Pascoite gets bored and reviews anime, vol. 34 · 11:47pm May 31st, 2022
Finally finished a couple of sequels so that I can review the original series as well. Featured items this week are SSSS.Dynazenon and Way of the Househusband, plus six other items, one of which I gather is considered a classic, after the break.
But first, before SSSS.Dynazenon, I need to cover the series it's a sequel to. SSSS.Gridman is a remake of an older series I haven't seen, so I can't comment on how similar they are or whether the new one is a faithful adaptation. Yuta is a high school student who suffered a memory loss at one point and was found by a classmate of his, Rikka. And I add her to a growing list of secondary characters who steal the show they're in.
The setting here is very strange. There are frequent attacks by monsters, but the next day, all damage to the city seems to be repaired, and nobody remembers the people who died or that it even happened at all. Except Yuta. Not only can he see the rampaging monsters, but even when they're not active, he can see them as silhouettes on the horizon, as if the city is encircled by a wall with them projected onto it.
Rikka's mom runs a kind of combination diner/secondhand items shop, and in an old monitor, Yuta sees some robotic entity pleading with him to help. So he agrees to, which is all it takes, and a giant version of this person, Gridman, fights off the monster.
There's really a lot going on here. It quickly becomes shown that someone is spawning all the monsters, and as Yuta continues to enable Gridman fighting them, Rikka and another classmate Sho assist however they can as well, which allows them to see everything, too. Below the surface level fighting plot, there's Yuta and Rikka trying to connect to each other, there's the person creating the monsters, who ends up having a reason for doing so, and there's the monsters themselves: most are mindless automatons, but a couple of specific ones aren't, and they have their own character development arcs. The way this is set up and the way the apparent villain behaves should pretty clearly point you toward what's really going on, but it was still revealed in a nice way. In fact, I'll say that this series is the only example I can think of where an animated show transitioned to live action at the end and that ended up feeling well-executed and completely appropriate. It caught me off guard, and I had to watch part of it again to make sure I was seeing it right.
It does feel over the top, but then it's supposed to. The music was fine, and the art was very good. I didn't really appreciate the notes of fan service, though, which mostly centered around the one creating the kaiju. Seriously, would any girl wear a really flimsy and revealing bikini on a class trip to go whitewater rafting?
In the end, there's a nice story about loss and feeling disconnected from everyone, and while a fair amount of it can easily be confusing, I did like it.
Rating: good.
12 episodes, relevant genres: sci-fi, action, drama.
SSSS.Dynazenon would initially appear to be a sequel, but then the action feels more like an independent story that just happens to tackle a similar plot with similar characters. But midway through, two other characters showed up that I suspected were from the first series, and it turns out they are.
This time, everyone can see when monsters attack. Main character Yomogi has a few issues going on in his life. When he's asked by a classmate named Yume to meet him under circumstances that would suggest a date, he recalls that she has a reputation for doing this and not showing. He goes anyway, and of course he gets stood up. But he'd met a strange guy earlier in the day and did him a favor, which now gets repaid by the guy, Gauma, finding Yume standing in a vantage point where she can observe Yomogi waiting for her. Gauma gives her a blistering rebuke, but then the first monster attack occurs, and Gauma drafts Yomogi, Yume, and a random passerby into piloting a giant mech with him to defeat the monster. Thus begins an uneasy alliance that will strengthen over time.
Like the first series, there's a lot going on. There's a team of bad guys causing the monster attacks, and the story is pretty vague with their reasons for doing so, but okay, there's subplot one. Yomogi does genuinely like Yume, so he tries to connect with her. Yume feels a keen sense of loss for her older sister who was found dead, even though they weren't close at all, and Yume is trying to not only understand her feelings about that but meet with people who knew her sister to reconstruct some narrative as to why it happened. The random guy drafted in is a NEET named Koyomi, who has some self-worth issues, as well as a notable connection to Yomogi's boss, plus he's very close to his cousin Chise. And for Chise's part, she feels like the fifth wheel, always on the outside of this team and having to stand aside while the real stuff goes on. They did a good job of giving everyone pretty distinct but relatable arcs.
And really, that's what I liked best about the show. The characters are great, and Chise is yet another second-tier character who shines better than most of the stars. The art was just as good as the first series, and I think the music was better. Plus there seems to be a suggestion that the two shows taken together are just examples of a larger phenomenon that occurs over multiple worlds or universes. It's even more over the top, particularly with the bombast surrounding different vehicles combining into the titular mech in their different versions, but deliberately so. If you like mecha anime with a dose of self-deprecation, this is a good one, but it's got genuinely heartfelt character drama as well, which was the draw for me.
Rating: very good.
12 episodes, relevant genres: sci-fi, action, drama.
Way of the Househusband is a little on the short side, running around 20 minutes, but each one is actually broken into 6 smaller skits that are individually numbered, so it technically has 60 episodes.
Tatsu is a legendary yakuza boss who is rumored to have taken down a huge number of his enemies all at once, singlehandedly. But he decided to step down so he could take care of the household while his wife Miku pursues her career as a designer. And he takes to it incredibly well.
He's super-passionate about using the right fabric softener, finding the best sales at the supermarket, getting a nice bento box ready for Miku to take to work, gossiping with the neighborhood ladies, etc., but he still has a super-intimidating vibe about him. Everyone's scared of Tatsu at first, though once they get to know him, they warm up to him. He encounters former rivals, who find he's just as tough as was rumored, though he's less concerned with beating the living shit out of them and more making sure that they're eating right. And a former associate wants to know what's up with him, too, so Tatsu tries to educate him on how fulfilling this life can be.
It's not all domestic stuff, either. He'll give frenemies advice on how to run their food truck (though his appearance does tend to frighten off customers), and Miku is a big fan of a particular anime, so Tatsu tries to hook her up with promotional items and fan events when he can. He's got a sweet streak to him.
It's not a sophisticated animation by any stretch of the imagination; it's composed of lots of still shots and simple motions, which put off some critics, but I think it suits it well. It sounds like a standard sitcom setup, but it does a lot better than the laugh-track-aided kinds of dumb jokes you'd expect from one, and this consistently had me laughing. The couple of shorts about their cat were a mixed bag, but the rest were one laugh after another. Plus Miku is adorable. It drops off some in the second half, as I didn't find those ones as reliably funny. Art is quirky but appropriate, and so is the music.
Rating: very good.
Gokushufudou, 10 episodes, relevant genres: slice of life, comedy.
And I'll hit that classic series up front, being near to the beginning of the alphabet as it is.
Basilisk (24 episodes)—when I first created my list of things I intended to watch several years ago, I added this series to it just on it being considered a classic, alongside other ones like Revolutionary Girl Utena, Bubblegum Crisis, and Madoka Magica, though I've gotten to very few of them since. When I found out one of my favorite writers had worked on this, I finally read up on the premise to see if I wanted to take it on sooner rather than later. It's a historical series about ninjas with supernatural powers, which is one of the genres I'm least interested in. (Still the only one I've genuinely enjoyed is Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit. Go watch it!) But I decided to bite the bullet a couple months ago. No surprise, but this didn't end up interesting me that much. I think the production values are all there: good art, good music, a varied cast of memorable characters. So that's more on me. I'd give it a good recommendation for people who do like that genre. As to plot, there are two clans that have been at an uneasy peace for centuries due to a decree from the shogunate, but that peace is secretly dissolved, which is only communicated to one of the clans at first in order to give them an advantage. And frankly, once you find out why, the reason is really dumb. Thus follows a battle between them. The goal isn't necessarily to eradicate the enemy entirely, just to kill all of their designated champions. It will not stretch anyone's imagination to say that this will be a battle of attrition, and it starts early in the run. Each side loses a warrior, and from then on, it's just whittling each side down to its last member. It's obvious who that last member will be as well, not just because it's the leader of each side, but because right from the outset, the two are placed in a Romeo and Juliet situation, and it hews to that so closely that nothing about that plotline comes as a surprise either. I did find some of the fights entertaining enough, and it can be interesting to see how opponents strategize against each other's powers. A warning, though: this is a pretty rape-y series. Rating: good, relevant genres: action, historical, drama, fantasy.
Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls (24 episodes)—and then I moved on to the sequel because I'm OCD. It has much the same plot, so I'll do it more as a compare and contrast. The clans are back in a truce status, and the champion ninjas for each were raised and trained together as children, so they have less of an "us vs them" mentality. The leader for each side looks almost exactly like the ones from the original, which makes sense, as they're supposed to be children of those characters, except... given the way the original ended, I don't see how they ever had children. So that part doesn't make sense. The reason why these clans unite against a single enemy is a much more solid motivation this time. However, a few of the powers these characters have get a bit skeezy. I mean... the original did have several with seduction-type abilities. So that's not new, but in this case, the ninjas have been developing and using those skills since they were quite young. How young, I can't tell, but they certainly looked to be under 10, which also jives with how much time is implied to have passed since then. Minor spoilers, but this also ends up being an identical war of attrition, but that's delayed until quite late in the series. Likewise, things get a bit rape-y, but only late in the series. The ending felt like a huge copout, though, and so did the villain's posturing just before that. "Hey, you two who I've been fighting the whole time. Drop on the floor and have sex right now in front of me, because that will enable me to raise the demon I've been trying to resurrect, which you've been opposed to, but if I ask you nicely, maybe you will." This was stupid. The title barely makes sense, either. Ouka is a power these two clan leaders can jointly use, but there isn't a scroll that has anything to do with it. The only scrolls significant to either series were in the original. So... fights and characters on a par with the original, better motivation for why the plot is happening, but worse squick factor involving underage kids and a dumber ending. I liked the sequel a tad better. Which still means it was a bit of a slog for me just on not liking the genre much, but I'd recommend it to those who do. Rating: good, relevant genres: action, historical, drama, fantasy.
W.I.T.C.H. (52 episodes)—this shares a lot in common with Winx Club, which I'll probably get to next time. In fact, they're so similar that it led to legal trouble between the two, and it was an odd situation with one being developed first but the other airing first, as far as I can recall. It's been a long time since I've seen either, so I don't remember a lot of the plot, just that this is a team of five girls who are trying to protect a fugitive princess from another world. It's a lot like many other magical girl shows, so the appeal is going to hinge on whether the slight differences in the premise grab you more than the next one does, but I will say it's a nice-looking show. Disney's not going to skimp on production values, even in the time well before they became particularly known for putting out good cartoon series in the last ten years or so. There is an issue with power creep—as soon as one batch of villains gets defeated, the heroes have to rise to the challenge of even tougher ones. Plus it got cancelled before a planned third season, so it doesn't come to a conclusion (and I'm not sure I saw all of the two seasons that did get produced). The music was average, though I did like the art style, which was good for its time, and I thought they developed the characters well. Rating: decent, relevant genres: action, fantasy, drama.
Waiting in the Summer (Ano Natsu de Matteru, 12 episodes + 1 OVA)—this story hits all the expected beats from a romantic comedy. There are a couple angles to make it a bit different, and they do a good job of making the characters likable, though the genre's generally good at it. A high school boy named Kaito likes to film things with an old handheld camera of his grandfather's that he found in a shed, and his entourage of friends help him make movies. Two girls and two guys, plus later on, a strange upperclassman who seems to have been a third-year student for several years now starts hanging out with them too. She always seems to know more about what's going on than anyone else. So what's going on? Right at the beginning of the first episode, Kaito's out at night filming when he's injured by a crashing spaceship. Its occupant, a girl named Ichika, has come to Earth to find a place that matches an inexplicable image she's had in her head all her life, but she gets entwined with this group as she tries to fit in at the local school while she looks. Of course they find out what she is, of course they all pledge to help her, of course Kaito and Ichika fall in love even though they've known each other for all of a week. And there's a predictable love chain as well. Person A likes person B but knows that B actually likes C and so tries to help set them up, but B knows that C actually likes D and so tries to help set them up, and so on. I always get frustrated by this kind of setup, because someone's always left out in the cold, and I end up feeling bad for them. And then of course some conflict will come up as to whether Ichika can stay on Earth, and it comes to a weak conclusion. There are hints that things can work out, for a given definition of work out, but even before that, someone predictably makes a promise they have no idea whether it's possible to keep, which, in my opinion, locks them into a lose-lose situation. So... nice character work, okay plot, vague ending, and the reason Ichika had that image in her head ends up barely making sense. There was kind of a deus ex machina bit near the end that was actually pretty amusing. Art was quite good, more for the backgrounds than the characters, and the music was pretty good. I waffled on how to rate it, but just on liking the characters as much as I did, I'll bump it up. Rating: good, relevant genres: romance, drama, sci-fi.
Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina (Majo no Tabitabi, 12 episodes)—now this is how to handle an anime of a manga that hasn't finished. Though as it's more an anthology, it's not necessarily going to lend itself to a strong conclusion anyway. The first couple of episodes are a bit misleading in how the rest will go. The first focuses on a young Elaina telling her parents she wants to study to become a witch, attending the witchcraft academy, seeking out a senior witch to take her as an apprentice, and being granted the title of full witch herself. Based on a book her mother used to read her when she was little, she decides to travel around as much as she can. The second has her feeling out what she's supposed to do now that she's on her own and fully vetted as a professional, and she meets a character who will turn up regularly. Together, they create the impression that she'll have this continuous character growth, but this is where it takes on much more of an anthology aspect. Various other characters do make repeat appearances, but for the most part, it's just Elaina encountering some odd new place or person each time and trying to solve a problem. Even then, it feels more like a series of fables. It's a little hard to explain. A more standard narrative would have her help with a conflict, learn something from it, and have it come to a conclusion, but a lot of these just kind of set up a situation to argue the philosophy of it, then leave it partially or completely unresolved. Think something like The Twilight Zone, where the purpose is frequently to deliver some twist, then just stop there and let you stew in the dark irony of it without ever bringing it to a close. A lot of it is like that. Some of the episodes are lighthearted, and some are pretty grim, but maybe half of them actually have her solve a problem. The rest just have her leave, mulling over the state of affairs that she can't or won't change. It's kind of an odd effect. There's a fair amount of comedy that comes into it, too, but not so much that I'd call it an overall genre. Early on, it even felt like it might be aimed at a younger audience, kind of like Little Witch Academia, but then a couple of the episodes were a bit on the adult side, and then one that was actually preceded by a content warning. That one broadcasts the "twist" early on, but I still found it effective because of Elaina's reaction to it all at the end. Art was very good, and the music was quite good, too. Just go into it expecting it to be more a series of thought pieces than complete stories. Rating: good, relevant genres: adventure, fantasy.
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. 24 here
vol. 25 here
vol. 26 here
vol. 27 here
vol. 28 here
vol. 29 here
vol. 30 here
vol. 31 here
vol. 32 here
vol. 33 here
I agree with your takes on the SSSS shows; Dynazenon improves on its predecessor in every way, which is notable given that the staff for both is essentially identical.
Also I'm just going to leave this here. Shiro Sagisu is one of the best composers working in anime, period.
I already do the cooking, am I on my way to being a house husband?
Gridman is an adaptation of a live-action tokusatsu show that was adapted by the US into *checks Wikipedia* Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.
And oh man, Househusband in manga form was quite popular on Tumblr for a while. I had no idea it was an anime! :D
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You could be, if you develop some sick fighting skills and know how to track down the latest Policure merch.
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I'd never watched that older series, but as I read the summary of it, I will say to anyone reading these comments, skip it for now, or it ruins Gridman's twist. And I will also say it makes the older series seem a lot more obvious about the frame story. In Gridman, it was left pretty vague.
And yes, Netflix turned Househusband into a 5-episode anime that did well enough to get renewed for another 5. Worth watching—it's really funny.