Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

Finished Upotte! (Blu-Ray)

An Austrian soldier equipped with the standard-length Steyr AUG. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, I finally got around to finishing the short, rather strange anime series known as Upotte! which is basically a 10-episode series + OVA aimed at gun fetish otaku who are also into "moe" girls.  It's a story about middle and high school girls who are anthropomorphized military rifles.  They walk and talk like normal girls, but can basically summon their true form from virtual "hammer space", their trigger is located where their clitoris should be, etc.  It's a very strange, strange story.  It's mostly slice of life style b.s., some tournament anime b.s., and then a ginned up conflict between "Western" weapons (our protagonists) and Eastern Bloc weapons from Russian companies (AKs, Saigas, et. al.); it culminates in a climatic battle during a class trip to the beach...but it finishes inconclusively as a draw and some random philosophizing about arms races and the role of weapons in war, etc.  It's rather incoherent.

Although a significant section of the show is gun-porn fanservice, describing the various actual weapons, etc, and while most of the info is correct, the show does make some glaring errors and some of the mini-lectures are superficial at best.

One translation error has one of the girls incorrectly identifying the Steyr Aug rifle as "Australian" rather than Austrian in the dub script.  The description of shotguns is a little lacking, failing to mention the Winchester 1897 Trench Gun used in WW1 and to a lesser degree WW2.  There's also a scene where the M16A2 character ("Ichiroku" = One Six) is squaring off against an opponent with an autoloading Saiga shotgun with a box magazine.  Her companion states that the enemy (who has the pair pinned down) has superior range, which is utter nonsense.  Shotguns are close-range ONLY, they're utterly ineffective beyond a certain range.  The problem is the M16A2 is engaged in a close-range street battle versus the Russian shotgun, which is why the situation is so hairy.  I don't know if this is a case of bad writing in the original Japanese or again a translation error.  If the M16A2 were engaged in a fight on an open battlefield, its superior range and accuracy would make mince meat of the wielder of a Saiga shotgun, whose only chance would be an ambush at close range.  I'm wondering if the Japanese script writer fetishizes guns but doesn't truly understand them beyond what can be gleaned from reference books.

The action centers around the Belgian FNC, known as "Funco".  Basically the characters are named for Japanese shorthand for their formal military designations.  Her best friend is a Sig Saur assault rifle from Switzerland.  The Austrian Steyr Aug (known simply as "Aug") is revealed to be lesbian with unrequited romantic longings for Funco.  Meanwhile, Funco herself seems to harbor a schoolgirl crush on her one human teacher, the newly hired Japanese instructor at their school, and even seemingly flirts with him from time to time.

One of the veteran teachers (also a gun) is modeled after the US WW2 M-1 Garand Rifle, voiced by Andrew Love and dressed up like a US Army Drill Sergeant from that era.  Another teacher is named Mrs. Thompson, modeled naturally on the Thompson sub-machinegun and voiced by Cynthia Martinez.  Brittney Karbowski voices the brash American M16A2 and delivers a quite humorous performance.  The only reason to watch this Anime is for the gun play and the moe girl stuff.  The OVA is, of course, a kind of "hot springs" episode insofar as the four main girls take a camping vacation at a large forested riverbank where they can swim and fish.  They jerry-rig their own "natural" hot-tub of sorts and of course sit around topless just relaxing, etc.

The story itself is largely incoherent nonsense and there'd be zero point to having any second season, etc.  It's sole purpose is to look pretty and fantasize about guns, and girls with guns, and to a lesser extent follow the emotional lives of these unusual gun-girls.  It's not suprising they only managed to squeeze 10 episodes (+OVA) out of this very thin premise.  But since I am something of an amateur firearms enthusiast myself (something I used to do more often, but largely have moved on from, as it's a very expensive hobby), I decided to give the Blu-Ray of this a chance.  This is not a "good" anime by any means.  Most anime fans would regard it as gawd-awful, and they'd be mostly right.  But it scratches a particular itch for me (firearms) and I don't have the kneejerk reaction against moe and fanservicey perv-cams and nudity the way some fans do.

I'd say that Girls Und Panzer, by comparision, is a far superior story with a more compelling story and coherent narrative.  It features girls + tanks and is far more interesting and engaging.  I'd recommend giving Upotte! a pass unless you really actually care about military firearms and their specifications.  There are far better "moe" shows than this; the militaria is really the "hook".

It's pretty to look at on Blu-Ray, but overall it's a pretty dumb anime.

Finished Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya

Finally had an opportunity to finish the new-ish
anime series Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya (Fate/kaleid liner プリズマ☆イリヤ^?), which is a Type-Moon spinoff that re-imagines some of the female cast of both Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero as "magical girls", and changes the warrior spirits into collectable magic cards that must be defeated in battle first.  It borrows visual elements from both Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero, and it does help to have watched both of these series first before attempting to watch Fate/Kaleid Liner, because otherwise the viewer can't truly appreciate the significance of what she's looking at, in the same way I don't recommend watching Aquarion EVOL if you've not seen the original Aquarion.  The reason is you simply will miss the great significance of what you're watching.

Fate/Kaleid Liner is visually appealing but also has a number of LOL/WTF!? moments interspersed throughout.  The story focuses on Ilya von Einzbern; this iteration of Ilya is much sweeter and cuter than her realization in Fate/Stay Night (which does not end well for her, neither in the series nor in the recap movie).  But she's also quite a bit more pervy and yuri-curious, too.

The voice cast is completely new, but since this is a re-imagined series it isn't as jarring as you'd think it might be.  Rin Tohsaka, now voiced by Carli Mosier, sounds older and more mature, but since she's serving in a guardian kind of role, it actually fits.  Shelley Calene-Black really hams it up as Rin's rival, Luviagelita Edelfelt (ルヴィアゼリッタ・エーデルフェルト Ruviazeritta Ēderuferuto^?).

Illya lives with Shiro, who is described as her (adopted?) brother.  Illya's mother (who we met in Fate/Zero) makes a brief appearance near the end of this short series.  Illya herself is voiced by Cynthia Martinez, a veteran voice actress from the days of ADV Films.  Illya's magical girl partner is the initially unfriendly and awkward Miyu Edelfelt (美遊・エーデルフェルト Miyu Ēderuferuto^?), voiced by Caitlynn French.  Illya works for Rin Tohsaka and Miyu works for Luvia.  They were selected as magical girls because the sentient magic wands Magic Ruby and Magic Sapphire essentially grew tired of the bickering and infighting between Rin and Luvia and deemed them no longer worthy of being their masters.  They leave and pick Illya and Miyu as their new masters, and Rin and Luvia end up taking on more of a guardian and teacher role.  Miyu and Illya don't much like each other at first, but through hardship and adversity they learn to respect and even like and accept each other.  Miyu is very blunt to the point of rude and doens't seem to get other people's emotions.  She's extremely logical, almost Spock-like, but also emotionally stunted and rigid.  She overthinks things and chokes sometimes.  She seems to have many Asperger-y traits that make her charmingly eccentric and a little tsundere.  The heart of the series is the budding, difficult friendship between Illya and Miyu.

This entire series is really entertaining to already dedicated fans of the Type-Moon universe, and it pays off visually when you can decode what elements are borrowed from Fate/Zero and which are borrowed from Fate/Stay Night.  It has many epic battles with loud explosions and soaring musical scores.  It also has moe girl nonsense and mild fanservice.  The heaviest fanservices is of course the cameos of the warrior spirits.  The series concludes in a satisfying way but leaves the door open for more tales to come.  Those who make the mistake of watching this series first will probably find it entertaining but will not be able to decode the rich visual language of the series, which is the most important part.  You will definitely want to get this series on Blu-Ray for the best possible visual experience.

I definitely liked this series way more than I thought I would, but mainly because I am a fan of Fate/Stay Night in particular and Fate/Zero to a slightly lesser degree.  It's fun in the way the Evangelion spin-off mangas are fun.  Take familiar characters and tweak them just slightly and put them in new situations, etc.  I think this series rides on the coattails of a mini-renaissance of Magical Girl stories like Madoka Magica and the re-release of Sailor Moon and the new Sailor Moon Crystal.  In any case, it works, but only as a value-added bonus to the pre-existing Type-Moon shows.