07.08
Berserk (2016)
COUNT YOUR PIGEONS NOW, NOTHING CAN GO WRONG~
So I was digging ’round the web looking for something to pass the time, when I found an old Playstation 1 game called Berserk: The Phantom Pain Revengeance Part 2: Return Of The Patriotic Revenge-Eater: A Hideo Kojima Game. As a sequel to a cult classic, it’s only natural this series would fall into obscurity. Which in retrospect is mostly deserved. Putting aside the fact that the animation hasn’t aged well at all, this game is a slow, confusing mess. Actual gameplay is practically nonexistent. A large amount of gameplay is spent on this quicktime event where you have to stab a rabbit. And I’m telling you, that took half a week to complete. I get nightmares about that rabbit permanently etched into my mind. Yet I have to play this part in order for this story to set sail. While I don’t have a problem with narrative-focused games per say, the story in here is crap. I realize I’m missing out on a lot of plot from the last game, but I can’t bring myself to care. Guts is the generic “brooding guy with big sword”, clearly taking a bit too much inspiration from the popular and ground-breaking character Dark Souls, while Puck is an annoying copy-and-paste of said popular character’s dashing sidekick Bloodborne. The only character that really stands out is the final boss Andy Griffith. Everything from his motivation to his design (hint: he can get hopping mad). It’s a pivotal moment for all Japanese games when he rapes Costco into insanity, something even casual Berserk The Phantom Pain fans will never forget. Too bad other planned levels like the one where Guts fights Rosie O’Donnell and her army of midgets is cut out. I was looking forward to that. Overall, the creators could really take some pointers from other, more popular and well written series (like Idolmaster). Hopefully you’ll find more enjoyment out of this then I did. Maybe next time, I’ll play the sequel where Guts finally fights Andy Griffith, the Vervoid, Slaine Troyard, Ubbik-Dubbik, and Joseph Conrad. Hope to see you there for that eventual Let’s Play. It’ll be quicker than a boat ride.
Zero Norman Reeduses and his normal fetuses/10 – ShadowGentleman
Food Wars! The Second Plate
Shokugeki no Isobe
Food Wars! is back and looks better than ever! Seriously, the aesthetic polish of the show’s color and visual design is impeccable, leaps and bounds over the first season’s flatter, less lighted presentation. Naturally, that makes the food look even more mouthwatering and delicious. I do not suggest watching this show before mealtime because it’ll leave you drooling all over the floor. The first season improved in it’s presentation as it went along, but I was not expecting J.C. Staff to up their game this much here. Not that the show is particularly well-animated; outside of a few choice scenes, like Alice’s foodgasm, the actual animation is pretty limited and stills are used aplenty. Yet, each frame and visual of the show looks so good, and flashes by with such momentum and enthusiasm, that it’s hard not to get swept up in the fervor and enjoy the show regardless.
That sense of momentum is the other big difference the second season seems to have improved on so far. The first season was more methodically paced, and while that worked out decently enough early on, it really started to drag by the end of the season when the Fall Classic preliminaries began. This season spices things up a bit, jumping right into the meat of the Fall Classic quarter-finals and covering the entirety of Soma and Alice’s shokugeki. While it’s regrettable that some character-building moments and chapters from the manga in the build-up to the match were lost, the trade-off is a thoroughly exciting and fun return for the show that pulls out everything fans love about the series – the fantastic food, the ridiculous reactions, the charming characters, and of course, the unforgettable fanservice, – in one succinct half-hour package. You couldn’t have asked for a better season premiere, especially one that keeps the hype rolling from one episode to another, making for an addicting good time. This season is tailor-made for a binge-watch, that’s for sure.
Based on the previews, it seems like they plan to cover the remainder of the Fall Classic as well as the Stagiare Week arc in just one cour, so the accelerated pace is to be expected. While some might find the pace too fast, I think shonen battle and sports anime benefit from this kind of pacing more often than not. What takes seconds to read on the page could take a minute to convey on screen, so it makes sense to streamline some things in the transition from page to screen, especially when it comes to shonen series whose most appealing trait tends to be their hot-blooded competitive momentum. If this episode is any indication, the season will be delving into one match per episode pacing for the rest of the Fall Classic, which should work out well in keeping things fresh and exciting, especially since these are among the best shokugekis in the entire series. The show doesn’t waste any time catching you up, so newbies should get up to speed by watching the first season or reading the manga before coming into this one. But if you loved the first season of Food Wars! and couldn’t wait for more, rest assured that the second season is a thoroughly satisfying full-course of fun. Bon appetit! – LumRanmaYasha
Masou Gakuen HxH
¿Por qué, Aine-san?
Wow, I can’t believe Hunter X Hunter came back this season. It’s weird too, since they only have a handful of Dark Continent chapters to adapt. Maybe Togashi is helping this season with some of the plot elements. That would be cool. Anyway, let’s begin. Oh, why is Gon molesting Kurapika? That seems odd, even for him. Perhaps Ging has been teaching new tricks. I know some fans have been clamoring to see Kurapika in the nude, but this is ridiculous. Oh, it appears that he is sexually harassing Kurapika for the purpose of stopping these giant Chimera Ants, while forcing him to wear skimpy underwear? And now there appear to be censorship bars, except they are censoring the booby-grabbing shot with a still image of… a booby-grabbing shot. I’m not sure what kind of Nen ability this is, but I am worried. Is this another scheme of Pariston Hill? I do not seem to know.
But onto the actual show, it’s Hundred. Except it’s a Hundred and one. It’s a Hundred and One Titillations. Even for shows of this standard, it’s lewd. It’s baffling. If they want to make porn so much, why don’t they actually make porn? Like there have been some accidental transactions in anime leading to scripts for Big Order, Testament of Sister New Devil, and now this being sent to actual anime studios instead of hentai sweatshops. You are clearly showing the main character in the midst of eating out one of the girls, except lips don’t touch so you get to have your TV broadcast cake and eat it too. I’m sure if you just made a hentai instead, you would get the same amount of blu-ray sales either way. It’s not like these things become the next Osomatsu and break the charts. So what? Do you guys just have some weird integrity going on? You want to make hentai but you don’t also want to actually be known for making hentai so you put it on TV instead? Come on. That’s dirty pool, Production IMS. And you know what? I’m sure you guys would have made a decent hentai, but you decided to turn it into an awful TV show instead. You could have been the next Oni Chichi, but you played yourself. I’m disappointed in you guys. You could have been great. – Bloody Marquis
Orange
"He gonna die." - VlordGTZ, 2016
I kept up with the manga while it was running, so I was already expecting Orange to be one of the best shows of the season on the grounds of the story alone. What I was not expecting was for it to be made into such an immersive and beautiful experience. Seriously, this show looks insanely good; it’s visual polish and expressive character animation could pass for theatrical quality. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were going to make this as an animated movie at first, but then the live-action film came out and they were like, fuck it, let’s cut it up and run it as a show. It’s so weird, because it doesn’t look like anything else director Hiroshi Hamasaki has done. Hamasaki typically loves to use muddy, gray-tinted color palette and harsh shading, but this show is so bright and colorful and beautiful that it’s hard to believe this is done by the same guy who did Steins;Gate.
Adding to the theatrical feel of the film is its ambiance and atmosphere. The music is a mix of classy classical and jazzy jazz, and the sound design really makes the world feel alive, lived-in, and real. The sound effects used for the crowd and forest scenes in particular felt so film-like I almost couldn’t believe my ears. Moreover, the characters and their interactions feel very down to earth and believable. In the manga, some of the series’ shojo-isms and the initial meet-cute between Naho and Kakeru didn’t gel with me, but they way they’re presented here softens the edge of the genre conventions and adds a certain honest charm to the characters and world that makes them more immediately endearing. Moreover, the series is rife with subtle details and directorial choices that blew my mind as a reader of the manga, and I’m sure first-time watchers are going to have a blast re-watching this series when it’s done to pick all them apart. With the way this show looks and feels, it’s confident directing and pacing, and the honest and earnest characterization of it’s world and characters, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the films of Mamoru Hosoda, specifically The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which is funny considering they are both time-travel based stories. In terms of it’s overall audio/visual composition alone, Orange stands leagues above just about everything else in the season, and this year of anime in general.
As for the story? Well, it’s one that’s going to tug you in the feels at some point or another, that’s for sure. Fans of Erased will find similar thematic concepts explored in the series through a more emotionally-driven shojo lens, and they’d probably be the audience I’d most recommend this show to. Orange is about enjoying your life to the fullest in the present, treasuring the friends closest to you, standing by them through thick and thin, and living life without room for regrets. It’s at times heart-breaking and heart-warming, frustrating and energizing, and overall a thoroughly enjoyable experience sure to be made more emotional and immersive thanks to this stellar adaption. With the possible exception of Mob Psycho 100, it’s easily the highlight of the season. Fresh, tangy, and ripe, Orange is a deliciously good time that’s sure to quench your thirst for good anime this season and then some. – LumRanmaYasha
ReLife
Don't worry, he's on the pill.
There’s been a whole lot of shows this year about twenty-somethings revisiting their formative years of their life for self-improvement and emotional fulfillment, huh? We had Erased in winter, and now Orange and ReLife out this season. Unlike the former two, however, ReLife doesn’t have a time-traveling component to it’s premise, at least not right now. Instead protagonist Kaizaki swallows a mysterious pill that’s basically APTX 4869 from Detective Conan, de-aging him ten years so he can attend high school for some secret project. Why high school? Because anime.
Well, actually it’s because Kaizaki is a neet who’s kind of in a rut, and the program he signs up for intends to rehabilitate him and hook him up with a job after studying how he decides to relive his high school days. There’s clearly some ulterior scheme underlying the ReLife program and its enigmatic salesperson Ryo, while Kaizaki is seemingly not the first person to undergo the program, and things don’t seem to have turned out well for his predecessor. The hook of this show is not really those mysteries, though, so much as it’s exploration of looking back at High School life through an adult lens, weighing the rose-tinted perception of the past against the present day reality. Kaizaki is very down to earth, introspective character, and being able to reflect and comment on his high school experience from an adult lens, he’s able to consider things from a more steady, mature perspective. Perhaps the most affecting scene in the first episode is the praise he gives to his homeroom teacher for finding a steady job at such a young age, when he himself still hasn’t figured himself out in life. Ultimately, it’s that difference in perspective and experience that will guide his interactions with his fellow students and the situations that arise, which is probably what the show will focus on based on the large ensemble cast and shenanigans depicted in the opening.
ReLife doesn’t particularly stand out from other stories of it’s ilk, but it’s got heart and humor and is a pleasant watch if nothing else. In a atypical move from Crunchyroll, every episode of the series is being made available to watch at once instead of a weekly simulcast, and while I only watched the first episode for the purposes of the Clusterfuck the buzz for the show as a whole has been pretty positive. If you enjoy charming feel-good slice-of-life stories featuring characters exploring the threshold between childhood and adulthood, ReLife should prove a rewarding experience. – LumRanmaYasha