Anime Review Roundup

It’s funny how I can enjoy mediocrity more than an iconic fan favourite, but that’s how the anime reviews turned out this week. How Not To Summon a Demon Lord Season 2 fits the bill of mediocrity, yet another in a million ‘isekai’ lost in another world anime, which in this case goes for the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to saucy fan-service. A milquetoast gets reborn in the body of an all-powerful hunk, and somehow winds up with a harem of what are effectively slave-girls, with only his immature impotence saving the blushes of the audience, and keeping the genre just shy of animated porn. But it manages to be entertaining, which is most of the battle.

This is the iconic anime that so many fans reference as being meaningful and important in their experience with anime. I’m now taking in the next instalment in Revolutionary Girl Utena Part 2, the Black Rose Saga, and quite frankly I’ve left it too late to get the best out of a show that was really targeted at teenagers. Director Kunihiko Ikuhara has a unique style, and this collection of episodes merely confirms that it is a taste that I have failed to acquire at this point. If you’re a fan of cyclical and episodic storytelling, then Revolutionary Girl Utena has much to say. Click on the review for an opposing opinion.

There’s nothing mediocre about Star Trek Lower Decks Season One, as I step away from anime for a review, but stick with animation aimed at adult audiences. Star Trek has always offered a wide range of genres in its episodic storytelling, but this is the first out and out comedy. It follows the lives of four lower ranked officers that do the grunt work below decks on one of Starfleet’s support ships. It’s rich with references and is obviously a labour of love for Star Trek fans. But it tells good stories and really develops the characters well. It’s more than just a parody, and does something completely different than say Futurama or Red Dwarf when it comes to its brand of sci-fi comedy. And it is still valid Star Trek, enough so that the latest promo for Strange New Worlds revealed a Lower Decks crossover, with the voice actors for the main characters, Jack Quaid and Tawny Newsome, beaming onto the Enterprise to portray Boimler and Mariner in live action. I haven’t been this jazzed to be a Trek fan in almost thirty years!

Kiddy Grade. This is one of the first anime I reviewed on DVD, so long ago that it was actually daunting buying it. Can you imagine going into an actual entertainment shop and asking for ‘Kiddy Grade’? Now everything is online, it’s not an issue. But of all the anime I watched back then, shows that triggered my fan fervour for the medium, Kiddy Grade has stood up the best. It’s the first of the Gonzo identikit shows, multi-genre, but heavy on the sci-fi and rich with conspiracy and intrigue. But there is a lot of world building in Kiddy Grade, a galactic future where enhanced cyborgs police trade and interstellar commerce. It’s got a Star Wars scope to it, and a movie worth of great music, unfortunately stretched and repeated across 24 episodes. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched Kiddy Grade, but I enjoy it just as much each time. And it’s the only anime that references a ZX Spectrum keyboard in its trailer.