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Aug 2, 2023
So, you know how whenever a black or LGBTQ character appears in a show or a game, the internet right wing likes to shout "political correctness is ruining our culture?"
Well, if you make them watch Tonikaku Kawaii, otherwise known as Fly Me to the Moon, they will probably not associate this show with the phrase "political correctness" at all. But to me, this anime is the ultimate epitome of political correctness, not just for anime culture but for middle class culture as a whole.
Everything in this show shouts into your ear and burns into your mind about how wonderful marriage is, how the normalized
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rituals of marriage bond is not only just how things are and therefore have nothing wrong about it, but are also absolutely necessary and romantic. By implication, it tells you that this is something desirable by itself and that you, too, should be envious of, and should pursue in your life.
Not only that, but the way this show deals with ideals of masculinity and femininity is also very... politically correct. And by that, I don't mean it in the way those on the right might use it, to say that something is feminist. Quite opposite: I mean it treats normalized forms of how a man or woman "should" be in a very matter-of-fact way, and presents it as something that's "just how things are" and will bring happiness to everyone when it's upheld. The male protagonist is good with computers and technologies, is very upright and kind, yet is oblivious to the more emotional and social aspect of things. The female protagonist on the other hand is caring and understanding, and almost never makes demand of her own. They are more or less modelled upon what our society considers the "ideal" man and woman, and to say the show takes it for granted is to understate it.
Whether you think that's a good or bad thing will depend a lot on where you stand in your life. I will say as someone whose life since childhood has been quite alienated by not just this form of social bond itself, but also how such bonds are considered "normal" and necessary in the wider society, I don't appreciate what this anime is doing, even though there are some really sweet moments in it: or perhaps precisely because those moments are presented as sweet. But if you are someone who lives a happy married life, or at least thinks of marriage as something you should pursue at one point, then you will probably find it quite pleasant to watch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Feb 21, 2023
Maybe there was a time when being an absolute misogynist was a funny thing, and maybe that time was as recent as 2016.
Anyhow, when I watched this in 2022, I just can't stop cringing at this complete trainwreck of an attempt at being funny when it is clearly not funny at all. I tried as much as I could to appreciate the "humour", but I could feel nothing but disgust towards the protagonist being an absolute dick (in the literal sense) and the excessive use of meaningless fan service. I like my share of comedy, and fan service could be useful or, indeed, funny, when
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done in the right place, but sexualization for the sake of sexualization stopped being funny a long time ago.
So yea, no thanks.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Sep 24, 2022
If you know Maruto Fumiaki from Saekano and White Album 2, you would probably be very surprised to hear that he had written an original battle show. Well, at least I was. After all, both of his most famous works were very firmly in the traditional high school romance genre: it's hard to imagine him writing something so out of his comfort zone. Right? Right...?
Well, it turns out, Engage Kiss is a very Maruto show. He is, without a doubt, a master at playing with the conventions of the romance genre in anime culture, and Engage Kiss is no different. White Album 2 asked the
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question: what happens when the high school harem protagonist grows up? While he presented a very well written, if conventional love triangle plot in the Introductory Chapter (which is the only part that got adopted into anime), in Closing Chapter and Coda he turned those conventions on their heads to present a thought-provoking tear-jerker on the meaning of love and becoming adult in modern society. On a glance, Saekano returned to those conventions, but the main heroine, Megumi, was anything but conventional. That work was a meditation on the trope characters in anime culture, and an exploration into precisely how to break those tropes. In both of his most famous works, he took those conventions that defined anime culture and bent it to his will, creating something truly unique to him.
And that trend continues with Engage Kiss. Here, the question he asks is: what happens if you put those harem tropes into a serious battle anime? In this sense, the show has a lot of similarities with Lycoris Recoil, the "other" original show from A1 this season often compared together with it. That show tries to combine yuri tropes with battle/social critique. Yet if Lycoris started on a very high note but ended somewhat blandly, Engage Kiss is the exact opposite: it started with all kinds of cliché only to end up with a genuinely good story. What started out as trope characters, including the good-for-nothing male main character and the two love rivals who are somehow mysteriously attached to said male character, were given a lot of depth to their motivations. In typical Maruto fashion, he self-consciously creates characters based on those tropes, but then laughs at them by turning them on their head.
You can feel this from the ending theme of the show, Renai Nou, literally translated as "Romance Brain", a term often used to refer to people who are obsessed with love and relationships. The theme couldn't be more fitting for the first few episodes, yet as the show progresses, it almost feels like a prank created to laugh at the viewer for assuming things based on the tropes. This is especially true for episode 9, the definite highlight of the show. The cheerful ending theme plays right after an extremely well-presented tragic scene, as if saying "haha, got you, you thought this was a harem rom-com didn't you?"
The show itself is filled with such jankiness. Everything are cheap on the surface, and intentionally so, but, like a playful child, Maurto just piles them one on top of another because why not? Indeed, why not? It turns out 1+1>2, and the result is a show that is consistently and incredibly fun. It's nothing to write home about, but if you want a solid watch, one that blends typical Maruto-ism with a battle anime twist, you will find yourself having a good time with this show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Sep 24, 2022
The first 8 episodes, taken as a whole, is great: and I mean GREAT. Those episodes together were probably the most I've enjoyed from animes this year, and that's a pretty high bar to hit: given other great titles like Spy X Family and Ya Boy Kongming that 2022 has graced us. And that's in large part thanks to the great character design and dynamics between its two heroines, Chisato and Takina. Hell, I would recommend watching this anime just for those 8 episodes.
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and I just wish that's at episode 13 rather than episode 9. To
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be sure, I was still very optimistic at episode 9, even though that episode already felt a little bit rushed. 4 episodes seemed more than enough to resolve the main conflict, not least because all the characters already have established motives at that point. I was pretty sure this show could avoid the common pitfall of other original animes that rushed their endings.
And on that ground, Lycoris Recoil actually did... kinda well. What is interestingly problematic, however, is that the show never seemed to have figured out what it's trying to do. To be fair, the tension between being a serious battle/social critique anime and a yuri/"cute girls do cute stuff" anime was also what made the first 8 episodes so good: if not for that tension, the dynamic between Chisato and Takina would not have been so charming. I was amazed by how they managed to maintain the playfulness of a slice-of-life yuri anime all while developing serious plot about social issues underneath. If this was simply a battle anime or only a yuri anime, I probably would not have enjoyed it nearly as much as I did.
Yet that tension is also what ultimately tore the last 5 episodes apart. Instead of trying to maintain that delicate balance, the anime chose to somewhat "abandon" the yuri part and focus on the serious side. As a result, the villain Majima seemed to have taken Takina's place as a protagonist. Now, don't get me wrong, as far as characters go Majima's design isn't half bad, but unfortunately this serious side simply isn't what Lycoris Recoil is best at. It feels like a half-baked version of Psycho-Pass, with Majima being a dollar store Makishima.
By focusing on the rivalry between Chisato and Majima, the last 2 episodes especially feels like an invalidation of all the lovingly-portrayed relationship between Chisato and Takina in the first 9. If they never officially confirmed the feelings between those 2 as romantic, there is at least a sense of mutual trust and care in those early episodes. In the last few episodes, however, it almost feels like Takina is chasing a lost cause: Chisato was just causing troubles everywhere, while Takina goes after her to save her ass every time. The theme of the anime have shifted from Chisato and Takina overcoming difficulties together as they grow stronger in their relationship to the clashing ideology between Chisato and Majima. In the very last segment, Chisato's behaviour almost felt like she did not care about Takina at all, content to reach her ending on her own without saying anything to Takina. That might be unintended, and could definitely be interpreted differently, but it does come off as showing that the bond between the two main characters was not as strong as presented in the first part, and perhaps unequal or even unrequited. And the ending itself is very random and confusing... like what? Are they trying to recapture a miniature version of the playfulness that made the first part of the show successful? If so, it was definitely not the best way to do it and only served to further highlight the disconnectedness between the two sides of the show.
Again, it's just unfortunate that they chose to invalidate, whether intentionally or not, the stronger part of the show and give spotlight to its weaker side for its ending. Still, it's a quite enjoyable watch especially for the first 8 episodes, if you can overlook the awkwardness of its serious side.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Jun 26, 2022
Have you watched ever watched the famous Neon Genesis Evangelion?
If you have, you can skip this show.
This show is almost entirely identical to EVA, and there are reasons to believe many elements here are explicit homage to it. From the whole "teenagers driving giant mechs to fight monsters" premise to the deliberately pretentious religious symbolism, and to literally a blue-themed female protagonist set up as a contrast against the red-themed female protagonist called "number 2", it is hard to imagine the creators not having the idea of this show being a "modern EVA" at least some time during their creative process. And that doesn't even
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account for the "big reveals" later on in the show, which are... exactly the same "surprise" reveal as in EVA.
And to be sure, if you liked EVA and just want more of it, this is not a bad "re-take" and you can have an enjoyable time watching it.
But... yea. That's about it.
You can say what you want about different themes between the shows: EVA is more concerned with the meaning of the "self" and confronting one's demons, while DarliFra focuses more on the anxieties and self-discovery that comes with puberty.
But at the end of the day, this is just a scuffed "EVA remake". It doesn't bring anything new to the table besides an upgraded, more refined art style.
You can say I'm biased because of the nostalgia associated with EVA, but I actually watched EVA after watching this show. And I must say, even as a show made in the last century, I still enjoyed EVA more overall.
DarliFra's story idea is itself not bad, but it suffers from weird pacing issues. EVA had its own problems with the ending, but in DarliFra, the revelation of a new villain and the consequential shift of battlefield from Earth to Space took place in matters of... half an episode. This 10 or so minutes basically invalidated everything the first 19 episodes were about, leaving the audience with an immense confusion. If you somehow find yourself rewatching the show, the shift eventually begins to feel less abrupt, but the huge "wtf am I watching" feeling on your run in the absolute roller coaster that are the last 4 episodes makes it incredibly hard for people to even want to start a rewatch.
Besides, the show struggles under the weight of its own burden by introducing waaaaaaay too many characters than it can handle. Lots of characters have interesting ideas associated with them, but the show doesn't have enough time to allow them shine, resulting in lots of confusing behaviour and unclear motivations.
All in all, if you haven't watched EVA yet, just go watch that instead. If you have and just want more, this show is nothing to write home about but will be fine if you just want to pass the time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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