Who Lurk in the Shadows?

The Eminence in Shadow, episodes 1-12

Minoru Kageno was a young man who never outgrew his childhood desire to be a hero – specifically, a warrior from the shadows known as Eminence in Shadow. He trained hard so he could beat up biker punks and criminals, but that only went so far; shonen-style great power eluded him. So, when an encounter with Truck-kun ended his life in modern Japan and found him reborn into a late 19th century-era world where magic and swordplay prevailed, he seized that opportunity to make his long-held wish come true, even to the point of rescuing an elf girl from a magical overload and convincing her that a diabolical cult needed to be fought in a shadow war.

But what now Minoru – now the nobleman’s son Cid Kagenou – failed to appreciate is that new follower Alpha took his playful delusions both whole-heartedly and utterly seriously. By the time he enters the prestigious Midgar Academy for Black Knights, she has assembled a powerful, extensive (and curiously all-female) secret organization named Shadow Garden around him. As he plays at being Background Character A by day and Shadow Garden’s indomitable leader at night, he also fails to accept that the Cult of Diablos that he thought he made up on the spot is actually real, or that Shadow Garden is really one big harem focused on him. And never mind that he is also getting unwelcome attention from two different princesses.  as well. This is a dark fantasy tale, not a rom-com, after all!

In other words, this whole light novel adaptation is all about a young man knowingly living out the chunibyo fantasy he crafted for himself, with the supreme irony being that all of it is real and certainly not a game to anyone but him. It is both an amusing and fascinating conceit for a series, one that has been toyed with before but never carried out to this extent, and it puts an intriguing spin on the standard isekai reincarnation/power fantasy tale. Much of the series’ extensive humor comes from the way Cid pursues both his Background Character A and Eminence in Shadow personas with complete gusto, with the added joke being that what looks cheesy as hell to experienced anime viewers is being taken completely at face value by characters in the story, to the point that it sometimes either backfires on Cid or catches Cid off guard with how far someone takes it; a favorite example is a mid-season scene where Cid learns that a popular new department store (which sells products suspiciously similar to items Cid knows from Japan) was actually set up by one of his original “Seven Shadows” as a way to fund Shadow Garden’s activities, which has generated a war chest of  truly stupefying size.

Far from all the content is comedic, however. Most scenes that are not from Cid’s perspective are played straight, and even Cid’s play-acting scenes can sometimes have very dark overtones; for instance, one scene from episode 4 shows Cid going all out to be the hapless background character while being subjected to a brutal interrogation. The level of graphic violence is also very high – almost to the point of absurdity at times – which makes this this easily one of the year’s bloodiest series. At times, this makes for a seemingly-awkward balance.

However, that stark contrast may be part of the point here. For all the antics going on at the academy, this is a setting with an ugly underbelly, and yet Cid is still treating this whole situation like it’s one big game. Furthermore, he’s got the anti-hero vibe down so completely that he’s just one step away from being a villain himself: he has a callous attitude towards killing and seems unconcerned about collateral damage when he wants to do something cool. He is also so deep into his “secret hero” role that he diligently avoids or ignores anything that might push him in a romcom direction, such as Princess Alexia’s initially-manipulative motivation for dating Cid gradually turning into real love, the affections of a different princess later on, or apparently deliberately remaining ignorant of the fact that several (if not all?) of his chief underlings are romantically interested in him. Fortunately for him, the young women who have assembled under him are plenty capable and vastly more thorough.

Which brings us to the series’ attitude about fan service. The first nine episodes are lightly sprinkled with various prurient scenes and camera angles, but they are hardly intrusive. That changes with the light-hearted episode 10 and the slightly more serious episode 11. (Of course, for this series, “light-hearted” includes scenes where a priest is impaled on a statue and a foe is struck down in a spray of blood.) Just like Minoru takes off his weights before going into battle in episode 1, these two episodes unfetter limiters on fan service and go all out, using an eccentric look at the downtime behaviors of various characters to engage in all manner of sexy shenanigans, much of which is played even more for humor than it is for sex appeal. Perhaps the most interesting detail during this run is that Cid has somehow gone from a very ordinary physique in episode 4 to a supremely chiseled one in the hot springs scene which opens episode 11. It’s possible that he may be using magic to redefine his body (much as one of his underlings is shown doing in episode 10 to “defeat nature”), but this is undoubtedly intended as a joke and definitely not intended to be thought about too hard.

Of course, the staff could also have just been giving audiences some relaxing downtime before dropping the metric ton of deeper revelations that is episode 12. This is the first of what looks to be a two-parter that could be a game-changer for the entire setting. We’ll have to wait until episode 13 airs to see how far the series is going with this, though in retrospect there have been some vague clues all throughout the series about the direction that episode 12 may be implying. (It does tend to kill the theory that this whole thing may just be in Cid’s head, however.) Fortunately, we won’t have to wait long, since HIDIVE is indicating that the series will run continuously for two cours, and without taking a week off, too.

On the technical front, the artistic effort is sharpest in its background details and character designs. It impresses much less with the flow of its action scenes, which show the (perhaps partly budgetary) limitations of the series, but it is more interesting in showcasing dramatic flair and blood sprays anyway. Fights are still a grade above those in titles like Beast Tamer, but certainly don’t expect Chainsaw Man or Spy x Family level of flow, detail, and choreography. Musical support is effective in all modes, with the most distinctive detail here being that the closing theme song remains the same but is sung by a different voice actress from Shadow Garden’s elite each time, with the singer’s character featured in the puzzle piece-assembling visuals.

Overall, The Eminence in Shadow compensates well enough for its sometimes-shaky mixing of lighter and darker elements to be a consistently fun view. The one knock against it so far is that it does not spend enough time exploring the Shadow Garden members; an OVA or two which tackles this at some point would be most welcome.

Rating: B

Note: An English dub for this series is due to start next week. I may add commentary on this to this review once a couple of episodes of that have streamed.

Princess Principal: Crown Handler

The recent BD English release of the second installment in the Princess Principal: Crown Handler OVA series led me to realize that I never did get around to reviewing the first installment when it was released back in March (of 2022). Hence this review covers both installments.

The anime-original Princess Principal TV series aired for 12 episodes during the Summer 2017 season, telling an intact story that nonetheless left plenty of room for more. The planned sequel took the very unusual approach of playing out as a series of six movies/OVAs with a total expected running length roughly equivalent to a 12-13 episode series. (The only other series which started out on TV that I can recall doing this is Strike the Blood.) The first two installments have been released as of this writing, with the third scheduled for a Spring 2023 release in Japan. Based on the first two installments, the sequel is going to take an overall more cohesive approach, rather than jumping around as the TV series did. Whether or not that will ultimately be an improvement remain to be seen, as the TV series did just fine; it made my Top 5 list for 2017, after all. However, fans of the TV series are unlikely to be disappointed with the result so far.

The OVAs are not at all an entry point for the franchise; full familiarity with the characters and set-up is expected. Since it’s been a while, the original series was set in a steampunk version of turn-of-the-20th-century London, one where the Kingdom of Albion’s monopoly on the gravity-defying ore Cavorite (an H.G. Wells reference) made Albion the leading world power. That didn’t stop civil unrest from splitting Albion into two countries, with a wall mostly surrounding London splitting the Kingdom from the Commonwealth. That makes London a hotbed for spy activity. The story focused on the capers of two female spies for the Commonwealth undercover in London, which led to them associating with both a Japanese girl connected to her nation’s embassy and Princess Charlotte, a princess of the Kingdom deep in the line of succession and with no real backing, who learned of the spy’s activities and chose to get involved; in exchange for her silence and assistance on missions, the spy’s superiors would help her step up in the succession. That temporarily set aside an original plan for one of the spies to impersonate the princess. What none but Charlotte and her would-be impersonator Ange know (not even the princess’s loyal attendant, Beatrice, who is otherwise in on the spy scheme) is that the two girls have already been impersonating each other for a decade. “Charlotte” was the actual street urchin and “Ange” was the actual princess, and the split between the two parts of Albion forced them apart while they had (they thought briefly) exchanged roles as children.

That layered subterfuge was an occasional element during most of the TV series before becoming a key factor near its end, and it continues to play a big role in part 1 of Crown Handler. In it, Ange’s team is assigned to investigate whether a mole the Commonwealth has long had in the royal household has become a double agent. The mole turns out to be the Queen’s Grand Chamberlain, and he identifies Ange as the real Charlotte (whom he often looked after personally) on first meeting. Though Ange’s team is, through some codebreaking cleverness, eventually able to outfox the longtime mole and show that he is a double agent, they are not able to learn who else he was working for. A mysterious figure, who seems to be a quite skilled agent who likely represents the other power the Chamberlain was working with, appears near the end.

That mysterious figure returns to play a significant role in the second installment, this time attempting to assassinate on Charlotte’s elder brother Richard, the prince third in line who had returned from serving as Viceroy in “the colony” (i.e., this world’s United States, which apparently never had a revolution) after several years away. While Charlotte seeks to bolster and reassure younger Princess Mary (who makes her first franchise appearance in person; see below), Ange, Dorothy, and Chise investigate the theft of Commonwealth-created Cavorite bombs and some suspiciously convenient leads concerning them. That brings them into more direct conflict with the mysterious figure, while Charlotte stumbles onto a much bigger and deeper plot, one that may be connected to what the Grand Chamberlain was doing in the previous installment.

Both of the nearly hour-length installments eschew the emphasis on character development (at least for the spy team) seen in the TV series in favor of a more plot-intensive approach, with the establishment of the Grand Chamberlain in the first installment being a much more satisfying addition than the timid Mary in the second installment. Both have some action elements in the spirit of what was seen in the TV series, but as with the TV series, those are more highlights than focal points. The emphases on intrigue and the wonderfully-detailed steampunk setting remain, as does Yuki Kajiura’s entertaining musical score. The opener and closer used for both installments aren’t bad but unfortunately, they are not up to the same level as the stellar entries for the TV series.

In general, the second installment is distinctly the weaker one on both storytelling and production fronts. Though neither entry has technical merits significantly higher than those of the TV series, more pronounced and frequent artistic quality control slips can be found in the second installment, especially in one early scene where the girls are all talking in their club room at school. (This is not a big problem but is noticeable.) The installment also suffers more pronounced logical gaps. Any U.S. viewer will immediately recognize the clothing and equipment the mysterious figure is wearing/using as being a mix of 19th century U.S. military and Native American, an interesting combination which has big implications for who the other power involved in these incidents is. However, even after encountering and fighting him, the girls act like they have no clue about his origin, which seems unlikely; even if they are not personally familiar with tomahawks, someone in their organization surely is, and the use of that weapon would be distinctive enough in London for that detail to get attention. Also, there are a couple of uses of the Cavorite ball in this installment which seem like they might be undesirably public. Even beyond that, the second installment just isn’t quite as engaging as the first.

The second installment partly makes up for that at the end by concluding with a couple of major plot twists that set up a cliffhanger, one which leaves Charlotte in a potentially dangerous situation away from any of her normal support. Charlotte has been savvy enough to pull off pretending to be the princess for a decade, so I have no doubt she’ll find her way out of this situation, too, but wanting to see how she manages it leaves me eagerly anticipating the next installment. Hopefully that will be available in the States before the end of next year.

Note: While part 1 of Crown Handler is available on HIDIVE, part 2 is currently only available in the States on BD.

Rating – Part 1: A-

Rating – Part 2: B+

The Magic of the Inner Palace

Raven of the Inner Palace episodes 1-11

While I don’t specifically consider myself a fan of Chinese Imperial Court-influenced fantasy series, I must have a high tolerance for them; after all, three titles which would probably make my all-time Top 10 list for favorite anime series – The Twelve Kingdoms, Story of Saiunkoku (aka ColorCloud Palace), and Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit – all fall into that category to some degree. That all but assured that I would give this light-novel based series a fair shake, and the notion of a non-traditional imperial consort who uses magic to help solve oft-supernatural mysteries intrigued me further. I am pleased to say that, even though this was a highly-anticipated series for me, I may have underestimated it a little.

The premise of the series (which is explained at the beginning of most episodes) is that a woman with a special position has long existed within the sprawling Imperial Court: the Raven Consort. Despite the title, she does not service the Emperor, nor interact with him – or much with anyone else, either, for that matter. She has mystical abilities, is intrinsically linked to a certain goddess, and is the person to seek out if you have a supernatural concern, but she is always isolated, though whether by policy or by her personal choice is initially unclear. She looks young but could even be a century or more old. (That she is legitimately young gradually becomes abundantly apparent as the series progresses, though her actual age is not brought up until episode 11.) The new Emperor Gaojun, who came to power after overthrowing the Empress Dowager who murdered his mother and disinherited him (as shown in episode 1), finds the Raven Consort, Shouxue, intriguing enough that he seeks to ingratiate himself to her, despite her efforts to dissuade him and warnings from others that the Emperor should have nothing to do with the Raven Consort. This leads to all manner of supernatural mysteries and intrigues playing out as a kinda-sorta romance brews on a slow burn.

Nothing may seem terribly novel about this on paper, and initially the series gives the impression of a “mystery of the week” type of format. However, as the series plays out, it gradually reveals a far more intricate and fully-realized setting and set of circumstances. The world-building is vastly more involved than one might expect from a series where more than 90% of the total running time takes place within the Inner Palace, with the spread and detail devoted to the construction of the Inner Palace being a big part of that. Each individual residence has its own array of distinctive details, and each building houses secrets and mysteries accessible to one who can see and communicate with the dead. The recent history of the series – with its revelation that Shouxue is actually one of the last surviving members of the outlawed previous dynasty and all of the machinations and cruelties that the Empress Dowager inflicted on everyone around her – are core elements of the story as well.

However, the most fascinating parts of the series involve the exploration of the setting’s foundational lore, and especially how the goddess-chosen Raven Consort fits into that. One mid-series episode details the very specific reasons for everything about her: why she’s in the Inner Palace, why she’s isolated, why the Emperor has traditionally kept his distance from her, why she has status second only to the Emperor despite that, and why she has the powers that she does. All of this involves actions and power plays which go back centuries and have resulted in a delicate power balance where the Emperor cannot live with or without the Raven Consort – effectively, he’s trapped by the circumstances almost as much as she is, though the Raven Consort bears a far more onerous burden. Gaojun’s efforts to change that and release Shouxue from her prison of fate become one of the underlying plot threads of the second half of the series.

But the series has a lot more going for it than just that. With an emphasis heavily on talking and character interaction, getting the characterizations and emotions right is essential, and the writing does a wonderful job at that. Shouxue is a delight as a young woman who mixes the wisdom and cynicism of a much older person with an emotional temperament more befitting a teenager. She knows the role she’s supposed to be playing, and tries to stick with it, but she cannot help herself from reacting in a very tsundere-like way to Gaojun’s regular presence, entreaties, and even mild flirtation. Gaojun, contrarily, is perpetually somber and acts like the weight of the world is on his shoulders (which, to a degree, it is), but he also clearly gets some satisfaction from bribing Shouxue with treats to get her to cooperate with him and he is definitely interested in her in a more romantic sense. Their interaction is not one of big gestures and dramatically-expressive faces, but rather of little details and reactions that nonetheless fully convey their feelings. Over the course of the series, an array of more colorful characters (almost entirely eunuchs, ladies-in-waiting, and ghosts) gradually surround them to provide a greater range of expressiveness, interactivity, and even humor. The one minor negative here is a chicken which functions as a mascot but technically has a role to play as a (non-speaking) representative of the Raven Consort’s associated bird-goddess. He’s an annoyance who adds nothing to the story.

The artistic style of the series favors long, slender builds with long necks for the character designs and the flowing, elaborate dresses and robes typical of Chinese Imperial-influenced titles. Shouxue’s design – whether fully-coiffed or with her hair down – is a masterpiece of delicate beauty, but nearly as impressive is the multi-winged design of the bird goddess. Male designs tend to blend together a bit, requiring some effort to keep names straight, but all the designs are almost unfailingly elegant and pretty (except when they’re supposed to be ugly). Excellent background art and magical effects are complemented by a distinctive color design aesthetic, while stories of past events are often depicted through the art style seen on old Chinese and Japanese scrolls. Animation quality is generally good but not top-tier, with the one minor complaint here being the use of stock footage when Shouxue invokes her magic.

The music of the series also warrants some comment here. The series features some deep emotions, and the musical score does a stand-out job of supporting them, with its mix of symphonic arrangements and simpler string and percussion arrangements. The truly special part, though, is the opener ”MYSTERIOUS” by Queen Bee. It’s a great song on its own, but it warrants regular rewatches as the series progresses because the series also gradually shows that the lyrics and visual content are intrinsically related to the status of the Raven Consort. Taken fully in the context of its series, it’s one of the year’s top anime themes.

An English dub is also available for some of the series, trailing the main release by four episodes. It’s serviceable, but supporting roles are better fits than the leads are. Some of the attitude that original performer Saku Mizuno (also Ryo in Bocchi the Rock!) gives Shouxue doesn’t quite come through in Alexis Tipton’s interpretation, and Christopher Wehkamp is a little too morose as Gaojun. Not bad performances, but this is one case where I distinctly prefer the originals.

Through 11 episodes, Raven of the Inner Palace it has proven to be one of the Fall 2022 season’s best and most under-appreciated series, and it is a legitimate contender to make my Top 5 list for the year.

Rating: A-

Review: Is the Novice Alchemist Managing?

Management of a Novice Alchemist

One interesting trend in anime in recent years (and by extension its common source material) is fantasy series with an entrepreneurial bent. While the series may have flashy magic and action elements and typically features a protagonist that’s unusually capable (if not outright OP), it focuses much more on building a business or kingdom, and plot elements deal at least as much with the business-side and/or political aspects.  They can appear in both isekai and non-isekai forms, too. 2022 has brought titles in this vein like The Genius Prince’s Guide to Rising a Nation Out of Debt, Parallel World Pharmacy, and the third season of Ascendance of a Bookworm, and other recent fare of this type include By the Grace of the Gods, Drug Store in Another World,  How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom, and (essentially) Banished From the Hero’s Party. This series falls more squarely in this category than most and is as true to the spirit of its entrepreneurial style as any of them, and so should have at least some appeal to those who appreciate titles of this type. Whether or not the series can be considered a success overall after nine episodes is more nebulous.

Whereas the first episode focused on establishing protagonist Sarasa as a character and setting her on her career path, the eight episodes since then have focused primarily on her establishing and growing her business in the remote village of Yok. Key to this is recruiting the team of three young women who work with/under her: the local girl Lorea, who becomes the shop assistant and cook, and the gatherers Iris and Kate, who do jobs specifically for Sarasa to help work off a debt they owe to her for reattaching an arm Iris got severed during a gathering job gone wrong. They are an amicable bunch who combine with Sarasa to generate the series’ decided “cute girls do cute things” vibe. The most frequently-appearing characters who are not part of Sarasa’s effective household are a group of male gatherers who are both regular suppliers of raw alchemical ingredients and regular purchasers of Sarasa’s finished products, as well as extra hands for bigger jobs. Sarasa’s former master Ophelia – one of the most famous and accomplished of all alchemists, naturally – has also popped up a few extra times in one capacity or another, though hers is not an every-episode role. A few other contacts who might appear or be references on a regular basis are also gradually accruing.

While the story content so far has not exactly been episodic, neither is there much of an overarching plot. Sarasa is out to come up with all kinds of inventive creations to sell, the female gatherers have their debt to pay down, and that’s about it. Dangers regularly crop up like ravaging flaming bears attacking the village, a rival alchemist trying to undercut Sarasa via market manipulation, or the uncomfortable hazard of eating unprocessed honey, but only the faintest hints have been dropped so far that either of those first two cases are leading to anything bigger. We do learn that Sarasa has so much mana that she cannot easily control it without an artifact given to her by Ophelia, but that’s hardly an uncommon inconvenience for characters of her type and Sarasa is certainly still capable enough to kick some serious butt when she has to. In fact, she’s capable to an OP degree, which feels out of scale in a setting which focuses on more mundane applications of alchemy.

And that’s exactly where the main appeal of the series lies – or at least should lie, anyway. Sarasa is always innovating and coming up with clever applications for her alchemy, and the mechanics for how alchemy works in this world are different enough to be interesting on their own. They also give Sarasa a chance to show off an almost ruthlessly conniving side under her good-girl image, and she certainly has a coldly practical one when it comes to matter-of-factly slicing up monsters for parts. And some of the inventions are neat. However, the process can also come across as a bit too goofy and gimmicky.

This contributes to a light-hearted tone, one less interested in taking things seriously than in having fun and one which keeps things clean to an almost sterile degree. That does allow for some genuinely humorous sequences, such as the handling of the unprocessed honey’s deleterious side effects, but the series does not have enough of that to be truly effective as a comedy, and the closest it has to any substance is Sarasa’s punishment of bandits. (Bandits possibly driven by scheming from those seeking her parents’ business were responsible for her parents’ deaths.)

The series does not have much to carry it on the technical front, either. Main character designs are eye-pleasing and suitably cute, but design quality slides quickly once past the main cast. Don’t expect much for robust animation of thrilling fight scenes, either. This is definitely one of the season’s lower-budget productions.

Overall, Management is fluff, but at least mildly watchable fluff. Little that it has shown so far has much rewatch value, and I cannot see the series being very memorable, but it does at least try to be interesting and can be low-key filler if you’re having a slow day.

Rating: C+

Dual Review: Farming vs. Taming

Note: My apologies for getting nothing posted last week! I had fully intended to continue rotating through various series airing in the Fall ’22 season, so to make up for that, I am combining the intended topic for last week with this week’s to create a compare/contrast perspective on two currently-airing fantasy series: I’ve Somehow Gotten Stronger When I Improved My Farm-Related Skills (hereafter just Farm-Related) and Beast Tamer.

The Basics

Farm-Related and Beast Tamer are intrinsically linked in that they are both non-isekai fantasy series which debuted on the same day, and thus have both aired eight episodes as of this writing. Both originated on the user-generated publishing site Shosetsuka ni Naro and are based on light novels (albeit from different publishers) which have manga adaptations. The one distinct difference here is that the novel run for Farm-Related is finished, while the one for Beast Tamer is ongoing.

The Comparison

Though neither series is isekai (or at least has not been revealed as such as of yet!), both have a very isekai-like feel, down even to Farm-Related using game-like menus and stat/skill systems. Both feature male protagonists who, by the scales of normal conventions in their respective worlds, are very OP, and the implication in both cases is that their heritages have at least something to do with it; Farm-Related‘s Al has an intimidatingly-powerful mother, while Beast Tamer‘s Rein comes from a village where what he considers normal for a Beast Tamer is considered outrageously beyond the capabilities of typical Beast Tamers in the rest of the world. (This is implied to be a situation similar to Lloyd in Suppose a Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town, but it has not been elaborated upon much yet in the anime.) Both series also at least dangle the vague possibility that their respective protagonists have some bloodline connection to a past Hero, though neither has actively pursued that angle.

In both cases, the protagonist is a mild-mannered good guy who either wittingly or unwittingly tries to distance himself from romantic entanglements with the girls who gather around him. And indeed, in both cases a bevy of special girls flock around the protagonist, forming veritable harems. By the end of episode 8, Al has three around him: a princess, the direct descendant of the Hero, and a Guild Girl who possesses the essence of an ultra-powerful dragon. All have been won over by being helped mightily by Al in sticky situations. Rein is up to four, though two came as a pair: a melee-oriented cat girl, a dragonoid strong in magic or melee, and magic-oriented identical twin fairies, with a fifth promised by the opener but yet to debut. Each of them is a member of an Ultimate Species whom Rein has formed a taming contract with, though under different circumstances in each case: the twins were rescued from a sticky situation and had to leave their village anyway, the dragonoid was defeated in a duel, and the cat girl was a case of two solo adventurers who cooperate against a monster befriending each other.

Despite the bevy of beauties gathered around each one, both series have generally been quite tame on the fan service front; Farm-Related has had very little which could count as true, prurient fan service, while the censored bathing scene in episode 8 of Beast Tamer was the exception rather than the rule. Both also feature regular action scenes, though neither depend entirely on them; cast member interactions are also important, as are the regular, very generic aspects of adventuring life. Both have featured the protagonist interacting with the current Hero or a Hero Candidate, but neither has shown much for an overarching plot so far. A Demon Lord is in the picture to be dealt with, but confronting it is not on either protagonist’s long-range radar; shorter objectives have been the standard so far.

The two series also have a more negative commonality: very mediocre artistic and technical merits. With Beast Tamer, it begins with Rein’s character design, which has felt oddly-proportioned since I first saw it, while Al is about as generic-looking a male protagonist as one can find. With the possible exception of Beast Tamer‘s Tania (the dragonoid), none of the female character designs in either series stand out much; they are pretty/cute enough but not to a memorable degree. Both series suffer heavily from lackluster and sometimes very limited animation and both have had quality control issues on at least a semi-regular basis. Neither one does much that’s interesting with their setting, critter, or race designs, either, except possibly for the (all-CG) dragon that the Guild Girl is connected to in Farm-Related. Oh, and the two series also share some voice actresses in major roles, with two of them (Minami Tanaka and Rumi Okubo) having a role among each harem.

The Contrast

For all of the two series’ similarities, they do differ in at least some ways. Beast Tamer looks more closely at the procedures involved in the Hero’s party and the mechanics of being a Beast Tamer, while Farm-Related traffics much more in absurdity involving its farm theme; this is the series where a thrown carrot is used to kill a dragon and a daikon radish is used to thwart a sword strike. While both have their mixes of light-hearted and serious elements, Farm-Related swings much more between extremes than the more even-tempered Beast Tamer does. It can be every bit as heavy as it is painfully silly. And Beast Tamer thankfully does not have the obnoxiously overbearing mother character who plagues Al in Farm-Related, or really anything close to her. Overall, Farm-Related tends to be the funnier one, while Beast Tamer tends to be the more charming one.

The Summation

Neither series entirely lacks for entertainment value, but neither has anything compelling about them, either. Even within the fantasy genre, both are thoroughly mediocre diversions which mostly won’t be remembered at all a couple of seasons from now. (Except for that carrot killing the dragon thing. That will last forever.)

Rating – Farm-Related: C

Rating – Beast Tamer: C

KanColle: See You Again on Another Blue Sea (aka KanColle 1944) debut

Streams: Crunchyroll on Thursdays

First Episode Rating: B

Though easily the most successful of the “ship girl” franchises to come out of the 2010s (it had an enormous presence in doujinshi markets through much of that decade), the mobile game Kantai Collection has only had two previous anime adaptations: a 12-episode 2015 TV series and a 2016 movie. This eight-episode series represents an alternate storyline rather than a continuation of either of the previous entries, and seems to be happening with an entirely different cast of characters. (A few of the original cast have background or flashback cameos, but that’s it.) Hence no familiarity with previous animation is strictly necessary to follow this this series. The first episode does, however, expect that audiences are at least generally familiar with the franchise’s operating conceits: that (mostly) teen girls called Ship Girls exist who possess the spirits of World War 2-era Japanese naval vessels. That allows them to glide across the water and use equipment and weaponry in line with their source ships to fight the Abyssal Fleet, an alien presence from the deep seas which threatens humanity’s presence on the seas. And this Abyssal Fleet is, of course, based on the American and Australian fleets that Japan fought against in WW2.

For returning franchise fans, the first episode quickly offers up one key difference: the overall tone is decidedly more somber and desperate. The CGDCT antics which characterized downtime in the first series are still present to some degree, but the high spirits of the first series have been replaced by suggestions of grievous losses, passing comments about dwindling numbers, and the fleet that feature character Shigure (originally a Shiratsuyu-class destroyer) is assigned to being given a diversionary suicide mission. The reason for this is revealed by the end of the episode: this is the set-up for the Battle of Leyte Gulf, originally fought in October 1944 over the U.S.’s attempt to land in the Philippines. The historical conflict was the largest naval battle of WW2, and is the largest naval battle in recorded history in terms of the number of combatants involved. It was also, effectively, the last stand for the outgunned Japanese navy; the few surface ships which survived to make it back to port either never sortied again or were used only for escort missions for supply ships. In other words, as Shigure and crew sortie out at the end of the episode, they’re in for a bitter fate if the series closely follows history.

Of course, as the first series showed, the storytelling is capable of deviating for dramatic effect, so I am curious to see how far this installment will go in following the multifaceted battle awaiting them. The storytelling is already fudging a bit, since the “Northern Force,” rather than the “Southern Force” centered around Fuso and Yamashiro, was the intended decoy in the original battle. The battle did feature spectacular events such as the last battleship-on-battleship battle ever fought and the first kamikaze attack, so there should be a lot of flash and excitement even if the writing does not bail the Ship Girls out in the end. Shigure, with her more subdued but still determined demeanor, serves well as the viewpoint character for this situation; she may have also been chosen for other reasons that are spoilerish for anyone who has not studied WW2 naval battles in detail.

The riggings worn by each of the ship girls look as awkward as ever, but the technical and artistic merits are at least as good as the original (albeit with perhaps a slightly heavier emphasis on CG) and some fog-shrouded shots of the main (historically Center) fleet are visual features. Overall, the first episode is a solid effort, but will probably hold limited appeal for those who are not franchise fans or WW2/naval warfare buffs.

Special Preview: Arknights: Prelude to Dawn

Streams: Crunchyroll on Fridays

Rating: 3 (of 5)

Anime series which adapt mobile games are hardly unusual in recent years, but I am hard-pressed to think of another one which is based on a tower defense game. Yet that’s exactly what’s going on with this adaptation of a Chinese mobile game. (It has also been released in other countries and does have an English language host website.) Rather than being a prequel or a side story to the main game – as many game-connected series in the last couple of years have been – this one seems to be taking a more ambitious approach: use the rich setting details that the game is known for to play out the game in narrative form. The result is hardly anything special, but it is at least competent enough that it could pull in viewers beyond just fans of the game.

The central (though not necessarily focus) character is the same as the player self-insert in the game: a masked Doctor suffering from amnesia as an after-effect of having been put in cold sleep. (Why the indeterminate-gender Doctor was put in cold sleep is not commented on, but the suggestions are that it was not long-term and done because of some grievous injury or health condition.) In the post-apocalyptic setting the Doctor awakens to, female characters exhibit characteristics of animals or mythological creatures, which is most visible in the form of animal ears; whether male characters also have this or not is unclear, but the one male character shown without a head covering doesn’t have the special ears. There’s also a disease called Olipathy, which allows the use of magic but is also ultimately fatal. Sufferers of the disease have broken into two camps: the violent Revolution, which seeks to retaliate for persecutions, and the more cooperative-leaning Rhodes Island, whose members the Doctor is recovered and protected by.

The game origin persists in a phase-driven feature battle towards the last part of the episode and in how the Doctor, despite the amnesia, ends up directing it. Action scenes emphasize tactical elements than pure mano-a-mano action, and the technical merits supporting the action aren’t bad. The one visual complaint I might voice here is that the animal ears seem more tacked-on than integral parts of the character designs (especially for the bunny girl, who is Rhode Island’s young leader), and the fact that most characters use full-body suits limits animation needs. The setting offers some somewhat interesting setting elements, and there is a sense of a bigger story here, but that is also limited by an overall generic, game convenience feel. The one truly interesting element is the name convention: the U.S. state Rhode Island was originally a colony formed as a secular haven for outcasts, which implies that the group may be a splinter factor of the Revolution.

Whether that’s interesting enough to warrant watch more is another story. This first episode isn’t bad, but it just doesn’t do anything much to warrant attention, either.

Reincarnated as a Sword episodes 2-3

Rating: B for episode 2, B+ for episode 3

This is one series that I did not expect to be commenting on week-to-week, and I’m still not sure if I will write it up every week. However, episodes 2 and 3 added enough to the basic premise laid out in episode 1 that I felt they merited further commentary and should earn this series more attention than it’s probably going to get.

Dismissing this series after episode 1 would have been easy to do, and complaints that the first half of the episode dwelt too long on the sword (hereafter called Master) powering up were warranted, even though that is still a compacted version compared to the novel. However, many other reviewers also noted that the episode experience a distinct uptick once Fran came into the picture, and the relationship that was already starting to develop before the end of the episode could give something for otherwise-disinterested viewers to latch onto. Episode 2 furthers this critical relationship-building as Master guides Fran through getting signed up at the Adventurer’s Guild (and the combat test she must pass in order to earn certification despite her youth) and learns a bit more about how Fran ended up in her current situation and what her current goals are: to prove that Cat People, who are widely-derided as the weakest of the beast people, are capable of Evolving like other demi-humans and monsters are. Master’s protectiveness and beaming over Fran’s accomplishments, along with Fran’s seemingly simple-minded nature, give the impression that a sweet father-daughter type of relationship is forming.

Episode 3, however, shows that classifying their relationship that way may be oversimplifying things. They’re absolutely still working together as a team, and the way Master seeks to help Fran is still very parental in nature, but as the episode progresses, Fran’s own will starts to show more and more. There were hints of this in the previous two episodes, but the battle against the goblins shows that she has no need to just act at Master’s directions; she can make her own decisions and take charge of the situation. She also won’t be cowed by the challenges before her, and the production team does an excellent job of showing that, despite her ability to overwhelm goblins individually with Master in hand, the goblins are still quite capable of being a threat as a group. She shows a tenacity and gritty determination worthy of any shonen action hero. Perhaps most importantly, she shows that she can carry the series on her own. By the end of episode 3, Fran is at least as much the series protagonist as Master is. Audiences will root for her even if they cannot much get behind Master.

Of course, that Fran has a hefty dose of moe-grade charisma working for her also doesn’t hurt. She could have her own short where she just goofs around and enjoys simple pleasures and I would absolutely watch it. She doesn’t just have cute factor working for her, either. The animation team is doing an impressive job with visually portraying the fighting style of a girl using a sword as big as she is and still making it look realistic. (That they are also remarkably graphic for the genre may or may not be a plus.) Put simply, watching her fight is fun, and that’s something that cannot always be said about dedicated fantasy action shows. Infusing the battles with a heavy rock musical score certainly does not hurt, either.

The one weakness of the series so far is that, for all that it is innovating a bit in the specifics of its situation, it is still hewing closely to a lot of isekai reincarnation tropes, including game-like stats, Adventurer’s Guild rankings, and so forth. However, I can tolerate that because of what we’re getting in exchange. In a season which has no shortage of high-interest, high-profile titles, this one is showing at least some potential to be a sleeper hit.

Review: Summer Time Rendering

Rating: A-

When Shinpei Ajiro left his home island of Hitogashima to attend school in Tokyo, his childhood friend Ushio (whose family he had lived with since the death of his parents) didn’t take it well. Now, two years later in mid-July, he is finally returning to the island – but for her funeral, after she drowned trying to rescue a child. Though Shinpei was welcomed back by Ushio’s younger sister Mio and their father Alan, something on the island seemed off, and Shinpei soon discovers what: Shadows, supernatural entities which can copy and replace a person (which typically results in the person’s impending death) are afoot on the island, and they not only may have had everything to do with Ushio’s death but also are a growing and existential threat to everyone else. The problem is that learning about this leads to his death. But that’s just the start of a time-looping journey, one which could be the ticket to the island’s salvation if Shinpei can only piece together the grand puzzle that is the Shadows and stay a step ahead of the forces behind the scheming Shadows in the process. And it may be the ticket to reuniting with Ushio as well.

Such is the premise of this adaptation of a completed Shonen Jump! manga, which aired during the Spring and Summer 2022 season. Over the course of 25 episodes, it tells an intact story, one which throws in occasional bits of humor but is mostly grounded in mystery and graphic, supernatural horror. At its core is a time-looping element initiated by Shinpei’s death, typically in very violent and occasionally even suicidal ways. To any veteran anime fan, this will evoke far more comparisons to Re:Zero than something like Groundhog Day, even down to the “save point” Shinpei returns to occasionally advancing. Unlike with Re:Zero, though, the save point advances at least a little every time, effectively becoming a plot point on its own later in the series. Figuring out how this works is intrinsic to the ultimate success or failure of Shinpei’s efforts to defeat the Shadows, and it is a major source of tension especially in the series’ second half.

But while the series’ defining element is its time looping, it is not just about that. Bonds must be forged or reforged with islanders past and present and who is and is not already a Shadow at different points in the loops, and who is and is not a potential ally among the humans, must be determined. The lore and history of the island must also be explored, as what happened both a few years ago and a few hundred years ago are intrinsic to what is happening now. Also, this is not just a simple case where Shinpei can change a few things each time and see what works and what doesn’t. Anything Shinpei does differently has broader ramifications, and as he eventually discovers, the enemy has become aware of his time looping and actively tries to interfere with its efficacy. That turns the second half of the series into a veritable chess match, one full of strikes and counter-strikes, as each side tries to outmaneuver the other across the loops. I don’t doubt that the production team use complicated flow charts to keep track of who knew what, and did what, and when.

Another key element of the series is the nature of the Shadows themselves. While they resemble the doppelgangers of folklore, that’s not exactly how they operate, as they can replicate from snapshots of both people and objects. (This is called “rendering,” hence the source of the series’ title.) They have interesting properties, like how one has to damage the Shadow’s shadow in order to harm, immobilize, or even destroy it, and some can have special movements and attacks. Not all remain beholden to their creator, either. The latter is how Ushio gets involved in the story starting a few episodes in, despite starting the story dead. (I consider this only a minor spoiler, since she is too visually distinct, and featured too prominently in advertising art, for her to not have a major role.) That’s definitely for the best, since she is easily the most vivacious and fun character in the cast. Once she first appears, the parts where she is not involved are almost always less dynamic.

Ushio also stands out in a visual sense. Even though not everyone else on the island has traditional Japanese looks, Ushio is still strikingly different, with long blond hair (including, conspicuously, blond eyebrows and even eyelashes!) and fair skin more typical of someone from northern Europe; while this isn’t explained anywhere in the anime, supplementary materials clarify that Alan is French, so she is half-Japanese but completely favors her father. (Unlikely genetically, but hey, let’s roll with it.) She also appears in a one-piece navy blue swimsuit through most of the series (since that was what she was wearing when she died). Other character designs have more traditional appearances but are still well-designed, and production values in general are on the high side. Scene design supports the horror element quite well, and the sometimes-ambitious animation effort allows for both some great expression work and some slick action sequences, especially ones involving Shadow-Ushio’s creative use of her hair. CG effects used to give the impression that appearance of Shadows is glitching at times also serves the purpose well.

The musical score also proves quite capable. The mix of ominous piano notes and electronica themes hit strongest in the darkest and tensest scenes, while the score properly remains passive in lighter ones. Bother opener and closer are fitting but unremarkable, while a couple of insert songs fare much better.

The series does warrant some content cautions. Graphic violence hits extreme levels at times, some death scenes can be quite bloody, and suicide is a factor. While the opening episode and Ushio-in-a-swimsuit suggest a fan service-laced production, that element is actually sparse; aside from one near-nude scene involving Ushio late in the series, there’s barely any after the first episode. if you’re normally turned off by such things, this series shouldn’t be a problem. On the dubbing front, the Japanese dub makes heavy use of accents, and even those not proficient in Japanese can probably catch when Shinpei and one other character returning to the island start slipping back into the island way of saying things even without the subtitles. By far the most distinctive performance also involves Ushio; relative newcomer Anna Nagase (this is her first starring role) gives her a voice much more brassy than the typical anime genki girl, but it still fits for the more rough-and-tumble Ushio.

This series should theoretically be streaming on Disney+ at some point, since they have the rights to it, but it is not in the U.S. as of the time of this writing. (If you don’t mind seeking it out on alternative sites, I recommend Animepisode.) I will update this review when it is, as given the heavy use of islander accent in the Japanese dub, I am very curious to see how an English dub will be handled. Overall, the one complaint I have about the series is that it seems to be dragging things out a bit in its second half; even though a lot is going on, it feels like one episode less would have made the content much tighter. Also, the plot of the series ends with episode 24, with the entirety of episode 25 kinda-sorta being a “what happens after” scenario. This is still highly recommended viewing, as the overall story does not feel properly rounded out without it. For all of the struggle and pain the cast goes through, that ending feels both deserved and highly satisfying, and a series could not ask for a better note to end on.

The Devil is a Part-Timer!! episode 12

Rating: C+

There is a moment early in this episode which speaks best to the spirit and attitude of the show: the scene where Maou and Ashiya have to take the subway to get to the second tower, while Emi just conjured up magic boots and flew over to the first tower. Sadly, it’s one of the few places in the disappointingly-drab season finale which seemed entirely on point.

What makes the episode even more disappointing is that it had some material to work with. The big revelation here is that Emi’s father, Nord Justina, is not only alive but also in Japan. Since the foundation of Emi’s motivation for fighting the Devil King is her father’s death, this is an Earth-shattering blow not just to Emi’s raison d’etre, but also to her attitude towards Maou. How can she justify her actions if she does not have specific reason to hate him anymore? This is a matter with such heavy future consequences that the episode-ending confirmation that Lailah was, indeed, the angel who saved Maou as a child pales in comparison. So does the implication, from various tidbits throughout the episode, that Lailah is being sought partly because she is trying to fix something intrinsically wrong with Enta Isla that was caused by Heaven, and doing so would be detrimental to Heaven. (That Lailah is also being sought because having a child with a human implies that humans and angels are more genetically similar than the angels care to have acknowledged is also an interesting point with possibly greater implications.)

There’s also Chiho finally getting to have her turn at being part of the super-powered action. Granted, everything she’s doing is more or less just channeling for Lailah, and she looks good in the action pose of firing the magical arrows. Sadly, the action is otherwise a letdown. Although this has been a problem all season, the action in this episode feels extra-limp; it has no dynamism, energy, or real sense of battle choreography to it, and the musical score is not helping much. Admittedly, the actual fighting here does not amount to much, and this has never been an action-focused series anyway, but I still expected more than this. That this episode aired on the same day as the action extravaganza that was DanMachi‘s cour-ending episode, and just a day after the equally visually-awesome season closer for Made in Abyss, is an additional bit of unfortunate timing. But hey, at least they kept the detail about how Chiho is so busty that her hospital pajamas are straining a bit to stay buttoned. . .

In all, the episode had enough interesting reveals, plot hooks, and commitment to the series’ sometimes-quirky style of humor that I cannot give the episode too bad a grade. Additionally, an announcement has been made that another season is coming next year, and that it will feature the debut of a new core (and, by extension) new peripheral cast member. While this is not the franchise’s strongest material, enough is still going on here that I would be back even if I had not read far ahead in the novels.