Like The Tomato
Nothing here but my musings about daily life, books, anime, and food.
- Title: Castlevania
- Episodes: Season 1 – 4 episodes; Season 2 – 8 episodes; Season 3 – 10 episodes; Season 4 – 10 episodes
- Where to Watch: Netflix
- Publisher: Powerhouse Animation Studios
I’ve been wanting to watch this and in all honesty, I did watch the first episode alone a while back. But I didn’t really get into it until I watched it with my partner. The series was an adaptation of a videogame of the same name, seasons 1 and 2 were based on Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, with Alucard’s backstory from Castlevania: Symphony of Night.
Yes I know, people (elitists) say that this is not an anime since this was not made and produced in Japan. However, I will continue to refer to this as an anime because technically this is still an animation.
This anime starts with Vlad’s human wife being burned at the stake after being accused of witchcraft. In return, Vlad declares to avenge his wife by declaring an all-out war against the people of Wallachia. I guess war is not really the word that I am looking for. The people of Wallachia have no chance of fighting the demons summoned by Vlad to overrun the country and slaughter all the people in it.
This anime introduced me to a favorite trio – one of my favorites anyway. Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, and Adrian “Alucard” Tepes. These three were balanced. Each had strengths. Each had weaknesses. And I loved them. Well, I love them still. I enjoyed their scenes together. I loved the banter exchanged between these characters. Their relationship naturally progressed to friendship. Usually, I would hate someone in a trio or at least there would be one that I least like. But with this one, I liked all three of them. Of course, my favorite is Alucard but that is a given.
Why do I love Adrian Tepes? I mean, why not? Of course, being a dhampir has nothing to do with it. Right. Well, he had a good character arc. Starting from being alone, opening himself up to two people, being in a self-imposed exile, being like his dad, and changing again. Granted, him being a dhampir has a lot to do with why I gravitated toward his character but it was also the depth. His loneliness that broke my heart over and over. And his willingness to open up to others after being burned by an incident that drove him to be like his dad.
The choices that Adrian made was commendable. Okay there might be some bias here. But the fact that he continued to open his heart regardless of the betrayals that he experienced was great. It would’ve been so easy to close off and just be a recluse like Vlad. I mean, I wouldn’t have blamed him if he did choose to be a closed off person.
Another character arc that my man and I enjoyed was Isaac’s. He was Dracula’s (Vlad’s) human general (along with Hector). He was a forger, the same as Hector. He started as very dark. Basically, he aligned his ideals with Vlad and followed him, and agreed to what Vlad wanted. He believed that all humans are evil. So when Vlad decided to annihilate the human race, he was all for it. But throughout the whole series, as he started to meet different people, he started to see that there was goodness in them. And his beliefs started to evolve. Hector’s arc was good too. I mean, he was like a kid and we saw him grow up in some aspects. But I loved Isaac’s part more.
And like any other anime, there was a character who I hated with a passion – Carmilla. She was just something else. She was the “brains” in the Council of Sisters. I put that in quotes because when it all comes down to it, she was a dreamer. She tells her “sisters” what she wants to happen and then it is the other three who did all the logistics and the planning. What kind of bullshit is that? I hated her scheming and manipulation. But then again, maybe that’s why she was a good villain. I just really do not like her. All she ever did was boss other vampires around. She thought she was above everyone else including her “sisters”. I kept on saying that I wanted her to die right off the bat. I wanted her to die in such an anti-climatic way!
I honestly preferred Lenore over Carmilla. Lenore got underestimated a lot. She seemed so fragile and soft compared to the other “sisters” but that made her so scary. She was a diplomat and she knew how to manipulate those around her to do her bidding by gaining their trust and friendship first.
Overall, this was a good animated series. I enjoyed it. Despite the violence and gore, despite some intense scenes, I enjoyed the story. I loved the action, I loved how fleshed out the characters were (yes, including the characters that I really did not care for). I mean, it was about vampires for crying out loud. It was no surprise that I would love this anime, regardless of the fact that vampires were the villains. Anyway, the spinoff is coming out this month, and I cannot wait to see it.
- Anime Title: High Card
- Episodes: 12 episodes
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
- Publisher: TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd.
My boyfriend picked this anime for us to watch. Not that I was not interested in it. I just simply neglected to add it to our watchlist. I am glad that we got to check this one out. We had fun.
What is this about? In the Kingdom of Fouland, there exists a secret 52 deck cards. It’s called “X-playing cards”, which give the users special abilities. Though originally held by the royal family, the cards were stolen and scattered throughout the kingdom. Fast forward to the present day, where we are introduced to Finn, a thief trying to raise funds to save the orphanage he calls home. Finn decides to try his luck at a casino to gain money quickly, where he gets into a squabble and meets people with special abilities. During this encounter, Finn learns how to use the 2 of Spades, the card he has been holding. This leads to his induction into High Card, a group of people assigned by the royal family to recover the 52 playing cards while disguised as salesmen for the Pinochle car company. Of course, High Card is not alone in this quest. There is another group, Klondike mafia family, who wants the cards for nefarious purposes. And the story goes from there.
This anime is definitely action-packed. A lot of cat and mouse chases trying to get a hold of the 52 cards – who will get to this first and all that. It was fun. This season focused a lot more on Finn Oldman and Chris Redgrave – two members of the High Card. Sure, we got to see the other members – Leo, Wendy, Vijay and Bernard – but the season heavily focused on Finn’s and Chris’ background story. Their motivations for joining High Card. Their friendship and all that.
Between Finn and Chris, it was Chris’ story that made the show for me. Not to say that Finn is not a likable character. He is – with his main motivation in doing things and eventually joining High Card to save the orphanage that he grew up in. But Chris to me is a very fleshed-out character. We were only allowed to see the surface of this flirty womanizing character at the beginning. But as the season progressed, we got to see what he was hiding behind that mask of his. Yes, it was a mask. He exhibited this noncommittal persona because ultimately as revealed in the season finale, there was no use in getting attached to anyone. And that in itself made Chris so real to me.
The friendship between Finn and Chris also progressed naturally. Sure, they may not admit it outright but they are buddies. They rely on each other a lot. And the fact of the matter that these two understands each other is something so beautiful to see. Of course, the fujoshi in me wants something more to develop but I mean, that’s just me.
Season two has been approved for this anime, and I am hoping to see more of the other members of High Card. We got some background on Leo and Wendy, but I want to see a bit more. We didn’t really know anything about Vijay aside from his ability. So hopefully these characters and Bernard as well could get a more fleshed-out story in the coming season. I can also do without Sugar Peace. I cannot stand that detective. She can just be nixed in season two. She is aggravatingly annoying because of her decisions. I cannot.
This is a fun anime. It’s pretty fast-paced with action in pretty much every episode. It does have a heart as well, which elevates the plot. The soundtrack is pretty good too. I definitely love the opening and ending songs. My boyfriend did not seem to mind letting me play the opening and ending songs for almost all the episodes.
- Anime Title: Chainsaw Man
- Episodes: 12
- Where to Watch: Crunchyroll and Hulu
- Publisher: MAPPA
This anime came out alongside the newest season of Bleach, so obviously I placed this on our anime watchlist. And after hearing a lot of people giving this anime such good words, my hun and I finally decided to pick it up.
This anime follows the protagonist, Denji, an impoverished boy and an unofficial devil hunter to pay his father’s debts. One incident happened that made him form a contract with a cute dog-like devil, Pochita. The contract basically fused their bodies in turn giving Denji the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. He later joined the Public Safety Devil Hunters, which was a government group focused on killing devils.
Pretty interesting premise, and it delivered. Denji was a different sort of main character compared to a lot of the Shonen main characters we experienced before. He did not have a clear-cut goal. No big dreams of being a leader of something. No big goals of revenge. Nothing like that. And to me, that was refreshing to see. He only had one simple dream – to live a good, comfortable life. And he reached that goal the moment he joined the Public Safety group. So for the rest of this first season, it was just about maintaining it. He did have some mini-goals in the series – to hold breasts, and to kiss someone. Some people might argue that those were pretty shallow goals and I argue back, he already reached his dream, and now he could focus on what matters for a kid his age. I couldn’t hate him and wouldn’t criticize him for it. Those were fair goals for a 16-year-old boy.
The thing that made this anime stand out for me was how female characters were portrayed. We’ve all seen how female characters were portrayed in some of the popular Shonen anime. I don’t need to reiterate that. But this anime showed some strong female characters that did not fall in the token female category.
Let’s talk about Himeno for a quick second here. She was hot. Let’s not make this any more complicated than that. It was so easy to just put her there for fan service. They did not do that. Sure, you see her in a tank top and a pair of underwear in her own apartment. You saw her undressing to take a shower and even then it was not explicit. This was something that you would do at your own apartment. She was the leader of a group of devil hunters. A LEADER and very capable at that. A role that would normally be given to a male character. But on top of that, she has flaws. She could be considered promiscuous. A playboy, as you may. Having kissed most of the team members apparently. She has depth. Carrying the guilt that she had multiple partners die on her watch. That was a heavy burden to carry and she even visits their graves regularly.
How about that scared girl who wanted to kill Denji to survive? Kobeni. This character I had to marinate in my brain first. Sure I found her annoying the first time she was introduced. She was scared shitless and she was not thinking straight. But now that I had some time to think about it, being scared was the normal reaction for someone who was in this business. The only way for them to survive that situation was to sacrifice Denji. And she tried to do that because that was the logical thing to do to save the other members of the team. But you know what? She overcame her fears to even save Denji later on and we were shown how capable she really was.
How about Power? The fan favorite. The manic pixie dream girl character. She was not my favorite, to be honest, but I saw the appeal. She was feral. Because she was. She was fun. She does what she wants. She does not care. And for all the trios that we saw in anime, this female character did not blend in the background. She did not have any romantic attachments to either Aki or Denji. She was not useless. And for the most part, she was on equal footing with his partners. She has her faults, she is not the strongest, and she fucks up, but she does not care. She would still say that she was the best out of all of them.
Makima, I mean, the boss. A female boss. We have not seen enough of her yet, but all I know, just from watching the anime, was the fact that she is one scary bitch. And I would not want to mess with her, EVER. Because her contract with whatever devil makes her that powerful.
Overall, I found this anime enjoyable. It did not give me the chills compared to some of my favorite Shonen anime. But it did the job. The animations were good. At least I think so. I enjoyed how the fight scenes were carried out. The execution overall was great. And I would like to watch the second season when it comes out. Because I want to see what happens next. Do I think it was overrated? Do I think it was overhyped? Sure. But I see the appeal of the anime. The bottom line is enjoyment is preferential. Some people will give this an S rating and some will put it in A. I will put it in the A rank category.