Cruel Angel Theses

Word is on the street that the non-moe faction is rejoicing this season, if only due to the fact that the number of shows with moe in them aren’t dominating for the first time in so long. I was thinking of a theme by which to group the anime in this post under while writing this, and it occurred to me that none of the characters in the shows featured here have eyes the size of tennis balls, or irises the size of ping-pong balls.

this automatically becomes non-moe because Duke Togo is in it

Allison & Lillia is one such gem that I’m afraid to label as a “huge success” so early on, despite its obvious promise. While there was a lot of it that I liked, various scenes in the first two episodes irked me slightly for being nothing but huge exposition dumps, something any good screenwriter would never do. I don’t fault the source, obviously; this has to do with the way the material was adapted, and while I don’t doubt the value of the two light novel series Allison and Lillia and Treize, I’m remaining cautious about how it’s going to be handled here.

“S-s-silly Wil! It’s not like I went out of my way to carry you on my back all the way to this cottage after you blacked out while saving me or anything, it just happened to be on the way!”

The reason for this is simple: no amount of good in a source material can redeem how it’s handled in the transition to anime. Exposition dumps are a sign of shoddy writing, and there’s always the possibility that this Achilles Heel of writing will surface later in one form or another — nevertheless, teething problems and painfully predictable, linear narrative aside, at the heart of this is a story of such potential that I can’t possibly shove it aside, at least not now.

Negativity aside, what struck me the most was how it appeared to be a mini-Beyond The Clouds, in that overtly romanticised way that Shinkai is so famous for. The animation, while nothing to shout about, lent for refreshing viewing due to the lack of conventional design (sticking it to the man, and by man I mean moe otaku, is all the rage this season), and I’ll be keeping tabs on the composer, who isn’t famous enough to have an ANN page of his own.

Wagaya no Oinari-sama felt really retro for some reason.

apparently this is the only reason why people are watching this

As far as gender-changing fox spirits go, I’m only half-sold on this one. All too obvious animation flaws aside, I guess I’m just not that into this kind of thing; maybe it’s because it reminds me of Rental Magica (and I had a long and painful relationship with that one), only done with less class or pomp or glitter. It’s too bad that I’m going to be looking at episode after episode of ancient Japanese magic (TL Note: ‘Youkai’ means ‘demon’), because it’s not my thing, at least when it’s not mixed in with Western ones.

How seriously am I supposed to take this? While it isn’t swimming in clichés, it’s more or less ankle-deep, and I’ll be holding this at arm’s length till someone tells me it’s worth watching again. The lack of a single, strong element to hold this jack of all trades together bothers me; not because it’s doing a lot of things at once, but because it’s not doing them good enough for me to actually foster a sense of interest or care for the characters, and if 2 episodes don’t do the job, well…

Golgo 13 wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad either.

you know what this show needs? more of this, Shinbo’s style, and random Photoshop filters

I’m not sure how to go about watching something so inoffensive, but this reminded me of Mushishi, if Ginko went around from village to village killing Mushi with a range of impressive hardware before sexing up the local beauty. 50 episodes? No thanks. While Mushishi had everything going for it, the only goodness I see in Golgo 13 would be a whole lot of gun porn, hooker sex, and an aesthetic I can only jokingly describe as “the hypermale”. Yes, that is a portmanteau of “hyperreal” and “male”.

Amatsuki was initially amusing; maybe it was the unintentional homosexual innuendo that permeated it, but I felt like I was watching something with shounen ai undertones when the main character, who happens to be called Tokidoki (which means “sometimes”, which begs the question — sometimes what?), glances out the window during a particularly boring exam and happens to set his eyes on a guy passing through the school gates; said guy somehow feels Tokidoki’s glance and turns around.

as an example of how obvious it was, it’s even hinted in the dialogue

If that didn’t set off alarms in my head, Tokidoki later proceeds to pester Kon, the guy who felt his burning psychic gaze, to lead him around this Edo-period exhibit. I’m sure fans of the manga (which happens to be shoujo too, which explains everything) would justify this as glaringly obvious subtext for their slash fics or yaoi doujinshi, but it just felt so wrong to me, nevermind how Tokidoki also has pretty large eyes for a guy, a trait usually only found in girl characters.

Thankfully, the sausage fest was over before it even began due to the appearance of a female character a few minutes later, and a well-endowed one at that. I’m still scratching my head over the subversion of gender roles, as I’m not sure if I’m supposed to take Kuchiha’s apparent superiority over the two guys physically (Toki being one-eyed, and Kon being one-armed) to be women’s lib rhetoric, intentional emasculation, or both, but either way I’m not going to read much into it.

there’s always one that’s gotta be pulled out of the closet

The episode itself was nothing much to shout about — none of that strong pull that the other shows before this have duly demonstrated, nothing that made me sit up in my chair and take notice. Nevertheless, I’ve heard that the second episode has real science in it, so I’ll be reserving further judgement till then. Like Golgo 13, this was really inoffensive and harmless, although the difference lies in how Amatsuki’s characters weren’t all that grim and/or one-dimensional, from what I could make of it.