Everyone probably knows I follow a lot of anime and at least try to ferret out the good from the run of the mill ... but you know, Winter 2016 has been an amazingly good season for new shows or the second season of good shows.
For an unforgiving time travel mystery there's Boku dake ga Inai Machi (Erased) for solid, unrelenting drama ... there's the second season of Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri (Gate) and while more than a little nationalistic it pulls off the 'what would happen if modern military meets sword and sorcery' very well, with the second season reminding us that politics is just as dangerous as automatic weapons ... Heavy Object for relatively hard sf mecha fans ... Dimension W for light cyberpunk fare ... these are all good solid shows ... and one of the strongest is a new fantasy series called Hai To Gensou No Grimgar (Grimgar of Ash and Fantasy). This is a tale of a small party of normal folks who are suddenly transported into your traditional swords and sorcery world. Where usually you then follow a story of crackerjack adventurers, not here - this shows plays rookie adventuring very hard and very straight and pulls no punches. These aren't the cream of the crop and every victory they have to work for and every victory can become disaster in a heartbeat.
And on the opposite side of the same coin ...
The series that has me writing this post is Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku o - Gifting the Wonderful World with Blessings - or, as the eye-catch cards proclaim, KonoSuba.
Yes. This is another fantasy anime. And there have been ones of really good ones. Lodoss War. Scrapped Princess. The Hack series. Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon. And yes, like many of them, it is very solidly game based, with character classes and levels and a regimented guild that gives out quests ... and yes, it centers about an Otaku NEET (okay, technically he claims not to be a NEET because he died because he left the safety of his room) who ... oh yah ... dies and is reincarnated in a fantasy world, destined to slay the Demon King.
The first episode is mostly a set up, but has one one of the best "gotcha" lines I've seen in a while and even if you see it coming its still worth it to see just how long the victim takes to realize what just happened. But it's the second episode that won me over ... or rather ... the first episode had me chuckling, the second episode had Kelly yelling down the stairs to see if I was okay .... because I just could NOT stop LAUGHING.
It takes the traditional fantasy and fantasy game genre and plays them for fun (or if you are our hero, frustration). Now I'm only up to episode 6 out of 8 and its an ongoing series but there hasn't been an episode in that spread that hasn't had at least one scene that had me actually laughing out loud. I was sharing this series with another friend and when asked to describe it without giving anything away I quoted a scene from the Last Unicorn. The scene where King Haggard is firing his court musician ... and not being happy with a skilled magician, decides to take on .... an incompetent one.
Oy veh.
Tonight we had just finished watching Dimension W and the Anime First mecha show Bubuki/Buranki, and in both episodes our heroes just could not catch a break. So we needed something light and funny to end the night - KonoSuba!
We spend so much time on tension, cliff hangars, life or death situations, profound actions and Scenes That Need Capital Letters; the drama that results from strong characters pushing the edge.
But you know, occasionally popcorn and a laugh is good for the soul. If you want an amusing show then try Konosuba.
You will never think of goddesses, giant toads, powerful magic users and paladins being dragged through the dirt in the same manner ever again ...
Last edited by Wolf; Mon 07/03/16 19:17 UTC.
