skygiants | Entries tagged with anime

For all the obvious reasons I spent a lot of time last week trying to Be Distracted and as a result ended up watching the entire first season of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

The title is a bit misleading because really only about half the routes ever lead to catastrophe even at the start of the show, and by the time the action gets going there's really very little chance of doom getting any kind of look-in whatsoever. However, that doesn't stop our intrepid protagonist -- a nerd who died young in a car accident (as I understand is fairly standard for isekai) and then transmigrated into the otome game she was playing at the time as Villainous Mean Girl Katerina Claes -- from prepping with great determination for her Inevitable Tragic Ending.

These preparations largely consist of:

a.) befriending as many of the main cast of characters as she can so she never gets murdered or exiled for Being Outrageously Mean
b.) learning to farm so that when she does get exiled, she'll have a second career available to her in vegetable husbandry

... that's it, that's the plan! Fortunately for Katerina, Plan A is wildly successful and inevitably results in the entire cast of the game, male and female, falling madly in love with her by episode four. Unfortunately for all of Katerina's aspiring love interests, the joke of the show is that Katerina is terminally oblivious to the dedication of her harem and thus instead continues laser-focused on Plan B, 'hone farming skills to perfection.'

It's very cute! It's very silly! The boy!romance subplots cover the full array of over-the-top otome tropes from 'manipulative arranged marriage royal fiance' to 'sulky tsundere rival with self-esteem issues' to 'devoted stepbrother with inappropriate feelings'; the girl!romances, to my mild regret, all fall into a fairly similar mold of 'love to have a tea party with my beloved friend and talk about our feelings!' with a greater or lesser degree of 'TRULY wish she'd get the hint about slamming me into a wall already' thrown into the mix. (Primed by Scum Villain, I was expecting the original game's protagonist to turn out to be the main love interest, but although she's definitely in the mix she really doesn't get much more narrative focus than any of the others.)

Here's the opening sequence, which I think gives a good sense of the vibe:

Watch on YouTube

This is based on a light novel series and I'm definitely curious about the books; if anyone's read them, I'd be curious to know how much they differ and whether it's exactly the same level of fluff.

For some time now I have been informed that I should probably watch Mob Psycho 100, as it was very good, and I accepted this cheerfully as most likely true but did not in fact do anything about it. Then eventually various people made a concerted effort to bully me into watching Mob Pyscho 100 by telling me that it was like a Frances Hardinge novel, which unfortunately everyone knows is my weakest flank, and then

blotthis came in for the kill by offering to watch Mob Psycho 100 with me, and so now I have seen Mob Psycho 100 and promptly moved over to wanting to tell everybody else that in fact they should probably watch Mob Psycho 100 as it is really in fact extremely good!

... and also, yes, a little bit like a Frances Hardinge novel, on the basis that our protagonist Shigeo Kagayama, aka Mob (a nickname for 'background character'), is a sweet if sometimes accidentally terrifying child who draws in feral companions and morally ambiguous mentors like a maraschino cherry factory attracts bees.

( Cut for length )

aquamirage, this is a post for you!

In other words, this is my post about the sci-fi anime Planetes, which I finally got around to seeing this summer.

Planetes is not space opera; it's hard sci-fi about a bunch of everyday employees on a giant space station going about their everyday jobs. Most of our protagonists are debris haulers who go out and pick up junk that could get in the way of scheduled flights. It is SUPER GLAMOROUS work, by which I mean they are just about the lowest people on the company totem pole.

These are Ai and Hachi. Ai is energetic and enthusiastic and wants to do her best and in love with LOVE! Hachi is cynical, grumpy, ambitious, and in love with SPACE.

Ai is sort of our viewpoint character, but a lot of the second half of the series focuses on Hachi and whether it's possible to balance an intense desire to achieve one dream with interpersonal connections. It's a really interesting examination and deconstruction of SPACE DREAMS, but he is not my favorite and I sort of wish he was less the protagonist than he was, especially since the rest of the ensemble is so great.

Like Fee! Fee is team boss and she is GREAT. She could probably be promoted like twenty times over, but eh, she's happy where she is, so why bother? She has a husband and son somewhere back in Florida, and she's a total nicotine addict, and in one episode she saves the entire space station because she REALLY NEEDS a place to smoke. It is the best episode.

Or Arvind Ravi, who spends a lot of time as a comic relief character -- company shill, constantly anxious about protocol -- but, you know, the reason he's worried about pay grades and getting promoted is because he has around eight kids and wants to make sure they all can follow their dreams because he is the best dad.

Or Edel, office temp, who does not care about your problems and is more competent than anybody else in this show. And has a ~secret past~, but mostly spends her time doing paperwork and quietly rolling her eyes.

Or Claire Rondo, most heartbreaking character -- an ambitious, brilliant space executive who immigrated to America as a child from a small South American country. Her arc is about struggling with the knowledge that space development is consistently increasing the privilege gap between global superpowers and less wealthy nations, and wondering whether she has to choose between rejecting her background, or rejecting her dreams. CLAIRE! She may not be the protagonist of the show, but she is the protagonist in my heart.

These are only a few characters from a huge and varied cast, and you may notice something: it's really diverse. Planetes is a show with a global scope, and it's grappling with a lot of incredibly complex issues about privilege and power, the benefits and the costs of space development, and how much human misery can be justified by human dreams. And obviously it doesn't have answers, because there aren't any good ones, and it's sure not perfect in everything it does, but it has the right amount of ambiguity in how it handles the questions. There are terrorists, their methods are terrible -- but their points aren't wrong. And the show knows that.

So that's why you should watch Planetes!

( Now here are some personal spoilery thoughts that much of my flist may disagree with. )

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/303958.html

So answer me this: why are all the most depressing anime also the prettiest ones?

If you follow anime news at all, you are probably aware that Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a deconstructive magical girl show that aims to stomp up and down on the genre and also the viewers with enormous spike-heeled boots. I too was aware of this, which is why I watched it, because I cut my anime-watching eyeteeth on deconstructive magical girl shows; they are my kryptonite. (Though I have now actually seen some non-deconstructive magical girl shows too! Expect a post on these at some point in the future.)

Anyway, I knew this, but I was not prepared for the ridiculous stylistic gorgeousness, which honestly is the most overpowering reason I want to rec this show. Musically and visually, it's completely arresting.

( This part is cut for images! )

The character designs are deliberately cutesified and simplified by contrast (

elspeth_vimes has a good character primer post here, so I'm not going to do it!) which is for meta reasons, but also I am pretty sure it's also because the animators were just so proud of their backgrounds that they wanted people to PAY ATTENTION TO THEM. And justly! My praise for the style is one hundred percent wholehearted.

My thoughts on the story (basic plot: cute magical critter recruits girls to gain magic power and fight despair-inducing witches, subverted in half a dozen obvious ways and another half dozen less obvious ones) are a bit more conflicted

( and are going under a spoiler cut. )

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/244852.html

I have been watching and reading an EPIC TON of shojo recently (more posts on that to come, probably!) so to balance that out, I thought, "I feel like taking a break to watch something kind of creepy for a change! I guess I'll watch Shiki, that seems interestingly atmospheric."

( Ha. Hahahahahahaha. )

I don't know. It's fascinating, it's beautiful, it's horrific in more than one way. If you're interested, try checking out the opening theme, which gives a good sense for the style, and also the feel of OVERWHELMING DOOM.

Crossposts: http://bookelfe.livejournal.com/231369.html

This weekend I had the joy of kidnapping

varadia! And certainly did not force her to watch through all of Princess Tutu with me. There was just mild encouragement! Um.

However you all know my feelings about Princess Tutu (show of my heart and story of my soul etc.) so there is no need for me to reiterate them really. Instead I am going to talk about the other show we watched, Baccano!, which I was introduced to about a week before Lynne got here and was super excited to watch through again, which should tell you how much I liked it.

Basically, Baccano! is about gangsters, immortals, a couple of gangsters who are immortals, and an EPIC TON of completely insane people who collide in often brutal and often hilarious ways. (One of the funniest scenes involves two dangerous lunatics in a fight on the roof of a train, while a third patiently stands back and waits for her turn.) The story is told anachronically; there are three main linked plotlines that affect and impact each other:

- in 1930, two bottles of elixir of immortality go through a wacky Rube Goldberg-esque series of adventures that result in a bunch of Camorra bigwigs accidentally becoming immortal

- in 1932, an girl looking for her missing asshole brother gets caught up the fallout of the conflict between two mafia families and the Most Badass Newspaper Ever!

- and in 1931, a group of wannabe immortals staging a politically-motivated kidnapping; a group of psychotic gangsters staging a train hijacking for the ransom, the violence and the lulz; a group of teenaged bootleggers staging a robbery for the money; a scheming immortal child transporting secret explosives; and a pair of wacky thieves escaping from their latest train robbery all happen by pure chance to pick the same train. Which may or may not also be haunted by a bloodthirsty monster called the Rail Chaser. AS ONE MIGHT IMAGINE, hijinks ensue!

ETA: Now ACTUALLY with picspam!

However, if you are like me, what you will find most fun are the characters. Therefore, because I can:

( a character introduction picspam! )

I think I am approximately the last anime-watching person in the world to discover the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise? Um. (To be fair, my anime-watching credentials are still sort of low; by my count I have only seen about five all the way through.)

Anyway: I have discovered the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise! Specifically, the new series that is currently airing and which is up to I think episode 18. And I am liking it way more than I expected - not that I expected to dislike it, but I think I had sort of subconsciously associated it with Supernatural in my head as far as the "tragic brothers are focused on each other ABOVE ALL ELSE" subgenre goes. I don't say this to bash on Supernatural, it's just that that kind of intense focus on two dudes often doesn't do very much for me, however objectively awesome said dudes may be.

But as it turns out, FMA has an ensemble cast! An awesome one! I mean, not that I don't love Ed and Al, because I do, and kind of want to give Al especially giant armor-plated hugs, but I love them more because they are surrounded by people who are equally awesome.

Queen of the awesome: IZUMI. "Who are you?!?" "JUST A PASSING HOUSEWIFE!"

Yeah.

(But more seriously, how awesome is it that she completely embodies the Terrifying Hardass Teacher archetype while also being very happily married and chronically ill? I feel that is not a combination that appears very often in fiction, and it makes me really happy.)

I also really like Hawkeye and Mustang and Hughes and every confused soldier who is in over their heads (Maria Ross! <3). I am a total sucker for the plotline that follows a set of mostly decent and ordinary people who are involved in an inherently corrupt organization, and while, as I said, I love Ed and Al, I think I am even more interested in everything that's going on with the military and the overarching conspiracies. I also generally really like the tone the series strikes. I love it when you get humor and apparent lightheartedness overlaying really dark and creepy themes, and while I wasn't sure about the balance at the beginning, at this point it is really hitting the right notes for me. (I can pinpoint the exact episode which hooked me, which was the one with Nina and the dog. MAN and OW.)

I have no knowledge of the old series or the manga - I vaguely remember hearing that the original series is good but less awesome to its ladies, and has a controversial ending. (And is also very long.) I am sort of inclined to wait until the new series finishes to go back and investigate it; I am more interested in trying the manga, although I understand it is also quite long and not yet finished! If anyone has opinions here I would welcome them.

(Slightly embarrassing trufax: I have read a lot of descriptions of manga, but the only manga series I have actually read all the way through is, um, Angel Sanctuary. Which is - maybe not so much representative. Maybe.)

I am pretty sure that if anyone had handed me a page out of Chalice before I read it and offered me a million dollars to identify the author, I would be an insanely rich person! (Sadly people do not actually offer me these kinds of deals very often.) This book is 100% Pure Essence of McKinley. It has the heroine who is wrapped up in an Occupational Passion - in this case, beekeeping; magic that is tied up in that Passion and that is usually fairly un-flashy except on a few dramatic embarrassing-to-the-heroine occasions; a land that is tied up in the well-being of its rulers, who are probably good for the country but unfortunately mistrusted by most of its inhabitants; leaders who are extremely uncomfortable and insecure in their position of leadership; a hero who is in some way dangerous and in human - in this case, because he is MADE OF FIRE - but is trying very hard to cooperate with humans despite this; some ordinary people who are unnerved by the strangeness of our protagonists but eventually learn to respect them . . . also the prose is vintage McKinley through and through. I am not saying this is a bad thing; I love McKinley! But I have read enough of her by this point that this book felt more like a comfortable reread to me than a new read, as opposed to the last new book of hers I read (Sunshine), which diverged enough from her usual style and setting to feel McKinleyesque-and-yet-refreshingly-different. I did really like the worldbuilding, anyways, and I would happily read more books set in this world!

( Spoilers that will be spoilery to anyone who even starts this book and has read a McKinley before, though in that case they probably can predict these spoilers anyways )

If, on the other hand, you showed me a random episode of the anime Gankutsuou and asked me to identify what story it was based on (this is a terrible segue, but whatever) . . . I could also easily identify it for a million dollars, which is TOTALLY AWESOME! I have seen six or seven episodes so far, and it is totally hilarious to me that despite being set IN SPACE and starring a blue possibly-demonic possibly-vampire as the Count it is still the most faithful adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo that I have ever seen! Possibly this is just because I do not expect it to be faithful at all, given the initial IN SPACE etc. premise, but every time an episode reproduces a plot point from the book I am filled with irrational handflaily glee. They kept Lucien Debray and the tabloid journalist and the aristocrat and their subplots! The Count doctored Madame Danglar's horse! Baby Edward is a brat! Monsieur Norrel is paralyzed! Albert totally got seduced and abducted by a boy disguised as a girl! And then where it does diverge from the book, it is for the most part hilariously even better - the crossdressing boy disguises himself as a maid and follows Albert to Paris, apparently solely for the purpose of following him around and making fun of him! Maximilien is a GENETICALLY ALTERED SUPER-SOLDIER! (I laughed SO HARD at this, oh man, he LOOMS.) In order to impress the Count, Albert wears a pirate hat and a coat that spells out PIRATE ALBERT in floating letters!

Um, I have no idea whether Gankutsuou is any good as an anime, for the record. But so far it fills me with irrational glee as an adaptation! Also the animation is beautiful - everything is full of textures and patterns and psychadelic colors, and it is kind of overstimulatory at times but incredibly, incredibly gorgeous. My one point of sorrow is that I am informed that Eugenie is not a lesbian in this version. :( But as she does not even really exist in most adaptations, and in this one she is totally awesome and drives super-fast cars while Albert flails in the passenger seat, and also at least retains her dream of being a musician and playing around the world/galaxy, I will resign myself to this gracefully.

I feel like I should also say something about the Sarah Connor Chronicles finale, while I am talking about TV. But I cannot, is too much, was too awesome, have no words.

Two Important Things that happened this weekend! (Both, actually, courtesy of the kind aid of

rushin_doll)

1. For the first time in 2+ years, I have a REAL WORKING LAPTOP KEYBOARD. That is not made of rubber and does not have to be carted around with me and does not require the strength of ten to use! Perhaps now I will actually be able to output words again!

2. I have fallen into deep and distressing love with the anime Princess Tutu - the kind of obsessive fannish falling-in-love where once it is over you fall into despair and spend days convinced that you will NEVER FIND ANYTHING THAT MAKES YOU FEEL THAT WAY AGAIN, WHAT IS THE POINT OF DOING ANYTHING EXCEPT GOING BACK AND REREADING/REWATCHING AD INFINITUM. Which is a feeling I have occasionally experienced before, but not usually this badly! Anyways. Princess Tutu, amazing, gorgeous, starts out as an apparently fairly standard if unusually odd shoujo anime about a magical princess ballet duck and then doubles back on itself and brings the meta and the emotional heartwrenchingness to the infinite power; has that Ouranish quality of holding a mirror up to fandom and your investment in it, except instead of fandom it's fiction itself, so you think you should be detached and analyzing your own reactions but instead you just get more invested. Or I do. So. I will stop babbling now or else I will never stop, but please feel free to share your own experiences of the dangers of falling in deep true love with a work of fiction.