Crunching the Numbers: Houston, We Have A Problem Child

Spring is upon us, which means in a few weeks a brand new season of anime will greet us and the anime of winter will vanish into the aether. You’ll notice that Problem Children isn’t on the list proper this time; this is because the series recently concluded, and thus I’ll be giving it a final review and ranking separate from the shows that haven’t finished quite yet. Next time the list of final analyses will be much longer, but let’s not worry about that yet. It’s time once again to Crunch the Numbers and find out what anime are positive and which ones deserve to be factored out.

1) Chihayafuru 2 (episodes 8-10) (no change in ranking)

Yaaaaaaay, more Arata!

Yes, after teasing us with Arata all season, we finally get an episode with focus on Arata, and it’s pretty good, building on questions asked about the character since the season started: why doesn’t he want to make a karuta team of his own? Episode 9 has a good set-up for exploring this question, and it’s a welcome change of pace to delve into Arata’s mind instead of Chihaya’s team.

That’s not to say that Chihaya’s team hasn’t had some great moments as well. Episode 8 is probably the funniest yet, pitting the team against a bunch of foreigners who love karuta as much as they do. There’s a little bit of Japanese racism involved (Tsukuba in particular), but considering Japan’s track record of treating non-Japanese people, this is relatively benign, and more importantly hilarious. There’s a fun bit of Engrish exchanged between the two teams that had me cackling like mad.

The national tournament arc is still going strong. With some appearances from Arata and another certain rival, and a really funny match, Chihayafuru still refuses to be anything but great. 

2) The Unlimited: Hyobu Kyosuke (episodes 9-11) (+2)

Holy shit has this show been on fire lately. After the relatively slow flashback episodes, the pacing for this show has been perfect. It very much feels like the end of a second act of a badass action movie; everything as we know it has changed forever, alliances are broken and reforged, and the plot has been sprinting towards the finale without missing anything important. Mind you, it is all conventional action anime stuff, but it’s done thoroughly and impressively enough that I can’t take points off for a lack of originality. There’s plenty of talent and care going into this series.

There’s a particularly great fight sequence featuring Andy and Hyobu in episode 11. It’s mostly just cool fighting and shots, but there’s a little moment between the two of them that neatly sums up their relationship. There’s definitely going to be some dumb shipping coming out of this episode (though I imagine there was some already), but that’s not going to hurt this show at all. I don’t want to say more for risk of spoiling the story, as the point of this column is to help you decide whether these shows are worth watching or not, and since I think this show is definitely worth watching, you should watch it to find out what happens. All you need to know is that this is perhaps the best paced action show this entire season, with good character writing and visuals to boot.

3) Love Live: School Idol Project (episodes 9-11) (no change in ranking)

Now that Muse has all of its members together, all that’s left for the team is training for the Love Live competition and increasing their ranking among the other idol groups. There’s not much else necessary for this plot, and the show could have easily relied on a few filler episodes. In fact, episodes 9 and 10 could have easily been confused for filler if you were to look at their plot summaries. One’s about one of the girls having a side job at a maid café and the other is a beach episode. Both are conventional anime filler episode plots, but Love Live is smart with its storytelling. Sure, there’s plenty of cute fluff in these episodes; after all, the show in itself is very cute and fluffy, but its economical with its fluff.

At the end of the day, these episodes help flesh out the characters and strengthen the bonds between the group of idols. They come up with new songs inspired by their achievements, they play with each other, they help each other overcome obstacles. It’s all endearing and moves the plot and characters forward, and that’s good writing. Sure, nothing new is being said here; girls becoming idols to save their school isn’t exactly high art. However, credit must be given to just how well this simple premise has been used to create an adorable and heartwarming show like this. It helps that the show isn’t above putting the characters through some hardships. So much goes wrong for Muse in episode 11, to the point where they’re on the verge of crying, and yet they persevere, and the perseverance is super sincere and not at all contrived. Only the most cynical of anime fans would not find this cute. 

4) Maoyu (episodes 9-10) (-2)

What I like about Maoyu is that it’s been able to dip its toes into a multitude of things and do pretty well with itself. It’s balanced economics, action, and romance fairly effectively throughout the show, but I’m starting to think it’s a jack of trades: proficient at everything but a master of nothing.

Episode 9 mostly deals with the Church calling the Crimson Scholar (the Demon King’s human name she has taken) a heretic and putting her on trial. What follows is a rousing speech which empowers the people who listen to it and gives a good middle finger to the Church. It builds on previous episodes with effective flashbacks and gives nearly every character a part to play. But it makes one thing very clear: this is the Demon King’s show, not the Hero’s.

                                                                                         

At least that’s how it comes across. Pardon another Spice and Wolf reference, but that show was true to its name: both Holo and Lawrence were equally important. Hero in this show is ostensibly the muscle and important to the plan the Demon King has, but his accomplishments compared to hers are astonishingly lacking. He gets nothing in these past couple of episodes. Instead, the focus is on the Demon King and the economics of the country. Most of episode is discussion on taxes, which while sort of interesting if you’re like me and into that kind of thing, but it’s a dull episode otherwise. Oh wait, there is a bit near the end where we learn the reason why the Demon King “loves” the Hero, and it’s disappointing. It cheapens the romance by essentially boiling it down to the “Chosen One” trope. The romance was rushed at the start of the show, but I could sort of buy that the love was genuine. Now it just feels forced, and does not sit well for me, especially after the Lady Knight’s romance was portrayed well earlier in the show.

Is this show running out of steam? I’d say it’s still good, but it’s in an extremely small niche that’s dominated by a much better-written and compelling show, so it’s always going to seem lacking in that regard. We’ll see if this show has anything left to offer.

5) Oreshura (episodes 9-11) (-1)

I was too easy on this show last time when I ranked it. I admitted that the show had seen better days when it didn’t have a full harem, but it’s gotten to the point where I’m not enjoying the show much at all. The core of the series is still there; it’s still about Eita’s childhood friend and his fake girlfriend fighting over Eita, but it’s been buried under crappy harem tropes and badly written characters.

Fuyuumi is just awful. She’s a generic tsundere character with a generic childhood marriage promise plotline, and yet the show thought it was necessary to give her as much screentime as possible. Himeka didn’t get nearly this much screentime when she was introduced. Look, no one cares about these two characters. The character balance was near perfect when it focused on Eita, Chiwa, and Masuzu; Himeka and Fuyuumi exist solely to pad the series out and to fulfill harem tropes, tropes the show cleverly avoided up until now.  Not only is the plot getting dumber, Eita seems to be getting dumber as well. He’s gone from naïve to just plain stupid, unable to realize that these girls are in love with him despite them outright fighting over him.

In the most recent episode, it tries hard to be meta by having Eita’s aunt working on a visual novel which mirrors the plot of the show. There’s a funny bit or two here, even some mocking of Fuyuumi that I liked. There were even a few scenes where Eita and Masuzu talk about their relationship in a serious manner, one that suggests actual character development for the two. Its moments like these that remind me of how good the show was when it was starting out. Maybe the show can salvage what good it has left, but after a slew of mediocre episodes, I won’t get my hopes up.

6) Kotoura-san (episodes 8-10) (no change in ranking)

You know, after weeks of dullness with Roman and Problem Children and being subjected to the stupidity that is Vividred Operation, this show doesn’t seem so bad any more. I will be fair to the show and say it’s not bad; it’s just not very impressive.

My major complaint against Kotoura-san is that it’s too simple for its premise. Psychic girl reads the minds of other people and causes problems. Yeah, that happens, but it’s trying to make that premise funny... when it’s not trying to be dramatic. The tone is never consistent, and when it’s trying to be funny it’s pretty lame, and when it’s being dramatic it’s hilariously lame. Kotoura’s mother is an over-the-top villainous bitch to her daughter. If it were better written, they could get some genuinely good drama out of the stressful relationship between Kotoura and her mother who abandoned her. It seems like the show is trying to be serious about this. The first time Kotoura and her mother meet is hilariously inept, reminding me of the show’s infamous first ten minutes of ultra-tragedy. It’s not as ridiculous, but the meeting essentially consists of Kotoura’s mother being dismissive of everything her daughter has accomplished and trying to be as horrible as possible to her.

This show would work better if it were to make the comedy and drama more consistent. It doesn’t grasp how to mix the two, so instead we get awkward portions of both. The actual jokes aren’t particularly witty; at best, they’re not annoying, and at worst they’re extremely repetitive. I could take a shot for every time this show relied on the “Manabe is a perv” gag and get drunk relatively quickly, and that might be the preferable way to watch this show, drunk as a skunk. It’s not a good drama and it’s not a good comedy, but a mediocre hybrid of both. You can watch far worse this season, but that’s faint praise.

7) Vividred Operation (episodes 8-10) (+2)

This is nothing more than a commercial to sell figures. That should have been obviously clear from the get-go, but I need to address this fact because the show has little else going for it. I actually have a nitpick about this; if the purpose is to sell figures, why can the girls only dock and fuse with Akane? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the girls dock with anyone to increase the amount of figures you could sell, or are those going to be exclusive items or something?

Well, regardless of the commercial aspect of the show, the rules of docking are pretty lame. It’s one of the unique aspects of the show, yet there’s an episode where this element is completely removed by having Akane in the hospital for the entire episode. The idea of having the rest of the team take down the monster without her isn’t bad, but it makes it abundantly clear how dependent they are on Akane, and that’s disappointing.

There’s another really dumb character moment between Akane and Rei in which Rei freaks out when Akane discovers her true motives. Rei comes up with the dumbest assumption about Akane that she can possibly come up, because it relies on Rei not knowing that Akane has been taking down the Alone since the start of the show. Considering how much time Rei and Akane have spent with each other and the earlier implications that Rei knew what Akane was doing (hell, she should have at least noticed Akane taking down the Alone considering she was present for every fight), this is idiotic.

That’s the show in a nutshell. It’s a dumb commercial to sell cute girl figures to otaku.  When we finish this show for the next column, I doubt that will change. At least there's stuff to talk about, unlike...

8) Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman (episodes 9-11) (-1)

Call me lazy, but I really don’t want to talk about this show right now. Should I just sum up the plot of the last few episodes? It’s a basic “hero is defeated but comes back better and stronger” story. The show is otherwise still really dull and safe, so I have nothing new to talk about. It ends next week, so when I do my next article, I’ll give a final review and a more complete summary of the show, but I’d rather not waste my time this week by going any further with the show than necessary.

Finished

Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, aren’t they? (10 episodes)

This is supposed to be an overall review of the show, but there’s not as much to talk about as I’d like. This is because I’ve realized what my main problem with this show is: it’s a tower defense game in anime form. The only structure this show knows is to throw new demons at the No-Name community, have an arbitrary game with ill-defined rules that ultimately don’t matter because our main characters is essentially Superman with less personality than a brick, and then rinse and repeat. There’s no actual end for the show, essentially just stopping with enough room for a second season, but that’s because there’s no actual plot to end.

Not only is the plot nonexistent, the characters barely qualify as characters. They’re most defined by their power-sets and fantasy tropes. You have the flying brick, the mind controller, and Animal Man as a girl. There’re a few other characters like a bunny girl, a vampire, a Pied Piper with Emma Frost’s wardrobe, etc. They’re all stock to the point of boredom and have little to no motivation or development.

Basically all the show has going for it is a bunch of fantasy tropes that some nerds will eat up, but ultimately it’s not worth sitting through the dull tower defense structure of the show. The animation’s mediocre, characters flat, and overall the show is forgettable aside from the somewhat catchy opening theme song. You can safely skip this show without missing anything.

3/10 (Very Bad)

Crunching the Numbers: Heart of the Cards

Welcome back to Crunching the Numbers, the biweekly anime simulcast recap! Last time, we started with 7 anime, but now we've got 9 anime to talk about this week. Forget the fact that I'm currently sick, let's crunch the numbers!

  
1)      Chihayafuru 2 (episodes 3-4)

Is it unfair of me to be covering Chihayafuru? I left Space Brothers off the list despite the fact I’m still watching it, but that’s been continually running without break for a while now, while this only recently had a second season. However, I never get tired of talking about Chihayafuru, so while I doubt it’ll go down in the rankings at all, I’ll still cover it here on Crunching the Numbers.

Only four episodes in and the two new Karuta Club members have already started to leave an impression on me. There’s a bit more focus on Akihiro than Sumire in these episodes, but considering the screentime she got in the first two episodes it’s well-needed. We get to meet Akihiro’s younger brothers in this episode, and he gets to participate in the school tournament for a round as well. The pressure’s on as he feels the need to impress his brothers, but he’s up against a Class A opponent!

It’s good to see more karuta tournaments after all this time. Chihayafuru has great characters, but it also has great love for the game, and it comes out best when they’re actually playing the game. Just seeing what’s going on in the minds of all the players alone is compelling enough. I don’t think I’ll ever have a full grasp on the game myself, but I really get into matches, which is the mark of a good sports show.

The show hasn’t forgotten about the old members as well. There’s a nice moment between Tsutomu and Akihiro where Tsutomu’s empathizes with Akihiro’s stress over being a new player. Taichi’s given a good amount of focus in the latest episode. You really get into his head when it comes to his need to get to Class A, but he can never get a break. For the romance fans, specifically the ones that ship Chihaya and Taichi, you’re going to love this one. Overall, the series continues to be as solid and engaging as ever, and the definite best of the season. However, that’s not to say this season’s been dry.

2)     Oreshura (episodes 1-5)

This was the most pleasant surprise I had this season. Most of the shows met my expectations for the most part, but Oreshura was not a factor at all until I started watching it for this list. Eita doesn’t like romance, as does the new transfer student Masuzu, who’s the most popular girl in school and sick of getting asked out. To stop the confessions of love, Masuzu comes up with a devilish plan: she blackmails Eita into being her fake boyfriend by taking his notebook, which is filled with his crazy fantasies from middle school. Further complicating things is Eita’s childhood friend Chiwa, who clearly has feelings for Eita. Circumstances lead to Masuzu forming a club to help students become popular, which Chiwa joins in an attempt to better herself and get Eita to notice her.

I initially dismissed the show as I knew it would be a harem, and as of episode 5 there are now three girls vying for Eita’s affection. But for once, I’m not bothered by this, as the writing is actually solid for once. Eita’s a much more realized character than the Tenchi’s or other male characters of harem shows. He’s not a tough guy, but he shows personality and manages to be active when the situation calls for it. He has actual goals (he wants to be a doctor), and in one of the best moments of the series so far, he calls out another student when he plays around with Chiwa’s affections. Chiwa’s no slouch either when it comes to characterization. The childhood friend who secretly pines for her best friend is nothing new, and her hip injury could make her a moeblob, but she’s not as she’s more than capable of taking care of herself despite it. But the showstealer is Masuzu. In real life, she’d be an unlikable bitch, and she does some horrible things in the series such as the blackmailing and manipulating Chiwa with made-up ways of becoming popular, but at the same time she’s more entertaining and intriguing for it. It could easily be passed off as sadism, but the series has hinted that there might be more to it.

This is a romantic comedy that manages to be both romantic and comedic. That doesn’t sound impressive, but considering the amount of rom coms that fail to do both effectively, I think it is. Masuzu using Eita’s book as a source of inspiration for Chiwa is the main source of comedy in the series, and it hasn’t ceased to be hilarious. There are a few dumb things about the romance, like Eita not figuring out that Chiwa loves him, but in the context of the story it kind of makes sense. The choice for who Eita should fall in love with isn’t even clear cut, as both girls make sense for him. In a weirdly compelling way, Eita and Masuzu are very alike. Not just because they’re both nerds (JoJo’s and game references are constantly made) with similar tastes, but their distrust of romance as well. The viewer wants to see Chiwa get together with Eita as well, because the poor girl can’t seem to catch a break sometimes and the love is there, but I’d be okay with it ending either way. Well, there’s a third girl complicating matters, but her appearance in the show is too brief to see if she’s fitting competition for Chiwa and Masuzu, who make for a great triangle with Eita.

Maybe the show will start to go downhill now that it has to juggle three girls, with a fourth planned to come, but five episodes in and I think this is currently the best anime this season that’s not a continuation or sequel.

 3)      Maoyu (episodes 3-5)

Can a show get away with having all of its fights and adventures off-screen and instead focusing on trading corn? If such a show existed, it would be Maoyu, as it does just that and manages to still be interesting.

I’m still fairly impressed by this show. I don’t think I’d like it nearly as much if it wasn’t tackling a topic that’s rarely covered by anime, but it’s rather smart about its discussion of war economics and trade negotiations. We’re introduced to the Merchant Union, the organization supplying the humans’ war on the demons. As the war has become a huge source of income for them, it’s important for the Demon King to negotiate with them to help fix the world’s economy so the war can end. Meanwhile, Hero has taken on the mantle of the Dark Knight in order to better serve Demon King in the Demon world.

I mentioned before that the romance between Hero and Demon King was a bit lacking. Well, I’m finally starting to get into it. Hero’s been avoiding Demon King for months while she’s busy trading and setting up new farming techniques in the human world, and it causes a great deal of tension between the two, but the Hero has his reasons for keeping at a distance. It comes to a head in episode 5 when the two finally discuss their relationship, and while it doesn’t end with them totally in love with one another, it ends in a rather sweet moment between the two, adding some much needed sugar to the otherwise dry but informative economics of the show. It’s still no Spice and Wolf, but Maoyu is something to keep looking forward to.

4)      The Unlmited: Hyobu Kyosuke (3-5)

After the waste of time episode 3 was, I was almost ready to rank The Unlimited lower. Then episode 4 reminded me that this show could be badass, thanks to the appearance of the Zettai Karen Children. The Children were the heroes of the series this show is a spin-off of. The show is still mostly very conventional, and Hyobu hasn’t truly been threatened in a fight just yet, but the Zettai Karen Children put up a good fight against our heroic criminals, almost managing to capture them at Japan’s ocean. Meanwhile, Andy’s still playing the role of the mole in the group, but he may be growing too close to PANDRA as he starts question whether Hyobu is really a villain or a savior.

While episode 3 is completely useless, at least for now, The Unlimited manages to show off some really cool visuals in its psychic battles and manages to develop the characters and world as well. The famous BABEL organization finally shows up, tying the show back to its Zettai Karen Children roots, but the show is still very accessible to new viewers. Side characters like Yugiri finally get some much needed screentime and backstory, and Hyobu’s good qualities are starting to show more and more. You could basically sum it up as “Magneto’s X-Men”, and it’s true that the show, as fun and competent as it is, isn’t going to blow anyone’s mind, but it’s still a good watch.

Also, yes, the Nostalgia Critic makes a cameo in this show. It’s only for one second and not the only reason to watch the show, but it is kind of neat.

 5)      Love Live: School Idol Project (episodes 3-4)

Speaking of conventional shows, Love Live continues to be the uber-cute and sincere show it has been since episode 1. Despite some setbacks, our school idols have managed to impress more students with their talents and gain some new idols for their group.

My biggest fear with this show is that it might already be growing stale. Not that the show is boring, mind you, but it’s settled into a predictable pace with not much new to talk about. But I still highly respect it for being a moe show that doesn’t portray its girls with a creepy otaku gaze as many moe shows tend to do, and while I’m not much of a J-pop fan, I’m actually enjoying the songs and the dance numbers continue to be a highlight. There are now more characters to root for, and while I think at some point there’ll be too many idols to keep track of (the opening pretty much spoils this), I’ll still be cheering them on because of how good the show is at making you care about them without pandering.

6)      Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman (episodes 3-5)

Meanwhile, I don’t have to worry about this show getting stale, because it’s already stale. In contrast to Unlimited, episode 3 made me hope the show might be going somewhere, as it gives some backstory on Roman’s power suit that he used in the first episode and introduces some foes that can actually defeat him. After that, the show slides back into its episodic nature of Roman taking random missions to help people. 

Well, that’s not entirely fair. Episode 5 does delve more into Roman’s backstory and the reasons he helps people. It’s almost heartwarming, in fact. However, it’s hard to get excited for a series like this when you know how all of the episodes are going to play out. If the show can manage to have more episodes like episode 3 or little moments like Roman helping a runaway girl, it’ll be a fine show, but it’s on the forgettable side as of now.

7)      Kotoura-san (episodes 3-4)

I really want to like this show. I really do. As perverse and unfunny the show can be, it certainly has merits and it’s trying to be a compelling rom-com with a twist. Makabe, while still the butt of the “has dirty thoughts” jokes the show likes to use, still comes across as sweet and a good boyfriend for Kotoura, and I do like seeing the two of them work off of one another.

The show still suffers from tone dissonance. In one episode, it tries to be serious by having Kotoura stop attending school so she won’t get Makabe hurt again after an incident with another student. The show’s trying to pull at your heartstrings and it really wants you to feel for Kotoura. Then cut to Kotoura at her grandfather’s mansion (where did he get the money?) and her reading her grandfather’s mind, revealing that her grandfather is fantasizing about her butt. Congrats Kotoura-san, I’m almost cared for a moment, and then you had to ruin it with an old man having sexual thoughts about his underage granddaughter.

There is stuff to like here, but I find it hard to really recommend this show to someone unless they’re fine with dramatic tone shifts like and comedy that comes off as squicky at times.

8)      Problem Children are coming from another world, aren't they? (episodes 1-4)

That title’s quite the mouthful, isn't it? This is the other new on the list this week, and boy is this show a mess. I actually like it more than Kotoura-san, but I can’t in good conscious say it’s better. Three children with superpowers are magically brought to a 

world called Little Garden. The world has something called “Gift Games” as explained by a rabbit girl known simply as Black Rabbit that the kids are invited to play in, but they end up fighting against something known as the Demon King.

The best way to sum up Problem Children is that it’s a hodgepodge of cool fantasy tropes and ideas with little thought into how they all fit together. The kids have cool powers like super strength and talking to animals, there’s dragons and gods and vampires and a bunch of other things you’ve seen in fantasy before. It’s hard to really hate the show for it, but it doesn’t quite work. Despite having a character for exposition, the show makes little sense and the motives of the titular Problem Children are for all intents and purposes nonexistent and unexplored. On top of that, the show’s only supposed to run for 10 episodes. The show’s practically halfway over and it hasn’t found any real footing. But I must restate, it’s still kind of fun, and not even in a so bad it’s good way. It’s really stupid show that has no pretense about being the next big thing, and I’m okay with that. It’s complete junk food; unhealthy and not recommendable, but tasty and addicting as well. It helps that the OP is pretty rocking to boot.

 9)      Vividred Operation (episodes 2-4)

You know, I was convinced that this show wasn’t going to be more perverted than its predecessor Strike Witches until the docking sequences came into play. If you thought the male gaze was disturbing in the first episode, it’s only gotten worse, and now the show has two more underage girls to leer at. There’s been little progress in the plot so far, instead focusing more on adding the girls from the opening credits to the team. There’s some cool over-the-top sentai stuff going on in the fight scenes, but you have to get through the disgusting fanservice and cliché storytelling to get there. It’s like having your favorite toy covered in dirt and guts; it doesn’t matter how cool it is, it’s too disgusting and unpleasant to watch.

The show’s not bad enough to make me drop it just yet, but as of now I certainly do not recommend watching the show unless you can stomach the fouler parts of the show to get to the good stuff.

Crunching the Numbers: Psychic Lovers

Well this is new. Welcome to a new segment to the site I like to call "Crunching the Numbers", where I take a bite into the recent anime simulcasts every two weeks and tell you what's worth watching and why. If you couldn't tell, the name comes from Crunchyroll, which provides most of the anime simulcasts I'll be watching

this season.

We've got seven anime titles to discuss this week. To explain how this and future columns will be formatted, it'll be done in a list, with what I think is the best anime on right now at the top and going down the list to what I consider to be the weaker titles. If a title is too weak and no longer worth discussing, it'll get dropped from the list. Yes, this is blatantly inspired by ANN's "The Stream", but it's a good enough format that it deserves ripping off. Besides, my opinions are bound to be different than that of Bamboo's (but I recommend reading The Stream as well).

I will not be covering everything out this season. Sequels to shows I haven't seen won't be talked about for obvious reasons. Anime shorts will not be covered either because they're so short they can be watched in the time it takes to read a review on them, and thus it's pointless to talk about them. With that said, on with the reviews!

1) Chihayafuru 2 (Episodes 1-2):

EEEEEEEE! I’m sorry, but simple words can’t explain how happy I am that Chihayafuru is back with more episodes. If you haven’t watched the first season yet, go back and watch it. It was one of the best shows of 2011, no small feat considering the star power of that year. Since I have watched the first season of this show, I’ll be covering the second season in this column.

The show picks up right where we left. It’s a new semester for the Karuta club, and Chihaya wants new members badly. However, the club runs into conflict over this, as some members have no interest in new members and want to focus on preparing for the next tournament. Making things more complicated is Sumire, a first-year who joins the club not because she’s interested in karuta, but instead hooking up with Taichi.

Chihayafuru 2 feels like a natural successor to the first season. It manages not only to pick up right where the first season ended, it feels like a new beginning as well by introducing new characters, a new year, and new challenges for the karuta club, both as a competitive team and as friends. I like how each member of the team has different interests and different goals, further developing their characters while at the same time providing natural conflict for the story. Sumire could very easily be the Scrappy of the show, but the first two episodes have gone out of their way to show that deep down, she may actually like karuta and will grow out of her superficial teenage love phase. Actually, her love with love in a way is what leads to the first major change in her character in the second episode. The other new member, Tsukuba, is given less focus in these first two episodes, but he provides a new look at karuta by virtue of being a player of second verse karuta, a version from Hokkaido with different rules from mainland Japanese karuta.

I’m really happy to have Chihayafuru back. It’s one of the best directed and written anime I’ve seen in years, and it still is. I implore you to watch it.

2) Maoyu (Episodes 1-3):

Medieval fantasy is probably one of the most stagnant genres in fiction. That’s not to say there aren’t good medieval fantasies out there with stuff like Game of Thrones existing, but ever since Lord of the Rings there hasn’t been a big game changer to the genre. However, there was an anime that decided that instead of looking at the fantastical war elements of the genre, it would instead look at the mercantile and day-to-day elements. That anime was Spice and Wolf, a show about a merchant and a wolf goddess on their travels across a fantasy land to make profit and eventually develop a relationship.

What does this have to do with Maoyu? Well, two reasons: one, the director and screenplay writer for Spice and Wolf are directing and writing for Maoyu, and two, this is another show about economics in a medieval fantasy. Maoyu tells the story of a long war between the human and demon worlds, one that has deprived both nations of their resources. So why don’t they stop the war? Well, as the Demon King explains, war is more complicated than that, and it is her wish to end the war without dooming both worlds. She recruits the help of Hero, a powerful soldier from the human world who originally was supposed to kill the Demon King and has no idea how the economics of war work.

Now, I’ll try to avoid making too many Spice and Wolf references in future editions of this column, but I really need to address the comparisons now since they’re almost impossible to ignore. What made Spice and Wolf such a strong show was not the exploration of economics and the job of merchants, as interesting as those subjects may be. It was instead the strength of the character writing that formed the backbone of that show, with the economics and fantasy elements just being fancy window dressing. Maoyu takes the opposite approach, going more in-depth with the economics of the world. It explains how the human world is running out of food to support its nation, but it’s only able to keep going because of the money it receives from other nations to support the war. The Demon King’s plan is to revitalize the farming of the nations and stabilize the economy so they can afford to end the war and create peace between the demons and humans. If the idea of war economics sounds intriguing to you, then congratulations, you’ve found the show for you. It’s a clever idea for a story, but it comes at a cost. An opportunity cost, if you may. I make no apologies for my terrible economics pun.

See, Maoyu doesn't really have characters. Okay, that’s a little too harsh, as Demon King and Hero clearly have desires beyond talking economics. But the little moments that express those desires take a backseat to Demon King explaining the economy of the world and farming techniques to our clueless Hero, who’s clearly meant to be an audience surrogate. None of the characters have actual names, instead going by their job descriptions. You have characters named Head Maid, Mage, Crimson Scholar, etc. They’re presented as archetypes first and characters second, and the show makes it very clear with its naming scheme. As a result, the writing comes across as much drier than Spice and Wolf, as it lacks the strong characterization of that show.

There’s also an element of romance to the show, but unlike Spice and Wolf which slowly develops that element, Maoyu throws it right into the first episode by having Demon King confess her love to Hero, who is a naïve virgin. It’s implied that the Demon King might be doing it just to keep the Hero by her side and help her plan, but by episode 3 that implication holds little water. It’s nowhere near as subtle or rewarding as the romance in Spice and Wolf, so I really hope later episodes do a better job of handling it.

So is this really the successor to Spice and Wolf we’ve all been hoping for? I wouldn’t dare say it’s on the level of Spice and Wolf, but I am glad there’s another show to explore this side of medieval fantasy. Despite how dry the content is, it’s fascinating enough to be worth your time. 

3) Love Live! School Idol Project (Episode 1-2):

What would you do if you heard your school was closing down? Well, if you’re in this show, you’d become a school idol! Yes, this is another in a long line of idol singer anime, and it’s not even the only one out this season as we also have AKB0048 Season 2, which I’m not watching because I haven’t seen the first season. Personally, idols have never interested me. Along with moe and harem anime, they always felt like skeevy otaku pandering that’s more interested in selling a perfect hot female singer instead of just giving a good performance. You know, like most of the pop industry.

But while I can admit that this is not my genre, Love Live subverted my expectations by being sincere about its premise. Sure, it’s a dumb premise that can only exist in fiction, but the show isn’t half-assing it. The animation and direction are much better than they have any right to be. The art is on the generic side, with every character having the same face design with little body-type variation, but it can be forgiven when the dance scenes are gorgeous. Well, they’re gorgeous when they’re not pulling the camera back to hide the shots done with CG models, but when it closes up on the 2d characters dancing and singing, it’s really good animation. Speaking of singing and dancing, there is a moment at the end of the first episode where the main character bursts out into song and starts dancing in the street. No, it wasn’t a stage performance, she just turned the show into a musical. The second episode doesn’t have any such numbers, but I imagine that’s a budget concern, and I hope we get more musical numbers like the first episode.

I mentioned how I thought idols were basically eye candy for otaku. Well, I can imagine the otaku watching this show still ogling at the teenage girls while writing horrible doujinshi of them, but the show never once shows the characters in a sexual way. It’s a clean show, to the point that when a character gropes another character’s breasts (we don’t know why she did this yet btw), the camera cuts away right before it happens. That is the restraint this show has, to the point I feel like I could recommend this to all ages without feeling dirty. The show is simple, sincere, and well-executed to boot. It’s not going to set the world ablaze, but it is light entertainment done right, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

4) The Unlimited (Episodes 1-2):

For the sake of accuracy, I’m avoiding watching sequels to shows I haven’t seen before. The Unlimited is a spin-off of Zettai Karen Children, also known as Psychic Squad in the US, that focuses on Hyobu Kyosuke, the antagonist of that series. Fans have told me that the series is watchable for newcomers, and they were right about that, so here it is.

Hyobu is a powerful ESPer, probably the most powerful one in this world full of ESPers as he is able to effortlessly destroy helicopters with sticks, but he lets himself get captured and taken to a prison designed to hold ESPers. There he meets Andy Hinomiya, a tough fighter who’s nicknamed “Mr. Powerless” due to his seeming lack of powers, making him neither ESPer nor human. They team up and escape prison, joining up with Hyobu’s criminal organization P.A.N.D.R.A.

So, let’s talk about OP villain protagonists. Nothing is a threat to Hyobu in this episode, even before he activates his “Unlimited” mode. The lack of threat cuts a huge deal of tension out of the show. Mind you, the show’s young, but it’ll have to work fast to make Hyobu break a sweat. The other problem with Hyobu is that, well, he’s not interesting. He’s arrogant and can certainly back it up, but he lacks the charisma that makes a villain protagonist interesting. For example, Alucard from Hellsing is practically a god, and yet he’s so much fun to watch because of the sheer glee he takes in battle, along with some help from the strong writing and spectacular visuals. There’re some nice visuals as Hyobu uses his powers, but the character himself does not invite interest. So the show will have to make Hyobu interesting fast if it wants me to watch more of it.

The second episode gives more focus to the rest of P.A.N.D.R.A. It doesn’t give us enough info to really get a good handle on their personalities, but it does show off their various psychic abilities, like being able manipulate carbon or sound. We learn that Hyobu is much older than he looks. The second episode continues to be a nice spectacle of superpowers, and with the now-established team, we could be looking at a good X-Men-esque show. Now if only we could get some character depth.

5) Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman (Episodes 1-2):

Believe it or not, this is not a Lupin III spin-off, although it definitely has the spirit and style of Lupin III. Based on a pachinko game that used character designs created by Lupin creator Monkey Punch, Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman is about a thief named Roman who steals from the rich corrupt Bakumatsu-period government and gives back to the poor, with the help of his sister Koharu and her dog Sakura. The episode opens on Roman and Koharu succeeding at just that. Then the episode meanders for a bit. It establishes the daily life of the two thieves; Roman’s a helper, basically a freelance worker who’ll do just about anything for money, but he tends to throw it all away through gambling. We meet a few other characters, and even a flour zombie who’s never brought up again, but the plot doesn’t get moving again until the government comes up with a plan to force the town to pay them even more money. Naturally, it’s up to Roman and his friends to bring this plan to a stop. In the next episode, Roman encounters Magoichi, a guard working for (insert government organization here) that foils one of Roman’s attempts to get back money. Eventually the two learn to respect one another despite being on opposite sides of the law. It also helps that Magoichi has a cool golden gun that can transform into a sword.

There’s not much going on beneath the surface of Roman. It sells itself as a Bakumatsu-period Robin Hood anime, and that’s what it is. The Lupin III parallels extend beyond the Monkey Punch art; there’s the skilled thief, the bumbling cop, the sexy disguise artist, and a bunch of other archetypes that have appeared in other Monkey Punch works. The animation is on par with the modern Lupin III specials. If you’re expecting a grand follow-up to last year’s fantastic The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, you’ll be sorely disappointed. It’s vanilla Lupin wrapped up in new clothes, but there’s nothing wrong with vanilla Lupin. Even the most basic of Lupin stories can be entertaining, and this one has its moments. It’s a show with small goals that meets those goals. If the idea of Robin Hood in the Bakumatsu era appeals to you, this is the show for you.

6) Vividred Operation (Episode 1):

Hey, do you like underage girl butts and cameltoe? Pining for that sequel to Strike Witches? Well this is the show for you! Akane lives in the not-too distant future when young girls don’t wear pants, but no one seems to mind because the future is awesome. There’s flying bikes and something called the Manifestation Engine, which solved the world’s energy problems, that Akane’s grandfather invented. Everything’s hunky-dory until the island Akane lives on is invaded by a giant mechanical spider, but with the help of her grandfather’s newest invention, she might be able to save her home.

So as you can imagine, when I saw that this series was directed by Kazuhiro Takamura of Strike Witches fame, I was expecting the show would have many of the same trademarks as Strike Witches, and I was right. Shots focusing on an underaged girl’s tight short shorts, airplanes, and an invasion, the similarities are definitely there. To be fair to Vividred, the fanservice shots are nowhere near as frequent as they were in that show. The set-up is nothing fresh, but the characters are all fine, if vaguely defined at this point. What makes me want to watch more of this show is the ending scene, where the show turns into a semi-sci-fi magical girl show. There’s a really cool transformation sequence which is only marred by the returning male gaze of Akane’s posterior. It’s a shame that the male gaze is so distracting and unsettling, because the show is fine otherwise.

7) Kotoura-san and Manabe-kun (Episodes 1-2):

Warning: the first ten minutes of this show are contrived to the point of breaking suspension of disbelief, all in the name of being sad as possible.

Kotoura is a young girl with the power to read minds. You’d think this would be a neat power, but Kotoura doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut, saying aloud the thoughts of others and pissing them off. Somehow no one is able to figure out that she’s reading their minds, as her mother takes her to every doctor and they can find nothing wrong with her, or they just boot her out for reading their minds. Kotoura’s mindreading gets so bad that it causes her parents to abandon her because she keeps reading their minds. Not like it matters in the father’s case since he never shows any care for her in the first place, but we’re supposed to feel really sad when the mother abandons her. There’s even a moment when Kotoura screams in silence, and a huge swell of dramatic music plays over the scene as if the show was yelling “FEEL BAD, FEEL BAD FOR KOTOURA!” And then the show becomes a high school comedy.

Yeah, I’m just as confused as you are. The show abandons its sad tone in favor of a brighter wackier tone the moment Kotoura meets Manabe, a perverted student that thinks Kotoura’s psychic powers are cool. A running gag in the show is that he’ll think of her in perverted situations and Kotoura gets mad at him for it.

That’s not to say the show completely abandons its tragic tone, but it’s certainly nowhere near as pervasive as it is in the first ten minutes. Kotoura is soon asked to join the ESP Research Club of her new school. The leader of the club, Mifune, had a mother who was also psychic, but because no one believed her she ended up hanging herself. But now that Kotoura’s found friends, the tone has become noticeably lighter. She’s still being bullied for being a psychic, but Manabe stands up for her. So I guess the moral of the story is being different is bad unless you find friends who accept you.

Suffering from contrived reasons to torment its main character, lackluster character designs and comedy, and drastic tonal problems, Kotoura-san barely makes my list for this season. There is improvement in the second episode, but I don’t know if it can save itself from a poor first impression.

And that's the number crunching this week. I may add some more shows to the list next time, as I'm behind on a few shows that I still want to talk about, and I may have a banner ready next time.