Dude. This anime is such garbage, oh my god.
So, at first, I didn't realize that this was psychotically upbeat right-wing fascist, nationalist, militaristic propaganda set as a harem comedy rife with the slaughter of hundreds (if not thousands). Unfortunately, it also kind of got me hooked.
I got pretty into season one, laughing hysterically about the insane murder sprees that this "JSDF" (apparently what the Japanese Military is called?) got into. They mowed down legions of iron-age soldiers and... nobody seems to mind? Where are their families? I also had some fun with the classic trope: "they're actually hundreds of years old, so
...
it's okay that they look like 15 year olds!" with the harem characters. Cute.
Story: 2/10
Like I said, it's a harem anime. Whatever. It's very paint-by-numbers. All the girls are obsessed with our hero, Itami, who can do absolutely no wrong. This doesn't change in the second season, and, in fact, his little harem gets even bigger! Also, the blonde one calls him daddy. Isn't that adorable? Unfortunately, our harem anime is also set to a backdrop of wanton murder and destruction, including battles that cost the lives of thousands of civilians, destroy entire cities, obliterate a much less developed people and paint the invaders as... the good guys?
They don't seem to lose a single soldier, but have no qualms with mowing down thousands. This is fucking terrifying. At first it was kind of... almost justified... but we're fuck deep in season two. This kind of murder and militaristic psychosis is absolutely disgusting at this point. I keep thinking it will slow down... and it doesn't...
Also, what the shit is wrong with everyone in fantasy land? None of their decisions make a lick of sense! They have to be practically force fed peace negotiations with a nation that crushes them like ants. The goal is obviously to make the JSDF look smart and generous by comparison, but it ends up just looking like a bunch of Japanese diplomats discussing foreign policy with toddlers.
Toddlers that they're threatening to kill.
Art: 7/10
It's pretty enough, most of the time, if boring. Then we get the tech porn.
Absolutely beautiful designs, faithful, true-to-life reproductions, gorgeous cells and flawless animation of tanks, helicopters, bazookas, machine guns, humvees, fighter jets and more. Honestly? This anime would be a thousand times better if they just cut all the pretty military porn out and set it to a good song. I'd watch that.
Sound: 4/10
Forgettable, but fairly satisfying. They also re-use the same tracks over and over again. The intro and outro songs are boring and skippable. Nothing worth buying, that's for sure.
Character: 1/10
This is what finally stopped me being able to watch it.
I was invested. In the characters. I'll be honest, I'm spoiled rotten. Magical girl anime like PMMM and genre-changing hero anime like OPM have got me expecting a LOT from modern anime. Characters that break molds, situations that go from fun to dire in moments, expansive worlds and interesting art styles... this is what anime has been giving us over the past decade or so.
The characters in anime have risen above their tropes in a multitude of ways. I kept expecting that to happen here. I kept waiting. And waiting. And WAITING. And I finally realized.
None of them were going to get a single modicum of growth.
It's disappointing. I can imagine so many ways in which all of these characters could have broken their chains.
SPOILERS BELOW (but please read, before you have to see it with your eyes)
I realized this, at the end of episode eight, when a 12 year old girl is begging for her adult crush to save her from what is insinuated as sexual slavery and possibly death.
He does so... not because she is a tiny child and needs his help, but because she has a crush on him. He finally says that, when she's sixteen, he'll marry her. He is painted as a hero for doing so, and he even almost gives her a kiss. Their relationship is exceptionally pedophilic and disturbing, and it is portrayed as absolute perfection and heroism. I am thoroughly disgusted, and that's what made me realize that this anime was incapable of showing character growth.
If they can make an adult (I'm talking in his thirties) man seem like a hero for deciding to fuck a twelve-year-old... then this anime has no idea what a decent person even looks like.
(And to counter the "but when she's sixteen!!!11" argument, *why* make her twelve, then? Why not just make her sixteen and cut out the middle man? I'll tell you why. It's to insinuate that sexualizing a twelve-year-old is okie-dokie as long as you wait to hump until she hits the age of consent... sorta. EUGH! Inexcusable.)
This anime CANNOT show a truly good person, or even a truly complex person, because it is written by pedophilic, nationalistic otakus who masturbate to pictures of guns and drawings of little girls.
I am mentally scarred by seeing that with my own two eyeballs. I don't even want to see any more. I don't think I can take it. At least with the other fanservice lolitas they made an ATTEMPT to portray them as "older". Nine hundred years old, my ass. But with this one!? She's a literal, physical baby! She might not even have hit puberty! I *still* taste vomit.
END SPOILERS
Enjoyment: 1/10
Honestly? The first two episodes of season one are almost worth the watch.
However, the pedophilia, militarism, genocide and nationalism shown in the rest of the anime absolutely outweigh any enjoyment I got from this.
The anime is not interesting. It is not groundbreaking. It is barely functional. It is completely disgusting in every possible way. I was sucked in by a premise which never delivers.
I hate all the characters so much, at one point I was rooting for them all to be outright decimated by a fucking dragon. I regret everything I have done that led to me watching this pos anime.
Overall: 2/10
Awful. The two points are for the decent animation and good premise. The story, characters and all the things that make anime interesting and fun were missing or perverted.
I should have quit at season one. I should have quit before I started! Don't make my mistake, you sweet, innocent creatures. Fly! Fly, you fools!
Jun 11, 2016
Dude. This anime is such garbage, oh my god.
So, at first, I didn't realize that this was psychotically upbeat right-wing fascist, nationalist, militaristic propaganda set as a harem comedy rife with the slaughter of hundreds (if not thousands). Unfortunately, it also kind of got me hooked. I got pretty into season one, laughing hysterically about the insane murder sprees that this "JSDF" (apparently what the Japanese Military is called?) got into. They mowed down legions of iron-age soldiers and... nobody seems to mind? Where are their families? I also had some fun with the classic trope: "they're actually hundreds of years old, so ... |
