Month: July 2017

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Vatican Miracle Examiner

To detect lies, refuse fakes, and reach the miracle of God – that is their mission as Vatican Miracle Examiners. Hiraga, a scientific genius and Roberto, an expert on the decryption of cryptography and ancient documents are not only good partners but also “Miracle Examiners” working for the Vatican. They are secret examiners, who are requested to examine and identify the authenticity of miracles from all over the world. – ANN

Copyright 2017 (c) J.C. Staff

Streaming: Amazon Anime Strike

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode 1 Summary: Hiraga and Roberto are Vatican priests with a very important job – when claims of miraculous events are reported, they travel around the world to investigate their veracity. Having just received word of a virgin impregnation, the two hop a plane to Mexico in order to examine all the evidence. Before they leave, though, they’re warned that they may meet with the Devil himself once they’ve arrived. The two enter the grounds of Saint Rosario church, which has an attached boys’ boarding school and a hospital that seems strangely well-equipped. They speak with the pregnant nun in question, who doesn’t seem to be lying and who greets them sporting stigmata, but Hiraga (the more scientific of the two) seems unconvinced. There’s also kind of an odd, unsettling atmosphere hanging over the estate, and as night falls the two suspect that word of the Devil’s presence might have been more than just a faint warning. Late at night a security guard comes upon the body of one of the priests, bloodied and sprawled across a pentagram on the ground. Murmurs of students playing at devil worship begin to rumble a little bit harder, just as a statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel begins to shed tears.

Impressions: Oh anime, forever attempting to combine religious iconography with animated entertainment. I’m kind of kidding on that point, as this series seems to at least make a play at portraying some aspects of Catholicism in a way more accurate than many others (see Hellsing or Crono Crusade for some great examples of ham-fisted pasted-on Western religion). As the setup for a horror-mystery series, well, there are worse out there. But there’s something about this episode and the overall feeling it establishes that seems a little bit “off” to me.

The examiners pray in the chapel at Saint Rosario Church. Copyright 2017 (c) J.C. Staff

Though you’d be hard-pressed to find a whole lot of concrete evidence in this first episode, it has a very odd, pervasive sense of violent sexuality to it that rubs me the wrong way. This is possibly my mistake, but I’d sort of assumed before watching the show that the two male leads were supposed to be some kind of low-key yaoi bait; there’s obvious potential to frame up something that’s taboo and exciting between two attractive male priests. The first episode makes kind of a weak play at this sort of thing, with a shower scene in which Hiraga goes over his personal internal struggle while nude under the running water, and Roberto does domestic duties in the sitting room, ironing his companions clothing before they both go to meet their head priest for their assignment. There’s a lot of relationship coding, but absolutely zero chemistry between the two characters. I was left feeling kind of puzzled. It’s certainly not a requirement to feed shippers, and in fact I felt a little bit guilty going in with that kind of assumption. But on the other hand, why the weird fanservice? It left me feeling disoriented, like I couldn’t quite nail down the tone.

There are some other offhand comments and some actions that occur briefly that speak to kind of an unsettling view of sexuality. I was really getting uncomfortable when the protagonists and the related side characters started to get into the nitty-gritty regarding the nun’s pregnancy. The reference to her hymen (which isn’t examined on screen, but was apparently looked-at by someone at some point to verify her physical virginity) and the kind of faint suggestion of how she may have become impregnated (there’s literally no direct evidence, but I interpreted a few cues to mean that there may have been student involvement) made me really uncomfortable, and I would venture a guess that some people might even find themselves triggered by the entire situation. It should be news to no one that the religious view of women’s sexuality isn’t that great, but to dive right into it with episode 1 was something I wasn’t really prepared for.

Oh, and there’s also a bizarre and completely incongruous split-second scene of a nun suggestively and violently biting into a juicy sausage at the dinner table. I rewound the video a couple of times to try to see if there was some context for it, and other than just the overall creepy atmosphere, it doesn’t seem to be related to much of anything. She’s briefly introduced earlier in the episode and immediately reads as “sexy” and “probably not actually a nun,” but beyond that prepare yourself for a laugh and a great opportunity for a screen capture.

Dial “1-800-SATAN-66” to speak to the dark lord. Copyright 2017 (c) J.C. Staff

There are also some situations that came across as being (probably unintentionally) funny. For example, the episode begins with a group of cloaked figures performing a ritual around something that looks similar to any off-brand Ouija board you might find at a game shop. For a show that honestly seems a little bit in love with itself with its richly-depicted scenes of Vatican City and such, to represent occultism and Satan worship in such a cartoonish way just made me laugh. Next time they’ll be trying to find the name of Carlos’ crush or how many kids Steven will have, right after they bloody up another priest as sacrifice to Satan’s will.

One thing I did really like about this episode is the music that was chosen. The use of choral songs for many of the scenes that take place in religious houses of worship or similar environments is overbearing but very pretty in its own way, and gives a good feel for the looming presence of God wherever seems appropriate. As the priests arrive in Mexico, there’s also some pleasant Central/South American flute music to accompany them to their destination. Like the rest of the show itself, it’s sort of corny, sort of cheesy, and sort of try-hard, but I thought it worked well against how over-the-top some of the other content was.

Ah yes, I can see so much more with my monocle. Copyright 2017 (c) J.C. Staff

If I had to choose a word to describe how the first episode presents itself, I’d have to choose something like “goofy.” The characters are so serious that I can’t take them seriously, if that makes sense. Hiraga’s sad situation, as a scientist and a man of God who just knows there’s a way to save his younger brother from whatever kind of horrible bone cancer is plaguing him, is just over-the-top; it doesn’t really build sympathy so much as it paints him as kind of a madman with a penchant for playing made-up games with himself. Roberto seems like kind of a nothing person, serious and more fatherly but without even a strong backstory to distinguish him from others. Other than that, the flying rose petals that accompany the characters’ stigmata, as well as the over-the-top acting and really obvious use of color, shadow, light, and darkness, paints this as campy rather than serious. Not necessarily a bad thing so much as something I wasn’t really looking for.

With so few series starring adult characters, I had some hopes that this show might provide a more mature supernatural series to compliment all those that are focused on teens. I should probably know better that, just because an anime stars grown-ups, doesn’t mean that it’s made for grown-ups. This one might just be a little too weird for me to enjoy.

Pros: The soundtrack does a lot to create the proper atmosphere, at least in some situations.

Cons: The overall atmosphere seems in conflict with itself. There’s some weird-but-not-surprising treatment of women’s sexuality.

Grade: C-

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Action Heroine Cheer Fruits

The “local heroine fighter” of a certain city became popular and a national star. Because of this, “local heroines” debuted in various other places, and their action live events became a hit trend nationally. In Hinano City, high school girl Misaki Shirogane and other girls become local heroines (at the urging of Misaki’s aunt, the prefectural governor) and vow to produce action live events. – ANN

Copyright 2017 (c) diomedea

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: TBA

Source: Original

Episode 1 Summary: Mikan Kise and her sister are huge fans of Kamidaio, a city heroine who’s gone on to be famous across Japan. Nowadays there are many cities who utilize these mascot heroines to promote tourism in their area, but Kamidaio is by far the most famous. Now she’s slated to come to Mikan’s hometown of Hinano during the local Sakura Festival, and she’s definitely not going to miss this chance. The day of the anticipated performance, however, brings bad news; some sort of scheduling incompetence on the part of the organizers means that the Kamidaio show is canceled without any further explanation, and Mikan’s sister is heartbroken. Mikan makes a hasty promise to bring Kamidaio’s show back to the city in a week, but she’s not quite sure how she’ll accomplish such a thing. The answer lies in fellow student An Akagi, a former rhythmic gymnast and unabashed Kamidaio fan who seems game to put together a rollicking hero show for the local kids. Mikan and An work all week, practicing stunts, building costumes, and choreographing the show. At first the audience seems highly unimpressed, but eventually get caught up in the spirit of the show. After the home-made production gets put online, the girls get an unexpected call from Misaki Shirogane, student council president at their school and action heroine enthusiast. She’d like to help give Hinano City its own action heroines – and wants Mikan and An on board.

Impressions: Action Heroine Cheer Fruits is fun surprise wrapped in an initially unappealing package. Part “working women” tale a-la Sakura Quest or Shirobako, and part tokusatsu show, the premise sounds pretty ridiculous on paper. It seems sort of as though the creators wanted to take advantage of the popularity of idol group anime like the ultra-successful Love-Live! and sprinkle in a bit of something creative to set it apart. The resulting production ultimately seems much less commercial and a great deal more kind-hearted than I would have expected.

Mikan and An have a fateful crash in the school hallway. Copyright 2017 (c) diomedea

The first episode introduces a couple of different relationships that I assume will probably maintain some degree of importance throughout the series. The first is the sibling relationship between Mikan and her younger sister. Mikan seems to go beyond simply caring for her younger sister out of sisterly obligation; she seems genuinely concerned with Yuzuka’s happiness and well-being. She’s heartbroken when the Kamidaio show doesn’t happen, not so much because she missed it, but because Yuzuka was looking forward to it so wholeheartedly. While the characters themselves are pretty typical for an ensemble series, the way that their relationship is portrayed adds an extra dimension of kindness, which I really liked.

The other important relationship is the one that develops between Mikan and An. They might be fellow students at the same school, but they’ve never really interacted with one-another aside from knowing each-other’s name and crashing into one-another in the hallway between classes, as this episode demonstrates. But as two people with different personalities, they seem fated by the anime-writing gods to mesh well in a team setting and build upon each-other’s strengths. Mikan brings the kindness, An brings the spunkiness athleticism, and together they create a winning combination. Again, on paper this all seems pretty obvious and neither character feels very fleshed-out yet (and with a promo pic crammed full of several other girls I feel like full-on characterization might not be this show’s forte, in the end), but I like how the conflict between the two is kept pretty minor and their interactions quickly turn into something very harmonious. I think it speaks well for the show so far that there’s not a lot of time spent with the characters trying to struggle and assert their big personalities; with such a goofy title and premise, I think it’s imperative that at least some facets work well from the get-go in order to keep the audience engaged.

It’s a fighting montage (montage!). Copyright 2017 (c) diomedea

It’s fortuitous that the show wastes no time cultivating a fun atmosphere and making us all feel good, because there are some other technical areas where it’s definitely not as accomplished.  The production house, diomedea, has been involved in a long list of animation projects, but mostly as an in-between studio. Of the few times it’s served as the headlining animation production studio, I’m only really familiar with The Lost Village (which was much better than most people gave it credit for; I will fight you) and Girlish Number, which I’ve watched more recently. The latter seemed particularly well-planned, and it probably had to have been; in order to portray the main character’s sour face and attitude, as well as the parody-style industry bits and the so-bad-it’s-good anime series the characters are a part of, it takes some good animation chops. This show already has more of an action-focus than either of those previous series, but the production values and animation consistency already seem kind of middling. There’s a lack of dynamic movement, as well as a few quality control problems with character animation in some of the slower-moving moments. The show seems a bit washed-out most of the time, too. Part of me tends to think that anime original series are where production studios tend to shine, even if they might often be vanity projects; in this case it doesn’t appear that that rings true.

Something worth mentioning, in the grand tradition of reviews on this website; due to the type of action being portrayed and the environment in which the characters are practicing their moves, there are a couple of up-skirt shots with underwear. I tend to think they were more incidental than anything else, but I also believe they’re always a choice in animation since someone made a storyboard and then someone else had to draw the frames. In a show where the characters read as being younger, I found it a little bit startling. Why choose to show underage girls in their underwear (or in the bath tub, hot springs, etc.) when you could choose to not show underage girls in compromising positions and potentially irritate fewer viewers? That has always been my question (and please don’t answer it for me, I realize there’s this notion that you “have to” include fanservice to love-bomb viewers into watching your show – I don’t subscribe to it).

Criticisms aside, I left this episode with a really warm feeling. I love being pleasantly surprised by an anime about which I had only very basic expectations; often times anticipated shows turn out to be duds, so it’s nice when it goes the other way! I think the show has a lot of heart and I always like the idea of girls banding together to accomplish some sort of goal, even if it’s kind of a silly one. This might be a good option for folks who enjoy magical girls, but are not as huge of fans of the “dark magical girl” trope that’s taken over in recent years. It seems very focused on its feel-good atmosphere and presenting the ideals of teamwork within a plot that’s a little bit silly, but considering Japan’s penchant for anime-related tourism, not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

Pros: The first episode is kind-hearted and feel-good; the conflicts are minor and reasonable to overcome. The character relationships are warm.

Cons: The production values are a little bit off. There are a couple of underwear shots that are made more distracting by how young the characters look.

Grade: B

Categories
Conventions Special Features

Convention Reactions – CONvergence 2017

I’m having quite the year this year; my partner and I are attending (at least) five fandom conventions, both local and distant. To some that might not seem like that many, but to us, factoring the time, travel, and funds, it can become quite the undertaking. I’ve been much more about self-care over the last couple of years, and so I’ve begun to acknowledge that, even if I attend several conventions, it’s not in my emotional or physical best interest to be running a lot of events at all of them. So while I was in charge of several panels and a couple of big events at Anime Detour earlier this year, I decided to take it easy at my other local favorite convention, CONvergence.

CONvergence, or CON as many of us tend to call it, can be difficult to nail down in terms of theme. While I think its origins were within the realms of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, it’s now more of a geek media convention with programming devoted to books, television, anime, video games, horror, science, and many other things that comprise a pretty substantial list. On any given day you could attend a discussion panel devoted to your favorite geeky show, watch a genre film in the movie room, listen to live music, check out any one of dozens of room parties, or spend your cash on geek swag in the merchandise, dealer, or artist alley areas. There’s a lot going on at this convention, and that’s kind of what makes it so much fun.

I didn’t attend CONvergence last year for a few reasons that could make up an entire other post. There was an incident involving some other attendees, and I just needed a break to regroup and consider whether being in that environment was going to be healthy. The fact that I was depressed the entire weekend last year made it clear to me that the convention still held a lot of draw and appeal, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me to go. That, and it’s one of the only times and places that I see some of my friends; though it might seem like I never want to leave the house or talk to anyone, that actually isn’t the case most of the time (just the way things end up – I’m kind of an introvert).

I had originally considered going into great detail about all of the events I attended, but I went to quite a few panels and could probably write a novel’s worth of words about several of them. Because of that I thought I might just give a highlight reel of the good things I saw and did, and maybe talk generally about some suggestions or critiques for future years.

Highlights

Beyond the Magical Girl – This panel was a discussion of women’s roles in anime, and how they have expanded or changed throughout the time the panelists have been anime fans. I enjoyed hearing the panelists talk about what makes a woman a “strong” character in anime. I think it’s an important conversation to have, and something to consider especially since, culturally, that answer may be different between the US and Japan. My one (kind of big, now that I see what I have written) critique is that the panelists focused a lot on “kick-ass” women, meaning girls and women who are strong fighters with kind of a badass attitude. Personally I think the fact that we can name several of those characters means that we’re only really half-way there – these characters are physically strong, a definition that fits in well with a patriarchal definition of what having strength means. It’s kind of the same way I feel when people talk about how to be traditionally successful in business – be “assertive,” stick up for yourself, demand compensation, talk over people… that might have worked well 30 years ago, but we’re much smarter about the value of emotional intelligence nowadays, and that’s a realm that’s been traditionally classified as feminine (and therefore, in some people’s minds, of less value).

I think we should reframe our thinking regarding our definition of strong characters who reflect all manner of positive traits, whether that be physical strength, kindness, generosity, assertiveness, work ethic, or joyfulness. Have multiple women in a cast, don’t tokenize them, and give them some kind of agency, and you’re much of the way there. Otherwise, all you’re talking about are “strong female characters (tm)” and I’m sure you can tell what’s wrong with that.

New Anime – A yearly panel devoted to talking about anime suggestions from the past year (give or take a few seasons). I’m not really sure I’d qualify the panel itself as a highlight; there were some issues on the back end that I was privy to since my partner was one of the panelists, and there was some poor behavior at the panel by one of the other panelists, so there were some issues. But as this had been a panel I’d been involved with in the past, it did get me to realize that I have something to offer to the fandom community, that something being quality panels run well in an open and hopefully mostly non-judgmental environment. I think maybe next year I might try to sign on and do some anime-focused programming at CON; CONvergence is definitely not anime-focused (nor does it have to be) but I think there’s potential for outreach and I would like to be a part of that.

This Canon is Fired – This panel’s topic focused around what we think of as the “must-reads” of genre fiction, and how the traditional sci-fi/fantasy canon has historically excluded works by women and authors of color, diverse sexualities, and various other identities, or the works focus on protagonists who are straight, white, and simply don’t reflect the great variety of human diversity. This has been my problem with “traditional” literature classes also; while I had some teachers in high school and college who tried to reach outside this realm, if you take a literature 101 class oftentimes people insist on Dickens and Shakespeare to the exclusion of authors with diverse experience. The discussion was great in this panel, and I came away with a list of new books to check out (always a plus!).

Introduction to Hip-Hop as Literature – This was a really interesting panel, though perhaps not for intended reasons. About halfway through the panel, the panelists who were actual artists in hip-hop (an emcee and a DJ) came to the conclusion that whether hip-hop does or does not “qualify” as literature doesn’t really matter, and that sat pretty well with me. I think trying to qualify and grade something that exists as a response to majority culture by the standards of the majority culture is kind of a screwed-up thing to do, and doesn’t have any bearing on the actual quality of the work itself. In any case, there was some good discussion on hip-hop history after that, including some local history and clubs that had come and gone, and one panelist even debuted some new rhymes at the end of the panel. I was happy to see that the room, was packed; I’m glad that there’s interest in this kind of media within the CON community. I also took down some suggestions for artists to check out (some of whom I was already familiar with; feels good, man).

Pixar’s Story Writing Rules – This was just a great all-around panel; entertaining, well-run, with a lot of excellent perspectives. The focus was a set of twenty two rules that Pixar’s writers use when creating stories. The panelists were all authors of some flavor (novels, plays, etc.) and gave their perspectives on some of the more controversial or strange-sounding ones. We made friends with one of the writers and even bought her book afterwards. That’s one of the joys of conventions like this; it’s big enough that it attracts some cool professionals, but small enough that you can interact with those professionals if it happens to work out that way. Anyway, it’s hard to describe further just what was great about this panel beyond just the awesome discussion and subject matter. I usually don’t spend much time with the writing track at CON since I’m not a fiction writer (though some readers may argue that my opinions are largely based on fiction, because they don’t agree with what I have to say), so this was a nice surprise.

Twin Peaks – So I haven’t talked about it here since it’s a bit outside the purview of this blog, but I’ve been watching (and enjoying!) Twin Peaks: The Return since it started in late May. But those of you who’ve watched any/all of it to this point know that there’s a lot to take in, and a lot that’s probably kind of confusing if you, like me, haven’t watched the original series or film in quite a while, and who haven’t kept up on the supplementary material (though I’m currently reading The Secret History of Twin Peaks, so I’m working on filling in those gaps). I really just wanted to come to this panel and hear others’ thoughts on the show so far, and I found the discussion to be really helpful in wrapping my mind around it. I was getting a little bit loopy at that point from lack of sleep (the panel was Friday night after midnight, and I’d been at a panel at 9:30am that same day, so I was running on fumes) and I may have started to question the validity of standard narrative structures by the time we left, but that aside I felt like I was in a good place to go into the second half of the TV series, and that’s been the case.

Law in Science Fiction – My partner, who is a public defender and attorney, was a panelist on this one, which talked about various systems of law in genre fiction. As someone who is fascinated by our system of law but who doesn’t know that much about it, the discussion was great to listen to even at 9:30am the morning after deliriously attending the Twin Peaks panel. I thought was was kind of cool was that only two of the five panelists were actually lawyers, and others had various other connections to the topic (a parent in law enforcement for one, another was an author with some expertise in the fictional side of the subject, etc.) and the discussion was very interesting from those perspectives. The audience had some good questions, too.

Peele-ing Back ‘Get Out’ – This discussion was focused around the horror film Get Out, which is a must-see in my opinion even for people who aren’t horror fans (like myself). What makes the film great is that its horrors are daily and real for Black Americans (though twisted in the film to serve the obvious narrative). The panelists were great, the discussion was great, there were very few if any awkward and unwanted interjections from other White people (seriously, White people, stop trying to center discussions of POC experiences on yourself. This is from a very white person to all of you all). It was probably the one panel where I was so, so sad that the time slot was just an hour long, since I could have listened to the discussion for at least another hour or more. Please run this again in 2018!

Steven Universe as Queer Space Opera – This was the last panel I attended during the convention; by that point I was tired as hell and had to go home and nap. But if you aren’t watching Steven Universe, stop reading this blog post and go check it out on Hulu right now; you won’t regret it at all. The discussion was very lively, and focused on a lot of the things that make the show great, including its ability to tackle complicated relationship topics in a way that most media made for adults can’t even approach successfully. It’s a great animated series and deserves every bit of praise that it receives.

Critiques

I’ve talked quite a bit about the things that were awesome at the con, but as with all events there were some things that maybe weren’t as successful. I filled out a feedback survey about the good and the bad already, before the feedback deadline passed; I thought it might be helpful to go into detail here as well, in case anyone might be reading.

Something I noticed, and this is probably true every year but I may have just noticed it more this year, is that there are some people who just do not have a handle on the “moderater” style of panel presentation. CON has kind of turned to this model over the past several years, where a designated panel moderator helps to direct the discussion, ostensibly to make sure everyone has an opportunity to speak and that no one in the audience takes too much of the time up. Essentially they’re there to maintain the quality of the presentation and keep everyone on track. This is fine; not my preferred style, but it works when you have a full set of panelists on a lot of the panels. I noticed this year, though, that some of the panelists in panels I attended took up a lot of the time talking about what they wanted to talk about regarding the subject at hand, rather than helping the other panelists talk about the subject.

Along the same lines, I started to notice a theme of “me, me, me” in some of the panels, when in fact I didn’t think some of the moderators were the best equipped to represent subject matter being discussed. There was one particularly egregious example in a panel I attended (which didn’t coincidentally, have a moderator I believe) of a White panelist centering a discussion of diversity and POC on herself and her experiences with some relatives who were POC. The situation could be described as something of a clusterfuck, to be honest; I left the panel feeling really angry, and I would imagine that the other panelists were probably frustrated as well, especially since the person was keen on interrupting anyone and everyone.

Personally, I’m not that big of a fan of talking over people, taking up a majority of the time (though in many of my panels I’m one of two or three panelists so it happens that I have to fill the time up sometimes), or trying to speak about other people’s experiences, since there’s no way to do that without making assumptions. This is probably not something that CON can screen for, since most of the panelists volunteer to be on the panels they’re assigned to and there’s no formal panel presentation training that I know of (that would be a huge chunk of time and resources and I don’t really feel like it falls on programming staff to tell people they should take turns and respect others). But it is something that I noticed, and it would be nice if people just knew not to grandstand or self-promote so much.

Some of the other stuff I had in mind was more regarding the use of space. I don’t mind that the dealer’s room and artist’s alley were in the Sheraton hotel across the street this year; it’s not a long walk and the Doubletree was running out of room to accomodate everything in their function space. Unfortunately the dealer’s room was broken up into three smaller spaces, and that didn’t serve the function well at all. The rooms felt cramped and, whether it was true or not, it felt like there were fewer shops this year than in past years. I ended up spending very little time there and didn’t spend any money (maybe not a bad thing, but I usually like to come away with some kind of souvenir and was sad sad that I did not).

Final Thoughts

Honestly, I had a great time at the convention this year. It sounds like last year was a great time, too; I’m always afraid that CONvergences are like Star Trek movies, where every-other one is crappy. That turned out not to be the case this year (but was the case two years ago, as I mentioned). I think CON staff really stepped things up as far as their policies are concerned, specifically their harrassment policyhttp://www.convergence-con.org/ and things related to that.

If you’re interested in attending CONvergence, check out their website; it’s taking place on July 5-8 in 2018.

Did you attend this year’s CONvergence convention? What were your thoughts? Feel free to let me know in the comments!

Categories
Personal

Timeliness Versus Happiness

Me in my natural habitat, wearing lolita fashion at an anime convention while drinking bubble tea.

It dawned on me recently that I’ve been writing and blogging about anime off and on for about ten years. In those ten years, the landscape of anime fandom has changed dramatically.

Back in Spring 2007, I was still posting my thoughts about anime on Livejournal(!). That season was huge for new anime – over 60 new anime series, including classics that people still enjoy today like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Lucky Star, and Big Windup!. There were also several sleeper hits and some lesser-known series that were great, but may not have been quite so influential, like Toward the Terra, The Skull Man, Bokurano, and Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. It was even the season during which my favorite anime, Dennou Coil, was first broadcast. If you want to read more about great anime from this year, you can check out The Fandom Post’s “10 Years Later” retrospective article series. As much as I’d personally love to talk in detail about all of my favorite anime series from that year, that’s not really what this post is about.

As I mentioned before, our ways of engaging with anime and anime fandom have changed quite a bit in the last ten years. In 2007, watching anime week-to-week was a lot less user-friendly or intuitive. Simulcast streams didn’t exist; keeping up with weekly broadcasts meant either living in Japan and watching them on television (not a possible reality for most of us), or finding a less scrupulous way of obtaining them via bittorrent, generally with some turnaround time built-in since unofficial translators needed to get the raw first. It was a pain in the ass to gain a comprehensive view of the anime coming out every quarter, just because the information wasn’t centralized and neither was the distribution. When I started my “S1E1” project (thanks forever to Boris for the catchy title), I did it because I wanted to keep up with the anime fandom, (selfishly) wanted to help keep my friends in the anime fandom, and had a strong desire to keep writing creatively about the fandom into which I was putting a lot of my energy. I decided to be that person who put in the leg work of checking out all the available anime shows and who had the “inside scoop” on what was worthwhile.

For a long time I think I filled that void. The Anime News Network seasonal preview guides have been around for a long time, but they didn’t always cover every season, so I felt that I was of some use there. Most anime discussion also seemed to take place in forums, too, so I wanted a different platform where I could share my thoughts. I started with a more typical website first (thanks again, Boris) and then ended up with the blog format that was a closer precursor to what I’m doing nowadays. I wasn’t a great writer then – I had one dude who liked to pick on me for my propensity to use the word “crap” to describe zero-effort junk shows, which was lazy (but kind of funny, let’s be honest with ourselves), but I was enthusiastic, and did my best to cover every anime that I could find. I gained a modest but friendly following of readers – many people I knew in person, but others who just happened to stop by and say “hi.” I interacted with cool people in the anime fandom over Twitter once Twitter became a “thing.” It was pretty awesome and I loved doing it.

It was a few years ago that many things started to change and I kind of lost my place. I started encountering a lot of personal setbacks in my “real life” that had little to do with anime and my fandom journey, but in reality were probably more intertwined than I knew at the time. I had also started getting harassed via the comments on the website. I remember one specific time very vividly – I had set up the commenting system to send an email to me from which I could approve or delete it as a moderator. I got a little bit giddy whenever I got a comment – people were reading and responding! One night while I was out at a restaurant with a group of friends, I got an email notification for a comment in the queue for approval. When I went to read it, the person writing it had used some of the most vile language I’ve read to tell me that I was wrong about an anime that they liked and that I deserved to die. I dropped my phone on the table, stunned, and then cried in the bathroom afterwards. I was getting called the “C” and “B” words fairly frequently, too. I’ll admit it; I’m a people-pleaser in my heart and ignoring the trolls wasn’t something I could do. That, plus the fact that someone I was close to at the time criticized the way I was doing things in the first place, spelled the death knell of my “career” in amateur anime blogging, at least for the time being.

In the couple of years between when the previous incarnation of this blog died out and when I came back online, the anime fandom landscape had become a very different place. With very few exceptions, new anime series are available same-day with subtitles legally and easily, at least in the United States. Crunchyroll and Funimation were definitely around a few years ago, but now they, and other services from Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, are ubiquitous. Tons of websites, from ANN to Kotaku to The Fandom Post, do their own variations on seasonal preview guides and have multiple writers weighing in on new shows. Feminism is no longer a unique topic of discussion, either; a while back I felt like I was a lonely outlier when I talked about fanservice in anime and a few others on twitter weighed-in. Now Anime Feminist does all that and more, from many different perspectives. In any case, I’ve taken this to mean that there’s really no longer a hole to fill in the anime fandom; where once I was one of a few people going it alone, taking my dumb vanity project and somehow making it work out, now anime fandom is slowly becoming mainstream, and most people know exactly where to find out about the new anime that they might like and how they can watch it.

It’s become more than apparent that I, working alone, cannot possibly be timely with my anime first impressions in the way that websites with multiple writers can (unless I take the first week or so of every new season off from my day job, which isn’t happening). Though it might not be readily obvious from the quality of my writing I can be kind of a perfectionist, at least as far as being able to get my true thoughts and feelings across in my reviews and previews. I will not be able to match the speed and consistency of a big website that has 8 or 9 writers pouring their energy into watching and reviewing new anime. I can’t do weekly episode recaps of the shows I watch, because I watch enough that I end up only getting to some them near the end of the season and then bingeing them before I have to speak about anime at my next convention. I have had to come to terms with the fact that I am not a superwoman, and I’m not going to consider quitting my day job (which I enjoy and find fulfilling anyway).

Why talk about all this? Well, since I took over control of the S1E1 domain name and finally reestablished the blog, I’ve been writing about anime in fits and starts without much consistency. With each new season of anime, I’ve tried to be more accountable, pledging (if only to myself) that I’ll get to each new show quickly and cover all of them within a certain amount of time. And each time I’ve failed to attain that goal and fallen back into a writing depression that lasts for a season or two. I even served a stint writing for The Fandom Post, which I thought would make me accountable to something greater than myself and perhaps counteract my depression and anxiety about writing – obviously I couldn’t make that work at the time, either. It sucks, but I think that the problem is more that I’ve been trying to meet a goal that’s not realistic for me and I’ve been setting myself up to fail time and time again. Failure is a great motivator for some, but to me repeated failures have almost always morphed into ugly reasons to quit. And really, my time is so, so precious – I still go to a weekly anime club. I like to go out with my family and partner. I like to spend time gaming and dressing in lolita fashion. I have more work responsibilities now and my work days tend to be longer. My life is very full, and it’s a happy life that I wouldn’t trade for anything. But that means that there are just some things that aren’t going to get immediate attention, and first episode reviews seem to be one of those things.

I’ve made it my more realistic goal going forward to cover all the shows of the season to the best of my ability, no matter how long that takes. I realize that this will mean that, by the time I’m writing about some anime, it might be a little bit late in the season. There will already be several other opinions out there for people to find and read days and weeks before mine are available. I’m deciding right now that that’s okay. Because I’m just one person, and the amount of anime writing I’ve done over the past ten years, and the speaking I’ve done in person about anime, and the conventions I’ve attended, surpass what many people have the ability and drive to do, and I am so lucky to have even been able to try. And I’m going to be proud of my accomplishments rather than ashamed of my perceived failures. And who knows? Maybe just getting the writing done will help me improve someday. I’m sure the next ten years worth of anime will carry with it so many things worth exploring – and writing about!

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – A Centaur’s Life/Centaur no Nayami

Himeno is a sweet, shy little centaur girl. In her world, everyone seems to be a supernatural creature, and all her classmates have some kind of horns, wings, tails, halos, or other visible supernatural body part. Despite their supernatural elements, Himeno and her best friends, Nozomi and Kyouko, have a fun and mostly normal daily school life! – MAL

Copyright 2017 (c) Emon Animation Company

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Himeno, Nozomi, and Kyouko are your normal, everyday high school students. In their world, however, “normal” means sporting some kind of super-human marker, whether that be animal ears and tails, extra limbs, wings, or other fantastic traits. Evolution took a vastly different course in this universe, and six-legged mammals eventually evolved into the variable humanoid sub-species that we might consider mythological. That said, Hime and her friends lead an especially average life, concerned with the things that might take up any student’s time and energy, like gym class or being in the class play during recital week. Of course, this present day scenario is downright idyllic compared to the atrocities and discrimination of the past, where centaurs were used as slave labor or were thrust into caste-like roles in society. But everything nowadays is fair and equal… or is it?

Impressions: I had every expectation that this show would be a silly, frothy, potentially (too?) fanservicey slice-of-life with some monster girls thrown in for flavor. What I didn’t expect was for there to be even the slightest suggestion of an unsettling backdrop to the story. While this isn’t an unwelcome variation on the theme, I’m concerned that the theme of the series might turn out to be a little bit too unsavory for my tastes.

Himeno and Nozomi kiss during practice for the class play. Copyright 2017 (c) Emon Animation Company

The first half of this episode is devoted to a story event already in progress. The students are putting on a romantic short play, and Himeno is tapped to play the princess. The gag is that this has been the role she’s played since she was in kindergarten, possibly due to a pun on her name (the “Hime” in “Himeno” meaning “princess”), but more than likely due to her good looks and delicate personality. There’s a vaguely comedic mix up when a male student tries to position himself in the role of the prince but is found out and one of Hime’s female friends gets the role instead (allowing for a girl-girl smooch that seems perfectly aimed at a presumed straight male audience hankering for some yuri action), as well as a moment of tension when the set piece upon which Hime stands collapses under her weight (she is half horse, after all). It’s mostly kind of goofy and dumb, and serves mostly to introduce the main characters and make a few jokes at the expense of the titular centaur.

The second half of the episode, though, has a much more sinister undercurrent. In science class, the characters learn about human evolution from their teacher. All the humanoid variants in their world are the result of fish that evolved to have six fins, which began mammals with six legs, and eventually humans with several different varieties of additional limbs, horns, tails, and other accouterments. Much like our own society, these various differences had the effect of causing discord and discrimination among the different tribes. This is all mildly interesting, and even sort of funny in that the assertion is made that four-limbed humans would only have been different in their skin color rather than their overall body composition, from which no sort of discrimination could possibly have resulted. Perhaps the creepiest part of this whole line of exposition occurs while two very shady individuals monitor the classroom from outside the door. Their faces are mostly hidden but they appear to be listening intently to what the teacher is saying. The line she speaks seems perfectly rehearsed; she proclaims that equality is ultimately more important than anything else, including civil rights. Barring the fact that those two things are pretty darned related, in my opinion, the entire scene feels like some sort of bizarre authoritarian propaganda report. And the creepy men outside the door seem pretty pleased by it.

Big Brother is watching. Copyright 2017 (c) Emon Animation Company

It’s difficult to know exactly how these statements are meant to come across. I interpret them as indicative of some kind of extremely subtle dystopian society, where personal freedoms have been traded for peace and control, and that unsettles me. I’m not sure if the creator is making these statements to criticize moves to legislate equality, as have been done via various civil rights acts in real life (to varying degrees of actual success); while I might interpret these laws as meant to protect marginalized groups via the (imperfect) legal system, others (wrongfully) might think that they’re being instituted to give some people “special treatment” (ugh). It could also be a statement about the harm that’s done when we’re made to think of everyone’s experiences as being the same, when in fact they’re very different based on a number of factors. There’s a large chance that I’m overthinking a small aspect of an otherwise goofy show, but I think there’s also the potential that the show is making an attempt to be political, and I have the feeling if it goes that route it’s going to be really ham-handed about it.

A third potential interpretation, though, might not end up too bad. The creator could have set the story anywhere, but chose to use a high school as the backdrop for the story. We always hear about how the Japanese school system trains students in conformity and emphasizes sameness and group-think in order to maintain harmony. Knowing even what little we already know about what’s going on in the background of this society, that setup sounds kind of familiar, no? There are already tons of anime, manga, and films that criticize this type of school environment, so it’s definitely not the first (and probably not the best, either). But it does result in kind of an interesting variation on “cute girls with animal ears doing stuff,” so that’s a plus.

The show wastes no time getting to the yuri bait. Copyright 2017 (c) Emon Animation Company

Of course, there’s still a hefty dose of “cute girls with animal ears doing stuff,” for good or ill. There are some errant panty shots, a few suggestive yuri situations (basically the first shot of the show is two girls kissing each-other on the lips… but it’s okay because they’re in a play together), and lots of “girl talk” that feels pretty manufactured and occasionally needlessly voyeuristic about body functions. I’m sure we all have questions about how centaurs wipe their butts after going to the bathroom, but I don’t need a fantasy anime series to go into detail about those things when I just want to watch something dumb and silly. The up side, though, is that the characters are actually pretty cute. Somehow Himeno seems delicate despite being three times the size of her friends, and that in itself is amusing.

The character designs are cute, but the animation quality is mostly just serviceable. This is another Chinese partnership anime, and while this one in particular doesn’t feel like it was transported straight from the late 1990’s, I feel sad that seeing a Chinese hand in the production still seems to mean that the show is lacking in quality control somewhere or that the show isn’t given the resources and the time it might deserve. Then again, there are plenty of Japanese (and American) shows with similar issues, so perhaps picking on China in particular is wrongheaded of me.

This show isn’t life-changing and I don’t think it’s that “holy grail” monster girl anime that I’ve been wishing for ever since Monster Musume turned out to be a horny sex-fest of uncomfortable proportions. But if A Centaur’s Life devotes some time to the issues of its broader society (I’m not sure how much the manga goes into it, either), I think it could be kind of interesting in spite of its various issues.

Pros: The story might have more depth than originally indicated. The characters are pretty cute.

Cons: There’s some fanservice that doesn’t sit well with me and seems like yuri bait. The overall visual quality isn’t great. It’s hard to say if the setting and authoritarian rules might be suggesting something worse than “the Japanese school system sucks.”

Grade: B-

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Made in Abyss

An enormous pit and cave system called the “Abyss” is the only unexplored place in the world. Strange and wonderful creatures reside in its depths, and it is full of precious relics that current humans are unable to make. The mysteries of the Abyss fascinate humans, and they head down to explore. The adventurers who venture into pit are known as “Cave Raiders.” A little orphan girl named Rico lives in the town of Ōsu on the edge of the Abyss. Her dream is to become a Cave Raider like her mother and solve the mysteries of the cave system. One day, Rico starts exploring the caves and discovers a robot who resembles a human boy. – ANN

Copyright 2017 (c) Kinema Citrus

Streaming: Amazon Anime Strike

Episodes: 13

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: 1900 years ago, a remote island surrounding a seemingly bottomless pit was discovered. As the world’s last truly unexplored phenomenon, the “Abyss” as it came to be known beckoned explorers and relic hunters alike into its depths. Some unlucky travelers entered, never to be heard from again. Riko is the daughter of one such adventurer, and she and her friends Nat and Shiggy live at an orphanage where they and their ilk are trained in the dangerous art of cave raiding for various relics in the Abyss. Their lives are harsh and occasionally frightening, as their lot is exploited as cheap labor. One day on their first excursion without adult guidance, Riko and Nat are attacked by one of the Abyss’s many terrifying creatures. Riko is saved by a mysterious and powerful shot from the hand of an unconscious robot boy. Riko is ecstatic to have found such a treasure, and drags the boy back to the orphanage. The robot can’t remember his name or where he came from, so Riko assumes that he must be from deep within the Abyss, a place where incomprehensible relics are said to be ubiquitous. Though this excites her imagination, for right now all she wants to do is keep Reg (her name for her robot friend) a secret from the authorities.

Impressions: I’ve actually been delaying watching this episode – not because I suspected that it might be bad, but that I’ve been looking forward to it so much and I wanted to give myself a chance to cool down and take it in properly. As with almost anything I’ve ever watched, I do have a few misgivings, but besides that this has absolutely one of the most impressive first episodes I’ve watched so far this season.

Riko goes looking for valuable artifacts. Copyright 2017 (c) Kinema Citrus

Looks certainly aren’t everything, but in this case they’re one of the first things one notices once the episode starts to play. The anime wastes no time in establishing a strong sense of place. The idea of a bottomless pit is intriguing and horrifying and everything in between; As Riko and her companions descend a mere(!) 100 meters down at the outset, we’re given an appropriate taste of both aspects via the background environment and the strange creatures flying through the air. The cliffsides are lush with strange flora, the sun penetrating enough to give us a look at the various plants and rock formations. As Riko uncovers an old cave system there’s a palpable sense of age and mustiness as she breaks through rock walls and discovers strange objects and even old human remains dressed in unfamiliar clothing. The visuals tell a story on their own, about ancient peoples who may have lived in this strange environment and the tools that they used to survive. It also begins to raise question thus far unspoken – why did they die out, and is this an ongoing threat?

As Riko and Nat haul Reg’s unconscious body up from the area that they were exploring, the visual montage of the various parts of town, precariously balanced around the empty blackness of the Abyss, is fascinating. It feels like something out of a film with a much higher budget, and there was clearly a lot of purposeful design and framing in creating the first impressions of this environment. I’m reminded a bit of Xam’d: Lost Memories, an anime with a similar kind of cinematic style and extremely distinct visual presentation and feel to it. Xam’d had a lot of very strong fantasy elements, as well as a profound undercurrent of body-horror that made for a very intriguing watch; I’m already getting the impression that this series might tend towards the same direction.

Riko is suddenly under attack. Copyright 2017 (c) Kinema Citrus

While it would be easy to be fooled (and maybe even put-off) by the cutesy character designs, there are enough clues in this first episode to indicate that this show has the potential to skew really dark. There are several offhand references to forms of punishment in which offenders are “strung-up naked” for their offenses. It’s actually sort of easy to miss this since they’re offhand comments spoken by Riko in a comedically frantic way when it appears as if she’s about to get into trouble. I’ve heard online from readers of the manga that the source material has the tendency to be dark and horrifying; while my search for specifics around the web came up mostly fruitless, I don’t doubt that these comments in the anime are without basis. This might be enough to give a lot of people misgivings, especially since most of the characters introduced so far are really young, and bad things happening to young people makes them seem doubly-terrible in most cases. To be blunt, I have zero desire to see any character, especially a kid get strung up naked in the town square, and if that’s where this is all going it would probably be enough for me to drop it no matter how great the rest of the show might be.

What I’m hoping, though, is that the darkness of the narrative is more reliant on the terrifying unknown of what lives down the rabbit hole. It’s easy to see why the Abyss would be such a tempting mystery; I think there’s something romantic about an unexplored piece of the world, and it’s just so easy to identify with the characters because as a viewer I’m just so curious to know what’s waiting down there. It goes far beyond wanting to conquer nature or claim more land for this or that nation; knowing that there were people there once, and that they made and built and created things that still survive in some form, is almost magical in a way. The fact that one episode of the anime has the ability to create and cultivate that sense of wonder is truly an accomplishment.

Reg hides out so Riko can get in less trouble. Copyright 2017 (c) Kinema Citrus

Animation-wise, there are some great moments in this episode. I’ll leave the specific technical commentary to the pros at Sakuga Blog, but to my untrained eye this episode is propped up both by its expressive character movement and the otherworldly-horrifying creature designs, of which the most interesting is probably the giant flying worm that nearly eats Nat and Riko during their excursion. There’s something especially terrifying about it, which is effectively conveyed through the very different animation style used to bring it to life; the splotchy ill-defined nature of the beast gives the impression that it’s almost too terrifying to look at and see clearly, which is fitting given the circumstances. I’m interested to see what other horrors of nature show up to give our characters trouble later on.

I haven’t spoken about it yet, but I thought I might mention a little bit about the Amazon Prime/Anime Strike viewing experience, since I’ve read some other comments online about it. I’ve heard tell of some issues people have been having with ill-timed subtitles, and that hasn’t been the case in my experience (it might have something to do with individual computer set ups, but that’s not my area of specialty). What is kind of quirky, though, is that I had to actually turn the English subtitles on manually. I think in the case of other video services I’ve used, living in a primarily English-speaking region while watching material in a language other than English has meant that the subtitles would appear automatically but could be turned off. I did have a bit of an issue with video quality, which has been my experience with Amazon Video even outside their Anime Strike channel. When the video starts, the stream is initially in kind of a low quality standard-def size, which is pretty pixelated. It then takes a while (probably less than a minute, truthfully) for it to adjust to HD quality. I have pretty fast cable internet service and live close to a major city, so the reason why some services are still struggling with this (I’ve had this happen with Netflix as well) is somewhat irritating. Otherwise the experience isn’t nearly as bad as some would make it out to be, but it’s still irritating to have to pay extra to add the Anime Strike channel when I already pay for Amazon Prime in the first place.

Video service issues aside, I’m digging this series a lot based on the first episode. I love the air of mystery it’s cultivated so far, and I’m anxious to find out what sort of path the story might take going forward. While I have some misgivings about just how far the violence or other horrific material might go based on the related internet chatter, for now I think I’ll just hope that the anime can maintain the tone while maybe leaving some things to the imagination. I think this is going to be a really striking, unique, and satisfying ride.

Pros: The episode quickly establishes a great sense of place. There are some great visuals, from the background artwork to the character and creature animation. The setting is mysterious and intriguing.

Cons: Signs indicate dark skies ahead – including content that might be objectionable to some, especially since the characters are young.

Grade: A-

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun/Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun

The handsome young soccer genius named Aoyama is a Japan representative. His play style is “cleanliness.” He doesn’t tackle and doesn’t head the ball. If he’s doing a throw-in, he’ll only do it if he’s wearing gloves. – ANN

Copyright 2017 (c) Studio Hibari

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Aoyama is the star soccer player on his high school team. This is in spite of (or perhaps actually because of) his germophobia. He won’t touch a dirty soccer ball, he won’t get his clothing dirty, and he won’t do anything that causes him to come into physical contact with other players, including his teammates. This drives his teammate Zaizen up the wall, since he thinks that everyone else is much too accommodating to Aoyama-kun’s needs. The thing is, though, that everyone else seems to admire Aoyama’s cleanliness, and they sure as heck think he’s the best player at their school. Even members of rival high schools keep trying to poach Aoyama-kun away. After Aoyama leads the team to victory in a game against a clearly better school, Zaizen starts to gain a grudging respect towards his unusual teammate.

Impressions: This episode is a great example of a premise that could have resulted in something really terrible, but which managed to avoid becoming terribad and instead settled comfortably into being slightly above average with some hit-or-miss comedy for flavor.

Aoyama goes for the goal. Copyright 2017 (c) Studio Hibari

Speaking as someone with a history of mental illness (though of a different style than featured here), I wasn’t looking forward to watching an anime try to feature a character who seems to be someone living with one.  Anime, like other forms of media, has a very spotty track record when portraying mental illness, and more often than not it serves as the punchline to a joke. For every show like Trapeze which to my memory seemed to get a lot of the emotional side of mental illness right (despite being a comedy), there are several more like Welcome to the NHK that mix up “profound social anxiety” with “hapless otaku maladjustment” and end up becoming insulting in the process. It’s a difficult thing to get quite right and there’s a feeling of glaring falseness that’s there when it’s wrong. So you can imagine how low my expectations for this anime were, knowing nothing much beyond its premise. Surprisingly, though, I’d qualify this attempt as “pretty okay,” which might not sound like high praise but which I think does a good job of capturing the fact that the show is decent without a lot of major screw-ups.

The first episode’s point-of-view character is Zaizen, who shortly becomes very frustrated by the fact that Aoyama seems to require so many special accommodations and his classmates and fellow team members seem unruffled by this and are even willing and able to deal with them without pulling their hair out. I think that Zaizen, despite being a pretty outspoken jerk throughout the episode, is use well throughout. Though I tend to stick with people online and in real life who understand the need to celebrate diversity, including neuro-diversity, I think there are many other people who are unfortunately not in the frame of mind to give others what they think of as “special treatment,” and showing Zaizen having that kind of reaction acknowledges that. That said, the point is that Zaizen isn’t shown a lot of sympathy, and in fact there are several people who try to get him to adjust his attitude by showing Aoyama’s good points as a player and a person – he’s an excellent soccer player with an incredibly accurate and focused playing style that’s the direct result of his needs as a player, after all. I think by the end of the first episode we’re all on board with who Aoyama-kun is.

Zaizen watches Aoyama’s post-game cleaning of the soccer balls. Copyright 2017 (c) Studio Hibari

One downside to this setup, though, is that Aoyama doesn’t get much of an opportunity to speak for himself. We’re positioned as outside observers who learn about Aoyama through the eyes of the people who know him. There are the gaggle of girls who have crushes on him because of his spotlessly clean hands (when in fact, all the hand washing would probably be more painful than anything else, but I suppose there has to be some element of fantasy), the other players and team manager who seem to be admirers rather than close friends with Aoyama, as well as the rival school members who know all about Aoyama’s skill on the field, but not really anything else about the way he operates as a person. It may be too much to ask for a comedic series to provide a lot of deep insight into a character, let alone from their own perspective. But that doesn’t make we want to stop asking for it.

Something I made note of while watching this episode was the fact that it exists somewhere in between a straight sports anime and a true gag series, and the juxtaposition of the two without a strong focus on either is actually a little bit disorienting. One shared trait of many of the best sports anime I’ve watched is that they do a good job of being funny while also portraying the seriousness and intensity of the sport. Hinata and Kageyama of Haikyu!! are quite the odd couple, and the comedic tension that arises due to their opposing personalities is really entertaining. But the show is also great at portraying exciting volleyball action and knows when to forgo the humor and bring that to the forefront. Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun seems to be just slightly uncomfortable focusing too much energy on exploring either side of the equation; there are a couple of good visual gags (Aoyama cleaning his classroom window got a chuckle out of me) and some heartfelt moments, like Aoyama working on the soccer balls after the game, I didn’t get the impression that the show was really committed to either piece. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like the first episode left much of an impact (aside from a repeating gag focused on a rival character’s abs – many people might find this kind of non-sequitur obnoxious, but it’s honestly so stupid that I actually laughed every time the character appeared with his shirt pulled up).

Aoyama is admired by his team’s manager. Copyright 2017 (c) Studio Hibari

Thankfully, the anime does seem to have a stronger visual style than its blander storytelling might suggest. During goofier moments, the characters do switch into kind of a funny “chibi” mode that, while not lending a lot of extra strength to the humor, does at least notify the viewer when things are meant to be comical. This is sort of a classic technique that might feel a little bit overbearing to some, but I found it kind of cute. The animation is fairly serviceable when portraying the sports action as well; the opening scene where Aoyama scores an important goal during the All-Japan championship is really well-done, as is the match that caps this episode and proves Aoyama’s prowess as a player (and his ability to be less-stringent about cleanliness depending on how far into the match he is – sometimes a little mud is tolerable, as long as it’s less than five minutes to the end of the game). The lines are clean (har har) and the animation is consistent throughout this opener.

Ultimately I don’t know if this show will satisfy sports anime enthusiasts or fans of comedy anime, but it does have the distinction of being significantly less offensive to me as someone with mental health issues than I would have expected, and its heart seems to be roughly in the right place, so that might be a decent starting place.

Pros: The animation serves its purpose well. The premise could have skewed in a much more offensive direction, but instead the bulk of the characters seem to be supportive of Aoyama’s needs.

Cons: The comedy and sports aspects seem to be at odds with one-another. That guy’s abs are like their own character.

Grade: B-

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Restaurant to Another World/Isekai Shokudou

A restaurant called “Yōshoku no Nekoya” (Western Cuisine Cat Restaurant), which is located on the first basement floor of a building at a corner of a shopping district near an office area. While it normally feeds salarymen, there is a secret in Nekoya. Every Saturday when the shop takes a day off, Nekoya is teeming full of “special customers.” For the office workers, it is a familiar place with familiar dishes, but for these Saturday customers — “people from that world” — it is nothing but cuisine never seen or heard before. – ANN

Copyright 2017 (c) Silver Link

Streaming: Crunchyroll, with Simuldub on Funimation

Episodes: TBA

Source: Novel Series

Episode 1 Summary: Nestled somewhere in the city is a mysterious restaurant serving “Western” cuisine. What Western really means in this context is anyone’s guess; generally anything not “Japanese” in origin, coming from somewhere across the ocean, might be considered Western. What’s special about this restaurant, a little hole-in-the-wall with a cat on the door, is that one day a week its door opens into the “other world,” and fantastic creatures including elves, demons, werewolves, and even dragons enter to taste Earth’s delicacies. On one of these special days, a young demon named Aletta wanders into the restaurant and, hungry from not having any money or a place to stay, eats an entire pot of corn potage before falling asleep. Rather than punish her, the restaurant’s chef lets Aletta shower and then gives her a job as a waitress for the customers from another world.

Impressions: As a fan of both relatively-plotless low stakes anime series and anime revolving around food and drink, Restaurant to Another World is a rare instance of something that seems perfectly constructed to scratch multiple itches. The show also puts a bit of a twist on the popular Isekai fantasy anime subgenre by bringing the “other world” into ours, rather than allowing yet another character-less teenage guy have all the fun in a fantasy world of his imagination and invention. There’s a lot stacked in this show’s favor, and so far I’m having mostly positive feelings.

Delicious, glistening teriyaki chicken. Copyright 2017 (c) Silver Link

The dishes featured in this episode aren’t necessarily anything out of the ordinary; within the first few minutes we get to see restaurant customers ingest teriyaki chicken, curry rice, katsudon, and beef stew (while also arguing about which goes best with white rice). This might seem like a fairly typical conversation to be had among friends, but the twist is that, to the individuals sampling these dishes, these relatively commonplace foods are strange, delicious delicacies from our world that aren’t easily obtained in their own. There are times where I’ve daydreamed about what it might be like for someone from our distant past on Earth to be brought suddenly into the present day; what might they think about our technological progress or the strangeness of our popular culture as compared to our own? What’s fun about this episode (and by extension, likely the series as a whole) is that it speculates on the reactions of people to whom our world, customs, and favorite foods are completely foreign. It’s difficult to say exactly what a lizard man might think about the ways in which we prepare chicken, but I appreciate that someone has tried to speculate.

The first episode also devotes a little time to the subject of prejudice, and how even a world about which we might fantasize could still have some of the same types of discrimination that we’re still working hard to identify and mitigate. The way that this is approached is pretty obvious and somewhat ham-handed; Aletta is a demon, and so the humans of her world don’t want to be around her or let her have a job despite her harmlessness. It’s the type of situation that pretty much anyone, aside from the most fervent racists, would identify as being wrong, so there’s a definite lack of nuance that doesn’t result in the type of meaty commentary that the creators might think that they’re providing, but I’d be curious to know if it’s a subject that comes up again and if so, whether it’s examined in more depth.

Aletta starts her new job at the restaurant. Copyright 2017 (c) Silver Link

I’m a bit amused by where the show’s staff seems to have devoted the most visual resources. Most of the character animation is functional but unremarkable. Even the depiction of what seems to be a relatively important (and incredibly sexy) character, the female dragon who seems to own the magic restaurant door as one of her many treasures, is mostly serviceable rather than eye-popping. But when it comes to the food, I can’t say I have any complaints. The glistening, darkened skin of the chicken, the crunchy fried katsu coating, the fluffiness of the fried eggs… almost all the food we get to see throughout the episode is incredibly appetizing and makes me want to pull out the pots and pans and cook up a feast for myself. I may not have been hungry before I started watching, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t develop a bit of an appetite after getting an eyeful of juicy deliciousness.

Unfortunately (and along those same lines, to some extent), this anime suffers from something that I’ve refrained from commenting on too much as of late (because of reasons). Though the show’s focus isn’t exactly on the humanoid characters for the most part, it seems like there’s an exception when it comes to the women of the show. Both Aletta, one of the few named characters, and the powerful dragon who seems to have ownership over the restaurant, are both subject at various points in the episode to the camera leering over their questionably-necessary nudity. I’ve gone from a near zero-tolerance policy on this kind of material to something of a more grudging acceptance of it in certain small amounts (believe me, when you’ve seen some of the vile anime I’ve seen throughout my time as an amateur reviewer of anime, there are a lot of things that suddenly become tame in comparison), but there’s never a point at which it doesn’t rankle me a little bit, and in this case it feels really out of place. The narrative doesn’t seem constructed to appeal to a primarily straight male audience otherwise; on the contrary, it’s these types of iyashi-kei series that I often think of as being almost universal in their potential appeal. So why waste multiple camera shots lingering over nude bodies when there isn’t otherwise a focus on titillation? It’s frustrating and jarring in a way that it wouldn’t be if this were just another in the endless string of fanservice vehicles.

All of our faves are problematic, though, and while I can’t quite place this premiere among my favorites yet, I do think the basic setup allows for something mostly pleasant and kind of unique to come. If the show can play to its strengths and stick to the food rather than the fanservice, I think this could be a nice low-key addition to my Summer queue.

Pros: The food looks delicious – it’ll whet your appetite! The show might have something to say about prejudice (albeit in a simplistic way).

Cons: There are several lingering shots over female nudity that are distracting and don’t serve a purpose.

Grade: B-

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Magical Circle Guru Guru/Mahoujin Guru Guru

The seal that confined the evil monster Guruguru for hundreds of years has worn off. A young boy named Nike is chosen (against his will) as the hero. He sets off with Kukuri, a girl who is the lone survivor of a tribe that uses black magic for good, to save the world, RPG style. – ANN

Copyright 2017 (c) Production I.G.

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: After 300 years, the seal on Demon King Giri has worn off, and it’s time for a new hero to go on a journey to defeat him. As a kid, Nike might seem like the least likely choice to deal Giri a smack down, but his parents have been raising him to take up the mantle of hero for his entire life. Despite Nike’s protests, he’s sent off to Magic Granny’s house to obtain a traveling companion. There he meets Kukuri, the last of her line of magic users, and a start-struck 12-year-old to boot. She considers her meeting with Nike her destiny as a magic user, and the two journey to the Anshient Castle to meet with the king. Though there are hundreds of other hero-wannabes already there, Nike demonstrates some elusive inner potential and is sent on his way (along with a modest monetary payment to purchase supplies). They meet their first monster on the road, but due to its bad case of monologuing and Kukuri’s innate talent (luck?) with magic, they’re able to defeat it.

Impressions: Magical Circle Guru Guru is a surprise in both tone and style; in an age when anime (even humorous anime) takes itself very seriously, this show seems to hearken back to a simpler time of rapid-fire gags and outright parody, and is ultimately stronger for it.

Nike doesn’t want to be the hero. Copyright 2017 (c) Production I.G.

The anime reveals itself as a parody of 8-bit style RPG’s right from the get-go with its use of pixel art and dialog boxes straight out of classics like Dragon Quest or the original Final Fantasy. As Nike is thrust into the role of protagonist, the show wastes no time in pointing out the inherent ridiculousness of so many video games in establishing the hero’s role and purpose. Who in their right mind would assume that a tween kid still living with his parents would make a suitable hero. Of course he holds some mysterious unnamed power – all the tropes say that he has to! The way in which the show employs each and every one of those time-worn cliches belies the fact that the creators of the story truly have a lot of love for these kinds of scenarios; many of us geeks of a certain age have a shared experience in playing these types of games, so while we might not exactly what’s “supposed” to happen, seeing it unfold gives us a chuckle and a warm case of the nostalgia fuzzies.

Another nostalgic aspect of the episode is evident right from the get-go; the show channels other classics like Kodomo no Omocha in its way of presenting the story through non-stop visual gags and hyperactive dialog. This barely gives the viewer a chance to take a breath and regroup before tackling the next item on the story agenda, but this is definitely where familiarity with the structure and pacing serves another purpose; when you already know what’s supposed to happen and have already accepted that it will do so without question, it leaves enough time for your brain to latch onto the fact that one of Kukuri’s magic circles is the “laughing man” symbol, or that the home-cooked meal made by Nike’s mother is the perfect visual representation of an RPG world map. It’s a bit like the way in which moé characterization can, in some cases, serve to provide a good character baseline so that additional character development can occur within the relatively protracted time period allowed for in most TV anime these days. It definitely doesn’t occur that way successfully in all cases, but when done right it can help make the most of limited resources.

Don’t draw your magic circle incorrectly! Copyright 2017 (c) Production I.G.

Speaking of characterization, though, I feel like that might be one area where this episode happens to fall short. It can be easy to underestimate the importance of character development in a comedic setting, especially with a gag-comedy focus. In the end, the most important thing is that most if not all of the jokes were successful in entertaining the audience. I’ve found that a lot of viewers (and some creators) tend to underestimate the potential value added when competent comedy is coupled with sympathetic characters with whom the viewer can form a connection. Jokes that harp on one person’s primary defining trait often grow tiresome, but jokes that escalate as we learn more and more about a character’s inner self make for some of the most transcendent, memorable laughs in anime (one series that does this surprisingly well is Nichijou, which is a must-watch as far as I’m concerned).

My main complaint with this episode in this regard isn’t as much with Nike, who’s kind of your crabby “everykid” hero and seems fairly self-aware, but with Kukuri who stands out to me as being more ill-defined. She’s introduced as a character who’s cute but ineffectual but for her streak of dumb luck. She’s worshipful of Nike, her “hero” who serves some sort of important role in her life as an ideal rather than a friend or equal; it’s this piece of it that grates on me a little bit. Kukuri toes the line between someone who could eventually become aware of her own potential and someone who’s purpose in the narrative is to provide Nike more obstacles to overcome due to her clumsiness and lack of awareness. For now their dynamic is kind of funny, but it’s something to keep my eye on.

The characters travel in 8-bit mode. Copyright 2017 (c) Production I.G.

I briefly mentioned above how the show utilizes visual parody in addition to other forms of humor, and this is probably one of the more entertaining aspects of the episode. There are several 8-bit overhead view interludes (in 4:3 aspect ratio, no less) that occur when characters travel, or something is occurring that seems particularly ripped-off from any of several classic RPG video games. This breaks up the episode nicely and the technique isn’t overused which lets it keep being funny rather than repetitive and tiresome. There’s also a similarly funny effect that occurs in some instances during character closeups, where they’ll be portrayed as they are in the anime, but highly pixelated in close-up. It’s difficult to describe why it’s so amusing to me; I tend to think that extreme close-up shots of people’s faces are inherently pretty funny for whatever reason, especially if the zoom slowly increases in intensity. The added effect of the pixels only enhances that. Overall these cute additions really serve to emphasize the tie that the show has to a particular era of video-gaming; while I believe that the show is made for younger viewers, this aspect makes it entertaining for those of us who played the first Dragon Quest on cartridge, too.

I have to say, this show really came out of nowhere for me. As a re-make of an older series, it definitely looks pretty unassuming. There wasn’t a lot of energy put into making it flashier for a new generation of viewers, and I think that was the correct decision. Considering that anime comedies tend to be mostly-miss for me, I really didn’t have a lot of reason to pay attention as this was coming down the pipeline. After finding myself highly amused by episode 1, I feel like I might have to add it to my queue. At the very least, it seems like it might be a fun distraction.

Pros: The visual and parody humor work well together. There is judicious use of visual gags like 8-bit style and pixelation.

Cons: The characterization is a bit lacking so far.

Grade: B

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – 18if

One day, Haruto wakes up on a round bed in a strange room, with the only familiar things around being his smartphone and headphones. After encountering a strange girl in white named Lily who claims to be his sister and a man who looks like a cat, Haruto learns that he is in a dream belonging to Yuko, a girl stricken with Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. Yuko is the Witch of Thunder, an all-powerful woman who makes the dream world bow before her to ensure she’s known the strongest, the best, and the most fun person around. Haruto’s sister tells him that he must wake Yuko up by killing her in the dream in order to break the “spell” she’s under, but Haruto’s got some other ideas about what might be keeping Yuko asleep. – ANN

Copyright 2017 (c) Gonzo

Streaming: Crunchyroll with simuldub on Funimation

Episodes: TBA

Source: Multimedia Franchise

Episode 1 Summary: The Witch of Thunder rules her dream world with an iron fist, turning its denizens into avatars of cuteness and destroying anything that she doesn’t like. Enter Haruto, a sullen teenage guy who seems unaffected by the inherent strangeness of the dreamscape around him. He’s the only person who can see the elusive “Lily,” a legend of the dream world and a white whale of sorts to Professor Kanzaki, a researcher who appears in dreams as an anthropomorphic cat. As the two chase after this mysterious girl in white, the Witch of Thunder clues into their location and begins the process of bending the two interlopers to her will. Kanzaki is quickly dispatched, but Haruto refuses to see what is happening as anything other than a strange dream. It’s through this skepticism that he’s able to distinguish the Witch for who she is – the dream persona of a girl named Yuko, whose feelings were hurt by a group of bullies. Haruto releases Yuko, who then awakes again in the real world. But Haruto’s job seems far from over as he awakens and finds himself still within a surreal setting.

Impressions: Having been an anime fan for so many years, it’s difficult to avoid comparing a current anime to ones with similar ideas, especially if the earlier examples were executed more successfully. At first glance, 18if seems to be about a mysterious young man who encounters women with problems, and due to some inherent talent on his end is able to heal these women and release them from their suffering. Another anime that immediately came to mind was one of my favorites, the horror drama Mononoke. For those who are unfamiliar, Mononoke follows a character known as the Medicine Seller, who identifies and exorcises malevolent spirits. The show is fairly episodic, but one common thread between all the stories is that they shine a light on the injustices done to women throughout history (mostly Japanese history, but with some minor variations I think many of the experiences could be interpreted as fairly universal); the titular mononoke are based around various Japanese yokai and spirits, but are colored by how they originate from things like forced abortion, abusive relationships, and workplace sexism. I’ve seen some reviews that interpret the show as being terrible for women, in that the stories are built entirely around women’s suffering. For me, however, I found a lot of personal meaning in how the stories were presented – each story arc revolves around uncovering the truth, specifically the truth of the life lived by women and how their poor treatment represents an illness within society.

The Witch of Thunder surveys her dream kingdom. Copyright 2017 (c) Gonzo

Having seen one of the very best representations of this kind of storytelling, it’s difficult to overlook a situation in which the structure of the show seems similar but the execution feels lacking in depth and nuance. Whereas the Medicine Seller’s otherworldly presence in Mononoke and his ability to uncover subtleties and details allows the truth of each situation to be exposed on its own (usually out of the mouths of the people who caused the problem in the first place), Haruto’s sarcastic disinterest and unaffected nature runs contrary to the fact that he seems to be naturally able to navigate and control aspects of the dream environment. He seems more alarmed by the fact that Lily, a girl only he seems able to see, calls him her brother than the fact that he’s about to be squashed by giant teddy bears or hacked-up by a vengeful witch. None of his actions seem purposeful, and while this might be typical for an anime hero getting oriented to a new and strange environment, the lack of any consequences for the character and his lack of focus, direction, or even personality leads directly to a lack of tension throughout the episode.

The episode itself attempts to bank on its presentation of the dream environment as disorienting and weird. Much of the first half of the episode is short on dialog and seems more focused around the various environments that Haruto encounters as he wakes up multiple times from within some sort of dream-ception. One thing that I love about animation is that it can be utilized fairly readily to create settings that cannot exist as easily when portrayed in live-action film. In this case, though, a problem arises from the fact that dreams, while often strange, still often have some element of reality to them. One of the most affecting things about the animated movie Paprika was that Satoshi Kon was able to capture both the reality and the strangeness of dreaming so completely. The dream settings were often mundane, or drawn from film imagery that wasn’t especially extraordinary; when pieced together with representations of the dream-specific feeling of being unable to run quickly or seeing faceless background “characters” however, the experience felt very genuine. 18if represents dreams as wacky abstract environments and characters that seem visually complete but purposely out-of-place, which definitely provides for something zany, but doesn’t give the same unsettling impression of a genuine human dream.

It’s okay because it’s just a dream. Copyright 2017 (c) Gonzo

This, I think, is where the concept falls apart. Ultimately we learn that the dream world is something of a witch’s labyrinth a-la Madoka Magica; Yuko falls asleep in the real world as the result of some cruel bullying from her classmates, and a malignant dream in which she has sovereignty and has the luxury of being pampered and given total attention is the result. That set up seems fine except for the fact that there are literally zero visual connections between that reality and Yuko’s dream prison, and the attempt to connect the two conceptually through her need for control is pretty pasted-on. Add to that the fact that there’s the potential for some garbage gender dynamics between the “hero” – a typical teenage anime guy – and a bunch of girls(?)* with problems, and I’m very hesitant about where this show is going.

As much as the first episode attempts to present a visually engaging setting, there’s a major setback in the fact that the animation is merely functional rather than striking. Not every anime series enjoys the benefits a lot of lead time and great planning; I have no idea what the turnaround time on this show was and so it’s difficult for me to be too judgmental, especially when anime, despite being a visual medium, is almost always more about the story and characters for me. Sadly, though, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that the character animation in this first episode is kind of shoddy and underwhelming for a first episode and I’m concerned that, if it looks like this now, it will probably look even worse later on.

Because nudity = vulnerability. Really! Copyright 2017 (c) Gonzo

Having been an anime fan through Gonzo’s heyday with properties like Gankutsuou, I always kind of hope that they might somehow end up involved with another artful classic close to that level. While this show seems to want to make an attempt at visual uniqueness and the cultivation of intrigue via the route of confusing and disorienting the viewer, it falls short in establishing a story (or protagonist) that feels genuine, and that’s really a shame. Yes, things might get better later on and yes, all the sexist undertones may at some point be subverted in favor of something better, but I don’t have a lot of faith.

*I’m just speculating due to the use of the term “witch” which normally suggests some kind of malignant, aggressive, or otherwise contrary femininity, unfortunately.

Pros: Gonzo, you tried?

Cons: Visually disjointed. I interpret the set up as having some sexist undertones.

Grade: C-