Spring 2010 Anime at a Glance

[A Black Falcon]

I tried watching some of that, but it was just too stupid for me.

Yeah, it's dumb, I admit. I find it amusing anyway. And there are plenty of dumber things out there... a lot of anime is dumb a lot of the time, really, in some way or another. I thought the first season was funny and entertaining, and I like the setting. I know it's not the only "Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but with all the characters as girls" show out there, there's also Ikkitousen (which makes Koihime Musou look tame, fanservice-wise... and Koihime Musou, the second season Shin Koihime Musou, has a good bit of it.), but at least Koihime Musou is set in the original timeframe, so it's a medieval setting instead of yet another modern schoolgirls show (the one episode OVA was funny, but yes, overall the show is better how it is).

I know that Koihime Musou is based on an h-game, but the anime's quite different... they drop the guy main character completely (a guy from modern Japan who was a student of history and gets transported back to ancient times, where he learns that they were actually all girls, assembles one of several different (depending on which side you go with, evidently) giant harems, etc). I have not played the game, but as far as the anime goes, I think it's definitely better that way. There are enough harem shows out there already...

The anime also radically changes the tone, from the often darker game which I think has plenty of killing and violence (as with the original work) to something where no main character ever dies and they generally are not enemies. It's a little absurd, when you consider the actual Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but they don't want the show to be depressing, so I don't really mind. The excuse is that it's set before the empire collapsed, so the war hasn't started yet... sketchy, but who cares. :) It makes for better comedy when the characters aren't killing eachother all the time. :p So yeah, the majority of the show is the main group going around meeting with the various other characters of the massive cast. It's RotTK, there are a lot of characters. As I have only moderate knowledge of the original work (haven't actually read it, never watched more than an episode or two of any other animes based on it, etc.) I have used the Wikipedia character guide for some help, in telling who in the show is which historical character and remembering who is who... it does get confusing when you have scores of characters in a show, even if the main group is smaller. :)

Oh, I also liked that the first season at least didn't have your standard "moron who knows what to do at the right moment" main character; Kan'u (Guang Yu) is actually somewhat intelligent. One reason why I like the second season less is that they add in Ryuubi (Liu Bei), who much better fits that often annoying stereotype...

I'm surprised that you bend over backwards to rip Mario's sexist storyline, but actually enjoy a series where a group of women exist for the sole purpose of fawning over the main male character and exposing various parts of their bodies on a regular basis.

To give an additional answer to this, I think I have pretty low expectations for your average female character in anime, because of how sexist things usually are... but it also certainly just depends on which things you focus your ire on. I mean, like, with a stupid, obviously exploitative show like Koihime Musou, at least the female characters are mostly strong and powerful, not weak and helpless. They don't rely on men to rescue them in the anime; indeed, there aren't any major male characters in the show really, apart from a few villains. I'd have been a lot less unhappy with NSMB Wii on the issue, for instance, if they'd done everything else the same, but had one of the player characters be female... I definitely prefer stronger female characters to weak, helpless, and "damaged" (eyepatch girls, etc) ones. The words of the story matter a lot, but the actions of who you can be (in a game) or what the characters do matters just as much. And in Koihime Musou's case, most of the characters are strong warriors or leaders; I complain about Ryuubi mostly because she's one of the few who isn't, I think. She's weak, pathetic, and not of much use so far. As of episode 9 she's finally showing signs of starting to be a leader as she should be, which is good. She is supposed to be Liu Bei after all, the great hero of RotTK and leader of his faction! It's funny that in this anime it's Kan'u, not Ryuubi, who's the main character... not bad at all, good considering what kinds of characters they are so far, just a little funny.

Also, I really love videogames and care about them a lot, but movies, anime, etc... I like them, sure, but not to the same degree. Far, far below videogames, and below fantasy/scifi books as well, for sure. That matters too. I'm better at not thinking about it with anime I guess. It is a more passive medium after all... but yes, if I do think about it, there's a huge amount to be angry, or at least unhappy, about. But do I care or think about it as much as I do with games? No.

I know I've probably said a lot of this before, but thinking of an obviously stupid show like this one made me think about it.