Hello everyone, Kernook here. In honor of the Superbowl here in the states I thought that it would be nice to discuss a rugby anime today. This one happens to be called All Out.
Now typically I don’t watch many sports anime, although the ones I do watch tend to be a few of my favorites. From Yuri on Ice and Ballroom e Youkoso, to Baby Steps and Megalo Box, I’ve seen my fair share of the sports anime medium. Not only one type of sport anime, but the wide range of them, including competitive dance.
Yes… even competitive dancing is a sport, believe it.
So, why am I suggesting All Out when objectively there are far better options out there for the rugby sport? Well, here’s the thing, the better ones are only better for anime fans. I wanted to suggest something that could also apply to regular sports fans too.
Have a relative or a friend who loves rugby? Are they reluctant to watch anime? Well, that’s the demographic that’s perfect for this anime.
I don’t suggest All Out because it’s a favorite of mine. Actually, it’s far from a favorite for me. That’s because I am not a hardcore rugby fan. In general find other sports more enjoyable.
Believe it or not though, I do enjoy this anime enough to have watched it several times. That’s why I can suggest it to you now.
As a Madhouse production made in 2016, it ticks all of the basic boxes of a typical sports anime without being an eyesore. It’s old enough to have fallen out of the discussion among anime fans, without being so old as to look like crap.
This anime is a great “catch-all” of sorts. If you like sports anime, or rugby in general, you’ll probably like this. So with that let’s get into my top three reasons to watch it.
#1. It’s Great for Beginners.
For those of you who don’t typically watch anime, this is a starter for you. This anime has all the trappings of your typical school life anime with sports mixed into it.
It has a subtitled version and a dubbed version. If you don’t want to read subtitles, you don’t have to. It also lacks a lot of the maddening tropes that are in other types of sports anime. It’s perfect for a beginners to the medium.
If you like testosterone ridden victories, action, and the highs and lows that comes with sports, All Out has it in spades. The anime is bursting with everything that you’d expect from any sport such as Rugby.
This is an anime, but it doesn’t feel like it panders only to anime fans.
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All Out features a large cast, as expected of sports anime. You might not get to know some characters as well as you might like, and others are perhaps hogging screen time every now and then. That being said, you’ll find someone to enjoy.
In general the characters are mostly what you’d expect of them and the struggles in the show are too. As a team, they have a strong chemistry, so that certainly helps to make them interesting.
They experience highs and lows with their ability to play the game and within their lives. That said, it’s never too dramatic, and never over the top. Personal story arcs align well with the themes of the show. All in all, there’s a good chance you’re going to find a character you like.
#3. The Plot
If you’re a huge fan of sports anime you’ve seen this sort of story countless times. Don’t believe me? Let me give you a synopsis and you can decide just how many times you’ve seen this set-up before.
Gion is a short guy. He’s the typical average anime protagonist. Due to his love of sports he watches a rugby match. When he does, finds out that you don’t have to be huge to be a good player. He’s invigorated by this and feels absolutely convinced that he finally found a sport he can be great at. Like most sport anime, he also drags a friend along for the ride. Obviously, he becomes part of the team. Once in the Rugby team, they train hard and aim to become national high school rugby champions.
See what I mean? It’s standard, it’s typical, but that also makes it a good choice to those who *don’t* typically watch this style of anime. It has just enough of its own heart and soul to stand out without deviating from the standard formula. Plus, the nods to the school life genre also make it an easy show to watch for non-sports fans.
Though, as with all sports anime, your enjoyment of several scenes will completely depends on if you like the sport in question. In this case, it’s rugby.
In Conclusion…
All in all, All Out is a solid choice for the reasons above. There’s probably a fair few anime fans who haven’t seen it. It’s great for beginners to the medium. The characters are enjoyable and the animation is from Madhouse, so you know it’s quality.
It’s also fairly easy to locate. Seriously, a single google search will direct you to legal streaming sites in a matter of moments. Crunchyroll and Funimation both have the series for viewing.
So that’s where I’ll leave you for today. If you need some anime sports action, give All Out a try. It’s a solid entry to the rugby fandom and honestly it’s worth a watch at least once.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey everyone, it’s Kernook here, and it’s time for an anime review. Today I’ll be talking about Perfect Blue. Before I do that, though, I’d like to discuss the director behind the work very briefly.
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Satoshi Kon was a master in directorial design. He took to his craft with a keen eye for detail. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2010, leaving behind his works of art as a legacy to the anime industry.
In brief summary, Kon’s works are noteworthy to say the least and each of them are particularly unique. Frankly, his productions are incredible, even if they aren’t exactly mainstream media.
The fact of the matter is, most of Satoshi Kon’s greatest works are way ahead of their time thematically. They challenge viewers, and often require more than a single viewing.
Satoshi Kon combines the art of anime with his ability to craft an interesting narrative. His works are often saturated with several layers of metaphor to drive his stories forward. In order to completely catch every minor detail he skillfully embeds into his works, it’s best to watch them at least twice.
In 1997, Satoshi Kon had built quite a name for himself. His reputation grew quickly. His ability to craft compelling stories gave him an edge in the anime industry. In the 90’s animation was striving to do new things, and he was just the sort of person able to utilize his skills to the fullest potential. In collaboration with the studio Madhouse, Satoshi Kon was able to direct his first feature length film; Perfect Blue.
Satoshi Kon’s First Film: Perfect Blue
Originally, Perfect Blue was a fictional novel under the name “Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis” written by Yoshikazu Takeuchi.
The animated adaptation does make a few narrative changes, so keep that in mind. There is also a second novel named “Perfect Blue: Awaken from a Dream”. Both are worth a read if you love the Perfect Blue series.
As of writing this review, you can find both books on Amazon, same with the film.
Perfect Blue is a psychological drama. Its themes are heavy and introspective. It dives feet first into the darker aspects of what it means to be a Japanese idol, and the implications of that choice.
Thanks to its deep narrative and chilling atmosphere, it will be an unsettling animated movie for some viewers. This is by no means a children’s anime.
Perfect Blue was originally released in 1997, but in 2019 it was remastered. Now there is a blue-ray edition of the film as well. There is a dub and a sub of the series, and both will serve you well. Though I must admit, I do prefer the sub slightly over the dub.
Spoiler warning: From this point onward, there will be spoilers for the animated adaptation of Perfect Blue. You have been warned. This is a film you may want to watch before you see the spoilers.
Perfect Blue tells the personal story of a Japanese idol named Mima. She’s established and fairly successful, but she believes that she can do better. Therefore she decides to leave her singing career behind, choosing to become an actress instead.
Quite quickly, she manages to get a small role in a murder mystery series. Unfortunately, that’s when things start to go horribly wrong for Mima, and it’s the crux of the entire movie.
Now, there is something to be said about idol culture, and the mentalities surrounding it. Japanese idols are a strange concept to anyone unfamiliar with it. In truth, westerners don’t have a one-to-one comparison for idol culture, so can be hard to describe.
Basically, a Japanese idol is a teenage girl or a very young woman who fits into a societal mold. These girls are dressed up in cute outfits in order to sing, dance, and perform for their fans. Furthermore, idols are expected to behave in a certain way. They have plenty of rules to follow, and they don’t have a lot of personal freedom. Idols are meant to encourage and inspire their fans, maintaining a perfect image for the general public.
Perhaps the nearest comparison I could make is the old days of the Micky Mouse Clubs, but even that falls on its face because idols are usually not children. Rather, they are late teens or young adults.
A somewhat sinister fact to this is that normally these girls don’t come from prominent families. Most of the time, they’re nameless and unpopular at first, rising to stardom because that’s what idol fans like to see.
This cultivated narrative suggests to fans that anyone who tries hard enough has the chance to be an idol themselves. Perfect Blue portrays the dark side of idol this particular type of idol culture.
Mima can’t just leave her identity as an idol behind. As much as she might want to, Mima can’t escape who she was, or the image she portrayed. In a way you could say she is a slave to her fans.
One fan in particular starts retaliating when she decides to start acting. This new role takes away from her purity and innocence that an idol should portray. Due to that, things become dangerous very quickly for her. Sadly, this also trickles down to those she’s associated with.
As people in Mima’s social circle end up being murdered, Mima must learn to cope with these new dangers. To make matters worse, Mima has trouble coming to terms with her professional career.
She believes she making the right choices logically. Emotionally though, those choices aren’t fulfilling in the slightest. They just don’t excite her like she thought they would. Instead, she ends up just going through the motions of daily life, feeling almost numb to her success.
She doesn’t voice this outwardly as she much as she should, keeping it to herself. Inwardly, she feels as though she needs to live up to a certain expectation, and since she was once an idol, this is no surprise.
As Mima’s career path shifts, so does she as a person. She constantly finds herself placed in very uncomfortable circumstances . As dark realities start drifting to the surface, she struggles to find her footing as an actress.
Mima is forced to act out scenes for her television series that she isn’t comfortable with, and she attends photo shoots for magazines that contain nudity. This goes against Mima’s formerly squeaky clean idol identity. Sadly, she conforms in spite of her discomfort with it all.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, there’s one more detail to this sordid puzzle. A detail that truly makes this animated film something truly haunting.
Mima isn’t necessarily in her right mind. Instead, she begins to hallucinate. Her former idol identity manifests in front of her. This image begins teasing her, taunting her, and asking her to dive deeper into her own depression. This image begins to ask Mima if she’s living the life she really wanted for herself.
It happens more than once. Each time this happens, it’s rather disturbing, both to Mima and to us, the viewers.
The vision of her idol identity keeps appearing and toying with her at every opportunity. It’s as if Mima is slowly going mad. At one point Mima even sees her idol identity sitting in the back seat of someone’s car. A point that I’ll come back to later.
The mental spiral continues to get worse for Mima. She begins passing out during the day and waking inside her apartment. She has absolutely no recollection of how she got there. She begins to see photos uploaded to a fan site that she doesn’t recognize and she begins to question herself, feeling as though she’s losing her mind.
The most disturbing part of all of this is that the television series that Mima has been working mirrors this. It has all of the same basic story beats. This gives viewers several narratives layered with complex implication and metaphor.
As we watch Mima struggle, we’re inclined to wonder about who she is as a person. We’re brought to wonder just how much of her life is a fabrication, and how much of it is real. Viewers are encouraged to question the stability of Mima’s mind, and what she sees as reality.
Frankly, all of these contextual pieces would be terrifying on their own. However, mixed together the way that they are, it is truly unsettling in all the right ways. The themes linger long after the anime has been turned off, and that’s by design.
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Satoshi Kon knew how to get his point across. He understood the fine lines of media, and how to make them work in his favor. He approached Perfect Blue with a firm understanding of what he wanted to do, and how to get it done.
The meticulous editing and scene changes found in this film are some of the best I’ve seen in anime. The film relies heavily on implication and juxtaposition to carry important scenes forward.
One moment, she’ll be standing over a dead body in a scene she’s acting out.
In the next, she’ll be standing in front of an audience, preparing to perform.
These scenes compare and contrast two stressful situations for Mima. She’s wearing the same expression in both moments, but one is much more horrific than the other.
As I said above, viewers are encouraged to question her sanity and what she believes to be real. This is one key scene, among many others, that truly contextualize Mima as a character.
It’s at this point I’d like to remind you of two other important scenes. One is the scene about the photos on the fan site she found. As I said above, she has no recollection of the pictures that were taken of her. However, the clothes are certainly in her closet, even if she can’t remember buying them.
The second scene is of the moment she see’s her idol identity sitting in the passenger seat of someone else’s car. She can’t deny what she saw, but even she can admit the entire idea is pure insanity on its face.
As Mima questions herself, viewers are asked to question her as well. As the concept of reality shifts around her, we begin to see that not everything is as it seems. We realize that her experiences are not trustworthy.
We can’t help but question which of the experience she’s having is the real one. Maybe only one situation is, maybe they both are, or perhaps it’s all just a fabrication of a very ill mind. This brings me to my next point…
Who exactly is Mima?
Mima’s Conflicted Identity
Throughout the film, it becomes clear that Mima isn’t being entirely honest with herself, or those around her. As I stated above, she truly struggles to find her place in life.
She’s not a happy person, at least not professionally, socially, or emotionally. She lives a very complicated life, with several facets of her personality being hidden away from the public eye.
Mima lives a double life. It may be two sides of the same coin, but that is a very isolating thing to do. We see this play out in the film.
It’s arguable that her supreme sense of isolation leads to her unhealthy mindset and warped perception of reality. It’s also arguable that she’s isolated purely because her perceptions are warped to begin with.
Viewers will never truly know the answer, it’s left strictly up to interpretation.
Mima is rather lonely in the privacy of her own apartment. Meanwhile, her idol persona is outgoing and charismatic. Lastly, her actress persona is someplace in the middle of the other two.
These conflicting identities lead her to a crisis of sorts. At times, it seems as though the idol personality within her is trying to break lose. It seems to gain a personality of its own. The way it seems to harass her is another question in and of itself.
Are these her own personal thoughts of self hatred given form? Or is the idol within her becoming it’s own split off personality, separate from Mima as a person? Or is she simply a ghost of who Mima once was?
Once again, the answer is not so clear. While it’s true this isn’t likely a purgatory of sorts, the trials placed in front of Mima are no less troubling.
Most of what viewers see is through the eyes of Mima, and what she goes through in daily life. With these many personas in constant conflict, her personal identity gets lost in the shuffle.
It’s anyone’s guess. That’s what makes this film so good. You could debate this endlessly and never come to a final answer.
Has Perfect Blue Aged Well?
Perfect Blue was originally released in 1997. In some ways it is a product of its time. When it comes to the world itself, it shows its age in spades. Decor looks dated to be sure, and that says nothing about the world during that era of time.
Electronics in the film reflect the era of the late 90’s. As a result, so do some of the conversations in the series. For example, there’s a scene where Mima learns how to use the internet for the first time.
Televisions and computers are the sort that you would find in the late 90’s. What was once top of the line equipment now looks like a relic. If anything, I do appreciate the little Mackintosh logo at the bottom of the computer and on the box. There are plenty of little nods like this all over in the anime.
If you are old enough to remember the 90’s these are neat little additions. I’m sure that in the 90’s additions like this helped the narrative to be more immersive.
As far as the actual animation goes, it holds up quite well, even in it’s original state. Thanks to the blue-ray remastering of the anime, those who want high definition certainly have an option too. The soundtrack to the show is as haunting as it is beautiful. Each track melds into scenes flawlessly, building tension and atmosphere when it needs to.
Final Thoughts
Perfect Blue is not an anime film for everyone. In fact, I personally believe a good number of people won’t like it at all. It can be hard to recommend to the average anime viewer.
It isn’t a relaxing show, and it has some pretty brutal pacing. That, coupled with its dark and sinister themes, lead to a very complex and morally grey narrative. It is a thriller, and that can’t be understated.
The film relies heavily on its psychological drama to carry the story forward. Many scenes are purposefully unsettling, and Mima is an enigma by nature. Several questions are left unanswered and up to interpretation.
The ones that will be answered, may not be satisfactory or to your liking. That’s just the nature of this film, and Satoshi Kon’s directorial style in general.
That being said, Perfect Blue is by far one of the most compelling anime I’ve ever watched. There is so much to unpack about the world, Mima, and the concept of idol culture in Japan. If you can tolerate the concepts in the anime, you may find a real gem here.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey guys, it’s Kernook here. Back in the early 2000’s there were plenty of great anime out there for seasoned anime fans. Today we’re going to talk about one of those anime; Fruits Basket.
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The anime industry continued to grow at a steady rate. Thanks to the wider range of anime coming to the west, the medium attracted plenty of newcomers to anime fandom.
Gateway shows began flooding out of the woodwork for a new group of fans to latch onto. Few shows exemplify this time in anime history better than Fruits Basket.
The anime was approachable, and that made the show extremely popular for a huge number of people. Even if you haven’t seen the anime yourself, chances are good that you’ve at least heard about it.
At the time of its release, Fruits Basket was a simple story with a lot of heart and soul. It was easy enough to digest for the casual viewer. However, it has deep characters that help carry the narrative of this slice-of-life show. The show has many core themes that qualify as tragic, but the healthy dose of comedic levity makes the tragedy palatable.
Unfortunately, the anime paled in comparison to the written material. The story was changed in a few key ways, and went on to go unfinished. Fruits Basket ended after a short twenty-five episode run with an unsatisfying ending that had fans of the show begging for more.
Thankfully in 2019, fans got their wish. Fruits Basket is being entirely remade with the full story left intact. The first season of the remake aired in 2019, and it was everything I expected to see and more. In light of this, I decided to watch the original Fruits Basket made in 2001 in order to do a proper review of the old show.
More Compelling Than You Might Think
Fruits Basket is an anime based off of a manga of the same name. Directed by Akitaro Daichi and animated by Studio Deen, the anime is a slice-of-life series. The series has both a sub and a dub. Either of them will serve you well.
I’ve seen both, and I prefer to watch the subbed version. That said, the dub cast manages the English adaptation well.
More importantly, if you are a dub fan, you have more to look forward to. Most of the 2001 English dub cast reprise their roles for the 2019 remake. I’ll review the 2019 remake of the series once the entire series finishes to completion.
For now the 2001 iteration of Fruits Basket deserves to be remembered fondly for what it brought to the table. It wasn’t a perfect series by far, and there were some issues with it.
The musical quality in Fruits Basket is about what you can expect for the early 2000’s. It isn’t completely amazing. I certainly don’t listen to the soundtrack on its own. That said, it functions, and melts into every scene the way it should.
The animation is much the same. It isn’t amazing, it doesn’t stand the test of time in the slightest, but it functions. Even if we were back in 2001, I’d be hard pressed to say that the series is beautiful or stunning visually. It just isn’t now, and it wasn’t back then either. That said, it doesn’t need to be.
Fruits Basket isn’t about impressive visuals or musical talent. Instead, the series offers an emotional journey. That is where the series excels. If you’re looking for show that can offer an emotional experience, Fruits Basket is the show for you.
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The series is tragic, but it never feels too depressing. In fact there is plenty of levity to be found within the confines of despair.
The series follows a girl named Tohru Honda as she bumbles her way through life. She has a part time job and attends high school.
At the start, Tohru speaks about her deceased mother who passed away off-screen a few months before the series begins. Tohru’s father passed away when she was still just a little girl, so now she’s mostly on her own.
The loss of her mother completely up-heaved Tohru’s life. Not only was it sudden, since her mother’s death was caused by a car accident. It was also a turning point for Tohru that happened off screen. After her mother passed away, Tohru moved in with her paternal grandfather.
With such a positive and important influence that Tohru had in her life taken away from her, she strives to do everything she can to make ends meet on her own. Tohru had always been fairly independent to a degree, but now with both parents gone, this is exacerbated.
Her need to be successful weighs on her, because she doesn’t like being a burden to others. She will go to great lengths to be an asset. Occasionally, she actually becomes the burden she doesn’t want to be. This flaw of hers is very problematic for her.
We even see this in the beginning of the show.
She’s living in a tent in the woods. Why? Well, her grandfather’s house is under renovation. He’s staying with people that don’t tolerate Tohru. She claims that she doesn’t want to cause problems for her other relatives.
Though she has great intentions, she has lied to her grandfather, saying that she’s staying with a friend. In truth, she just doesn’t want him to worry about her. In spite of her loss, Tohru is an optimist. She doesn’t let the weight of her grieving weigh her down.
The woods just so happen to part of the Sohma family property, Tohru doesn’t know that. While she’s walking to school one morning she passes by the front of a house. She stops to look at the small figures that have been freshly painted.
These little figures are replicas of the Chinese zodiac. She comes to find out that one of the boys living in the house is Yuki Sohma, a classmate at her school. The other person living there is Yuki’s older cousin, Shigure.
Later, a storm strikes a tall hill near Tohru’s tent. Rocks fall down, completely destroying it. Tohru has nowhere to go. Her lie of good intentions caused this.
Taking pity on the homeless girl, Shigure invites Tohru to stay with him and Yuki at the house. She agrees, offering to do the cooking and cleaning as a Taking pity on the homeless girl, Shigure invites Tohru to stay with him and Yuki at the house. replacement for rent. Eventually another Sohma family member, Kyo, joins the household.
The anime largely revolves around life within this newly formed family unit. There is no shortage of individual character stories. Supporting characters have time in the spotlight too. Each episode usually introduces a new Sohma family member, and a personal problem along with it.
So what’s the meat of the story then?
It just so happens that some members of the Sohma family has a curse upon them. These cursed few are also members of the Chinese zodiac.
When someone of the opposite gender fully embraces a cursed Soma, they turn into their animal counterpart.
This is where a large part of the humor comes into play. However, for the Soma family it comes with its fair share of emotional turmoil as well.
The anime is rather episodic in nature. None of the plot points overstay their welcome. This makes for quick patterns of trauma and catharsis. Due to the way the series is set up, Fruits Basket is easy to consume. After a few episodes, long running plot elements begin to fold in-between each episodic arc in order to carry the narrative forward.
Below is a gallery of several characters, each of them compelling, but they aren’t the only ones.
As you can see, the large cast is as different as they are robust, and this is only a small sampling.
The only problem is, with the series being twenty-five episodes long, some of those arcs don’t end in a satisfying way. You would need to go read the manga to fill that void.
The 2001 iteration of Fruits Basket only covers the first part of the entire narrative. Therefore if you watch it, you’ll be getting an incomplete telling of the story.
Final Thoughts
The series has a lot of heart. It’s well written and the core themes revolve around the concept of family. Fruits Basket stands out to me in a way that few anime can.
These characters come from broken homes and painful pasts. In spite of this, the series never feels like a drama or tragedy. The fact that it could, and the core weight of some of the themes is what lingers after the series ends.
I think of this scene, a picnic at a grave. Simply because Torhu’s mother would have wanted then to have a good time is a great example of levity in darkness.
That being said, the series doesn’t age well. If you want a polished series, the 2019 version is the better option. The original Fruits Basket was released back in 2001, and it shows its age in all ways.
From the music, animation, running gags, and common tropes, this anime is like a time capsule. It perfectly preserves what slice-of-life anime was like in the early 2000’s.
That alone might be a reason to go back and give it a watch. The problem is, I have trouble saying that you’ll actually like it.
The reason that it was so popular in the past just doesn’t hold up anymore. The reason that I’m still fond of it now comes strictly from nostalgia.
The standards of anime production in recent years has skyrocketed. I think that makes a huge difference.
Just look at this 2019 poster of the new iteration and retelling, you can see the jump in quality. Fruits Basket has a new breath of life now, and the 2001 anime just can’t compete.
For this reason alone, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend the 2001 version of Fruits Basket 2001. Now there is a better alternative. That said, I won’t say not to watch this version of Fruits Basket, either.
I think that regardless of its age, we as a community have a lot to thank the series for. It wasn’t meant to be a “land mark” show in anime history. Yet, that is exactly what happened. It became greater than I think it was ever intended to be.
It bridged a huge gap between anime and non-anime fans. For many people, it was the first anime they ever watched that wasn’t on prime time network television. That’s the crazy thing.
Networks could have stuck it on a Saturday morning cartoon line-up right along with Sailor Moon or Pokemon. That’s how consumable it was. If that alone doesn’t merit a little respect for this version of the anime, I don’t know what does.
Honestly, thinking about all of that really is amazing. I’ve got to say, Fruits Basket 2001 is still pretty cool. Even if it is only for the nostalgia trip.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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This is the finished video regarding the script. It is written, edited, and read aloud by Kernook of “The Demented Ferrets”. You can watch the video on this blog and on YouTube. I hope you enjoy the content.
Minako and Rei from Sailor Moon are without a doubt a solid character pairing, even if they aren’t exactly cannon across all of the Sailor Moon media. Why do they stand the test of time? Simple, because their romance comes natural to those who see it within the subtext.
In popular media, when I think of reasons to sail any ship, it’s not the large cannon elements that come to mind. It’s the tiny things. Moments when characters might brush their fingers together when exchanging an object. Times when short quips and witty dialogue carrying a greater subtext within a scene.
Know what other ships sails really well because of this? Pretty much any ship containing at least two of the main four girls of RWBY. I ship nearly every combination because of how versatile they are.
Small moments make a ship, that’s a fact. It is particularly important if a series isn’t centrally focused on romance. Then the smaller moments matter even more. Long running series with advancing story arcs might not spend a whole lot of time focusing on romantic overtures. Instead, they tend to spread large romantic elements few and far between. Sometimes, the best ships don’t have any big moments at all. Sometimes they only have a series of small elements to craft a greater narrative. In this instance, subtext quickly becomes fan fodder.
I look no further than NCIS as an example. Tony and Ziva, or “Tiva” as the ship is named by the fans. These two are strong contenders in shipping because the slow burn is as hilarious as it is dramatic.
Romance between these two is the show in spades, but, it walks a fine line. The pairing never consumes the show. Instead, the fans consume the romance, looking for the little details hidden between the subtle character interactions. These two aren’t obviously a cannon couple until much later in the series. However, this didn’t stop fans from sailing that ship early on. It was only through implication and subtext that the relationship held any ground, at least, at first.
I think that personally this is sometimes the better approach. Fans have a gift for running away with subtext. Collective fans like making stories of their own. When moments are rare,it’s no surprise that fan-fiction itself becomes a selfish endeavor.
Fans meet their own desire to see character romance carried further than a series could have taken it. This is true for almost all media that has an active fan following.
Depending on the character pairing, strange ships sail fast. I think of the romantic pairing of Elsa and Anna from Frozen being a prime example of fandom running amok. Seriously, fans ship these two hard. I don’t see the draw in it personally, but it’s in the fandom for sure.
There is no conceivable way that Disney would have imagined their older fan base deciding to turn the sisters into lesbians…
Or that, even if they were on the GRSM spectrum, that they would ever be seen as romantically in love with each other. Then again, I can’t say that I’m surprised. Pairings revolving around sibling romance can be common in fandom, particularly of the animated variety.
Even without sibling romance, some stories become downright filthy as fans of a medium carefully craft and contort romantic relationships between characters. Ultimately, for better and for worse, fans have always been able to fill gaps that cannon material fails to provide. If little else, fan communities keep character romances thriving when long stretches of time pass without cannon material.
This is particularly important when large series take an extended break or the series eventually ends. At that point it’s up to fans to find a new source of entertainment. Some find this solace within the media that they already care for, writing or reading stories that reflect on certain plot elements within the series as a whole.
Deceased or retired characters in media find new life, and new stories because fan fiction and far art too. I think of characters like Pyrrha Nikos from RWBY, or Kate Todd and Ziva David from NCIS, as prime examples of characters that continue to live on in fandom because of the stories people write.
Without these stories, these characters, and their ships, they might have been left stagnant and forgotten. Within fandom, these characters will always live on. They will always be shipped, and the fandom will always triumph.
That’s what little moments do. They’re powerful, and they can’t be disregarded.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey everyone, it’s Kern here. In the future I’m going to review a lot of anime, and plenty of Kon’s works. However, it simply didn’t feel right to do that without first talking about his many accomplishments, so I’m going to do that first.
There is a lot to talk about, but I’m only going to give a brief overview here. If you want to know more beyond this blog post, you should begin by watching the anime mentioned here, and then branching off from there.
I doubt I have to say this, but Satoshi Kon was a huge influence in the anime industry. If you’ve been an anime fan for any length of time, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of him. At the very least, you’ve probably heard of at least one of the animated titles he directed.
His aspiration in life was to become an animator, but thankfully he blossomed well beyond that. In his career he was credited for being an animator, screenwriter, manga artist, and a director.
His ability as a director is what I truly want to highlight here. Though keep in mind, he had other talents too. Each of them just as prolific and noteworthy in their own way.
In the 90’s animation was striving to do new things, and reach a larger audience. Kon fit the needs of the industry well in regards to that. He was able to utilize the anime medium to its fullest potential as an art form.
In 1997, Satoshi Kon had built quite a name for himself. his reputation almost preceded him in the anime industry. His visionary skill would land him a directing role. In collaboration with studio Madhouse, Satoshi Kon was able to direct his first feature length film; Perfect Blue.
Now, let’s make no mistake about this. Kon was an absolute master in directorial design. Love or hate his works, it doesn’t much matter. The man was an influence either way. He took to his craft with a keen eye for detail. Each of the films he directed are unique. None are without depth. In my personal opinion, his productions are incredible.
I’ve done a review of Perfect Blue, and you should check that out if you want more information on that film in particular. To summarize my thoughts though, Perfect Blue is by far one of the most compelling anime movies that I have ever had the pleasure to watch.
It is both hauntingly beautiful and unsettling at the same time. The themes are wrapped up nicely between reality and surrealism. Paranoia and mental unease are cornerstones to be explored here. Although the series is a bit dated by today’s standards, this is a true masterpiece in storytelling. It shouldn’t be overlooked, dispute the dated feel. There is so much to unpack about the world, Mima, and the concept of idol culture in Japan.
Even if his works aren’t exactly mainstream media, his influence impacted the anime industry unquestionably. Satoshi Kon’s films are way ahead of their time thematically. They challenge viewers, and often they require more than a single viewing.
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In order to completely catch every minor detail Kon skillfully embeds into films like Millennium Actress, it’s best to watch them at least twice.
They’re darker by their nature, and tend to require a more mature viewer. One that is able to critically think about the themes that are so prevalent in his media. His works are often saturated with several layers of metaphor to drive the stories forward.
Kon was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. 2010, leaving behind a legacy in anime that shouldn’t be forgotten. With the flood of new anime every season, there is no shortage of things to watch. In fact there’s not enough time in a day to watch them all, but to cast aside those older gems would be a disservice to anime as an art form.
I have memories of watching his works with my friends. I spent way too many nights huddled under blankets and starting popcorn fights over his anime, and I’d never be able to thank him, or the medium of anime enough for that.
So, that’s it then. I’ll leave it here for now.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey everyone, it’s Kern here. This past decade was one of the best we’ve had in anime. No matter what your personal tastes were, there were plenty of anime to choose from. Many anime reviewers took the time to do a top ten anime of the decade list, paying special attention to the most noteworthy titles that came out in the past ten years.
I honestly wanted to try doing that as well. The reason I ultimately chose not to write a list of my own, comes down to the fact there are too many great anime to choose from. Some of them are downright genre defining for a new generation of anime fans, and that alone has merit.
The number of worthy anime that I’ve seen this decade is staggering to say the least. For example, when crafting my list I ended up with around thirty of them. There was no good way to narrow the titles down. I realized just how impossible that task was going to be, and I decided better of it.
Picking a top ten list is hard enough for any given year, let alone a decade. What makes it even harder is that 2010-2019 saw a resurgence of remakes, re-dubs, and blue ray releases of classic anime. This opened the door for new fans to find old favorites. Older fans, like myself, were given the opportunity to revisit those nostalgic anime experiences in a new way.
So that said, instead of making a top ten list, I’d simply like to say that this decade was a great decade for anime. Sure, we’ve had our fair share of bumps and bruises, too. There were shows the missed the mark, and tragedies in the industry that will take years to heal. In spite of the negatives, anime thrives, and the communities who support it thrive too.
Below is a long list, in no particular order, of note worthy anime from the decade. I don’t want to number them, or give them a ranking. I just want to look at the splendor of all of the titles. Each of them have their own reasons for being landmark series. Keep in mind, these are only the anime I’ve seen and recall off the top of my head. If your favorite anime of the decade isn’t in the wall of text below, don’t take it personally.
Some of the best anime from 2010-2019 include the following: Ancient Magus Bride, Space Brothers, Erased, Attack on Titian, Demon Slayer, Vinland Saga, A Place Further Than the Universe, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, The Promised Neverland, Ano-hana, Mob Psycho 100, Golden Kamuy, Psycho Pass, Bloom Into You, One Punch Man, Beastars, Terror in Resonance, Assassination Classroom, Noragami, Hunter x Hunter, Ascendance of a Bookworm, Yuri On Ice, Zombieland Saga, New Game, Hibike Euphonium, A Silent Voice, Your Lie in April, Snow White with the Red Hair, The World Is Still Beautiful, Fruit’s Basket Remake, Your Name, My Hero Academia, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Hyouka, Death Parade, Maho Shoujo Madoka Magica, Violet Evergarden, Wolf Children, Made in Abyss, Angel Beats, Mushishi, March Comes in Like a Lion, Megalo Box, K-on!, Durarara!!, Dororo, Aggreatsuko, Ping Pong the Animation, and probably so many others too…
That is one big wall of text. All of them are just names in a vast sea, but each anime listed above is memorable to me in one way or another. I know there are anime that I’ve missed, haven’t watched, or I’ve forgotten about entirely. That just goes to show just how many awesome shows we had to choose from every year, and how impossible it was to enjoy them all at once.
I hope that the next decade continues to provide amazing content. I know for a fact that this winter season of 2020 will be packed full of interesting choices, and I’ve already got my watch-list ready. Honestly, I just can’t wait to dive in and enjoy each new anime experience I come across in 2020 and the future.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Hey everyone, it’s Kern here. Today it’s time we ask ourselves a question, or two. Is there such a thing as being blinded by nostalgia? Even if there is, is that necessarily a bad thing?
Those are two questions I often ask myself as I re-visit older series that I take such great joy in. I have to wonder, is the creative medium that I’m consuming actually good? Or is it simply my fond memories that bring me back to older media time and time again?
The film relies heavily on its psychological drama to carry the story forward. Many scenes are purposefully unsettling, and Mima is an enigma by nature.…
I’m honestly not sure if I have the answer to any of those questions. I also don’t think there’s a clear-cut answer to any of them. When I re-visit a series or play a game, I try to reflect on my past experiences. Sometimes they’re good, and other times they’re not. Either way, I believe that nostalgia is part of the reason I’m always drawn back to older media.
Does that mean I’m blinded by my nostalgia?
No, I don’t think so. I don’t actually think there is such a thing as “nostalgia blindness”. I think the phrase is a knee-jerk reaction to a greater problem. Times change, and so does media along with it.
I think all media should be viewed through two equally important lenses. There are two factors at play, and they both deserve a discussion.
The First Lens: Time
The first lens is that media is a product of its time. As times change, so does everything around us. Media that was at one point the cultural norm, may one day be seen as obsolete or problematic. Therefore, the questions we should ask are actually quite simple.
Why was that piece of media made in the first place? What were the social, cultural, and economic norms at the time? Does the media hold up to those norms, or, does it subvert them? Lastly, does that media uphold any value at all in the current day and age?
If we look at media through that lens, we get to experience it on a very fundamental level.
These questions give a looking glass into history. The most imperfect and morally grey pieces of media might still hold that value under that context.
Even if it is just to say that we have grown, evolved, and learned better from our past mistakes, that has some real value. Also, older media serves as a teaching aid of just how we’ve moved forward, and in what ways we still need to do so. We shouldn’t overlook that, failing to be aware of those details will only perpetuate old mistakes anew once more.
The Second Lens: Personal Experience
The second lens is something far more personal. Each piece of media can raise more nuanced questions. Ones that don’t hold simple answers beneath all of the subtext.
Whether we consume media, or reject it, it’s important that we don’t to it mindlessly. Instead, we should be asking ourselves why we enjoy the media we consume.
What does that media mean to the viewer? What value does it hold for the people who consume it? Why does that particular piece of media speak to them, when another similar piece might not? These are questions of introspection and discovery.
Through this second lens, viewers become empowered. Even the most trite piece of commentary, slap-stick humor, or questionable message might breed a greater discussion.
An Example
Let’s dive down the rabbit hole, shall we?
Books like “The Catcher in the Rye” from the author J. D. Salinger come to mind. It contains elements that I would certainly deem problematic, but to cast aside the work would cast aside greater history.
Anime like “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex” for example, comes to mind specifically because it draws so heavily from “The Catcher in the Rye“. As an anime fan, I can only respect that it draws so much inspiration and introspection from the classic book.
What about “The Matrix” movie franchise? Did you know that universe was inspired by “Ghost in the Shell” and the anime medium?
There are examples of this in almost every ounce of media you come across. Media being the touch-stone that it is, will always have problematic content. It is only through careful discourse and consideration that media can evolve and change with the times.
In Conclusion
Respectful commentary, and a healthy dose of nostalgia will always play a role in changing the future. Media will always be made by people who are inspired by the past to make a better future. Choosing to forget our past simply because it becomes dated will only bury our previous failings along with it.
We should never risk burying our collective history. Once that happens, we are doomed to repeat lessons that should have already been learned.
In my opinion, there is no such thing as being blinded by nostalgia. However, there is such a thing as denial. Either casting aside the many failings in old media itself, or the greater implications that such media had on society.
We should acknowledge all media for what it is; a looking glass. Once we do that, we escape the confines that bind media down to society and we can use it as a tool. Media is powerful, it is influential, and it does have the power to change the world for a greater good. Media’s problematic history becomes part of that. It reject old media entirely risks a repeat our mistakes.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
You can help support us through PayPal or Patreon.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
Hey everyone, it’s Kern here. Beastars is a great anime, and no, it isn’t just for furries. In fact, it’s far from it. No, really, I’m serious.
Beastars is a great anime, and no, it isn’t just for furries. In fact, it’s far from it. No, really, I’m serious. Beastars offers fans of the series a meticulously crafted world and compelling characters. Both qualities are the bare minimum for a halfway decent anime, but Beastars goes the extra mile. The anime is beautifully animated, there’s no question about that.
So why did the show garner such a strong stigma when it first released?
Upon first glance, this is actually a pretty difficult question to answer. The simple answer is that it just looks like a furry show. For those of us who don’t identify as furries, that can be a little off-putting. However I’d say the issue goes a little deeper.
In general, furries get a bad reputation across all kinds of mainstream media. For example, the widely popularized NCIStelevision series has a bad habit of throwing shade at the anime and gaming fandom. There have been episodes where a few off-handed remarks painted furries in a bad light. Now this problem has gotten way better in recent years on NCIS but doesn’t erase the history of the show, or the fact that those old episodes still air on television.
I can’t imagine how the furry community feels when it comes to mainstream media, and I wouldn’t care to speculate. Frankly, I don’t identify as a furry, and I don’t speak on behalf of the community, nor would I ever want to.
What I can say is that some of the backhanded comments made on the crime drama, particularly in the earliest parts of the series still prick at my sensibilities in a wholly unsatisfying way, and I’m just an anime fan and a gamer.
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If mainstream media perpetuates those stigmas too, then what about the anime community? Surely we would have been more enlightened, right?
Well, I don’t have the answer to that one.
Beastars didn’t do itself any favors with it’s promotional material for those of us that didn’t originally follow the manga. Moreover, Beastars has a barrier to entry that’s a little steep.
That being said, when the anime started airing, I couldn’t help but wonder where the series was going to go. From a narrative perspective, the anime just seems odd. It revolves around anthropomorphic animals. The anime isn’t just about bunny and cat girls. Every character, both male and female are animals with human characteristics.
They walk on two legs and speak normally, but the characters are still animals. While animal instincts tend to crop up from time-to-time in each episode, it isn’t exactly the core theme of the show. At least, not in the way you’d entirely expect.
So, given the murmurs about Beastars, and the initial knee-jerk reaction that came along with it from non-furry anime fans, I knew I had to see the series for myself.
My conclusion is this: Beastars, while somewhat strange, it is not just a furry anime. In fact, it is far from it. I wouldn’t say that it’s a “must see” show, or that it’s a pinnacle anime that everyone should watch.
Instead, I would say that it is a rare show, and a diamond in the rough. Yearly anime line-ups usually hosts a slog of repetitive, formulaic shows. If that’s you’re thing, awesome.
But, it isn’t my thing.
I don’t like watching rehashes of the same types of shows over, and over, and over again. Beastars is the breath of fresh air that I sorely needed.
Now, as I said before Beastars has a barrier of entry. I believe that for some people, it might be a steep one. It isn’t say… Sweetness and Lightning, for example.
Beastars will demand that you leave your preconceived notions at the door. The reason I’m speaking so generically about this series is because it is extremely easy to give off the wrong impression of this show.
The core themes are deep, vast, and very nuanced. Not to go into spoilers, but some of the themes revolve around psychological impulse, trafficking, oppression, addiction, and the confines of society. That is what I mean by a barrier to entry. It never quite goes too far, but it is just dark enough.
I certainly came away from Beastars with several personal qualms. I won’t get into what I think is truly problematic, purely because that’s a very subjective concept. Also, what I dislike toes a fine line. I’m not quite sure how to articulate or even categorize those thoughts cleanly and concisely. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to.
Beastars demands its viewers to challenge their own perceptions. Anime as a creative medium, has a power to really challenge a viewers personal outlook. This anime could do that, if you give it a chance. Or, it could simply just annoy you. There are times this anime did both for me.
Now, there’s an interesting discussion to be made about how the series portrays racial tensions using species as a metaphor. It questions social divides, and the inevitable problems that come along with that. It even manages to do it in a very pragmatic way. It’s approachable, but it’s also unnerving.
This anime balances on a very slippery slope in a lot of different ways, and this is one of them. As an American, that particular part of the anime is one of the areas that I take extreme issue with.
I’m not sure how I feel about how the anime handles racial tension in its metaphors. Mind you, I realize that this comes from my American sensibilities, and my personal upbringing. In America, comparing someone to an animal tends to come off as racism, and this anime toes a strange line.
To give an example, there are two different species of rabbits in this series that don’t get along. Some of things that are said in dialogue exchanges are just flat out uncomfortable for me to watch. That being said, I am not the one qualified to lead any sort of discussion on this particular sort of topic.
I just wanted to point out that the metaphor is there, and that it can be questionable.
So, with everything I’ve just said in mind, I think every anime fan who wants a unique experience should watch Beastars at least once in their lives. This is not a mindless show. It is not furry pandering.
Beastars is literally a narrative beast all of it’s own, and it cannot be aptly compared to anything else that I’ve ever seen in anime.
If you do choose to watch Beastars, be aware of the core themes. Understand that it can get dark pretty quickly. A lot of concepts in the anime are very morally grey. If you do watch the series, keep that in mind.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
You can help support us through PayPal or Patreon.
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Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, early fiction chapters and more.
Sweetness and Lightning is a slice of life series that aired in 2016. At its core there’s a story about family, grief, and finding a place to belong.
These themes are wrapped up nicely in a show that centers around the heart of every home, the kitchen. On the surface, this is a cooking series. Beneath that, each dish that the characters make provide catharsis for their struggles.
The anime isn’t dark by any stretch of the imagination. In spite of the themes surrounding it, the series is very upbeat. The writing is masterful, but it’s not deep. Each emotional issue is handled maturely, but, the series itself can easily appeal to almost all ages. At the end of the day, the story is about familial love, and finding comfort in places that the characters would least expect them.
The anime is an adaptation of a manga with the same name. The adaptation is true to its source material, diverting only slightly when the narrative demands it. Those occasions are rare, minor, and actually make the anime a better viewing experience. The subtle changes aren’t always easy to notice, and that’s the way it should be.
The twelve episode series follows two very different family dynamics. It focuses on both equally, but, one family stands out more.
The Inuzuka Family
The first family is a father and daughter. Kōhei Inuzuka is left a widower after his wife’s passing. His daughter, Tsumugi Inuzuka is still quite young. She’s only in kindergarten, and therefore she’s solely dependent on her dad for almost every need. Kōhei struggles with the demands of being a single parent.
Working a full time job as a teacher and seeing after his youngster are large emotional commitments. He is not a homemaker, and he has no idea how to fill the void his wife left behind.
The Iida Family
The second family follows the Iida family. Kotori is a student in his class. She spends a lot of her time alone, both at home and at school. She’s a loner by choice and routine. Her mother is often away, having a very small role in the anime. The absence of Kotori’s mother is a driving force for her loneliness in the series.
Kotori has a passion for food. Since her mother is an acclaimed celebrity chef, she knows her way around the kitchen. However, her incredible fear of knives keeps her from enjoying that passion to the fullest.
Mundane Life
This is not an action filled series. It is not full of suspense or plot twists. There are not a lot of over the top “anime style” gags, and you won’t find many standard tropes clogging up the anime either.
Even among the slice-of-life anime often provided to fans, this show is something that might appeal to a “non-anime” fan due to its down to earth nature.
The series asks its viewers to sit down and enjoy a relaxing story. Sweetness and Lightning is episodic, and mundanity is literally everywhere.
This is a series that finds its excitement by characters interacting within the confines of every day life. Each struggle begins and ends with one key component; the family dynamic.
The story opens with the the facts of life at the Inuzuka home in plain view. Six months before the series begins, the love of Kōhei’s life passed away. He’s still grieving, and trying to make ends meet. As a single father, this is no small task.
Kōhei has no idea how to cook, and so he lives off of ready made meals, serving his daughter the same. These foods aren’t healthy. Often times, they aren’t even tasty. His wife had been the one to make the family meals, but with her passing it now falls onto him.
Kōhei fails to keep a largely stocked kitchen, and can’t prepared the dishes his daughter loves to eat most. Worst of all for him, his daughter often comments on this.
While still grieving himself, he feels incredibly guilty that he can’t live up the memory of her mother.
Tsumugi obviously misses her mom, but the concept of death is a foreign concept to the little girl. She can’t quite grasp it, and the way she mourns reflects this. Everything is in the little details for her. She complains that meals have become different now. She gets upset with the changes in her routine.
The things her mom used to do are now in her father’s hands, and Tsumugi has to cope with those changes. It’s all very age appropriate, and fits the narrative well. It never comes off as “too much”, and it isn’t overbearing either. There are plenty of scenes that follow her day-to-day life too, and the conflicts that she runs into. Both at school and at home.
To that point, I want to reiterate that Sweetness and Lightning is a very down to earth series. Tsumugi is a little girl, and she acts like one. She can be very bright and cheerful. However, like all small children Tsumugi throws her fair share of tantrums too.
She’ll pick at her food, or reject it entirely. She’ll babble nonsense, or fight back a little when she’s scolded by her dad.
She is a very accurate depiction of a child. If you don’t like children, this aspect could easily get on your nerves. Tsumugi is such a major character in the anime that you can’t avoid her. She has way too much screen time to be ignored.
Unlike other family style anime that may have a child in it, this series focuses on those complexities. Kōhei’s personal story is about the difficulties of being a parent. Tsumugi is her own unique character, and she does challenge her father.
Meanwhile, Kotori is an average teenage girl. Her passion for cooking aside, she can be a bit of a wallflower. She does have one close friend her own age named Shinobu. The character makes occasional appearances every now and then.
Other than that, Kotori mostly spends time on her own. As an only child of divorced parents, she’s used to being independent.
The only interesting character quirk she has is a terrible fear of knives. She managed to cut herself pretty badly as a child, and the fear of knives persists because of it. Other than that, Kotori isn’t very interesting on her own.
What truly uplifts Kotori as a character is the way she interacts with Tsumugi and Kōhei.
The student and teacher dynamic between them slowly shifts into one of friendship. At the high school, Kōhei maintains his position of authority. After school hours, he begins to treat Kotori as an equal.
The way that Kotori proves herself capable of assisting with Tsumugi helps to lessen the divide between them. As the series goes on, the way these two families merge help to fill the respective voids between them.
The Kitchen: The Heart of Every Home
Obviously, if you don’t like anime centered around cooking, you won’t like this. A vast majority of the scenes take place in the kitchen. It focuses on how meals are prepared, and the steps it takes to make a home cooked meal. Learning these basic steps remain the foundation of the series as a whole.
Kotori’s mother owns a restaurant, although it usually remains closed. Through a series of events, Tsumugi acts as the balm to eventually tie this odd trio together. The three of them end up gathering regularly at the restaurant, learning to make home cooked meals. They eat together and treat each other as a family.
As the characters spend more time together, old pains begin to lessen significantly. The two broken families start to redefine what it means to be a family in the first place.
The teacher becomes the student, perhaps the only actual plot twist in the show. Still, it’s no surprise to the viewer. Kōhei learns his way around a kitchen with Kotori’s help. She knows more than he does, and it’s good that the dynamic shifts here. It shows that the characters mutually respect each other.
With all of her mother’s recipes at her disposal, they work together to make each dish. Kotori finds comfort in spending time with Kōhei as well. She also gets along well with Tsumugi, eventually treating her like a younger sibling.
There is a saying that families are made around the dinner table, and this anime examines that. As time goes on, more friends join in on the nightly gatherings, forming strong bonds.
Although nothing inappropriate ever goes on between Kōhei and Kotori, the connection they build runs deep. You could choose to see something beyond a platonic friendship if you wanted. However, the anime only provides minor subtext for that. You’d honestly have to be looking for romance in places that it just isn’t.
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Kotori’s emotional state shifts as the series progresses. Shinobu, her best friend even takes notice. She states that Kotori seems to be at her happiest whenever she’s cooking food and eating with the Inuzuka family.
Kotori’s mother eventually meets Kōhei and Tsumugi. She finds herself grateful that her daughter found such good people to have in her life and encourages their time together to continue.
The changes over time for Kōhei and Tsumugi are also noteworthy. Kōhei becomes more capable as a father. When he finds himself lacking, Kotori helps to influence the way he deals with his daughter’s outbursts. Tsumugi becomes happier in general, and truly enjoys her time spent with Kotori.
Final Thoughts
If you don’t like anime with kids actually acting according to their age, skip it. Tsumugi is unavoidable as a character. She is a child, and she unequivocally acts like it.
On the other side of the coin, if you’re looking for a romantic series with a significant age gap between the characters, this is not it. You’re going to have to look hard for that subtext and frankly there are just better anime out there for that sort of romantic entanglement.
Sweetness and Lightning is about family, the cultivation of strong familial bonds, coping with loss, and overcoming grief. These are the themes that make the cooking aspect of the anime so powerful. They are the absolute core of everything, without fail.
Trying to take any of that out of context, for any reason, probably won’t serve you well.
The animation in the series is good, and holds up adequately enough. Like all anime that revolve around food, the animation sees a spike in quality when meals are displayed.
Some of them look good enough to eat, and appear more appealing than their real world counterparts.
The musical design is spot on, and enjoyable. Like the series itself, it doesn’t try to be over the top. It won’t stand out over the scenes, and I don’t find it memorable outside of that. The music only serves to be complimentary towards the series. The opening and ending songs are enjoyable for what they offer, but, they won’t make any of my top ten lists any time soon.
The anime leaves these two families as fast friends. There is subtext that the two might become one later down the line. However, that isn’t written in stone. The subject of romance itself is not something that is heavily addressed, and that’s fine. It shouldn’t be.
The anime never pulls a “Usagi Drop” moment either, and Kōhei’s friendship with Kotori is respectful at all times. It never crosses into questionable territory or inappropriate power dynamics.
Sweetness and Lightning is everything the title says. It is a very sweet series. The darkness that comes with it doesn’t overtake the series as a whole. Instead, the sadness is brief, but carefully included. The anime strives to tell a simple story, with a simple conclusion.
In the end, it provides strictly what it promises, and very little more.
It doesn’t necessarily fall into the “cute girls doing cute things” trope, and I wouldn’t call it a “healing” anime either. I didn’t feel refreshed or renewed after watching it.
The fact is that slice-of-life is its nearest comparison, but that’s a lackluster description of the series too. None of these categories do the show the justice it deserves.
Although I enjoyed it, and I would watch it again, for me it’s just a popcorn anime. The series is addictive in the moment, and its very easy to consume. The episodic nature makes it a joy to binge watch. This, coupled with the fact that it’s only twelve episodes long makes it an ideal choice during a lazy Saturday afternoon.
It’s a tame viewing experience. Those qualities make Sweetness and Lightning a top contender for family style anime of this nature.
If you’d like to see a few other reviews on the topic I’d say Them Animeand Lumihas you covered for more opinions on this wonderful series.
In the end, I would say that Sweetness and Lightning is merely a story about life. It doesn’t go anywhere particular, and it doesn’t need to. There are very few anime that can put so much heart and soul into such a mundane story. That alone makes it worth a watch if you like shows that center around family dynamics.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
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Media remains a powerful touchstone in our society. It’s helps to shape our culture and to experience the cultures of others. Through a lens that is not our own, we’re taken to vast new worlds.
Media often asks little of its consumers. Only that we take it in, consider it, and accept it for all that it is. When we become fans of something, we take part of the media that has influenced us. We spread it around, hoping to find others that share our joys and passions. That is why retrospectives are so important.
That being said diversity of opinion, culture, personal experience and critique are fundamental in fandom. This inclusion is the only way to keep a fandom from stagnating.
Media will always be a flawed mirror into the biases of its maker. It will not be perfect. It will occasionally hold views that are different from our own, and that’s okay too. Media is a tie that binds us all, it’s up to us to choose how we consume it.
When I dive into a retrospective, I do it carefully, trying my best to recall what once captivated me. On occasion my views shift. Sometimes I am no-longer captivated.
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Truthfully, I don’t see that as a bad thing. Media I once loved and now hate is my personal journey onward to better things. I will never be ungrateful for that steppingstone, and that’s important too.
That’s why this blog will be so heavy with retrospective content. I don’t want to forget the media that influenced me, or the changes in perspective that I gained from that experience. The two share a symbiotic relationship, just as they should.
This has been Kernook of The Demented Ferrets, where stupidity is at its finest and level grinds are par for the course. I’ll see you next time.
You can help support us through PayPal or Patreon.
With your contributions, you make our efforts possible. Thank you for supporting our content. Patreon supporters receive access into our official Discord server, and a few other perks depending on the tier. If you don’t care for Patreon, and don’t care about perks, you can always support us through PayPal too… links below.
Those who join via Patreon get special perks, such as extra content, quicker updates, and more.
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