Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf Review: Wholesome Economics.

Spice and Wolf was one of those anime I heard a lot about, but never really got around to checking out.
So, when I learned there would be a reboot, Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf, I figured watching it would be the best way to introduce myself to the story.
And I am very glad it was my introduction.

The reboot is a great way for new viewers to first experience *Spice and Wolf.*

Based off the light novel of the same name by Isuna Hasekura, Spice and Wolf begins with Kraft Lawrence, a travelling merchant who encounters a wolf deity named Holo.
Taking the form of a young woman, Holo makes an agreement with Lawrence.
As the two travel together, Holo’s knowledge helps Lawrence grow his profits, while he helps her find information about her mysterious hometown, which she wishes to return to.
Over the course of their 25-episode journey, Lawrence and Holo grow closer, often bickering like an old married couple.

Watching these two characters together is never boring.

Their chemistry is sold both through the solid animation and the excellent work done by their voice actors, Jun Fukuyama and Ami Koshimizu.
The latter in particular does an excellent job, with Koshimizu bringing Holo’s charming cheekiness to life.
Lawrence and Holo play off each other so well that I would say the weakest part of the show is the arc where they are separated and we have to spend a long time with Lawrence alone.

The story is definitely better with Lawrence and Holo together rather than apart.

This is only one arc, however, and the payoff to it is pretty good.
Speaking of, charming moments between Lawrence and Holo are not the only payoff we get because Spice and Wolf also does an excellent job of making the economic elements of Lawrence’s trade interesting.
It was always interesting to see how he and Holo would work around their monetary and debt issues with corrupt officials, which constantly plagued them throughout the season.

A lesser show would have struggled to make the merchant aspects interesting, but this is half the fun of *Spice and Wolf;* the other half of course being the relationship between Lawrence and Holo.

What also helped is that the characters the two meet on their journey are likeable, or at least understandable in their motivations.
The real focus is on Holo and Lawrence though, as it should be.
Watching their bond grow, along with their clear romantic feelings for one another, made for a fun watch.
It is clear that many others agree because, immediately after the finale aired, a Season Two was announced.

I look forward to seeing more of Lawrence and Holo’s adventure in the future.

If Season Two is anything like the first, it will be more than worth the watch.
Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf has a fantastic dynamic between its two romantic leads and does a great job of explaining and making its economic nature entertaining.
If, like me, you had not experienced this story before, I would recommend this series as a great way to introduce yourself.

Lycoris Recoil Review: Season Two, Please?

There are two anime that I have enjoyed above all others this season.
The first of those is CyberPunk: Edgerunners, which I reviewed a few days ago.
The second of these is Lycoris Recoil.
To be honest, I had no idea this anime existed until I heard all of the praise it was getting and decided to check it out, only to become hooked right from the first episode.
Created by Spider Lily and Asaura, and directed by Shingo Adachi, Lycoris Recoil is set in a Japan where the peace is kept by a secret organization known as the DA, which recruits teenage girl assassins known as the Lycoris.
One of these Lycoris is Takina Inoue (Shion Wakayama), a deadpan girl who very rarely lets her emotions out.
While on a mission with her squad, Takina makes a choice which results in one of her colleagues being saved but also ends up allowing the cash of illegal guns they were trying to capture get away.
Although, in my opinion, Takina certainly made the right call, she still takes the fall for the mission’s failure and is relocated to a cafe known as LycoReco.
This punishment is not all bad, however, because she gets to work with the greatest Lycoris agent, Chisato Nishikigi (Chika Anzai), who can literally dodge bullets.
Chisato is Takina’s exact opposite: cheerful, loud and insistent on using non-lethal bullets to incapacitate her foes.
The anime then follows the two girls’ adventures as they go on missions and hang out, with Chisato promising to help Takina get back into the DA, while also bringing the emotionally stunted girl out of her shell.

*Lycoris Recoil* follows the adventures of Chisato, Takina, and the rest of the cafe staff.

The bond that grows between Chisato and Takina is great, with plenty of wholesome, funny and emotional moments between the two, whether they be just spending time together or fighting on missions.
It is not just them, however, as the rest of the cast is just as great.
There is the main antagonist, Majima (Yoshitsugi Matsuoka), who has an interesting motivation and compelling interactions with Chisato.
Then there is Chisato’s mentor Mika (Kosuke Sakaki).
His bond with her is heart-warming, and this ultimately results in one of his final scenes presenting what is probably the most tragic moment in the entire show.

This scene is definitley the saddest in the anime.

The last character I want to talk about is Shinji Yoshimatsu (Yoji Ueda), another character with an intriguing connection to Chisato, and his manipulative nature made him my most hated character in the show by far.
The good kind of hate, though, not the unintentionally bad character type.
Basically, there are a lot of great characters, and this makes things very tense in the last five or so episodes, where the stakes are so high.
These high stakes are accompanied by great action, which is present throughout the entire show, really.

The action scenes during the final episodes are especially great.

I could watch Chisasto and Takina take out a room of armed goons like they are John Wick for a while, if there was more of it.
Speaking of which, please let there be more of it.
There has been a lot of speculation about a second season of Lycoris Recoil and there are two things which I think make this a distinct possibility.
The first of these is that the anime has done really well financially, obviously.
The second is that the ending left a few teases for future storylines that were not wrapped up.
This is not to say that the ending of Lycoris Recoil leaves dangling plot points, creating an unsatisfying ending; far from it.
The ending ties up most of its loose plot threads exceptionally well, while also hinting at a few more, just in case a second season gets the green light.

This scene in particular contains something which could be hinting at season two content.

I think that most of us who have seen this show are hoping for that green light because Lycoris Recoil is a great anime.
It has fun action and animation, plenty of wholesome and funny moments, and a well done emotional connection between its two lead characters.
Bring on season two, please.

Kill La Kill Review: SYSTEM ERROR: FANSERVICE OVERLOAD!

Before I started watching Kill la Kill, I tried to remember what I had heard about it before.
Well, of all the things I could have forgotten, I somehow didn’t remember hearing that this was an anime with a lot of fan service.
So, you can imagine my surprise when I first saw our hero Ryuko (Ami Koshimizu) wearing Senketsu (Toshiniko Seki).
It made me worried that the show would just devolve into one of those anime that put fan service over story or whose fan service often got in the way of that story, like with Code Geass.
Thankfully, the exact opposite happened because, in an unexpected twist for me, Kill la Kill is an anime that revels in its fan service in such an over the top way that it somehow worked entirely.
Fan service is literally at the center of the story with the good guys being nudists.
This created a story that was both intense to watch, due to its story, and hilarious to see unfold, due to its purposefully out there eye candy.

Unlike other anime, *Kill la Kill* handles its over the top fan service in a perfect way.

Directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi and written by Kazuki Nakashima, Kill la Kill follows Ryuko Matoi who goes to Hoonouji Academy to confront the mysterious student council president, Satsuki Kiryuin (Ryoka Yuzuki), about who killed her father.
However, before she can get answers, she’ll have to fight through the various other students of the Academy, all while wearing the revealing Senketsu, a sentient uniform constructed from the even more mysterious Life Fibers.
The rivalry between Ryuko and Satsuki is great, as is the supporting cast, like the elite four, Ira Gamagori (Tetsu Inada), Uzu Sanageyama (Nobuyuki Hiyama), Nonon Jakuzure (Mayumi Shintani) and Houka Inumata (Hiroyuki Yoshino).
My favourite character would have to be Mako Mankanshoku (Ayu Suzaki), who is the kind of friend everyone would like to have.
Except for the whole, you know, going mad with power thing.
Thankfully, that was a one-time thing though.
In all seriousness, Mako is an enjoyably funny character with the great animation helping show off her eccentricities.

As for the animation, it is fantastic throughout.
I was captivated by it right from the very first episode and this continued to the very end.
Studio Trigger sure does have amazing animation for a lot of their anime.
As for the score, Hiroyuki Sawano once again kills it with some absolutely fantastic songs and music.
I especially like the themes for the main villains of the anime, Ragyo Kuryuin (Romi Park) and Nui Harime (Yukari Tamura), which were fire.
Speaking of Ragyo, I think we can all agree that she takes the title for worst mother in the history of ever.
Seriously, it doesn’t get much worse than planning a worldwide genocide with alien clothes and sexually assaulting your own daughters.
Well, at least the anime did a good job of making you hate her guts.
As for Nui, she is also a villain that I had a lot of fun watching, with her innocent design giving a false sense of security that hides the complete psychopath underneath.

Nui is a great villain who certainly leaves an impression when she first appears.

All of the characters are great and combining them with a good story, intense action highlighted by fantastic animation, a terrific score, and surprisingly well handled, over the top fan service, you get a really good result.
Kill La Kill is a great anime that has me intrigued to check out more of Studio Triggers’ work.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection Review: A Mixed Bag Just Like the Show.

I have mixed feelings about Code Geass.
On the one hand it has instances of brilliant writing, on the other hand it has instances of pretty terrible writing.
That said, it does have an incredible ending that makes a follow up extremely difficult to pull off.
In order to solve this problem, director Gorō Taniguchi decided to set this story in an alternate universe with a few minor changes to the original story… with mixed results as expected.

lelouch meboy — The film has as many positives as it does negatives, just like the original anime.

Lelouch of the Re;surrection is set one year after Lelouch’s sacrifice during the Zero Requiem.
A revived Lelouch (Japanese Jun Fukuyama, English Johnny Yong Bosh) is under the care of C.C (Yukana and Kate Higgins) when his sister Nunnally (Kaori Nazuka and Rebecca Forstadt) and good friend Suzaku (Takahiro Sakura and Yuri Lowenthal) are kidnapped by the enemy nation of Zilkhistan.
Now C.C and the Black Knights must find a way to bring Lelouch back to his former self so he can rescue the two and defeat Zilkhistan.
The film is well voice acted, animated and scored, with some great action sequences throughout.
Along with this, the writing is occasionally great just like how it is occasionally great in the show.
Lelouch and C.C are definitely the highlights, with their relationship having a fantastic arc that ended the film well.

The way *Lelouch of the Re;surrection* ends with Lelouch and C.C’s relationship is genuinely touching.

It was a lot of fun to see the man of miracles at work again, defeating his enemies using his brilliant tactics.
In particular, one prison sequence where Lelouch got to show off his skills is a terrifically fun sequence.
And then there’s the villains of the film who, while they are not really interesting characters, do have an interesting motivation.
Their actions show the consequences of the Zero Requiem in a way that was believable and understandable.
Although, this does undermine the authenticity of the original ending somewhat.
Unfortunately, the issues of Lelouch of the Re;surrection don’t end there.
For starters, the changes to this story with the alternate universe don’t really have a point.
Take Shirley (Fumiko Orikasa and Amy Kincaid) for example.
She is brought back to life and the reason for this was so that she could sneak Lelouch’s body to C.C but this doesn’t really make any sense considering Shirley doesn’t have the skills to smuggle Lelouch’s body out.

It felt like Shirley was kept alive just because the writer wanted her to be rather than there being a legitimate reason.

Not only this but a lot of the characters seem to forget Lelouch’s actions in the parts of the original story that are still canon.
Cornelia, weirdly enough, seems to be not as angry about Lelouch, you know, using his Geass on her sister Euphemia and then killing her.
Also, Oghi does something in this film that comes out of nowhere and feels really out of character.
And then there’s the problems with the original series that is carried over, chief among these being fan service.
Now, there is nothing wrong with fan service but does it have to come during these big emotional moments?
I can’t get invested in a scene where C.C encourages Lelouch during a dire moment if the shot spends so much time focusing on her private parts.
It makes these scenes comical rather than emotional.
Still, despite these problems, Code Geass: Lelouch of the Re;surrection is a good film.
It does have occasional moments of brilliance, even if they are bogged down by problems, both old ones from the original show and new ones entirely.