Archive for the English Anime Category


Sailor Moon SuperS Anime, Part 1, Disk 3 (English)

October 25th, 2019

Disk 1 gave us the SuperS Special, with it’s Yuri lovefest. Disk 2 turned a little dark, but was deeply queer.  With Sailor Moon SuperS, Part 1, Disk 3, we find ourselves deep into the middle of the 4th season of the original anime, with virtually no more information about the plot than we had in the first disk. Less, because this disk devolved into a a kind of pissing match between Hawk’s Eye and Tiger’s Eye about how many women they can seduce while Fish Eye seeks to seduce men, during which they occasionally remember they have a specific mission to discover Pegasus hiding in a human’s dream.

Because the mission has largely been forgotten, there are a number of things that draw our attention in this season which are problematic. Even setting aside Chibi-Usa’s crush on a talking horse, which reads more “fantasy” than creepy, and some of the earlier, quite creep lolicon, there is the frankly sexually violent way in which the Amazoness Trio immobilize their victims, rip people’s dream mirrors out of their chests, open them, thrust themselves in and out while digging around, as their victims scream. This violent act is horrific on it’s own, but that it keeps being conflated with seduction…I find myself at a loss for words.

This season adds shotacon to the pile of things to be made uncomfortable by, if you’re keeping a record, with Fisheye’s lame attempt as seduction/assault/mirror rape of a young boy and…Shingo and Ami. This is an equal-opportunity fetish series.

As I contemplated writing this review, I struggled with this disk. SuperS is my least favorite season for any number of reasons, the above paragraphs among them. I was considering skipping this disk in fact, as it seemed to me aggressively straight, until I began to really watch it, through the lens of my 21st century understanding. All three of the Amazon Trio are gender non-conforming and Fish Eye is, to my eye, trans. Minako’s “two-timing” episode is a poorly constructed episode that I would rewrite into her being poly and pansexual, except that of course, the Amazons are an alien enemy, not two genderfluid humans. ^_^;

I used to feel sympathetic to the Amazon Trio, but I’m not feeling it this time. I find myself actually looking forward to the theatrical release of the first Sailor Moon Eternal movie (functionally the 4th season of Sailor Moon Crystal) in which we blow through them to get to the Amazoness Quartet (whose story is sadly abbreviated in manga as well as anime and also needs a rewrite.)  The manga also has the much better powerup of the Inner Senshi than the one on this disk, which strips the agency from the Outers and gives it to Pegasus…which was just annoying.

Technically, this disk looks amazing and I only picked up the DVD, not feeling enough love for it to get the BD. While the art is retro as always, the quality of the reproduction and sound is absolutely stellar, as if it had been made for digital. Great job with the remaster and no over-saturation of the color needed. Extras on this disk are trailers only.

SuperS is never going to my favorite season, but my favorite episode of this season is coming up on the next disk, so that’s something to look forward to!

Ratings:

Art – 7 It’s noticeably improved on this disk
Story – 2 So much screaming
Characters – 4
Service – This disk adds shota to the pile.
LGBTQ – 6 For an aggressively heterosexual season, SuperS is really queer

Overall – 6

This disk leaves me with three questions:

1) Where does Mamoru get his money? He doesn’t work, goes to med school, lives in a huge apartment and has a European sports car in late 90’s Japan.

2) Do the Inners get tired of buying clothes in the same colors as their Senshi fuku? Because this season they are all-in on the matching color scheme.

3) What lessons is this season supposed to be teaching us? Because I don’t think those are the ones we’re learning. ^_^





Sailor Moon SuperS Anime, Part 1, Disk 2 (English)

August 12th, 2019

After the wonderfulness of the Sailor Moon Super S Special on Disk 1, is there really anything left worth talking about in this season? Apparently…yes. ^_^

Sailor Moon SuperS Anime, Part 1, Disk 2 continues what I personally find to be the most difficult season to watch – not only because it focuses so heavily on Chibi-Usa, but also because Usagi is positioned as exceptionally grating as a result of her jealousy of Chibi-Usa and Mamoru. Much more importantly, the rest of the Senshi are largely sidelined throughout this season, until their power-ups are needed.

Nonetheless, I think it’s worth mentioning the very queer character who steps front and center on this disk – Fisheye. All of the Amazon Trio are boys, Tigereye tells us explicitly. Fisheye appears to see themselves as female, certain as female presenting. Fisheye’s affection is for men. Fisheye might be  gender non-binary, gender-X, gay, trans, or some other identity, but that is not the point I wish to make. The point that is worth noting is that, 25 years ago,  yet another season of this cartoon gave queer folks a character they could claim as theirs.

I have been thinking about this a lot these days; about how critical it is for young people especially to see someone like, if not the same, as themselves. This is the heart of why I think Shimanami Tasogare is so important. In the story itself, the young protagonist is given a number of older role models who each contribute to his evolving understanding of himself and the people around him. Before Misora, before Shuu-chan from Wandering Son, there was Fisheye, a doomed character because they were on the side of evil (through no fault of their own,), but who provided an example of a way to live to young folks in the mid 90s in Japan. And how powerful a thing is that?

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 2 Usagi is not much better than Chibi-Usa, frankly
Characters – 4 I’m feeling for Fisheye
Service – More lolicon creepiness than I’m comfortable with, frankly.
LGBTQ – 5

Overall – 6

I am literally keeping a list of queerness in Sailor Moon. I expect to write up an article on it when I’ve finished reviewing the Viz edition, In the mean time, I find myself impressed all over again at how freaking queer this 25 year old kid’s anime was. ^_^





Kakegurui Season 2 Anime (English) Guest Review by Mariko S.

July 3rd, 2019

It’s Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu and today I a very pleased to once again welcome back Mariko S with another terrific review. I hope you’ll all setting for a treat and let Mariko wisk us away to a world of unhealthy obsession. Take it away Mariko!

You may recall that I previously gave a qualified enthusiastic review of this little “high stakes high school gambling addict” sports anime’s first season. Well, it seems its bombastic debut was popular enough to bankroll a second season, so what do Yumeko and the gang have in store for us this year?

To recap, in an elite private school where the children of Japan’s upper crust seemingly don’t study at all, but do spend all day gambling the GDP of small countries on increasingly elaborate contests, wildcard transfer student Jabami Yumeko arrived to shake up the status quo. She took down (and subsequently befriended) an escalating series of insurmountable opponents from the all-powerful Student Council in search of the pure essence of gambling and the chance to compete against the Yin to her Yang, President Momobami Kirari. Having miraculously won the right to stay in her gambling paradise, the season closed with a tease showing a hospitalized woman who looked like Yumeko folding paper cranes…

Kakegurui, Season 2 opens in media res on Yumeko gambling for some painful stakes with old frenemy Midari and a new goth loli girl. The next episode rewinds to tell us why: for some reason, Kirari has decided to step down from her position at the head of the school and offer it up to a school-wide election to be determined by – what else? Gambling. Since the position of Hyakkaou Gakuen student council president is apparently something akin to both Don of a mafia family and maybe head of a shadow government, the election has drawn the interest of a motley crew of teens from the other branches of the Momobami group, determined to take power for themselves. Every student in school is granted 1 chip, and whoever has the most chips at the end of the election period is the new president. May the games begin.

Let’s just get this out of the way – this season was a massive disappointment to me. We can start with its fatal case of “sequelitis.” Basically, the creators decided to repeat everything from the first season, but MORE. The absurd gambling games are even more far-fetched and less-related to anything resembling actual gambling. The grotesque faces that accented the escalating stakes last season, that were so unique and added such strong emotional visualization, are now omnipresent and ratcheted up to 10. Instead of the contests being a battle of wits and wills between Yumeko and a clearly defined opponent, the games this time are gimmicky and involve bloated groups of 3 or more gamblers. In fact, Yumeko regresses completely as a character this time out – you can barely call her the protagonist, as she functions almost entirely as a pure gambling id to catalyze the people around her. We learn nothing new about her, she does nothing to deepen her personality, and in fact in some of the episodes she is literally sidelined as the other characters work out their issues. She does and says things that directly counteract her previously demonstrated core values, and even the things she directly said moments ago. The first season supported Yumeko as both a force of nature and a complex person, and one who would show her gradually escalating excitement at the art and science of each gambling moment in lunatic ways. This time, she’s basically a service delivery device where the slightest hint of any opportunity to gamble making her come is her entire character.

Speaking of the visuals, they take a step back across the board. Gone is the surreal artistic masterpiece opening that Yamamoto Sayo put together for the first season, replaced by a workmanlike sequence that just displays the characters as cards, with lots of shots of Yumeko’s bouncing chest. The ending is basically the animators deciding to “yes, and” Yumeko’s rain walk from last season, as this time she turns into some kind of naked busty blue fairy surrounded by rainbows doing the same walk, just more cheaply animated. I lost count of the number of times someone’s chest was groped or faceplanted into. I already mentioned the overuse of the funhouse faces, but, at the same time, overall things felt more static and less inventive. The Momobami clan gives us a ton of unnecessary new characters, each with a distinctive visual design but little run-time to allow them anything but the shortest backstory and motivation. In fact, you could basically say this season was about healing the defeated opponents from last season more than anything else, as one-by-one the contest they take part in allows Yumeko to play Manic Pixie Dream Gambler and show them the heart, the courage, or the brain they always had inside them. And finally, the season ends on a complete “Huh?” Setting aside the resolution to the final gamble, I don’t think it’s a spoiler to tell you that the election isn’t even decided. Things just… end.

Can I say anything positive about this season? I guess one of the things that was interesting was how clear the show tried to make it that Kirari and Yumeko are two sides of the same coin. Kirari is a crazy sadist who sees the school as her personal aquarium and the students as the fish to be used, observed, experimented on, or discarded at whim. Yumeko also kind of sees people as a commodity, in her case, gambling fodder. She is kinder, yes, and almost accidentally more helpful, but is more of a masochist who likes the helpless feeling of chance. Her philosophy seems to boil down to, “if we have a good gamble, whatever happens was meant to be, so everyone should enjoy the outcome,” even if it’s utter devastation. Similarly, Kirari, though powerful, isn’t power-hungry – she just wants to be entertained as well. In her case that doesn’t always mean gambling, as long as she gets to watch someone squirm under her microscope.

On the Yuri front, this season is a step up, at least in quantity. Student Council secretary Sayaka, who is infatuated with Kirari, is given her own episode replete with lily imagery and, I suppose, as happy an ending as could be possible for someone in love with a misanthropic sadist. Midari is around for several episodes, displaying her usual over-the-top lust for stimulation by an alpha dog like Yumeko or Kirari. And one of the new characters, Batsubami Rei, though a kind of butler to the rest of the -bami tribe, is given a tall, handsome, princely aesthetic that charms the many girls around the school that she interacts with. However, the resolution to her story is, in my opinion, problematic. (Can’t say more without spoilers.)

Bottom line, if you liked the first season mainly for the kooky gambling antics, you’ll find more of that here to enjoy. If you were hoping to learn more about Yumeko’s past and see a character drama of ratcheting intensity, or even a magnetic attraction between two the-same-yet-opposite supernovas, you’ll be disappointed. Here’s hoping that if they gamble on season 3, Kakegurui can roll a 7 next time.

Ratings:

Art – 5 A dramatic decrease in quality from last season.
Story – 4 The election framing device was decent enough, but there was not much beyond it except at a superficial individual level.
Characters – 4 The gutting of Yumeko, the glut of little-more-than-sketches new characters, and the near omnipresence of the animal-hoodied loli and her minions as the “election monitors” send this one plummeting.
Yuri – 5 As described above.
Service – 10 Still a 10, but a different sort of 10 this time around. I didn’t care for it.

Overall – 4

Technical Note: Netflix continues to struggle with translations, but one of its mistakes is pretty funny on a meta level. Irrelevant-self-insert-male-narrator Suzui Ryouta’s name is sometimes miswritten as “Suzuki,” which is perfect for his interchangeable blandness.

Erica here: “as happy an ending as could be possible for someone in love with a misanthropic sadist.” is such a great line, I wanted to cut and paste it just to enjoy it all over again. I watched all of Season 1 and wished I had liked it more than I did. I’m sorry for you this wasn’t as solid but am regardless very happy you stopped by to let us know! Since I watched that first season, Netflix suggests this to me constantly – and you know how their ads autostart.. Watching a popular baking show?  Try Kakegurui.

Oh, you like My Little Pony? HAVE YOU LOOKED AT KAKEGURUI? 

Hey, we see you watched these murder mystery shows…. MAYBE SOME KAKEGURUI NOW?

Look, you watched Into the Spiderverse…

 

It’s actually pretty funny, unless I have guests over. ^_^;





Sailor Moon SuperS Anime, Part 1, Disk 1 (English)

April 15th, 2019

It’s been a long time since I watched Sailor Moon Super S the very first time and I am not at all surprised to find that I consider it as unwatchable and excruciating as I felt the first time! It’s got just about everything I don’t like all crammed into a very thin plot (Chibi-Usa, Pegasus, creepy Amazon Trio ripping women’s dreams from their chest while they beg them not to….shudder…) , and while I – like all good fans – have rewritten and retconned it in my own head to be a valuable piece of the mythology, in reality it’s really pretty eh, unless you genuinely enjoy Chibi-Usa and Usagi screaming at each other for a lot of episodes.

That said, there are actually a couple of really interesting plot needles among the rest of the plot hay. So, I’m basically ignoring the story of SuperS for all of those.  You know the rule – it’s 25 years old, there can be no spoilers.

The first interesting plot element is that the Amazon Trio are all male (do not try to make sense of the name, therefore) but Fish Eye is the second gay male character who crossdresses in the series.  With all the women who pass as men in the spotlight of ‘S’ and “Stars”, its sometimes easy to forget Zoisite and Fish Eye who provide the queer quotient in the first season and “SuperS.”

The animation suffered significantly for this season. Remastering could only work so far when the original just wasn’t that great to begin with. The sound quality was surprisingly good, but as the music was mostly on automatic, it adds little to the overall experience. Even the end theme “Baby Baby Love” is not one of the strongest in the pantheon of Sailor Moon music. Especially when you consider the end theme of Stars, which is weep-messy-tears worthy.

I hope you will forgive me for otherwise ignoring much of what happens in this season. I would probably not even be reviewing it but for the most amazing thing being included on Disk 1. The Sailor Moon SuperS Special consists of 2 short stories both of which are basically the only reason this whole season has for existing. This is the first official release of this special in English and you must run out and watch this immediately if not sooner.

Part 1 of the SuperS Special follows Haruka and Michiru as they encounter the Dead Moon Circus at a resort hotel. Haruka is sick in bed and flirting with the maid who is taking care of her, forcing Sailor Neptune to fight the Dead Moon Circus alone.  The punchline of this episode is Michiru’s line – which is the one of the three best lines in all of Sailor Moon – “There seems to be a misunderstanding. It’s not worth saving a world without Haruka.”

Part 2 is the only Chibi-Usa story I can tolerate and is one of the chapters from “Chibi-Usa’s Picture Diary” from the manga.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 2 Ask me how much I care about Chibi-Usa and Helios. Have a seat. It’s gonna take a while.
Characters – 3 Hawk’s Eye and Tiger’s Eye did not age well as character designs or concepts, but we’ll get more Inners, later.
Service – More BDSM creepiness than I’m comfortable with, frankly.
Yuri – 10 A whole episode of Michiru and Haruka being so very, very gay.

Overall – 9 for the Special, 6 for the rest of the season

The SuperS Special and the SuperS movie are good. The rest of the season can go hang. ^_^





Ms. Vampire Who Lives in my Neighborhood Anime (English) Guest Review by Christian Le Blanc

April 10th, 2019

Welcome back to Guest Review Wednesday! Today we have a special Guest Review by Christian Le Blanc of 3DComics! Christian has kindly watched an anime so I don’t have to, freeing me to finish up Princess Principal instead. ^_^ (About which I quite probably will do a review one day. ) So let’s please welcome Christian back and  give him our full attention. The floor is yours, Chris!

Sophie Twilight is, let me assure ya,
An anime fangirl vampira.
At the end of each night
In her coffin sleeps tight
With a bishoujo dakimakura.

Ms. Vampire Who Lives in my Neighbourhood (Tonari no Kyūketsuki-san), which is streaming on Crunchyroll, is a 12-episode comedic slice-of-life anime series based on the 4koma manga by Amatou serialized in Comic Cune magazine. Ms. Vampire herself, Sophie Twilight, is a centuries-old vampire who is practically the poster-girl for “Non-Threatening Vampires” magazine – she doesn’t drink blood straight from humans (she orders bottles of it online instead), and she enjoys manga, anime, and ordering anime statues and body pillows off the web. When she first meets our other main character, Amano Akari, she tells her “Don’t be afraid. I’m just your run-of-the-mill vampire passing by. Nobody suspicious.”

Akari is a normal…well, human, anyway…high school student obsessed with dolls, and becomes infatuated with the doll-like Sophie Twilight at their first meeting – so much so that, by the end of the first episode, she’s moved herself into Sophie’s house, much to her parents’ puzzling beatific indifference. Akari’s friend Hinata starts hanging out with them, as does Sophie’s vampire friend Ellie. Most of the humour comes from the culture clash of vampires and humans as they all spend time together – Ellie prescribes treatments for the human cold based on outdated concepts of the four humours, Sophie tries feeding nails to Akari because she doesn’t understand ‘food’, Akari makes a cold, bloody treat for Sophie which results in her penguin-shaped shaved ice maker looking like something removed from Silent Hill for being too disturbing, etc. Our cast enjoys each other’s company at Sophie’s house, the mall, high school, the beach, Akihabara, etc. Obscure bits of vampire lore come into play, but always in a cute manner, of course.

This being a moe comedy, almost everything about this show is light. The faux-baroque score is very whimsical and cute; nothing you’ll likely remember (aside from the opening and ending songs), everything just seems to fit the scene, and nothing really stands out as distracting. The color scheme is light as well – bright, pastel colors that suit the tone of the show and make it pleasant to watch. Any quarrels that *do* appear get resolved by the end of each segment; the first episode makes it look like Akari is going to become a constant harasser to a Sophie who just wants to be left alone (see: Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles), but Sophie quickly realizes she misses Akari when she’s not around. Even the fact that it’s based on a 4koma means that the pacing is generally quick and light, jumping from beat to beat.

Naturally, any Yuri in this show is light, as well – the four main characters are all just friends, although Akari plainly crushes on / lusts after Sophie – just like in Ms. Koizumi Loves Ramen Noodles, our pursuer pictures herself and the pursued together in wedding dresses. Ellie, for her part, crushes on / lusts after almost any young girl she sees. Hinata also has a mild crush on Akari, just to round things out.

All in all, it’s mostly just a cute show to relax with if you want some light comedy and pleasant, fun character interactions without angst or drama, and just a smidgen of the supernatural with Yuri elements.

That said – when I first approached Erica about writing this review, there were only 3 or 4 episodes up. I could choose to review whatever episodes were already released, or, wait for the series to end and report back. While the chances were pretty slim, I decided to hold back and wait just in case any problematic issues came up that I should address. As you’ve probably guessed, I did find a little something.

Ellie (Sophie’s vampire friend), as I mentioned above, is the thirstiest character on the show. She’s also the youngest-looking character on the show – in fact, they spend time addressing the fact that she was turned into a vampire right around the onset of puberty, so she laments that she never got to grow more mature-looking. Akari’s human friend Hinata even mistakes her for a child at first, prompting Ellie to grope Hinata’s chest in anger before storming off, which makes poor Hinata depart in tears (wait, wasn’t this a comedy?). Ellie’s portrayed as a sex-positive 400-year-old vampire, who looks and acts like a child most of the time…which makes it ultra-gross when she gropes Akari’s butt at the hot springs, wears a revealing succubus costume for Halloween, suggests Sophie buy Akari a thong for Christmas, etc. It’s not that the characters are being flirty and suggestive from time to time that bugs me, it’s that they’re doing this while looking and acting like little kids who are drawn, and written, much younger than they are. It’s creepy enough seeing the camera pan slowly across Akari’s butt dimples at the beach, but watching her play with her dolls later in the same episode encreepens it that much more.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 4 (not necessarily bad, just nothing really eventful happens)
Characters – 4
Yuri – 3
Service – yes, unfortunately.

Overall – 5

If you’ve read all this and it still mostly sounds like something you’d enjoy if it didn’t have the problematic bits, then give it a try and, depending on your tolerance, you may want to just skip past the first halves of episodes 5 & 7, the post-credits scene of episode 9, and episode 10 in general. You might even watch this and feel that I’m overreacting, and, that’s ok; I’m not out to spoil your fun, but I definitely want you to understand why this show might not be someone else’s idea of fun.

Erica here: Comic Cune is, of course, the home of moe, creepy characters, creepy not-quite Yuri and cake. If the service of the anime irks, but you like the premise, take a look at the magazine. The fan service tends more towards what cake are we eating today?

I also want to shoot a stern look at Disney for forcing this absurd title on the anime when clearly “My Neighbor the Vampire” should have been the translation. This translation absolutely ruins the flow.

Thanks Christian for taking a look at this for us!