Tag: light novel adaptation

And you thought there is never a girl online? (Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta?)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a light novel series about… well, it’s one of those where the whole premise is spelled out in the title.

Characters

Nishimura, our male lead, is one of those open nerds who has no issue with spending most of his free time on MMORPGs, and in particular Legendary Age, a med-fan dungeon crawler where he plays a tank knight under the alias of “Rusian”. After getting badly burned a year ago, he’s convinced himself there’s no real girls online.

Ako is the incompetent healer of his regular party, and after insisting for months she finally got him to marry her in-game. The joke is that she is an actual girl (that’s even her real name) ; that weird shy girl in his class who’s basically Watamote‘s Tomoko if she played MMORPG, complete with the utter lack of social skills, and the simmering hatred for “normies” lurking under the surface.

“Apricot”, the party’s black mage leader, is one of those players who spends tons of cash at the in-game store to buy tons of showy stuff. You know the type. Anyway, they suggest an offline meet… and she’s also a high school girl ; most specifically, the student council president.

As for “Schwein”, the party’s other fighter, they turn out to be Segawa, Nishimura’s twin-tailed tsundere classmate (he’s never seen the “dere” part), and doing up to now a great job of passing as a normie. Also, she didn’t know her handle meant “Pig” in German.

Production Values

Perfectly okay, if a bit fanservice-y in some character designs (I hope Ako invested in a strong enough bra).

What did I think of it ?

On the one hand, the joke is nearly perfectly executed. Clearly the writers get the kind of hardcore MMORPG it’s portraying, and it show in all the little cute details. It’s got good comedic timing, the characters have decent chemistry together, and overall it’s a fun joke.

But… laying out the central gag took the whole episode, and there’s little sense of where it can go after that. How do you proceed from there ?

Oh, well, this first episode was good enough that I’m willing to try out a few others to see what’s next. So, mission accomplished !

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Spring 2016 – Page 3

Hundred

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Our token magic school/battle harem light novel adaptation of the season.

Characters

Hayato, our bland protagonist, somehow scored compatibility tests with the Hundred (the super-weapons used to fight against stuff) that he’s been fast-tracked to the Little Garden island academy for training, and become a beloved celebrity before even showing up. He’s mostly nonplussed by this, and his only condition was medical care for his ill and possessive little sister.

“Emile”, his new roommate, is just as passionate and possessive, and seems to share some history with him that he doesn’t remember. Also, that’s totally a girl, a fact the show isn’t even subtle about, but somehow Hayato manages to miss despite walking on Emile coming out of the shower. Seriously, it’s really, really obvious ; the only question is whether she’s doing it to get closer to Hayato, or she has other motives besides that.

Claire, the asshole student council president (with the mandatory drill hair), decides to expel on the spot the couple of girls who came late because they were waiting for Hayato at the airport (and he successfully dodged them). With Emile cutting in, this eventually leads to Hayato being challenged to a duel by her to prevent the three of them from being expelled.

Production Values

Other clue that Emile is a girl : the camera keeps perving on her. Not that those battle suits leave much to the imagination.

What did I think of it ?

Oh, dear. My kryptonite genre, and its worst clichés are already piling up like clockwork. (At least they don’t even try and pretend that Hayato is an underdog.) I’m actually mildly interested by what’s going on with Emile, but since that would entail watching more of Hayato being a complete non-entity of a protagonist…

Nope, just nope. Not bothering with any more of this.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Spring 2016 – Page 3

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- (Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu)

(25 episodes, the first one double-sized)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a light-novel series about a loser shut-in who gets to start a new life in a fantasy world… but without any of the protagonist perks those stories usually entail. Wait, doesn’t this feel awfully familiar ?

Characters

Subaru, our shut-in protagonist, somehow went from buying groceries at night to finding himself in a med-fan world with just his tracksuit, some pocket change nobody here accepts, a cellphone without reception, a bag of chips and some instant noodles. There’s nobody around to explain to him how and why he’s been brought here (and certainly no cute and helpful girl). He doesn’t suddenly know any magic. And he’s wandered off into a dark alley where he’s immediately mugged by three toughs.

“Satella” (totally not her real name) is the girl who saves him (after a fashion). She’s really after a thief who stole her badge, but she’s got chronic tsundere hero syndrome, and thus can’t stop herself from taking the time to heal Subaru up. (She’s an half-elf with ice and healing magic, plus a catlike familiar.) And then she helps a random lost kid to find her mom. On the one hand… there’s no way she finds her badge back at this rate, right ? On the other hand, Subaru is much of the same mold, and thus insists on helping her track it down.

Felt, the thief, is a smart kid who knows that it’s better to hold sale negotiations with the backup of a half-giant with a big stick who lives in the slums. She’s going to hold a tough bargain when they finally get there.

Production Values

Wow, pretty ! I’m not so sure about the rough CG passerbys in the background, but this is otherwise gorgeously animated and pops out full of life.

What did I think of it ?

Oh, nice one. At first it indeed feels a lot like a gentler KonoSuba, with characters who are actually quite likeable and don’t feed off each other’s misery. But that’s only to lull the audience into a false sense of security ; the show is much darker (and bloodier) than the heroes’ easy-going hijinks initially let show. There’s something quite sinister going on in the background, and the swerve is handled rather well. Indeed, this is a very good use of the first episode’s double-length.

It was already quietly growing on me, but now I must keep watching to learn what the heck is going on here. Well done, show.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Spring 2016 – Page 2

Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle (Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a “magic school” light novel series, because there must always be at least one each season.

Characters

Lux, the male lead, used to be a prince of the Empire of Arcadia until it got overthrown by a rebellion and got replaced by something vaguely more egalitarian (with a magic academy to train a new elite). Because light novel crap, his first scene involves accidentally breaking into a female bath, because of course it is. But he’s totally a nice dude, we swear !

Lisesharte is the girl he stumbles right in front of, and rightfully incensed. Wait, they still have princesses in the new regime ? Because she’s one, somehow. Anyway, cue the inevitable duel.

Of course, despite all this mayhem Lux still gets enrolled into the academy, where he’s about to meet a whole set of haremettes, heavily showcased in the credits.

Production Values

Decent enough, I guess ; I’ve already forgotten about it.

Overall Impression

On the one hand, the show does make an attempt at setting up an halfway interesting geopolitical background that had me mildly interested. But then we’re already back to the same old trite clichés, which are EXACTLY why I’m so down on the “magic school” subgenre on principle : it’s an excuse for the writers to get lazy and pad their story out with one-size-fits-all hijinks. It’s not even a particularly good execution of those, either.

Also, I half fell asleep while watching this, can barely remember any of it, and stalled for days before getting around to writing it up. I think my subconscious is telling me something there. Like, really not to bother with this one.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016 – Page 4

KonoSuba – God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World! (Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!)

(11 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of yet another light novel series about a gamer dude being transported to an heroic-fantasy world with RPG-ish mechanics.

Characters

Kazuma, our protagonist, was your typical obsessive and reclusive teenage gamer, barely getting out of his flat once in a while to buy the one store-exclusive special edition of a game. On one such fateful day, he saw a female classmate of his about to be run over, and jumped to push her out of the way. And died. Well, technically she was in no actual danger from the slow-moving tractor, and he died of cardiac arrest, so it was a really stupid and pointless death. Nethertheless, he wakes up in the afterlife in front of…

Aqua, one of the goddesses dealing with triage. Once she can stop sniggering at his totally lame death, she mentions the standard deal : either he goes to heaven (really boring, with no games), or gets reincarnated as a blank slate. Or he can take the special offer : see, there’s this one heroic-fantasy world under the threat of a terrible Demon-Lord, to the point that few of the locals want to reincarnate there. So the offer is for Kazuma to reincarnate there, with his memory and skills intact, PLUS a special bonus ; here’s a list of possible talents, he can choose anything in here.

Being a rules-lawyering gamer to the extreme, Kazuma choses to take Aqua with him. Cue hilarity as it’s technically a valid choice, and she gets shanghaied with him against her will. Her only way back is for them to defeat the Demon Lord. And hey, a goddess is bound to be useful, right ? As it turns out, not much, actually. She’s got no combat skills, knows next to nothing about the world because she never bothered with the small stuff (Kazuma barely gets by on genre savviness alone), and she didn’t have time to get any money. Also, INT and LUCK were her dump stats, if it wasn’t already obvious. (In contrast, Kazuma has very puny stats asides from INT, and a super-high LUCK which is actually said to be useless in this setting.)

The OP sequence playing at the end suggest our heroes are going to be joined by a Paladin and a Mage in their quest very soon.

Production Values

This is another Deen show that looks much better than the studio’s reputation would have you think. It’s especially good at body language and facial expressions, which is essential to selling the jokes.

On the minus side, the camera seems to be quite obsessed with Aqua’s crotch and ass. Especially her half-see-through skirt.

Overall Impression

Hey, this was really funny ! The two leads have amazing chemistry together, and there were actually a few jokes I hadn’t seen before (such as the starting town having no weak mobs to grind with anymore, as they were wiped out ages ago). Even the usual ones are sold by the very good comedic timing.

This looks like a ton of fun ; I’m in.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016 – Page 4

Schwarzesmarken

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Yet another iteration of the sprawling Muv-Luv Alternative franchise, this time adapting a bunch of prequel light novels. And by this, I mean “with different characters and set in a whole other continent”, so this should be accessible enough for anyone new to the franchise.

This is nominally set in East Germany in the 1980s, although with the massive invasion of nasty aliens since the 1960s, it’s basically alternate-history science-fiction, with mecha thrown-in for good measure. (Yeah, I’m as weirded out as you by a franchise that started out as standard dating-sim visual novels now churning out grimdark milSF.)

Characters

Theodor, our protagonist, is a young mecha pilot in the elite 666th unit (the titular Schwarzesmarken). He can’t have been here for long, as he’s still chaffing around basic orders like “don’t be a dick, protect your teammates !” This is at least semi-understandable given how he’s experienced first hand the brutality of the Stasi (the East German political police), with his whole family but him dying in a botched escape attempt to the West ; this isn’t an environment conducive to trust.

Irisdina, his team captain, doesn’t help matter by infamously being an informant who reportedly sold out her own brother. She claims she’s trying to turn a new leaf in atonement, but he doesn’t trust her at all. Once burned, twice shy.

Katia is a West German pilot they rescue on the anti-alien front. Despite this accident of fate being rather suspicious, Irisdina makes the choice to trust her and recruit her for the 666th. Katia is enough of an East-fetishizing idealist (“the war against aliens would go so much better if the West and the East worked together !”, yeah don’t say this too loud in front of the Stasi commissars) to accept… Although there’s obviously more to her than that. Which makes it all the more a pain in the ass for Theodor, who’s stuck training her after being the one to rescue her.

Production Values

Decent enough ; the aliens certainly look very freaky, and alien indeed. The show itself doesn’t go overboard with fanservice despite the design for female pilot suits it’s stuck with in this franchise… but the ED clearly milks it for maximum titillation.

Overall Impression

This is a happy surprise ; instead of being fetishized, East Germany is depicted as awful a place as it should be if you’re bothering to set a story there. The only weird bit is that they somehow have a competent army in the 1980s despite the politics being even more awful than in reality, but I take this as a genre convention.

I’m also pleasently surprised by the tone ; yes, this is quite dark indeed, but there’s a point to it, and the show is in no hurry to kill off massive amounts of main characters right off the bat for shock value (unlike Total Eclipse). Indeed, it wisely focuses on East Germany itself rather than the actual fight against the aliens, giving the characters a chance for a decent resolution of their story despite this being a prequel (after all, the aliens will still be around for the sequels).

On the other hand, it’s everything but subtle, the main characters are more than a bit annoying, and I’m just not in the mood for grimdark milSF. But hey, nice try.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016 – Page 4

Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash (Hai to Gensou no Grimgar)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of yet another light novel series about teenagers being trapped in a videogame-like heroic-fantasy world.

Characters

Haruhiro, our point-of-view character, woke up one day in the land of Grimgar, without any memory of his past (or why he sometimes thinks of meaningless words like “mobile phones”). Together with the dozen or so teenagers who were with him in the same situation, he’s quickly brought up to speed by the predatory gay (sigh) innkeeper : they’re now all new adventures, here’s your starting package with your license and just about enough money for room and food while you get basic training. Have fun grinding the mobs !

Renji, the most strong-headed of the group, takes with him the most competent-looking half of them, and they apparently are making a pretty good start. But this show isn’t about them. Instead, it’s about the leftovers :
– Manato, the level-headed guy who seems like the oldest of the bunch by a bit, becomes the de facto party leader and suggests they all take different Jobs so they’ll have a balanced team. Cleric seems like the perfect match for him.
– Ranta is the brash jerkass who always gets into futile spats with everyone, but isn’t that bad a dude really. Of course he’d take Black Knight, although of course the level-1 armor must have been a disappointment.
– Moguzo, the big guy who’s really a softie who loves cooking, got to be a Warrior (i.e. the tank of the party).
– Yume, the tomboy, became a Hunter despite being unable to hit the broad side of a barn with her arrows.
– Shihoru, the shy big-breasted girl, got to be a Mage. Now, he only she could manage to actually finish an incantation…
– and Haruhiro became a Thief, as Manato figured they’d need one, and that didn’t sound too bad.

Now, after a week of training at their respective guilds, they’re ready to adventure and finally loot some mobs ! Or, er, be driven away by a couple of goblins, aka the weakest monsters around. Despite outnumbering them three to one. They completely suck, both individually and as a team. But, er, surely they’ll get better with trying, as well as better picking their fights ? (Like, maybe only the one goblin, if they can find such a loner ?)

Production Values

Wow, pretty backgrounds ! The animation ain’t bad either. The fanservice level was relatively tame until (1) the Thieves Guildmaster showed up and (2) Ranta started to rant about Shihoru’s huge knockers, which hopefully won’t be a regular occurrence.

Overall Impression

You know what ? I quite enjoyed this, despite not being a fan of the genre. Maybe it’s because it’s discarding most of the “power fantasy” aspects, with the heroes starting at the bottom level and having yet to win a fight by this first episode’s end. This also gives quite some room for world-building and laying out the team’s dynamic ; aside from Ranta, they’re a rather pleasant bunch I could see myself wanting to watch more of.

I’m giving this a few more episodes to see where it goes.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016 – Page 4

Myriad Colors Phantom World (Musaigen no Phantom World)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Already our first “magic school” light novel adaptation ? Well, at least its premise is introduced by an actual fun infodump (followed by a less fun and kinda unneeded second one, unfortunately) : you know how our eyes are tricked by optical illusions. Well, imagine a world where people’s eyes were readjusted by a random global accident that allows them to see all the “phantoms” they couldn’t see yet. Oh, and the teenagers born since then can even fight them, because this is a battle anime of course.

Characters

Haruhiko, our male protagonist and point-of-view character, is the kind of super-nerd who feels the need to exposit at length about the setting to random classmates who already know all this stuff. In other words, supremely annoying. He takes part in after-school phantom-hunting activities to bring a bit of dough in, but he’s not too good at it. He’s partnered with…

Mai, who’s a very good if messy phantom fighter. It’s just a shame that her casting magic involves massaging her own body. Also, any of the bounties they’d win are negated by her tendency to leave off massive collateral damage on her path.

Reina is a random shy and reserved classmate Haruhiko befriends after he sees her eating messily a whole bunch of phantoms at once. Mai is all for including her in… and at this stage, you can agree with her wondering what Haruhiko even brings to the team anymore.

Ruru is a cute little phantom girl Haruhiko has befriended/tamed. She doesn’t actually do that much besides being a bit obnoxious.

There’s another girl stomping off the activities room in a huff, and she’s featured prominently enough in the credits that she’s probably joining the team soon.

Production Values

Oh, dear. You can tell that KyoAni took delight in animating the shit out of that three-minute exposition sequence at the beginning that explores in a visually appealing way the high concept behind the series, because after that their talent is wasted on way too detailed shots of Mai’s torso as she casts her magic. Urgh.

Overall Impression

Presumably you know by now that any show in the “magic battle school” genre faces an uphill battle with me. This one hurts its case by starting semi-promisingly and then falling off a cliff into the same tired old clichés, bothersome exposition, and creepy fanservice. It’s also self-aware enough to make it worse.

Urgh, I’ll pass. I have no time for this crap.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016

AntiMagic Academy 35th Test Platoon (Taimadou Gakuen 35 Shiken Shoutai)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Oh goody : this is the third light novel adaptation about teenagers in magical high school this season. Third time’s the charm ?

Characters

Uh, the AntiMagic Academy is a more interesting setting than most of its ilk : it’s an explicit military training facility, preparing the next generation of witch-hunting inquisitors. Students are divided into Platoons, who go onto proper field missions all the time.

Takeru, our male lead, heads the titular 35th Test Platoon. They’re known as complete screw-ups who keep idling around instead of performing their missions. His laid-back leadership may be part of the issue… or maybe it’s the only way to handle such a rag-tag of misfits.

Usagi, the sniper, always gets distracted and can’t aim for crap. Suginami, the mission control, spends more time teasing them than actually giving them intelligence. (And her hacking always gives them more trouble than it’s worth.) Also, they’re kinda lacking a proper heavy hitter.

Enter Ouka. Who used to be a proper graduated inquisitor, but got sent back to training after she turned out to be way too intense and lethal on her missions. The academy make a point of assigning her to the 35th Test Platoon ; she doesn’t get it, and keeps soloing everything anyway. While she is very good at witch-hunting, she’s way too vicious about it, and it leads to an immediate clash with her “teammates”.

Production Values

You can always count on studio Silver Link to make a show look better than average ; not so much with the animation than with the colour design.

Overall Impression

This is a complete shock : I actually quite liked this. WHY ? Let’s take a review :
– Making the setting explicitly military-based shifts the plot beats to something more palatable. There’s virtually none of the standard high school tropes at play here. Even the “competition” between platoons (with explicit points) is framed around real-world missions that give a clear indication of what the academy is grooming its trainees for. (Instead of generic tournaments with no obvious purpose but having super-powered teenagers let off steam.)
– We come to a nearly fully-formed cast. Instead of “Here’s our male lead encountering a bunch of potential haremettes in quick succession”, it’s “here’s our fight unit, which happens to have one dude and three girls”. The one dude feels a lot less special and singled out by the narrative. Focusing the episode on only those four and the bare minimum of supporting cast also helps out.
– It’s quite fast-paced. In one episode, we get the whole cast introduced, two missions, already some character development, and foreshadowing for the antagonists. As it turns out, cutting down on the cliché fluff and being mercifully light on techno-babble leaves out a lot of room for actual stuff to happen.
– There’s a lot of good casting. Yoshimasa Hosoya is a very interesting choice for the male lead, as his baseline is “angry dude”. Takeru is way more nice than his average, but there’s still a heavy subtext of barely-contained anger to his interpretation. Which gives him an edge over most of his type. Also, having Ryoko Shiraishi and Rumi Ookubo for the comedy sidekicks is always a boon, as they know their stuff.
– Nobody’s a princess.

None of this is rocket science ; and it’s not like this is a great show by any regards. (For one, it still has a “dude falls onto the tsundere’s breasts” gag.) But it’s all little touches that make it a show that I’m actually mildly interested in following, instead of just wanting to strangle the writers for their laziness.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2015 – Page 4

I Was Abducted by an Elite All-Girls School as a Sample Commoner (Ore ga Ojousama Gakkou ni “Shomin Sample” Toshite Gets♥Sareta Ken)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a light novel series about… well, that’s the nice thing about the premise being laid out in an awfully long title.

Characters

Kimito, our protagonist, is a completely ordinary high school student. One day, he’s suddenly abducted by a bunch of MIBs, who turn out to be the agents of a secret and elite academy for super-rich girls. The principal lays out their conundrums : the academy’s alumni are so sheltered that they don’t resist contact with the real world, and become agoraphobic shut-ins. So the idea is now to gently break the students in by having them interact with the one guy carefully selected by the staff. And just to be on the safe side, they got a gay dude.

… Which is news to Kimito ; it seems his childhood friend trolled the MIBs while they were researching him. But given the alternatives (with the distinct threat of castration), he’s not going to protest his heterosexuality too much.

Reiko, as class representative of the first-year class Kimito is now attending, helps out a bit to prevent him getting mobbed in. She’s just as sheltered and naive as the lot of them, though.

Aika is another girl he runs into (cue accidental groping, because of course). She’s even more proactive about learning “commoner” stuff from him, as she sees it as the panacea to her socialization troubles. And hey, the two of them already have decent chemistry as friends within a few minutes.

Production Values

Okay enough, I guess. And just about as much fanservice as you’d expect from the premise.

Overall Impression

Urgh. Some of the individual bits are okay enough, and it goes out of its way to avoid the common ojou-sama stereotypes, but there’s not getting around the fact that the latent homophobia inherent to the premise and much of the gags really, really bugs me. And that’s a complete deal-breaker for me.

I’m out.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2015 – Page 4