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The ‘94 Saga part 2: Nanatsu no Umi no Tico Episode 1 Review

Inconsistency is the death of habit and blogs alike, so after a little over a week since my first review it’s important to follow it up with the incredibly rare second review. If I can I plan on creating one a week, just to hone my writing skills. I mean, there's enough premier anime in 1994 to make some sort of impact right? Along with increased pleasure reading and more personal work hopefully I can really get something going with my writing skill.

In first month of 1994 only two original anime came out. The first Akazukin Chacha was a comedy magical girl that strayed a little from the straight laced romances set in contemporary japan before it. The second, Nanatsu no Umi no Tico (Tico of the seven seas) created by Nippon Animation (apt name for a company that seemed to almost exclusively make adaptations of western stories) was an interesting anime for me. Growing up in the late 90’s early 2000’s in the US I got the Toonami spectrum of anime from the second wave of localization, with massive hits like Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon. America got that mostly shounen action that has become synonymous with anime over the years. So when I started watching anime more independently from my home television in the mid 2000’s I found that there was a lot more diversity in anime than just action. Later in college I got my first real taste of 70’s and 80’s anime with many of the building blocks of slice of life, shounen and shoujo genres. Nanatsu no Umi no Tico is, well, it feels like a western cartoon.

Naturally this is the part where I apologize for restarting that age old argument over what exactly separates anime from western cartoons (a distinction that I believe is purely fictitious besides certain cultural boundaries) but all in all I feel like this show was destined to be created by Hanna-Barbera, creators of Scooby Doo and Jonny Quest. Specifically this reminded me of Jonny Quest with its family of related or otherwise adventurers getting into misadventures and having some heartfelt moments along the way. This is precisely what this show is to me. The main character Nanami is what you would expect of the protagonist child among older adults. She’s compassionate, clever, and above all else, ready to disobey adults when she alone sees the way forward. That, and the fact that she has a loyal killer whale sidekick that the show is named for, is what makes me nostalgic for those 60’s and 70’s adventure cartoons.

The animation gets away from the prevalent anime artstyle of the time, aiming for less stylized characters than what anime has come to be known for, and takes on a bit of a Studio Ghibli sort of feel, where each character just has a hint of stylization without going overboard. The show is very subtle in this way, where the art and music itself isn't exactly invoking but in turn I started to look more at what was happening rather than simply watching the characters go through the motions. This is where we start to falter a little though as ultimately the show isn't very compelling to me. See I may be nostalgic for those old adventure cartoons but I don’t think I ever actually liked them. Sure they had universally compelling characters and decent action, but ultimately they had plot lines that were spottable from miles away. It becomes clear that there is one focus character, Jonny or Nanami, whoever, that would in turn be the crux of the episode with every other character revolving around them. Its obvious that only Nanami can forward the plot by utilizing her bond with Tico, or that she’ll learn something from her companions when she can’t. Yes, this is how all character plots work but I just can’t bring myself to truly care about these characters after the first episode. At the end of the episode where Nanami and Tico save the day by going against orders they get a pat on the back and at the end of the day nothing has changed and we just get a glimpse of the true plot when a mysterious magical item has appeared in this mostly realistic world. And honestly that's the only really compelling part of this series for me. Where other anime have similar scenarios of the week, those are at least funny, or have escalating action sequences that are sadly just not super great in this series from the first episode that I’ve seen.

Would I return to this anime? Most likely not. Maybe it's the genre that I’m not into but once I know where the characters are going then I’m not as compelled to continue watching a family adventure with no foreseeable twists. As for that magical mystery, I think I’m more likely to just look it up and save myself 40 episodes.

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The ‘94 Saga Part 1: Akazukin Chacha Episode 1 Review

I’ve never written an anime review before, but it's something that I’ve been itching to do for a while, and I figured why not do a review of every current season episode 1? Because everyone’s done that already idiot! So I arbitrarily picked 1994 to begin my anime review journey, and so the first new anime to premiere in ‘94 is Akazukin Chacha.

Akazukin Chacha, or Red Riding Hood Chacha, is adapted from a 1991 manga by Ayahana Min (who you may know from probably only this), and was animated by Studio Gallop of Rurouni Kenshin, Yugioh, and Eyeshield 21 fame among others. The director Hatsuki Tsuji has done mostly storyboard work for a ton of classic anime like Dirty Pair and Case Closed, and has directed a handful of work, most notably Yugioh GX.

After watching mostly current season anime I’m still a little thrown off when a series side steps a cold opening and begins with well, the opening. We see our main character, Chacha and co flying around on broomsticks and having magical and romantic adventures, we get the shot of the main male lead looking contemptibly at Chacha and then his own reflection, we get the idea that Chacha has inner struggles as she wipes away her tears when she notices she's being watched, then we get the onslaught of characters doing wacky things, and of course the true tip off to what this show is as we she the magical girl transformation. All in all it's a good opening, but I can’t say I care for the song. It may be inoffensive to the ears but it's really nothing exciting, being the self esteem boosting love ballad targeted at young girls that we’re familiar with in magical girl anime (and if you’re not I’ve linked the OP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l24H0eizdY).

The actual beginning is Chacha practicing magic with her master, she messes up the spells by saying them wrong or by monkey’s paw (she says a character's name wrong and an old man appears, or she asks for clouds (kumo) and gets spiders (kumo). So right away I’m excited that despite the magical girl trope of her being a screw up it doesn't begin with average girl gets powers, instead it's powered girl gets purpose.

After that we get our rollout of character introductions, we have Riiya the childhood friend who wants to protect her, Seravy her master, Dorothy the rival master, and Shiine her apprentice and romantic rival to Riiya. We also get a very short look at the vaguely menacing metallic hand of the main villain and his incompetent goofy lackey, but honestly they barely factor into this episode.

Each character has simple but satisfactory motivations, Chacha’s is that she wants to go to magical school which they cleverly elaborate on only after she messes up several spells. She’s a compassionate and ambitious girl who seems to get in over her head without thinking about it, but that's where her strength comes from and honestly I find her quite endearing. Riiya on the other hand is fiercely jealous of anyone who comes near Chacha, but is willing to put up with it for her sake. I think all the characters so far are fun, as none of them come off as brooding but not without complexity.

The conflict of the episode begins after Dorothy (the rival witch to Seravy, the self proclaimed greatest magician in the world) receives a magical mirror that plays off her rivalry to Seravy. The fun part though, is that while she begins to act malevolent towards Seravy it still seems organic to her character, just an escalated version. After this Chacha has to rescue Seravy, etc etc, a comedic misadventure ensues, the romantic rivalry begins and oh, I had almost completely forgot that this was a magical girl anime, because Chacha has agency beyond her mystical plot item. This is where I fell for this anime. The characters are acting on the plot rather than the plot acting on the characters, and when it's time for the transformation it's to show off the already existing unity of the character trio rather than making the viewers wish they too could fall into a mystical plot item driven plot.

A couple of things that I loved about this before I wrap up. Riiya, the main romantic interest, does the Kamen Rider 1 pose, even exclaiming “Henshin!” before transforming into a dog made my day, so that may have pointed my bias toward this character. The magical girl herself is beautifully designed and gets away from the tight tops and miniskirts of Sailor Moon and goes for a very flowy outfit with valkyrie-esc headdress and radically long scarf. While still in a skirt I wouldn't call it a mini-skirt exactly. Just above the knees really. Overall a big fan of the design.

This show just feels so genuine and organic, the writing is clever and the gags, while not being gut busting, kept me smiling the whole way through. The characters are genuinely appealing and complex enough for a romantic action comedy. The character designs while simple are pleasing to the eye (the pre-drawn backgrounds are a little subpar, although it is understandable for anime budget). I can’t say much for the music, as it’s just sort of there, and the ED is nothing to write about. Overall I would recommend anyone who’s a fan of magical girl anime to give this a watch.

Honestly I would, and maybe will, continue watching this gem of an anime.