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

    Posted on 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.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8912

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Autumn 2020 - Spring Anime Related and tagged

  • The Huntsman Movies & GRIMM

    Posted on 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

  • I⊃:INVΛ⊃≡⊃ & Inception

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    ID: Invaded is a series in the vein of Psycho-Pass if Psycho-Pass readings resembled Inception‘s dream-diving. It’s far more of a mystery-thriller than an action series however and unfortunately gets weird in a manner similar to King of Thorn toward the end (the Akane stand-in being made even smaller is another oddity).

    Speaking of Inception, that happens to be a movie I’ve referenced a time or two in the past in relation to newer works… yet, I never actually saw the whole thing. I had only seen the trailer and read the Wikipedia summary.

    Having now watched it, it doesn’t appear I was missing much. It’s not as mind-bendy as you would think (Doctor Strange gets weirder than it does) and in effect just ends up a variation on the standard heist movie formula popularized by movies like Ocean’s Eleven and The Italian Job. Which doesn’t make it not worth watching… just that the description evokes something more innovative than the reality.

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    This entry was posted in 2020 - Winter Anime Related Movie & TV Related and tagged

  • WITCHBLADE & HOMELAND

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    The turn of the century TV adaptation of the comicbook series Witchblade begins with a movie. Being almost entirely an action-drama (there’s some supernatural mystery in there as well), it suffers rather severely from the fact that the action scenes are mostly ridiculous. More than anything they bring to mind a super sentai series… making it prohibitively difficult to take the drama seriously.

    Homeland is also a TV series, one which thankfully doesn’t appear to suffer from unintentional comedy (just frontloaded gratuitous nudity). The first season is a combination of thriller and familial drama which comes across something like “Hex: The Early Years”. On the face of things that shouldn’t have been much of a problem, but the early ‘fuck people’s privacy!’ theme is taken to Stalker-ish extremes and almost ends up a deal-killer.

    The second season is a continuation of the first, following a timeskip, which slows things down with more of a focus on secret-agenty behavior and personal trauma. The third picks up shortly after and amps up the personal drama quite a bit. At this juncture the re-occurring psychiatric issues subplot (and accompanying mental institution committals) becomes actively aggravating. It also happens to be the point the series starts focusing a hell of a lot more on Saul than Carrie.

    Season 4 is something of a soft reboot which makes the odd choice to replace the adultery-related drama with childcare drama only to almost immediately drop the topic completely, while also going well out of its way to shoehorn in more psychiatric issues. Seriously… what the fuck? And if that weren’t bad enough, the 5th season (picking up two years after S4’s conclusion) goes completely off the rails.

    It’s strange… the show makes so many odd choices and sends so many conflicting signals that it’s tough to get a read on it. The early seasons are both good and bad. Regardless, if you do decide to give it a chance, you should definitely stop watching at the end of S4 (if you can make it that far). Maybe go watch Jormungand after for the Hex/Bookman parallels.

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    This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged

  • PSYCHO-PASS | Sinners of the System & Season 3

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    The three Sinners of the System movies are a mixed bag. Being theoretically set a few months after the first Psycho-Pass movie, in practice only the third actually functions like a sequel.

    The first is a side-story that completely overhauls Mika’s personality (for the better) and feels like it should be a prequel to the second season. It’s also not very good. The second is mostly a prequel flashback to the first season (framed by a few ‘modern day’ scenes set before the previous movie) focused on one of the S2 enforcers. This movie is quite good. And then there’s the 3rd movie, which…. Well, it’s sort of required watching if you plan to follow-up with Season 3, yet it comes across nothing like a Psycho-Pass work.

    That third season begins after a multi-year timeskip, and quite a number of things have changed: Mika underwent another personality overhaul, Japan has relaxed its isolationist stance, Sibyl is gearing up to reveal its presence to the masses, Akane is off the team, and there are three new enforcers and two new inspectors. The old team is still around, just in a notably different role. It’s surprisingly good (clearly meant to be a return to Season 1 sensibilities) but suffers both from a number of unexplained developments and having Arata be so ludicrously overpowered. It also ends on a cliffhanger…

    …resolved by a ‘movie’ follow-up. This bloated conclusion takes the concept of “homage” far too far. It apparently wanted to recapture the magic of the mid-series Season 1 climax, but instead stumbles time and again with both questionable action scenes and by just flat-out dragging things out for too long.

    In the end it’s tough to recommend watching any of these besides the 2nd SS movie: The first is a pointless sidestory, the third lacks any Psycho-Pass sensibility, S3 requires having seen that third SS movie, and First Inspector is just plain tedious.

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2019 - Winter 2020 - Winter Anime Related and tagged

  • TRUE DETECTIVE

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    I’ve heard quite a number of good things about True Detective‘s premiere season, and the first 4.5 episodes absolutely live up to the hype. However… once it abandons the past narrative to focus on a current day case, alluded to by the interview framing device, it deteriorates quite quickly. Genre-wise it’s a mix of thrillerish dramatic elements combined with familial/relationship drama and a bit of action here and there, all of which fit together remarkably well.

    The second season switches up the cast, location, and structure; no framing gimmicks here (though there is a time skip). The genre composition remains more or less the same while the character personalities/goals are quite different and it has more of an ensemble cast sort of thing going on. Overall I’d say this season ends up significantly better than the first. Oh sure it starts out shaky and a bit difficult to follow, which can be damning if compared directly to the first season’s beginning, but the connection between the pre- and post-timeskip plotlines is far stronger and the work as a whole is noticeably more consistent.

    The third season goes back to the style and structure of the first in pretty much every way (no, adding a second interview timeline does not count as an innovation), even directly referencing it. Why? Why would you retread old ground like this? Was all the criticism of the second season really so influential or did the creator simply run out of ideas? Just re-watch the first season rather than bother with this pointless rehash.

    In summary: The first is good, the second is great, and the third is a waste of time (unless you like shows featuring alzheimer’s sufferers I guess).

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    This entry was posted in Movie & TV Related and tagged

  • COP CRAFT & Kyokou Suiri: In/Spectre

    Posted on by Offkorn 1 Comment

    After seeing a comment that made it sound like Red Data Girl, and noticing the rather large disconnect between the early (edgy) and current (goofy) promotional imagery, I decided to finally get around to watching In/Spectre… and I’m undecided on whether it was a mistake or not. While the beginning is enjoyable, the remaining two-thirds to 50% is for the most part pretty boring and/or distractingly implausible. Rather than an engaging mystery/thriller, exciting action series, or amusing romantic comedy it just ends up something like the second coming of Kyoukai no Kanata.

    Cop Craft on the other hand I didn’t have any particularly strong desire to see, but the ‘odd couple’ relationship angle seemed like it might complement the previous series. It did not. Rather, it reminded me rather acutely of why I mostly stopped watching Anime in the first place. While the series has a lot of ideas and messages to impart, some of them even pretty good, it never manages to sell any of them. Stuff is just sort of thrown at the wall and then forgotten an episode or two later.

    What’s interesting is that both of these series (despite their source material having been written 11 and 9 years ago, respectively) seem tailor-made for current events. In the former’s case you have the central theme of using lies and ‘questions’ to obfuscate and/or distract from the truth, while in the latter you have democracy being boiled down to ‘not choosing which one is good, just which one is better’ and corrupt police. So in the end these two series did end up complimenting one another… just not in the way I had expected.

    Continue reading → Post ID 8912

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Summer 2020 - Winter 2023 - Winter Anime Related and tagged

  • PROMARE & Violet Evergarden Gaiden -Eien to Jidou Shuki Ningyou-

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    Though Promare has a number of similarities to Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill, it comes off more like an imitation than a celebration. It’s all style and no substance. The supporting Galo/Lio shorts are better, but there’s little point in watching them as stand-alones… and they don’t work well as prequels either.

    The first Violet Evergarden movie meanwhile is a side-story (split into two parts) which appears to take place at some point after the series’ conclusion. Indistinguishable from the TV episodes the movie won’t change anyone’s minds regarding the franchise, but it can be watched as a stand-alone for those on the fence about whether or not they want to watch the series.

    Personally, I’ve never been fond of the whole ‘proper lady, gilded cage’ setup/concept and the particular iteration featured here doesn’t do anything to change that opinion. Fortunately that’s only the theme for the movie’s first half; the second goes back to focusing on the delivery service. Unfortunately, it does so by heavily featuring a new child character who wants to join the office. So long as you don’t mind kids this works as a fitting conclusion. For me however it means pretty much the whole movie ends up a wash.

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Spring 2019 - Summer Anime Related and tagged

  • Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    Tokyo is home to many people of all different varieties, both human and not, and it’s the Night Community Exchange Department’s job to handle any problems which may arise from the various nonhuman entities inhabiting the area. Arata Miyako has just joined the department’s Shinjuku office, and despite having no previous experience quickly finds himself thrown into the deep-end of mediating supernatural relationships due to his unusual ability to understand their speech.

    A partly episodic procedural series with daily life elements, an occasional dramatic subplot, frequent comic relief, and a few minor action elements. Note that the manga-bundled extra episode is considered the 13th, while the other two are considered the 14th-15th.

    More Information:
    aniDB (1, 2)
    Crunchyroll
    Funimation
    MAL (1, 2, 3)
    Wikipedia

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Autumn 2019 - Spring 2019 - Summer Anime Related and tagged

  • Aggressive Retsuko: Season 2

    Posted on by Offkorn Comment

    As if Retsuko’s everyday life weren’t troublesome enough with having to train a new employee, she now also has to deal with the well-meaning meddling of her mother… who’s become determined to push her into an arranged marriage.

    A continuation of the previous season with a larger focus on romance.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Netflix
    Wikipedia

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    This entry was posted in 2019 - Spring Anime Related and tagged