Anime Hidden Gems – Three That You Probably Missed

Japan produces a lot of anime each year, and only a fraction of it gets licensed for streaming in the U.S.

It’s easy to miss some good ones despite the fact that the number of series released in America per season is fairly manageable. Throw in one’s own preferences for certain types of stories and genres and a kind of tunnel vision sets in. We don’t even notice the series that are outside our comfort zone.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of not enough time. The descriptions of this or that anime don’t appeal, so you don’t give them a chance.

It’s understandable. Also, the anime seasons come and go so quickly, don’t they? It’s summer now but soon enough it will be fall, which will morph into winter, and then it’s spring again.

So here are three anime series that you probably missed when they were first released. None of them are flashy action stories or made a huge splash when they debuted, though I think all received good reviews, especially the one I’ve placed at No. 1.

In any event, I can wholeheartedly recommend all of them. At the very least, they’re something to watch while we wait for the return of My Hero Academia and the concluding arc of Bleach to air this fall. ;-)

3. Blast of Tempest (Zetsuen no Tempest)

Put a shonen story together with a looming apocalypse, supernatural powers, and a fantastic murder mystery - and you have Blast of Tempest.

Hazake Kusaribe, a powerful female mage, gets stranded on a desert island by her traitorous lieutenant Samon. She puts a wooden doll - a magical communication device - in a bottle and sends it over the waves. The bottle reaches Mahiro Fuwa. Mahiro is a rich kid whose parents and adopted sister Aika were murdered the year before. He agrees to help Hazake escape the island in exchange for the mage’s help in solving the mystery of who killed his family.

Mahiro teams up with his best friend Yoshino Takigawa to aid Hazake in her fight against the members of the Kusaribe clan who betrayed her. Compared with Mahiro and his rough attitude, Yoshino is the good kid and nice guy of the pair. He does, however, keep one secret from Mahiro - the fact that he and Aika were dating behind Mahiro’s back.

Huge eyes appear in the sky above Japan and start turning people into metal. This event is connected to the Tree of Exodus, which Samon is working to resurrect. Hazake says that they must stop this from happening in order to save civilization.

Hakaze’s Kusaribe clan - Samon’s original clan - is supported by the Tree of Genesis, which opposes the Tree of Exodus’s awakening. As Mahiro and Yoshino get swept up in the conflict, they must decide which side is the right side for the fate of the world.

Some elements of the story hark back to Shakespeare’s Tempest, hence the name. Blast of Tempest is a quality production with beautiful, fluid animation and a memorable music score.

But what really makes Blast of Tempest stand out for me is the mystery surrounding Aika. Aika (in flashbacks) and everyone’s memories of her haunt the story from the very beginning, creating an underlying tension that increases with each episode. The question of what happened to her informs Mahiro and Yoshino’s every action, all the way to the final episode when the answer is revealed. The mystery gives Blast of Tempest that extra edge that makes it truly memorable.

And now... I need to say a few things before I talk about the next anime.

There’s a missing genre when it comes to anime released in the U.S. Think about it. We have shonen, shojo, action, fantasy, historical, isekai, and quite a few other genres.

So what’s missing? It’s a genre called josei.

Josei is stories for adult women, usually with a woman as the main character. It’s often romance, though not always. It’s not shojo for girls, or magical girl stories such as Sailor Moon or Madoka Magica. I would define it as stories for women with a woman main character who has agency and the ability to determine her own destiny.

There are so few josei anime that make it to the U.S. that it’s hard to think of one off the top of one’s head. There’s Nana, and possibly Fruits Basket would fit in this category. There’s also an older josei anime called Diamond Daydreams that I can recommend.

I’m going to guess that there’s a lot of josei manga in Japan, but that most of it never gets translated into English or made into anime. It’s basic sexism... the belief that stories about women just aren’t as exciting as stories featuring men (a belief hardly unique to Japan - Hollywood has it too).

And - too often - even josei focuses on romance stories. Nothing wrong with romance, but as the automatic default genre for ‘a woman’s story’ it gets a little tiresome.

My point is this. I would love to see more josei stories from Japan. We’re in the 21st century now and past the point where we should be required to justify why stories about women are worthwhile.

2. Hanasakeru Seishonen

Oil magnate Harry Burnsworth proposes an odd challenge for his teenage daughter Kajika. She is to choose her future husband from among three candidates. The catch is - he won't tell her who they are. Her job is to find that out for herself.

I know... romance again. But Hanasakeru Seishonen only uses this marriage game as a starting point. The story actually turns into a political thriller, at the heart of which is Kajika and the choices that she makes.

The three men Harry referred to are: Eugene, an heir to one of Burnsworth Oil's subsidiaries; Prince Rumaty, the grandson of King Machaty of the fictional oil kingdom Raginei; and Carl Rosenthal, the son of the oil magnate whom Harry Burnsworth beat out for control of Raginei's oil export market.

As Kajika becomes involved in the three men’s lives, she begins to discover secret information that links her family to the Raginei kingdom.

Kajika is a strong female lead. She makes her own decisions and doesn’t look to others to rescue her. She’s also genuinely likable and someone you can root for.

Despite its reverse harem look, Hanasakeru Seishonen has more to offer than just that. All of the important characters are interesting and given character arcs of their own, and the international political intrigue angle really spices up the story. It’s also a nicely multicultural mix of East Asian/Southeast Asian/white characters, all of whom are equals playing on the same level in a non-forced way.

I really recommend Hanasakeru Seishonen, especially if you’ve never seen a josei anime before. Maybe - like me - you’ll wonder why we don’t see more anime like this in the U.S.

1. The Eccentric Family (Uchoten Kazoku)

The Eccentric Family is a charming story about humans, tanuki, and tengu in contemporary Kyoto.

The main character is Yasaburo Shimogamo, who appears to be a teenage boy, but who is actually a tanuki.

Actually, his entire family are tanukis. Tanukis are raccoons, technically raccoon dogs, and in Japanese folklore they are considered to be tricksters and shapeshifters.

The Shimogamo family is the eccentric family of the series’ title. The mother of the family dresses in prince drag, while the eldest son Yachiro bosses Yasaburo (the third son) and little Yashiro (the fourth son) around. The second son Yajiro currently lives as a frog at the bottom of a dry well. (In other words, he’s a tanuki pretending to be human who is now pretending to be a frog.)

Yasaburo looks after Professor Akadama, a gruff elderly tengu who - like the Shimogamos - masquerades in human form. (Tengus, in Japanese legends, are supernatural birds of prey, like flying yokai.)

Benten, a beautiful human woman, is an ambiguous figure who may be a friend or a foe. Prof. Akadama taught her how to fly like a tengu when she was young. Yasaburo is wary around her as she is rumored to have had something to do with his family’s great tragedy.

The tragedy is that the father of the family was cooked in a hotpot years ago by the Friday Fellows, a social group that celebrates the year-end by eating tanuki hotpot.

The Eccentric Family is a slice-of-life fantasy show told with wry humor, and it has some genuine laugh-out-loud moments that catch you unawares. The writing has that quality I really appreciate where all the characters take responsibility for themselves and their actions and the unique makeup of each person - their personal history, character, and conscience - is given its due.

The first season is full of quirky and gentle humor, but underneath the fun you can feel that the father’s death has cast a long shadow over things.

Particularly as to Yajiro, the brother who lives in the well. We get the feeling that he’s running from something; that he feels guilt. Though he’s pleased when his brothers visit and bring him fried chicken, there must be a reason why he stays in frog form and isolates from the family.

(Yajiro is clearly stretching the limits of shapeshifting here, as he is a tanuki pretending to be human pretending to be a frog who is eating a piece of chicken.)

The mystery of who was really responsible for the father’s death is revealed at the end of the second season of The Eccentric Family, bringing closure for the family at last.

The Eccentric Family is just a delight on so many levels. It’s a comedy, a paranormal fantasy, and a tribute to accepting the weirdness in people. The Shimogamo family is strong together because of their tolerance of everybody’s quirks and strangeness. The inescapable conclusion is that eccentric families make the best families. If you watch The Eccentric Family, you may find yourself agreeing with this conclusion as well. :-)

Notes on Winter Season 2015

My work schedule has stepped up again, and I realized I haven't discussed the winter season shows much if at all. So this is a belated, almost at the end of winter season recap before the spring shows start.

First, I've been impressed by Durarara's second season so far. All the main and supporting characters are back, and the show has gone through several mini-arcs already.

It's hard to believe that the first season was five years ago. Durarara's first season was very stylish and cool (and unpleasantly violent toward the end), with a great ensemble cast. The anime's second season is more serious in feel than the first but still exhibits the same quirky off-center humor. The only real complaint I have is that there hasn't been a direct confrontation between Shizuo and Izaya yet. The producers have to know that's what most of us are waiting to see. ;-)

Wow, did this one ever fall off my schedule. I watched the first few episodes of Sengoku Musou (Samurai Warriors) and then life happened or something because I simply forgot to keep watching it. It's actually pretty good if you're in that want-to-watch-samurais-doing-anything sort of mood, which sometimes I am.

What's interesting about Sengoku Musou is that it has the same wildly anachronistic fantasy costuming as Sengoku Basara, where the out-of-place over the top crazy outfits were part of the joke, but - I think Sengoku Musou is actually meant to be serious.

I may go back at some point and finish the series. I should probably brush up on my Warring States history before I do, because I was getting lost trying to remember who was on who's side and who was who's enemy.

Another one I stopped watching is a series that's very popular.

Parasyte was a quality show that just didn't hook me in (and yes, I got to the point where the big surprise happens with the main character's mother). Sometimes shows that others get into don't attract me the same way - different strokes.

I'm enjoying Kuroko's Basketball's third season, though the suspense is not quite the same as in the first two seasons. It's obvious who the final two teams will be in the Winter Cup tournament, so it's a matter of waiting until the last semi-final opponent is eliminated and the two finalists can get down to it. I've heard there's a lengthy flashback arc coming involving the Generation of Miracles back in their Teiko days, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing that. :-)

And speaking of lengthy flashbacks...

I don't mind filler episodes as much as most people do, so long as I enjoy the characters and the universe. But Naruto Shippuuden is pushing it at the moment.

The filler arc we're in now is actually very decent: it's a flashback to the second Chuunin exam, which took place while Naruto was off training with Jiraiya. All of his classmates who didn't get to advance to Chuunin level (since Konoha was invaded by Orochimaru during the first Chuunin exam) are participating in this second exam, which takes place in the Sand Village under the authority of the new Kazekage, our old friend Gaara.

The episodes in this filler arc have varied between very good to rather boring, depending on which Konoha team is being featured in the episode. And not to mention - this entire multi-episode flashback arc is taking place in the middle of the final huge showdown battle between Naruto and Madara, so one can't help but be impatient for it to be over sooner rather than later.

I have no idea why I'm still watching Death Parade.

After you die, in the Death Parade universe, you wind up at a bar where a white-haired bartender makes you play a deadly game with another person who just died. Depending on how you do in this game, you either get a second chance via reincarnation (leaving the bar through the elevator to the left), or you're sent to the void and given no second chances (the elevator on the right).

The games are all sadistic and everybody's story is sad. The characters selected to play the game were usually as much victims when they were alive as they were perpetrators. Plus, even when they're made to realize what mistakes they made in their lives, they're dead now and can't do anything to change it or make amends. And then one of them gets a do-over and the other gets nothingness.

It's one of those series where the cool production design and premise engage you, before you realize how much of a downer each story is going to be.

Actually, I know why I'm still watching the show. I find it hard to resist series that have a creepy premise and where each week's episode is a separate self-contained little story. Yamishibai is a good example of this, a better example than Death Parade. Still, there aren't many episodes left of Death Parade, so I will probably watch it to the end.

The final two series are really my favorites of the winter season.

Shirobako, the show about four college classmates who go on to careers in the anime industry, is just quality and class all the way. Each episode has been excellent, with two being particularly memorable - dealing with the contributions of older artists and waxing poetic about the rewards of a life spent in anime.

I can't say enough about Shirobako. If you're not watching it, you really should give it a chance.

The last show may come as a surprise.

I've finally read up on everybody's disappointment with Sailor Moon Crystal: the poor animation quality, the changes from the manga, etc.

I really hadn't noticed the animation quality until one episode where the Legendary Silver Crystal or whatever it is, the jewel that's supposed to be the key to everything, literally disappeared in one shot and then reappeared again. I thought I imagined it, and then I read the comments afterward and everyone noticed it. What's weird is that Toei Animation has twice the amount of time to do each episode, two weeks instead of the usual one, and yet apparently this keeps happening.

No matter. Usagi's huge red bow could disappear and reappear and it wouldn't faze me. I've fallen in love with the Sailor Moon story.

Unlike most who are watching Sailor Moon Crystal and getting disgruntled, I didn't grow up watching the original Sailor Moon. So I'm not comparing the new adaptation with fond memories of watching the original series after school with cookies and milk, or with my friends; it's completely new to me.

I am charmed by the premise of magical girls with superpowers, who are still girls that can fall in love. I was enchanted when I found out Usagi's and Tuxedo Mask's history of being lovers, one from the moon and one from earth.

It's about friendship and love and adventure, and beautiful jewels and magic wands, supernatural cats that can talk, and a mysterious handsome boy who is gentle and caring. It's a wonderful story to watch, animation glitches and all.

People are sniffing and saying they'll go back to the original, that that's "their" Sailor Moon. For me, I'm happy to claim Sailor Moon Crystal as my Sailor Moon. =D

The Legacy of Love - Sailor Moon Crystal

I've been very pleasantly surprised by Sailor Moon Crystal, an anime series I began watching out of curiosity and almost a sense of duty (it's a remake of a classic, after all).

Warning - Spoilers to Episode 10

The old Sailor Moon anime series - based on the manga of the same name - aired in Japan twenty years ago.

Blonde Usagi Tsukino is a klutzy and cheerful teenage girl who makes friends easily. Through a series of events, four other girls come to gather around Usagi and the five form a group of "Sailor Guardians," girls with magical powers.

Appearing every now and then at the fringes of Usagi's everyday life is a mysterious figure, a handsome boy Usagi calls "Tuxedo Mask."

Usagi and her Sailor Guardians keep getting attacked by four young men who have their own magical powers. It takes a number of episodes to get to the back story of Sailor Moon Crystal, but when one finally learns the story, it's a moving one.

It turns out Usagi and Tuxedo Mask knew each other in their past lives.

Once upon a time, the moon was inhabited by a kingdom called Silver Millennium that was ruled by Queen Serenity.

Usagi was the Queen's daughter Princess Serenity and the four girls who are her Sailor Guardians in her present life filled the same role in their former lives, guarding and watching over the young princess.

Princess Serenity often visited earth, and fell in love with Prince Endymion, who we now know as Tuxedo Mask. When an evil entity attacked the earth, Endymion died while defending Serenity. Serenity then took her own life.

Queen Serenity managed to seal Queen Metalia, the evil entity, but Silver Millennium was lost in the process. As the present-day story begins, Queen Metalia is breaking the seal, and through her lieutenant Queen Beryl and those four young men with magical powers is poised to threaten earth once more.

The four young men have their own past lives, however.

Yes, indeed - you have seen Tuxedo Mask somewhere before. The four were formerly the knights who defended Prince Endymion and the kingdom of earth. And what's more - they were in love with Serenity's four Sailor Guardians.

What began as a light and fluffy story that seemed to be going somewhere - though one couldn't tell where and it certainly took a number of episodes to get there - has turned into a wonderful female-centric story that I'm thoroughly enjoying watching.

I confess I wasn't overly impressed by the Sailor Moon remake at first. I had no familiarity with the original story and was only mildly interested in the four Sailor Guardian girls who assembled around Usagi. And I found Usagi shrill and air-headed and not compelling at all. In addition, she seemed the least competent of all the girls and yet she was considered their leader, which made no sense to me.

The one small thing that I liked were the hints of romantic interest between Usagi and Tuxedo Mask. I never suspected that their romance was actually the root of the entire saga.

Watching the past two episodes in which this back story was finally revealed has really hooked me into the series. Sailor Moon Crystal is a girls' adventure story and romance of cosmic proportions, a tale where girls are the heroes and grown women are the villains and the dashing Tuxedo Mask is the gender-switched heroine in distress, the one who must be rescued from Queen Metalia and Queen Beryl.

The art design looks like a 1990s anime, but somehow updated to look, I don't know... smoother or brighter or something. It may be that it's a modern character design with '90s touches here and there. It's both nostalgic and pleasing to the eye.

The animation overall is beautiful. (As it should be - each episode is taking two weeks to produce and release.) Another standout is the music, which sounds like a Hollywood production, and includes choir vocals that heighten the sense of grandness. You feel you're watching something special, something epic, with that kind of musical support.

I've also rethought Usagi and conclude that my earlier reaction to her was misguided. Since she's the reincarnated Princess Serenity it's natural that she's the worst fighter of all of them. She was a princess, not a guardian like the other girls. And her personality is one of her strengths, not a weakness. As was explained in one episode, Usagi's greatest power is her love for others. That love brought the four guardians together and gives Usagi the courage to fight for Tuxedo Mask.

From what I've read, the four young men who were Endymion's knights weren't actually the Sailor Guardians' love interests in the manga and in fact were killed off early on in the story. It's great that they're being allowed to survive in Sailor Moon Crystal because they really add to the general air of romance in the series. Now the Sailor Guardians can have their own romances, too. ^^

I'm so glad I kept watching Sailor Moon Crystal. It took a while, but they have a new fan in me. Like Serenity and Endymion's love story that carried forward to Usagi and Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Moon Crystal is the legacy of the love that countless fans have had for Sailor Moon for decades, and that love shows in this production.

I've been hearing the ending song in my head lately, just as I go about my day. You Tube will take this down shortly I'm sure, so until then, enjoy "Gekkou" by Momoiro Clover Z.