Hisone to Maso-tan

It isn't too often that an anime can promise so much with its presentation only to vomit out a big nothing. This anime is a big, bland pile of nothing. However, this doesn't mean the anime necessarily goes the way of many other shows, staying the course and playing it safe as it fades into obscurity forever. And it isn't as if the writing is conceited enough that it makes it out to be more important than anyone would care. The problem lies in that while the anime does (at times) try to be original, relatable and emotionally engaging, it does so in the most ... unfocused and impersonal way possible. (Meaning: it doesn't really do any of those things).

Yes, I think it's pretty obvious that this anime tries to be a character driven show. The military setting is a personal favorite of mine because the setup allows for a cast of characters of various importance and personality to interact in a way that might not seem natural in any other story. Maybe it's the way the military is almost like a workplace, with its rigidness countered by the personalities of the cast that makes it so endearing to me. Bonding over alcohol, hard work, silly antics, and drama these are all things I can expect from a good military/unit/team-based anime. And, let me be clear, we do get some downtime. However, it is only included as part of the bigger picture, and never seems to exist for its own sake.

This lack of organic interaction mixes poorly with characters who feel inadequate. We never get to know these people, and it's weird because it isn't as if the cast is so huge that they ran out of run-time to try and expose us to them. Amakasu's personality gimmick can barely sustain itself throughout the series, and we end up with another character having to remind us that it was something that defined her. And maybe it is the reliance on these gimmicks, which masquerade as depth, that makes the characters so hollow. I will give credit to the staff in that they clearly engineered each female character to be immediately 'relatable' in an obvious way. They're not written in the way most anime fans are used to seeing female gimmick characters, so it makes sense that it would trick people. But these ladies are still pretty boring, it's only that a female audience might actually like them (and as far as I can tell they do). But, gimmick personalities can be incredibly endearing if written well, and it is very possible for characters like these to have a strong, static personality that can be rewarding to witness. Sadly, the interactions and their personalities don't really make for anything interesting aside from the faux realism that they emphasize.

In this way, truly great characters are often written with simple personalities, but alongside this there is always an underlying capacity for them to reveal real human emotion, which should be apparent even when they express themselves in the most pedestrian way. A 2D caricature with a soul, now that is what a good anime character should feel like, especially when they're drawn so expressively and cartoonish, as in this anime. However the characters we get are written only to mimic humans in both personality and emotion, in the most basic and superficial way, which is why the expression always seems hollow. For, how can anyone expect to be moved by the words of a character who has no soul? They are caricatures who make caricature of emotion and expression.

And, it isn't as if the ritual/mythological element to the story was focused on in any great detail that a character focus would need to be sacrificed. If anything, the anime did a pretty good job of not expositing too much about the mysterious and existentially important ritual, keeping it understandably mysterious. However, it never feels mystical. Perhaps because the anime treats it as more of a natural disaster, like an earthquake or typhoon, which makes sense for the story.

So, what does the anime actually focus on then if not some semi-serious story element or the characters? I couldn't tell you. Having watched this weekly, I'm drawing a blank. However, the general movement of the story is a military slice of life to contrived romance drama that all of a sudden becomes super important to the plot (because we all really want to see Aquarion EVOL again, right?) to the ritual that unravels the previous point.

Despite all of my complaining I wouldn't say the anime is egregiously or offensively bad, it's just tasteless. This makes the designs; characters and art style (which I do like) to feel like such a waste. A waste of setting and design. I should also be up front about my bias as well though. I didn't like the dragons. Now, I knew there was going to be dragons going into this, but this ended up being deviantart:the animation, with dragon vore being the method of piloting, with vomit as the icing on the cake. Maybe this is why I liked Hoshino so much in the beginning, if she got her way this anime might have been about fighter pilots instead. And speaking of Hoshino and her romance, it was quite funny seeing the weekly reaction from the peanut galley: people clearly would rather get angry than use their heads. All in all I couldn't recommend this. However, it is clear that at the surface level a lot of anime fans seem to be happy. For me, this is just a very bland anime that doesn't really leave too many lasting impressions or say anything interesting. And even with the great art and visual design, it was still aesthetically uninspired.

Among the worst shows I watched this year.

Characters consist only of quirks instead of having fleshed out personalities. Hisone is freaking obnoxious and most of the other characters are utterly useless. Plot gets going close to the final three episodes and does not make any sense whatsoever. The very little character development we get is predictable and bare bones. Tries to have so many tearjerker moments and each one falls flat on its face due to the persistent tonal dissonance between sudden wacky comedic scenes and super serial super sad scenes.


So much for the objective assessment. What follows is a long, personal rant, my ... main problem with Hisone to Masotan comes down to this aspect.

Sexism is rampant.

"Love is a lady's primary objective" is an actual line form the show... A sentence that vile is something a villain would say. All the male staff act like humongous jerks to the pilot girls and exclusively on the premise that they are females and must therefor be inferior pilots by nature. The old "women are governed by their emotions" BS gets brought up constantly. And the show never reprimands anyone who expresses this thought, it seems in fact to support that notion as the girls' inability to properly pilot their dragons is based on their emotional turmoil. One of the pilots main conflict is her struggles with being treated as a second class soldier due to her gender, and that plot point gets hardly explored and not brought to any conclusion whatsoever. There was a hint of an interesting sub plot with that premise, the male soldiers finally see the girls' skills and realize they've been wrong this whole time... But it just fizzles out, no lessons learned, nothing accomplished. I know it' pointless to complain about sexism in anime, might as well complain the sky is blue. But this is so egregiously "no girls allowed lol" that it gets my blood boiling.


Speaking of sexism. There's plenty of out of place and outright uncomfortable fanservice. The pilot suits being skin tight and making Hisone highly embarrassed by the pervy suit designer was a lengthy plot point. One of those cases where the show tries to have it both ways, making the audience empathize with the girls while unapologetically objectifying them. It's especially Hisone who gets shown off by the camera, panning over her buttocks in intrusive angles many a times. This does not work. You can't tell me to feel sorry for poor abused little Hisone while also telling me to lewdly ogle her like a stripper. Mixed signals much? Do you want to be a real story or do you want to be vore porn? Make up your mind you stupid anime.


And lastly, those fucking Yakult yogurt ad inserts. Seriously? Yakult? Who greenlit this.


Rant over.


If you wanna see a show that does "girl bonds with monster/vehicle" done right, watch Rideback instead. Not a single panty shot to be found in that show, Rideback respects both its characters and its audience. Or try Naru Taru if you like your stories with an extra slice of nightmare fuel. Stay away from Hisotan.

Hisone to Maso-tan is a real glizzy gobbling show. "Comedy" as one of the genres? The only funny thing I found while watching the show was how pathetic I am as I was reflecting upon myself during the boring parts of the show. If this was a sitcom, then even the laugh_track.sfx would respectfully disagree to work. Usually when you experience something, especially for the first time, you have a burning desire to take something from it. A lesson, a quote, characteristic or at least a beautiful song. There is nothing to take away from Hisone to Maso-tan. Don't be fooled by the high rating ... of this show, ashen one. Achieve the post-nut clarity and rightfully skip it. There are a whole lot of better quests that await you. Lack of character, lack of interesting insights and lack of depth - all in one show. 3 in 1 deal. God I wish I could see the basement dwellers that have actually enjoyed this. They probably got some sort of lil chibi high school girl kink. Anyways, i'm out, peace.