Tag: Fantasy

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Encountering Turbulence Atop a Witch’s Broom

This post contains spoilers for the anime series Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina. This series is available to Watch on Funimation’s streaming service in the US.

Last December, back when going to the movie theater was still a choice one could make on a whim, my husband and I decided to tag along with some members of the anime club who had planned a group viewing of the film Cats. We pretty much already knew what we were getting into; I’d read several reviews lamenting the truly weird design choices, mis-used A-list actors, and pressure that the animation team was put under to adhere to some unrealistic directorial choices. But I wanted to hang out with my friends, and going out to movies was at that time a pretty reliable way to see a bunch of them at once outside of anime club. The movie was definitely an experience, though I’d say the defining moment for me was near the end of the film where Judy Dench as Old Deuteronomy breaks the fourth wall, turning directly to the audience; I audibly gasped and hid my face (a friend of mine still teases me for this). For the most part, though, the adaptation was just a cavalcade of bad decisions and poor attempts at both humor and drama.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2020 First Impressions – King’s Raid: Successors of the Will

The demons return after a century long slumber…

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 26

Source: Game

Summary: A century ago, the Kingdom of Orvelia quelled a demon invasion. Since then, the country has been peaceful, and that’s the only world that apprentice Knight Kasel knows. His biggest concerns are whether he’ll complete his apprenticeship with his mentor, the Knight Clause, and whether his dinner (usually something like cooked spider that would make most folks turn up their noses) will upset his stomach. His friend, a local priestess named Frey, is one of the few people with whom he shares these feelings.

But the nobles of Orvelia are beginning to hear rumblings of a new demon invasion at the borders of their country. There’s some disagreement about how to deal with this, but one rogue noble offers a suggestion – hire the mercenary group Black Edge, comprised of Dark Elves willing to fight for a price. Unfortunately, racism against Dark Elves runs deep in Orvelia, and the other nobles aren’t convinced about letting them fight on behalf of the nation. The Dark Elves also have their own goals; as a reaction to the suffering inflicted upon their people by the humans of Orvelia, they’re out to seek revenge. With demons now responsible for taking out an entire Orvelian scout party, what choice will the country ultimately make?

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2020 First Impressions – Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Summary: As a young girl, Elaina reads stories of a traveling witch’s adventures. She asks her parents if she can become a witch too. If she studies hard and tries her best, her mother says, then she might become a witch someday. Elaina works hard and practices her skills, then becomes the youngest student ever to pass the magic exam. She just needs to find a witch who will take her as an apprentice so that she can be acknowledged as a full witch within society. Unfortunately, the local witches aren’t interested in dealing with a young prodigy, and Elaina worries that she’ll never complete her training.

She’s tipped off to the existence of a mysterious new witch who’s taken up residence in the local forest – Fran, the Stardust Witch. Elaina assumes she’ll have the same trouble with this newcomer, but surprisingly Fran offers to take her on as an apprentice. Elaina looks forward to honing her skills even further, but as the weeks go by her only tasks seem to be running errands and dealing with Fran’s immediate needs. Just as Elaina is about to flip her lid, Fran challenges her to a duel. Elaina is handed a quick defeat, and it’s then that she learns the truth; Fran was hired by Elaina’s parents to teach her a lesson about humility and learning to deal with and accept failure. Now that Elaina has felt failure firsthand for the first time in her life, the Stardust Witch can begin to pass on her teachings in earnest. After a year, Elaina has nothing more to learn and is acknowledged as Elaina, the Ashen Witch. Some time later, she sets off on a journey, much like the witch who inspired her as a child.

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First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2020 First Impressions – I’m Standing on a Million Lives

Can a loner learn to work as part of a team?

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Summary: Yosuke Yotsuya is a bit of a loner. He lives in Tokyo, one of the most populous cities in the world, and yet his desire to spend his time on his own and play video games has become almost a compulsion at this point. One day after school, he notices two of his female classmates, Shindou and Hakozaki, waiting around and casting glances in his direction. Suddenly the girls disappear and the blackboard Yosuke is cleaning becomes filled with mysterious imagery.

Yosuke finds himself drawn into a mysterious void with Shindou and Hakozaki, where he faces a strange being with half a face who provides him with some difficult-to-parse information about the situation in which he’s now involved. He’s become part of a game – one that echoes the fantasy RPGs that Yosuke likes to play. But his class roll is dismal – Farmer – and his other party members are almost as pathetic in their lack of ability. Their quest to destroy some goblins goes as poorly as it possibly could, and a chance encounter with a giant troll leaves Shindou dead and Hakozaki missing a hand. Unfortunately, the other part of their team’s assignment is to fulfill a quest for the local villagers, and that quest is to destroy the very troll that nearly obliterated the party the previous night. It’s then that Yosuke takes it upon himself to “level up” on his own. If his own playing style is any indication, doing things without others’ help is the way to go.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Courting Controversy – A Look at “Interspecies Reviewers”

Oddly un-sexy at times and burdened by several other issues, but a fascinating example of ecchi anime with decent production values, a great sense of humor, and an unorthodox focus.

Streaming: N/A (Formerly on Funimation; AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand continued to stream the remainder of the series. The show is now licensed in the US by Right Stuf with an upcoming disc release).

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Check out my first impressions here!

Note: some elements of this review may be considered NSFW. This review also contains many general and some specific spoilers for the series.

These past few months I’ve been on a quest to get my anime groove back. Typically I don’t have trouble watching several episodes of a series at a pop, but for reasons that I’ve explained probably too often by now these days are anything but typical. And now, after a couple of anime seasons, my anime queue is looking pretty daunting (luckily there are websites to help one keep track of these things…). For me, having too much to do is a paralyzing feeling that creates more problems than it addresses, so sometimes it pays to stop being analytical and just dive face-first into something ridiculous.

For me, “ridiculous” has always been the marker of something I probably wouldn’t want to watch under normal circumstances, but which might serve as a good palate-cleanser. Years ago I made a habit of watching anime that was distinctly outside of my wheelhouse or even actively irritating to me, just as a way of level-setting and reminding myself of the general competency level of the majority anime. At some point I came to the realization that I was spending a lot of my time watching anime I didn’t really like and getting angry about it, with the added negative side-effect being that my voicing my opinions about gross fanservice or whatever tended to garner a fair amount of abuse; an added burden that I wasn’t emotionally ready to deal with. I can’t say that I was the most eloquent writer back then (nor am I now), but getting told to kill myself just because I didn’t appreciate an overabundance of anime tiddy in my face never seemed like much of an equivalent exchange for the level and reach of my work. At some point it was no longer worthwhile to feel crappy on both the front and back end of an anime viewing, so I decided to focus more on anime that I enjoyed watching.

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Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – KONOSUBA: God’s Blessing on this Wonderful World – Legend of Crimson

The Crimson Demon village that Megumin and Yunyun are from is facing a threat that could mean it’s ending. Kazuma and his gang follow Yunyun, who returns to the Crimson Demon village intent on saving it when they are faced with their greatest threat yet. – ANN

Availability: Theatrical Release

Episodes: 1 Film

Source: Light Novel

Review: Note: This review contains some plot spoilers for the film.

Sometimes it’s good to go outside your comfort zone; in other cases, it’s good to be reminded why your comfort zone exists in the first place. I had the opportunity to attend a screening of the Konosuba movie recently. To be honest, the extent of what I know about the series comes mostly from memes, gags, and general fandom osmosis, because the original anime adaptation was released when I was at a low point and I never found the time to go back and catch up with it. I assumed it wouldn’t be too difficult to get my bearings, especially since it’s difficult not to have some passing familiarity with the main characters and their foibles at this point in the anime fandom game. That, and when the cold hits in Minneapolis there’s really not that much else to do than join your local fandom friends in a fun indoors activity, so why not?

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Granbelm

In a world that long ago featured the existence of magic, but has long since lost that ability. The story begins when the very normal high school student Mangetsu Kohinata meets Shingetsu Ernesta Fukami, who has migrated back to Japan from Germany, on a night with a full moon. – MAL

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: TBA

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Mangetsu is a typical high school student whose propensity toward helping others has resulted in her making lunches for many of her classmates. One evening, as the full moon shines brightly out her window, she realizes that she’s left a lunch box at school, so she goes to retrieve it. As she’s about the leave the school, the world seems to dissolve, leaving in its place an illusory world that’s somehow familiar, but very different.

Outside several girls in magical mecha entities battle one-another, and they wonder why Mangetsu doesn’t seem to have her own suit of armor. One of them, Shingetsu Ernesta, defends Mangetsu until she’s able to hear the truth – at one time, the world was filled with magic, but it was sealed away to save humanity. Now, those from magical bloodlines meet at the full moon and battle for dominance until only one remains. Soon Mangetsu numbers among them as her powers are awakened and she quickly learns to draw upon them.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – If It’s For My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord.

Dale is a cool, composed, and highly skilled adventurer who’s made quite a name for himself despite his youth. One day on a job deep in the forest, he comes across a little devil girl who’s almost wasted away. Unable to just leave her there to die, Dale takes her home and becomes her adoptive father. Devil or not, Latina is beyond adorable, and the adventurer soon finds himself head over heels with being a parent. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Dale has never had to think far beyond his next mission or his next meal, but when he finds an orphaned devil girl in the forest one day, he’s suddenly forced to look beyond his own day-to-day survival. The girl has one broken horn, marking her as a criminal – but one would be hard-pressed to come up with any scenario in which a kid her age should be banished in such a way. Dale learns that her name is Latina, and he takes her back to his home in the walled city of Kreuz.

After cleaning Latina up, Dale considers his options. He’s barely 18 and his job as an adventurer keeps him away from his home base for days at a time. But the “perpetually under-funded” city orphanage probably wouldn’t be that happy to have yet another mouth to feed. And Dale has a support system in Rita and Kenneth, the proprietors of the restaurant where Dale rents a room. Rather than dump Latina in the hands of strangers, Dale chooses the path toward instant fatherhood, with all its challenges and surprises.

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First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Demon Lord, Retry!

Akira Ōno is a regular guy who works at a company that manages an online game. He often plays the game as his character “Maō” (Dark Lord). But one day, when he logs on, he is whisked into the game’s fantasy world as his character. There, he meets a one-legged girl, and begins his adventures alongside her. But as he is a powerful “Dark Lord,” various nations and holy maidens journey to defeat him, and he stirs up trouble everywhere he goes. – ANN

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: Akira is just about to shut down the server of the online game he manages. It’s been a good 15 years, but it’s time to move on. Just as the clock strikes midnight, Akira sees a flash of light. When he comes to he finds himself in another world, dressed suspiciously like his character Hakuto, the Demon Lord of legend.

He meets a little girl named Aku as she’s being chased by a demon. Hakuto’s skills are such that he makes short work of the beast. He sees Aku as a benefit to him – since she’s a local, she can help him navigate the landscape. He makes a try at finding a way back home; unfortunately the wishing shrine he finds is almost out of juice, and his wish to go home turns out to be invalid anyway. The shrine’s Idol does leave him with a frightening tool, however; a ring filled to the brim with evil power. After closing off some loose ends in Aku’s village, the two start making their way toward the capital.

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First Impressions Reviews

Spring 2019 First Impressions – The Wise Man’s Grandchild

A powerful wizard and sage comes upon a baby whom he adopts and names Shin. The baby is actually a man from our world reincarnated into the sage’s world. The sage raises Shin, separated from the rest of society, and teaches him in the ways of magic. It is only when Shin turns 15 years old and sets out on his own journey that the sage remembers that he forgot to teach Shin the common sense and ways of this particular world. And so, Shin goes the capital of the Alsheid Kingdom to enroll in the capital’s magic academy. – ANN

Streaming: Crunchyroll and Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Light Novel

Episode Summary: One day, an elderly wizard named Merlin finds a baby in the wreckage from a demon attack. That baby, who he takes in and names Shin, becomes a boy with a special aptitude for magic. Merlin teaches Shin everything he knows, bringing in acquaintances to teach him the ways of the sword and magical garb. Soon Shin becomes a young man with a hold over magic that’s terrifying in its scope.

One of Merlin’s acquaintances invites Shin to attend a magic school in his country. There he can learn how his skills actually compare to those of his peers, as well as figure out some basic skills like buying food and interacting with other people his age. Shin starts to fill in his social gaps once he arrives; he rescues a couple of girls from a group of thugs, and becomes instantly and hopelessly smitten with one of them.

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