An American Writer's Thoughts on Japanese Animation

Delay of Game – When Will Ayumu Make His Move? Spoiler Review

Shogi. Shogi never changes.

When Will Ayumu Make His Move? (the title is curious) is, like last week’s lamentable offering, a show about Shogi, a storied chess-like game endemic to Japan, regarding which I will not retread my previous introduction. Specifically, it’s a show about fresh high-schooler and former Kendo club star Ayumu Tanaka joining the Shogi club. Why? Because he’s fallen head over heels for its president (and only other member), Urushi Yaotome. However, Ayumu is resolved to not confess his feelings until he can prove himself by beating her in a game of Shogi.

Sounds harmless enough! Let’s have at it!

Read More…Read More…

Foul Move – The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! Spoiler Review

Ah, Shogi. Shogi is a chess-like table game (sometimes called “Japanese Chess” in the West) with a long and storied history. Notably, compared to Chess, Shogi is seen as a much more complex and difficult game, both for computers and for humans. The reason for this is that Shogi, unlike chess, is not purely reductive in nature. That is, rather than being gone forever, captured pieces can be deployed instead of moving, thus preserving the complexity of the game well into the late game and generally preventing draws and stalemates.

Thus, Shogi matches often take many hours, even multiple days when masters of the game play against each other. It’s a fascinating topic with history and, like any good game, its share of drama and determination.

According to The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! (the title is excited), it also includes little girls, crazy chuunis, and various other bizarre personages. Let’s watch it!

Read More…Read More…

A Different Shade of Isekai – Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar Spoiler Review

Once upon a time, the Isekai subgenre was… kind of a different beast, where the standard model both of introduction and of the setting and story that the transported character would be dropping into had not yet formed. I’ve touched on pre-formula Isekai before, with shows like 1996’s Vision of Escaflowne, but after last week’s entry, I’m in the mood for a little more.

Enter Tenchi Muyo! War on Geminar (the title is excited in the first half). Being from 2009, War on Geminar is more recent than you might expect for its brand of Isekai. Certainly, the infamous Truck-kun was already well into his reign of terror, and the formulas that the original run of Shield Hero would work to freshen up or KonoSuba parody in just a couple of years were established. But it has something of a pedigree, acting as one of the many spin-offs of Tenchi Muyo!, which first debuted in 1994. And as such, it has a somewhat more retro outlook on its genre. This also tracks with it being an OVA, featuring post-watershed media standards and fairly arbitrary episode lengths.

The question is, has this aged like fine wine… or fresh milk?

Read More…Read More…

World of Mehcraft – Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody Spoiler Review

Into every anime viewer’s life, a little Isekai must fall. Wait, no it doesn’t. You can leave. Turn your back on today’s schlock and watch whatever you want! Or you can go all in, I’m not your mom. What I am is a reviewer, and into every reviewer’s life a little Isekai must fall. My conceptual umbrella has gone unused for far too long, so today we’re going to look at Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody.

I’m not going to ask for much, I just hope to Haruhi it’s better than Smartphone.

Read More…Read More…

The Brilliant Detective in the world of the Id – ID:Invaded Spoiler Review

Normally, I try to have quite the preamble to these reviews, but this time I’m going to keep it short: ID:Invaded is a mystery taking place where it’s possible to use technology to dive into the subconscious of a serial killer in order to find clues about their identity or whereabouts. The rub is that those doing the dive do so as amnesiacs, taking up the role of brilliant detectives per fiction… and also, that they must be killers themselves to even try.

But you won’t know most of this, or really any of it, as the show starts.

Read More…Read More…

Press F to Pretend to Emote – Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst Spoiler Review

Why do video game animes suck?

I know that’s something of a loaded question in that it presupposes the suckage, but the evidence seems to bear that out. Not counting outings that primarily have Visual Novel DNA (that’s more of its own thing, and has led to some outright great shows), I’ve reviewed a fair number of based-on-a-game or Game Tie-In shows, and there’s only one outlier I recall that scored higher than mediocrity.

To me, it’s a baffling question as to why this seems impossible to get right. At first the hypothesis that taking away interactivity and control from an interactive medium would do it seems promising, but between the Let’s Play phenomenon and the fact that video games are a legitimate storytelling medium with many examples of powerful or emotionally effective writing over their history, that can’t seem to be the case.

We should be able to get not just acceptable but awesome game-based animes. Unlike the world of film, the twelve (or more) episode format lends itself to the long running nature of many classic and effective games, and animation can replicate the wonder and style of fantastical worlds without bringing a major studio to its knees. But whether it’s common production issues or some nasty factor lurking beneath the surface, it seems as though we’re doomed to get failed outing after failed outing.

So, without any further adieu let’s at least dissect MMO tie-in Magatsu Wahrheit: Zuerst and see what’s wrong with this one.

Read More…Read More…