Category: Anime/Manga

Infinite Stratos 02: Haven’t I seen this before six years ago?

I heard you like beam spam“We meet again Kira Yamato….now *I* am the master…”

So against all better judgement, here I am writing about Infinite Stratos part Deux. To be fair to the series, it does get better once they get SkyMio’s (predictably trite) antics over with and get to the duel proper, which is generally well animated unless you really squint and pick bones out of your CGI egg. Setting aside the anime fetish of once again bringing a sword to a gunfight, we get the over the top action we expect from a less pantsu oriented version of Strike Witches, down to the usual hewing down of projectiles as if they were redneck beer cans and even a “Shaving off my life by putting my energies into my attack!” attack, which would have elicited a groan from me if I hadn’t used it on the unwelcome Gundam Seed memories this fight brought back.

We also get a bit of backstory on her Mio-ness and her sister, who is chief boffin behind the mysterious IS system, complete with DUM-DUM-DUM a black box of a core. The sister (who I see is voiced by her petite Shiro Akuma-ness), is either a wanderer or has gone missing, and the two are estranged. All this I guess is meant to set the stage for later Shocking Developments(tm) where their WHOOSH WHOOSH battle-armour is not as simple as it seems to their young users.

The harem aspects kick in hard again at the end of the show (once the duel ends and Cecilia starts to feel the ramifications of that inconclusive encounter), and I’m still shaking my head at the preview, which promises YET ANOTHER osananajimi, unbelievably presented as a fang-tan twintail from CHINA. This is going to be one of those anime of two halves, and in the scenario of liking one and disliking the other, how much of the disliked portion you can stomach.

Gosick 02: A Berry Trip on the High Seas

HAW HAW HAW
“Oh Victorique, you and your impeccable social graces….”

(The second episode picks up from where the first left off, with Kujo and Victorique aboard the mysterious ship. Things soon come to a head with the usual mysterious deaths in/aboard the Locked Room/Villa/Ship and we soon find out what the box/hare metaphor refers to, as the players are whittled down one by one….)

Gosick 02 has some of the common trope issues that Japanese tantei tales have, such as the over-reliance of the Scooby-Doo setup mechanic. Still the whodunit elements aren’t as predictable as what was delivered in the first segment of this arc, and we get to see more of Victorique’s behaviourial tics and welcome comedy relief through the Holmes/Watson exasperation dynamic, including a truly priceless scene after Kujo nearly bites it from a trap. The introduction to a large cast of new characters is a bit of a wash with half of them predictably removed from the picture quickly. The events that set the grisly chain of events in motion are rooted firmly in the sins of the past, another common element of Japanese anime/manga detection.

The interplay between Kujo and Victorique, although reasonable and generally quite amusing, was hamstrung by Kujo being a typical patronizing shounen git, with his laughably cliche backstory leading to the annoyingly paternalistic behaviour we get to experience in excruciating detail, including a doubled flashback.

Now, it’s a reality that Gosick is generally targeted towards the otaku market, and using Japanese characters to placate the ridiculously insular modern manga/anime domestic consumer is seemingly a must these days, but Kujo seems completely like a shoehorned fish out of water, and generally his character buildup only detracts from the story, unlike instances such as Monster, where a foreign surgeon is an acceptable premise and has further plausible plot consequences, as loser-x reminded me.

Still, as a side-effect of all this, we also get another great scene where Kujo saves Victorique from something her lack of inches would never have put her in danger of. Predictably, nothing comes from the anime ever acknowledging it. The cliffhanger at the end of the episode is also extremely pointless, not only because it highlights the above issues, but because we know nothing is going to happen to both the main characters within less than an hour of the season.

Gosick continues to be solid but unspectacular, but that’s enough in these diminished times for the industry. What’s needed is to build on Victorique as a character, since she’s the selling point of this story, and to polish the whodunit elements. Everything else should be second priorites, including wasting valuable time on Kujo’s Japan-ness.

“Do they have sensitive musicians on Planet X?”

Aliens are THE riot at parties“Comedy is the universal language!”

Level E is pretty much the show with the best execution this winter, even if Puella managed to be a bigger “hook” in terms of invoking curiosity in the next episode. Given the shows that has entered my queue so far have fairly conventional plot flow and simple premises, what really separates wheat from the chaff is execution. In this Level E has it in spades.

Shortly before I started writing this I wasn’t even aware Togashi (he of YuYu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter fame) drew Level E in the mid 90s. This manga cum anime is clearly a different bent from his usual shounen stuff, and there is some really inspired stuff at times in the first episode, with sly playful digs at the alien visitation tropes in science fiction (nothing is complete if it doesn’t have an ET gag). Amnesia of our blond bishounen friend from afar is toyed with and discarded within ten minutes, and the interplay between him and Yukitaka reaches near manzai levels with healthy dollops of sardonic wit. The setting plays nicely with the comedy, with the town presenting a slight aura of menace to balance things out, but not in an overwhelming fashion.

Other elements like the music and art direction is decent, but not fantastic. Colours are clean and lines on the character designs are generally sharp, if not exactly fully integrated in tone with the backgrounds. The OP/EDs are at least not your usual J-pop drivel, which is enough of a plus factor for me in these trying times of otaku pandering on Nico. I even had a pleasant surprise in hearing Koyasu Takehito’s voice in the preview, and sure enough, he was there when I checked the credits.

This is probably the first show of the season I’m giving an unequivocal thumbs up without adopting a wait and see for the 2nd episode, but most importantly, it gives me a Occult Academy vibe that offers hope that Level E will fulfill the promise that Occult gave but only rarely delivered after the first 2 arcs. Occult had a serious problem in integrating its meandering arcs within a largely disappointing main plot thread, so I want Level E to succeed where Occult did not. For those not aware, Fall 2010 was also hugely dominated by comedies like Ika Musume, Panty and Stocking, Soredemo, Kuragehime and even Star Driver, so having a new one this season markedly different in approach (except perhaps SHAFT-ish Soredemo) is refreshing. Here’s a figurative toast to it doing well.

Little girls and twirling henshins, Iteration No X

nanoha shaft style

Nanoha, SHAFT style

So, did Puella Magi Madoka Magica produce a good first episode? In terms of working as a series hook, I would say yes. This being a SHAFT production that isn’t gag-based, I never really expect the first ep to produce a clear picture, at least in terms of plot development. All we’ve seen so far are the usual cliches, amongst them a happy family, a magical animal and a mysterious transfer student. Shinbo’s attempt to take on the mahou shoujo genre does have all the signature visual touches you expect from the guy. Given that I generally like his body of work, I remain cautiously optimistic for the moment.

Warning: Improbability field (and jiggle) detected

Avram Grant disapproves of this pic, casinos, lucky women and even maybe Alan Pardew
This is the only selling point the creative staff could think up I’m afraid

I can’t believe the first new show of the season I watched is Rainbow Gate, which bodes extremely ill for the rest of the stuff coming down the pipeline.

There is precious little to talk about, and seasoned anime watchers already know what the series is aiming just by looking at the promotion pic. So yes, it’s an ecchi show and no, everything else is terrible, like a hobo’s version of Saki. I won’t even say the ecchi is decent either, considering the scenarios are so uninspired it’s clear the entire production team just phoned it in with the camera angles that are Aika-esque, but not quite. The sheer absurdity of a casino hiring an odd-jobs variant of a croupier with an aura of luck can be left as an exercise for the the watcher. I got a little bit of solace though in that her role didn’t require Marina Inoue to use her tsuntsun voice, which would be pretty tiring sans any good writing, which is manifestly not present here.

I once mentioned in a conversation that R:RG would be a good tourist board advertisement for a certain banana island republic that just happens to have two casinos. Given the origins of the titular character as a pachinko mascot girl I’m sure that giving the impression that the casino is a HAPPYFUN place (and not a Kaiji-ish nightmare pit where hopes go to die) was the general idea. Granted, did it have to be so silly it involves a little pipsqueak wandering around on the casino (and outdoors!) without supervision and a horrible episodic plot revolving around a damn teddy bear?

It’s going to be a long hard winter.

(Evryone would actually give this show a thumbs up if it featured Nicholas Cage as a permanent side character every ep, and he’s faithful to his portrayal in THOSE ads. Just sayin’.)

Did someone dial 1800-M-Z-R-O-B-O-T?

Death Caprice is not an exotic pizza

The best tourist guides bring the attraction TO you

Tired of your Gundam lead moaning his head off? Then this should be therapeutic.

Mazinkaiser returns, just seemingly shorn of the previous continuity in this OVA. What little plot there is involves a colony of Amazons in skimpy garb (predictably useless like most others from the Land of Nagai(tm)) and handwaving about a gravity curtain and somesuch threatening world devastation, but I’m sure the fans aren’t too bothered about all that. With a giant robot that’s a walking Equilibrium advertisement, dramatic rising from a flaming chasm and a suitably battle-crazed leading duo going by the squad name of Death Caprice, you know you’re in for a madcap ride. Other amusing notables include the greatest use and commentary on rocket punches EVER, and Satoshi Hino and Shintaro Asanuma being the 2 male leads, last seen in such roles as Tsuchida from Hanamaru Kindergarten and Junpei from Nyan Koi! respectively. People suffering from withdrawal syndrome post Shin Mazinger Z should be ecstatic about this new offering.

(Is it some some kind of seiyuu joke that Shiraishi Ryoko (everyone’s favorite butler with the poor face) is cast as the Hurricane character?)

There’s a reason they call it Badlands

STEALTH APPROACH

The price of collateral damage

For a 12 year wait, that was certainly very underwhelming.

I don’t wish to spoil anything (but that’s probably more because of apathy than a real desire not to ruin a film for others), but the entire feel of the film felt like it was a short arc transposed from the first half of the TV run. Which, to put it delicately, isn’t really the part of Trigun the majority of fans love the most. As a homage film it only did its job semi-adequately, as a genuine addition to the Trigun franchise, my honest opinion is that it failed. The film ghosted in and out of pre-production for a while, so I’m disappointed that after all this time, Nishimura Satoshi didn’t close out the franchise with a serious bang. Now, I also understand the movie is caught in the same quagmire that the Conqueror of Shamballa film from FMA (which coincidentally, was dire) found itself in, since Trigun Maximum doesn’t really play well with its anime counterparts, but you still have to set your expectations pretty low for this film not to give you a mixed feeling at best.