The Shambolic Anime Podcast is a super-casual occasional format where myself and Julian M. of THEM Anime chat about whatever’s on our mind in the world of anime.
Today, on our inagural episode of this decidedly off-the-cuff, super-casual anime podcast, myself and Julian M. (of THEM Anime Reviews, previously also co-host of KeyFrames Forgotten and Revisiting Darling in the FranXX 5 Years Later. Both of which we intend to return to, I assure you!) shoot the breeze about one of the few things from this anime season that is neither particularly good nor entirely awful, the game battle light novel adaptation Liar, Liar. You can listen below.
You can follow Jane on Twitterhereand Julian on Twitter here.
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.
Hi folks! I’ve been crazy busy this week with impressions articles (a trend that will likely continue at least somewhat into next week and possibly even the week after), so I haven’t had a ton of time to write much else. (Especially considering that for administrative reasons, it’s arriving a day early.) Still, I hope you appreciate the Priconne writeup below.
Before that, though! The Community Choice Poll has concluded, and in hindsight the victor was perhaps a bit obvious. Still, I didn’t expect it to absolutely crush its competition in the way that it did.
So! Our previous community choice winner–My Dress-Up Darling–was a CloverWorks-animated romcom. Congratulations to our new community choice winner. SPY X FAMILY, a CloverWorks-animated romcom.
Jokes aside, I hope you look forward to my covering the series. I’m sure you’re all as excited to see Yor animated on the silver screen as I am. And I’m sure the rest of the show will be pretty good, too. Best of luck next time to the runners-up Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Season 2, The Demon Girl Next Door Season 2, and BIRDIE WING.
Wait, really, BIRDIE WING? Huh.
In any case, you can look forward to seeing those shows covered here on MPA as well to at least some extent.
Not on the Frontline Report though, because this is the last edition of this column.
By which I mean, I am changing the name. The column will be on hiatus next week, since I have more premieres to cover and some real-life stuff to get done. (Taxes, ahoy!) When it returns, it will be under the name Anime Orbit Weekly, a name that better fits my site’s loose “planet” theming and….frankly is just better in every way. I’ve never really liked “Frontline Report” and have largely stuck with it out of inertia. The new name is catchier and also easier to Google.
Anyway, on with the column!
Weekly Anime
Princess Connect! Re:Dive
They really didn’t have to go this hard. That’s what I kept thinking as I finished up the second season of Princess Connect! Re:Dive. This episode is a finale, so it should look good, but the fact that they were able to do this without visibly sapping resources from elsewhere in the production–aside from maybe a single filler episode near the middle?–is astounding. Shows just being produced this cleanly is a rarity in of itself. Add to that the following; Princess Connect‘s season finale is a symphony of magic fireworks; magical-digital floating spell circles, fuckoff-huge sword beams, gloopy swarms of shadowy darkness, CGI metallic projectiles, pick a favorite visual trope that a fantasy-action anime of the past 10 years has come up with, it’s in here somewhere.
But I fear that in my coverage of Priconne I’ve maybe over-emphasized the production merits and made it seem like that’s the show’s only strength. So, all I’ll say further on this front is that I wouldn’t be shocked if this whole damn episode was on Sakugabooru.
Fundamentally, the finale is a huge tug-of-war between the Gourmet Guild and Omniscient Kaiser. It is, in a lot of ways, super basic. The heroes triumph over the big evil villain via (spoiler) the power of friendship. But if, in a meta sense, Princess Connect has any core thesis, it’s that you can build a perfect machine from imperfect parts. There is not a wasted moment in the whole episode; every line sharpens the show’s emotional core just a little bit more. You’d have to be a real stone-face to not grin while watching this, its sheer enthusiasm for its own genre, its strength of belief that this is an impactful story that will light a fire in your heart, is infectious.
Kaiser even gets a somewhat sympathetic backstory squeezed in here, where the sheer ennui of being a tyrant in the name of a failed utopia quite literally consumes her alive; she’s eaten by the mostly-dead shadow clone we thought died last episode, in an honestly pretty damn gruesome bit of body horror for something that’s generally been pretty conservative with even showing blood.
In the last raising-of-stakes available to a VRMMO series, it’s made clear that if Kaiser dies while under the Shadows’ influence that she’ll be gone for good. And that’s just not allowed, of course. So the show’s big final act is our heroes venturing inside this giant End of Eva shadow lady to bust Kaiser’s soul out like this was the world’s most high-stakes heist movie. Karyl does most of the actual convincing Kaiser not totally give in to nihilistic solipsism, but Pecorine performs well throughout the episode, too. Throughout the whole series, Pecorine has felt like the “real” hero, and it’s cool that she mostly gets to ride that status out here as her kingdom is finally restored to her at episode’s end.
Yuuki gets a great showing here as well, and honestly, this is probably the most he’s ever felt like the protagonist he ostensibly is. But even with all he gets done over the course of the finale, he still only gets eight total lines–I counted–and two of them are just “Go!” and “Nice.”
Still, it’s worth noting that the final battle does technically ride on him–he refuses another pass through the time loop from Ameth, choosing to live or die by the bonds he’s formed with his friends. That faith in them pays off, and all present are, in fact, able to defeat Omniscient Kaiser, who is returned to her normal state.
It’s Labyrista who sums up the episode’s–and really, whole show’s–theme best.
It’s simple, but simple works for Princess Connect, a series that–despite its ostensibly complicated “lore”–is very much focused on the fundamentals. The show’s very few problems; Said lore’s complexity, Kokkoro not getting much of a role in the finale, and arguably the oddly showy outfits, do not really ding it at all. At the end of the day, Princess Connect is just a really damn good fantasy anime. When the Gourmet Guild officially reforms and the World is Once Again Saved, it feels like the most logical ending possible for such a pure, warm series. Even here, there’s one last fun little character detail; Karyl is the one who cooks the Gourmet Guild’s first meal back home after their big adventure, and we see the scrapes and burns on her hands from prepping the food.
Everyone settles in for some good, hearty food, and the credits roll. Will we meet the Gourmet Guild again? It’s not impossible, but if this truly is the last episode ever of Princess Connect, it’d be hard to complain. What else could you ask for? Everyone lives happily ever after.
ESTAB-LIFE isn’t the best thing airing right now, but it might be the weirdest, as the two episodes since that have involved a mob boss who wants to be a magical girl and KGB penguins have proven.
Ya Boy Kongming! is a weird one, a solo-focus idol series with the bizarre high premise of said idol’s manager being Chinese military genius Zhuge Kongming, who was brought to the present….eh, somehow. It doesn’t really matter. The first episode of this was surprisingly affecting, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes from here.
The Executioner and Her Way of Life is what we call a “banger,” friends. God knows if it’ll keep up the impressive visual quality and interesting–if a bit edgy!–storytelling throughout this whole season, but I certainly hope it will.
The first season of Nijigasaki High School Idol Club was one of my favorites when it aired back in 2020. This first episode of the second season doesn’t quite match up to some of season one’s highs, but I have confidence that it’ll get there. Plus; the new girl introduced in this episode is just a deliciously excellent heel. Girlboss fans everywhere, eat your heart out.
Finally, there’s this. As I’ve now indicated in the article name, this was just an April Fools’ prank. One I inexplicably decided to spend like 2 months working on. It’s a review of the fake magical girl anime from My Dress-Up Darling. Except, given that that show doesn’t exist, most of it is just made up. This was a fun creative writing exercise but also a huge amount of work, surprisingly. So, I doubt I’ll be doing it again. Enjoy this odd-man-out of my website; file it next to the Mao Mao review and the ENA writeup. Huge thank you to commenter momomanamu for playing along in the comments, it made my day.
And that’s about all for this week. There may or may not be articles tomorrow and Monday (my schedule is a little off, right now, as I’m sure you’ve noticed by the fact that I put up three articles today. Something I almost never do.) But articles should resume on Tuesday at the latest, where I plan to cover the BIRDIE WING premiere.
Until then, anime fans!
Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live.If you’d like to 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 Directoryto 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.
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.
Hi folks, simple writeups this week, nothing too fancy. But I hope you’ll enjoy them as one of our recurring anime comes to a close and another heads there at a mile a minute. But first–
Seasonal Anime
Miss KUROITSU From the Monster Development Department
Miss Kuroitsu probably isn’t quite consistent enough to be called a seasonal underdog, but damn if it doesn’t sometimes come close. This past week’s episode is the beautiful little fable of a mute monster girl filled with weapons (named Mumy and played by singer YURiKA) who wants nothing more than to become an idol. The general idea is hackneyed, and the episode looks like ass. Did I tear up multiple times throughout anyway just because the show got me so attached to this girl? Yes I did. Did I have to actively stop myself from crying even more at the end of the episode where a combination of vampire bioengineering and sheer fucking moxie means she’s miraculously grown a voicebox and developed a beautiful singing voice? Yes I absolutely did.
What else can be said? Sometimes even a benchwarmer bats a home run.
Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2
I wish people still sincerely called things “epic.” I can’t think of a word that better fits the blazing spectacle that Princess Connect has transmogrified to as it enters the final stretch of its second season.
To get something out of the way; in previous articles where I’ve discussed Priconne, I’ve made a point of entertaining alternate points of view. The show is widely liked, but not universally liked, and while I do still respect everyone’s rights to hold their own opinion, I think the time for trying to specifically acknowledge criticisms that others might have has passed. If you object to rapturous praise for stuff like this, you’re on the wrong site. Sorry.
“Stuff like this,” if you need to be brought up to speed, is an absolutely shameless blind-fire of the Proper Noun Machine Gun, mixed with what is certainly some of the flashiest animation of the year so far. (Priconne is good at that.) We get some new characters here (and a few old ones make return appearances), and a good chunk of the episode consists of a guild–a guild who seem to have some knowledge of how the world of Princess Connect really works–fighting against Christina, another of the Seven Crowns and Omniscient Kaiser’s sort-of lackey, below Kaiser’s palace.
This is, in a word, awesome. New arrivals Ruka (Rina Sato) and Anna (Asami Takano) attack Christina with Anna’s Final Catastrophe attack. Ah, but of course, Christina is one of the Seven Crowns, so her passive ability Absolute Defense renders her immune to normal damage.
But that too can be overcome by simply overloading the ability’s computational capacity–a kind of VRMMO underflow error–but then it turns out that Christina secretly also has access to Absolute Offense, which fires glowing beams that invert the world’s colors. They eventually subdue her…only for the secret true form of Omniscient Kaiser to emerge from the very thing they were fighting over! All of this is deeply ridiculous, but it’s a total blast. Anna in particular is really fun, being perhaps the most chuuni chuunibyou I’ve seen in any anime in years.
Alongside this is Pecorine’s fight to save Karyl. Impeded here by the return of Jun–the blindfold-wearing knight we were introduced to several episodes ago–but now she is, of course, brainwashed by Kaiser and in full battle armor. The two prove a solid match for each other, although it says a lot that this is actually the more restrained of Priconne’s two battle scenes in this episode.
Eventually, Pecorine is able to break Kaiser’s hold on Jun, and the two turn the tables against the evil wolf-woman and kill her. Except they don’t actually, because of the aforementioned hidden true form of Omniscient Kaiser lurking beneath Kaiser’s palace. The form that they’ve been fighting this entire time? Merely a particularly strong-willed shadow. It has a very hammy death, and it’s not gone for ten seconds before the real Kaiser starts tossing Pecorine and Jun around like ragdolls with a wag of her finger. (As a side note, Kaiser’s actor Shouta Aoi deserves some praise here. He has a reputation for voicing dangerous women, and he is indeed very good at that, but he can also holler like a motherfucker when the scene calls for it, and he uses that skill several times in this episode.)
As you can surmise from the appearance of credits over this final scene, this, and the cut immediately after where Yuki finally arrives, is the end of the episode. But we should back up a bit, because one more thing of import does happen in between all the flashy sword-clanking.
Kokkoro, in about the middle of the episode, is spirited away by the Ameth, that mysterious girl with the broken clockwork floating around her who, like Labyrista, seems to have been instrumental in controlling the world. Regardless of the specifics of her, though, what she gives to Kokkoro is important; a small device for “keeping Yuuki’s emotions in check.” Ostensibly to keep him from overloading his powers and hurting himself. It’s an odd turn of events, and seems to imply that maybe Ameth isn’t entirely on the level, either.
The season finale approaches, so perhaps we’ll get some answers there. Or at least, more intriguing questions.
Ranking of Kings
“Shine on toward a yet-unseen tomorrow.”
Ousama Ranking‘s finale begins thusly; Daida reaffirms his (puzzling, though given the vaguely medieval-ish setting perhaps slightly less so) decision to marry Miranjo, swearing that the both of them will turn over a new leaf and concentrate on doing good in the world. At the same time, he relinquishes the throne, and all of Bojji’s retainers hail him as the new king; the scene is a happy one, with all present praising Bojji’s bravery and strength of character. There’s much celebration, and King Bojji’s new subjects quite literally toss him into the air with joy, and later take him to his new throne room so he can receive formal homage from the townsfolk. It’s very classic fairy tale. There are a lot of happy tears. So, we’re all good, right? Happy endings all around.
Well, no, not quite.
Not present among Bojji’s gaggle of retainers is Kage. The shadow clansman rationalizes that the young king no longer needs him–and that his own reliance on the boy is bad–and leaves silently, seeking honest work in the same nearby town he used to make his way as a thief in. He ends up miserable there, of course, as the townsfolk haven’t really changed. No one wants to hire him for honest work, and when he sets up a small wooden hut outside of town someone destroys it.
Meanwhile, Bojji, too, is lost without his best friend. He seems like a fine king based on what little we see, but his heart clearly isn’t in it. Fittingly, it’s Queen Hiling (now Queen-Mother Hiling, one supposes) who picks up on this. In a cozy bit of motherly wisdom, she tells him that being a king is his responsibility, but if there is something that truly matters to him more, he should go seek that instead.
Bojji, thus, ends his brief reign by re-relinquishing (delinquishing?) his crown to Prince Daida. Making for, I’m sure, a fun footnote in their kingdom’s history some hundreds of years down the line.
Bojji sets out to find Kage the very day, and they meet up again not long later. He reveals to Kage his secret ambition; to someday found his own kingdom, after having a great many adventures before then, of course.
As for what happened to King Desha at the end of last week’s episode? We don’t know, and perhaps we never will. Some mysteries remain even under the morning Sun.
Ousama Ranking is occasionally criticized–and I’ve made these criticisms myself–for its odd pacing and the plot’s tendency to drift all over the place. Even in this final episode there’s an aside that really doesn’t add anything at all, although it does look pretty cool. (Kingbo makes a surprise return appearance, splits the rock that Ouken is imprisoned in in half, and then decapitates him and chucks his head into a lake many miles away in the span of about 3 minutes.) But, while that is certainly a flaw, it’s not one that negates the show’s many strengths. In the end, Ousama Ranking boils back down to what made it great in the first place; Bojji, Kage, a bag of treasure, and the great, wide world stretching before them. The promise of more adventure on the horizon billows into the sky like smoke. If not now, it seems to say, then someday, somewhere.
Please vote on this if you care about what I’m going to be covering during the (rapidly approaching) next anime season. You’ve got a little under a week left to make your voice heard!
Sabikui Bisco continues to be Sabikui Bisco-y as it comes to a close. I kinda feel like I’ve run out of much to say about this show other than what’s already in the
Meanwhile, My Dress-Up Darling ends the only way it really could have, sweet nothings and fireworks. It doesn’t hold a candle to the very best fireworks-centric romcom finale in recent memory–that being a different show’s season one finale–but still, it’s a definite high point to go out on for a show that’s been something of a rocky ride. I hope the second season (and let’s be real, one is definitely getting made) is more like this than say, like episode six.
Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live.If you’d like to 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 Directoryto 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.
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.
Hi folks! No fancy lead-in this week, just two solid writeups for you and some links to other stuff. Enjoy.
Seasonal Anime
Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2
“The advancing hands cannot be turned back.”
If you only ever liked Princess Connect for its softer merits; the warm character interactions, the charming comedy, etc. I can imagine finding the past two episodes disappointing in a strange sort of way, for the simple reason that they’ve been the heaviest on the show’s capital P Plot that Princess Connect has ever gotten, and that’s not a development that looks to change any time soon.
Two weeks ago we saw Omniscient Kaiser kill Labyrista and claim her powers. Within the text of the show itself, the rules that the Princess Connect universe operate on remain somewhat fuzzy, but it wasn’t hard to tell that this was a bad thing. The episode was huge and sweeping; a clash of cosmic forces conjuring gigantic CGI labyrinth-spheres and the obligatory near-defeat of Kaiser herself. As villains do, she won with a dirty trick; teleporting in her underling, Karyl, to serve as a human shield.
Labyrista’s defeat has probably rendered Kaiser the most powerful being in the whole setting. Given that she’s been the lurking broad-scope villain of the entire series so far, that’s not great. What’s worse is what she does to Karyl, who is here empowered with a magic mask and rendered Kaiser’s all-too-willing puppet. If Karyl has ever had a genuine, serious character flaw, it is her belief in Kaiser, a sort of surrogate mother figure whose approval she desperately seeks. That need for approval turns her into little more than a weapon for Kaiser in this past week’s episode, where she unleashes absolute terror on the people of Landosol. Why she suddenly commits so hard to being Kaiser’s attack dog is left ambiguous, although I side with the theory I’ve seen floated around social media. Karyl feels guilty about indirectly causing Labyrista’s death has left her feeling as though she has no choice in the matter. (Perhaps she believes that if the rest of the Gourmet Guild found out, they’d turn on her as well, leaving her well and truly alone.)
As the Gourmet Guild struggles to piece together what’s going on, we get a lot of cameos from supporting characters from previous episodes. Most of these are pretty inconsequential, although Yuni contributes to the plot in a huge way at the episode’s climax.
The bulk of the episode’s runtime consists of a smattering of characters fighting off Kaiser’s shadow army as she uses Labyrista’s powers to trap the entirety of Landosol in a huge metal dome. The episode is very effective at conveying a sense of impending doom. Really, it’s remarkable how far Princess Connect has come. There was always a wider story slinking around in the background, all the way from the first episode of season one, but to see all those hints and plot points be forged into a proper Epic Fantasy Story is pretty amazing. Despite this, the story’s bones–VRMMO genre, light novel, and gacha game tropes entering their second decade of dominance right now–ensure that it could never exist in any other medium. Princess Connect is damn good, and it’s also very much an anime.
Of course, this properly epic scale is also very effective at making Kaiser seem like possibly the worst woman to ever live. Sacrificing the souls of your entire kingdom is some classic evil overlord shit, and whoever boarded her expressions in this episode worked damn hard to make sure we know that she’s enjoying every minute of it.
Perhaps the worst of her offenses here is what Kaiser does to Karyl once she stops being a willing part of her plans. Pecorine eventually confronts Karyl.
Initially, Karyl commits to the fatalism–that’s where this subheading’s quote comes from–and begins launching barrages of magical energy at the townsfolk. But it’s hard not to notice that she doesn’t actually kill anybody. She can’t bring herself to do that, even this late in the game.
Kaiser, naturally, has a trick up her sleeve. Be it a result of the mask, Karyl’s recent empowering, or something else entirely, Kaiser extends literal puppet strings from her hands; forcing Karyl to resume firing on innocent townspeople as she begs Kaiser to stop. It is probably the closest Princess Connect has ever come to being genuinely hard to watch.
It’s here where Yuni comes in, using her patented um….turn-rocks-into-walky-talkies-and-also-projectors magic to blow the whistle on Kaiser. Earlier in the episode there’s a scene where she and some of her assistants piece together the identity of the real Princess Eustania, the one who should be ruling Landosol. We, of course, have known for an entire season who that is; Pecorine.
It’s on that note; Kaiser’s deception revealed, Karyl hanging in the sky begging for help, that episode ten comes to an end. Who knows what awaits our heroes in their final, darkest hour?
Ranking of Kings
It’s been quite a long time since we’ve seen young Prince Bojji and his merry band on this blog. But, much of the reason I stopped covering Ousama Ranking for a while was simply that the series has not fundamentally changed at any point, really, since its premiere. It started as a modern spin on classic fairy tale-style fantasy. It’s still that, just with a lot more players now, and with everyone having complex, sympathetic motivations.
That may sound like a good thing. It may be a good thing. But it makes discussion of Ousama Ranking hard, at least for me. I would say, broadly, that Ousama Ranking has only one real problem, and it’s an analogue to an issue often seen in editing. Many series, especially those short on actual plot, employ a tactic of rapidly cutting between different scenes. This produces the illusion that more is going on than actually is. It’s a clever way of disguising a general lack of forward narrative motion. Anime guilty of this particular shortcut usually have a beginning and ending mapped out, but everything in between is essentially guesswork.
Ousama Ranking, on the other hand, has almost the opposite issue. So many plot details have been sprinkled through the series; the demon, the titular Ranking of Kings itself, the woman in the mirror, the war against the Gods, etc. etc. etc. etc. That when the time comes to actually tie up all these plots, it does feel a little like the series is rushing through them. Plot twist comes after plot twist. Sympathetic backstory after sympathetic backstory. It can be thrilling, but also exhausting. I can imagine someone really liking this about the series and conversely, I can imagine it completely ruining the show for someone else.
I fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, lest it sound like I’m being too negative. But it is notable that in just the most recent episode alone (22), we get the near-instantaneous resolution of the “Miranjo sentenced to an eternity of suffering” plot from the episode before that. Things are, basically, resolved in a poof. Similar examples recur throughout the show’s recent run. The most glaring example being Daida’s rather inexplicable decision that the solution to Miranjo’s lingering woes is to…marry her?
We could excuse this, if we wanted to, as Ousama Ranking glomming to old fantasy tropes. Or even, alternately, an in-universe folly of youth (although the show doesn’t treat it that way, certainly). But it does make the show feel strangely rushed despite its many other strengths.
And so as not to end on a down note, we should talk about those strengths. In spite of any other complaints, it’s inarguable that Ousama Ranking is a visual stunner. This past episode is not quite the visual feast that episode 21 was, but it’s still incredibly impressive. Even if Ousama Ranking‘s story issues were much more serious (and I fear I’ve perhaps overstated their importance here), it’d still be well worth watching for its production alone. Its characters also largely remain excellent, with only one or two possible exceptions. Queen Hilling gets a great moment in this episode where she tries to put on a serious, stern face when congratulating her sons, only to break down crying about halfway through. Scenes like this help the series feel alive in a way that offsets some of its writing issues.
Elsewhere, the tale of King Bosse trading Miranjo’s soul and the strength of his then-unborn son for more power is told with suitably epic visual storytelling, with the presentation of one his mightiest opponents, a literal god, being the highlight. (Bosse himself, arguably, is one of the aforementioned exceptions. Dude just isn’t great.)
It helps, also, that the series seems to be heading in a more focused direction as it nears its close. The final two episodes promise to return to the Ranking of Kings system that gives the series its title. As the episode ends with Desha accepting his ranking as #1 and descending into the vault that holds the mysterious treasure accorded to those who earn that title.
Ousama Ranking, certainly, remains compelling, in spite of anything negative I’ve said here. I am not sure if I’ll cover the finale (though I’d like to), but I can safely say that it’s a good series and worth watching, regardless of if it sticks the landing or not.
To paraphrase myself in a Discord conversation from yesterday, I really like some parts of My Dress-Up Darling and really dislike some other parts. This episode was about 50/50.
Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live.If you’d like to 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 Directoryto 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.
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.
Hello folks! I’ve got two writeups for you today, one of a returning favorite and one we’ve not had in this column before. Some quick announcements before we get into things.
The first is not site-related, so I’ll lead with that: I’ve dropped a few seasonals and put some others on hold. Most notably CUE! in the former case and Ousama Ranking in the latter. While CUE! was genuinely starting to bore me, I want to be clear that my pausing Ousama Ranking is more my own issue than the show’s. I intend to, hopefully, finish it later this year and if I do so and find it worth discussing at length, I’ll write about it then. I don’t like to feel “guilty” about dropping or pausing anime if I can, I’ve mentioned before that I have various mental issues that affect my mood and can sap my motivation, and lately I have unfortunately very much been in the lazy phase. I’m under no delusion that I owe anyone these explanations, but I do feel like I should at least make an attempt to keep y’all in the loop, just so you’re not left wondering why Quasar no Blackstar or what-have-you randomly disappeared from repeat Frontline Report coverage.
On a more directly site-related level, there are two small changes coming to Magic Planet Anime. For the past few months I’ve made a habit of parenthesizing a voice actor’s name after the first time introducing a character in a writeup, and then giving some quick “you may know them from”-style fact. I’m going to still be providing the names, but I think the trivia has made me look like a bit of a know-it-all, and I don’t want to give off that impression, so I’ll be stopping that. Also, in the “Elsewhere on MPA” section, I’m now full-on embedding the article links instead of simply posting text links. I genuinely just didn’t know you could do that, and it seems like a much better and cleaner way to link other articles in this column.
Let me know what you think of these changes in the comments! But enough yapping about the site itself, on to the stuff you actually care about.
Seasonal Anime
Miss KUROITSU from the Monster Development Department
Often, some time after a season begins, I will end up picking up an extra show or two. Usually just something to watch on my “downtime” with friends between anime I’ve actually committed to writing about. Rarely do I mention these anime on this site; they’re often not exactly the best shows of a given season, they’re often pretty obscure, and they rarely have much to discuss about them. Once in a great while one will contort into strange and compelling enough shapes that it demands my full attention in spite of my own plans–last year, that happened to Blue Reflection Ray–but it’s rare.
Occasionally though, I’ll feel compelled to pen a bit about them just to give them whatever due I may feel they’re owed regardless. (And to fill in some blank space left by my dropping of CUE! a few weeks back.) So it is with Miss KUROITSU from the Monster Development Department, a quirky comedy anime that’s been quietly chugging along for the past eight weeks to the notice of, evidently, rather few people, going by its social media numbers.
The series’ premise is not difficult to get your head around. Here it is, in full, straight from Anilist’s database.
Kuroitsu is an assistant researcher in the superhuman research & development department of Agastya, a villainous secret organization that battles with heroes who try to save the world. Kuroitsu lives a busy life in Agastya, caught between the absurd requests of her bosses; making presentations; implementing new features into superhumans; and getting results within the allotted time, budget, and spec requests; all without vacation.
We follow a lab researcher who works for a toku show-style evil organization. Nothing complicated there. The series blends the genre with the style of an office comedy, and the results can be pretty damn funny when correctly dialed in. I’m particularly fond of the managerial Megistus (Tetsu Inada), who is a combination surprisingly responsible and levelheaded boss and also a Huge Powerful Guy in Metal Armor.
The show’s main roadblock to being more recommendable is that sometimes that humor also wildly misses. One of the main characters is Wolf Bete (Sahomi Amano), who was a monster intended to be a wolfman but, due to the interference of Agastya’s evil leader Akashic (Mao Ichimichi), ended up as a girl with wolf ears and claws instead. He still considers himself male (and to the translators’ credit, they respect that), and so do most of his coworkers, but the show sometimes leans into mildly transphobic humor regardless. Also, the character’s very premise just feels a bit…weird. In a way that’s going to be familiar to anyone who’s read or watched a lot of gender-bender stories over the years.
One of the two magical girls (!) who’re present in the show, Yuto (Yui Horie), also gets this treatment, since they’re “actually” a boy. (I’m not terribly clear on how the character in question views themselves in an in-universe sort of sense. I get the vague impression they may be, as we’d say, gender-questioning.) It’s just enough to not make Miss Kuroitsu the obvious recommend that I want it to be, and that does kinda suck even if the show is otherwise pretty good.
Take the most recent episode, the eighth. Its middle segment contains an absolutely incredible scene where the magical girls, infiltrating Agastya on the orders of their boss, participate in a shockingly normal interview, where the wilier of them, Reo (Yukari Tamura) just spins a whole fabricated sympathetic backstory out of thin air. The whole thing only falls apart when Megistus takes note of their age.
Despite its issues, Miss Kuroitsu is worth a watch if you can look past them. Screwball office comedies aren’t as common as they could be in anime, and this is a solid one underneath it all.
Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2
The main plot of last week’s episode of Princess Connect! Re:Dive could not be simpler. Kokkoro, and two minor characters we meet for the first time here–Misaki (Misaki Kuno) and Suzuna (Sumire Uesaka)–are sending out a bunch of letters at the post office. For whatever reason, a bunch of bandits raid the post office while they’re there, and steal the letters along with several other things. Thus, Kokkoro and her two new acquaintances must go on a (short) quest to get them all back.
This A-plot is decent fun. We get a lot of Kokkoro’s signature “x” face and in general the other two provide solid foils for her. Misaki is the weirder (and therefore funnier) of the two, and seems to think she’s some kind of alluring temptress despite being….not that.
I’m normally, to say the least, pretty mixed on this sort of humor. But the fact that the two are also demons ratchets it back to “funny,” at least for me, on sheer audacity. There is an utterly bizarre sequence where Misaki tries to do a stripper pole routine–animated in a decidedly goofy fashion and set to comical club music–on her staff to the complete bafflement of the bandits she’s trying to “seduce.” Kokkoro and Suzuna end up having to break her out when this inevitably leads to her capture.
Although it does make their own motivation for sending letters clash a bit oddly against their actual appearances. The both of them are students at a local school that is threatened with closure in part because of their own poor grades. We’re not given exact ages, but they seem pretty young, given that Suzuna (hilariously) calls the 7’s the “final boss of multiplication tables.” Despite their somewhat showy outfits, and Misaki’s behavior, the characters aren’t actually sexualized enough to make this come across as gross. It’s just strange. They feel a bit like actors performing a play that they’re not properly costumed for. It’s a minor qualm, but such things are noticeable in the context of Princess Connect, which is otherwise very well put-together. Obviously, the three eventually recover the letters. Suzuna also gets a very short highlight of her skill as an archer (presumably also true in the game), which is nice.
Cut with all this are brief spotlights on our other three main characters, which collectively form the B-side of the episode. Presumably, this is setup for Princess Connect‘s season finale. A solid idea, since there are just four episodes left. Karyl again finds herself mesmerized by the mercurial, wicked Kaiser Insight (Shouta Aoi, doing his Cagliostro from Symphogear voice), whose control over her seems to run far deeper than any simple evil overlord / minion relationship.
At the same time, Pecorine dreams of her former self warning her that she’ll be left alone again once her true identity comes out. Yuki, meanwhile, works out his distress over last week’s developments with Labyrista (Akira Mosakuji), who delivers one of the most stunningly profound lines of the whole season when Yuki despairs over forgetting (or more likely, being forced to forget) his previous companions.
She’s right, and Princess Connect‘s ability to casually drop things like this in the midst of what is otherwise a fairly silly episode really nails down its place as the season’s best show. Nothing else is working in this space this well right now.
At episode’s end, after Kokkoro, Suzuna, and Misaki have recovered the letters, the Gourmet Guild set out to harvest a rice crop. With just the four of them, it’d take forever. So, it’s naturally here where we learn what Kokkoro was sending so many letters for; they were sent to all of the Gourmet Guild’s friends and allies, asking them to pitch in. And I do mean all of them.
This veritable parade of cameos, some of which are from characters we haven’t seen since season one (remember the huge llama girl? What about the ghost who turned Yuki into flan?) is one of the episode’s highlights. And more than anything, it makes me dead certain that Princess Connect is gearing up for this season’s final arc. In its last minutes, we see the Gourmet Guild transform the rice harvest into a massive feast for everyone, and it’s a huge, well-earned capital M Moment of emotion. Pecorine can’t help but tear up, and I doubt she’s alone.
She resolves, just before the credits roll, to tell Yuki and Karyl of her true identity as Princess Eustania. Time will tell how that goes, but no matter what happens, this wonderful memory, preserved in amber, will stick with us, the audience, the whole way. PriConne has a way of hitting you in the heart.
One of the reasons I like doing commissions is because I’m occasionally handed some fun little thing I’d never even heard of before. Such is the case with Yoyo to Nene, a largely forgotten magical girl / isekai film from the early ’10s. It’s not perfect, but I still really enjoyed it and highly recommend it, especially if you’re a fan of ufotable‘s visual work. Especially especially if you also wish they adapted more interesting material.
My Dress-Up Darling manages to produce two good episodes in a row! Astounding! This wasn’t as much of a knockout as last week’s and there’s still definitely more fanservice than I’d like, but there are only so many ways I can say that and not feel like I’m repeating myself. I enjoyed Gojo helping Shinju fulfill her cosplay dreams.
Equivalent exchange at work, perhaps. As Dress-Up Darling improves, Sabikui Bisco, my other weekly, gets markedly worse. This episode was honestly a real blow to my enthusiasm for this series, it makes the previous week’s look like a masterpiece. We’ll know by tomorrow if the downward trend continues or not.
And that about covers it for this week. So, with little left to say, until then, anime fans.
Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live.If you’d like to 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 Directoryto 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.
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.
I’ve been a bit sick over the past week. Not enough to impact my blogging, thankfully. I was originally going to have just three shows for you this week, but, what the heck, why don’t we start with a new face?
Seasonal Anime
Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure
If you write about a chosen medium, it’s generally good to know what your Geek Buttons are. A Geek Button is a thing–and it can really be anything, a series, a whole genre, a visual style, a specific actor, whatever–where the more “objective” part of your critical toolkit just fails to work, and you are reduced to a blubbering fangirl (or fanboy, or fanby, as the case may be). For me, magical girls in general, and especially Pretty Cure, are a Geek Button. I cannot pretend to be remotely reasonable about them. I love almost all of them like they’re my children and the few exceptions are girls who I just wish were in better shows. I will die on the hill that the magical girl warrior archetype is one of anime’s best and most important contributions to general popular culture.
So with that in mind, please say hello to the newest Pretty Cure series. And indeed, the newest Pretty Cure; Yui Nagomi, AKA Cure Precious (Hana Hishikawa in what is, astoundingly, her first named character role in an anime.)
She is adorable. Dare I say precious?
The first episode of a given Precure series has a lot of beats to hit; introducing the protagonist, introducing her mentor / helper characters, if any, establishing the broad strokes of the plot for the season, nailing down the basic thematic overtone it’s going for, and of course, introducing the bad guys and their particular version of the monsters of the week. It’s a lot of stops to have to hit in a 22-minute episode, but DePaPre swings it admirably. The general direction in this first episode is really just fantastic, and notably, it’s helmed by animation director Akira Inagami, who had a role as a character designer all the way back on the original Futari wa Pretty Cure. (A hearty shout out to my good friend Pike, curator of Dual Aurora Wave, for that information. I’d have never known!)
The whole thing is bouncy and joyous and just alive in a way that really defines the best kids’ anime. The episode is great looking from start to finish, though obviously the real Peak TV moment is Cure Precious’ first henshin sequence.
Also scattered throughout are the traditional “Precure Leap,” a fun nod to an episode of Futari wa, and some truly ludicrous attack names (a 500 Kilocalorie punch, huh?)
I’m also fond of Yui’s “mentor” character here, the lavender haired gnc king Rosemary. He’s delightfully camp in a way that doesn’t feel overbearing or like it’s making fun of anyone.
Her fairy is adorable too, of course.
And I must make a nod toward Gentle (or “Gentlu” as Crunchyroll’s official subs hilariously render her name), who both puts in a supremely cool showing as the anime’s starter villain and is also the smart pick for Character Most Likely To Undergo A Face Turn And Possibly Become a Precure Herself. It wouldn’t be the first time the series has done that. (My favorite example being from Fresh. Which, fun fact; was the first Precure series that Hana Hishikawa watched as a young child in nursery school, going off an interview she gave a few weeks ago.)
Gentle wouldn’t even be the first villain with this specific hair color to eventually become a Precure. Will history repeat itself? Time alone will tell.
The only “bad thing”, really, about DePaPre, is that it won’t appear in this column much. I’ll try to make exceptions for particularly great episodes but given that I watch it with friends on its premiere night, much like Tropical Rouge Precure before it, it can be difficult to find the time, given that these Reports go up on Sunday.
Still, I’ll absolutely be watching every single week. And if my opinion is worth anything to you, I think you should be too.
CUE!
I don’t really know what to think about CUE! Any time I feel like I should just write it off and stop following it entirely, it does this.
“This,” for reference, is another subtly great episode about the inside of the voice acting profession. It doesn’t start out that way; the first third or so of this episode is actually mostly about Haruna’s pet turtle, about whom she says increasingly ridiculous things. (To wit; it’s not a turtle because he has a name, she asks him for advice, and he looks like “an old man” and “a philosopher. It’s all pretty funny.)
But the episode gets serious at around its 1/3rd mark, honing in on the art of injecting emotion into even very short exchanges of words. Haruna’s role, remember, is just “additional voices.” So in her first scene in Bloom Ball, which the girls record here, she only swaps a single sentence with Maika’s character, who only replies with one of her own. And we hear those two sentences some four or five times over the episode’s duration.
I’ve said this before, but running the same scene back-to-back, for any reason, is challenging. You risk boring your audience, and when the scene in question is this short you risk it even more. But, somehow, CUE! pulls it off again.
The mechanics are very simple; the girls learn a little bit about how voice acting works. They record their lines, Haruna and Maika’s get held because the author (present at the recording) remembers that the bit character Haruna is playing comes up again way later in the story. Once again, this is supposed to sell Haruna as someone with an immense amount of untapped voice acting talent. It doesn’t work quite as well as the showstopper she drops in episode 2, but it’s still pretty good, and it proves that when CUE! is on, it’s on.
For something that should be super dry, it manages to stay quite interesting, employing its favorite trick, jumping in and out of the world of the show-within-a-show. Here, since all present are actually recording, things are further embellished by the show being mid-production. No full-color cuts here; it’s all monochrome and pre-correction. (Let’s take a moment to appreciate the nightmare that making a finished cut that looks convincingly unfinished must be.)
Flummoxing as it sometimes is, if CUE! keeps making episodes like this I will continue to watch them. Just, please, I’m begging you, either focus on the idol girls less or make them more interesting.
Princess Connect! Re:Dive
One of the reasons I declined to give Princess Connect! Re:Dive its own dedicated column is that I know my limits. A picture truly can be worth a thousand words, and a gif from a show like this can be worth a short novel. What am I supposed to say about this?
Okay, fine. If you wanted to, if you were some kind of joyless miser, you could be mad that this episode is all set up and no resolution. Frankly I think that’s an absurd criticism, and the idea that everything must be resolved within the space of a single episode just because this show started out as a “slice of life series” is so far removed from how I experience art that I have a difficult time even comprehending it. Nonetheless it is what some people think, and I’ll give those people their moment of acknowledgement here.
For the rest of us; holy shit.
Princess Connect season 2’s fourth episode is the sort of absurd instant-classic that demands rewinds, screencapping, and a visit to Sakugabooru. And it’s the fourth episode of a twelve-episode season. That’s nuts. That’s the kind of comically overconfident flex that usually presages some great disaster. But why would that be the case here? CygamesPictures aren’t working on anything else this year. It’s amazing what a well-equipped studio can do when actually giving its workers proper time to do so.
The actual plot here is cartwheeling fantasy screwiness that wouldn’t be out of place in one of the many, many books with dragons and swords on the cover that I read in middle school. That sounds like an insult, but this sort of high-stakes epic-in-the-old-sense-of-the-word plot is what’s missing from a lot of modern fantasy anime. It’s spectacle; even down to details like Karyl still playing both sides, the guild of animal girls we meet here, and the giant golem fight that caps the episode.
I feel legitimately bad for the other fantasy anime airing right now. It’s not like In The Land of Leadale or Reincarnated as a Fantasy Knockout don’t have their merits, but they aren’t this. The only competition Priconne really has in this regard is Demon Slayer, but while that show definitely looks great, it’s always had issues with making its flashy animation feel like it entirely fit with the rest of the world. Priconne never even sniffs that problem; the compositing is as excellent here as anything else. Even moments where characters are literally just standing around look incredible.
The only real issue is that Priconne’s plot is so mile-a-minute I could see it getting hard to keep up. (I’m already a bit lost myself. Having not played the game probably doesn’t help.) But even so; at least for me, that feeling actually adds to the exhilaration of watching this thing in motion. The Proper Noun Machine Gun has rarely been put to such good use.
Tokyo 24th Ward
Unfortunately we must end this section of the week’s writeup on something of a sour note.
If I had known I was going to be covering Tokyo 24th Ward this frequently, I’d have just made it another weekly column. Maybe that would’ve been a bad idea, though, given how the show’s shortcomings are generally more compelling to me than its strengths, which I increasingly think are actually rather modest.
Fundamentally, the problem is this; if your anime (or movie or book or album or whatever) invokes political themes, you are inviting all comers to scrutinize it from their own political point of view. Everyone on Earth has such a point of view, whether or not they’re cognizant of it. In of itself, that’s fine, but if your work’s political themes are, say, shallow and inadequate, it raises a problem. Are Tokyo 24th‘s shallow and inadequate? I don’t really know. The signals are, shall we say, mixed.
Getting a big head over this kind of thing is nothing new to mainstream TV anime. Turn of the decade classic Code Geass, for example, managed to be good largely by trading away any actual meaningful political commentary for sheer camp value. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to nail more specific and well-thought-out political messages. Akudama Drive did it only two years ago. (Full disclosure: I haven’t seen Akudama Drive myself, at least not yet, but I trust Inkie’s judgment on the series utterly.) It’s also possible–although both less rare and not as impactful–to make broader statements without rendering them entirely meaningless. Something as goofy as Rumble Garanndoll managed that much just last season.
The gist of the plot forming over Tokyo 24th‘s last two episodes has been this; the graffiti artist / hacker Kunai (Souma Saitou, who has been in many support roles like this) is going to blow up a cruise ship full of the ultra-wealthy.
Normally I’d here provide his motivations, and just from what little we’ve learned about him–his upbringing in the ridiculously named Shantytown ghetto in the poorest part of the Ward, his grandmother’s illness, the fact that Ran has eclipsed him artistically–one could come up with a good half dozen motivations for why this poor man might feel motivated to extreme action.
Kunai’s actual motives are different, and much more personal. He’s been tricked into selling an app he developed by the owner of an enormous corporate megalopoly, a fellow named Taki. Taki rewires the program to turn it into that mysterious “Drug D” we’ve been hearing so much about over the past couple of episodes. Kunai’s resentment, then, is borne not from his situation but from something very specific. He feels as though he’s been used. And he’s right about that! He has been used. Ran correctly points out, when the two meet at the episode’s climax, that Kunai is not the “criminal” he self-laceratingly claims to be. He’s a victim of circumstance. On one level, Tokyo 24th humanizing an actual terrorist to this degree is admirable. On another, it seems like an easy out to give Kunai a single grudge motive rather than anything more circumstantial and messy. Plus, there is what actually happens to Kunai.
At the episode’s end, Kouki–that’s Cop Boy, if you’ve forgotten–bypasses the advice of his friends and orders Kunai shot dead by a police sniper. Kunai bleeds out in Ran’s arms, begging his friend to continue to be the one thing he couldn’t: an artist.
It is difficult to know how to take this.
Is it a shocking display–and condemnation–of police brutality? Does the show think he’s in the right to have done that? (I don’t want to think so, but I’ve gone broke overestimating anime before.) Or is this another thing where Shuuta’s enlightened centrist fence-sitting is going to somehow turn out to be the solution? Tokyo 24th has given me very little reason to believe the former might be what it’s going for, but I suppose it’s not impossible. A number of details about Tokyo 24th‘s worldbuilding lead me to believe that won’t be the case (it’s insane that an anime that uses so much graffiti aesthetic has perhaps two Black characters and zero major ones), but I’ve been wrong before. Honestly in this specific situation I’d be happy to be. But for the record, I’m not alone here. Some critics have been far harsherthan me. And I’m split between feeling like I’m giving the anime way too much slack and coming down on it way too hard.
It’s unfair, in a way. An anime that tries to be a Statement opens itself up to all kinds of nitpicking from audiences both domestic and abroad that other anime could easily dismiss out of hand. Should I not be giving it some points for even trying? Maybe, but “some points” might add up to a 3 or 4 out of 10 depending on how badly it fucks up the landing, and I’m not at all confident it won’t. Wanting to be a critique of the state of the world isn’t the same as actually being one. All of Tokyo 24th‘s effort will be meaningless if it cannot find some way to intelligently apply it.
We will see Tokyo 24th here again, maybe as soon as next week. For good or for ill I cannot yet say.
Elsewhere on MPA
Let’s Watch SABIKUI BISCO Episode 4 – “Ride the Crab” – For an episode that features absolutely zero Pawoo, this was still quite a good 30 minutes of Sabikui Bisco. There must be a solid Milo / Bisco shipping community out there, right?
That’s most of what I’ve got for you this week, anime fans. But before I go, a small recommendation! A new manga was picked up by Jump recently, and is available officially in English on the MangaPlus website. It’s called Magilumiere Co. Ltd., a magical girl-action-office comedy whatsit that poses the question; “what if being a magical girl was, you know, a full-on career? And what if an ordinary college grad seeking to enter the workforce suddenly found herself basically dropped into a small Magical Girl Company’s employ?” That’s kind of a long question, admittedly, but Magilumiere does have answers.
It’s to soon into the manga’s run for me to have any terribly detailed opinions on it, but I like it so far, and “magical girl + other stuff” is always a fun combination. Give it a read if you’re so inclined.
See you tomorrow for more Sabikui Bisco, friends!
Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live.If you’d like to 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 Directoryto 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.
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.
Hello, friends! I’ve tried to keep busy this week, but some of that is with projects you all won’t see the results of for some time yet, including another commission series I’m watching. I try to make the Frontline Reports a little beefier in weeks like that to compensate, so I hope you’ll enjoy the three writeups I’ve prepared for y’all this week. (Plus, of course, the other articles linked to elsewhere down below.) We’ve got a really good episode, a somewhat troubling episode, and a sendoff to one of my favorite anime of the last twelve months. Enjoy!
Princess Connect Re:Dive – Season 2
It feels odd to say this, but there’s more going on in Princess Connect: ReDive than almost any other series airing this season. I don’t just mean sheer density of events-per-episode, although there’s that too (it might be the show’s only flaw, if you’re inclined to view it as one.)
To wit: this past week, the Gourmet Guild was roped into helping the elf Aoi (voice acting legend Kana Hanazawa), who you may remember from last season, fit in at the school she’s transferred to.
She wants to get along with her illustrious senpai, the soft-spoken and serious Yuni (Konomi Kohara. Notably for this blog, she was the title role in Pompo: The Cinephile). Plus, by implication, Yuni’s own two friends, Chieru (Ayane Sakura, who has been in a ton of things. Last season she was Julia in Mieruko-chan) and Chloe (Atsumi Tanezaki, probably best known to readers of this blog as the titular lead from Vivy – Flourite Eye’s Song. She makes the otherwise minor character stand out by performing her with a notably deep voice. The performance is just awesome all around, really. I’m not familiar enough with Tanezaki’s work to know if she just decided to go really hard on this character for some reason or if her voice just actually sounds like that. In the latter case, you can catch me swooning over in the corner.)
In an anime that was merely a fantasy adventure / comedy series, you might correctly predict that this eventually involves investigating a haunted forest which turns out to have a super haunted graveyard in it. Less expected are the bizarre turns this episode takes for the surreal; touches like skeletons rising from the grave glitching the very video around them. The wight of a powerful king somehow transforms the surrounding landscape into an echo of his own burning kingdom. It’s Pecorine who takes him out, with a soft hug and some kind words rather than her sword.
When this whole haunted graveyard deal is over, we cut to some time later. Yuni’s been doing research, and the nation marked on the gravestones in the forest doesn’t exist and never has. She’s content to have briefly grasped that something’s going on, but for us, the mystery remains. Some aspects of Princess Connect‘s first season implied the cast (or at least Yuuki and maybe Pecorine) might be faced with the classic stuck-in-a-game isekai scenario and not know it. If that’s true, this is the hardest the series has leaned on it in the second season so far. Questioned are raised, and the answers seem still far off.
That intriguing idea alone would ensure Princess Connect Re:Dive a recurring spot in this column. But I should at least mention the show’s absolutely dynamite production, too. This isn’t Sakugablog and I am not kVIN, so I couldn’t begin to tell you the specific ins and outs of how the show manages to consistently look this good, but I know that it does. Maybe it’s Chief Director Takaomi Kanasaki (Director of PrinConne’s first season, and also quite a lot of stuff for its genre-fellow, Konosuba) and his…what’s the word here? Assistant? The ‘regular’ director, Yasuo Iwamoto (an industry lifer with credits, many as a storyboarder or episode director, going all the way back to 1988 space opera classic The Legend of The Galactic Heroes). Maybe it’s just that CygamesPictures only takes on a reasonable amount of projects at once. (That amount appears to be roughly “one.” If every anime looked this damn good, I’d be happy getting far fewer per year.)
Regardless, the show has yet to have a weak-looking episode. The lack of a huge combat setpiece in this episode shouldn’t detract from the great character acting we get. There’s a bunch! Look at how expressive those faces are! That’s quality.
Suffice it to say, we will see Princess Connect around these parts again.
Tokyo 24th Ward
I wasn’t going to do even a short writeup about this episode, but then a plot developed where the titular ward’s mayor is nakedly employing media manipulation to turn the ward’s populace against the local shantytown that’s literally called Shantytown so people will file complaints. Complaints he will use as pretext to redevelop it into a casino. (Yes, the whole town apparently. I don’t know, maybe it’s a really big casino.)
What a shady place. There are women wielding pipes!
Part of this campaign also involves disseminating a highly addictive and dangerous drug simply called “D” into the streets. This drug is vaped, because of course it is. Also in on this whole racket are SARG, who punish use of the drug that their boss is (presumably unknown to them) supplying. This becomes an inflection point in Shuuta’s increasing uneasiness with Kouki’s authoritarian leanings, but the issue isn’t explored in detail here.
There are ups and downs here. On the one hand, the episode correctly points out that places like Shantytown arise from government disinterest or even active malice, and that bringing them under a tighter grip (especially to “redevelop” them) is no answer. By the same token, the series’ repeated use of “third choices” as a motif seems to present a dichotomy between Kouki’s borderline fascist point of view and Ran’s free-spirited art anarchy.
There is a real distinction there, but the narrative continues to center on Shuuta, who by all evidence, seems to think the solution to most problems is to just talk things out.
I hate raking an anime over the coals for not even bad politics but possibly iffy politics, but Tokyo 24th has Gone There, so I feel as though I have no real choice but to take it as seriously as it clearly wants to be taken on this subject. Next episode involves one of Ran’s friends plotting a terrorist attack, so who knows where this is going. I probably say this too often, but, well, time will tell.
Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure
In a way, I feel bad that I haven’t written about Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure more. I’ve already shared why the series means so much to me personally in myend-of-year writeup from the tail end of December, so I won’t repeat myself here. But even at as much a remove I can muster from my own experiences, TroPre was something special. And to again return to my own feelings, that finale had me crying like a baby. I was not the only one.
“I can feel it in the air. The summer’s out of reach.“
TroPre will comfortably settle into its place in fandom memory. Pretty Cure fans don’t let favorites die, and it’s not controversial to say TroPre earns its stripes as one of the strongest entries in the franchise. In a sense, the endless summer that the final episode promises will be as real in our own memories as it is on the shores of Aozora City. The closing scenes are things of simple and pure beauty; Manatsu (Ai Farouz in the defining role of her young but already illustrious career) and Laura (brought to brilliant life by Rina Hidaka) meeting again for the first time, the sheer strength of their bond overloading and destroying the “memory machine” that lurked in the background as the show’s only unresolved plot thread.
The flood of memory is literal; bubbles containing the girls’ precious moments with each other pour out of the Aqua Pot. And just like that, Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure makes a graceful, joyous exit, off the silver screen and into our hearts forever.
Keep tropica-shining, girls.
Elsewhere on MPA
Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING Episode 4 – “Are These Your Girlfriend’s” – Some anime start out strong, others take a while to find their footing. If episode four of My Dress-Up Darling is any indication, it’s in the latter camp. This episode humanizes the lead, Gojo, to a degree we haven’t really seen before. As a direct consequence, the show comes alive in a way it never previously has. I have thought some prior episodes of this anime were solid or even good, this is the first I’d say was outright great.
Let’s Watch SABIKUI BISCO Episode 3 – “Tag Team” – Back again, Sabikui Bisco takes a bit of a downturn this week. I still liked the episode overall but the show’s rough handling of Pawoo–its only major female character so far–feels like a possible bad sign. My hope is that this is a fluke, not a pattern.
But, of course, we’ll learn together tomorrow. See you then for more Sabikui Bisco, anime fans. Stay safe out there, if you’re in the continental US like me! The weather’s been rough.
Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live.If you’d like to 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 Directoryto 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.
Hello anime fans! What a week it’s been over here! Commissions, seasonals getting better or worse, schedule shakeups, and more. There’s a lot to talk about, so I won’t waste any more of your time. Let’s dive in.
Seasonal Anime
CUE!
Maybe it’s a good thing that I stopped doing weeklies on this show? This episode, only CUE!‘s third, really meanders. That’s not inherently a problem given that the show is slated for two cours, but it does raise some possible problems going forward.
To put it very briefly; there is now an idol anime happening within CUE! Almost literally, even. We’re formally introduced to another “unit” of four characters this episode. We met one of them–Yuki Tendou–last week, but the other three have basically been background characters before now. These are Airi Eniwa (Mayu Iizuka, in her first major role), Yuzuha Kujo, (Manatsu Murakami, also voicing the lead in the deeply creepy Akebi’s School Uniform this season) and Chisa Akagawa (Satsuki Miyahara, another member of DIALOGUE+).
Yuzuha, Airi, Chisa, and Yuki, from left to right.
The four of them volunteer for a project AiRBLUE is considering picking up; a four-piece idol unit called Project Vogel. Which itself seems to be…honestly it’s not entirely clear? They’re playing characters who have designs and such, we even see said designs, which implies that this is a VTuber thing or is itself an idol anime of some sort? But no one ever actually explicitly says either, it’s just referred to as “a project.” It’s a little confusing.
It may not matter, because on top of everything else, this project is being crowdfunded on what looks like Kickstarter. Someone even explicitly points out that the project has only 52 backers at the moment. Which, to give the show due credit, is pretty funny.
This could all conceivably be pretty interesting, and it might even become so at some point, but there’s a lot of daylight between then and now. Because of the team of four we’re introduced to here, three are just not compelling characters. In contrast with Haruna (still our ostensible lead) and her genuinely endearing everywoman charm, they barely even qualify as caricatures. Only one rises above the level of a complete cardboard cutout.
That’d be Yuki, the only one of the four with some actual spark. She wants to land a role in something as quickly as possible because her dad might be forcing her out of the business to work in the family restaurant, and she’s willing to take a gamble on Vogel Project being something she can do. It’s basic, but that’s a real character motivation, which is more than the other three get. Also, she has an exclamatory catchphrase that gets subtitled as “D’oh!” for some reason, which is fun.
Airi has perhaps a dozen lines this episode and more than half of them have to be variants on “I’m sorry.” There’s also a bizarre dialogue gimmick where she says vaguely rude things and then justifies them as being things her horoscope told her to do? She’s honestly pretty annoying! And Mayu Iizuka’s all-nose vocal performance does not help. Yuzuha “wants to make precious memories.” Chisa is “the serious one.” We don’t get to learn much about those two beyond that. Their introductory scene drags like hell and it’s easily the worst part of the show so far, across all three of its episodes.
These are issues that a series could fix with time and development, but it’s a bad first impression to make for what is presumably going to end up becoming a major part of the cast. Why do an introdump like this if you’re going to make the characters seem so dull? It’s worth remembering here that CUE! exists partly to promote a mobile game. No one is going to roll the gacha for characters this boring. (The show’s character designs tending toward the pedestrian certainly doesn’t help either. Though within the context of CUE! as fiction, it does make the designs of the various shows within the show pop more.)
In more interesting territory, Maika and some of the other girls learn that they’ve landed a role in Bloom Ball. I’m pleasantly surprised that the zany sports anime-within-an-anime seems like it’s going to continue to be relevant. Haruna doesn’t get a major part, although she’s penned in to attend the first recording session anyway. Because you see, she’s got a role as “Student A.” It’s something?
Of all of CUE!‘s characters, I actually probably like Haruna the most. It’s a little disappointing to see her performance from last episode lead to a result that is, basically, a joke at her expense. I do still intend to keep up with CUE, but I can’t pretend that this episode isn’t fairly disappointing. Time will tell if this goes down as merely a rough patch or the point where the series just falls apart.
Tokyo 24th Ward
Normally I don’t cover anime in back-to-back Frontline Reports. (That’s what the dedicated weekly columns are for.) Nonetheless, I felt like I should take some time to appreciate the fact that Tokyo 24th Ward has appreciably improved from its snoozefest of a second episode last week to its third this week. Hopefully signing that the first episode will be more indicative of the show’s overall direction than the second.
Very briefly; the Gourmet Fest alluded to last week happens here, and Kaba, the event’s organizer, foils the scheme by a rival restaurant to win by cheating. All of this is fairly humdrum, though thankfully the production picks back up here (the pop-ins are back! Hooray!)
I would’ve written the episode off as just okay were it not for the fact that we get another one of those bonkers ghost phone calls here. The second half of the episode, which this kicks off, seems more indicative of where Tokyo 24th wants to go from here.
This time the disaster is a sudden tornado (!) striking the festival. Once again, it’s presented as a sideways variant on the trolley problem; choose to save Group X or Group Y, but not both. This time, though, our heroes don’t coordinate before moving out to enact their grand shonen-y rescue plans. As a result, things go badly, and for the second time, “RGB” fail to save everyone. One of those who loses his life is Kaba himself, marking the genuinely shocking removal of a character who had up to this point been a fairly major supporting player.
A willingness to buck expectations now, while we’re still rather early in Tokyo 24th‘s run, is a good sign. I legitimately felt for Kaba’s daughter, Kozue, previously traumatized by the fire catastrophe we learned about back in episode one. Here, on her first day out of the house in who knows how long, she’s caught in a tornado and loses her father. That’s just awful, and all the melodramatic touches in the world–Kozue sheds a tear as her father’s ripped away by the tornado, which mixes with one of his own!–can’t entirely blunt that sense of loss.
But if anyone had the absurd worry that Tokyo 24th was going to get too serious, the episode ends with the reveal that somehow, this fucking guy was behind the tornado.
And just like that, our little superhero team suddenly has a proper nemesis.
I don’t know where Tokyo 24th goes from here, but that’s an exciting feeling. I am sure it will appear in this column again.
Elsewhere on MPA
It’s been a productive week here on the site.
(Review) Pompo: The Cinéphile– One of two commissions I finished this week. I don’t love Pompo but it’s a pretty solid movie and it probably deserves more love than it’s gotten from western audiences. Check it out sometime, won’t you?
(Review) SCHOOL-LIVE! / Gakkou Gurashi – I think I’ve basically exhausted all I have to say about mid-’10s cult classic Gakkou Gurashi. I really loved this series despite a few problems and it’s probably the most an anime has made me cry since, what, A Place Further Than The Universe, maybe? There’s a reason this one has stuck around.
And that’s about all for this week. I’ll see you tomorrow for more Sabikui Bisco, anime fans. 🙂
Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live.If you’d like to 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 Directoryto 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.
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.
Hello guys, gals, and nonbinary pals! I hope you’re all doing well out there. Premiere Season is basically over here at MPA, so I hope you’re enjoying my settling into a more relaxed seasonal groove.
I wanted to make a personal plea here before moving on to the (relatively short) FR writeup proper for this past week. Between the last Frontline Report and now, I have started HRT treatment, which, if you’re not familiar, is a crucial step of the transitioning process for most trans women. Why mention this on my anime blog? Two reasons; for one, I am hoping this treatment will lead to me being happier and healthier (I feel better about myself in general already, but that could be the placebo effect this early on.) For two, the more practical side of this is that I now have a medical bill–the cost of the HRT treatment–to pay every few months. It’s not a ton of money, averaging out to about $60 after the local clinic’s discount for low-income people, but it’s an added financial pressure.
On top of this, I’m hoping to get some other long-standing medical problems treated this calendar year (among them; I need new glasses and need a bad case of hearing loss in my right ear treated.) All of this to say that if you read my blog and can afford even occasional small donations, please please please consider donating to my Ko-Fi or becoming a Patreon patron. (I don’t currently offer any Patron bonuses because I frankly just don’t have enough of a subscription base. If I start to get more subscriptions over there, I will give it some thought.) I also offer review commissions; you can see my policies for review purchases, complete with a pricing chart, here.
I don’t really like to beat the “give me money” drum too hard. The primary reason I write anime criticism is because I enjoy it and find it personally important. But the monetary side of things really is what allows me to continue doing this, so thank you for bearing with me in this regard.
In any case, onto this week’s anime! The actual writing roundup is pretty short here, but I hope you’ll find these entries worthwhile.
Seasonal Anime
Ranking of Kings
As Ousama Ranking enters its second half, war clouds begin to blot out the sky. Recent episodes have made it clear that Miranjo’s machinations intend to drive the entire Kingdom of Bosse into ruin, not merely displace Bojji. We’ve explored everything from the depths of Daida’s own mind in the Twilight Zone-esque episode 11 to a small rogues’ gallery of evildoers in the more recent two episodes, which have kicked off the series’ second cour.
In the most recent episode, with said rogues’ gallery besieging the castle Bojji once called home, Queen Hilde’s retainer Dorshe ends up getting a lot of love. He puts up a hell of a fight, though the episode’s sinister ending makes it ambiguous as to whether or not he’s actually successfully protected his charge.
Equally emphasized here is the sinister and downright bizarre Ouken, the so-called “Sword King,” an effective force of sadistic nature who we know vanishingly little about. Save that Bojji musn’t be allowed to confront him directly, for some reason or another.
Ousama Ranking remains, really, almost too good for its own good. I can think of little better to tell you to do than to watch the series if you aren’t already, and to catch up if you’re a bit behind. It remains a wonderful thing to watch.
Tokyo 24th Ward
If you squint, you can see what Tokyo 24th Ward is trying to do with its second episode. The intent is two-fold; to show how our main group of protagonists came together as the “hero” unit they once were (and how they got the nickname “RGB” in the first place), and more abstractly, to demonstrate how past trauma can intrude on the present. Both ends are served by the episode frequently cutting to flashbacks, often in ways that don’t make it instantly obvious that they even are flashbacks. To Tokyo 24th‘s credit, this does give the episode a slightly hallucinatory quality. In all other respects though, this mostly renders the episode confusing, and serves to disguise the fact that very little is actually happening.
What the episode does have in spades is talking. There is a lot of exposition here; about our characters’ pasts and relationships to each other, about the history of the 24th Ward itself, about why certain characters act the way they do, about the upcoming “Gourmet Festival” in the Ward that may or may not become a major plot point, etc. etc. etc.
This is a classic example of the “show, don’t tell” maxim not being followed, and while there are no hard and fast rules in the arts, this is certainly an example of “tell” being done pretty badly. Add to this the fact that the episode’s production is overall lackluster (what happened to the pop-in technique the show used so liberally last week? It’s totally gone here!) and you have a recipe for an episode that is in all respects disappointing. Even the subtitles seem asleep at the wheel, which is hardly the series’ own fault, but it definitely doesn’t help. Winding, ramble-y phrasings abound, and there are a few straight-up errors too. (Although all this does produce a few funny lines.)
Mari, speaking of that image, also gets a little bit of character development here. Which is nice, even if it is buried in a pretty bad episode overall.
My hope is that this is a rough patch for Tokyo 24th and not the start of a full-on freefall, but I suppose time alone will tell.
Elsewhere on MPA
I have been busy recently! Here are some highlights from the past little while.
Way too many First Impressions articles to reasonably list all of them here.– I didn’t cover quite as much as I did last season, but I still wrote about 7 different broadcast anime and also an ONA, which I think is a pretty good spread. (Plus My Dress-Up Darling, which I didn’t technically write a “First Impressions” article on because I knew I was going to pick it up for weekly coverage, but is included in the list because, you know, reasons.) Some of these I quite liked, some I was mixed on, one I outright hated! Give the list a look if you’re wondering what to pick up this season.
(Review) The Magic of Artiswitch – I watched this fascinating little web series basically on a whim and reviewed it for much the same reason. It ended up becoming the 300th anime in any format I’ve logged on my Anilist profile, which I must say, I couldn’t be happier about. I don’t like calling things “hidden gems,” but I think the term applies here. Give this one a look.
Let’s Watch CUE! Episode 2 – “Their Respective Colors” – First of all; yes, I did change how I format the titles for the Let’s Watch posts. Secondly; is it weird that CUE! might be my favorite thing airing right now? It’s not some grandiose production monster, but it has heart in a way I really like. Oddly, it reminds me of The Idolmaster. Maybe I only think that because of the huge cast? Regardless, it’s an entertaining show, and I already love rooting for Haruna, the protagonist, in her quest to become a great voice actress. I really want more people to pick this up. Consider making room for it in your schedule!
Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING Episode 2 – “Wanna Hurry Up, and Do It?”– Woof, that episode title. Pop culture critics like myself have in recent years picked up a habit of calling anything that remotely deals with anything adjacent to sex or sexuality “horny,” using it as a loosely-defined but vaguely positive adjective. I’m hesitant to apply the label to things, so when I say Dress-Up Darling is pretty horny, please know I’m not exaggerating for clicks. That said; I thought this week’s episode was pretty fun even if I can absolutely imagine all the cheesecake (remember that term?) putting someone off. I do agree with the general consensus in hoping the show moves in a direction a bit more narratively-focused soon. I’m not expecting this to turn into Evangelion or anything, but trading in some of the, ahem, “plot” for more actual plot would be nice.
(In spite of all this; Dress-Up Darling is not the horniest anime airing this season. That would be the hormonal anxiety nightmare that is World’s End Harem. I watched the first episode of that and, frankly, had no idea what to make of it. You’ll have to turn elsewhere if you want someone to cover that series I’m afraid.)
And that’ll about do it for this week’s content on the site. I’ll be seeing you all again pretty soon, have a good 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 Directoryto 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.
Hello, anime fans! Happy New Year and welcome to the first Frontline Report of 2022! As I mentioned in my plans for 2022 post, this column is going to remain mostly unchanged entering the new year. Once the seasonal schedule settles, I may move it to publishing on a different day (and we may skip a week at some point in the process), but beyond that, the Report is going to remain familiar, at least for now.
But before we can truly venture into 2022 and the season ahead, I have two anime I’d previously left unfinished from last season. Let’s talk about those, shall we?
Weekly Anime
Mieruko-chan
The first of our cleanups from the tail end of last year; Mieruko-chan was, as far as straightforward manga adaptions go, pretty typical. That is to say, it inherits most of its source material’s weaknesses and only some of its strengths. The good news is that while the more ambitious work that separates a good manga adaption from a merely OK one is largely absent from the series’ first half, it does begin to pick some of that up as it nears its conclusion. This is a series that, far from falling off after its first episode, more or less linearly gets better. Its last few episodes are its strongest, and that brings us to the “Zen arc” that closes it out.
Zen, as brought up when we last visited him, is the substitute teacher for Miko and Hana’s class. He is, in a general sense, weird. Much of the tension of the arc is predicated toward building on the assumption we already have (from his prior appearances in the series) that he’s a serial animal killer. The pieces seem to add up; a rash of missing cats in the neighborhood, his own cold and detached demeanor from other people (including his students), generally suspicious behavior, etc. But one of Mieruko-chan‘s central themes is that looks can be deceiving.
The arc’s climax, in which Zen is almost hit by a car while trying to rescue a cat, and we learn of his past with his abusive mother, is the series’ best handling of anything with real gravitas. Aided by the fact that she literally still haunts him, a situation Miko fixes for him in what is certainly her most proactive move in the whole series. This entire sequence of scenes (which takes up the bulk of the penultimate episode), is the show’s overall highlight.
So, what to make of Mieruko-chan overall? I’ve been rather critical of it in this column in the past (including at the top of this very section), but I maintain my initial impression that what it does right outweighs what it does wrong. I still might point anyone interested in the series to the manga first and foremost, but the visual snap (and consequently, additional narrative weight) added to these last few episodes definitely makes the anime worth watching as well.
Then there’s the characters. Any series that has both serious and comparatively lighthearted components will end up judged on the former over the latter, but Mieruko-chan‘s comedic chops really solidify in this last arc as Miko, Hana, and Julia’s dynamic clicks into its final shape. My main hope for a second season is not as much because I am interested in the resolution of the story arc (although I am), but more because I just want to see these three delightful dummies palling around town more.
(Also, if the subtext between these two isn’t intentional, I’ll eat my hat.)
A shout out has to also be given to the translators here, whose quirky script really helps Mieruko-chan‘s comedy come across in English. Far too many comedy manga and anime end up falling flat when translated “literally,” and it’s for the best they didn’t go with that approach here.
So that’s the long and short of it. Will Mieruko-chan change anyone’s life? No, but it’s solid genre fare in an under-represented genre, and that is more than enough. I think the best thing I can say about Mieruko-chan on a personal level is that despite any criticisms I may have, if they made a second season, I would absolutely watch it. And really, isn’t that the only metric of quality you really need?
Rumble Garanndoll
I think if you wanted to, it wouldn’t be that hard to make a case against Rumble Garanndoll. The series does the stock irresponsible anime-about-anime thing of conflating all human passion (a very broad thing) with passion specifically for this medium (a very narrow thing). You could point to other missteps it’s made along the way (most of which I’ve covered in previous editions of this very column), you could single out how, in the end, its big fascistic villain is revealed as little more than the cosplaying puppet of an even bigger, offscreen fascistic villain who we don’t really get to meaningfully meet at any point.
But the thing is this; I am an anime critic. Emphasis on the first word, not the second. If an anime is mostly about how fucking awesome anime is, I’m going to at least kinda like it unless it’s truly terrible. And Rumble Garanndoll has the appropriate amount of audacity to, say, cap its final arc with the villains attempting to drop the Comiket Center onto Akihabara like a bomb. Even if I didn’t like the series, I’d respect its punch.
But I do like it! Flaws and all, it’s hard to find major fault with something this damn fun. Our main arc here concludes with Hosomichi finding that even if he can’t feel as strongly for the art itself as other people do, he can feel for those people. That’s a surprisingly mature conclusion for something like this to reach! And that’s not all; we get a lot of good small moments over these last three episodes. Stuff like Hosomichi’s ringtone turning out to be a crucial plot element, and a small arc between Commander Balzac and Mimi (the scientist lady). There’s even a few oddly poignant moments. Like here where she assures Balzac that their own sacrifices–and the mistakes they made during them–weren’t for nothing.
Or here, at the very end of the series, where Akatsuki is astonished to learn that many of the resistance members weren’t even Japanese. Implicitly, a gesture of Garanndoll reaching out to its overseas audience as Akatsuki visibly begins to question the ideas he’s been fighting for this entire time. (In the process, supporting character Ukai is revealed to be American.)
It’s all just very good-natured and fun. There are criticisms one could make of this last arc, especially on the production side (there are a few downright sloppy action sequences here mixed in with the better ones), but why? Rumble Garanndoll set out not to imitate the great anime of the past, but to become one itself. I’m not sure if it quite hit “great,” but it’s certainly a worthy show, and I hope it picks up a following. It deserves one.
And yeah, for the record, I’d watch a second season of this, too. (Especially since the last episode raises as many questions as it answers!) I’m glad this was the last anime from 2021 I finished; I think Rumble Garanndoll‘s attitude is a good one to bring into the new year.
This is outside my usual window for mentioning an article on the subsequent Frontline Report, but I worked really hard on this, and I want as many people to read it as possible. So please give it a look if you haven’t!
If you want to get very picky, you could argue that the season’s already begun. The Missing 8‘s first two episodes dropped just after Christmas, and I honestly am still just in awe that the show exists. It’s not a TV series, it’s a semi-independent web short thing that is only actually animated some of the time, but it’s worth checking out just for how odd it is.
And that’s about all for our first week of 2022. If you’re finding the year’s start a little thin, I wouldn’t worry. We’ve got quite the week ahead of us with a good number of premieres piled up already. (I’ll probably be covering about one per day, once they start dropping.) I should also quickly mention Ousama Ranking; yes, it will be returning to this column, probably before too long. It’s a great series and I intend to follow it ’til its end. I’m only not counting it as a leftover from 2021 because, well, I tend to categorize anime by the year they end in rather than the year they begin in. A personal preference, I suppose.
What was your last anime of 2021? Do you have any plans for your first of 2022? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter, I always look forward to hearing from you, 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 Directoryto 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.
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