means to keep Emilia happy thinking that he was going to let him go away without incident. Once Subaru is away from the mansion we see some cracks in his facade as he tries to remind himself of his conviction. There was an odd scene in the beginning which had Subaru walking with a spinning Beatrix. The thing that was meant to be conveyed here was that Subaru was walking around Beatrix. But Beatrix was spinning far faster than Subaru’s walking speed which gave a weird jarring feeling like Beatrix was just spinning randomly in place. Either way Subaru has taken to visiting Beatrix as a coping mechanism and help get rid of his fear. Beatrix happened to mention something quite interesting to Subaru as well when asked about magic that can kill someone in their sleep. She names out two potential causes, on is a shaman’s curse from the north and another is to drain the mana out of someone. What makes this particularly interesting is that she specifically details that the only ones capable of this feat are her and Puck. Puck killing Subaru for getting close to Emilia is a interesting idea and not too farfetched. Though their is a big hole in this theory and that is that Puck can be only active during the day and Subaru was killed during the night. He seems to be getting closer to Beatrix but it does prove to be a dilemma as while Subaru becomes more familiar with them, they still see it as a first impression which causes them to get put off by him. Some like Emilia take it in stride but it clear that the fact that no one can remember those moments he spent with them is taking it’s toll on Subaru. There is one more thing that I believe is very important in this episode and it came up while Subaru was telling the fairytale to Ram. He mentioned a dragon that made a contract with the royal family but more importantly he mentioned a fairytale about “The Jealous Witch.” This is the second time this witch has been brought up as the first name Emilia gave to Subaru was Satella. When he called her that after a repeat she got angry at him for calling her by the name of the jealous witch. I have a feeling this witch may be very connected to Subaru’s “Return by Death” power.

~AidanAK47~

Kiznaiver – 05

May 10, 2016 by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Kiznaiver

Off to the woods we go and with it we have our characters get along better. Tenga looks to be playing full wingman for Chidori and attempts to get her and Agata closer together but Chidori’s own reservations are getting in her way. Tenga and Chidori seem oblivious to the fact that feelings are blossoming between the two of them and I hope they wise up to it soon as I find Chidori’s situation to be far too predictable. As Yuta put it, he’s too “heavy” and emotionally charged for someone like Agata who is more relaxed. Tenga is a better match because he’s as emotional as she is while being able to interact with her well. Her feelings for Agata are more or less shown to be the remnants of a crush as she did say that she was in love with the person he used to be. Not the person he currently is. Plus this is a love which is by very nature doomed. Chidori, you are his childhood friend, and the childhood friend in anime rarely wins the main characters heart. Even if they happen to be the best girl. When looking at it from that front all these scenes teasing this relationship just feel like empty promises as I would be very surprised if those two ended up together. I would very much like this aspect of the show to disappear as soon as possible as it’s bringing in Okada’s bad habit as seen at the end of the episode. As Chidori offloads her feelings like a death metal vocalist shouting into a microphone I can’t help but see the various examples just like this in her previous work. I remember plenty of shouting matches in the likes of Sakuranbo and Anohana, those of which never fail to sound unnatural and be forced drama. I am going to articulate my feelings perfectly into a impulsive emotional rage! There are quieter way to resolve conflict, ways that don’t require a character to shout a prepared monologue like an idiot.

On a smaller note Niko looks to be living up to her title of being envy as when Tenga lavished attention on Chidori, Niko was looking to be quite jealous. This likely isn’t due to any feelings for Tenga but rather her desire to be the center of attention. Maki on the other hand looks to be up to strange antics as she heavily comes on to Yuta. This is pretty amusing as Yuta previously mentioned that Chidori was too “Heavy” for guys to like yet the girl he is most interested in has much more severe emotional baggage. This is purely speculation on my part but I believe Maki’s sudden advance on Yuta is a product of that phone call. It sounds to me that Maki is being pressured into compensated dating and due to her guilt relating to the person she “Killed”. She seeks to punish herself but is reluctant due to being a virgin. Thus she attempts to seduce Yuta whom she mistakes for someone experienced in such matters. Much to her surprise, Yuta isn’t keen on the idea of simply jumping into bed with her and would prefer something more genuine. As she pushes further she even gets him to reveal that, despite having girls fawning over him, he is still a virgin. Unlike the drama of Agata’s little love triangle, I find this relationship much more engaging as Yuta and Maki’s interactions are much more mature than the rest of the cast.

The interactions between the cast remain fun and we have a usually bout of trigger madness as they are all chased by the strange mascot characters in a odd test of courage. We learn a few things in the process of this. One is that the school counselor and the teacher are both part of the Kiznaiver project. Two that the teachers faction looks to be aiming for a different agenda in the project. And three that the Kiznaivers share more than physical pain as Chidori’s pain of heartbreak and over Agata getting bullied is transferred over to all the others. Considering this upgrade it’s possible that other emotions will get transferred as their bond grows and perhaps the goal of the project is to achieve a level of hive mind between certain individuals. So far Kiznaiver has been a fun show but it is lacking something to push it into great status. I believe some idea of direction is needed in order to get an idea of what this show is going towards. Right now I am clueless on just what is coming next which makes it difficult to get excited for.

~AidanAK47~

Flying witch – 05

May 8, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flying Witch

Flying witch pulled another consistent episode this week, albeit not as stand out as the one last week. I have to say, for a slice-of-life show, Flying witch has a very neat timeline, everything happened in sequence. Last week we had Akame coming over for the Cherry Blossom festival, and she staying till this week, although all she does was lying down all day. This week we follow our Chito-san (the black cat) twice, first through Chinatsu spying on her, and second time when the cat leads the way for Makoto. The repetition between the two parts comes off as a low point from the always-consistent-show here. You see, for a show that relies heavily on small moments, atmosphere and slow building, the repetition is its worst crime. It feels drag out but thankfully, those were just small parts in the episode. For the first part, Chinatsu senses that Chito the cat is up to something, so she decides to follow her. Meanwhile, Makoto goes through all the old boxes she left when she stayed long time ago. Chito obviously is the star of the show. I like the way Chinatsu keeps sneaking and speculating Chito’s actions, but mostly what the cat does is just what normal cats do. From teasing the dog, climbing the trees, investigating the hole where the kids buried the box, or catching the butterflies. All of these are your typical cat’s activities and the show pretty much portrays these actions fittingly.

The best parts of this episode are the scene revolves around the old woman. She appears in each part and each time we learn more about her. This is the kind of observation that Flying witch is always excels at. Her interactions are charming and her manner and gestures speak a lot to her personality. On the first part when she met Chinatsu for example, she inspires Chinatsu for the lucky cherry blossom pedal, in the second part though, we learn that she had a close friend who was a witch, and that she tried too many magic luck charms to know which one was effective (maybe all of them are). There is a parallel between that old woman and Nao in that aspect, both of them are normal people having witch as a friend. The old woman was so fond with her witch friend, so does Nao. This is a lazy Sunday afternoon watch (indeed some of the cast does this week are sleeping) and I think Flying witch and Kabenari would be a perfect combo to watch back to back.

~SuperMario~

Mayoiga – 06

May 7, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Mayoiga

Back stories time! This week of Mayoiga dedicated itself for backstories of many characters. Too many characters indeed. This is for me the turning point of Mayoiga, where many facts are revealed and we seem to head to the new phase. The show now becomes much clearer and have a sense of direction. This week, Lovepon, Mikage, Nyanta, Jigoku all have their own stories to tell. Most of them ridiculous as they are (like the silicon part, or the monk, or the 12//20 mix-up, or the bullying girls, basically all of them), but they all serve their purposes. Lovepon, for example, has been a source of complaint for the last few weeks as being one-note and anime-like, but with this week’s reveals, she was also a victim of injustice, violence and her own hatred. The use of heavy symbolisms in these flashback scenes could rivals Kunihiko Ikuhara’s shows anytime, and I mean it in a good way. The devil, the silicon, the bees and the laughing train are representative of their characters’ deepest fears, their CG designs make us feel both uneasiness and alien, and that exactly what the show aims for. Those flashbacks give us a reason to care for those characters and I for once root for them when they running away from that thing. The most effective story is for me, Nyanta. Being bullied is more common than you would think and people tend to do more extreme and painful things to cope with it. In her case, this is to shoot those bullying girls with a BB gun. There is a sadness behind all that and Mayoiga (briefly) nailed that raw emotion.

So it appears that the Lost Village is a place where people have to face their darkest sides, they have to face the negative feeling (like hatred, shame) that they had buried inside themselves, which for me is very fitting. Remember all of them want to go to the Lost Village because they want to run away from their problems to make a new life there. Well they can physically escape from it but they have to face their own issues in order to really get over it. As I suspected, Masaki is the main source to all the mysteries, but I don’t think she’s a ghost yet. From what the paper says she was just disappeared, so I think she was stuck in this lost village ever since. There are two things that baffles me this week: first, how the hell that those 4 people were chasing by god-know-what but they somehow all escape from it, I originally thought they would be killed or at least be vanished. What’s else going to happen after this? Second, I find that Koharun’s habit of stop talking and then singing in the middle of conversations is a bit chilling, it’s like she’s a ghost. Hell! Mayoiga! You might be the only one show that can pull it off.

Mayoiga this week delivered all the ambitious intentions it promised since its premiere. Just for this time, I feel glad that I haven’t given up on this. Whether it going to stay this inspiring or stumble for the rest of the series is everyone guess. At least we’ll always have this episode. We’ll always have Paris.

~SuperMario~

K-Off’s Ongoing Manga Recommendations (embedded links)

May 7, 2016 by K-Off, posted in Anime Reviews, Manga Experiment

If you frequent the frontpage of Imgur or r/manga often, you may have seen some of my past manga recommendation lists before, but here’s some ongoing manga that I’ll recommend for now. This is in no particular order of best-worst, I’ve also embedded the links to the scanlations into the images for your convenience.

1. Kumo desu ga, nani ka?

A girl is mysteriously taken from her classroom and is reincarnated as a spider in an RPG-like fantasy world. Now at the bottom of the food chain, she needs to adapt to the current situation with willpower in order to live. Adapted from a novel, it only has a handful of chapters out so far but as far as I can tell the release schedule isn’t too bad and the art suits the comedic narrative. It’s about a spider willing to do whatever she can to survive. That’s the extent of the story but it’s fun to read. I can see the premise becoming overly gimmicky later down the line, but I’d still give this a shot.

2. Katsute Kami Datta Kemonotachi

During a war, a handful soldiers volunteer to undergo experiments to become beasts to serve their country. When the war is over, they find that the country they served no longer has a place for them back home and it’s about the daughter of one of these monsters who wants to avenge her father. Great action, good art, but it’s let down by its pretty weak narrative and overly fast pacing. Despite that, its story isn’t all that difficult to follow and the characters are interesting, I especially like the background story into the war. That being said, I can see the story working better as an anime adaptation.

3. Kanojo wa Rokurokubi

A story about a long-necked girl’s love life: Kanoi Natsuki, a Japanese traditional long-necked creature Rokurokubi, and her childhood friend Itsuki, visit the same school and there seems to be more between them besides friendship. This is undoubtedly much more interesting than most other manga of this type. It’s supposedly by a hentai artist, but it’s really pleasant to see so little fan service. This is an all around fluff-comedic twist on japanese horror that’s yet another nice, slow-paced series from the looks of it so far.

4. Sumikko no Sora-san

About a philosophizing tortoise named Plato who, after moving to the countryside with his owner, finds a young girl named Sora whom he mistakes for Socrates and goes on adventures with, not much to say about its plot. I’m not big on philosophy but this is a really pleasant series to follow. If you don’t mind a slow, meandering series that doesn’t have an over-arching plot, this is looking good so far.

5. Chikyuu no Houkago

In the year 20xx, thousands of mysterious entities called Phantoms appear in cities around the world and people begin to disappear enmasse. Exactly one year later after their initial appearance, a group of students in Japan are seemingly the only people left in the world, and this is about how they go about their lives regardless of the post-apocalypse. This is by far the best of its genre in my opinion, the fan service gets tiresome and irritating at times but that’s just personal. Otherwise there is lots of intrigue around the Phantoms and it hits a soft spot for me as a fan of post-apocalyptic stories.

6. Watari-kun no xx ga Houkai Sunzen

Watari Nao’s life revolves around taking care of the only remaining person in his family, his little sister after their parents pass away. This is pretty risky for me to recommend because it’s currently going on a nosedive for me personally as it’s now devolving into a yandere-harem story with an awkward sense of narrative structure, but if you like that genre this is alright I guess. The “little sister” element isn’t much of a problem by the way, it’s frankly annoying at times but at least the writer never uses her for fan-service.

7. Ajin-chan wa Kataritai

Succubus, Dullahan and Vampire. They are known as Ajin, or “Demi”s and are slightly different than the average human. They have lived alongside humans for ages under persecution. However, in recent years, they have become accepted as members of society. This manga follows a high school biology teacher who has a great interest in Demis and his interaction with the various Demis in his school, each with their own first-world problems. For a story involving succubi, vampires, etc, there is no fan service at all and this is a really unoffensive slice of life. I highly recommend reading this if you’re into comedies with a great male lead and interesting side characters.

8. Asagao to Kase-san

Yamada, the Plant Appointee to her high school and responsible for weeding the campus grounds, catches the attention of the school’s track and field star, Kase and this is about two young girls’ romance. This is probably one of the best yuri slice of lifes out of the few I’ve read, the art style is airy and the story itself is great without becoming too angsty at any point. I almost always do not have the patience for a series like this but this one was approachable and easy to follow, thanks to Mike for this recommendation. Even if you’re not into shojo/yuri manga, I’d recommend you give this one a try, it reads more like a shonen along the lines of Horimiya in terms of its target demographic. This series officially ended with issue 14, but it’s still being continued by the writer online but a group has unfortunately yet to pick them up. But the chapters that are currently translated are pretty much good on their own.

9. Exciting Feelings

This is currently one of the best yuri stories out there, recommended again by Mike (or was it realjustified, can’t remember) from this site. This follows the story of two college girls, each with their own problems, tired by the drudgery of a typical college romance. The build up to their romance is simply very well paced, the writer has explicitly stated he won’t ever rush the pacing. Support the artist by only reading it from the link above, because it doesn’t cost much to support the author via viewcounts. This link shows you how to read the English translated chapters on Comico. You can try reading a few chapters yourself on Imgur here but again I’d recommend you read this via the link I’ve embedded into the image.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress – 04

May 6, 2016 by HelghastKillzone, posted in Currently Watching:, Koutetsujou no Kabaneri

Episode four comes out swinging with tons of action, resolves its internal tensions and looks forwards to its second arc with hopeful optimism. There are no brakes on the Hayajiro, especially when the Kabane launches a surprise offensive and interrupts the cliffhanger that was going nowhere fast thanks to Kurusu’s intervention.

I was worried that the continuous bickering over the Kabaneri and retarded decision making would be an annoying barrier but thankfully, those concerns were swiftly dashed away. Nothing was more satisfying than seeing a sword-wielding Kabane slice his way through the would-be conspirators and then a good chunk of the hapless passengers unlucky enough to be caught in the wrong place. It is worth noting that Memui recognize the Kabane type as a Wazotori only adds to her mysterious origins and that she knows much more than she lets on.

Wit Studio knows how to animate fight scenes and they definitely do a good job having some well-executed sword fighting mixed up with ranged combat. All the fighting inside and on top of the train carries the Attack of Titan vibes that catapulted that production studio to the forefront. That being said, there were some animation quality issues that I could see in several scenes such as the still frames and other oddities in the more fluid sequences Hopefully, it won’t be a repeat of what happened in the latter parts of Attack of Titan, where there was a significant drop as the animators scrambled to complete episodes.

Ayme continues to turn the corner from being a timid daughter living in the shadow of her father to being a rather daring leader. Pivoting around from being relinquished of the masterkey and picking up a weapon to lead the defense from the Kabane horde, she continues to grow as a character that speaks of courage and badassery especially when it comes to her awesome steampowered bow. While the mechanics of how such a bow can operate are highly questionable, it is no doubt a very unique and cool looking weapon in a setting that is already steeped in steampunk design philosophy. Another great part is the music that is layered on thick and heavy with Sawano’s traditional styles that only ramps up the intensity as the fight progress through the train as well as the two insert songs. I felt that while the first song was pretty good, it went on for far too long with the key change being evident of that fact. However, the extended outro that coming from a different part of the full ED was a nice touch in rounding off the first arc.

All the distractors are either dead or send cowering into a corner, everyone gets along and the Hayajiro is chugging along into the sunset. The first four episodes of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress were highly enjoyable to me and as the numbers from MAL indicates, this is the most popular and highest rated show (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable doesn’t count) airing this season. Buy your tickets and get onboard because the wild ride is only getting started.

Bungou Stray Dogs – 05

May 6, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Bungou Stray Dogs, Currently Watching:

Bungou Stray Dogs once again goes sidetrack this week, which means that this episode is a filler one and doesn’t advance the plot at all. The main rivalry between the Armed Detective Agency and Port Mafia; which I originally thought to be 4, 5-episodes arc, seems to stretch out until the end of this season, or the fall season for that matter, now that they announced that the second part will premier in this October. But with all that said, this is one of the best episode Bungou Stray Dogs have ever pulled off. Look, I’m a sucker of shows that care about characters. As long as a show can take their time to focus on character’s development and character’s interactions, I will be content with it. Back in previous few weeks, I had my concerns of the supporting characters being flat with some over the top traits, well this episode is an answer to that. In fact, I am fine if the rest of Bungou Stray Dogs go with this direction.

This week is all about Ranpo with his gift Ultra-Deduction, and he makes the best out of it. The murder case is simple enough to not distract the flow of the episode. Although the case itself isn’t really coherent when you think about it (like if the two were really couple, she should have realized sooner that the guy being controlled by Port Mafia), it makes up by its emotion core and further showcase the ability of Ranpo. Atsushi becomes a sidekick this week and this is for the better. In fact, Atsushi and Dagai interactions are not the strong part of the show (mainly because they would go to the usual banters of Atsushi feeling useless and Dagai bragging about suicide), but this week it’s working since they discuss about someone else, and give more lights about that character in the process. All of the usual gags are absent, and even the part about Dagai being stuck in the net and still going on about double suicide seems funnier this week.

Now into the best revelation of this week: Out of all the characters from Armed Detective Agency, Ranpo is the only one who doesn’t possess natural gifted. The word “gifted” in fact always baffled me. Gifted means that the person have an exceptional talent, but isn’t it matter if one who does not have it to begin with turns out to be talented? People with gifted usually take their ability for granted, so they just don’t know or care that other people have to try hard to reach that level. This is demonstrated well in Ranpo. Because he is not a natural gifted, he had to try harder to become what he is now and his skill now is far more powerful than any natural gifted peers. Another thing is that “gifted” alone is not what makes them great, it is really a combination of:

”Ten percent luck, twenty percent skill.

Fifteen percent concentrated power of will.

Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain.

And a hundred percent reason to remember the name”

~SuperMario~

New Manga Spotlight – Konya wa Tsuki ga Kirei Desu ga, Toriaezu Shi ne, Shoujo Fujuubun and Shimanami Tasogare

May 6, 2016 by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Manga Experiment, New Manga Spotlights, Reviews by AidanAK47

Konya wa Tsuki ga Kirei Desu ga, Toriaezu Shi ne

Two chapters so far. Ah love, that sweet nectar which all seek to experience. And truly there is nothing more romantic than gathering up your courage, inviting the girl you love up to the roof, taking her by the shoulders and proclaiming with all your heart “I want to murder you.” Yes this isn’t some nice little tale about true love but rather something darker. Our protagonist is in love with a girl he’s been friends with for a long time. The love looks to be clearly mutual but he can’t seem to gather the courage to confess. However one night he tries to stop a man assaulting a girl and is infected with some kind of virus. On the plus side he gains immense supernatural strength for short periods. But on the negative side he is now feeling massive urges to kill people and his feelings are directed strongest at the love of his life. He finds himself daydreaming about strangling her with her own intestines and stabbing her to death. It’s still up in the air to where this is going but so far I am liking it. The changes in the protagonist from a demoore cleaning addict to a dangerous psychopath is a good sign and one his classmates are becoming aware of. There are also hints that maybe the girl he loves is infected with the same disease. I am really quite interested to see what happens with our disturbed couple.

Shoujo Fujuubun

Two chapters so far with this one. So our protagonist is cycling and happens to spot a terrible car accident which involves preschoolers. However he manages to notice that after the little girls friend gets hit by a truck, she takes special care to save her game on a gameboy she was playing before running over to help her friend or even reacting to it. Unfortunately for him the little girl knew he noticed her odd action and seems to be targeting him. It looked to be hint that this girl is some kind of demon aiming to keep him silent. The end of the second chapter is quite creepy but it is still up in the air about what this story is really about. The artwork is great and we have a college student in the lead instead of a high school student. It looks like these two are going to have some kind of partnership which will likely involve this little girl creature harvesting souls. But that’s just me spitballing here. Besides we have Niso Issin here, author of the monogatari series whose heavy on dialogue and light on sense. Perhaps this may turn out to be a back and forth talking battle between a weird little girl and an aspiring author.

Shimanami Tasogare

After recently moving to Onomichi, Hiroshima, high school student Tasuku Kaname is thrown into despair at the possibility that he may have been outed for being gay. Convinced his life is over, his despair turns into shock when he sees a woman jump out of a window of a nearby house. Tasuku races to the house in a panic only to discover that it’s a public meeting lounge owned by the woman he saw before. Tasuku comes face to face with the woman as she walks past him unharmed, but not before she implies that she had been watching him from afar. Confused, Tasuku follows her up to the top of a steep hill where she offers to briefly listen to what’s on his mind. Although Tasuku doesn’t go into too much detail, he later accepts her invitation to come to the lounge to meet others with similar troubles.

So by pure bad luck our protagonist is found out to be gay by his classmates after they search his phone history. The main bulk of the story seems to be about homosexuality and the problems that come with coming out of the closet. Getting ostracised and disowned or even coming to terms with it yourself. I would like to think that homosexuality isn’t quite as discriminated against as it was in the past. Though who knows how its viewed in a traditional heavy society like Japan. The good thing about this series is that it treats how this discrimination works. It’s not some in your face kind of obnoxious level where you have some ignorant jackass practically shouting utter bile at him. Instead it’s a much more subdued and insensitive level. The kind of discrimination you would expect in real life. Our protagonist finds a bit of a safe haven in a lounge that has others with problems like himself and an enigmatic person who may even be somewhat supernatural. The series may go beyond just homosexuality as there do seem to be other residents in this lounge with their own stories to tell. I think it’s nice to see this subject dealt with in a more serious manner rather than the heavy homosexual caricatures present in anime or the blatantly fan pandering nature of BL.

Some Quick highlights

Good Night World

This has more chapters than usual with about ten chapters out. It’s about a group of players who live as a loving family in a virtual online MMO. They each do this to escape their dysfunctional family but are completely unaware that they are genuine family in real life. So we have a family who ignore each other in real life and focus on playing an MMO so they can play fake family with some other MMO players while all of them being completely unaware that the members of their fake family are in fact their real family in disguise. It’s confusing but you will get it when you read it. It’s strange as these people cannot get along with each other in the real world yet unknowingly are the perfect caring family in the virtual world.

Fire Punch

This is a cautious recommendation as I feel this title is trying a little too hard to be edgy with it’s so far one chapter. It does have it’s interesting points and reminds me of Attack on Titan in both good and bad ways. The idea of a frozen world where the protagonist has control over fire and wishes to take revenge on an oppressive military regime has me somewhat interested.

Criminale!
This is pretty much a harem with some pretty eccentric characters. It gets points for having the girls have genuine negative traits instead of good traits disguised as bad ones. Otherwise it’s pretty standard.

~AidanAK47~

Joker Game – 05

May 6, 2016 by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Joker Game

One of the things I wished for joker game to show me was that the spies of D-agency were not superhuman demi-gods who can handle anything. This episode nearly accomplishes that as one of the spies of D-agency is found out and captured. However it falters in that the spy was purposefully sold out and a ridiculously convoluted escape plan was ready for him. Even the highest most professional people don’t use plans that depend on a massive amount of pure coincidence and luck. Let me get the plan straight, you trained recruits to resist amnesia and truth scrum and decide to purposefully sell out an agent. Then instead of giving him a clear plan of escape, you give him the novel robinson crusoe and hope that he just so happens to make a connection between a single character in the novel and a symbol drawn on a door. A door which he can only find if he makes a mistake and follows the maps he was allowed to see. Thus when the soldiers come to check on him a sleeper agent will falsely report that he didn’t find him. For an agency that laughed off the idea of killing someone to hide your tracks because it’s too risky, why is it that your alternative is even riskier? There are dozens of things that could of went wrong here. What if they didn’t get him to send false info back to Japan? What if they asked him different questions during interrogation? What if he didn’t follow the maps because as he said before, they were likely a trap? What if he didn’t spot the symbol? What if he didn’t know what it meant? What if someone rubbed the symbol off? What if they did a second sweep of the area and the sleeper agent was assigned to a different part of the building? For super amazing spies this plan sure seems like it wasn’t thought out. Thus the biggest problem of the show remains, the D-agency is far too overpowered and all knowing. That truly diminished what effect this episode could have had as I never truly believed that he was abandoned and it just became a matter of how he would escape. So I didn’t have much attachment to the events on screen as I didn’t believe their was any real risk.

The design of the villain of the week was most outrageous this time around as we have a man with a head of Megamind interrogating our spy. Since last episode our villains have been getting more comic book villain styled while our heroes appearances make them difficult to tell apart. In fact personality wise is their any difference between our heroes? All of them seem to be around the same skill level and don’t really have any defining character traits. They for the most part are interchangeable and while that is a useful feature for a spy to have, it makes our protagonists seem unremarkable. The solider from the first episode had more character than all of them combined as at least he had perspective on his job and values. The spies don’t seem to hold any feelings regarding their job or have any personal aspirations. Which again makes for good spies but utterly dull characters. If the goal of this episodic format is to show the differences between the spies and their methods then it’s failing greatly for what one spy can do I can see any of the others do exactly the same. I can’t even remember their names or match the faces so it might as well be the same main character for all these short stories. Normally in a episodic show the first episodes sets up a group of dynamic characters and gives them a vague goal to strive towards. Cowboy bebop, hand in a bounty and get money. Samurai Champloo, find the samurai that smells of sunflowers. Mushishi, investigate mushi incidents. The strength of such a series is the ability to place a character in any situation imaginable, be it realistic or not. However here there are no consistent characters, nor is there a defined goal. Which makes these last episodes feel rather pointless. There’s no interesting characters, the spies goal is only revealed in the final minutes of an episode and whatever situation is easily resolved by episodes end. So I must ask, why should I care? I don’t think Joker Game is a bad show but if this is going to continue then I must be given a reason to care about what’s happening on screen. I need investment and you gave me that in the first two episodes but since you removed the two characters I do give a damn about I have found my interest slipping. I pray this is all leading up to something, perhaps that story promised in the synopsis, but it’s possible that once Joker game finally does decide to kick into gear that I will have lost all interest in it.

~AidanAK47~