Hoozuki no Reitetsu

Japanese mythology and legend is rich, complex and very lengthy. The sheer number of spirits, gods, heroic figures, and god knows what else can be mind-boggling, and thanks to the continued practice of Shinto traditions in modern-day Japan you’ll tend to see those kinds of things cropping up all over the place in their contemporary fiction. Mostly it’ll just be references and the like, but it’s still very common to see stories that make use of them in a more literal fashion; it’s also common to see them use the gods and spirits of their folklore for the sake of comedy and parody.

Despite being common to approach them comically, I’ve never seen the comic approach that Hoozuki no Reitetsu employs. It focuses on the Buddhist equivalent of hell and the people and demons you’d expect to see there, except that hell is very much run like a large business, with bureaucracy, HR concerns and meetings. And at the centre of this operation lies the eponymous Hoozuki, right hand man to the Great King Enma, an individual that is always exceptionally calm, efficient, and ruthlessly sadistic.

Unusual, to say the least.

You think the Great King Enma doesn’t like to watch a bit of TV?

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Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta

Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta (The Pilot’s Love Song or Love Song of a Certain Pilot in English) stood out to me hard when it came time to pick new series up at the start of the winter season. How could it not? A setting that was very early 20^th century Europe (but with technologies and politics that took inspiration from a much wider timeframe), a story involving a prince who had lost everything and seeks revenge, an exploration of some of the finer points of a creation myth, and the promise of war, drama, love and hate. Promising, at least, and certainly refreshingly different and original.

The short of the initial narrative setup is that the floating island of Isla is being sent to the ‘Holy Spring’ to learn more about the world (I think), and along with it a large military fleet due to the risk that the legendary Sky Clan poses (who are hostile to anyone approaching the Holy Spring). Because of the nature of the world the focus of military engagement lies in flight, and as such a school to train students to become pilots is established on Isla. Kal-el, formerly known as Karl La Hire, the prince of the Ballestros Empire prior to its downfall in the Revolution of the Wind, joins this school. Why? Because Nina Viento – who lead the Revolution of the Wind and for whom he blames the death of his parents – is travelling with Isla as well, and he sees this as the perfect opportunity for revenge.

Planes are srs bsns

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Nobunagun

Every time I see a new anime series get announced that has Oda Nobunaga I sigh a little. Surely – surely – you’d think that the industry would have run out of original ways to turn him into a young girl by now. Surely that particularly well has been plumbed for all its worth. But no, in the winter season we had to suffer the pain of not one but two shows where Nobunaga is a little girl. Seriously, sometimes this crushing lack of innovation makes me want to give u-

Wait – are you telling me that neither of them were about genderbent Nobunaga? Are… are they allowed to do that?

Well that’s what seemingly happened, not that they weren’t equally ludicrous. One, Nobunaga the Fool, was about Nobunaga as a young man being a hot-blooded mecha pilot in a sci-fi version of the historical world with tarot cards or something? Who cares, I dropped it because it was crap.

The other, Nobunagun, is about Nobunaga being a gun.

A big gun

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Samurai Flamenco

Oh, noitaminA. Your autumn 2013 lineup was looking so good, what with Galilei Donna and this, Samurai Flamenco, two original series with premises that were unique enough to really feel at home on the timeslot… or rather, at home with how it was a few years ago, before it all went to shit. It felt like it could well be a return to form, and a certain level of cautious excitement swept over all of us. The caution was rather justified by Galilei Donna turning out to be utter crap though, but what about Samurai Flamenco?

Samurai Flamenco tells the story of a young model who yearns for more meaning in his life, which he tries to attain through mimicking the hero shows of his youth as a vigilante, and his slightly-older policeman friend in a long-distance relationship who also grew up on the likes of Kamen Rider and Super Sentai but took that inclination towards justice in a more legitimate manner. Together, they fight crime.

Shocking, I know.

Just as a heads up: this review will be spoileriffic as all hell. Due to the nature of the show and the criticisms I have with it, it is impossible to critique it without discussing a lot of plot twists and outcomes.

Hero will never give up, never hide, never be defeated, never accept evil.

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Kill la Kill

So, Trigger. You may have heard of them. Remember Gurren Lagann and Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, and how they gave Gainax a reputation for crazy awesome and gratuitously good fun original series after a few years of largely unremarkable work? Remember how they followed them up with fucking nothing like that, and the quality of their output bombed and now they’re a bit of a joke? Well, those two series were helmed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, and for ~reasons~ he left and took all the talent with him to form Studio Trigger. Well, the talent that didn’t leave to form Studio Khara with Anno to make more Evangelion, that is.

Unsurprisingly, Trigger almost immediately had tons of hype and anticipation behind them. They were quiet for a while, doing a bit of outsourced work for other products, before releasing their first original work… Inferno Cop. Ok, it was short and cheap as hell and nonsensical but Christ was it fun and you could tell that Imaishi hadn’t lost his touch. They followed this up with their entry for Anime Mirai 2013, Little Witch Academia, which was fucking awesome. But this was just an OVA – we still had not seen any full-length, proper series from them yet.

And then they announced Kill la Kill. And the hype train accelerated up to hitherto unknown speeds.

Let’s do this

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Spring 2014 Plans

With the winter season all but over it’s time to look forward to warmer weather and new cartoons!

As always, click for full size and green = fuck yes!, orange = fuck maybe! and red = fuck no!

Winter was pretty alright all things considered, with a few surprises and some notable disappointments. Could have been better, could have been worse, had the unfortunate pleasure of having starting then be overshadowed by a show from the previous season (Kill la Kill). But that’s over and… so are most of the shows I’m watching. Thanks to Space Dandy being turned into a split-cours as opposed to continuous 2-cours and Space Brothers going into a pause there are only two shows I’m watching that are continuing into the spring – Yowamushi Pedal and Happiness Charge Precure!. Which is actually quite a nice turn of events!

As usual, if you’re one of the lucky few reading this to be new to the whole ‘airing anime’ thing, maybe check out my increasingly out-of-date guide? Might prove helpful!

So here are my pickups for the season:

• Akuma no Riddle
• JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders
• Mushishi: Zoku Shou
• Isshuukan Friends.
• Black Bullet
• Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?
• Ping Pong THE ANIMATION
• Mekaku City Actors
• Hanamonogatari

And my thoughts:

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Phi Brain S3

Phi Brain, the premier puzzle-solving anime, somehow got a second season. And it was good. And then it somehow got a third season. Which is this. How? Why?!

Who cares, Phi Brain is fucking excellent. I’ve reviewed both previous seasons of it, and once it got over the uncertainty at the start of the first season it was able to consistently deliver its trademark mix of goofy seriousness and wonderful characters all within a world where puzzles are consistently the most serious fucking thing ever. It’s always been an utterly moronic premise but damn if the execution hasn’t been spectacular.

And now we have a third season of it. What’s new this time around? Well, where the first season involved Kaito puzzle-fighting against an evil group led by a white-haired pretty boy and the second season involved Kaito puzzle-fighting against an evil group led by a white-haired pretty boy, this third season involves… Kaito puzzle fighting against an evil group led by a pink-haired pretty girl!!

A girl! A competent and antagonistic one! In Phi Brain! My whole word has been turned upside-down!

It’s puzzle time! …for the last time ;_;

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