Monday, July 20, 2015

GATE: Holy shit.


No images. You'll have to see this for yourself this time. Anything I showed would spoil it.
Last Seen: Episode 2

I mean goddammit it's exactly what I wanted but...
Wow. The ending on this show is way too happy for what it actually contains.
So take whatever lighthearted nature the show had in its first episode and stuff it. Can it. Pack it up. It's gone. You want to know what that is? That's coping mechanisms. Not for the characters yet, for you. The viewer. They are providing you hopes so you can use them as coping mechanisms. I have a pretty solid idea where this show is going, and it's going to drag anyone who comes along for the ride through the dirt and mud of humanities history.

People often fantasize about the middle ages, but few actually understand that human horror has existed in all ages and times. Some imagine magic to be the magical cure all, the way to empower everyone to make the world a better place. Nah brah, just one more toy for us to blow each other up with. That's the direction I get the feeling this show is going to go.

The most important thing to have with a show like that though, is a solid main cast to tie everything down. We have that with Itami, a down-to-earth otaku. You wouldn't think that would cut it, but the fact that he was devoted enough to his hobby to join the Military to fund it is itself the reason I trust the character to be well built. Someone thought him out really well, and he's performed admirably with what little screen time he had in the second episode.

I'm calling it here, I give GATE:
 
Zetro's Season Recommendation
for 'Must see Drama' in a fantasy setting. Magic and fantasy isn't the perfect cure, and this show seems to have a mission statement to try and prove its case.

[New][July 2015] Rokka - Braves of the Six Flowers



Summary: Legend says, when the Evil God awakens from the deepest of darkness, the god of fate will summon Six Braves and grant them with the power to save the world. Adlet, who claims to be the strongest on the face of this earth, is chosen as one of the “Brave Six Flowers,” and sets out on a battle to prevent the resurrection of the Evil God. However, it turns out that there are Seven Braves who gathered at the promised land...

First Impression: Good. I would describe the main character as Bold, without arrogance. He boldly decrees himself strongest in the world, but when questioned about it, doesn't present any reason beyond his own self confidence. He doesn't try to manufacture reasons, he simply says it, and sets out to prove it.

Opinion: This could be a good show. Simple, and good. I liked the first fight of Adlet's we got to see. He used a bunch of tools and tricks to win, so he isn't possessed of some arrogant pride in sole physical strength, which helps bring him down to reality. Additionally, it appears that the mob broke his arm when they set on him, so he's not magically invulnerable either. While nothing stands out as special about this show in just episode one, at the same time it doesn't make any mistakes either. I give it a good thumbs up to watch if you're interested in fantasy settings at all.

[New][July 2015] Actually I Am


Summary: Asahi Kuromine is a high school student who supposedly cannot keep a secret, given the nickname Leaky Basket for his inability to keep secrets. He has a crush on classmate Shiragami Youko, and after being encouraged to confess by his friends, he sets out to. However, before he can, he inadvertently discovers Shiragami's secret! Her fathers rule for her to attend school was that no one could find out, or she would have to leave school. Asahi, having watched her be alone the entire time, vows that he will keep her secret...He, the Leaky Basket.

First Impression: Pure comedy, no restraints. While there is a serious tone running somewhere in this shows musical notes, it's never the loudest note for more than about five seconds. In short, the serious is there to support the comedy, not the other way around.

My Opinion: This is going to be a great one if you want to just shut down some brain cells and laugh for a while. The core theme is romantic tension in the first episode, but I'm not sure if that is going to be the primary running gag of the show, since the focus seems to instead be on the comical pairings of radical character personalities. In short, I predict the show's primary trick will be throwing a bunch of extreme archetypes into a room, shaking it up, and seeing what comes out of the box when they open it, hopefully to hilarious effect. I haven't seen any particularly glaring errors, in terms of a comedy anime, but it's just episode one. I give it a Neutral Recommendation for Comedy at this point.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

[New][July 2015] GATE



Summary: On August 20XX, a gate suddenly appears in Tokyo's Ginza district, unleashing a portal where monsters, medieval knights and other fantasy beings come from another world and wreak havoc on Tokyo. The Japanese Defense Force take action against these monsters and push them back into the "Gate". Third Reconnaissance Team is dispatched to the "Special Region" lead by officer (and otaku) Youji Itami.

First Impression: It's hitting all the right notes. The main character isn't just magically ready for combat because 'reasons'. He has an actually sensible reason for being combat ready. I'm already giving this show a First Episode recommendation to watch, it looks very promising.

My Opinion: Excellent. There's not a lot of story in the first episode, but it lays the perfect ground work for the story to be superb. There's a lot of potential for an Otaku main character to fall flat, and just be grating on the nerves, but I already like this character. His mantra makes sense. No one should live for their job, unless their job is their hobby. Additionally, I thought the show was going to make the stupid call, and was trying to cut all blood out of the show, but when it came down to it they actually did show blood, and not a stupidly large amount, or a pathetically impractical small amount. Just enough, and not too much.

Which bears to the assumption that they're trying to avoid the show having an appeal point in violence and gore, which is always a plus in my book. Any show that makes the effort to appeal to violence as a reason to watch the show, however they rationalize it, tends to detract from whatever message it may try to convey. There are exceptions, such as something like Attack on Titan, where the violence is explicitly to underline the gloom everyone in that world lives under, and a few other shows, but without proper execution and restraint, it just risks being hypocritical.