Spring 2016 Anime Season: First Impressions

First Impressions Spring 2016

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It has been a little while since I wrote in this blog. Life got busy and the winter season fell though. But now we have what could be one of the best anime seasons of the year. Let’s see if I have any ring rust after being gone so long. These are my first impressions of the spring 2016 anime season. 

Uchuu Patrol Luluco- The newest show from Studio Trigger, a micro series about a world where aliens hang out and stuff, and one girl wants to live a normal life. Unfortunately her father is a space cop, taking care of alien crimes, and accidently gets frozen and she as to take his place in his job, except she deals with middle school alien crimes instead of alien crimes. Their boss is literally Inferno Cop’s boss from the greatest anime of all time Inferno Cop. That fact alone would make this show amazing. But it has Triggers classic comedic timing, really fast but leaving enough room for a metaphorical beat panel once in a while, and just strange and really funny jokes. The main character turns into a giant gun like the oldest Megatron toys. This show just seems crazy and silly and fun. All good classic things for a Trigger show to have. I know I’ll watch it. 

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4 Diamonds are Unbreakable- As we all know, I love Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. I read the manga, and have of course read this part. This is where I really think the series gets strange. Before this it was a straight up action series that was very fun and had its own brand of weirdness, but it was borrowing heavily on action series that came before it. Part 4 is nothing like anything Araki the creator had done before and really influenced how he writes the rest of the series. It is a move away from straight up punching your problems to more psychological and interesting fights. We’ve seen this before in his work in minor fights but this is where it really changes. Diamonds are Unbreakable follows Josuke Higashikata, a high school student and illegitimate son of Joseph Joestar. He has a Stand as well, activating at the same time as everyone else’s during the adventure in part 3. Jotaro is sent to find the kid for two reasons, one being Joseph has some will stuff he needs to work out because while he is married and loves his wife, he also loved the woman he slept with that one time. The second reason is that something strange is happening in the small city of Morio, and when something strange is happening it is always related to stand users. And as the show will explore, the town has a million and one stand users, not all evil, not all good. It is up to Jotaro, Josuke, and Josukes friends to protect his town and also laze around and do nothing. I am super excited for this show. We as an audience are moving further away from what the public have seen in terms of Jojo, and that is an exciting prospect to me. I want to see how people react to some of the crazy abilities that show up, some of the really mundane stories that get pumped up because stands are involved. I want people to see Rohan and see him punch a child and have his house burned down. I am excited for this show.

A dad, three high schoolers, and a manga artist walk into a town...

Ace Attorney- I remember quite enjoying the Ace Attorney games when I was younger. It was a point and click adventure about being a defense attorney. You had to find clues and prove your client was innocent by finding inconsistencies in the witness’s stories. It’s a really great game franchise, and so far the anime seems to be a direct translation of these games, literally almost shot for shot at times. In a way this is not a bad way to do it. The game is incredibly story focused, so they can almost just move the dialogue and everything form the game straight to the show. The problem so far is the animation, which is serviceable at best. But to be fair, the game didn’t have any movement at all, so it is a straight upgrade from the still images. It is just a bit rough. If you are a fan of a games, or just like fun mystery series, I would give this show a watch. I know I’ll be keeping up with this turnabout series.

Boku no Hero Academia- This is another one of those series where I have read the manga for a good while and have a deep love and appreciation for the manga, so this show is an automatic watch for me, but it should be for you too. The series is about a world where everyone has some sort of super power, and from that grew villains who misused their powers, and heroes who protect the innocent. This is just a normal, everyday part of life, where there are even high schools for people who want to be heroes. We follow one of the few children in this society born without any sort of power. Which is awful because his only dream in life is to be a superhero. It is his entire life’s goal since he was 4 to be a hero and save people and smile in the face of danger, like his own hero, All Might, who is basically this worlds Superman.  He even intends to go to the most prestigious Hero Academy despite his handicap. One day he finally meets All Might and askes the one question, can he be a hero. And All Might is honest, and because of the main characters lack of power says no. But later, he sees the main characters heroic soul, literally the main character jumping into a life and death situation where profession heroes couldn’t move a muscle, he declares that yes, the main character can be a hero, and offers to pass his powers onto the main character, an unprecedented feat in this world. This show is all about the ideal of following your dreams despite what others say, but not in a hollow sort of sense. The main character works hard for his gift throughout the entire series. This isn’t someone just being made awesome with no work, he has to work every second of his life to master and gain the ability to use these new powers, but all the pain and self-destruction he ends up going through is all for his dream. This show is an inspiring story of one boy’s journey to become the hero he always dreamed to be, and save people with a smile. Definitely watch My Hero Academia.

One of my favorite heroes in this picture is the invisible girl. (There really is one)

Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou – The Last Song- I had problems with the first season of this show. The story felt convoluted at moments and the motivations of everyone rarely felt like they were fully fleshed out characters, instead being more one note and representing a motivation. And it didn’t help that in every episode we were getting two versions of every character from the two different perspectives the show gives, one in the future and one in the present. But oddly enough, the second season of the show is doing better.  A quick reminder of what the show is about, post WWII earth is filled with super powered humans, usually taking the form of heroes in Japanese media, like Kamen Rider, Ultra Man, any given magical girl, so on and so forth. The heroes are still new enough that their place in society isn’t secured. A government agency is put in place to protect the heroes by registering them and making sure they are good guys, staffed with people with powers themselves. But as heroes start to appear, and villains do also, the lines of justice start to fade and what side anyone on at any given time is tossed up into the air. We end the series with Jiro, the main character going rouge from the agency after learning about a large number of cover ups and travesty’s they and the government had performed in the past, and leaves to seek his own justice. That is the future scenes that the first season showed. The second season does a much better job at identifying and showing the journeys that these characters are going through. It is helpful to see how one character in the present turned into who they are in the future scenes from the first season, which I what the first episode is about as they show how the robot detective turned from a cop who hated super humans to one who fought for them with his own brand of justice. I think what the second season is doing best is answering questions the audience had. The first season didn’t answer any of its own questions, it just piled them on each other into a large heap. But now we are finally learning something. Another possible reading for the show is that it is an allegory for homosexuality in society, the heroes representing the othering factor when it comes to not being straight, and their fight for both recognition and at times basic human rights. I can’t say whether or not this theme is true, but it can defiantly be read into the show. The second episode helps this reading by showing how one the characters from the first season, a woman who was part of a five woman girl band who used music to fight, was a lesbian and fired because her relationship with another band mate was deemed to scandalous. They use this to talk about the subject of personal justice; that if someone’s justice his hateful can it really be justice and the idea of being forced to live under that. It’s an amazing episode and even helps answer a lot of the questions the first season brought up. Concrete Revolutio, the first season alone, has many problems, but the second season so far is acting as a decent cleanup crew, and is an enjoyable watch on its own. There is a bit more hope put into this season then the first which felt dark and sad despite its color palette. If you were turned away by the first season I’d suggest giving this one a watch regardless. 

Kuma Miko- This is a sort of slice of life anime following a Shrine Maiden in a small remote village in Japan. The village though holds a secret. In the times of legend, a monster bear harassed the village, the villagers sacrificing a virgin maiden every year to satisfy the beast. But one year, the virgin wanted to fight back, but as she was attacked the bear and she started to have sex, falling for love and having a children together, bears that could speak human. And now in our modern world, in this sleepy village this bit of mysticism is still alive and the Shrine Maiden herself was raised with a bear that can talk. Now that she is getting older, going to high school next year, she wants to move out of the small village and go to school in the city, somewhere with decent cell service and corner stores that are actually opened 24 hours. The bear, who is a nice rational bear, argues against this because the girl, despite her hopes, is a bit of a hick and has never been to the city. The bear is now both testing her and training her so that by the time she can go to high school she will be prepared for city life. This show is, at its core, a really great comedy. Its strength is that it can flip the role of the straight man between the Shrine Maiden and the bear. Both have time to be silly, like the Shrine Maiden doing aerobics instead of the traditional shrine dance she has to do, or the bear loving but pretending to not love an outfit maid for the Shrine Maiden where she wears bears ear and a bear tail. This show mixes the slow pace of a healing slice of life series with a really good comedy show, doing so in a very creative way. I like watching the bear talk and hang out and apparently use google. It’s a cute little show I would totally recommend. 

Dance the dance of the techno bear.

Pan de Peace!- This is a micro series about cute girls who like bread. That is literally it. It’s like K-On, but with bread. I will watch this because I am weak. Be stronger then I am.

Sailor Moon Crystal: Death Busters-hen- The Sailor Moon Crystal anime is a bit of a disappointing series. The animation was plagued with problems, the story telling felt really bland and just prodded along, not really doing anything, and even at its best you couldn’t help but think to yourself, this isn’t the original Sailor Moon anime and why am I not watching that. But this new season of Crystal so far seems to have really turned things around. The animation is spectacular, the characters are so much more lively and less stiff then their season one counterparts, and the story seems fine. So far, all we know as an audience is that people are turning into monsters because of a bunch of weird space ladies, there are people in Sailor Senshi uniforms other than the main girls, and a strange couple seem to be involved with everything as they flirt with Usagi. For those who have seen the original however, we know this is the introduction of Sailors Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, two of which are in a lesbian relationship. These three set up a sort of secondary group to the main Sailor Scouts, working outside the group but also with them, like their planets signify. Also hopefully Pluto will show up so we get all 9 planets in a cool action pose. I am more excited for this series then I was the original Crystal, because I know for certain this one is actually pretty good. Let us hope that Death Busters stays as good as I want it to be. 

Bakuon!!- As I have said multiple times before, I like anime about girls doing stuff. Bakuon is about girls doing motorcycles. You think that would be the end of it, like with the bread anime a few entries up. But oh no, this show is secretly one of my favorites this season. I read the manga for this series and one thing is clear from that. This is not just a show about girls who ride motorcycles. This is a show about motorcycles, and girls happen to be in it because high school girls sell. The story, as it were, is about the members of a high school motorcycle club. You have the girl who is philosophically passionate about bikes, always willing to say something deep about the wind or some metaphor, the new girl to bikes who is naive but also dumb, the fangirl for a specific brand of bike and their maker, the girl who equates motorcycles with rebellion and coolness and is so rich she has a butler driver her around on a bike instead, and the Stig from Top Gear. If you don’t know Top Gear is a British car show and the racing driver they have is called the Stig and he is always wearing a racing helmet and never speaks and is possibly immortal or not of this world, just like the one girl in this show. The series tends to be about the girls hanging out and riding bikes, going on trips, or talking about some aspect of bikes, like when they go to buy one with the new girl they talk about shady businesses who sell crappy bikes. This is a very funny and cute little show that is far better than it deserves to be. There is some fan service, and that can turn people away who think this show is just about tits and ass, but when you look past that it is honestly a comedic love letter to motorcycles and motorcycle riders. I love this show, and you should check it out. 

Some say she's been in high school for 50 years.
Some say she only eats Suzuki's.
All we know is, shes the Stig's Japanese little sister.

Shounen Ashibe: Go! Go! Goma-chan-  This is a very strange micro series following a family who just moved to a new town, and when they are just getting settles down they find a seal, who they decide to make part of the family. This is an odd micro series about a boy and his seal, and so far treating the seal like it’s a part of the family. There are really two reasons I like this show a ton. The first is the ending theme. It starts with a sample of Momma Said Knock You Out, except its Goma said knock you out, and it is so out of nowhere that I can’t help but sing a long whenever I hear it. The second is a story within the story of the best friend that the main character left behind. He is a kid with a pointy nose and the show implies that the main character was like the seal to this kid, and now that his friend is gone he is just crying all the time and it’s kind of really sad and funny. Like, I shouldn’t be laughing at this kid’s pain, but I can’t help it. He just doesn’t say anything and sobs all day while holding a plushy of the main character. It’s strange and I kind of love it. This is a silly show but it’s also kind of relaxing and nice, so I plan on keeping up with it. 

Joker Game- This show takes place in the run up to World War Two. We follow a newly formed Japanese spy organization. The show implies that espionage is considered to be dishonorable by the Japanese military who model themselves on the honorable samurai in their propaganda. The idea of the sneakiness inherent in espionage is counter cultural to their ideals. When a solider is captured by the enemy, they either kill as many as their enemy as possible or kill themselves. But when a spy is captured, they live. So far each episode seems to be a small story about an individual member of the espionage agency, the first two following a soldier who is a liaison between the military and the organization, and the third follows one of the spy’s in France with amnesia for a short time. I expect more sort of random stories about the missions the characters take, seeing the difference between espionage and the war at large. The name of the show comes from a game that the spy’s play with each other where some of them play poker and they must try to convince the people not playing to help them cheat. It’s a game about convincing enemy spy’s to join your side in war. The detached nature of everyone really adds to a realistic espionage feel of the show, which I really like. This show takes all the more realistic themes of spy movies and presents them in a very interesting and fun way. I am enjoying this show a lot. If you want an atmospheric spy show you could do worse. 

Also known as game night with friends and family

Bungou Stray Dogs- In a noir style world, a homeless boy runs into a strange man with a fetish for trying suicide, but never actually going through with it. When talking to the strange man and his friend, he learns they are part of a detective agency filled with people with super powers and are on the case trying to find a very strange tiger that’s been going around. A tiger that seems to be stalking the homeless kid. Turns out, the kid is the tiger, a weretiger with no memories from when he transforms, and after he is brought up to speed about his power, he is asked to join the strange detective agency. This whole show has a very Kekai Sensen feel to it, and I admit I like that. While its ending was delayed for a half a year, BBB was an interesting and fun show. They seem to be in the same sort of world, a mixture of the real and the fantastical being treated as normal. It’s highly stylized in its fashion, but cell phones and computers exist. I’ve always been a fan of these types of worlds. What is also interested is the main characters apparent arc in the series. We find him both homeless and starving and learn that he was apparently abandoned to an orphanage where he was abused until he was kicked out, leading to where he was. He has this very strong sense of loneliness and is kind of always waiting for people to leave him and his life to go back to being awful.  But in episode three we see a sense of wanting to fight back, he has started to grow into this makeshift family, very early on. I like those types of stories, Kekai Sensen did it well also. I think I like this show a lot. It is interesting, funny at time, has really good action, and I like the characters. I stylized detective story involved super powers is usually a good time, and this one seems to be also. 

Sakamoto Desu ga?- This is an anime about the coolest guy ever, Sakamoto. Sakamoto is the coolest guy on earth, he is handsome, smart, clever, and never looks silly. The whole first episode is people trying to make him look foolish in some way, and he literally roles with the punches and makes out even better. Bullies throw out his desk and chair? He sits on the window sill while cherry blossoms fall in, making him look awesome. A bee attacks the classroom? While everyone panics he coolly solves his math problem and then fights the bee on equal measure with a compass. What makes the comedy work is that everything Sakamoto does is inherently not cool, but done by someone who thinks it’s cool. Like, he has named special moves like a shounen hero, while being a normal high school student. In the opening he is playing air guitar on a broom very earnestly and it comes off as cool and not cheesy. Everything he does is like this, but it’s done with a sincerity and honesty that makes whatever he is doing cool. He is what every nerdy kid wishes they could be. Hell, Sakamoto has done things that I wished to do because I thought it was cool when I was younger, and makes it look cool. It really works for the series. This is a very strange and very funny show. The only possible threat to this show is that it has really only one joke, at least in the first episode. But the one joke really works, and I’ve seen comedy anime with less jokes in them, so this should be fine. I look forward to more and crazier examples of just how cool Sakamoto-kun is. 

He is always prepared, even for rain in the bathroom.

Flying Witch- Flying Witch is another of those calming sort of anime that you watch to relax and feel nice about. The show follows a girl entering high school, she is moving in with her cousin and his family to go to his same high school. She is a nice girl, but odd in her ways. She talks to her cat as if it were a person, she can get lost while inside her own house, and can fly on a broom. Yes, she is the titular witch. Though magic and witch craft is a relatively secret thing, it isn’t incredibly well guarded, as we learn when she tells her new friend about it. Magic also seems to be everywhere, the main character finding a screaming mandrake route. This is a very nice and relaxing show, juxtaposing strange magic and everyday life. I like it, and will recommend it. 

Tonkatsu DJ Agetarou- Last but not least, we have one of the strangest anime I’m watching this season. A kid who works at his father’s tonkatsu shop ends up a club and is allowed to watch the performance of a famous DJ, and sees that the DJ’s moves are exactly the stuff his father does when making his food, and then the DJ magically tells him to use the skills he can learn through food making to become a famous DJ. So the whole show is him learning the skills of a DJ via making friend pork cutlets. This is a strange show. The dialogue is fast, like Americans trying to lip-sync with 60’s anime fast, and the animation and art style is choppy but stylistically so. It doesn’t look bad, just weird. I love this show, just because of how weird it is. This is the hipster anime of the year, I am calling it.

Like PaRappa the Rapper but with friend pork cutlets.

And those are the anime I am watching this season. A few really great micro series, 2 huge shounen series, and some great calming relaxing series mixed in for fun. This is a great anime season, one that has so many great shows that I hope will be remembered for a long while. So until next time, keep on watching. 

He's so cool.