We’re getting back into gear with the anime reviews, although a forthcoming Ushio & Tora complete collection threatens to put me back in the reviewing slow lane. You can thank the feature film and the half season release format for the speed-up though, beginning last week with A Certain Magical Index Movie: The Miracle of Endymion. Manga Entertainment spent this summer getting all up to date with Raildex, only for rumours to come forward today about a potential third season for a Certain Magical Index. Fans will most certainly be pleased with the feature film though, a tale about two girls, a crashed spaceplane, and a space elevator. It’s got all the Raildex cameos that you might hope for, although you could also see that as the film’s biggest weakness.
Then it was the turn of God Eater Volume 2, the conclusion of the series, with teenagers fighting against the end of the world with ridiculous weapons. That title could apply to several anime. God Eater is the one that seems like a cyberpunk reimagining of Attack on Titan. After a lacklustre start, God Eater really picks up for its final episodes. The only issue might be a runtime unsuitable for the story that it really wants to tell. Click on the review to read more.
It’s the same story with Charlotte Part 2, the conclusion of another short run series. But things go in the opposite direction from God Eater. This is a show that starts off with a strong premise, and with interesting characters, but this show about teenagers developing superpowers loses its way as it comes to its conclusion. Charlotte might just be a show that’s three episodes too long for its own good. Once again, all will be revealed once you click on that review.
To this point, it had been a week of mediocrity, with an unexceptional movie spin-off, and two Aniplex series that certainly didn’t deserve the Aniplex price tag. Thankfully things perked up for the final review of the week, as I finally got around to watching The Escaflowne Movie. Movie spin-offs from long-running series can be good or bad, but they rarely surprise. When it came to the Escaflowne movie, a ground-up remake of the series, director Kazuki Akane did the unexpected, he switched audiences. The series appealed mostly to a young female demographic, but when he retold the story in feature film form, he aimed it at male audiences. The result is that despite issues with runtime and character development, I actually prefer this version of Escaflowne.
This Week I’ve Been Mostly Rewatching...
Elfen Lied. Controversy, thy name is anime! Or at least it was when Elfen Lied was released. It was the last gasp of Manga Video style sex and violence, or at least female nudity and psycho-kinetic dismemberment, shockingly mixed with moe cuteness. A test subject escapes from a research facility after slaughtering most of the guards, loses her memory, and winds up in a harem anime, as an increasing number of cute girls move in with an equally amnesiac teenage boy. The ones with the horns are the psychokinetic dismembering psychopaths. It turns out that beneath the controversy and the visual excess, Elfen Lied is a rather mundane series, where its cutesy and violent elements just don’t hang together well.
It wasn’t actually released by Manga Video; it was ADV Films that released Elfen Lied in the UK. They went bust, but the licence was picked up by 101 Films, who released an overpriced collector’s edition, which I reviewed after finding it in a bargain bucket. They have subsequently released the Blu-ray version, an upscale to be sure, but one that also contains the long sought after OVA episode. It’s voiced by a different English dub cast, and it’s not that great an episode even in the Elfen Lied canon, but at least you can see what all the fuss is about now.
Manga Entertainment released A Certain Magical Index Movie: The Miracle of Endymion on Blu-ray/DVD combo, MVM released God Eater Volume 2 on Blu-ray and on DVD, and All the Anime released Charlotte Part 2 on Blu-ray/DVD combo and on standalone DVD, as well as The Escaflowne Movie on Blu-ray, and it all happened last Monday.
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