FIF#82-Devil is a Part Timer

In the world of Ente Isla, The Demon Lord Satan ruled supreme.  However, a rebellion led by the hero Emilia crushed Satan’s armies and forced him to retreat along with his trusted aide, Alciel.  Now the pair have found themselves in our world, or to be more precise, Tokyo. With their magic in short supply and no way to return home, Satan and Alciel must do the unthinkable.  These dark lords of Ente Isla must adapt to the new world and try to make ends meet.  In the process, Satan, now known as Maou, gets a job at a fast food restaurant…and begins to enjoy the work he does.  After all, ruling the world is one thing.  But whodve thought The Lord of Darkness would find such joy flipping burgers.

I was a little caught off guard watching the opening minutes of Devil is a Part Timer.  For a show with ads that made it look like a comedy, things started off on a bit of a Castlevania kind of note.  Violence, buckets of blood, Holy Knights vs the Lords of Darkness, the works.  I mean it wasn’t bad, just not what I expected.  Thankfully that lasted all of under five minutes and once Maou and Alciel made their way to our world, I got what I expected and then some.  In fact I think I just found Anime’s equivalent to “Coming to America” with Eddie Murphy…and I’m perfectly ok with that, quite a lot actually.

The (literal) lost in translation humour of the premiere is one of two things that helps Devil is a Part Timer get off to a promising start.  In a medium where everyone usually speaks similarly no matter where you go, it’s nice to see that Maou and Alciel continued to speak their native language until they built up an understanding of Japanese (or just downloaded it from someones head, I don’t really remember).  It’s comical to see the police think theyre cosplayers when Alciel tries to use magic to get rid of them, only for nothing to happen.  But once the language barrier was overcome, we get to see the duo build up their little resources from house hunting to job hunting, and there’s where the second best element of the premiere comes in.  Much like Eddie Murphy in Coming to America, Maou is in love with his new setting after an indeterminate time.  Sure there’s a mission to return to his old world and reconquer it (cause he is still Satan at the end of the day).  But when Maou is more obsessed with doing his job to the best of his ability, no matter what, you cant help but laugh.  Satan’s making fries, being nice to customers…and he likes it, he freaking likes it.

I’m almost worried that there’s going to be a sudden tone shift that returns us to the hyper serious intro of the premiere…and I don’t think I want that. Devil is a Part Timer works better as a comedy about two men from another world who were basically Gods getting stuck in another and having to make ends meet if they want to survive, much less get back home.  Maou is a joy to watch and his interplay with Alciel shines.  I think this could be a show worth continuing with.  With a concept as fun as this one, it’s hard not to smile while watching Satan flip burgers and prep fries.

T5W#187-Top 5 Fate/Stay Night Entries

Wow 2019 is turning out to be a big celebration year.  We’ll get into Gundams 40th birthday next month.  Today though, we’re look at another relatively big Anime franchise that holds a special place in the hearts of many.  Love it or hate it, Fate/Stay Night has become one of the most impactful Anime franchises of the last decade.  Sure it got its first Anime adaptation back in 2006 with Studio Dean’s Fate/Stay Night but ever since 2011’s Fate/Zero, we’ve gotten a steady stream of Fate related titles from TV series to movies and a plethora of other video games to follow up the original visual novel.  Though all of them, we’ve gotten fascinating lore filled storytelling, action sequences that surpass most Shonen Anime through sheer presentation quality, and some of the greatest heroines in all of Anime (here’s looking at you Rin Tohsaka and Saber Nero).  To honor the franchises birthday, todays Top 5 Wednesday belongs to Fate as I choose my Top 5 Fate/Stay Night Entries.

#5-Today’s Menu for Emiya Family

I really wanna put this one higher on the list.  However if im being fair, ive only seen an episode or two whereas ive seen far more of the other entries.  Still, from those episodes alone, Emiya Family is a breath of fresh, optimistic air for an otherwise bleak and dreary franchise.  You have Master and Servants but no ones trying to kill each other.  They just want to hang out and cook some pretty tasty looking meals.  I give Shiro plenty of grief in any Fate story but kid can cook and id love to join a meal at his place with some awesome company.  Of all the Fate/Stay Night stories out there, this is the feel good member of the family.

#4-Fate/Kalied Liner Prisma Illya

Im kind of surprised this concept even made it to production but im glad it did.  Prisma Illya basically takes the Holy Grail War and fuses it with the Clow Card hunt and magical whimsy of Cardcaptor Sakura.  It’s cute (and sometimes way too inappropriate) but still finds ways to run with such a crazy premise while still being serious when it needs to be.  Also we get to see Illya and Rin infused with the powers of Archer and Lancer respectively and it is one of the most awesome sights you’ll ever see in any version of Fate/Stay Night.

#3-Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works

Ufotable’s follow up to Fate/Zero is far from perfect but damn if it isn’t trying its hardest to match its predecessor.  The action maintains Zero’s level of quality and manages to surpass it (and solidify that no one does action prettier or better than Studio Ufotable).  Theres actually a very likeable romance between Shiro and Rin that is one of the shows strongest elements (even when Shiro himself is the weakest).  And yeah, Rin gets a lot more chances to shine after the 2006 Dean series kind of short changed her towards the end.  UBW also gave us some of the best opening and ending themes of any Anime, particularly Aimer’s Brave Shine.  Like is said, it’s not perfect but there’s enough action, pretty images and strong female bad assery to recommend this to anyone looking to dig deeper into what makes Fate such a cool franchise.

#2-Fate/Zero

This is where I started with the franchise and id say this is where everyone should start.  The rules of the Holy Grail War, the intense battles it brings and the heartbreaking character studies, everything that should make for a good Fate series is outlined here almost perfectly.  This was also the first Fate entry to be done by Studio Ufotable and proves why any and all further Fate projects should be run through this group.  Amazing action, a career defining soundtrack by Yuki Kaijura and some of the most binge worthy moments to keep you coming back for more, you’ll be an emotional wreck by the time the last episode is over.  But it’s the perfect adrenaline rush to get you ready for a lot more Fate carnage down the line.

#1-Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel I-Presage Flower

After finishing Fate/Zero, I wondered just how bad things were going to be for Shiro and Rin after what Kiritsugu and Tokiyomi went through.  Turns out…the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works routes were more of a breeze for them compared to what we got in the debut chapter of the Heaven’s Feel trilogy…and I freaking love it.  This is the Fate I wanted to see post Fate/Zero and so far, the first film has hit all of the right beats and checked all the right boxes.  This is a far different beast than any Fate story before it.  The unexpected is happening, characters previously unexplored like Sakura are front and center, and Ufotable is back doing what it does best.  The bar has been set pretty high not just for the rest of this film trilogy, but all of Fate/Stay night going forward.  Bring on Lost Butterfly and Spring Song.

Napping Princess

Days before the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, young Kokone Morikawa finds herself dreaming of a magical world where technology and magic struggle to help each other in daily life.  One day, Kokone’s father is kidnapped, accused of stealing a piece of crucial, game changing technology.  A long buried secret of Kokone’s family history lies in the world Kokone has been dreaming of.  In order to save two worlds, Kokone must walk between them and bring the dream to reality.

 

Kenji Kamiyama is the director of two of my favorite Anime series from the 2000’s: Ghost in the Shell SAC (and it’s sequel 2^nd Gig) and Eden of the East (as well as it’s movie continuations).  Both of those shows were high on action, intrigue and do or die levels of intensity.  So I was excited to see him working on another Anime project and wondered what sort of cool he would bring to it.  Sadly, Napping Princess isn’t even on the same level as Eden of the East or Stand Alone Complex.  Here, Kamiyama tries to bring Ghibli like fairy tale magic into his usual bag of social economical commentaries…and it just comes out a huge mess.

 

Most of this mess has to deal with trying to merge the dream world of Heartland and the real world together.  There have been movies in the past where two distinct but similar stories have taken place on two separate worlds and their climactic points might converge at one point.  But when you try to cross them over without a true explanation as to how, that’s when things go off the rails and the subsequent train wreck isn’t pretty.  It isn’t helped that there is no real likeable characters in the cast to make up for this slack.  Kokone comes off as annoying, the villains try hard to be Kamiyama big corporation baddies but come off as lame clichés, and the Heartland characters are nothing we haven’t seen from a Ghibli world before.  Plus, everyone acts some level of stupid at one point: from Kokone not even bothering to guess someones hijacked her Dads phone and has been communicating with her; or the big bad guy (whose name I don’t care to remember) losing his important briefcase to a thieving Kokone…and the flight desk attendants don’t even notice its being stolen right in front of them.  It’s just…ugh so dumb overall and I was sad to utter the words “why isn’t this over?” well before the one hour mark of the film.

 

I feel like Kamiyama could have just axed out the fantasy elements all together and done an “Eden of the East” style techno thriller about a new technology that some might not want the world to see and it’s up to one girl to expose it.  He tries to do things different from Eden though and I want to believe he knew what he was doing (he wrote as well as directed as he does for his other projects).  But somewhere in the creation, it feels like he got lost and it kind of shows in the final Napping Princess product.  The film doesn’t really know what it wants to be: fantasy dreamscape; thriller; political commentary.  Honestly, I guess the fairy tale aspect could have been used as a way to show Kokone coping with the world around her, even when the world was just fine enough.  But it isn’t helped that things are barely clarified or explained; like how Mori can somehow show up in Kokone’s dream, or why everything starts becoming one giant blur during the last act when fantasy and reality clash.  Even when things were left ambiguous in Stand Alone Complex and Eden of the East, we had enough to chew on to make our own sensible conclusions.  Napping Princess offers none of that because it has way too much going on to even comprehend any semblance of sense…ugh watching it was a chore at times.

 

Napping Princess was a film I took a chance on just on the directors name alone.  Kenji Kamiyama has done some great work in Anime and I know he can do better (even his not as good Eden of the East sequel films are much better than this one).  I’d like to see him try straight up fantasy at some point but I feel like his true place is in the scifi/thriller genre where he helped reinvigorate Ghost in the Shell for a new age (he’s even working on a new GitS project with Shinji Aramaki from Appleseed).  While some of the mechanical designs are neat and the animation has some stand out moments, Napping Princess is a boring film you could easily sleep through and wake up without having really missed a thing.  Shame, I really wanted this one to be good.

 

3/10

 

FIF#81-Toradora

Ryuji Takasu is a young man all students fear…just because he has a scary face (he’s actually a nice guy).  Taiga Aisaka is a girl of tiny stature but bears the fangs of a true Tiger.  These two feared stars of high school want nothing to do with each other until Ryuji accidentally takes home a love letter from Taiga meant for another boy.  After stopping Taiga from tearing his head off, Ryuji agrees to help Taiga out in anyway he can.  He might come to regret that offer as Taiga’s favors are never small and her temper is even shorter.  Still, the more they hang around each other, the more Ryuji and Taiga might realize in a world that doesn’t quite get them, they might not be bad friends for each other after all.

 

Every once in a while I try to give Anime I normally wouldn’t watch a try.  In this past, this has lead to me discovering titles far outside my normal action/mecha/fantasy wheelhouse that have become long time favorites.  Ive talked about a few of these shows and movies here at length like Free, Your Name, Ouran High School Host Club and K-On.  Well I thought that for some of these First Impression Fridays, I should shake up the selections a bit.  I already gave the interesting but unorthodox Thunderbolt Fantasy a try, how about a little romance now?

 

Toradora is a series I knew little about going in besides the fact that the central heroine is…well little.  Coming out of the first episode, I can say the show is cute and has some good moments of entertainment.  I will say that Taiga herself might be the make or break factor if I want to go forward.  Taiga is one of the classic Tsundere characters in all of Anime, one as synonymous with the term as my eternal favorite Rin Tohsaka from Fate/Stay Night.  Taiga is tiny but she has a temper and carries a big stick that she isn’t afraid to hit people with.  She also has a habit of demeaning people who try to help her out, case in point with the obvious future love interest and male lead Ryuji.  It almost feels cruel.  At the same time though, there is a softness to her that is kind of cute.  Taiga’s clearly lonely and doesn’t really know how to talk to people who most focus on her height or her good looks.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, Ryuji is doing his best to show people he isn’t a monster everyone thinks at first glance.  One of the premieres funniest moments was when a pair of students surrender their wallets even though Ryuji never once threatens them…then Ryuji turns their wallets in (and apparently this is a common reoccurrence).  These two could learn much from one another if Taiga would just dial back the ferocity a bit.  I guess, however, she isn’t called the “Palm Top Tiger” for nothing.  Idk, maybe im just not in the mood for another Naru from Love Hina.  Still, the Ryuji/Taiga romance is one of the more infamous in all of Anime.  Maybe that is enough to keep me peeking in from time to time at Toradora?

 

The rest of Toradora’s intro is actually kind of forgettable when the two leads aren’t on screen together.  Sure there’s a cast of supporting friends and classmates and Ryuji’s party all night mother.  But no one left much of an impact save for Ryuji and Taiga and I don’t know if that will be enough to keep me coming back for more.  It’s not that I have a problem with the romance and constant bickering…ive just seen better romance Anime kick things off stronger in the past (like Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku).  Actually with looking at shows like Fushigi Yugi, Wotakoi and this one, maybe I should find a new romance Anime to delve into…it just wont be Toradora.

Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel I-Presage Flower

A decade has passed since Fuyuki City was engulfed in a sea of fire, the end result of a secret war with no victor.  Shiro Emiya is the adopted son of one of that wars participants and has lived a peaceful life since his life was saved.  But now The Holy Grail War is about to pick up where it left off and Shiro will not be the only unfortunate soul dragged into it.  A girl he holds very close to his heart, the lovely Sakura Matou, will become a focal point of a battle that will drive all participants to the brink of insanity and despair and back again.  It might seem like the Fate/Stay Night tale you know…but there’s one version yet to be told, the darkest route of them all.

 

Well we had to reach this point eventually.  For those unaware, the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel consists of three separate yet slightly interconnected routes: Fate, Unlimited Blade Works and Heaven’s Feel.  The first two of these three routes have already been adapted into Anime: Fate in 2006 with Studio Deen’s Fate/Stay Night; and UBW twice, once as a movie by Deen in 2010 and later in 2014 as a TV Series by Ufotable, the same studio that also did the prequel Fate/Zero in 2011.  We were bound to get to Heaven’s Feel, the final unadapted route, eventually.  And now the reigns of that undertaking have again fallen to the supremely amazing Studio Ufotable, which has decided to skip another TV Series approach and instead adapt Heaven’s Feel into trilogy of films.  It’s not the worst approach to make and I’m kind of surprised to be saying this, but unlike Fate and UBW, from the get go I think we might be in for the best Fate/Stay Night story ever told if the latter two films can match the majesty and WOW of Part 1.

 

I guess the obvious should be pointed out first: this is definitely the best looking Fate/Stay Night ever put to Anime.  No real shock there.  As I constantly say about Ufotable, they somehow manage to give their TV Series a feature film like feel with their production values.  So there’s no reason their actual feature films would look any worse but they bring their A++ game to Heaven’s Feel’s first chapter.  Adding more icing to this delicious cake is the return of Yuki Kaijura, who did the scores for both Zero and UBW and man is she definitely the equal of Anime OST Queen Yoko Kanno.  Because Heaven’s Feel is focusing more on an, until now, relatively unexplored character, she’s delivering more quiet and beautiful melodies, both inspiring and saddening.  That doesn’t mean Kaijura isn’t slacking on the action sequences though.  This woman knows how to make even small skirmishes the most epic of affairs with her OSTs.  Production wise, what worked for Zero and UBW is definitely working here, if not better than before.

 

Things do start off kind of slow and more serene but there’s a reason for that.  Seeing the actual peaceful lives of Shiro and Sakura before the war begins is necessary, enough for a good 20 minute intro.  It isn’t bad stuff either.  Beautifully animated, nicely paced, I wasn’t bored at all.  In fact I was very happy we were getting to finally get to what is essentially Sakura’s story (though Shiro dominates much of the plot…and is actually bearable for a change, go figure).  I was disappointed that Sakura’s role in the other routes was so little after the set up for her in Fate/Zero (she’s barely in UBW).  Heaven’s Feel takes a good long look at Sakura and Shiro’s bond and spends more time with it as the film goes on.  We also get to see the rest of the Matou Clan play a more proactive role in the Holy Grail War this time around, further exploring their sinister plans first seen in Fate/Zero (but never further explored in other routes).  Sakura may get shuffled off to the side from time to time but the moments she spends with Shiro are some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful moments in the whole franchise.  Things are going to go to hell for both characters if this film is any indication of the rest of the trilogies offerings.  So it’s good and smart to get the important moments that tether these two together explored quickly cause they will be important.  Also, while it looks like Heaven’s Feel will see Sakura as the main love interest for Shiro (compared to Saber in Fate and Rin in UBW), it does still look like the series is going to further tease Shiro and Rin (and why not, it’s Rin, you’re going to fall for her no matter who else is involved even if youre not ending up with her…ahem ok moving on.)

 

I was surprised by how deceitful Heaven’s Feel began.  It may look like it has the makings of all that came before it but holy crap is this a whole new ball game of a Holy Grail War.  For once, I felt like I was watching a conflict that seemed to rival Fate/Zero’s in terms of intensity and overall enjoyment.  Yes, some characters are either on screen too little or taken out of play wayyyyy to quickly.  Also, some events we’ve seen in other routes that are still important are either sped up or glossed over, compilation movie style.  But circumventing expectations (and trying something new) seems to be Heaven’s Feels true goal.  In my mind, Fate and UBW had very similar plotlines though they both had different outcomes.  Heaven’s Feel tears the rug out from under that notion and asserts itself as a beast all its own.  And the viciousness speaks for itself.  Coming from a guy who watched Gilgamesh tear out Illya’s heart in UBW, Heaven’s Feel is still the bloodiest and most violent story in the Fate franchise so far (God only knows how much more is in store later on).  One character even literally bursts from anothers chest and we get to see the bloody aftermath as well.  This aint a film, or probably a series for that matter, for the squeamish.

 

Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel I-Presage Flower is the Fate story I truly wanted to see after Fate/Zero.  The story’s intensity is extreme and matches the stakes from that prequel and sometimes surpasses it.  New surprises and new (full pun intended) fates await pretty much everyone in addition to beautiful storytelling and spellbinding visual quality.  All of your favorites are back, even if the time for some is far too brief and some are even given some major character upgrades and fans of the English Dub will be happy to know that many long time Fate voice actors are back as well including Cristina Vee as Sakura, Mela Lee as Rin, Bryce Papenbrook as Shiro and Kari Wahlgren as Saber.  Sakura fans will rejoice that she finally gets the time to shine she deserves and will be a driving force going forward.  To be honest im kind of freaking out over how much im freaking out over how much I enjoyed this movie.  And this is just the opening salvo.  There are still two films left (Lost Butterfly was released in Japan earlier this year and the final chapter, Spring Song, is due out in 2020) and I really hope they take all the good that came from this film and run with it full speed ahead.  This is the Fate/Stay Night ive wanted to see for years, better late than never huh?

 

9/10