Monthly Archives: September 2019

Mid-Summer 2019 Anime Ranking

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A small anime load is going to be the norm now, as work and obligations continue to keep us busy. Also, I will confess that I recently caved and rescinded my One Game Policy™. I now play Ikemen Vampire as well as Ikemen Sengoku on a regular basis. They are fun and rewarding, but they do divert quite a bit of time and attention away from anime and life.

The anime series that we started and dropped this season numbered nearly as many as the titles we ended up sticking with. Some prominent shows that fell by the wayside include to the abandoned Sacred Beasts, FIRE FORCE, Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit, Multi-Target Attacks!, and Ensemble Stars!. Kochouki: Wakaki Nobunaga might be on the chopping block too.


01. COP CRAFT (ep. 1-9) – A fish-out-of-water, visible minority (alien) rookie cop gets paired with grizzled (human) veteran. Yes, we’ve seen this set-up a million times before, not only in anime, but in western entertainment as well. But even though there’s nothing special about the premise, or the animation quality, and everybody seems to be criticizing the show, I guess I don’t care about that stuff, because I still like it!

I believe it’s all in the execution. From the confident storytelling, to the impeccable comic timing, to the nuanced characters (side characters too!), and most of all the stellar script, COP CRAFT is really smart; and I find it to be highly enjoyable. I also appreciate the realistic way COP CRAFT touches on various social issues topics such as race relations, sexual orientation, and politics.
(streaming at FUNimation)


02. VINLAND SAGA (ep. 1-9) – Well, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Viking anime before. This one is a really well-written (and violent) tale of a young boy named Thorfinn losing his innocence and growing into a warrior obsessed with vengeance. I don’t know much about the events of the Middle Ages, so I’m learning a little bit of history from watching this show.

The first 3 episodes originally aired together, but we had to take a break between 2 and 3 in order to prepare ourselves for what was obviously coming.

I wonder that no one tells the whole truth to Thorfinn. I mean, Askeladd is clearly not a good guy, but he was more the weapon, not the rightful target for revenge. Honour had nothing to do with it, after all; Askeladd was hired to do a job, and he had to do it.

The opening for this anime is so good. Survive Said The Prophet’s melodic and metal “MUKANJYO” pairs beautifully with the dramatic character imagery, epic vistas, and constantly moving camera work to produce the best opening/ending credits sequence I’ve seen this season, and maybe so far this year.
(streaming: Amazon Prime)


03. [given] (ep. 1-10) – There’s a lot to like about [given]. As a band anime, it probably ranks up among the likes of NANA and BECK. The characters are all likeable, and the performance animation and music are quite good too. In addition, [given] is a sensitive and subtle story of the budding romance between the 2 leads, which gets a bit angsty, but not to the point of melodrama.
(streaming at Crunchyroll)


04. STARMYU High School Star Musical Season 3 (ep. 1-11) – Hoshitani really, really wants to perform together with all his friends for the Opening Ceremony, which leads to trouble with the current Kao Council. That is actually the whole plot. And you know what? It’s stupid, but it’s enough. The magic of STARMYU is in the great cast. The characters are consistently loveable and funny (well, most of them), and true to their personalities. While I do miss Ootori and Hiiragi, STARMYU in general has not lost its charm, even well into its third season.
(streaming at Crunchyroll)


05. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (ep. 14-23) – The stunning sakuga and gorgeous art toward the end of the spider arc had social media all abuzz. While it certainly looked impressive, I was personally more entertained by the (filler) episodes which led up to that arc. That’s because Zenitsu and Inosuke are such great characters. I mean I kind of feel sorry for Tanjirou that he has to put up with these crazies, but they are funny! My favourite part was how upset Zenitsu got when he was forced to part with that kid he was supposed to have been protecting.

At the conclusion of the spider-demon arc, the show tried to humanize the villain by showing his past, a typical occurrence in shounen storytelling. But it was way too little, way too late. After all the evil we’d seen him do, there was no way to justify that, and his origin story fell flat.
(streaming at Crunchyroll)


06. Dr. STONE (ep. 1-10) – Senkuu is undeniably wise, not only in his scientific know-how, but also in his philosophical worldview. However, I have to question his leadership skills if at only the third episode, when the world as they know it has a population of 4, he already needs to make gunpowder!

Anyway, it’s very easy to root for Senkuu to be successful in reviving the world because obviously, science is cool.
(streaming at Crunchyroll)


07. Ace of Diamond (Diamond no Ace): Act II (season 3) (ep. 14-24) – It’s been a really long time coming, but in the rivalry between Seido pitchers Sawamura and Furuya, Sawamura is consistently outperforming Furuya lately, and actually looking like the main character that he is! Coach Kataoka is even starting him in the important game against scary fast Hakuryuu High School. Let’s hope Sawamura continues to hold his own against their strong batters and audacious base-stealers.

It might not always be evident from the way he acts, but Miyuki is a remarkable captain for his team, passing on his knowledge to the junior members, and sadly, also preparing his pitchers for a future that won’t include him.
(streaming at Crunchyroll)


08. Fruits Basket (2019) (ep. 14-22) – We were getting a bit tired of the usual formula, which is: Tohru encounters the Souma-of-the-week.

Fortunately, eps. 21-22 shifted the focus to Tohru’s friend Hanajima, showing her past and explaining how she came to be the way she is now. Up until that point, she had been a pretty gimmicky character. This flashback story impressively and unexpectedly humanized her.
(streaming at Crunchyroll)


09. BEM (ep. 1-7) – This is another 50th anniversary reboot project of which I’m not familiar with the original source or previous adaptations. It might be the fault of the dated franchise, but many of the villains are so cringingly ridiculous, they would have been right at home in the parody anime Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!.

Bem, Bela, and Belo are humanoid youkai who go around defeating evil monsters in order to protect humans. Their goal is to become human again someday.

So no surprise when, in ep. 7, Bem lectured Belo that he must not kill a scumbag who was experimenting on human and animal captives because it’s their policy to not kill humans. But then, Bem proceeded to release all of the creatures from their cages and allowed them to maul the guy to death. Umm okay, Bem, as long as your conscience is clear.

When it comes to gritty, dark, supernatural anime, COP CRAFT scratches my itch this season a lot better than BEM.
(streaming at FUNimation)

TIFF – Saturday Fiction

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Released 2019

2 stars (out of 4)

This movie, set in 1941 Shanghai during the Japanese occupation, was too… advanced for me.

There were very many characters, each with their own allegiances, motivations, and secrets. Four languages were spoken prominently in the film (Chinese, Japanese, French, English); at least I had the benefit of recognizing each of them when I heard them, otherwise it would have been even harder to keep track of who was whom. In general, it was challenging to discern what was truth and what was a lie when the characters interacted with each other. That applied to the main character too. Great that she was a badass film star/undercover agent, but she remained as much of an enigma to the viewer as to her allies and enemies.

Additionally, there was a “play within a play” (the film shares the name Saturday Fiction with the play) which seemed to blend in to reality.

Based on the title, this blurring of fact and fiction might have been the whole intent, but for me, I could not tell what the movie was trying to say then.

The film was all in black and white, shot with hand-held cameras closely following the characters. With a period piece like this, I would have liked to have seen some historical scenery images, but there was not much to be found here beyond the inside of the buildings.

TIFF – No.7 Cherry Lane

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Released 2019

3 stars (out of 4), having the benefit of the director’s preface. Likely less without it.

3D-animated to start, then redrawn to appear 2D on a rice paper canvas, No.7 Cherry Lane takes place during the political unrest of 1967 Hong Kong. The film was made in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Beijing; and the dialogue is a mixture of Mandarin and Cantonese.

Director Yonfan was in attendance and he provided an interview and comments before the screening – which was a really good thing! Apparently, he does not watch animated works himself, so he did not have preconceptions about how things should be done, and so the film might be seen as unconventional. He also warned that it would be a slow movie and advised us how important he thought the soundtrack was.

Indeed, No.7 Cherry Lane was pretty different from the anime that I’m accustomed to, which values “show” over “tell.” Some parts were so heavily narrated that it seemed more like reading a book, with the images on screen matching the narration. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as otherwise I might not have known to pay attention to the somewhat mundane details. Yet, for all the abundant exposition in those scenes, there were just as many that could have benefitted from further explanation.

Some parts were just plain weird. I still don’t understand the point of the ball-less tennis match (at first I thought it was an artistic choice to not show the ball, while my sister thought it was a budgetary choice – but apparently there was actually no ball!) And particularly, that hallucinatory sequence near the end had us wondering, quite literally, “What the heck is she smoking?”

The computer-graphic origin of the art was especially apparent in the characters’ movements, which was the “slowest” part of the film. The way they walked reminded me of zombies; and if I had been streaming this on the computer, I might have thought I had a connection problem with how laggy it looked!

This is not to say I completely disliked the film. There were aspects that worked for me. The music was beautiful, as promised. The historical Hong Kong backdrop was a treat to behold. Additionally, I did ship the May-December romance between the 2 leads, even if the love triangle seemed unnecessary and (at least for me) incomprehensible.