Welcome to part two of the Winter 2012 Anime Review. I’ll omit Fairy Tail and Hunter x Hunter because those are going to be ongoing for quite some time. Fairy Tail just had a very, very emotional moment though. I cried a bit (poor Lucy). And Hunter x Hunter is picking back up. Or maybe slowing back down. It’s entering a new arc and only time will tell which one is correct.
But anyway! There aren’t many shows that are continuing as the 24- and 26-episode formats keep getting weeded out. Most shows now run between 11- and 13-episodes long (which means that ongoing shows like Fairy Tail, One Piece, and BLEACH are being further weeded out). But five shows are tugging along, two of which just with a second season (Phi Brain and Record and Randsell). So let’s get down the business. Plot summaries from Anime News Network still.
Bodacious Space Pirates
Plot Summary: Marika is a first year high school student living on a planet known as Uminoakeboshi. One day she finds out that her recently deceased father was once the captain of the space pirate ship called the "Bentenmaru". More importantly, the only one to inherit the captain's title has to be a direct descendant—meaning that Marika is next in line to become the captain of the ship.
The show is called Bodacious Space Pirates or Moretsu Pirates in Japanese. Or, the original light novel title, Miniskirt Space Pirates. None of the titles immediately make me want to watch the show. But get over that because this is one of the gems of the overall mediocre winter 2012 anime season. Besides the continuing shows like Chihayafuru, the winter season was filled with mediocrity as far as the eye could see. Bodacious Space Pirates made it worth it though. And Chihayafuru. And I’ve been told Another was another good show from the season, but I cannot attest as I chose not to watch it.
Anyway, getting right into it…Bodacious Space Pirates must be appreciated for its near brilliant pacing. In a show where the main character finds out that she’s the daughter of a space pirate and has to become the captain of the Bentenmaru because her father has just passed, you would think that she’d become the captain right off. [Editor’s note: Pirates are quite different in Bodacious Space Pirates. They get a “Letter of Marque,” which allows them to do piracy according to piracy jobs. They haven’t explained it fully, but it sounds like they get hired by both a luxury liner and an insurance agency to entertain the luxury liner’s guests.] Jump right into the mess of things because she loves space. Well, that’s not the case. Bodacious Space Pirates takes its time getting Marika used to the idea. It took her three or four episodes to want to become captain of the Bentenmaru. It was only after her mother (whom she calls Ririka instead of mom or something) gave her a little speech (neither pushing nor pulling) that convinced her to join the crew of the Bentenmaru.
Marika is hardly a novice when it comes to space travel though. While she hasn’t been to space at the beginning of the series (at least, it didn’t seem like she had to me), she is part of her school’s Yacht Club, which is basically training to be part of a space ship crew as far as I can tell. As with a lot of science fiction works, a lot of things are left ambiguous or left for you to figure out as you go along. Bodacious Space Pirates is no exception.
The show is really about Marika’s life; trying to juggle now being the captain of the Bentenmaru, her club, her part time job, and school. And what makes that brilliant is, like I said, the pacing. She doesn’t just jump right into being captain and she doesn’t automatically know everything about captaining. She’s growing as a person and as a captain and it’s amazing.
I think the most striking thing about this is that, although space travel seems like a pretty common thing, the girls in the Yacht Club haven’t yet been to space (they use a simulator to train at piloting). And when they finally go to space, they take a second to marvel at how beautiful space looks. In things with space travel, I rarely see that and I really do appreciate Bodacious Space Pirates taking the time out of their busy schedule to do that.
Overall, this is a really great space/sci-fi show about Marika growing up as a person. It’s paced brilliantly, the visuals are good, and there is Kana Hanazawa. What more reason do you need?
Knight in the Area
Plot Summary: Believing himself to be useless at soccer, Aizawa Kakeru instead becomes the manager of his school's soccer team, while his brother Suguru is its ace, and is even good enough to represent Japan in the Championships. However, Kakeru may have a yet unknown strong talent within himself that only his brother Suguru can see, and they often get into arguments over Kakeru's denial of his skills. Things are made more complicated with the return of Nana, an old friend of theirs that Kakeru has a crush on.
Knight in the Area has been extremely inconsistent in quality. It’s never been spectacular, but it’s been enjoyable. In some cases, it’s your average sports anime and in other cases it’s just this awkward…thing.
First case is with its music cues in the earlier episodes. They’re more appropriate for a horror movie than for a sports anime. I know some of the reveals were shocking, but music from Carrie isn’t appropriate for that shocking moment. And, at times, that music really did sound like it was from something like Carrie (not that I’ve seen that movie).
But the show seems to be tapping around the development of the main character, Kakeru. He joins the soccer club, which is great. And he’s trying to overcome his weaknesses in soccer, which is great. But nothing’s really happening at a quick pace. They play soccer and some character development happens. I really only keep watching because I keep wanting to watch more soccer.
I know how to feel about this show. It’s not that great. But it entertains. There’s some ridiculous anime stuff in it that no one would possibly believe could happen, but it entertains. And that’s about all it’s going to be at this point.
Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle (Phi Brain: Puzzle of God)
Plot Summary: Kaito Daimon is a brilliant 16-year-old teenager who loves to solve puzzles. He acquires an enigmatic item called the Armlet of Orpheus that allows him to fully utilize his brain, but that consequentially drains him completely. Currently attending Root Academy as an honor student, he is invited by the school principal to confront a secret organization named POG that creates deadly Sage Puzzles to protect invaluable treasures and challenge the select few individuals capable of facing them. Given the title of Einstein, Kaito battles against the mysterious group in order to keep a promise he made as a kid while at the same time he heads towards the ultimate test: the Divine Puzzle.
Phi Brain is rolling right along with a second season, but April 4 marked the conclusion of its first (and the only series that’s still going, without breaks, from the fall 2011 anime season). It looks like it wrapped up the whole thing between Kaito and Rook, but, of course, a new challenger approaches. And they’re going to have even more ridiculous puzzles for our Phi Brain to solve.
What was lacking in this show is what I like to call plot. Yes, plot. There was a lot of fancy solving puzzles (which was cool) and some character development (? Eh?), but it really needed a plot. The most you get is this Armlet of Orpheus is some kind of prophetic thing for the Puzzle of God (which remains ambiguous). It was about puzzles when it should have been about Kaito. And while the puzzles kept me interested, it didn’t get me invested.
I wanted more about these characters. You get the one episode for each Cubik and Ana, but they’re main characters. And you get nothing on Jikukawa-sempai and he was pretty main character-ish as well.
But I also wanted a plot. I might have mentioned this before. But, really, the plot was “Stop the POG.” I’m sorry. I didn’t know I was playing Pokémon and Team Rocket changed their name to the POG. Because that’s basically what it was.
So if you want to watch some cool puzzle solving action (yup, puzzle solving action), go ahead and watch it. It’s interesting, to say the least. And that’s saying very, very little about the series.
Poyopoyo
Plot Summary: Moe Sato is a young lady who finds a cat and starts taking care of him. Named Poyo due to his round shape, he quickly becomes a dear member of the Sato family.
This is the first short anime that’s coming out. And I say short in reference to its episode length, not its episode count. Each episode of both this and Recorder and Randsell hover around three minutes long each.
This show is basically about Poyo and family doing cute things. And, guess what, it’s adorable. Even the music is adorable. And, unlike Recorder and Randsell, it can reuse that same basic idea and keep it interesting, funny, and good. By no means is it to the level of Chihayafuru, but it’s still good for what it is. A cute, fun, enjoyable three-minute long per episode show.
Recorder and Randsell
Plot Summary: The series is mainly about the Miyagawa siblings: Atsushi - an elementary student whose build and appearance is the same as a typical adult man; and Atsumi - his sister and a high school girl whose appearance is like an elementary student. They live everyday encountering misunderstandings and misadventures, most to be blamed to their ironic age/looks.
This is the second short anime that’s coming out. And I’m not quite sure what to think about this. It entertains, sure, but they seem like cheap laughs. The set-up is in such a way that it really only could be situational comedy. But it’s wearing on me. I don’t really see the point of continuing to watch (although I do continue to watch).
The characters of Atsushi and Atsumi go through “Oh, he’s tall. He must be a high schooler” and “Oh, she’s short. She must be an elementary schooler.” And each episode revolves around that. With really no variation. It provides me a quick re-introduction every Thursday when I catch up on the anime I’ve missed for the week, since it’s only three minutes. But it’s really not doing anything besides cheap jokes, cute Atsumi, and Aya Hirano. And I guess Aya is enough of a reason to watch?
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