Tonight, I watched one or two episodes each of Togainu no Chi, Star Driver and Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. Guess which one I enjoyed most!
Togainu no Chi
I swear some series know they’re boring as fuck so the writers deliberately make everything mysterious and confusing as possible in hopes that we’re dumb enough to keep watching.
What is Togainu no Chi about? We begin with Squall Akira being framed for a murder he didn’t commit. A woman shows up to offer both exposition and freedom.
What Third Division incident?
Huh? Am I supposed to understand this?
Anyway, if Akira wins some high stakes battle royale and kill the leader of some drug group, he earns his freedom.
What I don’t get is… if this drug group is serious negative juju, why bother with some silly game? Why not send in a military? This woman’s organization, at the very least, has inspectors and guards. In fact, the same inspectors and guards are good enough to capture Akira. Even better, they are always able to capture Akira, the guy they’re sending into Toshima to kill the “King.” By the transitive power of anime(!!!), just have the inspectors do the job! Or some badass covert ops assassin — I’m not an expert on this sort of thing, but I do think a street urchin is unqualified for the job.
Anyway, the anime goes to shit. We are thrown into the middle of some derelict concrete jungle where pretty boys fight pretty boys. As they take the others out, they get dog tags! Why? I dunno.
Why are homoerotic statues littered about?
Why?
Why does this man look like he’s dressed from head to toe in black latex?
Who smuggles food into a lawless district where killer pretty boys roam the streets?
Where do you even find flannel boy shorts in a lawless district?
Keisuke, your damn shirt is on backwards! Fuck, why haven’t you fixed it!
Wait what? Shounen ai? Oooooooh. Well, it still doesn’t excuse the bad plot.
Just turn down the volume, play Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and what you get is utterly indistinguishable from any AMV you come across on Youtube.
Star Driver
If you thought the last anime made no sense, Star Driver is worse. Right off the bat, our hero is posing in front of six girls. I smell a harem — shame on you, Bones. Let’s start the show.
Oh. Okay.
Hey, what a coincidence! He was just a few yards away.
Betchu the anime’s gonna tease her for omgkissingaboy!!!!
Knew it. Grow up, anime.
So why did Mr. Takuto Tsunashi wash up on the beach shore. He really didn’t want to miss the ceremony for his new school ’cause his grandpa highly recommended it. As a result, he swam to this school (or so he claims)! We learn later he’s looking for his dad or something. Always with the dad in mecha anime…
Wait, swim to a school? Yes! — it is on an island. The island has four maidens. Very special maidens. They are betrothed at an early age.
They have to purify themselves. By getting naked. Does it make sense to you yet? Me neither! Is the anime gonna tell us what’s up? Not yet! Let’s skip straight to an abandoned gold mine. Yes, that’s right.
Dangerous due to gears and garter belts.
I am so fucking lost right now. You have no idea. Her and her cronies (I think) salute each other with the peace sign and yelling “Glittering Star.” And here — when we know nothing whatsoever! — the anime’s OP begins.
“Apprivoise.”
“His first phase will usher in the age. The Sword of Beginning… the Star Sword Diamant.”
“Let’s get this party started!”
Now wait a minute here…
“The Cybercasket and the Cybody are connected. It’s a success.”
I have no clue what’s going on, but lemme try to parse it all. So a bunch of people in kooky costumes in a gold mine adjacent to some school are breaking the maidens’ seals. Kinky. Wako, the southern maiden, becomes the latest victim. Takuto tries to save her, but he fails for now.
Mysterious people talk. (By the way, in the picture above, who do you think is dumber? The villains for doing such a poor job at tying Wako to the chair or Wako for not realizing SHE CAN JUST FUCKING STAND UP. Maybe she knows she can’t escape anyway so she’s just going to enjoy a nice sit down– wait, no no, look at her struggle as if she’s LITERALLY TIED TO THE CHAIR:
Trust me. You can’t see it in just a still image, but she squirms in her seat.
And now, her arms are over the back of the chair! I-I don’t even know!)
A caged “fish girl” sings.
Some dude goes into some contraption called a “cybercasket.” Yeah, really.
He rips off Gurren Lagann goes into some acid trip:
I… I don’t get it.
Oh.
Some giant mecha fight occurs and our hero (obviously) wins. End first episode. Did you get all of that? Yeah, I didn’t either.
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
So in the end, I liked Panty & Stocking most out of the three. The dialogue’s sharp. The art direction screams chic. I enjoyed the riffs on current pop culture in more ways than one. And last but not least, a sex-having female character in anime that isn’t the target of shaming? Cool.
The Anime Quote of the Night!
“If you tell me not to go, then I’m gonna be dying to go. That’s just how guys are.”
No means yes!– wait… aw shit.
You haven’t watch Utena? It’s hard not to think that Star Driver will have this big underlying fuckup confusing yet interesting plot twist that you don’t see everyday when you know they shared the same composition and script writer.
If you haven’t watch Utena, it is this ridiculous show with a bunch of fabulously ridiculous character striking all these dramatic and elegant shoujo-ish poses (like those in Star Driver but worse) for no apparent reason. They are funny at first but the plot got so crazy and dark later on, you can’t really laugh because you know every character is fucked up in their mind and soul.
Panty and Stocking was interesting to me like how I find Dead Leaves interesting.
I don’t know if you have watched Dead Leaves, but it is this dirty little, penis filled stylistic ova with an anti-hero main character who has a TV set as his head. There is this scene where he have sex with his deformed wife using his drill penis. Pretty ridiculous and idiotic but I think it was awesome. I don’t recommend it though because most people think that it sucks because it is shallow. I agree but come on, it has drill penis and that’s enough for me.
Right now, Star Driver isn’t even confusing because it’s complicated or has plot twists. It’s confusing because it doesn’t even try.
Utena > Star Driver. I wish people would stop making the comparison; it isn’t the spiritual successor to RGU, its just Melody of Oblivion with better writing and direction. Psst, a lot of RGU folks worked on MoO.
In defense of myself, I didn’t draw any major comparisons between Star Driver and Utena like how it’s a spiritual successor or something, I just mention that I believe something big and special will happen due to the writer, who also wrote so many unconventional stuffs such as FLCL and some episodes of Evangelion. The only comparisons I made are that Utena writer wrote Star Driver and they both feature fabulous poses(which I assure you is a throwaway joke statement) but I am definitely not implying that it’s a spiritual successor or something. In other words, I can pretty much substitute Utena with FLCL if it pleases you but then the throwaway statement of fabulous poses won’t work if that’s the case.
I also didn’t mention or justify about how it’s not confusing, I am just anticipating something unconventional to happen due to the track record of the writer and that’s the reason why I watch the show. To be frank, I am just rattling off something that’s irrelevant to the post because I have no disagreement nor have anything to refute with the post. I just felt like commenting because I am bored, and of course, I felt like mentioning funny poses and drill penis.
I’m on Ep.5 of Star Drive and it doesn’t really try to explain all of this stuff very thoroughly. You just kinda have to glean out the plot details for yourself…which is annoying. Still, I’ve noticed that a lot of shows lately have been taking to the pattern of “Repetitive —–> Repetitive ——-> Plot Development ——-> Repetitive ——–> Plot Development ——–> Serious Business Arc ——–> Final Boss ——> Show End” and I feel like this is going to be one of those shows. I don’t have a problem with that if they actually explain clearly what’s going on. Also, it always bothers me when a mask suddenly covers up EVERYTHING distinguishable about someone when their hair is still showing. It would be obvious to tell, even from a distance, considering this is a secluded island with 1 school. That whole “Hi, I’m obviously bad!” thing doesn’t get any better, either.
In all likelihood, I’ll keep watching until the show becomes aggressively bad. I just think it’s so egregious how shit just happens and they assume the audience is up to speed. It’s the first damn episode. I only sorta enjoyed Eureka Seven years ago. Star Driver makes Eureka Seven look brilliant in comparison.
Star Driver does improve significantly in the second episode. On the other hand, I’m not at all willing to fully commit to declaring it a ‘good’ show. And I am not at all convinced that it is the second coming of Revolutionary Girl Utena. Until Ikuhara works on another show, that sort of thing will never happen.
I love Togainu no Chi although there is no reason at all that I should. I’m just that much of a loser. All those guys who watch stuff in hopes of some tiny bits of yuri? Yeah, I’m pulling that with this, but I’ll be satisfied with some BL.
…
Actually, no, I’ll probably rage about it if there’s not really any BL since, seriously, what the fuck is the point of adapting the game into an anime if you take out the BL? Its not like anyone but BL fans are going to watch this, anyway, so they aren’t going to be increasing their audience share that way. And the traces they leave in would just chase off most people who dislike BL anyway. *rants rants rants*
The fact that Panty loves sex coupled with the fact that she isn’t in some sleazy harem show trying to just get in one guy’s pants is what truly makes her such a refreshing character.
Yeah, I can understand that. Togainu no Chi looks kinda trashy though, what with the dog slave guy. I don’t get why the domination/submission thing is so popular. Yeah, the title is “reprimanded dog” or whatever, but I didn’t think it’d be literal!
My first impression of the show wasn’t actually very positive. You know how the animation style goes conventional when the girls transform? That’s the only thing that ever gets posted on the Internet. As a result, I thought it just looked like some trashy show about strippers. I was really surprised when I watched the show and it looked more like a grown up Powerpuff Girls, complete with appropriately grown up jokes.
You know who that bondage guy reminded me of? Voldo.
Voldo is blind and mute and guarding the tomb of his master. He’s also the most homoerotic character in all of Soul Calibur. On purpose, of course. Apparently people are into that.