I initially shied away from this show. Aside from the rather difficult pronunciation of the title, “To Be Hero”, the capsule and accompanying picture was a bit difficult to take. However, when you get into the show, it is the same kind of disjointed run you have seen with “One-Punch Man” and “Mob Psycho 100”, in that you have a hero that really doesn’t know what to do with himself or his life, either before or after. And some kind of hero! (more…)

Now, there are a ton of shows out there about getting hooked into a video game or being transported to a distant land and place, where you have to make the best of a bad situation. And if anyone can tell me why there is always a medievel flavor to it, I’d appreciate it. My suspicion is that it is the use of magic, which seem connected at the hip with the era. Anyway, this is where we find ourselves in the montropaciously titled “Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu” (“Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World”), and, brother, not only is he starting, he’s starting over. (more…)

Is this another in a long line of “Episode #0” shows or just a free form experiment? I can’t really tell, as so much was left out, that it operates no better than a recap show, rather than an origin episode or even an OVA. You have your ticket? Good, come sit next to me; I’ll get two dogs and two brews and we’ll watch “Tailenders” together. I got us some good seats.

We are in the future, but still no hoverboards. Mankind has been forced off of earth and is busy trying to terraform planets for colonization. The planet we are currently on, Terulus, is not all that cherry of a world. Some 100 or 200 years earlier (the timetable is all askew, so I am not certain how much time has actually passed from any given point), something went wrong with a haywire terraformer. Instead of having a verdant world, where all can live in peace and harmony, and get the greatest Starbucks about, it is beset by destructive earthquakes, constant danger and wildlife mutations that are a fact of life. And death.

Those who survived (and decided to tough it out, for some reason) built giant mobile cities to withstand the tremors, and pass the time with dangerous, no-holds-barred races. Now, I cannot tell how large these rolling cities are, but it may be like Monaco on wheels. Sadly, we are plunked right into things and are in the middle of a terrible, terrific race. Leading the pack is the ghost or the hologram or the astral projection of the famous champion, Loser King. Something happened to him in this self-same race for him to go missing a hundred years ago, but he set records that have never been matched when we join up.

Determined racer Shiro Tomoe (that’s the after version, left) wants nothing more than to live up to the Loser King’s legend, but a terrible accident leaves him nearly dead or maybe even dead. I mean he takes a smash and crash that would make Evel Kneivel wince. Breaking in on the operation (uh, don’t we believe in hygiene protocols?) Mikagura Tomoe (that lavender lady), an inventor with her own motives, replaces his heart with a prototype engine. Now, Shiro’s performance is tied to his very heartbeat, and success, or failure, will determine his fate, and hers and everyone else we come in contact with.

If this wasn’t bad enough, his main rival, Goodspeed, is just as tough a racer as Shiro and they are all hell-bent on winning at any cost. With the latest race to be on the so-called India location (you will be advised that there are 26 areas where nothing has been done at all), it is more than just winning, but being the first to plant your homing beacon and earning more than mere money.

There are numerous problems with this show, the least of which is that we were dropped into it, with the barest of information, and are dragged along for the remaining 26 minutes of it. Now, if I wanted a racing show, “Redline” did a far better job of things and that was a feature-length film. If I wanted just hard, angular lines and a toss-it-to-the-winds plot, I have “Dead Leaves” and that was a ton more fun than this turgid mess.

We get bogged down in the meaning and purpose of life and personal idea and ideals to attain and what it means to be a racer and a human and a person and….sorry; all that really gets in the way. I also felt it was frantic and frenetic just because it was felt it HAD to be frantic and frenetic, but without a true or real understanding as to what it all means. There is nothing wrong with that kind of an approach, but you need a strong idea as to what you want to say or promote and then follow it. Otherwise, what’s going on?

I got the feeling that it was just to go all out and see what the thing can do before it blows up. The ending is an indication that there could be a show, but it is so open-ended and non-committal, one gets the feeling it was more experimental than anything more substantial and that it is going to be a stand-alone. Besides, I do not know how you could make it into a show without it dissolving into something less than what was promised with the ‘pilot’.

Is this bad? Is this good? Nope, it just is. Go ahead and check it out, but you may end up wishing that they had taken out a few more minutes to explain things better and set it up tighter to make for something more than what we got.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork           8 (Hard and angular; not everyone’s taste)
Plot                  8 (Holding its own)
Pacing            10 (It is flat out, all the way)
Effectiveness   6 (A bit more story was really called for)
Conclusion       6 (It reaches a ‘coupler point’, but hasn’t ended)
Fan Service      0 (A similar show would be “Honey and Clover’)

Overall            7 (Got a bit too soap opera for me)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. I will beat Loser King.

Some tales and genres really lend themselves to be translated over to shows; others are not so friendly. I have found that 4-komas and video games can’t always make the jump to light speed, so to speak, and they betray their origins. This is never more so than in the offering “Gyakuten Saiban: Sono “Shinjitsu”, Igiari!” (“Turnabout Trial: I Object to That ‘Truth’!”), as the problem is, no matter what they call Naruhodō Ryūichi, we know him as ‘Phoenix Wright’ (and he is referred to as such on more than one occasion). (more…)

I always have a problem with anime movies, in that I am aware of the merest tip of the iceberg that comes to a regular cinema on its own (although I am having troubles with “The Red Turtle” and that’s a Studio Ghibli offering). A tremendous amount of them just go drifting past, so it is a bit or a workout to be able to find them without having to go to some special showing in a theater no one can find at exorbitant costs to view it and you have but one weekend to grab any of the four total showings. And the next nearest theater for it is 600 miles away. That is why when I run into an anime movie, I grab it and take my chances.

Such is the case with “Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda” (“The Anthem of the Heart”, subtitled “Beautiful Word Beautiful World”). At its heart, it is a love story, but how we get there is a tad unusual. (more…)

I am seeing a lot of music animes popping up, and it’s not just folks wanting to be the latest idol band or boy group, but real musical dedication. After having seen “Your Lie in April” and bumbled through two season of “Hibike! Euphonium”, I decided that I would try out “Piano no Mori”, (“Piano’s Forest”) although it is a strange confabulation of events. Also, it’s an anime movie and you know my stance on them. I will watch it and decide later if it was worth it, as they get such a limited to no release at all in the US (more…)

I lie to myself all the time. “The check’s in the mail.” “Yes, I took out the trash.” “I know I told you that.” After getting treated badly by the last JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, “Egypt Hen”, I swore I would never see it again. Well, guess what happened? Yup, yup and more yup. I found myself watching Installment Series Five or Six, “Diamond is Unbreakable”. (more…)

This is an odd series on a variety of levels. I feel that they could have done fuller episodes of this and really explored the unusual relationship between these two people. Or perhaps they wanted it that episodic, as their encounters are that episodic. In any case, “Tawawa on Monday” (“Getsuyōbi no Tawawa”) explores a caliber of casual meetings and greetings in the same vein as “Same Time, Next Year”. (more…)

I remarked that the Japanese will do an anime on anything. Although this is a caliber of romance, it is a more mature effort. This is no high school rom-com, but something more serious. However, it is packaged around the struggles to create a new dictionary. So, you are immediately thinking ‘How dull can that be?’ And, in a broad sense of thing, yes, it is rather dull. I mean, you are just doing research work to make this project fly, as you track down the real meaning of words. It’s the old Connotation vs. Denotation battle that my Freshman English teacher used to hammer into us as we dissected poetry…..but I have digressed again. It’s tough being an old man. (more…)

I once made the comment that it appears that anime companies will do a show on anything. Or so it seems. What initially appears to be an anime on shogi (Japanese chess) turns out to be far more than expected, but that is what you learn with “3 gatsu no Lion” (“March Comes in Like a Lion”). I was worried initially, as it authored by the same person who did “Honey and Clover” and I found that a truly turgid drama. Plus, the art style and approach is like “Your Lie in April”, but I decided to stick with it. It has a lot going for it; it has a lot working against it. But, let’s get down to the board, as it were. (more…)