Katanagatari – Anime Review

Japanese Title: Katanagatari

 

Similar: Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit

Dororo

Mononoke

Samurai Jack

 

Watched in: Japanese

Genre: Historical Action Adventure Romance

Length: 12 episodes (double length)

 

Positives:

• Storybook art
• Whimsical score
• Fairy tale stories
• Fun main duo

Negatives:

• Drags at times

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Katanagatari is a series of fairy tale-like stories about a woman collecting the twelve “Deviant Blades” across Edo-era Japan (unaffiliated with the Bakemonogatari series – “gatari” means “story” in Japanese, so “Sword Story” in this case). This is based on real events from history, where a Japanese ruler would declare a “sword hunt” to confiscate all swords possessed by those not native to his territory, believing it would prevent them having the means to overthrow him. Togame, strategist to the shogunate, employs the help of Shichika, current master of the Kyotouryuu style that fights barehanded and turns the body itself into a blade.

The storybook art style is immediately striking and the only selling point I needed to try this anime (several readers have since requested it). One may think it cartoonish or that this is a small children’s anime, but children would find Katanagatari unbearably dull in truth. This is for a slightly older audience and the style fits the tone.

Despite the action sounding title, dialogue is the dominant form of this anime. Each episode is double length to fit the story associated with each sword in a single uninterrupted session. While I like this idea, I don’t feel each episode justifies the extra screen time, as it does drag often for a mere 12 episodes. A variable episode length would be better – I wish all series would do this, just like the variable length of book chapters. It took me a long time to finish this series (to be fair, life keeps getting in the way too). I recommend one episode per session. However, outside of that, I can’t present any other barriers to finishing the series. Katanagatari is a good anime.

First, the main duo is tons of fun. Shichika is muscle over brains taken to an almost extreme. “I’m bad at thinking” – his words. He’s also oblivious to how to treat Togame, the woman he claims to love. He’s humorously embarrassing. By contrast, Togame is all brains and no brawn. She’s a proper lady of good upbringing, unlike this hick country fella. Yet she trips on first meeting him. She talks too much, too many big words, is carried away with her monologues, and assumes other people’s answers only to realise she misheard a minute later. A perfect contrast to Shichika.

The meeting of this art style, whimsical score, and mystical stories reminds of fairy tales, as mentioned earlier, for which you need the right mindset. Each episode is about confronting an owner of one of these swords. Naturally, they are reluctant to relinquish their powerful weapons, so a conflict ensues. Sometimes it’s a typical action scene, though often there’s more thought to it, like a moral quandary or a puzzle to solve – as seen in fairy tales.

For example, one wielder is the last swordsman in a fallen kingdom swallowed by sand. He sits in a room in the castle with his sword at the ready, capable of slashing faster than light at anyone who dares enter. If you think logically, this falls apart. How does he eat? Go to the bathroom? Why don’t they fire a cannon from outside behind him? Those aren’t questions for this type of story. In Little Red Riding Hood, you don’t worry about how the hell a wolf could ever pass for an old granny. Approach Katanagatari with that mindset and you will have a good time. I mean, one guy punches with his guns. Need I say more?

Why is it okay to ignore those questions here but not in, say, Sword Art Online 2, you may ask? No story can encompass everything, account for every possibility, or factor in every detail from reality. Would make for rather boring stories. Instead, stories choose what focus on and the style in which to deliver the message, the morality, the character study, the action – whatever. Weak stories will either execute this vision poorly or sometimes not account for something that within the logic of its world breaks the story. Sword Art Online is garbage for many reasons, but the sword versus guns problem is idiotic because if a sword is so effective and bullets are so slow, why would anyone ever choose a gun in competitive play? By the logic established within that world, no one would use a gun.

Thankfully, Katanagatari isn’t Sword Art Online.

Overall Quality – High

Recommendation: Watch it. Katanagatari is unexpected in style and execution and I recommend it taken one episode per session. Cheerio!

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Awards: (hover over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)

Positive:

Negative: None

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic – Anime Review

Japanese Title: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic

 

Related: Magi: The Kingdom of Magic (2nd season – included in review)

Similar: Fullmetal Alchemist

The Twelve Kingdoms

Fairy Tail

 

Watched in: Japanese & English

Genre: Action Adventure Fantasy

Length: 50 episodes (2 seasons)

 

Positives:

• Arabian setting is a little different

Negatives:

• Arabian setting is superficial
• First year university understanding of politics and economy
• Sleazy

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Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic takes the typical action adventure fantasy of anime and wraps it in an Arabian skin. Before every fantasy was isekai, they were of the swords and sorcery variety, with authors taking the formula but applying one twist to make it different. Much like the many isekai skins of today, the Arabian theme here is superficial at best.

Scattered throughout the world of Magi are towers that dominate the landscape, each containing labyrinths of danger with untold treasures at the end. It is said these are the works of djinns, magical beings that grant the power of kings to those found worthy. Aladdin is a young magician in possession of a magic flute that can summon one such djinn. He teams up with Alibaba, a street rat with the daring required to delve deep into the labyrinths, and Morgiana, a slave girl turned warrior.

I said the Arabian theme is superficial because Magi still feels very Japanese. I don’t mean this is too much of an anime – that is self-evident and expected. There is little to no Arabian culture in the series beyond the aesthetics and character names. If you re-skinned the art to a Japanese setting and changed the names, you wouldn’t know it was once Magi. Even the music has little Arabian influence. It feels as though the author saw a couple of cartoon films in this setting and then set about writing the series. When using a different setting and culture, the most appealing aspect and what should be a unique selling point is how it will stand out from its peers. Ultimately, Magi feels the same as most fantasy anime from its time.

So, what about the rest of it? How does it fare as a fantasy anime?

The characters are of mixed quality. Alibaba is decent and works as the adventurous hero, though his arc and power curve flies off the tracks in the second season (more of a story issue, however). Morgiana is decent as well in the role of tough girl, as informed by her rough backstory, but with a good heart that cares for her friends.

The worst character is Aladdin. When he isn’t the stereotypical “genki” kid, he’s groping women, something that happens every second episode. I think it’s meant to be hilarious and “cute.” “Oh look, he’s grabbing my breasts. Isn’t that adorable?” says the adult woman about a child. It’s so sleazy. Doesn’t add anything either and goes out of its way to waste cels. The one time it works is in the first episode when he motorboats a fat guy’s moobs, thinking they belong to a woman. But they open with that joke, so there’s nowhere to go.

On an action front, expect the usual anime adventure fantasy. The magic system is straightforward and forgettable, though not a hindrance to the overall experience. Going back to the flimsy Arabian inspiration issue, they could have done so much more to make the magic and monsters engaging. I can’t imagine most anime fans have seen much Arabian mythology, so this would be an easy opportunity to stand out from the crowd. Think of something like Yokai Watch, which draws on an insane amount of Japanese monster lore to create its Yokai. And that’s a show for young children. If only Magi had a tenth the effort in use of lore.

Similarly, the story also follows a typical anime adventure fantasy, not that this is inherently a negative. It’s all in the execution. Unfortunately, Magi doesn’t deliver with wit and cunning. Expect some Picard facepalm-inducing moments. I’ll mention one that made not just single facepalm, but pull out the double Picard. At some point, a character abolishes a monarchy in this world in a few minutes with promises to distribute all wealth as if that will solve everything. No, this isn’t some populist ploy to cajole the citizenry into doing what he wants. The writing presents this as a genius move. Why haven’t we done this in real life? It’s so obvious! I usually find this sort of nonsense in YA fantasy with a lowborn female protagonist (she’s secretly special, of course) that has two princes chasing after her skirt. The politics and social side of Magi is far weaker than the action side.

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic is fine, but a little too stupid to appeal beyond the core. Fullmetal Alchemist was clearly an inspiration and Magi could have learned a thing or two from it.

Overall Quality – Medium

Recommendation: For action fantasy fans only. Unless you have exhausted the long list of superior fantasy anime above Magi, then give this one a miss.

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Awards: (hover over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)

Positive: None

Negative: None

Redo of Healer – Anime Review

Japanese Title: Kaifuku Jutsushi no Yarinaoshi

 

Similar: The Rising of the Shield Hero

Goblin Slayer

 

Watched in: Japanese

Genre: Adventure Fantasy Harem

Length: 12 episodes

 

Positives:

• Nothing

Negatives:

• Everyone is a rapist
• Presents a rapist and sadistic protagonist as the good guy
• Garbage animation and visuals
• Moronic character logic
• Mary-Sue protagonist and deus ex machina every episode
• Bad acting
• Inciting plot makes no sense

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Imagine taking The Rising of the Shield Hero and somehow making it ten times worse than it already is. Your result is Redo of Healer. Where to start?

Redo of Healer follows the incomprehensibly stupid story of Keyaru, a healing Hero who somehow gains the ability to time travel. He goes back to before the princess recruited him into her party to heal other Heroes and her powerful allies. Healing someone in this world causes the healer to experience the patient’s mental pain in seconds, so he refused to use his power again. However, the princess couldn’t accept this and locked him in the dungeon, where she turned him into a drug addict, sex slave for anyone in her circle, and torture victim. He would heal in exchange for drugs.

Right, so now that you have the backstory, let me describe what happens after he time travels. He goes back to before the princess recruits him into her party to heal other Heroes and her powerful allies. He accepts the invitation. Healing someone in this world causes the healer to experience the patient’s mental pain in seconds, so he refuses to use his power again. However, the princess doesn’t accept this and locks him in the dungeon, where she turns him into a drug addict, sex slave for anyone in her circle, and torture victim. He heals in exchange for drugs. Am I repeating myself?

That’s correct, he time travels only to choose to go through the same slavery and torture. Now, listen to this galaxy brain explanation. He repeats the same ordeal so that he can somehow absorb people’s memories, talents, and powers with a second of contact via his healing…

Yes, he refuses to do the job for which he’s hired…so that he can be tortured into doing the job…which he needs to do to steal everyone’s minds and abilities. If you can steal with one second of healing, why not go along with the job and steal what you need within a few days? Don’t even need to heal – just shake hands! And to think this stupid is just the first two episodes.

The actual reason for this repeat (apart from the author’s utter incompetence, of course, which we’ll take as a given throughout) is so that you can see what they do to him as a means of justifying all of the depraved things Keyaru will carry out in return, presenting him as some sort of good guy.

After he somehow breaks free of the addiction, he somehow shapeshifts himself to look like a royal guard and for the royal guard to look like him. This gets him close to the princess, after which he rapes and tortures her before changing her face, somehow erasing her memory, giving her a new personality, and having her “willingly” become his sex slave. He sets out with her on a quest to rape and torture everyone who wronged him. Our hero, everybody. And yes, Redo of Healer genuinely tells you that he’s a good guy and you are expected to agree with him.

Next he buys an underage wolf-girl slave, who he somehow strengthens with his semen (I’m not making a joke) and turns her into a sex slave. You may be noticing my overuse of the word “somehow” in this review. That’s because there is no explanation in relation to this guy’s endless powers. He can time travel, heal any injury in a split second (includes full regeneration), steal powers, steal talents, read minds, erase minds, rewrite personalities, shoot magic cream, move so fast it seems like teleportation, resist any poison, display strength beyond anyone, shapeshift himself, shapeshift others, copy any voice, give anyone any voice,  perform “alchemy” (it’s nothing like alchemy; they just call it that), make any potion, change his blood into magic, and mind control others, to name a few. He has whatever dumb power the author wants for the idiotic scene we are about to witness.

All of the girls he enslaves, rapes, or tricks throw themselves at him, fulfilling the fantasy of a rape victim falling in love with her rapist. It’s weird to see someone write self-insert fantasy with them as a rapist (of innocent people as well).

Oh god, I just recalled his “genius” strategies. This tries to present them as grand plans you’ll never see coming as he grins like a cocky mastermind, but they’re so obvious that you don’t realise you’re meant to show shock at the big reveal. Redo of Healer so desperately wants to be fantasy Code Geass.

Even if you remove the depravity – let’s suppose they only imprisoned him and forced him to heal, and his heal power just turned deadly instead – it is still a garbage anime. Why would the princess treat the most important person on her team this way? How can she be surprised when he betrays them in the big battle? The antagonists are laughable. They are evil for evil’s sake and like to make others suffer for whatever reason. No depth. With such evil people in charge, the kingdom would have collapsed decades ago.

The harem girls are vapid morons and useless when he can use any power he wants. The dialogue is as well written as this anime’s title. There are also random video game elements – as if the clichés couldn’t stop coming – like RPG stat wheels when he scans someone (another power). This author wanted you to know this series is garbage.

Now that I think about it, what was the point of the time travel? He puts himself through the same thing again, so why bother with the time travel angle. Could just have him learn this corrupted healing out of spite brewing in the dark damp of the dungeon and then he takes his revenge. It isn’t like Erased or Steins;Gate, where knowing the timeline matters to the plot.

Lastly, it goes without saying, but this anime looks and animates terribly, the performances are poor and the only above bottom tier music is the OP and ED, which don’t fit the tone anyway.

I don’t object to Redo of Healer for the depravity or incel-like thinking. There are far more depraved “connoisseur animations & Japan comics” out there for those interested. I don’t advocate banning it either. It’s just shit no matter how you slice this turd.

Overall Quality – Very Low

Recommendation: Avoid it. Redo of Healer is a school shooter’s manifesto.

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Awards: (hover over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)

Positive: None

Negative: 

Dr Stone – Anime Review

Japanese Title: Dr Stone

–

Related: Dr Stone: Stone Wars (season 2 – included in review)

Dr Stone Season 3 (TBR)

Similar: Log Horizon

Cells at Work

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Ascendance of a Bookworm

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Watched in: Japanese & English

Genre: Adventure Comedy Science Fiction

Length: 35 episodes (2 seasons)

–

Positives:

• The science focus is fun and different
• Commits to the premise
• Protagonist and antagonist

Negatives:

• Female character designs are weak alongside the males
• Drags at times

(Request an anime for review here.)

Are you tired of battles in your shounen anime? Has Mr Young Hero pulled out a few too many new super techniques in the middle of a fight for your liking? Has your shounen been too shounened? Then science is your answer! Dr Stone takes the typical shounen style and substitutes battles for science.

After a mysterious green light leaves humanity petrified in stone, teen whiz kid Senku awakens millennia later as an unknown fluid de-petrifies him. The world he once knew has long vanished under the unrelenting might of nature. If he revived, then everyone could come back. He makes it his mission to bring all seven billion people on Earth back to life with the power of science!

Unfortunately, he’s a weakling and can’t lift a pebble to save himself. So, he first revives his friend from the old times, Taiju, a guy perfectly suited to grunt work. Sturdy back, simple brain. All seems to go well until the wildlife sniffs manflesh and attacks the pair. Senku revives the one guy he knows able to fight lions with his bare fists – Tsukasa, “The Strongest High School Primate.” This “teenager” is equally strong in muscle and conviction. While he does save them, he disagrees with Senku’s notion that all of humanity is worth saving. His philosophy is that adults had screwed up the world before and this was a chance to fix it without them. A rift forms, and as Senku tries to revive adults, Tsukasa is shattering them to pieces.

The pressure is on in a battle of science versus muscle. And what of these other people already alive in the world? Did some resist the light?

(Fun fact: There has never been a moment when all of humanity was on Earth together since 31^st October 2000, after the first set of astronauts set off for the International Space Station. The ISS has had a crew aboard ever since.)

The “what if” presented pulls you in immediately. I love the progression from one invention to the next, as if following a tech tree in an RTS. Dr Stone is over the top. But it’s over the top in the right way, as it commits all marbles to the bet. If it had been more serious, then the silly shounen side would have been farcical by comparison. Everything commits.

You do have to not think about the petrification part too much. There are holes even by the show’s logic. It glosses over the rather convenient solution to broken statues, for instance. Similarly, the science is simplified to varying degrees. The principals, formulas, and ideas are sound, but the process is like those drawing guides that go from two ovals with sticks in one step to a fully detailed horse in the next image. The author paid more attention to accuracy in chemistry than he did to biology and physics (shounen physics still prevail here). Once you roll with it, Dr Stone is a fun anime! And it’s different from other Shounen Jump offerings. I never felt like I was watching the same thing, yet again, from adaptations out of that magazine.

Dr Stone is still very much a shounen in spirit though. Grandstanding, ridiculous proclamations, reality-breaking abilities, shouting for dialogue, and that hyper shounen aura abound in this adventure. This isn’t a science documentary.

The main turn off I could see for viewers once latched onto the initial premise would be the science/experimentation segments. They are the equivalent to shounen training episodes, though learning about chemistry is far more interesting than seeing a ninja repeat the same action a thousand times. I had watched the first season when it was current in 2019; however, the season was mostly an incomplete building up towards the grand conflict with Tsukasa. See, if the first big battle was just another shounen battle, then Dr Stone would have been a waste of time. The 11-episode second season caps the arc to a satisfying point. Looking back over the total 35 episodes, I think this arc could fit in a single season were it not for the aforementioned drag during the science sections. An alternative is to extend the runtime a little, cut back on some of the experimentation, and break it up with more character work. The science over punching approach is fun – I love it – but everything needs the right pace. Being able to binge the series now does alleviate the problem a little. The cast also outgrows the character development available. At least three-quarters of the cast is comedic relief with singular personality quirks, many of them blending into a forgettable blur.

On the other hand, Senku and Tsukasa receive plenty of development and make for good leads. That said, even they could have done with more interaction to explore their ideologies in greater depth (we see plenty of their ideologies in isolation, but not enough in opposition on screen together). The more important support characters are also quite good. Once you hit tier three importance, then we meet the blur.

We see this degradation in character designs as well, where the tier one and tier two (most of them) characters have fantastic unique designs that lean into the hyper energy, while everyone else – particularly the girls – are bland, even off-putting.

My headcanon on the character design meeting:

“Artist, you know that You-Gee-Oh kid? Give me his vegetable cousin. He will make for a mighty protagonist!”

“Oh venerable author, what of the girls?”

“Eh, don’t care. Just make sure their eyes are too far apart half of the time.”

I still enjoy Dr Stone and will be watching the next season, so I do recommend it to just about anyone who doesn’t hate shounen energy. It does help to go in knowing the contents and setting expectations accordingly.

Overall Quality – High

Recommendation: Try it. Dr Stone may be shounen anime to the core, but the focus on science over action has it stand out from peers and deliver something fun.

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–

Awards: (hover over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)

Positive: None

Negative: None

Deca-Dence – Anime Review

Japanese Title: Deca-Dence

 

Similar: Gurren Lagann

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet

Zegapain

 

Watched in: Japanese

Genre: Action Adventure Science Fiction

Length: 12 episodes

 

Positives:

• Good animation
• The contrast between the two realities makes for something different

Negatives:

• Story has a negative gradient of engagement
• The end is particularly flat and convenient

(Request an anime for review here.)

Deca-Dence is an anime original series that hooks readers with an unusual, easy to grasp premise. The last of humanity lives on a mobile fortress called Deca-dence that roams the land in search of monsters to hunt, their blood a valuable resource. Warriors that fight these monsters are the Gears, most of them alien. Humans, for the large part, work as maintenance and hospitality crew referred to as Tankers. Tanker girl Natsume dreams of rising up to become a Gear, but the system seems stacked against her and denies her at every turn.

Little does she know that the system is in fact against her. Against all humans. Deca-dence and its adventures are actually a playground for cyborgs to fight monsters via humanoid avatars like some video game. The monster blood is worth points and extends cyborg life. High rankers receive handsome rewards. Furthermore, the whole “game” and every human within it belong to a giant corporation. This is Mortal Engines meets The Truman Show.

The reveal of the second reality with cyborgs is jarring if going in blind, as I did, for the visual styles of the two worlds are vastly different. The game world looks normal, albeit barren and grimy, whereas the cyborg world is out of a children’s morning cartoon. We don’t see the latter until episode two. I thought I had changed anime.

This is a good hook for the story and offers many questions that the audience wants answered. Who are these cyborgs? What do they really want? How did the world get this way? Is Deca-dence the only fortress? What’s with the mega corporation? Natsume is found to be a bug in the system, unaccounted for in the corporation records – but how? Will her exterminator friend delete this bug? And of course, we have the usual questions surrounding a dystopian world and its society. So many questions. So many possibilities.

It saddens me to report that the setup is the high point of the series and the story only declines in quality by the episode. The ending, most of all, is weak. For this sort of world, this sort of story with these themes you can’t settle on a utopian conclusion. Since I don’t want to spoil any more, I’ll use a parallel. This ending is like making a WW2 film, but once the Nazis are defeated, there is no other conflict to resolve or logistics to deal with (such as assisting all the homeless civilians). I’m not suggesting your story has to deal with them, yet you can’t pretend they don’t exist. Solving one problem doesn’t magically fix everything.

It’s more than that, however. The answers to those aforementioned questions – what questions they do answer – are frankly predictable and too normal. Deca-Dence is a slowly deflating balloon.

The characters are quite good, Natsume being a fun underdog easy to cheer for. Even so, the story doesn’t take them to interesting places as the themes dwindle to embers.

Deca-Dence never reaches a bad point. At no stage do I think, “This is so stupid.” It’s simply…mediocre.

Overall Quality – Medium

Recommendation: Try it, though I am hesitant to suggest even that since the start is the best part of Deca-Dence and doesn’t follow through.

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Awards: (hover over each award to see descriptions; click award for more recipients)

Positive: None

Negative: None