Unfortunately, there is no episode of Tensura this week, but in its stead it looks like the second movie is now available online, so I decided to watch that instead. It gives me something to do on a Saturday after all. Speaking of things to do, I have been hard at work in the past few days to update the look and more importantly the navigation of this blog. You will now find the main menu in the top left of your screen and from there it should be much easier and more clear to navigate to where you want to be. With that out of the way, let’s review this movie. I’ll keep it light on the spoilers so you can decide for yourself if you want to watch it or not after reading this post. And if you’re curious where this movie takes place, it looks like this is just after the founder’s festival so between season 3 and season 4
There’s a line in here just before this shot where Milim is kind of surprised that her dragon wasn’t the only one around, which is kind of crazy considering Veldora is right there.
The setting for the story is simple. Rimuru and his friends are invited by the ruler of Thalion, lady Elmesia, to visit a private resort island. They bring along Eren – of course – and her two adventuring buddies as well as Hinata, Luminus, Milim and Frey. There are a total of three members of Octagram here with two former members along for the ride. While everyone is relaxing at this resort, Gobta gets caught up in a mess with a woman named Yura who stole something called “the dragon fang” from a nearby kingdom. We also learn that Leon’s El Dorado is located in the vicinity of this island and is under constant attack of nuclear-grade magic. I wonder if that’s coming from Jaune or not, since she seemed to be a thorn in Leon’s side before Diablo recruited her. The main conflict of this movie seems to be that Yura stole the dragon fang which lets you summon the water dragon. Obviously she stole it from the bad people trying to abuse it and now it’s up to the gang – mostly Gobta – to solve this issue.
Gobta out here channeling his inner Jackie Chan was kind of fun to watch.
Now I have to be honest with all of you, before I checked out this movie I had already seen that the reviews weren’t particularly positive. Anyone watching a Tensura movie this late into the game is probably pretty heavily invested in the story. You often see this with sequels of mediocre shows, where the later the season, the better the rating because the only people actually rating it are those who are still on board. When a movie this late into a series gets poor reviews, it probably means something. I went into this movie with that bias already in my head. And I kind of understand the comments too. Although it’s not a particularly bad story by any means, I can’t say this movie was better – or even as good – as a regular episode. The direction of it felt all over the place and the animation and art quality weren’t anything to write home about either. It feels very much like an anime movie that’s written because a show is popular and they want to expand profits on it. None of what happens feels like it’s important for the plot of Tensura and even though they sprinkle in some canon moments to make you feel more invested, it can definitely be skipped.
Thanks for the memories
One thing that I did think was really well done in this movie was the music. The song playing during one of the fights was an absolute banger and some of the musical interludes were also great. I also liked the character of Yura quite a bit, and her buddy cop attitude with Gobta was also really fun to watch. It’s almost unfortunate that eventually the actual story started to settle in and we went past the fun and whimsy and into a more serious arc for a country and characters we’re really not all that invested in. One of the big benefits of Tensura’s endless meetings is that you get to really know the characters and feel like you’re invested in what might happen with them. It’s a lot of build-up for a pretty quick pay-off in the end. Contrast that with introducing all the important characters in the span of a short movie and it starts to feel like they just reused an existing story beat and rushed through it. The previous movie had similar issues in my opinion. I suppose this is really a problem that many anime movies have. They can’t have too big of an impact on the main story after all.
One of these days Veldora will actually be allowed to show his mettle instead of being relegated to protection duty because he’s too powerful to actually be able to take part in the plot
All in all, I think this movie was fine and I’m glad it became available online when there wasn’t an episode out, but I’d rather get a weekly episode than this. Regardless, see for yourself if you want to invest 2 hours into watching this movie. You can definitely skip it in its entirety and be fine though. And remember that I’ll be fixing up the page for Tensura content in the next few days, so check back to see what it looks like soon. And as always, thanks for reading!
Back in 2021 I posted this review of Mushoku Tensei. To this day it is by far my most viewed post on the website and I still do not understand why, but that’s okay. What I do understand is that even five years and several seasons later, Mushoku Tensei is doing really well and is very popular. On anime-planet the show currently has 4.5 out of 5 stars which is a very good score. And I will admit I’ve been keeping up with the show all this time, enjoying a good chunk of it. The worldbuilding of this show is very solid, I’ve said that at the start and I still agree with that. But there’s a glaring problem that needs to be addressed.
One of them is a child.
Rudeus Greyrat – the main character of Mushoku Tensei – is a pedophile and a groomer. We knew this back in season 1, but there were quite a few fans of the original light novel that came out of their basements to defend the series, saying that Rudeus is supposed to be a shitty person at the start and will grow as the series continues. At the end of season 1 I recommended people to watch this show, as I thought the good outweighed the bad. That last part also took into account the potential of the character of Rudeus. His actions also hadn’t gotten nearly as bad as they have now, and that’s impressive considering I was already grossed out by stuff in season 1. Let’s go over what we’ve had happen in this season’s first four episodes.
Last season, Rudeus had a child with his childhood (using that term loosely) crush Sylphiette. Sylphie is a minor, and there are definitely some moral issues with their relationship, but one could argue – I sure wouldn’t – that Rudeus is in the body of a teenager so he counts as one. The issue I have with that logic is that Rudeus does not see anything wrong with his actions, nor does the author. If we look for a comparable situation, we can point at Arthur from The Beginning after the end. Arthur lived a full life as a king and was then reincarnated as a baby in a new world. Arthur rather quickly found a close friendship with an elven princess and she clearly has a massive crush on him. Different from Rudeus, Arthur pushes most female advances away due to still feeling like an adult mentally. Of course he gets flustered at times and doesn’t always know how to handle the situations he gets into, especially with how popular he is with women, and how he doesn’t feel like he belongs with girls his age, but also not with older women. No matter what conclusion he ends up making – and I wouldn’t be surprised if he does end up with Tessia in the long run – at the very least he’s put a lot of thought into it, is aware of the moral implications of his actions and doesn’t start having sex with random children just because he is in the body of a child.
Rudeus on the other hand has no such restrictions. He doesn’t even seem to have a moral compass when it comes to sexual acts. He is in an active relationship with Sylphie – a minor – while also pursuing an active relationship with Roxy – a woman who looks like a child and was his teacher when Rudeus was still a young child. This second situation somehow feels like grooming in both directions which has to be something unique to this anime. And while all of this is going on, Eris is training to become strong enough to fight alongside Rudeus, considering him to be hers already. Now, neither Eris or Rudeus communicated their feelings well to the other, but Eris is a literal child and Rudeus is a grown man, having lived for over 50 years at this point. It also doesn’t help the show that one of the side plots is about an elven woman who is cursed to be horny all the time and she is also marrying a teenager. It’s not a moral quandary that the author is trying to figure out through his writing, it’s pedophilia and it’s not even hidden all that well.
This is the main character, not some goon that gets kicked into orbit during the story. Is this your mans?
I am not a big fan of dropping shows. I blame the autism for that, but when I start something I really want to finish it or it’ll kind of irritate me. I regularly come back to my list of dropped anime and see if there’s something I can stomach enough to finish. Not exactly healthy behavior, but what can you do? Despite my dislike for dropping series, Mushoku Tensei is firmly going into the dropped pile. If Rudeus had shown even the smallest amount of growth as a character I would have loved to continue watching it, but I can’t stomach the latest episodes at all. The man is happily married but still has his wife’s period stains and his girlfriend’s used underwear in a shrine hidden in the house he shares with them. There’s no excusing his behavior and even though we should absolutely separate art from the artist, I do wonder about this particular artist. This will be the last time I’ll write about this series. To all of you who read the first post about it, thank you so much for making my blog feel more alive and seen than it otherwise would. Please check out some of my other posts too, I promise I’m usually more positive about the shows I watch. Thanks for reading!
When I was growing up, I always had a very extensive imagination. I was a bit of a weird kid – who would have guessed – and especially during my teenage years when I wasn’t fitting in all that well with my peers my mind would spend a lot of time wandering. I would also read a lot of books and it was around that time that my love for the fantasy genre came into full force. As much as I actively despise the author, I have to admit that as a child I was enthralled by Harry Potter. The idea that there was an entire world out there that was filled with magic was so incredibly appealing to a young boy. Appealing enough that I would even be able to ignore one of the most glaring issues with the series. No, I’m not talking about the inconsistencies or the racist undertones, I’m talking about how at the end of the day, much of the magic we are shown in Harry Potter is incredibly boring. At least the books let us apply our own imagination, but in the movies it looks uninspired at best.
I have a soft spot for illusion magic like this, it’s very simple, but it can be used in so many different ways.
Now I’m not here to take shots at Harry Potter – although I don’t mind doing so – but instead I want to talk about why magic has been such a big obsession for me and many other lonely children. Because what is magic? Magic isn’t something we can very clearly define. You can argue it’s things that science can’t explain, it’s tricks that magicians use like sleight of hand, or it’s the mastering of the elements like in Avatar. Magic can be whatever a storyteller wants it to be, but that comes with its risks. In fiction we have what we call “soft magic systems” and “hard magic systems”. Lord of the Rings is a great example of the former, where magic is this strange power that just sort of does things to advance the story. And hard magic is what we see applied in the anime we’re discussing today.
Unfortunately the person you’re talking to right now does not have your best interest in mind.
That’s not to say that hard magic is better than soft magic or the other way around, either system can be great if it is executed well. Suspension of disbelief is a powerful tool and if an author does not abuse this then even the most unexplained magic systems can still function wonderfully. But for me personally, there is something incredibly special about a hard magic system that also manages to look cool. In the world of Witch Hat Atelier, the masses are made to believe that magic is something you are born with, and only those who have the aptitude for it can become witches. In reality, that is not the case. Anyone is able to use magic if you just know where to get some special ink and learn how to draw magic circles. Depending on the size, design and direction of the circles the magic will change and witches are those who study these circles and learn to draw them so that they can cast magic spells. They need to do all of this while hiding the truth from the public as readily available magic can easily be abused like it was in the past.
In this show, the magic looks best when it is in motion. Unfortunately a screenshot can’t do it justice.
In this world, Coco finds out about the truth and becomes a student at Qifrey’s atelier while the duo try to save her mother from the spell that Coco accidentally cast on her as well as figuring out more about the brimmed caps. These brimmed caps are the villains of the story – at least at this point they are, I don’t know if that will change since it feels like this story definitely has the ability to go into many directions – and keep messing with Coco as she seems to be a tool in one of their schemes. Coco in the meantime is learning rapidly and alongside her three fellow apprentices she is working hard to master more seals.
A magic ball of water, for those who like to stay hydrated.
Now, what really sells this manga for me is the way that magic gets applied to tools. The concept of drawing magic circles to cast certain spells is fun for sure, but it’s not the first story that uses this concept. Fullmetal Alchemist did it decades ago and I myself am an avid fan of this type of magic and use it in several of my stories. But the way these circles are also drawn onto objects to make them function just really blew my mind. Flying shoes? Half the circle is on the left shoe and the other half is on the right shoe and when put together the magic activates. Only when the circle is completed does the spell activate, so all witches have a small round notepad with prepared spells they can cast in an instant if they need to. Powerful spells are engraved into weapons and objects to give them the properties of the magic. It’s honestly a really fun application of a tried and true concept.
This is the most important part of the magic in this world.
So why do we love magic so much? I should probably deliver on the premise of this post by now. Magic – to me – is the idea that there are things out there that we cannot fully explain. As sensible as a magic circle is, why does it do the things it does? Why does using the ancient language in Eragon give you the power to do magical things? Why can the people in the world of Avatar use their bending to control the elements? Just because a magical system is well explained, doesn’t mean that it’s a reality. And we don’t like reality. Reality kind of sucks most of the time. Just turn on the news for an hour and you’ll be going to bed depressed. So what would be more optimistic than the thought that a world could exist where magic could be used to solve some of our problems?
Magic is the idea that anything is possible if you just put in the time and effort. It’s why we love a story about someone who doesn’t expect to have the talent or ability for magic to find out that they actually do. I think that creating a world where you require special powers to use magic is kind of sad. Instead, think of creating a world where anyone can use magic if they get the right tools for it. That is exactly what the world of Witch Hat Atelier does and I’m very curious to see how its limitations come back to bite it in the long run. Thanks for reading.
I recently had a revelation. There have been popular anime with or around Rakugo before, the first one coming to mind being Show Genroku Rakugo Shinju that aired several years ago. I could never really get into these types of shows because the concept of Rakugo never really appealed to me. A person telling you a story with nothing but their voice and their body language? No theater or video to go along with it and not even anyone to bounce off of? That cannot be all that fun to watch, right? Anyway, let me show you this clip of Brennan Lee Mulligan monologuing as several different characters in a single scene by using nothing but his voice and… oh, I get it now.
Arakawa Shinto before he was expelled from the Arakawa school of Rakugo. Akane points out that the wife in the scene is modeled after Shinto’s own wife.
Akane’s father was her idol, performing Rakugo in their spare room while he practiced his craft. Akane would always peek into the room to see him, and be transported into the stories he told. When Akane’s father went up for a promotion performance, they all went to go and watch it, and the results were heartbreaking. A legend in the industry from the same broader school as Akane’s father, Arakawa Issho, is the one judging and not only does he not promote any of the performers present for that test, the expels all of them on the spot, making it so they can no longer be a part of the Arakawa school of Rakugo. Although Arakawa Shiguma – who trained alongside Arakawa Issho – pleads for his students’ case, the older disciple will not budge. Thus Akane’s father is forced to quit his Rakugo dreams and get a regular job to provide for his family. This not only results in Akane no longer seeing his Rakugo performances, but due to work demanding a lot from her father, he’s absent a lot for work trips. All of these injustices have lit a fire in Akane as she now studies under Arakawa Shiguma to become such a good Rakugoka that she will prove that her father was unjustly expelled. That is where our story picks up.
Akane learning how to pay attention to the wants of your audience – in this case the customers at a bar.
Akane is talented, we know this from the very start, but there are still a lot of things she can still learn from the more experienced Rakugoka that train under Shiguma. She only becomes an official member of the school towards the end of her High School life, and even requires her teacher to be convinced, which is a great way to put in a character that is just as clueless about the world of Rakugo as some of us viewers might be. Also, the teacher is very attractive. That. That is all. No more questions.
Like I said, no more questions
Throughout the first season we meet a couple of interesting characters including the aforementioned Shiguma and Issho who each have their own individual school within the Arakawa branch. Issho has a promising pupil who meets Akane early on and although he is set up to be somewhat antagonistic, the two get along relatively well. Akane also meets her elder disciples in Guriko, Koguma, Maikeru and Kyoji. She learns something from each of them – except Maikeru but surely he’ll play a role of sorts in the second season that will arrive next year. The first season focuses on the journey Akane takes as a beginner in the world of Rakugo and ends with a confrontation that will leave you wanting for more.
She’s so cool when she’s locked in
One major complaint I’ve seen online – that I have to agree with – is that the actual Rakugo stories could require more time in the anime. The final one we see is a bit more extended due to how much is focused on the material of Jugemo, but they rarely give us enough time as an audience to feel fully invested in a story. It’s more about everything that happens around it. I think it could be good if some of the performances – obviously not all of them – were given in their complete form so that we as viewers can get a proper insight into what Rakugo is like.
I spoke about this briefly in my post yesterday, but it’s scenes like this where the quiet does everything and there is no dialogue that really make a show for me. If I can feel the atmosphere then you’ve got me hooked.
All in all, this series reminds me a lot of Chihayafuru with an interesting female lead, a somewhat obscure – at least here in the west – game or art form and enough competition to make you feel like you’re watching a battle shonen even though no one is getting beat up. The animation is fine, it does what it needs to do and although it doesn’t blow anyone away, it’s still sufficient. The music is also good and the character designs are great and instantly memorable. If you’re looking for a fun series you can give this one a watch without really knowing what Rakugo is. And honestly I just wanted to use that title, which is the main reason why I wrote this review. Thanks for reading.
Now that we’ve had two longer breaks from the One Piece anime, I’ve really started to appreciate how nice it was to have the same show airing almost every single week for about half my life. Let’s not think about that too much, I think I just took damage to my life points from realizing how old that makes me. With opening 29 we enter the Elbaph arc in all its glory and for those of us reading the manga, there are a ton of little easter eggs throughout this episode so please beware that you do not read this post if you aren’t up to date on the manga. You have been warned. Seriously, I’m talking about everything we see in the manga, so do not read this!
The harley still looks a little bit vague here, but if you zoom in and enhance you can see what it’s all about.
We open on Luffy’s Elbaph outfit and immediately jump into a lovely shot of the Harley at the bottom of Yggdrasil. The prophetic wall paintings were a huge deal in the manga and have resulted in tons of speculation about what the final arc of this show might look like. With Egghead being the way it is, we’re almost certainly going to learn that the void century was a time of technological prosperity the world hasn’t seen again since then. Speaking of the void century, the shot of the Harley is interrupted by a shot of Joyboy standing next to Emet before we’re shown the important people that traveled the world before Luffy donned the Straw Hat that has become a vital symbol of freedom throughout the world.
I love this shot in particular, having a voice to go with Emet’s huge robotic frame has really upped my love for the character.
With the weapons reflecting the sun and the sky we’re reminded that Dory and Broggy only returned to Elbaph to pick up some new weapons. These two – I love them to death – are about as stubborn and dumb as you can be. After a hundred years of fighting for a cause that they long forgot, they broke their weapons, the world is in turmoil and all they can think about is returning to Elbaph, grab some new weapons and get right back at it for another century. Men, am I right? While the Sunny is parked nice and safe on land, we see three tiny dolls in Rodo’s room where the clothes he’s made for Luffy, Nami and Usopp are sitting, ready to be put on his livedolls. We’re followed by a shot of the underworld that could almost be mistaken as a bunch of mountains, but instead shows us the chains that bind Loki, prince of Elbaph and the next member of the Straw Hat pirates. Maybe.
Rodo’s livedolls, what a creep.
Luffy marvels at the bar that Shanks frequents, where the giants often drink with any visitors they have, although I can’t imagine they have too many in this part of the world. We’re then shown a shot of the New Giant Pirates, who of course are part of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, but first we see them as children, in a very pencil-drawn style. Of course this is to show off St. Killingham’s ability to turn nightmares into monsters, but here we see the young children looking happy, perhaps portraying a more kind dream than the ones we see throughout the arc. We’re then shown what they look like now, with their captain Hajrudin at the center.
Some serious cottagecore going here.
From here we go quickly so stay with me. Harjudin leaves our shot and is replaced by his brother, Loki, who looks away. We’re then shown the library and the children happily studying at it, as well as a quick shot of Chief Jarul with the weapon stuck in his helmet. Next up is the abandoned Elbaph Castle where disaster struck when Harald gave control over to Imu, not quite understanding what he was doing and dooming the nation of Elbaph to subservience. At least that would have happened if a certain someone didn’t prevent tragedy.
I love them.
We see some shorts of the Straw hats in their Elbaph gear and yes that’s right, she’s there. Nico Robin with her old haircut. Ever since we left Punk Hazard behind, I don’t think the crew’s outfits have missed at all, but I really like their Elbaph garb. Franky’s long beard really suits him, Usopp and Luffy with viking helmets look great and as an official member of the Nico Robin fanclub, seeing her with her old bangs, showing them off to her old friend, is such a sight for sore eyes. Speaking of sights for sore eyes, here comes the sun and with that I mean Nika, the sun god. We see him in a book before the watchful eye of Imu, alongside the Holy Knights that appear during this arc, looks at us.
Our brave little warrior. Rayleigh was the only one of the big three on Roger’s crew to be smart enough to not have any kids. Then again, being the mountain eater probably isn’t a bad deal either.
Here we move into much darker shots although if you haven’t read the manga yet, their meaning might be lost. We see the children drawing their biggest fears, which of course get turned into reality by St. Killingham’s powers. We see the thorns that St. Sommers employs as well as the arrows that St. Gunko uses. All of these are combined to force the children to walk off the cliff and into the hands of the world government all while Collun puts on a brave face. Meanwhile Loki rages at the world for treating him unfairly and for what they did to his mother while Hajrudin – presumably – rages at the fate that put him against his brother for all these years. Hajrudin’s had a rough life, especially with being turned into a toy at Dressrosa, but with the big reveals throughout Elbaph it seems like he might finally get into a better place. I also don’t really think Loki will join Luffy’s crew directly, he’ll probably join up with Hajrudin’s crew.
Okay but can we just remember that he was supposed to marry Lola at one point? The woman that’s about as tall as I am? Yeah.
Finally, we end with a montage of shots that don’t hold a ton of meaning from what I can see but are mostly there to show us all of the fun characters we’ll get to meet throughout this arc. We see a quick shot of Gunko and fake shanks – I mean Shamrock – as they’re on their way to deal with Loki, before we’re shown all of the Straw Hats, the New Giant Pirates as well as the two captains of the old Giant Pirates. Finally, we’re ending on a shot of Luffy transforming into his form where he is the most free, while the sun shines brightly upon him. * symbolism *
Look at our boi!
With everything we’ve discussed so far, I think it’s safe to say that after the last few openings, Toei studio is continuing to cook with this one. It’s not going to be my all time favorite, nor will it be a top five entry, but having listened to the song a lot on repeat over the past week, I do think it’ll be one to remember. At least it’s a lot more memorable than a lot of the openings in the 10s which are all serviceable, but some of them I cannot tell apart. AiNA’s husky voice tickles my ears just right – you might recognize her from the latest Dandadan opening – and the song itself is a fun tune that builds up well then crashes into you with all the force of the pirate crew that will free the world from 800 years of oppression. Thanks for reading!
It’s the end of the winter season and although it’s a season that felt dominated by some incredible sequels and quickly overshadowed by the upcoming season – for me at least – it still ended up having some very good anime. In the next few weeks, we’ll look back on a season full of surprises. Join me next week as we talk about the ever cheerful You and I are polar opposites and the week after that for the deep confrontational story that is Journal with Witch. But first, let’s take a much quicker look at some of the other shows you might have missed out on this season. I am going to exclude most sequels, but I will take a moment to talk about the final season of Fire Force as I have some thoughts on that show. Let’s get to it.
With the goofiest smile on our faces, let’s dive into the winter season head-first.
Fire Force
Besides having one of the best ending songs in the anime industry right now – and that’s a tough competition these days – the final season of Fire Force tries its very best to go out with a bang and give us something to remember. I’ve not talked about Fire Force much on this blog now that I think about it. As a massive fan of Ohkubo’s other work – Soul Eater – this newer manga has always felt like it was falling short compared to its more creative older brother. Following Kusakabe Shinra, a young man with fire powers in a world where those are somewhat common and the main cause of death has become spontaneous combustion, we see his growth in the eight fire force division. Throughout the seasons we spend time figuring out what exactly is going on with the world and is causing this phenomenon of spontaneous combustion. Meanwhile the white-clad cultists are trying to bring about the end of the world. In this final season, what the story ends up focusing on is the world-rending great cataclysm which allows for the story and the animation to get funky and creative. A clashing mix of styles is used to denote different periods in the story’s time and the creativity of the human mind is pushed to its boundaries in this season. The world is what we make of it, and combined human consciousness is now responsible for what the world looks like. I like the concepts presented in this final season a lot, it feels like classic Ohkubo insanity that straddles the line of being nonsense or genius storytelling. But where Soul Eater leans towards the genius for me, a lot of Fire Force unfortunately leans more towards the nonsense. Despite all this, the reason I wanted to include this sequel where I’m skipping the others, is that I think you should still watch it even considering its flaws. It’s a creative idea done justice by studio David Production and you might come away from it thinking it wasn’t very good, but I doubt you’ll come away from it thinking it wasn’t creative and different. And I dare you to listen to the ending and not feel incredible afterwards.
A leftover from the previous season, you can already see how the night sky has been touched by the madness. This is a sign of what is to come.
Fate/strange Fake
Welcome to the American city of Snowfield where the next holy grail is about to start. How do we know this? Well, there’s been a little bit of a set-up. This time around, the idea was to only summon six servants, making it so the grail war wouldn’t officially start. Unfortunately the grail itself had other ideas and now we’ve somehow ended up with fourteen masters and fourteen servants. As usual we have an unorthodox mixture of crazy people and their crazier servants battling it out in the streets as only one pair can win and claim the holy grail for themselves. This season focuses on a woman named Sajyou Ayaka and her servant Lionheart of the Saber class. The duo must fight their way through the holy grail as conspiracy looms everywhere for this grander than ever grail war. This entire war has been set up by a man named Faldeus who seems to be working for the US government. He’s a real piece of work and shaping up to be a big antagonist in this and future seasons. We have your classic spread of good and evil characters with a lot of morally grey folks caught up in the middle. The original story was written by Ryohgo Narita – of Durarara and Baccano fame – so you know it’s written by someone who is excellent at writing a large but cohesive feeling cast of strange characters, as that is what he’s historically done best. With a sequel already confirmed, this show is a must watch for anyone who misses the old days of Fate/Zero and wants to relive that feeling of being completely lost on what’s going on but still enjoying every second of it.
Oh no, he’s hot
In the clear moonlit dusk
Takiguchi Yoi looks more masculine than your average high school girl, earning herself the title of “prince”. She’s not the only one, as one of the upperclassmen is also given this title, for looking handsome and apparently being from a rich family. After a chance meeting, Yoi and Ichimura-senpai start hesitantly going out with each other. This romance focuses on the distance between these characters and their different histories when it comes to dating which eventually leads to their relationship blossoming. I had a lot of fun with the first half of this show, but where it started to really nosedive for me was the very forced love triangle it put into the story in the second half. It was clear from the beginning where it would end and it just made for two or three very frustrating episodes towards the end that made me want to punch some of the characters through the monitor. Despite this complaint, I would still say I enjoyed most of my time spent with this show and if you’re looking for a more muted romance that feels very, very shojo – and that is saying something, coming from me – then give this one a go. It was a bit too much for me at times, but if that’s your thing, then definitely give this one a watch.
When people say “boys will be boys” I can’t help but think about how every boy’s dream is to be good at hardcore parkour and jumping off of things.
Sentenced to be a hero
When the world is under attack from a strange demon blight that devours everyone and everything in its path, the worst punishment a criminal can expect isn’t to be sentenced to death. It’s to be sentenced to death only to be brought back to forcefully have to fight against this demon blight. Xylo Forbartz is one of the unlucky people being sentenced to become a hero and he’s desperate to avoid dying and reviving, since it’ll strip away your memory over time. In the midst of this chaos, he comes across a box with a goddess in it. Goddesses allow their knights access to crazy powers and in return wish to be praised. Teoritta – the goddess in the box – immediately takes a liking to Xylo, and not long after do we learn that she isn’t the first one to do so. Xylo’s crime was letting the previous goddess die. Although from the snippets we see, she burned out on her own accord during a dire fight, it seems like Xylo still got falsely blamed for the whole endeavor. With this set-up for a story, we start diving into this crazy world where some people even want to coexist with the demon blights. We meet an eclectic cast of criminals – some proper pieces of work, others more falsely condemned – and although heroes are mostly looked down upon, the actions of Xylo and his comrades slowly earn them some respect from the knights and people they fight alongside and protect. Of course there seems to be a much deeper conspiracy lurking behind the shadows and as much as I ended up enjoying this show, it really irks me that it ended on such a big cliffhanger. In an industry where sequels aren’t always a given and even if they are, it might take a while, that feels bad. Luckily, a sequel is already in production and I honestly cannot wait.
One of the selling points of this show is that – although a lot of them don’t seem to have much intelligence – the enemies have a very cool and colorful design.
The holy grail of Eris
Out of all the shows I watched this season, it was this political intrigue story that surprised me the most. Ten years after the execution of Scarlett Castiel – one of the coldest political schemers in the kingdom – we meet Constance Grail, a young woman from an honorable family in a world full of betrayal and wickedness. Young Connie is being tricked and berated by a fellow noblewoman, and is about to lose all of her standing. In a desperate plea to get some help in this dire moment, she calls out to someone, anyone, and the ghost of a vengeful woman answers. With Scarlett’s wits and skills, the young girl masterfully takes down her enemies and immediately gains several new ones in the process. Now that she’s managed to get out of this mess, things aren’t going to get any better as she quickly finds herself caught up in a massive political plot that keeps getting more and more convoluted as she’s trying to help Scarlett get revenge on the people that wronged her. That is her payment for Scarlett’s help in this. What I really appreciate about this series is that although Connie doesn’t tell every soul she meets about Scarlett, she does share the knowledge with some characters, allowing them to act much more rationally. I was worried this would become a show where the secret would play a big role, and I was pleasantly surprised when that didn’t end up being the case. We meet many nobles throughout this story and the two women become close friends towards the end of the show. With the entire story finishing up in a single season, this is a fun one to watch and I would highly recommend it if your interest was even slightly piqued by this description.
People die when they are killed. Except when they don’t. Then they just return to come haunt you as a big tiddy goth ghost.
The Darwin incident
Let’s finish this up with a weird one. And yes, they are turning our anime woke. The Darwin Incident tells the story of Charlie the Humanzee. Charlie was born in a lab to a human father and a chimpanzee mother. Due to his unique existence in the world, it has been a difficult road to get him any rights, as by law he is not considered a human and most of the laws only apply to humans after all. Charlie himself seems to be the least bothered by all of this, just trying to live his life. The story starts with Charlie attending college while a terrorist organization called the ALA is trying to recruit him to their nasty schemes. The first couple of episodes focus a lot on the idea of being vegan and how it’s bad to eat meat while on the other hand some think it’s bad to be vegan as their family owns a steakhouse. It’s a pretty in-your-face way of talking about this topic and it is quite frankly the opposite of subtle, but it is fun to see everyone up in arms about it while Charlie does not really care. As the season continues, the story starts to go off the rails more and more with school shootings, terrorist bombings and even some fights wearing night goggles in the middle of a forest. It’s a pretty bizarre story all things considered and although I don’t think it really works well as actual social commentary, if you just take it as a weird story I found it very enjoyable. The villain is comically evil, Charlie’s friend Lucy is overly caring and definitely much more invested in Charlie’s rights than the man himself and the cliffhanger at the end of season 1 completely caught me by surprise. There’s definitely some criticism to be leveled at this show, but it never gets boring. And that includes the opening theme. The absolute banger by Official Hige Dandeism has been on loop on my Spotify account for the last couple months and I’m still not bored of it. Even if you think this anime isn’t for you, I would recommend at least listening to the opening theme Make me wonder. Beware of flashing lights though.
mmmm Monke
And with that, we’ve reached the end of this season’s quick reviews. There are a few more shows I’ll talk about in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned for those, but this should give you some time to catch up before the next season starts. Now I’ll go back to rewatching Ace of Diamond before I start the new season of that. Thanks for reading!
Today is a blessed day. Hopefully for you, dear reader, but definitely for me, because I found excuses to talk about That time I got reincarnated as a slime – Tensura – again. And if there’s anything I love, it’s talking about this show. In this post that you’re reading right now I will walk you through the plot of the first couple episodes and explain why you should watch this series. With 5 cours confirmed to come out, starting in April, it’s a better time than ever to invest in Tensura stocks. The second post that will go up shortly after this will be a more indepth recap of the first three seasons, and will contain a lot more spoilers than this one. If you haven’t watched the show at all, this post is for you. If you have watched the show before but it’s been a little while and you need a recap, then check out the other post instead. All clear? Let’s get stabbed in the streets of Tokyo and wake up in a dank cavern together.
I don’t think you’re telling the truth here, Rimuru.
32 year old Satoru Mikami has a pretty good life. Work can be tough at times and he’s single, but besides that he’s a reliable salaryman who seems to be doing well for himself. After meeting up with his junior, they suddenly get attacked by a random knife wielder. Satoru protects his young coworker and gets stabbed. After asking for his computer to be scrubbed – wonder what that’s about – he ends up dying. While he’s dying, a computerized voice listens to the thoughts he has while dying and gives him skills to deal with it. Later he wakes up in a cave, completely in the dark and seemingly in a different body. It turns out he’s been reincarnated as a slime and now has to find his way in this new world. He meets the Storm Dragon Veldora and the duo hit it off, becoming friends before Rimuru sets off to explore the world. Outside of the cavern things are turning into chaos as Veldora’s influence on the Jura Forest is gone now that Rimuru has absorbed his friend to try to let him out of his prison. With things out of whack, the goblins that Rimuru – which is Satoru’s new name, given to him by Veldora – encounters ask for his aid, which he gives. This is how they start to become friends and build a town of monsters together.
I was going to put in a more apt picture, but having recently watched a playthrough of Resident Evil 6, this moment made me laugh so hard. He’s channeling his inner Leon Kennedy with this one.
Tensura moves at a slow pace most of the time and takes its time exploring the mundane while the crazier things also loom on the outside. The story focuses on the nation of Tempest as Rimuru and his friends keep getting more and more allies while enemies get dealt with pretty successfully. Some people have compared this show to the Civilization games and that’s very accurate. It’s a city builder anime with some action spliced in now and then to keep things from getting stale. Many episodes are spent on things like keeping the city running, making diplomatic agreements with nearby nations and having lots and lots of meetings. With a diverse cast of characters who all have their own skills and worries, this show does an incredible job at making the city it takes place in feel like a living and breathing city. We know the blacksmiths, the alchemists, the farmers farming herbs in the caves and even the goblin riders who patrol the region. We know the builders and the cooks and we know who all the people within the town center are. It doesn’t shy away from taking its time with things and even despite all that, one of the main criticisms that light novel readers have is that the anime can feel rushed at times.
I am confident that you have absolutely no idea what any of those words mean, Milim.
With all this, you might think it’s a boring show and I think some people have made that argument and I don’t think it’s a crazy thing to say. But I’ve often said that Tensura as a show feels like it was written for me specifically. It has cool action where the characters get put in dangerous situations but ultimately end up coming out the other end victorious. It has a chill vibe to it as it just strolls through life like a good friend that you’re happy to see after a long day at work. This show is about as comfortable as anime gets for me, and it’s no surprise it ended up making it into my top 10 anime last year.
And his name is John Cena…. Okay, I think it’s time to admit that I desperately need some sleep.
If all of this hasn’t convinced you yet, please give the first handful of episodes a watch and decide for yourself. As of right now, there are three seasons which total around 70 episodes all together with another 60 coming up. There’s also a movie as well as a spin-off series that is even more slice of life than the original show. So there is enough content to keep you occupied for a while. As for what it was that happened in all of those seasons… you’ll have to read the other, spoiler-filled post that will pop up shortly. Thanks for reading.
I’ve talked about this series a few times before, and it even made my top 10 anime of all time list, so I’m not going to write another essay about it. But with a new season of Ace of Diamond on the horizon, I wanted to quickly go over the show again and explain why I think it’s one of the better sports anime out there. It’s a personal favorite of mine although I can just as easily see someone preferring Kuroko no Basket, Haikyu or Run with the Wind. I really should rewatch some of those as well, they were all so good. But Ace of Diamond has a layer to it that I feel the other shows miss.
Get used to seeing his cheeky face, cause he’s in this show a lot.
And that is continuity. Ace of Diamond follows Sawamura Eijun, a prodigy in baseball in some aspects, but utterly average in most. He can’t field, he can’t hit a baseball and he can’t really behave responsibly. But he loves standing on the mound and he knows what it feels like to throw some really good balls, although he does not realize why his throws are as effective as they are. And on top of that, once his opponents figure him out, he’s pretty useless. Playing baseball with his middle school friends has been a lot of fun, but yielded no results. Luckily for Sawamura, a scout from the prestigious Seido was at one of his matches and he promptly gets invited to try out for their team. After some hesitation he joins the juggernaut of a school and quickly learns that he is not that special after all. Interesting, sure, but there are tons of great players there who want it just as badly as Sawamura does. Not to mention they have also scouted a monster pitcher in Furuya Satoru. This sets the stage for a season of growth.
Ball is love, Ball is life
As I’ve talked about before, one of the main draws of this series is how it takes its time with its cast. Players leave and join, more than a full year has even passed since the start of the anime and with over a hundred episodes there was more than enough time for the team to experience some serious losses, recover and come back stronger than ever. This allows for a fun show where the main team doesn’t always end up victorious. As much as I love some of the other sports shows, they are a bit predictable at times. Ace of Diamond has the luxury of a very long running series where all sorts of things are possible. At 47 volumes, there’s a lot of material, which explains why we’re getting another season in spring this year.
As is tradition with sports anime, this is Senpai’s last chance at nationals
Second, the story focuses not only on Seido itself, but spends a lot of time developing the other teams as well. I’m not saying that other shows don’t do this, as both Haikyu and Kuroko – as some of the more popular sports shows – spend time developing other teams. The main difference is that in some parts of Ace of Diamond, it’s almost easy to forget who the main team is as you start rooting for some of the other schools. And I don’t mean that as a bad thing, Seido is the most interesting team we visit, but some of the other schools have fantastic casts too and even the manager and coaches and the struggles that happen behind the scenes with replacements and other things add to the fun.
This show can get pretty intense at times.
To stop myself from ranting for another four paragraphs, I think I’ll mostly leave it at this. If you like sports anime, and are looking for a show that really keeps you occupied for a while, definitely check out Ace of Diamond. The cast is fun, the matches are great and always different due to different styles that teams can have and it got me interested in baseball as a sport. Then again, it doesn’t take much to convince me, I’m easily influenced. Thanks for reading!
I originally watched one episode of the Live Action for One Piece and wrote it off as something that simply wasn’t for me. With a second season coming out the other day, some of my friends convinced me to watch the new season with them, and in preparation I ended up binging the entire first season because I’ve always felt weird about not watching a series in full. Not that I don’t know the story of One Piece, but still. Afterwards I wrote a pretty negative review about the show that’s several pages long and mainly just consists of me talking about how much I dislike many aspects of the series. It does a great job with casting, wardrobe, environments and music, but that’s where the compliments end. I thought about what I could do to convey what I dislike about the series so much. It mainly boils down to the writing. A friend of mine said that this was written to be second monitor content and I think that’s accurate. The characters constantly spell everything out and they’ve removed much of the more subtle moments and character development from the original. Scrapping some content is fine to speed things up. I don’t mind them scrapping Django in Usopp’s arc or some of the running around and silly fights in Buggy’s arc. But Baratie was getting sloppy and by the time we reached Arlong Park I was getting angry. So let’s talk about that arc specifically.
Okay I lied, we’re still on Baratie. But only because it leads into Arlong Park. And although my knee-jerk reaction was to dislike the way they handled Krieg, upon reflection I actually don’t think it was all that bad. The only issue is that Live Action viewers don’t really have the same knowledge of Krieg’s power, so Arlong taking him out is not that impressive. I think Arlong showing up earlier and bypassing Krieg is a decent way to cut out some of the material. But it does cause a small problem here and that is the fact that Sanji gets his ass beaten in the arc he’s introduced, which is not exactly a good start to his character. But with Nami leaving for Arlong Park, the crew now needs to go to the island together, without splitting up like they did in the manga. There we had Johnny, Yosaku and Usopp go ahead, which turned into some very interesting scenes with Nami pretending to kill Usopp only for him to end up alive later on, proving that Nami isn’t truly a bad person. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
The crew arrives at Coco Village and meets Nojiko, Nami’s sister. Nojiko is angry at Nami for betraying the village to Arlong, and so are the villagers. This marks the first major difference with the manga that I disagree with. One of the most heartwrenching moments in the manga is when we find out that the people all knew what Nami was up to and were laying low to make sure she could try her hardest. It’s the anger they feel when Arlong betrays that hard work that drives them to finally attack Arlong Park. They’re stopped by Johnny and Yosaku who have already gone ahead and lost to Arlong and his crew. A minor nitpick, but Luffy bashes a hole in the wall in the manga while here they just enter through the door.
And man, what a place do they enter. I hate what they did to Arlong Park. This place looks more like a frat party than the gaudy imitation of Sabaody Park that it is supposed to be. The fishmen are all hanging out like a bunch of frat boys drinking and playing carnival games. It looks stupid beyond measure. I’m sorry, but I have to call this out for what it is, terrible. One thing that I think the live action does well normally is the set design, but they missed the mark so hard on this one. Due to the villagers not being involved in this fight at all, we miss the whole ordeal with Luffy being put at the bottom of the pool with his head above the water, but I think that’s probably fine on its own. What’s not fine is how the Fishmen are missing someone. By far the most important character in this arc – although we didn’t know it at the time – is Hachi. Hachi is the goofy octopus swordfighter who joined Arlong and his crew and then later realized the error in his ways. He redeems himself during the Sabaody Archipelago arc and this creates a wonderful circle that completes the pain and hurt that is caused to Nami during Arlong Park. Now I doubt the live action will get that far into the story, but the fact that they’re not even preparing for the possibility feels lazy and insulting to the viewer. Hachi’s shenanigans with Zoro were also one of two comedic highlights in this arc that have been completely removed just to shoehorn Buggy into the story. The second is Luffy picking up Arlong’s fallen out teeth and using them as a weapon to little to no success. Seriously, all the humor in this show is incredibly dumbed down. The silly things Luffy does in the manga that make this arc work so well are just not there. Luffy is a much more somber and serious character here, while his primary characteristic is how goofy he is.
But what does it matter that Hachi isn’t there? Well, it turns the fights into a much less balanced affair. Instead of a wounded Zoro fighting against Hachi and Sanji having to fight against Kurobe under water, we get the duo teaming up against Kurobe and still struggling. Not just that, Kurobe doesn’t even bring the fight into the water, which is why Oda wrote it so that Luffy was stuck underwater. Fishmen are far superior in the water and it was impressive that Sanji managed to hold his own against Kurobe while the two were submerged. All that tension is taken away here and just replaced by some simple choreography of Zoro and Sanji beating a single fishman on land. Elsewhere on the island, Usopp’s fight with Chu is also dumbed down and we do not get the incredible moment where Chu stirs at the end of the fight and Usopp just violently hits him with a hammer repeatedly until he doesn’t get up anymore.
What bothers me so much about this arc is that it’s not like it would be a horrendous arc in a vacuum. But when the source material is so well rounded, it feels weird that all of these decisions were made. Did they think people wouldn’t find the jokes funny? Or that they wouldn’t like the fights with Hachi and Kurobe? One Piece got this popular on its own merit, why did some Hollywood writers think they could do better? I could complain about this arc for hours and hours and fill several more pages, but I think I’m leaving it at this. In conclusion, they cut out all the humor in this arc and simply replaced it by Buggy being comic relief. They simplified the fights making them much less impressive and much less representative of the different characters and their personalities. They made the villagers of Coco Village much dumber than they were and in doing so removed a lot of the stakes that are revealed when they show understanding of Nami’s action as opposed to just being angry at her for betraying them. Nojiko’s wonderful care for her sister is replaced by hate and to top it all off, Garp and Koby show up to ruin the aftermath of the arc as well, which had several tender moments in the manga that are fully replaced by Garp being a complete and utter fucking moron. Seriously, how did they make him so wishywashy? It saddens me that many people are introduced to the story with such subpar writing included in it. Do better Netflix. Thanks for reading, I promise I’ll go back to being positive about something next week, but I had to get this out of my system.
As someone who was bullied for being different when I was a child, I have an understandable soft spot for stories about the subject of bullying. That doesn’t mean every bullying story will click with me, as it’s still a painful subject to this day. I look at some of the stranger kids I teach today and understand why I was disliked as a child when I see their behavior, knowing that they’re just trying their best to fit in. It’s a harsh mirror into my own past, but also a sign of growth. The person I was back then when I was bullied relentlessly is no longer the person I am today. And of course not just the person who got bullied changes. The person who did the bullying will change as well. How they will change, and in what way they will come to accept the aspects of their own life that they do not like looking back on, that is something for each individual to look at themselves. And the manga that inspired the 2016 movie does exactly that.
Now my bullying situation was not as bad, nor as black or white as what happened to Nishimiya Shoko. A young girl who cannot hear is transferred into the elementary school of our protagonist, Ishida Shoya. Shoya is a rambunctious child who highly values his ability to stave off boredom by doing crazy stunts like jumping off of bridges and into rivers. He is a popular kid with lots of friends by the time Nishimiya transfers. Nishimiya was being bullied in her previous school because she can’t hear properly, and is hoping to make a fresh start here at this new school, but things quickly go south. Shoya and some of the other children in the class see her as a threat to their fun life, due to them having to now tip toe around her disability. She participates in the choir while being completely tone deaf, she has to get someone else’s help to take notes and there is even the talk of learning sign language. What’s worse is that one of the teachers is even very opposed to being particularly accommodating for Nishimiya, even going against another teacher’s idea to learn sign language, causing even more of a rift in the class. It’s all heartbreaking to watch. Shoya destroys her hearing aids, her notebook, throws trash on her and even hurts her ear when ripping out a hearing aid, which we later in the story learn left a permanent scar.
When things eventually get so bad that Nishimiya has to transfer out once more, the atmosphere in the class has already shifted into a foul one and attention has gone towards Shoya. Unbeknownst to himself, he’s become so much of an unlikable character that his friends have now started bullying him as well. Nishimiya – who has been cleaning the graffiti off of Shoya’s table to protect him from the bullying – is now gone and Shoya becomes a total social outcast, which lasts until he’s in high school. Now 17 and severely depressed, he has one last thing he wants to do. He wants to apologize to Nishimiya before ending his life. So he searches her out and they talk. He even learned some sign language to be able to talk to her. After their conversation, Nishimiya tells him that she’ll see him next week and he decides not to end his life after all.
With this set-up, we get a world in which we can start exploring the lives and trauma of the children involved in the bullying situation. Naoka had a crush on Shoya and hated Nishimiya for ruining their friendship. Miki was the self-absorbed class president who has to come to terms with how unlikable she is and Miyoko has to learn to stand up for herself and stop running away from her problems. They’re joined by new friends, including Nishimiya’s younger sister and two classmates of Shoyo. Together they all try to make a movie, but they are hampered by fights, mental health and all sorts of issues along the way.
A silent voice has long been my favorite anime movie. In an era dominated by Your Name, I always found that this story about bullying touched me on a much more personal level. I read the entire manga in two days last week and couldn’t stop crying for most of the later volumes. Shoya is an absolute piece of shit as a child and seems to be beyond redemption yet through his actions in this story he does find redemption after all this time and it’s a beautiful journey full of pain, love, friendship, fighting and learning to be the best version of yourself. Anyone who likes emotional stories should absolutely watch this movie or read the manga. I would recommend watching the movie first and then diving into the manga afterwards. Do make sure you’re in a good headspace when you watch or read it though. There is some really heavy stuff in this series. Even putting aside some of the main themes, there is a surprising amount of depth hidden behind each one of the characters and although I think it had a very satisfying ending, it does leave you with some feelings that you’ll have to work through yourself. At least that’s how it was for me. Thanks for reading!
Opal Kaharis 