Pascoite gets bored and reviews anime, vol. 22 · 1:08am Dec 1st, 2021
One of these days, I just know I'm going to hit my keyboard one off and make the title "Pascoite gets vored." Thank goodness spellcheck still doesn't consider that a word.
It's a bit of an odd slate this week. Featured items are Read or Die and Scavengers, and there are a couple of rather popular series in the extra reviews, after the break.
Read or Die features a girl named Yumiko who is a papermaster, someone who has the supernatural ability to manipulate paper. She's part of a special ops team for the British government, who are the major international power in this universe.
The movie (well, it's an OVA, and the distinction between those, I guess, is one of distribution method, whereas I tend to call things OVAs if they're bonus episodes and movies if they're significantly longer) has them trying to thwart a terrorist plot in which the bad guy has essentially brought several historical figures to life out of their books and gets them to do his bidding. Like many villains, he's bent on taking over the world/killing everyone in it for fairly vague reasons, and his delivery method is by blasting a lost symphony of Beethoven's that's supposed to get people to commit suicide.
Just roll with it.
It's definitely a unique premise, and it follows a plot pretty much like you'd expect for a spy thriller. It's also pretty straightforward, so there's not a lot to summarize about it without getting into a spoiler-y plot summary. If a James Bond type of story chock full of literary/musical/historical/artistic references and the quirky gimmick of magical paper manipulation sounds interesting, then go for it. I found it pretty good. But the real reason this is up here is for:
Read or Die the TV Series follows three main characters who are papermasters, but unlike Yumiko's limitless abilities, these girls each have a specific focus. Michelle is the oldest and is a pretty typical airheaded blonde. Her specialty is crafting bow and arrows out of scrap paper. The middle one, Maggie, is also the tallest; she's the strong, silent type, and she serves as the straight man for a lot of the show's comedy moments. She's pretty much Maud Pie. She can assemble paper into large creatures and control them. And the youngest is Anita, who's a precocious young girl that can form paper into various bladed objects. They consider themselves honorary sisters. For ammo, they have to carry around extra books with them, though of course they feel bad about the need to tear them apart since they're all avid readers.
Some years after the movie, Yumiko has gone missing, and as she had served as friend and mentor to a lady named Nenene (resulting in her debut novel at age 13 selling like mad, though she's struggled a bit to achieve success since, as she never got any feedback from Yumiko about it and refuses to write again until she does), the sisters get assigned to visit her. At least they'd like to gather some information about what might have happened to Yumiko, but in case something suspect was going on and might paint a target on Nenene as well, they can serve as her bodyguards.
Nenene is a bit of a recluse, though, so constantly being around the three is grating on her, not least of which is Michelle's exuberant and effervescent personality and enthusiasm at meeting a famous author. There's a running theme through the show that articles of writing have power, and all four of them get caught between shifting sympathies with their own organization and another that are both trying to accumulate rare and famous historical documents. Similar to the movie, such things have a life of their own and can be used to change the world.
It's a pretty good intrigue show anyway, but the uniqueness of the premise made it interesting to watch, plus it did a good job of blending in comedy here and there.
Rating: good (OVA), very good (series).
Movie + 26 episodes, relevant genres: mystery, action, comedy.
It seems odd to put this up here too, and I wonder how many people have even heard of Scavengers. Just watch it. It's maybe five minutes long, and it shows the story of two people going through a very alien landscape. It's full of creative eye candy, and the plot, such as it is, has them going through kind of a "for want of a nail" scenario, starting with a simple object and using it to gradually trade their way up and up until they finally get what they want... and when you see what it is, it takes a minute for the significance to sink in. Then once it does, it's pretty heartbreaking.
Rating: very good.
Short film, relevant genres: sci-fi, slice of life.
I feel bad about having such a short review, and I was going to tackle an additional item up here to make up for it, but I have to go pretty far down my list before I hit another, so... until next time, then.
More of the good to not so good!
Samurai 7 (26 episodes)—understandably, this is based on the classic movie Seven Samurai. A village tired of being under the thumb of local bandits and a government that doesn't care to do anything decides to hire some samurai to protect them. However, they're a poor farming village, so all they can offer as pay is rice. Of course the right kind of person would see the nobility in helping them, so they do manage to hire 7. Not only do they train the villagers in how to defend themselves, but they assist in the fight against the bandits and eventually against the corrupt government as well. It's pretty similar to the movie, but it's set in a more steampunk world. I liked the art and characters but didn't find the plot that engaging. Rating: decent, relevant genres: action, adventure.
Samurai Champloo (26 episodes)—a reimagining of feudal Japanese culture with hip-hop influence thrown in. I didn't like it as much as most people seemed to, but I still thought it was good. Tea waitress Fuu gets into a bit of a mess through no fault of her own, and she ends up begging two men to protect her: Mugen, a badass outlaw, and Jin, a wandering samurai. They mistake each other for the enemy, but Fuu stops their fighting by persuading them to help her find a samurai she's been looking for most of her life. Then it almost turns into an anthology series as they travel around looking for clues to follow and causing/solving problems they encounter along the way. The actual plot doesn't pick up again until near the end, but it's one of those series where, quite literally, it's more about the journey than the destination. The art and characterization are great, and the music is good, if you like that style. It's definitely a quirky series, and it's another one that featured a very good baseball-centric episode. Rating: good, relevant genres: action, adventure, historical.
Serial Experiments Lain (13 episodes)—here's another one I didn't like as much as most people seem to. Lain is a middle school girl who's pretty isolated both at school and within her own family. Amid some strange happenings around town, a number of classmates get an email from a girl everyone thought was dead, but the message claims she's just transferred her consciousness to the web. And she's not the only one: there's an internet technologist who thinks everyone should migrate to the virtual world and is not keen on letting them have a choice. I was never too clear on why Lain was the key to this, but he thinks that if he can convince her, the rest will follow, and he uses a variety of tactics. Thus ensues lots of philosophical exposition on the nature of consciousness. Maybe people just found that engaging for some reason? It certainly wasn't the first property to investigate that concept. Ghost in the Shell notably did while still talking about a physical existence, and of course we have the "Friendship is Optimal" topic in this fandom. The art was fantastic, but the plot, to me, was a combination of going over my head and having seen it all before. Rating: decent, relevant genres: psychological, philosophical, drama.
Shin Chan (no idea how many episodes)—this is a huge franchise, and I watched 2 seasons of it, I think, that aired on Adult Swim. It's your standard random comedy, and it was reliably funny, but these kinds of things can only be stretched out so far before they lose their luster, and this is way longer than it needed to be. I rather like the lyrics to the closing credits song, though. Rating: decent, relevant genres: comedy, random, slice of life.
Silent Mobius (2 movies + 26 episodes)—I haven't seen the movies, and I think I've only seen about half the series. It ends abruptly, as there was supposed to be a second season, but it got cancelled. This show revels in the weird names. Main character Katsumi Liqueur is part of a special police force (a member of which is named Lebia... yeah, pronounced that way) who battle demons from another dimension called Lucifer Hawks. When you learn why humans tried to open the gate between universes in the first place, it's just dumb. But whatever, it goes wrong and the demons come looking for trouble. The head of the department is actually a half-demon, and Katsumi's father was part of the original project to open the gate, so there are layers of intertwined intrigue. Katsumi herself seems to have some connection to the demons as well—one of them repeatedly seeks her out, appears to have a romantic interest in her, and she has an ability to wield demon powers. The true nature of what's happening makes her question which side she should be on, so we have the trope of her friends trying to win her back. The premise and the air of mystery around it kept me interested for a while, but when the channel I watched it on ran out of episodes a little more than halfway through, I didn't bother tracking down the rest. Rating: decent, relevant genres: sci-fi, drama, thriller.
Sing "Yesterday" for Me (Iesutadei wo Utatte, 12 epsodes + 6 shorts)—this is yet another entry in the "I don't know whether what's presented as acceptable relationships in anime reflects what's acceptable in real-life Japan." Rikuo's life is going nowhere ever since college, and he's convinced himself he likes working his couple of part-time jobs as it gives him lots of flexibility. Then everything gets tangled. First, a high school student named Haru starts hanging around the convenience store a lot where he works. She knows his friend and coworker some, but she decides she rather likes Rikuo. She's about 16, and he'd be in his early to mid twenties, so that's already a bit much for me. Then his college classmate Shinako pops in, not knowing he works there. He'd had a crush on her and finally asked her out the day of their graduation, but she turned him down, since she'd taken a job as a teacher a significant distance away. Things didn't work out, though, and now she's working at a local school. And it turns out Haru is one of her students, though one who never attends anymore. Shinako's concerned about her, Rikuo sees an opportunity to maybe ask out Shinako again, but Haru's set her sights on him. She's changed her appearance, so he doesn't recognize her, but they'd met once before, and he'd left an impression on her. So starts the usual drama about Haru feeling like she's in competition with Shinako over Rikuo, but Shinako's not ready for a relationship yet, since she never got over the death years ago of a sickly boy she'd helped care for and fallen in love with, whose younger brother Ro is now also a student at the school, had a crush on Shinako all along, and is miffed that it never even occurred to her that she'd completely overlooked him in favor of his brother. But now we're talking about the same age difference as Rikuo/Haru. The obvious answer is for Ro and Haru to get together, but the two have zip for chemistry. The drama, art, and characters were fine, but the appropriateness factor kept me from enjoying it as much as I otherwise could have, and the resolution felt both creepy and a bit of a copout. Rating: good, relevant genres: romance, drama, coming of age.
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. 12 here
vol. 13 here
vol. 14 here
vol. 15 here
vol. 16 here
vol. 17 here
vol. 18 here
vol. 19 here
vol. 20 here
vol. 21 here
I still need to finish Samurai Champloo.
If you haven't already reviewed it, I'd be interested in reading your thoughts on Space Dandy. It's a very interesting series.
I think I still have my R.O.D the TV messenger bag from high school somewhere
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Space Dandy is coming up pretty soon, as I'm almost to that spot in the alphabet.
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How appropriate! I bet it felt right to have paper in it.
Silent Mobius. <.< This name is so familiar, and yet according to my lists, I've never seen it. The heck.
I forget, did you have Hyper Police on this list back in the H's?
I recall enjoying Samurai 7. I thought it was a fascinating recreation of the original concept.
Ah, the oddity that is Serial Experiments Lain. I was a teenager when I last saw it. I keep telling myself I need to see it again, but I just never get around to doing so.
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Nope, haven't seen it, but if you're recommending it, I'll add it to the list. Might be a while before I get to it though.
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I do think my opinion of Samurai 7 is more colored by just generally not being into historical feudal-era shows. While I didn't have many specific qualms with it or other similar shows (like Rurouni Kenshin), I just didn't enjoy them that much and didn't rate them very highly. Only superb art and voice acting raised Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit up into the higher tiers for me. That's another reason why I still haven't started on Basilisk despite really enjoying one of the writers.
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I'm not sure I could recommend it, as it was a favorite back in my young and horny days. <.< No telling if it had any other merits besides being furry.
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The description at least makes it sound cute.
This just hit me this morning, so: have you seen Genshiken yet? If not, this is me recommending Genshiken.
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I have not even heard of it, but I will add it to the list.
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And now that I've read the description, it brings several things to mind. One, the random comedy aspect sounds a lot like four series I've already reviewed, though they're high school instead of college: Azumanga Daioh (which this series makes direct references to), Cromartie High School, Nichijou, and Wasteful Days of High School Girls. I enjoyed all of those, particularly the last one. The otaku side reminds me of I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying (which I've reviewed) and Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku (which I haven't reviewed yet, but I'll go ahead and say I enjoyed). If this is a genre you like, then I think you'd enjoy any of those.
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Haven't seen any of those, actually. I shall have to add them to my (gargantuan) list.