My Master Has No Tail (Uchi no Shishou wa Shippo ga Nai)
‘Mameda is determined to use the Japanese storytelling art of rakugo to cast a spell on humanity, but the tanuki trickster needs to convince Bunko to give her an apprenticeship first.’
My Master Has No Tail seems to be a rather wholesome show, blending traditional Japanese folklore with rakugo – a match that works well considering how often folklore feature in rakugo stories. I like the idea of a tanuki – little Mameda in this case – looking forward to fulfilling a tanuki’s true calling of tricking humans but being unable to due to the process of modernisation. The story itself is set in taisho times, yet it’s still a far cry from ye olde Japan that tanuki seem better aquainted with. I also like the idea of becoming enraptured by story-telling and feeling the sensation of ‘being there’ synonymous with being ‘tricked’ from a tanuki’s perspective, and it’s a cute set-up to get Mameda interested in Rakugo.
This episode mostly follows Mameda trying (and failing) to trick people and then discovering the famous rakugo artist Bunko – who seems to be some manner of Youkai herself – although the bulk of the series seems like it will be about their relationship and Mameda’s own approach to rakugo under Bunko’s wing. They make a cute pair in this episode at least, so it definitely needs a three episode test.
This particular taisho-era Osaka is a little interesting – people seem completely used to supernatural creatures like Tanuki (and Bunko’s flying boat) – another reason why its difficult for Mameda to trick anyone. Yet, it seems like it should look and feel more fantastical for that…but the backgrounds are somewhat on the bland side, and many of them have the tell-tale signs of being 3D models with lines added – there are far too many straight, uniform lines that results in backgrounds looking simultanously too busy and sparse. Osaka is an exciting-looking place no matter what the era, so I wish that mood could have been conveyed a little better.
Would I Watch More?: 3 episode test if I have time.
Out of 5,
and 1/2
I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss (Akuyaku Reijo nanode Rasubosu wo Katte Mimashita)
‘Aileen Lauren d’Autriche’s wedding plans have been suddenly canceled—by her own fiancé! The shock of this jolted her into remembering she’s been reincarnated in an otome game as the villainess. As she recalls, her fate is one of doom, but maybe she can avoid it by marrying the final boss, the Demon King Claude. Her new game plan—seduce the Demon King and live happily ever after.’
I only recently learned that isekai featuring girls reincarnated as the villainess in an otome game is an entire genre somehow, weirdly specific as it may be. It’s useful knowledge to have, because it would otherwise be very tempting to call this a ripoff of My Next Life as a Villainess – All Routes Lead to Doom. Unless the specific factor of deciding to try her luck with the demon king instead is also a cliche, I do have to give I’m the Villainess some props for that, because to be honest it’s a pretty funny plot. While My Next Life had the titular villainess work hard at being as not evil as she could to avoid her programmed villain death, I’m the Villainess has the lead decide that if she’s a baddie she may as well go big or go home.
Unfortunately, that’s really all it has going for it, as almost everything else seemed very dry to me – plot points seem to happen as though the anime is just going through the motions and checking things off a list to try to get to where it diverges from the formula – in a way that feels lazy. For example, the anime literally opens with Aileen regaining her memory in a very blasse way, literally just ‘oh right! I just remembered I used to be some Japanese girl and my entire life until now is a game she played, and I’m supposed to die.’ This is potentially intended as tongue-in-cheek for fans of the genre, as if the plot is saying ‘yeah yeah you know the drill, move along move along’, but it makes it hard to get into or care about anything.
It also doesn’t help that, beyond a few stylish closeups here and there, the animation is below-average in many places. It’s plenty colourful, but something about the entire look of it is somewhat bland and soulless to me. Also, I know horses are an animator’s kryptonite at the best of times, but the CGI flying monstrosity that features in this might just be the worst I’ve seen yet.
Would I watch more?: There is some vague promise with the demon king getting easily embarrassed and flustered, but ultimately My Next Life as a Villaines did the otome game isekai villainess thing better. If you like this genre it might be a fun time-waster at best, but I don’t feel compelled to see more.
Out of 5,
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (Kidou Senshi Gundam: Suisei no Majo)
‘A.S. (Ad Stella) 122― An era when a multitude of corporations have entered space and built a huge economic system. A lone girl from the remote planet Mercury transfers to the Asticassia School of Technology, run by the Beneritt Group which dominates the mobile suit industry. Her name is Suletta Mercury. With a scarlet light burning in her pure heart, this girl walks step by step through a new world.’
I’m not a big Gundam watcher, and most of what I know about the franchise is absorbed via cultural osmosis or what we watched of Gundam 00 back in my university anime club a hundred years ago. I nearly decided to not include it as something to review, but the buzz it was generating really piqued my curiosity. While I’m using screenshots from and mostly talking about episode 1, there was also an episode 0 that aired beforehand – detailing certain events that took place in Suletta’s childhood – that I was sure to watch first. They are extremely different in tone, but the contrast between the somewhat harrowing murders in episode 0 and the relatively comedic school-life in episode 1 certainly made me more interested in the entire series than episode 1 on its own did, and makes me really want to know more about the missing information between these two points in time. (For example, Suletta’s name change.)
That doesn’t mean episode 1 wasn’t good at making me want to watch more of course, because it’s already caught my interest with its characters, animation and incredible music choices. That and the fact that, so far, it’s Utena in Space. When I heard people saying this I didn’t realise how literally they meant it. It was quite amazing to have the two female leads engaged in the first episode – even if it was due to a technicality from the way that duels work at this academy. (Still, no matter what happens from here on out, it still feels special for Miorine to have non-chalantly told a surprised Suletta – from the apparently conservative Mercury – that ‘such things (marriage between the same gender) are commonplace here’.) I don’t know what kind of show we’re in for from here on out but the two leads compliment eachother well enough that it makes me want to see how their relationship – whatever it ends up being – develops, because so far I like both the characters a lot.
It seems like Suletta is a very polarising character in the fanbase – being nothing like the norm for a Gundam protagonist, not just for being female, but for her very shy, anxious demeanor. She is constantly stuttering, apologising and being struck by apparent culture shock (which is to be expected for someone suddenly thrust into a school environment after never being around anyone her age before). I can kind of understand how someone would find this annoying, but it makes me like her more. The poor girl has terrible anxiety and it makes me want to cheer her on. She is completely different in command of her Gundam though – which creates a nice dichotomy too. In contrast to her, the other lead character Miorine is a little more abrasive and direct, which should in theory give her more freedom than the timid Suletta, yet she seems even more trapped and alone. It’s clear that meeting Suletta has completely changed the course of her life, so it will be fun seeing how her spikey facade softens.
Would I Watch More?: I’m on board for this one – not just for the charismatic central relationship, but for the promise of something big, dramatic and dark on the way, judging from the tone of episode 0.
Out of 5,
Bibliophile Princess (Mushikaburi Hime)
‘Lady Eliana’s one true love is books. Romance? Not so much. But when an engagement of convenience to the Crown Prince promises royal library access (and zero imperial duties in the bargain), she may open the pages of her heart to another at last!’
Even though I’m not particularly interested in romance anime, I do like the concept of Bibliophile Princess. I’m always a sucker for arrangements of convenience that turn into something more – Eliana repeats to herself many times that she and Prince Christopher share no romantic feelings (his interest in her seemingly only being that her family has no particularly strong political allegience and thus causes no conflict), but we see the seeds of it forming by the end of the episode. Unfortunately, a whole lot of this episode was about as thrilling as watching somebody read.
Because that’s most of what it is! We get to watch Eliana read lots of different books in not many different places, and in some different outfits, while Prince Christopher attends to his political duties in the background. We barely even get to know what she reads other than a lot of it apparently being the historty of the kingdom. Her obsession with reading does at least somewhat count as a personality, but poor Christopher on the other hand seems to have been tragically born without one entirely and in this entire episode all I can say about him is ‘he’s a prince’. I guess he’s nice too – since he went to the trouble of finding a rare book for Eliana – but that comes with the perfect fantasy anime prince package, right?
I started to get extremely bored watching these pretty people do nothing while dainty music played softly in the background for apparently four years and begged for something, anything to actually happen…and it kind of does? After a new young lady comes along, a bunch of odd things happen – pipes bursting in the garden, a book getting wet in the library, the library closing for some while, and it seemed like it was leading up to a reveal that this girl had been causing it and trying to frame Eliana to take the Prince for herself – what with the odd way the others start to act towards her. But none of this was properly explained (unless this is coming in future episodes), leaving both me and Eliana confused. Well, I think she was confused, because she has something like two or three expressions total and spends most of the episode just looking zoned out, and seemed to be even less interested in what any of that meant than me, since her reaction was to go ‘oh well’ and then read some more.
Would I watch more?: Surely something has to actually happen in the episodes from here, but I really don’t think this show is for me. At least it looks kinda pretty.
Out of 5,
Moeronpan 