Hey, y’all! đ I was back on the Blasters and Blades podcast, this time chatting all things Gundam with some fellow giant robot nerds!
YouTube is linked above, but you can also watch/hear it on BitChute, Rumble, and Spotify.
Anime
Isekai Skies (Monster Punk Horizon #2) Cover Reveal!
Last week, you saw a peek at Book 1 in my new GameLit adventure comedy series, Monster Punk Horizon. đ
Now, since the second is going to crash-land soon after its release – a month, to be exact – here’s the cover reveal for Book 2! đŽ
Isekai Skies (Monster Punk Horizon #2)
đ GameLit đ Portal Fantasy đ Adventure đ Comedy đ
⨠Coming November 18th, 2021 â¨
Audio Release Date TBA
đđđ
I Got Engaged and Ended Up in Another World!
An epic convention. An epic cosplay. An epic engagement. It was the best night of Kaitoâs lifeâuntil the ground opened up beneath him.
Well, technically, a portal did. Either way, it sucked.
Now, trapped in another world with rampaging monsters, heâll have to learn to survive. Fortunately, this world is conveniently similar to his favorite video game. And heâs got monster hunting experts (?) Pix and Jaz to show him the ropes.
With their help, he might last long enough to find a way home.
But if not, at least heâll have fun hunting monsters before he dies!
Last week, you met my series protagonists Pix and Jaz, two girls who just want to hunt monsters and pay off their college loans. They were born and raised in the monster-dominated world under the Dazzling Skies, so named because its sky is taken up by thousands of glittering portals to other worlds, which constantly dump interesting loot and monsters for them to hunt –
And sometimes people for them to save.
Which makes the Dazzling Skies a perfect setting for an isekai story.
If you’re unfamiliar with the word – “isekai” is a Japanese term meaning “different world” and refers specifically to light novels and anime in which a character is transported from their familiar world into a fantasy world, often with distinct video game trappings.
I was indifferent to the isekai genre when I first encountered it several years ago, but as the genre developed and began to play with and parody its own tropes, I grew to love it – especially Overlord, The Rising of the Shield Hero and – I kid you not – Reborn as a Vending Machine, Now I Wander the Dungeon (Review here, btw! đ).
And, while I hadn’t set out to write isekai stories at the inception of this series, I quickly realized that the basic structure of the world I’d set up lent itself well to such stories. This structure, in turn, would allow me to show the bizarre world of the Dazzling Skies from an outsider’s perspective.
Book 2‘s protagonist, Kaito, is from a strange world himself – a far-future version of our world where everyone has hyper-advanced biotech altering their perception of reality, and where a particularly angry breed of cow changed the course of history – but the world under the Dazzling Skies is far stranger than anything he’s ever encountered. Though, fortunately for him, it does share some similarities with his favorite Immersive Video Game series … đ
Isekai Skies (Monster Punk Horizon #2) is set to release on Kindle Unlimited this November, and is already available for preorder.
And again, if you’d like to be one of the lucky people to read it early, be sure to join the Pug Scouts – our VIP Street Team! đ I’ll be sending out eARCs soon, and all you have to do in exchange for your free book is post a review once the book is live!
In the meantime, keep your eyes on the blog next week for the cover reveal of Monster Punk Horizon #3! đ
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.
H.P.’s Procrastination – er, Pumped for Writing Playlist- “Starlight Brigade”
Before I start writing, I often kick-start my creative brain by watching creative videos on YouTube.
Granted, sometimes this turns into outright procrastination, but it’s also led me to discover some neat stuff, so here’s a new feature showing off random cool videos that I’ve found, which have in turn become part of my “Pumped for Writing” playlist. đ
I love animation, and I especially love animated music videos. One of my favorites is that for TWRP and Dan Avidan’s “Starlight Brigade,” which continually leaves me disappointed that it’s not, in fact, the opening for a retro-homage anime. Enjoy!
Redline – Anime Review
While watching Promareâs spectacular animation, I was reminded quite a bit of Redline, and then when writing my Promare review, I realized Iâd never actually reviewed Redline. So Iâm here to remedy that.
Redline is a 2009 anime that follows the gloriously pompadoured Sweet JP as he and his Trans Am compete to win the titular race. Trouble is, heâs racing against a horde of drivers with wildly tricked-out vehicles that frequently include missiles and other ridiculousness as standard gear. And theyâre all racing against the government of Roboworld, which doesnât want them on its planet and wonât hesitate to unleash its full arsenal to stop them.
https://youtu.be/rRLPdgcGPRg
For viewer purposes, though, the plot is âVROOM VROOM DRIVE FASTâ because this isnât a movie you watch for plot. This is a movie you watch for its achievement – a completely hand-drawn animated feature film by a first time director who, through it, has already made his masterpiece. Redline took seven years to complete, and every second of it shows.
These days, with our glut of committee-produced CG animation franchises, itâs easy to forget that animation is indeed an art form capable of depicting motion and emotion in ways live action or even photorealistic CG canât even approach. Itâs hard not to look at the work of, say, Richard Williams, once youâve picked your jaw up off the floor, and say âGOD. An actual human hand-drew all the pictures necessary to create that.â In Japan, Masaaki Yuasaâs work attains the same level of sheer detailed, exuberant weirdness, and Redlineâs Takeshi Koike is also in that boat.
Redlineâs basic design is a joy to behold. Itâs bursting with so many unusual characters, cars, and background details that I find new things to stare at every time I watch, and theyâre all delightfully nuts. The racers themselves are clearly the product of animators who were told to design whatever they wanted and not only ran with it, but jumped in a car and punched the Nos (or, in Redlineâs world, steamlight) before they even landed in the seat.
But as delightful as they are to look at while static, they are simply amazing to watch in motion. While literally every scene is bursting with clever art direction and brilliant color, the racing scenes are (of course) where itâs at. The animation is so fluid that one might be tempted to think itâs CG, until you realize that the squash and stretch distortions necessary to create that kind of on-screen motion are just barely possible with todayâs CG, and certainly werenât in 2009. And then there are the moments when the film foregoes ârealisticâ motion altogether, as when JP uses his steamlight booster, where it stretches the character to impossible but no less energetic dimensions. Thatâs the word to describe Redlineâs animation – energetic, and often downright exhilarating. The animators give attention to even the smallest details of their charactersâ racing – the flapping of steamlight tubes, the incessant shaking of the car (and different parts of the car) as they barrel toward the finish line (or away from enemy bombs, lasers, biological weapons, what have you). Even individual missile shots have their own unique animations. Itâs undeniably gratuitous, but itâs also essential to the heart-poundingly bonkers fun of the whole thing.
On that note, James Shimojiâs soundtrack also deserves a mention; itâs as quirky and energetic as the movie that it scores, even if many of its tracks are too short to be fully enjoyed independently of their role in the movie. (Most of the tracks on the album end just as they feel like theyâre getting started.) However, the opening score in particular – âYellow Lineâ – is a lengthy, thumping track thatâll have you wanting to hop in your own car and just speed everywhere. âRedlineâ is a fun medley of that and the main themes of the final racers, and âKare No Shift Wa BunBunBunâ is worth a listen just to hear the SuperBoins try to say âWe are sexy girlsâ in English (as if you somehow missed that they are The Sexy Girls of the movie).
Admittedly, Redline isnât a movie for everyone. Non-anime fans may find themselves distracted by its sheer, unbridled craziness, and the plot and characterization is so meager that it feels like itâs literally only there to be the vehicle by which the charactersâ cars race. As much as I fangirl over this movie, I have to admit that it took me two or three watches to really get into it, so if youâre unimpressed by spectacle, Redline will never be your thing.
But if you have even the slightest appreciation for the art of animation and the energy of well-done anime, youâll find a real treasure in this movie.
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.
Promare – Anime Review
Pssh. Right, like a Trigger movie would come to our local theatre and it NOT be a Mandatory Date Night.
Promare starts with a literal bang, as half the worldâs population spontaneously bursts into flames, thus marking the Great World Blaze and the appearance of the Burnish – people with fire-manipulating powers who set the world aflame not because they want to, but because they must. And when fire can literally attack – well, suddenly firefighters have a whole new job.
New to the Burnish-fighting/rescue operation Burning Rescue, Galo Thymos is a rookie firefighter with a burning soul and a city to save – but when he apprehends the leader of the terrorist organization Mad Burnish, he discovers a challenge far darker and more complex than he could have ever imagined.
Okay, first off – watch this movie. Just watch it. If you have ever been a fan of anything Trigger or Trigger-adjacent, it is a gift to your eyeballs.
Studio Trigger at its best has always been known for its spectacular, frenetic animation and design. Even the self-consciously low-budget Kill la Kill rocked every single frame of animation that ever touched a screen and Promare, with all the advantages of a movie budget, is so beautiful that I would have cried – had I not been occupied by fits of uncontrollable grinning.
See, Trigger knows what its fans want – namely bold, bombastic heroes, high tech robots hecking stuff up, and outright ridiculous action – and Promare dumps all that onto the screen as soon as it starts. It takes a break a little bit afterward for plot, but then goes right back to what we love with a third act full of so many mecha transformations and WTF moments that itâs hard not to leave the theatre in a state of sheer vibrating nerd bliss.
The plot, unfortunately, is not as strong as its execution. Not that itâs bad – it moves along at an engaging pace and thereâs never a dull moment – but given what Iâve seen from other Trigger productions of its type, I expected more. Trigger at its best has a talent for taking a visual motif and weaving it through the entire theme of the work. In Gurren Lagann (not technically Trigger, but still its spiritual predecessor), the visual concept of a spiral connected the protagonistâs defining drill to the spiral of human DNA and eventually to the resilient, overcoming power of humanity itself. In Kill la Kill, the concept of threads and clothing…well. Itâs complicated and clever and absolutely nuts, and quite frankly, itâs easier to just go watch Kill la Kill.
Thus, given that Promare starts with a bunch of angry people bursting into flame and the centrality of fire to all human life (After all, it was one of our first tools), I expected a commentary on the all-consuming and all-empowering natures of both anger and fire – especially relevant in todayâs angry society – or perhaps some twist relating the thematic concept of fire to humanity as a whole. Instead the movie takes a far more simplistic direction, and though one of its major themes centers upon how humans treat each other, itâs handled in such a predictable way that it became the one truly disappointing part of the movie. But then, I fully concede that it was mainly disappointing in comparison to my expectations.
At the same time, though, half the fun of going into a Trigger work for me is imagining the ridiculous ways in which its visuals and design might tie into its theme, and while most works since Kill la Kill have let me down in that respect, the thought process is still so fun that I donât plan to give it up.
The only other disappointing element was that Galo was, in fact, not actually a resurrected Kamina (from Gurren Lagann), despite having his same basic character design and personality, and Iâm still perplexed by the studioâs choice to make Promareâs protagonist essentially identical to one of its most iconic characters. Though, given how much fan chat leading up to the movie centered around the mystery of âIs it Kamina or not?â perhaps it was merely a clever marketing move.
After all, Trigger has time and again shown itself to be clever with design, and Promare is no exception. The film absolutely gleams with style, from the simplicity of its cityscapes to its unusual color choices (The fire is pink and yellow) to its imaginative character designs to its aesthetic attention to even the most minute background details (Thereâs a polygonal visual motif that extends even to the movieâs lens flares).
Also, Hiroyuki Sawanoâs (always) explosive musical score and Superflyâs fist-pumping pop themes are a pile of cherries on top of an already huge movie sundae – though letâs be real, Sawano could write a score to a blank screen and it would be the most exciting blank screen youâd ever watched or would ever watch again.
Overall, Promare was spectacularly worth the cost of a Fathom Events ticket, and it already has a designated space on my Blu-Ray shelf (whenever it finally releases). Viewers who are unfamiliar with Trigger may not appreciate all its stylistic tropes, but even new fans will recognize it for what it is – a bombastic love letter to us and everything we love about Triggerâs anime.
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.
Food Wars (S1) – Anime Review
After subjecting Jacob to the emasculating experience that was Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, I decided to have some mercy and suggest Food Wars, which has become famous (infamous?) for its fanservice.
Food Wars (aka Shokugeki no Soma) follows amateur chef Yukihira Soma, whose dream of becoming a full time chef at his fatherâs restaurant is derailed when his dad suddenly closes up shop to travel – and tells him he can only have it if he survives the rigorous training at the elite Totsuki Culinary Academy. This being a shonen anime, nearly every episode comes down to a high-stakes shokugeki – a cooking duel through which students settle debates and rivalries – and through which Soma learns much about cooking and about himself.
Food Wars has become my new second-favorite anime, yâall. It very nearly dethroned Gurren Lagann as my absolute favorite, but there are few anime out there like Gurren Lagann, and many food anime, so Food Wars sits solidly at #2.
This comes as a surprise to no one who knows me, because first of all, FOOD. But Iâm also an enthusiastic fan of weird, well-executed premises, complex characterization, meaningful conflicts, and good-natured, genuine competition (as opposed to angst-ridden competitive nastiness), and Food Wars has all of those.
But then thereâs the fanservice.
Normally I canât stand blatant fanservice, so it takes an extra special twist to even get me to watch a fanservice show. (See again: FOOD.) Even with the food appeal, though, I initially wasnât sure about it, as many reviewers had been uncomfortable with the fanservice, some going as far as to call it rapey.
But fear not: That is (mostly) pure Internet exaggeration.
Still, that said, if no amount of food will make you comfortable with sudden explosive nudity, donât even try Food Wars. As with many cooking-themed anime, much of the comedy comes from charactersâ over-exaggerated reactions to the taste of food, and in Food Warsâ case, Somaâs cooking launches diners into such overwhelming fits of bliss that their clothes periodically burst off in no small approximation of orgasmic pleasure. Though I disagree, I can see why some viewers would compare Food Wars to porn.
I mean…
The difference between Food Wars and other fanservice shows, though, is that Food Wars generally handles its fanservice with class (if such a word can be applied to fanservice).*
First – and most pivotally – though Somaâs cooking makes clothes explode off left and right, he himself is absolutely unaware of this (possibly because all the nudity seems to happen in the same alternate dimension as magical girl costume transformation). He just wants to make people happy with his cooking, and given how sensual the best cooking can be, itâs perhaps not inappropriate that his customers have sensual reactions to match. The point is, no one in this series gawks at nudity that wasnât meant for their eyes, and even the fanservicey characters are only treated as such for the self-aware humor of it. (It is a blatantly un-ironic joke that the most scantily-clad female is a master of meat, but even then, that joke rarely leaves a cooking context).
Second, the fanservice is equal opportunity. Though the majority of it is female, the series doesnât shy away from male nudity (young or old). One main male character literally walks around in an apron and nothing else in several scenes.
Finally, the fanservice isnât even exclusively human. If this series is aiming to be any sort of porn, itâs foodporn. The food art in this series is hands down the best Iâve seen in any anime ever, and I literally ended every episode saying âI want to cook that.â Not only that, the level of detail the series puts into describing the techniques behind each dish shows dedication far beyond what one would expect from a typical anime production. Real research went into making the culinary facets of this show work, and it shows in every episode. My only dislike about this research is that the more complex the charactersâ challenges become, the more complex their ingredient requirements, such that, by the end of the first season, I couldnât make anything in my own kitchen without visiting a specialty store first or learning a very specific time-consuming technique.
But seriously, even if youâre indifferent to everything else about this show, watch it for the food.
All this foodie goodness, though, flows on the hands of the showâs characters like the waves of the most delicious mosh pit. Thereâs not a single unlikable character in this show, even among the antagonists. All of the characters face each other in the spirit of competition rather than generic antagonism; all are fully rounded people with their own hopes, goals, and high stakes to overcome, such that even when an opponent character loses, the viewer has a reason to be bummed for them. The one possible exception to this is antagonist Erina Nakiri, whose hypersensitive God Tongue is so thwarted by Somaâs cooking that sheâd love to see him fail, but even then she judges him fairly.
Strangely, the weakest character of the bunch is Soma himself. Heâs a typical shonen protagonist, determined to win no matter the stakes, but he often raises the stakes so high himself that viewers automatically know heâs going to win. After all, if the showâs about a cooking school, it canât go on if its main character loses enrollment in a bet! As a result, thereâs absolutely no tension in the show, except where the semi-expendable minor characters are concerned. But then, even though you know Somaâs going to win, seeing how he does it is a real treat, and therein lies the showâs real suspense.
The same is true, if not more true, of all the other characters. Consider that each character represents a different preferred ingredient, style of cooking, or even food preparation technique, and youâve got a show that is downright educational! Iâve learned more about creative cooking from this show than Iâve learned from years of Food Network and cookbooks.
In short, Food Wars is a masterpiece. Watch it.
***
*Admittedly, the first episode piles on the fanservice (see: the above gif), as do some of the finale episodes, and there are a few references to tentacle hentai here and there (usually in reference to one particularly disgusting squid dish – thus why some viewers have called it rapey). But outside those instances, the show tones itself down significantly.
P.S. – If you want to recreate some dishes from the show, AniTAY has a series of recipes modified from a few episodes. The Gotcha Pork recipe is now a mainstay at House Holo, but I recommend separating it into 4 to 6 smaller loaves rather than two big ones, as theyâre easier to move off the pan when finished. They will take an extra pack of bacon, though.
P.P.S – Iâve also finished Season 2, but I donât plan to review it because itâll just be more of the same gushery. And the complaint that, now that the characters are competing in very advanced competitions, with recipes to match, little amateur me has no hope of being able to cook these foods.
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.
Akame Ga Kill – Anime Review
*Thanks to reader John B. for the recommendation! đ
Akame Ga Kill is a deceptive series.
Its colorful character designs and opening set up – Main character Tatsumi leaves home with two friends to join the Capital army and Be Good Guys – lead the viewer to think that itâs going to be a fun shonen series where characters solve problems through lots of yelling and the power of friendship. After all, the showâs first problem sees Tatsumi separated from his friends and resting at the home of a sweet, hospitable aristocratic family and their soft-hearted daughter, Aria.
It’s not fifteen minutes before the series goes âLOL jk ;Pâ and rears its disturbing head.
Tatsumiâs two friends? Oh, he finds them. In a vast and gory torture house kept by that familyâs sweet, soft-hearted daughter. Who captures and kills lower class wayfarers, because why not? After all, theyâre just poor and unnecessary people.
In case you need more evidence of how crazy she is, here’s a pic of her at the height of her crazy:
And the Capital that Tatsumi aims to fight for? Turns out it’s full of more of the same. But he doesn’t find this out until Night Raid, a notorious team of assassins, shows up at the torture house to reveal the truth. Everyone outside the capital has been lied to about the Capitalâs competence and purity. By that point, Tatsumiâs allegiance is decided.
Akame Ga Kill, then, is the story of Night Raid as they assassinate all the bad guys.
Akame Ga Kill is a flawed anime, but if youâre looking for a bright, colorful, and yet exceedingly tragic, bloody show, it fits the bill. Its particular brand of insanity is what anime does best – and oh, there is SO MUCH insanity – but you have to be in the mood for its violent sense of morality.
Granted, the series isnât trying to make you ponder the complexities of said morality. It gets around the obvious moral issue of solving problems though murder by making most every one of the antagonists an undeniable caricature of abject evil. Prime Minister Honest (ha) is a nasty piece of work, the true power behind the child Emperorâs throne, interested only in maintaining his power and blatantly corrupting the young Emperor to do it, all while munching gluttonously on raw meat.
The most obvious in the series, though, is General Esdeath. One of the most powerful military leaders in the Empire, her mantra is âThe strong survive and the weak die,â and she tests the strength of her opponents to sadistic ends, at one point even burying a population of 400,000 people alive.
In most cases, I’d consider the extreme characterization to be cheap writing, but Akame Ga Kill has such fun with the absolute wackiness of its characters, good and bad, that this was for once forgivable. Seryu Ubiquitous may be an overzealous Capital soldier with a twisted sense of justice, but this zeal also led her to have hidden guns installed in the stumps of her arms and her throat, which is simultaneously disturbing and hilarious.
And thatâs before you even get to the adorable horror that is her pet (and additional weapon) Coro.
(This is not his final form.)
For real, this show watches like Soul Eater and One Piece had a baby and then left it to be raised by Future Diary.
That said, Akame Ga Kill is a show that you watch for how wack it is. Even the good guys have their levels of crazy, like Sheele, whose backstory is that sheâs so darn clumsy and absent-minded that she can’t find anything sheâs good at…until she happens to go on a murdering spree and realizes sheâs just that good at killing people. (Also she fights with a giant pair of scissors.)
And even though Tatsumi is easily the most well-balanced of the characters, it takes him and his innocent-looking sweater less than half an episode to decide that he wants to kill everyone heâd wanted to work for fifteen minutes before.
But that doesn’t mean the characters aren’t well developed in their own weird ways. The first several episodes of the series are a bit average, but when The Jaegers take the place of the early antagonists, the series really begins to take off.
Mundane-looking Wave is a do-gooder like Tatsumi who just hasn’t realized what the Capitalâs up to. Heâs what Tatsumi could have become if he hadnât come upon Ariaâs murder house, and this makes him surprisingly easy to sympathize with. Bols is a creepy-looking silent type…who stays creepily silent only because he’s too shy to speak up, and is actually something of a family man. Angel-haired Run is allied to the Capital only because he sees the revolutionary cause as a lost one and wants to do actual good from within the flawed structure. Though Seryu is nuts, she genuinely believes her intentions are pure. Granted, the stylish Dr. Stylish is just nuts and the remaining Kurome has a rather uninteresting backstory. But even General Esdeath has a softer side: despite her infamous sadism, she only wants to experience true love, and when she eats a good ice cream, wonders if her soldiers would enjoy it. This doesn’t really make up for the fact that she’s an absolute sociopath, but it is amusing to watch, if only for its absurdity.
Overall, this is a show that you watch more for its characters than its plot – first because the plot is the very simple âKill all the bad guys,â second because the plot is not very good.
Akame Ga Kill watches like a show that tries to do both too much and too little in the expanse of its allotted time. The first several episodes watch like baddie-of-the-week filler, albeit entertaining filler. The series also introduces the concept of the 48 Imperial Arms – some truly neat magical weapons – but doesn’t explore them beyond using them to give the characters their identifying abilities, and generally watches like a device that was intended for a longer show that didn’t happen. (We donât even see half of the 48.) There’s also a point where Esdeath decides that Tatsumi is her true love; Tatsumi confesses his connection to Night Raid in the same episode, hoping her affection for him will cause her to change sides. She doesn’t, viewing his confession as merely cute, which is not remotely believable behavior for a general whoâs famous for subjugating enemies of the Empire in horrific ways – and whose very goal is to destroy Night Raid.
The climax of the show is also a hot mess, with the young Emperor realizing that he hasnât been a good Emperor and that heâs been surrounded by complete sadists (HOW COULD HE NOT NOTICE?)…and then bemoaning his condition by whipping out the biggest Imperial Arms ever and wrecking the heck out of the Capital. Because that will certainly make up for all his failures. đ
Thereâs not even a clear reason for the title by the end. Sure, the titular tsundere Akame plays a significant role in the series, especially after her sister Kurome shows up as an antagonist, but her roleâs no more significant than that of the other protagonists. (Itâs telling that I didnât feel the need to mention her before this point.)
Maybe she earned the title because sheâs one of the few survivors? (Oh, right, like you expected a show like this to let your favorite characters live. đ )
Still, despite its flaws, Akame Ga Kill is worth watching for what it does well. Itâs not for everyone – particularly those who dislike bloody violence or shows that require a huge suspension of disbelief – but if youâre already accustomed to the wacky heights that anime can achieve, it’s a fun show.
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.
Last Exile – Anime Review
From Amazon: It’s the dawn of the Golden Age of Aviation on planet Prester, and retro-futuristic sky vehicles known as vanships dominate the horizon. Claus Valca – a flyboy born with the right stuff – and his fiery navigator Lavie are fearless racers obsessed with becoming the first sky couriers to cross the Grand Stream in a vanship. But when the high-flying duo encounters a mysterious girl named Alvis, they are thrust into the middle of an endless battle between Anatoray and Disith – two countries systematically destroying each other according to the code of chivalric warfare. Lives will be lost and legacies determined as Claus and Lavie attempt to bring peace to their world by solving the riddle of its chaotic core.
Last Exile holds a special place in my heart because it was the first anime I bought in full, special edition art box and all, as a budding otaku. This was back in the days when you had to pay $30 for a measly three-to-four episodes, so that was easily $200+ of my hard-earned teenage money.
But now itâs time for The Culling. A house only has so much shelf space, so Jacob and I occasionally go through our anime collection to see A) which old multi-volume favorites have been replaced with slimmer single-volume complete collections, or B) which ones simply arenât earning their shelf space.
All of which was why I was both excited and nervous to watch Last Exile again for the first time since high school. Would it hold up to the nostalgic glow that Iâd so lovingly pictured around it?
Now that weâve finished it again, the answer is a resounding âUGHHHHH NOOOOO. ;_;â
Not even that classy opening could save it.
Donât get me wrong. Last Exile is a gem for a certain audience, but unfortunately that is the narrow audience of âsteampunk anime fans who are willing to sit through inadvertently inconsistent and stupid characters, lazy plotting, and a let-down of a big reveal all because, on its surface, the series looks darn cool.â And aesthetically, it does.
Last Exileâs neat combination of steampunk/dieselpunk (for the warring nations of Anatoray and Disith) and futuristic design (for The Guild) is what drew me to the series in the first place, and for me, that production design was enough to carry me though the entire series, watching both as a teen and as an adult. Range Murata, who to this day is one of my favorite designers, did fantastic work bringing the world of Last Exile to life, from the unique (if wildly impractical) vanship designs to the clean, geometric aesthetic of The Guild to the simple appeal of the charactersâ facial designs. Itâs also rare to see art that can do so much with greys, browns, and muted colors and still make for an ultimately optimistic-feeling show, but Last Exileâs design pulls that off with panache.
Which makes it all the more unfortunate that the rest of the show doesnât live up to that. Though the design of the show is good, the actual animation that goes into it is inconsistent. Most of the time, itâs good enough, but the moments when it falters, it does so in a big way, like one shot in which a crying, sniffling characterâs face seems to implode on itself with each sniffle (pretty sure noses donât move that way, even for the most intense cries). There are also moments where the CG flickers, which is distracting.
Worse than that, though, are the characters and handling of the plot. Again, donât get me wrong – the characters are basically likable and interesting (except for Alex Row, who comes across as Diet Zero-Calorie Captain Herlock), but there are many obvious points where the writers inserted dialogue or conflict solely for the purpose of tension – for example, early on, where the main characters stress about having to fly into a war zone even though moments earlier, theyâd literally chosen to fly into the exact same war zone to deliver a message that isnât even related to the battle. There are also moments where the characters fail to make obvious observations – when it takes Klaus several minutes to realize that Dio is from The Guild, despite The Guildâs very obvious eccentricity and appearance, or, worst of all, when Alvis suddenly starts FREAKING GLOWING AND MESSING UP SHIP INSTRUMENTATION AND NO ONE STOPS TO SAY, âHEY THAT WAS WEIRD. WHY WAS SHE GLOWING?â Even though two main characters were in the room to see it happen. đ Not to mention that, despite being Guild members (if runaways), and thus members of an enemy faction, Dio and his companion are given complete freedom to roam the famed Silvana. đ Like, how does this ship even manage to stay in the air, much less become one of the most feared ships in this show? đ đ đ
Anyway, all of this is done in service to the plot, which aims to keep secrets from the viewer in attempt to prepare for a big payoff at the end – the viewer learns little meaningful information about why Alvis is so important to Exile, what Exile even is, why Anatoray and Disith are fighting in the first place, etc. until the last several episodes of the series. By then, the viewerâs patience is spent, and the reveals arenât even that good. SPOILERS: Anatoray and Disith are fighting because Disithâs land is becoming uninhabitable and its people need a new home. Exile is a device meant to carry people off the planet to a more habitable world (or perhaps regenerate the present dying world. The series wasn’t incredibly clear on that). Alvis is a key to activating Exile.
As reveals go, these are all pretty basic, and I would have much preferred to watch a series where these points were revealed early on, and time was spent answering questions about the world around them.
Like, if they have big olâ warships with ranged guns, why do they bring the ships close to each other to fight with musketeers?
If Anatoray and Disith are able to come to a truce so easily, whyâd they even war to begin with?
How did The Guild even come to be? Whyâs The Guild so weird? Whatâs up with that wack coming of age ceremony? Like Guild why even?
What exactly is Claudia fluid and what does it even do? Okay, to be fair, itâs the magic BS that allows these impossible aerial designs to fly, but even then, whereâs it come from? Howâs it work? If itâs apparently easier to come by than water (you never see Klaus and Lavie worrying about the quality or amount of their Claudia fluid, after all), whyâs the variety of flying vehicles so limited? For that matter, if Claudia fluid allows The Guild to maintain its posh floating fortress, why shouldnât Disith use it to power alternative housing? Man, you could almost write a Dune-scale series about the economics and politics of Claudia fluid. (*Quietly goes to plot the intricacies of clarien fluid…*)
Finally, if Exile was built to get people off-slash-save a planet, why make it so crazy hard to find and activate? And why use something as specific as a magic little girl and some words that are only passed along orally? What if the words get changed or forgotten over the ages? Also why wrap the thing in killer spaghetti robots? Thatâs like giving a person all the M&Ms in the universe but coating all of them in a poison shell – except these M&Ms can save a whole population, which makes it worse.
The first third of the series is fun, but Episodes 13-16 provide the clearest proof of how the series fails. These episodes reveal information and twists that, by all means, should have been earth-shaking for the series, but since itâs so badly set up, the viewer has no emotional connection to anything thatâs going on. You know youâre supposed to be surprised and intrigued by whatâs happening, but itâs just not there, and that same feeling of lost potential continues through the end of the series, where I literally did not care about anything that happened in the last six episodes.
Ultimately, Last Exile tries to be a character-driven political sci-fi war drama, but since it never focuses on any one of those things, it fails at all of them. Dedicated steampunk and dieselpunk fans will enjoy it for the aesthetic, but even for those fans, only the first 10 or so episodes will be worth it. The rest will just be a glaring example of a series with worlds of squandered potential.
Itâs still staying on my shelf, though. The nostalgia factor is just too great. (And I really do like those first 10 episodes.)
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.
The Empire of Corpses – Anime Review
In The Empire of Corpses, the dead walk the earth. In this reality, the famous reanimation research conducted by Viktor Frankenstein was not chased away with torches and pitchforks, but rather accepted and expanded to the point where corpse engineering is an accepted field of study and the dead are revived and repurposed for tasks the living would rather not do, from fighting wars to performing menial labor. However, these dead are not nearly as functional as The One perfect revival that Frankenstein was able to produce. Soon after perfecting this One, he disappeared, and his notes with him, leaving corpse engineers to conduct the same research themselves. Thus far theyâve only been able to manage shuffling, shambling reanimations with limited capacity for thought and no semblance of a soul.
John Watson aims to fix that. Obsessed with restoring a soul to his deceased (and reanimated) friend Friday, he accepts a mission from the British Secret Service to find Frankensteinâs original notes. But in the process, he uncovers many darker secretsâŚ
WARNING: HERE BE SPOILERS.
When I first heard about The Empire of Corpses, I squealed in fangirlish glee because here was a whirlwind of things I love â Lavish animation! Steampunk! Creepy sci-fi! Anime! â wrapped up in one beautiful burst of a trailer. I mean look at this:
All this to say, I don’t know how you can take a film about steampunk science zombies and make it boring as hell, but this film did it with panache.
That panache is literally the only reason to watch The Empire of Corpses. The mechanical designs in the film, especially the analytical engines and Frankensteinâs book, are wonderfully complex, and the character designs are mostly fun, too, if sometimes distracting:
Literally everything else is a slow-burning mess.
The film had the basis for an interesting world. I really enjoyed how heavily the science relied on Charles Babbageâs analytical engine and variations to make Necroware â corpse technology â work. The very world of the movie also raises several interesting questions: How did people become so cool with the dead walking around and doing their chores? What about the living people that the dead put out of a job? Do the dead have basic human rights? What happens if the dead regain their souls and become sentient? What is the basis of a soul? Entire worlds of moral, economic, and spiritual questions are raised by the simple, wide presence of the reanimated dead.
Unfortunately the movie answers none of them in a satisfying way.
The first third of the movie, though the slowest part, is the best because itâs the part that presents the questions that it actually plans to address â namely those relating to the soul and how to reclaim it. (This is not a movie that is interested in socioeconomic world-building.)
However, the moment an isolated corpse engineer, Alexei Karamazov, kills one of Watsonâs traveling companions to make a point about corpse engineering, the movie begins to tumble downhill fast. The deceased Nikolai Krasotkin is a character weâre supposed to like, but havenât gotten time to know before his death, which is a problem that recurs in this movie. The death itself is also completely stupid and self-righteous. The reveal? In order to create a sentient, at least sort-of-ensouled corpse, one has to first lull and drug a living person, and then skewer their spinal cord with the Necroware so that they die (er, un-die?). Which kind of seems like the opposite of progress.
Nonetheless, Alexei skewers a still-living Nikolai to prove this point to Watson, then driven mad by this knowledge, skewers his own spinal cord with Necroware. Just before he proceeds to tell Watson where Frankensteinâs notes are, and that he must destroy them, all the while dying (or un-dying) all over the poor guy. Because obviously there was no easier way to relay this kind of information. đ
The last time we see Alexei and Nikolai, theyâre reanimated shells of their former selves, reenacting daily life with a creepy, soulless lack of direction. Because obviously the best way to carry out a madness-induced suicide is to do it with a machine that will bring you sort-of back to life. đ đ đ
These egregious flaws-in-logic-for-the-sake-of-sort-of-horror-drama dominate and ruin the rest of the film. Nearly every time a new discovery is made, it raises a question that tears at the threads of the storyâs world. Ooo, Lilith Hadaly has tech that can control corpses! Why was this not revealed like an hour ago? Why is it not in widespread use? Ooo, Thomas Edison created an automaton who is not only a babe but sentient enough that she can be sad about not having emotions? đ Screw light bulbs, why isnât he making more of those? If complex automatons are even a thing that can happen, why bother reanimating smelly, stiff dead people at all? The very end of the movie shows Watson hooking himself up to his Necroware in hopes of reconnecting with Friday, whichâŚok how is that better than just staying alive and sentient and continuing research? I mean, as a viewer, I was glad for the implication that Watson was finally dead-ish (more on that later) because at least he wouldnât be able to make any more stupid decisions that endanger the whole human race (like NOT BURNING THE FREAKING BOOK even after TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE almost succeed at TURNING THE WHOLE WORLD INTO FREAKING ZOMBIES WITH IT OMG.)
My whole review literally could have read as this:
With a heaping side of:
As if I didnât ask why enough, the film is also peppered with more literary and scientific references than it had any reason to include. Frankenstein and Babbage were necessary to the plot, but Thomas Edison? John Watson? Both of those characters could have had different names without it having any effect on the story – except for an after-credits sequence, wherein John Watson (still somehow alive) is revealed to have befriended who else but Sherlock Holmes, and Lilith Hadaly is now going by the name of Irene Adler. This does give the movie the novelty of presenting the one Watson who is more insane than Holmes, but again:
Thatâs not even the end of it. The climax of the movie is the biggest mess, coming down to a corpse-control transmitter that can apparently transmit to the whole world at once, The One being interested in Frankensteinâs book because Bride of Frankensteinâs soul or something or other, both The One and a mysterious eyepatch dude agreeing that human emotions/souls cause all kind of problems and wouldnât we all just be better off as lifeless zombie people anyway, and green soul magic wherein Friday regains a soul but itâs Frankensteinâs? Maybe? And then loses it? And then gains one again? And loses it, too? I didnât even care by that point. The only thing I was really paying attention to was the admittedly badass organ that The One played while doing his soul science BS.
Iâm in the minority with this review, most of the ones I read before watching being glowing reviews. To which I say: What secret, hidden version of the movie did you guys watch, and how do I get my hands on it?
The Empire of Corpses had the potential to be an excellent piece of steampunk horror sci-fi, but as is, itâs an example of every way not to be one.
Charlotte – Anime Review
Jacob and I reached a point last month where we couldn’t take Crunchyroll‘s repetitive commercials anymore, so we sprung for a Premium membership. Since then, I’ve been using that as an excuse to fall asleep to the sweet, sweet sounds of anime.
My most recent binge has been Charlotte, which I watched primarily because I was curious what the title had to do with its premise of “teens with superpowers at a superpower school.”
In the series, Yu Otosaka has the ability to take over other people’s consciousnesses. The catch? He can only do it for a few seconds at a time, and his own body loses consciousness while he’s out of it. Even so, it’s useful for things like cheating on tests and rising through the ranks of his school…which catches the attention of Nao Tomori. She’s the student council president of a school for students with similar abilities, and if he doesn’t come with her, there’s a significant chance he might be captured by another organization that has plans for people with superpowers – and they’re not good ones. With a threat like that – and a little sister to take care of – how could Otosaka turn her down?
The unique twist in the series’ premise is that all the teens’ powers will disappear after adolescence, and as powerful as they are, all their powers come with some pretty significant drawbacks. One character can turn invisible, but only to one person at a time; another can move at super fast speeds, but can’t control his stops – all of which, in a way, make the characters’ situations more unfortunate, not because of the inconvenience, but because people with torturous intents are hunting them for abilities that won’t even last.
That said, if you’re into superpowers and uncontrollable crying, Charlotte is a show for you.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB5qUxR6ch4&w=560&h=315]
As evidenced by the opening titles alone, the production value of the series is quite high. The studios that collaborated on it – Key, P.A. Works, and Aniplex – were also responsible for Angel Beats, which was gorgeous to watch, if a bit boring in spots. The animation and music are on par with that (even if the accent on the English singing is a little heavy), and are so infectious to experience that I’d have probably finished the series even if it was otherwise mediocre. Fortunately, it’s not.
Charlotte is a more character-driven show than one might expect, with the superpowers being a vehicle for a surprisingly emotional story. All the main characters are complex and flawed: Yu loves his little sis but isn’t very grateful for her own expressions of love; Nao is clever and determined to save teens like her, but also comes across as self-centered and self-righteous to the point where some other students beat her up for it. The first several episodes are fairly light, even goofy examinations of these relationships as these characters seek out a superpower-of-the-episode. Then comes Episode 6, where the plot takes an almost Madoka Magica-like turn, rips your heart out, and then sends it careening through the next seven episodes to the end. I was in no hurry to watch the first half of the series, but the last half I finished in a single, voracious sitting.
Strong characterizations aside, Charlotte‘s greatest strength is its sheer unpredictability. Sometimes this results in weird tonal conflicts: It’s hard to believe that the first episodes and intense last episodes are even part of the same series. Some of the humor even in the early part comes across as over the top, and some episodes (8 and 9 in particular) rely on an enormously convenient coincidence. However, the good parts are structured so well that those don’t diminish the entertainment value.
The only exception to this is the very end, which is so stupid that I sincerely wish I’d skipped the last episode. SPOILER ALERT: Without giving too much away, the characters decide that the best way to prevent anti-powers atrocities from happening is to remove superpowers from every teen in the world indiscriminately, which is an enormous waste of a rare and awesome resource – not to mention hugely unethical. Despite his righteous intent, one main character becomes famous in the international powered community as a power-stealing terror – and yet is still depicted as a good guy, complete with uplifting inspirational music and his own happy(ish) ending. I understand what the story was going for; after all, a lot of the kids were genuinely suffering because of their powers, often imprisoned in labs or camps specifically intended to exploit those powers. But when he took healing powers from an un-oppressed girl in a rural village – without her consent, all for the sake of completeness – the story lost its credibility.
TL;DR: You will do yourself a huge favor by ignoring the last episode entirely. The main arc wraps up in the previous episode, anyway, so you’ll literally miss nothing.
Final episode aside, Charlotte‘s still a pretty entertaining show. It’s not the best series I’ve watched this year, but it definitely deserves a watch if you enjoy both emotions and superpowers in your anime. Just skip the end – I mean it – unless you want to exercise your eye-rolling muscles.
Berserk (2016, S1) – Anime Review
Sometimes you just want to watch a grimdark drama where everything is a disaster and you can’t do anything about it so why bother? This year’s election coverage should sate that thirst.
But if it doesn’t, there’s Berserk.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAkl2uJEuA4&w=560&h=315]
Note: I’m about to spoil a whole TV series and three movies and several volumes of the Berserk manga, so if you haven’t experienced any of these yet, consider this your SPOILER WARNING. Also might as well throw in every TRIGGER WARNING ever because if Berserk hasn’t made it to one yet, chances are it will eventually.
Berserk is basically “Everything sucks and then you die” given anime form. The series’ Golden Age arc, covered in a 1997 TV series, the 2012-2013 movies, and the manga (duh) is a medieval epic of warring nations, charismatic mercenary leaders, and badass swordsmen (and one swordswoman), but it ends with the infamous Eclipse Ceremony, wherein said leader sacrifices his whole mercenary band to become a god and everyone is eaten by grotesque hellish demons – except the main character, who loses one arm and one eye and has to use the other to watch his former-BFF-now-hella-enemy rape his girl until she literally goes insane.
Welcome to the Conviction Arc.
This year’s bright and cheery series picks up where the Golden Age arc left off (*in the anime. In the manga, the Black Swordsman arc bridges the two). Protagonist Guts has left former-awesome-woman-soldier-now-witless-girlfriend Casca under the watch of the blacksmith Godo and is off to find and kill the Apostles of the evil God Hand. (Also Griffith because there’s no way a man can watch another man do that do his woman and not kill the heck out of him). Before he can accomplish this, though, he has to chop through all the evil spirits attracted by the cursed brand on his neck – and on Casca’s, once she inadvertently escapes from the safety of an enchanted cave. His search for her leads him to a refugee settlement surrounding the Tower of Conviction, where he is frequently thwarted by Mozgus, the Chief Inquisitor of the Holy See, and not really thwarted by Farnese de Vandimion of the Holy Iron Chain Knights, though she tries, bless her heart.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Berserk is absolutely an adult anime. There’s blood and gore galore, grotesque and disturbing situations, and thoroughly creepy character designs, though the much-needed comic relief of the fairy Puck serves to alleviate some of this.
However, it’s also a fantastic medieval horror fantasy based upon what is possibly the best dark fantasy manga out there, and the strength of its characters and story is what keeps it from descending into torture porn.
Content aside, the first thing you should know about this Berserk series is that it seems to be made for existing Berserk fans, more so than newbies. Though the plot will make sense with minimal context, you absolutely need to have read the Golden Age arc in the manga or watched the 1997 TV series to appreciate the emotional baggage behind what goes on, especially regarding former-bro-now-evil-god Griffith, who is a likable, even admirable character in the Golden Age (until he’s not), and Casca, who is one of the best female characters in anime (until she loses her mind). I leave the movies out because, though they cover the same material, and though they’re entertaining, they aren’t so good at establishing the necessary emotional connections.
Once you know what you’re starting, you’re in for a pretty solid series. The pacing is good, and though some features of the story are exaggerated – pretty much every scene with Guts and that person-sized metal bludgeon he calls a sword; Mozgus; the horror elements in general – the story itself stays grounded with relatable side characters, in particular a group of prostitutes who take in the lost Casca:
Luca is a motherly figure who just wants to keep her girls safe; Nina is well-meaning but also abundantly terrified by their situation, enough that she frequently flip-flops between loyalty to her friends and a sense of sheer panicked self-preservation (so, the most realistic character in this series). Outside of that group, Farnese is a flagellant who punishes herself for not living up to her position as leader of the Holy Iron Chain Knights, even as she struggles with the perceived rightness of the Holy See’s actions; and Jerome is a soldier who’s just tired of this sh*t but can’t say anything because really who’s going to challenge this guy?
Still, if there weren’t characters like Guts to make this face back at Mozgus every once in a while, Berserk wouldn’t have a story – just pages and pages of carnage:
Arguably, Guts is the weakest character in terms of development. He literally has about three expressions, which are angry, Resting Badass Face, and the iconic Berserk Grin above. It’s not that he isn’t a complex character. He is. It’s just that all his development happened in the previous arc, and with that out of the way – not to mention all the trauma he met at the hands of Griffith – all his personality has room to do is care for Casca and kill demons.
Likewise, the series’ antagonist is not very complex, either. Mozgus thinks he’s a good guy but he also keeps a lavish, bloody torture chamber and carries portable breaking wheels on his carriage in case he has to whip them out on the road. (You never know when you’ll have to do an impromptu holy scourging!) There are moments where he seems merciful, but nah, it’s a trap.
Nothing in this series is good without 1) being a trap or 2) dying fast.
So far so good, but if anything in this series has been a point of contention for fans, it’s the animation. The movies’ blend of 2D and cel-shaded 3D was controversial when they released, and this series’ blend was no less so, largely because Berserk has a rough art style that suits its content, and you can’t achieve the same effect with CG (or at least the movies didn’t). Though the CG in the movies wasn’t necessarily bad, it was still robotic and clean enough to be distracting.
This is still true of the 2016 series. However, it’s not quite as bad here, the reasons being that the series does a vastly better job of capturing the roughness of the manga’s art, and also that most of the series is CG, as opposed to the movies, which were roughly equal parts both. In fact, in this case, the hand drawn parts are the ones that stand out as inconsistent and strange.
Could the animation have been better? Yes. I’d have loved to see a fully hand-drawn Berserk series rendered with today’s animation technology. But given the complexity of the armor designs and the comparatively narrower audience to which a series as mature as Berserk appeals, hand drawn – i.e. more expensive – animation would likely not have been an economical choice.
Plus, the animation in the original Berserk anime was awful and it still made fans of us.
At this point we anime fans have just grown spoiled on a glut of really awesome animation, and frankly I’m so glad that the series even exists that the animation is only a minor bummer for me.
All in all, this year’s Berserk series is worthy of fans’ anticipation. If you can get past the animation (for fans), know the preceding story, and if you can stomach all the grotesquerie (for new watchers), it’s twelve episodes of time well spent.
***
Note: Holo Writing is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and, as such, may earn a small commission from any product purchased through an affiliate link on this blog.