Classroom Crisis - Slashing the Budget

After its lackluster premier, I didn’t have high hopes for Classroom Crisis as it headed down the usual anime path of cute girls doing nauseously cute things with no real drive or purpose, albeit in a science fiction setting. Three episodes in, my low expectations have been happily subverted as the show takes a refreshingly stark approach to the plight of Kaito and his students.

Gate: Jietai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri

So the United States does seem to be vying for the position of the antagonist, or at least the secondary position of backstage string-puller. It’s hard to say how much of this frequently used plot device is done out of convenience and how much it’s influenced by a more serious anxiety regarding the USA’s role in Japanese affairs. Somewhat ironically, the larger development of the JSDF’s invasion seems to mirror events in the NATO invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. After using superior technology to crush the defenders’ conventional forces, the invaders embark on a hearts and minds mission to win the cooperation of the civilian population (There doesn’t seem to be an insurgency to be fought here, though these are classic counter-terrorism tactics.). In the meantime, regional powers threatened by the invasion seek to manipulate events on the ground for their own ends.

Summer Premierbowl Roundup

A busy 4th of July weekend meant I didn't have time to write any more standalone reaction posts, so here's the digest version of my impressions thus far. There's a few shows that have yet to air, but the bulk of premierbowl is over and it's shaping up to be a pretty good season all around. I'm definitely going to try to keep writing stand alone posts for Gangsta., but since I'm still new to this I'm not sure how many more shows I'll do that for.

Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace - First Impressions

I’ll admit that normally I wouldn’t bother with a show like Ranpo Kitan. I’ve got a short attention span when it comes to anime and mysteries tend to bore me, but I was intrigued by the literary connection from this show, which is based on the works of Japanese mystery writer Ranpo Edogawa (1894-1965). I’m not at all familiar with Ranpo, but the 20^th century is a bit of a blank space for anime and it’s interesting to see the works of an author from that period getting an adaptation (Though given the use of laptops and cell phones in this first episode, the setting seems to have been updated to a more modern period.). The only question is whether Ranpo Kitan can hold my interest with more than just its background.

Gangsta. - First Impressions

Gritty, underworld drama anime are a rare breed that seem to get even rarer with each passing season. I can’t speak for Japanese market tastes—I’m just picking at shows that filter in over here—and can’t say if it’s a profitability angle or a timeslot one that makes them tough to produce. In some ways, the sparse playing field in this genre (Black Lagoon and Jormungand being the only two of their kind I can name off the top of my head) is a blessing rather than a curse, since it makes it easier to enjoy such shows regardless of overall quality. Fortunately, Gangsta.’s premier is overflowing with both quality and potential.

Origin: Spirits of the Past

Perhaps it’s a matter of cultural differences, but anime movies tend to follow similar patterns with me every time I watch one: an intriguing premise that gets me hooked into watching in the first place, a really great world-building, character-establishing first act, and then a middling second portion followed by a finale that fails to capitalize on the beginnings successes and doesn’t do much more than leave me a bit confused regarding what the narrative was trying to tell me. There have been plenty of exceptions (Jin-Ro, Princess Monoke) but unfortunately Origins: Spirit of the Past was not among them.

Jurassic World - "They Cut The Power"

Near the end of the film Aliens, the bunker in which the heroes are sheltering suddenly darkens, heralding an assault by the ravenous Xenomorph antagonists. "They cut the power," Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley murmurs, to which Bill Paxton's Private Hudson wails, "What do you mean, 'they' cut the power? They're animals!"

I found myself recalling this scene many times throughout Jurassic World a film that asks us to give even more credit to its dinosaurs' intelligence than in previous installments while at the same time indulging in some of the most corny monster movie violence I've seen since last summer's Godzilla.

Summer 2015 Anime Preview

The summer anime season is fast approaching on the heels of one of the most diverse seasons I’ve seen in a long time. That’s not really high praise coming from me: the spring 2015 season is the first time I’ve made an effort to keep up with more than just a handful of shows. Diversity doesn't necessarily equate to quality, and the spring season stretched all across the board. It had some real top tier shows (Blood Blockade Battlefront, Heroic Legend of Arslan), some out and out disappointments (Unlimited Blade Works springs to mind as it limps toward the finish line) and a whole host of shows sitting square in the middle of the road (Seraph of the End, Punch Line). Not a lineup of masterpieces, but a decent selection that I was satisfied to keep up with.

Given the low expectations I had going in to spring, the summer lineup actually looks quite promising. There aren’t a whole lot of triple-A shows here, at least not ones that jump out of me, but there’s quite a few that look good enough to latch onto and enjoy to the end. I’ve seen a few bloggers lamenting that the summer's offerings are looking a bit weak, but I’m still new to this and thus any new season is a source for potential excitement. So here’s my preview, with the shows listed from least anticipated to most anticipated.

Million Doll: This really is the bottom of the barrel in terms of shows to follow. Normally I see the word “idol” in a show’s premise and immediately write it off, but the idea of a girl trying to boost a singer’s popularity through blogging seems interesting enough that it’s at least worth a first look. The real question is whether the show will hold true to that premise or if it will veer off into the usual anime pandering.

Premiers on July 6.

Jitsu Wa Watashi Wa: This is a pretty standard anime premise: the usual harem nonsense with a fantasy element thrown in, the element here being that the main girl is a vampire. It really isn’t much to build a show on, which means it has the potential to be either the standard harem snooze-fest or a fairly amusing one-off. As with the preceding shows, the premise and designs look good enough to at least warrant a first look, though I’m not expecting much.

Premiers on July 6.

Classroom Crisis: This is the first show on this list to really grab hold of my expectations. Though I’m normally not one for slice of life shows, the premise of depicting daily life in a “near future” coupled with some really good looking character designs has me hoping that this one will be worth following all the way to the end. Science fiction shows that lack the usual action/adventure element tend to be somewhat dull affairs (such as last season’s Plastic Memories) but the premise of young people adapting to life in the working world is solid enough to hold my interest if the writing is good enough.

Premiers on July 3.

Gatchaman Crowds insight: This is apparently a sequel, though I’d never even heard of the first season before I ran through the shows for this season. The premise as I understand it is that the protagonist is a part of a group that works to defend a futuristic society using powered armor to fight evil. An action premise like that reminds me of past shows such as A Certain Scientific Railgun, which I enjoyed enough to give this a shot. Gatchaman apparently has some prestigious names attached to it (I’m not well versed in the industry enough to be namedropping specific people at this point) so even if the writing isn’t the best the production values might be enough to carry the show.

Premiers on July 4.

Working!!!: Another followup to a show I didn’t watch, Working!!! seems to be a similar setup to Classroom Crisis, with young people adjusting to working life. This is a theme that is becoming more and more prevalent in anime and the most interesting thing about such series is the attitude they ultimately take toward what it means to transition from childhood to adulthood. I don’t know how much mileage I can get out of it having not watched the first cour, but it’s one of the more respectable looking shows in this lineup and these days anime can use all the respectability it can get.

Premiers on July 4.

So many warning signs.

Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan: I have a penchant for picking up shows I know are going to be crap but can’t help but hope they at least have some good visuals. A light novel adaptation (warning sign #1), Kuusen Madoushi centers around an “aerial wizard” who was once known as the “Black Master Swordsman” (warning sign #2) but is now despised as a traitor by everyone, though I’m sure he really doesn’t deserve any of that hate (warning sign #3). He’s assigned as an instructor to a squadron of three quirky girls (warning sign #4) and oh god why am I still even considering this. It’s such a formulaic recipe for the standard anime Gary Stu that I have no hopes for it at all. It’s only on this list because it’s a good case study for everything that tends to go wrong with light novel stories and hey, maybe the fight scenes are good. Probably not though.

Premiers July 8.

Aoharu x Kikanjuu: When I first read about this show I wrote it off without a second glance, but the chance glimpse of a promotional image featuring the characters decked out with rifles and survival gear brought me back. Evidence of my incredibly high anime standards, no doubt. The main character is a girl posing as a boy (no idea why) who gets thrown into a series of “survival games.” I really don’t know what said games entail; right now I’m just spurred on by the prospect of some good shoot-outs and the colorful cast any good survival show should bring to the table.

Premiers July 2.

Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace: This is one of the more interesting shows in the chute for this season. It is apparently based on the works of Edogawa Ranpo, a prominent 20^th century mystery writer. Though I don’t know anything about Edogawa’s work, this is one of the classier premises to come out of anime lately and it’s a NoitaminA production, which guarantees a decent amount of production values. My attention span with mystery series is usually pretty weak, but I’m hoping that the show is strong enough to hold me to the end. It’s refreshing to see an adaptation of actual literature rather than the usual light novel crap, so if this is successful maybe we’ll see similar adaptations in the future.

Premiers July 3.

Overlord: I’ve never been a fan of fantasy shows that take place in a virtual reality environment. It strikes me as a bit of a cop out, an excuse to avoid real world-building and straight facedly employ video game mechanics as plot devices. It’s just lazy writing (Is It Alright To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon recently highlighted this by cutting out the middleman and flat out asking us to believe in a world where character levels and stat building are quite real without even the excuse of a video game to back it up) and can lead to the most tedious kind of wish fulfillment nonsense. That being said, Overlord focuses on a gamer who chooses to remain inside a game world even after the game in question gets taken offline. The dead game’s NPC denizens begin developing minds of their own and the stranded gamer decides to seize control of the world for himself. It’s an interesting enough premise but one that depends entirely on whether the show holds true to that premise and doesn’t divert to the dull pandering that is so common in this genre.

Premiers July 7.

Rokka no Yuusha: Rokka no Yuusha sports some decent visuals and a pretty solid fantasy premise. A boy named Adoretto sets out to be one of six heroes destined to save the world, only to show up as the seventh potential hero. A good party setup can make for entertaining, if formulaic, anime as long as most of the party members are fleshed out and likeable. The most interesting part of this premise is that the group suspects that one of their number is a traitor. I think Rokka’s success will hinge on how it handles this last plot point: a good execution that makes full use of its characters could really  elevate it into something great, while a mediocre payoff will consign it to the large pile of good but forgettable fantasy shows that have cropped up these past few years.

Premiers July 5.

Gate: Jietai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri: Though Gate does not look like a particularly good show by any stretch of the imagination, I’ll admit that I’ve been looking forward to it for quite some time. I love military shows and that’s a genre that is so rare in anime these days that I’ll take whatever I can get. Here a portal to a fantasy world opens up in Japan and the Japanese Self Defense Force sends a small contingent of soldiers in to investigate, probably to determine how marketable the denizens of this alternate dimension are. I don’t expect great things from Gate, but it caters to my niche interests enough that I’m in for the ride if only to see what the show does with the premise. Bonus points if the series ends with those meddling Americans trying to chuck a nuke through the portal, because that’s what the US likes to do in anime.

Premiers July 3.

Ushio to Tora: Having seen some of the preview designs, I can’t say that I’m blown away by Ushio’s aesthetic. That being said, I’ve ranked it so highly because it is based off a very well regarded manga and it’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed an urban fantasy shounen series. I foresee it being a show that a lot of people will like and I’d hate to miss out on the potential fun. As I understand it, the protagonist inherits a family heirloom that allows him to control a rambunctious spirit. This being an anime, shenanigans ensue. It’s not the most original premise, but I firmly believe that even the most derivative stories can be perfectly good as long as their written well enough. Here’s hoping Ushio turns out to be a solid and enjoyable fighting series.

Premiers July 3.

Chaos Dragon: Like Gate, Chaos Dragon is another show I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time more for the zany premise than anything else. As I understand it, Chaos is the result of several big name writers and directors getting together for a tabletop RPG and writing a story out of the game that ensued. While this is perhaps one of the more self-indulgent development backgrounds I’ve ever heard, adventure fantasy anime are generally entertaining even when they aren’t particularly good. I must also admit that I’m a sucker for anything with Gen Urobochi’s name slapped on it (Which seems to be everything these days, but I have yet to learn my lesson.) Like so many other shows this season, I can’t really predict how the story will go or whether it will amount to anything lastingly good, but I expect I’ll enjoy the series one way or another regardless of what its general reception is.

Premiers July 2.

God Eater: I really don’t have much background with the God Eater video game series. Some of its characters cropped up in Project X Zone, a crossover game I played a while back, and I remember that they sported the bizarrely cool weaponry that only anime can deliver. The setting is a post-apocalypse of some kind, though that never seems to hamper anime characters’ ability to dress up in the usual zany outfits. This show’s real calling card is that ufotable is the studio behind the animation, which all but guarantees some stellar production values. It’s great to see the studio branching out from its usual Type-Moon exclusiveness and hopefully we’ll be seeing ufotable offerings more frequently in future seasons. I will say that the visuals are a bit off-putting, but maybe it will just take a couple episodes for them to grow on me.

Premiers July 5.

Gangsta: And here’s the number one standout for the season, a premise that incorporates guns and crime and intrigue into one great looking package. There really aren’t enough anime that feature so many things that I love all together, which makes the rare show like Gangsta that much more of a treat. It is based on a highly regarded manga and from what I’ve seen the production values are great. I don’t think I’ve seen a show like this since Jormungand ended and hopefully it can deliver the same great action and characters I expect from this kind of premise.

Premiers July 1.

So there's my full list of anime to look out for this coming season. I definitely won't be blogging all of them to the end, but hopefully I'll latch on to a few that give me more to talk about than just episode summaries. If I've missed any good shows or misrepresented any of the ones listed above, feel free to mention them in the comments.