Anime

What if you made a thoughtful, subtle, mature anime about somebody moving back into the family business after having spent a decade fruitlessly chasing his dream, make it about what it means to be family, about love and relationships and starting again, full of well thought out supporting characters but have it star this muppet:

Nagomu left his family’s Japanese sconfectionery shop in Kyoto to try his luck as a rock musician in Tokyo. Ten years on with success still eluding him, his fellow band members finally quit. Just as he’s feeling low he gets a care package of sweets from his mother, but included in it is a letter saying his father has been hospitalised. When he tells his girlfriend that he wants to go back home, she leaves him. Rushing home he finds out his father is already back at work and they really don’t need him. Instead they’ve ‘adopted’ Itsuka, an elementary school girl whose father abandoned her. Nevertheless, his mother believes that Nagomu could be a father figure for her and his ex-girlfriend still has feelings for him and has moved to Kyoto too.

Every other character in this series is realistic, subtle, somebody who you can believe could actually exist. But they’re all constantly undermined by somebody who thinks it’s a good gimmick to dress up as giant chestnuts to promote his band and kept doing so for ten years. Nagomu is the type of protagonist who is dumb and useless at doing anything, the type who cries when he has to sell one of his parents’ sweets because he hates to see them go. The type of protagonist who has heart but little else going for him, with a measurelessly irritating voice as well. Yet this dude managed to keep himself not only alive for a decade living alone in Tokyo, but also managed to keep his band going and score a girlfriend who honestly is way above his league?

It makes Deaimon a mixed bag. On the one hand this is a rare example of a series that looks at what it’s like to be an adult and realise you’re never going to make your dreams come true and finding peace with it. An anime that looks at becoming family and what it takes to be in your early thirties and having to remake your life. But it’s constantly undermined by the very anime! protagonist being an insufferable idiot. If you can stand that this is a great series.

It’s a Christmas miracle: an anime fantasy series with a town that isn’t a perfect circle!

S-Rank Monster no “Behemoth” dakedo, Neko to Machigawarete Elf Musume no Pet toshite Kurashitemasu (I’m an S-Rank “Behemoth” Monster, but I’m Living as a Pet of an Elf Girl, I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet) aka Beheneko is about a knight who reincarnated as a monster and for more information, reread that title above. Yes, this is very much another generic pseudo-isekai series, but it is one that seems that had a little bit more care put into it than normal. The mere fact that the city actually looks like a proper town is one example of this. Animation, design and setting are all a cut above the rest, even if the plot is still fairly standard.

All this really needed was for the cat and its elf girl master to be reasonably cute and it succeeded with both. This first episode was pretty much the usual one introductionary one, basically setting up the title (and indeed name dropping it at the very end). A nameless knight gets reincarnated as the S-class monster Behemoth, but he looks like a little kitten, has fun killing other monsters in the dungeon until he runs into a dragon and nearly gets killed. At which point the elf girl finds him, takes him home and nurtures him back to health. Visiting the adventurers guild she is accosted by a rapey co-worker, the cat saves her and they fight a duel which she and the cat wins. The one sour note in the whole episode was the guild master being an obnoxious gay stereotype.

On the whole though this very much looks like a nice, light show to watch week by week.

That really is a nasty way to end a season.Poor Momo will have to hold her breath until July, being stared at by this creepy old fart.

That’s Dandadan for you, finished as it started, with a creepy sexual assault on its main protagonist. Best series this season nevertheless. Normally I don’t particularly like this sort of big Shonen Jump adaptations, as they’re aimed at eleven year olds like my nephew and I’m not eleven anymore, but this was the perfect mix of horror, action and humour. I love that Ayase Momo is very much the main protagonist, a rarity for a shounen series, with Okarun her faithful sidekick. I like how comfortable they are with each other and how easily Momo’s gyaru friends accept him. I like how much of a goofball they both are, as are Aya and Jin. The animation is great, but the voice acting, especially Momo’s (Wakayama Shion). Just a great series overall.

When Anon goes to confront Soyo at her home, just before the climax of episode ten, it’s the first time that Anon has the upper hand over her and can see her as human, somebody she can relate to.

To Anon, Soyo had always been the sort of person she wanted to be: smart, elegant, kind, calm. The sort of person who can drink Earl Grey tea without sugar, who’s kind and friendly with everybody. Throughout the early episodes you can see how impressed Anon is with her. She never saw through the facade Soyo put up (neither did Tomori or Taki to be fair). Even when Soyo became angry in episode 7 for them having played haruhikage, (Crychic’s song), Anon took it as another example of Soyo’s kindness, her being angry out of concern for the feelings of Sakiko, Crychic’s ex-leader, who was at the concert. She had to hear from Taki of all people that Soyo had used her, that Soyo had never been serious about their new band, saw her only as a tool to reunite Crychic.

Anon being Anon her first instinct was not to be angry about it, but to see it as confirmation of all her worst self loathing. She isn’t needed, she isn’t special, she cannot even fool people that she is. Tomori starting doing solo concerts is a confirmation of this to her, as she completely misunderstands what she’s trying to do. Like with her attempt to study abroad, she wants to give up because it has become too difficult. Because Anon knows she only did it for ulterior motives, to look good in class, to become popular: she was using Tomori as much as Soyo was using her. It’;s only after Tomori literally chases after her and tells her she needs her, shows her that regardless, Anon still struggled for the band, that she relents.

She may have had awful, selfish motives but Tomori still accepts her. And because of that she now has the courage and clarity to recognise that she and Soyo are the same, that Soyo is not some paragon to emulate, but as human and flawed as herself, which means Anon can now play her like a fiddle. Being so similar she knows exactly which buttons to push to get Soyo to come to the next performance and once she does, getting her onstage is easy. Against the combination of Tomori’s earnestness and Anon’s maliciousness Soyo never stood a chance.

And because Anon can no longer put her on a pedestal, does finally see her as a human being, she’s now able to treat Soyo as she does the other members, as a friend she can give a nickname to, whether it’s appreciated or not. As with Taki (sorry, rikki) she shows her love through teasing. She still seeks her approval but now from a level playing field, just like she does with Taki.