Hikaru No Go (2001-2003)
Rated: 3.5 / 5
Touya… let’s play. We can’t start until we play.
I naturally learned about this show when I learned about Go and how to play it. Wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from an anime about a board game. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised, though I’m not entirely sure I’d ever watch this again. It’s one of those shows where, once you’ve seen all 75 episodes, there isn’t much desire to go back and rewatch the whole thing once you’ve seen what happens and how things turn out. And yes, I hung with the show for that long, and it somehow managed to stay quite engaging through the entire length of the series, which is not an easy feat for any anime. Most anime gets dull and tedious after a certain point. But not this one, so it deserves praise for accomplishing at least that much.
It manages to stay engaging because of the characters. How the protagonist Hikaru evolves from someone who knows nothing about Go, to becoming a very skilled player. How his rival Akira becomes conflicted, and questions his own capabilities, after playing against Hikaru. And how this affects their relationships with those around them. Their characters go through ups and downs with their evolutions. These characters are anything but stagnant; they won’t be quite the same as they were 10-15 episodes ago, let alone from the beginning and ending of the series.
It’s a fun journey going along with these characters and seeing their evolution and arcs play out. But once I saw it all play out, I never felt any motivation to see it happen all over again. That’s not to say this show is bad, far from it. It’s a great viewing the first time through. But… I guess it’s because it didn’t have any moments that I consider outstanding. Personally, I only ever want to rewatch something if it had at least one outstanding moment. This series did have a few nice emotional moments, and stayed consistently strong throughout, but there wasn’t anything I personally consider “outstanding,” something with a strong emotional “oomph” to it, to make me want to go through the entire series all over again. On the other hand, forcefully injecting something like that into a series has about as much chance of harming the series rather than elevating it. But who knows, maybe one day I will revisit this after going through dozens of other anime series that all suck, and make me crave something that I know is reliable that isn’t Cowboy Bebop, Gungrave, Last Exile, Gad Guard, or the last anime being discussed here.
This series stays grounded, in spite of there being a ghost character, who is a Go master, who helps Hikaru on his journey towards being a good Go player. In fact, despite this being an obvious supernatural presence (who is only ever known to Hikaru and no one else), this show manages to be more grounded than…
Saki (2009)
Rated: 2.5 / 5
… the anime about girls who play Mahjong. There may not be any ghosts or angels, but it sure as hell tries to make up for it.
“It’s fun to play mahjong with you, Haramura-san.”
“Well it’s not fun for me! If you continue to play like you did today, I suggest you leave the club.”
[…]
“I just wanted everyone to have fun.”
“When you hold back, it’s not fun for me. Please let me have fun as well!”
I really wanted to like this series. In fact, because of it, I got back into playing Mahjong (via Riichi City), which I haven’t done since I played Yakuza 0 a while back. And for the first several episodes, it was fine.
That is, in spite of the amount of fan service this show has. I’m not kidding. While it may not show any blatant nudity, it sure does make an effort to include a noticable amount of upskirt and panty shots, and visible lines of where the legs end and the glutes begin, with these high school girls. Normally I would be more than fine with this, as I enjoy fan service as much as the average otaku. But it doesn’t work in this series. Fan service should exist in a series that aims to be titillating and doesn’t take itself seriously. Which is in sharp contrast to what this show does most of the time. It’s like the creators didn’t have any faith in a series about playing Mahjong attracting enough viewers without the fan service, so they just threw in a minimum amount per episode. At first I thought it was just going to be limited to Haramura having big freakin’ boobs compared to everyone else (even the adults), and everyone making jokes about it, and that also being a reason why she’s popular with the media (more-so than her high skill as a player). Well there’s a lot more than that. There’s a mandatory shower scene every 3-4 episodes, minimum.
This serves as a distraction from everything else in the anime, and not in a good way. This show wants me to take the plot and characters and matches seriously, but it’s difficult to do when it keeps throwing that in my face. This show isn’t good enough to do both. But this is forgivable. I could’ve lived with this if this was the only thing wrong with the show. Hell, I was even willing to go along with the shoujo ai (girl love) stuff with seemingly every girl in the show being in a half-assed romantic relationship with some other girl with how they blush whenever one says something complimentary to the other, and/or holds their hand. Because at this point it was a guilty pleasure.
Then comes episode 14, which contains the best and worst elements of this series. It started going overboard with the “not really happening, but it’s awesome” stuff. You know, moments like where Haramura sprouts angel wings when her potential as a master player becomes apparent to all, but that’s just for dramatic effect, and isn’t actually happening in reality. And how her angel form clashes in a battle of sword and spear with another girl, metaphorically representing them attacking each other with their Mahjong plays. This over-the-top stuff that was making me laugh my ass off, going full-blown guilty pleasure mode.
Then the show fucks it all up by getting ridiculous. How can it get more ridiculous than that? By not being metaphorical about something that should be. There’s this girl who goes through life largely unnoticed by others simple because there’s something about her that makes her easy to overlook. A face in the crowd you ignore. Someone who always sits at a certain desk or a certain table that everyone begins to ignore simply because that person is there. This is fine and all, as that’s relatable to an extent. But when it gets to the point where this girl makes discards and “riichi” calls without anyone noticing, that’s when I started to get pissed off. I don’t care how unremarkable she is, there isn’t a group of pro Mahjong players in the world who wouldn’t pay attention to her tile pond and ignore calls like that. And the show would have you believe she goes invisible in front of all these players; both her and her tiles, including the discarded ones. This is the point where the show wants me to take something like this seriously, is betting that viewers will take it seriously. And I can’t, because it’s fucking stupid.
I knew it was going to get worse from there, and sure enough it does. Because some loli bitch (if she’s going to dress the part, I’m calling it out) gets superpowers when playing during a full moon to the point where she can control the flow of the game and what kinds of tiles everyone draws. Anyone who has played Mahjong, while acknowledging there are times when a player can be on a roll due to luck favoring them and not favoring other players, also knows that this is complete bullshit.
If you want to watch a good Mahjong anime, go see Touhai Densetsu Akagi: Yami ni Maiorita Tensai (or just Akagi) instead. It may not have an ending, but neither does this series.
If you want an anime with fan service that also manages to work with taking itself seriously, there’s…
Elfen Lied (2004)
Rated: 4 / 5
… this show that’s loaded with female nudity. Tits abound in almost every episode. Bouncing between harem comedy mode, and blood-soaking violence and drama mode. For a moment, I was thinking this show had standards, when it shows this naked high school aged chick bathing with a pre-teen girl, because it used soap suds to cover up the latter’s private parts and avoided show actual T&A from her. But then a flashback happens, which made me go, “Well… so much for that standard.” Regardless, at least this series has a more consistent tone that works with the overall product, it’s just a matter of whether or not you’ll be on board with all the violence and nudity (dare I say fan service) that makes up a large portion of it. At least the show’s theme has a reason for it all, even if it does come off as too indulgent at times (I’ll get to that).
“What does this have to do with board games?” you may be asking. Absolutely nothing! Moving on.
I’m not going to lie, this series isn’t quite as good as I remember it being. Being younger and not being subjected to much of the mature anime stuff, I didn’t really have expectations to temper at the time. The main example I think of when it comes to this not aging gracefully is Mayu’s character. Allow me to explain…
This show kind of wants to be a harem, but doesn’t completely cross over into that genre, though it gives the illusion of being one. A boy’s fantasy of coming into acquiring property (albeit as a caretaker while the actual owners are away indefinitely) where he is able to provide shelter for others. Due to this convenient circumstance, this makes him capable of taking girls in who need shelter due to their own tragic circumstances. And sure enough, multiple girls wind up at this place as a result. Though only 2 out of the 4 (maybe 5) girls there have any romantic potential with our male lead (Kouta).
So, just think of an obvious scenario that would make a girl helpless and alone and without anyone else to go to. The scenario they make for Mayu is one that I just had to laugh at.
“She ran away from home.”
Why did she run away from home?
“Her stepfather abused her.”
Oh, he smacked her around?
“Sexually abused her.”
…
“Raped her. Which also pissed off her mother. Not because she was angry that her daughter was being harmed, but because stepdad was fucking the preteen daughter instead of the woman closer to his age because he’s more into that. So she’s the one who smacked her daughter around, stating that things would be better if she wasn’t around so that stepdad could be fucking her, instead of Mayu.”
…
…
Well of course! What else could it have been!? Phahahahah!!!
It just takes the most low-hanging and classless fruit and runs with it. Because it’s the easiest and fastest way of garnering sympathy for a girl in an almost-harem anime. It’s fucked up, but I just had to laugh at it. It’s shit like this that acts as a reminder for rape jokes being funny. You need a sick sense of humor for it, and it’s a sense of humor I certainly didn’t have in the past. But being well-acquainted with tropes and plot devices/contrivances just makes stuff like this hilarious to me. It’s up there with, “My entire family died and I have no friends.” At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if these shows upped the ante to, “My dad died, my mom remarried, and my stepdad raped… all my pet puppies to death while my mom was cheering him on!” This is almost never done in a way where I can take it completely seriously, regardless of how dark and serious the subject matter is. I mine as well as be watching The Brave Frog again.
So yeah, this anime pretty much moves into the guilty pleasure category for me because of stuff like this. And believe me, this isn’t the only low-hanging fruit plot device moment this series pulls for taking the easy way out on sympathy points. There’s also that thing that happens with a puppy (can’t it ever happen to a fucking cat?), where it gets beaten to death. See what I mean about this show getting too indulgent at times? I mean… just to have these people be this wicked to ensure Lucy (and others like her) wind up emotionally fucked up. Which makes me wonder about what the series is trying to say about the nature of the Diclonius (I’ll get to that).
Blessed the man who resists temptation,
Since he, with striving, shall receive the crown of life.
So anyway, all that aside, this anime has one of the greatest opening OSTs ever. Lilium. One of the few times where the lyrics are just as powerful as the musical notes leading them. That’s probably because this is Latin instead of Japanese, but I’ll take it. A ponderous song, a thinking man’s song. Conveys sadness, hope, and beauty. And believe it or not, it actually relates to the content in the anime itself. How the purity of a child becomes ruined due to the wicked deeds of those in the world, from strangers to friends to family.
You have no idea how refreshing that is after watching dozens of anime where the song they put at the opening of each episode is some J-pop crap that’s about as annoying as American-pop crap; either that or it has no relation to the anime at all, and is just something they threw in just to have something. That only ever worked for Ergo Proxy, but that’s because Kiri (by Monoral) is a great song no matter where it’s placed; that anime itself is just mediocre, for the record, and didn’t deserve the Monoral song that opened it.
This series doesn’t have an ending that wraps everything up. It leaves plenty of questions opened, and various plot threads dangling. But it does resolve the main arc, which at least leaves a feeling of satisfaction. The manga does pick up where the show leaves off (and throws in more stuff along the way), and it does have a complete ending. Having read the whole thing, it made me realize that there are worse things that can happen to series other than being left unresolved. It can continue and have a shitty ending, or at least a downgrade in overall quality. The ending to the manga pissed me off, and so did several things leading up to it.
The manga sets up this theme regarding race; like how X-Men is a metaphor for race. Except unlike X-Men, the manga acknowledges that sometimes it’s better for everyone if an entire race is wiped out in order to save the rest of the species. Yep, that means killing off all the Diclonius. Now look… I may have been able to be on board with something like this. For anyone who thinks that’s a deplorable stance to take, you’re probably the same motherfuckers who praise the Planet of the Apes franchise (or something equivalent), you don’t get the right to bitch. Like I was saying, I may have been on board with this… if it was executed a lot better than it was.
Putting aside that the manga is loaded with dozens of anime cliche #1 moments, it puts forth this message that Lucy is incapable of changing her nature, and is destined to wreck havoc on humanity, regardless of how badly she wants to change her ways. This is complete bullshit. Because, apparently, her Nyu persona isn’t supposed to mean anything and convince us otherwise. I really hate this theme of you’re incapable of making yourself into a better more moral person no matter how hard you try if its not in your nature.
I was on board with Diclonius being born seemingly with the purpose of destroying humanity, and replacing them with Diclonius (similar to the fear in X-Men that the mutants will replace humans). It hints at such malevolence with this inner personality Lucy gains at a certain age telling her to give into this nature to embrace the darkness and cause harm. The fact that every Diclonius girl winds up killing their parents (this is stated verbally, and a couple examples are shown in the series). That fact that anyone who survives being “touched” by the invisible hand of a Diclonius will only be capable of birthing Diclonius, and can no long birth a normal human. It sets up this grey moral quandry as to whether or not the retaliation given by normal humans is justified or not. The tests they do, that every Doclonius girl is stripped naked when confined (otherwise she could use her clothing as a weapon; it’s definitely possible).
It creates this situation where you become uncertain if the Diclonius are naturally an enemy to humanity, or if it’s the violent nature often found in children being incapable of being controlled. Even if it is the latter, shouldn’t they be killed off anyway? Are humans not just making the violent tendencies more likely to happen if they treat the Diclonius so? It becomes more interesting when you raise the question, “Where did the Diclonius come from?” The anime, while it does hint at a potential answer (a queen), doesn’t ever give it. In fact, it could be a deliberate wild goose chase. I’m partial to the theory that a secret government (or corporate) weapons experiment was trying to implement something similar to these invisible hands the Diclonius have, it inadvertently hits people, inadvertently causes this evolution of newborns, and spiraled out of control from there. After all, the anime does state that the Diclonius all seem to originate in this specific region of Japan, likely where such experiments were carried out. And what if those who were exposed to it ever left that region, or even left Japan, and made the situation go international?
Trust me when I say this scenario is a hell of a lot more intriguing than what the manga ends up doing with it (ie the queen/mother scenario).
Many like to say this anime is all about the message regarding race. I say the anime works a lot better if you narrow the focus down to being a character study. How one acts and reacts to the wickedness in the world. If you will allow it to make yourself fearful and paranoid of everyone, unwilling to trust anyone, and thus lash out violently indiscriminately at those who wish to harm and who wish to help. And it raises the question on whether or not someone can redeem themselves for causing so much violence upon others (including those who didn’t deserve any of it). Despite what I’ve said earlier about not being able to take aspects of this series seriously, that last episode has some very hard-hitting emotional moments that, to this day, brings a tear to my eye. From a father making some minor form of reconciliation with his daughter (a moment that may have been enough to make all she’s been through worthwhile just to have it, briefly), to the talk Lucy has with Kouta. Both those moments hit hard. And the latter in particular was exactly what the show needed. Letting both characters say what needed to be said, attempting to make peace with something they’ll never be able to fully reconcile, yet having at least one moment amidst everything where they can have some amount of contentment and comfort. Because at least with that, there’s a chance they will be able to move on.
The other significant theme is about being trapped in time, in a quagmire, being emotionally stunted. Because of a past trauma that isn’t reconciled, you can’t progress through life. But once Kouta finally does get over a traumatic memory that he had blocked out for years, once he is able to face it, and resolve it the way he did (staying with his good nature and resisting any desire for vengeance), plus after Nyu/Lucy helps repair his broken mind (represented by the broken clock), he is finally able to move on. And the clock begins to tick forward. As for Lucy, well, at least she leaves with Kouta’s words in mind, a plea for stopping the violence. Again, the way the anime does this is far preferable to what the manga does.
A series that rewards me with moments like that during the finale is something that I can’t bring myself to hate. Plus, on top of that, it also has a girl who treats Kouta badly (his cousin) state aloud that she’s a bad person for doing it, knowing why Kouta acts the way he acts (even knowing that he’s blacked out some past trauma, a trauma she doesn’t know everything about). So because of that, I’m cutting it slack on anime cliche #4.
Highly recommended.
PS: Chin Requiem, the outro (or intro for us Americans) in that anime Betterman is also pretty good. Also better than the show deserves, but I did enjoy it more than Ergo Proxy.
The Anomalous Host 