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anolyso · 2 years

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Anolyso Watches Spring Anime 2022 + extras

oh uh I guess I let the entire Spring Anime 2022 season fly by without a full proper recap. Also barely recovering from Co-Vid but apparently I still have a mild cough so I have to take at least Monday off to check if I'm clean enough to be on site again oops. Anyways of the anime I DID pick this season:

Kaguya-sama Love is War S3 Spy x Family Healing Girl Parapri Koumei Shokei Shoujo Virgin Road Madoka Magica Gaiden Magia Record (All Seasons) Bonus: Amphibia Seasons 1 & 2 Heike Monogatari Kamen Rider OOOs (I'll do a seperate post just for that)

-Kaguya-Sama: Love is War S3. Blatantly one of two mainstream poster children for the entire season, Kaguya is...actually fundamentally simple in being a Rom-Com but taking the latter half of that and pumping it to the absolute brim with off-the-wall energy, sakuga and just blatant but surprising references to as minute a visual joke could be; like the absolute finale just straight up has a visual call-back to Char’s infamous bazooka headshot, and it’s so good.

Not too much I CAN say, other than like it IS it’s style for it’s jokes...yet some part of me yearns for a more down-to-earth shojo romance, if not for the effects, than because I want more actual relationship chemistry that isn’t like fundamentally built entirely on the joke “will-they-won’t-they” taken to 11, although I guess I can wait for Season 4 to see how they actually behave in a relationship...tho I’m not really up to catching up to the manga, at least not on high priority

-Spy x Family. On the inverse, it’s the WACKY WILD PERSONAS trying instead to act as low-key and normal as a family as possible, not just as the second big name show but also as a perfect counter point, low-stake on uh x-Comedy (replace romance with wholesomeness), but with more directorial focus on the Former instead of the comedy (it’s still there, but you can tell the jokes serve the characters more than vice-versa with Kaguya).

Of course it still has S1 growing pains like Kaguya’s early S1 did, both in taking time to build it’s cast, but also while Loid and Anya get enough mileage of Spy antics and Telepath school antics...Yor sadly winds up the weakest since they just CAN’T let the wife just straight up kill people in the streets...or like anywhere beyond her intro.

A shame since that kinda shoves her just into the “stronk wife” of ditzy but with plenty of muscle (even if none of it shows in her model) but like...it also means she doesn’t really get her own episodes/incidents to herself and has to play a side-character to the other two’s antics. Real shame about that too

On the otherside, Anya’s wholesomeness IS the beating heart of the show and the animators really know it, with plenty of focus on all her funni/smug faces but also as the major anchor to being a mis-interpretive klutzy kid who keeps managing to hold the family together by sheer heart, THIS is the key focus of Spy x Family and man does it hit where it counts.

-Healer Girl: Ok but my ACTUAL pick of the season is Healer Girl, and it actually well lives up to it’s name of being an Iyashikei (healing) anime. Even as a Symphogear, Macross and whole host of other idol shows about, only this anime actually felt as light-hearted and brightly low-stakes as a classical broadway Musical as this show.

It’s just...so playful about how the girls will just break out in song as much for low-stake sport competition as it is for literally building a healing field visual metaphor for easing an ER patient’s pain.

If anything, none of the songs feel really out of place (tho it can also mean if you don’t like bright and cheery songs about fun times, it can blend a couple together) but more than that, it just is a show that goes down super smooth and feels like a pre-Sailor Moon non-action magical girl that just has the girls helping out their local neighborhood, tho they just straight up name them Magical Girls and their teacher a Mahoutsukai [witch] it’s the sorta thing that even for the people who don’t go down the precure kids show vibes, there’s still something out there that’s still super wholesome keeping the genre’s vibes alive for older audiences.

Ya Boy Kongming: oof, it’s like sobering up mid-party while waiting for the one good act, but seeing them being front-loaded with a tons of bands you just don’t care about.

Kongming’s big gimmick is that Zhuge liang aka Kongming getting reverse-iskai’d/re-incarnated into modern day Shibuya would get to do Roadie Stratagems for a rookie singing Eiko. Problem is...beyond the premise, it’s just really really basic in it’s execution.

What I mean is that as a perfect parallel to both Kaguya and Spy x Fam which have it’s gimmick just pump it’s major situations and shenanigans full of over-the-top jokes, extreme wackyness and wildness...it just feels super tame, in look and subject matter...which is kinda damning of the Shibuya party scene when I just can’t care about “Rap God” Kabeitaisen; maybe following the lyrics in their original japanese would help more, tho I wonder if it’s more katakana or just feels kinda...too g-rated?.

This bleeds into a lot of the cast and most sadly Eiko herself, since I like the singer’s songs...Eiko just doesn’t seem more complex than a cheery naiive party girl...and even more so with how “basic” the main cast is, everyone winds up needing Kongming’s charisma to carry the show’s energy AND the plots, which just doesn’t feel right thematically if not so much as damning how one-dimensional Shibuya’s community would be showcased

And on the actual “machinations” side of things isn’t much better since while you’re waiting for some major ancient Chinese stratagem to blow your mind...it feels like basic roadie logistics, and the most a rise I got out of it was the first and last arc, first by novelty of not knowing, and the last by having more heart to it....but also like, it’s just not as complex as most of the scheming of even Kaguya of the same season so it feels so much like the show’s premise bit off more than it could chew. It’s a shame to say but for many who love the energy of it, the party’s only fun until you sober up, then you realize the DJ left the playist on repeat and none of the smoke and fog machines make up for a pretty shallow character/plot sorta deal.

Shokei Shoujo Virgin road (The Executioner and her path): So on the seemingly un-related but very much opposite field, the “We’ll save Isekai...with yuri...and murder” show is arguably running on a similar spectrum, of “plotting/scheming > big reveal” but unlike Kongming, it majorly feels like Shokei always hits it’s landing of major twists...it just doesn’t have any idea how to get there without dragging it’s feet.

I won’t spoil hard, but with just enough time for 2 arcs in a season, you can sorta see that Shokei can introduce a big conspiratorial plot and sprinkle in action and cute yuri stuff...but can’t figure out how to cleanly dispense exposition and clues needed to dig deeper. So much of the show winds up being waiting for Nana to be a whole other plot-lines away just fetching clues while Menou and Akari have to kinda just walk around and bumble into the necessary big players or even coincidentally the roaming warrior princess.

It’s just kinda unable to fill in the spaces and also desperately shows how much of a light novel port without as much big directorial adaption/improvisation with so much of the fights needing pre-and-post fight banter but not so much during.

I will say tho, I absolutely love the modern Anime sound-scape of “tinkering” magi-tek spells ESPECIALLY as they’re interpretted in Executioner’s mid-industrialized world of “An Isekai protag in Medival courts”, so the world IS fun when it gets to be. And yeah despite all my gripes of the author kinda fumbling to get to where they want to go, once Menou DOES get to it’s arc climax, it’s super fun, actiony and with just plenty of fun set-piece fights and reveals that it does make me almost forget the wafting it took to get there...almost.

Either case, it does still check more than enough boxes for me of Yuri, Magitek, “deconstructive isekai” and big reveals, that it’s at least the sorta of ride I can see an easy recommend for my taste even if I bunked it down my “AOTS” for it just being Isekai Claymore.

-Magia Record Season 3: I admit it, I am a Season 3 Apologist and I do in-fact enjoy knowing that being Meguca is Suffering™. I also marathoned the whole other 2 seasons right before and I will say that S1 didn’t know what it wanted to be since straight porting the mobage story just showed how much empty space there was for “introduce Yuasa + new Girl, resolve conflict, repeat” while realizing none of the main 5 kamihama girls have enough fun chemistry together since the anime is in this weird spot of being too fast to deal with SoL antics, but also too barren since so much of the mobage obscured itself with rando fights every 2-3 minute dialogue.

S2 did so much better but also pumped the gas by mixing major plot developments with the few remaining girls arcs, so it gets to show off their fresh new Sakuga talent, Hiroto Nagata, on top of making it feel as if over-coming the doppel trauma with y’know big flashy CONNECT moves adds both more into the the pace and structure but also the major themes that it’s best not to suffer and despair alone or believe that just bottling up your pain until it (literally) explodes and turns you monstrous is any better than just succumbing into being a witch.

That’s also my major additive point that when people complain so much about the anime differing from the game, it’s that it CAN say what the game can’t...that the Doppel system is ACTUALLY REALLY BAD.

But no seriously, the key difference of Doppels being a major game-power-up move almost completely undermines how the story has to resolve itself so when re-watching some of the finale chapters (I still need to FULLY watch the game finale), the game just can’t say “Yu and company were in the wrong”, so they just have to force brainwash and make you fight tons of girls instead.

The anime instead is allowed to actually confront the moral dilemma, that the Yuasa > Doppel system is about as bad as becoming a witch, if you become indefinitely a monster.

And it also gets extra points for having the teeth to NOT pull a Deus ex Madoka to save the day. In many ways everyone’s hatred for how Season 3 ending is ironic to me, since I feel it gets to be far more honest about handling it’s themes and the ultimate tragedies without pulling it’s punches.

And no more of this can I say than through the character of Kuroe, the one everyone feels so snubbed by her entire arc ending in the tragedy it always was meant to be.

Because just flat out, Kuroe’s entire character is a poor girl who just CANNOT handle being a heroic magical girl and is utterly ashamed when placed right next to Iroha being just the kind of ideal girl whom Kuroe can never measure up to.

What Kuroe winds up adding and representing most definitively is that even when everyone around you is bright and supportive, that she and the rest of the story cannot deny...that being a Magical Girl in-itself is suffering, and for some girls there really isn’t any happy ending.

Hate to be so much the “the edgyness and suffering make it deeper” guy but honestly? With how many of the Magia Record girls entire backstories and story designs are just distilled “Yoko Taro tragic bedtime stories”, it seems entirely dishonest to say “oh but no girl REALLY dies or suffers, Madoka/Iroha can just fix them :^)” and I can’t help but see the constant denial as people just kinda really wanting to go back to Precure (no shade to Precure and more optimistic magical girl shows).

And like ok...but what has Madoka always been about? That yes BEING a magical girl IS suffering...but connecting with friends can and WILL save you (quite literally with the big connect end). And I don’t think that theme is ever diminished with a girl like Kuroe who just is unable and unwilling to connect to the bitter end. In truth I think it rather strenghtens what little resolve Iroha DOES get to show by the end of show, even as rushed and compressed as it is, Yachiyo and the Kamihama girls DO still comeback to support Iroha, even with all the sacrifices the Wings of Magius, the remaining girls STILL opt to give a memorial to the fallen, even as twisted the organization was by the end.

My end feelings is that Magia Record IS still true to a Magical Girl shows themes of connection and is in fact strengthens those THROUGH showing it’s tragic low points rather than completely erasing them or evading them like the game does. People kept being weird when the initial S3 ended about “it not having the catharsis like the original Madoka did” but like...do people just ignore Rebellion or do they also deny that Madoka becoming Godoka IS a tragedy, if not for Madoka’s open and willing sacrifice, than the fact of how clearly it leads into Homura’s suffering and despair (again see Rebellion).

It really is my hot take rant, but I will still stand by it, Madoka never had a truly golden ending, and Magia Record S3 is as true to it’s world and story as Madoka has always been, of the harshness of the situation but the brightness, not in just “Deus ex Madoka will solve everything” but rather than being willing to share the burden in truth and through open empathetic connection IS worth pursuing even when it doesn’t always work out.

In Conclusion: Magia Record Season 3 is just Yuki Yuna Dai Mankai abridged to 4 episodes.

bonus: Heike Monogatari. Marathoned this right before Fanime just to see Aoi Yuki in a more nasally, tomboy role and oh man did I tear up. It really is terribly interesting to see a historical fiction (with mild supernaturals just to added to the fatalism of it all) of one of Japanese historical biggest losers, the Heike clan as they reach their inevitable fall from grace.

In truth, it can be VERY hard to keep track of all the places and names with how it both kinda expect the audience to be at least somewhat familiar with pre-Sengoku politics and geography and it sure isn’t helped with how much is purely talking heads...but at the same time Science Saru puts so much of their talent into the minute facial emotions that are only cut between a Rakugo style recounting of like a major political event, like a failed military advancement or an infamous lost battle.

But really what carries the show hardest is the absolute dramatic irony on full display as both the “future sight’d” Biwa gets to watch every clan member slowly get pushed around by fate or their external politics forcing their hand, as either their most sane father ultimately works himself to death trying to keep peace between the clan patriarch and the emperor, so many characters dying trying to maintain some sense of pride while their entire clan is clearly in decay, and just really coming to grips with the meta and in-story themes of facing an inevitable tragedy.

Truthfully it’s this sort of feeling of an unavoidable and truly devastating tragedy which finds its relief, not in some change of fate, but being honest and truthful in recounting the story that this family/clan of Heike DID exist, suffering as they may, and their lives ARE worth remembering even as one of history’s great losers.

It’s the sorta tragedy I haven’t had a chance to see a lot in Western shows, and admittedly I haven’t read a proper Greek Tragedy in a long while, but it’s also was ironically so...refreshing. In a similar vein to me watching how Magia Record S3 choose to end so bittersweetly, it’s a taste of tone I’ve honestly missed out on in just being willing to acknowledge that life DOES have unavoidablely tragic circumstances but that also DOESN’T deny that such a story has value, not as some grand learning moral, but rather in it’s honesty to embrace tragedy as condition of life.

And just as honestly, it gives ME hope far more than any deus ex-ed happy ending could that WITHOUT any happy ending...people can still survive, if not through their own family and legacy, then through their stories. And that itself is far more than any happy ending could give me

#anolyso's media time #spring 2022 #spy x family #kaguya sama season 3 #Healing Girl #ya boy kongming #shokei shoujo no virgin road #magia record #puella madoka magica #heike monogatari

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anolyso · 3 years

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Utena thoughts...about 2 weeks later

I've been putting it off for way too long and so most of my thoughts stopped being fresh. On top of watching way too many analysis vids post-watch, but still I do at least want to put my 2cents of Revolutionary Girl Utena out there for the world.

Utena is perhaps one of the most famous "magical girl"/shoujo action shows out there for not only it's transgressive themes of relationship abuse and low-key pretty much being the poster girl for like actual feminist perspective on/in anime...but also just doing it all in both a heavily allegorical and understated, yet super over-the-top stylish fashion

But that's it's reputation preceding itself, is Utena worth while all these years? The answer is Yes, but it also really shows it's age and budget in pacing and repetition, tho as an appreciator for "behind the scenes" compromises in art, it's more showcasing Ikuhara's talent in working around both taboo and long-form budget constraints with just well-thought out and iconic imagery that - while episodic and formulaic - is just very good at filling the 39 eps with feasts for the eyes.

Utena broadly is about tomboy Utena with memories long ago after her parents died being "saved" by a princely figure like a princess...except she's so enthralled by the nostalgia that instead she becomes a full on Prince herself and receives a dueling ring to fight in the Ohtori Acadamy secret duels for "engagement" to Rose Bride Himemiya Anthy.

Utena is divided between 4 arcs, only the first and last being Manga adapted from hearsay:

1: Student Council Saga

2: Black Rose Saga

3: Akio Ohtori Saga

4: Apocalypse

From back to forth I'd say that Akio + Apoc is more just escalation into the finale while Black Rose being anime original comes off as a glorified side-character study which while complementing the secondary cast, feels like one of those Anime movies that has to say "but if you don't watch this part, it's pretty much optional for the main plot" despite it also actually introducing the most important antagonist within it's margins.

More importantly, it's the Student Council (arc and the actual people) that lay the foundation but also a large part of the show's focus which ironically puts Utena in the background until like almost the finale and some in-between developments, so it's less "Utena (and Anthy Himemiya)'s story" until the very end, but more like a showcase of how fucked up the system at large is (pin in that).

By the Council themselves is:

Kyouichi Saionji: The biggest jobber, like actually introduced as the most despicable loser ep 1 and proceeds to be a complete arrogant joke for the rest of the show. Honestly in another shojo "love" story, they'd find some way to redeem him but semi-compellingly they turn him into like an Aqua-lad type pathetic brat with an inferiority complex to the actual Student head

Miki Kaoru: the naive "nice, non-threatening soft boy" that also just never actually listens to the girls around him. Probably adds more complexity to the whole patriarchal idea on analytic reflection since yeah, the whole "nice guy finishes last" plays up better when the kid comes off as that "ally" energy of wanting to save Himemiya from being the Rose Bride but also low-key won't actually not just do the duels and win her cuz he's that sorta wishy-washy hypocrite. Arguably the least hateable guy in the cast (minus mascot Chu-Chu)

Juri Arisugawa: TRAGIC LESBIAN TRIANGLE LOVE. Probably the biggest point to of both "not-explicitly homosexual" but also really freaking obvious since her entire story is her girlfriend stealing her "boy crush" when actually she was crushing on her and being pretty much frustrated throughout her story as pining most of it. It's quaint by today's standards but also like damn girl, get over her she was like the worst back stabbing bitch (literally if Black Rose counts)

Nanami Kiryuu: SPEAKING OF QUEEN BITCH, it's been a long time since I've watched a High School girl bully and honestly it's kinda refreshing. If Miki is "soft-boy uwu" Nanami is a brat that gets her come-uppance often, featured prominently as an anime only with the MOST filler/comedic episodes but also not low-key, being the most out-spoken actual brother complex ironically spins perhaps the biggest twist and ironic relationships of "I love my brother but not-like-that but also like-that" by the end. Mostly comedic relief but I find her inclusion to actually add a lot more to juxtapose...

Touga Kiryuu: Big Student Council Prez himself, the first arc antagonist and also a strong foil to Saionji and later a stepping stone for Akio. Touga is THE image of a Princely Playboy Heart-Throb that in any other Shoujo romance would have the main girl win him over from all those "other girls" despite him being apathetic if not outright manipulative of them. Good thing Utena is better than that and really puts a spotlight on just not-actually-ok his power hunger for "the power to bring the world revolution" that leads him to heavily objectify Anthy, arguably even more than Misogynist Trophy Girlfriend beater Saionji, since he doesn't even see her as more than a means to an end despite professing and looking the Prince part but lacking all the actual virtues.

The Student council matters more since they're characters and subsequent tragic flaws are the ACTUAL meat of the show and on second rumination actual shows more how fucked up the system/gender dynamic/power hierarchy is since - while it blatantly fucks over Juri who can't just outright say who she likes - also show almost it's own sub-text of Masculine failings: Saionji desperately clinging to being TOXIC MASCULINE™ and completely falling short underneath Touga; Miki's "nice boy" act belying him trying to replace his low-key nostalgia for his sister (also a bitch, but apparently was more like Nanami in the manga); and best yet Touga being the quintessential "Prince in all but actual behavior" by emulating a cutthroat and Machiavellian world view but coming up empty because well, he's just an illusion of a prince...but that leads in way more to the big finale piece where I'll reintroduce the actual story's main trio

Utena Tenjou: Tomboy Prince with brain empty except for lesbian thoughts. Honestly probably what every western "STRONG INDEPENDENT WOMAN" archetype wishes they were since while having very tomboyish personality in athletics, blunt speaking and also VERY oblivious to the actual plot for REAL DRAMATIC IRONY, but also never actually demeaning her being feminine partially due to her love of an childhood prince and how she maintains her relationship with both her friend Wakaba and later Anthy. Honestly mostly a plot device after S1 until she gets ACTUAL development by the very end and instead kinda bumbles her way into undoing the entire REVOLUTION OF THE WORLD. I kinda wish she felt either more cognizant or at least felt like she was developing/properly rebuking the rest of the cast's power obsessions but I guess that's for the movie.

Anthy Himemiya: Actual Trophy Wife with a dark secret (darker than ski- wait no that's terrible scratch that). Set-up very much as an immediate princess in distress while also being the most femme Yamato Nadeshiko, Anthy being the Rose Bride as a literal prize who acts and behaves as whom she's "engaged" with desires while otherwise being quiet, wry, mysterious and noticably submissive, by the end it actually plays up into THE BIG REVEALS of just how abused she's been into a hopeless acceptance...like y'know actual abuse victims.

Akio Ohtori: Grade A Antagonist, probably the most insidious I've seen a villain in a while, Akio is notable for, back in 1997, being perhaps the big go-to of actual deconstructing the facade of a whole shoujo genre's "hots for a teacher/sexy man putting the moves" and highlighting how actually exploitative and abusive a person like that really is. Being Himemiya's brother (somewhat justified in the manga by both being a weird Sailor Moon-esque reincarnation of gods/godesses of Dios), despite how much of his motives are runing the background and how the entire back story is uh...brought up in like barely in the last arc with little lead up (some scenes feel like they'd be a full melodrama season and they just have like 1 scene in the final arc episodes) he manages to one-up Touga (in the plot as well) by instead of "just" objectifying girls, not-just-flat out saying Utena looks best as a princess, but y'know the fact that he is implicitly yet constantly exploiting and victim-blaming Anthy for her own suffering for "the power of Dios/Revolution of the world" turns it on its head

I've spent all this time on characters but in truth a lot of the meat of the show relies again on the Council Members fleshing out the issues of system leading to outright divorcing "being a Prince" (heroic altruistic virtues) and "being a man" (considering like all but maybe the comedic relief have some deliberately misogynistic behavior) and beyond just the plot (or rather character) synopsis, the talent goes far more in how it's framed, the symbolic/allegorical shots, the repetition adding a good episode formula flow to character showcases, probably the most "tasteful" allusion to uh...*ahem* sexual abuse that so many other edgier/prentious shows fumble. Both in how intimidating yet understated it's foreshadowing is until they hard-reveal it despite never explicitly naming it even tho it sends Nanami into hysterics

Really it's both a massive blessing and reason for it's cult beloved status for it's aesthetics but also it's burden, for being a full 39 episodic season by season character development study of everyone BUT the main trio except for snippets and the very end that makes it greatly appreciable as a legitimate work of art.

What I wanted more to say however (long overdue) is that a large part of following is, visibly at least, western feminist critiques and yes while it almost seems like Utena fits the "deconstructing patriarchy" story like a glove...it's weird how almost none of them actually can give a good historical account of actual Japanese female/gender/sexuality norms nor Anime contemporaries actually were. Like Tenchi Muyo and Berserk came out the same year (Cardcaptor Sakura the next) and despite how you can "feel" the influence in lots of modern shows like SHAFT's signature visual imagery cuts or many WESETERN shows having straight scene references to Utena....almost no one has a similar feel to Utena until like Princess Tutu comes out.

Really tho probably should've watched Utena and then Tutu because while it's undeniable that Utena is a major pillar of shoujo re-codification - what with everyone before Utena was saying they thought it'd be like a Rose of Versaille or Lady Knight rip-off...whose laughing now? - it's almost like there's a missing link between it and it's major western fanbase (probably with what few anime did get overseas, this one probably rose to the top), or how very noticeable there IS an influence on it's genre in Japan

Almost none of the big analyst fans actually know A) it's not "a deconstruction of Magical Girls" since despite Ikuhara working on Sailor Moon just before this, almost none of the tropes line up and instead more with Shoujo genre as a whole. or one of the major inspirations was Takarazuka theater.

And this is not to dismiss how inspirational it is to it's western fandom, but while I am notably cynical towards placing things on pedestals, there's probably something about cultivating the whole pop-culture feminist reading commune with people making weird time-loop theories while kinda most of it is just filling in a mad-lib mostly thanks to Ikuhara just keeping things on the vague and letting the audience take away their own perspective.

Again, most of the show is completely sub-textual or visually/symbolically depicted and never stated nor properly defines it's weird key words (End of the World, Revolutionize the World, Power of Dios, Rose Bride, all things said constantly but never really said what they "mean". But that's also perhaps its charm, in it's allegory and very Death of the Author approach, it has definitely allowed it's fan theorizing and appreciation to flourish so there's something there for that.

Ultimately I'd say Utena the TV series is great more so for what it isn't...or rather I should say it's great for not just subverting Shoujo tropes and archetypes for the Japanese audience but also that despite dealing with some very serious and heavy subjects in obtuse and perhaps understated ways for the time, people have allowed it to be put on it's pedestal because they can easily fit it in themselves.

Honestly though, not that a more "straight forward" approach wouldn't detract from Utena but I will say that the movie, Adolescence of Utena, is very much the best encapsulation of what Utena strives to be (for another big blog post) and while the TV series has plenty of time and flexes it's directorial muscles with budget constraints and season pacing UNrestrained, the movie will trim a lot of the fat

#long post #Revolutionary Girl Utena #I haven't actually done my Anime thoughts in a while #Maybe I'll keep this on my main blog this time #I wrote this mostly on facebook tho if I wrote it here first I'd better integrate images probably #anolyso's media time #uh...except now that's on my main blog

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anolyso · 2 years

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Mai-Hime/My-Hime, the Missing Link between Mahou Shoujo and Shounen (???? [clickbait thumbnail])

Oof alright Mai-Hime, a 2004 Sunrise production (between Inuyasha and Code Geass before becoming THE modern Gundam studio), is first part super-natural high-school monster-of-the-week with dash of Romance, then second part explodes (mostly) into a melodramatic Battle Royale amongst all the female cast.

So the bigger significance is that Mai-Hime showing up at 2004 at least 6 years after Card Captor Sakura and about 2 years after Princess Tutu and it seemed to be just primed that the Magical Girl was waiting on its next big name; also in the same year was Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha and a little one-off show called Pretty Cure :^). Yet while they all had full sequels (tho Mai-Otome is more like Nanoha Vivid as a more tournament fight-y spin-off), it seems like time pretty much forgot about My-Hime.

A shame since while several heavy hitters from its time (School Rumble, Bleach, Rozen Maiden) on top of being right before the Youtube Anime (part 1/3) leak started branching over (on top of Toonami), it seems that Mai-Hime is at the tips of some western nostalgia as it also had an Eng Dub and Blu-ray via Funimation (a trailer for it came out 4 years ago). Mostly I just remember it constantly being linked in half of Tv Troops back when that site was relevant but only came back to watch it after a “mahou shoujo list” pointed to it as such.

Now the real question is…IS Mai-Hime a magical girl show? I mean, by most definitions, it still is, transformations, fights, power and plenty of girl-to-girl ac- I mean interpersonal relationship drama. But at the same time while both CC Sakura as well as Sailor Moon both defined the modern genre tropes but also ended, it probably left a power vacuum for what would eventually “fill in the gaps” for the go-to throne (and of course we all know who won that in the end).

Still rather than the whole “is this fringe and forgotten show worth mentioning for Magical Girls”, the real kicker is that siding next to Nanoha as MAHOU SHOUJO FOR BOYS, Mai-Hime also seemed to have a lot of elements more from male-targeted action/supernatural shows (on top of a lot of kinda cringe worthy fan-service early on), that if I’m guessing without any more 1st hand evidence, it’s more “the shounen-battle-harem that quickly switched gears into a girl-focused rom-drama”. So uh, if Nanoha is Girls > Boys in focus, Mai-Hime would be the Boys > Girls focus….

#mai-hime #anolyso's media time #long post #mahou shoujo #re-editing and posting with at least a read more

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anolyso · 2 years

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October/Fall 2021 Anime First Impressions

Not in the best head space but I'll keep that to a separate post.Want to at least put out what seasonal Fall Anime I'm following, better or worse, before October ends:

Takt Op Destiny

Sakugan

Yuyuyu S3

*sigh* Mushoku Tensei S2(Other misc with friends)

Takt Op: Symphogear but by Classical music geeks who are melodramizing too hard.

Oh man, when I see a show described as "a world which has banned music because it's the only weapon to fight alien monsters, and it's musical power transforms girls into fighting machines" I wanted to fall in love all over again...because that literally describes Symphogear.

...And yet, just like going to an orchestral concert, yes there is major pedigree on display, with both Madhouse AND Mappa; yes, there is actual emotional drama with how the male MC, Takt, needs to get along with Destiny who possesses his childhood love interest; and yes, it'll have lots of classical music trivia for real historical nerds to say "hey I know Beethoven".

...and yet to further the orchestra concert analogy, they won't ever take audience requests, and parrallel wise, Symphogear does perhaps the one thing that Takt Op despite all its glamour DOESN'T have the battle action actually play the relevant music DURING THE FIGHT. It feels like such an integral part that Symphogear just knew what it was because just that single line is the ENTIRE PREMISE and yet like seeing a straight A student vs an actual inventive one do an assignment, Takt Op has all the production, but Symphogear had the heart.

It's not just "I liked the premise better when x did it" but like Symphogear just gives me a distilled shot, possibly trashy, of what I want: Magical Girls sing to power up their super weapons, and yet Takt Op. has adds in a whole bunch of what you could definitely call "higher class" of real character dramas, fully thoughtout world building (as opposed to the Season by season building of Symphogear), needing all the girls to be accompanied by (so far) male mouth pieces for exposition, and just having the most energetic and genki personality be retroactively removed so now you have another Rei x Shinji archetype duo but now the Asuka type is playing babysitter.

And...while I wouldn't say it's selling out, it's really is like hearing a much too polished cover of your favorite rock album: All the money is spent where it should be...but also they'll never have a wicked 40 second long drum break solo nor a dub step sampled transformation mid-season. Sometimes, more money isn't always "better" I guess.

But also speaking of shows that remind me of other shows in a bad way...

Sakugan: Gurren Lagann with Made in Abyss spelunking adventure, featuring sad dad and smart daughter. Sakugan is the most not-Trigger, Trigger anime, even more than something bombastic like Flip Flappers or so, from out the gate of the big thicc red font to the brunt and in your face exposition, it has a very seat-of-pants drive that if you liked Trigger stuff, you'd be forgiven for saying it looks like Gurren Lagann...because "most" Trigger stuff is just Gurren Lagann derived.

But also because of the difference in studio, from coincidentally Symphogear + Macross studio Satelite, it sadly also shows how not being made by Trigger a premise can show all it's differences and faults, mostly in that as over-the-top the premise of wacky mecha excavation family team is, it doesn't quite juggle it's character melodrama nor exposition cleanly. In fact, I'd describe the writing as being too much "saturday morning children moral stories" writing.With how a lot of Dad (Gagumber) over protects daughter (Memenpu) built into it's premise of growing up and letting go, it...kinda both says way too much but doesn't have the confidence to just scream it's message. It's a poor middle ground since it doesn't ride high enough to break your suspenders of disbelief, but it also ain't subtle nor nuanced enough to make it's Dad-Daughter relationship seem organic.

Ironically Gurrenn Lagann original juggled both it's insanity but also it's character drama way better and while Trigger has been trying too hard in chasing it with emphasis on the former, Sakugan feels like it wants to take a whole GL piece of both but just can't seem to move past the one foot it has on the ground.

YuYuYu S3: ok so the ACTUAL show I like to watch this season, is the series I marathoned a while back, think Madoka but the evil is EVANGELION GEOMETRIC DEFENSE. But also, the girls get PTSD (except it rolls it back against some of the better themes).

S2 is still the peak of it, but S3 is taking a weird stance because if S2 is the prequel > finale, then S3 is trying to wrap up a ton of spin-off material, first with KuMeYu of SPESS MARINES then it seems to be NoWaYu of THE ORIGIN OF EVIL AND SUFFERING. I read the latter as a manga but I'd say the adaption of KuMeYu's story feels off because it's only 3 episodes speed running and so rushes to lead into something when as a spin-off it should've been it's own thing.

Probably should've just gone back to read it all but yeah while I'm enjoying KAGAWA LIFE a second run, if you aren't keen on a ton of CGI girls playing shoutout against space freaks, it seems like it'll run too fast so who knows what it plans for it's finale.

Mushoku tensei: Oof, I really don't wanna look at this one, this is the grandpappy of isekai but in my words it's the "original sin" of the genre. If you've heard the whole shtick of "NEET loser dies in truck accident and gets reborn as a super competent hero in an rpg-fantasy world" well, 90% of that premise is Mushoku (the latter part I blame on SAO, for another day). The two initial mentions from S1 are A) the main character Rudeus still gets his abilities cleanly so it already reeked of "bs Over power Self-Insert" from the start and It's super fucking horny. Like I don't think any female character has a relationship that DOESN'T have a sleezy second-tone to relate to other characters, but especially with Rude boy.

And for 8 episodes, yeah it was pretty awful, it felt sleezy in the most contrite ways, it slapped Rude boy's wrist too easily for both the above but also in still him moving forward. And still a harem builds around this kid so all the flashbacks of "back in my past life I was a loser" it is super blunted by just...none of it feeling legitimized in the power leveling.

And then ep 9 happens and I really can't stress how much just having that happen is noteworthy, because for all before was a really eye-rolling time of "wow, Rude boy looked at his rich cousin's butt but it's ok cuz he salvaged his own fucked up kidnapping operation and now she's the T1 love interest for now". And then a big diaspora event happens and it's like a whole different show.

A) Breaking Rude boy from the initial cast does make it seem like we're out of prologue and trying to reconnect

B) It introduces probably the biggest show changing character: Ruijerd. A Male Party Member. Which

C) Re-establishes an better arc of chivalry, morality, selflessness and maturity which y'know, wasn't happening when the MC was just chasing skirts.

D) Also they re-re-introduce pre-isekai Neet soul but add in a "god" character and now you can see where at least 4 or 5 different shows pick and choose which aspects they actually liked from the show cuz I'd say post ep9 with Ruijerd (and Eris whose still a guilty pick character) actually has something more to it than being self-fellating trash.

It's such a dramatic shift that I'm sure has even further implications both when and where it was written: amateur web novels suddenly became Isekai hotspots to a full publication/anime pipeline because of it. But also it such a change that it also makes me just reflect on a weird framework of uh...

"Masculine Maturity and rites of passage" where off-handedly someone once described it as intially a boy filled with lust must learn hard ship and grow to be self-less and caring for a future generation. That is quite a stretch and I don't even know if that's actually any valid a storyline or just as problematic as the whole "Hero's Journey" World Myth but just that idea as badly presented.

The whole "boys are boys until they need to grow into men" with as many poor implications as it is still does make me wonder if that's actually the real core of isekais and hell you can see it kinda in the best of the stuff with the whole Raphtalia bit in Shield Hero but more poignantly the whole "self-love and willingness to accept other's kindness" part of Re:Zero.

So uh yeah, I guess the demographic of men to self-insert is still technically true. But beyond just the shallow sleeze and trash of lust and over powered shit...there might actually be something to the whole Masculinity begs for emotional reciprocation that adds to the package as well.

#takt op.destiny #Sakugan #yuki yuna wa yusha de aru #mushoku tensei #anime fall 2021 #I just wanna re-watch Symphogear man #anolyso's media time

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