I think it’s fair to call this summer’s initial anime lineup a tad underwhelming.
I also think most of us are perfectly okay with that, given how overwhelming both spring
and winter proved to be with all their instant classic originals, masterful adaptations,
revolutionary sequels, and transcendently triumphant examinations of the walrus condition.
We’ll be talking about the first half of this year in anime for at least the first
half of this decade, and even with the break we’ve just been given, most of us are gonna
be watching our way through that first half well into the second, if not 2022.
So I’m sorry. Like, really sorry for this, but, um, remember how there were three summer
anime that didn’t make the cut for my ones to watch list because they released too late
in the season, and I promised to follow up if any of them are worth watching? Well, uh,
it turns out they all are, depending on your tastes, and… at least one of them could
be an anime of the year contender, depending on how its story escalates….
So… yeah, I guess I’ll sleep sometime in October. Or… right, new phoenix wright,
no more heroes, and psychonauts are out too. November then! Whatever. For now, I suppose
I should tell you more about these shows, in greater depth than usual, since there’s
fewer of them, to help you decide if they’re for you.
But first, I’ve also gotta tell you about a great manga, because this Ones to Watch
Gaiden is sponsored by Mashle: Magic and Muscle.
The magic part refers to the setting, a world where “everyone” is born with magic powers,
while the muscle is Mash, a boy with no magic who chose to chug protein shakes and get swole
to compensate. This sounds similar to Black Clover, but unlike Asta, Mash isn’t the
only person in his world with no magic. He’s just one of the only ones who hasn’t been
caught by the wizard gestapo. yet. Think of it more like that Harry fella’s
wizarding world if the snake house frat boys made all the rules. But there is hope for
change! All mash has to do is attend a familiar-looking island castle school, use his absurd brute
strength to fake Witchery and Wizardcraft until he makes the top student rank of “divine
visionary,” then use the political capital that comes with it to make the world a scooch
less mugglecidey! Along the way, he’ll befriend a number of
lovely – if a bit unhinged – classmates, and of course get involved in all sorts of
black magic shenanigans, most of which end with him sockin’ someone who really deserves
it really, really hard. A thing that the exaggerated art style excels at depicting, along with
dumfounded reaction faces. If you’re a fan of that one One Piece panel
where Luffy clobbers Charlos, you definitely wanna read this. Also, if you enjoy One Piece’s
blend of action, adventure and quality gag comedy – or that of OG Dragon Ball – Mashle
strikes a similar tone. If you’re interested, there’s a link to buy volume 1 down in the
dooblidoo, or you can read itall the shounen jump app for just 2 bucks a month.
Speaking of things that mix comedy, action, and adventure… actually, I wanna save the
best anime on this list for last, so let’s dodge-cancel out of that segue and into The
Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated. A reverse isekai comedy about a mighty, evil demon lord
who’s cast down into our world, stripped of all magic, after a humiliating defeat at
the hands of a destined heroine, and must survive the even mightier evils of capitalism
by working part time at a restaurant. No, not that one. This restaurant’s local.
And it has wii shop channel music. Also, Jahy’s not even a proper demon king, just the dark
realm’s second in command, and she’s nowhere near as nice or managerial as good ol’ Maou
Sado. She’s more of a, how to put this… vicious, demonic sadist who likes to kill
some of her servants at random just to keep the other ones on their toes.
Which, when you take away the magical power and social status that allowed her to act
like that, leaves you with a hilariously arrogant trash goblin whose mouth is constantly writing
checks her butt can’t cash. Especially not when that butt keeps disappearing into an
oversized t-shirt, as without mana, she can’t maintain her voluptuous true form, and is
stuck in the body of a tiny, ill-tempered chibi imp. It also doesn’t help that her
cash reserves usually number in the hundreds of yen.
The Devil is a Part Timer probably isn’t the best point of comparison here, as comedy
anime go – Jahy’s more reminiscent of Himouto Umaru-chan, only it actually explain
how the shrinking works, all the hello fellow gamer kids humor has been stripped out, and
“onii-san’s” personality is divvied up between a pair of onee-chans. A busty,
ara ara restaurant owner with a nurturing personality to match her child-bearing hips,
and her leaner, meaner landlord sister, who is constantly exasperated by the precocious
goblin’s indignant tantrums at the thought that the mightly lord Jahy should ever pay
rent to a lowly human. A slightly difficult argument to make when
said lowly human towers over you and can pick you up and evict you with literally one hand.
But that never stops Jahy from trying. Luckily, the aforementioned Oneesama’s also aforementioned
nurturing personality tends to win out over both of them, keeping the great all powerful
demon off the streets, while gently encouraging her to gradually grow and change into something
resembling a responsible, human adult. Very, very gradually. You don’t unlearn being
a demonic despot overnight. It doesn’t help her malignant narcissism
is constantly reinforced by her sycophantic servant, Druj. She was Jahy’s most faithful…
and masochistic underling in the dark realm, but she’s actually surpassed the great one
in our world as the fabulously wealthy founder and CEO of her own company, which she uses
to bring in mana crystals by the truckload, while Jahy subsists on been sprouts and mayonnaise.
And while those may seem like two problems that obviously solve each other, that’s
only because you don’t have a demon queen’s ego. Jahy constantly lies and brags about
how well she’s doing, and because Druj is… phenomenally gullible, she never catches on.
Thus, her comical misery is endlessly perpetuated by her own comically misplaced arrogance,
meaning we don’t have to feel bad for laughing. Though that wicked, schadenfreude-fueled sense
of humor is consistently tempered by the series’ kind, encouraging, iyashikei-esque emotional
core. Jahy will frequently do something stupid or careless and bring herself to tears, but
onee-sama’s usually close at hand with a shoulder to cry on. Or, uh, shoulder boulders
to cry in, as it were. That said, it is also worth noting that, despite
the designs, Jahy-sama isn’t really all that horny, and thankfully it never lewds
the chibi. Instead it uses the sometimes diminutive, always adorably childish nature of its lead
to externalize the feelings of inherent unfairness that many of us experience when our inner
child is first exposed to the reality of being a minimum wage adult. Add all that together,
and you get a relatable, feel-good work life comedy, with a side of fun fantasy action
and some real satirical bite.
Though if you’re a fan of those last two things, you will likely be better served by
The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace, where they’re the main course. Despite the overlong
title, this anime’s based on a manga, not a light novel. specifically a Seinen manga.
So while its general tone and martial arts action will likely remind you of your favourite
shounen jump punchemups, that action is infused with substantially more sex and violence than
anything this side of chainsaw man. The titular deities, the Idaten, are a race
of conceptual beings that are born to fight, emerging from the subconscious ether whenever
mankind’s collective desire for salvation peaks, with shapes and personalities that
vary wildly based on the aggregate thoughts that birthed them. the one consistency between
them all is an innate desire to kill demons, but as the last 2000 or so of those were sealed
in a giant mountain 800 years ago by the elder generation of Idaten, leaving only one nervous
young squire named Rin to watch the other side, all who’ve been born since know only….
Well, I mean, it’s right there in the title. As such, with only a few go-getting, combat-capable
exceptions, the whole pantheon of new gods has grown up indolent and weak. They take
advantage of their immortality and superhuman capabilities to live in luxury, bury their
noses in books, and do basically anything that isn’t getting killed over and over
by Rin to train up their healing factors and combat capabilities, y’know, just in case
the monsters that traumatized her and took away all her family ever come back. Which,
obviously they do, leaving the lazy gods scrambling for a way to fight back.
Or failing that, a stronger god who can beat the demons up for them. Though even Rin’s
strength may not be enough. In the last 800 years, the demons have evolved, taking on
human forms and with them, human intelligence, which they use to manipulate men en masse
to do their bidding in the form of a raping and pillaging fascist empire.
On that note, content warning, episode one does end with a scene depicting that – it’s
not as explicit or exploitative as other anime tackling the same topic, but it is still quite
jarring next to the lighthearted action comedy that precedes it.
That contrast does serve a purpose, though, in highlighting the disturbing indifference
these gods feel toward even the most egregious human suffering. Idaten need a planet to live
on, preferably with some in-tact nature to enjoy, and enough people to make more of them,
but they don’t particularly care which people stay alive. In fact, since our desire for
salvation is what creates them, ignoring wars, atrocities, corruption and exploitation is
kind of a winning reproductive strategy for them.
It’s a truly alien, nigh-incomprehensible system of morality, which goes a long way
toward making these characters feel like real gods and demons, but leaves us without a relatable,
human character to anchor us in their world and conflict. Instead we observe the from
a dispassionate distance – pretty much the same outlook all of them have. Which does
makes it hard to get emotionally invested in the story, but simultaneously evokes a
kind of chilling fascination that makes it just as hard to look away.
It helps that what we’re dispassionately observing is metaphysically fascinating. The
lore regarding how the demons and idaten function – their biology or notable lack thereof
– is dense, well-thought out, and it supports bombastic action set pieces that start at
dragon ball z levels and only escalate from there.
These are battling gods, after all. That action is made all the more enjoyable
by smooth, snappy animation rendered in an arresting, psychedelic visual style that plays
fast and loose with colour and shading to give each scene a distinctive pop art mood.
The simple, expressive character designs also contribute a great deal toward making the
fights pop off, as do the characters’ personalities, which, monstrous though they may be, are all
at least as vibrant and charismatic as any heel wrestler you could name, making every
second of trash talk a delight. Also, that art style makes for one of the
single greatest anime openings I’ve ever seen.
Idaten Deities definitely isn’t for everyone, but if you enjoy bit of the old ultraviolence,
it may just be the anime for you.
Fena: Pirate Princess, on the other hand, is a show I can wholeheartedly recommend to
anyone who might be interested. It’s the Pirates vs Ninjas anime we’ve all secretly
dreamed of ever since the idea was first memed of in the internet dark ages, produced at
Production IG with the joint backing of Adult Swim and Crunchyroll, and directed by industry
veteran Kazuto Nakazawa. Who you might know as the creator of B the Beginning, or, if
you were alive when the pirate vs ninja meme was fresh, director of the anime segments
in both Linkin Park’s Breaking the Habit video and Kill Bill Volume 1.
That last point is particularly relevant here, as this is a dude with both a knack and a
passion for making sword fights look awesome, and that’s objectively the single most important
thing for any anime on this topic to get right. Tone and atmosphere come close behind that
– that specific, cinematic feeling of high seas high adventure in a bygone era that Pirates
of the Caribbean captures so well. Fena captures it too, with a soaring, whimsical score composed
by the legendary Yuki Kajiura, and lush, detailed, thoughtfully lit backgrounds populated by
sizeable, moving crowds of authentically costumed characters.
There’s a lot of animation flexes in the first episode alone – even in dialogue the
animation has a fluid, bouncy energy – and that’s stayed consistent through all four
episodes so far. It’s not the most historically faithful
piece of pirate media out there – no story that injects Ninjas into that setting would
be, and these ninjas happen to own a steampunk submarine. But all the necessary detail’s
here, in both the fantastical and historical elements, to immerse you in the alt-history
setting and make it all feel like it fits together. As of episode 4 the story also seems
to be going somewhere interesting with these revisions, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
I haven’t even talked about Fena yet! The titular deposed princess has lived a rough
life since a pirate raid killed her father and set her adrift in the open ocean, but
she never lets it get her down. Sure, she’s been effectively enslaved by a brothel that’s
auctioned off her virginity now that she’s “of age” but even in the face of such
despair she only smiles a spunky, defiant genki smile and draws up elaborate, unrealistic
escape plans. In crayon! Luckily, there’s people looking out for
her who are a bit better prepared, namely a pair of old knights who swoop in to her
rescue at the last minute, and the aforementioned squad of ninja, who swoop in to rescue THEM
when that all goes to heck. And with those ninja protecting her – I mean, the show
calls them the “samurai seven,” but they dress in all black and run on rooftops so
let’s not split hairs – she sets out on a grand quest to discover her destiny, uncover
the secrets of a mysterious clear stone that her father left to her, and learn what he
really meant when he told her to “find eden.” Also, if somewhere along the way she happened
to smooch Yukimaru, her aloof, handsome childhood friend turned ninja knight in matte-black
armour… well, she probably wouldn’t complain. He almost certainly would, but he wouldn’t
really mean it, and anyway, that’s just part of his tsundere charm.
All of the ninjas have their own charms, as do the ragtag crew of evil lady pirates that
get sent to fight em – this cast is full of big, memorable personalities whose chemistry
works in a wide array of configurations. Giving us action scenes rich in playful banter and
choreography, and plenty of quality comedy between them! Fena: Pirate Princess is, simply
put, a joy to watch, in every sense of the word. A real rip-roarin adventure of a sort
that feels all too rare nowadays, in anime and media at large.
It’s not quite in Anime of the Year territory just yet, but the voyage has only just begun,
and it’s sailing closer and closer with each episode. Assuming it can keep this quality
up to the season’s end, and that the plot makes good on the intrigue and stakes it’s
built up so far, it’s shaping up to be a serious contender. And even if it doesn’t
reach those lofty heights, it’s all but sure to be a fun ride.
All of the shows I’ve talked about today are fun, and again, I am REALLY sorry for
that, but… I can’t just not tell people about good anime, now, can I? wait… Can
I? well, no time to think about that now! I’ve been writing all day and I really wanna
play some psychonauts. But I hope you’ve found at least one new anime to hold your
attention today! Or manga! Mashle is fantastic. Also I’m sorry if you have.
I’m Geoff Thew, Professional Canadian, Signing out from psychonauts HQ