ID/Invaded is another currently airing seasonal anime. Surprisingly, the show has no source material. Most anime have some kind of manga or novel which they’re based upon; mostly done in order to ensure the success of the adaptation via the already established fan-base. However, this anime has no source material whatsoever, completely original in story and made for this show only. This allows for great opportunities, but also great risk. One could argue that an original screenplay and story made for the medium of animation would allow for greater use of movement and flow in scenes, due to the material being designed with motion in mind, unlike novels and manga. On the other hand, it leaves a lot of uncertainty; We, as the viewer, have no idea how the show will turn out in the long run.

So, when I started watching this show I was worried that it would be overly generic or follow tropes in order to ensure a wide appeal and commercial success, however, the first episode is very enjoyable and excellently shows the viewer how this sci-fi police force solves crimes. The episode opens with our protagonist waking up in a world which is dismembered and chunks are flying around. Other than the floating chunks of the void he finds himself in, he’s alone. He has no memory other than his name and his occupation: a detective. Next to him lies a victim stabbed in the chest. He knows instinctively that he must solve this murder to leave the void. We watch the detective as he pieces together the world, literally and figuratively, in order to attempt to find the identity of the killer. Looking for clues and evidence amoungst the chunks of houses, streets and buildings.

The soundtrack is great and fits well with all the scenes. The animation was fairly good when it needed to be, but sometimes the smoothness or quality would drop or change from episode to episode. This was most likely caused by a switch between A and B production teams between episodes. I wouldn’t call the animation breath-taking, but the studio put enough effort into the scenes which needed it, like big reveals and suspenseful moments.

The mystery was quite intriguing for the majority of the show, but, when the killer is revealed, it felt a little bit anti-climactic due to the lack of clear motive. Even after the concluding episode, the motive still wasn’t clear. For the more episodic criminals, the logic behind their crimes had sound logic. Contrasting this, the “John Walker” character, who was meant to be the mastermind behind it all from the beginning, had no real motive from what I gathered. In addition to this, the way how the protagonist figured out his identity was by checking who was abroad or out of the country on a certain date, which felt like a weak and boring way to figure out the criminal’s identity.

The last thing I’d like to talk about is the final few moments of the finale. It ended with a somewhat abrupt epilogue using a voice-over from Hondoumachi. It did help to wrap up the story in a way and provide some closure, but it felt like a lazy way of doing it. This was most likely as the production was tight on time due to it’s relatively short single cour twelve episode run.

In conclusion, ID/Invaded was one of the better shows of winter 2020 and was very entertaining to watch with a unique concept. I would say it was definitely worth watching if you ignore the sub-par conclusion at the very end.

7/10

Your Name is a animated film by Makoto Shinkai, probably my favourite director for anime or just movies in general. Other pieces Makoto Shinkai is well known for include Distant Star and, of course, Five Centimeters per Second. Your Name, or Kimi No Na Wa as it’s known in Japan, is about two high school students, Mitsuha and Taki, switch bodies. Each of them live in very different areas of Japan. Taki being from Tokyo and Mitsuha being from a rural area in Japan. The mysterious events of their body swapping, which happens a few times every week, all begins on the day when a mysterious shooting star falls across the sky. 

The Animation:

It is clear when watching this film that the animators must have poured their hearts and souls into these visuals. The truly spectacular scenes where this is particularly apparent is when we see the shooting star near the start of the film and the final scene of the movie. The amount of time and effort which must have been put into these moments and the entire film must have been huge. The animators hard work has clearly been well worth it. The level of detail in the light and the shading is astonishing. Another part of the animation which I really appreciate, is the fact that all the places shown in the film are real places which you can go and visit. This even goes as far as the billboards in some scenes being the same as the ones in the real place, meaning someone had to gain the rights to show the real adverts in this movie. So that just goes to show how much effort the animators when through to make this film feel immersive and real.

Overall, I give the animation of this film a 9/10.

Story:

The story of Your Name is arguable simple. Two people having their bodies swapped and living in each others shoes has been done many times before, like in Freaky Friday. But, I believe that even with this somewhat simple plot Shinkai has really used the characters in the story to really make the audience feel for these people. When we see Mitsuha in her home with her family, we really do feel like they are a family and that they feel real like they actually exist. In addition, with Taki, we see and can sympathise with his struggles with balancing his social, school, and work lives. Although Your Name does have comedic moments and serious dramatic moments, it doesn’t feel like the film is “switching genres” halfway through or like one moment it’s all fun and gags and the next it’s overly dramatic. It all feels consistent and the humour of the film does not clash with the more heart wrenching parts. One of my favourite parts of the entire film, is the ending. I feel that Makoto Shinkai has given the audience an ending which is satisfying but still leaves enough unanswered to let the audience think.

Overall, the story gets a 7/10.

The soundtrack:

The soundtrack of Your Name is, in my opinion, a big part of the film. WIthout the songs from Radwimps I don’t think the film would be as good as it is. Simply just because their songs are used perfectly to fit the scenes to evoke emotions like sadness, relief, and happiness in the audience. Whenever I hear a song from Your Name, I get goosebumps, because the soundtrack really does have a big part in the emotional scenes in the film, so when you listen to them it brings all back.

Overall, the soundtrack gets an 8/10.

Conclusion and final thoughts:

After watching Your Name twice now I really do believe this film could be thought of as a modern classic in anime. So far, I would say that this is probably the best of Makoto Shinkai’s works. And I think a lot of people would agree. Your Name actually gained a total gross of 358 million us dollars, making it the highest grossing Japanese animated film; even beating Spirited Away. 

Overall, I give Your Name a 9/10.

9/10

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is a currently airing anime from renowned director Masaki Yuasa. He is well know for his outlandish styles and ability to think outside of the box to develop creative animation. He’s worked on well-known hits like Devilman: Crybaby, Ping Pong: The Animation, and Night Is Short: Walk On Girl. When he started out he was a smaller indie director and now he’s a major name in the anime industry.

Yuasa-san decided to work on this show because he found a forum post whilst searching his own name on Google. The post was from an enthusiastic fan of a lesser known manga called “Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na”. The reader thought that Yuasa-san would be a perfect director of anime based on this manga. He researched this manga and fell in love with it. From this, Yuasa decided to try to find a production committee to bring this idea into a reality. The rest is history.

Now, the anime has been airing for a little over two months. With the help of studio Science SARU, director Yuasa-san has created one of, if not, the best anime of this season. To be honest, when the show was first airing and I heard the premise, I was skeptical. It seemed original, a story of three classmates who come together to create their own anime, but I felt like a lot could easily go wrong or be badly paced and end up boring. However, my fears were put to rest after I watched the first episode. The animation is vibrant and the world is endlessly imaginative. There is no boring exposition on the strange, futuristic city the characters live in, because why do we need it? Yuasa-san is a master of the classic rule of “show not tell”. He would rather let the audience experience it, than tell them it.

The show was sitting around a 7 out of 10 for the first six episodes, however, with the recent story arc, the festival arc, coming to a close which spanned around three episodes, my faith was re-established in this show. The build up for the final episode of the arc was huge. We had several episodes of the characters developing and animating their idea for an anime to show at the festival. These lead-up episodes were interesting and highlighted important issues in the industry, like tight deadlines, unpredictable production issues and budget restrictions; However, they were just not as imaginative and fun as the previous episodes were. I feel this was because the story was slowed and pacing was a little bit off, but it always picked up whenever the characters began imagining what they could do with their animation. Director Yuasa-san chose to depict these scenes by having the characters metaphorically enter the animation they were creating and truly immerse the viewer in their imagination. These are always the highlight of the episodes. The main trio bounce off each other gloriously and exposition of ideas was made fun and vibrant.

Once we passed the build-up, the climax is wonderfully executed and the wait was well worth it. The protagonists wanted to use the festival to sell DVDs of their anime as to raise their production budget, which was demonstrated to be very restricting in previous episodes. The issue is that the Student Council wants to prevent the showing of the anime as the trio bribed the ‘air conditioning club’ into lowering the temperature of the theater; Which would attract people to come inside during the hot summer. Yes, that’s what actually happens. The student council then contracts the ‘security club’, which are equipped with full riot gear, to track down the main three protagonists and shut down their show. This is where the show gets fun. There are a variety of crazy antics which all come together to allow them to slip past the students councils grasp and have a successful showing of their anime. The people who they helped in the past by creating anime for them to use in promotion for their clubs come to protect our trio and help them get to the theater. Including a complex operation from the ‘robot club’ to distract and mislead the security club into letting them pass. The final moments of the episode are very satisfying and the trio get the recognition for the anime they worked so hard to create. This excuses the slower paced build-up episodes, as they allowed us to experience the hard work they put into the animation; Making the ending all the more satisfying.

In conclusion, Eizouken is a creative, innovative and, most importantly, fun anime about three classmates wanting to make their own anime. The world is well built and imagined and the over-dramatization of the student council is well done and creates ridiculous situations for the viewer to enjoy. The over the top and use of school clubs which would never really exist is not only creative, but allows for a fleshed out world for us to experience.

Overall, I really enjoyed Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken.

8/10

Isekai is, safe to say, one of the most hated and infamous anime genres. The idea, in itself, isn’t terrible but there are so many cookie-cutter series which use this trope. Isekai, or “other world” in English, is a cliche in many shows which involves the protagonist being transported somehow from our world to another, usually fantasy style, world. Mostly, this is done in order to allow for easy and somewhat lazy exposition. A character who was born in a fantasy world would have no realistic reason to suddenly explain or have someone explain to them how a world and it’s mechanics work. Whereas, if a character is new to this world, it allows for the writer to easily have the aspects of the imaginary world explained to the protagonist and, at the same time, explained to the viewer. It also allows for this character to make references and jokes which relate to pop culture whilst still making sense in a fantasy world which would not have the same pop culture as ours.

Now that the idea and history of Isekai has been explained, we can move onto the show itself. Isekai Quartet is often described online as “the most ambitious crossover in anime history.” This is, of course, a pun on how Avengers:Infinity War was called “the most ambitious crossover in film history”. There were a total of four shows characters in the first season: Re:Zero, Overlord, KonoSuba and Tanya; hence ‘quartet’. However, in the second season, characters from Tate no Yuusha are added to the cast. So I guess the show is now Isekai Quintet? The shows which the cast come from are very well respected and well known within the anime community. So you can see why they would want to create a crossover show. It allows for all the fans of the four/five individual shows to come together and watch this show, giving it a wide appeal. In addition, all the shows are in-between seasons. This short and cheaply produced show allows the series which the characters are from to remain relevant and continue to keep a grasp on their fanbase, ready for the new installments in their individual franchises. The animation is a Japanese chibi style, which is exceptionally simple and easy to draw or animate. Isekai Quartet is a blatant cash grab which Kadakowa, the license owner of all the shows, uses to keep shows more relevant and for a very low production price. However, I shall give credit where credit is due; The voice actors for almost all of the characters is kept the same and makes the auidience feel that these are the same people that they have watched before, despite their change into chibi style.

The show is mostly a situational comedy which follows the cast whilst they have some kind of goal or problem which they want to overcome by the end of the episode. The journey towards their goal is fodder for comedic situations. I would say that not all of the jokes land, but they land enough to call the series a comedy; Not a good comedy, however a comedy nonetheless.

Overall, I would give Isekai Quartet a rating of 6/10. The show isn’t breaking any molds and doesn’t seem to have a greater overarching plot. Although, it has a short run-time for each episode and is entertaining enough to be enjoyable. An okay show is the best way to describe it. Just OK.

6/10