Anime and Manga
I suppose it's worth commenting on a few things I've read/watched lately...
Gate - Jietai Kare no Chi nite, Kaku Tatakeri (not to be confused with the various other series with "Gate" in the name) was recommended to me, and I'd seen mention of it because the anime based on the manga started this season, I believe. I settled for the manga, though.
A portal to a fantasy world opens up in Tokyo and an army invades. The JSDF fairly quickly beats back the army, goes through the gate, and establishes a foothold base. From there, the story settles in and centers primarily around one officer assigned as head of a recon team, and those fantasy-locals that he draws in.
I find the idea interesting, and the juxtaposition is a solid foundation to explore. The modern military force, even one as comparably limited as Japan's defense force, has an absolutely crushing advantage over an army built around spear men and knights. Magic can provide an edge, but it seems pretty rare. Really the only things that hold up are a divine avatar of war and a dragon. The story paints the politics on both sides of the gate as messy quagmires of questionable morality - the fantasy folk are constantly trying to manipulate anything to their advantage to conquer while Japan has to deal with pressure from other nations wanting in on a world of possible new resources. Japan itself has some internal conflict about it, but the front the JSDF poses is (perhaps excessively) forgiving and peaceful. Realistic in some ways, though perhaps extreme in others.
Overall, it's pretty neat to see and a decent scifi/fantasy crossover story. Though it does seem to be starting to stray into harem territory as all the close fantasy characters drawn to the protagonist are female, and that bugs me a bit.
Akame ga Kill! mostly came to my attention because Cartoon Network started airing the anime recently. I caught an episode that was interesting enough I went and looked up the manga on that too.
This one's much more "grounded" in fantasy, following a country kid on his way to the imperial capital to make money for his home town. In short order, the corruption of the empire is revealed there, and he falls in with the so-called Night Raid - a group of assassins working for a rebel army intent on unseating the (very evil) prime minister behind the child ruler. So the "good guys" of the story are a bunch of killers. They're fairly moral in their choice of targets, but most of them harbor no illusions about their methods being peaceful. We also get to see some of the people on the other side, defending the empire, and they range from evil/insane to duty-bound to idealistic. Throw in the existence of the magical "teigu," items of various powers created at the height of the empire, and you have these assassins (and many of their opponents) tossing around superhuman abilities in battle. Honestly, the vibe of the corrupt empire and the forces at play make me think of Exalted.
It says something that the manga is tagged "Tragedy." People die on both sides, and characters have to deal with that. The series isn't done, though things do seem to be coming to a head. So far, it's been a compelling read for me, though might not suit everyone.
Psycho Pass 2 is something I was probably locked in to watching eventually after seeing the first season. As expected, it last the impact of the origin, but it does manage to find a bit more ground to explore.
The newbie Inspector has become the mentor with a new member who's very by-the-book. The new villain mastermind is a little harder for me to accept, but not quite so much so that it broke my immersion. And while Sybil and the system in general are forced to face and overcome a design limitation, really only one of the two big holes presented is resolved.
Sybil learned to deal with group minds, including itself, which is good, but... the series totally misses the problem of how blatant criminals avoid detection and enforcement through "a combination of meditation and tailored drugs." That still seems like a massive flaw to me. Even if not many people can figure out how to do that, the series just showed how much damage a single person can do when they can behave like a wild serial killer without their psycho pass score going up.
The original series left me thinking that Akane is "criminally asymptomatic" herself, as she seemed to go through stressful situations without her score spiking. This second series... seems to hint that she's just well adjusted. Not enough to refute my earlier theory, but enough to question it.
So... not as good and thought-provoking as the first season, but not bad.
Gate - Jietai Kare no Chi nite, Kaku Tatakeri (not to be confused with the various other series with "Gate" in the name) was recommended to me, and I'd seen mention of it because the anime based on the manga started this season, I believe. I settled for the manga, though.
A portal to a fantasy world opens up in Tokyo and an army invades. The JSDF fairly quickly beats back the army, goes through the gate, and establishes a foothold base. From there, the story settles in and centers primarily around one officer assigned as head of a recon team, and those fantasy-locals that he draws in.
I find the idea interesting, and the juxtaposition is a solid foundation to explore. The modern military force, even one as comparably limited as Japan's defense force, has an absolutely crushing advantage over an army built around spear men and knights. Magic can provide an edge, but it seems pretty rare. Really the only things that hold up are a divine avatar of war and a dragon. The story paints the politics on both sides of the gate as messy quagmires of questionable morality - the fantasy folk are constantly trying to manipulate anything to their advantage to conquer while Japan has to deal with pressure from other nations wanting in on a world of possible new resources. Japan itself has some internal conflict about it, but the front the JSDF poses is (perhaps excessively) forgiving and peaceful. Realistic in some ways, though perhaps extreme in others.
Overall, it's pretty neat to see and a decent scifi/fantasy crossover story. Though it does seem to be starting to stray into harem territory as all the close fantasy characters drawn to the protagonist are female, and that bugs me a bit.
Akame ga Kill! mostly came to my attention because Cartoon Network started airing the anime recently. I caught an episode that was interesting enough I went and looked up the manga on that too.
This one's much more "grounded" in fantasy, following a country kid on his way to the imperial capital to make money for his home town. In short order, the corruption of the empire is revealed there, and he falls in with the so-called Night Raid - a group of assassins working for a rebel army intent on unseating the (very evil) prime minister behind the child ruler. So the "good guys" of the story are a bunch of killers. They're fairly moral in their choice of targets, but most of them harbor no illusions about their methods being peaceful. We also get to see some of the people on the other side, defending the empire, and they range from evil/insane to duty-bound to idealistic. Throw in the existence of the magical "teigu," items of various powers created at the height of the empire, and you have these assassins (and many of their opponents) tossing around superhuman abilities in battle. Honestly, the vibe of the corrupt empire and the forces at play make me think of Exalted.
It says something that the manga is tagged "Tragedy." People die on both sides, and characters have to deal with that. The series isn't done, though things do seem to be coming to a head. So far, it's been a compelling read for me, though might not suit everyone.
Psycho Pass 2 is something I was probably locked in to watching eventually after seeing the first season. As expected, it last the impact of the origin, but it does manage to find a bit more ground to explore.
The newbie Inspector has become the mentor with a new member who's very by-the-book. The new villain mastermind is a little harder for me to accept, but not quite so much so that it broke my immersion. And while Sybil and the system in general are forced to face and overcome a design limitation, really only one of the two big holes presented is resolved.
Sybil learned to deal with group minds, including itself, which is good, but... the series totally misses the problem of how blatant criminals avoid detection and enforcement through "a combination of meditation and tailored drugs." That still seems like a massive flaw to me. Even if not many people can figure out how to do that, the series just showed how much damage a single person can do when they can behave like a wild serial killer without their psycho pass score going up.
The original series left me thinking that Akane is "criminally asymptomatic" herself, as she seemed to go through stressful situations without her score spiking. This second series... seems to hint that she's just well adjusted. Not enough to refute my earlier theory, but enough to question it.
So... not as good and thought-provoking as the first season, but not bad.
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