Awesome characters 1 Hikigaya Hachiman

Our protagonist

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU(At least that is what they are calling it on Crunchy roll) is one of my favorite shows in the spring season and unlike Attack on Titan and Gargantia I don't feel that it has been hyped enough. I have found the show's biggest strength is that it takes many of the tropes and characters you see in anime romantic comedies and light novels and deconstructs them. I feel that this is very evident in the main character Hikigaya Hachiman.

I remember a few years ago I was able to greatly alter if not win a debate about feminism and Umineko no Koro ni with the idea that oppresion does not make you a better person. The same principle applies to Hikigaya. All too often in anime we have a main character who is not only dateless but also bereft of friends, yet they suffer no emotional backlash from their sorry state. Hikigaya is not only an interesting twist on the blank anime protagonist his since of bitterness and negativity make him more relatable than your average so called anime nerd protagonist.

Not only is he relatable to darker nature of many of us his attitude is one that is perfect for novels. He has a lot of inner monologue and narration, which is common for novel works. Such works are best served by a main character which a strong voice and Hikigaya's unrelenting pessimism gives us just that voice.

Yet another way Hikigaya makes (title) so even better is the fact that his antisocial nature really does put the brakes on any romance happening in the show. In most romantic shows the main relationship is dragged out so the show can make more money simply by being longer. However with (title) simply not emotionally capable of committing to either Yukino or Yui until he makes some rather drastic personal changes. By the end of he show you she the beginnings of those changes and a slight change in his relationships but that feels natural. In short when it comes to romantic comedy protagonists sometimes bitter is much better taste than bland.

Magic Knight Rayearth Overview part 3,

Where we left off last time our heroines were still questing for the spring of Eterna where they were hoping to find some Escudo. With nothing but a mascot creature who can only say the word Pu to guide them the going has been difficult but they have made it so far. Fortunately unlike real rpgs where if you get stuck you may have to search for hours before finding the correct way Magic Knight Rayearth refuses to be that boring even when it ventures into filler territory which it will do in this volume.

Fuu investigates a blue line

After yet another wandering monster fight this time involving a water monster that made the Magic Knights glow the trio arrives at what appears to be a glowing blue line hanging in mid air. While most people would have no idea what exactly that could mean Mokona climbs on a rock and instructs Hikaru, Umi and Fuu to do the same. From that vantage point they find that the blue line is in fact the spring of Eterna. Mokona then hops in and after some trepidation the girls do so as well.

I guess Cephiro has decorative jewels on everything

The three are separated and each find them facing something they love, Hikaru finds her dog Hikari, Umi finds her parents and Fuu (this is explained not to be extreme narcissism) herself. In each case the object of the Magic Knight's affections attacks their respective protagonist until a message from Princess Emeraude asks them "would those you love wish you harm?". At that point the Magic Knights retaliate with new spells revealing their adversaries to be pieces of Escudo. Since there is a couple of minutes of running time in the episode left Alcione attacks again informing our protagonists that the fight at the beginning of the episode was in fact a plot to poison the Magic Knights and that the poison should be kicking in just about now. Even brought to their knees the Magic Knights refuse to give up which causes their armor to grow which is the first occurrence of a very important principle in this show; character development equals leveling up your equipment. Needless to say the Magic Knights defeat her which is also the end of Zagato's patience with her.

Filler, the real silent killer

With Escudo in hand or rather neatly stored in their glove jewels where they also keep their weapons the Magic Knights return to Presea to have their weapons made. While in the manga (which I have read so I can reference differences between the two) the crafting of the weapons is a pretty minor event it would make for a pretty empty episode if something else wasn't added to it. As is the case when screen time needs to be filled a monster is sent in to do battle with the Magic Knights but this monster is different from those seen so far.

This monster is the summoned monster of Ascot the next in a series of mini-bosses in this show. In true magic girl mini-boss tradition he summons the monster, points in the direction he wants it to go (in this case Presea) and then decides to take a nap. The monster proves to be tougher than the previous ones as the spells and weapons of the Magic Knights do little more than make the thing evolve. The monster heads straight for Presea and when it rams the wall of the room she was in causing parts of the ceiling to fall on her. The rest of the episode is good news and bad news. The good news is that she finished making the weapons that the Magic Knights need not only to defeat this monster but also save Cephiro. The bad news is that she doesn't survive the ceiling collapsing. So with heavy hearts the Magic Knights bury Presea and vow to save Cephiro once again. Ascot also makes a vow of vengeance against the trio of girls that killed his precious friend.

Review Soul Link

In all honesty I am not sure why I decided to watch Soul Link. It is a seven year old obscure show that has never been licensed. I think I saw a trailer to the visual novel it was based on and it looked interesting. Plus I needed something to watch on a mobile device and a lot of shows are mkv files which doesn't work with my device. Anyways Soul Link is a mostly forgotten show that probably deserves its fate.

Soul Link is a story of some military cadets who go to a space station for an outer space boot camp of sorts. I won't bother going into names but amounts to three mixed gender pairs. There is also one of the girl's friend, another mysterious green haired lady and a group of obviously up to no good people. After a couple of episodes things go south when the obviously up to no good people highjack the space station.

One angle that I was thinking of taking with this review was to notice how useless most of the female characters were in this show. While I am not someone who usually takes a feminist stance in critiquing art something came to mind while watching Soul Link. Namely it is the idea of questioning a need for a dedicated feminist stance while reviewing art on the grounds that any truly bigoted work of art (be it sexism, racism or whatever) will be seriously flawed in a normal critical review as characters that are from a group that the creator discriminates against will be shallow, boring and general drags on the narrative as the creator doesn't think much of the group of people in question. If my conjecture bears out it is shown in at least somewhat in Soul Link. While there are some useful women in the show (namely two female mercenaries) most of them stand around and cry for most of the show. On top of this there is a female villain who is blandly evil and makes up for her lack of a mustache for twirling by wearing what I call the slutty clothes of evil.

Even with that said there aren't that many good points in the show. Even though it was made in 2006 the calls back to the bad cg techniques that were prevalent around the turn of the millennium. The pacing is also quite terrible as it takes a couple of episodes for anything to actually start happening. The few bright points that I found were mostly in the cast which had a few decent and somewhat interesting characters. I wouldn't say that Soul Link is truly terrible enough to be worthy of a hate based review but I can honestly say that you should not watch this anime show.

Rating The tin Gameindusti medal of participation (Hyper dimension Neptunia) for mediocre performance in science fiction.

Jeckyllcast and blog rating system

As with just about any other anime site there will eventually be reviews to be hosted there. Also reviews tend to require some sort of short hand rating system in order to allow readers a shorthand way of seeing how good a given show is. As I am of one of the degenerate generations where things like participation trophies are given out I will do the same for anime shows. However not all awards are equal and so here is my key to figuring out how good a given show is.

If I give a show a golden award this means I think highly of the show and think it is one of the best anime shows there is around. I probably won't give out more than a couple each year.

Example The revolutionary rose of gold (an award for a truly excellent shoujo anime, not going to tell if it is a reference to Rose of Versailles or Revolutionary girl Utena)

The golden von Lohengram Medal of Honor (Legend of the galactic heroes) for excellence in field of long form shows with a large scope and cast.

If I give a show a silver award it just means that I think the show is good but not exceptional. Shows with a silver rating are good enough that I recommend that you watch and are good examples of what anime in a given genre has to offer.

Example The silver Psibody (Star Driver) for being a genuinely fun and engaging mecha show.

If I give a show a bronze award I am telling you that it is just about average. It is very likely that you will not like a show and if you do, you might look at it as simple entertainment to get you through the day. These are often the shows you just watch because you like the genre conventions of a given work. I understand you probably won't watch these shows but often more in a sitting in the middle of a pile shame rather than outright avoiding it sort of way.

The bronze Hokago Tea cup (K On) for being a delightful time waster of a slice of life show.

If I give a show a tin award a simply saying the show isn't that good. While it may not be utterly terrible (see he category below) its bad points outweigh the good and I cannot in good reviewer conscience recommend it to anyone.

The tin Diclonius horn (elfin lied) for achievements in the fight against subtlety.

If I give a show a lead award it means my unholy wrath as a reviewer is upon this show. Do not expect me to say anything good in a long form review of it. In fact expect me to rip said work to shreds.

Example the leaden  angel pelt (Tenshi no shipo) for being a good deal dumber than even the usual harem comedy.