An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Month: February 2020

No Sharp Line – The Ancient Magus’ Bride Spoiler Review

There isn’t a sharp line dividing what some can find beautiful and what others might find troublesome, even sick. This goes double when it comes to romance, since different people approach the topic with different hangups, expectations, and auto-failure situations that won’t be shared universally. Some things will usually get a pass, and other things will usually be found disturbing. Sat right in the middle of the gray area between the two is the core romance of The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

Here’s the basic summary of the setup: Chise, a teenage girl, is bought at auction, as a slave, by an ancient and powerful inhuman sorcerer named Elias, who intends for her to marry him. Full stop. If you think that sounds like thirty-one flavors of wrong, I don’t blame you. If that sentence (run-on though it may be) is enough that you think you could never like this show… you might be right. For me, there are mitigating factors, but I blame no one for being unable to make it through episode 1 of this.

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Matchmakers Beware – Toradora! Spoiler Review

Toradora! (the title is excited) is the story of two high school students, Taiga Aisaka and Ryuuji Takasu, who encounter each other and learn that they each have an unrequited (for the time being at least) crush: Taiga on Ryuuji’s best friend Yuusaky Kitamura and Ryuuji on Taiga’s best friend Minori (“Minorin”) Kushieda. The two agree to attempt to play mutual matchmaker, but end up getting closer with and falling for each other in the process.

That really doesn’t sound like it would fill 25 episodes, does it? Mercifully, though, the slow-burn romance actually manages to work, and stay engaging for the show’s run. How does Toradora! do it?

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The Fuzzy (Funny?) Line Between Genius and Idiot – Kaguya-sama: Love is War Spoiler Review

Back when I was in High School myself, a certain gym teacher presented what he called the “Circle of Intelligence” or, depending on when he was talking, “Bad Synapse Theory” The idea was that instead of the spectrum between the genius gifted kids on one side and the complete morons on the other being a straight line, it was an almost-complete circle, with only a small gap between the poles. Someone who was average would be average basically all the time, but the kids on the extremes (mostly framed as the geniuses) could have one synapse fire wrong and momentarily leap across the little gap to the other pole.

It’s a silly little picture born, no doubt, of observing kids with perfect grades and limited practical skills, but that does happen now and again, especially when someone who is legitimately smart gets a little arrogant about it and trips themselves up with their own brilliant plan. And, having seen “The Geniuses’ War of Love and Brains” in Kaguya-sama, I’ve got to say that gym teacher must have had fun watching it happen, because that’s pretty much the premise that keeps the comedy going here.

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We Have Cute Redheads. Are you not entertained? Is that not why you are here? – Quintessential Quintuplets Spoiler Review

Some day I’m going to stop using that Gladiator reference, but that day is not today. Not when it so accurately expresses the nature of unpretentious mediocrity like Quintessential Quintuplets. This is a show that most certainly isn’t high art… but it’s not trying to be high art, it’s trying to be somewhat entertaining, to make half an hour of your time a little better. As such, it seems kind of silly to hold the show accountable for not being something it never tried to be. In cases like this, the end product will, admittedly, never make an A-rank grade… but it can still be judged between the lower brackets based on how well it accomplishes what little ambition it has. And since its February, a month the West dedicates to romance thanks to Geoffrey Chaucer writing a few lines about birds, we’re going to take a look at this one.

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Seasonal Selection – In/Spectre Episode 4

This week, our episode is dedicated to clues!

Which is to say, we are primarily concerned with the facts of Karin Nanase’s life and death, facts that will be very important to be aware of as we attempt to unravel (or something like that) the case of Steel Lady Nanase. We know her impressive bust saw her scouted, but the little fame she had came from a good break and quick wit. We also know that she had some trouble in life, with a rumor circulating that she had been responsible for the otherwise ruled accidental death of her father who resented her. This caused her to go on a temporary hiatus that lasted for the rest of her life, for reasons of being crushed by a steel beam in an empty lot near the hotel she was staying at.

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