Category: First Impressions

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Knight’s & Magic

Post author By Jessi Silver
Post date July 9, 2017
2 Comments on Summer 2017 First Impressions – Knight’s & Magic

A Japanese mecha otaku dies in a car accident and his soul is reincarnated into another world as Ernesti Echevarria. Eru inherits memories and interests from his previous life, and aims to be a pilot of a Silhouette Knight, a large humanoid weapon that really exists in his world. – ANN

Streaming at: Crunchyroll

Number of Episodes: TBA

Source: Web Novel/Light Novel

Summary of Episode 1: Kurata is a programmer who always gets the job done, even when it’s crunch time and it doesn’t look like his team will meet their deadline. He’s also a big fan of mecha anime and has an entire room in his apartment devoted to his model collection. Unfortunately, once he’s killed in a hit-and-run on a rainy night, his model-making hobby is over for good. Or is it? As luck would have it, Kurata’s spirit is reincarnated into the body of a child noble named Ernesti “Ernie” Echevalier. Better yet, the world in which Ernie lives is one filled with magic, as well as mecha-like apparatuses called “Silhouette Knights.” With his adult-like maturity and interest in mecha, Ernie manages to work his way into the top of his class and eventually positions himself to become a pilot. But demons are starting to run amok. Will Ernie’s cleverness and penchant for inventing things be the factor that turns humanity’s luck around?

Impressions: First of all, let’s get this out of the way and then never speak of it again: what is up with the apostrophe in the show’s title? It’s been causing me a lot of heartburn. Maybe Japanese creators could just agree to employ the services of a native English speaker from now on so that we can all avoid any future hair-pulling punctuation flourishes.

Kurata’s last moments. Copyright 2017 (c) 8-Bit

Just like every other storytelling trend, the fantasy subgenre of “Isekai,” in which a modern day individual is transported from their home into another world (the word literally means “another world.” It makes sense!) has been expressed in so many variations lately that it’s beginning to seem a little bit stale. More often than not, it feels like the trope is used solely in the service of stroking the male ego – “I’m an otaku who knows how these alternate worlds work through my extensive knowledge of fantasy media and games, so the elves, demi-humans, and other female denizens of this realm will certainly fall in love with me!” There are obviously many variables in both specific details and relative quality, and it’s not like this is a new phenomenon or one solely limited to male characters (in fact, some of the earlier examples I can think of featured young women drawn into worlds with groups of hot bishounen suitors), but it’s been very one-note as of late. So what does it take for something with a stock premise to stand out?

One good example I watched some of within the realm of recent memory was The Saga of Tanya the Evil, which reincarnated its adult male protagonist into the body of a young girl and turned its story into a philosophical debate about the existence of God. For every high-minded and creative attempt, though, there are several Sword Art Online clones, as well as wildly-popular but ultimately unsatisfying and problematic examples like Re:Zero. More often than not the genre is used as a setup to portray a teenage male power fantasy, paving the way for the protagonist to experience undeserved privilege (due to his knowledge of fantasy and/or video game tropes) and the adoration of an endless parade of cute but vapid female suitors. So where does this example seem to fall?

Ernie gets the opportunity to see a cockpit up close. Copyright 2017 (c) 8-Bit

The answer, for now, seems to be that it’s somewhere in between. There are several good things going for the show from the get-go, the primary one for me being the protagonist’s seemingly bottomless enthusiasm regarding his new and strange situation. Kurata/Ernie, for his part, seems to be so thankful to have been reincarnated into this brand new world that the loss of his previous life, job, and faithfully-curated mecha model collection, doesn’t haunt him too badly. It’s presented as if whatever deity running the universe has presented Kurata with some kind of consolation in exchange for cutting his life short. Rather than be all entitled about it, he interprets this chance as a gift to live a life that he’s dreamed of. Ernie might be unnaturally talented for his age due to his soul’s fortuitous foreknowledge of technology and ability to solve problems quickly and creatively, and this could easily have been used to portray him as arrogant and superior. But he’s so gosh-darned thrilled to learn about the Silhouette Knights and to study magic that it’s difficult not to get caught up in the whirlwind of his joy. His relationship with the Alter siblings and their shared penchant for learning, increasing their magical skills, and using them to aid others is nice as well.

The age of the primary characters also helps to set the tone of the show – the protagonist and his cohorts are all about middle-school aged, which is helpful in keeping them from seeming too self-important. They’re not yet concerned with looking cool and pretending that the issues of the adult world are somehow also their burdens to bear. They’re just kids – precocious ones, certainly, but also enthusiastic and guileless. They’re not yet concerned with the opposite sex in a way that makes many anime feel skeevy. Cool toys and friendships are paramount; other responsibilities can wait.

A Silhouette Knight puts down an evil creature. Copyright 2017 (c) 8-Bit

The show’s attitude and presentation could definitely carry it forward for a while, but it will certainly need to be coupled with other compelling elements and whether that part will be successful is difficult to predict from this episode alone. The building blocks of the story seem pretty typical so far – monsters are starting to show up more often, in greater groups, and much closer to human civilization than is comfortable, and our heroes will likely play some part in finding a unique way to put them down and thus save humanity. The show takes place in a vaguely medieval fantasy setting, its one distinguishing factor being that this world is inhabited by giant magical sets of armor – ambulatory due to magic and a human pilot inside, of course – that resemble the mecha that the protagonist is so fond of. Obviously one unique feature does not a memorable TV anime make, so while the mecha twist is kind of fun in and of itself it will have to reach further eventually.

I do like the overall look of the show so far, even the extreme shininess of Ernie’s hair (seriously, so shiny…). At this point it seems almost a given that mecha elements will be created through the use of CG, and I’m okay with that; the CG elements mesh well with the 2D portions pretty well. There are also some examples of really good traditional animation in the character acting during the episode’s fight scene between the evil creatures and students. Going in I had expected this to be a more simplistic and generic production, so it was a pleasant surprise to me that it was well put-together.

I might sound a little curmudgeonly at times when it comes to popular anime and anime trends, but one thing I like about myself is that I’ll still give something new a try even if I might not expect it to be all that interesting. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised when I do. I don’t think this is AOTS-material, but it might be something fun to watch and it seems to have its heart in the right place, at least.

Pros: The show has a good visual presentation. The enthusiasm of the protagonist is infectious. The show puts a slight spin on the isekai model.

Cons: The majority of the building blocks are pretty typical; it will have to do everything really well to stay compelling.

Grade: B

Tags Action, Crunchyroll, First Impression, Isekai, Mecha, Summer 2017

First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Hina Logic: From Luck & Logic

Post author By Jessi Silver
Post date July 4, 2017
No Comments on Summer 2017 First Impressions – Hina Logic: From Luck & Logic

Liones Yelistratova is the naive princess of a small nation, who goes to Hokkaido to enter ALCA, an educational institution dedicated to teaching Logicalists who uphold world peace. Liones enters Class S, and encounters many unique classmates, including Logicalist Nina Alexandrovna. – ANN

Streaming at: Crunchyroll and Funimation (Simuldub not yet available)

Number of Episodes: 12 plus a special

Source: Multimedia Franchise

Summary of Episode 1: Liones, a princess from an unnamed nation, arrives at her new school having stowed-away on a freight ship and hitchhiked in the back of dirty farm carts to make her way through Hokkaido. She’s a total mess when she arrives on the doorstep of ALCA, an academy dedicated to taking talented individuals and training them in the ways of contracting with individuals from “foreign” dimensions, a role referred to as a “logicalist. Lion, as she prefers to be known, doesn’t seem to have any inherent talent, and in fact most people who meet her peg her as an airhead. But she’s assigned to class-S, meaning that she’s already formed at least one contract (even if she might not remember actually doing so). During lunch on her first day, Lion demonstrates some aptitude with the process, though whatever being with whom she contracts seems a little bit malevolent. Classmate Nina knocks Lion back to her senses; Lion is just happy that she truly belongs in class-S now.

Impressions: Over the last couple of years there have been a few anime series that have drawn their narratives at least in part from the real-life world of anime voice acting. Shirobako, Girlish Number, and Seiyu’s Life! all feature scenarios in which actresses lend their voices to anime series of somewhat questionable quality, though only the latter two really put the situation front and center. These meta “anime-within-an-anime” are typified by their one-note characters, defined more by tropey archetypes than any sort of actual humanity. These shows also tend to be built by committee, with product tie-ins and other commercial concerns given more weight than creating something that can stand on its own. These situations are humorous and relatable because at some level as anime fans we know them to be true; not every anime creation can be a piece of art for the sake of art – sometimes it’s just meant to make money and give people a quick dose of something goofy and simple.

Liones arrives at school. Copyright 2017 (c) Doga Kobo

Hina Logic is like the purest real-life expression of this idea. The visual presentation is competent, the heroine is stupid and sort of likeable because of it, and her friends all run the gamut of moé archetypes – there’s a strong, emotionless girl, a snaggle-toothed goofball, a set of twin sisters with opposing temperaments, and a snooty ojou-sama who’s the class rep. There’s a little bit of a magical girl element, a little bit of clunky fanservice, and an incredibly thin plot that revolves around magical cards (product tie-in!). It’s all just kind of frothy and vapid, without much of anything to grasp onto and seriously be critical about. While it may just be me projecting, I almost feel as though I can hear from within the workmanlike performances the strained smiles and forced enthusiasm of the actresses as they try to talk up this show at a press event, internally aware that “hey, it’s just a paycheck after all.”

This was my poor attempt at being funny about something that used to make me very irritated. Toy commercial cartoons aren’t scarce in the West by any means (I mean, dear lord, G.I. Joe and TMNT were almost nothing if not a mechanism for getting kids to beg their parents for cool toys, and I used to eat both of those up), but I used to get really bent out of shape whenever my chosen form of media entertainment would deem it necessary to waste its time and mine churning out cash-cow advertisement entertainment rather than hoity-toity high art aimed directly at me. I’ve definitely gotten over it at this point, and now I’m just sort of fascinated by the anime production system itself and how adver-tainment is just one of its many facets.

The class rep and her cronies grill Liones about her situation. Copyright 2017 (c) Doga Kobo

As for this episode’s actual merits, the entire thing is much the same as the acting – workmanlike. Adequate. Mostly inoffensive. There’s some trashy fanservice that didn’t sit well with me; in one case, the mascot creature burrowed into a character’s blouse wreaking havoc for an uncomfortable length of time while the camera focused on her chest, which felt par for the course. There was also at least two and I think three bathing scenes with a lot of steam and light beam censorship, the issue being that the characters are rather young and look even younger, which makes it all feel extra gross. While I think really heinous and upsetting fanservice has mostly gone out of style since the previous incarnation of this website, which I’m extremely thankful for, I still find that most of that kind of content doesn’t make the show more appealing. It mostly just feels like a band-aid hastily-applied to a show that doesn’t have much of merit.

In any case, aside from the few sad attempts at pubescent sexual humor, Hina Logic is the type of anime that doesn’t prompt a lot of thought or reaction, because none of it stands out and it’s not really meant to be thought-provoking or unique. It’s these types of anime that are always so difficult for me to write about, mostly because I want readers to know whether they’d be interested or not but I can never really find an angle to latch onto. I will say that, while Katsugeki! Touken Ranbu gave me the impression that the game on which it’s based might be kind of interesting and fun, Hina Logic doesn’t do anything to flatter its associated game properties. And that’s perhaps the most damning thing one could say about an anime meant to sell something.

Pros: The show is exceedingly inoffensive.

Cons: This episode feels strained in several different ways. There are a couple examples of fanservice that are very shoehorned in.

Grade: C-

Tags Action, Card Game, Crunchyroll, Fantasy, First Impression, Funimation, Magical Girl, Summer 2017

First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Kakegurui

Post author By Jessi Silver
Post date July 2, 2017
No Comments on Summer 2017 First Impressions – Kakegurui

At Hyakkaō Private Academy, the sons and daughters of the wealthiest of the wealthy engage in a unique curriculum geared to teach them to how to read their opponents. Specifically, students have a rigorous curriculum of gambling where the winners live like kings, and the losers are put through the wringer. When Yumeko Jabami enrolls, she’s decides to teach the students what a real high-roller looks like. – ANN

Streaming At: Netflix (assuming it will be a late-cast in the US)

Number of Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Summary of Episode 1: Ryota Suzui is in dire straits. After losing 5,000,000 yen to the devilish Mary Saotome at one of Hyakkao Academy’s after-school gambling sessions, he’s fallen deep into a debt that he’ll be unable to pay back for a long time. For now, his status is that of a lowly housepet, and Saotome-san is taking advantage of that as much as she can. When a kind-hearted young lady named Yumeko Jabami transfers into his class, he can only look on as Saotome strikes swiftly to try and take her out of the equation, but during a specialty game of “rock, paper, scissors,” the entire class discovers that Jabami-san is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Impressions: Several years ago, Madhouse produced an (informal) trilogy of gambling-related anime series that featured characters who demonstrated an almost devilish amount of luck. Akagi featured a teenage mahjong prodigy with a demonic ability to psychologically dismantle his opponents and cheat death when his very life was on the line. Kaiji was about a hapless debtor whose inherent gambling skill only revealed itself when he was backed into a proverbial corner. And One Outs (which to this day I don’t believe has seen any official release in the US) starred a baseball pitcher whose skill made him rich in spite of sports managers who tried to take advantage of him. All three anime were really fascinating for their examination of human psychology, specifically the ways in which people act when they’re faced with overwhelmingly negative odds in situations where much of the results are left up to the luck of the draw. On the other had, each one was also an unrepentant sausage-fest, with hardly a woman in sight (and sometimes when a woman made an appearance, one wished that maybe she hadn’t). It always left me wondering what the same setup might be like with a cast full of young women.

Saotome turns Suzui into her personal “dog.” Copyright 2017 (c) MAPPA

In both the East and the West, when we think of gambling, we think of smoke-filled mahjong parlors populated by old men, or Texas Hold’em tournaments starring poker-faced and often quirky male players. Women can sometimes be seen as lacking the cunning and guile that it takes to gamble an opponent into oblivion. While previous series like Saki have avoided the discomfort of the situation by moé-ing things up and making the characters at least look non-threatening, or turned the gambling scenarios completely comedic like the awesomely-trashy Rio: Rainbow Gate, it hasn’t been until the moment that I watched the first episode of Kakegurui that I felt like I’d seen something that captured the same sinister tone of the aforementioned gambling trilogy. The show just happens to accomplish this while still inhabiting that most popular of anime settings – high school.

The premise of the show is inherently unbelievable in that, while I’m sure elite high schools exist in Japan, I’m almost positive that there are none with such a bizarre curriculum (I hope). But within a medium where there are plenty of series about magical high schools, haunted high schools, high schools with clubs that battle with one another or those that band together to solve mysteries, it’s ultimately not that difficult to suspend my disbelief. What Kakegurui does manage to accomplish with this not-quite-believable premise is to demonstrate a fairly decent sense about how ijime/bullying operates within a classroom social system, even if the type of bullying itself is unrealistic. Jabami-san is picked out as an easy target by the class bully and her cronies, is seemingly turned into a victim to the point where it seems like she’ll be banished to a life of subservience, much like our poor POV character Suzui. Of course, the sick pleasure to be derived from the narrative is that Jabami isn’t innocent whatsoever, and completely turns the tables on her antagonist.

Jabami gets turned-on by the thought of a challenging risk. Copyright 2017 (c) MAPPA

Jabami’s two-faced character is probably where the show demonstrates its biggest issues, however. There’s a problematic concept that shows up a lot in Japanese media but can be found in books, TV series, and films from all over the place, and that’s the figure of the woman who expresses her threatening, violent, or cunning nature via her hyper-sexuality. Suzui is drawn to Jabami when she seems demure and innocent, but is threatened and horrified when she switches into high gear – her eyes gain a sinister gleam, her skin flushes, and her lips plump and moisten. There’s also some “moist” visual symbolism that shows up briefly when she gets the upper hand on Saotome. It’s weirdly uncomfortable in that it ties together the idea of the sexual woman with an evil, aggressive, and cunning woman, and likewise conflates chastity with goodness in a way that places value on women’s state of being. This is something you just don’t see in Akagi or One Outs – when the protagonists of those series go into “battle mode,” they’re threatening and frightening because of their almost supernatural knowledge and their ability to think and manipulate themselves out of a corner, seemingly with ease. Here, Jabami also thinks her way out of her predicament using some amount of logic, but she does so while (figuratively) sopping wet. Our milquetoast POV character is put off by this demonstration, and I feel like we’re supposed to be also. It’s an unfortunately weird sex-negative scenario and a problem that’s much bigger than this show.

That aside (if you’re able to set it aside – it’s likely that many won’t and that’s understandable), this episode is something that I wouldn’t describe as “good” but might be tempted to describe as “awesomely-trashy.” It’s entertaining and problematic, and deals with characters who are awful people. It’s not normally my jam to watch stuff that’s quite so cynical about human nature, but I’m still morbidly curious about this truly strange title.

Pros: It’s a gambling tale with mostly young women as important characters. It does a decent job of demonstrating the workings of bullying in an unrealistic setting.

Cons: In this setting, women’s sexuality is seen as threatening. The fact that our POV character is a personality-less dude probably spells trouble.

Grade: C

Tags Drama, First Impression, Horror, Netflix, Summer 2017

First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Katsugeki! Touken Ranbu

Post author By Jessi Silver
Post date July 2, 2017
No Comments on Summer 2017 First Impressions – Katsugeki! Touken Ranbu

The year is 1863 as the tumultuous samurai era is coming to an end, Japan is split between the pro-shogunate and anti-shogunate factions. The fate of the world is threatened as an army of historical revisionists are sent from the future to alter the course of history. In order to bring these forces down and protect the real history, two sword warriors, spirits who are swords brought to life by Saniwa (sage), rush to Edo. The polite and thoughtful Horikawa Kunihiro and the short tempered yet skillful Izuminokami Kanesada, who served the same master, confront the invading army along with a lively gang of other warriors including Mutsunokami Yoshiyuki, Yagen Toushirou, Tombokiri, and Tsurumaru Kuninaga. As the fate of history lies in these hero’s hands, what meets the blade is yet to be uncovered… ANN

Streaming at: Amazon Anime Strike, Crunchyroll

Number of Episodes: 13

Source: Game

Summary of Episode 1: Kanesada and Kunihiro are two warriors who exist outside of time and outside of the bounds of normal humanity. Both men are warrior spirits summoned from powerful blades by the sage Saniwa, and who have been sent backwards in time into historical Japan to prevent the malevolent Retrograde Army from meddling in and altering Japan’s history. The problem is that they are but two individuals, and the Retrograde Army continues to send more and more demonic soldiers to murder important people. It’s becoming more difficult to accurately predict where these creatures will appear and what effects they might have. It’s during a particularly dire battle that Saniwa makes his appearance in person, and he comes bearing gifts – three more weapon-based warriors to aid in the good fight. This may just tip the scales in the right direction, but only if Kanesada and the gun-wielding Yoshiyuki can get over their rivalry and work together.

Impressions: It’s easy to go into an anime viewing with prejudices, especially when the type of source material on which it’s based tends to have its own set of tropes. The Touken Ranbu game is described as a gender-swapped version of the game Kantai Collection, which anthropomorphizes historical military warships as sexy young women, for the consumption of a mostly male audience. Touken Ranbu does the same for famous swords, turning them into various flavors of attractive men for an interested female audience. Turnabout is fair play and all, but in past cases this sort of thing has resulted in anime that’s almost always kind of goofy and based around a one-joke concept that has to be manipulated all over the place to provide enough basis for an actual story. It’s not meant to provide a pithy plot, it’s meant to show attractive characters doing a thing and to justify merchandising. Which is great and all, but I don’t buy a lot of merch so that doesn’t really resonate with me.

The team analyzes who the next target might be. Copyright 2017 (c) Ufotable

Touken Ranbu is an interesting case in that it’s received two different types of adaptations. There was a more light, comedic adaptation (that I didn’t watch) a couple of seasons ago called Touken Ranbu Hanamaru that seemed to exist in order to get the sillies out of its system, and now there’s this adaptation, which appears to be taking things more seriously and concentrating on the supernatural action elements of the plot. It’s kind of an unorthodox approach to adapting a property to animation, but I think I kind of like it; there will always be people who just aren’t interested in doom-and-gloom seriousness and who wouldn’t watch something where characters are legitimately getting hurt and drawing blood from their enemies, while others just aren’t down with goofy humor and mostly plotless shenanigans. Now that some game companies are using their zillions of dollars to commission and oversee adaptations of their own material (see: Rage of Bahamut), maybe it’s something we’ll be seeing more often.

All that stuff is just background, though. The question is, how does the first episode of this show hold up? I was surprised that, when all was said and done, I was pretty impressed by what this episode has to offer. Anime in general, especially when the background plot points are sort of complicated, has a tendency to info-dump via expository dialog. Even really good series like ACCA:13, for example, can trip themselves up by awkwardly inserting minutes upon minutes of plot setup into character conversations (any time I hear or read “As you know…” in a show, I get a little embarrassed for the writers for being so obvious with what they’re trying to do). There’s a little bit of that here, but it feels more natural than in many cases. Since Kunihiro is a noob sword-guy on his first mission, the guidance he receives from old veteran Kane-san serves to fill us in on a lot of what their general mission is and the workings of the time travel element as it relates to what’s happening. A lot of what we learn comes in the characters reacting to the realities of their situation – the Retrograde Army is going to kill some important dudes in a general location that’s been narrowed-down as much as possible (though not enough – just the realities of trying to predict these things from a couple hundred years in the “future”), and they have to get rid of the enemy without intervening in the normal day-to-day stuff that’s going on. Since they’re from the future, they also have some notes regarding things that historically happened every day so they can cross-check that history hasn’t been altered. It’s a good system, doesn’t try to nail down the time-travel stuff in too much detail (because if you try to “logic” that all out it stops making any sense), and allows us to concentrate on the things that are really important – namely the cool action scenes and other exciting things.

Kane saves Kunihiro from getting skewered. Copyright 2017 (c) Ufotable

Since adapting the Fate series over several different anime incarnations in the recent past, Ufotable has gotten a reputation for its high-quality cinematic anime productions that present cool, well-animated action sequences with a lot of excitement and polish. Try as I might I’ve never really been able to get into any adaptation of the Fate series, which is unfortunate since I like watching cool action choreography and animation as much as the next person. At least judging by this episode, Ufotable has given us something that retains and shores up their reputation in this area, but without the added baggage of people trying to convince me that Saber is a feminist character (please stop doing this; I will not agree with you). While it’s not quite Sword of the Stranger quality action (seriously – if you love amazing animation, you can definitely watch around the middling samurai-movie plot for the sublime sword fight choreography in this film from BONES), the glistening swords and characters racing across the rooftops is exciting and fun to watch. A lot of care has gone into making this episode look good; if the job of an opening episode of anime is to put the show’s best foot forward and get viewers hooked on its best qualities, this definitely accomplished that.

The other side of this is that there’s a lot of reliance on computer generated components (creatures and settings) to help make many of the shots possible. Anime cinematography has gotten so much better over the past couple of years that this is really almost a non-issue; the hand-drawn characters and the 3D backdrops mesh together really well thanks to judicious use of visual filters and what is probably very conscientious storyboarding and layout construction. In short, it looks great! But similar to a lot of modern live-action films (especially superhero or disaster films that, by their nature, require a lot of effects work) there’s always that subconscious sense that the two pieces don’t exist in the same world, and that can be ever-so-slightly distracting (at least for me). But don’t let that dissuade you – I think this is one of the better examples of what can be done in the modern era when the two animation techniques work together.

A good-looking rival appears. Copyright 2017 (c) Ufotable

I was incorrect in thinking that this show was an Anime Strike exclusive; I learned that Aniplex USA has got it playing on several different streaming outlets, so while you won’t be able to afford to buy it when it’s released on disc, at the very least you’ll be able to scrape together enough pennies to watch it on your favorite streaming service (I added it to my queue on both Crunchyroll and Anime Strike, so we’ll see what service I default to in future weeks).

While I’m usually more interested in quieter, more thoughtful, or “iyashi-kei” or “healing” entertainment, it’s definitely fun to branch out and watch something that does nothing more than get my heart pumping. A well-constructed action series with attractive anime dudes is really the very definition of what gets my kokoro going doki-doki, so there you have it. Even if bishounen aren’t exactly your thing, though, I think if you enjoy swordplay, historical fantasy, or just really cool hand-drawn animation, Katsugeki! Touken Ranbu might have something worthwhile for you.

Pros: The visual presentation is slick and high-quality, the fantasy and time-travel elements don’t bog things down too much, and the characters are attractive.

Cons: There’s a sense that the characters and backgrounds are not of the same world.

Grade: B

Tags Action, Anime Strike, Aniplex, First Impression, Summer 2017, Ufotable

First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2017 First Impressions – ACCA: 13 Territory Inspection Department

Post author By Jessi Silver
Post date January 21, 2017
1 Comment on Winter 2017 First Impressions – ACCA: 13 Territory Inspection Department

In a world separated into 13 wards, with each ward having an observation division controlled by the organization known as “ACCA.” Jean is known as the craftiest member of ACCA. – ANN

Streaming at: Crunchyroll

Number of Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Summary of Episode 1: The Dowa kingdom has been experiencing a period of unprecedented peace for many years. The king is celebrating his ninety-ninth birthday and there are no signs of political unrest. This makes the government’s observational division, known as “ACCA” obsolete, or so say those in charge; without a need to utilize the employees of ACCA to help maintain political control, why not just trim the budget and get rid of them? Jean Otus is one of ACCA’s most recognizable members, known as the “cigarette peddler” for indulging in a smoke here and there while on the job. ACCA’s imminent closure doesn’t come as a surprise to Jean, and he has the family business to fall back on. But after being sent out on an audit and discovering some hints of low-level corruption within his organization, he learns that ACCA is to remain open. Jean also begins to notice that he himself is under observation. What could possibly be churning behind the scenes to prompt the change?

Impressions: Though my interest in anime and manga tends to be pretty broad, I do have a small stable of creators whose work I follow more closely. Most of these are the more auteur-style anime directors, such as Masaaki Yuasa, or Akiyuki Shinbo (though his actual directorial involvement is questionable – I just really like the Shaft aesthetic so take that how you will). Natsume Ono is one of the few manga-ka whose body of work has really resonated with me, though unlike Yuasa her particular style is a bit harder to define. Aside from her character designs, which most people can identify by their general lankiness and round, almost protruding eyes, the settings for her stories run the gamut from Asia (modern and historical), to Europe, to the fictionalized nation depicted in ACCA. The unifying trait between her many disparate works is difficult to point out from the surface, but it’s definitely there in the pacing and feel of her stories – they all tend to depict adult characters involved in often mundane, slow-burn drama (romantic or otherwise). This type of character-based drama is something I seek out, and it appears that ACCA will likely demonstrate that sort of structure. In short, ACCA, with its lackadaisical pacing and (currently) low-stakes drama is (maybe counter intuitively) just the kind of thing that gets me going. That said, this is also the type of opening episode that’s likely to turn away a large portion of the anime-viewing audience, because it doesn’t have a lot to offer upfront.

Very little happens in this episode, plot-wise. We’re introduced to the setting via a fairly standard “as you know…” info-dump, presented to a sub-set of characters who would likely not need to hear the basic breakdown of how their society works. I’m always a little bit amused when this happens, as the Japanese language is based so much around inferences and indirect, implied meaning; it’s always seemed odd to me that the plots of so many anime are blurted-out awkwardly rather than revealed organically. In any case, we’re introduced to Jean Otus, a protagonist with a cool demeanor who leads a relatively unassuming life. He shares an apartment with his sister; their family serve as landlords for their luxury apartment building, which they’d otherwise be unable to afford. Jean is good at his job as an ACCA observer, and he’s also known for his smoking habit (tobacco is an expensive luxury in their society).

The primary bit of drama in this episode comes as the result of one of Jean’s audits, during which he discovers some low-level illegal activity cropping up from within the organization. The resulting kerfluffle isn’t huge – even the highers-up don’t appear to be all that concerned about it – but during the fallout it’s revealed that Jean is actually surrounded by an air of suspicion and that there are some people in positions of power that suspect him of some sort of wrongdoing. He remarks that he feels as though he’s being watched, and while it’s not quite obvious whether or not anyone is yet, it’s at this point that the show establishes an unsettled feeling in the viewer. Is this setting really so peaceful and bland? Will the entire series be just a serialized account of Jean’s travels with bureaucratic commentary thrown in? I doubt it. There’s also an odd sort of separation between the audience and Jean right from the get-go. While he’s ostensibly the focal character, it feels as if we’re looking at him from the outside, seeing him from the POV of the other characters around him. It’s a bit disorienting, but I can’t help feel like it’s intentional.

This seems to me like the type of anime where the viewer really has to be willing to read between the lines to gain a sense of what the story might involve. I’ve seen quite a few complaints aimed at ACCA about how “nothing happens in the first episode,” and yet to me the entire set up seems inherently intriguing and I feel like the groundwork is solidly in place. I also admittedly enjoyed watching Jean perform his mundane job duties, since my day job sometimes involves auditing and performing tasks in line with strict procedural outlines, so there’s a certain familiarity there that I’m guessing maybe a lot of anime fans might not connect with as well. This isn’t to say that I think I have every detail of the show nailed down simply because I’m an adult with a compliance-focused job – I’m definitely left with a lot of questions on my mind, too, and I feel like there are still a lot of hidden details that haven’t come to light. But rather than being frustrated about that or feeling as though the show hasn’t provided me something to which I’m entitled, I feel drawn in by the mystery and even just the sheer openness of the various directions the series could take. I’ve never been shy about saying that I find very few anime series directly relateable, since most anime just isn’t made to directly appeal to adult audiences. When something like this comes along that seems to be aiming for more mature appeal, I just don’t feel bad about it.

If I had to point out something that I did find frustrating, it would probably be the occasional tonal shifts throughout the episode. The bulk of the episode reads as tonally serious to me, not in the sense that major things of gravity are happening all the time, but this definitely isn’t meant to be a funny series. There are a couple of scenes, though, that read more like an office ensemble slice-of-life comedy, since several of Jean’s coworkers are very focused on their ten o’ clock break time and eating cakes from the local patisserie. These scenes do a good job of establishing how mundane things currently are, but I find that it’s rare when comedy and drama in anime truly mesh, so while it wasn’t a complete turn off, it was a little eye-rolling.

If I haven’t made it clear by now, I’ve pretty much already bought into what this anime series is selling. That’s a confidence that only really comes as a result of having meshed with the author’s style many times in the past and appreciating being in the target demographic for once. I will say, though, if I were trying to trick an apprehensive fan into giving this show a try, I’d definitely mention that the series director also directed the (also quite excellent) One Punch Man. It’s a bit tricksy, since the shows otherwise have nothing to do with one-another and are profoundly different in plot and style, but I’m admittedly kind of hoping that we might get some moments of very neat, more subdued character animation out of the deal. From what I understand, people like working with Shingo Yamamoto, so we’ll see.

There are times where I get kind of bummed that other fans don’t seem to get much out of certain anime series as I do (*cough* The Lost Village *cough*), but there are also times where I completely understand, and I’m not too torn up about it. This is one of those times. I really appreciate the slow pace and the little mysterious bits floating beneath the surface, but a lot of people likely won’t. I’m looking forward to seeing the story unfold.

Pros: It has a unique look and setting. There are inklings of unrest beneath the calm exterior. There’s a level of separation between the viewer and the main character that feels somewhat intentional.

Cons: There are a few tonal shifts that seem unnatural. There’s some “as you know…” info-dumping. The episode is slow-paced and not very much “plot-y” stuff happens to draw people in.

Grade: B

Tags Crunchyroll, Drama, First Impression, Slice-of-Life, Winter 2017

First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2017 First Impressions – The Dumping Ground

Post author By Jessi Silver
Post date January 16, 2017
1 Comment on Winter 2017 First Impressions – The Dumping Ground

I’ve been an anime fan for a long time, and I can say with some authority that there are times when it’s just not worthwhile to spend a lot of time talking about a particular series. I used to go into fine detail about every ounce of fanservice, sexism, or other element of ugliness in a show. I also used to devote a lot of time to first episodes that were just devoid of anything worth talking about. You don’t know difficulty until you’ve tried to write a thousand-ish words about something that’s essentially a clone of several other very average things! It’s also hard to stay silent, though, when you’ve devoted time to watching something. So here’s the very special space I’ve developed to give stuff a mention when it otherwise doesn’t have a lot about it worth analyzing. This post will be updated as I watch more first episodes. As usual – these impressions are based off of first episodes only (unless specified otherwise). These shows may completely turn around in subsequent episodes… but I doubt it! I’ve also given many of them joke ratings, but it should be fairly obvious from context what my feelings are.

Hand Shakers

Streaming at: Crunchyroll

Number of Episodes: 12

Source: Original

Episode 1 Summary: Tazuna is a typical teen with a not-so-typical interest in fixing things. He can become so distracted helping people fix their mechanical items that he makes himself late for appointments. One day he’s asked by a certain Dr. Makihara to stop by the local university. After arriving he discovers a girl, Koyori, sleeping in a hospital bed. Reminded of his dead sister, Tazuna grasps her hand and is awakened to powers beyond his imagining. Of course, there’s a catch – if he ever lets go of Koyori’s hand, she’ll die.

Impressions: I think there are a lot of choices to be made when producing an anime. It’s not often that I find one where the wrong choice appears to have been made in every single situation possible.

Visually this is an example of modern production techniques gone completely bonkers. The backgrounds are completely created using 3DCG techniques, which isn’t bad in and of itself, but they truly do not mesh well with the 2D character animation, which is animated at a different frame rate and causes the characters to look like paper dolls pasted on top of a backdrop. The background frame rate is too high and moves too smoothly – watching it reminds me of watching a modern television set with the refresh rate set too high. I start to get dizzy, because it feels like I’m looking through a window rather than at a screen. The effect is reminiscent of some anime-style video game openings and cut scenes I’ve run across over the years – an attempt was made to blend cutting-edge graphics from both sides of the equation, but technology and visual sense needed to join them seamlessly just didn’t exist. There are anime that are able to do it much better nowadays, but this doesn’t appear to be one of them.

And let’s talk about the women in this episode. We have one character, the class president, who’s defined by her huge chest that bounces unrealistically with the slightest movement of her body. Then there’s “Bind,” the female half of the duo that Tazuna battles this episode, who apparently exists to writhe on the ground in sexual agony, have her crotch stomped on violently, and make orgasm noises in the place of actual dialog. And there’s Koyomi, who’s a personality-less white-haired loli who seems to be there to get dragged around by the hand (but it’s okay, it’s part of the plot! /s). There’s so much male-gaze camera leering and sexualized violence in this episode that I was getting pretty uncomfortable. It’s actually been quite a while since I’ve seen something that’s trying so hard to be vile; most of the fanservice-focused series I’ve been aware of lately are goofier (which doesn’t necessarily make it better, just marginally less heartbreaking to watch as a woman and an anime fan).

Nope, no, nuh-uh, no thanks, dame, batsu, no.

Here’s an article on Sakuga Blog that explains some more about the poor visual decisions in this anime.

Grade: DD-

Kemono Friends

Streaming at: Crunchyroll

Number of Episodes: TBA

Source: Game

Episode 1 Summary: A very strange animal arrives in Japari Park. She can’t fly, she doesn’t have sharp claws, and can’t really swim. What she does have is endurance and intelligence, and this intrigues the Serval cat who pounces on her. Serval-san names the new arrival “Bag-chan” since her main defining feature is the large backpack she wears. They decide to head to the Library, where Bag-chan can hopefully find out what kind of animal she is. Along the way, Serval-san and Bag-chan fight a Cerulean, an antagonistic blue blob, and stop at a watering hole to talk to a hippopotamus. Hippo warns them both about a very large Cerulean guarding the gate between the Savanna, where they are currently, and the Jungle, where Bag-chan is headed. Her warning pans-out, and Bag-chan’s smarts are needed to help defeat the enemy. As she wanders into the Jungle, Serval-san decides to tag along out of curiosity.

Impressions: I was hanging out with some friends of mine yesterday and one of them was talking about having seen this show and how awful it was, so I know right then which first episode I had to look at next. While it didn’t quite send me into convulsions, it is a pretty good example of how not to make a an anime adapted from a game.

Funny story: the game on which this anime is based apparently shut down shortly before the anime broadcast began, so the way in which Serval’s narration (which clearly alludes to game mechanics) instructs the nameless protagonist on how the world works is not only clunky, but amusingly tragic in a way as well. A lot of the expository dialog is really obvious in its intentions, which made it really difficult for me to pay much attention. Serval describes the different skills that the animal friends have like a gamer might describe character stats and abilities, so I found myself starting to tune out. Japari Park is mapped like a game, with barriers between regions. Different animals have their own territories. There are enemy creatures and boss creatures sprinkled throughout the land, and it takes different skill sets to defeat them. Honestly (and no insult to anyone I know in real life), if one of my friends were describing this to me as a game they were playing, I might just ask them to stop.

I’ve spoken here before about CG animation and why I’m not a fan, but I can recognize when it’s done well, at least. In this case, I feel like there are some points where the characters just weren’t really animated properly – during the opening scene, Serval-san chases Bag-chan across the savanna, and while Serval skids to change direction, her body just stops and slides for a couple of seconds. I also happened to notice a couple of times where characters were talking, but their mouths just didn’t open. Creating animation is always a challenge, and no matter what method you use, there will always be difficulties. These examples, which I don’t want to call “laziness” or “sloppiness” but don’t really have a better descriptor to use, are just embarrassing, though.

I will say, though, that I think the character designs are pretty cute – all of the animals are human girls with animal ears and outfits. I am a little weirded-out by the lack of male animals, though.

Grade: D… for Dingo?

Spiritpact

Streaming at: Crunchyroll

Number of Episodes: TBA (likely too many)

Source: Chinese Web Manhua (comic)

Episode 1 Summary: You Keika is the last of his family line, a famous lineage of exorcists. Since his parents died when he was young, he never received the proper training and support, so his spiritual skills are untrained. He spends his days reading fortunes and his night scavenging for computer parts for his side business. One night, after witnessing a battle between a real exorcist and an evil spirit, Keika is hit by a truck and dies. His spirit, being more powerful than average due to his latent spiritual abilities, is still hanging around earth, though. The exorcist who he saw earlier, Tanmoku Ki, invites Keika to become his personal spirit helper, so that Keika doesn’t either disappear or transform into an evil spirit after seven days. He initially resists, but after being captured by an evil spirit, eventually joins Ki in a Spirit Pact.

Impressions: Sometimes entertainment is like a time machine, bringing you back to the days when you were an itty-bitty little anime fan just starting to spread your wings and fly. It was the late 1990’s/early 2000’s when I feel like I really came into my own as an anime fan, and I’m pretty sure someone produced this anime series around that time, locked it in a time capsule, labeled it “open after fifteen years” and dutifully forgot about it until now. This isn’t a dig on anime from that time period; though anime was going through a very awkward “how do we imitate cel shading on this computer and make it look okay on this background when all we have are rudimentary visual filters?” phase, a lot of really excellent, memorable anime series came into being back then.

This one, however, has none of the charms of, say, Descendants of Darkness (with which it shares some basic story elements) or even some of the dumpier episodes of GetBackers, which for some reason sprung to mind multiple times while I was watching the episode (now those are some weird memories). Mostly it just feels like a toothless pseudo-BL supernatural series made on the cheap. Not only is it unremarkable, it’s also incredibly awkward, with extremely over-acted character dialog that tries for comedy (but fails), and kooky chibi-style slapstick and character deformation that really isn’t flattering to the production (or humorous, even).

What might be of mild interest to some is that the show is primarily a Chinese-produced animated series that has a few Japanese staff working in partnership in the production. What we’re seeing on Crunchyroll is a Japanese dub of the series that’s apparently been broadcasting in China for a while (I did a short search for more details, such as broadcast dates, but couldn’t find much). There’s been some controversy already, with some people complaining about Crunchyroll streaming it when it “isn’t actually anime” – though they seem to have forgotten that Crunchyroll also streams RWBY (Western CG animation), Thunderbolt Fantasy (made with puppets), and live-action Asian dramas… but who am I to judge other fans and their complaints? I’m personally a bit more relaxed nowadays on what I think should bear the “anime” label – this looks like anime, and in this incarnation the characters are speaking Japanese. There are so many other things worth criticizing with this show, why waste time boo-hooing over its national origin?

There have been worse things this season, definitely. But there’s just something especially grating about an anime that recalls one of the happiest times in my fandom life and yet still makes me angry.

Grade: One half-rate supernatural bishie.

Tags First Impression, Winter 2017, Yuck

First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2017 First Impressions – Gabriel DropOut

Post author By Jessi Silver
Post date January 16, 2017
No Comments on Winter 2017 First Impressions – Gabriel DropOut

Gabriel White graduated at the top of the class at angel school and attends a human school on earth in pursuit of knowledge, but then gets engrossed in a web game and decides its too much trouble to go anywhere. – ANN

Streaming at: Crunchyroll

Number of Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Gabriel is the embodiment of angelic behavior. She graduates at the top of her class in angel school, then descends to earth in order to observe humans close up and make their lives better. It’s a lofty task, but her inherent kindness and helpfulness keeps her on the straight-and-narrow, as one would expect of such a divine being. It’s this trait of helpfulness that turns out to be her eventual downfall, however; while playing an MMO, Gabriel becomes tempted by a weapon that she can use to heal other characters, and soon gets sucked into a life of gaming and skipping school. She’d play hooky every day if not for her friend Vigne, an unusually straight-laced demon with a strong sense of responsibility. Gabriel also shares her school days with Satanichia, another demon who fancies herself the future Queen of Hell (but who’s afraid of dogs and can’t even manage to get away with not turning in her homework) and Raphiel, another angel with a vile personality.

Impressions: In the continuing saga of no one being able to predict what I’m going to find funny, I went into this show with zero expectations and actually laughed out loud a couple of times by the time the credits rolled. I guess I’m just not as self-aware as I think I am.

The show itself is deceptively simple, and seems to revolve around one particular concept – angels and demons behaving in ways that are generally thought of as being contrary to their very nature. Gabriel and Raphi are both blessed with various shades of shitty attitude, while Vigne and Satanichia are either overly-kind or ineffectual, depending on the moment. It’s a gag that ought to run out of steam really quickly (and it very well could after a couple more episodes; I don’t really know what to expect at this point), but it definitely just works. By the time Satanichia was ranting about not doing her homework, I was definitely laughing to myself.

Part of what I think really gets me going is that Gabriel’s situation is pretty relateable. I played an MMO for a period of about three months many years ago, and never quite got into it much until I was asked by some other characters to join a raid. I got sucked into the experience completely, and spent an entire Sunday’s worth of daylight playing the stupid thing. After it was over and we all went our separate ways, I looked to see that more than six hours had passed since I’d started; probably not that impressive to many of you, but it was a huge amount of time to me. Whereas I made the choice then and there to stop completely, though, Gabriel lets herself fall further and further down the rabbit hole, essentially screwing up her life in the process. I think seeing her flaws laid out and knowing full well that I could have become something similar, given the chance and the inclination, makes her story amusing to watch on some level.

I read some other anime blogs, of course, and in poking around I learned a new term for Gabriel’s character type -she’s a trash character (side note: Anime Feminist is a great blog – whereas I tend to be more broad and incorporate my own feminism into my anime examinations, they are very focused on the subject and are good at pointing out some of the things that I might overlook. Check them out!). Trash characters are those characters who, for whatever reason, have stopped caring about social propriety and let their real, harsh opinions and bad habits fly free for all to see. The iconic ones tend to be young women who stop caring about putting up appearances – one example that I can think of is Yukino from His and Her Circumstances, who appears to be very put-together at school, but who becomes a lazy slob at home. There are of course some questions as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing as far as women’s representation; to summarize some of the good points, these characters seem to reject traditional femininity but at the same time it’s usually in service of some moé appeal. In short: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ As usual, interpretations are in the eye of the beholder.

As for myself, I’m aware that this story was likely written to appeal to males on some level (the story originally appeared in a shounen magazine, after all), but I’m the type of fan who tends to overlook the hard demographic markers and take things for myself, since there isn’t nearly as much material created specifically for my particular demographic (anime made for mid-thirties women is in short supply, sadly). This has been a very roundabout way of saying that I identify with what Gabriel is going through in that its so, so easy to fall off the productivity wagon, lose hope, and become cynical about life and towards others. Most of the time I find it easier to stay inside and screw around on the computer than to leave the house and go do something more “productive,” so despite her specific situation being more extreme, I find that it makes sense to me.

I think if Gabriel were a lone lead, though, the show would get irritating quickly. It’s the ensemble cast and its members’ variable personality quirks that really make the episode entertaining. I mentioned Satanichia’s inflated perception of herself as being memorable (just look at that accompanying image to the left – I think it’s pretty representative of her personality), and it rings true for almost every scene she’s in. I think a lot of other reviewers have found her to be outright grating, but I tend to like noisy, clueless characters (think Yukko from Nichijou) so I think that’s why she hit me the right way. Vigne just tries so hard to be a demon and yet can’t seem to help but be a goody two-shoes sweetheart. And Raphiel… when I say “bad personality” I don’t think that properly encapsulates how rotten she is. She’s truly a bully, but in a manipulative way that worms its way around your conscious perception and catches you by surprise. She’s the type of character I would despise in a more serious setting, but as a foil for Satanichia I think she works well.

Overall I’m reminded a bit of Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, which has a similar story premise (but a more adult, vulgar outlook). In that series, there’s a constant questioning of what acts are actually “good” or “bad,” to the point that it actually becomes fairly serious and broad-reaching inquiry regarding morality and being judgmental about women’s behavior. Right now the characters in this anime are maintaining a solid, humorous balance and I suspect the show won’t really be asking those big, serious questions at any point. As I mentioned before, though, I worry that something more will have to happen in order to keep up the level of interest, because a one-gag show is rarely funny for twelve episodes.

As with most comedies, there are a couple of questionable gags. One in particular (that I admittedly laughed at anyway – sorry for being a flawed feminist and human being) involves Gabriel attempting a divine teleportation to make it to school on time. Ultimately, the only thing that transports is the pair of panties she’s wearing (it’s implied that the rest of her is so corrupted that the spell just doesn’t work), and they appear over her desk in class. A group of teenage boys sees this as a divine miracle. Despite the scene being about a minute long, I feel like there are a lot of things I could pick apart – teenagers are not always the smartest, but I think the assumption that teenage boys are so goofy and sex-starved that the act of seeing a pair of a girl’s underwear is a miracle makes me roll my eyes. I feel like the rest of the show is funny enough on its own merits that it doesn’t have to stoop to this level, so it’s a little bit frustrating to me. But again, I still chuckled at it.

I truly have no idea whether this anime series can remain funny beyond the first episode (I recall my experience with Himouto Umaru-chan where I found the introductory episode chuckle-worthy but the subsequent couple of episodes so profoundly flat that I dropped it like a turd), but I liked the introductory episode quite a bit. As of this writing, the second episode is available, so I might just go check it out. In any case, if you have a taste for somewhat low-brow comedic antics, I would definitely give this one a look.

Pros: Its simple premise provides more humor than might be apparent from first glance. The characters’ personalities are over-the-top but meld well into a comedic unit. Gabriel is relateable.

Cons: Some of the gags are maybe too low-brow and/or cynical. There’s the potential for one-note gags as the show progresses (or doesn’t, as might be the case).

Grade: B

Tags Comedy, Crunchyroll, Fantasy, First Impression, Winter 2017

First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2017 First Impressions – Onihei

Post author By Jessi Silver
Post date January 15, 2017
2 Comments on Winter 2017 First Impressions – Onihei

In the late Edo Period of Tokugawa Shogunate, hatamoto samurai and law enforcement officer Hasegawa Heizō Nobutame (1745-1795) supervised crackdown on arsonists and organized robbers. He was both highly skilled and merciless against criminals, who called him “Oni no Heizō” (“Demonic Heizō”) a.k.a. “Onihei.” – ANN

Streaming at: Amazon Video (with an “Anime Strike” channel membership)

Number of Episodes: 13

Source: Novels/Historical Dramas

Summary of Episode 1: The thief Tanbei of Chigashira has been assumed responsible for a rash of violent robberies around Edo as of late. Law enforcement officer Hasegawa Heizo employs the help of recently-apprehended thief Kumehachi to infiltrate the thieves, as Kumehachi is certain that an impostor must be behind the crimes. The “real” Tanbei, he claims, kept to a very strict thieving code prohibiting murder, rape, and stealing from the poor. Thus, the string of dead bodies in his wake must be the fault of someone more sinister. It is to Kumehachi’s horror to learn that Tanbei, now older, fatter, and looser with his morals, gladly takes responsibility and even welcomes Kumehachi back into the fold. All Kumehachi can do is help to bring his fallen master to justice.

Impressions: Content Warning for images of sword violence, blood, dead bodies, and the suggestion of rape happening mostly off screen/obscured.

I was looking for a bit of a departure from some of the cuter, lighter stuff I’d been watching thus far, and boy did this satisfy that itch. Onihei is unapologetically dark, humorless, and presented with an adult air that I suspect most people would find off-putting. I myself am actually at a bit of a loss as watching this dredges up some memories for me that I’m not quite sure how to think about.

This intro episode reminds me of the type of anime fan that I was eight or nine years ago. I was very much anti-moe and anything that walked the line of being too cutesy or cloying was likely to find itself in the garbage bin before too long. I considered myself to have very “grown-up,” serious tastes and sought out anime that distinctly seemed to be aimed at adult viewers. I surrounded myself with like-minded people, too, which kept me in the safety of an echo chamber. It was probably around the time of Madoka Magica (six years ago now, wow!) that I started to open up a bit more to the ways in which cute visuals and concepts are often used in creative ways. And heck, I now fully believe that sometimes cute is fine just for cute’s sake. I’m no longer that infatuated with anime series that stake their claim on being grim and gritty, and while I ended up having sort of a falling-out with some members of that previous group for various reasons (differences of opinion regarding media being but a small factor) I’m pretty happy with the type of fan that I’ve become in the meantime. One can be critical and discerning while still enjoying things that exist just to be fun, after all.

I wanted to spend the time providing that context, because I admittedly had some immediate negative feelings towards this show that were influenced by my own fandom experiences. The tone of this show is immediately darker and more serious than the majority of anime that’s produced nowadays, which makes it very unique; to me, though, it is also singular in how it reminds me of my relationships of a certain time and place, and of certain people who I know would enjoy the show for its atmosphere and combination of noir and samurai storytelling styles. Having said that, though, I’ll try to move past it and focus on the episode’s actual merits.

In the past few years, for reasons unknown, I’ve gotten really queasy about seeing acts of violence depicted on screen, whether in live-action programming or in animation. It’s funny, because years and years ago I would seek out gore and play a lot of overly-violent video games. Now I can barely keep my eyes on the screen when characters are getting hacked apart, especially so if there’s a lot of suggestive lead-in. This episode isn’t quite as bad as some for all the violence in it, because to be honest the gore isn’t really all that realistic. There are a couple of scenes that depict the aftermath of a robbery with dead bodies strewn about in pools of blood, and there’s also a sword fight featured in the second half of the episode that depicts some stylized violent sword-slashing action, but for a lot of the episode the most objectionable parts are obscured through darkness or come across as too over-the-top for me to be affected by them. There’s the benefit to me of being able to keep watching, but for a series that seems to be banking on its grittiness and basis in history, I think that might be a net loss.

Also worth mentioning, for those who prefer to be forewarned about it, is that there’s a flashback scene partway through the episode during which there’s either an attempted rape, or the aftermath of a completed one (it’s difficult to tell from the short time it’s on screen whether the attacker was successful or not). Shown in the scene is a visibly distressed woman with the front of her clothing torn open, though her nude chest is obscured by other characters and the darkness of the scene. As with most of these types of depictions, it’s only purpose is to add “flavor” to the scene using it as shorthand for depravity and departure from expected cultural norms. In short, lazy and unnecessary given even a slight modicum of creativity.

There seem to have been a few other somewhat bizarre visual choices made in the production of this series. Most people will immediately recognize the extensive use of CG for the background setting and many of the crowd scenes. I’ve softened on my opinion on the use of CG in otherwise 2D anime (thanks, Shirobako!) but that opinion rides on the fact that, when used well, CG generally melds well-enough with traditionally-drawn elements to remain unobtrusive and supportive to the important elements of the scene. This series seems to have taken a different approach, and I’m not entirely sure whether it was a purposeful choice or not. The background elements are conspicuously lacking in the kind of fine detail (texturing, colorization, etc.) that would help them to blend in well. The crowd characters in particular stand out like several hands’ worth of sore thumbs, especially when there are something like twenty CG characters in a scene with two or three hand-drawn main characters. Again, the realities of anime production are what they are, and I suspect a show like this which is now considerably outside the mainstream just doesn’t have the resources to devote to top-tier CG work. But dang would I much rather have looked at static background characters and dull settings than the strange type of poly-chromatic tomfoolery they went with.

That leads me to another of the series’ strange visual choices – the use of color. There’s heavy color filtering going on in many of the scenes, giving each of them a distinct look. Scenes in the jail have a dark blue hue, while those that take place in the town are tinted pink or red. It’s not exactly a bad thing in and of itself, and I’ve seen this kind of mood coloration work well in other stylized contexts. Again, though, the accompanying story of crime is not only gritty, but straightforward and classic; dressing it up with modern-day visual sensibilities would have to be done very well in order to project a sense of style without being overly-conspicuous, and I feel like the techniques cross the line into gaudiness more often than not.

I will say, though, that the very classic sort of story presented in this episode (and likely throughout the series), appeals to me on a certain level. I haven’t had much exposure to jidaigeki serials aside from having learned that they’re a thing that exists in the world, so to get a taste of that style of characterization and episodic historical storytelling via a medium that I can follow is an opportunity that I kind of would like to stay on top of.

That said, there’s but one legal method of watching this series in the United States, and it’s kind of irritating me right now. Amazon has been licensing a couple of anime each season for streaming, though last season they kind of dropped the ball with The Great Passage, a very excellent series about a dictionary editor (what? of course I would love an anime series about something goofy like that!). That and a couple of other anime are available now, though it appears that Amazon has posted them under some new anime-specific streaming service called “Anime Strike” which is a channel that you must pay for in addition to your existing Amazon Prime membership. I already pay for several different streaming services, so you can imagine that I’m a little bit salty about the prospect of paying even more money to keep up with the shows I want to watch (even if it’s only $4.99 a month… I already pay for Amazon Prime, darn it!). It remains to be seen whether this will turn out to be a successful venture for them. As long as they have exclusive rights to the noitaminA stuff, I’ll probably just have to bite the bullet.

I may have to stew over this one a little bit, since I’m extremely torn. I like to see a broad variety of tones and tastes represented each anime season, and this type of show is pretty rare nowadays (especially in animated form). I have to give a few kudos for going against the grain and giving us something that’s not cutesy in any way shape or form, and the idea of a historical police procedural type series is definitely intriguing. But it’s a near-complete sausage festival where the majority of the women are either dead bodies, background characters, or rape victims, so it’s difficult for me to connect with it on more than a very shallow level. It’s also quite violent in addition to that, which can be hard for me to take, depending on the day. Sometimes the media we love is just complicated, don’t you think?

Pros: The tone differs quite a bit from what’s popular nowadays. The “history” plus “police procedural” is a genre combo that we don’t get very often in anime.

Cons: There’s violence and rape. Some of the visual choices are questionable.

Grade: C

Tags Amazon, Drama, Historical, Seinen, Winter 2017

First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2017 First Impressions – Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Post author By Jessi Silver
Post date January 15, 2017
3 Comments on Winter 2017 First Impressions – Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid

Miss Kobayashi is your average office worker who lives a boring life, alone in her small apartment–until she saves the life of a female dragon in distress. The dragon, named Tohru, has the ability to magically transform into an adorable human girl (albeit with horns and a long tail), who will do anything to pay off her debt of gratitude, whether Miss Kobayashi likes it or not. – ANN

Streaming at: Crunchyroll

Number of Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Summary of Episode 1: After a barely-remembered evening of drunken debauchery, Kobayashi-san finds herself in the strange situation of opening her front door and finding a dragon waiting for her. The dragon, named Tohru, takes the form of a lovely young woman, and has become hopelessly infatuated with Kobayashi, for reasons that are not immediately apparent. Tohru also claims that Kobayashi offered to share her home with her; though Kobayashi doesn’t really remember much about what she may or may not have said or done that night, she eventually breaks down and lets Tohru stay, especially since she promises to make herself useful around the house. The problem is, however, that Tohru doesn’t know a whole lot about what being human entails, and her ideas of being a house maid are often way off the mark. It may be more work than it’s worth to keep Tohru around, but Kobayashi-san finds herself warming up to her unwanted house guest bit-by-bit.

Impressions: Content warning for what could be interpreted as non-consensual removal of one character’s clothing by another character.

Continuing with my unintentional theme today is another series focused on monster girls, in this case dragons and other mythological beasts. At first glance, this anime appears to be much more straightforward in its comedic intentions, but there’s enough going on that I feel like there might be much more worth talking about than may be immediately apparent.

What I think is worth mentioning first of all is that, while this episode is definitely “funny” and I can see the humor in it, it’s not really what I would call “funny ha-ha.” I’m admittedly very particular when it comes to anime-style humor and I tend to disagree with the majority about what works and what doesn’t, so my saying that I didn’t really laugh much throughout this first episode isn’t necessarily an indictment of the series’ success in that regard. I do think that that the show works to subvert expectations in such a way that it’s entertaining even if it isn’t exactly laugh-out-loud entertaining. I think one of my favorite sequences (and one that’s pretty easy to find if you go looking) occurs when Kobayashi-san tries to outline for Tohru just exactly what a maid’s duties are, and Tohru’s dragon nature takes over and twists them to fit within her inherent skill set as a mythological beast. For example, a house maid does the laundry for her master – luckily Tohru’s saliva is perfect for removing stains from clothing. Other examples are similarly gross and vaguely horrifying, keeping the episode from devolving into complete saccharine mayhem, which is a nice surprise.

What’s helpful in creating the atmosphere is Tohru’s characterization, which is incredibly earnest. She’s someone who’s not really familiar with human cultural conventions and doesn’t really care to follow them, so she wears her heart on her sleeve and tries to emphasize doing what she thinks is right. She shows up on Kobayashi’s doorstep because Kobayashi (albeit while drunk) invited her to stay over, and this act of kindness so struck her heart that she fell in love with the human woman (she claims that it’s “sexual love” but I think that might be an oversimplification). She wants to do right by her host, it’s just that she doesn’t always know how to keep her natural inclinations under control. There’s also a sense that she’s fairly lonely and just needs a little company. I find that overbearing and willfully obtuse characters normally tend to push my buttons a little bit, but Tohru tends to skirt the line humorously without crossing it. It’s a balance that not many anime are able to strike.

Likewise, Kobayashi is pretty unique as far as protagonists are concerned. What struck me as unusual right off the bat is that Kobayashi-san isn’t exactly a typical “working woman” type character. She’s not depicted as an “OL” (an “Office Lady” – a woman employed at a company in a low-grade position making copies and bringing people tea, the assumption being that she’ll likely leave as soon as she gets married), and appears to have actual job responsibilities as some sort of software engineer. She also dresses in a masculine manner, which is not exactly unusual where I’m from, but seems to be less common when it comes to anime, which is based so strongly on visual symbols and shorthand. He work acquaintance, Makoto, describes Kobayashi as “one of the guys” which is a concept that I have a lot of problems with, the main one being the assumption that some men have trouble being friends with a woman unless the woman in question sheds every bit of their femininity. However, I think the intention was to demonstrate how Kobayashi isn’t focused on presenting herself as typically feminine (and instead admires it from outside via her interest in Victorian era maids), and I do find it heartening that there is an anime airing that features a less-common gender presentation and doesn’t make a big joke of it. There are a lot of things that could have gone wrong in that sense, so it’s nice to see it mostly done right.

This does kind of beg the question, though – how are we as the audience supposed to interpret the relationship between Tohru and Kobayashi? I could pretty easily see it as a romantic one, since Tohru has essentially confessed her true feelings already. Kobayashi seems mostly uninterested thus far, though. I’m at one time kind of bummed out that in episode 1 we are already kind of dancing around the issue, having the character share a bed, showing a little bit of nudity, essentially planting the seed of something that could easily blossom into a romantic or even just sexual entanglement between two women, but I’m also wary of most “Yuri” series since so many are primarily fetish fodder for straight cisgender males. It’s not that I think that audience shouldn’t be catered-to, but there’s already plenty out there, and I’d love to see a cute same-sex romance that exists without those particular caveats.

It bears mentioning that there was an iffy moment in this episode involving nudity and consent. There’s a scene where Kobayashi and Makoto are getting drunk at a restaurant, and in her inebriated state Kobayashi starts to get angry that Tohru isn’t behaving much like an actual maid (obviously problematic, since Kobayashi is a maid otaku after all). There’s a lengthy sidebar about maid cosplay versus lolita fashion (I actually enjoyed this part, for reasons that should be obvious to those who know of my side hobbies) and how Tohru’s chosen form is closer to otaku cosplay than to the uniforms of actual Victorian maids, which are what Kobayashi is more interested in. Kobayashi forcefully removes Tohru’s clothes at this point. There are arguments to be made about what’s really happening here, I suppose (didn’t Tohru say that her “clothing” was really her scales, magically shape-shifted?) and Tohru doesn’t seem to be particularly perturbed by the nudity (moreso by potentially making Kobayashi angry with her), but the scene felt mean-spirited and out-of-place in a show that’s otherwise pretty cute and upbeat. It wasn’t a deal-breaker for me, but I think it could be for others, so beware if that description is off-putting. It remains to be seen whether there is more of that type of material to come.

On the upside, I do appreciate that there’s a little bit of variety in the character designs – Tohru in particular is slightly more plump than a typical anime protagonist (probably not “real life” plump, but I’ll take even slight variety when I can find it). I also like how Kyoto Animation went a bit more Nichijou with the character designs and general visual presentation for this series. Believe me, I love the light blooms and perennial sunset lighting of series like Hyouka and Sound! Euphonium, but I also appreciate bright colors and simplified roundness, too. I think it fits the more comedic atmosphere really well. Speaking of Kyoto Animation, I think it bears mentioning that, while this series doesn’t look like it’ll end up being some crazy animation powerhouse like some of their other series, it still looks very nice, with a lot of fine details that might not be flashy, but add to the overall richness. I’ll be excited when more characters show up so I can get a chance to see how they move and what their color palettes are like.

It’s a good time to be a fan of cute monster girls, since there are plenty to go around this season. Even if this series never goes on to strike me as laugh-out-loud funny, I still think it has potential as a vehicle for a quirky relationship between a couple of mismatched characters. Tohru is a likable and earnest lead, and Kobayashi-san has her charms as well. I’ll remain hopeful that it keeps its less savory elements in check.

Pros: Kind of a fun twist on the core relationship, being between two women. The character designs are varied and cute. There’s a lot of quirky humor.

Cons: Kobayashi’s drunken non-consensual removal of Tohru’s clothes was gross and out-of-place.

Grade: B

Tags Comedy, Crunchyroll, Fantasy, Winter 2017

First Impressions Reviews

Winter 2017 First Impressions – Interviews With Monster Girls

Post author By Jessi Silver
Post date January 15, 2017
1 Comment on Winter 2017 First Impressions – Interviews With Monster Girls

Tetsuo Takahashi is a teacher working at Shibasaki High School and specializing in the physiological studies of demi-humans. His students include Akira Takanashi, a vampire and lover of tomato juice; Kyōko Machi, a dullahan; and Yuki Kusakabe, a yuki-onna. The school also employs math teacher Sakie Satō, a succubus. – ANN

Streaming At: Crunchyroll

Number of Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: The new school year is starting, and biology teacher Takahashi-sensei is starting to think about doing some work on his graduate thesis. He’s nurtured an interest in Demi-humans for a while now, and though they’re no longer a persecuted sub-section of humanity, they can be a little hard to find. Takahashi is resigned to the fact that he’ll have to do some legwork to find Demi-humans willing to sit with him and be interviewed. At least, that’s what he thinks until realizing in short order that he’s literally surrounded Demi-humans in school. The school’s new math teacher, Satou-sensei, is a succubus who doesn’t exhibit many of the stereotypical traits one might expect of such a sexually-focused being. There is also a vampire, a dullahan (an individual whose head is separate from their body), and a snow woman (a Japanese yokai) among the student body, and none of them keep completely hidden. After opening up a line of communication with outgoing Hikari, a goofy vampire with a taste for tomato juice, Takanashi-sensei starts to gain some insight into these people he has thus far only been observing from afar.

Impressions: Monster girls seem to be anime fandom’s current fetish-du-jour, and while I do somewhat share that affinity, I haven’t really been impressed by why anime has had to offer so far related to the topic. Specifically, I found Monster Musume, the de facto flagship monster girl title, to be uncomfortably weird and sexual without actually being sexy. It gave an in-universe reason why the main characters weren’t supposed to have sex, but then pushed it anyway, making everything feel very discordant and uncomfortable in the process. Interviews With Monster Girls takes a different angle and removes the vast majority of the sexual content in favor of focusing more on the day-to-day culture of monster girls in the process. For me, at least, this makes the resulting product a lot more pleasant and endearing.

I think it was the correct choice to focus on a character like Hikari first. I love how her straightforward and outgoing nature serves to lay everything out right away. There’s a deceptively simple scene partway through the episode where Machi, the dullahan, is talking with some friends in class, and they conspicuously avoid the topic of her detached head. I think this is something that many people are inclined to do, especially when they exist within the majority (racially, sexually, able-bodied, size-wise, etc.) – they feel safer and as if they’re being more polite if they just don’t call attention to the differences expressed by the people around them. “I don’t see color” is one of the phrases that comes to my mind, and represents the inability for the majority to acknowledge how differences affect those around them (especially negatively). Hikari comes back later on and blasts straight on through that veil of propriety, talking with Machi about keeping track of her head on the bus while also carrying her school bag, and other things that would likely affect someone with disconnected body parts. It’s not just an ice-breaking moment, it also seems to prompt at least one of Machi’s classmates to “get over it” and stop treating her with kid gloves.

Hikari’s first one-on-one with Takahashi-sensei is entertaining as well; when he suggests that her latent blood-sucking fascination that’s focused on Kusakabe (the snow woman – vampires get hot easily and a snow-woman’s body is nice and cold) could be interpreted as erotic, she reacts like many teenagers would when it’s suggested that they actually have some sort of budding sexual feeling – namely with embarrassed indignation. While I think that anime often goes in the wrong direction when specifically portraying women’s sexuality, depicting is as being comprised primarily of shame and humiliation (gross), I think this scene has the right combination of innocence, humor, and respect for Hikari as a character to steer it away from that particular cliff side. She seems to me very genuinely like a teenager just beginning to confront some of those complicated emotions while still being unable to truly define what they are; the fact that the scene comes across as humorous rather than disgusting gives me hope that the show will continue in the right direction.

It’s worth mentioning as well that, despite being a token male surrounded by young women, Takahashi-sensei doesn’t seem to be serving the role of harem lead, which is refreshing. His interests in Demi-Human culture seem to be without ulterior motive; even when prodding Hikari about her bloodlust I didn’t interpret him as behaving inappropriately. This is, of course, up to every viewer to construe in their own way and I suspect that, as usual, life experience and comfort level with the general topic will play a large role here. But speaking for myself, I felt that his character and interactions stayed well within the realm of appropriateness and scientific inquiry, which left me feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

I’m a bit less sure of this when it comes to Satou-sensei, the succubus. Succubi are beings explicitly defined by their sexual nature, so Satou’s avoidance of the subject all together via her choices to dress in shapeless clothing and avoid direct contact with other adults gives me the feeling that there actually is some sort of shame involved in how she feels about herself. It’s clear that this is all intended as a joke based around subverting expectations, and that Satou means to avoid the trouble of any misunderstandings or sticky situations (pun not intended) related to who she is, but I’m wary that this quest for a one-note gag will serve to define her character. I would much rather hear her talk about what it’s like to be a succubus than see her continually running out of the room to avoid conflict.

Aside from the other characters, who thus far haven’t received a lot of screen time or focus, the charm of this episode comes from the little bits and pieces we get to hear about how Demi-Humans or “Demis” exist within human society. I think this is more the type of material that I really wanted from Monster Musume, but which was hidden beneath all of the goofy sex stuff. I like to hear about the fictional cultural aspects of the different monsters, as well as some of the more boring bureaucratic drudgery that comes along with being a community within a broader culture, examined in such a way as to not be directly related to any real culture (hey, anime isn’t subtle entertainment; for various I don’t usually trust it to handle racism, sexism, or any other “ism” properly). For example, I’m by no means a vampire “fan,” but the logistics of vampirism are always a question that I have when vampires are part of the equation. Sometimes the logistics are resoundingly hopeless, as with the anime Shiki – the existence of vampires is ultimately unsustainable because humans are consumed and more vampires are created at a pace that outpaces human reproduction and replacement. In short, everyone ends up sad. In the case of this show’s universe, vampires are provided a blood stipend by the government each month (assumed to be sourced from donations) and can also exist on regular food. Hikari in particular likes tomato juice since drinking it roughly replicates the “feel” of ingesting blood. It’s little fact snippets like that which I think will maintain my interest even if the show sticks mainly to regular slice-of-life stuff.

I wasn’t expecting much from this, so color me pleasantly surprised that Interviews with Monster Girls was so charming and cute in its introductory moments. I’m happy that monster girls have become popular enough at this point that there are shows revolving around them that don’t rely directly on fanservice and misguided in-your-face sexualization. I’m hopeful that this show will continue to be a fun slice-of-life outing with some creative cultural inventions and endearing characters (that just happen to live a slightly different existence than you or me).

Pros: The show nudges up to the topic of budding sexuality without being gross. There’s a moment that portrays the dominant culture’s discomfort with racial otherness in a surprisingly subtle and nuanced way. The characters are very cute and charming.

Cons: I question the portrayal of the succubus character, who seems to be afraid or ashamed of her sexuality (or others’ perception of it).

Grade: B

Tags Crunchyroll, Fantasy, First Impression, Monster Girls, Slice-of-Life, Winter 2017

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