An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Month: April 2020

Awkward Inheritance – Aria the Scarlet Ammo Spoiler Review

The basic idea of Aria the Scarlet Ammo is simple: Our main character is Kinji Tooyama, who is enrolled in an academy for heavily-armed supercops called Butei. He’s not doing very well (not that he cares, he’s planning to drop out) but secretly possesses a special power: when he gets turned on, he enters a state called Hysteria Mode where he’s a chivalrous uber James Bond – Suave, hypercapable, and liable to say or do something that will embarrass Kinji later. He ends up paired up with the titular Aria, a Rie Kugimiya Tsundere who takes quick note of his moments of extreme ability but less so their trigger – typically her.

If this setup sounds like it’s going to provide a constant running awkward moment… it does. Depending on how you feel about that it could probably be the best thing since sliced bread or the 12th Circle of Hell. For me, it’s somewhere in between. I don’t enjoy awkward situations for their own sake, and typically think my tolerance is moderately low, but Aria mostly stayed within it, letting me have a good look at what’s going on underneath that.

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The Cooler Elfen Lied – Brynhildr in the Darkness Spoiler Review

Last week, I took a long look at Elfen Lied. Long story short… I didn’t particularly care for it. But there’s another show based on a manga by the author of Elfen Lied, one that I hear most people refer to as a knockoff of Elfen Lied, like it’s doing the same thing the way a lazy and uninventive sequel does: repackaged, reprocessed, and not as good as the first time around. So, since I was, to put it mildly, not a fan of Elfen Lied, you might think I’d have a bone to pick with Brynhildr as well.

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Seasonal Selection – Tower of God Episode 3

Another episode, another test. I guess simply qualifying for the Tower is going to be a meaty arc – there’s some promise that we might move on shortly, but all the same it’s been a good deal more than I would have expected from the pitch.

This, in turn, gives a good deal of artificiality to the Tower. Unlike The Abyss in Made in Abyss or many other mega-dungeons, even ones that have something like a man-made structure, there’s clearly an order and formality to the tower. Someone is clearly in charge, and the challenge is one set not by uncaring nature or divine providence but by human or human-like authority… which ties in to Khun’s previously stated interest to go full malicious compliance on the Tower, passing it (which means playing to win) but refusing to play the way the Tower intends.

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I Don’t Get It – Elfen Lied Spoiler Review.

Elfen Lied is a classic. By that, I mean that if you were a nerdy 90’s kid going to high school in the first half of the following decade or so, you were probably aware of a few anime shows by name even if you didn’t watch: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Beebop, Fullmetal Alchemist, and in all likelihood Elfen Lied would be among them.

Though I didn’t really get into anime until far later, at least in terms of shows rather than films like Princess Mononoke, that was basically my youth interface. I didn’t watch them owing to trouble finding copies or catching the right time slot in the days before streaming (with the exception of FMA –I watched it and in those days, we really believed its greatness was the world’s one and only truth) but I knew them by reputation, and their reputations were all more or less sterling… but to be taken with a grain of salt seeing as they were generated largely by other youths. Since really becoming a full fan of the art form as an adult, I’ve gone back now and then and watched the big names of the past with fresh eyes, as though to frighten away the ghost of so many years ago with a little understanding.

Some titles, such as Evangelion, have largely held up. They were praised then and they deserve praise now. Others, well… Others are Elfen Lied.

I try to not cuss in these reviews, but this time I make no promises.

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Seasonal Selection – Tower of God Episode 2


Welcome to exposition, and something of a meaningful change in tone. The episode starts with the stare-down between Khun (the blue-haired dude), Rak (the giant lizard man), Bam, and the strange multi-eyed creature that Bam was prepared to fight. Rak intends to hunt strong prey to make himself stronger, and has figured Bam for his mark since he’s recognized Bam’s sword. Khun also recognizes it, and takes an interest in Bam because he’s curious. Khun’s interest is very different; he’s taking a pacifistic approach to the number-reduction trial, preferring to make allies and wait out other people killing each other down to 200.

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The Semicolon Seal of Fun – Robotics;Notes Spoiler Review

I imagine this was fairly expected given the April Fools’ Day “review” of Gunvarrel, but we’re going to take a look at Robotics;Notes this week. And I know March is over and my arbitrary Mecha theme with it, but while Robotics;Notes is at least tangentially related to mecha I don’t exactly see it as a Mecha show in the same vein as the ones I reviewed. As seen through Gunvarrel, that sort of stuff is still fictional in-universe. Instead, Robotics;Notes functions more as near-future science fiction story that just happens to include some giant robots.

It’s also one of the members of the “Science Adventure Series”, or “Semicolon Series” based on the idiosyncratic style of the titles (note, this one is “Robotics;Notes”, with a semicolon and no space. They are all like that.), the most famous of which would have to be Steins;Gate. The main entries, including Robotics;Notes, are adapted from Visual Novels and feature a shared universe. What’s more, they also share some general traits when it comes to storytelling. The members of the Semicolon series start off with a general sense that we’re feeling strange people in an essentially real world. Some have darker or lighter baselines than others, but they tend to have a turn somewhere in there that catapults the story from personal drama to the world or at least regional scale in terms of what’s at stake. They tend to be a solid blend of Science Fiction, Mystery, and occasionally Thriller in terms of their genre, but are seldom short on funny (or at least fun) moments, thanks to fairly colorful casts. They overall try to be pretty grounded, and while the science fiction that they present isn’t exactly hard the presentation is extremely artful when it comes to convincing the audience that this is something that could happen. Part of this comes from the tendency of the series to lift elements of its plot and science fiction components from the murkier corners of the real world, including psuedoscience, conspiracy theories, unexplained mysteries, and scientific wishful thinking about unproven properties of the universe. The audience is likely to be passing-familiar with some of the topics, or at least to have heard of them, possibly even in terms that lend credence to the show’s take.

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What Last Episode? – Gunvarrel Spoiler Review (April Fools Review)

APRIL FOOLS! Gunvarrel doesn’t actually exist – it’s a fictional show referred to in Robotics;Notes, and I used the references in the actual anime to create that “review”, which should be accurate to what’s known or believed by the masses in-universe. Interestingly enough, Robotics;Notes is set in 2019-2020, so the following review of Gunvarrel can also be seen as me working “in character” as though we were living on that World Line. I’ve added this disclaimer to the start and the one in the title now that the day has passed, but otherwise the review below remains unedited for your reading amusement.

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