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The series follows the titular late bloomer, Yuu Koito, a girl who has never felt love before. Since she was young she has dreamed of falling in love, romanticizing the day when it would happen. Expecting to be swept off her feet, eventually. But that day has never come, even when someone confesses to her she feels nothing. This has kept her from fully connecting to her friends and peers, they are far more understanding of what they want romantically. She was alone until she met Tokou Nanami. A girl who has also never experienced love, until she met Yuu. To Yuu's surprise, Touko suddenly confesses to her, and while she does not reciprocate due to her inability to love, she allows Touko to be in love with her. The one condition Touko sets for Yuu is to never love her back. From here on, the tale of self-discovery begins, as each character learns from the other about who they are. At the start of the show Yuu seems like your typical blank slate protagonist devoid of the ability to love, but look further and you’ll see her personality is surprisingly realistic. Yuu is the type of person who cares for others deeply but masks it beneath a veneer of logic and normalcy. She possesses many of the telltale signs of sexual repression, her loneliness and lack of romantic feelings are just a few examples. Throughout the show, we see her pushing through boundaries she would have previously avoided, gaining more control of her life and reflect on who she is and gaining a better understanding of her own identity. It's worth stating that Bloom Into You depicts homosexual youth more realistically than I have seen in any anime before. Highlighting even the most minuscule of details that only someone who has experienced firsthand can convey believably. For example, in the first episode, Yuu’s father lets slide a casually homophobic comment about worrying that she isn’t in a relationship with someone of the same sex. After this line comes, the director smash cuts to Yuu in dismay at what he said. The tone sharply changes from moment to moment like this on many occasions to great success because of the subtly to which it is executed. In comparison to Yuu, Touko is rather different in that she knows exactly what she wants and would die before she relinquished her purpose. Touko wants to love Yuu because she can be vulnerable with her, she wants desperately for Yuu to always be there to comfort her. However, she can’t stand the thought of being loved in return by Yuu because of her own insecurities. Throughout the series we see her personality pulled apart and analyzed thoroughly, she is rather basic upon first impression, but look further and there is far more to her than meets the eye. If Yuu were to love her, she would be conflicted, because in her mind she can’t possibly be loved. It's an upsetting conflict that she endures, but incredibly effective in engaging anyone who has experienced similar insecurities. Overall, these story beats are delivered with an impressive amount of grace and panache. The dialogue feels very natural, Yuu’s interactions with her friends are realistic and believable. Most of all, the supporting characters are consistent. They don’t have random lapses in their personalities, and if anything changes there’s an explanation for it in their lives. For example, if a character is acting awkward towards the suggestion of seeing a romance movie, it’s because they had their heart broken recently and needed a push to mention it to their friends. There's a layer of depth to everyone that is far greater than what is expected of not only yuri, but anime in general. This is also the rare explicitly lesbian show that does not fetishize its characters at all. Touko is very clear about her romantic and physical attraction to Yuu; likewise, Yuu is very clear about her lack of ability to love. Both are treated like fully realized people instead of objects. In figuring out themselves and what they mean to eachother, they do run into a few issues. Nevertheless their relationship is still built on communication, consent, and respecting boundaries. They’re a likable duo and it’s easy to get invested in their development. When the first kiss happens non-consensually, it is apologized for immediately, then it never occurs again. The author very deftly avoids, as well as subverts, the Class-S tropes negatively associated with the yuri genre. Class-S usually refers to yuri that do not allow their characters to get into serious relationships, they are in high school and have time to play around before they get married to men when they graduate. The author of Bloom Into You has said on a few occasions that this is not a yuri, rather it is a story about girls and love. Understandably she wants to distance her story from negative connotations associated with the genre. Notably, this anime features a healthy adult lesbian relationship, showcasing that there is more to being homosexual and female outside of the scandalous high school melodrama. We also see a supporting character who faced the issue of her lesbian relationship being nullified under the pretense that 'it's just a phase', and from this, she develops into a wonderfully nuanced character. On the production side, Bloom Into You is magnificent. Beautiful visual storytelling, the storyboards convey characters inner emotions in engaging ways, it is very visually interesting. There are occasional breathtaking moments of sakuga, but what impresses more is the director's keen eye for editing to clue us in onto how a character is feeling at any given moment. If emotions are obscured it is deliberately so, if they are shown then you have to take into account every little detail given to the audience. One of the best moments of visual storytelling in the first episode is when a rush of water divides lead character from her friends perfectly showcases how her lack of an understanding of herself divides her from the average teenager. Aside from just visual metaphors, how the story plays out is representative of the internal struggles Yuu and Touko face. The play that Touko desperately wants to enact is a tale of a woman without memories who needs to pick a desirable personality for herself, reflecting her insecurity and desire to better herself. Punctuating each emotional beat are melancholic piano keys loudly implying the turmoils each character is enduring, and each of them is developed consistently enough for the musical accompaniment to feel very deserved. This is contrasted with melodic orchestral pieces to match the upbeat tone of scenes when characters come together and express heartwarming joy. With a talented and experienced composer like Michiru Oshima producing the soundtrack, the show’s audiovisual splendor blends together with its script wonderfully. To say that Bloom Into You took me by surprise would be an understatement. At first, its unusually realistic characters blindsided me; Yuu and Touko are superbly nuanced people. They're lost in the dark trying to find their way through a first relationship just as real people in their situation would. The many relevant themes this series tackles are what give the cast such believability and relatability unlike any other anime in this genre; self-loathing, societal expectations, homophobia, sexual repression, to name a few. Each theme is delivered respectfully and with subtly. In the first few episodes, the pacing is quite slow, but always purposefully so, and once it gains speed it becomes enrapturing. Without a doubt, Bloom Into You is the best anime I have experienced all season. It is a masterfully crafted, unforgettable experience that will leave an impact on me for years to come. read more
Bunny Girl Senpai is full of the same issues commonly criticized in most light novel adaptations, so why does it get a free pass? Harem tropes, waifu bait, incest teasing, thin characterization, vague pseudoscience, and an asshole deadpan protagonist who solves a bunch of girls’ problems for them. Most of all, the art and sound are incredibly mediocre excluding the many moments when CloverWorks chooses to bend over and spray shit in our eyes with its abundance of hideous CGI crowds. First and foremost, I hate the writing in Bunny Girl Senpai. Consider the '4' points I rated the show overall to be a generous acknowledgment of its basic merits; it is watchable but flawed in so many ways. Right from the beginning, the series gave me a negative impression, but the overwhelming hype I heard for it throughout the season convinced me to continue watching. The story follows Sakuta, a second year in high school, as he tries to help girls afflicted by a supernatural phenomenon known as Adolescence Syndrome. If that sounds like a psychological disorder concocted by a pretentious teenage boy to try and sound smart, that’s because it is. If a character goes invisible or if everyone is stuck in a three-day long time loop, then it’s labeled Adolescence Syndrome, so more or less it’s the author’s fancy word for a cheap plot device. Rather than giving us a coherent explanation for the syndrome, the author just handwaves it with common quantum mechanics like Schrodinger's Cat and Laplace's Demon. It’s loosely defined as a supernatural affliction that manifests in people who are going through severe stress, whether it be cyberbullying causing physical cuts, or going invisible because you’re sick of attention. To the show’s credit, as a plot device, it is used to craft some intriguing character conflicts and give some tangible relatability to the cast. However, these conflicts aren’t executed nearly as well as they could be. The story is told through five parts, each with a new girl for Sakuta to help and flirt with. This standard setup is so unbearable to watch play out because of how terrible Sakuta is as a protagonist. Sakuta is the average deadpan, cynical, uncaring protagonist, except he’s also an unlikable asshole. His one single tone of voice is monotonous boredom, and he almost never wavers from it for the entire series. Keep in mind, this show is FULL of dialogue, but it has no goddamn clue how to make it seem interesting. Sakuta’s dialogue isn’t witty or clever like well written deadpan characters are, it’s just crass, vulgar, and gross. Except he acts like he’s being a terrible person ironically, and in turn, people don’t think he’s that bad of a guy; in reality everything he says is unironic, there’s no nuance, he’s just a bad person. Never is he punished for being an asshole, sometimes girls might comment on his behavior if he says something especially inappropriate to them, but right away they move on and act like he’s jesus-kun again. For example, when a girl says something rude to him he fires back with: “Are you on your period or something?” Did a twelve-year-old write this script? His dialogue is constantly like this when he’s not totally deadpan. He is rarely emotionally impacted by anything; very little makes him impressed or concerned. Viewing a story from the perspective of an uncaring asshole like Sakuta makes it impossible to get invested in anything, or even enjoy it. If the show had actually confronted him about his behavior and acknowledged how bad he was to his friends, then it could have been a character flaw and something to develop upon. But from what we saw adapted, his character development is satisfied with being permanently stagnant. He continues to hide his ugly personality behind a thick layer of snark and quips. Sakuta is just the rotten core of this story, surrounding him is the main attraction, all of the ladies who are strangely drawn to him. Our first heroine for Sakuta to assist is Mai Sakurajima, the titular ‘bunny girl’ somehow makes the dialogue even worse, she is equally as dry and cynical as Sakuta. Throughout the series, the script parallels standard rom-com dialogue, except it is written to be as pretentious as possible with the pace cranked down to molasses. Rather than a simple sentence lasting a few seconds, it’s needlessly wrapped into a messy jumble of sophistry and weird unfunny jokes. Why can’t these kids just talk like normal human beings? That would sure as hell make them more engaging to watch, and you know, relatable. Mai is the typical tsundere archetype, with the intruiging bunny girl costume appearing the most in episode one, then rarely appearing for the rest of the series. The whole ‘Bunny Girl’ hook in the title is contrived for what amounts to little more than big budget clickbait. There is one area which Bunny Girl Senpai is deserving of praise, its themes. At least from a conceptual standpoint, they add some nuance and relatability to cast. The execution of these themes, like the rest of the show, leaves much to be desired. Futaba is introduced early in the show as more or less an exposition dumper with the sole purpose of lampshading plot conveniences. Her character arc offers some intrigue but its relevant themes of insecurity and social anxiety are quickly muddled by the terrible hackneyed script. She is a scientist girl for the sole purpose of spouting tropey quantum theory pseudo-science to explain away everything that’s happening. It’s always painfully apparent that the author just read a brief summary about the theories he uses in his story without fully researching them in an attempt to seem intelligent, and these pointless self-congratulatory ‘science’ scenes occur almost every episode. Nothing in Bunny Girl Senpai feels reall, it's all plastic. Mai and the rest of the girls don’t feel like fully realized characters either. They all experience some kind of turmoil yet this rarely shows through in their personalities. They are all plastic prepackaged moe archetypes, unaffected by anything they go through. Even if a character is visibly changed by their conflict after it’s resolved, it is usually undermined by the show’s terrible writing. Say for example there’s a girl affected by Adolescence Syndrome because she is so insecure with her body from how people have treated her, then after her affliction is resolved Sakuta interjects with another one of his good ol jokes that sexualizes her body and undermines everything the show was building towards. Another issue is the lack of lasting effects to each arc. They are paced too poorly for us to see how characters are impacted, rather a satisfying conclusion the story just moves on. When the author decides he’s bored of a girl he simply ends the arc, in favor of a new case of Adolescence Syndrome. Of course, with another stock standard girl taken off the shelves at A-1 Pictures’ waifu warehouse to become the show’s new main appeal for a few weeks, until she is inevitably relegated to the supporting cast in favor of a new poster girl. It makes the author seem like an impatient teenage boy who just wants to shove as many beautiful girls into the arms of the cool guy bland protagonist. He pairs a girl with the protagonist and lets them flirt a little bit, and before he has to commit and actually develop said girl he gets bored of her. And writing a nuanced character is such hard work for him. So instead he just solves the issue by tossing aside the old girl in favor of a fresh new waifu to fawn all over his self-insert. This is, of course, a fundamental issue of most harem anime, a revolving door of waifus and a self insert protagonist. Being a light novel adaptation, Bunny Girl Senpai bears many structural similarities to a harem anime. Generally this is the reason why I avoid the genre, that and obnoxious fanservice which this series is thankfully frugal with. Eventually, it leaves off on a non-ending because this is an adaptation of an ongoing light novel. The show tries to wrap up the story as neatly as possible at the end of the last girl's arc, but it crashes and burns in its finale. The climax is a filled with overwrought crying, forced drama, and the cheesiest and most cringe-inducing writing in the whole show. In a better series, this barren wasteland of a script could be saved by a larger budget, or a more experienced director. However, this show’s decidedly unimaginative directing style leaves much to be desired. The art is mediocre, it’s in no way vivid to look at, the directing fails to make the long stretches of dialogue remotely interesting. Aside from the abhorrent CGI crowds, it isn’t a visual disaster, it could be worse, but it could be so much better. Other dialogue heavy anime like the Monogatari Series utilize unique directing techniques and plenty of visual storytelling to engage the viewer in lengthy conversations between two characters. Strangely, Bunny Girl Senpai desires to be watched as a thoughtful supernatural character drama, but it plays out like a generic light novel romantic comedy, taking the worst aspects of each and failing to craft an original or worthwhile series. [Overall Score: 4/10] Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai presents intruiging themes of how people treat and mistreat one another during adolescence. However, it fails to execute its best ideas successfully or in a compelling way due to terrible pacing, narrative structural issues, needlessly convoluted dialogue, and a thoroughly unlikable main character. If the author possessed half of the self-awareness he seems to think he has, this may not have been an overrated, cringy, bore-fest. read more
That leads us to SSSS.Gridman, the love child of first-time director Akira Amemiya and Keiichi Hasegawa, famed screenwriter of the 1990s Ultraman. Filled to the brim with references and callbacks to the live-action series, SSSS is a lovingly crafted modernized take on the original series. The new story takes a theme relevant to today’s audiences and focuses on the youth of Japan and their relationship to technology. The show opens on Yuta Hibiki, an amnesiac first-year in high school who’s just woken up in the home of Rikka Takarada, a girl in his class. With no clue who she is, or who he is for that matter. His standard introduction no doubt had people rolling their eyes, including me, and it does detract from the story, at least until we learn why he lost his memory. Yuta sees hallucinations of a robot named Gridman in an old computer in Takarada's family store, later called ‘Junk’ in reference to its name in the original show. Afterward, he meets Sho Utsumi, his friend before getting amnesia. Sho helps him with his memory loss, which is more or less his role in the series, being Yuta's support. He's a decent character, with a minor arc and some development. Throughout the first episode, the information we’re being fed by the characters is incongruous with what we observe from Yuta’s perspective. Rikka and Utsumi easily accept Yuta’s amnesia and when he sees Kaiju looming in the distance they assume he’s joking because—like his Gridman hallucinations—he is the only one who can see them at first. In spite of the mundane reactions of people around Yuta, the directing of nearly every scene communicates dread. It constantly feels like danger is just off the frame and the next scene will change everything. Amemiya lingers on long shots too long for them to feel normal, instead, they communicate anxiety, you constantly are waiting for something to happen that will break the mundanity. Lighting is oversaturated during the daytimes to convey the crushing heat of the summer, and at night is subdued with fog and the monsters are constantly shown looming in the distance over the heroes. In the first episode, a radio playing is placed in between scenes to shift the tone. It bears so much similarity to Neon Genesis Evangelion, it's unsurprising the director is a Gainax veteran. No doubt, SSSS.Gridman's greatest strength is the tone, it balances the mundane life of high school students with the dread of a Kaiju attack. Eventually, when the Kaiju do attack, it is equally satisfying to watch play out. The three main characters are together in Rikka’s family store when the first Kaiju begins wreaking havoc on the city, forcing Yuta to work with Gridman fight off the monsters in giant robot form. Together they create the Gridman Alliance, dedicated to defeating any Kaiju that threatens their city. Animation is fluid, characters are incredibly expressive, the camera work is dynamic and it keeps the action exciting, even the CGI used during many of the fight scenes is superb. The sound design is especially amazing at giving audio feedback during these scenes, a vehicle being crushed, the ground crumbling under a monster, and all of the attacks sound so visceral and lifelike. From time to time the show's incredible opening is used as background music in fights, and this would typically grow tiresome but because the song is so good and relevant to the story it never bothered me. At times the monster's movements look janky, but it never feels unintentional, watching old tokusatsu series shows that this is how the monster/giant robot fights looked, they move in ways that make it seem as though someone is inside a suit navigating them. 2D animation could never have achieved the authenticity of the monsters they were aiming for here. Not every scene is exploding with action, but even when the pace slows down, the directing and intruiging storyboarding are still visually arresting. One qualm I would bring up is the overabundance of fanservice placed at awkward moments, this thankfully only happened in certain episodes around the midpoint of the show. All around, this show is incredibly faithful to the original series, visually, audibly, and narratively. The story is at times too standard to the genre and could have used more originality rather than reliance on the source material. It delivers it's story beats confidently and plenty self-aware of the nostalgia it's evoking, but the times it updates the script to a modern audience are worthwhile. Important information is shown to us rather than told, a characters motivation is never told to us before it is shown, a twist never comes that wasn’t foreshadowed heavily. This showing rather than telling comes across the most in Akane Shinjou's scenes, a classmate of Yuta’s. She offers the most exciting writing in the show. In the first episode alone, her scenes convey more fear than any of the Kaiju scenes. She’s subtle with her dark side and when she gets her quiet moments of angry reflection you get to see how bitter she is. Her psychotic tendencies and lack of care for others are made all the more frightening by how much power she proves to have. If I'm being entirely honest, Rikka and Akane are both better protagonists than Yuta. Rikka gets more development than Yuta and becomes a remarkably sympathetic character right away. While Yuta and Utsumi celebrate their victories against Kaiju she worries about the fallout of the city being attacked and if her friends are safe. She's the most nuanced character in the show, and it often feels like she is a normal person who was placed into the plot of a wild sci-fi kids show. Her apprehension towards conflict and her contemplation of the effects of what's occurring in the story are what makes her so believable. Yuta and Utsumi are at first, ecstatic to escape the mundane life of being a student, then the shock of the danger they’re in forces them to face reality and change their mindsets. Whereas Yuta accepts he has to overcome challenges at face value and follows through like a typical protagonist, Rikka is constantly questioning why she’s in such a dire situation and where her place is in all of it. Her development throughout the show is intertwined with Akane's and they both change in ways that are very engaging to watch play out. The themes of Gridman are showcased throughout the story in the elaborate technology the villain has, all alone in her room, contrasted with the beat-up old computer the Gridman Alliance use. Yet even with basic technology, they prove to be formidable foes to the Kaiju, and they enjoy working together. What the screenwriter is trying to say is rather basic, but it’s nonetheless a well-reinforced theme and consistent throughout the show, you don’t need an abundance of technology to have good relationships and valued friendships. The passionate heart at the core of SSSS.Gridman is what hooked me upon my first impression, it wears its love for the original series on its sleeve. This passion may not be as clear to western viewers who are unfamiliar to classic tokusatsu. Due to this, it will likely be underrated. Nevertheless, as a modern anime, SSSS.Gridman stands as one of the best mecha in recent memory. read more
Shikioriori imitates Shinkai’s stories about long distance relationships, it borrows many of his storyboards, and steals his character designs to fool people into thinking they’re watching one of his films. Personally, I find his movies to be mostly style over substance, but it is clear to see why they are so popular. The stunning animation, detailed background art, and intriguing sci-fi premises. Which Shikioriori has none of. Shikioriori is supposedly about Chinese culture and the mundane necessities of life in the country, yet even with such a simple premise, it fails miserably. It is executed so poorly because it lacks both Shinkai’s impressive presentation and is too poorly written to be anything more than a shallow, boring time waster. The story is told across three vignettes, unrelated to each other aside from the vague theme of Chinese culture. All three stories feel wildly disjointed from each other, but they are equally boring and fail to teach the audience anything about Chinese culture. The lack of narrative cohesion is caused by the three separate directors who each worked on their own vignette. Part 1: Sunny Breakfast You may as well sleep through the first vignette for all it matters, you won’t miss anything. The story follows a nameless man who monologues in a lethargic voice, as if he’s the narrating a twenty minute noodle commercial. He starts by telling us about how much he liked rice noodles as a child. Then a few abrupt time skips later he is a teenager, then an adult, because the director has no understanding of pacing. In each part of his life, he tells us of how the noodles are gradually being made with less love as China advances in technology and infrastructure. Through each time skip, his character does not develop in the slightest. He has no personality, aside from ‘guy who loves noodles’ and ‘has a crush on a random girl for like 10 seconds’. One-dimensional robots are not relatable enough to be protagonists! He’s just a boring narrator who tells us about how his world changes around him, and the changes aren’t explored in enough depth to be emotionally satisfying and they fail to teach the audience anything substantial about China's industrialization. And oh look, random people are dying. The film makes a big spectacle out of the death and violence expecting us to care. Wasting screentime on an aimless script only to throw in a death at the end is lazy writing and very blatant emotional manipulation. The only appealing part of this vignette is the highly detailed noodle art, which is the best animation in the whole film. Part 2: A Small Fashion Show The second vignette follows an aging fashion model, who has to take care of her sister after her parents died. Thankfully there is much less monologuing in this one, but the characters are never developed in a likable way. The model was struggling with becoming too old for the industry shown by a petty rivalry between her and a younger model. Her relationship with her sister is overly saccharin, they rarely share a meaningful conversation other than “You're stupid!” People yell at her, she vomits a lot because beauty standards, then instead of trying to make a point of 'the fashion industry is superficial and treats models poorly' it just ends with her going back to modeling and saying how much she loves it. Yes, because vomiting to have your face on billboards is a great character motivation. Who thought this would make a likable character? Or was this just a moronic attempt at social commentary on the fashion industry? Either way, all this awful vignette has to offer is forced drama and more boredom. It had absolutely nothing to do with China and could have taken place anywhere in the world and been the same. At least the boring noodle vignette had the decency to stay true to what the film was even about. Part 3: Shanghai Love The third story is the most similar to Shinkai’s films because the female protagonist's character design was stolen from the main character's of Your Name! It tells a petty love story about two hollow husks of people, also they have a third friend who hangs around them for no reason. Their friend is chubbier with the sole character trait of 'he's annoying', thankfully the movie doesn't bother to develop him aside from being a reoccurring annoyance. The main character of this story is an angry high school guy, he apparently has a crush on a girl who is implied to be his childhood friend. She is as one dimensional as he is, occasionally shown to be physically abused by her parents in place of actual development. She's just a cute girl in danger, a plot device for the sake of contemptible emotional manipulation. That facet of her character feels less like a part of her personality and more like shallow shock value and an excuse to separate the two leads. The whole conflict in this vignette is the main guy gets separated from the girl for contrived reasons. Then years later they reconnect and he monologues ”we forgot how to speak to each other”, which would imply awkwardness. But instead, he's just an asshole and treats her like a jerk for no reason, making him even less likable. If they were really friends, they could have just phone called each other while separated. Then there's a twist at the end that simply nullifies the whole conflict, it's so hilariously stupid that the entire story's conflict is predicated on a contrived misunderstanding. A twist in the finale that nullifies, rather than builds on, everything that came before it is horrible writing. I can't imagine anyone will still care about this mediocre vignette after the final reveal. [Final Score: 3/10] This movie is a waste of time. Really, don't waste your time on it. The character animation is far worse than what is expected of CoMix Wave Films, it's uneven and often times ugly, which makes the awful dialogue stand out even more. The filmmakers do try to distract you from the bad writing by using very simplistic visual metaphors, but they always felt too heavy handed and were ultimately unnecessary to the story besides making it feel more pretentious. All you will get from Shikioriori is forced drama, emotional manipulation, mindnumbing boredom, and cheap shock factor. read more
(Long spoiler filled review ahead. Spoiler-free TL;DR at the end.) With the declining birthrate in Japan, people are living longer, but fewer babies are being born; there aren’t enough young people to take care of the elderly. The Japanese government is spending more money on health care, the workforce is shrinking with less young people to fill jobs, people are often being overworked due to a lack of employees, the economy isn’t flowing properly. The country’s issues become abundantly clear when looking at how pharmacies stock their shelves with more diapers for adults than for kids. Then there’s Darling in the Franxx, a shoddily written clusterfuck of a mecha series that attempts to inform it's audience about Japan’s declining birthrate. Yet when it does address the issue of birthrate, it only manages to conjure the most asinine, idiotic, and offensive answers possible. While it’s animation, storyboarding, and fight choreography are exceptional for at least half of the show, it’s writing fails on every conceivable level. Beginning as a subpar and predictable character-driven drama with a vague sci-fi setting, it gradually fell into incoherence and the lack of information was a trick used to mask the nonsensical lore. Part 1: [Hiro & Zero Two] The first indication that something horribly wrong with A-1 Pictures/Trigger’s dystopian mecha series Darling in the Franxx appears in the first scene of episode one; a monologue by the monotonous protagonist Hiro and his soon to be wild waifu Zero Two. “The Jian, also known as the bird that shares wings, only possesses one wing. Unless a male and female pair lean on each other and act as one, they’re incapable of flight.” This metaphor is symbolized throughout the series, it can be found on the characters’ uniforms and on the futuristic infrastructure, yet there is no such thing as a ‘Jian’ bird in real nature. There is no species of bird that only has one wing, even implying a bird like that wouldn’t die out through natural selection is ridiculous. This metaphor has two meanings; the literal: the mechas the kids pilot known as Franxx cannot fly without a male-female pair, as the series demonstrated in Partner Shuffle when two girls were explicitly unable to pilot together (ep. 11). The theme applicable to the audience: that every human has a physical for need another person of the opposite sex, throughout the show we see the characters experience this. Franxx mistakes relying on another human for survival as love, it’s not. That’s just codependency. Never does the show attempt to refute the message that codependency is necessary for survival, it only romanticizes toxicity by building Hiro and Zero Two’s relationship on nothing but things they need from each other, never actual love. He needs her because he has no one else he can pilot with, she needs him because he’s the first partner she hasn’t killed. Any struggles they face are caused by plot contrivances pulling them apart then putting them back together with fanfare to trick you into thinking they actually overcame something. Yet, they’re framed as the happiest and most exemplary couple in the series. This isn’t love, it’s codependency! They both NEED something from one another and that’s what is tying them together, not a bond! They’re like two snakes wrapping around each other until one of them suffocates first. At the beginning of the series, Hiro is wallowing in self-pity because he was just too good for his last piloting partner, she was a lame normal girl and the show decides he needs a wilder girl. He’s just a potato self-insert protagonist, everyone loves him for reasons that aren’t nearly compelling enough to the viewer. Seeing all of the characters in love with or admire Hiro feels so unnatural, it’s so obvious that they’re deliberately written to like him regardless of how little charisma he has. All of Hiro’s struggles are rooted in him being better than everyone else. He just perceives himself as being worse because of his frustratingly low self-confidence. The show reminds us of this at every chance it gets with self-pitying inner monologues, but no matter how much he annoys us he never gets anywhere near believability. Once his wild waifu Zero Two shows up and they start piloting with one another, he finally feels fulfilled. She’s a half monster half human hybrid and she has horns. That's the single flimsy explanation we get for her craziness, not nearly enough to find her personality believable, but at least she didn't have the same generic design as all of the other characters. She’s known as the ‘partner killer’ because anyone who pilots with her dies after three times, keep in mind this was back when she was allowed to have interesting character traits. This conflict gave the show chance to discuss how Hiro felt physical pain when he piloted with her, but as we would come to see, the show had no interest in delving into its characters in any meaningful way. Zero Two spends the first half of the show wallowing in angst because she’s not a human or whatever, which is moderately intriguing because she develops PTSD and in hallucinations sees the past partners she killed. It gave the show a chance to actually develop her in a meaningful way, but this was dropped entirely for the sake of making her relationship with Hiro seem as saccharine as possible. The Beast and the Prince (ep.13), their backstory episode more or less existed solely to contribute to the cloying tone. Zero Two began as a test subject for the creator of the partner piloting system Dr. Franxx himself, and he’s a really evil guy so the episode spends a fair bit of time on her being tortured. Genericness and predictability aside, the episode itself is decent enough upon first inspection; Hiro became friends with Zero two as a kid while in training, he taught her what it’s like to be a normal kid, they tried to escape Dr. Franxx together but were eventually caught, and then their memories of each other were erased. I personally didn’t care for the episode considering it was more or less a copy of a climactic scene from Yuri Kuma Arashi; it directly ripped storyboards, narrative beats, but it had none of the thematic implications. Franxx copies so many great anime like this to craft a hackneyed story that’s less interesting than even one of its parts. The only reason anyone will have to remember this anime is for the climactic moments, and I can’t give it any credit for those knowing how much worse it is than the material it plagiarized. The travesty that was Punishment and Confessions (ep.14) was the turning point in the series when it lost any chance to develop the two leads beyond their one-dimensional starting point. In this episode, Hiro’s squad separate him and Zero Two because their last time piloting together left him in critical condition with her simply remarking something like ‘if he can’t handle it then he’s not worth it.’ Hiro’s squad, in spite of being mostly cardboard-cutout non-characters, are always in the right when they call out Hiro for his bullshit. The major cause of conflict between them is when Zero Two goes to visit Hiro but when she arrives at the infirmary, by some coincidence Hiro happened to have snuck out of the room and went looking for her. When she noticed he was missing, she went into psycho girlfriend mode and tried to murder his friends to find him. Then through another coincidence Hiro returned and see this brawl, convincing him to break off their relationship. This isn’t a conflict that arises due to their difference in personalities, it’s a lazy ass plot contrivance. It only existed for them to be able to have a reunion a single episode later and act like they actually overcame something, they did not learn ANYTHING from this. Hiro and his friends all forgive Zero Two with no discussion whatsoever in the next goddamn episode, no apologies for her beating the crap out of all of them. The show treats this like the grandest climax so far; for the last time in Trigger's fantastic sakuga is on display, then it’s pure mediocrity for the following nine episodes. Their reunion had virtually no impact narratively because it contradicted what we just saw in the previous episode and it nullified all of Zero Two’s emotional baggage. After episode 15 the whole partner killer thing is forgotten, her PTSD is not discussed again, her being half monster is barely an afterthought, all because somehow being in a codependent relationship helped her. After episode 15 they were still very much relying on one another to survive, they didn’t develop in an organic way. Eventually, their parasitic relationship led to Zero Two sacrificing herself, becoming a rock and also turning into a giant space robot lady. In the beginning, Zero Two was the most interesting character in the series; she was defined by her unpredictability, she had intriguing emotional hang-ups, she had potential to be a good character. Then by the end, she became a rock, both in physically and metaphorically. She lost any edge she had because her wildness was tamed by Hiro. As we see throughout the series this is the case with all of the pairings, their relationships stunt character growth. For the rest of the show, Zero Two had no agency over the story other than sacrificing herself for her darling's sake. Part 2: [Story & Setting] In the early episodes of Franxx, little emphasis is put on the setting, it’s purposefully left vague for the majority of the show. Post-apocalyptic Earth is mostly deserts, a council of powerful adults issue orders to the various squads of kids to protect the plantations containing adults unfit for battle. Kids pilot mechas to destroy oncoming attacks from giant alien creatures known as Klaxosaurs. What began as a standard, but functional premise, rapidly descended into nonsense. With each big reveal and twist the show gradually lost what the main story was even about. At the start of the series the creatures the kids fight are aliens, then it’s revealed to be an older form of humans, then it’s revealed the council of adults were the real aliens all along, because why the hell not. Then it’s revealed that all of the adults are immortal because they injected molten lava into themselves. There are so many conflicting pieces in the lore of Franxx, it's total illogical nonsense. The best way to look at the writing in Franxx is from a thematic perspective because that’s all the show seems to care about. Rather than competently crafting a story Franxx puts more emphasis on is its characters, themes, emotions. Similar to the mecha classics that it copies incessantly, like Evangelion and Gunbuster, this is an emotional narrative. Except, they don’t know how to make characters feel like believable humans and the themes attempt social commentary without actually commenting on person/group of people that exist in the real world. The story progresses in a semi-episodic structure similar to Evangelion, episodes typically do not pick up right where the previous ones leave off plot-wise. Instead, they follow the squad of the ten main characters as they experience becoming pilots and overcoming drama amongst one another, all while delivering small details on the setting to keep you intrigued to where it may go. If Franxx were actually good, this plot structure could work just as well as the shows it’s imitating, but it’s so much worse. Despite being relatively well animated, its story beats are mind-numbingly generic and it almost never surprises. It feels like the script was generated by a soulless corporation, ticking off a checklist with each generic story beat, cliched character archetype, and seemingly important themes used cheaply as window dressing. While watching Franxx, you are always ten steps ahead of the characters. They’re shocked by the most mundane tropes found in any sci-fi dystopian stories. Like when the main cast discovers they aren’t the first squad of kids who lived in their dormitory, it was information hinted at us many times over with the kids constantly saying “oh I can’t wait to be an adult someday…” Wow, what a shocker, the menacing council of enigmatic hooded figures leading an army of child soldiers are actually evil. Who could have guessed?? Apparently none of the characters. This is an issue all throughout the series, the story beats are so standard yet the show feels the need to present it with arbitrary foreshadowing as if it’s not obvious enough already. Franxx is the kind of series that doesn’t believe it’s audience is capable of thinking beyond the level of a toddler, so at every chance it gets it spoon-feeds us information, making it even more unbearable to watch. Expecting us to be brain dead idiots or very young children is also what lead Franxx to create some of the most hilariously stupid metaphors in anime. The mechas and how the kids pilot them are very obnoxiously a metaphor for sex; the boy mounting the girl in a doggy style position, complete with sex terminology to describe the mechas and seating positions. As if it the sex analogy wasn’t clear enough, the characters’ piloting banter always sounds like they’re talking about sex rather than I don’t know, fighting aliens. The mechas themselves are for some unexplained reason female, with over-sexualized features so there is always fanservice right in the middle of fight scenes to distract you from the action. They're a mishmash of ugly colors and random accessories that make no sense, the designs are hideous desperately trying to look attractive. And the thing is, the kids have been raised in a sterile environment devoid of any information about sexuality, so they don’t even know how perverted the act of piloting is. First of all, that’s kind of creepy and only adds to the layer of sleazy fanservice covering this whole mess, secondly, it presents the themes of procreation in such a painstakingly literal way that there is no room for analysis. If Franxx had even a little self-awareness, this tonal whiplash could have been at least partially avoided if it were framed as humorous, instead, it’s unknowingly parodying itself by being as stupid as possible. That leads us to the fact that the world of Darling in the Franxx makes no goddamn sense. It’s full of contradictions. We’re constantly told that the kids don’t know anything about sexuality, they don’t even know what a kiss is, yet they for some reason they view nudity as inherently sexual. Clearly, the writers did not consider what a culture would look like if boys and girls are raised alongside each other without any real contact with adults or exposure to sex. The boys ‘ogle’ the girls pervertedly which makes no sense whatsoever because they should not know to view them as sexual, and the fact that the girls feel shame, in turn, makes no sense either. If the show hadn’t forced that pointless beach episode in, these issues wouldn’t have been as noticeable. In a better written dystopian story, the characters' puberty would be free of expectations that would typically be passed onto them by society. However rather than carefully considering the dynamics of the sci-fi setting they were attempting to create, the writers simply gave us cliched romantic comedy hijinks seen in any generic anime. Part 3 [WHAT THE FUCK IS FRANXX EVEN ABOUT?] The world building in Darling in the Franxx is flat out awful, which is what makes the vast majority of the story feel incredibly shapeless. It takes seventeen episodes for Franxx to actually clarify what the hell it is actually commenting on in the real world. If Franxx wanted to be a good reflection the birthrate decline in Japan it would have had to actually make use of its sci-fi setting beyond just stupid sex-powered mechas. For starters, a lack of kids being born would be an explicit conflict in the story to reflect the birth rate decline in modern day Japan. However, there are a TON of children in Franxx! So many that they are able to throw them into cryosleep as we see in episode 22. There is a surplus of kids in Franxx if discussing birth-rate was the real goal of the show then they failed from the start. The issues the heroes in Darling in the Franxx face is not that there aren’t enough children. They want to have children the normal way with the boy-girl pairs they were assigned to, but the aliens in control of their system do not allow that. Episode 17 is the moment that the series lays down its themes clearer than it ever had before. Kokoro voices that she wants to have a baby in order to feel fulfilled, then the evil Squad Nine comes and takes her book on pregnancy and they tell her humans have cast away their reproductive organs because they cause too much unnecessary drama. He further clarifies by stating the firm belief of APE, the council of aliens leading the anti-reproduction regime. This is simply connecting a person's fertility directly to their emotional depth. The world of Franxx says you don’t need to reproduce OR have emotion, and that’s what the main characters are trying to break away from. Of course, why wouldn’t they want to break out of a system like that? But why? What does it represent? What person or group in the real world is preventing people from having kids because they want to be shallow, genderless, and without children? No one! It's social commentary written by someone who is out of touch with reality. In the awful backstory of “Inhumanity” (ep.19), Dr. Franxx voices that he believes humans are only truly beautiful if they can procreate, which is why he puts faith in Hiro’s squad to become “real humans” and create children in his designated forced piloting system. The piloting is just pseudo-science that very obviously has no reason for existing outside of serving the show’s message and trashy fan service. The show takes this message even further by portraying any person or group who doesn’t procreate the Franxx way as a threat to humanity. Franxx is very much able to say a traditional family is good; mother, father, procreating, that is a good message for tackling birthrate. But for some reason, it chooses to frame anyone who chooses not to adhere to the traditionalist family setup as a threat to mankind. Franxx just ignores the fact that there are many other ways people can have a family, and still live fulfilled lives. There can be same-sex relationships, people can adopt kids, or even to not have children at all, but Franxx says these are all signs of inhumanity. That hilariously stupid wedding episode served only to convey this message but in the most hamfisted way possible. In episode 18, the alien SWAT team led by APE literally raids the makeshift wedding between Kokoro and Mitsuru. They tear the bride and groom apart, then erasing their memories of one another. The entire wedding arc was unnecessary to the story and boring as hell, it was just crammed in there for the sake of pushing these themes even more. APE is just the idea of diversity but overblown to ridiculous proportions. It antagonizes anyone who opposes traditionalism to an absurd degree, but it also portrays traditionalists as insanely hysterical in their beliefs in an offensively stereotypical way. Both sides of the political spectrum are written in a way that is so overblown to an alienating degree that very few people will want to agree with it. When the purpose of a piece of art is to change the audience's political views, it is fitting to label it as propaganda. However, assuming that level of thought and consideration was put into the story would be giving the moron who wrote it way too much credit. Regardless of your stance on the themes in Franxx, this is all it has to offer in terms of in-depth analysis, other than that it's boring teenage drama between underdeveloped characters. Part 4: [The Squad] How could this have happened?! The voice actors were good enough to mask a lack of depth, the animators were talented enough to make them look like lively pieces of cardboard (at least in the first half), but nope instead they are unavoidably awful and no icing will make this pile of shit resemble a cake. At best they’re forgettable, but at worst they’re horribly portrayed archetypes that will make you feel sorry for how badly the show treats them. There was so much potential in most of these characters, but without writers capable of crafting cohesive or satisfying arcs, all of them remain flat cardboard cutouts only existing to support Hiro and Zero Two’s efforts to be the most obnoxious couple in the show. Ichigo: All this poor girl did was have a crush on the potato protagonist, and that caused people to send her voice actress death threats. They’re children, who gives a shit about who likes who? Her reason for actually liking him is so vague and petty, they were friends as children. And per Franxx’s idiot logic, your first affectionate interaction with a person will decide who you’re attracted to when you're older. Ichigo had a few interesting moments of standing up to Zero Two for the sake of protecting Hiro, it of course went how you expect, with the two parasites wallowing in codependency and nothing developing. She does very little throughout the show aside from looking pouty whenever she sees the two leads acting lovey-dovey around her. It was impossible for me to sympathize with her because I can’t comprehend why she would feel so strongly towards a potato. Regardless of her love, by the end, she does not change at all despite being the most prominent supporting character. Goro: Occasionally Goro calls Hiro out on his bullshit in some of the most satisfying scenes of the series, then in the most disappointing moments of the series, he immediately apologizes and acknowledges Hiro’s superiority. Goro is allowed to be a character for a few seconds once every few episodes, but for the remainder of the show, he has no stakes in the story. Goro’s main attribute is that he’s a nice guy who feels unrequited love for Ichigo. He respects her and acknowledges that she has feelings for Hiro and doesn’t overstep his boundaries. He’s the most likable member of the whole cast, but sadly there is literally nothing to him than his unrequited love for Ichigo. His whole character arc culminates very early on in “Triangle Bomb” (ep. 9) when he confesses his love to Ichigo in the best way he could, explicitly stating he doesn’t want to pressure her but wanted to clear the tension between them because he is a nice and respectful guy. Then Ichigo shrugs off his confession with “I don’t know how to respond to that,” ... ...and then she literally doesn’t... ... FOR THE ENTIRE SHOW. Kokoro: Ok, I was bracing myself by talking about Goro first because Kokoro is by far the worst member of the squad. Not only is she the source of many plot holes, she is more or less a vehicle for the show’s creator to preach the themes. In the totally 100% necessary beach episode (ep.7), she finds her bible, a book on pregnancy, and for the remainder of the series, she preaches it like scripture. She uses it to learn about sexuality, weddings, and childbirth. In “Boys x Girls” (ep.8) she references the book to explain why the boys were ogling the girls, she says ‘we have to put up with their perviness in order to pilot together and to eventually have a family with them.’ Kokoro believes that girls are supposed to ignore any problems they have with the boys because they have to make a baby regardless of how they feel. Not only is this a harmful message for viewers, it also causes even more stagnant character writing because the pilot pairings never have discussions about their troubles. Nothing is ever overcome because Kokoro perpetuates this outdated rhetoric. Kokoro does very little throughout the show, mostly sitting passively until she gets the baby craziness and demands to be allowed to have a child. After promising she would stay with her piloting partner Futoshi, she immediately kicks him to the curb for a new guy in episode 11 for no other reason than he’s fat and she doesn’t want her kid to have the fat genes. So needless to say she’s kind of a monster and I felt no sympathy whatsoever. That leads us to the makeshift wedding they come up with which was one of the stupidest moments in the show; for some reason, right before she is wed to Mitsuru they’re raided by APE with their SWAT team. It’s totally ridiculous to think that a futuristic advanced society of aliens could kick down the door at any moment, but they chose to wait just as the two are about to kiss. And seeing them waving around guns at a wedding full of kids is so unbelievably over-the-top. That whole marriage episode was a trudge to get through, and I was honestly relieved when the alien SWAT reproduction-abolitionists ended it early. But wait, there’s more. APE erases Kokoro and Mitsuru’s memories one another, but this opens even more plot holes: 1. APE forgot to remove their wedding rings after the memory removal procedure, genius. 2. All of the other kids knew about the memories getting erased so they just told her and that’s how she remembered. 3. She was still pregnant after being captured by the anti-marriage alien SWAT team. They’re pretty bad at being an anti-reproduction regime if they can’t even figure out this basic shit. 4. Kokoro and Mitsuru regain their memories a few episodes later on their own, they overcome literally nothing because they return to how they were just before getting married. Zorome/Miku: They’re the most forgettable members of the squad, simple one-note personalities with no impact on the story. They do have a brief bit of ‘development’ if you can even call it that abhorrent in “Boys x Girls” (ep. 8). They clash briefly when Zorome ogles Miku (we’ve discussed how this doesn’t make sense) and she reacts by dividing the dormitory with tape in the most sitcom-y episode in the show. For a mecha series that tries to take itself seriously, throwing a proverbial wrench in the tone does not make the characters seem more human and relatable, it was such an unnatural tonal shift that it made them feel like aliens. Other than this one fanservice episode, they just hang around the squad and offer a few inconsequential reactions and quips that add absolutely nothing to the show but background noise. Futoshi: This poor chubby kid is just bullied by the show whenever he is onscreen, his whole character arc is one big fat joke. At first, it was just a few offbeat jokes along the lines of “Hey, don’t take any of my food while I’m gone.” His humor was just as unnatural and stereotypical as the rest of the cast, but then the show takes it a step further from a poorly written annoyance into offensively awful. His piloting partner Kokoro ditches him during “Partner Shuffle” because he has the fat genes and she wants a good baby to further the species. Understandably, this causes him to become insecure about his weight and form an eating disorder. This is a very sensitive topic with plenty of potential for good discussion, but this is Franxx so they flushed any potential down the toilet. Franxx approaches this real-world issue that affects plenty of people with the sensitivity of a sledgehammer. The writers were too incompetent to deftly handle a serious topic like an eating disorder, so instead they literally just ignore it. Most of episode 16 is dedicated to his struggling with not wanting to eat any food, with Zorome confirming that Futoshi is throwing up his food. Yet even though they confront him about his insecurity, the episode ends with Hiro giving one of his bullshit speeches about friendship with sad piano music playing, cue the whole cast crying. Futoshi’s turmoil was glossed over and never resolved, likely because none of the corporate drones that manufactured this knew how to sensitively handle real-world issues. The director goes out of his way to show us how unhappy he is with himself in minor ways throughout the rest of the show. Whether he be playing with his food or sadly staring down at his full plate, even by the end it’s obvious he’s still struggling with his disorder yet Franxx couldn’t give less of a shit about his turmoil. Rather than addressing his issue, they choose to force him to be the de facto-priest at Kokoro’s wedding, it’s so cruel and horrible that I might actually have felt bad for him if he had actual character traits beyond “he’s fat lol.” Ikuno: Throughout the show, she is very blatantly hinted at being in love with Ichigo, which gave the show a huge chance to backtrack on the message that anyone who isn’t in a heterosexual relationship is actively part of the birthrate problem. But because Franxx is the anime of disappointments, her character arc was handled appallingly. One of the most egregious moments in the series was in "When the Sakura Blooms" (ep. 18) when Ikuno confesses her love to Ichigo and she wrote it off by saying “oh I was the same when I felt unrequited love for Hiro, but now I am doing what's necessary for the greater good and hooking up with someone else.” It’s the passive-aggressive type of homophobia I've seen plenty of in real life from people who are only accepting of gay people as long as they become straight eventually. What Ichigo says to Ikuno sounds more like ‘oh how sad that you’re defective, someday you’ll grow out of that phase.’ And it doesn’t end there, Ikuno is perpetually shown as the least able member of the squad. Like I mentioned previously, this show dives into some dark dehumanizing themes of eugenics. It is explicitly stated that in the world of Franxx, your life force is directly connected to your fertility, if you’re not having a kid your hair will become gray and you will die faster than those who chose to further the species. Whether or not it was the creator’s intention to dehumanize LGBT people, he threw these pieces on the board and they landed unnervingly close to hate-speech. Mitsuru: At the start of the series, Mitsuru is the ‘rival’ archetype who has an inferiority complex to Hiro, but through subtle coding is indicated to actually be in love with him. Mitsuru received his name from Hiro when he was a child, therefore per Franxx idiot logic, he is gay. With this character, Franxx approaches the topic of homosexuality as a developmental mistake, something you are born with then eventually grow out of. Which is just not true on any level. Sexuality is biodiversity, you’re born that way or you’re not. A person does not need ‘a reason for being gay,’ they just are. The fact that Franxx framed it as a discrepancy in Mitsuru and Ikuno’s upbringing and that they have to grow out of it regardless of their how they feel is appalling. His turmoil over being in love with Hiro is swiftly brought to a close with him being forced into a relationship with Kokoro. She projects her desire to have a kid on him until he tepidly reciprocates because they are both convinced that unless they have a child they won’t be fulfilled in life or ensure the future. Of course with no resolution for his unrequited love. The show goes out of its way to frame his marriage to Kokoro as an obligation rather than a choice. Similar to Futoshi, through subtle character direction you can tell Mitsuru’s still pining for Hiro even in the episode he starts his relationship Kokoro. And there’s never the same coding for Mitsuru being in love with Kokoro. Hiro flat out tells Mitsuru “you ARE in love with Kokoro” and he accepts that hesitantly. It’s as if the writers were trying to indicate that Mitsuru actually wanted to be with Hiro, but needed to suppress his feeling in order to prevent the metaphorical birth rate from declining. Even if these messages were unintentional, the creators of Franxx are playing with serious issues just for the sake of window dressing to make the sex-robot alien stuff seem less stupid, which is in my opinion just as offensive. Part 5: [Dr. Franxx, APE, “Inhumanity,” and the scienceless sci-fi] “I’m an atheist, you see ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)” -Dr. Franxx while licking his lips at the sight of the loli-monster-girl-princess. Our first introduction to the eponymous Dr. Franxx is him delivering his half-breed experiment kid Zero Two to Hiro’s squad. One of his first lines is literally him sexually assaulting Nana, the squad's parental-type overseer, and telling her to loosen up. The show frames it as a joke because of course Franxx (the show) finds workplace assault to be fluffy humor. That’s how he’s characterized for most of the series, as a guy who does explicitly bad things like torturing Zero Two during “The Prince and the Beast,” yet the show frames him as sympathetic. They really expected us to think, “he’s done bad things, but he really had some good ideas!” He had no value for human life, but somehow designing the awful sex-powered mechas absolves him? It’s like a crazy person trying to defend Hitler. I Don’t Care. He tortured and experimented on a kid, the show expected us to feel bad for him when he ‘sacrificed himself’ so everyone could survive at the end of episode 21. I literally applauded when a plot contrivance caused him to get violently crushed by rocks. APE is just a bunch of aliens that came down to Earth and pretended to be an organization of scientists, they gave the government a new form of energy, magma and took over the world more or less. It’s a very silly twist, but this is Franxx and it’s a stupid show, magma could technically be used as a form of energy and greed could lead the government to trust mysterious scientists. But the magma is somehow also the key to unlocking immortality? How? Magma is molten rock, hot rocks! How the hell do you make the logical leap between a form of energy and DNA mutation? It makes no goddamn sense! APE was just a bunch of random aliens that had so little to do with the main characters, it added nothing to what had been built up in the prior episodes. The magma energy constantly shown in background details supposedly caused the Earth to become deserts? Taking molten lava from the Earth (below the crust) would in no way affect the soil, it might lower the temperature of the surface but that would cause it to become cold, not hot. I'm not sure who thought coming up with scientific-sounding words and a vaguely futuristic aesthetic would make good sci-fi, but it doesn't. Even I, someone who knows very little about science can tell this show is brain dead stupid and no effort went into researching its concepts. Then after Franxx spends twenty-two episodes building up this illogical science, it throws in a giant twist in episode 20 that nullifies everything that came before it. Oh no! APE was actually aliens and now Zero Two’s brain is trapped in space fighting them!! Who gives a shit? At this far into the series, the themes and pseudo-science were all the show cared about. Regardless of how badly they were written, at least it was something to engage with. All of the petty melodrama the characters face, all of the hackneyed lore, even the art quality goes down the toilet by episode 22. Franxx does these twists so often with its story, whenever it wants to achieve a climactic moment it just skips over the build-up and goes straight to the catharsis. By the end of Darling in the Franxx, it doubles down on the ridiculous plot twists, desperate to make you take it seriously when you're more likely to laugh at it. In its final attempt to make you cry, it kills off it's two main characters, but even this lends no catharsis. The only catharsis you'll get from the ending of this train wreck is knowing you’ll never have to watch it ever again. TL;DR [Story: 0/10] Clichefest, contrived filler drama, terrible world building, nonsensical twists that nullify the whole story. [Character: 0/10] I've seen planks of wood more interesting and relatable than this entire cast. [Art: 3/10] No visual identity, good battle sakuga in the first half with hideous mecha designs, very rushed towards the end. [Sound: 3/10] Mediocre soundtrack, a waste of talented voice actors. [Enjoyment: 0/10] Both intellectually and personally insulting. [Overall Score: 1/10] There’s enough potential here to leave you curious as to what the writer/director Atsushi Nishigori might have created if he weren’t so satisfied with repurposing classic anime into a clusterfuck that’s less interesting than even one of its parts. He never understood what made their themes so impactful in the first place, and didn’t bother to create an anime capable of standing on its own merits. Without a coherent story, remotely believable characters, or even themes rooted in reality, this show offers no redeeming value. The best praise I can give to Darling in the Franxx is UNWATCHABLE. read more
GGO is far different, and better than the rest of the Sword Art Online franchise; for starters, you don’t even need to watch the originals to watch this spinoff. There are no related characters, no Kirito. The only similarity they share is the world they take place in. The original SAO is mentioned a few times and surprisingly the new series writer frequently criticises the old one. GGO focuses on the in-depth details of its game world and the friendships between the cast, rather than the melodrama and cheesy romance of the original. Taking place in 2026, GGO follows Karen a college student with a height complex, namely she’s way taller than she’d like to be. Walking into signs, gawked at by passersby, low self-confidence, and constantly comparing herself to the group of cute short girls she sees every day. When she discovers VR games like SAO, she’s hesitant because of the controversy over people being trapped in the game is still discussed on the news. But she is willing to try them if it means she’d get the chance to be shorter. The character creator system being randomized is the only outright bad game design decision in GGO, but that’s just how the original series wrote it. This minor issue can be excused because it eventually leads Karen to Gun Gale Online, a gritty first-person shooter where she’s able to be her ideal short height. The lead character has a pretty good motivation to play the game makes the show all the more compelling, it’s perhaps a simple reason but much more than we were ever given for Kirito. Simplistic characterization is all GGO really needs because it’s main focus is on the intense firefights. The first episode serves to thoroughly explain the mechanics of the game so that the rest of the series can play with the established rules. For what is essentially an exposition episode, the information is presented by showing rather than just telling in the Battle Royale style game mode called Squad Jam. While the visuals are simply above average, the action is surprisingly engaging with the strategizing and tactics explained through banter between the protagonist, plucky pink camouflaged Karen, but with the in-game name LLENN and her partner M. Their group’s dynamic is clear from the start, LLENN is the one who has to run into the fight as a decoy and draw away the attention of enemies while M takes a vantage point to snipe them while they’re distracted. Their personalities perfectly fitted to their roles in the fight; LLENN is anxious with plenty of funny reaction faces, sporadically running into the battlefield. While M is patient and unwavering, coldly issuing orders with the goal of winning regardless of the danger it puts his partner in. Played out like a game of chess, careful planning and positioning are invaluable. Seeing the strategies LLENN and others use to lead them to success is incredibly satisfying; they're not professionals so there's always a chance they will run into mistakes now and then, and their flaws are part of each character. For LLENN and M, we're given enough details to know their relationship is based in needing one another to execute their strategy, the bait and switch, but beyond that, they’re two incompatible pieces. Through seeing them fight and their banter we learn the mechanics of the game; an intermittent scan reveals every challenger’s location, the red lasers indicating bullet trajectory, dead players can be used as human shields, health and bullet count are detailed and are at consistent values throughout the show. The writer’s knowledge of the inner workings of a complex video game is what makes GGO so believable. Look no further than the tense action scenes, despite being acknowledged as just a game they still have stakes. The original SAO had poorly explained rules to its game, so instead it chose to contrive tension by trapping the players in the game world and punishing anyone who died in-game with death in reality. But there is no such lazy writing here. In the original SAO no one of importance ever died because they’d be gone for good, but in GGO there is no such plot armor. They’re in a fight to the death after all so it's inevitable most characters will die or be gravely wounded. GGO is tense to watch in the same way watching a professional streamer is, you’re rooting for them not just because they're an enjoyable host but because you want to see them overcome the seemingly insurmountable odds they face. The action spectacle itself is well done too, it’s clear that Studio 3Hz was having a lot of fun making this. There’s no shortage of slow-mo climactic moments in firefights with bullets flying past players like The Matrix. A few thrilling vehicle fights happen as well. There’s even a lightsaber later on in the series used to devastating effect unlike anything else seen in the show. Considering combat is the main focus of the series, it’s great that GGO is always able to keep it refreshing. Guns are rendered with excellent detail, CGI is frequently used quite well to allow the camera to move freely and to ensure action scenes are fast-paced and flow well. Character animation is fluid when it counts with close-ups and slow-motion used to raise the tension in close encounters. Plenty of long shots of the battlefield are shown so you can keep track of the proximity of players and can follow the action as well as the protagonist does. What creates the most thrills is the visceral audiovisual feedback of the gunshots. Environments that are shot are visibly blasted, with loud shots suited to the wide variety of gun types used, and the effects on players who are shot. Violence is styled to the video game with red pixels that spurt out from wounds like blood. One might think a video game would limit the possibilities of the violence, but GGO has its fair share of decapitations and limbs being lopped off in combat. Battles gradually escalate in intensity throughout the show, the game mechanics established from the start remain consistent and they're experimented with to exciting effect. Eri Aoi’s opening song “Ryusei” is well suited to the battle-oriented series along with a striking showcase of the cast. The soundtrack is equally stellar. Whether it be the hard rock or the frantic techno pieces, all of the background music serves to electrify action scenes. Aside from the action, there is enough intrigue in GGO’s characters writing for it to provide a thoughtful discussion on video games. With the writer of Kino’s Journey, Keiichi Sigsawa, there’s depth to the characters in spite of the series’ focus on gunplay. Escapism is a theme intrinsic to any video game story, thankfully Sigsawa understands this and weaves it into every character. Karen enters the game to become a shorter, more ideal version of herself, her skill in game grants her confidence in real life to overcome her complex. The first friend she meets, Pitohui plays the game to escape stress and relieve her anger, a portrayal leaning more on the negative end of escapism which leads her to become the antagonist of the second half. The show tries to sell her as a crazed SAO fanatic, but at first it doesn’t seem believable enough because we merely hear about her insanity from M. Once we see the brutal ways she kills her foes in her Squad Jam against LLENN, it becomes much easier to believe she’s out of touch with reality. Pitohui’s rather serious subject matter unexpectedly fits with the show’s more wryly comedic tone because of her outlandish personality and character design. From the cross tattoos on her face to scare off creeps online, to the absurd levels of frivolity she treats her enemies in combat, she’s one of the most entertaining rivals of the season. In the latter half of the show when Karen’s friend Fuka joins her for the Squad Jam, much of the in-depth tactics are thrown out the window by her lack of care for the game which brings about the campiest and wild action sequences the show provides. Perhaps they’re not as intelligently planned out, but they make up for it with entertainment value and homages to classic action movies and moment to moment humor in the midst of chaos. All of their seiyuu do a great job of selling their overdone personalities in the game world while toning it down to a believable level in reality. Shown in a more positive light is the gymnastics team, fans of LLENN, that play Squad Jams to communicate better with one another. In between the Squad Jams, the show revisits the real world to catch up with the cast and mainly to discuss the next game and future Squad Jams. These scenes are a good reprieve from Gun Gale’s battlefields. Serving to even out the pacing and introduce characters. The gymnastics team is just a bunch of kids who walk by Karen in real life and wish to be as tall as her (a sort of role reversal) and after fighting one another in the first Squad Jam they enter the second as allies. They’re admittedly a bit one note, but I wouldn't call them cliched or stereotypical. They all have an attribute in their game avatar and how they behave in-game which is reflected in their real-world counterpart. By the end of the series, there’s a noticeable change in all of the characters that is directly connected to the ways the game affected them. The ending provided a satisfying final stance on the bigger themes of positive versus negative escapism, as well as a completion to LLENN's arc that's as monumental and satisfying as the show had foreshadowed it to be. The final episode is one of the funniest, most shockingly great endings of the season that rewards you for following along with the minor story details and provides the best tongue-in-cheek comedy of the series. Score Breakdown: [Story: 7/10] In-depth game world, sparse plot. [Art: 7/10] Modest budget, dynamic action scenes. [Sound: 8/10] Great music and enjoyable seiyuus. [Character: 7/10] Simplistic, but they each offer intrigue. [Enjoyment: 9/10] Thrilling fights, plenty of variation, fun and likable cast. [Final Score: 7.6/10] Sword Art Online Alternative is the most entertaining entry in the franchise, it doesn’t take itself too seriously while also providing enough depth to be compelling. What it lacks in narrative high points it more than makes up for with a well-written game world that remains consistent with its logic throughout the show. Upon first glance, the cast seems paper thin, but with time it becomes clear how much care went into interweaving their arcs with interesting video game related themes. read more
Aside from the addition of Gear, exoskeletons to enhance the boxers fighting, Megalo Box tells the very standard tale of a misfortunate boxer Junk Dog. He’s wasting his talent away throwing matches for cash, a diamond in the rough who thinks he has no chance at making it big. He had long since given up his dream to become the champion of the boxing world Megalonia because he lacks the documentation to enter the tournament. When he happens to cross paths with Yuri, the current Megalo Box champion, they enter a heated rivalry that makes him feel enough passion for boxing. Of course, in their first fight, he’s crushed. But now he has to climb his way to the top of Megalonia and prove himself worthy of a rematch. Throughout his journey through the ranks, he faces many foes and learns to trust in himself and others… you can guess how the rest goes even if you haven’t seen it. It’s an underdog story of the most generic mold, and it plays out exactly as you expect. Never was I surprised by any development, whether a twist in character or an outcome of the many boxing matches. Any nuances the show has are only superficial and do nothing to elevate the conventional plot structure. It seems like the inclusion of the exoskeletons all the boxers wear and other sci-fi elements were not to strengthen the story, it’s more just for the sake of making things look cool. The only nuance the Gear adds is the fact that it represents a system that the protagonist defies by removing. Sure this makes him seem like a badass for fighting against mechanically power fighters and challenging the world’s standards for the sport, but we already knew what the outcome of his fights would be anyways. Not to mention the gear doesn’t make much sense. It’s sci-fi without the science. There’s an argument to be made that predictability is not an inherently bad thing and sometimes beneficial in a story that sets out to emulate the classics. Being a reboot of the classic Ashita no Joe (which I haven’t seen) it is expected to share some similarities to the older boxing stories. However, Megalo Box does not add to the formula previously established, it simply uses it to present a series with passable production values but writing that does nothing to surprise. It takes more than just imitating the best to become great, but it could help to be at least on the same level of quality of what you’re trying to imitate. That’s what Megalo Box is, desperate to be seen as one of the classics that it forgets to create an experience that can stand on its own merits. A muddy, washed out color palette covers the whole series, suited to the dystopian setting. If it was their intention to make the show look like a classic anime similar to Cowboy Bebop, they failed, deliberately downgrading the resolution only made the show seem fuzzier and less refined. A grimy washed out color palette covers the whole series, with a low resolution making lines fuzzier. There’s no respite, even the supposedly advanced sci-fi city is unremarkable. Megalo Box doesn’t get really violent until later in it’s run, but even then its lacking the bite a gritty boxing series should have. The lines should be sharper, eye-catching, but instead, the art is soft and gray; its tiresome style would fit a show with less tension like a slice of life. I spent more time trying to engage with Megalo Box rather than being engaged because the action it so heavily emphasized is nothing special. Even the fighting typically only consists of the basic punches and blocks despite the sci-fi tacked on elements. The animation isn’t fluid enough for them to have the impact of the real thing, and they’re not exaggerated enough to stand up against current shounen. For many of the fights Joe is typically beaten up and on the brink of defeat fight, struggling through most of the fight, only to turn it around at the last second with a single punch. This formula for the fights is repeated over and over until they lose any spark of excitement seen in the first episodes. Megalo Box quickly becomes predictable and frankly, boring, which is a death sentence for a show literally about sci-fi exoskeleton boxing. I get that a lot of the stakes in boxing stories comes from what’s happening with the characters involved. But the people Joe fights are typically one-dimensional ciphers that are seen once and rarely again. Even the main character himself, Junk Dog (eventually Joe), has very little to him. He’s your typical underdog who’s lost confidence in himself because the world denied it to him, but gradually gains it back in combat. At many points, the series does a good job of cluing you into how he’s reacting to the fights with close-ups and the exhilarating music. Whenever he’s out of a fight it’s typically very clear what’s going on in his head because the situation he’s in is already one you can recognize. I wish the side characters could have made up for what Joe lacked, but they’re equally shallow with predictable arcs. Joe’s manager Nanbu frustratingly jumps back and forth in progression, which to the show’s credit, is suited to his emotionally damaged character. He’s molded by the fixed boxing system to divide himself from the fighters he trains; struggling put faith in Joe’s journey to Megalonia because he has seen how much power those in control have. Then there’s Sachio, the token little kid with big dreams who follows Joe around ever since he saved him and his group of friends from the slums. His friends can be combined into one character because they offer an equal amount of development: none at all. Simply being there to cheer Joe on during matches is the extent of their impact on the show. They’re not terrible as characters, they fit in the setting, have motivations and arcs, but they’re so archetypal I couldn’t muster up a reason to care for either of them. With exception of Yuri, the main rival who gets no motivation to fight other than 'he likes to fight.' Watching him fight didn't offer any excitement because I never knew anything about him. Even his manager Yukiko had nothing to her other than inserting evilness into the plot; she's selling Gear to the military? There was so much potential for commentary, but the show drops her side plot entirely by the second half; much like the rest of its compelling themes, Megalo Box simply uses them as window dressing to appear intelligent without bothering to actually develop them. Aside from the arena boxing, the rest of the time is spent in the wasteland setting. There isn’t much else occurring in Megalo Box’s world other than the boxing, which is why everyone gets so excited over Joe entering Megalonia despite being from the slums. Frankly, the amount of people who love the sport feels a little hamfisted, the setting is never explained enough for it to be believable. There’s no MadMax style apocalypse that has left everyone bloodthirsty scavengers, it’s just the sandy slums and the big city which controls the sport. I wish the series had at least explored more of the implications about Joe not being a citizen and therefore not being allowed to join the tournament; it’s an interesting theme considering the current state of immigration in Japan is not good. Sadly, expecting Megalo Box to add modern nuance was too much and that theme is resolved entirely by him simply receiving a citizenship after fighting a few times. There’s a bit of fanfare on the plot development, but like most conflicts in the show it is easily resolved and predictable. Attempting to watch Megalo Box the way it wants you to, as a classic, is such a struggle. You can’t love it without constantly making concessions, the visuals are deliberately of mediocre quality, the story is deliberately very cliched, the characters are deliberately barebones. Even if it just wanted to be an enjoyable homage to the classics, drawing such close inspiration from them will only lead to the audience unconsciously comparing it and being inevitably disappointed at how this new series just does not do enough to be better. read more
Undeniably crafted with talent, Tadakoi offers refined background art and detailed character animation in place of quality writing. While the show had potential to be good with its solid audiovisuals, they are entirely wasted on generic characters and a poorly written story. The story follows the titular Mitsuyoshi Tada, an uncharismatic photographer who’s tough past has prevented him from ever knowing love. Through a chance encounter, he meets an enthusiastic foreigner, Teresa. She acts overly excited, running around trying to hop fences and expressing a crazy amount of interest in a Samurai TV series, which seems to have given her some wrong impressions about Japan. All of it is played to comedic effect, it’s fun and lighthearted enough in spite of being unrealistic, with her voice actress' upbeat performance to sell her personality well. Then, through another chance encounter, she ends up being stuck in the rain protecting a stray cat and getting splashed from all directions by water like the universe is punishing her for being nice. But to her rescue comes the lethargic Tada with an umbrella and an invitation to go to his family-owned cafe. Teresa compares what she believes is Tada’s heroism to the samurai she idolizes in her favorite show, and that’s how she falls in love. The cafe itself is lushly ornamented and has warm lighting to contrast the gray rainstorm, a cozy atmosphere for sure. She meets his family, has a meal, changes into dry clothes, thanks Tada, then heads home to the house she just moved into… which happens to be right next door. Tada and Teresa’s relationship feels contrived and hard to believe from the moment they first meet. An unbelievable amount of plot conveniences bring them together, it feels less like their relationship develops organically and more a writer forces them together. The show attempts to play off the cliched intro as a joke, but it’s still lazy writing no matter how much you laugh about it. Aside from these contrivances, they leads don’t have much chemistry with one another for the vast majority of the show. Often times it feels as though Tada’s writing bends over backward in order to Fall in Love; his character and the relationship he has with Teresa never feel believable enough to be the foundation for the series. He’s unrealistically oblivious to Teresa’s pining over him, that is until the plot decides it’s the right time for them to finally acknowledge their feelings. It’s contrived for the sake of creating a compelling resolution, but in doing so it makes Tada difficult to look at as anything but a plot device for most of the show. There is no analysis of his personality that wouldn’t lead to frustration, obliviousness for the sake of stalling the story is lazy writing and does not make good characters. Occasionally the show lampshades his emotional unawareness with the fact that his parents were killed in a car crash when he was younger, but we never see him from a personal enough perspective to understand why he became closed off or to what degree it affects him in the present. Why does it feel like these days more and more anime mistake emotionally-damaged characters for brain-damaged ones? In one of the show’s best and funniest episodes, narrated by Tada’s cat Nyanko Big (a far more interesting character), the two protagonists share a sensitive moment that seemed on the surface like something out of a much better series. However, this is Tada-kun we’re dealing with so there's practically no introspection; when Teresa catches Nyanko Big from a tree and falls back onto Tada only for him to catch her, it's an excellent timed moment of silence between the two yet it has almost no impact. While that moment showcases the very understated burgeoning love Teresa has for Tada, it never feels like a mutual romance. When they make eye contact in a seemingly mutually tender moment there is no sign anything is on Tada’s mind. He’s totally vacant. There’s never a hint he might be in love outside of these moments where he might blush a little and only to return to normal moments later, unphased. Any potential for development is squashed, there is no satisfying growth for him. When the ending inevitably has to wrap up the story in a ‘satisfying’ way, his character arc takes a jarringly rapid change to compensate for the missing development. Leaving both him and the finale feeling underserved and artificial. At least Teresa’s feelings for Tada feel somewhat genuine. Lasting effects of their understated flirtations are seen in Teresa throughout the show. Her feelings develop more and more until she has to face them in a somewhat compelling resolution. Sadly, any potentially remarkable scenes that Teresa has get entirely snuffed out by Tada’s dull idiocy, but they’re also somewhat helped by the interesting visual language. Through subtle visual storytelling techniques we learn that she’s pining for him from the start; over the course of the show we see brief moments of her lost in thought looking at him with starry eyes. It’s not one-dimensional drama like Tada’s; she gets enough scenes describing her life situation for us to know that she is constantly considering the arranged marriage she’s in and how it ensures that she could never have a relationship with Tada. Her dilemma is miles more compelling than anything else the series offers emotionally, but that’s thanks to the strong directing rather than the writing. Plenty of care has been put into the visuals. There’s no shortage of small but purposeful details added to the settings the cast inhabit; homes lined with photos of memories from previous episodes or ones that refer to their backstories. Is it enough to outweigh the mediocre characterization? No, not by a long shot, but at least it’s something to keep you engaged with it and tells you that the director cared about their craft. Where the visuals are more effective is the comedy. With the director of Monthly Girl’s Nozaki-kun, it’s clear to see why the comedy here is so strong; jokes are well timed and there’s so much character animation to telegraph a joke and convey the cast’s personalities. Of course, when jokes are derived from the bland characters they almost always fall flat. Where the majority of my gripes come in is the side characters. This is a rom-com after all, so there is quite a few of them. None of them make up for what the protagonists lack, a few even bring the whole show down. Most of them are incredibly generic one-note cardboard cutouts, the ones that do receive development are somehow made even worse with insufferable episodes dedicated to telling us the boring story of characters that I can’t imagine anyone would care about. There’s Teresa’s friend/servant who traveled with her to Japan, Alec. Her whole character is just the tough girl who is overprotective of Teresa because a few shallow reasons told to us through a backstory. She often beats up the clown of the group, generic clown kid who’s name I literally can’t remember. His only purpose was comic relief, and his animation was the most detailed of the group to showcase his comedic personality, but in truth, everything about him felt so cringy with an overdone voice performance to add even more annoyance. There are a few others who hang around the group like Tada’s sister and occasionally the prince engaged to Teresa. I somewhat appreciated how Teresa’s suitor wasn’t portrayed as an evil threat like many tropey arranged marriage stories do, but instead as a nice guy who respects her wishes. However, his passivity also leads him to have no impact in the story. He’s surprisingly forgettable for one of the more unusual archetypes, but the show wastes all of his on-screen presence, leaving him a bland cipher like the rest of the recurring cast. Hajime, or more commonly known as Pin-senpai is undoubtedly the worst part of the show by a wide margin. Introduced by him creepily ogling the female cast to ascertain their breast sizes, defusing the saccharine factor this series was going for whenever he appears on-screen. He’s constantly yelling, so much yelling with such an irritating voice. He is never content with just fading into the background while on-screen with everyone else, he has to scream as loudly as possible whenever he speaks. Having an obnoxious character like Pin is fine for a comedy series of this type; but what he screams about, no, what his whole character is about, is so pointless and weird, sometimes downright creepy. He adores a model, Hina, to an absurd degree because he loves big boobs… You can have a perverted character, that’s fine, but he is over exaggerated to an obnoxious and unbelievable degree. None of his jokes are ever funny unless its other characters making fun of him; like how they used Hina merchandise to trick him into losing their photography club game. Pin’s character arc seemed little more than an excuse for him to seem less like an annoying walking cliche, and it fell flat. Sadly, the show gives him an entire episode meant to show he had some kind of compassion. His character had potential, with his childhood friend Hinako (notice the name??) who is so very clearly the model from the moment she’s introduced right next to the pinup poster. Throughout the show, there's plenty of hints to indicate she's in love with him, despite him not realizing the model he ogles ever day is actually his friend. Hinako looks the exact same as she does in her bikini shoots, except that she wears glasses. It's such a stupid conflict that the show lampshades the lazy writing by having Alec point out that it's obvious. This stupid conflict damages the believability of both Pin and Hinako because other than the cookie-cutter personalities they have nothing else to prove their unlikable stories aren't all there is to them. Their relationship arc literally culminates in Hinako disappointed at how Pinhead never realized she was the model all along, but she’s happy that he at least likes her idol personality and her boobs. Wow, great themes Tadakoi. Their episode is the most boring because of how one-dimensional the situation and characters are, but also one of the most distasteful ones. I guess you could say Hinako technically had character development, she discovered her fetish for cucking herself. Amazing. But Pinhead still has no redeeming value even after we’re forced to sit through his ‘development’ episode. Screw that guy. Barely anything happens in Tadakoi until the final few episodes, that's when it finally decides there needs to be some kind of progress made before the end. Regardless of the artificial developments made by the end, it's always predictable; right from episode one, you can guess how the story will play out. Perhaps with more interesting characters, it could have been watchable in spite of these flaws, but instead, it's just aggressively bland. No amount of lush sceneries and trained directing could save dull, lazy writing. At least the opening song is pretty good. Tadakoi is the variety of mediocrity that will pass through the anime community with no impact, then inevitably be forgotten forever. You might get something out of it if you’re a fan of the director or if you're new to anime. Otherwise, I suggest you skip this generic fluff. read more
While Golden Kamuy tells an action-packed treasure hunting story, it deftly weaves in an unflinching portrayal of Ainu culture. The in-depth detail that the culture is shown in is likely thanks to the Ainu consultant on the production staff, ensuring the greatest accuracy possible. Moreover, this series never shies away from discussing the ugly way Japan treated the Ainu in the past either, in turn making the story more realistic and believable. The story follows Saichi “The Immortal” Sugimoto, a gruff survivor of the Russo-Japanese war. Famous for violently slaughtering his foes to escape from dozens of life-threatening combat situations; as we see in many thrilling action sequences he’ll never be content with death, motivated by his unfinished business. Panning for gold during winter in Hokkaido’s wilderness is how he spends his time nowadays, desperate for money in order to keep a promise he made to his friend who died during the war. Lucky for him, he hears of a wild tale about a man who murdered a group of Ainu men, stole hundreds of pounds of gold, hid it in Hokkaido before his arrest, then tattooed a treasure map onto the bodies of his fellow prisoners. In the opening episode, Sugimoto fights for a prisoner’s tattooed body with a bear who wants to make them both its next meal. Through a lucky encounter, he’s saved by a skilled Ainu hunter, a young girl named Asirpa. He confides the tale of hidden treasure in Asirpa, and together they begin their journey in search of it. As the story progresses it takes on a ‘prisoner of the week’ structure, but through constantly adding new characters the series avoids feeling formulaic. The prisoners have their own weird dispositions and stories of their own, gradually forming the greater narrative of what this treasure is all about. In spite of its premise, Golden Kamuy’s plot structure flows in a surprisingly natural way. Sometimes an episode may revolve around the duo escaping authorities who are after the treasure as well. A handful of sadistic villains add a constant sense of danger even when they’re not locked in combat with a prisoner. Then there’s the prisoner Shiraishi, a foolhardy escape artist, who joins the lead duo on their journey. This liberated form of writing makes every episode feel like you're getting something new, despite it occasionally causing the pacing to meander on certain parts rather than consistently developing the story. At first, Sugimoto and Asirpa’s relationship is an uneasy alliance, he needs her help to find the gold and she needs his help to find the man who murdered her father. In spite of this beginning, they become friends and genuinely care about one another. Sugimoto sees firsthand how awfully people treat Ainu people by being around Asirpa, and he stands up for when he can because she accepts it being used to the racism. Fantastic commentary and discussion on the Ainu culture are deftly woven into their satisfying character arcs, never sounding preachy and somehow always presenting historical facts in an exciting way. Seeing them hunt with one another using Asirpa’s Ainu techniques is awesome; she teaches Sugimoto them as well and it brings plenty of chemistry but also strengthens their bond. The hunting methods she uses are always quite clever and lend themselves excellently to action scenes. Like Asirpa may teach Sugimoto and the viewer how to make squirrel traps to foreshadow its use later during a higher stakes combat scene. This is how you write an action scene! We’re presented clever ideas then they return later on to be used in creative ways, a satisfying outcome for any viewer keeping track of the Ainu lessons. Rewarding payoffs like this that make Golden Kamuy such an enjoyable experience. The show well to avoid framing Sugimoto as better than Asirpa’s at the Ainu techniques that she taught him. Many stories land in this pitfall while trying to portray indigenous tribes, having the foreigner beat them at their own game not realizing how condescending that framing could be seen by the natives. Thankfully this does not happen in Golden Kamuy because it is intelligently and respectfully written. Weighing down Golden Kamuy's adaptation the most is the mediocre visuals that fail to elevate the strong writing beyond the manga. It's clear the newly opened Geno Studio tried their best, but picking an action series to work on may have been out of there full capabilities. Backgrounds are messy and flat, character animation is passable but oversimplifies the manga’s great designs, and that hideous CGI bear looks like something out of a PS1 game. However, the opening "Winding Road" by Man With a Mission is fantastic, well edited and intensely performed, it's well suited to a survival series like this one. The ending theme "Hibana" is also one of the best of the season, great alternative rock that showcases detailed art from the manga. Even with all of the high points Golden Kamuy has, I would consider the pitch-perfect tone to be its biggest strength. The show blends comedy with the gritty premise, the tone is balanced amazingly. Noboru Takagi, the guy who adapted Baccano also adapted this series’ already great source material, which is likely why the dialogue is so snappy and never feels slow or lacking. And this writing is only elevated by the fantastic voice acting; Asirpa’s seriousness played to comedic effect, Shiraishi’s goofy disregard for danger, Sugimoto’s fierceness in action sequences, it’s all excellent. The banter between Asirpa and Sugimoto is wonderfully lighthearted too, some of their expressions are hilariously over-exaggerated too. The action scenes are typically over-the-top with gore because of the wild personalities of all the characters, there is a scene with Sugimoto punching a bear! None of the violence feels like it's there for shock value either; they are in a survival situation, after all. Their lives are constantly in danger from enemies and them hunting for food is shown in visceral but realistic detail. The tone is further balanced by the wonderful detail put into describing the food the group eats, using Ainu’s strangely delicious looking recipes to showcase their culture. While there’s a fair share of dramatic scenes, the show always maintains it’s wry charm thanks to the characters. Regardless of how absurdly dangerous their survival situation might be. Score Breakdown: [Story: 8/10] Compelling premise, great commentary. [Character: 8/10] Likable, well developed, believable. [Art: 5.5/10] Bad CGI, lacking detail, serviceable action. [Sound: 8/10] Strong voice performances, great OP/ED. [Enjoyment: 9/10] Funny comedy, exhilarating action. [Final Score: 7.7/10] Regardless of Golden Kamuy’s production flaws, it’s writing is way too good to not recommend. I would also recommend seeking out the manga as well if you want to see the series art at a higher quality. With a second season coming in the Fall Season, we can only hope it is produced by someone other than Geno Studio. Nevertheless, Golden Kamuy is an insightful and worthwhile adventure that manages to thrill with compelling action and endear with its fantastic characters in equal parts. read more
Record of Grancrest War is, in my opinion, a shining example of how a story can be brought to life remarkably with a talented director. The director Shinichi Omata previously perfected his craft with Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, he’s proven by now that he’s capable at adapting a good source material. Plenty of his visual storytelling quirks are visible in the political drama this series offers. Grancrest is quite different from the drama oriented Rakugo in that its story is fantastical and its setting revolves around the battlefield. In adapting this different type of story Omata employs new methods to realize the more battle-focused structure. However, this adaptation would prove to be a much tougher ambition. The light novel Grancrest Senki was adapted from is quite long, which is the cause of pacing issues in the first half. The plot moved quickly at first, but upon rewatching all 24 episodes at once they're not nearly bad enough to ruin the show. After all, this is a fast-moving adrenaline-pumping battle show, moving from one battle to the next prevents it from growing tiresome. However, the fast pacing does make it hard to keep track of all the characters and plot lines when watching it weekly. This is likely the cause of so much hate for the show, I know it turned me off at first, but giving it a second chance was definitely worth it. I highly recommend watching this series all at once to enjoy the story at its best. The story’s premise is relatively simple, Chaos reigns throughout the world and only lords with the power of Crests can stop it. Rather than focusing their efforts to put a stop to the chaos, the lords choose to fight and take one another's Crests because having the power to purify the chaos means control over everyone in the continent who needs protecting. Enter the mage Silica, the series heroine who despises the lords for their greed, through a chance encounter she meets the compassionate wandering knight Theo, seeking to save his homeland. Together they join forces and in a style not dissimilar to a standard JRPG or Dungeons & Dragons, they assemble their party of lords and gradually grow their army. With the goal of unifying the crests and ending Chaos, so more or less world peace, they’re really easy heroes to root for. This isn't an original story by any means, but it did manage to engage me in spite of this. Not even the fast pacing of the first half could make it difficult to understand what is occurring, although it does help to watch the show consecutively rather than weekly. Rewatching Grancrest after witnessing how it develops in the second half led me to pick up on many details I had initially ignored. The first time I watched it I was mostly disinterested in the plot until the pacing slowed and allowed the main cast time to develop enough to be likable. After rewatching the first half I noticed how despite the cast being incredibly large, the series always makes an effort to give it’s characters motivations. The source material is probably more in-depth with backstories and more extensive dialogue, but somehow this adaptation is able to compensate for what it’s missing with fantastic directing. One of the best and most frequent examples of this is during important discussions, the director loves to clue you in on how one of the major characters is reacting. He uses very purposefully uses close-ups to consolidate a subtle emotional reaction at the perfect moment. It’s like how you could praise a joke for being well timed, the close-ups are timed right when a key phrase is said invoking a small but important reaction. Perhaps using close-ups like this is sort of a shortcut in writing, but when you have so many characters to juggle with so little time it’s a very helpful way to keep the audience engaged with the cast. The cast themselves are a fairly standard JRPG party with Theo Cornaro as their leader. Theo is your typical nice guy protagonist, except he actually uses the power he gains to make the world better throughout the show. He’s sort of misguided at first; one of his best lines representing this being “Why can’t we get rid of taxes?” and as usual Silica gently implies that he’s kind of an idiot in the same way a kindhearted little kid is. Even without having the most complex personality, he proves consistently that he is a compassionate person by always putting others ahead of him. Regardless of how high his status rises throughout the series, he doesn’t let himself forget even his foot soldiers. Frankly, Theo’s simplicity isn’t an obstacle for enjoying the show because he doesn't dominate center stage, he shares it with his partner and eventual love interest Silica, who is a considerably more compelling character. Thankfully Silica is given plenty of agency in the story, she strategizes Theo’s wars with and sometimes for him while he riles up his army with niceness. I hate seeing the love interest character shuffled off into the corner with no pull in the narrative, so Silica’s defiance and individuality are quite refreshing. Their burgeoning romance throughout the series feels incredibly organic, they don’t fall in love because Theo is the guy with the power but out of mutual respect for one another and passion for the same goal. He wants to unite the crests so they can be used to protect everyone and she expresses disdain for the lord's misuse of the crests; they’re a dynamic duo and they have genuine chemistry together in and out of the battles. And the battles, so many battles. I wasn’t prepared for exactly how much fighting would be in Grancrest Senki, but I suppose it does live up to its English title Record of Grancrest War. The battles are how the series progresses its story, similar to the JRPGs that inspired it. If you want an ally, fight them and prove you’re worthy. If you have a disagreement, fight them and prove who’s right. Thankfully, the action is passionately animated. Action scenes are dynamically directed with many different fighting styles used, with different animators hired throughout the series to keep this approach to telling the story refreshing. Even the guy who animated the breathtaking sakuga in Fate/Apocrypha returned to do a few episodes here, and dare I say they fit Grancrest even better thanks to its strong emotional core. There were, however, a few times where the visuals weren’t up to snuff and it was clear they were saving the budget for a grand climax. Other than those low points, it’s visually quite solid. The various art styles and animation techniques used to great effect make Grancrest Senki feel more experimental rather than the standard look you’d expect from A-1 pictures. Director Shinichi Omata reminds us of his penchant for well realized dramatic moments with great editing on and off the battlefield. Notably, some of the storyboards used for one of the show's cruelest antagonists Milza are suitably moody with alienating points of view constantly hiding him in shadows. Another great way the villain is portrayed is through the striking thicker lines and his character design being engulfed in darkness aside from his eye and weapon, perfectly conveying the intimidation meant to be felt by the heroes. The visuals superbly define the tone at many points throughout the show; whether it be sweeping establishing shots of lush castles, the dark abstract style to show the presence of chaos, and especially the hopeful horizons illuminated by the setting sun to convey levity after a war. Also, the use of its thrilling orchestral pieces and occasionally uplifting ones do wonders for ensuring emotional beats are on point. The most impactful beat in the story comes at the very end with the most satisfying and rewarding finale the series could have possibly had. It perfectly encapsulates the show's themes while also working as the ideal end game to complement its JRPG roots. While the plot's direction is fairly predictable to anyone who has played a game of its type, what matters is the execution. This isn't some kind of mystery story, although there are plenty of twists and even a couple of shocking betrayals sprinkled in, the story's main success lies in how it's stellar story-telling. I can't say more without spoiling it, but just know that it truly does feel like a reward for completing the series. Great visual storytelling is enough to make Grancrest Senki’s standard tale of the underdogs rising to power much more engaging. If you’re looking for a combat-oriented action-adventure, with plenty of in-depth strategizing, and a romance featuring two compelling leads, then chances are you’ll find it as enthralling as I did. read more |
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I'm not sure what convinced me to stick with Grancrest Senki until the end, but I'm glad I did because it turned out to be a surprisingly good JRPG inspired action-adventure series.
Record of Grancrest War is, in my opinion, a shining example of how a story can be brought to life remarkably with a talented director. The director Shinichi Omata previously perfected his craft with Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, he’s proven by now that he’s capable at adapting a good source material. Plenty of his visual storytelling quirks are visible in the political drama this series offers. Grancrest is quite different from the drama oriented read more |
