An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Arabian Nights, Fantasy Days – Magi: the Labyrinth of Magic Spoiler Review

What do you think of when the Fantasy genre is mentioned? I suppose it probably depends on the context, but most people probably have a picture of something at least vaguely reminiscent of period Europe. Knights, wizards, elves, dwarves – all that stuff made popular by JRR Tolkien and E. Gary Gygax. Even today, huge swaths of the fantasy genre evoke that very general setting and its themes.

And yet, there’s another extremely famous and resonant pillar of the genre that doesn’t fit, and more likely gets sort of regarded as its own thing: The Arabian Nights, a collection of stories with their own themes and conventions that are very much fantasy (depicting a world of magic, monsters, and the like) in a sort of timeless setting, but not one that’s really like the typical European fare. There are a few excellent examples of films, shows, or other retellings centered around the Arabian Nights, but they’re certainly less common.

And, given that the Arabian Nights setting doesn’t really get its due in the West, its particularly fascinating to seen it done justice in anime, here in the Magi series. You may recognize the names, but the story is something new or at least newer.

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Time to Fail – RErideD: Derrida, who leaps through time Spoiler Review

If my last two reviews hadn’t been so generally positive, I’d feel like I was picking on Takuya Satou. In case you’re wondering, he’s the man who directed Steins;Gate and Selector, and who also directed this week’s charming little paradox, RErideD.

Believe it or not, he’s not the only great talent to work on this show. The character designs are from Yoshitoshi ABe, who also did the character designs for Serial Experiments Lain and just about everything for Haibane Renmei, a show that I consider to be an all-time great. This makes a pair of incredible people who have done incredible work, stepping up to the plate in their successful fields. That means this show should be good, right?

You’d think so, but no.

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El Psy Congroo – Steins;Gate Spoiler Review

So, Steins;Gate… I’ve talked about the Science Adventure series before, and brought up this show many other times. On one side, it’s amazing that I haven’t given it a proper review so far, but on the other hand it does feel something like a formality. So, in a sense I want to treat this almost as more of a tour: an introduction to this show for newcomers and an attempt to break down why it works so well.

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How about a nice game of Wixoss? – Selector Spoiler Review

So, Selector, what even is it? Depending on who you ask it’s either one show with two seasons, or a one season show, Selector Infected with a one season sequel, Selector Spread. Either way it’s also, if you believe it, a card game tie-in anime; it released concurrently with the card game WIXOSS, making the game in the show more or less real, similar to what was done a decade and a half earlier with Yugioh. While WIXOSS never achieved the international success of its predecessor (perhaps because its first western release is scheduled for this November, several years and formats after Selector), it’s very much an actual game and is still going strong.

Especially in the West, game tie-ins are seen sort of as poison when it comes to cinema or shows, what with the stigma around video game movies and the inability of Magic: the Gathering to launch any sort of film endeavor despite over two decades of popularity and several surprisingly good novels and fun comics (and plenty of trash ones too). Even anime isn’t immune. I can’t deny that when a show’s derived from a game, it’s generally working uphill, and that’s with video games that have stories to provide. Some are hits while others… aren’t. The closest famed thing to what WIXOSS was attempting with Selector would, of course, be the Yugioh anime, but while it’s extremely successful and certainly a beloved show I’ve always gotten the impression that it’s loved more for cheesy fun than held up as actual quality storytelling.

Despite this, I was told up and down that Selector was different. It was good on its own. Selector Infected WIXOSS, that’s the tabletop game tie-in that really works as an anime. Well, curiosity got the better of me at last, so it’s time to look at Selector.

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Chuuni Dreams – When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace Spoiler Review

You’ve seen the story before: All of a sudden, some high school students gain fabulous secret powers, giving them radically more agency. Really, this can be anything, from mechas to magical girls. It doesn’t matter – the point is that you have this setup where people who at least know each other and possibly are somewhat close are thrust into a new and more wonderful adventure.

What if they weren’t?

Thrust into an adventure, that is. What if a bunch of teenagers gained supernatural abilities but no world-threatening evil or really anything else to do with those abilities actually appeared, and the group had to just go about their lives, now with powers? As you might have guessed, you’d get When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace.

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