FIF#40-Danganronpa: The Animation

Welcome to Hope’s Peak High School.  Here, the best of the best are selected to attend one of the greatest schools in the world under the tutelage of some of the greatest minds of all time.  Or at least that’s the official description.  The reality is worse than anything you could believe.  Inside the hallowed halls, 15 students have been selected to undergo the most challenging of school curriculums.  It’s simple: to graduate a student must murder one of his/her classmates…and get away with it.  In a twisted game presided over by the teddy bear from Hell, this groups of elites from all walks of life must either band together to stay alive or risk turning on one another to save their own lives.  Let the games begin.

Danganronpa is a game that I wasn’t aware of until about a year or so ago.  Id seen some of the characters cosplayed by friends (mostly the sexy Junko) but was never sure where they came from.  Once I found out the Game and Anime’s title and heard about the premise…I was stunned to say the least.  In an age of Battle Royale inspired stories like The Hunger Games and Magical Girl Raising Project, how would this one stand out from the rest?  Well you take the premise of Saw; change Jigsaw from a man with a remote control clown puppet to a robotic teddy bear; and make the game about pure despair rather than potential redemption.  The end result is interesting.  I shouldn’t condone anything done in this show but at the same time, it’s weird that I don’t want to look away even for a second.

The last really big Anime adaptation of a Video Game ive seen recently is Ace Attorney.  Unlike that one, I haven’t played any of the Danganronpa games so I cant say how close the Anime plays to the events of the game.  I always felt that was Ace Attorney’s Achillies Heel, basically giving us a shot for shot Anime adaptation of the video game and making it the equivalent of an animated cheat guide.  That being said, in this case, going into Danganronpa in the dark will work in some viewers favor.  The twists are genuine and watching events unfold is a roller coaster.  Speaking of Ace Attorney, the trial scenes play out a lot like that franchises trials.  The cast sorts through evidence, presents theories, some might shout “OBJECTION!!!” and the criminal goes totally overboard when theyre caught.  The only difference, we get to see the punishments tiny teddy Monokuma dishes out and let me tell you…they may play out playfully but they aren’t for the feint of heart.

The students of Hope’s Peak are a collection of the various classes identified at the end of The Breakfast Club: a mix of Brains, Athletes, Princesses, Basket Cases and Criminals.  Each of the 15 students is pretty unique in their own way.  Even if a personality or two seems similar, there’s a lot to make everyone stand out.  And, of course, the continuing fear of the next “whodunit” haunts everyone to their core, mostly.  I have theories about a possible ringer, much like Battle Royale I wonder if a previous winner of this twisted game has been reinserted to make things more interesting.  Poor Naegi though.  He is the main character and the audience sympathizer.  But as much as you feel for him, you agree with his classmate, Kirigiri, that he’ll have to tap into his inner survivor and match it with his and her own set of Sherlock skills to beat Monokuma and make it out alive.  Speaking of Monokuma, I think that’s Greg Aryes from Chrono Crusade and Free providing his voice for the English Dub and man is he having a blast.  This little demon toy knows no sympathy and is the ultimate example of someone who just wants to watch the world burn so long as he gets a laugh out of it.  I cant help but imagine he has far worse fates in stored, including stacking the deck in his favor so that no one wins in the end.

Having no clue what happens in the sequel series, Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School, I feel like I’m going to enjoy what comes next, if I proceed, in Danganronpa.  The characters are all different enough that it’s easy to find a favorite or two.  The trials and investigations really make you think and make you feel like you’re part of the action.  And Monokuma is one of the most entertaining villains ive seen in an Anime in years.  I think I am going to carry on with this one.  Is it wrong I kind of feel bad for doing so?  This is some pretty twisted stuff.  Oh well, I wanna see the next trail. 

T5W#117-Top 5 Anime Im Considering Reviewing for Summer 2018

Well it took the weather long enough but it’s finally beginning to feel like the fall season, nice and chilly.  And yet, part of me is looking ahead to next year, planning out what titles im going to tackle on the Anime Corner, and that includes my now annual Summer Series.  In the past, ive used the July and early August periods to cover a series that’s a bit long than my usual 13-26 episode limit.  I’ll post reviews a bit more frequently and, usually, it ends with me going off to Otakon to enjoy a friend and Anime filled weekend.  While I had to sit out 2017, I am aiming to check out the new DC Otakon in 2018…and even if I cant, like this past year I’m gonna still do another extra length series because it has become tradition.  So for this week to beat back the chill (though I actually prefer colder weather), I’m dedicating this Top 5 to the Anime I’m Considering Reviewing for Summer 2018.

 

#5-Mobile Suit Gundam

I’ve been thinking about this one for a long time, even considered doing a two month long review of it to close out one year.  However, as much as I do love the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, it takes the bottom spot because two of these last three epic review sessions have belonged to Gundam titles.  My first in 2015 went to Gundam 00 and this past summer saw Gundam Wing get the spotlight.  There will always be time for Gundam on this blog (believe me, it’s in the title).  But maybe another series along the quality (good, bad and everything in between) like Code Geass wouldn’t hurt to mix things up a little.

 

#4-Fate/Zero and Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

These two were supposed to be the original Summer 2017 series…then 2017 happened and it’s been a generally sucky year (and I thought it couldn’t get worse than 2016).  As my sister pointed out to me, the world of Fate/Stay Night is heavy content wise.  There’s a lot to process and it’s all super deep and, at the time, I wasn’t ready to handle something like that.  Not to say these two shows aren’t fun, they’re just require a lot more thinking power than I was willing to give at the time.  I still want to give this two part (pretty much) adaptation the attention it deserves: the prequel awesomeness of Fate/Zero and the sexiness of Rin Tohsaka in Unlimited Blade Works demands it.

 

#3-Hellsing Ultimate

The more I watch Team Four Star’s abridged series, the more I want to dive into this one.  Hellsing Ultimate would be a rare exception to my episode length rule.  While it is 10 episodes long (each one covering one volume of the source manga) they’re all almost an hour in length each.  I reviewed Ghost in the Shell: Arise in the same way over a few short weeks and I don’t see why I couldn’t just do five weeks, two episodes each for this one.  And, to be honest, it’s about time I got to see the full on Alucard carnage the Gonzo series I reviewed last year so denied me. No TV constraints, an OVA level budget and a story closer to the source, THIS is the way Hellsing was meant to be seen.

 

#2-Robotech: The Macross Saga

Robotech has been a title several have wondered if id review sometime.  It is pretty lengthy, about 85 episodes across three seasons (and three separate yet woven together Anime titles).  If I had to choose at least one season to cover, it would be the one everybody associates the most with Robotech/the one everybody loves the most…The Macross Saga.  Now I could end up turning this into something like ive done with Full Metal Panic this year, take a month or so to review an entire season and then review the rest at various intervals throughout the year.  The thought has truly occurred to me.  However, seeing as how we probably wont get the original Super Dimensional Fortress Macross…or any other classic Macross outside of Macross Plus here in the states for the rest of eternity, it only feels right that Robotech’s epic first season get some time on my page.  Life everyone else, ive been inspired by the adventures of Rick Hunter, Lisa Hayes, Roy Fokker and the rest of the SDF1 crew.  Maybe reviewing it will inspire others as well.

 

#1-Epic Project: The Summer of Toonami

Now just hear me out on this.  There are plenty of old school titles still on my list to get at conventions.  But if, JUST IF, I was able to get my hands on some of Toonami’s more classic shows that I haven’t covered (so shows like Tenchi Muyo, The Big O, the Sailor Moon films (maybe)).  What if instead of one mega series, I just reviewed all Toonami stuff for June, July and the first part of August on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule?  It would be a bit of a task, these shows range anywhere from 12-26 episodes each.  Honestly, this is a long shot.  But it just popped into my head and it’s way too exciting to not consider.  Sure ive covered a lot of Toonami stuff here on the blog already: Gundam Wing, Dragon Ball Z, Outlaw Star…but Toonami was always more and I’m always ready to show my appreciation for the action cartoon program that gave birth to my love of Anime…stay tuned.

Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid Part 1 Episodes 1-4

Sousuke Sagara is back in action, and so is his protective charge, Kaname Chidori.  While Sousuke may have Jindai High on lockdown, safe and sound, nothing can prepare him and Mithril for the evil headed their way.  The Almagram group and their psychotic commander have begun to move against Mithril, compromising missions and matching their tech.  Against Arm Slaves as powerful as their own and a deadly pair of twin assassins, Sousuke and his team may not stand a chance.  The time of fun and peace comes to a shattering halt as The Second Raid begins.

At long last, we’ve finally returned to the universe of Full Metal Panic.  However, I cant help but think about my closing thoughts on the second season I covered over the summer, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu.  As many of you saw, I loved that show.  I thought that by cutting out one half of the FMP formula, in this case the super serious war drama, and focusing on the comedy and school setting, Full Metal Panic was at its best, as were Sousuke and Kaname.  Loving it as much as I did, I was wondering for months if it would affect my enjoyment/judgement of Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid.  As I expected, TSR returns Full Metal Panic to its roots and while it might look at first glance as a return to business as usual, trust me, business is far from that.

Much like Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, The Second Raid seems to be dialing it back on one half of the recipe that makes up Full Metal Panic and putting a heavier emphasis on the other half.  I’ve gotta say, it’s actually working.  While the humor is missed, I can say the school stuff isn’t as fun here as it was in Fumoffu, and it’s only focused on in one episode of this premiere set.  The bulk is centered on the full fledged return of Mithril and Sousuke running missions with his A-Team of Kurtz and Mao.  Their dynamic is as strong as the opening episode, an all out thirty minute length action sequence that showcases excellent pacing and stellar animation.  One thing im absolutely grateful for is that FMP changed studios between Seasons 1 and 2.  Once in the hands of the so-so Gonzo Studios, Kyoto Animation (the studio who makes everyday life look gorgeous in Anime), took on the reins of the franchise for Fumoffu and are back for The Second Raid.  Everything just looks so much better now, a far cry from Gonzo’s digipaint work.

Another reason the action drama seems to work is the inclusion of truly menacing villains.  The Amalgam Group is just plain freaking scary.  I wish I could say it was just the sexy (insestual?) assassin twins providing the scare factor with how fast and ruthless they are with their kills.  No, the person I assume is the main villain du jour, Gates, actually manages to do what Gauron couldn’t in Season 1…make me legitimately worried about the lives of Sousuke, Kurtz and Mao.  Gates is basically Deadpool without the restraint or indication of moral boundaries.  He shoots subordinates in the head just to yell at them some more before digging his gun into one of the mouth of one of the assassin twins just as a warning.  He also likes to hum Ave Maria while he and his team mow down enemies like it’s a freaking dinner party.  Gates is way off his meds and a total wild card.  Gauron always felt so one note with his apparent superiority and immortality complex (so much so im convinced he’s still around).  Gates is unpredictable and truly unlike anything Sousuke and his team have faced before.  The fact that Amalgam has tech that can match, if not surpass, Mithril’s is also a good move.  It forced Tessa to do more than cry in the chair and work with old school means to help her soldiers escape Gates’ trap.  Four episodes in and this is already far more compelling stuff than the bulk of Season 1.

However, there is a downside to moving most of the focus back to Sousuke and Mithril and that’s the lack of Full Metal Panics star heroine, Kaname Chidori.  What little time we do spend with her back at Jindai High School has Kaname acting a lot like she was in the start of Season 1, yelling and beating the hell out of Sousuke for basically breathing.  I get that Full Metal Panic Fumoffu could be considered a non cannon spin off or that its events wouldn’t have a lot of impact on things going forward.  But still, it feels like a lot of the growth we saw in Kaname and Sousuke’s friendship just seemed non existent in their short time together in this premiere.  Considering how essential Kaname is to the story of Full Metal Panic, im sure she’ll get thrown into the action eventually.  There is the matter of this other “observer” that Sousuke seems aware of watching Kaname, I think he called him “Wraith”.  Could Tessa be getting ready to pull Sousuke back more so he can focus on mastering Arbelast?  There is a sense that Tessa and Kaladin are looking at Sousuke with concern, especially when he says he needs to live so he can turn in his homework.  I get the feeling we’re going to see Sousuke eventually being forced to choose between Mithril and Kaname down the line.

I was wondering for a while if I was ready for more Full Metal Panic after a stellar second season.  Im glad to say I’m happy with sticking with finishing this year long project as The Second Raid has a lot of promise, something I never felt in a lot of Season 1.  The villains feel like a threat.  Sousuke’s evolution from Season 1 and Season 2 continues.  The animation and action are both at their best potential with a great animation studio.  The pieces are all here to make this the best season of FMP yet and I hope, truly hope, that turns out to be the case with Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid.

P.S.

Pretty sure that’s Gauron being identified as the comatose “Sensei” being guarded by the sexy assassin twins…cause why not.

FIF#39-Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight

Five years after the War of Heroes, a small semblance of peace has spread across the island of Lodoss.  Parn, a Free Knight, protects villages across the land with his beautiful Elf companion, Deedlit, at his side.  However, darkness is preparing to return to Lodoss in the form of Ashram, the last devoted disciple of the Emperor of Marmo.  As war looms again, Parn, Deedlit and a host of allies, both familiar and new, come together for the greatest battle of them all.  The stakes: the fate of all of Lodoss should the Goddess of Death be resurrected through Ashram’s actions.

For a long time, I thought Record of Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight was not a straight sequel to the Record of Lodoss War OVA.  Turns out after some more information, I’ve been corrected.  Chronicles of the Heroic Knight acts as an alternate telling of the latter events of the OVA series, taking place after the War of Heroes and the death of Karla and Ghim.  This means, in addition to the new faces seen in the opening animation, we get to see many favorites return as well.  However, I’m only looking at the first episode for this First Impression and there’s a reason for that. 

To start off, it is actually really good to see some of these old faces again.  Even though it’s flawed, the original Lodoss War OVA is still a grand epic in the Fantasy Anime Genre, beautiful and brutal and amazing all at the same time.  I bonded a lot with the cast so here it was like a good little reunion.  However, Parn here sounds like an old school Captain America rather than how he did in the OVA and it can get a little annoying to be honest.  Deed remains her bad ass, beautiful self who seems to help Parn out more than he actually is able to fight.  Other friendly faces you might recognize are Slayn, the Sorcerer who has married Karla’s former host, Lelia, and they now have a daughter.  Orson and Sheries both show up as well (newly introduced since they weren’t introduced in the OVA until the second half).  I hope the story can give them more to do here.  Orson’s Hulk like Berzerker freak out didn’t look too impressive and Sheries, well she still doesn’t hold a candle to Deedlit and it just feels like she’s trying too hard.  And oh man, Ashram still looks so damn cool, the Black Knight is back baby.  We only get to see one member of the new cast, Cecil, a rookie wizard, but he doesn’t leave much of an impression right away.

As much as id like to keep going with the show and see where it goes, I have hesitation after one gapping flaw…THE CHIBI SECTION.  Yep, you read that right.  Following the action packed first ¾ of the episode, we get a little comedy kiddy style info section with a chibified Parn, Deedlit, Slayn and the others doing a sort of “History and Terms” of Lodoss.

…………

WHY?

The original OVA wasn’t all gloom and doom like Berserk but it still didn’t pull it’s punches when putting the lives of its main characters in danger.  We lost people we cared about and even though the heroes won in the end, it was still costly.  Introducing a cutesy element, even to break some of the tension, feels like a betrayal of all the things that made Lodoss as good as I remember it.  Hearing the gathered chibi chanting “PA-PA-PARN!!!” made me bury my head in a pillow and cry.

Now, could there be a good story here that redeems this show despite this travesty?  Perhaps.  If Parn could tone down the Captain America act and the rest of the new cast makes more of an impression, it could work.  For now, I’ll proceed with caution.  There is some potential in a new path to follow for the heroes of Lodoss.  And that opening animation is GORGEOUS, along with a beautiful song written by Yoko Kanno herself.    It’s good to be back in Lodoss…but for God sakes keep those Chibi monsters away from me.

T5W#116-Top 5 Things I Would Do Differently with the Silent Mobius TV Series

Well thank God it’s finally over and done with.  Still, as I prepare to put Silent Mobius in my rear view I cant help but wonder…why do I care about how it turned out and why do I feel like it deserved better?  I’ll admit, I love the concept, I do.  And as much as I despise most of the characters, I think they were all just poorly served by a rushed story that left a lot of them in the dust with nothing to do while Katsumi killed everything for them.  So for today’s Top 5, I’m going to talk about 5 things I’dve done differently with the TV adaptation of Silent Mobius.  I’ve ranted about a lot of this stuff already so I might be a bit on repeat.  However, I’m gonna approach this with a bit more hope in my heart and equally hope some Anime studio is reading and maybe takes my thoughts under consideration.

 

#5-Windows to the Past (Not a Drive By)

The long history of events leading up to the “Silent Crisis” that begins the birthing process of the AMP deserves more than just Rally’s poor cliff notes edition.  The flashback episode at the midpoint of the series was probably one of the worst episodes, focusing too much and yet too little on Gigelf and Fuyuka’s less than stellar romance.  There’s a lot of things going on around them involving other mages and the families of Lebia, Nami and Lum Cheng, but they’re just glossed over or just shrugged to the side after a mention.  Hell, even Ganossa’s villainous intentions are supposedly explained here…somewhere.  This should be the area where we get some real focus, not a rush job.  Either spread the story throughout the series run or do a 2-3 part tale that gives us all the info we need to digest.  Heck, a Fate/Zero style prequel would be awesome if done right (in many ways Fate/Zero blows Fate/Stay Night out of the water).

 

#4-Cut Down the Cast (by like a lot)

Early on, Silent Mobius made it clear that this was Katsumi’s show.  She was going to get like 80% of the total screentime and story focus.  Everyone else was lucky enough to get a story of their own in, two if they were very lucky.  One of my favorite moments of the early episodes was when the AMP read the comments about their unit on the police message boards.  They were stunned to see that they weren’t so much hated as they were totally dull and forgettable.  And that never really changed as the series went on.  As a result, everyone except Kiddy, Roy and Ralph got lost in a shuffle of unexplored and underdeveloped characters.  This is basic writing 101.  If you’re not going to give everyone their due, then don’t include them at all.  Lebia, Yuki, Nami, Lum Cheng and Isozaki could be taken out of the equation and nothing would be lost from their absence, nothing is certainly gained in the TV series, that’s for sure.  Sure getting rid of them all defeats the AMP’s reasons for being comprised of all women.  But if they aren’t going to do anything, why include them at all?

 

#3-Make the AMP useful

One of the biggest, most glaring flaws of the beginning of the show is, for a special unit dedicated to taking down Lucifer Hawks…the AMP kind of sucks at their job.  The uniqueness of using magic and technology combined to defeat these monsters loses its luster when it can do diddly squat.  It isn’t until Katsumi comes along and kills a Lucifer Hawk almost with ease that the AMP gets recognized as a legit unit…for one womans power alone.  The only other competent members of the team were Kiddy and Rally, when she wanted to get off her chair and do something.  However, Yuki, Nami and Lebia remained stagnant.  Besides their powers and appearances, there was nothing to make everyone in the AMP truly special or crucial to the fighting the Lucifer Hawks.  It feels wrong to compare them to the Sailor Senshi but Usagi wasn’t the only one who got a lot of character focus in all of Sailor Moon.  Sailor Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus all got their time to shine and kick ass and prove they didn’t need Moon Power all the time to win.  My point is, the AMP should be more than capable of handling things, Katsumi or no Katsumi.  Before she arrives, Kiddy boasts that they’ve been doing just fine up until then…but as much as I love Kiddy, I find that hard to believe.

 

#2-Movie Trilogy?

As you probably gathered from yesterdays review, I thought the Silent Mobius Movies were pretty damn good compared to the show.  The story might not have been the best but the animation and more mature feel was a natural fit for something like Silent Mobius.  So, to kind of depart from the TV series suggestions, why not do this as a new film trilogy?  Fate/Stay Night is doing this with their “Heaven’s Feel” storyline starting at the end of this year and it looks freaking fantastic (then again it’s Fate and Ufotable, theyre a match made in “ahem” heaven).  Giving Silent Mobius a big movie level budget and with no restrictions from TV censors, you could make it as scary, violent and mature as you possibly can…just like how the 2 part movie looks.  Make them as long as you want, make them as epic as you want.  Maybe, just maybe it can make up for all of the character stuff that might get left out as a result (though with three movies working at this story, I don’t think there’s an excuse for that).

 

#1-It Takes Heart

It became clear to me before the halfway mark of the show that the studio commissioned to work on Silent Mobius simply stopped caring about it long before the first episode even came out.  The constant changes in animation were lazy.  Most of the characters were given less and less to do week after week until they were all but forgotten.  The story seemed to be heading towards an epic conclusion but it was abruptly stopped and held off in favor of a possible second season.  Did the production team just hate the project?  Was it rushed behind the scenes by studio interference or an incompetent director?  Whatever the case, any Anime project needs a fair amount of HEART behind it to make it work, whether it’s a cash grab or a passion project.  The lack of TLC I felt from this show arguably made me more angry than anything the cast wasn’t doing on screen.  This show can work as a concept, it SHOULD work as a series.  So yeah, of all the suggestions I can offer on this Top 5, this would be the biggest one: put Silent Mobius in the hands of someone who cares about its storytelling power and gives a damn about the cast of character Kia Asamiya spent years writing for.  If this can be done…I might give the series and chance and find something to like about it more than the trainwreck I spent most of October watching.