Chobits: Peace and Fear

I hate Chobits, as I’ve made clear more than once. I have enough on my plate that my essay on it is long in coming, but in the meantime, I recommend the above YouTube video from a user by the name of “Hiding in Public.”

Hiding in Public has a very different take on Chobits from my own, but I find it quite thoughtful, so I think it is worth hearing, and after I get my own essay up, his discussion will make for a good counterpoint to what I’ll have to say. Check it out.

Anime Review: ‘Darling in the FRANXX’

Where “riding a giant robot” takes on a new meaning.

Darling in the FRANXX, written by Naotaki Hayashi, et al. Directed by Atsushi Nishigori. Starring Yûto Uemura, Kana Ichinose, and Nanami Yamashita. A-1 Pictures / Trigger, . 24 episodes of 24 minutes (approx. ). Not rated.

Available on Crunchyroll.

Darling in the FRANXX made a stir when it appeared in , though most of the buzz that reached my ears had little to do with the quality of the show itself. On the one hand, I saw people praising it because they regarded its heroine, a girl called Zero Two, as good waifu material—humorous, of course, but not serious criticism. On the other hand, and much more bizarre, I saw people attacking it because the show’s ultimate message is (gasp) that marrying and having children might be worthwhile things to do.

It is a strange world where such a message is controversial, yet here we are.
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‘Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul’ Coming to America

The movie Dawn of the Deep Soul, which continues the story of the acclaimed Made in Abyss anime, which I have reviewed, is slated for an American release at Anime Boston on April 11, according to Crunchyroll. After that, the film will see (presumably limited) theatrical distribution.

Personally, I’m not sure if I should be thrilled or disappointed. Rumors have swirled around for a while about a sequel to Made in Abyss, and one was announced at a talk show some years back, followed by speculations on a 2019 release date.

2019 is obviously behind us, but with the upcoming movie set to continue the story where season 1 ended, it is no longer clear if there will be a season 2 at all.

Review Incoming: ‘Sailor Moon Super S’

Featured image: “Helios/Pegasus & Chibiusa” by Ami_Mizuno.

I’m just about done with Sailor Moon Super S, the season in which Sailor Chibi Moon gets a magical pony husbando. I need to review the manga to remind myself how it differs, and then I’ll put up a review.

In other news, I am naturally quite busy with various projects. The magical girl and I have begun figuring out the logistics for our wedding. Probably around next summer will be when it happens.

I’ve started the sequel to Rag & Muffin, under the working title of Rag Dolls, and I have begun building my Santa Claus library as I continue to construct the world bible for Son of Hel.

It’s my understanding that the second half of Sailor Moon: Sailor Stars is supposed to release next month, so once I’m done with Sailor Moon Super S, I might jump straight into the fifth and final arc of this franchise.

Anime Review: ‘Ultra Maniac’

Ultra Maniac, written by Miho Maruo and directed by Shinichi Masaki. Music by Toru Yukawa. Starring Akemi Kanda, Yuie Hori, and Hiroshi Kamiya. Based on the manga by Wataru Yoshizumi. Ashi Productions, 2003. 26 episodes of 24 minutes (approx. 10 hours and 24 minutes). Not rated.

Available on Crunchyroll.

The oddly named Ultra Maniac is a minor classic of the magical girl genre from the beginning of the twenty-first century. Although lackluster in its animation and presenting a more-or-less conventional plot, it contains enough unusual elements to make it stand out, and its satisfying ending comes as a genuinely pleasant surprise even if it could have been better set up.

A photograph of Nina and Ayu smiling
Nina and Ayu, our protagonists.

This anime is based on a manga by Wataru Yoshizumi, who’s most famous for Marmalade Boy. The manga and anime versions of Ultra Maniac, however, bear little resemblance to each other, as the former is more of a romantic comedy with magical elements while the latter is a straight-up magical girl show complete with the standard transformation sequences and McGuffin hunt.

Nina in her magical girl costume
Nina transforms … into possibly the frumpiest magical girl outfit ever.

The bizarre title is apparently in reference to the enthusiasm for manga that a couple of the characters have (maniac or mania being an older term for otaku), though this is downplayed in the anime to the point that the title is merely weird.

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Happy Sailor Moon’s Birthday

It’s June 30th, the official birthday of Sailor Moon. As this is the third or possibly the second most important holiday in the magical girl calendar, we cannot allow it to pass unnoticed. All are commanded to rejoice and make merry under penalty of death.

This is a traditional date for releasing news about the Sailor Moon franchise, and this year is no exception. According to CBR, there is now an official release date for Sailor Moon Eternal, the film that will form the sequel to the Sailor Moon Crystal anime series and interpret the manga’s fourth arc.

Here’s a teaser for the film:

This fourth arc is the one with Chibi Moon’s magic pony unicorn boyfriend. It just happens, coincidentally, to be where I’m at in the original ’90s anime … but it’s taking me a while to get through it because it’s really a downgrade after the show’s magnificent third season.

This film features yet another total character redesign, making the third for Sailor Moon Crystal. This time, the designs are by franchise veteran Kazuko Tadano, as reported by Anime News Network. The new, teased designs, as shown in the video above, look sort of like a hybrid cross between the original series and the new.

Some fans are excited, as I know from my Twitter feed, but my opinion is more mild, though that’s partly because I’ve gotten too old to geek out with wild abandon about this stuff. But what this all says to me is that Sailor Moon Crystal has been mostly a disaster. The first two seasons were poorly animated and poorly received, and the third, which revamped the character designs and brought on a new director, was only a slight improvement.

Each change in Crystal has been an attempt to bring it closer to the original ’90s anime: The third season reintroduced upgraded versions of the original’s poses, transformations, and hammy dialogue—but without the comedic timing or charm.

Getting the original character designer back on board appears to me just another acknowledgement that the new series failed to capture the magic of the original. This movie might end up being decent, but I doubt it will relieve this new incarnation of its reputation of being Sailor Moon: Also-Ran.

‘Key: The Metal Idol’: The Final Verdict

Dude, that was so metal.

Key: The Metal Idol. Written and directed by Hiroaki Satō. Produced by Shigehiro Suzuki and Atsushi Tanuma. Music by Tamiya Terashima. Studio Pierrot, 1994-1996. 13 episodes and 2 movies. Rated 16+.

Available on Crunchyroll.

This is an amazingly good show with haunting imagery, a brilliant story line, a satisfying conclusion, and one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in an anime. It’s not perfect, and the need to rush what was supposed to be its final half was nearly a disaster, but in spite of that, Satō and his obviously very capable crew of animators managed to pull this off.

A robot grabs an injured man's face from behind
A bad Monday at the office.

What’s most amazing to me about this, now that I’ve watched it, is that it’s not better known. It was overshadowed by other anime that came after it and that, in my humble opinion, were equally ambitious but not nearly as good—and certainly not nearly as intelligible. It is perhaps particularly astounding that they accomplished all that they did when the show was released specifically as an “experimental” title and sold extra-cheap. It was made with no faith that it could succeed.

Although it doesn’t look so strange nowadays when grimdark is the rule, we may guess some reasons why it was a risk at the time: Key takes some beloved tropes from Japanese culture head-on. It pulls apart Japan’s love of mecha and idols and robot girls. It deliberately makes all of these things look sick.

Key extends her hands toward the viewer
Key uses her power.

As a side note, for the teaser image of this post, I used what is probably the most iconic moment in Key: This image of her bursting nude from a robot’s body was reinterpreted in cover art and was subsequently reproduced in miniatures. This is basically an image of a young girl ripping a robot apart with her bare hands, an image that’s unquestionably striking and might have been stirring to its target audience of Nineties otaku.

Because this blog attempts to be halfway family-friendly, I had to clip the bottom part of the image; similarly, Pioneer had to censor the box art when releasing the original English dub:

Box art from Pioneer in which Key bursts from a robot
Those big metal chunks were not originally stretching across her chest or groin.

The grand finale, a movie-length “episode,” begins with an impatience-creating build-up. First, it opens with some of the most bizarre imagery from the series displayed under an extended version of the opening theme song. Then the screen goes black for almost half a minute while tense music plays and the opening credits start. So it takes its sweet time getting going.

Continue reading “‘Key: The Metal Idol’: The Final Verdict”

Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episode 14

Protip: If you’re developing super-secret military robots in order to sell them to a foreign power, don’t send them walking all over Tokyo while simultaneously using them to run an idol business.

Key: The Metal Idol, episodes 14, “System.” Written and directed by Hiroaki Satō. Produced by Shigehiro Suzuki and Atsushi Tanuma. Music by Tamiya Terashima. Studio Pierrot, 1994-1996. 13 episodes and 2 movies. Rated 16+.

Available on Crunchyroll.

The good news is that it’s not a complete disaster. The bad news is that it’s not all it could have been.

Shattered arm of a robot idol
What a disaster.

Through its thirteen-episode run, Key: The Metal Idol ratcheted up the tension with a measured and deliberate pace. Then, as so often happens to anime, the money fell through. Instead of producing another thirteen episodes as originally planned, Hiroaki Satō created two ninety-minute movies to finish off the story. This is the first of those two.

This movie is a massive infodump. Most of the “plot” consists of two guys sitting on a park bench and drinking beer while discussing Key’s extensive backstory. Occasionally, these sequences are punctuated by scenes of a crazy dude talking to himself … and discussing Key’s extensive backstory.

Tataki and Kagami talk in a park
“And then this chick was like, ‘I’m a robot,’ and I was like, ‘No way.'”

Although this is a terrible way to make a ninety-minute film, it nonetheless displays the consummate skill of the people working on this project, in that they succeeded in making much of this actually interesting. Yes, I definitely got antsy and fidgety at parts, but it really is a good story that the characters are telling each other, interspersed with arresting imagery and intriguing flashbacks. It finishes off with a good cliffhanger ending that sets up for the next, and final, film.

Miho gloats over Tsuruki, who's tied to a chair
This looks like my last date.

Also, I must give Key: The Metal Idol credit for laying its storyline at our feet in this way. Other anime that ran out of resources (I’m thinking mostly of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which is back in the news thanks to Netflix’s new dub) simply gave up on storytelling and took refuge in opacity and esoterica instead. By contrast, instead of telling us, “You just don’t understand because we’re deeply symbolic and stuff,” Key says, “We gotta tap out, but here’s a lengthy description of what’s happening before we go.”

I respect that.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episode 14”

Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episodes 12 and 13

Key: The Metal Idol, episodes 12–13, “Virus,” Parts 1 and 2. Written and directed by Hiroaki Satō. Produced by Shigehiro Suzuki and Atsushi Tanuma. Music by Tamiya Terashima. Studio Pierrot, 1994-1996. 13 episodes and 2 movies. Rated 16+.

Available on Crunchyroll.

We have now arrived at the final of the thirteen episodes of Key: The Metal Idol, and we may in a sense call this the end of the series. Originally, this series was supposed to be twenty-six episodes, but as often happens with anime, the money and other resources fell through, so the series rushed to its conclusion. According to common opinion, the first of the movies is a massive infodump and the second is a bunch of incoherent weird stuff. We’ll see for ourselves when we get to them.

And the weird stuff, at least, may have been planned from the beginning: After all, this anime makes a brief Easter egg homage to Eraserhead:

A close-up of Eraserhead placed on a shelf in a video store
I’m a big fan of David Lynch’s famous body horror “ERASER BEAD.”

These two episodes end as the first half of a series often will, with a minor victory for the protagonists and the promise of a new direction.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episodes 12 and 13”

Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episode 11

Key: The Metal Idol, episode 11, “Save.” Written and directed by Hiroaki Satō. Produced by Shigehiro Suzuki and Atsushi Tanuma. Music by Tamiya Terashima. Studio Pierrot, 1994-1996. 13 episodes and 2 movies. Rated 16+.

Available on Crunchyroll.

This is the last of the “stand-alone” (so to speak) episodes. After this comes another two-parter, and then it’s on to the two movies.

Key is in the hands of a crazy guy—and since the cast is made up almost entirely of crazy people, that’s not surprising. Tsurugi, the naked dude with glasses, has begun giving her dancing and singing lessons, except Key won’t dance or sing. She simply stands there while he plays piano.

Tsurugi is clearly up to something, but he appears to be playing some kind of reverse psychology game with her. Aware that she claims to be a robot, he tells her that if she had ever made an attempt to sing or dance, he would have thrown her out. He has in fact kept her on for a month now only because she refused to perform.

Key faces Tsurugi beside a piano
Key and Tsurugi.

He appears to be obsessed with her obsession: He probably does not believe she’s a real robot (nobody but Key herself seems to believe it), but he wants in some way to play on her belief and use it. He mocks her as unable to become human.

Tataki is back in town after having made some discoveries in Key’s rural home. He discovered that Key’s mother was a priestess (confirming that she’s the shrine maiden we’ve seen repeatedly), and was apparently believed to be some kind of wonder-worker. There are hints that Key’s mother had a cult of her own, perhaps not unlike the snake-cult that is still skulking around in the background.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episode 11”