Cruel Angel Theses

There’s been more of that “balanced” talk around this season more than any other this year given how the harem/bishoujo shows have a strong showing, and for that reason alone I decided to dedicate a post to four shows in said genre, namely Myself;Yourself, Blue Drop, Kimikiss Pure Rouge, and ef.

My reasons for watching harem are twofold: Firstly, the networking aspect. I’ll never write off entire genres by virtue of common sense and not wanting to be like the other bloggers whom, despite not being entirely sound in their reasoning, I read to keep me grounded in terms of bias, and not wanting to preach to the converted. It also helps me keep in touch with other excellent bits of writing I wouldn’t be able to understand fully otherwise, like harem overlord CCYoshi or super siscon Stripey.

Secondly, it’s a motivation out of academic vested interest. Like how I won’t really be able to appreciate Nanoha for being a mix of the shounen and mahou shoujo genres if I haven’t had prior experience with both, so does harem and bishoujo help me appreciate Shana for being a mix of shounen and harem. While it’s convenient, I don’t think I have to settle for second-best while trying to go about being acquainted with what the genre has to offer, so here’s an initial assessment of what Autumn’s got to offer.

ef – a tale of memories is exceptional yet underrated but rightfully so, because you Philistines will never be able to grasp the brilliance of random filters. In all seriousness though, I didn’t find it distracting at all. ef (pronounced eff, not ee eff) works for me that way, and I guess the occasional visual distraction helps keep the viewer awake on what would otherwise be 12 episodes of draggy pseudo-Makoto Shinkai.

as if to prove how boring conventional non-filtered conversations could be, the next episode had the most sleep-inducing Chihiro-Renji conversation ever

I understand what the filters are trying to do, in case you’re wondering. It’s a very abstract representation of memory, since, after all, the show’s subtitle is “a tale of memories”. The meeting and subsequent conversation between Hiro and Miyako highlights this, during what was evidently meant to be a romantic scene — as they obviously are going to go on and fall in love later, then it stands to reason that the filters are symbolic of how our memory is selective; we gloss over the forgettable and touch-up the memorable, like snow on a particular winter night or the silhouette of a loved one against the moonlight.

Temon’s presence in ef lends a terribly familiar-yet-not-quite slant to the whole thing. I’ve come to the conclusion that Tenmon is as much part of the Shinkai brand as Shinkai is to Tenmon, and when viewed in tandem with SHAFT’s pretty sunsets that give Kanon 2006′s a run for the money, it’s as if I’m watching Shinkai direct a TV series. While I wouldn’t call his movies draggy, I’ve got a feeling that it just wouldn’t be the same if he brought over his distinct style to conventional anime.

The reason for this being that Shinkai’s direction is best described as somewhere between verbose and repetitious, which works for a movie or short. I wouldn’t say it’d translate well to 8, or even 4 hours, which is where the filters come in — they break up what would otherwise be an incessant stream of dialogue, allowing the viewer to not get as bored, in addition to allowing for much eye candy and variety in an otherwise static shot.

On another note, the interactions between the characters, while not exactly original either, has that bit of chemistry which lends for interaction somewhat akin to Clannad’s Tomoya-Nagisa — a good thing, so to speak. What’s even better is how they’ve set it up here, with the cast’s relationships interwoven to give a sense of continuity as they skip from couple to couple.

Blue Drop is a show where the ship commander of an alien lesbian race meets girl, i.e. the pandering is strong with this one. I totally understand how girls can actually detest yaoi and prefer good old hetero over it, because I’m annoyed at how BD is starting to reek of yuri. One thing I noticed from the three episodes is how they’re slowly but surely increasing the number of times Mari’s blushing. She blushes at every slight opportunity, and I’m having difficulty swallowing it.

Evidently this is going to make Mari and Hagino’s (aforementioned slightly unhinged ship commander of an alien lesbian race) getting together seem realistic. Yes, I am aware of my bias towards non-hetero lesbian couples and my demands that they make it realistic when Dragonaut has the protagonist falling for a girl who appears out of nowhere, kicks ass, gathers him in her arms and kisses him, before turning into a dragon.

I can see where the bait’s coming from a mile away, and I’m afraid I’ll be finding it hard to bite. While Mari’s predicament as a character has unexpected, but pleasant parallels to A Little Princess, I’m not sure I want to sit through another 10 episodes of carpet munching, as much as I’d like to see a bunch of teenage girls blushing and fighting before declaring their undying love for each other beneath a giant alien ship. But I digress.

BD’s Wikipedia page has a wealth of information about how the whole series came to be, and I recommend reading it since any spoilers you might encounter are trivial and only related to the manga, which is set in a different timeline with different characters. Expect another post about yuri sometime later, since if this is only going to be 13 episodes I think I might be able to stomach its entirety.

Myself ; Yourself won’t win points for originality any time soon. Despite the characters being Harem 101, a few recycled frames, and rather amateur music placement, it isn’t something that makes me want to swallow glass shards or tear my fingernails out, which is good, because hanging out too much as of late with what I’d hesitantly call a “picky” crowd has the effect of me subconsciously branding harem as the work of the devil.

she’s a busty megane dojiko osananajimi bookworm who knows how to cook and also plays the guitar. moeeeeeeeeeee?

There are what seems like hints of something beyond the typical school life setup, like Sana retching after a glance at a bloodied knife used to gut a fish, or his mother’s incessant calls (once per episode). Or they might just be red herrings conveniently placed there for the likes of sceptical unbelievers like me. It’s all too early to guess or judge, so I’ll be putting that critical eye of mine
away for now.

The pervasive theme of childhood friends made me wonder if Little Busters was anything like this. While that seems terrible on first glance, what this means is that instead of one person being the stock osananajimi you have all of them on an equal footing, even Shuu, who, by virtue of being another male character in the harem genre, wins points for just being. Nothing to wreck the suspension of disbelief than just having a solitary beta male around.

Finally, it gets really predictable. I saw through the “NO DON’T TOUCH MY BOX OF PORN” gag, Sana’s many perverted glances at Aoi’s chest now that he realises she’s all grown-up and healthy, or even the setup for Nanaka’s tentative one-sided jealously/insecurity with Asami. Wikipedia humorously notes that “It is still unclear whether Asami harbors any feelings for Sana.”, but anyone with some sense and a history of watching stuff like these know Nanaka’s the chosen one, even if she’s going to go through a lot of silly conflict to get him.

Kimikiss pure rouge is absolutely ordinary in every sense of the word, yet there’s something about it that’s strangely attractive. Could it be a placebo effect of knowing that the director’s also done Honey & Clover? I wonder.

The first thing that hits you about Kimikiss is how it is utterly unremarkable. There’s nothing special going for it, like M;Y. I don’t forsee it winning any prizes for an original premise soon — yet its pedigree compels me to watch more. Might this be a fanboyism at work, much like how less discerning fans love everything KyoAni and hate everything Gonzo? I dread that possibility, no matter how real it might be.

There’s not a whole lot to say about this at the moment since it’s still unravelling, but I like what I’m seeing so far. The good part of being by the book is that since you roughly know what’s going to happen, when a show like Kimikiss takes the manual and gives it a twist or uses a slightly different approach, the end result is nothing short of a pleasant surprise.

Before I started reviewing these four shows I had the impression that I’d be only watching one or two, but I’m glad I didn’t come to hasty conclusions before I began. Yes, I’m aware that only one show here is really harem (one being sci-fi/yuri and the other two bishoujo), and also the only one I’ll have any chance of dropping if it starts sucking, but I’ll be hanging on till that happens.