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Feb 9, 2023
Great source material. However, as with S1 (and with the notable exception of the powerful, 10/10 S1E1), this is largely speaking a painfully mediocre, probably-should've-been-given-more-budget-and-better-direction anime.
With great direction, a much higher budget, and a better studio, this could've easily been one of the all time greats. As is, it's been held down, since S1E2, by largely mediocre and lackluster direction and animation that clearly just didn't have the resources and time needed to pull this off properly. It's still not the worst adaptation in the world, by any stretch of the imagination, but this approach does largely take 9-10/10 material and render it into something
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more... 5-6 ish.
That said, there are some notable challenges for this season in particular. Fumetsu no Anata e has many arcs, and many, if not all of them have a tendency to start very slowly. I think that many would argue that Tonari in S1 started her arc as a very unlikable character, with character growth, and the same is true tenfold with Bon and the seemingly wacky and out-of-left-field switch in tone in S2.
I will say that as a manga reader that there is NO arc in Fumetsu no Anata e, so far, that has failed to deliver in creating excellent characters and, for that matter, explorations / ruminations on the meaning of human life, but getting there can be a bit of a challenge. And it's perfectly understandable if most anime watchers (and for that matter manga readers) might feel that the buildup for this (and all other) arcs might feel a bit weak.
The other challenge is that the anime is, clearly, attempting to adapt all of the rest of this arc into a 2 cour S2. This is possible, maybe, but doing it that way will likely make the finale feel rushed (as arguably happened w/ Janada in S1), and I think I'd argue that the animators didn't really have the resources to do that justice then, and they REALLY don't have the resources to animate the finale of this season (and pt 1) well.
(note: an ideal adaptation would probably look like having eg. Mappa, Wit, or Ufotable produce this, and could put the climax of this arc into a movie with a higher, dedicated budget)
Overall, I really don't want to undersell the hard work that everyone working on this has put in, but it's a shame we didn't get an adaptation w/ a better resourced studio and/or more money, and far better episode directors, behind it. Even then doing a proper adaptation of Fumetsu would be very, very difficult, and the finances (as this is basically a manga promotion) would probably not make sense (ergo this cheaper adaptation), but it's still a bit of a shame given that the manga is truly a work of art, and this is... honestly just a mediocre to somewhat competent (and sometimes incompetent) adaptation of that, more or less.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 9, 2023
Godawful adaptation. The original game is great, and a borderline masterpiece from an art direction and character writing standpoint. Go play / watch that instead.
Issues with the anime, in a nutshell:
[*] butchers the art style; Alicia in particular looks very off model
[*] utterly butchers the original characters and overall writing / tone – the original actually felt like a bunch of anime-ish young people that ended up in fantasy WW2; this does not, and undersells the qualifications and training that Welkin et al had to, probably, make this feel more like a "relatable" shinji-fell-in-a-robot type story to young japanese people
[*] turns Alicia into a tsundere,
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and butchers most of her original characterization
[*] reportedly (note: I haven't actually seen this, but according to other reviews) completely glosses / omits over some of the critical darksens + empire / nazi germany scenes from the game. There were only a few of these scenes in the game, and was pretty subtle, but was one of the better depictions from the perspective of a frontline soldier of a holocaust-analogue (and "work in progress") in popular fiction. Absolutely shameful, but then again not surprising, that they would remove most of that here.
[*] if the original was anime-ish, THIS anime is chock-full of the absolute worst anime tropes (eg. "fanservice"), and is an awful desecration / "reinterpretation" of the original source material: even if most of the major plot points are similar, they're not necessarily executed well, and the character and writing improvements are very specific and are NOT an improvement. If there's anything in particular that could be said is often wrong with modern anime as a medium (and target audience, specifically) this is it, in a nutshell
[*] A1 is capable of great work, so they have no excuse whatsoever (although judging this in the light of later, excellent works, like 86, might be a bit unfair)
Overall, avoid. This is hardly the worst anime ever made, to be clear (and clearly, probably, took quite a bit of work to actually make) – but it's an awful handling / reinterpretation of the original source material, and it'd be an utter shame if anyone saw this first and got an awful (or at least mediocre) impression of the source material as such.
If you want a (great) experience of this, go pick it up and play the original game off steam instead.
The fact that the original game basically flopped in Japan (probably in large part because the game is very western-focused, and japanese audiences seem to apparently not be interested in a band-of-brothers style story about fantasy WW2), is basically why we can't have nice things. This anime, and for that matter valkyria 2 / 3, is as much a part of the problem here as anything else.
(though if you want a great anime to watch, also made by A1, see 86 – it's a much darker take on a similar-ish WW2-inspired premise (with a romance subplot), and I'd be VERY surprised if the author wasn't at least partially inspired / influenced by the Valkyria Chronicles game, among other things)
[3/10] Overall
[4/10] Art + animation (points deducted for off model character designs, specifically Alicia and the fact that Isara has stupidly large anime eyes for some reason in this – and the fact that all tanks here seem to die in a single shot, and the Eidelweiss is portrayed as a super-tank (which it is not), and has utterly ridiculous handling + speed in the anime for a tank that size / weight (again, portrayed perfectly fine in the video game))
[3/10] Music + sound design (almost exclusively uses game soundtracks, and doesn't necessarily use / edit them well; decently good OP)
[0/10] Writing (I don't care if this anime "expands" on the original's world building; the anime's take on many if not all of the game's characters is utter dogshit, to say the least, and the plot / story changes don't improve the original's (barebones) writing, at all)
Addendum: the original game has a FANTASTIC english voice cast, and should put a lie to the idea that anime can't have good / great dubs as well, if funded (and directed, and integrated + planned for) appropriately. The anime obviously is japanese only (and uses the same cast as the game), but I would actually argue that that's to its detriment, since the english VAs actually had a much better and more nuanced take on the original characters, imo
Overall, very late take on an old anime + game, but that's my 2c
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Dec 20, 2020
Promising new post-apocalyptic manga w/ only 3 chapters out so far.
Feels like a mashup of yokohama shopping trip, girl's last tour, and kino's journey, plus some cyberpunk / military sci-fi elements that seem pulled out of / heavily inspired by ghost in the shell.
It's probably not the most original manga in the world, but it's pulling inspiration from the right places, and if you're a fan of yokohama and/or kino's journey you would probably enjoy this.
So far, the setting and world building are well executed, the duo of characters are pretty well developed and believable, and one (or both?) are heavily hinted to be cyborgs.
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This last point is key because, like in yokohama, the possibility that the main characters might -not- be at least fully human has the potential to shift the themes and narrative from something that's more existentially nihilistic and depressing (like girl's last tour), to a reflection on impermanence and the meaning of life. The literal end of the world *happened* in World's End Touring, but it happened decades ago, and we get to watch the aftermath through the eyes of two girls who just want to see what the world looked like, (possible) deadly radiation and literal post-apocalypse be-damned.
The art is excellent, particularly for a manga that has only just started, and is pretty enjoyable, albeit short, given that it obviously hasn't had that many chapters released thus far (and seems to be on a monthly release schedule, which is good, b/c the best manga usually are).
7-8/10 so far, with the potential for a higher (or lower) score depending on where the manga goes in the future, and on how well it continues to hold up to these other works, but so far it's in pretty good company :)
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 6, 2019
I usually don't write reviews, but I felt compelled to write one about this out of principle.
Kuutei Dragons is a not very well disguised fantasy / glamorization of whaling ships, with "dragons" (these dragons have, uh, tentacles?) as fantasy whales that the crew of an airship hunts and butchers for meat and oil (ie. cooking and lamp fuel, etc – again, this manga isn't exactly subtle). Given that Japan is one of the few nations that still practices illegal whaling (and dolphin hunting), I found this pretty distasteful.
The art is pretty good. The story and characters aren't really anything to write home about. You could
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compare this to dungeon meshi as they're both fantasy manga about (more or less) cooking, but that would be a bit of an insult to dungeon meshi, as they're not really alike at anything more than a surface level.
Personally, I got negative enjoyment out of reading this, and have blacklisted both the author and the guy who recommended this to me. I'd be a bit more open minded about this if japan wasn't still actively whaling (typically under the defense of "scientific" research), and home to people who apparently think this is still okay. The crew of these ships still hunt whales (sorry, dragons) because they are "delicious", despite the fact that few people still do this anymore and this is considered a bit old fashioned (or, you know, illegal, and considered an unethical, barbaric practice in most of the world). Most of the manga is focused on different ways to cook dragons, and the MC's sole defining character trait seems to be that he wants to kill and eat dragons. Overall, this seemed a bit on the nose, and seemed uncomfortably close to pro-japanese-whaling propaganda considering the audience.
Read if you'd be interested in reading a manga about the crew of a fantasy whaling airship, and aren't bothered by the ethical considerations of that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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