Monthly Archives: June 2021

Villainess: Reloaded! Blowing Away Bad Ends with Modern Weapons, Vol. 1

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By 616th Special Information Battalion and Wuhuo. Released in Japan as “Doushitemo Hametsushitakunai Akuyaku Reijou ga Gendai Heiki wo Te ni Shita Kekka ga Kore desu” by K Lanove Books. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Shaun Cook.

Gotta be honest, I got the premise to this one mixed up. I am reading far too many of these villainess stories lately, and I had thought this was a “Peggy Sue” sent back to the past story like Tearmoon Empire. But no, it’s a “I’m the villainess in an otome game” story like Bakarina… in fact, clearly inspired by Bakarina in many ways. That said, while this is mostly light fluff, the choice of the author to start things off with an ominous, bloody prologue filled with death and a genuinely evil villainess for once had me raising an eyebrow… then raising the other when it’s never brought up again. Instead, for the most part, this is a pretty fun story of a military otaku, brought into an otome game world, who, like Katarina, tries to avoid her bad endings that will happen in ten years time. *Unlike* Katarina, she does so by making lots and lots of guns.

After the ominous introduction I mentioned before, we’re introduced to Astrid, a promising 4-year-old with a lot of magic talent and the daughter of a duke. She also, as you may have gathered, has memories of a previous life in Japan…a college girl who was a serious military otaku. What’s more, she knows this is the world of an otome game she once played… and that, yup, she’s the villainess who gets exiled in the end. As with Katarina, the idea of “being nice to everyone and not being evil” rarely occurs to her (though it does on occasion). Instead, she’s going to be spending time figuring out how to introduce rifles, pistols, shotguns, and grenade launchers via the power of magic, imagination, and the spirits that end up doing whatever she wants. Now if only she could avoid all those pesky love interests, who for some reason seem even more fascinated with her.

Obviously, there’s a lot of Bakarina here. The heroine is clueless about why all the love interests seem drawn to her, though Astrid is slightly more self aware… but that’s only a matter of degree. I’d argue that another good comparison is The Eminence in Shadow, as you see Astrid for most of the first half of the book just go nuts making and using all kinds of weapons, to the horror of her maids and family (with the exception of her mother, who seems to know everything Astrid is thinking… mostly as her poker face is terrible). The first half of the book is better than the second half, which shows Astrid as a six-year-old and then eight-year-old, going through school, studying advanced blood magic methods, helping other students, and trying to figure out why the prince in her class won’t leave her alone. In other words, it has far less dakka, and that’s not something you want to hear from a series like this, which depends on its gimmick of “Astrid’s Got a Gun”.

Still, it is interesting enough that I’ll pick up a second volume. Astrid desperately needs an injection of common sense, as she researches ways to affect the brain so that she won’t suffer from PTSD when she has to kill people to avoid exile. Realizing that she’s only creating her own fate now rather than avoiding it is beyond her narrowly focused mind, alas.

Super Cub, Episodes 1-12

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Written by Toshizō Nemoto, directed by Toshiro Fujii for Studio Kai. Based on the light novel written by Tone Kōken and illustrated by Hiro, published in Japan by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. Released in North America on the Funimation Streaming Service.

I review anime series on my site basically never, but something about Super Cub makes me want to talk about it. It wasn’t the most popular series of Spring 2021 – that’s probably Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song. It doesn’t have an amazing original music soundtrack – though the sound design is incredible. It doesn’t have an all-star cast – indeed, the lead role goes to a relatively new actress. It lacks exciting battles or romantic drama (no, sorry folks, much as I enjoyed teasing about it, this is not a yuri series.) And yet for a select few folks, every Wednesday suddenly became Super Cub Wednesday, a time to sit back and watch an introverted, quiet, and depressed high school girl slowly find friends and a purpose in life thanks to the purchase of a Honda Super Cub.

Contrary to the belief of a lot of fans of the series, it was not created by Honda as an advertisement for their Super Cub line, though I’m sure they were delighted to sponsor the series. It’s based on a still-running light novel series about a high school girl named Koguma, who lives alone in a small apartment in a small town in Yamanashi Prefecture. When we first see Koguma, her life is very sterile. She gets up, shower and gets dressed in her uniform, makes a simple breakfast and a simple lunch (which she will eat cold, as there’s always a line for the microwave), and then ride her bike to school, which involves a hill and exhausts her every morning. After being passed by faster bikes and scooters, one day she decides to turn towards a motorcycle store, where (after seeing new scooters are 100% too expensive for her) she buys, quite cheap, a Honda Super Cub. Over the course of the next twelve episodes, we follow her and her Super Cub as her life grows larger and more enriching with every episode.

There are so many things I could talk about. The cast of the series is minimal – while there are supporting characters, for the most part it’s three girls. Koguma; Reiko, a pretty but distant girl in her class who turns out to be a massive Cub otaku (and also a very eccentric young woman); and Shii, a very small girl in Koguma’s class who rides an Alex Moulton bicycle and gradually begins to idolize Koguma and Reiko. With the exception of the cliffhanger to one episode, the series never gets too big or dramatic. It relies on small, realistic moments, like Koguma’s fear when her Cub doesn’t start after midnight in the local convenience store (out of gas), or Koguma’s part-time job, which involves a 45-minute commute each way; or Koguma and Reiko’s increasing struggles with the elements and nature.

I do love the other two characters. Reiko is delightful and wacky, even if she’s a little too happy to walk around naked in a “this novel is for guys” sort of way. She gets her own focus episode where she tries to climb Mount Fuji with her Hunter Cub, and it’s a delightful examination of sheer stubbornness and perseverance. Shii’s story takes up much of the back half of the series, and leads to the series’ only real cliffhanger, where her desperate attempt to stay on the same pace as the “cool kids” leads to an accident. She has the emotional journey of the series, and seeing her, at the end, buying her own Little Cub, a vehicle as adorable as her, warms the heart. That said, Koguma is the star, and Koguma is the character that I was most invested in, every episode.

Koguma, after buying her Super Cub, gains new friends, has new experiences, shows more of a rebellious side, and also shows off her delightfully understated sense of humor, which was one of the high points of the series. At the same time, she does not change all that much. While we do see her smile more and more (and her smiles are delightful, trust me), her default setting is still quiet and emotionally guarded. She is careful about money, tries not to have to trust other people, and tends to deflect any and all praise of her actions, increasingly crediting the Super Cub with anything she did herself. The Super Cub, as Koguma herself admits in the final episode, is not a magical girl mascot that can heal all your issues – issues Koguma still deals with even towards the end of the series.

That leads to the series’ most controversial moment, when Shii, taking a “cat path” shortcut to go shopping, ends up crashing her bike into a stream off the side of the trail. Looking in a lot of pain, she calls… no, not her parents. No, not 119. She calls Koguma, the girl she has put on a massive pedestal by this time. And Koguma comes to the rescue in her Super Cub, getting Shii out of the water (slapping her to keep her awake), struggling to hoist them both back onto the path, and then… sticking Shii INTO her Cub’s front basket (Shii is teeny weeny) and driving her back to her apartment for a hot bath. This, to put it mildly, upset fans. Why did she not call for an ambulance? What was she thinking? To me (and several others), it seemed far more obvious: Koguma hates relying on anyone else, ambulances and hospitals might mean paying money she doesn’t have, and Shii seemed to mostly just be cold. You could argue it was a bad decision, but: a) who says characters have to always do the correct thing?, and b) we’d literally seen Koguma disobey her teachers – twice! – in a previous episode. She is not a good citizen sort – she’s an introverted teen worried about her friend. (Oh yes, and Shii’s trail was apparently 500 yards from Koguma’s apartment.)

Let’s talk about the animation and sound design. Super Cub does not do anything flashy – it’s fairly standard animation, not a lot of CG work or 3D flashiness like So I’m a Spider, So What?. That said, there was never any moment in the series where I felt “ah, this was the cost-cutting episode” or “this is where they ran out of time” – unlike, say, So I’m a Spider, So What?. It had a shtick which worked wonderfully throughout the series – it used muted colors, but when Koguma had a “Eureka moment” or emotional revelation, the colors would brighten. It was terrific. Meanwhile, the sound design was so good it was being praised immediately even by people who did not normally notice things like that. The soundtrack mostly consisted, at dramatic moments, of public domain classical music, ranging from Debussy and Vivaldi to Erik Satie. But the show was not afraid to have long stretches with no music at all, featuring Koguma silently starting her day, with the cooking of rice and buttering of toast showing off the quiet depression that is her existence as she starts the series.

I would definitely argue Koguma is depressed as we start the show. It’s a very quiet, normal depression, the sort that you wouldn’t even notice if you were a classmate (and indeed they don’t). Koguma describes herself as a girl with nothing in the first episode – no friends, no family, no goals, no plans for the future. At the end of episode 12 (to the consternation of some folks who wanted her to acknowledge what Reiko and Shii mean to her), she repeats the exact same monologue – but says that she now has a Cub, which gives her the determination to find those things. It calls back to the previous episode, where Shii, devastated at the fact that her bike was destroyed in her crash, begs Koguma to take the winter away, to make this season just stop. After a long pause, and it sounds like she HATES to say this, Koguma admits, “that’s not something my Cub can do”. That said, the very next episode, she does decide – yes, we ARE going to take Shii to Spring, and while the Cub is the means, it does not make the decision – she does. The Cub gives her confidence and energy that she completely lacked before.

I could go on – indeed, I have, this is much longer than my light novel and manga reviews. But that’s just how much I got out of this superlative anime. I don’t expect it to win any awards or anything, but if you like character-driven pieces with strong writing for teenage girls and a lack of “message” moralizing (unless that message is to buy Honda products), then Super Cub is a must-watch. I hope the series gets licensed for Blu-Ray release, I’d love to own this to rewatch for years to come.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online: 4th Squad Jam: Finish

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By Keiichi Sigsawa and Kouhaku Kuroboshi, based on the series created by Reki Kawahara. Released in Japan by Dengeki Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Stephen Paul.

OK, this turned out better than I had expected. I probably should have trusted in the author more. Keiichi Sigsawa is a man who knows what his strengths are, and in the case of Gun Gale Online, that is “cool action sequences that you want to see filed”, not “Karen has to find a way to get out of a marriage she doesn’t want”. As such, the actual plotline that brought us to this epic 3-part story is dealt with perfunctorily in the final chapter, and if it has a bit of a “sad trombone” feel to it, that’s fine. What folks are really here about is the gunfights, though, and boy howdy do we get a lot of that here. Not only is this the third part of an epic gun battle, but the book is also one of the longest in the series. It’s giving you excellent value for money. As for who comes off looking cool? Honestly, pretty much everyone.

We pick up right where we left off, with the huge battle between SHINC and Llenn being interrupted by Fire’s minions, all of whom are there to make sure that Llenn loses. (Llenn, throughout this book, points out she is under no obligation to marry this guy even if he does beat her in the game. No one listens to her.) As SHINC begins to lose members one by one, LPFM gains two back, as Shirley and Clarence come riding to the rescue – literally. We then move onto a train, then across a frozen lake – which of course starts to crack – and even deal with DEATH FROM ABOVE before we get into the final battle, which takes place inaside a massive deserted shopping mall – and only pistols are allowed. Can LPFM and what remains of SHINC hold out against two teams of the enemy? And can Karen finally tell Fire she’s just not interested?

The worldbuilding in this little universe is really good. Even if it does mean that we sometimes get pages at a time going into the history of guns and rifles. We have a seriously broad definition of “pistol” once we hit the mall, and most of the enemy takes full advantage of that. I also really liked the concept of the robot horse, and how it relates to Shirley’s real-life skills. (Shirley in general is terrific in this book, getting actual character development, and a wonderful final scene which shows off that this is a GAME, and she’s not actually a revenge-filled sociopath. And I admit I did find the ending a bit amusing – Fire, having decided that Karen is the woman he wants to marry to the point of setting this all up so he can “defeat” her, is scared off because Llenn is simply too damn terrifying – and Karen says that Karen and Llenn are both “her”. Oh no, strong women, flee!

There is a Vol. 10 out in Japan, which we should get in the fall, but after that we’re caught up with Karen’s story. There *is* more Sword Art Online Alternative to license, though. (hint, hint) In any case, fans of action movies will love this.