Re:CREATORS is a 22-episode original series that comes to us from the minds of Ei Aoki and Rei Hiroe of the animation studio, Troyca. It’s currently available on Amazon’s video streaming service and, in my mind, is one of those anime series that comes along rarely and changes the game in some way. Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gurren Lagann reinvented, then reinvented again, the mecha genre. Puella Magi Madoka Magica recontextualized what it means to be a ‘magic girl’ and this series is no different.

Re:CREATORS takes a more meta approach to it’s message and asks important questions I myself have wondered while writing: What if the characters you created could take you to task for the world you built around them? Would they hate you? Would they want to change it? How far would they go to achieve their happy ending? Even the show’s title is a double entendre; being read as both recreators and as regarding: creators.

The story from the outset is a bit of a mystery as a young woman tragically commits suicide before hardcutting to the show’s ‘protagonist’, Sota Mizushino. I say ‘protagonist’ because once the story kicks into gear, he’s not really part of the plot. He has moments here and there but, for the most part, the series is about the relationships between the Creations that have suddenly appeared in the real world and their Creators and the ongoing battle to stop the mysterious Altair from unravelling the very fabric of reality.

Consider this your SPOILER WARNING because I’ll be getting into story and plot details from here on out and while I’m not going to outright give away the ending, I will be talking about how I think the show cleverly uses the tropes of anime to subvert your expectations.

Like I said before, the key to the show’s engagement with me was the relationships between Creations and Creators and how it’s unique for each character. Selesia and Matsubara act like father and daughter, arguing constantly but with an underlying affection for one another, to the point where Matsubara will defend Selesia against anyone who considers her ‘unreal’.

Meteora’s creator sadly died shortly after finishing her game and struggles with that information before playing her own game and sees how much love and dedication was put into her world. Magane Chikujoin seemingly kills her creator because she’s both an agent of chaos and a delightful scamp. There’s a few others but those are couple highlights to give you an idea.

We see other characters struggle with how different their worlds are in comparison to the world of their Creators and wonder how one ‘god’ can create the magical girl Mamika, an avatar of sweetness and naivety and another can create Aliceteria, a battle-hardened warrior from an unforgiving world of carnage. Seeing these two interact and how their tragic stories unfold, especially given their contrasting personalities, is one of the most impactful relationships in the show.

And then we come to Altair; a Creation born of tragedy and revenge. Her Creator is/was Setsuna Shimazaki and was never given a backstory or an established power set but is somehow incredibly adept at reality manipulation, with a wide variety of abilities that no one can understand how she got them. Her plan is to bring more and more Creations into the world of the Creators/Gods and the resulting backlash of causality will destroy Earth and all of the story worlds created from it.

I focus on her because she’s an interesting cautionary tale for Mary Sue character types. An author insert character in any story can too easily become the epitome of cool badassery that everyone loves and this is especially true for Altair who was essentially given all her power by people on the internet creating various works for this abandoned character.

Audience engagement is how she grows more powerful and why the Creations we meet were chosen. They’re popular, beloved and because of that investment, it creates more reality backlash when they suddenly appear in the real world with their magic and giant robots intact.

Naturally, other concerns are explored like rewriting character descriptions with varying degrees of success, which ends up becoming a key part of the endgame with Altair as the Creations and Creators rally for a cross-media event on levels only the Japanese can pull off. It helps that the animation is absolutely stunning as well.

I said I won’t give away the ending but suffice to say that there’s action, heartbreak, emotional whiplash, and more than it’s fair share of hype moments that keep you as engaged in the outcome as the audience in the show.

Special shout-out to the series composer Hiroyuki Sawano for the excellent theme songs “gravityWall” and “sh0ut” and for the incidental tracks in the show itself. His work on Attack on Titan and Kill La Kill were fantastic and he brings an industrial electronica vibe to the tracks for this show.

I hope my gushing has piqued your interest in this show because I believe this is a show for writers and creators to enjoy, both for it’s meta-narrative but for it’s genuinely engaging and emotional story. You can find Re:CREATORS on Amazon.com’s video streaming section. If you’d like to see more anime reviews on DOOM, let me know in the comments and I’ll catch you guys next time!

Not Dragon Ball Z.

The first show.

Yeah the crap one.

We’re doing a live show! We’ll be at Anime Banzai in Layton Utah at the Davis Conference Center. Join us Friday October 21st at 4:30PM for an hour of anime discussions and our anime trivia contest. I know most of you live in the UK and plane tickets are expensive but I don’t want to hear excuses!

Hello, Heroes! Welcome to a review that was a long time coming. Way back in the halcyon days of February 2014, I was beginning what would eventually become known as my Anime Renaissance and the first step back into that deep, spiralling pit was a little show called Tiger & Bunny.

Set in a world where corporate sponsored superheroes compete in a heroic reality TV show. The series see a low-ranking veteran hero, Kotetsu T. Kaburagi aka Wild Tiger, teamed with the rookie Barnaby Brooks Jr. Together, they embark on a buddy-cop adventure of justice, revenge and what it truly means to be partners in crime-fighting.

It’s a fantastic show and I highly recommend it but one of the cool things about the show is the sponsors; most (if not all) are real brands and corporations. Naturally, Bandai produced figures of all the character in the show under their S.H. Figuarts line and we’ll be looking at the titular heroes today!

Barnaby Brooks Jr, or ‘Bunny’ as Kotetsu affectionately teases him, is the young upstart who doesn’t have a codename and has a Bruce Wayne complex like you wouldn’t believe! His toy offering is… Not good. It’s barely Marvel Legends tier and that’s a pretty low bar for a Figuarts to stoop to. The entire package includes Barnaby, a custom Tamashii stage (every T&B character gets one, which is neat) an extra forearm guard, his Good Luck Mode leg and a whopping TWO pairs of interchangeable hands.

Barnaby himself looks rather dashing in his armour, his reds, whites and translucent pink all pop vibrantly. He looks like he stepped right out of the anime on those heavy die-cast legs of his. Naturally, the extra weight has made his hips rather droopy which is a pain but this is one of the older style Figuarts so you take the rough with the smooth. If there’s one downside, it’s the collar of the armour severely restring the ball-jointed head’s movement.

Out of the box, Bunny is sporting two Crusade branded gauntlets but you can swap one of those out for an Amazon.co.jp branded one. Across his chest is a giant Bandai logo and there’s even a cute little Bunny logo that matches Tiger’s.

The Good Luck Mode special attack is one of the first times Kotetsu and Barnaby truly sync up as a duo and it’s amazing. Granted, the armour add-ons are purely cosmetic, they still look bad-ass. The plastic counterpart is a solid representation, swapping out the whole leg assembly in a rather frightening way, and even has a little bit of articulation.

Overall, Barnaby is a poor outing for the S.H. Figuarts line. That’s not to say there aren’t good points but really, he feels more like an accessory than a figure in his own right.

Kotetsu T. Kaburagi. Veteran hero. Widowed father. Goofball DILF (by Blue Rose’s reckoning) and one of my all-time favourite superheroes. Wild Tiger is a true believer and a trouble magnet, as well as a well-dressed underdog. This particular release (one of four for this particular mold) is for later in the show when Kotetsu’s powers begin to deplete to the point he can only activate them for one minute at a time. Despite the severe downgrade, he still fights one as Wild Tiger 1 Minute! His accessory count is what drew me to him, including a custome Tamashii stage, twin Wild Shoot grappling hooks and SEVEN pairs of hands, all of which are signature poses from the show and omitted from every other release.

I love the Wild Tiger armour, it couldn’t be cooler if the green parts were orange. As opposed to the lithe form of Bunny, Tiger looks like a brawler and is more built for strength than speed. His logos are for S.H. Figuarts and SoftBank and the nape of his neck boasts the exclusive title he sports toward the end of the story. Much like Bunny, Tiger is super heavy thanks to the die-cast legs.

Kotetsu’s Wild Shoot allow him to swing around Sternbild City like Spidey and to grapple enemies, rendered here in clear orange wire which refuse to straighten.

His hands are amazing and I love them all. They give the figure so much character and expressive ability, whether giving people a cheeky double thumbs-up or a Wild Roar or making fun of Barnaby and his ears.

Overall, Wild Tiger 1 Minute is a fantastic release and I’m super thankful to Josh from CollectionDX for buying this me for Christmas and all but forcing me to buy Bunny to go along with him. More than any other dynamic duo, you need both Wild Tiger and Barnaby Brooks Jr together if you’re a fan of the show and I recommend getting them, even if one half is letting the team down.

You can catch up with everything Warky’s up to here. And if you ever get a chance to attend one of his convention concerts I highly recommend it. He plays some of your favorite video game tunes on piano and has a lot of fun while doing so. You should hear his techno remix of Castlevania.

Correct me if I’m wrong but it’s been a while since a Pokémon line has produced an articulated figure of a Trainer but Tomy seems to be remedying that with the introduction of a brand new subline. “Ash + Pikachu” equals a fairly cool little release. They’re packed in a similar window box to every other Pokémon figure pack in the XY line.

Ash Ketchum, primary protagonist of the Pokémon anime for going on… 18 YEARS (wow, I feel old now…) appears in his latest costume for the show which debuted with the XY anime. He’s been through a fair few looks over the… 18 years… but this looks pretty sharp! The figure conveys the clean lines and sharp colours of this outfit very nicely. Even the face printing is crisp!

The Ash figure has 13 points of articulation, which is a lot lower than I’m used to and even lower than Bandai’s Power Rangers figures but for some reason, I don’t hate it here. I LOVE to pose figures and take pictures so a lack of points means a lack of dynamic posing options but I think the reason I don’t mind it here is that you rarely see the Pokémon cast not standing up with both feet firmly on the floor. Would I like a waist swivel, ankle tilts and maybe some alternate hands? Sure, but for the constraints of the price point, I’m not unhappy with the articulation.

Pikachu, awesome yellow mascot that he is, accompanies his partner in this set and is slightly smaller than other versions meaning it is more in scale with Ash than other Pokémon figures which is a cause for concern really but the scale issues entirely depend on what scale of Pokémon figure you get so your mileage may vary.

Accessories-wise, all Ash is rocking is a backpack and nothing else and while I lament the lack of a Pokéball, the backpack is a nice addition. It’s made of a softer plastic and the straps can be unclipped to allow you to more easily add it to the figure too. There’s a hole near the shoulder strap to allow Pikachu to rest on Ash’s shoulder, with some careful balance.

One cool thing about the packaging that I didn’t notice until later was that the backing card is a diorama of Lumiose City, an iconic location for the XY games and show. It’s a nice little addition and adds a little more playability.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed with this figure. It’s not doing anything new or special but I’ve seen similar figures from a similar RRP of £9.99 be far more disappointing and I hope to see more Pokémon trainers get releases down the road!

Here’s some pictures Michael and I took at the convention.

Two handsome devils.

Sir Michael sneaked this picture of me learning the Paru Paru dance. He is now dead to me.

RELUCTANT ANIME REVIEWS: TENCHI MUYO

       Greetings friends, it’s been a while. I feel like I should apologize for my absence. Sorry.

When last I wrote, I teased about watching and reviewing Tenchi Muyo. I found that difficult to do. It wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t good. It just kind of… existed. Nothing made me angry, or left me so baffled I couldn’t speak. There would be nothing I could say in a review that would be funny or informative. I got about halfway through the original series, and dropped it. So, there’s that.

RELUCTANT ANIME REVIEWS: SWORD ART ONLINE

…In contrast, Sword Art Online DID make me feel things. In fact, it made me feel and think a whole lot of things. Bad things. Angry things. At first, I thought that Sword Art Online meant well, but was just incompetent. However, as the season progressed, I began to see the boils and sores of disgusting anime appear on its underbelly. What started as a dumb adventure turned into something truly terrifying: a dumb harem anime.

With some swordy-fighty stuff too.

Sword Art Online is the story of Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya: an avid online gamer who eagerly anticipates the release of the revolutionary Virtual Reality MMO: Sword Art Online. Ever since participating in the beta test, Kirito has looked forward to diving back into the game that enthralled him months ago. However, once he and 10,000 others have logged in, they find they can no longer log out. The creator of Sword Art Online, Akihiko Kayaba, informs the trapped players that they must beat the game in its entirety in order to escape. In addition to that, death in the game means you die in real life. Adventure begins now.

However, for the first seven or so episodes, you would think that isn’t the plot. After the second episode, Sword Art Online barely acknowledges the overall story or conflict. It adopts a “tell, not show” approach to informing the viewer on the progress made to clear the game. Instead, it focuses on several side stories where Kirito helps random strangers. While this gets characters and general mood of the universe established, it just comes across as weird and out of place. Kirito is described as being a fierce fighter on the front lines, but we hardly see him there.

Man, it would have been great to see more of this…

After the 7th episode, Sword Art Online finally gets back on track. Over the course of a few episodes, Kirito forms a friendship with another front line fighter, named Asuna. She is the second in command for one of the strongest guilds in the game, and sees every day spent in Sword Art Online as a day lost in the real world. Kirito slowly teaches her that even though they are in a game, as long as they take the time to enjoy and experience the things around them, the time cannot be lost. Soon, this friendship blossoms into a romance, and becomes the driving force behind the remainder of the plot.

LOOK AT AND APPRECIATE THE WUV. DO YOU FEEL IT?!?

Although, I was surprised with the turn Sword Art Online took around the 14th episode. Something happens to end the game, and Kirito is thrust back into the real world. To begin with, this intrigued me, as they were doing interesting things to illustrate Kirito’s reintegration to society. I was hoping to see a good drama about these characters meeting in real life, and almost having to relearn everything about living outside of fantasy.

But nah, they just go into another game. I won’t go into the reason why in the interest of spoilers, but while it does make some sort of sense in the story, it just comes across as a cheap excuse to add more swordfights. Kirito finds himself playing Alfheim Online, which is a reskinned version of Sword Art Online, but with flying, and no murder. Kirito meets up with a player named Leafa, and the two journey to the center of Alfheim Online: The World Tree. Some dumb stuff happens, more excuses for them to go into more virtual MMOs are created, and the season ends.

Also, they’re fairies.

One of my biggest gripes with the second half is that is feels so lazy, and lacks any real consequence. Aside from one detail, it’s just a game. Failure and death don’t really mean anything, and it no longer feels like a survival adventure. None of the characters have any weight: it just feels like a time filler, and an excuse to include more boobs into the plot.

Which brings me to my biggest criticism with the second half of Sword Art Online: It gets really creepy. The first red flag popped up when they made a big deal out of Kirito’s sister not actually being his sister, but his cousin. The second rose gradually, as I noticed that there was generally more cleavage and butt close-ups. The final alarm clicked to life when I began to notice that every female character was growing attracted to Kirito, and fighting for his affections. Sword Art Online turned into a harem anime before my very eyes.

The strong character of Asuna transformed into a damsel in distress, and was no longer portrayed as Kirito’s equal and partner. Every female around Kirito became a personality trait with a vagina, and mentions of any other male character dropped to zero.

“Nah, too strong. Time to show some cleavage.”

To add to the general sense of creepy, things get what I can only describe as “rapey.” Asuna basically gets reduced to being a rape target, and that is the primary conflict in the second season. The villain wants to rape her. Technicians in the form of slug beasts want to rape her with tentacles. It’s like the writers thought “Well, they can’t die anymore, so I guess we just need to throw rape in to add danger. Whatever.”

It’s sad to see Sword Art Online lose its path so badly. In the beginning, it was a mediocre story with terrible pacing and dialogue, but there were seeds for something truly interesting. While everything that came out of every characters’ mouth was dumb garbage, the animation portrayed body language perfectly, almost to the point where I thought it would be better as a silent film. The drama was gripping and truly heartbreaking at times, and the romance between Kirito and Asuna was really well done.

Pictured: decent things.

It’s like going on a couple of dates: The first was a bit shaky: There were some awkward silences, and some clumsy blunders, but there was still a kind of spark there. The second was a trainwreck: the date pooped their pants and went on a rant about how Hitler was just misunderstood. You got a free steak dinner though, so that’s something.

Apparently the second season of Sword Art Online has started, and this time they go into a gun MMO. I’m not watching it.

Sword Art Online, get out of my office.

To continue my theme of “MMO hijinks,” next time, I will review Log Horizon.

Yuri Petrov, child of a legendary hero and masked vigilante known as Lunatic is perfectly recreated in S.H. Figuarts in a very impressive release. The box itself is thick, indicating just how much stuff is packed into this release.

The packaging itself is wonderfully executed, matching the tone of the character while still following the same general aesthetic as other figures in this line. The back has lots of great images showing the figure off and even his animated civilian identity.

Straight out of the gate, Lunatic includes a Tamashii stage emblazoned with his name and alter ego. This is brilliant and it’s always nice to have a stage included with a Figuart and all the Tiger & Bunny figures include a personalised stage much like this one.

Lunatic himself comes straight out of the packaging looking spot on to his onscreen counterpart. His spindly physique is a far cry from the Sentai Figuarts I’ve reviewed before, being more slender and but the anime proportions work incredibly well to give this release exceptional poseability. One thing I marveled at was all the little details and accoutrements on the costume that I never really noticed on the show and Lunatic’s bizzare mask is beautifully bug-eyed! There’s also an alternate head for when he gets all righteous!

As with all S.H. Figuarts, the proof is in the accesories and, boy, does Lunatic come loaded! Along with fists, Lunatic comes with posing hands, trigger fingers, and two pairs of hands covered in translucent blue/green flames. One pair more suited towards combat poses and the other for intense intimidation. The flame effects are removable, maybe a little TOO removable since they like to crumble if mishandled, but it’s nice to have more alternative hands. He also comes with two versions his signature crossbow, one closed and the other for when he forms his flame into bolts. Both look freaking badass!

There’s actually a second tray of parts in this release, hence the thickness of the package (Ladies…) that includes his poncho/cloak. This iconic part of the Lunatic costume is rendered in hard plastic and attaches by clamshelling two halves over Lunatic’s shoulders. The back piece is universal but there are two front pieces, one for regular standing poses and the other for use with his crossbow or flame effect hands. The details are crisp and apart from one minor flaw where the gorgeous pearlescent white paint didn’t take on the back, it is a welcome inclusion.

Come, young hero…

…Let me see your idea of JUSTICE!

I was kindly loaned this figure to review by a friend whom I introduced to both Tiger & Bunny and to S.H. Figuarts. This was his first Figuart and was giddy when he came to show it off, so much so that he wanted me to review it so special thanks to Mitch for this opportunity!

Slow… Predictable…

You should be ashamed… But I will show you mercy…

Lunatic, as both an introduction to S.H. Figuarts and from my perspective as a fan of the line, is a fantastic figure to own. His articulation, the effect parts and accesories and the overall presentation makes this a superb example of the level of detail and love that S.H. Figuarts puts into their releases. If you’re a fan of the anime, or even just interested in awesome action figures, Lunatic is highly recommended!

HEAR THE VOICE OF THANATOS!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Astarotte’s Toy

Last week, I asked my friend Ash to find the worst-looking anime possible. He succeeded with flying colors. He did such a good job, in fact. I hate him for it. His decision cast me into a cesspit of paedophilia and creepiness the likes of which I’ve never seen. This is Astarotte’s Toy.

Lotte is a ten-year old succubus princess in the Monster Realm. Her tutor is pressuring her to begin building a harem, so she’ll have a constant supply of the “Life Seed” she needs to consume in order to survive (when she gets older.) Lotte hates men after an incident in her childhood, where she saw her mom have sex. In order to get out of dealing with men, Lotte tells her tutor that she will build a harem, if she can find human males (which haven’t been seen in years, since they live in another realm.) This gambit backfires, however, because before long the tutor brings Naoya to the Monster Realm to join the harem. Ten- year-old Lotte’s harem. TEN.

Replace “Milk” with “Bleach,” and I’m right there.

Naoya is 23 years old. Coincidentally, Naoya has a 10 year-old daughter, named Asuha. I’m going to let you do the math there. Turns out Lotte’s mom, The Queen, banged Naoya when he was 13, and had Asuha. She sent this daughter to the Human World to prevent her and Lotte fighting for the throne, because that’s what you do when you love your children; you banish one of them forever. What point does this serve? It’s just a single episode plotline, and is hardly mentioned again. However, I digress. Stupid stuff happens, and creepy romance ensues.

This show made me feel dirty. It should make everyone feel dirty. I hope even reading this review makes you feel dirty. There is not a single valid reason in all of creation for this show to exist. Usually, I try not to pass judgment on fans of something, but here I draw the line. Anyone who enjoys Astarotte’s Toy needs serious help. It is not OK to see prepubescent anime girls in lingerie and revealing outfits, and be fine with it.

TEN YEARS OLD.

The sexualization in this show is shameless. Astarotte’s Toy is completely fine with its paedophillic overtones, and in fact seems to be proud of them. It is unabashed glorification of a disgusting mental illness. Astarotte provoked such revulsion and hatred in me; I felt the need to plant flowers and pet puppies, just to remind myself of the beautiful things in life.

 “It’s gross” is my point here, basically.

Jiggly-boob banana rafts. The mark of true quality.

Nothing happens in Astarotte’s Toy. I can sum up the entire plot in one sentence: “A 23 year old falls in love with a 10 year old. They probably bang.” I say probably, but “most assuredly” seems to be a better term. The show makes it clear in the final scene that Lotte is going to go through puberty soon, and will need to extract Naoya’s “Life Seed” to live.

… Excuse me, I need to vomit.

Now that I’m back from the mental ward, let’s continue. What are the characters in Astarotte’s Toy like? Are they characters at all? Short answer: No. Long Answer: Hell No with a dollop of putrid NOPE on top. Lotte’ is a generic mess of man-hating clichés, Naoya is a slightly effeminate cardboard cutout with no personality. Asuha doesn’t like to wear panties. Seriously, that’s her only real defining character trait. Everyone else is just background fluff for this toxic mess.

The forks are over there, whenever you’re ready to gouge your eyes out.

Shows like this are what makes people avoid anime. It’s so self-serving and completely uninterested in doing anything but fulfilling its sick fantasies. It is devoid of any heart or real meaning. Astarotte’s Toy brings down the medium as a whole, just like how an offensive comic book or video game degrades their respective medium. This is a stain not only on anime, but on humanity in general.

I have absolutely nothing positive to say about the show. The animation and voice acting were mediocre at best, but even then; I was too busy covering my eyes in horror to really pay attention. There are hardly any moments of Astarotte’s Toy that weren’t “provocative” shots of little girls. In fact, the paedophile fanservice is so constant and gratuitous that all the weird sex stuff involving the adults come as welcome respites.

This little girl is wearing a maid outfit. Why? Because screw you.

There’s a Cow Demon who produces milk from her big boobies. The Tutor is a dominatrix with a collection of various restraints and sex toys. In one episode, Naoya develops what can only be described as “Boner Fever:” a sickness stemming from a buildup of his magic “Life Seed.” You know what? I didn’t have the energy to react to those things with the anger and exasperation they deserved.  Somewhere around the twentieth reference to a little girl giving a grown man a blowjob, I zoned out.

No joke, they must use the phrase “Suck him off” more than 20 times in the show. Every one hits like a brick to the face, even though it is played for comedy.

I… I just can’t…

I want you to think for a moment, and understand that time and money went into this. People spent precious hours of their life manufacturing and consuming this crap. People paid for this! Somewhere, Astarotte’s Toy has provided masturbatory fuel for someone. Take a moment, and let that sink in. I’ll wait.

After finishing the show, I felt oddly tranquil. Astarotte’s Toy drained every last drop of fury and madness from my body. The wellspring of rage in me was run dry by this stupidity. I felt like a new man after plunging into the deepest depths of depravity, and returning. So, I guess that is a positive, in the same way baptism by fire can be considered a positive

You may be asking: Why did I continue watching Astarotte’s Toy, if it pained me so much? I did it for you, dear reader. I hope that my anger and pain translates into laughter and entertainment for you. Watching every minute of that show ensured that my vehemence was pure for this article.

Simply put: I don’t wuss out.

 NEXT TIME: TENCHI MUYO