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Rough start but worth it: Maidragon S — Anime 2022 #005

Published on January 6, 2022Leave a comment

This is what I watched Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S for:

Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S, sequel to 2017’s Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon, is an important series for Kyoto Animation: the first broadcast since the arson attack that killed 35 employees in 2019, including first season’s director Takemoto Yasuhiro. The studio can be proud that even after this horrfying event they could still maintain the high quality of animation that it became know for. Watching it with the knowledge that some of the people who had worked on this or would’ve worked on this had instead died in a senseless attack made for a somewhat bittersweet experience.

What made Kobayashi-san Chi no Maidragon S difficult for me as well were the first two episodes, which introduced new dragon Ilulu. At the end of the first episode Ilulu gave Kobayashi a magical penis, which was one of the more annoying storylines from the original manga and not much better here. Therefore I stopped watching this when it was being broadcast after the second episode and only binged it a few days ago.

Once that was settled though this was once again more Maidragon goodness. With the cast now fully established, most of the episodes focused on the interactions between the various dragons, Kobayshi and their other human friends. Ilulu for example got a part time job at a candy store where she worked with the 16 year old grandson of the store owner and their interactions were both funny and sweet. We also got more insight in the history between Tohru and Elma, who turned out to have been friends in the other world, as well as the reasons why Tohru turned up in Tokyo in the first place. Most of the best episodes revolve around Kanna though, who is still as adorable as she was in the first series.

Magical realist slice of moe: Fuujin Monogatari — Anime 2022 #004

Published on January 5, 2022Leave a comment

I’ve never seen any anime with the same art style as Fuujin Monogatari. I’ve also never seen an anime which nailed how cats look and move as perfectly as this series does. Most anime are content with just moeblobs and some poor voice actor doing a bad imitation of a meow, but not this show. Just look at them. Those are cats with character.

Our protagonist Nao was on the roof to take pictures of clouds when she saw that cat jumping off the roof and catching the wind, surprising her so much she falls off herself. It would be a short series had she not survived this and she was indeed saved by the teacher, Taiki-sensei, walking the school grounds who, like the cats, turns out to be a wind user. Nao isn’t the only one who knows this; there’s Ryouko, who has a habit of feeding the cat Nao found on the roof and who has learned a bit about using the wind from Taiki-sensei. Together with Nao’s friend Miki, the only other member of the Digital Camera Club and her boyfriend Jun, they start experimenting with wind manipulation.

Fuujin Monogatari is basically a Slice of Moe/Cute Girls Doing Cute Things show with no real overarching plot. The girls practise their wind powers and go on small adventures in and around the school using them. The wind magic itself is never explained, it just exist and some people can use it, most cannot. In one episode for example the girls meet a bunch of elementary school boys who also have these powers and use it to play kick the can. The closest show it reminded me of was Flying Witch, which also grounds its magic in the more mundane world surrounding it. Where it differs is that the wind magic of this series is far more random than is usual for anime. Normally there would be some shadowy magical organisation, or the magic is rooted in Japanese folklore and mythology, but here wind control just happens to be something some people and cats can do.

What makes Fuujin Monogatari from a good into an outstanding anime is ultimately its unique art style. This might have worked with a more generic art style, but not half as well. It’s not glossing up a somewhat dull premise with a lick of style; it’s the integration of the art style with the story and the world it takes place in, the way it works so well to depict wind that makes this great. Like the best Shaft anime, you cannot separate style from function.

When mobile phones were hot: Keitai Shoujo — Anime 2022 #003

Published on January 5, 2022Leave a comment

Instead of me explaining what Keitai Shoujo is about, you might just as well watch episode one somebody has helpfully put on Youtube instead:

From 2007, from before the iPhone, when flip phones ruled Japan, comes Keitai Shoujo, literally “mobile phone girls”, a five episode six minute OVA series that’s basically a series of harem romance vignettes, but with texting. Strip the full sized opening and ending from each episode and you’re left with 31/2 minutes of ‘plot’, each of which revolves around our protagonist duo witnessing a scene involving yet another girl each episode. Some of those work, like the first episode in which the girl in question is already friends with the both of them and the plot revolves around the romantic tensions between the three of them. Some don’t, as in the very next episode in which the more desparate of the two friends saves a gloomy girl from falling down the stairs, then hits on her and gets shot down. Some episodes don’t even involve them at all, other than as witnesses to whatever the girl is doing this time.

A girl in traditional Japanese archery clothes is stretching a bow, her long black hair in a pony tail

Of the five featured girls I liked this one the best. I just like that archetype of the perfectionist, overly serious senpai; the yamato nadeshiko type. Nothing much is done with any of the characters though so all you’re getting out of any of them is their stereotype and associations from other anime. The individual stories are all decent enough and it could’ve been a decent sort of harem romcom had this been a proper series, rather than a series of shorts obsessed with text messaging. There’s also an epilogue, which repeats episode two for some reason and then contrives an ending for the series as a whole involving the mascot character only seen in the opening and ending. All in all this is interesting rather than good.

Trash anime before isekai: Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance — Anime 2022 #002

Published on January 4, 2022Leave a comment

There was a time not too long ago that nobody knew what isekai was. If you wanted to watch a low calorie harem fantasy featuring a useless male protagonist and a harem of deadly, inexplicably in love with him heroines, each conveniently colour coded, you had to turn to a series like this. Yes, Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance, AKA Bladedance of Elementalers in English is a good, old-fashioned “Only Boy in Magic School” series. In a world in which only girls can form contracts with spirits, our protagonist Kamito is the only boy who is able to do so and is therefore forced to enroll into Areishia Spirit Academy. As the only boy on campus, he of course gets involved into all sorts of shenanigans which earn him the ‘title’ of Demon Lord of the Bedroom and other unflattering epithets. There’s of course a reason for why he is able to use magic only women should be able to use and that’s all tied into the greater plot. However, this was a one cour, twelve episode adaptaton of a light novel series that was unfinished at the time, so don’t get your hopes up that any of it is resolved by the end of the series. Broadcast in the Summer season of 2014 this is a typical harem fantasy from before isekai took over.

A red headed girl with hair to her waist, seen from behind, bathing in a lake surprised by a generic looking protagonist on the shore

According to the fashion of the time, the main heroine Claire is red haired, small breasted and easy to anger. Equally according to fashion, the first encounter between her and the protagonist is with him surprising her as she’s bathing in a lake. Things happen, he seals a contract with the spirit she was after but couldn’t handle and they both end up at the Academy, where he becomes the first member of her team and is contracted to her. Together they need to take part in the Blade Dance, a competition to decide who is the most awesome of all the spirit elementalers, but there’s a lot of competition and a lot more haremettes to encounter before they can do so.

A blushing, bluenette dressed in a maid outfit

My favourite of which is the blue haired leader of the Sylphid Knights, Ellis. The sort of serious girl who always calls the protagonist by his full name, but surprisingly naive when it comes to romance. Hence her dressing up as a maid on the advice of her friends when she wants to do something nice for Kamito. There’s also an older transfer student who joins the team who agressively flirts with him leading to fights with Claire and a blond oujo-sama who’s tsundere enough to have to have her maid translate for her. Storywise, there’s a lot of standard harem antics as Kamito and Claire prepare for the Blade Dance and work their way towards qualification, with occassional outbreaks of the overall plot. The animation, even in the fights is nothing special and the character designs are cookie cutter. I’d actually watched the first four episodes of this back in 2015, had tried it again in 2016 and decided to watch the rest of it on New Year’s Day as something light to ignore in the background. It turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable though and not nearly as obnoxious with its fanservice and harem escapades as some series…

Golf playing girls: Sorairo Utility — Anime 2022 #001

Published on January 3, 2022Leave a comment

First anime watched this year and it was a fifteen minute New Year’s special about three girls playing golf. Golf: a nice walk ruined, a sport for people who want to play marbles but are too lazy to bend over, three most annoying sport to see in the television schedule after darts and snooker. Nevertheless, Sorairo Utility was a decent enough watch to start 2022 with and I respect the decision to make this nothing but a game of gold, with no extraneous plot or setting included. Just three high school girls trying to hit balls into a small hole from long distance.

A girl in shorts and t-shirt who is holding up a golf club, having just swung it

Minami gets interested in golf by watching this woman’s swing and seeing the ball soar into the blue sky. A short opening later and we’re off to the golf course with her two more experienced golf friends, Haruka and Ayaka for a game of golf. It’s only her third game and she worries about making par: the maount of strokes it should take you to complete a hole. As a beginner she hasn’t been able to do so, but wants to. Her friends try to coach her a bit, while she admires them for their clean swings. And that’s about it for the plot. We follow them around the course as Minami continues to worry, take pictures together and break for lunch in the club house in the middle of their tour. In the end, Minami never gets par, though she’s close on the very last hole.

Minami is about to putt while her two friends look on from a distance

It’s all very genteel, something easily digestible to start the new year with after the obligatory Vienna New Year’s Concert. There isn’t really any reason for this to exist. It’s not promoting anything, just fifteen minutes of girls playing golf because somebody at Yostar Pictures liked the idea of doing an anime about girls playing golf. I liked it despite having no interest in golf whatsoever. Despite its tight focus on the game itself the show still managed to make me care about Minami and her drive to improve. Also, how often do you see anime girls with ear rings?

Minami after she swung her cub the way she wants to, with piercings in her ears