An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Month: August 2021

At the Bottom of the Rabbit Hole – Qualidea Code Spoiler Review

What makes a show good? There are a lot of potential answers to that. Some shows are good because of their casts, groups of characters with loads of humanity who you love to watch. Others are good because of their plot, delivering an engaging narrative that you want to see through to its conclusion. Others can be good because of their visuals, especially action and choreography. Some even reach quality more for their worldbuilding than anything else.

But, one thing people attempting to make a good show sometimes miss is that while a show can be good for any of these reasons, it won’t be good if that one reason is the only thing it has going for it. The other important elements have to at least hit some level of basic competence or everything will break down.

Enter Qualidea Code, a show that tries pretty hard to build something good with its twists and scenario, but which does it on a foundation of sand thanks to utterly lacking many other points along the way.

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Shifting Themes – Magi: the Kingdom of Magic Spoiler Review

So, the first season of Magi had its own sort of charm. We followed characters on a grand adventure, with both harrowing journeys and deadly dungeons to be had. The second season is… a little different. We’ve got the same characters and even some very similar and familiar Arabian Nights style scenarios, but the focus has shifted, putting more emphasis on both social drama and personal struggles than on high-flying action.

And, you might be thinking that sounds somewhat like the Balbadd arc in the first season, the long and draggy arc in the middle of the show that left an overall bad taste. And in the most generic sense, you’d be right, so the question is how they try to make it work this time around.

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Arabian Nights, Fantasy Days – Magi: the Labyrinth of Magic Spoiler Review

What do you think of when the Fantasy genre is mentioned? I suppose it probably depends on the context, but most people probably have a picture of something at least vaguely reminiscent of period Europe. Knights, wizards, elves, dwarves – all that stuff made popular by JRR Tolkien and E. Gary Gygax. Even today, huge swaths of the fantasy genre evoke that very general setting and its themes.

And yet, there’s another extremely famous and resonant pillar of the genre that doesn’t fit, and more likely gets sort of regarded as its own thing: The Arabian Nights, a collection of stories with their own themes and conventions that are very much fantasy (depicting a world of magic, monsters, and the like) in a sort of timeless setting, but not one that’s really like the typical European fare. There are a few excellent examples of films, shows, or other retellings centered around the Arabian Nights, but they’re certainly less common.

And, given that the Arabian Nights setting doesn’t really get its due in the West, its particularly fascinating to seen it done justice in anime, here in the Magi series. You may recognize the names, but the story is something new or at least newer.

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Time to Fail – RErideD: Derrida, who leaps through time Spoiler Review

If my last two reviews hadn’t been so generally positive, I’d feel like I was picking on Takuya Satou. In case you’re wondering, he’s the man who directed Steins;Gate and Selector, and who also directed this week’s charming little paradox, RErideD.

Believe it or not, he’s not the only great talent to work on this show. The character designs are from Yoshitoshi ABe, who also did the character designs for Serial Experiments Lain and just about everything for Haibane Renmei, a show that I consider to be an all-time great. This makes a pair of incredible people who have done incredible work, stepping up to the plate in their successful fields. That means this show should be good, right?

You’d think so, but no.

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El Psy Congroo – Steins;Gate Spoiler Review

So, Steins;Gate… I’ve talked about the Science Adventure series before, and brought up this show many other times. On one side, it’s amazing that I haven’t given it a proper review so far, but on the other hand it does feel something like a formality. So, in a sense I want to treat this almost as more of a tour: an introduction to this show for newcomers and an attempt to break down why it works so well.

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