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

Oniisama e... | Dear Brother

I genuinely thought this anime was older than it is, and that's because the manga it was adapted from is from the early 70s. This anime began airing in '91 and it is a visual feast - clearly, the team behind this series had both budget and motivation to make this a treat to watch. The use of water color especially! But - alright - I'm getting sidetracked already. What's Oniisama? If you read my brief impression of Assault Lilies Bouquet, you probably noticed me mention this series, and it is indeed what inspired me to visit this classic.

Oniisama e... is the foundational anime about a teenage girl entering a prestigious all-girl's academy, meeting her classmates, and becoming entangled in their lives and their dramas. Sounds boring, especially to someone like me who prefers exciting, focused plots with supernatural, sci-fi, or action elements... but I'm coming to really appreciate the exceptions. I really enjoy strong character writing, and that's what Oniisama e promises. Additionally, Oniisama is a massive influence on anime that came after it. Revolutionary Girl Utena directly rips from it, using the tropes Oniisama defined in order to reinforce its setting before it begins to get to work playing and deconstructing them. Almost any other anime set in a prestigious all-girl's academy has this as an ancestor - and you'd be surprised at many of these there are!

The trick, then, is that I haven't seen this seminal work. I have watched two episodes, been impressed, and wandered off yet again. Thanks, ADHD. My attempt here is to use this website to make myself both document the show and in the process watch it. So now, as I type, I am most of the way through the first episode.

Initial thoughts: we're on a whirlwind tour of setting, setup, and we STILL have time for a rose petal slow-down sequence of one of the leads winning at basketball. Wow. Just now there's a long moody shot of another lead walking slowly down the road in the rain. I cannot emphasize enough how stylish this show is.

The brief: Nanako Misonoo narrates by writing a letter to her brother about her first day at school. She and her friend joined this famous school for, among other reasons, the freedom to wear what they want (instead of a uniform) but their conservative mothers browbeat them into wearing uniforms. They talk on the train, meet Saint-Juste briefly (green haired lady with incredible artistic talents who is an introvert), then make it to school to meet: Kaoru, who missed a year of school due to illness, but is an incredibly athletic basketball player; Miya-sama, the posh leader of the 'Sorority', Mariko the informative gossip, and Aya Misaki, a stuck-up aspirant to joining the Sorority. Phew! Teachers? Classes? What are those? Meet, by the way, is a strong word: there's a lot of information given to us but not much interaction between anyone this early on. Well, Nanako does receive a rose from Saint-Juste, and my GOD they're gay. (I don't actually know if this show does anything beyond hinting intensely at queer themes, but I hesitate to call anything here queerbaiting due to, well, manga written in the 70s by a woman.) Nanako has a crush... and in a gorgeously drawn scene we see Saint-Juste refusing an umbrella while walking in the park in the rain, before she pops some mysterious pills. Uh oh. The episode closes with two scenes: Nanako's brother sending her a present to celebrate acceptance into high school anonymously, and there's an implication that there's something weird going on with her family. Then Nanako sums up her day while showering, applying nail polish, and preparing for bed. I think - and I might be reading too much into this - that the nail polish is meant to help emphasize the theme that she's leaving / left childhood behind and is becoming a woman, instead of a girl. Which, well, it just isn't an anime about teenagers without exploring the struggles of growing up and what that actually means.

For what little happened, it's so striking and weirdly compelling to watch? I honestly might just go into the next episode, which is unusual for me. We'll see!

Yep I'm hopping in! And I immediately pause the episode to admire something that Sailor Moon might have directly ripped... maybe! Oniisama's first episodes aired in July of 1991, and Sailor Moon's first episodes aired in March of 1992. I might, again, be overthinking this shot: the close-up on the socked feet as our heroine descends the stairs in a hurry on her way to the kitchen/school/etc.

"Are you still writing letters to your boyfriend?" / "No, it's my brother!" / "Same difference." / "No, a brother is a brother." - Nanako, I appreciate you shutting this incest down. I also appreciate that the episode immediately begins to explain that her brother isn't her brother - or her boyfriend. He's her teacher from cram school, and on the last day she realized she'd never see him again, so she found him and asked him to be her brother (and to read and accept her letters). She emphasizes it's not love in her narration, but isn't quite sure. Concerning, but... ah, teenagers. He recognizes her family name, might know her father - and gives her his address, and tells her that he expects her first letter to say she's been accepted into high school. There is obviously something more going on here, but it isn't covered here yet.

It's fascinating watching initial, important themes be introduced: Mariko doesn't go 'aha my new friend Nanako!' she literally dives between Nanako and her old friend and drags her off, leaving the old friend upset. She all but forces another student to exchange seats so she can sit with Nanako.

... I think it speaks to the strength of the show that barely two episodes in I'm already dissecting and examining everything. Compare with VVV or Twin Star Exorcist where there's nothing to really examine, and no point. That's part of what makes it hard to watch something like this - I want to pay attention!

For example Mariko explains that her lips are so outstandingly red because she bites them all the time in order to impress the older girls, as they like red lips. Nanako is rightfully freaked out by this! I'm freaked out by this!

The main thrust of this episode is the Sorority, Nanako wondering if they're a good idea, and the question of who gets to enter it this year. I have no experience with these, and in my humble opinion I think they're bad; anything that elitist just makes me nervous - but then, I was never ambitious or popular in high school. So, only ten girls can enter the Sorority this year, everyone is wondering who can get in, and Aya is already assuming she will be entered, of course. She's from a rich family and her mother was in it, of course she'll be chosen. Oh, boy.

Mariko is the first one chosen to join, then Kaoru (who refuses to join as she doesn't like the Sorority,) and Nanako. That's all the girls from this class, and Aya is left in the cold. But first - everyone gets to be shocked because Nanako? Who is that? Why was she chosen?

All of this is played out in the backdrop of Saint-Juste having a run-in with the Sorority leader before this, having some kind of break, and running desperately to her piano to play dramatic music that plays as Nanako is chosen... and as Aya proceeds to throw a FIT. "It's not fair! Nanako isn't qualified!" as Mariko rushes in to defend her, and Aya snaps that Mariko should shut-up, she's the daughter of a porn writer! ... Oh my goodness, 70s Japan chill, porn is cool. But in this setting, it clearly isn't cool, and Aya uses it as a weapon against Mariko before physically pushing her - and Kaoru stpes in to separate them, and to remind them that no one can choose their parents.... before Mariko dashes in for the MEGA SLAP before collapsing into tears.

The leader steps in to say that Aya could have become a new candidate in play of Kaoru stepping out... except that she'd veto her herself. Aya leaves in tears, and poor Nanako is still confused and shocked.

I cannot emphasize how powerful the direction in this scene is. It's filmed with all of the passion and drama of the most tortured moment of a Shakespearean play, as if someone has died, and by god you can tell how intense everyone's emotions are. Teenagers!

Nanako and her old friend, on the train ride home, are ripped apart by this. There's a party Nanako has to go to - and they were supposed to bake a cake on that day. You can tell there's a real emotion of 'why are we in different classes, why are we being pulled apart?', especially from the friend. I... feel this a bit, because I met a close friend in middle school who was always assigned to classes away from me. It sucked!

The episode closes with Nanako wondering when the illusion that she should be chosen for this will be ripped away, comparing herself to Cinderella (as her friend did). Which really is a valid question - we don't know anything about her ability. She's very passive, and generally nice... so far. So far. - 11/10/2023