Walt invites Joe and Jonathan to look at some supernatural themes Josei one-shots, including one about storms, another about deals with the devils middlemen, and one with a fridge Joe suggested that turned out to be the only interesting thing. Also, Joe and Walt have been catching up with Urasawa and Tezuka. Jonathan read a yuri manga from the Gantz guy. Seems about right.

Click the title card below to listen to the episode!

We continue into this slog f a season, enjoying the few things we can enjoy, while also having to deal with light novel garbage and yoga practicing anime girls. Oh joy. What managed to stay good, and did anything manage to become better than runny garbage left in the hot sun? And how many more shows were dropped?

Read on!


Dropped Shows

• Chivalry of a Failed Knight (Danni, One episode)
• Hacka Doll: The Animation (Danni, Three episodes)
• Hakone-chan (David, Two episodes)
• Shomin Sample (Stephanie, Three episodes)
• Young Black Jack (David, Two episodes)

Main Shows

Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon
Jonathan Kaharl

Continuing with the two-parter character spotlight arcs, we now get to learn more about Usagi, and this is where the series starts to highlight its greatest strengths and greatest weaknesses. I like that the series doesn't waste time, and the action bits are well done, especially how the characters communicate in tense situations. I like just how much trust they all have in each other, and how they can all play their roles for the team so well. Usagi saving Otori was a legitimately great little scene, as was a side character revealing to the arc's witch that she could tell who she was the whole time. This all works.

The problem is everything else.

Now, to be fair, at least the writer can connect the dots properly and explain why characters act the way they do. The problem is he keeps trying to tackle heavy subject matter, and he is just bad at it. Every villain in this series so far is cartoonishly evil, and Usagi's fiance and abuser is no exception. He has such a psychological grip on her that he causes her to go into life threatening panic attacks just being around him, he keeps referring to her as a possession, ect. Worst yet, he uses the memory of Usagi accidentally killing her brother when trying to stop him from using a gun unsupervised to control her. He's been doing this since she was a kid. Also, he slaps her sometimes. Seeing Usagi bite a chunk out of his neck was incredibly satisfying, but it also shows a symptom of a larger problem with this series, not helped by the newest magic user being so utterly cocky and pathetic.

All villains are evil in ways that can't be believed, and they quickly wear out their welcome. They're amusing scum suckers at first, but none of them have any goals of serious interest. It's always about tormenting some girl they have an obsession for, or in the case of one character, just getting their body back. All of these characters are losers and exist solely to get the crap kicked out of them, and it's soooooooooooooooooooo boring. It doesn't help that the series is just awful at exploring abusive relationships and tries to shoehorn in sex gags where they don't belong. The entire series is a tone deaf mess, sometimes entertaining, sometimes groan inducing.

But at least I can say that I have a character that I genuinely like now. Usagi's development here really shows why she's such an important part of the team, and she actually gets to tell her abuser to fuck off in the best possible way. Now if only we could have had all that without the fucking attempted rape scene. Every light novel writer who uses this scene needs to be punched in the face. The only thing keeping me going is the knowledge is that this series will eventually lose its mind. IT BETTER. And what the hell happened to the animation? Come on, Silver Link, you're better than this.

No Recommendation

Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA
Danni Kristen

It's amazing how Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA managed to have its worst and best episodes back-to-back. One episode was a cross between hilariously and painfully bad, while the other was an incredible and hilarious barrage of gay. The first episode consisted entirely of a battle between a team of Akari and her friends against a team of Urara the ojousama and her lackeys. Essentially, the battle was a game of capture the flag with guns. Almost nothing of significance happened the entire episode. Akari captured Urara's flag by driving a moped at it. Urara tried to literally kill Akari by shooting her in the head. A mysterious figure used a Rube Goldberg machine to cause a whole construction site to collapse and nearly kill everyone. Akari apparently has electrical powers that she used to save Urara's life. It was a very dull episode.

This episode struck me as incredibly rushed. Despite being an action-heavy episode, there was incredibly little animation at all. At least a fourth of the episode consisted of frames of girls silently standing on top of buildings and staring into the distance. Fight sequences were incredibly slow-paced and boring as fuck. The climactic sequence had me rolling with laughter at how bad it was. Akari slowly climbed onto a moped and rode at Urara's flag. She drove by Urara incredibly slowly and all Urara did was turn around and watch her in horror. She could have literally jogged over there and held the moped in place. It was going so slow. Also, there were a LOT of far away sequences used, presumably because there's less to animate the farther away the perspective is. There was quite a bit of CG used to animate objects that normally would've been animated in 2D. Finally, the voice acting would sometimes be drowned out by the background music. Put all these errors together and they reek of an incredibly rushed episode that did all it could to not animate and drag on sequences. Usually action scenes in this show are actually pretty good. They're cheesy as hell and I can't take them seriously one bit, but they've usually been well-animated thus far. This episode was really everything I expected from the show before it began.

Thankfully, the following episode went back to its extremely gay and hilarious ways. The episode literally starts out with Raika dreaming that she's marrying Kirin, her Amica. She has a framed picture of Kirin with lipstick marks on it. She's paranoid that Kirin is going to be stolen away from her by her Amica's previous senpai. Meanwhile, Kirin is paranoid that Raika is in love with Akari. In retaliation, Kirin devises a plan to seal Raika's loyalty to her. She requests that Raika become a tutor to her and some of her cute classmates. Raika reluctantly agrees, and is incredibly flustered by how cute Raika and her classmates are (she really goes for the eight-year-old-looking ones, doesn't she?). After their first tutoring session, Kirin locks Raika in a bedroom. Suddenly all the other girls pop out from behind a bed in a variety of cute, somewhat sexy clothes. They push her onto the bed and start climbing all over her. Raika is embarrassed and obviously incredibly into whatever the hell is happening. The girls start talking about making her feel good. It is incredibly sexual. Then Kirin comes out in her own outfit and tells Raika she'll let her go if she first says the words "Kirin is my bride." Raika, being a tsundere, refuses to say something so embarrassing, but does so when she notices how much it means to Kirin. The girls let her go and celebrate their engagement.

So, yeah. It was a pretty amazing episode. Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA enjoys flipping off the concepts of gay subtext and yuri-baiting. It's just straight up 100% pure homosexuality. Pretty much every girl is visibly in love with another girl and will go to incredible lengths to win their affection. t's hilarious and I'm a huge sucker for it. It's the show's most endearing point, so I'm glad they play it up and take it even farther than anyone would expect them to. It's also incredibly damn cute. Sadly, the show continues to hint that it may take a bit of a serious tone later on, which it has not handled well at all so far. It really needs to lean off the action and stick with being a gay slice of life, because that is the entire reason I love it.

Weak Recommendation

The Asterisk War
Jonathan Kaharl

After the whole sabotage thing from the last arc, the gang is now preparing for the coming fights as Claudia is doing some political skulduggery with a research faction that made those puppets Ayato put down last time. As this goes on, Ayato meets the school's number one, Kirin Todo, a young prodigy with the sword under her uncle's crushing influence. The two become friends as Saya starts to see some of herself in Kirin due to their shared missing father issues, but other factions are quickly becoming involved in things again. Also, one of the research faction's head members is a crazy sadistic flirt who builds fire breathing slime wolves, so she is the best character so far and deserves her own series.

Character development so far is solid, as Julis and Ayato are clearly becoming an item and a team, while Saya is starting to become more independent, with Kirin clearly being the link between them all. Claudia is also becoming vastly more interesting, as we learn a bit more about how these schools are run and a hint of her greater motivations. This doesn't mean there still aren't issues with the writing. Character tropes are on heavy display, especially with Kirin, who's the well meaning klutz of the gang. It's the details that make these characters likable, even the pretty plain Ayato, and I am genuinely interested in their plights. The show knows how to build up plot points and get you interested in these stories, even if they aren't terribly complex, and offers a lot of fun set-pieces mixed in. The animation stafff deserves a lot of compliments as well, with their Ayato and Kirin swordfight in episode five being a major standout with just swishing of swords. Kirin having to use dodging instead of parrying because of Ayato's bizarre weapon, and Ayato having to do the same for similar reasons, really leads to some dynamic moves, and they're well animated.

Right now, the problem facing the series most is pacing. This show is still very slow, and while it uses time well for character work, it needs more plot momentum. Nothing feels significant yet, and now that we've seen more of the major players (I love that one of the big badasses of the series is a chubby guy who tells off a pretty boy), I want to see more interaction with them. I like the world of this series a lot, with its weird sci-fi magic hybrid powers and weapons, and the whole look of it is wild, but it needs to be used more. Hopefully the second half kicks things up a notch.

Solid Recommendation

Attack on Titan: Junior High
Stephanie Getchell


Beautiful Bones -Sakurako's Investigation-
Jonathan Kaharl

Finally, this show about the crazy necrophiliac and her assistant in puberty has managed to become properly good. The cursed man two-parter finally reaches an end, and it's one hell of an end. There's now a main villain introduced into the story, and he's a perfect counterpoint for Sakurako, convincing people into suicide by using their greatest worries. It's very well handled, and his plan is ingenious and nearly works, until Sakurako realizes the strange wholes in the situation, including that her idiot cop friend being invited to this birthday party in the first place. It's the first time this series has felt clever and not just like an excuse to make Sakurako point out that other people are dumb and stupid.

The following episode keeps things interesting by focusing entirely on Shoutaro's classmate Yuriko, whom lost her grandmother a few episodes ago. She sees a woman in black on a bridge during a festival, and suspects she might be suicidal. She can't seem to reach Shoutaro, who is the only way to reach Sakurako, and ends up teaming with a nihilistic teacher named Itsuki to find her and learn the truth of the ring and letter she left behind. The series really pushes its grief theme well here, as the emotional powder keg Yuriko calls out Itsuki's detached logical view of the subject, bringing up a lot of questions about living with the knowledge that death is inescapable. Even Utsumi, the idiot cop, is becoming a likable counterpoint, with his simplistic view on the world being key to solving complicated situations and powering through the rough times for everyone else. The series is very good at portraying nobody as absolutely right or wrong, even Sakurako, whom has her own issues with death that keep cropping up.

The series dialog still feels very unnatural, but now that the actual meat of the series is becoming more complicated, that dialog style is working in favor of it. We get a great idea of how characters see the world and react to different situations, helped by the strong visual direction that makes even the most mundane scenes a little feast for the eyes. Even the very PS1-era sound effects soundtrack is starting to grow on me. There's real beauty to be found in this series, and it may end up being a major surprise for the season once everything is over.

Strong Recommendation

Brave Beats
David O'Neil

Brave Beats grabbed my attention early on with its ridiculous set up about a dancing alien from another planet sent to earth after losing a galactic dance off, along with some crazy moments like a dancing dinosaur and a student trapped in a loop of endless moonwalking, but I feared that with its monster-of-the-week magical girl premise the novelty would wear off fast. Unfortunately, I was right.

The last few episodes of Brave Beats have simply been slow and uninteresting. The show's pacing has been knocked down into being a complete drag, to the point I found myself skipping through insignificant parts of both the last two episodes just to get to much of anything happening. It's been lacking the over-the-top crazy-ness that made those first few episodes so appealing, and without that it really shows that the series doesn't have much else going for it. The characters are pretty bland, the animation is average, and the world is lacking in personality. When making a show with a repeating structure and not much in the form of an overarching story, it's pivotal to have something to keep the audience coming back, whether it be the humor, characters, or action, but here there just isn't much there. That isn't to say the show is bad, especially considering it's clearly been made for a younger audience. But instead of focusing on the aspects that made it stand out from the crowd early on, it instead has been slowly but surely fading more and more into that crowd, losing all of the little unique identity it had in the beginning.

There's some fun to be had with Brave Beats, it has its cute moments and some people will get a kick out of its dancing gimmick, but my interest in watching it faded nearly as quickly as it had came. The increasingly sluggish pace and overall lack of anything new to bring to the table has made the appeal of the show short lived. Chances are the show will run on for fairly long as shows of this type tend to, and for all I know it could bounce back at some point, but the last two episodes have completely killed the momentum the first few had built up.

Weak Recommendation, dropped at episode four

Comet Lucifer
Stephanie Getchell


Concrete Revolutio
Danni Kristen

By all accounts, Concrete Revolutio is still a mess. Regardless, it somehow managed to reign itself in a bit the last couple episodes, delivering us with an almost completely cohesive plot. It didn't quite stick the landing, but it's definitely improving. The kaiju arc continues into episode five as the Superhuman Bureau continues to hunt down the radio DJ who was manufacturing and selling monsters to criminal organizations. He's allied himself with an anti-government union of student protestors who have gained access to the body of a dead monster. Its body is merged with a living kaiju to create a larger monster that they pass off as peaceful. At the same time, they inject Jiro with a serum that sends him into berserk mode to make it look like the government is attacking a peaceful protest. The Bureau successfully avoids Jiro causing casualties and regroups. Without his knowledge, they concoct a plan to send the protesters' kaiju into a rage, assassinate it, and make it look like an accident. Their operation is pulled off successfully, but Kikko discovers that Emi had been working with the DJ to create monsters. After confronting her about it, Emi confesses that she was ordered to do so. It happened without Jiro's knowledge, and Emi makes Kikko promise not to tell him.

The next episode follows a trio of superhumans who use their second-rate powers as comedic entertainment. Concrete Revolutio once again switches between past, present, and future as we learn about the history behind these three and why Jiro is interested in recruiting them. After miraculously gaining superhuman abilities, they discover their abilities aren't suited well to crime-fighting. By accident, however, they find out the company employing them is part of a conspiracy to rob superhumans of their abilities. They successfully foil the company's plans before promptly retiring from superhero work. Jiro attempts to enlist them in his fight against the Bureau, but they decline. They're content enough the way they are.

As I mentioned, the show is still a bit of a mess, but it's improving. While the first few episodes tried to cram as much as possible into one episode while jumping back and forth from year to year with no indication, the recent episodes hold themselves back more. One episode was completely free of timeskips. The other still had timeskips, but they were spaced out in a way that made sense and were easy to follow. Additionally, the self-contained plots and morals of these episodes weren't as preachy as the previous ones. The first few episodes were the complete opposite of subtlety when it came to their messages about good vs evil vs moral gray areas. The latest episode took a step back from that, mostly choosing to explain its message through the actions of the characters as opposed to their words. Compare the final conversation between future Jiro and Fuurouta in episode two the one in episode six. In episode two, Fuurouta's emotions were blatant and loud. He said exactly how he felt. It did its best to keep hammering and hammering the intended moral into you. In comparison, their conversation at the end of episode six was quiet and subdued. There was no battle, no yelling, and no crying. They simply sat in a booth together casually chatting while listening to music. Rather than expressing all his emotions, Fuurouta tried to keep them hidden. While he didn't succeed, it was obvious he was trying. That brief, quiet exchange told us more about Fuurouta as a character than his loud, emotional exchange with Jiro before ever did. Episode six is my favorite episode so far. It's a good indication that the staff behind the show are improving. Concrete Revolutio has always been a mess, but I found it endearingly messy given the obvious ambition behind it. If episode six is any indication, they might just be able to pull off a solid, cohesive finish that does all their ambition the justice it deserves.

Strong Recommendation

Dance With Devils
Danni Kristen

We're already halfway through Dance with Devils and we've yet to receive an answer to the show's biggest question: Why the hell anyone would find these assholes attractive? I'm starting to suspect that we may never know. What I do know, however, is that this show is still bad and I still hate otome. Episode five properly introduces us to Mage, the meathead who wears a polo basketball jersey and never bothers to put his blazer on all the way. Nothing incredibly significant happened. He just suddenly kidnaps Ritsuka and takes her out to eat Chinese food, which he apparently incredibly hates. Oh, also, he launches into a terrible hip-hop number with cringe-worthy lyrics that sound like they were ripped off a cut character song from Sonic Adventure. Mage then kills a dude in front of Ritsuka, because I guess that's romantic? He also drops her in the ocean, which pisses off Lindo the incest king. Lindo unleashes some dark power on Mage in retaliation. Also Rem confesses to Ritsuka that he doesn't give a shit about her and thinks of her as a pawn. So dreamy.

The next episode descends me even further into my personal hell by focusing on Shiki, the emo sadist. He's part angel, so all the devils pick on him. He likes to destroy flowers in protest. At one point, he cuts the head off of a bouquet of white lilies, revealing an incredibly blatant anti-yuri agenda that I cannot stand for. He then goes to rip roses out of their bushes in frustration. I imagine he did so because Livejournal or whatever emo teens use these days was down. Ritsuka chastises him. He tells her he knows where her mom might be. Ritsuka follows him, accompanied by her friend Azuna who is obviously incredibly gay for her. Shiki leads her to a maze of her own memories, wherein it is revealed that Lindo isn't actually her brother, but her cousin. It's not confirmed, but it appears that he also might be the product of an incestuous relationship between Ritsuka's aunt and their grandfather. This would explain why Lindo wants to fuck Ritsuka, since incest just runs in his blood. Anyways, Shiki attacks Ritsuka as she's vulnerable, but is repelled by Azuna, who is actually an exorcist. However, her attacks don't do much good since Shiki is part-angel. Ritsuka stops him from torturing her to death, and the episode just kind of ends.

Look, it can't just be my hatred of otome that makes this show so bad in my eyes, right? It's just so incredibly creepy and misogynistic. I'll give credit where credit is due. The voice acting and music are great (aside from the awful hip-hop number), and while the gothic art style doesn't appeal to me, it's still good. Nevertheless, the story and characters are awful. I mean, I like Ritsuka and Azuna, but god damn all the boys are annoying and creepy as hell. I mentioned last time that they regard Ritsuka as a plaything, which is explicitly spelled out in these episodes as they refer to her as a pawn. Shiki's musical number has him crawling over Ritsuka's sleeping body as his lyrics are implicitly sexual in nature. This coupled with the fact he frequently grabs Ritsuka and holds her against her will casts the whole thing in an extremely non-consensual light. I don't like it. It's not sexy. It's not romantic. This isn't even about the fact I'm not attracted to men. These dudes are creepy and misogynistic and nothing about that is sexy. Hell, one of them is her fucking cousin and still wants to fuck her. If it did away with the incest and made the boys into, like, actually nice people, then I might actually find it interesting. Instead, Dance with Devils is an incredibly creepy fantasy that keeps getting worse.

No Recommendation

DD Fist of the North Star II + Fist of the North Star: Strawberry Flavor
Danni Kristen

The more I watch of this show, the less I feel I understand about Fist of the North Star. I literally just watched this installment's episodes today and I can barely recollect what happened. It's just a giant clusterfuck of references and nonsense I struggle to comprehend. Nevertheless, I will do my best to explain it all. In the first episode, the whole class goes on a three billion dollar field trip to Hokkaido. There they are taken on a tour by Thouzer, who looks really cute in a pencil skirt. Thouzer keeps lending the school administrator money until she (they only refer to Thouzer with female pronouns during the episode, interestingly enough) suddenly turns around and demands it all back. Shu, who was supposedly building a giant pyramid for Thouzer, reveals he was actually taking it apart. He finally destroys the whole pyramid. From there, the episode segways into a plot about Raoh trying to write lyrics for the school anthem using only the words 'heel' and 'bald.' The next episode begins with Raoh delivering a class handout to a hikikomori otaku named Fudo who is obsessed with the show Love Hidebu which stars an idol who has a catchphrase suspiciously similar to that of a certain twin-tailed idol from a certain insanely popular idol anime. Raoh gets stuck to Fudo's sweaty chest and is unable to free himself. Through a series of events, Fudo's house is sucked up by a sinkhole. They are saved by the braid of a giant girl. Fudo and the giant girl fall in love and are frozen in place for eternity. Raoh somehow survives. Next, all the main characters take part in an impossible quiz show that ends with Raoh marrying an old woman. Also Thouzer gets owned a lot in two-minute sketches at the end of the episode.

Jesus Christ what the hell is even happening in this show. I cannot follow it worth shit. The worst part is that, like I said before, I have no idea what's a reference and what's just completely random and surreal humor. I can't tell if it's a good spin-off or a shitty one. I can try judging it as its own thing. For starters, I really enjoy its art style and animation. It feels very raw and cartoony, something you don't see often in anime. However, the episodes really drag on. I find myself bored before a single episode is half over. In my opinion, this show should be a weekly short rather than a full series. Also, it doesn't help that the voice acting can be particularly annoying at times. I swear if I hear Bat's shrill screaming one more time I'm going to stab my eardrums with a pencil. His whole shtick as the straight man got old really fast, but it's played up more than any other running joke in the show. I'm really sick of it. Aside from that, I kind of enjoy this show. Regardless, I suspect I'll end up using my only remaining drop on this as opposed to Dance with Devils. While I may hate that show, I can at least follow it and provide good criticism. Meanwhile, I have no idea what the hell to make of this show. It's incomprehensible, and not in the way I usually enjoy. I don't necessarily hate how referential the humor is, I just kind of wish I understood what the hell was being referenced.

Solid Recommendation if already a Fist of the North Star fan, No Recommendation if not

Garo: Crimson Moon
Joe Straatmann

Seimei is awesome. Somewhere between a Jedi and a hoarder, she commands various mystic powers like the ability to hypnotize guards to let "the beautiful woman" pass while still preferring to use most of her time and a bit of her money finding odd baubles for her collection of unusual items. She can get down to business when necessary, but she's a card I'm not sure anybody else in this period action drama knows what to do with. Besides the spirit bosses of the Makai Knights, I suppose. They kind of have a weird sense humor that exists outside the bounds of humanity. The rest of the series is kind of take it or leave it.

We're at episodes underlining the fact that Heian Era nobility do not treat the poor people well. Duh. We have a romance between a noble man and a woman so destitute he gives her a name that means "tattered sleeves." Next is a story about a kid who has to resort to thievery in order to care for his sick mother and when more illness is spread among the desolate village they live in, the nobles decide to almost literally toss the villagers into a corner and let them die. Kind of necessary given how they didn't really have medicine in those days, but it's obviously meant to show how there is darkness in the Light Palace and the how the motivations of the villain aren't simply being evil to be evil. The individual parts work far better than the overall picture as the romance is nice until class gets involved, the wannabe thief kid is cute and more capable with his mother understandably conflicted about facing death. The series wants the audience to understand that monstrous Horrors born out of humans are not simply bad people, but people forced into bad situations. It's all surface level of a franchise built on flashy armor fights, but the handling isn't bad.

Speaking of the armor fights, they're extremely short these days. In an episode where the villain awakens a pestilence Horror that took six Makai knights to seal up and decimated most of southern Japan, the fight is pathetically short with all of the drama sorting itself out before the clash. And it's not the only one either. They're either saving their pennies for more important battles, or they just lack the knack for making dramatic climactic fights. It's not the worst thing in the world even if the fights are kind of the draw to these things. I know I could use a couple episodes of Big O that didn't need Big O in them (Blasphemy, I know). It's just weird is all. There are characters that make this show worth watching Did I mention Seimei?), but as a whole, this projects is rank with, "Meh."

Weak Recommendation

Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
David O'Neil

Another two episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans have come and gone, and so far the show hasn't missed a beat. While it hasn't quite reached true greatness in any aspect, it has remained consistently engaging with terrifically paced episodes and exciting mecha battles to constantly keep me on the edge of my seat with my eyes glued to the screen, even if it's been a bit predictable so far.

The fifth episode saw the team of mecha piloting orphans taking off into a classic Gundam locale, outer space. The ensuing space battle was pretty much everything I could of hoped for, big, fast, and exciting from beginning to end, constantly throwing in curveballs and set pieces to assure the battle never got stale and neither the characters nor the audience had a chance to take a breathe of relief until it was all over. While the 2D mecha battles are well choreographed, and gorgeous in certain spans, at times the animation can get iffy in terms of polish. More and more I'm seeing shots of the battling mecha with barely any detail put into them, or shots where they sloppily go off model when shown from a distance. It's not especially intrusive to the experience of the battles, but it is becoming more noticeable as the show goes on. Overall though, episode five was one of the high points of the series so far, with high stakes clashes between mecha and spacecrafts making for an intense burst of action that was viscerally thrilling while simultaneously moving forward the overarching plot as well.

The sixth episode marked another break from the action, again showing one of Iron Blooded Orphans' greatest strengths, its tight plotting and strong pacing. Typically action-oriented shows tend to drag on in periods without action, but even the dialogue and exposition heavy episodes of Iron Blooded Orphans feel as if they fly by in the blink of an eye. It's done a remarkable job making the nitty gritty details of the orphans' lives and their meticulous planning to accomplish their mission genuinely interesting, along with providing plenty of very human, intimate moments with the characters (to make it all the more soul crushing when said characters start suffering.....I don't like it either, but it's a Mari Okada show, it's bound to happen). Only time will tell how effectively the show handles the eventual direction the character development head in, especially in the case of Mika, who as of now is in dire need of being expanded beyond his seemingly static personality. Iron Blooded Orphans may not quite excel at anything yet, but it's strong execution has kept my full attention every episode so far.

Solid Recommendation

Heavy Object
Joe Straatmann

I keep wanting to be nice to this series. If you watch the opening, it has the right attitude with the two unwitting heroes thrown by their commanding officer into immediate danger and likely death. Funny, exciting, kind of cool. There are moments here that kind of deliver on that. After being my usual over analytical self on the first arc about how the concept of war changing from armies to mostly one single piece of bulky military hardware is exceptionally unwise, sinking these seemingly indestructible Objects using teamwork between a literal princess driving an outdated Object, a budding engineer, and a noble's son who just joined the army to up his social status is fairly enjoyable. Throw in some decent banter and it's not bad at all.

Like I said last time, this show loses focus occasionally and the most recent arc is the most egregious incident of this. Qwenthur and Havia get shipped off to Oceania to help sort out a coalition of nations to support natives fighting their government in more of a political move than humanitarian. The Oceanic government has an extremely old Object, but it's good at hiding in the woods. The part that's questionable here is another government brings in their Object pilot who is a pop idol nicknamed Size G by the guys (Take a wild guess why...) and is known as dressing like Santa with an extremely short skirt. The guys naturally drool all over themselves for the opportunity to talk to her, which just happens to be right in front of Milinda. In jealousy, she starts passive-aggressive and aggressive-aggressive actions using her Object. Milinda's under developed, and now they give her a catty streak that does nothing but waste daylight. Oh yeah, and she texts Qwenthur in the middle of a scout mission and mopes when she doesn't get a reply.

This isn't even the worst part of the Oceanic arc. The duo stumbles upon a "consciousness" journalist/sniper named Seewax (The names in this series, I'm tellin' ya'....) in the woods trying to screw with the battle, and when he's interrogated, CO Frolaytia lets him have it with how the mass media isn't saving lives by reporting, but causing them to die because the dictator was waiting for the cameras to show up, slaughter everyone, and blame it on the coalition forces due to anti-war sentiment. If the photographer was an actual photographer and not an obvious asshole made to make the series' point seem reasonable, he would've seen that in the skirmish he was at and reported it. It is suggested it would be best if the media just stayed away and let the army do work. Full disclosure: I do have a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism so I'm obviously on the other side of this, but I've read plenty of accounts of what militaries do when they have full control with no prying eyes or consequences. They're generally not pleasant things even with the best intentions. It's enough to have this exist, but the guy later wants to makes amends for what he's done by giving them prime information on where the enemies are hiding and joining the boys with a rifle (Riiiiiight....). It's a small part of a pretty okay episode, but it still is a lot of jackassery just to have someone in which to give Qwenthur and Havia a vital plot point. Someone get Rocky from Area 88 in here to show them what a war photographer actually does.

This is what happens when you bring thinking to Heavy Object. As it is, I still like leads even if they enjoy sharing their kinks about what they'd like their CO to do to them on a comm channel to the ENTIRE COALITION ARMY. The chase to find and defeat the Objects is generally fun and somewhat exciting. The series just can't stop itself from being outright stupid which brings all of the momentum to a screeching halt.

Weak Recommendation

The File of Young Kindaichi Returns (Season Two)
Jonathan Kaharl

Ah, finally, an arc that isn't too heavy on continuity. Our newest case with Kindaichi and the gang involves the school's Go club going to a special game against another club, one full of snobs that take the game ultra seriously. One of the members of the other club disappears in the morning, and everyone tries to find him, only to discover his body laid over an upside-down Go board, head on the "blood pool" concave in the center. Thus, Kindaichi has to figure out how the body got there when everyone has a strong alibi in order to figure out who the killer is.

This was a surprisingly strong arc, as the killer's plans are really damn clever. I won't spoil, but it's one of the most interesting tricks I've seen in the series so far. What's even more impressive is the killer's motivations and back story. This series has always been fantastic at creating relatable and tragic villains, and this arc is a perfect example of that, as it's hard not to feel some sympathy once you figure out just how bad the victim wronged them. This may honestly be one of the most tragic cases in the series so far, and it once had a massive arc that took inspiration from the infamous cement girl murder.

One nitpick is the opening. It seems every arc will have a changed opening to reflect the case, and it's just not visually interesting with all the corners that have to be cut so not to use bits that reveal the ending. I really miss the last opening theme, which just was filled with sweeping grandiose feelings. But that doesn't ruin a damn good mystery show! Not even Kindaichi being a pervert has done that so far!

Strong Recommendation

Lance N' Masques
Joe Straatmann

Oh boy, a hot springs episode with silly happenings where our hero has a misunderstanding and walks in on the female cast while they're using the group bath! I'm so jazzed, I'm going to take a look at my retirement account and perhaps adjust my health insurance options for the next calendar year to avoid watching this as much as possible! What I can say is it puts what's wrong with this anime into a much clearer focus. Besides being cliché harem fodder, the harem itself stands as inordinately large with seven girls, a woman, and a horse. Oh yes, and Yotaro's former boss Chief is an extremely muscular woman who eventually kidnaps him and brings him back to knight island using her four guardians, holding him against his will until he says he belongs to her. Let's forget that bit of creepy for a moment. In most harem, five potential love interests strain screen time vying for attention. Once you reach ocho plus potential bestiality, it is extremely difficult to care about anyone or anything happening since there's so much they're trying to drop in your lap at once. LN'M ups the ante by choosing to have the hot springs episode focus on nude Makio, the very underaged girl who main character Yotaro has to protect, and nude Yufeng, the underaged former assassin who refers to Makio and Yotaro as mommy and daddy. This series has established a sewer system of ickiness casually flowing underneath the seemingly innocent facade. There were things I liked about this in the first seasonal review, but my memory of what those were has been completely wiped after this business.

I suppose if I have to say something nice, the island of knights looks pretty cool. It's a small city with old medieval houses rolled organized around a port and a castle with a volcano tucked away in the back (The odds that part of the climax involves the volcano becoming active are 2-to-1). Okay, that's it for the good aspects. There's a tiny speck of action when Yotaro is kidnapped and tries to take on the four guardians, but what's there is clunky and brief. The character development is very basic character mission statements like Yotaro's fellow student Sae wanting to help him become a normal person, Makio wanting everyone to become a family, and Yufeng wanting to become a good girl for daddy and mommy. It seems the only method they have to advance the story is introducing new characters from the shadows who show up to kidnap someone, which is the definition of tedium.

The interaction involving multiple underage girls feels dirty, there hasn't been a lick of excitement since Yufeng chopped duel-wielding guns in half three episodes ago, and the story doesn't really know what to do with itself besides capture people and then have everyone else go after them. With Asterisk War filling the role as the surprisingly decent harem action light novel adaption this season and Heavy Object having entertaining aspects to it, there is no reason even someone with the lowest standards has to watch this nonsense.

No Recommendation

Mr. Osomatsu
David O'Neil

Even amidst controversy of completely removing its first satire-centric episode from seemingly every outlet to avoid any clashes with strict Japanese parody laws, and episodes being censored on certain channels, Osomatsu-san hasn't slowed down in the slightest when it comes to delivering on its humor. At this point I'd make a serious case for calling it the funniest anime comedy of the year, a show that forces me to pause on occasion to breathe between incessant laughter.

Episode five is by far the best episode of the series so far, the jokes here are more on point then ever, with fantastic jokes being fired off one after another with hilarious results. The show does a great job utilizing the unique and varied personalities of the sextuplets, along with their relationships as siblings, to bounce humor off each other in a lot of creative ways. It's hard to say much more than that it just really works, and it's just plain funny. The second half of the fifth episode also surprised me by heading into a direction I wasn't expecting the series to ever head in, that of a more serious drama. With how tongue in cheek the show's tone is, I didn't really see how the show could pull off more serious scenes without ruining the humor, which makes the second half of episode five a bit of a miracle. It managed to keep up the humor and the tone of the show, while also delving further into the psychology of one of the brothers, Ichimatsu, along with exploring the relationship the siblings have with each other as a whole. It's surprisingly heartfelt, a genuine and even fairly realistic (other than the talking cat bit) look at what it means to be a sibling, and it manages to pull this off while still keeping its top notch comedy intact. I'm really hoping we get to see more of this dramatic character exploration in the show now that I know that the people behind the show can actually manage to pull it off.

The sixth episode isn't quite as noteworthy, but still didn't pull its punches when it came to the jokes, with a plethora of strong gags that range from hilariously juvenile to legitimately clever. The show remains pretty to look at as well. Despite some stiff animation, the backgrounds remain gorgeous and it provides far too many terrific reaction faces to count in any given episode. Even with a remarkably successful venture into drama, Osomatsu-san is still a comedy at heart, and it continues to succeed at making me laugh with flying colors.

Strong Recommendation

One Punch Man
David O'Neil

My initial reaction to One-Punch Man could likely be described best as "ecstatic". My immediate bewilderment as to just how right the anime had nailed what I wanted it to nail about the manga, and just how well it had simultaneously done things differently in order to improve upon it as an adaptation, all coupled with stupidly fantastic animation, kind of left me in a daze. So after the first few episodes I felt I had to take a few steps back, and take a more level headed look at the show, for what it was, rather than how much it was what I wanted it to be.

While One-Punch Man is a comedy, it's very rarely what I'd consider a laugh out loud comedy. At times the truly hilarious jokes can be a bit sparse, as the show focuses more on Saitama's every day life, which is subtly humorous in it's own sort of way. It can be a bit slow, but a lot of that is part of the point, trying to get across the mundanity of Saitama's life and how it clashes with the crazy super hero world he frequently gets involved with. He'll easily fight off some horrible monster, than continue on his trip to buy some groceries. The show's pace always picks up when the action scenes come around, which are always dynamic and exciting. Nothing has quite lived up to the greatness of the first episode's climax (though damn, did Saitama vs. Genos come close), but even then the balance between low-key comedy and over the top action has been well maintained, keeping the pacing tight throughout every episode. The show doesn't have much depth beneath the surface, it serves mostly as a fun, quirky distraction with witty jokes and flashy action scenes. That isn't to say there's zero substance, in fact the anime has done well in adding more to the show, often providing new, little pieces of insight into Saitama's mindset, or just including extra tidbits or moments of character development for villains and side characters.

As a whole the anime has also done well in structuring the series. As big of a fan as I am of the One-Punch Man manga, in terms of pacing and story structure the manga is sort of all over the pace. It just sort of jumps from arc to arc with little grace, which, while not too noticeable in manga form, would've come out jarring in an episodic anime. Luckily, the anime has done a good job adapting the narrative to the new format, even often adding in new little bits to make the transition from story point to story points a bit smoother, or introducing characters more naturally than they originally were. Although the initial burst of excitement has started to wear off, not much has changed since the start of One-Punch Man and that's just fine by me. It's still an incredibly entertaining show with great animation, a unique style of comedy, and tons of memorable moments.

Strong Recommendation

The Perfect Insider
Joe Straatmann

The Perfect Insider is maintaining its status as fascinating yet extremely chatty. Before we get into this, be warned I will be discussing events that will come as a surprise to those who haven't at least watched the first three episodes. So MINOR SPOILERS, I suppose. The series is spending plenty of time having lengthy talks with some conversations exceeding ten minutes, but they're interesting. Discussions about the multiple personalities of murdered genius Shiki Magata and which one had control and which personalities were the "doll" are particularly good. Also on the agenda is figuring out the details of the murders taking place on the island. The way Saikawa approaches the mystery from the angle of all the impossible aspects that had to happen for the murder to take place and Moe looking at the possible motivations for the murders both hands out pieces of information and shows how they see and analyze the world.

Fortunately, A-1 Pictures is really good at keeping the mystery alluring because these aren't the most interesting episodes to watch. Previous episodes checking out Shiki's lonely room and bizarre details within work on a higher level than the most recent crop because it's a far more active method of storytelling. Not that there isn't quality work being done, but I can't show you a screenshot or point to a jaw-dropping moment that will make it sink in. This series is an array of subtle, careful constructions such as when the flashbacks of Moe's conversation with Shiki are revealed to a single photograph on Moe's desk in her apartment that may be nothing or may be a key clue to the parallels between her and Shika. Visually, it's equally well done and it can be equally hard to to say why. The flares in style are small like the fireworks and lighthouse strobes during beach scenes. It has an effective, steely look inside the Magata facility that immediately that captures the weird inhumanity even as the place isn't inhospitable. It's neat they put so much work into making this feel like it it would work as a live-action television show even if it's not obvious.

The story's floating a bit. One could call the latest episode a half-recap since it reiterates so much information even as it's all brand-new animation and has clear intents of solidifying the relationship between Saikawa and Moe through their determination in solving this puzzle. Perhaps it's making sure the audience has all the pieces before moving onto something revelatory, and certainly, the most recent flashback to Shiki 15 years ago is a bombshell. But there's not a whole lot of movement. A little patience for a worthwhile series like this goes a long way.

Solid Recommendation

Shin Atashinchi
Joe Straatmann

It takes a very special series to be about completely normal life and entertain me. This is not a special series. Shin Atashinchi covers such topics as Mother losing hours getting addicted to a puzzle of Mount Fuji she won in a raffle she considers "cursed," Father taking some time with his drinking buddies to discuss the skill of keeping his mouth shut with his wife, and Yuzu going to the movies with his friends and not being able to pick the one he wants to go to. It has no particular insight into these things and its characters are so generalized in its attempted to appeal to as many families as possible that I can't have any connection to them because they're literally supposed to be everyone. This works as perhaps bite-sized entertainment in the corner of the funny pages, but stretched to 23 minutes, it's tedious and wears out its welcome by constantly having transition graphics where various voice actors say the series names. Imagine having eye catches that run 15 times in an episode. Pretty annoying, right?

It's harmless, it gets a couple smiles, but here's my thing with most of these: Why am I not just doing the things they do instead of watching it? I could spend all night on a puzzle and then zombie through a day. It's not like these lessons are mind-blowing or it's so fall-on-the-floor funny that I'm best leaving life to the experts at living it on a TV show.  Let's put it this way: I'm mostly a shut-in who has severe social anxiety that triggers when groups of people restrict my movement. I can do whatever they do in this show and it's no less entertaining. All that said, it's not really bad and if you have a joy for the Sunday funnies in the world, there are more horrifying prospects like the specter of a Family Circus movie floating about Hollywood at the moment. Personally, I find these kinds of titles best enjoyed looking a strip for ten seconds.

Weak Recommendation

STARMYU
Stehanie Getchell


Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid
Jonathan Kaharl

I have one hell of a case of whiplash after these last two weeks. Never have I seen a show go from good to awful so fast ...and then zoom right into lunacy territory right after. Episode four of Valkyrie Drive is one of the worst episodes of anything I have ever seen. Episode five then proceeds to introduce a new character literally named Mini Mi that turns into a giant and slaps away Charlotte with her gigantic nipple. I am dead serious. But before we get to the good stuff, I have to talk about episode four, and there is no getting around it. Episode four nearly destroys this series.

We start off pretty strong with the introduction of Lady Lady, a duo of lesbian swingers that can use each other in battle, one becoming a power cancelling wave canon, and the other turning into a motorcycle with nipples. Cause this is Valkyrie Drive. An one of them kisses Mirei, which is great. But they drive off quickly once Akira, the only male on the island (and I am terrified of where they're going with this) and its governor. He pardons everyone after Meifong smoke bombs out of there, and the show makes the baffling decision of having Mamori grow a crush on him. Hell, nearly all of the island crushes on him. Mamori pays Meifong to get a bunch of posters in her room. Mirei is horrified, and I can't blame her. But this isn't where things get bad. I could write this off pretty easily, but the series just had to go further.

The villain of the episode has powers to inflict powerful dreams on people, so she uses it to put Mamori in a very creepy wet dream involving Akira to get her to drive and become a weapon she can easily take away. Mirei is wise to this, leading to the villain using the powers on her.

TW: Following paragraph discusses rape

The dream Mirei has is a group of large men that exploded from the Earth and started molesting her, holding her down as she's unable to do anything. Mirei does escape the dream by biting her tongue, but she proceeds to say something that will forever taint this series. She says she's "already seen hell" while giving a painful "fuck you" smile, meaning someone on the staff thought the best way to make Mirei cooler was to have had her raped in her past as a soldier.

...do I even need to explain why this is awful!? Apparently I do, because every chucklefuck came out of the wood work to defend this terrible, terrible scene. and that just disgusts me more. This was a place Valkyrie Drive should have never even thought of bringing up, and me may have to deal with that little moment again in the future as we learn more about Mirei. That is a horrifying prospect that will forever poison my enjoyment of this ridiculous ride.

But credit where credit is due, episode five quickly goes back to the fun in the most insane way possible. A girl who was going to be forced by Charlotte into a new union with another partner ran from the castle and ended up growing massive, to the shock of everyone. Shenanigans ensue. The tone of this episode is the most lax the series has been so far, as a giant lesbian with self esteem issues walking into the scene sort of derails all plans and obligations, and it's amazing. But the amazing thing is how this episode even works in character development for Mirei and Mamori, as Mamori finally kisses Mirei during a prison escape and solidifies a real bond with her, something that hadn't happened yet. The episode takes advantage of the ridiculous concept for a lot of absurd laughs, and it brings out the best in its cast, including that stuck-up Charlotte. If Valkyrie Drive is more like this and less like a terrible het domination fantasy doujin, it may end up redeeming itself. But now I'm worried, and that worry probably won't disappear until the end.

Weak Recommendation

Shorts

Anime de Training EX!
Joe Straatmann

You're not going to believe this. Hell, I don't even believe it, but there is an episode of Anime De Training you MUST see. Episode four features a faux demon girl teaching the basics of yoga, and it's way funnier than it has any right to be. I can't even tell you most of the reasons why because it's very easy to spoil a short, but it's extremely weird and oddly amusing. It's four minutes of your life. What do you have to lose? The rest of it is still a completely forgettable load of idol tropes mixed compromising angles of young teenagers, but at least they've been trying harder lately. The latest features learning how to dance for the sake of fitness. The dancing animation/rotoscoping is solid and slows everything down multiple times for the audience to get the motions right. I still wouldn't recommend watching it aside from episode four, but my reaction been upgraded from rage to general apathy.

Episode Four: Strong Recommendation
Everything Else: No Recommendation

JK-MESHI!
Jonathan Kaharl

I'm liking this show probably more than I should. I can't stress enough just how smart it was to keep episodes so short. It feels like an entertaining little educational interlude for a PBS show in content, making up massively for the sub-par production. I also enjoy the dynamic with the three characters, and just how weird they can make the pink haired girl. My favorite is the blue haired girl, though. She's just so frank about everything, and while she works as a straight-man character, I appreciate her own little quirks. I've never seen someone so picky about movie genres. The little cooking bits at the end give some tips on easy to make snacks and there's a mix of trivia of different topics, so I always feel like I gt something out of every episode. So good on ya, JK-Meshi, you're pretty okay.

Solid Recommendation

Kagewani
Stephanie Getchell


Komori-san Can't Decline!
David O'Neil

Komuri-san Can't Decline episodes are the anime equivalent of eating a single Skittle. Nice, but overall very brief and fairly forgettable. These episodes somehow manage to feel shorter than their already very short runtimes, which I guess means brisk pacing but part of this is probably also due to the fact it just jumps from joke to joke without any structure. Not much has changed so far, the animation is still nothing special, the jokes are still only funny on occasion, the characters are still just kinda cute. There's a bit of yuri subtext now. So, like, if you're looking for that go ahead. The most recent episode (episode six) actually did end with a sweet little moment that broke the increasingly drab routine of subpar joke after joke after joke, but it only lasted about under a minute. It would be nice if the show perhaps explored that more, maybe even constructed some more meaningful mini-narratives similar to I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying, but as of now it seems to be mostly content with just spouting jokes from the manga back to back from beginning to end. Certainly, it's hard to do much with such a small runtime, but anything would be better than the next-to-nothing the show is doing as of now.

Weak Recommendation

Kowabon
Joe Straatmann

I could only get one new translated episode this update and it has pieces that might work, but I really don't know what the makers are getting at yet besides people use technology and there's a demon/ghost(?) girl in this world that exists within the technology that kills them. Here we have a girl who loves posting everything to social media (She even one of those selfie sticks that causes people's faith in humanity to wane). Eventually the ghost girl gets ahold of her and crazy stuff happens. It doesn't say much besides people do weird social network things these days and BOO! Ghosty! I sincerely hope this series isn't just one gigantic finger wagging demonstration where the makers point out how obnoxious these people are and it exists to watch them all get killed for audience enjoyment. To me, the people who come off as the most annoying in those works are the people who created them. Oh yeah, and this social media picture episode takes place over seven days. Stop copying off Ringu's answers and do your own damn test, would you?

No Recommendation

Magical Somera-chan
Danni Kristen

Magical Somera-chan is easily one of the funniest shows this year, if not THE funniest. In one episode the girls vacation on a lake and end up thwarting a mad scientist's plans to kill humanity. In what is easily my favorite episode of the show so far, Somera catches a fever that turns her into a lesbian while Kukuru's incredibly gay friend keeps trying to make hot yuris happen between them. The episode pokes fun at a few yuri tropes and at yuri fanatics (aka me). I was able to laugh at it, but I can totally understand people who felt like it had some homophobic tones to it. Regardless, I still love this show. Its humor is incredibly off-beat and somewhat juvenile in a way that I love. As an aside, the art style is also quite appealing. Each episode of Magical Somera-chan is under three minutes long, so I highly recommend checking it out. It's well worth your time.

Strong Recommendation

Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note
Jonathan Kaharl

We just now have our basic introduction to the newest case, and it's figuring out who mixed pork in beef products. I'm serious. That's not to say this concept can't work (Gatchaman Crowds had an episode about warning people of expired milk, and that's my favorite anime ever), but it took two episodes to set up a very basic mystery. The rest of the time was devoted to completely changing the setting of the series by putting our main character in a new school and establishing a sub-plot with a supposed delinquent, and it sort of works. The series does work better as a character piece, because how cases are solved are incredibly easy and a tad far-fetched (how does a social studies expert identify substances by touch and taste?). It's just the attention is solely on our female lead and not the bizarre guys with strange talents she hangs around. I want to know more about them, darn it.

Weak Recommendation

Second Opinions

Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA

Jonathan: I was not expecting a light novel spin-off to be gayer than Valkyrie Drive, yet here we are. Few shows so constantly entertain me like this one, and there's not a single character I dislike. I even enjoy the silly, classic action tropes that border on parody, like a major villain trying to kill someone with a Goldberg style fake accident. And did I mention this was really gay? Like, super gay. Strong Recommendation

Beautiful Bones -Sakurako's Investigation-

Joe: It's kind of weird when the standard procedural is being outdone at its own game by the outlier adult drama that's trying to be different from everything else, yet The Perfect Insider is a better detective show than Beautiful Bones by the pure execution of its mystery elements alone. But that's okay. The cursed painting arc's broad strokes are easily predicable and it REALLY didn't need two episodes, but these stories about dead people that celebrates what we do when we're alive, are one of those classic plots with secret, underlying meanings in standard crime fiction that makes it work even if the mystery itself is a dud. Plus Sakurako is still one of those eccentric main characters you can't get enough of. Solid Recommendation

Stephanie: We have a two parter going on this week and it was OK. The first half was a bit slow and did getting a little boring at times, but the second half did make up for it once it was time to solve the mystery. Beautiful Bones has been fairly consistent so far, but I am curious to know more about our cast of characters. We know very little at this point, so more exposition or development can really help here. But we do have a potential set up for a story later on, so we shall see. Solid Recommendation

Concrete Revolutio

Jonathan: The kaiju arc came to a strong closing, perfectly taking why people get so obsessed about the genre and turning it into fuel for political drama, and it's pretty clever. But it's tthe following episode that cements this show as something special to me, as we finally get to see some average sobs get superpowers and discover they can't really do much with them. It has a really bittersweet ending, and now I wish they had their own show. Also, kitsune girl smokes. Hot. Strong Recommendation

Stephanie: What is it with anime taking a kind of Baccano approach lately? Blood Blockade Battlefront had the high energy and some wacky characters.  Meanwhile, Revolutio has the energy, wacky characters, and a jumbled plot line that will probably end up connecting in the end. I'm not saying this isn't a bad thing, but in Revolutio's case it makes things a little confusing. We don't know why Jiro changes sides still, and it's possible we won't see it till the end of the series at the rate this show is looking. I guess I'm just a little terrified of being disappointed since the series has been rather good so far. Strong Recommendation

Dance with Devils

Jonathan: Honestly did not expect muscles to be a big teddy bear that talks big. Shame he will fail at everything from here on. Now with an episode for every devil wrapped up, the series is getting ready to head into the main plot, and it's becoming really interesting, especially with what that nutter Lindo seems to have done. But that most recent episode was also the most Diabolik Loves style episode so far, with a creepy sadomasochist physically and psychologically tormenting people. Honestly hope we start seeing less of this. Solid Recommendation

Stephanie: This show is one of the better supernatural romance/reverse harem anime I have ever seen! I am dead serious, here. It's actually moderately well written with interesting and fairly likeable characters. This isn't a guilty pleasure show anymore to me, but a legitimate good show. I know, it's a surprise coming from me. There are some interesting plot points and pieces in play that, despite being predictable, have been well executed until now. As for the broadcast dub, it's an interesting start though there can be some improvements. It's giving some smaller named voices actors like Aaron Roberts and Seth Magill some larger roles, while giving relative unknowns like Garret Storms and Gregory Lush their first major roles. It's nice considering Kyle Phillips, the ADR Director, did something similar with Ultimate Otaku Teacher and it makes sense to go a similar route here. Dawn Bennett is also taking on her first leading role and it's a pretty good start. In the past couple of seasons, this year, I've seen this girl show off her range. So it's nice to hear her use her more natural sounding voice. Though both Lush and Rico Fajardo would be the extremely iffy actors at this point. Lush, I'm gonna use the first major role excuse, but Fajardo I do not know what's going on there. There's potential in this dub, and I can't wait to see the performances grow! Solid Recommendation

Garo: Crimson Moon

Stephanie: While I was a little hesitant going into the start of the new Garo season, these two recent episodes have helped calm those fears. While still taking on a monster of the week form, we do also meet a couple new characters that seem to be set as recurring ones in the series. While this adds some side stories to the series, the main plot still remains though we don't exactly know what that may be. Will it revolve around the Light Palace? Maybe something to do with Reiko and his mysterious past? We still can't say for sure, but this is an improvement. Solid Recommendation

Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Joe: Switching out Asterisk War for this. I like odd Gundam shows that simply don't want to take Mobile Suit Gundam and put it in another time period with better animation. This is a rugged, dirty, guerrilla Gundam with main characters from the streets and I'm completely on board with this. I don't know how long I'm going to be able to enjoy this show as it is. The ratings are apparently atrocious enough that I doubt meddling from Sunrise's higher-ups can be avoided. We can't have nice things. People won't watch them. By the way, if Char shows up, I'm leaving. Solid Recommendation

Kagewani

Jonathan: Aces on the team behind this, and especially the people coming up with the monsters. Few series have ever created such effective tension as this, and it does it all while having some of the worst animation I've ever seen. It's the monsters that steal the show, with their sheer horrifying scope, but I also love that all the human characters use their brains to survive these horrifying situations. The sand worm episode is easily a stand out so far, and I'm excited to see where all this is headed. Strong Recommendation

Mr. Osomatsu

Jonathan: These last two episodes really cement how good this show is. One is all about brotherly relationships, both the heartwarming and the downright pathetic. The other deals with the economic hellscape modern nations deal with, as the brothers have to sacrifice their dignity for work, and another character resorts to selling off parts of his body to make ends meat after realizing the world has mostly forgotten him. I really love how cynical this show gets, but in just the right tone and with the right characters to make it hilarious. It's a tough balance, but they find it. Strong Recommendation

One Punch Man

Danni: As far as the quality of the action goes, this is the best damn anime in years. I'm sure by now you've seen a plethora of clips and gifs showing off just how amazing the fight scenes are. They're beautiful and the absolute best part of the show. You really shouldn't need any convincing beyond that. If for whatever reason you do, let me assure you that this show is hilarious. For real, though, the action and animation is beyond amazing. Strong Recommendation

Jonathan: Fight scenes are still amazing, no surprise, but we're currently in transition into tthe next big arc, so little to report. We are getting early introductions to characters who will be important later, though, and I like that. Sweet Mask is built up as someone not to fuck with in a subtle way, we get a glimpse at the abrasive personalities of Blizzard and Tornado, and we even got an update on what happened to some past characters. The series really feels like it has proper direction that the manga lacked, which is great. Strong Recommendation

Stephanie: More things are coming into play with these three new episodes. We meet a cycling hero, the rouge ninja Sonic, and our two leads join the Hero's Association. There are small things here and there that also make me smile and laugh such as the founding of the Association only happened after Saitama saved the president's son three years ago; something we saw in the first episode as a bit of backstory. The fact that Genos rabks higher than Saitama in the organization is also amusing seeing as how he's being placed on this pedestal but Genos, himself, cares more that his master isn't among the higher ranked. And now we have a monster plot line going where the Association is trying to find a dangerous monster that we already know is Saitama. There may be a lot of fun things going on, but this week was still really good! Strong Recommendation

The Perfect Insider

Jonathan: This is definitely the best written show this season. The characters are complex, the pacing is just right now that the mystery is started, and the use of foreshadowing is masterful and creates a lot of tension for future revelations. But it's also smart enough to just let us enjoy Moe and her professor verbally sparring, or the other students trying to draw out Moe with the smell of curry. It balances the horrific with the amusing, and it really draws me in as it goes further on. But I need to see the ending before I really work out my thoughts. Strong Recommendation

Stephanie: I'm not quite sure how much I am enjoying this series. It's a mystery series, which I love, however it's becoming very slow moving and a lot of information is given at one time. Is it relevant information? Some yes, others no; while there is some that may play a part later one but we just don't know how. I do have to give points for it's consistency, but I didn't expect a long running murder plot. I suppose this is what happens when you don't pay attention to the summary listing. Weak Recommendation

Young Black Jack

Jonathan: The Vietnam arc was something this series desperately needed. By that, I mean a distraction so the series can't whine about those blasted young people yet again. The drama was well handled, and Black Jack had his shirt off a lot and so obviously had a an crush on another doctor who was also very muscular and attractive, and that's good. BUT THAT AMERICAN WON'T GET TO GO BACK HOME AND EAT SAUSAGE! NO! Solid Recommendation

Stephanie: I'll admit, I am a bit of a history buff. Seeing Black Jack go into the heart of the Vietnam war made the series much more interesting and put our characters in dire situations that will cause them to grow and develop much more compared to the first three episodes. Also having another doctor for Kazama to learn from and possibly butt heads with will make for some good rivalry, I believe. I don't know if they will be staying in Vietnam for a while or move back to Japan, but it's possible that they make a decent arc out of it. Solid Recommendation

I’m assuming that you’re caught up, right? If not, check out my introduction. For everyone else, let’s kick this series off with Mahou Shoujo Puella Magi Madoka Magica, aka the biggest surprise in anime that I’ve ever experienced (show-wise, that is. Spirited Away still takes that title for anime in general.)


Anyway, Mahou Shoujo Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which is a mouthful, so I won’t mention it by name again, wouldn’t have been in my Top 5 until my most most-recent re-watch. But it’s aged like fine wine or good cheese, and while it’s not the “show to end all shows”, it’s a pleasant surprise from what I’d initially passed off as uninteresting. And chances are it might move up a spot next time I watch it. Take that as you will.


The story follows 12 year-old Madoka Kaname in a futuristic Tokyo. Madoka is a sweet, caring girl with a workaholic mother, a stay-at-home father and a toddler brother, and she’s top in her class. Her life changes when she and her best-friend, Sayaka Miki, are introduced to Homura Akemi, a cold and distant transfer student who warns Madoka to never change anything about her life. It isn’t long before she and Sayaka encounter a bizarre creature named Kyubey, who promises to grant any wish she wants for a chance to become a magical girl and fight witches. As she begins to witness what that means, her conflicted feelings come into play: should she, or shouldn’t she, become a magical girl?

This is a Studio SHAFT show, which means that it’s under the auspices of Akiyuki Shinbo. For those who aren’t aware, I don’t generally like Shinbo. I’m sure he’s a sweet guy, but his shows, beautiful as they may be, usually consist of moe incest and pedophilia that appeals to an Otaku on a hormonal level, but not an intellectual level. Which is all the more shocking that this show, which has his fingerprints all over it, is as good as it is. Either he was fortunate to pick Gen Urobochi as his show writer, or it’s a one-off. I’m still debating which is which.

What makes this one stand out is how it plays to conventions of the magical girl genre before subverting them. This is shown in its cutesy opening, its first ending (which is dropped right after episode 3) and the moe-ish art style from Studio “why don’t you make a friggin’ porn show already?” SHAFT. Everything about it works, as I definitely think having a cutesy aesthetic against a vicious and unforgiving story was more than enough to make this worthwhile. Brutal, but worthwhile. I think Shinbo needs to collaborate with Urobochi again, as he only appears to be competent under his leash.

Another aspect that surprised me was how compelling the magical girls were. There are five characters of importance, Madoka Kaname, Sayaka Miki, Mami Tomoe, Homura Akemi and Kyoko Sakura (the last of whom isn’t introduced officially until Episode 3), but amidst their appearances are girls with doubts, insecurities and desires that I guess you could say Kyubey exploits, until you realize they’re doing this of their own volition. Besides, their wishes make sense, although they come at the cost of their humanity. Even Homura, who seems detached at first, is quite complex, although why remains a mystery until the final stretch. Regardless, they feel like real pre-teens, which is nice in a genre that often doesn’t explore its characters to this extent.

Additionally, the common ideas and tropes normally in magical girl shows, like friendship, fun and adventure, are thrown out the window in favour of a “being a magical girl sucks” theme. Frequently throughout the 12 episodes, you get a sense that protecting the city from monsters is unglamorous, and the constant perils are complimented wonderfully by Yuki Kajiura’s score. Every time a ray of hope appears, it’s immediately shattered by darkness and tragedy. There’s simply no other way of saying it: this is a dark, depressing show, right down to its bittersweet ending. I know I’m being vague, but you need to see it to understand why.

Which leads to the crux of this show: tragedy. More specifically, Faustian tragedy. This is a show about the dangers of selling your soul for power, with Kyubey as a proxy for Satan. As you quickly find out, being a magical girl can easily corrupt you and make you into the monsters you’re fending off, hence the fight is cyclical. And it’s all linked to Kyubey, who might seem like a villain, but actually isn’t despite his cold, calculated thought process. You hate him, but you always understand where he’s coming from. It’s frustrating, yet really clever.

My only, major issue, and this is what keeps it from getting any higher, is that its underlying subtext about the religious institution as a whole makes me angry. Perhaps I’m overthinking this, but everything about it, right down to the ending, is jabbing at how blinding theology can really be to its followers, treating them like pawns that have no real purpose. It’s especially problematic because the institution of religion can be beneficial to the needs and desires of its followers too, as it’s not a one-way street of Marxist misery; true, it doesn’t solve life’s most-pressing issues, and it’s certainly not for everyone, but it at least gives people the skills to deal with them if they let it. It’s something I wish more religious criticism would take into consideration, instead of going down that tired, cliché-ridden path of “religion is the opiate of the masses!” that’s never been proven.

And I find that annoying. I know it might get me into trouble, but religion is a neutral entity. It’s neither good nor bad, it’s simply there. Any misgivings people have with it are based in human error, not religion itself. Because humans are flawed and chaotic, they’ll use what suits their misguided ways regardless of intent. If you need proof, all you need to do is look at the teachings of Jesus and compare that to how Western Christians have distorted them. So to see this show preach that religion is extremist, even if subtly and understandably, without it actually listening to its own, extremist message is hypocritical.

Still, I can’t fault a show for being clever in spite of my misgivings. Is it the best ever? No, but it doesn’t have to be. Is it the most-profound ever? Again, no, but it doesn’t have to be. It is what it is, the 5th entry on this list, hence it earns a…


Next time, we move up a rung and talk science-fiction with a writer I find divisive, yet interesting. Curious to know what it is? here’s a hint: I’m going digital.

Welcome to a new segment that I call “The Anime Greats”. Based on a discontinued series from fellow friend and former g1 Larry Fried, the segment highlights the work of the talented individuals in anime that make the industry what it is. As with my with my other series, “Maligned 101”, I encourage my fellow writers on Infinite Rainy Day to take a stab at it too.

Anyway, this deserves a legendary icon to kick it off. And what better way than with one of my favourite directors, Hayao Miyazaki:



Born on January 5th, 1941, in Tokyo Japan, Hayao Miyazaki had an unusual childhood. The second of four boys, his father, Katsuji Miyazaki, was an airplane designer who served in World War II, while his mother suffered from tuberculosis. In fact, his mother’s illness played a huge part in his youth, and would go on to influence certain characters in his filmography. Miyazaki was also obsessed with comics and film, particularly animation. He looked up to legends like Manga artist Osamu Tezuka and Walt Disney, although the latter he admired while still believing his company had barely scratched the surface of animation. It seems fitting, therefore, that he’d later disapprove of being compared to Disney once he’d achieved success.

After graduating Toyotama High School and being influenced by a film called The Tale of the White Serpent, Miyazaki pursued a career in animation. He studied at Gakushuin University and majored in Manga art, even beginning his first work, under an alias, that roughly translates into English as People of the Desert (which you can find a discussion on here.) In 1968, Miyazaki was asked to help work on the directorial debut of Hols: Prince of the Sun, from later-acquaintance Isao Takahata, for Toei Animation, which had numerous behind-the-scenes complications. Despite being regarded fondly in the decades to follow, the film was an initial bomb and caused many of its talents, including Miyazaki and Takahata, to leave Toei for other studios in the years that followed.

From here, Miyazaki’s accomplishments began to slowly take shape. Shortly after leaving Toei, Miyazaki went to then-fledgling studio A Pro, where his most-notable work was as a co-director on the original Lupin III series. In 1979, Miyazaki got his big break as the director of a made-for-TV film based on the show called The Castle of Cagliostro, which was intended to be a finale to the Lupin III series. Despite the time crunches and limited resources, Miyazaki made what many consider to be one of the greatest action movies ever, inspiring legendary directors Steven Spielberg and John Lasseter.

Despite this, Miyazaki wasn’t content with the restraints he’d been given. Using a work-around of a Manga story he was writing, Miyazaki obtained funding from Tokuma Shoten to make his first, fully-independent feature-film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, on March 11th, 1984. On year later, on June 15th, 1985, Miyazaki, with his ragtag team of animators, founded Studio Ghibli.

What’s interesting to note is that Miyazaki wasn’t initially concerned about Studio Ghibli’s success, but rather wished to to produce original anime without the restraints of the studio system. And, in fact, the studio’s first three films were commercial bombs, with My Neighbor Totoro, the film that gave the studio its mascot, being doubled-billed alongside Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies and nearly bankrupting them. It wasn’t until 1989’s Kiki’s Delivery Service, a film that also suffered from behind-the-scenes complications, that Studio Ghibli began making a profit at all. These days it’s hard to imagine, but there was a time when Studio Ghibli wasn’t a big deal.

Regardless, Miyazaki and his studio began taking note in the 90’s, with directorial works like Porco Rosso and storyboarding works like Whisper of the Heart, allowing his status to precede him. Still, Miyazaki remained humble, and even made his first announcement of retirement in 1995 before coming back to work on his big, action opus, Princess Mononoke, on July 12th, 1997.

In 1999, following the ill-timed death of his then-successor, Yoshifumi Kondō, from a brain aneurysm, Miyazaki went into retirement again, but not before spending time at his friend’s cottage and gaining inspiration from the friend’s 10 year-old daughter and her friends. He promptly went back to work on another film, and on July 27th, 2001, Spirited Away shocked the world, even nabbing Miyazaki an Oscar for Best Animated Feature at The Academy Awards in 2003. Miyazaki was noted for having not shown up for the award, given his disapproval of American involvement in Iraq.

From here-on in, Miyazaki’s directorial works would be fewer and farther between, preferring to spend more time on smaller projects. Sadly, on September 6th, 2013, after many rumours, Hayao Miyazaki announced his retirement from feature-length directing. This didn’t mean he was done forever, even drawing another Manga and announcing a short-film, Boro the Caterpillar, for The Studio Ghibli Museum in 2018, but it was safe to say that Miyazaki, the master of anime, had hung up his cape and cowl. His 11th and final film, a biopic titled The Wind Rises, was released earlier that year on July 20th, 2013.

What made Miyazaki unique, even amongst his peers, was his dedication to atmosphere and humanity in his films. A staunch critic of the anime industry’s attempts to “pander” to the masses, Miyazaki was an advocate of realistic animation that expressed the subtleties of the human condition. His films were also noted for being improvised during the storyboarding stages, as Miyazaki preferred letting the movies speak for themselves. The end result was a free-flow film mired in atmosphere, even at the expense of admittedly-weak dialogue.

Miyazaki was also noted for his politically-charged messages about the environment, war and society, most-notably in films like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, 
Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo and The Wind Rises, as well as aviation and staunch advocacy for the power of youth. His films expressed a desire for balance between man and nature, something most-notable in Princess Mononoke, and despite his grouchy outlook on Japanese society, Miyazaki always imbued his works with optimism. As such, he’s earned the respect of East and West alike, and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2014 for his dedication to film and animation.

So here’s to you, Hayao Miyazaki. May your legacy be cherished even after you’re gone!

Last time, I discussed a show that turned the magical girl formula on its head. This time, I’m gonna tackle a show that turned a marketing vehicle on its head. That’s right, today’s entry is Digimon Tamers, aka “that weird show about monsters from that weird writer who may actually be a monster himself”!


For those who are somewhat new to this, here’s my piece explaining everything. We good?


Anyway, I’m not a big Shonen fan. As I’ve said before, I have nothing against the genre, but I often find it drags for hundreds of episodes with pointless filler or drawn-out story-arcs. Still, there are exceptions, two of which are on this list. Digimon Tamers, the third iteration of the Digimon TV franchise, is one of them, a fact helped by it being linked to a series I have strong nostalgic ties to. It’s also one of the few shows from my childhood that holds up. Considering my relationship with its head writer, Chiaki J. Konaka, is pretty hit-or-miss, I find that interesting. But a good show’s a good show, so I won’t fault it.

It takes place in Japan during the early-21st Century, a time when Digimon was still the hit craze. Not surprisingly, the show itself acknowledges this, with our starting protagonist, Takato Matsuki, as a 10 year-old kid obsessed with the cards and video games. He’s given a chance to live his fantasies when, as if out of the blue, he’s given a mysterious blue card (pardon the pun) that transforms his card reader into a Digivice (or D-Arc) and his rough doodles into a Digimon named Guilmon. But Takato’s not alone, as not only are there other kids with Digimon, but Digimon are running rampant despite the efforts of a shady corporation, led by a shady man named Yamaki, to eradicate them.

Serious confession time: of all the entries, Digimon Tamers remains my most-frequently watched. It’s not like I’m being a blind fanboy, but there’s something compelling about it that other seasons can’t seem to replicate. I’m unsure what it is either, but it was enough to complicate my retrospective series and force me to break that season’s analysis in-two. And chances are I’ll watch it again at some point.

There are two components that make it stand out, one from the greater franchise and the other from the writer’s other works. For the former, it’s how seriously it takes its material. Even when stacked against the four iterations that comprise Digimon: Digital Monsters, there’s something special about it; Digimon Adventure was silly in spite of being more than the sum of its parts, while Digimon Frontier was childish and Digimon Zero-Two was…well, the less said about that one, the better. But Digimon Tamers didn’t fool around, and while it had its share of entertainment, at the same time it went beyond the call of duty and made a simple premise dark and subversive. Whether or not that worked out in its favour is entirely up for debate, but I find it hard to forget.

The latter is that this particular work of Konaka’s is more kid-friendly than his usual affair. I say that relatively, I still think Digimon Tamers is a little too mature for its target audience, but I think that actually works out in its favour; see, I find Konaka’s work too slow and atmospheric, even if it’s good. This makes it hard to watch in long spurts, hence my frustrations with Ghost Hound and Serial Experiments Lain, but Digimon Tamers is the bizarre exception because it’s not nearly as slow. Because of this, I’ve easily marathoned the show in a week, which isn’t something I can say for Konaka’s other, shorter works. That doesn’t mean the show isn’t still slow at parts, but I’m well-enough into it by then that I can forgive that.

It also plays to genre and franchise conventions quite well. It mostly takes place in Japan, a big stretch from other seasons, and it uses the Digimon aspect as a meta-feature. It portrays the kids as real kids, highlights the dangers as real dangers, and even remedies two of the franchise’s biggest flaws, the lack of weighty consequences for death and the Leomon trope, in a single scene that simultaneously kicks off the final, and arguably best-written, arc. Plus, it’s cool to see how everything would work in a real-life setting, even if it gets to be a little creepy and unsettling. I didn’t quite appreciate this when it first aired, but I respect in hindsight.

I also think the technical facets are fascinating. Toei Animation isn’t known for high-quality production value. They frequently skimp on budget detail to save money and time, and boy does it show! This iteration may not look as bad as its predecessors, but the characters are stiff, the background detail pasty and blurry, the dialogue hammy and the fight scenes remarkably unimpressive (at least, by most action standards.) And the animation quality is consistently inconsistent, with the characters frequently going off-model and devolving into ugly blobs depending on whether or not the staff had a budget that day.

And yet, Konaka and crew worked wonders. Not to say that prior seasons didn’t, Digimon Adventure in particular had plenty of great moments, but not to the same extent as Digimon Tamers. The show has atmospheric direction, creepy imagery, heavy themes, excellent dialogue and fights that, surprisingly, are pretty inventive given limitations. The voice acting is also great, especially the English dub, which, though dated, has a lot of effort put into it for a kid’s anime. Everything meshes together, in other words.

That’s not to say the show is without faults. For one, the whole “meta-marketing” aspect sometimes gets in the way. The individual arcs feel disjointed, and while the show does eventually get to its point, it’s not until its final arc that everything makes sense. Considering the underlying theme of the show, of how reality and fiction don’t exactly mesh, doesn't connect right away, you’re left with a first arc that feels like set-up for the first-half of the show, a second arc that’s fun to watch, but not all that deep and a third arc that doesn’t serve much of purpose other than to set up the finale. Not to mention, two episodes, 26 and 31, that barely serve a purpose at-okay, more the former than the latter.

The show also has the inclusion of Ryo Akiyama, and anyone who’s followed my retrospective knows I don’t think so highly of him. It’s not even that he’s terrible or useless, but he’s not fleshed-out, is introduced with no build-up, disappears and reappears frequently without warning and is overpowered because “why not?”. He, apparently, was a studio mandate from Toei Animation, which’d be fine…if he were interesting. But he’s not, and that is enough to make me hate him.

And finally, the execution. Being a Konaka show, the writing follows a lot of recycled tropes and archetypes that, while executed better than his other stuff, still feel pretty cliché. Among these are the doughy-eyed, gung-ho lead, the stern, contemplative wing-man, the distant loner with family issues, the stand-alone, workaholic boss who’s dating his top employee, the out-of-nowhere scares and the long stretches of build-up. The show tackles the idea that evil is largely based on misguided perceptions of right and wrong, something I admire, but that doesn’t mean it won’t fly by kids’ heads.

Still, I can’t fault this show for being good in spite of its flaws. If you want a marketing vehicle that’s also a fascinating meta-study, give Digimon Tamers a shot. It gets an…


Two down, three to go! What could possibly be higher up than a magical girl subversion and a toy vehicle subversion? Here’s your hint of the day: all that jazz.

Walt gathers David, Danni, and Jonathan to talk about one of the gayest manga ever that's also about murder. That's not as common a combination as you'd think. Also, Jonathan decides to talk about Gunsmith Cats this week and everyone instantly regrets his decision. Fellow old people will know what this means. Talking about lesbian serial killers and the uncomfortable implications of a classic action manga, there's no better way to fight off that turkey sleep and Blue Moon piss caused hangover!

Click the title card to listen to the episode!

It’s that time again! In my previous entries, which you’ll find here and here, I discussed a subversive genre show and a subversive marketing vehicle. Today, I go a little more traditional with a series pretty much everyone loves. But what could that be? Well, first…check out this intro explaining my objective with this series if you haven’t. And hey, even backtrack if you’re reading this for the first time! It’s okay, I’ll wait…

Alright, time for the answer: it’s everyone’s favourite space western, Cowboy Bebop!


This might end up being my shortest review. Not only have I extensively covered my thoughts in a past article, but it’s Cowboy Bebop. Everyone’s heard of this show, even people who aren’t big on anime; in fact, I loved it before I loved anime! It’s safe to say that everyone already knows why it’s great, but for those who still don’t (all two of you,) I’ll cover the basics.


Cowboy Bebop tells the story of four bounty hunters-ex-mafia member Spike Spiegel, ex-cop Jet Black, a thief named Faye Valentine and a 13 year-old super genius named Edward-their faithful, canine companion, Ein, and their misadventures in space. The episodes are largely episodic, meaning that most are self-contained, but the general story seems to delve into Spike’s past: who is Spike? Why did he leave the mafia? And why is his past catching up with him?

Where do I even start? For one, the animation, helmed by Sunrise Entertainment, is gorgeous, especially by today’s standards. But it’s not simply that it’s gorgeous. Most top-tier shows look great, but Cowboy Bebop has the additional distinction of being well-directed, thanks largely to then-obscure talent Shinichirô Watanabe. Watanabe’s famous for intricate, collage-like scenes, many of which say more about their characters than any dialogue could, and this show epitomizes that. Every scene, down to the talking ones, are directed in a way that you’d have a hard time not calling them “filmic”.

Of course, this is complimented by the excellent marriage of directing and music. The show’s composer, Yoko Kanno, is a legend in Japan, having made some of the best compositions in anime, and it shows. Every tune, be it jazz or funk, matches its scene perfectly, such that so many could easily be a short, silent-film. And, of course, the opening theme is one of the best in anime, possibly even Kanno’s career. It’s not my favourite show she’s composed, but it’s easily her most-recognizable.

The characters are also wonderfully realized. Spike, Jet, Faye and Edward could’ve easily been two-dimensional cut-outs in the hands of an inferior writer, but Keiko Nobumoto, who’s also a legend in Japan, crafts them so well that you really feel they’re actual people. Spike’s a mafia-man, but he’s also a joker. Jet’s a cop, but he’s incredibly warm and fatherly. Faye’s deceptive, yet also distinctly feminine. And Edward, the comic relief, is a genius and has her goofy-to-smart ratio balanced so that she’s never annoying. All four of them have tragic backstories, further humanizing them throughout the 26-episodes.

I have to talk about the dialogue too. The show loves its music, but whenever the characters speak…look out. This is some of the best scripting in any visual medium, be it TV, film, East or West-alike. It’s a little detached, making it hard to feel the long-term weight, but that’s not so much a flaw as a nitpick; after all, good writing is good writing!

The voice acting’s also superb, especially the dub. Directed by legend Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, whom at the time was largely unknown, Cowboy Bebop elevated the standards back in 2001. Steve Blum, Beau Billingslea, Wendy Lee and Melissa Fahn are brilliantly cast and directed as the four leads, as are the side characters. It’s not my favourite dub ever, and it has a terrible performance in Episode 21, but it’s good enough to fit in the top 10.

Perhaps my favourite part is how its episodes are self-contained. Even its five story episodes, which have an overarching narrative, can be watched apart from the other episodes in the show and still be satisfying. It’s great because it highlights anime’s potential for self-contained storytelling, enough even for favourites. You don’t see that much in anime, even today’s shows.

That doesn’t mean I don’t have problems with Cowboy Bebop, because I do. I’ve already highlighted my concerns in another, prior article, but I’ll reiterate and say that the level of detachment causes an emotional disconnect. Nobumoto’s writing style seems an awful lot like placing a camera in an alley and watching the passerbys do what they do. You never get a sense of actual investment, and you always know exactly what’ll happen. This makes it hard to feel anything deep, which is disappointing.

Also, the story episodes, while interesting, are kinda tacky and the least-compelling. They revolve around a shallow love triangle between a girl, a former mafia-man and a generic assassin. The inferences of what happened are vague, and the ending, while unique, raises more questions than answers. I kinda don’t care about it as much as I should, which isn’t helped by the detachment issue in the previous paragraph. I like these episodes the least, even more than “Boogie Woogie Feng Shui”.

But I can’t fault Cowboy Bebop for my personal gripes. It’s to anime what Jaws is to Spielberg: great and influential, but not an overall favourite. But it’s definitely great, so I can’t give it less than a…


Join me next when I share another unique and compelling entry. Your hint is brothers. Stay tuned to find out what that means!

Zach, Megan, and Joe come together for a movie episode, and this time, it's Satoshi Kon's Perfect Blue. Is it really as good as so many critics say, or does the plot fall apart like all of my hopes and dreams!?!?!? I made myself sad... Oh, and everyone disagrees with each other. *GASP*

Listen to the episode by clicking the title card below.

Before I begin, we’ll pause to reflect on my mission statement and the three entries prior (which you can find here, here and here.)

Anyway, let’s do a quick recap: a subversive take on the magical girls genre is number 5. A subversive take on a toy marketing vehicle is number 4. And, lastly, an atmospheric space western is number 3. You ready for number 2? Good, because it’s Fullmetal Alchemist.



I should be clear that this is the 2003 show, not Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Qualms aside, I hate having to make the distinction; after all, one has the word “Brotherhood” attached to it! Isn’t that enough? I guess not, since fans still don’t get that they’re differently titled and, therefore, not the same.


Fullmetal Alchemist is the story of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, and their attempt to revive their dead mother using alchemy. Unfortunately, it backfires and nearly kills Alphonse. Edward attaches his brother’s soul to a suit of armour, but he loses an arm and a leg in the process. Desperate to reclaim their bodies, the two join the military in hopes of finding the legendary Philosopher’s Stone. But all isn’t what seems in the military, as the higher ups are harbouring dark secrets that are upsetting the delicate balance of the world.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: the show looks great. It has those jerky limitations of early-2000 anime, and the budget isn’t as high as some of Studio BONES’s later endeavours. That much I won’t deny. But so much passion and detail went into the show that it overcomes that. Besides, if we don’t criticize the original Star Wars films for their limitations, then we shouldn’t fault Fullmetal Alchemist.

Perhaps one of the best aspects is its directing. Like Cowboy Bebop in the previous entry, Seiji Mizushima is an auteur, and the show looks unbelievably cinematic for a Shonen series. I’ll admit that some of the shots border on pretence, like the panorama swerve during Episode 49 that doesn’t serve any other point than showing off the mansion it takes place in, but it’s clear that he really cared and wanted everything to resonate. This is also prevalent in the show’s mood lighting and shading, such that everything about it is as polished as the camera shots. There’s no other way of saying it: Fullmetal Alchemist is really pretty.

That level of finesse extends to the score, composed by Michiru Ōshima. If Kanno is a more varied, experimental composer, than Ōshima is the more conventional one, although that’s not to slight her. Everything about Fullmetal Alchemist’s soundtrack, right down to its recurrence of the tune “Brothers”, is unique, varied ear candy. True, a lot of tunes are overused, but when a track is that good…does it really matter?

I also love how this show uses its cast. Fullmetal Alchemist has a ginormous roster of recurring characters, major and minor, such that it theoretically shouldn’t function. And, to be fair, it wouldn’t in a lesser series. But it does, so much that it’s actually amazing. Every character of relevance gets exactly the amount of screen time deserved, and absolutely none are wasted. You can argue if some aren’t given the end-fates that are warranted (see Colonel Archer), but that’s so minor that it’s almost nitpicking.

What’s even more impressive? Ed and Al never once feel shafted. The show frequently puts them on the back burner, but it never once forgets that this is their story. Additionally, every plot thread comes back to their journey to fix what they lost. In that sense, there’s a “big story, small story” feel to the 51 episodes that makes this subtle, heartfelt tale stand out from more conventional Shonen.


The fight scenes are also pretty great. They’re not mind-blowing, with one or two exceptions, but they’re weighty. You feel each strike, punch and attack as it happens, which, again, is uncommon for a standard Shonen. And, thanks to some clever direction, music and dialogue, they resonate. I can’t rank a list of favourites, but that doesn’t make them any less special.

I’ve heard complaints from die-hard fans of the Manga about this show departing from the source material, which can be rationalized with context. For one, Hiromu Arakawa gave the show her blessing, so the deviation complaint doesn’t hold weight outside of personal preference. And two, anime isn’t Manga. Adaptations should do what works for them, and if it means changing certain details, then by all means they should do so. Besides, the new content, right down to open-ended finale, works. I don’t care if you disagree, it makes sense.

Which isn’t to say this beautifully-written and executed series is flawless. For one, its use of Manga Iconography is distracting. It frequently clashes with the more refined animation of serious scenes, making it awkward. And besides, why must comedic animation be so over-stylized? Slapstick has limits before it becomes ugly, and Manga Iconography is often that limit. It doesn’t look good at all, essentially.

Secondly, the humour in the show is inconsistent. Some of the jokes, like when Gracia Hughes is giving birth, are fantastic and generate laughs every time. But, sadly, many don’t. This is especially true with the weird character quirks, all of which are forced attempts at levity. I don’t know about you, but Ed freaking out over his height was more embarrassing than funny!

Thirdly, Episode 10 is flat-out painful, as is Episode 37. Both are weird ideas meant to kill time, but each fails for a different reason. The former’s a dumb homage to the Lupin III franchise, introducing an unnecessary character and having its ending feel tacked on and pointless. And the latter, save one scene, is obnoxious and embarrassing, with pretty much all of its jokes falling flat. I get that the show needed slots to fill, but did it have to be these options?

Finally, one of the homunculi has a silly fate. I won’t say who it is, but every time I watch that part I’m left scratching my head. It’s the only part of the story that I actually consider inconclusive and ridiculous, as it achieves nothing and doesn’t even make sense. But I won’t ruin it, as you might end up disagreeing with me. Still, I would’ve chosen a different outcome.

That doesn’t change what Fullmetal Alchemist is: a fun, emotional and cleverly-written Shonen. It’s tight at 51 episodes, and it manages to do stuff with the genre I’d never thought possible. I give it a…


Join me next time as I reveal my all-time favourite anime series. Your key word this time is gravity. What does that mean? You’ll have to wait and see!

Editor's Note: Apologies were late this week.

Walt, Stephanie, and Megan kick off December with a little Christmas manga about a reindeer that's also a pretty anime boy because Japan. Just stop questioning this.

Click the title card to watch the episode!

Welcome to another episode of “The Anime Greats”. Last time, I discussed one of my favourite directors, Hayao Miyazaki. This time, I’d like to discuss another, lesser-known director from Studio Ghibli that’s still worthy of recognition. That’s right, today I’m talking Isao Takahata:


Born on October 29th, 1935, Isao Takahata’s early years were shaped by WWII. At the age of 10, Takahata and his family survived a firebombing in his hometown, an event that’d resurface in his 1988 film Grave of the Fireflies. Like his colleague, Hayao Miyazaki, Takahata was influenced heavily by foreign animation during his early-adulthood, particularly a French film named Le Roi et l’Oiseau, considering it a medium with potential despite his inability to animate. Takahata would graduate from Tokyo University with a degree in French literature in 1959, a path that’d, interestingly enough, lead him to Toei Animation.


After many years, Takahata was given a directing opportunity on the 1968 film Hols: Prince of the Sun. As I said in my previous entry, the movie would go on to become a classic in the decades that followed, yet its initial failure caused everyone to become disgruntled. This included Takahata, and, in 1971, he left to work on a film based on Pippi Longstocking at A-Productions. The film was abandoned when the novel’s author, Astrid Lundgren, refused approval, leaving Takahata to work on smaller projects, like the Lupin III franchise, instead.

In 1974, Takahata got his first big break working on a TV anime called Heidi: Girl of the Alps. What followed was a string of successful shows, eventually becoming chief director on Chie the Brat in 1981 and Gauche the Cellist in 1982. Takahata was also credited as working on Little Nemo that same year, yet-due to artistic differences-he ended up leaving the project to produce Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The film was a smash-hit, and would eventually lead him to join Miyazaki in creating Studio Ghibli.

In 1988, Takahata adapted legendary author Akiyuki Nosaka’s novel into a movie called Grave of the Fireflies, which was to be double-billed alongside My Neighbor Totoro. Despite critical praise, the film’s depressing nature turned off most audiences, causing the double-bill to bomb at the box office and nearly bankrupt Studio Ghibli. Nevertheless, Takahata rebounded in the 90’s with three films, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko and My Neighbors the Yamadas, before taking a 14 year hiatus from directing. In 2013, after many years of production, Takahata released The Tale of the Princess Kaguya as his final film before announcing retirement.

What separates Takahata from Miyazaki is their approach to film. For one, Takahata can’t draw or animate. So while his directing’s top-notch, he’s forced to rely on others for the aesthetic of his films. This has given him direct insight into the talent of others, including the late-Yoshifumi Kondō (who was the lead animator on Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday before directing Whisper of the Heart,) Hiroyuki Morita (who lead My Neighbors the Yamadas before directing The Cat Returns) and Kenichi Konishi (who was the lead animator for The Tale of the Princess Kaguya), and has allowed for other individuals to shine with his films. This isn’t as prevalent with Miyazaki, whom always has a direct stamp on his films.

Additionally, Takahata strives for a different style of realism than Miyazaki. Where as the latter focuses on projecting life into fantasy, Takahata projects fantasy into life. His movies are period pieces dealing with either the harsh realities of life, see Grave of the Fireflies and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, or the expectations that society has on people, like in Only Yesterday, or, again, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. His films often contain commentaries on societal norms, yet it’s his cold distance that makes his slow-paced stories so fascinating. Even when he steps into fantasy, it’s never hard fantasy, but drama with a hint of the fantastical. As such, Takahata is more alienating and divisive than his better-known colleague, yet still worthy of recommendation.

And finally, Takahata is known for keeping a low-profile. Despite being as humble-yet-political as Miyazaki, he’s not openly antagonistic. He’s been compared to a hermit in the documentary The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness, even frustrating his employers by going over time and budget with his films (as a side-note, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya has been recorded as the most expensive anime film ever.) Because of this, it’s easy to dismiss Takahata’s brilliance, which, given his résumé, is dishonest.

Overall, Isao Takahata is as much a driving force as Hayao Miyazaki, often representing the other side of the coin that drives Studio Ghibli. In some respects, he’s not that much of a slouch, being the driving force behind dubbing foreign animations for the Studio Ghibli museum. Therefore, while you may not think much of him outside of “that guy that once got nominated for an Oscar”, he’s absolutely deserving of “legendary status”. So here’s to you, Isao Takahata, and your treasure trove of excellence! May it inspire people long after you’re gone!

(For info on what this is, please click here. Don’t worry, it won’t take long.) Before beginning the final entry, let’s recap again:

Number 5 was Mahou Shoujo Puella Magi Madoka Magica, aka a dark subversion of the magical girls genre.

Number 4 was Digimon Tamers, aka a dark subversion of a toy marketing franchise.

Number 3 was Cowboy Bebop, aka one of the greatest space westerns ever made.

And, lastly, number 2 was Fullmetal Alchemist, aka one of the greatest Shonen shows ever made.

Which leaves us with number 1, which also happens to be Wolf’s Rain. And since it’s hard to discuss this show without going all fanboy, I’ll drop the pretence and speak mostly from personal experience.



Wolf’s Rain takes place in a post-apocalyptic world on the verge of extinction. The land is covered in snow, the population is under the control of corrupt nobles and wolves, rumoured by legend to be the ultimate saviours, have long since been extinct. Except they’re not, they've taken on human disguises. Amidst the chaos, four young wolves, Kiba, Hige, Tsume and Toboe, discover the rumoured flower maiden, named Cheza, that’s been touted as the key to opening paradise. But they’re not alone, as a noble named Darcia, a human couple named Hubb and Cher, a former deputy named Quent and his dog Blue and the various noble factions are also after Cheza, each for their own, selfishly-motivated reasons. So the race is on to find paradise, assuming it even exists…

My history with Wolf’s Rain is complicated. I initially discovered it through JesuOtaku, and while it was interesting, it didn’t fully grab me. Still, the ideas presented in it lingered, such that I eventually bought the DVD boxset about three years ago. I re-watched it in the Summer of 2013, and it immediately clicked. It’s now my favourite anime show.

There’s so much about it that resonates, but discussing it all would take forever. I’ll cover the basics, the most-obvious being its animation. Like Jaws, Wolf’s Rain went through a truckload of behind-the-scenes production issues, but, also like that movie, it came around and looks fantastic. Yes, the limitations are more and more obvious the further along you progress, with many action scenes being implied and not fully shown, but that doesn’t distract from how polished it looks. I’d even argue that, with a few tweaks, you could make this into a movie trilogy, as everything is crisp, clear and, surprisingly, filmic.

The soundtrack is also amazing. It’s Yoko Kanno again, but this time she’s upped the ante. Where as Cowboy Bebop’s tracks were atmospheric and, therefore, worked best in-show, Kanno doesn’t hold back here. The show’s wide variety, from classical, to jazz, to even indie pop, really work as its own beast, thanks in-part to the help of long-time singer/collaborators Steve Conte and Maaya Sakamoto; in fact, it’s for that reason that “Stray”, the show’s intro, and “Gravity”, the show’s outro, are my favourites from anime in both categories. They’re simply that good!

On that note, the dub acting is superb! It’s Mary Elizabeth McGlynn again, and this, in my opinion, is her best work. Every voice, right down to the most minor detail, is perfectly matched, and each line read is expertly spoken. It’s a little quiet, true, but when you have voices like Crispin Freeman, Johnny Yong Bosch, Joshua Seth and Mona Marshall as the leads, it doesn’t matter. I even look forward to the sneak previews at the end of each episode, and I normally don’t!

Of course, the writing’s also impeccable, if not sometimes blunt thanks to the frequent handprints of Dai Sato. Still, it’s Keiko Nobumoto heading the show, and while Cowboy Bebop’s characters suffered from detachment, this show makes you feel for these ones. It’s especially true in the 4-episode finale, which I consider the modern-day equivalent of a Shakespearean tragedy. The tears flow, the heart is ripped out, and yet it’s 100% satisfying. Even the final shot, which originally bothered me, is amazing, and is the cleverest conclusion to any show I’ve ever watched.

The action scenes are also great. Like Fullmetal Alchemist, they’re not list-worthy, save the awesome battle in Episode 22, but they’re weighty and real. You get a sense of suspense, stakes and danger from each one, a fact complimented by the recurring tune that plays throughout. And true, they’re often short and implied, like I said before, but that doesn’t mean they’re aren’t still wonderful eye candy. If you don’t believe me, have a watch for yourselves.

Still, what makes Wolf’s Rain work is its themes and meta-textual references. Unlike many dark stories, which are edgy without bite, and stories that incorporate allusions because “they look cool”, nothing in Wolf’s Rain’s accidental. Every violent moment, bit of imagery, even meta-textual reference, has a purpose, regardless of whether or not it makes sense initially. It’s clear that the production committee at Studio BONES cared about what they were including, and while certain theological references will fly by your head the first or second time, it’s the more obvious references, like those from 1984 and Dante’s Inferno, that’ll click immediately. Besides, the fact that you’re forced to re-watch the show several times to get everything further strengthens its long-term value.

Besides, Wolf’s Rain’s about finding utopia and humanity amidst chaos and destruction. Does it matter if it’s seemingly impossible? No. Does it matter if the world around it is mired in mystery? No. Does it even matter that you won’t understand it right away? Of course not, because what’s important, the basic structure, is enough to compensate for any confusion.

Sadly, the show suffers from two flaws, a minor and a major, that hold it back from being a favourite in everyone’s eyes. The minor one is the recap disc in the middle of the show’s boxset. For numerous reasons that I won’t divulge, the production of Wolf’s Rain was four weeks behind schedule, so four recaps in a row were made to keep up with demands. They’re painful, and they forced the show to end its broadcast without a finale. Fortunately, the recaps are skippable, and there’s a 96-minute, conclusive OVA at the end to make up for that.

The major flaw, however, is subjective, but still needs addressing: this show is divisive. Because of its content and subject matter, there’s a good chance you’ll either love it, or hate it, with little room for impartiality. The show is like a really good Poker player whom appears indecipherable at first glance, making it hard to like and appreciate unless you’re patient enough to study its moves. It’s much like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask in that regard, except more obscure due to not being part of a bigger-name franchise.

Still, again, I can’t fault the show for what it does. Is it for everyone? No, but it’s absolutely my favourite anime series. And it’s well-deserving of a…


Thanks so much for persevering through this series of reviews. Will I do this again? I’m not sure, but at least it’ll tide me over until my Christmas review…assuming I do one.

Did you know that phones play VIDEOGAMES!? I sure did, but didn't have anything to play because I had a Windows phone and there is no sadder sight than the app store of a Windows phone. But I've since upgraded, and I've been toying around with whatever interesting free games I could find. This eventually lead me to a Japanese only game based off Bleach, that series that I will never escape as long as I live. Titled Brave Souls, the game is a free to play attempt at cashing in on the he amount of characters in the series massive serial. It's also one of the better free gacha titles I've come across, and a huge time-sink at that.

The game throws you in by retelling the events of the first chapter and episode of the franchise, with screenshots from the anime mixed in with original character arc for dialog scenes. After a few tutorial levels, you're free to play the game as you may, and there's a lot to learn. The game is only in Japanese text, but it's not a huge problem if you have experience with gacha games. A gacha game is a game based around gacha capsules, those little trinkets in vending machines you can get for a quarter or two. As mobile gaming as grown, so has the attempt to take the idea of those capsules and apply them to an entire game set-up to make something addictive and possibly worth spending extra cash on so the user can get what they want from the randomly generating vending machine. The main game itself, though, is a very simplistic beat-em up, and a fun one at that.

Not many gacha games remember the game part of things, at least in my experience, or they have very tiring mechanics (the Love Live game gets a tad repetitive with all the repeating songs). So, making a beat-em up with all the characters in Bleach canon is simply brilliant. It's an entire genre already based around repetition, meaning making an enjoyable title with that set-up for cheap is an easy process. All that matters is how the game feels, and they got that down here. Attacks all come out very quickly and leave impact, especially specials and cut-scene spawning supers. The mechanics are also incredibly simple. You hold a thumb or finger on the left and move it around to order the direction your character moves or dodges in, and you use the right side buttons to activate moves and attacks. To make up for some imprecision that comes from positioning with a touch screen, the game has auto-targeting on enemies if they get into your attack range, and attacks also hit pretty wide.

There's some challenge here within this simple set-up, as every enemy has different reactions to your attacks or placement on the field. You have to pay attention and know when to dodge or attack, and you also need to pay attention to enemy type. Every character, ally and enemy, has a type that decides the effectiveness of an attack or how much they take, a very basic rock-paper-scissors system that's pretty universally understood. This is where team set-ups come into play, as you have to make teams of three, letting you switch out characters on the field, and can even make multiple teams if you want a certain specialization for different challenges.

To shake things up a bit, the game has RPG mechanics in that you can power up every character you have on hand. You can update their status trees, feed them experience items you find in battle, chain them to another character for a particular bonus, and sacrifice characters you're not using for stat benefits, gaining bonus amounts of special experience for sacrificing the same character as the one you're powering up. Of course, everyone on your team you used to clear a level gains some experience as well, raising their level overtime. This makes the grind more addictive, and these are all common elements in most gacha games I've played. The same goes for how you get more characters.

As you complete missions, you earn little orbs that can be traded for a chance at a new character in the shop. One chance is twenty-five orbs, and that takes awhile to get. See, missions give our a total of five orbs, and that's only if you meet the main three extra challenges (everyone alive, time trial, and I believe a combo bonus or maybe avoiding damage). Meaning, you have to perfect five missions for a shot at a new character. You also need to save up for those blue talismans at the left top corner, as you need one to activate a mission. Otherwise, you're not playing. You get them via those same orbs. Other currency includes coins that can be used for minor status boosts for missions and for unlocking status tree branches. You can also earn friend points that can net you experience items (earned via accepting help from characters used by other players and gaining new friends). This currency lunacy is normally where these sorts of games fall apart, but I found Brave Souls more fair than most.

You can get talisman bundles with good values if you spend a lot of orbs, and the game throws a lot of free stuff at you. Logging in everyday nets you a free batch of a single item, and there are achievements you can earn from basic play that net you gifts, including daily challenges that constantly refresh. Actually getting new characters takes much longer than it does in most other gacha games, especially because low star characters are irregularly distributed via drops in missions, but making a squad you're satisfied with doesn't take too long. I also like that it encourages outside the box thinking, like using a squad of low-star fighters and learning their strengths and weaknesses. Star ranking only really comes into play in late game, due to level caps based on stars.

Honestly, I'm just having a lot of fun with my unbalanced squad of a two-star Rukia and three-star Orihime and Soifon. The game really scratches the right itch, helped by how ridiculously Bleach it is. Everything, from menus to the rocking music, screams Bleach. This is easily one of the better gacha games I've found, and it's thankfully simple to understand. It's amazing that a game written in an entirely different language is easier to understand to me than most English titles I've found in the genre. If you like Bleach or just want a fun time-waster, look this up, you can google it and install it on android phones (and I believe iPhones as well).

“T’was auld ani-shows I be wraught,
for Infinite Rainy Day,
then new ani-shows be fore-sought
for this year’s holiday!”

It’s the holidays again! A time of serious films, expensive gift purchases and needlessly-complicated family dinners. But, also, it’s that time where I remind everyone that I’m Jewish, don’t celebrate Christmas and then buy into the holiday cheer anyway by discussing an anime Christmas episode. Last year was RahXephon, while this year I’m going more embarrassing and tackling the first anime Christmas episode I’d ever seen: Episode 38 of Digimon Zero-Two.


“But Zachary, I saw your retrospective series. Don’t you hate Digimon Zero-Two?” Firstly, yes. And secondly, so? Why can’t I discuss an episode from a show I hate, especially when it’s Christmas-themed? Am I not allowed to explain why it sucks?

Without further ado, here’s “A Very Digi-Christmas”:


After some opening narration from Ken’s English VA, (yes, I’m using the dub) we see the new Digi-Destined knocking down the remainder of Arukenimon’s control spires. The group celebrates in their usual, hokey way: awkward dancing, cheering and laughing like bozos. All of that changes when Ken announces a Christmas party that he’s having at his house, of which everyone’s invited. Even Cody, who’s been awfully untrusting of Ken, receives an invitation, breaking down their barrier permanently and establishing a level of trust.

But that’s not all! As a token of goodwill, the Digi-Destined open a portal to the real world and ship the original Digi-Destined’s Digimon partners to them as Christmas presents (especially Mimi, who lives in New York City.) The younger kids then head over to Ken’s house, while the older kids prepare for Matt’s special Christmas concert. We also see Tai and Sora share an awkward conversation, suggesting, albeit sadly, that Sora’s moved on and is dating Matt.

However, trouble’s brewing, as we get not only a brief scene with Arukenimon and Mummymon creating a new control spire, but also a strange conversation between TK and Matt’s mom and a shady man eating in an outdoor restaurant. His name’s Yukio Oikawa, and he’s a technical engineer who knows an uncomfortable amount about the Digi-Destined’s activities. He’s researched the Highton View Terrace incident, but he also knows a great deal about the Myotismon/real world story arc from Digimon Adventure and has been keeping tabs on the Digi-Destined since. With a vague warning, Oikawa wishes TK and Matt’s mom a nice holiday and vanishes.

I’m sure that won’t resurface in a few episodes from now, right?

The episode reaches a feverish peak when, during Matt’s concert, Arukenimon releases some feral Digimon and scares all the attendees off. Desperate for help, Tai calls Ken’s house and asks his sister and her friends, who are busy playing cards, to take of the situation. They do, and the next 10 or so minutes is fighting. Fighting with a purpose, the kids are rounding up the Digimon and returning them to the Digital World, but fighting nonetheless. And it’s not even that exciting, despite the dream team of old and new Digi-Destined working together.

And I blame the writing for that. Like I said in my retrospectives, the animation never lent itself to great fights, and that this entire season felt like an excuse to have battles in place of actual character growth, as opposed to the reverse, makes these feel routine and uninteresting. For crying out loud, you get to see the new Ultimate Digivolutions fight alongside the original kids’ Champion Digivolutions! How do you not make this exciting? They find a way!

With the wild Digimon back in the Digital World, the gang parts ways. Ken is escorted back to his house, Davis says a throwaway line about not kissing Kari under the mistletoe and everyone enjoys their festivities. Also, Agumon asks for a bedtime story, to which Kari recites the worst rendition of “T’was the Night Before Christmas” I’ve ever listened to:

“'T'was a Digimon Christmas, and everyone was busy,
Especially the likes of Tentomon and Izzy,
Joe played with Gomamon, Matt and Gabumon ate,
Palmon saw Mimi, isn't that great?
Cody and Upamon shared a little sushi,
While Pururumon sat on Yolei's tushy,
Tokomon went carolling, Ken's thankful for friends,
While in Davis's dreams, the fun never ends.”

My poor, poor ears.

The episode ends the next morning with Izzy and Tentomon looking at Izzy’s laptop and discovering that portals to the Digital World are opening up all-over the world, followed by a “To be continued”. And…that’s it!

Honestly, there’s little to talk about. Unlike last year’s Christmas pick, which was a subtle metaphor about frivolity, this one doesn’t have much in the way of a theme or message. There’s nothing about how life doesn’t co-operate with expectations on the holidays, which is a common theme in Christmas stories. There’s nothing about the importance of family either, which-again-could’ve easily worked. The idea of teamwork is tossed around loosely, although since that’s been a drawing point for Digimon in general I can’t call that exciting. Really, “A Very Digi-Christmas” is a mere filler episode to connect the show from the previous arc about The Destiny Stones to the succeeding “World Tour” arc one episode later.

Okay, what about the action? Like I said earlier, it’s uninteresting. The show’s been so heavily focused on covering up its lack of a cohesive narrative with drawn-out fights until now that even that feels lacklustre. Sure, there’s the constant one-liners. Sure, it’s cool to see old and new team up. But when your core narrative sucks, or isn’t compelling, then why bother? It’s not like a minimalist narrative can’t work, but this isn’t trying at-

Okay, that’s not entirely true. We get a brief advancement in plot with TK and Matt’s mom, Nancy, confronting Oikawa, there’s that much. But it’s not relevant yet. Oikawa won’t be important until Episode 43, so why tease him so early and do nothing with him? I don’t get it.

“A Very Digi-Christmas” perfectly embodies my problem with Digimon Zero-Two: it’s hollow. I understand the need for filler, sometimes it can flesh out characters, but that’s no excuse for lack of effort. Even “The Dreaming Stone”, which was RahXephon’s version of filler, still had something valuable to say about consumerist culture during Christmas, but this? Nothing.

That’s what Digimon Zero-Two amounts to in the end: save the brilliant “Genesis of Evil” that tackles Ken’s back-story, nothing. Annoying, frustrating nothing that, simultaneously, ruins what came prior with its ending epilogue. Overall, this was pure nothingness, which upsets me. And, sadly, it would only get worse starting with its next episode.

Happy holidays. Be sure to eat your fruitcakes before they grow mouldy, and I’ll see you in the New Year of 2016!

As a special Christmas treat, Jonathan, Megan, and Walt watched a show about the ghosts of train stations helping women with their problems. It's even weirder than you're expecting. Also, the gang discuss the worst manga they read this year, and no, that does not include Walt ranting about Bowling King and Mamamune's Revenge. He has read other terrible things, you know.

You can listen to the episode by clicking the title card below!

*Sigh*

I’m not one to discuss the long-term merits of an art-style. For one, I majored in English. My area of expertise is, therefore, essay and narrative composition, not whether or not Jackson Pollock was on acid when he made his magnum opus. Two, it’s incredibly subjective. And three, it reeks of pretense.

So when some critic I’ve never heard of pops up on my Twitter Feed discussing the objective merits of art, I most-likely wouldn’t care to respond; after all, why should I? However, because this man dragged down Hayao Miyazaki, a director I admire, for the sake of long-term art merits, I can’t really keep my mouth shut. It’s not only me, the article I linked above is more an open dialogue than a dissertation. The fact that said critic was challenged for his claims highlights him making statements that hold no objective weight. Subjective, maybe, but not objective.


For those too lazy to click on my above sigh, here’s the gist:


This guy, Michael Barrier, openly stated that Hayao Miyazaki’s films are holistically barren. In other words, they suffer from, “Japanese animation's endemic reticence where the illumination of personality is concerned. This or that character may express extreme emotion, but always with the stylized extravagance of kabuki. Too many of Miyazaki's characters—the doll-like heroes and heroines, the raw-boned comic-relief pirates and laborers—look and behave too much alike. I felt often in watching these films that Miyazaki was struggling dutifully to fill up the time until he could get back to what really interested him.”

Gesundheit. And yes, I made none of that up.

I know this is confusing to anyone who isn’t a walking thesaurus, but Barrier pretty much stated that Miyazaki’s characters are “shallow”, hence they never emote properly or feel distinct. It’s as if Miyazaki, he argues, doesn’t care about deep or meaningful characters, but rather focuses on the, “doesn’t this look technically impressive?” angle. Ergo, Barrier has no long-lasting connection to any of his movies. Except Spirited Away, but even then barely.

Okay then!

Firstly, can we stop trying to make everything sound needlessly complicated? I get it, Mr. Barrier, you’re a critic. But would it kill you to say, “I think Miyazaki’s films look pretty, but lack character depth”? There, a single thesis in ten words. You’re welcome.

Seriously, I hate it when people try sounding overly sophisticated. I have a strong vocabulary, but I don’t flaunt SAT words all the time. Even my writing style isn’t that descriptive. If you wanted to, you could ignore some of my words and still get the gist. But Barrier? I doubt I’d understand him even with ignoring those words.

I should delve into the argument now, huh? Well, he’s entitled to his opinion, but I disagree. I think Hayao Miyazaki’s characters are incredibly expressive, for two, specific reasons:

The first is the art-style. Before I’d even heard of Miyazaki, I knew what anime was, but my perceptions were skewed. I thought it was shallow and overly-exaggerated on principle, not thinking that maybe I was approaching it from the wrong angle. That maybe I thought what I thought because of what was being aired on TV, namely the goofy Shonen and slapstick comedies where most of the laughs are the characters making weird faces. That maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place.

But then something interesting happened: I was introduced to Spirited Away. Not directly, I was bored one day before third year had started and found it lying around, but it opened my eyes to many possibilities. The characters weren’t over-selling their emotions, they were…subdued. There was an intensely fine-tuned subtlety to how Chihiro and friends moved about and interacted, a sort of nuance I usually saw in Western animation. True, the mouths didn’t move like real mouths, more on that later, but the characters were on a level of believability that made me change how I viewed Japanimation.

Since then, I’ve had the privilege of watching not only all of Miyazaki’s films, but also the entirety of Studio Ghibli, Mamoru Hosoda’s dubbed works, most of the late-Satoshi Kon’s repertoire and a few films from other directors in the industry. But, most-importantly, I learned to appreciate anime, even the silly expressions, or “Manga Iconography”, that much of its mainstream is associated with. Doesn’t mean I love those expressions, but I can appreciate them.

In Barrier’s argument, he brings up the expressionistic animation of Disney, its “elastic” fluidity, and how it’s more detailed than the wooden, weightless (he used that word too) style Miyazaki’s famous for. He uses Princess Mononoke as his base example, stating that the only character with life was The Nightwalker, i.e. that translucent blob that traverses the open forest while the Kodama sprites shake their heads like voodoo dolls. Everything else, however? Empty.

That sounds good in theory, but it holds no weight in practice because it’s untrue. To compare, when I watch a Disney movie, even a great one, I don’t feel the aspect of “weight”. Older movies were more concerned about the grander picture, while newer ones gloss over details, like Elsa’s footprints in the snow during her solo in Frozen, to save time and keep a yearly release schedule. Even Pixar films, which go beyond the call of duty, frequently avoid “does this injury look painful?” in favour of slapstick and giggles. I’m not discrediting Disney or Pixar on the whole, they make great movies, but I won’t pretend they’re not lacking in weighted physics.

In contrast, I get that weight with anime. Particularly, I get that realistically-proportioned weight in Miyazaki’s films. Because when Ashitaka is sliced by San’s blade in Princess Mononoke, you see the gash wound on his cheek. When one of the women in Iron Town accidentally shoots him in the chest, you see the blood trickle and Ashitaka limp. These are little details you wouldn’t find in most Western animation, even the good stuff, and yet it’s everywhere in anime.

Does that mean Barrier’s claim about stiffness is irrelevant? No. Anime is a pretty cheap industry, with time crunches and low budgets. Even the highest-end show is nowhere near the budget of an episode of Spongebob Squarepants, and that doesn’t even cover the discrepancies between anime films and Western animated films! Essentially, anime is an industry driven by passion. The content is often still high-end, but when you’re paid dirt-cheap and have deadlines to constantly meet, well…you have to cut back somewhere. That’s why so many shows lack movement, why frame-rates are reduced and why characters’ mouths rarely move in other directions than up and down.

Still, that shouldn’t matter if the key element of animation is intact, which leads to the second defence of Hayao Miyazaki: quality writing.

See, animation is a medium of storytelling. It doesn’t matter how detailed your animation is, how pretty your character models are, or if your world is incredibly detailed, if your story’s lacking…you’re in trouble. I’ve seen plenty of animated anythings that were well-animated and had bad writing, as well as plenty of badly-animated anythings that had fantastic writing. Story is the heart and soul of the medium. Visual depth merely compliments that.

I bring this up because it’s integral to understanding why I so strongly feel that Barrier has missed the mark. Like Jenny Lerew stated, Miyazaki’s films are characterized by their human depth, not their animation complexity. The characters in his worlds are written so you can see them with a single image and immediately understand what they’re thinking or feeling. When Princess Nausicaä, for example, sees her father’s dead body surrounded by Tolmekkian soldiers, her reaction is non-verbal. And yet, within those few, brief seconds, we witness a range of emotions: shock, horror, anger and, finally, vengefulness. None of this is ever stated, but it doesn’t have to be.

Contrast that with Disney movies, in which the range is perhaps more obvious, due to a bigger budget, but the response isn’t as strong. Pinocchio witnessing Lampwick turn into a donkey is terrifying, no doubt, but after a few watches it loses its effect because Lampwick isn’t so engaging. You feel bad for him, but since we know relatively little about him and, sequently, haven’t had enough time to learn, he becomes another casualty in the story of a character who, by the way, barely even has a character arc.

I get it: Pinocchio, like many Disney films, is rooted in emotion. Anything that doesn’t fit you simply accept as “Disney logic”. I can tolerate that. But it doesn’t mean the thematic depth isn’t either shallow, as with early Disney films, or present, yet not abundant. In contrast, thanks to the subtleties of facial movement, the writing and, surprisingly, the slow, atmospheric moments, I learn more about Satsuki Kusakabe from how she interacts with Totoro in the rain, or San from how she sucks blood from Morro’s wound, in those single, respective scenes than I ever did from the time with Lampwick.

This is a problem that Miyazaki himself shares with me. As I stated in “The Anime Greats”:

“…[Miyazaki] admired [Disney] while still believing his company had barely scratched the surface of animation.”

That’s a polite way of saying, “Miyazaki thought Disney movies were shallow.” And guess who agrees? Andrew Osmond, the third person in Barrier’s conversation:

“…According to one interview, [Miyazaki] didn't like Disney's Snow White or Bambi either, and had a violent negative reaction to Sleeping Beauty. He acknowledged Pinocchio was ‘great,’ but said it didn't move him. I know this will horrify you, but he said he preferred Fleischer's Gulliver's Travels and Hoppity Goes to Town.”

Interesting, no?

So yeah, that’s all I can say on this matter. Does this mean Barrier is wrong about not being sold on Hayao Miyazaki? No, as neither is one of our Infinite Rainy Day staff. And while I love Miyazaki, he’s not perfect, as evidenced by his hit-or-miss dialogue that comes from not scripting his films. I also appreciate that, unlike someone else, Barrier has actually given Miyazaki’s work a proper chance before outright dismissing it.

That doesn’t, however, mean that I don’t think he’s being unfair, or perhaps even stuck-up. Remember my Jackson Pollock remark? That was in-reference to a man discussing objective standards, or lack thereof, in modern art. Like how his equation of Pollock’s work to his art apron bothered me because it came off as snobbish and condescending, so too does Barrier’s critique of Miyazaki’s “lack of standards” bother me because it comes off as snobbish and condescending. And while I’m sure Barrier’s been chewed out by his colleagues by now, the post is almost 10 years old, I still feel it’s relevant.

So there you have it: my thoughts on nothing…again.

Due to unexpected issues with audio, we are unable to present the newest episode of Rainy Day Reading and will be skipping over the planned episode. Expect a new episode proper at the usual time.

I’ve been noticing a trend in anime dubs lately, a sort of bad habit. It’s not super common, but it’s cropping up more and more. It’s weird, it’s silly, it’s downright obnoxious. I call it “anime flubbing”.

What IS flubbing? It’s a term used to describe errors. The context could be a textbook, an essay, or, in this case, a line read. Flubbing’s commonplace because we’re all only human, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of in theory. It’s one of the many reasons why actors and actresses do multiple retakes of their lines, as even the most-experienced thespian can flub occasionally. Flubbing, essentially, is normal, but it’s also something to be learned from.

Which is all the more reason why dubs, which translate lines from one language to another, must take careful consideration to not include flubbing in their final versions. But I wouldn’t be writing this if they did, so…


Anyway, I’ve turned a blind eye to this for a while. At first, I figured that these silly quips and jokes, which I consider flubbing, were personal preference, and that people were overreacting. Then I thought they were one-offs. Then I thought they weren’t nearly that bad. Then I thought they were only in Stephen Foster dubs, and that no one else would stoop that low. But as my ears became more in-tune to the expectations that came with dubs, I realized that this was the early stage of an epidemic.

Here are a few examples of flubbing, as well as why it’s a problem. And no, Stephen Foster’s work won’t be included, as he’s too easy a target:


Good Luck Girl! is a series from 2012. I’m not sure what it’s about, but from what little I’ve seen it looks like a comedy hijinks show. Due to its relatively strong popularity, it got licensed for a dub by FUNimation Entertainment. You’d think that a company as prestigious as that would do the series justice. And, for the most part, they have…with one glaring exception. See, the lead writer was Jamie Marchi, a FUNimation VA with a habit of including pop-culture references in her scripts where not needed, and while the acting and writing appear to be top-notch from what I’ve seen on their YouTube channel, occasionally you get goodies like this:


I can already make three deductions: 1. The energy in this show is fast-paced. 2. The humour is incredibly weird and nonsensical. 3. Despite swimming in pop-culture, the line, “It’s on like Donkey Kong!” feels out-of-place. And yet, it’s in the dub.

I get why it was included: the show is already pop-culture heavy, so why not add another reference? The answer is because it doesn’t fit. Good Luck Girl! is referential, true, but it’s all Japanese. The show alludes to a variety of anime from the 80’s, 90’s and 21st Century. “It’s on like Donkey Kong!” is a line that only Nintendo fans will really get, and even then only in the West. It’s one pop-culture reference too far, and it sucks you out of the experience.

Okay, that’s not a great example. How about Prison School?


I’ll try to keep this one brief, since I’ve already discussed it in detail, but this is a facepalm-worthy moment. For one, most people watching this are too young to know Happy Days, which is what the “Arthur Fonzarelli” reference was about. And two, their insistence on dragging in GamerGate dates the material. Ignoring the fact that GamerGate is a Western phenomenon, or even what your general stance is, what purpose does this serve 10, 15, even 20 years down the line? I know Digimon Adventure had a Teeny Beanie Baby reference in its dub, but that was 16 years ago, can be somewhat overlooked due to the limited knowledge of dubbing back then and also dates that too. But this is 2015, we’re better than this.

I know FUNimation’s staff, and even some fans, don’t understand why this is a big deal, so I’ll spell it out: imagine if The Lion King were a Japanese movie being dubbed into English. Now, let’s pretend someone futzed around with a single line in this scene:


I’m sure some of you know where I’m going with this, but for everyone else, pretend that “Long live the king!” was changed to “The GOP is waiting!”. Everything else remains intact, it’s only that one line. What would your reaction be? I know some people might find the jab at the American Republican party funny, but it ruins the dramatic weight of the original line. Scar isn’t out for any political agenda except his own, so while it might be funny to those who get the reference, it’ll confuse and annoy everyone else. Particularly kids, whom this movie is intended for, and parents, some of whom might be GOP supporters and are clever enough to understand it.

Basically, it’s in poor taste, personal politics be damned. So yeah, flubbing exists outside of Stephen Foster. But even with that, it’s easy to assume this is only a Texas issue; after all, their voice acting base is tiny compared to LA’s, so VA’s are bound to frequent between Sentai Filmworks and FUNimation Entertainment and bring their quirks with them. Clearly it’s only a problem there, right?


Enter Toradora!, a 2008 romance series that, for the longest time, remained undubbed for…reasons I can’t begin to explain or understand. Which was a shame, as I’d heard nothing but praise from the people who’d seen it. Fortunately, a dub was announced last year by NIS America, which meant the project would go to the only remaining LA dubbing studio of note, Bang-Zoom! Entertainment, and have a high chance of being hit-or-miss. It ended up being a hit, but it wasn’t until I watched the WatchMojo Top 10 on anime Christmas episodes (it was what prompted me to write this piece) that I noticed this oddity:

“This is so freakity friggin’ confusing, y’alls!”

I can’t find an isolated clip, so watch the video I mentioned in the previous paragraph and see for yourselves. It’s awful. I actually had to take a minute to process it, as it was too weird to register: freakity friggin’ confusing? Y’alls? What’s this hillbilly nonsense?

I don’t get it, why was this included in the dub? It sounds like something from a gag reel, which’d be fine if that’s what this was. But nope! It’s the finished product, and it’s dumber for it! I’m not gonna bother rebutting any potential arguments defending the line, because it’s downright horrible. Funny, yes, but so is Cards Against Humanity. That doesn’t make it acceptable.

You see why this is an issue? Like I said in my Prison School rant, these sorts of quips draw you out of the experience. People worked hard to give you these shows and are trusting you with a fair translation. Don’t go ruining it without their consent, it’s disrespectful. Not to mention, it makes it much harder for dub fans, like myself, to take your work seriously. And, ultimately, aren’t we what matter most?

Think about it.