Pascoite gets bored and reviews anime, vol. 25 · 2:06am Jan 19th, 2022
Heyo, the quarter century mark! And I've been at this nearly a year. Why!? Oh, right, anime's actually pretty good (except when it isn't). Featured items, after the break, are a roundup of Cartoon Saloon's movies, Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells, and Wolfwalkers. They're not really anime, but I don't care, and you can't make me. And as a side note, thanks to one Paul Asaran, I keep having the theme song to Kujibiki Unbalance run through my head. It's a stupid song.
As luck would have it, I can handle these in my usual alphabetical order, since that's the sequence I happened to watch them in.
Song of the Sea has a nice setup. A man named Conor works as a lighthouse keeper on a small island, and he lives with his wife Bronagh and son Ben. Bronagh is pregnant, and one night she wanders off. Conor finds the baby, a girl they'd decided to name Saoirse (oh, those Irish spellings... it's pronounced like SIR-sha), but no trace of his wife. Immediately, there's a time skip, and Conor is distant toward his daughter for obvious reasons. For her part, Saoirse doesn't speak, and they suspect she can't. Ben has been made her de facto caretaker.
On Saoirse's birthday, their grandmother comes to visit (Conor's mother, I'm pretty sure), declaring that a lighthouse is no place to raise children. That night, after Ben scares his sister with a tale about an Owl Witch, Saoirse takes a special shell that had been entrusted to Ben, and it leads her to a seal fur coat in her parents' closet, which she puts on and goes down to the beach. Conor is incensed about it and throws the coat away, also agreeing to let the children live with their grandmother.
Soon after, Saoirse's health starts to fail, and when they try to find their way back home, they encounter a series of supernatural creatures, and of course one is the Owl Witch herself, who kidnaps Saoirse. If there's one thing this movie does well, it's invest the seeming villains with a reasonable purpose. The Owl Witch really does think she's doing some good here, and I'm trying to be vague about it, because I don't want to give away the twists, though the main one gets revealed pretty early on (plus many of you will pick it up from even that little bit of description).
Suffice it to say this is a story about coming to terms with your past and accepting people as they are. The animation style is pretty unique, kind of at once 2D and 3D, and there's a lot of visual flair that makes it a pleasure to watch. As luck would have it as well, the order I watched them in meant I liked each successive one better. While the story here is great, I felt like a lot of the middle dragged on. Music was quite good, and I'll go ahead and say the art and music quality were high for all three.
Rating: good.
Movie, relevant genres: fantasy, supernatural, drama.
Next up was The Secret of Kells, and while I think it has a weaker story than Song of the Sea, I still found it more consistently engaging. Young man Brendan lives in a somewhat fortified abbey headed by his stern uncle, who's concerned about the invading Vikings who keep encroaching closer and closer. A monk from another abbey that got overrun arrives with a book he's been working on, and he sees the keen interest Brendan seems to have in it, but Brendan's uncle will have none of it. Brendan sneaks out anyway to forage for ink ingredients, and he meets a fairy creature in the woods named Aisling. She saves him from some wolves and decides he's not such a bad guy (unlike most of those humans) and extends a welcome for him to visit anytime.
So of course Brendan's uncle catches him sneaking back in. But in order to finish this book, the monk needs Brendan to retrieve a special item from the forest, in the lair of a spirit Aisling is terribly afraid of. Amid this quest, there's also the marauding Vikings, who show up at precisely the wrong time to sack the town, but it seems like supernatural forces are looking out for Brendan and Aisling. The book doesn't pull through so well, but once free of the Vikings, Brendan can start on it anew.
It's not a complex plot by any means. I liked it more for the character work. As compared to Saoirse from Song of the Sea, Aisling is more fun—not so melancholy, and her joy and concern over Brendan is infectious. She really carried the movie for me, as again, there's not that much plot to it. One might even ask: so what? Why does it matter that he makes this book? If you know what the Book of Kells is, then you have your answer, but even then... having to come into the movie with the knowledge that justifies it is asking a bit much, in my opinion, and even with that, the movie seems to say the existence of the book is its own reward, so it draws no conclusions about what that means. So for me, a notch better due to great character work, but a weak plot and not much of an ending.
Rating: very good.
Movie, relevant genres: fantasy, supernatural, adventure.
And now I just notice they made another movie I'd skipped. Oh well, it goes on the list for later.
Last, I watched Wolfwalkers. A noble in charge of a town feels like it's being menaced by a pack of wolves who live in the nearby forest, and hunting them doesn't seem to be getting him anywhere, so he decides to cut down the forest and deprive them of their habitat, though hunting is still a good complementary option. Bill is a professional hunter, so he gets summoned to help, and he brings his daughter Robyn with him. She'd like to be a hunter as well, but of course that's a man's work. It doesn't stop her from sneaking out of town to try finding some wolves of her own, but she accidentally injures her pet falcon, who then gets taken by wolves.
While tracking it down, Robyn comes across a strange wild girl named Mebh. Not realizing that the wolves are actually trying to help the falcon (they have healing magic), Robyn attacks one and gets bitten before she catches up to Mebh again. Mebh readily admits that she's something like a werewolf: when she falls asleep, her spirit leaves her body and incarnates as a wolf until it returns to her body in the morning.
But all is well! Robyn's fine, her falcon is fine, and surely her dad will praise her for trying to help when he gets back, right? Naw. Confined to quarters, only allowed out to go do the laundry or dishes or other girl stuff. Not much else to do but fall asleep, only... that wolf bite did something to her. She goes out and spends a wonderful night with Mebh and her pack. Only now she's become the very thing her father hates. Not that he knows, but she tries to convince him to stop the hunt, which only angers him.
And then it comes out that the last time Mebh's mother went out in her spirit form, she never returned, so her sleeping body is still sitting there in the wolves' den. And the local noble knows more than he's letting on.
I liked Mebh much in the same way I liked Aisling, a curious, energetic, and sweet but somewhat shy person, and she steals every scene. Except Robyn is a similar personality, and her obvious about-face on her attitude toward wolves was a nice character arc. Of course it'll turn out the wolves were never that menacing in the first place, but it benefitted the nobleman to paint them that way.
There's one more twist left for the end, which shouldn't be too hard to guess, but I do feel like the conclusion is weak. In a sense, there are no real winners, which is fine, but it did feel like what happy ending it did come up with was rather pat.
Rating: very good.
Movie, relevant genres: fantasy, supernatural, drama.
More good to not so good stuff, still backfilling things I watched during or since Christmas break.
BEATLESS (24 episodes + 4 interspersed recap episodes)—I would guess the title refers to androids not having a heartbeat? In any case, this set up some interesting questions about whether androids can truly be alive, feel emotions, or have a soul. A supposed accident occurs at an AI lab, in which several advanced ones were reported to have escaped. One of the escapees has a particular talent for hijacking the more mainstream AIs, including those that autopilot vehicles. Some of these are indiscriminately turned against humans, and high school student Arato is almost killed by one before another of the advanced units, Lacia, offers to help him, but only if he agrees to become her owner. She does expound a bit on what the implications of being and having an owner are. He has little choice, and after saving him, she poses as a domestic unit in his apartment, where he lives with his little sister. This thrills Arato, as he, somewhat uniquely for a human, sees the AIs as equals, and has always dreamed of owning one, though he couldn't afford one. And that seems odd, as his father is one of the leading scientists who design them. Anyway, Arato's two best friends from school turn out to be the son of the owner of an AI-producing corporation and someone who is sympathetic to violent anti-AI vigilante groups, plus all their sisters are friends as well. And so begins a battle among extreme factions for who's going to shape the future and whether humans and advanced AIs can ever really trust each other. Fundamentally, these are some interesting questions to ask, but for me, the one about humanity is the most interesting, and it's pushed into the background for most of the show. A lot of it devolves into fight scenes, though to be fair, they're not bad ones. But continually shifting loyalties and priorites seemingly shuffle every episode as to who's on what side, to a ridiculous degree. It started off with a strong premise, but by the end, it just blended into the masses of android combat anime to me. The art was good, the music average, and I could at least recommend it for the fighting scenes, if that's your bag, or the initial philosophical arguments it makes, as long as you're okay with it being weak on carrying through with those. And of course, there will be a love interest as well, and the ending is pretty pat. Rating: decent, relevant genres: sci-fi, action, romance.
Combatants Will Be Dispatched! (Sentoin, Haken Shimasu!, 12 episodes)—an evil corporation that has almost finished taking over Earth decides it needs other planets under its sway as well, so it sends Combat Agent 6 and an android assistant named Alice (who serves as the straight man to the jokes) to infiltrate one. Upon arrival, they're mostly cut off. Their only instructions were to prepare the planet for occupation, so when they find themselves in the middle of a war, it doesn't really matter which side wins. But they do pick the Kingdom of Grace over the army of demons for totally unselfish reasons. Let me interject here that this is yet another series that's really up front about being heavy on fan service. 6 has to earn evil points to redeem for weapons and supplies, and he can achieve that by doing depraved things, so he doesn't really have a choice. Honest. It's a fairly funny show, and they bring in a couple more side characters, a young chimera who's pretty cute and a sorceress who has very questionable control over the curses she can cast. Actually, they backfire a lot. The only reliable thing is that she can be resurrected when she dies, which happens several times. But the rest goes a lot like the accidentally self-inflicted curse preventing her from wearing shoes, so she rides around in a wheelchair instead. Presumably, the series is finished, since they did wrap up this planet, though given the ultimate goal of conquering other worlds as well, it's possible it might continue. I'm guessing they won't, so I'll go ahead and review it. Art was good, though most shows are these days, except for the ones that are intentionally ugly (like One Punch Man or Mob Psycho 100). Music was average. Rating: decent, relevant genres: sci-fi, comedy, action.
Opera Girl!! (Kageki Shojo!!, 13 episodes)—I have really mixed feelings about this one, and it's kind of hard to decide how that averages out into a rating. There's a really exclusive school that trains the biggest stars in stage productions, and the series follows the new first-year students who form the school's 100th class. It also pulls a pretty big switcheroo. The first several episodes focus on one character who seems really emotionless and distant (for reasons that get explored later) who's been kicked out of a pop idol group for insulting a fan, so she figures with her background, she shouldn't have any trouble getting in. Her uncle is a teacher there, too, and he's the only male that she feels comfortable around. It seems at first that the series will be about her learning to open up. And to be fair, that does happen, with the help of her roommate Sarasa, who is considered freakishly tall at 5'11" and is arguably the real main character. But of the forty students in the class, seven or eight of them get the spotlight, and it's not long before they each get a focus episode. They were all interesting enough characters, but to me, that's where the show started to come apart a bit. In only 13 episodes, it's hard to give that much context to get the audience to really care about them all. Plus they all had some sort of drama going on in their lives, and it just felt like it was trying to do too much. Too many focus characters, too much drama, and not enough episodes to give it the space it needed. Plus some of it felt manufactured. Yes, one character would reasonably feel threatened by placing at the bottom of the class, but leading to an existential crisis about whether she should be there at all? Several girls need the pep talk of "only a thousand girls from all over the country are even invited to audition, and only forty of those get offered a spot, so you're already the best of the best just to get in." And yes, it may be reasonable that someone might need to hear that. But look, that and the drama about the drive they all have to do well in this field felt more like the kind of thing a layman would assume about it. When you look at other hyper-competitive things, say the women's Olympic gymnastics team, you really think any of those girls doubts if they should be there? I've been there myself, not to that high a level, but long ago I was ranked as one of the best high school musicians in my state. Never the top spot, but close. You know you're good. You don't need to be told. That doesn't mean you don't get jitters when it's do-or-die time, but that's not the same. So overall, I thought the premise was interesting, and I liked the characters, but it felt unfocused, and some aspects of the drama felt artificial. How much you might like it will depend on how sensitive you are to those things, or, I suppose, if you're even aware of them. Ignorance might be bliss—I would have enjoyed it more if I could have rolled with it rather than looking for more uniform realism. (Now watch it turn out that the writer actually has firsthand knowledge of a real-life school like this and is writing from experience.) It didn't really come to a conclusion either, making me wonder if it's set up for another season, but it didn't have obvious sequel bait, either. Art was good, and oddly enough, the music was pretty average. Rating: good, but for me, toward the bottom of that range. Relevant genres: drama.
Redline (movie)—this is what happens when a studio pours itself entirely into a project. And unfortunately, they committed vast resources to a pretty long bet. Racing isn't a very popular genre of anime. If you're going all out, pick something safer. This did later become somewhat of a cult classic. Right at the beginning, it's already in the midst of a race, with the two leaders being a guy named JP and a girl named Sonoshee. She's piloting a high-tech hover vehicle, while he's a throwback, sporting the greaser look and driving a plain old car. He's also caught unwillingly in a scheme to throw the race, the winner of which will be qualified to enter the top-tier Redline race. Well, they both get in, due to some of the already-qualified competitors being too scared of the venue the sponsors have decided on: Roboworld, where the government doesn't want the racers there and will actively attack them whenever possible, adding yet another level of difficulty. The plot isn't anything special, and you'll no doubt easily predict how it'll go, but what a ride! JP and Sonoshee have a connection in their past, which leads to a really rushed romance angle, but the real draw is the racing action. It's just so over the top, and the animation style is at once glossy, saturated in color, heavily outlined, and even for the attractive characters, with a grotesque quality to it. The only kind of adult thing is a scene where Sonoshee is watching the news topless, and again, there's a grotesque quality to it. It's funny, incredibly fast-paced, over the top, and worth it just for the experience. Music was pretty good, too. Rating: good, relevant genres: racing, comedy, action, drama, romance.
Release the Spyce (12 episodes)—this reminded me a lot of an older American series, Totally Spies. It's a pretty standard high school girl spy thriller. The main character is Momo, who gets inducted into this society because she has phenomenally sharp senses, which get a bit ridiculous at times: by licking someone, she can tell if they're being truthful or if she's met them before. She gets assigned to a mentor to be trained in combat, and there are several other mentor-trainee pairs. They're battling an evil organization with generic and vague plans for taking over the world, and the only real draw on the plot side is Momo learning her craft and a bit of intrigue about a double agent. And, I guess, redemption arcs for a couple of the bad guys' minions. Though that obviously blasts by in a series this short. As implied by the title, the girls can power up by eating spices before a fight, and the mentor-trainee pairs use the same ones. One eats something that looks like bay leaves, one peppercorns, Momo and her mentor use cinnamon sticks, I think. But it's never explained how that works. Are these specially grown spices that are only available to these girls? Are they regular spices, but only certain rare people can be powered up by them? Does it matter which kind they use? That's all just kind of swept under the rug. A bit on the fan-service side, too. Art was good, music fine. The opening was kind of cute. Rating: decent, relevant genres: action, mystery, drama, thriller.
Seen any of these? Did I convince you to try any of them? I'd like to hear about it in the comments.
Last 10:
vol. 15 here
vol. 16 here
vol. 17 here
vol. 18 here
vol. 19 here
vol. 20 here
vol. 21 here
vol. 22 here
vol. 23 here
vol. 24 here
Ah, Wolfwalkers I have a tad bit of knowledge about, someone in one of my other circles made a thing about them once. :) It's cool.
Always love to see my nation’s home grown animated films reaching new people. And for number 25, no less! I’ll even overlook the anime connection (not least because the Ghibli vibes are actually strong and justified in these, not least of Spirited Away in Song of the Sea).
I am far too close to these films to judge them impartially. That said, Wolfwalkers has such refinement in both the script and the computer-assisted animation over what came before that it’s no contest for it to be the best for me. Juggling all those layers in the story that plays off a key part in colonial history while being comprehensible to children, and fun, and having legitimate psychological depth - it was a film that made me realize how shallow even the better Hollywood children’s entertainment usually is. It losing the animated Oscar to Soul, while expected, still broke my heart.
Bit odd you went for Song of the Sea first over Kells, but I won’t digress. I don’t fully agree with the nitpicks there, but to each their own. For my money, the one film you haven’t yet seen, The Breadwinner, is the weakest for me (it’s visual style isn’t as perfect a fit for the material, and the script unravels a bit in the last 25 minutes), though I suspect it might not be that way for you, based on your takes for these three. Still a great film absolutely worth watching, of course.
Gotta love Wolfwallkers... don't know if you ever saw that crazy Isekai chapter I did for it XD But yah, I think we had talked about Song of the Sea before as well. I admit I got a kick out of seeing that Robyn was just randomly carrying the Eye of Crom in her pocket.
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Yes, we'd talked about all of these some, and I know you'd done an isekai treatment of Wolfwalkers, which is obvious from the cover art...
I didn't notice that Robyn had that with her. It would be even funnier if she pulled the Conan the Barbarian/Crom thing: Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen... then to hell with you!