Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku
Short Synopsis: A girl is given a chance to become a real magical girl after being selected by a phone app.
I am quite glad that this series has managed to avoid the missteps of many a Madoka follower and restraint itself from going dark too fast. Commonly new Dark Mahou shoujo attempt to one up Madoka by shoving dark events right from the start without any buildup which ultimately falls flat. This show did give us a preview of the darkness to come with it’s opening scene but it did spend the rest of the episode setting up the characters and life as a magical girl first. Most importantly it managed to take steps to differentiate itself from Madoka with how it’s magical girl system works and even with the curveball it threw regarding a certain magical girl’s identity. Our main character looks to embody the morals of Magical girl etiquette which should serve to be prime entertainment when her view of magical girls is horribly destroyed. There doesn’t seem to really be any noteable characters yet but I will say that the design of the mascot character is without a doubt inspired by a certain monobear. Based on the ending scene we may have a magical girl battle royale on our hands and I am most certainly all in. I don’t think this will dethrone Madoka from the dark mahou shoujo genre but I say there is room for another dark Mahou Shoujo in anime.
Potential: 70%
Mario: Here comes another dark magical girl anime in the wake of Madoka. This episode’s main objective is to lay out all the groundwork of being a typical magical girl, and it does a good job at that. Koyuki is a perfect protagonist for this show because she’s a dreamer; she’s a pure-light magical girl with the most noble desires. Having her crushed down and her moral ripped apart will be a roller-coaster ride. Two things I’m already digging on the show’s approach. First, they actually spend time to develop our main character and her moments with another cast feel just about right. Second, there are many hints towards a darker side (the way all other magical girls don’t look like typical ones: they look like a ninja, a knight, a witch for example). Well, as I said before, in order to do a genre reconstruction, you need to establish all the genre-tropes first before you move them apart and assemble its pieces again. We’re still waiting for that twist coming and until then we don’t know for sure about the show’s quality. This first episode though succeeds in what it sets out to be.
Potential: 70%
Tiger Mask W
Short Synopsis: After there mentor is brutally beaten in a wrestling match, two men train to become legendary tiger wrestlers to seek revenge.
I wonder if King from Tekken was inspired by this anime character. Just a mild musing I had while watching this episode. My orignal estimates about this not having any realistic wrestling are pretty much proven byt it’s first scene, were a wrestler proceeds to slash open a guys chest in the ring with clawed gloves. The like of which would hardly be allowed in a real ring. This is old style anime gentlemen, were men were men and everything was hot blooded and completely ridiculous. Naturally this series is going for the nostalgia factor with it making use of old tropes of anime. Subtlety is throw out the window and people shout and awkwardly voice their feelings/thoughts into rather clunky dialogue. There isn’t much to say about it other than it is what it is and it’s really all a matter of whether that’s your thing or not. This is cheesy 80s style anime which is mindless entertainment at best. Though there isn’t anything wrong with being just that.
Potential: 40%
Mario: Based on the manga that came out almost 40 years ago, this show sure brings back some memory from decades old classic anime. The character designs are your typical shounen art styles: plain, muscular, simple. The action is fast-pace and the animation is quite limited. But there’s a certain charm in this retro, campy style as all the characters commit themselves to be as over the top as ever. This is also a very masculine show, and clearly tell a story about men. From the sport wrestling, muscular characters, to “the spirits of the true man”, fight-until-you-die mentality, all that direct to one main theme: men are awesome. The retro feel and the larger than life characters are what sell the show. Viewers who are fan of Jojo (without that dog cruelty, this time though it’s bear who is a victim) and viewers who look for pure fun can rely on this show.
Potential: 40%
Shuumatsu no Izetta
Short Synopsis: A princess of a country on the verge of being taken over encounters a witch she met in the past.
As far as first episodes go I will say this shows promise but you are likely wondering that if it does show promise then why would I give it such a low potential rating? Well apart from the series composer having shaky quality, I felt a certain sense while watching this. I feel like this is going to fall flat on it’s face and hard. There isn’t really a lot to support this notion of mine but the writing is rather shaky. I for one raised an eyebrow when at the beginning a officer shot his own men after they inquired about the top secret weapon and yet they decide to transport the princess with the top secret weapon and even told her it when she was eying the steel case. Maybe it’s because the opening of this episode reminded me a bit of Code Geass but it really does feel like this one will fall in quality. Ultimately what will decide whether I am right or not is where the story goes from here. This episode essentially set up a boy meets girl scenario(Or girl meets girl in this case.) and we only know a few members of the cast. One thing I find odd is that they refer to the Princess as a tomboy when she isn’t really doing anything that would make her been seen as a tomboy. So far she’s just a rather stereotypical anime princess and not very interesting. The villains look to have a little more going on but still not quite enough yet. For now I give this a cautious recommendation and I really hope they don’t focus hard of yuri between the two leads. Though considering the series composer i the same guy behind Vividred operation…I think we will be seeing quite a bit of yuri fanservice.
Potential: 50%
Mario: Personally, I’ve always enjoyed European landscapes more than any other places so this show is a treat for me. The art designs (given both character designs and background designs) and that European fictional WW2 settings are done very brilliantly. I like how they handle the on-going backstory war, and everything so far is solid… until the titular witch wakes up. I honestly don’t know the direction the show would take, but I’m a bit skeptical because I feel the main relationship could be a major letdown. This is also a very feminine show, and tell a story about strong women who stand up for themselves (women are awesome). The princess is a strong-head, intelligence and passionate lead (in other words, an interesting protagonist) and the chemistry between her and the witch could be a make-or-break factor to the overall quality of the show. The writing is a bit shaky so far (the princess “happens” to be on a same plane with the witch, or the bit where the lieutenant nearly decides to kill the princess. Really? That’s how you treat an important POW?), but I’m just being nit-pick as the rest of the story flows quite well. The fact that this is an original anime also put the score up a bit for me. We need more of anime titles like that. And what the heck with those fan-service shots? It’s just totally out of place and immediately cheapens the whole production.
Potential: 65%
Here’s the thing, Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku.
Do not think of it as similar to Madoka Magica, it’s more closer to Danganronpa.
This show will END your feelings. you think Danganronpa or Madoka’s despair was bad…HA. THIS SHOW IS PURE EVIL. EVIL I TELL YOU, EVILLLLLL.
That certainly sounds promising. I love me some despairful antics. But it’s going to take a lot to kick my heart in the dick.
Do you have any examples that come to mind?
I think the one that got too sad for me was The Miserables, that centered around Cosette, because it was telling a tragic story in a more light hearted way. I don’t know, maybe that caught me more off guard.
Not anime related but in Metal Gear Solid 4 there is one line that always manages to hit me hard.
“Snake…had a hard life.”
I gets me every time.
Though I did grow up with the series so that might be why it effects me so.
For anime examples I am having trouble thinking of things that got me sad but there are moments that hit me hard emotionally. Like Takumura knocking out Eagle in Hajime no Ippo or Yuri finding his wife’s compass in space in Planetes.
I suppose as one gets older it can be harder taking honestly certain stories. Like with the impressions that you make about that Mahou Shoujo show it seems we want our protagonists to fail, to die trying.
Another powerful moment I remember is in Haibane Renmei when a character is sort of confessing her sins to a sort of cleric. One because clerics are usually put as bad guys in several stories and two because it can be hard putting a character “taking her heart out” in a genuine way.
In regards to games FF VI and Mother 3 may be the games that have make me feel a ton of emotion and both mainly did it with text and very simple animations.
I must confess I have a soft spot for fragile female’s characters who struggling internally, who always think they don’t belong to the world around them. Many, many of them cut me deeply. I remember Rebeca from One Hundred Years of Solitude, Mary in the movie Au Hasard Balthazard, Alice in The Solitude of Prime Numbers, more recently Mari in manga Inside Mari (What’s wrong with the name Mary anyway?). I feel their pains because they think that no one else in the world care about them; I just want to give them a hug and say everything will be okay.
I don’t feel to sad for Cosette, because I think her arc and the story heading towards melodrama anyway. For Rakka that scene when she confesses her sin is powerful, but I left the series knowing she would find her true happiness. For those other girls though, it’s that cold/hard truth (without being too sentimental) that they going to be miserable for the rest of life that made me really sad.
That’s just me who get sentimental by the way.
Aside from the one from Inside Mari (which has me perplexed more than sad) I haven’t checked the other ones.
But by description I think that’s how I feel about Lucy from Elfen Lied. That she will never be happy.
I think while there can be justification in some stories sometimes even if the story is flawed but you care about a character one can get emotional.
Also it’s a bit creepy and a bit off putting that also hentai of all things uses despair also in order for one “to care” about a character that’s inevitably going to be broken.
If anything, the first episode of Izetta reminded me of Code Geass’ first episode. Not exactly a good thing, but I reckon it’ll go down a similar path. If it’s half as controversial then it’ll lead to one heck of a weekly review
I’m gonna wait and see how Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku ends before I decide to try it out. It does look interesting, though. But I can just hear the annoying social justice warriors now: “Weeeeehhhh! We don’t want dark and gory stuff in our magical girl shows! They’re all harmful and problematic and abusive and don’t fit in our view of magical girls! Why do we even need dark magical girl shows? They’re just gross fetish fuel for gross male otaku!” *rolls eyes*
Sigh…quite honestly I am tired of feminism rants, social justice stuff, sexism, all that stuff. It’s just the same argument repeated ad nauseum and I am tired of both sides. It doesn’t matter, it never mattered and the only reason it’s still relevant is that people keep complaining about it. Can’t we all agree to not give a crap and move on?
Don’t really see how Fine is supposed to be a “typical” princess here: people call her a tomboy because she seems to be the type to take the reigns and charge into action physically whether it be slamming into a man to get his gun or jumping out a moving train, which considering the era they are in makes perfect sense.
Typical Anime Princess. Being strong willed and ready to take action is generally par for the course.