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Majo no Tabitabi: THE JOURNEY OF ELAINA & Shachou, BATTLE no JIKAN Desu!: THE ANIMATION

Posted on January 24, 2021 12:17 pm by Offkorn Comment

Majo no Tabitabi caught me by surprise. Based on the description I was expecting something mostly laid-back and/or relaxing, yet it ended up having quite a bit of (remarkably well-animated) action alongside some significant dramatic twists and themes (episode 9 in particular stands out). It’s not a simple episodic travelogue, nor is it a generic ‘cute girls being cute’ comedy (though it takes elements from both)… it’s more a character study that’s not adverse to poking fun at itself.

After the surprising animation quality of the previous series I looked up the studio responsible only to discover that not only were they involved with SukaSuka, but they also happened to have made another series in 2020.

That series being Shachibato (which I had skipped over in my earlier scan through the Spring releases), a parody based off of a now defunct online RPG. It’s… okay I guess? Watchable as a distraction. There are some notable oddities (why are noncombatants brought into the dungeon?) and annoyances (the doormat protagonist’s altruism), but the animation is fine and it’s amusing more often than not.

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This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Spring Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comedy Dramatic Support Fantasy Finished Funimation Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Parody Series Televised Workplace
Dragon’s Dogma & KIMI to BOKU no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru SEISEN

Posted on January 22, 2021 10:10 am by Offkorn Comment

I’m not really sure what the point of making a new series based on an action-RPG from nearly a decade ago was. If the MMO version were still active or they were in the process of hyping a sequel I could understand… but there just doesn’t seem to be any reason for it to exist.

Is it worth watching? Not really, no. Though I will grant that the production team did seem to put some effort into re-working the story to fit a miniseries mold.

The show with the long title on the other hand has an obvious reason for existing: It’s an adaptation of an ongoing light novel series. And is it worth watching? Again, not really. Although most of the action scenes are surprisingly decent; it’s rushed, the comedic elements feel out of place, and both the story and character behavior are as generic as can be.

Skip them both unless you’re incredibly bored. Maybe even then.

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This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comic Relief Dragon's Dogma Drama Ecchi Fantasy Finished Funimation Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Netflix OVA Romance Series Televised
Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka III: FAMILIA MYTH & MWZ: MAGATSU WAHRHEIT ZUERST

Posted on January 17, 2021 7:54 am by Offkorn Comment

After the massive disappointment of the previous DanMachi season, my expectations going into this third season were rock-bottom. So the fact that it actually manages to advance the shadowy background Guild plotline and recapture some of its earlier momentum came as quite a surprise. Unfortunately… that plotline turned out to be incredibly dumb, executed in the most hamfisted manner possible, and arguably wasn’t even properly resolved.

So I would say the end result is watchable, but only just.

Magatsu Wahrheit Zuerst on the other hand has a well thought-out story with remarkably nuanced characters. Attributes which are particularly impressive considering it’s based on a smartphone game. The problem here, aside from a slow start (a notable contrast to DanMachi III‘s rushed start), is that the end is really the beginning of a story that will almost certainly never be told.

So whether or not its worth watching will depend upon how much you’re willing to weigh the journey over the destination.

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This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Battle Shounen Comic Relief Crunchyroll DanMachi Drama Fantasy Finished Funimation Harem Hulu Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Series Televised
GREAT PRETENDER & Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei: Raihousha-hen

Posted on January 12, 2021 12:18 am by Offkorn Comment

I first tried watching Great Pretender back in September… and didn’t get very far. Three attempts later and I’ve only just finished the second arc and can safely say the series simply isn’t for me. It’s certainly engaging visually, and a bit of a Black Lagoon dynamic begins to emerge over time, but the character interactions don’t sit quite right. Particularly how Makoto is treated.

The second Mahouka series meanwhile is notably lacking in visual quality (particularly when compared to the prequel) and doesn’t have much going for it story-wise either. The characters are its saving grace, and even they take a hit due to the increased harem elements. Frankly, this season probably wouldn’t be worth watching at all if it weren’t for the second arc which introduces a couple new entertaining characters and manages to salvage some of the franchise’s earlier dynamics.

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This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Spring 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comedy Dramatic Support Dropped Ecchi Finished Harem Hulu LN Adaptation Mahouka Netflix Partial Adaptation School Life Series Televised Urban Fantasy
Quanzhi Gaoshou 2: the King*s avatar & Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha ~Shijou Saikyou no Maou no Shiso, Tensei Shite Shison-tachi no Gakkou e Kayou~

Posted on December 4, 2020 12:50 pm by Offkorn Comment

The follow-up to Tebie Pian, though it’s been longer than expected in arriving, fully delivers on its promises. The same effortless destruction of pro-player scheming you’ve come to expect from the series with better animation (than the first season). Not much else to say really; either you like the franchise or you don’t.

Completely unrelated to the above beyond sharing the ‘overpowered protagonist’ trait, Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha doesn’t take itself very seriously for the most part. Choosing instead to play up the genre’s various tropes in a manner similar to a homage. And, surprisingly enough, it manages to do so fairly competently (even touching on some pretty dark themes)… at least until the lackluster confrontation-heavy conclusion anyway.

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This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Comedy Crunchyroll Dramatic Support Fantasy Finished Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Partial Adaptation Quanzhi Gaoshou Series Sports Televised Virtual World
Sundry Anime Movies

Posted on October 11, 2020 3:19 am by Offkorn 1 Comment
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This entry was posted in 2017 - Spring 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Battle Shounen Comedy Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Crunchyroll Drama Fairy Tail Fantasy Funimation Goblin Slayer Harem Incomplete Source LN Adaptation Movie Music Romance Saekano Science Fiction Urban Fantasy
NO GUNS LIFE & Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T.

Posted on October 7, 2020 2:08 pm by Offkorn Comment

The action-drama No Guns Life has a visual similarity to Zetman, an atmospheric similarly to detective noir, and a small ill-fitting streak of often ecchi-related comic relief. Personally I just strongly disliked Tetsurou and Olivier’s character design and wasn’t interested enough in the plot developments to stick with it beyond the first half.

Yet another entry in the Index franchise, Railgun T takes place sometime between the Accelerator spinoff and Index III. It’s strange. Ideally you would want consistent visual quality, right? Yet here the end result comes off as unnaturally natural. Like, there are fully drawn people walking around with detailed background destruction down to individual glass shards… the world actually looks real.

And that’s the problem: Anime, in my opinion, shouldn’t look real. It’s disconcerting. Almost as disconcerting as the large amount of fanservice (e.g. there’s an entire episode dedicated to two characters’ quest to enlarge their bust size).

Oh yeah, I also watched some of Eizouken ni wa Te o Dasu na! recently; if you really like the mechanics of making Anime (and don’t mind children’s drawings) give it a shot. I’m not all that fond of creator mythmaking myself and didn’t like the character design much either.

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This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Spring 2020 - Summer 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Comedy Comic Adaptation Comic Relief Drama Dramatic Support Dropped Ecchi Finished Funimation Incomplete Source School Life Science Fiction Series Televised Toaru
Sword Art Online: Alicization & War of Underworld

Posted on September 23, 2020 5:37 am by Offkorn 1 Comment

There are a great many problems with the three part sequel to the SAO Ordinal Scale movie.

The central one is the ill-conceived fusion of the sci-fi modern day plotline and Underworld’s essentially stand-alone fantasy plotline. The two never had any reason to mix. Assassin’s Creed does something similar, and the criticisms about the way that franchise mixes its past/present settings hold doubly true here since Underworld is effectively self-contained as opposed to being a reflection. The author could have easily wrote Alice and Eugeo’s story as its own thing with no association whatsoever to Kirito’s group and ended up with a far more consistent and immersive product.

Pretty much all of the remaining issues can be tied back to Kirito’s involvement with the story; spontaneous power-ups, random cameo appearances, last minute saves, questionable character motivation, harem elements, and bizarre plot twists all. Really, the only flaw that can truly be called its own is the re-occurring theme of using psychosexual megalomaniacs as main villains.

Vaguely related to all of that in a ‘you can probably watch this if you’re a fan of the genre’ sense are the series Runway de Warrette and Princess Connect! ReDive. The first of which is a fashion industry-focused Cinderella story overloaded with assholes who magically become nice while the latter is a conventional fantasy action-comedy whose protagonist has the personality of a particularly dull puppy.

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This entry was posted in 2018 - Autumn 2019 - Autumn 2019 - Winter 2020 - Summer Anime Related and tagged Action Battle Shounen Comic Relief Crunchyroll Drama Fantasy Finished Hulu LN Adaptation Romance SAO Science Fiction Series Televised Virtual World
The Huntsman Movies & GRIMM

Posted on September 6, 2020 2:55 am by Offkorn Comment

The first Huntsman movie, Snow White and the Huntsman, is as the title would imply more focused on Snow White than the huntsman. The movie features a particularly martial variation on the tale, going pretty heavy on action and gritty medieval atmosphere. It’s a solid enough adaptation visually speaking with the main flaws being the anticlimactic final confrontation and pretty much everything about the evil queen.

Unfortunately, that queen plays a role in The Huntsman: Winter’s War as well… along with a second queen who’s no better. Not helping matters is that with Snow White gone and her replacement being even more aggressive than the huntsman, the work as a whole becomes overly action-focused. There’s pretty much nothing recommendable about it; if you want to watch Hemsworth in an action role Thor: Ragnarok would likely be a better choice.

Also fairytale related, the TV series Grimm takes the trappings of a generic police procedural and crosses it with some Buffy-like fantasy elements themed on classic folklore. The ‘adapting ancient stories to modern crimes’ aspect works well enough, the problem is the whole metaplot with the inexplicable werewolf sidekick and transforming the protagonist from relatively normal detective into a supernatural warrior. Maybe the integration works better in later seasons, but after the shakiness of the first I don’t care enough to find out.

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This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged Action Comic Relief Drama Fantasy Literary Adaptation Movie Series Televised Urban Fantasy Workplace
Dorohedoro & Kabukichou Sherlock

Posted on September 3, 2020 8:44 am by Offkorn 1 Comment

The gory CGI action-comedy Dorohedoro appears to have been the inspiration behind Kekkai Sensen, as they have a remarkable number of similarities between them in terms of atmosphere and character behavior. So I’m not really sure why I ended up so ambivalent about it. There are the obvious problems of course, such as the brain-damaged ecchi child, Hakata Ramen-esque baseball episode, cringey late-series mind-control developments, and both Nikaidou and Noi bearing a curious resemblance to Goku… but in the end I think it may have just been that the style of CGI animation they used disagreed with me.

Kabukichou Sherlock is another comedy series which would have been better off named ‘Rakugo Sherlock‘. I hate rakugo. While I’ll grant that making Sherlock a rakugo addict rather than a drug addict goes a long way toward making him even more eccentric, I’m not sure there are all that many people out there who can stand that level of eccentricity. Especially when almost every other character in the series besides Watson is neurotic in some manner. And that’s ultimately all this series has going for it; neurosis. If you don’t enjoy laughing at outcasts there won’t really be anything for you here.

If you happen to be in the mood for a cute parenting-themed traveling show however, you can instead check out Somali to Mori no Kamisama without fear of it developing romantic elements.

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This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged Action Anime Original Comedy Comic Adaptation Dramatic Support Dropped Finished Funimation Incomplete Source Mystery Netflix Series Televised Urban Fantasy