An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Category: Anime Reviews

It’s a Video Game Adaptation and That Explains Everything – God Eater Spoiler Review

When I first watched God Eater, I didn’t know the source. Being left with some constructive questions, I discovered the truth, that it was based on a Video Game, and that honestly changed a good deal of my opinion. So, perhaps it’s best not to look at this as an anime so much as a twelve-episode trailer.

God Eater takes place in a world where humanity has been pushed to the brink of extinction by the arrival of beings known as Aragami. The Aragami are beasts that simply spawn into existence, have no biological needs that would seem to limit them, are pretty much invincible to conventional weapons, and pretty much seem to exist to desolate the world and mess up humans. You know, the full package.

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Imuto Mystery Theater – Nakaimo: My Little Sister Is Among Them! Spoiler Review

So, here’s the pitch for this anime: Shogo Mikadono is the heir to a powerful corporation. With his father’s passing, though, one hurdle stands between him and his inheritance: his father’s wish to secure the line by having Shogo find a bride before he’s done with high school. Thus, Shogo is sent off to a new school with the secret mission of acquiring a partner in his time there. However, he’s contacted by a girl claiming to be his sister (though he sees himself as an only child) who comes off as… potentially dangerous and stalker-ish, as well as infatuated.

It’s a pitch that could go a lot of ways. My Little Sister Is Among Them! (or Nakaimo for short) just had to pick one and attempt to execute that vision.

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Streaking Shinto Magical Girls? – Matoi the Sacred Slayer Spoiler Review

Matoi the Sacred Slayer is a magical girl show where, say it with me, a teen girl gains mystical powers that allow her to transform into a prettied-up super state, and with which she’s able to fight monsters that secretly threaten humanity. In short, it’s got the same pitch as just about every other action-skewed Magical Girl show. What’s Matoi’s unique claim to fame?

Well, the show seems to want you to notice that when she comes out of magical girl state, she does so nude. So at least we have that.

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Pick A Card, Any Card (As Long As It’s Major Arcana) – Day Break Illusion Spoiler Review

Well, this month I’ve reviewed shows in the vein of Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, two of the backbone shows for my first Magical Girl May… might as well take on one that’s trying to be Madoka, right?

Enter Day Break Illusion, a show that seems to be taking design notes and tonal pointers alike from Madoka Magica. But this one has Tarot cards? As pitches go, I’ve seen worse.

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Ctrl-Alt-Conjure – Modern Magic Made Simple Spoiler Review

What defines a magical girl show? In my mind, there’s not exactly one silver bullet element that is true of all Magical Girls and not of anything else, but there is a cluster of traits where a show should have at least a sizable chunk to be considered.

Modern Magic Made Simple is a work that will often appear on lists of Magical Girl anime. That’s how I found it, to begin with. And in the defense of that categorization, the main characters are all girls and they do wield magic. However, in my mind, Modern Magic Made Simple belongs not really to the Magical Girl theme or genre, but rather to the broader canon of Young Adult Urban Fantasy, specifically Masquerade Urban Fantasy.

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Mew Mew Moe Magical Girl Environmentalism – Tokyo Mew Mew New Spoiler Review

Have you ever wanted to watch Sailor Moon, except instead of the operatic drama you’re up for more general cuteness and maybe a side of 90’s style environmental hand-wringing? If so, Tokyo Mew Mew (New version) may be for you. It’s got all the sparkly transformation sequences, all the monsters of the week and a lot less of the theater, darkness, and intelligence.

That, however, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad show; it’s a different show with different appeal, so I’m hoping to try to look at it in its own context, even if some comparisons are going to be inevitable. Please note as well that this review is solely of Season 1, being written before the release of the second season, much less any viewing of it.

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Note to Self – Orange Spoiler Review

The awkwardly-titled and specifically-styled Orange is a show about a 16-year-old girl, Naho Takamiya, who receives a letter from her 26-year-old future self, detailing moments that the older her regrets, with instructions for how to make different choices and hopefully avoid living haunted by what she did or didn’t do in those days. As pitches go, it’s a very compelling one.

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Why? To Sell Toys, Of Course! – Frame Arms Girl Spoiler Review

Some franchises exist primarily for merchandise. In all honesty, there are certain time periods and genres (like older Mecha shows) where this is true even of strong and well-respected properties. I’m also no stranger to product tie-ins in my reviews, having covered a couple of card game tie-ins, the lamentable Luck and Logic and the surprisingly effective Selector.

None of the entries I’ve yet addressed, though, are quite as blatant about the “Buy our stuff!” angle as Frame Arms Girl. For those who don’t know, Frame Arms Girl is a line of plastic model kits. They’re a spinoff of the Frame Arms series, which is a line of mecha model kits featuring a poseable endoskeleton (the Frame) and easily interchangable or kitbashed shells of armor and weaponry (the Arms) intended to let modelers create their own custom robot action figures. The Frames Arm Girl line is the same idea, but with Mecha Musume (a concept I talked about when reviewing LBX Girls) as its main theme, rather than straight-out robots, offering a variety of girl bodies as well as their attendant armor, weapons and many, many interchangeable parts (around 200 in a single kit, if the manufacturer is to be believed).

In all honesty, it’s a pretty cool idea… but that doesn’t necessarily translate to the anime shilling it being any good.

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