An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Category: Anime Reviews

I really wanted to make a Chain pun but I guess there was a missing link – Gleipnir Spoiler Review

Gleipnir, in Norse mythology, is the unbreakable chain that holds the wolf Fenrir, fine as a silken ribbon yet stronger than iron. What does this have to do with an anime about a boy who turns into a super-powered mascot suit and an assortment of other weirdos who got bizarre and sometimes creepy transformation powers from an alien living in a vending machine? I’ll be honest, while I could probably make up an answer, I haven’t a clue as to what the real one is. And that, I think, helps illuminate both the strengths and weaknesses of the show, a topic I’ll come back to at the end

The first thing you might come to know about Gleipnir is that it is, according to some, fairly derivative of Mirai Nikki. At least, that’s something that I heard from a lot of sources including friends and other reviewers, and briefly thought myself in the first two episodes. Usually, it wasn’t in the most flattering terms. But, having made it through the whole thing, I find myself disagreeing, at least about Gleipnir being truly derivative, or a knock-off. I certainly understand how someone could come to that conclusion: there are points on which Gleipnir seems to want the comparison, down to its opening recreating, with its leading lady, Clair, the famous image of Yuno Gasai on the rooftop in red and shadow that’s found in the first opening of Mirai Nikki. But, on the whole, I think that while some comparison between the two is important, Gleipnir is more different than it is something living in a predecessor’s shadow. Delving into that comparison seems as good a place as any to start with the show.

Read More…Read More…

A Show That Exists? – Granblue Fantasy (Season 1) Spoiler Review

A curious thing happened as I sat down to write my review for this week. I knew there was a show I’d intended to review, but for the life of me I could not remember what it was. I knew I had to have made note of it somewhere and so I looked, and I saw… Granblue Fantasy?

Granblue Fantasy?

Ah, right! Granblue Fantasy. I certainly saw a show by that name. It had characters, and a plot, that much was certain. And, um…

Okay, I’ll cut the comedy routine here. The point is that I didn’t find Granblue Fantasy particularly distinctive or memorable. In many ways it’s actually remarkable how standard it really is, so much so that I could quite easily refer to the characters and moments by the archetypes they evoke or the better characters from other media whose notes they’ve seemingly copied. Yet, at the same time, can I really consider it to be that bad, or worth scorn? Is it like Hundred where the laziness is insulting and noxious, or is it more like Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, where being a largely unremarkable expression of a genre is just that, unremarkable?

Read More…Read More…

Sci-fi Pacifism and Hope – Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet Spoiler Review

In the future, Humanity has abandoned Earth, lost ages ago. Of the many colony ships that departed earth, only one is now known to remain, menaced constantly by spaceborne biological terrors. We follow a young mecha pilot as he sets out to protect his home from the enemy’s tentacles.

Wait, that was the pitch for Knights of Sidonia. Silly me, getting them confused. The pitch for Gargantia is… um, exactly the same setup, actually. But we’re only in space for half of the first episode. This time our main character sorties against the enemy, gets thrown through a hyperspace bypass, and crash-lands into a whole new world and a very different plot.

Read More…Read More…

Sci-fi Militarism and Conspiracy – Knights of Sidonia Spoiler Review

In the future, Humanity has abandoned Earth, lost ages ago. Of the many colony ships that departed Earth, only one is now known to remain, menaced constantly by spaceborne biological terrors. We follow a young mecha pilot as he sets out to protect his home from the enemy’s tentacles.

Sounds simple, right? As a setup, it promises some cool space battles, at least. Perhaps it otherwise sounds a little scarce or cliched, but it could still hold up. Remarkably, Knights of Sidonia reaches well beyond the ‘comfort zone’ of being in a robot fighting aliens and seizes a good deal more of what makes Science Fiction great.

Read More…Read More…

A Train Wreck of Fanservice, Comedy, and Drama – Omamori Himari Spoiler Review

Imagine if you will a scenario like Shakugan no Shana, where a normal boy is introduced to a world of demons that will be trying to kill him with a super-powered girl at his side to protect him while he learns the ropes of the Urban Fantasy nightmare he’s in, but with added Harem elements and a much steamier romance in general. It could turn out pretty impressive, and in fact there are a few shows, such as Trinity Seven, Brynhildr in the Darkness, and most Trigger productions, that successfully navigate being both full of good fanservice and high drama. The ratios vary but it absolutely can be done and it does reap rewards when a creator pulls it off. As with just about anything else, there’s not a qualitative problem with fanservice existing; you execute it with skill and it can and will be a net positive.

On the other hand, imagine if you will a scenario like Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs, but with a more consistent plot and several incidents like the one with the dragon. That could be pretty good. Yuuna could have borne more weight than the fluff it was, and you might be more invested in the characters if you occasionally saw them in more harrowing situations than misapplied love potions or clothes-dissolving fiends. As long as it never loses sight of the fact that it’s pretty goofy at heart (the way Yuuna doesn’t even through the Dragon arc), it could play well to have a little extra meat.

These two possibilities do seem to be approaching a middle point, but when they meet it’s less a joining of separate ends of a continuous spectrum and more a collision of freight trains moving opposite directions on the same track. Omamori Himari is that train wreck.

Read More…Read More…

Mediocrity with a Twist of Twists: A.I.C.O. Incarnation Spoiler Review

A.I.C.O. Incarnation (or AICO, as I’ll call it from here on) is a near-future science fiction adventure where groups of mercenaries on roller skates infiltrate a river valley filled with hostile killer goop in search of valuables. This sounds like it should be completely creative and insane, but instead what we get is a fairly standard and small scale harrowing journey with forgettable characters and few strong ideas that it can call its own. The question is not whether it’s great or terrible – it isn’t. The question becomes whether or not it is sufficient.

Read More…Read More…

Into the Nasuverse – Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works Spoiler Review

Let’s get this out of the way: I’m looking at, and only at, Unlimited Blade Works, the anime. I will not be considering any other Fate routes or properties or any other components of the Nasuverse in this review. I will also get out of the way that I’ve alluded to Unlimited Blade Works before, using it as something of a benchmark for super-powered action. So part of this review will be setting the record straight regarding a topic I can’t help but reference.

For those who don’t know, Fate/Stay Night, including Unlimited Bladeworks (UBW for short), is a sort of Urban Fantasy death game where a small selection of wizards conjure the spirits of heroes of myth, legend, and history (categorized by “classes”) to do battle and claim the wish-granting Holy Grail. Like most good death games, things aren’t what they might seem to be at first, but it will take a while to get there.

Read More…Read More…

An Exercise In Pain – Kiznaiver Spoiler Review

Normally, I don’t pay much attention to the particular studio behind a given show – I honestly couldn’t tell you what companies produced a lot of my favorites. But one credit that will make me sit up and take notice is the involvement of Studio Trigger. The reason for that is that a lot of Trigger productions, perhaps all of them, share a few traits, meaning that there’s more of the Studio’s style mixed in with the particulars of genre, writers, director, talent, and so on. Not that other studios don’t bring specialties to the table, but Trigger’s inclinations are obvious and loud. Perhaps it’s because Trigger favors original productions, meaning they have a lot more in-house creative control over most of their project than do adapters of Manga and Light Novels that already have a well-defined look and feel from their source material.

Trigger Anime shows are, without exception in my particular experience, arguably defined by excess. They’re bright, colorful, and loud. They cram in a ton of story, some uniquely bizarre visuals, usually a good lot of action, over-the-top characters, weird high concepts, and probably a hearty or heavier serving of fanservice as well. Even their most mellow and down-to-earth efforts are high flying and bizarre by the standards of others. I’ve joked at times that Trigger shows almost seem to be written by the corrupted cores from Portal 2 – there’s a deep thirst for adventure, a willful disconnect from the universe and “fact” as others know them, and they will often find a way to go to space for their climax. When they’re good, they’re amazing. When they’re bad, they’re still amazing, just in a very different way.

That should tell you that, despite the fact that I can usually enjoy the ride, not every Trigger show is a winner. In some ways that makes it even stranger that it’s taken me this long to get around to reviewing one of their productions, but in any case now is the time to rectify that oversight. And thus, we’ll be taking a look at Trigger’s attempt to play against type while still playing exactly to type, Kiznaiver.

Read More…Read More…