An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Cast In The Name Of God Ye Not Reviewed (or; It’s Showtime Somewhere!) – The Big O Spoiler Review

So, after a certain little show came out , it was rather popular for mecha shows to have a psychological or philosophical bent, rather than just acting as vehicles to sell toys or model kits. Not that they couldn’t still push merch in a lot of cases, but lots of folks wanted to cash in on the success of what remains one of the most dominant anime franchises. We’ve seen entries like this before, most particularly RahXephon, the 2002 attempt to do… exactly what its predecessor did.

In 1999, however, we got a series that did clearly aim somewhere in the same spectrum, but that was also clearly doing its own thing. The Big O clearly owes some to Evangelion, but it’s also drenched in film noir and presages Demonbane more than it does RahXephon.

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Vampire Space Wizard Mecha – Valvrave the Liberator Spoiler Review

“The Tale of Sephiroth Goku” is an odd little piece of work. Effectively a parody of anime produced in 2011 by a very bored Lets Play commentator as the story of his “D&D character from [his] favorite animes”, it’s an oddly fun to listen to pastiche of direct references, bizarre genre conventions, and dead horses (and unicorns, having never been real) to beat. The whole thing is less than the full ten-minute runtime of the video that contains it – most of it is in the last four minutes – but it jams in a hilarious amount of plot summary and reference.

In 2013, Kakumeiki Valvrave (Valvrave the Liberator) appeared, apparently as an attempt to bring the Tale of Sephiroth Goku to the screen without actually violating any copyrights. As an attempt to properly represent a stream of consciousness nonsense from the internet it’s… wait, I was supposed to take this thing seriously? And it’s got two seasons?

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The Clothes Make The Romance – My Dress-up Darling Spoiler Review

Well, here we are at the end of Feburary, taking a look at one more show with romance in its DNA. Like Tonikawa this is also a fairly recent show with a second season announced. In fact, the first season is less than a full year old at this point. Sometimes I find it odd to review a show where I think “I could have done that as a seasonal entry” but here we are with time marching inexorably forward.

Don’t let that fool you into thinking My Dress-up Darling is otherwise like Tonikawa, though. Tonikawa was a rather soft slice of life with hints of magic. My Dress-up Darling is a fully reality-grounded ecchi comedy. For being well-regarded recent romances, they actually have surprisingly little in common.

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Well, at least it asks nicely – Onegai☆Twins Spoiler Review

Well, it’s still Feburary, the month that tends to get dedicated to romance, so let’s look at a very strange little love story about a boy and the girls who might or might not be his twin sister – Onegai☆Twins (or “Please Twins!”, which I refuse to use translated because it’s awkward to construct sentences around). It’s less taboo than it sounds.

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The Moon Maiden and the Man Named Nasa – Tonikawa Spoiler Review

Slice of Life edging towards Slice of Nothing hits a little different when its intentional, doesn’t it? Shows like Tonikawa (short for “Tonikaku Kawaii”, which translates to something like “generally cute” and which can also be referred to as “Fly me to the Moon” after its subtitle or “Over the Moon for You” after its English subtitle), as well as others I’ve reviewed in the past, prove that you don’t always need a fancy story with a lot of drama happening in order to carry a show. It’s just if you don’t have that, you need to know what you’re doing and generate the proper pace and atmosphere to support it, unlike last week’s topic of review.

So, what’s the premise of Tonikawa? In short, it’s about a couple that get married essentially as soon as they meet. Those of you versed in late 90’s sitcoms may already be groaning (depending on your taste), but this story really is ultimately its own.

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