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Isekai parody stories, much like isekai reincarnation stories themselves, are very hit-or-miss with me. I’m a fan of Isekai Ojisan, for example, but Konosuba didn’t really appeal to me at all despite its mainstream popularity. Isekai Shikkaku is another such isekai parody manga series adaptation from AtelierPontdarc, the studio best known for adapting Isekai Ojisan. However, despite coming from the same studio, the same director, and having a somewhat similar brand of humor, I feel that Isekai Shikkaku has some fatal flaws that prevent it from hitting the same way as Ojisan.

This series follows the adventures of real-life writer Osamu Dazai (whose work I’ve unfortunately ... never gotten around to reading although I hope to someday) whose suicide attempt is interrupted by a runaway truck. Like all those who are flattened by this legendary truck, our Senpai is transported to another world; the twist is that he is having absolutely none of this world’s high fantasy shenanigans and just wishes everyone would let him kill himself in peace. Despite Senpai’s determination to die and for reasons I don’t fully understand, he just seems to be immune to death in this world.

Forced to continue living, Senpai travels around the world searching for his lover “Sacchan”, so that they may commit suicide together, with some fantasy world friends he meets along the way. Together they end up in conflict not with a dark lord and the forces of evil, but with other isekai’d would-be-protagonists who are using their special abilities to terrorize this world’s NPC denizens. As it turns out, Senpai is the ideal foe for these power-tripping tyrants as he uses his writer’s insight to deconstruct and lay bare all those unlucky enough to cross his path.

I took to this series' premise right away and I felt that Senpai was a really fun protagonist in a very Addams Family sort of way, although I have my doubts over how reminiscent he is of the real-life Dazai. The first half-or-so of the series was one that I looked forward to watching on air but soon enough I found myself completely bored and having to rewatch episodes I fell asleep watching. Like Isekai Ojisan, this is a series that enjoys making fun of JRPG/Light Novel tropes but unlike Isekai Ojisan it forgets to give you a reason to fall back in love with the genre it's parodying and this ends up becoming the series’ fatal flaw.

Let’s compare, for example, how this series and how Isekai Ojisan deal with female characters and fan-service as both Ojisan and Shikkaku parody the trope of fantasy world characters being unrealistically beautiful. In Ojisan this becomes a major plot point of the story as it leads to Ojisan being hunted down and persecuted as a supposed orc; in Shikkaku it mainly leads to female characters having huge boobs and revealing clothes. Despite this limited focus, Shikkaku doesn’t actually contain much in the way of fan-service giving the impression that the author is merely making fun of the sexualization found in Japanese fantasy without contributing to it. Meanwhile, Isekai Ojisan fully embraces fan-service and fills its story with beautiful girls in pervy situations. In other words, true to its title, Shikkaku (to be unfit for) is merely “making fun” of isekais rather than embracing the genre and too often the result is a mean-spirited story with boring characters in boring situations (although I did enjoy the first few episodes).

Seikai no Monshou (aka Crest of the Stars) is an anime series based on the Seiun Award winning light novel trilogy by Hiroyuki Morioka. Hiroyuki Morioka's seikai series is sort of intermediate between the flowery and grandiose martial sci-fi of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, the ambitious and elaborate world building (galaxy building?) of Dune, and the 1990's aesthetics of moon-eyed bishoujo anime and, as such, has the ability to appeal to a wide range of viewers.

Seikai no Monshou follows the tribulations of Lafiel, an imperial cadet and not-so-secret princess of the blue-haired space elves, and Jinto, a young puppet baron of the empire that ... Lafiel is tasked with escorting. The empire, more specifically, the Abh Empire is a vast space faring polity run by genetically modified humans who seek to control the galaxy and the worm hole-like inter-dimensional openings that allow for interstellar colonization, trade, and warfare. While the Abh's galactic empire might sound a bit evil, it appears that the Abh only want what's best for their terran subjects who are allowed to enjoy a good degree of freedom so long as they mind their own planets and leave space to the Abh; after all it wouldn't due to allow those greedy and unpredictable terrans to start some sort of... some sort of Star War! Unfortunately, the good intentions of imperial overlords rarely go unpunished...

The seikai series also plays around with gender roles in ways that, for the time, were interesting enough that Seikai no Senki (the main series that acts as a sequel to Seikai no Monshou) was nominated for the grand prize of The Sense of Gender Awards. In Seikai no Monshou, the traditional gender roles between Lafiel and Jinto are reversed as Lafiel, a Strong Female Character, is portrayed as more competent and capable when handling conflict while Jinto takes on more of a sensitive and supportive role. In addition, the Abh have what could be described as a feminist society and many of the important Abh characters are powerful women who are contrasted with the terran women who are typically portrayed as servants or service workers whose potential is hidden behind their menial position in society.

In general, there's a lot to like about Seikai no Monshou but maybe not all that much to love. I sort of get the feeling that a big part of the novel series's appeal is in their world building but an anime series can only fit in so much lore before its opening credits. It's also a series whose slow, character focused story might be a hard sell to modern audiences and that's before factoring in its dated animation and 90's gender politics, but I enjoyed it well enough and will check out it's sequel soon.

Argento Soma is the very first original sci-fi anime from Sunrise of the 2000s that I mostly chose to watch because I found a stack of DVDs at the Goodwill and I heard a lot of people comparing it to Neon Genesis Evangelion. Unlike Evangelion which has a lot of very deep psychological themes and references to religion, Argento Soma (Greek for "Silver Soul") is a series about the assumptions, the projected fears, and the wishful thinking that fill the gaps created by misunderstandings; misunderstandings such as Argento Soma holding a candle to Evangelion.

Argento Soma is a series with a lot of issues, specifically its ... boring as heck. I found myself falling asleep watching this show way too often considering it originally aired at one in the morning (perhaps it should have been marketed as a sleeping aid). Like Evangelion, Soma is a series inspired by tokusatsu series like Ultraman but with a more mature take on the genre. Also like Evangelion this involves mecha pilots fighting giant-sized alien invaders in order to prevent them from reaching someplace... Utah, I think (this is one of the few animes to take place entirely in the USA). It's not known why all the aliens want to go to Utah(?) but I guess the government in this anime watched End of Evangelion and were like "No way Jose".

The mechas themselves however are overshadowed by "Frank", a reanimated alien pieced together from the corpses of other aliens and forced to fight. Controlling Frank is "Hattie", a girl with brain damage who appears to be able to communicate with Frank through the alien shrapnel lodged in her brain. Then there's our scarred MC "Ryu Soma" aka Takuto Kaneshiro who blames Frank for the death of his girlfriend and wants to get revenge. Ryu is also secretly working with a guy who looks suspiciously like the devil as a spy.

One of the issues with this series is that the story is too slow to establish the basic dynamic as described above. I think Soma would've done well to start in media res introducing the alien + mechs vs alien story dynamic before going back and detailing the individual characters. Instead it spends 3 or 4 episodes introducing the characters before even really beginning to divulge what exactly is going on in the world (the setting is established too slow, in other words). If the confused viewer manages to make it to episode 5 then they reach the next major flaw of the show which is that the alien enemies are boring and there's hardly any action. The aliens all have different powers, but they (mostly) all have the same humanoid shape and are defeated in more or less the same way (Frank Paunch!!).

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I hate this show though or that I regret watching it. Its OST has a few great tracks and later on there are some big plot twists as the series finally reveals its carefully guarded secrets. I'll also say that this show has a pretty decent ending that clearly and touchingly lays bare its core themes in a way that Evangelion left obscure. The final episode in particular really showed a version of its MC who had truly grown and changed leaving the viewer on a genuinely hopeful note (even if its a bit patronizing thematically).

Readers who grew up watching Toonami and Adult Swim in the early 2000's are probably familiar with the fact that the anime mega-studio Sunrise put out a bunch of hit series in the mid-to-late 90's (Gundam Wing, Outlaw Star, The Big O, and Cowboy Bebop to name a few). However, if there's one Sunrise series that didn't make it to TV outside of Japan (technically this excludes Escaflowne) that's definitely worth checking out it would probably be Infinite Ryvius (pronounced like: "Revi(se) Us").

Infinite Ryvius is a space opera that feels like a twist on Gundam but with a bit of The Lord of the Flies ... thrown in. The twist is that everything is reversed. Rather than centering the show's perspective on the pilots of the titular mech, this show follows the daily lives of the survivors, all children, living on the titular ship as they defend themselves from attacking ships while searching for safe harbor. It's main character, a far cry from a hero, is just some kid trying to keep it together while things fall apart around him. Even the Hobbesian themes of The Lord of the Flies are turned upside-down as the kids attempt to establish and re-establish law and order on the ship, often with horrifying results (really, IR is more of a political satire than Hobbesian fable).

The main characters of this show are a pretty "unlikeable" bunch: there's the MC who basically never does anything and almost might as well have stayed home, his brother a mega-edgelord who'd compel even Hiiro Yui to slap the shit out of him, the would-be hero who's obsessed with boinking his sister, and a bunch of girl characters who... just kinda really suck but in different ways I guess? Anime fans who are prone to complain about "unlikeable" characters or who can't deal with the cruel situations they create might want to steer clear of this one but as "unlikeable" as they may be the drama that plays out between them really held my interest and had me saying "just one more episode" again and again. I also enjoy the show's wacky minor characters who break up the melodrama like the girl who keeps misplacing parts of her lizard costume or the boy who has to abandon his clothes when his shower is interrupted by an evacuation order. The characters in this show would probably be awful in any other show, but IR does really well with them, I'll even admit that I genuinely have a soft spot for most of them.

In a lot of ways this is a show that probably would've never made to TV in the US, its very much a show for the true anime fans who can appreciate the way it plays with genre and character tropes. As for me, I definitely think Ryvius is worthy of being included amongst Sunrise's better known late-90's hits, a period where the mega studio's ambitions and creativity ran wild, and more than any other anime, it helped pave the way for future Sunrise productions like Gundam SeeD, s-CRY-ed, Planates, and Code Geass through its contributing staff members. As a score, a 9/10 might be slightly high, but I really enjoyed this series (OSTs really good too) and hope other people check it out.

Angel Links is an adaption of a light novel series that was serialized in Dragon Jr. Magazine and written by the creator of Outlaw Star (a long-time favorite of mine from Sunrise's golden late-90's output). Given that it shares the same creator, universe, and even a few characters as Outlaw Star it's a given that many viewers will compare it to Outlaw Star but I think a series that might be even more important to Angel Links is the popular light novel series Slayers which combined fantasy and comedy and was also published in Dragon. When you think about it like that you start to ... get a picture of what the creator was hoping to accomplish with this series, what makes it unique, and also where it falls short.

Basically, Angel Links takes the action-comedy of Slayers, adds a heaping-portion of cheesecake, sets the story in space with detailed technical designs of space ships and mass drivers to bring in the otaku, and also incorporates elements and plot beats familiar to fans of the creator's previous work. Sounds like a recipe for success right? Unfortunately the comedy earns few if any laughs (perhaps its hard to write comedy for characters who spend most of the show sitting in chairs) and the characters also have no chemistry at all. Interactions between characters are fairly minimal and, with only 12 episodes, the series has only enough time to give its supporting cast a single episode of focus each.

Having failed to endear the characters to their audience, the show shifts gears to focus on its main character: Li Meifon, the leader of the private space security organization Angel Links who boasts an empire of vast assets and huge... eyebrows. Meifon isn't the easiest character to like or a character who I felt terribly curious about but at least her mysterious past gives the story something of interest. Sadly, I assume as a bungled attempt to avoid cliches and to give the story a memorable ending, the author unexpectedly hocks a big fat loogie onto Meifon in the show's final episode, undercutting her story arc (and seemingly attempting to redeem the show's scumbag villain) in a way that left me honestly stunned and angry.

Umi ga Kikoeru (aka Ocean Waves) is a real oddball amongst Studio Ghibli's nostalgia-infused critically acclaimed children's movies. A made-for-TV teen drama set in a contemporary rural Japanese city, Umi ga Kikoeru has been described as a slice-of-life drama, a teen-romance, and a coming-of-age story but in truth I don't think any of these labels are actually accurate.

The story follows a college student's reminiscence of a high school love triangle (if you can even call it that) between himself, a proto-tsundere type girl who transfers in from Tokyo and can't help standing out from the other girls, and the close male friend who 'saw her ... first' that the MC would never betray. Now, at this point you probably think you have this story all figured out, its got all the familiar teen-romance anime tropes after all, but this really isn't even that kind of story.

Actually, Umi ga Kikoeru is a complex meditation on Japanese high school life and its values (conformity, thinking about what's best for the group, placing the needs of your friends before all else) as well as the changes in perspective that occur when one losses that sense of belonging. Great emphasis is placed on the fact that this story is about *Japanese* high school students as I'm fairly certain that most American viewers won't find it even slightly relatable. Actually, one of the common takeaways I've heard from non-Japanese viewers is that the movie has a lot of gay subtext which really just goes to show you that "high school" isn't some universal experience that transcends cultures.

All things considered, this Ghibli deep cut isn't easy to recommend to most viewers. It's dated for sure, distinctly Japanese, and too literary for entertaining genre trappings; but it isn't just some cheap made-for-TV movie intended to provide a moments entertainment and then to be forgotten either like one might expect. In many ways I'd compare it to an earlier Ghibli film Only Yesterday, but Umi ga Kikoeru is a more ambitious and mature film and I personally enjoyed it a lot more.