An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Month: September 2020

The Ecchi We’ve All Been Waiting For – Trinity Seven Spoiler Review

So, the “School for supers” archetype that we’ve been looking at this month has a few common elements. For one, the vast majority of them (including shows of the type I’ve looked at before, such as Hundred) have some degree of Harem elements. In a lot of ways, it’s very similar to what you see in the Isekai genre, where the same basic principles that are known to work are remixed in new ways with different trappings. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but in the end they develop a long set of expectations and turn out a lot of crowd-pleasing junk food, a good few generally disliked flops, and at least a couple gems at various stages in the genre’s popularity life-cycle.

One of the ways in which these shows distinct themselves from others of their type (if they’re smart enough to do that) is to focus on a different element of the formula. For Trinity Seven, the Harem and Ecchi elements that appear in other “Battle School” affairs are turned up to eleven. I said that Anti-Magic Academy worked better as a Harem show than it did as an action show, but its ambition was still firmly a hybrid, and given the dark tone and feel probably leaned more towards the weaker action side. Trinity Seven, by contrast, is all about that steamy Harem goodness, with some action and drama thrown in for good measure.

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Darker and Grittier Battle Harem – Anti-Magic Academy Spoiler Review

Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon is the story of Takeru Kusanagi and his misfit friends, a team of trainee witch hunters who may not assess well, but who end up thrown into harrowing situations where they can prove themselves. They’re students at the titular academy, where they learn and apply techniques to fight witches, people who use magic to threaten humanity. It’s a sometimes bizarre and usually dark take on the super-power battle-school scenario with a hearty side-helping of Harem elements. In some ways, there’s fairly little to talk about, while in others it’s absolutely worth a lengthy analysis, if for no other reason than to pick apart the underlying structure of its genre, and how its elements blend or don’t.

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Yes, I know – RWBY (Seasons 1-3/Beacon Arc) Spoiler Review

Many of you may be thinking something very particular right now. Specifically, something along the lines of “Wait, RWBY’s not an anime, it’s made in Texas!” And you’re right. By the technical definition used in the West of “Anime” being Japanese Animation, RWBY is not an Anime. However, even if you don’t take into account the massive amounts of merch and even the dedicated cosplay gathering for RWBY that would have been found at Anime Expo (in 2019), it’s undeniable that it’s appealing to a crowd that has a huge overlap with anime fans… and anyway, this is my blog, and I’m making up the rules for what I can or can’t write about. I’ll try to not bend the idea too often, but I think one moment to talk about the first few seasons of RWBY can be forgiven.

With that out of the way, let’s dive in.

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Seasonal Selection – Deca-dence Episode 10

Last time, with the destruction of the Gadoll Factory, Natsume had quite the question and received a world-shattering answer. She actually ends up hyperventilating and even passing out, being initially unable to take the truth of her world. I don’t blame her. Kaburagi removes her from the crumbling factory while the lab workers there fail to get their avatars to safety, with one being stabbed by a dying Gadoll with just the right amount of focus so you know what’s coming. Meanwhile, the real bodies of the surviving bugs do their best to escape the prison.

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Undead Robot Yandere – Unbreakable Machine-Doll Spoiler Review

It’s September, and you know what that means! It’s Back to School time! … er, at least it’s time for going back to school in Anime land (though for the same year) and other media, where schools neither obnoxiously start in August nor have the looming threat of a pandemic modifying their opening plans. In any case, I’ll be looking at some shows with school settings and themes this month. But, it won’t just be any schools: rather, I’d like to take a look at schools for superpowers, fighting, or otherwise protagonist badassery. And while I have a wealth of options, I might as well start with the Walpurgis Academy of Machinart and the show it appears in, Unbreakable Machine-Doll.

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1 Year Anniversary Special: Top 10 “Sad” Anime Moments

So, for the one-year mark of the blog, I’ve decided to do a top ten list! This time, it’s the top ten moments from anime that I’ve found darkly emotional. I titled the list as Sad, but Sad doesn’t quite cover it as when preparing the list I wanted to include some things that weren’t traditionally sad, but had more complex emotional profiles, hence the air quotes in the title. The scenes will include sorrow or crying on the part of the audience, but can also be ones that touched on fear or had you crying for reasons other than straight-up tragedy and loss. I did, however, have a couple rules. First, I had to be able to determine a fairly contained scene, rather than a longer sequence. At the very least, it needed to be contained to one episode in the end. Second, it did have to have some element of pathos, it couldn’t be a purely fear-inducing horror moment. Something in the scene had to be something that would make you cry. Third and finally, I both restricted myself to multi-episode shows rather than movies or one-off OVAs and also would not give more than a single mention to a particular property, even if it had many strong moments.

Now, I am not a review-bot who has watched every Anime in existence (shocking, I know!) and scenes that threaten to start the waterworks can be intensely personal. So if you think there’s something else that should be mentioned, either because I didn’t consider it or because it’s in something I haven’t spoken about… leave a comment! Let me know! Tell me about the scenes and shows that moved you. And, if you can, leave a comment as well telling me what you think about the “Top 10 List” format, and if this is something that should be an occasional feature.

All that said, while this list is intended to cover something of a spectrum, it does hit on a LOT of turning points and especially character deaths, so from this point forward, there will be spoilers. Consider yourself warned.

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