I'm Back

Hehvjfabdk.... Gtluabbdj ..... 1984631864 ..... Hello!! Phew, thought I lost it there for a second. It's been awhile and I’m still working out the chinks. I figured what better time to restart this little side project then in my final semester of college amid the biggest workload I've ever had to deal with. Logic be damned. I wanted to kick off my overdramatized return by tackling a medium I regularly bash and actively despise, Anime, bet you didn't see that one coming. Let’s start off with a little groundwork I think anime is weird. It's immature, tone deaf, oftentimes obnoxious, it glorifies violence, lacks any subtlety and it's more than a little pervy. But I want to learn, and so …

I stand at the precipice of what I already perceive to be a terrible idea.  Join me as I dive into the depths of anime. I don’t know what I’ll find, but I’m already excited to discover it. There will be laughs, tears, and a fair amount of introspection I imagine. A treacherous road lies ahead any number of things could bring this adventure to a halt; I expect it will be the astronomical number of tropes and clichés. I’ve got everything I need, a backpack full of sarcasm, two bottles of facetious comments, and a Nutri-Grain® bar. Here goes …. 

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (Ep 1-17)

First up is Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. The original 2003 series was actually the last anime I had seen before abandoning the genre completely. I remember the first episode very fondly, the scene where the Elric brothers try to resurrect their mother is one of the most mortifying yet memorable things I had ever seen and still percolates in my mind a decade later. But I fell out of love with anime and abandoned the series less than 10 episodes in. Upon returning to the genre for this feature I learn there is a new series based on the same story but this time sticking closer to the original source material.

Brotherhood was the first anime I watched when starting this feature and I couldn't have picked a better show to start with. The show encapsulates anime quite succinctly and is one of the best examples of the genre and a great introductory series. It eschews from the obnoxious elements found in most anime focusing more on relatable its characters. The action is over the top but the human drama stays grounded. The state of the world is grand and fantastical yet the stakes are believable and scary. Brotherhood also deftly balances wackiness with complex human darkness. It's almost surreal how quickly the show shifts its tone from scene to scene yet never once is the transition jarring, an impressive acrobatic feat I still struggle to fully understand how it's pulled off. 

Hyper realism is where most anime lives, everything is very bold and obvious. Simple human emotions are overly exaggerated and expressly conveyed. Brotherhood is filled with moments like this but they are relegated to the comedic moments. The drama is portrayed with the utmost seriousness with protracted moments of silence allowing the audience to drink it in. Every character is surprisingly fleshed out, even character that come off as one dimensional initially are finely drawn in later episodes (I'm looking at you Armstrong, you beautiful brute you). Brotherhood directly addressees blatant problems with the anime genre but stil manages to appeal to stalwart fans and newcomers with strong characters mixed in with more typical anime tropes. I don't think I will find an abundance of shows like this along this journey but this is one I will assuredly revisit. 

Kill la Kill (Ep 1-4)

While Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood represents an anime series learning from the criticisms leveled at the genre. Kill la Kill embraces those criticisms and runs with them at unsettlingly high speeds. The violence is exceedingly over the top, every character is defined by a single trait, titillation is at its breaking point, and everyone is screaming all the time for no apparent reason. And yet it’s done with such aplomb that it, even if unintentional, comes off as satirical.

Kill la Kill plot takes places in a not so typical school, of course, and centers around a fiery young girl fighting a series of older students for the other half of a magical sword with vaguely defined powers, because why not throw in every tired ass trope in one pot. It’s dumb. But it sort of works. I’m not sure where the series goes after the first handful of episodes, maybe the action gets tiresome, but it starts off strong if not entirely compelling. I would say Kill la Kill is fun in an ironic way, I refuse to believe anyone involved in its production or anyone who claims to like it takes anything that happens seriously.