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Dec 24, 2023
It's not that bad.
OreGairu was definitely in my mind halfway through the series, but I can't help but feel that it has some bite, and this shy away from hitting the viewer, which lessened the supposed message.
Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun's setting is about self-improvement, the reasoning behind it, the relationship, and emotion that's attached to it. In a way, I feel it's more complex than just putting it down to "change", the cast is certainly impressive. The original novel got quite good reviews, with highlights about it helping put self-improvement into context and touching on certain facets that's not often discussed. I think the original work
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is quite intriguingly simple and entertaining. That's something not to be underestimated. Sure, conflicts are not too serious, and never quite reach the melodrama such as OreGairu, but it is still endlessly heart wrenching and self-reflective.
This is of course, a review of the animation. This is where I have an issue. Let's begin with direction. I don't have much negative to say about the animation direction, in fact I have little to say about it as a whole. It just unremarkable how pretty and detailed the background and the characters are, and how forgettable the animation was. This is why it's an art and not merely procedure work. It's not the first time I have had this problem with so-called "slice-of-life" animation works. I recently rewatch Girlish Number and boy was the animation work mediocre. That show focused on "moe" character's facial expression and movement which almost comically missing the point of the show. That might have been a "meta" thing, there's no excuse for this one. I think OreGairu season 1 deserved this criticism as well, but the animation style was just full of fun, exaggerating character's expression so much that the more dramatic season 2 and 3 with bigger budget felt a little too "serious". However, I think it can be given a pass as both seasons smartly focused on the right thing, the voice acting, line delivery and shifts between comedy/tension/drama. This, this is the safe, sensitised way to do it.
Of course, following animation direction is art. I think the art looks great. Despite the characters not looking as good as the gorgeous LN illustration by Fly, I would actually say some characters came to life in the adaptation, to varying degrees. That's not to mention the aforementioned gorgeous background. It's quality production.
Music doesn't quite hit me, but future rewatch might change my opinion. I was too caught up in figuring out why I wasn't impressed with the direction.
Overall, it's a good show and definitely worth the time. Doubly so if you ever have thoughts about self-improvement. Its core message is solid and it is doing more with the concept than going over it, eventually.
Extended discussion:
I think more can be said about the plot and characters. Some comparison to OreGairu is worth the time in my opinion. To begin, let’s address the controversy about the female lead's questionable actions. I feel that certain criticism her way was warranted, but letting it affect the examination of the work is rather misguided. Her actions are not meant to be “gospel”, I think her opinion regarding relationships, human interaction and such are one of the perspectives regarding “self-improvement” or “winning in life” and such. Her character of course is reminiscent of Yukino, albeit in this case, almost complete opposite methodology. I think she plays the role wonderfully, and much better than Yukino in OreGairu in representing a point of view regarding human’s interaction. This is due to her action and opinions are the driving force of the plot, unlike in OreGairu in which the circumstances brought out the faces of the characters. This is most representative in the way that their flaws are explained. Yukino’s facade of flawlessness came from her insecurities due to her family's internal competitions and tensions, in which she had to hold up her act. Meanwhile, Hinami’s flaw is something more fundamental to her personality rather than circumstantial. She was so competitive as a person that she put the burden to be perfect on herself and required everything to be competing, like her, to the point of cruelty. These are just 2 different philosophies to construct a story, and both play their roles in their stories.
Meanwhile, the contrast between Hachiman and Tomozaki’s goals is also indicative of what kind of self-reflection/story is being told. Hachiman came out as almost a superhuman sometime, willingly endured humiliation and ostracism to “achieve” his goal. Central to his struggle, what the story became about is how to be “normal”. He likes to see himself as being “the hero”, despite much of his monologues about him not being the ideal hero like Hayama. He thinks he can solve everything through his “soft touch”, but when it turns out not to be the case, as with the mess he had with the awkward “love triangle”, it made their relationship approach the point of collapse. This is of course, absurd, very far from anything remotely realistic. He’s the idealised version of what a middle/high schooler dreams of themselves in their own social clique. That being said, it’s the idea of such a person that’s relatable. The way they think and reason.
Contrast this to Tomozaki, who’s mostly ordinary in capability, except his godlike ability in video games. His struggle is to be “not normal”, in this case. To be more than what he is or was. This is about self-improvement. He might have been obsessed with making progress, but he was also eventually very keenly aware of the “authenticity” question of self-improvement. If you “improve” yourself, staying out of your comfort zone, are you still truly being yourself? Or are you merely wearing a mask of being a better person? Should you be a better person despite knowing it makes your “true self” miserable? Tomozaki alluded to this with the “love confession”, as he knows engaging in dishonest relationships hurt his conscience, something Hinami dismissed as “weakness”.
It’s clear that Hachiman is about how Superman is still human in the end, while Tomozaki is an ordinary human becoming a superhero and the identity and perhaps even ethical questions around it.
The self-improvement question posed by Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun is quite interesting. As I have elaborated, the clashing opinion regarding the methodology in self-improvement and motivation was somewhat answered in season 1. Your decision and commitment to self-improvement is part of your personality and journey. Not everyone would or could embark on such a journey, and it defines you as much as you define it. I have an anecdotal journey of not self-improvement but more of coming to terms with it. My friend who embarked on such a journey also distanced themselves from the world of anime and Japanese culture as they see it as an obstacle on their journey. I was distraught by it, thinking it would amount to nothing more than the rejection of oneself. However, eventually, I came from the same conclusion as the comic, that their shifting priority and mindset is just part of who they are from the start. This is no different from shifting taste as I aged in which works that I once worshipped seem paled next to those I used to despise or deemed boring. That’s just how changes are. It’s not necessarily destiny, it’s just curves on a track. That’s why I think Tomazaki belongs in the “meaningful” category.
Lastly, the contrast between the supporting cast to OreGairu is almost painful. I think OreGairu constructed the supporting cast too much around Hikigaya. Most major, recurring characters are mere love interests for him, so love comedy can happen. They almost didn’t change throughout the story. I would go as far as to say none deserve a spinoff, and all are beaten by Tomozaki’s excellent Nanami. Sure, she got a lot of spotlight early which might have helped her, but she is such a remarkable, defined character that if the main character, Hinami was to be removed, this would still be a compelling work about her. Yui would not have a compelling story about her, nor would Iroha, despite them both being very popular and admittedly loveable characters.
That brings me to the conclusion that OreGairu was definitely a more “melodrama”, entertainment focused work. Tomozaki is written tighter, with the self-improvement issue being front and centre and strong characters representing various connections to the issue. Sure, Hachiman is much more interesting and engaging than Tomozaki which seems more like a vessel or self-insertion, but I still find Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun to be pretty good and self-reflective. Between the two I would definitely prefer to rewatch OreGairu, but would recommend Tomozaki to a young audience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 23, 2023
TL;DR: Copious amounts of seggs with a taste of red pill.
Meandering about, is a subgenre of Isekai that I thought of, in which the entire story is the author stroking themselves out the little nuggets of information they collected. I'm not opposed to half slice of life, half fantasy (masturbation) works, but very few of such works are worthy of people's time. If you couldn't imagine a work in this sub-genre, just give the "smartphone" isekai a read. That's the one.
This, however, is one of those rare gems that's actually fun to read.
Let's start by addressing the controversy regarding the so-called "sexism". Somehow,
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the author addressed these criticisms and basically covered the bases.
His first point, or the overall message of the entire story, really, is to be open-minded and to accept things as they are. He warned that people, tribes, cultures are different, and putting one's own creed and prejudice over others are a fool's errand, and seek only to foster conflict and animosities between groups. Many events in the story have heavy subtexts about conflicts between interests and the inevitability of supreme violence, the author also added the consequence of using supreme violence.
His second point is quite simple, in that he pointed out despite the centaur's casual attitude, that's just how the centaur's societies are, and the rest don't necessarily agree with everything she said, nor that what she said is "gospel" or the truth. This is similar to watching a movie that has characters belonging to a political movement talking about it, then accuse the movie of "supporting" such a movement.
I think the author did a good job on that front, and while it could have been handled with a bit more subtlety, it definitely wasn't an "insertion" into the story, as the story itself is about exploring foreign cultures and point-of-view. Personally, I think the author's points are a little naïve, I don't think it comes from a place of malice and deceit. Can't say the same for others.
Next, I have to bring this up, the sexual contents. I would argue that it's actually very difficult to divorce those elements from the work. The usual erotica gave very little attention to those elements’ connection to the story, but in this case that cannot be further from the truth. A big reason why the story works, and that conflicts between wildly different groups are rather driven by everybody's favourite "social construct" rather than sound logic. Interbreeding between the races is possible, which warrants that species would prefer to live in peace and harmony to ensure safe reproduction. While the overall plot doesn't overtly expand on it, the little conversations and titbits are all about this "racism" thing. You can put it in another context, that this story is actually about racism. This makes the comic so much more fun and interesting than the usual pointless and vapid Isekai. Having said that, I admitted, I found the erotic elements very distracting and unnecessary. I understand its importance, but, man, it sucks.
I sort of covered the main story above, so I will keep the main story commentary brief. The main character is a curious man who loves to explore strange, exotic species, and he loves to reproduce with them as well. That’s about it. He moves from tribes to tribes, learning about new biology, social structure and people. It really is a strange take on the meandering Isekai. But, perhaps the meandering genre should be about something more than the author's masturbation. This comic is not shy about the main character having some supreme level of knowledge that most normal human beings are not aware of (they are nerds basically) while still having a level of physical resistance. Not to mention there are many problems with pre-modern societies like infection, diseases, toxicity etc… But that’s not the point of the work. Certain stories like the High Elf and Sousou no Frieren are about the passage of time and meaning of life in the context of people with long life. Meandering manga, especially fantasy ones, should be more fantasy and explore themes and aspects of the human’s condition (incidentally that’s a lengthy discussion in this comic about it) that’s more compelling in a fantasy. Smartphones, creation magic and shits are just lazy and masturbatory. Be better.
The story actually has 2 “main” characters, and the second Isekai is more messed up than the first. This author’s story can’t really be called a “deconstruction” of something else, but it is close. To me, the 2nd main character sort of “deconstructed” the usual loser ugly Isekai main character, like that fat hero and some sort, as well as the main character who refused sexual advances from his “harem”. It didn’t stop there as well, it continued to expand on how such a person would reason in another world where their knowledge is useful and powerful. Having held tremendous power, they grew arrogant, cruel and uncaring. I’m not going to comment on the author making that the lady’s ideal image of a partner, and to me that’s far more offensive to modern gender-bias movements than the horse lady. In any case, I think that storyline is a good mix to contrast the more lighthearted, straight-forward sexual adventure.
The manga has a lot of annotations from the author about the details he added. The author is very invested in his world, but not too much to be frank, not even close to the level of science-fiction writers. However, it is safe to say Kakeru is very passionate, and it shows in his work.
I think this was one of the most fun Isekai I have followed in a long time. The editor who licensed it in English has huge balls and frankly, a real genius with a passion for the medium. It’s weird, despite so many fantasy settings due to the flood of shitty Isekai, I feel that the fantasy genre is stronger than ever with this and Futoku no Guild. Somehow they both are very sexual, an unfortunate coincidence, but many welcome it, no doubt.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Feb 3, 2023
I like Kasane, I couldn't love it.
I don't have much to discuss with Kasane because it is good. It's strange because while I really enjoy Kasane and have re-read it, it's very apparent to me that I like it, conventionally. That's to, I like it, but I wouldn't be gushing about it. The issue with it, might have lied in the overall story.
What's Kasane is about then. Well, Kasane is about a talented actress that couldn't quite go where she wants because she's ugly. The central conflict and the drama never quite blend well, in my opinion. On the surface, the emotions are very understandable:
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desire, ambition, envy, jealously, lust, love and so on. They all blend together in a soup, and while each component are delicious by itself, together they all belong yet don't shine as great as they should. It really reminds me of stews. Meats, vegetables, bouquet garni are all very good by themselves, but put together in a stew and cook too long, they all sort of blend together into something nice, familiar, warm but ultimately, well, ordinary.
That's not to say the characters are bad, I think individually they are all quite well done, if not, a little forgettable because of precisely how ordinary they are. They have desire, ambition, pattern of behaviour. However, none of them stand out that much, even the titular character. If anything, I feel like they are serving the story rather than the story being about them. There's the usual formula of "having extra-ordinary people in an ordinary setting or ordinary people in extra-ordinary setting". This falls to the latter, but the setting itself is not that out-of-the-box, which led to the entire package not being quite amazing as it should have been.
However, if there's one thing that it got right and stand out, is the art. It's not one of those "ordinarily pretty art". There's this tendency in the comic community to set the art standard around ease on the eye. Things that are out of ordinary are laughed at, such as that time Aku no Hana did the rotoscope thing. Yes, it looked weird, but that's not why it didn't work. It didn't work because it missed the note on everything that makes animation, animation, and the story of course. Aku no Hana central conflict was about the "conventional" vs the "rebellious". Two distinct characters on opposite spectrum are presented as "love interest". The "rebellious one" is depicted essentially as the "femme fatale" archetype. Mysteriously beautiful with an irresistible charm that's broken inside. The rotoscope completely failed to communicate that. It essentially turns the show into a beautifully directed teen drama. Some of the shots were nice, but that's about it because rotoscoping. But I digressed.
The point I was trying to make is that Kasane’s art is beautiful not in the way that it’s technically well done, although it can be argued so. It is beautiful in that it tries its best to communicate the emotions, feelings in the thoughts of the characters. That’s not something that’s easily done, and not with such frequencies. The drama of Kasane that makes me not dropping it and able to re-read it, is not in the plot, but in the emotion. We don’t often remember events directly but rather the emotion and the functional outcome associated with them. Kasane’s emotions like torments, anguish, grief, longing, fear, despair and so on are featured very prominently and the art tried its best to impart them. The use of shadow, long frames, the distinct facial expression, and body gesture, all combined to create a memorable experience. I also like how they are quite theatrical, connecting directly to the setting.
Unfortunately, this is also one of the parts that makes Kasane not quite standout. Kasane is fun and interesting for a modern work. However, if you had read girls and ladies comics since the 80s, like me, then this is essentially Shoujo comic 101. No, Shoujo comics are not “ordinary girls dating hot boys”. That’s the result of the genre being distilled to sell. Really, Shoujo is all about people giving soliloquy about how they feel. Feelings are not just kneejerk emotions, but also the emotions about thoughts. You think about someone’s wellbeing, that’s a thought. The emotion towards that thoughts can be longing, worry, frustration etc… Shoujo is all about communicating that. It’s a womanly pursuit to understand one’s own emotion, and there’s nothing wrong, strange nor weak about it. Now, the trouble is Kasane is just another great Shoujo, added to the pile. It doesn’t do anything quite out of the ordinary. Everything is well done, well packaged, but that’s about it.
I didn’t write this review to shit on Kasane. As I have iterated, I like to read Kasane, to experience the emotions again. In reality, I was sent an email about recommending comics to some sort of awards for MAL, and it occurred to me that I have not written anything for Kasane. Of course, if I am to review something, I need to be honest, even if it’s about something that I like. Kasane is just not within the rank of the great, the extra-ordinary, the innovators, but it is another good work, added to the pile.
Incidentally, the TV adaption is horrible as always. Not only did they not bother to make Kasane looks hideous, completely subverted the main conflict in the story, they didn’t hire people who can act in a show about acting! I was merely jesting of course. As usual, the directing is sloppy and conservative, but more importantly, they are often completely missing the point of the original work. Comics are not mere storyboard, directors better inserting their own creative mark on them if they want to produce something watchable.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Dec 18, 2022
TL,DR: Should have cut the plot in half or make it 24 episodes.
Rushed, shallow, disjointed, disconnected, aimless and frivolous.
Don't get me wrong, it's an acceptable piece of work, it's just not what it sets out to be.
Koukyuu no Karasu, or Raven of the Inner Palace, is an animated adaptation of the novel series of the same name. I suspect many parts of the novel of the novel were left out of the adaption, which contributed to the mess that is the final product, but overall with the major plot points revealed, I wonder if it can rival the best of Shoujo works out
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there, let alone Josei.
Let's dissect the story first. After reading Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, I have to admit, most similar titles feel like a copy of that, even if they are not. The basic structure of the work is a central mystery about the role and history of the main character, intersecting the "case of the week format". This is a very solid structure to stories, since detective or mystery cases can be interesting and slowly revealing the central conflict/story. This format is ancient, and much of the "epics" were written like this. For example, Divine Comedy, through its journey from mortal realm to hell, to heaven, and discussion about things that the characters encountered, reveals the story about faith, contemporary politics and science. More relevant and closely match the structure is shows like the X-Files following a case structure which then cumulate to "season finale". That's a great, solid structure.
However, Koukyuu Karasu didn't do a good job at establishing the tone, atmosphere, mood or even the setting.
Imperial China is a classic setting. There's nothing novel or innovative about it. That's to say, they should have done a better job at it, no matter how the novel did it. The first thing it should have done is to demonstrate how power works in the court. This is nothing new, Japanese classics like Genji Monogatari, frankly, demonstrated more than 1000 years ago. The power and prestige of the Emperor should be emphasise, along with the heavy weight of responsibility upon his shoulder. The role of the Inner Palace in both keeping a power balance and checking against the influence of various faction in the court should have been done much better. The beginning of the show was promising as the main character get involved with various positions in the Inner Court, and there's a story about power struggle within it. Yet, these elements were given limited time and resolved pretty quickly. I suspect the novel had more to say, and spend more time establishing the atmosphere of mystery behind the court intrigues.
Then, there's the tone. By probably summarising the plot, it speed ran character development and relationships. The tonal shift from a court intrigued mixed with mystery of the week, investigation, to generic romance and grand myths were quite jarring. I was a little disappointed that the main character went from having to disguise to investigate to just interrogate anyone she wants very quickly, without much fanfare nor spotlight on it. It shifted the tone from mystery, serious to romantic and lighthearted. This is rather inconsistent with the tone it sets initially, and made for a confusing watch.
The reason why I spend a big paragraph about the structure is because I can't help but think, all of the problems about the pacing and tone are the reasons why the structure can't support the story. Usually, when it comes to mismatching tone with the main plot line, there's a gradual change by the author as the story gets more serious. The romance, lighter elements should be the filler and the central mystery should be what it leads up to. Supposedly, it should start with characters getting to know each out of necessity, then romantically as they work together, which leads to them finding out about the mystery or issue, which leads to the climax about the central mystery. If I gather all of the information in the story together, I can definitely arrange them to fit the structure perfectly. Which is to say, Koukyuu no Karasu, perhaps due to the fault of the original, kind of got it backward.
The show can go from the mystery to romance to mystery and back, disconnected from each other. The tones of the scenes and the content jump around instead of flowing into a structure that supports each other. In a kind of symbiosis way, the mystery of the week adds to characters interactions which forms the bond that develops into the romance which led to the characters wanting to know more about each other then ended with them having to deal with that mystery. I feel that there's enough materials there, perhaps they should have been rearrange or perhaps, more appropriate, the director should have set the tone of scenes or rewrite the dialogues to fit the structure.
Kusuriya no Hitorigoto, which I can't recommend enough, did this perfectly. I hoped Koukyuu no Karasu could have pulled that off, instead the show got a lot less interesting and a lot more disjointed due to the aforementioned problems.
Lastly about just the story, I think the fantasy portion of it, the powers, should have been handled a lot better. Shounen frequently set the stage by presenting a small, similar problem in which the main character used that power, which introduced to the audience before the characters will use it in a later part at a grander stage with more at risk. Koukyuu Karasu animated adaption did not do any of it. I don't think any of us are interested in the power mystery due to how arbitrary and non-consequential that part feels, even though it is the central mystery.
What I can say I don't hate is the main character. I think it's a good female lead that never felt too powerful nor perfect, nor feeling like a victim. She's well balanced and interesting, and I think most viewers will feel both sympathetic and admired her character. The male cast, unsurprisingly, is as interesting as wet rags. But that's to be expected of Shoujo, much like how most harem comics treat their female characters.
Then, there's the animation. I dislike the elaborate henshin segment, but it's actually spell casting. That's overused and very boring. Usually henshin is strategically placed to feel epic or at least serious. This is just silly. That asides, the background is detailed, choice of colour tone is nice and comfortable, many scenes have the right mood and lighting is cool. It made me wish the old style Shoujo shows have this style. The old style bright washed out cartoon colour don't fit them. That being said, I would have been satisfied if they reduce the animation budget and spend more time with the story. They don't need this level of animation packed into one episode. Each cases could have used 2 like the old days.
Sound is unremarkable. The sound effect is nice, but the BGM is forgettable. Many people like the opening theme but I like the first few bars. The chorus is very disappointing in comparison. The story has such great pacing problems that I can't appreciate the voice acting much. The female lead is voiced competently, all things considered, but that's about it.
I really think the show should have cut the plot it covered in half to fit into the 12 episodes, spend more time elaborating on each case, the background, the conversation, the investigation, the thoughts of individual characters about the case, the skepticism etc.... It sorely needed more time to brew into the main mystery. This "summarisation" is a huge disappointment. I don't think I have felt as disappointed in a rushed work since Angel Beats. The problems are very similar due to the "build up" nature of their structure, and Angel Beats hits way more notes (pun intended) than Koukyuu Karasu.
Extra Notes: Regarding Karasu vs Kusuriya (raven vs apothecary, or pharmacy/pharmacist in modern sense). If you think I am being unfair, comparing 2 very different works, one about actual detective works and the other about magics, it further highlights how much better Kusuriya no Hitorigoto is. The magical elements make the mystery a lot less interesting because in one you can think about what happened and come up with a theory yourself and how it can be resolved while the other you basically take a backseat. The way they resolve it is also fairly straightforward and predictable. Magic casted, problems resolved. Then, there's the "case of the week" interaction with world building, character building. I have this big problem with shitty copycat trying to do what the original did but without understanding it. I am not saying the Raven is copying the Apothecary, but this animated adaptation basically do the exact same thing. It has the same structure but completely miss out on the things that makes apothecary great. The escalating stake is one thing. Characters should be resolving increasingly complex problem as the show goes on. The Raven started well then derailed completely due to the main character just got approval from the emperor to do whatever she wants. The Apothecary still have to work around her limited stature and status. Her life is at risk at all time, as demonstrated by the story. Some arcs overlap and formed a small climax. Yet, they all cumulate to a larger, hidden problem and villain. Elements are added slowly and play off each other. Things that happened earlier have an effect on things that happens later, whether it's in the overall plot or the case of the week. Instead, the Raven cases have extremely minor implications on subsequent cases pass the midway. The problem with the former empress should have remained the main one before shifting to the foundation of the empire. The two cases should have tightly connected to each other rather than the empress served as the catalyst for the emperor to get close to the raven. Because of the inconsequential nature of the cases in the Raven, the structure just don't work at all, while the apothecary went from strength to strength as the series progress, intrigues pile up and more is revealed about the main characters. The last nail in the comparison is how subtle apothecary is. It's not the most clever of works, but it prefer to keep things not blatant, while the Raven much more formal and powerful characters are very obvious and bland. The supporting cast is also taken out of classic Shoujo cast, which is nauseating and insulting to the audience. This is not the worst apothecary-like work, but it getting an adaption before apothecary is baffling. How did this received a decent budget and team and apothecary did not? What are you doing Japan?
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Dec 15, 2022
Another quicky.
Before the show even aired, many fans of the comic have commented that it's very hard to do the show justice with how much materials were available. They were exactly right.
Here's the problem with the comic, at its core, it is a Shounen, but instead of doing the usual Shounen routine, it added quite a bit of Seinen to the formula, confusing most readers. The most confusing aspect of it, is that the comic deliberately conceal its elements behind the veneer of ecchi that it never truly drops. The show is very, very lewd. But that's really not everything that it offers. It
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puts that element on display, but there's something that lurks beneath the surface, threaten to come out.
Which is to say, go read the comic. The comic got really good around the Named Owl case, which the animation will unlikely to cover well because of the implications it has on subsequent events. The animation, instead, dragged its feet because the director probably decided that rather than investing into depicting the world building aspects that hid behind the fanservice, it's better to serve up a dollop of tits. That's exactly what they did. I don't know what to say other than, way too good animation for such a limited series. I can assure people that the details in between the fanservices are not treated lightly and not at all meaningless nor irrelevant to the plot. Quite the opposite. Don't watch the adaption alone.
Regarding the art, as I have mentioned, the studio had done a good job animating the meaningless fanservices. The background is bright and beautiful, characters are nice and detailed, movements are surprisingly crispy and sufficient. I really have no complain on that aspect. They have done a good job. It's such a shame that the real meat of show is not there, rendering most of the work basically meaningless.
I am not impressed by the sound. Creatures sound is fine, but music wise, there's nothing to write home about. The VAs are not spectacular either. I know it is fitting to the character that he does not respond loudly nor resolutely, but the main character, Kikuru, just don't have the same Tsukkomi power in his voice that one would expect. I can't help but think of Konosuba and its colourful cast, and how amazing the VAs were in that show. Futoku no Guild definitely have the cast of character to rival even Konosuba, but the VAs are not blowing things out of the water like Konosuba did.
Overall, can't say I recommend. But, if someone is interested in the comic but prefer to watch animation, this TV series can wet their appetite for more. I really think grabbing the comic is worth it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Dec 11, 2022
This should be short.
I love Soushoku Dragon the comic. It's a nice, fun gag story with a simple premise about an innocent dragon who got wrongfully worshipped by a girl for being the evil dragon. The art was decent and the pacing was just enough to keep the humour and the interest going.
The same cannot be said about the animated series. This production is not at all bad. The animation style, colouring and drawings are all fine. They look fine. However, for a gag series, I didn't laugh. I might come off as harsh, but its direction felt quite antiquated. It reminded me of
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old Chinese gag cartoon like the sheeps or goats and the wolves family thing. It's not that the gags don't work. They worked before in comic form for me, I thoroughly enjoyed the dragon's suffering and the ridiculous situations he got in into. To me, it seems that the director came from another culture and wasn't completely bought into the gags, so he tried to reframed in a way that's familiar to him. The pacing of the jokes, the way they add cartoony reactions to the dragon and the characters are distinctively from their culture sphere. I wasn't a big fan of such humour, and seeing a simple, endearing story being skinned and then having a different skin puts on top is disappointing.
I can't be bothered to talk about sound, music or what not. The way the gags are delivered just fall so flat, I was trying to pay attention to the animations to distract myself from having to understand what's taking place.
The best I could say about the series, is that I finished it. I probably wouldn't have, if I had not read the comic.
I heard it got adapted by Chinese studio because the series was so beloved in China. Why not supporting local artists? I think the ones that needed the most support from their own people are the Chinese artists. Despite having huge creative industry, their best cultural exports are still imitations of foreign culture creation. I'm pretty sure people were enamoured with Hong Kong action films of the 80s and 90s. Those can only exist and be exported because of local supports for local art.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Dec 8, 2022
TL;DR, the real baby's first Seinen. Recommended for all.
Fujimoto Tatsuki being published in Shounen Jump is one of those kind of phenomenon that I can’t exactly explain. Though, looking back, I don’t think they were as out of place as I thought.
Tatsuki is the kind of author that can somehow holds the publisher at bay, as well as the readers. His works are not exactly complex, having a lot of nuances, not extremely entertaining, not really deep, nor are they innovative. Somehow, by walking in between all those characteristics, they became a phenomenon on their own. Fire Punch was his big hit that sent
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him onto the central stage. I recalled being quite pleasantly surprised seeing it on the nomination list for Manga Taishou. Fire Punch is relatively new, only coming out in 2016. It grabbed the attention of mainstream readers by being unabashedly Seinen while being published in a Shounen comic. For those who are well-versed in the Seinen-verse. Fire Punch will immediately feel at home. Yet, at the same time it feels, strange, out of place. I feel compelled to write it down.
I would not talk in length about the story, because I feel while it is quite a ride, it’s not exactly worth dissecting nor having much to be complained about. I guess it is a perk of not fully committed to an aspect, that the reader can’t really criticise it without sounding incoherent. The setup is quite simple. It is essentially a revenge, superhero then redemption story staged in a post-apocalyptic world. The characters are not entirely remarkable nor interesting, except one.
You might have heard of this comic through that character. It is a character with gender issue. Now, I can’t say I have much to say about this character, other than the fact that I’m surprise it got such a buzz. Supposedly, people were saying this is how the transgender community likes to be treated, with nuances and respect for their issue. My only concern is that they ignored the entire, well, character. This is an inhumane, immortal, cold blooded psychopath who have lived too long for their own good. He, she, it or they, as I shall now use to address “them”, no longer have any concern about other people. They just want to be entertained, looking to fulfil their vision, which formulated through their desire to have another identity. I don’t think you should celebrate a character who shows emotion and only connects with another person only when the issue of their identity was revealed. Imagine being so self-centred that the issue of everyone else, their life, death, emotion, dream, desire, is of no concern compares to the one of your self-identity. The character is compelling, they make perfect sense. But, to celebrate them because of representation is some extreme level of selective reading.
I have no issue with the character, I just wish people really would read the work instead of isolating the things they like to see. This is not a good representation of your community.
That weird episode asides, while I followed the comic as its chapters got released, I must admit I don’t quite remember it. I did read it from beginning to the end a few times, especially re-reading while waiting for new chapters. I know my memory is rather limited, and I often recall things through the lens of how things make me feel rather than the details. That is to say, after I watch Sherlock or Meitantei Conan or even upon reading the original Sherlock Holmes shorts, I just flush the memory of the cases out. I can only remember things that leave an emotion in me. Things that don’t, I forget them. I thought Fire Punch was emotionally drained, which led to me completely forgetting the story beats. Only after re-reading it upon re-reading Chainsaw Man did it dawned on me the recurring theme of Tatsuki’s works: Loneliness. All the characters in his works are lonely, one way or another. Chainsaw Man was much more candid about it, but Fire Punch pushed it in, slowly. From the main character suffering being entirely his own, to people who bear the weigh of the world and their birth for decades, mostly by themselves, unable to share their feelings with another. Despite the ever-evolving story and the author’s admission that he cares about the plot more than the characters, which is why he lets them perish willy-nilly. I really don’t think he’s that much concerned about the “overall plot”. If you really think about it, a lot of stuffs seem quite superficial, not that well thought out, and things are convenient to drive characters growth rather than making that much sense, “plot-wise”. But that’s the key to me. The emotion of extreme loneliness in the dying world. That world dying is one thing, but loneliness is the true killer of the human spirit.
That’s not to say loneliness is the only theme of Fire Punch. Fire Punch mixed in so many themes and ideas that it is quite astonishing how it got so much praise. From apocalyptic, nature vs nurture, education, collectivism vs individualism, exceptionalism, control vs freedom, freewill vs determinism, religions, delusion, hopelessness, human’s nature, conflict, cruelty, heroism, sacrifice, ego and so many, many more. They aren’t completely explored, either. While all of them affect the main plot, which is very welcoming compared to other “edgy” works that simply invoke them in dialogues and do fuck-all with them, don’t expect Fire Punch to really say anything about them. In the end, I think the story deserves a pat on the back for being a discount Seinen in the sea of Shounen.
Now, you might think I sounded, harsh. My reason is because almost every aspects that was presented in Fire Punch had been done better, not just by movies which Tatsuki loves so much, but also by other comics. He made so many movies references, even in his framing, and not just the silly Star Wars part. While this was quite refreshing, seeing as the masters of old (the 60s) are often fans of movies who could only realised them through the primitive frames of comic books, comic books themselves are a medium. I can’t help but think about Ningyou no Kuni (Aposimz) which is also about a journey of revenge that got out of hand, but mostly, goddamn Eden: It's an Endless World!
Eden and Fire Punch have plenty of common theme. Even the slow encroaching apocalypse is similar. They both have some form of “the end justifies the mean” thing going on. Personal vendetta and issues in contrast with saving mankind. Human’s nature is discussed quite a bit and is a central part of the narrative. The differences, though, are the things that made me ponder. Eden is rather poetic, both in its beginning and end. Meanwhile, as with Tatsuki, Fire Punch is very frank. There’s no nicety, not really an art to it. From that, I can see how Fire Punch can get on a Shounen magazine. In term of violence and gore, Fire Punch got Eden beaten to a pulp. Yet, I think Eden felt much more devastating and its world, crueller than Fire Punch, despite evidence to the contrary. Perhaps it is due to Eden portrayed most people as being rational, and there’s nothing more tragic than rationality meeting reality. Meanwhile Fire Punch is filled with broken psycho, sociopaths, who were broken by their reality or unnatural life. It made me realise how much I love Seinen, that even a unique work like Fire Punch can’t even do the genre justice.
But, let’s get back on track and move on to the art, because Fire Punch style is probably not for everyone. Scratchy lines are not something most people are comfortable with, though I think they are very clearly deliberate rather than laziness (unlike that damn Iwaaki). It is also not meant to be dreamlike, like Jiro, because they are very detailed and coherent. The notable thing about Fire Punch and what makes it standout to me, is Tatsuki’s love of movies. His usage of frames, different arrangements, angles, effects, and such to clearly portray actions and the mood of the scene is just, astounding. There’s a segment where he added a series of frames, similar to a projected movie or animation, which felt great. Those generally wore away as the story got more serious in the latter half, but the quality of the art is undeniable. Chainsaw Man was certainly “next level”, but Fire Punch was still very radical and frankly, awesome. I don’t think I can find another word to describe the art other than “awesome”. If the story isn’t quite your cup of tea, I think the art alone makes it worthwhile.
Certainly, in the annal of Seinen, Fire Punch is lacking a little bit of a “punch”, if you don’t mind. But, it reminded me that the gap between Seinen and Shounen don’t have to be “edgy” works like the “Redo Healer”, Goblin Slayer, Akame ga Kill or, let me apologise to its fans despite being an avid reader of it, “Tate no Yuusha”. Those are simplistic in themes, message, and characters. They don’t have the gut to punch the reader with a fist of introspective. The surface level emotion coming from them don’t make them “Seinen”. That’s why I respect Fire Punch and Chainsaw Man, for doing it right.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Sep 29, 2022
Of all of Takemiya Yuyuko's story, I ended up liking Golden Time the most, but specifically the comic version.
It might seem strange, since Umechazuke's art don't seem to stand out very much, but don't let the plain aesthetics fools you, I think this match up was awesome, unexpectedly.
Takemiya's works are not very deep philosophically, nor enlightening emotionally (should be the other way around, I know), but she has a great talent, not for drama and romance, even though that's the only thing on her resume, but in building characters. Banri must be one of the plainest and most relatable character in comic for the
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last 10 years. He's really all struggle and no look, and yet, his struggle is so gripping, I can't let go of the pages. This section might go a bit too much on the story, but Takemiya's source material is just amazing, as always, not helping is the fact that this is my favourite story from her. The set up seems a little rudimentary, a lost memory college student leaving home for the big city to get away from the pity stare his friends and family give him because they were looking for their son and friend to come back. In the process, he met new friends and a new women, and fall in love with her. If you have seen her previous works, particularly Toradora, then you can sort of expect a good bit of development from every character, and she did. However, unlike with Toradora, I think the cast for Golden Time is quite a bit weaker. Toradora's cast was so, so amazing, it's difficult to come up with something on the same level. Yet, I prefer Golden Time for the same reason I prefer UBW out of the 3 routes in Fate Stay Night, it has focus. Of course the spotlight was entirely on Banri's struggle with his identity and memory lost, as his past self, connection came back to haunt him, as well as his fear that one day the friendships and relationship he has at the moment will slip away. The precarious situation he's in fuelled most of the drama of the second half, but to me, the first half was what took the cake. The shift from the drama about the main love interest onto his problem was done so, so well. Interweaving the web of relationship during the first 25 chapters was an amazing idea. No small part thanks to Umechazuke.
I have mentioned before that Umechazuke's art isn't spectacular, but that doesn't mean it's not good. In fact, it is almost perfectly adequate for the story. Umechazuke, which I presume is a lady based on their other works, has that sensibility to transfer the light novel onto the comic page. When it comes to certain genres, drama and romance in particular, things like beautiful background and characters aren't as important as conveying the emotion, the weight, the drama, the tension. Umechazuke handled that, in my opinion, expertly. I love seeing Banri's anger, frustration and anguish as the situation around deteriorated. It contrasted very well with the light hearted jokes they pull, and created this whiplash of emotion, almost as if it reflects Banri's dealing with the anxiety in his heart by putting up a fun, happy front. It makes the emotional outburst scenes that much better. When Banri admitted that he was done waiting and being treated as a friend, it was awesome to read. Even though I know it's just a regular old shoujo drama, his anger and frustration were delivered so well, I can't help but having to keep going and cheer for him. He's not the star of the first half that I liked, however. It was his love interest. Her struggle and journey to become more mature and strong was very intriguing and fun. She also never really got over it, but she dealt with it as she develops into her own person. Though that's Takemiya's magic. Umechazuke's magic is delivering her anguish, not succinctly, because the comic is definitely quite wordy, but sufficiently, carrying that emotional weight punch.
I wouldn't have felt as strongly about the comic, admittedly, if I didn't watch the watered down version done by J.C. Staff. I loved the comic, but watching that made me love this so much more. The way J.C. Staff conveyed the drama and emotion felt so stiff, boring, and even cringeworthy at times. In contrast, Umechazuke handled it with enough joke while delivering that emotional impact, is nothing to sneeze at. I can't say that it didn't remind me of the old Toradora's during the golden days of J.C. Staff, when they can handle emotional maturity and deliver the weight of the story with grace. Toradora was so well done, in contrast, Golden Time felt like stale bread. I am surprise there are people drooling over it, failing to appreciate how good the story is. It's so good that it makes the Golden Time animation seems palatable. Having re-experienced Umechazuke's awesome adaption, it reaffirms my feelings on the animated series. Don't watch it, is my recommendation. Good opening however.
Who's this comic for then? I would recommend it to everyone, especially young people. Pre-teens and Teens can learn from the emotional maturity and aspects of how to grow as a person. From obsession over romance, idealism about partners, recklessness, selfishness, delusion about self-sacrifice to knowing when to let to go and accept reality, as well as working hard to keep your friends and connections. It's rudimentary, but it is so for a reason. We all live on borrowed time, treasure everyone moment you share with others and yourself.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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May 24, 2022
TL;DR, not worth time investment, but short and concise enough for an afternoon binge, if you are a fan of cheap thrill and early 2000s edge.
Ibara no Ou (InO) or king of thorn, is a manga written in 2002 by Iwahara Yuji. While most people are probably familiar with him through Dimension W or character design for Darker than Black, I got to know him through Koudelka. His style can really be best described as everything good and bad about the 2000s. I love the 2000s, but there's so many things wrong with it that carried through to the modern day.
InO is about a bunch
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of people waking up in a facility, in a world infected by a mysterious disease that turn people into stone. Through the course of the surprisingly short and concise story, the backstory of the cast is revealed, along with the plot behind the facility, the monsters, the disease, conspiracy, military, government, "hacking" and so on. It encompasses a lot of things, touching on a few subjects. It reminded me the most of visual novels, even the plot can be structured into a visual novel, easily, in my opinion, which is strange that it got turned into an animated movie instead. A 12 episodes anime would be able to narrate the entire plot, the movie couldn't and basically hacked it apart to fit it in. It focused instead on the survival aspect of it.
The story did start with a focus on the survival aspect, which is a little strange, because the atmosphere don't really reflect that. The character's capability sort of nullify the survival aspect of it a few chapters in, which wasn't great when the cast discussed among themselves how to proceed. I don't feel particularly attached to any of the cast as well. They have backstory, but that's about as much I can say about them. They are neither well done nor poorly done, they just are, which don't leave much of an impression. But before that, the story shifted to survivor horror with the "challenges" they faced becoming more deadly, or to be exact, gory. Too bad, while the monsters are well drawn, they aren't interesting nor nightmarish enough to leave an impression as well. That's the gist of the entire thing, basically.
It's not exactly interesting. The 2000s was plagued with a lot of ideas, but not a lot of guidelines on how to deal with ideas effectively. This wasn't the only victim, the most notable case for me is still Ergo Proxy. Like that show, InO had a lot of ideas, tried to cram them all into one package, and ended up doing nothing well. Like Ergo Proxy, InO's art was actually amazing on its own. The environment is detailed, the characters look fine, stylistically. the monsters are cool. But, put together, there's no punch. Ergo Proxy was the same, but it just done everything better. The story is better, the world building is better, the art is better, the style is more distinct and creative, yet they both lacked that real emotional punch and the staying power of popular show of the era. This is the core issue of 2000s experimental Japanese culture, there's no punch, not enough substance.
This small, short comic reminded me of the biggest question in one time of my life. Why did Ergo Proxy, RahXephon failed where Lain or at least GitS, Evangelion thrived? It's the weight of the story and design. Another very unfortunate unfulfillment of potential is Witch Hunter Robin. That show too was very beautiful, very captivating, but lacking in weight. While it would be unfair to compare Ergo Proxy to, there's no nice way to describe this, trashs like WHB, they were all really shallow and uninteresting at the end of the day. Personally, I suspect the problem comes from the script not focusing enough on the characters. The problem with edgy shows is that to be able to leap over the impression that the violent, uncomfortable elements were added only for entertainment, or edginess as I defined it as, the script has to expand on the cast sufficiently. Often, I find them to be lacking with the 2000s wave. If the characters are not relatable, you must be able to admire them to keep the story together. An example would be in Evangelion, the entire cast had emotional problem and trouble connecting with others. That's something relatable. Meanwhile, GitS, the Major, despite being mostly a hunk of machine, was so powerful, so professional yet so curious, you can't help but admire her. The other part of the equation is the villain. The villain of those shows are weak. RahXephon's more spiritual journey lacks a clear "enemy", which ended up not really delivering that impact. Meanwhile, Evangelion literal Impact hung over the show the entire way, affecting every aspect of the world. GitS dystopian cyberpunk future has the perfect villain, an AI trying to understand humanity. Ergo Proxy much weaker villainous "concepts" took away the personality of the villain, rendering it rather bland. I can think of a few ways that can make Ergo Proxy works, but I don't think it without a total rewrite, it can be done.
But I digressed, yet, the points I made above apply to InO just the same. Its main cast emotional depth wasn't great, the villain wasn't well done. It never gives me the tingle when I flip the page. There's no anticipation of what's happening next, nor was I curious about the mystery. Despite having decent mystery, and explaining it sufficiently, I don't walk away feeling fulfilled, I walked away feeling just fine, like I had just spent the afternoon doing anything else. There's no lasting memory, no reminiscence, I just know I will forget it in 10 years. Which, plot twist, I did. I read the first volume a long time ago, and just finished this last year. It slipped my mind until I read the newest chapter of his latest work.
That is to say, I don't think InO is really worth anyone's time. It's a decent story, but it is nothing special. The art was great, but also nothing special. But, I still enjoyed it. What's great about it, is something I mentioned above that works today sorely lacks, ideas. The world of WN created the rat race that is to write the most popular genre, the thing that people keep clicking on, the Isekai, the redo, the power fantasy. InO had a good idea about a survival, mystery, horror, adventure story. The works of today are no longer derivative, they are at the point where they are all the same equation with different variables. That's worrying. The sad thing is the only thing they learned from the early 2000s variety, is that they should focus on the fun elements and reduce let all the building up, background. This was very unfortunate. Reading InO sent me back to the time period where I was excited for new works every week, using all the money I had to get the latest work, one way or another, because each books promised something different. The bookshelf today just gives me depression, or confusion, because there's a few of them with Arifure in their title, because they follow the same set up. It's so blatant what they are doing, and yet Japanese strict copyright law don't protect against that kind of nonsense.
Here's hoping that the 2020s will bring a revolution. But my gut is telling me it's all downhill from here. Talented artists and creators are successfully transferring to the world of streaming.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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May 10, 2022
If there's a comic that demonstrates what it means to be "edgy", it is Centaur no Nayami. It incorporates serious, dark elements that are generally uncalled for, yet very intentional. The author has a creative vision and tendency, but also knows their strength and weaknesses, so he made a cute girls doing cute things that is much more than slice of life. It's great, it's cute but at the same time feeling thoughtful and be shocking, but do not dwell on the shock and return to the state of equilibrium. Yet the fact that those elements are there, observable and contrasted to the CGDCT tone,
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makes everything seems very uncomfortable, even as you go mellow from the CGDCT. It really shows the slices, in slice of life.
Unfortunately, the animation adaption is horrendous.
The show was basically left hanging out to dry, by essentially outsourced it oversea to China, who didn't do a very good job at bringing it to life. The art of the comic is great, but not at the level that needed massive budget to animate. But, they need to completely capture the original material quality character's illustration. They couldn't even do that. The characters illustration doesn't translate well despite decent original design. The background is lifeless, bloodless, as if I was sent back to the early, mid 2000s animation quality. The background back then was at least stylistically hand drawn, with brush and and all. The worst sin of the animation, to me, is the awkward mouth movement. I suspect most of that was due to the Chinese animation studio having very little experience with how the mouth should move because they don't speak Japanese, so they relegated to just adding open and close. The key animations might have been done in Japan, then shipped to China for frames in between and colouring. The one part that the Chinese did well seem to be the "action" parts, such as Hime falling from the platform, jumping, galloping and characters flying around, kicking. This studio could do a much better job at animating a dumb, generic shounen action show than be given a really subtle CGDCT.
The sound quality is nothing to write home about. The music is largely forgettable and the voice acting is capable, albeit adding little to the show, due to the nature of it and the distance between where it was animated and where the VAs are. A good counter example is Konosuba, where the animation became much more engrossed and inspired by the voice actors efforts, turning a relatively poorly animated show into a gem, as the studio figured out where to focus their efforts into.
I don't think there's much to be said about the story, because I advice against watching the show and recommend just picking up the comic. It was adapted without changing very much, which is both good and bad. What's great has been reflected by other reviews, who praised the show for world building and adding layers to CGDCT. I won't go onto too much details, people can already take it in.
There's an obsession with "policing" equality, making sure nobody is offending anybody. Yet, for all of the policing, there were still huge distrust of outsiders, particularly towards the 2 reptiles races. The funny Nazi part also alludes to the fact that, even if humanity all look the same, discrimination will still happen, we would just find things different about ourselves to fight over. You can explore more of that topic by reading about Rwandan genocide, where the word genocide met an unfortunate circumstance. Genos indicates race, people, yet the Tutsi and Hutu are basically physically indistinguishable, leading to many mistaken victims and survivors due to the killers not being able to tell them apart. That's great food for thought, if one is in the mood for such. Else, the viewer can continue enjoying cute girls doing cute things being poorly animated.
Another part of CGDCT being twisted, not to the point of deconstruction, is slice of life, CGDCT can have a lot of depths, that can be explored, yet, they are not being used for drama. This is in contrast to the great Maeda's modus operandi. There are many notable parts, such as Hime the centaur's red hair origin, or the class president's family circumstances. The class president is a notable character with a lot of shocking character. Her family is cute, but she's head strong, mature, bossy and motherly, not just because she's a CGDCT character, "perfect class president" type; but she has to be this way because her father is essentially a delusional deadbeat dad, her mother passed away living a weak child, and she has to take care of a bunch of noisy, spoiled and energetic little sisters. The comic frequently contrasted her family circumstances to Hime, who's spoiled but nice, because she was brought up in a loving family. Yet, these details always take a backseat to the cute girls doing cute things, because at the end of the day, it is still slice of life, and not served as the basis for drama and shock moment like what Maeda does.
That's just a taste of what's to come in the comic, which had a lot more interesting details about the world and the author's world view. I highly recommend that. The animation, not so much. Centaur no Nayami the animation is a train wreck, and should be avoided if possible. There's a lot of good in the story, but that's due to the original work. The animation added essentially no value to the experience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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