wwwwhhhhoooo

So, I’m guessing (pessimistically) that if, say, there was a Tenchi crossover with Geminar (or any new work, such as OVA) rather than doing the right thing and recasting the proper actress for Ryoko–the equivalent of saying “gee, we really messed up guys, we admit it, hope you’ll forgive us”–they’ll maintain their own verisimilitude and stubbornly stick to their guns in their miscasting of one of the most memorable female leads in anime history.

Also, good point ML about keeping crossovers to a minimum, at least in the spinoff series themselves. If they’re truly going to stand on their own feet, and not just exist as Tenchi spinoffs, Kajishima has to distance them a certain degree (even if/when we want to see more).

Demon King Daiomo: I’ll be honest here, I disliked this one terribly. This is my personal opinion, and could be chalked up to “not my cup of tea” but again, in all honesty, objectively it’s really nothing spectacular or stand-out. It is a fairly typical “rage against the heavens” anime (which isn’t its weakness), so however you feel about those will likely have a big influence on your viewing experience.

(If you don’t want to read my rage review, please skip the following passage outlined below)

Here, however, is its weaknesses. Not only is the fan service frequent and gratuitous, but banal and predictable. It’s not even a small, ignore-able part of the show if you happen to not care for anything ecchi (as is, say, the fan service in Geminar). It’s the main edifice of the show. A lazily-thrown-on plot is included so it can call itself an anime.

Add that to the fact that the main character (and by extension, the show itself) has an uppity attitude about not only established religion but any sort of reverence, or belief, or possibility of belief in a higher power that equates to the pubescent-fueled angst expressed as non-intelligently and non-eloquently as could be expected from a freshman undergrad in their first week of Philosophy 101 and thinking they’ve got everything figured out–i.e. annoying (there’s nothing wrong with being atheist, but if your attitude about it is “I’m so much smarter than all of you” solely because you’re not religious and others are, on top of you won’t shut up about it…well, why would I put up with that, let alone sit through ‘x’ number of episodes of an anime?). It’s not even a redeemable character flaw of his (as is so with Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist). From the get-go, it’s “look at this character, he’s so much smarter than everyone else because he’s the first one to ever have the idea of disbanding religion, he’s brilliant!”

And all of this, ALL of this would be bearable were it not for the fact that he turns around and assumes his predestined role (as ordained by “God”) as “King of the Demons.” It strikes me as hypocritical (kind of like a hard-lined atheist begging to God for help when a storm hits, or religious leaders professing charity while lining their pockets with donations…hypocrisy, in any form, irks me something terrible).

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(Rage over)

Where was I? Oh yeah, Vandread: I tried that a number of years ago, but it didn’t really click with me and I didn’t even make it through the first episode. If you do watch it, and it’s good, please let me know (or any others, I enjoy recommendations).