Well here we are, another Sunday and that can only mean another instalment of Otaku Digest. So far I think we can all agree the winter season has been very fruitful for new anime series, although there have been no real heavy hitters yet we are hopeful and enjoying what we have. I know most people are holding out for the long awaited Attack on Titan season 2, but here on Otaku Digest we are only looking at first and new series that come out of every season.
For now however we have a new line up of anime to sink our teeth into this week, we have Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm, Ajin and Boku Dake ga Inai Machi.
Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm
First we have the school, romance and sci-fi anime Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm or AOKANA: Four Rhythm Across the Blue which originally aired on January 12. This anime brings us to a group of four islands to the very far south of Japan. It is like entering a different world compared to modern day Japan, with the discovery of the anti-gravitons brought forward the need to create special anti-gravity shoes which will give people the ability to fly. This opens a new world to people who now can fly high with just their own body strength with no need of engines or even wings, this new experience has led to the introduction and rise of a new sport called Flying Circus. Our protagonist who once had big dreams for their future in the sport has experienced a setback withdrawing almost completely from the sport. That is until he meets Asuka Kurashina the transfer students who he teaches how to fly and in doing so, begins to remember his love for the sport.
First I adore the idea of this anime, where yes it does seem to be any generic school anime with a clever draw of the anti-gravitation shoes and in reality is just that the idea is done very well. The first episode focuses heavily on the main character introductions and getting to know one another while in a simple way explaining the mechanics of the anti-gravitation shoes. It is a usual trope for these anime to have extremely annoying main characters and although in this she does hit every single annoying main girl in anime trope imaginable, she is loud, annoying and completely clueless but there is something very endearing about her character. This reminds me of characters like Sailor Moon who are annoying but have great qualities that make them more appealing. In this case she will stand up for others even when she has no leg to stand on. This was an extremely well done introductory episode to the entire series where not too much was given away but yet we were provided with little snippets of each character and possible story navigation, always leaving you wanting more.
Will I Continue to Watch: Yes! The characters and story are interesting and seems to be going somewhere interesting!
Ajin
Next we have Ajin the horror, adventure, mystery, seinen and supernatural anime which is adapted from the manga of the same name. Ajin already had a film version back in November 2015 which is set to be a film trilogy with the sequel set for release sometime in 2016. We will only be focusing on the anime series here which first aired on January 16. Everyone wants to be immortal right? That is sort of the dream, to live forever but for high school student Kei it is the nightmare. He and up to forty six others learn that immortality will be the worst surprise ever. They are ‘Ajin’ and they are seen as a rare and peculiar specimen by the general public and by the governments of the world. So they are hunted down and taken captive so that scientists can examine and experiment on them for the rest of their lives, they must literally die a thousand deaths in the name of humanity.
What is there to say about this anime, it is a piece of art from start to finish. Let’s talk about the visually spectacular animation used to bring this dark world to life. I say ‘dark world’ but it is really just a darker version of our reality. The animation is an interesting use of CGI based animation we have grown used to in recent anime but where those ones come off as harsh and jarring this has a far more arty and fluid feel to the animation and movement. This is mainly seen with the characters who we don’t really have a whole lot of story for bar our main protagonist Kei and a little depth into the Ajin themselves. Something I found particular interesting in this anime was the use of colour or more so the lack there of. There are no stand out colours used in the episode focusing mainly on low tones nearing sepia or straight out black and white, the characters are similar in the sense of there is nothing stand out about them, they are generic all round which weirdly makes the series more based on a real setting and people. Also the music that they used in this episode from the opening theme to the Ajin theme when they are revealed is outstanding and on point at every turn of the episode matching the tone of the scenes perfectly.
Will I Continue to Watch: Yes, yes and more yes! This episode was gripping and enthralling from start to end
Boku Dake ga Inai Machi
Lastly this week we have the mystery, seinen, thriller, supernatural and psychological anime Boku Dake ga Inai Machi , which is far more commonly known as ERASED and has been adapted from the manga of the same name. It began airing on January 8. Life can be hard. Not only is our protagonist (Satoru Fujinuma) a 29 year old manga artist who is finding it difficult to make a name for himself in the industry, but he also has a special but very frustrating gift. He has the ability to go back in time, with a catch. It’s more like he is forced back in time to stop deaths and disasters before they happen and must continue to do so until the incident is stopped. That is until after one accident where he winds up as the murder suspect. In a desperate attempt to save this victim he forces himself back in time but winds up at his grade school, a month before one of his classmates went missing, he takes it upon himself to solve the mystery of her disappearance.
Out of this week’s anime this is the one I had heard the most about from other anime fans, for the majority it was positive things that were being said but I could not help but feel when they told me the summary of the anime that I had heard this somewhere before and it did verge on being very close to the Homura story from Madoka Magica, I looked forward to seeing what it was like myself and it really did hold its own. Something that in my opinion went against this anime is the quite slow pace, although I can see they were going for that darker serious anime tone but it did come off as slightly boring at times as it was drawn out with long pauses. Leaving that out as it is more of a pet peeve of mine, this anime actually held itself really well and more importantly really kept the suspense up for the entire episode which is obviously a necessity for any mystery anime. Interestingly enough this episodes ends on the start of the main story where he is back in his child self’s body but the most interesting character of this episode was the mother and her own investigations. Outside the story there was no real character development even for the protagonist bar his looking deep in himself for content for his manga but in reality he needs to look at his life and past to solve the mystery at hand.
Will I Continue to Watch: Yes, I now need to know what happens and see this mystery play out!
