Tag: robots

Anime Review: ‘Darling in the FRANXX’

Where “riding a giant robot” takes on a new meaning.

Darling in the FRANXX, written by Naotaki Hayashi, et al. Directed by Atsushi Nishigori. Starring Yûto Uemura, Kana Ichinose, and Nanami Yamashita. A-1 Pictures / Trigger, . 24 episodes of 24 minutes (approx. ). Not rated.

Available on Crunchyroll.

Darling in the FRANXX made a stir when it appeared in , though most of the buzz that reached my ears had little to do with the quality of the show itself. On the one hand, I saw people praising it because they regarded its heroine, a girl called Zero Two, as good waifu material—humorous, of course, but not serious criticism. On the other hand, and much more bizarre, I saw people attacking it because the show’s ultimate message is (gasp) that marrying and having children might be worthwhile things to do.

It is a strange world where such a message is controversial, yet here we are.
Continue reading “Anime Review: ‘Darling in the FRANXX’”

Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episode 7

Key: The Metal Idol, episode 7, “Run.” Written and directed by Hiroaki Satō. Produced by Shigehiro Suzuki and Atsushi Tanuma. Music by Tamiya Terashima. Studio Pierrot, 1994-1996. 13 episodes and 2 movies. Rated 16+.

Available on Crunchyroll.

Man, this show can be brutal. The first third of this episode is an extremely bloody and magnificently directed action sequence. So far, I’m consistently astonished at how good this show is: Arresting imagery, compelling story, intriguing characters. It’s a brooding nail-biter.

This episode continues from the cliffhanger of the episode previous: Sergei, the stone-cold killer working for Ajo Heavy Industries, has marched into a meeting of a snake cult and begun killing everyone to get to Key, who’s currently unconscious after performing an apparently miraculous healing. Key’s longtime bodyguard Wakagi shows up, and he and Sergei proceed to seriously maim each other. Prince Snake-eye, foolish yet sympathetically portrayed, tries to intervene—and pays for it.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episode 7”

Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episodes 2 and 3

Key: The Metal Idol, episodes 2–3, “Cursor,” Parts 1 and 2. Written and directed by Hiroaki Satō. Produced by Shigehiro Suzuki and Atsushi Tanuma. Music by Tamiya Terashima. Studio Pierrot, 1994-1996. 13 episodes and 2 movies. Rated 16+.

Available on Crunchyroll.

Critics of Key: The Metal Idol often complain that it is a slow-moving show, and they’re not wrong. We’re already three episodes in (episodes 2 and 3 are a two-parter, sort of), and the story line still hasn’t taken off. However, the visuals are arresting, and there are enough intriguing details that it doesn’t feel sluggish.

Key holds a bouquet and lies on a park bench
Key being sluggish.

Sakura, the best friend Key improbably ran into while in Tokyo, has taken Key into her apartment. What brought Sakura to Tokyo in the first place, we aren’t told, but she survives there by working numerous part-time jobs. After an evening of pizza delivery, she works all night at a video rental.

The sleazy pornographer we met in the first episode comes after her, though less aggressively than the first episode’s cliffhanger implied he would. As it turns out, he not only photographs naked children in his bedroom, but also works for a corporation that produces music idols. He wants Sakura to sign on and is willing to harass her until she agrees. Although tempted by the money, she turns him down, and she has a male orbiter named Tataki with a knowledge of martial arts who’s able to drive the sleazeball off.

Continue reading “Review: ‘Key: The Metal Idol,’ Episodes 2 and 3”

The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers, Part 7

FIRST | PREVIOUS | NEXT

Chapter 7: Ill-Met by Moonlight

Now began another hard march through the forest in pouring rain. After the kids struggled back into their wet clothes, they trudged, often through ankle-deep mud, into the inky darkness. Rain poured in miniature waterfalls down the broad leaves of the forest’s understory. Men marched with them, men on every side in saturated green fatigues, each with an AK-47 in his arms, each snarling in French too quickly for Nancy to follow. Lightning flashed overhead, and thunder roared like the end of the world. Now and then, one of the girls stumbled, and then she got a cold gun barrel against her back—or else a buttstock made a sharp, wet thwack as it stung her shoulders. Twice, Junie B. flexed her raw, burned hands and looked ready to start something. Both times, Cam calmly laid a hand on her arm.

Judy cradled Mouse and tried in vain to shelter the cat from the rain. Droplets hung off the ends of Mouse’s whiskers. The cat’s fur was matted, and her eyes were half-lidded with misery. Finally, too big to carry, padded alongside Amelia, who had to pull the dog out whenever she unwittingly plunged into one of the deep pools that marked the dark, uneven ground.

The thunder made Nancy jump. Whenever she did so, she compulsively clutched Judy’s sleeve, which only made her more irritated and embarrassed. And she wasn’t the only one in an ugly temper: she could see that Judy’s ring was pitch black, darker even than the night that surrounded them.

It was obvious that she, Judy Moody, was in a mood. Not a good mood. A bad mood. A mad-face mood. A forced-to-march-through-the-jungle-at-gunpoint-in-a-thunderstorm mood. Continue reading “The League of Extraordinary Grade-Schoolers, Part 7”