Month: September 2020

Posted on in anime, Manga, The Manga Shelf

The Manga Shelf: The Morbid Optimism of SUICIDE GIRL

Content Warning: This article contains art that depicts, and frank discussion of, suicide and self-harm. Reader discretion is advised.

The Manga Shelf is a column where I go over whatever I’ve been reading recently in the world of manga. Ongoing or complete, good or bad. 

“Monsters of the dark mind–Disappear!”

One of my original goals in starting the “Manga Shelf” sub-column was to shine a spotlight on stuff where my opinion may not’ve been totally settled, but I did definitely think it was at least interesting enough to be paying attention to. And today, we have something that fits the bill perfectly, and with one hell of a high concept. Suicide Girl, to not bury the lede, is a manga about a depressed magical girl who is conscripted by the owner of a mysterious café to combat and hopefully rid the world of “suicide demons” called Phobias, which cause people to kill themselves.

As far as elevator pitches go, it’s both wild and initially quite offputting. I’ve never been shy about being a skeptic of the whole “dark magical girl” movement. Even if in recent months (and hell, days) I’ve come around somewhat. Add to that the understandably extremely touchy issue of suicide and the manga’s irreverent, sometimes jokey tone, and Suicide Girl really feels like it should be a complete disaster.

However, while it’s too early to definitively say that Suicide Girl is a total success or anything like that (only five chapters are available in English at the time of this writing), it does feel, strangely enough, like it actually does have its heart in the right place.

To explain, first some brief recapping: our lead is Kirari Aokigahara (named after the suicide forest, yes). She meets the aforementioned mysterious café-owner while attempting to kill herself. The man foils her attempt (it’s complicated), and senses within her the power to fight the Phobia. She has a vision of, and is sent to, the site of a suicide-to-be. There, she seemingly talks the would-be victim out of her mistake, only for her to suddenly fling herself onto the tracks anyway. So far, so edgy.

It’s in the second chapter, where we get a bit of Kirari’s backstory, that Suicide Girl started to pick at the heavy coat of skepticism I’d built up from reading too many seinen manga in my day. And where, I suspect, it’ll do the same for others. The gist is simple: Kirari had a fiancé once. She doesn’t anymore. Adding to the weight of her retelling is the art; Suicide Girl‘s panel composition is something to behold.

The image of the looming silhouette of a building physically shunting Kirari’s flashbacks off to the side of the page, as though dominating her memories of the event, struck me. My initial (admittedly unfair) assumption had been that Suicide Girl was essentially a deliberately way-over-the-line gag manga. And while there is an element of that, this was the page that convinced me that it was trying to tell a meaningful story, too.

I don’t mean to sidetrack into my personal history too much. But while I’ve (thankfully) not struggled with physical self-harm in many years, suicidal thoughts have never entirely been gone from my mind. And I struggle with my self-worth every day. The externalization of suicidal ideation present in Suicide Girl–that is to say, the Phobias–initially struck me as crass. I generally hate it when stories try to pin real problems on supernatural causes. But ruminating on it, I had a different thought.

The chemical imbalances and societal factors that cause depression do have real scientific or sociological explanations. However, to those suffering from them, suicidal thoughts can certainly feel as arbitrary and loathsome as being possessed by a demon. It’s a thought I myself have had before, if not in so many words. In that light, what followed in that first story arc struck me as less frivolous and more, perhaps, as cathartic.

First: Kirari learns that she has not actually failed her mission quite yet. The death of a Phobia victim comes with a timer. If the Phobia itself can be defeated in time, time resets, and their victim returns to life unscathed.

So off she goes. In fighting the monster, she transforms for the first time. Again the art plays a big role in bolstering the manga on the whole. Her henshin sequence is striking, morbid, horrifying, and incredible.

Yes, she hangs herself to transform. What I might’ve otherwise considered to be a gross parody of a traditional transformation sequence strikes me as a lot more nuanced in the broader context of Suicide Girl. Kirari, finally understanding that her boyfriend’s suicide was not her fault (nor, indeed, his) rejects literal death as an escape and substitutes it with a metaphorical and transformative death of the old self.

It is also partly a parody of traditional magical girl-isms, of course. A nod to the famous “Precure leap” gag occurs just pages later.

It is worth noting that Kirari does not immediately and instantly turn her entire life outlook around. She still misses her departed boyfriend, and when she tries to go out and act like everything’s fine, she can’t. What a later chapter proposes is that if one can’t find happiness within the self, they can find it by helping others. An idea that is, for something as ostensibly edgy as Suicide Girl, an emotional thesis that is perhaps surprisingly mature, even optimistic. Add this to the catharsis mentioned earlier that just comes from seeing Kirari beat the living daylights out of physical manifestations of the worst parts of the human mind, and Suicide Girl seems less like it’s making fun of those with Brain Issues, or using us for storytelling fodder, and more like it’s actively rooting for us.

There’s another, even simpler, layer to all of this. Which is that Kirari also has another of my favorite traits in a magical girl; she’s kind of a huge badass. An almost dorkily-grimdark one? Yes, but tell me you don’t think dialogue like this is cool on at least some level.

The manga’s wild facial expressions could honestly fill an article of their own.

In general, Suicide Girl manages to pull-off an impressive tight-rope-walk between being grim almost but not quite to the point of corniness, genuinely pretty cool, and surprisingly sincere when and where it really counts.

Now, Kirari and the café owner’s stated goal of eliminating suicide from the world may be a little ambitious. (The café owner himself points out that Kirari was not possessed by a Phobia when they first met.) So time will tell how the manga handles that plot point. There are other wrinkles on the page, too. A second Suicide Girl (a burned-out idol named Manten) debuted in the current arc, and her philosophy is almost perfectly counter to Kirari’s, adding an interesting twist to things.

It’s hard to say if Suicide Girl will prove if it’s “earned” the right to its doubtlessly controversial subject matter or not. It is, of course, entirely possible I’m simply wildly misreading the whole thing and it actually just is supposed to take the piss, but there’s worse sins one can commit as a commentator than giving something too much credit.

And, of course, as much as I’ve found watching Kirari pummel literal emotional demons to be cathartic and even oddly liberating, not everyone is going to take it that way. It must be emphasized that that’s perfectly fine; people deal with things in different ways.

But for me at least, many of my favorite magical girl stories are, ultimately, feminine power fantasies. Stories where empathy, love, and hope do always win out over evil in the end. Time will tell if Suicide Girl follows suit, but at the moment, it certainly seems to be headed down that road. It’s just taking a darker side-path than most.

If you like my work, consider following me on Twitter, supporting me on Ko-Fi, or checking out my other anime-related work on Anilist or for The Geek Girl Authority.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Weekly Writing Roundups

Weekly Writing Roundup – 9/28/20

Welp! It’s the middle of the night after another light week, but here we are. I hope you’re all doing okay out there. I don’t have much else to lead off with, so let’s get into things.

The Geek Girl Authority

THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL Recap (S1E12): FOX/GOD – I have actually completely finished the show (screeners!) as of the time of this writing. It’s still not really what I’d call a great anime, but the last two episodes are fun in how whole-hog they go on being As Shonen As Possible.

DECA-DENCE Recap (S1E11-12): “Engine” / “Decadence” – While Deca-Dence is not my anime of the year or anything like that (it’s been a pretty strong year, anime-wise, if nothing else) I’m really glad I watched it. It didn’t do everything perfectly and there are some changes I’d have made in an ideal world, but overall this is a really good little show and I hope people remember it.

Magic Planet Anime

(REVIEW): The Cat’s Out of The Bag: MAO MAO: HEROES OF PURE HEART – Here’s something rather rare, a review of an American cartoon! This was a commission so I wouldn’t expect it to become the norm (it kind of goes against this blog’s name, although I guess you could argue I’m using “anime” in the original Japanese sense, but that’s silly.) That said: I liked the series, it has a couple major problems preventing me from loving it, but it’s solid and I hope the forthcoming second season expands on its slightly more serious elements a little more.

Twitter “Live Watches”

Sailor Moon – We met Rei this week! Not sure how I felt about the Ikuhara episode, interestingly enough, but I loved her introductory ep.

Also, yes, Revolutionary Girl Utena will hopefully be returning within a week or two. I’ve just been busy with various things recently and haven’t had the energy. (Plus that last arc was enough of a drainer that I kinda needed some recovery time).

Other Thoughts N Such

I’ve actually been watching quite a lot of anime in my “off time” this past week. Chiefly, a Puella Magi Madoka Magica groupwatch with some friends, which has now finished the series proper and will be watching The Rebellion Story sometime in the next few days. Hoo boy.

I’ve also started Day Break Illusion, generally derided as one of the first “Madoklones”. I don’t want to get too far into my thoughts on it here, but it strikes me rather differently than that. I’ll probably end up reviewing it, so if you want more detailed thoughts, just stay tuned.

If you like my work, consider following me on Twitter, supporting me on Ko-Fi, or checking out my other anime-related work on Anilist or for The Geek Girl Authority.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Reviews

(REVIEW) Shadows on The Sun: The Forgotten Flames of DAY BREAK ILLUSION

All of my reviews contain spoilers for the reviewed material. This is your only warning.

I’ll be the light that breaks the sky.

In modern tarot fortune telling, a card being dealt inverted is generally a bad sign. A portent of something ill, or at the very least, great obstacles to be overcome. This perhaps explains Day Break Illusion, an anime that uses tarot as a motif and often feels like a dark mirror of a traditional magical girl series. Generally regarded as the first of the “Madoka Clones” in its day, it was rarely given much of a chance. It’s dimly remembered, seven years on, and many who do remember it don’t seem to hold it in high regard. Yet, I found myself oddly drawn to this series. Maybe it was the stylish character designs. Maybe it was that middling reputation–I do have something of a contrarian streak with certain things, after all. After I watched the first episode, the opening theme–a soaring ode to bitter defiance in the face of impossible odds–was definitely a factor. 

No matter why, I found myself taken in by Day Break Illusion almost immediately. Perhaps because how despite its reputation, it feels like it has much more in common with a “straight” magical girl anime than it does Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

More specifically, it often feels like a particularly black take on a Pretty Cure season. Where that franchise is, thematically, generally a celebration of female youth, Day Break Illusion is a depiction of a loss of innocence and an examination of how the pain that comes from that might be overcome, or at least dealt with. It is not a happy series, and it is certainly not for the faint of heart. It is also the rare anime I’ve seen that I would call deconstructive, in that in the process of not being a “traditional” magical girl series, it helps define what one is, both in the breaks in tradition it makes and what it chooses to hold on to.

In brief: Day Break Illusion is the story of magical girls who wield the power of tarot cards and channel them into elemental powers. Our lead is Akari, who wields The Sun. The series goes through no pains to pretend her story will be a happy one. In the very first episode she loses her cousin Fuyuna, who becomes a Daemonia, this show’s version of the various baddies that populate Pretty Cure, Sailor Moon, and so on. This awakens her card, and she is brought to a magical school to become part of a team with three other students: Luna (The Moon), Seira (The Stars), and Ginka (Temperance), with whom she must learn to fight, and to deal with her unique gift; the ability to hear the cries of the Daemonia. Throughout the series’ thirteen episodes, the girls learn about each other, they have conflicts, they grow closer, and they suffer. 

That last part is actually surprisingly important. It’s easy to read Day Break as doing what it does for shock value. But while its bevy of cribbed horror anime tropes, weird digital visual effects, monsters begging to be killed, and even a few particularly nasty sequences that both draw on and snipe at the imagery of certain noxious kinds of hentai, are all both a lot in the dramatic sense and quite the emotional assault, they almost never feel pointless. This is important, and in the realm of the “dark mahou shoujo” series, is what separates the wheat from the chaff. 

That long, arduous ride through the dark night of the soul is what, I imagine, gives the show its polarizing reputation. Day Break Illusion is a good series, but it’s also a rough watch, and it plays its cards (pardon the pun) close to its chest until the very end. Perhaps I’m simply naïve, but I genuinely did not not know until the series’ closing episode if the misery of the final arc would pay off in any way. It does, but the journey there is fraught. Combine this with the lead villain’s goal being to–his words–”mate with” Akari in order to bring about a new species of super-Daemonia, and certainly, Day Break Illusion is a show that it is easy to read uncharitably. 

And I might well be in that crowd if the anime’s character building were less delicate and if its refutation of the world’s most predatory ills felt less pointed. Cerebrum, the aforementioned lead villain, is a bad guy in almost every sense of both of those words. The emotional manipulation he puts the cast through is often reminiscent of actual tactics used by real abusers despite its fantastical nature, and the parallel feels intentional. With this in mind, the show’s harder-to-swallow points–the blood, re-contextualized horror and H-adjacent imagery, the juxtaposition of all of this and the fact that it’s a magical girl series, and even just the storyline itself–begin to make much more sense. As do the ways that this ties into one of the show’s other main themes: self-acceptance.

Each of the four leads has a central flaw that is the source of their woes. It is confronted, admitted as part of the self, and reckoned with. In this way, Day Break Illusion often feels like a strange, shadow universe take on a specific Pretty Cure season, HeartCatch, which dealt with that same theme of self-acceptance. The difference is in execution, but drawing on some of the same thematic material places Day Break Illusion in conversation with the broader genre even as it stands perpendicular to it. 

So if another series, one that has more universal appeal, already exists and explores the same territory in the same genre and, arguably, does it better, what need is there for Day Break Illusion? 

Well, my theory resides in the show’s hardest sell: that dark nature itself. As we grow older, we become accustomed to the ills of the world. Magical girl anime, by and large, deal with simplified versions of such problems. This isn’t a flaw in the genre; children need stories they can relate to and for adults such stories serve as an important narrative place of healing. The key difference is that Day Break Illusion, by bringing the subject matter closer to home, closer to what is for us genuinely scary, functions to adults in the same way that those very anime do for children, by using this much more intense nature to raise the stakes, and produce an (ideally) even greater catharsis at its end. In the show’s own words; dark days help us appreciate the Sun. 

For every horrific moment in the series; every bit of slow-motion nightmare logic, every turn-key tension-building piece of music, every fright, every shock, Day Break Illusion ends happily. Not happily ever after, but with enough light left in the world that its cast both can and choose to carry on. 

In this way; Day Break Illusion absolutely deserves to be mentioned alongside more traditional genre touchstones. It is true that it lacks the same near-universal appeal of more straightforward magical girl anime, but what it doesn’t have there, it makes up for in its astounding belief in the power of the human spirit. Akari, who goes through so much, reminds me a bit of another orange-haired magical girl often compared to the Sun: Hibiki Tachibana of Symphogear, an anime that uses some of the same techniques as Day Break, to even greater effect. Day Break Illusion never found that series’ popular success, but maybe it didn’t need to. Sometimes all that needs to be done is to listen, and if you’re willing, Day Break Illusion has a lot to say.

If you like my work, consider following me on Twitter, supporting me on Ko-Fi, or checking out my other anime-related work on Anilist or for The Geek Girl Authority.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in Other Posts, Reviews

(REVIEW) The Cat’s Out of The Bag: MAO MAO: HEROES OF PURE HEART

This review was commissioned. That means I was paid to watch and review the series in question. You can learn about my commission policies and how to buy commissions of your own here. This review was commissioned by Yarrun. Many thanks, as always.

This review contains spoilers for the reviewed material. This is your only warning. This review is for an ongoing series. Facts and opinions are subject to change. Images occur courtesy of the Mao Mao Fan Wiki.

“Has anyone ever told you you have issues?”

Cartoon Network’s slow slide into a streaming-first content mill as opposed to a TV network per se has been equal parts troubling and kind of fascinating. One consequence, among many, is the increased reliance on the short-form action-comedy formula repopularized by Teen Titans Go!. This isn’t anything actually new for the network exactly, but the pace of these shows has gotten increasingly frantic over the years. Whether the actual result of the decreased attention span of the internet age or just some executive’s delusion of such is a question for sociologists and fans of TV programming inside-baseball, but one can’t deny that the trend exists.

Mao Mao, the protagonist. He sounds a bit like Batman, that’s how you know he’s a good guy.

Thus, we have Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart. Set in something akin to a lower-fantasy version of Adventure Time’s Kingdom of Ooo, our three leads are the titular Mao Mao and his friends / roommates / co-heroes of justice Badgerclops and Adorabat. Their job, at least in theory, is the defense of Pureheart Valley, the sleepy abode where they live and act as “sheriffs”, which is populated by a technicolor gaggle of cutesy animal-people called Sweetypies. 

Lest one get the wrong idea about Mao Mao, the series’ (actually quite thorough) fan-wiki singles out just six of the 40 episodes that make up the first season as having “full story progression”. This is not a cartoon where the narrative through-line is the main focus. It is also, it should be emphasized, not a series that likes to neatly package itself into simple life lessons. Many episodes either subvert their apparent theme or never bother to build one up to begin with. What, for example, would one make of “The Truth Stinks”, an episode chiefly about how Badgerclops does not like to shower and resorts to hokey new age trinkets to “purify his toxins” instead, and thus smells bad as a result? Maybe, one could argue, that the target audience should shower, but the episode itself doesn’t really go that route, and neither do almost any of the episodes that seem inclined toward a simple lesson. 

Mao Mao, thus, tends to eschew easy morals in favor of presenting itself as “pure” comedy. Comedy that is, by and large, quite solid. Mao Mao’s characterization as a self-sabotaging neurotic is fairly rare among this kind of series. And while it’s not hard to sympathize with the guy, he does run himself into the ground so often that you can’t help but laugh, too. Occasionally to the point of a full-on odyssey, as in say the absurdly-named “Mao Mao’s Nakey”, where the herocat loses his clothes to a stray gust of wind and must dart around town frantically to find them while avoiding the prying gaze of his constituents.

There’s a lot of terrible jokes one could make about this image. I respect my readership, so there are none in this caption.

Mao Mao‘s general vibe may have something to do with its pedigree. In addition to another entry in this subgenre, OK KO!, showrunner and voice actor Parker Simmons has a history with [adult swim] that includes Metalocalypse and Superjail. The adult subject matter is largely absent from Mao Mao, of course, but an [as]-like sense of humor does run through the series.

Like many of that sub-network’s shows, the weaker episodes here tend to take their comedic grounding to an unfortunate extreme. As a result they often feel less like episodes and more like just a sequence of Things Happening. Occasionally the jokes hit oddly, too. “Popularity Conquest”, an early episode full of ambiguously-intended swipes at other Cartoon Network shows (going especially hard at Steven Universe), is a prime example. By far the worst though is the series’ occasional attempts to frame its protagonists’ cop status as a joke. Gags involving riot gear and the failures of the justice system have arguably never been funny, and they certainly aren’t in 2020. These particularly egregious examples are, thankfully, rare.

One could thus argue that Mao Mao has something of an issue with undercutting its own emotional core. But on the other hand, when it does let that core come through untouched, it tends to make for the strongest episodes of the series. Mao Mao’s judgmental, emotionally abusive, perpetually-disappointed father, Shin Mao, haunts him, (sometimes literally, as in “Scared of Puppets”), and informs his character flaws. The show is named after him, so it’s fitting that Mao Mao is the most rounded character in the series. More than even many more serious shows, Mao Mao understands that trauma tends to outlive the malice or carelessness that births it. 

Shin Mao doing what he does best; looking vaguely condescending.

“Small” does not end with Mao Mao overcoming his complex. Even at the episode’s end, when he saves his father from a rampaging beast, finally earning his respect, Mao Mao is apologetic and self-deprecating. Later episodes like “Super Berry Fever” or the aforementioned “Scared of Puppets” illustrate in a surprisingly subtle way how the fallout from malformed family relationships can infect the most random of things, damaging one’s emotional functionality well into adulthood. The idea that fruit cobbler or a fear of ventriloquist dummies could possibly reflect deeper emotional trauma can seem superficially ridiculous, and the series is in fact occasionally guilty of treating it that way. But in general, these episodes are the strongest of the series, and bely a more thoughtful emotional sensibility than one might assume.

The other two leads, and their own sets of issues, get a similar focus, though not as much. Adorabat in particular is the star of “Adoradad”, perhaps the single best episode in the series thusfar and its most straightforward story-driven adventure to date. “Adoradad”, in fact, with its complex family dynamic, impressive art, and commendable economy of character, may point to a way forward for Mao Mao on the whole. 

As good as Mao Mao can be–and at its heights, that’s a good deal more than your average jaded animation fan may expect–what it feels like it’s missing is that sense of forward drive. “Adoradad” offers up the notion of Mao Mao as a more narratively-driven experience. Still with laughter at its core, but with a more ambitious goal of weaving sophisticated stories for its young audience without falling into being rote or crass. In a very literal sense, the story of Mao Mao is still being written, and if there’s anything worth hoping for, it’s that like Adorabat herself, it lives up to its potential.

If you like my work, consider following me on Twitter, supporting me on Ko-Fi, or checking out my other anime-related work on Anilist or for The Geek Girl Authority.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Weekly Writing Roundups

Weekly Writing Roundup – 9/20/20

Hi folks! Bit of a lighter week this time around, I’ve been in a rough spot mentally and I’m sure I’m not the only one, given yet more recent goings-on in the world. But I won’t get too into that here, this isn’t really that kind of blog. Take care of each other out there!

On to the roundup!

The Geek Girl Authority

THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL Recap (S1E11) lay/key – I don’t like being this blunt, but man I have just not been impressed with this show recently. I’m not sure if it’s actually gotten any worse (in fact I don’t think it has) but its tendency to seriously abbreviate character arcs has started getting on my nerves. Pacing problems like this are pretty common in the modern TV anime landscape since almost everything only gets a single cour at a time, but GOH really feels like it could’ve used another cour to really stretch its legs. The fights are still cool at least, although I wish they lasted longer.

Didn’t do a Deca-Dence recap this past week for Reasons. I’m gonna roll the final two episodes into a single recap this coming Wednesday, assuming everything goes according to plan.

Magic Planet Anime

(REVIEW) Love in Wartime: The Politics & Emotion of EUREKA SEVEN – Without blowing my own horn too much, I think this is one of the best things I’ve ever written for the site and possibly just in general. I absolutely loved Eureka Seven by its end and I hope I can inspire at least one more person to watch it. (The minder of fellow anime blog Crow’s Anime World mentioned they want to watch it, so it’s possible I’ve succeeded!) I only finished Eureka Seven a week ago but it already feels like a part of me, it’s really something special.

Full disclosure, this week was also supposed to see the triumphant return of the Twenty Perfect Minutes column, regarding this series’ 48th episode (one of my favorites in anything ever, full stop) but once again mental health got in the way. Maybe next time!

Twitter “Live Watches”

Revolutionary Girl Utena – I’m going through Utena at a pretty slow pace and I think these episodes are a good indicator of why. I love the show, don’t get me wrong, but parts of it are some of the most actively draining television I’ve ever watched. I feel absolutely terrible for….everyone involved, and we’re not even at what is, to my understanding, The Worst Part yet. Ten episodes (and a movie!) to go.

Sailor Moon – SAILOR MERCURY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Yeah I don’t have a ton to say on this week’s Sailor Moon I love Ami. She’s great.

We’re getting near enough to the end of Utena that I’m starting to contemplate what I should start the next livewatch on after we’re done with it. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha maybe?

Other Thoughts N Such

I was recently commissioned to watch Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart. It’s a bit unusual for this blog since it’s an American cartoon. I don’t entirely know how I feel about it, being only a couple episodes in. It’s very….frantic, which feels like the logical consequence of a series for a generation raised on Teen Titans Go. (Watching this series makes me feel kinda old lol). We’re still well off from the proper review, so there’s plenty of time for my opinions to change. I like Adorabat, she’s funny.

On an administrative note. I’ve FINALLY updated my Carrd page after not doing it for the longest time. The biggest point of interest to blog-readers is going to be my commission page. Consider sending me some money to watch your favorite series, film, or OVA!

That’s all for this week! See you around folks.

If you like my work, consider following me on Twitter, supporting me on Ko-Fi, or checking out my other anime-related work on Anilist or for The Geek Girl Authority.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Reviews

(REVIEW) Love in Wartime: The Politics and Emotion of EUREKA SEVEN

This review was commissioned. That means I was paid to watch and review the series in question. You can learn about my commission policies and how to buy commissions of your own here.

This review contains spoilers for the reviewed material. This is your only warning.

Amazing grace
how sweet the sound

Sekai-kei, or “world story”, is a term of disputed origin. Held by many to be a westernism, invented by bloggers searching for a term to describe Neon Genesis Evangelion and stories of its ilk. Stories where the fate of the universe is tied inextricably to that of a central relationship and the mental state of its lead characters. NGE may hold the title as the series that inspired the term, but no anime has ever worn it as well as Eureka Seven. And no matter its origin, more than many anime the phrase is used to describe, “world story” feels like it fits Eureka Seven like a glove. Fifteen years after it began airing, E7 is capable of an astounding thematic and emotional resonance that hits as hard in 2020 as it did when the series ended in 2006. It’s matched by little else.

Try to grab hold of it, and it breaks down into images. Blood on wedding rings, underground rainbows, Superflat monsters and sky-fish, mecha on surfboards, political intrigue, social upheaval. Love, war, death and more, all soundtracked to trance, house, pop, and soul. This is Eureka Seven. Wildly ambitious, flawed but magnificent. Riddled with paradoxes, it is gangly and perfect.

It’s not hard to understand E7’s methodology. It combines an older, political strain of mecha anime with the metaphysical, psychological approach of the NGE* era. In this way, its closest contemporary cousin, funnily enough, might be another ambitious mecha series of the same era that attempted a similar approach; Code Geass. But while that anime traffics chiefly in camp, the minutiae of revolution, and shock value, Eureka Seven deals in much simpler, more universal substance. As promised in the title; emotion, politics, and the messy grey area that is their intersection.

It is again helpful to consider Eureka Seven as a series of meaningful contradictions. It bursts with music, but is punctuated by the shellshocked silence of war trauma. Dozens of opposites run through the show; love, and death, built things and natural things, Wide-eyed romantic idealism and stoic pragmatism, new life and disease, and so on. In this way, despite the fantastical nature of its soft sci-fi setting, Eureka Seven’s world is a lot like our own. This is important, because Eureka Seven is an anime with things to say, even if it takes a little while to get there.

Eureka Seven opens presenting itself as a classic adventure story. That of Renton Thurston, son of the late war hero Adroc Thurston, and his encounter with–and eventual admittance to–‘terrorist’ group The Gekkostate. It never sheds the structure of a latter-day bildungsroman, especially since Renton’s romance with the titular Eureka is a key part of the series, but it does go significantly beyond it in several other ways.

Other coming-of-age stories have dealt with the realities of growing up in a politically tense period. Few have depicted the rise of fascism with such polished, unsettling ease as Eureka Seven. The ascent of the dictatorial Dewey Novac ties to broader political sensibilities throughout the show. It is not a coincidence that Novac’s forces are generally clad in Nazi-evoking black uniforms, while the Gekkostate and affiliated resistance have a wide variety of looks, often inspired by musical subcultures. (The series overflows with musical reference, down to the name of Renton’s father. A namecheck of Beastie Boys member Ad-Rock.) Later, as Novac’s regime seizes power (complete with a by-the-fascist-book “big speech” to accompany his coup in episode 37) he launches a genocidal campaign against the scub coral. And plans involving surgically-altered super soldier children stretch back in-series years.

Elsewhere, the plight of the Coralians and their complex relationship to the humans in the world of Eureka Seven speak to an environmental bent. The series’ use of what is essentially technobabble may seem campy or silly, but it belies an internal logic that maps cleanly onto many different real-world problems. The “Question Limitation” is not something we will ever have to deal with, but similarly ominous two-word phrases (such as say, “Global Warming”) seem quite certain to define our immediate future.

The show’s long, rough middle third, meanwhile, where Renton is first hazed and then downright abused by many different members of The Gekkostate (but especially Holland) is a bleak, raw look at how such cycles of abuse perpetuate. Renton’s own journey to maturity is hamstrung by the existence of three malformed father figures; Adroc, the war hero who was never there for his own son, Holland, who grapples with his own complex feelings of responsibility regarding Eureka and often takes this frustration out on Renton in this portion of the series, and Charles, a loving father like Renton’s never had, but also a bloodlust-driven bounty hunter, whose conflicts with The Gekkostate eventually see him shot dead by Holland. It is only Renton’s ability to rise above all this–and to forgive–that allows these cycles to cease, and for him and Holland (the only one of the three still alive) to move forward.

All of this only scratches the surface, but you get the point. You may ask what ties all of these disparate themes together, and the answer is shockingly simple. One of anime’s great achievements as a medium is the ease and sheer emotional intensity with which it is often capable of portraying the simple, necessary, terrifying joy of human connection. In Eureka Seven, all of these problems, to a one, can be overcome by communication. By mutual understanding. By love. The show’s final opening theme–“Sakura”–interpolating, in a genuinely brilliant compositional move, the hymn “Amazing Grace”, gives the game away. It seems to say; If God lives not above, then we must love each other in his place. We have a duty to see the worth inherent in each other.

Indeed, Eureka Seven‘s greatest achievement is not any great subversion of expectations, any particular cut or shot (though many excellent examples of both exist throughout), its unique soundtrack, or anything else of the sort. It is this emotional core of empathy triumphing above all else that stands out. It is a spirit that persists in the medium to this very day, shining through from time to time in even the least of Eureka Seven‘s successors.

By Eureka Seven‘s end, and the incomparably romantic imagery of Renton and Eureka cradling each other in their arms as they hurdle through the sky, the series has made its point. Fifteen years later, in a world that every day feels closer to falling apart, Eureka Seven‘s message that even in our darkest hours we must hold each other close feels more resonant, immediate, and heartfelt than ever. That it’s so beautifully put together feels like proof that it’s the truth. How sweet, indeed, the sound.

*NGE of course did not invent this particular sort of mecha series, it merely popularized it. I’m inclined to suspect a shared lineage dating back to perhaps Macross. But without having seen that series myself it’s hard to say more, definitively. Eureka Seven is flooded with shared DNA both between and directly from other mecha anime and other sci-fi in general. I spotted more than one point of homage to another Gainax series; Gunbuster, and have been informed of several that draw from sci-fi novels. Director Tomoki Kyoda has called the series an “homage to his rebellious phase”, a sentiment that tracks with its empathetic state of mind and general feel quite wonderfully.

If you like my work, consider following me on Twitter, supporting me on Ko-Fi, or checking out my other anime-related work on Anilist or for The Geek Girl Authority.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Weekly Writing Roundups

Weekly Writing Roundup – 9/13/20

HELLO

It’s been a bit since I wrote one of these! I didn’t have much to report on on Tuesday since, as I mentioned in last week’s roundup, I was taking some time off. Since then though I’ve done quite a few things, so I’ve got plenty to write about here. I hope you’re all doing well!

Twitter “Live Watches”

BOY OH BOY HAS IT BEEN AN INTERESTING TIME IN TWITTERLAND THIS PAST WEEK.

Revolutionary Girl Utena (1, 2) – As you can see, I actually did two Utena livewatches this week. The second because the first one was so good. In the first pair of episodes there’s a funny Nanami episode and what is probably my favorite episode of the series so far, a dramatic ace in the hole where the rules as we know them start to change and Utena as a series begins to tip its hand. The second pair of episodes are another solid dramatic ep…and then The Egg Episode, a truly ludicrous piece of television so utterly surreal that it is infamous to this day. I really don’t know what to say about it! It was definitely something, I kind of liked it a lot but also hated it at the same time.

Sailor Moon (#FightingEvilByGroupwatch) – Fairly standard pair of episodes for Sailor Moom this week. I really liked the one about the musician. I only found out some time after watching that, funnily enough, it’s an Ikuhara-directed episode, thus providing a tangible link to the chronologically later Revolutionary Girl Utena that I’m also livewatching. Isn’t that neat? 🙂

The Geek Girl Authority

Deca-Dence recaps of “Turbo Charger” and “Brake System“ – I still love Deca-Dence a lot but it is revealing itself to have a pretty common issue with single-cour anime, which is that the pacing is kinda out-of-wack. They have a LOT to tie up in the remaining two episodes and I’m not entirely sure if they’ll be able to do it. Here’s hoping?

The God of High School (S1E10) oath/meaning – I think I’ve been fairly frank about the fact that I think of The God of High School mostly as a vehicle for neat fights. This episode is solid in that regard. Oh! And Jin’s mysterious rival is a furry, isn’t that fun?

Onyx Equinox Character Trailer, Cast, & Release Date Announced – Onyx Equinox is an interesting one. It’s not an anime, which makes it an outlier both in my writing for GGA and on here. (I’d argue it doesn’t even much look like one, being a very clear descendant of that mid-2000s Man of Action house style blended with some Avatar: The Last Airbender.) But the trailers have seemed really cool and the story’s premise draws heavily on Aztec myth which is not something that a lot of modern media tries to get inspiration from in the authentic way this is. I’m quite excited to see where this goes once it comes out.

Shenmue Anime & More Announced at Crunchyroll Virtual Expo – Just a quick rundown of Crunchyroll’s Virtual Expo. The big takeaway here for most people is going to be the announcement of a Shenmue series. I’m not familiar with the games personally, but I may check the anime out. It looks neat.

Other Thoughts N Such

I’m not entirely sure about the Monthly Movies thing going forward. I’ve gotten plenty of donations recently but no suggestions, which makes me feel like people aren’t super interested in the idea. I will of course keep my promise to watch the HeartCatch film, but I’m not sure, beyond that, if I’ll be doing more of those. I’ll try to brainstorm more ideas for how Ko-Fi donators and Patreon patrons can get involved. Feel free to hit me up on Twitter if you have any suggestions! It’s possible I’m missing something obvious.

As for other more minor anime musings this week. Goodness; I’m nearing the end of Eureka Seven and absolutely loving every minute of it, but I don’t want to share too many thoughts because I need to save those for the review.

On a more sour note, I watched the first two episodes of Vividred Operation. Which is….sigh. I’m not the sort of person who likes to constantly howl about how I think fanservice is bad. I’m an on-record apologist for Witchblade, Akiba’s Trip, Senran Kagura, and quite a few others. However, it can definitely kneecap a show’s reputation if it’s especially egregious or done in a particularly scuzzy way, and there’s valid reasons for that.

Vividred Operation has a lot going for it: a fun, outrageous tone, a mad scientist who is a weasel, cool power armor designs a la Symphogear (which also suffers from this problem, though not nearly to this extent), and the characters can even fuse, Dragonball-style, a really fun and underused storytelling mechanic. But I feel like I can’t recommend this show to anyone, because it takes about five minutes out every episode to focus the camera’s gaze on a middle schooler’s bum, and that is (completely understandably, mind you) just too high of a hurdle to reasonably ask most people to jump to get into a series. They will be grossed out and go watch something else.

I will probably finish the series and I’ll probably enjoy most of it, but that’s a really un-fun black mark on what’s otherwise an honestly kinda awesome anime. I have thought a lot in the past few days about this sort of thing and how it does seem to be slowly changing. (Compare a battle girl series like this from the earlier 2010s to something like Revue Starlight from the decade’s back half.) But it’s still prevalent enough to be actively damaging to the genre and consequently it bothers me. I wish I could share these anime that I often really quite (and in the case of some, like Kill la Kill and the aforementioned Symphogear, outright love) like with people, and consequently I wish they weren’t how they are in this single, specific way.

Anyway, I do apologize for the rant. You know how these things are and I’m hardly the first person to have this lament.

My Discord server started an impromptu group watch of Puella Magi Madoka Magica last night. I’ve only grown to love the show more since I first watched it last year and I’m thrilled to get a chance to again. My good friend Alice is the one who spurned the groupwatch and may well be reading this, so I’ll not mention any spoilers. It’s quite the great thing, though. One of my favorite anime of the ’10s for sure.

Anyway! That’s about all for this week. Saturday/Sunday, if things go according to plan, will likely be my new days for these roundups. So keep your eyes tuned in and your ears peeled! 🙂

Hopefully I’ll have a fair bit to write about next week….but I’ve also fallen into VTuber hell along with most of my friends, so who knows. Stay tuned!

If you like my work, consider following me on Twitter, supporting me on Ko-Fi, or checking out my other anime-related work on Anilist or for The Geek Girl Authority.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Weekly Writing Roundups

Weekly Writing Roundup – 9/1/20

Hello again ladies, gents, and nonbinary friends! It feels like it’s been forever since I did one of these, but the actual truth of the matter is that I’ve just been quite busy! I got a lot of writing done this past week. One administrative note! I ah, haven’t been great about keeping the suggestions I got for anime films recently. So the first #MonthlyMovie as I’m calling it will be up to a vote and from some films I picked out myself. I do apologize if you suggested something, your blogger is a fool. I have details on how you’re going to be able to suggest films to add to the pool going forward below in the Magic Planet Anime section.

But that aside, let’s not have further delays. The roundup!

Twitter “Live Watches”

Revolutionary Girl Utena – We finished up the Black Rose arc this past week! What the hell was all that about, eh? Well, I have some thoughts and some others have shared theirs with me, but it’s honestly kind of impossible to summarize the surreal weirdness the show’s started dipping into except to say that frankly, I’m here for it. My good friend Sredni Vashtar has described this as the “time is a flat circle” portion of Utena. She may well be right!

Sailor Moon (#FightingEvilByGroupwatch) – No new major developments on the Sailor Moon front. This week’s lineup included what is apparently widely considered one of the worst episodes of the series and true to form it was really not great. The other though was a lot of fun, and I have confidence we’ll get more of the latter going forward. Liking this series a lot so far!

The Geek Girl Authority

The God of High School recap (S1E09): curse/cornered – An episode where Yoo Mira finally gets to do stuff! She gets a charyeok! That part is really cool! Less cool is the weird vaguely offensive design of the guy she fights, who turns out to be a clone of another guy anyway. Also big into the sorta-inexplicable brief introduction of a gyaru kung-fu lady here. She’s great.

Deca-Dence (S1E08): Turbine – Deca-Dence is a heist movie this week! There’s some good stuff in this episode and I’m curious to see where the subplot with Minato goes, but it’s not one of my favorites of the series thus far. I hope we get an episode more about Natsume soon.

Magic Planet Anime

The Manga Shelf: Relentless Ribbing & Queer Longing in “School Zone” – My new column / sub-blog The Manga Shelf made its debut this week with not one but two articles! This one is about school life comedy School Zone and how it’s managed to portray some surprisingly nuanced maybe-one sided maybe-not relationship dynamics in a queer context without feeling exploitative or disrespectful. I like this series!

The Manga Shelf: A Goodbye To “The Night-Owl Witch” – This manga’s unofficial English run ended a few days ago. Made me a little sad! I’ve never thought The Night-Owl Witch was a masterpiece, but it’s a solid little series with occasional moments of greatness. I look forward to reading the mangaka’s current series when I have the time.

Monthly Movies – As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, I have a plan for this going forward (other than this month which, as mentioned, is going to be kinda weird). From now on, any Ko-Fi donator will be entitled to suggest an anime film in the “send a message” box for their donation (no live action, I’ll have to think about non-anime animation but do please refrain for now. I don’t really want to stray from this blog’s mission statement too much). You get as many suggestions as you do donations! So go nuts. Likewise, Patreon supporters get a free suggestion per month, although due to some difficulties with the system, at the moment I will have to ask that those wishing to make such a suggestion contact me directly on Twitter. (I hope to have a more convenient method sorted out by next month).

At the start of the following month, I pop up a Twitter poll and the winner of said poll is what I watch and review for that month. (The September poll will be going up not long after this article.) Suggestions do not carry over! So if you suggest, say, Quasar no Blackstar this month and it doesn’t win the poll, you’ll have to donate again next month (or use your Patreon suggestion) to nominate it again. Phew! That’s quite a lot of text, but hopefully you all get the gist. Happy suggesting!

Other Thoughts N Such

I would like to mark the return of Twenty Perfect Minutes sometime this month. I even have an episode in mind, but we’ll see how things go.

My main Other Shows ™ thought this week concerns Yu Gi Oh SEVENS, which is surprisingly compelling for being a very goofy kids’ show. It’s got a markedly different feel from any prior season of the series and the rules (both in the series and in real life) have been changed, now belonging to a new format called Rush. It makes it a lot easier to follow and lets the focus be more on character interactions and such. I really quite like this one! I say give it a shot. It’s also where this week’s header image is from! Romin is an amazing character who has some truly great faces.

That’s all for this week! The coming week might be a bit sparse since Crusader Kings III just launched and history nerd BS is my other huge interest besides anime. So if you see me MIA, I’m probably uniting Ireland or something. See y’all around!

Oh! I almost forgot! I bought a redirect URL. So you can now just type “magicplanetanime.com” to get here. No fuss no muss! Isn’t that lovely?

If you like my work, consider following me on Twitter, supporting me on Ko-Fi, or checking out my other anime-related work on Anilist or for The Geek Girl Authority.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.