So today I started off with a show called “Level E”, I mentioned at the beginning that based on the promotion image and description that I was going to get a well thought out Sci-Fi show that would balance out all the high school drama and weird Loli magical girls that I’m watching elsewhere. This however is not the case, for you see…
This is the most hilarious show of the season. (So far)
Sure the plot and designs lead it to be quite serious, with an alien crashing on earth and needing a place to stay, so he makes the acquaintance of a newcomer to the area and begins to share an apartment with him. However the show contains extremely hilarious dialogue and quick flashes of animation to match it here and there, like making a well-timed E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial reference.
Now unfortunately in the grand scheme of things the first episode shows us little of what to expect. We know that there is an alien, and he is now living with a human high school student (who dislikes the idea of some stranger prancing into his apartment, stealing his clothes, and helping himself to pretty much everything. Hilarity ensues with that.) And that he disappeared for a day and got back some weird artifact that scientists recovered from his crashed spaceship. Oh yeah and he can makes flowers bloom while healing himself.
So to be quite honest I’m looking forward to more of this show. It’s just the well placed comedy moments (helped along by Daisuke Namikawa who plays our alien friend. You might know him as Italy from Hetalia Axis Powers) that made me not even realize that the episode was over until I saw the credits, which is a feeling I love having. So here’s to Level E, let’s hope it can only get better and not worse. (Also the opening theme is addictive as hell)
Moving on.
Ok so before I start, a little history lesson that was prompted by an ad on ANN that Funimation had for Fractale because they are streaming the series. (Feel free to skip this if you are not so inclined) *Ahem*
Several years back there was an anime director by the name of Yutaka Yamamoto who worked at Kyoto Animation. At that time he proudly directed what would be known as the first season to a show called Haruhi Suzumiya, and in the Otaku world there was much rejoicing! With that success Kyoto had him start directing another smash hit series known as Lucky Star, but due to creative differences on the direction of the show, Yamamoto left Kyoto ani for greener pastures at A-1 Pictures Inc where such creative differences were not had. He also directed a rather nice 13 episode series there called Kannagi, which while it did not set the world on fire like the first series of Haruhi was still quite an enjoyable series overall.
Now flash forward to 2011, Funimation creates an advertisement for their streaming of a new show called Fractale that claims it was from “The creator of Haruhi and Lucky Star”. Let me clear this up first of all:
A) Haruhi was originally a Light Novel written by Nagaru Tanigawa
B) Lucky Star was originally a Manga written by Kagami Yoshimizu
You could possibly argue that Yamamoto was a creator to the ANIME’s of them (being an adaptation and not the original article) but even then you would be false because a Director is not the sole creator of a work. Hell even if it was advertised as “From the director of Haruhi and Lucky Star” it would be pushing it because he only directed 4 episodes out of 24 of Lucky Star meaning that over 83% of the show he had absolutely nothing to do with!
Ok so I know that rant came from nowhere but one major pet peeve of mine is when credit is falsely given when it should not be, or not given when it should. This is nothing bad to say of Yamamoto at all, in fact if anything it’s a plus because he directed Lucky Star during my favourite episodes before it got really into the moeblob that we know of it today and he had nothing to do with the “endless eight” arc of the second season of Haruhi, (though I’ll leave my complete thoughts on that subject for another time)
So with that off my chest, let’s go to the actual show.
I’ll be honest. I don’t get this show at all, though I have reason. When a show like this deposits you into a world that is similar to the earth that we know of but different in major aspects, it’s nice to get a little grounding and have the differences explained. Unfortunately the world that Fractale’s story belongs in has yet to be, not to say it won’t be but currently I would just be stabbing in the dark to try and explain it. We have weird hologram like programs that seem to take the place of actual people for some reason, a girl who looks like Nausicaa escaping from another girl and two men on a blimp, a boy who’s stuck smack dab in the middle of it all, and us, the viewers, who are enjoying what’s going on even if we have no idea what it is we are watching. Or even if you did, I didn’t.
See even though there are a lot of things about this show’s world that I don’t understand I forgive it because it has a lot of time with which to explain itself and that hopefully at the end it will all make sense. It also helped that I was getting major Castle in the Sky vibes for a while there and it’s one of my favourite Ghibli movies.
Also as a closing note, I was going to leave my predictions for each show of this season in regards to being licensed until the end of the first 3 weeks, however with Fractale being streamed by Funimation I think it’s obvious that they are gunning for the license as well.
So there are two more promising shows down. I originally planned to cover two more, but I think I’ll have to drop them. Unfortunately 6 shows is enough for my first season. I’ll get to watching them eventually, just not now.
Also, if you haven’t already, head over to D2 and vote for what anime you would like to see me review for the REVIEW WEEK….. of awesome. You only have until Saturday so click here to vote!
