Tag: 02

Saga of Tanya the Evil – 02[Prologue]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Saga of Tanya the Evil

As I initially thought, this series becomes a whole lot better when you can see the disparity between the main protagonists thoughts and how those around her view them. The first episode jumped ahead in the story to where Tanya had established herself somewhat and I believe the intent was to mislead the audience with her character. This episode takes it back to the beginning and truthfully would have made for a much more engaging start to the series. We see now that Tanya was a Japanese salaryman who managed to annoy god enough for him to throw out some cruel and unusual punishment. The animation studio seem to have taken liberties with the meeting god scene as both the manga and light novel frame it in more comedic light. There god is represented by his standard look of an old man with a bread in a white gown.

God in that seems more exasperated and annoyed with the salaryman’s outright dismissal of him. Admittedly there is some value in that version but I find the version in the anime to be far more compelling and interesting. There time stops and the god that questions the salaryman feels more mysterious and authoritarian. It even doesn’t outright admit itself to being god and in some ways makes it seem like he was purposefully pushing the protagonist to give him a reason to punish him or prove his own theory on why people no longer need faith. It’s one hell of a way to start a series which makes it all the more questionable as to why they didn’t just go with this instead of the actual first episode.

Not that the last episode was bad at all. But I think this series really benefits from the dry tone of Tanya’s inner voice when contrasted with her psychotic tendencies. It goes to show that the truly evil do not think of themselves as evil. In Tanya’s case she’s just doing what she can to get a cosy desk job in order to spite god. A smile just comes to my face seeing her lying in the hospital bed putting up a front with everyone who’s impressed with her while in her mind she’s saying “Oh crap, I impressed them too much.” For Studio Nut’s first work this is a remarkably well animated show so far which could put them on the map.

Though reason for this may be due to the staff being made up of former Gainax/Madhouse employees, though that does need confirmation. At least that’s what I heard. The female character designs take some getting used too though I have grown accustomed to Tanya and her delightful crazy smiles.  Her subordinate on the other hand I don’t think I will ever get used to. The soundtrack isn’t quite to my tastes either but it is suitable for the show. If it can manage to keep things interesting this could well be another great show in what looking to be a strong season.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 03 [Update Notice!]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Magical Girl Raising Project

Mahou Keikaku continues steady ahead though it’s writing still leaves something to be desired. In particular I was surprised as to just how lackluster the reveal was that whoever drops out is killed. The previous episode made it seem as though Fav was intentionally keeping that aspect in the dark with how he removed the girl from the chat room to prevent people noticing her die and it did seem like he was being facetious with the matter. However as it turns out it was really a matter of the girls never asking him so he didn’t tell them. I find the nature of this reveal to be lacking as to have the girls just so happen upon a log of a conversation between Fav and another magical girl talking about it is just lazy exposition. Compare this to Madoka Magica where an entire episode was build around the reveal concerning the soul gems and it had more dramatic gravitas. Here it’s revealed that half of them will die and the reaction is fairly restrained. You could argue that the audience already was well aware and they just wanted to get the characters on the same page but psychological breakdown is going to be the core of the appeal for this kind of series and if this is how one of your big reveals goes down them I fear for future developments. Though at least we do have factions being made up and potential betrayals with the Magical girl team and the robot magical girl teaming up with the cowgirl.

The bulk of today’s episode was dedicated to the magical girl team, particularly a girl called Swim Swim. I feel fairly confident in saying that Swim Swim is likely the girl who Nemurin visited in her last dream and I think there are signs of the effect she had. In particular when questioned by the leader who is called Ruler, Swim Swim mentioned Ruler stating the qualities of a leader. Which seems to suggest that if Ruler was to act in a manner unworthy of leadership then Swim Swim might take drastic action. In particular she was certainly keeping her eye on Ruler doing nothing while everyone was cleaning up the illegal dump site. We could have the potential beginnings of a villain here and while here ability doesn’t sound all that dangerous, being able to swim in any material like it was water, I can certainly think of some terrifying uses for it.

The other members of the team seem to have their own agenda’s, Ruler badmouths them all the time but it is odd as to why she continues to be in a team regardless and does seem to care if any of her team drops out. Meanwhile the twin angels are looking to gain popularity on the internet with the help of Tama, who is someone I would be genuinely surprised to see survive this whole ordeal. Considering the level of attention this group has been getting I say it’s a safe bet that Tama is next in line to reenact Old Yeller. This may be what spurred on Ruler to attack Koyuki as she likely knows Tama is next on the chopping block. There is a matter that has been brought up in discussion regarding this shows adaption and it seems as though side stories are being intercut with the main plot. General opinion deems this as good as it give characterisation to people who would have been killed off unceremoniously.

However there is a problem of important information being left out. In this case it’s regarding how the new update of “trading” candies works. Looks like I was right on the money about Fav setting up a system where girls could steal each others candies but this episode neglected to go into detail on how that works. The main gist of it is that you can trade candies with anyone, even if their phone is off, so if you were to make a trade with someone who had their phone off in their pocket, you can effectively steal all their candies. In this case it makes Ruler’s attack not be a matter of her killing Snow White personally as they don’t have to in order to steal her Candies. Of course if Snow happens to have the lowest count then she will die but i have a feeling Ruler isn’t quite as cold hearted as she is trying to be.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 02 [Collect Magical Candies!]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Magical Girl Raising Project

While this show certainly isn’t perfect, I really couldn’t let this season pass without covering it. So far this show has played coy with it’s darker elements as these two episode have presented the story like it hasn’t played the dark card already. Thing is that the opening scene of the entire series made it clear from the get go what kind of show we were getting which makes the twist of this episode rather predictable from the start. For the most part Fav has revealed his true colours to the audience as the little demon was saying in the first episode about how there is never too many magical girls only to backpedal and state that he has requested too many for the region. His motives are rather mysterious at the moment but I find his explanation about Magical girls drying up the lands mana to be easily suspect.

I am sure right from the start that this was what Fav intended as it really so too much of a mistake to recruit that many without checking if the land could handle it. As the girls pointed out as well he even recruited another girl after confirming the land was at the breaking point. On the note of the girls, it’s rather interesting to see all the different types. Cowboy magical girls, Ninja Magical girls, witch magical girls… and it seems like our Cowboy is the one Soujo was warning Koyuki about. He/she certainly seems the most dangerous and ready to kill. She’s likely going to end up a major antagonist or a red herring that’s killed off quickly.

We haven’t entered full on battle royale yet because the other girls are completely unaware that whoever is knocked out of the running doesn’t just lose her magical powers but also dies. As I said who was going to die and that last place was going to die was pretty obvious. I am a little surprised that Fav is trying to keep it from the other girls though as he does seem to be gearing this little competition into a bloody battle. Rules are simple, whoever has the least amount of magical candies at the end of each week is knocked out of the running. In this case it seems like the loser actually had a large number of candies but because they were earned in dreams Fav apparently doesn’t count them. What I find interesting about his competition is that our main character Koyuki happens to be the one earning the most candies and is therefore in no real danger. However as mentioned by the girls in the flashback, Fav has talked about an incident involving magical girls fighting each other and how facing another magical girl is far more dangerous than fighting another humans.

Considering how Fav thinks I am fairly willing to bet that there is some sort of PVP system in place and if a magical girl kills another magical girl then that means she takes the losers candies. Now who has the most candies, Snow white Aka Koyuki. What power does she have? The power to read the minds of people in trouble, which also happens to be the weakest offensive power out of the group left. So the one with the most candies also happens to be the one easiest to take down in a fight. If you are at the bottom of the ranking and know that means death awaits you at the end of the week, then picking a fight with Snow White is going to be rather tempting. It’s a good thing Koyuki already has obtained a loyal knight to protect her.

Another interesting thing in this episode is what Nemurin was doing in her last moments alive. I am a little sad she was taken out of the running as it would have been interesting to see her go all Freddy Kruger on the other magical girls. However her actions may have a lasting impact on the series. She entered the dreams of a little girl waiting for a “princess”, a princess who just so happened to look an awful like the leader of the Magical girl group that the shrine. Nemurin told the girl that she could be a princess too and in doing so may just have planted an idea inception style into one of the members of the magical girl group. I am fairly willing to bet this girl was one of the younger looking members of the group and that she will now have a sudden idea of taking the role of the leader. Nemurins last act could have very well unintentionally planted the seed of mutiny that would tear this group apart. Though it might take awhile to get to that point. I get the feeling this show will only really start to pick up once this death game starts in earnest but that too may be the point which it falls down. Despair is a delightful thing for me to see but it really is something that requires the ability to play with expectations. Considering how predictable this episode was i am a little worried about whether this writer can really pull it off but I guess we shall see in the coming episodes.