thoughts on anime and manga @lmfsilva / @longafloat watches. Updates on Mondays with a classic and Thursdays with a more recent one, with images and music often in between, occasionally some videogame adaptations. Weekly posts about ongoing shows on Sundays.
Plot: Cleopatra, princess of planet Ptolemy has made a mistake. She chose to invade Earth as her Summer project, but finding the planet more evolved than she anticipated, and not being allowed to quit by her bird attendant Horus, she decided to start by attempting to kidnap two sisters, Noah and Reah, but after a first accident with her magical pyramid she ends up capturing herself, and after a second accident she finds herself stranded on earth, so she stays with the sisters and their mother until someone comes to pick her up.
Thoughts: Well, always said I should do more posts about manga even if they don't have an adaptation, so after doing it for 'Tis Time For "Torture", Princess after re-reading to track the chapters of each episode, let's start with something light, like one of Yukiwo's side gigs while Dropkick on my Devil! was picking up steam. If you read the manga or watched the anime, you are probably well aware of it, it's the in-universe popular cartoon Lierre loves about a space princess where her Happy Meal style merchandise is... suggestive. Sorry, eccentric. A yonkoma manga, both the style of comedy and the visual style should be very familiar if you know Dropkick on my Devil! (and chances are, if you read it, you probably are), with the extremely moe characters with some incredible faces and some panels closer to speed drawing in between. If the Jashin-chan in-universe cartoon anime adaptation is the sort of thing you probably couldn't show on TV, the real thing here is mostly just a fun, sometimes even wholesome story about a girl being forced to take a summer vacation, where she grows up a bit doing things she wouldn't have experienced otherwise.
Patra-chan is basically a bratty lead who comes to contact with an "inferior civilization" but then loves everything about it, from castella cake, going to festivals, the beach and panda rockers. Horus is for the most part her helpless attendant, telling her to do her homework, but unable to do anything more than try to annoy her into doing the right things. Noah, the older sister plays... well, the old-sisterly character who's very kind towards Patra-chan, but also has a few wrong buttons for her to press, like making fun of her hobbies or fighting, and Reah, the younger sister, of course by contrast plays the more serious, studious tsundere, yet who doesn't miss with an opportunity to mess with Patra-chan, be it telling her about the dangers of eating Japanese watermelon seeds or telling her nobody is picking her up because she was forsaken. Their mother doesn't even need a panel to understand the whole situation, and quickly takes in Patra-chan as a member of the family, although like Reah she's not above messing with her, like also telling her nobody is picking her up after Patra-chan says her mother is younger, or the button to call the waitress at a family restaurant is a self-destruction button and if someone realises they're not family, she'll be taken away. Patra-chan also meets their dad, who works as a doctor on a remote island, the Princess of Mars, who wants to protect Earth, including from invaders, a younger girl she befriended at the playground and two of Reah's classmates. Not a lot of characters, but this is a short manga, after all.
The stories are mostly... well, cutesy Summer stuff. She goes to festivals, eats watermelon, goes shopping on her own, watches a scary show and then is terrified something is coming for her at night, goes to the beach (twice, although the first time they stayed home because of a typhoon, but Noah made everyone act like they were in a beach), gets kidnapped by aliens, visits a mall that is going to be destroyed and makes a rival and also a rival in the shape of a Mars princess, and although cute, certainly not Summer stuff. Some of this stuff will probably sound a bit familiar, as I think it was reused in some way on Dropkick on My Devil!, like the story of the retro mall that was going to close and the affinity Patra-chan has for the panda rocker was picked up for Lierre (and obviously as a way to Jashin-chan to mess with her).
Deep down, this is mostly a collection of what would be the "wholesome" chapters of Dropkick on my Devil!, only in a yonkoma format and instead of a gothic lolita with a machete and a gremlin snake woman from hell it was two sisters and an alien princess. If you like the dynamics when Jashin-chan is trying to act cute you'll probably get a couple of hours of fun out of it, otherwise you can ignore it.
Plus:
It's cute, in the same style of Dropkick on my Devil!
Minus:
There isn't a lot to it, and quite a bit are just the usual Summer hijinks you've seen elsewhere.
Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor: 98-Shiki Kidou Seyo!
Mobile Police Patlabor: Start the Type-98!
1992 visual novel developed by Advance Communication, published by Ma-Ba
Based on the Patlabor series.
Version used: Mega Drive, english translation
Language notes: Japanese only, text heavy, incomplete translation available
Rating: D
Thoughts: Patlabor is something that had little in terms of videogames, maybe because as most of its releases were published between 1988 and 1993, although the ones it has looks interesting, from Operation Tokyo Bay in the PC-98, a city building game where you are in charge of the Babylon Project to Game Edition on the Playstation, a VN with 3D mecha fighting game (seems something like a slower Virtual-On), but since those are untranslated, we'll have a look at 98-Shiki Kidou Seyo for the Mega Drive, which has recently received a translation, even if at the time of writing, still quite incomplete, but enough to give us a taste of it. As the story goes, you are a new recruit to the SV2, and after introducing yourself to the weird co-workers you all know and love from the series, after a night shift you wake up locked in the rest room and hearing voices on the corridors, you sneak out and find out, try to guess... c'mon, it's Patlabor, you know what happened. Someone (a rogue faction of the JSDF) is doing a coup again, and now you must sneak around the base and ask around other members of the SV2 who are locked up in their rooms what you need to do to get the Labors back online and fight back, and getting support from outside.
Overall, I think the game has a few good ideas if somewhat misguided. A typical VN style adventure with some RPG-style battles, I can understand using an overhead world instead of a more traditional screen to screen VN visual gameplay, but the RPG battle element feels useless at best, as you don't level up and need to constantly go to the greenhouse for tomatoes to replenish your HP, so you are for the most part better off escaping from every battle, because at it's worst, it's downright frustrating and tiresome with the random encounters which mean an instant game over should your health drop to zero. A Metal Gear style game where you avoid patrols and sneak around the base undetected would feel more suitable, but I guess by 1992 it was far easier to half-ass some turn-based RPG battle mechanics to make the game a bit longer because from longplays you can clear this game in less than an hour or so. This element really drags the gameplay down to an extremely annoying level.
One thing I feel the game does pretty well is getting the tone right. For instance, at a point, the SV2 decides to do something to break out of captivity, and while Asuma wants to escape using the boat, Ota obviously wants to take it to the military official in charge head-on. Neither work out as planned, and Shige presents you with several options to escape the island. You have no idea what they are, so you pick plan 1, "The Terrifying Hang Glider Operation", which is about jumping from the top of the roof in a hang glider and fly across the bay does go as expected, and then plan 2, "The Terrifying Teleport Operation" goes even worse. Plan 3 is the "Assault on Devil's Dungeon Operation" and... it works (after a somewhat frustrating maze level), as you remember some tunnels under the peninsula was a story from Patlabor on Television. The game claims to have Mamoru Oshii as a supervisor, and although that's hard to believe in the traditional sense, it's not completely unlikely he sent the team a few do's and dont's when it comes to the story, because while it's not great as a game, it's written as an entertaining Patlabor episode. The good writing is also aided by the VN parts doing their best in giving us quite good pixel renditions of the main characters and settings, and some of the puzzles being call backs to stories - at a point you (still) need to sneak out, so you call out to the Shangai-tei for takeout, but instead of sending Kanuka, Shige just jumps the deliveryman, allowing you to walk out the front door in his clothes. Everything feels very Patlabor, and it's a shame the game isn't just straight up a Visual Novel. As for the translation in itself, the version tested (1.0) still has some garbled text here and there at the start, and in the later half of the game it is a lot worse, making parts of it unplayable and after trying to play it without the patch and veeeeery slowly reading the text (the lower resolution of the Mega Drive means it uses only kana characters) gave up as the number of constant random encounters made it just too frustrating.
So, should a more complete version of he translation appear, would I return to it? Probably, but not enough to change my mind, I was pretty close to the end, and all the problems won't be fixed by a handful more VN sequences. It's an interesting game for Patlabor fans, sure, but not enough as a game to make me return.
Plus:
Gets the tone right
Minus:
The RPG battles aren't great
Quite short with some gameplay decisions intended only as padding.
Oh, was last week a bit light on Suzukis? Fine, here's "hair buns exploding into hearts" Suzuki, "rushed dye-job" Suzuki (complete with stained hands, because there was no time to get a plastic bag or something) and the most gremlin Suzuki ever looked because she knows what Yamada is up to and she's NOT letting that pass.
Some minor stuff this week, like I've added a new page with posts with stuff in common between them, which I'll later add more stuff to. Also added a "Character post" tag because with some image posts that are focused on a character only. Also, we're done with the spring show posts, and now it's back to the archives.
(Mao section updated)
(last week)
What was on?
The Ghost In The Shell
(ep 2) Aramaki pulls his weight by showing the Major and the rest of the team how he was ahead of everyone, knowing the whole orphanage mission was a stitch-up, so they're all fired as the unit is dissolved... and then rehired for Aramaki's personal unit, with an even higher budget and answering only to the prime minister. Batou arrives late, and wasn't aware of the news, and leaves something extra on Aramaki's car... and he was ahead of that as well. Then, after the most anticipated scene in recent anime history, the lesbian threesome where they did have to tone it down to make it TV friendly but did made the effort to make them look as oiled up as in the manga. The plot now heads into very familiar territory, of the original 1995 movie (in this episode we see the foreign minister interpreter and the start of the chase of the garbage truck), and I'll avoid making direct comparisons beyond one: storywise, the best thing the movie did was not do fall to the INFODUMP INFODUMP INFODUMP Shirow does, and cut away as much as possible without harming storytelling, because otherwise as seen here the pace here is quite frenetic and you might be better off reading the manga chapters afterwards to catch anything you may have missed. I wonder if Shirow never had an editor who said "heeeeey this is maybe too much detail" or he just stuck with his guns. A
Edit: nevermind about the "editors" comment.
You and I are Polar Opposites
(ep 3) End of the year, Winter break coming to a close, and with Tani's uncles missing their yearly New Year's get together, he suggest to his family if he can invite the girl he's been seeing, to their surprise (except Grandma Tani, she knows how to keep a secret). Suzuki of course acts extremely normal about it, dyes her hair (poorly, and so rushed she didn't even use some gloves) to look more acceptable to his parents, wears a long skirt, and tries to get some gifts for them, just to be so nervous about his mothers' somewhat cold welcome she trips on her skirt and lands on the sweets she bought. Then, after a while, she notices she's Tani's mother, of course they'd also be alike. Second story starts with Azuma lamenting not being older so she could hang with the rest of the staff until the night, and the gang goes together for a shrine Nabe found. A perfectly balanced episode, with the right amount of Suzuki being Suzuki and the rest of the cast A
Ascendance of a Bookworm
(ep 14) Because this show moves at quite a fast pace, it's now Spring and time for Rosemyne and Ferdinand to deal with Hesse's mayor attack on the monastery, where they have to balance both the all important warning to those who might follow, the public image of Rosemyne and her own unwillingness to be as ruthless as her father figures are, so, after assuring the town would just be hit with a one-time no free experience orbs for the harvest and 10 years of extra taxes (as opposed to "being completely wiped off", the mayor and the people who attacked the monastery are all set to be executed after a public trial. I feel the execution method is a bit... mild? It was supposed to be this horrifying moment, but it's just being turned to stone and then into dirt. Then again, I'm european, learning about the extremely fucked up punishments nobility came up with for middle school kinda desensitizes you. It also feels the author seems to forget when it's convenient that Rozemyne is a 20-something year old who probably should be at all phased out by this (even more for someone who's cold enough to tell the orphans "you don't work, you don't eat", but that's a different story). Anyway, a fairly decent episode, although things keep moving too fast, and at times it almost feels like an anthology of loose stories. B
Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You
(ep 2) Sasaki being so down after accidentally scaring the new junior at work he isn't even in the mood to make eyes at Yamada, making her rush as Tayama to the smoking spot just to try to get some explanation to why her costumer service failed is certainly a development, and later Sasaki finding Tayama sulking with her own problems because someone complained she's great at costumer service but smells of cigarettes too much, and even with her making her "professional" face he does not realising how much she looks like Yamada. It is starting to get on her nerves, but on the other other hand Sasaki always talks up of Yamada to Tayama and of Tayama to Yamada and she does love messing with him, and him being quite dense really opens up a world of possibilities. Is this going to be a love triangle with just two people? You know what, go for it. A
Mao
(ep 15-16) After a week out, it's a double feature (and sorry for the delay), the first dealing with Shiranui, the source of Mao's recent water-based problems. As it's been common with the show so far, we have a long exposition about him: one of the Masters' apprentices as a child, he got out of a trial by following a young boy, then years later when he sees Mao, the Master's new attendant, he knew he was the boy, and deeply resented him. He was also the one who gave Mao his facial scar after what happened on that day, and would have finished the job if it wasn't for Nanoka finding him. On return the Byouki is waiting for her, and fills in some more lore: Lady Sana was cursed, something Mao couldn't know, and she couldn't have survived to the Taisho era, just adding to the mystery of what exactly happened. As this all happens, Mao and Hyakka hear of some metal scarecrows (another great entry to the bestiary of Mao) the later had a run in with, and that leads up to the next episode, where the man in the mask who is behind Mao's recent metal-based problems, Hakubi, who during their fight drops another piece of the puzzle: cats are beings that exist outside the five elements and so immune to all of them, and the Master may have planned Lady Sana's cat, to become his own personal shikigami. He also puts a different twist to the relationship of the Biyouki with Mao: did he curse him... or is he protecting him? I hope there aren't many more characters to add, because we're at 10 episodes to go, and while it is still an ongoing manga, I do feel this part of the story has to lead somewhere instead of adding more people from the Goko clan. B (both).
Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia
(ep 4) Fatima finally learns what was the reason her life was turned inside out because of a book neither of them seem to understand its value: Sorghaghtani, wife of Tolui, knows she might become the empress, and as the mongols outgrow being a nomadic tribe they must acquire more knowledge than the one from living on the steppes, and what for the Persians was basic knowledge, for them is a stepping stone towards becoming an actual empire. Oh, so this was like stealing a tech after conquering a city in Civilization, that mechanic makes more sense now. Time passes, Genghis Khan dies and now they must elect a new leader. Fatima is now a trusted servant of Sorghaghtani, she has a Mao Mao moment cleaning some entrails, but the new emperor is not Tolui, who has been serving as an interim emperor, but Ogedei. Tolui takes it very well, brotherly ties , but Sorghaghtani has enough concerns to ask her a different job: to act as her spy. I'm sure that Ogedei's wife being the one who hates the Mongols as much as Fatima does plays a bit into this. If there's one slight to the series so far is that for something that has considerable time skips the art style doesn't exactly suits it, it has passed something like 16 years since the first episode, and the only difference is that Fatima looks a bit taller, which may be harder to pinpoint without a reference since characters all have the same build. I do like the art style, but this is very much an issue with it. B
Grand Blue Dreaming
(ep 2) It's not fun for Iori to have to go home for his passport because Shiori saw another opportunity to twist his arm into taking her place running the family ryokan, but you know what that means: more fun for everyone watching, even more as Chisa tagged along and Kouhei wouldn't miss an opportunity to get together with "his" little sister. Things get even more complicated after meeting two German otaku on the train (and their very apologetic friend), and if they allow a lot of things, they absolutely won't put up with questioning their drinking prowesses. Back at home Shiori is really determined to make Iori's life hell, but He's also not going to take it. Again, following on my thoughts on the first two season, the show is really at it's best when it's core PaB crew hijinks, and the attempts to add more recurring characters in the second season generally fell a bit flat. Some great classical bits like Iori realising that yes, there's one creep around Shiori (Kouhei) but also more (the Germans), and the conclusion to this promises to be great. B
Chainsmoker Cat
(ep 3) Say what you want about Yaniko, but even with her smoking habits she has about as much match stamina as Juan Quintero. Does one amazing dribble that has everyone's eyes on them, then done, socks down. Although Quintero doesn't have big bouncy tits. First episode is dedicated to Yaniko's adventures with the landlord, who probably should know better than try to get her to make some changes to her life, so he fails her to get into a quit smoking program (and gets two very dangerous nyancotine patches on the back of his head and farted on), then gets her pulling weeds in exchange for postponing collecting her rent (and Yaniko eats his cabbages). Hearing about how smoking ruins the wallpaper, she checks behind a poster that was there since before she moved just to find... talismans, and the landlord was too busy to hear her freaking out. With what? Heeeeeeeh, don't ask. Fun story, once back in the early 90s the local cafe was was refurbishing, and the very pretty cream-coloured ceiling tiles were on the corner. You could see the plaster white color where they rested on the support beams, if anything, they didn't made it Yaniko's apartment gross enough. Anyway, second half was decdicated to Kansaineko, the one from the first episode who knows Yaniko's sister who's trying being a comedian and goes to some deep cuts, like a Twin Peaks reference, and the alcoholic catgirl, Aruko, who's introduced, decides to put a straw on a bottle so she can drink while sleeping, pukes, and is saved by Kansaineko, and to end the episode what should be her riding around town warning about dry weather conditions in a van ends up with Yaniko farting into the microphone across the neighbourhood for smokes. Well, YOU tell what you expected from this. B
Let's Go Kaikigumi
(ep 3) Turns out Mechako has a contender in her claim for the Kaikigumi, her cousin Shurako who deeply respected her father and now is going to take her place. Unfortunately for her, while Mechako does have some issues with doing creepy stuff (intentionally), Shurako doesn't seem to be that good either, forgetting to get some clothes in her transformation sequence. She's defeated by a curse Mechako had in her pocket that turns her into a kid, also by accident. This organization has some issues. Second story has Mechako overhearing an old man scaring some kids with the story of the "Evil Spirit Boy", a kid covered in talismans walking the street at night, and when Shujinkou comes across her hiding in a garbage can she tells his the story and wants to recruit the boy, but the story sounds oddly familiar to him. As always, this show has some incredibly dumb jokes to go along with things, like the "Vice-Principal" magazine, that includes parts to make you own vice principal (*checks Planeta DeAgostini* oh, disappointing), the cops covering the perps hands with a jacket (as they usually do in Japan) only when we go back to them both are topless, Shujinkou being kinda proud Mechako finally did something creepy until he meets Shurako who tells him the hair is from shower drains of homes she invaded, Not to mention the cute ghosts not even Shujinkou is scared of. Look how friendly they look. I guess it's doing enough to keep earning a soft B
Draw This Then Die
(ep 3) Oh, a character said the name of the show! Smoke Drink! A solid follow-through on the last episode, where they couldn't find a third member and don't have a place to put the club, until Yasumi meets the girl with the painting, Fujimori, who's the sole member of soon to be extinguished art club, is very quiet and shy and while she loved the passion in Yasumi's manga (when members of other clubs just laughed), she couldn't find the courage to tell her that, so she took it home, and decided to use her talents in drawing to bring Yasumi's scribbles to life, but was hesitating to show them, until she got her own imaginary mascot to tell her "do it", so now the club is official, and rather than sharing a club room, they'll use the storage on Teramura's library. This was probably the best episode so far, as we finally get into why Teshima is so concerned about the girls getting too carried away with making manga and warning them to not go pro: she spent her college years trying to make it only to be constantly turned down, until she started burning from both ends, and we know it ended with her manga being cancelled after the first volume. From the first few episodes, between the detail they're putting in background and the overall positive message this has the potential to be one of the sleepers of this season, not unlike Ruri Rocks last Summer season, let's see if it has something to take it from "good" to "very good". B
Dropkick on my Devil!
(ch 296) There's a few times I can imagine how a chapter could play out in animation, and Poporon minding her own business for 5 minutes like the chillest slice of life, then Jashin-chan and Yurine barge in and wreck her whole day in a matter of seconds is one of those cases.
Romcom by Studio KAI
Based on a manga by Koucha Agasawa
Length: 14 episodes (covered from #52 to #65)
Aired: 2026 (Spring)
Rating: A
Plot: Dealing with a traumatic middle-school experience, Koyuki Hikawa just closed herself to others in highschool, her only friend the popular Miki Azumi who came with her from middle-school. Successfully keeping her classmates at bay, one day the outgoing Minato Amamiya caughts her off guard and talks with her, before his friend Youta Hino takes him away. What Koyuki doesn't know the two are also old friends with Miki, and her friend group just got suddenly bigger.
Thoughts: You and I are Polar Opposites was maybe the best show of the previous season, and the blow of ending was first softened by the announcement we'd just have to wait for the Summer for the conclusion of the story, and further more in the knowledge Koucha Agasawa's previous work was also scheduled to have an adaptation, which was an instant must see. While it's always unfair to compare different shows based on different works of the same mangaka, The Ramparts of Ice exists more or less on same space of a more grounded romcom, only more serious and without the absolute gremlin, and as I've remarked in the first episode, it kinda resembles what if you centered a show on Azuma and Taira, the gloomy duo still dealing with some trauma from their previous school. And if we're doing comparisons, it's really not that far off from Polar Opposites quality-wise, just in different ways.
The strongest part of Ramparts is in the writing for the characters. Like Taira, Minato is a character that shows how good the author is at writing characters that could sound like irredeemable pricks, but are still created like people with their virtues and flaws. Sure, he's pushy and has no concept of personal boundaries, and his extroverted personality just scares Koyuki, particularly after he takes a special interest in reaching her to fix her problems. He only accomplishes the first part after actually fixing himself and realising people don't like to be treated like puzzles to be solved, and to his shock actually ends up falling for her. Youta is basically a nice level-headed and chill big guy, sometimes likely to day dream or zone out, appreciating the quiet moment as he lives with two half-siblings much younger than him that do make it a happy home, although a tiring one where he sometimes wonders if he does have a place in his new family, although he has no reason to not feel loved. He has a secret of his own, in that he's very much in love with Miki that only Minato, ever observant, noticed (likely by how his head isn't screwed right when he's near her), and eventually confesses it to Koyuki, with whom she built an immediate rapport. Miki, starts as the class idol and popular girl is the one connecting the two to Koyuki: she's her neighbour and classmate in middle school, and met Minato and Youta on her cram school... after Minato doesn't mind his own business and sees her alone. As she goes along both pretty well, she gets off her chest how bad she feels she couldn't help her best friend with a bullying situation, and if Minato picked up that best friend is Koyuki the moment he saw the two together, Youta realised who she was after she made a comment about being in the baseketball club. While Miki has the looks and personality to be the class idol, she grew up being the gorilla girl, very loud and unpolished, but fearing rejection from her new classmates who took her as something else, played that role until they were suspicious watching her being a lot more outgoing and talkative with Minato and Youta and more rumours from cram school, until she confessed, and their acceptance that either Miki is fine by them allows her to start second year as herself. Not knowing of his feelings towards her, she really likes the idea of Youta and Koyuki stating together.
And now we need to talk about lead girl Koyuki. Traditionally you'd expect the trauma of the main character to be just the usual pile of injustices thrown at them, but here, keeping in tune with characters not being aware of the full picture or just learning things through other characters, the reveal a lot of the defences, these ramparts she built around her were not just things done to her, but also things she done that make her feel deeply ashamed with herself. It's just... humanizing to see, and the way the revelation of the true nature of part of her trauma after most of the season just operating on the little we've heard and what we would expect from the show is just fantastic writing. As she spends time with the other three, she slowly learns to open up on her own, and starts developing feelings for Minato.
If there's other thing I'd comment on the writing is how it does an incredible job of foreshadowing things, it shouldn't do flashbacks to those moments, they should make people rewatch things and go "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH". But hey, we're at a point I think most shows are lucky enough to be watched, let alone someone thinking "let's watch this again", overall it does feel like it is based on an excellently planned manga that knew where it was going from the start, and could make little things happen along the way that pay off further ahead in the story. Again, if the characters aren't as flashy in their personalities as Polar Opposites, they do have a very solid backing behind them. Sometimes the show just decides to power through a thorny situation in a somewhat unrealistic manner, but while it has it's dose of melodrama, it has no intention on getting bogged down by it. Finally, visually it's not on the same level as Polar Opposites (I also think she got a lot better between Ramparts and Polar Opposites), and while it presents opportunities for good faces and the same manga-inspired panels, it is also a much less energetic show, and what it does, it does great. She also shows how much she likes to give the characters cool clothes and accessories, never a dull moment when they're off the clock.
The ending leaves things in a bit of a cliffhanger, so if you haven't watched it, you might probably want to wait until mid to late September in time for the second season starting in October. What is certainly is, is being well worthy of your attention.
Plus:
Realistic characters with grounded motivations rather than being constantly OTT
Does a pretty good job of exploring who Koyuki is bit by bit
Balances the more dramatic parts with the comedy parts well
Minus:
Some parts the story just powers through what should be more complex situations, although that plays in not being bogged down by constant melodrama
