2014 Anime Retrospective, part 2 -- Spring

Hoo boy, spring season. You had a lot.

Spring is typically one of the two seasons where projects that people think will do better than others tend to get put out. Spring 2014 certainly had its fair share of hard hitters, but it had its own select set of misfires at the same time. There's a lot to talk about here so let's not waste any more time.

The format here is the same as my winter article, but with a few of the shows that continue into summer, I'll be talking about them in full here. There will be a short list at the end of the article with the shows I dropped or haven't finished with some stray notes on them.

The World Is Still Beautiful

     This show was not on my radar in the slightest before beginning the season. Once I looked into the premise, I thought that I might as well check it out. After all, I'm a fan of shoujo, fantasy-politics stories, and good ol' fashion romance. To my surprise, the show worked with all of these elements to mixed degrees to create an overall pleasant experience.

     The most important thing that works in The World is Still Beautiful is the dynamic between Nike and Livi. Both of these characters get firmly established very early on in the series, already being strong, flawed characters even by episode three. Their relationship continues to develop from there, and despite being somewhat of a Beauty and the Beast-esque romance from Nike's perspective (mostly because Livi can be temperamental and terrifyingly cruel as a king), both characters end up changing and becoming better people due to each other. Honestly, these two characters are what the show is about and I'm glad that the show focused almost exclusively on them in terms of character development, as it emphasizes their connection, making it feel more genuine and heartfelt as more emotional beats occur later in the series.

     My major complaint with The World is Still Beautiful, however, comes from the rushed final few episodes. Without spoiling anything, what were normally comedic characters get rushed into a serious plotline that endangers Nike, and it doesn't feel nearly as developed as it should be to elicit some of the emotional reactions towards the end. There's also the insert song that Nike sings, which I eventually got sick of due to the fact that it's a pretty corny pop ballad.

     At the end of the day, though, there isn't really as much to say about this show that doesn't boil down to “watch it for the engaging, well-written leads”.

selector infected WIXOSS

     Oh boy, I get to talk about WIXOSS now. Cue my everlasting hype.

     Sarcasm aside, I think it's safe to say that I had no idea what to make of my expectations for this show when it first came out. The biggest red flag for it was the fact that it was a tie-in to an upcoming card game. I don't necessarily mean that product tie-ins can be bad (I really enjoy stuff like Wake Up, Girls! and Love Live, for instance), but that initially tempered my expectations on it. I then saw that Mari Okada, one of the most prolific writers in anime, was working on it. To say she's had a mixed track record is understatement. She has worked on some shows I really enjoyed, such as Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, Toradora!, Hanasaku Iroha, Gosick, Wandering Son, and Red Garden. On the other hand, she has written some shows I can't stand, like Vampire Knight, Black Rock Shooter, Black Butler II, Kodomo no Jikan, and others. Her writing tends to involve a lot of big emotions and often those big emotions come out of small situations. Essentially, she engages in melodrama. Given her mixed track record, where does WIXOSS fall in?

     Well, I'd hate to break it to you, but selector infected WIXOSS really is one of her worst shows.

     Part of the problem is a bigger problem among the industry, which is that whenever something is a major hit, other committees try to capitalize on that success with their own version of the same project. Similar to how Evangelion had many imitators spawn from it, we are now seeing this with Madoka Magica imitators. The main issue here is that people seem to grasp the artistic potential of scenarios like Madoka, but fail to actually deliver anything artistic in their message. A lot of the characters in WIXOSS suffer cruel fates, and there is no pathos behind making these girls cry and suffer. Many of the situations come off as, “You shouldn't have fallen in love with your brother!” or, “You shouldn't be such an ugly person on the inside!” or, “You shouldn't have tried to make friends!”. There are semblances of messages here, but they lack anything when you try to dig even a bit below the surface, which makes the show come off as needlessly cruel.

     At least the backgrounds are super pretty?

     Yeah, unless someone pays me a bunch of money, I don't think I'm going to watch its second cour, selector spread WIXOSS. Once was enough, I want off.

Mekakucity Actors

     Mekakucity Actors, like many Shaft shows, is a hard show to describe. Given the fact that the show attempts to operate on many different levels of odd in terms of its stylistic choices, I can't help but commend it for that. At its core, the show is about many things: death, acceptance, learning to move on, finding your place within a group of fellow outcasts. There is the potential for emotional resonance here.

     Such a shame that the presentation is convoluted to the point of almost making it not worth it. Almost.

     Part of me feels as though the messy nature of Mekakucity Actors makes it a show that was difficult to sit through week to week but would make more sense when watching it in a marathon. There's a lot of parallels and weird timeline shenanigans going on throughout the show, so it's easy to lose track of what is actually going on. Part of me also feels as though the show works due to this; it's intentionally trying to shock and confuse you, and that's supposed to make everything resonate more. It doesn't ultimately succeed at that for me, but that's the case with most of Shinbou's style being confusingly condensed into these stories adapted from Vocaloid songs over the course of 12 episodes.

     I wish I could be nicer to this show, as I did actually ultimately like the end product, but I would have liked someone other than Shinbou to have worked on this. His style made things ultimately too convoluted.

     But hey, some neat shots came out of this. Might have to look at sakuga sites later for some extremely neat ones.

Chaika -The Coffin Princess-

     Chaika? Yes, Chaika.

     Everyone's favourite frankenmoe character first crossed our collective consciousness during the spring season this year, and I was pretty hooked from the beginning. It was fantasy that was okay with just being fantasy, no major dumping of expository world-building, casual mentioning of how the world worked so the viewer could actually piece together the setting themselves, some fantastic fight choreography (that fight with the unicorn in episode one is still one of the best fights I've seen all year), and charming characters. The fact that there were light novel tropes didn't really bother me, since they all seemed to not be played straight when they were utilized.

     There's not a whole lot to say about Chaika in great detail; the characters are engaging and entertaining, the action is fantastic, the fight choreography has a lot of weight to it, and the fantastical setting was easy to get lost in. There's nothing deep or even original about Chaika, it's just well-executed fantasy fare.

Kamigami no Asobi ~Ludere deorum~

     Why yes, I actually watched this one all the way through.

     It's an otome game adaptation that's adapted pretty normally; multiple routes explored, one true route at the end, resulting in the finale that's gloriously over-the-top and was shown in episode one...there's not much to say here. It had some gorgeous art yet static direction. Gorgeous art yet shallow characters. Gorgeous art yet bad music. Gorgeous art yet predictable plots in the routes.

     ...yeah, the art was pretty and sometimes the anime boys took their shirts off. I can indulge in fanservice, too!

Ping Pong the Animation

     This show is definitely one of the big critical darlings of 2014. It should be no surprise to anyone who knows me that I enjoyed Yuasa's latest outing.

     The story tackles one of the most important things about engaging in a hobby: why do you do it? What do you get out of it? What is the point? In the case of Ping Pong, the answers are pretty simple but definitely not straightforward. Much of the show is spent from the perspectives of our main leads, solidifying their odd friendship and own motivations behind playing the game. That's one of Yuasa's strengths to me, is his ability to get inside the character's head and show us their inner workings in relation to the world around them. This leads to not only some interesting shots but more detailed looks at character psychology than I feel like most other writers would give them.

     As a piece of animation for animation's sake, even, there's a lot of wonderful shots in Ping Pong that accentuate the exaggerated humanity of Yuasa's style. Assuming you like Yuasa's typical style, it's wonderful to see it in full flux in a TV show again. It's wonderful to see what's ultimately a small story get this kind of wonderful animation, and Yuasa's perspective on both animation and writing gives it a human edge.

     I have much more that I could say about this show, but I feel like I could write an essay on it upon a rewatch.

Nanana's Buried Treasure

     Who knew that complex character relationships and loyalties, with betrayals abound, could be so boring?

     On paper, Nanana's Buried Treasure even sounds like a light novel. Ghost girl giving clues to the protagonist? Check. Typical light novel character tropes in place of actual characters, including tsunderes, lolis, horrible crossdressing jokes, etc.? Check. A plot that's too convoluted to make any sense and doesn't have any real stakes? Check. Well, that describes the show to a T, but I'm going to go a little further to describe my specific problems.

     This show could have been interesting, as it sets itself up as a treasure-hunting adventure story filled with potentially neat puzzles that the characters do have to occasionally struggle their way through. As the show goes on, this element gets less and less, instead focusing on the web of each characters' motivations and loyalties, as everyone has a different purpose in the end and could flip on each other at the drop of a hat. Again, this would be a lot more engaging if the show was more interested in developing each part, in having the characters actually developed so the viewer can get invested before throwing in every little bit of double-crossing.

     There's also the fact that Nanana's Buried Treasure often just fails to leave an impression. There are fleeting moments that I enjoyed, such as the hot springs water puzzle and the maze that constantly needed to be reformed, but those are very small bits of a show that I otherwise remember not too much about. It's not bad, it's just a show that never really popped back up on my radar once I was done.

Mushishi -The Next Passage- (Mushishi Zoku Shou)

     The first cour of Mushishi -The Next Passage- came rather unexpectedly, after a 45-minute OVA earlier in the year and the original series premiering back in 2005. Nine years later, we see a split-cour second season that is just as good as the original, if not even better, exemplifying what Mushishi does right.

     There are plenty of tales in Mushishi that can be seen as standalone folk tales or parables, usually with a message towards the end or painting a situation with different complex sides. Given the nature of the show, all of the stories are supernatural but what each tale ultimately does depends on the context of the episode. There are horror stories, tales of love with happy endings, bittersweet dramas, or situations that examine why things go as wrong as they do. Being an episodic series, Mushishi has very little interconnectivity, which means you only need to know the base premise of the show before going in, which is as simple as reading a synopsis of the show. There are more episodes later into the season that deal with Ginko, our protagonist, but those can still have a lot inferred through the episodes themselves are work as standalones.

     Part of Mushishi's appeal also lies in its slow, delicate, and gorgeous animation. Every little movement in this show feels deliberate, and it takes director Hiroshi Nagahama's slow style and shows how each little thing counts, letting the viewer take in every bit of every shot. It never feels overwhelming, though; on the contrary, Mushishii is an episodic show that captivates the viewer and in some circumstances can envelop them so warmly that it can drift them into slumber once the episode concludes with a calm, ambient credit roll. I watched the first season over a prolonged period of a few months due to watching only one episode before bed, and I find myself doing that while watching The Next Passage every week. It's soothing while not necessarily being overly relaxing.

     I can't really sing the praises of Mushishi enough, and this first cour is more consistently fantastic that the entire first season. It's worth a watch, even as wallpaper anime before falling into a calm sleep.

M3 the dark metal

     Oh boy, another Mari Okada show! That means another instance where I can really talk about how this was not a good year for her.

     Much like WIXOSS, M3 feels like an overly cruel genre fiction show that plays with high emotions for little artistic payoff. Unlike WIXOSS, though, M3 seemed like a much more troubled production and certainly was one of the big sales bombs of 2014. One of the big problems was the fact that the show's pacing was slow and deliberate, definitely to a fault thanks to the character writing not being strong enough to carry these slow periods on their own. Junichi Sato is a talented director in his own right, and given his penchant for slower slice of life in recent memory, he could potentially move over to a horror mecha title if the writing was as deliberate and careful as his direction. Unfortunately, Okada could not muster to make anything more than a flat cast who at their best was just kind of bland or overtly mysterious, and at their worst extremely deplorable in the ways that were not entertaining to watch.

     These mech pilots all have rather obvious problems, and if the story was structured differently, we would have been able to deal with their problems outside of single-episode spurts before an event that we were supposed to feel overly emotional about them suffering through, when in the episodes beforehand they weren't painted as even remotely sympathetic. Now, you don't need sympathetic characters to make an engaging show (see Flowers of Evil), and the closest we get to a compelling character is our lead Akashi, who has quite a bit wrong with him. He has cold, cruel reactions to everyone around him, and always finds himself twisting into an eerie smile after particularly shocking moments in his life. It paints how everyone perceives him, which happens to be not much different than how he actually is: cold, disconnected, a tad towards the cruel side. He eventually warms up, but the story constantly wants us to feel bad for Akashi despite being a rather selfish, callous person. To say he's an unlikable lead is putting it rather lightly, and the constant sympathy checks the story throws at us for him makes the intended effect come off as disingenuous.

     M3 does have some solid moments in it, though; Mahmu's episode in particular in the second half is rather great and does lead into a very predictable but still well-executed twist. There are concepts in M3 that would also work really well as good sci-fi horror if the writing was more up to snuff, such as the LiM units that power the mechs certain characters use. It all could work on paper, but between rather bad character writing, pacing that tends to drag thanks to inhuman character interactions, and animation that looks like a show from 2006...well, not much could salvage this scrap metal.

The Rest

     So, much like winter season, there was a fair number of things I didn't finish, as well. Considering the fact that this spring season happened while my partner and I were moving, I'm surprised that I watched as much anime as I did. Here's some stuff I didn't finish and excuses for why:

• Haikyuu!. Oh boy, do I ever want to finish this one. I was enraptured by it for nine episodes, and then I just...stopped. I think I was doing a major binge of M3 (since that was a show I constantly forgot existed), but ended up neglecting this one towards the end of its first half. I think I'm gonna binge this one rather soon, since a second season is coming up.
• Riddle Story of Devil. Oh, honey, no. This is another one I watched about nine episodes of, purely because it was the slasher/cruel-killing-game entry that tends to get popular in certain circles. Actually, that's a lie, I just wanted to see more of Yun Kouga's work, and I didn't particularly care for it. It all followed a stock formula, had some neat tense scenes but a lot of scenes of contrivances and dumb luck. I don't feel bad for dropping it towards the end, I had enough 75% of the way in.
• Baby Steps. Now, I finished the first half of this one. It's not going to win any awards, but I did find myself engaged by this neat take on the shonen sports formula. Taking a scrawny nerd, showing their limitations, and improving on them through hard work and adapting the learning formula to their own style of studying. It's neatly compelling, and it's another one I want to finish. I really should've kept up with it instead of some other summer shows (this and Haikyuu!, too).
• Captain Earth. I really miss the golden era of Bones, and as such, I wanted this to be good. Given the fact that it was written by the same guy who wrote RahXephon, I let my high expectations get the best of me again (as if Star Driver didn't dash my hopes enough). It had a potentially neat setup that referenced Shakespeare a bunch and was really pretty, but there was no focus on who was supposed to be our main character. After about six or seven episodes we kept introducing more and more people to the other side of the conflict without much in the development of our hero's side outside of Teppei, and that lack of focus and forward momentum killed my interest in the show. If it turns out that it's worth sticking through the second half, maybe I'll revisit it.
• Brynhildr in the Darkness. It's basically Elfen Lied 2.0, complete with dumb plot contrivances, overly grotesque violence, and artless cruelty. Dropped three episodes in.
• No Game No Life. One of the biggest hits of the year, and it's a pander-fest that I'm not the target audience for. As soon as I saw the further incest-teasing two episodes in, I dropped it. No amount of potentially neat game theory is going to get me to watch this, and from what I've heard it never actually gets any stakes. Oh boy, power fantasies.
• One Week Friends. I think I made it three or four episodes into this one, whenever the main dude's friend enters the picture as a part of the friend group. I always got the vibe that the main dude was kind of skeevy and I heard the show went downhill from there. I'm kinda glad I dropped it now, but if persuaded or if I get in the mood to finish a high school romcom, I'll probably put this on.
• If Her Flag Breaks (Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara). I showed this to a few friends since about three episodes in, I didn't absolutely hate it but had problems with it. We all came to the same conclusion that we need to see how it ends and potentially marathon it, but we especially had a problem with how the character who kept calling themselves a boy was treated by the rest of the cast. I heard the show gets nutso later on, and I liked how nonchalantly and lightly it treated itself, but the treatment of that character wore on me.
• The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior (Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou). I haven't watched more than an episode of this because the lighting bothers me and the main dude seemed like an asshole. I've been told it gets good, so I have this paired with Witch Craft Works for a revisit, to see if I can get over the lighting. I know it's a nitpick but god, pick a light source and stick with it in the same scene, yeesh...
• Knights of Sidonia. I've seen three episodes of this, and it's all up on Netflix so it's due for a binge-finish. I like what I've seen so far, and the dub really isn't that bad. We'll see where it goes.
• The Irregular at Magic High School (Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei). I was saving this one for last because I had the worst reaction to this show out of everything I've watched all year. Madhouse, why would you do this to us? I understand the source material is popular on 2chan, but it kinda sums up a very troubling mindset among that sect of the anime fanbase. Mahouka is very pro-right-wing to the point where it feels like propaganda, libertarian in its worldviews and just flat, dull, and unengaging all around. The first arc, which is mostly exposition, is seven episodes long, establishing no characters but flat mouthpieces to tell us how awesome and right our main character is, and how hard he has it for being special. Any time there's a fight, there's a bunch of flashy CG effects that have zero weight to them, and the shots all feel lifeless and dull. Of course we also get the super special imouto love interest and my eyes roll into the back of my head. Add in the openly racist subject matter (translation: Mahouka did you really just blame China for what you did to them during World War II and act like you're justified in treating them like interior beings) on top of the anti-equality messages (this show really is an Ayn Rand love letter) and it becomes one of the most disgusting things I've seen in ages. For the love of your sanity, please don't watch Mahouka.

I think that about wraps this one up. Stay tuned for the next installment, where I'll be talking about the summer season, which should go rather predictably given how public my opinions are on certain shows.