Polyphemus

My first encounter with the anime "The Saga of Tanya the Not Particularly Evil" intrigued me greatly. I walked in on my roommate watching some anime with a little girl and, as per tradition, I casually called him a pedophile. But then something strange happened. Rather than the usual "ACKSHUALLY, she's a 500 year old demon," he said "ACKSHUALLY, she's a middle aged man." Now, I was horrified by this. I slapped him and began to shout. "Why?? Hasn't this trap shit gone on long enough??? It’s too far!“ I said. But he explained the plot to me, so I told him it sounded stupid."No,” he said “Actually, it's really good." And that is where our sad story begins. (It was not, dear readers, actually really good.) An essential problem here is that the whole premise feels pointless. Some dude dies and God doesn’t like him so he turns him into a badass loli mage. Because that’s a punishment now. Why is it important that this girl used to be a man when we know basically nothing about her previous life? This reincarnation seems to give her knowledge that battle-hardened generals envy, but there's no reason why some salaryman who’s read a few wikipedia articles would be a genius at military strategy. And did he have to be some fedora tipper's wet dream? Libertarian, atheist……I guarantee this man dabbles in bestiality just based on this combination, and this makes him a really unsympathetic character. Couldn’t we have had an anime where a loli becomes Hitler, without this whole thing where it’s actually some reincarnated old dude? That sounds like a much more interesting character. As it is, they keep telling us she’s a monster or evil every episode, but she’s mostly just dull, which is why they have to keep telling us…..we would have never guessed if we were left to our own devices. In any case, I care more about the actual plot than this weird backstory. Or I would, if the AU was not so vague and dull. One alternate option would have been to create a whole new universe, with only slight similarities to our own, but that would have required world building and work. Another would have been to have it take place in a universe more similar to our own, but the points at which the anime departs from history often seem to be more out of ignorance than creativity, suggesting that this choice was never really an option. As such, we’re stuck in this uncanny middle ground where the viewer knows next to nothing about the setting, despite how similar it is to his own world’s history. The lack of clarification on points of departure is jarring and it destroys immersion. The ‘Characters' section must be put at 1/10, to represent that there is only one character. (And she’s not that good!) I can’t say I remember anyone else’s name, or anything about them. It seems as if the creators genuinely did not put any effort into creating unique, compelling, or creative characters. I don’t care about any of these people, or what happens to them. And every time I start to feel invested in Tanya I’m reminded she’s actually just some weird old dude, and the whole orphan backstory means nothing. Most character interactions are very shallow, and we don’t know anyone’s motivations other than the absolute basics. Where are the meaningful character interactions? Where is the development? It’s ridiculous and shallow. The ED was probably the best part of every episode. Not only because it meant the episode was over, but because it was actually not too bad. No complaints there. Overall, I thought most of this anime’s potential was squandered. It wasn’t an atrocity but I wouldn’t recommend it, nor do I plan to watch the next season. There wasn't really enough tension or depth to keep me going and it became difficult to watch towards the end. Story: 3/10 Art: 4/10 Sound: 6/10 Character: 1/10 Enjoyment: 5/10 Overall: Let's just call it a 4 or something

CodeBlazeFate

To the people who finally expected a negative review on this show, sorry for being late; Being X gave me trouble. Also, expect lots of religion puns; have a problem, then you'd probably have a hell of a time with this damn review. Youjo Senki is a pathetic waste that doesn't know what the hell it's talking about, stuck in its own incompetence and stupidity of vengefulness and craziness that it completely ruins a potentially good war story in the name of edge and sacrilege. From its ridiculous premise that's a sloppy combination of the premises of Drifters and Izetta (both mediocre and bad war showsfrom the previous year respectively), to its laughable and generic attempts at emotion, this anime has less depth and intelligence than a Michael Bay movie; at least those have nice Megan Fox fan service and CGI that isn't fugly as hell. So, why did this train wreck of an anime bomb harder than a pack of fighter planes? Let's find out, shall we? So, a psychopathic businessman gets killed, but in the midst of death, encounters a pissed off God that reincarnates him as a mage girl in an alternate world and torments him. Again, just like Drifters, with a bit of Izetta. From there, we learn of the poorly defined magic that has multiple unexplained spells and bullets because the anime doesn't sit down and tell us about the many variations of spells and bullets shown throughout the anime. Plus, the hover system our protagonist's side uses makes no sense, with it being a 1-legged booster with nothing to help give them horizontal support. From there, we plunge into the two main plot lines: Tanya rises through the tanks in the name of self-preservation and hates the damn deity known as God, or Being X. Both of these are handled horribly, especially the latter since the anime doesn't have faith in us, meaning that it has to remind us about it at least 4 times per episode. I mean, dissing God and making him cruel is a good and compelling plot point, especially if we constantly remind the audience at nauseam, right? As for the war itself, well, this show keeps skipping giant chunks of this World War that would really be beneficial to know, like the assembling of multiple companies under Tanya’s rule, seeing Tanya become major, establishing just who is currently in the war without resorting to “who are we fighting this episode”, etc. and it's quite upsetting since it basically sacrifices the real soul of the war just for the sake of fueling the awful plot of Tanya Vs God. It all feels arbitrary for the sake of a singular character’s plot, which is a major sin in and of itself, especially in execution. Plus, in the later episodes where major war-ending schemes are launched, we get little insight on them (or sometimes are just thrusted into them without knowing what the hell they are), and with no sense of transition whatsoever. They literally gutted this war just for the sake of 12 episode pacing because god forbid we actually get character development, proper play-by-play on the events of the war, or anything that could help make a decent war story. Plus, some of these events, like Tanya stabbing a dude in the heart before dropping him alone in a huge body of water and them him somehow being alive and a mage ready to end her, raise major plot holes that really damn this script. Needless to say, this ain’t no Saving Private Ryan, or even Pearl Harbor. By the final act, it gave up trying and just opted for pathetic deaths and displays of emotion, and a worthless cliffhanger. The show finally accepted defeat by the finale, surrendering any pretense of knowing what it was talking about, as I said it did earlier. What a waste of potential. Not even gonna touch any more of the ludicrous plot holes or moments of forced drama; this is already SEED Destiny levels of hellishly stupid. The crux of your enjoyment (or lack thereof) comes down to whether or not you like and/or tolerate Tanya as a character. Suffice it to say, I did not. She's only characterized as an unreasonably psychotic warrior who knows some decent military stuff (more than many experienced generals who have been doing this longer than Tanya has been alive in her current reincarnation), and almost nothing else into the final act, where she shows a teensy bit of compassion and turmoil. She doesn't develop or even get fleshed out despite her hogging the spotlight for 95% of this anime; can't go three minutes without her, making it an even bigger shame. People like to say that she is a villain protagonist, and that is just plain untrue. Villain protagonists are the people in which while we get to see them the most and what they go through to reach their eventual demise, the point of the story is to see them fail. Tanya is supposed to succeed against the adversity of war and the dickishness of God, therefore, she is a protagonist who isn't a villain, just overly brutal and unpleasant; a byronic hero, if you will. Let's compare her to two other military badass protagonists, Lelouch vi Britannia from Code Geass, and Char Aznabe from Gundam (I know he is usually an antagonist, but he's the protagonist of Origin and Zeta, so I win). Like Tanya, Lelouch vi Britannia is also arrogant and brutal, and suffers turmoil the more he goes on in his war,. However, we get to see many sides of him, from his charismatic side, to his lazy side, to his dorky side that proves how physically weak he is. We see him in a variety of perspectives and how he mostly deteriorates in the just causes he believes in. Unlike Tanya, we get to know a lot about him from his past to the many different demeanors he expresses around different people, aside from bloodlust and calmness. As for Char Aznable, he is a psychopath, just like Tanya, except portrayed in a realistic manner instead of an eccentric cartoon interpretation of a psycho. Tanya is a dick to people, willing to kill many of them for disobeying her, and is not a pleasant person to be around, especially when bloodthirsty; she's a simple anime crazy person, or what is basically what uninformed people deem as psychopathic characters. Char, on the other hand, is a true psychopath. He cuts of close relationships with people for his own goals, sets up people for death just to survive and not get his cover blown, or just because he has no use for them anymore, and does it all with one goal in mind. He seems approachable, but he is cold, twisted, and calculated, and has become a perfect soldier who isn't in need of compassion, especially after the first person he has romantic feelings for died in front of him. Now, is it a bit dickish to compare a new character like Tanya to two of the most well-written and recognizable anime characters in history? Maybe, but it sets things into perspective. People sometimes joke about how Tanya is the only actual character in the show, and barring a few minor exceptions, this holds some actual water. We have Viktoriya, who I can only describe as a discount Akane Tsunemori (from Psycho-Pass) with no development or fleshing-out, and the other characters aren't worth remembering, like Weiss. There's this one decent dude Tanya stabs, and he becomes a useless and crazy person who no longer speaks, there's his daughter who only gets two scenes of screen time, there are Tanya's other soldiers who are largely the same character, there's a generic mad scientist...what a riveting cast, right, ladies and gentlemen? Plus, all of the generals barring one are basically the exact same except one is old, one had blue hair, and one cracks occasional jokes. None of these guys develop or are fleshed out, and when some do go through turmoil, it's usually in the stupidest, most emotionally manipulative, and contrived ways imaginable. Talk about a ungodly cast; best of the year, right everyone? You know how people stress making a good first impression? Well, Studio NUT did the exact opposite with how they handled the animation of this series. There is so much ugly CGU that is is grating, especially when it is CGI Tanya, CGI soldiers, or a CGI rotating landscape show that would only look acceptable in a WWII PS3/XBOX 360 game. It is absurd how much of it there is, and it almost never looks good. I also counted 5 moments where the rate rate went straight to hell; one in episodes 4, 7, 10, 11, and 12 respectively, with the first two being ugly rotating shot surrounded by ugly CGI books and battleships respectively. The directing can be pretty awful too for some of these reasons. Sure, the magic (discounting when the magic barriers break and become ugly CGI fragments) looks pretty, and so do the bullets, but that doesn't help when it comes to poorly done action scenes (where dodging is a rarity) and awful CGI and cinematography. At least the interior design looks ice, but man do some of the characters look awful at times. I also hate Viktoriya's facial design, which is weird since one of the only good things about this anime's aesthetic is how different everyone's faces are, and how detailed and decently shiny theirs can look at times. I could go on and on about the awful CGI and everything else, but you get the point. For Studio NUT's first production, it doesn't look pretty, which is a shame when you compare that to the first anime done by Trigger, WIT, and MAPPA (Kill la Kill, many parts of Attack on Titan since they worked on it with Production I.G., and Terror in Resonance). If nothing else, barring the horrible sound effects that look like there sometimes recorded from a broken boom box, this show sounds pleasing. The OP, "JINGO JUNGLE" by MYTH & ROID, is an addicting watch that perfectly encapsulates the crazed tone of this series, but this band makes amazing music anyway if their contributions to Re:Zero are anything to speak of. The ED, "Los! Los! Los!" by Tanya Degurechaff (Aoi Yuuki), is a decent ED that somewhat accomplishes the same goal, except this one is just passable whereas the OP is awesome. The music is also decent at what it tried to do, but isn't very memorable despite being actually kinda good. As for the dub, it's alright. Most of the background and named character voices are pretty alright. However, I have issue with the voice of Tanya. To be fair to Monica Rial (the VA for Tanya), I don't really think any english voice actor could've really nailed the role of Tanya' and she does do the best she can while being one of the better possible picks for that character. Unfortunately, some moments fall noticeably flat and the character doesn't really lend itself to any english voice actor aside from a 10-12 year-old girl who's willing to sound really deranged and composed at the same time, sort of like a little-girl DBZ KAI Frieza. All in all, not a bad dub. Look, can't we just all admit that this was a terrible season of anime? Whether you agree or not, what a coincidence that the last anime I tackle this season manages to represent everything wrong about Winter Anime 2017, from awful frame rate hiccups, to god-awful and overused CGI, to a dearth of memorable characters that get properly fleshed out, to asinine plot twists and writing that abandons all cohesion. These were surprisingly popular trends for this infernal anime season in particular. When I first heard of this show, I had hoped it would be Shuumatsu no Izetta done right after that show turned from promising series into a pathetic mess, but after the first episode, I lost faith. Said faith died even more the more this show kept going on. With all that said, before I find myself court-martialed for hating this popular war anime, I shall bid you adieu.