Level E

[Spark Of Spirit]

This anime adaption of a Togashi manga is now out on crunchyroll for those who have an anime subscription.

I've been hearing good things, so I'll have to watch it later when I get the chance. Anyone else have any opinions on this new show?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I don't have a subscription so I haven't had the chance to check it out either, but if its like the manga at all then I would probably enjoy it. Keep in mind that its a very bizarre work, though. It constantly changes genre from chapter to chapter in the manga (this is done intentionally), and starts out as a comedy but then gets kind of weird down the line. I still enjoyed it, but its also obscure for a reason, as even though it ran in Weekly Shounen Jump, absolutely nothing about it feels like a shounen, nor like anything else, for that matter. Its in a class of its own, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Strangely enough, though, while I still couldn't get into this one like I could with YYH and HXH, it is still fairly enjoyable for what it is.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Well, I watched it.

That was better than what I remember from the manga. It feels like they cleaned this up at least a bit, both in presentation and in how nice the animation looks. The OP and ED are also very nice, and remind me more of older anime style themes than the more recent synth-y stuff they use.

This feels very Togashi, but of course not very Shonen and leaning closer to Seinen.

It nails my theory that he would be better off of he just sat around pitching original anime and designed the characters and plot himself, though. He clearly has the skills to be able to do something like that.

Will you reviewing this one in your anime feature, Insommy? I think you should.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I agree, I already feel like the anime has started improving on the manga. The presentation is much cleaner, and it captures all of the best elements of the feel of the manga while also adding in its own charm that makes it an even more enjoyable watch. It also has the distinct feature of not feeling at all like a shounen, despite technically being one, and I kind of like how it tackles the idea of extraterrestrials living on Earth (sort of like Men In Black, except done right). The first episode was a nice combination between comedy and drama. Hopefully the anime continues to improve on the good parts of Togashi's manga and also keep the experience more interesting.

Also, I'd like to see Dr. Insomniac's take on this Togashi series, but if he doesn't review it then I definitely will (because, you know, its Togashi).

Also, I really love the opening animation and the ending theme. It doesn't remind me of old-school stuff like it does for Desensitized, but it does have a unique feeling to it all its own and I definitely prefer it over the generic crap that you find in most anime OPs of today (the prime example that comes to mind being Bakuman's opening song and animation).

[Spark Of Spirit]

I was rewatching that OP, man that is very Persona. In that it's very stylish, yet shows enough about the show to get you interested in watching it.

For such an old manga, they aren't really going at this half ass.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

This week's episode was really enjoyable, and IMO mostly did a better version of what was in the manga. It had all of the same material but the delivery felt a little bit stronger thanks to the anime's overall presentation. I like how Togashi has some fairly dark humor in this series, despite it being a shonen, what with how Ouji "supposedly" kills a guy and then tries to cover for himself by getting Yukitaka to help him hide the body, as well as how Kraft gives a half-assed apology because he honestly doesn't give a shit. Kraft is also a fun character with his hostile attitude towards Ouji, despite being one of his bodyguards. I also really like how the series slowly reveals that Ouji isn't the kind-hearted E.T. type of character that the 1st episode mislead viewers to believe that he was, but in reality he's a sadistic ass-hole at heart who likes to use his high level of intellect to toy around with other people for his own amusement. Its done in such a way that he's fun to watch since you know that he acts like a jerk on purpose, even though he plays dumb about it.

Overall the anime adaptation hasn't disappointed me so far, and I look forward to the next episode. This will probably be the only anime of this season that I enjoy, unless Fractale manages to step up its game. Wandering Son doesn't look like my cup of tea, but since everyone else seems to like it I may give it a shot.

[Spark Of Spirit]

This episode was even better than the last. I like how this is shaping up, and I can't wait to see more.

Though I do wonder why this anime is suddenly getting made out of nowhere like this. It's not exactly a new manga.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You know, going by the manga, Level E is one of those few rare cases in which the humor can be somewhat dark and mean-spirited, but in this case I kind of like the mean-spirited nature of the humor, probably because it pulls it off without going to the extreme, and the characters still remain enjoyable (plus, it does have some more good natured moments within it). It doesn't feel mean-spirited just for the sake of it, like so many other comedies that try to be that way fail at, IMO.

Speaking of which, maybe I'm the only one who notices it this way, but I love how Togashi goes beyond just the typical shonen-fair set-up in his works and actually embeds some sort of "political" type of system in his works, in terms of how he handles groups and organizations and stuff. Its not something that has any huge overbearing on the story, but it is clearly shown within his series' and I think it adds a bit of something to them (I'm not sure what, though).

I mean, for instance, YYH is the typical shonen series on the outset and does carry enough of the tropes that you would expect from the genre, but I always liked how Togashi went the extra mile with the way he had some stuff set-up beyond just the standard stuff. One example is how rather than just throwing a few generic evil villain demon groups at us for 112 episodes in YYH, there was clear involvement on the part of humans. The Black Black club was an underground organization of shady businessmen who were enough in the know about such supernatural forces, and in fact turned it into business and profit, highering tougher demons to capture the weaker ones for them and then selling those demons off for any valuable uses that they could have, treating them as slaves. Also, during the last arc when Yusuke and company finally go into Demon World, I'd think that one would normally expect that it would be some uncreative realm of chaos full of generic evil baddies, or just animalistic like creatures (which is what the prospect of a Demon Realm was presented as in Inu-Yasha, and I'm sure that would hold true for a lot of other typical shonen as well). In the Three Kings arc, though, I was personally quite surprised that DW was nothing like I thought would be, in that it was actually highly organized into 3 regions ruled by 3 leaders. Yomi's region was very much like a modern city with technology and he had a clear political system of higher-ups helping to run his territory, and functioned as a leader based more on his brain-power than on his strength. Mukuro ruled by Anarchy and ran her region more like one big military. Raizen to me sort of represented ancient ways with what was shown about him and his followers, but unfortunately since the arc was rushed, none of the leaders got to have their characters or their kingdoms explored very much, but I still really appreciate the entire set-up. I mean, am I the only one who takes notice to that, and thinks that way about it?

To avoid going off-topic, though, I notice this aspect in this other works as well, including Level E, granted that its presented as a minor thing here as well, but I still really appreciate it. Rather than having a typical E.T.-like story, and as much as I love the actual film E.T., I'm glad that this doesn't turn into the typical boy meets alien story that one would expect. Its presented early on that there is a political system and both friendly and hostile relationships between aliens both living on or outside of Earth, and I enjoy how such a jack-ass like Ouji is absurdly enough the leader of an entire race, due to his clearly sadistic nature in how he uses his intelligence to toy around with others for his own amusement.

Hunter X Hunter, which is easily Togashi's most well-received work (personally I don't see why only this series gets good reception from critics whereas YYH kind of gets the shaft) also clearly has a ton of these elements (and even more so than any of his previous works), and is also like a much darker version of what would normally be a very traditional type of shonen tale, which is a big reason for why I really like this series as well.

So, yeah, maybe its just me looking too much into stuff, but I think that the somewhat darker nature of Togashi's work is part of what gives his stuff an edge over most other shonen series for me, personally.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I absolutely loved the way that the anime handled episode 3, which concludes the 1st arc of the series. The twist was really clever and nicely references back to clues given in the first 2 episodes. Also, going by the preview of the next episode, it looks like the anime and art-style are a tad bit different, sort of like in the manga, which I think is brilliant as the change seems to be made to better fit/suit the tone of the next story, which is much more sersious (though it should only last for a single episode). The next story arc after that is much more wacky than anything that we've seen so far, but its also pretty hilarious, IMO, so I'm definitely looking forward to that one.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Heh, I'm curious to hear people's reactions to this week's episode. If people thought that Togashi could be a real troll last week, then they'll probably be shocked at just how much further he can do this week. The episode literally only had one joke, at the end of the episode, and I honestly think it was good enough to make the whole freaking episode, personally. Well, it helps that the rest of the episode up until that point was a pretty decent stand-alone noir story (at least, IMO).Anyways, for those who might like this series better as a comedy, they'll probably be pleased with the next arc which is basically just pure comedy.

Overall, I think this show is shaping up to be pretty great. Its much better than I expected it would be. I mean, I enjoyed the manga for what it was but I thin the anime takes the good ideas from the manga and improves them further (similar to how the YYH anime was and improvement over the manga).

[Avaitor]

Watching episode 2 now, and I'm really enjoying this. It's just about everything I'm looking for in a series this season. What else should I have expected from Togashi?

I'll try to watch the rest tomorrow.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Heh, Just wait for episode 3. Its the part where most people develop either a like or dislike of the series once they realize just what kind of comedy it really is. Personally, I like it style, but I also kind of hold it against the series that it has no real structure to it, but since its short it kind of gets away with it in my book.

Anyways, episode 5 was just released recently and I quite enjoyed it, though I felt that it was considerably weaker than the previous episodes, so far. I liked this particular arc in the manga as it contained some pretty well-done humor, but I suppose the anime had a bit more of a serious structure so far up until this point, so the more comedic style of the animation is kind of a bit jarring at first. Still, I really found it to be a fun episode for what it was, and I'm still getting a lot of enjoyment out of this series (at the very least its miles better than just about anything else airing this season, IMO).

[Angus]

So it is better to read the manga first and then anime, or vice versa, or do both?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

The anime is basically the same as the anime and actually has consistent artwork which kind of makes it better, but it does cut out some of the manga's more subtle jokes. Eh, I suppose you'd still probably prefer the anime since the manga is a bit too uneasy to look at.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, Level E just finished airing its 13-episode run this week.

I have to admit that I'm a little disappointed that the final chapter of the manga didn't get animated. Its really the perfect ending to a series like this and shows just how much of a master-mind of a troll Prince Baka can be. That said this episode worked as a really good finale too, though seeing as how this series was just a collection of mostly unrelated short stories it may not be saying much since it probably didn't even need a finale, but this episode served as a pretty good one.

Overall this is still probably the weakest series that Togashi has done (not counting his pre-YYH stuff, though, since even Togashi says that those are terrible when he looks back on them), but it definitely grew on me over time. I didn't like it the first time that I read the manga, but upon a second reading of it I actually really got into the humor and slightly more serious elements of the series, and when I watched the anime I was actually finding it to be rather enjoyable, so its definitely a decent series if taken for what it is. Its especially good when you compare it to most of the junk that has come out this season, so while by no means a truly great series, I do find it to have plenty of Togashi-esque style and awesome-ness to be worth watching through at least once by people who just have a weird sort of thing for Togashi's work.

That said I doubt that most AR members would find it very appealing, so I probably wouldn't really recommend it to any of them, or at least not above YYH or HXH. My main criticism for the anime is that, while I did enjoy a lot of the middle arcs in the manga on my 2nd time through, I don't necessarily feel that all of them translated too well into anime, such as the Color Rangers arc which I found legitimately funny in the manga but seemed kind of off and a little bit too ridiculous in the anime (even though it was intentionally ridiculous). I definitely found the middle portions of the series to be more interesting to read in the manga.

Anyways, in a way, whether people like it or hate it I kind of hope that this anime adaptation gets some noticeably decent to good reception if only because it might somehow create some interest in continuing the anime for Togashi's current series, Hunter X Hunter, but even if it did that probably wouldn't happen since Togashi is too lazy to end the same fucking arc he's left the series on hiatus on for over half a decade now.