Pascoite gets bored and reviews anime, vol. 12 · 10:08pm Jun 29th, 2021
Well, that business trip I had scheduled got cancelled, so I'm not just getting in late on a flight back from the west coast. The two featured series this week are on the obscure side, but I've got some better known stuff in the short reviews. Those featured series this week are Heat Guy J and Iroduku: The World in Colors.
I first saw Heat Guy J long ago on MTV. I don't even know what MTV was doing showing anime, but I guess that's where I saw Aeon Flux too. They squished it from a wide-screen format to fit a more normal aspect ratio, so everyone looked tall.
Anyway, the main character, Daisuke Aurora, is a detective in a special investigations unit, but he comes across as pretty lazy. He'd rather sit around than go out and work, and it's implied he comes from a rich family who got him into this cushy job. The only other people who work there are his supervisor Kyoko, who is continually put upon to get him to do anything, his android partner J, and Antonia, the tech who maintains J. Daisuke actually gets about town a lot, mostly for leisure, so he's friends with a police investigator and a few informants, who all serve as nice backdrop characters.
The main plot centers around Daisuke investigating a crime syndicate, and that leads to him going to a pretty vast underground society, where there's a thriving black market in illegal cybernetic enhancements. His brother is a high-ranking city official, and of course there will be some connection between their father and the current crime lord's father. The plot and its "twists" won't exactly surprise you, but the action and characters are well done. Art was good, and the music was terrific. Season 1 ends with Daisuke thwarting a terrorist plot against a separate race of people who keep the city running, and while it did cut off a little abruptly, it wasn't too bad. That was all MTV had, and it wasn't until a few years ago I learned there was a second season without much gap between.
Season 2 isn't as good. I'll say that up front. The characters are still great, but the mystery becomes a lot more cliched and predictable, and it didn't put a great endcap on the show. Still, I remember it as being a favorite, and I did rewatch season 1 a few years back to refresh my memory before moving on to season 2, so it's not nostalgia speaking. Good example of a police show, the setting was imaginative, the art was good, and the music was excellent. Given that it's a series most people don't seem to have heard of, it's easy to recommend.
Rating: very good.
26 episodes, relevant genres: sci-fi, action, mystery.
I love Iroduku: The World in Colors. Another one like this will come up in the short reviews, but sometimes a series just resonates with me so powerfully, and I can't explain why. Obviously, strikingly good writing, art, or what have you could accomplish that, and Iroduku does well on all fronts, but I'm not really sure why I found the plot so thoroughly engaging. I do tend to like shows where someone is plagued by lost memories, and I tend to like sweet slice of life, which this has. It still doesn't quite add up to a clear sign of why I liked it so much.
Main character Hitomi is on her way to the school festival with some classmates when she decides to lag behind a moment, since she'd promised to wait for her grandmother Kohaku. Kohaku is a powerful witch, and while that runs in the family, Hitomi's mother didn't show much talent. The jury's still out on Hitomi.
When Kohaku shows up, they talk briefly, then Kohaku abruptly casts a spell sending Hitomi 60 years into the past—to our present day. The cutesy time travel scene, where she's on a stylized bus with an animal-like driver who lets her pay for her ride with candy, is the part of the series that feels like it's really out of place. It sets a poor tone for what's to follow, and I think it was a bad decision, but it's one of only a couple complaints I have about the show. The other one I can't really discuss because spoilers.
Hitomi is immediately recognized by her past family members as being one of theirs, due to a piece of jewelry she's wearing, but she has to tell them she's some distant cousin. Her grandmother, now a teenage girl, is away studying in Europe but soon returns, and then Hitomi goes off to the local high school with her.
A lot of the rest is almost pure slice of life as Hitomi gets to know her classmates. There's a magic club at school, and while Kohaku is the only legit spellcaster around, she has a reputation for her spells going awry, so she has to keep that to a minimum. Still, the other members of the club (which has had to combine with an art and photography club to stay afloat) are happy to have another family member with potential there.
One note about Hitomi, though: despite her crippling lack of confidence that has hampered her pursuit of magic all her life, she also can't see colors, due to an incident that occurred when she was quite young and that she only vaguely understands. Yet when she sees the drawings of a boy in the club, Yuito, they appear in color to her. They even leap off the page and animate. This of course would fascinate her, but she's reluctant to bare what little she understands about her past in order to explain it to him, and since he also suffers from a distinct lack of confidence, he's more than a little put off by her scrutiny.
One more note about the way little touches can have a huge impact. I love it when shows assume viewers are clever enough to pick up things that aren't overly obscured but still easy to miss. Hitomi's used to a futuristic world, so on her first day of school in the past, she taps a finger to the surface of her desk, looks at it expectantly for a moment, then shrugs it off and moves on with her routine. It's not hard to figure out why she does that, but a less sophisticated show would probably add in some dialogue to call your attention to it and explain it. I like that it's left as a little gold nugget for you to find.
After going through most of the series' run of these slice of life moments (which I enjoyed a lot, but will vary based on your affinity for the genre), the question comes up as to whether Hitomi wants to stay in the past or try to return to her own time. She doesn't even know why her grandmother sent her here, but if time works as a causality loop, then you've already watched the show because I recommended it to—
My head hurts.
Maybe future Kohaku already knows that Hitomi figured it out on her own and would do better without the explanation. That decision of whether to stay, and the difficulties associated with either choice, ramp up the conflict in the final few episodes to a very sweet ending, and she finally has to confront the tragic event from her early childhood.
Rating: excellent.
Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara (translates closer to "From the Color-Changing World's Tomorrow"), 13 episodes, relevant genres: slice of life, some romance.
Short review time!
Cells at Work! (Hatarako Saibo, 21 episodes + 1 special)—an anthropomorphized look at the inner workings of a body. Various kinds of cells are introduced, but the main character is a specific red blood cell who keeps encountering the same white blood cell. They tackle various things like an infection, an injury, allergies. It's all cute, but it's not until the second season that there's any sort of continuity, and even then it's minor. The art is nice, and it's fairly educational, but as there's not much consequence from one episode to the next, you could watch just a few episodes and get the flavor of it without missing anything. There's also a movie, but it's just a condensed form of some of the episodes. Rating: good, relevant genres: comedy, action, slice of life, educational.
Cells at Work! CODE BLACK (Hatarako Saibo Burakku, 13 episodes)—same thing, except the red and white blood cells are gender-swapped, and it takes place in an unhealthy body, so the situations they deal with are more things like smoking, alcohol abuse, sleep deprivation, etc. The episode about sex was cringe-y and surprisingly had what seemed to be a moral stance (though an understandable one, given the effort the red blood cell had to go to). Also, if you're unhealthy, your white blood cells have massive boobs, so at least you have that going for you. Rating: good, relevant genres: action, educational.
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (movie)—this follows a continuity from the original movie, not how the first TV series retconned the movie's ending. Just another plot about hackers trying to affect the way society is now, though in this case it's less someone's idealism and more criminal. Not to belittle the plot, as it's fine for the series, but Kusanagi is barely in it at all, and the CGI was much more prevalent and not that well done. Plus everyone drives classic cars for some reason. Rating: decent, relevant genres: action, mystery, sci-fi.
Gurren Lagann (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, 27 episodes)—I haven't seen either of the movies. Humans mostly live underground in fear of the terrible monsters on the surface, but once main characters Simon and Kamina break taboo and go up there, they find it's not so bad... until it actually is inhabited by terrible monsters, and they get embroiled in a war to free humanity from their domination using special mechs. At first, I loved this show. It was a great concept, the characters are cool, the action was good. But it's another one that suffers from power creep, in my opinion. Humans were kept underground for a reason, and by emerging, they've triggered some universal conspiracy to eradicate all life. The scale just keeps increasing, and while that's a selling point for some people, it just made me lose interest. It's less relatable when things are done to a ridiculous degree, and it fights the serious themes the show had as an undercurrent. Again, some people like that kind of dissonance, but I generally don't. I just found it okay, and it detracted from my enjoyment of the early episodes, though I did like Nia's plot arc. Rating: good, relevant genres: action, sci-fi, comedy.
Hakumei and Mikochi (12 episodes + 1 OVA)—this is pure slice of life. It's like watching an animation of a children's storybook. That's not to say it's juvenile—there just are fairly low-consequence plots, but the art is gorgeous, the characters are all interesting, and it's just full of cuteness. If you like children's stories and slice of life, this is a good one to tackle. Rating: good, relevant genres: slice of life.
Hamtaro (105 episodes for the English version)—I don't even remember which channel aired this. Nickelodeon, I think, and I don't remember it running that long either, so they probably didn't have the entire run. Anyway, it's just about a group of hamsters who escape from their cages to get together and do slice of life things, plus their owners are also friends. Rating: decent, relevant genres: slice of life.
Hanasaku Iroha (The ABCs of Flower Blooming, 26 episodes + 1 movie)—here's the other one I alluded to, where I really liked it but can't say why. But then why didn't I rate it higher than this? Mostly because I think it relies a bit much on cliche and character types I don't like. This review won't actually be so short. I'm also going to see if I can manifest Bradel, my sensei of Japanese life, to explain a few things.
First, anime often portrays it as common for high school students to live alone, or at least with a roommate away from their families. Since they also depict schools as being very competitive, I could see, say, a rural kid living alone in the city to attend a prestigious school there. But is this really a common thing?
Anyway, main character Ohana lives with a crappy mother who makes her do all the household chores in addition to her schooling, and then executes a moonlight escape (move in the middle of the night to avoid debt collectors). Is that a thing too? Seems like it wouldn't put them off your trail very long. This leaves Ohana high and dry, and her mother leaves a note for her to travel way out in the country to live with her grandmother, who runs a hotel and bath. The mother and grandmother have never been on good terms with each other. When Ohana gets there, she's immediately put to work and told she'll be treated no better than any other employee, including being viciously slapped for a mistake. Is that a thing too? It also turns up a lot in anime. It's obviously dramatic, but I don't know how realistic it is. Ohana's embroiled in sorting out her feelings for a boy she left back in Tokyo, and while she does quickly make friends with a couple of her coworkers (one of which lives on site with her), one is very slow to warm up to her, and a love triangle even develops there.
The business is not doing that well, so they alternately try to find ways to improve it or consider shutting down, and... that's another thing I don't understand. It's more like the town owns the place and the grandmother is just the one who has the right to operate it. If she shuts down, then the building will remain intact, but it's not like she can sell it. She could take a hiatus and return later, but I just don't understand how all that works. Is it a thing, or is it some hand waving they did?
Oh, and a school festival is an important plot event, too. I know those are important from a school perspective, but for the whole community? Given that there are multiple levels of schools, and multiple schools in any urban area, it just seems like they'd be inundated with festivals, and yet anime always makes it looks like everyone from the area is itching to attend, even if they have no connection to the school. Is that a thing?
I think the real appeal for me was how fervent Ohana was in all her dealings. Wanting to figure out her romantic interests, wanting to do right by her grandmother and her job (to the point she even elects to help out at another understaffed hotel while on a class trip there), wanting to be there for her new friends, hoping she can salvage some sort of relationship with her mother. I found it all rather compelling.
Rating: good, relevant genres: slice of life, comedy, romance, coming of age.
Hanazuki: Full of Treasures (35 episodes)—probably anyone here was at least aware this series existed. It's fairly cute. Hanazuki and other beings like her are each entrusted with the care of a celestial body. Some of them are better at it than others, and there's a creeping evil pervading the universe that they're trying to resist. They can earn treasures from a weird sleeping baby creature when they're successful to help them in their fight. Hanazuki decides to assist a couple other of these people, one who's become too timid, and one who's decided it's hopeless to the point she's being counterproductive. It was a cute enough series, and the episodes are pretty short. The voice acting was pretty good, and I enjoyed it more for the aesthetic and character moments than the plot. Rating: decent, relevant genres: fantasy, adventure.
Hashiri Tsuzukette Yokattatte (I'm Glad I Could Keep Running, 4 episodes)—short run, and the individual episodes are pretty short, too. A new student at a voice acting school moves into his apartment to find a note left behind by the previous resident, wishing him luck. He actually encounters her later at the school, as she's a couple years ahead of him, and takes a bit of a romantic interest in her. Mostly, this is just slice of life of what happens at the school, and I think it would only have much appeal to people interested in voice acting. Rating: decent, relevant genres: slice of life, romance.
Hellsing Ultimate (10 episodes)—I'm not a big fan of vampire stuff, so I don't even recall the details of the plot here, just that some vampires want to Take Over the World by creating a vampire army for the Nazis, but the good guys have a heroic vampire of their own, Alucard, plus his master is no slouch. I remember there being a policewoman who was turned into a vampire and who now fights for the good guys, but I may be confusing that with the original series (though I don't think I've seen it). Not a bad action show, and if you like vampires, you could do worse. Rating: decent, relevant genres: fantasy, action, dark.
Hunter x Hunter (2011 version, 148 episodes)—there's way too much to cover here. Suffice it to say it's another of those shows where certain people each have a unique talent, and there's an organization that licenses them to use it so they can make a (rather good) living off it. There's an arc about going through that process, one about some crime lords fighting over rare items bound for an auction, one about people embroiled in a real-life video game, one about trying to eradicate a really nasty type of insectoid opponent. It's actually a pretty cool show, and one that's technically not finished, though I have my doubts as to whether it will continue sometime in the next ten years. It shares a lot in common, plot- and theme-wise, with things like Naruto, My Hero Academia, and... more of that type. Though if you're inclined to give a show of this length a shot, you probably already know about it. Rating: good, relevant genres: action, fantasy, adventure.
I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying (Danna ga Nani o Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken, 26 episodes)—these are really short, and you could watch the whole run in about 45 minutes. It's about a lady who's married a serious otaku but isn't really into that culture, so the misunderstandings she has with him and his friends. It's part comedy, part slice-of-life, so there's no plot to speak of, but it is pretty funny. I don't even remember which episode, but for effect to emphasize a character's emotional state, the background was overlaid with a stylized figure in a Noh mask giving the other character the finger, and it was so unexpectedly funny that I almost snorted water out my nose. Good for some quick-hit comedy. Rating: good, relevant genres: comedy, slice of life.
Interviews With Monster Girls (Demi-chan wa Kataritai, 12 episodes + 1 OVA)—there are certain kinds of supernatural creatures existing in the world, and they mostly try to blend in with society. A high school teacher takes it upon himself to learn what he can about the few students he has of that type. There's a vampire, an ice maiden, and a dullahan in his class, and one of the other teachers is a succubus. This is really cute, and nice touches like the physics of what happens when a dullahan's head is detached were pretty endearing. Being a monster (or demi, the term they use) is a genetic oddity, as it's not like the vampire comes from a family of vampires. They're all regular humans, including her twin sister. This is all clean fun, so no, she doesn't drink people's blood. It's provided by the government, though her teeth do itch at times, which she can only alleviate by nibbling on someone's arm (not in a painful way), and she prefers her sister's over anyone else. The dullahan was very cute, too, though they didn't do that much with the ice maiden. I do think a number of the topics this teacher talked about with them were inappropriate, though in all it's a nicely cute series. I'd heard rumors they may do another season, but that was long enough ago I've given up hope. Rating: good, relevant genres: slice of life.
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. 2 here
vol. 3 here
vol. 4 here
vol. 5 here
vol. 6 here
vol. 7 here
vol. 8 here
vol. 9 here
vol. 10 here
vol. 11 here
Hellsing Unltimate is basically the original. It was re-made to follow the storyline for the manga.
The Hellsing series before that stopped following that somewhere halfway I think? Just took a left turn into a corn field when their GPS said take a right.
Cells at Work is a delight. Gurren Lagann... I honestly enjoyed seeing just how over the top they could go. And for Hellsing Ultimate, well, the abridged series holds a special place in my heart.
Wait, is that why everyone in Aeon Flux looks like they're seven feet tall and a hundred pounds?
I am really looking forward to watching Cells at Work someday. :)
The one with the otaku husband does sound funny. :D
LMAO
For real though, other than DBZ, Gurren Lagann is the show people point to as the example of ridiculous power scaling. It's one of my all time favorites, but yeah, if you prefer more level stakes, I can see why you'd dislike it.
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I think Aeon Flux might have just been that way to start with.
Oh! I was going to tell you earlier, but then I forgot. Your last review convinced me to try Gunbuster out. It was pretty good, except for the parts that I absolutely hated!
So, first of all, I watched the 6-episode OVA, and I think you said you watched the movie. As I understand it, the movie is just a recut of the OVA, so I probably saw more material than your review was based on, but it was fundamentally the same material.
Anyway, some fun stuff with time dilation. The fight scenes varied--a lot of them were generic mecha-fightin', but the best ones really captured how space is big, and everything in it moves faster than a human can process. On a related note, how great was Smith! Or "the Smith plotline," I guess I mean: dude's majorly crushing on the MC, asks her to be his battle-buddy, she's all processing her feelings, and then HE IMMEDIATELY GETS KILLED AND IT'S ALMOST DEFINITELY HER FAULT. That's a great crushing twist, and I felt like it got just the right balance of being a defining character moment without being overplayed.
Visually, I'm not a robot fight guy, but I liked the overall aesthetic. And the super-80s fashion vibe was just my jam. But fashion is also where I got really upset with the show, because MAN, you were not kidding about the fanservice. Like, you warned me in the review, and I thought, "eh, I don't mind a little overly-sexual posing in my anime, no biggie," but... wow.
I never got past Noriko being a... what, 15 year old girl? 16? She's a freshman at the start, but I think in Japan K-12 is (/was) still generally on a 6-3-3 grouping rather than a 5-3-4. Regardless, I was extremely not okay with the blatantly and pointlessly titillating way she was depicted in... well, too many places to count. I think the scene where she's calling her friend on earth and gets her friend's daugher is the worst offender, and that's saying something. It's a sad, introspective moment, as she realizes she has nothing in common with the person she was closest to just a few (from her perspective) months ago. And yet, her posing and dress is all explicitly cheesecake, and when she flops over on her side and starts crying as she asks herself if this is what it was like for her dad, of course a boob's gotta slip out, because nothing says dramatic moment like underage titties, right?
Ugh. Maybe they toned some of the worst parts down in the movie; I hope so. Regardless, could've done with about 100% less of that.
Oh, and the ending did seem kinda mean-spirited, since you pointed it out. Best I can do by way of meta-explanation is point out that humanity has surely changed to a nearly unrecognizable degree in all those 1000s of years, and whatever posthumans inhabit the planet may be so emotionally removed from our modern standard that they literally don't realize that what they're doing might cause distress. Which probably means Noriko's about to have a real bad time trying to fit in with the post-humans, but eh, I'm just overthinking it.
Overall, a fine series with a couple of neat ideas and good art, and a real ick factor if you're gonna get hung up on things like age or objectification. So there you have it: your reviews have gotten at least one person to watch at least one thing, and he's not shouting "Pasco, you lie!" Good going, and thanks for the suggestion.
Gurren Lagann is a very bimodal series, for me. When it's good, I think it is often really quite good. The way the first episode introduces the two leads is and establishes their relationship, I think is nothing short of brilliant, and there's bits where the writing is weirdly smart and concise for such a wacky show. "Believe in the Kamina that believes in you," for example. It's very goofy, but this notion that a trusted authority figure putting his faith in you can and does matter a lot is completely true, and that's a very catchy and memorable way of saying that, which I'm really into.
But then so much of the actual screentime is goofy shenanigans that don't actually matter much, people screaming at each other, and redhead girl's cleavage going in people's faces, And I don't hate it, necessarily, but to me it's a series that spends most of its time very much not playing to its strengths, and I can't help but feel it might've made a better movie (They have made movies, but I've not seen them), or at least been improved by compacting it considerably. As it is, I can't see myself sitting through the whole thing. The animation is very pretty at times, though, and while the journey there might be a little hit-or-miss, the spectacle of the final battle seeing galaxies tossed around as weapons is something that does make me smile now and then.
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Yes, the movie did tone down a lot of the fan service, but some was still there. All you have to do is look at the promotional picture for the show and see what uniforms the girls are wearing.
I had actually forgotten about her being likely responsible for her crush dying, but now that you mention it, it definitely rings a bell.
My other issue with the ending is one you touched on: these people are going to be hopelessly lost relics in this new society. They'll probably be valued as subjects of study, but they're never going to get to the place where they can hold a good job, for instance. Heroes sure—they'll probably be provided for just out of gratitude, but they're never going to feel like they're contributing again.
My absolute favorite parts were her returning to Earth each time, and like you said, becoming quite alienated from her best friend due to the age gap and vast difference in life experience, then suddenly on the next trip she's meeting the granddaughter that the friend used to tell stories about them before she died. It was a striking and well done moment.
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Yes, I think you've hit on what never clicked with me about that show. It has some wonderful ideas, but it lets them slide by and drift away without playing to them, preferring to revel in some more random humor and fan service moments, Heck, even Yoko had some interesting aspects of her character arc, though they just liked to disarm most of her moments with "big tiddies, LOL." The fact that in the remade world she was a teacher says a lot about her.
FYI... Hamtaro aired on Cartoon Network, not Nickelodeon.