Winter Couch Potatoing

The most wonderful time of the year is almost upon us! I’m sure that some of you have big plans for your Winter breaks, but for those of you like me who would rather grab a snuggie and lie comatose on the couch for a week, here’s a bunch of tv you can watch to help build up that winter coat! Though this blog is dedicated to video games and such, I thought it might be important to remember that good storytelling techniques have a lot of commonality across media. So, I consumed a lot of non-video game media this year that, for the purpose of this blog, seemed worth examining.

I watched all of the shows reviewed below to completion (with one noted exception), and only posted reviews for those that elicited an emotion response out of me – i.e. the most interesting ones. Not every show below is good or even new, mind you, but they are all shows you probably haven’t seen (or gotten around to watching), and should make for entertaining and/or enlightening viewing experiences over the break. And, of course, there are no spoilers to worry about. I’m not THAT evil.

MS Word has alerted me that these reviews cumulatively span over 7,000 words, so to save you some time, I put together a short list of my top 3 recommendations based on media preferences at the bottom of the post. I’d still recommend stepping outside of your comfort zone, as there are a lot of great shows in every medium, but it’s your call. Below is the list of everything I reviewed and the scores I gave them, so that you can ctrl+f to what you’re curious about. I hope you enjoy these shows and thanks in advance for reading my thoughts on them.

Western Television

- Game of Thrones - 7/10

- Orphan Black - 9/10

- Justified - 10/10

- Breaking Bad - 10/10

- The Blacklist - 4/10

- Unbreakable With Kimmy Schmidt - 9/10

- The Spoils of Babylon - 7.5/10

- The Spoils Before Dying - 6/10

- Archer: Vice - 10/10

- The Venture Bros. (Seasons 4 & 5) - 10/10 & 8/10, respectively

Anime

- Space Pirate: Captain Harlock - 3/10

- K-On! - 9/10

- Psycho-Pass (2 Seasons + The Movie) - 10/10, 8/10, and 9/10

- Space Dandy (2 Seasons) - 8/10 & 10/10

- Welcome to the NHK - 9.5/10

- Terror in Resonance - 7.5/10

- Steins;Gate - 6/10

- School Live! - Poor Pacing/10

- Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 - 10/10

- Seirei no Moribito - 10/10

The Reviews 

Game Of Thrones

An army of ice-themed undead (Wild Hunt much?) is preparing to march on the South to theoretically conquer or kill everyone, but the people of the South are too interested in their own petty squabbles over crowns, marriages, and grudges to rally and do something about it. Such is the stupidity of the game of thrones.

In case that wasn’t a bright enough signal, I HATE the first book in this series. It is exceedingly poorly paced, the characters are unlikable and too numerous for the relative simplicity of the plot, and it reads like George R. R. Martin is trying too hard to make his world “cool” with his aversion of narrative catharsis and monosyllabic naming scheme. After trudging through about 400 pages of it, I caved and just watched the Thug Notes for the ending, never bothering to pick up another entry in the franchise. Needless to say, the prospect of watching this show was about as appealing to me as doing breast strokes in a pool of fresh sewage. And for the first two seasons of this show, my expectations were met; the plot progressed at a glacial pace, the characters were almost unanimously uninteresting or unlikable, and the story on the whole would rather spend time reveling in pretentious nihilism than presenting or examining any interesting ideas.

And yet, by the time the third season rolled around, I actually started to like it. The main plot got off its ass and started moving forward, the few characters I liked (Tyrion, Bronn, Brienne, Arya, and Daenerys) moved from the periphery to the fore, the gratuitous sex was dialed back, and the show finally acknowledged the painfully obvious truth I began this mini-review with: none of the court games are important. Essentially, it became a show that actually has some intent of ending with a purpose. Season 3 is also the point where the show starts deviating more significantly from the books. Coincidence? I think not.

It’s hard to recommend this show to anyone because of its almost comically nihilistic tone and the vacuity of its first 2 seasons, but if you want to watch a (long) show with a medieval setting and a touch of high fantasy, then Game of Thrones is probably the best that currently exists. It does not live up to its absurd hype, but it is not a bad show. Also, Gay of Thrones is a thing and more entertaining than a good chunk of the actual show.

7 Initially Shocking Deaths/10

Orphan Black

It’s damn near impossible to talk about this show in any sort of depth without spoiling it, so forgive me if this is a bit nebulous. Orphan Black is a show with clones in it. That premise alone is unique enough to warrant a few questions – questions that I’m not going to answer. All you need to know is that this is not a show about cloning or the ethics thereof (at least, not for these first three seasons).

Fortunately, we can still talk about what makes the show interesting and absolutely worth your time: Tatiana Maslany. By virtue of being a show with clones in it, almost half of the cast is played by the same actress. Typically shows and movies that do this are comedic (Austin Powers, The Nutty Professor, etc.) and use the technique for gags since the audience can intuitively recognize that all of those characters are just the one actor displaying their array of vaguely racist voices and caricatures. But, this is a drama, and, Tatiana Maslany manages to breathe enough individuality into each character that you can’t help but see them as separate respectable people; a magic trick which I have yet to see another tv show perform.

The other thing you should know going into it is that even though this show’s science fiction is definitively in the hard category, it contains more pathos – more heart – than anything else I saw last summer (and I saw How to Train Your Dragon!). My only reservation with this show is that there doesn’t seem to be a thesis to it. That’s fine, of course; the show is solidly entertaining. I just feel like there’s still more philosophical depth lurking within its themes that they haven’t explored (yet).

9 Criminally Withheld Tatiana Maslany Emmys/10

Justified

A few years ago, I was told by one of my college professors that if I wanted to write characters for my own fiction, I should read Elmore Leonard. Being as open to suggestion as dry cement with a smiley face smeared onto it, I did not heed his words. Two years and a stern attitude adjusting later, I saw that this show is based on an Elmore Leonard short story and had the man himself on staff as an exec. So I said, “close enough” and gave it a look…boy, I wish I had listened to my professor three years ago.

Justified is essentially a modern day western set in Harlan county, Kentucky. While normally, nothing about that last sentence would have appealed to me in any way, Justified is also home to the most entertaining dialogue, organically complex plot development, and nuanced characterization of any live-action show I have ever seen – statements I do not make lightly.

As strange as this might sound, what makes this show so compelling, aside from it’s fantastic sense of humor and abundance of southern speechifying, is its dumb characters. Being in the deep south, many of the characters on this show are poor, uneducated, brash, racist, and deeply conservative. Unsurprisingly, they tend to make pretty boneheaded decisions that backfire on themselves, often in pursuit of some incredibly short-term gains. But, these small decisions made by seemingly inconsequential characters can cascade or coalesce into massive plot movements that are nothing short of spectacular to witness, while at the same time feeling very true to life.

It’s an excellent show that will put you in a good mood and likely make you laugh…a lot – like at least once every five minutes. It has six full-length seasons and every goddamn episode of each one is great. Even if you don’t like Westerns or anything about the contemporary American South, I highly recommend that you watch this marvel.

WARNING: You may inadvertently start speaking with a southern drawl after watching a few seasons. A shot o’ Jim Bean or Wild Turkey’ll fix ya right up.

10 Northerners Who Never Left Harlan Alive/10

Breaking Bad

Yes, it is exactly as good as everyone says. No, it is not the greatest show ever made. No, it was not my favorite thing I saw this year. Yes, you should watch this show, if you haven’t already. Annnnd that takes care of the FAQ. I’m not going to bother with a synopsis, because you all (hopefully) already know the premise: high school chemistry teacher becomes a meth dealer yada yada. And since there isn’t much to say about it other than that it’s exceptional, I suppose I’ll just briefly mention why it didn’t have much of an effect on me.

After the first season, the show becomes the televised equivalent to watching a car crash in slow motion: the circumstance is directly caused by one driver(s)’ mistake, instead of fate dealing a hand full of middle fingers; it is too late for the erring driver to change their course of action; and we, the viewers, already know how it’s all going to end – disastrously. Walter White’s descent was something that I could intuitively recognize was inevitable, but watching it unfold wasn’t all that compelling to me since there didn’t seem to be any hope that it would ebb, nor did it spark any interesting philosophical discussions or character development among the supporting cast (though it did lead to some damn fine scenes).

On that same note, the show’s plot is relatively simple and, other than the 1st and 5th seasons, doesn’t attempt to explore any complex ideas; only that wealth and possessions do not inherently grant one happiness – an idea I deeply familiarized myself with when I was 11 and stopped collecting Pokémon & Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Basically, I expected to “gain something” from watching the show and didn’t, so it was a bit of a letdown. BUT, I cannot deny the astonishing quality of everything in in it, from the dialogue, to the plot, to the performances, and thus feel obligated to rate it as highly as I do.

10 “GODDAMNIT JESSE!!”’s/10

The Blacklist

This is possibly the most disappointing thing I saw this year. James Spader, a near legendary criminal on the FBI’s most wanted list, decides to “help” the feds catch a list of eccentric criminals on his wanted list – the eponymous blacklist. I don’t like cop shows or procedurals, but if the premise is unique or interesting I’ll still give them a look. James Spader alone satisfies the interesting quota, but I thought that the premise would also have provided a space for the writers to develop the protagonists while entertaining the audience with interesting villains each episode (like Justified’s first season).

But, unfortunately the villains of the week are about as eccentric as a businessmen wearing off-color ties on casual Friday, and the recurring characters (excluding Spader, of course) have as much personality as said businessmen’s staplers. It’s not that the plot moves so quickly that there isn’t any time for characterization, but rather that the writers never utilize the opportunities they create. This issue coupled with an unnecessarily serious tone, surprisingly frequent deus ex machinas, and general dearth of backing music (THERE ISN’T EVEN AN OPENING JINGLE!!!) ultimately culminated in one of the most disappointing things I’ve seen all year. Maybe the show gets better later on, but this first season left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wouldn’t deign to satisfy my curiosity.

4 “Heh, you won’t shoot m-” *BANG* Scenes/10

Unbreakable with Kimmy Schmidt

Three women are trapped in a nuclear bunker by a religious cult leader for 15 years. After being rescued, one of the women, Kimmy Schmidt, decides to start her life fresh in New York City. This is a Tina Fey joint, so if you’re familiar with her brand of humor than you’re not in for any big surprises here. For you unfortunate souls who haven’t seen 30 Rock or Mean Girls, Tina Fey has a tendency to take subtle or unspoken social or societal conventions and magnify them to such an absurd degree with foolish characters that you can’t take them seriously. However, unlike 30 Rock, Unbreakable examines more serious aspects of living as an unprivileged American, isn’t that silly, and has more direct continuity across episodes. This is not to say that the show isn’t funny or ridiculous, just that there are more moments of sincerity and pathos in one season of Unbreakable than throughout the entirety of 30 Rock.

In fact, the only time the show noticeably dips in quality is when it introduces its one cartoonishly stupid character (that isn’t meant to be a parody) – the kind of guy that would’ve fit right in on 30 Rock. He cheapens the emotional impact of whatever scene he’s in and the show probably would’ve been better off if they had made him a little less incompetent. Still, the bottom line is that Unbreakable is a comedic show that made me both laugh and care about what was going on. That it’s also short, uplifiting, and one of the few unabashedly feminist shows on television Netflix is all the more reason to give this quirky little gem a peek.

9 Plastic Bags Blowing in the Wind/10

The Spoils of Babylon

I have no idea how to crystallize this bizarre piece of…art? A fictional director created a fictional film about the tumultuous lives of a brother & sister who fall in love. The fictional film was (rightfully) deemed too long for commercial audiences, so we get to watch it over the course of a 6-part mini-series with a preamble before each part from the director. The show is an absurdist parody of epic drama series of 70s and 80s, and once again, since this is a comedy, talking about it without just spoiling the jokes is pretty much impossible. If you like silly humor (why is Carey Mulligan playing a manikin???), then you’ll love this. If you don’t, then maybe you won’t. Simple as that. Being someone who is firmly in the latter camp, I was shocked that I laughed as much as I did, though maybe the abundance of jokes lurking around in each frame was enough to keep me laughing for its entire run-length. It’s only 6-episodes long, so it’s not exactly a huge investment to check if you’ll walk away with the same positive opinion.

7.5 Bewilderingly Over-Sized Wine Glasses/10

The Spoils Before Dying

A jazz pianist is convicted of a murder he did not commit and has 72 hours to prove his innocence. It’s not a sequel to The Spoils of Babylon, but it has the same absurdist sensibility and general presentation. This time however, the show parodies film noir and jazz culture, so the jokes are markedly different and rely on the viewer possessing a more specific knowledge base. Unfortunately, film noir is still mostly foreign to me and, as I said before, I don’t care much for silly humor, so I wasn’t as amused by this show as its predecessor. But, once again, it’s comedy. Maybe you’ll find it funnier than me…or maybe Who Framed Roger Rabbit has forever poisoned the well on Noir comedies.

6 Men With Gravel Caught In Their Throats/10

Archer: Vice (AKA Season 5)

Archer is one of the few shows I will put on at any time of the day. It’s a comedy about short tempered international spies who regularly mess up their missions due to petty squabbling and occasional stupidity. This show has been on the air since I was in high school, so if you still haven’t heard of it, I don’t know what to say – watch it, there’s sex, drugs, violence, pop culture references and general insanity. It’s magical.

For this season, the writers break one of the ground rules of television writing and change the show’s premise: the gang finds out that their spy organization isn’t government recognized and now have to eke out a living selling 2 tons of cocaine. Also unlike the past seasons, this one actually has a completely linear narrative, giving the characters space to actually grow a bit (albeit marginally).

It’s a smart show masquerading as a dumb one, giving it appeal to people who enjoy both low and high humor. As such, I don’t have any reservations wholly recommending it to everyone reading this, provided that those unfamiliar with this show see at least one other episode from a previous season (to make the shift in premise more discernable). It is clever. It is smart. And, above all, it is funny.

10 Krieger Clone Bowties/10

The Venture Bros. (Seasons 4 & 5)

Currently, this show is an ascended parody of Johnny Quest chronicling the insane lives of a washed-up scientist, his 2 sons, kill-happy bodyguard, and arch nemesis – a man in a butterfly costume. Yes, this is a comedy, but it also has some comedic action, strong characters, and surprisingly well-constructed drama. Also, unlike…well, most shows actually, the comedy spans the entire color spectrum instead of resting only on the light or black end. And, it’s what allows the series to do this that makes it my favorite show still on the air.

I’ve been watching The Venture Brothers since the 6th grade of elementary school, and with the coincidental way the seasons have progressed, I feel like I’ve grown up alongside it. Every episode in seasons 1 & 2 oscillates between two lenses of the same events: the Venture Kids’ point of view which maintains that the world is a fair and happy place, and the adults’ point of view which shows how cold, uncaring, and bureaucratic it actually is. As the show progresses however, increasing pertinence is given to the adults’ perspective while the boys move further and further to the periphery for comedy. Eventually, season 3’s explosive (pun intended) finale kills off all but two of the Venture boys (no, I’m not explaining that), forcing the survivors as well as the adults to live very different lives. In a sense, the show’s increasingly disproportionate juxtaposition mirrors that odd cocktail of cynicism and naïveté that defines adolescence gradually giving way to a pessimistic adulthood.

If season 3 is the climax of the show thus far, then season 4 is the falling action and resolution. The boys begin to assert their own identities in very different ways, Dr. Venture and The Monarch have to accept or deny their own failures, Brock finds a new organization to fight with, and 21 finally comes to terms with his inner butterfly demon. The show never stops being funny, but it’s with this season that they finally discuss the characters’ personal issues frankly which, as an excessively sincere person, made this my favorite season of the show. In an interview, Jackson Publick (one of the creators and half of the characters) called Venture Bros., “a show celebrating failure and how it makes us who we are.” This season is the epitome of that ethos.

Season 5, on the other hand, feels more like a new beginning. It introduces a cavalcade of new insanity for everyone, but ends with a cliffhanger that leaves a lot of plot threads dangling in the air. I definitely still enjoyed it, however without proper closure it’s difficult to evaluate the strength of the story it builds up. Anyway, since this review is running a little too long, here’s your verdict: if you want a show with humor similar to Archer (realistic reactions to absurd situations), but with a little bit more pathos and classic cartoon references, team Venture has got your back.

Season 4: 10 Spanish Fly Prostitutes/10

Season 5: 8 Lost Spanakopita! Games/10

*A Quick Note About A Trend I Noticed In Television:

Nearly all of the Live-Action Western television I’ve ever seen focuses on social aspects of life instead of ideological, psychological, or philosophical ones. Even the grandest of shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones rarely ever explore an idea - they only present a character or cast in a dramatic situation. This isn’t really a problem since entertainment’s goal is to entertain first (it’s right there in the name, even!), but I do wonder why that’s often the case. It’s especially curious since animation in general, however, doesn’t seem to have a problem examining these pricklier aspects of being a human while still being engaging. I don’t have an answer or even any speculation as to why this is the case, but it does make me wonder why animated shows aren’t as respected, commonly watched, or discussed in the West in comparison to Live-action television.

Anime:

Space Pirate: Captain Harlock (Movie - Subbed)

Due to overpopulation and fuel shortages humanity was forced to leave Earth and colonize the stars. Over several hundred years, people somehow depleted nearly all of the other planets across multiple galaxies and now longed to return to their mother Earth, idealizing it as a second Eden. However, the space government has denied all but the wealthiest and most elite citizens access to Earth and has setup a complex series of static and mobile defenses to guard it. An immortal space pirate, Harlock, then takes it upon himself to smash the government’s defense and return to Earth for reasons unknown...or something like that. I shouldn’t be reviewing this since it’s a movie, but because it’s what inadvertently compelled me to watch the anime on this list I feel obliged to at least pay its some tribute and mention it. This is a terrible movie. Not, “BURN YOUR BODY PILLOWS, ANIME IS OVER!!!” terrible, but bad enough that a quarter of the way through the film, I stopped trying to rationalize anything and just started audibly saying “sou desuka…” every time something indefensibly stupid happened (my throat was sore by the end of it).

It’s a pretty textbook example of a movie whose ambitions are too large. It wants to comment on organized religion, classism, ecology, fealty, governmental control, and the censorship of information all within two explosion packed hours. It does not manage to make a sophisticated or even salient point about any of these things, and the only one it would have made (something about conservationism) is contradicted by events earlier in the movie. The characters are woefully underdeveloped. The CG animation is underwhelming for a 2013 (post-Appleseed: Ex Machina & FFVII: Advent Children) film. The music is okay, but not noteworthy. And, the action is surprisingly tepid for an action movie. It has a few cool moments (specifically, the opening and the prison break near the end), but the entire package is so middling that I could not even recommend this movie to a pre-teen, let alone a full-bodied adult.

3 Hastily Sewn Plot Threads/10

K-On! (39 episodes + the movie Dubbed)

K-On! is a slice of life anime about five high school girls in a light music club. This is one of those “cute girls doing cute things” anime, so if that’s not your bag, you can just move on to the ne- actually, no you still might enjoy it. I honestly have no idea what foul demon of rainbows and unicorns possessed me to watch this; I fucking hate moe crap. It’s deliberately manipulative, devoid of any emotional or intellectual depth, and almost never has anything resembling a plot. BUT, this show is not like other moe – well, mostly.

It’s still undeniably adorable and makes Teletubbies look like The Wire, but it avoids all of the “excessiveness” that characterizes the genre. The girls are drawn with the absurdly cute puni-plush art style, but they have realistic (by anime standards) proportions, wear realistic clothing, interact with a realistic environment and behave like realistic human beings. The show is humorous, without sinking into either raunchiness or childishness (which is to say, there’s no fanservice). There’s no overtly discernable plot, but there is a chronologically cohesive narrative that builds to a logical conclusion. And, the show maintains a very positive tone throughout its entire run without simplifying it into willful oblivion.

In fact, the only (exceptionally petty) hang ups I had with this show were the bizzare absence of men (you can count them all on one hand) and the opening songs. Despite being music-based, the opening music is awful and gets progressively worse with each season. The in-show songs & ending themes are good – great even. But, for some reason the four openings are all dime-a-dozen j-pop crap that seem at odds with the show’s otherwise realistically happy tone.

Much, much more could be (and already has been) said about this show, but all you need to know is that its differences make it feel like you are watching five genuinely happy friends during an important time in their lives, as opposed to the product of a soulless corporate machine deliberately trying to wring emotional investment/all of your life savings out of you – a difference which allows even the most cynical of bastards (read: me) to enjoy it for what it is: a soft, heartwarming relaxant.

9 Delicious Afterschool Pastries/10

*If you’d like to hear more about this show from someone who loves it more than me. DigiBro has an excellent two-part video on it available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZUCvi7H968

Psycho-Pass (33 episodes – Dubbed, 1 movie - Subbed)

100 years into the future, western society collapses and Japan cedes its governmental control to the Sibyl System – a mysterious computer system that can determine a person’s likeliness to commit a future crime based on their thought patterns, and quantify this “crime coefficient” as a Psycho-Pass.  Police officers are consequently given a futuristic gun called the Dominator that displays people’s Psycho-Passes and authorizes the officers to either stun or obliterate those whose crime coefficients exceed “safe” levels. The first season explores the ethical and pragmatic viability of a totalitarian state that actually exists in service to its people (given the ability to measure crime coefficients). Season 2 examines some specific limitations of such a system. And the movie presents the outside world to assist in juxtaposing the Sibyl System with alternate forms of government. It’s Minority Report meets Judge Dredd with more sophisticated societal and philosophical critiques than both.

Again, I was genuinely shocked by how much I enjoyed this show, since law enforcement is once again, not all that interesting to me and the art style put me off, but the hard sci-fi and challenging discussions of society won me over after literally the first episode. That said, if you are expecting anything other than philosophy, suspense, and dark, gritty sci-fi, then you’re SOL. This show is not funny, there’s no romance, and most of the fighting isn’t particularly glorious. It won’t bore you with a 20-minute lecture or anything, but it’s appeal might be a touch narrow. If you like this sort of thing (like me), then Psycho-Pass is about on par with Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex – i.e. as good as it gets. If not, well, there’s always the next show on this list.

Also, Kate Oxley (Akane Tsunemori)’s voice is pretty monotone in the dub, which might grate on you. I thought it fit her character who is very even-tempered, but I know that it took some growing back when I first heard it on Darker Than Black. Everyone else is fine though, so choose whichever version you prefer.

Season 1: 10 Criminally Asymptomatic Brains/10

Season 2: 8 Faceless Terrorists/10

The Movie: 9 Instances of “DAT ENGRISH THO”/10

Space Dandy (26 Episodes - Dubbed, baby)

“Space Dandy: he’s a dandy guy…in space. He combs the galaxy like his pompadour on the hunt for aliens. Planet after planet he searches, discovering bizarre new creatures both friendly and not. These are the spectacular adventures of Space Dandy and his brave space crew…in space.”

– The intro narration

Space Dandy is completely…fucking…bonkers. In simplest terms, it’s a zany disco-themed Cowboy Bebop with some of the best animation in the industry. It gives zero fucks about trying to have a “message” or respecting the 4th wall, and proudly acknowledges its fan service whenever it’s on screen. And speaking of, the comedy on this show isn’t edgy, raunchy, or even purely referential. Instead, it draws on this odd combination of audacity and slapstick, with some occasional leaning on the 4th wall. If you’ve ever played a Disgaea game before, think that but with less "characters being insane" and more "crazy things happening because of spaaaace" shenanigans. As the intro narration suggests, there’s no overarching plot, but there is an event of universe-shattering significance that’s always occurring in the background (which the narrator rarely acknowledges).

Due to the episodic nature of this show, the comedic highs of the first season are a bit inconsistent. However, this isn’t so much a result of comedy being subjective, but rather the writers frequently trying to stretch a 5 or 10-minute joke out into a 22-minute episode. Occasionally, this results in some of the best episodes of the entire show (typically when the writers say “fuck it,” and write something crazy for the last 3rd of an episode – it happens more than once), but more often than not it just leaves you bored. A lot of these features are standard fare for comedies in general, and would normally result in a perfectly acceptable, yet average comedy. But, Space Dandy is not average – Space Dandy is so far from average it makes means look nice! And, what makes this show so damn special is its second season.

The writers took a good hard look at the joke stretching issue of the first season, and very noticeably went out of their way to ensure that they did NOT make that mistake again. To do this, they wrote episodes that generally fall into three main categories which all avoid the issue: those that focus on a single pre-existing character’s life, episodes where characters work in a very different occupation, and themed episodes that either spoof a movie, show, or cultural touchstone (typically ending in a musical number). The first two types are a little less silly, typically employing genres other than comedy, and flesh out the handful of side characters, while the latter type is pure comedy backed by solid, albeit insane, plots. It’s through this season that the show cements its own individual identity as a pseudo space opera. But wait – there’s more!

The animation quality and visual diversity are stellar, with each episode featuring guest art by a different artist. The music is brilliant, perfectly matching the poppy 70s aesthetic. It has one of the best dubs out there standing tall amongst earlier Shinchiro Watanabe works (which is definitely saying something considering the show’s pedigree). I could realistically sit here and gush about this masterwork all freaking day. While its quirkiness may keep it from appealing to non-anime viewers, it will almost certainly go down in history as a cult classic of the medium among its fans. If you haven’t seen this anime yet, stop reading these reviews go on crunchyroll and bring a bucket of popcorn. You’re in for a show, baby.

Season 1: 8 Trips to Boobies/10

Season 2: 10 Perfectly Combed Pompadours/10

Welcome to the NHK (24 episodes - Dubbed)

Tatsuhiro Satou is a 22-year old anxiety-stricken hikikomori – someone who never leaves the home and deliberately avoids social contact with other human beings – who through highly improbable circumstances meets a girl dedicated to curing his social anxiety. This is the story of his life as a hikikomori and attempts to overcome it. It’s a little tough to classify this show, since it employs elements from a handful of genres – it’s definitely a slice of life, but it’s very sad…and humorous, and has some romance, and drama, and psychological horror, an- you get the idea. In a way it’s somewhat similar to The Venture Bros. in that it focuses on a failure’s life and is rife with black comedy. But, while The Venture Bros. features adults who have lived crappy lives and struggle to realize their dreams, this show’s characters don’t even have dreams in the first place – they’re either trying to carve out an existence or looking for a reason to live in the first place. It’s all very existential and appropriately depressing, however the show (usually) obfuscates its crushing sadness with silly humor so that you don’t slit your wrists. Some of these jokes drag on for a ten seconds too long, but their timing is usually perfect.

And…that’s the closest thing to a complaint I have for this show. The embodiment of Satou’s delusions are a kinda weird, but they aren’t off-putting. The world is firmly grounded and the characters are extremely relatable (which makes sense given that a lot of this show is autobiographical). The voice acting and music are both excellent. The romantic subplot never gets in the way of anything. And, it discusses a lot of aspects of life and anime without being pretentious or meta, respectively. It can make you laugh hysterically one moment, and have you bawling the next which is something I cannot say for any other show on this list. Every anime fan – no, every person between ages 17-25 who has not yet figured out what they want to do with their life, should watch this show.

9.5 Glorious Gal Games/10

Terror in Resonance (Zankyou no Terror) (11 Episodes – Subbed)

Two teenage boys and their “accomplice” expertly commit terrorist bombings throughout Tokyo, while the police desperately scramble to determine their motives and, ultimately, stop them. As interesting as that premise sounds, this is the second most disappointing thing on this list (the next show takes the crown). It’s definitely not bad – the protagonists are serviceable (albeit mostly shallow), the mystery is extremely intriguing, the music is fantastic (though it is by Yoko Kanno after all), and the ending is very emotionally impactful. However, there’s this profound feeling that the show missed out on the opportunity to be something incredible instead of just okay.

In non-spoiler terms, the first four episodes suggest that the show is going to be a somewhat objective examination of terrorism with morally dark-grey characters, but from episode five onwards it instead opts to simply exemplify the definition of terrorism with black and white characters – it squanders its potential in order to make the protagonists more likeable and villain more hateable. And speaking of, this show’s villain is awful. She has zero depth, is shockingly boring to watch, and embodies a handful of sexist clichés for no reason whatsoever. She didn’t bring anything to the story and could have been absent without harming the show’s plot or themes. Fortunately, the show still manages to make its point and have a powerful ending, so if you’d like to see a simplistic presentation of terrorism with astonishing(ly beautiful and depressing) music, look no further.

*Seriously, the music is THAT good. You may want to take a listen even if you don’t watch the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxnqSTzq6-w

7.5 Zero-Casualty Bombings/10

Steins;Gate (25 episodes – dubbed)

A self-proclaimed “mad scientist” comes to possess a microwave that can send text messages into the past. Anything more I say about this show’s plot would be a spoiler so, let’s just cut to the chase: I really wanted to like this show, but could not. The first half of the show grew incredibly painful to watch as the main character repeatedly makes blatantly stupid, out of character decisions in order to set-up the more emotionally charged second half of the show. Then in the second half, he still doesn’t learn his lesson from earlier, and continues to make bone-headed decisions due to a clear lack of comprehension of something he supposedly understands. This causes needless suffering for the characters he (and the audience) care for, and feels like a cheap means of pulling on the audience’s heart strings. The ending is problematic in that Okabe comes up with one of the most needlessly risky plans to make everything right when several obvious safer alternatives were readily available. And, last but most certainly not least, numerous plot threads in general do not hang together due to Okabe (or more likely, the writers) forgetting things that would preclude him from pursuing them – this anime could have been made in 15 episodes without losing an ounce of drama, maybe even with more if they had added music (there’s basically just ambient noise).

Its roots as a “gal game” are also more than a little noticeable, and distracting if you’re familiar with them – every female character is physically attractive and psychologically attractive in different ways so as to ensure that every player (in this case, Okabe) has a girl to pursue. Of course, the OTP is blindingly obvious before the characters even know each other – the show lampshades this early on (though goes through with it anyway) – but numerous heartfelt moments between Okabe and the girls felt a little out of place for being romantic, regardless.

Anyway, despite how much I’m harping on about the problems with this show, I don’t hate it. – the premise is interesting, explanations are well done, character dynamics feel fluid, the voice acting and localization are top-shelf, and the emotional story beats would’ve been very strong if they had made any damn sense. This should be one of the greatest anime of all time, and it is a goddamn travesty that they could not bring the story together to draw out its potential.

6 bad decisions/10

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (11 Episodes – Dubbed)

An angsty thirteen-year old girl named Mirai takes her seven-year old brother, Yuuki, to a robotics exhibit on Odaiba. At the exhibit, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake hits Tokyo crushing the city’s infrastructure and stranding Mirai and Yuuki miles away from home. Fortunately, they manage to meet a single mother named Mari who offers to help the kids find their way back home. This is the kind of show that I recommend to people who don’t watch anime. The premise is contemporary, the characters and conflicts are immediately understandable and relatable, there are no outrageous elements to it, the plot is fairly simple, and the drama is compelling. The art and music are both excellent, the latter of which is composed by Kou Otani of Shadow of the Colossus (one of my favorite games) fame, and the characters develop realistically over the course of this brisk show. I have nothing negative to say about this show, and any specific discussions of the plot will only spoil your enjoyment of it. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is impeccable from start to finish and has earned a spot among my favorite shows of all time. As a friendly warning though, you might want to bring a box of tissues for this one. It’s a real tearjerker.

10 Moments of Heart-Wrenching/10

School-Live! (Gakkou Gurashi!) (6 episodes - Subbed)

Gakkou Gurashi! is a cute slice of life show like K-On!…set in a zombie apocalypse: a handful of high school girls are trapped in their school due to the massive zombie horde outside. The show’s shtick is that it switches between being an ultra-cutesy (occasionally chibi) slice of life, and an ultra-grim survival-horror. I couldn’t even finish the whole thing due to boredom and general frustration, but I did see enough (half of it) to understand its core issues. The show is…interesting, I guess, but it doesn’t work at all, for a handful of reasons.

First, the two genres are in direct opposition to each other in that, they can never occupy the same scene at once without clashing. This forces the show to divide each episode into scenes of one genre followed by the other. In theory, the emotional lows would effectively magnify the emotional highs by contrast and vice-versa. But, because the tone during the slice of life portions is akin to that of the (fucking garbage) saccharine moe anime I outlined earlier, while the survival-horror segments barely scratch Resident Evil 1 levels of terror and desperation, the magnification effect never actually occurs. Instead, the cutesy school stuff just feels like it’s not supposed to be there, as there are far more important things for the protagonists to concern themselves with.

In a sense, the show actually acknowledges this by [EPISODE 1: SPOILERS] revealing that the cutesy aesthetic is just one psychologically broken characters’ point of view, while the dilapidated world is what everyone else sees. But, after they reveal this to us at the end of episode 1, they continue to use the cute aesthetic even when the audience isn’t seeing through the innocent girl’s eyes (e.g. when two other characters are talking and she’s off-screen). So, the framing device, while very interesting in the first episode (since you can see a few errors in it) is basically dropped from then onwards, for no reason other than that the artists didn’t want to draw a shitty looking high school. It could have made for some very interesting scenes later down the role, but d’oh well, I guess consistency just wasn’t important.

And since I’m (loosely) on the subject, let’s talk about the other glaring problem with this show: the pacing. Dear god, what were they thinking? The first episode is pretty solid – assuming that you can stand the excessively cutesy stuff – but they didn’t take any time to really introduce the characters and (apparently) have no intention of developing them through the narrative, like any show with a chronological flow. So, they randomly devote some episodes to flashbacks without any sort of warning or setup, which makes it difficult to figure out exactly what the present is. This was particularly jarring in episodes 5 and 6 which are both dedicated to flashbacks, but the scenes in the later episode occur before the ones in the previous episode. I assume this was to raise questions in the audience that would be answered by the next flashback, but it’s a stupid way to tell almost any story since it precludes the possibility of suspense. The narrative and characterization would’ve made a lot more since and been more impactful had they just rearranged the shows episodes like this: 1,6,5,2,3,4, instead of the batshit insane way they settled on.

Anyway, I didn’t finish this show, so I can’t give it a numerical rating. According to tvtropes, the later episodes are very sad, but considering that I made it half way-through the show without caring even slightly about any of the characters, and actually got bored watching a few of them die horribly, I do not believe that the ending could rectify this.

Poor Pacing/10

Seirei no Moribito (26 Episodes – Dubbed)

And last, but most certainly not least we have this diamond in the rough. Moribito is an epic tale of a spear-wielding female body guard named Balsa who, through extreme circumstances, is asked forced to protect the prince of a nation from being assassinated by his father, the king, for being possessed by a water demon. The show takes place in a slightly fantastic version of Heian-era Japan – there are spirit creatures and magic, but both have a very small effect on people’s daily lives – however, the world of Moribito is refreshingly detailed without beating you over the head with stilted exposition.

The show is fairly slow burning in that there isn’t much minute-to-minute action, but there is no dead time either – something is always happening whether its setting up a major plot movement or developing the show’s fairly large cast of characters. The art is absurdly beautiful rivaling and even surpassing many contemporary shows, despite the show releasing eight-years ago, and the music is deeply moving. On the off-chance that there is a fight scene, they are always plot-critical, exceedingly well-choreographed, and fascinating to watch (similar to Hero or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

The show also does exactly what I wish Terror in Resonance would have and lacks an antagonist. There are two very clear sides locked in a life and death conflict, but everyone is in the right and more or less trying to protect those they care about. This ties into several of the shows themes, which collectively make up a more progressive and optimistic amalgamation of the values of the period. Really, I’m just shocked that this show hasn’t received more critical or social acclaim as it is easily one of the best anime I have ever seen.  If you are a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender or anything by Hayao Miyazaki, I strongly implore you to give this under-appreciated gem a look.

Oh, and once again the dub is pretty good. It didn’t fellate my ears or anything, but it was good.

10 Delicious Bits of Scenery Porn/10

The Shortlists:

Only Like Live-Action:

1. Justified

2. Unbreakable with Kimmy Schmidt

3. Orphan Black

Okay With Live-Action And Animation:

1. Justified

2. Archer: Vice

3. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

Anime All-Day:

1. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

2. Space Dandy

3. Welcome to the NHK

My Personal Top 5:

1. Welcome to the NHK

2. Justified

3. The Venture Bros. Season 4

4. Space Dandy Season 2

5. Psycho-Pass Season 1

If there’s anything else you’d like to recommend or if you have any thoughts about the...stuff I broached in this giant...thing, let’s talk about it in the comments!