Anime-BAWklog #7: Spotlightning Round (Part II)
Article by Sean Wilkinson,
Now, here's the list as it was when I was still going to try keeping up with all of this:
the Animeister is back?
Back in 2020, when I was still trying to get through Accounting coursework, juggle and hide my gacha gambling debt from my family, and crank out weekly Marvel, anime, and movie reviews, I started a limited catch-up review series called Anime-BAWklog that compiled my offline anime reviews in alphabetical order and lasted for four parts. In early 2021 (before my relapse into gambling and turn to alcoholism), I put out a fifth part, which I simply called the Spotlightning Round, and was a Critical Quickies take on a bunch of series that I didn't have much to say about or weren't interesting enough to give the Anime Spotlight treatment. And finally, in 2022, following an epiphany and gall bladder surgery that gave me a much-needed kick in the ass, I released Back From Burnout? (AniMonday Edition), an article that didn't share the BAWklog or Spotlightning Round branding, but was in the same vein, so I'm considering it as a sixth part, which brings us to today's post.
I'm not really experiencing any kind of crisis at the moment, aside from the now-normal serious adulting that I am attempting with two elderly parents living nearby. I hesitate to call it a second epiphany, though it does have that feeling of "this is how things have to be now, and hiding from it will not work for you anymore," so, yeah. Let's stop hesitating. My father having so many seizures so close together and randomly acting like a senile asshat all day, fit to drive my mother into a default rage state and a desire for constant escapism, is my second epiphany.
I think I had a point to that beyond cathartic venting, and it had something to do with how trauma and epiphany often drive me to clean house metaphorically, if not literally. I did the literal house-cleaning last week, and I plan to do some again this week, but the metaphorical and digital house-cleaning is more of a side-effect this time around. What got me started on it was that finally, the dub release of Oshi no Ko's (one of, if not the hype anime series of the season) first episode came out this week, and I needed to talk about it, but there isn't much I can say without spoiling it for the dub-onlys out there. So this seemed like the best way to discuss it. Also, as much as I like That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, there wasn't much to the Scarlet Bond movie, either, so there's Topic Number Two. And then a can of Red Bull at ten PM, and I remembered that I have a list of anime series that I was going to talk about when they were current, but I was either too broke, drunk, lazy, depressed, or whatever else, to put fingers to keys and cover them. Which again brings us to today's post, which I hope you remember to like and comment about down below, as well as subscribe to my blog, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, and Facebook for the latest news on my content.
Oshi no Ko -- An idol anime has to be unique to capture my attention, let alone keep it. One only need look to Zombie Land Saga for evidence of that. So when my favorite basement-dwelling professional dirtbag repeatedly hyped up Oshi no Ko in his videos, and didn't give me much information beyond "a doctor promises to take care of a secretly-pregnant idol's children," I almost didn't give it the time of day. Even less so when the first episode turned out to be a feature-length movie of a thing. But then I continued watching, and let me just say to all the now-other Oshi no Ko fans out there, I WAS WRONG AND I'M SORRY. The imagery is beautiful, the music (only one song, but a bop that I can hear looping fragments of in my head as we "speak") is the kind of sugary hype I didn't think I would like, but I do, the story handles Japravity in that masterful, "one change in a character's judgement, and this would be uncomfortable trash" sort of way that always gets bonus points from me, and the plot is the right balance of tropes we've all seen before, but never mixed quite like this.
All I can tell you is that the head of an idol group takes a hiatus to hide her teen pregnancy from the public, and goes to a hospital in the middle of nowhere, where her physician-to-be and his former patient turn out to be her biggest fans and decide to support her, a deadly Stan shows up, and we cliffhanger on the beginning of a quest for revenge. The rest, you'll have to see for yourselves, but I am all-in on Oshi no Ko.
That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime: Crimson Bond -- I didn't give the last season of the series its end-of-run coverage, but it was basically the RWBY: Volume 3 season of Slime: powered henchmen with an overpowered magical backer show up to disrupt the fun, and everyone dies in horrible, hope-shattering ways that change the world's perception of what it means to keep the peace. But then Rimuru (the titular slime) decides to take the fight to the enemy, sacrifices them all to attain Demon Lord status, gives the ancient dragon he ate at the beginning of the series a humanoid body and a stack of manga that somehow teaches him magical Street Fighter moves (one of the highlights of the season finale), and plays mind games with the Demon Lord council, ultimately outwitting and defeating the Demon Lord responsible for genociding his people. Also, being a Demon Lord makes Rimuru even more overpowered than he already was, and he brings his entire city back to life because he can do that now.
Enter the Crimson Bond movie, which I guess is canon until more seasons come out. It takes place some time after the last season, with Rimuru as a Demon Lord, Veldora in his humanoid body, and everyone alive and doing the slice-of-life fetch questy stuff that they do when they're not troping out for comedy. But it starts out looking like a flashback for one of the kishin, or a completely different movie, or something, as a red-haired swordsman with horns is attacked and left for dead, until he is rescued and named by a princess (if you don't remember or haven't watched it yet, names are magic evolution things in this series), which heals and strengthens him. The princess's kingdom is suffering from water pollution and she has a magic crown that she uses to purify the water at the cost of her own health, so she sends her red-haired kishin bodyguard in the direction of Tempest (Rimuru's city) for help and resources, where he encounters an old enemy of his building a commerce road for the city, and attacks, bringing him to blows with a similar-looking kishin who turns out to be his brother, who is a resident of Tempest. We get the deadpan comedy of Rimuru casually letting slip that he's a Demon Lord and friends with Veldora and a bunch of nature spirits and other Demon Lords (including Veldora's daughter, I think?), and he agrees to help the kingdom. Pretty soon, there are demons and curses and scheming and a convoluted "revive the ancient evil" subplot that said ancient evil isn't happy with because it makes her "fun" less interesting, so the movie ends with a happy status quo and three new characters added to the Slime mythos. Crimson Bond is okay. If you like the Slime series, watch the movie because it continues the story, the comedy and spectacle are as good as always, and the visuals are a step up from the show's quality. The villain was a little obvious, though, the fight animation wasn't anything special outside of the first brotherly clash, and the deus ex machina, status quo happy ending was disappointing. Still, I look forward to more Slime (just not Slime Diaries; that was more slice-of-life than I was prepared to handle).
Now, here's the list as it was when I was still going to try keeping up with all of this:
- Tower Of God, God Of High School, and Noblesse (Anime-BAW, WebToon/Crunchyroll Originals)
- DanMachi/Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? franchise (Anime Spotlight)
- Single-entry (maybe) Anime Spotlight reviews:
Being totally honest, I barely remember Noblesse or Wonder Egg Priority, and I gave up watching Attack On Titan. I still intend to re-watch DanMachi at some point and get caught up with the fourth season so I can do an Anime Spotlight on it, and I'd like to do the same for Black Clover (minus the re-watch because it's long and pretty crazy, and the hero is obnoxious). As for the rest, let the rapid-fire housekeeping commence!
Tower Of God -- based on an old web comic, this series (the season we got, anyway) is beautiful, surreal, has one of the best magic systems in shonen, and its characters (except for one, and if you've watched this, you know who I mean) are likeable and creatively concieved. Worth a watch, and worth seeking out the web comic if you like what you see, because I don't think we'll be getting more of the anime since the "Crunchyroll Originals" brand bombed hard.
God Of High School -- another web comic adaptation, this one-season series asks the questions: "what if we took the top-notch fights from Tower Of God and made that the whole anime?" and "what if we did a Korean mashup of King Of Fighters and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure?" Also, everyone has blush-red noses like they're drunk or get their super powers from cocaine. The plot is generic fighting game stuff, but the fights are a good enough reason to watch.
Jujutsu Kaisen -- its the demon-fighting shonen that was popular before Demon Slayer and Chainsaw Man came along. Teenage boy gets his body taken over by a powerful demon and they have to help a secret exorcism organization of "curse bearers" (people with demon powers) fight demons and evil curse bearers in exchange for not being killed themselves. So basically, it's the same plot as Chainsaw Man, just with less CGI and more Mob Psycho 100 vibes to the visuals. There's one scene where a blind man drives a demon insane just by opening his eyes, and it is the high point of the entire series. There's a prequel movie that I haven't seen and don't feel compelled to see (unintended blindness puns...), but as pre-rivative as it is, give Jujutsu Kaisen a watch, and if you like the six-hour manga commercial, go finish the story in the manga.
Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation -- reclusive fat guy gets reincarnated into a fantasy world and goes on adventures with his step-sister. This is one of those series where you unfortunately have to ignore a lot of Japravity to find it enjoyable. We're talking "man in baby's body pervs out on his mother while wearing her underwear as a ninja mask," "man in child's body hits on his step-sister," "every woman above a certain age has Honeybaked hams for breasts and they all wear bikini armor" levels of perversion here. But when the main character and his extended family of sadists, racists, man-whores, thieves, and murderers aren't being bipedal shitpiles, there is actually a good story in here, flashes of wholesome comedy, spectacular fight animation and magic effects, and genuine heart to the relationships that matter. Don't watch if you can't compartmentalize.
Suppose A Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to A Starter Town? -- Iron Fist, but less boring, intentionally funny, and a decent time-waster. A clueless boy from the village of Kun Lun (there's that Iron Fist reference!) gets sent away for being the weakest person in his legendary hometown, and hijinks ensue when he does the thing in the light novel-esque title and he finds out he's comparatively overpowered. There are the usual monster attacks and friendships along the way and a demonic sociopolitical domination plot at the end, and our knuckleheaded protagonist Frank Drebin's his way through it all with barely a scratch. Unfortunately for you, and for the series itself, that's about as memorable as it gets. Background it if you need a laugh, but there's no need to get invested, or to call me Shirley.
The same can be said of So I'm A Spider, So What? It's the first two episodes of That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, stretched out into a twelve-episode season, but not as good, and with a spider this time. It tries to be twisty with disparate timeline shenanigans, the protagonist (?) has a halfway compelling growth arc with plenty of personality and suspenseful, strategic fights, and the CGI is better than it has a right to be. But the ending teaser of the heroine maybe being an Overlord-type "villain by necessity" and there being an evil elf mastermind with an army of robot clones or something made me wonder why I bothered watching or what it all meant.
I've Been Killing Slimes For 300 Years And Maxed Out My Level -- It's in the title! A woman who is afraid of dying reincarnates in a fantasy world as an immortal witch, and makes pocket change killing slimes, unaware that the world has an RPG leveling system. So the title happens offscreen with her wanting a quiet life of solitude, but because an anime needs to happen, a yuri harem's worth of monster girls, demon girls, and Motley Crue's "Girls, Girls, Girls" (I joke, but yeah; there are no male characters in this...story?...at all) come to challenge her to underwhelming fights and end up developing unrequited romantic feelings for her upon their defeat. The harem grows by the episode and "comedy" ensues as the formula repeats twelve times and nothing really happens. Ignore it, and it will go away.
Don't ignore me because I'll never go away! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I mean, please remember once again to like and comment down below, subscribe to my blog, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, and Facebook for the latest news on my content, and I'll see you on Wednesday by midnight or risk losing one of my shoes and turning into a pumpkin.
Animeister,
Out.
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