Pascoite gets bored and reviews anime, vol. 62 · 12:11am January 3rd
For the most part, the fall season is over, so I have a fresh supply of shows to review. The ones I liked best didn't end, though, going straight through with a longer run or pausing before getting a second season. Features are a comedy series from 2019, Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu, and a fantasy movie from last year, Lonely Castle in the Mirror. Those and reviews of (mostly) stuff that just ended, after the break.
Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu reminds me a lot of the other good schoolgirl slice of life comedies, like Azumanga Daioh, Nichijou, and Wasteful Days of High School Girls. "Bocchi" refers to a loner, as in the wonderful Bocchi the Rock that concluded early this year, but in this case it's her actual on-the-nose name, even put together: "hitoribocchi" means "all alone." It's based on a 4-panel comic.
Very shy girl Hitori has one friend, Kai, but as they graduate elementary school, Kai and Hitori will be headed to different junior high schools. Kai worries how Hitori will get along without friends, so she goes the tough love route and says as of that moment, they can't be friends anymore. They can resume their friendship if Hitori makes friends with every member of her new class.
It'll obviously take Hitori way out of her comfort zone to try this, and as it's a pretty short series, she doesn't get all the way there, or it'd just be way too fast-paced, but she does befriend a good chunk of them. It's endearing seeing what misconceptions she has just due to sheer inexperience. First, she goes for Nako, the girl who sits in front of her, which, honestly, was a bold choice made unconsciously simply by her being the most convenient, but she comes across as very surly. Even the teacher is afraid of her. But she turns out to be really sweet, and Hitori branches out to a few more.
They'll hit the predictable personality types, but the show is definitely cute and heartfelt. It's not as outright hilarious as Wasteful Days, say, but it does have the charm of all three of those shows, and it's very cute. Introverts may appreciate it even more, as they identify with Hitori. I certainly remember having a lot of the same inner thoughts and attitudes as she does.
There's no overall plot, so there's really no more to elaborate on, but I found it consistently sweet and amusing. If the premise is the kind of thing you know or suspect you like, then this is a good example of the genre. Art was pretty good, fairly inconspicuous CGI, except the cars were obvious, and they seemed to select oddly random ones to have, like a DeLorean cruising by in the background. Music is cute, and the opening ends in an adorable posed shot.
Rating: very good, as long as low-stakes slice of life doesn't bore you.
The ______ Life of Being Alone, 12 episodes, relevant genres: slice of life, comedy.
Lonely Castle in the Mirror is based on a novel, and the movie is from last year's fall season. I'd seen that it rated well among audiences, and while critics liked it in general, they ticked it down a notch for the plot twists being too easy to see coming. I do agree with that. I guessed right on pretty much all the reveals they pulled, and that's not even something I'm very good at spotting. But the plot was still good, and they made a lot of interesting characters.
Middle school student Kokoro faces bullying at school and has stopped going, but at least her mother has convinced her to try out an alternative learning center. Skipping ahead a little, I did like how the bullying aspect played out, to where the bully even had the teacher on her side, though rather unwittingly. It was a nice piece of realism.
But while holed up in her room, Kokoro sees her mirror glowing strangely. She touches it and seems to be able to go through. She's not entirely convinced, but she's not given a choice: a young girl with superhuman strength and wearing a wolf mask yanks her to the other side and drags her into a castle, where six other kids are already waiting.
The wolf girl explains that there's a key hidden somewhere in the castle, and whoever finds it will have a wish granted. They have about a year, and they can come and go as much as they please, though only during certain hours. If nobody finds it, the offer will expire.
They quickly find out that all the kids are in similar situations related to bullying, most of them quite literally, though some in more figurative—and more disturbing—senses. While they do some token exploring for the key, they're more interested in this being a safe place where they can socialize and not be judged. So they all strike up a nice group friendship.
Kokoro's situation is the only one where you get the full picture of how she's been bullied, and it's a very relatable one. It can get confusing at times, since it's told through flashbacks, and it's not always apparent that's what they are. One thing such a story can do badly is be maudlin. Eventually, you do get everyone's stories, and a couple of them are on the maudlin side, but I appreciated that most were kept understated so that they'd be more realistic. Though I'll give them a pass on one: the oldest girl, Aki, kind of needed to be over the top in order to justify her actions late in the movie, since she felt like she had no choice. I do wonder about the ending—the wolf girl seemed to imply that different groups get invited to go through this process periodically, but the way it ended felt more believable that it was a one-time thing.
Art looks like a slightly older style, even a little Ghibli-esque, but I liked it. The music was rather good, too. There was only one point I had to refer to the sub to see what the translation of a letter was, though there was one earlier in the movie they did have Kokoro read aloud. One thing that always impresses me is when a show or movie bothers to give the characters different outfits. I know that puts a lot of burden on the art staff, but it adds so much to the authenticity. Aside from uniforms (which, since they're all mostly skipping school, don't come up much), I don't think I ever saw them wearing the same clothes on different days. Plus the clothing design was just nice in general.
Rating: very good.
Kagami no Kojou, movie, relevant genres: drama, fantasy, mystery.
To the rest, mostly from this season.
Burn the Witch #0.8 (1 episode)—just-released prequel special episode to Burn the Witch, which I reviewed all the way back in vol. 7. Refer to that for the overall premise (easiest to find it through the alphabetical index linked at the bottom of this blog). This is just an origin story for why a particular character is there, but it's pretty entertaining. It's a more self-contained story than the main series was, tones down the fan service some, and doesn't drag, but it also doesn't do anything to form a better connection to Bleach, as it's supposed to be a side series to that yet has a completely different concept of what the Soul Society is. If you liked Burn the Witch, then this is recommended. Art is the same quality as that and Bleach, and the music is a plus. Rating: good, relevant genres: action, adventure, fantasy.
Kaina of the Great Snow Sea (Ooyukiumi no Kaina, 11 episodes + 1 movie)—series from last winter season that didn't conclude, and the movie (subtitled Star Sage, or Hoshi no Kenja) finished the story early in the fall season. Given that the manga hasn't ended, I'm surprised the movie comes to such a definitive conclusion. This is really strong on world-building, so I'd give a higher recommendation of it to fans of that. On plot alone, it's pretty average. The first couple of episodes were really enticing, since they're very immersive in all the world-building going on. The title's a bit of a misnomer: Kaina doesn't live anywhere near the Great Snow Sea and doesn't know anything about it. There are giant kilometers-tall trees in numerous places around the world, and their canopies connect, even get filled in with a clear substance between the branches to form a surface up there. Kaina grew up in a village in the canopy, but oddly, he seems to be the only young person there. The most learned of the elders has maintained a tradition of teaching how to read, and in an early foreshadowing of What's Really Going On, he uses metal signs to do so. From up there, Kaina can occasionally see lights far below, and it's rumored there's a snow sea and other inhabitants down there. While on a foraging expedition, he encounters a girl who's floated up from the surface on a mission to find some legendary sage and rescue her people from a conquering nation that aims to control the bases of all the trees, as they're the only source of water. Yeah, the snow sea isn't actual snow. You can drown in it, but you can't get water from it. All that was really cool, except that marauding nation results in there being an extremely generic bad guy and predictable conflict. Once he's dealt with, the movie kicks in and fills in all the What's Really Going On... while introducing another really generic bad guy. The middle of the series drags, but the movie is well-paced, and it ratchets up the interest level to see all the world-building come to fruition. There's a bit of romance that felt forced. Art is an obvious CGI but pretty good. Music was quirky but rather good. Rating: good, but maybe a little lower in that range, relevant genres: fantasy, adventure, drama, sci-fi.
Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka (Maho Shoujo Tokushusen Asuka, 12 episodes)—from 2019, and the manga concluded in 2021. After tnab plugged this for the 5th or 6th time, I finally added it to my list. Some kind of aliens attacked Earth, and some other kind of aliens showed up to help fight them by way of making eleven girls into magical girls capable of fighting the aggressors. The show begins some time after that war has ended, and the six surviving girls have mostly settled into similar roles with military organizations around the world to keep the peace. But one girl, Asuka, quit entirely and would like to have a normal life amid dealing with her PTSD of the intensity of battle and guilt over those who died. In a nice twist on the "how do people not recognize them" problem, the magic messes with people's perceptions so they can't see the girls clearly to identify them (Miraculous Ladybug does something similar). New threats from terrorist organizations are coming out, though, and Asuka is pressed into service again. That arc doesn't come to a conclusion, and neither do some teasers about who's behind this new threat. Really, Asuka's the only one of these girls who seems even somewhat normal. None of the rest are bothered by what they do, and most even like it. Toward the end, there's an offhand comment made about what qualifies one for these powers: they have to have some innate ability already. I'd wondered how they were selected, because the main unifying trait seemed to be they were all pretty sick people, except Asuka. Really. These are a bunch of messed-up girls. They also have Pokemon-like sidekicks who are actually pretty useful. It's a fresh take on the magical girl genre, and I do appreciate the realistic look at the mental scarring it would cause, but again, these girls are mostly sick in the first place, so it ends up not even being a great look at that aspect beyond Asuka herself. Art is really good, but this is absolutely packed with fan service. I mean... only a 12-episode run, and there were 3 beach/pool episodes? It's good action, and at least Asuka's character arc is mostly good, but she has to be somewhat of an enabler to deal with the rest of the girls. Music was pretty good. Rating: good, though maybe lower in that range, relevant genres: fantasy, drama, action.
The Family Circumstances of an Irregular Witch (Dekoboko Majou no Oyako Jijou, 12 episodes)—first of the fall shows I was watching to finish. The way this was sold is that this witch is so small and cute that everyone gets it backward which one is her and which one is her apprentice. That seldom comes into play, though. The similar gimmick that people assume the apprentice is a lot older than she is comes up more often, but it's all random humor. There's no overarching plot. They do provide justification: the witch, Alyssa, found the apprentice, Viola, abandoned as a baby, and Viola is a human who ends up having a huge talent for magic. Witches are very long-lived, so even though Viola is 16 now, that's still practically an infant's age to Alyssa. There's a large cast, and enough of the other characters are sufficiently interesting to keep things going. It wasn't hilarious, but still pretty reliably amusing. Two of Alyssa's childhood friends serve as Viola's "aunts," and I liked Giriko's character design, plus the phoenix familiar Viola summons is a great straight man to the jokes, but Luna pushed things a bit for me, what with her bringing her BDSM slaves around on multiple occasions. Cute and fun enough, but not a standout, and it mostly keeps making the same joke. Art is pretty good, nothing too special. Same goes for the opening song, and there's not much music during the show, but the closing song was a cute 1920s-style fun tune. Raring: decent, relevant genres: random comedy.
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. 52 here
vol. 53 here
vol. 54 here
vol. 55 here
vol. 56 here
vol. 57 here
vol. 58 here
vol. 59 here
vol. 60 here
vol. 61 here
I'm not sure if Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu itself is popular, or if it just got dragged along with Bocchi the Rock's popularity.
I thought Burn the Witch was a decent use of its miniseries time, so I might have to check out the prequel.
The premise of Lonely Castle in the Mirror sounds slightly like Wonder Egg Priority.
The rest of Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka's manga does contain some answers, but it's unlikely to get adapted to anime. One, it's an awkward length that would require about 1.5 cours. Two, it's about the war in Ukraine.
I liked the manga for The Family Circumstances of an Irregular Witch, but after trying out the anime I didn't consider it enough of an upgrade to justify watching it verses everything else I try to fit in my viewing schedule.
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Hitori Bocchi wasn't as good as Bocchi the Rock, but I still liked it quite a bit. I didn't notice which one came out first, but Hitori certainly might have been riding some coattails.
I did like Burn the Witch a fair amount. I just felt like it was needlessly attached to Bleach, and the connection doesn't even make sense. As a standalone thing, it's pretty good. And yeah, if you liked it, then #0.8 is totally worth watching.
Lonely Castle does have some thematic things in common with Wonder Egg, but there's no violence threatened for failure (or even possible, except for one specific circumstance), and only the one boy wanted to wish for a dead loved one back. Well, I guess I can't say that for sure. Most of the kids did have their bullying stories revealed toward the end, but you only ever learned what a couple of them wanted to wish for (and only one of them gets the wish). Kokoro's is related to how she got bullied in the first place: that a charismatic new student would arrive and recognize her, making a big deal of their friendship in front of the class. When she stacked that up against a loved one's life, she would rather one of the other kids take the wish. So, kind of similar in finding bonds through adversity, but there's really no sense of danger to it.
Maybe it's just me, but I thought Asuka would have been better if more of the girls were struggling like Asuka was. She's the only one your average reader can relate to, so when they make her the outlier, then it's hard to find the other girls sympathetic, especially since her attachment to them, and thus her finding them worthy companions, is a big part of that struggle. Maybe the five who died in the war were more uniformly like her? I get the feeling that if Asuka made it clear she was clocking out for good, War Nurse would kill her out of a sick sense that she was doing her a favor...
Irregular Witch is fine enough if you want some light comedy, but then there are a lot of better examples out there. You're not missing anything. Actually, you're literally not missing anything since you already read the manga.