Doctorkev’s Anime Review Digest: 5
While I continue to take a little break from writing new full articles, here’s another collection of short pieces I submitted to past AniTAY collaborative articles.
First up: a couple of sequel previews from the Winter 2021 anime season:
Attack on Titan: Final Season
Studio: Mappa
Genres: Action, Horror, War, Seinen
Why You Should Catch Up:
Whether you like it or not, there’s no denying that Attack on Titan is a phenomenon, extending its influence far beyond the usual anime fandom slums. Perhaps bolstered by the appearance of the first season on Netflix, many millions of viewers gravitated towards this intensely strange anti-war, anti-fascist slice of grand guignol drama.
Based on Hajime Isayama’s long-running manga, the first three seasons were masterfully adapted by the peerless Wit Studio. When they stepped down from production on this fourth and final season, fans were concerned that some cut-price hack of a company would replace them (cough DEEN cough). Thankfully, these fears were unfounded as respected studio MAPPA (Jujutsu Kaisen, Dorohedoro, Sarazanmai) have taken up the reins of what looks to be an extremely challenging section of the story to adapt.
For those who inexplicably have never heard of the show, it’s basically: “what if mecha, but fleshy?” Protagonist Eren Yeager grows up entirely within the bounds of his walled city, until one day massive monstrous beings who look like grotesque mutated humans — the titular Titans — break through the walls, devouring the populace. Eren escapes with his childhood friends Mikasa and Armin and subsequently trains to become a warrior in order to fight back against mankind’s hideous, mindless oppressors.
What follows is a complex story filled with twists, turns and revelations, frequent horrifying character deaths, clandestine political manoeuvring, military coups, and pulse-pounding, kinetic action sequences with some of the most impressive (and strategic use of) 3D CGI in anime. Attack on Titan’s characters are well-drawn and flawed human beings with varying motivations. Even the central trio make screw-ups and bad decisions that come to haunt them. Stunning betrayals and plot inversions are par for the course, and this convention follows into the setup for the final season.
Without spoiling the end of the third season too much, it’s clear that it was the author’s original planned conclusion. Of course, publishers enjoy earning money, so convinced/forced/threatened him to extend the story and we’re now at 32 volumes and the final chapter is in sight, likely within the next few months.
Granted a strange start date (December 7th 2020), by the time you read this, the final season will already be well underway. With a confirmed episode order of only 16 episodes, it seems unlikely the entire concluding 11 or 12 volumes can be covered in this time. Perhaps this will be a similar deal to season 3, which was split in half with a space of almost 9 months between sections.
With a new studio and new staff at the helm, there are bound to be visual changes, and with the story’s setting very different to how it started, it may feel like an entirely new show. Fans should be encouraged to stick with it to give MAPPA a chance — newcomers should start with season 1. Despite appearances, this is NOT a good jumping-on-point for this heavily-serialised story.
Time To Catch Up + What You Need to Watch:
Essential:
TV series: 23.5 hours
- Attack on Titan Season 1: 25 episodes
- Attack on Titan Season 2: 12 episodes
- Attack on Titan Season 3: 22 episodes
Optional:
4 Compilation movies: 8 hours
- Attack on Titan — Part 1: Crimson Bow and Arrow (Covers Season 1, episodes 1–13)
- Attack on Titan — Part 2: Wings of Freedom (Covers Season 1, episodes 14–25)
- Attack on Titan: The Roar of Awakening (Covers Season 2)
- Attack on Titan: Chronicle (Covers Seasons 1–3(!))
8 OVAs: 3.5 hours
- Attack on Titan: Lost Girls OVAs 1–3
- Attack on Titan: No Regrets OVAs 1–2
- Attack on Titan OVAs 1–3
Where to Catch Up:
- Attack on Titan Seasons 1, 2, 3: Crunchyroll and Funimation streaming, Blu-ray/DVD
- Attack on Titan Compilation movies: Blu-ray/DVD, no streaming options
- Attack on Titan OVAs: Bonus DVDs with special edition manga volumes, in subtitled English on Region 1 only, no streaming options, no dub
ADDENDUM: Since this story was first published, Crunchyroll has made all ten OVAs available to stream worldwide.
Cells at Work!! 2nd Season / Cells at Work! Code Black
Studio: David Production (Cells at Work!! Season 2), Lidenfilms (Cells at Work! Code Black)
Genres: Action, gore, comedy, edutainment
Why You Should Catch Up:
Cells at Work! is a hilarious, gore-drenched yet educational 2018 anime from David Production (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Fire Force). Set inside an average human body, Cells at Work! details the day-to-day trials and tribulations of the individual cells that comprise you — a human being. Think Osmosis Jones with anthropomorphic cells, but with insane degrees of seinen-level violence.
Seen primarily through the eyes of Red Blood Cell AE3803, she’s a rookie erythrocyte who continually loses her way while delivering her essential packages of fresh oxygen to the body’s peripheries. She repeatedly finds herself in harm’s way, only to be rescued by the fittingly pallid, eye-bagged and haunted (yet still strangely handsome) White Blood Cell U-1146.
Red Blood Cell meets many other cells during her travels, such as the adorable schoolkid-esque platelets, graceful yet terrifying macrophages, roided-up commando-style Killer T Cells, pep-talk offering Dendritic Cells, antibody-fluid-filled-super-soaker-packing Beta Lymphocytes, massive prong-bearing Eosinophils, mysterious (because no-one knows what they do) Basophils, and even deeply troubled, tragic yet dangerous Cancer Cells. Not to mention a menagerie of colourful bacterial and viral antagonists who wouldn’t look out of place in your average Dragonball Z episode.
Cells at Work! never takes itself entirely seriously, except for its commitment to scientific accuracy. This show is fantastically well researched and authoritative enough that I keep volumes of the manga to give to the medical students on placement in my practice to read during their personal study time. With a primary focus on haematology and infectious disease, it doesn’t fulfill the broadest of curriculum outcomes, but paired with one of its spin-off series, its scope widens considerably.
This is why it’s interesting that they’ve chosen to release two new Cells at Work! seasons back to back — the first is a direct follow up to the original show — and the second is an adaptation of spin-off manga Cells at Work Black, this time from Liden Films (Killing Bites, As Miss Beelzebub Likes).
Black’s main conceit is that while the main series is set in a body that functions normally and focuses on exploring physiology, the spinoff is set in a body that does not function correctly. iIs inhabitant drinks alcohol to excess, smokes, eats poorly and is in the process of developing multiple diseases. Expect this show to depict exhausted and stressed cells bitterly sacrificing their lives to combat enormous, gloopy cholesterol plaques, diabetes, erectile dysfunction, sexually transmitted diseases… Also, the main duo are gender-swapped and this version of White Blood Cell has… uh… significant assets her male counterpart lacked.
Watch Cells at Work! for the goofy humour and massively OTT gory action (who knew individual cells had their own voluminous blood circulation?) but stay for the medically-certified-(mostly)-accurate education.
Time to Catch Up + What You Need to Watch:
Essential:
- TV Show: Cells at Work! (13 episodes, 5 hours approx.)
Optional:
- Movie: Cells at Work! The Return of the Strongest Enemy. A Huge Uproar Inside the Body’s “Bowels”! (“Hataraku Saibō!!” Saikyō no Teki, Futatabi. Karada no Naka wa “Chō” Ōsawagi!)
Where to Catch Up: TV show: Crunchyroll, Movie: unreleased outside of Japan.
Next, a review from the Winter 2021 AniTAY collab:
Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation
Genre: Isekai, Fantasy, Coming-of-Age
Where to Watch: Funimation
Spoiler-free Synopsis: After dying in his 30s, a socially maladjusted, unemployed shut-in is reincarnated as an infant in a pre-industrial medieval fantasy world. He seizes this second chance at life to avoid making similar mistakes to those that led to his previous lonely, empty existence, while learning to curb the worst excesses of his obnoxious, perverted personality.
Why You Should Be Watching: Mushoku Tensei takes the now extremely cliched “isekai” anime conceit (where a modern-day Japanese person is inexplicably reincarnated or transported into a fantasy world with all of their memories intact) and makes it new and fresh again.
This isn’t achieved with any grand or innovative narrative breakthroughs, but with good-old-fashioned economical storytelling, gorgeous production design, beautiful use of its earthy/pastel colour palette, cinematic animation, and complex, human characters with convincing inner lives and selfish desires yet obvious love for one another.
Main character Rudy is a difficult guy to wholeheartedly root for — he’s an unrepentant pervert, and even as an infant his behaviour is not ok. He sexually objectifies women because his only points of reference are from sexually explicit dating sims. We witness him gradually grow from and learn to at least squash that perversion down to where it causes less harm. He grows from his mistakes and pushes himself to learn about his world in a way that lends a pleasing sense of story progression.
Despite his rough edges, Rudy is empathetic to the needs of his family and friends, standing up to bullies, overcoming his deep-seated horror of leaving the house, and challenging injustice even when it occurs within his own family. He uses his intelligence to mentally outmanoeuvre his exasperated father (who tends to think penis-first and deal with the dire consequences later).
MT’s evocation of family life is fascinating, heartwarming, and upsetting in equal measures. There are frank evocations of marital unfaithfulness, violence, and unequal or abusive relationships normally alien to this most disposable of genres. The show does not overtly moralise about its characters’ failings, but also refuses to glory in them, leading the viewer to reach their own conclusions in a respectful, matter-of-fact way that I find refreshing.
Although some of the aforementioned frank, earthy material may be off-putting to some viewers, it’s all in service to the main character’s journey towards a healthier adulthood. Supported by a colourful and interesting supporting cast (who made me tear up with emotion on at least one occasion so far), I’m willing to overlook Rudy’s more questionable behaviour as I can tell this is a well-planned story with barely a moment wasted. This is my favourite show of a highly-contested season.
Finally, a couple of entries from AniTAY’s Spring 2021 sequel guide:
Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun Season 2
Studio: Bandai Namco Pictures
Genres: School comedy, supernatural, fantasy
Why You Should Catch Up: Iruma-kun is essentially “What if Harry Potter but the main character has no magic, though attends a Hogwarts-esque school anyway through the power of nepotism via his adopted grandad headmaster. Oh, and the rest of the pupils are demons rather than wizards, and if they find out he’s a powerless human then they will kill and eat him.” Don’t worry — it’s not as grim as that might sound, though titular character Iruma does spend much of the first season in constant, mortal fear of his life.
Cursed with genre-standard abusive, neglectful parents, Iruma is sent to work in back-breaking menial jobs rather than attending school. Rescued by an apparently kindly elder demon, he is offered a chance to be adopted and sent to demon school. The hapless Iruma has been conditioned never to disagree with anyone, sealing his fate. Lucky for him that Demon School is a fun, colourful place filled with crazy characters and wacky hijinks.
Iruma quickly makes two dumb but loyal friends, the initially threatening though ultimately subservient Alice Asmodeus (despite his name, he is a boy) and the diminutive whirling force of nature that is Clara Valac. If Clara is prime Best Friend material, imposing Student Council President Ameri Azazel with her imperious demeanour but squishy romance-filled heart is most definitely Best Girl. Severus Snape-alike teacher Kalego Naberius is hilariously forced to become Iruma’s furry, cute demon familiar.
Iruma’s comedy/horror-filled schooldays whizz by in a blur of lucky escapes, insane coincidences, and demented adventures. It’s a heartwarming, gently funny show with real heart. It may be aimed at kids/young teens, but anyone with a human (or demonic) soul should find this entertaining and fun.
Time To Catch Up + What You Need to Watch:
- Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun Season 1: 23 episodes (9.5 hours)
Where to Catch Up: Crunchyroll
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord Ω
Studio: Tezuka Productions/Okuruto Noboru
Genres: Isekai, Fantasy, Ecchi
Why You Should (Not) Catch Up: Yet another tired isekai anime, this time with a questionable ecchi twist. Why this was greenlit for a second season, I’ll never know. In fact, scratch that; it’s to pander to cat girl/elf girl/loli girl/librarian girl/enormous mammary girl/slave girl fetishists. It seems there are a lot of those hiding in the dark, damp corners of anime fandom. You know the type, cowering in those dank basements that smell of stale Doritos, sweaty cheese, abandoned dreams and quiet desperation.
Main character Takuma Sakamoto was one of these socially inept hikikomori morlocks obsessed with the MMORPG Cross Reverie, whose sole life occupation was to roleplay as OP “Demon Lord Diablo.” What do you know? One day he is mysteriously summoned into his videogame world by two fetish-tastic NPC characters who planned to enslave an all-powerful Demon Lord to their collective will. Unfortunately, due to his equipped OP in-game ring with the power of “Magic Reflection,” the summoning rebounds and instead irrevocably enslaves these two young, nubile, and scantily clad maidens to his will, complete with immovable metal slave collars clamped around their necks.
Now Sakamoto (using his “Diablo” alter ego as a cover name) must “hilariously” navigate a painfully generic fantasy world with his two horny slave girls despite never once before conversing with a member of the opposite sex. Maybe he’ll find a way to free them… but does he really want to? In common with rigid genre conventions, Diablo keeps adding yet more stereotypical girls to his harem, despite his complete inability to express his thoughts or opinions. Clearly these girls care not for his mind, only for his colossal demonic masculine appendage.
If you like problematic anime that focuses on and fetishises slavery, then here’s the perfect barely-adequately animated garbage for you to slowly lose your soul to. It’s not all bad. Sometimes the off-colour humour hits, but it’s rarely laugh-out-loud funny. The fact that the upcoming second season is co-produced by the studio that gave us Winter 2021’s risible Hidden Dungeon should cause any potential viewer to pause, back away slowly, then break into a sprint headlong towards something more edifying. Hey, isn’t Shield Hero coming back soon?
Time To Catch Up + What You Need to Watch:
- How Not to Summon a Demon Lord: 12 episodes (5 hours)
Where to Catch Up: Crunchyroll, Funimation
Thanks for reading this further selection of older, short reviews! There’s plenty more where this came from, so come back soon!
