Ousama Ranking
Short Synopsis: Studio Wit’s The Little Prince.
Armitage: Recently, Studio Wit made public the accounts of their financial struggles that came both as a surprise and a terrible premonition of the future of this animation studio as a whole. Which is a damn shame, really. As for my money, Wit have been the most consistent studio in the industry for quite some years. Lately, they have tried to shed their reputation of just being the AoT studio by branching out into more artistically brave properties like The Great Pretender and Vivy. Still, with their backs pushed against the wall, you’d expect them to maybe return to basics and make something “safe”. But what did they choose to do instead? Make a show like Ousama Ranking.
The kind of show that you simply cannot find in today’s anime landscape. A tribute to the classics that came out of the World Masterpiece Theatre from the 70s – a time when creators used to tell stories through anime just for the love of it all – while having the production qualities only possible with the technological advancements of modern animation. A revelrous marriage of whimsical art with honest storytelling – a picture-book brought to life. A kind of work that’s so authentic and uncommercial that it could be described as nothing but a labour of love. This is hands down my favorite premiere of the year and it would be a tragedy to have a show like this go underseen. If you care even a little about the medium of anime, please don’t let that happen.
Potential: 100%
Lenlo: If I’m being totally honest Ousama Ranking has an uphill battle for me. Visually it’s gorgeous, one of the best (if not the best) shows of the season. I give Wit a lot of crap, deservedly so I think. But the storybook presentation of Ousama Ranking along with the bright colors and fluid movement really is a treat. Narratively however I remain unconvinced. The first half of the episode was a lesson in patience because I found the entire segment between Bojji and Kage to be dull and uninteresting. The only thing that kept me going was the aforementioned visuals. Luckily the second half made up for that by putting everything established in the first to good use. Combine that with mentions of this being a Seinen rather than a children’s story and I’m really interested to see where it goes. Just give me more of Bojji interacting with his family/people and less of being pushed around by Kage and we will be good.
Potential: 70%
Gyakuten Sekai no Denchi Shoujo
Short Synopsis: Guy who doesn’t like wearing specs gets into an UwU robot.
Wooper: I thought I detected a whiff of promise from Gyakuten’s PV back in September, but my nasal passages must have been clogged, because this thing stinks. It’s not completely devoid of appeal, since the concept of a parallel Japan conquering the original could have gone in a variety of interesting directions, but the one we got here was a boring mess. Rather than giving us a multifaceted look at how life in this alternate future had changed, the episode hyper-focused on an unlikeable host who stumbled his way into a mech. The second part of that setup is familiar, at least, but it’s usually a kid you can root for doing the stumbling, not a grouchy fraud who has nothing to do with the overarching story. He links up with a partner inside his VR cockpit and, after spending far too long talking about fighting spirit, they team up to…escape from their opponent? I’m all for misdirection, but when you dedicate something like eight minutes to a drain-circling conversation about doing battle, you need to deliver some sort of payoff. The last-second reveal of his VR partner’s real life form was probably the best part of this premiere, if only for her cute character design. The rest of the episode? Not worth the time it took to get there.
Potential: 10%
Armitage: In the same vein of iconic Mecha shows with meaningless two-word titles when taken out of context (see: Gurren Lagann, Code Geass), we have Rumble Garanndoll. But that’s just about where the similarities between these shows end because this one is just an incomprehensible mess of generic plot devices (some all-powerful thing to be found in a particular city), a generic MC and worse than generic character models which the animation team doesn’t even bother to draw faces on, half the time. I don’t know why the twee mascot character is there but honestly, I don’t care. Same goes for this show as a whole.
Potential: 5%
Deep Insanity: The Lost Child
Short Synopsis: New recruit is tricked into fighting underneath Antarctica by his favorite voice actor.
Mario: Despite its bold title, Deep Insanity isn’t that deep or that insane yet. It has a fun concept: a near future where a mysterious disease claims the lives of many, and where a lost underground world surfaces in Antarctica. Where the show suffers is everything else. Just look at the first 90 seconds before the credits roll where it spills things just for the sake of exposition. Its main character is bland, serving more as the viewer’s POV than an actual character. And the show looks a tad bit too grim and dull for my liking. What this first episode focuses on – apart from giving us first-hand experience of the MC’s job – is its attitude towards the fear of death and, in turn, accepting it. Although the show did undercut its message with a simple “dangerous mission”, it also hinted at other characters’ traumatic pasts and why they fight, creating my favorite moment of the episode. Don’t expect a hit out of this, it belongs more towards the middling “sci-fi / mecha” pack this season (Shikizakura, Kyoukai Senki, Rumble Garanndoll, Tesla Note…). Pick one that you fancy, you don’t need the rest.
Potential: 30%
Amun: The only anime based on a mobile game that I’ve enjoyed is Mysteria Friends (although I was confused the entire season) – Deep Insanity doesn’t seem likely to add to the list. There are some interesting points: I liked the current events tie-in with masks and perpetual understaffed complaints. The introduction of our audience-vehicle certainly could have been worse; his “heroic” antics seemed a bit unlikely, but who knows – survival bias I guess (kill enough newbies and maybe one of them is a genius, sure). The premise is at least trying to be interesting, but I’m with Mario – this seems pretty grim. I’ll probably end up dropping it around the middle of the season, like I did with Scarlet Nexus from a few seasons back.
Potential: 30%
