Anime Chicago Winter Sampler

[dorchadas]

Looks like I haven't been to one of these in two years, and this time both sashagee and I got to go! We did arrive late and miss the first two shows, but here's what I thought about the ones we did see:

1. 違国日記 (ikoku nikki, "Journal of a Strange Country", Eng: "Journal With Witch"): An adult and a child during a meal, addressing each other by their first names, which is a bit odd. The adult, Makio, is absorbed in her writing. The teenager, Asa, goes bed and thinks about being alone together each of them doing their separate thing. We learn during a flashback that Asa's parents died and Makio is her aunt who took her in, and as they eat some food on a trip away from the morgue, Makio reveals that she hated her sister, but suggests Asa keep a journal, and as she writes about her parents' death we cut to her standing alone in a desert. Cut back to the morning after the funeral (which we haven't really seen yet), where they're making breakfast in Makio's incredibly messy apartment and Makio is apologizing for her behavior. Asa sits down to keep a journal and thinks about how she started to live with someone very weird, and as soon as she goes to write why they're living together--back to the desert. Cut from the desert to the funeral, where Makio explains that to her own great regret, she stil hates her sister even after her death and feels like Asa should not be exposed to this example of adult failure to display proper virtue, but if Asa can forgive her, to please come and stay with her.
   
   Very different than the usual kind of isekai trash that gets promoted. This caught my interest enough that even though it turned out I saw 90% of the episode at the sampler, I went back and rewatched it to make sure I didn't miss anything important. The portrayal of grief as a desert, the mystery of why Makio hates her sister so much that she's willing to talk about it at her funeral, this was definitely the most intriguing anime we saw.


2. ダーウィン事変 (dāwin jihen, "The Darwin Incident"): We begin with a terrorist attack on a research lab by an animal rights organization, who free all the animals, including a pregnant chimpanzee. Well, it turns out that the baby was a human-chimpanzee hybrid and the humanzee baby is adopted by a pair of scientists. Fifteen years later, the humanzee Charlie has to go to school and deal with high schoolers (who all know about him since he's world-famous), including Lucy, an honor student who climbs a tree to rescue a cat. Get it, Charlie (Darwin) and Lucy? Anyway, there's a scene with some kids making fun of vegans in the school cafeteria and then it turns out that the animal rights group is still around, stages a bombing, and plans to unleash a campaign of terror...and want to recruit Charlie to do it.
   
   I'm...hmm. I feel like this is too serious a premise for the show that we actually got. It's just very hard for me to take "human-chimpanzee hybrid" seriously as a premise. I know it's a me problem, since I can accept giant robots, isekai, demon kings, etc., but nonetheless. They're trying to do racism and animal rights but the first episode has a guy basically making the trolley problem argument against vegans (if a mouse infected with a deadly disease was coming to bite you, would you shoot it? Is your life more valuable?). I'll check up on this later and see if they managed to make it work.


3. 多聞くん今どっち! (tamon-kun ima docchi!, "Which Tamon is it now?", Eng: "Timon's B-Side"): Idol show. Utage, a high school student, is insanely obsessed with Tamon, the lead singer of the band F/ACE. An email comes with her lottery results allowing her to buy a ticket to a F/ACE concert and she freaks out, and then we cut to her accepting a part-time cleaning job, and it turns out (of course) to be Tamon's apartment. And at home, he's basically an anxious shut-in, hiding in the dark in his room. It turns out his stage persona was decided by his agency, and now he's having a crisis about the difference between the public and private versions of him and he's thinking of quitting, so Utage intends to make it her mission to help him get his life together, cooking him food as well as cleaning his apartment, with surely some amusing romcom misunderstandings along the way--except his manager comes in at exactly the wrong moment and she's taken off the job. But he sees her in the crowd at the concert, and pulls her aside for a private conversation--he needs a manic pixie dream girl to keep him on track.
   
   This show was silly but fun. I haven't seen Bocchi the Rock but some other people described it as that with a male musician, which makes me want to watch Bocchi the Rock. Some of the other people said that it's up to episode three and still just as good. sashagee is 100% going to watch this, though she waffled about it when I asked her.


4. 勇者刑に処す 懲罰勇者9004隊刑務記録 (yūsha-kei ni shosu: chōbatsu yūsha 9004-tai keimu kiroku, "Sentenced to Be a Hero: The Prison Records of Penal Hero Unit 9004"): We start with some nice isekai fake language--Heroes are immortal warriors, sentenced for their crimes to eternally fight against demons. A caravan is attacked by monsters, killing several people, until the titular Heroes show up. Erie's are immortal, able to be resurrected every time they die, but the resurrection comes at the cost of some of their memories every single time. One of the Heroes stole a coffin from the caravan, and it turns out to contain a "goddess,: ancient weapons built by humans to kill demons, and one in the form of a...nine year old because anime. Anyway, she wakes up, offers her support in exchange for adoration (and headpats, because anime), and they proceed to annihilate a bunch of demons. The knights they saved aren't happy to bone saved by immortal criminal warriors, though, and the Heroes aren't happy when it turns out the knights' plan is to charge straight into the demon army instead of retreating. And though it's an hour first episode we stopped after twenty minutes.
   
   Animation was amazing, plot was there enough to keep the story going. It would have been a great roguelike video game. Or Dark Souls. It basically was Dark Souls to be honest, so maybe that's why I was more into it than most of the other people watching it. I'm definitely going to keep going and see how it turns out...though I'd rather play the roguelike version.


5. 魔王の娘は優しすぎる (maō no musume wa yasashisugiru, "The Demon King's Daughter is Too Kind!"): One demon manages to unite the demon world together under a single rule, but when we cut to his daughter, she's saving an animal from a stream, so the demon king and one of his generals begin a plot to unleash the true ruthlessness that has to lurk in the heart of his daughter. There's a hide-and-seek singalong with demonic versions of animals (demon squirrels!), repeated attempts by the general to awaken the daughter's true demon instincts and repeated demonstrations by the daugher that her kindness is a fundamental part of her nature.
   
   This show only has one joke, like The sleepy princess, but it is a pretty funny joke. I liked the part where the daughter was reading a script of her demonic threats at an old woman, who treated it like any child's silly games, but I doubt that the one joke can sustain even thirteen episodes. The sing-along was fun and unexpected, though!


6. 死亡遊戯で飯を食う (shibō yūgi de meshi o kū, "Making a Living Through Death Games", Eng: "Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table"): Starts with 100% CGI with cars going by. Swaps to a woman in a maid outfit waking up to a phone ringing. She wanders into a room with a bunch of maids sitting around a table, speaking cryptically, who mention their "player names" (based on their hair color) and how many times they've participated. The first woman, named Yuki (snow) for her silver hair, who has participated twenty-eight times, explains that it's basically an escape room filled with traps and they have to get out without dying. This all takes about ten minutes, with constant art style switches to a more watercolor style of art. They walk out into the elaborate mansion, all suspicious of each other, and slowly move down the hall, examining the decor, searching some of the rooms, and finally finding a key, which leads to the death of one of the maids from a hidden trap. And we ended it there but this was the halfway point.
   
   This anime was so slow. I get why, they're trying to build tension in the weird scenario they're placed in, but they extended it for much too long. It just drained all the tension as we were all like, "Get on with it!" It has a super high rating because people love death game shows, but I'm going to give it a miss.


7. うるわしの宵の月 (uruwashi no yoi no tsuki, "The Lovely Evening Moon", Eng: "In the Clear Moonlit Dusk"): A high school girl is getting off a train and sees another girl, who appears with roses all around her. Her name is Yoi and her classmates call her "Prince," basically like Utena. But it turns out there's another "Prince," a boy this time named Kohaku, and they have a classic meet-cute when Kohaku jumps down a stairway and surprises her. They meet again at a Family Mart, and it turns out that Yoi is very self-conscious about not being treated as a woman by most people around her, so much so that when Kohaku asks her on a date she thinks it's a joke and turns it down. But they eat lunch later together in an abandoned part of the school, and he persists, and maybe...there's a chance...?
   
   This looked good, but it's just not my thing. sashagee, of course, has already watched it before we even attended the sampler. The animation is extremely pretty, though.


8. フェイト/ストレンジフェイク (feito/sutorenji feiku, "Fate/Strange Fake"): Start off with helicopters! A disaster struck the southern desert and the military sealed it off. Cut to a blonde woman in a convenience store (who might be Saber?) who remembers she's from Japan but nothing else. Also cut to some kind of secret American occult organization discussing a bunch of occult nonsense about the Grail War. Cut to the Mage's Association in London also discussing a bunch of occult nonsense about the Grail War. Cut to the blonde woman again, then cut to two people--a mage and a Servant--also discussing a bunch of occult nonsense. Cut back to the blonde woman, kept captive and being used for part of a summoning ritual, and Saber appears! As a man! And after a battle...the police show up and arrest Saber? America! End with two priests discussing a bunch of occult nonsense.
   
   I’m sure if I had seen literally any other FATE anything I would have had some idea about what was going on, but I have not. I only know that Saber exists and a bunch of wizards are fighting a war in the shadows for...well, I don't actually know why. Like I said, though, I don't know enough about FATE to keep watching.

The shows were categorized by another person in the group as follows:

1. Handholding Sakuga - (You and I are Polar Opposites)


2. “See, the Oligarchy DOES Care”-ass Propaganda - (Noble Reincarnation: Born Blessed, So I'll Obtain Ultimate Power)


3. Family (Selectively) Matters - (Journal with Witch)


4. Monkey See, Monkey School - (The Darwin Incident)


5. F/ACE Turn: I Can Fix Him - (Tamon’s B-Side)


6. Not All Heroes Worship Goddesses - (Sentenced to be a Hero)


7. Conquer Them With Cuteness - (The Demon King’s Daughter is Too Kind)


8. No Game, No Interest - (Shiboyugi: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table)


9. The Lover Formerly Known As Prince - (In the Clear Moonlit Dusk)


10. New US War Just Dropped - (Fate/strange Fake)

The first two shows there are the ones we missed. People really seem to like You and I are Polar Opposites, including sashagee--she's already watched a bunch of it.

I say I'll watch some of these, but I'm very bad at watching anime lately. We'll see if it happens.