Now that Winter season premieres have kicked-off, it feels good to be back in the swing of things again. There was quite a bit of real-life stuff that kept me away from my writing over the past couple of months, so the fact that the timing worked out with my availability is a big relief for me. I’m hoping to stay as “on top” of things as possible this season. It’s always been my goal to watch and write about each premier before their second episodes come out. Thus far I haven’t been successful, but I’ve been close a couple of times in the past so I’m hopeful that I’ll achieve the goal someday.
Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story
Streaming: Funimation, Crunchyroll, HIDIVE (Crunchyroll and HIDIVE streams begin on January 11th)
Episodes: 13
Source: Smartphone Game
Episode Summary: Iroha is one of many magical girls who chose to become one in service of a single wish. The problem is, despite this wish being important enough to sacrifice her freedom (and eventually her life), she can’t seem to remember exactly what it was. Kyubey believes she may have set a condition that the wish go unknown to protect someone or something, but whether that theory is true or not remains a mystery.
Meanwhile, rumors have been circulating among magical girls that they may be saved from their thankless existence by traveling to Kamihama City and being released from their turmoil. Several magical girls have awoken from dreams in which a young girl tells them as much. Yet, when Iroha and her friend Kuroe make the journey, all they find are more powerful foes and magical girls who don’t want their territory to be invaded by endless salvation-seekers. Still, the urge is strong, and in her dreams Iroha gets an inkling of what she might have wished for.
Impressions: This was yet another of my many anticipated series this season, though I was prepared to temper my expectations in this case. Madoka has been, without question, one of the most memorable and influential anime series of the past decade, as well as one that many fans, including myself, have some pretty strong feelings about. As much as I would have appreciated some kind of direct continuation of the main storyline, which I believe we’ll get some time… eventually, I honestly think that the staff made a good choice in producing a spinoff series instead. Magia Record takes concepts from the main series – magical girls, witches, and all the danger involved with navigating those things – and moves the story in a new direction by focusing on different characters and introducing a tantalizing new goal for them – potential salvation.
One of the main takeaways from Madoka was that Madoka herself was salvation, or at close as any magical girls would get to it. While her god-like powers never really freed them from their duty, upon their death they were at least freed from the curse of transforming into a witch and becoming enslaved to their own hatred. The Rebellion film poked holes in that system (or, I would say, pointed out the holes that already existed) and allowed Homura her counterpoint. As far as timelines go it’s unknown to me where this series fits and what the nature is of the salvation that the girls are seeking, but perhaps the examination of this mystery at the hands of the characters might help them discover something outside either Madoka’s or Homura’s sphere of influence. At the very least, I bet whatever they find is bound to be interesting.
For fans of the TV series and films, much of this episode will feel extremely familiar. Bits of the original soundtrack hover in the background, and the overall aesthetic (including the visually-creative witch labyrinths) is intact, though it feels slightly more modern and polished. It’s been quite a while since I’ve really paid much attention to a Shaft production (I’m not a fan of the Monogatari series, and their recent film Fireworks was disappointing), but this episode feels a lot more put-together than what they were presenting a decade earlier. For those who are completely new to Madoka, this episode feels very approachable as well; there are no returning characters as of yet (besides Kyubey) and the basic concepts are recounted naturally through the narrative, so there shouldn’t be much if any catching-up required (although the experience is definitely richer having experienced the prior stories).
I was honestly a little nervous that this episode might completely drop the ball, but I was truly and very pleasantly surprised. While I don’t have a great history with smartphone game adaptations, I do have a pretty decent history with this particular franchise; I feel like if anything can convince me that this sort of material can be the basis for a good story, Madoka can.
Pros: Retains the visual inventiveness of the franchise. The story is interesting for established fans and welcoming to newcomers.
Cons: I still kind of wish it were a continuation.
Content Warnings: Magical violence, characters in peril.
Grade: B+
ID: Invaded
Streaming: Funimation
Episodes: TBA
Source: Original
Episode Summary: Sakaido awakens in a fragmented world, and soon his body breaks into fragments along with it. It seems he has control of his limbs in this state even if not directly connected to them, so he begins to (literally and figuratively) join the pieces of this world together. In another region of the fragmented room in which he became conscious, he discovers the body of a young woman with a knife through her chest. Sakaido somehow knows that her name is Kaeru, and then regains the knowledge of his own name and that he is a detective on the trail of a killer.
Outside the world of the Id Well, several other investigators are following Sakaido and what he sees and does. The Well is meant to portray the killer’s mind, and they’re inside it looking for clues. Sakaido meets several other fragmented individuals, most of whom are known victims of the murderer (known as the “Perforator” for his method of killing using a drill through the victim’s skull). Eventually the clues lead the real-world field team to a home near a takoyaki restaurant, where they pick up signals indicating the killer is present. It appears that they arrive too late to rescue the latest victim, but something about the situation seems troubling.
Impressions: This episode (as well as the second one, which I didn’t watch for this review) made a brief appearance a few weeks ago, though I was unfortunately too slow on the uptake to watch it at that time. I feel better about having waited because the first episode ends on such a cliffhanger that I would have been frustrated if I were forced to hold off for weeks on end.
This opening episode is impressive; not only is it visually creative, it also builds and maintains a great amount of tension within a relatively brief amount of time. At the center of the action is an intriguing type of futuristic technology that allows people to enter and examine the minds of criminals; here it’s used to analyze a serial killer’s activities and motives in an attempt to predict their next move. It remains to be seen whether this tech could potentially be abused in some way to monitor members of the general public “Big Brother” style (I’m betting on “yes”). There’s an offhand comment that only those who have killed another person have the ability to enter the Id Well, so it’s assumed that Sakaido’s hands aren’t clean; this is an interesting point that I presume will be explored at some later time. In any case, this episode does a decent job of balancing the required amount of exposition with the narrative points of the story, something that anime often has issues with.
As I mentioned, this episode is a visual treat. The character animation does a great job of keeping up with Sakaido’s fractured body, as well as the fragmented town that surrounds him within the Well. There’s an incredible scene in the second half of the episode during which he joins together various bits and pieces of the environment, running and jumping from fragment to fragment until a major piece of the puzzle is revealed. In a series meant to convey the otherworldliness of a person’s warped mental landscape, having such great visual support really adds a lot to the experience.
Of course, a series that deals in such violent subject matter is bound to have some issues that some viewers might have trouble with, and this one is no exception. While it hasn’t been covered in the actual series yet, blurbs I’ve read about the show mention that part of Sakaido’s motivation is his daughter’s murder. Obviously murder mysteries require there to be a murder, but too often so-called exceptional men are made thus on the backs of dead women, so this is certainly a disappointment (though as ubiquitous as the trope is, it’s hard to discount an entire series on this alone – it’s just a sign of some lack of creativity). The show also seems to indulge in some visual laziness that many pieces of fiction have before it, in that it implies that physical ugliness and evil nature go hand-in-hand. When we see glimpses of the presumed killer, their face is horribly scarred. While there’s enough evidence by the end of episode 1 that there’s a certain bait-and-switch happening in this case, I think it’s something worth looking out for as the series progresses.
This episode turned out to be quite a bit more interesting in practice that I thought it might be on paper, which is one of the cool things about a fresh, new anime season. Being surprised is almost more fun than being correct. Despite my misgivings, I’m definitely interested in watching at least a couple more episodes of this flashy mystery series.
Pros: Creative and striking visual design. Introduces some interesting ethical concepts. Compelling as a thriller.
Cons: Man-pain as motivation. Ugliness = evilness.
Content Warnings: Body horror, still images of the aftermath of violent acts (stabbing, drilling into bodies).
Grade: B
Seton Academy: Welcome to the Pack
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 12 (plus one unaired episode)
Source: Manga
Episode Summary: Animals of all kinds gather at Seton Academy to learn within its environment of “survival of the fittest,” and as one of very few humans at the school, Jin is completely sick of the other animals’ antics. Their noisy, wild behavior gets in the way of his learning, their weird food (uncooked greens and raw meat) doesn’t suit his palate, and now he seems to have attracted the attention of Ranka, a rambunctious wolf without a pack of her own. Ranka is quite the little spitfire, and it isn’t long before Jin is completely sick of her and her constant offers to let him join her “pack.”
It turns out that Ranka is lonely, willing to do almost anything in order to gain some nominal amount of companionship. Though she’s insulted by the fact that Jin would rather spend his time with Hitomi, the other human at the school, Ranka later attempts to defend them both from a bear attack. Ranka’s heroism and determination wins Jin over (somewhat) and he invites her to join their newly-formed cooking club. But this new organization might only attract more weird animals to Jin.
Impressions: Oof. Just… oof. So it may surprise you to know that I’m actually a big fan of kemonomimi (animal-ears and the characters attached to them). Call me a furry fan or whatever, I don’t really care. I just think hybrid characters happen to be really cute. My husband and I have observed something disappointing over the years though; anime series that feature animal-eared or demi-human characters seem to have a higher likelihood of being objectively gross than your typical anime series. Seton Academy doesn’t buck that trend at all.
The first inkling I got that something was off about the series occurred a minute or so into the episode, when I realized that all the male animals looked like actual animals, while all the female animals were simply human beings with animal ears and occasionally tails. Obviously that was a purposeful choice and one with implications that I don’t have time to get into (“men are animals” sums up the idea, which in one breath both insults men and absolves them of responsibility for bad behavior). It’s later on in the episode that the character design decisions really begin to rear their ugly heads, as a couple characters are sexually assaulted (one by the “protagonist,” so that he can show off the peculiarities of a zebra girl’s tail, and another by a group of bears during an attack that’s quite uncomfortably framed like an attempted rape). Animals who look mostly like human girls remove the extra layer of discomfort one might have from leering at a more wild-looking anthro character, I suppose. All the better to ogle you, my dear.
The episode makes an attempt to play up the comedic differences between different animals, exaggerated now that they’re human-sized and thrust together in a confined area. What these gags can’t mask, however, is the show’s incredibly mean-spirited nature. Almost no one in the episode is likeable – Jin is a jerk the majority of the time (why is he attending this school if he hates animals?), Ranka is a violent little turd, Hitomi is a sexy lamp (she literally wears a hairpin shaped like the “female” symbol and has very little to actually contribute other than to be a cute target of Jin’s affections). Many of the female animals with speaking roles are rude and cliquish, and the male animals we catch a glimpse of seem present just to help ogle the girls or act as antagonists. Pieces of fiction like Zootopia or Beastars utilize anthro characters in metaphorical ways to speak about what it means to be human, so it’s clear to me that this concept can be successful. However, this episode squanders its opportunities and disrespects its characters in ways that just make me shudder.
Pros: There’s some mild humor in the fact that one of the teachers is a tyrannosaurus rex.
Cons: The jokes are mean-spirited all around. The characters do their best to be unlikeable. The visual mis-match between male and female animals has gross implications.
Content Warnings: Slapstick violence, sexual assault (groping), brief nudity (underwear).
Grade: D
3 replies on “Winter 2020 First Impressions – Magia Record, ID: Invaded, and Seton Academy: Welcome to the Pack!”
[…] Magia Record – I’m a couple of episodes in on this one, and while I can’t say that my theory about it being a stealth sequel has proven itself correct yet, it’s definitely entertaining as a stand-alone story within the Madoka universe. It at least captures the visuals and atmosphere of the original Madoka series well. […]
Interesting to read your thoughts on “Seton Academy: Welcome to the Pack.”
I loved Kemono Friends (season 1). I like the fanciful feel I get from that genre.
But 10 minutes into Seton Academy, I had to bail. I couldn’t watch any more. Like you, my first worry was the fully animal males. My second WTF was how Ranka acted.
So, thanks for sticking it out until the end. You’ve made me feel a lot better about my decision! I won’t be haunted by the idea that if I’d just waited, it would get better.
Thanks for the comment! I usually try to make it all the way through the episodes I watch so I can get a fuller picture of the content. While I’ve gotten accused of being overly-sensitive quite a bit over the years, I know people who are more sensitive than I am to certain types of content, so I want to make sure I can speak to all of it and allow them to make their own best decisions.
That said, it’s not always fun!