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Apr 3, 2021
This is a fantastic gag manga that makes for an easy and enjoyable read, with a few little flourishes that have helped it stand out 40 years on from its serialisation. It is very much a gag manga, it should be noted. There are overarching plot elements but they're very light - almost every chapter is self contained and every chapter is mostly a vehicle for a smattering of very silly over the top gags. The mangaka brings an incredibly distinct and fun character to the manga: his style of humour is erratic and constantly throws in varying styles of gag, whether it's an absurdist
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reference to some oddity, a (very beautifully drawn) parody of other genres, very aloof fourth wall breaking or just the typical expressive and stylised reaction panels.
Two things, though, distinguish Hibari-kun (actually probably 3 - but I'll discuss that tertiary thing later...): its art and the romantic undertones. The art is, I think, unanimously accepted as being a cut above. While it generally trends towards 80's comedy manga hyper-stylisation, scattered in every chapter are more detailed panels which, along with the chapter covers, reveal the artist's true capacity to draw his characters in a charming and beautiful way.
There's more to say about the second though. Obviously, the conceit of the manga lends itself towards romantic escalation: the character of Hibari is just so beautiful, despite being a boy, that he is irresistable even to the heterosexual characters. This is the source of much of the comedy (though less than you'd think), the characters being conflicted over their attraction to him. But what makes it interesting to me is that it's not something like 'Pretty Face', where we have a beautiful make constantly appealing to other men and horrified at this. Hibari actively enjoys the attention of men - he's gay, basically. And he's not really the butt of any jokes. He is constantly expressing his attraction to our male lead, Kousaku, who rebuffs him. There isn't really much humour beyond Hibari making advances on Kousaku, who is horrified and has an intense negative reaction - this is in almost every chapter and the dynamic never really changes.
I'm not stating this as a critique but an observation of why I think it becomes strange. You eventually just become desensitised to Kousaku freaking out and it stops being funny and it just seems like an actual romance. But because it's an 80's gag manga, there's absolutely no chance of that going anywhere. Which is sad, obviously. Eventually you just wish Kousaku would nut up and raw Hibari.
Unfulfilled romantic aspirations aside, all else I really have to observe about this manga is that it's a bit mean. That can't be counted as a critique, it's a subjective and maybe oversensitive thing - but to explain: yes, Hibari is a gay character who's 'empowered', beautiful and confident, etc. But every other character who might be a little different, like him, be they gay, makeup wearing men or crossdressers, are freaks. Unlike Hibari, they are the butt of jokes. The mangaka isn't really celebrating androgyny or gender transgressions, he's celebrating Hibari, because he's beautiful and flawless - if you're a boy who wants to be like him and you aren't beautiful, don't bother bub, you're just gonna be a joke!
Which brings me on to that third point of note I mentioned earlier. This manga gets hype now for 'positive transgender representation'. This is completely moronic. The only person who could read this manga and come away with this interpretation had it before they started reading it. This is not Wandering Son. It's a puerile, silly gag manga for horny teenage boys with a crass and silly sense of humour. Hibari is not a boy who wants to become a girl, he does not have gender dysphoria because his body is how he wants it to be. None of the difficulty or struggle of being a sexual minority is present, he does not struggle with social rejection or adaption. And, as I have said, those who transgress boundaries without having Hibari's singular beauty are joke characters, weirdos and creeps.
Hibari himself is an unusual character. Essentially, he's a fantasy made to appeal to the audience of young boys, who can self insert as the fairly bland and good natured Kousaku. Hibari is a beautiful girl everyone wants, who also is never the butt of the jokes, dotes on Kousaku constantly and saves him from violent situations. But he's a boy. Nowadays, there's an entire genre dedicated to catering to these fantasies (and increasingly a subculture of people), but it's fun to imagine just what the reaction of the magazine's core demographic would be to this concept. Presumably, not dissimilar to the manga's protagonist - but would they be as obstinate for as long as him?
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Mar 31, 2021
Despite the age - and the concept, which is probably off putting for readers more accustomed to big muscly punchman shonen - Rozen Maiden is still a great read with a lot of charm. In part this is because it's not really a shonen or at least is only partly one: it's a NEET rescue story embedded within a shonen shell.
The young, average boy main character isn't powerful or ambitious or heroic, as we might expect in typical adventure manga - he's a socially withdrawn hikikomori with an internet addiction. All of the action, the little there is, is handled by the titular Rozen
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Maidens, and this is the weakest part of the manga (apart from its unfortunate conclusion...). The concept of the fights, the characters' designs, the rose motifs, their projectiles, are all cool - it's just that what exactly is happening is often unclear.
I don't think that's as detrimental as it typically is though as, like I said, the fighting isn't really the point. There's a lot of silly, puerile humour (in a good way) and the relationship dynamic of all the characters is well done and often quite touching.
Perhaps this was too much for its audience though - hence its legendarily bad conclusion. Fortunately this was reconciled with its follow up manga, but consumed in isolation you can't get away from the disappointment. There's several plot threads, all interesting and exciting, and they're all dropped in favour of preparing for a "final battle" type scenario - which is never depicted. It's perhaps better than trying to complete that final battle in the limited chapter, but I can't see anyone who enjoys the manga not finding it a bummer, although obviously it was outwith the artists' control.
That being said, this manga is often given the status of an amusing relic due to its impact on early internet culture, and it's a shame because it's really great. The reader will find it to be a superior experience to the animation, in all ways except its conclusion.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Mar 3, 2021
A very 'fun' but confused manga. The title and the early chapters set the premise up clearly: it's essentially a manga about a 'monkey's paw' scenario where the main character Count D offers a different character their heart's desire in the form of a pet, while the protagonist Detective Orcot tries to figure out what's going on.
But that's not really consistent: it seems that the mangaka fell in love with the character of Count D and at some point became reluctant to have him play a villainous/punitive role. Eventually, it's not really monkey's paw scenarios, more of a catalyst to the events of the story,
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typically revealing the traumatic life of the person purchasing the pet and having them either find catharsis or resolution or more rarely punishment for their sins.
I don't think the change is bad, because Count D is likable, and the dynamic between him and the detective is fun and cute - there are a LOT of BL undertones, as you might expect from the art style (but I find this to be on the pleasant side of shoujo art rather than the angular, big handed unpleasant side).
The only 'problem' is viewing the manga as a complete story. The pressure to reveal who/what the heck Count D is means the last volume is a strange departure after the preceding several volumes of innocuous, often quite sweet and beautiful, dramatic supernatural stories. To provide a conclusion, the mangaka reintroduces the conceit of the manga, as if it was consistent: D suddenly expresses his desire to punish humanity's sins in a way that just feels a little jarring based on all the previous events.
Additionally, the relationship with Orcot never seems to go anywhere, despite the side characters constant hints of their being a romance between the two. It would be too much to expect a male/male love in an old series in this genre, but it would have been nice if they'd settled down and become more friendly with each other (although their bickering is still enjoyable).
That being said, I was impressed with how successfully it was concluded - while a change in tone it was well paced, exciting and fun, and I felt a little sad that it was over. The author knows exactly how a morality play should unfold. She isn't overly cruel nor overly lenient - really bad people get their comeuppance, while repentant victims are spared, so you're never left with a bad taste in your mouth.
It's a fun read that is more interest in enjoyable, episodic mysteries and tantalising visuals than setting up rules and being overly consistent, well drawn and easy to sink into.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Aug 27, 2018
Total junk. This is the anime equivalent of a Roland Emmerich film. Cheap shallow drama conducted by utterly substanceless, one dimensional characters, wrapped up in a big budget high concept story so as to pull the wool over your eyes. Not a single character has an arc; none of them have any motives beyond nothing relationships that you're expected to just go with; none of the events contain a modicum of tension. The only way to enjoy this is to entirely ignore the events on screen and treat it like a music video or something.
The protagonist has no motive or personality. He's a quiet, hyper
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intelligent nerd who just knows how to beat everyone and all the girls love him. He's kind of like the protagonist of a lot of young adult fiction, a self insert wish fulfillment guy for little boys. The other male lead does nothing but look kind of sad and get his ass whooped - he likes the princess. That's it. That's all there is to him. The princess herself is one of the most insufferably trite characters I've seen in anime. She's a pure peacemaker with not an ounce of malice in her body. Someone tries to kill her and she weepily apologises to her attempted murderer. Oh my gosh isn't she so sweet? Stop putting these characters in military science fiction for god's sake.. Basically every female character in this show with the exception of the ship captain feels like a disgusting fabrication to sell toys and be eye candy. None of them do anything. They're just there to go oh my god! when Inaho perfectly destroys an opponent without batting an eye.
There's no attempt at developing a world. Mars has insane, super advanced technology while earth just looks like contemporary earth. But then 10 episodes in one of the Martians says actually despite the technology Mars is really impoverished and spartan in its society. What? This is a guy in a gigantic space palace dressed up like a 19th century Baron. All the Martian characters are like feudal lords. But Mars is poor? WHAT? Early on you think "oh interesting, the earth people have inferior technology - but look at the way the Martians act, they're all headstrong rivals. So surely they will invade and find themselves beaten due to the superior training and discipline of the earth soldiers, perhaps lead by our charismatic main character."
Nah. They just slap everyone around like ragdolls. Until Inaho shows up and he like does some stupid physics trick that entirely removes tension and neuters the drama. Over and over. The characters constantly go "grrr this is a war! this is a battlefield!" but is it? Because you just see the one ship sort of meander while Big Bads fly in and get owned by a 14 year old redditor. Are there battles? Who's winning? Surely it should be over since Inaho is the only one with an IQ high enough to even contest the Martians? But if it's not does that mean the earth army is actually winning? Then why do I care about this one specific ship? Oh because it has the horrible waifu bait princess character onboard, right!
They repeatedly make these embarrassing PTSD asides as if to try and trick you into thinking this is an intelligent or mature show. It's not. It's trash. Avoid, or if you can't, watch on 3x speed and spare yourself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Aug 7, 2018
This review will be heavily referential to the original series of Binan (I'll call it 'LOVE!' from here to differentiate it between this newer series), since it, you know, has the same name and is basically just the same story with a different cast and some new effects and designs. That original series, despite being some criminally obvious fan service pandering, is in my opinion absolutely fantastic, and not just because the cast directly caters to my tastes. I genuinely do think the writing was solid in every episode - it managed to comically deal with pertinent social issues in a mature but light
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hearted way, and Yumoto's little monologues at the end of each are great. I would love to have watched it as a high school student, I think I would have gotten something out of it (beyond the fudanshi pandering, I mean). The surprising competency of its writing is probably why the original series was a bit of a surprise hit, and in turn that fanbase is probably why Happy Kiss! exists. The staff could have been content to just phone the entire show in, but the effort resulted in a rare combination of a show entirely catering to one specific demographic via excessive fan service while also being entertaining and well paced.
Turns out you can't bottle lightning! While the 2nd series of the original LOVE! suffered from a marked dip in quality writing wise, to mend this hole in the hull the writers turned to even more fan service (and an over reliance on Yumoto, probably incontestably the star of that show - notice he's the only one with a cameo proper?) and a reliance on your attachment to the cast it worked With Happy Kiss that isn't possible, because this is a whole new cast!
I think it's reasonable to focus heavily on the characters. As I mentioned in the introduction, this anime is just a retreated of LOVE!'s story - not literally but enough that you won't be watching it for its plot. That being said, the new cast is...a mixed bag. I have to respect the writers for refusing to take the easy route and try to just remake Yumoto, but the boy to fill the colossal gap he leaves, Kyotaro...Well, I think he might have ignited a hatred for the 'constantly yawning, oh-so-sleepy' archetype in me forever. I think I can see his intended role. His apathy and indifference is supposed to be cute, and perhaps he is meant to be a parody of some kind of zen master. But in practice, replacing the pure hearted and irresistible sincerity of Yumoto is an incredibly bored and indifferent guy who doesn't seem to care in the slightest for the people/monsters he is fighting with is very jarring. Maybe if his visual design appeals to you his mannerisms are less offputing - but I found myself at times pretty frustrated with the way he acted. It just did not seem in the spirit of the franchise I've grown so attached to.
On the other hand, Kyotaro's weakness as the male lead allows the rest of the cast to shine a bit more than they could in LOVE!. But...not really enough. Taishi and Ichiro's sparring seems more natural than Io and Ryuu's - mostly. Sometimes it feels as if they weren't sure whether the two were supposed to be shipped or at odds with one another. Further complicating this is Ichiro's relationship with Nanao, another character who I appreciate for his deviation from the standard (a weird, demure sadist who is also very kind, an interesting combination), and who is clearly intended to be bait for shipping with the infatuated Ichiro. But, as confused as these relationships are, they are at least that: relationships, The rest of the cast, it seems, do not have much of any! Kyotaro talks to to his incredibly bland, and I hate to say it, but completely pointless ginger friend Ryouma, and that's about it. I cannot remember a single time Ryouma spoke to anyone but Kyotaro - he may as well be his stand for all his relevancy to characters beyond Kyotaro. While not quite to the same degree as Yumoto, the incredibly cute and cheeky student council member Martha steals the show. It feels as if this was something the staff too were aware of - he is the only character, outside of Kyotaro and Ibusuki, whose rift forms a great deal of the plot, that gets any kind of episode devoted to his backstory, oddly.
Other strokes of consciousness in the writing staff seem to be in the Wom-san replacement's writing - Karl, the cute yellow otter, is really great. He adds quite a bit of energy to the show, and were he written to be more lethargic or cynical I feel like I would hate this anime. His design (as a human) is also very cute - if a little pointless, given that it only exists in transformations and in very brief scenes. I also enjoy the novelty of his backstory - I feel it melds better than LOVE!'s strange (albeit amusing) focus on aliens and the galaxy and television. It is just a shame that the writing was not brave enough to try and focus more on that setting, and instead chose to retread the same structure of season 1 (I am not exaggerating, it is ludicrously similar).
Hyonyanaland, Karl's homeland, appears in the finale and its scenes are a highlight. It provides a welcome diversion in visuals and is greatly helped by some great music, an area I have as of yet neglected to mention, but one that I feel is a clear improvement over LOVE!. The transformation music is exciting and fun, but even better is the attack music - the poppier and more upbeat melody and style are well suited to the less earnest and sincere tone established. The "attack" sequence is only really hurt by Kyotaro's voice acting. While I think the seiyuu does a fine job regularly, here...well...It is quite laughable. The voice he uses is not suited to the bellowing. "Rab is oba!!!" it is not, that's for sure.
Speaking of the transformations...They are fine. I like the kissing theme and the use of water (makes sense - Karl is an otter remember). Not so much the visual designs. While they are not terrible, the lack of deviation from the previous series is a bit disappointing, especially given that this isn't even supposed to be the 'battle lovers' anymore - so why do they look so alike? What's more disappointing is the student council costumes, the Furanui knights, which - well they ARE terrible, especially when compared to the original student council costumes, which were fantastic and better even than the main cast's'. That being said, visually Happy Kiss isn't a huge decline. There is still the eternal sidemouth which is a pet peeve, but it looks a little better than season 2 of LOVE! (although not quite as good as 1, in my opinion). It's a sugary sweet, colourful anime with a cast entirely made up of bishies: the visuals reflect it more than adequately.
The impression given by this review is probably that I hated this anime, but that's absolutely not true. I am critical of it but I still watched the whole thing and had a fun time doing so. It is only because I so enjoyed the original that the flaws in it become jarring. If they announced a follow up it's very likely I'd watch it ASAP. If you were a fan of the original show and its concept (not solely its cast) I am sure you will enjoy Happy Kiss!, but maybe not quite so much as LOVE! or even LOVE LOVE!.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 19, 2018
If you like Happiness! as a brainless, fluffy slice of life show and don't want to think about it too much, you might enjoy this.
If you dislike Jun as a character, you will hate this.
If you like Jun as a character, you should hate this.
I enjoyed Happiness! a bit more than most people but it was a while before I watched this. I was always kind of interested in it as Jun was my favourite character so an episode focused around him sounded appealing. He's cute and unabashed and open about his dress habits and he's queer as hell. He's a great character there
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really isn't much of in anime. So often traps and crossdressers will be reluctant or weirded out by their situation. But Jun is totally happy with it - he owns it. He knows he's cute and he has a thing for Yuma and he makes it obvious. That's why I loved him.
When I envisioned this show I imagined they would run with how Jun had been established in Happiness! - he would be shocked at being a girl, maybe even horrified. As he had expressed basically no desire to be a woman, that'd have made sense to me. He was just happy as who he was.
But what they decided to do was introduce an entirely new and out of nowhere character development - that all along Jun had wanted to be a girl. And that he's elated to become one in this story. This was annoying to me as it kind of undermined what made Jun appealing as a character in the series. But I'd have been willing to accept it had the tone of the episode, or the writing for that matter, actually reflected it. Instead the fact Jun wanted to be a woman is just a kind of throwaway gag. Sure it's a light hearted gag anime...but if that's the case...maybe don't throw in such a weighty topic? Maybe do what I had suggested and not have Jun's reactions be "thank god I'm finally a woman!"
Let me say that I don't think the premise of this story is entirely worthless. I think it could have very easily been handled much better and in a less offensive way. The introduction of the fan club had me certain they'd recover the unpleasantness of this episode with an arc around self acceptance. Jun, in his new body, assures his upset looking fan club that things will proceed as normal. Surely they will seem sad at his change, I thought - surely this will lead to him, in the end, realising he doesn't and shouldn't need to change himself to find happiness?
Nope. Just a throwaway visual gag about him smiling and that making them happy. No one tries to assure Jun he was fine the way he was. Nothing remotely close to that.
The tone gets even more twisted; despite Jun's happiness, his classmates are now overcome with uncontrollable rapacious lust because he has become a real woman (despite not physically changing appearance wise)? And as a result he chooses to foresake his new sex. This is why I said at the start that if you can turn your brain off you might be able to like this. I can't - this is just a horrific piece of writing. Jun learns the lesson of it doesn't matter what you want, give it up because if you don't men will rape you. What? Enjoy watching the original series now knowing all the while Jun is actually utterly miserable because his body doesn't match his gender identity. Enjoy especially all the times Yuma is incredibly callous and insensitive to him!
Getting away from the writing - production wise this is about on par with the original series. The animation is as sloppy but the sound is fairly nice with some tolerable background music. The editing is characteristically snappy and fast paced.
Overall I can't recommend this to anyone, really. It's a rare example of an adjacent property making its source material actively worse. My opinion on the series Happiness! has diminished in light of this and I don't see myself rewatching it any time soon as a result. I'll try to forget this exists if I ever do rewatch.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Sep 30, 2017
It's another gay romance where the tops are predatory deviants turning bottoms gay through sadism. At least time it's psychological and emotional blackmail rather than physical violence. Is that better or worse, though? Honestly I don't know - at least series depicting semes "raping ukes gay" just come across as smutty pornography for the author and audience's sexual enjoyment. This...I don't know. Did someone think this was a good idea for a romance?
Structurally, the series focuses on 2 couples. One between two high school students and former childhood friends recently reunited. The other between a former vigilante turned teacher and his underling, now a
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student at his school. One of these sounds far more benign and tasteful than the others. You would be surprised!
Hasekura and Ooshiba, the same age couple, essentially form because the former tells the latter that if he doesn't have sex with him he won't speak to him anymore, the latter being very attached and fond of Hasekura as a friend. Ooshiba is emotionally ruined by this, but for some reason none of his friends point out he's being abused by a sociopathic monster with no emotions and they all let him be with this disgusting, personality devoid character. Somehow a love story between two boys of the same age is more sinister and unpleasant than the one about the teacher trying to fuck his student...
This is just the first section of the show, but as an introduction it is quite nauseating. The bulk of it is made up of the romance between the two main characters, Ooshiba (the teacher, older brother of the previously mentioned Ooshiba) and Setagawa (his student). The concept is quite fun - I would have liked to see some sort of deliquent-romance hybrid story, where the two bond as they fight street gangs and Setagawa learns to see Ooshiba as an inspirational figure/lover.
Instead this all happens offscreen and in brief flashbacks. There's no chemistry between the two characters. They never act affectionate. There's no indication anywhere that one is struggling with feelings for the other until one comes out and says "I can't be with you" and then you're supposed to feel moved by the sadness of the other. It's...pretty pathetic. This show isn't supposed to be porn, but its characters are as shallow as if it was.
Visually, it's honestly quite nice, which is why I decided to give it a chance, along with its neat premise. It's not jaw dropping but the character designs are nice (if a bit generic bishy), the art style is consistent and things rarely go off model. The stylization during some scenes is a bit infrequent so when it crops up every once in a while it can be quite jarring, although it doesn't look bad.
Outwith the horrifically written romance, there isn't anything - so if you aren't enjoying that, the show positively crawls. It feels twice its length. Most episodes are just drama between the empty characters struggling with things you are not privy to.
As ever in BL, characters are never really gay. They don't have any semblance of sexuality prior to the story's events - and the story is always them being "turned gay" by this one special individual. They don't like men - except this one perfect guy! as if them being a childhood friend, or them being particularly effeminate makes it more understandable. This is a broader problem with the genre in general, so it's unfair to hold this show in particular accountable for it. But if you have problems with the genre, this is just those problems, iterated upon.
I see people exemplifying this as somehow better than its peers, or above them. Let me be clear: the only category that is the case for is animation (it looks better than other BL shows). In terms of story and romance - this is shit. This is not a good romance between men. This is a romance between cardboard cut out bishonen. If all you want is some cutesy bishies (and can find morally terrible bishies cute) cuddling or acting PG13 gay then sure, you may get some fun out of this. If you want a decent love story, this is not it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Sep 10, 2017
Let me preface this review by saying I don't know anything about ATV, the parent franchise of this series, in case that's an important aspect for you in reading this review.
That out of the way, this is a solid, old school sci fi anime with a somewhat fresh take on the mech genre. The premise is a quite straightforward (basic, if you're being harsh) revenge story about an ill done by ex-soldier hunting his former commanders to avenge his dead comrades. It functions as an episodic series for the most part, with the last few episodes following a short "finale arc".
All these episodes are
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titled based on the environment they take place in - quite appropriately, as the environments are the stars of the episode in lieu of a really charismatic or interesting cast. Mellowlink, the protagonist, is pretty much just a bland soldier man without so much of a hint of an arc, his 'love interest' is equally one dimensional and their relationship is just as pointless and unnatural feeling. The antagonists are all just cackling shonen style villains with no depth either - not inappropriate for a story of this style, and to be fair they have their individual gimmicks for each episode, but still, all this means something has to fill the gap this cast leaves. And it's the environment: while the animation is nothing to write home about, there are some quite excellent looking background paintings of mysterious and exciting sci fi vistas.
As for "mech and tech" stuff, I wouldn't consider myself any kind of mech expert, so take my assessment with a spoonful of salt but I would describe the stuff on display in Mellowlink as interesting but homogenous. The Mechs on display, AT's as they are called, have a cool design similar to Gundam's Zakus but a bit more "real" feeling (they remind me of some designs from the Mechwarrior Games). This shouldn't be a surprise, as they were designed by the same person who designed the Zaku, Kunio Okawara. While it's a cool design, I don't love it - it does seem a bit devoid of personality, although perhaps that is the intention in taking the "real robots" concept to its conclusion. But from what I can tell, this one triclops design is the only one on display which makes things get a bit stale, when you are watching Mellowlink blow up the same mech for the 5th time in that episode. (Note that as I said I am unfamiliar with this setting - perhaps there was some subtle differences between the mechs, but by and large they all looked the same, and perhaps there was some lore reason for them all to be so...I can't say).
But it is perhaps unfair to focus on the mechs in a show which is about a mech hunter. Which is as I said in my intro, quite an interesting take I haven't seen in other anime. The concept seems to be inspired by WW1 and early WW2 anti tank rifles, which reflects a broader trend in this anime - everyone seems to be using some early 20th century inspired technology, with Browning MG's and German style armoured cars. It's a neat aesthetic and it works well, giving the show a grimy, gritty feel that it'd otherwise lack - there's rarely any sense that the protagonist is in danger, and opponents are disposable cannon fodder to him.
While I may seem disproportionately harsh in criticising this anime, I did enjoy it more than my scores would suggest. It's a low tech sci fi anime with solid mech designs and a pace fast enough to stop you getting bored - which ticks a lot of boxes for me. If you're similarly into that scene, or the idea of a guy with a giant AT rifle fighting chunky, realistic mechs just sounds fun to you, I think this anime is worth your time.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 5, 2017
This is a decent fantasy anime that both eschews and embodies many of the issues common to fantasy anime.
For one thing, drawing on ancient Persia as a setting is a very cool choice, as it's fairly underutilized and lends the show a fresh and exotic coat of paint. On the other hand it does fall into the typical anime-set-in-the-pre-modern-era trap of grotesque historically inaccuracy when it comes to numbers and scale: expect big battles with classical era armies somehow consisting of hundreds of thousands of men.
But that's not really a strong criticism, given that it is a fantasy anime, and historical inaccuracies like that don't
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really have much impact on the overall quality, they are more of a personal peeve. What does detract greatly from the show is how horrible these massive battles look. Every battle scene gives you long panning views of big, grotesque CGI armies, of copy pasted spearmen and knights. It looks absolutely terrible, but fortunately these large battles are used sparingly - when the show recedes in scale and settles into a more conventional fantasy story scale of a small party of people, the animation is no longer an issue, and the characterisation and pacing shines.
The characters aren't groundbreaking or deep by any means, but they do fill their archetypes well and act consistently. The cast is a little oversaturated, meaning some accessory characters are starved for screen time and some early prominent ones become basically side characters, but even in their limited exposure they make enough of an impression to still feel like actual characters.
However the pervasive cancer of boring shonen morality mars any thematic depth this series might have. Arslan discusses slavery with all the nuance of dismemberment. There is a flagrant ethical code transposed from contemporary society and applied to this setting, in order to win the viewers sympathy and support for the protagonist.
While this does not ruin the adventure or fun in this show, it does prevent it from feeling like a really special pseudo historical drama. Which is fine, as it never really tries to be outside of phonetic references to real world historical locations and titles.
I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who enjoys historical fantasy with minimal fantastical elements, especially if they have a love of romanticism in their fiction.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 4, 2014
Fuan no Tane is a bit different to the other horror manga I've read. It's still a collection of short stories, like most of them, but it doesn't feel as oriented towards the consumption of individual chapters. The individual parts may not amount to much, some being around 3 pages long, and very occasionally some of them seemed genuinely nonsensical, but the collection is greater than the some of it parts.
In compilation the stories all contribute to a sense of mounting tension to a degree far exceeding any similar works I've read. It feels strange to talk about pacing in regards to segments so short,
...
but by the end of each chapter I had been elevated to a state of unease I'm not accustomed to when reading horror manga.
Unfortunately, there are weaker aspects. Regularly, a brooding and ominous mood will be established in a tiny amount of pages, before this is ruined by the appearance of the supposed source of horror - an obligatory generic monster. It's a cliche to claim what you can't see is more important than what you can - but it rings true in this case. They range from spirits to disfigured humans but by and large all the supernatural entities depicted fall flat. Nakayama Masaaki is not Junji Ito.
But if his monsters aren't quite up to scratch, Nakayama Masaaki seems to have had a decent go at emulating Ito's tendency to bail at the end of his stories. The difference is though, that rather than heading into the tales in Fuan no Tane with the investment necessitated by Ito's more conventional "short story" format, you're well aware after two or three chapters that you're not so much getting a horror story as a quick look through a grimy window on a horrible street.
After binging on horror manga, Fuan no Tane was very much a refreshing read and I'd fully recommend it to anyone with an interest in the genre - or anyone who is bored by what could been seen as homogeneity. It spins its stories in a different way, and in doing so, evokes a quite profound atmosphere of dread and foreboding throughout.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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