Tag: Comedy

Categories
Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Sanrio Boys

Kōta Hasegawa is a high school boy who loves the yellow Pom Pom Purin dog. By mere coincidence, he ends up attending the same school as Yū Mizuno, a boy who likes the bunny My Melody. Yū tells Kōta that there’s nothing to be ashamed of for liking Sanrio’s cute characters. Together, Kōta, Yū, Shunsuke Yoshino, Ryō Nishimiya, and Seiichiro Minamoto learn to accept their love of the characters instead of feeling embarrassed. – ANN

Copyright 2018 Sanrio/Pierrot

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Source: Original

Episodes: 12

Review: This review may contain spoilers for the series.

When was the first time you felt ashamed for liking something? When I was in elementary school, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was huge. I loved the cartoon series and the video games more than almost anything else. I really wanted to own some of the toys, but as a fourth-grader without a steady source of income, it was up to me to try to get my parents to buy them for me. Looking back as an adult, I can logically say that there’s nothing wrong with a girl wanting to own action figures, but all the toy commercials had boys in them and even at my young age I was afraid of being judged or laughed-at for wanting to play with toys made for boys. The happy ending to my story was that my mother never once judged me or made fun of me for my preference, and I went on to build a large collection of action figures, Star Trek figures, and other miscellaneous fandom toys that eventually led to the overgrown collection of anime figurines I have today.

That, of course, was just my experience, but not everyone has the luxury of crossing society’s arbitrary gender boundaries with their likes and dislikes, especially boys and men who enjoy things typically aimed at girls and women (because believe it or not being a girl or woman is valued as lesser by our society, even by people who might not necessarily think so consciously). I know my husband has gotten some flak for his enjoyment of My Little Pony and preference for pinks and purples, and in an even broader sense, there are people who are harassed and harmed because their gender expression doesn’t fit into a certain narrow binary. Sanrio Boys isn’t a heavy hitter when it comes to discussing the latter; in fact, the series doesn’t really touch on gender itself very deeply. But it does spend a lot of time looking at the former – boys who express themselves through their enjoyment of characters and products typically aimed at women.

Kouta was picked on for his love of Pom Pom Purin.

Each of the five main characters in this series exemplifies the different ways that people experience liking things outside the mainstream. Kota, the everyman protagonist, was picked on by his peers as a child because he carried around a Pom Pom Purin stuffed animal. Yu loves My Melody without shame, but his younger sister finds his hobby disgusting. Ryou is the youngest sibling in a family of older sisters, and fears being pigeonholed into the role of an effeminate younger brother. There’s nothing particularly complicated about any of the guys’ circumstances, but the simple injustices of their situations are laid bare for the audience in a way that I find very relateable. I like to think that most viewers would tend to realize how hurtful bullying someone for their hobbies is (and I imagine there are a lot of anime fans out there who have gotten picked on for being into “weird cartoons”), but the straightforward, sometimes ham-handed way the series insists upon the fact that young men can and do like cutesy characters and merchandise is something some fans may not have thought much about, even considering their own circumstances.

Beyond its central message, the show is pretty light on narrative and hits a lot of trope-y beats that would be at home in any high-school-based anime series. There’s a strong emphasis on friendship and relationship-building between the boys, a sprinkling of dramatic interpersonal conflict, a whole boatload of earnestness (and some dramatic overwork-to-the-point-of-self-destruction) from our main-man Kota, and a school culture festival to tie the entire thing up with a sparkly bow at the end. It also spends some time paying attention to its assumed viewer base (young women, the same individuals who tend to be major consumers of Sanrio products) by not only featuring cute guys being cute together on a regular basis, but also getting those same characters into situations where they hang out together buying merchandise or take on princely personas for the sake of a school theater production. There’s certainly nothing wrong with this; as far as fanservice goes it’s easily some of the more innocuous I’ve seen lately. It does distract a bit from what I see as an atypically good toy commercial disguised as an average anime series.

It’s a fun day at Sanrio Puroland.

The commercialized bits of the series are admittedly pretty entertaining and mostly forgivable. The boys go shopping for Sanrio toys and merchandise on a regular basis (naturally) and those bits made me long for the days when there was still a Sanrio store at the Mall of America (I’m probably showing my age by saying that). They also make a big mid-series trip to Sanrio Puroland, the Sanrio theme park in Tokyo with costumed characters and themed areas and performances. There’s a particularly ridiculous montage in the episode where the boys wander through all the areas and big attractions, dressing up in costumes and interacting with their favorite characters. It’s pure fanservice in more ways than one, but it’s indulgent rather than trashy – I’ll give it a pass (and be jealous that I’m not in their place). Having seen many more shameless toy commercials disguised as anime in my time, the fact that this series blends the fluff with some fairly substantial character moments is pretty good by me.

Ultimately whether viewers are likely to glean anything from Sanrio Boys’ lessons in subverting gender essentialism will be based on how much they can also tolerate being advertised to and whether they enjoy cute-guy pandering. I happen to be a Sanrio fan who likes shows starring cute guys, but it’s obviously not everyone’s specific cup of tea. I’d argue, though, that those who go in with an open mind will likely come away with something worth more than the price of admission (and some stickers and key chains).

Pros: The show is strongly in favor of people enjoying what they enjoy, gender roles be damned. If you like Sanrio, that’s an added bonus.

Cons: The second half of the series is especially filled with common tropes that stray away from some of the positive messaging in the first half.

Grade: B-

Categories
Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Laid-Back Camp (Yuru Camp)

Rin enjoys camping by the lakeshore, Mt. Fuji in view. Nadeshiko rides her bike to see Mt. Fuji, too. As the two eat cup noodles together, they behold the beautiful scenery around them. – ANN

Copyright 2018 – C-Station

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Source: Manga

Episodes: 12

Review: This review may contain mild spoilers for the series.

If you’re like me, you’ve long since accepted the fact that “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things” is a perfectly legitimate anime genre. I’ve even seen it abbreviated “CGDCT,” so it’s time to acknowledge that this slice-of-life sub-set is now firmly its own thing and has been for years. As with other genres, it comes with its share of identifiable tropes; these series sometimes have a tendency towards Seinfeldian “nothing actually happens” stories, and many give off an impression of being frothy and insubstantial (if not downright insulting to the intelligence of the audience). This is probably true for a portion of them, but what I find appealing about these shows is the emphasis on friendship and relationship-building between girls, which is often in short supply elsewhere. This isn’t to say that the genre isn’t without its problems, voyeuristic focus on girls’ interactions for the benefit of straight male otaku being the big one, but I think the best of these series do a good job of making it so I can push these concerns to the side for a half hour and appreciate what’s there to enjoy.

Rin sets up her campsite along the lake.

Laid-Back Camp is one of the better examples of this sort of entertainment due to its emphasis on developing the friendship between two characters who are very different from one-another. The story begins as Rin arrives at her campsite alone, and raises her tent in view of the lovely autumn lakeside environment. Her solo camping serenity is interrupted by Nadeshiko, a bubbly girl Rin’s age who accidentally oversleeps on a nearby bench until after sunset. When Rin shows Nadeshiko some hospitality and compassion, Nadeshiko immediately becomes enamored with the camping life. Back at school, she joins an outdoors club and she and the other members start to enjoy group camping. Though Rin goes to their school as well, she prefers not to join the group; while she maintains a friendship with Nadeshiko and occasionally camps with her, she prefers to enjoy the outdoors alone, on her own terms.

Rin and Nadeshiko do a little duo-camping.

What I appreciate about this set up is that it eschews the expected story arc that would likely focus on Rin opening up, becoming friends with the other girls, and learning to favor group dynamics instead of honoring her inherent loner-ism – i.e. fundamentally changing herself to please others. Instead, the series seems much more focused on exploring the positive aspects of both Nadeshiko’s group-oriented style and Rin’s solo-camp adventures while vilifying neither of them or obligating them to alter their personalities for the sake of storytelling. Rin and Nadeshiko fall into a comfortable rhythm of texting one-another photos of their excursions while the series follows them (mostly) individually from place-to-place. This gives off the message that there isn’t just one “right way” to enjoy camping or, by extension, many of life’s other wonderful hobbies. Just like there isn’t just one way to enjoy watching anime (and no one is going to convince me to change my stubborn fandom ways).

I also got a more basic level of enjoyment from the fact that this anime is not just focused on the act of going out camping, but also on the cool equipment available to make camping more comfortable and, more importantly, all of the delicious foods one can prepare while “roughing it” outside. Many years ago, a friend of mine who had spent some time in Japan had me try to guess what the most popular food is for Japanese campers. In the US it tends to be easy things like hot-dogs, granola bars, beans, and other items you can heat up easily with minimal equipment (or eat cold). I was surprised to learn that in Japan curry is popular, with rice cooked in special cookers over the campfire. It seemed counter-intuitive to me, what with the messiness and need for special utensils, but there you go. Laid-Back Camp features curry and more, including meats, fried rice, stews, soups… one of the characters even busts out a camping-specific cook book at one point. It’s no secret that I’m a fan of food-related anime and manga, so this aspect of the show was a welcome surprise (though as far as iyashikei (“healing”) anime go, it’s something that seems to show up in one form or another fairly often, so maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised!). I’m not sure that I’d actually take any of these recipes on the road, but it is interesting to learn that, yes, cooking and eating fun, somewhat labor-intensive foods outside is something that people do.

 

Through Nadeshiko and the club’s camping adventures, we also get a look at the different types (and price points) of camping gear available, which is fun – watching other people shop for things fulfills a vicarious need in me, and I suspect others might feel the same. I also enjoyed watching the characters learn new skills and techniques through study and experience. Since much of the series takes place during the colder months, there are special considerations as far as sleeping bags, blankets, and ground coverings are concerned, so it was interesting to learn about those things while also getting a realistic look at how much those items cost. The girls all get part-time jobs to help support their hobby, which I thought was a nice touch.

Club members learn how to build a different type of fire.

What I think is the real success of this show, though, was that it was able to get me interested in something I was formerly averse to ever doing – camping. Call me soft, but I have never been a fan of the outdoors. I don’t like mosquitoes, heat/humidity, going days without bathing, smoky campfires… I’m a big wimp who spends most of my time connected to the internet and has an adversarial relationship with the sunlight. Strangely enough, though, watching Rin’s adventures in particular really taught me to recognize the appeal in spending some time disconnected from daily life, enjoying nature. It’s worth noting that camping alone as a woman is probably something more easily-done in Japan than the US; I’d feel fundamentally safer in a place with lower crime, especially if it were overnight in an unsecured sleeping situation. But if I ever make it over there, I might consider it as an option, assuming equipment rental is easy. And again, since the series takes place over the colder months, there are few heat concerns and no insects; it wasn’t until watching this series that I even thought about off-season camping as an option, so it’s encouraging to know that it’s something people can actually do.

Beyond that, this show is just a really pleasant, offbeat pseudo-travelogue that benefits from a naturally gorgeous setting (most of the camping takes place within view of Mount Fuji). The character relationships are healthy and low-pressure, the excursions are varied and soothing, and there’s even some light humor thrown in to keep things upbeat. I think it’s worth noting that viewers who are looking for something high-stakes and exciting are not likely to get past the first couple of episodes; by design this isn’t a high-energy piece with a lot going on. But set opposite something with a lot of action it might serve as a nice way to break up a more “serious” viewing experience. Or, if you’re like me, this is just the type of series that you might prefer when the rest of the world is stressful enough. And heck, if you’re driven to take a break from society for a bit, this might give you some basic skills to do so.

Pros: The show is exceedingly chill. There’s some fun focus on tools and eats. The relationship between the two main characters is positive and encouraging.

Cons: Some viewers may find the show fundamentally boring.

Grade: B+

Categories
Special Features

Mother of the Year – 2018

Tousen’s standard, everyday look.

Happy Mothers Day, everyone. I’m not normally one to make holiday themed posts because most of the time by the time I remember there’s a holiday it’s the day of and there’s not much time to put anything together. For some reason, though, I’ve had this on my mind for a while and wanted to put it into writing, even if it’s a little late. I thought it might be fun to look over my last year or so of anime viewing and pick out one of my favorite mother (or mothering-type) characters.

I know a lot of blogs and news outlets like to do top-ten lists in these cases, but the fact is that anime mothers who actually have significant story-important roles in anime aren’t that common so most of those lists tend to be very similar. My arbitrary criteria for my post was to pick out a mother who was active, important, and/or memorable in some way within a series I watched that was broadcast somewhere within the past year (loosely – since this is the first one I’m reaching back a little bit further). I’m sure there are other candidates out there from series that I’m not so familiar with, so if you have someone in mind feel free to let me know in the comments.

Anime, like many other storytelling media, tends to have a “mother” problem. Meaning that so much anime focuses on the activities and adventures of children and teenagers that a parent’s presence could be seen as stifling to their ability to get into “interesting” trouble. What decent, responsible parent would willingly allow their child go places and do things that have the potential to put them in mortal danger? Sure, there are examples in anime of parents who laugh in the face of such concerns and are more than willing to allow their children out into the world (basically every incarnation of Pokémon ever), or accept that their children are in a situation where they’ll be growing up quickly and taking on adult responsibilities (Bodacious Space Pirates, absolutely), but those are less common. Coming from a more realistic perspective and looking more at anime series that are at least somewhat based around realistic social norms, if you want to have some fun it’s just easier to leave parents out of the equation (or create some plot-related circumstance where they’re conveniently unavailable). Since mothers are generally thought to be the more “present” parent in Japanese households, what with social norms and gender expectations being what they are even today, when the story requires a lack of parental oversight it’s usually mom who suffers some ill fate (and maybe dad who becomes a buffoon or is otherwise ineffectual). Anime is full of dead-moms-as-motivation (though in some cases, like Erased, Satoru’s murdered mother is still present in some form due to timeline realities); it’s rarer for mom to be active and involved in Important Story Activities™.

That’s just one reason why The Eccentric Family is so distinctive. Its title immediately betrays the fact that, despite its fantastical, magical setting, the story is focused on family – specifically one particular family of tanuki in Kyoto. While the original season of the show had its debut almost five years ago (which pained me to find out – time flies in anime fandom!), its sequel season appeared last Spring, providing us with a second window into the life of the Shimogamo tanuki clan. While most of the series follows the adventures of the four Shimogamo brothers and primarily the third brother, Yasaburo, their mother, Tousen, is an active participant and the glue the holds the family together, especially after the death of the brothers’ father prior to the show’s start.

The tomboy becomes a bride.

What I love about Tousen is that she’s a multi-faceted, funny, and supportive character with a lot of inner strength. Our early introduction to her in season one paints her as quite the flamboyant person; the tanuki pride themselves on their ability to transform from their furry raccoon-like bodies into almost anything else, including the human forms they often take. Tousen sometimes chooses to become a princely-looking pool-shark out of The Rose of Versailles or Takarazuka play when not in her more standard housewife getup. It’s a great expression of her inherent nature as a trickster, something incredibly important to most respectable tanuki individuals. It also provides a funny contrast to her major weakness; Tousen is scared of lightning and can’t maintain her transformations when she’s startled (a quirk of many tanuki).

I recognize and admire the way in which Tousen displays inner strength, although it takes familiarity with the backstory of the series and some of the relationships to be able to fully appreciate that aspect of her character. Having lost her husband to death-by-hot-pot (which, true to the tone of the show, is both ridiculous and tragic), Tousen does the heavy emotional labor of ensuring the stability of her immediate family, and helping her sons, directly or indirectly, manage the aftermath of the event. She’s obviously still heavily involved in the upbringing of her youngest son, Yashiro, but as the mother of four she still has a hand in all of her sons’ lives even though three of the four have physically left the nest (or the den, I suppose).

Tousen trades scents with her mother.

With all of the supernatural and magical occurrences throughout the series, it can be easy to miss the very down-to-earth family concerns that form the backbone of the character interactions, but each Shimogamo son has his own issues that Tousen has her hand in mediating. Yashiro, the youngest, is sensitive and deals with being bullied by his cousins. Yaichiro, the oldest and most serious, is gunning for the seat of Trick Magister (elected leader of the tanuki clans). Yajiro, the second son, deals with guilt, depression, and PTSD stemming from the night of his father’s death, and thus is stuck in the form of a frog. And Yasaburo is the put-upon third son, stuck in the middle trying to keep various powerful factions balanced and himself from becoming a hot-pot dinner, all while goofing-off to the max. On the surface, all of these are obstacles for the affected characters to overcome on their own, but as with many women in her same position, Tousen has taken it upon herself (voluntarily or not) to help her family address these challenges by offering advice, guidance, and unconditional love. Their challenges are, in turn, her challenges. The cherry on top is that she somehow also manages to maintain some sort of relationship with the Ebisugawa clan (Soun Ebisugawa was responsible for her husband’s death, after all, so it would be less surprising if she wanted nothing to do with them) through Kaisei, Yasaburo’s on-again-off-again possible marriage partner.

I have some ambivalent feelings over the fact that so much of Tousen’s character comes out through reading-between-the-lines, her interactions with other people, and her background presence in the stories of her offspring, though in a way that particular issue feels almost appropriate (possibly more appropriate than was intentional by the creators). Tousen is in the position of that I think so many parents, especially mothers, are forced to occupy. Despite having her own sense of self and inner life, her persona is inextricably connected with the children she’s raised and is sometimes overshadowed in favor of celebrating their more obvious adventures and accomplishments. Motherhood is so often exalted, but less examined in a realistic way or allowed to hold the primary focus in a narrative.

Aside from one example I happened to find while poking around the internet, most discussion of the anime is focused around characters like Benten, the Friday Fellows, Nidaime, Yasaburo, and other characters who viewers would typically consider more “interesting” – people getting into trouble (or causing it), and those who wield literal and figurative power. There’s less glory for or even discussion about characters who only fit into support roles or feel like someone one might actually meet in reality, though the “Tousens” of the world are the unsung diplomatic heroes who ensure that conflicts get resolved, that people know that they’re cared-for, and who show support to their loved ones – all essential acts of kindness that probably ought to be glorified more than they are.

Tousen and her mother share a moment in the sun.

I’d like to close this off by describing one of my favorite scenes from the anime. In the third episode of season two, Tousen and Yasaburo visit Tousen’s mother, a grand matriarch of their tanuki family, in order to seek help for Yajiro, who is still unable to transform out of his amphibious form. Grandma has knowledge of a medicine that might help him learn to control his abilities again. Though they easily obtain the object they’re there to get, what follows is delightful banter between an old mother and a younger one. Grandma is so aged that it takes her some effort to remember who is who, including her own daughter, but the love between the two is so clear even if the details are hazy. I love the juxtaposition of the many tanuki sitting around the forest clearing, chanting sutras as if worshiping the elderly woman on her pedestal, with the two family members joking with each-other playfully. With Tousen enveloped in the sunlight with her mother, there’s a sense that she’s carrying on a very grand tradition of mothers in the tanuki culture.

Thank you for reading, and I hope I’ve whet your appetite for The Eccentric Family! Go check it out on Crunchyroll if you have the time (and don’t miss the second season if you enjoyed the first!).

Who were your favorite anime moms from recent (or maybe not-so-recent) anime history? Please let me know in the comments. Or just show some love for Tousen Shimogamo if you have some to share!

Categories
Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Aggressive Retsuko (Aggretsuko)

Retsuko is a 25-year old red panda who works in her dream company’s accounting department. But it turns out that she is forced to keep doing more and more impossible tasks by her superiors and co-workers. She doesn’t talk back to them, but she still has to let off steam, so she ends up going to karaoke by herself and singing death metal. – ANN

Copyright 2018 – Sanrio/Netflix

Streaming: Netflix

Source: Original

Episodes: 10 (15 minutes apiece)

Review: About two years ago I caught wind of Aggressive Retsuko, a new Sanrio property debuting in two minute chunks on YouTube. The concept really tickled me – a twenty-something OL who puts up with typical office politics during her day job, lets out her many frustrations in the evening by growling death metal into a microphone at her local Karaoke parlor. A bit of a one-note joke to be sure, but one that hit me the right way and provided some decent belly laughs. I never watched much of it because it wasn’t that easily available, but I definitely indulged in some of the merchandise when it started popping up in my local Hot Topic and other Asian pop-culture shops. When this sequel appeared it actually took my by surprise; I only caught wind of it after reading Jacob Chapman’s preview of the first couple of episodes the most recent Spring Preview Guide over at ANN, and initially questioned the choice to make the episodes longer than their original two minute format. I doubted that one gag, even a pretty good one, could sustain a longer episode, much less make it entertaining.

As they say, boy was I wrong. While Aggretsuko is still primarily what I would call a comedy, it’s also a fairly robust critique of some Japan-specific (but still widely-relatable) office issues, especially as they affect women in a workplace setting.

One of the series’s many successes is how Retsuko is presented as a character, because despite her cutesy, merch-ready appearance her situation feels so genuine. She’s a cute, earnest person who feels lucky to be working at one of her dream companies, but her accounting job is anything but satisfying and her situation is greatly complicated by the fact that she doesn’t interact well with some of her coworkers and doesn’t have the personality that helps her to play games and suck up to the right people. She tries to lay low and get through the day, but this only turns her into a dumping ground for others’ work and, unsurprisingly, she’s unwilling to tell anyone “no” and spoil the office harmony. While my work situation is leaps and bounds better than depicted in this series, I’m fully sympathetic to the idea that it’s just easier to become a “yes man” and take on more and more work than to speak up and potentially make someone else’s life more difficult. Maybe it’s due to my problems with social anxiety or my poor handle on how to maintain human relationships, but I can see how the idea of “harmony over all else” can be desirable while also ultimately harmful.

Mr. Ton is a literal chauvinist pig.

Retsuko is also exposed to some of the most blatantly awful chauvinism I’ve seen depicted in media in a long, long time. Every interaction with her boss, Mr. Ton, is a tension-filled exercise in suffering through off-color comments about women’s place in the office and what jobs they’re meant to perform. Each time Retsuko got caught in the cross-hairs I could feel myself welling up with frustration. I’ve luckily never been in her exact position or had a boss so profoundly terrible, but I have been made to feel like an outsider and I’ve heard my share of casual sexism, so subtle and insidious that it doesn’t register even with people who otherwise have a handle on those sorts of things. It’s exhausting and defeating, and even several days later I have to marvel at the ability of this series to capture that and bottle it for consumption. I’m reminded a bit of Hataraki Man, another workplace series that follows the trials of several women working for a magazine publisher and examines their specific hurdles and ways of coping with unjust and unequal treatment and expectations. In that case, the protagonist is hyper-competent and admired for her ability to “work like a man,” when the men around her don’t put in half the amount of work that she does. Both series are very telling about what we expect of men and women in the same setting, and those concerned with workplace equality will likely be similarly frustrated by both.

This is supposed to be a comedy anime, right?

Gori and Washimi help to mentor Retsuko.

If the series were nothing more than a string of upsetting circumstances for Retsuko to deal with via death metal therapy, it’s likely that it wouldn’t be upbeat enough to maintain its own sense of humor. What helps immensely is that the show allows Retsuko to get by with a little help from her friends, as well as with some personal mentorship from a couple of high-powered working women in her company who have seen it all and lived to tell the tale. Retsuko is by no means a loner and often gets support in one form or another from Fenneko, a snarky fennec fox who survives each workday through pure cynicism, and Haida, a hyena who’s an everyday normal guy nursing a crush on our heroine. There’s a good sense that these three have been in the trenches together for a while and the others do a decent, if flawed, job of talking Retsuko out of some situations. Fenneko in particular was a real source of entertainment for me just because of her deadpan delivery and ability to see right through the world’s fakery. She’s not a character who would work well as a protagonist, but in small doses she was hilarious. As Retsuko connects with Washimi and Gori, two women who she has only admired from afar prior to their meeting in a yoga class, she learns that there are opportunities to get things done even when the system seems rigged and unfair. There is a lot of depth in these interactions, especially when Washimi and Gori attempt to help Retsuko directly with her management or try to guide her towards making good life decisions, and I think they really elevate the show.

My one complaint, and it’s a relatively minor one, is that the series attempts to insert a sub-plot of sorts near the end and isn’t able to devote enough time to it for it to fully mature. In her desperation, Retsuko starts to believe that her only “out” from her job is to find a partner and get married so that she can live as a housewife. She ends up falling for a guy with zero personality whose only real distinguishing quality is his low-key lack of consideration for her. She grins and bears it for a while until she’s forced to face reality. The lesson, of course, is that we tend to tolerate so many things when we feel that our lives are hopeless, and in doing so give up our chance at happiness and dignity. I really loved that message, and only wish that the show had been a couple more episodes long to allow it to unfold more gradually. As a sentiment, it was absolutely right on the money and just another way in which the series surprised me.

In the couple of weeks that the series has been available I’ve seen the amount of fanwork for it blow up completely, so I doubt that my giving it a glowing review is somehow going to inform anyone who isn’t already aware and interested. But in case someone does randomly stumble across this anime blog (or, more likely, discover the show while adding dozens of things to their Netflix queue), I hope maybe my words or their own curiosity will give them the push that they need to give it a try. And then, maybe we can continue to try to dispel the myth that cutesy-looking cartoons are only for kids.

Pros: The protagonist is very sympathetic. Portrays Retsuko’s tough situations in a way that feels real and relatable. The character relationships and interactions add a lot of depth.

Cons: The late-game romantic subplot could have used a couple more episodes of exploration.

Grade: A-

Categories
Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – How to Keep a Mummy

When high school student Sora Kashiwagi finds himself staring down a mysterious over-sized package sent to him by his self-proclaimed “adventurer” father, the last thing he expects is for it to be opened from the inside by a little mummy so small it can fit in the palm of his hand. – ANN

Copyright (c) 2018 – 8-bit

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Source: Manga

Episodes: 12

Review: This review contains minor plot spoilers for the TV series.

One of my favorite anime series is Natsume’s Book of Friends, which I think is an uncommonly good blend of supernatural fantasy and very sensitive human storytelling. As a fan of Japanese folklore, it’s also an excellent overview of traditional ghosts, spirits, and creatures that are inherently Japanese. But as much as I like Natsume, even I can admit that I’m not always in the mood to process its sometimes heavy story beats dealing with bullying, abusive family situations, and various forms of loss. That’s one of the primary reasons why I found How to Keep a Mummy to be such a pleasant romp. The series takes some of the components that make Natsume compelling and lightens it up to be a more comedic, fluffy distraction. It might not have as much emotional staying power, but it certainly is cute.

One aspect that makes this series a winner is its likeable lead character. From the instant that Mii-kun the mummy’s coffin shows up on his doorstep to the moments when Mii-kun and friends encounter some sort of peril, Sora proves himself to be not only a competent protector, but also a kind and caring friend and parental figure (or pet owner, I suppose?). In an age when many of us – women, men, and non-binary folks alike – are wrestling with the concept and consequences of toxic masculinity in our culture and media, it’s heartening to encounter a character like Sora who’s a teenage boy, caretaker, and friend with a special sensitivity to the world around himself.

Sora and Tazuki are close friends.

Likewise, this isn’t an anime series which banks on stories about characters working out their social hierarchy through brawling, nor is it one where characters spend each episode cutting each-other down with insults. It’s a series that revolves around its main character and his friends opening up to one-another and developing relationships, while confronting personal elements of their lives that have caused them trouble or pain. All three of the side characters have hurdles to overcome, whether it’s Motegi’s relatively benign fear of lizards that’s confronted when a tiny dragon arrives at her home, Daichi’s damaged relationships with his classmates that are the result of nightmares (cured by a friendly Baku), or Tazuki’s traumatic past encounter a mythical creature and the men trying to poach it. Part of me believes that the addition of cute supernatural creatures is somewhat redundant; while all of the character’s troubles are at least partly due to some supernatural element, they’re also real human emotions and interactions that could have mundane causes in a series without a fantasy element. I’m the type of viewer that’s satisfied watching a slice-of-life story in which the main hook is that nice people are nice to one-another and work through their interpersonal conflicts constructively, so don’t necessarily need the cuteness on top.  But as a closet(?) connoisseur of cute, it’s a welcome addition that adds a little extra appeal for those viewers who are less willing to put up with low-conflict fluff entertainment.

Though I enjoyed the series, there were some bits and pieces that left me a bit cold. Sora, being that his father is out of the country, lives with his aunt Kaede. Kaede is clothing model and seems to have some amount of local fame, as other characters find her vaguely recognizable throughout the series. She’s beautiful, but also kind and supportive to Sora and friends… until she takes off her glasses, at which point she turns into a lusty sexpot with designs on her nephew. This “gag” only occurs once with a few additional references to it throughout the series, but it takes a show that I’d otherwise love to recommend to younger viewers or people who are less interested in anime’s overall penchant for goofy sexuality and complicates that recommendation. The trope of women becoming more sexual after they take off their glasses (think “sexy librarian” or “sexy teacher”) is tired and sexist, and in an anime series with really no other adult inclinations it stands out as a particularly poor choice.

Mii-kun just wants to be loved!

There’s also a push in the final two episodes of the series to make it more plot-forward, which felt unnecessary to me. There’s a recurring threat from poachers throughout the series who are on the prowl to collect monster specimens, which comes to a head when Sora and crew are attending a festival. While the provides a climax to the series, it’s also ill-fitting as the poachers never received any development and their actual threat level was questionable. I get that not everyone is satisfied when “nothing really happens,” but emotional climaxes can be just as cathartic as major plot movements, and I think that would have been a more suitable direction to take such a low-stakes show.

I watch anime from a very wide swath of different genres, some of which tend to be intense and/or depressing, so it’s nice to be able to unwind with a pleasant “healing anime” every once-in-a-while. How to Keep a Mummy was one of Winter Season’s great surprises on the front for me; cute, funny, and seemingly arriving out of nowhere to let us revel in an oddball relationship between a boy and his Mummy. I really enjoyed this anime, and if you too appreciate entertainment that, in spite of its flaws, is fundamentally kind, I think you will as well.

Pros: The main character is a good example of a male allowed to have feelings and just be nice to others. The character relationships are very satisfying. Everything is so cute!

Cons: There’s some plot conflict shoehorned into the final few episodes. There’s some sexist humor surrounding Kaede’s character that feels out-of-place.

Grade: B-

Categories
Anime Reviews Reviews

Short Takes – Mob Psycho 100: Reigen the Miraculous Unknown Psychic

Mob’s master Reigen gets the idea to write an autobiography. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 1

Source:  Manga

Summary: Kagayama Shigeo, aka “Mob,” is one of the most powerful psychic forces in the world. However, Mob is employed by local spiritualist (and thinly-veiled con-man) Arataka Reigen, whose newest money-making scheme involves a novelization of their adventures from his clouded point-of-view.

Review: Fans hoping for a genuine bonus OVA or sequel to the wildly-popular Mob Psycho 100 will likely be disappointed by this special event episode, as it’s mostly a clip show summarizing the events of the anime’s first season. However, with a first-cour as strong as Mob‘s, there’s something to be said for the experience of reliving its best moments distilled into an action-packed and humorous hype-fest for the show’s upcoming second season.

Reigen the Miraculous Unknown Psychic is a retelling of Mob’s adventures through the eyes of Arataka Reigen, who in actuality played a small (but deceptively important) role in the original story. True-to-form, Reigen sees himself as the hero of this tale, and as he dictates his autobiography to Shigeo the recollections are embellished with his presence in situations where he didn’t, in actuality, have an active role. Most of the humor is derived from the absurd visuals of Reigen’s head pasted on Mob’s or Hanazawa’s body, as well as nagging feeling for those of us who are familiar enough with the original series to know that Reigen’s version isn’t quite right.

What’s interesting to note is that, despite Reigen’s puffery, he’s actually the storytelling conduit for the main theme of the series – having a talent doesn’t make one superhuman or above common-sense or responsibility – and this is evident even when he’s stretching the truth about his involvement in defeating the Claw group or mentoring Mob. It’s amusing that we the audience can immediately see the value in his words and mentorship, but Reigen himself seems to place more value on what makes him look good and how he deceives those around him.

I think perhaps the major draw of this event episode is the “big reveal” at the end that a second anime season is currently in production, but those who pay attention to anime news were probably already aware of that since the information had already been posted on the various news outlets. Still, despite the fact that this episode is mostly extraneous, it’s an amusing rehash of a series that could have been just another shounen action joint, but which happily coupled its awesome action animation with a perceptive story about giftedness and bullying. If you haven’t watched Mob lately, it might be worthwhile to check out this abridged (and slightly-altered) version of the show, if only as a pleasant reminder that it manages to hold-up to multiple viewings.

Grade: B-

 

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Gamers!

 Keita Amano is a lonely young man who loves video games; Karen Tendō is the beautiful president of the video game club; Chiaki Hoshinomori constantly fights with Keita; and Tasuku Uehara puts on a facade of being satisfied with his life in the real world, but he in truth loves video games. – ANN

Copyright 2017 (c) PINE JAM

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode 1 Summary: Keita Amano’s high school life is lacking in the things that make fun – he’s got no friends and he doesn’t belong to any clubs. He goes home everyday and spends his evenings playing video games. While perusing new titles in the game shop he’s approached by Karen Tendou, his schools’ most beautiful, smart, and popular student. She invites him to join the newly-reestablished game club she’s put together at their school, and she’s extremely passionate about it. All the current members are experts at the various types of games that they play, and they all seem to have much larger reasons for playing them than “they’re just fun to play.” Keita starts to feel like the odd one out, since he just likes to play video games for his own enjoyment. When Karen asks him to join the club officially, he declines in spite of multiple reasons why he knows the experience will be good for him. Though, to Karen, this feels like the ultimate rejection, it’s likely that this isn’t the last word in the matter.

Impressions: Most people have hobbies, and I think for many, their hobbies are a type of escapism. I don’t sit down and knit a scarf because I need another scarf to wear; I knit the scarf because I like the experience of choosing the right yarn, of feeling it running through my fingers with each stitch, and of watching the rhythmic loops upon loops of fiber expand into a finished project. I can knit while watching television or just enjoying the quiet somewhere, and it helps me relax. If I were to start an Etsy shop to sell my finished projects, suddenly a hobby that I enjoy would morph into an obligation, losing all of its power to take me out of my daily life. It’s the same reason why I don’t really do art commissions or write articles for money; when there’s a transaction involved, it just isn’t that fun anymore. When there’s a hard deadline, it’s much easier to stress about it.

Keita gets pummeled in a first person shooter game. Copyright 2017 (c) PINE JAM

I can understand Keita’s reluctance to join Karen’s video game club, in spite of all the potential positives. He likes to game in his room, alone; it’s a form of relaxation after spending all day at school feeling mediocre and isolated from his classmates. Why would he want to place himself among people who play video games for a broader purpose? It would only invite comparisons in which he comes out looking like an aimless doofus.

These are thoughts I never expected to have while watching yet another anime about some hapless high school kid with a crush on a girl who joins a club full of misfits on some grand time-wasting adventure in slice-of-life territory. There are a lot of pieces in this show that seem to defy expectations, and I find that kind of fascinating. In my defense, the promotional image for the series is misleading – it makes it seem as though the protagonist, through some form of dumb luck (or “protagonist syndrome”), gets thrust into a group of girls, creating the potential for a romantic entanglement while the obnoxious male sidekick cracks jokes and acts as wing man throughout. Just in this episode I think we were introduced to at least four total male characters and roughly an equivalent number of young women, taking the ratio pretty far out of harem territory (two of the characters are even already a couple). The assumed romantic relationship between Keita and Karen is already in a very different place; rather than dancing around an awkward attraction, things are already on the rocks and Keita’s denial of her club invitation is even framed as a romantic rejection. Whether this is a setup to turn things back around in twelve episodes is a mystery, but it definitely went against my own expectations.

Keita is too normal for this weird club. Copyright 2017 (c) PINE JAM

There are also several humorous interjections via the on-screen text throughout the episode. They’re kind of self-aware, from the POV of some omniscient narrator, and give some snappy perspective on future developments for the characters. It’s reminiscent of, say, Ouran High School Host Club, with its blinking pointer-finger indicator of the doomed vase in episode 1, or even some live-action films like Scott Pilgrim (which, coincidentally, also deals in video game culture for its aesthetics) that are self-aware and call blatant attention to it via blending of referential special effects. Stuff like this always runs the risk of making media feel too “know-it-all” about its own tropes through overuse, but it’s used sparingly enough here that it doesn’t wear out its welcome.

The episode does fall in line with some expectations, however, especially in regards to the character relationships between boys and girls. There’s still kind of a disappointing lack of sexual awareness that Keita displays towards Karen; there are a few shots of her legs and body from Keita’s point-of-view that follow with him blushing and being unable to get words out of his mouth properly. Attraction turns some of us into disasters, but I have yet to meet a teenage kid who is made into such a mess from seeing an attractive person that their eyes wander around their crush’s body like the cameras in these anime series seem to think they do. Shots like that are one of those tools of the trade that are used as a shortcut, but which could be eliminated with just a minor amount of finesse (and a big dose of respect towards women and their bodies – this is probably the bigger hurdle).

Aside from that, though, I found myself amused by some of the game parodies already featured in the first episode (will there be more? I hope so). Karen’s polite conversation with King Koopa as a result of her delirium from lack of sleep, was surprisingly funny for a show where I didn’t expect there to be a decent comedic element. Video games are part of our shared culture, and as a Gen-X/Millennial cusp baby, I’ve experienced most of the big, important moments as games have grown into their own as an art form. In part, this show (and likely the light novel on which it was based) seems to have some of that same perspective. Even if it never takes on any of that broader cultural analysis (which it definitely doesn’t have to), it’s still fun to see the things that I’m familiar with featured fondly in an entertaining way.

In any case, sometimes hobbies are just distractions, and that’s okay. But even if a beloved hobby never provides the potential for financial compensation and couldn’t necessarily morph into a day job, there could also be a happy medium (like, say, watching anime and having an opinion on it…). Keita might not have a broader purpose to his gaming, and competitiveness might not be something he wants to inject into his hobby. But perhaps there’s a happy medium somewhere, and I’m actually kind of surprised at how interested I am to see how the show handles this proposition.

Pros: The show seems somewhat self-aware about its own tropes, and can be pretty funny about it. The cast is large enough that, while there could be love triangles or whatever, it doesn’t feel like a harem.

Cons: The show is still pessimistic about teenage male sexuality.

Grade: B-

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2017 First Impressions – Angel’s 3Piece!/Tenshi no 3P!

Kyō Nukui is a high school student who tends to skip school due to a trauma in his past. Kyō secretly creates songs using vocal song synthesis software as his hobby. Three girls who just entered fifth grade — the crybaby Jun “Jun-tan” Gotō, the strong-willed Nozomi “Zomi” Momijidani, and the somewhat sleepy Sora “Kū” Kaneshiro who takes life at her own pace — email Kyō. These three girls, who were raised together like sisters since childhood, want Kyō to help them break into music. – ANN

Copyright 2017 (c) Barnum Studio/Project No. 9

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode 1 Summary: Kyo Nukui is a hikkikomori who, in the spare time he has being home-bound, creates electronic music and posts it online. One day he posts something in a completely different style, posts it under a different pseudonym, and wonders if anyone will know the difference. Later, he receives an incredibly formal email from someone who made the connection between his new work and his older, more well-known stuff, and this person wants to set up a meeting. Mustering all of the sociability he can, Kyo walks to the specified meeting place in a local park. He’s expecting to see someone older, based on the language in the messages, but the author is really an elementary school girl named Jun, who’s incredibly shy. She’s there with her two friends, Zomi and Ku, who were all raised at the same orphanage together. It’s their dream to put on a concert, and the girls certainly have the equipment to do so; the church basement has some great vintage guitars and the gear to go with it. It also turns out that they can sing and play the intruments pretty darned well – and they want Kyo to help them live out their dream of bringing people together through music.

Thoughts: I was driving to work recently, and was stuck in pretty heavy traffic. Someone a few cars in front of me stopped suddenly, causing a chain reaction where all subsequent vehicles, including myself, had to react in seconds. I braked hard, and hoped beyond all hope that the person behind me would notice in time to stop before ramming my tiny Mazda and turning it into scrap metal. Time seemed to slow down as I watched the (much larger) SUV pull up behind me way too quickly, as I pumped my brakes in hopes of signaling them somehow. Luckily, they were able to stop; I could hear the honking and engine noises once again and I was drawn out of my panic, and we were soon on our way down the entrance ramp towards the city.

Kyo is sad and isolated. Copyright 2017 (c) Barnum/Project No. 9

My story had a happy ending; oftentimes, however, you can see a car wreck about to happen, and there’s literally nothing you can do about it.

This episode starts of by fooling you into thinking that perhaps the underage girls in the promo images aren’t a huge part of the show. The opening scenes are focused on the main character’s anxiety and depression and the outlet that he has in making music. Anime doesn’t have a great track record in portraying mental illness, but these first few moments didn’t raise a lot of red flags to me in that regard, and I was willing to entertain the possibility that it could be better-than-mediocre somehow. With the introduction of the three fifth-graders, I was starting to see distant brake lights, as if something terrible had happened just over the next hill. I was concerned by their blushing cheeks, the weird shots of their too-shiny knees and ankles, and their infantile voice, not to mention their glistening, pouty lips. Maybe the colorists just wanted to go all-out and add in a bunch of details?

Then Toonces just drove the damn car straight off the cliff.

One of the last lines of the episode is Nozomi (the dark-haired girl), in exchange for Kyo helping the three orphans put on their concert, offering to let him touch her – just a little bit. I was actually just thinking to myself that it had been kind of a long time since I’d seen anything in anime that was truly vile and reprehensible; It seemed like, back when I was writing more consistently, that there were several anime series every single season that banked on pushing boundaries in regards to good taste. I actually blame the existence of those series for my current feelings about fanservice – I’m continually annoyed, but also find myself saying “well, at least it’s not as bad as [fill in the blank]” and I’ve ended up giving a pass to things that I may not have in a different time or place in my life. In any case, that’s one of the consequences of becoming hardened and complacent as a fan of a medium that can be highly problematic – suddenly you’re blindsided by someone’s bad idea that’s so completely out of line that you wonder how it could have gotten produced.

Yay, I feel horrible for having watched this! Copyright 2017 (c) Barnum/Project No. 9

This show is based on a light novel, that some people ostensibly read at some point. Some people read this novel and thought “hey, this concept seems entertaining. I bet a lot of people would like to see an anime adaptation about this high school guy that hangs out with little girls, and then they’ll surely laugh about their precocious sexuality.” I bet a production committee was gathered, and some music executive was slavering at the mouth, thinking about which voice actresses or idols on their roster would be a good fit to sing the band’s songs and portray the little elementary school girls that people would be inclined to have the hots for. An art designer, a character designer, several animators, and all sorts of staff were hired, and worked long, grueling hours for very little pay to bring to fruition an anime where a little girl implores a high school guy to feel her up.

There were probably dozens of people who had to sign off on something to get this made, and dozens more that poured their energies into its creation. If there’s one thing that Shirobako taught me it’s that really good, talented people sometimes make their money producing things that don’t have much artistic merit. Heck, the music scenes in the show are actually animated pretty well and might be fun to watch if the camera weren’t lingering on the girls’ legs, thighs, and mouths. I don’t want to dishonor the hard work that was put into the show by blaming the staff for the sins of the creators. And, to be honest, this isn’t nearly the most objectionable thing I’ve ever watched in my life. But I will say this – certain things just really rub me the wrong way, and making childlike characters into potential sex objects is one of them. Whether or not the episode’s final line was a misunderstood joke, something that will be explained away in episode 2, or something that will never come up again, it’s colored the experience for me in an irreparable way. I imagine that many of my readers might have the same experience. It’s been a while since I’ve had to do this, but I’ve dusted this old thing off for the occasion:

Now I can put this to rest and hopefully move on to something I’ll feel better about.

Pros: I wish I could think of something snarky to put here, but I’ve run dry.

Cons: Oh, I don’t know, it sexualizes little girls?

Grade: NO

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
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-