A-are we the baddies? 

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Planet With Ep. 1

First, let’s say a word or two about our hero. Soya is an amnesiac, so he can’t remember much about his past. In his dreams, he sometimes sees a massive battle involving a giant dragon, but I can’t make any heads or tails of it. All I know is that something blew up. Maybe his home. Shrug. At one point, Soya tells Nozomi, the class rep, that he was involved in a traffic accident, but who knows if that memory is even real. Afterwards, when he finally woke up, he found himself in the care of these two oddballs:

That’s right, Ginko, some sort of gothic lolita maid girl, and a weird, purple cat thing. The girl fixes all the food, but she never ever feeds Soya any meat. Everything he eats appears to be completely vegetarian. Even the cat thing eats only vegetables. This is a bit odd, ’cause cats generally eat only meat. But enough about that. During one of Soya’s many complaints about his meat-less existence, Nozomi offers him some of her Hamburg steak. I don’t see any in her bento box, though. Just know that for now, a good chunk of Soya’s early characterization hinges upon his frustration over the lack of animal-based protein in his diet. Strange, but okay. We all gotta start somewhere.

Meanwhile, Ginko refers to the cat thing as Sensei, which makes me think that the creature is an old man. And like most old men in anime, the cat thing’s a bit lecherous.

One day, a giant stuffed cat — an even bigger one — shows up. It shows up all over the world, actually. The Japanese military immediately tries to blow it up without first discerning whether or not the unidentified flying object is even a threat. Unfortunately, their weapons are completely useless against the object. Moreover, if you get too close, you suddenly see a memory from your past…

…a memory that is apparently chosen to pacify you. Shortly afterwards, the pilots immediately disengage from battle to return home. So… is this giant stuffed animal thing really all that bad? We have yet to see it actually hurt anyone.

Nevertheless, these seven individuals show up outta nowhere to “save the day.”

They look heroic, so they must be heroes right? Well… therein lies rub. A pleasant feminine voice tells our seven superheroes that the giant stuffed animal has been brought to Earth by a certain Nebula. Unfortunately, no further information is forthcoming. Not for now, anyways. Who or whatever Nebula is, we just have to assume that it’s the enemy. Hideo, who appears to be the leader of his squad, eventually gets close enough to the stuffed animal’s weak point. As a result, he suffers from a vision of his own — memories of his late mother. Again, the enemy’s strategy is to pacify you using your own thoughts and feelings. Nevertheless, Hideo knocks himself out of the “illusion” and eventually manages to destroy the stuffed animal. We then hear him tell himself later that his job now is to protect the planet. But from what? Giant stuffed animals that want to promote peace? I dunno, man. In any case, Sensei and Ginko tells Soya that it’s time for him to go to battle. Not against future stuffed animals, but against the seven superheroes that we just met. The kid understands the situation about as much as we do, but he goes along with it. After all, Ginko promises that he’ll get to eat tonkatsu if he wins. Soya thinks he’ll finally get to eat some meat, but I’ve had tofu tonkatsu (and it’s pretty good).

After Sensei swallows the kid, he finds himself inside a giant cat mecha. The enemy’s even bigger, but as we all know, size doesn’t matter. Eventually, Soya manages to steal away Hideo’s power, which appears to trigger some of his older memories. He then proclaims that seven “heroes” are his enemies, and he’ll beat the crap out of them. He doesn’t necessarily trust Ginko and Sensei either. He thinks they roped him into this situation — whatever it is — just to make him a soldier for their cause. But either way, I can’t imagine Soya actually playing the role of the bad guy. It would’ve been so cool, though.

Back at headquarters, the director is shocked to learn that Hideo was defeated. But just look at the guy… there’s no way he’s on the up and up. Hideo and the rest of his squad probably think they’re on the right side of justice, but I bet they’re being led astray. Does this mean that the giant stuffed animals belong to the forces of good? Probably not, but we’ll see.

The premise is… interesting, to say the least. I definitely want to see what the rest of the story is about. As for Soya, he’s not annoying, but for now, I can’t root for him. I mean, he literally helped beat up a dude just to eat meat. It’s too early to make any judgments on his character, but that’s my first impression of the kid. In any case, I hope the meat thing becomes a recurring joke. Every time he thinks he’s about to feast on some actual meat, it turns out he’s really just eating vegetables. That would be hilarious if only because I’m kinda forcing myself to be a vegetarian on the weekdays, and yeah, the craving for meat is real. Anyways, the animation’s alright, but as usual, the 3D stuff are a mixed bag. Sometimes they’re passable, sometimes they stick out like a sore thumb. Either way, I’ll keep following Planet With for now.

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Cells At Work! Ep. 1

Is this edutainment? Cause it feels like edutainment. I think the show’s super cute, though. The platelets are especially adorable, and even though Red is a bit of an airhead, she’s still somewhat endearing in her own way. Let’s just hope she and White never run into something like the ebola virus. ‘Cause hoo boy, things would turn ugly real fast. Anyways, I don’t think I’ll post about this show every week, but I’m definitely going to watch it for my own enjoyment on the side. I liked the first episode a lot. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched the germ get sneezed out of the body. Seeing the white blood cells go on a killing frenzy was just hilarious. I hope we get to see the body that all these cells belong to someday.

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The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar Ep. 1

I don’t know what it means to be a master of Ragnarok, but here we are with yet another isekai anime. This time, our bland hero Yuuto has been transported to the magical world of Yggdrasil. It’s a war-torn land full of rival clans murdering each other for tiny pieces of land (but hey, we still do that). Sure, Yuuto could try and make his way home, but gosh, he can’t just leave without making sure that everyone gets to live in peace. And how do you make achieve peace? By defeating other clans in battle and forcing their leaders to swear fealty to you!

Luckily, every single clan leader so far appears to be an anime babe.

This way, our hero gets to listen to a bunch of pretty girls refer to him as either Chichi-ue or Onii-sama. Needless to say, these girls are just raring to offer their bodies to Yuuto.

Sister or daughter, it doesn’t matter!

But alas, he’s a 16-year-old nipponjin with a pure-pure heart. As a result, he wouldn’t dare sully their bodies!

Ugh, I’m bored already.

This show’s one unique gimmick is that the story begins in medias res. Yuuto is already a well-respected patriarch. You don’t actually get to see how he got summoned in the first place or how he earned everyone’s trust. You are simply told that Felicity, his dearest “little sister,” was responsible for dragging him to Yggdrasil. You might wonder how a Japanese teenager with no relevant training could possibly lead a series of successful military campaigns. Well, that’s what smartphones are for!

That’s right, Yuuto literally looks up critical information on his phone the night before a big battle. How on Earth does his phone still have an internet connection? How on Earth is he even charging it? Hell, at one point, he even calls his actual sister to assure the girl that he’s A-OK. Apparently, there’s cellphone reception in Yggdrasil. Now that’s what I call coverage.

Anyways, the animation is ugly, the character designs are ugly, and the battle scenes are ugly. Most importantly, Yuuto is such a wet blank. The guy manages to cockblock himself like three times in one episode.

To put it simply, we’re in the midst of an isekai bombardment, and The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar simply has nothing to offer over its numerous counterparts.