Animisery – A Blog About Living Miserably with Anime (Among Other Things)

I swear I’m going to be consistent this year. Probably.

Going to try and bring back my monthly anime recaps if nothing more than to help give me some relief from the thoughts in my head since I might not have a podcast platform to do so for a while unfortunately. R.I.P. Anime Brothers, we hardly knew ye. I’m going to essentially recap all the anime I’ve watched this month and I might even be a tiny bit verbose with some of these entries. Hope you’ll enjoy!

GACHIAKUTA
⭐ ( 7.5 / 10 ) ⭐

First of all, big thanks to WordPress for relocating or removing the “pull quote” feature. That’s neat. Now my titles don’t look as great. Anyways…

I had limited expectations for Gachiakuta on my initial viewing of the first three episodes. I could obviously feel the vibe that the show had borrowed some of the same energy from Soul Eater (and that makes sense as the mangaka of Gachiakuta worked under Soul Eater’s mangaka) but Gachiakuta is absolutely way more cynical and leaning into the darker elements of shonen storytelling. The main character Rudo is way more embittered about his situation and dead set obtaining his revenge and the cast that encompass his obligatory seem way more jaded and focused on survival comparatively to other casts. Gachiakuta also really borrows a lot of elements from graffiti and tagging culture as well as utilizing a more metalcore sounding soundtrack that really aids in sharpening all the edges around Gachiakuta’s story of a vengeful kid in a world surrounded by trash.

Gachiakuta, as well as having unique atmosphere and story telling elements, also has one of the most novel power systems that I’ve seen used as a part of a shonen battle story in a while. Gachiakuta essentially gives all the cast personal items which hold extreme reverence to them that also translate to their powers. For example, Rudo’s gloves are given to him by his adopted father and as such they fuel his fighting fury and give way to many intense combat sequences that really exceed the expectations that I had going in. They do employ shonen tropes that I loathe like the protagonist/his combatant of the week being on the ropes only to reveal an unspoken power that was never hinted at and pummeling their foe into submission. Even with all the added and quite welcome edge, Gachiakuta is still a shonen story at the core and is plagued with some of the very damning tropes of the genre. It did, however, manage to subvert my expectations in meaningful ways such as Rudo succumbing to his rage at one point and characters having some strange nuance to their personalities. Gachiakuta, even if it wasn’t always my cup of tea, is a welcome new flavor to a sometimes tiring genre and I cannot wait for season two if only to see more of what new directions it will take.

KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR – STAIRWAY TO ADULTHOOD
⭐ ( 8.5 / 10 ) ⭐

It’s more of the Kaguya-sama anime ergo it is more good anime. It’s just unfortunate that it is condensing the final chapters of Kaguya into a quick and brisk two episode show but it’s still critical entertainment regardless. So many plot points are just carelessly skimmed over in an almost hand waving “this isn’t that important anyways” way just to focus on Kaguya and Shirogane’s ending. I mean, it’s called Kaguya-sama and not Kaguya-sama and Her Amazing Friends Who Are All Essential to the Plot but it’s disappointing none the less especially given how little time they were given in the original. In the end, this finale (until the new anime original movie) is serviceable with outstanding humor like Shirogane’s dad becoming a streamer and the ending really did touch a somewhat lovely and melancholic note even if Kaguya’s humor quickly dashed what emotions that lingered. Hopefully the upcoming movie will remedy some of the issues with this anime’s ending.

FATE/STAY NIGHT: UNLIMITED
BLADE WORKS
⭐ ( 8.5 / 10 ) ⭐

Fun fact! I actually read the entire Fate/Stay Night visual novel way back when I was a young weeb after becoming obsessed with Saber after seeing a cosplayer of her at my local con. Take that with a grain of salt.

Before Ufotable became the Demon Slayer machine we know today, they were the Fate/Stay Night machine in a way. They dropped this Unlimited Blade Works and the Heaven’s Feel film series on our laps and spread our brains across the wall with some absolutely bombastic animation that still dominates the industry. Fate, the series, is all about Masters and Servants having covert battles between each other but UBW has Servants that utilize miniature nukes that are as subtle as they sound. There’s also a small bit of somewhat convoluted story, as is the Fate tradition, involved as well and it’s all a pretty satisfactory package. Emiya is an unfortunately boring protagonist who has to rely on his cast to rescue him from the dregs of unrepentant boredom and they do a solid job. Archer is the highlight of this series (which is SO funny in ways that you’ll have to watch the show to ascertain for yourself) with his unique skill set and blatant apathy to the world around him. Tohsaka Rin always steals every other scene she is in with her classic tsundere stylings and we’ll never refuse a plate of our beloved Saber in this household. The villains are no slouch to robbing the spotlight from our cast with the likes of Caster and Illya really instilling an air of utter helplessness as our cast has to face off against them.

The story of UBW is relatively simple but burying yourself into the lore might exhaust you especially if you go to the Type Moon wiki and find fifty different entries just for the Archer included in UBW alone. Taking UBW as a solo piece is easy enough and you don’t have to engage too much with the lore unless you find it personally intriguing. UBW was an absolute winning watch for me as I failed to put it down when I had it on as every action set piece truly pushed the envelope for me as an action connoisseur. Ufotable almost has a seeming fetish for energy beams that fire en masse and I’m absolutely here for it with bells on. UBW was a fun filled watch that never failed to entertain.

FATE/STAY NIGHT: HEAVEN’S FEEL
⭐ ( 9 / 10 ) ⭐

I’m going to just condense the entirety of my feelings on the Heaven’s Feel movies as they pretty much tell one continuous story and I’m also not feeling the notion of writing about each movie as a standalone.

Heaven’s Feel was always the most dour of the original Fate/Stay Night visual novel routes and the anime is clearly no exception. The colors are all darker and our time with the characters in the daylight is limited. Our major villain is an entity who resides in the shadows with a cohort who does much of the same. In the first half hour of Heaven’s Feel, Ufotable goes out of their way to almost dress the film series in a melancholic veil as we see the slowly kindling relationship between Emiya (who is still kind of a bore) and Sakura, a character who received minimal screen time before this movie trilogy. I’m obviously not going to spoil the major plot points of Heaven’s Feel for those of you who might care but it turns out that Sakura was essentially living in absolute misery while we weren’t watching her and she may or may not be making it everyone’s problem if left to her own devices. She’s still a very sympathetic character but that charm may or may not wear off by the finale for some. I’ve read others lambaste Sakura as a character for these films but I still found her endearing by the end.

Obvioiusly we get more of the very classic Ufotable fights but now they’ve been pushed to an almost breaking point as we get extreme and intense action that wouldn’t be out of place in a bombastic shonen series where planets might get destroyed. By the end of this film, the Mage’s Association in Fate are going to be doing the kind of damage control that a politician’s aide has to deal with after said politician was found stealing crack cocaine from an orphanage. That is to say, it’s going to be terrible and probably ineffective. A particular standout for me in all of the momentous set pieces is the one involving Heracles at the von Einzbern castle. It’s absolutely absurd how much collateral damage is inflicted on the castle and the story arc of Heracles fighting on behalf of Illya hearkens back to a more dour plot point in Unlimited Blade Works. If you’re just fixated on sublime action in anime then Heaven’s Feel is worth the price of admission for that alone and nothing else. The story of the films does leave a few head scratching questions especially concerning Zouken and how certain characters stay around after the finale but I get that it’s not meant to be prodded to that much of a degree. It’s a heartwarming finale for the entirety of the core Fate/Stay Night saga and I was content to walk away with a small tear in my eye afterwards. The first film is arguably the weakest but it’s still a fantastic start to a rewarding film series. You should definitely watch it last but do whatever you want. Color outside of the lines. Skip to the end.

It’s another month down and I sure was Fate focused. If this wasn’t enough, I’m already in the middle of watching all of the Fate/Grand Order anime like Demonic Front Babylonia and enjoying it all the while. For all the whining I do about Anime Brothers ending, it sure has given me the freedom to watch the shows that make me happy and I’m thrilled about that. I’m going to try to update my blog more so I can get my thoughts about anime out there but I’m so easily distracted. Tell me how your January was for anime! What seasonals are you watching? What anime are you re-watching? I would absolutely love to hear from you so feel free to comment below because I’ll be reading!

If you want more of me then feel free to follow me on my Twitch and keep up with me on my socials for the next anime podcast that is inevitably on the way. Until then, I’ll see you next time!