Some Quick First Impressions: Thunderbolt Fantasy, Time Travel Girl and Handa-kun

Thunderbolt Fantasy

Short Synopsis: A wandering vagrant gets caught up in a battle to obtain a powerful weapon after saving a girl.

Now technically this isn’t anime and that’s the main reason it escaped my radar when doing the preview. But let’s talk about this because this show is a different experience. What we have here is a stop motion puppet show written by Gen Urobuchi. Gen is a favorite writer of mine though his names prestige has diminished a bit after lending his name to Gargantia and Aldnoah Zero. Two shows were the level of his influence was passing at best.(Full note, he just provided a skeleton for Gargantia and AZ he did the first few episodes and left because he couldn’t relate to the main character.) Gen’s level of quality in general is shaky but I at least give him credit in that what he’s involved with is at least interesting. Here looks to less serious than his previous work as the story is rather over the top and resembles an old kung fu movie. Visually it’s fascinating and the puppets certainly feel more real than any CGI. However unfortunately these aren’t the puppets from Team America so the puppets faces are stuck in a default expression no matter what they do. It really is a pity those Team America puppets disappeared, that was some pretty impressive technology to be just used for a comedy movie. In fact their mouths don’t even move when speaking lines which makes it feel like those times when you were a kid and played with action figures. It’s charming in a way. However I really wish they would slow down on the editing as it’s far too fast to appreciate the puppetry during the fight scenes. Story Wise this doesn’t look too complex and may be a more straightforward plot. I recommend watching this episode simply on the ground that you will never quite see anything else like it.

Potential: 70%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

There is not often we encounter an original wuxia anime, and on top of that a stop motion/ puppetry one, that alone makes this show an unique beast among anime world and all the more reason to watch it. The fact that it was actually good is nothing but extraordinary. For those of you who don’t know I did some posts about Chinese animation before, and I experienced many types of stop-motion and puppetry movies before, so headed in I know what to expect from a wuxia series. But still it is wonderful to see those 2 elements (puppetry and wuxia anime) joined up together and the result is as fresh and fun as it gets. The custom designs and the background designs, for example, were created with full details. The fights are joy to watch, and in truth it feels refreshing to see bloods squirming all over and bodies blowing up for once, because simply you can’t find it elsewhere in animation medium. Story-wise, I’m happy to say that I enjoyed it as well. As Gen Urobuchi is a mastermind behind it, that comes with no surprise though. The things that makes the writing so spot on was how they rely on genre tropes to twist it around a bit and make it fresh again. Like for example when a girl falls off the cliff, in wuxia genre you would immediately know that she will survive, get rescued and then powered up. It also helps that the dialogue is self-aware with those tropes that make it even more absurdity (like how the main character save the girl, not because of his heroism attitude but because of the Buddha). In all, this is a really amazing and oddball entry of this season and you all need to check it out, because you might never find something as unique as this one in anime.

Potential: 80%

 

Time Travel Girl

Short Synopsis: A girl accidentally travels back in time after touching a book.

I think time travel is one of those things that is treated with either deathly seriousness or a strange sense of easygoing optimism. You never see Doc Brown or Dr Who too concerned with the consequences of time travel and it seems this girl is of a similar mind. So after a rather odd scene featuring a man resuscitating a boy with an AED machine. Education seems to be the main draw here as our main character interacts with historical figures and learns about magnetism and such. VIsually I can’t say it’s anything impressive but so far I don’t see anything wrong with the story. Well besides the horrendously neglectful father. I don’t care if you are some genius scientist, ditching your family for three years is a dick move. So far it’s a fairly watchable show.

Potential: 30%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

A time travel shoujo hey? This is a very straightforward title. On a surface I can see how this one has an appeal: Who wouldn’t want to go back in time to meet famous people and learn some of the interesting aspects of that era? I know I definitely would. That and the main plotline of a girl who traces down her missing father provide enough meat for the whole series. But how about its execution? The execution is clunky at best. There is not a whole lot amount of animation here and so far, the production is completely unremarkable. The characters are just mediocre, but I like the twist about the language barrier and the “correct way to use an AED machine (well, when it’s an educational series that bounds to happen: they want to teach you everything). Still, I like the concept, after all it’s not that often we have an educational time travel girl show where we deal with real historical figures, so I will give this more watch to see how it expands this concept.

Potential: 30%

 

Handa-kun

Short Synopsis: A boys fan club watch a new anime about a popular boy who thinks he’s unpopular

I think this will be an anime which has viewers spilt on which half of the episode they liked better. We have two stories here. The first deals with a boys fan club who are excited about an anime being made about him. This section has a lot of fourth wall jokes and personally it missed more than hit for me. You could see the jokes coming and the only thing that managed to get a smile from me was when they made their own version of a Handa anime and get bent out of shape when one of them starts criticising it harshly.  Other than that it was a cavalcade of fourth wall jokes which is a bit early because we haven’t established the fourth wall yet. or these characters. The second half deals with the school life of Handa. Now this anime is a prequel to Barakamon but it appears it doesn’t really match it tonally. The impression I get is that this is the Full Metal Panic Fumofu of Barakamon. Overall there is one joke in the second half of the episode and it’s that Handa is a massively popular school student. However he has no idea that he is popular and misinterprets his schools awe of him as bullying. So this is a comedy dependant on misunderstandings which can be a tiresome concept. I managed to get a kick out of it but I am certain the gimmick would grow tiresome after a while. Even with Sakamoto I found the gimmick ran thin as I neared the end of the series, despite it being executed well. If this series is going to continue with the dual show format I think people are just going to show preference to one side but not be willing to put up with the other half to watch it.

Potential: 25%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

So this show going to be about 2 distinctive parts: The first part about Handa-kun fan club, who all self-aware of what the show is about, and the second part on Handa-kun himself before he became a big shot in Barakamon; and I’m totally fine with that format. Now in truth I haven’t seen Barakamon before (always meant to but never have a time for it, but I’m quite certain that I will like it), but this show is a standalone show so I would have no problem watching it. I like the humors displayed in this episode, it’s actually one of the sharpest comedy out this season (mainly because this season is lacking good comedy show). I enjoyed the 2 parts simultaneously, this will not break any ground, but for anyone who already love Barakamon, or like a good low-key comedy in between big shows, this is perfect for you.

Potential: 30%