Sasami-san@Ganbaranai and Kotoura-san reviews

The spring ’13 season of anime has just started so I’m trying my best to get through the remainder of my seasonal reviews. These will probably be the last two, but we shall see…

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai

After completing this series…well, really around the 3/4 mark, all I could think of was that this is the most convoluted anime I have ever seen. It’s a shame because I actually enjoyed the first half of the show despite my aversion to “weird” anime. But by the last few episodes, I could certainly no longer call it a good anime. To illustrate exactly what went wrong with Sasami-san for me, it would help to briefly discuss all the episodes. Like I said in my first impressions review, even though episode 1 was rather bizarre, I still kinda liked it. And once episode 2 came along and explained the reason behind the events of episode 1 – the whole thing with Amaterasu – I actually got pretty interested. A plot where Sasami and her brother unwittingly put the world in danger because they possess the powers of Amaterasu, and the three Yagami sisters have to keep that in check, sounded like a fun idea…not too unlike Haruhi’s plot actually. If the show had continued with this premise throughout the episodes I probably would have liked it a lot better and I’m sure Shaft could have gotten really creative with it, like the chocolate thing in episode 1. But instead they decided to keep cramming needlessly bizarre and complicated subplots in such a short series, and late in the series too. But I digress, episode 3 developed the plot and characters more and ended on such a resolute note that it seemed like it could have been the final episode (and I kinda wish it was). Episode 4 about the sarcoma was a little weird and episode 5 took a rather jarringly dramatic turn compared to the previous episodes. But still, they fleshed out the characters and mechanics of the show’s world a bit more so it was fine.

Episode 6, which began the arc with Sasami’s mother Juju, is when things take a turn for the worse. This episode was mostly okay as the idea of Juju wanting Sasami to return to her shrine maiden duties was plausible, and their interactions were kind of funny. I could even tolerate how ridiculously dramatic and graphic the ending of this episode and most of episode 7 was…but the whole thing with the golem, and the nine-tailed fox, and this Arahabaki group that pop out of nowhere, and Tsurugi getting trapped in the underworld then suddenly coming back, and going back in time to change Sasami and Juju’s fate…it was so much to digest in just episodes 7-9 and felt needlessly complicated. The plot was just all over the place at that point, and with only three episodes left, I couldn’t figure out what they were going for now that they introduced this new conflict (Arahabaki) and took away the original premise of Sasami and her brother having Amaterasu’s powers. Episode 10, however, was the worst. They suddenly introduce a brand new character who randomly grows a penis and had Tsurugi acting way too perverted than she should be. There was nothing of worth in any of this and all I could think of while watching this episode was “Okay, they’ve given up. The plot is so convoluted now that they don’t know what to do so they’ll just turn it into perverted smut and at least please somebody.” Episodes 11 and 12 weren’t much better. I’m honestly not sure what happened in these last two episodes…Jou wanted to kill Sasami but then she didn’t because they became friends but then she said she still would kill her…there was a grossly morbid scene where Jou rips out Tama’s heart for some reason I think…that golem came back and that nine-tailed fox girl did something I think…gosh, it was such a mess I don’t even know. And who the heck was that guy with wings who appeared for, like, one second and was never mentioned again? What was the point of that? The only thing I liked in these later episodes was how everyone would chat on that spiritual channel thing…that was clever.

As you can see, I thought Sasami-san turned out pretty bad. If it had stuck with the kind of stories it had in episodes 1-5 it probably wouldn’t have degraded so much. But it kept adding more and more to its story too late and too fast for too few episodes, resulting in a plot that was all over the place. I can’t give it a terrible rating because I did enjoy the first half of the show and I though the main characters (Sasami, her brother, and the Yagami sisters) were fun and likable. But as a whole, I can’t call it anything other than bad.

Kotoura-san

Kotoura-san had one of the best first episodes of any anime I’ve seen, which I discussed when I wrote my first impressions about it. I was so impressed that I was a bit afraid to continue watching it as I thought the rest of the series wouldn’t be able to live up to that initial quality. And, while the rest of the series wasn’t as good as that first episode, I definitely thought it was still good. For those of you who read my last editorial post about anime that mix comedy into their dramatic stories, Kotoura-san is a fine example of an anime with a lot of Mood Whiplash – one minute it’s really cute, comedic, and cartoonish, the next minute it’s perverted and dodgy, and still the next minute it’s extremely depressing and cruel. But despite the mood jumping around like this, I didn’t think it was that jarring and actually helped show diverse sides to the characters and story. We can see the sad side of the characters when the situation is sad, we can see them being silly when the situation is happy, and so on, and this adds a good amount of depth to them if done right.

The show has a fairly simple plot of Kotoura, who can read minds and suffered abandonment from her mother as a result, making friends with the members of the ESP club, the first group of friends she’s ever had. The episodes deal with the drama, and comedy, that ensues with Kotoura trying to fit in at school, get closer to her friends, especially the hapless pervert Manabe, and trying to get over the gnawing fear she has that her powers will end up hurting everyone around her. Being the character-driven show that it is, much of the show’s likability depends on whether you like the characters, and I thought they were all good. Like I said, because the show has equal amounts of comedy and drama, we see different sides of the characters and that makes them well developed. We see Mifune fool around with Kotoura and Muroto, and also how guilt-ridden she feels about using the former for her own purposes and how frustrated she is that the latter is too dense to notice her feelings for him. Similarly, Moritani is portrayed as a comedic character most of the time, but again we see how sincerely sorry she is for what she did to Kotoura and how heartbroken she is when Manabe rejected her. And just as the characters are multi-dimensional, the stories are too. There are a lot of funny, cute scenes, like the group going to karaoke and hilariously finding out that Kotoura is tone deaf, and Manabe and Kotoura sharing many sweet moments in episode 8, as well as very tragic moments, like Muroto taking the hit for Mifune in episode 11 and Kotoura feeling guilty that Manabe got hurt by Moritani’s followers because of her.

I didn’t like everything about Kotoura-san though. I thought it was utterly pointless making her grandpa such a pervert in episode 6. It’s one thing for a teenage boy like Manabe to be that way, but for an old man to be that way about his granddaughter? Unlike Manabe, it didn’t lend anything to his character and he’s only like that in that one episode – he doesn’t seem perverted in any other episode he’s in so it was really annoyingly pointless. I also found the outcome of the arc about the serial attacker kind of hard to swallow. How could the police not have had even the foggiest idea that the culprit was among them when she attacked so often and so frequently? And don’t you have to go through serious personality and background checks to become a cop? Couldn’t they have gotten hints about her extreme split personality beforehand? The rest of the arc was good, I just thought making Tsukino the attacker was far-fetched. And lastly, even though Kotoura kind of forgives her mother in the last episode, and it seems like the audience is supposed to as well, I just couldn’t. All she’s ever said is cruel, hurtful things to her daughter, so just because she mumbles “I’m sorry” in her sleep and sheds a few tears doesn’t just erase all that. And what has she been doing all this time since she abandoned Kotoura?

Despite not liking some things about it, overall I liked Kotoura-san. It has both drama and comedy, which I feel it mixed quite well. The premise about the tragedies of being able to read minds is good, the characters are likable, the stories are sweet and funny as well as dramatic, and it had a satisfying ending too (though it would have been better if Muroto finally recognized Mifune’s feelings…but she’ll keep trying!) I can’t say it was great but it’s certainly a good anime =)

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai and Kotoura-san reviews

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