Mid-Season Update and Thoughts on Transformative Works

So I somehow missed the fact that My Hero Academia was returning this spring season.

Actually, I know exactly how I didn’t notice. They began in April with four clip shows that recapped the highlights of the previous 6 seasons. I saw that something was happening with the series but they seemed like OVAs so I didn’t watch them. Until Season 7 began on May 4... So I caught up with the first two episodes.

I think this may be the final season of the anime, unless some commenters I’ve read are wrong. It wouldn’t surprise me. The storyline has gotten dark the past few seasons and since it’s a shounen story, I think we have our final or at least next-to-final boss in Shigaraki/All for One. (The only other villain who needs a resolution would be Dabi. Given his importance to the family of one of MHA’s heroes, I expect Dabi will be handled last.)

My Hero Academia had such a bright, sunny beginning. I have to say that once the story got dark, it stayed dark. I still enjoy the characters and of course I’ll watch it to the end, but I kind of wish it had taken a different route.

As for the rest of the spring season, Unnamed Memory and Spice and Wolf are still lovely and Bartender Glass of God is still an adult viewer’s delight. Tadaima Okaeri is proving to be a bath of emotions, which I more or less expected given the premise (gay omegaverse couple with cute baby).

Kaiju No. 8 is a blast, just a straight-up action ride with fun characters and a lot of humor. All in all, it’s a very good anime season.

Every now and then I feel compelled to highlight certain fan works. The term transformative works applies to fan fiction, fan art, and the like. It doesn’t really cover, however, just how complex and richly nuanced some of these works can be.

Hetalia: Axis Powers remains a fertile story universe for transformative fan works, especially given its huge cast of characters, historical setting, and large female following. The amount of fan art alone is staggering (just Google “Hetalia” and hit “Images” for a small sampling).

Since the story at least tangentially deals with World War II, some of its fan works are dead serious in tone. Lately I’ve been enamored with the following YouTube (or I should say NicoNico) video.

The context is Germany’s relationship with his older brother Prussia. Before you watch, look out for:

1) The enormous level of effort put into this video. This is a fan-created video with fan-drawn art, fan-composed new lyrics for the Vocaloid RIN song “Kokoro” (“Heart”), a fan singing those new lyrics, and a fan video editor to cut it all together.

2) The beautiful artwork. In particular, note the faces, bodies, hands. Whoever drew this is a professional-level artist (and is also completely in love with these characters, you can tell from the detail work).

From concept to completion, this video must have taken months to create. It’s one of countless fan-produced things out there, drawings and fan fiction and doujinshi and videos and dolls and cosplay outfits and everything else you can imagine. All made out of pure love with not a thought of money.

Enjoy. (And hit the CC for closed captions.)

Video Credits (video is below the credit picture):

Spring 2024 Anime Season - It’s Adult Romance Time!

I was out of town when the spring anime season began, so I got a late start on it. When I did, I was happy to see that there are a number of good offerings this season. And oddly - there’s a theme to them.

My favorite anime this season is Unnamed Memory.

In the Kingdom of Falsas, Crown Prince Oscar faces a dilemma. The Witch of Silence has placed a curse on him that prevents him from having an heir. He needs an heir, so he journeys to a faraway tower to seek the help of the Witch of the Azure Moon to lift the curse.

The witch, Tinasha, knew Oscar’s great-grandfather. (She uses her magic to look young.) She explains that his curse is strong enough to kill any normal woman who tries to bear his child.

Oscar then impudently asks if she - as a powerful witch - could successfully bear his child. She is so shocked that she answers honestly: yes.

Thus begins an adult romance story between a prince and a powerful female magician, with flirtatiousness and gentle humor and a nice fantasy setting. I feel lucky that I happened upon this series as I’d heard nothing about it beforehand and I don’t think I would’ve chosen it from the art visuals alone, though the visuals are good quality. I’m not normally drawn to fantasy settings.

Unnamed Memory joins another adult romance on my list this season.

“I am the Wise Wolf Holo. How many of your lifetimes do you think I have lived?”

This is the much anticipated remake of Spice and Wolf and several episodes in, I can say that it has lived up to the hype. I was in my early days as an anime fan when the original series ran and honestly don’t recall too much of the storyline, just that Lawrence was a trader and Holo was, well, a wolf.

The animation is lovely and I love that seiyuu Jun Fukuyama and Ami Koshimizu returned to play these roles again. The two voice actors are close friends in real life and their ease with each other is apparent.

And now for something completely different - the season’s big shounen epic.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to try Kaiju No. 8. But I did and at least from the two-episodes-in vantage point, it’s a worthwhile pickup.

Kafka (yes... they went there lol) is a member of the cleanup crew that mops up after giant kaiju monsters get killed by Japan’s elite monster-killing unit, the Defense Corps. Since high school, Kafka has tried to join the unit but keeps failing the exam. Meanwhile, his childhood friend Mina Ashiro was accepted, now leads the unit, and is famous across Japan.

As children the two had vowed to grow up and fight kaiju together. Kafka has had to deal with bitterness and a sense of failure. That changes when he’s attacked by a kaiju while laid up in the hospital, which is witnessed by new recruit Reno Ichikawa. The kaiju enters Kafka’s body and like Gregor Samsa in Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis, Kafka becomes a kaiju himself.

Kafka astutely recognizes that the Defense Corps will come to kill him, so he escapes the partially wrecked hospital with Ichikawa. The scene where the two run in panic, with Kafka desperately trying to turn back into a human with Ichikawa screaming at his side, is the funniest scene I’ve seen in anime in a while.

Of course Kafka becomes a kaiju that rescues humans, and he does eventually learn how to regain his human form. Kaiju No. 8 has a shounen feel but the characters are twenty-something adults, and clearly the story is being set up for Kafka to join Mina in the Defense Corps, with a possible romance to follow.

Have you guessed the theme that runs through these three series? Actually there are two themes.

The first is that these are all adult romances (I’m convinced there will be romance between Kafka and Mina). There’s such a different feel to romance stories between adults as opposed to the high school ones.

The second theme is that in each of these stories the female lead is totally independent and empowered. The witch Tinasha has powerful magic. Holo in her giant wolf form could squash Lawrence or any other human like a bug if she wanted to. And Mina is a hero whose path developed separate and apart from Kafka, who still struggles to find his way.

These women were living their own lives before the story began; none of them need to be with the male protagonist for their survival or any other reason. These relationships are equal or even female-superior at their core. This makes a huge difference in the way they feel, at least to this viewer.

I get a little tired - and I can’t be the only one - of fantasy stories where the prince falls in love with the scullery maid or whatever. Hidden in those stories is the implicit acceptance that patriarchal power structures will hold until the end of all time. Really? I’d rather watch stories where women not only have their own agency but their own power. I personally find that more stimulating than another Cinderella retelling.

The last two series I’m watching this spring also feature adult main characters.

Well, you knew I would be watching this one, right? ;-) Tadaima, Okaeri is a gentle story about a m/m couple with a small child who was carried by one of the men as an “omega.”

Omegaverse stories are about men who can carry children in their bodies like women. I think omega mpreg stories began in fan fiction and then spread to indie published works. This is the first manga/anime story I’ve seen that has an omega mpreg plot.

And finally, Bartender Glass of God.

In Ginza, there’s a special bar called Eden Hall. The bartender there is a soft-spoken young man named Ryu Sasakura. He will pour you the exact drink you need in the moment, tailored to your needs specifically.

Miwa Kurushima works for the swanky Hotel Cardinal. The hotel is looking for a bartender for their high-end bar but the owner is very picky. It has to be someone who will pour you the exact drink you need in the moment, tailored to your needs specifically... yeah. Once Miwa finds Ryu, she relentlessly pursues him to come to work for the hotel.

Ryu was a bartender in the west who has now returned to Japan. His background is a mystery but there are hints of a painful past.

Bartender Glass of God has a nice slice of life for adults feel. Like the other series on my list, the theme for the season appears to be anime about adults, for adults. It’s a good time to be an older anime fan. ;-)