first impressions – Page 3 – The Magic Planet

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

Of the semi-common genre hybrids, the horror-comedy is one of the weirder ones. Horror relies on disquieting the viewer. Comedy relies on making them laugh. They’re not quite opposites, but they’re close, so striking the right balance is the key when trying to do both in alteration.

^{Well? Have you?}

Mieruko-chan does a pretty good job of it. Although to tell the truth, I went into the anime skeptical. Mieruko-chan is an adaption of a pretty well-regarded manga, and said manga earns that regard. But simply by shuffling a few things around, the Mieruko-chan anime manages to keep things fresh even for those of us who’ve seen this particular story before. It’s an impressive trick, and it leads to one of the better premieres of the season so far, if not a flawless one. (We’ll get to the caveats in a minute.)

Mieruko-chan manages to hold out for an impressive 13 1/2 minutes before showing us anything indisputably out-of-the-ordinary. Before then, it’s all tension, cut with the occasional bit of comedy to keep the mood from becoming overtly oppressive; Mieruko-chan‘s goal is to keep you on your toes, not horrify you outright, and it’s very good at that.

^{A lot of the reprieve comes from Miko’s (left) interactions with her friend Hana (right). They have a very warm, believable friendship even here in the first episode.}

Our main character is Miko (“Mieruko-chan” means something like “the girl who sees them”, it’s not her name). Miko sees dead people. Miko does not want to see dead people. Hence the conflict of the show. Or more thoroughly; as she goes about her daily life, Miko is often bothered by monstrous spirits. They ask her if she can see them and generally make her life miserable. The only saving grace she has here is that she’s in possession of an absolutely stone poker face, and the entities eventually leave her alone after she fails to react to them.

^“Yo.”

To a point, the series (both in its original manga incarnation and here) is voyeuristic, a feeling certainly not diminished here by Studio Passione‘s “enhancements” to the material, which mostly consists of gratuitous T&A closeups. (Not that the manga was devoid of these, but the increase is noticeable.) What prevents any of this from feeling too gross is that Miko’s one weapon–her will–means she’s not totally defenseless. Admittedly, I’m going into this with some level of foreknowledge since I’ve read some of the manga. But Miko isn’t entirely a victim of circumstance, here, and she’s easy to root for because of that, even when her fear gets the better of her.

Visually, other than the aforementioned kinda-distasteful cheesecake, the series is pretty nice-looking. The entities themselves are what’s hit hardest by the transition to animation, as they don’t look quite as scary animated, but the sound work makes up for this. The synthesizer hums and throbs that make up the best horror soundtracks are well-represented here, along with judicious use of silence. It’s a nicely-produced affair, all around.

In general, if you can get past the aforementioned caveat, and you don’t feel so bad for Miko that you find the show hard to watch, give this a try. Mieruko-chan really seems like it’s going to be worth following.

Grade: B-
The Takeaway: Solidly-produced all around and with a novel premise, this one is worth picking up if you make a point of keeping up with seasonal anime. Its only real issue is the adaption’s insertion of some rather disruptive fanservice.

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

Let’s start with the obvious; what a title! In a time period where there are quite literally more anime being made per season than ever before, a series needs to do all it can to stand out. A novel premise is one way to do that, and Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut, which is about basically exactly what that title implies, certainly delivers on that front.

The short version; some amount of years after the end of not-quite WW2, two nations, not-quite The United States (“Arnack”) and not-quite The Soviet Union (“Zirnitra”) are competing in a space race. In lieu of sending an actual human aboard a rocket, Zirnitra’s space program opts to use a vampire. Which, in the world of Irina, basically means a normal human but nocturnal and with pointy teeth. (The series goes out of its way to assure us that all the traditional vampire clichés are just myths. Which, in of itself, is something of a cliché by this point. But the point is made; it’s not a garlic and crucifixes sort of story. Fair enough.)

^{Surely there are no shady, immoral reasons for this.}

Our actual lead is not Irina, the titular vampire, herself, but rather her caretaker, a training program flunky named Lev.

^{This is Lev. He’s pleasant enough.}

It’s here I should point out; this thing is tagged with the Romance genre on every site I can find it listed on, and between Lev, Irina herself, and Lev’s assistant, Anna, there is absolutely the possibility for this to descend into mediocre harem hell. However, I prefer to assume an anime is going to become the best version of itself. What would that look like for Irina?

Well, the show’s strengths are evident even this early on. While none of the characters strike as super complex (at least not yet), the important ones feel well-thought-out. Lev is trying to reconcile having to give up on his own dream of cosmonauthood with his new responsibility taking care of Irina. Irina is all too happy to tell every human in earshot that she hates them, which is evidently a defense mechanism from being treated like an object her entire life. (That’s not me reading into the series; the latter is obvious from visual cues and the former is explicitly pointed out a number of times.)

There’s not a ton going on, so far, but the promise is there. The early scenes especially seem to hint at something deeper going on, with context-free flashes of Irina clutching a necklace, which she still has in the present, in the midst of a snowstorm. And in the political undertones of her involvement in the spaceflight program in the first place.

Really, for this sort of thing, “promise” is enough. It’s distinct enough that it can coast by on potential, at least for now. Irina is not going to be most peoples’ premiere of the season, but you could do far, far worse. And who knows? We might be talking about it in far grander terms six weeks from now.

Grade: C+
The Takeaway: Keep an eye on this one. Consider picking it up if you want an additional show and the novel combination of sci-fi and romance genres with a dash of horror appeals to you. Otherwise, maybe hold off until it gets some more positive word-of-mouth.

The Magic Planet

Tag: first impressions

Seasonal First Impressions: Spooky Season is Here, and So is MIERUKO-CHAN

Seasonal Impressions: Romance and Rocket Ships in IRINA: THE VAMPIRE COSMONAUT