Pascoite gets bored and reviews anime, vol. 37 · 9:57pm Jul 12th, 2022
Would have finished the alphabet this week, but I filled in a series that qualified for a feature. Need to find one more for next time! Featured items are a series from about a decade ago, Bunny Drop, and one a little newer, Your Lie in April, plus three other series and a movie, after the break.
Bunny Drop was recommended to me by themaskedferret, and it's just adorable. There isn't much plot to it, so there isn't much to summarize for it. It's just a slice of life about a thirty-year-old guy, Daikichi, who's on good terms with his family, but not particularly close, so that he hasn't seen them in a couple years when he gets notice that his grandfather suddenly died.
When he gets to his grandfather's house to attend the funeral, he notices a little girl hanging around. The only one he can think of who might be there is his cousin's daughter, but he hasn't seen her in so long that he wouldn't recognize her. When he asks his mother, she says no, that's not who the girl is, but doesn't elaborate. That other girl does eventually show up, and the two seem to play together okay, but everyone's mostly ignoring the unidentified girl.
Daikichi finally presses his mother on it, and she admits it's his grandfather's illegitimate child, Rin, who's six years old, and they don't know who the mother is. At least Daikichi has been trying to engage with her, though she's kind of skittish around all these strangers.
After the funeral, talk turns toward what is to be done with her. Various family members chime in about why they couldn't possibly care for her, and the consensus settle in that they'll have to take her to an orphanage. Daikichi won't hear of this, and he's more than a little mad that nobody will take responsibility for her. But as he's single and childless, they're equally amazed that he'd even think of taking her in.
But take her in he does, and what follows is a very sweet and touching story about how he has to rearrange his home, his job, and his life to accommodate this little girl. There are some short-lived elements of drama, but nothing that lasts more than a single episode. It's mostly slice of life at seeing how Rin develops into a well-adjusted girl once someone actually cares about her, and then it spreads so that the whole family adores her. There's an implied romance arc between Daikichi and the single mother of a little boy who's Rin's classmate and becomes a good friend to her, but that never goes anywhere definite.
One caveat: this show, like many, is based on a manga, and the manga continues the story a little more after a time skip, when Rin is in high school. Part of that is her realizing she likes that boy who's been her friend for so long, which would have also been fine to deal with in the anime, except that it's a different story. But there's one other development in the manga that I'm incredibly happy to see the anime skip, so I'll just say it's rather creepy. The stopping point the anime chose was perfectly fine, thank you. The art was mostly a simplistic style, but I think it fit well, and similarly, the music was cute but effective.
Rating: very good.
Usagi Drop, 11 episodes + 4 short specials, relevant genres: slice of life.
Your Lie in April is going to be a bit of a hard one to talk about for two reasons. For one, spoilers. For another, I always find it hard to gauge how much a layman will enjoy a series that involves a lot of technicalities about a specialized subject. I think in general a good series is good, period, unless it leans on the viewer having so much technical knowledge to understand what's happening that only that audience would like it. I think this one is generally understandable enough that it wouldn't have such a problem, but I'm too close to the subject matter to judge it well. Back to point one, though, there are a couple of plot points that are broadcast so obviously very early on that I consider them only minor spoilers.
This was recommended to me by a friend, and I otherwise had never heard of it, so I thought it'd be pretty obscure, except I recently saw it used as an example of a particular romance style in an article about the various types, so maybe it's more well-known than I thought. I'll warn you now, I'm going to ramble about this series.
Kousei is a young piano prodigy. His mother and her best friend were also up-and-coming pianists, but it caught them by surprise when, out of the blue, he sat at a piano at the age of 4 or so and perfectly replicated something they'd been playing. So he enters the world of competitive music. His mother really drills into him getting the music technically perfect, and forget the artistry of it, because in that age range, that's how you get the best scores. He has a couple of friends, a boy named Watari and a girl named Tsubaki, plus through his entry in piano competitions, he picks up a couple of rivals, also a boy and a girl, though the latter pair find him unapproachable. The attitude about music that's been hammered into him is to blame: everything has to be done to robotic perfection, so he doesn't have the mental space to get friendly with his competitors, much less even notice they're there.
About this time, his mother gets diagnosed with cancer. Realizing that her own dreams of becoming a famous pianist will never come true, she lives vicariously through her son, pushing him even harder toward perfection, forcing him to practice endlessly, forbidding him to play with his friends, becoming verbally and emotionally abusive. When she dies, Koumei loses all motivation to play anymore. I liked the differing ways his rivals react to that.
Two years later, Koumei does play a little, just for a side job transcribing pop songs to sheet music for karaoke places. His friends, on the other hand, are very athletic: Watari is captain of the soccer team, and Tsubaki is captain of the softball team. Watari is genuinely a nice guy, but he's also earned a reputation as a ladies' man. So Tsubaki introduces him to a girl friend she's met, and she wants to go along to see how their date plays out, but she also doesn't want to be a third wheel by herself, so she asks Koumei to come along, too. He might not have if he'd known what form that date would take: the friend, Kaori, is a promising young violinist, and they're going to watch her performance at a competition, in the same concert hall where Koumei used to compete. It's incredibly uncomfortable for him to be there.
However, he notes several things about Kaori's performance. One, she has very little desire to adhere to the strict technicalities of the music. Surprisingly, that doesn't bug him of its own accord, but he knows, as from a few years ago, that'll turn the judges against her. Two, that despite his own rigorous nature, he really enjoyed her performance. And three, the judges did rather savage her score, but the audience liked it so much that they gave her the popular vote spot to advance to the next round anyway. Unfortunately, her piano accompanist didn't much appreciate what she did any more than the judges did and quits.
Kaori knows exactly who Koumei is. She's also aware he hasn't been on the performance scene for years. So she makes him a personal project, not only to revive his love for music but to get herself an accompanist.
Some of that comes through in flashbacks, but that sets up the first couple of episodes' worth of the plot. There are going to be some intertwined love interests that come into play, and I think most of them were handled well, though a reveal at the end of the series represents a pretty pointlessly dumb decision on one character's part, I'll say. Another thing that was broadcast very early on is that Kaori has some sort of health problem.
So, there are a couple of the show's aspects I do want to discuss a bit. As I said, I'm pretty close to the subject matter. Violin and piano (and to a degree cello) are really the instruments that get such public attention like this. I didn't play one of those, and certainly not to this level of prestige—we're talking winning national competitions here. I never placed higher than third at the state level. But a lot of this rings very true. The kind of tension involved before an audition. Finding out through the grapevine someone considers you a rival and you drive them nuts, even though to your knowledge, you've never done anything to upset them, you interact for at most a day a year, and you're always perfectly pleasant to each other, so you wonder what the issue is. This show really gets the atmosphere and mentality of all that correct. At least until they kind of cheat and back off from it in the OVA.
Next is the music itself. A show like this had better have good music, and it does. However (and this involves a big but reasonable assumption on my part), you do have to take the characters' word on a lot of it. They talk about how one player took a piece faster, or played part of it louder, or ignored a musical direction. These are all real, famous pieces, and I can't believe, with the virtuosity it takes to play them, they actually hired someone to do a custom performance of them with those changes. I have to think it's just a stock recording of it, and they say those things without them even being true, just to suit the plot. Though I'd said I'm not a violinist or pianist, and I'll further cop to not even particularly liking to listen to much music with those as featured instruments, so I only have a passing familiarity with a lot of what they used. If I was much better versed in that repertoire, I'd have more of a leg to stand on when I say that. If I'm right, then I do feel like they're sweeping that aspect of it under the rug and hoping the audience won't know enough to notice, though I understand the expense that it would take to get it right.
And to Kaori's illness... they left it really vague. It was an odd combination of symptoms she had, one I couldn't see matching up with any real illness, though I'm no medical expert. I think it's telling that they never gave it a name, in which case they would be bound to a particular set, so I always felt like they were cafeteria-picking whatever they wanted for the plot to work. That can come across as cheap, and I still think it was played well, but it did keep leaving me with the sense that it didn't all fit together as cleanly as I wished it would. I'd say why, but that veers too much into spoilers. Of course her illness will be a major (A major... get it?) plot point, and there are four possible permutations: the condition can be serious or relatively minor (relative minor... get it?), and the treatment for it can be something with a high or low track record of success. Two of those are the most dramatic, but also would feel the cheapest: where it's a minor condition, easy to treat, but the patient is one of the very few unlucky ones; or the condition is dire and hard to treat, but they miraculously pull through. Then the more realistic: it's treatable, and they come through fine; or it's bad and they suffer a debilitating outcome. I won't say which... and come to think of it, I probably can't even say if I thought it was handled well, since that would narrow down which pair it was, and thus spoil specifically which scenario once you learn enough, about halfway through.
Suffice it to say there were things I liked or felt were off about it already, so regardless of how the medical drama went, I would have come to the same overall conclusion about it.
Art was very good, and it reminded me of something else I saw recently where the style just had a permanent blush to everyone's cheeks, even when they're not embarrassed, but I can't remember which series that was now. As I said, the music was very good as well.
Rating: very good.
Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, 22 episodes + 1 OVA, relevant genres: drama, romance, music.
And the extra stuff, mostly things I finished recently:
Big Fish & Begonia (Dàyú Hǎitáng, movie)—another of those family-friendly movies I mentioned adding to my watch list not long ago, this one made in China. Main character Chun is one of a race of people who exist on a plane where people go when they die. They call themselves The Others, and they also influence our world by managing things like weather and tides. Each year, all of the children who have turned 16 have to go through a ritual where they become dolphins and spend a week in the human world to witness firsthand what effect their people have there. But they are forbidden to interact directly with humans. When Chun's time there is up, she attempts to return, but gets caught in a fishing net, and a human boy dies while saving her. She does make it back, but then she becomes aware that it may be possible to reclaim the boy's soul and return him to the living world, as long as she's willing to pay the price. That's kind of a combination of things that have been done numerous times before, a bit like The Little Mermaid with some Orpheus thrown in. The plot then revolves around her efforts to secret the boy out, while dealing with the unintended effects it has on her world and the other people who become involved in her conspiracy. On the plus side, they do make sympathetic characters out of her and another boy, Qiu, who wants to help her. The animation is richly done, and I'd compare it favorably to Ghibli. Speaking of which, it does feel quite a bit like Spirited Away, in that it has me wondering if a lot of it would ring familiar to someone versed in Chinese lore. On the minus side, pacing was an issue, and it felt like a lot of the setbacks (and at least it had them) seemed to crop up conveniently, more than arising organically, including nobody seeming to miss Chun when she was gone for extended periods. There's also a dangling plot thread about what happens with the rat queen, and this soul Chun is trying to save spends much of the movie just being one of those generic injured animals that turn up in kids' movies everywhere. It's not a really strong conclusion, either, though I have mixed feelings about that. It's not unusual for such a movie to turn out that the protagonist can restore everything the way it's supposed to be, or possibly even better. Not so, here. People actually die, and while for the most part everything is repaired, it's still worse off than the way everything began. I can appreciate that as a more mature and realistic take, but then I would have wanted a clearer exploration of how things will be different now that it all didn't work out perfectly. Music tends to get more attention in movies than it does in a series, so I'd call it average, maybe a little better, as far as movies go, which is still pretty good overall. Rating: good, relevant genres: fantasy, drama.
Establishment in Life: Great Escape (12 episodes)—often shortened to Estab-Life. In the future, Tokyo has been divided into what seems like a fairly large number of self-contained districts that each requires inhabitants to live by its theme. For example, one is a gangster world. There's no ready way to travel between them (and no mention of what exists outside the city), so if someone is dissatisfied with where they find themselves and would like to relocate, they can hire a team of extractors to help. This team consists of five people who each have special powers. Main character Equa seems to have extraordinary luck in making decisions (which gets explained later) and is implied to maybe possibly be an android, Martes is a slime creature masquerading as human, Feles has nearly miraculous marksmanship skills, Ulula is an anthropomorphic dog with superior swordsmanship, and Alga is a smart-ass robot. Really, the fun is in seeing the random situations that exist in each of these districts and the strategy the team uses to help a client escape each one. I really enjoyed Feles and Alga as characters, but a little less than halfway through, the show started making some big missteps. One, they completely Flanderized Martes into a one-note character who'd lost any chance at becoming interesting, and there was a failed attempt to salvage that a bit in a late episode. Two, they tried to give the second half an actual plot, which undercut the first half's fun and lacked the investment to make me care much about it. It felt scattershot. Which isn't that surprising, as it's another one of those recent trends to do a multimedia release, so there will also be a movie and game, and there's no intent for them to share a continuity. That's why I'm going ahead with reviewing this before the movie comes out. It's a "turn your brain off and have fun with it" show, but one that does go a couple of rather stupid places. Very CGI, but a pretty good example of it, so I thought the art was good, and the music was also pretty good. Rating: decent, relevant genres: sci-fi, random, drama.
Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace (11 episodes)—I don't remember what first brought this series to my attention. It's a tribute to a legendary Japanese mystery writer. It kind of tries to strike two tones at once, to its detriment. For one, it walks you through solving mysteries, and they usually have fairly obvious solutions, so it comes across as similar to Encyclopedia Brown stories or episodes of Case Closed (Detectve Conan), more like something aimed at younger kids. But then it also portrays some very grisly crimes, and it shows some pretty adult content. For instance, the masochistic criminal consultant (think Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs) who comes all over the floor when insulted. Main character Kobayashi is a middle school genius who's immediately implicated for the murder of his teacher, but another genius, Akechi, who frequently works for the police, doesn't buy it. He agrees to let Kobayashi become his assistant if he can find the real killer. The first few episodes are standalone stories like that, but it eventually turns to an overarching plot about a vast conspiracy, and it was vague as to what the goal was. Add in a strange romance subplot: Kobayashi's best friend Hashiba helps as well, and in one instance, Kobayashi dresses as a girl to lure out a pedophile. Now, Kobayashi had been depicted as effeminate already. He has a very girlish figure, with a slim waist and wide hips, but once Hashiba sees him in a dress, he keeps catching himself checking Kobayashi out. It never goes anywhere. In the end, it's kind of a tonal mess with no real conclusions. Art was good, and the music was average. Rating: decent, relevant genres: mystery, drama.
The Girl in Twilight (Akanesasu Shoujo, 12 episodes)—main character Asuka is a member of a radio club in her high school along with four other girls. They've heard of an urban legend that if you stand in front of a particular sacred tree at exactly 4:44 and say some incantation, then you can travel to alternate realities, depending on what frequency your radio is set to. It's never worked for them before, but it hasn't stopped them from trying. Then a mysterious person drops a hint to a frequency that will work, and they begin exploring these worlds. Only there's a bigger phenomenon going on. They meet alternate versions of themselves, but there's something called Twilight that's trying to eradicate all of these realities one by one. They can stop it each time by defeating an enemy called a Clutter, and the girls each develop a transformation and special power. Really, this plot has a lot in common with an older show I reviewed earlier (and loved—it's one of my all-time top favorites) called Noein. Reality-hopping, one reality trying to assert its dominance over the rest, a single key event that spawned all of the pertinent ones in the first place: it's all common to both shows. On the plus side, it still makes for an interesting plot, the characters were well developed, and the action is pretty good. On the minus side, the girls develop their powers in sequence, meaning the show is well over halfway done before they all have them, so they only get used a couple times at most per character. And it strays into very blatant fan service in several places. It even comes to kind of a weak conclusion—I missed my guess as to who the head bad guy would be, but then it's unclear whether there ever actually was one, or maybe they're still out there. It at least does come to a thematic conclusion, and I did appreciate that it (mostly) earned the emotional appeal it was going for. Art was very good, and the music was pretty good as well. Rating: good, relevant genres: fantasy, adventure, action.
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. 27 here
vol. 28 here
vol. 29 here
vol. 30 here
vol. 31 here
vol. 32 here
vol. 33 here
vol. 34 here
vol. 35 here
vol. 36 here
Yeah man, after Martes' two episode destruction, I just couldn't bring myself to watch it again. Even the Idol episode isn't enough yet to get through that disappointment. Might have to wait for a while to let the damage fade.
Glad my recommendation made it on the list and so positively to boot.
5672014
I've got more of your recs on the list still to watch, plus you've steered me to several really good ones before.
5672002
I do think it'll be worth finishing it, once you can get the stomach for it. Nothing dips as low as the episode that made you quit, and there's only one other I'd call dumb, though at least it's not aggressively so. There were even two or three of the remaining ones that were rather good.
As far as music anime goes:
I don't recall if you've talked about Carole and Tuesday--two wanna-be musicians meet in a city on a terraformed Mars and start trying to earn a living--but I enjoyed that. They apparently hired a variety of musicians to write and perform the songs that are featured throughout the series, and I was surprised that the songs are pretty much all sung in English while the rest of the dialogue is in Japanese.
I also just finished--also on Netflix as everything is with me--watching a series called Blue Period about a 2nd year high school student who suddenly decides that he wants to go to art college when he graduates. It's got a nice "creativity is a learned skill rather than an inborn talent" message that I'm not quite sure I believe--I mean, I've been drawing my two webcomics for nearly a quarter of a century now, and I would call my drawing progress miniscule at best--but again, they apparently hired individual artists to create the various art pieces shown throughout the show.
And Komi Can't Communicate wraps up its 2nd season today, I think. Weren't you going to wait till that point to give it a look?
Mike
5672204
Haven't heard of Carole and Tuesday, but as I've tended to like much of the music-based animes I've seen, I'll look it up and see if it grabs me.
I added Blue Period to my watch list back when the trailer came out, so I'll get to it eventually.
Komi will eventually float to the top, but it's in a crowded genre, so I don't get to those very quickly. To me, the more pertinent question is: are they now going to make a third season? If so, I'll probably continue waiting. I'm nearing 200 items on my watch list, so most things stay there awhile.
Funny you mention Ferret and Bunny Drop. Just a few minutes ago, she described this headline as "BD IRL"
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In Estab Life, I kinda thought Equa was a horse, admittedly based entirely on her name and exactly one scene. Pretty much agreed on your notes about the show overall.
I've never seen Carole and Tuesday, but have heard it's good. Most music anime I've seen have been disappointing for me, if only because they end up not actually being about music at all. The only one I would mention would be Takt Op Destiny. Not necessarily a recommendation, but to say that it actually was about the music.
5672538
I enjoyed Anonymous Noise, and if you like alt rock, the soundtrack is pretty good. It's definitely about the music, intertwined as it is with the romance subplots, but the big issue is that it's one of those shows that never comes to a conclusion. Not one single plot thread gets resolved, and they even introduce a new once in the penultimate episode, only to have it go nowhere. But I did like the aesthetic. Polyphonica and its prequel Crimson S were alright, though the former definitely feels like a show that started out as a game. Belle and Whisper of the Heart (which I recently saw is getting a live-action treatment) are two very good movies with music as a central plot element.
And yeah, re: Bunny Drop, I'm glad the anime didn't cover the end of the manga. Even then, I've only seen a summary of it, stating that she suggests having a kid, so I don't know whether he's receptive to the idea.
5672580
If I read the description correctly, she's his grandfather's illegitimate child, so that would make her his half-aunt? Still too close for my comfort, but barely moves the needle on manga incest.
5672592
Yes, and he thinks his way through this in an early episode, but then he cringes a bit when he thinks she's figuring it out later on. She's up front about telling her friends and teachers that Daikichi isn't her dad, but she never explains what he is to them. I wonder if she doesn't figure it out at all until high school in the manga, because the summary said what prompts her suggestion is finding out he's not a blood relative. Except he actually is, so I don't know whether they make some convoluted explanation or if they're wrong.
And for me, it's a combo of how closely related they are and that he's 26 years older than her, at a time she's still in high school.