xd thhd thdr6 u4ser // MAGZUS.CLUB // by Derek Kolush

01582

32 PAGES OF FREE MANGA • CALL OF THE NIGHT FROM VIZ MEDIA • BOYS RUN THE RIOT FROM KODANSHA

DORORO

MANGA REVIEWS

DEALING WITH DEMONS!

PLANET WITH

COSPLAY! GAMES! TOYS! MUSIC!

SPACED INVADERS!

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? MAZES AND MONSTERS!

SO I'M A SPIDER, SO WHAT? EIGHT ARMS TO HOLD YOU!

LAIDBACKERS

AUGUST 2021

CHILL OUT!

ANIME

SUNDAY WITHOUT GOD, KAIJI, BAKI, AKUDAMA DRIVE, D4DJ FIRST MIX, HEAVEN'S DESIGN TEAM

Retailer Display Until July 12

OTAKUUSA CONTENTS August 2021 Volume 15 • Number 1

FEATURES

34 72 78 82 86

ALL FOR LOVE Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is an anime about looking for love in all thewrong places.

EIGHT ARMS TO HOLD YOU! Can anime survive in the strange new setting of So I'm a Spider, So What?

SPACED INVADERS! Planet With feels like a classic anime offering viewers an endearing story and a lovable cast of characters.

THE BIG CHILL Laidbackers is an anime less about magic and monsters and more about growth and change.

DEALING WITH DEMONS Dororo is a dark reimagining of a classic series from decades prior.

DEPARTMENTS 6 Editorial 8 Letters 10 Otaku Arsenal Random Stuff for the J-Nerd Lifestyle Manga Previews 39 CALL OF THE NIGHT Exclusive preview from Viz Media 55 BOYS RUN THE RIOT Exclusive preview from Kodansha 90 Tokyoscope The Return of Godzilla, Samurai Reincarnation, The Invisible Man Appears 100 Cosplay USA Gates Wide Open 106 Owari Is This Anime? Three of Our Favorite Medium-Bending Anime Series

DIRECT FROM JAPAN ANIME REVIEWS 16 18 18 20

Heaven’s Design Team Nutcracker Fantasy D4DJ First Mix Baki Complete Collection Season 1 22 Akudama Drive 23 Sunday Without God

MANGA REVIEWS 24 My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions 25 Dr. Stone Reboot: Byakuya 25 Cells at Work! Baby 26 Star-Crossed!! 27 Tono Monogatari 27 Sachi’s Monstrous Appetite 27 Wonder Cat Kyuu-chan 28 Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan 28 Super HxEros 29 Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon 29 Call of the Night 30 Chasing After Aoi Koshiba 30 The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent 31 Haru's Curse 31 Shaman King Omnibus 31 Tamamo-chan’s a Fox! 32 Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection 33 Beast Complex 33 Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess 33 A Sign of Affection

GAME REVIEWS 94 Persona 5 Strikers 95 Little Nightmares II 96 Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury 96 Calico 98 Going Under 98 Cyber Shadow

www.OTAKUUSAmagazine.com ONLINE EXCLUSIVES

NEW WEB-EXCLUSIVE SERIES

www.otakuusamagazine.com IS IT WRONG TO TRY TO PICK UP GIRLS IN A DUNGEON? The fun isn't over yet. Find out what's next for Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? at www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com!

Otaku USA e-News! Sign up for our FREE newsletter at www.otakuUSAmagazine.com for even more bonus content—including features, news, and more straight from Japan—with new editions sent directly to your inbox on a regular basis!

HEAVEN'S DESIGN TEAM There's more Heaven's Design Team on the way, so see what's in store for the series at www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com!

Enjoy your favorite magazine on your iPad, iPhone or other digital device. Download it when you want it, from where ever you are in the world. Simply visit the iTunes Newsstand, and search for 01582

SO I'M A SPIDER SO WHAT? So I'm a Spider, So What? continues! Let's talk about the latest episodes at www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com!

Get it when and where you want it.

32 PAGES OF FREE MANGA • CALL OF THE NIGHT FROM VIZ MEDIA • BOYS RUN THE RIOT FROM KODANSHA

DORORO

DEALING WITH DEMONS!

PLANET WITH

MANGA REVIEWS

+ COSPLAY! GAMES! TOYS! MUSIC!

SPACED INVADERS!

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER!

MAZES AND MONSTERS!

SO I'M A SPIDER, SO WHAT? EIGHT ARMS TO HOLD YOU!

LAIDBACKERS

After you put the magazine down, come join our ever-expanding online community. We've got exclusive content, contests, and other cool things to share!

LIKE OUR OFFICIAL FACEBOOK PAGE www.facebook.com/OtakuUSA FOLLOW US ON TWITTER www.twitter.com/Otaku—USA FOLLOW US ON GOOGLE+ plus.google.com/+otakuusamagazineofficial/posts

AUGUST 2021

CHILL OUT!

Otaku USA! Also available for Kindle, Nook and computer at: www.pocketmags.com, search Otaku USA. IMAGE: © Fujino Omori SBCreative/Danmachi Production Committee

ANIME

SUNDAY WITHOUT GOD, KAIJI, BAKI, AKUDAMA DRIVE, D4DJ FIRST MIX, HEAVEN'S DESIGN TEAM

Retailer Display Until July 12

Otaku USA (ISSN 1939 3318) is published bimonthly by Sovereign Media, 6731 Whittier Ave., C-100, McLean, VA 20101. (703) 964-0361. Periodical postage paid at McLean, VA, and additional mailing offices. Otaku USA, Volume 15, Number 1 © 2021 by Sovereign Media Company, Inc., all rights reserved. Copyrights to stories and illustrations are the property of their creators. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without consent of the copyright owner. Subscription services, back issues, and information: (800) 219-1187, or write to Otaku USA, Circulation, P.O. Box 1644, Williamsport, PA 17703. Single copies: $5.99, plus $3 for postage. Yearly subscription in USA: $24.95; Canada and Overseas: $38.95 (U.S.). Editorial Office: Send editorial mail to Otaku USA, 6731 Whittier Ave, Suite C-100, McLean, VA 22101. Otaku USA welcomes editorial submissions but assumes no responsibility for the loss or damage of unsolicited material. Materials to be returned should be accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. We suggest that you send a self-addressed stamped envelope for a copy of the author’s guidelines. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Otaku USA, P.O. Box 1644, Williamsport, PA 17703.

editorial

Volume 15, Number 1

Carl A. Gnam, Jr. Editorial Director Patrick Macias Editor in Chief Joseph Luster Editor/Games & Website Shaenon K. Garrity Editor/Manga Samantha DeTulleo Art Director Contributors: Ani-Mia, Jules L. Carrozza, Paul Thomas Chapman, Kara Dennison, David Estrella, Brianna Fox-Priest, Che Gilson, Michael Goldstein, Robert L. McCarthy, Gerald Rathkolb, Daryl Surat, Jason Bradley Thompson, Danny Tanner, Brittany Vincent Design Contributor Dawn Stein Production Assistant Julian Gnam Advertising Office Diane Hintz Advertising Director (703) 964-0361 Ben Boyles Account Executive (570) 322-7848, Ext. 130 benjaminb@sovhomestead.com Linda Galliher Ad Coordinator 570-322-7848, ext. 160 lgalliher@sovmedia.com Mark Hintz Chief Executive Officer Robin Lee Bookkeeper Subscription Customer Service (800) 219-1187 sovereign@publishersserviceassociates.com Comag Marketing Group Worldwide Distribution Sovereign Media Company, Inc. 6731 Whittier Avenue, C-100, McLean, VA 22101 (703) 964-0361 Subscription Customer Service and Business Office 2406 Reach Road, Williamsport, PA 17701 (800) 219-1187 Printed in the USA

15 Candles! Hey this is Patrick and hey, welcome to the latest issue of Otaku USA! Once again, here we are bringing you the best in anime, manga, gaming, cosplay, giant monsters, and whatever else we can manage from the Japanese pop culture playpen! If you are new around these parts, welcome aboard and hang on tight! If you are already a regular reader or (even better!) a subscriber, then welcome back! We do it all for you! So what do we have in store for you this time? Well … Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, which has just been renewed for a fourth season, is our cover story and writer Brittany Vincent levels up her XP trying to get to the bottom of things. Up next, Daryl Surat takes a look at Dororo, the latest anime based on a classic tale by the “God of Manga” himself, Osamu Tezuka. Kara Dennison then lures us into the chillout room with her take on the lighthearted comedy of Laidbackers. Michael Goldstein unpacks the sci-fi surrealism of Planet With, and Paul “Gooberzilla” Chapman brings the curtain down by asking the age-old question So I'm a Spider, So What? In between these floor shaking features, you’ll find our usual departments and columns, including bite-size anime reviews, manga reviews, game reviews, cosplay pics, even a Godzillasized blast from the past! So what else is going on? Well … right now as I sit writing this, it is officially springtime in Japan. I know that for sure because the cherry blossom trees bloomed last weekend and my neighborhood in Tokyo is looking mighty pink at the moment. Normally, I would be out partying hard in the park with friends and neighbors in the time-honored tradition of hanami (flower viewing), but things are a little muted this year. It’s been 12 long months since Tokyo first locked down due to Coronavirus and any sensible person is still feeling a bit cautious about social occasions, myself included. Mostly, I have staying close to home, trying to keep fit and busy, and keeping an eye on the latest happenings in anime (Team Pui Pui Molcar here!). And just when it seems that celebrations aren’t what they used to be, I’m happy to report that there is something to be excited about! The issue of Otaku USA you now hold in your mitts marks the beginning of our 15th year of publication! Yup! Otaku USA has been a thing since waaaaay back in August 2007. Since then, we’ve survived ups and downs in the print media game, lost our Free DVD sampler, weathered the transition to streaming anime platforms, and now continue to do our thing during a global health crisis … all because of readers like you! I know that sounds a bit corny, but I could not be more sincere! Anytime we get a letter from a reader thanking us for putting together another issue, it feels like it’s all been worth it! Enjoy the latest issue of Otaku USA and look forward to lots more! Thanks always! —Patrick

Food Wars

LETTERS/TEGAMI Hey Otaku USA! I am in my third year of a (hopefully lifelong) subscription with your awesome magazine and have become an avid fan of all things manga and anime. I had dabbled before with anime like Bleach, Akira, Princess Mononoke, Vampire Hunter D, Appleseed, etc. The art styles of each are captivating and bring the fantastical stories to life. Since then, between Otaku USA's recommendations and reviews of manga and anime as well as Toonami's varying line-ups, I've become even more awed and appreciative of the content available. Because of your magazine and the people you have within your company's family, the whole world of anime has to be brought further into the mainstream. Thank you for sharing that world with me and everyone still discovering it! Any word on upcoming seasons of these anime: the surprisingly dark, Promised Neverland and the ridiculous yet entertainingly instructive Food Wars? Also, a shout out and thank you to your reviewers, especially Brittany Vincent and Che Gilson. They are directly responsible for some of my "chance" purchases which ended up being some of my favorites. Thanks again and please have a better year than 2020! – BadWolf

Hi BadWolf! Thanks for your message and for your vote of confidence in our magazine and contributors! We’re glad we’ve helped connect you to some anime you’ve enjoyed and hope to continue … for a lifetime? Well, we’ll see what we can do about it! In the meantime, Promised Neverland is currently in the middle of its second season and there’s been no mention of a third yet. As for Food Wars, the latest season, “The Fifth Plate,” is believed to the be the last, but you never know when Soma and co. will be back in the kitchen. In the meantime, here’s a pic from Food Wars! Hello Otaku USA! I hope this message finds you well. I received your June 2021 issue in the mail and noticed the article on the very last page titled "Waiting for Eva", discussing when the final Rebuild film would be released in Japan. The day I received the issue was the same day Evangelion 3.0+1.0 was released in theatres so after reading it I couldn't help but smile from the irony. After having seen the film myself, and while I feel disappointed think that it wasn't worth the wait, I also feel a sense of relief and closure at this project that has taken nearly two decades to complete. That said this can't REALLY be the end of Eva, can it? Like Pokémon and Gundam, Neon Genesis Evangelion is too big a franchise to just shelf and leave alone right? We all thought the end of this series came in the summer of '97 when The End of Evangelion was released and the franchise still remains strong. Stay safe! -David Hi David! Thanks for your letter! Were glad that after so many delays and setbacks Evangelion

Evangelion

that your magazine helps me stay up to date and be able to chat to the new generation with ease. In my time, Akira, Ninja Scroll, and Record of Lodoss War were some of the big hits. It’s fun to share the joy of them with younger fans who get a kick out of newer anime My Hero Academia and Demon Slayer. So on behalf of young and old and young alike, thank you! -T.M

3.0+1.0 finally came out in theaters across Japan! As of this writing, the film has made nearly US$50 million dollars within the first few weeks of release, so I think it’s likely we will be seeing Shinji, Asuka, Rei and the rest of the gang eventually. In the meantime, we’re now awaiting the day when people overseas and 3.0+1.0 too. Please look forward to our coverage of the film when it comes out in North America! In the meantime, here’s an image from the new movie! Hey Otaku USA! I just wanted to say thank you for all you do. As a now old hand in the anime world, it is groovy

OTAKU USA www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com August 2021

Hi T.M.! Thanks for your message! It’s a good feeling to know that we can keep the old school fans up to speed with the latest crazes in anime, and well as help connect newer converts to the classics! Since we haven’t seen Ninja Scroll around these parts recently, here’s a picture from a classic anime from the past … 1993, to be exact! Thanks for enjoying Otaku USA magazine! And there you have it … more lucky letters rescued from the mail sack. Now give us more! Please send your questions, comments, queries, requests, and assorted ephemera to otakuusa@gmail.com!

OTA K U ARSENAL

By Joseph Luster

Random Stuff for the J-Nerd Lifestyle Get Ready to D-D-Duel with $1,000 Yu-Gi-Oh! Card How much would you pay for a limited edition Yu-Gi-Oh! card? The Trading Card Game's Masterpiece Series is putting big money on the hopes that you'll at least be willing to drop a cool grand, because that's how much the latest addition will run you! If you fancy yourself an IRL Seto Kaiba, you'll want to keep your own eyes on the Platinum Blue-Eyes White Dragon card, which is limited to just 1,000 initial copies and priced at $1,000. For that price tag you'll get a card made of 99.9 percent pure silver with a fancy platinum finish, complete with a transparent acrylic-glass display container so you can show it off to all your fellow duelists. Don't get any wild ideas about hoarding these, though, because they're limited to one per customer!

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train Figure Prototypes Lookin' Red Hot

OTAKU USA www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com August 2021

Considering how wildly successful the Demon Slayer: Mugen Train movie has been in Japan, it's no surprise that there's even more merchandise on the way. One of the latest comes from Aniplex and Good Smile, who showed off some amazing figures back at this year's Wonder Festival Winter event. The figures in question were, at the time at least, planned to be released "soon." Most of what was on display was in prototype form, but that didn't stop us from getting suitably pumped for some of the figures that are destined to line our shelves. The detail alone makes them worth keeping an eye on, so hopefully by the time this is in your hands they'll be through the prototype and approval stages.

Dress Like a Gundam or Zaku in New Mobile Suit Merch Have you ever wanted to cosplay as a mech from Mobile Suit Gundam but just don't have the time to, I don't know, construct a suit out of cardboard or something? Bandai's BanColle!fashion collection has the perfect solution for you. Enter a new line of t-shirts, boxer shorts, and socks that will have wearers looking just like one of

the three iconic Mobile Suits from Yoshiyuki Tomino's original Gundam anime. With their powers combined, the Mobile Suit Gundam MS Impersonator line will have at least a few areas of your body looking like the RX-78-2 Gundam, the MS-06F production line Zaku, and Char Aznable's own MS-06S custom Zaku. Each of the shirts will run you ¥4,400 (about $42), while the boxers are priced at ¥3,850 ($37) and the socks are ¥1,980 ($19). Shipping should be underway by the time you read this, so hopefully some of our readers are properly decked out already!

Some of Hiroyuki Sawano's Best Soundtracks Now Available Digitally One of the most distinctive composers in anime is Hiroyuki Sawano, whose standout style has been featured in series ranging from Attack on Titan and Kill Kill to fanfavorite film outings like Trigger's white-hot PROMARE. Now fans of that special Sawano sound can own a bunch of the artist's music thanks to recent digital releases that run the gamut. Some of the soundtracks available digitally in the United States and Canada hail from PROMARE, Re:CREATORS, ALDNOAH.ZERO, Blue Exorcist, GUILTY CROWN, KILL LA KILL, The Seven Deadly Sins, KABANERI OF THE IRON FORTRESS, and Thunderbolt Fantasy. Those who prefer physical media can order a copy of the PROMARE soundtrack in a double-LP gatefold vinyl set, which hits stores on April 16. © Milan Records © Sony Music

OTAKU USA www.webotakuusa.com Month YEAR

Back in Black The new anime series PACIFIC RIM: THE BLACK, now on Netflix via Polygon Studios, is bringing on the mecha in the form of the Atlas Destroyer training Jaeger. Tamashi Nations’ Robot Spirits line is also getting into the act by bringing the Atlas Destroyer Jaeger to life with some very state-of-the-art figure-making techniques, including using ABS plastic to form the body of this big guy, along with markings made with tampograph printing. Accessories include the amazing Saber-Chain, an extra pair of hands, along with articulated claws on the elbows and arms. Plus, there’s a long whip extension that can also be mounted just like in the show! Standing 6.7” inches, the Atlas Destroyer Jaeger is set for release in September 2021. For more info, visit tamashiinations.com!

OTAKU USA www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com August 2021

ANIMEREVIEWS

Heaven’s Design Team You'll never look at a pegasus the same way again In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth, but when it came time to craft the Animal Kingdom, the Almighty got bored with the task and decided STUDIO/COMPANY Crunchyroll to farm out the RATING bulk of the creNot Rated ation process to a group of overworked and under-appreciated subcontractors. That's the premise of Heaven's Design Team, a 2021 TV

taining and enlightening comedy that mines tons of humorous situations out of a simple premise: what if the incredible variety of life on Earth was the end result of divine creation by way of corporate bureaucracy? Guided by instructions passed along by Shimoda and Ueda, the design team juggles deadlines and struggles to fulfill all manner of vague and

anime based on the educational / office comedy manga written by Hebi Zou and Tsuta Suzuki and illustrated by Tarako. Directed by Soichi Masui and animated by Asahi Production, the Heaven's Design Team TV anime follows Shimoda, an apprentice angel, as he and his superior, Ueda, serve as the voice of God by transmitting requests, commissions, approvals, and oh-so-many rejections to a group of celestial designers named after the planets of the Solar System. General mayhem ensues. Similar to Cells at Work, Heaven's Design Team is an enter-

unreasonable requests (e.g. “an animal with a cool weapon”, “a striped animal”, etc.). With each new project added to the pile, personalities clash and frustrations mount, and therein lies the humor of Heaven's Design Team. As anyone employed in a creative industry that takes commissions from customers can tell you, design can be a messy, haphazard process, and this struggle is at the heart of Heaven's Design Team. Some of the funniest moments in the show involve evolutionary arms races between rival designers (snakes vs. birds, whales vs.

OTAKU USA www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com August 2021

squid, etc.). Other gags feature team members stumbling into a winning design by accident, such as when Mercury and Venus inadvertently invent the ostrich or

when a doodle by Saturn's grandson Kenta nets the Cambrian creatures known as hallucigenia. The show is a cornucopia of weird, gross, and whimsical facts about

the biology and behavior of creatures ranging from koala bears to humming birds to the ever-popular giraffe. Heaven's Design Team also covers fantastical creatures which often end up as rejected designs because of their impractical physiologies, and this process is rendered in hilarious detail as the designers attempt to troubleshoot how to make a dragon breath fire or how to cultivate a unicorn's horn, only to achieve disastrous results. After watching Heaven's Design Team, you'll never look at a pegasus the same way again. On the technical side, Heaven's Design Team offers a bright, cheerful color palette as well as character designs and animation that easily capture the charms of Tarako's manga artwork. The sound design is on point, and the opening and ending themes are catchy. With an episodic structure, Heaven's Design Team isn't big on plot development or in-depth characterization, but fans of quirky characters will find plenty to love here. For example, Pluto is portrayed as a morbid little lady with a “creepy-cute” aesthetic and a penchant for creating horrors such as brain-eating parasites, while Saturn is an elderly designer who scored big in the past by creating the horse and thus all of his subsequent designs are equine-inspired. Mercury is an efficiency-obsessed tech-bro snob who rubs his co-workers the wrong way with his reptiles, and Jupiter is an affable but emptyheaded oaf who is obsessed with making sure his creations taste delicious. Heaven's Design Team revolves around one joke, but that joke is explored in such an endearing way that the show never wears out its welcome. If you love animals in all of their peculiar glory, or if you can sympathize with your strongest ideas being rejected in favor of something you doodled in two minutes on the back of a cocktail napkin, then you'll definitely appreciate what Heaven's Design Team has to offer. —Paul Thomas Chapman

August 2021 www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com OTAKU USA

Kaiji: The Complete Series The Future is in Our Hands After an entire decade, it’s finally come to pass: we can own Blu-Rays of the series that made American otaku sit up and pay attention to the name Nobuyuki Fukumoto aka “the manga author who draws people with big sharp noses”: the high-stakes gamSTUDIO/COMPANY Sentai Filmworks bling series Kaiji. If I had to RATING make a far smaller wager, I’d 14+ say it was the success of the 2018 comedy spinoff series Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues, as that led to the original series becoming legally available for streaming and now home video. Or perhaps the high-quality English release of the manga from Denpa Books was the catalyst? I’d credit the Japanese theatrical live-action Kaiji film trilogy which just concluded in 2020, or perhaps the 2018 Chinese live-action theatrical film adaptation titled Animal World: Mr. Nobody (it’s on Netflix), but I firmly believe “it’s not true Kaiji

without incredibly hype narration” so it’s the anime all the way for me. In any case, all 52 anime episodes are present in this release across six discs, since you get the original 2007 series Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor as well as the 2011 direct sequel Kaiji: Against All Rules. Man, that’s such a casual thing to type, but waiting that half-decade was something else. Kaiji Ito lives the typical millennial existence. Well, I guess now it’s “zoomer” since nothing got better, but originally this was set in the mid-90s. Whatever, it’s on that Marvel Comics sliding timeline such that Kaiji is a

Based on the manga "KAIJI" by Nobuyuki Fukumoto originally serialized in the weekly YOUNG MAGAZINE published by KODANSHA LTD. © Nobuyuki Fukumoto / KODANSHA LTD. © DNDP, VAP, Madhouse

D4DJ First Mix A sprightly burst of energy Idol anime series are a dime a dozen. For every new classic like Dorohedoro or Wonder Egg Priority, there's another show hoping it can match the popularity of shows like Love Live! or The Idolm@ster. D4DJ First Mix seemed like another idol-centric anime that overused STUDIO/COMPANY Sentai Filmworks CG not only for its idol RATING performances, but the TV-14 entire show, which was immediately off-putting. What's more, it purported to follow a narrative centered about DJing, remixes, and performing live sets in a school and underground setting. While those aspects might seem like a recipe for disaster, D4DJ First Mix is a sprightly burst of energy that feels earnest and exciting all the way through, even when its lead can be a bit unbelievable at times. The series follows the seemingly eternally joyful Rinku Aimoto, who's just returned to Japan from Africa to live with her grandparents and attend Yoba Girls Academy. Due to her parents' work, she's spent most of her life away from the

country, and there's a lot she doesn't know about. That includes what a DJ actually is or the definition of “remix.” But what she doesn’t know, she

makes up for with some of the most intense, positive energy you’ve ever seen in an idol series. Rinku is a ray of sunshine, lightning in a bottle. She breaks out into dance uncontrollably. If there’s a song in her heart, she sings it. That’s probably why she becomes fast friends with the more reserved Maho Akashi, a school DJ who practices her craft at the academy under the

name "DJ Mash." She occasionally spins her tunes during lunch, including a song Rinku remembers from her childhood. When Rinku busts into where Maho's broadcasting and insin© bushiroad, All Rights Reserved. “Pioneer DJ” is a trademark of Pioneer Corporation.

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uates herself into the mix, Maho is first annoyed, then charmed by Rinku's infectious attitude and curiosity. Soon, Maho is teaching Rinku the ropes about how to DJ, mix songs, and even add vocals to the mix. The academy is incredibly supportive of its students' gifts, and dedicates several concert halls and even remix contests to nurturing their talents. There's even a massively popular group that the student body loves: Peaky P-Key. As Rinku and Maho continue working together and add new members like the boisterous Muni Ohnaruto (VJ Only) and graceful pianist Rei Togetsu, they soon catch the eye of "Peaky" and other DJs within the school realm and beyond. Watching each member of the group work to sharpen their talents and learn more about the DJ world while producing incredibly catchy tunes is the main draw for D4DJ First Mix. They slowly grow

series about gambling in which the highstakes, life-or-death, feast-or-famine activity at erm, hand, is something that would otherwise be mundane. They’re all parallels of society, for success requires the downtrodden to turn on

from knowing little or nothing about their roles as a group to using their individual strengths to bolster their fledging unit, “Happy Around,” while becoming a force to be reckoned with in the musical world. The animation, while CGI, is absolutely gorgeous. There are some occasional frame rate

one another while those with actual power suffer no ill consequences at all. The second great thing is Kaiji himself. As gullible and pathetic as he is, no matter how bad things get Kaiji will NOT betray his values, and while he’s no megagenius he’s brilliant enough to turn things around spectacularly, just enough to get himself into an even deeper gambling predicament for which the only solution is to double down. It’s going to cost him in money, tears, and blood but maybe, just maybe, Kaiji can not only defy the odds but make those rich folks at the top who consider themselves so untouchable squirm, even for just a moment. Let’s consider ourselves fortunate that Kaiji was created decades before the phrase “meme stocks” was a thing. There is no English dub and the only extras on the discs are creditless openings and endings, but just being able to physically own one of my favorite series of the last 15 years is enough for me. In this landscape of corporate buyouts, mergers, layoffs, and branding pivots, who’s to say what titles will remain available for streaming on which platforms? More Kaiji could conceivably be animated someday, but let this be Kaiji’s “about as happy as we can manage” ending. —Daryl Surat

issues, but performance scenes look and feel fantastic. As far as the songs themselves, there's no tune you won't come away from the show humming at least once. It's impossible to shake the opening or closing song from your subconscious, and all of the show's stylish "remix" and "urban" touches come together to make a satisfying mix of their own. D4DJ First Mix is a unique and exciting take on the idol genre, with likable characters, bombastic beats, and a true passion for the medium. If you’ve ever thought about getting into DJing, this is an anime you’re going to want to check out, even if it’s just a passing interest. There’s a joy and respect for the art form that’s definitely going to attract viewers outside of the typical demographic, which means the series has certainly done its job and then some. —Brittany Vincent

August 2021 www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com OTAKU USA

ANIMEREVIEWS

single guy in his early 20s, unable to secure a steady job or relationship due to the recession. With no rich parents to bail him out, he’s basically accepted that upward societal mobility isn’t happening…and then a crippling debt to the yakuza gets piled on him to boot. But the elites of the world, the old people with the money and the power for whom we’re nothing but ants desire greater entertainment from the service labor class, whose lives they perceive as completely disposable. And so, Kaiji is given an offer to not only potentially clear away his debts in one night, but perhaps become rich in the process. All he has to do is board a cruise ship along with several others of his ill fortune, where together they shall play…a game. Now, you may be thinking “oh, another story where people are murdered or murdering for sport.” But no. Well…most of the time no. The beauty of Kaiji is twofold: first, it is a

Baki Complete Collection Season 1 Apply Damage © Itagaki Keisuke (Akita Shoten) / Baki Production Committee.

I’m always conflicted when there’s an anime produced as a streaming platform exclusive which I enjoy, because it frequently means that a home video release is simply not under consideration. Consider that it’s been three STUDIO/COMPANY Sentai Filmworks years since the greatest RATING streaming anime achieve17+ ment that took the world by storm came out, with no Blu-Ray release forthcoming until now, thanks to Sentai Filmworks! I speak, obviously, of 2018’s Baki. (Devilman Crybaby fans will have to continue waiting, it seems.) Let’s just get this out of the way: calling this a “Season 1 Complete Collection” is something of a misnomer, as for odd licensing/union royalty dodge reasons Sentai Filmworks has

elected to produce their own in-house English dub that is entirely separate from the Netflix English dub. Perhaps a home video release couldn’t have happened otherwise? It took over a quarter century of noble yet sadly futile efforts before American audiences realized that “the strong is the beautiful.” Central Park Media’s release of the 1990s Grappler Baki – The Ultimate Fighter OVA didn’t draw in the UFC fanatics, and FUNimation’s attempt to market the 2001 Baki the Grappler to WWE viewers failed as well. America’s first

OTAKU USA www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com August 2021

weekly manga anthology, Raijin Comics, couldn’t get US manga readers to accept Keisuke Itagaki’s bizarre approach to anatomy. These adaptations weren’t bad, mind you. Americans just weren’t ready for one of the most outrageous, insane, testosterone-fueled, over-the-top action series that anime and manga had to offer. Well, that and none of them bothered to describe Baki as being all of those things and more, which it is. What a difference a well-done anime adaptation given high visibility on an established platform makes. After all, that’s what it took for people here to finally accept Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. The plot of Baki is nearly beside the point. Baki Hanma is the second toughest martial artist in the world; a chubby-faced musclebound 17-year-old able to wipe the floor with every professional fighter bearing any mark of celebrity this world has ever seen (several of whom cameo in this series as fodder). That’s why he, as well as all the other REAL martial arts masters, competes in secret underground—as in literally underground—no holds barred tournaments for nothing more than the honor of victory. But even after winning one such tournament (depicted in the 90s/00s Baki anime), Baki knows he still isn’t tough enough to handle the actual toughest martial artist of them all: his father, Yujiro Hanma, who is probably the worst dad ever in the history of all terrible anime fathers. That showdown remains on the horizon, though Netflix has ordered further seasons so

perhaps it’s a matter of time. For this initial season, Baki and his equally impossibly tough cohorts—there are no designated punching bag pals in the world of Baki—instead must contend with the world’s most evil and powerful convicts, most of whom are impossibly old men, as

to see it for yourself. For unlike traditional narrative, Baki doesn’t escalate. It’s always operating at Most Dangerous levels. Show it to your non-otaku relatives as an example of what “anime” is about. —Daryl Surat

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ANIMEREVIEWS

characters in Baki tend to be. Future seasons will see Baki square off against similarly implausible adversaries such as the competitors in a once-every-century Chinese martial arts tournament (for whom one contestant was also a competitor in the PREVIOUS tournament), an unfrozen caveman, and a clone of the legendary samurai Musashi Miyamoto. Then maybe he’ll be ready for Dad. What makes Baki so legendary is the combination of the outrageous bone-and-organ shattering brutality of its fights with the fact that the characters routinely SURVIVE all of the horrific violence inflicted upon them, little worse for wear. That’s what it means to be good at martial arts! Note: swallowing a grenade as a precaution to regurgitate it mid-fight to throw is a valid martial art. Listen: Baki is like The Matrix. Nobody can truly just be told what it is. You have

Akudama Drive Another Killer Seven The combination of the longesteemed pedigree of anime Studio Pierrot and Too Kyo Games (its founders created the Danganronpa series) resulted in exactly what I want anime to be. For as Cyber City Oedo 808 established decades ago, the absolute highest form of narrative is “cyberpunk super-criminals with bomb collars on their necks forced to undertake a suicide mission.” The “cyberpunk” part is key, otherwise you end up with the wrong Jared Leto.

Such is the general premise of Akudama Drive, the best action anime overall of 2020. In a futuristic Dotonbori (Yakuza fans will recognize that bridge), the most heinous criminals are declared “Akudama” (which basically means “bad people” but it’s left untranslated since “akudama” sounds cooler) and are subject to summary execution. A mysterious fixer with incredible wealth has

assembled seven of the worst of the STUDIO/COMPANY worst Akudama Funimation for one megaRATING TV-MA heist. We never learn anybody’s given names, just codenames. “Courier” is your traditional taciturn “all business” cyberpunk hero: hightech motorcycle, metal hand, giant pistol. “Brawler” is a muscular

gullible himbo whose solution to everything is to punch it. “Hacker” is a oneeyed extremely online sort who can control electronic systems. “Doctor” is a pink-haired bombshell who can almost instantly kill or resurrect anybody in proximity, including herself, thanks to nearomniscient surgery and biochemistry knowledge. “Hoodlum” is a smalltime yakuza who makes outrageous false claims (which Brawler believes all of). And then there’s “Cutthroat” aka “jerk at your D&D circle who plays a Chaotic Neutral bard”: a

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deranged knife-wielding murderer of over 1,000 people (by episode one, anyway) who’s obsessed with red things and has the maturity of an elementary schooler. Wait, that’s only six Akudama, isn’t it? Well, the last is the main character: an ordinary young woman incarcerated for only having credit to pay at a cash-only takoyaki stall despite having a 500 yen coin in her possession at the time (the Courier dropped it and she was trying to return it). She’s a fundamentally moral and compassionate citizen who, through pure happenstance, is branded by the system as a criminal and, in order to not be killed by these actual Akudama with centuries worth of conviction times, must now masquerade as one herself. Through no fault of her own, the completely powerless “Swindler” now finds herself with a bomb collar around HER neck, and as the carnage and death toll skyrockets the brutal authorities can only conclude that the mastermind behind all this mayhem MUST be this illusive Swindler character! It’s darkly funny, and yet the series keeps it grounded enough to intentionally make viewers consider our actual reality; who does (and does not) get branded a “criminal” or “terrorist” when they commit foul deeds, and how news/entertainment media manufactures consent.

Akudama Drive is highly influenced by Western cinema, with every episode title save the finale named after a famous motion picture. Its Asian techno-landscape reminiscent of definitive cyberpunk works such as Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell combined with those unmistakably sharp Danganronpa-like aesthetics and tragicomic despair result in something truly original. Indeed, this is an increasingly rare instance of an original anime that was not previously a manga, light novel, videogame, etc. The Quentin Tarantino-like character interplays patterned after Reservoir Dogs and The Hateful Eight (minus the racism) are fully on purpose, and like with those movies everything ends up going wrong. The body count is substantial, and since the streaming broadcast blacks out all of the beheadings and head/eye trauma I recommend owning it on home video. You’d want to do that regardless, as the animation is always spectacular and action choreography/camerawork always hyper-kinetic. Akudama Drive is great fun throughout while offering strong characters, world-building, and relevant commentary on our current real-life existence. Plus, unlike so many other anime it sticks the landing fantastically. —Daryl Surat

ANIMEREVIEWS

Sunday Without God An entirely different type of being Would you rather live a beautiful lie or a painful truth? This is one of the questions that is asked in the 2013 series Sunday Without God, one of the most interesting series that you probably never saw. Sunday Without God, based on the light novel series by STUDIO/COMPANY Sentai Filmworks Kumihito Irie is set in a world RATING where, 13 years prior to the 17+ series starting, all of humanity lost the ability to be born and die naturally. Even if someone suffers a heart attack or a bullet wound that would simply immobilize them and leave them in pain, not actually putting them to rest. These people are known as part of the “deceased” but not “dead”. The only way for a person to properly die is to be buried by a Gravekeeper. Gravekeepers in

lage who puts a gun to her head and identifies himself with the same name as her father, but denies being her father, saying that the name is from a commonly told fairy tale. Moments later, Ai comes to the village center and sees the stranger has shot everyone in the village, adding them to the “deceased.” However, as is a common occurrence with Sunday Without God, all is not as it seems and the man’s relationship to Ai and his intentions with shooting up the entire village become clear in

Sunday Without God are not regular humans but are an entirely different type of being who are able to not only put people to rest, but are also the only people, under very special circumstances, to give birth. However, because Gravekeepers traditionally have few emotions and generally don’t make personal bonds very few people are ever born. Furthermore, those who are deceased but have not been put to rest and are not cared for may slowly revert to an animalistic state. Sunday Without God presents a very fleshed out world with a lot of thought put into its premise, setting up a world where, eventually there will be a “last human left.” Our protagonist, the 12-year-old Ai is living a quiet and comfortable life as the one and only Gravekeeper in a small country village. She inherited the position from her mother, the previous Gravekeeper of the village who passed away when she was young, entrusting Ai’s care to the village. Ai has been hoping to find her father, Hampnie Hambert who left when she was a baby. Ai encounters a stranger in the vil-

due course. Sunday Without God is one of the single most interesting and challenging shows I’ve seen in a long time. The series managed, continuously to surprise with subverting tropes and going in directions not traditionally seen in anime. Every episode of the short 12 episode run feels important, leaving the series open to more, which we can only hope will happen. Aesthetically the character designs may not stand out too much from current anime fare, but don’t be fooled, this is a show that continues to surprise with excellent, fully thought-out characters and a world that, while uncompromising, is not without hope. There were several times throughout the show that a major event would happen and I’d mentally say, “OK now I know

how this show is going to end,” only for my expectations to be subverted a few minutes later. The 12-year-old Gravekeeper Ai is a wonderful character with a big heart and gumption and as she travels across the land and gains friends, each of which add to the experience she grows as a character. Sunday Without God is really a special series that went under the radar when it first came out in 2013. With this new release it shows it is well worth your time. Recommended. —Gerald Rathkolb

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Magical Angel Creamy Manga New Manga Reviews My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions If you love the characters of My Hero Academia and wish more time was spent on lowstakes heroics and banter than on city-spanning catastrophes laden with deaths, dismemberments, and dePUBLISHER Viz Media powerings, then My Hero AcaSTORY AND ART demia: Team-Up Missions, by Yoko Akiyama main series assistant Yoko ORIGINAL CONCEPT Kohei Horikoshi Akiyama, is for you. Team-Up RATING T Missions is a collection of oneshot side stories focusing on— you guessed it—team-up missions between characters whose pairings we either haven’t seen in MHA proper or haven’t gotten to see enough. Most of the stories involve Deku and Bakugo teaming up with an established hero such as Hawks or Mirko (who, in a baffling move guaranteed to infuriate, is not drawn with her usual dark skin tone) as they handle a minor incident such as returning a child’s stolen soccer ball. This mission, incidentally, requires the whole class to assist, but it’s fun to see more of the characters who don’t top the popularity polls. Ida and Yaoyoruzu (sorry, I’ll never get used to calling the students of UA by their hero names)

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Dr. Stone Reboot: Byakuya

get to team up with Fat Gum, and there are fourpanel “My Hero(ine) Academia” gag comics featuring Bakugo’s family. Future installments will feature other characters, including Toga of the League of Villains. The best stories in Volume 1 involve Melissa Shield, the support specialist who appears in the Two Heroes movie but hasn’t shown up in the main manga. There’s no reason to keep such a potentially interesting character in Shonen Jump Standalone Movie Purgatory, so seeing her with DR. STONE REBOOT: BYAKUYA 2019 by Riichiro Inagaki, Boichi/SHUEISHA Inc.

Hit Shonen Jump series Dr. Stone takes place several millennia after everybody on Earth was mysteriously turned to stone and follows resurrected boy genius Senku’s quest to restore civiPUBLISHER Viz Media lization through just-plausiSTORY AND ART ble-enough applications of Boichi real-world science. One ORIGINAL SERIES Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi poignant side story involves RATING the fate of Senku’s father T Byakuya, who was on the crew of an international space station at the time of the petrification. Fans latched on to this flashback and its bittersweet revelation that for all of Senku’s endeavors to reunite humanity, he can never see his father again; Byakuya has been dead for thousands of years. Dr. Stone Reboot: Byakuya is a single-volume, self-contained story expanding not only on what Byakuya did, but on what else happened during the thousands of years of petrification. Despite the title, Byakuya is the central character for less than half the book. The remainder follows Rei, a homemade robot made from smartphone components who becomes a sentient AI. Rei dutifully follows and upgrades its programming over 3,718 years as it awaits Byakuya’s return, having sadly never been programmed with the knowledge of human life expectancy. As the afterword by Dr. Stone’s science consultant notes, a sentient AI is far beyond the technology our heroes have managed to create in the main series (though recent chapters may contradict this…). Written by main series artist Boichi, Reboot: Byakuya is officially considered an alternate universe “what if” story, though technically there isn’t anything that contradicts Dr. Stone continuity and main series writer Riichiro Inagaki supervised the character dialogue. It’s a bit like those standalone Shonen Jump

movies with one-off characters who never show up again. Perhaps Inagaki figured one bittersweet Gunbuster-esque “I’ll never see you again, Byakuya” moment was enough. (Daryl Surat)

Cells at Work! Baby The Cells at Work! franchise expands yet again, finding another variation on the peculiar, but surprisingly popular, premise of anthropomorphized body cells doing their biological jobs as if they’re employees at a workplace. PUBLISHER Kodansha Comics This time the cells are inside STORY AND ART a baby, which is born in the Yasuhiro Fukuda first chapter; perhaps ORIGINAL CONCEPT Akane Shimizu inevitably, the cells are babies RATING too, drawn as cute toddlers in 16+ preschool uniforms. The story begins with adult cells from the mother’s body, dressed like a cross between pediatric nurses and preschool teachers, escorting young blood cells through the umbilical cord and saying goodbye. We follow two sets of characters—a pair of red blood cells and a pair of brain cells—as they learn how to keep the brand-new body they occupy running smoothly. Later, we meet more characters,

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Hatsume, the canonical support character who’s gone largely ignored for years, is a treat. Future installments will feature other entertaining character combinations, so here’s hoping the book catches on despite not (currently) being simul-published online in Shonen Jump. Recommended. (Daryl Surat)

Both: From Shigeru Mizuki’s Tono Monogatari, translated by Zack Davisson, copyright Mizukipro. Images courtesy Drawn & Quarterly.

including gung-ho stomach cells and a shy white blood cell who has to muster the courage to fight pathogens. As in all Cells at Work! manga, the action is confined to the inside of the body, which looks like an industrial facility rather than a living organism. But Baby finds some clever variations on the theme: the baby brain is a cheery children’s library, the digestive system is set up to process milk, and parts of the body that are still developing are blocked off with “No Entry” signs, forcing the cells to find alternate routes. The art hits a sweet spot between weird and cute, with crowds of big-eyed preschoolers scuttling through kid-friendly versions of factory floors that are somehow also internal organs. The bold linework and simple designs give the cells an old-school chibi look, reminiscent of the child characters drawn by artists like Akira Toriyama. Everyone is relentlessly upbeat and devoted to their work, shouting things like, “Let’s be cheerful as always and deliver oxygen!” and, “Give it your all, everyone in the pancreas!” For those reading for the educational angle, there are nonstop side notes explaining the real biological details, as well as an afterword by the pediatrician who serves as the book’s medical supervisor. The Cells at Work! titles are reliably enjoyable edutainment, but the fun, appealing artwork in Baby makes it one of the better entries in the franchise—provided the reader can survive an all-out viral assault of cuteness. (Shaenon K. Garrity)

Star-Crossed!! Azusa is an obsessive fan of the boy band P4U, focusing her devotion on member Chikashi, a tall blonde with come-hither eyes. “Chika-kun is a god!” she gasps. “Chikakun is absolute!” At a concert, she jumps on the stage to PUBLISHER save Chika from a falling Kodansha Comics STORY AND ART stage light. The two wake up Junko in Heaven, where Azusa is RATING 16+ less concerned about her own death than that the mortal world has been robbed of Chika’s greatness. God, who looks like a little cartoon Santa Claus, sheepishly informs them that their arrival is a mistake and they can return to life. And they do— but in each others’ bodies. So begins this gleefully absurd body-swap comedy from the creator of Kiss Him, Not Me! While Chika tries to come up with a rational solution to their ridiculous situation, Azusa freaks out over occupying her idol’s body and apologizes for the intimate access she’s been granted (“There’s no way I can touch your peepee!”). Thanks to her obsession with P4U, Azusa is able to copy Chika’s performances onstage and breathlessly repeat trivia about his life to

music journalists. Meanwhile, Chika has to sleep in Azusa’s creepy shrine of a bedroom, papered floor to ceiling with pictures of him. Complications mount as Azusa’s friends and Chika’s bandmates catch on that something’s amiss, and Chika and Azusa start to switch back and forth for no apparent reason. Junko’s art is shojo-pretty with an extra helping of sexiness—the reader is continually treated to close-ups of the leads blushing and sweating—which makes the slapstick comedy all the funnier. The stylish artwork contrasts with the goofiness of the gags: P4U’s stage show is gaudy

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girlbait, Azusa’s lust is illustrated with blood spraying out of her nose or her soul leaving her body, and God sends missives on exploding paper. In the annals of body-swap manga, Star-Crossed!! is most reminiscent of Ai Morinaga’s Your and My Secret, with a similar irreverent tone, comically mismatched leads, and willingness to make as many dick jokes as one can get away with in a teen-rated manga. It’s pure silliness in a good-looking package, and the setup had the potential for inexhaustible gender-bending romantic comedy. Recommended. (Shaenon K. Garrity)

My first thought upon opening Tono Monogatari is how beautiful Shigeru Mizuki’s art is. My second thought was, “Oh, no, an anthology of loosely linked stories. Now I PUBLISHER Drawn & Quarterly have to go back and STORY AND ART see how everything Shigeru Mizuki RATING connects.” Unrated/Teen As it turns out, the only connecting element between these classical yokai stories is Mizuki himself, who wanders through the Tono region thinking about the stories and trying to retrace the steps of the folklorists who collected them. I usually find it jarring when artists draw themselves into their own comics, but at least in this case it leads to one of the best images in the book. These stories of monsters, spirits, supernatural creatures, and “mountain people” are quite brutal. As often happens in the work of early manga creators like Mizuki and Osamu Tezuka, there’s a chilling dichotomy between the benign cuteness of the characters and the bleakness of the world they inhabit. In one of the early stories, a hunter comes across a topless woman in the woods, shoots her dead, and says, “Not bad. Brought ’er down with one shot.” Oh? You’ve killed other naked women who took two shots? That moment sticks in my mind as it’s the only weak art in the book. It turns out the hunter shot the woman because she was a giantess, but she doesn’t look remotely gigantic. Fortunately, there are many great giants in this volume. Just as with their editions of Mizuki’s Kitaro stories, Drawn & Quarterly provides very good text pieces to give the reader greater context. They’re especially welcome here because there’s so much history and mythology that American readers are unlikely to know. As always, I like to wrap up my review with straightforward statement . Is Tono Monogatari worth your money? Yes! A few quibbles aside, this is top-notch yokai manga! Recommended. (Robert McCarthy)

Sachi’s Monstrous Appetite Makie, a cute little spiky-haired shonen hero, is able to see monsters that are invisible to everyone else. He has a crush on his tall, busty upperclassman Sachi, who towers over him and has a bottomless appetite. Makie brings Sachi snacks, and the two start to hit it off—but then a monster attacks Makie, and Sachi transforms into a monster herself and devours it! After Makie has gotten over his shock, Sachi explains that the mon-

sters are called watari, she’s one herself, and they’re drawn to Makie because he smells delicious. Sachi promises to protect Makie from her fellow monsters (“I’ll eat them all! Every last one of them!!”), but her own hunger for him may prove overwhelming. PUBLISHER Sachi’s Monstrous Appetite Kodansha Comics is an odd, food-obsessed take STORY AND ART Chomoran on the “monster girl” genre, RATING OT basically a shonen romantic comedy with vore. On one level, it’s a standard cheesecake romcom, hitting one familiar beat after another. Sachi suggests that she and Makie move in together, and suddenly they’re sharing a house, with no explanation of how this was arranged or what his family thinks of it, because the story needs to get to the love scenes and fanservice. When this premise starts to run thin, the leads abruptly become monster hunters, taking assignments from a mysterious acquaintance of Sachi’s. (“It’s not like this is some sort of romcom!” their new boss declares.) Running beneath the formulaic, if scattershot, plot is the constant reminder that Sachi is a man-eating monster, with instincts that run less toward hooking up with Makie and more toward gobbling him whole. Her monster form resem-

bles a blobby whale, with a cute face that turns horrifying when her enormous jaws hinge open. The tension between Sachi’s human and monster sides could lead the story in interesting directions, but the first volume keeps switching focus, not sure what it wants to be about beyond the pairing of little guy and big monster girl. It would help if the art added more atmosphere. The human characters are soft and rubbery-looking, lacking strong features or expressions, although we get endless close-ups of their blushing, sweating, and/or tearstreaked faces. (I’m reminded of the old advice in Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga that instead of taking the trouble to draw emotions, manga artists can just add a sweatdrop.) The monster designs are more memorable: shambling multi-eyed hulks, cute little scampering critters, and moments of startling body horror in Sachi’s transformations. It’s a shame they don’t appear more. Readers who go for the specific tropes this manga exists to deliver— monster women and the dangers of romancing them, coupled with lots of feeding and eating—may enjoy this sweet-natured fantasy with hidden bite. Others, be warned: as Makie observes, “There are some bento boxes that are better left unopened!” (Shaenon K. Garrity)

Wonder Cat Kyuu-chan As long as people enjoy cats, which is always and forever, publishers will keep churning out cute cat manga. Wonder Cat Kyuu-chan is an extremely gentle, mildly clever four-panel strip about a sleepy-eyed, tousle-haired PUBLISHER young man and the friendly Seven Seas Entertainment STORY AND ART cat he adopts after finding it Sasami Nitori abandoned in a cardboard RATING 10+ box. The unnamed man names his pet Kyuu-chan “because you’re so kyuut,” and Kyuu-chan responds with more affection than the average real-life cat, expressing love for him and everything he does. If this sounds like a laugh riot, you’re the most easily amused person on earth; this is one of those gag manga that wants to charm more than it wants to be funny. The tone breaks down to roughly 80% cuteness, 20% actual jokes. That said, it’s pretty charming, and some of the jokes land. The central conceit is that, despite engaging in some normal cat behavior like snuggling in a scarf and playing with a paper

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Tono Monogatari

bag, Kyuu-chan acts like a tiny, silent, constantly smiling person. The best running joke is that its white paw “socks” are actual socks it can remove, wash, and even change for different colors. Kyuu-chan eats candy as well as cat food, wears a bow tie, tries to do chores, and treats a catnip mouse as a beloved stuffed animal. As the manga goes on, the slight story arcs get longer, leading to such thrill-packed sequences as Kyuu-chan delivering lunch to its owner’s workplace, Kyuu-chan looking for a job (perhaps the local cat café?), and a walk in the rain that manages to stretch out over nine pages of strips. The art is stripped-down to an extreme but pleasant to look at, colored in cheery pastels. Both the characters and their world have a friendly, rounded Sanrio look. There’s not much here beyond a cute guy, a cute cat, cute artwork, and the occasional gag that works through sheer cuteness (or, once in a while, off-kilter weirdness). But what more do you want from a cat manga? (Shaenon K. Garrity)

Under the Air If you missed out on or were wary of Digital Manga Publishing’s various Kickstarter campaigns for Osamu Tezuka manga, they’re now available through regular retail and ebook channels. The nude PUBLISHER woman’s torso on the cover of Digital Manga Publishing Under the Air lets readers STORY AND ART Osamu Tezuka know this collection of short RATING stories drawn between 1968 16+ and 1970 is part of Tezuka’s “I’ll show these gekiga upstarts that I can do mature manga too!” period. This fourteen-tale anthology, spanning just under 300 pages, is targeted at older audiences and has a harder edge than Tezuka’s most famous creations, to the point that Tezuka Productions includes a historical disclaimer at both the beginning and the end regarding potentially controversial material. The first story, after all, is about a white supremacist discovering that he’s received blood and organ transplants from a black man. (For the record, even though the story was written fifty years ago, Tezuka is decidedly not on the side of the racist.) Violence and sexual taboos are rampant throughout these tales, whether they be set in America, Europe, Japan, or a sci-fi landscape. Aside from the sci-fi stories and one set in the Wild West, most take place around the time they were written, including a story about the Japanese student protests of the 1960s. The standouts are the stories featuring Tezuka himself encountering strange supernatural phenomena on his journeys through the Japanese countryside, usually involving anthropomorphized animals just in case you need a reminder that he invented that whole furry aesthetic.

DMP’s Kickstarter project was part of a rush to publish Tezuka’s works in English that dried up some years ago, making these releases stand out as oddities in the current manga market. But if you enjoy Tezuka’s other adult titles or Drawn & Quarterly’s editions of classic mature manga, Under the Air fits right alongside them. Recommended. (Daryl Surat)

Super HxEros I love superheroes and have since long before the current Marvel movie fad. So when an erotic superhero manga came up for review, I took the

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PUBLISHER Seven Seas Entertainment STORY AND ART Ryoma Kitada RATING OT

job. Super HxEros delivers perfectly serviceable harem comedy. There are indeed boobs aplenty. It even has a decent plot: aliens powered by erotic energy fighting superheroes powered by erotic energy. The bare bones must have made a great pitch in this age of superhero blockbusters. Sadly, pitches eventually have to get drawn as actual

The two women are new to love, experiencing what it’s like to have a crush on someone for the first time. From eating lunch together at work to exchanging phone numbers to picking up doughnuts for each other, they behave like a couple of high schoolers trying to find the right time to ask their crush out. Each time the two find themselves thinking of the other is adorable. Will they sort out their feelings and give love a shot? Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon is about the journey of finding love, both with a partner and within oneself. The things that once made Uno feel like she was full of holes and defective are the very things Satou likes about her. Volume One focuses on the infancy of a mature relationship, keeping readers left wondering if Uno and Satou will have the confidence to pursue one another. The delicate art style matches the story perfectly.

train, Ko feels at home like never before. He runs into trouble when he gets caught buying a beer from a vending machine by a girl named Nazuna. Lured to Nazuna's apartment by her carefree attitude, Ko discovers she's actually a vampire, and he’s PUBLISHER Viz Media her very tasty next meal. STORY AND ART Ko and Nazuna come to an Kotoyama arrangement: he'll willingly RATING 13+ give her his blood if she'll help him turn into a vampire. However, it isn’t that simple. To become a vampire, Ko has to fall in love with Nazuna, who doesn't want to make any more of her kind. Thus begins a nightly tryst between Ko and his first new friend in a long time. Deeply lonely, Ko wonders about the nature of friendship, love and the grey areas in

Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon Uno Hinako is a seemingly average career woman who just wants to be normal and fall in love. She strikes out again and again, without a clue as to why she can’t make relationships with guys work. PUBLISHER Seven Seas Entertainment Everything she does is to STORY AND ART Shio Usui make herself more desirRATING able—expensive salon visits, T feminine clothes, new makeup—but on the inside, she’s self-conscious and lacks any confidence in herself. Even when a date confesses his love to her, she can’t bring herself to accept it. On her way home, she starts to break down, until her coworker Satou Asahi finds her and offers her a doughnut to cheer her up. The encounter embarrasses Uno, but she feels oddly comfortable. Satou is a level-headed, reserved woman who sticks to herself, often intimidating the other women in the office. Their innocent small talk turns playful and even makes them blush. The signs of a budding romance are all too clear to readers. Even still, Uno feels outside forces pressuring her to find happiness with a nice, successful man. She badly wants to be loved and accepted, but every chance at love makes her feel worse about herself. It’s not until she begins spending more time with Satou that Uno feels more confident and willing to change her inner dialogue.

Yuri fans who enjoy a slow-burning romance will feel right at home reading Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon. Be prepared to crave sweet doughnuts as you wait to see how Uno’s and Satou’s newfound attraction will play out in the next volume. (Brianna Fox-Priest)

Call of the Night Call of the Night is a skillful, if slightly pervy, supernatural dramedy. Insomniac fourteen-yearold Ko Yamori is tired of school, his absentee parents, and life in general. One night he sneaks out of his house and discovers a world transformed by the cover of darkness. Enamored of the empty streets, the moon shining over his apartment building, and the occasional party of drunk businessmen who didn't make the last

between. He's been a shy loner his whole life and has difficulty relating to people. As he grapples with human and not-quite-human relationships, he gets into deeper, more adult waters. Kotoyama's art has a pleasant organic quality. The perspective is forced just enough to add curves to angles that don't need it, creating a liveliness to the settings that a lot of manga lack. The attractive, lanky characters are welldrawn, though it's debatable whether anyone really stands out. Since the vast majority of the book takes place at night, the book is heavy on shadowy black inks, but Kotoyama never lets the art get muddy. The character's costumes are fairly basic. Nazuna has one outfit: a barelythere bra top, tiny cut-off shorts, and occasionally an overcoat. Still, costuming isn't everything,

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manga, with action scenes (in either sense) that occur in an understandable sequence. A has to punch B, and B has to react somehow. Ryoma Kitada’s sense of page layout is so poor it’s hard to tell when a punch has even been thrown. Will the horny teenagers this is aimed at really care if the superhero elements of the story are badly done? It’s a fair question. Some readers may not, but I’d bet that number is much smaller than it would have been thirty years ago. Superheroes—both classic American characters and superhero manga like My Hero Academia and One-Punch Man—are wildly popular, while anyone who just wants to look at boobs can type “porn” into their phone. Readers looking for a superhero harem comedy may weigh the “superhero” side of the equation equally with the “harem.” As softcore porn, Super HxEros sort of delivers. As a superhero story, it’s a total failure. I shouldn’t finish reading a comic about superheroes fighting aliens and be unable to name any of the characters. They’re totally forgettable. I don’t even remember (or care) what the aliens look like, as they’re usually covered by sound effects or a panty flash. There are much better superhero comics, and better smutty comics, to spend your money on. (Robert McCarthy)

and the appealing art, interesting themes, and banter keep things interesting. (Che Gilson)

Chasing After Aoi Koshiba After being a nobody in junior high, Sahoko remakes herself into a cute ditz with a popular Instragram and cool friends to match. Everything is going according to plan until she renews her acquaintance PUBLISHER Kodansha Comics with Aoi, a sporty, outgoing STORY AND ART girl who was her classmate in Fly junior high. Sahoko manages CREATED Hazuki Takeoka to screw up her attempts at RATING befriending Aoi by kissing her. 16+ She then stalks Aoi through the school, hoping for a chance to explain herself, and winds up joining the Home Economics Club because Aoi is also a member. Volume One is bookended by scenes of a college-age Sahoko attending her high school reunion, looking for Aoi. Apparently, first love didn't turn out as Sahoko had hoped it would. Now in university, she’s still seeking answers as to whether or not it was even love to begin with. This peek into the future lends tension to the bulk of the story, which takes place in high school. Some of the characters’ actions seem too impulsive to be plausible, especially Sahoko kissing Aoi out of the blue. While Aoi is gradually revealed to have a compelling backstory, Sahoko, who is obsessed with maintaining her carefully crafted Instagram self, seems shallow in comparison. Presumably, Sahoko’s character arc will involve growing into herself and becoming less worried about what others think. Adorable art imbues Chasing Aoi with a moe glow,but the characters are hard to tell apart at times. All the girls are a super-cute blur, sometimes only distinguishable by Sahoko's internal comments on their looks. The male characters are forgettable in the first volume, but a couple of them might make more memorable appearances as the story develops. The manga’s selling point is in its glimpses of the future and hints that Sahoko will grow and change over time. Yuri fans are encouraged to give it a try and see where the story and characters go. (Che Gilson)

Storm Fairy

PUBLISHER Digital Manga Publishing STORY AND ART Osamu Tezuka RATING 13+

If the gritty adult seinen drama of Under the Air isn’t your thing, Storm Fairy is another Digital Manga Publishing anthology of Osamu Tezuka stories, only these are all lighthearted shojo! In contrast with the modern association of shojo manga with romance, these three stories, originally written from 1955 to

1958, feature female protagonists going on adventures with minimal or no romance. The title story is the longest, a fantasy set in a feudal Japan where hag-like fairies and talking animals exist. A princess swaps faces with a fairy at birth, and what follows is a tale of mistaken identities, samurai sword fights, taxation reform, and silly gags culminating in God showing up just a few panels before the end to make everything right. “The Kokeshi Detective Agency” is an assortment of vignettes about a fearless third-grader named Pako who goes about town on mysterysolving adventure, always emerging safe and sound despite repeatedly placing herself in mor-

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tal danger. Pako strolls into a gangster hideout, which results in them all abandoning their criminal ways. Or she overpowers a robber who has a gun (“Get his pistol!”). Do not emulate Pako, kids. “Pink Angel” is about a magical cloud princess who uses shapeshifting and water vapor manipulation to fly from place to place spreading cheer, a sort of precursor to Tezuka’s Unico with less nightmare fuel. My guess is the bit where the heroine deters thermonuclear war warranted the usual Tezuka Productions disclaimer at the end about material that might be problematic to modern audiences, but maybe it’s the depiction of the rival clouds who warp good chil-

Haru's Curse Natsumi has only ever loved her little sister Haru, but after Haru dies, Natsumi finds herself dating Haru's boyfriend Togo. When Togo asks Natsumi out, she agrees on the condition that Togo take her to PUBLISHER all the places he took Haru. Vertical Comics As Natsumi and Togo grapple STORY AND ART Asuka Konishi with their growing attraction RATING to each other, Natsumi is 15+ haunted by guilt, feeling like she’s betrayed her beloved sister. Togo, too, is trapped by his family's wealth and expectations. His entire life has been planned out for him; he even met Haru through his parents’ efforts to arrange a marriage to either her or Natsumi. But in Natsumi, he finds someone who challenges his expectations and makes him take a longer look at his life and what he wants. He agreed to date Haru because she seemed like the safest choice, but now he wonders if he was wrong. Grief and love intertwine in this intimate drama complimented by thick, fluid linework and a deceptively simple visual style. Solid blacks, lots of backgrounds, and balanced shading bring life to every page, and the almost retro character designs suggest 1970s shojo manga. Konishi leads the reader through a surefooted, nuanced story. The book is a self-contained story, and while more volumes from this author would be welcome, the story of Haru's Curse comes to a satisfying conclusion in a single volume. The perspective of the story shifts, moving the readers through time not in chronological order, but in moments that create emotional depth and weave the characters’ lives, past and present, together. Events readers thought they knew from Natsumi's perspective fall under a new light when told from Haru's point of view. Fans of serious drama looking for a romantic, poignant book will find a lot to love in Haru's Curse. Recommended. (Che Gilson)

Shaman King Omnibus Clocking in at a whopping 500-plus pages, the first volume of the Shaman King Omnibus looks like a long read, but it flies by. This classic shonen manga returns in an eco-

nomical reprint, including the final three volumes not previously published in English. New readers will get a chance to discover this fast-paced, instantly addictive supernatural action adventure for the first time. PUBLISHER While the overarching tourKodansha Comics nament plot, a contest of STORY AND ART Hiroyuki Takei shamanic powers to deterRATING mine the savior of humanity, 12+ starts to develop around the second volume, the series kickstarts into action immediately. The diminutive (and arguably most annoying character in the series) Manta Oyamada cuts through the cemetery one night and meets laid-back Yoh Asakura, who claims to be stargazing with his friends. When Manta protests that there's nobody here but the two of them, Yoh introduces Manta to his friends, the cemetery ghosts. Thus Manta, and through him the reader, is introduced to a new world of spirits and shamans. All the characters have clear, immediately established motivations, and even the villains, many of whom turn into allies, have compelling reasons for their actions. Takei's skill with character design and action scenes is enhanced by the creative worldbuilding. The art is angular, with exaggerated proportions; the characters have big hands and feet, sharp features, and

pointy hair. During comedic moments, their faces go fully cartoony, with eye-pops and jawdrops that would make Tex Avery proud. Every panel is crammed with detail, but Takei manages not to crowd the scenes. The central story arc of Shaman King is a pretty standard competition plot, but the art, characters, and pacing make it greater than the sum of its parts. The first volume spends a good amount of time on character development without sacrificing action. The cast is full of colorful, larger-than-life characters, like the bully "Wooden Sword Ryu" and the tough-as-nails Anna, Yoh's self-declared fiancée, who is dead set on making Yoh the Shaman King so she can be First Lady. The expansive cast gives every reader a favorite to root for. Between battles, the characters solve unresolved issues for ghosts with humor and heart. As good as Shaman King is, don't expect a lot of racial sensitivity. Some readers may be offended by certain characters, notably Chocolove McDonell, whose design resembles a Western blackface caricature. There’s a lot of information on this controversial character online, including the history of changes made in the previous Viz edition of the manga and the version of the anime that aired on U.S. television. It’s as yet unknown how Chocolove will be handled in the new editions, but readers may want to be aware of the issue. Recommended (with the above caveat). (Che Gilson)

Tamamo-chan’s a Fox! Without leaving any room for doubt, Tamamo-chan’s a Fox, from the tips of her fuzzy ears to her big, fluffy tail. Yuuki Ray’s fourPUBLISHER panel Seven Seas Entertainment manga STORY AND ART Yuuki Ray follows RATING the T everyday life of a fox spirit who manifests as an ordinary high school girl, if you ignore her foxy face and fur-covered body. Tamamo’s botched disguise can’t fool her classmates, but they’re quickly convinced to play along when Tamamo’s divine nature blesses them with good fortune and prosperity. This new title from Seven Seas is a light-hearted and surpris-

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MANGAREVIEWS

dren’s hearts by giving them MANGA. Storm Fairy is rated 13+, but it should be fine to give to kids to read, even if they might end up asking you, “Who’s Elizabeth Taylor?” (Daryl Surat)

ingly informative manga with a bit more to offer than the cover might imply. Without the furry aspect, Tamamo-chan would be an average gag manga about high school life. The needle on the fanservice meter swings toward “Moderate”; aside from occasional shots of thighs and cleavage, the fetishism is on the softer end of the spectrum. Readers who aren’t into furries can still enjoy a pleasant time with a charming fox girl who gets into harmless mischief. Restrained to a T rating, the writing manages about five or six unique jokes, most of which are variations on Tamamo being appeased with food or misinterpreting some aspect of modern human life. It’s definitely low-impact humor, but the four-panel strip format works best in small doses anyway. Ultimately, the author’s intent is to play around with a fun character while exploring folkloric traditions in a more substantial way through notes and commentary scribbled in the margins. There are a lot of footnotes for something that, on the surface, seems like a lightweight high school slice-of-life comedy. Readers without any background in Japanese folklore and spiritual customs will come away from the book with a fairly thorough introduction into concepts like proper shrine etiquette and the origins of terms like kitsune udon (fox udon). There aren’t many deep cuts for yokai historians, but the book provides context for all the minutiae that might fly over the heads of readers unfamiliar with this side of Japanese culture. It’s best to read this book in print rather than digitally to avoid neck strain from craning your head to read the sideways text on every page. Tamamo-chan is the product of a flash of inspiration backed by a healthy amount of research on subjects that might be little dry to read about without a whimsical fox to keep things moving along. It works as a furry gag comic and an introduction to Japanese folklore without diluting either aspect too much. Readers who are adamantly not into furry content may not go for it, but the fur-curious who like to chew on trivia will learn a fair deal about Kyoto’s rich history of shrine legends. (David Estrella)

Lovesickness: Junji Ito Story Collection Little by little, the selection of Junji Ito manga in the Western market is growing. After a long period of fans being forced to wait for official translations, we’ve gotten several collections of the horPUBLISHER Viz Media ror master’s scariest short STORY AND ART Junji Ito work. The latest, LovesickRATING ness: Junji Ito Collection, is a OT bit different. The first third of Lovesickness follows a fairly long story with a second multi-part tale before breaking off into a

few one-offs. That means there are fewer different stories, something to keep in mind if you’re looking for shorter yarns with more variety. In the first long story, “The Beautiful Boy at the Crossroads,” a teenage boy named Ryusuke moves back to the town where he grew up. Ryusuke is less than enthused about returning to his old stomping grounds because he feels responsible for the death of a woman who once asked him to tell her fortune at a crossroads. Haunted by his past and rumors of a new wave of fortunetelling-related suicides, Ryusuke finds himself caught up in a bizarre string of incidents that seem connected to him. Ultimately, he faces a gorgeous boy in black with ear piercings and a dead stare who supposedly gives negative fortunes to girls who turn up dead. It’s an intriguing mystery full of Ito’s trademark eeriness and terror, though it runs a little long in the final act. Readers are then launched into “The Strange Hikizuri Siblings,” which follows a family that is,

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indeed, more than a little odd. It serves up gruesome visuals and creepy familial antics that bring to mind Ito’s darkly comedic stories about the nail-eating hellion Souchi. It's a fun change of pace from “The Beautiful Boy” before the three bite-sized stories that finish up the book. “The Mansion of Phantom Pain” and “The Rib Woman” are both chilling, disturbing tales in the classic Ito vein, and in some ways more engaging than the longer stories. The final story, “Memories of Real Poop,” is more of a silly gag manga. If the rest of the book leaves you almost too scared to continue turning pages, it’s a palate-cleanser that forces out a giggle with bathroom humor. Lovesickness is another exciting compendium of classic Ito works. While the first story does drag a little, the horror atmosphere and stunning grotesque art are on par with Ito’s highestcaliber work. The additional content, most of which hasn’t been available in official translation

Beast Complex Paru Itagaki's Beastars has become a force to be reckoned with in the anime and manga world. Its intimate look at an anthropomorphic world where carnivores and herbivores live together, told though the relationship PUBLISHER Viz Media between a wolf and a rabbit, STORY AND ART Paru Itagaki makes for page-turning RATING drama. When you run out of OT pages to turn, it can be difficult to find manga that scratches the same itch. That's where Beast Complex comes in. Itagaki's debut manga is everything fans love about Beastars before it was refined into the series it is today. It's a collection of stories set in a world where animals of all stripes go to school and commune together. It's also a book that reaches out and plucks the heartstrings in often unexpected ways. Whether you already enjoy Beastars or you’re new to Itagari’s universe and want to try something new, this book will put a smile on your face and challenge your thinking. There are six stories, each zeroing in on an unlikely animal pair. In “The Lion and the Bat,” straight-A student council president Raul (the lion) is sent to coax absentee student Azmo (the bat) to come back to school. At first, Azmo's sneering derision of carnivores frustrates Raul and forces the beast to come out. But after learning about Azmo's circumstances, he comes around, learns to understand those who aren't the same as he is, and overcomes his carnivore instincts. In “The Camel and the Wolf,” Garom the camel is preoccupied with the tensions between carnivores and herbivores. He meets a wolf named Abby while working on a story at a coffee shop and asks her opinion about carnivores' desire to eat herbivores. The result is a one-night stand during which Garom lets Abby succumb to her innermost desires. In the end, the two part ways with changed perspectives. The rest of the stories similarly focus on beasts connecting emotionally, whether it’s a crocodile and a gazelle or a fox and a chameleon. Although some stories work better than others, there’s something charming in each of them, and it’s hard not to want an entire series based around some of these pairs. Beast Complex is nowhere near as fleshed out as Beastars, and it’s a bit rough around the edges. It’s the creator’s debut work, after all. But it has a level of heart that’s sometimes rare in the current manga world of isekai fantasies and moe girls. Itagaki has a gift for dramatizing the impor-

A Sign of Affection tance of empathy, whether you’re a kangaroo, a tiger, or a human being. (Brittany Vincent)

Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess Since its debut in the 1980s, the trailblazing magical girl series Magical Angel Creamy Mami has been largely unavailable to Western audiences. Now it’s surfacing on a PUBLISHER Seven Seas Entertainment few streaming services and STORY AND ART Seven Seas is publishing this Emi Mitsuki RATING recent spinoff manga. It's odd All Ages to get this side story before the main series, but Mami fans know by now we should take what we can get. With that said, Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess is still a fun and accessible story. Knowing a bit of background about the characters helps, but it's not so essential that you can't get into it. It’s the classic story of a star who believes she’s the best the industry has to offer until a new ingenue shows up. Megumi Ayase is the "Milky Way Princess," the top artist at Parthenon Productions. The higher-ups are sure her "magic" won’t last, and Parthenon is already looking for its next rising star, leaving Megumi feeling left out. But her attitude isn't helping matters. She believes herself to be the best, and her petulance, selfishness, and general unpleasant nature don't endear her to anyone. Those who have seen the Creamy Mami anime will recognize Megumi as Mami's self-proclaimed rival. In this series, we learn the origins of her jealousy toward Mami, who fills in for Megumi one day when she's absent. Mami becomes an instant hit, and Parthenon Productions becomes enthralled with her. Megumi views Mami as an "amateur" and recognizes her as a rival for the affections of Shingo Tachibana, the president of Parthenon Productions. Megumi investigates why the company knows so little about Mami and why she needs to be home at 8:00 every night. She also tries to sabotage Mami under the guise of helping her. Since anyone familiar with the main series knows that

A Sign of Affection is a wellmade romance with a disabled protagonist, something that’s unfortunately not nearly common enough. It’s a genuinely sweet and moving love story that feels unique and will win readers over by the PUBLISHER Kodansha Comics end of the first volume. STORY AND ART The story follows college suu Morishita RATING student Yuki, who's lived OT without hearing all her life. She falls for Itsuomi, a worldly guy who’s traveled the globe and knows a number of languages, but not sign language. Still, he makes an effort to communicate with Yuki. He's kind and empathetic, and even before Yuki is sure what she feels for him, she knows she doesn't want it to stop. At first, Yuki isn't sure how best to tell Itsuomi how she feels. But as the first volume stretches on, we see both characters warming and opening to each other more and more. The characters don’t flip a switch and get pure, unadulterated love, as in a lot of romance manga. They develop an organic, believable relationship that blossoms naturally. Beyond Yuki and Itsuomi’s love story, the manga presents one of the best support systems Yuki could ask for. Yuki communicates with Itsuomi via sign language and with the reader via thought balloons and captions, but she also routinely uses text messages. Her friends are considerate of her needs and know how best to go about chatting with her. They’ve normalized texting with her or letting Yuki talk back via text in their casual conversations. One of Yuki’s friends warns someone not to come up behind Yuki and surprise her because she can’t hear them coming. These small nuances help elevate the story, showing how loved Yuki is and how much value her friends put on communicating with her. That sense of inclusion and thoughtfulness is woven throughout A Sign of Affection. It’s a pleasure watching Yuki and Itsuomi getting to know each other as well as learning bits and pieces of sign language. This is a sweet triumph of a romance that will undoubtedly continue to surprise in future volumes. Recommended. (Brittany Vincent)

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Mami is a little girl with the ability to magically turn into a young adult, it’s fun to see Megumi’s side of the story. Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess is a great way to get into Creamy Mami, even if it isn’t ideally the best place to start. Gorgeous illustrations and a fun show-biz story make it an entertaining, if predictable, read for shojo manga fans. And let’s hope we get the original (fairly short) manga as soon as possible. (Brittany Vincent)

before, is the icing on the cake. If you’re wondering if Ito’s older stories can still scare you out of your wits, the answer is a resounding yes. Recommended. (Brittany Vincent)

By Brittany Vincent When you're a lowly adventurer who's never really had a girlfriend, what do you do? You could always use a dating app, right? No, no. That seems odd for a fantasy world. How about hitting up the local hotspots? By that, we mean, well, dungeons. Yes, the kind in which you slay monsters and pick up treasure. That’s precisely what our protagonist Bell Cranel is looking to do. In Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, this indomitable beginner Adventurer is looking for love in all the wrong places. This fantasy series is part of a lengthy series of light novels that have been transformed into a massively popular anime series. If you're a role-playing game fan who knows the ins and outs of dungeon-crawling, you'll likely find it an extremely familiar tune. But what's the deal with hitting on girls in a place crawling with monsters? Here's what's up with this intriguing dungeon-centric show with love at the forefront. Watch out, though—you may come away having fallen in love with one of the characters in this wild show yourself. An Offer You Can't Refuse So what’s up with all this love in a dungeon stuff? You see, Bell is a 14-year-old adventurer. He sets off to level up and sharpen his skills by running into creepy dungeons teeming with monsters on a regular basis. Now, he's got his sights set on a gorgeous blonde heroine who saves him from the clutches of a particularly vicious minotaur. Her name? Ais Wallenstein, also known as the Sword Princess. Aside from the fact that she's way too far above him on the social ladder for there to be any sort of relationship between the two, there's one huge problem: Bell is already a part of the Hestia Familia. What's a Familia, though? It's a group of Adventurers, like Bell, who receive power from a God or Goddess. The Familia takes its name from the deity who hosts it, and in this case Bell follows the diminutive goddess Hestia, who harbors more than just a desire to protect him. But more on that later. Familias are a core component of this series, and we’ve got to set the stage first if you’re going to understand what’s going on throughout. The concept of Familias came from long ago, where the gods who spent their time living above the citizens of the world of Orario came down to the world below. Looking for ways to entertain themselves, they began limiting their powers and interacting with humans in meaningful ways. This eventually lead to each deity establishing their own Familia, or a group blessed with divine powers from the god or goddess that would slay monsters and head into the Dungeon below Orario’s tower of Babel, leveling up and gaining new powers along the way.

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Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is an anime about looking for love in all the wrong places.

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The more powerful Adventurers become, the more valuable treasures they receive and the better they can stand off against the monsters that stand in their way. The heads of their Familia and others can check Adventurers' power levels by taking an imprint of moving tattoos on their backs, which contain additional information about each individual and their growing strengths. Looking For Love Bell is a dedicated member of the Hestia Familia, and he grows stronger by the day. Hestia, however, is unlike most of the other deities at the head of their Familias. She's a hotheaded, jealous, and coy goddess who's clearly in love with a completely oblivious Bell. He's extremely trusting and obviously cares about Hestia, but he simply doesn't see her as more than anything than the goddess that grants him power. Bell grew up with his grandfather in his formative years, and has always dreamt of making something of himself out in the real world. After his grandfather's death, he swore he'd travel to Orario and do just that. Unfortunately, due to his

PLAY T HE WORLD Love the show and want to be a part of it? Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Infinite Combate is a dungeon crawler RPG you can pick up and play to pretend you're living through the actual series. With additional content not seen in the show, this colorful game is chock-full of illustrations of everyone's favorite goddess Hestia and friends, special attacks, dungeons to vanquish, and chibified versions of

the Adventurers you can control as you explore the dungeons below Orario. The game becomes more difficult after you continue to conquer each dungeon, and you get to experience the story from both Bell and Ais's perspectives. With a lengthy story mode, there's plenty to learn and explore. If you've ever wanted to see what it's like to be part of a Familia, this is the closest you're going to get.

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lowly Adventurer status, he found himself rejected by Familia after Familia until Hestia was kind enough to offer her blessing as a Goddess to get him started down a new road in life. Hestia is an interesting study all her own. She's more representative of a young girl than a powerful goddess, but don't let that fool you. She's a little fireball, and is fiercely protective of Bell. Even though he seems to have no idea that Hestia is madly in love with him, that never changes how much Hestia cares. All that matters at the end of the day is that her Familia is safe, and Hestia works to make that happen, as well as make a name for her little squad. Of course, Hestia isn't the only woman in Bell's life for long. As the series plays out, there are other women gunning for Bell's affections. This is something of a western fantasy harem, after all. With that in mind, Bell remains mostly oblivious to everyone trying to get his attention as he salivates over Miss Wallenstein. That’s where most of the slapstick humor and jokes come from, after all—that, and Bell isn’t that great of an Adventurer to start with. In fact, one of the first times we see him, he’s running through the village absolutely soaked with blood, from head to toe. It’s kind of embarrassing, really. An Expansive World Beyond Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?'s lengthy anime series, there are

plenty of light novels to dig into if you're looking to explore more of what Bell, Hestia, and the rest of the crew get up to from the very beginning of the story. There are currently 16 different light novels, with the series having begun in 2013, as well as two different manga series to follow. In addition to the anime, there's even a film to take in. The spinoff series, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?: Sword Oratoria has its own 17-volume ongoing manga run as well as light novels and animation as well. There's no shortage of content here, and plenty of reasons to keep coming back for more, especially when Sword Oratoria focuses on Ais Wallenstein's adventurers much as the mysterious Sword Princess we learn about so early on in the series. It’s a must-watch (and read), even if only to better understand why Bell is so darn smitten. Well, Is It Wrong? That's a question you're going to have to answer yourself. As far as the anime series goes, there's nothing "wrong" about it. This is classic harem fantasy and video game-inspired adventuring all around. If you enjoy characters who feel like they've been pulled straight out of your favorite video game or the idea of adventurers slaying monsters (and looking for women on the side), you'll fall headover-heels in love with the Familia.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is available from Sentai Filmworks.

is an intriguing dungeon-centric show with love at the forefront. Watch out, though—you may come away having fallen in love with one of the characters in this wild show yourself!

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MANGA PREVIEWS

We bet you know how this works already, but for those of you in the cheap seats, our manga section is printed in the correct Japanese format, to be read from right to left. Begin on the upper right of each two-page spread, reading each panel right-to-left, from the right page to the left. Click the arrow on the right side to advance to the following pages.

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Story by Kotoyama One sleepless night, Ko slips out to walk the streets. Life after dark is a revelation! When flirtatious Nazuna invites Ko to spend the night at her place in an abandoned building, he’s stoked! But then he awakens to kisses on his neck with a little too much bite to them... Is it just the delicious taste of his blood that makes her meet him night after night for late-night adventures, conversation and...naps? Or something else? Then, when a cute girl from Ko’s past shows up and competes for his attention, his budding relationship with the undead is put to the test! Available now!

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Boys Run the Riot ©Keito Gaku/Kodansha, Ltd.

Story and Art by Keito Gaku Translation: Leo McDonagh Lettering: Ashley Caswell Editing: Tiff Joshua TJ Ferentini A transgender teen named Ryo finds an escape from the expectations and anxieties of his daily life in the world of street fashion. This personal, heartfelt, fictional story from a transgender manga creator made waves in Japan and will inspire readers all over the world! Available now!

FREE Manga Previews • FREE Manga Previews • FREE Manga Previews

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Read the rest in Call of the Night, available now!

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Boys Run the Riot ©Keito Gaku/Kodansha, Ltd.

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Kodansha - BOYS RUN THE RIOT Boys Run the Riot ©Keito Gaku/Kodansha, Ltd.

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Boys Run the Riot ©Keito Gaku/Kodansha, Ltd.

Kodansha - BOYS RUN THE RIOT

Kodansha - BOYS RUN THE RIOT Boys Run the Riot ©Keito Gaku/Kodansha, Ltd.

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Kodansha - BOYS RUN THE RIOT Boys Run the Riot ©Keito Gaku/Kodansha, Ltd.

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Read the rest in Boys Run the Riot available now!

FREE STUFF FROM Go to www.webotakuusa.com to enter now! Hey, everyone likes to get something free, right? Some of our advertisers sent us samples of their cool stuff to give away to lucky OTAKU USA readers! But guess what? There’s not enough for everyone. So, we’re going to draw names out of a hat, and send the goodies to a few lucky otaku! HERE’S HOW TO ENTER: Just go to www.otakuusamagazine.com, click on “giveaway,” and type your name, address and phone number and/or e-mail address and click on “submit.” Or, if snail mail’s your preference, write your name, address, phone number and/or email address on a postcard or sheet of paper and mail it to: OTAKU Giveaway (August 2021), 2406 Reach Road, Williamsport, PA 17701. If your name is chosen, we’ll contact you, or just send you the item! Rules, Rules, Rules. The official rules are on page 93.

Bandai Spirits Co., Ltd S.H.Figuarts YUJI ITADORI (1 winner) April 2021 Release Yuji Itadori from the hit manga/anime series Jujutsu Kaisen joins S.H.Figuarts! Boasting incredible posability and effect parts for re-creating Itadori's "Divergent Fist" technique, this figure puts you in the middle of the action. Also includes optional hands for displaying as possessed by Ryomen Sukuna. S.H.Figuarts SATORU GOJO (1 winner) May 2021 Release

Sakura of America Sakura Pigma Sensei (3 winners) Pigma Sensei drawing sets include the tools you need to illustrate in the Manga/comic style. Use chisel nib inking pens for sharp expressive lines and filling in large spaces. Use fine lines for facial expressions, lettering, detailing, and bold lines to add impact and drama. Learn to draw like the pros using the same rich, black Pigma® ink that’s been the trusted ink of Manga professionals for over 30 years. Watch manga, comic and art videos: www.youtube.com/SakuraColorProducts View more Manga illustration tools: https://sakuraofamerica.com/ manga-comic

Satoru Gojo from the hit manga/anime series Jujutsu Kaisen joins S.H.Figuarts! Its incredible articulation is designed to capture poses just like seen on-screen. Includes optional hands for replicating the "infinity." Also includes an un-blindfolded option head! PROPLICA SPECIAL GRADE CURSED OBJECT: RYOMEN SUKUNA'S FINGER (1 winner) April 2021 Release The key item of the Jujutsu Kaisen series, the finger of the cursed two-faced demon Ryomen Sukuna, joins PROPLICA at its gruesomely accurate appearance, and packed in a box designed to resemble wood. Special stickers let you play dress-up for added drama!

August 2021 www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com OTAKU USA

OTAKU USA

August 2021

©Okina BABA,Tsukasa KIRYU/PUBLISHED BY KADOKAWA/So I'm a Spider, So What? PARTNERS

By Paul Thomas Chapman August 2021

OTAKU USA

©Okina BABA,Tsukasa KIRYU/PUBLISHED BY KADOKAWA/So I'm a Spider, So What? PARTNERS

ne day, an as-yet-unnamed high school student awakens to find herself transformed into a giant spider. Unbeknownst to this young lady (whom we will henceforth refer to by the nickname of “Kumoko”), her entire high school class has perished in a mysterious explosion and been reincarnated as heroes in a fantasy world full of magic, monsters, and systems similar to those of Japanese role-playing game (hit points, MP, experience, leveling up, etc.). While her classmates have reunited elsewhere and are living relatively cushy existences as nobles, demi-humans, and an Earth Dragon attending a prestigious magic academy, poor Kumoko has to fend for herself in an enormous underground labyrinth that is crawling with hostile lizards, monkeys, venomous frogs, and Kumoko's own cannibalistic spider-kin. Is this an ideal isekai scenario for Kumoko? No way! But our heroine has poisonous fangs, a can-do attitude, and more guts than brains, and that may just be enough for her to squeak by in So I'm a Spider, So What?, the TV anime adaptation based on the parallel world reincarnation fantasy novels written by Okina Baba and illustrated by Tsukasa Kiryu. With direction by Shin Itagaki (Teekyu, Berserk 2016) and animation pro-

duction by Millepensee, the series chronicles the misadventures of Kumoko as she struggles to survive in this strange new setting. Whether you hit it off with So I'm a Spider, So What? depends largely on how much you enjoy voice actor Aoi Yuuki's madcap energy in the leading role as Kumoko. As a spider monster in constant peril and beset from all sides by a hostile environment and ravenous enemies, Kumoko has what can only be described as “big dumb-ass energy”. Eternally cheerful but not particularly bright, Kumoko allocates her skill points haphazardly, purchasing talents and abilities that sound cool but have little practical utility unless they are significantly leveled up or combined with other skills. As a result, Kumoko spends just as much time fleeing in terror or getting thumped on by much more powerful foes as she does conquering enemies and grinding experience points. It's like a fantasy version of Fear Factor or Survivor, complete with Kumoko having to eat all manner of unappetizing things just to keep her stamina up. The rest of the reincarnated classroom gets their fair share of screen time, but after six episodes Kumoko's classmates are still silo-ed off in a different location and possibly a different time period, or so the series seems to hint. Their main conflict stems from the social maneuvering of Hugo Baint von Renxandt (formerly Natsume Kengo), a jockish fellow whose feelings of inade-

August 2021

OTAKU USA

quacy and all-consuming desire to be the center of attention are slowly transforming him into a villain. There's nothing wrong with these characters or their storyline, but none of them are as vibrant and entertaining as the titular arachnid protagonist. With the exception of Katia, who is still coming to grips with reincarnating in a female body when she was male in her previous existence, and Feirune, who believes her incarnation as a draconic mascot character is a karmic punishment for being a bully in her former life, these characters and their situations aren't terribly unique or compelling. They could just as easily fit into any of a dozen similar light novel series, so when Kumoko's class is onscreen, the plot slows to a crawl. Meanwhile, at

OTAKU USA

August 2021

©Okina BABA,Tsukasa KIRYU/PUBLISHED BY KADOKAWA/So I'm a Spider, So What? PARTNERS

six episodes in Kumoko is still getting lost in the lower depths of the dungeon, getting mauled by monsters, and getting her bulbous spider-butt singed by magma. How these two disparate storylines will ultimately converge remains a mystery. I'm curious to see where exactly all of this set-up is heading, but it's a tough sell to wade through half a cour of episodes with little forward movement for the narrative. On its technical merits, So I'm a Spider, So What? is a mixed bag. About half of the animation (the segments focusing on the human protagonists) is created with traditional 2D animation techniques, while Kumoko and the monsters of the Great Elroe Labyrinth are almost entirely rendered with 3D computer graphics, a choice which makes sense when you consider how difficult it is to consistently, convincingly animate an eightlegged character on a TV production schedule and budget. Itagaki and Millepensee previously collaborated on the 2016–2017 Berserk TV anime, and the 3DCG aspects of that production are infa-

“Parallel world” fantasy light novels are big business in Japan, and many series receive manga and anime adaptations, including So I'm a Spider, So What?, which is available in print form from Yen Press. If you're looking for more media with similar settings, characters, and premises, here are few suggestions: That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (anime available from Crunchyroll and Funimation, light novels and manga available from Yen Press and Kodansha USA), in which a humble Japanese salary-man is killed and reincarnates as a lowly slime. Similar to Kumoko, the protagonist Rimiru Tempest has a monstrous form, a gameified perception of the world, and a friendly and positive personality despite the many difficulties they encounter. If boneheaded heroines are more your style, check out My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! (anime available from Crunchyroll, light novels available from J-Novel Club, manga available from Seven Seas Entertaintment), in which the main character, Catarina Claes, is a Japanese high school girl who is transported to the world of her favorite fantasy dating game in the role of the snobby, richgirl antagonist. Like Kumoko, Catarina is peppy and upbeat, and she also overestimates her own capabilities and gets into trouble as a result. Finally, while not a typical “parallel world reincarnation” fantasy story, BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense. (anime available from Funimation, light novels and manga available from Yen Press) is a low-key comedy about a high-school girl nicknamed Maple who doesn't really understand how to play her favorite M.M.O.R.P.G., so her haphazard stat allocation and skill development transform her into a tiny dynamo of god-like power.

mous among the fandom for doing a disservice to Kentaro Miura's original artwork. With an additional five years of practice for the animators to hone their craft, So I'm a Spider, So What? fares much better with its 3DCG characters. Kumoko's model and character animation are especially well realized, and she scuttles along in a jolly manner that is equal parts unnerving, alien skitter and goofy, Scooby-Doo scramble. The other monsters are a toss-up, with some results being passable (the insects, the amphibians, etc.) while others (the Earth Dragon, the monkeys, basically anything with fur or scales) are the same sort of questionable Berserk-level work that will set fans' teeth on edge. Casual viewers may be put off by the occasionally dodgy creature animation, and the show's tendency towards exposition dumps and light novel lore galore makes the story trundle along at an uneven pace. But if you like to wallow in that peculiar, chunky, game-system codified style of story-telling—like a monstrous arachnid tearing its prey to pieces with happily gnashing chelicerae—and if you enjoy the prospect of Aoi Yuuki pouring her heart and soul into being the biggest buffoon in the dungeon, then you’ll find a lot to love in So I'm a Spider, So What?

So I'm a Spider, So What? is available from Crunchyroll. August 2021

OTAKU USA

Planet With feels like a classic anime offering viewers an endearing story and a lovable cast of characters.

SpACed InvadErs! By Michael Goldstein

hat’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of anime? Giant robots? Aliens? Space dragons? Cat mascots? Maids? Robot girls? Robot maids? Time skips? Princesses? Dragons? Passionate monologues? Family drama? Planet With—from the mind of Satoshi Mizukami, the man who penned unusual but ambitious works, such as Spirit Circle and Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (check out the sidebar for more information)—has it all. In many ways, it feels like the grandiose shonen anime of old, the likes of Inuyahsa and Fullmetal Alchemist, shows that reveled the various genres they comprised and weren’t afraid of tackling the surreal. Shows like these needed fifty episodes or more to flesh out their worlds that have withstood the test of time. Most anime nowadays try to achieve complete world building and pack every moment with entertainment within roughly twenty-six episodes. Planet With—which aired back in the spring 2018 season—wants to pull off that same feeling with twelve episodes. The crazy part? It actually succeeds. It’s a little challenging to describe the Planet With narrative overall; but here’s a brief summation of how things start: Souya Kuroi is a high schooler living with a maid named Ginko and a large, purple, bipedal cat named Sensei. He remembers very little about his past, but nonethe-

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August 2021

less tries to enjoy his day-to-day life (and yet he can’t seem to find real meat to devour), though he has no real reason to believe they’re his real family. That all changes, of course, when he gets stuck in the middle of a clash between a human defense force called Grand Paladin and a race of aliens called the Nebulans. And Souya himself is ultimately pressed into joining the fight. Initially, Planet With looks like it’ll be going down the route of setting Souya up to fight the Nebulans. The catch? Souya is a Nebulan himself and must fight Grand Paladin because the cosmic dragon they get their power from is the same one that destroyed his original planet. And that’s just the tip of the planet-sized iceberg. Planet With’s plot conflict ultimately blossoms into a variety of opposing factions, each one fighting for their own idea of justice and peace. These revelations—in the span of three to four climaxes—come at you like a speeding train. In a normal anime, this would be a huge pacing problem. But if there’s a word I can use to describe this show’s narrative flow, it would be “economic.” For all the mysterious backstories, betrayals, and discoveries the show throws at you, nothing feels compressed or rushed, as they all revolve around the same set of question regarding how people ought to treat each other, and it spells it all out with massive force.

Who Is Satoshi Mizukami?

Planet With has a lot of characters, , and you can t help but feel invested in all of their ambitions and if you understand where certain people are coming from, it will help you understand what , you re gunning for in life. 80

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Despite not being a name on many people’s lips, Satoshi Mizukami has nonetheless created an impressive array of high-quality works. In Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer lies a premise that’s strange even by manga standards: A talking lizard seeks out a boy and asks him to save the world from a witch who intends to smash the world t bits using a giant hammer resembling a biscuit. While it very much affectionately lampoons the many cliches of the “save the world” genre, it nonetheless takes its core premise very seriously, giving a unique sense of authenticity. Any plot point, no matter how absurd, never gets taken too lightly. Spirit Circle, meanwhile, is less a linear narrative like Planet With and more of an anthology work depicting a tragic tale of star-crossed lovers spanning over various previous lives and the investments and resentments that come with them. There is an emphasis on the ability to forgive and embrace what lies ahead that infests the story; this shows readers how to open oneself to vulnerability and open connection—that is, emphasizing with others—in ways that at first may seem pretty anxiety-inducing. While both stories are fantastic in their own right, the problem is that Satoshi’s name is not on a lot of people’s lips. The good news is that both titles are available to read on Crunchyroll, so now would be a better time than never to familiarize yourself with Satoshi’s library!

This is not to say that Planet With as a whole is cliché, however. In fact, it’s pretty darn impressive. You’d be forgiven for thinking that, at face value, the show is trying to be the laziest anime you’ve ever seen. But that’s not Mizukami’s game here. The best way to describe how Planet With succeeds is with the phrase “more than meets the eye.” The show actually presents these conventions and then begins the work of breaking them down piece by piece to ultimately create an endearing story and a lovable cast of characters. This structure even applies to the narrative as a whole, which has this impressive ability of defying expectations just when you think that’s all there is to see and never make it feel rushed. If there’s a more recent show that more or less resembles Planet With in conception and ambition, it would be Samurai Flamenco, which had a narrative that, rather than just taking one idea and sticking with it to the end, kept topping itself in terms of crazy developments when it look liked it had settled down; a show that started lightheartedly with normal people trying to be friendly neighborhood heroes despite completely lacking superpowers quickly evolves into what can best described as a smorgasbord of twists. But the problem was that many of these twists really came out of nowhere and almost felt that the story was trying to make a meal out of random scraps. Planet With, on the other hand, manages to handle revelation after revelation with extreme grace and keeps it all tied together with a growing ambition that never feels like it comes out of nowhere, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat because of it. And all of this ties into what I believe is the grand theme of the show. It’s not about hotblooded justice; it’s about empathy. Everyone on this show has their own convictions and reasons for doing what they do, and if you understand where certain people are coming, it will help you understand what you’re gunning for in life. Planet With has a lot of characters, and you can’t help but feel invested in all of their ambitions. Planet With—currently streaming on Crunchyroll— may not exactly break any new ground, but it manages to make all of its pieces crazier and more meaningful than they should be. Shows like Fullmetal Alchemist and Code Geass had around fifty episodes to flesh out their casts and surreal yet realistic worlds. Planet With, on the other hand, does all of this in twelve. True, it can be fast-paced and overwhelming at times because of this, thus making it look more bizarre; but Planet With’s ability to reinvent old ground in the pursuit of realizing a simple idea is a powerful thing to witness. It all comes together in a coherent tale that keeps you wanting more with a level of energy that can give Gurren Lagann a run for its money. It’s out of this world and nothing else comes close.

Planet With is available from Crunchyroll. August 2021

OTAKU USA

By Kara Dennison

there’s one thing that’s really popular in anime right now, it’s reincarnation isekai. If there’s another thing that’s really popular, it’s chill slice-of-life anime where our heroes pursue unexpected new hobbies. Put those together, and you’ve got Laidbackers: the last theatrical anime of the Heisei Era, and a feature that does exactly what it says on the tin. For some, the film was unexpectedly … well, laid-back. And while some audiences might not have been expecting that, others needed exactly this. Because even heroes need to relax—especially if they’ve spent their entire lives doing nothing but fighting.

A New Life The feature hails from flying DOG and Studio Gokumi. Our main character is Kumi, an art school student who moves to Kyoto to take over her grandmother’s candy shop. When she gets there, though, she finds that three girls and a dog are already living rough there. As it turns out, these four strangers are magical warriors from another world. Reborn into ours, they’re following the demon lord Valvaran across time and space. Kumi’s shop becomes their home base as they set out to fulfill their duty … but, as it happens, Valvaran messed up her reincarnation and is now a grade-schooler simply called Ran. Also, she seems pretty nice and wants to be friends. And so, very little happens by way of fighting for much of the movie. The warrior Harami spends most of her time snacking and playing video games. Martial artist Mai has kicked off a career as an underground idol. Skilled magician K is super into BL manga. It seems the only one on task is the lady knight Arnelia, reincarnated as a fluffy puppy and not all that happy about it. Other than gathering up the “Demon Lord Fragments” that would let Ran return to her full power, the team all seem to be much more interested in enjoying life.

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August 2021

LAIDBACKERS is an anime less about magic and monsters and more about growth and change. August 2021 www.Otaku-

Through the series, we get sneaky little peeks at Japanese subculture. Outdoor arcade games attract customers, and even the smallest-time idols have their devoted fans. Plus, there are the times of doing nothing: watching television and stealing snacks, thinking about summer homework, and just existing without having to turn every second of existence toward productivity. When you come from a world where your entire life is combat and combat training, those moments of peace are probably invaluable. It’s no wonder they don’t care whether they look lazy. How to Be a Hero Laidbackers fits neatly into the whole chuuni vibe of a lot of recent anime, with our heroines reminiscing on their super-cool hero lives while living that good geek life. It’s kind of a reverse isekai, in that respect, with Kumi watching over our alleged heroines in a far more passive time. Ran, in the care of her grade school teacher, is being a

genuinely good kid. Even in the face of interdimensional wars of good and evil, her biggest concern is her summer homework. And, just like our heroines, Ran has a constant reminder of what she “ought” to be. Her teacher— as minor a character as she is—serves as Ran’s own Arnelia, in a way. She may not be a peer, and she may be of our world. But she’s aware of Ran’s identity, and has plenty of her own ideas about what being a demon lord would be like. For better or for worse, Ran has her own ideas. That’s not to say there’s no magical action at all, though. There is a big battle toward the end, in which we get to see (almost) all of our heroes at their best. It’s a relatively small percentage of the movie, and the battle itself is far less important than what comes out of it. Even in a 52minute film, there’s an impressive amount of growth and change for all our central characters. This is a whole new world, and while it’s not fully free of monsters, it operates on a completely different set of rules. A New Purpose Laidbackers is less about magic and monsters than it is about that growth and change. It

reverses the stories of so many of our contemporary anime heroes, who become their best selves after going to another world and gaining powers. Instead, heroes come here and gain hobbies and friendships. As much as Arnelia may bark against it, Ran is also a valuable part of their group. They may have been reborn into this world with a purpose … but does that purpose have to be fulfilled the same way here as it did there? Mai in particular muses on this exact point at length. Like her fellow heroes, she was devoted to fighting and training. If she had other interests or desires, she had no time to examine what they might be. In a laid-back (by comparison) world, she’s had a chance to find that out. It’s a lesson that we, despite not being reincarnated warriors of justice, could and should take to heart as well. When people throw themselves fully into their work, either by choice or because they have no choice, they don’t have an opportunity to find out what their passions are. Following your dreams, let alone wasting time, is a privilege. And it’s one that couldn’t and shouldn’t be discounted. So perhaps Laidbackers is an appropriate note to close out an era on: an acknowledgment that

LAIDBACKERS SHOWS US EVEN HEROES NEED TO RELAX-ESPECIALLY IF THEY’VE SPENT THEIR ENTIRE LIVES DOING NOTHING BUT FIGHTING.

Laidbackers is available from Sentai Filmworks.

people deserve the breathing room to follow their dreams, and not be locked purely into what they “must” do at any given time. Much like Arnelia, viewers may find themselves conflicted about just how far Laidbackers strays from its own story. The fluffy pup, once a princess knight, is our eyes and ears in this story. She’s the one regarding these magical heroes, knowing how much they’re worth, and wondering why they’re squandering it all on pointless hobbies. In the end, hopefully we—like Arnelia—can understand why. And, maybe … should we have the privilege … cut ourselves a similar amount of slack.

MAGIC AND ACTION Scriptwriter Makoto Uezu has no shortage of experience writing fantasy adventures. With titles like Konosuba and the 2015 Heroic Legend of Arslan under his belt, he knows what it takes to blend magic and action. So it’s no wonder our occasional flashbacks to our heroes’ past lives—no matter how brief—are super intense.

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OTAKU USA

DEALING WITH

Dororo is a dark reimagining of a classic series from decades prior. By Daryl Surat ithout Dororo by Osamu Tezuka there never would have been a Blade of the Immortal (or, arguably, Berserk and Fullmetal Alchemist). Originally created in the late 1960s, the Japanese feudal fantasy centers around a boy who at birth was offered as a human sacrifice to a horde of demons by his father, Kagemitsu, in exchange for power. Each demon eats a body part from the infant, leaving him eyeless, earless, tongueless, without arms and legs, unable to smell, vocalize, or feel. But through the power of science, magic, and the human spirit, the skinless leftovers of the demons’ feast do not immediately succumb to infection but rather survive with a latent extrasensory perception that lets it perceive others … and when the demons are once again close enough to pose a threat. A kindly doctor creates for the boy a marionette doll body as something of a precursor to the character Pinoko in Tezuka’s later series Black Jack, with the difference being that this artificial body is replete with concealed weaponry. Years pass, and while Lord Kagemitsu was partying, the child studied the blade. The demons, both figurative and literal, now roam the countryside committing their atrocities with impunity, but the prosthetic-laden ronin warrior can now hunt them down systematically, with the added bonus that killing a demon restores the body part that they stole from him. There is only one path to take for the artificial man people call “Hyakkimaru:” slay every last demon, restore his body one piece at a time, and then take his father down along with anyone who stands beside him.

OTAKU USA www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com August 2021

August 2021

OTAKU USA

Wait, “Hyakkimaru”? Isn’t the title “Dororo”? Indeed, by the end of the first episode, a young orphaned thief who goes by the name “Dororo” (the way a child might say the Japanese word “dorobo,” meaning “thief”) befriends and accompanies Hyakkimaru on his brutal quest. Tezuka originally planned for the series focus to eventually shift to the tagalong sidekick character as they got older, but the original manga story arc got canceled/abandoned a few volumes in once Tezuka realized that the more Hyakkimaru restored of himself, the less unique he became. The incomplete nature of Dororo leaves the door open for the multiple adaptations made over the decades to leave their own mark on the story and figure out workarounds to this conundrum, and the 2019 anime from studio MAPPA might just be the best version yet. Directorial duties go to one of the best in the business when it comes to period drama and

action alike: veteran Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam Unicorn, the original Hunter x Hunter and You’re Under Arrest), who offers up a far more violent and morally grey interpretation of Dororo than ever before. This is thanks in part to working in conjunction with series composer and scriptwriter Yasuko Kobayashi; her previous works include adapting Attack on Titan, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Kakegurui: Compulsive Gambler, Claymore, and perhaps most importantly Casshern Sins, a similarly dark reimagining of a classic series from decades prior. Their depiction of Hyakkimaru is far more coldhearted, having received little in the way of affection or compassion throughout his life. As was frequently the case during the bloody era of the Sengoku Jidai (“Warring States Period,” and for the history buffs out there who demand more specificity, it’s the Muromachi period), and those who enjoy Hyakkimaru fre-

quently meet ill-deserved gruesome fates will not be disappointed, and that only further fuels his rage. It falls to a thief, to the street urchin Dororo, to serve as a moral compass. Sure, the ethics of vengeance seem pretty cut and dry for the first half of the series when they’re dealing with demons, vicious bandits, or samurai engaged in total war. But as the series progresses, as an increasingly vulnerable Hyakkimaru becomes able to experience and perceive more of this world, as we see the horrors of war with so many prayers unanswered and the things people must do to stay alive, at what point is enough killing enough already? I don’t know if I can really get on board with the alleged ambiguity of “has Hyakkimaru’s thirst for vengeance turned HIM into the demon here?” on account that the human villains in this series are SUCH JERKS that dyin’s too good for ‘em; I say they

Dororo Over the Decades The previous Dororo anime have never fully been released into English, alas. A 1968 pilot film in color resulted in a black-and-white 1969 TV series. Many who worked on this version became legendary figures in their own right. Director Gisaburo Sugii would later create some of the greatest anime works of all, such as Touch, Night on the Galactic Railroad, and most importantly Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie. Other noteworthy talents include Osamu Dezaki (Tomorrow’s Joe, which was the direct inspiration for Megalobox), Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll), Yoshiyuki Tomino (Mobile Suit Gundam) and Ryousuke Takahashi (VOTOMS). Being a children’s television show from the 1960s, this version of Dororo is certainly less graphic and downbeat than its successors, but the demons remain creepy enough that I’m glad I didn’t see it as a kid myself. Perhaps it’ll resurface on a streaming platform someday. A Japanese live-action film retelling of Dororo was released in 2007, where it was #1 at the Japanese box office for several weeks. Here, Dororo is a teenager instead of a young child, being played by Ko Shibasaki (Battle Royale) as “a female warrior raised as a man.” Filmed in New Zealand, with solid acting, costumes, and action choreography, this compressed 2 hours and 15 minutes blockbuster version of Dororo never quite caught on in America on account of the CGI effects used for the demons and blood simply not being on the level of Hollywood’s 2007 offerings such as 300 or Transformers. Personally, I didn’t mind.

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August 2021

Director Kazuhiro Furuhashi offers up a far more violent and morally grey interpretation of Tezuka’s than ever before.

just HAVE to die painfully along with the demons, but Dororo probably has a point with the whole “dig two graves” viewpoint. Besides, we need the kid around because they’re the ones who are critical to finding the secret hidden treasure on account of the map imprinted on their back! The relationship between Hyakkimaru and Dororo here is quite different from the relationship between the treasure map seekers of Sugimoto and Asirpa in the more contemporary Golden Kamuy, since Dororo doesn’t necessarily harbor unrequited romantic feelings towards Hyakkimaru, but a strong bond exists regardless. I suppose this is a plot spoiler from a story originally told nearly 50 years ago which isn’t revealed until a third of the way through this remake, but Dororo is biologically female but identifies as male. Yep, contrary to the claims of various random youngbloods online, © Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd./ TWIN ENGINE Inc.

gender/sexuality representation issues are not some recent development in either anime/manga or fandom. Dororo was one of the best anime of 2019, but due to being simulcast exclusively on Amazon Prime while simultaneously not being listed alongside their other Prime Video exclusives many fans may not have even known it existed. Now that Sentai Filmworks has the complete series on Blu-Ray, you can see what the adventures of a literal edgelord are like. Get it? Edgelord? Because Hyakkimaru has swords for arms? I’ll uh, see myself out. You can also read Tezuka’s entire original manga courtesy of Vertical, and the remake manga The Legend of Dororo and Hyakkimaru is still ongoing courtesy of Seven Seas.

Dororo is available from Sentai Filmworks. August 2021

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TOKYOSCOPEFILM TV DVD

Invisible Reincarnation Godzilla The Big G, a guy who won’t die, and a transparent devil The Return of Godzilla When Godzilla waded off into the sunset at the end of Terror of Mechagodzilla, he was heading into a nine-year DISTRIBUTOR Kraken Releasing cinematic hiatus. ORIGINALLY RELEASED The film's low 1984 RUNNING TIME box office, along 103 minutes with the ‘70s oil shocks driving up the cost of film production, made producer Tomoyuki Tanaka decide to pull the plug on the series. Yet after only a few years, Tanaka was eager to bring Godzilla back to the screen. A multitude of comeback projects for the monster were planned but wound up shelved. These included Rebirth of Godzilla pitched in 1977. Written by Ryuzo Nakanishi, it was rumored to be a straight-up remake of the 1954 original or to involve Godzilla battling terrorists at a nuclear power plant. The film, to be directed by Jun Fukuda, was dropped in favor of The War in Space to beat out Star Wars to Japanese theaters. Another was Godzilla vs. Gargantua in 1978, a coproduction with Saperstein’s UPA that was to be a crossover with The War of the Gargantuas. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi, fresh off the phantasmagorical horror hit House, also proposed his own Godzilla film: A Space Godzilla. Next came a proposal from Akira Murao and Tanaka himself in 1980: The Resurrection of Godzilla. Tanaka would try once more in 1984 but scrapped the treatment this time. He commissioned writer Shuichi Nagahara to script a solo project for Godzilla, dispensing with the continuity from 1955 on. Tanaka was keen on Ishiro Honda returning as director but Honda

turned the offer down. He was already occupied assisting Kurosawa on Ran and had no interest in making more kaiju films. Koji Hashimoto (1936-2005) wound up in the director's chair, fresh off Bye Bye Jupiter (also 1984). Hashimoto had labored as an assistant director for years, including on Submersion of Japan under Shiro Moritani. He rose to the position of director by Moritani’s untimely death before Jupiter could be filmed. The Return of Godzilla would be his last film as director, though Toho considered bringing him back for 1991’s Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. He wound up relegated to producer until his death.

Teruyoshi Nakano returned as special effects director, given the largest budget of his career. Art director extraordinaire Yasuyuki Inoue was also back one last time to design the miniatures. Taking a cue from Dino De Laurentiis’ King Kong, a much publicized animatronic “cybot” Godzilla was built, standing at 16 feet tall. Composed of a robotic armature with polyurethane skin, it contained a whopping three thousand computer controlled moving parts. The Godzilla “cybot” cost nearly half a million dollars to build. Using it in lieu of a suit was considered, but that proved technically dif-

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ficult. The cybot would be used for expressive close-ups of Godzilla's head. Tanaka, Hashimoto and Nakano decided to bring back old school suitmation techniques. With more money and technology, the Godzilla suit was built with space age materials. It was designed, modeled and constructed by Nobuyuki Yasumaru, each part made with precision from urethane molds. It also featured anima-

tronic add-ons to make the monster more expressive. Like the very first suit in 1954, it took two months to create. The hulking 240 pound suit was built for stuntman Hiroshi Yamawaki but he was unable to commit. Kenpachiro Satsuma was hired as his replacement. Paralleling his predecessor Nakajima, he suffered brutally during The Return of Godzilla’s shoot. Satsuma based his performance on the mannerisms of various animals. These included Komodo dragons, elephants, lions and crocodiles. The Return of Godzilla is a superb entry with among the best produc-

tion values in the series. There is the occasional embarrassing shot, but Nakano’s work here feels like a magnum opus. To make the monster intimidating amongst Tokyo's modern skyscrapers, Godzilla's size was increased from 50 to 80 meters. As a result, the miniatures were built at a smaller, less detailed scale. Yet Nakano, Inoue and company succeed at making them look impressive, in part through atmospheric lighting. A computer controlled model, its shape was an homage to Inoue’s flying Hedorah design. State of the art video and optical printing technology allows for better, almost seamless compositing. As a new team would take over, it's satisfying to see one last film from the tokusatsu old guard, finally given a big budget to play with. It is fitting that The Return of Godzilla is both the first film in what is now called the Heisei series but the final entry released in the Showa era. Despite increased technology and Hollywood-style polish,

TOKYOSCOPEFILM TV DVD

the SFX footage still feels Japanese. Nagahara’s script is a decent if formulaic story that is both a direct sequel and soft remake of the 1954 original. It shares some similar tropes: both open with a ship attacked at sea. Both also have a reporter and a brooding scientist who defeats Godzilla. There is darker subtext akin to 1961’s The Last War relating to Japan’s feeling of helplessness during the Cold War. Similar to The Last War and 1980’s Virus, there's a frustrated sentiment toward these superpowers as they play three-dimensional chess with nuclear weapons, the fate of the world hanging in the balance. The Three Mile Island nuclear disaster was also recent news. It no doubt had an influence on another sequence where Godzilla attacks a nuclear power plant. Ala 2016’s Shin Godzilla, there is a bureaucratic element to The Return of Godzilla foreshadowing that film. Like Shin Godzilla, the picture prominently features government meetings with the Prime Minister and each of his cabinet introduced with onscreen supers. Similarly, the U.S. and Russia pressure Japan to let them nuke Godzilla, the government and military are ineffectual and a scientific plan saves the day. One production assistant took an early job on Nakano’s special effects unit at the age of 18. He was tasked with helping control the tail of Satsuma’s costume. That young man's name was Shinji Higuchi, the future co-director of Shin Godzilla. Toho wound up selling the film to New World, an independent distributor founded by Roger Corman, now under new management. New World opted for a full scale Americanization. Raymond Burr was brought on board to reprise his role as Steve Martin from Godzilla: King of the Monsters! He appears in new scenes directed by R.J. Kizer (Hell Comes To Frogtown). What resulted was called Godzilla 1985, named after Frankenstein 1970. While having a strong cult following, it is one of the most drastically altered versions of a tokusatsu film. In the meantime, it would be five years until the next sequel. With Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989), the series would get even better before descending into the formulaic. —J.L. Carrozza

Samurai Reincarnation After Virus (1980), megabucks producer Haruki Kadokawa and director Kinji Fukasaku’s next collaboration would be Samurai Reincarnation, based on a popular novel by Futaro Yamada. Yamada was known for his pulpy historical fiction novels combining genuine historical events and characters with grotesque, fantastical twists. Written in 1967, Makai Tensho was his most famous novel. Haruki Kadokawa had long been interested in an adaptation of the book and partnered with Toei Studios to produce it. Hideo Gosha (Three Outlaw Samurai, The Wolves) was slated to DISTRIBUTOR Miracle Pictures direct, but had to quit after being arrested for gun possession. Kadokawa thus hired ORIGINALLY RELEASED the dependable Kinji Fukasaku, fresh off 1988 his international doomsday epic Virus. RUNNING TIME 122 minutes Once known exclusively for violent gangster flicks, by the 1980s Fukasaku had rebranded himself into a mainstream hitmaker. Yamada’s novel was changed significantly in adaptation and Christian samurai Amakusa Shiro Tokisada was made the antagonist. The company of “demon resurrected” in the book was far bigger, this was cut down for budget and time purposes. Singer Kenji “Julie” Sawada, something of Japan’s David Bowie, was cast as Shiro and plays the character with flamboyant glee. Sonny Chiba plays the film’s hero, one-eyed swordsman and ninja nomad Yagyu Jubei. Chiba had played this role before in Fukasaku’s Shogun’s Samurai (1978) and in a TV spin-off. Inspired by Star Wars, Fukasaku long wanted to revitalize the jidai-geki (Japanese period piece) film. In 1978, he directed two such films before Message From Space and Virus: Shogun’s Samurai and The Fall of Ako Castle. For The Fall of Ako Castle, an adaptation of Japan’s beloved Chushingura folktale, the leftist Fukasaku had wanted to make an anarchic deconstruction of the story. Actor Kinnosuke Yorozuya threw his weight at Toei and Fukasaku was forced to make the film in a more traditional style. Fukasaku got subtle revenge with Samurai Reincarnation. In Shogun’s Samurai, Yorozuya had played the supporting role of Yagyu Tajima-no-Kami, the swordsman politician father of Yagyu Jubei. Lone Wolf and Cub’s Tomisaburo Wakayama was instead cast in the role in Samurai Reincarnation and it became something of a twisted, fantastical sequel. In a manner clearly influential on Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s Ninja Scroll, Samurai Reincarnation combines J-Horror grotesquery, tokusatsu pantomime and stunning chambara swordplay into what is possibly Fukasaku’s best samurai film. There are disturbingly grotesque moments throughout and some really messed up bits. The most notable of which is a homoAugust 2021 www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com OTAKU USA

The Invisible Man Appears

erotic lip-lock between Kenji Sawada and future Hollywood star Hiroyuki Sanada. The scene was not in the script, Fukasaku suggested it on set. The cinematography by Toho DP Kiyoshi Hasegawa is quite atmospheric, nearly every shot is shrouded in fog. Actress Akiko Kana makes an impression as Christian martyr turned demon Gracia Hosokawa and is quite unafraid to show her bare chest. Quentin Tarantino is quite fond of this film and had Sonny Chiba utter a line straight from it in Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003). Beware American home video versions, which cut out an entire reel of the film almost haphazardly, leaving the film’s plot rather inexplicable. Samurai Reincarnation particularly gets going in its final third with a pair of impressive Kurosawa-style duels. The first, set on a beach used the year prior in Virus, is a showstopping duel pitting Chiba’s Jubei against a demon-resurrected Musashi Miyamoto. He’s played by Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters’ Ken Ogata. Chiba made a point not to meet Ogata before their scenes were filmed so Jubei would have a more palatable sense of awe. The final duel is set against a burning Edo castle where Jubei battles

Wakayama’s Yagyu Tajima covered in Buddhist sutra like Kwaidan’s Hoichi the Earless. This scene was extremely dangerous to film as there were few special effects involved; Fukasaku and company burned the set to the ground for real. The special effects by Nobuo Yajima are the only real weak link of the film. They make use of the ECG, a video printing system previously used by Fukasaku and Yajima on Message From Space. The footage was composited on analog video that had to be printed back to film and the shots stick out like a sore thumb. Haruki Kadokawa’s next Yamada adaptation was 1982’s Ninja Wars. Kadokawa and Fukasaku would also soon after make the similar Legend of the Eight Samurai, a fantastical adaptation of Satomi Hakkenden, in 1983. The novel Makai Tensho would be adapted several more times. First came a two-part V-Cinema adaptation in 1996, released stateside as Reborn From Hell: Samurai Armageddon. Then came an anime OVA version, Ninja Resurrection (1997). Another live action film followed in 2003, Samurai Resurrection, directed by Hideyuki Hirayama (School Ghost Story). —J.L. Carrozza

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The Invisible Man Appears is not a particularly good film but an important one. It is the first major DISTRIBUTOR and known live Arrow Video action ORIGINALLY RELEASED 1949 Japanese sciRUNNING TIME ence fiction 87 minutes film. The Invisible Man Appears presents a loose, post-war Japanese adaptation of H.G. Wells’ literary classic. It is directed by Nobuo Adachi (Claw of Iron), a filmmaker with a short-lived, mostly horror-based career. The Invisible Man Appears also features the first post-war effects job by Eiji Tsuburaya. Tsuburaya was currently in exile from Toho as he had been targeted by MacArthur’s Occupation forces for his role in Imperial propaganda films like The War at Sea From Hawaii to Malay (1942). Daiei offered him the chance to head their special effects department, but Tsuburaya chose to remain freelance for now. He was

allowed to return to Toho in 1952 once the U.S. Occupiers departed. A few years later, he worked on his most famous film: 1954’s Godzilla. The Invisible Man Appears is a convoluted and confusing picture but not totally without its merit. Originally titled The Transparent Devil, the production values are quite good for a film made in a Japan still recuperating from the Pacific War. There are plenty of dream-like monochrome images to be seen, along with lighting evocative of film noir. The titular Invisible Man boasts a bandage wrapped-face just like Claude Rains in Universal’s iconic 1933 adaptation. Close ups of the villain’s leering eyes invoke Bela Lugosi in White Zombie (1932). Best of all are Tsuburaya’s subtle practical FX and inventive visual trickery, easily on par with anything in Universal’s Invisible Man

films. Particularly impressive is a scene early on featuring an invisible cat. Also intriguing are later scenes showing the Invisible Man sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette, driving a police moped and firing a pistol. This would be far from the last Invisible Man picture produced in Japan. Toho next made The Invisible Avenger on the heels of Godzilla in 1954. This film, directed by Motoyoshi Oda (Godzilla Raids Again) featured actor Seizaburo Kawazu in the title role. He performs in a circus and uses clown makeup to hide his invisibility. Next was The Invisible Man vs. the Human Fly (1957), produced at Daiei and directed by Mitsuo Murayama. Tsuburaya did not take part in this production as he was contracted to Toho. Ishiro Honda’s The Human Vapor (1960) also boasts some Wellsian Invisible Man tropes. Both The Invisible Man Appears and The Invisible Man vs. the Human Fly can now be had on Blu-ray via Arrow Video. —J.L. Carrozza is the author of SF: The Japanese Science Fiction Film Encyclopedia

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GAME REVIEWS

Persona 5 Strikers Revvin’ up an action-packed sequel

PUBLISHER Atlus DEVELOPER Omega Force, P-Studio SYSTEM(S) Switch RATING M

The Persona series is home to some of the most satisfying RPGs in the world of gaming. Persona 5 and its expanded edition, Persona 5 Royal, is one of the best. So what happens when you take the intriguing characters and exciting

mechanics from Persona and mix them with hack-and-slash game characteristics? You get Persona 5 Strikers, one of the most interesting install-

ments the franchise has seen. It's a sequel to the events that took place in the original Persona continuity, but it incorporates plenty of fun new mechanics that make it feel like a similar but wholly different game, all to fantastic effect. The game takes place four months after the events of Persona 5. The Phantom Thieves are all ready for a summer vacation, but a new threat ruins their plans. After stumbling onto a new version of what they know as the Metaverse following a chance idol encounter, they're forced to tackle Palace-like

structures called "Jails", like the dungeons the characters explored in the original game. Of course, the Shadows that roam these dungeons are still very

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much the same, except they follow the directives of "Monarchs" that rule each dungeon. They strike havoc in the real world, so the Phantom Thieves must steal back the innocent human Desires made into crystal heart-like gems that the Monarchs siphon out of victims. Only then can they defeat the Monarchs and restore order. There are plenty of Jails to tackle throughout the game, but all the Phantom Thieves are back for another round of fights. Joining them is an interesting new AI character named Sophia, who lives in the Metaverse. She seems to be able to summon a Persona too, but her purpose and origin are shrouded in secrecy. The Phantom Thieves work together with Sophia to slay Shadows the same way they always have, but with a twist. There's no turn-based combat here, but instead Dynasty Warriors-like hack-andslash gameplay with RPG elements. That means flashy combos, stylish attacks, and Personas to summon. Joker, the protagonist, can have multiple Personas in his arsenal, which adds a fun layer of mixing, matching, and fusing. You'll have to find out enemy weaknesses and counter them with the right Persona, then swap at a moment's notice for other enemy types. You can, of course, button mash your way through earlier battles, but you'll have to figure out more clever means of fighting later on as the game gets harder. In addition to

using Personas, you can use parts of the landscape to combat enemies. That means you might jump onto a lamppost and come crashing down on an unsuspecting victim. You can swap to other party members on the fly as well. All of these real-time changes make combat feel satisfying and challenging in ways that add inventive new twists. Before you start cleaning house though, each Jail requires you to investigate the human behind the Monarch. That means you'll have to look around towns and cities for clues while shopping for items and listening to hearsay. Once you've gathered enough intel, you can go forward with jumping into Jails and eventually sending a Phantom Thieves calling card letting them know you mean business—and you're coming for them. When you aren't knee-deep in hordes of Shadows, hanging out with the Phantom Thieves during your daily routines is pretty chill. You can improve your social links together, known as your Bond, fuse and power up new Personas in the Velvet Room, explore your surroundings and go shopping, or unlock new abilities. There's even a new cooking system that lets you make meals on the go. This is by far one of the most intriguing approaches to a Persona title in recent memory. Sure, bringing the Persona gangs together for dancing matches was a cool idea, but Persona 5 Strikers is where mashing two genres together really shines. If you enjoyed the first game and want more of the Phantom Thieves' antics to work through, Persona 5 Strikers is 30 to 50 hours of more heart-stealing fun. —Brittany Vincent

GAME REVIEWS

Little Nightmares II Haunting hallways Tarsier Studios' original Little Nightmares launched in 2017 to critical acclaim, and for good reason. Its grim world brought nightmarish visions to life on a small but impressive scale, offering up horrortinged puzzles and an advenPUBLISHER ture that oozed atmosphere Bandai Namco from beginning to end. Now Entertainment DEVELOPER the horrific sights are back in Tarsier Studios Little Nightmares II, and SYSTEM(S) PlayStation 4, Switch, while this one can most defiXbox One, PC, Stadia nitely be filed under "more of RATING T the same," we're not complaining in the least. This time around players take control of another mysterious child named Mono, with the original game's protagonist Six appearing

troubling head-scratcher. The puzzles throughout manage to offer just the right amount of challenge, and for the most part character assistance and environmental clues make their solutions seem logical. They're the type of puzzles that make you feel pretty crafty, even if they're as simple as figuring out you can break through a wall by turning off the lights so you can see light shining through the eye holes of a painting. Hey, it may sound easy, but *I* totally figured it out after like five minutes! I'm a genius. As cool as the puzzles can be, the real star of Little Nightmares II are its creepy horror set pieces. In most areas you'll find one central monster at the heart of it all, from a hunter on the prowl for YOU with a dead-eyed shotgun to my personal favorite, a teacher with an impossibly long neck that seems to be able to stretch

as an AI-controlled partner. Like its predecessor, this polished and haunting sequel thrusts its characters into an unforgiving world depicted as a 2.5D-style side-scroller, offering free range of movement while ushering players in a very specific direction through a roller coaster of tricks, traps, and the occasionally

for eternity until she finally gets you in her unforgiving jaws. Even though the visuals fall on the cartoony side—with character designs coming off more like surrealist paintings than any hyper-realistic horrors—they're as effective as anything. It's like the painting monster from Andy Muschietti's IT come to shrieking life.

It's in these moments that Little Nightmares II is at its most tense. That such a seemingly small game with somewhat cartoonish visuals can get just as under my skin as some of the heavier hitters in horror during these segments is a testament to the skills on display at Tarsier. Some may find the overall length of a single playthrough—and the incentives to follow through with a second are slim unless you're trying to build up a speedrun or something—to be lacking, but I welcome it. Give me more of these expertly crafted, bite-sized adventures and I'll stay snackin' for the foreseeable future. There are some who, on the other hand, may simply lament the fact that Little

Nightmares II is more of the same. It may be true that the team at Tarsier figured out a winning formula and stuck pretty closely to it, but there's been enough time between the two that I'm more than happy to take another stroll through these wick'd woods. —Joseph Luster

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Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury The next level Nintendo's Wii U didn't deserve its bad rap. Sure, its clunky touchscreen controller had a short battery life (but felt great in the hands), and there weren't that many classics for the system. But those that did release were great in their own ways. Take Super Mario 3D World, for example. It introduced us to a brand PUBLISHER Nintendo new set of 3D-centric Mario DEVELOPER platforming levels with new Nintendo power-ups, challenges, and SYSTEM(S) Switch ways to interact with Mario. It RATING didn't get nearly the attention E it deserved on the Wii U, but great things usually get a second lease on life. Super Mario 3D World is now available on the Nintendo Switch, complete with a glut of extra content and a graphical overhaul for the system. It's been reborn as Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, which essentially makes it two games in one. As far as Mario games go, Super Mario 3D World is one of the best, by far. And it accomplishes this feat not by drastically changing up its formula, but by polishing what's already there. As you work to save a colorful band of fairy-like beings known as Sprixies from

Calico Meow-zingly relaxing Magical girls? Check. Cat cafés? Check. The ability to pick-up and pet every animal you see? Check. For when you want to live out all of your magical person dreams, Calico is the game for you. Getting PUBLISHER its start on Kickstarter, Whitethorn Digital, Maple Whispering indie developers DEVELOPER Peachy Keen Games Peachy Keen Games set out to make an SYSTEM(S) Switch, PS4, Xbox One, PC inclusive and unapoloRATING getically feminine E10+ community simulator. Yes, it is as wonderful as it sounds. Take everything you love about Animal Crossing and the Story of Seasons series, amp up the cuteness factor, and you have the gem of a game known as Calico. This day-in-the-life sim game is not shy about its hyper-cute aesthetic. Everything about it

screams soft, cuddly, and purrfect (I promise that is the only cat pun in this article). Your main objective is to take over and run

the island’s cat café. It’s a low-stakes, stressfree environment where you choose how to run your business and when you take cuddle breaks. No greedy raccoons swindling you for money, or

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the hustle of a farmer’s life to get in the way of your relaxation time. Upon arriving at your new home in Heart Village, you gain a sense that the game is invit-

ing you into its world with open arms. Calico takes character customization to the next level. You choose how you want to present yourself to the world, with no limitations of gender, body size, skin color, or hairstyles. This is a play at your own pace game; skipping a few days won’t send your neighbors packing, but there is plenty to explore and help out with as Mayor Kiva clues you in on. Local shop owners and neighbors are eager to meet you and ask for your assistance, if you’re willing, of course. While your neighbors are thoughtful enough to ask for your permission before sending you on your merry way, it’s in your best interest to lend a helpful hand. Accomplishing tasks comes with unlocking new areas, monetary awards, and often new furniture or clothes. “Every day is something new” is the best way to describe what you can expect from immersing yourself in the candy-colored world. Aside from roaming the island, you still have a café to run. For mass appeal, you’re required to assign animals to live in the café. Cats, red pandas, birds, arctic foxes, and capybaras are just some of the

the Fire Flower. If you die five times in a row, the game graciously offers an Invincibility Leaf, or a Tanooki Suit that makes Mario impervious to all threats, like the Super Star. You don’t need to use it, but it’s there if you need it. When you complete a stage, you can wander around each world map to find another to tackle or go in a straight line. Most worlds have Captain Toad areas where you play as the Captain himself, who can't jump. This was the inspiration for

the spinoff title Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, which was later released as a standalone game. Captain Toad can't jump, making his cubeshaped multi-tiered worlds more difficult. But you do get plenty of stars out of dealing with the challenge, which helps ensure you're ready to unlock the next level when you get to it. Outside of levels and Captain Toad adventures, you can take on smaller boss fights, collect power-ups and coins at slot machine-like minigames, collect stamps, and find fun secrets. It’s a solid weekend of fun, either alone or with friends. But when you’re done with this part of the game, it’s time to try out its other part:

friends who can take residence in your café. Befriend the local witches in town and get access to an inventory of potions. From the useful “teleport to the café” potion to the adorable “big small” potion that turns your feline companion into a giant, your imagination is free to run wild. Calico players may experience occasional glitching here and there, but it’s nothing that gets in the way of the overall gameplay. It’s not entirely uncommon for indie (and some mainstream) games to have a few technical bugs. Most encountered “issues” are more laughable

Bowser’s Fury. Bowser’s Fury is an open-world style Mario game more akin to games like Super Mario Odyssey. It's you and Bowser Jr., hilariously, against a massive Bowser whose rage can't be contained. If you thought being Cat Mario was useful in the main game, wait 'til you see the cat motifs in Bowser's Fury. Everything is related to cats, which makes this mode endearing despite its dark mood. Bowser continues to rain down fury on Mario the entire way, as you collect Cat Shines to illuminate lighthouses, complete challenges, and hide from King Koopa at random. He can appear essentially at any time, and you can't truly engage in battle with him until you have enough Cat Shines. Occasionally, you can transform into a souped-up Super Saiyan-like Cat Mario and battle Bowser, but you usually need to hide. Bowser’s Fury gives the Mario villain back the one thing he’s been missing for some time: his ferocity. And it’s a whole new, exciting ballgame to actually fear him for once. This mode also tacks on plenty more hours to a full-fledged Mario experience, which makes the package even more valuable. If you’re looking for a fantastic Mario game that you may have missed on Wii U, or you just want to see what the hubbub is about the new Bowser’s Fury mode, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is an absolutely fantastic outing. This is as good as Mario games get, and we deserve a sequel … before Bowser utterly wrecks Mario. —Brittany Vincent

(in a good way) than frustrating. Plus, the developers are on top of releasing new patches for each system to improve the quality and smoothness of play. If you play on a PC or Mac, it’s highly recommended you play with a controller. For the price point and enjoyment to be had, it’s hard to not love this game, bugs aside. Escapism through video games should be relaxing and stressfree; there’s always time for heart-racing battles. Cozying up on the couch to spend time playing baking mini-games, or befriending wild animals deserves time in your self-care schedule too. Calico is equal parts adorable, silly, and comforting. Everything about the gameplay experience makes you feel at ease. Pastel watercolor visuals, a soul-soothing soundtrack, and boundless magical adventures filled the need for a soft sim game I never knew I needed. Peachy Keen Games’ first title is truly one to behold. If you are looking for a rush of endorphins and a smile-inducing, approachable game, this is it. —Brianna Fox-Priest

August 2021 www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com OTAKU USA

GAME REVIEWS

Bowser's clutches (Peach is safe and sound for once), you work through a fairly linear world map and unlock new levels as you go. This is as quintessential Mario as you can get. Across several worlds, you're faced with a variety of different stages. From sugar-laced cake lands to those rife with spinning platforms and disappearing cloud steps to underwater escapades and lava-ridden dungeons, you only need to worry about three things: finding green stars, stamps (for the sake of collecting), and making it to the exit. But as the name implies, this is Super Mario 3D World, and as such it has more in common with games like Super Mario Galaxy or Super Mario Odyssey than the classic 2D sidescrollers. You can roam freely throughout gorgeously decorated environments solo or with up to three friends, each of you playing as a different character (Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, and another unlockable surprise guest). Every jump feels deliberate, fine-tuned, and perfectly executed. If you miss a platform or find yourself falling off of a stage, it's truly your fault. If you run into a Koopa Troopa while small Mario, that was poor planning on your part. The mechanics are impeccably tight, and the game does its best to help you along the way. There are a variety of power-ups, including the best one of all: the Super Bell. It transforms Mario's heroes into cat forms, which let you climb walls, scratch, slide, claw at the air, and feel like you're a much better Mario player than you are. Of course, you also have the usual assortment of Mario power-ups, such as the Tanooki Suit and

Going Under A keyboard smashin’ good time Going Under lures you in with its brightly colored graphics and roguelite gameplay, but throws you right into a complex narrative of company culture, oozing with satire. Indie games have been having a PUBLISHER moment over the Team17 last year, sharing DEVELOPER Aggro Crab quite a few knockSYSTEM(S) out titles—this one PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC being no exception. RATING T Developer Aggro Crab invites players to jump headfirst into a dungeon crawler unlike any other. Play as Jackie Fiasco, a recent college grad who’s taking her first step towards adulthood with a corporate internship at Fizzle, a sparkling water meal replacement startup. It’s unpaid because of course it is. Nothing fun company culture, free drinks, and office slides can’t fix! Fizzle is just one piece of the

conglomerate puzzle of the drone-delivery service company known as Cubi-

cle. Hired on as a marketing intern through the “Impoverished Intern Initiative,” your manager Marv reassures that you'll be gaining valuable experience. Your first assignment? Retrieve relics to help Fizzle maintain an edge over com-

Cyber Shadow Welcome to the Ninja Guy Den Fast-paced ninja action has found a comfortable spot in the world of indie gaming. From Askiisoft's wonderfully quirky and dark Katana Zero to the hybrid 8- and 16-bit action of Sabotage Studio's The Messenger, inspiration from classics like the Ninja Gaiden series has practically fueled its own sub-genre. Enter the new publishing effort from Shovel Knight studio Yacht Club Games and developer Mechanical

Head Studios, Cyber Shadow, another instant hit we'll be coming back to play through again and again for years to come. Cyber Shadow is as straightforward as they come, eschewing gimmicks in favor of tight action and

OTAKU USA www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com August 2021

PUBLISHER Yacht Club Games DEVELOPER Mechanical Head Studios SYSTEM(S) Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, PC RATING E10+

petition by venturing into the catacombs of failed tech startups Joblin, Winkydink, and Styxcoin; all of which are riddled with employees turned goblins, succubi, and skeletons. Once you’ve been briefed on your task you’ll enter the dungeons one by one, taking a “by any means” approach to defeat rooms full of monsters and each dungeon’s big boss. That is if you don’t die within the first few minutes. Trust me, you WILL die and often. Jackie’s moves are very limited, you can essentially only hit enemies and barrel roll to dodge attacks. Making battles a cat and

platforming and NES-inspired visuals that look like how you remember your favorites looking even if they didn't actually look that good in the first place. It's like an implanted memory, and it blazes from beginning to end mercilessly to the tune of an absolutely killer soundtrack by Enrique Martin. As you progress through each stage, you'll defeat challenging bosses to acquire more permanent ninjutsu skills and abilities. It starts with simple but effective additions like shuriken—which, while limited, can be replenished with handy pickups that refill your meter—and moves on to double jumps, wall

GAME REVIEWS

mouse game. Combat often feels chaotic—your weapons break easily causing you to scramble to find whatever you can to fight, including thumbtacks and potted plants. As you descend you'll find better weapons to slash away at your enemies, but don't get too comfy, they quickly break too. Aside from office supplies, the game throws in useful features such as skills, apps, and mentors to assist Jackie and give you a stacked edge over foes. This is where talking to your coworkers comes in handy. Each cohort can assign you tasks which vary from breaking 15 laptops in combat to the occasional odd task of toasting a sandwich. Helping them out allows you to equip them as a mentor in each dungeon, giving you extra bonuses and materials. Skills and apps

give Jackie special abilities to mow down monsters. The more you use a skill found in the dungeon will increase endorsement, allowing you to equip a skill at the start of each run once 100 percent endorsed. Apps can be used one at a time to lend abilities like stunning all enemies in the room or a caffeine boost effect. How you blend available features can take the dungeon from difficult to slightly less difficult. I will not sugarcoat it, Going Under is hard and the developers know it. If this proves to be unpleasant, you can always turn on battle assist. Or if you thrive at roguelites and crave a more roguelike experience, a recent work-from-home update added imposter mode, making gameplay “stupid hard.” Going Under is not only a fun dungeon

crawler, it's a retrospective discourse on insufferable capitalist-favoring companies. It draws back the curtain on the "work-hard, play-hard" façade corporate offices put in place to make it seem like you're actually having fun and not on the verge of a mental breakdown due to exhaustion. What makes this title special is how relatable it is; just about anyone could empathize with Jackie and her burnt-out coworkers. And for all those times you wanted to grab your keyboard and slam it to smithereens, you can make that a reality (well a digital one). While roguelites are not my strong suit, I find myself coming back again and again. It’s the cathartic pleasure of breaking things for me. However you look at it, this is a title worthy of your attention. —Brianna Fox-Priest

slides, fire attacks, and more that become essential tools to make it through in one piece. These techniques are fun to master and pretty much everything is useful in more than just a handful of scenarios. Cyber Shadow can be tough, but the checkpoint system is forgiving enough to ensure pretty much anyone can get through it with a little effort. It quickly becomes a classic case of "just one more try," until that mantra continues to roll over to the next stage, and then the next, and so on. Next thing you know you're barreling toward the final challenges while thinking about ways you could have handled those last few more swiftly and efficiently.

In true side-scrolling action game fashion, Cyber Shadow succeeds because of the sum of its parts. If the music didn't marry perfectly with the visuals and ultra-responsive controls, Mechanical Head Studios would just have another kitschy throwback on their hands. That it all comes together so beautifully is one of the key reasons this one will be around for quite some time to come. Even if we don't get a sequel at some point, look for Cyber

Shadow to have some heavy rotation in the speedrun community and other spots that truly appreciate what makes these games so special and how to break them spectacularly in the process. —Joseph Luster

August 2021 www.OtakuUSAmagazine.com OTAKU USA

COSPLAYUSA by Ani-Mia

Gates Wide Open! Ignore the baseless rules of the gatekeepers Hello fellow Otaku! Depending on who you talk to, the exact date that cosplay began can vary but needless to say, it’s been around in some form for at least a century. In that time, numerous cosplay trends and character obsessions have come and gone and sometimes come back again. And in that time, gatekeeping has also existed, since it’s a negative aspect of any and all hobbies or groups. But what does gatekeeping look like in the cosplay community and how do we handle it? The basic definition of gatekeeping is when someone decides who does or doesn’t have access or rights to something. Think of it as someone standing in front of a physical gate and telling someone else why they can’t pass through and enjoy whatever is on the other end. It can be an object, an activity, a group or even an identity. For example, a recent, and sadly reoccurring gatekeeping idea states that if someone hasn’t seen a certain anime series, or has only seen certain ones, then they aren’t a true anime fan; and this is a completely ridiculous statement. In the case of cosplay, gatekeeping can mean attempting to prevent people from cosplaying a character, from a particular anime or game or even cosplaying all together like: You can’t cosplay as that character if you are/aren’t … If you haven’t watched that anime or played that game, you can’t cosplay from it Store bought costumes or sexy costumes aren’t really cosplays I did this cosplay first, thus I have claim to it (unless it’s an original design character created by the cosplayer, it’s been done before and will be done again) To begin, gatekeeping implies that there are rules in place that someone is violating but the reality is, there are no rules to cosplay. Cosplay was created as a way to have fun and show one’s love for a fandom. At its core, cosplay is simply about enjoying yourself and getting to display your love for a character. Whether that’s in a cosplay that’s handmade or bought, accurate or sexified; it doesn’t matter as long as the person cosplaying is happy. (Heck, if I could have easily bought cosplays when I started over ten years ago rather than feeling like I have to learn how to sew first, I probably would have started sooner.) This also means that there is nothing to stop someone from cosplaying any character they want to and in any way they see fit. Cosplay is subjective. If one should run into a gatekeeper on their cosplaying journey, ignore their words and kick down their baseless gate and enjoy what you love on the other side. Keep in mind that gatekeeping tends to be a narcissistic trait based only on that person’s idea that they determine what the rules are. In the end, we the cosplayers together have one rule; just have fun. Ani-Mia links Facebook: www.facebook.com/Animia.cosplay Twitter: www.twitter.com/AniMiaOfficial Instagram: www.instagram.com/animiaofficial

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First Glance Photography

Brian Ngai Photography

So Say We All Photography

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First Glance Photography

SonSon Photography

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So Say We All Photography Brian Ngai Photography

SonSon Photography

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Brian Ngai Photography So Say We All Photography

So Say We All Photography

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OTAKU OWARI

By Kara Dennison

Is This Anime? Three of Our Favorite Medium-Bending Anime Series Does Pui Pui Molcar count as anime? Close enough for us. For as long as anime has been a thing, fans have debated over what the word actually means. Where does the show have to come from? How must it be animated? What language is it in originally? Well, for these anime series, we don’t care. Here are some shows that use alternate animation styles to bring their stories to life. From

to life. And fans were receptive: Thunderbolt Fantasy is a beloved show, popular enough to bring about manga and films. Urobuchi was inspired to make the show after seeing Pili, a glove puppet series made by Pili International Multimedia. (The show’s name literally translates to “Thunderbolt,” funnily enough.) You may even have seen some of it yourself: it came to Cartoon Network under the name Wulin Warriors. Pui Pui Molcar An anime series hitting big right now, Pui Pui Molcar started life as a segment on a Saturday morning children’s show. The oddly adorable short, about a world where cars are also sentient guinea pigs, has become winter 2021’s bestreviewed anime series. There’s not a stroke of 2D animation in it, either. These furry little vehicles are stop-motion, with occasional photographic overlays to depict their human drivers. It’s an uncommon anime style, but one that works well for the sweet little show. Plus it’s now available globally on Netflix.

Pui Pui Molcar

Inferno Cop

Inferno Cop Remember when Studio Trigger came along and teased their first anime series? We remember. They may have gone on to things like Kill la Kill and DARLING in the FRANXX, but Hiroyuki Imaishi’s brainchild started out with something a lot less complex: the Thunderbolt Fantasy YouTube series Inferno Cop. © Thunderbolt Fantasy Project. The low-budget, cutout animation series was not at all what fans were stop motion to puppetry, we’re intrigued by expecting. But it did foreshadow the kind of these shows in all their forms. What about you? energy Trigger would bring to the table. Voiced Do you have any favorite anime that don’t seem by a tiny cast and chaotically written and to “officially” fit the definition? filmed, it wasn’t universally liked. But the flames of justice still ignited the hearts of some Thunderbolt Fantasy fans. And even now, we’re still hoping for the Screenwriter Gen Urobuchi turned to Taiwanese glove puppetry to bring this fantasy anime series return of the unlikely hero. ⒸTRIGGER/CoMixWaveFilms

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