Journey's End - Winter 2012

It seems only yesterday that we were kicking off 2012, and yet here we are at the end of our first season. Despite initial scepticism over the quality of the season, I actually found a lot to enjoy. Here, as usual, I'll be recapping what I dropped, what's ongoing, and what reached an end during this season


Dropped



Symphogear (3 episodes) - I said it had potential, but disappointingly it chose to squander that potential, devolving into a bunch of predictable angst, skin crawling fanservice and pointless plot meandering. The characters were extremely unlikeable, the fights were poor and the animation was rough. A shame.

Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-Ne (3 episodes) - My main criticism of it in the beginning was overwhelming blandness, and I really didn't see much in the following two episodes that countered that. Madoka was entertaining, the fights were OK, Lan was boring and the show was just so generically predictable that I couldn't bring myself to continue. It's a pity, as I've heard this one picked up considerably later on, which may lead to me revisiting it, but as it was the vital hook just wasn't there.

PoyoPoyo (2 episodes) - If you only have one joke then, no matter how good it is, you're going to get old real fast.

Aquarion EVOL (1 episode) - HAHAHAHAHA dear god no.


Halfway Home...

Bodacious Space Pirates



Firstly, I'd like to point something out. This show is called Bodacious Space Pirates. How frickin' awesome is that?

Pirates has continued onwards at the extremely relaxed pace it established in its first episode, something which I know has frustrated a lot of people. Ironically it's pretty much the opposite of what youd expect from a show titled like this - it's slow, very character focused and has relatively little action. This has mostly been to the show's advantage, but the pace can frustrate a little sometime. The opening school cruise plot arc probably went on for about an episode too long, and while the subsequent ghost ship arc was much better paced it often seemed a little confused as to its purpose. In fact, imparting information is something the show does pretty poorly - the Betenmaru crew, for example, are never actually introduced - they just appear and we're meant to pick it up from there. Likewise, throughout the ghost ship arc I occasionally found myself questioning who was on which side, what exactly they were looking for and generally what the hell was going on. Such poor communication smacks of bad adaptation from the source light novel, where I'm sure much more background could be laid out, but it hurts the flow of the story quite badly.

Nevertheless, the show remains immensely enjoyable, thanks to the kinetic cast, who are refreshingly well rounded characters. Marika herself remains a great protagonist, highly relatable, upbeat without becoming annoying and realistically concerned about her situation. Her big sister chemistry with the stowaway princess Gruier is a real highlight of the show so far. The rest of the cast too are funny without being caricatures and are gradually having depth added to them as the show goes on. Satelight's interstellar future continues to look and sound top notch, with the bright and clean animation very easy on the eye, and there's a bonus point for a near total lack of fanservice. I'm excited there's going to be more, and hopefully the show can step up the pace a little and build to an exciting climax.

Journey's End

Persona 4 The Animation



This is a difficult segment to write.

Persona 4 is not a bad show. It's quite a good one actually. It has a great central cast, stuffed full of memorable characters who defy stereotyping for the most part. It has a cool and interesting hook. The central plot is solid, with some decent twists and turns, and the show succeeds in weaving a compelling mystery that ties its disparate elements together. The voice cast is top notch, and the music is excellent.

The problem is these were all also strengths of the game the show is based on, and rather than using the new format to tighten and strengthen these points, the show has chosen to dilute and in many cases wreck what made the game so great. What Persona 4 the game did so well that many videogames don't is layer depth into its world. I'd never say it made its characters feel like real people, but you were aware they had feelings and motivations which were not immediately obvious. The time you spent playing allowed you to sink into their lives. This isn't true of the series, particularly due to the in retrospect disastrous decision to try and cram every single social link into its own episode. The result is a show which feels desperately poorly paced (especially noticeable in the rushed ending) and manages to reduce most of its secondary plotlines to trite concerns. Interesting, meaningful characters like Ai Ebihara and Ayane Matsunaga have to have their stories crammed into one-shot feature episodes, making them seem rushed and inconsequential.

The godawful animation meanwhile deserves an entire paragraph of its own to talk about. Never have I seen a show that struggled to stay on model so much. Characters are drawn noticeably different from shot to shot, and the animation team has a real problem with keeping eyes straight. Even the battle scenes are nothing more than passable (and the choreaography is pretty poor), and the incompetence everywhere else is so staggering it sort of makes that irrelevant. Fun game - try and see how much Nanako's height relative to the other characters varies over the course of the series (it's a lot).

Again, Persona 4 is not a bad show. Had I never played the game, I'd probably be more willing to give it credit for the cool monsters, smart mystery and likeable characters. But I have played the game. And ironically, this show is but a pale shadow.


Daily Lives of High School Boys



"Let's get this straight - there's nothing here that's going to change the world. With that out of the way, I can confess I really quite enjoyed this"

That's what I wrote in the preview for Daily Lives of High School Boys and 12 episodes later it's an almost perfect encapsulation of the series. It's regularly very funny, and it's best skits mostly involve needling the cliches of anime that it is so heavily reliant on. When it leans gently on the fourth wall and winks at us is when the show is at its most enjoyable, along with some entertaining ventures into the realm of surrealism - the three way roleplaying game roleplay is a undoubted series highlight which blends both of these situations to great effect.

Other things don't work quite so well, like the frequent reliance on very long drawn out gags that don't even have very funny punchlines at the end, and the often palpable lack of movement in the animation. It's a sketch show in the truest sense of the form - I could happily recount several setups that had me chuckling heartily but I'll damned if I could name any character or provide any distinguishing characteristics. It delivers the funny, but lacks the human heart that makes the best comedy sketch shows (such as Cromartie High School, or Azumanga Daioh) a step above. That said, there were ultimately way more hits than misses here, and that's a success in my book.

Also spawned the best show nickname this season in the form of Nichibros.


Ano Natsu de Matteru



Every season there's always one show that turns out better than you expect. This time round, that was AnoNatsu. Expecting a nicely animated magical girlfriend cum harem show, what we instead got was a bright, charming yet sensitive show on the pangs of teenage love.

Despite initial appearances, the show manages to shuck off its seemingly shallow aspirations and instead fleshed itself out into one of the best genuine straight up romances since Toradora. Huge credit must be given to the fantastic cast, who manage to defy first impressions and establish themselves as unique personalities despite falling into the well worn grooves of childhood friend, perverse loli etc. Instead, the characters develop a pleasing mixture of anime naivete and real world savvy. Male lead Kaito is a strong subversion of the traditional clueless protagonist, and he's matched well with human alien Ichika, who's also a considerably better character than her inital busty ditz act would suggest. The supporting cast is also universally strong, from energetic yet troubled childhood friend Kanna to the show stealing Lemon, who manages to buck every characteristic traditionally associated with the twin tailed loli character in a delightfully sly fashion.

If I have to offer a criticism, it's that the show really takes a little too long to get going. The first half is really just a chance for a few nice character moments interspersed with a bit of scenery porn and some generous (but to be fair, rarely gratuitous) fanservice. It's only in the last five episodes that the plot really kicks into high gear, leading to some excellent emotional confrontations and one of the best climaxes in recent memory. Credit as well for not taking the easy way out and giving us a 'happily ever after ending' - what we get is more complex but also infinitely more affecting. It's one of JC Staff's best animation jobs in recent memory too - character design is cute and charming without falling into moeblob territory while the hazy blue and green horizons of rural Japan are a pleasure to behold.

Ano Natsu de Matteru doesn't really quite have the legs to step it up into 'classic' territory but it's nonetheless a very good show, full of warm, friendly characters, beautiful landscapes, good laughs and moving moments. A fine effort that wil linger on in the memory.


Black Rock Shooter



This should have been trash. It is after all (deep breath) an OVA spinoff of an OVA that was packed in with toys that were based on some drawings in an art book. The fact that the original OVA was pretty awful certainly didn't inspire confidence either. Its therefore a minor miracle that Ordet were able to revisit the same basic premise (middle school girls have otherworldly superpowered alter egos) and instead craft it into one of the most entertaining shows this season.

To do this, they've essentially done a Madoka on it - taken a decent script, made it very dark and creep-tastic, laced with lashings of symbolism and thrown some top notch artowrk behind it. Result! And it really is quite a result. Though it doesn't match up to that masterpiece, what we have here is a very compelling ,well paced dark psychological drama that isn't afraid to kick up the action when it needs to.

It's the 'real world' stuff that really earns BRS it's stripes however. Rather than being pointless filler as it was in the 2009 OVA instead here it's an important and even enjoyable part of the stories. One of the key plot points here was to make real world events much more closely mirror what's happening in the 'Other' world, tying them closer and giving us a much more intriguing mystery to unravel. The characters are likeable too, and while they aren't the most complex personalities in the world, crucially they're interesting enough to make them the story focus, rather than Black Rock Shooter and the other warriors. It gives the show an appeal beyond the invitable battle scenes.

When the battle scenes do come however, they don't disappoint. Ordet outdid themselves here, with some fantastic battle choreography backed up with brilliant, colour themed worlds and some truly bizarre architecture. Though the liberal use of CG is reasonably obvious, it just adds to the surreality of the whole situation, and the fighting is so good you probaby won't care too much anyway.

If I have a criticism to make, it's probably that the ending is a little too neat and cliched to me. While 'You can't ignore your pain, you have to face it' is a classic message, and a good one for the show to adopt, the sequence of events comes dangerously close to THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP triumphing and visually, it's a bit of a weird one. Having said that, the plot offers good solid resolution with a cheeky but pleasing sequel hook, and there's even a big emotional moment to add a bit of depth to the fireworks.

Black Rock Shooter was a genuine but pleasant surprise. This may be a case of me liking the show more than a lot of other people, since it ticks a lot of my boxes - surrealism, great action, distinctive art and psychological drama - but I think that it's a fine, high quality show that stands very well on its own merits and offers a unique, great looking and emotionally moving experience. For that, I'm very happy to declare it the best show of the season.

Thanks for reading guys, as ever comments and feedback are much appreciated