Well, I’m continuing to plug away at premieres, although I’m finding it difficult to keep from watching the second episodes of series that I’ve liked (news flash: as of finishing this post, I’ve watched some of those episodes! I blame it on a friend visiting who hadn’t yet seen the first episode of Eizouken). While some people are able to keep things better balanced for themselves, I’ve found that it’s too easy for me to get distracted from the task at hand if I start watching ahead. It’s almost as if I consider finding out more of the story to be a reward, and one that I only deserve to indulge in if I’ve finished my “obligations.” I suppose that might be a little bit unhealthy, come to think of it, since it turns writing first impressions into a chore after which just watching anime for fun becomes the reward. Unfortunately, that’s the set-up that seems to work for me a lot of the time, so I suppose I’m locked-in for the near future.
Hatena Illusion
Streaming: Funimation
Episodes: TBA
Source: Light Novel
Episode Summary: Kana, who occasionally goes by “Hatena,” an alternate reading of her name, is looking forward to her friend Makoto’s visit. And Makoto is looking forward to becoming an apprentice to and learning magic from Hatena’s father, a master magician. Things start to go sour once Makoto arrives at Hatena’s family mansion; Hatena was always thoroughly convinced that Makoto was just a tomboyish girl, when in reality he’s always been a boy – and Hatena does not want to live under the same roof as a boy.
Hatena’s maid Ema works her manipulations and finds a way for Makoto to stay on as a butler-in-training, but Hatena is definitely not happy about the arrangement. However, Makoto seems to be growing on Hatena’s notoriously anti-social little sister Yumemi, and Ema believes that Makoto and Hatena will someday get over their differences and grow to fall in love (somehow). When Makoto performs some wand magic, Yumemi discovers that their mother once repaired the wand, making it one of her precious artifacts. With that said, Hatena vows to get it back.
Impressions: I find it interesting that there have been two shows this season in which a major first-episode event is one character discovering that another is not the sex that they expected. In the case of Asteroid in Love, that fact is merely a minor detour on the road toward a beautiful friendship (and possibly more). In this case, however, the end result is somewhat more negative. It’s difficult to know at this point exactly what Hatena’s deal is – isn’t a friend still a friend no matter what genitals they possess (or what sort of gender traits they display)? The fact that Makoto’s situation is such a major point of contention, rather than simply a surprise, is something I find very grating about this episode. I suppose there might be some background to Hatena’s feelings about it, but I can’t imagine that whatever explanation the series might come up with might offset my irritation with it.
Besides that, this episode reads very similarly to the early episodes of Hayate the Combat Butler, a comedy series in which a poor kid meets a rich girl and becomes a butler-in-training at her mansion. He also defends her from all sorts of fiends and thugs, and somehow manages to inadvertently develop a harem in orbit around himself. I’d recommend Hayate simply because it’s really, really funny; it parodies a lot of other anime and manga series from the time, and has some great comedy timing. Unfortunately, despite some of the obvious differences, magic and master thieves being a major element in the story, this episode feels like a bit of a knock-off with less-developed comedic chops. As a consequence of a few off-color gags (including Ema the maid who seems both overly-invested in the love-life of her master, as well as too quick to describe Makoto in terms reserved for BL manga), this episode just feels kind of awkward rather than clever.
There seems to be some inkling of a non-comedic plot hinted at a few times throughout the episode; the one thing that’s clear is that Hatena’s mother is missing, dead, or otherwise out of the picture at the moment, although there are several artifacts around that might be related to her in some way. Because Hatena undergoes a magical transformation at the end of the episode I sort-of assume she might use those powers to find her mother, and that element of the story might be worthwhile (especially if she and Makoto work together and the bickering is toned-down). As it stands, though, this episode feels like it takes too long to find its footing and there’s not really a solid “hook” to keep me interested.
Pros: I like that this seems to be a story about a girl and her mother (just buried underneath a lot of nonsense).
Cons: The comedy is awkward. There’s a weird focus on Makoto’s gender.
Content Warnings: Mild nudity (non-detailed). Hangups about sex/gender.
Grade: C-
Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out my Defense.
Streaming: Funimation
Episodes: 12
Source: Light Novel
Episode Summary: Kaede isn’t really into video games, but when her friend Risa begs her to join her in the newest VR game Kaede breaks down and buys it. While Risa’s busy studying for her exams, Kaede decides to log in and set up her character. She applies all of her initial allotment of skill points to her defense stat since she’s afraid of getting hurt. Of course, that means she can’t move quickly and has zero attack power, but at least she’s having a good time watching baddies bounce right off of her.
Kaede slowly gains levels by being able to hold out longer than the creatures who attack her, and soon she’s developing more obscure abilities and adding to her collection of functional skills. She continues to focus on her defense stats exclusively, and eventually gains enough confidence to attempt a dangerous dungeon trek on her own. After defeating a hydra, gaining immunity to poison, and winning a unique set of armor, she decides to log out. But what Kaede doesn’t realize is that she and her extremely unorthodox gaming methods have become the talk of the virtual town.
Impressions: While I know this isn’t the case for everyone, one of my favorite things about old-school RPG’s was spending time grinding for levels. While I wouldn’t tolerate it as a requirement in a modern-style game (mostly because I don’t have the time in my day to deal with it), when it comes to the older Final Fantasy games I loved as a kid, nothing beats the satisfaction of front-loading the level grind, then descending on adversaries like an untouchable god without worrying about getting one-hit KO’d into oblivion. Maybe that’s just me. In any case, the danger inherent in starting a new game is almost enough to make me not want to play it in the first place, which is why I can certainly identify with Kaede’s instinct to bulk up her defense as a measure against the endless frustration of being constantly killed. That’s really all there is to this episode – Kaede gains levels, puts all her status points into defense, gains new skills from enemies harmlessly pummeling her, repeat for comedic effect for 22 minutes. It really shouldn’t be as funny as it is.
The charm of this episode comes from the fact that, unlike so many anime protagonists in similar situations, Kaede doesn’t have the meta-knowledge it takes to be a cynical asshole about her circumstances. It’s been trendy for main characters to loudly profess their self-awareness of their gaming-related situations for so long that it’s almost become an expectation. In this case, Kaede doesn’t know much about video games and starts off on her own extremely uninformed path to success. Having known people who were so adept at min-maxing their D&D characters that it was no longer fun to play with them, being able to watch a character with almost no applicable knowledge game the system so thoroughly is a sweeter victory to me than perhaps some other viewers may understand.
I found this episode charming, colorful, and funny, but I worry that its major gag will get old quickly. Even though I continued to root for Kaede’s victory, every time she had occasion to add more points to he stat pools, I felt myself wishing that she’d maybe put 1 or 2 points into something other than her vitality stat. I imagine that 12 episodes worth of this story will see her confront some kind of challenging situation during which her defense-focused style proves less-than-optimal, and I would love to stick around to see what her new friends think of the spoils from her recent quest, but I’m not sure if I’m compelled enough to do so.
Pros: Colorful and cute. Decent comedic timing. I like the protagonist’s unique methods of success.
Cons: Feels like it could be a one-joke series.
Content Warnings: Mild cartoon violence.
Grade: B-
Infinite Dendrogram
Streaming: Funimation
Episodes: 13
Source: Light Novel
Episode Summary: Finally, a couple years after its release, Reiji finally saves up enough money to enter the world of “Infinite Dendrogram,” a VR MMO that offers an extremely realistic and immersive experience. He designs his avatar, “Ray Starling” (a play on his own name), and goes into town to meet up with his older brother, an avid player. Shu Starling has taken on a very unorthodox form in this world, wearing a costume that gives him the appearance of a bear mascot. He’s a big hit with the local kids, at least.
As Ray wanders the town, a beautiful young woman named Liliana crashes into him and sends his body flying into the street. After she heals him, Ray learns that she’s searching for her sister who may have wandered into a dangerous area alone in search of a certain fruit. Ray discovers from Shu that Liliana, one of the high-level palace guardsmen, is famous among both players and “tians” (NPCs) alike, and also that ignoring the quest and allowing it to expire could mean the permanent deaths of the characters involved. Once they arrive at the quest area, Ray gets a full taste of the danger he’s in; the place has been taken over by giant insects and as a level 0 noob he’s entirely out-classed. After expiring his minimal resources, he recalls that he possesses an “Embryo,” a servant which all players have and which provides them with unique abilities. He calls upon the mysterious being with all his might, and this instantly turns the tables; Nemesis, his servant, becomes a terrifying and powerful sword that allows Ray to slay the insects. With Liliana and her sister saved, all Ray has to do now is wrestle with Nemesis’ haughty personality.
Impressions: It’s somewhat by chance that I managed to watch two different anime series with VR games as their settings back-to-back; it was through my own luck that they happened to be different enough in substance as to be easy to write about one after the other. Between this and BOFURI, Infinite Dendrogram is definitely the more traditional of the two, following a protagonist new to a game and the mostly-serious ways in which he starts to learn and navigate its specific intricacies. The first episode reminded me a lot of Re:Zero (which I might talk about at some point considering that its re-broadcast “director’s cut” is currently airing) in that the protagonist immediately gets involved in things sharply above his pay grade through a chance meeting with a beautiful young woman, but that’s a common enough starting point for both isekai and “trapped in a video game” stories that the similarities between the two likely aren’t that deep.
There’s always a big question with stories that involve currently popular tropes – what distinguishes them within a vast sea of pretenders? Why should I choose this particular anime over the several other anime that are extremely similar? That’s where I feel like this intro episode, which should present its story’s high points in a compelling way, starts to falter. It’s decently entertaining and its construction reminded me of my short stints playing a couple of MMO games in the early 2000’s. But aside from that slight burst of nostalgia I didn’t find anything here particularly unique or memorable. The protagonist is sort of an “every-man” without any strong personality traits. His damsels-in-distress are rote embodiments of similarly-palatable female character archetypes. There isn’t a strong design sense to the evil monsters. There isn’t a certain overriding tone (compare that to BOFURI’s silly sense of humor). It’s a very tough situation for me as a writer; the show feels competent and it doesn’t really do anything wrong, but it also doesn’t take any risks, eventually to its detriment.
Language also definitely plays a part in my personal reaction; I found some of the terminology within the game world to be a little inadvertently cringe-y. Just speaking as someone who’s been in the weeds of fertility treatment for a while, using “embryo implantation” to refer to a special power in a video game left me, to use a phrase frequented by our protagonist, with a bad taste in my mouth. I’m luckily not really as sensitive as some in my same situation, but it seemed like an incredibly specific kind of cluelessness to utilize terms that are so closely related with a very tough situation for a lot of people to refer to an in-game master-servant relationship. Along those lines, I’m pretty exhausted by master-servant relationships in anime, especially when they aren’t specifically in reference to people hired to cook, clean, and keep house in some rich person’s mansion. It’s incongruous to me why a character like Nemesis with immense magical power would be beholden to some milquetoast doofus. The internal answer is, obviously, that she doesn’t actually exist without the will of the hero to conjure her into being. But internal explanations don’t erase external problems. Of course, this is an issue much bigger than this single anime series.
Setting those things aside, my overriding feeling toward this episode is that it’s competent and unoffensive in most respects. It just lacks some of the pep and creativity I’ve seen in some similar anime in recent memory, so it’s difficult to get very excited about it. When the game around which the series is based relies on the appeal of its “infinite possibilities,” it’s disappointing that the episode itself isn’t able to translate that feeling into a more compelling introductory episode.
Pros: Competently-made and inoffensive. Decent quest-based first episode plot.
Cons: It’s lost in a sea of similar anime series. Doesn’t have a strong tone or voice. Some weird language usage.
Content Warnings: Moderate fantasy-style physical violence. References to character perma-death.
Grade: C