Episode Summary: The military government rules over Japan with an iron fist. The one place allowed a bit of freedom is Kabukicho, which remains a hotbed of adult entertainment. Hosomichi is a host at a host bar, banking on his own inability to be insincere to the customers, though in reality he’s barely eking out a living. When the authorities discover hidden messages from the underground rebellion buried within the code of a bootleg eroge, the trail leads back to Kabukicho. This, of course, means that the hammer of authority must come down hard.
Hosomichi finds himself in a pretty tight spot until he’s approached by an apparently pilotless mecha. When he takes refuge inside and dons VR goggles, he finds himself face-to-face with an odd little super-deformed character whose moods seem intimately tied to the way in which the mech is powered. Hosomichi is dead-set against indulging this strange creature’s whims, but when push comes to shove he allows some of his latent otaku past to show itself and is able to successfully fight back. It’s only after the encounter that he learns his cartoonish companion actually represents a real-life battery girl who’s none-too-pleased with his behavior.
Episode Summary: It’s the year 2061. For years, Japan struggled under a declining birthrate and economy, which made it a ripe environment for outside countries to take advantage of beneath the guise of offering aid. Now, the different factions battle one-another using unmanned battle units called AMAIMs. Amou Shiiba is an orphaned Japanese citizen – a member of the underclass – who works as a scrapper, collecting remnants of broken AMAIM units. His friends use the spare parts to upgrade their personal electronics and vehicles, but Amou has a much larger project in the pipeline – a full suit of AMAIM battle armor he happened to find sitting in an abandoned warehouse.
When the authorities catch wind of Amou’s scrapper group, his comrades are captured and used to try to lure Amou out of hiding. But what these colonizers fail to realize is that Amou has a trump card. After finding an abandoned AI unit named Gai in the woods with the know-how to bring Amou’s AMAIM online, he now owns one of the only manned units around. And human thoughts and reflexes, coupled with AI information, seem to be a powerful force that might turn the tables against the factions that have taken over Japan.
Episode Summary: 19 years ago, a disaster destroyed cities and infrastructure all over the world. Now people struggle to afford food and essentials as the planet is continually attacked by invaders. Hayato Jin, pilot from the original Getter team, has spent the past several years attempting to develop a new robot (and a pilot) who can manage a win against these deadly enemies, but has thus far been unsuccessful. His most recent creation, Getter Robo Arc, requires three pilots to bring out its full power, and thus far he’s only been able to find one whose body can endure the strain piloting it causes.
It’s seemingly by chance (though it’s possibly by premonition) that Takuma Nagare and his companion Baku Yamagishi encounter one of the failed Getter prototypes once its pilot has been defeated. Piloting Getters runs in Takuma’s blood; his father Ryouma was the leader of the original Getter team. Takuma is also incredibly sturdy, which turns out to be a boon once he faces off against a member of the alien forces. But he can’t defeat it alone. It takes Shou Kamui, a half-dinosaur hybrid whose body can withstand the punishment of piloting Getter Robo Arc, to come to Takuma’s aid when the situation becomes grim. Could these two pilots working together possibly be the answer that Jin has been seeking?
Story Summary: The world is peaceful on the whole, but in the lives of its inhabitants, there is discord. Minami is a girl with the reputation of being a tease. She asks boys out and then drops them like yesterday’s garbage, leaving in her wake a trail of hurt feelings. Her friend warns her to stop making promises she can’t keep, but Minami’s noncommittal answer tells the whole story. Meanwhile, Yomogi, an earnest kid, meets a strange man underneath a bridge. This oddball, who calls himself Gauma and claims to be a “kaiju user,” is starving, and it’s Yomogi’s leftovers from lunch that rescue him from that fate. Gauma vows to repay the favor. The opportunity comes a few days later when Minami hones in on Yomogi as her next target. Gauma can’t stand to see his new “friend” get toyed with, but whatever words he has for Minami get put on the back-burner when a kaiju starts attacking the city. Gauma’s rantings about kaiju and such turn out to be more real than anyone may have suspected, when he draws forth an entity called “Dynazenon” to fight back against the kaiju. Minami, Yomogi, and a bystander are suddenly embroiled in the fight of their lives.
It’s always a good day for anime, so I’m moving forward with the other couple of new episodes from last Friday. I’m pretty pleased with my progress thus far. I always have it as a goal in my mind to watch the first episode of a series before the second one airs. I nearly never achieve this, but I keep hoping to at some point. I’ll say it outright – I’m a perfectionist in certain ways, and the way that manifests when writing about new anime is that, once I fall behind, I feel like it’s hopeless to try to catch back up. I’ve missed out on some good viewing opportunities because of this, because I end up moping and don’t have enough time to watch all the anime I would like to.
I can’t really say that this time will be entirely different, but I’m doing a lot to try to work on my attitude and refocus if I start to get off track. For example, I would have liked to have had the previous post up on the site on Tuesday, but I was feeling ill and couldn’t manage to finish it. But I used some break time on Wednesday to fix it up and post it without dwelling too much on the feelings of inadequacy that tend to creep in when these things happen.
This might not really be the proper place to talk about this, so I might write a separate post down the line. I’m just thankful and happy when people read and enjoy my writing, no matter when it gets posted.
Well, as I’m writing this it’s definitely been an interesting couple of days in the United States. To be honest, it took a day or two to get enough sleep to feel like I could pay attention to an entire anime episode and write coherently about it. I think there are some folks who can use media to escape from whatever happens to be going on; my anxiety is just too terrible to let up for 25 minutes so I can take in an anime episode. But I’ve been wanting to watch anime, so I’m going to give it a try and see how far I get.
Most folks will notice that the look of the blog has changed; while I wasn’t really planning to switch things up at this very moment, a friend let me know of some image compatibility issues that were showing up on the mobile site so I figured it would be a good opportunity to make a change to my very out-of-date theme. I may be tweaking things in the coming days, but this is pretty close to what I wanted.
Note: There is a small spoiler for Hortensia Saga in its review. It’s one of the main conceits of the series and if you’re looking closely enough you can identify it on your own (even though the show itself is not keen to call it out directly), but I know more than one person who missed it until participating in discussions afterward, so if you’d rather go in completely blind you can skip the second review in this post.
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
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.
On a planet far from Earth, there is a kingdom full of smiling faces. Princess Yūki is 12 years old, and about to enter a sensitive age in a person’s life. Everyday, she cries, laughs, and sometimes, her heart throbs with excitement. All the while, she lives merrily in the royal palace. Filling her days with color are her loyal vassals: her tutor Reira, Izana who assists in political affairs, the leader of the chivalry Harold and then, there is her childhood friend and aide Joshua. Stella is 17 years old and a capable, reserved soldier. However, she is always smiling for smiling is essential to living. – ANN
Episode Summary: Princess Yuki, at the age of 12, has come of age and can now take a more active role in running her country in the place of her late parents. She’s a kind-hearted person and the new, expanded workload is taxing, but she seems to have a knack for decision-making that relies on her kindness and fondness for the people around her. One day she’s challenged by a member of the military order named Yuni. Though the questioning turns out to be a set-up and Princess Yuki impresses with her answer, her aide and childhood friend Joshua steps in and asks Yuni for a duel.
The duel takes place within a VR simulation, so nothing tangible is at stake; still, Joshua and Yuki prove that their close relationship is worth more than the number of soldiers on their side. After this, Joshua and company leave on a diplomatic mission to the border with Yuki’s message of friendship. But what Yuki doesn’t realize (and what the delegation hopes to keep from her) is that there’s a violent conflict raging. Can the delegation protect the Princess’s precious smile?
A Japanese mecha otaku dies in a car accident and his soul is reincarnated into another world as Ernesti Echevarria. Eru inherits memories and interests from his previous life, and aims to be a pilot of a Silhouette Knight, a large humanoid weapon that really exists in his world. – ANN
Summary of Episode 1: Kurata is a programmer who always gets the job done, even when it’s crunch time and it doesn’t look like his team will meet their deadline. He’s also a big fan of mecha anime and has an entire room in his apartment devoted to his model collection. Unfortunately, once he’s killed in a hit-and-run on a rainy night, his model-making hobby is over for good. Or is it? As luck would have it, Kurata’s spirit is reincarnated into the body of a child noble named Ernesti “Ernie” Echevalier. Better yet, the world in which Ernie lives is one filled with magic, as well as mecha-like apparatuses called “Silhouette Knights.” With his adult-like maturity and interest in mecha, Ernie manages to work his way into the top of his class and eventually positions himself to become a pilot. But demons are starting to run amok. Will Ernie’s cleverness and penchant for inventing things be the factor that turns humanity’s luck around?
Impressions: First of all, let’s get this out of the way and then never speak of it again: what is up with the apostrophe in the show’s title? It’s been causing me a lot of heartburn. Maybe Japanese creators could just agree to employ the services of a native English speaker from now on so that we can all avoid any future hair-pulling punctuation flourishes.
Kurata’s last moments. Copyright 2017 (c) 8-Bit
Just like every other storytelling trend, the fantasy subgenre of “Isekai,” in which a modern day individual is transported from their home into another world (the word literally means “another world.” It makes sense!) has been expressed in so many variations lately that it’s beginning to seem a little bit stale. More often than not, it feels like the trope is used solely in the service of stroking the male ego – “I’m an otaku who knows how these alternate worlds work through my extensive knowledge of fantasy media and games, so the elves, demi-humans, and other female denizens of this realm will certainly fall in love with me!” There are obviously many variables in both specific details and relative quality, and it’s not like this is a new phenomenon or one solely limited to male characters (in fact, some of the earlier examples I can think of featured young women drawn into worlds with groups of hot bishounen suitors), but it’s been very one-note as of late. So what does it take for something with a stock premise to stand out?
One good example I watched some of within the realm of recent memory was The Saga of Tanya the Evil, which reincarnated its adult male protagonist into the body of a young girl and turned its story into a philosophical debate about the existence of God. For every high-minded and creative attempt, though, there are several Sword Art Online clones, as well as wildly-popular but ultimately unsatisfying and problematic examples like Re:Zero. More often than not the genre is used as a setup to portray a teenage male power fantasy, paving the way for the protagonist to experience undeserved privilege (due to his knowledge of fantasy and/or video game tropes) and the adoration of an endless parade of cute but vapid female suitors. So where does this example seem to fall?
Ernie gets the opportunity to see a cockpit up close. Copyright 2017 (c) 8-Bit
The answer, for now, seems to be that it’s somewhere in between. There are several good things going for the show from the get-go, the primary one for me being the protagonist’s seemingly bottomless enthusiasm regarding his new and strange situation. Kurata/Ernie, for his part, seems to be so thankful to have been reincarnated into this brand new world that the loss of his previous life, job, and faithfully-curated mecha model collection, doesn’t haunt him too badly. It’s presented as if whatever deity running the universe has presented Kurata with some kind of consolation in exchange for cutting his life short. Rather than be all entitled about it, he interprets this chance as a gift to live a life that he’s dreamed of. Ernie might be unnaturally talented for his age due to his soul’s fortuitous foreknowledge of technology and ability to solve problems quickly and creatively, and this could easily have been used to portray him as arrogant and superior. But he’s so gosh-darned thrilled to learn about the Silhouette Knights and to study magic that it’s difficult not to get caught up in the whirlwind of his joy. His relationship with the Alter siblings and their shared penchant for learning, increasing their magical skills, and using them to aid others is nice as well.
The age of the primary characters also helps to set the tone of the show – the protagonist and his cohorts are all about middle-school aged, which is helpful in keeping them from seeming too self-important. They’re not yet concerned with looking cool and pretending that the issues of the adult world are somehow also their burdens to bear. They’re just kids – precocious ones, certainly, but also enthusiastic and guileless. They’re not yet concerned with the opposite sex in a way that makes many anime feel skeevy. Cool toys and friendships are paramount; other responsibilities can wait.
A Silhouette Knight puts down an evil creature. Copyright 2017 (c) 8-Bit
The show’s attitude and presentation could definitely carry it forward for a while, but it will certainly need to be coupled with other compelling elements and whether that part will be successful is difficult to predict from this episode alone. The building blocks of the story seem pretty typical so far – monsters are starting to show up more often, in greater groups, and much closer to human civilization than is comfortable, and our heroes will likely play some part in finding a unique way to put them down and thus save humanity. The show takes place in a vaguely medieval fantasy setting, its one distinguishing factor being that this world is inhabited by giant magical sets of armor – ambulatory due to magic and a human pilot inside, of course – that resemble the mecha that the protagonist is so fond of. Obviously one unique feature does not a memorable TV anime make, so while the mecha twist is kind of fun in and of itself it will have to reach further eventually.
I do like the overall look of the show so far, even the extreme shininess of Ernie’s hair (seriously, so shiny…). At this point it seems almost a given that mecha elements will be created through the use of CG, and I’m okay with that; the CG elements mesh well with the 2D portions pretty well. There are also some examples of really good traditional animation in the character acting during the episode’s fight scene between the evil creatures and students. Going in I had expected this to be a more simplistic and generic production, so it was a pleasant surprise to me that it was well put-together.
I might sound a little curmudgeonly at times when it comes to popular anime and anime trends, but one thing I like about myself is that I’ll still give something new a try even if I might not expect it to be all that interesting. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised when I do. I don’t think this is AOTS-material, but it might be something fun to watch and it seems to have its heart in the right place, at least.
Pros: The show has a good visual presentation. The enthusiasm of the protagonist is infectious. The show puts a slight spin on the isekai model.
Cons: The majority of the building blocks are pretty typical; it will have to do everything really well to stay compelling.
