Anime

Venus Versus Virus

A fast review of Venus Versus Virus' first episode so I can get back to watching it. VVV is a short anime (about twelve episodes) from the mid 2000s that is - almost across the board - mediocre. The character designs are nice but you've seen them before. The story opens with a flashback that tries to provide a hook: why are the two leads fighting? But - alas - I have seen this before, and VVV feels a lot like Noir, but made by less mature people. So why am I watching it? Because it is doing something different from Noir, and I want to see where these two leads go. Instead of Noir's commitment to mercenary work and an almost realistic tone, VVV is going for the classic urban fantasy/magical girl bit: there are invisible monsters that only certain people can see and fight.

Lead One is named Sumire - she has the red hair and looks vulnerable - and I don't mean in a weird way, I mean in that she's going to have to fight for her life on a weekly basis and she looks like a single punch would KO her forever. She doesn't want to be in this series, which is valid. She doesn't want to see monsters, she doesn't like that she can Hulk-out and rip the monsters apart, and she doesn't like the group that's drafted her into fighting. But she does want to help people, so she's stuck.

Lead Two is Lucia. She has blue hair, heterochromia, an eyepatch, and is super serious and ready to fight at any time. Her eyepatch covers up her eye not because of medical reasons, but because if she removes it, her magical ability activates. I think it can see the future, but it hasn't been explained yet - though use of it does hurt her.

The first episode covered the introduction, the two of them finding a girl haunted by a monster that's been killing her friends (I appreciated how quiet the tragic horror was - all of her friends are dead, and she falls to the floor and it's never discussed, as they're busy saving her.) They save her via guns and infodumping and Sumire going into her berserk state. No real depth, and the animation is okay... it works, and it's not bad, but you have already seen a hundred better first episodes.

Episode two is a little bit better. It opens with Lucia, her creepy scientist adult and her creepy little girl assistant testing Sumire's berserk state with different drugs. They want to help her control it, so it will kill monsters and not her friends, but no success yet. Sumire proceeds to leave and go to school, and she really, really wants things to be normal. Her friends miss her, she misses regular school life, but - she sees a monster at the school. And Lucia comes by to say that she does know what she's feeling. This is effective! Her friends are cute, her struggle is relatable, and while you know Sumire won't get what she wants (especially with invisible monster dude lurking) you feel for her.

The second half of this episode is great. She drops her amulet that keeps monsters from seeing her, so she runs to her classroom, gets a gun from her bag, and proceeds to run through this cute girl's academy with a realistic hand gun shooting at an invisible monster. This is unrealistic because no one hears the gun and no one notices her doing this, but it's a great nightmare backdrop to what she's doing. That's her normal life, right there, but she's unable to participate in it because she has to shoot this monster before he kills her. (It is very funny how the artists/animators clearly LOVE guns because the gun is the most detailed item in most shots.) The chase ends on the roof, where she misses every shot - and uses the final one on herself, to force the berserk state so she can kill this monster. I like her berserk state! Her eyes turn red with cross-shaped irises, and there's this whole vibe of how she's dangerous now. Cliche but effective!

Lucia shows up once it's dead, and helps calm the Hulk - fortunately not with unexplained lullabies, but instead with a magic circle... that kind of doesn't work. Sumire breaks through it and scratches her face before calming down. They talk afterwards in a cute moment, and while MAL reviews say this anime doesn't actually do anything but have yuri vibes, I'm still digging them! They're supporting each other and clearly care and it's cute! This helps make me worry about that flashback, because I don't want them to fight each other. And in conclusion, the episode ends with her resolving to stick with the monster hunting. Nothing is really better, but that's okay. This is a good second episode, supplementing the first episode while working as a standalone story, and it makes me hopeful for the rest of the show. - 11/6/2023

Twin Star Exorcists

Now here's a weird series. I started watching it months ago and made it to episode five and wandered away. Unfortunately I remember enough that I don't want to rewatch, but I don't remember enough to tell you about it. It's an urban fantasy - here we go, you know the cliche setup. Invisible monsters, secret organizations that fight them, teenagers who live double lives in school and fight for their lives outside of it.

Our heroes are Rokuro and Benio, who are teenagers who are fated to give birth to a kid who'll be the most powerful exorcist who will ever exist. Thanks, prophecies! Love eugenics! Anyways, the monsters are named 'kegare' and they have cool designs. I won't be providing images of them because I'm a terrible person. Bonus info: this anime is faithful to the manga it came from until episode 21, where it does its own thing.

So why am I watching it now? Because I am genuinely trying to get through my anime collection and there's something weirdly charming about this one. I'm not even sure how to put it to words, but the cast is lively and it's fun to watch them help innocents, and the fight sequences take place in cool stylized sequences in a very red/black alternate dimension. I'm also a huge sucker for the idea that our deeply immature protagonists will mature together. They don't like the arranged marriage, but they do like to work together? Kind of? Ah, I'm just a sucker for people learning about each other and how to like each other. Plus both protagonists have trauma and tragedy in their pasts that I want to know more about.

As I write I'm watching episode five and it's bringing up all the above feelings. It opens in a relaxed way - Benio is making talismans with her pretty caligraphy, Rokuro is revealed to have terrible caligraphy who makes talismans that later don't work, there's an emergency at a school, they all dash out (our leads and two side characters) to rescue children, and fight! ... Hey, a new character. He just rescued Rokuro and he's showing off his cool powers and fighting. I'm not impressed, as it seems like he's going to be our stock rival character, but with none of the chemistry Naruto and Sasuke had.

Oh my goodness he's one of the Twelve Guardians the highest blah blah blah seen this before. He is going to help with the character development though - insults Rokuro, says he's not fighting seriously, etc.I almost feel like I shouldn't bother reporting this episode at all? Ah, whatever. It's cliche, it's not necessarily bad but there's nothing to really make it stand out. But hey, I enjoyed this episode. - 11/6/2023

Assault Lily Bouquet

Oh Strix, we're really in for it now. I am a giant, stinking huge sucker for "monsters are attacking humanity! due to insufficient reasons, only teenagers can save us!" setups that are a dime a dozen, and here's another one. I picked this one semi-randomly today to watch while doing dishes, and got halfway through the first episode - not in a negative way, but because of sillier reasons. Since the gimmick of the show is that teenage girls are the best weapon against the invaders, they go to prestigious academies to train - which means it's Maria Watches Over Us or Onee-Sama E but with action and sci-fi nonsense from Studio SHAFT. (Alas, not from their most famous director, Shinbo, so while it's well animated it's not, uh, quirky so far.) Which means that my brain is asking the entire time if I shouldn't be watching those two shows instead? They're foundational, interesting, and I'll understand what tropes they're playing with if I watch those first! ... We'll see what I do. In any case, I expect I will return to this show at some point, regardless of its quality, as it's about twelve episodes and seems fun. - 11/8/2023