Month: October 2021

Posted on in anime, Weekly Writing Roundups

The Frontline Report [10/31/21]

The Frontline Report is a weekly column where I summarize my journey through anime, manga, and the related spheres of popular culture over the past week. Expect spoilers for covered material.

We’ve got quite a trio of writeups here. In this week’s FLR we’ve got me thinking myself into a tizzy about one anime, being arguably too harsh with another, and then there’s Heike Monogatari, which remains basically unimpeachable.

I have to admit that any time I pen something like the latter two writeups here I worry I’ll acquire a reputation as an “issue critic”, or worse, a simple whiner. Hopefully, you’ll all take me on my word that I write what I write because to me, it is the truth, even if sometimes I can only arrive at it through a minor crucible of self-doubt. Honesty is the profession’s one requirement, and there’s nothing more honest than that.

Seasonals

The Heike Story

Of every anime I have ever covered on this blog, The Heike Story is, if not the most difficult to write about, certainly at least up there. On some level, what is there to say? Each and every episode advances the slow tragedy of the Heike Clan’s downfall. Their legacy melts away in real-time like snow in Spring. You can’t capture this kind of poeticism in plain language, not really.

Nonetheless, this episode stands out. One of Kiyomori’s plans to strike at the Clan’s enemies again goes awry; literally up in smoke, as one of Shigemori’s sons accidentally sets a whole temple complex alight. For his sins, his wife dreams of Gozu and Mezu foretelling his impending doom, threatening to drag him to Hell.

In the real world he burns alive as he’s set by a fever so intense that water literally evaporates upon contact with his skin. It kills him, eventually, his only regret being unvisited vengeance upon his enemies.

This pushes the household to a breaking point, and Biwa is kicked out by Sukemori as winter sets in. Where will she go? It’s impossible to say.

I have wondered more than once while watching Heike Monogatari if some of its characters, in their bottomless arrogance and self-assured righteousness, might resonate in a truly dark way with the current leaders of our world. Just something to chew on.

Komi Can’t Communicate

Administrative note: I am following NovaWorks’ absolutely gorgeous fansub for this series rather than the official subtitles. If you’re wondering why I seem to be several episodes behind, that is why.

The issue I always had with Komi‘s source material is that I could never quite understand what tone it was going for. On the one hand, Komi is something of a cringe comedy. A decent amount of the humor comes from Komi’s own ability to fail to perform basic human interactions, and most characters other than Komi herself (and Tadano) are, well, often pretty rude, even when accounting for their generally wacky, cartoonish personalities. On the other, the series projects an obvious, deep empathy for its title character, and is clearly sympathetic to her struggles even as it pokes fun at the mundanity of them. The long and short of all this is that the series has a pretty weird sense of humor, and it’s sometimes hard to tell if a given joke is being made at a character’s expense (and thus, intentionally or not, the expense of the sort of person they represent) or is being made with the idea that both the character themselves and any similar persons in the audience are “in on it.” And like it or not, that does matter. It’s the difference between gentle ribbing and punching down, and it’s what separates the good examples of this sort of comedy from the bad. All this is difficult enough to square with Komi herself, but it becomes even moreso with some of the other characters, one of whom we meet in episode 2.

This is Najimi Osana. They are a gender bean.

I don’t know what line was translated this way, but to whoever chose this phrasing: bless you.

Before I say anything else; I actually like Najimi. They’re great. I just don’t really know how to feel about the fact that I like them.

Najimi is, well, some sort of gender-nonconforming. I don’t recall the source material ever getting particularly specific and this episode follows that lead. But whether they are genderfluid, nonbinary, MTF, simply a crossdresser, or some combination of the above, they are, for better or worse, the representative for how Komi Can’t Communicate “feels about” genderqueer people. In personality, they are hypersocial, flirty, a bit manipulative, and we’re told, a chronic liar. They’re very entertaining, but this depiction forces us to wade into thorny questions of representation.

I really hate having to ever address the question of whether a character is “good rep” or not. It makes me feel, frankly, like a cranky and vaguely pathetic stereotype of a critic. Look at me, being the big bad feminist werewolf ruining everyone’s fun little romcom by interrogating its assumptions about gender. It’s a genuinely sucky feeling, because every word I write in criticism of the series I feel like I must couch with repeated assurances that no, I do like it, I just don’t know about how it handles this. And on the other hand, no one’s art exists in a vacuum, so I feel like I am to some extent obligated to at least ask the question. Is Najimi’s central “joke” that they’re all of those things I listed, and happen to be, separately from that, genderqueer, or is it that they are those things because they’re genderqueer? That’s a huge distinction. The former is a personality, the latter is a stereotype. And the sexualized otokonoko is, certainly, a trope that exists in Japanese pop media, so my gut reaction drags me toward the latter interpretation, not helped by a pretty unpleasant sequence here where Najimi is nearly assaulted by a delinquent they used to know. (Thankfully, he’s scared off before anything can happen. This isn’t really that kind of show. Still, it’s the idea.)

But of course, as a critic (and really just as a literate viewer) you should never let your first reaction be the whole of your thoughts. The other side of this is that I want to absolve Komi Can’t Communicate of responsibility here, because as I said, I like Najimi. They’re a weird little gremlin who manages to be immensely popular anyway, we’re given the comical figure that they have five million friends, and honestly I do get it. I even think the scene where they casually insist that they’re “actually” a guy to turn someone down is kinda funny, because using your gender as a weapon to duck out of awkward social situations genuinely is amusing, it’s the sort of thing that certain genderqueer people (and I’m including myself here) absolutely would pull if they could. It’s almost Bugs Bunny-ish.

So I don’t want them to be bad. I want to live in a world where original mangaka Tomohito Oda came up with this character because he thought they’d be funny on their own merits. I want a genderqueer character to just be able to exist in an anime and be a funny little Starbucks goblin and have it not be a big deal. Maybe that’s why I am willing to take Najimi’s presence in the series (and their general characterization) on good faith. For me at least, and for now, it’s enough that they’re entertaining and funny and endearing. But it may not be for everybody, and I think both stances are okay as long as they’re arrived at properly. Such things are rarely cut and dry, and if you take away nothing else from all this rambling, let it be that. I have said all I said (and worried greatly about coming across as though I’m trying to shame people, which I’m absolutely not), but I must again reiterate that I genuinely really like the character.

And gosh, look at all this. I’ve written all I’ve written and barely touched on the actual plot of the episode itself. It’s a good one, despite any impression to the contrary I may have made here. Komi Can’t Communicate continues its impressive visual run here, and there’s a really fun bit where we see the same scene twice from two different perspectives back to back. The extended riff on Starbucks near the end of the episode where Komi is tasked with memorizing a monstrously long order (Najimi’s naturally. Yes, the “Starbucks goblin” descriptor was relevant. I’m such a good writer) is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in an anime this year. Shout out to this guy; “wearer of the black apron” indeed.

So yes, all my thinking in circles aside, it’s a largely good episode. Komi Can’t Communicate remains one to watch.

But now we have to get to the show that I actually am kind of disappointed with. Although here too things are….complicated.

Rumble Garanndoll

There is a thin line between being self-aware and being self-impressed. Has Rumble Garanndoll crossed it? I wouldn’t say so, but it’s getting awfully close. Followup question: do you remember Darling in the FranXX? Because somebody on Rumble Garanndoll‘s production team definitely does.

That’s probably a bad first impression to make for an episode that I did enjoy parts of, but it is very easy to see where Garanndoll might fall apart, and on several occasions over the course of its third episode I felt like I was watching Garanndoll get dangerously close to shattering in real time. As such, this writeup is going to mostly be about what I did not like about the episode, with apologies to the animators who continue to make Garanndoll a visual treat.

Let’s go over what Garanndoll has gotten right so far, first. Fair is fair, after all. It does correctly identify that otakudom–like any counterculture–is fundamentally incompatible with authoritarian ideologies. As close as the two can get to being bedfellows is proponents of the latter treating members of the former like useful idiots (that’s more or less what by-now recurring antagonist Hayate’s role is, and it’s something that happens in the contemporary cultural landscape all the time). Inevitably, the fascistic drive to purge “degeneracy” will take hold, and all art and culture will be subsumed beneath a nationalistic monolith. Garanndoll knows that, as demonstrated here where it contrasts how the Shark One works with how the villains’ mecha work. (The Shark is powered by passion and strength of feeling. The various mecha that the bad guys are playing with? “Patriotism.” That’s not terribly subtle commentary.) Inside Rin’s own mind, the only thing that’s able to defeat her fantasy flights of transforming heroes and giant robots are the memories of the villains themselves.

Again, not subtle. (And fittingly; one of the best parts of the episode.) Countercultures and authoritarianism are natural enemies; that’s a good and true thing for the show to grok. It resonates, even if it’s not exactly a novel observation.

What I worry Garanndoll may not understand is that passion for art–or more specifically what I will generally term “geek shit” here–cannot actually defeat authoritarianism by itself. I mentioned DarliFra in the opening paragraph, and while that show had numerous issues, it did also understand that you couldn’t kill the monster of fascism with hot blood alone. You need empathy, you need love, and you need thoughtfulness and planning. It was very bad at actually implementing those ideas but it at least knew that it had to try. I’m not sure Garanndoll does, which is a pretty serious problem for a show whose whole core idea pits a group of nerds-turned-rebel-alliance against the marching army of a culture-hostile dictatorship.

And there is another comparison to be made to DarliFra, and it’s the one you were probably expecting. I’ll level with you folks; I am far less anti-Guys In My Anime than many other lesbians I know who watch the stuff. I am not opposed to dudes. I’m not opposed to dudes in the lead role, even. But they have to be at least a bit interesting, and–here is another place where Rumble is starting to stumble–it cannot push heteronormative nonsense. Initially I thought male lead Hosomichi’s career as a host would be a vehicle for, something interesting. Perhaps a gentle once-over about how nerdy men tend to look at women. So far it’s mostly been a plot device, and here he gets roped into eyeroll-inducing platitudes about “a man and a woman” and about every time one was on screen I glared at my monitor so hard I thought I might melt it. To me, that is far more obnoxious than someone’s cheeky cut-swipe of a bad mecha anime from a few years ago.

Directors, writers, you must be aware that there are plenty of women who watch your work, or else you would not have written the female lead as an otaku girl. Honestly this kills me; Rin is not some two-bit wish fulfillment fantasy, I have known plenty of people who would wear a Mega Man outfit to their job if they thought they could get away with it, and I have known women–and am a woman–who love their giant robots. No one in 2021 wants this “and he gets the girl” shit. It has to be more earned than this. And to Garanndoll‘s credit maybe it will eventually earn it, maybe even in the episode airing tomorrow. It just really has not done so yet. But I’m skeptical now–more than I want to be–especially because the teased introduction of another girl at the end of this episode has all the hallmarks of a lazy harem setup. You can do better than this, can’t you? To use the show’s own symbolic language; watching Garanndoll should make me feel like my passion battery is charged up, not like it’s running on empty. I know this may seem hard to believe given all I’ve said, but I like this show, and the last thing I want to see it do is trip over the Sexism Bar and fall flat on its own face. It deserves better than that.

Elsewhere on MPA

First Impressions: High Guardian Spice – This show seems like decent fun. I haven’t watched more of it since I wrote this and I don’t really intend to. So if you’re looking for an “authoritative” opinion on it I’d suggest turning to other critics–probably those with more experience and more interest in writing about contemporary American cartoons–but if you just want my two cents, here it is.

Let’s Watch takt op.Destiny: Episode 4 – This is my favorite episode of takt op since its premiere. I think that really says all you need to know, doesn’t it?

And with ALL OF THAT said, I hope you all have a Happy Halloween and a good rest of your week.

Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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, excepting direct quotations, 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, Seasonal Impression Roundups

Seasonal(???) First Impressions: HIGH GUARDIAN SPICE is Finally Here, But is it Too Late?

Seasonal First Impressions is a column where I detail my thoughts, however brief or long, about a currently-airing cartoon’s first episode or so.

Back in 2018, when “Crunchyroll Originals” had not yet become a deeply toxic pair of words, the streaming service announced its first slate of original programming. On that slate was High Guardian Spice. This article is only slightly even about High Guardian Spice, because to talk about HGS is to talk about its bizarre circumstances of creation and how Crunchyroll has handled it, a horrible boondoggle that I would wish on nobody. As for the show itself, full disclosure, I am basing all that I am about to say off of High Guardian Spice‘s first episode, to give it parity with, you know, every other show I’ve done a writeup on this season. I feel it’s only fair.1

So about that initial 2018 announcement. We didn’t know much about HGS; the show had a soft, rounded art style, early press materials boasted of it being written by “100% female writers”, and….honestly that was sort of it. Cultural currents conspired against the series; the Gamergate-derived reactionary movement within anime fandom descended on it like vultures to fresh carrion. It was decried as an assault by whatever word-scramble the alt-righters had managed to smash together that particular week. An assault not on anime alone but on you too, specifically, dear otaku, who were being replaced by legions of evil feminist SJWs with dyed hair. It was all very awful, hateful, melodramatic, and pointless.

Even at the time, this all seemed astonishingly ridiculous to anyone with two braincells to rub together. Crunchyroll had no qualms about airing things that demonstrably aren’t anime before, and it would have no qualms after. The idea that this show specifically was somehow going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back is absurd, even as someone who really does think that the ongoing pan-corporate attempt to rebrand any non-comedy cartoon not aimed at children as “anime” is somewhere between stupid and insidious. But, companies listen to internet outrage, no matter how contrived it is and no matter how much they might like to pretend they don’t. Spice was, thus, shelved for a time. Despite being finished sometime in 2019, it’s only “premiered”–read: was unceremoniously kerplunked down in a single, twelve-episode data dump–today. Its promotion amounting to a banner across the site’s top that will, I imagine, mostly serve to rekindle that tedious, performative, reactionary flareup, until it is eventually replaced by a banner advertising a new episode of a mediocre isekai.

And all that for this.

Even with just 20 minutes of footage to judge on, this is not a series that merits all that guff. High Guardian Spice is a very simple show, and its only real problem is not even a problem with the show itself; it’s where it is. It’s an issue so astoundingly unfair to the series itself that I feel bad bringing it up. But, that’s the fact of the matter. The show is a Crunchyroll exclusive, sitefellows with Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer and The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated. It is probably, as a result, totally doomed. I can imagine a smidgen of demographic crossover with the same section of Crunchyroll’s audience that leads to things like ancient newspaper comic strip Rex Morgan, M.D. namechecking Kira Kira Precure A La Mode. Beyond that? I really don’t see it.

It’s a shame, too, because the show is pretty good! As an anime critic (in as much as any person is one), I consider myself used to the tropes, structures, and rhythms of Japanese animation moreso than other sorts. And yeah, as everyone correctly predicted from day one, High Guardian Spice is a very American show, which makes it a bit of an odd watch if you’re expecting something built like an anime, but that’s not a bad thing in of itself.

Our premise here is very simple; village girls (and I am pretty sure, girlfriends) Rosemary and Sage are off to join a magical school, where they will be trained as Guardians. What’s a Guardian? Presumably they protect the world from evil of various sorts. It’s not gone into too deeply in the first episode. We mostly learn that Rosemary (she’s the rowdy pink one) wants to be a warrior, Sage (she’s the quiet blue one) wants to be a healer, and that Rosemary’s also-pink mom was also a Guardian. (She seems to be somehow missing rather than outright dead, lest anyone accuse HGS of riffing on Steven Universe too directly.) Rose and Sage do not actually attend the magical school–High Guardian Academy–in this first episode. Instead, they move to the city of Lyngarth and in with Sage’s cousins (also a very obvious lesbian couple), and get the lay of the land.

This gives the first episode a rather slice of life-y feel. The memorable stuff here is the character details; bits like Rosemary excitedly postulating that a striped, ferret-like creature “might have rabies”, a pair of interactions with an aloof elf, even simple things like her habit of loudly “AHH!”-ing when startled, these are all good, solid character-building. It’s cute, and it’s charming. Rosemary and Sage’s relationship deserves special mention here, as it’s clear even this early on that they care for each other a lot. This, perhaps, is the main thing from that silly “100% women” quote that actually shines through, here. They do have a genuinely very sweet relationship and I’d be interested to see how it develops over the course of the show.

As for the more serious, plot-heavy stuff? It’s there, but if it ever does develop into something more compelling, it must take some time. It’s very barebones this early on, mostly consisting of “Rosemary’s mom is missing” and something very vague about “old magic” and “new magic” being two things that don’t necessarily mix. To be fair; leading with something lighter and only building up to the actual meat of things later on is pretty standard for this kind of thing, so it’s hard to hold this against the series.

And honestly? That’s High Guardian Spice‘s premiere in a nutshell. It’s solid, if perhaps not entirely my thing. (I think being involved in the Steven Universe fandom during the show’s height of popularity may, sadly, have killed my interest in this genre, whatever you’d call it, for good.) I think that given a better home HGS could find the audience it truly deserves. It’s hard to argue it’s not a victim of Crunchyroll’s ramshackle, neglectful IP handling. I committed myself to checking out the series because I wanted to see what the actual cartoon was like. What was hidden behind all those layers of corporate brandspeak and performative reactionary rage. What I’ve found? A perfectly good little cartoon that didn’t get a fair shot. I can only hope that I’m wrong and actually does attract an audience that truly appreciates it, despite all odds. It deserves better than this, we all do.

Grade: B
The Takeaway: If you’re a fan of latter-day Cartoon Network and Disney’s TV fare, or of Little Witch Academia, you should give this a look.

1: I will note that the show opens with a hilariously incongruous warning that the program contains “strong language, violence, and sexual content.” I am pretty sure this is an error of some sort, although if the show does have some kind of weird mid-season shift into being edgy as hell, that would be….interesting, to say the least.

Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 4

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

It starts out so simply! “Let the Performance Begin -Showtime-“, takt op.Destiny‘s fourth episode, opens with Takt and Destiny engaging in a little bit of training under Lenny’s guidance. It’s a great little demonstration of the kind of thrilling combat animation that takt op seems to be able to just summon with a casual flick of the wrist. Laser fire bounces off of scenery like rubber, a D2 is whacked to pieces like a busted action figure.

The usual. Eventually, this builds into what is probably takt op‘s most natural episode since its premiere. Perhaps “natural” is a funny word to use to describe an anime, but the focus here, at least with regard to Takt and Destiny, is the pair learning to fight like duet partners. And, on a less literal level, learning to find meaning in their new calling as protectors of the weak.

But first; we were promised a trip to Vegas last week. When our heroes roll into the town itself, it initially seems like we’ve been misled. Most of Las Vegas as we know it today is, here, abandoned, and a majority of the population survives by farming in fields outside the ruins. Our brief tour around the Vegas fields here is charming, but it quickly becomes clear that not everything is above-board. Most viewers will start to get the impression that something’s amiss with the introduction of Mr. Lang, a man wearing a decidedly not-farmer-ish suit and escorted at all times by a pair of armed bodyguards. When he’s introduced as the land’s “owner”, one need to connect only a few dots to intuit that the man is, at best, an exploitative landlord.

Before that particular thread can be tied up, though, we should also touch on Leonard’s interactions with Takt, here. We’ve only known Leonard for a little while, but he fills the role of the somewhat-cryptic (but seemingly, largely good-natured) mentor well. He and Takt discuss the meaning of music itself in one of “-Showtime-“‘s quieter scenes. Leonard espouses that music is a bringer of joy and a figurative guiding light. He argues that this is true even if the music itself can only come into existence through pain or loss, a fair enough idea. Less scrupulously, he also uses this concept to defend the Symphonica’s policy of not necessarily telling endangered populations that D2s may be nearby. The reasoning is sound, if cynical; fear saps peoples’ motivation, and that isn’t something that can be afforded when the world is just starting to get back on its feet. That, and they can’t really do anything to defend themselves without a Conductor around anyway. (Perhaps tellingly, Leonard doesn’t say that last part himself. It’s Takt who picks up the ball there.)

Leonard is an interesting and somewhat ambiguous figure, and his driving the episode’s plot doesn’t end here. It’s he and Titan who take the initiative into investigating Mr. Lang, uncovering a secret casino–a remnant of old Las Vegas in both physical form and spirit–without much effort. And while Takt, Destiny, and Anna eventually make their way to this place, too, it’s Leonard who gets in without a fight. When Destiny eventually drags Takt and Anna there, it’s because she’s following “vibrations” under the ground, and she’s more than happy to kick the living daylights out of Lang’s security guards to get in.

Of course, the inevitable eventually happens and Mr. Lang’s underground gambling den is promptly invaded by freaky spiked beetle-gorilla D2s, who bust in through the floor and bounce around the place like Sonic The Hedgehog in a casino level’s pinball table. Leonard gives Takt a sort of live-fire exercise here, and it’s over the course of this sequence where he and Destiny finally learn to “play” together like a proper pair of musicians should. Because this is takt op, that entails kicking a lot of monster ass. And indeed, much of it is kicked over the course of these few minutes. It’s the kind of scene that makes you want to break out old-timey adjectives like “rollicking” and “rip-roaring.” The show’s just fun to watch, OK?

After all this, we bid goodbye to Lenny here, with him shaking Takt’s hand Conductor to Conductor as he wishes our protagonist well. Their own business in Vegas taken care of, Leonard and Titan ride off into the sunset. I suspect we’ll be seeing them again. Oh, and if you’re worried about Mr. Lang, don’t be. Titan rounds him up in the episode’s closing minutes. What exactly happens to him is left to our imagination, but aside from confirming that yes, he was stealing money from the farmers to fund his bougie casinoland fantasies. This sequence also proves that Titan can be quite scary when she puts her mind to it! I really do hope we see more of her.

“This shot is mostly just to remind you that I’m not human and also carry a firearm.”

This episode lays some groundwork for future ones, certainly, but more importantly than that it’s the kind of engaging fun that you (or at least, I) look for in a series like this. It’s a nice reprieve after the rather serious nature of the last two episodes without being so lightweight that it feels inconsequential. This is what you want out of a traveler story series, and I hope many more episodes like this are to come.

Until next week, anime fans.

Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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, excepting direct quotations, 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

The Frontline Report [10/24/21]

The Frontline Report is a weekly column where I summarize my journey through anime, manga, and the related spheres of popular culture over the past week. Expect spoilers for covered material.

This week’s header image is from Mieruko-chan

Just going to keep it honest with you folks. I have been enduring some pretty awful insomnia and some related mental health issues over the past several days. I have a little bit written about Mieruko-chan down below and that’s ALL I’m writing for this weekend other than the very brief “around MPA” stuff. Sometimes life is just like that. Hopefully you enjoy what I have written, and hopefully I’ll be in a bit better shape this time next week.

Seasonals

Mieruko-chan

An interesting thing about Mieruko-chan is that it can insert Miko, its lead, into ordinary ghost stories, where she serves as an observer and occasionally as a wry commentator. The most recent episode, for example, sees her accidentally lock eyes with a prettyboy at a Starbucks, to the great displeasure of the grotesque phantom of his presumable-departed following him around. She has to bluff her way out by convincing the ghost that he’s not her type while simultaneously not actually acknowledging its presence. But in a case of classic ghost tale morality, when his living date eventually shows up, she’s unknowingly escorted by a throng of her own departed lovers. The obvious implication being that they’re both murderers.

Beyond these interesting little situations, the show’s actual underlying narrative is pushed along a bit here, too. Poor Miko tries getting her hands on some juzu beads only for them to repeatedly pop apart in the presence of the stronger spirits she attracts. There’s even a pretty funny sequence near the end of the episode when a con-woman / actual practicing medium of some kind busts out her proverbial big guns; a shining, sparkling, glowing bracelet. She hands it over to Miko and it, too, promptly flies apart in the face of one of the ghosts following her around.

While the series is not exactly an earth-shatterer, I’ve always said (and I maintain) that the best solid seasonals tend to be good executions on genres that don’t get a ton of play, and Mieruko-chan proves itself a pretty good little horror-comedy here.

Elsewhere on MPA

Let’s Watch takt op.Destiny Episode 3 – We meet some new faces this week, isn’t that exciting?

Magic Planet Monthly Movies: Alice in Deadly School – I didn’t know what to expect from this OVA, but I am glad I watched it.

Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Monthly Movies, Reviews, Uncategorized

Magic Planet Monthly Movies: Is There Life After Death for ALICE IN DEADLY SCHOOL?

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

When people talk about bonds, this is what they mean, isn’t it?

At just 40 minutes long, Alice in Deadly School only barely qualifies for this column, but I’m bending the rules for a reason here. Not a single thing about this OVA makes a lick of sense. In origin alone, it stands as a notable example of how odd the margins of the mainstream anime industry can get, stemming as it does from post-apoc idol show also-ran Gekidol (which, full disclosure, I haven’t seen). A friend called it the best anime of the year. Another absolutely hates it. It takes a truly special kind of anime to inspire strong feelings on both ends of the whatever-number-out-of-ten spectrum like that. And whatever else one may say about it, “special” is a word that describes Alice in Deadly School to a tee.

It tiptoes over the course of three or so different genres during its brief runtime, has a nowhereman visual style that, if you didn’t know, you could conceivably place anywhere from the past 20 years of mainstream anime, and is utterly fucking heartbreaking. I’ve tried to avoid using this phrase much over the course of the past year writing for this blog, as I was guilty of trotting it out too often in 2020, but the fact of the matter is that there just isn’t much like this.

Premisewise, at least, it has some ancestors. “Zombie outbreak at a high school” is not new ground for anime and manga; a cursory glance at anything from the infamous High School of the Dead to Dowman Sayman’s black comedy one shot “Girls’ Night Out of The Living Dead” will tell you that much. It’s hard to even argue that Alice in Deadly School brings much new to the table from this angle. Crossbreeding that particular premise with the girls’ club school-life genre has been done before too (see 2015’s SCHOOL-LIVE!). What Alice offers is lightning-electric resonance. Do you feel doomed every single day because of the relentless onslaught of soul-crushingly miserable news that permeates our lives, from the outrageously petty to the globally catastrophic? I have a pretty strong feeling that the people who made Alice do too.

The term “zombie” itself is never used–standard for the genre these days–but it’s pretty clear what the creepy undead Things taking over the high school Alice takes place in are. Our cast then, naturally, are the outbreak’s few survivors. The main focus is on the “manzai club”, in truth just a pair of girls–Yuu and Nobuko–who aspire to be a manzai duo.

They’re hardly the only characters (and I’m doing the film a disservice by only briefly mentioning the Softball Club duo here), but they’re the two most important. Through their eyes, we see the broken-down remnants of the high school’s world, and their character interactions are great too. Some of this is funny; the OVA opens with the two riffing about why melonbread doesn’t actually have any melons in it. (Because a melon is too large, of course.) Some if it is melancholy; the two ruminate on their pasts more than once, and we find out that Yuu lost her mother some time ago. Some of it is just upsetting; the pair also witness the zombie of a former classmate being shot through the head, and the OVA’s whole color palette goes black, white, and blood-splatter red in the aftermath.

About that; Alice has a tendency to warp its visual style toward whatever emotion the story is trying to convey in the moment. This is not at all rare in anime (or in film in general). In 2021 alone, works as diverse as Super Cub and Sonny Boy have done it to lesser or great degrees. But a case this extreme in an OVA whose visual style is otherwise pretty grounded is notable, especially with regard to the backgrounds, which often take on a hand-painted look when the film needs to move away from “reality” to convey a particularly strong emotion; nostalgia, sadness, disquiet, etc.

As Alice ticks on, its cast hatch a plan to escape the titular deadly school. This part of the OVA particularly is rather straightforward, but it works.

Who says kids don’t need to know Chemistry?

And as Alice in Deadly School nears its end, I face a particular challenge.

You see, conveying why something hits you emotionally is hard. It’s arguably my entire job, but that doesn’t make it easier in cases like this. There are a lot of anime that end with a character death. It’s not rare, and most of the time it does little for me. I tend to consider it a little cheap; something of a writer’s shortcut. An easy way to tug on your audience’s heartstrings and also ditch a character you’ve run out of ideas for at the same time. It’s only rarely actually objectionable, but it’s one of the immortal tools of literature that does the least for me.

So when I actually am hit by one, I have to really sit and think about why.

Nobuko dies near Alice in Deadly School‘s very, very end. We don’t even see it on screen, but it’s clear that she’s contracted the virus and is starting to slip. Her and Yuu’s final conversation–in a strange, green dreamspace that is mostly in Yuu’s own mind–is devastating. One of the film’s key themes is that dreams, even if we don’t achieve them, can keep us going through even the worst times in our lives. Nobuko’s is her shared dream with Yuu, to be a comedy duo, and it tangibly, provably, does not happen.

But Yuu can carry on–though not without heartache–because Nobuko’s spirit, her own aspirations, live on inside her. Alice seems to offer the minor salve that perhaps no one is truly dead if they’re remembered. The final piece falls into place here, in one of the year’s single most….I don’t even really know. Brilliant? Audacious? Just plain weird? Artistic decisions; an apparent riff on the Love Live! series’ famous “Kotori photobomb”, here reappropriated as a symbol that no matter when those close to us may leave our lives, we will always carry a piece of them with us. It’s contrasted with a final cut to the reality of the situation; Yuu posing by herself in front of an empty swing set.

This theme of carrying your torch as long as it’ll stay lit bears out in a few other ways near the OVA’s conclusion, too. A character whose lifelong goal was to become an idol finds herself trapped in the school’s announcement room, and sings her heart out over the school broadcast system even as she’s actively succumbing to the virus. She imagines herself in a pastel pink music video even as she’s literally bleeding from the neck. For a single moment, she is who she’s always wanted to be. And then she’s gone, and her song ends like the flip of a lightswitch.

So is Alice in Deadly School ultimately a hopeful work? It’s a bit hard to say, but I’d like to think so, although maybe “cautiously optimistic” is a better way to think of it. The girls who escape only do so after they give up on any hope of outside help and basically rescue themselves. If we take Alice as an allegory for our fears about the future of the world–and goodness could it apply to a lot of them, as is a long-standing tradition in zombie fiction–maybe the message is that action is our only option. Then again, the girls flee to a nearby mall, apparently being maintained as a shelter by some other group of people. So perhaps the takeaway is that we can only survive with the help of others, but that we need to take the effort to actually reach out into our own hands.

The real brilliance of course is that you can take all that and more from Alice in Deadly School. It’s a truly fascinating little film. Not unlike a certain other short-form anime project that I covered not quite yet a year ago, it reads as a eulogy to those who are gone from the ones who are still alive, although its scope is broader. It offers a small hope; maybe some of us can make it out of all this alive. And for those who’ll die either way? Perhaps we can at least go out on our own terms. The same, really, could be said of Alice itself.

It seems doubtful that the film (or its parent series) will ever pick up much of a following. Weird little OVA projects like this almost never do, at least not over here in the Anglosphere. But for 40 minutes, it’s one of the strangest, most resonant, and yeah, one of the best anime of 2021. That counts for something. Hold it in your hearts.

Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 3

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

I think I’m closer to figuring takt op.Destiny out. I could’ve told you from the opening minutes of episode one that this series had a flair for the dramatic, but “campy high-concept action series” is a pretty populated genre these days. That alone doesn’t tell us all that much. When I say that I’m closer to “figuring it out,” I mean I think I know what it reminds me most of, at least at present, and that would be Black Rock Shooter. Not the OVA, the TV anime.

Both shows are predicated on high melodrama and have a broad music theming tied together with ostentatious transforming heroine designs. There are of course some big differences too; Black Rock Shooter is a lot more esoteric than takt op has been so far, and being animated entirely in 3D CGI gives it a very different visual feel, but the general similarity is definitely there. And that’s a good thing! Black Rock Shooter is a real gem, and there’s enough interest in the franchise even ten years later that we’re getting a new anime based on it next year. So believe me when I say, I mean the comparison only in the most flattering of terms. Even the opening for the third episode (“Awakening -Journey”), an honestly kinda edgy scene where Takt and his new Musicart cut through swathes of D2s only to eventually pass out, will make you say “oh the drama” in a good way.

They’re rescued by new character Leonard, who is almost certainly more than he appears, but other than this scene mostly serves as a charming face to drop exposition and cryptic hints on us alike in equal measure.

To the Guy Enjoyer segment of my audience: You’re welcome.

His own Musicart, Titan, helps out here too. I’m actually a little sad she doesn’t get more of a role in this episode. (This is to say nothing of the other Musicart who briefly appears in the opening, cuts a huge magic tuning fork in half(??) and then disappears.)

Now does all of that mean that takt op‘s third episode is particularly great on its own merits aside from that scene? Well, I complained last week that it felt like takt op seemed to think it needed to “explain itself” in terms of worldbuilding and mechanics and such. There is some logic to this–this is a tie-in to a mobile game, after all–but it’s easily the weakest component of the show, and it takes up a good chunk of episode three. The silver lining is that the show’s production carries it even in moments where the story is a bit dry, and the characters are likable enough that even “dry” isn’t actually “boring.” This leaves us then with an episode that is a bit slow in spots but still mostly pretty good. There are worse things to be.

As for what is exposited to us, I won’t bother recapping every nuance, but there are two main takeaways here, and a third that’s essentially a restatement of something we already knew. Almost all of which comes to us courtesy of Leonard, filling his Guy Who Knows Things role here admirably.

One: The “Cosette” we followed in episode one and the latter half of episode two is not really Cosette. Musicarts lose their prior sense of self upon “awakening.” We learn–although anyone who read prerelease press materials sort of knew this already–that her actual name is Destiny, hence the show’s title. Everyone rather stubbornly insists on calling her Cosette anyway, though for the purposes of this column going forward I’ll be referring to her by her Musicart name and reserving “Cosette” for her prior, pre-awakening self. She’s also “unstable” somehow, which perhaps explains her wildly fluctuating power as a fighter.

Two: Destiny awoke in a very unusual fashion. Leonard informs Takt and Anna (and by extension, us) that most Musicarts are trained over the course of many years. (The even moderately attentive viewer will note this raises quite a lot of red flags about the whole “Musicarts forget their entire past lives” point, but that’s presumably something to be addressed down the road.) Destiny’s emergence, all at once, makes her very unusual, and Leonard speculates she may be a literal world-first. She also, again unusually for a Musicart, appears to somehow unwittingly sap Takt’s lifeforce when battling. This again is called out as unheard-of, and Leonard seems genuinely shocked by it.

Three: The only people who can possibly shed any more light on any of this are the Symphonica themselves. And as we knew from episode one, their HQ is in New York. The full route that Takt, Anna, and Destiny plan to take is detailed for us here, starting by going “down” to Las Vegas, along the American South, through the Appalachian Mountains, and up the East Coast to New York. Leonard and Titan offer to tag along part of the way, yet they were nowhere to be seen during episode one. Hmm.

Boy, Titan sure is cute. It would really be an emotional jab to the gut if she and her Maestro died horribly or turned out to be evil or something.

And that’s essentially our episode. There’s another (great) fight scene to close things out, in which Destiny literally blasts Takt’s house away in an almost hilariously on-the-nose symbol of his abandonment of his old life. But hey, the show is at its best when it’s not being subtle. More metaphors like that, I say!

The closing moments of the episode feature our main trio piled into Anna’s car, where Takt and Destiny lightly bicker. For the first time since its premiere, takt op feels like it’s found its “normal” again in this final scene, and the character dynamic that immediately endeared me to the series clicks back into place perfectly. Will it hold up for the rest of the series? That’s impossible to know. But I do know one thing, assuming next episode picks up right after this one. Anime fans? We have a trip to take.

Until then.

Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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, excepting direct quotations, 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

The Frontline Report [10/14/21]

The Frontline Report is a weekly column where I summarize my journey through anime, manga, and the related spheres of popular culture over the past week. Expect spoilers for covered material.

This week’s header image is from Rumble Garanndoll

It’s been a bit of a week here at Magic Planet anime! Between WordPress scares (that thankfully turned out to be false alarms) and the sheer amount of good anime coming out, there’s a lot to keep track of, which is why this column is a day late this week. Luckily, I’m still here to offer guidance in this time of multimedia overload. Aren’t I so generous?

Side note: on a non-anime note I’ve been both watching and reading an absolute astro-ton of Transformers stuff recently. Most of it is outside the purview of this blog (not that that’s stopped me before, as we’ll see at the bottom of this article), but maybe I can eventually find something to cover here. No promises, mind you.

Image

Anyway, let’s get in to the weekly grind. I’m once again trying a slightly different layout for these columns. Let me know what you think.

Seasonals

The Heike Story

Where does Biwa herself fit into the saga of the Heike? This week’s episode sees Shigemori’s incompetent brother succeed him, and the natural follows. Meanwhile, his father’s ambitions continue to grow out of control. This episode isn’t the first time a battle has been waged in The Heike Story, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it is perhaps the most real it’s felt. In general, The Heike Story excels at putting a human face to the churning horrors of war and political machinations.

And yet apart from it all–yet inescapably entwined at the same time–is Biwa. Here she sees the emperor’s wife talk herself into forgiveness. How long can that last?

Platinum End

Of every genre that exists, taking that of the death game as the foundation for a cosmology is up there as far as being horrifying. Yet that’s exactly the note Platinum End‘s second episode opens on. It’s all mysticism and nature-of-man hand-wringing. It’s a little tiresome, honestly, but at least it looks cool.

Here’s a better question: is Mirai actually a decent character? He’s not super exciting, but he’s got a decent amount of moral fiber and it’s commendable that he feels compelled to stand up to the two bullies we’re introduced here. So he’s at the very least, easy to root for. The episode’s main plot begins by introducing an obnoxious comedian who only uses his Red Arrows to make women fall for him. Of course, Mirai never even gets to actually meet that comedian. Our Kamen Rider-lookin’ friend from last week shows up and shoots him with a White Arrow. Between the legs. Because that’s the kind of subtle visual metaphor you can expect from Platinum End.

Let’s talk about that guy in the mask, actually.

Said masked hero is Metropoliman, who styles himself after the main character of an in-universe toku show of the same name. “Guy who thinks he’s a superhero but is actually just an authoritarian zealot” is kind of an old character archetype in death game anime at this point, but going this hard on it is fairly rare in my experience. Metro has a suit, calls his attacks, and is clearly both very dangerous and kinda nuts. He is, in other words, an excellently camp villain. If the show knows what it’s doing, it’ll keep him around for a while. The final moments of the episode reveal that he and Mirai attend the same high school, so the seeds of an interesting conflict are there. Wouldn’t it be fascinating if Platinum End actually turned out to be good? Who knows what the future holds.

Side note: did you know the Death Note guys made the manga this is an adaption of?

Rumble Garanndoll

Somewhat foolishly, I’m still always a little caught offguard when a show as campy as Rumble Garanndoll deigns to have a fairly complex plot. (Don’t ask me why, my first seasonal anime was Kill la Kill, which was very much campy and got fairly complicated in its second cour.) There’s a lot one could comment on here, from the scenery that makes up the resistance base in Akihabara (which includes a mummified Statue of Liberty half-buried in the ground. It fires lasers from its torch to repel intruders, naturally.) to someone on the translation team having a laugh by making sure a line with the word “culture” in it lined up exactly with the camera cutting to a gratuitous butt closeup. The actual core of the episode though is on Hosomichi and Rin themselves, and that’s where most of the interesting material here lies.

As a host, Hosomichi must essentially suppress his real personality to make money, and that’s actually touched upon here when his sleazy boss forces him to try to get on well with Rin so he can make a paycheck from the rebels. (And, consequently, pay back the debt he owes.) This is contrasted by Rin whose commitment to the cause is entirely sincere, driven by a desire to reunite with her lost family. (And, naturally, find the Sea Emperor Zaburn masters so she can rewatch the series. This is still a bit of a silly anime, after all.) The difference between someone who’s been rendered spiritually hollow by the toll that capitalistic demands force upon his life and someone who is still very much holding the flame of passion in her heart is stark. Is it enough to rescue Rumble Garanndoll from its occasional but notable missteps? That’s a difficult question, and one I’m not sure we’ll get an answer to anytime soon.

Elsewhere on MPA

Seasonal First Impressions: Komi Can’t Communicate – This is just one of those things that I didn’t expect to like, and then it turned out that the first episode was really good. That happens sometimes, and it’s always a treat. I’m not sure what I’ll think of Komi six weeks from now, but for now the short version is that I can heartily recommend the series on visual merits alone. It’s just a lot of fun to watch.

Let’s Watch takt op.Destiny: Episode 2 – I said last week I’d cover this weekly and by gum I intend to keep my word. The second episode didn’t blow me away like the first did, but it’s still very good and I’m quite interested to see where the series goes from here.

As a small side note: you may be wondering what happened to coverage of Ancient Girl’s Frame, since I mentioned that last week. The unfortunate truth is that Funimation’s subtitles are so bad that they’re essentially incomprehensible. And while what I saw of the show didn’t knock my socks off visually, it’s really quite hard to fairly judge a series if you literally don’t know what’s happening in it. So with all due apologies to anyone who was looking forward to that, I won’t be covering Ancient Girl’s Frame.

Do you know what I do plan to cover, at least a little bit, though, now that it has a release date after literal years of being mostly a mass of rumors and hearsay?

We’ll see how things look on the 26th.

As a final, final note. Watch this music video, it’s extremely cool.

Until next time, anime fans.

Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Seasonal Impression Roundups

Seasonal First Impressions: The Beautiful Bloom of KOMI CAN’T COMMUNICATE

Seasonal First Impressions is a column where I detail my thoughts, however brief or long, about a currently-airing anime’s first episode or so.

“Do you have a dream, Komi?”
“My dream is to make 100 friends….please don’t laugh.”
“Then I’ll be your first friend, and help you make the rest.”

I didn’t actually intend to write more of these for this season, but sometimes things have a way of surprising you.

Komi Can’t Communicate was not something I intended to pick up. I didn’t even really intend to watch the premiere. To tell you the gods’ honest truth, I don’t really like the original manga all that much. I know! It’s widely-liked, by enough people that it’s the sort of thing where I’ve just accepted that I’m firmly in the minority. I followed it for a few months when it was relatively new, and it just never inspired any strong feelings in me. I had some things I kinda liked about it, some things I kinda didn’t like, but on the whole it didn’t move me. I didn’t get the hype. But I started hearing things about the anime; positive things. Things that were so positive that I felt like I just wouldn’t be doing my job if I felt like I didn’t at least look into it. And good lord, what a difference a change of medium can make.

On paper, Komi Can’t Communicate shouldn’t really work as an anime. This is a series whose primary character dynamic hinges almost entirely on talking. No, not talking; non-verbal communication. It’s a bit of a challenge to make that visually interesting. And indeed, while the manga itself certainly has nice art, I wouldn’t say it’s terribly visually dynamic. That can be a real problem in motion! So how did Komi‘s team overcome it? Well, in a way, the answer is very simple.

They turned in one of the best productions of the entire year.

Komi Can’t Communicate is gorgeous. (Enough so in motion that it’s actually rather hard to capture its appeal in still screenshots.) Its only real competition this season is takt op.Destiny, from which it is stylistically whole universes away. But while takt op is bone-cracking action and melodramatic camp, Komi Can’t Communicate zeroes in on the warmth of youth, even when it’s being funny. It’s a feeling I associate more with films like Words Bubble Up Like Soda Pop than I do TV anime. That’s not to say that Komi is particularly serious–it’s a fairly straightforward and lighthearted show–but it’s straightforward and lighthearted while looking utterly beautiful. This is the sort of thing that even those wholly uninterested in its plot can watch for visuals alone. There’re loads of clever little tricks in here; cut-ins, overlaid text, subtle art style shifts, etc. Some of these are inherited from the manga, but even those simply look way better here. This is a truly rare elevation of the source material, and I think even those who love the manga will agree with that.

This shot is from the OP, which is an instantly-iconic, sun-drenched piece of loveliness.

Its actual plot is so basic that it barely warrants summarizing. What do you want me to say? Boy meets girl! This is simple stuff. But Shouko Komi herself (our female lead) is an interesting character. As the title implies, she has what is colloquially known in Japan as a “communication disorder”. This to say: she cannot talk to people. Her case seems to be particularly bad. Over the course of the first episode, actress Aoi Koga (who recently made a name for herself as the title character in Kaguya-sama: Love is War!), doesn’t say a single actual word. Her vocal consists of flustered stuttering. That’s it.

But as the narration helpfully (and truthfully!) points out, people who have these kinds of difficulties do not crave human contact any less than anyone else. Komi still badly wants friends, but her anxiety is such an issue that she can’t bring herself to even say things as simple as morning greetings to anybody. Worse; all this, combined with her general appearance, has convinced most that she is an archetypal “cool beauty”, rather than a kind, gentle girl who deeply, simply wants to have friends and live a normal life.

That’s where our other lead comes in. Hitohito Tadano is an astoundingly average fellow, aside from his odd (but quite cute) habit of wearing a flower in his hair. The only “skill” of any kind that Tadano brings to the table is that it’s he who first recognizes Komi’s true nature. So, they get to talking. Or rather, to writing, as he comes up with the idea that using the classroom chalkboard while they happen to be alone between classes might be less anxiety-inducing than actually speaking aloud. By coincidence or by competence, he hits on the right idea, and the episode’s entire middle third is the two getting to know each other through a sprawling correspondence of chalk. This was cute in the manga. Here, it’s enrapturing, it pulls you in. For a few minutes, these two teenagers getting to know each other seems like the most important thing in the world.

Eventually, they come around to the exchange quoted at the top of this article. Things take a turn for the more comedic not long afterward, as the narration reminds us that the high school in which Komi Can’t Communicate is set is full of wild, wacky characters. (In the manga, I remember this kind of being a turn-off for me. I suppose we’ll see how it’s handled here.) So perhaps Tadano’s got more than he bargained for, but one gets the sense that he’d be okay with it if he knew. And that’s really the key thing; what makes a romance anime work is that we the audience have to believe that these two characters are interested in each other on a fairly deep level. Komi Can’t Communicate‘s first episode proves it with a startlingly clear, rosy, warm portrait of two young people who simply happened to be there for each other at the right time. For whom that simple serendipity will likely develop into much more. What else could you ask for? Komi and Tadano both get a little less lonely. The world gets a little brighter.

Grade: A+
The Takeaway: Komi Can’t Communicate stands as the season’s second truly essential anime. If you’re interested in romance anime as a genre or seasonal anime as a format, you should check this out.

Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 2

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime, and provide thoughts and analysis on each episode. You should expect spoilers for both the current episode and all episodes before it.

Serious question; did people think that takt op.Destiny needed to like, explain itself?

Surely some people must have. That’s the only explanation I can really muster for the puzzling note on which the second episode, “Music -Reincarnation-” opens. We open not by picking up after last week’s riotous romp, but at some point before then. A sort of “how we got here.” takt op here runs through its world’s and protagonist’s backstories competently, but without much flash. We see that Takt lost his father. We see him struggle and, frankly, fail, to cope by holing up in his room for an unknowable amount of summers, pounding away at his piano but interacting with no one but Cosette and Anna. (The former of whom acts notably differently here than she does in the first episode, but we’ll get to that.) He gets snippy with them and balks at the suggestion that anything is wrong. Typical traumatized teenager stuff, mostly.

None of this is bad, but it’s a far cry from the knock-you-on-your-ass bombast of the opening episode. Certainly I don’t know how those who liked takt op.Destiny’s more lighthearted side are going to react. And while it’s certainly tolerable, it would be a pretty disappointing note for the show to continue on if it weren’t leading up to something. Thankfully, it is.

You see, it turns out that a traveling, Symphonica-sponsored music festival will be arriving in town. Surely, nothing bad could come of this.

For a while, nothing does. Grand Maestro Sagan (the one responsible for the “music ban” in the first place) makes a brief but notable appearance. Other than that, the festival sequence is fairly lighthearted and warm. Takt and Cosette even play piano together at one point. It’s cute.

Oh you cishets and your instruments.

Of course, this is not the sort of show where things stay copacetic for very long. Soon, a band of D2s are attracted to the festival and everything goes to hell. Cosette nearly dies, Takt loses an arm. If that doesn’t seem to immediately square with what we’ve known of the series so far, you’ll want to hold on to your monocles, because the final few minutes are where “Music -Reincarnation-” really earns its stripes. (And, yes, explains its title.)

We don’t get the specifics–and why would we need them?–but Takt unintentionally does some kind of music-magic that infuses Cosette with new life and seemingly transforms her into a Musicart. We end on a cliffhanger, but not before some truly stunning, wonderfully melodramatic dialogue and imagery.

The remainder of this past-set story to be resolved sometime next week, we must assume.

In general, it’s kind of an odd follow-up to the first episode. Mostly for how tonally different it is, and for the implication that the Cosette we got to know last week is not “really” her. (I suspect, even though it doesn’t come up explicitly here, that being infused with a Musicart somehow changes one’s personality. Recall that Cosette was almost android-y at times last week.) But if takt op.Destiny wants to trade in some of its visual oomph for melodrama, I think it turns out to be well-earned here. I just hope the series doesn’t forget why people tuned in in the first place.

Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

Posted on in anime, Seasonal Impression Roundups

Seasonal First Impressions: Let’s Get Ready to RUMBLE GARANNDOLL

Seasonal First Impressions is a column where I detail my thoughts, however brief or long, about a currently-airing anime’s first episode or so.

A majority of this year’s real marquee anime have been pretty serious affairs. Analyses of the human psyche, explorations of shared generational trauma, things of that nature. Even the great final conclusion of the Neon Genesis Evangelion saga, Thrice Upon A Time, among the medium’s defining achievements this year, fits in here. And that’s all well and good! There is an important, well-earned place for that sort of thing in popular art. But if you’ve felt like something was missing–something simpler, something closer to the root of why people tend to like cartoons in the first place–Rumble Garanndoll may just be what you’re looking for.

This one fits in a curious tradition of self-aware otaku escapism shows. The first episode points toward commonalities with series such as Anime Gataris and the Akiba’s Trip anime or even The Rolling Girls. (Hell, Kill la Kill arguably fits in here.) Effectively, anime that serve as defenses of themselves and by extension the entire medium. You need to be careful with this kind of thing, because it’s easy for it to drift off into self-absorption. No one truly thinks that anime is the most important thing in the world, but the magic of good anime is that it can make us feel like it is, if only for half an hour or so at a time. This monumental task; essentially to both be entertaining and justify its own existence at the same time, is what stands before Rumble Garanndoll. Lesser anime have crumbled in the face of this challenge. But Rumble Garanndoll is willing to try anyway, as evidenced by the existence of its frankly hilarious “OTAKU ISN’T DEAD” tagline.

It’s too early to say definitively if Rumble Garanndoll pulls the whole thing off, but we’re off to a good start. Our lead is Hosomichi Kudo, ex-otaku and–this isn’t a joke–employee of a host bar. He takes his glasses off in order to avoid having to look his clients in the eye while he talks to them and has the opening theme of an in-universe anime (the fictional Sea Emperor Zaburn) as his ringtone. While he is clearly meant to be, to some point, You, Dear Otaku, he has more personality than the blander end of the Protagonist-kun spectrum. There’s a big gulf between that and being an actually great main character, but it’s progress. He may get there.

Chug!

As for our setting? Just the usual. A Japan that’s been divided in two by a fascist, art-hating oppressive state lead by a guy who can’t be older than 20 or so. He inherited the position, and the state is called the “True Country”. Just so you don’t have any illusions about who the bad guys are here.

Sure you are, bud.

The other half of that “two” is the Fantasy Country, which, although it’s not explicitly spelled out here, seems like a dystopic extension of modern Akihabara. (We do learn that specifically one thing is from Akiba, which we’ll get to.) The first episode opens with the True Country invading the Fantasy Country, via squat, diminutive mecha that might remind viewers of 2019’s similarly-titled Granbelm.

A lot happens during the invasion, but the main thing is that a lone rogue mecha dares to stand up to the invaders. Its name is Shark One. It’s a blue, adorable thing, and it’s kept active by an AI-droid-thing-it’s-not-totally-clear yet called a Battery Girl. The one who controls Shark One is named Rin, and she is just great, an instantly-likable little firecracker of a character who spends much of the episode as a moeblob and is willing to open up to Hosomichi because they both like Zaburn. (Being voiced by Ai Farouz helps a lot to sell the whole thing.)

Hosomichi, of course, soon finds himself in Shark One’s cockpit. There’s a lot of great back and forth here between him, Rin, and his former manager, who is tagging along for the ride. Occasionally punctuated via phone call or megaphone by the hilariously-named Commander Balzac, who seems to serve as the leader of the resistence that Rin and Shark One represent. That he kinda looks like an aging Kamina is probably not a coincidence.

This entire sequence, frankly, is charming as all hell. It also, impressively, manages to stay on the right side of self-aware, with Hosomichi and Rin’s mild embarrassment at having to scream “SHARK CAVALIER!” at the top of their lungs being the only real example. (Even that is more charming than anything.)

Crucially, it’s cut with this little bit of dialogue. The message is clear, and twofold. There is firstly the text itself, and then the subtler implication that Rumble Garandoll is not content with gesturing toward great anime. It wants to be a great anime. You don’t plant a thematic flag front and center in your first episode unless you’re very self-confident.

The aftermath of all this, of course, sees Hosomichi recruited into this (as of now, still nameless to us) resistance. The journey has just begun, for him and for us alike. We also meet Rin in her non-chibi physical form for the first time, rocking a Mega Man-inspired blue suit. She and Hosomichi have a brief squabble. Is a first episode ending on that note cliché or timeless? That, really is the question.

Art, at its absolute best, can inspire and connect us. Most anime don’t commit, full-tilt, to that aspiration. And most anime that do commit don’t succeed. (Pour one out for 2018 boondoggle Darling in the FranXX.) Will Rumble Garandoll get there? It’s really quite hard to say. But it’s possible, and for some, possibility alone will be enough. Certainly it is for me.

Grade: A-
The Takeaway: For a certain kind of person–and you know who you are–this is a must-see. Most others should at least give the first episode a watch unless this kind of thing just strongly isn’t your cup of tea.

Wanna talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers? Consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

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.