Top 5 Anime Episodes: #3

The list of my favorite anime episodes so far:

#5: Eureka Seven episode 48.

#4: Ergo Proxy episode 15.

As much as I'd have liked to avoid spoilers in these posts, this concerns a series finale and as such has mega-spoilers.

Number 3:

Top 5 Anime Episodes: #4

See? I like stuff, I do!

The list of my favorite anime episodes so far:

#5: Eureka Seven episode 48.

Number four:

Top 5 Anime Episodes: #5

I can't help but notice that people seem to have somehow gotten the impression that I hate everything. Ha ha, I know, right? Now, far be it from me to speculate how such disheartening and blatantly ridiculous rumors got their start, but I do know one thing: the jokes about it are starting to get groan-worthy and need to be put to a halt for the good of all. Oh, certainly, I tend to pay attention to the shortcomings of even stuff I like, and I don't give out perfect ratings lightly, but the truth is that my high standards are precisely what gives me a keen appreciation for genuine quality. I am perfectly willing to give praise where praise is due, and there are anime that make me geek out with adoration. Clearly, I didn't gush enough in my review of Spice and Wolf...

So, because this blog could use some content – and because I'm an enormous narcissist – I'm going to count down my the five anime episodes I like the most in pictures, one post at a time.

Fall 2011: Guilty Crown.

Guilty Crown

Guilty Crown, frankly, makes me mad. It makes me mad because I can already tell how much crap it's going to get away with simply because it's not bad, because it doesn't even really have to try, because let's all just settle for less! A man can get cynical sometimes...

The series takes place in a near-future Japan that has been conquered by foreign powers. There are mechas in it, as well as a girl in a wheelchair. The main character, Shu Ouma, is a high-school student that becomes embroiled in a resistance movement when he receives a super-power from a mysterious girl wanted by the authorities. 

Incidentally, it's written by the same writing team that gave us Code Geass. Comparisons to it are not only unavoidable considering how unbelievably similar the premises are, but they're also helpful, since they serve to warn unsuspecting viewers that they're watching a show that may catastrophically jump the shark at any moment. (And frankly, I don't think the writers should be let off from being called out on their hideous lack of imagination.)

So how was the first episode?

It was decent. Exciting enough. Quite stylish. Technically impressive, I suppose.

Once you start going into the details, things get problematic.

I don't expect characters to show a lot of character right in the first episode, where most anime are more concerned with wowing the viewers and setting up the plot. Still, I find myself a little annoyed with Shu, who is already far less charismatic and far more generic than Code Geass's Lelouche. He leaves an impression with exactly two things: extremely non-specific angst – I dare anyone to explain to me what the hell his problem is supposed to be – and completely ridiculous responsibility issues. Here's how Guilty Crown establishes someone to be a wuss: they didn't fight a crowd of armed soldiers bare-handed to save a damsel in distress. Yes, that's it. This is the guilt the protagonist has to be put up with! Boo fucking hoo? I do hope the point I'm trying to make isn't getting lost because of my sarcasm, but this really is a silly and unrelatable issue to set as your protagonist's driving motive.

It's the female lead that's the real sticking point to me though. I have to admit, I feel a measure of resentment for her solely because of how desperate the show seems to be to make me like her. We find out little about her personality except that she's a little strange and likes to sing, but we're treated to scenes of her wounded, on the run, captured, treated horribly, all the while the direction is trying its best to make her striking and not being very subtle about it. This is shallow. It's lazy. Relying on the viewer's protective instinct is such a simplistic way to elicit sympathy from them, and I don't know who to blame for wondering whether there's something wrong with me for having a problem with the fact that a professional writer can't do better. 

And might I just ask – what is up with her ridiculous outfit? Am I really the only person watching this who wondered why in the seven hells this girl entrusted with some kind of secret mission was running around with clothes that expose two thirds of her torso, sleeves so big she couldn't even sit down at the dinner table with them and some kind of bizarre shawl that seems to be attached to her by magic? How is she supposed to blend in like that? Is that why she was on the run in the beginning? Someone saw her and went “Hey look, that girl who looks like she just escaped from the hooker circus must have stolen our super weapon!” It's ridiculous.

“But Kaarel,” you might say, “Isn't that nitpicking? Aren't you being just a little harsh?”

Well, someone has to be, gods damn it! Someone has to be! ;_;

There are three kinds of entertainment: the kind that requires you to think to enjoy it, the kind that doesn't require you to think to enjoy it, and the kind that requires you NOT to think to enjoy it. I'm not a fan of that last one. I've long since given up on expecting practical outfits for female characters, but are semi-quasi-pseudo-practical outfits really too much to hope for as well? Is a story that holds up under scrutiny really such a high demand?

One last thing... Perhaps I'm jumping the gun here, but I sensed a vague nationalistic undercurrent in the writing. Japan is known to be a little xenophobic, and Code Geass had its share of awkward subtext. Tell me it isn't a little uncomfortable that Guilty Crown's premise seems to be foreign nations dominating Japan because of sinister international aid during a crisis? The series also has two lone colored characters, one of whom happens to be an underling of the fascist regime who orders a massacre and the other a thuggish mugger. It's probably a coincidence, but come on, doesn't it make you raise an eyebrow? Just a little bit? No? Really? Well, maybe it's just me.

So should you give Guilty Crown a shot? Eh, sure, why not? It looks like it'll be entertaining. You could do a whole lot worse.

Fresher's Week Flier

Summer 2011: No. 6 and Bunny Drop.

Next up, we'll take a look at summer's pair of noitaminA anime.

No. 6

No. 6 is based on a series of science fiction novels by Atsuko Asano that concluded only last month. It seems like a natural successor to a previous noitaminA series, this winter's Fractale, and I find this more than questionable considering the fact that Fractale tanked badly in both ratings and sales. 

 

No. 6 is a city, a post-apocalyptic utopia that houses one of the last remaining pockets of humanity. Our protagonist, Shion, is a prodigy studying in an elite school. One day, during a stormy night, a wounded boy stumbles into his room. Nezumi is rather threatening and seems to have escaped from a correctional facility, but he and Shion seem to hit it off nevertheless. Nezumi hints that there might be something sinister about No. 6 – as if the mention of a "Ministry of Peace" wasn't enough to tip off the viewer – and disappears by the morning.

Most of the episode deals with building the rather suggestive relationship between the two male leads. I'm dead serious here; the homoerotic undertones are hard to overlook. Shion starts off the episode acting completely disinterested in a kiss by his "unlucky childhood friend" character and ends it falling asleep while holding Nezumi's hand. The presentation is tasteful enough, but it remains to be seen whether this will be used as a carrot to keep the female audience watching or whether something will actually come of it. I couldn't help but be amused when the English subtitles had them calling each other "hot" (in the literal sense of the word). Nezumi's character, the mysterious agent interrupting an ordinary protagonist's daily life, would probably be female in most other anime. Indeed, this character was female in Fractale. 

 

The characters come across as relatively down-to-earth and believable. Shion seems rather bland in his eccentricity and vague cheeriness, and I found his not-girlfriend rather tedious as well, though largely because I fear she's going to be utterly pointless. Nezumi seems more compelling. The animation looks great, as to be expected from Studio Bones. There are some great, detailed backgrounds to be found. The major problem with the episode is that very little happens throughout it. Considering that it's an 11-episode series, that's a bit of an issue. There seems to be a time skip ahead, so perhaps this episode can be discounted as a prologue, but I still found it more boring than it should have been. It's going to take a few more episodes for me to make up my mind about No. 6, but as of right now, I'd say it's skippable.

Bunny Drop

Bunny Drop is adapted from a manga. The basic story is that Daikichi Kawachi, a thirty-year old bachelor, returns home for his grandfather's funeral and discovers that the old man had had an illegitimate child. The six-year old girl, Rin, is regarded as shameful and unwanted by the rest of the family, so Daikichi decides to take care of his young aunt himself. What follows is a heartwarming tale of parenthood and growing up...

I haven't read the manga, but I do know about its infamously ruinous ending. I'm not doing to spoil anything, but you know what? I bet you can guess exactly what that ending is based on the plot description. Yeeeesss, you suspect, don't you? Because there's pretty much only one way a story like this can go catatrophically wrong, isn't there?

Bunny Drop's troubles started after a time skip, however, and it's very probable that the anime will only cover the material leading up to it. If the series ever gets a second season though, be very, very worried – there's always the chance the producers will decide to scrap the original crap ending and create their own, but if not, this series is screwed.

The first episode's mood is melancholy and sweet, and its story mature and subtly told. It's a delight to see Daikichi's and Rin's relationship developing from their meeting. The show's art style is quite pretty – the style of the cold open is a little reminiscent of the water color-style of noitaminA's other winter 2011 entry, Wandering Son, the anime nobody watched (including me). 

 

Rin is cutesy, but not an overly caricatured moeblob either, thank the gods. If there's a problem with her, it's that she's a little too gracious, a little too intelligent, a little too mature. This is further emphasized by her contrast with Reina, a completely insufferable child in the family. It feels kind of like cheating to make sure the viewer's sympathy is definitely invested in Rin, but I suppose I should be thankful it's not the other girl Daikichi has to take care of. Not much is established about Daikichi himself; he remains limited to his interactions with Rin. 

Overall, if you like slow, atmospheric, heart-warming anime, you should probably give Bunny Drop a try – and hope for the best in regards to the future. 

Next:  Sacred Seven.

Summer 2011: The rejects and Mawaru Penguindrum.

I originally envisoned this blog as a platform for dialogue about ongoing anime – basically me deciding for everyone else what currently airing series are good and what currently airing series are bad. This was perhaps a little ill-conceived, since I have no plans to watch any bad anime to warn you about them, but I hope to get some mileage from the idea anyway.

First of all, let's look over some of the stuff I'm not even going to try out. There's your standard crap to pad out the time slots – more than one "cute girls doing cute things" show, a series involving cross-dressing, and something about breasts – but also quite a bit of what seems to be more solid stuff. There's sequels to Natsume Yuujinchou, Baka to Test and Blood coming out, all of which I'm foregoing since I haven't seen any of the original series. There's also yet another adaptation of Appleseed, this time a TV series, but they've had 2-3 chances to get it right already, so I think I'm just not going to bother. The Idolmaster, based on a popular game about grooming pop idols, looks to be one of the bigger shows this season, but I fear my eyes would roll uncontrollably if I tried to watch it and I wouldn't be able to tell what's going on. Another thing of note is Blade, presumably the last of Marvel's superhero anime, but even if the previous three hadn't turned out so disappointing, I'm not much of a Blade-fan, so I'm passing on that as well.

Honourable mention goes to R-15, an ecchi high school comedy about a guy who's secretly a talented pornographic novelist. The premise is so stupid it might just work, but alas, I have better things to do with my time.

So, what did I watch? What should you watch?

Mawaru Penguindrum

Mawaru Penguindrum has managed to draw a fair bit more attention you would have expected for something that doesn't have a plot synopsis beyond "it has something to do with penguins." The reason for this is the show's director, Kunihiko Ikuhara, who's known for his work on Sailor Moon and especially for directing Revolutionary Girl Utena. Penguindrum is Ikuhara's first new project in a while, so hopes are high. 

 

Based on the first episode, it seems that the show is about two orphan (?) brothers that take care of their terminally ill sister. Once the girl dies and penguins get involved, things get weird, and that's literally about all I can say. If you've ever seen Utena, you know that there's two things Ikuhara really likes: incest and lesbians. As soon as I realized this series featured sibling main characters, I (correctly) suspected we'd be seeing some of the former. Indeed, the ending credits ominously imply that there might be some gender-bending to come, so I'm prepared for the latter as well. Penguindrum is reminiscent of Utena in other ways as well; two schoolkids have a bizarre conversation about apples that evokes the recurring shadow players that served as Utena's Greek chorus, for instance.

 

At first glance, Penguindrum's first episode seems very compelling. It's certainly stylish and interesting, but my first impression faltered a bit when the episode ended and I had time to think about it and catch on to its imperfections. The entire episode is largely based on throwing a lot of random wackiness on the screen in the hopes that we'd tune in again to find out what the hell is going on. The series doesn't doesn't even seem to have a concrete genre, and the viewer doesn't know much more about it after seeing the first episode than before. On top of that, we're given a major dramatic beat before we'd have any reason to really care. Nonetheless, there are suggestions of substance to be found and I am genuinely curious where this is going. The production values are high, and there is one notably FABULOUS scene. I recommend you give it a shot.

Next: No. 6 and Bunny Drop.

Spice and Wolf, A Review

The peddler Lawrence Craft spends his days traveling the world, buying and selling goods and dreaming of one day settling down and opening his own shop. One day, he meets a girl with a wolf's ears and tail. The girl, Holo, claims to be a goddess of the harvest whom humans no longer need, and wants to return to her ancient homeland in the north. Lawrence and Holo form a partnership and set out on a journey, evading an unfriendly church and trying to make a profit along the way.

When Spice and Wolf was first previewed in 2008, hopes were not high. The plot synopsis sounded nothing but awkward, the idea of a fantasy series about a traveling salesman seemed more than a little silly, and the naked girl with animal ears hinted ominously at incoming pandering. Everybody knew exactly what to expect: “furry” fan service with an oddball premise. It took a lot of people by surprise when Spice and Wolf aired and turned out to be a surprisingly mature and intelligent series with minimal fan service. It's generally excellent, and has one of the best romances in anime.

AAMS, 2010-2011.

Here's a list of all the anime that we watched this year, pain-stakingly stitched together and maintained by the Society's heroic secretary:

An indictment of J-pop, and the proposal of new alternatives

It dawned on me a long time ago that most J-pop is dreadful. This corporate bullshit - created to conform to carefully crafted tropes such as the teen idol or the girl group -  is designed specifically to bring in cash for the various corporations that fund its creation. Whilst it's true that there is independent J-pop, this isn't the focus of this article and I've found that it tends to be a little more experimental and subject to the whims of the original artist (see Hazel Nuts Chocolate).

Toradora, A Review

From Anime News Network:

Despite Ryuuji Takasu's gentle personality, his eyes make him look like an intimidating delinquent. Class rearrangements on his second high school year put him together with his best friend, Yusaku Kitamura, and his hidden crush, Minori Kushieda. Along with these two comes Kushieda's best friend, Taiga Aisaka. Her delicate appearance contrasts with her brutal personality. Secretly in love with Kitamura, Taiga agrees to help Ryuuji with his love interest as long as he helps her get closer to hers.

Toradora is the sort of anime that wasn't created, but designed, possibly by a robot. It flat-out refuses to bring anything new to the table, and accomplishes little since it doesn't try much anything. It has a number of tangible flaws, but is put together more or less competently. The show's real problems are conceptual.

Food for Thought: My Little Pony and the Moe Phenomenon

That is so moe! Or is it?

Find out after the break.