Pascoite gets bored and reviews anime, vol. 5 · 1:09am Mar 24th, 2021
I've settled into every other Tuesday, which is a comfortable schedule, but I'm on vacation next week, so I might have the time to get another done then. We'll see.
Featured series this time are Assassination Classroom and Azumanga Daioh, plus quick-hit reviews of other shows from this region of the alphabet, after the break, and bonus review of Wasteful Days of High School Girls.
I mentioned this in my review of Baccano!, and Assassination Classroom (which shall henceforth be known as Ass Class) impressed me the same way, in that it throws twenty-odd characters at you right away, but quickly makes most of them memorable and distinct. I think most people's opinion will be driven by how tolerable they find the main character, Koro Sensei. He got on my nerves a little in his voicing and mannerisms, but his head was in a good place.
This is yet another entry in the trope that a school funnels all its worst students into one class where they can cause the least trouble, and of course that class ends up excelling. But the different angle here is that they're being trained as assassins, specifically to kill their teacher, as he's an alien who made a large portion of the moon explode about a year ago, and in another year, he's going to cause the Earth to explode. He can't help it, and he can't help defending himself when attacked either. Plus he has superhuman abilities, so it'll take a rather talented assassin to take him out.
Of course the students are going to hit all the standard character types, but with that many it allows for some more fine shading, plus a few additional students and assistant teachers come on board later. The plot does take several different directions, and naturally the information the students were given about their teacher proves to be misleading or outright incorrect, so their initial focus of killing him turns to actually wanting to be good students, to seeing if they can somehow save the Earth without killing him, to fighting off a military force. In the end, I liked the series far more for its characters than its plot.
Rating: very good
47 episodes + 1 OVA, relevant genres: action, comedy, mystery-ish.
And because I want to keep things together (and won't put them in reviews until I've finished everything in the series I intend to), some quick blurbs of the other material.
Koro Sensei Quest! (12 episodes)—a more comedic re-imagining of the series as the kids being sent on fantasy-type quests without the overarching plot. Not worth watching in isolation, but if you enjoyed the original series, this is a bit of fun. Rating: decent. Relevant genres: comedy, adventure.
Assassination Classroom the Movie: 365 Days (movie)—this was 5 minutes tacked on the beginning and end of a 90-minute extended recap episode. Nagisa succeeds Koro Sensei as the teacher of the delinquents' class. There, I just saved you from wasting your time on it. Rating: meh. Relevant genres: action, comedy, mystery-ish.
Next up, I'm going to follow a bit of a thread. I started watching Wasteful Days of High School Girls because it looked funny, and wow, it sure was. I love this series. I can't remember another anime that kept me laughing this much this consistently. Almost everyone here is a complete idiot, and I loved every single one of the characters. This is just slice of life, so there's no plot to speak of. That means there's not a lot to talk about with it, other than saying I'd highly recommend it because it was hilarious. I loved the opening credits, too. This is one of the rare series where I watched the full opening every time. The lyrics are silly, the melody is good, and the animation is cool.
Rating: very good.
12 episodes, relevant genres: comedy, slice of life.
Wanderer D and I talk anime from time to time, and I recommended this series to him. Based on my description, he said it sounded a lot like an older series, Azumanga Daioh, so I tried that as well. And... yeah. They're really similar. Really similar. There's almost a one-for-one match in characters, with only some minor differences. The star-crossed cat lover from Azumanga becomes a background character in Wasteful Days, the teacher who outright ogles the girls becomes one who continually professes to like only college girls (and he's not lying), and a few of the girls get new quirks. I loved the aspiring manga artist who gets an odd look on her face when she's envisioning shipping, and the goth girl who thinks her sacred bandages are protecting her from an arcane plague (it's heat rash, and the bandages themselves are causing it). The only outright new thing in Wasteful Days is a deadpan character, which was a great addition. But the similarities are so striking that I have to think Wasteful Days was deliberately constructed as a tribute to Azumanga.
As to comparing and contrasting... Azumanga takes on a much more slice of life feel at the beginning. The comedy is slow to ramp up, but once it does, it's also reliably funny. I still think Wasteful Days is funnier, but they're both very enjoyable. Azumanga is a longer series, covering all 4 years of high school, whereas Wasteful Days only covers part of one year. The effect is that there's a little more of an overarching plot to Azumanga, including the girls getting anxious about whether life will split them apart after they graduate.
Rating: very good
26 episodes + 1 OVA, relevant genres: comedy, slice of life.
And now to some quick reviews!
Avatar: The Legend of Korra—I normally would have put this with the featured ones due to its rating, but like I said in my first one of these blogs, some series I think are so universally known that there's no need to go into detail about them. I presume anyone reading this has already seen it or is at least aware of it and decided not to watch it. Rating: excellent. Relevant genres: action, adventure, fantasy, romance.
Arte (12 episodes)—the title character, whose name is rather on the nose, is an aspiring painter in Florence during the Renaissance, but the two things against her are 1) she's female and 2) she's from a noble family, though they're noble more in name than anything. They're not particularly wealthy. It takes some doing to find a master who's willing to take her on as an apprentice, but she gradually endears herself to all involved. You've no doubt seen many things with that plot arc, and this one's a well-done example, though it did end rather abruptly. I think it suffers from trying to cram a pretty long manga series into such a short anime. I guess I'd rather have that than some of the other ways these sometimes go: not coming to a conclusion at all in hopes of eventually continuing the anime, or treating the anime more as a way of drumming up interest in the manga. The main thing here is that Arte's decision about whether to return from Venice was very rushed, and the romance subplot just gets dropped. Rating: good. Relevant genres: drama, coming of age.
Another series I'll keep together:
Crest of the Stars (Seikai no Monsho, 13 episodes), sequel series Banner of the Stars (Seikai no Senki, 23 episodes over 2 seasons + 2 OVAs)—A planet suddenly finds itself under the rule of an alien empire, though not that much changes. Jinto, the son of the planet's former president, is selected as representative to the empire's government, and he is to be escorted by a military commander named Lafiel, who just happens to be part of the emperor's family. However, they get intercepted on the way amid erupting rebellion and political intrigue, so they have to decide whether to try helping or hide and wait it out. Of course they choose to fight. This was a decent enough space opera, though the pacing felt off to me at times. It also seemed pretty light on characterization outside the two main characters. Rating: decent. Relevant genres: adventure, sci-fi, drama.
And finally, Toonami spent a couple of weeks featuring several Batman films, so I'll run those down. I'd rate them all good, and of course they all have the genre tags you'd expect of Batman: drama, mystery, action.
Batman: Gotham Knight—this is very reminiscent of The Animatrix in that it's a series of short episodes done in different styles. I'm not going to take the space to summarize each one, but they do form a single continuity, with events from one leading directly into the next. The variety is the real selling point here, as it's cool to see the numerous self-contained tales and the styles used by the different studios.
Batman: Year One—I've never read any of the Batman comics, so this was quite a bit of revisionist history on Batman's origins relative to the movies or the '90s animated series, but it was still a good movie. Catwoman in particular has a very different origin than I expected. It was interesting from the standpoint of Bruce just starting out and having to hit his stride on how to fight crime, which ends up having him backed into a corner several times, in situations he never would be later on.
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, parts 1 and 2—this started off being very reminiscent of Batman Beyond. It's basically the same setup as to why Bruce can't fight as well as he used to and needs help. Here we get the Carrie Kelley version of Robin, which is the first time I'd seen that. She was a cool character, and what this movie does well it give itself memorable quirks. That kind of thing just adds so much atmosphere. I loved the way everyone uses "spud" as a slang term for a person. Basically, Batman has to take on a gang of terrorist mutants, and of course he wins. That's part 1. Then things get weird. Batman has gained a cult following from some of the remaining mutants, and Ronald Reagan isn't too happy about it, so he dispatches Superman to give him a talking to. Superman's just as upset at Batman's antics, and it eventually comes to blows between them. It's a long-standing thing through many DC properties that Batman is a specialist in how to take out Superman in case it ever becomes necessary. And then things get really dark with the Joker. I mean... that was a powerful plot twist that I'm not going to spoil. The final fight against Superman ensues, and the ending isn't exactly going to surprise anyone.
Seen any of these, or did any of these blogs prompt you to try something out? Let me know in the comments. I'd like to hear what you think.
I really want to see Ass Class someday, it looks hilarious.
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It does have its comedy moments, but it's more often a serious show, and the ending is definitely not humorous.
And one thing I forgot to add about the Koro Sensei Quest! side series: there's a little skit stuck halfway through each ep, and the first few are surprisingly risque ones about the Russian lady, and in rather poor taste at that.
5482221
Its great, definitely worth a watch.
If you want something creepy and weird on the other hand, "Girls last tour" fits the bill.
5482280
I enjoyed Girls' Last Tour as well. I should get to reviewing it in another few months.
Working my way through Dragon Prince now, but I loved Assassination Classroom.
5482325 If you're into Dragon Prince, I'd look into getting the graphic novels as well. They're pretty sweet.
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I am now a few episodes into Assassination Classroom, and I’m enjoying it so far! Good timing on this, I was looking for something new to watch.
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Glad you found something you like! I go back and forth about whether I want a short series I can blast through in a couple days or something longer I can tuck into for a while. Assassination Classroom is a happy medium.
Never saw Azumanga Daioh, but I was always curious. Maybe I'll put it higher on my ever-expanding list of "things to watch".
5497525
Have you seen Wasteful Days of High School Girls though? It's a shorter series, about the same things, and (imo) funnier, so it might fit in a tight schedule better. Then if you end up enjoying it a lot, chances are it'll be worth watching Azumanga Daioh as well.
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Oh? Then perhaps I'll try that first.
Might I ask where you go on the vast interwebs to get the majority of your anime? I've been off that particular saddle for so long I don't know where you'd to get most of it these days.
Any chance you'll be taking a look at Utena?
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Revolutionary Girl Utena is indeed on my to-watch list. I just pick things off it as the fancy strikes me, so I don't know when I'll get to it. I usually try to watch only 2 or 3 things at a time, and from different genres, usually an action show, a slice of life, and something more of a thought piece. And that's in addition to whatever Toonami is playing. Right now, I'm in the middle of Aria: The Natural, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Hell Girl: Two Mirrors.
As to where to watch things, there are a number of options. Crunchyroll has a bunch, though it took me a bit to figure out how to pick between sub and dub, if both are available. You have to wait a bit to watch new shows there, but they have a lot. It can get my modem bogged down though. Funimation has posted a fair number of shows on their YT channel and their website. Various streaming services have their own content. Netflix is notable for that. I have Amazon Prime, which seems to carry mostly shows that are 20+ years old, but I've found several really good recent shows there. I try to go through legit channels like that when I can, but if it's my only option, I turn to thewatchcartoononline.tv. They have a crap ton of stuff. kissanime was a similar site, but I'm not sure what happened with them. The whole thing got revamped maybe a year ago, and now their search functionality got so bad that I consider it unusable.
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Cool and thanks! I'll need to start watching something soon-ish, methinks.