Winter Anime Fall Seasonal Reviews Summer 1996
As a current anime's time in the limelight waxes and wanes into the dark obscurity known only as "last season", the combined MyAnimeList user-base's unfinishable plan-to-watch backlog grows ever larger. Few watchers today tread beyond the comfortable shallowness of a standard, cyclical anime season into the unknown depths of anime-less-traveled, as the community's collective memory since 2012 seems shrunk to that of three months or less. Still, there's something to be said for those brave viewers, those that binge-dive into the masses of anime beyond the "Seasonal" tab on MAL's front page. Gone are the watch threads and community reactions that can guide your tastes, replaced instead by a sorry excuse for a synopsis by MAL and some smatterings of cover art. Forced to think for themselves, many seasonal watchers crumble under the pressure, and find themselves floating back to the shallow shores of the cycling seasons. But others find themselves enlightened, ascended to a higher plane of degeneracy that plebeian weekly watchers could never reach.
If you're sufficiently confused, let's do some quick damage control: these are reviews for shows that haven't aired in the same season, or didn't air when us here in the states had access to quickly and readily available simulcasts. I've titled these as such because I'm going to follow my seasonal review format. Why? Well for one, because it seems like it's pretty effective at breaking down a lot of content fairly quickly, and secondly... I guess I'm just attached to the format? After doing about six or seven of these now, the format starts to grow on you, and I'm a big fan of the freedom I have in going a little long in a review or cutting it short. No reason to bind myself by any expectations of length, right?
Well anyway, these are shows I've watched over the past few years that I felt were either underrepresented in, overshadowed by, or straight ignored because of the seasonal anime revolution that's occured within the past half-decade or so. There are plenty of big anime fans I know of who struggle to watch anything outside of the seasonal rotation, and although that's a fine way to be exposed to a smattering of content that can help inform a viewer's fledging tastes, it doesn't serve to show them the depth the medium has to offer. MAL is overflowing with options and can be an absolute beast to wrangle, so I figured I'd highlight my experience of delving into the void with some reviews: both the good and the bad.
Title: Kyousou Giga
Genre: Action, Supernatural, Fantasy
Studio: Toei Animation
This one came to me by the recommendation of another fairly hardcore otaku, and I'd be lying if I didn't disclose that I sat on this one for a long time. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was over a year. See, the recommender was known for being... overly enthusiastic about particular directors, up-playing everything they did as works of God and downplaying those of others. Even if he was right, and to be fair he often was as his choices of staff were often superb picks, the attitude turned me off. As someone who prefers to evaluate any media by its merits alone, the blinding allegiance and profession of innate quality was directly against my own thoughts, as I prefer to go in to media without any preconceived notions. Now, this is impossible by any metric; a viewer will 9 times out of 10 have some foreknowledge of the staff involved with a work, particularly in anime where the staff pool is comparatively small to other mediums. Even still, the praise seemed to come off as cheap, but as this one was recommended I seemed to have firmly placed it on the proverbial plan-to-watch list. Fast forward that long year, and in the post-Devilman Crybaby world in which the recommender's praise seemed hold a bit more worth, I cautiously queued up Kyousou Giga.
What I found on the other end was something that's pretty difficult to digest even if it does taste pretty good. Kyousou Giga is a holistic experience in the same way that Disneyland is Disney all the way down to the last little pebble that rolls down the main drag of the Magic Kingdom; the world lives and breathes its unique aesthetic of "the Looking-Glass City" in every frame, never stopping to explain or even trying to slow down. The scenery and characters are both fantastical yet realized, similar to that of The Eccentric Family while also having shades of The Boy and The Beast, breathing their motivations and feelings through expressive and varied animation. There's a bit more "kick" to the visuals and motion than typical for a TV anime, which helps the instances of backstory or exposition that come in the form of brief but wonderfully animated vignettes. A fun, fantastical, yet still cohesive experience both thematically and aesthetically is the biggest praise I give to Kyousou Giga, and it isn't praise that I hand out lightly. At times, I found myself asking if I was watching a movie: the cuts really are just that good.
However, the story is unfortunately a bit of a different beast. Kyousou Giga pulls the 'ol anime-original stint of grasping for something "philosophically more" than I felt the content was capable of. This isn't to say the writing and directorial staff did a bad job; far from it in fact. Giga is a show deeply rooted in its own well-executed pseudo-folklore, and from that it tries to evoke a something beyond the touching coming-of-age story of our two main characters, Koto and Myoue. While these narrative arcs run their course beautifully, what we're left with is a smattering of philosophical musings that fall flat when compared to the rest of the content. Mind you, these musings are far from cohesive in theme, and are thrown about willy-nilly in a way that cheapens the whole experience. Now some people really lap this stuff up and that's perfectly fine, but this is my review, and this was my biggest gripe with Giga even if it might have been the only one. Giga would have been served far better if it just went even harder on the family aspects, maybe giving our two other children or even big Koto more of a redemptive conclusion rather than piggybacking them along with Myoue.
Even still, Kyousou Giga is a well put-together experience that was consistently a joy to watch despite a few hanging narrative problems. For a TV anime, you'll be hard pressed to find something so joyously unique and fun, keeping you on your toes with every episode and chomping at the bit for what comes next. While I still don't think that Giga is a show for everyone, and I can't sympathize with rampant fanboying, I have to defer to Church here: this was a great pick. Thank you for the recommendation, and I'm sorry for always ragging on your Yuasa love. <3
Score: 8.5/10
Title: Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuruba Sugiru, or Oreshura
Genre: Romantic Comedy, Harem
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Y'all ever just want to watch some trash? This is a thought that not many sane people experience, but one that I experience regularly. In the volume that I consume anime, I'm a firm believer in that one must live through both the best and worst of times to better recognize either of them in the future. Beyond that, the anime community is quick to shame those not in-the-know. To respond to someone's claims of "Man, Eromanga-sensei is just the best," with knowledgeable disgust is superior and correct. Rolling the dice and ignorantly dismissing them on the basis of possible hearsay is a step in the right direction, and proves you are in the right headspace to become the ideal snob. However, "unknowingly agreeing with others" is a disease that takes millions of lives every day. Before you know it, you'd be pinned as trash-loving lolicon by all your friends, left to wallow in your own stupidity for foolishly replying, "Oh yeah, that show was so good. I really liked all the characters," to that Eromanga-loving freak. To combat this undeserved fate, the best option is to brand oneself as someone who unilaterally consumes everything the anime medium has to offer. To judge unfairly is to barely judge at all, so what better way to hand down a draconian and unwelcome judgment of another's taste than to just watch everything under the sun?
In an effort to understand the bottom-feeders and assert my superior taste, I gave Oreshura a watch long after its airing had wrapped. I'll get this out of the way now; Oreshura is not a good show. It's about as bland a harem comedy as you can get in the late 2010s, and that's only because something as white-bread boring as Tenchi Muyo just isn't meme-y enough to hold up in an age driven by animated GIFs, streamable clips, and YouTube seasonal reviews. The shtick in this one is that both the main girl and guy both despise love. Like, love as a concept, as an idea. Wow, what a novel concept, I have absolutely n o i d e a what is going to happen! I'm so excited to see what happens to these two terribly boring and bland characters! Well, spoiler alert, exactly what you think will happen, happens. Almost to a "T", and while this isn't uncommon in these types of anime, Oreshura is predictable in the most offensive way. Our other girls don't even have flashes of personality, so we know from episode one that there's zero chance anyone else has a shot with our MC. Masuzu is the only one who shows even a shred of intrigue, and at least 50% of that is that she really likes Jojo's. Yes, if you know anything about this show, it's probably the GIFs and clips of Masuzu making some sort of hackneyed Jojo reference, and they're as tired and misplaced as you could imagine. Say what you will about harem shows, and you should because 99% of the genre is pure trash, but they know their audience. They do a pretty decent job of at least making the characters feel like there is indeed a snowball sitting in the fiery depths of hell, even if it's bound to melt within the first second of it being there. Oreshura decides to not even make the snowball, and that's what makes it such an offensively bad harem show.
So why did I give this show a 5/10, and not something much lower? Oreshura, in failing to be an entertaining harem in a traditional sense, becomes an absurdist and dysfunctional comedy. These people have no reason to like each other, at all, even as acquaintances. Two or three of them are quite literally delusional, and the rest might as well be too based on their actions. This makes every attempted plot beat or frank statement by any character break into the realm of comedy, and while that surely wasn't the goal of Oreshura, being a light novel adaptation and all, it helps salvage what was otherwise a waste of generally decent animation talent from A-1 Pictures. The show, for its genre, doesn't look bad, and has enough doofy reaction faces to at least enhance the unintentionally ridiculous comedy. While I don't think Oreshura deserves the moniker of "so bad it's good", its unintentional and awkward comedy fueled a drunken laugh that was at least enough to carry me to the end of its short run. That's more than most harem series can get out of me, so take that for what it's worth.
Score: 5/10
Title: Houseki no Kuni, or Land of the Lustrous
Genre: Action, Fantasy
Studio: Orange
This is a show about agender humanized gemstones fighting against moon people. Sound vaguely familiar? No, this is not anime Steven Universe, and if it was even remotely similar I would have never picked it up. I have a deep-seated hatred for that poor, shoddy excuse for an American cartoon, indoctrinating millions of youth into thinking that media having the quality "progressive" intrinsically equates to "quality". While that is a discussion for another time that will surely salt the Earth with the overflowing tears of tumblrinas, it is a point that must be mentioned in order to not only detract from comparisons, but also to uplift the show on its own merits. Houseki no Kuni is far more complex and interesting piece than that trash could ever amount to, and even if it swept anime YouTuber recommendations throughout the season it aired in, it still flew under the radar. A toxic mixture of the preconceived notions based on the show's visuals and a harsh lockdown behind the wall of Amazon AnimeStrike left the show undeservingly out in the cold. Hopefully I can shed some light on this series, despite what thoughts some of you might already have about it.
Land of the Lustrous is an interesting beast for a few reasons, but the most jarring of them is undoubtedly the fully computer generated graphics. Although I have my suspicions that the faces of our characters are mostly hand-drawn, I have to say that this is the first time that I haven't immediately upchucked when looking at anime CG for this long. During it's 12 episode run, I was consistently impressed by the visual quality and sometimes draw-dropping shot composition that the 3D was capable of producing. Long shots and the usually oh-so-rare depth-based cuts are the norm here, and they're used to brilliant effect. While the backgrounds and the supremely incredible score are surely the highlight for many viewers, with beautiful coastal and arctic landscapes playing up against the abundant lush green fields with orgasmic music setting the scene, the characters themselves are also supremely endearing. A good friend of mine claims that the inhuman figure of the characters helps side-step some of the issues anime CG regularly has with human forms (watch any clip of RWBY for evidence of this), and while I don't believe he's wrong by any metric, I think that statement serves to downplay just how good and expressive these character designs are. Our "gems" all represent different crystalline minerals, from Diamond to Cinnabar to Phosphyllite, our main character. While their eyes and hair are the big tells, the gems regularly break and shatter depending on their "hardness", revealing their internal structures. These segments, while occasionally horrifying in a body-horror sort of way, take full advantage of the CG, spewing gem fragments across the ground and into the air. The merits don't end there though; being able to freely move characters around during dialogue without the need to animate more frames gives even the most mundane of conversation more personality. Even the lengthiest of dialogues, even though there aren't many, feel alive and relatable, chock full of the unique personalities of all of our many gems. This can be felt purely in the sheer amount of gems we have around; even though there are so many, they all feel distinct, unique, and fairly well fleshed-out. Even their body language comes across naturally, which is something that even the best of TV anime regularly struggle with. Oh and the fights, dear god the fights. This is some of the best CG action I've ever seen, and while it will always feel a little cheap compared to 2D animation, the camera is used masterfully to keep the battle from feeling robotic, especially in the second half when we get a good bit of gold fluid dynamics. While I can't say Orange has fully won me on anime CG, I have to give them credit for making me feel hopeful for the future even if it was just this one time.
Getting back to that "hardness" bit: when I say that, I mean it literally. The gems are ranked on the Mohs scale, and that directly shows their combat effectiveness. A brittle and shatter-prone gem can't exactly get out there and fight the moon people, who pop into the Earthen plane with some seemingly dimensional space magic. This leaves our brittlest main character, Phosphillyte, left to "encyclopedia" duty despite her spunky yet clumsy nature. Oh, I'll clear this up now I guess: the anime uses a mix of feminine and masculine pronouns for our gems, but the official subtitling leans feminine. Scanlations of the manga tend to use masculine pronouns, while the actual source uses the generally masculine but now-trendy and line-blurring "boku". Japanese isn't so convenient to have an easily accessible agender personal pronoun, and those for "I" are typically used pretty freely across the gender spectrum, so your interpretation of it all in regards to Houseki is about as valid as anyone elses. It's not at all important to the story or to our characters (seriously, characters never acknowledge this), nor is it a point to get your tussles in a twist over or shower the author in undue praise. It's merely a property of the setting that is never acknowledged, so if you decide to get pissed off by how the show handles it or worship the ground Ichikawa Haruko walks on, it's your own damn fault. With that out of the way, back to Phos. Enter one of the most well-written and compelling characters in new anime in one hell of a long time. Her struggles with trying to both physically and socially overcome the limits of her Mohs scale ranking have the perfect balance of fantastical situation while still being relatable. The tale of Phos and the other gems is far from a happy one, and the themes of "the price of power" and "strength through loss" are overtly prevalent. While those aren't new or novel, the way that Phos experiences these themes are through her own selfless desires to be of use the other gems, and more directly prove to Cinnabar that she is not worthless. Cinnabar, while being even more brittle than Phos, secretes a terrifying poison that keeps her from freely living with the other gems, and condemns her to a forever fruitless night-watch. Phos' desire to help Cinnabar find worth in her existence, while having trouble finding a reason for her own, begins as a loving tale of the blind leading the blind but warps into something much greater and more dramatic, and to incredible affect.
The plot hits every beat on this path with a brisk yet comfortable pace, but it's exactly this that leads to me to my largest gripe: Land of the Lustrous ends far too soon. Just as things are getting good, just as the current line of questions is answered and new ones arise, the story just ends. Given even just six more episodes, the series could have been catapulted into the everlasting anime hall of fame, which is a feat for even the most beautiful and intriguing 2D-animated pieces. Yes, I've gone on and read the source, and although I think it lacked the majestic aesthetic of the anime, it was still a greatly enjoyable experience to read up to current. This source=strength was undoubtedly the reasoning behind such a "build-up-and-drop" final hour; anime is just a glorified manga and light novel ad-stream after all. But, to judge the anime on content that doesn't yet exist yet in animation isn't fair, and as much as I want to hand out the greatest of awards to Houseki no Kuni, even based on what actually does come next, I can't in good faith do so. If it fails to get a second season, Land of the Lustrous will surely go down as one of the great "go read the manga" examples of anime cuckoldry, but despite this likely inevitability, I think that it is far more than worth your time. As an example of just how great anime CG can be in the future, and just as a damn good story, this series is truly a hidden, if a tad uncut, gem.
Score: 8.5/10
Title: Kuzu no Honkai, or Scum's Wish
Genre: Drama, Romance
Studio: Lerche
Kuzu no Honkai is a show about a bunch of broken, terrible people. Seriously, there's not a single person in this show that has their heads on straight. Our main girl Hanabi likes her childhood-friend-now-teacher, but goddammit would you look at that, he likes another teacher! Wait, it gets even better. There's a guy in her class, Mugi, that has a similar relationship with the teacher that Hanabi's crush likes! There's some crazy kooky love quadrilateral stuff going down, so what's the solution? Instead of going after people who Hanabi and Mugi actually like, they settle for satiating their physical desires by thrusting themselves onto one another in one of the most co-dependent and dysfunctional relationships I've ever seen. The craziness doesn't stop there, as there's an array of side-interests waiting on the sidelines for their chance to swoop in and get a piece of Hanabi or Mugi, playing out like a confused-and-lewd battle royale of teenage angst. The worst part about all this? This show is actually good.
Alright let's back up a bit. Yes, stated above is the general setup of Kuzu no Honkai's plot, and in a time far past the brief "friends with benefits" Hollywood craze of the late 2000s ft. Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, this plot setup for Americans has become predictable and thin. Thankfully, this anime is a bit more clever and thoughtful about its content (see: depressing) while still retaining enough of that raw angsty teenage drama that will have you mashing that next episode button. Hanabi and Mugi are a downright detestable couple: they're co-dependent in the most toxic way, and watching them realize and grow beyond that is gratifying to watch. The gears of this development are greased by characters that are even more detestable, like Akane, one of the most easily-hatable characters I've seen in an anime, but they're not all like that. Even though Akane plays a large role in the central drama of Kuzu no Honkai, both Sanae and Noriko play to a more heartfelt and gutwrenching effect, as Hanabi and Mugi have to come to terms with their feelings not only for them, but their crushes and each other. If you were looking for a happy ending here for anyone, you aren't going to get it and I don't think saying that is a spoiler in the slightest. Kuzu no Honkai proudly splatters that message on the wall, but I think that was part of the appeal. To see how far Hanabi, Mugi, and all the other characters can fall, and then to watch them try to drag themselves just back to where they started, is what makes Scum's Wish so different than other romantic dramas; it's decidedly tragic. Although not quite at a White Album 2 level, but Kuzu no Honkai is no stranger to effectively pulling on your heartstrings, and doing that in spite of some incredibly hate-able characters is one hell of a feat.
Such a tragic and toxin-filled plot isn't the only way Scum's Wish stands out: for an anime romantic drama, it's one of the most aesthetically amazing I've seen so far. While yes, setting the setting is in high school and there's only so much anyone can do with that, Kuzu no Honkai sets itself apart by using a wide array of interesting shots and cuts by utilizing an unconventional method: picture-in-picture. Now, this isn't your standard use of it like you would find on a news program or the like. Instead, it's used to give a moving manga panel affect, which strangely brings some of the more dramatic scenes to life. By giving close ups of both characters in a dialogue at the same time, from whatever angles the director wishes, we get a unique perspective and framing on any given dialogue. It's hard to describe in text, but the visual flow of Kuzu no Honkai, especially in comparison to its contemporaries, is top notch. Combine this visual direction with a pretty good grouping of character designs and a warm-but-realistic color palette, and you end up with a show that's pretty great to watch in motion. It's nothing over the top, but you have to remember: this is a romance drama, you don't exactly come into one of these expecting a visual masterpiece. The whole package is really helped along by a really great soundtrack, from the OP & ED it really nails down the hypocritically hopeless and hopeful themes of the show. While it isn't something that I'd seek out outside the show itself, it serves its purpose well as an evoker of feels, both frustrated and melancholy.
So it can't all be rosy and great right? Well, you got me. Nothing is perfect, especially in the romdrama department, and Kuzu no Honkai is no exception. Some of my problems arise directly from the source content being something to me that is tired and played out. While the whole co-dependence bit of this magnitude is interesting and "novel" for the medium, it relies on a fair bit of anime-autismo bullshit and plot convenience to get moving, cheapening the fairly strong middle section of the series. Furthermore, there's an absurd amount of fanservice and ecchi situations, and in a show that's effectively about two high schoolers being sadboy friends-with-benefits, that should be expected. However, they're presented in a light that doesn't always reflect the naivete and conflicting thoughts the characters claim to be feeling in the moment, instead shot as if they're specifically meant to be erotic. If you're someone who isn't thrown off by even the lewdest of ecchi content, you'll likely find these scenes fairly mild, but the issue doesn't arise from the level of degeneracy, but rather the setting and content they are placed on top of. This is a result of "anime as a product" vs. "anime as an artistic medium", and although no medium is immune by any stretch of the imagination, the advertising nature of anime as a whole is really felt through these scenes. It's a disappointing result of the space in which anime exists, but this doesn't absolve it from it's shortcomings.
Even still, I think Kuzu no Honkai is worth watching for its powerful visual direction alone. The picture-in-picture is a unique shot composition trick that works to great effect here, and the rest of the package is pretty alright too if you can stand an abundance of lewdness that only sometimes serves a point.
Score: 7.5/10
Title: Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, or Chivalry of a Failed Knight
Genre: Action, Romance, Ecchi, Fantasy, School
Studio: Silver Link., Nexus
If you're even remotely familiar with the seasonal anime scene, you've probably already heard of this show and its estranged brother, The Asterisk War. These shows aired at the same time, and even started airing on the same day. Even though I wasn't present for the experience, reports from otakus I know and trust reported the experience of queuing up both these shows on Crunchyroll as "watching the exact same show twice". Having drunkenly sat through Ass Wars with a couple friends, I remembered at least enough of the plot to be jaw-droppingly shocked by Chivalry's first episode. They truly are nigh identical, from the actual plot beats to the types of characters that are introduced. This reason, and this reason alone, is why I decided to watch Cavalry. I wanted to see what the noise was really about, as I'd heard reports that despite the similar setting, plot, themes, characters, and first episode that Cavalry undisputably came out on top when compared to Ass Wars. Was that actually true? Well that's what this review is for, so hold on to you swords because we're going back to high school.
Cavalry is an unapologetic ecchi battle harem light novel adaptation. If that wasn't enough negative buzzwords to get you to run, I can assure that the budget is relatively low, and the the show is truly nothing to look at. It's slightly better looking than Ass Wars, but this is akin to comparing stale bread to really stale bread. Our characters are bland and annoying, with our main character having a bullshit overpowered ability that other people "just can't comprehend" and has some sort of arbitrary limit. Our main heroine, Stella, is all that matters, and she's just an tsundere Asuna Sword Art Online-tier re-skin. The sister is stupid loli siscon bullshit, the teachers are fetishbait, and the other girls are as bland as unsalted crackers. The only other standout character is Alice, who very well might be up there with Gatchaman Crowds as the most progressive representation of a transgender character in an anime. This is a low bar, and my "sense for offense" is pretty low, but Alice played a major role in the plot, was never objectified (even when the rest of the female cast was regularly), and was respected equally by her peers. Anime is typically really offensive with this stuff, and I've met people who swear off the medium entirely because of the offensiveness how it's "handled" (which is completely fair). But still, even if the representation is respectful, that doesn't make the character herself or the show interesting; it's still one big hunking piece of bland-ass hardtack.
I'll spoil you on what make's Cavalry not a complete waste of time: Stella and Ikki's romantic arc. This show does not waste time when it comes to love. Even if their romance began fairly inorganically, stemming from nothing more than "He treats me like a normal person and rival even though I'm a princess." Did I mention Stella was a princess? Yup, light novels everybody! Anyway, by the end of the first third of the series, Stella and Ikki are actually dating. DATING. You heard that right. Yes, in an anime, the hero and heroine are actually in a relationship. By the end of the first third of the show. Fucking. Crazy. And there romance turns out to be pretty genuine too! Even though Ikki is an emotionless husk of a man in every other avenue of his existence, when he's around Stella he is surprisingly heartfelt. When Stella has questions of when their relationship will evolve physically, and is obviously nervous about it, he takes the highest of high roads and assures her that he will always be there for her and that she can take as long as she needs. It's mature and heartfelt moments like these that help cut through the blech and barf that make up every other minute of Cavalry. These were the moments that were missing from Ass Wars, and that's the only reason why people like Cavalry so much more. Oh, did I mention the series ends in a fucking marriage proposal? And it doesn't even feel out of left field? Yes, it's ridiculous, but this entire experience is cheap and ridiculous. At least I get to see a genuine relationship come to a fulfilling conclusion before I have to scarf down the last bit of gack.
So was Cavalry better than Ass Wars in the end? Absolutely. Does that mean that Cavalry is worth watching. Fuck no. It's still one of the most light novel shows that ever light noveled, and even if you're into that kind of thing, there are so many better options. The only reason I'd recommend this is if you are starving for some decent fantasy romance and can deal with a thick layer of "suck" sauce, or if you're, like, the loneliest person alive.
Score: 5.5/10
Title: Selector Infected WIXOSS & Selector Spread WIXOSS
Genre: Drama, Action, Card Games, Mahou Shoujo
Studio: J.C. Staff
Hey kid, do you like card games? Do you like watching cute girls cry? A little sprinkling of existential dread and hamfisted symbolism? Well, do I have the show for you. Wixoss is as close to "Madoka suffers through playing _Yu-GiOh" as possible, while still trying its hardest to be something unique. I should probably start with this: calling Wixoss a "card game anime" is an offensive mislabeling of what the show tries to be. Yes, the card games are prevalent, and are a main part of the plot. However, despite being present in every aspect of the show, these elements could very easily be removed and replaced by any other form of conflict. While the result is a cheapening of the references to the game itself, it overall greatly plays in the show's favor. Downplayed to a point of near nonexistence, usual card game elements such as explaining mechanics, going through turn orders, and even summoning creatures are sidestepped or gone completely. As someone who's never played Wixoss in real life, I know little to nothing more about the card game than what I started with after watching both Infected and Spread, and this is for the best. Throwing out these unnecessary time-wasting features of card game anime lets Wixoss be an actual show on its own merit rather than a hackneyed advertisement. Yu-Gi-Oh this is not, but is Wixoss worth watching on that merit alone? Lucky for you, that's why I'm here.
So if Wixoss isn't really about cards, what's it about? In this alternate reality, girls with wishes held deep in their hearts are chosen to compete in a series of card game battles as a "Selector". A Selector is given a partner in the form of an LRIG, a sort of planeswalker-esque avatar that is the centerpiece of the game's combat on grimdark "Shadow Realm"-esque battlefields. This LRIG talks and advises the Selector from within the card, and hopes to lead their Selector to a certain number of victories to grant their wish. If you've watched any of the dark-spun magical girl anime that's been popular in the past decade or so, this setup reeks of them from miles away. Wishes are never granted for free in the these times of the lord our God, the Law of Cycles, and the world of Wixoss is no exception to that rule. This is one of the greater aspects of the show; while the smell of darkness is something the viewer will be validated in pretty quickly, learning of the specifics throughout both Infected and Spread's runs is consistently entertaining. Wixoss has the balls to throw some real curveballs at the viewer, and while every one might not always hit, to rob potential viewers of the blindsides isn't my purpose here. Just know that the show does know what it's doing (to a point), and that the content of the show is decidedly dark despite it's somewhat cutesy, rounded character designs. Speaking of characters, this is a department in that Wixoss really stands-out. The later half of the show has a bit of fuckery in the character department that I'll avoid describing for the sake of spoilers, but our main cast shines through.
For every Selector, there's an LRIG, so there's a certain duality to every group's dialogue and decision-making even if some pairs do this better than others. They also typically represent the "color" in the card game, which as far as I can tell are pretty analogous to that of Magic: The Gathering. Yuzuki and her LRIG Hanoyo are "Red Ambition" to a fault, straightforward and aggressive not only during battle but also in pursuit of her wish of love. Hitoe is a peaceful and timid green, while Akira is the epitome of a sadistic, shut-down blue player, as is her wish. Our main character Ruuko, and her LRIG Tama, are understandably a bit more complex, starting off with that Ruuko is a wishless Selector. By all accounts this shouldn't be possible, as LRIGs should only reveal themselves to girls with wishes in their hearts, but here we are with the timid Ruuko and her adorably retarded LRIG Tama. To say Ruuko shows shades of Kaname Madoka would be disingenuous; for every account she is Kaname Madoka, all the way down to the wishy-washy and self-sacrificing nature of her character. This holds throughout the entirety of Infected, and it doesn't stop at just Ruuko. Every plot beat in Infected has a Madoka Magica analogue, even if they may come out of order and in slightly different forms. Now, the formula definitely works and Spread takes big strides in making Wixoss into something fairly original, but early plot and thematic similarities are so glaring that I'd say that it's a more damning rip-off than even Yuuki Yuna.
So, that's not exactly fair to Wixoss. There's one key facet of Ruuko's personality not found in that of Madoka: her internal strife over enjoying Selector battles. Even after it's revealed that they aren't the rose-colored fights for wishes that the girls initially believe they are, Ruuko can't help but enjoy the feeling of crushing her opponents in card games. Her struggles in wrestling with what she feels is right vs. what she knows is right is what kept me mashing the next episode button through both seasons of this show. Even if I can call the Madoka-inspired plot beats four or more episodes out, Ruuko's battle-fever and how it affects her relationships with both friends and enemies was the star of the show. If I had any gripe with this part of Wixoss, it's that it took too long to cast Ruuko's struggle in the spotlight. The show opted for heavier world- and ensemble-cast-building throughout the first three-quarters of Infected, as well as Yuzuki's arc. If anything is going to turn you off from this show, it's Yuzuki's wish and her arc's resolution. While it serves a concrete purpose for the overall plot by revealing the true nature of Selector battles, the content is primetime anime bullshit. I'll just come out and say it: Yuzuki's wish is to fulfill an incestuous love for her brother. To make matters worse, Wixoss resolves it in a psuedo-positive light that is sure to alienate any normal person who has an actual sibling. It somehow comes off as creepier than usual for this kind of stuff in anime, probably because it's taken far more seriously and there's no obvious but welcomed "cuck" to stop this whole thing from coming to fruition. It can be argued that the arc's conclusion isn't truly what it says it is, but let's be honest, this is degenerate. It's a detraction from the overall story that could easily have been sidestepped and had a similar impact, and even though the show tries to backpedal and say, "No, this is bad. It has consequences. It's wrong.", it doesn't do a good job of it. Thankfully, it's contained to mostly the first half of Infected, but it does regularly rear its ugly head throughout the story.
As I said earlier, Wixoss closely mirrors the plot beats of Madoka for the almost the entirety of Infected outside of few noticeable differences, but Spread is where the show really comes into its own. With the secrets of Selector battles laid bare and Ruuko finally in possession of her true wish, things really start to break down around the girls. Characters are emotionally and physically scarred, bodies are swapped, and everyone is crying all the damn time. While this sounds like Wixoss is jumping the shark on an already absurd premise, it's really not. The show's lore is surprisingly well realized, even if it takes a while for the true mechanics of the world to be revealed to the viewers. The characters individual plights help smooth over this transition, especially in the earlier sections of Spread. The inferred "wait" for the reveals doesn't feel nearly along as it does due to them, leading to Wixoss playing out at a seemingly breakneck pace. This also helps deliver Wixoss' heavy themes and symbolism more effectively, which lean heavier in the second half. While I already discussed Ruuko's struggles with her nature vs. her ideals, Wixoss isn't content with just that; the importance of self-acceptance and the atrocities of over-dependence takes center stage in Akira's arc, the dangers of losing oneself in their desires in Iona's, and explorations of abuse and loneliness in Mayu's are just a smattering of the heft that Wixoss likes to throw around. While I'd be hesitant to call any of these "new" to the dark-cute, new-age magical girl pantheon in a post-Madoka world, they're executed pretty damn well given the context of Wixoss' world. That's really more than I could ask for from something that started out as such a carbon copy.
So yes, I just called Wixoss a magical girl show. But this is a show about card games, in just what way is it considered a "mahou shoujo"? Well, for some background here, I sought this show out due to an r/anime posting of a "magical girl alignment chart", with axes of "thematic" and "aesthetic" on a scale from "purist" to "radical". Wixoss was all the way up at the top-right, as a "thematic purist" and "aesthetic radical", meaning the show explores pretty standard magical girl themes while using no magical girl imagery. After two twelve episode seasons of it, I can confirm this appropriation to be right on the nose; while card games don't exactly scream "mahou shoujo", the themes are fairly unmistakable sans a few that help Wixoss stand out even further among its peers. Furthermore, the way that the show attains its dark-but-cute aesthetic is a little more direct than its contemporaries, playing un-changing cute, over-blushed characters against grimdark backgrounds. While, yes, Madoka did this, I can't say that Madoka didn't bleed the background into the characters over time, opting by the time of Rebellion to completely bloody our cast. Wixoss strangely keeps a lot of the true violence outside of the game battlefield, which gives all of it much more weight by comparison. We see the dark, edgy nature of the battlefield bleed into the world rather than directly into our characters; a more indirect but still effective method of achieving Wixoss' desired visual representation. While the overall aesthetic package is far from the best, settling firmly in a class for both visuals and music that I'd describe as "doing its job", it's effective enough to illicit the required feel. I'd say that I'm a little disappointed in J.C. Staff, and that's because I am, but I have to give them a nod for giving a project like this a spin in the first place, let alone generating enough revenue stream to continue it for 3 more seasons after the first.
After all this, would I say that Wixoss was worth my time? You can probably guess from the amount I've written, but yes, I'd say it was. While not the best thing I've ever seen, and not even close to the best magical girl show, it was consistently entertaining and was the first show in a long time that got me into the "mashing the next-episode button" frame of mind. This being said, I'm incredibly biased in that personal enjoyment, and in my final scores for both Infected and Spread I've strived to divorce that bias from them. However, when you grow up on Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, there's only so much that can be done in that department, so you're free to take these recommendations with a grain of salt. This is another one of those shows that has fallen into post-seasonal obscurity, enjoyed by the few who watched during its airing but quickly and undeservingly forgotten. I'm glad this one came to me though, and I hope this wall I've written can coerce you even in passing to give this "similar-but-unique" card-slinging magical girl show a shot. If this show charms you, despite it's few flaws, you'll be yelling "OPEN!" with the rest of us.
Infected Score: 7/10
Spread Score: 8/10
Title: Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara, or If Her Flag Breaks
Genre: Comedy, Harem
Studio: Hoods Entertainment
Ever heard of the random MyAnimeList plan-to-watch selector? This is the punishment I received for using it. Somehow, this one weaseled its way onto my backlog and as a slave to the throws of indecision, I took the random choosing up on its offer of fun wacky harem hijinks. What I received is one of the worst shows I've ever had the displeasure of watching. If Her Flag Breaks is an offensively bad harem comedy, and since I've already ripped into Oreshura up above, I'll be keeping this one brief. While slotting in every trope known to the medium, this show fails to have any concrete direction of what it wants to do. Plot beats happen at random, new girls fall into our whiteboard main character's lap multiple times per episode, and the hook (if you can even call it a hook) fails to create any interesting dialogue. Even if our hero can see "flags", or signifiers of others' fates, what we get is the same old tired harem jokes and rehashes of the same character archetypes that we've been seeing since time immemorial. Everything about this show was so forgettable, than when accosted as to why I was watching it, I couldn't tell my accusers a single name of any given character on-screen. After dragging out for eleven long episodes, the show has the gall to try to end it all on a crazy supernatural battle-type ending that comes completely out of left field, sealing the deal for If Her Flag Breaks as one of the most incomprehensible anime I've ever seen. I'd slam it with a one, but the OP was pretty decent and the character designs are fairly unique despite their cookie-cutter personalities. That's at least worth a single point.
Score: 2/10
Title: Lucky Star
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy
Studio: Kyoto Animation
It's hard for me to view this show in the time it aired in, and I think that struggle is the baseline at which my opinion for this starts. Right along with the other pioneering part of the KyoAni cute-girls-cute-shit revolution, K-On!, Lucky Star is one the slice-of-life shows that started it all, rocketing the genre into the comfy staple of the anime medium that we know today. The difference between this and its big sister K-On! is that it has not aged well by comparison. The comedy is referential mostly to the time in Japan that it had aired in, and although some of it is timeless and elicited a chuckle from me here and there (particularly any part that lampooned otaku culture), a lot of the rest falls flat today. This isn't to say that Lucky Star can't hang with the best of cute gilrs slice-of-life even today, and I think it's mandatory watching for anyone into anime deep enough to start seeing trends in an otherwise downright formulaic genre. But it's weirder than its future contemporaries; far weirder than K-On!, skirting the line into Nisekoi-esque sketches often. Whether or not this is a positive or a negative for you is up to you, but the disjointed nature of the show as its somewhat inflated 24 episode run slogs onward can make watching more of a chore than the relaxing comedy you would expect.
All that being said, Lucky Star succeeds in being a prime example of its genre. Every girl has their own now-commonplace personality pigeonhole: tsundere, meek, airhead, otaku, and more placed on the sidelines in waiting. Just like the ones of today, Lucky Star is firmly slice-of-life. There isn't any drama even in the slightest, and I'd argue to say there isn't even a plot or resolution to individual episodes. I referenced Nisekoi before not only because this was animated by the same studio, albeit a few years early, but also to give you a clearer picture of just how disjointed one scene can be from another. Lucky Star opts to hand us a "greatest hits" of our cast's high school life, and in that regard it does a pretty great job. Each scene has a hand-selected feel that helps individualize our characters to a point, despite their appearances as low-detail moe blobs. It culminates in a pretty heartfelt conclusion with a strong message of friendship, as these shows often do, but this isn't why most people like Lucky Star.
People praise this show for the aforementioned referential humor that the show is rife with. Whether it be references to the news of the day or anime culture, Lucky Star delivers it in spades. If you aren't "Nippon savvy" these are going to go over your head and a lot of the show's comedy is going to fall flat. This is the nature of consuming media outside of your cultural boundaries, and you can choose to either reject the references or seek them out. Still, this is probably the key factor in anyone's enjoyment with Lucky Star; the bigger the weeb you are, the more you will enjoy this show, full stop. For me, the reference humor was undoubtedly the highlight of the experience, but much of the tropes presented to me have been made too tired by Lucky Star's future siblings. The show feels more dated than those even older than it, even those by the same studio, so staying engaged can be a chore. The characters fail to feel very unique despite being fairly well executed, and having seen the same archetypes season after season for so many years, I just can't find myself getting into Lucky Star in a similar way I would with other good slice-of-life. Despite being a perfectly good and cute show, Lucky Star isn't deserving of all the praise it gets.
Score: 7/10
Title: Nekopara (OVA)
Genre: Comedy, Slice-of-Life, Romance?
Studio: Felix Films
Well, it finally happened. The most funded anime-related Kickstarter campaign of all time has delivered on its promise to bring the kinetic hentai novel Nekopara to the animated medium. Despite the novels higher than average production value, it's some purely bottom of the barrel "entertainment", so much so that its inspired many a joke and meme throughout the greater anime community. The result is this nearly exactly hour-long OVA, released directly to backers and on Steam for digital downloads. When this finally dropped, I couldn't believe it. People I know had directly contributed to the production of this, and seeing the names of backers from many different nations during the opening credits was a hell of a trip. After the surreal experience of watching a Kickstarter project come to fruition, does the rest of the experience hold up? I think that's the worst part about all of this, because the Nekopara OVA actually isn't even bad.
I'll start out with this: the OVA is firmly vanilla. Gone is the smut of the novel, leaving us but nothing but a cafe of cute cat girls. The plot is nigh identical to that of the first volume of the VN, so there's barely any content on the bone. Still, this OVA is only an hour long, so if the execution is pretty good, then much of this mundane content can be forgiven. Thankfully, execution is the one thing that Nekopara does extremely well. Sayori's naturally adorable character designs have translated well to anime, and even though the motion is fairly limited in a slice-of-life such as this, there are still some good cuts sprinkled throughout its runtime. The staggering amount of money raised went straight into visual production quality that you can see in the visuals from the very first frame. True 1080P rendering and the purely digital distribution model for the OVA make the bright colors pop right off the screen, and the character designs are near over-detailed. Backgrounds are also jaw-droppingly amazing, and even the music has some loving care put into it. Despite Nekopara's origins, I have to acknowledge the power of Kickstarter; even if it was created through the power memes, that power can obviously create some damn good animation.
The almost alien divorcing of the "seedier" content from the OVA is welcome, as Nekopara exists at the highest level of degeneracy the anime medium has to offer and a realm even I feel uncomfortable treading. To make up for it, Felix Films went for diabetes inducing cuteness, and I think it works well in its favor. However, for many viewers myself included, making a mental split between the characters of this OVA and the straight hentai novel you've seen in countless memes is very difficult and devalues the experience as a whole. While this isn't new for anime especially with huge successes such as the Fate series, the difference here is that Nekopara was explicitly pornography. Not a doujin that had h-scenes in an attempt to better sell the product, but unironically actually porn. It makes what would otherwise be a pretty decent slice-of-life comedy and makes it an unnerving and uncomfortable experience. To make matters worse, clear evidence of fulfilling backer goals was laugh-out-loud hilariously misplaced all throughout the OVA. A particular backer level, where you could have your own cat girl original character animated in the OVA, and for one level even be voiced, was particularly offensive to the overall product. Randomly one of those same over-detailed character designs will pop into the forefront for a couple seconds. These cuts come out of left field, and usually don't have anything to do with the real content of the OVA. While they're funny in our own right, even though that hilarity comes mostly from the knowledge that these lonely men paid literal thousands of dollars to have their cat girl waifus animated for only a smattering of frames. The end credits are also an unintended riot, with thousands of scrolling names of backers going on for nearly five full minutes.
So why am I giving Nekopara such a relatively high score, despite it being a fairly typical slice-of-life? First off, I can't stress enough how great this OVA looks. For something out of a no-name studio and from what I can tell new talent, this is proof that newer animators can compete with the greats in creating captivating visuals. But that's not the main reason, because that's Kickstarter itself. While the second Little Witch Academia movie was the first big anime crowdfunding success that most of the community remembers, we were giving money to TRIGGER. Our return on investment was practically assured; we knew that the team behind the next piece of LWA content was worth throwing a couple dollars around. Here, there was no assurance of quality, and what we got in the end was everything the team had touted and more. With failures like Under the Dog leaving a poor taste in the community's mouth for anime crowdfunding, we need good examples like this to prove that Western audiences really can make things happen overseas in the realms of media we enjoy. Even if we might have only helped create a vanilla but pretty version of cat girl once-smut, at least we were able to help create something.
Score: 7/10
Title: Seihou Bukyou Outlaw Star
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Adventure
Studio: Sunrise
Those of you who remember Toonami's lineup will likely remember this one. Outlaw Star is Cowboy Bebop's campier and more plot-driven little brother, and is even animated by the same studio. The parallels drawn between these two series are just far too easy, even if they aren't at all similar in content at the end of the day. Yes, there are spaceships and the usual space opera faire, but while Bebop bathes itself in its own gritty Kool-Aid throughout its episodic run, Outlaw Star is a much more lighthearted experience. This can be seen in everything from the visuals all the way down to the music and voice acting. Spaceship designs overall are much more "fun", using a complex system of battling "arms" to ram and punch one another throughout the stars. The show is also deeply rooted into its own psuedo-magi-science lore that provides a much fantastical setting than the more hard sci-fi Bebop employs, and while this works in Outlaw Star's favor a lot of the time in our more light moments it starts to detract from the experience as the plot kicks into gear. First and foremost this is a Sunrise show, so you can expect the standard hard narrative shift from campy to hamfisted philosophy and pretty decent drama. Thankfully our very humanized cast can carry us through this rocky transition, and although I don't feel any character particularly stands out besides our two mains, they're a fun but complex group that's a joy to watch. There's some anime ridiculousness there, sure, but its not anything beyond the standard of anime space operas so I feel as if it can easily be forgiven.
There is very little in Outlaw Star that isn't played straight; there is little that won't play out exactly as you expect. This isn't exactly a bad thing, and was pretty typical of this sort of late 90s anime. The show is an enjoyable ride, and like I said above, that's due massively to our cast. Despite dipping into some episodic content every once in a while, watching Gene, James, and Melfina deal with Suzuka and Aisha's antics is always entertaining. Outlaw Star makes it easy for you to get wrapped up in its mysterious yet always unexplained technology and lore. Aisha's race of imperialist cat girls is a good example of this, and is usually what most people remember from the show if they'd seen it on Toonami back in the day. Combine this type of intrigue with some classic 90s hand-drawn ships and damn good space combat and you have a standard yet fun package that will rarely fail to disappoint. If anything, my gripes are due to the ending as well as a distinct lack of explanation regarding a good bit of the world's lore. For a show that was this light for at least 80% of its run, I wasn't really expecting much in this department, but that doesn't make the lack of information and conclusion hurt it any less.
If you are in the mood for some classic 90s anime, you could stand do much, much worse than Outlaw Star. For those of you who missed this back when it was on Cartoon Network, hop on your favorite streaming site and get to work. You won't be disappointed.
Scare: 8/10
Title: Stella Jogakuin Koutou0ka C^3-bu, or Stella Women's Academy, High School Division Class C^3
Genre: Sports, Military, School
Studio: Gainax
I picked Stella up pretty recently after falling in love with Sabagebu! I expected something vaguely similar, but Stella is a far different beast. While both series follow a group of girls playing survival games, or what would be referred to in the states as airsoft, this show takes a far more serious take on the sports aspect. Sabagebu! is more about the lampooning the line between the violent reality that airsoft emulates and the sport itself, and that's something you aren't getting in Stella. Gainax might play up the absurdity of young girls playing airsoft about as much as any other studio would, but the main focus is on airsoft as a competition. Yura and her school club, C^3, participate in tournaments and other serious battles to prove their worth as survival game players. However, knowing Gainax, this isn't the only hook. Yura has the ability to create delusions that warp the reality of the playing field, which is ironic considering the similarities this show has to Sabagebu! Yura is the only one of her team to experience them, and this gives Gainax a lot of room to experiment visually in a series that would otherwise be an array of random forested locations. Given this, was Gainax able to muster something interesting from it all?
Well, the answer is a bit of a mixed bag. Even if focusing on the sporting aspect of airsoft is as valid of a competition as any, when played straight the concept falls flat. Later on in the series, the competitions become more and more unbelievable, morphing into a nonexistent amalgamation of speedball-style paintball ripoffs and fantastical mil-sim situations. While these are fun to watch, I'm a firm believer that sports anime should be rooted in some semblance of reality unless they aim to take a comedic stance. Unfortunately for Stella, the disbelief compounds with Yura's delusions; Gainax tries to have fun with these fabrications, but them directly affecting the outcome of the matches that hold so much importance for the plot and our characters undermines the entirety of the series. Combine this with some relatively weak characters overall, and you have a core plot that really fails to make an impact. Yura's story of growth and redemption is enjoyable to see to completion, but is one of the most stereotypical sports anime plots ever employed and will undoubtedly bore you over time. For me, the premise and the strength of the visuals were enough to carry me through this with my attachment to the source material as I've played airsoft since early college. If this isn't true for you, you'll likely find yourself frustrated with Stella and its characters most of the time.
Gainax, despite working on a much smaller budget than what they're used to, has still managed to provide a unique visual flair to Stella. Yura's hallucinations are the prime example of this, and they're employed to pretty good visual effect in breaking up the monotony of an academy setting. It's unfortunate that the character designs follow that rule of monotony, as even Sabagebu! proved that you can make battle dress uniforms look fairly unique across even a small cast. This is par for the course though, as pretty much all the visuals leave much to be desired outside of Yura's delusions and the gun designs. Thankfully Gainax played enough attention to the firearm designs for them to look authentic and unique when compared to one another, a staple of airsoft as a sport and the culture surrounding it. People take pride in the unique model, features, and look of their guns, and thankfully at least that was accurately reflected in Stella, which is praise I can't even award Sabagebu! Despite this, the series ends without much of a message to tell or themes to explore. Yes, Yuru grows up a bit, but this is downplayed by Gainax's decision to give an unnecessary "Gainax ending" to Stella, which does nothing but negatively impact the entire experience.
So, do I think Stella is actually worth the watch? Well, if you aren't into airsoft or guns, the answer is an absolute "no". Nothing else within the show is strong enough to warrant its recommendation, and I think that's the biggest offense the show makes. Your premise alone cannot be the entire experience, but Stella fails to do any more than the bare minimum. This was one of Gainax's last TV anime before basically falling apart in the mid 2010s, and it was definitely starting to show. While I still might have enjoyed this show for some shallow reasons, you should be able to make a far more intelligent choice. Don't worst your time with things that don't interest you.
Score: 5.5/10
Genre: Action, Psychological, Sci-Fi
Studio: Madhouse, Artland
Gunslinger Girl is one of those too-deep-for-you sci-fi psychological classics that I think any anime fan can enjoy. The plot and characters are normie enough for just about anyone of any level of degeneracy to enjoy, and both the sub and dub are available on Netflix. The story of underage android spies incredibly skilled in the art of gunfighting should be as interesting as any other possible hook for an anime series, and the exploration of the guardian/child relationship between an android spy and her handler is rife with intrigue. But that's not why I want to talk about this series today. Both the first and the second season are worth watching for anyone who's a fan of anime sci-fi, but I wanted to bring up the stark visual differences between the first and second seasons mostly due to them both being on Netflix, and the kind of questions that arise from those not in the know when these kinds of shifts occur.
Let me clear the air now: both the first and second seasons of Gunslinger Girl are supremely good stories. They're full of all sorts of interesting philosophical questions and interpersonal relationships, as well as so damn good character development over the course of both seasons. My issues with the series arise in the offensively sharp quality drop between the original series, by Madhouse, and the sequel, by Artland. The art moves from gorgeous with large liberties in shot composition to a flat, boring, and near panel-for-panel recreation of the manga. It almost feels like a harsh punishment for continuing to watch the series, and given a side by side comparison I can barely tell that the two seasons are from the same series. Upon watching a PV for Teatrino, I almost decided not to continue forward. While I think the narrative of the second season follows a more direct and easily follow-able pattern than that of the first, I simply can't justify the massive quality drop when talking about Gunslinger Girl. In my mind, the series ends in animation after the first season by Madhouse, and if you're chomping at the bit for more content, you'll have to look into reading the manga. It's worth noting that the manga goes farther than what is adapted anyway, and that it's also a surprisingly great read.
That's about all I wanted to say. This "review" is a little short, but Gunslinger Girl is pretty hard to analyze without breaking into a full-length essay. The show plays with some heavy stuff, and any fan of sci-fi will get more than just a kick out of it. Like I said, it's on Netflix, so give that first season a look if any of this sounds like you jam. It's only 13 episodes, so giving it a spin is a fairly low commitment. Before I close, I'd like to thank Josiah for recommending this one to me; it was definitely a great watch, so I hope you all get a chance to experience it as well.
Season One: 8.5/10
Season Two: 5/10
Genre: Magic, School
Studio: LIDENFILMS
Akashic Records is the worst kind of light novel adaptation because it's decidedly that; rather than attempt to do anything unique, it goes balls-to-the-wall on every facet of the category. You get everything in one fell swoop, complete with skimpy schoolgirl outfits, tsundere love interest, magical powers, and a overpowered main character who's power is just "misunderstood". Unlike most of the same ilk, Records doesn't seem to have the coin to back itself up, and although the character designs are fairly endearing for a light novel show, they can't move in any sort of interesting way. The same sort of bullshit computer-generated magical effects are employed in every fight, with "action" being reduced to a moving shot of maybe a singular punch or spell if we're lucky. Unfortunately I can't really speak much to the story, as I had to be drunk off my ass to be able to make it through even three episodes of this one. However, I distinctly remember the plot developing in a way that was somewhat novel, so I apparently gave the show a 4? Sorry, you're going to have to deal with me here on this one. If light novel adaptations are your shit, and you think I'm an idiot for shitting on them, then please let me know what's interesting about Akashic Records, because I sure as hell don't remember.
Score: (Drunken) 4/10
Genre: Sci-Fi, Magic, Drama, Romance '
Studio: Satelight, C2C
Title long enough for you? Yes, SukaSuka has the most offensively long light novel title out of any anime in the last decade, but don't let that influence any preconceptions you might have on this show. Despite being a light novel adaptation, SukaSuka is one of the most well executed fantasy romance anime I've seen in a long time, and it's one that went overlooked both within its season and beyond based on the curse of its title. What's interesting about SukaSuka is that it manages to be interesting despite embracing the same tropes that Records did, proving that it isn't the category or even the tropes at fault but rather horrendous execution. While the story of beast wars, magical weapons, and leprechauns is just as tired and hackneyed as Records' high school of magic and random plot conveniences, SukaSuka succeeds in humanizing its characters and making you become invested in Ctholly and Willem's relationship. Combine this with some great character designs, some acceptable art, and a pretty powerful score, and you get a package that is far more than capable of producing the feels it attempts to pull out of the viewer in its latter half that wraps up in a pretty satisfying conclusion. I wish I had more to say about this show, and although it's really too generic to say anything of worth, it's important to remember that generic things can still be good if they can be unique in their own way. While I'd still hesitate to call SukaSuka anything original, and that's because its far from it and seeped in the throws of light novel hell, it's still far from unenjoyable, and that's more than most light novel adaptations can boast of.
Score: 7/10
That's it for my backlog reviews! I tried to cover most of the things I watched throughout the latter half of 2017 that weren't seasonals, up to stuff I watched as recently as last week. I might do more of these in the future, and you bet your ass I'll be back in a month for the end of the winter season. See you then!
If you're sufficiently confused, let's do some quick damage control: these are reviews for shows that haven't aired in the same season, or didn't air when us here in the states had access to quickly and readily available simulcasts. I've titled these as such because I'm going to follow my seasonal review format. Why? Well for one, because it seems like it's pretty effective at breaking down a lot of content fairly quickly, and secondly... I guess I'm just attached to the format? After doing about six or seven of these now, the format starts to grow on you, and I'm a big fan of the freedom I have in going a little long in a review or cutting it short. No reason to bind myself by any expectations of length, right?
Well anyway, these are shows I've watched over the past few years that I felt were either underrepresented in, overshadowed by, or straight ignored because of the seasonal anime revolution that's occured within the past half-decade or so. There are plenty of big anime fans I know of who struggle to watch anything outside of the seasonal rotation, and although that's a fine way to be exposed to a smattering of content that can help inform a viewer's fledging tastes, it doesn't serve to show them the depth the medium has to offer. MAL is overflowing with options and can be an absolute beast to wrangle, so I figured I'd highlight my experience of delving into the void with some reviews: both the good and the bad.
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| Standard faire for Kyousougiga; be ready for a lot of this level of action. |
Genre: Action, Supernatural, Fantasy
Studio: Toei Animation
This one came to me by the recommendation of another fairly hardcore otaku, and I'd be lying if I didn't disclose that I sat on this one for a long time. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was over a year. See, the recommender was known for being... overly enthusiastic about particular directors, up-playing everything they did as works of God and downplaying those of others. Even if he was right, and to be fair he often was as his choices of staff were often superb picks, the attitude turned me off. As someone who prefers to evaluate any media by its merits alone, the blinding allegiance and profession of innate quality was directly against my own thoughts, as I prefer to go in to media without any preconceived notions. Now, this is impossible by any metric; a viewer will 9 times out of 10 have some foreknowledge of the staff involved with a work, particularly in anime where the staff pool is comparatively small to other mediums. Even still, the praise seemed to come off as cheap, but as this one was recommended I seemed to have firmly placed it on the proverbial plan-to-watch list. Fast forward that long year, and in the post-Devilman Crybaby world in which the recommender's praise seemed hold a bit more worth, I cautiously queued up Kyousou Giga.
What I found on the other end was something that's pretty difficult to digest even if it does taste pretty good. Kyousou Giga is a holistic experience in the same way that Disneyland is Disney all the way down to the last little pebble that rolls down the main drag of the Magic Kingdom; the world lives and breathes its unique aesthetic of "the Looking-Glass City" in every frame, never stopping to explain or even trying to slow down. The scenery and characters are both fantastical yet realized, similar to that of The Eccentric Family while also having shades of The Boy and The Beast, breathing their motivations and feelings through expressive and varied animation. There's a bit more "kick" to the visuals and motion than typical for a TV anime, which helps the instances of backstory or exposition that come in the form of brief but wonderfully animated vignettes. A fun, fantastical, yet still cohesive experience both thematically and aesthetically is the biggest praise I give to Kyousou Giga, and it isn't praise that I hand out lightly. At times, I found myself asking if I was watching a movie: the cuts really are just that good.
However, the story is unfortunately a bit of a different beast. Kyousou Giga pulls the 'ol anime-original stint of grasping for something "philosophically more" than I felt the content was capable of. This isn't to say the writing and directorial staff did a bad job; far from it in fact. Giga is a show deeply rooted in its own well-executed pseudo-folklore, and from that it tries to evoke a something beyond the touching coming-of-age story of our two main characters, Koto and Myoue. While these narrative arcs run their course beautifully, what we're left with is a smattering of philosophical musings that fall flat when compared to the rest of the content. Mind you, these musings are far from cohesive in theme, and are thrown about willy-nilly in a way that cheapens the whole experience. Now some people really lap this stuff up and that's perfectly fine, but this is my review, and this was my biggest gripe with Giga even if it might have been the only one. Giga would have been served far better if it just went even harder on the family aspects, maybe giving our two other children or even big Koto more of a redemptive conclusion rather than piggybacking them along with Myoue.
Even still, Kyousou Giga is a well put-together experience that was consistently a joy to watch despite a few hanging narrative problems. For a TV anime, you'll be hard pressed to find something so joyously unique and fun, keeping you on your toes with every episode and chomping at the bit for what comes next. While I still don't think that Giga is a show for everyone, and I can't sympathize with rampant fanboying, I have to defer to Church here: this was a great pick. Thank you for the recommendation, and I'm sorry for always ragging on your Yuasa love. <3
Score: 8.5/10
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| The ideal punishment befitting someone who suffers through this show. |
Genre: Romantic Comedy, Harem
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Y'all ever just want to watch some trash? This is a thought that not many sane people experience, but one that I experience regularly. In the volume that I consume anime, I'm a firm believer in that one must live through both the best and worst of times to better recognize either of them in the future. Beyond that, the anime community is quick to shame those not in-the-know. To respond to someone's claims of "Man, Eromanga-sensei is just the best," with knowledgeable disgust is superior and correct. Rolling the dice and ignorantly dismissing them on the basis of possible hearsay is a step in the right direction, and proves you are in the right headspace to become the ideal snob. However, "unknowingly agreeing with others" is a disease that takes millions of lives every day. Before you know it, you'd be pinned as trash-loving lolicon by all your friends, left to wallow in your own stupidity for foolishly replying, "Oh yeah, that show was so good. I really liked all the characters," to that Eromanga-loving freak. To combat this undeserved fate, the best option is to brand oneself as someone who unilaterally consumes everything the anime medium has to offer. To judge unfairly is to barely judge at all, so what better way to hand down a draconian and unwelcome judgment of another's taste than to just watch everything under the sun?
In an effort to understand the bottom-feeders and assert my superior taste, I gave Oreshura a watch long after its airing had wrapped. I'll get this out of the way now; Oreshura is not a good show. It's about as bland a harem comedy as you can get in the late 2010s, and that's only because something as white-bread boring as Tenchi Muyo just isn't meme-y enough to hold up in an age driven by animated GIFs, streamable clips, and YouTube seasonal reviews. The shtick in this one is that both the main girl and guy both despise love. Like, love as a concept, as an idea. Wow, what a novel concept, I have absolutely n o i d e a what is going to happen! I'm so excited to see what happens to these two terribly boring and bland characters! Well, spoiler alert, exactly what you think will happen, happens. Almost to a "T", and while this isn't uncommon in these types of anime, Oreshura is predictable in the most offensive way. Our other girls don't even have flashes of personality, so we know from episode one that there's zero chance anyone else has a shot with our MC. Masuzu is the only one who shows even a shred of intrigue, and at least 50% of that is that she really likes Jojo's. Yes, if you know anything about this show, it's probably the GIFs and clips of Masuzu making some sort of hackneyed Jojo reference, and they're as tired and misplaced as you could imagine. Say what you will about harem shows, and you should because 99% of the genre is pure trash, but they know their audience. They do a pretty decent job of at least making the characters feel like there is indeed a snowball sitting in the fiery depths of hell, even if it's bound to melt within the first second of it being there. Oreshura decides to not even make the snowball, and that's what makes it such an offensively bad harem show.
So why did I give this show a 5/10, and not something much lower? Oreshura, in failing to be an entertaining harem in a traditional sense, becomes an absurdist and dysfunctional comedy. These people have no reason to like each other, at all, even as acquaintances. Two or three of them are quite literally delusional, and the rest might as well be too based on their actions. This makes every attempted plot beat or frank statement by any character break into the realm of comedy, and while that surely wasn't the goal of Oreshura, being a light novel adaptation and all, it helps salvage what was otherwise a waste of generally decent animation talent from A-1 Pictures. The show, for its genre, doesn't look bad, and has enough doofy reaction faces to at least enhance the unintentionally ridiculous comedy. While I don't think Oreshura deserves the moniker of "so bad it's good", its unintentional and awkward comedy fueled a drunken laugh that was at least enough to carry me to the end of its short run. That's more than most harem series can get out of me, so take that for what it's worth.
Score: 5/10
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| Lighthearted and darkened takes on the properties of gems really enhance the feel of Houseki. |
Title: Houseki no Kuni, or Land of the Lustrous
Genre: Action, Fantasy
Studio: Orange
This is a show about agender humanized gemstones fighting against moon people. Sound vaguely familiar? No, this is not anime Steven Universe, and if it was even remotely similar I would have never picked it up. I have a deep-seated hatred for that poor, shoddy excuse for an American cartoon, indoctrinating millions of youth into thinking that media having the quality "progressive" intrinsically equates to "quality". While that is a discussion for another time that will surely salt the Earth with the overflowing tears of tumblrinas, it is a point that must be mentioned in order to not only detract from comparisons, but also to uplift the show on its own merits. Houseki no Kuni is far more complex and interesting piece than that trash could ever amount to, and even if it swept anime YouTuber recommendations throughout the season it aired in, it still flew under the radar. A toxic mixture of the preconceived notions based on the show's visuals and a harsh lockdown behind the wall of Amazon AnimeStrike left the show undeservingly out in the cold. Hopefully I can shed some light on this series, despite what thoughts some of you might already have about it.
Land of the Lustrous is an interesting beast for a few reasons, but the most jarring of them is undoubtedly the fully computer generated graphics. Although I have my suspicions that the faces of our characters are mostly hand-drawn, I have to say that this is the first time that I haven't immediately upchucked when looking at anime CG for this long. During it's 12 episode run, I was consistently impressed by the visual quality and sometimes draw-dropping shot composition that the 3D was capable of producing. Long shots and the usually oh-so-rare depth-based cuts are the norm here, and they're used to brilliant effect. While the backgrounds and the supremely incredible score are surely the highlight for many viewers, with beautiful coastal and arctic landscapes playing up against the abundant lush green fields with orgasmic music setting the scene, the characters themselves are also supremely endearing. A good friend of mine claims that the inhuman figure of the characters helps side-step some of the issues anime CG regularly has with human forms (watch any clip of RWBY for evidence of this), and while I don't believe he's wrong by any metric, I think that statement serves to downplay just how good and expressive these character designs are. Our "gems" all represent different crystalline minerals, from Diamond to Cinnabar to Phosphyllite, our main character. While their eyes and hair are the big tells, the gems regularly break and shatter depending on their "hardness", revealing their internal structures. These segments, while occasionally horrifying in a body-horror sort of way, take full advantage of the CG, spewing gem fragments across the ground and into the air. The merits don't end there though; being able to freely move characters around during dialogue without the need to animate more frames gives even the most mundane of conversation more personality. Even the lengthiest of dialogues, even though there aren't many, feel alive and relatable, chock full of the unique personalities of all of our many gems. This can be felt purely in the sheer amount of gems we have around; even though there are so many, they all feel distinct, unique, and fairly well fleshed-out. Even their body language comes across naturally, which is something that even the best of TV anime regularly struggle with. Oh and the fights, dear god the fights. This is some of the best CG action I've ever seen, and while it will always feel a little cheap compared to 2D animation, the camera is used masterfully to keep the battle from feeling robotic, especially in the second half when we get a good bit of gold fluid dynamics. While I can't say Orange has fully won me on anime CG, I have to give them credit for making me feel hopeful for the future even if it was just this one time.
Getting back to that "hardness" bit: when I say that, I mean it literally. The gems are ranked on the Mohs scale, and that directly shows their combat effectiveness. A brittle and shatter-prone gem can't exactly get out there and fight the moon people, who pop into the Earthen plane with some seemingly dimensional space magic. This leaves our brittlest main character, Phosphillyte, left to "encyclopedia" duty despite her spunky yet clumsy nature. Oh, I'll clear this up now I guess: the anime uses a mix of feminine and masculine pronouns for our gems, but the official subtitling leans feminine. Scanlations of the manga tend to use masculine pronouns, while the actual source uses the generally masculine but now-trendy and line-blurring "boku". Japanese isn't so convenient to have an easily accessible agender personal pronoun, and those for "I" are typically used pretty freely across the gender spectrum, so your interpretation of it all in regards to Houseki is about as valid as anyone elses. It's not at all important to the story or to our characters (seriously, characters never acknowledge this), nor is it a point to get your tussles in a twist over or shower the author in undue praise. It's merely a property of the setting that is never acknowledged, so if you decide to get pissed off by how the show handles it or worship the ground Ichikawa Haruko walks on, it's your own damn fault. With that out of the way, back to Phos. Enter one of the most well-written and compelling characters in new anime in one hell of a long time. Her struggles with trying to both physically and socially overcome the limits of her Mohs scale ranking have the perfect balance of fantastical situation while still being relatable. The tale of Phos and the other gems is far from a happy one, and the themes of "the price of power" and "strength through loss" are overtly prevalent. While those aren't new or novel, the way that Phos experiences these themes are through her own selfless desires to be of use the other gems, and more directly prove to Cinnabar that she is not worthless. Cinnabar, while being even more brittle than Phos, secretes a terrifying poison that keeps her from freely living with the other gems, and condemns her to a forever fruitless night-watch. Phos' desire to help Cinnabar find worth in her existence, while having trouble finding a reason for her own, begins as a loving tale of the blind leading the blind but warps into something much greater and more dramatic, and to incredible affect.
The plot hits every beat on this path with a brisk yet comfortable pace, but it's exactly this that leads to me to my largest gripe: Land of the Lustrous ends far too soon. Just as things are getting good, just as the current line of questions is answered and new ones arise, the story just ends. Given even just six more episodes, the series could have been catapulted into the everlasting anime hall of fame, which is a feat for even the most beautiful and intriguing 2D-animated pieces. Yes, I've gone on and read the source, and although I think it lacked the majestic aesthetic of the anime, it was still a greatly enjoyable experience to read up to current. This source=strength was undoubtedly the reasoning behind such a "build-up-and-drop" final hour; anime is just a glorified manga and light novel ad-stream after all. But, to judge the anime on content that doesn't yet exist yet in animation isn't fair, and as much as I want to hand out the greatest of awards to Houseki no Kuni, even based on what actually does come next, I can't in good faith do so. If it fails to get a second season, Land of the Lustrous will surely go down as one of the great "go read the manga" examples of anime cuckoldry, but despite this likely inevitability, I think that it is far more than worth your time. As an example of just how great anime CG can be in the future, and just as a damn good story, this series is truly a hidden, if a tad uncut, gem.
Score: 8.5/10
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| This is the happiest you will ever see either character. |
Genre: Drama, Romance
Studio: Lerche
Kuzu no Honkai is a show about a bunch of broken, terrible people. Seriously, there's not a single person in this show that has their heads on straight. Our main girl Hanabi likes her childhood-friend-now-teacher, but goddammit would you look at that, he likes another teacher! Wait, it gets even better. There's a guy in her class, Mugi, that has a similar relationship with the teacher that Hanabi's crush likes! There's some crazy kooky love quadrilateral stuff going down, so what's the solution? Instead of going after people who Hanabi and Mugi actually like, they settle for satiating their physical desires by thrusting themselves onto one another in one of the most co-dependent and dysfunctional relationships I've ever seen. The craziness doesn't stop there, as there's an array of side-interests waiting on the sidelines for their chance to swoop in and get a piece of Hanabi or Mugi, playing out like a confused-and-lewd battle royale of teenage angst. The worst part about all this? This show is actually good.
Alright let's back up a bit. Yes, stated above is the general setup of Kuzu no Honkai's plot, and in a time far past the brief "friends with benefits" Hollywood craze of the late 2000s ft. Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, this plot setup for Americans has become predictable and thin. Thankfully, this anime is a bit more clever and thoughtful about its content (see: depressing) while still retaining enough of that raw angsty teenage drama that will have you mashing that next episode button. Hanabi and Mugi are a downright detestable couple: they're co-dependent in the most toxic way, and watching them realize and grow beyond that is gratifying to watch. The gears of this development are greased by characters that are even more detestable, like Akane, one of the most easily-hatable characters I've seen in an anime, but they're not all like that. Even though Akane plays a large role in the central drama of Kuzu no Honkai, both Sanae and Noriko play to a more heartfelt and gutwrenching effect, as Hanabi and Mugi have to come to terms with their feelings not only for them, but their crushes and each other. If you were looking for a happy ending here for anyone, you aren't going to get it and I don't think saying that is a spoiler in the slightest. Kuzu no Honkai proudly splatters that message on the wall, but I think that was part of the appeal. To see how far Hanabi, Mugi, and all the other characters can fall, and then to watch them try to drag themselves just back to where they started, is what makes Scum's Wish so different than other romantic dramas; it's decidedly tragic. Although not quite at a White Album 2 level, but Kuzu no Honkai is no stranger to effectively pulling on your heartstrings, and doing that in spite of some incredibly hate-able characters is one hell of a feat.
Such a tragic and toxin-filled plot isn't the only way Scum's Wish stands out: for an anime romantic drama, it's one of the most aesthetically amazing I've seen so far. While yes, setting the setting is in high school and there's only so much anyone can do with that, Kuzu no Honkai sets itself apart by using a wide array of interesting shots and cuts by utilizing an unconventional method: picture-in-picture. Now, this isn't your standard use of it like you would find on a news program or the like. Instead, it's used to give a moving manga panel affect, which strangely brings some of the more dramatic scenes to life. By giving close ups of both characters in a dialogue at the same time, from whatever angles the director wishes, we get a unique perspective and framing on any given dialogue. It's hard to describe in text, but the visual flow of Kuzu no Honkai, especially in comparison to its contemporaries, is top notch. Combine this visual direction with a pretty good grouping of character designs and a warm-but-realistic color palette, and you end up with a show that's pretty great to watch in motion. It's nothing over the top, but you have to remember: this is a romance drama, you don't exactly come into one of these expecting a visual masterpiece. The whole package is really helped along by a really great soundtrack, from the OP & ED it really nails down the hypocritically hopeless and hopeful themes of the show. While it isn't something that I'd seek out outside the show itself, it serves its purpose well as an evoker of feels, both frustrated and melancholy.
So it can't all be rosy and great right? Well, you got me. Nothing is perfect, especially in the romdrama department, and Kuzu no Honkai is no exception. Some of my problems arise directly from the source content being something to me that is tired and played out. While the whole co-dependence bit of this magnitude is interesting and "novel" for the medium, it relies on a fair bit of anime-autismo bullshit and plot convenience to get moving, cheapening the fairly strong middle section of the series. Furthermore, there's an absurd amount of fanservice and ecchi situations, and in a show that's effectively about two high schoolers being sadboy friends-with-benefits, that should be expected. However, they're presented in a light that doesn't always reflect the naivete and conflicting thoughts the characters claim to be feeling in the moment, instead shot as if they're specifically meant to be erotic. If you're someone who isn't thrown off by even the lewdest of ecchi content, you'll likely find these scenes fairly mild, but the issue doesn't arise from the level of degeneracy, but rather the setting and content they are placed on top of. This is a result of "anime as a product" vs. "anime as an artistic medium", and although no medium is immune by any stretch of the imagination, the advertising nature of anime as a whole is really felt through these scenes. It's a disappointing result of the space in which anime exists, but this doesn't absolve it from it's shortcomings.
Even still, I think Kuzu no Honkai is worth watching for its powerful visual direction alone. The picture-in-picture is a unique shot composition trick that works to great effect here, and the rest of the package is pretty alright too if you can stand an abundance of lewdness that only sometimes serves a point.
Score: 7.5/10
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| Can you guess what kind of personality this character has? Odds are you're right. |
Title: Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, or Chivalry of a Failed Knight
Genre: Action, Romance, Ecchi, Fantasy, School
Studio: Silver Link., Nexus
If you're even remotely familiar with the seasonal anime scene, you've probably already heard of this show and its estranged brother, The Asterisk War. These shows aired at the same time, and even started airing on the same day. Even though I wasn't present for the experience, reports from otakus I know and trust reported the experience of queuing up both these shows on Crunchyroll as "watching the exact same show twice". Having drunkenly sat through Ass Wars with a couple friends, I remembered at least enough of the plot to be jaw-droppingly shocked by Chivalry's first episode. They truly are nigh identical, from the actual plot beats to the types of characters that are introduced. This reason, and this reason alone, is why I decided to watch Cavalry. I wanted to see what the noise was really about, as I'd heard reports that despite the similar setting, plot, themes, characters, and first episode that Cavalry undisputably came out on top when compared to Ass Wars. Was that actually true? Well that's what this review is for, so hold on to you swords because we're going back to high school.
Cavalry is an unapologetic ecchi battle harem light novel adaptation. If that wasn't enough negative buzzwords to get you to run, I can assure that the budget is relatively low, and the the show is truly nothing to look at. It's slightly better looking than Ass Wars, but this is akin to comparing stale bread to really stale bread. Our characters are bland and annoying, with our main character having a bullshit overpowered ability that other people "just can't comprehend" and has some sort of arbitrary limit. Our main heroine, Stella, is all that matters, and she's just an tsundere Asuna Sword Art Online-tier re-skin. The sister is stupid loli siscon bullshit, the teachers are fetishbait, and the other girls are as bland as unsalted crackers. The only other standout character is Alice, who very well might be up there with Gatchaman Crowds as the most progressive representation of a transgender character in an anime. This is a low bar, and my "sense for offense" is pretty low, but Alice played a major role in the plot, was never objectified (even when the rest of the female cast was regularly), and was respected equally by her peers. Anime is typically really offensive with this stuff, and I've met people who swear off the medium entirely because of the offensiveness how it's "handled" (which is completely fair). But still, even if the representation is respectful, that doesn't make the character herself or the show interesting; it's still one big hunking piece of bland-ass hardtack.
I'll spoil you on what make's Cavalry not a complete waste of time: Stella and Ikki's romantic arc. This show does not waste time when it comes to love. Even if their romance began fairly inorganically, stemming from nothing more than "He treats me like a normal person and rival even though I'm a princess." Did I mention Stella was a princess? Yup, light novels everybody! Anyway, by the end of the first third of the series, Stella and Ikki are actually dating. DATING. You heard that right. Yes, in an anime, the hero and heroine are actually in a relationship. By the end of the first third of the show. Fucking. Crazy. And there romance turns out to be pretty genuine too! Even though Ikki is an emotionless husk of a man in every other avenue of his existence, when he's around Stella he is surprisingly heartfelt. When Stella has questions of when their relationship will evolve physically, and is obviously nervous about it, he takes the highest of high roads and assures her that he will always be there for her and that she can take as long as she needs. It's mature and heartfelt moments like these that help cut through the blech and barf that make up every other minute of Cavalry. These were the moments that were missing from Ass Wars, and that's the only reason why people like Cavalry so much more. Oh, did I mention the series ends in a fucking marriage proposal? And it doesn't even feel out of left field? Yes, it's ridiculous, but this entire experience is cheap and ridiculous. At least I get to see a genuine relationship come to a fulfilling conclusion before I have to scarf down the last bit of gack.
So was Cavalry better than Ass Wars in the end? Absolutely. Does that mean that Cavalry is worth watching. Fuck no. It's still one of the most light novel shows that ever light noveled, and even if you're into that kind of thing, there are so many better options. The only reason I'd recommend this is if you are starving for some decent fantasy romance and can deal with a thick layer of "suck" sauce, or if you're, like, the loneliest person alive.
Score: 5.5/10
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| Who knew playing card games could make you feel so much? |
Genre: Drama, Action, Card Games, Mahou Shoujo
Studio: J.C. Staff
Hey kid, do you like card games? Do you like watching cute girls cry? A little sprinkling of existential dread and hamfisted symbolism? Well, do I have the show for you. Wixoss is as close to "Madoka suffers through playing _Yu-GiOh" as possible, while still trying its hardest to be something unique. I should probably start with this: calling Wixoss a "card game anime" is an offensive mislabeling of what the show tries to be. Yes, the card games are prevalent, and are a main part of the plot. However, despite being present in every aspect of the show, these elements could very easily be removed and replaced by any other form of conflict. While the result is a cheapening of the references to the game itself, it overall greatly plays in the show's favor. Downplayed to a point of near nonexistence, usual card game elements such as explaining mechanics, going through turn orders, and even summoning creatures are sidestepped or gone completely. As someone who's never played Wixoss in real life, I know little to nothing more about the card game than what I started with after watching both Infected and Spread, and this is for the best. Throwing out these unnecessary time-wasting features of card game anime lets Wixoss be an actual show on its own merit rather than a hackneyed advertisement. Yu-Gi-Oh this is not, but is Wixoss worth watching on that merit alone? Lucky for you, that's why I'm here.
So if Wixoss isn't really about cards, what's it about? In this alternate reality, girls with wishes held deep in their hearts are chosen to compete in a series of card game battles as a "Selector". A Selector is given a partner in the form of an LRIG, a sort of planeswalker-esque avatar that is the centerpiece of the game's combat on grimdark "Shadow Realm"-esque battlefields. This LRIG talks and advises the Selector from within the card, and hopes to lead their Selector to a certain number of victories to grant their wish. If you've watched any of the dark-spun magical girl anime that's been popular in the past decade or so, this setup reeks of them from miles away. Wishes are never granted for free in the these times of the lord our God, the Law of Cycles, and the world of Wixoss is no exception to that rule. This is one of the greater aspects of the show; while the smell of darkness is something the viewer will be validated in pretty quickly, learning of the specifics throughout both Infected and Spread's runs is consistently entertaining. Wixoss has the balls to throw some real curveballs at the viewer, and while every one might not always hit, to rob potential viewers of the blindsides isn't my purpose here. Just know that the show does know what it's doing (to a point), and that the content of the show is decidedly dark despite it's somewhat cutesy, rounded character designs. Speaking of characters, this is a department in that Wixoss really stands-out. The later half of the show has a bit of fuckery in the character department that I'll avoid describing for the sake of spoilers, but our main cast shines through.
For every Selector, there's an LRIG, so there's a certain duality to every group's dialogue and decision-making even if some pairs do this better than others. They also typically represent the "color" in the card game, which as far as I can tell are pretty analogous to that of Magic: The Gathering. Yuzuki and her LRIG Hanoyo are "Red Ambition" to a fault, straightforward and aggressive not only during battle but also in pursuit of her wish of love. Hitoe is a peaceful and timid green, while Akira is the epitome of a sadistic, shut-down blue player, as is her wish. Our main character Ruuko, and her LRIG Tama, are understandably a bit more complex, starting off with that Ruuko is a wishless Selector. By all accounts this shouldn't be possible, as LRIGs should only reveal themselves to girls with wishes in their hearts, but here we are with the timid Ruuko and her adorably retarded LRIG Tama. To say Ruuko shows shades of Kaname Madoka would be disingenuous; for every account she is Kaname Madoka, all the way down to the wishy-washy and self-sacrificing nature of her character. This holds throughout the entirety of Infected, and it doesn't stop at just Ruuko. Every plot beat in Infected has a Madoka Magica analogue, even if they may come out of order and in slightly different forms. Now, the formula definitely works and Spread takes big strides in making Wixoss into something fairly original, but early plot and thematic similarities are so glaring that I'd say that it's a more damning rip-off than even Yuuki Yuna.
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| Here, I proved it. This is an anime about card games. |
As I said earlier, Wixoss closely mirrors the plot beats of Madoka for the almost the entirety of Infected outside of few noticeable differences, but Spread is where the show really comes into its own. With the secrets of Selector battles laid bare and Ruuko finally in possession of her true wish, things really start to break down around the girls. Characters are emotionally and physically scarred, bodies are swapped, and everyone is crying all the damn time. While this sounds like Wixoss is jumping the shark on an already absurd premise, it's really not. The show's lore is surprisingly well realized, even if it takes a while for the true mechanics of the world to be revealed to the viewers. The characters individual plights help smooth over this transition, especially in the earlier sections of Spread. The inferred "wait" for the reveals doesn't feel nearly along as it does due to them, leading to Wixoss playing out at a seemingly breakneck pace. This also helps deliver Wixoss' heavy themes and symbolism more effectively, which lean heavier in the second half. While I already discussed Ruuko's struggles with her nature vs. her ideals, Wixoss isn't content with just that; the importance of self-acceptance and the atrocities of over-dependence takes center stage in Akira's arc, the dangers of losing oneself in their desires in Iona's, and explorations of abuse and loneliness in Mayu's are just a smattering of the heft that Wixoss likes to throw around. While I'd be hesitant to call any of these "new" to the dark-cute, new-age magical girl pantheon in a post-Madoka world, they're executed pretty damn well given the context of Wixoss' world. That's really more than I could ask for from something that started out as such a carbon copy.
So yes, I just called Wixoss a magical girl show. But this is a show about card games, in just what way is it considered a "mahou shoujo"? Well, for some background here, I sought this show out due to an r/anime posting of a "magical girl alignment chart", with axes of "thematic" and "aesthetic" on a scale from "purist" to "radical". Wixoss was all the way up at the top-right, as a "thematic purist" and "aesthetic radical", meaning the show explores pretty standard magical girl themes while using no magical girl imagery. After two twelve episode seasons of it, I can confirm this appropriation to be right on the nose; while card games don't exactly scream "mahou shoujo", the themes are fairly unmistakable sans a few that help Wixoss stand out even further among its peers. Furthermore, the way that the show attains its dark-but-cute aesthetic is a little more direct than its contemporaries, playing un-changing cute, over-blushed characters against grimdark backgrounds. While, yes, Madoka did this, I can't say that Madoka didn't bleed the background into the characters over time, opting by the time of Rebellion to completely bloody our cast. Wixoss strangely keeps a lot of the true violence outside of the game battlefield, which gives all of it much more weight by comparison. We see the dark, edgy nature of the battlefield bleed into the world rather than directly into our characters; a more indirect but still effective method of achieving Wixoss' desired visual representation. While the overall aesthetic package is far from the best, settling firmly in a class for both visuals and music that I'd describe as "doing its job", it's effective enough to illicit the required feel. I'd say that I'm a little disappointed in J.C. Staff, and that's because I am, but I have to give them a nod for giving a project like this a spin in the first place, let alone generating enough revenue stream to continue it for 3 more seasons after the first.
After all this, would I say that Wixoss was worth my time? You can probably guess from the amount I've written, but yes, I'd say it was. While not the best thing I've ever seen, and not even close to the best magical girl show, it was consistently entertaining and was the first show in a long time that got me into the "mashing the next-episode button" frame of mind. This being said, I'm incredibly biased in that personal enjoyment, and in my final scores for both Infected and Spread I've strived to divorce that bias from them. However, when you grow up on Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, there's only so much that can be done in that department, so you're free to take these recommendations with a grain of salt. This is another one of those shows that has fallen into post-seasonal obscurity, enjoyed by the few who watched during its airing but quickly and undeservingly forgotten. I'm glad this one came to me though, and I hope this wall I've written can coerce you even in passing to give this "similar-but-unique" card-slinging magical girl show a shot. If this show charms you, despite it's few flaws, you'll be yelling "OPEN!" with the rest of us.
Infected Score: 7/10
Spread Score: 8/10
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| See those flags? That's the only interesting thing in this show. And they stole it from TWOGK. |
Title: Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara, or If Her Flag Breaks
Genre: Comedy, Harem
Studio: Hoods Entertainment
Ever heard of the random MyAnimeList plan-to-watch selector? This is the punishment I received for using it. Somehow, this one weaseled its way onto my backlog and as a slave to the throws of indecision, I took the random choosing up on its offer of fun wacky harem hijinks. What I received is one of the worst shows I've ever had the displeasure of watching. If Her Flag Breaks is an offensively bad harem comedy, and since I've already ripped into Oreshura up above, I'll be keeping this one brief. While slotting in every trope known to the medium, this show fails to have any concrete direction of what it wants to do. Plot beats happen at random, new girls fall into our whiteboard main character's lap multiple times per episode, and the hook (if you can even call it a hook) fails to create any interesting dialogue. Even if our hero can see "flags", or signifiers of others' fates, what we get is the same old tired harem jokes and rehashes of the same character archetypes that we've been seeing since time immemorial. Everything about this show was so forgettable, than when accosted as to why I was watching it, I couldn't tell my accusers a single name of any given character on-screen. After dragging out for eleven long episodes, the show has the gall to try to end it all on a crazy supernatural battle-type ending that comes completely out of left field, sealing the deal for If Her Flag Breaks as one of the most incomprehensible anime I've ever seen. I'd slam it with a one, but the OP was pretty decent and the character designs are fairly unique despite their cookie-cutter personalities. That's at least worth a single point.
Score: 2/10
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| Haha it's funny because Konata's VA is the same as Haruhi's. Get it? |
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy
Studio: Kyoto Animation
It's hard for me to view this show in the time it aired in, and I think that struggle is the baseline at which my opinion for this starts. Right along with the other pioneering part of the KyoAni cute-girls-cute-shit revolution, K-On!, Lucky Star is one the slice-of-life shows that started it all, rocketing the genre into the comfy staple of the anime medium that we know today. The difference between this and its big sister K-On! is that it has not aged well by comparison. The comedy is referential mostly to the time in Japan that it had aired in, and although some of it is timeless and elicited a chuckle from me here and there (particularly any part that lampooned otaku culture), a lot of the rest falls flat today. This isn't to say that Lucky Star can't hang with the best of cute gilrs slice-of-life even today, and I think it's mandatory watching for anyone into anime deep enough to start seeing trends in an otherwise downright formulaic genre. But it's weirder than its future contemporaries; far weirder than K-On!, skirting the line into Nisekoi-esque sketches often. Whether or not this is a positive or a negative for you is up to you, but the disjointed nature of the show as its somewhat inflated 24 episode run slogs onward can make watching more of a chore than the relaxing comedy you would expect.
All that being said, Lucky Star succeeds in being a prime example of its genre. Every girl has their own now-commonplace personality pigeonhole: tsundere, meek, airhead, otaku, and more placed on the sidelines in waiting. Just like the ones of today, Lucky Star is firmly slice-of-life. There isn't any drama even in the slightest, and I'd argue to say there isn't even a plot or resolution to individual episodes. I referenced Nisekoi before not only because this was animated by the same studio, albeit a few years early, but also to give you a clearer picture of just how disjointed one scene can be from another. Lucky Star opts to hand us a "greatest hits" of our cast's high school life, and in that regard it does a pretty great job. Each scene has a hand-selected feel that helps individualize our characters to a point, despite their appearances as low-detail moe blobs. It culminates in a pretty heartfelt conclusion with a strong message of friendship, as these shows often do, but this isn't why most people like Lucky Star.
People praise this show for the aforementioned referential humor that the show is rife with. Whether it be references to the news of the day or anime culture, Lucky Star delivers it in spades. If you aren't "Nippon savvy" these are going to go over your head and a lot of the show's comedy is going to fall flat. This is the nature of consuming media outside of your cultural boundaries, and you can choose to either reject the references or seek them out. Still, this is probably the key factor in anyone's enjoyment with Lucky Star; the bigger the weeb you are, the more you will enjoy this show, full stop. For me, the reference humor was undoubtedly the highlight of the experience, but much of the tropes presented to me have been made too tired by Lucky Star's future siblings. The show feels more dated than those even older than it, even those by the same studio, so staying engaged can be a chore. The characters fail to feel very unique despite being fairly well executed, and having seen the same archetypes season after season for so many years, I just can't find myself getting into Lucky Star in a similar way I would with other good slice-of-life. Despite being a perfectly good and cute show, Lucky Star isn't deserving of all the praise it gets.
Score: 7/10
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| The characters are somehow made even cuter in animation. Chocola best. |
Genre: Comedy, Slice-of-Life, Romance?
Studio: Felix Films
Well, it finally happened. The most funded anime-related Kickstarter campaign of all time has delivered on its promise to bring the kinetic hentai novel Nekopara to the animated medium. Despite the novels higher than average production value, it's some purely bottom of the barrel "entertainment", so much so that its inspired many a joke and meme throughout the greater anime community. The result is this nearly exactly hour-long OVA, released directly to backers and on Steam for digital downloads. When this finally dropped, I couldn't believe it. People I know had directly contributed to the production of this, and seeing the names of backers from many different nations during the opening credits was a hell of a trip. After the surreal experience of watching a Kickstarter project come to fruition, does the rest of the experience hold up? I think that's the worst part about all of this, because the Nekopara OVA actually isn't even bad.
I'll start out with this: the OVA is firmly vanilla. Gone is the smut of the novel, leaving us but nothing but a cafe of cute cat girls. The plot is nigh identical to that of the first volume of the VN, so there's barely any content on the bone. Still, this OVA is only an hour long, so if the execution is pretty good, then much of this mundane content can be forgiven. Thankfully, execution is the one thing that Nekopara does extremely well. Sayori's naturally adorable character designs have translated well to anime, and even though the motion is fairly limited in a slice-of-life such as this, there are still some good cuts sprinkled throughout its runtime. The staggering amount of money raised went straight into visual production quality that you can see in the visuals from the very first frame. True 1080P rendering and the purely digital distribution model for the OVA make the bright colors pop right off the screen, and the character designs are near over-detailed. Backgrounds are also jaw-droppingly amazing, and even the music has some loving care put into it. Despite Nekopara's origins, I have to acknowledge the power of Kickstarter; even if it was created through the power memes, that power can obviously create some damn good animation.
The almost alien divorcing of the "seedier" content from the OVA is welcome, as Nekopara exists at the highest level of degeneracy the anime medium has to offer and a realm even I feel uncomfortable treading. To make up for it, Felix Films went for diabetes inducing cuteness, and I think it works well in its favor. However, for many viewers myself included, making a mental split between the characters of this OVA and the straight hentai novel you've seen in countless memes is very difficult and devalues the experience as a whole. While this isn't new for anime especially with huge successes such as the Fate series, the difference here is that Nekopara was explicitly pornography. Not a doujin that had h-scenes in an attempt to better sell the product, but unironically actually porn. It makes what would otherwise be a pretty decent slice-of-life comedy and makes it an unnerving and uncomfortable experience. To make matters worse, clear evidence of fulfilling backer goals was laugh-out-loud hilariously misplaced all throughout the OVA. A particular backer level, where you could have your own cat girl original character animated in the OVA, and for one level even be voiced, was particularly offensive to the overall product. Randomly one of those same over-detailed character designs will pop into the forefront for a couple seconds. These cuts come out of left field, and usually don't have anything to do with the real content of the OVA. While they're funny in our own right, even though that hilarity comes mostly from the knowledge that these lonely men paid literal thousands of dollars to have their cat girl waifus animated for only a smattering of frames. The end credits are also an unintended riot, with thousands of scrolling names of backers going on for nearly five full minutes.
So why am I giving Nekopara such a relatively high score, despite it being a fairly typical slice-of-life? First off, I can't stress enough how great this OVA looks. For something out of a no-name studio and from what I can tell new talent, this is proof that newer animators can compete with the greats in creating captivating visuals. But that's not the main reason, because that's Kickstarter itself. While the second Little Witch Academia movie was the first big anime crowdfunding success that most of the community remembers, we were giving money to TRIGGER. Our return on investment was practically assured; we knew that the team behind the next piece of LWA content was worth throwing a couple dollars around. Here, there was no assurance of quality, and what we got in the end was everything the team had touted and more. With failures like Under the Dog leaving a poor taste in the community's mouth for anime crowdfunding, we need good examples like this to prove that Western audiences really can make things happen overseas in the realms of media we enjoy. Even if we might have only helped create a vanilla but pretty version of cat girl once-smut, at least we were able to help create something.
Score: 7/10
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| Cuts like these are the best part of watching 90s animation. No chance of CG! |
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Adventure
Studio: Sunrise
Those of you who remember Toonami's lineup will likely remember this one. Outlaw Star is Cowboy Bebop's campier and more plot-driven little brother, and is even animated by the same studio. The parallels drawn between these two series are just far too easy, even if they aren't at all similar in content at the end of the day. Yes, there are spaceships and the usual space opera faire, but while Bebop bathes itself in its own gritty Kool-Aid throughout its episodic run, Outlaw Star is a much more lighthearted experience. This can be seen in everything from the visuals all the way down to the music and voice acting. Spaceship designs overall are much more "fun", using a complex system of battling "arms" to ram and punch one another throughout the stars. The show is also deeply rooted into its own psuedo-magi-science lore that provides a much fantastical setting than the more hard sci-fi Bebop employs, and while this works in Outlaw Star's favor a lot of the time in our more light moments it starts to detract from the experience as the plot kicks into gear. First and foremost this is a Sunrise show, so you can expect the standard hard narrative shift from campy to hamfisted philosophy and pretty decent drama. Thankfully our very humanized cast can carry us through this rocky transition, and although I don't feel any character particularly stands out besides our two mains, they're a fun but complex group that's a joy to watch. There's some anime ridiculousness there, sure, but its not anything beyond the standard of anime space operas so I feel as if it can easily be forgiven.
There is very little in Outlaw Star that isn't played straight; there is little that won't play out exactly as you expect. This isn't exactly a bad thing, and was pretty typical of this sort of late 90s anime. The show is an enjoyable ride, and like I said above, that's due massively to our cast. Despite dipping into some episodic content every once in a while, watching Gene, James, and Melfina deal with Suzuka and Aisha's antics is always entertaining. Outlaw Star makes it easy for you to get wrapped up in its mysterious yet always unexplained technology and lore. Aisha's race of imperialist cat girls is a good example of this, and is usually what most people remember from the show if they'd seen it on Toonami back in the day. Combine this type of intrigue with some classic 90s hand-drawn ships and damn good space combat and you have a standard yet fun package that will rarely fail to disappoint. If anything, my gripes are due to the ending as well as a distinct lack of explanation regarding a good bit of the world's lore. For a show that was this light for at least 80% of its run, I wasn't really expecting much in this department, but that doesn't make the lack of information and conclusion hurt it any less.
If you are in the mood for some classic 90s anime, you could stand do much, much worse than Outlaw Star. For those of you who missed this back when it was on Cartoon Network, hop on your favorite streaming site and get to work. You won't be disappointed.
Scare: 8/10
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| Unlike Sabagebu!, this show is pretty true to how airsoft guns actually function. |
Title: Stella Jogakuin Koutou0ka C^3-bu, or Stella Women's Academy, High School Division Class C^3
Genre: Sports, Military, School
Studio: Gainax
I picked Stella up pretty recently after falling in love with Sabagebu! I expected something vaguely similar, but Stella is a far different beast. While both series follow a group of girls playing survival games, or what would be referred to in the states as airsoft, this show takes a far more serious take on the sports aspect. Sabagebu! is more about the lampooning the line between the violent reality that airsoft emulates and the sport itself, and that's something you aren't getting in Stella. Gainax might play up the absurdity of young girls playing airsoft about as much as any other studio would, but the main focus is on airsoft as a competition. Yura and her school club, C^3, participate in tournaments and other serious battles to prove their worth as survival game players. However, knowing Gainax, this isn't the only hook. Yura has the ability to create delusions that warp the reality of the playing field, which is ironic considering the similarities this show has to Sabagebu! Yura is the only one of her team to experience them, and this gives Gainax a lot of room to experiment visually in a series that would otherwise be an array of random forested locations. Given this, was Gainax able to muster something interesting from it all?
Well, the answer is a bit of a mixed bag. Even if focusing on the sporting aspect of airsoft is as valid of a competition as any, when played straight the concept falls flat. Later on in the series, the competitions become more and more unbelievable, morphing into a nonexistent amalgamation of speedball-style paintball ripoffs and fantastical mil-sim situations. While these are fun to watch, I'm a firm believer that sports anime should be rooted in some semblance of reality unless they aim to take a comedic stance. Unfortunately for Stella, the disbelief compounds with Yura's delusions; Gainax tries to have fun with these fabrications, but them directly affecting the outcome of the matches that hold so much importance for the plot and our characters undermines the entirety of the series. Combine this with some relatively weak characters overall, and you have a core plot that really fails to make an impact. Yura's story of growth and redemption is enjoyable to see to completion, but is one of the most stereotypical sports anime plots ever employed and will undoubtedly bore you over time. For me, the premise and the strength of the visuals were enough to carry me through this with my attachment to the source material as I've played airsoft since early college. If this isn't true for you, you'll likely find yourself frustrated with Stella and its characters most of the time.
Gainax, despite working on a much smaller budget than what they're used to, has still managed to provide a unique visual flair to Stella. Yura's hallucinations are the prime example of this, and they're employed to pretty good visual effect in breaking up the monotony of an academy setting. It's unfortunate that the character designs follow that rule of monotony, as even Sabagebu! proved that you can make battle dress uniforms look fairly unique across even a small cast. This is par for the course though, as pretty much all the visuals leave much to be desired outside of Yura's delusions and the gun designs. Thankfully Gainax played enough attention to the firearm designs for them to look authentic and unique when compared to one another, a staple of airsoft as a sport and the culture surrounding it. People take pride in the unique model, features, and look of their guns, and thankfully at least that was accurately reflected in Stella, which is praise I can't even award Sabagebu! Despite this, the series ends without much of a message to tell or themes to explore. Yes, Yuru grows up a bit, but this is downplayed by Gainax's decision to give an unnecessary "Gainax ending" to Stella, which does nothing but negatively impact the entire experience.
So, do I think Stella is actually worth the watch? Well, if you aren't into airsoft or guns, the answer is an absolute "no". Nothing else within the show is strong enough to warrant its recommendation, and I think that's the biggest offense the show makes. Your premise alone cannot be the entire experience, but Stella fails to do any more than the bare minimum. This was one of Gainax's last TV anime before basically falling apart in the mid 2010s, and it was definitely starting to show. While I still might have enjoyed this show for some shallow reasons, you should be able to make a far more intelligent choice. Don't worst your time with things that don't interest you.
Score: 5.5/10
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Title: Gunslinger Girl & Gunslinger Girl: II Teatrino |
| The Madhouse-produced first season is full of killer cuts like this. |
Genre: Action, Psychological, Sci-Fi
Studio: Madhouse, Artland
Gunslinger Girl is one of those too-deep-for-you sci-fi psychological classics that I think any anime fan can enjoy. The plot and characters are normie enough for just about anyone of any level of degeneracy to enjoy, and both the sub and dub are available on Netflix. The story of underage android spies incredibly skilled in the art of gunfighting should be as interesting as any other possible hook for an anime series, and the exploration of the guardian/child relationship between an android spy and her handler is rife with intrigue. But that's not why I want to talk about this series today. Both the first and the second season are worth watching for anyone who's a fan of anime sci-fi, but I wanted to bring up the stark visual differences between the first and second seasons mostly due to them both being on Netflix, and the kind of questions that arise from those not in the know when these kinds of shifts occur.
Let me clear the air now: both the first and second seasons of Gunslinger Girl are supremely good stories. They're full of all sorts of interesting philosophical questions and interpersonal relationships, as well as so damn good character development over the course of both seasons. My issues with the series arise in the offensively sharp quality drop between the original series, by Madhouse, and the sequel, by Artland. The art moves from gorgeous with large liberties in shot composition to a flat, boring, and near panel-for-panel recreation of the manga. It almost feels like a harsh punishment for continuing to watch the series, and given a side by side comparison I can barely tell that the two seasons are from the same series. Upon watching a PV for Teatrino, I almost decided not to continue forward. While I think the narrative of the second season follows a more direct and easily follow-able pattern than that of the first, I simply can't justify the massive quality drop when talking about Gunslinger Girl. In my mind, the series ends in animation after the first season by Madhouse, and if you're chomping at the bit for more content, you'll have to look into reading the manga. It's worth noting that the manga goes farther than what is adapted anyway, and that it's also a surprisingly great read.
That's about all I wanted to say. This "review" is a little short, but Gunslinger Girl is pretty hard to analyze without breaking into a full-length essay. The show plays with some heavy stuff, and any fan of sci-fi will get more than just a kick out of it. Like I said, it's on Netflix, so give that first season a look if any of this sounds like you jam. It's only 13 episodes, so giving it a spin is a fairly low commitment. Before I close, I'd like to thank Josiah for recommending this one to me; it was definitely a great watch, so I hope you all get a chance to experience it as well.
Season One: 8.5/10
Season Two: 5/10
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Title: Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records |
| These "school outfits" make me want to die. |
Genre: Magic, School
Studio: LIDENFILMS
Akashic Records is the worst kind of light novel adaptation because it's decidedly that; rather than attempt to do anything unique, it goes balls-to-the-wall on every facet of the category. You get everything in one fell swoop, complete with skimpy schoolgirl outfits, tsundere love interest, magical powers, and a overpowered main character who's power is just "misunderstood". Unlike most of the same ilk, Records doesn't seem to have the coin to back itself up, and although the character designs are fairly endearing for a light novel show, they can't move in any sort of interesting way. The same sort of bullshit computer-generated magical effects are employed in every fight, with "action" being reduced to a moving shot of maybe a singular punch or spell if we're lucky. Unfortunately I can't really speak much to the story, as I had to be drunk off my ass to be able to make it through even three episodes of this one. However, I distinctly remember the plot developing in a way that was somewhat novel, so I apparently gave the show a 4? Sorry, you're going to have to deal with me here on this one. If light novel adaptations are your shit, and you think I'm an idiot for shitting on them, then please let me know what's interesting about Akashic Records, because I sure as hell don't remember.
Score: (Drunken) 4/10
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Title: Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Igogashii desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii desu ka?, or WorldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us?, or just SukaSuka |
| Even if SukaSuka is mostly about romance, it's no stranger to some great fight scenes too. |
Genre: Sci-Fi, Magic, Drama, Romance '
Studio: Satelight, C2C
Title long enough for you? Yes, SukaSuka has the most offensively long light novel title out of any anime in the last decade, but don't let that influence any preconceptions you might have on this show. Despite being a light novel adaptation, SukaSuka is one of the most well executed fantasy romance anime I've seen in a long time, and it's one that went overlooked both within its season and beyond based on the curse of its title. What's interesting about SukaSuka is that it manages to be interesting despite embracing the same tropes that Records did, proving that it isn't the category or even the tropes at fault but rather horrendous execution. While the story of beast wars, magical weapons, and leprechauns is just as tired and hackneyed as Records' high school of magic and random plot conveniences, SukaSuka succeeds in humanizing its characters and making you become invested in Ctholly and Willem's relationship. Combine this with some great character designs, some acceptable art, and a pretty powerful score, and you get a package that is far more than capable of producing the feels it attempts to pull out of the viewer in its latter half that wraps up in a pretty satisfying conclusion. I wish I had more to say about this show, and although it's really too generic to say anything of worth, it's important to remember that generic things can still be good if they can be unique in their own way. While I'd still hesitate to call SukaSuka anything original, and that's because its far from it and seeped in the throws of light novel hell, it's still far from unenjoyable, and that's more than most light novel adaptations can boast of.
Score: 7/10
That's it for my backlog reviews! I tried to cover most of the things I watched throughout the latter half of 2017 that weren't seasonals, up to stuff I watched as recently as last week. I might do more of these in the future, and you bet your ass I'll be back in a month for the end of the winter season. See you then!