Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

Wow. Just wow.

I don’t think my opinion of an anime has ever changed so drastically within the space of a few episodes. Wow…

In the beginning I had high hopes for Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu. The concept alone was pretty interesting and with the right development could have been a compelling taken on school streaming and to a certain extent classism. The primary plot concerns the ranking of students by their academic ability into A-F sets, something commonplace in the UK, but apparently rare in Japan. Not that the lower sets receive additional support or supervision mind, just substantially less privileges. In the case of the bottom set, Class F, a run-down classroom, complete with old broken furniture (desks that later get replaced with cardboard boxes) and broken windows. Cos those conditions will really motivate students!  So, the students of Class F (all six of them) decide their going to challenge the system and “declare war” on the other sets. Honestly, I really like this pitch. If it had had an ounce more of thought or if it had followed actually through with this set up, then I would probably be singing a different tune right about now.

So, episode one, Class F declare war on Class E. And its goofy and silly and over the top, and they win. Huzzah! In episode two, a shocking twist of events, Class A declares war on Class F, and Class F lose! Oh well, didn’t expect them to complete their task by the second episode! And that that’s for eight straight episodes… I am dead serious. Apparently there’s a rule that the losing set cannot declare war for three months, so the main plot pretty much stops. Instead fuck all happens for eight episodes. Eight inane, grating episodes. Presumably this is supposed to pass for character development, but it’s so fucking derivative. There’s even a god-damn pool episode! This has fuck all to do with anything.

Onto the characters, they range from tolerable to fucking diabolical. The main character is a perpetual child and screeching moron. The love-interests are so underwhelming, and the fucking ninja-pervert….please die. Most of the jokes fall flat because they are the same one note repeated at nausea. Girl has flat chest, guy looks like girl, everyone has their own stalker, ninja-pervert takes a panty shot, and it’s a non-stop laugh riot! For all of five minutes. The fact remains that we’ve seen this format before and done better. And it wasn’t all that funny then either. The problem is that the characters are not invested. We as the audience are supposed to root for these characters, because they are the underdogs, because the system is unfair, and because they are treated badly. But that’s rarely shown because that is not what interests the writers. The protagonists are not crusading for equality. They just want the entitlements awarded to the higher sets. Without any of the work. They not only support the system, they want to benefit from it. And frankly, that’s not something I can get behind.

So… yeah I didn’t much enjoy this one.

Rating: 4/10

Kamisama no Memochou (Heaven’s Memo Pad)

Returning to Kamisama no Memochou after several months’ hiatus, was a tad surprising. Surprising in a good way, in that the anime had had any sort of lasting impression. That’s not to say that Heaven’s Memo Pad is by any means a bad or even an uninspired anime. Quite the opposite in fact. Especially consider the rather tired and overused premise it has to work with. Hmm, I wonder it that could be part of the problem. In short, I was not expecting Kamisama no Memochou to turn out to be good and memorable at the same time.

As mentioned prior, it’s the premise that is the shows ultimate chink in its armour. Moe-detective and generic-male assistant solve crimes! Oh and the moe-detective has an English name. And she’s supposed to be super adorable but it translates as arrogant and annoying. And the male is bland. And he has a love interest. Who is also bland. It’s insipid and it’s been done to death! Comparing this momentarily with its more recent predecessor Gosick, on the surface neither anime has differs substantially in terms of concept. But whereas Gosick puts very little thought into its individual mysteries, or developing the relationship between the two protagonists, instead opting to be entertaining as oppose to thought-provoking. Kamisama no Memochou takes the same premise and actually turns it into something good. And the title makes more sense than ‘Gosick’.

The series complies several murder mysteries (and a baseball game) into 12 episodes. The length of each mystery varies between two to four episodes. Each one is beautifully written and delivered, with an unexpected amount of substance attached. Perhaps the most heart-wrenchingly touching is the final story arc, since it centres on the attempted suicide of a pivotal cast member. And it doesn’t get an easy wrap-up. None of the mysteries do because some moments in life are just that complicated and joyless. And solving the mystery doesn’t change the course of events, ultimately it doesn’t rewrite the wrong. There are no easy answers and Kamisama no Memochou does an excellent job of phoning that in. In that, it is a thoroughly satisfying work of art.

Protagonists Narumi Fujishima and Alice are stereotypical sure, but not so rigid. Narumi is not the typical saintly male lead as often is portrayed. Naïve yes, but also all too human in some places, in particular the final storyline which deals a fair amount of crap his way. Alice probably gets the rawest deal as her character never truly grows. Still, she never crosses over to full on annoying and her powers of deduction remain consistent. She is smart but not omniscient. The remaining supporting cast do an outstanding job of being both contrived and interesting. They tend not to play on their stereotypes, offering layers and more dynamicity. Interestingly, while the cast as a whole is more subdued, they don’t come across as dull or one-dimensional. They come across as real people.

In all, Kamisama no Memochou is refreshing. It’s intelligently written and executed, the characters are well-rounded and likeable, and it is capable of producing genuine emotion (especially during the final storyline). It’s a pity that the show only made 12 episodes…

Rating: 8/10 

Yuruyuri – Review

In the medium of manga and anime, the term Yuri is implemented in material contained a lesbian context. Interestingly social attitudes towards homosexuality in Japan are (to put it politely) frowned upon, considering same-sex marriage/civil partnerships are not permitted under the law. But apparently twelve year old schoolgirls having lesbian fantasies are considered perfectly normal and not at all creepy. Not in the slightest. Go figure.

Typically the depiction of Yuri will tend to differ depending upon which gender the medium is primarily aimed at. Yuri aimed at a male audience will often play up the relationship for gratuitous purposes whereas Yuri aimed at a female audience will perform the opposite, downgrading the relationship to a natural platonic phase. And here is where Yuruyuri seemed to get its wires crossed. On the one hand the premise – four middle school students try to reform the tea ceremony club – has all the hallmarks of a watered down K-ON. The principle cast are bright, bubbly and shojo-ingly moe, complete with all the expected archetypes, Akari is the klutz, Kyoto is the lazy one, Yui is the straight-man and Chinatsu is the super-duper moe one. Did I say archetypes? I meant one-dimensional clichés. Nevertheless this done-to-death gimmick with stereotypical characters Yuruyuri is pedalling does appear relatively harmless. That is until the panty jokes begin.

Much like the recent A-Channel, another school girl, slice-of-life series, Yuruyuri could have been an interesting anime if not a decent one, had it even engaged remotely rather than relying on the lowest form of humour – panties, boobs and nosebleeds. The jokes are bad, repetitive and ultimately go nowhere. For example, one prevailing non-sexual gag is that Akari, the supposed main character leaves no lasting impression on the cast or the audience. Does anything actually become of this? Nope. Talk about wasting the potential of the one genuinely inventive joke. Not forgetting of course, how unsubtle the remaining sex jokes are. This is neither cute nor charming. This is disturbing, very, very disturbing. In the long run it raises the important question of which demographic Yuruyuri is primarily aimed at, young girls or older men? Presumably it’s the latter. This is fanservice, pure and simple.

Go watch K-ON! Or Lucky Star instead.

Rating: 4/10

Blood C - Review

Blood C is supposedly the latest spin-off of the prominent Blood franchise – Blood: The Last Vampire, Blood+ and Blood: The Last Vampire live action, rather than an actual continuation. Really it’s little more than an alternative rendition of the Blood universe with only the title character in common. Just in name mind you. Based on this premise alone, Blood C is the kind of anime that will be loved or loathed depending on how well acquainted fans are with the Blood franchise. Having watched a good portion of Blood+, I’m not overly impressed with this little stand-alone slasher flick.  

                                                        

Saya Kisaragi (Otonashi in Blood+) is portrayed as the trademark kind-hearted, likable but clumsy schoolgirl who moonlights as a Furukimono (giant, non-descriptive, man-eating monsters) slayer. However not content with the drastic alteration of her personality in order to shoehorn the generic shojo heroine prototype – granted there is at least an explanation given, Blood C radially changes the character’s physical appearance. Whereas Saya Otonashi was simple, sleek and lifelike, Saya Kisaragi is a kawaii overload of implausibility. And with character 180, comes the redesign of the iconic image of the blue sailor uniformed girl wielding a katana. In Blood C, Saya supports a red and black school uniform with a chain (I kid you not) around the collar. This is pretty fucking stupid. Blood is a franchise about vampires, there is absolutely no need to ‘Goth-up’ the heroine in such a blatant manner. With hindsight it starts to become clear that the writer started out with this image of a gothic schoolgirl hunting monsters with a katana and decided to slap the name Blood onto it to attract a wider fan base. In case you’re wondering Blood: The Last Vampire, Blood+ and Blood C were all written by different people. I think this adds weight to my theory.

To the shows credit, Blood C panders to a different kind of horror, specifically the gory violent kind. Which does start off surprisingly well, as one by one her friends, classmates and even general bystanders are all brutality murdered right before a helpless Saya. This ability to create a sense of suspense and peril is perhaps the best aspect of Blood C. Unfortunately the effect is quickly diminished by how routine the attacks become. Monsters show up around Saya, Saya vows to protect her friends, her friends die and only then does Saya go batshit and kill the monster. When we reach the school battle, the charm is somewhat lost since we know Saya is capable of killing the monster but only after she has witnessed her friends die gruesomely. Once we’ve reach this point, the gory factor just seems superficial.

As for the twist ending, it creates more questions than answers. While the initial notion of trying to change Saya’s personality to see what characteristics are innate, is an interesting idea and I imagine could be a good story if handled better, it just raises the question of why? What is the villain’s motivation? What does he actually gain? I mean aside from screwing with Saya and producing a massive body count? The final battle is one of the most gratuitous and pointless sequences I have ever seen. How is slaughtering an entire village not going to attract mass attention? And why do it anyway? Oh yeah right, “evil”. I keep forgetting.

However the underlying problem with Blood C is that there is very little backstory and the audience is never privy to the true Saya since her entire performance was a farce. Even to the extent that the audience never learns what Saya is – a vampire hybrid. This is problematic since the anime attempts to stand on its own and that would probably have been for the best. Nevertheless it can’t even manage that since Blood C requires at least some background knowledge for the audience to have a clue what is going on half the time. In particular there are references made to Saya’s monstrous true nature, something that is never explicitly shown and so there is never a chance to be invested. If we never see the monster Saya, how do we know Saya Kisaragi isn’t the real Saya?

In short Blood C would have flare much better if it had dropped the pretence of being a Blood spin-off and just accept being a Blood knock-off.

Rating: 5/10  

For fans of: Highschool of the dead

Loveless - Review

From the point of view of a guarded Western, Japanese sensibility towards paedophilia and incest (predominately sibling incest) is almost akin to entering another world. The subsequent expression of idealistic and erotic ‘beautiful boys in love’ is known as the Shonen-ai (boy-love) genre. Loveless is one such confusing and uncomfortable anime, introducing a potentially paedophilic relationship between protagonists Ritsuka (12 years old) and Sobi (21 years old). This certainly raises the issue of appropriateness (not to mention several hairs on the back of my neck). Nevertheless Loveless is primarily concerned with the loss of innocence in the symbolic sense rather than the physical.

Ritsuka comes from a troubled background. His elder brother Seimei was recently and horrifically murdered, his personality has radically changed, and he suffers memory loss and has an abusive mother steadily becoming unhinged to the point of denouncing Ritsuka as her son. This leads Ritsuka to experience insomnia and social anxieties that require him to meet with a therapist. This is a rather excellent rendition of grief and family turmoil after a significant loss. Having a child come to terms with the reality of death is perhaps the most traditional but also momentous method of losing the innocence of childhood. Loveless is largely concerned with reintegrating Ritsuka, with his growth and self-discovery.

Sexuality and intimacy are subservient but imperative themes. Loveless takes place in an alternative world, inhabited by kemonomini- humans possessing cat-like features (ears and tails) as an open display of their virginity. These features will be lost after their first sexual encounter, acting as a visual separation between adults and children. With regards to the relationship between Ritsuka and Sobi, there is an element of mentorship rather than lover (keeping with the tradition of which this springs from). Sobi’s love for Ritsuka does not come from genuine desire or attraction. Instead it is the express command of his former master Seimei. In this way we can view Sobi as a surrogate brother, an anchor of support rather than a sexual predator (sort of). Though Sobi is portrayed as non-threatening, it’s hard to get around his most inappropriate actions such as outright kissing Ritsuka.

The storyline is one that is intrinsically complicated. On the one hand there are some great fantasy elements with the notion of true names binding people (typically same-sex couples) as fighters and sacrifices (soul-mates in effect) and are trained at a secret school to do battle with one another. While this might give the impression of a rich, multi-layered concept, it should be made clear that none of these elements are nearly fleshed out enough to be satisfactory. This is certainly understandable considering that the manga had only published four volumes at the time the anime was released. Still it does limit the overall enjoyment as Loveless never reaches a gratifying conclusion of any kind. To make matters worse the last episode reveals a shocking revelation regarding the death of Seimei. Needless to say this is a tad frustrating.

Regardless there is something about Loveless, something beautiful, something captivating that will mesmerize its audience and make them want to learn more about this strange little world. Well, so long as they can overlook the creep factor.

Rating: 7/10

For Fans of: Kuroshitsuji, Gravitation, Yami no Matsuei 

Justice League Unlimited - Review

Justice League Unlimited was a clear continuum of the original series. It was also a highly ambitious project, one that didn’t always pay off. While its predecessor indicated that change was on the horizon after the destruction of the Watchtower and the departure of Hawkgirl, DC really has to learn that rebooting a franchise is not necessarily change for the better. Justice League Unlimited seemed to get lost in the idea of quantity over quality. It featured a much more diverse team at the expense of character development, aside from a select few, the majority of the new cast felt one dimensional and boring, lacking a lot of the charm and whimsy of Justice League.

The series ran for two seasons one comprising of 26 episodes and one shorter 13 episode season tagged on at the end. While the first season adopted an episodic format there was an underlying story arc which came full circle, the second season felt rushed and lacklustre, almost as if they were running out of ideas, not to mention Superman villains’. The show took a darker direction than its predecessor through paying homage to an interesting idea tossed around in the original series. Ultimately this ended up convoluted and unnecessary since it didn’t go anywhere new. The heroes turn up, save the day and suddenly everyone remembers why they like the Justice League! Well duh!

What was memorable about the Justice League for me, were the seven founding members, as I briefly mentioned in the previous review. This is where the series came into its own. The cast were incredibly well developed and complex throughout Justice League and played off each other wonderfully. Whereas Justice League Unlimited (as the name implies) wanted to expand the league and rapidly increase the number of characters by creating a secondary cast, an extra cast and a background cast, to varying degrees of success.

The secondary cast consisted of Green Arrow, Supergirl, Black Canary, The Question, Huntress to name a few. As reoccurring characters with relative contributions to the major plot line, these characters were fleshed out enough not to feel contrived. They were even capable of holding down episodes largely absent of the founding cast members, in particular the Birds of Prey saga. The writer Gail Simone might have had something to do with that. The extra cast were little more than the guest cast of a filler episode – Captain Marvel, Zatanna, Hawkman, Hawk and Dove, Booster Gold, and these were among the worse episodes of the series. It shouldn’t be enough to just have these characters present. The writers have to do something with them other than an extended cameo appearance. And here we reach the crux of the show; it could be downright sloppy at times. The background cast were the background, superheroes that never spoke and were never named. They were simple padding. They were a waste of animation.

The overall problem with Justice League Unlimited is that it never when far enough. It relied far too heavily on the original series to the point that very little progression was made on the already set up cast members. Opting instead to introduce as many new and unfamiliar faces as possible but rather than establishing who they were and most importantly why we should care about them, Justice League Unlimited would immediately return to its comfort zone – the DC trinity. Perhaps if the series had gone the whole route and turned each episode into a one-shot dedicated to an entirely new character, the series would have actually felt unlimited.

In short Justice League ended on a high. Justice League Unlimited began on a low and only got a little better with time. Unfortunately DC seems to be repeating their mistakes with Young Justice.

Rating: 6/10

For fans of: Justice League, Young Justice, The Avengers; Earths Mightiest Heroes 

Justice League - Review

After the success of Batman: TAS (the animated series) and Superman: TAS, DC wanted to expand its newly created “DC animated universe”. So of course the next logical step was to complete the holy DC trinity and produce Wonder Woman: TAS. Nope. Naturally Wonder Woman has yet to receive her own animated series, I imagine it will manifest sometime after her film debut (so never). Interestingly in both instances Wonder Woman has been passed over for the Green Lantern, Hal Jordon, Green Lantern. I’m sure it will surprise no one that the five DC heroes to feature in their own full length animated series were all male. Batman and Superman, unsurprisingly dominate the board. I can understand Green Lantern, but Aquaman and Static Shock? I mean why are these characters deemed a priority over Wonder Woman? Then again, considering that one of the worse episodes (in my humble opinion) centred on Wonder Woman, this was probably a wise decision.

Justice League aired in 2001 and ran for two seasons, 26 episodes a piece. Aside from a stand-alone Christmas special and three extended episodes, each story was presented in a two-part episode arc. The primary cast remained the same throughout the two seasons, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Manhunter and Hawkgirl, seven recognizable, reasonably well-known superheroes combined into one DC powerhouse. Few secondary characters were introduced but the most significant would have been Aquaman and Dr.Fate. Personally this is how a successful superhero outlet should be with a fixed main cast and a reoccurring guest cast. Considering how vast the DC universe is, focusing on only seven was no small feat.

There are several reasons why I enjoy this type of format. The most important is that it allows for stronger character development. A limited cast means that there is much more room to create characters with distinctive personalities, unique powers and identifiable appearances. It also means that once the foundation is set, the characters can be expanded upon. Ultimately they can change and grow, the most prolific of which was Hawkgirl. As with any superhero team genre, the real dynamic is in how the members interact with one another and this was where Justice League came into its own. It effectively captured seven exceptional individuals who contrasted and complimented one another without having to resolve to archetypes such as (though it pains me to admit) Teen Titans.

And now time for the feminist rant. Since the team consisted of two female cast members (one of them being Wonder Woman), a girl power / straw feminist plot was pretty much inevitable. However the ‘sisters are doing it for themselves’ gimmick is not in itself a bad idea – take the episode ‘Grudge Match’ in Justice League Unlimited. It’s all in the execution, namely the straw feminist approach. For those that are not aware, a straw feminist is an exaggerated caricature of feminism (Sarkeesian, 2011) most notably represented in the media promoting radical ideas – like all men are evil. In the episode Fury, the adopted Amazon Aresia develops a plague that will wipe out the male population, leaving Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl alone to stop her. Wonder Woman immediately rejects that this is the Amazon way however Hawkgirl asserts that Aresia is just taking the Amazon dogma to its next conceivable level. At the end of the story Aresia learns that she in fact owes her life to a man but that the Amazon Queen Hippolyta never told her because she did not think he was important. Rather than just portray Aresia as a rogue Amazon with radial ideas, the show deliberately suggested that there was innately something wrong with the Amazonian society and how it devalues men.

This is a classic example of how not to write Wonder Woman because it just undermines the character and her culture. It oversimplifies the Amazons and discredits the all-female society notion as a whole. Writers are often preoccupied with turning the Amazons into a race of man-haters who existed in a world of gender equality. In the beginning of the episode Wonder Woman does help a woman from a rude male driver, but that of course does not constitute an act of sexism. As with many animated universes institutionalised sexism, racism or homophobia is non-existence. The problem of course is that Justice League is aimed at a young audience which would make it difficult to accurately depict any form of prejudice in a manner that is both effective and sensitive. It’s far easier to create a gender balanced world with crazed man-hating Amazons.

Aside from this minor lapse in judgement, the remaining episodes were consistently enjoyable even by today’s standards. Amazingly Justice League hasn’t aged at all. The animation is still wonderfully sleek and even a little reminiscent. The stories are intriguing, imaginative and well-paced, if a little goofy and corny along the way. Not to mention that it served as a platform to introduce new DC characters that might not have generated enough interest by themselves to support an entire series. The only possible downside is that they did tend to rely on Superman/Batman villain’s the majority of the time, which was a bit of shame but not to a large extent. Overall it leaves me with a positive reaction. I recall watching Justice League when it originally aired and not being overly fond of it. Ten years on and I’ve officially changed my mind.

Rating: 7/10

For Fans of: Young Justice, Avengers: Earths Mightiest Heroes, League of Superheroes.