Month: July 2014

Summer 2014 capsules

But before all that, a few words about Sword Art Online II : well, so far, it’s not doing a bad job of not rubbing me the wrong way, like Alfheim Online did. The writing is still pretty poor (go, go, tepid exposition !), but the setup of bringing in Kirito to investigate a bizarre murder spree in a new game setting is a decent one. (Also, anything that marginalizes the absence of chemistry he’s got with Asuna is welcome.) I might still watch this after all.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 3.

A couple of shorts before moving on to the full Monday shows…

Mobile Suit Gundam-san is yet another of those comedy SD skits Sunrise puts out occasionally. (This one adapted from a 4-panel gag manga.) It starts off by an Austin Powers-style naked dance by Char, which should give you an idea of the high level of humour we’re dealing with here. It’s mildly funny, but nothing to go out of your way for.

Secret Princess Himegoto adapts a manga about a pretty boy being blackmailed into crossdressing by the student council. It’s got a main character called Unko (“Poop”). That kinda sums up my opinion of it.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 4.

So, Persona 4 The Golden Animation. I reviewed the original series back in 2011 ; this is a weird spin-off that adapts an updated rerelease of the game.

The selling point here, apparently, is a new character being added to the main cast, Marie. The script thus chooses wisely to fast-forward through a very bare bones version of the plot (skipping all the business related to Konishi), so that Marie can get 5 minutes or so of screentime after the end credits. To say that her introduction feels very forced an unnatural is an understatement ; she’s just dropped in without any explanation by the gamemaster. The core problem here is that this series is at its best with deadpan weirdness, and Marie’s way too melodramatic to fit in. So, well, it doesn’t quite work.

(By the way, the whole thing seems to have been reanimated from scratch, with a somewhat higher budget ; every single scene is slightly different from the previous series.)

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 5.

Black Butler – Book of Circus spends its first episode re-establishing the premise with a “Day in the Life of Sebastian Michaelis”… Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as it’s a charming setup, and the script does get to play a bit with clever ellipses. I’ve got no clue where this would fit in continuity, but it’s not like this franchise ever sweats this kind of fine detail.

Anyway, this is good fun, and I’m glad it’s back.

(Also, no Grell whatsover for now, which is a definite plus in my book.)

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 5.

Hey, someone finally fansubbed the first episode of Fran♄cesca : Girls Be Ambitious, more than a week after it aired !

… Having had a look at it, I can easily see why nobody bothered to do it for so long.

The high concept is that this is a series of 11-minute episodes built around a recently-created mascot character for Hokkaido, the titular Francesca. Who happens to be some sort of undead idol or something. But she barely shows up at the end of the first episode ; in practice, it mainly features the head of the anti-undead Hokkaido forces (of course a cute sassy girl) investigating killing the shit out of a recent surge of zombies rising from the ground. Also, tons of jokes that probably make sense to people who know of Hokkaido’s culture, but are completely impenetrable to me.

As far as promotional vehicles from tourism boards go, this one at least has the merit of originality. But that’s pretty much it ; it looks badly-animated (is this Flash-based ?), and at its core it’s comedy where I don’t get most of the jokes. (Which don’t look that funny, anyway.)

I’ll pass.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 8.

Nobunaga Concerto

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of yet another manga where a random Japanese teenager travels to the past and switches places with Nobunaga Oda.

Characters

Saburou, our lead character. Not very bright, shallow, terrible at Japanese history (he vaguely remembers about this Nobunaga dude) : the perfect protagonist for this kind of story ! How he travels to the past is refreshingly unexplained (it just happens suddenly).

Nobunaga himself happens to be passing by, on the run from servants who want him to stay at home. Hey, random weird lookalike, want to take my place for a while ? I’ll give you this cool sword. Saburou’s all “hey, cool sword” (after a bit of “where’s the camera filming this, anyway ?”), but quickly realizes that Nobunaga’s early life was a bit prison-like, and wants to go home.

Kichou, Nobunaga’s wife. “Wait, he had a wife ? She’s cute !” And so Saburou decides to stay around a bit more. She’s all too happy from the attention, after him seemingly having forgotten all about her. (“I know it was an arranged marriage, but still…”)

Nobunaga’s servants are baffled by their master’s bizarre new behaviour, despite his renewed healthiness. Has he lost his mind ? One of them lets himself be convinced it’s better to just kill him off, but Saburou somehow manages to deflect this. And hey, he can’t die now ; this would totally wreck history and stuff ; after all, Nobunaga’s supposed to conquer Japan or something. The servants then marvel at their master’s “hidden ambitions”.

Noboyuki, Nobunaga’s younger brother, sees the occasion as his chance to get rid of him. After manipulating that servant failed, he tries something against Kichou… but it doesn’t work out ; he winds up being sent off to an asylum for his trouble.

From now on, Saburou is taking this a bit more seriously. He’s started reading his history book (although it’s way too imprecise to be of much use). Anyway, he’s going to try his best ; Nobunaga totally conquered Japan and lived happily after, right ? (Ahah, no. We even had the history lesson at the episode’s beginning reminding us how it’s supposed to end ; Saburou didn’t pay attention, as usual.)

Production Values

Cell-shaded CG characters everywhere ! You ever love it or hate it ; I think it works quite well, giving the anime a bit of an “historical painting come to life” look. It helps that the CG backgrounds are gorgeous. And there are some nifty stylistic touches here and there.

Overall Impression

For a premise so well-trodden, this is a surprising breath of fresh air. Part of it is that it’s played entirely straight by most characters, with the comedy resulting from the clash of cultures. But the real selling point here is the sheer charm of Mamoru Miyano’s performance, perfectly convincing as this little git way out of his depth. It’s impressive how you end up rooting for a character so punchable.

It’s fun, it’s charming, and it looks great. I didn’t expect to enjoy this at all, but it turns out I did. I’m in.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 8.

Blade Dance of the Elementalers (Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a fantasy light novel series.

Characters

Kamito, our generic male lead. He’s the second guy to ever manage taming an elemental spirit, and the first one was known as the Demon Lord or somesuch. Subtle foreshadowing ! Anyway, he’s a complete anomaly in a world where Elementalers are usually female.

Greyworth, headmaster of the Elemental Academy of the same name, has specifically headhunted him so that he can participate in the next Blade Dance tournament.

Claire Rouge (sic) is the first student he meets on the grounds, and it’s irritation at first sight. Impulsive, reckless, she feels humiliated by their first contact, and is bent on having him contract with her as her slave to offset this.

Other major characters introduced here include the head of the Student Guard Corps, the archer who also wants him for herself, and the teacher irritated by everyone’s antics. (He’s been put into the problem student class, because of course.) Also, a maid. “Why is there a maid ?” Wise words, Kamito, wise words.

Production Values

Very cheap indeed. The character designs are especially bad and generic. And of course, tons of lame fanservice : it starts with a “caught bathing naked” scene and goes on with multiple panty shots throughout the episode.

Nice score, though.

Overall Impression

Oh, dear. This is by far the worst thing I’ve watched this season. Even Momo Kyun Sword and Akame ga Kill weren’t this irritating and facepalm-inducing. The beyond-generic plot is merely an excuse to string along a series of clichĂ© harem antics, with characters who grow more and more annoying as the episode goes.

This is awful on just about every level. Avoid like the plague.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 7.

Tokyo ESP

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a manga series about mutants ESPer terrorists trying to take over Japan.

Characters

The Brotherhood of Evil Espers have launched an attack against Tokyo, which involves multiple bombing and stuff like stealing the Diet. You know, the whole building housing the Parliament. (And obviously that makes a lot of hostages.) The Doctor, our Magneto figure, has illusion powers ; his right-hand-woman teleports around, which makes her swords even deadlier. They have various other members in the building and on the ground.

The authorities’ reaction is rather lackluster. All those tanks deployed everywhere beforehand ? Completely useless. The attempts to parachute special forces onto the flying Diet ? The copter can’t even get close enough. Section Four of the Anti-Esper forces are the only one shown as remotely badass (yay bike-fu !), and they can barely manage a fragile draw against one esper.

It’s thus not surprising that most people are pining their hopes on the return of the White Girl, who apparently showed up in previous crises to save the day. It’s just too bad that the anti-Esper ban covers her too. But come on, like that’s going to stop her.

The episode does a good job of building suspense around her arrival. Instead, most of it is devoted to her band of usual associates stepping up to help out, however little they can. (It’s not like the psychometric and precognitive kids can go hand-to-hand against the baddies.) They haven’t been in contact with her, but surely she’s coming any moment now, right ?

This is apparently set in the same universe as Ga-Rei: Zero, and its heroines have a gratuitous cameo right before the shit hits the fan. I’ve not watched that series, but their one minute of interaction and the overall writing quality at play here have bumped up my list.

Production Values

Very impressive. A lot of budget is spent on making the superpowers look cool, and it shows. (They really didn’t need to make the teleporting effects look so elaborate, but I’m glad they did.) It’s a big spectacle show, and it delivers.

Unfortunately, this is also the kind of world where super-powered women have their suits’ zippers down to their navel for no good reason. Oh, well.

Overall Impression

Well, that was fun. It’s not exactly high art, but it’s well-filmed superheroics with some strong atmosphere and a decently-rounded cast. Good soundtrack, too. Sometimes it gets a bit too stupid for its own good (lol the normal dude who wields two guns at once, like that ever works), but most of the time it looks cool enough to get away with it.

I’m game for this.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 5.

Invaders of the Rokujyouma?! (Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a supernatural romantic comedy light novel series.

Characters

Koutarou, our male lead, wants nothing more than starting a generic high school life. Sure, Mom is gone, and Dad is always away trying to earn some dough, but he’s not going to let that get him down. He’s got the mandatory perverted best friend, a budding relationship with the president of the knitting club, and is on good terms with his new houselady. (Who happens to be his own age.) He can’t believe his luck on this place being so cheap.

Sanae, the ghost girl haunting the room, might be part of the reason why. Anyway, she doesn’t want to share, so will he please go away ? (Koutarou starts rummaging through his stuff for religious charms.)

Yurika, the inept magical girl who crashes in the middle of their battle to warn them that there’s dangerous amounts of magical energy here, so they need to evacuate immediately. Er, please ?

Kiriha, the envoy from an underground race who just so happens to emerge into this room, and wants to use it as her base to CONQUER THE WORLD !

Theiamillia, a princess from an alien race who wields Nanoha-like magitek devices, and seems able to summon just as much firepower. Fortunately she comes with a supervisor in tow, immediately chiding her on the fact that destroying the planet would go against her mission of making its people submit to her will.

I’m surprised the walls are still standing by the end of the episode.

Production Values

Well, it seems studio Silver Link have finally surrendered and are now making anime that look just like everything else. Oh, well. It still looks quite good, with good effects for the battle sequences.

And of course, notable amounts of fanservice.

Overall Impression

Okay, I have to admit, the joke is pretty funny, as more and more ludicrous invaders keep barging in and making the previous ones go lulwat. (The next episode’s title suggests that even more are due to come, but they’re not on promotional materials.) But once you’ve introduced such a premise, what do you do with it ? Now that a non-aggression pact has been signed, we’re already back to a more conventional harem romantic comedy setup, and that’s not really promising.

I’ll go with my gut instinct and give it a pass. We’ve got better comedies airing this season.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 5.

Love Stage!!

(10 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a yaoi romantic comedy manga.

Characters

Izumi, our main character, is drifting through college. He’s got delusions of becoming a manga artist, but his art’s worse than mine. He’s basically just an otaku, fanboying over this one magical girl series.

His parents would very much like him to follow in the family business, i.e. show business. Mom’s still acting, while Dad has moved on to running a talent agency. (Bro is fronting a famous rock band.) But Izumi just won’t have any of this. He just feels too awkward on set.

A decade or so ago, Izumi did act in a wedding agency’s commercial with his parents ; he was a last-minute replacement for the child actress catching the bouquet. (Yes, actress. Izumi looks so feminine that it wasn’t hard to wing it.)

Ryouma, who was the boy playing opposite Izumi in that commercial, is very interested in the wedding agency’s project of making a sequel. His one condition is reuniting the whole original cast. The parents are delighted, as he’s now a very famous actor/model. Izumi’s way less enthusiastic, but they eventually managed to bribe it into participating.

Sagara, the uptight manager, is one of the few people on set who knows Izumi’s not a girl (the others being his personal makeup/costuming squad, who’ve been sworn to secrecy). You can see him obviously having little patience for Izumi’s apathy, but damn it this is his job and he’s going to do it well. What he didn’t anticipate : somebody changing the script at the last moment to include a kiss between Ryouma and Izumi. Uh oh…

Production Values

Not very good ; the standard yaoi character designs are rather ugly.

Overall Impression

Well, it’s yaoi. I was all prepared to write it off as “not my thing”, especially as it looks rather shabby.

… And then the jokes start hitting a homerun, and it turns out I’m actually enjoying this quite a lot. This is fun. That the premises seems devoid of the rape subtext so endemic to the genre is a big plus, but it’s just got charm. Izumi’s parents are ridiculously entertaining, the little pokes at show business are quite funny, and the whole thing is quite well scripted overall, with good comedic timing.

I’m surprised to say this has a good chance of staying on my watchlist.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 5.

Magimoji Rurumo

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of an ecchi comedy manga series.

Characters

Shibaki, our generic high school protagonist… no, scratch that, he’s a complete pervert. His terrible reputation at school might be slightly overstated (he does have moments of white-knighting, or just plain misunderstandings), but let’s be frank : he’s a horndog.

Rurumo, a deadpan witch who shows out of nowhere to claim his life. Well, not exactly out of nowhere ; he did make a half-assed summoning ritual with the occult club earlier that day, but had not clue it would actually work. (The show loves to put explanatory flashbacks like this just a bit too late, which makes him look like he has a two-minute attention span.) Anyway, they eventually find a loophole to avoid such unpleasantness… Except she comes back a few months later.

Chiro, her cat familiar, eventually explains the score in private to Shibaki. Rurumo has been demoted for her previous failure and needs to recomplete her training, which takes the form of single-use magic coupons Shibaki can use to direct her. (She can’t do magic of her own initiative anymore.) What she doesn’t know is that those coupons are tied to Shibaki’s life : once they’re all gone, he’s toast…

Production Values

About average, with just about as much focus on fanservice as you’d expect.

Overall Impression

Well, that was unpleasant. The jokes are mildly funny, but there’s an overall sadistic atmosphere that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Sure, a lot of comedy in general revolves around terrible stuff happening to people who don’t (or do) deserve it, but this show pushes it too far into gratuitously malicious territory. It’s all the worse when it tries to make a bid for audience sympathy at the end with the dramatic twist : it doesn’t work, as the protagonist is too much of a jerk for me to care.

There are much better comedies this season ; I have no time to bother with this one.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 5.

Momo Kyun Sword

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a light novel series very loosely based on the tale of Momotarou.

Characters

Momoko, our teenage female lead. Born from a peach, and also blessed with huge peaches in the front. (This terrible pun isn’t mine, the show did it first.) Also, dumb as a hammer.

She has three sidekick gods : a monkey, a dog and a pheasant, who get the straight man role by default. She can fuse with any of them to get superpowers.

The plot, such as it is, involves demons looking for “peach fragments”, and the Heavens sending a team of four warriors to stop them. They’re completely useless, and Momoko ends up saving the day. She’s enlisted to keep up the good fight.

Production Values

So much fanservice ! Everyone, and especially Momoko, shows so much skin it’s a wonder their clothes don’t fall off. Momoko still gets her clothes shredded at the end, because of course.

Overall Impression

I knew we were missing something this season : the vacuous fanservice-fest with barely an excuse plot. It’s terrible on every level, really. It’s not even worth my time deriding it.

Really don’t bother with this one.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 4.

La Bonne Vie (Jinsei)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a comedy light novel series.

Characters

Yuuki, our generic highschool student male lead. He’s been tasked by his cousin (who’s the president of the Second Newspaper Club) to shepherd the life advice columnists. Which mostly means he has to play the straight man to those bozos.

Rino, the science specialist, is an arrogant and socially awkward nerd whose idea of casual conversation involves advanced scientific topics that leave everyone else baffled. Also, she’s obviously being pushed by the other characters to become Yuuki’s love interest ; she’s not entirely uninterested, but it’s going to be a long road.

Fumi, the humanities specialist, is a nice girl who tries desperately to accommodate everyone, however absurd that may be. Also, big jugs.

Ikumi, the sports specialist, is athletically superhuman, but rarely bothers to consult her brain before acting.

The format involves Yuuki reading aloud letters from other students (3 this episode), and the four of them brainstorming an answer to publish ; since the three specialists have wildly different opinions and agendas and keep going on completely unrelated tangents, the final result is usually utterly chaotic.

Production Values

Decent, although the shine in Yuuki’s hair is really distracting.

Also, there’s a completely gratuitous wet T-shirt scene, and some breast fondling.

Overall Impression

Oh, dear. This is a gag show that just isn’t funny. Most of the jokes are too laborious or over-extended to work, when they’re not completely impenetrable. It doesn’t help that a lot of them rely on walls of text that probably worked better in the source medium. Moreover, the format is already starting to get repetitive.

Well, they can’t all be winners. Having two good comedy shows this season (three if you count Barakamon) is already pretty good.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 4.

Terror in Resonance (Zankyou no Terror)

(11 episodes)

What’s it about ?

It’s the grand reunion of director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) and composer Yoko Kanno ! Okay, it’s the third time in two years, but he’s barely directing any of Space Dandy himself, and let’s just politely forget about Kids on the Slope. This is much more like it : a more personal original anime series that he’s apparently been trying to produce for years. Given the subject matter, I believe him.

This is a show about terrorism. And it’s not pulling any punches.

Characters

The story focuses on a team of two teenage terrorists, Nine & Twelve. (They’ve got proper names they use at school, but those are most probably aliases.) Nine is the tall guy with glasses and scary eyes ; Twelve is a cheerful ball of energy whose playful attitude and smile are no less scary. Together, they commit acts of terror. Stealing plutonium from a secure recycling facility, setting off bombs that destroy most of a skyscraper, posting cryptic videos on YouTube, the works.

Their motives remain nebulous. Their very codenames suggest there’s somebody else pulling the strings. They feel righteous in their attacks against modern civilization, but the short flashbacks/dreams about their childhood only raise more questions over how they got there. What’s clear is that they are ready to kill.

Lisa is another student attending their new high school. Withdrawn and a frequent target of bullies until Twelve rescued her, mostly for the lulz. Later on, she randomly bumps into him in the middle of placing bombs, and Nine offers her a choice : dying or becoming their accomplice.

Before the skyscraper attack, the police aren’t really paying attention to some random videos on the web (the uranium theft six months ago is top secret, of course) ; that’s obviously going to change. The script gives plenty of screentime to a bored police inspector who spends his time solving crosswords while his partner surfs around the Net ; presumably he’s going to be important in the investigation.

Production Values

Very good. The direction makes the terrorism sequences look like clockwork : while it’s not immediately obvious what the end objective is, the various steps are perfectly clear to follow.

Yoko Kanno’s soundtrack is ace, of course. Maybe one of her best scores in a while.

Overall Impression

Well, this was impressive. This is basically filmed like a heist movie, except we have no clue whatsoever about what drives the protagonists, to say nothing of their endgame. What helps considerably is how plausible most of their attacks are ; whoever designed them did their research well. (The second episode opens with a scene of the police piecing out what they did exactly, and it turns out to have needed very little resources, merely impeccable planning and timing. Also, tons of refuge in audacity.)

I’m slightly less confident on how Lisa is going to fit into all this ; I presume it’s going to be more interesting than introducing some tepid romantic tension. Still, I’m willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt on this, as everything else is very intriguing indeed.

A good thriller by masters of the form. Definitely one of the highlights of the season.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 4.