Now that all the available first-run anime has been taken care of, I thought I might do a compilation post of all the sequels and miscellaneous short anime available this season (at least those which can be had legally at the time of this writing). Some of these are sequels I’ve been anticipating quite a bit, and some of them are sequels of series that I’m not familiar with – there isn’t anything that’s a short that’s not also a sequel, and it appears that there wasn’t really any “stuff” (what I call anime made for kids that won’t hold much interest for most adult viewers) to speak of this time. I know my providing commentary on something I have little context for will be controversial to some readers, but I plan to approach it from the angle of whether I would want to go back and watch the previous episodes or not. Apologies to anyone who feels that I’m misrepresenting any series here; I imagine I’m not the only person in history who’s approached longer-running anime this way, though.
It goes without saying, but there are likely spoilers for every series written about here; if you’re not caught up on your favorites, you’re likely better off waiting until you have time to get up to speed. Also, I skipped Overlord III because it seemed more like a split-cour continuation rather than a true sequel… and I watched about three minutes of it and had no idea what was going on!
EpisodeSummary: Muhyo, a diminutive child-like individual, and Roji, his put-upon assistant, work in supernatural law. Muhyo is a famous executor who punishes spirits for encroaching on the lives of human beings, his looks and foul temperament belying a savvy expertise. Roji is an apprentice hoping to learn the trade from the very best. One afternoon a young student named Rie approaches the professionals to seek help. There’s a ghost haunting one of the platforms at the local train station, and Rie believes herself to be responsible for its existence. She was very close with her friend Taeko since they were both outsiders at school. When Rie joined the volleyball team she began to disconnect from Taeko, and their last meeting ended when Taeko fell backwards onto the tracks and was killed. Now her ghost is unable to let go of the human world and has been grabbing other passengers by the ankles, searching for Rie. Muhyo agrees to take the case. After nightfall, the three travel to the train platform and wait out the ghost, which doesn’t take very long. As suspected, the creature is an amalgamation of many ghostly grudges with Taeko’s death being the catalyzing factor that’s drawn them together. Muhyo calls upon Hades himself to capture the monster and draw it to Hell. It’s only Rie’s insistence on holding Taeko’s hand that allows Taeko passage into a kinder afterlife. With Taeko now at peace, Rie can live her life normally again.
I’ve been writing on and off about anime for over ten years at this point and have been enjoying a relatively fruitful run the last couple of months. It’s taken a long time for me to get back to this productivity level because I’ve been through some personal ups and downs and some major changes over that time period. I know first-hand how difficult it is to focus on side projects like this when everything else in one’s life feels out of control. Getting back into writing regularly just feels right to me, though; it’s a way for me to express my thoughts and feelings about something I love in a way that occasionally reaches other people (it’s definitely preferable to sitting at home and talking about anime to no one in particular).
There are a lot of guides out there that cover the ways in which one can be a successful blogger and make a side career (or actual career!) from their writing (I recommend starting with The Otaku Journalist). Because of the uncertainty inherent to that prospect I’ve never considered that to be an option for me since I appreciate stability and consistency over all things. However, I have intuitively happened-upon a few things over the years that have helped me out as a blogging hobbyist and I thought I might pass them along to any readers who are interested in following a similar path. These are in no particular order, and many of the items have as much to do with general online interaction as they do with blogging specifically (and likely stem from a specific incident or interaction I’ve had).
In an antique shop in Kyoto’s Teramachi Sanjō shopping district, high school girl Aoi Mashiro unexpectedly runs into Kiyotaka Yagashira, the son of the shop’s owner, and ends up working part-time at the shop. Kiyotaka is called the “Holmes at Teramachi Sanjō,” and he and Aoi solve odd cases brought to them by various clients. – ANN
Episode 1 Summary: Aoi Mashiro is in need of an antique appraisal, and the antique shop she finds is staffed by one of the best in the business, though she doesn’t realize it initially. Kiyotaka Yagashira is known as a bit of a Sherlock Holmes (“Holmes” is a pun on the characters that make up his name) who has an intuitive knack for sniffing out counterfeit items, uncovering the histories of genuine ones, and knowing just what his clients are looking for. He deduces soon enough that the art scrolls Aoi is trying to sell don’t really belong to her, but that she seems like a good person and her situation must be desperate for her to be taking such extreme measures. Though he won’t buy the scrolls he does offer to appraise them, and they turn out to be quite valuable. One of them even has a history that causes Aoi to think twice about spending her money the way she intends. “Holmes” offers instead to give her a job so she can earn the money she needs, though by that point she may no longer feel it necessary to spend it.
Yuuto Suoh gets more than he bargained for when he joins his childhood friend Mitsuki Shimoya in testing out an urban legend. When he uses his phone to take a picture of himself with the local shrine’s divine mirror, he is whisked off into another world – one heavily steeped in the lore of the old Norse myths. Using his knowledge gained from school and from his solar-powered smartphone, he has the chance to bring the Wolf Clan, the same people who cared for him, to prominence, all while earning the adoration of a group of magic-wielding warrior maidens known as the Einherjar. – ANN
Episode 1 Summary: It’s been two years since Yuuto was accidentally whisked away to an unknown bronze age society, but in that time he’s managed to become the leader and patriarch of a powerful clan. His goal isn’t exactly to gain control of the entire land, though that might be the unintended consequence; he wants to bring about peace to its various warring groups so that he can then concentrate on finding a way back to his native time and place. Luckily Yuuto still has the use of his smartphone, as it gives him access to military tactics and other knowledge he’s able to utilize to gain an advantage over almost any adversary. His most recent victory is over the Horn Clan, and the leader chooses to become his “sister,” a term for a subservient position beneath the patriarch. Soon after their alliance is solidified, another group makes moves to attack the Horn Clan’s homeland. Though the ink is barely dry on their alliance, Yuuto chooses to honor it by sending his armies to aid his new subjects.
Before I dive too deeply into anything, below you can find links to past weeks’ discussions of Kino’s Journey. As always, feel free to leave a comment on the posts or just enjoy them (hopefully!) as part of your own experience with the series.
It’s late evening on a steamy Summer night in the upper Midwest, but as usual I’m safely inside and doing what I love best – sharing my thoughts about great anime. I spent the week thinking about how to close off the voyage we’ve taken over the past several weeks with Kino’s Journey, and realized that I didn’t have a good handle on how I wanted to sum-up the series. To inspire myself, I went looking for other reviews of the show at some of my favorite anime websites, which was probably not the best idea; there are times when I really like an anime series, only to realize that my feelings towards it are grossly out of step with the general consensus. A lot of the time this doesn’t bother me, but there are other times where the general reaction is so negative that my lack of confidence as a writer and a reviewer leads me to believe that my passion is somehow incorrect.
A few years ago I had a similar experience. I was writing weekly reviews of a series called The Perfect Insider, a series that I’ve reaffirmed my love for over multiple subsequent viewings but which I was obviously watching for the first time at that point. What I liked about the series was its philosophical handling of human nature through three characters who represented different points on a spectrum. I also thought its handling of a character whose genius far outweighed her social and emotional intelligence was curiously good; to assume someone with adult-like intelligence as an adult with life experience is a mistake and a crime, and I believe the consequences of that were put on full display in the series in a way that I’d describe as painful, poignant, and beautiful. Anyway, I spent eleven weeks ignoring other reviews and summaries to maintain my own focus, and when I was done writing I rushed out to read these other reviews only to discover that the show had very little love elsewhere on the internet. This was (and is still) immature on my part, but when I read these reviews I didn’t see a difference in opinion; what I saw was a criticism of myself through others’ revilement of a thing I really liked. I identified with what the series was saying and felt like other people didn’t understand it the way that I did, and therefore didn’t care to understand the person that I was (even though the realist in me knows that none of them know me personally or care).
Looking at it now I can see the effects of this sort of personal identification with fictional universes has manifested in truly toxic behavior on the part of large groups of people (*cough*TheLastJedi*cough*). While I wholeheartedly believe that my deeply personal identification with a tale of mental illness and sexual abuse is different in nature from people being angry that Luke Skywalker made bad life choices and women and people of color get to be heroes now, I do feel that geek fandom in general fosters an environment where passions are personal and disagreement equals an attack. My point is really that it’s difficult to disengage when people whose opinions you read and respect don’t share your same feelings.
Most opinions about new Kino I can understand because the original was so incredibly beloved, especially with fans around my same age and fandom experience level. While I didn’t have the language back then to speak more competently about gender as I do now (and I’m still always trying to improve!), what I remember thinking about Kino as a character was that they were a girl for whom gender never seemed to define them, if that makes sense. As someone for whom gender has always been an obvious defining trait (and who spent years and years downplaying and vilifying femininity before getting a clue), I was inspired by Kino’s non-adherence to gender norms. I did a panel at CONvergence many years ago (waaaay back in 2012, wow!) about heroines in anime, and I listed Kino as my favorite for similar reasons. What I learned through reading about the show recently was that 2003 Kino was important to a lot of gender non-conforming and transgender folks, and both Kino’s portrayal in the 2017 series, as well as some of Crunchyroll’s sloppier translation choices in regards to the character, came across as harmful. I can’t really argue against that; while my experience with the show was different, my life experiences are also different.
“Colosseum” was one of the stories treated differently in either version of the anime.
I can also respect criticism of the stories that this version chose to adapt (I hear they were voted-on by fans, a method which will never be without its problems), or technical things like animation and direction. Those tend not to be my top concerns most of the time, but for fans who are interested in the craft of animation I imagine they’re very “front-and-center.” What I found saddening, though, were the amount of comments and reviews I came across that amounted to “this interpretation of the story is not like the previous interpretation, which I liked a lot, so this one is therefore inferior in every way.” Obviously the commentary wasn’t so lacking in nuance, but I did see a trend in how many folks compared this new series to the original one as a major angle of critique. I think we’re all sort of exhausted by the number of sequels, prequels, and re-boots being produced nowadays, but I can think of at least some examples where they’ve been used to make improvements or correct blatant wrongdoings of their predecessors, so they at least have some value whether we ourselves believe them to be necessary or not. They also don’t have to upend and replace our nostalgic memories of the originals (though they should at least make us question whether those originals were as worthy of praise as we may have thought at the time). I feel like this new version of Kino might become a formative experience for some newer fans and that the older version may not hold the same appeal to them for any number of reasons, so I hope that they aren’t discouraged.
I don’t want to spend my remaining time feeling sad about what other people thought about the series, though. What I’d rather do is talk about what I enjoyed because, in the end, those are the feelings that I’m going to take with me. Aside from the vibrancy of the colors and the depictions of nature throughout the show, which I thought were beautiful to look at, I think what I’ll take away from the experience of watching this series a second time is how deeply it allowed me to think about the social situations of the people living in the various countries Kino encounters. This is probably partly a result of the “deep-dive” format of Anime Book Club, but I feel like even weaker episodes (like episode 12, which I think we can agree was the lightest and silliest of the bunch) still provided some food for thought. Often times I found myself relating aspects of the episodes to current events, which isn’t always something I want out of my anime when I’m using it to escape the harsh realities of the 24 hour news cycle. But sometimes seeing an issue portrayed fictionally helps me to solidify my real-life opinions on it, and that’s something I find valuable.
Ultimately, I hope that no one found their time to be wasted even if the series didn’t resonate with them. And even if it was a waste of time, well, there’s tons more anime out there that you might like more, so head out on your own journey of discovery and see what you can find!
I spent a lot of time thinking about what series I wanted to focus on next. I considered going back to the previous poll and picking something else that got a lot of votes, but instead I’m going to be selfish and pick a favorite of mine that I’ve been wanting to re-watch for quite a while.
Mononoke is an anime anthology series that follows a mysterious Medicine Seller, an individual who identifies mononoke (vengeful spirits) and exorcises them. In order to do so, he must learn the mononoke’s form, the truth of its existence, and the fundamental regret which helped it come into being. Though the series skews towards the horror and supernatural genres, all of the stories have some basis in human emotional reality. What I’ve always liked about the series is that I feel that it speaks to many of my own truths as a woman.
The anime series is based on a three-episode story called Bakeneko, which was a part of another anthology series called Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales. That series was released on DVD here many years ago. I own a copy but I believe it to be exceedingly difficult to find since it’s long out of print. I’d like to start with Bakeneko the first week; for those who aren’t comfortable obtaining the show through “questionable means,” perhaps I can work out a stream. I will say that it’s relatively easy to find floating around if you google it.
Fukagawa ward of old Edo (present-day Tokyo) is prone to fire and flooding, so residents rent everyday items like pots, futons, and clothing from shops instead of purchasing them, so as not to impede them when they flee. Okō and Seiji, an older sister and younger brother, run one such rental shop called Izumoya. However, mixed in with their inventory are tsukumogami, objects that have turned into spirits after a hundred years of existence. The siblings sometimes lend these sentient items to customers. Both Okō and Seiji can see and talk to these spirits, and other tsukumogami often come to the store after hearing of the famed siblings. – ANN
Episode 1 Summary: Siblings Okou and Seiji manage a rental shop in Edo called Izumonya. While their bread and butter is based around renting everyday objects to customers, they also hold onto an inventory of tsukumogami, well-loved items that have gone on to develop souls. Though they try to keep a lid on this strange specialty, word tends to get around; they’re called upon by a man about to marry into a wealthy family who’s lost a particular family heirloom. The mouse netsuke (charm) that’s gone missing is said to have sprouted legs and run away, and while the siblings are coy about the possibility of it being a tsukumogami (or even acknowledging that tsukumogami are real), they soon employ their own tsukumogami to gather information about the situation. What are eventually discovered are some half-truths about the impending marriage, as well as some fuller truths about the groom’s relationship with his older brother. There might also be some complicated feelings between Seiji and Okou, who aren’t related by blood.
“Starlight” is the song and dance revue troupe loved throughout the world. Karen and Hikari make a promise with each other when they’re young that one day they’ll stand on that stage together. Time passes, and now the girls are 16 years old. Karen is very enthusiastic about the lessons she takes every day, holding her promise close to her heart. Hikari has transferred schools and is now away from Karen. But the cogs of fate turn, and the two are destined to meet again. The girls and other “Stage Girls” will compete in a mysterious audition process to gain acceptance into the revue. – ANN
Episode 1 Summary: Karen Aijo, despite being a goofball and a little bit of a sleepyhead, is one of the elite students at Seisho Music Academy, a training ground for musical actresses and theater professionals. She made a promise with her friend Hikari when they were children that they’d each become actresses, and Karen has been living that promise to the best of her abilities. It’s been years since Karen has seen Hikari, but as fate would have it Hikari has recently transferred to Seisho after having lived several years overseas. Karen is overjoyed, but Hikari seems distant. When Karen follows Hikari back to school one evening, she discovers a secret hidden below the halls of Seisho. There, Hikari is involved in what appears to be the battle of her life with another of the students as part of an audition for the role of top actress in the Starlight musical. Karen, being who she is, can’t help but don a costume herself and intervene.
Kogarashi, a high school boy cursed with misfortune to see ghosts since birth, finds a haunted inn offering rent-free room to anyone able to exorcise a ghost. When the ghost turns out to be an innocent young girl, Kogarashi decides to help her move on rather than purify her. While he works on that, Kogarashi is pulled into the paranormal hijinks of the other residents of the inn and even his new school mates. – ANN
Episode 1 Summary: After living in poverty and without a home for much of his recent life, Kogarashi has finally found an affordable place to hang his hat. After being abandoned by his relatives he spent some time apprenticing with a medium, perfecting his exorcism punch attack to get rid of ghosts and spirits. Now he’s found an inn offering incredibly cheap accommodations, though it’s due to being haunted. With Kogarashi’s skills, he figures it won’t be haunted much longer and he can then live his days there cheaply and comfortably. It isn’t long after his arrival that he encounters the ghost, but he realizes quickly that a psychic punch isn’t going to do the trick this time – the ghost isn’t some terrifying spirit, but a sexy girl his same age named Yuuna. Kogarashi muddles over this conundrum, but his purpose becomes clear when a traveling monk attempts to forcibly send Yuuna to the afterlife. Kogarashi rescues Yuuna and vows to help her ascend to Heaven on her own terms.
Tokyo in 2030. In a suburban area, suddenly a high-frequency resonant sound is heard, and at the same time a red mist shrouds the area. Anyone who hears the sound, be it human or animal, loses consciousness. The government estimates that it might be an unidentified virus, and fearful of an epidemic, blockades Tokyo and moves its base to Osaka. However, six days after the incident, those who lost consciousness from the sound awaken for no apparent reason. Those blockaded in Tokyo slowly start to get the city functioning again, but after that day strange incidents start to occur at the blockade border. Those who have awakened a hidden blood power arise, are drawn to one another, and must face a cruel fate. – ANN
Episode 1 Summary: Chihiro is a typical college student who lives with his adoptive family at their dojo. Though he’s a good swordsman, he has an aversion towards aiming for a killing blow, something his instructor (and adoptive father) warns him about repeatedly. Kotetsu, the instructor’s son as well as Chihiro’s friend and adoptive brother, dreams that the two of them will take over the dojo together someday. While they’re both on their way to university, a terrible noise rings out across the city. People begin to collapse in the street as the noise permeates the atmosphere.
Chihiro awakens in a hospital bed, where the doctor (and his moody nurse), inform him that he’s been comatose for the better part of five months. He’s in fact the last of the people affected by the incident to wake up. While he was asleep Chihiro dreamed of a void space filled with spinning architecture and a mysterious young woman with a parasol, but when the doctor asks him about his dream, he finds the images have begun to fade. Once Kotetsu retrieves him from the hospital, Chihiro begins to learn about the things that happened while he was asleep and how Tokyo is now isolated from the rest of the country by a mysterious red fog. When the two return to the dojo, they once again hear a terrible sound ring out – and discover a terrifying monster that has absorbed their father!
