Continuing from last week, here’s the rest of my reviews for the summer ’14 anime I finished watching…
Mahouka
We’ll start things off with the two-cour spring anime I finished this season. When I watched the first few episodes of Mahouka, I liked it because I found the unique blend of magic and technology in its world interesting, and I also liked the relationship between Tatsuya and Miyuki even if some people found it creepy. Unfortunately the novelty of the series wore off several episodes later, and now that I finished it, I have mixed feelings about the series as a whole.
I say my feelings are “mixed” because I can’t say I particularly liked the series, but I didn’t really dislike it either. I guess I prefer when a series is driven by its characters, as in the plot and story revolve around the characters’ motives and emotional struggles. I found Mahouka to be very much a plot-driven series rather than a character-driven one; the story arcs were just “things happen, characters react,” with most of the focus in the show on the world and setting itself, whether it’s how the magic-users use their magic or what shady organization is trying to mess things up. Despite having a large cast of characters and a solid 26 episodes to work with, none of them (well, besides Tatsuya) got their own starring episode or really any kind of poignant character development or backstory reveal. As a result, I often found myself forgetting who the characters were even though I’d seen them many times before. And seriously, out of 26 episodes, I was sure at least one would give us some good backstory about Tatsuya and Miyuki, maybe a flashback of what their relationship was like when they were kids or something. But no, we didn’t get any character development for them either. Actually, I don’t think there were any flashbacks in the series at all, which was odd. Again, it seems like Mahouka was always too focused on the plot at hand to spend time letting us know about characters’ pasts.
In addition to forgetting who many supporting characters were because the show never stopped to focus on any one of them for any considerable length of time, I also had trouble following the show’s fast-moving plot. This could just be my fault and not Mahouka’s as it may have properly explained everything that happened and I have trouble remembering it all and putting it together. But whenever an anime has a lot of characters who are part of several different organizations each with their own motives, amongst conversations filled with technical jargon and series-specific terminology, I can’t help but get confused, especially when I don’t like a series enough to be that invested to begin with. In most of the story arcs, I only had a gist of what was going on.
So all this makes it seem like I didn’t like Mahouka, which as I said is kinda true, though I must have liked something about it if I stuck with it for 26 episodes. Again, I did like the world it takes place in where magic and science intermingle, and I liked Tatsuya and Miyuki. But even though I liked the setting, I didn’t want 90% of the series to be focused on that instead of developing its large cast of characters. To sum it up, I think Mahouka is a decent show and I can definitely see why some people like it (apparently it was a hit among the Japanese otaku crowd). Its strictly plot-driven structure is appealing to some, but unfortunately not to me.
Free! Eternal Summer
For those of you who read my review of the first season of Free!, you’ll know that I basically enjoyed it despite some issues. And I’m happy to say that I felt the same about this second season; I liked it well enough despite having a few problems with it.
My main, and really only, issue with the first season of Free! was my dislike for Rin (read my first review if you want to know why). Although we got the impression that he changed for the better at the end of season 1, I was still apprehensive. Thankfully, his character development was consistent and he was MUCH more likable in ES than he was in season 1 – he’s practically a different guy! In fact, I think I liked him the best out of all the characters in season 2. He was a really good friend to Sousuke and Haru even though they had some emotional outbursts, and he was also a great coach to Ai, Momo, and the other team members. His crowning moment to me was when he decided to take an angsty Haru with him to Australia in order to help him realize his dream. So yeah, Rin not only being tolerable but being one of the most likable characters, is a big plus for season 2.
As expected, there were a few things about this season of Free! that I didn’t like. I thought the drama in the Nagisa-focused episode was a bit too cheesy and predictable – I knew right away when he was pouring out his feelings to whoever was behind the curtain that it wasn’t his parents =P I also thought that Sousuke’s initial jerky attitude towards Haru didn’t make much sense in the end. Haru getting all angsty and acting kinda bratty in the last few episodes bothered me too, especially when he said such mean things to Makoto. I was like “That’s no way to talk to your best friend who’s always so nice to you! I know you’re upset, but you’re not 7 years old, c’mon now!” At least he apologized to Makoto eventually because I would have been really mad if he didn’t (I almost thought he wasn’t going to apologize since he didn’t when they first met up again after he came back from Australia, but I was relieved when he finally did…and Makoto really needs to try getting angry sometime, even a little!)
So other than these few issues, and Rin being a surprisingly more enjoyable character, the rest of Free! 2 was pretty much the same. Decent comedy and drama, fun characters overall, and KyoAni’s signature gorgeous animation. If you liked the first season, I would say Eternal Summer is just as good.
Glasslip
Now we get to the most underwhelming anime I’ve seen in a long time. P.A. Works has made many original anime series and they range from fairly good (Hanasaku Iroha, True Tears) to kinda okay (Tari Tari) to amazingly brilliant (Nagi no Asukara). So after coming off a masterpiece like Nagi no Asukara from last year, I wasn’t expecting Glasslip to be as good, but I was expecting it to at least be “good.” But sadly, it wasn’t. And strangely, I can’t pinpoint anything in it that was downright terrible in the way I usually can with anime…the series in general was just sooo boooring! And the reason for that was because, ultimately, nothing happened in the show. Now there’s a difference between a show having no plot and a show where nothing happens. Plot-less shows like Kiniro Mosaic, Acchi Kocchi, and Lucky Star can be great because lots of funny and entertaining stuff happens even if it doesn’t follow a narrative structure. But Glasslip was definitely not a slice-of-life comedy like these shows because I can’t recall a single funny scene in all the episodes. So it must be a slice-of-life drama and/or romance? I would hardly say there was romance in it unless you consider mundane scenes of Sachi and Hiro hiking and sitting around in Sachi’s apartment, or Touko and Kakeru maybe thinking they like each other because they can both see weird stuff in glass, being romantic. And I guess there was some drama in the show, but again, it was so mundane and led absolutely nowhere in terms of character or plot development. I think the most drama I can remember in the series was when Yanagi slapped Kakeru. But I honestly can’t remember a scene where any character showed emotions to a degree I would consider dramatic. But I guess the reason the characters didn’t show that they gave a damn about anything is because nothing worth giving a damn about even happened in the show to begin with.
The only semblance of some kind of story was Touko’s and Kakeru’s ability to see bits of the future in glass surfaces, so I hoped that by the last episode we’d at least see some interesting development or truly dramatic interactions happen regarding that. But it was just as bland as everything else – I guess they figured out that what they were seeing weren’t fragments of the future but other visions and so they’re not gonna worry about it anymore or something like that…I honestly just couldn’t bring myself to care enough to figure it out because it led to nothing of importance. The show kind of had subplots too but even those were terribly underwhelming and went nowhere; Sachi and Yanagi didn’t trust Kakeru at first and then they did, kinda…the love triangle between Yanagi, Yuki, and Touko happened and then went nowhere…Sachi being sickly and her dating Hiro also happened and didn’t lead to anything…yeah, this was pretty much all that went on in 13 episodes. Well, and also Touko and Kakeru’s relationship kind of developed over time, but they were such bland characters and the drama between them was so low-key that I couldn’t tell.
The only thing I can praise Glassip on is its lovely artwork and animation, which is typical of P.A. Works. I noticed some nice background music occasionally too. But that’s literally all I can say was good about it. It’s a shame because some of the characters seemed potentially interesting and at first the premise of being able to see visions in glass was kinda cool. But when you go through 13 episodes of characters hardly showing emotion or developing, and a plot that’s sort of there but has no rising or turning points and leads to nothing in the end, you’re bound to be disappointed. Maybe P.A. Works just needs Mari Okada in order to make good original anime series. I can’t criticize Glasslip in the way I do most other anime in terms of things in their plots not making sense or characters acting in ways I didn’t like because, well, nothing happened enough in the story for any of these things to occur. So yeah, I can’t recommend Glasslip at all – bland characters, mundane writing, and what semblance of drama and plot it has leads to nothing in the end. It’s pretty to look at though.
Zankyou no Terror
Not wanting to end on a negative note, I’ll finish this post with an anime I really enjoyed! Zankyou no Terror, a.k.a. Terror in Resonance, another anime with the great Yoko Kanno and Shinichiro Watanabe combo, had me hooked right away. The suspense and psychological tension of each episode with the police having to figure out Sphinx’s riddles before it was too late always had me at the edge of my seat. It made me reminiscent of when I watched Death Note for the first time, which is a good thing! Now that I think about it, it has similarities to Death Note in terms of the main character (well, characters in this case) going on his own kind of warped vendetta of justice that the police have to keep thwarting. Whether Nine and Twelve were just in what they did or not is a similar thought-provoking theme of whether Light was just in using the Death Note, and I always like it when anime makes its main characters more complex than simple “good guys.” But unlike Death Note, Twelve and Nine just want to bring awareness to the country and don’t want to actually kill anyone.
Like other short drama anime with somewhat heavy plots, I was afraid that Zankyou no Terror would slip up in the end, either rushing its ending or leaving plot holes. But that wasn’t the case. I thought the series had really good pacing all the way through, spending the first batch of episodes getting to know the characters and trying to piece together the mystery of Twelve and Nine’s motives as they dish out new riddles for Shibazaki and the rest of the police to solve. Gradually we get hints of who the duo are and what their motives may be, and then in the last batch of episodes, the plot takes a turn with Five’s interventions, Shibazaki learning about the Athena Project, and Twelve growing closer to Lisa, which causes a rift between him and Nine. But I felt that everything was resolved and questions were answered by the end, again, without that rushed feeling I get from many other short anime.
Speaking of the show’s ending, I heard that people had problems with it because, yeah, it was pretty darn upsetting. But even though it also upset me too, I still thought it made sense in the story and I didn’t get that “Where the hell did that come from!?” feeling I’ve gotten with other anime endings. It made sense that the government would want to persecute Sphinx (especially trigger-happy Americans) after everything that had happened. And even if Twelve and Nine had survived in the end, they definitely wouldn’t be able to live any kind of normal life. Even if everything about the Athena Project was revealed, I still don’t think that would be enough for the population of Japan to forgive them. They’d either have to spend the rest of their lives in jail or some government official somewhere would order their execution anyway. I guess the only thing that was a bit contrived about it was that Nine just happened to succumb to his illness right at that moment. But then again, he was in an extremely stressful situation at the time so that could have pushed him to the brink. I guess the only minor thing I would have liked to see resolved in the end was Lisa’s relationship with her mother. I’m assuming that since she’s a minor she had to go back to her mother in the end, though it would have been nice to see how or if their relationship changed after everything she’d been through.
I’m trying to think of something I found negative about Zankyou no Terror, but I don’t think I had a problem with anything. I guess if I had to nitpick I thought that Five’s obsession with Nine was a little weird, but when you consider what kind of environment she grew up in, it’s not that weird. The only thing in the series that made me confused was the fact that Lisa and Twelve decided to stay behind when everyone was evacuating. I know Twelve was injured and Lisa didn’t want to leave him, but there were still people around and I’m sure someone would have helped her carry him or something. Or did they already know that the bomb was gonna explode in the stratosphere so they weren’t in any danger? Maybe I just missed something somewhere.
But anyway, Zankyou no Terror was a great series from beginning to end. An exciting, suspenseful, and overall well written story that fit perfectly into 11 episodes. Another anime that proves that you don’t necessarily need a lot of action or violence, nor a lot of angst, in order to tell a really gripping, dramatic story.
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I’ll be back next time with another editorial =) I also gotta start thinking about what fall anime to watch…
Glasslip definitely looked pretty but I bolted after the first episode. I was left so wtf with them taking in the chickens (?) that I decided not to watch anymore. Based on your review, I made the entirely correct decision for myself on this one.
I really enjoyed Mahouka for the setting/world but you’re right about the character development. Personally I wanted to see Tatsuya have to face some sort of internal conflict to deepen his character beyond super-guy-who-can-handle-everything but oh well. I was happy with all the Tatsuya & Miyuki scenes. ♥
The thing I couldn’t get about Free ES was the Sousuke craze. I liked how the last episode left things but I still felt like he was a little too soap opera-y. Rei was the REAL star this season as far as I’m concerned. He made me laugh like hell almost every episode. XD
Loved ZnT but was still sad about the ending. Five annoyed the ever-loving shit out of me by being willing to kill people just get to Nine. Shibazaki’s a cool guy, though. Anyway, I enjoyed reading your review(s). Looking forward to seeing what you pick up for fall. :)
I don’t think it’s unusual for me to not know what’s going on in the first episode of an anime because I figure things will be explained later in the series. So that didn’t turn me off from Glasslip initially…but yeah, you definitely didn’t miss out on anything. You could probably watch the first episode and the last episode of it and not feel like you missed a whole lot XD
Yeah, I really thought we’d at least see one instance of Tatsuya losing his cool and showing a more emotional side. The series was just too focused on its story over its characters as I said. But I still enjoyed some of it, just not my cup of tea overall.
I though Rei had more awesome moments in season 1…he actually made me laugh more then and I liked how he confronted Rin on his own even though it wasn’t his problem. He was still good this time too but I still thought Rin had more highlights ;)
Glad you liked my review by the way =)
It was more the vibe of the first episode that turned me off. I’m not quite sure how to explain it but it gave me the same feeling I had trying to watch Dance in the Vampire Bund, which I absolutely hated (I only made it through seven episodes). There aren’t a lot of anime I’ve seen that have given off this vibe (Hanasakeru Seishounen was another one) but I’ve learned by experience to opt out when I get that feeling in the first episode now. Generally I wait till the second or third episode if I feel unsure about what’s going on or whether or not I like it. Nozaki started out that way for me, actually. When I watched the first episode I thought “the dense lead trope again, huh (¬_¬)” but the second and third episodes made me giggle so much that I happily ate my own initially wary words. :D
It’s been a while since I’ve watched season one of Free so Rei may have had a lot of good moments then as well. Rin definitely had a lot of highlights in season two. I liked seeing him develop as captain and as a person. :) I feel a little bad for not liking him much in season one…
Of course! I think doing the reviews as a series works well. I’m glad you opted for that, I can’t imagine the stamina required to do episodic reviews.
As for Free Eternal Summer, I admit that it’s an improvement over the first season, but I do agree that Nagisa’s episode is a bit cheesy, but at least the sequel wasn’t filled with a lot of angst
As for Glasslip, it’s a very disappointing show and perhaps the worst I have seen that I gave it a failing grade. I do agree that the show still doesn’t know what it wants to be and that they never really revealed the mystery behind the visions Touko’s visions. Disappointing since the animation looks nice, but hopefully PA Works will do better with their fall anime production.
I saw your tweet about giving Glasslip a failing grade and I can’t blame you. I can’t believe its rating on MAL is over 6000…I’ve seen very few anime that have come out in the past decade rated that poorly XD It’s a shame, but yeah, I’ll still give P.A. Works a chance. No studio can make a masterpiece every time.
Mahouka, to me, looks like a show that was made for people who read the light novels for it. Not much is explained, and it just animates the action parts of the light novel. So for people who read it, it is probably really good, and they get all the bits and pieces that we are missing. I also liked it more than not, but there was a lot missing. As you mention, the character back-stories were missing. There are lots of interesting character, but we do not know much of them. The girl with glasses that could see things. Why is that? why does she see things other do not? What is the reason behind it? The guy that could use spirits and some sort of ancient magic. Why? How did he get that knowledge? And then Tatsuya. It was shown from the beginning that the guy was cut above the rest, but by the end of the 26 episodes, he’s completely overpowered, and can tackle anyone and anything without breaking a sweat. Again, why? How did he get there? What’s the reason for it? I’m sure the people that read the novels probably loved it, and get what is going on. But as someone who has no idea about what is going on in that universe, not a lot was explained. So it’s still a great mystery to me.
Free was ok, but I just feel everything is blown out of proportions. I know they are trying to make an interesting story about a swimming club, but… Well… It’s just a swimming club, so there is only so much they can do. So all that you mentioned, it’s just little things that are so blown out of proportion that just does not feel so real to me. One part that I did not like, was the handling of Rei. He was important in the 1st series, because he was the new member, etc, but on this 2nd one, he’s just there, but does not feel like he’s a core part of the group. He just does not have the same interactions that the other 4 had in the past, so he really feels like he was left out a lot to me. So it’s an ok show, but I just feel the whole setting is just not that good. It would be ok for just a comedy anime, but they try to make things so serious sometimes that it just feels out of place.
I did not watch Glasslip, and I guess that was a good thing :P It does sound pretty boring, and if you compared it to something like True Tears, (that you think it’s good, but I did not like), and you think it’s worse, then I better pass it up.
Zankyou no Terror was really good. I like shows where the characters are not all painted black and white. Where they tell us “this is the good guy, and this is the bad guy”. Sure good guys and bad guys come up, but I love characters that may be generally good but need to do some bad things, or may be bad, but end up doing good things. So I liked the characters in Zankyou no Terror quite a bit. The plot was interesting as well, and the pacing was really good as you said. I did not like Lisa at the beginning, but I think she was a good addition to the extreme group that is Nine and Twelve. So it all worked out. Really good overall, can’t think of anything negative either. The only negative I could say is that the opening song was a bit boring, so I always skipped it :P
Last season was pretty decent. Some good shows, others not so good. Let’s see how the next season lines up!
That’s a good point about Mahouka and you’re probably right about it. That’s probably why it’s been a fairly big hit in Japan – they have access to the light novels there. The series kind of looked like there was gonna be a second season or something but I’m not sure if I’ll watch it or not if that’s the case.
Good points about Free! too. Like I said to Bri above, I found Rei more memorable in the first season, and though he had some good scenes in season 2, you’re right that he really was kinda pushed into the background because he doesn’t share all the past backstories that Makoto, Haru, Nagisa, and even Sousuke do. Not sure why they needed Sousuke anyway as they could have used the episodes that focused on him for Rei instead. I guess they figured a new season has to have a new rival =P
Heh, I also didn’t like Lisa in the early episodes. She just seemed so annoyingly hapless and distracting from what Nine and Twelve were doing. But as you said, she developed over time and became more likable by the end, so that’s another plus for the series =)
Along with Fate/kaleid S2, Barakamon and Hanayamata, Zankyou no Terror is also definitely up there as far as best summer anime goes, for me at least :p I’m actually very satisfied with the ending. It made sense, like you said, since both Nine and Twelve will succumb to their illness soon, it is conclusive, and I might say it even ended on a somewhat positive note.