Before I begin, I want to say that I rewatched the first season before starting this one and there were things that I found to be better than I gave the previous entry credit for.
The reasons for A2 are not as mysterious as I said, they are pretty clear.
Also I have noticed in my rewatch that there are details properly anticipated or built upon throughout the whole show, such as the flower, and the final showdown.
The machine life forms resent their creators and that is why they were interested in being closer or more akin to humanity and why they tried to create different forms
...
of families or communities for thousands of years. Even though they cannot procreate, they found out they could fuse together to create a more advanced humanoid super machine in the form of Adam (and/or Eve).
In turn, said character was so interested in humanity and its emotions that disconnected… it? he? them? selves from the network to experience death as the conclusion for life, like it happens to a human. Yet, when it finally happens, it/he/them snaps full of resentment and grieve, realizing what was lost and how did not fully appreciate the time shared with Eve. Then proceeds to force a new fusion with the network and the rest of the machines to become the God he aspired to and tries to destroy the very thing he admired and used to see as equal.
And although still nowhere near its game counterpart, the final showdown was better than I remembered it to be, because not only has the whole resistance taking part of it, but also the YoRHa units and even the Commander using everything they can and even defying orders in order the defeat the ultimate enemy.
From the negative side, I noticed that the CGI was more prominent than I remembered, and the artwork suffers more from time to time than I noticed the first time. And in terms of writing, I think it would have been better if Adam was shown as a more active antagonist throughout the show. That also counts for the still disappointing final showdown, where not only he has a horrible change in design, but also is mostly there taking damage without really doing much. Also, although I still appreciate the scenes in terms of directing, it is true that different nods to the videogame and the original NieR, can be quite confusing and feel a bit messy within the rest of the series. Also the exposition is a bit too in your face at times, it definitely could be more subtle or improved with minor changes in the script.
Overall, my rating and appreciation for the first season remain unchanged, as I found both better and worse things in it on my rewatch.
Sorry for this prologue, now, onto the actual review of this season. Since I have already written a lot about the whole concept and most aspects of the characters in the previous one, this one should be considerably shorter and more to the point.
In terms of visuals and audio, this second cour remains the same as the first, so I will not get into details nor dedicate much writing to it. The only change worth mentioning is that both the opening from the, in my opinion, overrated LiSA, and the ending by GEMS COMPANY, were far inferior than the previous ones. Lyrically, however, both songs retained the same level of quality, and the latter referenced Drakengard 3.
As for the actual content, the main difference compared to the previous season is that this one does not have as much philosophical elements in it. The characters and overall themes were already introduced and discussed, so now they are not really questioning their purpose and existence anymore. That makes this entry somewhat simpler for me and one I did not enjoy as much as the first.
Not to say that it is worse or anything, just that it lost a neat extra. What it replaced it with, however, is going full on with the psychological war drama aspect of the premise, picking off exactly from the end of the first season. From a certain point, this cour takes itself completely seriously and features a lot more action, war in full on scale, and death and tragedy everywhere.
Lots of character die at every episode regardless on their importance in the plot, a sign of good luck of plot armour, and since almost everyone got a decent focus on the previous half, almost no death lacks impact.
And yet, it is not like the season lacks in the characterization department, as A2 becomes a much more important and focused character and the new co-protagonist. Her tragic backdrop is explored, I assume because taking advantage of the manga adapting the same story being already finished now.
And she even gets development as she gains a new perspective by her interactions with other characters in this entry, such as 2B and Lily, and more importantly, machines such as Pascal and the kids in his village.
The plot slows down a bit for a few episodes to give us much more relaxed interactions of her and them in a wholesome tsundere like manner, but considering what it meant for future events in the story, and for her as a character, I say those moments are necessary and well handled.
Then there is 92 as he keeps being the other protagonist in the show, I am not entirely sure if I can count his change as development or character regression, but the little guy becomes crazier and more ruthless with each episode. He is the one that continues to move the plot forward as he keeps learning more things about the whole conflict and the world itself, and combined with all the losses he keeps suffering in the season, his mind gets completely shattered in it. Great psychological aspect in my opinion.
As for the ending, the anime went with a weird mix between two endings from the videogame, including the True one, and original material. Basically a big fight happens and it seems to ends tragically, several characters start talking about gaining self-consciences and new objectives in a new world, and an original fighttakes place before moving into a kind of circular soft reset of sorts but one that does not negate the whole plot. Personally, I would have preferred a more tragic finale, but I still consider it to be an acceptable one.
If you want me to say something negative about it, here are my complaints:
-The fanservice, not only it did not go away, it got worse. Most of it is quick blink and you missed it moments, but others are there in detail just for the sake of it. Can we excused 2B and A2’s buttshots? In general, yes, can we excuse Commander’s? No.
-Devola and Popola were explored way too late in the story. Yes, it is like that in the videogame as well, but instead of changing that for the better in the adaptation, it kept it the same and it meant for them to lack characterization almost until they no longer take a part in the story. At least we got more backdrop lore from previous entries in the whole Drakengard/NieR franchise thanks to them, but the handling of them was still not exactly the best.
-Although in a way the antagonists were orchestrating the whole thing behind the curtains, and not without proper build up even from the previous season, they still felt very passive as villains, even more than Adam and Eve. Heck, they were not even defeated by the protagonists, their downfall was something done by themselves after a quick, out of nowhere and almost out of screen internal conflict. Their change of perspective also happens practically out of nowhere.
An aspect I am not entirely convinced about whether it is a positive or not is that, once the truth is revealed, you wonder what was even the point of the whole war. In regards of theme exploration, a good thing is that something I presented as a possible issue within the concept itself last time was addressed here. I am talking about why machines would want to be human, and here they are having a whole internal conflict regarding getting conscience and searching for a new higher form of evolution and whether they need an enemy for that or not. Pretty good stuff but it feels like it needed more time and focus to not come off as sudden as it does.
Then of course one could see the pointlessness of the war itself as a commentary on every war there is, although that could be counter argued with some real life events, I think. But discussing whether or not all the devastating and tragic wars there have been and are still fought out there have a meaning or not is not the point of this review.
What could be say however is that, after watching both the videogame and the anime, in-story, I was still left a bit without being able to completely shake the question off my head, what was the point of everything the characters went through? And for what did they? Again, very good as a theme, but perhaps not the best executed in-series.
I can at least say that here you do care about the characters because of all the proper characterization, fleshing, psychological pressure and existential crisis they got and went through throughout the whole story in the two seasons. Contrary to, let’s say, Sky Crawlers, which although very different in plot and this point I am addressing now, had a similar relationship between the main characters as the ones in here, but with not even a fraction of characterization, memorability, tragic aspects and impactful ending as this series.
In conclusion, although I do not think of it as being as good as the first season, and not without issues, the second cour was another great sci-fi war drama despite its not so great visuals and differences from its source material. And without something like Pluto around, and with Dededede ruining its ending, I even consider it the best anime of this year.
Like last year, here is the summary and my opinion of the episodes compared to the videogame, so again, skip this if you are an anime only, as it is full of spoilers.
Episode 1-From what I understand, it begins with a very shortened and simpler combination of the Memory Thorn and Memory Cage chapters from the Short Story Long Novel, and the late Amnesia side quest from the game, and part of revelations that come near the end of Route C, as it reveals the true identity of 2B and the actual circular relationship she has with 9S. Then it ends with the beginning of Route C. There are also references to NieR in both a setting and Emil making an appearance. Also, the ending song of the season references Drakengard 3. Weird start of the season for an anime only like myself, but captivating enough because of the events that take place later, and how it changes the dynamics of the main characters shown up until that point.
Episode 2-It covers about half of the first mission of the C route, right until the reverse hacking and its effects. It shows not only other YoRHa pairs, but also the Resistance in the battle, plus some Operators, including 21O, so I found it to be better than its game counterpart. Also the Red Girls appear to mess things up.
Episode 3-It begins by confirming already hinted information about both 2B and the situation thus far, then shows the events on the battlefield 2B was going through while the previous episode was happening. Then continues to show the rest of the battle and the scenes on the bunker with the opening credits of the game included. Seemingly minor but important differences between the versions include the Commander being seemingly getting caught by surprise by the revelations of the episode, instead of being reluctant to believe them like in the source material. In addition, instead of random Operators, 6O is the one that attacks the protagonists here, because she has a lot more direct and emotional connection with them. Besides the fanservice, I have no complaints with this one.
Episode 4-It starts right after the end of the previous one and covers 2B’s death. It has several flashbacks and the visuals were not near as messy from the perspective of the dying 2B as they were in the videogame, plus she does not fight with that many enemies, so it is worse than the source material. On the positive side, there was some neat aerial fighting, without the weak CGI from the previous entry, and having 9S fighting at the same time made him arriving late to make more sense. Overall it was an almost excellent episode and one of the best.
Episode 5-It goes back to show more of A2 and Lily’s past, adapted from the Anemone: Encounter, Understanding and Separation novels from the game, the Ongakugeki YoRHa Ver.1.2 stage play, and the YoRHa: Shinjuwan Kouka Sakusen Kiroku manga. It makes sense to stop the main plot a little to show this, as it helps to flesh out A2 more as the new protagonist, and before her reencounter with Lily, also the manga was finished by this point, so it is understandable that they decided to show more of this backstory.
Episode 6-From what I understand, this episode is mostly original, though I imagine you can get similar interactions in the game as the ones shown here if you stop to get side quests in the Pascal’s village I guess. Other than that, both A2 and 9S’ recoveries were shown quite differently, and although a laidback and wholesome episode, it had nice character interactions for what comes next. A2 is given more needed interactions with Lily, and with robots from the village, which are neat additions and would make the following events to hit harder and make her development better. Meanwhile we see 9S slowly losing his mind and having a nice interaction with someone from the Resistance Camp, thus coming to terms with 2B’s death. Overall it was one of the weakest episodes on its own, but necessary and good in the long run.
Episode 7-A2 continues to interact with the robot kids from the Pascal Village, and along with him, they arm every seemingly capable fighter in order to fend off an upcoming invasion by hostile machine life forms. While that is happening, 9S encounters Operator 21O, rebranded as 21B for going into battle, thus her death makes 9S’ change more impactful both for him and within the story. Then he goes to the Resource Recovery sub Unit of the main Tower System to get its key by indiscriminately murdering every machine life form he encounters. In the post credits puppet play, Devola and Popola reference NieR (Gestalt/Replicant), and sing “Song of the Ancients-Atonement” for a bit.
Episode 8-It continues right from where it left off with an original battle between A2, Pascal and the village against other hostile machine life forms, but with a very similar ending. Later on she activates the Berserker Mode to fight against a Goliath type enemy and is helped by Pascal manipulating another one, like in the game, though it ends in a cliffhanger. Meanwhile 9S goes to the other Resource sub Unit and keeps killing robots and finds out the truth about them and the androids in the library, as well as about the Tower itself. The pods have a sped up kind of meta conversation in the last puppet play.
Episode 9-Pascal quickly defeats the Goliath and then we see changes from the game, as the surviving children are sent to the Resistance Camp but are infected thus chaos unleashes and most characters die either killed by a friend or family or by killing themselves. Even Pascal dies in here committing suicide while also blowing up a kid that ate the rest. Lily gets infected and asks A2 to kill her. Meanwhile 9S finds 2B’s message from the game as he finds the last password and both protagonists advance towards the Tower. The puppet theater is no longer in the show and is replaced, before the ending rolls, with conversations between the pods from the actual game. Despite the changes, I found it to be a great episode.
Episode 10-9S introspects within himself while hacking the Tower, and finds out the truth about 2B and himself, although he suspected it long before this point. Most of the episode is dedicated to Popola and Devola, showing part of the Project Gestalt lore from Drakengard and the original NieR, as well as the backstory of the characters from the “Devola & Popola’s Memories” novel from the game. Then they get 9S inside the Tower while fighting against machine lifeforms. Although faithful to the source material and overall good, I think the information about the twins came too late in the story, and interrupted the flow of the narrative.
Episode 11-Devola dies at the beginning and A2 kills an infected Popola right after. Then she gets into the Tower to find the library and the truth from the Red Girls, who also appear in front of 9S on another place after making him fight against several 2Bs, and then he takes the arms of one and gets infected. Very faithful to the game that far, but then the boss fights are largely skipped as they get infected and fight each other instead of fusing like in the game. Just like the first season, almost none of the epic action of the game is in here, but I never considered that to be a major problem. While that is happening, the Red Girls are discussing and fighting among themselves. Although their dialogues are given more importance than in the game, their fight also gets completely skipped. Then the episode ends with A2 and 9S about to fight each other just like in the game. Having practically no action for the climax kind of sucked, but the rest of the episode was fine.
Episode 12-The Pods keep talking with dialogues from the game, and the fight between A2 and 9S initiates, with interesting different and clashing perspectives between them based on their character arcs up until that point, and combining scenes from both Endings C and True E from the videogame. Also there are original scenes where both main characters introspect before the show sort of combines both endings into one, having A2 releasing the Ark with the machine lifeforms in it, yet also having the Pods doing a semi-reset of sorts I believe, but after an original fight. From what I understand, there is some sort of adaptation of a concert that plays after the end, and for some reason Accord from Drakengard 3 appears as a cameo, which would confuse every single anime only. Overall, some things felt a bit rushed, but a good enough ending as a whole.
Sep 27, 2024
NieR:Automata Ver1.1a Part 2
(Anime)
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Recommended Spoiler
Before I begin, I want to say that I rewatched the first season before starting this one and there were things that I found to be better than I gave the previous entry credit for.
The reasons for A2 are not as mysterious as I said, they are pretty clear. Also I have noticed in my rewatch that there are details properly anticipated or built upon throughout the whole show, such as the flower, and the final showdown. The machine life forms resent their creators and that is why they were interested in being closer or more akin to humanity and why they tried to create different forms ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 27, 2024
Senpai wa Otokonoko
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
I initially started this anime because part of its premise reminded me of Hourou Musuko, a 2011 coming of age and romance anime about two transgender protagonists. But as it turns out the main character in here later on does not see themselves as either a boy or a girl, so I guess we’re talking about a non-gender conforming non-binary protagonist here instead.
I mean this anime still shares some things with that one, such as the main character dressing with feminine clothes half the time and being initially rejected by most people around, and having a supportive parent while the other does not accept them, ... but they have nothing in common beyond that and their approach are vastly different. The romance part of the anime is peculiar, as the protagonist is part of a sort of a love triangle with both a boy and a girl, having the male character being conflicted by his feelings and afraid of being homo or at least bisexual, and of being seen as a creep, both by his friend and society. The female character has no issue with the main character’s identity but her feelings end up being different from what it’s initially shown. Thus despite being a romance, the approach in here seems like an anti-genre sort of thing, as the characters go in and out of relationships without actually being in love with the others and instead being afraid of losing their bonds, and desperately want affection that was neglected to them at some point in their lives. So, it’s the anime like KareKano? Which took the premise of a high school romance between two seemingly perfect characters to explore their real selves and their psyche behind them? Not really, hardly, as the series is mostly comical and leaves its themes in the background for the sake of focusing on something else, and when it does focus on them, it feels like a surface level of exploration. KareKano was a comedy as well but it knew when and how to separate its humor from its psychological introspection, while this show only has the character feeling kinda sad yet doesn’t miss the chance to throw some jokes every few minutes. Aside of the messy tone, another issue is that, despite its peculiar love triangle and themes it wants to explore, the execution still comes down to awkward teenagers being unable to resolve most things just by talking them out, which is why the resolutions of every conflict there is end up being very easygoing: -The main character is bullied lightly only in the past on another school, and rejected just at the beginning of the story, they quickly become popular and supported by everyone in the school. -Ryuji and Makoto’s relationship and conflicts get two episodes tops of focus. Exactly because there isn’t much content to explore about that, at least not in this anime. -Related to that, characters faking their feelings does not lead to any interesting change in dynamics or a major conflict between them, as they are still around the others and keep accepting each other no problem. -Aoi’s loneliness does get some focus throughout several episodes, but that can and is in fact resolved simply by having the other two mains around. And the most important part of that aspect, the absence of her mother, gets resolved extremely easily and in an easygoing and very lighthearted way by the end of the series. -Want to talk about the thing between Makoto and their mother? It gets completely sidelined until the very end of the series, it is looked deeper only when the show is about to end, and just like with Aoi, for how big it seemed to be, the resolution leaves a lot to be desired. Plus the adaptation isn’t even complete as there is a movie coming out next year to adapt the final bunch of chapters of the source material. Apparently, the anime covered the whole source material by rushing through all of its content in just one season, so that could be part of the problem, but that does not change the end result of the adaptation. I can’t even say that the aesthetics are remarkable in any particular way, the backgrounds and artwork are good, the special effects and character designs are one of the same you can find anywhere else. The main issue is the chibi art style the series goes for half the time, which negatively affects everything else. Just like with Human Bug Daigaku, which I reviewed recently, I appreciate how this show properly captured the main aesthetic of its source material, but by itself it kind of sucks. For the comical moments, the style feels tryhard, and when it is used in between more serious scenes, it ruins the mood completely. And that goes for the sound as well. The main character having a clear male voice is a nice touch, but everyone else sounds very typical, except for Aoi, who has a weirdly raspy or something like that voice and sounds unnatural a lot of the times to me. The opening and ending are cute and fitting but the rest of the music, as well as the sound effects, are mostly unremarkable. So, if you’re up for a romance series with a somewhat unusual love triangle with some LGBTQ+ themes thrown in there, and with an attempt at exploring some more serious stuff to make it dramatic enough to feel like something might happens, while still having wholesome resolutions for you to not feel bad while watching it, this is your show. If otherwise you want an actual serious and more complex look into any of its themes, I think you should try somewhere else. Recommended stuff Products about the identities of LGBTQ+ and how they are seen by people around them: -Hourou Musuko -Yo nena, yo princesa (Argentine movie about the first legally recognized transgender girl in the country). Romcom series about characters afraid to reveal their true selves: -Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou -Horimiya
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Sep 21, 2024
Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabanai
(Anime)
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Recommended
Last year, there was an alternative history royal palace political drama, which took me by surprise with its characters and world building.
No it wasn’t Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, which I dropped because it seemed too semi-episodic and lighthearted to match my expectations of it, nor was Koukyuu no Karasu either, as I did not watch that one yet, and it is usually referred as the worse Kusuriya, imagine that. It was Oooku, which although it had a not very good first episode, and relied more on its setting, plot elements and characters than an actually good story, it was overall pretty good. This year I heard about this ... anime expecting something similar, and just like with Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, the tone seemed very lighthearted and made me drop the show, but only for its first three episodes. After that it becomes exactly what I wanted, and even better than Oooku, even if I enjoyed that other show more. Basically, the world building here is as good, but it is not established by flashbacks but rather actual plot progression, and there is a lot more story in here. What makes Yatagarasu good is all the political schemes in it, and how every character act about them, both as perpetrators or affected people. And the best thing is how the initially seemingly unrelated plot elements such as the succession and choosing a bride, end up making a coherent and tightly tied whole. Despite being low on action and having lots of talking, the show does have tension and suspense as expected from a political show such as this. Schemes, betrayals, negotiations, alliances, murders, assassination and coup d’état attempts, everything needed is here and is presented with a proper pacing to have the plot moving forward at every moment. On execution, the series builds up and anticipates practically everything so nothing comes off as a copout, though perhaps it needed to show a bit more the line of the thoughts of the characters for the resolutions to feel resolved in a completely satisfying way. Speaking of characters, it is not that the series lacks in characterization either. They seem to be archetypes at first but everyone ends up having a different personality and hidden dark secrets and objectives than it seemed at first. They have different tasks imposed on them by the different palaces and other authorities, almost all of them have their backdrop stories revealed, and are subverted in one way or another, feel the psychological pressure of what’s happening, and most get a catharsis and end up helping in the second arc. Said arc raises the stakes even higher by having the political conflict affecting not only the royal palace but the setting as a whole, as the crow people get brutally attacked by monkey monsters, and the political relationships with the underground is about to crumble. It even introduces a big twist in the setting to the point that the show can’t be labeled as historical anymore, as it turns it into a Yomi no Tsugai kind of situation. Possible negative aspects include how no one really develops, as most of them are already adults and established when the series begins so they don’t go under any major change, and several times their backstories are told more than shown. And I have to say that I wished to see what actually happened to the antagonists, which is not really shown, or at least not completely. Oh and the mastermind and actual villain of the second arc isn’t really revealed until the end of the show, making that character lack both presence and fleshing, which the rest did have, coming as off as lacking compared to everyone else. Then there is Yukiya the co-protagonist, who despite being shown as having a lot of potential, ends up constantly lacking in his role in the story. I mean, for him to not know a lot of stuff makes sense, as he wasn’t initially inside the palace, and that way he provides the author the perfect excuse for having the rest of the cast explaining stuff to him for the audience to know about. But other than that, he mostly messes up, his line of thinking to keep up with the schemes and what the others expect of him to do are not fully shown properly, he kind of changes perspectives, as he decides to be loyal to the Kin’u and protect his land at the end of the show, but he doesn’t go through much change in his personality to fully feel like he developed in any significant way as of yet. And of course the show is not complete yet, there is more story to be covered on sequels, yet I won’t really count that as a big flaw, as the ending of the series felt like an appropriate point to stop it until more comes out. Oh and the presentation is on par with the writing as well. The character designs are simple, there isn’t much motion to lose your head over, but the rest from the artwork, the backgrounds, and the special effects are very well done. Especially the latter knew how to show different times of the day with changes in illumination, which modern anime in general lack. That gave the show a more thrilling mood, which it needed at times, and reminded me a bit of some retro times in the medium. The sound effects are very well done and immersive and the music is really good except for the generic and upbeat opening which seem to belong in another series. The ending on the other hand sounds like a classic Japanese song combined with some strings, which gave it a very epic and grandiose feel more fitting for this anime. I was even surprised by the voice acting, because the seiyuus are all different from the ones I thought they were, thus most of them brought an atypical performance. Bottom line, the setting is interesting, the world building is well done, the story and plot progress properly and more seriously and with higher stakes that it seemed at the beginning, the characters are a lot richer than they initially seemed to be, and the presentation is on par with everything else. Out of all the royal palaces political dramas in anime I’ve watched so far, this one is the best for me as of yet, and now I want more of it just like I am waiting for more Oooku. One of the best and more underwatched shows of the year in my opinion.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 19, 2024 Recommended
Disclaimer: This might contain some spoilers
Dededede is a stand out title as far as anime goes, as there aren’t that many about alien invasions and the ones you can find are nothing like it. The closest thing to it that I can think of is Figure 17, as it also combines slice of life with sci-fi, and yet it’s very different to this series. Of course, if you step out of the medium, the show is no longer original really, Arrival, Contact, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Alien Nation, District 9, and more, are there to be compared to it, but for an anime, ... it’s a rather fresh premise. It also stands out as a work from Inio Asano. His usual post-Solanin cynical and critical worldview is there but Dededede doesn’t suffer from the same issues as most of his other titles. It has violent content but doesn’t overdo it with the edge to the point of becoming torture porn and it is dramatic but the characters don’t cry about their problems all the time, which are common complaints about Punpun. Said characters share the same worldview as their author but are not know it all psychos that yell their lungs out to the whole world as in Hikari no Machi. It has questionable romantic content but doesn’t include weird fetishes, as I came to know about Girl on the Shore. The non-mundane elements are properly introduced and anticipated, unlike in Subarashii Sekai, and although it has timeskips, its narrative is nowhere near as non-linear and convoluted as it was in Nijigahara Holograph. Unfortunately, it also lacks the psychological aspect of some of his previous works. There is some exploration of how messed up a lonely girl neglected by her parents and bullied by most of her class can become, alright, but the series still can’t be labeled within the genre. As most things are spelled out, the show doesn’t have the same introspection and inner monologues that were the most praised thing about Punpun and the best aspect in Solanin. Despite that, it is not as if the characters are unexplored. Dededede is half a slice of life show and thus it follows its cast more than enough to flesh them out properly. The series does a good job in showing a kind of numerous cast, their interests, their families, their romances, the connection between all of them, and also for once it shows high school girls and builds a friendship with teen quirks without moe aspects nor yuri bait (not that much at least). Is their actual teen behaviour and personalities that makes them stand out and be memorable. And yet, they have their own quirks, Kadode having childish crushes and yet being a bit pervy, also being a fan of the kind of dark parody of Doraemon that exists within this manga, which in turn is partially responsible of her dark past, and there is also some substance due to her complicated family situation. Ontan presents herself as silly and childish saying nonsense all around all the time yet also has a dark past, and even two personalities or consciences of sorts, and it is clear that despite all her goofiness, she does care about the serious situation at hand, and that her weird behaviour is just a façade to avoid facing the big issue and her responsibilities. The secondary cast is fine as well but not as looked into or as interesting as far as characterization goes. Rin is into yaoi but that’s it, the teacher is just sad because of a break up and is possibly pedophilic, Hiroshi is a good and interesting guy that cares for his sister and Kadode but remains in the background, Makoto stands out mostly for cross-dressing, Kiho works just as a plot device, Ai has a lot of stuff to deal with but is only looked into for one episode. The most interesting characters besides the main ones end up being the supporting cast that, even though they don’t have the most elaborate characterization, are the ones that actually move the plot forward and are the plot devices to explore the themes and different perspectives. Thus you have Kohiruimaki (fuck his name btw) and Futaba being the exact opposite positions regarding the aliens. He is paranoid about them, plus also depressed, and only feeds himself with information that confirms his bias, and becomes an alien hunter of sorts, especially after losing someone dear to him. She on the other hand, wanting to know the truth before judging, and after a somewhat shocking experience, becomes an activist in favor of coexistence and communication with the aliens, for they are beings equal to humans and thus deserve human rights. And there’s also Hikari Sumaru, PR of a certain company developing technology for the government and military to fight off the aliens, and the freelance journalist Miura, that tries to expose the whole thing. Oh, and how could I forget Keita, an actual alien that tries to befriend humans, sees the good in them, and tries to prevent the escalation of the whole thing. The thing is that all of that happens mostly in the background, leaving the viewer watching the main girls doing silly stuff on the school. Thus the plot, although is not slow nor is left as an afterthought, might feel boring and undeveloped for a while for some, even more so if they are not fans of slice of life stories. The people responsible for the anime must have thought something like that too, seeing how they sped up the pacing by cutting off content from the manga, and rearranged events and scenes to come earlier and in different order so they could have more exciting things happening on the background or as flashbacks. Perfect examples of this are half the flashbacks of the protagonists shown earlier, differently, and in just one episode, when they amount to at least two volumes of the manga, and the infamous episode 0. I don’t know how it was received in Japan, but at least the opinion online about it on anime databases and sites wasn’t very good, as it shows stuff from some of the last chapters from the manga, in a media res flash forward way in order to make it seem that more exciting things are coming, and possibly ruining the element of surprise for some I guess. Plus the episode itself wasn’t that good, it had too much action without a proper introduction of the characters first, and the information provided made it to be full of exposition, thus coming off as boring for some. And the thing is that there wasn’t really a good reason to do this, the world building from the beginning of the manga is good, the plot is still happening in the background, the final showdown is built upon throughout the whole series, so why did they feel like they needed to anticipate stuff is beyond my comprehension. And it is not as if there wasn’t any reason for the slice of life portion to have more focus than the alien invasion, as it is part of the themes. Here you have these girls unaware of the crisis or refusing to acknowledge it and playing dumb to keep living a normal, simple and more or less happy life for the little time it has left. There are also background characters that, whenever new information about the aliens or human victims come out, they keep looking elsewhere, acting as if nothing happened, or choosing to ignore the situation through consumerism, of a dark Doraemon parody, gacha games, or pop idol bands. There are even people living on contaminated places faking being sick so the government gives them a pension, heck even places where tragedies happened are used as tourist attractions so the whole slice of life part is actually a social critique from the author. The pop idol bands in turn get into scandals, used to get the full attention of coverage of the news and thus distract the public from the scandals and actions of the technological companies and the government, so it is criticizing the mass media as well. As it is also a criticism on both the Japanese government and self-defense forces, and later on the super powers, the United States, China, partially France on the source material but the anime changed that for some reason. So here you have the alien situation going on, and the government pass them as dangerous enemies even though they are not exactly hostile, there is a lot of discussion between the different parties regarding what to do, not really that much about the aliens themselves, but with other countries instead. Meanwhile the government builds up this image of a public enemy, and exploits their technology and uses it as a source of energy, while taxes the people to build a huge spaceship reserved only for the elite, with the Prime Minister being just a scapegoat for the politicians that actually move the strings. And as for the United States, they interfere in other countries’ problems, through militaristic intervention of course, and they make things worse in the long run and even elevate the whole thing to a war. Does that remind you of something? I don’t know if the Primer Minister is a satire of Abe, but on the other hand President Padron is very clearly a satire of Trump on the manga but the anime changed his hair colour so it is not as obvious, and he is even more of a puppet than the Japanese. Whether if this vision is accurate or not is up to discussion and debate, and exceeds the objective and purpose of this review, but for the political criticism that the author was going for, it was well presented in-story, even more if you happen to dislike the international politics of the States and how they constantly meddle with other countries. And since the self-defense forces kill the non-hostile aliens, even the children, and people celebrate the killings, all the while the lives of people get ruined because of the battles, and even one soldier gets traumatized by the whole thing, you can even count the show as a critique on militarism. And since this character has a change of perspective here, he is better than the one dimensional bad guys from District 9. And of course, as it is always the case for stories with this premise, you can see is a metaphor for discrimination against immigrants, and in this particular series, since the aliens claim to be the original habitants of the planet, as occupation and ethnic cleansing, and I am sure that will remind you of things that actually has happened and are happening right now. Another thing about this show is that it is one of those “humans are the real monsters/bad guys” of the story, which is a fine premise but a bit overdone these days in my opinion. Thankfully this series showed that the aliens WERE actually planning an invasion, slave the humans, and they even form a suicidal resistance, so the conflict isn’t one sided with clear victimized and demonized sides of it as it happens a lot of the times. It seemed that the author was going to ruin all of his good stuff with the inclusion with an ever problematic plot device that is time travel/different timelines/parallel worlds, in a Madoka Magica like fashion, but for a while it was underplayed and used just for fleshing out the cast through flashbacks, and even presented the possibility of the whole conflict being the result of one of the main characters escaping reality, so it seemed like it was going to be good. And as you can always expect from Asano from a point, what followed was what was anticipated throughout the whole story, shit gets real and a lot of characters start dying one after another and everything goes to shit, in a horrifying sequence that will likely remind you of Barefoot Gen, Akira, Godzilla, or even Watchmen, or any other nuclear explosion allegory you can think of. That was the highlight of the story as far as I am concerned, and I really wanted to see what the author was going to do with it, and what I got was one of the most disappointing finales I have seen recently. Turns out he goes for a coward’s easy way out of the conflict, and it is not even one of the main characters that “finishes” the story, it was a secondary character with barely any focus throughout the whole show that did it. Thus the story and the themes you followed for the whole show don’t get a real conclusion, the characters have a catharsis but it feels shallow, hollow, even unreal, and one you don’t care about, the supporting cast gets forgotten with no resolution whatsoever as if they were never there, despite being the ones actually moving the plot the whole time, and you are left wondering what the point of the last mini arc and time skip even was. So yeah, it was truly really undoubtedly bad. Visually, the series goes for character designs that strike as childish and reminiscent of the ‘60s and ‘70s, as you would expect from a show that partially parodies Doraemon, but because of so-so animation, and inconsistent character models, they didn’t translate that well to the adaptation, and even took a bit of seriousness from it. The actual animation isn’t that good either to be honest. The artwork, backgrounds and special effects for everything that isn’t smoke, which is always done with CGI these days for whatever reason, are otherwise very good. So yeah the visuals are overall very good, it’s just that could have been better, and are not as good as the ones from the manga, which to be fair was kind of impossible, as the manga is one of the best looking I have seen in my life. What was a neat detail, however, was showing the backdrop of the main characters with a 4:3 resolution, to differentiate it from the current events, simple but very effective trick. As for the sound, the effects are very good and immersive, the voice acting is kind of atypical for anime, very fitting for the show, but it lacks impact somewhat, and the music is pretty good. The opening and endings don’t sound like much, but they reflect the innocence or fake ignorance of the main characters well, especially with those lyrics. Oh, and other aspects that could be said about the anime that were kind of an issue were the poor marketing it had, since it is an alternative version of the movies, with actual footage that isn’t in them, and Crunchyroll messed up the subtitles as they infamously tend to do with the liberties they take and how they did not translate any text on screen, for at least 7 episodes. I don’t think these things are that much of an issue, but I thought it was worth mentioning them for some people. As a whole, I thought of Dededede as a great critique on society, militarism, politics, mass media, consumerism and war, and a very interesting slice of life series and mix of two very different genres. I was going to rate the manga with an 8 out of 10, and since the anime is a bit more messy with its pacing and explanations than the source material, I was going to give it a 7 out of 10, but because of the really bad ending that renders practically every important aspect basically pointless, I had to go with the latter for each one. Meaning, I consider both versions to be worth consuming for at least one time, but not as good as they could have been if the author didn’t chicken out at the end.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 8, 2024
Human Bug Daigaku
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
Human Bug Daigaku is a pretty unconventional series and destined to be a niche title, I think that, in order to enjoy it, you have to fit into one of these categories:
#1 and most important-You don’t mind watching something with straight up awful animation. From what I understand, this show adapts a webmanga, but not like a webtoon manga, an actual manga that is published on a YouTube channel, and the adaptation tried mimicking the style. If you thought that the recent slideshow adaptations of stuff like the Yakuza Husband comedy was bad, wait till you see this. Credits where it’s due, the studio nailed the ... aesthetic it was going for. But that still does not change the fact that the artwork and character designs are very meh. There’s hardly any actual animation in here, the backgrounds are so-so, the character figures don’t seem to fit with said backgrounds a lot of the time, they barely even move and don’t have that many expressions. They are more like stuck to one or two poses and hardly even see at each other or at what they are supposed to be looking at, and the special effects are also very so-so. As a whole, although the aesthetics of the anime does resemblance the source material, visually is like watching an early indie visual novel, it feels that amateurish and unpolished. #2-You are into fun facts and trivia. Although there is a plot that tides everything together, a lot of the time the anime focuses on sharing information about different topics, from exotic foods to methods of survival, miraculous survivals, diseases, historical events, more importantly, stuff regarding crimes. Since the show is about a guy sentenced to death that survives and then gets into a lot of trouble with different criminals and mafias, the series contains a lot of information about the jails in Japan, causes of deaths, mafias around the world, corrupt policemen, stalkers and hackers, and a lot more. Which leads into the next category. #3-You like some morbid stuff. Since the protagonist has actual canon plot armor, he survives a lot of stuff that most people wouldn’t. Combine that with what I just wrote on the previous paragraph, and the main topics of the anime end up being different crimes and forms of dying. So, if you are into true crime podcasts or YouTube channels, or used to enjoy “1000 Ways to Die”, or follow Creepy.org on Twitter, or something similar, or all of the above, then this is a show for you. #4-You like weird or crazy stories. A lot of the stories feel like stuff that you would read about on Internet, like some Reddit forums for example. So if you are a fan of those things, regardless of whether they are true or not, you might like this. And now that we cleared up the appeal of the series, let’s move on onto its actual execution. As for the actual writing, it needs to be said that, although they do cross over with the others, the source material follows different characters with their own storylines in a mostly episodic manner, so the anime combining them into one story deserves a recognition. The pacing is an issue however, as a lot of screentime is dedicated to the trivia parts, slowing down the progression of the core story. Not only that, but also some episodes feel less necessary than others. As I look back, I like the episodes taking place in México the most, but where they really needed? I think you could have the most important events from those episodes taking place in Venezuela, which is the location of the final course of the plot, while taking off some side characters, and you wouldn’t really miss much. The credibility of the series is very questionable for different reasons. First, there’s not only all the over the top action adventure bits, but also the insane levels of both and bad luck of the protagonist, as he survives stuff with miraculous rates of surviving. The anime also uses another weak plot device, which is amnesia. Normally in mysteries, you can still work your way around it by revealing information gradually, and having characters with actual personality. Over here, the amnesia is used as a way for the main character to not remember crucial information. Thus not only the backstory is kept in the dark, but also the protagonist remains unexplored and undeveloped, both things until the series is about to be over. Meaning, it is not used well, and most of the time you are following seemingly random fun facts, with occasional over the top action bits around an insanely plot armored character, instead of the actual plot. And speaking of the facts it discusses throughout the story, I did a quick fact check about Caracas being the actual most dangerous city in the world, as the anime claims, and what I found was it being placed as the third, behind Tijuana and Acapulco, the second which is present in the show. So, either the two Mexican cities killed hundreds of thousands of people in two years (which to be fair is not impossible), or the makers had it wrong. And that is the only example I bothered to check out, there probably is a lot more stuff that is wrong. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but since this anime is tagged as educational, I thought it was worth mentioning out. The script also has some other minor issues, like why and how the characters end in México, unless they said that they were moving to a facility in another country and I didn’t notice. Even so, as later on it is revealed that the main antagonist was orchestrating everything, it doesn’t seem plausible for the villain to set up different scenarios so quickly, and what was even the point, when he is on a different country and continent. There’s an explanation actually, but for a series that takes itself seriously, it is very underwhelming. The villain is a one-dimensional sadistic psycho criminal, that’s it. Not that everything in the script is bad, as it ties several different characters and storylines like I said, and includes a lot of topics through trivia, and does anticipate most important events and characters properly. But it would have been better if the information and plan of the main antagonist wasn’t kept in the dark throughout most of the series, and showed how did Chie escape before the beginning of the story. And also, yes, again, both the story and main character needed to be explored more throughout the show. There are some good messages and dramatic moments around the important characters, whether if it is worth for them to keep living or not, and the obvious answer being yes, life is worth living and you should keep trying to prolong your path in it, even if inevitably does end in death. The resolution is strangely built upon but also hard to accept, and that is tied directly with the tone of the series. The characters have such a showdown that is could have been written only by Rian Johnson, yet it is played straight. The over the top bits are not that different than what you would expect from JoJo or the Indiana Jones franchise, yet here the tone is not comical, there are no supernatural super powers, and the action is interrupted by lots of random information instead of happening in a quick, epic and exciting manner, for you to suspend your disbelief. The resolution is akin to something that happens in Knives Out, the second entry, but again, it is played straight instead of funnily. And also, the dramatic parts are hard to take fully seriously, because of the unserious art style, and all the absurd rest of the script. The series has meta nods to the original, both with the encounter at the end of the series, which was a nice detail for the fans of the manga, and through an original character in the form of the professor, main narrator and suspected self-insert of the original author. As far as characterization goes, everyone eventually gets a proper backdrop, but I was still left with the impression that they have very simplistic personalities, despite their eccentric presence. Plus, the information does come way too late in the story. Only the main character actually gets some development about how life is worth living, but since he is a blank passive character for most of the story, it doesn’t feel very impactful. Finally, the sound is ok as far as sound effects and voice acting go, but the music is pretty good. The opening includes a lot of visual hints to the overall plot as well as nods to the source material, and is an ok jrock song. The ending just has the protagonist running, but the song is a very cool jazz, which would benefit if it was instrumental, as the only lyrics are the name of the anime, but even so it is quite good and catchy. In conclusion, Human Bug Daigaku is a stand out show as far as the medium goes. Its nonlinear narrative of different storylines, plot points and characters could be compared with the likes of Paranoia Agent, Ghost Hound and Odd Taxi, the mix of action and gourmet could be compared with Golden Kamuy, and the action adventure bits could be compared with JoJo, yet its plot is nothing like any of those. At the same time, there are good things in it, and being able to tell a story, considering its source material, is worthy of praise. Yet, when I look back to it, I feel like its episodes are more worthy and interesting on their own, instead of as a part of a proper story, kinda like the stuff that I mentioned at the beginning of the review, and I was left with the impression that although each part is kind of decent on its own, the sum of all of them together end up being quite weak. Part of me wants to say it is decent and worth watching, and another part of me does not, so, if I doubt myself whether if something is worth or not, I think it makes sense to choose the latter. But for anyone that wants a break from generic stuff and to watch something truly different, this is a half decent option to kill some time. Oh, and for the makers, from the country which has mafias around and the highest suicide rates of the planet, to show other countries as dangerous, particularly those from Latin America, based on sources that strangely never include places at war, more likely than not from the country with also mafias, high crime rates and record in mass shootings, that never appears in said rankings, they can go fuck themselves. Now for some excused scoring Visuals 3/10 -Artwork 1/2 (nailed the aesthetics but it is very weakly put together) -Character designs 1/2 (they look like chibis even when they are not, but they are not bad on their own) -Backgrounds 0/2 (they look like stock images) -Animation 0/2 (plain pathetic) -Special effects 1/2 (they are really bad but the main aesthetic was accomplished) Audio 6/10 -Voice acting 1/2 (Ok) -Sound effects 2/4 (Ok) -Music 3/4 (Good) Story 6/10 -Premise 1/2 (Interesting but it uses bad plot devices) -Pacing 1/2 (Slow and chaotic) -Complexity 2/2 (Lots of topics, storylines and characters tied together) -Credibility 1/2 (Things are anticipated and explained but nothing really makes sense) -Conclusion 1/2 (Ok and fitting but it is not believable) Characters 6/10 -Presence 1/2 (Simple) -Personality 1/2 (Simple) -Backdrops 2/2 (Everyone has them and most of them are interconnected) -Development 1/2 (Only the main character has it and it is not very organic) -Catharsis 1/2 (Everyone has it but it feels just ok or incomplete) Value 6/10 -Fame 2/3 (Mostly unknown in the West but quite popular in Japan) -Memorability 4/4 (So unique to the point of becoming unforgettable) -Rewatchability 0/4 (It relies completely on mystery boxes and there is nothing to revisit in the plot or characters) Personal enjoyment 4/10 I liked two episodes and the opening and ending, but was bored by the rest. Recommended stuff -True crime podcasts and YouTube channels -Creepy.org on Twitter -Wikipedia (Or better yet more reliable sources) -1000 Ways to Die -The original Indiana Jones trilogy -Odd Taxi -JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders -Knives Out and Glass Onion
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 7, 2024
Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers
(Anime)
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Not Recommended Spoiler
Disclaimer: This review discusses the flaws within the biggest plot twists of the series, so yeah it has spoilers in it.
Since Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers is universally considered to be crap, I would instead like to start with its aspects that I half liked or appreciated: 1-The visuals. Although not great in any particular aspect, it was such a joy to watch an anime closer to twenty years ago in its looks. Darker colours, actual changes in lighting and shading according to the scenes, unlike the vast majority of anime nowadays that are bright all the time. Motions and the rest of the special effects ... aren’t amazing, but still pretty good. The backgrounds are done well, it’s just that the whole series takes place in two or three cities, so they end up being somewhat repetitive. The character designs are very limited and generic, like a poor man’s versions of the style of Hiroyuki Imaishi’s anime. 2-The ending song. It’s just a pop song in English but it gives a very pleasing feeling while listening to it, I don’t like the visuals however, as it feels like a self-insert harem situation. The rest of the music is not amazing but still pretty good. And that does not include the infamous opening of this series, which gained certain popularity for starting as a typical jrock intro, while turning into something experimental with completely random visuals and sound midway. I firmly believe that just because something is different it doesn’t mean that it is good, it stands out for sure, but it can still be bad. And in my opinion, the second half of the opening is just annoying noise with nonsensical visuals that do not reflect the series at all, it’s just weird and different for the sake of it. The voice acting is ok as well, but one of the girls literally only says gobo, and the sound effects are very weak for a 2024 anime. 3-The motif behind the magical girls is literally sex, drugs and rock & roll, as one is called Anarchy and is rude and fights with fire and her fists, another is a pervert and masochistic, and another one injects herself to power up and fight, and also to produce illusions. That creates a decent contrast with the typical magical girl aesthetics, as the makers clearly intended. It still wasn’t really used to its full potential in any aspect in their characterization or fighting style, nor did they lead to any theme of any kind. 4-Despite there being an important character like the blue magical girl, it is more like limited to jokes like with Darkness in KonoSuba, there’s no actual perverted content in here. In fact, this series is arguably tamer than even that comedy. There is, however, a lot of violence, especially at the end of the series. 5-There’s a minion antagonist that tries to rebel and pursue her own thing and identity. Not that the series really did something worth mentioning with it, as said character was just in the background the whole time before not even finishing her fight, but there was an attempt there. 6-The sketches from the previews end up being a part of the plot. The rest of the elements in it were a complete disaster. Starting with the premise, as equally ridiculous as it was in similar anime in the past like Shimoneta (but with ecchi) or Rumble Garanndoll (which was the same but with mechas instead of mahou shoujos). It was already stupid for Shimoneta to have such premise in the same year that Monster Musume, Prison School, Bikini Warriors and, if I remember correctly, Valkirye Drive Mermaid were airing, and it only became worse with a lot more perverted stuff since there, like Redo of Healer, World End’s Harem, or that reincarnation dog of a zoophilic teen girl owner anime, among others. Yet at least such a stupid premise could lead to a somewhat interesting theme exploration if handled properly, not that it did. It was extra stupid for the anime about oppressed otakus, at a time where anime is more mainstream and accepted than ever. I did not watch the other series, but this one tries to go for a message about people having the right to enjoy whatever they want, and like, that’s exactly what happens nowadays for the most part. Thus, while watching the anime, I found myself agreeing with the old school otakus that appear on one episode, that also enjoyed their stuff but without embarrassing themselves in public and making everyone around die inside of cringe. The series could have made a proper point about it, but the side of the argument coming from the protagonist was very naïve and simple, he was repeating the same redundant catchphrase the whole time, without backing anything with proper arguments. Even if you ignore the shallow messages and premise, the script is a directionless mess. The characters are supposed to be part of a famous revolutionary army, yet almost nobody recognizes them out in the public, they are supposed to be oppressed and in a crisis, yet they fool around and have fun most of the time. The protagonist doubts himself in the very first episode, without the series establishing something about him or the army first, all for the sake of a weak attempt at drama with the fire magical girl, but who could even care? It was the first episode and nothing was established yet. As it is revealed later on, the antagonists were far stronger and controlling everything the whole time, making the whole show feel pointless and just happening for the sake of sadistic pleasure. It doesn’t even make sense for the main villain to try and stop the protagonists at first, why do that when everything will inevitably play out however the fuck you want it to? As the series is about to end and the big plot twists are presented, making the whole thing about a butthurt loser manipulating everyone else just for the amusement of himself and another creature that was always around yet nobody asked how, why, or where it came from. Not that the series bothered itself with any of that either, as it didn’t bother to explain it in the least. It appeared, it manipulated the villain, it gave him powers, and then proceeded to do nothing but be amused from the shadows, even at the very end it does fucking nothing. The series could have been still be saved somewhat if the finale was one of those humanity overcoming everything, even fate or whatever, but no, the whole thing was for nothing. I’m not against endings where the protagonists don’t achieve what they wanted, I would be glad with less idealistic scenarios, in fact, but the way it was done here took every bit of agency and individuality of every character. So by the end not only nothing makes sense, it also was for nothing. Supposedly, the protagonist kind of ruined the whole thing for the antagonist, but it doesn’t feel like that at all, the characters are trapped within a pre-established scenario without being able to break it and without retaining what little personality they had. And yes, there is nothing worth to say about the characterization either. The characters stand out a little for one gimmick but that defines their whole characterization, they barely have a backdrop and when they do is something really silly, the three magical girls are amnesiac and have no backdrops whatsoever, and because of the plot twist taking away whatever little individuality they had, they don’t get any development nor catharsis. So in the end this anime felt like watching someone attempting to do something similar to the titles made by Gainax or Trigger, yet being one of those people that thinks that everything they do is just random nonsense. It only half nailed the aesthetics and presentation, but other than that the whole script and characterization was a complete mess, and everything even turned out to be pointless at the end. A complete waste of time, really.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jul 6, 2024
Henjin no Salad Bowl
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
Henjin no Salad Bowl is simply and essentially Hinamatsuri at home.
This time the premise is not about esper girls but rather an actual fantasy reverse isekai where they fall on our world, and one of them over the male protagonist. Despite the characters using magic, at least the powers have some level of limits and follow some kind of scientific logic, that might be complete bs but it is nice that the author tried to give it a reasoning and keep some sense of groundness regarding the abilities. From there, the main girl follows the same path as Hina from Hinamatsuri, as she adjusts to the ... new world, lives with the male co-protagonist, kind of forms a father-daughter relationship with him, goes to school and makes some friends, and also starts working alongside him. What isn’t good about her is that her backdrop is like a chuuni fanfic parallel universe version of Japanese history. Meanwhile her bodyguard becomes homeless and gets herself into shady jobs, so she is like a combination of Anzu and Hitomi, though nowhere near as good. Those are the reasons why I enjoyed the show, yet at the same time why I don’t consider it worth watching and why I think it’s better to stick to that other series. First of all, the visuals aren’t that good. There’s nothing straight up bad about them, besides perhaps the CGI, but everything else is quite basic. The artwork, though always solid, is very simple, the character designs are extremely basic and simple, easy to mix with most anime out there, the backgrounds are nice but not that memorable, the motions are just ok, the special effects are overall good, but there’s that occasional crappy CGI. The audio is fine but nothing special as well, ok voice acting, ok sound effects, ok music, I liked both the opening and ending, feeling like somewhat upbeat jrock songs yet not going for something cute or funny to listen to as I expected. There are a lot more topics in here, as the protagonists help a girl with her bullying and then the girl befriends her, there are cases of infidelities, and plenty of lawyers and detectives besides the main character that are quite corrupt, while he is kind of a moral figure for the princess. Also, the bodyguard of the female protagonist starts as homeless yet ends up working in a night club, reselling merchandise, joining and abandoning a religious cult, being the model for perverted figurines, becoming a gambling addict, and forming a band that disbands almost as it starts. Yet nothing of all of that lasts for long to be considered to be looked into enough, let alone properly. Yes, the series is a comedy, but so was Hinamatsuri, but that show knew how to mix absurd comical situations and some serious topics and moments. Instead, this show feels overstuffed with topics that could lead to some interesting theme exploration and character arcs, yet everything is presented in a superficial way and just for laughs, and nothing has enough time on screen before moving to something else. Partially responsible for that is the narrative of the series, which is strange, as it is composed of several mini stories with their own continuity and showing all the different characters, as if the source material was a 4-koma manga, and yet it is not, it is a light novel. Thus narratively nothing gets enough linear focus before moving to something else. The pacing is fast, as you could have guessed based on what I just wrote, yet it is perhaps too fast, not only for how things change from one to another, but also because at the middle point of the anime, it feels like the characters reached the point where nothing else is left to do with them. Which can be associated with how simple the characters are. Unlike Hina, the princess here is so good at everything instantly that she has nothing to learn or accomplish, she learns fast, finds solutions to everything fast, befriends people fast, and becomes the daughter of the male co-protagonist midway, through a relationship that was always funny and wholesome, with no conflict or anything like that. The other woman is kind of the opposite, as she is very good regarding any physical activity, but is also quite dumb, easy to fool, and constantly messes up, so in her case she learns nothing and does not move forward in any way, but for the opposite reasons as the female protagonist. There are a lot more secondary characters, all of which are quirky. From a woman that is sexually into huge buildings, a lawyer that looks like a little girl for some reason, a female detective that is an expert at braking up couples, both of them that like the protagonist, and unknowingly try to help each other to win his heart, only to fail miserably. Also the bullied girl that befriends the princess becomes sort of a detective that helps bullied people on her own. There’s a writer, a singer and escort, and the cult leader, which after being helped by the bodyguard they become recurring characters with their own quirks, but not much else. The humour suffers from being partially referential, and not like in a parody way, and is not subtle in the least, it directly tells you what is referencing. Other than that, it is mostly about absurd situations, sometimes ecchi humour both with nudity and sexual situations or innuendos, which I did enjoy but at times found too much sexualizing of a certain character at some point, and at times a bit of dark humour, so if you like that combination, you might enjoy this. So in the end, I think this could have been as decent as Hinamatsuri if it was less stuffed with characters and topics, or knew how to narratively handle them better and with some sense of actual character progression, and it also needed some substance and more serious moments. But it didn’t do it so it stands as a meh alternative to it, which is nonetheless enjoyable in its own right and I’m glad I bumped into it casually, when I almost missed it completely.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jul 6, 2024
Hinamatsuri
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
While I didn’t watch everything I would have liked from any year in the history of the medium, 2018 is easily the worst year in anime history that I remember, based on everything that I watched so far that came out in it. I still have to watch some other titles to see if I’m wrong or not, but until the moment I write this, there’s only one show in it which I gave an above average rating, this one, and even then I only consider it to be just decent.
Initially I didn’t care about it much because I tend to dislike anime comedies, but ... this one had certain good reputation, and I watched so many awful to meh titles from that year so one more wouldn’t hurt. To my pleasant surprise, a story that begins with an esper (alien?) girl falling over the head of a yakuza didn’t go for the usual over exaggerated humour of the genre, with people screaming all the time and telling you what the joke is supposed to be. It also didn’t include any lazy referential comedy, it let the absurd situations, the properly drawn reaction faces, and the character interactions do their thing, and that is all that it needed. But what really makes the show appealing and worth watching is not really the comedy, but instead the slice of life part of it. Eventually another girl appears to fight against the main one, and the series also partially focuses on an actual human girl dealing without wanting with parts of the, let’s say, adult world (no, it’s nothing nasty or anything like that). There are some bits about the main yakuza guy as well, and they are funny because how good and silly every mafia guy is, but for the most part, the lives of the other girls are the main point of the series. There is a fourth girl shown at some points that is training all the time while having a comical “Cast Away” type of situation going on, but it wasn’t expanded much. The ending of the show is nonexistent, it’s completely open for more stuff to come, and it has been six years, and the source material was already finished, yet nothing seems to be on the horizon, man… The main girl is Hina, who can’t really control her psychic powers and thus lives off the yakuza guy threatening him to make a mess out of his life if he opposes (though she doesn’t really uses them much). Her whole thing is about learning to, well…not do and don’t be like that, though the show is not that successful with her “character arc”, as she doesn’t really change all that much by the end of the series. She gets friends and there’s an evolution of her relationship with the co-protagonist, at least. Anzu, tasked with defeating Hina, is by far the most interesting and best character in the show, as she becomes a homeless person and learns about working and being part of a community and having a place to consider her home and stuff. It could be said that through her the series explores the situation of homeless people in Japan. But although it is the most serious and best part of the series, the theme is not explored that deep, detailed and well, it just adds the slight drama bits and the little bits of substance that ends up making the show worth watching and not much more. Finally, there’s Hitomi, who ends up getting swayed around by all the ridiculousness around her, but also ends up getting a job and there is some funny developments around her and somewhat of an evolution of her relationship with her mother, but is played out more for laughs than anything else. Visually, the series is surprisingly good, especially coming from studio feel., that produces nothing but crappy ecchi shows or average slice of life dramedies with so-so visuals. Here everything from artwork to backgrounds to special effects are very solid, with the simple and generic character designs being the only weak aspects. The actual animation is very good at times, as the series has surprisingly good motions during its short action scenes, that puts lots of fighting shounen to shame, especially the ones from that year. The thing is though, that most of the time the series isn’t like that and is more normal and standard, with the characters being mostly still and stuff. The audio is decent in every aspect from sound effects, to voice acting, and music, but nothing to write home about. There isn’t much else to say about it, well scripted and directed comedy, good visuals, serviceable sound, decent characters, and some slice of life bits on the back of everything to give it a little substance and make the series slightly worth watching. That was enough for the terrible year for the medium that was 2018, and I hope the continuation comes out at some point.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 6, 2024
Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
After watching two Bang Dream anime and being completely put off by everything about the early episodes of Girls Band Cry and drop it, I tried my luck with the actual title of the girls band/idol-ish subgenre I wanted to watch, which is this. As expected, it is the only one I enjoyed and the only one I thought it was overall decent and worth a watch, but still only so barely.
Despite grouping it into that subgenre, the truth is that the girls here do not actually form a band, but more like an artistic group where just one of the girls writes and sings. ... The others add illustrations, compose the music and make arrangements, and do the video editing and organize the events they take part of, stuff like that. So it is not an anime just about the musical part of a band, but about the whole artistic process that is more and more important nowadays, and I appreciate that approach as somewhat different and fresh. This series is also topical and covers different themes through its characters, as the artist doubts her abilities because her art is seen as weird or inferior compared to others that makes fan arts of her creations later on. The singer and co-protagonist of the show was a former idol so through her we can see some shady aspects of the idol industry, such as groups sabotaging others and any possible incident ruining your public image. She’s also full of mommy issues, as a big part of her character arc is how she was used and tossed apart by her mother within the idol industry, and now tries to get back at her while finding her own artistic vision and expression. The composer has a more typical backdrop of having to live up to the expectations of others and being mocked because of her looks, while feeling like she has nowhere to belong. Changing from playing piano to compose her own themes with her idol she freakily fangirls over could be seen as a form of expression of artistic freedom but it is honestly not looked into that much nor that well. Her kind of perverted and freaky fangirlism over her new friend makes her the less serious and worse character out of the main ones to be honest. Then there is the editor, who is also a vtuber, so you know there’s another topical thing in there. She’s primarily a tomboy who, like Anon from It’s MyGO!!!!!, came to realize she’s not that special nor cool (from others’ perspective), and was isolated by the rest and mocked by her back by her fake friends. It’s interesting to see how she became a neet that lies about her life and the repercussions that had once that was found out. Through these characters, and the group becoming an artistic group that gains popularity online, the series also shows online harassment and cyberbullying on social media, so you know that was a good detail to have in there as another addition. And like I’ve been implying so far, the characters, both as a group and on their own, essentially go through the same character arcs as the ones from the shows I watched before it. Introspecting about their goals, looking for a personal purpose and objective, trying to find a place and group to belong to along with their friends, and as a form of conflict, different artistic visions and clashes between the members for personal reasons later on. The series also has generally a good pace, as it follows the whole process of the girls while making music and videos, and in turn, they are fleshed out at all times. I will not call the writing anything amazing however, as it is true that the girls become quite successful quite easily and quite fast, and even when they are harassed and doubt themselves, they don’t have it too hard to face those hardships and controversies and stuff. Is the themes and character immersion that makes the first half of the show good, more than the actual writing itself, which is still fairly naïve and convenient. Did I say first half? Is the second half crap and makes the anime not worth watching? Well, not exactly, though it does make it inferior that it could have been. From episodes 7 to 9 you can notice that the focused is switched to another older idol that has her own struggles, being older and a mother and all. There’s another episode on which the girls are apart doing their own thing and deciding what they want to do with their lives and stuff. There was still character immersion, so it wasn’t bad, but when you see characters doing things completely different to the main activity of the show, while at the same time introducing another secondary character with just very little screentime, and almost falling into fanservice territory, you can notice that the writing starts to crumble. Around these episodes, the series decided to have some interactions between the main girls that didn’t mean much to me, but others could see them as romantic. Let me be clear, there’s no development nor payoff to any of them, so it is once again silly yuri bait that would leave you disappointed if you expect something from it. As episodes 8 and 9 go back to focus on what the show is about, while introducing the main conflict between the main characters, you think that the show is back on track, but unfortunately that is not true at all. The last three episodes introduce drama, conflicts, cringe and unserious scenes at the most crucial moments of the band, overreactions that are different from the tone thus far, more focus on the vtuber girl with her possible gender dysphoria and not very clear relationship with that woman from episode 6 being barely looked into, more like glossed over, and left ambiguous, and eventually, having a very happy resolution where all the characters that did some very crappy things are forgiven just because and without a proper focus and buildup. The finale itself isn’t bad, each girl finds what they want to do and everything is resolved, it is just that the last three episodes speedrun through way too much stuff without an organic flow and handling of it to call the resolution good, it’s more like meh. As for the visuals, I was pleased with them after watching two or three (and a bit of another) anime in CGI, so I liked to see another 2D animated show again. Not that it isn’t anything amazing, as artwork, character designs, motions and effects are all just fine, with perhaps the backgrounds being the best bits. The directing would include several changes in perspectives, as sometimes the girls are filming or watching a video with specific cameras. Also, although it is something present in anime for years by now (Yuru Camp is the first example I can think of this), including phone screens to show the characters talking and going through social media is part of the plot in here, so that was a fine detail. As for the sound, since there is only one character that sings here, they hired seiyuus this time, so the acting is a lot better than the ones in BanG Dream and Girls Band Cry. No performance stands out that much or is that good, but Rie Takahashi has some of her most unique and most pleasing to hear (thus best as far as performances goes), characters in here, so I wanted to point it out. The music is just some generic jpop that I don’t like, but is fine for the show and the lyrics reflect the characters well, a pattern that seems to be a part of the subgenre or at least the titles that I’ve been seeing recently. A thing worth pointing out is that the show has four endings, one with two versions, canon songs made by this artistic group, and often the result of all of the work they do throughout the show. So you know, their inclusion is worth mentioning in terms of writing and directing and as part of the plot, and not just as background decorations to end an episode and roll some credits. Bottom line, I do think that the show is worth a watch, for a one time experience, but more so for being topical, relevant for our times, the themes it includes, and the character immersion. The writing and presentation are otherwise not that good, and the final course of the show is very mediocre if not straight up bad.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jul 5, 2024
BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
It seems that Japan has been taking the girls band/idol-ish subgenre a bit more seriously lately, so I wanted to check out some of those titles, starting with this entry of the vast BanG Dream multimedia franchise and all of their bands.
Word online says that it’s different from other entries by being far more dramatic, but also falling into the exaggerated and overdramatic. Well, my opinion about it is fairly neutral, as it wasn’t what I was expecting in both a good and a bad sense. From the negative side, the tone wasn’t as serious as I expected it to be and the drama wasn’t as ... good nor as well established as I was expecting, as there is no clear reasoning behind the disbanding of the former band until just a brief hint at the very end of the series. Thus the main conflict isn’t looked into enough in my opinion. From the positive side, reading about this show online, I expected it to be a lot more of a tearjerker that wants to manipulate your emotions with overdramatic reactions. Although it’s true that the characters tend to manipulate others and be somewhat toxic towards each other, the tone is not overdramatic nor melodramatic. Not that the plot is that good though, as the story is still fairly simple, the pacing rather slow and the band does progress fairly fast at the end especially considering all the issues it had, thus it is not that believable either. Another issue is that although the characters end up sticking together, it does not seem like they resolved the big issues between them, ending in a kind of a toxic working relationship if anything else. I wonder if that’s how the band was presented in the videogames, and what does it say about the real band that launched from this one lol. There are also references to other bands from the franchise and cameos of the ones that already had appearances in their own anime series, though I missed them at first because, well, this is the only series I watched from the franchise. I gotta say that every major band and character being nearby or having a direct connection with each other feels like a stretch though. The resolution is so-so, it is what it is, what you would expect from it, as the band stayed together, nothing special. It also confirmed a sequel series focused on another band from the franchise, and in turn focusing on the girl that broke the previous existing band I guess. They seem to have a gothic theatrical vibe in them, and although a bit pretentious, I did preferred them musically over MyGO!!!!!, and if the tone is like the one in here, I want to check it out when it comes out. The characters are also ok, they fit into a stereotype but are explored enough to explain their personalities with a half-decent result. I still think that they are very toxic towards each other to stay together, and their backdrop stories are way too simple to excuse any of their reactions, but having flawed characters with more than one dimension to their personalities does make them better than the competition. Other than that, despite their different stories, at the end of the day it all comes down to everyone wanting a place to belong, so the resolution of their character arcs do feel a bit samey and repetitive after a while. Just for the sake of writing some more both about them and in the review, I appreciate Komori being the shy, quiet and emotionally suppressed character moving from being the token girl to becoming a proactive character that learns to voice her thoughts and standing up to others and getting everyone together. Best girl not only for being the best written character, but also the most mentally sane. Anon was interesting to follow for how selfish and self-centered she was, yet still tries to be a good person and find her own path alongside the others. She is the second most looked into character, being the co-protagonist and main perspective we follow in the first half of the series and all. Her drama, backdrop and character arc of realizing she is not as amazing and special as she used to think was somewhat interesting to see. The others are not as good, Taki isn’t as interesting as she seemed to be, her initial rude behaviour changing to a kind of overprotective and maternal attitude around Tomori didn’t feel organic to make her a character that well written. As for Sayo…well, seeing the typical nice and relaxed girl that wants for everyone to be on good terms and stick together snapping and ending up being the worst and most manipulative and toxic character was kind of awesome at first, but it all resulted in the slowest and most overdramatic episodes in the whole series. Plus down to it, doesn’t Anon already fill her role in the story with being a fake nice girl and all? And her past of feeling lonely and wanting somewhere to belong and stuff does not excuse her being a bitch, the others had that as well and didn’t do any of all that toxic shit. Seems kinda redundant to have this girl around, writing wise I mean, I know she HAS to be in there because she is the bassist. And Raana…what were they doing with this character man? She is just the token funny kinda random character that’s there just to make the tone a bit more lighthearted when things are becoming too serious or sad. She has no personality nor character arc whatsoever, and she even enters the band just because she wants, and also because she is the best musician of the bunch. The girls of the other band are just kinda there, coming off as bitches with first world problems than anything else, but some other friends and members they come to find at the end seem nice. There’s nothing else to say about them because they will get their own series next year. Visually, anime has come a long way to make CGI that doesn’t look like complete trash and make characters with enough facial expressions to not come off as robots, but is still not that good and the motions are a bit stiff. Luckily the backgrounds were very good, so it gets a bit of an extra point for that. The sound effects and music do their job just fine. I don’t find the themes impressive in the least, especially after listening to them outside of the anime, because I don’t fancy much talking in the middle of a song, and the lyrics come off as first world teen girl problems. But as background music for the anime and used narratively as forms of expression for the characters, they are fine, and that includes the opening and ending. As for the voice acting…I’m not entirely sure but I think the standard for this subgenre is making the bands themselves act, instead of hiring seiyuus that can sing, or better yet hiring seiyuus and replacing them in the musical parts. As a result, whenever the girls aren’t singing, they are very mediocre at best as far as acting goes. So yeah, there kind of is a story, conflict, dramatic pasts, hardships while forming an indie band from scratch and making it big. That alone, and not becoming a mess all things considered, are enough to consider it a bit more realistic and place it on top of other shows of its kind, which presents the same thing in a very unrealistic and idealized manner. But it is also nowhere near great for any particular reason. I’d like to add that after this series I went on to watch the other kind of dramatic entry in the franchise, the Roselia movies, so I will cover them shortly. Visuals and sound left the same impressions in me as this title, although I preferred the themes of that other band because MyGO!!!!! has a bit more typical jpop style, while Roselia leans more towards rock with a bit of gothic vibes in them, which I prefer by a lot. I still don’t like that there are many voices singing at the same time, as they feel like pop idol groups to me, and I don’t like them one bit, and the themes themselves aren’t as good on their own as they are for background music (I’m listening to their singles as I write this), but they’re overall fine. With that said, Komori is a far better singer than the one of Roselia, very noticeable on a a capella scene near the end of the first movie, if I remember correctly. The main issue about these movies is that they’re like two and a half hours long combined. They should either be longer or a proper series, as they are, the first one is very rushed, making events, character interactions and changes, drama, conflicts and the band progressing, to come and go very fast and not being believable and convincing, thus it deserves a below average score. By the second one, all of that was over, and it was shorter and just about the characters introspecting a bit and defining their goals and motivations before they make some new songs and get what they wanted at the end, so it was ok and better. The characters weren’t as interesting as the ones from MyGO!!!!! but they’re fine. So yeah, the first movie was bad, the second one wasn’t and improved the characters, making an overall watchable whole. I considered the two more serious and dramatic BanG Dream to be watchable and a step up from other similar titles that I could barely stand, if at all, and will try to watch Ave Mujica next year.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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