A link to Part 3.
"Guilty" Pleasures of the Year
"Guilty" pleasures is not a term I use, in that even with a work I realise is bad technically, my joy is always sincere. "Guilty" for me usually denotes, if the term has to be used, work which I find a great deal of virtue in but have undefendable content. Here, for this year, a lot of this is problematic gender politics or sex humour, with the top production on this a franchise where I completely understand if people held it as just offensive. All of them however are works for me with actual virtue, hence why this section has to exist.
Birth (1984) among them is not in this category however. Its sin is its strange and plodding pace. It is not a "great" production but aesthetically distinct and strange, it was a pleasing misfire. Closer to the above paragraph however is Futari Ecchi (2002-4), an erotic comedy based on a manga as much as sex manual for couples. Honestly the only reason it is problematic is that the final episode does skirt around its male protagonist's jealously of his wife taking a job not as well as it should, even if it does have other female characters call him out for this. Alongside being an early 2000s anime which has not aged well in animation, the only guilt really should be if you feel prudish about how much nudity and sex this non-pornography sex comedy has. It is for the most part a sex positive OVA, even if clearly made for a male target audience, which is charming and trying to be positive on sexuality in an admirable way.
Nurse Witch Komugi (2002-4) has to be questioned as the sex comedy is closer to that which we were mentioning in the first paragraph. The jokes of the cute bunny mascot spying on the female lead and her friends bathing has not aged well, as is the close up skin shots, but this is still a funny magical girl parody for me which got a lot right. Even another of its flaws, it's over reliance on anime references for jokes, does not undermine when it was funny. That this has appeared a lot throughout these articles so far does say a lot to how well it stuck for me in spite of its flaws.
Electromagnetic Girlfriend (2009) has many problematic points unfortunately. In the second of its two episodes, part of the narrative includes the male lead being falsely accused of touching a girl unwarranted on a train, which post-MeToo movement in more a contentious plot point to use when false claims of sexual misconduct and rape has been used to try to silence victims. One episode's plot point involves Stockholm Syndrome with rape, and both episodes involve mentally disturbed female characters as antagonists. In spite of all this however, all worthy to be questioned, Electromagnetic Girlfriend is actually a great idea for a longer work which I wished could have been fleshed out, with these attempts at being more adult which are to be questioned, or at least be more readily available as it is. Your lead is the typical, if more interesting, male protagonist, but you have an eccentric female lead claiming to be a reincarnation of a knight who will serve him like a king, whose mental faculties are questioned, to the point her young sister is tagging along in case he exploits her, but is frankly supernatural when she can suddenly appear when he is in danger or needs help to protect him. Taking the premise of these episodes of an odd couple having to tackle really grim mysteries - the first a serial killer horrifically targeting women when it rains, the other the mobile phone game which encourages people to cause real suffering to others in dares - a strange balance between the eccentric and exceptionally dark is here that worked, and is a great premise to exploit.
Much more problematic, yet with the fact there is an incredible lore and world nonetheless within it, Urotsukidôji is a difficult franchise to defend. I will not kid readers that, whilst it has so much that lingers, there is a reason this was such a notorious franchise people have a right to accuse as misogynistic, as unfortunately this was an incredible narrative lore with an uncomfortable transgressive edge which however had to be sold on tasteless content of a specific form. Only praising parts one to three, part one Legend of the Overfiend, viewed in feature form, is controversially for me a lot more flawed than the other two, burdened with the fact that based on three OVA episodes, with different plot points, it feels bolted together.
It is also the biggest culprit for this franchise's notoriety, tackling rape and sexual violence in extreme form, even if censored for the UK releases, but for me more problematic in how, rather than if this was a transgressive narrative with an equal opportunity transgression, it is specifically meant to be in a scintillating (and therefore undefendable) way, alongside a gender bias where women are usually the victims and the men are not. It might not be defendable for many still it this was an equal opportunity transgression the franchise had, but you would at least have a work about the horrors of Eros combining with Thanatos that had not biases of its production to raise feminist objections too.
The first three parts, in spite of this, even in their censored British release forms have so much that as extremely dark fantasy that can be defended. An occult darkness where even Legend of the Demon Womb, which bring in Nazis and a ritualistic rape machine, feels less transgressive for the sake of it, in spite of the production's huge issues with depicting this content, but more befitting the context especially if you know how horrible and occult fixated the Nazis were. Alongside the fact Part 2 actually brings an emotional weight to the material, of even monsters having conflictions, and you can see where this franchise should have focused. Part 3, Return of the Overfiend, also jettisons another of the franchise's problems, bad English dub tracks, as we only got the Japanese with subtitled form in an obscure British DVD release; more so here, the need to sell this on misogynistic sexual content undermines the work, especially as he emotional weight and scale that could overcome the moments was completely winning me over with these.
After this part, Part IV: Inferno Road was butchered for the British release, but ended terribly in the episode we got, so is not among these in this. Urotsukidôji as a whole is truly the most "guilty" viewing of this season bar none, with enough justification for many to condemn it, but enough to admire. It is a flawed, fascinating work with reward but you have to fight with the failures it was stuck with in content too.
The Great Premises, Wish They Were Better Used Award
On the opposite scale to "guilty" pleasures, sometimes there are premises which you wish were used in better work, or at least fleshed out further. For an example, one of the things I covered this season was the OVA Judge (1991). It suffers from the fact that it is only a forty minute plus work which never got a follow-on, from an era of these titles being made with no endings, for a manga we never got in the West. About a figure who punishes the corrupt in business with the tortures of Buddhist Hell, it would have been interesting to see a follow-up just to wonder how this narrative would have gone if we got more than one episode. Another title about the fantasy of punishing business corruption, but with infinite money than occult powers used, Government Crime Investigation Agent Zaizen Jotaro (2006), whilst memorably ridiculous, does qualify as the first entry on this list. Imagine a really idiosyncratic, if still exaggerated, tale of a group tackling business corruption even in seemingly banal areas of the construction business. What we get is the cheaply made, deeply silly take which has a lot of talking and the lead saying "Da Bomb!" a lot of the time, which the show arguably settling down after the first few episodes.
Also worthy for me to bring up, because it is such a compelling little plot point within this barely long micro-series, is how Wonder Momo (2014). A parody of a sentai hero and magical girl narrative, based on an old Namco video game, the production behind this very little regarded fragment of animation is the really strange aspect, but not before I can rise up part of the premise I thought would have been inspired for a whole series. Namely, having the original video game character be the new heroine's mother, both given powers by aliens to fight other evil aliens and thus setting up an inspired idea, just from one joke, of a former heroine who can still fight grounding her daughter for fighting aliens without telling her. It is such a great idea but, alongside the show being part of a whole division of Namco they abruptly shut down just after its release, this is a show less than thirty minutes long altogether, so you cannot get anywhere with any of its narrative. Likewise, Cat Shit One (2010) as a proper adaptation, with Motofumi Kobayashi's manga telling the Vietnam War but with anthropomorphic animals, is a fascinating idea. Even an update in the second Gulf War, whilst potentially tasteless, would be interesting. What you got in actually got is just a thirty minute pilot episode which did not really offer much of interest beyond how weird its existence was.
If there is to be a proper ranked list for this imaginary award however, the fifth on here is the one title among the hand's worth I thought was good. Electromagnetic Girlfriend (2009), if you got rid of its problematic plotting choices in terms of gender politics, and kept all the good premise, could have managed to be a sellable franchise on very gristly mysteries that just happen to involve an odd pair as the leads. One loner male protagonist, an interesting eccentric female buddy who thinks she is reincarnated from a knight, and meant to serve him like a King, , solving gristly crimes that are constructed by a sense of whimsy in the lighter moments. It sells as a premise with the tone the production got here.
Everything else here is bad or a disappointment, Always My Santa (2005) likely to be held by many a terrible sex comedy set at Christmas thankfully forgotten. As a premise, however, I think we could have gotten something from this, with a male lead unfortunately named Santa meeting a girl who comes from a land of Santa Clauses, a female Christmas giving entity who has to still live a life after the 25th December. It is a funny idea to work with regardless, but the problem with those coming up is that they were more fixated on really bland romance and bad sex comedy jokes. Such an example, bad enough to be on top of the worst list previously despite having things I liked, is Akikan (2009), sold to me as one of the strangest premises of an anime about anthropomorphic soda cans who become women. If Akikan had bothered to actually be about this than a show which dithered back and forth, maybe we might have gotten something really compelling. Jettison all the offensive sex humour, remove the offensive gay stereotype, least keep one good character in the update, a presumed witch classmate openly crushing over the female lead to the point of defensiveness, and make a show even with a goofy premise actually about the premise. Sure, it would be about cute soda can women fighting over whether aluminium or steel cans are better, but there have been dumber premises which have likely led to hits.
Ben-To (2011) is in the same ballpark if just an average show for me. It is such a goofy idea in its centre, a world of people beating each other up in fights over discounted bento boxes in supermarkets, part of a curious form of a fight club, which it wins me over. The show is more interested in clichés of sex comedy, harem comedy and generic comedy however than just embracing its absurd premise. Both this and Akikan would benefit from jettisoning its bland male leads, keeping the female ones, more clearly lavished on even in eroticised ways and big proportions, and let the premises been as ridiculous as possible. More so here, as whilst Akikan is a cheap looking show, this stung as Ben-To had a budget for good fight scenes that were ultimately squandered. This section of these articles does emphasise how much having to sell to a male otaku audience - bland male leads to place themselves in, bad sex comedy jokes than good ones, no real desire to take a bonkers risk - has been such a crutch behind a lot of bland titles over the years even with good or least memorable ideas.
The unfortunate winner however is a show that had none of these issues to consider, no male leads, and could have even had less production value as that was a selling point to a previous series by its creator called gdgd Fairies (2011-13). As long as it had been what the selling point was, a farce lovingly going through the video game manufacturer SEGA's back catalogue, even if it was clearly made to promote their wares it would have still had mirth at their tantalisingly strange and diverse back catelogue. Hi-sCool! Seha Girls (2014) at first hits gold even if a viewer has no knowledge of these games, parodying the Virtua Fighter games with even a random cameo from the Sakura Wars franchise all in one fifteen minute episode. At some point unfortunately, this micro-series does not become unbearable but something worse, just average, by the point Sonic the Hedgehog has a two part episode felt unfinished as a premise. It is not necessarily having many episodes as possibly planned, but the real problem with many micro-series of not really having a lot of time but wasting what they had. Seha Girls even if pandering to a questionable premise, making a video game console we may have all had as children or nowadays, like my old Sega Saturn, sexy cute girls, does not even undercut a premise allowing for a healthy nostalgia and humour. (More so with Saturn treated as the fan service character to her chagrin by her friends). The issue here unlike the others, and why this is effectively the top prize winner in an award of disappointment, is that this should have been better than this.
Best Episode
Usually this is a positive award, but sometimes an anti-bonus title also has to be handed as an extra to emphasise when you get something wrong. The only episode of Urotsukidôji IV: Inferno Road we got in the UK is an embarrassment and has to be mentioned. Clearly part of a chapter of the franchise meant to last longer, it was a rushed conclusion which harmed the lore built up even in the first chapter, let alone built with good ideas from part three.
Not being included, though a great conclusion, is the final episode of Macross Plus (1994-5). It is not on the list just because, out of fairness, this imaginative award is for me for the obscurer titles and my little whims unless something really special appears. Macross Plus' ending is special, so it gets a mention here for being something so special it does not even need to be on the list. Even in mind that the 1995 theatrical version of the OVA does have additional scenes I wish were included in the superior OVA version, everything here is as good as you can finish a narrative off as.
Contrasting it is the paradox of something I have proclaimed the most disappointing anime covered this year, but inexplicably here. Having it on the list over Macross Plus is definitely a blasphemy, but this is a reminder that even in the worst I have seen this year, there was at least a nugget of gold. It says something to what a mess Akikan (2009) was that it can still have a memorable episode where nothing happens, episode ten called "Acknowledgement of a Never Changing Day" the glimmer of hope of the few good things in an almost entirely disastrous project. The female protagonist hangs out on a hot summer's day in an apartment, even if (as an anthropomorphic soda can) she has to fill a bathtub with ice; another, a child, plays games with toys in her bedroom; another learns the harsh lessons of doing laundry, when one is in spite of your cold demeanour easily is distracted by dragonflies and has to content with it suddenly raining outside. Sometimes, even in the worst of anime, good work is found and this had to be mentioned, which was as much why I started including the Best Episode segment in the firs tplace.
Usually it is for the slight joys, though this year does have some big hitters. One case however is for not one episode but an entire narrative arch. Otogi Zoshi (2004), a forgotten release from Production I.G., requires a huge spoiler warning to explain what it does for this to involve a completely different narrative arch. Here, the show pulls a genre and setting u-turn on its viewers. Sold initially as a Heian era set samurai narrative, I was pleasantly surprised when the rug was pulled under me and, based on who survived in the first half, the later half is set in modern day Japan with the cast reincarnated, having now to go through episodic supernatural scenarios which connect to events from the previous act. It is a good show, not great but a fun one, this second season turn, episodes fourteen to twenty six, as much in this delightfully unexpected turn the influence on my positive opinion.
Nurse Witch Komugi (2002-4) is here just for one episode, where its humour and even all the anime references make sense, which I like to call the "Komugi's dead" episode, but whose English translated official name, episode three, is perfect as it is as "Serious! Komugi Dies Two or Three Times?! ". A really sick running joke to have begins this episode, where your lead is killed in the first minutes, predating modern isekai anime because it involves being run over by a truck. Alongside her colleagues at an modelling agency going on in their lives effectively glad she is gone, she also has to content with a monster fed on road rage, including a Street Racer parody which even becomes a piss take on early CGI model sequences in that era where the frame rate was diabolical. It is the best episode for a show some might find off putting for its bad sex jokes, but it is a funny, funny episode that I remembered from years ago, when I first dismissed this OVA series, and emphasised why I have ended up referring to this anime throughout these articles with positivity.
Revue Starlight (2018) is here less again for one episode but a narrative arch for a character nicknamed Banana-Chan. Huge spoilers are required again as, whilst every character is great in this show and get an episode devoted to them, an emotional gut punch is to be experienced when the most likable character, a big sister figure who got that nickname for her banana fixated food and even having her hair in twin ponytail bundles, turns out to have something more to her by episode seven "Daiba Nana". Here she is effectively revealed to be a villain but a tragic one for a legitimately good reason. A fear of growing up, and possible disappointment for others she cares for, willingly winning the tournaments central to the show so a Groundhog Day scenario of the same year playing over and over again transpires. Eventually when fate changes on her regardless, you are left with a sweet big sister figure that is emotionally vulnerable and still loved after everything turns against her original designs, as no one is a true monster and friendship still wins out. That, even in a show with a lot of plot points and moments still to get through with success, was a huge victory for the screenwriters and production team to pull off.
Pulling things off beautifully as well, Hanebado! (2018) is a very controversial show. The production decided, when adapting the source manga, to completely rewrite its female badminton narrative so the likable female lead became a psychologically damaged girl, due to her neglectful badminton teacher mother, who becomes a monster when brought back into the sport and shows her talents again. It did not go over well with the fans of the manga. I, without this baggage, found this a heightened melodrama, and whilst it may be cheating to use the final episode as the best, it is for one sequence. Episode thirteen "On the Other Side of That Net" is already a good finale by this point, with the other female lead involved, only for the show to suddenly have a moment of incredible aesthetic and experimental animation for a dynamic moment in a tournament final. It has no music, heightened use of sound, black and white line drawing, and is all incredible and a perfect way to end a show. Macross Plus has one of the best endings of an anime I have seen, but even if I had included it on the list, I would have had it share the top prize with Hanebado, a lesser known production that hits its peak in its final episode too. The Best Episode list is an indulgence but this is a case of something exceptional in this sports drama worthy of having a paragraph devoted to it, in that one section of the final episode has stayed with me all this time over the season even over whole anime titles.
To Be Continued in Part 5....
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