An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Category: Anime Reviews

A Watchable Genius in War – Alderamin on the Sky Spoiler Review.

I’ve talked, previously, most notably in my review of Guilty Crown (And the Audio Commentaries) about the difficulty of having a genius character, particularly a genius with superior tactical and planning skills germane to the story they’re in, in a major protagonist role. However, despite the difficulties, it is actually possible to have a schemer character be well-written, effective, and not bring the show down around them. I submit as evidence Ikta Solork, and Alderamin on the Sky.

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The Color of Pain – Black★Rock Shooter Spoiler Review

It’s going to be hard to talk about Black★Rock Shooter without first addressing what this even is.

Like the Mekakucity Actors and the Kagerou Project as a whole, Black★Rock Shooter is a multimedia franchise with its roots fairly deep in Vocaloid music. In this case, though, the first thing was actually just a piece of art, depicting the character Black Rock Shooter (You don’t pronounce the star, so I’m dropping it when referring to the character), which quickly inspired a vocaloid song that the artist collaborated to create the video for. Because its absolute base is much more nebulous, different Black★Rock Shooter properties, unlike different KagePro properties, can have not just meaty differences but entirely different premises and concepts. Because of that, I need to specify that I’m speaking only about the 8-episode television Anime.

That out of the way, let’s dive in.

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When I’d Rather be Reading a Card Game Tie-In Novel from the 90’s… – Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary Spoiler Review

A strange title, I know, but I’ll get to it. First, it’s time to take a look at Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary itself. Funnily enough, it’s also based on a game, one out of a massive series of RPGs. But don’t worry if you’ve never heard of the Xuan Yuan Sword series or the particular game this show is “based on”. I hadn’t, and from what I’ve looked up about it after the fact it doesn’t really seem to have much in common with what’s on the screen.

Set in a fantasy world that resembles a mythical version of ancient China, Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary follows a trio of characters who had their village destroyed by the burgeoning Taibai empire. Sisters Yin and Ning escaped, though the younger sister, Ning, lost her arms in the process. Meanwhile, Zhao, a boy that both sisters had a crush on and who had deep feelings for Yin himself, was taken by the Imperial forces to serve as a slave. Zhao assumes he’s the only survivor of his people, and the sisters similarly think they’re alone and that Zhao was killed like the rest. Years later, exceptional circumstances drag the three back together on opposite sides of a major conflict.

Sounds like the recipe for some high drama, doesn’t it? But even the best recipe can fail if the execution is botched, and the execution in Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary is… a problem, to say the least.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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