Popular Yet Undervalued - The Heart of Adventure Anime (LR, Spoilers will be marked ahead of time);
I have a love/hate relationship with Studio JC staff, finding them to be one of the best anime studios, yet equally most mediocre and that's in large part because of their size - Before we all made a meme of A1 picture's rapid fire approach to anime, JC staff were already a massive studio with multiple teams working on shows in parallel - I think a reason we didn't make a meme of them for this back then was because even a mediocre JC staff show tended to still
...
be quite watchable - But moreover when JC got it right, they would swing for the homerun.
Danmachi, or 'Is it ok to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon' is one of those quintessential JC staff shows - A relatively simple premise full of troops on its surface, a stupid long title name and with plenty room to expand for sequels - Like the best JC staff shows its first 13 episodes are self-contained, sure there's many over-arching questions remaining and plenty more story to be told but if all you're interested in is whether you need time to watch 5 seasons of this - Then no, you can watch the first 13 episodes by themselves and than never go further - They're cohesive and self-contained enough to be really satisfying and rewatchable in the same way classics like Zero no Tsukaima's individual seasons were back in the 2000.
For those looking for a little more convincing, lets run down the spoiler free production details;
Music, Animation and Direction;
Traditionally Studio JC have what I call the 'Mr.JC' scene - This retaining to most of their animes looking good enough, only for MR.JC himself to kick in the studio doors and animate an incredible fight scene in the middle of the anime that makes all the rest look petty, before leaving again and returning to the usual, serviceable style - 'Aria the Scarlet Ammo' is a really good example of this.
Danmachi however is an exception to the rule, almost every scene from fanservice to action has a quality to it - The background art is detailed and vivid, and the fights are some of my favourite in anime, especially those in episodes 8 and 13 which have a glorious amount of kinetic energy to impacts and attacks.
Even simple sparing matches between budding adventures have a real pace and excitement to them.
This is aided by the colour pallet, while a few characters do, you will find most of the primary cast of Danmachi break alot of standard character design - Rather than having one defining feature, candy colour hair for example, Danmachi's heroes are instead drawn in great detail. There's a massive variety of body types, facial structure, shades of blacks & browns and other small details to make these characters stand out in a crowd, without making them look out of place.
Cohesion is one of my favourite things in this show, there's no CGI crowds in the busy streets - Everything has variety, background cast members look like they could easily be main cast in another show (Some literally are) - Buildings have variety and style. It's all really high quality.
The music too is fantastic, it has a sense of wholesomeness to it. The vocal tracks are all delightful and set a mood of light-hearted adventure, while the background OsT is varied and suitable for any moment the show has need of it - Honestly Danmachi excels at being a modern anime, it never feels like its a light novel or manga that's been ported to the tv screen, rather everything blends together almost immersively.
The direction of fights and ecchi alike is expert and really it's hard to believe this anime is 7 years old - If someone tells you the show is 'just fine' production wise, then I can only presume they've accidentally watched something else, I give Danmachi full marks in all three regards.
Also note worthy is the dub - I love the original sub and dub did take some getting used to but once you do, you'll realise its spot on - The voices all fit, and Bell's VA does a great job of making awkward phrases like 'My Goddess' (Kami-Sama in the sub) sound like something Bell would actually say despite being a mouthful.
There's a light breezy quality to the dialogue and Lily's voice-actress (One of favourites in general ever since Full Metal Panic) does a brilliant job, with episode 6 being one of her best performances to date in my opinion.
Sub or Dub you can't go wrong.
Character and Story;
If you've read any of my stuff by now than you know my usual spiel - Anime owes you nothing, judge everything on its own merits yada yada - But I think that definitely does apply here to Danmachi. Indeed it is a show you have in some ways seen before, a show about a young man becoming a hero and saving girls in an 'epic' fantasy world - And you really shouldn it for that.
Danmachi is clear from the offset and the whole way through that it is a show about adventure, mythical heroes, Gods, and the people you meet along the way - So judge it on how well it does those things, on how much fun the adventure turns out to be - If you can do that, not get caught up on whether you've seen such & such an idea before - Then you just might find yourself having a whole lot of fun!
And none of that is to say the show lacks depth by any means, we'll discuss it more past the spoiler tag but in short this is a show where you'll meet morally grey characters, the likes of whom owe money to drug dealers, others who will sacrifice innocence's to save their own and more still who are just bored immortal gods.
They may not always seem the 'deepest' on a surface level, but Danmachi's characters and stories are full of subtext, motivation and goals.
For an easy not too spoiler-y example we have our protagonist Bell. Bell has some self-confidence issues but on the words of his grandfather and in an effort to make up for his past - Decides to become an adventurer.
After gaining something to aim for in the Sword Princess(An exceptionally powerful woman who spends more time rescuing Bell, than he does other girls) and someone to protect in his Goddess, Bell struggles to become stronger over the course of the show.
What I love about Bell is he's understated. He'll monologue about feeling weak, or fighting for his friends but usually only when sh*t hits the fan - Bell is seldom if ever depressed, he never really sits around the house, nor does he get upset when personally insulted. Bell is sort of a shoen hero but less preachy - None of this is to downplay characters like Shinji of Eva who show their insecurities, or shoen protags who yell their mission statement at every enemy - Those are their own thing.
No what endears me so much to Bell is how grounded he is - He doesn't have a mental illness, so he's not depressed about being weak, its just something that crosses his mind sometimes - Something I'm sure many can relate too.
There's a fitting childish innocence to him - When he finds a magic book in an early episode, it attempt to chide him, call him naïve for his image of power - And he plainly responds while smiling with that's just how he is.
What more fitting of a protag could you ask for in a show about pure adventuring?
It's in this way that you will find Danmachi to be like the best harem anime of days gone by - Simple, light-hearted, easy to follow and enjoy - But with depth, with things to say and a whole lot of heart and care put into its story and cast - I for one love it for that and maybe you will too :) .
If you haven't seen it, than I'd say almost everyone should give it a go - If you hate fanservice it may bug you a bit in that regard but honestly most of it comes from Hestia, the Greek god of Hearth, so that feels rather appropriate.
Like I said at the top, Danmachi S1 is a fun, satisfying watch all by itself and well worth the short time it takes to watch - It gets my full recommendation as one of the last ten years most solid shows.
Spoilers Ahoy - Oh beloved God of Subtext!;
One might ask why for my 25th review I have chosen Danmachi - Over the course of these reviews we've discussed all manor of sensitive topics, from the place of fanservice, questions of ped0f*llia, war stories, viewer entitlement, and so on.
From School Days to Super Lovers and Gundam - Amongst all that Danmachi may seem a little underwhelming.
True enough I actually struggled to find a central point to base this review around - Normally I listen & read to others opinions and takes, to get an idea of the discussion around a show - And I did go to Danmachi's review page, to be filled with dismay at so many negative reviewers in the top 10 listings - But in the end I stopped reading them before I'd properly started.
That's in part because Danmachi isn't the sort of anime that begs for deep analysis or vigorous debate - Rather it asks to be enjoyed.
As already mentioned I put Danmachi with the likes of 'Shuffle', super genre specific anime, that colour inside the lines - But do so wonderfully.
At times Danmachi can straight up feel like a homage to everything we love about classic anime and even just stories of heroes in general - It's a show that makes you want to smile.
And with that much care and love comes depth - My favourite example being Lily.
Between episodes 3 to 6 we get a brilliant arc, culminating in one of my all time favourite episodes of anime.
Lily at first seems like she will be a classic anime architype and I'm sure many probably write her off as such, but watch Danmachi on its own terms and you'll find so much more.
That Architype being the 'Thief With a Heart of Gold' - The type who steal to make money for family or friends and whom the hero 'saves' and shows a better way of life to - But Lily isn't that at all.
Lily has no one to support, no lofty goals - She got picked up by a drug-cartel as a child and simply wants to escape.
And in this pursuit Lily will steal, cut and maybe even kill.
I want to break down this arc a bit, because most clearly of all it seems to be an allegory for real life drug abuse, hiding in an adventure anime.
The Soma Familia are addicted to a super potent wine, which you can have as a stand-in for drugs, alcohol, gambling or any other vice you like. The group gets you in with a free or cheap first sample and then pushes you to further and further extremes as your addiction grows.
And society? It doesn't really care. We see the guild staff just sigh when a desperate Soma complains about guild rates, with Bell's guild advisor only taking an interest because of Lily & Bell's partnership.
People of authority like the Loki Familia are fully aware of the Soma's debauchery, criminal activity and suffering - Yet show no particular interest in intervening.
Everyone seems to hold the view that what the Soma clan does is its own business however corrupted - And interestingly this doesn't change after the arc ends, no one cares anymore about the Soma's than they did before.
And there's a real complexity here - Lily is not an addict, although it will come back to haunt her in later seasons - No Lily is in-debited to a dealer. This is fascinating because it would already be a near unique plot line to have a 'druggy waifu', but for it to be someone not addicted, but trapped in that world by meer association makes it all the more impressive.
The arc quickly makes clear that Lily is not a 'good person' but also not a 'bad one' either.
She didn't ask to become an orphan on the streets, nor to be beaten and abused by adventurers - But equally she has chosen to betray sometimes innocent people - And she is willing to possibly murder Bell for the chance at her own freedom.
But it goes way deeper than that. The Arc is full of small moments that lend it authenticity - When we briefly see the other members of Lily's Familia from her POV in episode 6, we find they are ghostly pale, tinted green almost with bulging diluted, dreary eyes and a watchful, sleepless wariness - These are people driven made by their addiction and Lily sees them for what they have become.
Likewise I absolutely love the reactions of the show's 'good people' - Everyone without exception is cautious of Lily, the guild advisor, Loki and even goddess Hestia - Only the elf Riou shows any sympathy, and even then its just sympathy and nothing more pro-active than that.
When Bell asks Hestia if they can shelter Lily, you don't get the answer you expect from this type of anime - Instead she is apprehensive, she asks in all earnest if Lily hasn't brought this upon herself - And in a way she has.
Ultimately it takes alot to help an addict - We might all pass one on the streets and think 'The goverment should do something' or 'Someone should help that poor soul' - But in truth do you have the compassion and the strength to do so yourself?
Could you really take in a borderline stranger? If anything the compassion is the easy bit, empathy is baked into us all, some of us are just better at ignoring it than others - No its the strength you need, to know that if they fall into old ways, wreck your house or steal your money, lashing out at you - That you will have the strength, like Bell, to reach out and drag someone into the light.
Bell becomes a physical hero in the first 3 episodes sure, and he overcomes himself in episode 8 - But to me its episode 6 that makes Bell a hero, a 1 in 10,000 kind of person who can truly 'save' people.
Lily expresses this herself, her apprehension towards all adventures is indictive of the feelings addicts have for the police - At best the police ignore them because they just aren't equipped to help - But at worst they beat, arrest and harass addicts to up crime stats and statistics, while in reality helping very little - With the no police or guards in Danmachi, the adventures are there own self-governing police force, and one that openly ignores the Soma addicts.
As Lily lies, broken and physically beaten, surrounded by death - She reaches up to the ceiling and asks God why the fu*k she had to be born this way, into this world, surrounded by these people - Why she couldn't escape the trap of society no matter how hard she tried - And then Bell just comes back.
I love the moment when Lily hits Bell over the head with his own dagger - Its visceral, impulsive and in one single moment communicates all the feelings that the music, directing, incredible voice acting and all show.
In that frame where she thwonks him on the head you have her frustration, anger, disbelief and inability to allow herself hope all in one instant.
But moreover, along with being a story about drug addiction, aiding the world building greatly with a surprising amount of nuance - As well as showing that Bell being a Hero is more than just being strong enough to fight monsters - This arc is also part of Danmachi's thematic core - Finding the good in the quagmire of shite.
The show does a great job of hiding it, but Orario sucks - As mentioned there's no police, the economy revolves around a hyper lethal monster slaying profession, there is an appalling percentage of orphans in the cast alone - So on, so on - Yet it doesn't feel that way.
Hestia and Bell's tiny basement hovel, feels like a home - The city streets full of muggers, cheats and addicts seem inviting and exciting - And even the dungeon has floors like 18 that look like a fresh paradise.
Hermie's attempts to show Bell how ugly humanity is in the final episodes of the show - But Bell kind of just says F*ck off, without saying a word, while kicking the crap out of Goliath with all his allies. Because no matter the darkness, Bell and his friends are on their adventure, and for every cruel action, their is a kind one.
Lily left Bell for dead, that isn't hyperbole, even if she hoped for his survival, she clearly accepted the chances of murder - But she isn't a bad person, she's just human - And I love that.
We see it again with Sir.Oka with the 'Pass Parade' and in many other places allowing these characters to feel quite real.
Or in perhaps one of my favourite lines from the first OVA, where Oka claims he can't get out of the hot-springs, less everyone should see his erection - Because of course he has one, why wouldn't he? That's both funny but grounding, realistic and relatable all at once.
Every Little Helps - Danmachi's Method of Realism;
So now that we've used the Lily Arc example to make clear how much more depth and consideration Danmachi's characters and story have, than what people give it credit for - Let's talk on some other topics like its form of realism.
If you're looking for the logistics of an RPG style adventure, then you're better off with Log Horizon - If you want the gritty realism and reality of fighting fantasy monsters, try Grimgar of Fantasy & Ash, another brilliant single cour Tv show.
But while not on their level, Danmachi opts for a 'comfy' level of realism.
Its never too in your face, with just enough detail to stop you from asking 'How does such and such a fantasy thing work'.
The supporters are a simple explanation for how the adventurers stay supplied in the dungeon - The trade of magic stones for money at the guild creates an easy to understand economy.
The idea that if they found a safe zone in the dungeon adventurers would automatically colonise it with an inflated local economy seems down right natural.
These realism touches are never too in-depth, because they aren't really important - The supporters give a good reason for Bell to meet Lily, but you could easily find other methods - No these small touches, down to the Loki and Hephaestus Familias travelling together - Are all here to make your viewing more leisurely - You don't have to ask extraneous questions - But you equally don't need to do homework to keep up.
Poke hard enough and you will find holes - The crystals that light floor 18 are BS - There is no reason given for why they mimic a day/night cycle, nor any explanation of how plants grow & synthase with crystal light - But who f-ing cares.
This is a fantasy world and it the author wants to have a crystal with the power to mimic the sun, in order to create a beautifully landscape, perfect for an epic battle - Then heck ya, that's what adventuring is about, being free to have fun.
That's why I love the 'realism' of Danmachi, its never overbearing but just plausible enough to help you get immersed, to make the world more believable while still fantastical.
From the rust on discarded swords at the edge of dead adventurer's graves - To Loki the trickster God being able to convincingly go as a man or woman - To Hestia, God of the Hearth being a figure who represents warmth and a home (let's go home being a line she repeatedly uses). To the way it turns the borderline misogynistic idea of a saving timid girls in dungeons - Into something more wonderful.
Because make no mistake, the girls of Danmachi ain't weak - Lily's survived years on her own, The Sword Princess is a contender for the best of the best - Every one has things they are good at and things there bad at in this world - And often Bell's being a Hero has little to do with dragon slaying, and more to do with being a good person.
I've actually tried to write reviews of Danmachi before but failed because, in effect I just end up gushing about it.
The way Bell overcomes a minotaur far stronger then the original but than in ep 13 in a super quick moment we even get to see him save someone else the same way he was saved in episode 1.
The fact its a minotaur in a labyrinth in a story filled with Greek mythology inspirations - The fact the story's 'princess' is a 'Sword Princess' who you have to catch up to rather than rescue. The way Bell inspires and motivates even those who are far stronger then him.
Heck try watch Danmachi and its spin off in tandem, few eps of one and than a few of the other - It works really well to make the whole thing an awesome 25 episode show + Hot-spring OVA for good measure.
Hell even the god-damn Ova, like it really goes hard on the hot-springs troop, you get every shot and swimsuit you could ask for combined with genuinely funny jokes through out (I love my boy carving the Hephaestus statue on the fly while her voice tells him not to use her as a distraction😂).
Oh and did I mention the fights are fu*king awesome from direction to choreography to the rule of cool usage?!
And that's kind of the point and why I chose this as my 25th review to boot - Danmachi is a modern version of what got so many us all into this medium in the first place.
Its art is brilliant, its environments memorable, its characters tackle subjects you just can't get in tv for western youths - Its story and hero moments are plain badass, its wholesome and fun and makes you want to smile all the time for a myriad of different reasons as its character interact in genuine groups with true feelings bonds however simple they may be.
Its well though out, brilliantly paced to have no filler but still make bundles of time for characters to just interact and its characters and world feel grounded and authentic yet still larger than life and 'silly'.
You don't have to watch 5 seasons, waiting years in between - These 13 episodes are a complete package. You don't feel compelled to argue its politics, nor feel weirded out by how far it takes it gimmicks.
In an anime landscape where 'Salve Isekai' is quickly becoming the new thing - The purity of Danmachi is delightful - Its romances are straightforward, its plot simple - It is anime as you remember it, rendered with the music and animation of the present day.
It doesn't need an isekai truck hooked with a smart phone, it doesn't need to deconstruct anything, or push the boundaries of Ecchi to new highs - It doesn't need to be self-aware, or force you to wait for the next season in a never ending tirade of seasons that when looked back on feel almost like sudo-filler.
Its a classic anime, with none of the needless addons we've gained over the years
Danmachi is pure adventure, and whether people understand fully why or not, its easy to see why it captured so many's attention - Danmachi is pure anime goodness, and I love it.
Thanks for reading,
-Momentie.
Oct 11, 2022 Recommended Spoiler
Popular Yet Undervalued - The Heart of Adventure Anime (LR, Spoilers will be marked ahead of time);
I have a love/hate relationship with Studio JC staff, finding them to be one of the best anime studios, yet equally most mediocre and that's in large part because of their size - Before we all made a meme of A1 picture's rapid fire approach to anime, JC staff were already a massive studio with multiple teams working on shows in parallel - I think a reason we didn't make a meme of them for this back then was because even a mediocre JC staff show tended to still ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
 0
Love it
 0
Funny
 0
Confusing
 0
Informative
 0
Well-written
 0
Creative
 0Show all 
Jul 10, 2022 Mixed Feelings Preliminary
(3/12 eps)
Spoiler
Trying To Understand The One Anime I Just Can't Get Through (SR);
If you know any of my work, then you already know I have no issue with ecchi, moral ambiguity or isekai - And yet the anime to finally defeat me is apparently this, Mushoku Tensei(MT) Part 2 - How did this happen, why can't I get into it's glorious production values and is it overhyped - Today I'd like to take the time to think through all that a bit, feel free to join me - Spoilers Ahoy; A big thing to establish would be why this question interests me in the first place - ... When it comes to genres MT is primarily an isekai, fantasy-adventure, ecchi programme, with some sub-headings of Lolita-harem and Aging Protagonist. Isekai is no problem for me, I love classics from long before MT - Harems like 'Zero no Tsukima' or the Epic that is 'Magic knight Reyearth', I even loved what I've seen so far of 'Aura Battler Dunbine'. Further I've no major bug to bear with modern harems either, not just obvious masterpieces like Re;Zero or Grimgar but also silly fun romps like Shield Hero. So while it is a little annoying people keep calling MT the isekai 'pioneer' in spite of the author wearing much of his influences on his sleeve - I overall have nothing to dislike with the isekai element. Ecchi presents little issue either - I don't much go out of my way to find fanservice but I am rather fond of the harem genre, not because of any desire to be surrounded by half a dozen, usually mentally unstable or mysteriously ill women and/or men - But rather because I find harem stories quite upfront and earnest, usually cheap yet passion filled - Its a fun genre and when it peaks, it peaks hard - I didn't write 40k words on the ecchi-harem anime shuffle for no reason ;). So how about a different angle, perhaps this is a case of overhype. Well while I am frequently disappointed by the show, I think its undeniable that it is one of the best pieces of tv animation, direction and scoring of all time. For all my issues with MT, its overly abundant that there is no 'hype' in terms of MT's production, no it deserves every bit of praise it gets on that front. So it strikes me that my issue and perhaps one others can relate to, comes from the show's framing - Sure I have lesser issues with how I find the story fairly mundane and mostly predictable in an unenjoyable way, and how for all the work Rudeus does to get some of his power, He is still handed a noble birth, the best teachers around, powerful allies who come to his beck & call, and by episode 12 a magic eye that lets him see a few seconds into the future, all alongside a speed-dial to an omnipotent God.... For all that, I think the thing that makes this such a painful watch really is down to just the framing: When Does a Fun Ecchi Comedy, Turn Into Creepy Heintai?; Ok before a potential MT fan clicks off, I ain't here to play any bullcrap games - I believe in the principal of 'Don't like, don't watch' - I don't like horror movies, I'm really squeamish you see, so I don't watch them with only the exception of the really important ones to medium as a whole - That doesn't mean I think the horror genre promotes violence, or gore, or suffering. I also don't think a cartoon is real, at all - Lolita and Shotocon culture is complex and I ain't one for trying to dumb it down to some stupid binary, I've written whole essays trying to mediate the conversation as I understand it. MT (purely the anime, the light novel I'm not familiar with) as I personally see it suffers from a few caveats: 1. It isn't framed as Ecchi, but instead as high fantasy. 2. Regardless of any ridiculous hand waving from the handful of super extreme fans, Rudeus is nearer 40 years old then not, he acts that way, has the memories of all those years, imagines himself in his dreams that way - And maybe most problematically of all, he thinks in a adult-man voice - And boy does he think alot. Even if you want to argue philosophy and say that the body equals your age, not the mind - This doesn't change how uncomfortably it is to listen to a grown man fantasise over young children that are in his power. 3. There is no counter. I have no issue with Rudeus being the way he is in a vacuum, I believe in showing morally fecked characters - But the property has no active counter, no character commenting on how unequivocally wrong it is for Rudeus to be attracted and actively groom little girls. To break that down a little let me use a pretty heavy example - I could get through all of 'Kodomo no Jikan'. For those who don't immediately wince in painful memory at that title, I'm refereeing to the anime about a very young girl trying to actively get in the pants of her home room teacher, alongside the her other exploits with here two other fellow Lolita/straight-up child friends. It is a show I probably wouldn't of ever gone near were it not for its infamy with-in the anime community - A show neigh-on impossible to score properly. Its a show that constantly makes you conflicted on what's being told, because make no mistake - It has themes and messages, but it also has Alot of very uncomfortable Ecchi fanservice with children. So what's that got to do with MT? Well for one I'd note this, Kodomo no Jikan doesn't try to ignore its own moral quandaries - Though it certainly glorifies the fanservice to a degree, no one ever tries to say that what's happening is ok - In fact the teacher/adult of the show actively tries to put a stop to things and has no real attraction to the girl, but rather is constantly presented with massive internal conflict when she acts like a much older woman than is appropriate for a child, matched with his own sexual inadequacies. Now to be clear, the show is infamous for a reason, I can't properly score it for a reason - It is not an easy watch - But atleast its honest. The opening and ending are full of fanservice to a peppy J-pop track, the premise and poster art are self-evident - No one tries to make an argument of any merit in favour of Ped0filia, the programme is what it is. And see there's the thing I think get me - Lots of bad-faith people will tell you the show 'Black-Bullet' (What I was going to write a much needed positive review next, but instead ended up doing this one😅) is a loli-harem, but its not. Like sure there are alot of Lolita's, some fan-service for them too here & there - But its an action, drama, comedy - The protag has no romantic love for the Lolita's of the lewd sort and they in turn are naïve to what that sort of love really means. They are primarily used to look cute and for some thematic stuff. If you were actually into that particular body type and watched 'black bullet' purely for it - You would most likely be disappointed - But I think that person would love MT. And that isn't necessarily the 'problem' per-se. High-school DxD is full of Ecchi fun but the difference is, it doesn't normalise it and this is what I'm getting at with framing. DXD starts with bombastic opening songs that illustrate this wacky fictional world full of action scenes and b00bs. Mushoku Tensei, with its lack of intro animation, starts pretty much each episode with an incredibly produced animated montage or such like, of the characters doing whatever, to the backing of a proper high fantasy song - And then five minutes late Rudeus is ogling a 12 years old while internally monologuing about making them his wife or conquest with the voice of a 40 year old. That isn't hyperbole, that's a description of the anime, an accurate one. And there's no 'control' factor - Using the excuse of the time era, (a fictional world that were in mind you), there is no character who calls this behaviour out - And so even if in 20 or 100 episode's time Rudeus finally develops to be less of a very literal Ped0, until we get there we just have to live with moment after moment of lewd gazes and unchecked comments on children by a 40 years old - It's just too much. And this compounds with other things that might not be so bad on their own - Why is Roxy 12? Like seriously, why shouldn't I doubt the shows intentions when the one of-age character who Rudeous is attracted to, just so happens to be from a speical race that looks super young as adults? Does that not raise flags when combined with the rest - Why does Eris & Rudeus physically age so little between the years of 10 & 13, despite that being a prime aging period for kids? Is it because we want to keep presenting Eris as Lolita as we can possibly get away with? Because that's what it comes across as with everything else - This show is too expensive for it to be a case of lazy model work - It feels deliberate. It makes it so hard to watch because it feels dissonant - The trailers, the amazing production, the posters, the hype - It all says this is a king of isekai & high-fantasy and the show backs that up, this show doesn't feel like an ecchi - But it 100% is as much an ecchi as it is anything else. No episode goes by without fan-service or lewd humour, or uncomfortable monologues from the protag and as the show goes on it gets harder to process. I want to think it'll pay off, that Rudeus will over time become a compelling, ever-developing character - But for that to happen we need checks and balances. We need a voice of reason, the 'God' character even, just someone to remind us that were not the strange one for thinking a 40 year old man pursuing kids is weird. The Ecchi cannot be this in your face with out adequate framing. Imagine a version of 'Highschool DxD' or 'Sora No Otishimo', where the intro's where deadpan with no fanservice and top quality, hyper detailed art - But then five minutes in, its still a totally normal episode of those shows - It would mess with your head, simply put. I haven't always loved every influential show I've watched - 'Kodomo no Jikan' is again a hard watch - But its interesting, the episode depicting the main girl's backstory is actually brilliant, in has messages, it has a twisted but still present form of morality and it doesn't let the ecchi go completely unchecked - It still does alot of the time, but there is atleast always characters who would ring the police if they found out things were going too far. And again that's not an excuse, Kodomo no Jikan goes wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to far, alot, but atleast it doesn't pretend to be something else - You know what's coming every episode, its uncomfortable, but its clearly deliberate: In MT ep 13, Rudeus tells Eris it took all he had not to fondle her when she was sick & vulnerable on the boat, that next ocean trip he might not be able to resist. Eris says she would be ok with him doing it a little next time.... In this scene we are watching a young girl who over time has been groomed - That's not an exaggeration, she has gone from repelling his advances, to being more and more open to it, of thinking she's in love with what she thinks is her younger cousins but is really a boy with the mind of a middle aged man, who by his own admission is more interested in other woman, including Sylphiette, another even younger girl he openly wants to make his child bride. And all of this isn't even the focus - The focus is some generic fantasy romp across some nicely done world-building. The focus isn't on how evil this is, in fact its almost always framed as either comedy or sometimes even wholesome - This blatant grooming element which has nothing to do with imposing my own standards but is simply the text were presented with - I'm not even sure if its deliberate. All I have is the word of the novels fans - That its an amazing slow burn, that Rudeus is meant to be this way so that he can later develop - But that word is the same one that says he isn't unfairly overpowered, that says this show is the most original Isekai ever, that says this, that and the other. That word is reliant upon this show getting enough episodes to reach this supposed heel turn - That word I dependant on being able to sit through a 40 years old man 'wholesomely' grooming a girl in his power, into thinking she should offer her body to him. I'm sorry but I can't. I will defend the merits of 'Super Lovers' as a better way for youths to come to understand their growing fantasies & strange adolescent feeling in a controlled fictional environment, as a versed to actual pornography. I will discuss the intricate, often hypocritical thinking of the ever fascinating 'Kodom no Jokai' - I will never sit here and tell you that a fanservice Loli is the same as Cp, it just isn't that simple. But MT does seem simple, it hasn't shown me any instance of deeper feelings on these topics, it doesn't make an effort to counter the depraved behavers and it isn't framed right for such stark ecchi. Its an uphill battle, I get dismayed when I look at my list and think, 'Oh, guess I better watch an episode of that today....' - I don't find the fantasy that fun and the production, as mind-bogglingly good as it is, can't overcome the terrifying way it presents such dark subject matter in a wholesome fashion. When I drop things its cause I'm busy or a show just isn't for me and doesn't seem important enough to be worth pushing through - Mushoku Tensei is important enough to push through, but I just can't do it. Were MT framed as a pure Ecchi, I think I could get through it like any other Ecchi - Were it focusing more actively on the philosophy or character driven side of the Ped0 angle, I think I get through it - But as it is this show borderline freaks me out - And for that I'm dropping MT. I hope if nothing else, perhaps I helped you too put words to something you might of been feeling about this, whether you like, love or hate the show - Just because you appreciate the harem or Ecchi, isekai or fantasy genres, for any reason, doesn't mean you have to like this show or its screwy framing & morals. Thanks for reading me ramble on this show, I hope you enjoyed, -Momentie.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Apr 6, 2022 Recommended
Gosick - A True Sherlock Holmes Modernisation, That Everyone Missed?(LR);
Gosick is one of those anime that has sat on my to-watch list for literal years - Airing in 2011 by studio Bones and with a 'gothic', Sherlock Holmes-esk mystery plot, this show was quite probably made for me and yet like many others its lack of notoriety kept it low on my priorities for quite some time. Indeed despite a pretty darn high popularity and score here on Mal you would be forgiven for thinking that many people were still sleeping on this show a decade later - To my surprise, upon finishing the show I ... couldn't find all but a handful of reviews and critics. One of Glass Reflection's less stellar pieces, a short recommendation video and a handful of Mal reviews - None of which, even the positive ones, seems to of gleaned much of anything beneath the surface of this show. Of what I read and watched only about half even acknowledged the Holmes connections, with none of those realising it is not a connection but an overtly apparent iteration - And with some of these reviews even being seemingly unaware of some pretty fundamental historical facts, like when the second-world-war took place.... So while I sure as heck ain't the best person for the job feel free to join me as we take a brief walk through what makes Gosick an emblem of well thought-out story telling, a brilliant mystery series and an expertly executed romance. Spoiler Free - Music and Animation; The music of Gosick gets a weirdly bad rap, with some saying it works in context but is less enjoyable out of context and others just complaining about the second outro song - Lets try be a little more empirical. Gosick's Ost is wonderfully 'sombre', by which I mean that while its varied in its compositions they all feel strongly tied together to create a cohesive atmosphere through-out. The 'Gothic' undertones of many of the pieces, mesh brilliantly with the more upbeat day-to-day tracks and the dienomon track has a fantastic motif, that turns up in many of the other pieces. The intros and outros feel like the last hurrah of the 2000's era of anime (which makes alot of sense across the whole OST considering who the composer is), they're fun and catchy while also being thematic. In spite of the flack it gets, the second ED is highly fitting and my personal favourite of the set by far. All told Gosick's stylings in the music department may not be to your taste which is entirely understandable, however on objective merits its always exceptionally fitting in subtle ways, implemented to fit every given scene and very well made - Top marks. Animation fairs equally well - Some have made statements to the effect that they were disappointed by the animation but ultimately OK with it because Gosick isn't an action show, I would preface they are saying the right thing, backwards. Gosick's animation isn't FMAB or Soul Eaters levels all the time, true but it is highly detailed, fluid and well crafted through-out the entire show. Gosick is better animated then it needs to be and when the time calls for it the action in the show's later half more then matches anything else Bones have put out there at the time. We also have the amazingly detailed backgrounds, painting this wonderfully intricate landscape of a central European country . And of-course the direction is at times to die for - A particular train scene in specific is enough to easily make a top 10 list of best scenes for many fans no doubt. The use of fire, the camera flourishes and the many gorgeous landscape shots are just some of this show's talented direction. For this particular review I'm looking more at narrative and themes but make no mistake there's alot of good to be said about the show's animation and direction. Spoiler Free - Story & Characters; Something important to understand when looking at Gosick is to see it from its own perspective - As a modernisation of sorts towards stories like Holmes and Alice in Wonderland amongst other tales and folklore influences, it is ultimately a little odd for an anime. In essence it's being written in an almost Western Fashion, well western as in British in the 1800s... I think this is where some get lost with Gosick, expecting its characters and story to function by the same rules as every other anime, but they don't and they don't need to. It may help going into Gosick to think of your time reading books like Treasure Island as a child - Short novella tales where really characters may have implied depth but mostly serve functions along the adventure except for a choice one or two. In alot of classic literature we didn't always expect characters to have flaws or go on character arcs and while one can plot out a character arc for someone like Sherlock Holmes, it would be interpretation as in reality characters of that era were just, different. And that isn't bad, sometimes we just want to enjoy stories with out high stakes human-drama - That's why alot of those tales revolve around the mystery or treasure above the characters. Its in-part why something like Lord-Of-The-Rings was such a game changer. Characters would often embody one thing and have no real arc - Gosick follows in those footsteps while also updating them for a modern audience. So expect what seem like trivial one off stories to be feeding into something deeper and over-arching but equally that with-in every major conspiracy you'll also find a subdued mini-mystery. And when it feels like characters are taking too long to develop, just remember that real people are much the same. Gosick doesn't fit nicely/neatly one way or another and I believe that's very much so by design - It isn't a 'Monster of the Week' show but it also isn't quite one grand story, atleast not in the short-term. What I just said also applies to the characters - We will touch on this far more in the spoiler section but for now lets run with two examples - Inspector Grevil and Kazuya Kujou. Grevil is one of those characters people like to say lacks sufficient substance but I think this is simply a lack of looking. For one thing Grevil is undoubtedly an amalgamation for two Holmesian characters, Inspector Lestrade and Mycroft Holmes. Understanding this can really help to give you a deeper appreciation of the show and to make it far more enjoyable. It is in this fashion that most of Gosick's character function, the writer takes element of pre-existing characters from other fiction and expands on them - So inspector Lestrade in original Sherlock Holmes is a minor character who brings Holmes & Watson cases and police support in some of the more dangerous stories. This part is blindingly simple, Grevil preforming a near identical function with an add drill for hair - However he is also Victorique's older brother in much the same way Mycroft was Holme's older sibling. Mycroft is someone of comparable intellect to Holmes but who choses to use that to secure himself an arguably 'more important' but less effort filled job. He is essentially someone who lives up to his intellects full potential to manipulate people and gain power & influence, but suffers greater 'boredom' then even Holmes, leading him to spend most of his time in a 'No talking, No Women' Gentlemen's club. And yet despite all that we do see some hints that he genuinely cares for his little brother in the form of Holmes beneath it all. What Gosick does is extrapolate those concepts to more modern storytelling - So Grevil still preforms the function of being a police contact and providing cases, plus being the reliable but somewhat witless or often times hapless police investigator - While also taking on a larger brotherly role, where in his position in authority forces him to do what he must but his care for his sister, a care he Will Not admit is always there. Overall I'd suggest Grevil is a pretty simple example, his ties to the Holmes stories are clearly apparent in his literal name and inspector's title and he is ultimately a side character - And yet despite that simplicity he acts with a marked 'realness' - He shows his inner turmoil at having to follow certain orders, he can be a snarky-upper class arsehole at times, while also still being capable of a deep-hidden kindness. It's in this way that Gosick will paint for you simple, almost 'tropy' characters who are also so much more. One more I'll quickly mention is Kujou. We'll go into full detail on him shortly but for those going into the show for the first time, its worth discounting the common adage that Kujou is a generic 'Kirito' style clone - Kujou is an combination of Watson and a Japanese everyman, so keeping in mind that Watson was already designed as a lower-middle class English everyman, we got ourselves 'Everyman Inception'. Kujou has been accused of not taking an active role in the plot and while it should become apparent this is a poor interpretation, it also bears remembering what I said about this being a 'traditional' story - Watson has no particular reason to hunt mysterious with Holmes, often getting dragged in by chance and he's far from the only example of this sort of motivation in literature of the time - We're gonna elaborate on that shortly but keep it on mind on your first viewing and try to look at Kujou as his own character and not as an anime architype - You just might come to appreciate our boi a little more that way ;). Spoiler Free Conclusion; Been a while since one of these spoiler free sections got so long, oops. And yet in that is something else interesting of note - Gosick, like much of what its clearly iterating on and inspired by is the sort of brilliant work you could talk about all day without ever actually spoiling much. Gosick is a show that tries and in my opinion achieves being for everyone, its both a trope romance and something more speical then that - Both a mystery of the week and overarching tale at the same time, its both well, a modern anime and a classic reinterpretation all in one. Gosick has a perfectly fitting and well-crafted Ost, gorgeous background art with continently strong visual direction and some real standout moments for the animation. It's a show of many half's both from a narrative standpoint and a text view. It's therefore an odd show to recommend because in truth I think everyone can atleast enjoy it as light entertainment, an achievement in itself - This isn't like 'School Days' where you have to tell people to only watch if it suits their tastes and personality, no rather my recommendation with Gosick is to try and see it for what it really strives to be, rather then just the surface level mystery. Ultimately the prevailing message of Sherlock Holmes was to change your perspective of the world in order to gain greater understanding, insight and maybe even happiness - So take that and apply it to Gosick. Worst case you enjoy it as basic entertainment, best case you might just get a new favourite - Win, win. A recommendation for everyone to try it out. Now then; Spoilers Ahoy - Applying the Wellspring of Knowledge.... or not...; [The following short section retains to a brief discussion on the lens we can look at a foreign story through - If that doesn't interest you, feel free to skip to the next section :) - Additionally while I'll be referencing Sherlock Holmes alot, there is no need to fear 'spoilers' per se other then borderline trivia facts about the property ;) ] Sakuraba Kazuki is the author of Gosick - If one we're to look via the MyAnimeList page, that and a record of some of her light novels is about the sum total of the information you would garner. This may not come as a surprise to anyone reading this who already knows what a cosmic pain in the backside it is to research Japanese creators - Sure your Hideki Anno's, Yosiuki Tomino's and Hiyou Misaki's are prolific and famous enough to have a decent amount of interviews and information translated but for the average viewer like myself, learning anything about an author (other then their list of credits) is near impossible. It doesn't help that I have no training in methods of research, I simply have a weak internet connections and the powers of Goggle. That said I can tell you a few more things about Miss.Sakuraba - She's 50, Gosick is her most popular work but not her most acclaimed (That honour goes to a regular novel she wrote which won some awards, and as I understand it was a normal book - Not a light novel {2007 – Mystery Writers of Japan Award for Best Novel: Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas}) and that she supposedly has been reading & writing from a fairly young age. Indeed according to what I read, a quite young Kazuki used to skip classes and hate study, all in order to go to the library (No need for me to point out what that inspired is there) - Further it was in this library she met what's described as a 'mysterious girl' who seemed to be writing her own novel, partially inspiring Kazuki to start writing. The parts about her time in the library are the most useful to us, however there's nothing much concreate in there. I can tell you that Sherlock Holmes 'The Man with the Twisted Lip' first arrived in Japan in 1894 - Presumably before any of us were born, before two world wars and most of all before the inception of... Anime & Manga!! Furthermore according to one source 'Sherlock' himself is the most well known British person in Japan above Sir Winston Churchill - Now you may be noting that Sherlock is fictional but I guess the point of that particular article is that Arthur Conan Doyle's stories have indeed successfully reached eastern shores. So why does any of this matter you might be asking? Well before I mentioned Hideki Anno, maybe the most well known Japanese writer & director these days for his long running creation 'Evangellion'. Because of Eva's massive success on both sides of the world, alot about Anno has been translated and so we know for a fact based on his own words and those of the staff, that Anno wrote Eva while in deep mental anguish - We know this anguish only grew greater during the show and that a book on phycology from a friend would lead him to being able to properly word what he was already feeling. And so we know why the show from episode 1 is contemplative, so charged with Anno's personal struggle and emotions. We also know why as the show progress this gets gradually more extreme and meta-physical - Eva is about one guys declining mental health, these days that is an almost inarguably fact. And there's a benefit to that which a 'Death of the Author' fanatic probably hates - Group analysis. Say your the first to review Eva and you do so with the knowledge of Anno's health in mind - Then someone watchers your review, before writing/positing their own - They now iterate on what you said while adding to it, and so eventually you get to 2022 were people still analysing and critiquing OG Eva and EoE, all building off what's already been said, all going a little further or discovering a new corner to look at - And so Eva becomes one of the best analysed and most interesting properties to date. Just watching, listening and reading Eva discussion is an experience separate to the show, all in & of itself. But that's the exception, not the rule - Generally we don't have this rather useful information and why that matters is pretty simple; I could make a detailed, episode by episode interpretation of Gosick as an adaptation of Sherlock Holme, including every direct reference, thread and iteration - But someone else could interpret the whole thing completely differently with no Sherlock Holmes connection at all. And this isn't always a bad thing necessarily - Art and its many interpretations can be amazing and we should Always judge things on their own individual merit - Gosick's Light novel and Anime can be looked at together but equally Must be seen apart - It's great to see what different people all get from the same thing - However I think it's a shame with something like Gosick that we don't have that firm foundation to build off, no definite proof of what Gosick is. So while yes, the author was an avid reader & writer from a young age - Clearly of regular books as-averse to just light novels, in a country where Holmes would most likely be in that library she wiled away the hours of her childhood in - And in a show where the protag mock-smokes a pipe while solving sometimes one to one versions of Holme's stories like 'The Red Headed league' with a format of a single freelance detective and a military background-everyman companion - Despite all that, it is ultimately just interpretation, an interpretation someone could justifiably say is all just 'reaching' or coincidences. And I think that's a shame because I'd love to spend an afternoon listening to other fans of the original Sherlock Holmes explaining their take on it as an iteration, to see how they'd feel the original themes and messages were conveyed and updated for a modern audience. Instead I have yet to see one review that actually draws parallels, the best you get is people saying Victorique is a Holme's-like character, which really is such a shame. That said hopefully through this review we can atleast do a little of that work and finally give Gosick some small modicum of its deserved credit for what it does on a deeper level, even if that's only a/one foot deeper. From here on I'll act as though this is an iteration of Holmes as that's our focus today and in order to simplify our discussion as though it were fact, and I'll also try to avoid anymore of these long sections on media analysis as a-whole. An Expert Display in how to Modernise a Story; I've mentioned a few times now how Gosick is a talented modernisation of older titles and I think that's sort of the shows 'secret-sauce' as it were. To me atleast, to modernise a story has nothing to do with when its set, a mistake adaptations like the BBC's 'Sherlock' staring Benedict Cumberbatch, all too often make. To modernise is more so to do with the modes with which we use to tell stories - So Gosick being set in the 1900's is clearly not an attempt to bring it into the 21st centenary literally but instead through the story telling. Lets start with Victorique. In one of his less glorious moments Glass Reflection compared her to Asana of Sao for being frequently kidnapped - Now while I think Glass Reflection is a really lovely guy, talk about a bare bones surface level reading. Victorique is given the primary flaw of physical weakness - For those not in the know, Sherlock Holmes does not suffer from this, he sometimes appears to be an expert marksmen and high level practitioner of material arts. This arguably create a hole of sorts in the original stories, Holme's is perfect. His biggest vice is his use of let's say 'non-prescription drugs', however even this he almost always seems to have a complete handle over. And this isn't actually a problem. Like I've said, back then a stories characters were not required to have relatable flaws or arcs (they could have these things, but it was less mandatory as it were). To bring Holme's into the 21st century he needs flaws, preferably ones that comes from the source writing. It's in this way that Victorique's physical weakness is a masterstroke because it also helps fill another hole; 'What's Watson for?' Now don't get me wrong, that question is a little unfair. The relationship of Holmes and Watson in 'Sherlock Holmes' is a little more complicated then 'Holmes Smart, Watson Solider' however one point of note from a modern perspective is that Watson is invalidated to a degree by Holme's 'perfectness'. Watson seemingly should function as the muscle of the group and indeed many interpretations & adaptions since have gone this route but because Holmes is perfectly capable of using a gun or hitting people - Watson is in this regard superfluous. By having Victorique be physically weak, it gives Kujou a very straight forward reason to be with her from the very beginning - This nicely feeds into the romance elements(which will get to...eventually) as they complete each others flaws. And that right there is a simple example of the way the show updates the stories - By giving Victorique a relatable, physical flaw - It rapidly/quickly strengthens her connections to Kujou and creates room for both their arcs. It ain't uber complicated because it doesn't need to be, it's just plain old good writing. But I think that's more then enough simple examples and meandering, time to go that step below the surface I mentioned earlier. Let's discuss a linked and equally important flaw of Victorique as a person - Her lack of desire to live. Again on a simple level this is brilliant - Saying original Holmes is suicidal would be a huge exaggeration most of the time, in say the same way calling him sociopathic would be, however he does have something of a flagrant disregard for his own life - This is in part becomes the stories are what anime fans would call 'Monster of the Week', with the stories though being all in one timeline, essentially being almost all standalone - Heck the infamous Moriarty, Sherlocks devious arch-nemesis? He's in two stories proper and mentioned a handful of other times by Watson....ya... In truth Holmes & Watson are just good guys, idealised English Gentlemen who will never turn away a nervous housewife or a grieving single-father - Again that's how many stories were back then and there ain't anything specifically wrong about this. However once more Gosick choses to 'anime-ify' the dynamic - So while Victorique has concern for the life of Kujou and acts suitably distraught for a teenaged girl at the presence of a corpse, she honestly does not care for her own life - If putting herself in danger alleviates her boredom for even a moment, then its worth it. Note that her boredom is a direct connection back to Holmes, maybe more direct then the porcelain pipe is - With Holmes going as far as hard-drugs to sooth his life's perceived mundanity. This comes to ahead in the brilliant episode 17 where Victorique failing to meet her Mother, just gives up. Just falls to the floor and refuses to go on as impending danger closes from behind - This is why their romance works because Kujou has that never give up kind of attitude but make no mistake, Victorique borderline commits environmental-suicide in this moment - Now that is how you extrapolate Holme's recklessness into a deep & dark character trait for the modern era of anime. And there's the point right? To people who say Kujou is a Kirito clone and Victorique an Asana styled damsel in distress - I say stop looking at this in terms of anime troops and engage your critical facilities. Your regular stand-in protagonist is a character with only a few defining traits, each of which probably allow the audience to insert themselves into the person. So they are generally a teenager hikikmori (a person so afraid of life they stayed coped up in their parents home, often leading to deep depression & social anxiety) or a 20 something years of age officer worker who hates their boring, generic job - And both of which category's are either fans of anime, games, light novels or all three and more - Where does Kujou fit in? Is it because he has black hair? Well that's simply, Kujou is meant to be a relatable Japanese youth in the same way the Kirito clones are - That does not make him the same thing. The real problem here comes from this bizarre concept/idea that architypes are somehow bad - An audience insert character done right, is a very very good thing, and equally a very hard thing to pull off. If you write Kujou off as being just a troop with the preconceived notion that all troops are bad - Then you probably aren't yet ready, open to or willing to enjoy alot of great characters like Kujou. Let's look at Kujou through a more reasonable lens - First off he is markedly intelligent, quite possibly more so then a majority of characters. Now I know what some might be thinking, probably the writers of certain other Sherlock Holmes adaptations in fact, Watson/Kujou aren't smart, they're 'super-average' so Holmes can explain everything to them and us the audience. And boy you must secretly or not so secretly hate these stories if you think like that. Kujou was more then intelligent to get into St.Marguerite academy a cool continent and a half away from home, a school for the rich & famous - But further as lovingly illustrated by his sister in ep24 in a moment that reminds you right at the very end how expertly & subtly depicted Kujou's intelligence was all along - He speaks, reads and writes point-blank perfect French - Not broken French, he doesn't take extra lessons or carry a phrase's book, he never struggles ever to find the words to speak - No he speaks and reads the language perfectly fluent - And you want me to believe he's dumb or lacks the dedication required to study and learn to that extremely impressive a level? Kujou is in this regard the exact same as Watson - Watson is one of the most intelligent characters in the original books despite what some other 'modernisations' would have you believe. He is a fully fledged doctor who's knowledge of medicine and the body is near encyclopaedic - Similarly he's also highly experience in living, having survived a brutal and bloody conflict where he both saved & took lives. Watson is not 'dumb', he is not inexperienced, Watson is simply looking at the world through the wrong perspective and Kujou is no different. In 2011 (Gosick's anime debut) how many people relate to being the son of a military family? Some sure and no doubt more can connect with the abusive parent or societal pressures motifs but put bluntly Kujou is a good audience surget simply because he is Japanese and new to the country the story is set in. In all other regards of his character, Kujou is his own person. He's got some false pride and courage bestowed on him by his perceived duty to his family but beneath that is a genuinely courageous and brave young man. He has massive self-worth issues, building his entire identity around being the son of an imperial officer of the Japanese military - It is Victorique who allows him to start living for himself, to start seeing himself as worth while. The Kujou who fights in the war as the 3rd son of an officer, he probably dies. The Kujou who fights in the war using his own determination, courage, intelligence and love for Victorique - Well he lives, that's the point of using something as extreme as a war to display the point of his and Victorique's character arcs. And there it is - Gosick's beautiful duality ever at work in every corner of the show and worthy of an essay studying it in its own right - In its themes of the Occult Vs Science, in it's depictions of different types of love, the differences between Victorique's parents, between herself and Grevil, the literal duality of their secretly being two Brian Rosco's, of the illusion & the magic tricks simpler explanation. Ask yourself what is the point of Sherlock Holmes? The consistent through-line of all the stories, everyone of them - What is the message at its utmost very core?; 'Change your perception to solve life'. That's it, kaput, done, sei-la-vie. One of the most successfully franchises ever and that's all it is. If you want to iterate or adapt Holmes then all your need to do is understand that one single, simple truth. What do Holmes or Victorique actually do? Sure it might seem supernatural at first but with time you have to make clear that Sherlock is not supernatural - He is never, ever a superhero. All Holmes does is look at the back of the coin - Everyone else is always too busy looking at the front, at the little gold depiction of some countries flag or monarch, Holmes simply looks at the back, the bit with a number on it, the value of the coin - It's actual worth and meaning. Gosick tries to make this very literally clear on a few occasions; The solution to the Alcamist's immortality? Where everyone else looks and even tries to touch the philosophers stone, Victorique simply asks 'What's behind the stone?' Where everyone mourns at the Queen's graveside, Victorique asks 'What's on under the coffin lid?' When the congregation prays to a gaint apparition of the Virgin-Mary appearing to destroy invading combat aircraft, Victorique asks 'What was there before the apparition?' It's no different to a magic trick, a simple slight of hand - All Holmes or Victorique do is shift their frame of reference, minorly alter their mode of thinking. There is nothing at all stopping Kujou, Grevil, Avril, You or anyone else from doing the same. That is why I detest versions like the BBC's 'Sherlock' as portraited by Benedict Cumberbatch - His 'Mind-Palace' where he can walk amongst all his amassed information from his entire life is preposterous for anyone who isn't some sort of Zen Buddhist Monk with photographic memory - He is depicted as thinking so fast, at computation on such a level that time itself might as well be slower for him - Martin Freemen's Watson might be able to improve himself but he will never, ever be able to properly match up to Sherlocks borderline implausible intelligence - This Is Wrong, because it means, You will never be able to match up. It makes for a good Tv programme, but an atrocious Sherlock Holmes adaptation. Gosick understands this perfectly - Sure at first Victorique appears supernatural, like a magic trick she is at first oddly small for her age - Doll-like, hyper-intelligence with her mysterious sounding 'Wellspring of Knowledge' but by the end of the show? She a girl who lived through one of the hardest forms of torture for years - Solitary confinement, with nothing to do but learn and study and perfect 'methods of thinking'. She eats sweats for that momentary realise of energy in combat of her lethargy, similar in purpose to Holme's drug use, just more family friendly tv-viewing. She actively spends hours upon hours of time reading in order to expand her knowledge base and refresh it to keep it relevant to her daily life and detective work. And she understand the truth of looking at the back of the coin when everyone else looks at the front - This is perfected by a couple scenes in particular. One would be after she is split apart from Kujou, where when working for her father her 'powers' don't get the usual spiel, there's no sound-effects or visuals of water rippling - Instead she just moves pieces on a chessboard as what she really does is run statistics based off history and social-phycology in order to predict political manoeuvres - Not easy but certainly attainable. Second would be during the theatre mystery of ep 19 & 20 - Her 'Wellspring' can not make up for a lack of facts, it is only a fancy way of describing her accrued knowledge. Here we see she needs the clues Kujou gathers, this both expertly shows how Kujou is growing as he was able to spot things like the conflicting accounts of the Queen or the strange interviews for a blond women - And put those facts together all by himself, he is learning how to apply his already ample intelligence in new ways - Exactly the same as how Watson is depicted originally. We see it again when he gets the letters back to Victorique during the war, partially being what brings them back together in the end - Their union is saved by the fact Kujou learned how to think a different way, realised that Roger, a Grey-Wolf would be able to get the letters to Victorique and in turn that his mother & sister would become the ideal people to go to for the girl fleeing from her family - He does all that by himself, of his own violation. He like you can learn to be like Victorique, who in turn is no super hero - She fails to find her mother time & again, she is powerless against the tides of history or the simple forces of her father. Her intellect does not give her pre-cognisant, it just lets her see how the magic tricks are preformed - That's it. To modernise media is to adapt to a current audience - If your audience is teenage otakus, then making Sherlock a young girl with a seemingly supernatural disposition and making Watson a Japanese lad who's polite, smart & courageous - Is brilliant. Sure there's nothing stopping a regular weeaboo getting into Sherlock Holmes but this way you in a sense are setting the correct bait to reel in the new audience - Once there in you can slowly break down the walls, show how Victorique is short because her people are naturally that way and moreover she probably didn't have a nutritious diet growing up, leading to a generally stunted growth. Show that the 'big-brain intelligence' is just a different way of thinking about the world - Show how Kujou actually isn't a generic dull kid but rather is a intelligent young man capable of truly great potential. Show that their both flawed, that neither of them are archetypes and in the glorious episode 18, show them working together to shoot a pistol from the front of a train. This is how you modernise Sherlock Holmes, the time period means nothing - I truly believe that central message will always hold merit - Flip the coin around, look at the problems of your life from another angel - Don't hate the opposition, but instead understand them. Why hasn't Germany tried to fully forget the second world war? Because remembering it and understanding it is so much more powerful then just hating Hitler - Knowing and understanding the darkness we all as humanity are capable of on some base level. And knowing how much potential lies under the surface - You can all be Sherlock Holmes, you are all intelligent people, you just have to want to be and my God Gosick communicates this damn bloody well. Resuscitated Hope; ,, is the tittle of one of the show's vocal pieces - Itself it extenuates the duality once more in how the title is about the contrast between despair, depression, etc and, well hope. There is in this manner so much more to say and yet I think the core I wanted to touch on has been covered at this point. I certainly could breakdown every episode, show you piece by piece how it iterates and adapts older stories (Not just Sherlock Holmes by any stretch). I could also definitely talk on what I lovingly call 'Whirlpool Theory' that of the final 2 episodes having such increased stakes (see my School Days review if you do want a breakdown of my thoughts on this) and I could certainly do a more precise breakdown of the side cast characters or on how the plot is dualistic in nature with every arc from ep 1 to ep 24 having connections to the overarching mystery and an individual lesser mystery - With the only actual difference between the first and second cours of the show being that your perspective changes from Kujou's nativity to Victorique's better understanding of the greater overarching plot at play. I have at my side my copy of the Complete Sherlock Holmes, a chunky book with small font and honestly we've barely scratched the surface here - That's why I still think it so sad that for all it's relativity popularity and high mean-score, we haven't as a community built upon each other to properly break down this show because it really is worth it. But ultimately I think I'm happy to be able to say, in my amateuristic way I have atleast started the journey - The journey to people properly thinking about and appreciating this show with the credit it more then rightfully deserves, if in this case only from the single lens of it's connection to Sherlock Holmes. So take Victorique's lead and change your perspective of this and all shows - To see them from their own perspectives and in doing so get so much and hopefully a whole lot more enjoyment too ;). I hope you enjoyed, Thanks for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Nov 29, 2021 Mixed Feelings
A Brief Study of Visual Novels - On Mother's, Lolita's, Freud and 'Island'.
The visual novel genre of anime adaptations is my favourite genre with-in the medium and quite possibly one of my top 5 of all media. This isn't to say I'm some sort of expert or authority on the genre - On the contrary I haven't even seen that many and played even less. Yet this is non-the-less my favourite genre. For this brief study of some of it's core themes and how those relate to modern stories like our anime focus of 2018's 'Island' adaptation - It's pertinent to first ... clarify a few things. For one I'll be freely speaking on Island, including any and all spoilers. Two I'll also elude to a number of other novels and anime, though I'll add appropriate spoiler warnings for the most important details but be warned in advance. Third is where we can start our actual discussion. Visual Novels have an odd reputation in anime as in a sense they represent everything we both love and everything the public discredits about the medium - Aside from gaint robots(for the most part). We got harems as a primary focus, coupled with escapism and touch of heintai for good measure. Further regular set-dressings include fantasy, Sci-fi, military and even Magical Girls - But what we also have is some of the most passion filled and talented productions and writing available to this whole industry. For my part it may help to understand I come from a somewhat A-typical perspective on this, in that I by rights have zero interest in the VN genre. I've no desire to be a high-Scholler again - Indeed in the few years of working and learning since I finished school life I believe I've learned more then I ever did in those 14 years of public schooling. Further I see little appeal to being surrounded by a half-dozen mentally fractured young women on a regular basis. But regardless I find this genre enchanting and genre is a key-word here. Visual novels are Genre-fiction at there finest. Let's do away with a misconception right now, anime as a medium is not one entity or genre but it is filled with them in abundance. There is nothing wrong with every harem show and isekai having a Tsundere in and of itself(The problems are broadly speaking their execution and lack of development). That is how common-fiction works. Beam Sabers in Gundam are unapologetically based off lightsabres and in turn the Jedi of Star-Wars are unmistakable Male Bene-Gesset from Dune - So on, so on. The point of genre fiction is to build and comment and create based on all that came before it and that's not a bad thing. If every-book built on every prior book, then by logic they should always be improving and that's one part of what makes visual novels so engaging, because you can see that conversation in play in a truly wonderful fashion. I watched the 'Planetarian Man of the Stars' film recently and I had this to say to my Brazilian friend whom has never watched any Studio Key products before; "I always think before I watch something adapted from studio Key that 'This time it won't be as good, this time I'll be numb to the feels' - and yet despite the fact I know these stories are written to make you sad and in spite of the fact I can predict almost every twist a mile before it happens.....I'm still blown away every single time God-Damnit" I have no interest in heintai stills, nor in being a student with amnesia or some edgy backstory. I don't particularly desire to live in most of these worlds but these worlds are most certainly beautiful in a way I don't find anywhere else. There our world, Earth, Terra Firma - Yet in a way so much more. I read someone once say; "When you watch the Clanned anime your watching Tomyio's journey which is great, but when you play Clanned you are Tomyio in his world, on your journey". If in all that mess I've managed to convey my surface feelings even a little on what this genre is to me without losing everyone who migth of had the faintest of interests in this 2 year old topic - Then it's time to get into the proper meat of todays essay - Island. Island is Bizarre; Island is a strange anime in that it's a tale of two half's, its the type of anime I sometimes refer to as a Rose; Beautiful in an emotionally resonant fashion that's hard to explain but ultimately kind of pointless. The sort of text that fades with time, wilts in the mind as it were - as that initial beauty is shadowed and all your left with is a fairly useless dead plant. Island is well made, there can be no doubt of that. The animation is gorgeous, the character designs distinct and the music on par with all it's contemporise while fitting perfectly, all matched by a competent direction. But equally Island is Balmy. It goes in far to hard with it's sci-fi elements, gets lost in the a quagmire of sudo-science, with plot holes so large that the pages start to crumple and it's characters though endearing fail to be anything of real substance. Island doesn't really seem to be saying anything and yet thrust me when I say it is inferring towards everything. The fixation of the community with the Lolita architype, that most complex of fantasy that lead you to both threat someone as daughter and spouse at the same time. It has further focuses on the family theme that so many before it have done so wonderfully but here it's almost Freudian in nature. And of course it's active commentary on what any of this means on if Visual Novels are, are.... good? How much of this is deliberate? How much a product of a hyper compressed video game, how much simply there to intrigue the audience into watching and spending their hard earned cash? Those aren't really the questions that fascinate me and it's for that reason that I haven't played the game in order to write this review - I have however read/played Front-Wings other flagship name 'The fruit of Grissia' and with that in mind there is alot to discuss here. I struggled with this one for a while and I doubt anyone will read this essay because it is mostly insanity. I don't know why I'm fixated on Island but I am, its like the focal point of anime all at once. The pinnacle of modern techniques while also the perfect examples of how not to write a meaningful story. It's seemingly in conversation with everything at once, while also totally missing the point of all that came before it. It may be a Rose to look at and listen to but it's a dumpster fire of a story and yet here I am, having rewatched Island, having first watched it when it aired. Here I am weeks later still thinking about that rewatch. Still thinking about anime. But let's slow down for a moment and try to recompose ourselves a little. To reacquaint with the story a little (atleast as I understood it), The man Setsuna repeats what he believe to be a time-loop at nauseum. In reality this loop is actually him only ever moving forwards in time which for some reason seems to reset and then re-enact itself with pin-point accuracy time and again. Ultimately the women Rinie who follows a similar path(maybe), while possibly de-aging and quite probably giving birth to identical children repeatedly - Finally matches with Setsuna, who almost bangs their daughter(Rinie Jr) by accident before the two live happily ever after. Not to mention the first few episodes which centre upon other semi-related girls. Phew that's alot of damage. If were feeling generous we could say the loop only occurs three times. If this is the case then theoretically that would mean our Setsuna is originally from the future Steampunk world and that Rinie has only given birth three times and only de-aged twice (This owing to the fact that the two have to be both moving forward as the one rule there clear on is that you can't go backwards - Ergo timeline 1-Rinie and steampunk-world Rinie as well as timeline 2 and steampunk + Timeline-0 Rinie are all the same individual, otherwise Rinie Jr(their daughter) literally can't exist in Timeline 1 and 2). But who cares about this monumental cluster-f*ck of a plot, no what I want to talk about is Why it's like this. Let's talk about moms. VN's - Happy Families; If you haven't noticed already, visual novels have something of a fixation on families and more often then not Mothers. Now when I say noticed make sure you really have because bizarrely enough most seemingly haven't. The best example of this is 'Under the Scope'(UTS) - A critic who's seen more anime then me, is better read then me and generally a greater intellect but as far as I can tell doesn't see this theme. What that is to say is that 'family' is not a theme of any one visual novel and it's subsequent show but rather as a theme of the entire genre. 'Family' is to visual novels, what the 'Hero's Journey' is to Fantasy. This is shown most with Air, often seen as the troublesome, rushed sibling of the Kyo-Ani/ Key trilogy UTS says he feels Air is weaker for it's lack of tied arcs and lessons for the protag to learn, that the flashback Arc is essentially superfluous - All the while missing the key, the point to the whole thing - Family. Clanned may be the apex of this which he himself has praised in other brilliant videos but it was by no means the start, and most certainly isn't the end. Almost all of those in the genre are commenting on family in really fascinating ways - It is maybe thee most common and important theme through all these games and adaptations. Clanned is in truth just the extension of Air's themes. Clanned needs Air to exist, it is building off of the groundwork Air lays - That is what I mean by Genre fiction at it's finest, the foundations of your house may not be as pretty as the rest but they are just as valid, important and deserving of our respect and proper contemplation. We need this bigger picture, this greater whole of the puzzle in order to properly understand what a creator migth be trying to say with so many of these stories - Doubly so in the case of Island. [Air Spoilers in the following paragraphs] I mentioned Air with good cause. Air and Island are almost the same story. The first set of episodes for each are short characters focused stories, the second half's both embrace their supernatural elements with episode long spanning cut-aways to far-grander stories of alternate genres before finally returning to subvert our expectations - But the difference here is what counts. Air never loses sight of it's through-line. Dead moms, forgetful/neglectful mums, separated moms and adopted mums. In the end it is a mother who gives the story it's emotional apex, not the protagonist and this is so important and so brilliantly done but for now let's just focus on how that relates/retains to Island [Air Spoilers End] Island in contrast while equalling holding onto a theme of motherhood;- a story of missing moms, possibly being your own mom and mysterious mums - ultimately takes this somewhere truly different. By having Rinie and Setsuna end up together you suggest something very different to your predecessors. Putting aside how it side-lines all the other cast-members and creates gapping continuity errors - It begs the question of - Wtaf? Why bother with the first three girl's? Why bother with all that set up, all those shenanigans. Wouldn't having made it a more straight forward story of star-crossed lovers of been more logical with actual build-up to Rinie's true identity. Why all the red-herrings, just to kill time or to cram in parts of the other girls endings from the games? Maybe we'll never know that answer but what we can see is how it acts as a response to the greater narrative. To the narrative that is the Vn legacy, as a response to studio Key in particular. Anyone for Sigmund Freud? I sometimes wonder if the early Vn creators all got together at a book club where they read from Freud's work and then decided to bizarrely base most of their future narratives around it, because boy does this guys ideas come up ALOT in Japanese culture in general. ((I'll try to keep the technical bits to a minimum as I neither want to bore anyone and I'm not expert enough on the topic, however it's well worth reading into for some interesting insight into the birth of psychoanalysis)) Freud is probably most famous in pop-culture/on the internet for his theories on Mothers and the idea that we all look for our mother in potential spouses but Anime has a slightly more alarming inclination. lolicon or lolis more colloquially can mean a great many things to a great many people. Traditionally with-in anime it meant a certain figure rather then actually referring to it's Russian book origins, thought more recently it's ever more frequently bundled with incest and age gaps. The loli is a visual novel staple and much like the theme of Family we'd be foolish not to try and understand how this concept has been developed over the years, especially when Island opts for arguably 4 (Five counting future Karen) lolis to take the place of it's lead women. Of course you opinion on them may vary, understandably but for myself what I find most interesting is the way in which each novel choices to face this moral dilemma, fascinating even. --We have the likes of Fruit of Grissia, (Island's bedfellow) which is maybe the most open about it. It embraces the idea of the loli character as both someone the protagonist wants to protect but also be with, all while opting for a truly Freudian mind-set. [Grissia Game Spoiler Ahoy/Ahead] Makina come's from a troubled background with only her father ever truly loving her. This ends badly owing to his death, which she witnesses....before having to watch his corpse slowly degrade.....( I swear Grissia is a fun and relaxing game...). This unsurprisingly leaves Makina with a messed up mind, to the point that at times she is a conniving, photographic memory holding, fun-loving genius - matched only by her childish speech patterns and fits of complete helplessness like that of a young child. It's this that makes Grissia's approach so interesting. Makina is searching for family both from necessity and as a coping mechanism for what she's lost both literally and figuratively. This is why she decrees Yuji her bother and later her Father but equalling telling is her treatment of Amane. Amane is referred to as Nee-Chan (Big Sister) but threated as her surget mother. This we can easily infer relates to the fact Makina has no good experience with moms. She isn't looking for a mother but she does still hold onto the feelings of wanting a sister - Hence Amana is her beloved fictional sister and Yuji her genuinely caring Father. Grissia also opts to have Makina be a traditional Loli in that she's barely a year younger then Yuji and design wise is fairly similar in proportion to the others once you consider the role her clothing plays in making her 'child like' (Something Shuffle highlighted the power of some years prior.) Ultimately Grissia is telling a very complex tale here as Yuji is a fairly defined character himself in comparison to alot of Vn Player-Characters. Yuji actually gets some fairly detailed reasons for wanting to be with Makina, rather then it just being a case of the player making a somewhat troublesome choice. His life has been remarkably similar in a round about fashion. Most importantly Yuji has found parental and guardian figures in those around him - With his Sister then later sensei and Harudera-san all shaping the direction of his life. It's through this Yuji decides to become Makina's 'Father', then falling in love with her as the two continue down their tumultuous journey. Interestingly by the stories end Makina is depicted one of two ways, as either completely broken as a consequence of her Freudian love life going wrong and leaving her with no support what-so-ever - or as someone who finally matures and becomes 'a respectable young lady'. These are quite clearly two very different takes on the concept, both are remarkably fascinating but interestingly neither are actually shown as morally good. Makina needs help and Yuji freely admits his method is abnormal but equally the two are actually pretty similar in age so ultimately it comes across as more of two mentally and emotionally stunted people falling in love. Also it's worth noting that neither ending is really portraited as truly being 'good', they're quiet ambiguous in fact. Even in the better ending Makina is still dragged in the mud, Yuji maimed and the constant threat of being called upon for active duty or tracked down by Makina's disgruntled mother are all very real threats. It's an unusual and grey ending to an unusual tale. For now keep this example in mind, as while obviously not made by identical teams it will be most pertinent to compare this when loping back around to Island's handingly of this dynamic. Of this innate 'fetish' so many young adults in Japan appear to have of both wanting someone to protect like a daughter while also to be their lover. A consequence of wanting to be dominant or maybe of being neglected themselves as children and confusing an urge to be better to the next generation with some perverse attraction? Let's have a look at some other takes to see what they recon in this matter.[Grissia Spoilers End] --Shuffle is the anime I wrote a 43,000 word retrospective on and it being a Vn to boot makes it's inclusion here a given but not without good cause. Primula is the ideal of the Lolita architype, however where Makina is acceptance of this troop in it's entirety, the anime depiction of Shuffle is a form of repentance as it were. [Shuffle Anime Spoilers Ahead/Ahoy] With primula the anime takes full use of it's medium to depict it's loli theme, drawing primula in a manner of ways, sometimes to the point she blends seamlessly with the other girls and other times as though she were a half decade younger. This continues into her clothing which is similarly used to illustrate her relationship position with any given character or scene. With Primula we have someone who is very vulnerable and could quite easily be taken advantage off. This is made most clear when Keade inadvertently starts grooming her to be a housewife seemingly without even realising it. The anime tries to draw an interesting distinction with the guardian-to-Lover dynamic by having it be that the protagonist has no interest in Primula as a spouse and she in turn has no understanding of sexuality. It is only after her duo of arcs that Primula has matured into enough of a person that she starts to actively pursue Rin. The show itself frequently leaves her out of group harem shots and even promotional material for much of it's run. Primula only becomes a traditional loli around episode 22 because the point the show is trying to get across (among others) is that really fans of lolis aren't (or shouldn't ) attracted to the vulnerable deadpan persona but simply to a drawn aesthetic, that it's ok for them to want to protect a kid better then they're parents maybe did, so long as they understand the difference between lover and protector. [Shuffle Anime Spoilers Over/End]. It's a more positive outlook to be sure and while I could go on about Primula to some detail, lets get back to our central point with the third major example of the VN loli, one it shares most with the regular romcom/harem genre. --'If My Heart had Wings' focuses in on the idea of disturbed youths either physically or mentally and their struggles to make they're way through love....or if your playing the English version not those things because God forbid the American audience be exposed to ideas of..... Sex? Mental Disability? Young people discovering sexuality? Never-mind that, what important to highlight here is the use of the Classic-Japanese-Women-Complex(CJWC); This one comes up alot in the 90s and 2000s, in essence a character is only a Loli in that their short or unblessed in the chest. Think your Taiga's, Louise's, Shana's, Nagi's, Rukia etc etc. They are anime girl's often in a female lead position whom are the roughly the same age as the rest of the cast and who's arc's will often times orbit around the fact that they get threated differently or feel insecure in part over their stature. While I don't think this is generally written on behalf of the female gender of Japan (though their are some examples of this contained within the Shojo genre), I do believe it's important to understand that it is most firmly rooted into Japanese culture. Rightfully or wrongfully the Japanese women is known for being petite, poorly endowed and pale skinned. It has been apart of their cultural consciousness traditionally speaking and it often-times manifests in anime as essentially an easy way to characterise a female lead and hypothetically there's nothing wrong with that. Taking Louise as an example her stature is linked with her lack of power and troubled social position with-in society, making it a solid and thematic design choice. Similarly Shana's underdevelopment is used to quickly convey the tragedy of her lack of growth and identity as a human due to her life-long pledge to be an immortal demon hunter. Furthermore the aesthetic can also oftentimes be a 'Moe' thing. This is most common in key's work with soft outlines and pudgy faces galore. It's hard for example to actually distinguish the lolis from the regular teenagers in something like Kanon and even to an extend Clanned (Though Air is general a bit better at this). In the case of if my Heart had Wings the Loli twins are indeed a little younger then the cast and certainly more underdeveloped, however as can often be the case they fall into the CJWC by merit of the stature becoming the core of an arc with both having separate mental hang-ups, to which they youthful appearance hinders even further. You could certainly argue this breed of loli is the most causal, there nothing particular paedophilic about Taiga from Toradora for example but they're also isn't much thematic reasoning made clear for her height (we have no reason to believe she's long term under-nourished/physically abused nor is it particularly important to her arc.). In a case like hers its more for comedic purposes or visual iconography then anything much else - And this is important to keep in mind as we decipher Island. Speaking of let's finally do that. Working backwards we can safely say that Karen is the least Lolita of the group and what of her that those atone to these design philosophy's/elements is mainly owing to the style of the game and artist - landing her safely in the CJWC category. I'd suggest the same applies to Sara whom age wise is no younger then the main cast and her design is both for comedy purposes and to feed into her own narrative. She is a little too child-like for comfort but overall I don't think there's much to analysis here. Finally we got the core of the show Rinie and Rinie Jr. This is what ties it all together because in Rinie we have the most bizarre of circumstance. We watch as young-SteamPunk-Rinie (who is the most loli of the bunch) falls in love with and has intercourse to Setsuna, then we watch her fail to intervene in; first the death of her daughter and second the almost sexual relationship between her lover and her/his/their daughter. And well I doubt I need make it clear this falls well with-in our Freudian category. What fascinates me with islands approach is that despite being framed as a happy ending with the two star-crossed lovers being reunited, in reality it's almost dark in it's messaging. It seems to be embracing the guardian-to-lover relationship even more so then Grissia did a few years prior, saying that you are in love with your daughter, you want to make love to them and then afterwards you want them to give birth to a new daughter so that you can have your surget daughter be your permanent lover, with daughter B filling the roll of your protected person. Now to be fair it isn't quite that messed up if you ignore the blatant subtext, Rinie is depicted in the steampunk world as being more of a companion and equal to Setsuna then Rinie Jr ever was but the undercurrent is certainly present and disturbing in what it's suggesting. This idea that we want the loli but just for a bit or that we want to nurture and protect the loli so that it can reach adulthood and then be our waifu for laifu? Indeed we can choose to be more generous, to state that Setsuna was always just trying to look out for his friends and daughter in the first half, that there was never any sexual tension between any of them but then why the change in policy when in steampunk land? Its suggested he can sense that sub-consciously that Rinie Jr is his daughter but she can't do the opposite. And what of Rinie Jr herself. As a consequence of everything that unfolds her character rather gets assassinated, with her eventually just deciding to hand her saviour over to her mom like it was a completely natural action despite never having any sort of build up to suggest she was hoping for such a happening, or even any scenes of the two being, ya know parent and child (mostly because they want to keep teasing that they migth be clones or some crap). To me intentional or not Island seems to be making some rather extreme extrapolations of the pre-existing issue of the loli. It doesn't try to reason it out like Grissia, it isn't a design choice like If My Heart Had Wings and it surely isn't an honest deconstruction like Shuffle. If anything it comes across as confused but still actively trying to say....something? And that there is what's so interesting about Island because in order to make any sense from it what-so-ever, one is almost required to look at the VN genre from a much wider perspective and I think there's an odd sort of value in that. With that said I think it's time we came to a conclusion on this weird, rushed and bizarre little VN adaptation and finish our thesis on the shared themes of the Visual Novel. Studio 'Feel' Kind of Suck; Studio Feel are a bit of a strange beast, to me their indictive of alot of the modern anime scene. Their animation is generic but undeniable strong, there music department is cutting edge (well atleast Front-Wing's is anyway) but they have this odd habit of rushing things, taking on massive ideas they can't possibly handle and then sort of just giving up on those ideas part-ways through before settling for surprisingly conclusive yet complete unfinished endings. In summation Studio Feel strikes me as not really being for anyone. I cant see many fans of Island being particularly happy to have their beloved stories compressed and bastardized into a far too short pointless run but at the same time they are of such a quality level that's it's genuinely hard to say if it's the studios fault or that of the media they chose to adapt. They sort of fail at having much more of an identity then that one crew that does ecchi sometimes. 'Got an eroge with the bones of a story which Kyo-Ani and even JC won't accept because it's got actual loli sex? - Well then Feel's the studio for you!'. I mean they did make Hinamatsuri so maybe they aren't completely hopeless......It feels(pardon the pun) like they're just a bit directionless. Willing to throw decent money at something but not actually do it justice. That is the thinking behind Island the anime and it presents a fairly common and unfortunate trend present in the industry as a general whole But even putting aside the studio behind the camera - Island gives something that, as I should of made clear by now, is hard to come to terms with. I've mentioned a few times that I played a few choice routes from Grissia before this review, in fact it was in large part the Front-wing logo that made me want to go back and see if Island was as bad as I remember - Because make no mistake, Grissia is brilliant. From it's immersive and completely voiced dialogue to it's expansive Ost and well though out stories. Add to this the fact the localisation team did it justice by leaving in dialogue retaining to mature themes, while simply removing the X-scenes themselves in a rather tasteful move and you've got one heck of a high quality novel. And so putting all cards on the table maybe it's as simple as that. Maybe my pursuit to give Island the benefit of the doubt is purely based on the bias that it has a good production-house label but honestly I do think there's something more here. I believe with a full run you could do this justice. Island's problems as is, retain to it leaning in to hard. Using Grissia as example, the fact that book is predicated on Yuji being a high-schooler who at some point has had time to attend American special forces military training, be though by a master up in the mountains and serve a lengthy period for the Japanese government - doesn't matter. Don't get me wrong, it does matter as it informs his character, which like we mentioned earlier leads to interesting developments in the likes of the Makina arc but what I mean to say is it isn't really ever the focus. Even when Yuji teaches Sachi how to diffuse a bomb, or Makina how to use a sniper rifle - It's either done for laughs or more likely to say something either about the girl in question or Yuji himself. In reality it's actually a fairly basic facet of writing that alot of people seem to overlook and is especially important when speaking in relation to genre fiction. What's happening in a story that's essentially been told before, doesn't really matter - What counts is how the characters or world interact with it based on the experience and opinions of the author who's currently writing it. Like how stories passed down by word of mouth change with each generation and in doing so constantly stay relevant and important, genre (should) do much the same. The robots in Gundam, no matter how cool or how much Bandai would like you to think otherwise - Don't matter an iota. They are just a symbol, one for weapons in general, or power or authority. The ultimate proof of this from anime is something like Ryvious, a show with a powerful giant robot but where a single gun is by far the most important possession on the whole ship/of the whole series. This is what Island seems to get completely wrong and what makes it feel so off. Sure you can have a focus on time-travel that only functions in one direction, predicated on the baffling but totally fine idea that the world is infinitely starting and then restarting - However you can't do that and also try to tell a star-crossed lovers story and 3 other girls loosely linked stories and and and. Island is ambitious but sloppy in execution. We see this again with what we've spoken on regarding mothers. Almost all visual novels use them in some way (school days as an extra example uses the absents of mothers/adults as a way of making it's stance clear on parenting), however Island decides to really hone in on this connection to an absurd degree that doesn't really mean anything or have any consequences other then the generation of a world shattering plot holes. So would I recommend Island to anyone? Bizarrely kind of- If you like a good Rose, a beautiful production that can give you some odd feelings then Island is strangely compelling. That feeling migth not actually be enough to get you to finish it but I think most can enjoy the baffling ride that is every episode of this show and for those of an inquiring mind, trying not to decipher it's silly mysterious but rather it's place with-in the Visual-Novel canon as a whole can be genuinely fascinating. I'd be remise not to mention music at some point wouldn't I? Another potential point in favour of the visual novel is that if it is anyways similar to Grissia then it's highly likely most of the score, including vocal pieces, comes from the game in origin rather then the studio commissioning a half-dozen surplus pieces. Whatever the case I love Island's score, I'd go as far as to say it's superb. It fits every situation including an array of tension building tracks that probably belong in a better anime. There's something magical about it's opening and ending. No matter how reluctant I was to keep watching, the second those damn tunes would start I'd be back on board the hype train and that's worthy of praise. Island's mediocre montage scenes are infinitely lifted by the inclusion of one off pieces that make them feel honest, vibrant and impactful. Its atmosphere -weather it be the gloomy use of string instruments, the sad twang of the violin or the carefree whistling of the island's isolated beauty - This is truly a top notch score. Which is actually a little surprizing. A lot of light novels adaptions struggle to match the brilliance of Kyo-Ani's Key trilogy. For example the Op for Little Busters clearly belongs as a Shakugan no Shana Op but with that said Island isn't the only example of this. No music is part of what makes this genre so great. Play any track from If my Heart had Wings, even the cheerful upbeat ones, from an Ost that all told is generally pretty limited in it's variety of none synthesised instruments - play any of them and I'm breaking apart. The effect that game's score has is truly art. It's ability to take a game with borderline no dialogue options and no voiced lines - to take that and turn it into something mesmerising, to fully immerse me in that world, is just awestriking. The Ost of Heart is it's identity, it brings that world and those character's, nay those people(because the character writing of good Vn's is a whole other body of brilliant work) to life in a way few soundtracks can match, even those of Kyoto Animation and Jun Meade. I only wish I had the learning and the words to do these great soundtracks better justice in this here review but all told I struggle to think of a genre where the Ost's are consistently this good, this fitting and this memorable and none of that is to even touch on the work of the amazing aforementioned Kyo Ani and Key. I Hate Ignorance; This is a complicated topic no doubt and I must admit it's maybe my most self-indulgent essay to date other then possibly the Shuffle Retrospective. As Toni Morrison (rest her soul) said, 'I write the stories I want to read' and that seems apt here. As a study this could easily be interpreted as me essentially expelling at random all my thoughts on the various Vn I've watched and read as of late and that's definitely true. Ever since I watched Air a few months back and then Island after it, I've been writing reviews for them both in my head but being unable to describe it. Unable to put words to why I love Air so much, while Island fails so badly. It was in a sense only by putting the two together into my greater understanding of the genre as a whole that I could settle my thoughts on these two texts. So yes this is just the surface-most level of a few months of internal ramblings but I think that's ok. I like contemplating a work over time, to meditate on it so to speak and that's something this community or media analysis in general seems to be woefully lacking in. In a weird way it feels this essay is one that while not as detailed as some of my others, brings together everything I've though about in relation to anime media over this last year of reviewing. In my 'Imposing the standards of the West' essay I spoke much on Shotacon and mentioned how I desired to examine Loli culture more closely and well I guess we got there eventually. I've been thinking about visual novels since even before my first review and I'm glad to hark back to a bit of the Shuffle and School Days essays as useful context here and really the fact I had to think, that my mind refused to drop this topic, I think says something else -- That I'm a wierdo. Ahem, that is to say that I hope more people will come to understand the media they consume, to take there time with it. Do Not Let Anime Be A Job. F*ck seasonal viewing, go and watch something great form the 80s instead. Re-watch your favourite show from the 90's and when you here the thrash-taste 'bois' say Familiar of Zero is something they'd of liked as teens but 'probably' not now, be the one to actually go back and watch it and form your own opinions. When I say I hate ignorance it may come across as quite hostile but I by no means am saying I hate 'ignorant people', on the contrary how can you hate someone for not knowing-- Here in Ireland, during the pandemic they're were a couple of X-anti-vacers featured on the news. One had lost a family member and the other had been hospitalised and learned to appreciated the work of our health service because of the hard work the nurses and doctors put into saving her life. The two (and probably more, I ain't omni-present ;D) were obviously advocating for people to be more careful and take the covids seriously. What struck me as important in all this however was how one would fairly frequently hear from totally reasonable and learned people the following sentiment - "Serves them right, the idiots". To me there is no greater ignorance then that. The ignorance that let's you think it's ok to write off all flat-earthers and anti-vacers. Anyone who would causally wish ill on another whom lost the life of a loved one is truly the blind one. No 9/11 or Pearl-Harbour conspiracy-theorist deserves to be scorned, they deserved better from life. We should all be joint in hate for the fact that the system lets this happens, heck most countries in the world encourage ignorance. An ignorant population is far easier to control then an aware one. You can't get a population that understand their environment to vote for Brexit or Trump or Johnson or Bolsonaro. It's the mass coercion of people who are just looking to make sense of the world like we all are. The people who can't find work, who's father couldn't find work and his father. The people who want an explanation for why the news is telling them constantly the world is gonna end in ten different ways, all while reminding them, their and their mother's Gods are false and never existed. The people who's pitiful 9 to 5 jobs know will never amount to anything meaningful that won't fade to dust as they drown their precious hours away with no greater goals then to procreate for the next generation while never achieving their own dreams or personal fulfilment. The world is too complicated and too sad to break into black and white, Vacs or Anti-Vacs, Pro Abortion or Pro life, Red or Blue. None of us can change the world but we can change ourselves, we can opt to understand the media we consume, to be informed on the people and propositions we vote for. We can, impossible or otherwise, try to live what we believe to be 'good' lives. Visual Novel Adaptations are my favourite anime genre. I haven't seen that many and I'm certainly no expert or authority on the matter but none-the-less I think them to be reliably the finest this medium has to offer. I think Island, Sub-par by its peers standards - To be worthy of consideration and a perfect prism to further our collective understanding of this strange little corner of the genre-- I think good stories are pretty neat and this is my favourite genre for those stories. I hope you've somehow enjoyed. To hear me speak more on anime as the safest place for young people's sexual exploration check out my 'Imposing the Standards of the West' essay and for more detail on Vn's and harem culture try my work on School Days, Shuffle and Redo of Healer. Moreover I don't really time when these reviews come out (I just write what come's to me,) so feel free to take this as both my 25th review and 1 year reviewing special. And if your feeling generous hit that 'helpful button' below (turns phones to 'desktop mode' in the top right hand corner of the browser) And-- Thanks for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Nov 3, 2021
Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi
(Anime)
add
Not Recommended
What Makes a 'Good' Harem Anime?(SR);
Redo of healer is yet another entry into the anime cannon of controversial and polarising debate. Some score it highly as a meme much like "Interspecies Reviewers" before it, others write the whole thing off for it's intense subject matters. Let's today try to have a quick look at the show from a more impartial standpoint, giving it as much benefit of the doubt as we can. Music, Direction and Animation - Redo's production is where we can be the most objective about the show and temporarily cast aside the politics of the matter. In terms of OsT it's Mediocre at ... best, the general backing-tracks are almost all mellow and drab which migth seem tonally fitting and to a certain degree they are but before long they drag on you and make some of the already badly directed scenes all the worse. The two tracks used during almost all of the heintai and 'deep contemplation' scenes are possibly the worst on the track list yet see by far the most use - and even the more upbeat of the action tracks feel unoriginal and lacklustre at best. To give some credit where due the intro and outro are quiet nice but otherwise it's a very poor showing. The direction is a little tricky, on the one hand the director is above average at what they do, however they make some baffling decisions that have to be taken into account. As most will know many anime (infamously those of Studio Shaft in particular) can go to air with backgrounds or facial expressions rushed, only to be fixed in the Blu-ray, yet with Redo we have something a little different. For it's heintai scenes, even airing in the night time block they are simply too graphic, as such the show cuts to still images that pan across the screen. This goes on sometimes for minutes at a time with nothing, not even dialogue - only the worst of the Ost tracks for company. Now let's be clear, I'm here to judge a Tv show and neither you or I are here to make excuses for a property. If they couldn't show these scenes then they shouldn't of been left in. The solution is easy - thought uncommon 16 minute anime do exist ('Manaria Friends' is one recent example) and I'd put it that this show should of aired as a 16 minute production, with the Blu-ray exclusively having the extra sex scenes. That way with a simple fade to black you can imply what's happening and move on. In short any anime that for minutes every episode is either highly censored or essentially on a quick visual hiatus, has dramatically failed in the direction department. Finally we have the animation which is by far the whole show's strongest selling point. The fights move dynamically with flourish and the general characters designs, while fairly generic standout just enough to the point that you know their from this show. The fight against the Sword Master and later Hawkeye are both superb and the explosion of blood and guts in the final episode puts Elfen Lied to shame. Put bluntly for what is required to make this story function they do more then enough and this is without doubt the show's most undeniably strong selling point to which almost half of the rating I've given it comes from. Story and Characters - The story of Redo presents us with an interesting conundrum; What is an Ecchi Harem Anime? The fact is I do my best to understand everything I watch and read from it's own perspective, therefore what is Redo's standpoint? The thing many seem to miss-understand is the harem genre is not porn, heck even the ecchi genre borderline fails to reach this standard. Four seasons of highschool DXD in and there are still no confirmed instances of sex between the cast, same goes for the likes of Highschool of the Dead, Monster Musume, No game no Life, Infinite Stratus, Danmachi, SAO, etc etc. No rather the genres are more aimed at young adults and teenagers, the use of objectified man or women as well as fanservice is more like a tool to bring people in, 'sex sells'. In a sense you can look at it like you would the Mecha genre. Giant robot show's are seldom good just because they're gaint robot shows. You may like a show just for the robots sure but generally speaking the mechs are a gateway. Gundam has almost never been about robots, rather it's about war, drama and space wizards yet it is thee often credited original 'Real -Robot' show. The point is a good Giant robot anime generally uses the robots as little more then a vehicle, a way to sell toys so that they can tell real stories about tragic people, climate change, understanding one another etc, etc. Moreover I believe harems operate in much the same way. Zero no Tsukima is a classic harem show but it is also deeply laced with morality and the beliefs of an author who understood a burgeoning and prosperous second generation post-war-Japan, a peace that country had found that was worth appreciating. Shuffle is a supernatural harem show that spends it's run exploring metaphor for physical and mental health issues. Clanned of all things is a harem that uses it's setting (and this applies to the majority of harems) to explore the life's and struggles of a group of young relatable people who just so happen to all be after the same guy. I am a large advocate of not looking up our noses at supposed 'lesser genres', the harem genre can be just as complex and nuanced as any other, like mecha it is just a vehicle - a genre tag and no more or less. Sure plenty try to be no little other then quick cash filled troop fests but you can say that of literally any other genre. So then does Redo fit into this mould? Not exactly. Redo fails greatly in that it's not true porn due to the mass censorship but not an ecchi because it's still too extreme and it's not got the heart or wholesomeness of a good harem because everyone is his slave. As for actual plot there is sort of themes....well kind of. Many have posited and rightfully so that there does appear to be a message about revenge and a question of it's morality when the actions of the protagonist do indeed seem to improve the terrible world he lives in. Further there actually seems to be some commentary buried in here, with things like the shared demon/human city being a more prosperous place then the rest of the kingdom with even it's feudal lord (who we don't see but hear about) seemingly being an honest person who refuses to relent to the invading imperial armies demands. However it's hard to give the show the benefit of the doubt when it also has the protagonist chose sex-slaves based solely on looks. The two princesses arguably do more evil to him then any other in the world, yet he keeps them, while [Larger Spoiler] Brutally killing Hawkeye who to our knowledge had done literally nothing wrong, not to our protagonist anyway. As for the Blade Hero her acts against the protag are terrible, down-right abhorrent but are far lesser to that of what the princess's did to him, further she is a women of substantial fighting ability but he doesn't pick her because I guess the plot need to give the protag a magic gauntlet or something and he couldn't of just removed it from her once she became enslaved?(questioning the logic of this show leads to some.... interesting sentences.....)[Spoiler End]. In this regard it's hard to be sure if the themes actually have any weight when really they just come across as hollow excuses for all the debauchery we witness. The rest of the story is generic fantasy, with the gang travelling from town to town, helping out here and there and selling produce. Essentially Rising of the Shield Hero but with more heintai. The characters fair little better and there isn't much to say on them. The protagonist's actions often feel due to plot-holes rather then his apparent insanity or morality code and everyone else is set up to be as cruel and immoral as possible in an almost nihilistic setting. This in itself isn't actually an issue (See Evangellion) but rather the way it's handled is unremarkable and while they do mostly serve the story being told to an adequate degree, it's hard to give them much praise. Conclusion; "Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi" is one of those rare examples of when a show actually is as bad as everyone says it is. It isn't trying to depict complex and uncomfortable topics in order to comment on them (ergo Goblin Slayer or School Days) nor is it a fun rompy-fantasy-adventure-harem - no instead Redo of healer is 12 well animated episodes of extremely kinky heintai, except with said heintai being censored through-out, leading it to somehow fail on almost every front. All told I think it a bit like the prior mentioned Elfen Lied, touching on some deeper themes and messages but without anything productive to say on them or any real care for the groups who've suffered these forms of atrocity and the needed understanding to display such things in a mature manner. If you want to watch it as something of a meme game, trying each episode to guess if it can actually get worse, all while skipping about a fifth of the runtime due to blank scenes - then it may have some value. Further if these kinks suit you maybe you migth even want to acquire the Blu-ray version - however I feel I can safely say that for the vast majority of us you can safety skip this one safe, in the knowledge that it definitely isn't some miss-understood secret gem. I hope your enjoyed this short review, if so please press the 'helpful' button (turn phones to 'desktop mode') and - Thanks for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Sep 30, 2021 Mixed Feelings
How a Realistic Approach Could of Saved This Anime - Whatever Happened to Good Old JC Staff?(SR);
'Genjitsu Shugi Yuusha no Oukoku Saikenki' is an isekai anime that has seen some success in the midst of a fairly unremarkable season. Despite garnering decent attention there's little being said by the larger names in the community and here on Mal the scores seem bizarrely split between bemusingly high grades of 9's and 10's, contrasted by those scoring exceedingly harshly in the 1 to 3's. Today I'd like to take after the show's namesake and take a slightly more balanced vantage point. First lets cover the spoiler free ... items- Music, Animation and Direction - With this being a new show the OsT has yet to be realised to my knowledge meaning I couldn't listen to it independent of the show as per my usual routine. With that said the Ost should by rights be this show's strongest selling point, studio JC staff have some great in-house artists and no doubt both the intro and outro are wonderful, further there's some simple but nice insert pieces and many of the backing tracks are grandiosely packed with percussion instruments, fitting solidly the medieval aesthetic of the story. With all this said I'd be loath to give the score top marks as the actual usage of the tracks is a bit clumsy. This could be attributed to the direction segment but some of the less creative tracks are the ones that get the most use and by the end of the show it was monotonous to hear the same 'every day' and 'tense contemplation' pieces used multiple times in an episode, there's also really nothing here to get you pumped up during the triumphant moments of victory which also feels like a missed opportunity. So while on paper the score is fitting and well made, it's execution could certainly be improved. The animation was something of a disappointment for me. While stills can look quite beautiful and the shots of each major city are nicely composed, generally speaking the show looks bland. Not bad, just bland which is strange coming from JC who generally have a track-record for making a show recognisably modern and 'light novel' based but with enough vibrancy to still stand out(Ala Toradora, Pet-Girl, Aria, Danmachi, Railgun, etc). As for the backgrounds their mixed, some are more then adequately detailed but the location by far the most time is spent in, the throne room, has been designed by someone who I can only imagine was actively out to ruin this show. The large room is all shades of grey, epically behind the actual throne where there is a monotonous slab of flat grey that can't help but draw the eye. It's as though they'd never heard of the negative space principal. As for the movements, the fights are down-right awful with shaky transitions and a complete lack of weight or impact. The general movement of the characters is as you'd expect, much like the artsyle it's fine but unmemorable and a bit of a let down. Speaking of poor choreography we have the direction which is maybe the show's biggest pit fall. The story is very exposition heavy so how does the director chose to compensate this and keep the visuals interesting? With the use of dynamic 360 degree camera shots and characters walking superfluously to and fro across rooms. Again it could be worse and the first time I saw it I was actually a little impressed by the extravagant camera work but overall it's exceedingly boring to look at more often then not. When Souma explains some basic functions of nature in baby terms to the other characters, the best you can hope for is cut aways to completely still images which really isn't much. As for battles and such like, the director is clearly cutting as many corners as possible, generally showing a commander talking, while something more interesting is implied to be happening off-screen. Finally you have the structuring which is straight-up abhorrent - We spend an entire episode's worth of time on a cooking programme, half an ep on histories' least interesting adventure ever, a whole half on a shopping trip and another episodes worth on a minor domestic quarrel between two side characters. Now don't mis-understand, all these things have their places and can greatly help with the worldbuilding of any good fantasy story, but not only does much of it feel like padding but this poor management of time forces the 'War' arc of the show to be barely 2-4 eps long, making it feel ham-fisted and almost giving the impression that the production is just un-interested in that part of the show. They don't even cut the OP and ED (A JC staple across many of their shows) of the final episode to try and desperately scrap back some much needed time. I especially find all this strange as the director is by no means an amateur, Takashi Watanabe is down-right prolific and has done work I've absolutely loved for many works by the studio in the likes of 'Shakugan no Shana' and 'The Slayers' to name his most famous credits. As such I'm left to question weather they simply had a remarkably small budget for this show or if Covid and time-constraints were the cause of all this egregious corner-cutting and laziness. Story and Characters - In terms of story alot is hampered by the aforementioned structuring and visual elements. The goal of the story is to fix the dire financial straits the Kingdom finds itself in and for Souma to find himself a family and it sort of accomplishes these things, however it's not exactly mind-blowing television. Now to be fair I've said on occasion that drama is highly subjective and you may indeed find this a griping tale, however generally speaking the show lacks any real driving force - while fiscal idea's are mentioned we're never actually told how much money the kingdom has or needs, further it's impossible to tell how much time pass's between episodes and because we don't have any characters with the perspective of the average citizen it's hard to tell if anything that we're told about has actually worked. By the end of the show you'd be forgiven for thinking barely a month has passed, something which if anything the characters seem to reinforce. Said characters are fairly standard fare. They fill out regular isekai troops, with the only attractive males of the group(aside from the protagonist) being conveniently off-screen for almost the entire run of the show. Even calling them characters seems a little much, The Princess Liscia at first seems intriguing as someone who migth oppose Souma becoming acting King and then gradually fall in love with him over the course of this first series, creating a classic arc and pay-off to follow, as well as giving a great excuse for Souma to show off his knowledge, but before the first 2 episodes are even done she has already swooned and proceeds to do nothing of note other then get a haircut for the rest of the show. This strikes me as a great shame as what small, tiny hints we get that she and Souma migth actually be a supportive team are never really given any limelight and by the properties close they act the same as they did when they first met with no progress friendly or romantic what so ever bar one single conversation and a few blushes on Liscia's part. Now mind you I don't hold it against anyone who found her endearing, she is no question cute, I just wish they did a little more with her characterisation as the female lead. The bureaucrat Marks whom actually seems somewhat interesting gets conveniently side-lined for being old or something(?), similarly the Queen and King are irrelevant past ep 1, not even being used for episodic comedy relief or such like - and the others aren't of any note except maybe Aisha and Souma himself. These two share an interesting trait, where-by something traumatic will occur and then they it just sort of has no impact on them what-so-ever. Aisha suffers most here as after a terrible incident her reaction is pretty much just to ask if her uncle could of been less of a fool and then she never brings it up again. It doesn't seem to weight on her mind or spark any change in her out-look on life, despite the dark-elves seemingly being a very family and tribal orientated people(something they could of easily tied back into Souma's Grandfather's words or wisdom....but just didn't). Same with Souma who seems to be nearing a revelation that he has the power to affect the lives of thousands in strategic warfare but then in the next episode seems to of forgotten this temporary moral dilemma and returned to sending off armies to brutally murder one another, before sort of remembering it maybe in episode 12(?). Put lightly I'm not really sure you could say anyone has a character arc in this show, however with that said none of this is quite as big a problem as it migth sound. Indeed considering the type of story this is and it's purpose as light-hearted entertainment, it certainly does function with this type-cast of static characters, however it would of been nice to of seen some sort of development implemented for the main duo at the very least, in order to give the show a much needed emotional core (which one would imagine would be obvious consider the 'find and protect a family' mantra). A Realistic Solution; As I see it, it wouldn't actually take much to vastly improve the story of '"How the Realist Hero Saved the Kingdom"'. Some small changes like making the throne room more interesting and breaking up the exposition with actual animated cutaways to farmers working in fields and so on, along with a re-organisation of the already quite good OsT could easily push this show up to a 7.5 out of 10. However the sad fact to me is that really I think this one has some potential beneath the surface to be a truly heart-warming and wholesome little tale about found family, unfortunately it seems like JC or the financers behind it just didn't care all that much as if they did I don't think we'd have this bland art-style, shockingly bad action, atrocious structure and ultimately cheap feeling product. To me it feels like realist hero is a bad adaptation in-spite of my not even having read the books. It's the sort of half-as*ed cash grab that have become all too frequent which I think is a real da*n shame. With just small changes this could improve and with a bit of care I think this could of been a really good watch. For an example of what I mean take a look at the original 'Zero no Tsukaima', an isekai by JC staff from 15 years ago with an original set of 13 episodes. It's action is by no means brilliant, nor is it anything mind boggling narratively and yet despite it's age it's backgrounds are still gorgeous, its character have far more depth then is required for the story being told, the Ost is an absolute delight and always used sparingly with one off tracks for speical occasions and character themes for the leads - but most of all it exudes passion and heart. You can't help but smile at how much the creators clearly cared about every aspect of their funny little light novel adaption (Rest in peace Noboru Yamaguchi). It's for that sort of love and attention to detail and caring sense of fun put into what migth otherwise be fairly mundane or forgettable stories, that I loved JC Staff for, it's why I'd of once called my favourite studio. But here it feels like we get none of that, there is no heart in most of these visuals, no passion in the editing room or the producers office. The voice-actors do a good job at the least and again its not bad it's just...meh, bland, unimpressive. Hopefully with the advent of a second half we migth see it gain an increase in it's somewhat shaky production and with the establishment of the world out of the way we may even get some better structured arcs to come, we can atleast hope so anyway. So to conclude, while you may enjoy this show for what it is, you also won't be missing out on much if you decide to give it a pass and as such I'd advise most readers to go and try other classic isekai like the prior mentioned "Familiar of Zero" or alternately "Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash" (which takes a different sort of realistic approach to the isekai genre) - and only to watch the realist hero if your board and simply looking for an easily digestible and relatively pleasant way to pass the time. I hope you enjoyed. If you liked this short essay please press the 'helpful' button below (turn phone browsers to 'desktop mode') and if at all interested feel free to check out some of my other mostly longer reviews her on Mal or via YouTube. With that said, Thanks for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Sep 9, 2021
Shoujo Kakumei Utena
(Anime)
add
Recommended
Preaching Change but Conforming to All The Worst Traits of Anime(SR);
In my reviews I fairly frequently talk about how a show can have faults that are a product of their time, most notably when addressing the Gundam franchise - however maybe one of the most interesting of these is today's topic, where-in we see a show stretched out seemingly not for monetary goals but simply because "that's how it was". Revolutionary Girl Utena is a 1997 anime by Studio JC Staff. As something of a cult classic it is all too often listed as their magnum opus and in general as a masterpiece among the ... anime Canon, however I'd suggest this is a somewhat misleading set of claims when looked at through a more critical lens. Let's first go through the production elements and spoiler free details. Music and Animation - Let's start off on the right foot, I absolutely love the music of this anime, I'd go as far as to say it's one of my favourite OsTs. Some may think straight to the bombastic and near unique insert songs that play during the duels, with their lyrics that link back to the 'lore' and masterful edge of tone they lend each scene their in but for me personally I'm far more enamoured with the regular tracks. The use of the piano throughout the OsT is plain wonderful, we're most used to it's usage in anime as a tool of sombre melody's or slow paced accompaniments but here in tracks like the wonderful 'Jab Up Beauty' or 'Scarlet of the Campus/Utena's Theme' we have it utilising a fast paced, up beat tempo that can't help but make you smile, while meanwhile the piano arrangement used for Mickey's backstory - 'The Sunlit Garden' is a really enchanting piece that feels fresh but still in good steading with what we're pre-disposed to expecting from classical music and I ain't even the slightest bit qualified to quantify how well done the violin and percussion instruments used across the soundtrack are. If I had any gripe they do periodically mis-place a song as it were, with the worst example being the second outro track which fits the show's tone far less then the first and further loses any impact it migth hold, in that we've already heard it's stylings over a dozen times during the duels but this is ultimately a small gripe. Animation is where the issues start to arise, or more acutely; Stock animation. While some have tried to defend Utena's egregious re-usage at nauseum of the same scenes and cuts and no doubt some of these defences are well worth considering post the spoiler tag, it is abundantly clear that when one looks at Utena from a more objective viewpoint it feels very budget in many places. This is most apparent in the fights, now make no mistake Utena isn't really a show about fighting, however the titular duels are the prime focus of a majority of episodes and therefore have a requirement to impress or hold the audience's attention and indeed they do...for a time. At first the fight choreography is slick, the cut aways that frame the fighters as silhouettes feel stylistically sound and the different parallels (like how Mickey and Jury both fight with the same sword form, indictive of their positions in the school fencing club) feel well thought out - This is all until you pass the first arc and realise that while the backgrounds change once every 10 - 12+ episodes, the fights loop and weather for narrative reasons or otherwise this soon starts to feel heavily insincere. The silhouettes start seeming more like cost cutting, the choreography becomes stale and Utena wins roughly 85%+ of battles by using the exact same animation cut, with sometimes a stock transition of her backflipping first for good measure. It's tedious and stretches further then the battles alone. In arc 3, without spoiling anything, there is a sequence of a car driving that is used a good half-dozen times more, with the only change being the passengers or Arc 2's elevator sequence which is used so many times it makes the famous Eva scene look expensive. This undeniably damages the show and just to briefly give an example of how this can be done right, we have Evangellion. Well known for it's repeating imagery, the team behind it tell entire mini-stories of symbolism through these loops such as the framing of how Shinji looks to his hand in various shots, However almost each and every time a piece of iconography is reused, it is redrawn, not just inserted in, in fact if your not looking for these mirror images you may well never notice them. That is how you tell a story through repeated ideas, subtlety, not by literally showing the same cuts again and again and again - all this coming from the show everyone claims had budget issues (which is actually something of an unconfirmed myth, it's presumed that really the issue was just time not money but anyway). With all that rambling out of the way, the rest of the animation is superb, the art-style wonderfully fits the colourful tone of the show and said property can look really beautiful when it's called for. There is a metric truck load of visual stimuli, sometimes with a touch of too much absurdity but generally making for a fascinating and enjoyably engaging experience, it really is a shame the stock footage is always around the corner to pull you back out of that enthrallment. Finally the character designs are all greatly done to boot, with characters each sporting colours that make the utmost use of colour theories to give them automatic synergy in some interesting ways and keep them all looking memorable in traditional anime candy coloured fashion. Characters and Story - With this section we have something interesting, because with both the players of this tale and the narrative given, we bear witness to a brilliant combination of both, except, there almost entirely squandered by the shows pacing and format. Again keeping spoiler free the issue comes very much so down to the way the show is presented, put bluntly Utena could easily lose 10-15 or more episodes and very little would be lost. From 3 recap episodes (including one for just the comedy gags) to a set of comic relief orientated episodes, plus a myriad of stories that barely contain 10 minutes at best of relevant information, Utena is a problem child in terms of its length. Some claim this untrue, stating that their are no real 'filler episodes' in Utena but I'd posit that as, with respect, absolute bullc*ap. Just because in one of the Nanami filler eps, a small part of the mystery surrounding Anthy, is vaguely alluded to, does not make it non-filler - rather it means you have to watch all the filler in order to get a full picture even on a re-watch, in a sense the worst case scenario for filler! Again however, like with the artwork, once you get past the fluff there is a great story here about friendship, self-acceptance, gender roles, abuse and the deconstruction of fairy-tails, it's just such a shame it's so marred by the pointlessness of most of the run. None of this is to say I even hate the light-hearted stuff, in fact I think that sort of episode is integral to creating most all good characterisation but there's simply too much of it. The ultimate proof of this is the Adolescent Of Movie, which adequately condenses all the important messaging and themes of Utena into just an hour and a half, which while obviously having to compress alot, still functions maybe even better then Utena the Tv show itself does with it's near 40 episodes of space to work in. Of course this massive issue of the storytelling adversely effects the characters aswell. Once again there's a whole roster of greats here, including some nicely fleshed out lesser ones, however there arcs all feel remarkably disjointed and inconsequential; A duel will occur, where Student Council member B learns a valuable lesson, then said lessen won't be mentioned or shown again until it's next time for them to be in the spotlight or in arc 2, it will be literally forgot due to plot shenanigans. They don't gradually change or develop, building slowly with each spotlight episode, rather we're told they've learnt something but then they just sit stagnantly for a dozen episodes preforming comedy gags or theatre homegoing commentary, until next required again for something vaguely useful. This all comes from the filler issue, you cannot tell a tightly knit phycological drama if half your episodes focus on randoms or dicking around with Nanami and Co. It's in this sense that Utena's character function like ones from a more light-hearted adventure or highschool setting, the likes of Slayers for example, a show JC Staff worked on in their early days before later coming to own it outright, where little is learned or emotionally developed because that isn't the story being told, expect in Utena's case it acts like it very much so isn't that kind of episodic story. In the end the side cast never really resolve anything but act in the final episodes as if there lives have been irrevocably improved for some indiscernible reason. This all culminates in the protagonists, Utena develops in the first arc, then spends the better part of 20 episodes being completely flat, with at best inferable changes in here character or personality. Likewise Anthy may say the odd leading comment or give a sidelong glance to the camera or a character but in reality she's unmoving for the better part of 30 episodes and even with retrospective context on a rewatch, this stagnation makes for dull story telling. So like the story and art categories before, the characters on paper are great, nuanced and colourful - They are executed on abhorrently. Spoiler Free Conclusion; While it may seem like in places I've been needlessly harsh towards Utena, for what it's worth I still quite like the show. I dislike the way it actively made me groan, the way the initially awe-inspiring duels became the worst part of every second episodes, the way the plot is teased for 3/4ths of the run before just being sort of regurgitated at the audience and I really wanted to see these brilliantly endearing characters done justice - But I still think that this is a fascinating piece of art. Unlike show's of Elfen Lied's ilk which simply manipulate their cast's relatability to, in a sense abuse their audience's emotional attachment to said cast, Utena feels very genuine in a way I can definitely appreciate. It very much so seems to be speaking to an audience of young people simply struggling to find themselves in the world and who are dealing with many heavy questions of identity and personhood, which for that it deserves the utmost respect, however it's no masterpiece. Even among JC Staff properties the aforementioned Slayers has a clear goal that it reaches while always being fun, Shana is equally interesting to look at with it's detailed thematic presentation of it's setting and stylistically wonderful battle sequences, and that one fight scene from Toradora has more effort then almost all of Utena's do. I'd like to say this is evidence that JC learned their lesson and have since veered away from stretching show's far past their breaking point, but I doubt that's a case of any more then coincidence. To conclude if you can fall in love with these characters and their struggles then Utena may well become a new classic or favourite for you, that really speaks your language in a great way, but if like me you go in a little more critical(or maybe just cynical) then I'd still advise you watch it but by skipping the filler and be content to miss the snippets of relevance there-in, in order to get a much more enjoyable viewing experience. A 6.5/10. Spoilers Ahoy - Image Watching 10 Episodes Worth of Magma Diver?!; As mentioned and as I'd like to be a little more clear on, the biggest issue by far in Utena is it's length. I mentioned at the very start of this essay that in a way this could all be a product of it's time, in the 90's forty to fifty episodes shows were still normal even when aimed at an older audience, however weather that's true or the creators were just writing as they went along or trying to drag as much of the story out as they could, none of these are valid excuses for this degree of bad structuring. Everything bad about the show pretty much comes back to this - the repeat animations are most likely linked to the length as is usually the case with children's television (which remember this is not), the characters fall so flat because they aren't geared for such a long run and the story is so sparse and hollow because it just isn't detailed or paced out enough to fill out this time span. Now of course we could argue the semantics of what does and doesn't count as filler all day but the rule of thumb as I see it, is filler should never encompass over an 8th of your show. Now by filler I mean episodes with a lack of consequence to the greater narrative and character or world growth/building - this differs to say an anime adaptation of a manga adding new scenes. We've seen how too much filler ruins the likes of the big three (bleach with roughly a third filler is a waking nightmare to watch all of) but Utena is nearly worse then them. The fact that it is a highschool drama does give it quiet alot of leeway to work with, we expect the cast to chill around school, we expect there to be plenty of talking head conversations and bit puns but here the anime really pushes the borders of what it can get away with. Almost every episode can be put in one of three categories; True Filler (Mostly the Nanami eps and recaps bar the third one sort of), Semi-Filler/Duels that have no bearing on the plot, and actual story. What this all creates is a dissonance, when something important happens you can often find yourself to be surprized since you'd gotten so used to nothing of lasting note ever coming up. None of the side cast actually lend anything to the plot, now sure they do emphasise the greater themes or aspects of Anthy and Utena's characters but they literally are just pawns, pawns that last for nearly 40 episodes, it's like the first level bad guys of a video game but they keep coming back, not any stronger or any such, just back. Then add on the bonus duellist in the second arc and the original Fencing-Team-Captain and the result now is a whole separate cast of characters who are twice removed from the actual story, a monster of the week plot line as it were. It's a mess, as thought we're watching three different shows all rammed together like Robotech. We have the fun slice of life hijinks that would be plenty at home in a modern property(thought even most slice of life's move with more concise purpose then Utena...), the monster of the week shoen tournament and finally the periodic bigger picture with all complicated lore and fraught emotions to be expected entailing that. In essence Utena is a Saturday morning magical girl show but aimed at young adults, which just doesn't work all that well. To try and give an example of what I mean, image Madoka Magica but with 30 more episodes of mostly filler. Would that of been the success it now is both in terms of popularity and critical acclaim? Would Lyrical Girl Nanoha of taken off if it had spent more then 3 episodes being a generic magical girl show? If it hadn't kicked the emotionally resonant plot into action in ep 4 and the zany otaku centric angle from ep 8 onwards? Or maybe the best way to convey my feelings on this is the very title of the segment; Evangellion is known for itself acting in portions, which is interesting considering how much people like to compare the two shows, the first 6 episodes are this lonely, atmospheric take on a show with a sort of corrupted Gundam protagonist combined with a classic Kaiju of the week show formula and of course the last core is infamous in it's own right but in the middle is the 'Battle Arc'. Episodes 7 through 14 which include a recap, a dance off, fat suits and Jet Alone. This is what I'd compare most closely to about 30 episodes worth of Utena's run, however with the caveat that these 8 episodes atleast also include the introduction of two of the most important characters, have bundles of character growth for the main and side cast that lasts for the rest of the run, no stock animation (bar the recap obviously) and do wonders for the worldbuilding. With all that said the episode entitled 'Magma Diver' is a problem child even among Eva's biggest die-hard fans. It's essentially just a di*k joke of a plot premise, with wacky science and shaky pacing. It's what I'd classify as actual filler for Eva, with only a smile from Asuka and a bit of group bonding to give the episode any real value. You can see the similarities to many episodes of Utena right? Enough there that you can't really skip it but still pretty superfluous. The point here is if Evangellion had been the first 6 episodes but then transitioned to 20+ episodes of Magma Diver before returning for 5-10 episodes of proper plot and character - it unequivocally would not be the juggernaut of the franchise it is now, there isn't a doubt in my mind on that. If you prefer Utena and it spoke to you more, then that's great but from our perspective of trying to be objective about the show, Eva is just on a whole other level, as are it's contemporise, in the form of other deconstructive anime. Because ultimately phycological anime and deconstructive ones, both genres Utena has a foot in, are formats reliant on intrigue and small scale, character driven plots. Utena doesn't work because it's a slice of life children's show rammed into one of those complex plots. You can't hide behind the fact your mimicking a kids show, as an excuse to use endless stock animation, heck I've watched magical girl and Digimon shows with far less re-used assets then Utena which is a real shame. The show lacks direction for most of it's run, there is just plainly far to much excess fluff. It's A....Revolution; And maybe that's the sad thing, I'd love to like Utena and no doubt if they were to realise a 26 episode directors cut of the show today, then I think I'd adore it and decree it a masterpiece. Merge episodes like Wakaba or Mickey's two parters into single episodes, cut out some of the flannel and the odd one off duellist (just that whole middle arc could be compressed by soooooo much) and really would you lose much? Some set-up stuff of course and a bit of the charm, sure but ultimately I'd think in turn you'd gain an absolutely brilliant show from both an emotional and objective standpoint because what's here is still so great, such brilliant music, direction and fitting of an artstyle, so much talent and effort put in to it - all deserving of just a much better presentation. Utena is a nice idea kind of show - it's experimental in it's deconstructionism and tries to best utilise it's pre-existing format but ultimately it just sort of fails to be a good product in the process, nor does it entirely succeed as art due to it's abundant corner cutting. Still despite it all it's defiantly a worthy piece of anime history and thanks to the movie we do have some idea of what a better Utena, with only bespoke animation and no filler, migth of looked like. I hope you enjoyed this short look at Shoujo Kakumei Utena, if so please press the helpful button below (turn phones to desktop mode) and, Thanks for Reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Aug 30, 2021
Shin Evangelion Movie:||
(Anime)
add
Mixed Feelings
Anno's Last Enigma - Does Evangellion Hate Me?(LR);
Roughly 26 years from it's original inception Evangellion has finally drawn to a close and once more threated it's legion of followers to a thoroughly polarising, confusing and somewhat pretensions ending - So nothing new there right? For today's review I'll be attempting atleast, to convey my own feelings on this film and why it's so very conflicting for so many. With that said there is little cause for a full spoiler free section, as such please take the following paragraphs as my general opinion if you haven't yet seen the movie series; Evangellion 3.0 + 1.0 will put ... bluntly not in all but the outlying cases change your opinion on the rebuilds. If you love the OG Eva and hated the rebuilds so far then in all likelihood you will get very little from this, the plot only gets more convoluted, characters are near non-existent in anything but a Meta sense, there is no subtly in the deliverance of it's most important messages and compared to the previous ending of EoE it's simply less interesting in terms of production. However if you already like the Rebuilds or you stand on the fence about Eva in general then it would appear that you may well love this film. With an at times Ghibli Aesthetic and musical Score, a heart-warming tale of over-coming adversity, depression and PTST and a cast of old favourites back for one last bombastic hurrah - you may well find yourself thanking Anno and Co, while decreeing you've finally come to the end of your Eva journey. As such weather you should or shouldn't watch this movie depends, if you've seen non of Eva then it's imperative you start with the original (preferably the definite directors cut and not the Netflix versions for the optimal experience), including of course the superb episodes 25+26 and the final movie of End of Evangellion. After this point or if you've already seen to that, your presented with a choice; If you love original Eva deeply, relate to the characters and their struggles, or it's messages and themes about loving oneself and finding happiness in the mundane, then chances are the Rebuilds may well not be worth your time, I know I'd much rather go back and use the time to just rewatch Eva 95' again because at it's heart the Rebuilds are the expression of a man 20 years wiser, a man who I don't think could write NGE or EoE anymore, not because he's lost his touch but because he's moved on and his new work isn't to many's current sensibilities put lightly. Alternately if you were mixed about the Original or failed to empathise with it, to 'Get it' as Gigguk described in his video on the subject, then the Rebuilds are seemingly tailor made for you. The numbers of people I've witnessed across the social medias Thanking Anno/Eva for bringing them immense joy and gratitude is astounding and even the Mal scoring, thickly as those are, is overwhelmingly positive in these first few weeks. Put simply if you've already watched the first 3 rebuilds you may as well finish it off and if you've yet to start any of them but on some level are still seeking a sense of closure from this franchise, then Rebuild 4 should certainly suffice. Now then - Spoilers Ahoy for All of Evangellion Anime - Is the Message now to Just go outside and Wait for a Faultless Waifu to Literally Fall From the Sky?; I won't pretend that this will be one of my more composed reviews. Put lightly this film broke me in an entirely different way to EoE. For a couple of days I couldn't process other media because I was just so conflicted on what to think. I've wavered between some days of hating the film, before hearing a positive review and mellowing out. My potential scores for it have varied between a 5-7 and a 10, to where I now don't believe it is scorable at this present moment (Mal forced me to give it one for posting this review but it's a fairly flexible number at this point) by conventional means or even if I should want to score it in the first place. Every element has me almost paranoid in that we as Eva fans are used to analysing each frame to get different meanings from a moment or scene but equally often enough the message of Eva is quite simple. So then lets start there, what is 3.0 + 1.0's message? The prior two animated endings conveyed that we should learn to love ourselves before trying to force others to love us and that 'Anywhere could be Heaven'. For all the robots, Christian Iconography and sudo-phycology it's those simple messages that we could all hold, which it ultimately boiled down to. Then we have the new end which if one is feeling precocious could be described as 'Go outside and touch some grass', now to be fair many quite reasonably interpret EoE to mean this too, the difference is the delivery. 4.0 makes it very clear that Shinji breaks free of an infinite time loop, in large part because Mari, an outsider with no hang ups and a more "realistic" anti-escapist worldview, was present. Obviously this isn't meant to be literal but she very much so drops into his life via a Kaji issued parachute, to save him and everyone one else from infinite turmoil. So then what? As soon as your Waifu for Laifu turns up your problems will seize? Your prior fake waifus will explode into LCL infront of your eyes or hook up with others, your PTST will fade in-between scenes and you'll suddenly become a confident chad with the ability to talk your gay-alien-best-friend and stubborn father into a happy ending? What? This is especially strange when you learn that Anno's real life wife has struggled with her own anxieties, to which Anno was able to help her through due to his own experiences, ergo the idea that no one is perfect and we all need to help one another. That implies Mari isn't a wife stand-in but then that would make her literally just a Mari-Sue Waifu which is arguably even worse. What does this suggest for the original aswell. Now that hopeful optimistic dream world of smiling clapping faces is just a stopping point, one point in the loop, inconsequential. Equally the smallest shred of light in the utmost of oppressive darkness as shown at the end of EoE when Asuka strokes Shinji's face is now what exactly? What did that mean to them, to Anno, to us? Asuka's mind actually takes her back to that place during the 4.0 film, either implying it's her happy place bearing incredible importance to her or rather more that it represents her dark unending torment - but when was that ever the message of the original? We'll come back to this and I really don't want to sound hyperbolic or dismissive but the thing that makes this so conflicting is that yes this works as Anno expressing his feelings towards Eva and life but as a narrative its an absolute complete disaster. So many have found this amazingly conclusive and I'm happy for them but I've never felt more empty after an Eva ending and that's an unfortunate outcome. Why Does Nothing Make Sense? - We will come back to the meta elements and personal feelings presently but for now I'd like to talk on a few other problems I had with this as an actual piece of media, as a product per se. The movie, similar to 3.0 goes for a 'rule of cool' approach to the visuals. Where EoE had one well thought out, revolutionarily animated and dynamically choregraphed robot battle that still blows your mind to this day, while being in itself the culmination of a characters journey and development arc with impeccably high stakes for not just her but essentially the whole cast and the universe at large, 3.0+1.0 has 4+ battles that are all meh. There's no weight to anything, if they die why should we care? I've seen Rei(s) die some half dozen times at this stage, this isn't Asuka from the original anymore, with the new one having F-all development in her own right (which migth be a deliberate meta thing but we'll get there) so why should I care about her, and Mari is just vague. On the opposing side of the conflict we have an infinite unspecified number of enemy mechs(?), which vary from generic evil CGI robot with a straight up Spooky-Halloween-Skull-Faces to 'Adam's Vessels' piloted by....more Rei's maybe? And finally Fuyutsuki's personal armada of man made angels. It makes very little sense. The Paris battle is fan bait and nothing more, why Misato would go there without recovering her pilots or atleast sending a separate team to secure them is dumb, how they were able to attach that rig to unit 8 is bizarre, but further said rig works far better then any other weapon we've ever seen, with conventional chain guns apparently now capable of obliterating Mass Production Angels, all while moving around like a Scout from Attack on Titan and then throwing the Eifel tower because, well just because it got people 'hyped'. This first battle sets up the movie to fail from a tension standpoint- No one dies and one whole faction is unmanned and inhuman. There is no regard for physics, a constant focus on over the top fan-service and a seemingly endless supply of both allied resources and enemy units. Why should anyone care about the subsequent battle after watching this one, even if it is the best looking of the film. After that you get the joys of two battle sequences that boil down to poor references to other Gainx products which fore go all sense of reality and become little more then visual white noise. Almost like a knock off Gurren Lagan where the makers didn't understand what made the fights in that show work in the first place. Finally we end off with just more pointless fan-wan*ing when we get to see Shinji and Gendou actually battle it out in their stupid gaint robots. It's just all really really dumb. You may well enjoy it for the pointless bombastic fun quality but non of the battles hold any true merits. Most of them look above average if you can ignore the sometimes atrocious 3D renders and physics(I love seeing Unit 1 get rag-dolled! And no narrative reason is a good excuse for how bad the CGI looked in that last battle sequence) but they're pointless, there's no real stakes, nothing all that surprizing or interesting. Asuka gets to Unit 13 and its a trap!? Wow shocker, and there was me expecting it to be mission complete. Bug*er off. Does no one remember how Shinji made it to the surface of the Geofront in EoE just in time to not save Asuka? Or how Rei2 really does get critically injured fighting the angel with the M2 mine during the Tv show, spurning on further development for the whole cast and dramatically raising all the stakes? There is nothing like that here, and while there doesn't nessacerily need to be it makes the fights also extremely forgettable. Getting back to the heading they're where the movie often makes the least sense. Who made all the MPV's, MPA's and Vessel's of Adam? Fuyutsuki all by himself? All of them? Or did they all get created from human souls during one of the many Shinji instigated impacts? If so how are they controlled? In EoE while you migth of needed to look for the answers, they were always there somewhere. The Kaworu dummy plugs, like the pre-established Rei plugs before them, were used to control the MPV's. There is nothing like that here, just weird, remarkably easy to kill Skull-Face-People. I already mentioned how the time-loop stuff sheds a strange new light on the original duo of endings, essentially framing them as the 'bad ends' but there's more issues to it then that. Gendo maybe implies that the first two ends are actively effecting the present rebuild world, in that they purified the oceans and then the souls or the earth or some such, I don't know. Why does Fuyutsuki allude to Mari not only being his age but actually some form of ancient being, who presumably ages backwards considering how much younger she looks compared to the photo present in Rebuild 3 and 4 - What did that tell us about Mari, or the story at large and why was she needed other then marketing and to give Anno a wife insert? The heck was Seele's deal in this continuity, were they also ancient being as hinted too in the third film with the brain imprinted monoliths? Is Mari of the same breed as the Seele rocks? Are Seele kept alive with LCL/The Curse Of Eva and were they ever even human this time around. Can we please all address how what little narrative there barely even functions without prior franchise knowledge? In the original timeline it took the combined and pooled recourses and personnel of all remaining countries in the world after second impact to make just the Eva series and Nerv (with the rest of the world actively in famine and technological decline as shown in the likes of 'Jet Alone' and the Fuyutsuki/Nerv Origin's episode ), in Rebuild Nerv alone is making space battleships and dozens of subservient Eva's and MPA's - 14 years is not long enough for that technology to of been studied by just two dudes nor for them to of constructed all this. And of course how could I not mentio- oh what's that? The curse of Eva really was just Meta pontification with zero story ramifications? Great..... The point I'm getting at here is that while the original could sometimes seem overly complex or complicated and confusing, a rewatch or explanation was always there. Part of what made Eva so great was that it delivered that deeply personal and kind message about loving oneself, while still having some of the most brilliant and detailed worldbuilding and sci-fi to date. It could do both and while I'm sure people will gradually explain away more and more of 4.0, it's just messy and I'm not even sure how much of that is by design. Ultimately speaking, the youtuber 'Intermediate O' posted a video about a week ago, where one of his theories for the film's ending was essentially that it was all a dream. That the story and characters are all just the imaginary dissolutions of a man struggling with depression. That the ending is him finally letting go of them while he sits waiting for his partner at the train station. To be honest that seems as logical an explanation as any, so was that it, was it all just a dream, did the fantasy final end. Is that really what we wanted? According to the response I guess so... Should I View This as an Individual Property or Part of the Greater Whole? - From parallel imagery to time-loops and actual shown footage of the original show and earlier movies, 4.0 seems highly intent on being seen as a part of something larger, as being viewed as an end to, well, 'All of Evangellion' but if that's the case new issues arise. I don't just mean what I've already addressed about changing the old endings to being bad/pointless either. I don't like most essays that compare the objectives of anime to one another, for while I believe greatly that objectivity can be a very valuable tool that I try to make a large deal of use of myself, most anime are made with different goals and objective aims in mind. I don't compare Michelangelo to Vincent Van Goth - however if Anno and Co are asking me to see this as one whole then it struggles even more. I already mentioned how the fights, while above average alone, utterly pale compared to the Asuka Vs the MPV's battle or the assault on Nerv HQ, resulting in a very much so quantity over quality effect. Then there's the score, objectively speaking it's brilliant and yet how does it fit? 'What If' the new instrumentality song is great but it ain't Komm sus Todd, now don't get me wrong, that is just my biased opinion but rather what I mean is, it isn't as memorable or unique as it's forebears. It's not the sort of song that you hear and think "That can only be Eva", sure you'd certainly accept it as Eva-esk but well? As for 'One Last Kiss' it's a far cry from 'Cruel Angels Thesis', is it a bad song? Again no, not to my taste but objectively and technically great and fitting for the credits, but will it still be at the top of karaoke bars in a decades time? I think not. Indeed if you do a direct comparison the rebuilds start to fall apart in an undeniable fashion, to the point where it's sort of strange Anno took the route of so overtly tieing them together. The worldbuilding is a bad joke, the characters are like puddles on the side of the Olympic swimming pool that was the original cast and even the mech designs have gotten to be far more, 'normal', for anime standards atleast. While we'll soon discuss how I can't really bring myself to either write this movie off or score it at all, it should be said that if this was an essay solely intent on just making comparisons then Rebuild 4.0 would be looking at little more then a 5/10. Of Character Obligatory Side Quests and Bafflingly Shallow or Fourth Wall Breaking Mains - With characters let's quickly go over the side cast first. Alot of the time they feel intended as tools rather then people, actually I guess that's more like all of the time. The more prevalent sides like Ritsuko make references to their past lives but with no explanation, after all I have no reason to believe Gendo slept with her or her mother in this timeline, nor that she holds any resentment towards him - that is until she repeatedly shoots him? Where did that come from? Are we just grifting off past development now, does she remember the past (her lines sure imply it). If this Ritsuko has been in a relationship with Gendo then it's ridiculous that she'd of gone with Misato, after all her character was all about the cycle of abuse, she would of stayed with Nerv even if it meant losing Misato, of that I feel very sure, that's the point of her, which in turn migth help make some things a little more reasonable, but instead we get yet another pointless fanservice moment. Poor poor Fuyutsuki, myself and my brother hoped that he'd change sides during the film and come riding atop the back of Jet Alone to save the kids in their final hour of need was unfortunately passed up on. We get no explanation of his purposes, nothing to suggest he wanted to see Yui again bar a single line of dialogue across 4 films (and some very minor illusions in film 3 which could just be seen as him reminiscing for Shinji's sake). No backstory, motives, relationships with the rest of the cast, nothing. He's just used to remind us that people turn to LCL during instrumentality and as a mouth piece for Anno to leave cryptic hints about Mari, that's it. Well I guess he's also the ultimate wingman, cause God-Damn does that man hustle - even if he didn't make the battleships and Eva Units 6 - 13 (but then who did) he pilots Nerv, all the MPV's and MPA's and 3 battleships all by his lonesome, that's pretty darn impressive for a man his age, real silver fox is our best boi. Kaji....I'm not entirely sure of. Because the world appears to either reset (So much for not resetting and having to live with the consequences of your actions, wouldn't not being able to reset of better reinforced the idea of moving on from escapism and the past? Guess that migth of been too sad or upsetting....) or of all of just been a dream, it is possible he finally gets to be with Misato and have a child of his own (he'd be a great dad no doubt) but that's kinda it? It sort of seemed hinted to that Kaworu and him had past beef, either because of him stopping(?) Kaworu or maybe Shinji during a possible Third impact or maybe Kaworu was the one who shot him all the way back in NGE. Who knows, who cares anymore at this point. No arc, no development, no presence. The same goes for best girl Maya and the two other original bridge officers, who are apparently so minor that Mal doesn't even list their names for this film and as such I won't either. Our boys get a fist bump scene and some classic gawking at reports and the goings on in the moment and that's it lads. Maya has implied development, Ritsuko has seemingly decided as the XO to never do any computer work so Maya is left to do it all in both Paris and when making the bogus extra spear, alluding to her developing into a more rounded and capable person, gone are the days of her screaming at the insides of an Eva, now she relishes in pressured situations, so I guess that's nice. No resolution for her whole thing with Ritsuko though, not even a real apprentice becoming the master sort of line or acknowledgement of a crush or some such on the women. Still probably the best done and most consistent character if underwhelming. Lastly on for the side cast we have the true Anno mouth pieces, Sakura(Toji's sister), Midori(pink haired) and the OG highschool cast all grown up (everyone say 'awww' now). Sakura and Midori are used to represent the audience, almost (though I don't think intentionally,) to mocking degree. Sakura is meant to be those of us who want to best for Shinji but still see him as a genocidal bas*ard, those of us who are conflicted and on the fence about the rebuilds. Meanwhile Midori is meant to be the cynical part of the audience, she decrees that Misato and Ritsuko are stupid to thrust Shinji, that Asuka and Mari are dumb to bring back Shinji to the ship in the first place and that Shinji deserves to pay for the crimes of 2(+) separate attempted (and pretty darn successful) war-crimes to the tune of near total human genocide. I think the idea is that once they final give up and make way for Shinji, we as the audience are also meant to give up and just embrace the emotional side of the film, while ignoring the logical side. This is shown most clearly by having Sakura, the moderate confused fan, shoot and accidentally hit Misato - Her reductants to accept change literally only hurts the franchise more, rather then letting it move on. There's also Toji and Co who represent Anno speaking directly to us about what he sees as a better way of living. Their his image of humanity at it's best and he uses the blank version of Rei 'tentative' as a conduit through which to have these 'simple but hardy folk' characters explain in the smallest terms possible the joys of daily basic livelihoods, kindness and community. It's kind of nice, I don't hate it and it's somewhat more earned then.... well pretty much anything else. It would of helped if ya know they'd actually gone back to this location at the end, if the credits showed them, struggling but still rebuilding. Humanity persevering against it all and hope still shining. As it stands it feels a little pointless and preachy considering its considerable screen-time but remarkably small amount of relevance(With that said the village scenes are by far the best animated and looking in the anime and some of the best stills and compositions I've ever seen, easily matching the likes of studio Ghibli, being a wallpaper a second experience and in large point contributing to the overall scoring I gave for the art-style/animation section's metrics😎). The main cast is where the real issues lie, some are easy to talk about in that they've been shamelessly dumbed down but others have been made far more complex or meta to mixed effect. Rei is the easiest talking point, putting aside the inconsistency in the fact their is multiple Rei couinsousness'es/souls moving around at once(Unless the implication is Rei Q and the Adam's vessel Rei's are all truly blank with no soul but then why would you ever need a soul, why not have all the Eva pilots be Rei's???), her character is exceedingly disappointing. Turns out Shinji did save Rei, she spends 14 years ghost piloting Eva unit 1 before finally meeting back up with Shinji, how does she react? She asks to say, he says "Be Gone Thot" and she's like 'sure'. That's it. No joke, that's all folks, because they're a village out there awaiting, she just leaves. The gaint uncanny valley Rei head is a nice idea in concept and development of the original EoE idea but is just garbage and completely kills those scenes. Meanwhile Rei Q just repeats the arc we've already seen atleast twice already now, learns to love, then dies. utterly pointless/irrelevant. As for Quantum Rei she doesn't show up or receive extra development, so really it just ends for all three, goodbye Rei I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Misato is here. She gets shot again but lives it, then kamikazes for questionable reasons(surely the wonder has an autopilot, heck Maya could probably just program one on the spot? What does it say about her character that she insists on going down with her ship for Shinji's sake, knowing she'll be making him and her own son orphans for no reason? Absolutely bizarre.) all of which just seems to be to make her a reference to other great mentors, namely the original Misato who died for a good reason and with an impact that can still make grown men tear up all these years later. Her death and getting shot feel so arbitrary that even the anime acknowledges it and pretty much makes no fanfare for them as if it knows their simple token gestures that are going to be shortly reset. There's also her new son, this will apply more to Gendou's character but why exactly did we need this level of dumbing down? Am I Seriously to believe that people watching the original EoE and NGE didn't put together the idea that Misato feel immense guilt for being a s*it crap mom figure for Shinji? The introduction of a son clearly serves no purpose other then to reinforce what a bad mum she is and show her remorse. It's arbitrary, unneeded, He*l Kaji doesn't even mention the kid when he walks off with Kaworu and don't say he doesn't know - He's presumably being formed from Shinji's mind which is one that has seen and talked with the son, why wouldn't he mention him if he had any relevance to the plot, if they intended to do anything with that plot addition?. Furthermore she's clearly never a match for Gendo because he's not playing the same game as she is, you can say her creating a spear and finally getting her crew out alive are evidence of her surpassing the old man and becoming more then just his pawn but what of that wasn't conveyed by her completely f-ing up his plans by helping Shinji get in the robot in EoE, and later her cross being a large part of what gave him the resolve to keep on living? What new thing has been said here, or what old concept has been reinitiated in a vaguely faithful way here?. I can say with certainty that I hate everything they do with Gendou. First I could understand someone missing it until a rewatch or explanation review/video but the fact that Gendou is just an older Shinji longing for his deceased wife was not hard to work out. We did not need a literal montage of Gendou explaining how he was a sad lonely kid and for the love of all things holy, who Ok'd that flaming shot of young Gendou being just Shinji with glasses? I burst out laughing at the sheer audacity and blatantlessness of it. Obviously it can't be taken as what he actually looked like, unless the time-loop shenanigans are even more complicated then we think, no rather were subjugated to ten minutes of him essentially explaining his not so evil plan and motives. Ya and? Also why does him fusing with an angel cause his face to loose it's eyes when Ritsuko shoots him? Imagery wise it suggests he's lost his soul in pursuit of Yui but then he's immediately infinitely more honest with us as the audience and Shinji, then he's ever been before and after that he finally gets to be reunited with Yui (in the jankiest and most cringeworthy scene of the year where they stab all the Eva's including the Unit 2 variables and the One off Adam's vessels), so why in God's name would this be the version of Gendou with no soul? But actually speaking, shouldn't his fusing with an angel cause him to regenerate, not just sit there eyeless? What even is a Gendou in this film. Before the film I saw people joke about what it would be like to have Shinji actually confront or even fight his Father and God was it as bad as I'd feared. The two fighting like this was and still isn't the point, sure it's a nice idea they could have a chat but the stupid robot battle? Even if you make it clear it's in-universe a farce, your still making it a showpiece. The tragedy OG Gendou is that he never talks to his son, now having him finally realise how dumb he's been could work....if a single bit of build up was done but it isn't. Shinji is just suddenly ready and a version of Gendou that to me atleast seems like the most unequivocally corrupt and desperate to date, decided to be an amiable and reasonable person all of a sudden. It's just downright cheap, lazy and bad writing. I already mentioned Mari's faults, like how the flashbacks imply she was the one that got Shinji's parents together, making her just such a Mari-Sue and weakening that dynamic so much but there also her and Asuka. They're implied to have a close bond, formed from the time-skip and what not but ultimately nothing comes of it. Now as we're talking about their characters and if I'm feeling generous, the reason Mari looks out for Asuka and calls her princess could be one of two reason. 1. The photograph of Mari, the original Gehirn crew and Asuka's mother could mean that Mari views Asuka in a motherly or older sister capacity. Alternatively Asuka is now a clone, apparently, presumably one of her seemingly diseased mother, so it's possible that's why Mari holds the connection to her and that migth even explain how she pilots unit two in second Rebuild 2 film...maybe? Thought what that means for units 3 - 13 is, especially 5 and 8 is anybody's guess. If Mari really is some alien being like the angels, then maybe that's why. (Also I find it amusing that Mal doesn't even list Mari as a main character lol.) Whatever the case may-be neither her or Asuka are really used to say anything of interest that we haven't already covered. Asuka being a clone only really seems to complicate everything further then was already the case, with the only real benefit being how it draws her parallels closer to Rei but for what purpose or to what end I am yet to settle on, with the only other take being, to me anyway, that Asuka was made a clone to emphasise her being a sort of living doll, an icon of the fandom or some such meta nonsense but again they don't really do anything all that interesting or new with the concept. Finally your probably expecting a not so short segment on Shinji but what can you really say? In the second rebuild it seemed like we were going for a more forth-right and confident Shinji, the same character but from a different light, only for the third movie to sort of subvert that by having him fall to his all time lowest point, with everyone actually hating him like he'd been worrying they did since NGE and EoE, plus being responsible for causing the apocalypse and all without any sign of the Rei Ayanami he tried to save causing this whole mess. Then Kaworu dies. Then he understandably mourns and becomes dressed but months(?) or maybe just weeks (it's really friggin unclear) of quiet isolation in some pretty nature and support from his closets friends(well except for Kaworu obviously and Kaji....and Misato....too soon? Sorry), has begun to rehabilitate. Then Rei Q friggin explodes right in front of him, at what must from his viewpoint be random, into a massive puddle of LCL after her suit turns white for some reason. PTST relapse perhaps? Absolute Duck*ing mental breakdown? Nope. He just like gets over it during a scene transition and for the rest of the film is absolutely fine. This isn't even coherent writing anymore. The last half's Shinji could exist and be a really great way to end his characters journey under separate circumstances but again none of the work is done to get there, he just suddenly becomes an insert character for Anno, and that's it. Is It Me? Is It Simply That I'm Just Not Ready to Move on From Eva? Is This Movie Quite Apparently Outside of My Frame of Reference? - If you've read down this far you may think I've been entirely negative towards this film and indeed I doubt many fans of it or even moderate watchers will even bother to come down this far, if anyone at all for the matter. I dislike the production, I think the story and characters are sub-par and the themes + messages overly blunt and literal, yet in truth it's not that simply. The reason I struggle with this film, the reason I've caved in and decided to write a review despite how so many others better then I have already done so and will undoubtedly do so, is because this film feels honest. Not honest in a way I like personally but not insincere either, it feels like an expression, like art. How can I hate this when it is Eva. What I mean to say is Anno has always just been writing about himself, he's said as much. Does that mean that in all likelihood the rebuilds have been atleast partially written by the seat of his pants and changed probably hundreds of times over the 14 year realise schedule - almost definitely. Is that bad? Narratively yes but emotionally? Eva is this bizarre window to Anno himself. Gigguk in his 4.0 video talked about this being something only the present Anno could write, that the hope on-show available in the previous versions was the hope of a man who hadn't yet attained what he sought. So then I'm the problem right? Rather then letting go of media or 'Evangellion', I'm having a media Renaissance. After being made, let's say redundant, due to a certain global pandemic I've started watching more classic anime at a rate faster then ever before, I'm rewatching western shows and enjoying new ones too. I finally got back into reading and am loving 'Eye of the World', while listening to a great audio book of 'All Quiet On The Western Front' and at long last I started writing down my thoughts in the form of these rudimentary reviews. So then it's me, I'm doing the opposite of letting go right? I'd like to say that I'm different, that it isn't escapism, that I can move on anytime as it were but just saying that makes me doubt weather or not it is just that, some underlying addiction I am'nt even aware of. Further I've little interest in a partner right now, maybe one day that will change but I actually quiet like not being in that sort of relationship but then is that just an excuse too? Am I just jealous that Anno had his waifu or life partner fall into his lap, that's he's moved pasted Evangellion and reached some degree of self Fulfilment, that he's no longer the man he was that we all resonated with? Can I not 'get' 3.0+1.0 simply because it's outside my frame of reference. I 'get' NGE because I know what it feels like to be existentially depressed, I know that burning anger, confusion, rage and sad loneliness that's etched firmly into End of Eva's very being and soul, but maybe I just don't understand what it truly means to move on, to form that sort of bond and leave anime or any escapist media far behind me. So maybe I am just a whinny internet dwelling closet otaku who should go outside and touch some damn grass. And yet... Maybe you were just glad the nearly 26 year wait for the final ending was done, the pure cathartic realise at long last, or maybe you'd sub-consciously or actively for that matter been seeking for closure all this time, and I get all of that, I really do, but I wanted Anno to be able to finish with a bang, for the fights to mean something, for the characters to feel like people and for me to be able to love it emotionally And Objectively. I didn't want the pay off to come at the cost of any real objective narrative values and all the prior character depth. I didn't want for it's depiction to be actively fighting it's own source material and clashing with the pre-established and much beloved order. Is the message really just "keep your mind open for the change that will make it all ok"? Is that really the best you can do for the next generation Anno, you helped the last so much, yet that's all you've got this time? What about all those we lost along the way? What about those who needed their fantasies just to make things ok, to make the pain more bearable or the world a little kinder. What about those who died unhappy or took their own lives, to the millions who just died in the global pandemic? What sort of a message in this climate is it to send that when you need your short escape the most, it wants you to go be free? Of course Anno couldn't of predicted the timing of the film's release and far be it for me to say otherwise but is that really it? Do I simply need to wait until I have the right experiences before I can relate, before I like this movie? Eva's original message was not that art and escapism are bad but that they need to be enjoyed in moderation, to be seen and appreciated but not relied on as an escape from life or reality itself, that art must never be a rescission to the womb. That was a message that's always resonated with me a whole lot, it acted as a big inspiration in a sense for alot of my life and I've frequently seen others say similar across the interwebs, but now it feels as thought the message is and always has been to simply let go of all attachment of the fictional, to completely let Eva go but was that ever the point and why? Why is my love of this show labelled A Curse? Does it really need to be goodbye forever? Wasn't the point that we should spread our own wings, make our own stories and pursue our own passion - not to dispense with everything that got us where we our. This for me doesn't feel like a farewell ending but a self-congratulatory graduation ceremony, but in aid to a coming of age of what exactly? As Eva Monkey said in his video on the movie, I wanted to like this, I really want to love this, maybe that's a part of the problem, and I get all the adoration, I really do. This is without doubt, art that I'm not sure I'll never completely get no matter how many rewatches I go through. That's what makes it so hard to judge in objectives. My creed is to judge, understand and see things from their own perspectives and viewpoints. To grade them based on how well they achieve their own goals and in that sense, 3.0+1.0 succeeds entirely at being both an expression of an older Anno and as the ending he envisioned, this time around atleast. Conclusion - Would You Give a 1-10 Score to The Mona Lisa?; So what more is their to say? I fear this essay may come across as overly antagonistic towards the film and maybe that's the truth of it, maybe I'll continue to grow resentful of this as time passes, to come to hate it and give it some arbitrary low score but as it stands I really ain't sure. How does one grade someone else's feelings? Or more importantly what do I do with these felling's, emotions and expressions I didn't exactly ask for but neither shied away from. Maybe the film is right, just like the two ends before it, life may be as simple as saying that it's time to move on with your life and find someone or something new to share it with, it's time to grow up, that's certainly a worthy sounding message to spread. I don't know how my feelings will change with time, maybe this is the end of my time with Eva, or perhaps further rewatches will completely recontextualise it all over again, I still need to read the manga adaptation too, which apparently goes a whole other route for itself. My apologies if this review felt more scattered then normal but with something so, almost ethereal, it's hard to describe the good and the bad with any degree of lucidity. I hope you could at least empathise with a little of what I've said, if so please press the 'helpful' button (Turn Phones To Desktop Mode) and- Thanks for reading, Cya Later Evangellion.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Aug 23, 2021
Kamisama ni Natta Hi
(Anime)
add
Mixed Feelings
A Noble Minded and Valid Attempt, That Fails to Match It's Legacy(SR);
Fall 2020 saw us receive a new Jun Maeda show and with it, much like Charlotte before, we observed two polar opposite responses. Those scoring below a 5 in a wanton effort to ignore the brilliant visuals and musical value of the anime and those going straight for a ten out of ten in an effort to drown out any valid complaints of the story's handling. Today I'd like to take a short look at what 'The Day I Became A God' has to offer (Spoiler sections will be marked as such). Animations and Music ... - As mentioned already the animation is of a very high calibre, there are some breath talking stills with some beautiful landscape shots of both the country side and the city as well as some lovely sunsets. If I had one complaint it would be that it isn't always used to the fullest, there's no cut that stands out to me as particularly mind blowing, and rest assured while a show like this doesn't actually need one, the quality of animation should of allowed for it to flex the artist's skills a little more when it came to motion and us some shot or other to really remember when we look back on the show. With that said its certainly well above standard and Yoshiyuki Asai does a wonderful job on the directing as-well. Furthermore the character designs are clean and vibrant in the usual style of Key properties and there's little to say against them, other then we've maybe seen some designs done frequently before. Unsurprisingly the music is top notch, Jun and the teams and musicians he works with always seem to be able to turn whatever they touch to gold. I'm sure many will of found a new favourite here and there is always a fitting piece for every occasion. If there's one thing the man always gets right it's his score and it would do a disservice for me to even try and summarise them with my poultry musical knowledge, other then to tell you to go give the Ost a listen if your unconvinced, in particular he's one of my favourite piano composers of all time with his charismatic and charming style of flow. It suffices to say they're technically impressive, emotionally resonant when needed and always add to the scene, top marks. - A very minor note against the soundscape as a whole would be the choice of the Dub to have Sora speak in 'young person' it's a minor issues but every-time she opens her mouth I cringe, despite thinking her Va fits just fine, I also doubt her dialogue will age all that well, in fact alot of dialogue through-out the show could of been translated/written a little more fluidly. Keeping with the dub I'd say it's fine, as is the case with almost every dub of the last 2 decades, however because it's a key studio property one can't help but feel how noticeably less endearing it is to that which has come before. The performances aren't bad, they're good in fact, but they don't bring much in the way of character with them and non really stick out as much more then the standard required of the actors involved. Put simply I felt the dub lacked much identity where as older dubs for these anime had a real sense of personality and weren't afraid to make small changes for the sake of an odd pun ergo Clanned or Kanon Story and Characters - The plot for Kamisama ni Natta Hi is where things start to go awry. Now to be clear those who suggest that the fact Jun has done similar tales before makes this one less valid are looking at it wrong, if they so wish they can tell the same story a million times and I'd still judge each individual property separately, rather the issue lies in the structure and goals of the story. At times this is a Slice of Life Romp, at others a sci-fi mystery and finally an emotional drama but with just 12 episodes there isn't time for it all. An entire two episodes near the end are almost solely about the sudo-detective Hiroto Suzuki, who is in truth not that important a character past moving the story along and some minor thematic points. The early episodes are all centred around a single one of Youta's friend group which at first is fine but gets a little out of hand when by the stories end he has grown business women, loan shark and bodybuilding-bodyguard all helping him and his little sister make a movie. It's a scattered plot with enough ideas to easily fill 24 eps a whole lot better but as it is, while not bad per-se, it feels rushed and a bit ham fisted in places with a general lack of understanding or focus for what it actually wants to be or say. As for the the pre-cognition ability that gives the story it's name I was a little disappointed, not because I expected Jun to use it to darkly have Youta abuse the power (that could be cool but the tone wasn't there for it) but rather I'd hoped to see it used it interesting ways - For example in episode one Hina predicts a fifth baseball throw that never comes, I expected it would show up down the line, in some climatic moment the 5th baseball or rather some metaphorical fifth throw would arrive, but it doesn't which is disappointing as that's not alot to hope for from the writer known for his attention to the little details of daily life and sets up weird expectations for Hina's power being fallible, yet that never happens again (I presume the implication is the fifth baseball would of been an easy hit because it literally isn't moving, it wasn't thrown after-all but that feels really cheap and like a hollow mis-direct for the sake of it, to the point that it feels like either a plot hole or Hina being contrarian, in that her power must of told her no fifth ball would be thrown). The characters are obviously tied to this issue of structure, with so much to do none of them have much time to sit, to the point a couple frequently break the fourth wall to point out their own shallowness. Again an effort is made to give them hang-ups but after a single episode of Hina and Co sorting said issue, it's never mentioned again. We never hear about how they're progressing now or even just what they're doing with their time - For example Jinguuji is in the best episode where they homage(?) what seemed to be Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares however after that episode they never show her restaurant doing any better then it was before Youta helped it (in fact when they do visit it in ep 10 there's no one but the kids there), which strikes me as strange because this is Jun Maeda's field of expertise, having a scene in the last episodes credits where the restaurant is bustling would be enough to communicate the progress but it just isn't there. With all that said he has some prior form for this, Angel Beats (by far his best original work) also has a number of side characters but the difference there is they either get adequate development for their arcs to feel earned or the focus is on how they impact the protagonists - Here however our protagonist don't really change or develop, without spoilers it's untenable to explain this in any great detail but even Hina and Youta stay fairly static, with outside influences affecting them for sure but little actual personal growth. Youta's action at the end of the story are acts I completely believe he would of made at the start of the story, certainly past as early as ep2 beginning minimum. Had he started as someone with no confidence/friends or been harsh towards Hina and seen her as a pest, only to develop into a caring outgoing person, then it would of worked but as is he doesn't. In this sense the characters all feel at home in a slice of life comedy except for the fact that the story still wants to be that emotional drama. All told the characters are endearing in Jun's normal way but ultimately very lacking in nuance or substance and feel ill-suited to this form of storytelling and genre. A Sledgehammer Approach to Emotion {Spoilers Ahoy - Skip to the conclusion to avoid plot details}; To shortly address the story in more detail, one massive issue is the handling of it's themes and narrative which to me was somewhat surprizing. I say this because while many know Jun as just the guy who's now made three original IP, 12 ep one-shots, he's actually had a hand in the score for and even scripts for some of the anime routes of both Clanned, Air and Kanon(Pretty much anything Key's involved with as the rule of thumb) - which include the Mai route of Kanon which for my money is it's best one - among others - he's been around the block a few times as it were. And yet the storytelling of That Day I became a God just feels of a lower quality to his previous writing. I've already mentioned the structuring issues which kneecaps most everything and I'd like to do a full in-depth look at all Jun's work to properly go into my feelings on him as an author like I did for Shuffle and some of Gundam but for the sake of this short over-view, episode 12 gives you all you need to know. We have the likes of the film which clearly draws parallels to Youta and Hina's relationship, so how do they communicate this? By both showing us the full film and having Youta monologue about it. One of those things is needed, not both because once you start hammering it down the audiences throat it begins to feel forced. The same applies to how Youta had (apparently) no direction in life but then changes his plans. That's enough, stop there, your point is made....oh wait look two separate further conversations to tell us he's changed his plans because of Hina's influence on his life. The point is we don't constantly need to be told everything, it's just bad writing to be so very Blunt. Hina keeps throwing the Youta sketch picture away because she already has the real Youta - great that makes sense, so why do you then have Youta explain that to the friggin audience, we aren't that dense and even if we are a good story allows you to think on it, to go back on a rewatch and realise what you missed. The only good example is maybe how Hina can use Youta's phone to mimic other's voices which gives an early warning of the technological nature of her power. It's this constant heavy handedness that drags the story down so much. I've spoken before about how weather a drama is 'forced' or 'boring' is a subjective thing and I stand by that, I rather prefer to try and look at more the object traits and it's most likely always that if your characters have to constantly explain their growth to the camera, then they haven't really grown, kind of like needing to explain the punchline of a joke to your un-impressed friend. Again I find this somewhat baffling because while Jun has always been someone more interested in writing about feelings over/at the expense of plot, he is still a genius at times. In Charlotte the depression arc which brilliantly makes use of foreshadowed powers and characters personalities is some of my favourite drama writing in media, it's natural, objectively well put together and hits like a truck emotionally even if the last couple episodes of the show sort of crap the bed. Where is that quality of writing in his new scripts? Furthermore the themes all feel like an after-taught. As alluded to early Hiroto's arc reflects Hina's in that he to was abused for his powers and had a troubled childhood and this could be used to reinforce the idea that we abuse our most-vulnerable for our own personal gain, however that never really seems to be something the story dedicates itself to saying, it's wavy, vaguely suggesting deeper messages about a range of topics/subjects and in some ways there is cohesion. Each of the group's struggles reflect Hina, debilitating injuries that require rehabilitation, a running occurrence of run-away fathers and dead mothers, technological enhancements, etc - yet what is really said with it? That the world is terrible, bad things happen but it will work out ok in the end? Sure thing, that all? It's very meh in that regard. If I were to hazard a guess towards all this I would presume alot of the cause behind this is Jud himself, either in that this was simply the story he wanted to tell or he had deliberately decided to play it cautious due to the mixed reception of Charlotte. I mentioned earlier how, while I didn't expect it, this story could of gone a great deal darker in it's presentation and Jun has form for that, the aforementioned arc of Charlotte and parts of Angel beats, both his original stories, have some really hard hitting stuff to do - not gore ridden or grim dark as such but rather they push the story telling to it's fullest. The Day I Became A God is if anything a step back in that regard, no one dies, everyone's hang ups are mundane except maybe Hina(and even with her, ignoring the supercomputer thing, really she's just a sick little girl) and the story tends to push the darkness to the background. For example we learn about the detectives parental abuse backstory but in such away that's it's a history with no real development to it and it certainly isn't a head on struggle, or how Hina is operated on off screen and then sent to a top notch recovery facility/hospital. There is no moment of direct confrontation or thematic payoff and this hurts the story because weather it was due to the Charlotte backlash or other factors, Jun has a style of writing and as I said earlier this story just isn't set up properly for the drama it tries to attempt in the final act, and make no mistake this final act is in the style of his previous work but with none of the leg work done prior. (As an aside I should point out how the characters having relatable problems is not an issue, rather Jun and Studio Key in general, frequently use exaggerated or even supernatural problems to more subtlety and broadly reflect on and comment upon real world tragedy and illness but chooses not to here, while still having the story set up as thought that were the case). This also seeps into being a problem with the character interactions. After episode one Youta and Hina's relationship is entirely static, they never grow even when Hina gets trapped in a van, there's no major changes in her personality, she was always forlorn about life and Youta was always someone to go the extra mile, they don't feel close. So when in episodes eight and nine it comes to ahead a part of me says "really?". On the one hand the show is so well made that the characters crying and their body language plus the score is enough to illicit a reaction for sure and enough to make the scene work but in a lesser production, the story has so little ground-work in place that this wouldn't come across as genuine. Thankfully this scene does help to sell the connection that we see in the final two episodes but it's a close run thing. Other issues include the likes of the hospital nurse who acts brazenly antagonistic while also having a tragic past. This could work but there clearly isn't enough time for the needed or intended payoff and really it becomes apparent that Jun just wanted a relatable 'villain turn good guy' to give the stories' climax a sense of stakes, which is admirable but poor writing. The caution that emits from this tale stretches to the point of it not even being entirely clear what Youta and Hina are to each other. The idea they could just be plutonic siblings in Key story seems fanciful but the story does actually seem to end like that( which is a strange angel when they give Youta a sister he gets along with on good terms, not that you can't have more then one sibling but you get what I mean), yet everything is framed to indicate the nature of everything was romantic? I sort of like that ambiguity but equally it feels like a concession rather then a real conclusion. The found family angle of the show feels more like a compulsory trait of this form of writing then an actual theme (which sounds harsh and definitely Hina is looking for a place to belong but equally it's never really confronted, no resolution with her birth father, she borderline never brings up her mother despite Mother being a frequent theme and Youta's parents accept her with out even a tiny bit of growing pains for her to fit in. Also Sora and her don't even remotely get to be sisters because the show just doesn't have the time, with them rarely interacting as anything more then friends like she is with the rest if the group. She is Youta's sister maybe, sure, but not really a part of his family if that makes any coherent sense). And don't even get me started on how poorly handled the time-skip is. Conclusion; A shorter review this time, as mentioned I may look into doing a full in-depth retrospective of Jun's work, with a view to understanding the man's style at a later stage but for as to weather The Day I Became a God is worth you time, I think the following is apt/applies; With Today's topic I wouldn't say it ever drops the ball completely and even if blunt, the drama is partially set-up and foreshadowed but it overall comes off as juvenile. If this is your first emotional anime of this breed then you may well love it to bits but it can be done so much better and by the very same author and team. It's in that sense that 'Kamisama ni Natta Hi' is never straight up bad but also seldom all that great in spite of it's wonderful production - As such it is my view that like Charlotte the show achieves a 7.5 and is worth watching the once, if just for the visuals and score, however it is by no means some new classic or any kind of required viewing and personally I believe your time migth be better spent with Jun's previous works or with the likes of 'Plastic Memories' which covers many similar topics but in a far more nuanced and less plot scattered fashion. If your of the many who decreed it a new 10/10 favourite then I can definitely see the appeal and how one could become immersed in the show past it's flaws, however in my view atleast it unfortunately failed to live up to it's forebears and contemporise as anything more then a bit of light-hearted fun. I hope you enjoyed reading, if so please hit the helpful button (Turn phones to desktop mode) and your welcome to check out some of my more in-depth reviews here on Mal (as marked by the 'LR' moniker in the title), and without any further ado, Thanks for reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all 
Aug 17, 2021
Elfen Lied
(Anime)
add
Not Recommended
An Anime Classic of Almost Unrivalled Failings (LR);
Elfen Lied is a 2004 anime adaptation of a manga by the same name of some repute. Upon it's initial release it preformed remarkably well in the burgeoning Western anime circle, while in Japan it was received with a much more lukewarm reception. As someone who attempts to review anime in an impartial fashion Elfen lied is something of an enigma, in that while objectively it's not just a narrative failure but downright careless and offence - all while atoning that with an above average production - subjectively it has touched the hearts of many and become a ... perceived classic (It's Mal's 56th most listed show) which by my logic would dictate it succeeded if only by accident. We'll try to go over this seeming dissonance a little further on but first let's cover the spoiler free items as the production of Elfen Lied is important to understanding it as a whole. Direction, Animation and Music - By far the properties stronger elements are it's high quality production values, indeed the entirety of it's out of 10 score is attributed to these factors. The music of Elfen Lied has been much talked on in the past, the Op song "Lilium" is put lightly 'dense', it like the show has invoked a great many feelings from those who hear it, with some finding it relaxing and others disconcerting. To me it's always felt melancholic which I do think is fitting for the show's overall tone but in a way gave me a false impression of what was to come at the start of each episode. Non-the-less it's an impressive piece of music and one that almost singlehandedly gives the show it's contemplative feel however fitting that is, and deserves ample credit for it. The outro song of similar fame "Be Your Girl" by Chieko Kawabe has been oft described by the likes of the youtuber 'Hazel' as nostalgic of 90's and 2000's J-pop and I can agree with that sentiment- It's a fun song, not unusual to find for it's time and relatively fitting (a degree of tension release at the end of each episode is much appreciated). More pressingly we have the background Ost, it's undeniably strong and even unique in places, further I'm a sucker for the likes of the track "Ametsuyu" and generally speaking the composition of the Ost is great with tracks like "Hakuri" excellently ramping up the tension of battle scenes, However, the glaring issue the whole anime as a package has is it's massive over reliance on Lilium - There is a corrupt version, piano version, music box short version, instrumental track, long version, insert version, etc. Some of which are played more often then once. This becomes especially evident in the anime's second half where barely a dramatic moment can go by without some variant of the song playing and not as just a light motif but rather as the actual focus and driving force behind far too many scenes for what's healthy. On the one hand this could be perceived as an attempt to give the show a sort of trance like feeling and in that aspect one could posit it succeeds, yet it my opinion it becomes little more then a crutch when the same core music is played at nauseum and for that a few points have to be removed as it were, but on paper the Ost is indeed quite impressive. The animation is similar to the score in that on merit it's also quite good. We'll talk about the direction in particular in just a moment but all in all the animation does generally meet an above average standard, with the background art being the real standout. While alot of the show only uses a handful of locations flashbacks and the like get the same treatment giving the artwork of the show, the actual depictions of the town the story takes place in, the shrine or the ocean next to many of the battles, a downright beautiful look that blew me away each and every time a new still was shone forth, yet in contrast you have the actual digital composite. The character designs are all fairly mediocre, while I appreciate the directorial decision to have all the Diclonius be pink haired to further emphasis the discrimination aspect of the story(by far it's strongest theme) it caused them all, especially the ones in the flash back sequences, to just blend together. Meanwhile of the 5 principal characters, 4 have fairly similar haircuts and are all either short and flat or tall and blessed, it's not ideal. Moreover while the general animation in the likes of fights and the slice of life scenes is fine, it looks all the worse for being overlaid on to such brilliant backgrounds, as such giving the whole thing a miss-matched feel and it's a show that I think many could make a good case for as one of the worst examples of the early 2000's period of anime's growing pains. Still above average in total. The aforementioned directing however is far more impressive in subtle ways. For one without nearing too close to spoiler territory, the director made the very solid choice to deviate heavily from the manga, from character's hair colours, to character motives and story beats but he did far more then just that. I've spoken before at length on how the likes of School Days and Shuffle use rather complimentary directing to add to a story's tone and messaging without every being all that noticeable, to the point where many who dislike those show's will completely ignore the brilliance of their directing in order to keep babbling about how much they were upset by the story. Like with them, Elfen Lied has a methodical style with ample amounts of neat visual storytelling (much of which I didn't catch myself until other reviews and the like pointed it out), it's a style I like but more importantly it's in my view that had the director not gone the route he did, Elfen Lied could be an even bigger mess. That's not to throw flack at a Manga I haven't read past a surface level but rather to say that a far less cohesive narrative and presentation, one which would of essentially served as little more then an advert for the manga could easily of been the result here, like we far too often see for many other shows now-a-days. For all this and against all my grievances with the show, directing is maybe the one place where it shines brightest and it deserves the appropriate praise for that fact. Story and Character - Thus far one migth think I've done little more then praise the property and indeed if my initial trio of points were all I had to say, then a 7 or 8 out of ten could easily be on the table, unfortunately like most good scoring systems I work on the principal that the production values make up between a half and a third of the overall score (always maintain flexibility when judging art of course) with the rest dedicated to the plot, it's inhabitants and enjoyment. The narrative of Elfen Lied is very.. - anime. It's heavily indictive of the tropes that abounded in the decade following Evangellion's massive popularity boom and even seems to take some influence from the likes of 'Akira' and 'Ghost in the Shell' and reportedly the author's biggest inspiration of 'Love Hina', sadly it doesn't take enough to even be a passable shadow of any of those four titles. Will delve more post the spoiler tag but Elfen lied is a story that throws everything the author can at the board but then goes no further. Sure it has a sufferer of sexual abuse, a girl with incestual feelings, many girls (lots of girls, very few boys...) who've been physically abused and experimented on, psychopathic murders etc but it doesn't actually do or say anything with these such topics. If you've read anything else by me you've probably picked up that I'm a big advocate that stories should be allowed to be about whatever they want as long as they are respectful. The anime 'Super Lovers' has a primary relationship between a minor and an adult but it always makes sure to highlight how that relationship is abnormal and immoral, while also exploring why exactly any minor would like an adult and vice verse. It doesn't go majorly in-depth or anything because ultimately it's a slice of life show about opening a café but the point is it both acknowledges the severity of it's characters choices and is respectful/balanced of it - that's coming from what I'd not even call a good example of what I'm referring to. Elfen Lied however just presents stuff as fetish troops, for example Yuka who is sort of a protagonist, is in love with Kouta and despite knowing he had a traumatic childhood, still grows violently jealous when he so much as talks to other girls, yet that relationship dynamic is never explored or resolved, we never actually get a reason for why Yuka likes Kouta, not even a classic anime 'he saved her from some bullies' kind of deal, she just likes him and that's that. It's her entire character, no arc, no learning to move past or embrace her incestual feelings, just sibling/cousins fanservice. You may think I'm already honing in on characters at this point but really as this is a character driven story, the plot itself generally plays second fiddle to the players with the exception of the first episode (returning briefly for the last episode kind of) and is just a bit bland. It's a story that desperately requires it's themes to be enacted on, seeing as it's premise is about the human trait of discrimination against anything we don't understand and so without being able to follow through on such lofty themes it falls flat entirely. Aside from this most major issue there is a prevailing theme of contrivances, these are the sort of problems that within a good show one would call nit-picks but they are so frequent in Elfen Lied that the plot often seems to be constructed from a series of astronomical coincidences taped together. In maybe the best of these {Minor Spoiler I Guess?}; Kouta and Yuka in the one and only sequence in the entire anime where they actually go to collage, just so happen to decide to bring Nyuu - a girl Kouta knows the police and maybe even army are after, whom can't speak more then a handful of words, has an affliction for repeatedly groping strange women, a bad track record with toilet usage, a short attention span and distinctive horns plus bright pink hair donning her head - to class with them and it just to top it off, it happens that a professor who only teaches a couple of their classes and whom we know probably skips alot of lectures to focus on his research or just be lazy, happens to be there and he in turn just so happens to be the son of the head director of the research lab that held Nyuu/Lucy captive at the stories onset.{Minor Spoiler End} That's not even all of it but to go further really would be pushing the spoiler envelope, the point is the whole entire story is like this. A good writer will periodically be forced to learn on a coincidence and the premise of most stories is contrived to a degree (what if Amuro got in the Gundam and it hadn't been charged? Goodbye 40+ years of real robot anime), yet in Elfen Lied's case its more like every plot development depends desperately on these choices just to function, choices which force you to believe that not only are the characters involved mind-bogglingly lucky/stupid/brain dead/etc but that the world at large has it out to get them. It's cheap and very poor writing, which with good characters could be saved to a degree but... Speaking of characters they arguably fail even more then the story itself. Because the plot is so riddled with contrivances and coincidence the characters are simply used as needed in any given scene. More like toys in a box then people and yet then there's Lucy. When people say 'X character deserved a better story' it tends to ruffle my radar a bit because to me a good character can't exist in a complete write off of a story, so then what's the deal with Lucy? Loved deeply by many she is definitely the most compellingly written but that still isn't saying much, her psychopathic tendency turns on and off like a switch, which could be a direct commentary on mental illness but I struggle to give it that much credit, rather while she does deserve a badge or something for being one of the two actual characters in the story, she's still a muddled and confused mess of great concepts and relatability but incredibly poor execution. Director Kurama is the other 'character' of the story, his arc is generic and predictable at every turn but in a way that's ok, while he could of been an infinitely more interesting character if a single one of his threads were properly explored with depth, he does reach a passable standard. Every one else however, including our de-facto protagonist Kouta, is bland and emotionless - a real disappointment to watch as they continually make choices that steer the story away from a more though-out landing. Spoiler Free Conclusion - It takes a special kind of pretensions to tell fans of a show that their purely nostalgic or that they were little more then kids when they enjoyed a property and far be it for me to be one of those such people. After watching Elfen Lied and while reading and seeking analysis and reviews for why people loved the show so much, I was acutely aware that Elfen lied isn't for me - For one thing I'm a white guy in a peace loving country that doesn't so much as have earthquakes or tornados on an anywhere near regular basis, my sexuality has never been something I've been persecuted for, nor has my gender or race ever caused me grief but in a way it's more then that. I always find when an Ani-Tuber reviews something and says "It's ok if you like it but-" it can come off as contrived more often then not, rather I prefer, if I can, to try and at-least partially understand why someone likes a piece of media and to me with Elfen Lied it isn't definitive things that make this show. The generally above average production values aren't the main source of the love but rather it's more the ideas. I don't think young people latch on to these characters because they dream of being abused or living out some weird as fu*k fantasy harem thing, neither do I think they come for the empowerment of minorities(cause that sure as heck ain't here past a very surface level), no the subjective reason people usually love this show is far more complex then that, much like humans and in a weird way that's sort of the point of Elfen Lied...well sort of. It's kind of the property's biggest boon and hurdle, it clearly fails to say anything of substance about discrimination and those adolescent feelings of alienation in modern society but despite failing to succeed, it does still appeal to those same minorities. It's not so much an age of your audience thing as it is about the fact that sometimes you need something to latch on to, to see yourself in, so accidental or not that has to count for something. So weather you should or shouldn't watch Elfen Lied is actually something of a tricky question, I don't think this deserves to be counted among the other classic anime, nor should it be on everyone's to do list and I don't personally feel I missed out on much by pushing this one off for so long, moreover later into this essay I'll be giving suggestion for other anime that people who like Elfen Lied should also check out, shows that touch on similar feelings, emotions and topics but actually go the full distance and try to speak to their audience in meaningful ways, rather then just abusing their insecurities to push more DvD's, so if anything I think the show should long of been relegated to the dust-bin of obscurity- And yet if your having a hard time, maybe being bullied or just feelings unhappy in your own skin, then I can't with clear conscious say you won't get something from this, in which case you should definitely give it a try, but after make your way back here and hopefully I or others can suggest something a little more meaningful once you've had your fill of cathartic blood and guts. Spoiler Ahoy - "Be Your Girl"; Now that we have the niceties out of the way I would like to keep things quiet brief and move straight into my prior mentioned recommendation for more suitable anime however I'd be remiss and arguably disrespectful if I didn't first delve into a little more detail on what the problems with the show's narrative and characters are. As my title implies alot of Elfen Lied's issue can be derived back to it's bizarre harem elements, problems such as it's complete lack of any real goal, it's abhorrent treatment of women and it's manipulative fetishization of the female gender. Like I already stated I'm not personally offended or anything by alot of these 'choices' but rather it strikes me as incredibly wrong, on behave of groups of people who most certainly didn't ask for my opinion. We'll go through in terms of severity, first off we have Yuka, her 'hang-up' is an incestuous crush on her collage aged cousin and male lead character Kouta whom she hasn't seen for some years. Putting aside some fairly egregious 'anime-isms' like how Yuka is still in love with a guy she hasn't seen since they were children for seemingly no reason what-so-ever, the story doesn't actually intend to do anything with Yuka. What I mean by this is that while some may relate to her struggle of forbidden love, that's all it is, a label. There's nothing deeper here as eventually the two kiss and then it's borderline never mentioned again. No exploration of how much it must hurt to suppress her feelings past a couple cuts of her looking forlorn, no introspection or hesitation on the part of Kouta when she makes her advances and no resolution or helpful message to the arc at all. Yuka's example is the least immoral in that it is just a minor romance sub-plot, all the other girls however suffer the exact same issues as Yuka but are afflicted with far more serious problems to overcome(not that Yuka's isn't but were speaking relatively here). So second we have Nana which with my master level understanding of the Japanese language I can tell you means '7'. Nana has been abused presumably since birth, being subjected to all forms of incredibly dubious torture because of how she was born and in spite of the fact that she's never shown any aggression towards humanity. This premise alone is alot but as the story progresses the problems develop further. For one thing Nana thought once showing signs of having a darker side, seems to be in control of her powers and therefore proves that the Diclonius are not inherently evil by birth, except no one ever addresses this, like ever. Instead it's just talked about as if she's an anomaly, playing a long game or a ticking time bomb. Now don't get me wrong, I can believe to a degree that the institution migth believe this but what about Director Kurama? Surely knowing Nana is a good person should affect him more and make him want to reach out to his daughter or try different methods of recovery for Lucy? And about Lucy, the story is rife with potential for her and Nana to properly debate their viewpoints, for Nana to show Lucy how she can change or go the darker route of having Lucy force Nana too acknowledge that she too is hard wired to kill but they just don't bother. The Ova to it's credit actually does sort of try to reconcile this by having us see Nana come to realise that if she isn't evil, then by proxy Lucy's alter persona of Nyuu could be genuinely good as well and that furthermore Lucy is still a person but that's all in the Ova and even then it's not exactly done well, plus the Ova is maybe the best example of the final cross Nana's character has to bear - Let's make continual and repeated jokes about the disabled!(?). Yes indeed during the anime and Ova entire scenes are dedicated not just to showing how unaccustomed to average life Nana is but also to making her artificial limbs the butt of every second joke, I'm sure it's not meant to be but I can't help but find it sickening how many of these there is. Now jokes like this can be done in good taste and good faith but these feel purely for a cheap laugh. What's more important though is how the story seems to completely forget itself. Nana almost immediately learns to use her limbs and other then a run in with a cruel crepe man, she gets used to civilian life pretty fast but in truth shouldn't Nana falling through doors and tripping up on her unusual limbs be tragic? Shouldn't it be there to emphasis the cruelty discrimination has lead to when a truly innocent girl is maimed beyond belief before being rejected for her lack of societal knowledge all after being tossed out like garbage?(Don't get me started on how they use a fake out death for her on three separate god darn occasions) Nana is just so insincerely portraited, in any given scene she'll get brutally beaten to a pulp or in one mind boggling scene repeated flung off a bridge onto concrete, only to be back on her feet a few moments/minutes(maybe?) later(It's another of those nit-picks but the Diclonius are physically speaking still human to the best of my knowledge which makes all the battles involving two or more of them bizarre as the likes of 27 should of been able to decapitate Lucy with a strong strike once the battle got difficult and she got bored of playing but I digress once more), yet in the next scene her genuine disabilities and inexperience will be played for cheap laughs and 'opps I'm a cluts' moments. With respect to any Nana fans it's straight up disgusting and she isn't even the worst of it. Lucy herself has many of the same struggles to face, although she does posses all her own limbs, so that's something I guess(??). Like Nana she been unfathomably abused physically while also going through a monumental amount of mental trauma, from dog beatings to split personalities, simple isolation and guilt ridden grief, she's had it rough. How does the story handle this? It has her revert to a child, nay cat like state of mind in which she remains in every non-action scene. This other state is one she actually hints at being in control over and doesn't appear to be related to the bandage persona that she sees in her mind during her flashbacks which accompanied the awakening process of her powers. Ok, so she's had it so tough that she has a child like defence mechanism, fair enough - except they then procced to threat Nyuu like some form of a joke. Much like how Nana's disability is just a comedy skit, Nyuu is an oddly perverted excuse to have Lucy grope the other girls, piss herself, need male assistance in garment changing and to keep the plot on hold until the writers finally decided to inform Kouta of the world's goings on. There's no commentary on Bipolar syndrome here nor is Lucy's suffering ever given any real thought. It ain't nuanced that we never get a clear answer as to weather she's a good or bad person but rather it's just lazy writing. Do you sympathise with Lucy? Can you understand her feelings of wanting to run away or destroy the whole world on a tough Monday morning or anxious Sunday evening? Well then I totally understand that but she is not your hero, the property is not trying to give you a kindly pat on the shoulder, instead it takes your feelings, condenses them into an anime waifu and then creates poor Nyuu to allow the harem elements to 'flourish'. That's all this is, there is nothing deeper to Lucy, well not exactly. Like I said in my earlier character section their is alot going on with Lucy and some of it is even good but ultimately if you tape the empty DvD boxes of your three favourite anime together, yes you now have three great boxes combined, but you can't open any of them, the artwork of the middle one is obscured and the discs aren't inside any which way, there no substance, its literally hollow. We will loop back to Lucy momentarily as I do want to stress that I don't think it's all as 'evil' as I maybe make it sound, I think the writer really did put some genuine experience and personal emotions into this story, however I think he struggled to decided weather to be a harem writer or a phycological thriller author, neither of which he seems to of been experienced enough to tackle. Finally we have poor, poor, sweat Mayu. Why is Mayu in this show? If your feeling generous you could credibly say they use her to demonstrate how humans will be cruel even to their own kind, their own kin in fact and I believe that is the narrative intention - but how does Mayu function? As a generic imutocon character. This would be fine, well as fine as it ever is in any other anime, no the problem is that Mayu isn't a normal little sister character. Mayu's story is one of the bleakest in all of anime and yet its glossed over and handled with as little tact as I think humanly possible. Lets quickly review her situation in her particular focus episode shall we? After her initial encounters with the all-star gang and Bando the Bandit she flees the hotel/house/Inn/Pimp-Layer due to not wanting to impose on Yuka and Kouta (presumably this is a decision informed by the fact she believes she really was the cause of her mother and father's cruelty towards her and that she really feels she is a nuisance, which is obviously a relatable thread for many viewers), she heads for her usual beach where the owner of her little dog appears, reclaims said dog and then proceeds to berate the little homeless girl for being unhygienic. Following this Mayu alone in her shelter is suddenly accosted by the police who tell her she's been reported for sleeping on/infringing private property, she attempts to flee not wanting to be sent back home and is now forced into a howling gale of a storm. It bears mentioning that during all this we learn her history of being sexually abused by her step father (which the show makes sure to use as an opportunity for as many nudity shots as possible) against her will and which her mother blamed her for. To summarise, Mayu runs away from home after being rap*d by her Step-Father and blamed by her birth mother, then has her small loyal dog taken away for seemingly forever, is kicked out of her shelter by the police with the fear of getting sent home to do the literal ra*ist, into the lashing rain (she also isn't wearing trousers at this point) and to top it all off guess what day it is....Her Friggin Fourteenth Birthday FFS. I just, I, I- i just cant even. You migth be asking what all this depravity is in aid of and to be blunt all that happens is Kouta shields Mayu from the police and somehow(And this takes some real jumps of faith) adopts Mayu and enters her back into school in about the space of maybe a weak, all so that he can look like histories greatest non-fantasy White-Knight. Do Kouta and Yuka have to battle to get the adoption rights or get Mayu reenlisted in school? Of course not, not so much as a single scene with her teacher or principal is shown. Does Mayu have frequent trauma that she has to work through, maybe see a doctor or have her talk in a nice quiet moment with Yuka to show there strengthening Familial bond? Nope. No instead she immediately recovers and becomes a normal highschool girl, the friggin dog even comes back. There's no like quest to get her literal sex offending paedophile step-father incarcerated (and I'd be fine with that if Mayu stressed that she doesn't want to go through that but the problem is more that it's just never even addressed) but further they go as far as to have Mayu get groped and other harem shenanigan moments by Nyuu, activities which should be horrific for the poor child but are played for laughs. Theirs no message about seeking help when your in such a situation, the found family angle is convenient at best and ultimately none of it matters. All that happens just because. The exact same message about how humans can be terrible to one another could of been conveyed just as well with shots of Mayu's abuse that obscured her 12 - 13 year old cleavage. The fact she ran away mid attack easily would be shone by her not having shoes and socks, rather then making ridiculous pants lacking jokes, etc. Mayu is the way she is because its more, more...I'm not even entirely sure what word suits better then mis-guided. The really sad thing is, inadvertently or otherwise, what Mayu's arc and pretty much all the characters really say is life will get worse and worse and worse, until a dense but kindly man on white stallion comes down form his perch in the heavens to save you, at which point all your trauma will vanish, your incredibly cruel parents will just hand you over, your school reaccept you without need to worry about having fallen behind or being bullied or any such similar issues, your dog return and not even a lingering memory of the dark times remain. In that there may be a nice message about how things can always get better - sure - but it's just so crooked and dependant on unrealistic expectations that I don't really think someone who feels useless and unloved like Mayu needs to hear. And that's sort of the point, from what I've heard and read, neither the original writer of the manga nor the director and screenplay writer for the anime are intentionally bad people, I don't think either is going out of their way to be offensive or to manipulate these atrocious circumstances for the finical gain of a few (or even alot) extra DvD or magazine sales. I really do think there's a piece of the author tucked in here, he worked a job he didn't really want and only got round to his manga writing dreams quite far into his formative life, so it's no surprize he tries to channel some of that into his work, tries admirably to extrapolate his perception of society into relatable characters, the thing is I don't think he knew how to do so. Of course I wouldn't claim to be able to either but from all I can tell he didn't go out of his way to research the mental and physical illness's the characters suffer from or the likes of how hard it can be to adapt to the artificial limbs of Bando and Nana, nor did he do like the writer of Full Metal Alchemist and go in search of a real understanding of the likes of racism and discrimination, and to a degree that's ok, it can allow an artist to express their personal experience in a raw and honest way, unfortunately however his aspirations out-weight his ability. He doesn't just want to write of his struggle with the cruelty of society in an almost nihilistic self-made setting Eva style, he also wants to do a soft-core porn harem - inspired by Love Hina(his supposed main inspiration) and a phycological 'thing' and have secret societies and a big ol' war and a found family and and and. It's all just too much, it all contradicts itself constantly and the problem with that becomes that while he's focused on the harem and sci-fi, it result in the incredibly troubled young women of his story, who he doesn't have the breath of experience to write adequately in the first place, to be debased into comedy and fanservice troops. It may not be intentional but it's undeniably true that the group who've traditionally loved this franchise the most are being exploited and that's deeply unsettling. it goes as far as to sometimes feel like a fanfiction OC writer due to some terrible admin error got given an official publishing deal, in fact that's probably the best way to describe the property as a whole, no offence (I really mean that) intended. I really want to stress that I'm by no means implying the feelings and emotional breath people have found and put back into Elfen Lied are invalid but simply that it strikes me that in reality that degree of- Of raw feelings that the author did try to originally channel did in it's weird way make it through, that his struggle to be accepted as a man of somewhat peculiar tastes and goals in life, that his disposition with the whole world is what reached out and resonated, still resonates with younger people to this day, rather then any actual good message or quality writing, I think it's this feeling that the director of the show tried so hard to capture even at the cost of any objective sensibilities and so in the weirdest of ways, this is still art, true expression-filled art. Light at the End of the Tunnel - Whelp this is my second review in a row that was meant to be sub 3000 words, oops. As mentioned before we wrap up I want to try and be constructive for a moment and suggest some other properties that migth sate your need for connection or understanding, while actually caring about you and you feelings. I'll try keep these spoiler free and varied in terms of genre so understand if for the likes of Shuffle, Eva and Ryvious I refrain from actually specifying the conditions the characters are battling with. Additionally it's worth mentioning that during my internet travels I found 'Hazel's' video titled "Why Did We Like Elfen Lied?" which is by far the most comprehensive look at all aspect of the show, manga and general production available and all from the perspective of someone who was actually A part of/there during the Elfen Lied Western Boom, she seems to me at-least, to be the perfect person to give a balanced and personal account, aswell as deep dive of this anime and does so wonderfully, my only gripe being where she said (unless I misunderstood) she'd watched only the final episode of School Days and had from that decided it was irrelevant because we don't need deconstructive harems or some such? Bad and remarkably shallow take coming from someone of her calibre but the other 2+ hours are really brilliant and if you've read down this far of my essay, you owe it to yourself to check out hers. Now then (Please Note; I may add more to this list in the future, feel free to hit me up with shows you personally found affected you like Elfen Lied without belittling your life struggles); First let's quickly get Eva out of the way seeing as I've already mentioned it. Like Elfen Lied it has a sometimes suffocatingly dark world view, it's post apocalyptic with a second apocalypse seemingly imminent and a whole cast of corrupt, morally bankrupt or just broken people. I've seen many dislike it because they found it too human or depressing but the reason I'd steer Elfen Lied fans that why is not because of the fact that it properly breaks down the horrors of its cast's lives one by one or that it succeeds in expressing the authors own battles with serious long standing mental illness and conveying a very personal message to so many of it's audience over the years but rather because beneath it all, the memes, the on-coming end of the world, the Machiavellian scheming of Seelie, Neon Genesis Evangellion is hopeful of a brighter tomorrow and a happy outlook for its protagonists, it's world and most importantly for us as the viewer, that's what its really about as I see it and hopefully you can too. Next we have Soul Eater (told you I'd jump around the genres). Soul Eater seldom gets any credit for having an actual strong female protagonist who is near never sexualised and doesn't need to relie on a man to save her. Further it deals in wonderfully delicate manner with the likes of sexuality, elements of transgenderism and parental abuse to a level of subtlety Elfen lied can only ever dream of. Further as someone who loves both the anime and the manga, the original ending is not a problem, it's in keeping with the tone and being brutally honest I've seen what the moon looks like and I'd argue the anime is actually more in line with the build up then the manga is in a sense, so don't let any of that stop you from watching it and its brilliant production values. If a badass lead like Lucy is what draws you to Elfen Lied, then Maka should suit you even better. Thanks to Hazel I finally stopped putting Gunslinger Girl off and I'm really glad of that, 4 episodes in and it's really interesting but for our current discussion I would posit that's it's relevant in that it's everything a more focused version of Elfen lied would be, from the tone and girl's forced into combat for all their lives, to even the art with it's more toned down backgrounds far better melds with the foreground of it's characters then Ellen Lied's aforementioned mismatched artsyle ever did. I can't give my full recommendation for it yet but it's worth a go for sure thus far. Interestingly I think alot of young people may find the likes of Re;Zero a good substitute for Elfen Lied, as it's careful dealings with isolation and the perceived responsibilities society places on us are really well done and may be helpful for other young people caught up in the grips of discerning how best to live their lives as they enter adulthood, season 2 has an especial focus on that relationship when it comes to asking what our parents really want of us, while I wrote about the expectations and reality elements of season 1 in it's own review. Infinite Ryvious is a favourite of mine (and is criminally under-watched in the West, despite having a decent dub), in connection to Elfen Lied it presents a cast of characters whom we get to see go through hardships and then watch how they cope with these situations in a nuanced and carefully orchestrated manor. It's exploration of adolescence, bullying, social systems and just plainly the pains of growing up is all masterfully done and well worth a watch even outside of our current context. As I said to another Mal user recently "It's like Lord of the Flies in Space....but with a gun, a mech, a super interesting space-ship...and women". Meanwhile Shuffle is maybe one of the most acute comparisons one could make to Elfen lied. It's got almost all the same elements, including Sci-Fi-esk magic, a found family unit, mental and physical illness, magic lollies etc however it truly cares about these topics and threats them with the respect they deserve, further careful efforts are made so that it isn't always the protagonist on a white horse that safes the girls, rather they often have to work through struggles themselves or help out one another. It's a far more encouraging story with a much better view of illness's then Elfen lied and a good pick if you want to see such things represented in your anime but still thought a more light-hearted harem-fantasy lens. It explores all avenues without turning characters into tropes or mocking their disabilities and deserves a whole lot more praise for that fact. Closing Thoughts; And with that we come to a close, this is definitely one of my most scattered reviews/essays (I rather hope this isn't the first piece of mine that you read) however that is in large part because Elfen Lied is so unique to talk about. An offensively badly written, childishly naïve and sexistly cruel story and characters accompanied by an only above average production that can far from save the mess or ideas and high concepts it's working with- should by all rights be a total write off and yet it most certainly isn't, so while again I'd reiterate that if you are struggling you should see Elfen Lied as little more then a comfort tool and either seek real help (and I wish you all the best if you do) or watch more caring and considerate media, I'd be a complete fool to reject just how, well, important Elfen Lied is and for that it deserve fair and honest discussion. My apologies again if this review is a little untoward in places and I wish you all the best in whatever you may be endeavouring to struggle with. If any of this made any sense then make sure to check out Hazel's much better video on the subject and to hit the little 'helpful' button here to boast my frail ego(set phone browsers to desktop mode) and without any further ado, I hope you enjoyed, Thanks for Reading.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
What did you think of this review?
Nice
0
Love it
0
Funny
0
Confusing
0
Informative
0
Well-written
0
Creative
0Show all |