An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

No Sanity Is To Figure In The Story – The Detective is Already Dead Spoiler Review

The Detective is Already Dead seems like the kind of show with an obvious premise: it’s literally in the title. So, this should logically be a detective story where, instead of having a brilliant Holmes-style character, that individual is a stiff. Bereft of life. Rests in peace. And instead we have the Watson, the Lestrade, or whoever else can trying to fill in some big, empty shoes when the need for a detective arises.  Maybe we’ll even try to solve the murder of said detective!  Wouldn’t that be an interesting premise?

Unfortunately, I don’t think logic has much of a place in this show.

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Delay of Game – When Will Ayumu Make His Move? Spoiler Review

Shogi. Shogi never changes.

When Will Ayumu Make His Move? (the title is curious) is, like last week’s lamentable offering, a show about Shogi, a storied chess-like game endemic to Japan, regarding which I will not retread my previous introduction. Specifically, it’s a show about fresh high-schooler and former Kendo club star Ayumu Tanaka joining the Shogi club. Why? Because he’s fallen head over heels for its president (and only other member), Urushi Yaotome. However, Ayumu is resolved to not confess his feelings until he can prove himself by beating her in a game of Shogi.

Sounds harmless enough! Let’s have at it!

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Foul Move – The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! Spoiler Review

Ah, Shogi. Shogi is a chess-like table game (sometimes called “Japanese Chess” in the West) with a long and storied history. Notably, compared to Chess, Shogi is seen as a much more complex and difficult game, both for computers and for humans. The reason for this is that Shogi, unlike chess, is not purely reductive in nature. That is, rather than being gone forever, captured pieces can be deployed instead of moving, thus preserving the complexity of the game well into the late game and generally preventing draws and stalemates.

Thus, Shogi matches often take many hours, even multiple days when masters of the game play against each other. It’s a fascinating topic with history and, like any good game, its share of drama and determination.

According to The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! (the title is excited), it also includes little girls, crazy chuunis, and various other bizarre personages. Let’s watch it!

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A Different Shade of Isekai – Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar Spoiler Review

Once upon a time, the Isekai subgenre was… kind of a different beast, where the standard model both of introduction and of the setting and story that the transported character would be dropping into had not yet formed. I’ve touched on pre-formula Isekai before, with shows like 1996’s Vision of Escaflowne, but after last week’s entry, I’m in the mood for a little more.

Enter Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar (the title is excited in the first half). Being from 2009, War on Geminar is more recent than you might expect for its brand of Isekai. Certainly, the infamous Truck-kun was already well into his reign of terror, and the formulas that the original run of Shield Hero would work to freshen up or KonoSuba parody in just a couple of years were established. But it has something of a pedigree, acting as one of the many spin-offs of Tenchi Muyo!, which first debuted in 1994. And as such, it has a somewhat more retro outlook on its genre. This also tracks with it being an OVA, featuring post-watershed media standards and fairly arbitrary episode lengths.

The question is, has this aged like fine wine… or fresh milk?

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