An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Category: Magical Girl May

Start Your Engines – Wish Upon the Pleiades Spoiler Review

Some series exist to push product. It’s true in Western animation and it’s true in Anime as well. Usually, the product in question is some manner of toy; I’ve covered a fair number of anime shows based on card games or plastic models, so this blog is no stranger to the sometimes desperate product tie-in side of the art form.

Yet even given that, Wish Upon the Pleiades is weird. Subaru – the car company – apparently decided that they needed an anime outing to their name, and got Gainax of all studios to put it together for them, first as an ONA in 2011 and then as a full-run show in 2015. The latter is what we’re looking at today.

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Second Quest, First Anime — Blue Reflection Ray Spoiler Review

Let’s talk about feelings.

But not any specific feelings. Feelings in abstract. The idea of feelings. Let’s ride the fine line between deeply exploratory science fiction and outright Care Bears as we treat feelings, categorically, as well-defined things and not aspects of mood, situation, personality, or so on.

And let’s make this talk at least somewhat interesting by having magical girls battle over the outcome. Let’s talk about Blue Reflection Ray.

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What. – Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror Spoiler Review

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror is a show about a girl called Yohane, who is trying to make it big as a pop idol when… let me start over. Yohane the Parhelion is a show about a girl called Yohane trying to fit in in her small town home, alongside her giant talking wolf… let me start over. Yohane is a show about a fantastical world with mythical beings, talking animals… one talking animal… magic music and… hold on, I think I need to start over again. This is a show about the bonds between a group of special young women and how they can hope to dispel a dark magical calamity threatening their town, and… You know what, I’ll try the simple version.

Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror is a show. Let’s talk about it.

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Streaking Shinto Magical Girls? – Matoi the Sacred Slayer Spoiler Review

Matoi the Sacred Slayer is a magical girl show where, say it with me, a teen girl gains mystical powers that allow her to transform into a prettied-up super state, and with which she’s able to fight monsters that secretly threaten humanity. In short, it’s got the same pitch as just about every other action-skewed Magical Girl show. What’s Matoi’s unique claim to fame?

Well, the show seems to want you to notice that when she comes out of magical girl state, she does so nude. So at least we have that.

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Pick A Card, Any Card (As Long As It’s Major Arcana) – Day Break Illusion Spoiler Review

Well, this month I’ve reviewed shows in the vein of Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura, two of the backbone shows for my first Magical Girl May… might as well take on one that’s trying to be Madoka, right?

Enter Day Break Illusion, a show that seems to be taking design notes and tonal pointers alike from Madoka Magica. But this one has Tarot cards? As pitches go, I’ve seen worse.

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Ctrl-Alt-Conjure – Modern Magic Made Simple Spoiler Review

What defines a magical girl show? In my mind, there’s not exactly one silver bullet element that is true of all Magical Girls and not of anything else, but there is a cluster of traits where a show should have at least a sizable chunk to be considered.

Modern Magic Made Simple is a work that will often appear on lists of Magical Girl anime. That’s how I found it, to begin with. And in the defense of that categorization, the main characters are all girls and they do wield magic. However, in my mind, Modern Magic Made Simple belongs not really to the Magical Girl theme or genre, but rather to the broader canon of Young Adult Urban Fantasy, specifically Masquerade Urban Fantasy.

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Mew Mew Moe Magical Girl Environmentalism – Tokyo Mew Mew New Spoiler Review

Have you ever wanted to watch Sailor Moon, except instead of the operatic drama you’re up for more general cuteness and maybe a side of 90’s style environmental hand-wringing? If so, Tokyo Mew Mew (New version) may be for you. It’s got all the sparkly transformation sequences, all the monsters of the week and a lot less of the theater, darkness, and intelligence.

That, however, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad show; it’s a different show with different appeal, so I’m hoping to try to look at it in its own context, even if some comparisons are going to be inevitable. Please note as well that this review is solely of Season 1, being written before the release of the second season, much less any viewing of it.

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The Cardcaptor Returns – Cardcaptor Sakura Movie Spoiler Review Double Feature

If you’ve been following the blog, particularly the Magical Girl reviews, the idea may have gotten across that I have a great deal of respect for Cardcaptor Sakura. The original show may not have been quite as spectacular as some others, but it came together amazingly well given everything. As such, it was a topic that I was more than willing to revisit. While there is a sequel season, Clear Card, for now I’ll be addressing Sakura’s two feature-length outings, called simply Cardcaptor Sakura: the Movie and Cardcaptur Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card.

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