Blast from the Past

Continuing my bad habit of impulse-purchasing anime, a few months ago I bought myself a copy of Super Dimension Century Orguss. Never heard of it? Yeah, me neither. But the cover art just screamed Macross at me, and sure enough, the two shows shared character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto. Even better, they shared Noboru Ishiguro as director, one of the more renowned figures in sci-fi anime who also did the first Megazone 23 OVA and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Those are some solid credits right there, but what about this more obscure show?

From episode one there's a solid mashup of science fiction ideas. In the future, two major world powers are at war, and asshole pilot Kei becomes a key part of one's mission to bomb the enemy's orbital elevator. Not with just any bomb, mind you, but with a deadly Dimensional weapon that, due to a few miscalculations on everyone's part, ends up warping space and time. Kei gets flung twenty years into the future to an Earth comprised of multiple timelines; humans evolved different ways on different timelines, other creatures dominated the planet on others, and machines on still others. Now all possibilities are stuck with each other, and Kei must navigate the warring factions long enough to save the Earth from a slow death via increasing dimensional instability.

So it's basically a free-for-all where anything is plausible, but the plot turns out more grounded than you might expect. That's because the focus is only two or three races and the interactions between their members. In this sense it again recalls Macross, where humans, Zentradi, and Meltlandi found common ground and learned to coexist only after many confrontations. The ragtag crew eventually assembled aboard the Glomar and their conflicts demonstrate on a small scale how people (and robots, and dinosaur . . . psychic . . . things) can more or less live together despite their different viewpoints or backgrounds. Our love for one another makes it possible.

Sounds trite and cheesy? It is, as befits a space opera from the early 80s, but the cast gets treated with enough dignity to sell the idea. Almost everybody wants something beyond just survival, and goes through at least a few introspective scenes wherein they question what they want and what they're doing. Mimsy may be mistaken at first glance as the doe-eyed, stereotypical love interest who eventually realizes she can't live without the hero. But that would be overlooking her long-running goal of using Kei as a tool to help her race, her conflict between duty and friendship as she discovers said race's intentions, and her reservations against entering a relationship that may be fated to end quickly. Kei, for his part, puzzles out the meaning of responsibility without completely losing the free-spiritedness that made him endearing. Shaya is a mess of contradictions and insecurities under her warm, matronly personality, and even mascot or comic relief characters have their own personal conflicts and tragedies. There's plenty of cheesy interactions to be found, which maybe I unfairly write off because I have a thick skin for the stuff, but also lots of emotional meat to enjoy if you aren't totally allergic to melodrama.

Likewise, the video quality itself will either be a bonus or a turn-off depending on the viewer. Orguss is an early 80s TV show. It looks like an early 80s TV show. Quality ranges from decent to janky, with stock footage rearing its head during many a battle scene. The trade-off is that vehicles, missiles, and explosions have a hand-drawn charm that no CGI can replicate, but it's understandable if many get annoyed seeing the same three missiles blow up the same three Nikicks over and over. On a similar note, while the Haruhiko Mikimoto character designs have a beautiful retro look in key art, when budgets wear thin you'll notice eyes wandering all over faces, to say nothing of weird limb movements. The music remains consistently good, at least, never dropping below serviceable, and the opening theme is an earworm.

I can see why people would turn their noses up at this title. It looks hopelessly dated, it's got cheese coming out the ears, and the ending is the very definition of “your mileage may vary”. But Super Dimension Century Orguss is also a show with a lot of heart, one that has fun with science fiction concepts, develops its characters well, and knows how to leave you on a good cliffhanger. Praise be once again to Discotek for letting us own this lesser-known title; no other anime licensor is as dedicated to bringing back neglected chunks of history. Until a decent amount of Macross gets its own release (fingers crossed), Orguss is a worthy successor to the message that emotions conquer all.

Born to Fail

In a predictable twist, right after writing up an article that mostly insulted light novel adaptations, there appears to be a pretty good one this very season. Its name, roughly translated, is Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash. That title alone would normally drive me away; it sounds like a delusional teenager's autobiography, and the generic plot description did not help matters. But enough critics called its first episode “interesting” that I checked it out, and lo and behold, that verdict holds true four episodes in.

The plot opens with a group of teenagers waking up in a fantasy world with no memories. Advised to earn their living by becoming freelance adventurers, the more dominant, outgoing kids immediately form a group, leaving the six timid, weaker ones no choice but to stick together for survival. We then follow the weaker party through their day to day lives.

So right off the bat there's this major strike against Grimgar: it's about teenagers trapped in a video game. Not that such is ever explicitly stated. But although the teens have no memories, they sometimes instinctively use modern-day words and phrases, only to sheepishly realize they have no actual idea of their meaning. They rediscover their skills and preferences bit by bit, reasoning “I probably liked X before I came here, too.” And the mechanics of learning skills and buying items functions exactly the same as virtually every RPG ever. This is shit so familiar to us by now, they don't even bother to explain it in much detail.

The details, however, happen to be where Grimgar excels. Take the combat, for example; there are plenty of fantasy series that look great but rely on smoke-and-mirror tricks when it comes to fighting. Record of Lodoss War, for example, tended to show the prelude and aftermath of a sword strike without showing the hit itself, let alone an enemy's attempt at blocking. Oop, hero guy started to charge, that means bad guy's gonna get cut. With Grimgar, every movement has meaning, with causes and effects clearly shown to us. The thief's attack went wide because the goblin's missed stab threw him off balance, which means he next needs to roll away before the goblin can strike again. Action choreography is a rare talent in the best of times, especially on a TV budget, so battles are a treat for their loving care if not for scale.

Some may not like the fact that only goblins are fought thus far, but I think it adds to Grimgar's appeal. This show is the anti-Sword Art Online in that its characters are barely good at anything, let alone the best. Their daily lives are shown in enough detail that we understand the constant struggle to put bread on the table by fighting only the lowest of the low, and realize how hard living in such a world would actually be, rather than use the setting as a simple power fantasy. It's this struggle that keeps the characters sympathetic despite them being not only borderline blank slates, but somewhat generic archetypes. We care for the typical shy girl, the nice guy, the spunky girl, the loudmouth jerk because they did nothing to deserve their harsh situation; you'd have to be kinda sadistic to want these kids to fail.

The production values are another big plus. As mentioned before, the battles are exceptionally detailed, but that care extends to simpler character movements as well. Body language is not neglected, right down to awkward fidgeting. Backgrounds consist of gorgeous watercolors, the kind of scenery you'd want to live in if, you know, you weren't working your ass off each day to keep from starving or being killed.

 

Probably the only aspect handled downright poorly is the fanservice. First off, there didn't need to be any. We care enough about everyone's wellbeing that seeing the two girls objectified feels wrong, even if boys will be boys and all that. Second, it's not done well. The loudmouth dark knight usually makes some dirty comment out of nowhere or randomly decides to peek in on a bathing session. The other guys try to stop him with a halfheartedness that would make Willy Wonka proud.

They're also clearly intrigued by his ideas, though, and the large-breasted mage girl gets one step further from overcoming her crippling fear of people. It feels like there was some box being checked off whenever such scenes happen, and they really take you out of the story.

Fortunately, this is a small problem in an otherwise standout series. While Grimgar may sound like a dozen other shows from the past few years, it works hard to successfully stand out from the herd. I suppose things could still go off the rails in a bad way, and it's unlikely we'll get a satisfying ending anytime soon if the source material stretches on for volumes upon volumes. But right now I find myself anticipating this show each week, hoping that our band of heroes will maybe catch a break this time. That's a hard feeling to draw out of a viewer, and for now it's more than enough.

Here Come the Fuzz

 Hey, all! Just a short entry today, since the subject is a short anime that only just started running.

I find myself only rarely watching the handful of bite-sized anime that inevitably airs alongside “proper” shows. Very seldom does any short live long in the collective memory, so I figure why spend the extra three to seven minutes per week when I'm watching too much already? Well, this season I'm glad I went out on a limb. The world must know of Sushi Police.

As the 2020 Olympics approach, Japanese cuisine rises in popularity worldwide, particularly sushi. But with that push in popularity comes a rash of restaurants serving subpar sushi. That's where the Sushi Police comes in. Are you using inauthentic ingredients, or experimenting with sushi to create unconventional new flavors? Enjoy watching your restaurant burn, asshole.

Most of the humor comes from the leader, Honda, and how seriously he takes his . . . very odd job. It's also funny how intolerant our “heroes” are towards people who don't mean any harm. Throw in a little slapstick violence and racial insensitivity, and you have Sushi Police in a nutshell. There's a high volume of laughs for just a three minute runtime, so dig right in while it's still fresh.