All the Anime made all the running this week, with all three anime reviews from their auspices. Testament of Sister New Devil was the first, a harem anime comedy, where a teenage boy winds up living with the heir to the demon king, and her succubus friend. It’s one of those saucy titles, so expect plenty of topless scenes and awkward encounters. It’s also pretty average for its over-populated niche of the anime market, but it has its moments, and is well made.
There’s nothing out there like Mind Game however, director Masaaki Yuasa’s debut feature, and quite the mindf*** anime. Believe it or not, it’s based on an autobiographical story, a story where an aspiring manga artist meets up with his ex to learn that she’s getting married, runs into yakuza, gets shot and killed, escapes from heaven for a second chance at life, goes on the run from the yakuza with his ex and her sister, and then crashes the car into... I can’t quite get my head around it, and I’ve watched it. And that’s before I mention that surreal imagery. But is it worth watching? Click on the review to find out.
The week ended with the conclusion of Assassination Classroom, as I reviewed Assassination Classroom Season 2 Part 2. The show certainly stunned in the first season with its original premise of a classroom of students tasked with killing their teacher, before said teacher can destroy the world. That’s something that can happen when the teacher is a moon-faced tentacle creature that has already blown a massive chunk out of the moon. The first season was amazing, and wholly entertaining, but the second season is where you really get into the narrative, the back-story of the characters. That isn’t always a good thing...
This Week I’ve Been Mostly Rewatching...
Orguss 02. I have never seen the original Orguss, which I understand was a full television series back in the day. The Orguss 02 sequel is a six episode OVA which stands alone really quite happily. It’s got a decent story and characters and you don’t have to know anything more than it tells you to enjoy it. It’s a giant robot show but with a twist that gets a screen of text exposition to explain at the head of the series. Basically space and time have fractured and things have gotten mixed up. That allows for a story where two feudal societies are at war, fighting against each other with high tech giant robots that both sides excavate and restore. The show’s protagonist was apprenticed to an engineer who did this work, but after his mentor was killed he joins the army to support his mentor’s family. On a spy mission to the enemy side, he meets a blue-haired girl with strange powers who is wanted by both sides.
Orguss 02 made its DVD debut in the UK courtesy of Manga Entertainment back in 2004, after they had initially released it on VHS. Here’s my review. Of course it’s well and truly deleted now, but you can find the disc second hand, although if your Japanese is good, you can always import the Blu-ray LE box of this and the first series from Japan.
All the Anime released Testament of Sister New Devil on Collector’s Edition Blu-ray and on standard DVD on April 2nd. They release Mind Game on standard Blu-ray (there was previously a kickstarter for a CE) today, and Assassination Classroom Season 2 Part 2 on Collector’s Blu-ray and Standard DVD came out on the 16th of April.
Oops, my goof. I forgot that the distributor on Assassination Classroom switched to Funimation halfway through the run.
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