April 23rd, 2025
Why MahoAko Succeeded
Anime Relations: Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete 2nd Season
Introduction
"Two years" is a special number: It's the time I learned, years ago, that it takes from an anime to begin being produced from zero and them finally reaching television.
Is this number correct? I don't have the slightest idea (Maybe it was two and a half?), but experience has showed me that it is indeed around this time.
There are exceptions, though: There are certain anime whose success is somewhat guaranteed, so the pre-production of future seasons is already advanced. I'm not talking about split-cour seasons here, but rather of things such as Shingeki no Kyojin, whose seasons after the first one seem to work in a similar way as American TV series.
I bring this number because if Sousou no Frieren is a no-brainer.
Many people must be asking themselves: How, and why did that happen? Unlike Frieren, MahoAko still sits at the 14th place in popularity in it's own season and 11th in score. Does this mean that MAL is a bad way to measure how relevant an anime actually is? Well, yes, but I assume you didn't come here for me to tell you obvious things.
I come here first and foremost as a fan of it to talk about three main points which I feel where responsible for it's success: It's cultural significance, it's ecchi qualities and it's non-ecchi qualities.
It's Cultural Significance
There's a famous Twitter artist which mostly does comedic anime art named Khyle (@khyleri), his bio used to say "Just a normal artist from 10 years ago".
I still think about that bio: What it essentially says it's that everything he draws, for as weird and offensive some people might think, it's essentially what was normal a decade ago, and "a decade ago", in historical , is yesterday. Hence, the offense is more in the eye of the beholder rather in the art (Or the artist) itself.
In that sense, MahoAko is "Just a normal anime from 15 years ago".
One of the things that brought mine (And I assume everyone else's) attention to it was it's sense of "shock", on how it was doing things you wouldn't assume an anime nowadays would do, it broke our metrics of "expected": When I watched those clips from the first and second episodes, I just knew that I had to watch it, I was compelled to.
Though it enters my "Trifecta of Shock" together with Vlad Love he likely accidentally went to the wrong room and did that instead). Yet, despite that, they are not REALLY made to offend as ends in themselves (OK, maybe Idaten is, just a little bit), they're not there as tools of some sort of culture war, they're there out of love, because they thought someone would really like that, just like anime from 15 years ago was just there out of love and the though someone might like them, and not a culture war.
MahoAko, therefore, is just doing the normal of the Golden Age of Ecchi, this begs us the reflection of why everything else ISN'T doing the normal of 15 years ago. Anime IS weird, it has to, it ought to, being weird is it's normal, no one would be here on MAL if normie programming was enough for us. MahoAko was there "to hold the line", to prevent the proliferation of some weird form of inverse purity-spiraling. If the objective art is to shock — not as an end on itself, but to shake society, bring some questions, bring reflections — then it is not as exaggeration to claim MahoAko as the most artistic anime of the decade: I often comment on how difficult it seems to bring any waves of cultural change to America because the "waves" never form, things just fizzling out after a single small change — The mainstream success of the Flintstones, the Jetsons or the Simpsons never led to a wave of teenage or adult animation in the west, nor did it brought a paradigm shift in that subject, it only did a small change in the form of "OK, animation is for children, EXCEPT if it's a sitcom", and that was it. It's successors might have gone further in the "adulting" of the format, but they all just stuck to the sitcom format, never challenging the most fundamental aspect of it.
Why did I get into this apparent digression? Because it's the same with their view of anime: "OK, OK, we accept your weird action series, BUT NO FURTHER THAN THAT, OK? ARE YOU LISTENING? HEY, STOP, COME BACK HERE, COME BACK HE-".
MahoAko "brought the rats out of their holes", it showed us who's into anime and who's a coward only interest in assumed "clout gains" by appropriating the aesthetic (And yes, I'm mainly talking about the people on TVTropes, screw TVTropes), and it did it all that without gaining a following of racist tourists like Frieren did.
It's Ecchi Qualities
Why does ecchi exists? Why not go straight for hentai instead? There are probably a couple economic explanations for this, but I rather focus on the explanation that ecchi can be sexier than hentai by embodying the spirit of it better than hentai can. It is often told that hentai (And JAV fetishism in general) comes as a way of compensating for it's visual censorship by bringing the appeal elsewhere. In that way, isn't Ecchi the logical next step by foregoing the visual stimulation of explicit sex completely and having to focus even more in the fetish aspect of it? At least, that's what good ecchi was supposed to be.
The reality is that a lot of modern ecchi sucks. I say "modern", but it's been going like that for maybe a decade if not a bit more. For the modern the abstract idea of boobs and a butt (Usually badly drawn) seems to be enough, and I just can't stand that: I complained in the past how you used to have ecchi with characters that indeed seemed to be made of flesh and bones, muscle and sinew, a bit of fat where it mattered... but not today, and that "today" must be from at least early 2018 when I commented that while the uninformed opinion was that things like Killing Bites, with it's drawn abs and back muscles, where ubiquitous, they were really a rarity at the time (And, sadly, still are).
MahoAko isn't "state-of-the-art" in that visual aspect, but it's already above average (Hey, we can see the concavities in Utena's butt), but more than compensates for that in the "conceptual level" with it's fetish material, which brings us to our last subject.
It's Non-Ecchi Qualities
For an ecchi series, it's quite surprising how much of the art of it online is of the characters being either casual or lovey-dovey. MahoAko is an ecchi, but it isn't JUST an ecchi, with it's fanservice scenes often telling us something about our characters, one of my favorite examples being the (Anime original) scene of Kiwi being visited by Venalita when she's about post a photo of her naked online, or her tearing up after an "after-care" with Utena. All those scenes serve to further explore her personality and relationship with others, as someone who's in need to validation and becomes madly in love with the first person she thought brought her a form or true love.
MahoAko is FULL of such things, every character is interesting in their own way and form their own dynamics: Magenta pairs well with Korisu as the former is THE mahou shoujo ideal while the latter is just a kid that doesn't do anything she does out of any sense of malice, but rather of just wanting to play. Sulfur and Kiwi pair well as the former accepts the cynicism of having to play a character to maintain a nice image while the latter, being a villain, has the freedom to just express her (Arguably similar) personality — the "good side" is very exclusive, but the "evil side" has room for all!.
Finally, Azure pairs well with Utena as the former can't have the same cynicism as Sulfur to accept the farce of playing a character (MahoAko really works with the Idol Culture roots of mahou shoujo, after all), yet at the same time can't deal well with the fact that she's an imperfect hero with her own vices (Well, fetishes, in this case), while Utena, with the form of Magia Baiser, uses her own vices as her strength. Honestly, it's easier for me to just quote a thread I made about it at the time:
Though MahoAko currently sits at a 10/10 at the time of writing this blog post, it wasn't always like this: I either initially gave it an 8 or a 9, but with time had to give it a 10/10 after noticing that "Damn, it does have layers to it, huh?". There are also things such as the anime expanding certain things on the manga, having background characters well drawn and with character designs that could've easily have been part of the secondary cast (Shout-out to The Lady at the Fruit and Vegetable Store) (And believe me, that kind of thing is rare in anime), having good and interesting character designs in general or simply having good voice-acting.
All of them were already ed for in that eight or nine, what brought the ten, what made me realize such layers was... a Twitter post of a scene in the later episodes where Utena, untransformed, spreads Magia Azure's genitalia. My mind "activated" and started reflecting in the implications of the character dynamics in that scene in a way that is closer to poetry than an essay — Once more, it's simpler for me to just quote myself:
Considering that Selector Infected WIXOSS is my favorite anime, giving it a 10/10 was almost automatic after that.
Conclusion
Uhh, watch MahoAko, it's good, I like it quite a lot.
"Two years" is a special number: It's the time I learned, years ago, that it takes from an anime to begin being produced from zero and them finally reaching television.
Is this number correct? I don't have the slightest idea (Maybe it was two and a half?), but experience has showed me that it is indeed around this time.
There are exceptions, though: There are certain anime whose success is somewhat guaranteed, so the pre-production of future seasons is already advanced. I'm not talking about split-cour seasons here, but rather of things such as Shingeki no Kyojin, whose seasons after the first one seem to work in a similar way as American TV series.
I bring this number because if Sousou no Frieren is a no-brainer.
Many people must be asking themselves: How, and why did that happen? Unlike Frieren, MahoAko still sits at the 14th place in popularity in it's own season and 11th in score. Does this mean that MAL is a bad way to measure how relevant an anime actually is? Well, yes, but I assume you didn't come here for me to tell you obvious things.
I come here first and foremost as a fan of it to talk about three main points which I feel where responsible for it's success: It's cultural significance, it's ecchi qualities and it's non-ecchi qualities.
It's Cultural Significance
There's a famous Twitter artist which mostly does comedic anime art named Khyle (@khyleri), his bio used to say "Just a normal artist from 10 years ago".
I still think about that bio: What it essentially says it's that everything he draws, for as weird and offensive some people might think, it's essentially what was normal a decade ago, and "a decade ago", in historical , is yesterday. Hence, the offense is more in the eye of the beholder rather in the art (Or the artist) itself.
In that sense, MahoAko is "Just a normal anime from 15 years ago".
One of the things that brought mine (And I assume everyone else's) attention to it was it's sense of "shock", on how it was doing things you wouldn't assume an anime nowadays would do, it broke our metrics of "expected": When I watched those clips from the first and second episodes, I just knew that I had to watch it, I was compelled to.
Though it enters my "Trifecta of Shock" together with Vlad Love he likely accidentally went to the wrong room and did that instead). Yet, despite that, they are not REALLY made to offend as ends in themselves (OK, maybe Idaten is, just a little bit), they're not there as tools of some sort of culture war, they're there out of love, because they thought someone would really like that, just like anime from 15 years ago was just there out of love and the though someone might like them, and not a culture war.
MahoAko, therefore, is just doing the normal of the Golden Age of Ecchi, this begs us the reflection of why everything else ISN'T doing the normal of 15 years ago. Anime IS weird, it has to, it ought to, being weird is it's normal, no one would be here on MAL if normie programming was enough for us. MahoAko was there "to hold the line", to prevent the proliferation of some weird form of inverse purity-spiraling. If the objective art is to shock — not as an end on itself, but to shake society, bring some questions, bring reflections — then it is not as exaggeration to claim MahoAko as the most artistic anime of the decade: I often comment on how difficult it seems to bring any waves of cultural change to America because the "waves" never form, things just fizzling out after a single small change — The mainstream success of the Flintstones, the Jetsons or the Simpsons never led to a wave of teenage or adult animation in the west, nor did it brought a paradigm shift in that subject, it only did a small change in the form of "OK, animation is for children, EXCEPT if it's a sitcom", and that was it. It's successors might have gone further in the "adulting" of the format, but they all just stuck to the sitcom format, never challenging the most fundamental aspect of it.
Why did I get into this apparent digression? Because it's the same with their view of anime: "OK, OK, we accept your weird action series, BUT NO FURTHER THAN THAT, OK? ARE YOU LISTENING? HEY, STOP, COME BACK HERE, COME BACK HE-".
MahoAko "brought the rats out of their holes", it showed us who's into anime and who's a coward only interest in assumed "clout gains" by appropriating the aesthetic (And yes, I'm mainly talking about the people on TVTropes, screw TVTropes), and it did it all that without gaining a following of racist tourists like Frieren did.
It's Ecchi Qualities
Why does ecchi exists? Why not go straight for hentai instead? There are probably a couple economic explanations for this, but I rather focus on the explanation that ecchi can be sexier than hentai by embodying the spirit of it better than hentai can. It is often told that hentai (And JAV fetishism in general) comes as a way of compensating for it's visual censorship by bringing the appeal elsewhere. In that way, isn't Ecchi the logical next step by foregoing the visual stimulation of explicit sex completely and having to focus even more in the fetish aspect of it? At least, that's what good ecchi was supposed to be.
The reality is that a lot of modern ecchi sucks. I say "modern", but it's been going like that for maybe a decade if not a bit more. For the modern the abstract idea of boobs and a butt (Usually badly drawn) seems to be enough, and I just can't stand that: I complained in the past how you used to have ecchi with characters that indeed seemed to be made of flesh and bones, muscle and sinew, a bit of fat where it mattered... but not today, and that "today" must be from at least early 2018 when I commented that while the uninformed opinion was that things like Killing Bites, with it's drawn abs and back muscles, where ubiquitous, they were really a rarity at the time (And, sadly, still are).
MahoAko isn't "state-of-the-art" in that visual aspect, but it's already above average (Hey, we can see the concavities in Utena's butt), but more than compensates for that in the "conceptual level" with it's fetish material, which brings us to our last subject.
It's Non-Ecchi Qualities
For an ecchi series, it's quite surprising how much of the art of it online is of the characters being either casual or lovey-dovey. MahoAko is an ecchi, but it isn't JUST an ecchi, with it's fanservice scenes often telling us something about our characters, one of my favorite examples being the (Anime original) scene of Kiwi being visited by Venalita when she's about post a photo of her naked online, or her tearing up after an "after-care" with Utena. All those scenes serve to further explore her personality and relationship with others, as someone who's in need to validation and becomes madly in love with the first person she thought brought her a form or true love.
MahoAko is FULL of such things, every character is interesting in their own way and form their own dynamics: Magenta pairs well with Korisu as the former is THE mahou shoujo ideal while the latter is just a kid that doesn't do anything she does out of any sense of malice, but rather of just wanting to play. Sulfur and Kiwi pair well as the former accepts the cynicism of having to play a character to maintain a nice image while the latter, being a villain, has the freedom to just express her (Arguably similar) personality — the "good side" is very exclusive, but the "evil side" has room for all!.
Finally, Azure pairs well with Utena as the former can't have the same cynicism as Sulfur to accept the farce of playing a character (MahoAko really works with the Idol Culture roots of mahou shoujo, after all), yet at the same time can't deal well with the fact that she's an imperfect hero with her own vices (Well, fetishes, in this case), while Utena, with the form of Magia Baiser, uses her own vices as her strength. Honestly, it's easier for me to just quote a thread I made about it at the time:
thewiru said:
[M]ahoAko might beg the question "Isn't the entire point of it to threat Utena and Baiser as different people, like her dialogue with Kiwi implies?", but I see it as the other way around:
Magia Baiser is basically Utena with high T, an idealized version of her, the Batman to her Bruce Wayne. Magia Baiser initially acts like and avatar and an outlet to a subconscious part of Utena that she still doesn't understand very well, one which she can go "all out" without worrying about guilt or consequences for her actions (Though she will initially still feel massive guilt after the fact).
She is shown to be the only character where this seems to happen (Leoparde doesn't act different from Kiwi, nor Neroalice from Korisu), so Baiser is a way of her mind to cope with her desires and the shame she feels from them, similar to how IRL split-personalities are also often a way for someone to cope with something.
With time, however, we see the gap between the two "narrowing" (The scene where she Trans-Magia's from lust alone is very iconic in that regard), from reading S&M magazines in her spare time to also fantasizing about it. Magia Baiser continues to be "her ideal self" in regards to self-confidence and what not, but her sexual issue is mostly solved, in that way Baiser being an "expanded" version of Utena rather than a whole different person.
Her scene with Magia Azure on episode 8 being biggest example of that: Venalita was wrong, Utena DOES ire magical girls rather than just "thinking she does because of her sadistic fetish", her love for magical girls and her sadism are never at odds with one another, but rather COMPLEMENT one another.
The "kid Utena that screams "ganbare"" isn't absent inside Baiser, but rather you could say that Baiser is the grown up version of her: There's never a conflict inside Baiser between her sadism and her love for magical girls, therefore she never compromises anything. When there was a situation where one side conflicted with the other, she never, for a moment was conflicted with which side she should choose, but rather did it one a second as if she was decided on the answer her entire life (Because SHE WAS). Azure was the one with that problem, not her.
Rather than presenting sexuality as an issue that will lead one to ruin, Baiser acts like "a hero of it" and chastises Azure for failing at it. Keeping with the Batman analogy: Like like the Joker was wrong and "just one bad day" doesn't make anyone a villain, neither does sexuality.
The single exception the anime presents about it would be Utena's grades dropping because she just keeps reading porn, but in her defense I just call that "being a teenager".
[M]ahoAko might beg the question "Isn't the entire point of it to threat Utena and Baiser as different people, like her dialogue with Kiwi implies?", but I see it as the other way around:
Magia Baiser is basically Utena with high T, an idealized version of her, the Batman to her Bruce Wayne. Magia Baiser initially acts like and avatar and an outlet to a subconscious part of Utena that she still doesn't understand very well, one which she can go "all out" without worrying about guilt or consequences for her actions (Though she will initially still feel massive guilt after the fact).
She is shown to be the only character where this seems to happen (Leoparde doesn't act different from Kiwi, nor Neroalice from Korisu), so Baiser is a way of her mind to cope with her desires and the shame she feels from them, similar to how IRL split-personalities are also often a way for someone to cope with something.
With time, however, we see the gap between the two "narrowing" (The scene where she Trans-Magia's from lust alone is very iconic in that regard), from reading S&M magazines in her spare time to also fantasizing about it. Magia Baiser continues to be "her ideal self" in regards to self-confidence and what not, but her sexual issue is mostly solved, in that way Baiser being an "expanded" version of Utena rather than a whole different person.
Her scene with Magia Azure on episode 8 being biggest example of that: Venalita was wrong, Utena DOES ire magical girls rather than just "thinking she does because of her sadistic fetish", her love for magical girls and her sadism are never at odds with one another, but rather COMPLEMENT one another.
The "kid Utena that screams "ganbare"" isn't absent inside Baiser, but rather you could say that Baiser is the grown up version of her: There's never a conflict inside Baiser between her sadism and her love for magical girls, therefore she never compromises anything. When there was a situation where one side conflicted with the other, she never, for a moment was conflicted with which side she should choose, but rather did it one a second as if she was decided on the answer her entire life (Because SHE WAS). Azure was the one with that problem, not her.
Rather than presenting sexuality as an issue that will lead one to ruin, Baiser acts like "a hero of it" and chastises Azure for failing at it. Keeping with the Batman analogy: Like like the Joker was wrong and "just one bad day" doesn't make anyone a villain, neither does sexuality.
The single exception the anime presents about it would be Utena's grades dropping because she just keeps reading porn, but in her defense I just call that "being a teenager".
Though MahoAko currently sits at a 10/10 at the time of writing this blog post, it wasn't always like this: I either initially gave it an 8 or a 9, but with time had to give it a 10/10 after noticing that "Damn, it does have layers to it, huh?". There are also things such as the anime expanding certain things on the manga, having background characters well drawn and with character designs that could've easily have been part of the secondary cast (Shout-out to The Lady at the Fruit and Vegetable Store) (And believe me, that kind of thing is rare in anime), having good and interesting character designs in general or simply having good voice-acting.
All of them were already ed for in that eight or nine, what brought the ten, what made me realize such layers was... a Twitter post of a scene in the later episodes where Utena, untransformed, spreads Magia Azure's genitalia. My mind "activated" and started reflecting in the implications of the character dynamics in that scene in a way that is closer to poetry than an essay — Once more, it's simpler for me to just quote myself:
thewiru said:
A detail that is overlooked: Utena doesn't know that this is her classmate, nor is she "unbound" by the mask of transformation (For a disguise does not hide, it reveals).
From her point of view, she's a mortal sexually touching a divine being.
The "demon" motif she wears exists for a reason: She's corrupting divinity itself, perfection itself, Michelangelo's David in the form of a cute girl.
For her to realize it was Sayo would be akin to figure out that you "accidentally dropped a bomb on your own people".
The closest analogy I can muster (That isn't simply a hentai doujin where a character realizes they unknowingly raped a relative) would probably be Renton's arc in Eureka Seven where he realized "Oh wait, I've been killing actual people whenever I destroyed a mecha all this time".
The extremely expressive art of the manga can be summarized in a single word/concept: "Ecstasy".
A "divine being" is something Utena doesn't have to hold herself back, she can go all out 100% of the time.
Reminds me of the Ruuko-Iona dynamic in Selector Infected WIXOSS.
A detail that is overlooked: Utena doesn't know that this is her classmate, nor is she "unbound" by the mask of transformation (For a disguise does not hide, it reveals).
From her point of view, she's a mortal sexually touching a divine being.
Twitter Mutual said:
That layer is great because the implication is that she would feel absolutely terrible once she realizes it's Sayo.
RIGHT?That layer is great because the implication is that she would feel absolutely terrible once she realizes it's Sayo.
The "demon" motif she wears exists for a reason: She's corrupting divinity itself, perfection itself, Michelangelo's David in the form of a cute girl.
For her to realize it was Sayo would be akin to figure out that you "accidentally dropped a bomb on your own people".
The closest analogy I can muster (That isn't simply a hentai doujin where a character realizes they unknowingly raped a relative) would probably be Renton's arc in Eureka Seven where he realized "Oh wait, I've been killing actual people whenever I destroyed a mecha all this time".
The extremely expressive art of the manga can be summarized in a single word/concept: "Ecstasy".
A "divine being" is something Utena doesn't have to hold herself back, she can go all out 100% of the time.
Reminds me of the Ruuko-Iona dynamic in Selector Infected WIXOSS.
Twitter Mutual said:
"you want it, but WHICH you really wants it"
"you want it, but WHICH you really wants it"
Considering that Selector Infected WIXOSS is my favorite anime, giving it a 10/10 was almost automatic after that.
Conclusion
Uhh, watch MahoAko, it's good, I like it quite a lot.
Posted by 0 comments
April 11th, 2025
"Show, Don't Tell": How to do it, and how not to do it.
Anime Relations: Kowloon Generic Romance
"Show, Don't Tell" is a term so overused in analysis... yet so misunderstood.
Most people tend to think it means "dialogue = bad", which isn't exactly true — in fact, I'm of the opinion that focusing in this aspect will inevitably lead to a mistake.
"Show, Don't Tell" is more of a good directive that will save you from a lot of issues while writing, mainly pacing ones, and it does so by making you absorb important information without having to downright tell you everything.
If I were to pick one anime to represent what "Peak SDT" is, it would likely be Shinseiki Evangelion, as you would often leave an episode learning a lot about the characters, their relationships and the world from mostly small actions and the sort.
Considering that at the time of writing this text we're starting the Kowloon Generic Romance is probably the one that wins the gold medal here. It's difficult to put into words, but it has a nice way of focusing the more slice-of-life and romance parts while drip-feeding us the more supernatural/sci-fi elements from mostly background elements, certain phrases during conversation.
Then there are the ones that fail at it, each in their own way:
Rock wa Lady no Tashinami deshite's second episode fails at it by "not trusting the audience": While it's first episode was pretty good, it's second one spends most of it's time telling us things that we already knew from episode one if we were attentive, which mostly results in a 80% redundant episode, an 80% which you could just remove.
If you're paying attention, small things such as the Episode 1 scene where Lilisa gets told by her mother that is improper for her to be yawning loudly, and having her step-sister be annoyed in the background tells everything about the relationships between these characters — Lilisa respects her mother and doesn't want her to be worried about her, Lilisa's mother cares about her, and Lilisa's step-sister despises her and doesn't see her as an equal.
If you could grasp this from episode 1, as you should, then a similar scene in episode two where Lilisa's step-sister expresses her disdain for her and the Lilisa speaks with her mother should seem totally redundant: Sure, the order of events is inverted here, but we don't really learn anything new nor progress anything.
And that's not an isolated case, the second episode is full of moments like these, moments that could've been better used if you believe in the "Show" (Pun not intended) you gave in episode 1, instead of backing out and giving an unnecessary "Tell" in episode 2.
I can understand Rock wa Lady no Tashinami deshite has no excuses. In fact, both ended up stumbling in the same issue: Due to wasting too much time on that, the episode had to end at the best part.
Those, however, aren't the worst offenders... that award goes to Lazarus. It doesn't fail at EVERYTHING at it — in fact, it succeeds at it by making us understanding the personality and abilities of our main protagonist by sheer action.
It fails at something else: We have entire scenes where characters and TV programs have to explicitly tell us that the world is in a massive crisis, that are riots and chaos everywhere.
The reason this is a failure is because if we weren't told that, we would've easily conclude the opposite: None of the scenes really show us any level of chaos nor crisis. The students in the college class seen mostly unfazed by it, the people we see in the street seem to be continuing their daily lives as normal as well.
There's a clear dissonance (And not an intentional one) between the satanic flash-mobs we're seeing on TV and the streets we're seeing with our own eyes.
That's the core issue that "Show, Don't Tell" fights against: Screwing up your presentation and having to waste time cleaning up your own mess later.
Most people tend to think it means "dialogue = bad", which isn't exactly true — in fact, I'm of the opinion that focusing in this aspect will inevitably lead to a mistake.
"Show, Don't Tell" is more of a good directive that will save you from a lot of issues while writing, mainly pacing ones, and it does so by making you absorb important information without having to downright tell you everything.
If I were to pick one anime to represent what "Peak SDT" is, it would likely be Shinseiki Evangelion, as you would often leave an episode learning a lot about the characters, their relationships and the world from mostly small actions and the sort.
Considering that at the time of writing this text we're starting the Kowloon Generic Romance is probably the one that wins the gold medal here. It's difficult to put into words, but it has a nice way of focusing the more slice-of-life and romance parts while drip-feeding us the more supernatural/sci-fi elements from mostly background elements, certain phrases during conversation.
Then there are the ones that fail at it, each in their own way:
Rock wa Lady no Tashinami deshite's second episode fails at it by "not trusting the audience": While it's first episode was pretty good, it's second one spends most of it's time telling us things that we already knew from episode one if we were attentive, which mostly results in a 80% redundant episode, an 80% which you could just remove.
If you're paying attention, small things such as the Episode 1 scene where Lilisa gets told by her mother that is improper for her to be yawning loudly, and having her step-sister be annoyed in the background tells everything about the relationships between these characters — Lilisa respects her mother and doesn't want her to be worried about her, Lilisa's mother cares about her, and Lilisa's step-sister despises her and doesn't see her as an equal.
If you could grasp this from episode 1, as you should, then a similar scene in episode two where Lilisa's step-sister expresses her disdain for her and the Lilisa speaks with her mother should seem totally redundant: Sure, the order of events is inverted here, but we don't really learn anything new nor progress anything.
And that's not an isolated case, the second episode is full of moments like these, moments that could've been better used if you believe in the "Show" (Pun not intended) you gave in episode 1, instead of backing out and giving an unnecessary "Tell" in episode 2.
I can understand Rock wa Lady no Tashinami deshite has no excuses. In fact, both ended up stumbling in the same issue: Due to wasting too much time on that, the episode had to end at the best part.
Those, however, aren't the worst offenders... that award goes to Lazarus. It doesn't fail at EVERYTHING at it — in fact, it succeeds at it by making us understanding the personality and abilities of our main protagonist by sheer action.
It fails at something else: We have entire scenes where characters and TV programs have to explicitly tell us that the world is in a massive crisis, that are riots and chaos everywhere.
The reason this is a failure is because if we weren't told that, we would've easily conclude the opposite: None of the scenes really show us any level of chaos nor crisis. The students in the college class seen mostly unfazed by it, the people we see in the street seem to be continuing their daily lives as normal as well.
There's a clear dissonance (And not an intentional one) between the satanic flash-mobs we're seeing on TV and the streets we're seeing with our own eyes.
That's the core issue that "Show, Don't Tell" fights against: Screwing up your presentation and having to waste time cleaning up your own mess later.
Posted by 1 comments
March 23rd, 2025
Never say that an anime shouldn't TRY.
Anime Relations: 16bit Sensation: Another Layer
Recently I've visited older versions of my MAL profile using the Wayback Machine.
In mid-2017 I have the first description of how I rated anime and what each of my scores meant. I likely did so at the time because I felt that other people might interpret other things from the scores I gave.
What caught my attention while revisiting it was a particular term that I used to describe what I scored 8/10:
"META", what did I mean by that term?
If I had to guess, I likely meant it to separate a class of anime of it's own, anime that were "different" from all the others, that broke the mold in some way, shape or form.
To this day I still maintain the thought that anime I give an 8 or below "if of the realm of the mortals", and everything above it can only be described in of poetry rather than logical speaking... which is why I could never predict that 16bit Sensation: Another Layer would be the one ing it's ranks.
The reason is quite simple: I expected it to simply be an anime where cute girls work on a single game from 13 episodes straight, something that I would give a 6/10 at best.
Even after the first episode, I simply refused to accept it: "Oh, the time-travel shenanigans are there for the premise of someone from the modern times doing an old game to work, it's like an isekai", and it was only after some more episodes, when Kotoha, our protagonist, goes back to the present that it landed me: "Wait... this is actually good".
That factor alone, the full use of a mechanic instead of it only being relegated to a convenient plot device, already did put it on a category above the rest and made me question how I was even accepting anything less than that. At some point I even began joking that what it lacked to be a 10/10 was, similar to Mahoujin Guruguru (2017) 's Episode 20, an episode that was different from all the rest, was differently directed, seemed more silent, more reflexive, had a different vibe... Hah, like that would happen, it didn't fit the anime.
It happened.
To this day, the only reason 16bit Sensation doesn't get a 10/10 is by having a weak ending that could've been solved by having a single extra episode.
Which is why it drives me insane that whenever I read or hear someone criticizing this anime, the very two aspects I consider to make it good are the prime targets: The time-travel and the "different" episode 8.
At this point I just ask people: Why do you even watch anime?
If one simply wanted a CGDCT anime of girls making games, they could've simply watched New Game . If they simply wanted a CGDCT anime of girls doing... anything, then well, there's a whole category of that.
And if that person already watched the aforementioned, then it begs the question as to why they would just repeat the same experience... again.
It all sort of fits with the anime premise, that outside of both players and writers now pivoting to Light Novels and Gacha, the reason for the Visual Novel's industry's downfall was the fact no more big ambitious projects were being made, but rather just the repetition of what was generic. This in turn created a deadlock: Companies won't try to make ambitious projects and will default to safe ones if the industry keeps falling, and the industry will keep falling until someone does ambitious projects.
Watching bad anime makes me appreciate more the good anime I've watched in the past and give them higher scores. Watching good anime makes me "know the value of one" and decrease the score of those who are mediocre, because you can always be better, and the common trend of those who are mediocre isn't "failing at something", it's "not even trying", it's lacking having even a thing to fail at.
The main message of Black★Rock Shooter (TV)) is that trying to connect with others can fail, can hurt, but it is still worth the risk or the pain over the alternative, which is to never connect to someone at all.
Perhaps the fear of having to give something less than a 5/10 (And I'm being generous here) makes people be afraid of risks, afraid of something being different, it makes them beg "Please, just be something that I'll give a 7/10, don't risk being turned into a 4/10". It was because of those people that I had to explain my scores to begin with and leave it very explicit that a 6/10 is something that I have a lot of positive things to talk about.
A world where people might hate the tone and over-the-topness of Shin Cutie Honey is still preferable to a world where we simply got another batch of episodes of the original.
So please, never complain that an anime tried something different, even if they failed at it. Instead, ask why the anime you're watching ISN'T trying something different, and if it isn't, does it really deserve your top spots?
Because an anime that tried to be someones favorite, someone's 10/10 even if it failed at it, will always be more worth of respect than an anime which never intended to be more than a 7/10.
In mid-2017 I have the first description of how I rated anime and what each of my scores meant. I likely did so at the time because I felt that other people might interpret other things from the scores I gave.
What caught my attention while revisiting it was a particular term that I used to describe what I scored 8/10:
Anime i consider top quality, but without being "META", otherwise would be a 9 or a 10.
"META", what did I mean by that term?
If I had to guess, I likely meant it to separate a class of anime of it's own, anime that were "different" from all the others, that broke the mold in some way, shape or form.
To this day I still maintain the thought that anime I give an 8 or below "if of the realm of the mortals", and everything above it can only be described in of poetry rather than logical speaking... which is why I could never predict that 16bit Sensation: Another Layer would be the one ing it's ranks.
The reason is quite simple: I expected it to simply be an anime where cute girls work on a single game from 13 episodes straight, something that I would give a 6/10 at best.
Even after the first episode, I simply refused to accept it: "Oh, the time-travel shenanigans are there for the premise of someone from the modern times doing an old game to work, it's like an isekai", and it was only after some more episodes, when Kotoha, our protagonist, goes back to the present that it landed me: "Wait... this is actually good".
That factor alone, the full use of a mechanic instead of it only being relegated to a convenient plot device, already did put it on a category above the rest and made me question how I was even accepting anything less than that. At some point I even began joking that what it lacked to be a 10/10 was, similar to Mahoujin Guruguru (2017) 's Episode 20, an episode that was different from all the rest, was differently directed, seemed more silent, more reflexive, had a different vibe... Hah, like that would happen, it didn't fit the anime.
It happened.
To this day, the only reason 16bit Sensation doesn't get a 10/10 is by having a weak ending that could've been solved by having a single extra episode.
Which is why it drives me insane that whenever I read or hear someone criticizing this anime, the very two aspects I consider to make it good are the prime targets: The time-travel and the "different" episode 8.
At this point I just ask people: Why do you even watch anime?
If one simply wanted a CGDCT anime of girls making games, they could've simply watched New Game . If they simply wanted a CGDCT anime of girls doing... anything, then well, there's a whole category of that.
And if that person already watched the aforementioned, then it begs the question as to why they would just repeat the same experience... again.
It all sort of fits with the anime premise, that outside of both players and writers now pivoting to Light Novels and Gacha, the reason for the Visual Novel's industry's downfall was the fact no more big ambitious projects were being made, but rather just the repetition of what was generic. This in turn created a deadlock: Companies won't try to make ambitious projects and will default to safe ones if the industry keeps falling, and the industry will keep falling until someone does ambitious projects.
Watching bad anime makes me appreciate more the good anime I've watched in the past and give them higher scores. Watching good anime makes me "know the value of one" and decrease the score of those who are mediocre, because you can always be better, and the common trend of those who are mediocre isn't "failing at something", it's "not even trying", it's lacking having even a thing to fail at.
The main message of Black★Rock Shooter (TV)) is that trying to connect with others can fail, can hurt, but it is still worth the risk or the pain over the alternative, which is to never connect to someone at all.
Perhaps the fear of having to give something less than a 5/10 (And I'm being generous here) makes people be afraid of risks, afraid of something being different, it makes them beg "Please, just be something that I'll give a 7/10, don't risk being turned into a 4/10". It was because of those people that I had to explain my scores to begin with and leave it very explicit that a 6/10 is something that I have a lot of positive things to talk about.
A world where people might hate the tone and over-the-topness of Shin Cutie Honey is still preferable to a world where we simply got another batch of episodes of the original.
So please, never complain that an anime tried something different, even if they failed at it. Instead, ask why the anime you're watching ISN'T trying something different, and if it isn't, does it really deserve your top spots?
Because an anime that tried to be someones favorite, someone's 10/10 even if it failed at it, will always be more worth of respect than an anime which never intended to be more than a 7/10.
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