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jennariaSHINGU: SECRET OF THE STELLAR WARS - 2001 (Japan)/2005 (US), available on Crunchyroll
Amount watched: Entire series (26 episodes)
Official description: The world is about to be turned upside down for Hajime Murata. First, an alien ship appears over Tokyo, and then a mysterious new student shows up at his school. Suddenly, students are displaying psychic powers, a giant defends the city from aliens, and men armed with weapons are lurking around the school. Now Hajime is determined to discover the truth behind a world he thought he knew!
Weeb rating: Oh, lord, at least a 7/10, possibly higher. Hajime's 'world he thought he knew' is very Japanese, and not just in a 'my comfort food is ramen' sort of way. At least one presumed enemy is suborned by watching old samurai films. And of course the entire series is riffing on as many anime cliches and tropes as they can fit in to 26 episodes.
Ass rating: 1 or 2/10 - I think there might be a couple scenes with characters in the bath, and the transfer student's older sister occasionally flirts with people.
Shit rating: 1/10. Yes, the series is riffing off anime tropes and cliches, but part of the riff is that the writer has thought about the human beings behind those tropes and cliches, so nobody gets reduced to a flat stereotype. Nobody has to be hit with the Idiot Stick in order to advance the plot. Everybody gets to feel real. Even Hajime's existing friends group - which would 'normally' get swept aside so they're not in the way of the adventure - are still people, who have their own goals and their own desires, even if we don't see a lot of them.
Violence rating: Mmm, 3/10, and most of the violence is cartoonish, Giant Robots In Space sort.
Crack rating: I'm going to put this down at 3/10, because on the one hand, Giant Robots (Sorta) In Space, and Middle School Student Council With Inexplicable Powers Outside Of School, and Hajime breaks the 4th wall on the regular. On the other hand, everything coheres at the end, for reasons that aren't just What Was The Writer On, so I'm keeping it relatively low.
Actual opinion: No seriously, I've written fanfic for this. (In fact, I've written all the fanfic for this. Someone else had written a story or two featuring Transfer Student's Older Sister and Hajime, but it got deleted somewhere along the way.)
In any case! This is one of the series that pulled me into true anime fandom, which is arguably weird and topsy-turvy but there you are. I own it on DVD, and first watched it on DVD rather than streaming, so I cannot comment if Crunchyroll has done any kind of odd editing. I can testify that the dub-casting is solid enough that I once started an episode on English rather than Japanese by accident, and didn't realize until a few minutes in. (...in my defense, the only voice was Hajime's mother singing to herself as she cooked, so there wasn't any language to cue me.)
I mentioned earlier that the series mocks from love, and that's critical: for all Hajime's bemusement when he faces yet another anime trope, he doesn't object. If he's embarrassed or upset, it's by ordinary 14-year-old boy things ('oh no, my younger sister has a crush on my new friend and insists I have to bring him the lunch she made him!'), not by being swept up in a quest to save the world. Even better, the adults are not obstacles: the teenagers might be assigned to Save the World, but they're getting as much support and advice as they're willing to accept from their parents and their teachers. ...which, granted, is not everything, because teenagers, but still, in comparison to all too many anime, it's an absolute breath of fresh air.
Next week: a quick overview of what I'm currently watching!
Amount watched: Entire series (26 episodes)
Official description: The world is about to be turned upside down for Hajime Murata. First, an alien ship appears over Tokyo, and then a mysterious new student shows up at his school. Suddenly, students are displaying psychic powers, a giant defends the city from aliens, and men armed with weapons are lurking around the school. Now Hajime is determined to discover the truth behind a world he thought he knew!
Weeb rating: Oh, lord, at least a 7/10, possibly higher. Hajime's 'world he thought he knew' is very Japanese, and not just in a 'my comfort food is ramen' sort of way. At least one presumed enemy is suborned by watching old samurai films. And of course the entire series is riffing on as many anime cliches and tropes as they can fit in to 26 episodes.
Ass rating: 1 or 2/10 - I think there might be a couple scenes with characters in the bath, and the transfer student's older sister occasionally flirts with people.
Shit rating: 1/10. Yes, the series is riffing off anime tropes and cliches, but part of the riff is that the writer has thought about the human beings behind those tropes and cliches, so nobody gets reduced to a flat stereotype. Nobody has to be hit with the Idiot Stick in order to advance the plot. Everybody gets to feel real. Even Hajime's existing friends group - which would 'normally' get swept aside so they're not in the way of the adventure - are still people, who have their own goals and their own desires, even if we don't see a lot of them.
Violence rating: Mmm, 3/10, and most of the violence is cartoonish, Giant Robots In Space sort.
Crack rating: I'm going to put this down at 3/10, because on the one hand, Giant Robots (Sorta) In Space, and Middle School Student Council With Inexplicable Powers Outside Of School, and Hajime breaks the 4th wall on the regular. On the other hand, everything coheres at the end, for reasons that aren't just What Was The Writer On, so I'm keeping it relatively low.
Actual opinion: No seriously, I've written fanfic for this. (In fact, I've written all the fanfic for this. Someone else had written a story or two featuring Transfer Student's Older Sister and Hajime, but it got deleted somewhere along the way.)
In any case! This is one of the series that pulled me into true anime fandom, which is arguably weird and topsy-turvy but there you are. I own it on DVD, and first watched it on DVD rather than streaming, so I cannot comment if Crunchyroll has done any kind of odd editing. I can testify that the dub-casting is solid enough that I once started an episode on English rather than Japanese by accident, and didn't realize until a few minutes in. (...in my defense, the only voice was Hajime's mother singing to herself as she cooked, so there wasn't any language to cue me.)
I mentioned earlier that the series mocks from love, and that's critical: for all Hajime's bemusement when he faces yet another anime trope, he doesn't object. If he's embarrassed or upset, it's by ordinary 14-year-old boy things ('oh no, my younger sister has a crush on my new friend and insists I have to bring him the lunch she made him!'), not by being swept up in a quest to save the world. Even better, the adults are not obstacles: the teenagers might be assigned to Save the World, but they're getting as much support and advice as they're willing to accept from their parents and their teachers. ...which, granted, is not everything, because teenagers, but still, in comparison to all too many anime, it's an absolute breath of fresh air.
Next week: a quick overview of what I'm currently watching!