Video Backlog: “Metropolis”

Publisher: Eureka Entertainment Ltd (UK)
Format: Region A and B Blu-ray, PAL, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles. Region 2 DVD, PAL, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Dub and English Subtitles
Length: 107 minutes
Production Date: 2001
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Detective Shunsaku Ban and his nephew Kenichi travel to Metropolis to question Dr Laughton, a scientist suspected to be involved in organ trafficking. They arrive in the city to discover its inhabitants hold extremely anti-robot views, as many of the jobs in the city have been mechanised, causing unemployment. They also find themselves in the midst of a citywide celebration of the opening of a massive skyscraper named Ziggurat which is owned by highly influential businessman Duke Red. A protesting robot tries to hijack the celebrations by projecting the logo of a local anti-robot vigilante group, the Marduk Party, onto the building. The rebel robot is destroyed by Rock, Duke Red's adopted son and unofficial head of the Marduk Party. Ban and Kenichi head to the police department in order to ask for help in their investigations. The only officer they can supply them with is a robot named 803-D-RP-DM-497-3-C, which Ban decides to nickname Pero.

Pero guides them through the three levels of the city; level one which is above ground where the most affluent live, level two where a lot of the working class, poor and unemployed live and the third level where the generators which run the city are situated. On the second level is the abandoned factory where Dr Laughton lives and produces his work. Unbeknownst to Ban, Duke Red has commissioned Laughton to construct a robot called Tima seemingly based upon Red’s deceased daughter. Tima has been created as a control until for a powerful secret weapon hidden inside the Ziggurat building. An enraged Rock discovers Tima's existence and decides to kill Laughton and set the factory on fire. Arriving just as the building is alight, Ban notices Laughton trapped inside the building and both he and Kenichi go to inside to rescue him and anyone else trapped inside. Laughton is almost beyond help, but he gives Ban his notebook on Tima. Kenichi discovers the now activated Tima, not realising that she is in fact a robot, rushes to save her. The pair fall through metal grates in the floor and down into the sewer system.

Separated from Kenichi and with Laughton now dead, Ban and Pero continue on with the investigation while searching for Kenichi. He and Tima are somewhere on the third level. Kenichi is surprised to discover that Tima can barely form sentences and doesn’t seem to know much about the world. Meanwhile Rock discovers that the remains of Tima weren’t in the remnants of the fire and hunts down Tima and Kenichi in an attempt to kill them both. During the long chase, Kenichi is knocked out while trying to escape. He awakens to find himself and Tima in a room. They have been saved by a man named Atlas who heads up a group of unemployed labourers who are planning a revolution against Duke Red. But this is not exactly an unorganised mob. Atlas has made a secret pact with Metropolis mayor President Boone in order to take out Duke Red. The revolutionaries set about attacking the city, but it soon becomes apparent that Duke Red has known about their plan all along. Later Tima is eventually captured along with Kenichi. Tima is forced to control the Ziggurat against her will. It’s up to Ban and Kenichi to not only save Tima but also the entire world from Duke Red’s weapon inside the Ziggurat.

This film was probably the most hyped anime film of 2001 (well maybe “Spirited Away” was even more hyped). When Osamu Tezuka died in 1989, his production company, Tezuka Productions, set about turning as many of his manga into anime. A string of anime were produced, mostly of titles that had not previously been animated before such as various adaptations of “Black Jack”, “Ambassador Magma”, “Jungle Emperor” and “Buddha”. Before its release in 2001, this film had apparently been in production for almost five years and had an astronomical cost (for an anime film) of ¥1.5 billion. There were a lot of heavy hitters on the production side with Katsuhiro Otomo writing the screenplay, Rintaro directing and Madhouse as the animation studio. It was also one of the first anime features to really use computer graphics to a large extent.

The last time I saw this film was around 15 years ago when Columbia Tristar/Sony released the film on DVD (with a bizarre 8cm “CD single” DVD containing all the extras) to much fanfare. To be utterly honest I don’t think I was overly impressed with the film back then. I think I’m even less impressed with it now. The key problem I think a lot of people have with Rintaro’s work is that he goes for spectacle over story. It’s a complaint that you’ll hear quite often about his previous major work, his movie adaptation of Clamp’s “X”. Right from the start of the film you can see that he’s more interested in showing off the city than actually telling the story or exploring the characters motivations or backgrounds. Watching this time around it really stuck out to me how many wide shots there were and how at times you could not distinguish from the main characters of the story and background characters. There is so much going on in a lot of these shots. Every bloody thing is animated and moving and at times I really found it hard to spot the main characters in in certain shots. With few close up shots, it really depersonalises the characters, and to a large degree you don’t feel involved in the story at all.

Some of the background characters in these wide shots had really exaggerated and unnatural movements which really made them stand out from everything else. The point is we as an audience should be focused on the story and its main characters. All of this background animation was needlessly distracting and a hindrance to the story. As a result I really found it hard to connect to any of the characters at all. I found really hard to accept that Kenichi and Tima had made any real connection between each other. The political machinations between Duke Red, the Marduk Party, President Boone and Atlas’ revolutionaries were muddled and could have been clarified and cleared up a bit more. Many of the characters and side characters are introduced and are almost always killed or vanish before the audience really get to know any of them. Then you have the relationship between Duke Red, Tima and his deceased daughter. This is barely explained and makes little sense when you consider Duke Red is anti-robot.

I think a lot of the blame here can be attributed to screenwriter Katsuhiro Otomo. He’s crammed a lot of story into the film’s short runtime. While the film is based upon the original manga, a lot of material has been added to the story including a number of characters. Like the overly animated backgrounds, there is just too much going on and not enough focus of what is important. The audience has a hard time trying to make sense of it all. This film is the first time I became aware of Tezuka’s Star System. A ton of his characters from other manga appear here such as Rock (who wasn’t in the original manga), Shunsaku Ban, Duke Red, Acetylene Lamp (who plays Boone’s secretary), Skunk (who appears briefly as a general), Ham Egg (who appears a police officer) and Pero who is taken from an early part of the “Astroboy” manga. But really these cameos don’t really propel the story along at all. They just make the film feel overstuffed.

This two disc set (one blu-ray, one DVD) was produced by niche UK based arthouse/cult film distributor Eureka. While the blu-ray is a lot better than the old Sony DVD, there are some video problems. The most glaring problem is the strange horizontal banding (similar lines as you’d see in an old CRT TV) which occurs only in some light coloured scenes. There is also some colour gradient banding in a couple of dark scenes, but it’s not really all that bad. The discs retain all of the important features from the Sony release and also include a previously unseen extra; a Japanese promo video. The two disc set comes in a steelbook case which is a bit so-so really. The back of the case has no image at all; it's just black with small company logos at the bottom. At the very least it’s probably better than the forthcoming US Sony release which is being replicated on BD-Rs, not factory pressed blu-rays. Eureka’s BD also has Japanese titles rather than replaced English credits as the Sony DVD had, and the post credits still image which was cut from the original western DVD releases appears on Eureka's release.

Summing up, I really felt frustrated with this film this time around. I don’t think it’s aged well at all, it’s stuffed too much with plot and characters, and is far more interested in showing off the animation than actually trying to engage the audience with the story being told. All the elements are there for a great film, but it’s all a bit of a mess I’m afraid. And to top it off you have that really misplaced Ray Charles version of “I Can't Stop Loving You” during the climax… I can only give this film a 5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Eleven TV series and one OVA and one movie. In addition I am also waiting for the second part and movie of one TV series to be released before viewing it.

Video Backlog: “New Initial D the Movie: Legend 3: Dream”

Publisher: Neo Films (Hong Kong)
Format: Region 3 DVD, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional Cantonese dub and English and Chinese (Traditional) Subtitles.
Length: 66 minutes
Production Date: 2016
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

The third film in the latest incarnation of the “Initial D” franchise begins with a recap of the first two films in the series (which I reviewed back in April last year). For those who aren’t familiar with the series, it is set near Mount Akina in rural Japan in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo, where for a number of years young men have raced each other in supped up cars on the curvy road on the mountain using the drifting racing style. For years people have seen an old black and white Toyota Sprinter Trueno (aka AE86 or just plain 86) racing up and down the mountain early in the morning before dawn. It became the stuff of legend. The local racing group, the Akina Speed Stars, is challenged by a rival team, the Akagi RedSuns. However the leader of the Speed Stars, Koichiro Iketani, is involved in an accident and his car is out of commission. He discovers that a local tofu shop owner, Bunta Fujiwara, owns the car and decides to ask him to race against the RedSuns. However Bunta wants no part in it. Instead he send his son Takumi to race which horrifies everyone as they consider him to be a guy who knows nothing about racing and he isn’t even interested in cars.

But what they don’t realise is for years every morning around 4am, Takumi delivers tofu in the AE86 to a hotel on the other side of the mountain. He’s the one in the legendary car. At the race, Takumi easily beats the RedSuns and continues to beat anyone who challenges him, even though he has little interest in racing in the beginning. At the end of the second film, Takumi is sent a challenge by Ryosuke Takahashi of the RedSuns. The new film begins with Takumi’s dorky friend, Itsuki Takeuchi, buying a Corolla Levin AE85, which he mistook for an 86. It has far less power than an 86. On the mountain Itsuki is publicly humiliated by a group of racers. Enraged at this, Takumi gets in the Levin and chases the racers down and passes all of them with ease. Itsuki thanks him and realises that’s not the car which wins races; it’s the skill of the driver. He vows to practice and become a proper racer.

With the battle with Ryosuke Takahashi fast approaching, Bunta decides to change the suspension settings of the 86. Ryosuke also detunes his car as he thinks lower horsepower will help him win the race. Meanwhile Takumi’s relationship with Natsuki is blossoming. On a date Takumi explains why he hit her ex-boyfriend. He was bragging about his sexual exploits with her in a change room at school which made Takumi mad. Natsuki felt a bit bad about not taking to Takumi about it. However he easily forgives and the pair kiss. Going to the next step in their relationship has left Takumi in a daze. Itsuki tries to make him snap out of it before the big race so the pair go up to the mountain where they encounter an impromptu race between two local racers. On the day of the race, Ryosuke announces that if he loses, he’ll give up street racing, but the RedSuns will continue their plan to dominate the Kanto racing scene. The race begins, however it seems that Takumi may lose for the first time.

As I have previously said before, I never really got into this franchise back in the late 1990’s. The original anime series was this weird mix of traditional animation mixed in with low resolution CG cars which did not mesh well at all and terrible Eurobeat music to boot. There’s also the rather ugly character designs and all that testosterone. The anime franchise generally went non stop for a decade from 1998, and then was rebooted in 2012 then this three part film remake appeared in 2015 (released in cinemas over 18 or so months) for the belated 35th anniversary of Young Magazine who published the original manga. Luckily all three parts have now been released on DVD with English subtitles by Hong Kong video publisher Neo Films. I seriously doubt this trilogy is on any western distributor's radar, so this is the only way to see it legitimately.

I’ve already said enough about the franchise in my previous review of the first two films, so this review is going to be much shorter than normal. This film does feel a little more sedate than the previous two entries. There are three main battles, however they don’t seem to be as exciting as what has come before. Sure they’re adrenaline filled and have some spectacular action, but a lot of the elements that appeared in the first two films such as internal shots of engines and the glow of disc brakes at night are oddly missing. There’s also a lot more scenes filled with dialogue which slow the film down. Few of these scenes actually propel the story along or add any real insight to any of the characters, except those with Natsumi and Takumi. We know from the end of the second film that Ryosuke’s battle with Takumi is coming up, it just takes so long to get there.

The film also has speaking roles from what I think is the only female racers in the franchise; Impact Blue which consists of Mako Sato and Sayuki. In the original anime adaptation they got a two part OVA series dedicated to them, but here they are confined to commenting on Ryosuke and Takumi’s driving techniques. It’s interesting that the film makers decided to change Natsumi and Takumi’s relationship quite a bit. Certainly I don’t think it was like this in the anime. Certainly with the flashback to Takumi punching Natsumi’s ex, it makes Takumi look far more aggressive and less passive and benign than in the original anime series.

Neo Film’s English subtitles, like the other two films, are barely passable in my book. They’re quite literal, have a fair amount of typos and can be quite a chore to get through. Make no mistake, most of the time they’re quite understandable, but the more complex the dialogue is on screen, the more incomprehensible they become which is really annoying for the viewer. I think to a large the degree, the subtitles lessened my enjoyment of the series overall. They’re certainly not up to snuff when compared to the standard of other western anime releases. As a whole, this adaptation of the original “Initial D” manga was quite good. The animation all gels together unlike the original TV series, and the action is almost always exciting and exhilarating. But the character designs are not only ugly as hell, they really feel they’re from another era and at times look so mid 1990’s, especially with the clothes. I also thought the makers of the film were really padding things out until the final battle. As a result I can only give this film 6 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Seven TV series, one OVA and one movie. In addition I am also waiting for the second part and movie of one TV series to be released before viewing it.

Video Backlog: “The Case of Hana & Alice”

Publisher: All the Anime (Anime Limited, UK)
Format: Region B Blu-ray, PAL, Japanese Dialogue with optional French Dub and English and French Subtitles. Region 2 DVD, PAL, Japanese Dialogue with optional French Dub and English and French Subtitles
Length: 98 minutes
Production Date: 2015
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Tetsuko Arisugawa, known as Alice to her friends, and her novelist mother, Kayo, move to the small town of Ishinomori after her divorce. Alice, who is in her second year of high school (or middle school as our US friends call it) is not too keen on restarting in new town, but decides to make a go of it anyway. However things don’t go well from day one. The other students shun her seemingly because she was assigned a certain seat in the classroom by the teacher. Alice later discovers that the desk she sits in used to belong to someone named "Judas", who was murdered by four women also called Judas who were his wives who poisoned him. Utterly baffled as to what this all means, Alice attempts to pry more information out of a boy who teases her after school (well, she punches the info out of him). He tells her that the class had been cursed by the murder of Judas, a boy named Yuta, who had apparently married four girls in the class. He explains that the leader of the classroom, “Moo” (real name Mutsumi Mutsu) apparently possessed, had performed some sort of exorcism in the middle of class one day which purified her and the entire class.

At the end of classes as Alice is going home, one of her old friends from old hometown, Fuko, goes up to her to say hello. Both of them were previously in a ballet school there. Fuko convinces Alice to join the local ballet troop but is a little concerned that her mother can’t afford the classes. But when Alice asks her mother, she agrees to pay without hesitation. Walking past Alice’s house after school, Fuko becomes scared of the house next door which the local students refer to as the Flower Folly (or Flower House). A young girl can be seen regularly peeking out an upstairs window which naturally spooks the hell out of kids walking by. The next day after class has finished, Alice's classmates surround her and stop her from leaving  the classroom. She fights most of the kids off but Moo explains they aren’t going to hurt her. What follows is a strange ritual where Moo removes the curse that has been placed on Alice. After this the shunning and bulling of Alice by the other students ceases. Later Alice thinks it’s a bit weird but is amazed that magic and spiritualism exists in such a small town. Alice’s mother explains to her that it’s just a bunch of superstitious nonsense.

Days later while out running in a park, Alice comes across her teacher speaking to her next door neighbour. After they finish talking she runs up to her teacher to find out what was going on. Alice’s neighbour is the mother of Hana Arai, a girl who is in her class but hasn’t come to school since the Judas incident. Hana is one who is peeping out the window in the Flower House. During the athletics carnival school, Alice has a run in with Moo. However the two of them soon begin to chat about the Judas incident after Moo discovers that Alice lives next door to Hana and tells her that she was bullied by the other kids and pretended to be possessed into order to stop them bulling her. Moo doesn’t actually know who Judas is as the incident happened before she came to the school, but she thinks Hana Arai does know.

Later Alice comes home and discovers mail for the old family who lived in her house, the Yutas. Having found some old test papers for Koutarou Yuta in her cupboard, Alice realises that the boy known as Judas used to live in her room. She is horrified that she lives in a room of a murdered person. Determined to get to the bottom of what is going on, she sneaks into her next door neighbour’s house in an attempt to talk to Hana. After being shocked at a stranger invading her house, Hana calms down and explains what the actual Judas incident was all about. Hana believes that Yuta just moved to another school and never died, but can’t be sure. She knows where his father works but isn’t sure where the family lives so can’t confirm if he is alive. Knowing that the Yuta family doesn’t know who Alice is, Hana concocts a plan with Alice at it's centre to find out the truth.

This film originally was scheduled as part of the 2015 Japanese Film Festival line up but bafflingly bypassed Canberra (but played in other cities) so I never got to see it in the cinema. The film has a strange history. It’s actually a prequel of Shunji Iwai’s 2004 live action feature “Hana and Alice”. Iwai is a bit of a darling of the Japanese cinema scene with critically acclaimed films such as “Swallowtail Butterfly”, a starring role in Hideaki Anno’s live action “Shiki-Jitsu”, a segment in the omnibus film “New York, I Love You” and probably his most famous work “All About Lily Chou-Chou”. An actual early version of the script for “The Case of Hana & Alice” was written as early as 2004, just after “Hana and Alice” was completed, however for some reason it was never actually green-lit. The reason why this film is animated and not in live action is because the two main actresses in the original film, Anne Suzuki (Hana) and Yuu Aoi (Alice), are 10 years older and of course no longer look like teenagers. An animated film is an easier way to continue the story than hiring new younger lookalike actresses.

Like the much maligned “The Flowers of Evil” anime series, the film is mostly rotoscoped (where live action actors are filmed, then traced over and coloured). For the most part this works, especially for the ballet sequences which are beautiful to watch. Some additional elements such as mouth movements have been exaggerated for effect. For some of the more dangerous sequences such as Alice dangling from a first storey window, CG models have been used, which quite frankly look awful. And the most bizarre thing is these CG models are used in sequences where you wouldn’t expect them to be such as two people walking down a school hallway. Why wasn’t such a mundane shot done as rotoscoping? Regardless, most of the shots in the film look brilliant. There are some strange camera angles which you wouldn’t normally see in an anime which I put down to Iwai’s experience as a live action director.

Being a prequel to an existing film, the question is do you need to have seen “Hana and Alice” to fully appreciate this film? I would say no, but watching the live action film certainly does expand your understanding of the two main characters. I decided to watch the film just before viewing “The Case of Hana & Alice”. The original film follows the rather humorous story of Hana who has the hots for a boy and takes advantage of his clumsiness when he walks into door and knocks himself out. She tells him he has amnesia and says that they were going out. The lie spirals out of control when she has to cover herself for a bunch of photos she covertly took of him which he discovers. Hana tells him that his ex-girlfriend Alice took them and she has to rope her into pretending that she is. Only problem is that Alice falls in love with the boy. I thought it was a touch too long at 135 minutes and has a tacked on sub plot of Alice being scouted by talent agency, which I thought added nothing to the film except for beautiful dance sequence at the end.

“The Case of Hana & Alice” references a number of scenes from the original film, most notably a sequence where Alice goes out to visit her father at a restaurant. The love interest from the first film, played by Tomohiro Kaku, also returns in a cameo as a teacher. There’s also a reference to the origins of the original film; a series of short films sponsored by Kit Kat as part of their 30th anniversary in Japan. Whereas the original film was quite humuorous with touches of melancholy, this film mostly does away with a lot of the melancholic moments. The last third of the film has the pair trailing what they believe is Yuta’s father but is in fact another employee of the company he works for. A hilarious comedy of errors ensures. The film explores and builds on the relationship between the two girls seen in the original and the “murder case” is really inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

The only English language version available is All the Anime’s dual DVD/BD set which is a dupe of their @Anime French label version released back in November. The two discs come in a digipak with a 20 page booklet which features a short message from Makoto Shinkai (for what reason, I’m not sure), a Shunji Iwai interview and an article on how they made the film. The only on disc extra is a 23 minute interview with (a pre “your name.”) Makoto Shinkai who gushes about Iwai’s work. The contents are housed in a chipboard box with three postcards and a slip case. Overall it’s quite an intriguing film, beautifully shot with an interesting story which at it's core is about a burgeoning friendship between two girls. The rotoscoped animation is to a large degree a distraction which doesn’t help in the story being told, especially with the CG models which are awful. But when it does all manage to work, it’s magnificent. 7.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Eight TV series, one OVA and two movies. In addition I am also waiting for the second part and movie of one TV series to be released before viewing it.

Video Backlog: “Working!!! (Wagnaria!! 3)”

Publisher: Aniplex of America
Format: Region A Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 13 episodes x 24 minutes, 1 episode x 51 minutes
Production Date: 2015
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

This is the third season of the series “Working!!!” I originally reviewed the first series back in 2011, but did not review the second. The second series pretty much follows on from the first, adds a couple more characters but doesn’t really break any new ground. The franchise is set in a family restaurant called Wagnaria, which the décor and name are seemingly based upon real Japanese family restaurant chain Saizeriya, but with the food more in line with other major family restaurant chains, not Italian influenced like Saizeriya.

High school student Sota Takanashi is suddenly asked in the street to join the staff of the family restaurant by Popura Taneshima, a very short 17-year-old (a year older than Sota) whom Sota mistakes for a primary school student. Sota has a fetish for cute animals, children and small things in general so immediately says yes without thinking. He latter feels duped by the fact Popura is older than him, as due to way he is treated by his older sisters he has a distrust of girls over the age of 12. Sota soon discovers the staff are bunch of oddballs; waitress Mahiru Inami who is a teen girl who has androphobia and punches Sota whenever he is near, Yachiyo Todoroki a woman in her early 20’s who is the head waitress, always carries a katana and dotes on the layabout manager Kyoko Shirafuji, a former gang boss in her high school years who does not much else but eat parfaits that Yachiyo makes for her. The kitchen staff includes Jun Sato who is a chain smoking chef who has the hots for Yachiyo but doesn’t have the guts to do anything about it. He is assisted by Hiroomi Soma who constantly teases Sato about his lack of progress and finds dirt on the waiting staff so he can blackmail them into doing chores for him.

Running the restaurant is Hyogo Otoo who is mostly away due to the fact he is constantly searching for his wife who gets lost quite easily. He will return irregularly from time to time bringing back souvenirs in the form of local snacks to appease Kyoko. One day he returns with a teen girl who calls herself Aoi Yamada. It soon becomes apparent she is a runaway, but she stays on to become a member of the wait staff. This is despite the fact she is hopeless at her job, often slacks off and ends up living in the restaurant’s attic. She’s also very clingy and keeps bugging Otoo to adopt her. We are later introduced to Sota’s sisters; Kazue who is a hardnosed lawyer in her early 30’s, Izumi who is in her late 20’s and is a frail writer of romance novels, Kozue an aikido instructor in her mid 20’s who is seemingly always drunk because her relationships don’t work out, and finally Nazuna the youngest at 12 years old. In one way or another all of the sisters make trouble for Sota. The first series ends with Sota attempting to cure Mahiru of her androphobia and partially succeeding.

The second series is pretty much a continuation of the first (with the animation quality going up quite significantly). A bunch of new characters are introduced such as Otoo’s long lost wife Haruna, Mitsuki  and Yohei Mashiba who are a pair of siblings who used to be in Kyoko old gang and are still fiercely loyal to her and Kirio Yamada and high school boy who claims he is the brother of Aoi and is looking for her. The third series has sense of finality to it. The relationships of Sota and Mahiru as well as Yachiyo and Jun begin to blossom. Several other long running plot lines are resolved including Aoi’s and Otoo’s.

I really didn’t expect to enjoy this franchise so much. I mean it’s pretty much just a silly little show about teens who work in a family restaurant. There are a lot of overused and long running gags such as Mahiru punching Sota, Aoi’s utter incompetence, the oddness of Yachiyo, Jun and Kyoko’s interpersonal relationships etc. However most of the time a lot of these elements are used fairly sparingly and the constant addition of new characters certainly inject a lot of humour into the show and keeps things fresh. Based up on a four-panel comic strip manga which ran for 9 years and 13 volumes, as you’d guess there is more than enough maternal available for three series. The animation for all three series was produced by A-1 Pictures (“Sword Art Online”, “Anohana”, “Erased” etc) and as you’d expect it’s mostly high quality stuff. But I think towards the end of the third series the animation wasn’t up to the standard of previous episodes. The series director was Yumi Kamakura (yes, yet another female director, and this seems to be her first time as series director), who is probably best known as an episode director for the studio, but also wrote the screenplay for the Kickstarter backed “Santa Company”. Her direction is pretty good and as a whole and meshes quite well with the previous two series.

As I mentioned previously, there is an overwhelming sense of finality with this season of the show. The seriousness and drama at times almost overwhelm what is meant to be a slice of life comedy. But at the same time it really is satisfying to see a lot of plot lines come to a conclusion. However nothing much has really changed in the restaurant itself by the end of the final episode, which I also found strangely satisfying. This series also introduces Sota’s mother. She’s always away from home due to her work (her job really isn’t explained clearly in the series) and seems to be loathed by Sota and his sisters except Nazuna who hasn’t seen much of her mother during her short life. The final episode (complete with faux fantasy story preview) is a 50 minute special which has Sota’s domineering mother taking him away from the restaurant and forbidding from making any contact with Mahiru. The whole episode feels forced and engineered for maximum drama where there didn’t to be any. It’s a rather sour note to go out on and seems really out of place when compared to the rest of the franchise.

Apart from the animation which takes a rather noticeable nosedive I the latter part of this series, the other big problem I had with this show was its English language release. The first two series were released by NIS America in oversized chipboard boxes with a hardcover books full of artwork. The Aniplex of America version is spread out over two sets with a blu-ray keep case in a flimsy slipcase and a few postcards thrown in. The kicker is the price; for the same cost of either one of NIS America’s seasons of “Working!!”, you could only buy one of the Aniplex of America sets at the “discounted” price. Years after they entered the market, their pricing still shits me. And with no other English language alternative in the home video market, you have no choice. I would still prefer that Aniplex just put English subs on their Japanese releases and be done with it. Their US versions are near Japanese prices, but you’re certainly not getting Japanese release quality. No booklets or anything. They’re ripping off US fans.

Despite my problem with the English language release of this series, the content of this show is pretty good. Certainly it’s not a classic show by any stretch of the imagination. It’s kind of silly, but there’s plenty of laughs to be found. The final episode did leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth and the animation towards the end didn’t seem as good as what had come before it. But as a whole, all three “Working!!” series are great way to be entertained over the course of a few nights if you want something light and fluffy to watch. 7 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Eight TV series, one OVA and three movies. In addition I am also waiting for the second part and movie of one TV series to be released before viewing it.

Video Backlog: “Wish Upon the Pleiades”

Publisher: Sentai Filmworks (USA)
Format: Region A Blu-ray, NTSC, Japanese Dialogue with optional English Subtitles
Length: 12 episodes x 24 minutes
Production Date: 2015
Currently in Print (as of writing): Yes

Subaru is a slightly shy and lonely 12 year old girl and the only member of her school’s astronomy club. On the day of an expected meteor shower, she grabs her prized telescope from home and rushes to the club room which doubles as an observatory. However when she opens the door, instead of finding the club room she discovers a very lush greenhouse. Inside she finds a boy around her age called Minato. She asks him what he is doing there but he mostly gives vague answers. Subaru feels like she is in a dream, however she still wants to see the meteor shower. As she leaves the greenhouse, a small blobby creature jumps on her and takes away her compass. She runs after the creature but eventually loses sight of it. Walking down the hallways of the school, she manages to unseal a door which was locked by magic. Inside are four girls in strange wizard or witch-like outfits, one of which is her old friend, Aoi, whom she hasn’t seen much of since she decided to attend another school.

It turns out the small octopus creature which stole her compass is actually a Pleiadian, and alien from the Pleiades star cluster. The alien has asked the four girls to help him find parts of its spaceship’s engine which were scattered in an accident seven years ago. As the alien cannot speak Japanese, he uses one of the girls, Nanako, as a translator, possessing her to speak as such. The alien uses Subaru’s compass to create a drive shaft, a kind of magical broom that the girls ride. Much to Subaru’s surprise her school uniform also transforms into a similar wizard’s outfit, the same as the other girls. Despite Subaru’s protests and pleas for an explanation to what is going on, the girls ignore her as they all take off into the sky to capture a piece of the engine which has appeared. Through a bit of trial and error, the five girls manage to capture the piece of the engine, which has taken the shape of a kind of a large spiny crystal-like star. With their magic they reduce the engine piece to the size of a tennis ball and into something that looks like a piece of Konpeito candy.

Thinking that their work is completed, the girls soon find themselves under attack from a young man in a black cape and with black horns. He attempts to steal the engine piece. However he fails, and somehow in the confusion it ends up under Subaru’s hat. To top off a rather eventful and confusing day, Subaru manages to see the meteor shower with the other girls while riding in the sky. The following day Suburu goes to school and discovers that the girls, Aoi, Nanako, Itsuki and Hikaru are in her class, which is odd because most of them don’t go to her school. None of the other students seem to notice what has happened. Aoi and Subaru also note that their pasts contradict each other’s recollections. The alien believes that his spaceship has caused this. Somehow it is pulling together alternate timelines. The creature latter explains that if his ship appears, it will causes massive problems on Earth. He needs the girls to find all the parts of his engine in order to keep it hidden in another dimension permanently. Luckily only the five girls can see the engine parts and the Pleiadian. But to cover themselves and to have a base for their activities (i.e. a clubroom), they form a Cosplay Research Club.

In the meantime they teach Subaru how to ride a drive shaft broom. Suburu also tries to patch up her friendship with Aoi which ended on a sour note when they went to separate high schools. She consults Minato whose greenhouse seems to appear randomly in different areas of the school. He explains that he went through a similar situation previously. To find the engine parts, the Pleiadian performs a "meteor shower forecast". In this forecast he discovers that two engine parts are nearby. The girls do manage to capture both, but yet again the boy in the black cape appears and this time steals one of the engine parts from them.

This show has some strange origins. It’s actually a collaboration between car manufacturer Subaru and Gainax. Originally a series of five minute shorts steamed on Youtube in 2011, a movie version was later announced in 2013, only for it to be never mentioned again. I’m assuming the movie was formatted into this 12 part TV series. It does seem really weird that a car maker would fund a magical girl anime. The astronomical imagery and themes are easier to understand as Subaru in Japanese is the name of the Pleiades star cluster (which bizarrely a Japanese language teacher told me wasn’t correct, but he was a dickhead anyway). Subaru’s logo on their badges is actually the Pleiades star system. Naturally there are a bunch of a Subaru and car references in the show; the drive shaft brooms which have car headlights on the front of them and later grills of specific Subaru models, and the fact the brooms make the sounds various Subaru engines. Then of course we have the lead character called Subaru. However none of the car references are all that distracting or really obvious. There’s no shots of any Subaru cars and none of the characters are named after Subaru models.

For the most part, “Wish Upon the Pleiades” is nothing really ground breaking in terms of magical girl anime. The five girls have their own distinctive personalities which are for the most part common archetypes found in modern day anime series. You have Aoi who is a bespectacled girl who fussed a bit too much over the clumsy yet lovable Subaru. Itsuki who is essentially a clone of Tomoyo from “Cardcaptor Sakura” with a few other girls mixed in for good measure. Then you have Hikaru who is probably the most energetic and boisterous of the lot. Finally you have Nanako who has an interest in the occult, is always seen wearing a witches hat and cape and is a conduit for communicating with the Pleiadian. The connection between the black caped boy who steals the engine parts from the girls and Minato should be utterly obvious to anyone who has seen any magical girl anime from the last 25 years.

As the series progresses, the girls collect the engine parts, which each successive part being found further and further way from the school. It doesn’t take too many episodes in before they venture out beyond the stratosphere and eventually out to deep space and even outside the universe. Gainax have done a fantastic job in presenting the solar system and the universe in a realistic fashion, even though the magical genre is usually involves fantastical and unrealistic elements. Later episodes involve near light speed travel and other astronomical concepts. There’s even nerdy references to the NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft. Naturally the series also has at least one episode devoted to one of the cast members where they have some sort of deep seated issue which is solved by the end of that episode. Most also explore their backstories where it is revealed all of them witnessed the separation of the engine parts some seven years ago. The other element of the story which makes it unusual is the concept of alternate timelines. Though it’s not really explained in detail, somehow the alien’s spaceship can draw alternate timelines together or take people back within timelines to take a different path.

Though the series does get a bit serious and melodramatic in the last few episodes, there is a lot of humour to be found in the show. Most of the time it’s pretty light hearted and doesn’t take it’s self too seriously. For the most part it’s a really fun and colourful show and goes against a current trend in magical anime where everything thing seems to so pitch black and serious, where the main cast either die or horrible things happen to them. I know sort of stuff has been a part of magical girl anime since “Sailor Moon”, but lately that stuff has been a bit too nihilistic for me. Despite the lawsuits, the defections to Studio Khara and Trigger and other troubles the studio’s had, this show proves that Gainax is still able to make great anime. The show was directed by Shoji Saeki whose only other real directing credit is Gainax’s last real hit, “Medaka Box”. Overall this is a fun and light-hearted series for the most part and I enjoyed it immensely. A lot of the plot isn’t all that original, however there’s a lot of interesting elements to keep you intrigued, the designs are nice, the animation is pretty darn good and the characters more than won me over (even though they’re largely archetypes). I’ll give this show a solid 7.5 out of 10.

Remaining Backlog: Five TV series and one movie. In addition I am also waiting for the second part of one TV series to be released before viewing it.