An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Category: Anime Reviews

Gods, Names, and Weirdness – Kyousougiga Spoiler Review

I’ll come out and say this at the start: Kyousougiga might be the strangest anime I’ve seen to date. It’s not that any particular element is too far beyond bizarre (though many of them are pretty out there), but it is odd in just about every way. Because of that, I’m not exactly going to be able to look at it with the same linear plot recap I normally do, and will instead have to dig in carefully. It’s a short show, and it is a good show (I think) so if you want to experience the ride for yourself, now’s your last warning that you’re in a spoiler review.

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Trigger Does Social Drama – Brand New Animal Spoiler Review

What do you expect when you’re told that there’s a show, by Studio Trigger no less, about a girl who mysteriously turns into an animal person and so travels to a city fully of animal people in search of the truth, ultimately getting wrapped up in a conspiracy? Sounds like pretty on-brand madness, right?

BNA surprised me. It does, ultimately, have the fingerprints of the studio all over it, to the point where I don’t think that it’s really out of place in their filmography, but there’s ultimately a lot more to it.

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In the Panties of Madness – Koi Koi 7 Spoiler Review

So, stop me when this sounds crazy: The show opens with two girls on a bicycle being pursued by a pair of attack helicopters, only for the biker girl to take out the helicopters (which are also operated by teen girls) with a rocket launcher and a lightsaber…

For the sake of this joke, and because I want to believe that it would be true, I’m going to imagine you’ve stopped me there. Welcome to Koi Koi 7. Haruhi have mercy on your soul.

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Review Slot: Conquered! – World Conquest Zvezda Plot Spoiler Review

Here I go diving into a show without a whole lot of story again. Zvezda Plot is ironically rather plotless, and has a staggering disconnect with anything resembling proper reality… and I kind of love it for that. It’s an original production that you would think could only come out of the fever dreams of Trigger (though oddly enough it’s by A1 Pictures) that has a little grade school girl trying to take over the world as the main hook and just gets goofier and goofier from there.

Because the story is so light, I’m actually going to go through this one by characters instead of chronologically. Just remember: if you’re ever asking yourself “Is that really…?” the answer is “Yes.”

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There is Now a Level Zero – Little Witch Academia Spoiler Review

Little Witch Academia is a show with an interesting history. It first started as a half-hour special, introducing us to the major characters and at least a version of the world. Later, the funding was achieved to produce another, longer special which fleshed out much more of a setting and introduced some new characters. It didn’t really contradict anything in the original, but it did evolve the material significantly.

They’re not the main thrust of this review, but I think it’s important for background to cover them quickly.

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Your Mileage May Vary – Vividred Operation Spoiler Review

Vividred Operation is a weird one for me. The first time I tried to watch it, I quit part-way through Episode 2. The reason for this is probably the reason it’s got a fairly poor aggregate, and why a lot of viewers will also be dissuaded from getting through the show: The fanservice is intense, and if that doesn’t bug you on its own it’s worth noting that it’s mostly loli fanservice. Like most Magical Girls, the leads in Vividred Operation are in middle school, and unlike a lot of Magical Girls (especially ones that get fanservice-heavy treatments) at least some of them, notably the main character Akane, are drawn to look on the younger end of that and still get a lot of shots focused on their rear ends.

To be fair, the show lets you know this pretty much from frame one, when one of the first shots of the show does the James Bond style “Scene between the legs” shot with one of the girls. The show does, frankly, tone it down a little over time (I guess they assume they’d hooked the audience they wanted to hook) but it never goes away, with even that particular shot coming back a couple times.

If that’s going to filter you, you can stop now. If not, what do you actually get for going through the whole show? Honestly, a very heartfelt, legitimate, and well-constructed Magical Girl show.

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Metal Hands & Human Hearts – Violet Evergarden Spoiler Review

Violet Evergarden is one of those shows that you’ve probably at least heard about if you’re the kind of person who’s reading this blog. It’s fairly recent, the anime releasing in 2018, but it caught just about everybody’s attention and generally in a positive way.

And yet I went into this show basically unspoiled. I heard a lot of people talk about how good it was, but very little about the content. I wasn’t even certain, from what little I was made aware, if Violet was actually human or if she was some kind of robot. There might be a reason for that confusion.

In my opinion, there are two things that are really worth the hype in Violet Evergarden – the titular character, and the setting. Let’s start with those.

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Fire Breath to Warm the Heart? – Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Spoiler Review

So, you want a “Feel good fanservice” sort of piece – something like Helpful Fox Senko-san – but want it to be a little more high energy, like a traditional comedy. An odd wish, but there’s just the show to grant it: Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid!

The concept is about what you’d expect from the title. An overworked office worker, Kobayashi, finds herself the subject of the attentions of Tohru, a dragon, who assumes human form in order to serve as Kobayashi’s maid. Hijinx ensue, especially because Tohru may be unclear on concepts like how humans live and what maids are, while being a dragon with titanic destructive power.

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Misery & Redemption – The Rising of the Shield Hero (Season 1) Spoiler Review

Isekai is something of a touchy subject. It’s a simple concept, turned into a complex genre, which has then gained something of a bad reputation. And, I have to admit, the reputation is not entirely undeserved. Modern Isekai shows have a very tight list of genre tropes and expectations, which is why I called the genre complex. There are a ton of things that go into the common perception of an Isekai show. The style, the feel, the harem, the cheat ability, the power fantasy. And despite the fairly strict formula, these shows are everywhere. They’ve been mass-produced in recent years, and to an extent the torrent is still ongoing. With that kind of volume of shows that are so massively similar, it’s inevitable by Sturgeon’s Law alone that the average quality is going to be on the low end.

Perhaps because of this, most Isekai shows will have something about them that’s a good-faith attempt to be unique. They don’t have a lot of room while remaining perfectly in-formula, though, so in addition to a battery of ‘unique’ cheat abilities, you get shows that pick an element of the formula and either subvert it, or at least attempt to sell themselves on subverting it. KonoSuba, as a parody, is sort of the model for subverting just about everything, but more will just pick a trait. The Harem might be subverted by leaning more into romance, or the Power Fantasy might be subverted by going with the “starts out absurdly weak” trope (though these characters often become broken strong very quickly with powers that follow the Magikarp growth pattern, itself not really being a subversion of the power fantasy).

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