Cruel Angel Theses

I’m quite amused to hear that suspension of disbelief still becomes an issue nowadays. What, you want realism in a medium where oversized eyes are a norm, saving the world is perfunctory, and girls develop mysterious terminal diseases that require a guy (who also conveniently pops out of nowhere)’s love to cure? Surely you jest. That’s really weak reasoning, especially when it’s used as grounds for why an anime fails.

Library Wars, for one, seems to be the target of things like these: It’s not believable enough, it doesn’t make sense that there are autonomous militias fighting over books, why aren’t they going for the publishers instead of the bookstores, and so on and so forth. My response? Wow, just shut up and enjoy the show, seriously. Trying to over-analyse the premise while suffocating the show through the paralysing grip of Reality isn’t going to make things any better, and who cares if it’s not believable? The same could be said of any other show.

omg the sunlight is conveniently blinding her from looking at his face even though there wasn’t any a minute ago in the fluorescent lighting this is so UNREALISTIC!!@`123

It’s nothing but a bunch of petty excuses, and shifts the blame from the person complaining about the anime, to the anime itself. While I’m sure that there’s a time and place for this clause to be raised, it should only be brought up when an anime violates the ground rules that it’s already set in place previously, and if you’re not going to accept the very foundation that the anime’s set on, it’s not its fault anymore, it’s yours! I didn’t have a problem with LW’s setting, but maybe that’s because, you know, I actually prefer to watch something in its entirety before critiquing it.

omg who cries in a bookstore when they get a book anyway!?/1 this is SO UNREALISTIC!32

Apologist rant aside, what I found most enjoyable about it all was how the character-driven tone of the show made for some surprisingly enjoyable conversation and interaction, even if it was something all too familiar to those who have watched anime long enough. The way it veers from serious military action to shoujo-sque romance to shounen humour and back is not unlike Kyouran Kazoku Nikki in its balance, and is worth the price of admission alone. Props to Froth-Bite/Menclave for the good work done with this — I was bowled over by the number of signs in the first episode.

she’s crying AGAIN for the SECOND time in the FIRST EPISODE, how can any girl possibly cry so much within 24 minutes??? THIS IS SO UNREALISTIC!!

and she’s crying ONCE MORE!!! real girls don’t cry in the ARMY, this is SO UNREALISTIC!@1242

what is this, TRUE TEARS?!?! she’s been crying once per episode now, OMG SO UNREALISTIC brb deleting the episodes from my PC I am not watching this fantastic nonsense any longer!1!!eleventybillionone

Finally, having gone through 26 episodes of a grown man (with a mullet and nothing going for him, surely, but a grown man nonetheless) crying, I thought it was refreshing to have an actual girl turning on the waterworks for once. Before the feminists reading this start raging about how I’m reinforcing patriarchal values, I can only say in my defence that this portrayal is indeed realistic, and a far cry from the countless melodramatic crying scenes that make up the majority of anime. Consistently entertaining without resorting to shallow characters? What a shocking concept. But that’s LW for you.

If you’re one of those people who think that Kaiba’s being stingy with the details (protip: it isn’t, you just need to use that thing between your ears while watching anime once in a while), Real Drive must seem like a tight-fisted Scrooge on Christmas Eve. Frankly, while I’m all for keeping details from the viewer in order for there to be some amount of suspense and anticipation, Shirou Masamune has never been one for friendly first episodes, Ghost Hound being the last one that I remember.

yes, this is an accurate depiction of the first two episodes (and realistic, too)

Speaking of which, I have absolutely no motivation to keep up with this at the moment, and I can only blame Spring’s vast quantity and quality for it. Maybe I’ll start on this after I catch up with Ghost Hound, but for now I’m content to let this slip past like the rest, if only to marathon it later. It’s too bad I’m not a bigger fan of Manami (aka Manabi) of Manabi Straight, for the resemblance between her and Minamo (the character pictured above) is definitely striking, both physically and personality-wise.

Also: Fanservice. Lots and lots of it in the second episode, but only if you apply gratuitous amounts of the Pause button during the appropriate scenes. I never knew Production I.G. could go to such lengths, but considering the amount of time that the pantyshots get, I suppose it’s more of a nod-wink than anything else.

Himitsu – Top Secret wins top marks from me for being effective, regardless of its mild yaoi vibes and how terribly inappropriate the music was. Regarding the latter, aside from not matching the mood at all, most of the tracks sounded like they were from a drama from the 80s. While I guess it’s all well and good that it matches the retro style in which it’s presented, one would think that something as basic as using a darker-sounding track for the scene in mention (a pretty emotional one) wouldn’t have went unnoticed.

all this scene needed was a frame of flowers to connect it to its shoujo roots

Then there was the hilariously unintentional homosexual innuendo permeating (I almost used “penetrating” for a moment there) the episode. Not only does the first character we’re introduced to, Aoki, look like a Yaranaika version of Clark Kent; the other main character, Maki whose pretty face has been prominently displayed in the promotional pictures for this series, reaches out to grasp his arm in a scene I can only describe as “euphemistically gay”, for the camera revolves around them as the background whites out.

Fortunately, that’s not all the episode showcased in 22 minutes. When Maki and Aoki weren’t busy developing their sexual tension levels, they were actually doing their day jobs — working for Section 9, a police department dedicated to reading super-conductive brains by means of specialised hardware. “Retro-futurism” is the term that comes to mind here, for while the concept certainly looks like a story out of a Philip K. Dick novel, it’s presented in a all too familiar setting that shouldn’t alienate views who scorn sci-fi and its ilk.

and if staring at his pouty face for an unbearably long duration of the episode wasn’t enough, they had to give me one last glimpse after the next episode preview, too

I’m definitely interested in seeing more of this, if only for the unlimited amount of excellent potential that this series has. Even if this introductory episode didn’t give as much time to the characters involved, the undeniably tragic way in which I expect each mini-arc to be presented intrigues me; how will they keep things fresh from week to week? Despite the first episode’s campy music and otherwise jarring elements, I was sucked into the inherent tragedy of this week’s victim, and I suppose staying a bit longer for the ride wouldn’t hurt. Too bad this show’s one of the most undersubbed (and thus underrated) ones in Spring — Animanda needs to dump Nabari no Ou and get to work on this already. I’d suggest you do the same, too.