Two weeks into the new Anime season, and I already have a few favorites, with Izetta: The Last Witch topping the list. It is the early days of WWII Europe in a parallel timeline, with Germany blitzing over the surrounding countries one after another, and the Austrian princess trying desperately to make it to England to sign a mutual defense treaty. The twist is, this universe had a race of magic users, and the lone survivor is a childhood friend of the Princess, and not a fan of the government of those who inflicted that genocide. The first episode grabbed me within the first 5 minutes, the second was better than the first, and while that is no promise that it will keep delivering at that level I like what they have done so far. The Simulcast is on Saturdays at 11:45am EDT, I will be checking it out each weekend. Sadly, the legitimate trailer I found for it is way too short to give you a feel for what they are doing, so you should just go watch the first episode.
The first trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s Trollhunters project is out, and it is tasty. The animation work is by Dreamworks, so you know it is good, and the voice cast is world class, and includes Kelsey Grammer and Ron Perlman. The main character Jim was voiced by the late Anton Yelchin, at least for the trailer, and further demonstrates just how versatile he was. The production is another Netflix Original Series, and will begin playing on December 23rd.
RWBY Volume 4 premieres October 22nd, with the reconstituted Team Ruby up to their necks in monster mayhem and the original team members scattered across the land. Volume 3 ended in a serious cliffhanger, with a lot of mental, physical, and emotional trauma, and unresolved plot threads out the wazoo. It seems like I have been waiting forever for the next season to get here, I can’t wait to see how they resolve it. The production company is Rooster Teeth, who’s previous titles include Red vs. Blue, and the animation software they are working in is Poser.
Both sites have made the announcement front page news: Funimation is teaming up with (or perhaps merging with is more accurate) Crunchyroll. They will be sharing titles, with each side playing to their strengths; Crunchyroll continuing to bring you streamed subtitled shows within an hour of their airing in Japan, Funimation using their in house voice acting team to get them dubbed and available streaming in English in just a few weeks, and available for digital downloading or disc purchasing. I haven’t seen any mention of what happens to those of us who own premium memberships with both companies yet, I am hoping the new operation rewards us for years of loyalty with some kind of discount combo membership.
High school combat using special powers against alien invaders is a favorite theme in Japan, and Qualidea Code is solidly in that category. They have a small group of core characters, about 10 at this point (I am only on the second episode of the 6 so far aired; I should be all caught up by next weekend), and they have the usual pairing off. What is different about them is the fact that only one couple actually gets along with each other, and about no couples gets along with any of the others. The aliens in this case seem to be transdimensional rather than extraplanetary, and the powers the kids developed are all caused by spending several dream filled decades in cold sleep. I am enjoying it, and I look forward to seeing if it is even better by the time I get to the last episode.
Tales of Zestiria the X jumps straight into fantasy statecraft and combat, right from the beginning of episode 0 (yes, this series starts at the actual first integer of any numeric sequence). The artwork and animation are both quite good, although so far not spectacular except for a few fleeting scenes. The characters and dialog introduce what seems to be this series strong suit; its densely layered plot elements and action sequences, weaving together to form the basis of an excellent story, and story telling environment. Like all the other shows from this season, it is only 4 or 5 episodes along at this point, so there is no way to know if this is going to end up being one of the classics or an also ran. But I really like what it has shown us so far, and will keep watching it to the end of the season if only to find out if they can keep up the quality throughout, and deliver on the implied promise. I have high hopes, since this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tales Of family of animations, with this being the latest.
I am watching this series on Daisuki, which has a number of shows you can’t see anywhere else, which makes sense; they are a consortium of Japanese Anime creation companies, and not a North American distributor of Anime, after all. They have just entered the Premium Subscription phase of a streaming services life cycle, and I am happy to report they are following the Crunchyroll Anime Business Model. In other words, your free registration with them allows you to watch everything the paid premium service gives you, with 3 differences:
1) Premium watches 1 hour after it airs in Tokyo, Free sees it 1 week after.
2) Premium has limited commercials (Free’s more numerous commercials are currently only promos drawing you into other anime shows they are running, but that won’t last once they can market it).
3) Premium can watch in true HD, as can Free. Guest (you didn’t sign up for a log in) tops out at SD.
That last point is different than Crunchyroll, which does not differentiate between unregistered and registered free, as far as I can tell. And the second point reminds me a bit more of Hulu rather than Crunchyroll, come to think of it, because there are NO commercials on Crunchyroll Premium. And all of these differences between providers explains why I watch it on Daisuki rather than Funimation, even though I have a Funimation Premium account which I really enjoy. For the most part, they only let you watch a few episodes of any given series until you sign up for the Funimation Premium account. I understand the business model, but would rather support the others, which are more appealing to me as a consumer.