Anime Review Roundup

Another week light on anime reviews! That’s not because of laziness on my part, or a shortage of review discs. We just happen to be in that enviable position where a whole handful of anime releases these past few weeks have been of the complete series collection sort. It takes time to review a 24-36 episode series. It takes even longer to review five of them. But I did manage to sneak out a review of Fairy Tail Part 17 last week. The Grand Magical Games Tournament arc comes to its conclusion, and the ominous forebodings of a dragon scorched future comes to pass. Fairy Tail’s canon episodes have always found the best balance between their story elements, humour and drama, character and narrative. Only in Part 17, the balance feels a little off. Click on the review to see why.

Le Chevalier D’Eon. You never see this show on any best ever anime lists, which is probably because it’s riding high on the most underrated anime list. Certainly, Le Chevalier D’Eon never springs to mind when I consider what my favourite anime are. But each time I get around to re-watching it, every time I put that first disc in, I’m struck by just how brilliant, how special and unique this show is. It’s a fantasy horror set in pre-revolutionary France, deftly blending fictional and real-life characters to tell a story rich in period detail and character nuance. This show is not for you if you look for perky moe characters with squeaky voices. Le Chevalier D’Eon plays like a live action drama, only brilliantly animated by Production IG.

D’Eon de Beaumont was a real life character, a French diplomat and spy, and transgender as well. In the anime, he becomes possessed by the soul of his sister Lia, and compelled to investigate her murder. It’s a mystery that is intertwined with the battle to control the future destiny of France, a battle defined by alchemy and religion. It’s an absolutely fantastic and gripping story, blending history and fiction in a fascinating way. It’s also the show that put Tow Ubukata on the map, the one and only time his writing approached near perfection, without being tainted by his usual self-indulgence.