Tag: 2021 fall anime season

Posted on in anime, Reviews

(REVIEW) There’s Nothing to be Proud of About PRIDE OF ORANGE

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

This review contains spoilers for the reviewed material. But you really shouldn’t care in this case. Seriously, don’t watch this.

If you close your eyes, you can almost picture it.

The time is early 2020. The place? An opulent office space somewhere in Tokyo, the residence of a chief CEO. A real big shot. His suit and his coke habit mark him as a survivor of the ’80s entertainment biz. He’s been places. He’s seen things. He’s helped stars rise and he’s made them fall.

Today is a day like any other, when a representative pitching a new series–an anime–strides into his office. The rep talks smooth as Crisco, and the boss doesn’t need much convincing. His pitch is simple; everyone’s got an idol show. Your company needs one too. The boss is hung up on only one point. He’s been around the block, he knows his stuff, and he knows that just blindly copying this hot new trend won’t cut it. They need a twist.

Idly, he taps a remote on his desk, and the jumbo flatscreen on the other wall lights up. It’s a sports channel, but they’re not broadcasting any of Japan’s typical national pastimes. Instead, he sees an ice rink, and a black puck zipping across it.

He smiles at the serendipity as the rep stands there confused. “Son.” The boss says, his tone cool and confident. “There’s our twist.”

This is probably not how Pride of Orange, a near-instantly forgotten entry in the “idol anime but also something else” subgenre from late last year, actually got greenlit. But it makes more sense to me than the alternative. Some washed-up suit OK’ing this is the only way it seems plausible that it was made at all. What’s the other explanation? That this was focus-tested? That multiple people sat down and assured themselves that yes, idols playing hockey is exactly what the youth of Japan want in their cartoons?

If the show had actually been good, it’s possible I’d be sitting here praising the ingenuity of conjoining these two things that absolutely do not go together at all. But we don’t live in a world where Pride of Orange is a good show, so that’s irrelevant. In the US, this is the kind of thing that gets mocked on VH1 by washed-up celebrities 20 years after it airs off the surreal premise alone. Some real Baywatch Nights shit. I don’t know if they have a similar pop culture backwash hall of shame practice in Japan, and if so, whether it includes anime, but Pride of Orange had better hope so on both counts, because there’s no way anyone’s remembering it otherwise.

You might take all this to mean Pride of Orange is bad. You’d be right to. It is bad! But every single bad anime I’ve ever covered on Magic Planet Anime before has had a saving grace that Puraore does not; they were bad in interesting ways. Pride of Orange is bad in the same way that Imagine Dragons, ugly logos, and direct-to-Netflix specials are bad. It is an obvious product of a pop cultural media machine completely failing to deliver the one thing that said machine should always be able to. In this case, a baseline watchable cartoon. Beyond its ridiculous premise, there just isn’t much to it. It’s audiovisual wallpaper. An active test of your patience that dares you, with its sheer brain-numbing mundanity, to blink first. This is anime-by-algorithm, a so-inoffensive-it’s-offensive patchwork of tropes, plotlines, and even character designs cribbed from other, better anime, kludged together by grey-suited executives without a single creative bone in their bodies. That’s before we get to its more serious flaws, mind you.

So, what is this horrible abomination unto mankind? Well, as mentioned, it’s theoretically an idol series where the idols are also a hockey team. In practice it’s more the other way around. The “idol” bit feels tacked-on enough (a grand total of two dance sequences, with almost no buildup, over its whole run) that I wonder if it wasn’t initially conceived as a straight sports series and then later altered. It does have the cast structure of an idol series, at least, and all characters present fall into broad archetypes that the genre popularized, but quite unlike some personal favorites in it (say, 2011’s The Idolmaster, 2018’s Zombie Land Saga, or 2020’s Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club),* none of them have much personality. Probably the best of the lot are Naomi and Riko, whose distinction mostly comes from the fact that they’re quite obviously dating each other. (Their brief arc, which culminates in episode 9, is unquestionably the highlight of the series.)

The remainder of the cast is fairly anonymous, including theoretical protagonist Manaka.

“My literal only personality trait is obnoxious cheerfulness.”

We should also talk about Youko, the team’s coach. Youko is an outlier here, because she’s not devoid of personality like most other characters. Instead, her combination of doofy catchphrases, manipulative, obnoxious personality, and general overbearing nature combine to make her come across as weirdly creepy.

In one of the show’s “arcs” (the term seems generous), she attempts to recruit the star player of a rival team, Yu, who’s recently left the life of a hockey prodigy behind to experience a normal teenagerhood. (God knows we can’t have that in our sports anime.) In her efforts, Youko resorts to tactics such as repeatedly, incessantly calling her phone, standing outside of her house and yelling(!), and engineering a situation where she deliberately leaves a pen behind when invited into Yu’s house by her grandmother. This, of course, means that Yu has to return said pen (I’d argue she doesn’t, really, but neither Yu herself nor her grandmother object to the idea). When Yu does so, Youko ropes her into a bizarre bet, which she loses, and essentially forces her to join the team. This is glossed over with the non-explanation that Yu actually enjoys being on the new team, so it doesn’t matter. Youko is similarly unpleasant to her other players, and even engages in gaslight-y emotional manipulation a few times, giving her an almost predatory vibe.

None of this is ever addressed, because Pride of Orange has neither the writing chops necessary to address it nor the forethought to simply not make the coach a skeevy weirdo in the first place. I would also argue that Youko having to quite literally trick the cast into becoming an “idol group” on top of being a hockey team feels like it betrays a broad disdain both for the show’s audience and its own genre.

“The fact that I’m allowed to be an influence in children’s lives is, on a moral level, horrific.”

But really, while Youko’s situation is the worst of the series’ many writing flaws, it’s far from the only one. Frequent issues like conflicts springing up and then being almost immediately resolved, or flashbacks grinding action scenes to a dead stop to repeat to us information we either already know or could easily infer, recur repeatedly throughout. Pride of Orange often feels like the first draft of an anime that, even were all these issues fixed, would still be merely just below average. All these little problems add up, and they make Pride of Orange an altogether miserable watching experience.

One could try to chalk all this up to Puraore’s length, but two of the anime I previously mentioned were also single cour. It is very possible, with economical character building, stylish animation, sharp writing that builds a solid triumph narrative, etc., to make your audience care about even a quite large cast in that amount of time. Pride of Orange never swings that, because it has none of those things. It doesn’t even manage to instill much of a base level thrill off the novelty of its premise, the one thing that objectively distinguishes this series from any other. In October, right around when Pride of Orange started airing, a pilot short called “SHAREDOL” managed to do that much in less than three minutes. Length is no excuse.

In the broadest sense, the problem is this. The best anime can, in the moment, feel monumental. I’ll again draw a comparison to The Idolmaster (you’ll have to forgive my lack of experience with sports anime, which would honestly be more appropriate here, but the general structures still apply). One got the sense, during the series’ climactic concert, that those girls had done everything to earn their moment. They would’ve bled and died on that stage if that’s what it took. It feels, as it’s happening, huge. All-important.

Pride of Orange manages the almost impressive feat of going in the other direction. Of making not just its parent genres, but its entire medium feel small, trivial, and trifling. While watching it, I felt transmogrified into a disapproving stepmother, finger-wagging at myself for watching these silly cartoons. And you can accuse me of projection, and say that no anime, no matter how bad, should make me feel this way. But the fact of the matter is that taken together, as a whole, Pride of Orange‘s cheez-whiz take on the sports and idol anime genres improbably transforms simple boredom into existential dread. It is such a yawning void of mediocrity that it’s somehow one of the worst anime I’ve ever seen. At the risk of repeating myself, it is distinguished from past Magic Planet Anime worst-of candidates like Speed Grapher, Big Order, The Day I Became a God, and fellow idol trainwreck 22/7 by the fact that those anime were bad in a way that still made it clear that the people behind them cared about them. They may have had any number of very serious qualitative flaws. They may have been downright offensive at times. But a certain kind of terribleness can only come from misplaced passion, which at least implies that there is passion.

Let me be very clear; this is not true of Pride of Orange. I do not get the sense that anyone who worked on this series cared about it at all. Whether because they did not want to or because circumstances made it so they could not I do not know, but the few tiny pinpricks of light that poke through–Naomi and Riko’s relationship, the vanishingly brief pair of dance numbers that comprise the entirety of the show’s “idol” element, the surprisingly solid soundtrack–make it clear that for the vast majority of this show, nobody involved gave a shit. It has all the artistry of a McDonald’s order and ends with a limp, nondescript hand gesture too lazy to be a middle finger. Make no mistake, all of this is tragic.

And perhaps the worst part is that I don’t think Puraore is unique in this way. Things like Pride of Orange are what you get when a zeitgeist is about to die. Most of my time as an active anime enthusiast has been spent in the midst of the idol anime boom. I have liked a decent amount of those shows, but I wouldn’t quite call myself an “idol anime fan.” Those who would should be wary; things like Puraore are not a good sign. The same is broadly true of the “all-female cast does stuff” supergenre in general, and for that matter, anime on the whole.

What else is there to say? Pride of Orange is symptomatic of an industry that is simply producing way, way too much content by sheer volume. Few people watched it. Fewer of those who did will remember it–fondly or otherwise–in a few years’ time. It is hypergeneric but endlessly replaceable, a combination ice skate / high heel stomping on all our faces forever. In this light, the name of the protagonists’ team sounds less like a quirky sports team name and more like a sneered command. Dream, monkeys. Dream hard. Because there has to be something better than this.

* I should make a note here to apologize to all involved with Selection Project, a different idol anime from the Fall 2021 season that I derided as unimpressive in my impressions post for the first episode. I foolishly assumed that because Pride of Orange has a stupid premise it might be more interesting than SelePro. I have heard through the grapevine that Selection Project apparently eventually got quite good, something Puraore cannot say. (And really it’s hard to imagine how it could possibly be worse.) If one of these two anime ever picks up a cult following, it will not be the one I reviewed for you today.

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

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

Posted on in anime, Weekly Writing Roundups

The Frontline Report [1/3/22]

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.

Elsewhere on MPA

The Five Most Magical Anime of 2021

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!

Seasonal Impressions: What is THE MISSING 8?

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 Directory to browse by category.

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

Posted on in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 12 (Finale!)

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

Well, here we are, anime fans. Twelve weeks later and takt op.Destiny is over. Does it stick the landing? Eh, yes and no. “Takt -Hope-” is not one of the show’s strongest episodes. It does a lot right too, mind you, but some aspects can’t help but feel a little cheap. But let’s not put the cart before the horse, we’ll start with what it does well.

On one level if no others, takt op‘s final episode stands tall with its best moments. The fights here are absolutely gorgeous, with Destiny’s duel with Orpheus being among the show’s best. The episode cuts to and away from this fight several times, but it reaches its inarguable climax when Destiny ditches her gun-sword and the two fight hand to hand.

If you know, you know.

We also get a (very brief) look at Sagan’s past here. The actual flashback is, we’ll say functional, but its conclusion, where he stands shellshocked at a world ravaged by the D2s only to suddenly step on a toy piano in the ruins of a city is solidly done. Sagan didn’t need a terribly deep motivation and I’m not sure the attempt to give him one here entirely works, but it does add a bit of depth to a villain who’s otherwise been pretty cartoonish. And in one particular way, it notably sharpens his character.

Back in the present, Sagan and Takt’s final confrontation opens with the former “explains” that sacrifice is both necessary and beautiful. His plan, thus, is to gather all of the D2s in New York, and then destroy the entire continent to wipe them out entirely. His failure, as was the case two episodes ago, is to understand that the sacrifices made by Takt’s father or by Lenny (both of whom he cites), are worthy of admiration not because of the death involved, but because of their love for others. Something Sagan clearly does not have, at least not anymore. In the end, Takt gives the man’s pontificating the respect it deserves. Which is to say, none.

So how does this all end? With a beautiful whimper; Takt himself puts Sagan out of his misery. There is no final fight between the Conductors, Sagan is literally impaled on a crystal by the time Takt reaches him, and seems to be dying already. Even if he were able to put up a fight, Takt’s brief, impassioned speech on how the world is worth fighting for on the basis that it contains music alone would’ve knocked the will to out of him. Sagan, in a very real way, is defeated on two separate fronts before Takt even shows up.

The ringer they’ve been through knocks the both of them unconscious, and Destiny vanishes not long after…until the post-credits sequence, of course. Which implies that she somehow lives on within Anna, who has become a Conductor as well.

Right then.

Remember in the first piece I wrote on this series when I said how glad I was that this series didn’t have a harem setup? Turns out it actually kind of did, except it has made the puzzling decision to merge both (or all three, if you count Cosette and Destiny separately) girls who are into our protagonist into one. It is, frankly, a strange and somewhat unwelcome coda to an otherwise pretty excellent series, and I don’t doubt many folks are going to take it harder than I have. It may make more sense going into the mobile game, which serves as a sequel to the series, but as the final act of a self-contained piece of art, it is a slight bit of a letdown.

Mostly I just never really bought that Anna was into Takt that way? For ten of the show’s episodes, she seems to treat him more like a younger brother, and the abrupt swerve into a possible second love interest in its final two feels like course correction, as though someone forgot they were supposed to be writing her that way all along. (And given that Anna seems to be a fair bit older than Takt it’s also a touch skeevy, although that might just be age not coming across well in the character designs.)

But, eh, it doesn’t have a literally perfect finale. Most anime don’t get that lucky. Overall, takt op.Destiny was a lovely little show, and I’m happy to have watched it. My most cherished memories of it will likely remain tied to its earlier episodes and to Lenny’s heroic exit in episode 10, but I do not in any way think this was a bad episode. As an end to the series it’s more functional than stellar, but even that value judgment edges closer to dismissing the excellent animation on display here more than I’d like.

So; takt op.Destiny, an action romance road trip thing filled with color and wonder that doesn’t quite stick the landing. There are far worse things to be. Until your next performance, maestro.

So, you’ve heard what I think, but I want to hear your thoughts as well. What did you think of the ending, if anything? What are your overall thoughts on the series? Would you watch a second season if one were announced? Do you plan to check out the mobile game that the show serves in part as an advertisement for? (I’m thinking about it, myself.) Feel free to drop me a comment here or over on Twitter, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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

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

Posted on in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 11

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

I am of two minds about “Preparing for Battle -Orpheus-,” takt op.Destiny‘s penultimate episode. (Which, I am covering here way late, I realize. The finale airs tomorrow!)

On the one hand, it’s conceptually pretty straightforward. Sagan’s machinations have led to a massive crystal erupting inside, and taking over, the Symphonica building.

I have taken the liberty of not posting a screencap of the bit immediately after this where he graphically impales his hand on that crystal. You’re welcome.

This has spawned a huge swarm of aggressive, powerful D2s, right in the heart of New York. Naturally, Takt and Destiny–battered though they are from last episode’s events–set out to defeat him. Along the way they aim to rescue Anna and Lotte, who are trapped inside.

For the most part, this is setup for your traditional heroes-storm-the-villains’-lair sort of sequence. It largely works pretty well. Both Titan and Destiny get to show off their fighting chops a bit here, and we get some cameos from a handful of Musicarts who presumably will be more important in the gacha game that it’s easy to forget takt op.Destiny is meant to promote.

Walkure also makes her triumphant return, getting a brief moment of shine that, while it’s nothing compared to Titan’s star turn in episode 10, is still pretty good. And it’s nice to see that the show hasn’t completely forgotten about her.

But there are a few…just odd decisions here. Were I the type to be overly concerned about endings they might make me slightly worried for the finale. As is, I think they mostly just drag episode 11 down to somewhere in the middle as far as my personal rankings for the series go.

Let’s talk about Walkure first. While seeing her here again is lovely, she’s roundly dismissed by all of the other characters as an even marginally important player here. At one point, she mouths off to Takt and Titan promptly conks her on the head and knocks her out. It’s presumably supposed to be funny, given how it’s framed, but it just leaves a strange taste in the mouth.

Later there’s another sincere emotional moment for Takt–not unlike the one he had last episode–where he elucidates why he, even with his rapidly failing health and with the very real risk of death present, is determined to stop Sagan.

This is sincere and affecting stuff, but it’s abruptly, jarringly interrupted when Anna kisses him on the mouth. There are quite a few reasons this is just flat-out weird; it interrupts Anna’s own sincere emotional moment, blunting its impact, there’s the fact that Anna has always been implied to be a well bit older than Takt, and there’s the fact that just last episode Anna was trying to covertly pair up Takt with Destiny. Destiny, who mind you, has made it very clear that she considers Anna something of an older sister. Again, this seems like it’s supposed to be funny, because it’s referenced later and Takt can only stutter and fluster in response when it’s brought up. But it’s so wildly out of place here that it just interrupts the episode’s flow in a notably strange way.

On top of that; early on in the episode there’s a strange mention–not touched on again at any point here–of possibly cryo-freezing Takt and Destiny to find a cure for their condition. This is brought up before everything at the Symphonica goes to Hell, so who knows if it’ll come up again later. But that kind of sci-fi wizardry is a little outside the show’s aesthetic wheelhouse, so it feels a bit off.

And then we come to the episode’s closing scene, which contains easily the biggest humdinger of them all. I will describe this event to you in as plain language as possible, because while it is admittedly pretty cool, it’s also very weird.

Destiny and Takt come upon Hell, who is carrying Heaven. Both of them have a somewhat, how would I put this? Stoned, almost? Look on their face. Our heroes bravely attempt to confront them. At which point, they smirk at each other, and Heaven…releases/conjures/it’s not totally clear from the animation, a tuning fork. Which promptly impales both of them. They then dissolve into a puddle of black sludge, out of which rise a handful of small black prisms dotted with missile launchers, which promptly kill all of the D2s in the room. Then, the sludge coalesces into a new Musicart, presumably a fusion of the two, who introduces herself as Orpheus. Roll credits.

In a word: Huh?

In slightly more words: WTF cannons like this are a thing that single-cour anime love to whip out to throw a wrench into viewer expectations, but this is one of the odder forms I’ve seen the convention take. If nothing else; it’s certainly interesting. (And Orpheus has a pretty cool design, which helps.)

To be frank, I think further speculation on my part would be a bit pointless. What will takt op give us in its final performance tomorrow? I hope you’ll meet me back here when the time comes to find out.

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

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

Posted on in Uncategorized

The Frontline Report [12/13/21]

Hello, treasured readers! I don’t have much to say this week, but I will remind you to pop on over to the poll to choose what I cover weekly on Let’s Watch sometime before December ends if you’re interested in doing that and haven’t done so yet. Other than that? A fairly short one this week with just two shows, but on the plus side; they’re both anime that haven’t appeared in this column for quite a while.

Komi Can’t Communicate

It’s been quite a while since Komi Can’t Communicate last appeared here. If you’re wondering why, I will remind any returning readers that I am following NovaWorks‘ fansub release, which is going slowly, but remains absolutely worth it because of their inventive typesetting and clear love of the material.

In the third episode, their most recent release, we’re introduced to a new character, Himiko Agari.

She’s kind of…weird. Initially it seems like her main role will be to give Komi a friend who also has pretty severe anxiety. And most of her introductory segment focuses on a miscommunication the two have. (Or rather a lack of one; Komi wants to introduce herself to Himiko but instead just follows her around the school building silently. Which understandably freaks Himiko out.)

And then we get to the climax of the bit and the punchline is…this.

It’s just a bit confusing, really. For one thing, it isn’t much of a joke. For another, this particular shade of Himiko’s personality seems to flip on and off like a lightswitch as the scene demands. This is hardly the quandary that Najimi’s characterization posed, but it is symptomatic of a strange tendency for Komi to sometimes squish its characters down to one-note cutouts for the sake of gags.

Even the soundtrack gets in on this. Komi‘s OST tends to slide into a gentle sway full of plucked guitars and soft strings whenever it wants to sell a genuine “friendship moment.” But it’s just as quick to cut the music entirely if it can subvert that for a quick joke. In general, this all still works a lot better here than it did in the source material, but it’s a notably odd sensation nonetheless, and prevents the show from flowing well at times. Does Komi want to have a core of real, warm compassion for its characters, or is everything just a setup for a parade of gags? One gets the sense that the series itself doesn’t quite know the answer, and on the occasion that it tries something, and it falls flat, that tends to be why.

What tends to work a bit better than the personality gags are situations where the humor comes from Tadano (or one of Komi’s other friends) attempting to help Komi socialize more, and inadvertently speeding into a brick wall in the process. That’s more or less what happens with the final segment of this episode, where Najimi invites the two of them to play a chant game. Style checks of the Pokémon anime and some classic “comedy anime treats a mundane activity like a shonen battle” humor follow, and it’s genuinely great.

You don’t need to know that the studio behind Komi Can’t Communicate is OLM, who have also done the Pokémon anime since it premiered in 1997 and made a hot-streak return to non-primetime anime production this year between this series and ODD TAXI to find this funny. But, hey, now you do anyway.

Elsewhere, a bit about cellphone-related anxiety taps in to the sort of universal cringe-beholding-cringe feeling that tends to make the best sort of this kind of comedy tick. All of this, of course, is accentuated by the visual treat that the series continues to be. It remains one of the best-looking anime of 2021. (An aside should be made also to also again shout out Komi’s voice actress, Aoi Koga, who gets barely two actual lines in this episode but still manages to somehow make the character burst with personality even when she’s mostly communicating through wordless single syllables.)

So if it’s rough around the edges, maybe that’s worth sitting through for the moments when it really shines. Komi is an odd one, and if it hasn’t entirely kept that “must-watch” mantle from its premiere, it’s at least a worthwhile watch regardless.

Rumble Garanndoll

It’s been a while since we last checked in with Rumble Garanndoll. To be fair, the fact that it airs on Mondays makes covering it here a smidge inconvenient. (By the time this article goes live, the “next episode” will already have aired.) Nonetheless; I’ve kept up with it intermittently. My opinion on the show’s merits (of which it has quite a few) and flaws (same) has evened out into thinking it is a solid little action series with a quirky aesthetic bent that, as a nice bonus, has something to say. This is roughly how I felt about BACK ARROW from earlier this year–also a weird mecha anime–although I think Rumble‘s self-aware otakucore vibes might fit with how I like my media a little better. (Which probably says nothing good about me, but oh well.)

Since I last wrote about it, Rumble has introduced a third (and presumably final) Battery Girl; Misa “WerdCat” Kuroki. Misa is the youngest of the Battery Girls and, in a refreshing change of pace, looks to Hosomichi more as a surrogate older sibling than a romantic interest. Her story manages to squeeze some life out of the ancient “pa went missing one day and never came back :(” trope, to surprisingly affecting….er, effect.

I remain undecided on the main visual metaphor here, a bright red linker cable, of the sort that was used to connect handheld consoles in the pre-WiFi era. (Specifically the consoles that show up here are NeoGeo Pockets. Presumably the Gameboy would’ve been too mainstream.) Much of these episodes’ plots revolves around an attempt to find one in the dungeons under Akihabara (yes, there are dungeons here. Don’t question it.) And in the flashbacks when we see Misa’s father go missing, they are the only thing fully colored in the otherwise sepia tone scenes. It’s a silly visual symbol, but this is just the frequency Rumble operates on, and one must accept it if they wish to enjoy the show.

Similarly, when Misa takes control of the Doll itself, turning it into “Cat Three,” the series manages the impressive task of making a giant robot-sized kotatsu table look rather cool as it turns into an artillery platform. Rumble Garanndoll is nothing if not devoted to its shtick.

Y’know, like, nya?

The main antagonist of this arc, Yakumo Kamizuru, is also intriguing. Perhaps best described in a nutshell as a “fascistic shrine maiden who is also a mecha pilot,” Yakumo is one of the show’s more interesting antagonists. She retreats at the end of the arc, despite only minutes prior disparaging the entire resistance as “failures” and “losers”, chuckling to herself as she does so. Her name, an apparent allusion to Koizumi Yakumo, is interesting to me. The historical Yakumo was a Greek-Irish-American who eventually settled in Japan after developing a fascination with its culture in the late 1800s. (And much besides, he’s an interesting figure.) If I may wander into fan theory territory here, I do wonder if this is meant to indicate that our Yakumo here isn’t actually from “True” Japan. Perhaps she’s a defector originally from “Illusory” Japan. Her general attitude belies an interest in older Japanese culture. So part of me wonders if, assuming this is true, she didn’t defect just because she was bitter about people caring more about modern pop culture than older things. (I may of course, be wildly wrong. But hey, if I make a called shot about this, I want the credit.)

All this is to say nothing of the most recent episode, the ninth.

Episode Nine takes place almost entirely at a festival organized by the Resistance. In some anime, this would be a filler episode. Here, it leads directly into our presumable final confrontation (there are, after all, only three episodes of this thing left).

Much of the episode revolves around a ramen stand, where Hosomichi meets an in-disguise Captain Akatsuki Shinonome and, of course, the stand’s owner. Said old man (who goes unnamed here) serves to show us both what life is like for the older ordinary residents of Akihabara, including why they might join up with the resistance in the first place, and to start a conversation between these two opposing people.

Now Rumble has to be careful here, because we’ve never really been given a look inside Akatsuki’s head, and there has been prior to now little reason to not believe he’s simply a garden-variety authoritarian. Here, he gains some character detail as he veiledly explains his own point of view to the ramen shop owner (and to Hosomichi.) The danger of doing this of course is always that your work’s audience might end up sympathizing with the fascist; an especially real possibility here at the end of the episode when a drunk-off-his-ass Anju (that’s Hosomichi’s “boss” if you’ve forgotten) shows up, makes a huge show of representing the resistance, and starts bullying the ramen shop owner. My main hope is that this is obviously enough meant to not be a real criticism from the show’s end of the resistance, so no one will take it that way.

The shop owner himself, incidentally, may go down as one of the great relatable anime characters of the year. At least to me.

Amen, brother.

And lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Rin and Hayate’s meeting here. We get to see sadly little of it and it’s most likely setup for something in the next episode, but they make a rather cute couple. (Which a random doujin shop owner voiced by Mayumi Shintani actually mistakes them for.)

The final confrontation is set to take place just outside what looks an awful lot like Tokyo Big Sight, AKA The Comiket Building. Which, honestly, where else would Rumble Garanndoll finish?

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

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

Posted on in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 10

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

“Master and Pupil -Lenny-” is the best episode of takt op.Destiny.

Well, okay, that’s a slight exaggeration. Best so far.

Let’s talk about Leonhard, Takt, and the relationship between them.

Last week, Leonhard–Lenny to his friends, which is to say, most people–told Takt that he would reveal to him what happened a decade ago in Boston. This tragedy, which cost Takt his father, the legendary conductor (lowercase C, as far as we know) Kenji “The Rooster” Asahina, has hung over his life like a shadow. We saw this back in episode three where a young Takt’s moody behavior was explained as the result of the then-recent loss. More evidence came in episode six, where Takt met a man named Joe in New Orleans, a former horn player who’d had the opportunity to once play alongside his father. Since then, Takt has focused on writing his song, a composition he’s been working on since episode seven or so.

Where does Leonhard fit into all this? Well, despite the latter’s tsundere-esque denial of it here in the episode’s opening minutes, Lenny is something of a mentor to Takt. They were actually together for only a fairly brief time, but during that time, Lenny taught Takt not just how to fight alongside Destiny but, perhaps indirectly, that life was still worth living. He is a very important person in Takt’s life, and Takt does eventually acknowledge that here.

Sadly, only under quite tragic circumstances.

Before Lenny can explain much, his meeting with Takt and Destiny is interrupted by the mysterious Conductor Sagan. We’ve heard of this man, and even briefly seen him before, but this is really the first taste of his actual character we get, and it is not a pleasant one. Lenny suspects Sagan is responsible for bringing the D2-summoning tuning fork to New York, something he–perhaps surprisingly–openly admits when pressed on. We learn that Lenny’s own cross-country trip with Titan was in large part an evidence-gathering mission. He did not want to believe that Sagan, who he evidently respects, was behind all of this. But he plainly is, and after offering Lenny a single chance to stand down so the two can “keep being friends,” Sagan quite quickly moves on to murder.

Sagan is a curious character. The nature of a twelve-episode anime means that you can’t really save the reveal of the series-wide big bad for this late in the game and not have it come off at least a little weird, but his being such an enigma largely works to the episode’s benefit. And we really don’t learn a ton about him here. Although his comments imply that he finds suffering “beautiful” somehow.

Perhaps a commentary on the tendency to conflate misery and artistic merit that runs rampant the world over. Or maybe the pain we inflict on ourselves, and end up inflicting on others, when we’re convinced it’s somehow worth it. It’s a bit hard to say just yet, and this is one of the few new elements the episode introduces. Mostly, this is an episode of endings.

It splits here splits in twain. One track follows Lenny’s flashbacks as he explains that he was a former student of Takt’s father. Not only that, he was present when the Boston disaster occurred. His motivation for mentoring the younger Asahina this entire time has been to atone for his inability to do anything on that day, neatly tying together his own arc with Takt’s while providing some subtle back-explanation for how he found him in the first place.

The other is the sort of gorgeous action animation scene the series does so well. Sagan commands not one but two Musicarts. There’s Hell, who we saw him repossess from Shindler a few episodes back, and Heaven, who we’ve not actually seen in combat before. It’s a symphony of light and color through and through, and while there are interesting details like Heaven’s weapon design (an umbrella that can turn into a vaguely trumpet-shaped machine gun) and a ton that could be unpacked in the choreography and animation itself, the real story here is the actual flow of the fight.

The match is fairly even at first, given that it’s two-on-two. But Heaven and Hell’s slight edge in strength becomes an overwhelming advantage when Takt collapses in exhaustion from his condition, detransforming Destiny in the process and making it seem like this might be the end for our hero.

It isn’t, of course. But the thread of narrative can be cruel, and if it can’t take one life, it will often wrap around another.

Which is to say, yes, this episode is where we say goodbye to Lenny. Heaven lines up to shoot Takt between the eyes, and Lenny doesn’t hesitate to jump in front of the bullets, taking them in his back as he protects his mentor’s son.

Those who can smile even a forced smile in the face of death are those who know their life was worth living.

He doesn’t drop immediately. Lenny is, as plainly as possible, a tough motherfucker, and he’s certainly not going to just let himself get shot in the back if he can’t at least guarantee Takt and Destiny can get away.

So what does he do? Easy, one last performance.

Did you know Titan can transform, too?

If the visual change isn’t as dramatic as Destiny’s shift into her magical girl-like form, it’s made up for by how outrageously scrappy Titan proves herself to be here. She’s not had a solo in the show like this before, and, while the circumstances are tragic, it is in a way nice that she gets some shine before her time in the series ends. She backflips, manifests another shotgun, Marathon-style, and then when that’s not enough, conjures up a couple more.

Come on Judgment Day with your guns, but no regrets.

It is a jaw-dropper. Titan’s “performance” is comparable to other highlight “action star” sequences from this year like Neiru’s “blow your mind” bit on the bridge from Wonder Egg Priority, Kuroe’s similar half-as-long-twice-as-bright turn in the second season of Magia Record, or, yes, the whole thing with the shotgun on the airplane in the first (and best) episode of The Detective is Already Dead. For two minutes, she is vengeance and defiance; the grim reaper in orange stockings.

She very nearly kills Hell before Sagan backs off. (And to really reinforce his Villain Bonafides, he does so in calm and cool fashion, applauding Leonhard’s “beautiful finale” like a concert attendee while Heaven drags Hell away.)

But blazing finales, by their nature, are final. And it’s here where we confront the crux of the episode. Takt thanks the dying Leonhard for his mentorship and tells him about the song he’s writing. They shake hands, and Takt calls Lenny his “harmony,” in a moment of stunning emotional honesty that is one of his own best moments in the series so far.

Lenny is happy for him, but it’s not long before he fades away into a dying dream. A dream where he and Takt get to play together like musicians, like friends, like teacher and student. A dream that will now forever remain such.

Character death is a hard thing to sell in an anime, especially one this short. Leonhard’s sacrifice for the sake of not just Takt but for everyone is the rare instance that hits exactly as hard as it’s meant to. The star has left the building. Please hold your applause.

The final shot, thus, is a lingering cello, unattended in a concert hall. A haunting memento mori, both played forever and never to be played again.

If Sagan is right about one thing, it is this; Lenny’s final performance is a beautiful thing. But his own cruelty blinds him to the true nature of that beauty. It’s not that Leonhard’s final acts are beautiful because they’re final, it’s because they lay bare a love of humanity and the art of humanity that is willing to offer even its own life up to preserve those things. By circumstance of fate, it is Takt himself who must eventually play takt op.Destiny‘s final performance. But this episode makes a damn good case that Leonhard could’ve done it, too.

Two weeks remain.

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

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

Posted on in anime, Weekly Writing Roundups

The Frontline Report [12/6/21]

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

Good day, anime fans. I don’t have terribly much to say this week in the lead-in. Here’s some thoughts about an anime I’m a bit mixed on, one I really like, and one that I….just feel like I have to tell people about.

Mieruko-chan

I have always been a bit of two minds about the Mieruko-chan anime. I thought, and still think, that its positives outweigh its negatives, but it is admittedly difficult to evaluate a show that contains a somber, heartstring-tugging story about a teacher’s failed pregnancy in the same episode where the lead at one point pisses herself in fear. That’d be episode 8, and that’s Mieruko-chan in general. Something tragic and something funny (or “funny”, in this case) within the span of minutes of each other and seeming like they don’t quite go together.

One could argue this reflects the chaotic uncertainty of life in general. Normally, that is in fact exactly what I would say, and I have said similar things about other shows with this kind of tonal yo-yoing. But there are a lot of anime out there that pull this off than Mieruko-chan does, and it just doesn’t fit together properly much of the time. Increasingly, I just wonder if this is the sort of series that should’ve stayed in the manga format.

On the other hand, occasionally it does hit it out of the park. Episode 9, the most recent as of when I’m writing this, is about 50% about Miko and friends visiting a haunted house. Realizing that she can here react to whatever she sees however she likes, Miko revels in the chance to scream her lungs out. Much to the confusion of Julia, her also-able-to-see-ghosts sometimes-rival whose inability to perceive the larger spirits that torment Miko has given her a very inaccurate idea of what our lead is actually like. (Julia is probably my favorite character in general, it must be said.)

So, I don’t know, maybe the show is fine as it is. My hope is that the transition into the arc about Zen Toono, a substitute teacher at Miko’s school, will signal the start of a more interesting run as the series enters its final few episodes.

Perfectly nice, I’m sure.

Ranking of Kings

Last week dropped a bombshell; through some dark magic, King Bosse was back, in the body of his son Daida. Meanwhile, as Bojji trained in the underworld, he appeared to now be able to split boulders with his fists. We get a fair amount of explanation relating to these developments here, but as in basically any good ongoing piece of serial fiction, they raise as many questions as they answer.

We open on a flashback with a young(ish), not-yet-King Bosse negotiating with, wouldn’t you know it, the great red devil who showed up when he passed away a number of episodes ago.

His wish? To be the strongest. The demon’s reply? He can’t conjure power out of nowhere, but if Bosse had a family, he could steal it from a blood relative. Bosse, thus, finds the strongest giant woman in the world and proposes to her. (In doing so, he performs a perfectly understandable action for sinister reasons. Quite a jerk, King Bosse.)

This, as we learn (though it’s not hard to figure out), is Bojji’s biological mother. What exactly happened to her after the tiny prince was born is not revealed here, though it’s hard not to assume the worst. Bosse carves out his own realm in what seems to be just a few short years.

That is Bosse in the distance, walking away from a whole battlefield of dead orcs. In some anime, this would be a way to show how cool he is. Ousama Ranking is not such an anime.

This sequence, and much of Ousama Ranking in general, seem to contemplate the cruelty of power. If one has to do such terrible things to become so strong, what can one possibly do with their strength that’s actually worth it? And does it not inevitably lead to the pursuit of power for its own sake? After Bojji is born, Bosse swears that he will ensure a future for the prince where he wants for nothing. It’s safe to say, given the present, that he didn’t succeed. But there is a marked disconnect between Bosse as we see him in the past and Bosse as we see him returned in Daida’s body. The influence of his vizier Miranjo1–a flesh-and-blood person in these flashbacks but trapped in Daida’s mirror in the present–may have something to do with it, but it’s hard to call definitively.

We also catch up with Domas and Hokuro. Their relationship here changes quite rapidly. It develops from Hokuro trying to kill Domas for his treachery and failing, to Domas rescuing a to-be-executed Hokuro from Queen Hilling’s wrath out of apparent guilt, to Domas being ordered by Bosse–who makes himself known to the swordsman–to destroy a cave to the underworld that exists beneath the castle. Ousama Ranking‘s pacing has been brisk but quite good so far, and this marks the rare occasion where it’s a bit too fast. This seems like the sort of plot that could’ve carried its own episode. Although, I will note, there’s no reason to suspect that Domas and Hokuro’s partnership won’t continue to change. Their interactions in this episode end with Domas promising to train Hokuro. Training he claims Hokuro will sorely need for the task ahead of them.

Finally, there is Daida. Yes, it would appear that the blonde prince is still alive. Although what state, exactly, he’s in, is quite ambiguous. The final moments of the episode conclude with him waking up in a totally black void. He stumbles around, wondering if he’s been imprisoned somewhere, but the total lack of any features seems to imply his prison his more metaphysical in nature. Spare a thought for the ambitious prince, he’ll need it.

As for Bojji? Well, the little big man’s training is complete in this episode as well, though this is one of the show’s episodes where Bojji assumes a minor role in his own show. (Not a bad thing, but notable.) Perhaps his newfound power can help him rescue his brother? Maybe because Bojji came by his strength honestly he won’t fall into whatever pit of ambition Bosse ended up in? It’s hard to say. All we know for certain is this; The Ranking of Kings continues, and somewhere nearby, a devil grins.

Waccha PriMagi!

A new face on this column, and one that’s quite the watching experience.

I’ve been following Waccha PriMagi since it aired. But it’s something I watch with friends on the weekends, so I haven’t really ever thought of it as something I intended to write about in this column. And my knowledge of the larger Pretty Rhythm / King of Prism (I’m not even sure which name is “more correct”) meta-franchise which it’s a part of is quite limited. But I really feel like I need to just tell somebody how utterly bonkers this show is. To record it for posterity so that a hundred years hence, someone can know that yes, this was a real thing and yes it really was like this. God help us all. Or maybe international superstar Jennifer help us all. In the show’s world they seem rather interchangeable.

She’s like if Beyonce` was blonde and had the most generic name ever.

The actual premise isn’t much to stretch the brain here. Matsuri, our protagonist, likes idols and wants to be one. One day, the magical cat girl Nyamu appears and helps her become one. There’s a competition to see who’s the best idol, pretty standard stuff for the genre aside from the magic element, and even that is not really where the weirdness comes from.

No, the weirdness comes from two things. For one, the gaudy character designs. The girls, especially in-costume, look like they’ve been shot with a glitter cannon by Lisa Frank, and there are enough pride flag colors snuck into character designs that it feels like an intentional easter egg on the part of a character designer rather than simple coincidence. Even the comparatively “dark” designs like Lemon’s gothic lolita ensemble are just so much. This is a strength, not a weakness, but it’s a level of audacity in character design that is rather rare, and it takes some getting used to.

Secondly, there is the writing.

Good god is there the writing.

I wouldn’t dare to say that Waccha PriMagi is badly written. It’s a kids’ show, and it’s not for a 27 year old college dropout who writes a blog for a living. It is however, definitely hyperactively written. Compared to it, co-seasonal Tropical Rouge Precure (which is also for young kids, mind you!) looks downright sedate. The simple quantity of things that happens in a given episode is through the roof, and episodes tumble into one another as though the entire series were a single long film. There is little of the episodic nature often associated with kids’ anime. This shit has continuity, and it has the audacity to expect you to remember it all. (Or maybe it doesn’t, given that the most recent episode, the tenth, is a recap episode less than a dozen episodes in.)

Is any of that a problem? Honestly, not really. The series’ sheer chaos works in its favor. Most anime take a fairly straight line from point A to point B. Waccha is content to doodle all over the map on its way there, which is why it took ten episodes for us to get a concise explanation of what the tournament that will presumably drive much of the rest of the plot actually is. This would be annoying for a shorter anime, but as Waccha is an annual it seems safe to assume it will run for a full four cours (landing somewhere between 42 and 50 episodes by its finale), so it has plenty of time to figure out petty things like “plot” and “making sense” later.

What it does excel at, chaotic as it is, is character interaction. The characters in this are great. The sole exception I’d maybe make being our actual lead, Matsuri, who I find a bit of a cipher outside of her idol fangirling. (Even then, she’s pleasant and charming, just not to the level of the other characters.) Nyamu is a total brat, something like a land-bound cousin of TroPre’s Laura La Mer. There’s a cool senpai in the form of Hina, whose day-glo raver look could maybe dull some of the surprise from learning that the song from her first concert kinda slaps.

Seriously, why does this sound like something that would dominate the radio in 2007?

Then there’s Miruki, a baldly two-faced little conniver who would be absolutely detestable if she wasn’t so damn funny. It’s here worth noting that these characters all have their own animal companion friends. And hers is a decidedly stoned-looking bear. And finally there’s Lemon Kokoa, my personal favorite character. I should also take a minute to mention the incredibly good official subtitles this thing has, with full credit to translators Natalie Jones and Nathan Lopez. They’re a bit loose, which some purists may dislike, but they add a lot of color to the show by incorporating modern stan terms, including “stan” itself, “bias,” etc. I mostly bring this up because Lemon is an idol otaku, and also just generally a reclusive, anxious wreck of a gamer girl shut-in. When she and her friends (read: her MMO guild) show up, the translators also take the opportunity to tangle in some modern internet slang. Which leads to the decidedly surreal experience of seeing, say, a phrase like “big mood” in an anime.

Lemon is just below the frame, having passed out from the immense stress of being perceived.

She also has easily the best outfit in the series, the aforementioned gothic lolita dress patterned after the stained glass in a cathedral. A friend described her debut song as sounding “like Touhou music,” and I couldn’t agree more. It also rules.

Yes, the logo behind her says “Radiant Abyss.” It says that because Lemon is cooler than all of us.

I don’t expect I’ll cover Waccha PriMagi often on this column, and it may well never appear here again. As I said, it’s more of a fun weekend watch with friends for me. But! I should stress that if you can find some folks to watch it with, it is immensely fun. (I imagine watching it solo unless you’re a sugar rush’d-out ten-year-old might be a bit much. But you’re welcome to experiment and see if I’m wrong.) Waccha absolutely drips with style and personality. Sometimes when you’ve got so much of that, common sense takes a back seat. Personally, I think it suits the show just fine.

1: I am admittedly not fully sure if this is intended to be her actual name or is some sort of title. In Japanese the character is apparently only referred to as “Mahou no Kagami”, which I believe simply means “Magic Mirror”, so I’m not entirely certain what’s going on there.

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

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

Posted on in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 9

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

It’s a strange thing to be grateful for what is essentially a filler episode, but nonetheless here I am, feeling exactly that way. Perhaps “filler” is too harsh a term, “Family -Eroica-” isn’t as inessential as it usually implies, but aside from the cast’s arrival in New York–one of the few cities still standing tall, proud, and mostly untarnished in North America–there are really only two important points here in the ninth episode of takt op.Destiny, and they’re fairly brief ones. In order, those are:

  1. Takt and Destiny’s strange Conductor/Musicart bond will, as some have suspected, kill them eventually. Their choice is thus simply whether to continue fighting, knowing that any heroic intervention could be their last, or to enjoy what life they have in relative quiet and comfort.
  2. Someone is using Shindler’s tuning fork technique to attract D2s to New York. Again, Takt and Destiny’s options boil down to fight or flight. Takt, it will not surprise you, is not much of a runner.

Beyond these two admittedly tense points, most of episode nine is spent exploring New York and providing a bit more color to some character dynamics. It’s enjoyable stuff, if not exactly the highlight of the series.

We also meet Anna’s older sister Lotte here. Lotte is a scientist in the employ of the Symphonica and it’s from her that Takt and Destiny learn about their eventual fate, making her a crucial character to the show’s narrative despite her relatively lean amount of screentime. (And her honestly a bit uninspired design. Lotte and Anna look so similar that I expected them to be twins, but this is not the case.) Though the two do get a pretty adorable reunion hug.

takt op’s New York is not quite as compelling as its New Orleans. That city hummed with vibrancy despite the fact that most of it was abandoned back when we saw it. New York by, admittedly, possibly deliberate contrast, feels a touch sterile. There are skyscrapers and Times Square-style electronic billboards and a park (perhaps it’s meant to be the mythical Central Park? Though if so, it doesn’t much resemble it.) Said park hosts a memorial to a musician who goes unnamed but whom flowers are still left for. I’m not sure if the series is trying to imply it’s a specific historical figure or perhaps a character from its own worldbuilding, but until proven otherwise, I will assume it is for Biggie Smalls.

Ah, I should also mention that there is a Very Important scene of Destiny trying on new outfits and being applauded by the Schneider sisters.

If someone has not yet edited this scene to have her wear head-to-toe Supreme, they should.

There’s also a charming bit where Anna unsubtly pushes Takt and Destiny to go off on their own. Takt being himself, the result isn’t much of a “date,” but the two do discuss future plans; talk turns to fireworks (which neither of them have ever seen) and listening to Beethoven’s Fifth in the park. It’s cute, the sort of thing these sorts of episodes excel at.

But, as mentioned, this does not–cannot!–last. Something beneath the city’s streets has been set up to attract D2s. By whom and for what purpose is a mystery for the time being, although I have my suspects.

The one who confirms for Takt that his suspicions are correct is, of course, Lenny, via telephone. His facade of playfulness breaks when Takt presses him for further answers, and the episode ends on his hanging question; is Takt truly ready to learn the truth? What’s happening here may have happened before, as the conversation again turns to Boston and the general anime favorite timestamp of “ten years ago.” We don’t get any answers here directly–those are for next week–but it’s not hard to intuit that things are about to turn rather sour. Takt even correctly points out that Lenny’s attempt at a farewell mid-call sounds an awful lot like a final goodbye.

Thus, takt op.Destiny enters its final movement. Until next week’s, anime fans.

I could find no place to mention it in the main body of the article so I will do so down here. I apologize for this article being late despite my wishes last week. I’ve been struggling with what I believe is S.A.D., as often hits me around this time of year. I’ve been finding it very difficult to pay attention to much of anything, and writing has been even harder. I will endeavor to persevere in spite of this and only ask your patience, thank you.

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

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

Posted on in anime, Weekly Writing Roundups

The Frontline Report [11/29/21]

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

Hello again, anime fans. I don’t have terribly much to say in my lead-in here. It’s been a bit of a week and I’m a bit struck by the winter blues. I hope you won’t begrudge me that this week’s column is only about two shows. For what it’s worth, I think they’re some of the best that have aired this year. One of 2021’s great stories comes to an end and another begins to hit its stride….

The Heike Story

A common nugget of wisdom holds to show, not tell, when weaving a story. But it’s a false dichotomy in some ways. In the Heike Monogatari, now concluded after eleven weeks, the showing and the telling are one in the same. Never has this been more true than in the series’ final act, where Biwa, fully embracing her role as a chronicler of fate, tells us of the Heike’s demise as we see it happen; two perspectives unified like the visions from her own mystical eyes.

The series’ finale is a thing of beauty. The Heike Clan make their final stand in a battle at sea. They lose, as we knew they would from day one. Many, including the young Emperor, cast themselves into the sea. It is not what you’d call a happy ending.

A common criticism I saw of Heike Monogatari during its airing is why, exactly, Biwa did not “do more” to help the Heike who are, after all, her adopted family. As a critique it makes some sense on the surface. She can see the future, and if anime has trained us to expect anything it’s that those with heterochromia and mysterious powers will intervene to stop bad things from happening. But I cannot help but think this is a simplistic view of both Biwa’s personhood and her situation. She is a witness to history; as we all are, in spite of whatever unique talents we may or may not have. Many of us could “do more” to change things with our own talents, yet we do not. If it is a character flaw on her part, it is one most of us share.

And then there’s the series’ moral, such as it is. A fundamental truth of the world; all things are impermanent. Everything dies, empires rise only to fall. What remains are the stories we pass down and the feelings we hold with us. That, truly, is all.

This is a theme that has run through some seventy years of anime history, but if one wanted to find contemporary examples, they would not need to look all that hard. Surely critics who have studied more classical literature than I have will point out that this is a “very Japanese” and “very Buddhist” theme. Perhaps these things are true, the series is based on a historical epic after all and such things are very much informed by their era and place. I also think, though, it may also be a warning against self-importance akin to what we often grant ourselves here in the Anglosphere. We treat ourselves as living at history’s end, but it continues to happen every day in spite of us.

Heike Monogatari‘s true triumph is to delve into the minds of those gone by; to make the past feel real by showing us the human beings behind history’s academic brushstrokes. In doing so, it reminds us that we are all mortal, and we are all witnesses. Like Biwa, many of us will live to see the fall of all kinds of empires. The only question is whether we will deign to sing about it.

I do my best to sing. Do you?

Ranking of Kings

I don’t usually pick shows up mid-season, but Ranking of Kings (known as the somewhat snappier Ousama Ranking in its home country) just didn’t give me much of a choice. “Positive buzz” is one thing, but Ranking on a pure visual level does not look like most anime. This is a reflection of the source material, which seems to draw both on a western-influenced fairy tale book influence and on older strains of anime, not many of which have particularly many artistic descendants in the modern day. So provably, even speaking aesthetically, Ranking stands apart from the usual seasonal grind. This would be interesting on its own, but without a strong story to back it up, it wouldn’t be worth much. Thankfully, Ranking stands as a buzzer-beater candidate for one of the year’s most unique anime from just about every angle. Its visual style could fool one into thinking it’s a happy, straightforward story, but the truth of the matter is that it’s more of a deliberate contrast against the complex character writing and political machinations that our lead, the Deaf Prince Bojji, finds himself caught in.

It’s an utterly fascinating little show, and eight episodes in I can confidently say I have no idea where it’s going to go from here. But what I can do is tell you where it’s been. Doing so alone should be enough for any skeptics to hop aboard the Bojji Train before it’s too late.

Our setup is pretty simple. Bojji is the eldest son of Bosse, the king of a nameless kingdom of which he was the founder. In the show’s opening act, Bosse dies, leaving the question of succession a difficult one. Bojji is Deaf, physically small, and has the misfortune of living in a distinctly fantasy-medieval setting. (Ranking effortlessly pulls off letting us into Bojji’s inner world without any spoken dialogue, but many of the adults around him tend to treat him with vague disdain, or at best, an infantilizing overprotectiveness.) He’s also not much of a swordsman, despite the guideship of his trainer Domas. Though interestingly, he’s great at dodging, a skill that has yet to quite pay dividends narratively but is sure to later.

In contrast to Bojji, there is his younger half-brother, Prince Daida. Daida is much more in the image of a traditional heir to the throne than Bojji. It is thus unsurprising that when Bosse passes away, the kingdom’s council of advisors votes to install Daida as the king instead of his older brother. One might initially think that the story’s central conflict will come down to Bojji’s quest to reclaim his rightful throne, and it may still circle back around to that eventually, but something that simple would not do justice to the sheer amount of stuff this series has covered so far.

For instance; adding fuel to the movement to replace Bojji as the heir apparent is that when Bosse passes away, a massive red devil appears and gestures at the prince. What does this mean? We still don’t know a good half-cour later.

Which is good, because that’s how you build some genuine mystery. Details like this are packed into every minute of Ranking’s runtime and things are only explained directly if absolutely necessary. As a watching experience, it’s engrossing, and doesn’t have much recent competition. I haven’t even brought up Bojji’s plus-one, his shadowy friend Kage who the prince won over with his kindness, and whose obligate backstory episode is one of the show’s highlights.

Some of this attention to detail might come down to Ranking‘s runtime; it’d feel rushed were it only one cour, but it’s thankfully two. (This sadly puts it out of the running for my top five list I’ll be publishing at the end of December. I’m sure the folks at Wit Studio are just heartbroken.)

I have to admit that I considered doing a writeup of this week’s episode as well, but in deference to those who have perhaps not started watching the show yet but might find it interesting based on what I’ve said, I will not do so. Next week, though, you have my promise! Stay strong in the meantime, Prince Bojji!

He’s a mighty little man.

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

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

Posted on in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch TAKT OP.DESTINY: Episode 8

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

There’s a simple trick that anime sometimes use to signal that the episode you’re about to watch is intense. If an anime’s OP is either skipped entirely or played right at the top of an episode, you know you’re in for quite a time. takt op.Destiny does the latter here with its eighth episode, “Destiny -Cosette-“, and it delivers on all counts.

We pick up immediately after last week’s cliffhanger. Takt–quite understandably given what we learned in that episode–has lost it. He charges into battle like a madman and, perhaps predictably, this is not a great approach against the more skilled Shindler and the just generally very strong Hell. He’s beaten within an inch of his life before Destiny carries him off.

Takt, thus, spends a good chunk of episode 8 bleeding out and delirious. Anime characters have pulled off compelling turns in more unlikely circumstances, so it’s not really a huge shock that for the third episode in a row we get some interesting insight into Takt’s character here as Destiny tries her best to nurse him back to health. Even while Takt, barely-conscious, mistakes her for Cosette. All of this takes place over the episode’s relatively brief middle third, and packs a pretty impressive amount of emotional character work into just a dozen or so minutes. The dark atmosphere of the cave that Destiny drags Takt into helps, admittedly, providing a suitably transitional backdrop for the emotional development in question.

It hasn’t been hard to intuit that Takt is still hung up on the late Cosette. Admittedly, with how these things sometimes work in anime it was hard to initially be totally certain that she was even actually dead. (takt op.Destiny would not have been the first anime to pull this sort of double bait-and-switch maneuver.) But as the show’s gone on it’s become clear that Takt really misses the girl. We get some elaboration on the “why” here, and some questioning into if holding that old flame is at all healthy.

On the one hand, yes, it was Cosette who pulled Takt out of his depression while Anna was taking care of him. But these feelings are complicated and muddy, and Takt has never been able to sort them out. Wisely, they’re not given any specific name here, which would risk cheapening them and would turn Cosette’s early-series death into little more then a vehicle for cheap tears.

It may be a touch surprising to add takt op to the list of anime this year that understand that emotional connections are not clear-cut things, but it’s welcome. When people leave our lives, we remember their shadows as much as the real person. Things left unsaid must remain so, and Takt’s inability to deal with that has held him back from genuine connection with the people who need him now. Chiefly Destiny herself, but also Anna and the scores of people they’ve met along their journey.

It’d be easy to criticize all of this as fairly standard “male lead gets all the depth” stuff, but I think looking at Destiny and her own struggles both throughout this episode and in prior ones makes it pretty clear that that isn’t true. Her loyalty and earnestness are not traits she has because she’s in a role that expects them, but because she lives them full-heartedly. Plus, there are little details that could easily have been played up for easy romantic tension but aren’t. When Destiny has to give Takt mouth-to-mouth, for instance, it is refreshingly devoid of any blushy hemming and hawing, something a lesser show would absolutely indulge in.

Random aside to remind you that mid-distance models are great, actually.

Instead, the closest the two are here is when Takt finally calls Destiny by her real name for the first time. I have to confess that I’ve been pretty “meh” on the idea of the two as a couple (the entire “a new person living in the body of Takt’s dead crush” thing is, admittedly, weird) but this scene is the best case for it that takt op has ever made. It feels natural in a way that the light hinting toward the pairing in prior episodes hasn’t.

If I could make one complaint, it’s that Anna does continue to get the short end of the character screen-time stick, as she’s physically quite far away from the action here. Although her own mini-plot here is quite good as well. She confronts her own insensitive habit of calling Destiny “Cosette” as a way of ignoring that the latter is truly gone, and at episode’s end she calls Destiny by her proper name too, bringing this ongoing subplot to a warm close.

(I would like to take an aside here to brag about being six or so episodes ahead of the actual characters in terms of referring to Destiny and Cosette as two different people. But hey, I’m not an anime character and thus have agency of my own. Not everyone is so lucky. 😛 )

Most of that in just the middle of the episode. So how does it actually end?

Well, let’s discuss its antagonist first. It should not be news to any readers who’ve been keeping up with the show that Shindler sucks. He’s a petty, grasping would-be authoritarian shitheel with no regard for other people, and whose hatred of Takt stems from jealousy at the boy’s talent and perceived importance. He is not a subtle or deep character, but he is very easy to hate, which happens to be a good trait for an arc villain to have. We also learn in this episode that he apparently actually hates music full stop. Sure, why not.

Hell, his Musicart, is entertaining, although she leans a bit too hard on the “sadomasochistic berserker” archetype that seems to pop up in every action anime. Her fun design and incredible choice of weaponry (I’m still not over the heel-mounted blades) make her a good counterbalance to Shindler.

Isn’t she just the worst, folks?

Why relitigate these characters? Because the episode ends with a rematch, of course. Destiny initially confronts Hell and Shindler alone. Unable to transform with Takt still recovering in the cave, she comes out swinging a pair of woodchopping axes* and nothing else. It’s commendably confident, but she can’t stand up to Hell’s full power by herself. Naturally, Takt staggers in to lend his power. Also naturally, Destiny chews him out for not taking care of himself and calls him an idiot. (Sidenote to the show-writers: if you’re going to make them a couple in the four episodes we have left. They need to keep this dynamic.) Naturally again, Shindler gets angry because they’re arguing with each other instead of paying attention to him. Naturally one more time, Leonard and Titan make their grand return in the nick of time, the foreshadowing from last episode (and, to be fair, some appearances earlier in this episode that I haven’t discussed) paying off wonderfully.

This machine kills fascists.

And then, honestly, the sort of scene that words cannot really do full justice to. This is where the aforementioned bit where Takt calls Destiny by her real name comes in, and the renewed connection between the two lets them re-enter the fray with full force. The fight scene is just superb, capping off with one of those huge energy blast vs. differently-colored huge energy blast sequences that, just speaking personally, I’ve loved since I watched Dragon Ball Z with my stepdad as a kid and have never stopped loving.

The fight ends here, not because Hell is entirely defeated but because a mysterious Musicart intervenes. Given this show’s general lack of subtlety her name is, of course, Heaven. Heaven’s proper debut here makes quite the impression; she apparently has the authority to both strip Shindler of his rank and to requisition his Musicart, both of which she does, leaving the now-former Conductor a stuttering mess. He promptly has a breakdown, which, honestly, after all of the nonsense he’s put our cast through, feels about right. Leonard and Titan are reprimanded too, apparently more for interacting with Takt than anything else.

We conclude on a note of triumph and catharsis tinged with an ominous shadow. Our heroes have succeeded for today, and are closer than ever as Takt silently vows to Cosette that he’s going to move forward from now on.

Also, and I cannot stress this enough, Anna and Destiny hug and it’s very cute.

Ah, but the final shot of the episode is this, revealing that Takt’s scarring is getting worse. Perhaps implying that using Destiny so much has really started to take a toll on him.

What will the consequences of all this be? It’s hard to know for certain, but I hope we’ll find out together, anime fans.

(Minor programming note: You may have noticed this week’s column was delayed by a day. That is a product of some personal stuff going on and I don’t expect it to repeat next week. Fingers crossed!)

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

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