An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Month: March 2022

Seasonal Selection: Sabikui Bisco Episode 12 (End)

Exactly what we were promised by last episode is what gets put on the screen this time.

Really, there’s only so much I can say about this. All the pieces were in place. We had Bisco resurrected (though I suppose there’s the twist that he’s now some sort of hybrid with the Rust Eater, since he sheds spores that sprout into completed Rust Eaters with his now super-powered shots), we had Kurokawa as the God Warrior, and we had everyone else on scene.

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Super Robot versus Real Robot – Aldnoah.Zero Spoiler Review

There are, on the whole, two major wings of the Mecha genre. The “Super Robot” subgenre consists of shows where the Mechas and their pilots have magical powers and capabilities that often seem to run more on rule of cool than on anything resembling reality. One example would be Gurren Lagann, which frequently tells sense and logic to sit down and shut up, because the robots are going to do something awesome. That’s not to say that Super Robot shows can’t be serious or even dark. Neon Genesis Evangelion is also very much in the “Super Robot” bracket.

Then you get the “Real Robot” shows where mechas, even if technically still made less impractical than in reality as we know it, are treated more like standard war machines. They’re made of metal and powered by engines and nothing’s going to sprout a new ability because the pilot believes in himself. The mechas probably don’t have unique names or anything like that, and the protagonist can at least in abstract theory get a new one if they total the one they’re driving, even if they’d have a lot of customizing work to do to get it back the way they like it. Full Metal Panic lives pretty comfortably in this space, as do several of the more classic Mecha entries.

So, what happens if you put these in the same setting, forcing a Real Robot protagonist to fight against a variety of Super Robot bosses with their named mechas and might-as-well-be-magic powers? As you might have surmised from the title of the review, you get Aldnoah.Zero.

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Growing Harem Chronicle – Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle Spoiler Review

So, Fantasy Mecha is a thing. It’s certainly less popular than SF or Cyberpunk Mecha, but it is at least an established mash-up. Battle School also has its own established place, one that I’ve talked about a good deal. And, of course, into any other genre a little harem may fall. Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle is the shameless mash-up of all of this, a melting pot of mediocrity onto which light must, at this juncture, be shone.

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Seasonal Selection – Sabikui Bisco Episode 10

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a masterpiece. The movie more or less launched Studio Ghibli (since that’s what most of the team involved with it went onto become), and while it is quite strong, the Manga is leaps and bounds above even that, standing as one of the fictions I most absolutely respect. What I’m saying, in context, is that if you’re going to flagrantly steal from somewhere, you could do a whole lot worse than Sabikui Bisco lifting from Nausicaa.

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Isekai & Invention – Knights & Magic Spoiler Review

Without correcting for overall quality or removing material from the context of its genre, I can safely say that, in some ways, Knights & Magic is the most fascinating fantasy isekai show I’ve seen. This is not because of any sort of deep story or well-rounded character like Rising of the Shield Hero nor clever comedy and a deconstruction of the normal expectations like KonoSuba. Rather, it’s because this show is a broad-scale biopic of a historical figure in a fantasy universe that wears the skin of a fantasy isekai while telling its story in a completely different way. Is it a good thing? That remains to be seen, but it is a thing worth remarking on, so here we are.

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Retry of Star Driver – Captain Earth Spoiler Review

So, anyone who’s followed this blog for a while probably knows that I was… not a fan of Star Driver. For those of you just joining us, the long story short is that I found it to be a very pretty show that was done no favors by its cardboard heroes, confused villains, and flashy but very poorly choreographed action scenes. It wasn’t all bad, but for a show about protecting a girl from an evil organization in possession of a host of alien mechas, it was surprisingly boring, and I’ve often brought it up as a model of what not to do in an action show, as all the visual spectacle in the world couldn’t polish the structure that was underneath.

My first time through Captain Earth, I was eerily reminded of Star Driver. They used some shared conceits, had some similar elements of their story and episode structure, and a couple characters who at least looked the part of outright clones. And, it turns out, there’s a reason for that; Star Driver and Captain Earth were made by, essentially, the exact same people. The studio, the director, the guy on the script… all the same. Four years had passed (Star Driver releasing in 2010 to Captain Earth in 2014) but it seems like the band got back together to tell basically the same show all over again. The question is, then, did they learn from their mistakes or did they just reprocess their old work and slap a new name on the masticated remains of what already didn’t work?

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