Tag: Crunchyroll

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2018 First Impressions – Asobi Asobase: Workshop of Fun

Three classmates play simple hand games. One of the girls is good at games, but hates them as she always lost to her older sister and forced to do chores while growing up. Another girl is of American descent, but raised in Japan, and who only pretends to be bad at Japanese. Another girl usually observes their games, and loses to the other girls. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Kasumi hasn’t liked games since she was a little kid; they were just a tool of her older sister to trick her into doing chores. So when class goofballs Olivia (an “American” who was actually raised in Japan) and Hanako (just a generic girl who’s less-than-sharp) start trying to get Kasumi to join in their game time, she wants nothing to do with them. It’s only after Olivia is forced to trade English lessons for insight into Japanese pastimes from Kasumi that the three come up with the idea to start their own club. Within the walls of the “Pastimers Club,” the three unlikely friends spend their afternoons goofing around.

Impressions: Here’s where I’d normally open with a paragraph about how comedy is so subjective that it’s difficult to rate, and anime comedies have the added difficulty of conveying humor through culturally-specific preferences and tropes. The reason that I tend to review comedies by qualifying them this way is because my personal comedic tastes are very peculiar and specific; this tends to manifest itself when I catch wind of “the funniest anime comedy of the season” and it doesn’t even make me crack a smile once I watch it. I’m also not a huge fan of material that’s mean-spirited, whether that’s from tension that occurs between various characters or between a creator and their characters (some creators just seem to want to make characters suffer, and I have issues with that). There are always exceptions, but this is how I tend to be.

Olivia, living a lie.

Occasionally an episode comes along that manages to toe a delicate line with several of my likes, dislikes, and preferences, while being more eye-catching and interesting than anticipated. Asobi Asobase wasn’t originally on my “anticipated anime” list, though I was admittedly curious about it because one of the more frequent comments I started to see other reviewers make about it was that the basic description of the premise didn’t really reflect the tone of the actual show. The impression that I got from the description and the key artwork was that of a fun, light-hearted series about three girls playing games. I expected something low-key and slice-of-life-ish, like so many other anime series about teens in clubs who don’t actually do much of anything beyond bonding with one-another. The actual anime is much funnier and has quite a bit more bite to it than your typical show about cute girls experiencing regular life.

Much of the humor is based on the fact that the characters don’t seem to care much for one-another, and are somehow thrust into the same situation just due to unfortunate chance (or their own poor decisions). Kasumi doesn’t have the patience or the interest to deal with Olivia’s and Hanako’s goofy antics or games, but she’s got terrible grades in English class and decides that Olivia, being “American” and all, is the person to give her pointers. Olivia’s actually grown up in Japan and despite her blonde, blue-eyed looks doesn’t really speak English at all, but because she made the poor decision to start off her first day in class pretending not to know much Japanese and speaking in a goofy accent, she’s got to uphold the lie. Now that Kasumi has bought into Olivia’s deception and also has something that she wants – insight into and the opportunity to play games – she’s stuck suffering for it. Hanako is just a ding-dong who’s along for the ride. Normally watching people suffer isn’t my jam, but when the suffering and hostility is so low-grade it’s almost a bit of a charm point, it turns the corner from being unfortunate to being genuinely worthy of a laugh.

Thumb wars are intense!

I’m a big fan of the facial feature manipulation that happens in this series, and find that it makes a good basis for most of the visual humor that resonated with me. There’s something very refreshing about an anime that lets its girl characters look ugly. Attractive character designs are almost a requirement for anime series nowadays, especially when it comes to the female characters. Shows can be made or broken on how well they deliver on that appeal. It’s disheartening. Much like Kakegurui a few seasons ago, this series sees its characters transform from cute and demure to twisted, sarcastic, and devilish as the mood requires. The effect in this series is more cartoon-y, but coupled with the snide inner monologues of the characters these transformations give the show a unique visual language that helps to supplement the rest of the gags.

I have mostly positive opinions about the series so far, but I think there are a couple of items worth mentioning which bothered me a bit and will likely come across as crass to others. First of all, there’s a greater-than-zero amount of boob-related humor. How the tone strikes you will really depend on how you interpret those jokes in particular; in one scene, one character slaps the other in the face so hard that the shock wave sends the loser’s chest into a ripple. There’s another scene where all three are discussing how a person could grow or acquire a larger chest. There seems to be some weird belief that teenage girls all want to talk about and to critique each-other’s chest sizes. I suppose it could have been true for some people back in high school but I’ve never really felt the need. It comes across as a weird preoccupation of anime and manga authors rather than something based in the truth of girls’ interactions. There’s also a joke sequence that implies that one of the male teachers is a creepy pervert, since he hangs around too long outside the closed door of the classroom (where the girls are dressed in swimsuits, playing in a kiddie pool… it makes sense in context!). I don’t know if this will be a running gag or a one-off in poor taste, but that’s the kind of joke I don’t find funny at all (and I wish the universe would finally forgive me from laughing at it in Azumanga Daioh).

I get the impression that this show is one where your mileage may vary based heavily on your tolerance for people acting both stupid and jerk-ish to one-another. Personally, I suspect I’ll continue to find it entertaining as long as the level of mean behavior doesn’t get out of hand and the show maintains its penchant for funny faces and unique animation. This episode is definitely atypical of other comedy series I’ve seen lately, and that alone is probably worth at least a watch.

Pros: The facial expressions on the characters are comedic on their own. The anime has a strong sense of visual style. It’s actually funny!

Cons: It tends to be a bit mean-spirited. There are the requisite annoying boob jokes and a male teacher implied to be a pervert.

Grade: B

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2018 First Impressions – Island

Urashima is an island far from the mainland. The people who live there lead carefree lives. But five years ago, the island’s three great families suffered a series of misfortunes, and succumbed to suspicion. The people of the island cut off all contact with the mainland, and began a slow decline. One day, a young man named Setsuna washes ashore claiming to be a time-traveler and suffering from amnesia. He meets three local girls: Sara, Rinne, and Karen. Their meeting will change the course of the island’s fate. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Visual Novel

Episode 1 Summary: One day, a young man washes up on the shore of an island without clothing or a handle on his own memories. He can’t remember who he is or why he’s there, except for the fact that he’s a time traveler who’s traveled to the past for some reason. Urashima island doesn’t take well to interlopers, so the mayor makes a quick show of putting the man on a ship to send him somewhere else. He manages to escape, discovers the mayor’s daughter in her hiding place, and has some broken flashbacks of having met her in some other time or place. Left again to his own devices, he spends a night out on the beach and encounters a girl whose name, Rinne, comes to him without trouble. He then remembers that his name is Setsuna. Both he and Rinne are time travelers (she arrived five years prior), and Rinne invites Setsuna to live with her. Setsuna believes that he’s traveled to Urashima for some purpose, and there are others there who appear to know who he is and want him out of the picture. Is this mystery one that can be solved before Setsuna becomes a victim?

Impressions: Back when I started writing reviews in the mid-to-late 2000’s it felt as though there were a lot of harem romance stories being adapted into anime form. While there were some that I remember just based on how up front they were with their sexism and lewd over-the-top fanservice, there were quite a few more that were mostly-harmless and homogeneous to the untrained eye. The genre hasn’t disappeared, not by a long shot, but it does feel like harem series nowadays almost require some additional defining factor. The monster girl trend has been pretty big recently, as has the male self-insert isekai fantasy harem series. It’s rarer to see something that simply feels like the “typical” anime adaptation of a harem visual novel that I remember being very common in those earlier days.

Setsuna is not shy about his time-travel.

Enter Island, which establishes itself pretty quickly as a back-to-basics harem style series with a sprinkling of sci-fi (or supernatural?) elements to give it a little bit of flavor. The first episode hits all the beats that one would expect, including the introduction of three potential love interests with whom our protagonist might end up . It’s been a while since I’ve seen Amnesia(TM) relied-upon as so blatant a storytelling device, but I have to say that, coupled with Setsuna’s goofy and uncommonly outgoing personality, it made me chuckle a little bit. It feels almost as if the series and its creators are daring us to so much as make a peep complaining about these tropes; considering that the visual novel was released only a few years ago, it seems that its look, feel, and structure were likely very purposeful decisions on the parts of the creative staff.

All of this feels a little quaint and because of that I actually have some generally-positive feelings towards the surface aspects of this episode, but there are a couple of very brief moments that I found somewhat questionable in terms of both taste and implication. In one of the episode’s first scenes, Karen (the mayor’s daughter and one of the assumed love interests), trips on the sandy beach and falls face-first onto Setsuna’s naked groin. It’s played up for comedy, but it’s one of those things that only seems like bawdy slapstick until you really start thinking about the details. I find the thought of getting an accidental face-full of a stranger’s penis to be pretty upsetting, to be honest. As it is with a lot of these types of anime, the humor often seems to be predicated on the characters’ embarrassment, specifically sex-related mortification. Unfortunately, though it’s meant to lighten the mood, it honestly just makes me squirm in my seat. There’s also the hint of a scene that seems to be a flashback (or flash-forward? Time travel is hard!) where a nude Rinne (who’s looking to be especially pre-pubescent) appears to be in a sexual situation with Setsuna. It’s there and gone in a matter of seconds, so it didn’t register with me right away, but the coupling of the young character design with the nudity and atmosphere felt creepy and gross. And of course there are the “small boob” jokes involving the shrine maiden character and the non-consensual near-kiss with Karen. These moments are brief and might be easy to overlook for some, but they’re good reminders of some of the fundamental problems many similar series tend to have in that the women are there for entertainment and primarily at the expense of their dignity.

A fated meeting on the beach.

There was one thing that I absolutely loved about this episode, though: the school uniforms. Goofy school uniform designs tend to be a pet peeve of mine, usually because they’re created for looks rather than practicality or functionality. No one would actually wear something like that unless they were actively cosplaying. The school uniforms in Island, however, are some of the most practical that I’ve ever seen, and that’s because instead of teeny short skirts that seem too short to be worth anything, the bottoms of the uniforms are shorts. This is awesome! It fits the warm island aesthetic very well and avoids the temptation to have constant up-skirt shots peppered throughout the episode. This is one anime trend I that I hope catches on.

This episode is surprisingly watchable, and I’m admittedly just a teensy bit interested in learning about what Setsuna’s deal is, despite the fact that he’s still a little bit of a “nothing” character. I get a weird sense of nostalgia from this opening chapter which is overriding my normal taste-related instincts to drop it and walk away. Perhaps this is just the consequence of being an anime fan for so long; even tropes that you don’t like become familiar echoes of a time when watching anime was a little fresher and writing about it was less restrained.

Pros: Someone put some thought into the uniform designs. The mystery surrounding Setsuna’s situation is mildly intriguing. The show feels nostalgic.

Cons: Each of the three young women is put into a questionable and compromising position, whether in “real life” or in flashback form.

Grade: C+

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2018 First Impressions – Hanebado!

Kentarō Tachibana is the coach of Kitakomachi High School’s badminton team. He is worried because the team has so few members that it cannot even enter competitions, but then he spots a student named Ayano Hanesaki easily climbing a large tree on the school grounds, expertly demonstrating excellent motor skills. Tachibana tries to get Ayano to join the badminton team, but finds out that Ayano hates badminton. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Nagisa Aragaki tries her hardest to improve her badminton game and she’s very skillful, but not quite good enough to survive a match with Ayano Hanesaki, someone who seems to have boundless natural talent. After being shut-out against Hanesaki, Nagisa returns to her high school badminton club and begins to take the loss out on others. As people are driven away from the team one-by-one (including the upperclassmen), Nagisa comes to the painful realization that she’s begun to take her own insecurities out on the people around her, blaming them for her inability to achieve the things she wishes to. To add insult to injury, Hanesaki attends the same high school, and the badminton team’s new coach, Kentaro Tachibana (a former olympian), is convinced that Hanesaki is what their team needs to become competitive. But Hanesaki has no interest in playing badminton again, and Nagisa is still struggling with those painful losses.

Impressions: I was looking forward to this series a lot based primarily on some of the preview footage. I like to tell people that there’s an anime out there about anything, and that’s especially true for various sports. Badminton might bring to mind images of garden parties and women in Victorian bustle dresses, but I was impressed by how convincing the trailer was at portraying badminton as an intense sport where players actually expend a great deal of energy. As it turns out, the trailer footage is primarily taken from the opening scenes of this introductory episode, and the expression of Nagisa’s intense concentration and drive to continue a lost battle against the talented Hanesaki through her dripping sweat and tense muscles is powerful and gripping. This scene represents the most intense action in the episode, and it remains a memorable focal point throughout.

Nagisa struggles with her own behavior.

That isn’t to say that the rest of the episode is boring; while the sports action is eye-catching, there’s also a sense of tension that’s cultivated around Nagisa’s emotional journey. I was surprised by how effective this was considering that the characters are brand new at this point and their stories are only portrayed in the most basic of terms. One thing that I found helped contribute to this was Nagisa’s internal narration in the opening scene as she struggled to return each shot and yet failed to win her match. I realized that I felt a lot of sympathy towards her situation – as she asks a couple times throughout the episode, what can you possibly do when you put forth your best effort and it just isn’t good enough? How can you win against someone who has loads of natural talent when it takes you three times as much effort to get to the same level? It’s a question that I’ve asked myself a lot throughout my life, because I’ve had the joy and pain to know a lot of incredibly talented people, many of whom can best me easily in the things that I like to do but don’t have much natural talent for. With the added stress of being called “gifted” at some early point in my life and thinking I was just naturally smart, and then being confronted later on with the fact that I needed to try just as hard as anyone else at things and not having good tools to do so, you can probably guess why this part of the story resonated with me so clearly.

Hanesaki prevents a disaster.

Because the primary conflict, rivalry, and relationship in this series seems to be between two girls, at least judging by the bulk of this episode, I’m feeling a little bit less enthusiastic about the fact that not only is the male coach given a lot of air time in the descriptions I’ve been reading about the show, but he comes across as a perverted jackass from the moment he makes his on screen debut. I’d had the sinking feeling that his presence might take something away from the parts of the story that interested me, and it’s already been the case. In this Larry Nassar-tainted world that we live in, I have very little tolerance for men in positions of authority (in sports and elsewhere) being creepy towards, well, pretty much anyone, but especially teenage girls. It was the reason why I dropped Uma Musume: Pretty Derby like a hot potato almost immediately; the male coach assaulted the female main character multiple times (grabbing her body – specifically her thighs – without her consent) in the first episode and it was played for comedy. A lot of people seemed to brush it off and I gather that the show was a fun watch beyond that, but the imagery still gives me a knot in my stomach. Tachibana’s arrival is heralded by him eyeballing female tennis players from the other side of a fence, and one of the first things he does is to run to Hanesaki and start grabbing at her wrists without any sort of introduction or consent. Again, this is played for comedy, or at least is meant to imply that the coach is so focused on his sports-related goals that his possibly dubious grasp of social norms gets thrown out the window. What it is is gross, and I wish that better decisions had been made at some point along the line (possibly in the original manga, assuming this adaptation is faithful).

Hanesaki is done with badminton.

I’m not against having male authority figures in anime about girls’ sports, but I found that the story was unfolding just fine without that particular contrivance and was really enjoying the episode more when the girls were working through things in their own way, using their own voices. Perhaps I’m just overlooking some really obvious example, but I feel like sports anime starring girls tends to lack some of the seriousness that you get from much of the sports anime starring boys, and this series looks a lot like it could buck that trend. It will just have to get over the inclination towards creeper “comedy” and show a little more confidence in its characterization of the coach.

I’m finding more and more that my strongest negative reactions towards anime are not because a show is just outright terrible, but more because it managed to do so many things well and then managed to biff it in a way that bothers me personally and fundamentally. I certainly don’t think that this show is irredeemable; If subsequent episodes are anything like this one they’ll be both visually interesting and emotionally compelling. I loved the use of color throughout and though the animation was really well done. It got me interested in watching badminton! I would just hope that the coach character is given the chance to behave like a normal human being and that the show lets go of this “young adult males love to creep on teenage girls” thing it’s got going on.

Pros: The action is well-animated. Much of the episode is visually rendered very well. Nagisa’s emotions are portrayed very truthfully in a short amount of time.

Cons: There’s some ill-timed perverted “comedy” that undercuts the tone of the rest of the episode.

Grade: C+

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2018 First Impressions – Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues

Teiai Group is one of Japan’s largest firms. Yukio Tonegawa, a man with a larger-than-life presence and sharp intellect, works as the right-hand man of Chairman Kazutaka Hyodo. One day, the chairman commands Tonegawa to spearhead “Game of Death,” an evil project that employs debtors. He rallies his direct reports and scrambles to form Team Tonegawa, only to encounter a barrage of challenges from the erratic chairman and his disloyal employees, ultimately leading to his demotion. – ANN
Copyright 2018 Madhouse

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 24

Source: Manga

Episode 1 Summary: Long before Yukio Tonegawa met Kaiji Itou in a card game that changed both of their lives, he was simply a middle manager for the Teiai group, a finance and loan outfit providing monetary loans at unreasonable interest rates. Tonegawa and his underlings collect on their debts regardless of the circumstances, and Tonegawa himself is especially good at shaking-down those who become delinquent with their debts. His position at the company puts him in the path of the company chairman Hyodo, whose boredom has brought him to seek unconventional pleasure in the suffering of others. Hyodo puts Tonegawa in charge of setting up a “death game” wherein debtors will fight for their own lives in a series of death-defying challenges. But Tonegawa has to get over the first hurdle of telling his underlings apart before he can possibly ask them to help come up with deadly gambles.

Impressions: I’m not really sure how many viewers out there are familiar with Gambling Apocalypse Kaiji; it was a weird, offbeat sausage-fest of a thriller from about ten years ago wherein a hapless debtor goes on a last-chance trip to erase his debts once and for all through extreme gambling. The show appealed to me quite a bit and I have fond memories of it; I think we all can enjoy a good underdog story, and Kaiji is the epitome of underdogs. It also contains one of the more horrific scenes I can recall from any anime, where Tonegawa is forced to bow his head to the surface of a grill after losing the final card game against Kaiji. If it sounds as though a lot happened over the course of that series, you’d be correct (and that’s only in the first season!). Helpfully, though, the first few minutes of this episode manages to provide a decent recap of twenty-six episodes of material, so while I think Kaiji is worth a watch no matter if you want to watch this series or not, it’s not a requirement to understand what’s happening here.

A couple of Tonegawa’s lackeys.

On its surface, Mr. Tonegawa has some traits that would normally be very appealing to me. Most anime stars younger characters and tends to be aimed at teenage viewers, something which doesn’t prevent me from watching a ton of anime but it does serve to make it less-than-relateable for me as an adult viewer at times. So far this series exists fully in the realm of adults, starring a middle-aged protagonist who supervises other men in their mid-thirties. The debtors, though they clearly haven’t lived up to their adult monetary responsibilities, all seem to be attempting to live real, typical lives – buying houses, owning businesses, blowing their money at the race track (well, that last situation isn’t so universal, I hope…). It’s good to see an anime acknowledge the reality of these kinds of things once-in-a-while, because paying bills and budgeting for my lifestyle are responsibilities that are often on my mind as someone who’s been a member of the workforce for a while now (and I know there are a lot of other people around who are just as boring and typical as I am). The issue I have with how this form of adulthood is portrayed in this episode, though, is that all the people Tonegawa’s employees are hassling throughout the first half are extremely irresponsible with money to the point of spending it gambling, drinking, and shopping while still owing on their loans. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that someone might take out a loan for something serious and specific and end up mismanaging it, but all of the people squandering their funds seem as though the thought of these loan sharks collecting on their debt has never crossed their mind and they’re portrayed as silly and irresponsible. Perhaps this was a way to try to build some sympathy for Tonegawa and the job he’s doing, because his character traits certainly don’t lend themselves to sympathy on their own. In any case, I didn’t feel that it was successful in cultivating positive feelings towards the character or his job.

Hyodo is bored, which means danger is in the air.

The first episode seems to have an issue with maintaining a specific tone as well. I’m not a fan of series that try to blend humor and drama in awkward ways, and I feel like there are only a few creators that can do so really well (for example, watch any series by Kunihiko Ikuhara). This show and its creators seem to recognize that there’s a fundamental ridiculousness to the story they’re trying to tell; the premise is already far afield of realism and the cast of characters are anything but down-to-earth. That’s all well and good, but rather than embrace how silly and unrealistic the story is required to be, the final product gives off the impression that it’s taking itself too seriously. When a character is introduced literally laying atop the backs of his employees as Hyodo is partway through this episode, the aspects of his personality which are truly frightening – his casual disregard for human life and his willingness to play games with it – are overshadowed by the visual goofiness. There’s also a scene which I feel is actually meant to be funny, but which comes across poorly due to some poor choices made in narrating the scene. Tonegawa organizes a group of several men to help him with the task of developing the death games, and all the men are dressed the same, look the same, and have confusing names and the same hobby. Even Tonegawa who is said to have special managerial skill and mental cunning, gets confused and finally gives up on trying to learn which man is which. This could have been really funny but for the overbearing narration that carries throughout the entire episode and provides an unneeded play-by-play for every action. I don’t recall whether this was a trait that also got out of hand in Kaiji, but if so perhaps I was more patient with it back then.

Tonegawa always gets his money.

I really want to mention the visuals, because the character designs in particular are what originally drew me to this franchise way back when. Anime character designs are really not as homogeneous as people think, but they do tend to blend together after a while especially if you’re watching a lot of shows per season. I don’t think it’s possible to confuse Mr. Tonegawa with anything else airing this season; with all the sharp angles and extreme facial features littered throughout, there’s just no mistaking this show. I kind of love that; even though the animation itself is more functional than striking, its characters are clearly not beholden to any visual trends.

I’m slightly disappointed that I didn’t have anything better to say about this first episode, though despite looking forward to it prior to the season I was well aware of the fact that my sunny memories might have been more nostalgia than anything else. As I am now, it’s also very questionable to me when the gender make-up of a property is so profoundly one-sided in the male direction; it was the same with Kaiji even more so, but as I continue to consume media I find that my tolerance for male-heavy casts diminishes with each passing year. At least with Kaiji I felt something for the protagonist and wanted to see him succeed, whereas Tonegawa is a little more difficult to love. I think there’s potential here and I have to celebrate non-standard anime protagonists when I can get them, but this series definitely hasn’t found its footing yet.

Pros: Extremely unique compared to almost every other anime in recent memory. The cast is comprised of adults. The opening theme is great!

Cons: The constant narration is intrusive and distracting. The episode strikes an awkward balance between humor and seriousness that’s ill-fitting.

Grade: C-

Categories
Book Club Special Features

Anime Book Club: Kino’s Journey~The Beautiful World~ Week #1

Hi everyone! Anime Book Club is back in session with the first two episodes of Kino’s Journey. Just to let everyone know the drill, what I’ll do here is summarize the episodes in question, and then post a few thoughts and some potential discussion points. Feel free to post your own thoughts, whether related to the questions or not, in the comments on the post. I usually try to have these posts up around noon or 1pm CST each Sunday afternoon. Feel free to post any time during the week and share the posts around in case anyone you know might be interested in getting in on the discussion! As the weeks go on, I’ll post links to previous weeks so they can be referenced easily.

Just a few notes: I know the WordPress comments system is not the most convenient to use. While I don’t really have the time to make changes to that currently, I’ll be looking at it for the future. For now, just know that if you’re a first time commenter I’ll have to approve your comment before it shows up, but once you have an approved comment any subsequent ones should show up without being approved after that. I had this in place because I used to get a lot of spam and rude/abusive comments; if there’s an uptick in that again I might have to move back to heavier moderation. Also, and this is related to the show itself, I’m going to adopt a gender-neutral approach to referencing Kino’s character when writing about them. The Crunchyroll subs are not good about this (to my memory), but it seems to me that it’s in the spirit of the story itself to refer to Kino in this way. I don’t plan to play gender police in the comments but I’d ask that you at least consider this point as I’ve seen it made very well across the anime blog-o-sphere and it’s more inclusive.

With all that said, let’s get started!

Episode 1 – A Country Where People Can Kill Others – Crunchyroll – Hulu – Funimation

Content Warning: Gun and crossbow violence and related blood.

While traveling to their next destination, Kino and Hermes (the talking motorcycle or “motorrad”) encounter another traveler resting along a riverside. The man is on his way to a nearby country and is very excited to make his way there because he has heard that killing other people is legal. Having come from a country where even small infractions are heavily punished for the good of the public order, he is looking forward to the freedom of being able to kill those who upset him. When asked, Kino declines a request to help the man bring his supplies into town, and goes on their way.

Expecting death and destruction, Kino is surprised to find that the country where people can kill others is very orderly, with pleasant people who welcome travelers to stay in their midst. The countryside is lush and beautiful, and the country specializes in a particularly ridiculous multi-layered crepe cake that seems counter intuitive to the place’s hardcore reputation. This doesn’t seem to Kino or Hermes like the type of place where people would want to kill others, let alone somewhere where they’d have the opportunity to do so. But there is an unsettling undercurrent to many of Kino’s interactions with the citizenry – each person seems to have a weapon (whether a gun or other item) at the ready, and those items are, as they all state, for killing people. None of the citizens seem particularly hesitant about that fact, either. A town elder even puts an offer of citizenship on the table for Kino, since Kino seems like someone who would be able to kill others.

The town’s specific nature is revealed when the man Kino met earlier arrives and claims he was deeply insulted when Kino refused to help carry his supplies. He’s now a citizen, and immediately takes that to its logical conclusion by threatening to kill Kino over this matter. It’s then that the citizenry, brandishing their various tools of death, fully articulate the nuances of their local laws. While murder isn’t prohibited by law, that doesn’t mean that it is allowed, and those who attempt to murder others will then have their own lives taken. The man is taken out and Kino goes on their way. Outside of town, another man asks about the details of the country where people can kill others, and Kino gets the impression that he’ll be a perfect fit there.

  

Episode 2 – Colosseum – Crunchyroll – Hulu – Funimation

Content warning: Gunshot-related death, seen from behind a barrier.

Kino arrives at the gates of a country that’s been described as beautiful and clean, but soon realizes that things have changed greatly. All travelers who enter the country become entrants into a tournament at the country’s colosseum. The winner becomes a citizen and can amend the country’s laws; losers may only leave with their lives, depending on the mercy of their opponents. This rubs Kino the wrong way but they decide to stay and participate in the tournament, which is set to begin very soon. As Kino travels to the holding area, its clear that the country has been in a steady decline, with garbage strewn across its vacant streets, and crumbling infrastructure all over.

Kino proves their gun prowess early on, readily defeating their opponents without killing them. Soon Kino reaches the finals and faces off against a man named Shizu, someone who proves himself to be very skilled with a sword. Throughout their time in this country, Kino learned more about how it reached this particular state – as it turns out, the current king killed his father, a good but strict king, and allowed the country to fall into hedonism and violence. Kino gets the impression that Shizu has some specific investment in winning the tournament and accomplishing some change, though Kino also has a specific reason to be there. It’s when Kino declines to yield and reveals a hidden weapon that the two combatants learn that their goal is the same. Kino fires a final shot, which “misses” and kills the king. As the winner, Kino proclaims as their new law that all the citizens will fight to the death, and the one remaining will become the new king. Kino then leaves the country to its own devices.

On their way out of town, Kino and Shizu have a final meeting. Shizu was the exiled prince of that country, and wanted revenge on his father. Kino was also there seeking revenge. It just so happened that their goals resulted in the same outcome.

   

 

Discussion Thoughts and Questions (Feel free to share additional ones in the comments!)

In the opening to episode 1, Kino describes the feeling they get when they are feeling most down – it’s it’s during those bleak times that the world reveals its beauty to them. This becomes a theme throughout the series (hence its subtitle “The Beautiful World”), which I think is good to keep in mind just in general. I find this to be a comforting thought nowadays when there are so many bad things happening in the USA – though there are people committing atrocious acts, there are people who continue to work to reveal the truth

  1. In episode 1, there seems to be some linguistic ambiguity regarding exactly what the law allows in terms of killing others. Despite the fact that I’ve watched the episode multiple times, it doesn’t exactly sit well with me when Regel states that killing people isn’t prohibited, but it also isn’t allowed. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
  2. When the violent man describes the country he left, he talks about its strictly-enforced rules and extreme public order. At the end of the episode, the peaceful man describes having left a country where he had to kill in order to survive. It seems to me that the author is making a statement about the efficacy of laws and how having more laws and harsher penalties in place does not necessarily result in people having a positive mindset. I was wondering what others’ opinions were on this point.
  3. Regel seems like an interesting character whose existence is still ambiguous by the end of the episode. The violent man describes him as a terrorist who killed many people, escaped prison, and went into hiding in this country. In person, he seems much like the other citizens – living a quiet life, but being able to kill when required. This may be a little bit of a leading question, but what does this say about our perception of/empathy toward others’ acts?

I’ve always thought the “Colosseum” story arc was sort of interesting, as it reveals something different about Kino. Going into the series I think it’s common to think of Kino as more of an observer – we get a perception of every country through Kino’s eyes, and Kino generally seems to take more of a hands-off approach to things that are going on there, or at least doesn’t offer any direct criticism against some of the more disagreeable aspects. The people of each country reveal themselves to be good, bad, or (more often than not) much more complicated than the simple conceits of their local ordinances might imply. This episode reveals Kino to have feelings and actual skin in the game. They’re angry about how the woman and her husband on the cart were treated in a country that they were so looking forward to visiting, among other things that we can speculate about.

One thing I also like about this episode is how Kino’s thoughts in the opening carry throughout the story. Kino states that “every now and then you should use your abilities to the fullest. If you don’t, your skills become rusty.” Obviously this becomes very true and Kino’s firearm skills (as well as Kino’s diplomacy and mercy skills) get a workout. It’s been long enough since I watched it first that I don’t recall whether or not each episode starts off with such a lesson, but I find it interesting that both so far have begun with a particular thought or lesson.

  1. Kino appears especially angry when they’re stopped by the guards at the gate of the country and given a breakdown of the rules. I think there’s some ambiguity as to what specifically this anger stems from (that the country was not as advertised, that the rules are unfair to spring on travelers/unfair in general, that Kino was already aware of the false advertisement and has some other reason to be angry about them, etc.). What’s your opinion on this?
  2. In the final moments of the episode, Kino states that “revenge is ludicrous,” and Shizu agrees. Yet both of them participated in the Colosseum tournament for reasons of revenge. What do you think about this obvious contradiction?
  3. While there isn’t much detail regarding this part of the story until the end, Kino’s two encounters with the woman on the horse-drawn cart (as well as her husband), is interesting to think about. During their second encounter, after the woman’s husband has been killed in the tournament, the woman tells Kino “you should definitely stop by that country.” How do you interpret this statement, considering what the woman has experienced prior to it?

I hope everyone enjoyed these first two episodes. I think they’re a great starting point for our discussion and a good lead-off into what’s a very interesting anime series. Again, feel free to link this post around to people who might be interested in participating, and happy viewing!

 

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 – 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-