An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Category: Anime Reviews

Rushed Testament – A Certain Magical Index III Spoiler Review

Now we come to the (chronologically) last entry in Academy City’s anime run. I left this one for last not because of its place in the timeline, though, but rather because it has some critical differences with its predecessors, and those show in a big way.

On the surface, Index III shares the structure of I and II. It’s a two-cour show and can be fairly easily broken down into a set of arcs, each of which deals with a new crisis, to a greater or lesser degree. However, it’s adapted from a good deal more source material than the previous seasons, and it’s done by compression.

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Antihero Testament – A Certain Scientific Accelerator Spoiler Review

A Certain Scientific Accelerator is, to an extent, the black sheep of the shows set in Academy City. It’s only 12 episodes, and it consists of only a single arc. The character designs are a little different, and the tone is a good deal darker – not that more bad things happen here (Index and Railgun have their fair share of losses), but the emotions evoked are typically more bleak. What’s more, A Certain Scientific Accelerator stars, of course, Accelerator. And Accelerator is a character who, after his first encounter with Last Order, still qualifies as an antihero at best, compared to Railgun and especially Toma who are fairly straightforward heroic characters.

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Awesome Testament – A Certain Scientific Railgun (Seasons 1-3) Spoiler Review

So, A Certain Magical Index is the kind of series you don’t expect a consensus on. Some people are going to hate that it’s the type of show you can turn your brain off for, others will love it. Some people are going to hate how much effort it goes through to explain every spell and power, others will enjoy the technobabble and mythical references. Some will love the main character as a comedy victim and appreciate his ability to be a badass despite also being kind of a moron, others will despise how he always gets into contrived situations and never understands anything. One thing that most people seem to agree on, though, is this: Mikoto Misaka, aka Railgun? She was pretty cool. Not only is she a spunky, sporty, tsundere middle-schooler with top-tier power (making her fun), she’s also got one of the best and deepest emotional arcs in all of Index with the Sisters arc. And, for her well-deserved popularity, she was granted her own spinoff: A Certain Scientific Railgun.

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Academy City Testament – A Certain Magical Index (Seasons 1 & 2) Spoiler Review

Well, it’s back-to-school time again, and this year we’re going to be looking at one of the biggest schools in Anime, Academy City.

In terms of what’s got shows, Academy City is the setting for three separate shows with seven seasons of material between them: three seasons of A Certain Magical Index, three seasons of A Certain Scientific Railgun, and one season of A Certain Scientific Accelerator. The series as a whole is typically referred to either as RailDex (after Railgun and Index) or Toaru (after the common word translated as “A Certain” in the titles), but it’s also easy to think of them by their common setting.

So, what is the setting and, for A Certain Magical Index, what is the story?

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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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How about a nice game of Wixoss? – Selector Spoiler Review

So, Selector, what even is it? Depending on who you ask it’s either one show with two seasons, or a one season show, Selector Infected with a one season sequel, Selector Spread. Either way it’s also, if you believe it, a card game tie-in anime; it released concurrently with the card game WIXOSS, making the game in the show more or less real, similar to what was done a decade and a half earlier with Yugioh. While WIXOSS never achieved the international success of its predecessor (perhaps because its first western release is scheduled for this November, several years and formats after Selector), it’s very much an actual game and is still going strong.

Especially in the West, game tie-ins are seen sort of as poison when it comes to cinema or shows, what with the stigma around video game movies and the inability of Magic: the Gathering to launch any sort of film endeavor despite over two decades of popularity and several surprisingly good novels and fun comics (and plenty of trash ones too). Even anime isn’t immune. I can’t deny that when a show’s derived from a game, it’s generally working uphill, and that’s with video games that have stories to provide. Some are hits while others… aren’t. The closest famed thing to what WIXOSS was attempting with Selector would, of course, be the Yugioh anime, but while it’s extremely successful and certainly a beloved show I’ve always gotten the impression that it’s loved more for cheesy fun than held up as actual quality storytelling.

Despite this, I was told up and down that Selector was different. It was good on its own. Selector Infected WIXOSS, that’s the tabletop game tie-in that really works as an anime. Well, curiosity got the better of me at last, so it’s time to look at Selector.

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