Tag: The Heike Story

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The Five Most Magical Anime of 2021

Special Notice: This should really go without saying, but since I’m going to be talking about all of these shows in general, overall terms, you can expect spoilers for all of them, up to and including their endings.

So here we are again, anime fans. Another year firmly in the past tense, not just within our specific sphere of interest but in general. Time is a funny thing, it’s already late November as I write this opening paragraph, which isn’t much less time than I gave myself last year, but despite the fact that I am demonstrably writing about fewer shows, I wanted to at least try and give each of them a bit more attention.

Yes, this marks a change in format. Last year I undertook the–in hindsight rather absurd–task of ranking every anime I’d finished that came out that year. The format required me to spend a fair amount of writing real estate on anime that I either didn’t like or simply had no strong thoughts on at all. This year, I wanted to simplify a bit. Only a bit, mind you. This is still me we’re talking about, after all.

So, this year the job is less complex, but simultaneously more difficult. 5 Anime I liked more than the rest; five that stuck with me and that I think will continue to stick with me. Plus, a handful of honorable mentions to get a positive word in for some anime that I enjoyed but couldn’t wholly self-justify putting in the main top five.

Just to fully disclose; as usual, these are indeed only my opinions, thoughts, and observations. My opinions that I consider reasonably informed and well thought out, but opinions, nonetheless. There is also the fact, of course, that anime I didn’t watch cannot make it onto this list by default, with apologies to the several anime I heard very good things about this year but did not find the time to watch myself. (Chiefly here I am thinking of ODD TAXI and Eighty-Six, but there are other examples too.) This list also consists exclusively of serial fiction, in the interest of keeping things fair, so the final Rebuild of Evangelion film isn’t here either. (Which is a shame, because it would’ve easily earned a spot on this list. My hope is that next year I’ll have seen enough anime films that actually came out in 2022 to make them their own list, but we’ll see.) And it’s only shows that are actually finished, so if Ousama Ranking ever shows up on one of these lists, just as an example, it’ll be the list for next year, when it concludes.

Ultimately then, what you have is a snapshot of what I consider particularly worthwhile in the medium of serial anime. A couple things went into picking shows for this list. The simple question of how much I enjoyed watching it week to week is obviously the biggest factor, and all else being equal is what I prioritized. But I did try to give at least some consideration to more nebulous things, such as general public reception, whether I think they will stand the test of time, etc. etc. (Factors that I am of course completely capable of being wrong about. But hey, I try my best.) Above all else was the simple fact of what they meant to me. It is, after all, my list, no one else’s.

Anyway, enough beating around the bush, let’s get to it.

#5. Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story Season 2

Madoka Magica was not the only franchise to make a welcome return this year, but of those that did, it’s probably the one closest to my heart. I will fully admit, there’s some circumstantial bias here. I missed out on the original Madoka Magica when it was airing now a good ten years ago. On some subconscious level it’s possible that my opinion of Magia Record is elevated by the simple fact that I get to see it unfold in real time. I’d be hard pressed to say that MagiReco’s second season was the most accessible anime of 2021–that’s part of why it rounds out the bottom of the list–but it was certainly among those I felt the most connection to. (Covering it week by week, on what would become my last bit of work for The Geek Girl Authority, probably helped.)

To a point, a show that looks like this speaks for itself. Public consensus has held for some time that Studio SHAFT‘s golden age is firmly in the past tense, but if there’s a case to be made for that whole “SHAFT Renaissance” idea that bounces around Anime Twitter from time to time, it’s somewhere in the frames of Magia Record. The season’s stronger episodes (which make up a good chunk of its brief eight) absolutely drip with style, and its premiere in particular is the sort of love letter to both the fans and the series itself that you just don’t get super often. Combine that with its wildly ambitious (some might say overly ambitious!) storyline that attempts to mythmake by tying together disparate parts of the wider Madoka ‘verse, it giving relatively minor characters like Kuroe a chance to shine, and just the frankly kinda insane fact that the Madoka Train is still chugging along at all a full decade later? Yeah, Magia Record earns its spot on the list, even if it is “only” at #5.

It’s totally possible that MagiReco’s third season–whenever it arrives–won’t be as good as this, or indeed that it’ll be much better, but this list is a ranking of what’s aired this year, and this year, the oddball middle segment of a three-part story happened to be the fifth-best anime of the whole damn thing. Go figure.

#4. SSSS.DYNAZENON

As a sequel to one of the best anime of the 2010s–2018’s SSSS.GRIDMAN—SSSS.DYNAZENON is odd. It takes place away from that anime’s setting and involves only two of its characters (and only in a supporting capacity.) But considered thematically, these deviations from its predecessor make perfect sense.

If, as is often held to be the case, we can map GRIDMAN‘s characters to the inner workings of a single mind, and thus make the case that that series is about self-acceptance, DYNAZENON is the logical progression. The exterior to GRIDMAN‘s interior. Like a lot of anime this year, DYNAZENON dealt in themes of alienation and misplacedness. Common emotions that we all struggle with in a world where things feel like they’re falling apart faster and faster all the time. Yet, at the same time, it re-lit the fire of that old truism; no man is an island.

How? Easy. Director Akira Amemiya proved yet again that, yeah, you can still make a show that’s at least 50% giant robots fighting giant monsters by volume actually say something and have it not come across as corny or just over-wrought. DYNAZENON manages the impressive task of welding those fight scenes together with interrogative character work all over again, in a way that feels distinct from, but very much related to, GRIDMAN‘s approach to that problem.

All five members of our core cast are disconnected from society in some way. Be it Yomogi’s parents’ separation, the death of Yume’s older sister, Koyomi and Chise’s mutually-enabling shut-in habits, or even how Gauma is lost from his own world entirely. Over the course of the series they heal, but the journey is not a smooth or easy one, and the kaiju represent allegorical threats to their wellbeing as much as physical ones.

This is to say nothing of the Kaiju Eugenicists, those alarmingly-named villains who serve as the main four’s opposites on the other end of the good guy / bad guy spectrum. They’re alienated too, but their alienation consumes them, and is the driving force behind their desire to subjugate and destroy. In the case of Sizumu, it quite literally turns him into a monster.

DYNAZENON‘s driving question is thus how to move on from that alienation, from those things that drive a wedge between us and others. To its credit, it offers no easy solution, although in showing what really happened to Yume’s sister when no one was there to support her, it offers a dire warning of the consequences of not at least trying. The Dyna Soldiers find solace in the pieces of the Dynazenon itself, which, perhaps tellingly, is formed from what appear to be mere toys in their dormant state. But more importantly, they find solace in each other. To quote my own writeup of the tenth episode from back in June:

The only reason she couldn’t be saved like Yume herself was just a single episode ago is that, in a very literal sense, no one was there to support her. I suspect that SSSS.DYNAZENON may lose some people off that fact alone, but the point here is that Yume is still affected by her death. There are no easy outs, not even here.

But there are words of advice. Before the two leave each other for the last time, Kano tells Yume that she needs to rely on others more. And that, right there, is the entire thesis of SSSS.DYNAZENON as a series. Where SSSS.GRIDMAN dealt with the internal, all of its characters mapping to different parts of a single psyche, SSSS.DYNAZENON is external.

SSSS.DYNAZENON Recap: (S02E10) Which Memories Do You Regret?

It’s known that a third part of the trilogy; a crossover, likely in film form, called GRIDMAN x DYNAZENON, will round out this particular series of stories from Amemiya and co., beyond that, details remain scarce. But SSSS or no, if they can keep making stuff like this, stuff that hits you right in the heart? His place as one of the new decade’s best directors is assured. Keep broadcasting, kaiju king.

#3. Sonny Boy

Another theme we’re going to be seeing a lot of here is transience. It’s rather been my “word of the year,” so I hope you’ll forgive my use of it again, here, but it’s true. All things pass, and for many people our whole lives involve, at least to some degree, reckoning with that fact. Sonny Boy was not the only show this year to grapple with that fact, but it was notably thorough about it.

It begins in the void, but soon crash-lands into an island on the far side of summer. There, surreal parables about life, death, and everything in-between unfold like the show’s own Matryoshka Doll worlds. Universes within universes, wheels within wheels. The purpose? An ode to our lost digital generation; the Millennial/Gen-Z continuum. Adults are imposters putting on a show or so distant that they’re divinity. No one is truly there to guide the cast, much like there’s no one truly there for us except ourselves. They, as we, need to make peace on their own.

Of the anime on this list, I will cop to “understanding” Sonny Boy the least. There is a lot of symbolism here; it’s a dense show. (Which, hey, means it’s good for a rewatch.) But the series’ core of melancholy-hopeful nihilism is easy enough to map out, and that’s what earns it a spot on this list. Well, that and its absolutely stunning visual style. Sonny Boy looks like very little else that aired in 2021, and its surrealist, painterly looks would earn it a spot in the honorable mentions even if the show genuinely was all talk and no walk. But thankfully, while it may occasionally lean inscrutable, its heart beats strong.

Of the various treatises on the passing of everything that 2021 produced (gee, I wonder why that was on everyone’s minds), Sonny Boy stands as one of the more accepting. But in a way, my typing this is pointless. One of the show’s own characters put it best.

Perhaps I should be giving Rajdhani a co-writing credit for how often I’ve used these screenshots when talking about Sonny Boy.

(As a side note; creator Shingo Natsume‘s next project is a sequel to The Tatami Galaxy. So, it seems like this is hardly the last time he’s going to direct something delightfully confounding. Perhaps it’ll show up on the list next year!)

#2. Heike Monogatari

If Sonny Boy explored transience via surreality and imagined worlds far from our own, Heike Monogatari grounded its own investigation of the concept firmly in the real-world concerns of history and myth. Based on a historical Japanese epic, The Heike Story has the benefit of hindsight. From the beginning of the first episode, each character’s steps fall with inevitability. From Lord Shigemori, who takes protagonist Biwa in after her father is callously murdered by members of his own clan, to Taira no Kiyomori’s heartless power-grabbing ploys, every man, woman, and child here has their fate sealed before the first episode of the series even begins.

There is one exception: Biwa herself. (She’s voiced by Aoi Yuuki, in what would be the strongest role in the career of almost any other voice actress but is just another casual triumph for her. She brings alternating innocence for the Biwa we see most of the time, and stately, religious gravitas for the white-haired “seer” Biwa.)

Her role? To be conscripted as fate’s chronicler and become representative both of the nature of the original epic itself and more generally as a symbol of all of us. Witnesses to history, as we are, who so often are powerless to change it despite our own strengths. It can feel grim and fatalistic; seasons change and an empire falls like a leaf from a tree in autumn. But Heike Monogatari never makes it feel that way. Things simply are, and then they aren’t. Dust becomes dust, time ticks on.

Heike Monogatari is observance and acceptance, and the stormy lining to its silver cloud is that it’s so obviously timeless that even writing about it feels sort of pointless. It’s like trying to review The Iliad. It could have been #1, easily, and in almost any other year it would’ve been. Yet, at least to me, it was still somehow “only” the second-best anime of 2021.

But, before we get to the top of the list, let’s go through some honorable mentions. Because you’re worth it, dear readers.

Honorable Mention: takt op.Destiny

Ribbons of highway and a great blue sky way. Ruins, cities, deserts, forests, monsters, and song. A world that’s lost its music. That was takt op.Destiny. Hardly the year’s most “together” production, takt op has the dubious distinction of sharing a bizarre ending twist with notable “would’ve probably made this list if quality wasn’t a factor at all” shortlister The Detective is Already Dead. But obviously, its spotty ending is not why it’s here. Of what I saw in 2021, takt op had some of the most purely joyous animation. Most of it took the form of fight scenes, and it’s easy to dismiss that sort of thing as lowbrow. But by tying it together with a thematic core about rescuing a world that thinks it no longer needs art with that art, it manages to make it all feel meaningful. For the bounty of good to great anime 2021 did have, it was rather short on anime that I felt compellingly made the case for art itself–something last year had in spades–boiling down to mostly just this, Love Live! Superstar!!, and Kageki Shoujo!! (Which itself only missed the list by dint of a dry run of episodes in its middle third.) So, for filling that niche, I am quite grateful to takt op, perhaps the year’s messiest pile of camp.

Honorable Mention: Zombie Land Saga Revenge

If someone asks me what I thought about the general quality of anime in 2021, I will tell them that I had to relegate the second season of Zombie Land Saga to the Honorable Mentions list.

Honestly it barely feels fair. Zombie Land Saga Revenge is everything you could want out of a sequel; it builds on the original in logical and interesting ways. Franchouchou start the season having blown their biggest concert, washed up and down and out. But the mountain waits for no one, so what can you do but try to climb it again? And we saw them climb again. Those ridiculous zombies fought claw and jaw to bigger and bigger concert placements, and along the way we saw them grow as people, with particular star turns for Junko and Yuugiri. Let’s not forget that in the latter case, Revenge decided to just become a historical drama for several episodes, an outfit it wore better than many actual historical dramas do. Zombie Land Saga truly can do it all. The best idol anime of 2021, and almost certainly its best comedy. And I had to put it on the HM list. What a year it’s been, eh?

Honorable Mention: BLUE REFLECTION RAY

More than any other anime on this list, and maybe more than any anime I’ve ever covered period, I really strongly think Blue Reflection Ray is underrated. It’s a victim of circumstance, really. Animated by a studio long past its prime in a year that had two other anime that did many of the same things as it but in a more flashy and accessible way, there is a real case to be made that BRR never had a chance. But this list is, ultimately, about anime that I love. And I truly do think BRR was something special.

And not just because it’s really gay, although that certainly helps.

As a love letter to the magical girl genre, as a scrappy example of what even the most “low budget” of anime can accomplish with enough sincerity and grit, and as a rumination on how society treats young girls–another theme that came up quite often in art this year–Blue Reflection Ray stands tall with the best of them. When, in its penultimate episode, the Reflectors transform back-to-back-to-back just like a “real” magical girl team for the first and only time, BRR felt just as important as any other magical girl series. Girls in a world of lies living their truth for the first time.

Speaking of other magical girl anime.

Honorable Mention: Tropical Rouge Precure

This was the hardest cut from the proper list. TroPre is relegated to the HMs by a technicality; it’s not actually over yet, a quirk of the show’s odd schedule. (Precure series generally run for a full four cours over the course of an entire year, which makes accounting for them in otherwise neat and orderly lists like this one difficult. And yes I’m aware I said that only finished shows would be on the list. Sue me.) But that’s okay, because while Tropical Rouge Precure is great, it’s on this list less for what it actually is and more for the experiences I had while watching it. Its placement here is not due to its excellent sense of humor, its wonderful characters, or its at-times gorgeous animation, even though those are all very much merits the series has.

Unlike most other anime on this list, I did not–and do not–watch TroPre by myself. I watch it with a group of friends, every weekend, at around the same time. In this way, I get to have an experience that I very much would’ve liked to have had as a little girl; getting to talk about one of my favorite magical girl anime with some other girls my own age. A sense of lost youth is a common side effect of being transgender, and while never having gotten to chat about Sailor Moon with schoolmates is pretty low on the list of things I’m sad I missed out on, it is still on that list. So, as a balm for that particular little hole in my soul, I value the series a lot. We plan to continue this practice next year, so unless something goes horribly wrong, you can expect to see Delicious Party Precure somewhere on the list next year, too.

There have already been three magical girl anime somewhere in this article, and that’s the end of the honorable mentions. So you may well wonder; what’s at #1?

Well, a different sort of magical girl anime.

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Oh come on, you can’t actually be surprised.

#1: Wonder Egg Priority

I knew from the minute I started writing this list that Wonder Egg Priority would be my #1.

I tried to talk myself out of it more than once; to convince myself to put Heike Monogatari at the top of the list instead. I like that show and Wonder Egg almost as much as each other. It would’ve been a compromise, but it was one I could’ve lived with.

But that’s the thing, right? It still would’ve been a compromise. And it’s my list, so there is no room for compromise. Wonder Egg Priority is my favorite anime of the year. Is it the best anime of the year? That’s a level of definitiveness that I don’t normally strive for when writing, even if this sort of format implicitly demands it. But if I’m the one being asked the question? Then yes, it absolutely fucking is.

Quite unlike my #1 pick for last year, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, Wonder Egg Priority ends the year not as a widely beloved (or at least liked) exemplar of its staff’s prowess. Its place in the popular discourse is, and probably always will be, that of a great folly. A production train-crash that physically hurt the people working on it and squandered its potential and left its audience profoundly disappointed.

Which, of course, is a massive oversimplification. I try to at least pay some attention to what The Public At Large think about the anime I cover, if anything. But the fact remains that while the consensus will probably always be against WEP, and not totally without reason, there are people who still like it. I am one of them. There are dozens of us. I just happen to like it more than anything else that aired this year.

But of course you want to know why, which is a fair question, given what this website is and what I write about on it.

It would be fairly easy to fall back on its many technical merits. Wonder Egg Priority is an incredible-looking show, constantly toeing a line between appearing pristine as jeweled glass and wild as paint-buckets tossed at canvasses. If CloverWorks never make anything that has quite this level of visual pop ever again, it would not be a mark against them in any way. We could talk also about its soundtrack, an underappreciated aspect of the series that colors every moment of it in a way rare both this year specifically and in general. (Sonny Boy is its only real competition from 2021 in this aspect.)

If we wanted to really stretch our critic-brains, we could turn toward its thematic merits. To try to break down the series’ elaborate use of symbolism. Or perhaps its understanding of how gender roles define and oppress us, and how the modern world will beat any young girl it can’t control into submission, co-opt her for its own ends and twist her into hurting others like her. (See: Frill.) We could cite its deeply compelling four main characters and their own specific twists on this notion; a recovering hikikomori (Ai), a former idol with past sins on her mind (Rika), a mysterious wunderkind with a vanished sister (Neiru), and the series’ own high-strung, gender-nonconformant take on the obligatory “boyish one” (Momoe).

We could talk about how they smash personifications of pedophilia, misogyny, and transphobia to paint-colored smithereens and are pursued by anonymous maniacs called Haters through their imaginary worlds. We could talk about how their mysterious “benefactors” who promise they can restore the dead to life turn out to be little more than hucksters past their prime. We could talk, at length, about all of this.

We could even talk about this!

But frankly, I think “all of this” is, incredibly, at least to me, somewhat secondary. It is true that Wonder Egg Priority has all these merits, and I think they alone could be used as an argument for why the show is very good. And if they were all that Wonder Egg Priority did right, it would have earned a comfortable spot somewhere a few ranks back. Maybe between Sonny Boy and Heike Monogatari, as “merely” a show from 2021 that I’m confident I’ll still be thinking about in 2031. In truth, what is often cited as its greatest “objective flaw” (and oh, how I hate that phrase), is what locked me into holding it close to my heart forever, and why, if asked, I will say it’s among my all-time favorites.

Wonder Egg Priority doesn’t really have an ending.

Its story comes to an abrupt halt. Little is resolved, one of the main characters is missing. It’s a question mark. There is no “to be continued.”

This is, I realize, a stance held by very few. But endings are rarely what truly move me about stories. (Heike Monogatari is one of a quite small number of exceptions.) So on its own, WEP’s lack of an ending is no serious fault to me. Indeed, Wonder Egg Priority could have ended in any number of ways, from the sappy to the depressing, that would’ve given it some measure of critical and fan acclaim. If it had really nailed it, it could’ve sat alongside modern born-classics like Revue Starlight, hailed as a truly great example of what TV anime as a medium could achieve.

Instead, it dissolved into a cloud of smoke, seeping into our collective memories forever. It became an unanswerable question and an unsolvable puzzle; quiet as God and twice as unknowable. In doing so, it embodied the boiling haze of steaming existential confusion that is the modern zeitgeist better than almost any work of fiction I have ever experienced. Wonder Egg Priority left an axe-wound in the popular imagination. For that, I love and respect it immensely. In a way, it is this aspect that most closely ties Wonder Egg‘s form to its message. The girls’ struggle, ultimately, is against suicide personified. The Temptation of Death. The fact that they don’t explicitly “win” is contentious. But that’s the whole point; we don’t see how this story ends. Some small glimpses of incremental progress aside, we know nothing. Only that Ai marches forward, in spite of it all, to try again.

I have seen it argued that this is a relentlessly bleak ending, but both the reality of the subjects Wonder Egg speaks on, and its own stylistic flourishes make it fairly obvious that this is, in fact, hopeful. To live in the modern age is to live in a world filled with poison. To live on in spite of that, to get up every day, to snap your gaze toward the horizon and walk–as Ai does–is optimism. This world wants us dead. We live anyway.

Quite unlike last year’s #1, I do not expect that Wonder Egg Priority will ever be hailed as timeless or classic. I think if it is remembered at all, it will be as a mistake. The avalanche of public consensus is hard to fight against, particularly in the age of social media. But, as I have learned many times this year, I can be wrong. If I have ever been wrong about anything relating to this medium I’ve devoted so much of my time to writing about, I would like it to be this.

Because whenever I so much as think about Wonder Egg Priority, it comes back to me in an instant. The hyper-technicolor magical girl psycho-drama that no one asked for, but that we–or perhaps just some of us–sorely needed. Wonder Egg Priority might never gain any coveted status as a must-watch, as a classic of its medium or genre, as “one of the good anime,” or anything of the sort, but if it does not gain some kind of following, there is something truly wrong with this world indeed. We endure precisely because we know we’re not alone. It would be a horribly cruel thing for one of the best articulations of that idea ever put to the silver screen to be lost to obscurity.

Yet, in spite of everything I just said, I hold no delusion that I am the Wonder Egg Guru. I have spent the better part of a year attempting to reckon with the WEP Project’s first, last, and only output. To explain it succinctly, to square how much I love it with how strongly I oppose the worst parts of the industry that let it exist. But the fate’s-honest truth is that I am not much closer to “closing the book” on Wonder Egg Priority, for myself or anyone else, than I was when the TV broadcast ended in late March. It’s an enigma. I think at least some part of it always will be. And maybe it seems unfair to give the gold medal to an enigma. Maybe the #1 spot should be saved for something I can explain better. But it is my view that the role of the critic and commentator is not that of an interpreter. It is that of an honest witness. I could have sat here and thought myself into circles. I could have tried to justify putting something–anything–else at #1, but that’s not honest. And if I don’t have honesty, what do I have?

So, there it is. The most magical anime of 2021. The best anime of the year, so says me, is a series that draws a line from the strained psyche of four teenage girls to our own place, lost in the fog that smothers this haunted planet. Then, in a grand confrontational hammer-smash, it reveals that there is no line at all; these things are one in the same.

Now that’s a magic trick.

And, yes, that’s the list.

What did you think? As I mentioned last year, I try not to pay too much mind as to whether my picks will be “controversial” or not, but, well, last year I didn’t top the list with what is probably the most divisive show of the entire year. So tell me your thoughts! Did you love my picks? Were they utterly baffling to you? Maybe 50/50? What were your top five, top six, top whatever anime of 2021? I’d love to hear from you, so please do leave a comment here or on Twitter. If you’re one of the folks who was disappointed by my #1 (and more than one person explicitly said they would be, whoops!) then…well, I hope this will spurn you to write your own lists, at the very least. (I maintain that basically everyone’s life could be improved by running a blog.)

Incidentally, I ran a very small little competition on my twitter account yesterday, and wanted to shout out @lilysokawaii, @pikestaff, and @theplatinumdove for correctly guessing my #1 pick. For the rest of y’all: better luck next year!

Tomorrow, an article will go up that briefly discusses my plans for 2022, as she fast approaches. I’ll see you then, anime fans.

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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, Weekly Writing Roundups

The Frontline Report [10/31/21]

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.

We’ve got quite a trio of writeups here. In this week’s FLR we’ve got me thinking myself into a tizzy about one anime, being arguably too harsh with another, and then there’s Heike Monogatari, which remains basically unimpeachable.

I have to admit that any time I pen something like the latter two writeups here I worry I’ll acquire a reputation as an “issue critic”, or worse, a simple whiner. Hopefully, you’ll all take me on my word that I write what I write because to me, it is the truth, even if sometimes I can only arrive at it through a minor crucible of self-doubt. Honesty is the profession’s one requirement, and there’s nothing more honest than that.

Seasonals

The Heike Story

Of every anime I have ever covered on this blog, The Heike Story is, if not the most difficult to write about, certainly at least up there. On some level, what is there to say? Each and every episode advances the slow tragedy of the Heike Clan’s downfall. Their legacy melts away in real-time like snow in Spring. You can’t capture this kind of poeticism in plain language, not really.

Nonetheless, this episode stands out. One of Kiyomori’s plans to strike at the Clan’s enemies again goes awry; literally up in smoke, as one of Shigemori’s sons accidentally sets a whole temple complex alight. For his sins, his wife dreams of Gozu and Mezu foretelling his impending doom, threatening to drag him to Hell.

In the real world he burns alive as he’s set by a fever so intense that water literally evaporates upon contact with his skin. It kills him, eventually, his only regret being unvisited vengeance upon his enemies.

This pushes the household to a breaking point, and Biwa is kicked out by Sukemori as winter sets in. Where will she go? It’s impossible to say.

I have wondered more than once while watching Heike Monogatari if some of its characters, in their bottomless arrogance and self-assured righteousness, might resonate in a truly dark way with the current leaders of our world. Just something to chew on.

Komi Can’t Communicate

Administrative note: I am following NovaWorks’ absolutely gorgeous fansub for this series rather than the official subtitles. If you’re wondering why I seem to be several episodes behind, that is why.

The issue I always had with Komi‘s source material is that I could never quite understand what tone it was going for. On the one hand, Komi is something of a cringe comedy. A decent amount of the humor comes from Komi’s own ability to fail to perform basic human interactions, and most characters other than Komi herself (and Tadano) are, well, often pretty rude, even when accounting for their generally wacky, cartoonish personalities. On the other, the series projects an obvious, deep empathy for its title character, and is clearly sympathetic to her struggles even as it pokes fun at the mundanity of them. The long and short of all this is that the series has a pretty weird sense of humor, and it’s sometimes hard to tell if a given joke is being made at a character’s expense (and thus, intentionally or not, the expense of the sort of person they represent) or is being made with the idea that both the character themselves and any similar persons in the audience are “in on it.” And like it or not, that does matter. It’s the difference between gentle ribbing and punching down, and it’s what separates the good examples of this sort of comedy from the bad. All this is difficult enough to square with Komi herself, but it becomes even moreso with some of the other characters, one of whom we meet in episode 2.

This is Najimi Osana. They are a gender bean.

I don’t know what line was translated this way, but to whoever chose this phrasing: bless you.

Before I say anything else; I actually like Najimi. They’re great. I just don’t really know how to feel about the fact that I like them.

Najimi is, well, some sort of gender-nonconforming. I don’t recall the source material ever getting particularly specific and this episode follows that lead. But whether they are genderfluid, nonbinary, MTF, simply a crossdresser, or some combination of the above, they are, for better or worse, the representative for how Komi Can’t Communicate “feels about” genderqueer people. In personality, they are hypersocial, flirty, a bit manipulative, and we’re told, a chronic liar. They’re very entertaining, but this depiction forces us to wade into thorny questions of representation.

I really hate having to ever address the question of whether a character is “good rep” or not. It makes me feel, frankly, like a cranky and vaguely pathetic stereotype of a critic. Look at me, being the big bad feminist werewolf ruining everyone’s fun little romcom by interrogating its assumptions about gender. It’s a genuinely sucky feeling, because every word I write in criticism of the series I feel like I must couch with repeated assurances that no, I do like it, I just don’t know about how it handles this. And on the other hand, no one’s art exists in a vacuum, so I feel like I am to some extent obligated to at least ask the question. Is Najimi’s central “joke” that they’re all of those things I listed, and happen to be, separately from that, genderqueer, or is it that they are those things because they’re genderqueer? That’s a huge distinction. The former is a personality, the latter is a stereotype. And the sexualized otokonoko is, certainly, a trope that exists in Japanese pop media, so my gut reaction drags me toward the latter interpretation, not helped by a pretty unpleasant sequence here where Najimi is nearly assaulted by a delinquent they used to know. (Thankfully, he’s scared off before anything can happen. This isn’t really that kind of show. Still, it’s the idea.)

But of course, as a critic (and really just as a literate viewer) you should never let your first reaction be the whole of your thoughts. The other side of this is that I want to absolve Komi Can’t Communicate of responsibility here, because as I said, I like Najimi. They’re a weird little gremlin who manages to be immensely popular anyway, we’re given the comical figure that they have five million friends, and honestly I do get it. I even think the scene where they casually insist that they’re “actually” a guy to turn someone down is kinda funny, because using your gender as a weapon to duck out of awkward social situations genuinely is amusing, it’s the sort of thing that certain genderqueer people (and I’m including myself here) absolutely would pull if they could. It’s almost Bugs Bunny-ish.

So I don’t want them to be bad. I want to live in a world where original mangaka Tomohito Oda came up with this character because he thought they’d be funny on their own merits. I want a genderqueer character to just be able to exist in an anime and be a funny little Starbucks goblin and have it not be a big deal. Maybe that’s why I am willing to take Najimi’s presence in the series (and their general characterization) on good faith. For me at least, and for now, it’s enough that they’re entertaining and funny and endearing. But it may not be for everybody, and I think both stances are okay as long as they’re arrived at properly. Such things are rarely cut and dry, and if you take away nothing else from all this rambling, let it be that. I have said all I said (and worried greatly about coming across as though I’m trying to shame people, which I’m absolutely not), but I must again reiterate that I genuinely really like the character.

And gosh, look at all this. I’ve written all I’ve written and barely touched on the actual plot of the episode itself. It’s a good one, despite any impression to the contrary I may have made here. Komi Can’t Communicate continues its impressive visual run here, and there’s a really fun bit where we see the same scene twice from two different perspectives back to back. The extended riff on Starbucks near the end of the episode where Komi is tasked with memorizing a monstrously long order (Najimi’s naturally. Yes, the “Starbucks goblin” descriptor was relevant. I’m such a good writer) is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in an anime this year. Shout out to this guy; “wearer of the black apron” indeed.

So yes, all my thinking in circles aside, it’s a largely good episode. Komi Can’t Communicate remains one to watch.

But now we have to get to the show that I actually am kind of disappointed with. Although here too things are….complicated.

Rumble Garanndoll

There is a thin line between being self-aware and being self-impressed. Has Rumble Garanndoll crossed it? I wouldn’t say so, but it’s getting awfully close. Followup question: do you remember Darling in the FranXX? Because somebody on Rumble Garanndoll‘s production team definitely does.

That’s probably a bad first impression to make for an episode that I did enjoy parts of, but it is very easy to see where Garanndoll might fall apart, and on several occasions over the course of its third episode I felt like I was watching Garanndoll get dangerously close to shattering in real time. As such, this writeup is going to mostly be about what I did not like about the episode, with apologies to the animators who continue to make Garanndoll a visual treat.

Let’s go over what Garanndoll has gotten right so far, first. Fair is fair, after all. It does correctly identify that otakudom–like any counterculture–is fundamentally incompatible with authoritarian ideologies. As close as the two can get to being bedfellows is proponents of the latter treating members of the former like useful idiots (that’s more or less what by-now recurring antagonist Hayate’s role is, and it’s something that happens in the contemporary cultural landscape all the time). Inevitably, the fascistic drive to purge “degeneracy” will take hold, and all art and culture will be subsumed beneath a nationalistic monolith. Garanndoll knows that, as demonstrated here where it contrasts how the Shark One works with how the villains’ mecha work. (The Shark is powered by passion and strength of feeling. The various mecha that the bad guys are playing with? “Patriotism.” That’s not terribly subtle commentary.) Inside Rin’s own mind, the only thing that’s able to defeat her fantasy flights of transforming heroes and giant robots are the memories of the villains themselves.

Again, not subtle. (And fittingly; one of the best parts of the episode.) Countercultures and authoritarianism are natural enemies; that’s a good and true thing for the show to grok. It resonates, even if it’s not exactly a novel observation.

What I worry Garanndoll may not understand is that passion for art–or more specifically what I will generally term “geek shit” here–cannot actually defeat authoritarianism by itself. I mentioned DarliFra in the opening paragraph, and while that show had numerous issues, it did also understand that you couldn’t kill the monster of fascism with hot blood alone. You need empathy, you need love, and you need thoughtfulness and planning. It was very bad at actually implementing those ideas but it at least knew that it had to try. I’m not sure Garanndoll does, which is a pretty serious problem for a show whose whole core idea pits a group of nerds-turned-rebel-alliance against the marching army of a culture-hostile dictatorship.

And there is another comparison to be made to DarliFra, and it’s the one you were probably expecting. I’ll level with you folks; I am far less anti-Guys In My Anime than many other lesbians I know who watch the stuff. I am not opposed to dudes. I’m not opposed to dudes in the lead role, even. But they have to be at least a bit interesting, and–here is another place where Rumble is starting to stumble–it cannot push heteronormative nonsense. Initially I thought male lead Hosomichi’s career as a host would be a vehicle for, something interesting. Perhaps a gentle once-over about how nerdy men tend to look at women. So far it’s mostly been a plot device, and here he gets roped into eyeroll-inducing platitudes about “a man and a woman” and about every time one was on screen I glared at my monitor so hard I thought I might melt it. To me, that is far more obnoxious than someone’s cheeky cut-swipe of a bad mecha anime from a few years ago.

Directors, writers, you must be aware that there are plenty of women who watch your work, or else you would not have written the female lead as an otaku girl. Honestly this kills me; Rin is not some two-bit wish fulfillment fantasy, I have known plenty of people who would wear a Mega Man outfit to their job if they thought they could get away with it, and I have known women–and am a woman–who love their giant robots. No one in 2021 wants this “and he gets the girl” shit. It has to be more earned than this. And to Garanndoll‘s credit maybe it will eventually earn it, maybe even in the episode airing tomorrow. It just really has not done so yet. But I’m skeptical now–more than I want to be–especially because the teased introduction of another girl at the end of this episode has all the hallmarks of a lazy harem setup. You can do better than this, can’t you? To use the show’s own symbolic language; watching Garanndoll should make me feel like my passion battery is charged up, not like it’s running on empty. I know this may seem hard to believe given all I’ve said, but I like this show, and the last thing I want to see it do is trip over the Sexism Bar and fall flat on its own face. It deserves better than that.

Elsewhere on MPA

First Impressions: High Guardian Spice – This show seems like decent fun. I haven’t watched more of it since I wrote this and I don’t really intend to. So if you’re looking for an “authoritative” opinion on it I’d suggest turning to other critics–probably those with more experience and more interest in writing about contemporary American cartoons–but if you just want my two cents, here it is.

Let’s Watch takt op.Destiny: Episode 4 – This is my favorite episode of takt op since its premiere. I think that really says all you need to know, doesn’t it?

And with ALL OF THAT said, I hope you all have a Happy Halloween and a good rest of your week.

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 [10/14/21]

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.

This week’s header image is from Rumble Garanndoll

It’s been a bit of a week here at Magic Planet anime! Between WordPress scares (that thankfully turned out to be false alarms) and the sheer amount of good anime coming out, there’s a lot to keep track of, which is why this column is a day late this week. Luckily, I’m still here to offer guidance in this time of multimedia overload. Aren’t I so generous?

Side note: on a non-anime note I’ve been both watching and reading an absolute astro-ton of Transformers stuff recently. Most of it is outside the purview of this blog (not that that’s stopped me before, as we’ll see at the bottom of this article), but maybe I can eventually find something to cover here. No promises, mind you.

Image

Anyway, let’s get in to the weekly grind. I’m once again trying a slightly different layout for these columns. Let me know what you think.

Seasonals

The Heike Story

Where does Biwa herself fit into the saga of the Heike? This week’s episode sees Shigemori’s incompetent brother succeed him, and the natural follows. Meanwhile, his father’s ambitions continue to grow out of control. This episode isn’t the first time a battle has been waged in The Heike Story, and it certainly won’t be the last, but it is perhaps the most real it’s felt. In general, The Heike Story excels at putting a human face to the churning horrors of war and political machinations.

And yet apart from it all–yet inescapably entwined at the same time–is Biwa. Here she sees the emperor’s wife talk herself into forgiveness. How long can that last?

Platinum End

Of every genre that exists, taking that of the death game as the foundation for a cosmology is up there as far as being horrifying. Yet that’s exactly the note Platinum End‘s second episode opens on. It’s all mysticism and nature-of-man hand-wringing. It’s a little tiresome, honestly, but at least it looks cool.

Here’s a better question: is Mirai actually a decent character? He’s not super exciting, but he’s got a decent amount of moral fiber and it’s commendable that he feels compelled to stand up to the two bullies we’re introduced here. So he’s at the very least, easy to root for. The episode’s main plot begins by introducing an obnoxious comedian who only uses his Red Arrows to make women fall for him. Of course, Mirai never even gets to actually meet that comedian. Our Kamen Rider-lookin’ friend from last week shows up and shoots him with a White Arrow. Between the legs. Because that’s the kind of subtle visual metaphor you can expect from Platinum End.

Let’s talk about that guy in the mask, actually.

Said masked hero is Metropoliman, who styles himself after the main character of an in-universe toku show of the same name. “Guy who thinks he’s a superhero but is actually just an authoritarian zealot” is kind of an old character archetype in death game anime at this point, but going this hard on it is fairly rare in my experience. Metro has a suit, calls his attacks, and is clearly both very dangerous and kinda nuts. He is, in other words, an excellently camp villain. If the show knows what it’s doing, it’ll keep him around for a while. The final moments of the episode reveal that he and Mirai attend the same high school, so the seeds of an interesting conflict are there. Wouldn’t it be fascinating if Platinum End actually turned out to be good? Who knows what the future holds.

Side note: did you know the Death Note guys made the manga this is an adaption of?

Rumble Garanndoll

Somewhat foolishly, I’m still always a little caught offguard when a show as campy as Rumble Garanndoll deigns to have a fairly complex plot. (Don’t ask me why, my first seasonal anime was Kill la Kill, which was very much campy and got fairly complicated in its second cour.) There’s a lot one could comment on here, from the scenery that makes up the resistance base in Akihabara (which includes a mummified Statue of Liberty half-buried in the ground. It fires lasers from its torch to repel intruders, naturally.) to someone on the translation team having a laugh by making sure a line with the word “culture” in it lined up exactly with the camera cutting to a gratuitous butt closeup. The actual core of the episode though is on Hosomichi and Rin themselves, and that’s where most of the interesting material here lies.

As a host, Hosomichi must essentially suppress his real personality to make money, and that’s actually touched upon here when his sleazy boss forces him to try to get on well with Rin so he can make a paycheck from the rebels. (And, consequently, pay back the debt he owes.) This is contrasted by Rin whose commitment to the cause is entirely sincere, driven by a desire to reunite with her lost family. (And, naturally, find the Sea Emperor Zaburn masters so she can rewatch the series. This is still a bit of a silly anime, after all.) The difference between someone who’s been rendered spiritually hollow by the toll that capitalistic demands force upon his life and someone who is still very much holding the flame of passion in her heart is stark. Is it enough to rescue Rumble Garanndoll from its occasional but notable missteps? That’s a difficult question, and one I’m not sure we’ll get an answer to anytime soon.

Elsewhere on MPA

Seasonal First Impressions: Komi Can’t Communicate – This is just one of those things that I didn’t expect to like, and then it turned out that the first episode was really good. That happens sometimes, and it’s always a treat. I’m not sure what I’ll think of Komi six weeks from now, but for now the short version is that I can heartily recommend the series on visual merits alone. It’s just a lot of fun to watch.

Let’s Watch takt op.Destiny: Episode 2 – I said last week I’d cover this weekly and by gum I intend to keep my word. The second episode didn’t blow me away like the first did, but it’s still very good and I’m quite interested to see where the series goes from here.

As a small side note: you may be wondering what happened to coverage of Ancient Girl’s Frame, since I mentioned that last week. The unfortunate truth is that Funimation’s subtitles are so bad that they’re essentially incomprehensible. And while what I saw of the show didn’t knock my socks off visually, it’s really quite hard to fairly judge a series if you literally don’t know what’s happening in it. So with all due apologies to anyone who was looking forward to that, I won’t be covering Ancient Girl’s Frame.

Do you know what I do plan to cover, at least a little bit, though, now that it has a release date after literal years of being mostly a mass of rumors and hearsay?

We’ll see how things look on the 26th.

As a final, final note. Watch this music video, it’s extremely cool.

Until next time, 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, Weekly Writing Roundups

The Frontline Report [10/10/21]

The Frontline Report is a weekly column where I briefly summarize the past week of my personal journey through anime, manga, and the related spheres of pop culture. Expect some degree of spoilers for the covered shows.

This week’s header image is from Sakugan.

A short and sweet report this week, friends. I’ve been busy out there!

The Heike Story

Shigemori passes unexpectedly and the fate of the Heike Clan is sealed, all while Biwa is powerless to do much but watch. Last week a red flower fell, this week a white one.

It’s easy to lay in to someone like Shigemori, an ultimately passive man complicit through inaction on the ruin that the Heike are about to cause. But it’s even easier to sympathize with him, there are more Shigemori in the world than many of us would like to admit. It’s hard not to see yourself in him, even if, speaking for at least myself, I think most of us would prefer a happier end than this.

The show’s actual narrative is a foregone conclusion–being based on an epic from the 14th century will do that–but The Heike Story‘s how’s and why’s remain incredibly compelling even in light of that.

Elsewhere on MPA

Hoo boy.

So, the good news about my recent series of First Impressions posts is that people seem to really like them, which is great! I’ll also be attempting to cover takt op.Destiny weekly going forward considering the overwhelming response about that series in particular.

I’m not going to link you to everything I’ve written in the past week because that would be, frankly, absurd. Instead I’m going to direct your attention to the Seasonal First Impressions archive, where you can see for yourself all of the posts I’ve written for the season so far. I’ve still got one more in the chamber, even, as I plan to write a post on Ancient Girl’s Frame tomorrow. (It technically premieres tonight but you’ll forgive me for not wanting to put up a post at 10PM local time.)

Image

If you’ve known me for more than ten minutes you know I want to cover this. Image appears courtesy of Funimation’s Twitter account.

I’ve also redesigned the Directory, and speaking very generally, it should be much easier to browse the archives by post category now. Hopefully y’all will enjoy that. In any case, I hope you can all forgive the somewhat lean report this week. I’ve been very busy, as you can see!

I don’t normally bring this up in the body of my posts themselves, but if you’ve liked anything I’ve written over the past week, please consider donating. This blog is my only source of income, so it really does help a lot. Alternately, consider sharing it around if you can’t / don’t want to spend the money. Getting the word out is a huge help too. And of course your comments and thoughts are deeply appreciated as well.

Alright, I think that’s enough of me being sappy. Until next week, anime fans!

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

Seasonal First Impressions: Going Way, Way Down in SAKUGAN

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.

What happened to this season?! Several days of premieres of shows that were outright bad, questionable on a premise level, or mixed experiences at best might’ve lead anyone to conclude we were in for a weak season. But between takt op.Destiny, the still-airing The Heike Story, now, Sakugan, it may be lining up as the year’s strongest.

That’s a big call, and it’s not one I’m willing to make with total confidence. There are definitely ways Sakugan could “go wrong”, as we’ll get to, but it’s off to a hell of a start. The two are hard to compare, but while it’s less of a well-oiled machine than takt op, it’s looser and lets itself sprawl a bit more in its opening episode. That’s neither a strength nor a weakness, merely a difference, and time alone will tell which approach is more effective in the long term.

So what’s it about? Well, the very short version is we’ve got your sort of underground post-apocalypse-y setting here. It will garner comparisons to Made in Abyss and last year’s surprise near-masterpiece DECA-DENCE on setting alone and they’re not entirely inaccurate ones. Our protagonists live in an underground colony called Pinyin, connected to a network of others via a tunnel system, and with vast areas of uncharted land in-between. Those who explore those areas, and confront the dangers within them, namely the monstrous kaiju that infest them, are mech-piloting adventurers called Markers.

And about those Markers; our lead here is nine-year-old Memenpuu.

She is a child genius, has apparently graduated college(!) and has her own job(!!). She wants nothing more than to be a Marker. She is opposed here by her father, our other lead, Gagumber.

The two’s opposed but charming dynamic carries the bulk of the episode, and there’s some really great character animation sprinkled in here. Things get more serious as the episode marches on, with Memenpuu receiving a mysterious package in the mail that contains a photograph of an equally-mysterious white tower stretching into the sky that she’s had recurring dreams about. Even stranger, the package is signed as being from the mythical Marker Urorop, and contains what appears to be a map. Gagumber and Memenpuu’s relationship takes on more serious, strained shapes here, but things remain largely lighthearted for most of the episode.

Indeed, this all seems to be setting up a charming, fun-filled adventure. And Sakugan hammers that idea home enough times over the course of this episode that the astute might start to get suspicious. So it’s here that we have to talk about the elephant in the room, because as it turns out, those suspicions are very well-founded.

In the episode’s final third or so, Pinyin is attacked. A kaiju somehow breaks into the city and wreaks havoc, the local militia try futilely to fend it off. There’s a pretty excellently-animated sequence wherein Gagumber, Memenpuu, and secondary character Lynda all flee from the kaiju’s wrath. Any levity this might imply is immediately dashed when Lynda and her own father, Walsh, hop in a mecha to attempt to fend the creature off, and are almost immediately killed.

On paper this doesn’t sound so bad, but Lynda and Walsh serve as a secondary duo throughout the entire episode, so it’s clearly intended to be a shot across the heart. It works, too. Even setting aside my own reaction, one can easily find folks all across social media already mourning the characters.

This ties back into Sakugan‘s already-evident main theme; what can the older generation do for their children? When they want to strike out on their own, as Memenpuu does here, even after seeing her friend and that friend’s father incinerated before her very eyes, what can their parents do to support them? Sakugan offers no simple answers, at least not yet, but it is worth knowing what kind of anime this is going to be. Because the answer seems to involve fewer fun-filled adventures and more painful coming-of-age than one might initially assume.

Which, to be clear, is fine! Sakugan does all of this quite well. It’s legitimately a very good first episode. But speaking only for myself, I know I tend to fall off of these sorts of anime rather quickly. Something about the darkness that tends to shade these sort of tales just bounces off my sensibilities. So how likely I, personally, am to stay on board will depend on what we get aside from the trauma and crushed dreams. The first episode is willing to display a lot of character, but the question of how much of that is a feint remains an open one until the second premieres.

All this said; what I think is not always what people in general will think. So while my own opinion of Sakugan has yet to fully take shape, this is absolutely going to be one to look out for in a more general sense. Keep digging, genius girl. You might just find gold.

Grade: A-
The Takeaway: If you’re not innately put off by the prospect of seeing a very young character put through the emotional wringer, this is worth following. If you highly value that kind of story, you should definitely be following it.

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 [10/3/21]

The Frontline Report is a weekly column where I briefly summarize the past week of my personal journey through anime, manga, and the related spheres of pop culture. Expect some degree of spoilers for the covered shows.

One season ends and another begins, the world turns here on Magic Planet Anime.

The Heike Story

Japan races toward war. The third episode of The Heike Story only reinforces what we’ve known from day one, but it’s the method that really sticks out here. We know the character of Lord Saiko, for instance, for mere minutes. But he is the first to speak truth to power in opposing Shigemori’s father, Lord Kiyomori. For his defiance, he is beheaded, in a brilliant cut–in every sense of that word–that flickers from the falling of the sword to a flower landing in water. Elsewhere, archers fire at warrior monks and pierce portable shrines in the process, telling us that even already, nothing is truly sacred in the power struggle that’s about to ensue.

Biwa sees the bloodshed ahead, as Shigemori prepares to attack his own father to stop his power-hungry madness, but seems powerless to stop it. Only time will tell if that’s truly so. There is little in the way of embellishment to say about Heike Story, it simply is a gripping period piece drama.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S

In a meta sense, it’s not that strange that a show like this remains somewhat controversial. “Be yourself, ignore what society tells you” is about as close as Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid ever gets to a proper theme, and it certainly follows its own advice, for better or worse. But while it’s no philosophical treatise, the writing can be surprisingly characterful when it remembers to get out of its own way. Dragon Maid S actually ended a bit ago now, but I only watched the final two episodes this past week, and that’s definitely true of both of them, especially the actual finale with its festivals and faux wedding ceremony. It re-centers the focus on Kobayashi and Tohru themselves, making for the series’ strongest showing since, well, the last time I covered it on this column.

But Dragon Maid‘s thesis of ethical hedonism aside, the real story here in the long run remains the triumphant return of Kyoto Animation. I won’t drag the point out; all twelve episodes of the show look amazing, and while what they’ve been through will probably weigh heavy over the anime landscape for a long time, it’s just really good to have them back. See you all for 20th Century Electric Catalogue?

Elsewhere on MPA

I debuted my Seasonal First Impressions column this past week (which you’re going to be seeing more of literally today if everything goes as planned), but I’ve also put up a review, another episode of KeyFrames Forgotten I’m rather proud of, and just in general am keeping a decent clip of things. Remember to toss me some coins in the footer if you’ve liked anything I’ve written this week and are able to!

Seasonal First Impressions: SELECTION PROJECT – The season gets off to a truly “and the crowd goes mild”-style start with an idol anime that left me very, very nonplussed. It’s annoying to dislike something because it’s simply “not doing anything new”, and I wouldn’t even say I do dislike Selection Project per se, there’s just not much to it at the moment, which is unfortunate.

(REVIEW) The Far Side of Summer, SONNY BOY, and Me – Sonny Boy is one of those anime that’s going to be rolling around in my noggin for years. I don’t think I’m as huge as a fan as many of the show’s biggest defenders, but that’s splitting hairs. Immaculately produced, uncommonly nuanced, and contemplative to its core, Sonny Boy is a show we’re going to be hearing about for a long time.

KeyFrames Forgotten Episode 3 – WINDY TALES – Hey you, reading this right now, listen to our podcast about Windy Tales! The show is good and the podcast episode is also good! I don’t hear people discuss Windy Tales much anymore, and I’m not sure why? It’s a lovely little thing.

See you on the next, 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 is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.