Go For It, Nakamura! (ガンバレ! 中村くん!! ) by Syundei

Go For It, Nakamura! tells a story of retro-style, teen romantic hijinx in a single volume. This all-ages story titular Nakamura who has a somewhat gloomy disposition and is prone to elaborate fantasies of how today he is really-probably-definitely going to become friends with his crush Hirose. Cue the wacky vignettes!

Nakamura is a charmingly relatable teen as he struggles with being the worst at starting a conversation, feeling weird about letting people know his hobbies, believing romance comics must have all the answers, and with a dozen other ways over the course of these stories.

Hirose is a friendly guy with an easy smile. There’s a recurring cast of classmates beyond Hirose, too. One of my favorites had to be the head of the occult club who tries to recruit Nakamura in a really silly one-off chapter.

I wasn’t expecting this to have as sweet an ending as it did. I think that’s what actually pushed it over the edge for me on whether or not to recommend it.

I’m curious to know if those who don’t have nostalgia for the comedy and aesthetics of 90s manga appreciate Go For It, Nakamura! It really captures the style perfectly. I got wonderful Here is Greenwood vibes.

Go For It, Nakamura! is a one volume manga that I wish there was more of.

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~kate

Pop Team Epic (ポプテピピック) by Bkub Okawa

If the blog is shut down after this post know that it was because we were unfairly charged with Anime Blogging Crimes to stop us from disseminating the TRUTH. The truth about the power and majesty of Pop Team Epic.

Popuko and Pipimi are two rebels without a cause. Their effect is often a bit hazy as well. All you really have to know is they are both leading their best lives and not letting anyone get in their way.  Even if the thing in their way is a baby, a city, or a small blue planet in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm. Pipimi tends to be more ladylike when she is committing murder whereas Popuko is more energetically enthusiastic in her homicide.

If you are unaware Pop Team Epic is a generally absurdist 4-koma comic that was recently adapted into an anime.  It is mostly just odd comedy segments like Ai Mai Mi or the Galaxy Angel anime. Strange things happen, maybe some popular culture is parodied, and then the comic moves on like nothing has happened. Maybe everyone will die, turn into gods, or is turned into babies but none of that matters in the next page. Canon is only referenced when it is and everything else only exists to serve the current gag.

The comedy itself is a mixture of vulgar shock humor, sarcastic social commentary, cutesy cute jokes, meta humor, and bizarre non-sequiturs all with some deep cut Japanese and American references. It very much feels like the best case scenario for the cumulation of modern internet humor.  Not every joke lands for everyone and some jokes leave most people just scratching their heads,  but the ratio of great jokes to bad is fairly high.

If you watched the anime you will recognize about half the material. There are some strips that pretty much translated into anime verbatim but there are a lot more jokes that the anime team put their own spin on from the seed of the original strip. I would have to say half of the first book is either material that is only tangentially related to the anime or is wholly original.  The anime mostly gives you a good idea if you would like the manga and vice versa. They are still different enough that they are both worth experiencing by anyone who enjoys either.

Plus the manga does not have the god-awful Bob Team Epic segments. That is always a plus.

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– Alain

Wakako-zake by Chie Shinkyu

Wakako is a young office worker who understands the pure pleasure of a good bite to eat and good drink to go alongside it. Usually that means popping in an eatery after work, but even at home or at a wedding, Wakako has her food priorities straight.

Short chapters pack a lot of punch with lovingly detailed food shots and Wakako’s wide-eyed face that is made for good reactions. A contented “PSHEWWW” often escapes her lips as she enjoys her meal.

From the simple pleasures of fried chicken and rolled omlette, to the exotic treasures of monkfish foie gras and grilled turban shell, Wakako appreciates all ends of the culinary spectrum.

Often depicted alone, but not lonely, Wakako not only takes great pleasure from eating food but also feels no shame in it. Whether you read a chapter now and then or a whole book at once, you’ll be uttering  a happy “PSHEWWW” yourself.

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~kate

 If you were curious my three choices for Anime Secret Santa this year were both seasons of KonoSuba, both new parts of FLCL (FLCL Progressive and FLCL Alternative), or both seasons Blood Blockade Battlefront. For some reason, my Secret Santa seemed hellbent on me watching two seasons of whatever I picked.

I passed over FLCL mostly because while I was interested in watching the series I heard it was extremely disappointing. It was not horrible, or even worse, it just was a pale shadow of the original. It felt like something that would produce a rather limp review. Blood Blockade Battlefront seemed the safest choice. At worst I might find the show dull but it would have to go some really bad places to be hard to watch. KonoSuba seemed to be the show most in the spirit of the Secret Santa Project. It was a show I avoided because it seemed like more of the same isekai nonsense that has been flooding the market. But along with Re:Zero it is one of the few transported to another world series that I actually saw good reviews for. It seemed like a title I might have wrongly prejudged as another wannabe part of the Sword Art Online wave.

To be perfectly honest I also had I plan that if KonoSuba was Texhnolyze bad I could just hit the eject button and review the far safer Blood Blockade Battlefront. I’m not going to suffer THAT much for this project. Once was enough. I’m not that much of a masochist.

Clearly, since this is my Secret Santa review KonoSuba was not total unwatchable trash like The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar but that does not mean it was good. Does KonoSuba rise like cream to the top of the isekai barrel? The short answer is: It’s complicated.

Kazuma Satou dies a rather embarrassing death but is given a second chance but the not so benevolent water goddess Aqua. She will send his soul to a troubled world with all of his current memories in hopes that he can be the chosen one that will defeat the Demon King. As a bonus, she will throw in any ultra powerful bonus he wants to help in his mission. Satou chooses Aqua as his trump card in a moment of panic and spite. Even when downgraded to a mortal body Aqua is still an ultra-powerful cleric. The problem is that she is a trash fire of a person ripped out of a Rumiko Takahashi manga and as dumb as a sack of hammers. Satou is no luckier when a Munchkin of a mage and a masochistic paladin join their party.  Can this five-man band pretend to be competent long enough to save the world or will rocks fall and kill them all?

If you just want my Cliff Notes review of the show here it is: At first I thought KonoSuba was a lame fan service comedy with terrible main characters. As the show went on I realized lots of the initially lame jokes and basic characterizations become much more clever and complicated jokes that build on themselves. Also, the show realizes the characters are horrible and treats them accordingly. It also has some nice tip of the hat send-ups of tabletop RPGs material alongside video game logic. That won it some major points in my eyes. So as the show went on it definitely grew on me and I began to understand how it got its good reputation. It is a show that rewards you for sticking with it.

I also realized KonoSuba has some MAJOR deal breaking elements that will kill the show instantly for some people. The two major problems are fundamental and unavoidable. If these elements get under your skin the show will remain horrible no matter how long you watch it. The first is while KonoSuba is a parody of isekai shows it can fall into the same traps it often makes fun of. Kazuma is the most notable criminal in this respect. The second major problem is Darkness has some jokes around her masochism that can easily go from funny, to someone’s kink, and even occasionally land all the way into the territory of disturbing or offensive. She is easily the most probable reason someone might be grooving with the show and then immediately have to stop.

Kazuma clearly demonstrates the first flaw of KonoSuba. He is supposed to be a send-up of the milquetoast isekai protagonist that is always billed as the ordinary everyman that just so happens to be a godly warrior and strategist that has a Paptimus Scirocco level harem magnet. They get to be a power fantasy that also allows nonthreatening self-insertion. In many ways, Kazuma is a character that thumbs his nose at the idea but at the same time, he falls into that niche despite the attempts at subversion.

Kazuma is the weakest Onion Knight styled class call the Adventurer that has no restrictions on who can use it but also has no major advantages. He has no inherent skill and bonuses, unlike all the other party members. The thing is he can learn any skill from any other class. He will never be able to use those skills as well as someone in that job making him a jack-of-all-trades and master of none. The thing is anyone who has ever played a tabletop RPG will know that skill synergy can easily take two well-balanced skills and turn them into a broken nightmare. If you allow a character to use any skill in a game a savvy player can become an unstoppable demigod with a few smart combinations. This allows an underpowered hero to defeat the top soldiers of the Demon Lord.

Also, Kazuma is supposed to buck the trend of having a harem of hotties because Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness are horrible people and therefore they break any fantasies of being surrounded by beautiful babes in a fantasy world. At first, this seems like it is well executed. The main three heroines are unabashedly irritating broken fools who are overly specialized monsters that shine at their weird niche and are useless outside of it. But here is the rub. If you look at the fandom you will see Aqua, Megumin, and Darkness all have sizable fandoms. They might be train wrecks but they still have a very distinct appeal. Characters like Flay Allster and Akane Shinjo also prove conclusively that if you make a character attractive enough a disturbing number of fans will forgive whatever they do. So what first appears to be a parody of the genre can easily be argued to be nothing more than a sadistic version of the norm.

Speaking of S&M the other main problem is Darkness. She is a paladin that took the job as it fulfills her masochistic desires to a sometimes orgasmic degree. She comically throws herself in the path of danger to the point of being suicidal in order to chase the next big hit of extreme pain. In theory, it is an amusing examination of the role of the tank through a dark mirror. The problem is the show takes this to some dark extremes which can easily turn off anyone without a particular style of dark humor. The easiest example is when Darkness talks about her ideal husband. She says that her perfect match would be a drunken wastrel who would take advantage of her devotion in the worst ways possible. She also frequently “let’s slip” her monster rape fantasies. I’m not here to kink shame anyone but Darkness seems to be the vessel for the disgusting desires of the reader more than anything else. While it is the logical extension of the joke to its darkest extreme it does feel like it goes past some very important lines that perhaps should not be crossed in the process.

I mostly left Megumin out of the conversation about problematic elements mostly because she is never as much of a lightning rod as the other cast members. She is not wholly innocent but overall she is never a major criminal. Her whole shtick is she is a mage who learned the most powerful attack magic spell and devoted herself to casting that single spell as perfectly as possible as the cost of the myriad of other spells she could have learned. On top of that, she basically is a major chunibyo which is quite an accomplishment in a fantasy world. She will remind any tabletop player of that one horrible little munchkin that made a character’s whose whole existence is to do as much damage in combat as possible at the cost of everything else. She does have a bit of a low-level loli vibe going on being younger than the rest of the party but they don’t actually exploit that anywhere as much as you would think. For a Rumiko Takahashi analogy, she is the Ryuunosuke Fujinami of KonaSuba. At her worst, she can be just as terrible as the rest of the cast but she usually just trends toward quirky all things considered.

Speaking of terrible people let us talk about Aqua. She is a selfish, lazy, greedy, petty, and vain drama queen. She is a terrible friend and a mediocre goddess. But unlike other series, KonaSuba makes sure to reward Aqua with an equal amount suffering for her terrible behavior. She gets as good as she gives out. It is also worth noting that Aqua does seem to genuinely care for any member of the Axis Order and tries to do the best she can for her worshipers. She wants to be a benevolent goddess but she is sadly just not very good at it. She also has moments of kindness and selflessness. It is just that her horrible vices always get in the way in the long-term.

You might be saying, “Al, you only mentioned four characters in the party all this time.” I’m not spoiling the arrival of a character who arrives later in the series. This fifth part member is omnipresent and unavoidable from the first episode. The fifth party member I was joking about is Aqua’s ass. There are episodes where it appears more than Megumin or Darkness. For plot reasons, Megumin and Darkness are not in certain episodes so that claim is not an exaggeration. Aqua wears a ridiculously short skirt, she has a plump rump, and the camera loves to focus on her posterior if it has the chance. In fact, the default camera angle is on her tush if there is nothing more interesting to focus on. Some episodes are thirstier than others but Aqua’s derrière always appears at least three times usually with at least one lingering shot. Aqua’s ass might not do much but you will be hard pressed to forget it.

Make no mistake. KonoSuba is filled with fan service like all but a handful of valiant holdouts in the isekai genre. When the busty guild master or wizard appear there is the prerequisite juvenile jiggle you expect from a show like this. Most women wear cheesecake fantasy outfits and the show will remind you of this fact. Anytime Darkness is in casual wear they make up for lost time in the upper body fanservice department.  It is just that Aqua’s fanny gets an extra degree of attention that sets it apart.

Now that I have pointed out the problems with KonoSuba I feel I can explore what it does right. If you were able to get through the above and are still interested there is a clever show at the core of it. I would just never fault anyone for never getting to that point. I have a feeling that left to my own devices I might have had the same feeling.

As I mentioned the humor in the show actually nicely snowballs. There are a surprising number of gags that actually gain moment as the series goes on. What often starts off as a collection of decent jokes often build into some really great and complex gags by the end of the second series.

The prime example of this is the Axis Order. When Aqua originally is made mortal she makes a big deal that she was higher in the celestial bureaucracy than her underling Eris.  (Despite what the show would normally have you believe about Aqua’s SOP this is actually true and confirmed by Eris herself.) When they actually get to the fantasy world they discover that The Eris Order is the major religion of the region and Aqua’s followers are called the Axis Cult. They are mostly seen as a crazy group of weirdos that are some mix of Scientology and Aum Shinrikyo.

This first comes to light when Aqua and Kazuma need money to join the Adventures Guild. She hits up a cleric for money and discovers that he is actually a priest of Eris. Since their gods are related he gives her the money and it mostly just seems like a set up to show how far Aqua has fallen. It seems like a throwaway gag but it is actually a bit more clever than that. As the series goes on we get a clearer and clearer picture of why exactly the Axis sect is seen as a cult of dangerous weirdos. It is mostly a little gag here or an awkward situation there.  When they actually go to a town controlled by the Axis Cult in the second season all these previous gags are paid off and built upon actually making a pretty clever stab a religion in general. It really works because all the previous jokes solidified into something greater but they needed that time to brew into something stronger.

I want to make it clear there are still a bunch of jokes that are nothing more than dumb puns, awkward moments, simple physical humor, cringe humor, or bouncing tits. There is a good deal of the show that caters to the lowest common denominator. Sometimes that low hanging fruit adds to the more complex comedy and sometimes it is just a quick gag and nothing more. It is just when the show actually works for its jokes it can actually be clever, insightful, and surprisingly complex. It is probably the reasons the show grew on me the most but it is not something that is immediately obvious.

I also have to say I was won over by the commitment to poking fun at everything fantasy related. While video game RPGs owe much of their current form to the tabletop RPGs that inspired them they have now distinctly become their own form. I would say that while Fantasy video games, books, and tabletop game share many tropes and ideas they are distinct enough that they have elements that are unique to themselves. You could easily be an expert on computer RPGs but have never touched a d20 or read a page of J.R.R. Tolkien and Ursula K. Le Guin. It feels like for the last decade or so the main focus of parody in fantasy anime has been game like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. Aqua’s frequent use of Turn Undead or Megumin’s obsession with party killing fireball spells proves that Natsume Akatsuki probably has rolled up a character sheet or two in his day. So a series that goes back and looks at the whole oeuvre of fantasy is very welcome. A good deal of the humor still comes from modern games but the fact that some of the humor is from the older forms of fantasy won me over.

The animation in the show is easily in that category where if you ask about the quality you will probably get several different answers. This comes from the fact that it is a show that definitely emphasizes the fluidity of movement and expressiveness of characters over staying on model. It is not that the show never looks good it is just that when it comes down to looking perfect and feeling great the show always chooses to be expressive over perfect. This allows the humor to hit harder and the action scenes to have more impact at the expense of consistency. That is not to say that Konosuba is never rushed or sloppy. It can look cheap for no real gain at times but often what looks messy is actually more rewarding exactly for that reason.

There are some VERY high walls preventing people from entering the town that is Konosuba fandom. Some fans will stroll right in through the front gates and quickly find themselves a citizen of the town. Others will take some convincing and will have to spend some time with the content that can easily turn away anyone who is not willing to put in some effort for the promise of greater rewards inside the walls. Others still will either happily never try to enter the city or will run away screaming after a few days inside. Konosuba is a show with some great virtues and equally terrible flaws and often they center around the same elements. It is distinctly a show where if any element turned you off you might want to be wary of watching the show but at the same time if you heard anything that catches your fancy there is more meat on that bone then you might expect. Konosuba is not a party everyone will want to join but they are a party that might just defeat the demon king if you join up with them.

Or the party might just take your money and Aqua will use it to buy booze. Either scenario is equally possible.

Warning: Spoilers for Hugtto! PreCure

 Truth be told I’m actually going to try to keep spoilers about Hugtto! PreCure to a minimum. The thing is I’m going to be talking about the show as a whole including the ending so spoilers are inevitable but I will try to leave some details as vague as possible because I know the length of the PreCure franchise tends to ward off all but the hardcore. At the same time, the number of very strong PreCure entries has grown to the point where people are getting more interested in the series like they have with Gundam or Jojo’s. So I have a feeling more people are going to read this out of general curiosity than the number of people who have finished the series. For them, I want to leave some sense of discovery if this makes them seek out Hugtto!

Also leaving somethings deliberately vague is thematically appropriate for this article.

Like any long-term franchise, you are going to have some disparity in the quality of the entries. Some iterations will be universally loved with a few staunch detractors, there will be some stinkers than only have a handful of defenders, with most versions being somewhere in the middle. The general consensus will drift on certain titles over the years and individual taste will always be a little different from person to person but there are some popular opinions that tend to transcend that. HeartCatch PreCure! is one of the highlights of the series whereas Suite PreCure is often cited as one of the most skippable. Hugtto! PreCure was on track to be in the pantheon of the best-reviewed entries in the franchise. Then the ending came. It made a lot of fans mull over their thoughts on the show. At this point, I feel only some distance from the ending will tell how the fans will ultimately judge the show but it is no longer guaranteed a top spot.

I have been examining my own feelings on the show since it ended. My overall grade on the show is not final but I feel I very much understand where this mixed reaction to the series from the fandom has come from. It all centers around one of the subtle but integral parts of the show. Hugtto! PreCure liked to keep various elements of the show ambiguous and up for interpretation. The main point of contention is that before the ending this element might have been frustrating for some people but overall it was ignorable at worst and clever or even subversive when it was working. The problem is that it complicates the ending in several key ways.

Now there are a good number of people who were fine with the series. It distinctly has a definitive conclusion. It is not trying to have the main conflict left dangling or have you ponder the artistic message of the show. Especially if you read between the lines most things have a pretty definitive conclusion. The ending does purposefully refuse to comment on certain elements but always does that for a reason. The main sticking point is that this can easily come off as cowardly or milquetoast depending on how invested you were in certain parts of the story.

Now before I continue I think it is vital to explain why so many people got heavily invested in Hugtto! PreCure. I love Smile Precure! but let’s face it other than the one episodes about Yayoi’s dad the show is fairly effervescent. It is loads of fun and hysterical but hardly War and Peace levels of gravitas. Hugtto! PreCure while mainly a fun kids show touched on a lot of heavy topics on the down-low. It was also progressive in a way you usually only see in American cartoons like Steven Universe.

Henri Wakamiya alone created quite the stir. While it never clearly addresses how he would identify himself he is clearly not a cis character. He also starts what is easily seen as a homosexual relationship with Aisaki Emiru. Their relationship one of the biggest examples of something in the show is left ambiguous but is very apparent if you read between the lines. Henri even becomes a PreCure twice in the series. Emiru Aisaki and Ruru Amour have a relationship that could be interpreted as anywhere from strong friendship to deep romantic love. It is a clear case of only a minor push could make the relationship official but they always stay in the realm of plausible deniability.

It is not just relationships. Ogiue Maniax has a great article about how the show tackles the taboo around Caesarean sections in Japan.  The show also deals with careers, the working world, alienation, family, parenting, identity, gender expectations in a harder way than most PreCure episodes while staying within the normal boundaries of the franchise. Just look at the fact that all the Criasu Corporation employees are a critique of the Japanese economic periods they are based on. In fact, all of their names are based on these eras. It is a little sharper than the basic office comedy in Yes! PreCure 5.

You could throw the accusation that the show is cowardly for never pulling the trigger on a lot of these issues. They hint at them but never go all the way. I for one think it is clever. Their approach let them tackle some issues that might have otherwise gotten PTA groups in a tizzy when included in a show for little girls but it still has a meaningful discussion about what might otherwise be seen as hot button issues if they were tackled directly. It is progressive without being directly confrontational.  I know some people wanted them to go further but I don’t think it was really a deal breaker for most people. Most fans were appreciative that they touched on the ideas at all.

The real problem is how all the time travel stuff was handled. This should surprise no one. Time travel is one topic that complicates everything and easily leads to paradoxes, plot holes, and a lot of hand waving. In fact, I would say every time travel story has this it is just that the better ones have less of it. The problem is that Hugtto! uses their ambiguous playbook with the time travel and that led to lots of the sour feelings.

So Hugtto! basically does almost nothing to explain how time traveling the series works. This means that they avoid a good deal of massive paradoxes that would be caused by trying to come up with an explanation that makes all the events line up. At the same time, it leaves everything at the end oddly confusing. The final scenes happen years after the conclusion but before the time travel started in the first place. This works in the show’s favor but at the same time makes a whole different set of problems.

It also does not explain what exactly happens to all the characters who went back to the future. Do they return to the original crappy timeline and try to make it better or do they pop into this new happier timeline? How far in the future did the first person start time traveling? Who remembers what and when? You can make informed guesses but Kate and I had a long conversion just trying to begin to understand how things lined up. The vagueness of what happened lets the dedicated fans interpret things how they wish. I think this is what they wanted. The problem is if you were not super invested in certain interpretations then it was easy to just be left scratching your head. Also if you read in between the lines in one way it can make it seem like the show totally counters your hopes when the did not mean to trample on that interpenetration. Hugtto! has asked the audience to read between the lines several times before this point so it would be odd for them to stop now.

Overall I enjoyed the ending but it did feel weaker than what came before it. When we were discussing the ending of the show one of my friends jokingly called the show cowardly. I think that is overly harsh but I do feel the show should have done a little more with its ending to make things feel more satisfying. I don’t think that Rin Tohsaka explains time travel systems would have really helped anything. The exact mechanics of the time travel would not have really added much and may have only invited more questions. What the show really needed was just a tad more conclusion that could have made some stories feel more solidified and some character related questions feel less nebulous. George Kurai alone really needs just a little more clarification. The final Precure villains have a bad habit of just people EVIL for the sake of being EVIL. So when the series has a villain with real motivations that tie into the cast you might want to avoid being so obtuse about it.

Overall I think there is a good deal to love about Hugtto! PreCure. It opened the door to male PreCure. It touched on some interesting ideas and went places boldly and confidently while staying true to the series roots. I just think the ending will prevent it from being an automatic recommendation like HeartCatch PreCure! or Go! Princess PreCure. I hope it is a series that will be remembered for how much it tried with ambiguity more than how that same technique cut them at the end.

 So I’m watching the 17th episode of season three of A Certain Magical Index and there is a major revelatory moment. It was so odd I had to share it.

The whole point of the current arc is the characters discovering who or what is DRAGON. All these organization and individuals are running around with various plans to either find the identity of DRAGON or prevent others from discovering the truth. Then at the climax of the episode Accelerator finally corners Shiokishi who is one of the few people who actually is in on the secret. Shiokishi with nowhere else to run says that DRAGON is everywhere and Accelerator should turn around. Shiokishi does not in fact then run away like a cartoon character when Accelerator turns around because there is actually something there. It is DRAGON.

Now at this point I’m TECHNICALLY spoiling the secret of DRAGON in the A Certain Magical Index  but the fact of the matter is in many ways this is actually almost impossible to spoil which is actually part of the whole reason I’m writing this in the first place. Going forward there are basically two main camps of people. People who are not hardcore fans of A Certain Magical Index and those who have been watching the series for a while. Everything past this point is so stepped in esoterica that the important parts of the reveal would mean nothing to non fans. The fans of the series have probably already seen this reveal. Even then it actually sort of dodges being a full spoiler for reasons I will explain.

So it turns out that DRAGON is in fact the angel Aiwass. So what does that mean? Well one of the major antagonists in the series is Aleister Crowley. For those not in the know Aleister Crowley is a rather infamous occultist back in the early 20th century.  Supposedly his magical teachings are the result of secrets passed on to him by his guardian angel Aiwass. This means that Aleister Crowley is a great persona if you want to throw a historical figure into your urban fantasy series or have some semi obscure magical reference in your song lyrics. I know who he is because I’m a tabletop RPG nerd and enjoy researching things like that but the details of Thelema are hardly common knowledge in the US or Japan. I highly doubt they teach Japanese students the history of The Book of the Law right after lessons on Oda Nobunaga and Meiji Restoration.

The weirdest thing is (and the whole reason I wrote this) is because right after this big reveal the conversation continues as if a casual fact was dropped on the audience and nothing more. There is no expository dialog. No one says, “You know, Aiwass. The guardian angel of your nemesis Aleister Crowley.” It is mentioned the same way as if it turned out one of the minor cast members like Fukiyose Seiri or a celebrity Madonna turned out to be actually be DRAGON. It is supposed to be an unexpected reveal but nothing worth going into detail about.

Now Aleister Crowley is an established character in the show since fairly close to the beginning of the show. They have mentioned that he was once a famous occult figure and is now being kept alive via a mixture or magic and science but not really much more than that. There has never been an episode that explains his back story or his place in the Index universe. Not even a “That dude Ozzy Osbourne  wrote a song about.” He mostly is shown as a shadowy mastermind and send out minions or exploits on plot elements  at the end of a story arc. Your mostly expected to know who he is on your own. They do VERY briefly mention offhandedly that Aleister Crowley wrote The Book of the Law with Aiwass in the Orsola Aquinas Rescue Arc back in the beginning on Season 2. It was such a minor scene that

1. I had to look up when it happened and

2. I had to look up that it happened in the first place.

It does not help that the episode aired back in on October 15, 2010. Even a lore nerd like myself only vaguely remembered the scene. I actually remembered who Aiwass was more because of Mage: The Ascension than the show itself.

I guess what I expected was either a quick expository line or a quick flashback to get people back up to speed on who this mysterious angel is. Anime is infamous for flashing back to things that happened ten minutes ago let alone 3,032 days ago.

I do have to wonder if this is a sign that A Certain Magical Index has a bit of a mandate to cover as much ground as possible since it has come back. I know that several people have noted that the season’s pace seems rather spirited. Even Frenda’s death seems to happen rather quickly and mostly off screen. (But that might have been more a little bit of self censorship on the show’s part since she dies pretty brutally.) So it might be just a case where when every second counts you have to prioritize new information over things the audience has already been told even it it was a while back.

It could also just be the fact that A Certain Magical Index deeply nerdy show. It is one of those series that clearly prides itself on its extensive depth of lore. That type of show attracts a certain type of nerd. The type of nerd who remembers minor bits of off mentioned esoterica,  periodically reads and references wikis, and does research outside of the show itself. As a Type-Moon fan it is clear I’m that type of nerd. The J.C.Staff crew might just have decided that sort of exposition would be like reintroducing Touma every episode. It would just be a waste of everyone’s time.

In the end It was just bizarre that when I saw the DRAGON reveal my first thought was, “It makes sense that Aiwass is DRAGON.” My second thought was, “But wait. Why should that be obvious to anyone watching this unless they are someone like me?” Then my final though was I should write this article. I guess in the end when you are so used to seeing things over explained the inverse sticks out like a sore thumb. While I’m sure many an anime fan would wish away pointless expository dialog from many shows they love it does serve a purpose when used correctly.

I recently had to take a Friday off of work after I had spent most of Thursday expelling the contents of the digestive system. That meant I spent a good deal of two days mostly lying in bed. While the experience was hardly pleasant it did give me a good deal of time where I needed to entertain myself passively as I recovered. This gave me a good chance to knock out a very vital title in my pile of shame.

A while back Kate and I were asked if we could get the other host of the Speakeasy to watch one show what would it be. Kate said that she would get me to finish Fullmetal Alchemist. Fullmetal Alchemist was an odd case in my library. I started watching the original TV series but then the overwhelming outcry was the original manga was better. (If this is true is a matter of contention I will touch on later in the post.) So I put the TV series on hold and started reading the manga. I played with the idea of watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood but I was already decently invested into buying the manga and I heard that while Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood only got really good when it got into new material as the first parts of the story were extremely rushed since they were in the 2003 TV series. The problem was that halfway through the Fort Briggs storyline I got outsourced at work and my pay was significantly cut. This meant that I stopped buying a lot of manga series and one of those titles was Fullmetal Alchemist. I always meant to finish off the series but I just never got around to it.

So Fullmetal Alchemist fell into this limbo where I had gotten fairly far into the story so there was a drive to finish off the series but starting over from the beginning was a bit of a pain in the ass. I’m definitely in that position with Nodame Cantabile. I was really hoping that someone would get the itch watch Fullmetal Alchemist and I could tag along with them but that never happened. So I was in limbo until I got sick. It seemed to be the perfect catalyst. It also worked really well since I was a little loopy during the episodes I watched on Friday but that was mostly when I watched the part of the story that I had experienced multiple times. By the time I was generally feeling better on Saturday I had caught up to where I was in the manga. I then just spent the next week finishing off the series.

Now a LOT of ink has been split on Fullmetal Alchemist. If you want a complex analysis of the themes, characters, and plot it is not too hard to find. I instead wanted to just go over five things I noticed since I watched all of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood in 2019. There are certain observations that are easier to make a full decade after the show premiered. Some might only be possible with that much distance. That is worth talking about thanks to perspective.

First of all, it is easy to forget what a powerhouse Fullmetal Alchemist was back in the day. If you are new to anime fandom Fullmetal Alchemist still has a decent amount of cache alongside series like Dragon Ball, Cowboy Bebop, or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Despite being “old”
those shows still populate many a list of canon that you should see and no one is super worried that they will be forgotten anytime soon. The thing is there like all those other series I mentioned at their heyday it felt like everyone one had either seen Fullmetal Alchemist or was intentionally going out of their way not to watch it. Opinions ranged from it was an instant classic to a piece of overrated claptrap but it seemed like the series was everywhere. It was constantly cosplayed at conventions. It was a constant topic of panels, podcasts, blog posts, humor, and general fan conversation. I know Kate avoided anything Fullmetal Alchemist just because it had such a huge cloud of hype around it that she waited until it died down to give the series a fair shake.

It also came out at just the right time. The Physical DVDs and manga were released alongside streaming episodes and a TV broadcast on Cartoon Network. That meant the show was extremely easily accessible in so many different formats. At the same time, the number of shows coming out was still small enough that popular shows could stick around for a while without immediately being completely replaced by the new hotness. It was definitely a mainstream success in fandom and even made a minor dent in the consciousness of the general nerdy public. I know Asami Sato’s character design from The Legend of Korra is partially based on Lust.

As I mentioned Fullmetal Alchemist is hardly a forgotten show. If you asked a crowd at any large anime convention you would undoubtedly still get a positive reaction from a decent percentage of the crowd. It is just the difference between the excitement for Attack on Titan in the middle of its first season and the fandom now. When Fullmetal Alchemist was on fire it blazed with the heat of a thousand suns. Now it is just a bright point in the sea of stars.

Secondly, it is easy to forget how odd the two different version of the Fullmetal Alchemist TV series. I have mentioned it so many times on this site but the fact that shows can take a few years off and still come back on a regular basis is a major game changer. Back in the day, there was a fear that if a series took a break to let the manga build up the fandom would die out. So anime original endings and filler arcs were rather common. They were hardly ever popular but they were often considered better than a “go read the manga” ending. Even in that climate the Fullmetal Alchemist TV  still stands out.

Around the introduction of Greed the first Fullmetal Alchemist TV series goes off in its own direction in amazingly significant ways. Characters like Ling Yao and Olivier Mira Armstrong are not in the original anime and there are new characters like Frank Archer and Clara are used instead. The Homunculus are radically different in both versions with some Homunculi have different identities and powers and others being totally new characters. Also, major characters like Kimblee and Van Hohenheim share similarities to their original versions but are pretty much new characters. In fact, even something like the fundamental principles of alchemy and the themes related to that eventually radially diverges. Also, the endings would actually try very hard to be any more different than they are now. The 2003 version is not some series where they slap on a quick ending in the last three episodes. Watching Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 and 2009 is like watching two different shows. It is pretty much its own show once they start diverging. I don’t think something like this would happen today without a request from the original author.

It is also sort of crazy how quickly they put out Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood after Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 ended. This is back in a day when reboots were hardly unheard of but were also nowhere as frequent as they are today. Even today a totally new series like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood would raise some eyebrows at how quickly it came out. But I think it speaks volumes how well Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 sold. They knew they had a huge pile of money on the table and a complete story that they could adapt with a huge amount of demand attached to it. If you look at the credits for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood you will see Funimation’s fingerprints all over there. Funimation clearly saw they had a hit on their hands and did everything to strike while the iron was hot.

Third is how odd it is that Hiromu Arakawa has fallen out of the spotlight. It seemed like Hiromu Arakawa was poised to be a rock star mangaka. Just slap “From the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist” on the cover of whatever she did next and just wait for the money to pour in. The major problem is her next two major works were Silver Spoon and The Heroic Legend of Arslan. I actually like both series immensely so I’m not saying she is some unfortunate one hit wonder. The problem is neither series was able to capitalize on the English speaking fandom in any meaningful way.

The problem with Silver Spoon is it is NOTHING like Fullmetal Alchemist. Fullmetal Alchemist is a classic fantastical shonen adventure with lots of hooks for a western audience. Silver Spoon is a very down to earth comedy series that is so very Japanese in its look at an agricultural college. Especially in America, the parts of fandom that care about both types of story is rather slim. It is not that Silver Spoon totally fell off the face of the earth. It is just that the narrative shift lost so much of the original audience and was replaced by a much smaller seinen fandom. In Japan, the series is a hit but here it is mostly an oddity for scholarly nerds and oldtaku.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan seemed like it should have been the one to carry the legacy of Fullmetal Alchemist. The original novels are by the author of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. It is an epic fantasy adventure loosely based on a Persian epic. If you have read the original manga you will see that Hiromu Arakawa really hit it out of the park with her adaptation. This was the series that would appeal to Fullmetal Alchemist fans 100%. But the anime was super mediocre. Painfully so. It is not bad. It is just so very lackluster. Without a killer anime, the manga sort of just exists in limbo. Hardcore fans know about it but everyone else in the dark. It did nothing to sell itself and so The Heroic Legend of Arslan sort of just faded into obscurity.

It is just sort of crazy to think about. A super popular mangaka sort of faded from the spotlight despite having two really solid follow-up series. In a way, she sort of has become a one-hit wonder despite doing nothing to deserve it.

Fourth is how nice the series looks at the time. I’m sure a sakuga expert could go into greater depth into the best parts of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood but even my amateur eyes notice that most episodes have at least one or two dazzling scenes that really knock your socks off. I know that budget alone does not determine how well a series turns out. But when a series has a solid set of tracks laid out the amount of money poured into the show yields results with far better efficiency. It is very clear that everything was set up that the team working on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood could do their best and the end result shows that. Not every episode is a masterwork and if you want to nitpick you will find what you need over the course of 64 episodes. But objectively  Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a very pretty show that was extremely well crafted.

Fifth is how well the series holds up now. I have to say that Fullmetal Alchemist still feels fresh and exciting. The themes of the show are still very relevant and powerful. Everything with the Ishval Civil War still has strong real-world parallels and feels heavy in a way that adds layers of depth and meaning to what otherwise might be a simple fight series with some cool magic effects. The corruption of the Amestris military, the philosophical dilemmas of the Philosopher’s Stone, the questions of what makes someone human, and even the beginning storyline with the Church of Leto all still make you think. While both versions of Fullmetal Alchemist eventually go their own ways both of them take the core ideas and run with them in fascinating ways.

I think that should make it clear that if you have not experienced any version of Fullmetal Alchemist it is a series you should not sleep on. If you have to pick one I would go with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (or just the manga) for two reasons. The first reason is the manga snob in me says when in doubt go with the original story. The second reason is I like how the manga very deliberately structured so the narrative of the story mirrors the creation of a Philosopher’s Stone in classical western alchemy. That is some high-level planning. While the story is strong in the Fullmetal Alchemist 2003 version the changes make it so that structure is no longer present. It is an odd reason to prefer something but also a very Alain reason to prefer something. But both stories are solid enough that there is something to be gained from watching both versions.

Fullmetal Alchemist maybe over a decade old but it still feels as fresh as when it first came out. It deserves its place alongside the other classics of anime.

I saw Penguin Highway in theaters during the New York Int’l Children’s Film Festival. I was sitting next to two women in their late 20s who were discussing where to get artisanal haircuts. If that does not paint a picture of who was sitting next to me I’m not exactly sure what will. After the movie ended one of them commented that the story distinctly had the feel of what she expected from one of those “Japanimation cartoons”. Before I say anything else I do have to address the elephant in the room: I’m just as shocked as you that anyone still says “Japanimation cartoons” let alone two young women. But it does give you a sense of how Penguin Highway feels very different when your baseline for anime is just seeing Ghibli movies and Adult Swim shows. That said I would argue that Penguin Highway falls into that realm of your stereotypical “anime” either.

That is a fairly weighty statement to make so I think it requires some justification beyond “Penguin Highway gets lots of critical praise so it has to be different.” Let us see if I can back up my claim.

Aoyama is a child prodigy and he knows it. He is far smarter than almost everyone in his class and even most of the adults around him. So when a group of Penguins mysteriously appears in his town he is determined to discover their origin. Soon he discovers that the sexy dental hygienist he has a crush on is tied to a mysterious sphere in the woods and the spontaneously generating penguins. As the supernatural phenomenon in town gets more pronounced can  Aoyama and his classmates figure out how everything is connected before things take a turn for the apocalyptic?

Tomihiko Morimi is definitely an author who works in the realm of magical realism. The Eccentric Family is from the perspective of a family of tanuki set in the modern-day. They interact with tengu and oni as well as humans with a very mundane perspective. The thing is humans deal with supernatural creatures like they were a slight oddity in their routine. When the humans of the Friday Fellows discover tanuki they are slightly taken aback but then it seems their next question is “Are they tasty?” His other series like The Tatami Galaxy and Night Is Short, Walk On Girl take things from the opposite direction and have very normal protagonists who just so happen to get caught up in very unusual situations involving gods and demons, temporal anomalies, and the cowboy libidos. People are always unnerved by the fantastical occurrences but in the same way, they would react to losing their wallets or find a hundred dollars on the street. They are events you would mention over dinner as an interesting or depressing story but nothing to change your worldview.

Penguin Highway works in the same way. Most everyone in the town takes the spontaneously generating penguins as just a minor bit of news to gossip about. Only Aoyama, and his female counterpart in the class Hamamoto, really care about getting to the core of what is going on. Eventually, the military and scientists get involved but that is because things really start getting so they can’t ignore it. It is all so “mundane” that most people only get involved when circumstances force their hand.

The most “anime” thing is probably that Aoyama has a fairly well-developed crush on the dental hygienist he only every calls Lady. He hangs around her, plays shogi with her at a local cafe, and dreams of marrying her which is all pretty standard young kid crush stuff. But then he is very articulate about his admiration of her pleasant curves and knows exactly how many days it is until he is an adult and they could theoretically have a legal physical relationship. All the talk about breasts, in fact, got the movie a little racy language warning in the NYICFF write up. It is a very horny-on-main sort of thing that feels like part of the stereotypical outsider nerdy perspective of anime. It is almost certainly one of the main reasons those ladies made a comment about “Japanimation cartoons.”

But this is not just something for all the horny boys in the audience. It is a vital part of Aoyama’s character and actually of the greater themes of the movie. Seriously. I know that can easily sound like I am apologetic sugarcoating his part of the story but hear me out. Aoyama is this little genius who is clearly extraordinarily smart. He runs circles around most everyone in his class and most adults he encounters. Whenever he talks to other people or thinks to himself he has a very scientific and articulate manner of speech. His friend Uchida follows him unquestioningly and one of the reasons the bully Suzuki hates him is because of how authoritative and knowledgeable he is. But as the movie goes on we see more and more while Aoyama is incredibly smart his wisdom has not had time to grow to the same level.

Aoyama has a great deal of book learning, analytical ability, and a fairly sharp tongue. The problem is since he is still only an elementary school student he just lacks a lot of practical experience. So while he talks like a genius professor if you scratch the surface of anything he says that is not from book learning it is clear he is still a naive little kid. Any sort of situation that revolves around emotional intelligence shows off that he still needs to grow up a bit. The problem is that since he is so conventionally smart most people either ignore or miss where he is weak. Effectively he fools everyone into thinking he is more mature than he actually is. His greatest weakness is the fact that the person who is most fooled by this is Aoyama himself. It is a Dunning–Kruger effect where he does not have the emotional intelligence to recognize how much emotional intelligence he lacks. Therefore he is usually so intelligent so assumes all of his deep thoughts on relationships are actually super mature and grounded in logic.

You see this especially with any of his interactions with Lady, Hamamoto, or Suzuki. Hamamoto is just as brilliant as Aoyama but she is only slightly better with social wisdom than Aoyama. This means that Aoyama is totally unaware of how childish his crush on the Lady is. He completely misses that Hamamoto has a huge crush on him. He just assumes that they are intellectual buddies. While they are friends because they are the smartest kids in town who can speak as equals he misses any romantic dimensions to their friendship. At the same time he also totally misses the fact that one of the main reasons Suzuki hates him so much is because Aoyama has captured the attention of Hamamoto. Aoyama might be able to decipher time-space anomalies he is thick as a brick when it comes to matters of the heart.

Penguin Highway was directed by Hiroyasu Ishida. The Tatami Galaxy and Night Is Short, Walk On Girl were directed by Masaaki Yuasa who has a very unmistakably unique and dynamic style. The Eccentric Family was directed by Masayuki Yoshihara and pops in its own way even if it is a bit more restrained by a TV show production schedule. The Kousuke Kawazura character designs also set The Eccentric Family apart. Penguin Highway does not feel exactly like the work of anyone else adapting the work of Tomihiko Morimi. That said Studio Colorido brings out some really striking set pieces during key moments while still having very good-looking scenes when things are more relaxed. So while Penguin Highway has a more generic anime film feel it is executed in the best possible way. It feels like a movie that takes advantage of being a theatrical release in all the best ways.

So I get it. If you only have a cursory experience with anime this might seem like a slightly more elegant version of the stereotypical Weird Japanese Thing that tries to be smart but relies on oddity and fanservice to cover over deficiencies in actual complexity but that is not the case. Much like Tomihiko Morimi’s other novels, there is a lot more going on under the hood. The depth is not illusory. Penguin Highway distinctly has the feel of anime. That is why his novels keep getting adapted as anime. Despite some of the awkwardness of Aoyama’s and The Lady’s relationship, there is some more profound that generic light novel anime #227. It is not just one of those stereotypical weird “Japanimation cartoons.” Penguin Highway is a visual and narrative treat that stands alongside the other anime based on the work of Tomihiko Morimi.

I was going to start with my review of the second Heaven’s feel movie with this history lesson but when I realized how long it was I decided to make it its own post that I would put up before the actual review. I know for some people this is common knowledge but the heyday of visual novels is in the distant past enough that it is worth talking about for some better context for one of my main points in the review.

Manga has always been the primary source of material for anime adaptations and probably will be for the foreseeable future. But there was a time when visual novels were being turned into anime left and right. It seemed like there was a minimum of one visual novel based anime every season with some seasons having half a dozen on the docket. While you still see visual novels being turned into anime it seems that light novels have really become the king of that niche.

The thing was the common wisdom about visual novels was that the way to really get them to sell was to have sex scenes. Therefore almost all of the male-targeted and even a good deal of the female-targeted visual novels had at least some erotic content. That is great when you’re just selling to the niche market of visual novels readers but when you try to go into the broader anime market it causes some problems. You can adapt all the content of the original game but then your titled is banished to henati anime market. It also means that you cannot port your game from the PC to any popular video game console. The most common tactic was to remove the explicit scenes one way or another. You can keep anything that would be considered up to an R rated scene but you cut out or heavily edit anything X rated. As I understand it some games were made specifically so that the sex scenes were made extremely modular so they could be removed from the game for a simple adaptation to consoles and anime. All the naughty bits are written and placed in the game so they could be removed without skipping a beat.

The problem is that some games like Fate/Stay Night have sex scenes that are important parts of the story. If you take out those scenes it leaves some big plot holes that take a decent amount of massaging to smooth over. In the case of Fate/Stay Night the author of the game wrote new scenes that replaced the sex scenes with far more PG-13 magical rituals. All of the anime versions of Fate/Stay Night have used the all new scenes in the Fate/Stay Night Realta Nua version. This has led to memes involving CG dragons and crystal fish. That was all fine and good for the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works paths. The sex scenes were honestly mostly fan service when push comes to shove. While they added some character and plot development they could be altered with minimal disruption to the story.

The problem is the Heaven’s Feel storyline is thematically sexual. Sex, love, and lust are all fundamental parts of the character and story of Sakura. The PS2 games change most of the sex into erotic blood drinking. A ton of vampire literature has shown that overall this is not the worst substitution it still abstracts a lot of Heaven’s Feel that was a bit stronger with the sex scenes. Whenever adapting Heaven’s Feel came up as a topic in fandom one of the biggest questions was what would they do with the sex scenes. Would they use the lighter PS2 scenes or would they use rated R version of those moments? There were decent arguments for both choices but for the longest time, it was mostly an academic argument.

The choice went from theory to practice when Ufotable decided to follow-up their very successful Unlimited Blade Works TV series with a trilogy of Heaven’s Feel movies. While they had gone with the crystal fish from the PS2 version for Unlimited Blade Works they went for the original content for Heaven’s Feel. Now overall the scenes are all basic cable sex scenes (they are not even HBO sex scenes) they are not the self-censored blood drinking scenes.

For many Type-Moon fans, this is the first time they have experienced the original version of any path of Fate/Stay Night since all the commercially available versions of Fate/Stay Night use the PS2 version as their source material. While the content of the original is common knowledge to most Type-Moon fans the more casual fans have probably only gotten the general gist of the scenes or know the parodies and jokes more than the actual material itself.

OK. That should catch everyone who is not a mega Type-Moon nerd or a visual novel historian up to speed. Next time I will actually share what I think of Lost Butterfly.

Watching the first Heaven’s Feel movie with an audience in a theater was a fun experience. With the right audience, when you watch action scenes you can feel the excitement of your fellow theater patrons and dramatic scenes can also be amplified by the collective investment in the emotional swell of a scene. The problem is the wrong audience can jar your out of a scene just as easily. While I enjoyed the hell out of Lost Butterfly in the theater but during certain scenes the audience reminded me they were also there in the worst possible ways.

I recently wrote up a history of the adult scenes of Fate/Stay Night and how they have been adapted into anime over the years. I know some of my readers know this all so better to put it as is own footnote for those who are not Type Lunatics. So if you don’t know what Realta Nua is you might want to at least skim that post. Otherwise, let’s continue.

At the end of Presage Flower, it seemed like Shirou had hit the bottom floor in his decent but as it turns out there were still several basements and sub-basements to get through before he hit rock bottom. After the Black Shadow, True Assassin, Zouken defeat Saber the Rin and Shirou alliance rush to find allies among the remaining Masters and Servants. But it is all in vain as the Black Shadow consumes several more power Servants including Gilgamesh and Hercules. To make matters worse the kindly Sakura seems tied to the monstrous Black Shadow. What will Shirou and Rin do if their greatest enemy is linked to someone so precious to them?

Heaven’s Feel has always been the most sexual path in Fate/Stay Night which is saying something since Fate/Stay Night is an adult game. Ufotable decided to keep true to that by retaining in the sexual content from the original PC version. There is no nudity so the adult scenes are somewhere between PG-13 and R. It is really a little too risqué to be PG-13 but it is a little too soap opera to fully earn an R rating. Overall I think they kept the intensity without diving into the realm of overindulgent fan service. They could have gone with the Realta Nua versions of the scenes but I think it would have dulled the themes a bit. This version let the story be mature and adult without being porn with plot.

The main problem with the theatrical experience was it was like watching the film with a bunch of little kids. The amount of hooting, hollering, and giggling during the sex scenes were just sort of embarrassing. I admit that as much as I love Fate/Stay Night it is not a combination of Shakespeare and Infinite Jest. It is very solid genre fiction with some clever writing at points alongside some of Nasu’s … peculiarities. That said I think the sex scenes were thematically appropriate and did not feel gratuitous, silly, or tacky. So while sexual content in a juvenile horny harem show or a disgustingly lascivious series like Master of Martial Hearts might elicit an awkward chuckle or an exasperated groan I think Heaven’s Feel dwells within a more dignified realm. Now you can argue about the merits and flaws sexual politics of the sexuality in Heaven’s Feel until the cows come home. As I said Nasu’s has some … peculiarities but I think it is all content that should provoke contemplation and debate but not laughter.

I was always in the camp that felt that would have preferred to keep the sex in the Fate/Stay Night adaptations. While I never felt that they needed to be as explicit as they were in the games but I would have argued that a more PG-13 version would have gotten the original story across without diving into the realm of pornography. I never had a problem with Realta Nua or anime and manga using it as the blueprint but it was not the way I would have gone. After watching Lost Butterfly in theaters I totally understand why it was the way that things worked for the longest time. If the original Fate/Stay Night anime would have had the original sex scenes and not a CG dragon I wonder if the series would have been as popular. I think those scenes might have prevented Fate from breaking out of its niche and remaining this series based on a porn game and nothing more. It is clear that even after 15 years of fandom there is still a sizable percentage of the fandom that cannot take the adult content seriously.

Beyond that despite that and having some killer heartburn that day I enjoyed the movie immensely. As always Ufotable brings their A-game when working on Type-Moon titles. The animation was spectacular and continues the high-caliber work they have been doing since Presage Flower. While the quiet scenes and fantastical scenes are still highly atmospheric and have gravitas the action scenes are what you are going to remember on a visceral level. The fight between Berserker and Saber Alter radiates raw power. It feels like the battle between two gods with everyone else being mere bystanders (other than the Black Shadow.)  That is not to say that the other scenes are not as powerful. Many of the calm scenes do a great job in releasing tension to help heighten the tension of the creepy scenes. Also, the scenes of Sakura’s dreams especially just before she consumes Gilgamesh are a great mixture of whimsy and terror than blend together perfectly.

While I was watching this movie I sort of realized this is the most edgelord friendly of the three paths of Fate/Stay Night. I know that is a little mean and I don’t want that comment to diminish the quality of Heaven’s Feel but that also does not make it untrue. The fact that many of the strongest Servants have been brutally murdered or corrupted, Sakura’s dark past and decent into monstrous depravity, Shirou’s rejection of his noble ideals, or the general dark mood of the storyline are all hallmarks of edgelord materials. Back in the day, the Fate path was seen as the most basic and boring path, Unlimited Blade Works was the exciting path where things started to get good, and Heaven’s Feel was the mature and philosophical path. Looking back on it I respect what Heaven’s Feel does but I also feel some of the old acclaim comes from the timeless idea that darkness equals depth. I would never accuse Heaven’s Feel of being shallow. I just think that there is a decent amount of complexity of themes in the first two parts. In fact, the themes and story in Fate and Unlimited Blade Works help add a richness to everything in Heaven’s Feel. Parts of Heaven’s Feel only have the impact they do thanks to what the player experienced before that point.

It is a testament to the quality of Lost Butterfly that despite having a terrible audience I had a wonderful time. I guess I should be used to Type-Moon fandom being generally made up of cool people but also have a core bunch of vocal brats that have to put a damper on everything. (When Sakura in involved this is doubly so.) I was a little worried that Ufotable might have to rush things to do everything that Heaven’s Feel needed to do in only three movies. Lost Butterfly does an amazing job of setting up everything for the final movie. I can’t wait to hear the Spring Song.

I have been catching up on series that had some promise from SWAT reviews but I never finished for one reason or another. There are some shows we watched as a group thanks to SWAT Reviews and others that we stayed away from like the plague after seeing a single episode. But there are a few anime that were in a decent middle ground where they looked promising but due to time we just could not fit them into our schedule. Alderamin on the Sky was one such show.

Let me be up front. Alderamin on the Sky is not a MUST SEE HIDDEN GEM THAT ALL THE SMART PEOPLE ACCIDENTALLY MISSED. It more a surprisingly strong show that is easy to dismiss because of its flaws. A fairly brief if a little minimizing summary of the show is “A very simplified fantasy light novel version of Legend of the Galactic Heroes.” It was a show that Kate and I saw a good deal of potential within but also saw some major warning signs that could easily sink the whole concept. While the flaws of the show never go away they also never grow in a way to ruin the strong points. Also, Alderamin on the Sky actually goes to some interesting places that you might not guess from the start.

So what I’m saying is let me make my case on why this show is pretty good but not excellent.

Five military students from the Katvarna Empire are on a ship taking them to their entrance exam when they see a girl go overboard during a storm. They wash up ashore in the middle of enemy territory but thankfully Ikta Solork is a lazy but brilliant strategist who is able to use the group’s skills to get home safely. It turns out the girl they saved is Chamille Kitra Katjvanmaninik the third princess of the Katvarna Empire. The Empire is rotting within from corruption, decadence, and apathy. Chamille hopes these five might be the key to reforming the nation before it collapses in on itself.

So the Legend of the Galactic Heroes parallels are not unwarranted. Ikta Solork is a brilliant but lazy tactical genius who is more interested in a scholarly life of peace than of martial fame. Ikta is part of the military of a corrupt nation who is fighting a prolonged war against another nation who has a different political structure but is just as broken. There is a long draw out war between the two great powers that is prolonged by incompetence and corruption on both sides. Also, the stalemate is disrupted by brilliant young tacticians with very different philosophies shaking things up on both sides. A lot of the show is the political and social build up to conflicts and then an examination of the costs for military and civilians due to the fighting. So the comparisons between the shows are hardly unwarranted.

But as I hinted Alderamin on the Sky is not exactly fantasy Legend of the Galactic Heroes. At times the show wears its light novel origins on its sleeve. The main fact is Ikta feels really like a  light novel protagonist at times. He is as thirsty as a man who is in the middle of the Sahara and often gives off harem protagonist vibes. Yang Wen-li was an awkward dork who falls into two romantic relationships but they always felt like the sort of relationships you would find in your standard science fiction series. Alderamin on the Sky’s relationships feel more at home in an isekai series. The harem like elements never overwhelms the series. In fact, they wisely mostly exist on the down low but they never go away. You can’t fully ignore that part of the story but it also never suffocates the real meat of the story. It almost feels like the Ataru Moroboshi antics are just part of the milieu of modern light novels and something an editor demanded they be in the story. At the same time, I do feel that might be giving Bokuto Uno a bit too much credit as a TRUE ARTIST!

Now Alderamin on the Sky is not just some Infinite Stratos with some oddly complex backdrop. The first major good move is after saving Chamille the show seems ready to fall into the “cool initial premise that gets bogged down in school antics” pitfall. Since all the main characters start off as military school candidates it is easy to assume the rest of the series will just be school center dramedy where the more interesting plot elements only make guest appearances in the overall story structure. Thankfully after they get into military school and the series immediately jumps to their final exam. The exam itself is a quick episode that shows the general dynamic of the group that has developed during the time skip and then the crew immediately get an assignment up north. A smart show can have interesting stories, ethical dilemmas, and politics and still be set at a school but they flow much more powerfully from soldiers in the field. This avoids the potentially bland but safe setting of a school for something that actually stands out.

The first story arc actually touches on unexpected ideas. Since this is a story about soldiers you are going to have themes of loss, sacrifice, bureaucracy, and the mental and physical costs of a war on combatants and civilians. Any decent series about war will at least touch upon all of these ideas. The real question is how well they delve into them. Even some great shows will get ham-fisted or annoyingly preachy about these ideas. Overall the series does a decent job looking at these ideas. I think Alderamin on the Sky does its best work when it has a soft touch. I don’t want to go into too many details but there is a storyline about Ikta a solider that befriends named Kanna. Parts of it are a bit obvious and other parts are a bit more subtle. The show does its best when it plays ideas softly as opposed to going for the jugular. It is never laughably clumsy but it does its best work when chooses to be silent as opposed to loud.

But the most interesting parts of the show are the ideas that Alderamin on the Sky plays with that are related to the military and conquest but don’t come up in every war story. The assignment Ikta gets posted to is in a backwater border fort of the empire that has a series of nearly impassable mountains separating it from a neighboring theocracy. He quickly realizes that while they are ostensibly there to protect the nation from invasion their real job is keeping the native population in check. The population of the area is an ethnic minority that has been part of the country long enough that they are generally considered citizens but distinct enough that they are also always outsiders. This creates a strange tension and racism that is a powder keg of tension in the region that the current commander is both suffering from and taking advantage of. This gets even more complex and dangerous when outside forces take advantage of the situation.

This story delves into colonialism, religious tensions, the effects of technology on war, racism, classism, and corruption in some fascinating ways. Like anything else in the show, it can be heavy-handed and clumsy at times but I have to give it credit for trying in the first place. But I have to say two things in Alderamin on the Sky’s defense. The first is that overall it succeeds in tacking these topics in a mature manner more often than not. The second is it is never so over the top that it burns any goodwill that it built up before that point. It is a show that could easily provoke such an exchange:

Person 1: You know what other show tackled colonialism fairly well? Alderamin on the Sky.

Person 2: Really? The light novel show?

Person 1: Actually, yes. I was as shocked as you are.

It is worth mentioning that this TV series is mostly just set up for the actual story. After the incident in the north shows how the country is slowly rotting Ikta and Chamille actually come up with a plan that is the crux of the show. So there is a complete story but it is clearly just a prelude to a larger and more complex tale. As far as I can tell this series sort of came and went so I would not hold my breath for the second season and there is no news about an English release of the light novels. I mostly mention this because this fact alone is a hard deal breaker for some people.

So Alderamin on the Sky is a show I recommend with some reservations. Its strengths center around the fact that the show actually tells a fair intresting war story filled with fairly complex issues and themes. On the downside, it still has the feel of a very standard light novel at times. It is an easy show to dismiss because of the visual vibe which is not unfounded but obscures a deeper story for those who can pierce that layer. It is not a show for everyone but if what I said sparked your interest you might want to give Alderamin on the Sky a chance.

I was told by the Electric Light Orchestra song Twilight (An otaku classic thanks to the Daicon IV opening animation) that, “It’s either real or it’s a dream. There’s nothing that is in between.” Fate/Extella LINK clear proves that statement is completely false. Just when you think you could believe in English rock bands you find out that you can’t really trust anyone.

I have seen more and more anime games following the Musou game formula. Overall it is a decent fit for any anime series that has a large cast of mostly combat capable characters. It has a simple framework where you can plug in a huge cast of character without having to worry too much about balancing them like you would in a fighting game. The games generally have a low bar for entry so they can get a wide variety of players although you might turn away hardcore gamers as they often can be rather mindless especially at lower difficulty levels. They are the sort of the game you put out when you want to put out a game but you don’t want to try too hard. They are more work than say an endless runner but hardly the complexity of an original RPG.

As I mentioned in my two part review of the original Fate/Extella while the Fate/Extra games did fairly well the studio making them went under. This was before the days of Grand Order to give a home to any and all Fate Servants so Type-Moon needed a way to capitalize on the overwhelming success of new Servants like Nero and Tamamo. If nothing else Takashi Takeuchi has always been the sort of guy who has been able to ride a popular wave when he finds one. So Type-Moon teamed up with the publisher Marvelous games again and took the story of the odd rock paper scissors based RPG of Fate/Extra and moved it into a Musou game framework.

Fate/Extella did very well so it only made sense to follow up on that success. Fate/Extella LINK basically continues the story of Fate/Extella while improving some rough game play, adding more playable Servants, and introducing two new Servants.

Since it is my duty to talk about everything and anything Type-Moon related I figured I would talk about the value of this game to Fate Fanatics. I’m going to spoil a major plot point about Charlemagne in this review as it lets me talk about a major element of the game. If you just want my overall opinion the game is an improvement but still very much more of the same. The plot is more of an important side story than a true Fate/Extella 2. The game is good but not essential.

After the chaos of the war over the Regalia in Fate/Extella a general peace has returned to the Moon Cell. Nero, Tamamo, and Atilla have a somewhat turbulent alliance under Hakuno Kishinami. Everyone is trying to build up their forces in preparation for battle with the Galactus like Velber who is now on his way to Earth. But all of that preparation comes to an end when a new army attacks the lands of the Moon Cell being built up by Hakuno. These invaders have the ability to Oraclize Servants. This lets them brainwash people in a way that twists their normal values so they fight for this new army but keep their overall personality and skills. The classic hero Charlemagne allies himself with Hakuno to fight these invaders but it is clear he is more closely linked to the enemy then he lets on.

If you are wondering why this game is called Fate/Extella LINK and not Fate/Extella 2 I would argue this game is more a link between Fate/Extella and Fate/Extella 2 (even if the next game is not called that per se) than a full-blown sequel. Everyone is still gearing up for the arrival of the Umbral Star and its remaining heralds and allies. While this comes up several times and is even an important plot point overall it is more flavor and an anchor point between the games than anything else. Major elements that occur in LINK that will undoubtedly play a major role in Fate/Extella 2 but none of them are 100% important.  For anime terms, this is not a filler arc but it is an arc you might only skim over during a re-watch. If this was One Piece it definitely is in the realm of Skypiea more than the Warship Island Arc. (I feel bad comparing Fate/Extella LINK to the Skypiea arc but it is the perfect example of the overall weight of the story.)

The most interesting part of the game is how it handles Charlemagne and Charles the Great.  Your ally Charlemagne is based on the fantastical folklore around Charles the Great whereas the antagonist of the story is the historical version. Now, this is not the first time that the Fate universe has summoned multiple versions of the same Servant. Artoria, Elizabeth Báthory, Jack the Ripper, and Vlad III are all examples of this. But in all those cases the different version is either alternate snapshots based on their age or different versions of a legend. Charles the Great is an interesting case considering how radially different the actual life of Charlemagne differs from the art that sprang up around him. The game even mentions that normally if someone summoned Charlemagne he would just be a blend of history and folklore. It is an interesting variant that shows the range of what Type-Moon can still do with Servants that keeps the franchise so fresh.

The Fate/Extella games are always VERY variable in how much attention they pay to characters. Say what you will about the Fate/Extra games but they did have a strong emphasis on even the most minor Servants and Masters. Fate/Extella did a great job with the main Servants and some key characters but could easily give the short shrift to others. Does anyone other than super fans remember much about Lu Bu? I remember those annoying maps trying to take down Gawain’s  Numeral of the Saint more than his story. Fate/Extella continues this trend.

Obviously, Nero and Tamamo are always active but I would argue, unlike the previous games they don’t really get an arc. They even joke at one point that they seem to be stuck in a bit of a holding pattern character wise. While Atilla is super important in relation to the plot she is off the screen entirely during the bulk of the story. Also many of rest the fan favorite minor characters from the first three games mostly just get a brief hello and then goodbye. When Gilgamesh, Artoria, and Iskandar pretty much only get one big scene and nothing else it says a lot. 

In return, all the Servants that are new to the game get much more screen time and consideration. Astolfo, Gilles de Rais, and Scáthach get a nice chunk of screen time and feel very substantial. Interestingly enough Francis Drake and Robin Hood are treated like new characters considering how critical they are for the story. I assume it is the fact that while they were in the Fate/Extra games they were not in the first Fate/Extella game so they are treated like mostly new characters for anyone who only played the Extella games. Karna is also very important for a veteran but I assume that is mostly because he is always so tied to Arjuna who is a new character.

It randomly occurred to me while I was writing this that Hakuno Kishinami also gets a surprisingly small amount of attention as well. Your first reaction might be that they are just the blando self insert character but if you look over the first four games you will see that the main character gets a good amount of story, characterization, and emphasis. The story actually fleshes them out far more than you would first assume. Despite the fact that Fate/Extella LINK is the first time the main character is physically on the map during battles they feel more like a supporting character than they ever had in the past. It does make it feel more like Charlemagne’s side story as opposed to a sequel to Hakuno’s story.

I mentioned in the last game review that Musou games tend to start off a bit rough with their own variation of the formula and usually improve as they refine their unique mechanics. I would say that Fate/Extella LINK thankfully takes that road map to heart. If you want a complete run down of what is different between games the wiki is actually quite detailed in what changed. I’m mostly just going to talk about the new gameplay that stood out the most.

The MOST important change in my humble opinion is the fact that there are so many more maps that have a different gimmick in how you have to complete them. The original game was filled with maps that were just the route “capture enough section of the map to bring out the boss and then kill them” formula. The few variants were sadly copy pasted to the point where they seemed as bog standard as the plain maps.  Fate/Extella LINK has more gimmick maps and then wisely mixes up those gimmicks on different maps. It really helps avoid the fatigue that Musou games engender in general.

Beyond that they tweaked a lot of the combat to make is just a bit more snappy, fast paced, a little more varied. They add some new enemies, a few new mechanics like rush attacks, and generally make things like taking over sectors go much faster. No one feature radically changes anything but altogether it generally makes everything feel less grindy even if the overall gameplay model is grindy for anything late game. If your going to be grindy you should avoid putting the grind in your grind. They also added Active Skills but I almost never used them so their utility or lack thereof was mostly lost on me.

There is a multiplayer PvP mode but I did not really have a major interest in it. If it is anything like the multiplayer modes in One Piece: Pirate Warriors it is mostly there so you can grind power-ups for the end game difficulties. I like the game but beating the game on higher difficulties seems a bit of a hamster wheel I don’t have time for or major interest in.  I would like to get all the trophies but I can live without them.

Here is the deal: Fate/Extella LINK definitely improves on the Fate/Extella formula. They make some very good changes that overall improve your quality of life. That said the gameplay is still Musou. It is a less bitter Musou but a Musou none the less. The changes don’t really change the overall feel of the game. If you tolerate or like the Musou formula you will be fine but this will not win any converts. The story is fairly straightforward and well executed. I know my roommate was very cautious since Yuuichirou Higashide is the main author but overall he avoids any of the major downfalls that hampered Fate/Apocrypha. That said the story is fairly straightforward so it does not really have the depth of themes and lore that Fate/Extella LINK had either. You will probably be better off knowing the story for Fate/Extella LINK when the full sequel is released but you probably would be able to get up to speed with a quick summary if needed as well. It is definitely a fun game but not a vital one.

Maybe if Charlemagne is added to Grand Order this would make a good catalyst. People have bought odder things for less.

I really wanted to name this Promare: Gainax Studio Trigger Yelling – The Movie but I was a bit too lazy to figure out how to add strike-through into the post’s title. I’m trying to get back on a slightly more consistent posting schedule so I’m avoiding doing anything to give myself extra work.

If you remember a REALLY old podcast on the blog we once talked about the unusual reputation that Studio Gainax had. It seemed there was a time where the studio was able to avoid an odd amount of criticism and have its hits be more forward-facing than its flops. It had its share of detractors and more nuanced analysis but it was a bit of a fandom darling when we recorded that podcast. Since that time they have fallen far from the limelight and they are as mortal as any other studio. The thing is Studio Trigger has sort of picked up that legacy thanks to many of its foundational members being former Gainax staff. I feel like for better and for worse at this point Studio Trigger had inherited much of the old Gainax position. They have the eyes and hearts of a specific part of fandom either waiting for their next work with bated breath or watching to see them fail.

The thing is despite all their ups and downs when Gainax did a film you knew you were in for a treat. The movie itself might not have been your cup of tea but it is going to be a wonderful spectacle with amazing animation and spectacular production. With this being Studio Trigger’s first full-length film it was interesting to see if they would also revive this part of the Gainax tradition. The movie feels very Studio Trigger so the only question is would it stand beside their more beloved works or would it rank alongside their more disappointing productions.

This is an extremely random note but I just wanted to note that I was writing this right after watching the Downton Abbey movie. I would not say that Downton Abbey and Promare and diametric opposites from each other but you would be fairly hard-pressed to find two movies that are as dissimilar from each other. It really has nothing to do with anything I just thought it was funny enough to share.

30 years ago there was an incident known as the Great World Blaze where half the world’s population died after hundreds of mysteriously newly awakened pyrokinetics went on a rampage. Since then these psionic individuals have become known as the Burnish and the few of them who are left are contained by the Burning Rescue firefighters. When the brash but blockheaded firefighter Galo Thymos captures the leader of the most prominent Burnish terrorist group he finds himself learning much more about this pyrokinetics then he could ever imagine.

Don’t worry if you miss anything. Galo will surely scream about any plot points you may have accidentally missed.

I think that the first thing most fans well versed in the history of Studio Trigger and Gainax will say is, “Damn, this all looks pretty darn Gurren Lagann.” Galo looks A LOT like Kamina. And I don’t want to give away to much of the movie but the similarities do not end there. It is to the point where I don’t think this is accidental. It has to be a deliberate attempt to invoke memories of Gurren Lagann more than being a case of a bit of same face syndrome. It makes sense. While Gurren Lagann is no longer the hottest show around it is still a series that has a fandom with a nostalgic itch it that would like scratched. So calling back to that show, in particular, is a smart move.

But beyond its similarities to their previous catalog, the movie is very much a template Studio Trigger action banger. The overall plot is as simple and straightforward as its main character. If you are surprised that Lio is actually an all right dude or the main villain is who it turns out to be then I’m impressed by your lack of foresight. But that is not the reason you watch something like Promare. If you are looking for a highly original plot or amazingly narrative innovation then you’re in for a rather dull ride.

This is a template story done with lots of style and panache. The loud shonen heroes are real loud shonen heroes, the sensitive rebel leaders are real sensitive rebel leaders, and the small fluffy rodent mascots are real small fluffy rodent mascots. There is a section where an explanation for the Burnish is given and how they fit into the real plot but the movie seems to want to move on from this point as quickly as it can so it can get back to wild fights with firefighters, pyrokinetics, and robots. It is not as if the plot is bad or nonexistent. It is just as compact as it needs to be to focus on the parts the movie really cares about.

So sufficed to say the action when it hits is powerful and frenetic. The fight scenes are cool and dynamic and just really feel like Studio Trigger at its peak. There are some moments of downtime but overall the plot is very much determined to constantly be moving along. Scenes are less there to take a moment to reflect as much as they are just moments for the story to catch its breath. It is definitely has a manic sugar high feeling. It is a bit of a bucking bronco in that sense for better and for worse.

The music is unmistakably a Hiroyuki Sawano joint. If you have ever watched Kill la Kill, Aldnoah.Zero, or Re:Creators you know exactly what your getting. If anything my biggest problem with the music is it felt very much like a mixture of his soundtracks from the three titles I mentioned more than music made specifically for Promare. It almost felt like they used a collection of his greatest hits as opposed to an original soundtrack. It was still some banging music but it all feels like very known quantities to me.

Do you really like the iconic works of Studio Trigger? If your answer to that is yes then this is exactly what you have been waiting for. It is not Mountain Dew. It is a bag of the concentrate of Mountain Dew they use at restaurants. Without the soda water, this is the pure uncut caffeine and sucrose rush. Packing everything into a movie means that you’re getting an undiluted a Studio Trigger product as your going to get outside of a short film. It is a very fun if ultimately fluffy piece. In many ways, it does like up to the Gainax film legacy. The movie itself might not have been your cup of tea but it has wonderful bits of spectacle with amazing animation and spectacular production.

I have to say I’m glad that there are still anime and manga licenses that can surprise me. Despite the number of crazy anime licenses (that are not Macross) that have been announced there is still about one a year that pleasantly surprises me. The one for 2018 was the fact that Viz said they were going to try and release the Urusei Yatsura manga again despite dropping the license twice before. I was generally content with the anime release from AnimEigo from a few years back but I can’t say I was not at least something secretly hoping for a full release of the manga even if it felt highly unlikely. So I was a bit blindsided in the best possible way by the news and have been waiting for the new and improved books ever since then.

This post is less of a review and more of my observations on the first volume. Like with some of my Type-Moon posts none of what I would write would even remotely be considered objective or measured. This has always been a series that I loved and was very important to my early hardcore fandom so to say I look upon this book with rose-colored glasses is putting it kindly. If anything think of this as a look into the thoughts of a super fan.

I did have an “Oh! Now I see it moment.” with this two-volume omnibus. For the longest time, I always heard that Shinobu and Ataru were supposed to be the main characters of Urusei Yatsura and Lum mostly drifted to the forefront thanks to a combination of fan demand and Rumiko Takahashi changing the direction of the series as she wrote it. If you have only seen the anime you never really get the sense of that. Lum and Ataru always feel like the main characters. Shinobu, on the other hand, is very clearly one of the most important side characters but none the less she is a side character. In retrospect, that is mainly because the anime started three years after the manga and therefore it could just start as if Lum and Ataru were always the stars. The problem was since I only read a few random volumes of the original Viz releases I was never able to fully grok what had happened.

Finally reading these first two volumes with over a decade of experience under my belt gave me a very different view of the series. Shinobu and Ataru are far more in focus as the “destined couple” in this book and Lum comes off as a more as a Shampoo like interrupting cow character. Lum is there as an important side character but she is more there to provide general hi-jinks and romantic obstacles for the main couple than as a legitimate romantic option. In one story the twist at the end is that the mother of Ataru’s son from the future is Shinobu. When the anime eventually added Kokeru he is played off as a dream of Ataru’s mom more than a real character and a signifier of the future like he was in the manga.

This was a fact that I always read and generally understood as a nebulous idea of Lum’s gradual shift to being the main character but reading the new translation help solidify the idea as more than just something I read in articles or wikis. Considering how iconic Lum eventually became and how central the Lum and Ataru relationship became it makes sense why the anime would just gloss over Shinobu’s original role. From what I can tell the shift in emphasis happens fairly organically in the manga but it was still fascinating to see when I was actively looking for it.

Other than that it was mostly just a nice return to a classic. I love Rumiko Takahashi’s work but Urusei Yatsura always felt unique in her overall repertoire. Much of Urusei Yatsura would go on to inform both Ranma 1/2 and Rin-ne as well as her overall style but it still feels very distinct. Ataru is the best exemplar of that. He is utter sleazy and shifty in a way no other Takahashi protagonist would ever be. He has his moments of virtue and skill but generally, he is a likable scumbag that just so happens to have a good heart buried DEEP below a truck full of character flaws. The rest of the cast follows suit. In Takahashi’s later works she would follow this formula but she would generally make the main characters a little nicer from the jump and it was only the supporting characters who retained that original amount of Urusei Yatsura sleaze. It is that commitment to making the cast of Urusei Yatsura lovable monsters that gives the series its unique flavor.

The main cast is still filing in so all the character dynamics have not formed. You have Lum, Shinobu, Ataru, Lum and Ataru’s parents, and Cherry right from the jump. The book introduces Sakura, Rei, Benten, and Oyuki so there is a decent mix of the main human and alien characters, therefore, the general framework is in place but there are still a few key players who have not shown up. Technically Onsen-Mark has appeared but he feels more like a generic teacher with a distinctive outfit than the nemesis of class 2-4 he would become. But until Mendo, Ran, Kotatsu-neko, and Ten show up the general pace of the manga is not fully solidified. Those four characters, in particular, change the flow of the manga when they are introduced. Eventually, Ryuunosuke would do the same thing but much like Ukyo Kuonji in Ranma 1/2 I consider her a late addition cast member that gets elevated to the main cast position within already well oiled machine. It was interesting to see how Takahashi found her voice with the series within the first two books and then anticipating how the flow of the manga would change shortly.

I will say that one of the coolest additions to the series is the little Urusei Yatsura facts sections that appear at the end of each volume. I assume they are from one of the later Japanese anniversary releases. They generally highlight one character and then give some interesting statistics like how many times Lum electroshocks people (and Ataru in particular) or how many times Ataru sneaks out of class to have a meal. You can learn some trivia contest-winning facts like how many times has Ataru ever treated anyone to food. (BTW the answer is only two times.) They make it feel like a prestige release of a beloved classic and I’m very glad those pages are included.

It was a real treat to finally be able to legitimately read the Urusei Yatsura manga in such a dignified format even if the material itself is wacky goofadoof fun. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series in this format as I feel this might the time Viz will complete the series in its entirety. Especially now that Rumiko Takahashi was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame it had become an increasingly awkward situation for one of her most influential series not to have an English release. I’m extremely glad this gap in her rich history is finally being filled in and I hope to read more soon.

The Lord El-Melloi II Case Files is such an odd show because it mainly seems to be a show whose audience is pretty much me and maybe a dozen other people. It is a mystery show set in the Type-Moon universe in which lore and magical systems are used to solve crimes. The Type-Moon name is solid enough to sell quite a bit but damn if that does not seem to be a pretty niche pitch to someone who is not me.

I remember discussing the show with my roommate and both of us realize that while everything about this show should make it the one entry that Kate might have liked in the Type-Moon universe there was no chance in hell she would ever enjoy it. It has magic, mystery, style and even an extended case on a train. Even the handsome, nerdy, and snarky detective would not win her over. The fact of the matter that all the solutions revolve around lore and magical systems pretty much makes this one DOA for Kate.

The thing is I would have assumed that would be the case for many people. There is a bit too much magic for the mystery people and not enough action for the Fate fans. Then again this is a fandom that has sat through some long lore dumps and explanations of magical systems with nothing more than a nice pair of Tohsaka legs to help them along so a little scene or two of deductive reasoning is not enough to turn them off.

With that said this is still a story that is seemingly tailor-made for me. The question is did I love it? The obvious answer is of course I did otherwise this post would undoubtedly started very differently. So really this is just an examination of why I did. Let’s go! The game’s afoot!

WARNING: I will drop some spoilers for the show so you probably want to watch the whole thing before you read this. 

After the events of Fate/Zero, we see that Waver Velvet has continued on after surviving but failing to win the Holy Grail. He is now a semi-famous lecturer at the Clock Tower after inheriting the El-Melloi title of his former instructor. This also means he is under the thumb of Reines the current head of the El-Melloi family. So as the current head of the Modern Magecraft Theories he finds himself solving mysteries alongside his students and his hooded assistant Gray. But the whole time his heart’s fondest wish is to find a way to see Iskandar once more.

At this point, one of the notable features of the Type-Moon universe is that even with multiple timelines there are almost always several references, cameos, and shout outs in anything Type-Moon related. That means an appearance of an Aozaki sister or someone wielding some Black Keys in any new Nasuverse story is no longer even just surprising it is generally expected.  But the Lord El-Melloi II Case Files are still a huge Lore Bomb for the series above and beyond the rest of the franchise.

First and foremost is how much the series fleshes out the Clock Tower. Now of the three branches of the Mage’s Association, the Clock Tower has always gotten far more attention than the Atlas Academy or the Wandering Sea. That said it mostly was a place that got visited off-screen or mentioned in passing. This is the first story that really rolls around in its politics and fleshes it out as opposed to using it as either jumping-off point or an epilogue. That means there are a lot of familiar faces but even more new mages and a great insight into how it functions. 

But all of the really pales in comparison to the inclusion of the Forest of Ainnash. That is sort of a crazy cameo even for the average Type-Moon cameo. As I mentioned before a Fate series referencing another Fate series is par the course. Also name dropping something from Tsukihime or The Garden of Sinners is fun but usually very minor. On top of that, there are a few world-hopping characters like Zelretch. But this was different. This was a full-on Dead Apostle Ancestor dropping in on a Fate story. Now it was a derivative of a Dead Apostle and hardly one that was the main character of the main story but it is still a big deal. If nothing else it is a nice reminder that Type-Moon has not forgotten about their original visual novel.

The less surprising but still impactful cameo was of Olga Marie Animusphere. Normally I would not make a big deal about a Grand Order character showing up since Grand Order has sort become the 800-pound gorilla of the franchise but she does merit an exception. Olga Marie because she died within the first chapter of Grand Order but still managed to make a decent impression on the fanbase as to generate a sizable interest to learn more about her. So seeing more of her was definitely a highlight of the series. Luvia, Sisigou, and Caules are also some very strong cameos but they are more of your typical Type-Moon guest appearances.

Beyond that, the story is just well crafted. when you do a mystery series you generally have three models you can use. There is the utterly episodic where each episode is a stand-alone story with the occasional reoccurring character. Murder She Wrote is a classic example of this. Then you can have a more Stand Alone formula where most episodes are stand-alone but periodically there are episodes that either tie in wholly or partially into the greater narrative. The last kind is that all (or at least most) of the cases are actually part of a greater mystery. The Lord El-Melloi II Case Files are definitely in the last category. At first, all the cases seem like separate affairs but the all eventually tie into the incident on the train. It definitely makes the series feel like a whole narrative more than a collection of short stories.

The mysteries themselves by their very nature have to break Knox’s Commandments so if you want the traditional fair play mysteries then be prepared to be disappointed. Magic is involved in every case so traditional mystery rules go right out the window. You have to view this as a hybrid story that takes elements for fantasy and mystery and makes its own narrative form. The mysteries here are more examinations of how the magical systems work in Type-Moon work than anything else. Since the mechanics of magical systems is my bag I am 100% on board with this idea but it does scratch a very particular itch.

The characters are pretty solid. Waver Velvet remains one of the most beloved characters from Fate/Zero and remains so in the Lord El-Melloi II Case Files. The intresting thing is his character here is very different from his character in Fate/Zero. The years have definitely had an effect on him, therefore, he is no longer the nieve student trying to prove himself he was in Fate/Zero. He is far more world-weary and jaded and more an established name with more allies and enemies.  The thing is all of this feels like the natural progress of Waver Velvet. You see how the boy in Fate/Zero became the man of the Lord El-Melloi II Case Files. That natural flow is essential for the character.

The other major character is Gray. She is an intresting case because she is a Saberface who lies outside of the normal realm of the Saberface. In a way, the average viewer’s response to her depends very much on how much the person is over the idea. I think her whole story on being an artificial Saberface who is desperately trying to retain her own unique identity is an intresting addition to the world but your mileage may vary. She can very much feel a character added to check a box but I feel she hold her own.

The one character who will possibly turn people off is Yvette L. Lehrman. She is the character who feels like she accidentally dropped in from some random harem series. She hardly destroys the flow of the series but she feels the most out of place. Everyone else is a fairly good selection of characters you would see in your typical detective novel given a magical twist. Hishiri Adashino will stand out as one of the most intriguing characters since most of the story is spent discovering what her actual agenda is.

This is truely a title that could only exist when a franchise gets a big as Type-Moon. You to have a big enough fanbase to support a remarkable niche title like this and it not be something that only 12 people ever read. At this point, all they need is a Type-Moon character play a Table Top RPG or a Super Robot Wars crossover and I think they will have covered all their bases. So when you see Tsukihime’s Critical Role where the Melty Blood voice actors play a campagin of Sword World then you know that someone at Type-Moon is clearly just picking titles based on what I would enjoy.

One of the main problems with no longer doing the APBs every season is that it is a bit easier for new shows to fall in between the cracks. Thankfully in this age of the Internet, there are also more than enough people going out of their way to tell you what you’re missing on to balance it all out. Last season the show I slept on was O Maidens in Your Savage Season.

I’m actually a little surprised we missed this one. It really seemed like something that would be a Reverse Thieves title. I wonder if it was a case where we saw the little blurb on the seasonal chart and wrote it off as nothing more than a basely pervy comedy. It used to be that the low down sex comedies would be a cast of all girls except one guy but now the pure all-girl formula is increasingly common. If that was the case I’m sorry I wrote this show off so quickly for while it definitely revels in sexual comedy it does so in a brilliantly clever and thoughtful manner. It is a proper dramatic comedy with sex and not just a dumb fan service romp.

Although it might also have just been that it was on HIDIVE and I just forget to look there at times.

Five girls have formed a Literature Club mostly as an excuse to read smutty books but high-class smutty books. This little band of misfits has hardly made themselves any friends within the faculty or the student body and seems to be a hair’s breadth from being shut down. While these girls have read quite a bit about love, lust, and everything in between they have no practical knowledge. Can the literature club learn how to stay open while also learning about their own sexuality?

This series of Mari Okada as FUCK. Mari Okada has developed a name that people (especially anitwitter) recognize. She has a very mixed bag reputation which matches her very hit or miss body of work. Most of that, in my humble opinion at least, comes from the fact that she is a very work for hire writer. She often seems to go wherever the work is. That means she works with a good deal of different animation teams and works on a very diverse number of titles. She tends to synergize very differently depending on who she is writing for currently. That said Mari Okada always leaves a bit of a thumbprint on anything she works on. Just how much of a fingerprint she leaves is dependant on the particular work. O Maidens in Your Savage Season is pure unfiltered Mari Okada.

She really seems to like complex romantic and sexual relationships usually with at least one character who is very much off the beaten path in that respect. Sometimes it is alternate sexuality, sometimes it is complex relationship structures, other times it is unusual preferences. It is different every time but you know that not every relationship is going to be the standard boy meets girl formula. Two of the girls have more of your standard romantic comedy relationships but the other three are very Mari Okada. It is hardly the full spectrum of the female journey through puberty but it feels fairly diverse.

As I was writing this I was trying to put my finger on what makes this show feel special. It is not the first anime series to take a look at the sexuality of young ladies. I can remember Please Tell Me! Galko-chan and Joshikousei: Girl’s High both come to mind as series that deal with the topic and were generally well-received. I’m sure there are other series several of which were just too mediocre or awful for me to remember. So it does not stick out because it is utterly new.

I going to give my standard disclaimer for my next claim. Take anything I say with a grain of salt. I’m a straight dude so I am hardly the expert of female sexuality. I’m hardly an expert on male sexuality. I have been wrong before and I will be wrong again but these are my thoughts for what little they are worth.

This show appropriately enough is much like female sexuality in the media. It is distinctly in a transitory period where it is far more visible than it used to be but also will be in a different place a decade from now. So there have been shows about young women talking about sex and sexuality in their high school years. There have also been sex comedies about the same thing. The thing is they are sort of the exception whereas male-focused sex comedies are the rule of the day. O Maidens in Your Savage Season fills a niche that only gets filled on rare occasions. But just because you fill an underserved niche does not make you good. It just means you stand out. Thankfully O Maidens in Your Savage Season is a delightful show.

O Maidens in Your Savage Season is a fairly balanced mix of comedy and drama. It is distinctly a show that starts off firmly in the realm of silliness and then it slowly ratchets up the drama. Thankfully the show makes sure to always recognize where it came from so the comedy never drops out altogether. As anyone who has gone through adolescence knows there is a goldmine of comedy and drama surrounding the discovery of young love and lust. All the girls are eager and curious to learn more but at the same time, they are filled with an equal mixture of healthy and unhealthily fear and trepidation.

Kazusa is probably the closest thing to the everygirl character. She has feelings for her next-door neighbor but he is just as bad at this as he is. She probably has the greatest highs and lows in being obsessed with sex one moment and utterly terrified by the prospect the next. She is the most relatable character and acts as a good baseline for the others.

Rika, on the other hand, goes out of her way to be prim and proper but it is very clear that she uses rationality and etiquette to quarantine her passions. Of course, since she is the one who spits on being in a base relationship she is the first to start dating. Hitoha seems like the most mature and level headed of the group and she even writes erotica but it turns out she is all book knowledge and had no real practical experience. Her story goes to some interesting places as she tries to find ways to improve her writing.

I don’t want to talk too much about Rika and Niina as their stories are best experienced without too much explanation. Rika seems to be the most boring of the group and basically just the really good friend of Kazusa who is along for the ride. As the show goes on you see her go on a little journey of discovery that adds a lot of depth to her character. All I will say about Niina is her story … goes places. If anyone is going to disturb you it will probably be her.

There is definitely something to be gained by using fiction to walk a mile in another persons’ shoes. I will never be a teenage girl so the idea of seeing what they go through with puberty is an interesting experience. Now to be fair this story is filled with Mari Okada styled melodrama so this is hardly a one hundred percent accurate portrayal of the topic but it is clearly drawing from lived lives. That alone is worth quite a bit.

I am curious if anyone who is reading this was/or is a teenage girl. How much did you feel the story resonated with your experiences or the experiences of people you knew? It is one thing for me to say this feels like it draws from real life but I’m curious what a woman thinks on the matter.

I admit this seems like a very simple question but for some reason, I have not only seen this question being asked multiple places but I have personally been asked it multiple times. The question usually is, “I have not played Grand/Order but can I still watch this new Grand Order anime?” The snarky answer is, ” You are your own boss so I cannot and should not force you to do anything.” But that sort of answer rightfully gets you marked as a snarky bastard. The actual answer to the actual question asked is most probably no.  If you are asking the question then you probably won’t get the most you could out of watching Babylonia.

I not trying to be a gatekeeper here. I love Type-Moon and honestly have enjoyed the recent explosion in popularity. I have complained that the Type-Moon fandom can be toxic and aggravating but it was toxic and aggravating before the big boom of popularity so I can’t say that there was any change for the worse. Now there are just more of everything Type-Moon related.

It is just that there are so many better places to either experience the Type-Moon universe for the first time or to be your next stop after you tried a previous entry. With titles like Fate/Zero, Unlimited Blade Works, or Today’s Menu for the Emiya Family you have so many directions to go in if you just want more Fate stuff. I would argue that even Carnival Phantasm would be a better next step. I have really enjoyed Babylonia from what I have watched but I have also been playing the game since the first day it came out. If you have not experienced a good deal of the first story arc of Grand Order you’re going to be missing some important context that makes all the difference.

For a little context to explain why you need that context I have to explain the history of Grand Order and how it lead to the first TV series being about the 7th chapter of a game. Mobile games are not usually known for their complex and compelling story. In fact, anything beyond a bare-bones story is usually a big win. Grand Order actually came out of the game fairly strong in comparison to a lot of what was on the market. It had a decent amount of lore, character, and plot. The prologue chapter was a good start. Then there were the first five chapters of the game.

Now the first five were not horrible but they were also not up to the standards of what you would expect from Type-Moon. Orleans was a very standard plot with some moment so brilliance. Septem is often considered the weakest chapter of the game and really goes out of its way to “Mary Sue” Nero. Okeanos, London, and E Pluribus Unum are distinct improvements but still felt thin compared to even some of the lesser Type-Moon games. So while the game was raking in the cash hand over fist the fans were grumbling that oddly enough the silly Holiday events were better written than the main story. And that is when Nasu started taking a much more active role in writing the games.

Camelot was the first chapter was Nasu did a lot of heavy lifting on the story. He did not write everything but you can see his fingerprints directly on the work as opposed to just some touch-ups on key scenes. That chapter blew away most people and showed that Grand Order could provoke the same thought and emotion that any other Fate series could. Then Babylonia came and topped Camelot.

So if you look at what has come out of Grand Order the difference is very obvious. There are some mid-tier manga based on Grand Order from the start but all the stage shows, anime, and merchandise either ignores or minimizes the first five chapters. Camelot and Babylonia were the chapters people loved and they are what gets the lion share of attention.

Now as it stands each chapter can be seen as an individual story with a bigger plot happening at the same time. Every story has a few key helper characters for the protagonist as well as an antagonist with their own plots and goals. So TECHNICALLY one could see each chapter as its own story. That would be very incorrect but it is easy to see why you could think that. The main problem is the matter of context I mentioned before.

Even if they were weaker there is a good deal of buildup of tension, stakes, and information in the previous chapters that lend a good deal of impact to what happens in the later chapters. While Camelot and Babylonia are impressive they are far more impressive because of what they use as a foundation. They have hinted at it but overall it means so much less if you have not experienced it. It is clear they decided to cut the filler and dig in on the killer. But in doing so they sort of made this a Grand Order players only anime.

Now there is nothing stopping you from jumping in here. It would just be like jumping into the Cell Saga of Dragonball Z without seeing anything of Dragonball before that point. You could do it but you are going to scratch your head about a lot of things and certain events that should be more meaningful have a chance to bounce right off of you. I know that people due to various circumstances have started long-running shonen shows in the middle and still become fans. The thing is no one would actively suggest you start that way with most series. Other than some strange corner cases most people would say you should start at the beginning and then move forward.

Theoretically, you could do a bunch of supplemental research watching lets plays, reading the manga, reading summaries of the plot, or playing the game to get the proper context but at that point, it is clear that you are hell-bent on watching this so there is no talking you of this. For everyone else, if you have not experienced Grand Order before this point just move on. If these do really well maybe they will go back and animate the first five chapters. Until then there is so much more Fate than does not require that much on-boarding.

Don’t worry I am still able to podcast and the latest episode of Oldtaku no Radio. I went on with @QX20XX and we talked about the famous/infamous series, Higurashi When They Cry. The series is best known as the horror/mystery series where cute girls murder each other is grizzly ways. I came on the show as someone who watched the series in the past but also played the original visual novel. It is definitely a podcast where three of us found it thought provoking and fascinating and one of us would have rather watched Wild Cardz on loop 50 times rather than watch Higurashi again. Listen to the episode to find how who is who.

Don’t worry. As the picture above proves I was able to work in Type-Moon to the conversation. And best of all this time it was not entirely forced but in fact relevant to the conversation. Awesome!

Listen to Oldtaku no Radio #037 – Higurashi When they Cry

If you were to pick from a list of top 10 worst self-inflicted ways to watch Weathering With You I might have accidentally picked the worst one by accident. I also picked the one that most seemed like something out of a mediocre sitcom. If you did not already know Weathering With You involves a Tokyo that is besieged by constant rain therefore falling and flowing water is a constant visual metaphor throughout the movie. Since Weathering With You was the last event at Anime NYC I was running out of steam and only had a small breakfast. Therefore to wake myself up to properly review the movie I got a quick coffee. Getting the coffee took much longer than I anticipated, therefore, I then forgot to go to the bathroom since I had to sit in the back even with my guaranteed press ticket. Anyone well versed in my Zetsubou-Sensei like fortune would realize the obvious outcome. I spent most of the movie in absolute discomfort since I could not leave the theater and get back in but I also did not want to miss out on what could have easily been the highest-profile premiere at the convention. So I suffered through the aquatic film and still had a wonderful time which is quite the accomplishment. If that is not a major endorsement of the film I’m not sure what is.

Hodaka Morishima runs away to Tokyo in the middle of a freakishly long rainy season. As he desperately tries to find a way to live on his own he befriends a young woman named Hina Amano who has the power to banish the rain. They eventually start a small service that creates blue skies for those who need it but Hina’s power is distinctly one that comes with a price and she has tallied up quite a bit of debt.

You might remember a time when everyone was desperate for the NEXT MIYAZAKI after Hayao Miyazaki declared he was retiring. Hayao Miyazaki would go on to declare he was retiring several times but the first time distinctly set off a panic. There was a very palpable need for a new director who could make anime that was universally praised. It felt like the fandom needed someone who could consistently make anime for non-anime fans. This crazy need for the NEXT MIYAZAKI eventually died down for a wide variety of reasons with the far more reasonable question of what was the next title that can fill that hole that the lack of masterwork Ghibli films previously filled. This is not the worst thing because there was a constant need to either fit a current director into a Miyazaki mold or a profound disappointment when any director failed to fill the mold. Overall it was never a good mindset for anyone involved.

I mostly mention this because Makoto Shinkai was one of those names that always popped up in articles about the NEXT MIYAZAKI. He distinctly had the vibe of what if Hayao Miyazaki was a cool indy dude. He was always a bit of a dark horse mostly because his titles were a bit more small scale so he never fit well into the major Studio Ghibli family-friendly blockbuster mold. It did not help that The Place Promised in Our Early Days totally got mixed reviews but he still had some major proponents that insisted he would take the crown. Then Children Who Chase Lost Voices was a very clear attempt at a major Studio Ghibli family-friendly blockbuster film and it sort of just came out and was OK. It was like a film that got a passing grade but only by a few points. It was rarely called a bad film but it was usually considered a disappointing affair.

Then came Your Name and it changed EVERYTHING. Makoto Shinkai had done some smaller works that got a decent amount of praise in the mean time and it mostly felt like he had fallen back into his more indy track. The search for the NEXT MIYAZAKI also had died down so no one was demanding that his next work SAVE ANIME. The thing is Your Name actually would have been the sort of film everyone was waiting for during the search for the NEXT MIYAZAKI. It was a full-length movie, it got tons of critical and fan praise, and it made money hand over fist as it broke all sorts of box office records. Makoto Shinkai did not win the title of the NEXT MIYAZAKI but all eyes were on him.

So comes Weathering With You. He no longer had the weird specter of the Hayao Miyazaki behind him. He only had one ghost he had to live up to and that was the success of Your Name. In a way I feel like the question in the back of most people’s head was will the be a new Your Name or the next Children Who Chase Lost Voices.

If you remember my Your Name review I threw out a theory that one of the reasons the film was a major finical success as to just a critical success was that Makoto Shinkai changed up his formula and created a film with a definitive happy ending. Right after I got out of Weathering With You I was giving a spoiler-free review to Kate and Patz. I said I really enjoyed the film but it was very much a film in the style of his new formula and not a game-changer like his last film. Kate argued that Makoto Shinkai never really changed his craft and she felt we were overstating the difference between what came before Your Name. Patz was glad since he felt Your Name was the first of his films he really liked. They both took my review as a reason to look forward to seeing the film themselves but for entirely different reasons.

Sufficed to say that conversation shaped a lot of my review. In a way I feel like at this point Makoto Shinkai has a legacy and for better and for worse his films are going to be judged for their place in that legacy. Now is Weathering With You a good movie? Hell yeah. It has some amazing visuals. The scenes of the waterlogged Tokyo are breathtaking and the few scenes of the bright sky are given an amazing impact thanks to the contrast. The music adds to some key scenes much like in 5 Centimeters per Second making some unforgettable moments. The characters are fun and bring the story together. All of it comes together to a solid plot. This is very much a proper follow up to Your Name.

I tried to go into Weathering With You without any preconceived expectations. I even reminded myself of that before the film began. But my conversation with Kate and Patz made me realize that Makoto Shinkai’s history makes that a really hard thing to do if you have been following him for a while. I think several other people who read this blog might find themselves in the same predicament. All I have to say is this is a very good movie. Now if you’re hoping for something new from Makoto Shinkai you’re going to be disappointed. This is not a Makoto Shinkai that has reinvented himself. But this is Makoto Shinkai who does what he does very well and Weathering With You is no exception. He is an artist that has honed his craft and this is the result. Enjoy.

There is something oddly freeing about now having the pressure of having to do the links for Anime Secret Santa. It was always a stressful task of hunting down people’s reviews on the already hectic day of Christmas. Thankfully All Geeks Considered is doing it this year I can just be a lazy participant which is a welcome change of pace. Also because my main PC died this would have been a ROUGH year to be in change of Anime Secret Santa. So maybe everything has worked out in the end. Or more like my miserable luck is more just terrible instead of disastrous. (He says as writes the post the day before Christmas on a tiny notebook in an apartment where the sewage is currently mixing with the hot water.)

So as per tradition, I break down why I picked the show I did from the three choices I got. My picks were Wasteful Days of High School Girls, Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor, and Two Car. Two Car mostly just seemed like a series about the asses of racing girls with some story to explain why you were watching them all the time. Theoretically, there might be some Keijo!!!!!!!! level brilliance hidden underneath I did not really feel like rolling those dice unless it was absolutely necessary. A Country Doctor was my “I ran out of time but still want to review something worth talking about” fall back. I thankfully finished my final choice early but I was still glad to have a fail-safe just in case. I went with Wasteful Days of High School Girls mostly as it felt the most in the spirit of the project. It was a show I had completely missed when it was first on the air and it felt like a show I could go either way on.

Especially considering some of the dire selections I have got in the past this was a pretty nice mix of shows.

At the Sainotama Girls’ High School there is a particular class of eccentric misfits that stand out even among the rest of the weirdos. The core trio is made up of three girls with seemingly nothing in common who have nicknamed everyone in the class to the point where they all just use their nicknames rather than their real names. So the girls waste their time with activities both mundane and bizarre.

I was really hoping this would be the female version of Daily Lives of High School Boys. It was and it wasn’t. Overall the formula is quite similar. You have a trio of friends who the rest of the cast orbits. The plot mainly involves very mundane school situations taken to their logical comedic extremes without any real overarching narrative. The main problem is really the hit to miss ratio. While Daily Lives of High School Boys had like a 70 percent hit rate where the jokes were mainly hysterical with the occasional dud or headscratcher I feel the ratio with Wasteful Days of High School Girls is sadly closer to 45%. There was always one good scene per episode but the ratio past that point was VERY variable depending on which character they were focusing on.

The actual best comparison is Azumanga Daioh. The problem is that comparing stuff arbitrarily to Azumanga Daioh is just plain mean. If you are asking any school-based comedy to jump over that bar your mainly going to end up disappointed. But this is a case where the comparison is fairly justified. For one thing, Baka is borderline copyright infringement when it comes to Tomo. I just assume that Baka wants to grow up to be Fujiko Mine even if it is never said in the show. Wota is similar but different than Yomi but when you add in her somewhat toxic friendship with Baka the differences seem a bit more minute. Robo does not have a direct analogy but you could see some Sakaki in her but overall that comparison is far weaker. I could easily find cast equivalents for most people in Wasteful Days of High School Girls but at this point, you get a general idea. They are very similar shows with Azumanga Daioh clearly being the superior show.

Beyond that, the main strength or weakness of any scene in the show is which cast members they use. The main trio is rather neutral. They are rarely terrible but they also are mainly sort of bland unless they are playing off of some of the stronger cast members. The super Chunibyo Yamai is probably the strongest character in the cast and she makes any scene she is in 100% better. The show has equal parts sympathy and disdain for her that makes her richer than most of the cast. Also, she is just plain funny. Majime and Majo are a bit more one-note but they are generally a positive force in any scene. Loli can be funny but only when teamed up with the right characters but otherwise she is just terrible. Lily is undoubtedly the worst and just exemplifies all the horrible sort of predatory lesbian style jokes. Since most of the episodes focus on one or two of the characters the episodes that focus on Yamai are super fun but an episode that is Lily centric is just filled with cringe. It makes the show very variable indeed.

I will give the show credit for Wota being an unusually realistic portrayal of a fujoshi in anime. She is neither a mega nerd who is always letting her freak flag fly nor is she mega-hot double D girl with glasses who also happens to like anime. She is clearly a nerd who can pass her self off as normal if she tries really hard but easily gives away the game in the right (wrong?) situation. She also has a rather good story about her idolization for a certain Vocaloid producer she admires.  It is an unexpected touching part of the show and shows off some intresting parts of certain members of the cast. If anyone in the show is actually based on a real person and not just an archetype it is probably her.

I cannot forget the fact that the opening of the show is pretty amazing. The song is catchy if absurd and the animation is super neat and clever. It probably represents the show at its best. It is worth watching even if you have no interest in the show itself.

Overall Wasteful Days of High School Girls is not a bad show it just falls short of greatness when compared to some of the top shows in the genre that do the same thing but better. If your looking for a wacky school comedy Azumanga Daioh, Daily Lives of High School Boys, and School Rumble are just better choices if you have never seen any of them. That said I had a decent time watching the show. I totally get why I totally missed this show when it came out but also get why someone would recommend it to me. It is a good show that is a few points off from getting the A it could have gotten had it not wasted its potential.