From the New World (anime)

From the New World is a combination of post-apocalyptic dystopia and mind-bending mystery. It's set in the far future, after humans developed psychic abilities leading to conflicts that nearly ended the world. In this world, society is strictly controlled to keep a tight rein on those abilities.

The main character, Saki, and her friends grow up in this society and learn their powers like the other children. Unlike the others, though, Saki's group pushes the boundaries set by their elders. They manage to learn something of world history and the sometimes draconian methods used by their leaders in keeping society under control. But even those methods can't prevent every disaster.

A good chunk of the story revolves around an intelligent animal race called Monster Rats. They have no psychic powers, and treat the humans as gods. And the humans behave as such, putting restrictions and rules in place for the Monster Rat society. A small number of powerful individuals holding sway over a large population...nothing could possibly go wrong with that, right?

I really enjoyed the world-building of From the New World, and most of the mystery aspect of the story. There's several points where I thought the plot dragged a bit, and some of the interpersonal relationship stuff seemed awfully contrived to me. But those are fairly minor nitpicks, and overall the show kept me entertained and interested throughout.

K Project (anime)

The K Project anime series has a promising premise and themes, but doesn't do a very good job of executing on that promise.

In the world of the K Project, superpowers have begun to manifest in a small portion of the population. Most of that power is concentrated in a few individuals known as Kings, with a larger number of lowered-powered individuals forming clans around the Kings. The effect is limited to a small portion of Japan (for reasons made clear as the series goes on). The first season of the series focused on a murder mystery that leads to a conflict between Kings, while the second season expands to a larger conflict between more Kings. There's also movie in between that fills in some gaps between the two seasons.

The problem with the K Project, in my opinion, is that it constantly undercuts its own story and themes. The logic behind the Kings alone is inconsistent and confusing. There's mention of seven Kings, but the story never tells us who they all are. Each King is associated with a color and theme (red for chaos, blue for order, etc) but some don't seem to have a theme (like the Gray King) and one has no color. Supposedly the death of a King leads to a new King being chosen, but sometimes that doesn't happen for no apparent reason (such as the Gold King). Each King has a giant "sword of Damocles" that sometimes hangs in the sky above, which are never explained except that we know it's bad if they fall. There are several flashbacks that fill in some of the history leading to the Kings, but they leave so much out that it feels like we're only given a few random glimpses.

It's not just the Kings, either. The visuals are beautiful and largely take the subject matter seriously, but occasionally veer off into ridiculous fan service territory with panty shots and bouncing cleavage.  Serious themes like abuse of power and order vs anarchy are raised in the story, but they're used only as excuses to get clans battling rather than explored as complex issues.

There are some manga serializations and novels that are set in the same world. It's possible that the missing bits that I've mentioned above can be found there. If that's the case, I think they really should have somehow tied that into the anime - a simple mention of the manga stories in a post-credits scene would have sufficed.

The K Project isn't a bad series, but it could be much better in so many ways. There are better things out there to watch.

Macross Delta

Two and a half years ago, I watched a bunch of Macross shows (Plus, Seven, Zero, Frontier). Macross Delta came out shortly thereafter, which was the whole reason I'd watched the earlier ones, but I didn't have any way to (legally) see it and eventually I kind of forgot about it. Well, a friend finally got the series recently and I was able to watch it.

The first thing you noticed in Macross Delta is the two significant differences from other Macross series. Number one: Someone writing this series really likes the magical girl genre. There's a group of young women named Walküre that performs songs to combat enemies (this is standard Macross), who change outfits during songs and dance around the battlefield with some kind of rocket-dresses (this is definitely new). Think of the "magic" part as being singing and combat dancing, and this is pure magical girl style anime. Number two: The enemy sings too, and uses it as a mind control device. In prior series, the "magic" singing has always been the province of the good guys, using it to disrupt the enemy. Occasionally an enemy might convert a singer to their side (as in Frontier) but mostly it belongs firmly on the side of the hero(ine)s. This time, the enemies are on the offensive with their songs and our heroines are largely on the defensive.

The major differences end there, and the similarities to other Macross series are legion. Young "play by my own rules" pilot gets co-opted into military organization, check. Pair of ace pilots on each side meeting in battle after battle, check. Love triangle with singer girl and military girl after hotshot pilot, check. Giant transforming battleship with aircraft carrier arms, check. Three female bridge crew and a gruff old captain, check. Refugees in space fleeing from enemy assault, check. And so on and so forth.

I enjoyed the development of the enemies from Windermere, which are revealed very early on after just a few episodes. It seemed to me that the writers put quite a bit more effort into humanizing this enemy than in most of the earlier series. We see the events that shaped the Windermere leadership's aggression as the series progresses, and time is spent to develop characters for several of the Windermere fighters. It reminded me a lot of the way that the original SDF Macross series handled the Zentradi.

Other character development was all right, but nothing special. I'd have liked to see more interaction between Windermere fighters and the Delta squad, which didn't really happen until very late in the series. Mikumo's fate was telegraphed so much that it seemed anticlimactic at the end. And the reveal of the identity of "Lady M" was wasted, in my opinion, coming as it did as an offhand comment in one of the final episodes. Surely they could have milked that for a scene or two!

I kept watching Macross Delta in the hope that there would be some kind of interesting twist that set it apart from what one would expect in a Macross series. But that never really materialized. Those two major differences that I pointed out at the beginning are great, but they're also just about the end of the deviations from standard Macross. By the time the final episode rolls around, it's not hard to predict how true love will save the day from some terrible fate. Which is fine and all, but so predictable that it feels a bit disappointing.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Fullmetal Alchemist has been on my list of things to watch for a long time, because it's considered to be such a good series by most anime watchers. Turns out I am not most anime watchers.

There's two anime adaptations of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga. I chose the second, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, because some folks who had seen both told me that it was closer to the original material. I figured if I liked it, I could always watch the other one to see the differences.

The series starts off following two brothers, Ed and Al, who lost all or part of their bodies to an alchemical experiment. They're searching for a way to reverse the process and run into the usual assortment of roadblocks. It expands to include a huge cast of characters spread out over an entire country engaging in romance, politics, rebellion, pursuit of alchemical power at all costs, family arguments...a bit of everything.

I should say here that I understand why people like the Fullmetal Alchemist story. It's got drama and humor.  There's a character or two for everyone to like in the huge cast. It handles serious topics, such as ethnic genocide and dealing with lost loved ones. It builds up over 60+ episodes to a big final confrontation, exactly as you'd want to see from an epic fantasy storyline.

But...I just hated the style of the show. There's constant jokes about how short Ed is, along with various other recurring gags, which cease to be funny very quickly. Ed's awkward romance with a childhood friend is just painful to watch. Al has almost no personality of his own until very late in the series. The magic...er, alchemical...battles are incredibly cheesy. I'll give them one thing, at least the battles avoid the worst anime fighting trope of people screaming stupid fighting move names at one another. But I still couldn't really bring myself to care how over-the-top alchemical manipulation of rocks/fire/lightning/etc ended up knocking one person down. (Which is weird since I'm OK with cheesy battles in a lot of other series, but these just did nothing for me.) And worst of all, almost every episode has cartoon-style emotional explosions that take me out of any kind of narrative flow in those scenes.

So I just couldn't get into that good storyline because of the style. This is especially bad in the early going, the first 20 or so episodes, when the story is trying to build its foundations. It moves very slowly, the good and bad guys hardly ever meet one another, and the motivations of characters other than the brothers don't make much sense yet. So in that early going, you're left with mostly just the style...not good if you hate it.

I considered just stopping, but friends told me that it got better, so I persevered. And they were correct, because around the halfway point the story picks up significantly and is much more interesting. And yet, every time I started to get pulled into the story, some awful attempt at humor or annoyingly excessive battle sequence or character blowing their top in the middle of a conversation would show up and kill my interest. I did end up finishing the series, technically, but I was doing something else almost the entire time with the show just on in the background. I got the general gist of the story without focusing on every scene.

This series just fell flat for me. I suspect if I'd seen this back when it first aired almost 10 years ago, I might have felt differently, because I wouldn't have seen a whole lot of other anime with more palatable styles. But my tastes today just don't line up with what Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has to offer.

Grimoire of Zero

I'm not entirely sure why Grimoire of Zero was a fun watch, but I sure did enjoy it.

Grimoire of Zero is a very familiar story. It's a medieval world where magic is real, and our heroes are a mercenary fighter and a witch. They should be enemies, but find a way to work together. There's a girl disguised as a boy, witch hunts by ignorant/frightened people, and an evil mastermind. About all that makes this setup different from a thousand others is that the fighter is a beastman, but really any kind of defect/failing that made him a bit of an outcast from society would have worked just as well. And to be fair, the story in the last couple of episodes does veer a bit off the "defeat the evil mastermind" track.

Usually I don't really enjoy shows/books/etc that are very predictable or derivative. But something makes Grimoire of Zero work for me. I think most of it is the relationship between the main characters. It progresses from mutual suspicion to a business arrangement to respect to real friendship (with bumps along the way, of course). That relationship progression is still very predictable, but it's handled nicely and both parties are likable.

It also helps that Grimoire of Zero is well produced, with good artwork and voice acting. And there's very little fluff - at only twelve episodes, there's not a lot of room for anything that isn't part of the main story. There's some minor digressions in the usual anime way - jokes about food, annoying middle-school-level sexual innuendo - but they're short. I'm fairly sure I'd have liked it much less if there had been lots of filler, but keeping the storyline moving meant I didn't have time to lose interest.

If you like the sword-and-sorcery anime genre, it's worth giving Grimoire of Zero a try.

Princess Principal

Cold War-style spy adventures set in a steampunk world is a fine background, if not one that you'd expect from the title of Princess Principal.

The princess in the title is one of a group of five teenage girls who act as spies in London, which is a divided city much like real-world Cold War-era Berlin. She's fourth in line to the throne of one side, the Kingdom of Albion, but acting in cooperation with intelligence operatives of the other side, the Commonwealth of Albion.

The steampunk part of the setting comes from a substance called Cavorite, used to construct airships and generally used in miraculous machines. Including one that allows one of the girls to fly and do various other amazing feats. The world at large is at early 20th century levels of technology and culture, but those Cavorite-based machines are highly advanced. All of it is beautifully drawn - the artwork is top-notch, whether drawing steampunk tech or the rest of the world.

Once you get past the usual suspension-of-disbelief about very young characters doing all these crazy things (which is necessary to almost all anime series and almost second nature for me by now), the overall story and individual episode plots in Princess Principal hang together pretty well. I like the world design, and I found the world-building history aspects interesting. Each episode generally follows a single spy mission, always going wrong in some way, as one would expect from this type of premise.

Chronology in the series is a bit odd, with the timeline jumping around with each episode. First you see a mission with all five girls, then we jump back and see how four of them first met, then a few more missions, before finally meeting the fifth member. And so on, until the last few episodes finally wrap things up in order.

For such a short series (twelve episodes), the character design is very good. Each of the five girls has some time devoted to their individual stories. Character growth is a bit odd because of the jumps back and forth in time across the episodes, but you can definitely see changes as time progresses. And of course the story of the princess and her closest friends is a big part of the overall storyline.

I greatly enjoyed Princess Principal and wish it had been longer. I see they're planning a film series next year, which I'll definitely be looking for.

Orange (anime)

Orange is a high school romance series, which in itself is not usually something I'd watch. But it also has a time-travel hook, and deals with the subject of suicide and the regrets of those left behind. (Minor spoilers below, though I don't think they'd detract from anyone's enjoyment of the series.)

The time-travel bit is what drew my attention to Orange in the first place. A high school girl named Kaho gets a letter from her 10-years-in-the-future self, giving instructions about how to avoid the thing she most regrets. The mechanics of how the actual letter delivery across time happens are pretty weak, but that's not really the point. The focus is on what future knowledge does to her actions and relationships. (Note for those who aren't Japanese-literate: make sure you get version that has English translations of the letters. They're often just shown, not read aloud. Some English dubs don't have the written translations and that really detracts from this particular series. Personally, I think the sub-titles are better than dubs anyway.)

Just a few episodes in, it's revealed that future Kaho's main regret is the death of Kakeru, a new student in her class. At first they don't specify that it's a suicide, but I thought it was pretty obvious almost immediately. The rest of the series follows the efforts Kaho makes to change that future.

There's a lot of awkward teenage romance in Orange: Kaho and Kakeru, a triangle with her friend Suwa, interfering friends, and so on. The romantic tension is largely driven by how shy and easily embarrassed Kaho is. Not really my favorite thing, but it was worth tolerating for the other aspects of the show.

What I found most impressive about Orange was how Kakeru is portrayed. He comes from a broken home, loses his mother, and withdraws from personal relationships and activities (such as soccer club). He's depressed, blames himself for his mother's death, and eventually becomes suicidal. But he doesn't show any of this in day-to-day activities, continuing normal life right up into the end. In the original timeline, where the future letter originates, no one noticed and took action. That's a realistic portrayal of how suicide can happen - my family had a recent experience along those lines, and so this story really hit home.

In Orange, the future letter gives Kaho and her friends a chance to save Kakeru. There are some specifics in the letter, of course, but the most important thing is that they recognize his situation. Even when their actions have changed things so that the future knowledge doesn't make much sense in terms of specific events, the fact that they're aware of Kakeru's pain and depression puts them in a position to help. And that's what I hope people take from this story...that recognizing someone's suffering and doing everything you can for them can make a difference.

New Game!

New Game! is an anime series about a girl who gets her dream job as a video game character designer right out of high school.

The series follows Aoba Suzukaze, who is starting her first job at a video game company. She's working alongside the designer of her favorite games, learning the ropes as she goes along. We see the daily lives of Aoba and her co-workers as they proceed through the game development schedule.

Most episodes focus on one aspect or another of Aoba's adjustment to the working world. It was a bit nostalgic for me, watching her go through situations that I remember from my own first days in the workplace. Who hasn't locked themselves out of the office by forgetting their badge, or unknowingly caused trouble for another team because you didn't know the right processes to follow in your own work? The parts about over-working hit particularly close to home.

Pretty much every character in New Game! is female, which isn't uncommon in seinen manga and anime. There are some minor yuri references, but for the most part these are co-workers and friends, with no romance angle. The art style reflects that, with only minor fan service aspects. Very little in the series would have to change if they'd chosen to go all-male or mixed genders, which I appreciated. A sign of good writing, in my opinion, not relying on tired over-the-top sexual tropes for drama and humor.

I really enjoyed the initial set of twelve episodes. Later on, in the second set of twelve episodes, I felt that the quality went downhill a bit. The show began to feel repetitive, and very similar to other shows of the same type. The fan service was more pronounced, too, though still not anywhere near as bad as many other anime shows. I still liked it, just not quite as much in the second half.

Despite the weaker second half, I had a lot of fun watching New Game!. I'd be happy to see the creators do additional similar series.

Blood Blockade Battlefront

Blood Blockade Battlefront is an anime series about an alternate New York where a hole to another dimension has turned the city into a crossroads for all kinds of non-humans, mixing with the human population. A magical barrier keeps the intersection between our world and "Beyond" contained, preventing the two dimensions from destroying one another.

The protagonist in Blood Blockade Battlefront is Leonardo Watch, an unremarkable human except that his eyes have been replaced by a powerful artifact that lets him see nearly anything, no matter how well hidden or disguised. He got those eyes when an unknown entity took his sister's sight in exchange, and he's in New York looking for answers and to find a way to help her. Leonardo joins a group called Libra, a secret society that works behind the scenes to curb dangerous magic and non-human attacks. The other members are much more skilled in terms of fighting prowess, but Leonardo's vision is a huge asset in tracking down threats. He also meets a brother-sister pair who call themselves White and Black, who have a similar history to his own.

There's a good balance in Blood Blockade Battlefront between advancing the plot, developing characters, humor, and action. Some shows focus on one or two of those things largely to the exclusion of the others, and that can work fine, but I appreciate that the writers put the effort into using all those aspects. The humor in particular is often understated and dry, but fits in well, usually at the expense of one character flaw or another. Action encompasses not just fighting but also other scenes, like high-speed chases. Actual fighting is largely limited to the combatants shouting names of their "secret techniques" at one another. Not my favorite style, but it's not over-used here so I can put up with it.

Blood Blockade Battlefront reminds me a bit of Monogatari, in a few different ways. Both deal with confronting supernatural threats outside the public eye, use some pretty strange visual aspects, and have occasional weird perspective shifts. All of this is much less pronounced in Blood Blockade Battlefront than it was in Monogatari, though. The character types and development felt similar to me, too. However, there's no harem aspect and more action in Blood Blockade Battlefront, which is all to the good. If you liked Monogatari, there's a good chance you'll like Blood Blockade Battlefront too.

I enjoyed this first series of episodes for Blood Blockade Battlefront, and look forward to the second set later on this year.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. tells a story of politics, intrigue, and long-lost royal scions on a vaguely old-world-European fictional continent (shaped for some reason like a bird).

The series takes place in the kingdom of Dowa, which is divided into 13 territories which are mostly autonomous. An organization called ACCA provides most of the essential services in the entire kingdom, operating mostly independently of the monarchy. The main character, Jean, is an ACCA inspector who visits each of the 13 territories in the course of his job.

Each of the territories is a themed caricature - a desert region with only mining industry, a super-fertile region where everything grows to huge size, a Las-Vegas-like tourist region with casinos, etc. Much of this is just side flavor in the story, but two territories in particular have more significance. One is Furawau - a Middle-East-style region with large oil reserves, made very rich by that bounty of natural resource, and controlled by a single large family. The other is Suitsu, where travel restrictions and a very strict division between nobility and commoner have resulted in economically poor conditions and rebellion.

The story takes enough twists and turns that it's not easy to talk about it without spoilers, but it's probably no surprise to anyone that Jean gets caught up in intrigue that affects the entire kingdom. This takes the form of a coup, timed to prevent the ascension of a new ruler to the throne. Prince Schwann, the heir apparent, is dismissive of ACCA and plans to dismantle it. The powerful figures behind ACCA have no intention of going quietly.

In the last few episodes, particularly the last one, the path the story took isn't particularly credible. There are a lot of plot twists, which are very exciting but not very believable. Perhaps with a bit more explanation and/or groundwork to set up the sudden shifts, it would have felt more realistic. As it was, it felt like deus ex machina at the end.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. has some fairly pointed commentary on social and political systems. Condemnation of the restriction of freedoms in Suitsu is an obvious one. Strength through diversity is emphasized, as ACCA incorporates people and resources from all 13 territories. The dangers of autocratic rule is a central theme, both in terms of the kingdom monarchy and the hereditary control in Furawau and Suitsu. At the same time, there's a heavy emphasis on maintaining culture and tradition, exemplified by the fact that no one advocates actually overthrowing the monarchy - just replacing the prince.

There are some fairly silly side themes in ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., too. Many of the characters have a fascination with sandwich bread, which for some reason is only made in the Badon territory. Jean is a heavy smoker in a society where almost no one else smokes, and giving him gifts of territory-specific cigarettes becomes a plot device. These sorts of things add a lighter side to the series - silly, yes, but I think it mostly worked well to balance out the heavier intrigue plot points.

I thought ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. was reasonably good for a short series, despite what felt like clumsy writing in the plot twists at the end. Not bad if you like the intrigue theme.

Kado: The Right Answer

Kado: The Right Answer is a short anime series that takes alien invasion in a bit of an odd direction.

Kado starts with a giant cube-shaped alien artifact showing up on an airport runway and engulfing a jet and its passengers. Things progress from there through the usual panic, confusion, and eventually communication with an alien being (named Yaha-kui zaShunina). Over time, the plane passengers are all returned safely, but that's just the beginning of the alien encounter. Knowledge of huge scientific advancements follow, starting with unlimited clean energy, and quickly cause infighting among nations across the world. In the end, humanity has to deal with the zaShunina's real interests - I'm sure it's not much of a spoiler to say that it's not necessarily good for the humans involved.

The alien encounter here is framed as coming from higher dimensions, rather than life from elsewhere in our own universe. Not a new idea, but certainly less common than little green men or bugs or whatever from a distant star. The series uses some interesting visuals to emphasize the differences - for instance, zaShunina's arms aren't generally attached to his body and move independently, sometimes appearing and disappearing into thin air. There's also quite a lot of complex moving patterns used on the alien artifacts to give a sense of their strangeness and complexity.

Some of the usual themes in an alien encounter story are turned around in Kado. For instance, there's basically no secrecy involved - the media are fully involved at pretty much every step, at the insistence of zaShunina. He deals specifically with the government of Japan and shows no interest in other authorities, even when the United Nations gets involved. There's effectively no violence at all. The writers did a good job of making all these different themes work within the framework of an alien encounter.

This series moves along fairly slowly. It's only twelve episodes and about 4.5 hours long, and yet it still felt like the plot didn't progress much in places. I think the story could have fairly easily been put into a movie format rather than a series and been handled just as well. The extended time didn't bother me too much, though, since it gives the viewer some time to think about the various odd happenings.

The weakest part of Kado in my opinion is the ending. (Minor spoilers here but nothing too specific.) It turns out that zaShunina isn't the only alien being in the story, and in the end his plans are upset by cooperation between humans and that other alien. I thought the introduction of another non-human force felt contrived, coming into the story as late as it did. If they'd had some indication from the start that zaShunina wasn't alone, I think that would have worked a lot better.

Despite the weakness near the end, I had a fun time with Kado. Definitely not for the action lover or impatient viewer, but it brings up some interesting ideas and the production is excellent. Worth the short watch time if the concepts are at all interesting to you.

Terror in Resonance

Terror in Resonance is set in an alternate modern-day Japan where a series of terrorist attacks are being carried out in Tokyo. It follows the young terrorists and the detective hunting them, through the attacks and the discovery of the reasons behind them.

It's clear very early on in this series that the heroes of the story are the two young men who are carrying out the terrorist bombings. You don't learn their reasons until nearly the end, but even in the first couple of episodes it's clear that they're not out to do major harm. They're careful to avoid deaths and minimize injuries, and even help to stop one of the bombings when things go wrong. I don't think the writers intended to condone the use of terrorism, but it's certainly not painted as the ultimate evil that we tend to think of in the modern world.

The evil in this series comes largely from governments. The main detective character is an outcast with the police force, having previously been demoted for pursuing the wrong powerful government official. Secret government programs played a large role in our young terrorists' background. The United States sends an armed contingent to "cooperate" with the police, effectively taking over and making things quite a bit worse. The corruption of authority is overwhelming, leading to those terrorist tactics.

Considering how short the series is (only 11 episodes, about 4 hours), I thought the characters were fairly well developed. There's time to get a good feel for the two young men, a girl that they befriend along the way, and their detective pursuer. Most of the other characters have little depth, but that's not really an issue since they don't get a lot of screen time anyhow. The limited length of the series means that it stays focused on the main characters and key story elements without much in the way of tangents, which I appreciated.

The production quality of Terror in Resonance is solid, if not particularly eye-catching. This isn't a series with a lot of flashy action sequences, but what action there was worked well. The voice actors did a solid job, the visuals were well done, and the music was great. (No surprise there, music by Yoko Kanno.)

I was very impressed with Terror in Resonance. It may be short, but that's not a drawback in a series that has a well-crafted story to tell. Definitely worth the watch.

Active Raid

Active Raid follows a police unit in near-future Japan that uses personal robotic suits called Willwear. They're basically miniature mecha, taking on threats that largely come from misuse of technology.

Active Raid caught my eye primarily because it was broadly in the police/military genre, which I enjoy (one of the many reasons I'm a Ghost in the Shell fan). There are quite a few plot points that revolve around bureaucratic in-fighting, a staple of the genre. The unit members fit broadly into the usual stereotypes: techie handyman, calm but rule-bound fighter, info hacker, hot-headed fighter, and so on. The overall story progresses from seemingly unrelated crimes to tracking down a shadowy mastermind (twice, since it's broken into two seasons). I'd say the series does an adequate job of representing the genre, though nothing particularly new or exciting.

At first glance, Active Raid does very little to make it stand out from any similar series. A bunch of young officers are gathered in a special unit that takes on mecha...I mean, Willwear...threats. Just about every episode makes sure to spend time going through the Willwear-equipping process, making it look like a toy commercial. The villains are caricatures, from bank robbers to love-crazed idol fans. Fan service is minimal as far as these kind of series go, but certainly not completely absent. Not exactly breaking new ground.

That impression never completely goes away, but there's more to the series as it goes along. Quite a few contemporary societal issues are brought up, from government corruption to dealing with dementia to the dangers of widespread malware attacks. It's all done in a fairly light-hearted way, but it seemed clear to me that the writers wanted to give viewers something to think about beyond just the robot suits zipping around. You could pretty easily choose to ignore it, but those themes are there if you're inclined to consider them.

Active Raid is worth the time to watch if you're a fan of the police/military and/or mecha genres, as long as you don't mind that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's unlikely to change your mind if you don't particularly like those genres, though.

Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World

Last year, Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World was one of the more popular anime series to air. I caught up with it on Crunchyroll recently.

The series follows a boy named Subaru who is pulled from our world into a fantasy land. He welcomes the change and assumes he'll get fantastic powers like the stories he's read, but instead he remains basically himself. The only power he seems to have is that dying sends him back to a previous point in time, reliving hours or days, but he can't tell anyone about it.

I like those concepts - the involuntary time jumps, interesting fantasy world, a hero who isn't an amazing prodigy at combat. Through the initial discovery phase of the series, as Subaru learns about the world and figures out his time jumping power (or curse), it all works together pretty well. The way he manages to ingratiate himself to some fairly powerful people bends the limits of credulity, but that's not uncommon in these kind of stories.

Unfortunately, then the series bogs down. Entire episodes are spent largely listening to Subaru complain about how powerless he is. Characters that were central to early episodes disappear entirely, both friends and enemies, while others pop up almost at random. Even Subaru's main love interest Emelia is absent from large stretches of the series. Hard to do any real character development when everyone but Subaru is constantly fading in and out of the story. And very little progress is made on understanding mysteries that were introduced in the early going.

The last few episodes get back on track, for the most part. There's some moderately interesting action, particularly in the whale fight, and some of the problems laid out earlier are resolved. It still feels like quite a bit is left undone, though. Perhaps there's more complete resolutions in the manga, but in the anime the story feels unfinished.

I watched all of Re:Zero because of the interesting hooks - the time jumps, a comparatively weak hero, exploration of a new world. Sadly, the execution doesn't hold up to the promise. If the hooks sound like your thing, try it out; otherwise, you're probably better passing it up.

Magic Knight Rayearth

I've watched a good amount of anime over the years that falls into common archetypes. Magic Knight Rayearth is about as good an example of the "kids from the real world become heroes in a fantasy realm" archetype as you'll see. Which may make it sound derivative, but since it first aired in 1995, in many ways it staked claim to the archetype first.

The first season of Magic Knight Rayearth follows three girls who are pulled from Tokyo in our world into another world called Cephiro. In that world, magic is real and abilities are driven by willpower, which the girls conveniently have in plenty. They have various adventures around the world of Cephiro in a quest to become Magic Knights and save a princess, who can send them back to Tokyo.

The world of Cephiro as encountered by our heroines feels very much like a generic fantasy adventure. (At least, until the last couple of episodes, which introduce a twist that I haven't seen often.) Meet a mysterious mage, fight different enemies along the way to get magical weapons and/or training, go after mysterious big bad guy - it's all very familiar, not only from books and videos, but also games. Twenty years ago, though, that was new ground...or if not completely new, at least not as well-trodden as it is now.

I couldn't help making comparisons to other fantasy anime series that I've seen as I watched Magic Knight Rayearth. The fighting isn't all that different from something like Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne. Parts of the quest/adventure arc feel like Sword Art Online. The three girls each embody a character type that is repeated in all sorts of other series: headstrong fighter, proper and intelligent, hot-tempered but loyal. Even mecha make an appearance, albeit as magical spirits that take the form of giant armor-suits. It says a lot about quality, that a 20-year-old series did so many things that have worked well in later productions.

The production quality is limited in Magic Knight Rayearth because of its age, but I thought it was pretty good once you take that into account. There aren't any breathtaking visuals, of course, but considering its age the art isn't bad. The sound effects remind me more of 1980s cartoons than the 1990s, but that's probably just my memory of Voltron and Transformers using similar sounds.

The least impressive part of the series is the characters, in my opinion. The three heroes are over-the-top sweet and perky, the many enemies are consistently one-dimensional, and so are the various allies they meet along the way. The story progresses, but the characters don't really change. At least, not until the last couple of episodes, and perhaps character growth gets better in the second season (which I haven't watched).

Magic Knight Rayearth isn't for everyone due to its age, but if you're feeling nostalgic for a bit of anime history, it's worth a look. It does a lot of things that you'll recognize if you've seen just about any fantasy-world anime from the last twenty years.

Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers

Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers is a light anime series about six heroes chosen to defeat an evil Demon God. Unfortunately, it's not a particularly good example of the genre.

The setting for Rokka is a sword-and-sorcery fantasy world, where the human civilization is under threat from evil fiends. The male characters are warriors of various kinds, and the females are "saints" who have magical abilities over a specific domain. There are saints of mountains, blades, the sun, fog, etc. Six of the strongest fighters of both genders are chosen to be Braves by a goddess who marks them with a special flower tattoo. The Braves are destined to work together to defeat the leader of the fiends, the Demon God.

The series starts off with Adlet, the main protagonist, being arrested after interrupting a tournament. He claims to be the "strongest man in the world" and defeats the tournament contestants, but then is thrown into prison by the tournament organizers. After a lengthy prison stay, he is marked as one of the six Braves, as is the princess of those who hold him captive. Together they escape and start the journey to find the other Braves and enter the land of the fiends.

A few episodes in, the series changes direction pretty dramatically when the other Braves enter the story. Instead of an epic adventure battling fiends on the way to a showdown with the Demon God, the heroes are trapped in the area around a temple. There are seven with the mark of the Braves, though, not just six. The remainder of the series is devoted to discovering who is the impostor. That does eventually happen in the last episode, but then another marked person shows up. In the end, the whole group is finally moving toward the land of the fiends, but again with an extra (presumably traitorous) Brave.

I was not particularly impressed with Rokka. It doesn't seem to know what kind of story it wants to tell. First it's a unknown-warrior-makes-his-name type of grand adventure, then shifts to a kind of discover-the-traitor mystery, and in the end is set up to continue as a mix of both. There are bits of romance, flashy battles, humor, and intrigue mixed in - but none are explored in any depth.

The mystery aspect is unpredictable, but heavy-handed. Several characters seem like obvious impostor candidates at various points in the story, before some new bit of evidence shows up to change things around. A good mystery uses misdirection, but this one seems to just be throwing new information around whenever it needs to change the suspect.

The characters are mostly weak and uninteresting. Each is certainly unique, but only one really changes at all as the story moves on. That one is Flamie, who has some serious self-loathing issues and a death wish. That changes over time due to the efforts of Adlet and the power of love. It's a pretty weak execution of character development, and that's especially noticeable since none of the other characters have much depth at all.

It's pretty clear in the end that this was intended only as the first half of a longer series. Can't say I'm unhappy that the second half hasn't been made.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days

A lot is packed into the 90 minute running time of The Place Promised in Our Early Days. A bit too much, I think.

The movie takes place during the late teen years of three friends. Two boys, Hiroki and Takuya, are best friends who share curiosity about a far-off tower and a desire to fly there one day. A girl, Sayuri, joins the group when she and Hiroki develop feelings for one another, and she shares their fascination with the tower. They work together to restore an old airplane for the trip to the tower, are driven apart when Sayuri disappears without warning, but in the end regroup to complete the promised flight.

While following the lives of these three, the viewer learns that Japan is split in two in this world, divided into North (associated with the Soviet Union) and South (occupied by the United States). The tower is in the North, across the border from where the three friends are building their plane. Help with the project comes from a man named Okabe, who the boys know as a factory boss but is actually part of a underground liberation movement dedicated to reuniting Japan. A war develops between the two sides over the tower, and eventually Hiroki flies their restored plane to destroy it with a missile provided by the liberation group.

The reason the tower is such a flashpoint is that it is reaching out to parallel realities, and changing the world to match them. These other realities also make their presence felt through people's dreams, particularly those of Sayuri. When she disappears, we learn that she's fallen asleep, trapped in those dreams. For years, the effect is limited to a small zone around the tower while she remains asleep. As she begins to wake, the effect begins to widen. With Takuya's help, Hiroki takes her along on his flight to destroy the tower, completing her recovery.

That's a whole lot of different threads to follow, and the movie suffers a bit from lack of focus. It takes some work to keep track of everything that's going on. It's all interesting, but I think it could have been just as impactful without including quite so many different components. Either the divided-country or the parallel reality incursion aspect would have served as the large-scale conflict, for instance. Including both seems unnecessarily complex and introduces confusion, and a lot of questions on both fronts remain unresolved in the end.

Despite the extra complexity, The Place Promised in Our Early Days is at its heart a story of friendship and love. That aspect works well, though it could have been explored more fully. There wasn't really time, since so much is spent trying to explain the war and parallel universes. Considering those limitations, the characters are developed nicely and their relationships are clear. Hiroki's struggles when Sayuri disappears, his estrangement and eventual reconciliation with Takuya, and the pair's efforts to help Sayuri recover are all well executed.

At the personal level, The Place Promised in Our Early Days is a satisfying story, well worth watching. Just don't try to hard to understand everything going on around the central characters.

Erased

Erased tells the story of Satoru Fujinuma, a manga artist who occasionally has involuntary "revival" episodes where he repeats short periods of time. During those episodes, he can take action to avoid minor or major disasters. Then his most significant "revival" ever pushes him back eighteen years, with a chance to stop a string of serial murders at his elementary school. (Warning: Some spoilers below.)

That's a pretty interesting premise. I usually don't like time travel, because it's so easy to end up with a story that makes no logical sense, given the huge power that a time travel character has to work with. In this case, the involuntary nature of the "revival" power prevents that from being a significant factor. It's a little too convenient that Satoru ends up getting multiple chances to change the past, but that's a fairly minor quibble.

The story is largely a mystery-thriller, with Satoru working against an unknown killer to save the children that his future-informed-self knows are being targeted. Knowledge from the future only goes so far, though, as events change each time he does something different. Most of the series deals with his efforts to save Kayo, a girl who is isolated due to her abusive family situation and thus a prime target. Two (or three, depending on who you count) other victims are also saved, though that part goes by awfully fast compared to the time spent with Kayo.

Then things change entirely in the last two-and-a-half episodes, as Satoru meets the killer directly and changes the future significantly. There's one massive hole in the plot that was never explained to my satisfaction. This fifth-grade boy has discovered and thwarted a serial killer. The killer has the boy at his mercy, and appears to fully intend to kill him. We see the boy drowning with no one but the killer anywhere nearby. But somehow he survives (though in a coma), and we're never shown how it happens. The only explanation is that somehow the killer feels it's necessary that the boy lives, possibly because of a final shouted "I know your future" line as the water closes in. That just doesn't make any sense to me, even if you accept the "I need him alive" killer psychosis. Who cares about a dead kid knowing the future? He's out of the way now. Why the drowning in the first place, if the killer already knows he wants the boy alive? Why not lock him up in a basement or something? This sort of thing happens all the time in the sillier kinds of stories, I know. This one is supposed to be a mystery that makes you think, though, so it stands out as being poorly written.

That ridiculous bit aside, the wrap-up of the series isn't too bad. Everything turns out more or less for the best, with no one dead and the bad guy caught. The changed timeline is pretty rough on Satoru and his mother, but at least they stay alive and out of jail. It feels like a bit of a cop-out, though, with Satoru's miraculous survival. I think the ending would have felt much more complete as a story of sacrifice, where Satoru didn't escape, but the original victims were saved by his actions.

It's nice to watch a series that pretty much entirely avoids the most annoying anime stereotypes. There's no scantily clad girls, harem relationships, over-the-top emotional expressions, and so on. Big eyes are only for kids. In his adult time period, Satoru doesn't pursue the high school girl that he works with (despite multiple opportunities) until the very end when she's four years older. I appreciate not having to sit through all that.

Erased is a decent mystery story, despite the sub-par bits near the end. The characters are nicely developed, for the most part, and the production values are just fine. I think it's still worth watching, even if the ending isn't everything it could have been.

GATE

In GATE, a mysterious gateway opens in Japan that connects to a medieval fantasy world. An invading army of soldiers and knights complete with support from dragons and animal-men is beaten back, and eventually a force is sent through to the other side.

The idea of connecting our world to some other fantastic place isn't new by any means. It's pretty uncommon to set up the premise in the way that GATE does, though. There's no hiding the pathway in a wardrobe or a top-secret government facility. Everyone in the world knows about the existence of the gateway and that initial invasion. Anyone and anything that fits can go through - no dividing line between magic on one side and technology on the other.

Allowing that amount of freedom means that GATE has to confront some issues that you don't always see addressed under this kind of premise. The different types of power coming in direct conflict, for instance. When Japan sends the technologically advanced SDF through, they absolutely demolish the medieval conventional forces that try to repel them. There's some trouble when they run into a powerful dragon, though. When a demi-goddess shows up, it's fortunate for them that she's (mostly) friendly. This sort of thing is a non-issue if your premise doesn't allow technology and magic to co-exist, or severely limits their interactions, but GATE doesn't impose those kinds of limitations.

The SDF forces have to deal with learning everything in the new world: language, customs, politics, religion, and so on. Refugees fleeing difficult situations in the surrounding area come to them for help. There's pressure from back home, both in Japan's government and the international community. They have to address the difference in prisoner-of-war and refugee treatment standards. And so on. I appreciate the way that GATE deals with these issues rather than dodging them, for the most part at least. They don't always go into a lot of depth, but the writers at least try to give the viewer an idea of what's going on in each area.

The characters are a bit of a mixed bag. They're likable for the most part, provide plenty of comic relief, and several are moderately well developed. Most notably Itami, the protagonist SDF soldier, and the three girls from across the Gate that he befriends. Unfortunately, there's a lot of stereotypical anime harem in their relationship, which gets old fast. Particularly with Rory, the 900+ year old demi-goddess who looks about 14 and regularly comes on to Itami. I've seen worse, but it's still annoying to have to sit through that stuff. The goofy humor and sexual innuendo seems particularly out of place when other aspects of the show are addressing some serious issues like PTSD and mistreatment of prisoners.

There are also too many characters, particularly once you get about halfway through. The existing ones get less attention and the new characters feel like they've been added on just for the novelty value. For instance, a second elf girl is introduced and added to Itami's harem, eventually leading to a second fire dragon fight. Pretty everything in her side story felt like filler, time that could have been better spent on any number of other characters and story points.

On the whole, I really liked GATE, character complaints aside. The 24 episodes completed thus far tell a fairly complete story, but there's a whole lot of room to explore the world and the phenomenon of the gateway itself. I'd be happy to see it back for another season.

Leiji Matsumoto's OZMA

OZMA is a science fiction anime series set in a dystopian future on a mostly-barren Earth. Though with only six episodes and about two total hours screen time, it's really more like a movie than a series.

The story opens with some kind of abnormal solar activity causing the elimination of most life on Earth. Humans survive in two forms: genetically engineered "Ideal Children" and unmodified "Natura." Most of the world is a sandy wasteland, so people travel in sandships, which can submerge under the sand through special quantum drives.

The protagonist is Sam, a stereotypical brash-but-good-at-heart kid who is trying to measure up to the memory of his brother by pursuing the sand whale Ozma. In the process, he comes across Maya, an Ideal Child running from her siblings in the Theseus Army. Together with Sam's shipmates on the sandship Baldanos, they evade the Army, pursue Ozma, and eventually transform the world.

OZMA uses a good amount of submarine combat - well, actually, "sub-sand" combat - complete with torpedoes, active sonar pings, and depth charges. A good portion of several episodes is taken up with some tense hide-and-seek games between the Baldanos and Theseus Army ships. It's fairly well done, once you get past the quantum drive plot device that allows it all to happen.

By the end of the series, it's pretty clear that the story is a parable of sorts, warning against trying to use science to take the place of nature. The genetic manipulation that led to the Ideal Children is a failure, both because their bodies are breaking down and because they're unable to adapt to changing conditions as well as the Natura. Maya uses Ozma to restore the biodiversity of the Earth, effectively ensuring the end of the poorly-adapting genetically modified Ideal Children. The Natura survive, but are cautioned to live in harmony with the planet rather than dominate it.

OZMA isn't a particularly deep story, though it certainly does have a message. Regardless of how you feel about that, it's still a decently entertaining way to spend a couple of hours.