Twelve Days of Anime – Page 6

(05) A green and pleasant land

Published on December 21, 2017Leave a comment

So yeah, anime has a lot of bad fantasy series that use western mythology or religion in about the same reverent way a certain Washington based football team uses Native American iconography, and usually it all takes place in Japan or some generic fantasyland setting anyway, but occasionally you do get a series set in a recognisable western country. This year we got two fantasy series set in Britain

LWA: straight outta Harry Potter

And what could be more British than Little Witch Academia: Harry Potter but with witches instead of magicians? As I argued before, it’s this familiarity that makes it so accessible for non-anime watching audiences. The boarding school setting is comfy and familiar while Akko’s goal of wanting to be the greatest witch in the world despite being manifestly unsuited for it is relatable. LWA‘s Britain is a bit of a cartoon whenever the series moves beyond Luna Nova and its grasp of British politics is especially suspect, but it all fits the mood of such a light hearted series.

Mahoutsukai no Yome: I want this cottage

Mahoutsukai no Yome is more ambitious, both in portraying England properly as a setting and in establishing its magical world, steeped in Celtic and British mythology. Early on in the first prequel OVA that came out last year, there was an establishing shot of London, complete with the London Eye, which worked very well in establishing that yes, this was London and present day London at that. Then, in the first episode of the regular series, there was the shot of the cottage, which was just a perfect cozy little home that could be anywhere in the West Country and I’d love to live in.

Mahoutsukai no Yome: Silkie is protective

Especially if it came with its own Silkie, the fairy landlady who feeds and protects Chise whenever a nasty priest comes to visit. She’s adorable, just bimbling along in the background, never speaking but a good friend to Chise. Silkie is revealed to be an ex-banshee in the original manga, so though she looks like a mute housekeeper, she’s actually a fairly powerful sort of magical creature. I like the matter of factness with which she’s presented.

Mahoutsukai no Yome: Titania arrives

On the mystical side of things, episode six brought a visit from Titania and Oberon, straight out of Celtic myth by way of Shakespeare, bringing the sublime in magic, a reminder that fairies and elves can be magical, wonderful creatures, but not ones you would want to anger. Titania is one example of how Mahoutsukai no Yome borrows and uses elements and characters from English & Celtic myth and legend and does so in a way that makes up a coherent world. What we see is only one part of a deeper cosmology, with its own rules and laws, that we’re only dipping a toe in.

This is the eight post in this year’s twelve days of anime challenge. Tomorrow: let’s look at why Net-juu no Susume is rape culture.

(06) Kemono Friends

Published on December 20, 2017Leave a comment

How did the show with the lowest budget and the ugliest artwork and animation grow out to be the best series of winter 2017?

Lots of heart.

Kemono Friends: serval sleeping

When Kemono Friends premièred in January, nobody thought anything about it. A spinoff to promote an already cancelled mobile game, created by a no name studio in CG, on barely any budget and a staff of at most a dozen people: why would you give it the time of day. Only because there are people who watch everything did it even got a small audience for its first episode, most of which dumped it immediately. But some kept watching and by episode three they were captured, as shown in the cartoon above that made the rounds of Japanese Twitter. And those viewers started spreading the gospel, first in Japan, then elsewhere as Kemono Friends became one of the very few anime series to become a runaway success purely through word of mouth.

Kemono Friends: please do not eat me

At its heart Kemono Friends iss a simple and utterly sincere story about friendship and kindness. It starts with our two protagonists meeting, as Serval, asleep in a tree on the savannah, spots Kaban walking nearby and decides to stalk her in a game of hunter and prey. One chase scene later and they’re friends. It turns out Kaban has no idea how she got there, doesn’t know who or what she is even; it’s Serval who actually names her Kaban, after the bag (kaban) on her back and who explains the realities of life in Japari Park, how there are all sorts of animal based Friends like her. Because Kaban doesn’t know what kind of animal she is, Serval decides to help her and they go on a quest to find out her identity and where in the park she lives. They’re a good pair, Serval being easy going and athletic, Kaban being a worrywart (especially about the possibility of being eaten) but good at solving problems.

Kemono Friends: I will not eat you

Serval and Kaban’s evolving friendship as they explore Japari Park and their encounters with other Friends is the heart of the story, but what really keeps up interest as the series progresses, is the mystery of Japari Park itself. Clearly something happened that put it in the half ruined, deserted state that it’s in when clearly it was meant as some sort of amusement park/zoo. What exactly happened is never made clear, but hints are dropped all through the series and putting them together is half the fun of the series. It’s here that the genius of the series lies, in that the way information is doled out is done brilliantly, just enough to keep it interesting without revealing the answer too quickly. It was this combination of an earnest story about friendship and kindness, at a time when we darn well needed it, with a well designed mysterious post-apocalyptic setting, that made Kemono Friends so popular through sheer word of mouth.

But of course capitalism can never leave anything alone. Thanks to studio Yaoyorozu and director Tatsuki, a low budget anime for a failed mobile game was transformed in a property that not only promised a second season, but also led to a new game being greenlit on the back of its succes. So no wonder that Kadokawa, the multimedia giant that was the lead in the Kemono Friends production committee fired Tatsuki and severed ties with the studio, because this sort of success must of course be punished. It immediately caused me to lose all interest in any possible sequel, if only not to reward companies who do things like this, but also because I have no trust that another studio could do as well with the series as Yaoyorozu.

This is the seventh post in this year’s twelve days of anime challenge. Tomorrow: a look at western fantasy in anime with Mahoutsukai no Yome & LWA.

(07) Phosphophyllite is a dark side Akko

Published on December 20, 2017Leave a comment

A protagonist who doesn’t let their innate weakness and lack of talent stand in the way of their greatest wish, who doesn’t give up when everybody tells them their dream is foolish: Hoseki no Kuni‘s Phosphophyllite really is a lot like Little Witch Academia‘s Akko, even if they are a genderless gem person. But Phos is Akko seen through a dark mirror, with the latter’s strengths becoming liabilities in Phos’ world.

LWA: Akko flies with a little help from her friends

With Akko, the greatest criticism of her character was always that her headstrong and impulsive nature, remaining mostly unchanged throughout Little Witch Academia, should’ve gotten her in bigger problems than it did. LWA‘s world was forgiving enough that she could usually get herself out of the trouble she got herself into — if with a little help from her friends — and usually without lasting consequences. Akko’s best strength is that same headstrongness and boundless enthusiasm, keeping going through failure after failure until she reaches her goal.

Hoseki no Kuni: the fragility of Phos

Phos shares that same impulsiveness with Akko and that same longing to become something they really aren’t suited for, but where Phos differs from Akko is that they have already mostly given up on it. Phos wants to be a warrior like her fellow gems, fighting off the Lunerians who want to kidnap the gem people to make them into jewelry or something. But as events in the very first episode make clear, they are wholly unsuitable for it, shattering just from hearing Kongo sensei’s battle cry. Phos is idle and drifting through life, with little desire to do anything if they can’t fight.

Hoseki no Kuni: the loneliness of Cinnabar

That changes when Phos meets Cinnabar, who is in a self imposed exile because their very presence can poison the other gems: any part of a gem that comes into contact with it loses its ability to transmit light and has to be chipped off. And because a gem’s memories are stored in their bodies, they loses any memories stored in those parts as well. That’s why Cinnabar patrols alone at night, but when they save Phos, the latter decides to rescue them from this exile, finding a job for them to do safely with the other gems.

Hoseki no Kuni: phos is self repairing

This sets Phos up on the same sort of self improvement journey that Akko goes on in Little Witch Academia, but for Phos there are much greater costs to pay. Phos gets stronger, faster legs, but at the cost of their original ones and the memories they held. Then, as they stays awake during winter with their new friend Antarcticite, Phoa loses their arms, which were too weak to hold a sword. Getting new arms takes an infusion of platinum and gold alloy, but getting them leads to Antarcticite being kidnapped by the Lunerians. As the other gems awake from their winter sleep, what they encounter is a new Phos, one with Antarcticite’s haircut and powers resembling that of Cinnabar, but without much of their memories or personality.

Incidently, the way that gold/platinum alloy fills the cracks in Phos’ original body is reminiscint of how broken pottery is repaired in Japanese Buddhist tradition. TBuddhist influences are everywhere in Hoseki no Kuni, as explained here: in this context you could argue that Phos’ attempt to grow stronger at all cost is foolhardy or even wrong as it leads to more suffering. It would’ve been better had they remained the same person they were at the start of the series, rather than live up to an unattainable ideal.

Comparing Phos to Akko, the latter never had to deal with this sort of side effects to her quest to grow stronger until very late, and even then it was active interference by the Big Bad of the series that caused it. Being Phos on the other hand is suffering, both for Phos themselves and their fellow gems. Each attempt by Phos to grow stronger leads to some loss on their part and that loss is not limited to just Phos themselves, as Antarcticite found out. Perhaps that’s the difference between a western oriented series like LWA and one with such a Buddhist influence where perhaps the desire to grow strong in itself is wrongheaded.

This is the Sixth post in this year’s twelve days of anime challenge. ~~Tomorrow~~ Today: how the ugliest, lowest budget series of the year turned out to be one of the best and how corporate interests fucked it over.

(08) Young Love

Published on December 18, 20171 Comment

There’s perhaps nothing as cliched and predictable as an anime high school romance series. Whether played straight or as a comedy, it’s hard to think of any romance series as genuinely innovating. And yet, both Tsuki ga Kirei and Just Because managed to breathe new life in the genre. How?

Versimilitude.

Just look at the opening minute of Just Because, introducing its characters through a montage of small scenes of everyday life. There’s an amount of detail and care in there you rarely see even in the best slice of life anime series. Tsuki ga Kirei did something similar in its opening episode, following its protagonists through their first school day and accidental encounter at a family restaurant. Both series use their first episode to slowly build up their protagonists, through their everyday life, while laying the foundations for the romance(s) that will drive the rest of the story. It’s a slow accumulation of small details rather than the broad strokes of most romance anime, with no faithful encounters or sudden ephipanies, just a getting to notice a particular person in that way you didn’t before, or a slow re-awaking of an old love.

Both series are set in a time of transition: in Tsuki Ga Kirei the protagonists are starting their third school year in middle school, while in Just Because it’s the last semester of high school. The everyday routine of school life well established, but with the knowledge that it will soon be over and your friends and classmates will each go their own way, lending a bit of uncertainty and perhaps desperation to any new relationship. It’s a time of last chances, when perhaps you can finally gather the courage to turn a long standing crush into a relationship.

In both series there are complications, romantic rivals, but in neither does it take the familiar form of a love triangle. In Tsuki ga Kirei the best friend of the female protagonist falls for the male protagonist as well, but never has a chance and the scene in which she realises it is heart breaking. Again, it’s a realistic take on a standard romcom situation, which is also present in Jjust Because, where there’s a whole tangle of crushes and one sided loves buried under the surface.

Some people will find these series to be too slow, with too little progress in the romance, but for me this is an advantage, not a handicap. Because the series take their time to develop the romance naturally, there’s no need for the usual contrived misunderstandings or subplots. Instead you get an almost voyeuristic look into a budding relationship, where each small step forwards is reason to cheer. And even when there isn’t much progress, just spending time with these people is interesting.

This is the fifth post in this year’s twelve days of anime challenge. Tomorrow: how Phosphophyllite from Hoseki no Kuni is a lot like Akko from Little Witch Academia, only much worse.

(09) Little Witch Academia fanfic kept me sane this year

Published on December 17, 2017Leave a comment

Let’s face it, 2017 wasn’t the best of years for most of us. Even if you personally did well, the state of the world, post-Trump, post-Brexit, did nobody any favours. No wonder we all need some form of escapism. For me, that wasn’t just anime, but fanfiction. Little Witch Academia fanfiction to be precise.

Little Witch Academia is the perfect sort of series for fanfiction: an inventive, fully realised world where there’s still plenty of room for new stories, populated by likeable characters. What’s more, it’s an upbeat, positive series where ultimately friendship and love triumph over cynicism.

Also: Diakko.

Akko, the likeable, klutzy, emotional novice witch who doesn’t let her inexperience and lack of talent stand in the way of her quest to become the greatest witch in the world and Diana, heir to one of the oldest witches families in the world, immensely talented, graceful and composed: a natural couple if there ever was one. The series itself may have only shown Akko’s one sided rivalry with Diana morphing into a real friendship, but there are enough hints of something more between them that it’s not hard to turn it in a full fledged romance.

Both being dense when it comes to romance, there’s a lot of potential for cute little romance stories, as a cursory glance at the AO3 LWA archive shows. I especially like SilverSupa’s stories, as they get the characters and have a good sense of humour to them. Fanart wise, Ticcy is my favourite, again combining a sense of humour with a sense of romance.

Especially the last couple of weeks, as I’ve sat at home having had an glandular infection surgically removed from my right shoulder, reading LWA fanfiction has been a life saver.

This is the fourth post in this year’s twelve days of anime challenge. Tomorrow: a look at young love in Tsuki ga Kirei and Just Because.