An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Category: Anime Reviews

Sacrifice, Despair, Slice of Life, and Two Stories for the Price of One – Yuki Yuna is a Hero Season 2 (Washio Sumi & Hero Chapters) Spoiler Review

It’s been a while since the first time I talked about Yuki Yuna is a Hero. The basic takeaway was that it was very much a Magical Girl show that existed in the shadow of Madoka Magica in terms of its world and story structure, but that carved an admirable niche for itself, in large part with good use of lighter elements and slice of life to counterpoint the magical darkness of existence in the setting.

Apparently, Yuki Yuna did pretty well for herself, because that show ended up being the start of a fairly significant franchise, which returned to anime in the form of a second season split between two half-season long stories: the Washio Sumi Chapter, which tells the tragic tale of the first run that Mimori Togo (then known as Sumi Washio) and Sonoko Nogi had as heroes; and the Hero Chapter, which functions as a direct sequel to Season 1 of Yuki Yuna.

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Friendship Through Superior Firepower – Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Spoiler Review

When it comes to Magical Girl franchises, Nanoha is one of the big ones. Possibly not on the uppermost tier (it’s hard to say anything stands on the same level as Sailor Moon), but it’s both quite large, in terms of the amount of content that’s part of the franchise, and highly recognizable. Despite this, I didn’t address Nanoha in my first Magical Girl May block of reviews, and while I’m no longer focusing the month of May on historical retrospectives of the genre, I did feel somewhat remiss in that I didn’t say anything about Nanoha.

Well, if the best time to tackle this thing was the first time around, the second-best time is right now, so that’s what we’ll be doing, looking at the very first season of Lyrical Nanoha, the one that started it all for the sprawling Nanoha franchise.

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Cardcaptor Sakura in Fate/Stay Night’s Skin – Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya Season 1 Spoiler Review

So, this is a show about a grade school girl who discovers a magic staff and then learns that she has to harness the power of magic in order to gather a set of mystical cards that are currently incarnated as magical beings and causing trouble around her city. She has a crush on a high school boy known to her, her closest magical contact is kind of a self-important jerk sometimes, and she ends up competing for the cards with a rival her age who is initially overly serious but with whom she eventually becomes good friends.

Oddly enough, this girl is not Sakura Kinomoto. It’s Illyasviel von Einzbern, at least in the Magical Girl spinoff of the Fate franchise, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya.

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Cheerful Plunder – Bodacious Space Pirates Spoiler Review

Just saying the title of this one, “Bodacious Space Pirates”, puts you in a certain kind of mood, doesn’t it? High-flying adventures! Laser beams! Who gives a clipped penny about actual space physics? But sometimes you can’t entirely judge a book by its cover. Bodacious Space Pirates is a lot of fun, with the sort of positivity you would expect, but it does have its own themes and tone that’s a less manic chaos and more warm contentment. And I for one welcome that.

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In the Name of Fanservice – Isuca Spoiler Review

Back when I reviewed Omamori Himari, I may have mentioned that there was certainly room for a show that was similar to Shakugan no Shana, but significantly steamier, with a stronger lean towards the romance and possibly even a greater helping of ecchi fanservice to go along with it. Omamori Himari was a disgustingly incompetent show, failing any attempt it made to be just that. Isuca, on the other hand, at least comes a little bit closer.

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When the Wimpy Kid Joins the MIB – elDLIVE Spoiler Review

Last year, I reviewed DearS, a show with a premise that vaguely reminded me of a western film, in that case District 9. They ended up being pretty much nothing alike in tone, style, or content (more’s the pity), but it was an interesting comparison because it was, in some ways, like two students submitting different work for the same project.

When I started up elDLIVE, I was reminded of that experience because, once again, a 12-episode anime seemed to have the same setup as a pretty famous movie – in this case, Men In Black. For those who don’t know, Men In Black is a science fiction action-comedy about a relative normal who ends up recruited by a secret organization staffed by both exceptional humans and strange aliens, that polices the presence of aliens on Earth, handling crimes and cases related to the many extraterrestrial creatures that live secretly among us. And that is, basically, the idea behind elDLIVE as well.

If you’re one of the people who likes that I normally don’t curse in these reviews, you may want to skip this one. Sometimes, a bad word is the only way to describe something. That said, let’s dig in.

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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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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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