Tag: Princess Connect ReDive

Posted on in anime, Weekly Writing Roundups

The Frontline Report [3/27/22]

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

Hi folks, simple writeups this week, nothing too fancy. But I hope you’ll enjoy them as one of our recurring anime comes to a close and another heads there at a mile a minute. But first–

Seasonal Anime

Miss KUROITSU From the Monster Development Department

Miss Kuroitsu probably isn’t quite consistent enough to be called a seasonal underdog, but damn if it doesn’t sometimes come close. This past week’s episode is the beautiful little fable of a mute monster girl filled with weapons (named Mumy and played by singer YURiKA) who wants nothing more than to become an idol. The general idea is hackneyed, and the episode looks like ass. Did I tear up multiple times throughout anyway just because the show got me so attached to this girl? Yes I did. Did I have to actively stop myself from crying even more at the end of the episode where a combination of vampire bioengineering and sheer fucking moxie means she’s miraculously grown a voicebox and developed a beautiful singing voice? Yes I absolutely did.

What else can be said? Sometimes even a benchwarmer bats a home run.

Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2

I wish people still sincerely called things “epic.” I can’t think of a word that better fits the blazing spectacle that Princess Connect has transmogrified to as it enters the final stretch of its second season.

To get something out of the way; in previous articles where I’ve discussed Priconne, I’ve made a point of entertaining alternate points of view. The show is widely liked, but not universally liked, and while I do still respect everyone’s rights to hold their own opinion, I think the time for trying to specifically acknowledge criticisms that others might have has passed. If you object to rapturous praise for stuff like this, you’re on the wrong site. Sorry.

“Stuff like this,” if you need to be brought up to speed, is an absolutely shameless blind-fire of the Proper Noun Machine Gun, mixed with what is certainly some of the flashiest animation of the year so far. (Priconne is good at that.) We get some new characters here (and a few old ones make return appearances), and a good chunk of the episode consists of a guild–a guild who seem to have some knowledge of how the world of Princess Connect really works–fighting against Christina, another of the Seven Crowns and Omniscient Kaiser’s sort-of lackey, below Kaiser’s palace.

This is, in a word, awesome. New arrivals Ruka (Rina Sato) and Anna (Asami Takano) attack Christina with Anna’s Final Catastrophe attack. Ah, but of course, Christina is one of the Seven Crowns, so her passive ability Absolute Defense renders her immune to normal damage.

But that too can be overcome by simply overloading the ability’s computational capacity–a kind of VRMMO underflow error–but then it turns out that Christina secretly also has access to Absolute Offense, which fires glowing beams that invert the world’s colors. They eventually subdue her…only for the secret true form of Omniscient Kaiser to emerge from the very thing they were fighting over! All of this is deeply ridiculous, but it’s a total blast. Anna in particular is really fun, being perhaps the most chuuni chuunibyou I’ve seen in any anime in years.

Alongside this is Pecorine’s fight to save Karyl. Impeded here by the return of Jun–the blindfold-wearing knight we were introduced to several episodes ago–but now she is, of course, brainwashed by Kaiser and in full battle armor. The two prove a solid match for each other, although it says a lot that this is actually the more restrained of Priconne’s two battle scenes in this episode.

Eventually, Pecorine is able to break Kaiser’s hold on Jun, and the two turn the tables against the evil wolf-woman and kill her. Except they don’t actually, because of the aforementioned hidden true form of Omniscient Kaiser lurking beneath Kaiser’s palace. The form that they’ve been fighting this entire time? Merely a particularly strong-willed shadow. It has a very hammy death, and it’s not gone for ten seconds before the real Kaiser starts tossing Pecorine and Jun around like ragdolls with a wag of her finger. (As a side note, Kaiser’s actor Shouta Aoi deserves some praise here. He has a reputation for voicing dangerous women, and he is indeed very good at that, but he can also holler like a motherfucker when the scene calls for it, and he uses that skill several times in this episode.)

As you can surmise from the appearance of credits over this final scene, this, and the cut immediately after where Yuki finally arrives, is the end of the episode. But we should back up a bit, because one more thing of import does happen in between all the flashy sword-clanking.

Kokkoro, in about the middle of the episode, is spirited away by the Ameth, that mysterious girl with the broken clockwork floating around her who, like Labyrista, seems to have been instrumental in controlling the world. Regardless of the specifics of her, though, what she gives to Kokkoro is important; a small device for “keeping Yuuki’s emotions in check.” Ostensibly to keep him from overloading his powers and hurting himself. It’s an odd turn of events, and seems to imply that maybe Ameth isn’t entirely on the level, either.

The season finale approaches, so perhaps we’ll get some answers there. Or at least, more intriguing questions.

Ranking of Kings

“Shine on toward a yet-unseen tomorrow.”

Ousama Ranking‘s finale begins thusly; Daida reaffirms his (puzzling, though given the vaguely medieval-ish setting perhaps slightly less so) decision to marry Miranjo, swearing that the both of them will turn over a new leaf and concentrate on doing good in the world. At the same time, he relinquishes the throne, and all of Bojji’s retainers hail him as the new king; the scene is a happy one, with all present praising Bojji’s bravery and strength of character. There’s much celebration, and King Bojji’s new subjects quite literally toss him into the air with joy, and later take him to his new throne room so he can receive formal homage from the townsfolk. It’s very classic fairy tale. There are a lot of happy tears. So, we’re all good, right? Happy endings all around.

Well, no, not quite.

Not present among Bojji’s gaggle of retainers is Kage. The shadow clansman rationalizes that the young king no longer needs him–and that his own reliance on the boy is bad–and leaves silently, seeking honest work in the same nearby town he used to make his way as a thief in. He ends up miserable there, of course, as the townsfolk haven’t really changed. No one wants to hire him for honest work, and when he sets up a small wooden hut outside of town someone destroys it.

Meanwhile, Bojji, too, is lost without his best friend. He seems like a fine king based on what little we see, but his heart clearly isn’t in it. Fittingly, it’s Queen Hiling (now Queen-Mother Hiling, one supposes) who picks up on this. In a cozy bit of motherly wisdom, she tells him that being a king is his responsibility, but if there is something that truly matters to him more, he should go seek that instead.

Bojji, thus, ends his brief reign by re-relinquishing (delinquishing?) his crown to Prince Daida. Making for, I’m sure, a fun footnote in their kingdom’s history some hundreds of years down the line.

Bojji sets out to find Kage the very day, and they meet up again not long later. He reveals to Kage his secret ambition; to someday found his own kingdom, after having a great many adventures before then, of course.

As for what happened to King Desha at the end of last week’s episode? We don’t know, and perhaps we never will. Some mysteries remain even under the morning Sun.

Ousama Ranking is occasionally criticized–and I’ve made these criticisms myself–for its odd pacing and the plot’s tendency to drift all over the place. Even in this final episode there’s an aside that really doesn’t add anything at all, although it does look pretty cool. (Kingbo makes a surprise return appearance, splits the rock that Ouken is imprisoned in in half, and then decapitates him and chucks his head into a lake many miles away in the span of about 3 minutes.) But, while that is certainly a flaw, it’s not one that negates the show’s many strengths. In the end, Ousama Ranking boils back down to what made it great in the first place; Bojji, Kage, a bag of treasure, and the great, wide world stretching before them. The promise of more adventure on the horizon billows into the sky like smoke. If not now, it seems to say, then someday, somewhere.


Elsewhere on MPA

Vote on the Next Let’s Watch for the Spring 2022 Anime Season

Please vote on this if you care about what I’m going to be covering during the (rapidly approaching) next anime season. You’ve got a little under a week left to make your voice heard!

Let’s Watch SABIKUI BISCO Episode 11 – “I’m Bisco!”

Sabikui Bisco continues to be Sabikui Bisco-y as it comes to a close. I kinda feel like I’ve run out of much to say about this show other than what’s already in the

Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING Episode 12 – “My Dress-Up Darling” (SEASON FINALE)

Meanwhile, My Dress-Up Darling ends the only way it really could have, sweet nothings and fireworks. It doesn’t hold a candle to the very best fireworks-centric romcom finale in recent memory–that being a different show’s season one finale–but still, it’s a definite high point to go out on for a show that’s been something of a rocky ride. I hope the second season (and let’s be real, one is definitely getting made) is more like this than say, like episode six.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the 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 [3/20/22]

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

Hi folks! No fancy lead-in this week, just two solid writeups for you and some links to other stuff. Enjoy.

Seasonal Anime

Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2

“The advancing hands cannot be turned back.”

If you only ever liked Princess Connect for its softer merits; the warm character interactions, the charming comedy, etc. I can imagine finding the past two episodes disappointing in a strange sort of way, for the simple reason that they’ve been the heaviest on the show’s capital P Plot that Princess Connect has ever gotten, and that’s not a development that looks to change any time soon.

Two weeks ago we saw Omniscient Kaiser kill Labyrista and claim her powers. Within the text of the show itself, the rules that the Princess Connect universe operate on remain somewhat fuzzy, but it wasn’t hard to tell that this was a bad thing. The episode was huge and sweeping; a clash of cosmic forces conjuring gigantic CGI labyrinth-spheres and the obligatory near-defeat of Kaiser herself. As villains do, she won with a dirty trick; teleporting in her underling, Karyl, to serve as a human shield.

Labyrista’s defeat has probably rendered Kaiser the most powerful being in the whole setting. Given that she’s been the lurking broad-scope villain of the entire series so far, that’s not great. What’s worse is what she does to Karyl, who is here empowered with a magic mask and rendered Kaiser’s all-too-willing puppet. If Karyl has ever had a genuine, serious character flaw, it is her belief in Kaiser, a sort of surrogate mother figure whose approval she desperately seeks. That need for approval turns her into little more than a weapon for Kaiser in this past week’s episode, where she unleashes absolute terror on the people of Landosol. Why she suddenly commits so hard to being Kaiser’s attack dog is left ambiguous, although I side with the theory I’ve seen floated around social media. Karyl feels guilty about indirectly causing Labyrista’s death has left her feeling as though she has no choice in the matter. (Perhaps she believes that if the rest of the Gourmet Guild found out, they’d turn on her as well, leaving her well and truly alone.)

As the Gourmet Guild struggles to piece together what’s going on, we get a lot of cameos from supporting characters from previous episodes. Most of these are pretty inconsequential, although Yuni contributes to the plot in a huge way at the episode’s climax.

The bulk of the episode’s runtime consists of a smattering of characters fighting off Kaiser’s shadow army as she uses Labyrista’s powers to trap the entirety of Landosol in a huge metal dome. The episode is very effective at conveying a sense of impending doom. Really, it’s remarkable how far Princess Connect has come. There was always a wider story slinking around in the background, all the way from the first episode of season one, but to see all those hints and plot points be forged into a proper Epic Fantasy Story is pretty amazing. Despite this, the story’s bones–VRMMO genre, light novel, and gacha game tropes entering their second decade of dominance right now–ensure that it could never exist in any other medium. Princess Connect is damn good, and it’s also very much an anime.

Of course, this properly epic scale is also very effective at making Kaiser seem like possibly the worst woman to ever live. Sacrificing the souls of your entire kingdom is some classic evil overlord shit, and whoever boarded her expressions in this episode worked damn hard to make sure we know that she’s enjoying every minute of it.

Perhaps the worst of her offenses here is what Kaiser does to Karyl once she stops being a willing part of her plans. Pecorine eventually confronts Karyl.

Initially, Karyl commits to the fatalism–that’s where this subheading’s quote comes from–and begins launching barrages of magical energy at the townsfolk. But it’s hard not to notice that she doesn’t actually kill anybody. She can’t bring herself to do that, even this late in the game.

Kaiser, naturally, has a trick up her sleeve. Be it a result of the mask, Karyl’s recent empowering, or something else entirely, Kaiser extends literal puppet strings from her hands; forcing Karyl to resume firing on innocent townspeople as she begs Kaiser to stop. It is probably the closest Princess Connect has ever come to being genuinely hard to watch.

It’s here where Yuni comes in, using her patented um….turn-rocks-into-walky-talkies-and-also-projectors magic to blow the whistle on Kaiser. Earlier in the episode there’s a scene where she and some of her assistants piece together the identity of the real Princess Eustania, the one who should be ruling Landosol. We, of course, have known for an entire season who that is; Pecorine.

It’s on that note; Kaiser’s deception revealed, Karyl hanging in the sky begging for help, that episode ten comes to an end. Who knows what awaits our heroes in their final, darkest hour?

Ranking of Kings

It’s been quite a long time since we’ve seen young Prince Bojji and his merry band on this blog. But, much of the reason I stopped covering Ousama Ranking for a while was simply that the series has not fundamentally changed at any point, really, since its premiere. It started as a modern spin on classic fairy tale-style fantasy. It’s still that, just with a lot more players now, and with everyone having complex, sympathetic motivations.

That may sound like a good thing. It may be a good thing. But it makes discussion of Ousama Ranking hard, at least for me. I would say, broadly, that Ousama Ranking has only one real problem, and it’s an analogue to an issue often seen in editing. Many series, especially those short on actual plot, employ a tactic of rapidly cutting between different scenes. This produces the illusion that more is going on than actually is. It’s a clever way of disguising a general lack of forward narrative motion. Anime guilty of this particular shortcut usually have a beginning and ending mapped out, but everything in between is essentially guesswork.

Ousama Ranking, on the other hand, has almost the opposite issue. So many plot details have been sprinkled through the series; the demon, the titular Ranking of Kings itself, the woman in the mirror, the war against the Gods, etc. etc. etc. etc. That when the time comes to actually tie up all these plots, it does feel a little like the series is rushing through them. Plot twist comes after plot twist. Sympathetic backstory after sympathetic backstory. It can be thrilling, but also exhausting. I can imagine someone really liking this about the series and conversely, I can imagine it completely ruining the show for someone else.

I fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, lest it sound like I’m being too negative. But it is notable that in just the most recent episode alone (22), we get the near-instantaneous resolution of the “Miranjo sentenced to an eternity of suffering” plot from the episode before that. Things are, basically, resolved in a poof. Similar examples recur throughout the show’s recent run. The most glaring example being Daida’s rather inexplicable decision that the solution to Miranjo’s lingering woes is to…marry her?

We could excuse this, if we wanted to, as Ousama Ranking glomming to old fantasy tropes. Or even, alternately, an in-universe folly of youth (although the show doesn’t treat it that way, certainly). But it does make the show feel strangely rushed despite its many other strengths.

And so as not to end on a down note, we should talk about those strengths. In spite of any other complaints, it’s inarguable that Ousama Ranking is a visual stunner. This past episode is not quite the visual feast that episode 21 was, but it’s still incredibly impressive. Even if Ousama Ranking‘s story issues were much more serious (and I fear I’ve perhaps overstated their importance here), it’d still be well worth watching for its production alone. Its characters also largely remain excellent, with only one or two possible exceptions. Queen Hilling gets a great moment in this episode where she tries to put on a serious, stern face when congratulating her sons, only to break down crying about halfway through. Scenes like this help the series feel alive in a way that offsets some of its writing issues.

Elsewhere, the tale of King Bosse trading Miranjo’s soul and the strength of his then-unborn son for more power is told with suitably epic visual storytelling, with the presentation of one his mightiest opponents, a literal god, being the highlight. (Bosse himself, arguably, is one of the aforementioned exceptions. Dude just isn’t great.)

It helps, also, that the series seems to be heading in a more focused direction as it nears its close. The final two episodes promise to return to the Ranking of Kings system that gives the series its title. As the episode ends with Desha accepting his ranking as #1 and descending into the vault that holds the mysterious treasure accorded to those who earn that title.

Ousama Ranking, certainly, remains compelling, in spite of anything negative I’ve said here. I am not sure if I’ll cover the finale (though I’d like to), but I can safely say that it’s a good series and worth watching, regardless of if it sticks the landing or not.

Elsewhere on MPA

https://magicplanetanime.design.blog/2022/03/15/lets-watch-sabikui-bisco-episode-10-tetsujin-revived/

Sabikui Bisco kinda picked up again last week. Isn’t that nice? I guess we’ll find out tomorrow if it can keep that up or not.

https://magicplanetanime.design.blog/2022/03/20/lets-watch-my-dress-up-darling-episode-11/

To paraphrase myself in a Discord conversation from yesterday, I really like some parts of My Dress-Up Darling and really dislike some other parts. This episode was about 50/50.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the 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 [3/6/22]

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

Hello folks! I’ve got two writeups for you today, one of a returning favorite and one we’ve not had in this column before. Some quick announcements before we get into things.

The first is not site-related, so I’ll lead with that: I’ve dropped a few seasonals and put some others on hold. Most notably CUE! in the former case and Ousama Ranking in the latter. While CUE! was genuinely starting to bore me, I want to be clear that my pausing Ousama Ranking is more my own issue than the show’s. I intend to, hopefully, finish it later this year and if I do so and find it worth discussing at length, I’ll write about it then. I don’t like to feel “guilty” about dropping or pausing anime if I can, I’ve mentioned before that I have various mental issues that affect my mood and can sap my motivation, and lately I have unfortunately very much been in the lazy phase. I’m under no delusion that I owe anyone these explanations, but I do feel like I should at least make an attempt to keep y’all in the loop, just so you’re not left wondering why Quasar no Blackstar or what-have-you randomly disappeared from repeat Frontline Report coverage.

On a more directly site-related level, there are two small changes coming to Magic Planet Anime. For the past few months I’ve made a habit of parenthesizing a voice actor’s name after the first time introducing a character in a writeup, and then giving some quick “you may know them from”-style fact. I’m going to still be providing the names, but I think the trivia has made me look like a bit of a know-it-all, and I don’t want to give off that impression, so I’ll be stopping that. Also, in the “Elsewhere on MPA” section, I’m now full-on embedding the article links instead of simply posting text links. I genuinely just didn’t know you could do that, and it seems like a much better and cleaner way to link other articles in this column.

Let me know what you think of these changes in the comments! But enough yapping about the site itself, on to the stuff you actually care about.

Seasonal Anime

Miss KUROITSU from the Monster Development Department

Often, some time after a season begins, I will end up picking up an extra show or two. Usually just something to watch on my “downtime” with friends between anime I’ve actually committed to writing about. Rarely do I mention these anime on this site; they’re often not exactly the best shows of a given season, they’re often pretty obscure, and they rarely have much to discuss about them. Once in a great while one will contort into strange and compelling enough shapes that it demands my full attention in spite of my own plans–last year, that happened to Blue Reflection Ray–but it’s rare.

Occasionally though, I’ll feel compelled to pen a bit about them just to give them whatever due I may feel they’re owed regardless. (And to fill in some blank space left by my dropping of CUE! a few weeks back.) So it is with Miss KUROITSU from the Monster Development Department, a quirky comedy anime that’s been quietly chugging along for the past eight weeks to the notice of, evidently, rather few people, going by its social media numbers.

The series’ premise is not difficult to get your head around. Here it is, in full, straight from Anilist’s database.

Kuroitsu is an assistant researcher in the superhuman research & development department of Agastya, a villainous secret organization that battles with heroes who try to save the world. Kuroitsu lives a busy life in Agastya, caught between the absurd requests of her bosses; making presentations; implementing new features into superhumans; and getting results within the allotted time, budget, and spec requests; all without vacation.

We follow a lab researcher who works for a toku show-style evil organization. Nothing complicated there. The series blends the genre with the style of an office comedy, and the results can be pretty damn funny when correctly dialed in. I’m particularly fond of the managerial Megistus (Tetsu Inada), who is a combination surprisingly responsible and levelheaded boss and also a Huge Powerful Guy in Metal Armor.

The show’s main roadblock to being more recommendable is that sometimes that humor also wildly misses. One of the main characters is Wolf Bete (Sahomi Amano), who was a monster intended to be a wolfman but, due to the interference of Agastya’s evil leader Akashic (Mao Ichimichi), ended up as a girl with wolf ears and claws instead. He still considers himself male (and to the translators’ credit, they respect that), and so do most of his coworkers, but the show sometimes leans into mildly transphobic humor regardless. Also, the character’s very premise just feels a bit…weird. In a way that’s going to be familiar to anyone who’s read or watched a lot of gender-bender stories over the years.

One of the two magical girls (!) who’re present in the show, Yuto (Yui Horie), also gets this treatment, since they’re “actually” a boy. (I’m not terribly clear on how the character in question views themselves in an in-universe sort of sense. I get the vague impression they may be, as we’d say, gender-questioning.) It’s just enough to not make Miss Kuroitsu the obvious recommend that I want it to be, and that does kinda suck even if the show is otherwise pretty good.

Take the most recent episode, the eighth. Its middle segment contains an absolutely incredible scene where the magical girls, infiltrating Agastya on the orders of their boss, participate in a shockingly normal interview, where the wilier of them, Reo (Yukari Tamura) just spins a whole fabricated sympathetic backstory out of thin air. The whole thing only falls apart when Megistus takes note of their age.

Despite its issues, Miss Kuroitsu is worth a watch if you can look past them. Screwball office comedies aren’t as common as they could be in anime, and this is a solid one underneath it all.

Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2

The main plot of last week’s episode of Princess Connect! Re:Dive could not be simpler. Kokkoro, and two minor characters we meet for the first time here–Misaki (Misaki Kuno) and Suzuna (Sumire Uesaka)–are sending out a bunch of letters at the post office. For whatever reason, a bunch of bandits raid the post office while they’re there, and steal the letters along with several other things. Thus, Kokkoro and her two new acquaintances must go on a (short) quest to get them all back.

This A-plot is decent fun. We get a lot of Kokkoro’s signature “x” face and in general the other two provide solid foils for her. Misaki is the weirder (and therefore funnier) of the two, and seems to think she’s some kind of alluring temptress despite being….not that.

I’m normally, to say the least, pretty mixed on this sort of humor. But the fact that the two are also demons ratchets it back to “funny,” at least for me, on sheer audacity. There is an utterly bizarre sequence where Misaki tries to do a stripper pole routine–animated in a decidedly goofy fashion and set to comical club music–on her staff to the complete bafflement of the bandits she’s trying to “seduce.” Kokkoro and Suzuna end up having to break her out when this inevitably leads to her capture.

Although it does make their own motivation for sending letters clash a bit oddly against their actual appearances. The both of them are students at a local school that is threatened with closure in part because of their own poor grades. We’re not given exact ages, but they seem pretty young, given that Suzuna (hilariously) calls the 7’s the “final boss of multiplication tables.” Despite their somewhat showy outfits, and Misaki’s behavior, the characters aren’t actually sexualized enough to make this come across as gross. It’s just strange. They feel a bit like actors performing a play that they’re not properly costumed for. It’s a minor qualm, but such things are noticeable in the context of Princess Connect, which is otherwise very well put-together. Obviously, the three eventually recover the letters. Suzuna also gets a very short highlight of her skill as an archer (presumably also true in the game), which is nice.

Cut with all this are brief spotlights on our other three main characters, which collectively form the B-side of the episode. Presumably, this is setup for Princess Connect‘s season finale. A solid idea, since there are just four episodes left. Karyl again finds herself mesmerized by the mercurial, wicked Kaiser Insight (Shouta Aoi, doing his Cagliostro from Symphogear voice), whose control over her seems to run far deeper than any simple evil overlord / minion relationship.

At the same time, Pecorine dreams of her former self warning her that she’ll be left alone again once her true identity comes out. Yuki, meanwhile, works out his distress over last week’s developments with Labyrista (Akira Mosakuji), who delivers one of the most stunningly profound lines of the whole season when Yuki despairs over forgetting (or more likely, being forced to forget) his previous companions.

She’s right, and Princess Connect‘s ability to casually drop things like this in the midst of what is otherwise a fairly silly episode really nails down its place as the season’s best show. Nothing else is working in this space this well right now.

At episode’s end, after Kokkoro, Suzuna, and Misaki have recovered the letters, the Gourmet Guild set out to harvest a rice crop. With just the four of them, it’d take forever. So, it’s naturally here where we learn what Kokkoro was sending so many letters for; they were sent to all of the Gourmet Guild’s friends and allies, asking them to pitch in. And I do mean all of them.

This veritable parade of cameos, some of which are from characters we haven’t seen since season one (remember the huge llama girl? What about the ghost who turned Yuki into flan?) is one of the episode’s highlights. And more than anything, it makes me dead certain that Princess Connect is gearing up for this season’s final arc. In its last minutes, we see the Gourmet Guild transform the rice harvest into a massive feast for everyone, and it’s a huge, well-earned capital M Moment of emotion. Pecorine can’t help but tear up, and I doubt she’s alone.

She resolves, just before the credits roll, to tell Yuki and Karyl of her true identity as Princess Eustania. Time will tell how that goes, but no matter what happens, this wonderful memory, preserved in amber, will stick with us, the audience, the whole way. PriConne has a way of hitting you in the heart.

Elsewhere on MPA

Magic Planet Monthly Movies: The Magic was Inside You All Along in MAJOKKO SHIMAI NO YOYO TO NENE

One of the reasons I like doing commissions is because I’m occasionally handed some fun little thing I’d never even heard of before. Such is the case with Yoyo to Nene, a largely forgotten magical girl / isekai film from the early ’10s. It’s not perfect, but I still really enjoyed it and highly recommend it, especially if you’re a fan of ufotable‘s visual work. Especially especially if you also wish they adapted more interesting material.

Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING Episode 9 – “A Lot Happened After I Saw That Photo”

My Dress-Up Darling manages to produce two good episodes in a row! Astounding! This wasn’t as much of a knockout as last week’s and there’s still definitely more fanservice than I’d like, but there are only so many ways I can say that and not feel like I’m repeating myself. I enjoyed Gojo helping Shinju fulfill her cosplay dreams.

Let’s Watch SABIKUI BISCO Episode 8 – “Fiendish Trap”

Equivalent exchange at work, perhaps. As Dress-Up Darling improves, Sabikui Bisco, my other weekly, gets markedly worse. This episode was honestly a real blow to my enthusiasm for this series, it makes the previous week’s look like a masterpiece. We’ll know by tomorrow if the downward trend continues or not.

And that about covers it for this week. So, with little left to say, until then, anime fans.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the 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 [2/6/22]

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

I’ve been a bit sick over the past week. Not enough to impact my blogging, thankfully. I was originally going to have just three shows for you this week, but, what the heck, why don’t we start with a new face?

Seasonal Anime

Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure

If you write about a chosen medium, it’s generally good to know what your Geek Buttons are. A Geek Button is a thing–and it can really be anything, a series, a whole genre, a visual style, a specific actor, whatever–where the more “objective” part of your critical toolkit just fails to work, and you are reduced to a blubbering fangirl (or fanboy, or fanby, as the case may be). For me, magical girls in general, and especially Pretty Cure, are a Geek Button. I cannot pretend to be remotely reasonable about them. I love almost all of them like they’re my children and the few exceptions are girls who I just wish were in better shows. I will die on the hill that the magical girl warrior archetype is one of anime’s best and most important contributions to general popular culture.

So with that in mind, please say hello to the newest Pretty Cure series. And indeed, the newest Pretty Cure; Yui Nagomi, AKA Cure Precious (Hana Hishikawa in what is, astoundingly, her first named character role in an anime.)

She is adorable. Dare I say precious?

The first episode of a given Precure series has a lot of beats to hit; introducing the protagonist, introducing her mentor / helper characters, if any, establishing the broad strokes of the plot for the season, nailing down the basic thematic overtone it’s going for, and of course, introducing the bad guys and their particular version of the monsters of the week. It’s a lot of stops to have to hit in a 22-minute episode, but DePaPre swings it admirably. The general direction in this first episode is really just fantastic, and notably, it’s helmed by animation director Akira Inagami, who had a role as a character designer all the way back on the original Futari wa Pretty Cure. (A hearty shout out to my good friend Pike, curator of Dual Aurora Wave, for that information. I’d have never known!)

The whole thing is bouncy and joyous and just alive in a way that really defines the best kids’ anime. The episode is great looking from start to finish, though obviously the real Peak TV moment is Cure Precious’ first henshin sequence.

Also scattered throughout are the traditional “Precure Leap,” a fun nod to an episode of Futari wa, and some truly ludicrous attack names (a 500 Kilocalorie punch, huh?)

I’m also fond of Yui’s “mentor” character here, the lavender haired gnc king Rosemary. He’s delightfully camp in a way that doesn’t feel overbearing or like it’s making fun of anyone.

Her fairy is adorable too, of course.

And I must make a nod toward Gentle (or “Gentlu” as Crunchyroll’s official subs hilariously render her name), who both puts in a supremely cool showing as the anime’s starter villain and is also the smart pick for Character Most Likely To Undergo A Face Turn And Possibly Become a Precure Herself. It wouldn’t be the first time the series has done that. (My favorite example being from Fresh. Which, fun fact; was the first Precure series that Hana Hishikawa watched as a young child in nursery school, going off an interview she gave a few weeks ago.)

Gentle wouldn’t even be the first villain with this specific hair color to eventually become a Precure. Will history repeat itself? Time alone will tell.

The only “bad thing”, really, about DePaPre, is that it won’t appear in this column much. I’ll try to make exceptions for particularly great episodes but given that I watch it with friends on its premiere night, much like Tropical Rouge Precure before it, it can be difficult to find the time, given that these Reports go up on Sunday.

Still, I’ll absolutely be watching every single week. And if my opinion is worth anything to you, I think you should be too.

CUE!

I don’t really know what to think about CUE! Any time I feel like I should just write it off and stop following it entirely, it does this.

“This,” for reference, is another subtly great episode about the inside of the voice acting profession. It doesn’t start out that way; the first third or so of this episode is actually mostly about Haruna’s pet turtle, about whom she says increasingly ridiculous things. (To wit; it’s not a turtle because he has a name, she asks him for advice, and he looks like “an old man” and “a philosopher. It’s all pretty funny.)

But the episode gets serious at around its 1/3rd mark, honing in on the art of injecting emotion into even very short exchanges of words. Haruna’s role, remember, is just “additional voices.” So in her first scene in Bloom Ball, which the girls record here, she only swaps a single sentence with Maika’s character, who only replies with one of her own. And we hear those two sentences some four or five times over the episode’s duration.

I’ve said this before, but running the same scene back-to-back, for any reason, is challenging. You risk boring your audience, and when the scene in question is this short you risk it even more. But, somehow, CUE! pulls it off again.

The mechanics are very simple; the girls learn a little bit about how voice acting works. They record their lines, Haruna and Maika’s get held because the author (present at the recording) remembers that the bit character Haruna is playing comes up again way later in the story. Once again, this is supposed to sell Haruna as someone with an immense amount of untapped voice acting talent. It doesn’t work quite as well as the showstopper she drops in episode 2, but it’s still pretty good, and it proves that when CUE! is on, it’s on.

For something that should be super dry, it manages to stay quite interesting, employing its favorite trick, jumping in and out of the world of the show-within-a-show. Here, since all present are actually recording, things are further embellished by the show being mid-production. No full-color cuts here; it’s all monochrome and pre-correction. (Let’s take a moment to appreciate the nightmare that making a finished cut that looks convincingly unfinished must be.)

Flummoxing as it sometimes is, if CUE! keeps making episodes like this I will continue to watch them. Just, please, I’m begging you, either focus on the idol girls less or make them more interesting.

Princess Connect! Re:Dive

One of the reasons I declined to give Princess Connect! Re:Dive its own dedicated column is that I know my limits. A picture truly can be worth a thousand words, and a gif from a show like this can be worth a short novel. What am I supposed to say about this?

Okay, fine. If you wanted to, if you were some kind of joyless miser, you could be mad that this episode is all set up and no resolution. Frankly I think that’s an absurd criticism, and the idea that everything must be resolved within the space of a single episode just because this show started out as a “slice of life series” is so far removed from how I experience art that I have a difficult time even comprehending it. Nonetheless it is what some people think, and I’ll give those people their moment of acknowledgement here.

For the rest of us; holy shit.

Princess Connect season 2’s fourth episode is the sort of absurd instant-classic that demands rewinds, screencapping, and a visit to Sakugabooru. And it’s the fourth episode of a twelve-episode season. That’s nuts. That’s the kind of comically overconfident flex that usually presages some great disaster. But why would that be the case here? CygamesPictures aren’t working on anything else this year. It’s amazing what a well-equipped studio can do when actually giving its workers proper time to do so.

The actual plot here is cartwheeling fantasy screwiness that wouldn’t be out of place in one of the many, many books with dragons and swords on the cover that I read in middle school. That sounds like an insult, but this sort of high-stakes epic-in-the-old-sense-of-the-word plot is what’s missing from a lot of modern fantasy anime. It’s spectacle; even down to details like Karyl still playing both sides, the guild of animal girls we meet here, and the giant golem fight that caps the episode.

I feel legitimately bad for the other fantasy anime airing right now. It’s not like In The Land of Leadale or Reincarnated as a Fantasy Knockout don’t have their merits, but they aren’t this. The only competition Priconne really has in this regard is Demon Slayer, but while that show definitely looks great, it’s always had issues with making its flashy animation feel like it entirely fit with the rest of the world. Priconne never even sniffs that problem; the compositing is as excellent here as anything else. Even moments where characters are literally just standing around look incredible.

The only real issue is that Priconne’s plot is so mile-a-minute I could see it getting hard to keep up. (I’m already a bit lost myself. Having not played the game probably doesn’t help.) But even so; at least for me, that feeling actually adds to the exhilaration of watching this thing in motion. The Proper Noun Machine Gun has rarely been put to such good use.

Tokyo 24th Ward

Unfortunately we must end this section of the week’s writeup on something of a sour note.

If I had known I was going to be covering Tokyo 24th Ward this frequently, I’d have just made it another weekly column. Maybe that would’ve been a bad idea, though, given how the show’s shortcomings are generally more compelling to me than its strengths, which I increasingly think are actually rather modest.

Fundamentally, the problem is this; if your anime (or movie or book or album or whatever) invokes political themes, you are inviting all comers to scrutinize it from their own political point of view. Everyone on Earth has such a point of view, whether or not they’re cognizant of it. In of itself, that’s fine, but if your work’s political themes are, say, shallow and inadequate, it raises a problem. Are Tokyo 24th‘s shallow and inadequate? I don’t really know. The signals are, shall we say, mixed.

Getting a big head over this kind of thing is nothing new to mainstream TV anime. Turn of the decade classic Code Geass, for example, managed to be good largely by trading away any actual meaningful political commentary for sheer camp value. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to nail more specific and well-thought-out political messages. Akudama Drive did it only two years ago. (Full disclosure: I haven’t seen Akudama Drive myself, at least not yet, but I trust Inkie’s judgment on the series utterly.) It’s also possible–although both less rare and not as impactful–to make broader statements without rendering them entirely meaningless. Something as goofy as Rumble Garanndoll managed that much just last season.

The gist of the plot forming over Tokyo 24th‘s last two episodes has been this; the graffiti artist / hacker Kunai (Souma Saitou, who has been in many support roles like this) is going to blow up a cruise ship full of the ultra-wealthy.

Normally I’d here provide his motivations, and just from what little we’ve learned about him–his upbringing in the ridiculously named Shantytown ghetto in the poorest part of the Ward, his grandmother’s illness, the fact that Ran has eclipsed him artistically–one could come up with a good half dozen motivations for why this poor man might feel motivated to extreme action.

Kunai’s actual motives are different, and much more personal. He’s been tricked into selling an app he developed by the owner of an enormous corporate megalopoly, a fellow named Taki. Taki rewires the program to turn it into that mysterious “Drug D” we’ve been hearing so much about over the past couple of episodes. Kunai’s resentment, then, is borne not from his situation but from something very specific. He feels as though he’s been used. And he’s right about that! He has been used. Ran correctly points out, when the two meet at the episode’s climax, that Kunai is not the “criminal” he self-laceratingly claims to be. He’s a victim of circumstance. On one level, Tokyo 24th humanizing an actual terrorist to this degree is admirable. On another, it seems like an easy out to give Kunai a single grudge motive rather than anything more circumstantial and messy. Plus, there is what actually happens to Kunai.

At the episode’s end, Kouki–that’s Cop Boy, if you’ve forgotten–bypasses the advice of his friends and orders Kunai shot dead by a police sniper. Kunai bleeds out in Ran’s arms, begging his friend to continue to be the one thing he couldn’t: an artist.

It is difficult to know how to take this.

Is it a shocking display–and condemnation–of police brutality? Does the show think he’s in the right to have done that? (I don’t want to think so, but I’ve gone broke overestimating anime before.) Or is this another thing where Shuuta’s enlightened centrist fence-sitting is going to somehow turn out to be the solution? Tokyo 24th has given me very little reason to believe the former might be what it’s going for, but I suppose it’s not impossible. A number of details about Tokyo 24th‘s worldbuilding lead me to believe that won’t be the case (it’s insane that an anime that uses so much graffiti aesthetic has perhaps two Black characters and zero major ones), but I’ve been wrong before. Honestly in this specific situation I’d be happy to be. But for the record, I’m not alone here. Some critics have been far harsher than me. And I’m split between feeling like I’m giving the anime way too much slack and coming down on it way too hard.

It’s unfair, in a way. An anime that tries to be a Statement opens itself up to all kinds of nitpicking from audiences both domestic and abroad that other anime could easily dismiss out of hand. Should I not be giving it some points for even trying? Maybe, but “some points” might add up to a 3 or 4 out of 10 depending on how badly it fucks up the landing, and I’m not at all confident it won’t. Wanting to be a critique of the state of the world isn’t the same as actually being one. All of Tokyo 24th‘s effort will be meaningless if it cannot find some way to intelligently apply it.

We will see Tokyo 24th here again, maybe as soon as next week. For good or for ill I cannot yet say.

Elsewhere on MPA

Let’s Watch SABIKUI BISCO Episode 4 – “Ride the Crab” – For an episode that features absolutely zero Pawoo, this was still quite a good 30 minutes of Sabikui Bisco. There must be a solid Milo / Bisco shipping community out there, right?

Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING Episode 5 – “It’s Probably Because…” – I think people are starting to get sick of My Dress-Up Darling‘s over-the-top horniness. Last week I would’ve disagreed, but this past episode was….a lot. And not really in a good way.

That’s most of what I’ve got for you this week, anime fans. But before I go, a small recommendation! A new manga was picked up by Jump recently, and is available officially in English on the MangaPlus website. It’s called Magilumiere Co. Ltd., a magical girl-action-office comedy whatsit that poses the question; “what if being a magical girl was, you know, a full-on career? And what if an ordinary college grad seeking to enter the workforce suddenly found herself basically dropped into a small Magical Girl Company’s employ?” That’s kind of a long question, admittedly, but Magilumiere does have answers.

It’s to soon into the manga’s run for me to have any terribly detailed opinions on it, but I like it so far, and “magical girl + other stuff” is always a fun combination. Give it a read if you’re so inclined.

See you tomorrow for more Sabikui Bisco, friends!

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the 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 [1/30/22]

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

Hello, friends! I’ve tried to keep busy this week, but some of that is with projects you all won’t see the results of for some time yet, including another commission series I’m watching. I try to make the Frontline Reports a little beefier in weeks like that to compensate, so I hope you’ll enjoy the three writeups I’ve prepared for y’all this week. (Plus, of course, the other articles linked to elsewhere down below.) We’ve got a really good episode, a somewhat troubling episode, and a sendoff to one of my favorite anime of the last twelve months. Enjoy!

Princess Connect Re:Dive – Season 2

It feels odd to say this, but there’s more going on in Princess Connect: ReDive than almost any other series airing this season. I don’t just mean sheer density of events-per-episode, although there’s that too (it might be the show’s only flaw, if you’re inclined to view it as one.)

To wit: this past week, the Gourmet Guild was roped into helping the elf Aoi (voice acting legend Kana Hanazawa), who you may remember from last season, fit in at the school she’s transferred to.

She wants to get along with her illustrious senpai, the soft-spoken and serious Yuni (Konomi Kohara. Notably for this blog, she was the title role in Pompo: The Cinephile). Plus, by implication, Yuni’s own two friends, Chieru (Ayane Sakura, who has been in a ton of things. Last season she was Julia in Mieruko-chan) and Chloe (Atsumi Tanezaki, probably best known to readers of this blog as the titular lead from Vivy – Flourite Eye’s Song. She makes the otherwise minor character stand out by performing her with a notably deep voice. The performance is just awesome all around, really. I’m not familiar enough with Tanezaki’s work to know if she just decided to go really hard on this character for some reason or if her voice just actually sounds like that. In the latter case, you can catch me swooning over in the corner.)

In an anime that was merely a fantasy adventure / comedy series, you might correctly predict that this eventually involves investigating a haunted forest which turns out to have a super haunted graveyard in it. Less expected are the bizarre turns this episode takes for the surreal; touches like skeletons rising from the grave glitching the very video around them. The wight of a powerful king somehow transforms the surrounding landscape into an echo of his own burning kingdom. It’s Pecorine who takes him out, with a soft hug and some kind words rather than her sword.

When this whole haunted graveyard deal is over, we cut to some time later. Yuni’s been doing research, and the nation marked on the gravestones in the forest doesn’t exist and never has. She’s content to have briefly grasped that something’s going on, but for us, the mystery remains. Some aspects of Princess Connect‘s first season implied the cast (or at least Yuuki and maybe Pecorine) might be faced with the classic stuck-in-a-game isekai scenario and not know it. If that’s true, this is the hardest the series has leaned on it in the second season so far. Questioned are raised, and the answers seem still far off.

That intriguing idea alone would ensure Princess Connect Re:Dive a recurring spot in this column. But I should at least mention the show’s absolutely dynamite production, too. This isn’t Sakugablog and I am not kVIN, so I couldn’t begin to tell you the specific ins and outs of how the show manages to consistently look this good, but I know that it does. Maybe it’s Chief Director Takaomi Kanasaki (Director of PrinConne’s first season, and also quite a lot of stuff for its genre-fellow, Konosuba) and his…what’s the word here? Assistant? The ‘regular’ director, Yasuo Iwamoto (an industry lifer with credits, many as a storyboarder or episode director, going all the way back to 1988 space opera classic The Legend of The Galactic Heroes). Maybe it’s just that CygamesPictures only takes on a reasonable amount of projects at once. (That amount appears to be roughly “one.” If every anime looked this damn good, I’d be happy getting far fewer per year.)

Regardless, the show has yet to have a weak-looking episode. The lack of a huge combat setpiece in this episode shouldn’t detract from the great character acting we get. There’s a bunch! Look at how expressive those faces are! That’s quality.

Suffice it to say, we will see Princess Connect around these parts again.

Tokyo 24th Ward

I wasn’t going to do even a short writeup about this episode, but then a plot developed where the titular ward’s mayor is nakedly employing media manipulation to turn the ward’s populace against the local shantytown that’s literally called Shantytown so people will file complaints. Complaints he will use as pretext to redevelop it into a casino. (Yes, the whole town apparently. I don’t know, maybe it’s a really big casino.)

What a shady place. There are women wielding pipes!

Part of this campaign also involves disseminating a highly addictive and dangerous drug simply called “D” into the streets. This drug is vaped, because of course it is. Also in on this whole racket are SARG, who punish use of the drug that their boss is (presumably unknown to them) supplying. This becomes an inflection point in Shuuta’s increasing uneasiness with Kouki’s authoritarian leanings, but the issue isn’t explored in detail here.

There are ups and downs here. On the one hand, the episode correctly points out that places like Shantytown arise from government disinterest or even active malice, and that bringing them under a tighter grip (especially to “redevelop” them) is no answer. By the same token, the series’ repeated use of “third choices” as a motif seems to present a dichotomy between Kouki’s borderline fascist point of view and Ran’s free-spirited art anarchy.

There is a real distinction there, but the narrative continues to center on Shuuta, who by all evidence, seems to think the solution to most problems is to just talk things out.

I hate raking an anime over the coals for not even bad politics but possibly iffy politics, but Tokyo 24th has Gone There, so I feel as though I have no real choice but to take it as seriously as it clearly wants to be taken on this subject. Next episode involves one of Ran’s friends plotting a terrorist attack, so who knows where this is going. I probably say this too often, but, well, time will tell.

Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure

In a way, I feel bad that I haven’t written about Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure more. I’ve already shared why the series means so much to me personally in my end-of-year writeup from the tail end of December, so I won’t repeat myself here. But even at as much a remove I can muster from my own experiences, TroPre was something special. And to again return to my own feelings, that finale had me crying like a baby. I was not the only one.

“I can feel it in the air. The summer’s out of reach.“

TroPre will comfortably settle into its place in fandom memory. Pretty Cure fans don’t let favorites die, and it’s not controversial to say TroPre earns its stripes as one of the strongest entries in the franchise. In a sense, the endless summer that the final episode promises will be as real in our own memories as it is on the shores of Aozora City. The closing scenes are things of simple and pure beauty; Manatsu (Ai Farouz in the defining role of her young but already illustrious career) and Laura (brought to brilliant life by Rina Hidaka) meeting again for the first time, the sheer strength of their bond overloading and destroying the “memory machine” that lurked in the background as the show’s only unresolved plot thread.

The flood of memory is literal; bubbles containing the girls’ precious moments with each other pour out of the Aqua Pot. And just like that, Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure makes a graceful, joyous exit, off the silver screen and into our hearts forever.

Keep tropica-shining, girls.

Elsewhere on MPA

Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING Episode 4 – “Are These Your Girlfriend’s” – Some anime start out strong, others take a while to find their footing. If episode four of My Dress-Up Darling is any indication, it’s in the latter camp. This episode humanizes the lead, Gojo, to a degree we haven’t really seen before. As a direct consequence, the show comes alive in a way it never previously has. I have thought some prior episodes of this anime were solid or even good, this is the first I’d say was outright great.

Let’s Watch SABIKUI BISCO Episode 3 – “Tag Team” – Back again, Sabikui Bisco takes a bit of a downturn this week. I still liked the episode overall but the show’s rough handling of Pawoo–its only major female character so far–feels like a possible bad sign. My hope is that this is a fluke, not a pattern.

But, of course, we’ll learn together tomorrow. See you then for more Sabikui Bisco, anime fans. Stay safe out there, if you’re in the continental US like me! The weather’s been rough.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the 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, Misc. Anime, Reviews

Ranking Every 2020 Anime (That I Actually Finished), From Worst to Best – Part 2

The middle parts of a list are always the weirdest ones to figure out. Not hardest, that’s the very top, but the weirdest, definitely. Because you end up asking yourself to compare shows that are incredibly dissimilar and that you like about equally. By the way; if you’re new here, you’ll want to check out the Introduction first, and read Part 1 before hitting this up.

Frankly, every entry on this part of the list could probably be freely swapped with each other and I’d have very few complaints. Still, all of these anime are ones that I think did more right than wrong and in some cases I think they did a few specific things very well. Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

#14: Wave, Listen To Me!

Whatever else you may say about it, never accuse Wave, Listen To Me! of following trends. Very briefly, Wave is about a loud-mouthed restaurant worker who ends up getting her own graveyard-shift radio show hosting gig at the local station. Without a doubt, it’s one of the more singular premises of the year.

Does it live up to the potential in that premise? Well, yes and no. Like its seasonal contemporary Gleipnir, Wave has a tendency to get in its own way. When the series allows Minare, our heroine, to do her job and let loose with the full force of her personality in the radio booth, it’s amazing. Lead voice actress Riho Sugiyama is as important to Wave‘s general composition as anyone else, and with an actress less capable of fully embodying Minare’s spirit the show would fall apart.

So it’s rather frustrating that it sometimes does anyway. Much of Wave is about Minare’s off-air life. Sometimes these stories work and sometimes they don’t, generally following the pattern that whenever Minare feels like the butt of a joke, they’re not very good. Making things worse is an abundance of off-color-in-a-bad-way humor, most notably about a half-dozen gay jokes that feel woefully forced. Wave is perhaps the anime from 2020 that I’m the most internally divided on. Its highs are high, its lows are low. It ends on a pretty good note, and I’m hoping against hope for a followup. I’d like to see Minare given the opportunity to do more.

#13: BRAND NEW ANIMAL

This was the first of several anime on this list where I had the visceral reaction of “wait, that aired this year?” But yes, this Yoh Yoshinari-directed, Kazuki Nakashima-written synthwave-colored furry urban fantasy series was a product of 2020. BRAND NEW ANIMAL occupies a weird place on this list, in the wider cultural zeitgeist, and for me personally. I actually really quite liked this show, so why isn’t it higher on the list?

Well, to a point, most of Nakashima’s anime scripts are….well, “similar” would be the generous way of putting it. Most of his scripts center around ideological conflicts between the individualistic and the communal and tend to end with both sides coming together to fight a common foe. That last bit has often (and not incorrectly) been flagged as a weakness, with his scripts’ formulaic story beats, and a corresponding lack of nuance, as the other main problem. These are fair criticisms, but I’d argue that what Nakashima’s writing lacks in its ability to propose solutions the world’s problems more specific than “come together”, it makes up for in its faith that we, in fact, can come together.

But of course Nakashima is a scriptwriter and an anime’s script is nothing without, well, the anime. Yoshinari and his team turn in an aesthetic feast with BRAND NEW ANIMAL. I mentioned synthwave earlier, but the blue and pink shadows often do bring that specific subgenre to mind. The fluid, popping animation that defines the best parts of the TRIGGER back-catalog and, because of the distinctly fuzzy cast, a wonderful array of animal-person designs are present too, they really tie the whole thing together.

Ultimately I suppose my main issue with BRAND NEW ANIMAL is simply that it isn’t either a bit longer or a bit more focused. For how clumsy it occasionally is, BNA does sometimes step into surprisingly sharp social commentary (“Dolphin Daydream”‘s jabs at fairweather allies and the harm they cause sticks out most clearly to me), but just as often its swings go wide. It’s an uneven experience, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it the whole way through and would instantly hop on any further material in the show’s universe.

In lieu of that….maybe greenlight two cours next time? Please?

#12: Dorohedoro

You know what I’ve always thought was an underrated quality? Knowing exactly what you want to do and just doing it. That’s about how I’d describe Dorohedoro, an adaption of Q. Hayashida‘s long-running bizarro seinen. It’s one of the better things Netflix has thrown money at in 2020 (other highlights include listfellow BRAND NEW ANIMAL and The Great Pretender, which is only not here because I haven’t watched the final arc), but much more importantly it’s a really good piece of genre fiction in a genre that doesn’t get a lot of rep in mainstream TV anime.

And that genre is….weird splatterpunk grungy fantasy I guess? If Dorohedoro feels hard to put in a box it’s only because seinen anime are fairly rare. But there’s still definitely something unique about a series whose main selling point is that it’s the adventures of a big lizard-headed guy on a quest to find out who turned him into a big lizard-headed guy, and his companion, an equally-buff woman who’s also a master gyoza chef.

Dorohedoro cruises by on its stylish ultraviolence, colorful cast, and its truly weird setting. The only real reason it’s not higher up on the list is that the manga is even stranger and the anime adapts only a pretty small part of it. Dorohedoro is an anime with basically no problems, but its strengths only go so far. It’s definitely worth checking out, but make sure you hit up the source material at some point, too.

#11: Princess Connect! Re:Dive

Breaking news: local action-comedy-fantasy isekai Princess Connect! Re:Dive makes the rest of those obsolete; KonoSuba found weeping in a trashed hotel room. OK, that’s a wild exaggeration, but you have to give it up for something as unassuming as PriConne managing to do so much with so little. This is a series in which the main character is effectively mute, and he still has more personality than your average Protagonist-kun.

I don’t think anyone would deign to call PriConne laser-focused, exactly, but the unifying element, weirdly enough, is cooking. Female lead and secret actual protagonist Princess Pecorine’s food obsession provides a tie-line through the series. It’s more than just comedic (though it’s certainly that, too), as the comfort of a shared meal comes to represent the family ties that Pecorine has lost. The other two primary protagonists have their own things going on, with Karyl’s secret double-agent status being the runner up as far as which is most interesting.

Did I mention this thing looks great, too? That’s not always a given for seasonals, although mobage adaptions seem to have slightly better luck than most. Princess Connect! Re:Dive features some of the most purely flashy animation of the entire year. Something that is downright impressive for a series that really did kinda seem to come from nowhere.

Honestly the only reason it isn’t even higher on the list is because of its fairly limited ambitions, which is really only a flaw in the most abstract sense. And with a second season on the way that seems poised to put focus on the dimension-spanning plot that lurks in PriConne’s background, it may not remain a criticism that’s true for very long. Don’t be surprised if this thing’s second season ends up a good five or ten places higher next year.

#10: Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Gaiden

Yeah, this is another one that feels like it aired a lifetime ago.

Magia Record is a curious thing that seems like it was made for nobody. But I actually think, in this odd little anime’s case, that that’s not just a positive, but most of the reason it’s good. Magia Record is a spinoff / possibly-a-sequel-it’s-kind-of-hard-to-say of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, one of the most important, widely acclaimed, and successful anime of the 2010s. To say it has big shoes to fill would be a massive understatement. Indeed, MagiReco entered to no small amount of skepticism. Being a spinoff of a spinoff (it’s based on a mobile game), a lot of folks were of the opinion that the series was little more than a soulless, hollow cash-grab. But if Magia Record is a cash grab, it’s a fucking weird one.

In fairly sharp contrast to its illustrious predecessor, Magia Record explores some four or five largely unrelated miniature arcs over the course of its run. (Almost all of which concern various supernatural rumors. Something the series seems to have inherited from a different SHAFT property; Bakemonogatari.) This structure is deeply interesting to me, because it seems to me that Magia Record is of the opinion that Madoka Magica’s intangibles; its themes, aesthetics, the way it explores its parent genre, and so on have been so thoroughly strip-mined by other anime that engaging with them is no longer a goal it wants to pursue. Instead, Magia Record seems to treat itself first and foremost as a vehicle for expanding the pure text of the Madoka series. It’s a book of “Madoka stories” before it’s anything else.

When familiar elements do show up, the context is altered, strange, and unfamiliar. Not unlike what the original Madoka did with many trappings of the magical warrior subgenre in the first place. The original Puella Magi are the most obvious example; Mami reappears, but as a villain. Kyoko dips in and out of the show’s narrative, and is markedly absent for the finale. Sayaka is only present for the finale. Madoka herself appears only in a brief flashback. Homura is not even mentioned; a ghost among ghosts.

So those “Madoka stories”, where Magia Record seems most like a “normal” magical girl series, become the show’s lifeblood. They definitely have their ups and downs, and the best of the lot are front-loaded. (Rena’s arc, an examination of a truly deep-seated self-loathing, might be the overall peak of the series.) But that it is so disconnected from what the fanbase in general “wants” from a Madoka series is absolutely fascinating to me, and I like it for that reason. This interpretation of MagiReco is controversial (I have seen many who simply read its structure as inept), but I stand by it. A second season is in the wings that promises a return to a broader, overarching narrative. More than any other anime on this list, I have absolutely no idea what to expect from MagiReco, and I love it for that.

And that’s humble Part 2. Tomorrow we get into the top ten, uh, nine, so I’ll see you then for Part 3.

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Posted on in anime, Seasonal Impression Roundups

Spring Anime Season First Impressions – Round 4

Mewkledreamy

One of the most purely un-available shows of the season, Mewkledreamy lacks an official pickup and has currently been subtitled by only a single person who’s made it clear that they’re probably not going to sub beyond the first episode. That said, even if it were more widely available, it’s a little hard to imagine recommending Mewkledreamy to many people.

The core premise of the 48-episode(!!) series is that the Queen of The Sky commits some humans to being “dream partners” by way of a magic stuffed animal. These partners can enter other peoples’ dreams and purge them of evil influence. If you’re looking for a more grokkable explanation, this is basically Precure with the caveat that all of the monsters and such exist mostly in the dream world. With only the stuffed animals (and their evil counterparts) being physically present in the real one.

What Mewkledreamy has going for it is some great expression comedy and a colorful art style. Working against those strengths though is the show’s general flow. It’s a hard thing to peg more concretely but the series’ first episode just feels oddly-constructed, not helped by the J.C. Staff‘s somewhat floaty animation. This does occasionally work in the show’s favor. When we see the first dreamworld in this first episode the sheer surreality of its setting (some kind of office/dance club embodying our main character’s mother’s dueling desires to be a responsible businesswoman and uh, get lit, apparently) is an asset, but elsewhere it just makes the show feel kind of off.

The earlier Precure comparison wasn’t solely on the basis of them both being kids’ shows, as that’s clearly what Mewkledreamy is trying to model itself after, down to the placement of the henshin sequences, design of the mascots, and an all-CGI dance routine ED. The key difference is that Pretty Cure generally has its core thematics sorted from the word “go”. Even the first episode of a given Precure season will clue you in as to what the writing team is going for. Mewkledreamy by contrast feels aimless so far, with even the requisite “buy the toy, kids!” portion of the transformation sequence feeling abrupt and peripheral.

It’s certainly possible that Mewkledreamy will find its footing a little later on, being four cours long, it has a lot more time to do so than most things I’ve been covering in the first impression roundups, but at this stage it really seems like that unless you literally are a Japanese middle schooler, there’s not a ton of reason to watch Mewkledreamy except perhaps idle curiosity.

First Impression Score: 6/10

Diary of Our Days at the Breakwater

“Virtues of rural livin'” stories really are the same everywhere, huh?

Snark aside, Diary of Our Days at The Breakwater (formerly and unofficially known as Afterschool Embankment Journal in the anglosphere) is a pretty simple little thing. Protagonist Hina is a city girl recently moved to the country, where she is roped by lanky redneck Yuuki into joining the Breakwater Club, a line- and rack-fishing club at the local high school.

To lay it all on the table, as someone who lived in a rural town for most of my life, I find stories that focus on romanticizing these locations a bit inherently offputting (it’s why I could never get into Non Non Biyori), so I will never claim to be entering into this particular sphere of subject matter unbiased.

My own life experience aside, though, the series is well-animated and well-composed. Fans of cult studio Doga Kobo (who it feels weird to call that, but it’s true) will find another entry in their oeuvre to enjoy here. To be sure, there’s a lot to like if you’re into slice of life comedies. Yuuki in particular is a great character, and the series even this early on radiates a genuine love for its setting and characters. A lot of the comedy though does lean heavily on Hina getting freaked out by “country folk stuff”, especially in relation to fishing as you might expect given the show’s premise. If you find that offputting, you’re probably better off getting your seasonal dose of this genre elsewhere.

There’s honestly not much else to say about this one. You’ll figure out pretty quick if it’s your thing or not.

First Impression Score: Fishing/10

Princess Connect! Re:Dive

Princess Connect! Re:Dive is a show brave enough to ask the simple question; what if the chosen one sent to save your generic fantasy world was a complete idiot? No no, dumber than that. No, dumber still. There you go.

Princess Connect! is based on a mobage but I don’t know offhand if the series inherits much of that game’s tone. Disguising itself as an impossibly-generic straight fantasy anime for about 60 seconds, Princess Connect! reveals its hand pretty early. The series has pretty much exactly one trick. It will set up a situation that seems like it should be a plot beat in a fantasy series, or have some sense of gravitas, and then let the air out of it by having everyone be, to a man, unbelievably stupid.

Much of the first episode takes place in a typical RPG-style “starter town”. The banner image is from our hero, Yuuki, trying to eat a coin. This is the show’s sole trick, but damn if I didn’t have to stifle laughter every single time it happened. Comedic fantasy anime are nothing new (even relatively recently most people are at least aware of Konosuba), but this is a good one. The show’s sheer stupidity manages to leverage its relatively mediocre visual presentation as something of an asset–I think it would actually be less funny if it looked better. Even later in the episode when a surprisingly well-done fight scene breaks out, it’s undercut by several deliberate matches to less-well-animated cuts for comedic effect.

It is admittedly hard to imagine that this will still be funny twelve weeks from now, but who knows? Perhaps it has some other tricks up its sleeve or maybe it’ll simply keep setting up situations to pull the rug out from under. Either way, if you’re a fan of the truly dumb, this is one to check out.

First Impression Score: 7/10

Shironeko Project Zero Chronicle

Astoundingly artless JRPG adaptation by chronically low-ambition studio Project no. 9. Writing that makes Sword Art Online look profound locks blades with uninspired art direction, mediocre animation, and a lame, hollow, plot that is stuffed with cliches that were hoary 30 years ago. The first episode’s meager positives: two or three (not an exaggeration) competent cuts done by animators who will hopefully find a better studio to work at some day soon, some okay character designs, the writing being so bad that it’s sometimes unintentionally comedic, are vastly outweighed by the general sloggishness of the entire affair. If you want to watch a fantasy shonen this season watch Tower of God, if you want to watch a not-very-ambitious fantasy shonen this season watch Princess Connect or Shachibato. We have only so many years on this planet of ours, and there are not enough to waste time on something this boringly meritless.

First Impression Score: 2/10

Shadowverse

People have been riffing on Yu-Gi-Oh! since it was new, and Shadowverse is no exception. This particular entry in the “card game battle shonen” subgenre is an adaptation of the digital card game of the same name (which, just to point it out, yours truly is in fact a casual player of). Honestly, if you’ve seen any of these shows you’ve got a decent idea of what to expect here. Kid with a funky haircut defeats bullies and villains in card games with the power of friendship and/or a magical artefact of great power. Fans hoping for a straight adaptation of the game’s story mode might be disappointed, but it’s hard to imagine such an adaptation doing much justice to that bundle of oddness anyway.

The animation is solid and fun enough to make up for most of the cliche in the writing, and it’s great to see some beloved cards in animated format for the first time. Although it’s not a great sign that our token girl cast member gets shafted already in the first episode in order to play up the MC’s talents by comparison. Still, this is another one where you’ll know pretty quick if you’re in the target audience, it’s worth checking out if you like this kind of thing or are a fan of the game.

First Impression Score: 7/10

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