Category: anime

Posted on in anime, Reviews

Review: THE IDOLMASTER (2011)

“I believe in everyone!”

In the grand scheme of things, the 2010s are only just over. In every artform, at every level of discourse, there are discussions to be had and evaluations to be made. What defined the New ’10s, now that they’re in the rear view? Perhaps more importantly, what deserves to be taken into the future? 2011’s The Idolm@ster turns ten next year, but it remains the gold standard by which nearly every other idol anime since has been judged. If it’s not the best idol anime, it can feel, especially at its heights, like the only one that truly matters.

The first interesting thing about Idolm@ster is how unselfconsciously normal it is. This is an idol anime with zero gimmicks, perhaps simply due to being from a time where you just didn’t need one. (Being adapted from an already-popular IP probably helped too.) Instead you have a large cast of characters, a shared dream of stardom among them, and some snappy sugary J-pop to soundtrack it all.

Despite these simple and few ingredients (and the aforementioned size of the cast), Idolm@ster never really feels like a marketing tool, even though on some level it is. The earnest, unfiltered look into the lives of twelve girls who are, at the start of the show, working-class entertainers conveys a kind of honesty more associated with rock documentaries than it is the idol industry.

This is not to say that The Idolm@ster is realistic–that would be absurd. Rather, it has a kind of focused idealism. The Idolm@ster does not depict so much the realities of becoming an idol (though they’re an influence on it), but rather the dream of becoming one. The series imagines a world where the truism that hard work and dedication can lead even the most humble of person to fame and fortune is not just true, but provable. This is an important distinction, because for all the mundanities it does depict, especially in its forehalf, The Idolm@ster is interested less in being about idols than it is being about people who want to become idols. It is a series, at its best moments, of character study, which elevates it above idol anime that come off as simply trying to sell something.

In an impressive feat of economy, over its 24 episodes nearly every member of its cast (including a few who aren’t members of the core 765 Pro group) gets at least one focus episode, a few get full-blown arcs. Chihaya’s, where she comes to terms with the death of her brother and learns to sing for herself, is probably the best, but several others are also very strong. This includes Haruka’s, also something of a broad-reaching arc for the group itself, which concludes the series. Not all of them quite get the screentime–or the consideration–they deserve, and The Idolm@ster‘s few flaws are always somehow tied to this. Makoto’s abbreviated story never reaches any satisfying conclusion; the gap between the masculine way she is sold to her audience and the feminine way she wants to actually present herself is never properly addressed, and it is the series’ sole serious misstep.

Importantly though not a single character feels like anything less than a fully-fledged person. Even those with somewhat silly personalities (such as Hibiki and her affinity for animals) have layers to them, and the show is keen to show off its writing in this regard. Haruka’s aforementioned show-concluding arc takes a sledgehammer to her surface personality as a hardworking ‘good girl’, only to build it back up with a healthy dose of magical realism (present in a few of the show’s strongest moments) in the penultimate episode.

But of course, as with everything, technique is only as valuable as the resonance it creates. The thing with The Idolm@ster is that even though, statistically speaking, most people watching it are not, and will never be, idols, it is shockingly easy to relate to what these girls go through. I suspect what connects with whom varies somewhat, but, going back to that character writing; every character’s motivation is simple, concrete, and dead-easy to get your head around. That means that when you see them struggle, you can put yourself in their shoes.

I love, for instance, Zombieland Saga, but most people are not (say) undead biker-delinquents, and struggles that stem from being one require a lot more levels of abstraction to really hit the audience in the heart. By contrast, and to return to my earlier examples, things like Haruka’s fear that her friend group is drifting apart, Mikki’s simple desire to be the center of attention, and Chihaya’s near-compulsive need to keep singing are all things that will touch different kinds of people in a very immediate and personal way. I write about anime because I love doing it, and I often find myself internally debating whether or not doing it just because of that is okay. Chihaya sings, as she eventually comes to terms with, because she loves doing it, and struggles with whether or not that’s okay. We are, by any reasonable metric, vastly different people, but The Idolm@ster‘s strength of craft is such that I can see myself in someone who is fundamentally very little like me because when she bares her soul at the climax of her focus arc, belting out “Nemuri Hime” acapella, I feel it in mine. What is art even for, if not that?

And that, ultimately, is what I intend to reflect here. This is a show that gets it. The appeal of a lot of anime is that everyone, fundamentally, can sometimes use a glimpse of a world where pop music or some other silly thing really can save your soul, and getting there requires a deft touch and a subtle command of high emotion. And Idolm@ster is very emotional indeed.

So, nearly ten years later, it feels safe to say that we can–and should–bring it with us into the ’20s and beyond. This is the one almost every idol anime since is still vigorously copying notes off of, and it’s easy to see why. Something this focused on looking forward could only age amazingly. “Onward to a sparkling future”, as one of the show’s many songs would put it. Are you ready?

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 Anime Writing Roundup – 8/18/20

Another Tuesday night edition. I’ve reconciled myself with the idea that as long as I get these up once a week it’s still pretty much fine.

Some stuff to lead off with here. I had the idea of possibly allowing Patreon patrons and/or Ko-Fi donators to suggest an anime movie for me to watch once a month. I’d put which of these suggestions to go with to a twitter poll and would then be obliged to write a review of the film. (I’d probably do this by just…having the Ko-Fi donators put the name of the film in their donation, but it raises the question of how to do it for Patrons. Something to consider….) How do y’all feel about that? You should let me know in the comments or on Twitter, it’s just one idea of several I’ve been batting about recently.

On to the List!

Twitter

The Rolling Girls Livewatch for #anitwitwatches – Another 1-episoder this week. One of my favorites in the whole series. I know “ACTUALLY IT WAS ALIENS!” is a hugely controversial plot twist any time it comes up but I’m kind of a sucker for it and I always thought it was implemented really well here. Episode 10 is surprisingly thought-provoking, actually. It’s really quite interesting how almost everyone older than 25 or so in the show’s setting is so anti-violence. It implies what the Great Tokyo War must’ve been like without ever actually showing it beyond a few miniscule flashbacks near the front of the series. I think that’s a really impressive trick.

Revolutionary Girl Utena livewatch – I got to a measly three episodes since I last wrote a roundup. (Stuff came up, it’s a long story) They’ve been fascinating ones, though. The episode where Nanami gets cursed by a magic cowbell (really!) is apparently kind of infamous and deservedly so. The followup, which is a heartwrenching character study of Juri (one of my favorite members of the cast), is excellent. The third one (which I watched standalone the other day) is not really as interesting to me but does mark the first appearance of “pointers”, little overlaid fingers on-screen that point at various things. Ikuhara picked this up from a live action filmmaker whose name is escaping me at the moment, it’s the kind of thing that is certainly a fascinating technique but also on a much more surface level, just kinda funny.

The Geek Girl Authority

The God of High School Recap (S01E06): anima/force – Hey this episode was really good! GOH seems to be really picking up as it heads into its second half and I’m happy for that, an injection of good old fashioned Jojo-inspired campiness is exactly what this show needs. (And I do mean specifically Jojo-inspired, a lot of the villains introduced here seem to basically have stands.)

DECA-DENCE Recap (S01E06): Radiator – I seriously don’t know how this show keeps getting better.

Magic Planet Anime

It’s been another busy week over here! Which is a bit surprising because late last week or thereabouts I was feeling genuinely pretty dismal over the state of both the anime fan community on the whole and specifically myself. I’m pretty sure I suffer from some kind of mood disorder! But enough about that, several things (and of course, my good friends) helped me pull through, and I wrote about some of them.

to pick up the pen and sing again: Another Late Night “Idolm@ster” Ramble – Sometimes you’re watching an idol anime at 3am on a Surface tablet and it just makes you wanna cry. This is a writeup about one of those times.

in defiance of the Sun: The Eternal Midnight of ZUTOMAYO – This is interesting in that it’s not really an anime article except in a very peripheral sense. Zutomayo are a Japanese rock band that I’ve recently gotten really into, and I started wondering why, because I haven’t been into any music this heavily in a very long time. I reach something of a conclusion in the article itself, but it’s an ongoing process. I have to be honest I was a little sad this one didn’t get more readers! Hopefully it has a long tail. Stream “Study Me”, by the way.

Other Thoughts N’ Such

I have officially reached the halfway point of Eureka Seven! I’m torn between really loving the relationship between Renton and Eureka (much more than I thought I would) as well as the show’s weirder elements and being kind of offput at how Holland and honestly much of the rest of the Gekkostate crew are just kind of assholes. Like I get why they’re that way, but there’s a shocking amount of “40 year old man lays out 15 year old kid because he’s frustrated toward / jealous of said kid” in this show and it’s pretty unflinching! Not for everybody, this one.

I’ve also been rewatching Kaguya-sama: Love Is War!‘s second season (the confusingly subtitled Love Is War?) with my girlfriend. It is perhaps the perfect show to watch with your significant other, I considered doing a Twenty Perfect Minutes writeup on episode three, which is a fantastic spin-cycle of sincere romantic overtures, melancholy at the (apparent) impending breakup of a friend group. I may still do said writeup, but my hands need a rest for the rest of the evening I think. (I’ve got a lot more writing with my name on it tomorrow =w=;;)

Finally, I started the manga Bad Girl Exorcist Reina the other day. I may do a more substantial writeup on this at some point in the future, but as of now it’s kind of a mixed bag. (The good points: girl punches J-horror ghosts into submission. The bad points: a genuinely surprising amount of casual….I’ll just say ‘isms and ‘phobias instead of listing them out.) They seem to be dropping off in more recent chapters but the scanlation is only about 25 in, so I’m hesitant to make any strong recommendations at the moment. I do leave you with this image when deciding if you’d like to pick it up or not.

That’s all for this week, friends! I hope you’re doing well and you’ve enjoyed some of my work this week. Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter if you’ve got any questions or just want to say hi.

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, Misc. Anime, Other Posts

in defiance of the Sun: The Eternal Midnight of ZUTOMAYO

Depending on how often you use the site, and what your browser history is like, you may recently have seen this two-tone haired character staring out at you from somewhere in your Youtube recommendations.

That’s how I first learned of Zutomayo, at least. The rock group’s full name (Zutto Mayonaka de Iinoni) means something like “I wish it was midnight all the time” (or more liberally and poetically; “Midnight Forever”), a phrase that gives some indication all on its own where the group are coming from. If you want the traditional rock critic-delivered backstory spiel, there isn’t much of one for Zutomayo. The group consists of the pseudonymous ACA-Ne and a cadre of other musicians, and are only a few years old. (Their debut single “Bite The Second Hand” dropped in 2018.) Despite all this; the group are no cult act, at least not domestically, with their two EPs ranking high both on Billboard of Japan’s Hot 100 and the pickier Oricon album charts.

But I’m not that interested in explaining why Zutomayo are popular. I think that’s pretty obvious; they’re a really good band with impressive chops that also tend to put their songs behind compelling and creative animated music videos. That they are well-liked makes perfect sense.

I am interested on a more personal level, here. It’s not much an exaggeration to say that Zutomayo are the most I’ve cared about what could probably be defined as an actual rock band since I was a teenager, being someone who mostly grew up on top 40 and later hip-hop as my preferred music formats of choice.

I first became aware of the “Study Me” video not long after it went live. The first time I listened to it, I “only” liked it. I saved it to a youtube playlist I keep good pop songs in, but I didn’t have an immediate strong reaction to it. How doing that tends to work for me is that I play something a few times, eventually get sick of it, and remove it from said playlist. (Very sophisticated, I know. This is why I’m not a music critic in any serious sense.)

The second time I heard it, something….clicked. I don’t know if it’s that I was also watching the music video with full attention this time, or if it was just something in the way ACA-Ne yells “FUN-KY!” during the chorus, but I was completely blown away. I listened to it back to back several times in a row (something I almost never do) and immediately started seeking out other songs by the band. I’ve developed my favorites over the relatively short time I’ve known of Zutomayo, but it took until I stumbled upon a video by Youtuber Steve M. (I don’t normally like that kind of thing, but Steve’s video is one of the few solid sources of English-language information on Zutomayo and I think it’s quite good) for me to start really considering why this group’s music was resonating with me so much.

“Study Me” is a very defiant song. I’d argue you don’t need to understand a single syllable of the lyrics to get that; the music video’s background-character-gone-rogue plot makes it pretty clear. But Zutomayo’s songs, from the admittedly imperfect information I can gather via translated lyrics, often seem to traffic in two broad themes. One is alienation; from society as in “Study Me” or from other people via failed romantic or familial relationships, as in say “HAM” or indeed the aforementioned “Bite The Second Hand”. The other is defiant, sometimes radical self-reinvention, as in (again) “Study Me” or even “MILABO” which kind of appears to wed the two themes.

I’ve seen the popular theory floated that every one of Zutomayo’s two-tone-haired MV protagonists are actually the same character, either in alternate versions or at different stages of life. This is perhaps a little too heavy on capital-L Lore for most “serious” music consumers, but I think the idea is at least thematically sound. I won’t claim that I can “prove” that all of Zutomayo’s songs are autobiographical excerpts from ACA-Ne’s life, but she’s a good enough songwriter that whether or not they’re grounded in concrete reality doesn’t really matter. (And, this must be tempered with the claim I’ve seen from more than one song translator that Zutomayo’s lyrics tend to be….poetically circumspect, which can make concrete readings difficult even in the native language, but that’s not anything that’ll be news to say, fans of American indie rock. Plus, I’d argue that all truly great art is open to a plurality of interpretations.)

As a side note that I tried and failed to work into the main body of the article: the best scene in “Study Me” is where the camera zooms out and she sees all the footage of her alternate lives (or whatever they are) playing. You cannot change my mind on this.

Since properly “getting into” the group–that is to say, not long after watching that video– I sought out a fan community who have been nothing but pleasant to me (hello Zutomayo Zone!), which brings us to the present, and my own ruminations.

Alienation, failed relationships, distance from society, the pinpricks of light that constitute occasional and sometimes radical self-reinvention….it clicked for me sometime yesterday. I have no idea if ACA-Ne is part of the LGBTQ community (it’s not like anybody right now has any lack of reason to feel like it’s them against the world), but these are themes and ideas that tend to resonate with that community, which I am part of. Once I realized that, everything fell into place.

I’m not saying this character is necessarily trans, but come on one of the versions of her is a catgirl with striped blue and pink leggings.

Anecdotally, a good chunk of English-speaking Zutomayo fans I’ve met are queer or otherwise marginalized, and I would not be even remotely surprised if that holds true for much of the Anglophone fanbase in general. It is totally possible to read “Study Me” in particular as a defiant demand for understanding an acceptance–the song’s not called “Please Study Me”–and even if that’s a million miles away from its original intent, I’d argue it’s as valid a reading as any.

I have not made any secret of the fact that I’ve been in a rough mental spot recently due to recent events. Perhaps Zutomayo is just the music I needed for the moment. If that’s true, I wouldn’t quite say that Zutomayo saved my life, but it’s the closest any band has ever come. (An honorable mention should go to The Ataris, who got me out of a similar rut several years ago, but I never felt the same immediate connection to their music.) Given the specifics of my life and hell, just the world right now, I can completely understand, say, wanting to break out of the depressing shell you find yourself in and becoming a cute space idol instead.

Not that this song is exactly cheerful, but no one’s here for sunshine. The band is called “Midnight Forever“, after all.

This, of course, is not accounting for the more immediate appeal of Zutomayo’s music. I’ve often noticed that in particular I cannot quite tell if certain things in a given Zutomayo song are being played on “actual instruments” or if it’s actually very convincing programmed production. It usually at least sounds live, but it can be surprisingly hard to tell! Either way; the band’s timbrel palette is one of my favorites I’ve heard in years, especially the downright fatal bass on some of their funkier songs (“Study Me” once again and the slightly more recent “JK Bomber” come to mind here). This is without even mentioning ACA-Ne’s sharp, clear voice, which has a wonderful bright quality to it that I just don’t hear that often on either side of the Pacific.

I’ve since learned that Zutomayo are not completely without peers. One of the greatest music-related shocks of my life thusfar was learning that there’s an entire world of Japanese rock and pop that just kinda sounds like this–a non-Zutomayo track I’ve been greatly vibing with lately is Yorushika’s heart-rendingly depressing “That’s Why I Gave Up On Music“.

But there’s just something that, even after writing all of this, is unquantifiably special to me about Zutomayo. Maybe some of us just gravitate toward the nighttime, and maybe Zutomayo make music for those people. For those times when morning seems more like a curse than a blessing, I can think of no better act in music right now.

CORRECTION: This article previously stated the entire group was anonymous. This is only the case with lead singer ACA-Ne, who is only known by her pseudonym.

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

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, Misc. Anime

to pick up the pen and sing again – Another Late Night “Idolm@ster” Ramble

A common, but under-examined aspect of the human experience is paralysis. The feeling of “I can’t do that.” The inability to move on, the shock of freshly re-opened trauma, the crushing mundanity and idleness of simple insecurity.

I recently lost part of my primary writing tool. This, coming off a rather difficult week of responses (sometimes disingenuous, sometimes genuine) to a certain piece and broken air conditioners in the midst of a heatwave, has not made for a productive, fun, or at times even tolerable writing environment, and I have felt quite drained.

As a counterbalance, I am trying to indulge my spur of the moment flashes of inspiration more. So I feel like it may be, if not productive perhaps, at least interesting and fun for me (and what should my writing be if not those things?) to look at something that has helped me overcome that drained-ness.

Which brings us to The Idolm@ster. The 2011 anime has been something of a constant background presence in my life over the past year. I have been working through it very slowly despite its short length. Not out of a lack of enjoyment but just as a mundane consequence of juggling other obligations. On some level though, perhaps I don’t want my time with these characters to end.

One of those characters is Chihaya Kisaragi, a personal favorite, and the focus of this piece. Chihaya has an interesting air about her that I’ve found fascinating since I started the show. I’ve talked recently about my love of outwardly-cool female characters who carry within them a deep, almost elemental sorrow. But I’ve struggled to articulate why I find the character archetype so compelling. I think episode 20, which is about Chihaya, has given me at least part of the answer. (Full disclosure! It’s actually as far as I’ve watched. I will feel a little silly if I post this and then episode 21 completely tops it, but hey, that’s the risk you run.)

The plot is fairly simple and I’ll summarize it here briefly for the benefit of the reader. The unscrupulous president of 765’s rival company 961 gets a hold of and leaks information about Chihaya’s past. Namely, that she had a younger brother who died when she was a child. The tabloid article’s writer near-explicitly blames Chihaya for her brother’s death, reopening an old rift between the idol and her parents and causing her to choke when she tries to sing. To greatly simplify (and rob the episode of its emotional impact, which is a borderline crime. The perils of criticism!) she is eventually coaxed back onto the stage by the pleas of her fellow idols, and by her own recognition that she sings as much for herself as she does for the spirit of her late brother or for anyone else. And furthermore, her realization that that is okay.

I do not, in any way, mean to compare the magnitude of my problems and Chihaya’s, but what this episode really drove home for me is that what I love about these characters is that they persevere. Our traumas change us, but what characters like this seem to say is “Yes, that may be so, but they do not destroy us.” As someone who is pretty deeply insecure about….well, everything, I admire that level of weathered strength. I do not envy it–those are two different things–but there is something genuinely inspiring about seeing someone who took such a rough, malicious public beating stand back up and continue her life’s work not because she has anything to prove to anyone but because she wants to.

There’s a deep confidence to it, but more importantly, a luminous joy. One hammered home by the wonderful magical realism present in the episode’s final moments. Her dignity and her passion are never in question. What Chihaya may realize is that ultimately; no struggle can keep a singer from her microphone forever. Her voice swells again, and the song plays on.

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 Anime Writing Roundup – 8/11/20

So it is Tuesday–Tuesday night at that–and I am only just now getting to this. A late one just three weeks in to my new schedule! Alas. You’ll have to forgive me, it’s been a rough few days here at the lakeside temple for reasons I mostly won’t get into here. On with the anime! I’m also formatting these slightly differently now, using bullet points was making it impossible to justify most of my paragraphs, which was annoying me. Just a minor note!

Twitter

The Rolling Girls livewatch for #AniTwitWatches – We only watched one episode this week, #9, which is about the only thing in the whole show I’d call a “transitional episode” since it’s where the series switches over from being pretty strictly arc-by-arc and pivots into its finale. This, in fact, is my favorite part of part Rolling Girls (narrowly beating out the Kyoto arc). And to this day I’m amazed that they managed to fit four distinct arcs plus the three-episode finale all into a single-cour twelve episode show without having it feeling rushed. Anyway, I won’t spoil anything about episode 9 itself. It’s a doozy.

Revolutionary Girl Utena livewatch – I got to the start of the Black Rose Arc, as it’s called, in Utena, and LET ME TELL YA FOLKS, people are not kidding when they say this is where the show really starts to amp up the weirdness! I speculate somewhere in that particular thread that Utena might’ve been an influence on some of the folks at ’00s SHAFT just because a lot of the wild architecture and particular visual setups are really starting to remind me of that. Regardless, I’m having a ton of fun with the show and in fact will probably be livetweeting more of it right after I finish this writeup.

The Geek Girl Authority

THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL Recap (S01E06): fear/SIX – “It’s slowly improving” is not an exciting way to sell a show to someone, but I would argue that that’s basically what GOH is doing. I’m interested to see how the already pretty stylized fights change now that actual supernatural powers are involved.

THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL Cast Q&A – I got to interview some of GOH’s cast! Kinda! It was just a short text Q&A I sent their way through my contact at CR and their responses were in turn fairly short, but I still think it’s cool that I get to do this kinda thing. I’m really interested who this “mob boss” character Mr. Tachibana mentioned is and why the auditions for him were apparently so amusing. Did you know that Jin’s VA was primarily a stage actor before this? That’s neat.

DECA-DENCE Recap (S01E07): Differential Gear – I’m running out of ways to tell y’all that this is the best thing airing right now. Please watch Deca-Dence it’s so good.

Magic Planet Anime

Hoo boy.

Apathy Is Not The Answer: The Anime Fan Community Needs To Defend Its Most Vulnerable Members – ‘Lo and behold, the most popular article ever posted to Magic Planet Anime, by an order of magnitude. (Somehow I doubt many of these will be repeat readers but I’d love to be proven wrong). I wrote this in response to some developments over at Anilist–the details are in the article itself–and I was really not prepared for the blowup it caused. I have nothing much else to say about the issues discussed within, I don’t think it’s a perfect article, but I think I expressed a very simple plea for empathy as effective as I could. Some people, unfortunately, do not think that I should have done that.

In the two days since it’s gone up I’ve responded to a number of counterarguments and read many more. Some of which are….let’s be polite and say “a bit rude”. I’ve also read and responded to a fair bit of thanks. My hope is that the ultimate result of the article is that some people open their eyes to issues that they’d previously not considered and, secondarily, hopefully more people check out my work. I don’t consider myself an activist or political writer or anything of the sort, and it’s more than a little frustrating to be pigeonholed as some kind of ultra-left demagogue less than a month out from writing a decently positive review of goddamn Akiba’s Trip. What can you do, I suppose.

Other Thoughts N Such

I’ve got several things to talk about down here this week!

I finished Oregairu‘s first season. No real idea what to make of it! It’s interesting and I liked it more than I didn’t but I’m not in a real rush to watch season two or catch up to the (currently-airing) third. It’s one I’ll be turning over in my head for a while.

I have also resumed watching The Idolm@ster after quite a long break. This show is still very good for many of the same reasons I outlined in my article about it way way back when this blog was in its infancy, although sadly Miki is not as present in the show’s back half. I am still not entirely sure what to think of the rival idol agency and its comically evil president, but hey! Also in that article I briefly mentioned that I was enjoying 22/7. Haha, how things change.

And finally, I’ve also been working my way through Eureka Seven. E7 occupies a really odd place in the popcultural memory and I want to talk about that more when I actually review it (as I’ve been commissioned to do, thank you patron, you know who you are!) but I’ve been enjoying it so far. I particularly love the character of Anemone who is, well, a lot. E7 in general is quite the wild ride and I’m really liking its particular brand of weirdness, particularly now, as the first eight or so episodes of the show were a bit slow for me. Side note! Connoisseurs of Mecha Anime Discourse may know that a few years back the Darling in the FranXX showrunners were accused of essentially xeroxing Anemone’s entire design. Having now seen some Eureka Seven, I get the complaint!

and GOODNESS. That’s about all for this week! I’ve been busy, I suppose! To that end, well, I’ll just direct your attention to the footer below.

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, Misc. Anime

Apathy Is Not The Answer: The Anime Fan Community Needs To Defend Its Most Vulnerable Members

I don’t normally write things like this. I so don’t normally write things like this that I’m at something of a loss as to how to start this post. The specific catalyst for this post is a notice from Anilist moderators Mex and Electrochemist that they’re stepping down as staff members, but the issues here are reflective of a wider cultural problem in the English-speaking anime fan community, and one that it cannot afford to ignore in a world that is increasingly being forced to reckon with status quos that some of us (including myself) have long been privileged enough to take for granted.

This has been a recurring theme in English otakudom over the past several years. Recently, prominent fan space /r/Animemes finally banned use of the term “trap” to describe feminine AMAB characters. This specific issue has long been a point of contention in anime fan spaces, and it’s useful to discuss here as it both relates to my own specific experiences (I am a transwoman) and is a microcosm of the aforementioned broader problems. /r/Animemes did not take the “sudden” rules change kindly, and one can find a majority of its community mocking the staff even several days later.

Astolfo from Fate/Grand Order. A character who the term in question is often applied to. (It is worth noting that Astolfo’s gender identity is never explicitly disclosed by the text and is listed as “a secret” on their character card).

The arguments for the use of the term “trap” (and I do apologize to my fellow LGBTQ+ persons but I will be using the term in this post for demonstrative purposes) tend to come in one of several flavors. Given my preference for assuming good faith, I tend to believe that most people who defend the term genuinely believe these arguments. (There is certainly a contingent of those who do not but continue to use them in bad faith, but active malice is beyond the scope of this post.)

The first prominent argument is that “trap” is a “term of endearment”. Setting aside the curious logic that one’s intent in saying something absolves them of all blame regardless of what that something is, this is not true, and is a recent post-hoc justification for the term. The origins of “trap” to mean “a character treated as male by the text but who looks feminine or androgynous” are in fact rather murky.

The issue is that regardless of where it may come from, it has, in fact, been applied to actual AMAB people who present femininely (mostly transwomen, though hardly just us), evidence of which is unfortunately scattered to Twitch chats and the like. There is also a larger history of “trap” being used specifically against transwomen as a slur that dates back to at least the ’70s.

I don’t blame straight or cis persons for not knowing this (many queer people do not!), and I am not a linguist and am thus unqualified to say whether the two terms are etymologically related, but the conflation is certainly present. Thus, when transwomen see the term “trap” being applied to characters who share some of their characteristics, it can be hurtful. That is, ultimately, all anyone wants out of the issue, the acknowledgement that it can be hurtful and, ideally, willful abandonment of the term.

(As a side note and to deflect the obvious. I am aware of the minority of queer persons who call themselves “traps” and are attempting to reclaim the term. A distinction must be drawn here: that is the right of a queer person, not anyone else. Wiktionary in fact defines all of these senses of the term right in a row.)

The second is the frankly rather ridiculous claim that asking people to refrain from hurtful language constitutes a loss of “freedom of speech”. Freedom of speech arguments are tricky in general, because despite what one might assume, there is not actually a consensus on what the term means. (There is a lengthy section on Wikipedia’s page on the subject about how it is interpreted from place to place. It is a genuinely fascinating and difficult area of law, and I encourage the interested to look into it.)

Regardless, it is not commonly held to apply in opt-in/opt-out internet communities. Were Anilist, /r/Animemes, and so on, public forums of import, one might have an argument, but they are not. No one is advocating for a ban of discussing characters who this term may be taken to apply to, they are just being asked to use a less offensive label, something quite reasonable and simple to do.

But this, of course, is all quite specific. The broader issue is a lack of consideration. I do not wish to levy accusations here beyond the bare minimum, but I have spoken to many people, some close friends, who have been driven away from anime as an artform and from anime communities as a space because of sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and so on. This is not to say that “everyone needs to like anime”, because that is certainly not true. But if you don’t think that the simple fact of people being shitty to others causes this kind of harm is at the very least, regrettable, then you’re not an anime fan, you’re a bigot. Anime fan behavior can put people off of an artform they might have otherwise loved, and if you are a reasonable person you must recognize that that sucks. For the many differences we may have, what unites anime fans is our passion for the art that we love. Depriving someone else of that passion is despicable.

It’s hardly definitive but I feel this flash poll, in which over half of my followers (who are mostly queer, anime fans, or both) responded in the positive, is indicative of general sentiment.

And this brings us back to that opening paragraph. I liked Anilist (and still like Anilist!) in part because it seemed like a place where the staff actually kind of, you know, cared. To see two of the staff members most active in fighting harmful rhetoric step down is heartbreaking, and feels telling. I have no insider information about Anilist’s inner workings, but Mex’s comments do not inspire great faith in me that the site will be a haven for marginalized otaku going forward. The worst part, of course, is that is exactly what the tiny minority of those who are actively hateful instead of simply apathetic–the ones who this post is not aimed at, because there is no convincing them–want.

I would here call on the members of Anilist’s administration to really consider if they want Anilist to simply be “another anime listing site” or if they want to expend the (admittedly not trivial!) effort to make it a genuinely better community.

But of course, this is not specifically about Anilist. This problem permeates the entire English-speaking anime fan community, an unwelcome and ugly relic of the era where the biggest places to discuss anime online in English were 4chan and related communities. A problem whose biggest offenders actively want to continue this status quo.

I have seen some sign that things are changing, with the rise of several prominent queer video essayists who work in anime spaces (including Digi-nee, who came out only after achieving prominence and managed to keep most of her viewers) being a good sign that there is still an audience for this stuff that hasn’t been driven off by the worst of the worst, but these spaces must be actively protected. Apathy is not enough, and standing idly by accomplishes nothing. I am not excluding myself from this call to action, it is easy to pretend that all marginalized groups are fundamentally the same (something, upon editing this article, I myself am trying my damnedest not to do) but the fact of the matter is that everyone needs different accommodations and the ugly undercurrent present in anime fan spaces affects us all differently even as the root cause remains more or less the same.

If I can end this with a plea, it’s this. Consider your words, consider who they may affect. If someone asks you to change your ways, listen instead of arguing. We need to do better, because pretending there is nothing wrong will not solve anything.

Generally I end my articles with a pre-cut footer template. Here, instead, I will simply ask that if you found this article any sort of helpful, consider following me on Twitter.

Posted on in anime

Weekly Anime Writing Roundup – 8/3/20

So it’s the middle of the night and I’ve committed to doing these on Mondays I guess. Whatever! Anime time.

Twitter

  • The Rolling Girls livewatch for #AniTwitWatches – An advantage of linking to the Twitter moments is that I can literally just copy and paste the links lmao. Anyhow: the arc of The Rolling Girls we watched this week, the Kyoto arc, is among my favorites. Mostly just tweeted this one out as normal but do take a peek at my last couple tweets which are about the song sung in the latter episode of the arc.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena livewatch – I would like to say that things are heating up in Utena but I’ve been assured that things actually start *really* getting weird in the next arc, so I guess I’ll look forward to that. I maintain that Nanami’s purple epulet / yellow jacket combo is absolutely killer.

The Geek Girl Authority

  • DECA-DENCE Recap (S01E04): Transmission – BOY THERE’S A LOT GOIN’ ON IN THIS SHOW, HUH? I have the exact opposite issue with Deca-Dence that I have with God of High School. There’s so much going on in each episode it’s a bit hard to know what specifically to write about. That said: I love where this show’s head is at and I’m super excited to see how it develops from here.
  • THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL Recap (S01E05): ronde/hound – After several episodes that I don’t think would really move the needle for most people The God of High School‘s fifth is the first one in a while where I think it’s actually done something to improve. Granted; it’s still not being wildly innovative here, “talk with your fists” is fairly standard shonen stuff, but it’s done well here. Consider picking this up if you like that kinda thing and have been on the fence about this one?

Other Thoughts N Such

  • I started watching Oregairu (or as it’s formally known in English, ahem, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Yikes) just out of idle curiosity and at the inspiration of seeing someone I’m mutuals with livetweeting it. It’s a neat little series, I’m only a few episodes in so I can’t make any sweeping judgments yet, but I like how it manages to juggle the rather difficult tasks of making Hachiman seem like someone representative of the lame cringelord in all of us without making it seem like it’s endorsing his mentality, which are two different things. Obviously not everyone is going to feel that way about it, but still, I’m pleasantly surprised with this’n so far.

And that’s all for this week. See you guys around!

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, Misc. Anime

Weekly Anime Writing Roundup – 7/27/20

Hi folks! If you only follow me here on MPA you’ve probably not seen much of me lately. Iv’e been doing quite a lot of writing, but most of it not on here. From now on, I’m going to be trying to do a roundup of everything I’ve done in the past week related to my anime writing. Mostly, these will be on Sunday, but this week’s is the day after. It’s just that way, sometimes!

Twitter

  • The Rolling Girls livewatch for #AniTwitWatches – Livewatch of 2017 Wit Studio series The Rolling Girls. This is actually my second time seeing the show and I highly recommend it.
  • Revolutionary Girl Utena livewatch – Livewatch of the classic shoujo series. Aiming to update at least once a week, probably more than that much of the time.

Anilist

The Geek Girl Authority

  • THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL Recap (S01E04): marriage/bonds – Recap of the most recent GHS episode. I have to confess to struggling a little bit with GHS in general, it’s a very archetypal shonen and consequently I sometimes find it difficult to find things to say about it. However, this most recent episode is definitely interesting if nothing else, even if I’m not sure it’s really going to move the needle for those still undecided on the series.
  • DECA-DENCE Recap (S01E03): Steering – By contrast, I think basically anyone with an interest in TV anime should be checking out Deca-Dence. It’s a fascinating series even only three episodes in, and I have absolutely no idea where it’s going to go from here. I’m thrilled to be keeping up with it and I hope everyone else who checks it out loves it as much as I do.

Other Random Stray Thoughts:

  • It’s really good to have Healin’ Good Precure back. That said, I won’t be resuming my liveblog of it on here, it was kinda just too much work and not very many people read those posts.
  • I hope everyone’s having an alright summer. It’s rough out there with the pandemic and the heat, try to stay as safe and cool as you can!

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, Misc. Anime

First Impressions: The Great Pretender is a Must-Watch

Sound the alarm, after a solid two years of bankrolling wet cement, Netflix has finally thrown their bullion behind something that people will actually want to watch again. But don’t take that to mean that The Great Pretender is a retread. Pretender is a live-wire technicolor battle-of-wits-slash-action-series that takes place in the streets of LA (and perhaps abroad? Who can say this early on). Not many anime open with a shot of their protagonist hanging by his feet from the Hollywood sign. There’s only one episode of Pretender available (fansubbed) in English right now, but it’s well worth a look.

Despite my high praise for it (note: that will continue) the appeal of The Great Pretender is dead simple. Do you like shows with loud, fluid visuals? Do you like shows about conmen and attractive people? How about shows with great soundtracks? Character writing and design so snappy you can pick up on a character’s whole “vibe” in ten seconds flat? If you answered yes to any of those questions, you should give this one a watch, no need to read further.

This is a Wit Studio production, they of Attack on Titan. But if you’re not a fan of that series you shouldn’t worry. The vibrant backgrounds and colorful character animation of Pretender actually remind me a bit more of The Rolling Girls. Truth be told though, coloring like this, which is so tactile that it looks like it might drip off the screen if it lingers on any one frame for too long, is exceedingly rare in general. This pure visual muscle extends even to the title card for the episode, which looks more like a cocktail jazz album cover than anything out of an anime.

And we’ve come this whole way without even really mentioning the plot. To greatly oversimplify, The Great Pretender feels like if Black Lagoon was made by a group of people who like vibrant colors and prefer their crimes on the marginally less violent side. (Admittedly what I mean there is mostly that as of episode one, no one’s straight-up died yet.)

If your reaction to that description is that this sounds fun, you’re absolutely right. It’s impossible to say this early on where this freewheeling conman / drug dealer narrative will go. Our protagonists: Japanese con artist Masato Edamura and French(?)-American “confidence man” Laurent Thierry. This show is a blast, I found myself grinning ear to ear from the moment the episode proper began with a silly scam to sell overpriced water filters, right through to the end, where Edamura is caught up in a drug sale gone awry. Along the way, wallets are snatched, knives are snuck into luggage at airports, gratuitous English is hot-swapped for Japanese mid-scene, and more.

Yes, this is a real screenshot.

Going further into specifics honestly feels superfluous. There’s a scene where Edamura and Thierry go suit shopping while preparing to rip off a Hollywood mogul / crime kingpin.

There’s Edamura’s weird fixation on gachapon toys.

There is the entire introductory character line of Abigail Jones, who is introduced as a beauty with a bad attitude, is used to demonstrate Thierry’s drugs, which she promptly fries her brain on (in a sequence that I’m sure someone had an absolute delight drawing), and then lays Edamura flat near the tail-end of the episode for trying to bail.

I could go on, but The Great Pretender is clearly a series whose greatest strengths are craft and passion. Every inch of it absolutely bleeds a good time. Will it get into more dour territory as it goes on? I don’t know, it’s possible. It might even be great at doing that, but trust me, for sheer spectacle alone, this one is worth it. If you have any interest in anime measured in “holy shit”s-per-minute as a metric, you need to watch Great Pretender‘s first episode. It’s nothing short of a marvel. (The only reason this isn’t a Twenty Perfect Minutes column is because I don’t do those for shows that are currently airing.) Will this hold up for a full season’s worth of episodes? Who knows, but for now, The Great Pretender is one to keep your eyes on, with gusto.

Okay fine, one more point in the show’s favor.

In-Z-Out Burger.

Fantastic.

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, Twenty Perfect Minutes

Twenty Perfect Minutes – YuruYuri Season 2 Episode 11: The Akari Who Leapt Through Time

Twenty Perfect Minutes is an irregular column series where I take a look at single specific anime that shaped my experience with the medium, were important to me in some other way, or that I just really, really like.

So, full disclosure, this episode is the reason Twenty Perfect Minutes exists. YuruYuri is a good show, but it’s pretty orthodox. Its main point of deviation from other school life comedies (or slice of life shows if you prefer that term. Or even, *shudder*, Cute Girls Doing Cute Things) is the higher level of explicit Gay in the show’s text. (It is called YuruYuri, after all.) Shows like that don’t really tend to have singular standout episodes. I love Lucky Star, for example, but it’s a pretty consistent experience. You know what you’re going to get with each episode, something that’s largely true of the genre on the whole.

Occasionally, however, a series like this will get just a bit more narratively ambitious. “Ambitious” is an adjective rarely associated with the school life genre and it’s true that this is not, you know, Gunbuster, but when a series like this decides to cash in on the goodwill its characters have built up with its audience, the results can be quite surprising. I absolutely love this episode, there’s not a lot else like it in the genre.

H.G. Wells, eat your heart out.

Let’s be clear here; YuruYuri is not a particularly weird series. “The Akari Who Leapt Through Time”, however, is a pretty weird episode in the context of it. Not just because of the obvious, that it involves time travel (and is named after one of the most famous time travel stories in the entire medium). It has a peculiar, melancholy overtone, and casts protagonist Akari in a somewhat different light than the rest of the show. All of this is still filtered through the lens of a light comedy anime of course, but the difference in mood and tone is noticeable. This being the sole script turn for director Masahiko Ohta might explain things somewhat, but it’s unique nonetheless.

Akari herself is a neat, fun, straightforward character. Her central joke is very simple–she’s the ostensible protagonist, but because of that, she has no real standout characteristics. Thus, she has so little presence that she is easily overlooked, and in some episodes she can even literally turn invisible with an Akariiiin~! sound effect. In the series proper, Kyouko, and sometimes Yui, tend to fulfill the protagonist role more than she does. YuruYuri had previously made some gestures to the fact that she was legitimately distraught by this, but the accidental time travel that sets this episode’s plot into motion really puts that in focus.

Akari spends the episode’s first half trying to undo mistakes that her past self made. This is certainly amusing, (and serves to dish out fun callbacks to the very beginning of the series), but through the comedy it’s easy to see that she’s kinda desperate. Things like her scribbling a message on her first-year desk so Past-Akari doesn’t flub her class introduction, or trying to deflect Chinatsu from joining the Amusement club, are as amusing as they are revealing.

All of this falls through, and Akari is of course distraught. Where the episode takes a turn for the genuinely unexpected though is some particularly salient advice, and who dispenses it.

YuruYuri never quite felt like it knew what to do with Akane, Akari’s older sister. The character’s weak core joke (that she’s a siscon) makes her probably the least essential member of the entire cast. Indeed, that joke is present here, too, in one of the episode’s few missteps. Though it’s mercifully only brought up briefly.

This shot feels like a visual metaphor.

Weak gag aside, this is an uncommon instance of Akane acting in a genuinely sisterly manner toward her younger sibling. Namely, in addition to letting her sleep over while school genius Nana works on the time machine to try to repair it, she points out to Akari it’s possible that changing the past might alter her memories. Our heroine is distraught over this, and in the episode’s most purely sweet moment, she nods off in her sister’s bed, and has a melancholy dream.

This sequence is so very simple: Akari singing a little blue ditty over some footage from prior episodes, and, eventually, crying at the possibility of losing her time with them.

So simple, but so sweet and affecting. The next day, when Akari has her final chance to perhaps change the course of things, she’s struck by the thought again that doing so might change her memories, and can’t bring herself to go through with it. She starts crying on the spot.

Later, when she uses the fixed time machine to return to her own era, we get the emotional payoff. The difference between how Akari thinks everyone will react when she returns, and how they actually do react, is stark.

The former:

The latter:

School life comedies (and really, character comedies in general) are a genre that live and die by how well the audience connects to the characters. This is a principle that’s been understood in cartooning since the dawn of the medium, but it’s one thing to simply make a character likable. It’s quite another entirely to make the audience relate to them. Who among us hasn’t occasionally undervalued their self-worth? It’s quite a common problem.

The point I’m getting at here is: more than just a focus episode or the vehicle for some fun jokes, “The Akari Who Leapt Through Time” is the rare episode of a school life anime that feels like a genuine character study.

Is it still all, ultimately, pretty lighthearted? Yes, of course. As such a character study it’s a fairly simple one. And if I can levy a single main complaint at the episode it’s that the final revelation that the whole thing was a story told by Kyouko is unnecessary and cheapens the experience just a little. But honestly, the episode is otherwise so well put together that it doesn’t feel like it matters that much. Plus it does say a lot about how much Kyouko and friends care for Akari, all jokes aside.

YuruYuri is a good show overall, and I’m quite fond of it. (It may even show up in this column again.) But, I think speaking frankly, this was its peak. In a genre that can occasionally feel like it coasts on archetypes, “The Akari Who Leapt Through Time” manages the feat of making its lead, a simple redheaded girl who’s easily overlooked, feel genuinely human.

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.