#Author: cajk2

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First Impression: Pretty Boy Detective Club

A girl stands in the spotlight on stage and monologues about Voltaire, with a punchline about death. In the next scene, which takes us back to the beginning of her story, Doujima Mayumi nearly becomes that very punchline, but fortunately is rescued by a pretty boy in an outfit reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes, just in the nick of time, as she plummets from the rooftop observatory of their (very Shaft-esque) private school. He deduces that she is searching for something in the starry sky and invites her to come present her case to the Pretty Boy Detective Club, a mysterious organization that is rumoured to cause as much—if not more!—trouble on campus as they solve. The over-the-top introductions over, Doujima admits that she has been searching for a star she once saw, ten years earlier, but soon must give up on her dream of finding it. Though she is prepared to dedicate her life to the quest and wants to become an astronaut, her practically-minded parents are having none of her “games”. She has until her (fast-approaching) 14th birthday to complete her search. The boys are on board to help her and ready the helicopter. No, really. They set off to recreate that fateful night, a decade earlier, when Doujima first saw that star that has sparkled in her eyes ever since—complete with a beach-side barbecue, for the sake of authenticity. These beautiful boys take their work as detectives seriously! Will they find the missing star? Will Doujima give up on her dream?

Pretty Boy Detective Club has three rules: you must be pretty; you must be a boy; you must be a detective.

The MAL blurb for Bishounen Tanteidan sounded like a cross between Ouran High School Host Club—which I’m not really a fan of—and Hyouka—which I adore. But it’s also by Shaft and I just spent the weekend re-watching Madoka, so that tipped the balance—though I wasn’t holding my breath. Well, I was pleasantly surprised, as it exceeded my expectations! The opening monologue makes it clear this is neither a typical shoujo nor a straightforward send-up of the genre—and that’s a good thing in my books. Instead, we’re treated to a surprisingly self-reflexive episode that engages with the tropes of the shoujo and coming-of-age school drama genres in a genuinely thoughtful way, particularly in the closing dialogue between Doujima and the epicurean pretty boy, Fukuroi. She calls him and the boys out for their performativity, their disingenuous offer to help her and their patronising theatrics, and he shoots her down in return for not believing in her own dream. (The air cleared, they come to an understanding over mouth-watering kebabs.) I wasn’t expecting the masks to fall away quite so soon in what otherwise seemed to be a rather silly story. There might just be some real depth to this series! I will be tuning in to the next episode at least, to see if they find Doujima’s star…

Fukuroi dropping truth the way Doujima just dropped her kebab.

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Pretty Boy Detective Club can be streamed on Funimation.

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Pretty Boy Detective Club, Episode 3: Beauty Redefined

The Pretty Boy Detective Club is founded on three rules: be pretty, be a boy, and be a detective. Only in this week’s episode, something revolutionary happened. President Sotoin Manabu revealed a fourth rule. And this rule completely transforms the series’ definition of beauty—and just maybe, mine and yours too.

Up to this point, Pretty Boy Detective Club seems to be winking playfully at the popular saying that beauty is only skin deep. The character designs and animation are pretty in that sparkly Shaft kind of way, with monumental white spaces, copious background statuary and dazzlingly bright-eyed, well-coiffed youthfulness. But the fourth rule unlocks a surprising depth to this bishounen world.

Nothing to see here folks. Just cleaning the statues.

The fourth rule is: be a team. Which makes sense, because this is a Club, after all. But it goes deeper than that and pretty soon it’s clear that this final rule is the one that all the other rules hang on.

It all comes together near the end of the episode, as Dojima Mayumi is approached by the villainous Rei and offered a payout in exchange for her silence about what she has seen. The terms are rather ambiguous, but the implication is that the clients Rei represents can make Dojima’s dream of becoming an astronaut come true.

Ah yes, the completely reliable vaguely worded promise from the anonymous kidnapper-turned-benefactor…

She turns the offer down decisively, not because she wants to tell anyone—she’s already made it clear, in confirming the Club’s confidentiality policy, that she does not want word of this to spread. She’s happy to remain silent. Instead, she declares in no uncertain terms that to accept the bribe would not be a beautiful way to live.

But what does this mean, exactly?

Dojima is quoting President Sotoin’s favourite phrase here, which he declared most recently with gallant exuberance earlier in the episode as he refused to save his own life at the cost of abandoning Dojima to Rei and the kidnappers. As it transpires, he had already set in motion an elaborate scheme, relying on the other members of the Club, to rescue Dojima (and himself) and capture the villains. So the implication of his statement is not simply that saving himself at another’s expense is not beautiful, but also that taking matters into his own hands and failing to trust in his team to come through would not be beautiful.

Dojima recalls this scene as she explains her decision about the bribe. It is her inspiration, implying that in her mind, the two situations are the same. Which they are, in that both pit the benefit of one against the fellowship of the team. It would not be beautiful for her dream to come true through her selfish pursuit of her own interests, by accepting a bribe and abandoning the aid of the Club. Just so, it would not be beautiful for her alone to benefit when it was the entire Club that solved the case.

She could have justified her decision without speaking about beauty though. Maybe it would even have made more sense to have told Rei, “That’s not right, it’s not moral!” or “I can’t be bought, I want nothing to do with you!” But her exclamation holding beauty up as her primary value shows just how much she has changed in her time spent with the Club members. Whereas before she snapped in anger when Sotoin remarked on the beauty of her eyes, voiced her resentment when Sosaku the Artist’s make-over made her look quite attractive, and even deemed Sotoin to be an idiot for choosing the “beautiful way of life” and not saving himself earlier in the episode—now she embraces the call to beauty.

I mean, she’s not completely wrong…But who ever said beauty is sensible?

This realization of the value of beauty is life-changing for Dojima. It gives her new purpose, just as her former dream exhales its last gasp. She petitions to join the Club so that she might learn what it is to live beautifully. What is more, if foreshadowing is a thing (and it is), this new purpose, walked out as a member of the team, is going to grant her much greater meaningfulness and joy than her ten long, lonely years of chasing her childhood dream on her own.

It will be something that enables her to step into the fullness of her special gifting as well (ahem, remember? her eyes are beautiful), just as it has done for the boys. Because you see, the announcement of the fourth rule suddenly clarifies what it is that makes each boy’s particular form of beauty so very beautiful. Hyota the Adonis’s legs are beautiful because they power his ability to cycle to the rescue of Dojima (in episode 2) and serve as the courier vital to Sotoin’s plan to foil the villains (in episode 3). Fukuroi the Epicurean’s delectable Chinese cuisine is beautiful because it nourishes the famished Hyota, following his exhaustive feats of sacrificial cycling. Nagahiro the Orator’s voice is beautiful not for its rich seductiveness, but for its imitative power, used to lull the kidnappers into a trap in order to free Adonis, Sotoin and Dojima. Meanwhile, Sotoin’s superior sense of aesthetics is grounded in value for community and unequaled vision—inspiring him to bring the Club together in the first place, conceive of a solution to Dojima’s troubles, and ultimately recognise Dojima’s potential as a new Club member despite her, you know, not being a boy. (Sosaku the Artist was basically on standby this episode, so he’s still a question mark at this point.)

Will Sotoin help Dojima discover how to use the power of her eyes beautifully, as she hopes?

In Western culture, we tend to apply an individualistic lens to our values. We speak of beauty as a state of being: something internal—inner beauty; and authentic—being true to yourself. It’s something you achieve as you find yourself, or make peace with yourself and who you are; or something that nature possesses innately, not being plagued by insecurity and the tendency to front, as are human beings. These are helpful insights.

But Pretty Boy Detective Club is proposing something quite different. The beauty of the Club members is active—saving a friend; it is transformative—inspiring a new dream, new hope, new purpose; and it is powerful for the forging of community. It comes to light most clearly in that fourth rule: be a team.

This isn’t a functional definition though, where beauty only has value if it accomplishes something. Rather, beauty accomplishes much because it has value. That is to say, because the Club members recognize the worth of living a beautiful life, they achieve outlandishly grand feats together, seemingly naturally. That is living beautifully.

Sotoin activates each member’s gift of beauty to welcome Dojima as the newest Club member.

What if we had such a value for beauty? Is such a thing even biblical?

A few (wonderful) books I read lately would say that it is. But that sadly, we have largely lost sight of the beauty of the gospel in a quest to make it relevant and marketable. In trying to make the gospel accomplish great things, or in trying to achieve great things ourselves “for the sake of the gospel”, we often cut beauty out of the conversation, adopting a functional approach so that outputs and impacts are easier to tally. Because beauty takes time, and sometimes it’s messy along the way. It’s unpredictable, uncontrollable, and it also requires trust, as Sotoin demonstrates.

But what does scripture actually say about beauty?

Here I’m reminded of probably the most familiar verse to reference beauty, from the Messiah’s introduction passage in Isaiah 61, where it says that he gives us “beauty for ashes”. This is part of a fairly long sequence of exchanges that the Messiah makes, to our benefit: freedom for imprisonment and captivity; wholeness for woundedness; hope for oppression; joy for sorrow; and beauty for ashes. Beauty is meant to be part of our daily lives as healed, restored children of God. But that’s not all: these blessings from the Messiah are not the end game, but rather only the beginning. They are preparatory, laying the groundwork for the most powerful exchange of all, as broken, defeated people become strong as oak trees, reclaim their agency and rebuild the ruined cities, repairing what has been broken about the world for generations. (Isaiah 61:1-4)

Beauty strengthens. It restores. It is part of our birthright, our inheritance—not just as individuals, but as communities, nations, and as humanity, drawing us together. Beauty equips us to dream and then walk those dreams out. It is a vital part of creation—and what good news that is!

I don’t know about you, but I hadn’t much considered this side of beauty before: its natural fruitfulness, its empowerment, and most of all, its ability to foster community. It took a team of Pretty Boy Detectives to open my eyes.

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Reader’s Corner: Spy x Family, Laid-Back Camp, and Drugstore in Another World

Spy x Family, Vol. 5

The hilarious hijinks of Japan’s favorite fake family continue apace in Volume 5! Spy Loid “Twilight” Forger, assassin Yor “Thorn Princess” Briar, and mind-reading Anya are joined now by Bond the dog who can see the future—especially what’s for dinner. This can be a real life saver when it comes to Yor’s cooking. This volume focuses mainly on Anya’s school life and her harebrained plots to befriend Damian Desmond in order to help her “Papa” save the world. She’s not too clear on details, but she’s got a whole lot of gumption! Along the way, she accidentally convinces best friend Becky that she has a crush on Damian, meaning that the romantically-minded Becky joins forces with Anya to see her “dream” come true. For his part, Damian has been blushing for a while now around Anya, even adopting her derp faces (which alone are worth the price of entry to this series), though Anya is oblivious. There’s some delightful character development for Master Henry “Elegance” Henderson, and did I mention that Twilight comes face to face with his nemesis? (Or is he a fanboy?) Most shocking of all though, a rival appears in the final chapter, determined to usurp Yor’s place as Twilight’s fake wife. What a cliffhanger! If you’re looking for a blend of fluffy slice of life and dynamic kickassery, with a hint of serious drama, check out Spy x Family. You won’t be disappointed! ~ cajk2

Spy x Family is published by Viz. It’s also rumored to be getting an anime adaptation (hurrah!).

Kilala Princess – Mulan

I loved the original Kilala Princess manga. There, I said it. It was a cute story about a normal girl from the real world who was able to enter into the domain of Disney Princesses. In so doing, she obtained magical gems to become a princess in another realm. She also finds true love. So, when I heard about a full color side story with Kilala where she meets Mulan, I’m like—YES! Need to read it and review it! And let me tell you—it’s okay. The side story is fluffy, it’s simple, and it gives me more Kilala stories. I still prefer the original series, but for kids who really like Mulan, this provides a cute, full-color volume about Mulan and Kilala saving the day. And, frankly, that’s good enough for me. ~ MDMRN

Kilala Princess – Mulan is published by TOKYOPOP.*

When a Magician’s Pupil Smiles

Imagine a world setting where magic is real, magicians are killing each other and others regularly, and humanity does not know that magic exists. Now, insert into that world an emotionless magician’s apprentice that only knows the depth of actual emotions when he is murdering. This is the dark premise of the manga series, When a Magician’s Pupil Smiles, which follows the titular pupil as he wants to actually feel emotion and meets a human who is forced to (at first) befriend him. Collected in an omnibus edition, the series is three volumes long and features gorgeous art. The characters are interesting and well-written, but the plot becomes rushed by the third act, with implications that the feeling-less pupil is a magical vessel going unexplained, and the tease of a greater magical organization’s involvement never truly explored. I feel like another volume or so would have given the author greater freedom to explore this world setting a bit better and, frankly, may have made it more enjoyable for me. Also, it may have made me appreciate the very intentionally open ending to the series a bit better. ~ MDMRN

When a Magician’s Pupil Smiles (omnibus) is published by Yen Press.*

Drugstore in Another World ~ The Slow Life of a Cheat Pharmacist ~, Vol. 1 (manga)

Reiji immediately recognizes that he’s been isekai’d to another world, and is excited by the opportunity at a better life, even though his ability seem a bit lacking—medicine making? But he soon discovers that this form of magic is exactly what the town needs, from storekeepers to the cute werewolf girl he first heals through a sports drink style medicine. And by the time he gives his own energy drink to an old man repairing his new home, who then goes “Super Carpenter 3,” I just about lost it. Volume one of this light novel adaptation breaks exactly zero new ground and I don’t care one bit. It’s such a light, fluffy, and humorous journey that, especially at a brief 148 pages, I was left feeling dissatisfied in the best of ways; I’d been filled up with warmth and charm, but with the volume over, what am I to do now? I guess I’ll just have to try to tide myself over with Gatorade and energy drinks until volume two rolls around. ~ Twwk

Drugstore in Another World is published by Seven Seas.*

One Week Friends, Vol. 2

One Week Friends continues to be a solid read through the second volume! The story does an excellent job of showing the many sides of friendship. I love Hase’s character, but in the first chapter (chapter 4), he doesn’t make the best of choices. However, that makes him more real, as every individual has experienced that moment of jealously about how much a friend talks about another friend. Did I agree with how Hase handled a certain situation? No, but I loved him all the more for it because I found him to be even more relatable then before. Surprisingly, I also found myself warming up to Shougo in this volume! He’s still very much himself (aka very straightforward and blunt), but the panels demonstrate that he really does care about his friendship with Hase and Fujimiya, and I appreciated that. He can also be funny (in his own unique way) at times. Probably what really made me warm up to him is because I did not like a new character that was introduced. Though I didn’t necessarily agree with Shougo’s response regarding his doubt about people, I definitely was doubting the intentions of this new person, and remain slightly on the fence. Meanwhile, Fujimiya continues to be such a sweet and wholesome character, and I look forward to reading more about her and the rest in the next volume! ~ Laura A. Grace

One Week Friends is published by Yen Press.

Laid-back Camp, Vol. 9

The girls’ Izu trip comes to an end, but not before fine (camping) dining with spiny lobster, a (sorta) surprise birthday dinner, and a herd of (hot spring-soaking) capybaras. Volume nine of the heart-warming series matches the final episodes of the second season, which recently finished airing, and balances the largest group yet—all five main characters are joined on the trip by Toba-sensei and Chibiinuko. In truth, the chapters are a bit bloated with so many girls (my only real criticism, along with so much dialogue written on the very inside along the binding that not all of it can be read without damaging the paperback), but Afro still finds room for growing characterization, such as Ena’s sincere dedication to Chikuwa, as well as plenty of laughs like the continued teasing of Chibiinuko, all captured in the mangaka’s signature style which at once captures a nostalgic and outdoorsy feel without losing the utter cuteness of characters. Concluding with the very end of the trip—for it’s not complete until all group members get home—volume nine has me eager to read the next adventures for the outdoor club (and others). ~ Twwk

Laid-back Camp is published by Yen Press.*

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Reader’s Corner is our way of embracing the wonderful world of manga, light novels, and visual novels, creative works intimately related to anime but with a magic all their own. Each week, our writers provide their thoughts on the works their reading—both those recently released as we keep you informed of newly published works and older titles that you might find as magical (or in some cases, reprehensible) as we do.

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Is Homura Evil? Or, What Homura Taught Me About Humanity

Part 2 of 2 In celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Puella Magi Madoka Magica!

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And then there was the sequel movie, Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion. I’ll admit it, I lost sleep over this one. What can I say, sometimes I get a little (over)invested in fictional tales. But in my defense, the Madoka series was what sealed my love for anime and taught me to expect to hear from God through it.  

In Rebellion, Homura either becomes evil or is at least willing to appear so, in a possibly necessary/possibly misguided effort to save her beloved friend Madoka from a renewed threat by Kyuubey and the Incubators, who seek to capture and exploit Madoka for their own gain. Which is to say, Homura goes full-blown yandere. PTSD is certainly a factor in her transformation: at least eight years spent reliving the deaths of her friends every 45 days or so, progressively isolating herself from them in each “reincarnation” in order to better her chances of saving Madoka, failing over and over again to live up to her wish of becoming strong enough to save her friend or even grant that friend’s (repeated) dying wish of preventing her from becoming a magical girl in the first place—Homura had been carrying a heavy burden for a very long time. No wonder she snaps. But to see her finally do so is utterly heart-breaking. The onion-chopping ninjas definitely paid my house a visit as I watched it play out.

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First Impression: Joran The Princess of Snow and Blood

Joran The Princess of Snow and Blood starts with a bang—or should I say, a burn—of blue flame, no less. A beautiful woman recites an incantation as she faces down a monstrous beast, and in a moody swirl of blue, black and white, her transformation sequence explodes across the screen. It looks and sounds painful as half her face is stripped back to a screaming scull, laced with dancing blue flames—the same shade as her now glowing sword. One thing is clear: this ain’t no magical girl anime. Yukimura, whose real name is Karasumori Sawa, is a Changeling, which means that she can combine magically with an animal (in her case, a white crow) to gain superhuman abilities. She is indeed the Blue Flower of Carnage, as the episode title claims. Over the rest of the episode, we learn that Yukimura has adopted a little girl, Asahi, and is raising her as a younger sister, but that she doesn’t really know how to interact with the child or, well, anyone for that matter. She is reserved and serious in the extreme, shooting down potential suitors and more aggressive advances with practiced ease. She runs a used bookstore, but this is cover for her clandestine work for an as yet unnamed group as a killer of monsters. She is ostensibly part of a team: Kuzuhara, their director; Tsukishiro, a cheery master of infiltration; and the seductress Hanakaze, who seems also to be the concealed weapons expert—and a creative one at that, if her umbrella-crossbow is any indication. (Also, I still don’t know where the blade she takes out her first victim with was hidden.) But in practice, Yukimura prefers to work alone, and Tsuki knows to play to this strength. Their assignment this episode is to prevent a political assassination by a new type of Changeling, a plot hatched by the arch villain, Janome. Ultimately, it is Yukimura who takes down the monster (with whom she shares a surprising connection), but she is injured in the process and ends the episode resting feverishly in her futon. But wait! Why is Asahi holding a knife as she weeps over her onee-chan?! Wha—Noooo! *Cliffhanger.*

A quiet moment for Yukimura with the musty scent of books before the day–and the slaying of monsters (fore*shadowed* here brilliantly)–begins.

The art is stunning. Let me just repeat that. It is stunning! Yukimura’s daily life is depicted in rich tones with assertive linework that lends a degree of determination and firmness to her visage and delicate frame that point to her hidden strength—both physical, when in her transformed state, and emotional. She is, after all, on a quest to avenge her brother, who shared her (literal) blue blood and was likely killed for being a Changeling. The art style shifts for the transformation sequences and subsequent battles, with the energetic raw linework and visible paintbrush strokes of the backgrounds lending the animation such dynamism that it makes you want to pick up a 10HB pencil and start carving out dark confident lines of your own. The plot, characters and setting—1931 Japan, but where the Tokugawa era of the shoguns and political isolationism persists—are fairly dripping with intrigue. A wall has gone up in the middle of the city, Berlin-style, to protect a valuable resource, and it is prompting all sorts of protest and unrest—even the pigeons signal their disdain for the Emperor (someone wash down that statue!). Revolt is brewing, and Changelings and assassins are to be found on both sides. I have so many questions after this episode—not the confused kind, but rather the engaged kind that stem from a ridiculously rich, detailed bit of worldbuilding—that I will be tuning in again. And not just to see Ghost Rider in a yukata…

Her Changeling state is clearly distressful.

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Joran The Princess of Snow and Blood can be streamed on Crunchyroll.

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Knowing Who You Believe In: I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years…, Episode 6

For a series about taking it easy for centuries at a time, I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level goes to some pretty deep places, though with such humor and nonchalance that they can easily be missed. It’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it-because-you’re-laughing kind of thing. But this week’s episode—about visiting the demon realm, of all things—has such pearls of wisdom tucked away amid the gags that I can’t resist highlighting them. Who knows? They may just help you and me through a tough spot one day.

The episode opens with Beelzebub joyously congratulating Azusa, Witch of the Highlands, on being awarded the Demon Medal of Honor for her many good deeds in recent days, and particularly for the events of episode four, when she brokered a peace deal between warring dragon clans. Azusa and her found family are now invited (ahem, required) to travel to the demon realm to receive the award from the Demon King personally (who of course turns out to be a cute, petite girl because this is slice-of-life after all). After initial fears are assuaged, the household sets about the necessary preparations excitedly. Only there’s one problem: new family member Rosalie doesn’t have the appropriate clothes for a royal ball. This wouldn’t be an issue for any normal girl, but Rosalie is a ghost and her clothing is intangible. How ever can she exchange her dress for a gown?

Consultation with a researcher of all things spectral confirms that Rosalie’s clothing is part of her and cannot be removed, nor can she put on new clothing overtop it, considering that she has no substance. Rosalie is stuck wearing the remnants of her dead former life—clothing that she has so internalized that she cannot even imagine herself out of them. (Starting to sound familiar?)

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We Belong in the Mountains: Super Cub, Episode 5

I’ve been waiting for Super Cub to take me somewhere deep, somewhere transcendent, and in episode five it finally did. I knew it could, hoped it would, and am uplifted now that it has. “Reiko’s Summer” takes us into the wilderness and up the mountain, and in doing so, points the way to a whole new perspective on the metaphorical mountains we all face as we journey through life.

Ah, Fuji-san, my old nemesis.

While Koguma has been zipping around on her Cub during summer break as a courier for the school, we learn in this episode that Reiko has been working with a crew based out of the Subashiri trail’s Station 5 on Mt. Fuji. She helps load and unload supplies, checks that everything tallies, and most importantly, rides the trail on her modified Cub to confirm that conditions are fair before the caterpillar vehicle sets off for the summit each day.

But mostly, she wipes out.

Over and over and over again. She takes spill after spill: over the handlebars, off to the left and then to the right, flipping off the back, landing hard on her back, on her face, on her side, and skidding about every which way. She gets really good at clearing the bike and tucking into a roll to minimize injuries. As the weeks tick by, Reiko’s initial enthusiasm to take on the mountain crumbles into frustration. She forgets how to smile and takes up cursing like it’s going out of style.

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First Impression: Super Cub

A train pulls into the station. It is nighttime in a small town, and everyone is asleep as Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1 floats gently through the air. The alarm sounds, and the music stops. Another day begins for lonesome high schooler Koguma, who struggles out of breath to cycle the hill to class. She is the girl with nothing: no parents or friends to love, no dreams or ambitions. Her world is washed out and grey, despite her youthfully rosy cheeks. On her way home later, a boy on a scooter passes her pertly for the second time that day and something in our heroine snaps. She turns around and heads toward…a motorcycle shop. She has had enough of life passing her by. And so begins this delicate love story of a girl and her Super Cub 50cc Honda motorbike. The bike has a morbid past, having been involved in the deaths of three people, but this means it is affordable for our impoverished protagonist. She is unfazed and only asks, when given a free helmet and gloves as part of the sales promotion, how many deaths they caused. The rest of the episode is devoted to her growing affection for the bike and determination to learn how to drive and maintain it properly—which ironically leads to her being stranded without gas at the conbini in the midnight hour! But the trusty owners’ manual saves the day by revealing to our plucky mc how to activate the reserve fuel line. On her way to school the next day, she reflects on how her much her life has changed—now she has her Cub.

Koguma’s world brightens and her eyes begin to shine when she sits behind the handlebars of the Super Cub.

This episode was such a delight! It’s rather serious and earnest, but I have a feeling that this has been done deliberately in order to convey the full impact of the transformation that is taking place in Koguma’s life. It brings to mind the revolutionary influence of the invention and mass production of the bicycle on the lives of women across Europe and North America in the 1890s (the so-called “bicycle craze”), lending them both geographical and social mobility—just as the Super Cub promises to do for isolated Koguma. The next episode, “Reiko”, hints at some actual human companionship coming her way as well, meaning that this could very well turn into the Spring season’s heir to Laid-Back Camp, which would be most welcome. Like our favorite camping series, Super Cub features some stunning background artwork and a clear love for the region, Yamanashi Prefecture’s Hokuto City. It also displays some outstanding attention to technical detail: the sound design—by which I mean the sound effects—is remarkable, and the color design adds considerable depth to the story and characterization. Each time Koguma takes a tiny step closer to her new, fuller life with the Super Cub—when she first sits on it, then when she starts it, and again when she overcomes her first mechanical problem at the conbini—the desaturated colors of her washed-out world intensify suddenly, exploding onto the screen with the brightness of Springtime and the promise of new life that it carries. Powerful indeed. Honda is also providing official consultation on the design of the motorcycles. Will Super Cub become the new Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? I’ll certainly be watching, and hoping for the kind of transformation for Koguma that we’ve seen with Rin-chan.    

She’s a tad serious…will Super Cub liven her up?

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Super Cub can be streamed on Funimation.

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Does God Speak Through Anime? Or, What Madoka Taught Me About God & the Trees

On 22 April 2011, Kaname Madoka used the most powerful of wishes to save all magical girls. About eight years later, I watched her do it, and it taught me something about the savior of the real world and his plan for humanity.

I am of course talking about Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this season. It was the fifth anime series I ever watched, and the one that led me on the path that now has me writing with the crew here on Beneath the Tangles. Madoka showed me that Proverbs 25:2 applies to anime, too (“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to search it out”), and it’s our joy here at BtT to search him out in this particularly rich field!

Madoka makes her wish…

What I learned from Madoka was not what you might expect. True, the Messianic parallels are pretty strong in episode 12, but so too are the Buddhist threads, and I think I was equally struck by all that is not Christlike with that episode—by which I mean not so much Madoka’s wish itself, which is full of grace, but the way it transforms her into a transcendent concept, distant from the world and forgotten by it (I’ll explore the controversial implications of this, as played out in the sequel movie, Rebellion, in my post tomorrow).

No, instead what gave me pause was Madoka’s conversation with Sayaka, when she explains why she did not simply wish for a cosmic Control+Z and undo the entire magical-girl-wish-to-witch-curse cycle. Madoka wants to preserve Sayaka’s wish and “all the hard work you did for it,” she explains, because it is “precious.” Something good came of the magical girls’ wishes, and so instead of dismantling the system, Madoka seeks to inject it with grace by bearing the burden of the curses personally. The magical girls still pay with their lives, but they die in peace, their legacies untarnished.

This conversation helped me to see the fall of humanity in a completely different way.

But before I explain, let me walk it back for a moment: How exactly does God speak through anime? There are of course loads of different ways that he helps us to understand something about him, ourselves, and living out our faith through the stories brought to life in anime. Sometimes, it’s a line of dialogue that is exactly what you needed to hear in that moment, maybe an encouragement, a challenge, or a pearl of wisdom. Or maybe something that you disagree with so strongly that it causes a situation in your own life to come into sharp focus, and you suddenly know what not to do. Sometimes, it’s a plot arc or character development that parallels a challenge you have faced yourself. Seeing it play out on the screen—and maybe in an alternate world!—can give you the perspective you need to see your own situation with fresh eyes; or maybe it just helps to smooth away the anxiety, knowing you’re not the only person ever to face such things. Anime is rich in allegory and metaphor—which I kind of think are the original language of the Bible!—and sometimes its symbolism and parables can have a personal meaning for us that speaks volumes that may not have been intended by the studio, but were woven into the fabric of the show by the greatest Author (and Editor) of all. Sometimes, it’s the tenderness and beauty conveyed in a show’s artistry that speak comfort, love, and hope when you need it most (Violet Evergarden, Non Non Biyori, Laid-Back Camp, I’m looking at you). There are even a few anime that feature Christian characters (and not all are villainous) and quite a few more that quote or paraphrase scripture, sometimes even helpfully (PsychoPass, Le Chevalier d’Eon, ViVid Strike). These are all powerful ways that the Holy Spirit can use this beautiful medium to touch our hearts and strengthen our souls, as he speaks a language that we know and love—the language of anime.

In conversation with Sayaka…

There’s another way too, that anime can draw us closer to our God, and that’s through prompting us to ask him questions. So often, we are reluctant to question God because we’re afraid that it is a marker of unbelief, but that’s not the case at all. He welcomes genuine questioning (e.g. Isaiah 1:18). After all, questions are how we get to know someone, and often they’re how we lead up to pouring out our own hearts. We ask questions because we want to hear the answers, but also because we want to be heard ourselves. Questions are core to building relationship and growing in intimate friendship.

Madoka’s conversation with Sayaka made me ask God some questions.

It made me wonder why God didn’t simply reset everything at the very beginning, in the Garden after the fall. I mean, he did to some extent in Noah’s day, but it wasn’t a hard reset; more of a reboot. The implications of that illicit feast of fruit persisted. But why didn’t he scrap Humanity 1.0? I began to wonder if God had a reason like Madoka’s.

Madoka confronts Walpurgis with grace. (Note the cross that seems to emanate from Madoka…)

When I did, I realized that I’ve misunderstood the purpose of the trees in the Garden. You know, the Tree of Eternal Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (the forbidden fruit tree!). I’ve always taken for granted that they were there to be a temptation, a test. After all, “love isn’t love unless there’s a choice,” right? With the trees and God’s command not to eat their fruit setting up the choice for humanity—the chance to choose to love and trust God. Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s truth in that, but it’s only part of the story—one I’d never bothered to ask God about for myself. As a result, I saw the trees only in terms of the potential for their misuse, their abuse. I saw them as sin waiting to happen.

But God does not create for that purpose. How could something that had only destructive, devastating potential—that is, to sever the relationship between humanity and its creator—be considered “good” by God, as indeed it was? (Genesis 1:12) No, there must have been some purpose to these trees in the Garden that I had overlooked.

Redemption in action.

As I thought about God’s nature as a creator of only good things, I realized that the trees and their fruit of knowledge and eternal life were originally intended as a blessing for humanity. But that there was a particular timing attached to that blessing—they weren’t for straight away, at the beginning of humanity’s journey and relationship with God. Instead, the blessing of the trees was meant to come in time, at God’s invitation, and in a context of deep friendship with him. I think that is in part what God was doing when he came to walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening: He was preparing humanity, building a bedrock of trust that could one day support the weight of his glory, the glory of godly knowledge and understanding, without separating us from the source of that knowledge, namely, himself. Because separated out and isolated from him, knowledge can kill. It can lead to all kinds of arrogance, but also to fear and shame. It can be used as a weapon to harm others or protect yourself in ways that leave you alone and cynical. It can split the atom and design a way to weaponize that discovery.

But knowledge is also a thing of beauty. It’s one of the characteristics of God himself! And in Ephesians 1:8-9, Paul explains that God’s grace is at work to release in us all forms of wisdom and practical understanding, and that in Christ, God’s plan from the beginning is revealed, with all its secrets and mystery. There are hints about it, too, along the way in the Old Testament, with Solomon and his encouragement in Proverbs that we seek wisdom and knowledge. And Bezalel, the first person in the bible to receive the Holy Spirit—for the sole purpose of gaining the knowledge to craft beautiful things.

Homura hearing the gospel of Madoka in the heavenly realms…

But God’s plan for the trees is revealed most succinctly in John 3:16 and 17:3, which tell us that his intent for us is eternal life—the fruit of the tree of life—and that eternal life is knowing him and Jesus whom he sent—the fruit of the tree of knowledge. The two trees were there all along, in the center of God’s plan for blessing us.

By telling Adam and Eve to forego the fruit, God wasn’t trying to keep humanity in ignorance, but rather to determine the right timing and conditions under which knowledge, discernment and wisdom, and eternal life were released to humanity. It was supposed to happen in the context of personal relationship with God, by his initiative, for those whom he’d prepared to be able to handle it well. It wasn’t a test at all—those trees were a promise.

But Adam and Eve rushed the plan.

As a kid, I used to think I would have done a much better job in the Garden. That maybe humanity wouldn’t even have fallen. I had no desire to usurp God—who would want the responsibility? Well, I may have been a pretty obedient child, but I was also impatient. I was born breach and prematurely, and used to joke that I kicked my way out because I was fed up of waiting. And it was, in part, that kind of impatience that led to the fall. The serpent tempted Adam and Eve—yes, to disobey God, to mistrust him, but also to take matters into their own hands and act out of impatience, rather than to trust God with their “destiny and its timing” (Psalm 16:5 TPT). Maybe I wouldn’t have saved humanity after all.

Gaining the knowledge of good and evil happened out of season for humanity, which is what rendered it harmful—a lot like how the magical girls’ wishes, though well-intentioned and objectively good, fed into curses and ultimately transformed them into witches: they were impatient to fix things according to their own judgement. In their case, it was the interference of an alien race that turned their wilful acts into destructive curses. Kyuubey and the Incubators are very much the serpents in the garden of these young women’s lives. But Madoka, like God, chose to pay a personal price to redeem rather than reset. She rewrites the laws of the universe to make redemption possible, in an attempt to overwrite the rule of balance (curses for wishes; destruction for miracles) with the reckless imbalance of grace. She seeks to throw off the tyranny of karma—a yoke that our savior, too, lifts away from us. In so doing, she transforms the legacy of the magical girls, preventing it from becoming bitter and destructive.

Jesus did the same with the legacy of the trees and the fruit that shouldn’t have been eaten when or how it was. In him, we have the ability to receive knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and a mind and spirit strong enough to handle them without it turning into a curse—the mind of Christ himself (1 Corinthians 2:16). In him, we have eternal life. He redeems the trees and that original mistake, just as Madoka redeems the magical girls’ wishes. Because they were all actually intended for good.

I’ll always be grateful to Madoka for teaching me this—for prompting me to ask my God a question and discover a piece of his heart that I never suspected was there.

And so my journey with God through anime began. Little did I know what an adventure I was in for! And it’s been made all the richer for having learnt to ask this all-important question every time I start a new series: “God, will you watch this one with me?”

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Puella Magi Madoka Magica can be streamed on Netflix, Funimation, and Crunchyroll. And I really recommend that you do it.

[beneaththetangles]

First Impression: SSSS.Dynazenon

The episode opens with a rapid montage of ambiguous scenes: teenagers hanging out along a riverbank; a muted argument in a school corridor; a hand releasing pearl-like beads that seem to sparkle into stars in the night sky in the next shot; a train station; a closeup of a bead on the platform; and an intertitle that reads, “Scarred Souls Shine like Stars”. All will no doubt become clear as the episode and series progress, though fans of SSSS.Gridman might recognise the twinkling stars. The next fifteen minutes introduce a fairly wide cast of characters: hard-working, kind-hearted high schooler Asanaka Yomogi, who looks like a twelve year-old girl but sounds like a twenty-five year-old man; his friends who think that high school bullying is a myth and then proceed to spread nasty rumours about Minami Yume; Minami Yume herself, who perches mysteriously on the edge of an even more mysterious building along the riverbank, and stares at Yomogi—you guessed it, mysteriously; the strange man under the bridge whom Yomogi saves from starvation with his egg sandwich, and who identifies himself as Gauma, a kaiju user; and the cousins, diminutive delinquent Chise and her NEET senpai (whose real name is Koyomi, according to MAL), who is so committed to remaining under his covers that it takes nothing short of levitating cars and buildings to convince him to leave their comforting embrace to go see what’s happening. Yume and Yomogi receive the most development, as we’re introduced to their fraught home lives: Yume’s older sister has died (clutching a pair of interlinked ankhs or Egyptian crosses), driving her father to the bottle and her mother to apathy, while Yume herself suffers from a compulsion to make and break promises; Yomogi is being raised by a single mother who is dating a fellow he doesn’t much care for. When the kaiju appears, the pair are with Gauma who excitedly activates the titular Dynazenon. It turns out this is his first rodeo though, and that Dynazenon requires four “drivers”. All three are absorbed into the mecha, as is innocent bystander Koyomi (much to Chise’s distress), and Gauma manages to trigger Dyna Rex mode (as in T-Rex, but with wings and blue flames) and defeat the kaiju in a single bite. In the final shot, everyone is freaking out inside the mecha, apart from Yume who reiterates that there is something wrong with her. Fade to black.

“Your mind to my mind…er, live long and prosper!” I don’t think the kaiju is Vulcan, Gauma, but nice try! (left to right: Yomogi, Gauma and Yume)

SSSS.Dynazenon is my most anticipated series of the season, and so far I like what it’s doing. The show is set in the Gridman universe, but is not a sequel to the 2018 series, sharing none of its characters. (So you don’t need to have seen SSSS.Gridman to enjoy this one.) It does, however, pick up where Gridman left off in the most important sense, that is, with regard to its sensitivity to damaged souls and the healing to be found in relationship. But whereas the first series only revealed this secret preoccupation gradually, by around episode 8 or so, SSSS.Dynazenon is wearing its heart on its sleeve from the get go, foregrounding the wounds of its leads, Yomogi and Yume, alongside their tentative (and so far, failed) efforts to reach out and find some kind of genuine connection with another human being. Yume is a kind of Akane and Rikka rolled into one, tied up with a ribbon of her own peculiar pain, while Yomogi seems set to escape the “fade-away mc” syndrome that took out Yuta pretty early on in the first series, and could become a protagonist with presence. The mechas are well-designed—the animation is crisp and the CGI doesn’t jar the eye—and the familiar rock power ballad during the transformation into Rex mode is oddly nostalgic. But I’ll admit it, I’m here for the relational arcs. SSSS.Gridman carried one of the most powerful redemptive messages I’ve seen in anime, and I’m excited to see how SSSS.Dynazenon builds on it! If you’re someone who (like me before Gridman) doesn’t usually prioritise mecha on the anime watch list, this series may just be for you as it promises to be a character-driven story rather than merely a Michael Bay-esque parade of explosions and battle tech. Though the explosions are pretty cool too.

I think Gauma may end up being my favorite. I mean, what mecha hero does his own laundry? This guy’s a keeper. Also, the ED animation (which this shot is from) is brilliant in its use of the split screen. Just be sure to hang out for the final shot.

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SSSS.Dynazenon can be streamed on Funimation.