Welcome to the Fantasy Zone
This Zone is dedicated to the lesser known elements of anime hosted by the cast of Victory Script.
What weapon is the best?
Who will win in this Death Battle?
Is this costume practical?
You name it, it's all covered here in the Fantasy Zone!
I've gone on record for saying that the core cast of Soul Eater consists of rejects from other anime and my opinion is still very much the same but can this work?
Maka Albarn is basically by the books a straight A student, she's not a bad character per say but she never really left an impact.
Soul Eater Evans dresses like a 90s shonen protagonist, trying to keep a cool persona, but every so often he can pull it off without feeling forced.
Black Star is early Naruto taken to it's logical extreme and pulls it off with flying colours.
Tsubaki surprisingly works as an audience surrogate, she's often the one who keeps everyone in check especially Black Star
Death the Kid is argubly my favourite character, the way the anime handles a character destined to be overpowered is a stroke of genius and gives him a personality worthy of his design.
Liz feels like Death the Kid's babysitter while Patty is the free spirited child channelling the energy of Ed from Cowboy Bebop, both characters don't really standout as their design is generic, but I generally remember Patty more than Liz.
Maka Albarn - 6.7/10
Soul Eater Evans - 8.1/10
Blackstar - 8.5/10
Tsubaki Nakatsukasa - 7.5/10
Death the Kid - 9.2/10
Liz Thompson - 6.3/10
Patty Thompson - 7.3/10
Drifters is a unique series in the sense that it uses a number of real life historical characters to make up it's cast, starting with the Drifters themselves, who are these people in real life?
Shimazu Toyohisa: A member of the Shimazu clan who participated and died in the battle of Sekigahara
Oda Nobunaga: A Sengoku period general known as one of three men who unified Japan
Nasu no Yoichi: A famous samurai of the Genpei War in the late 1100s, early 1200s
Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus: Two underrated Roman War Generals
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid: Notorious train robbers from the old West as part of the Wild Bunch Gang, Drifters chose to use a later depiction which shows them in their last days in Bolivia
Naoshi Kanno: A Japanese World War II fighter pilot
Tamon Yamaguchi: A Japanese World War II Naval Vice Admiral, sank in the Battle of Midway
So that's the Drifters, if they come round again we'll cover their enemies.
I have to thank Kita Mikichi for recommending this title, it's one of the funniest I've seen for a while.
So let's look at the characters, all the mains plus three side characters.
Starting with Nozaki, he's the complete opposite of how you would picture a shojo mangaka, completely deadpan with a clueless streak yet somehow manages to pull off a romance title.
Chiyo I wasn't expecting to be top tier shojo protagonist but at least she's interesting.
Mikoshiba reminds me a little too much of some of my friends but I like my friends and I like him, strangely relatable as well.
Seo is basically a guy, I know she isn't but she has the head strong attitude of most male protagonists, the nice singing voice is a nice touch.
Kashima's dub voice is horribly miscast, I'm trying to wonder what she's trying to achieve by acting the prince, I'm guessing she wants Senpai to notice.
Speaking of Senpai, Hori is basically Kashima's Dad, it's a dynamic that can only really work for those two characters.
Wakamatsu is probably the point where there shouldn't have been anymore main characters, while the others have good chemistry with at least one or two characters, Wakamatsu's design seems a little lethargic and his interaction with Seo while funny, is really cringy.
Miyamae is the reliable one to Maeno's incompetence, not much else.
Maeno I sadly know a few like him, the type that takes all the credit despite contributing nothing yet acts like he's doing nothing wrong.
Miyako is just oblivious to what Maeno is like, there be nothing but air in her head.
Umetarou Nozaki - 9.2/10
Chiyo Sakura - 7.7/10
Mikoto Mikoshiba - 9.4/10
Yuzuki Seo - 8.4/10
Yuu Kashima - 7.7/10
Masayuki Hori - 8.2/10
Hirotaka Wakamatsu - 5.6/10
Ken Miyamae - 6.0/10
Mitsuya Maeno - 4.5/10
Yukari Miyako - 4.5/10
Japan has strange customs that can often be baffling to westerners, so imagine going to a place where you just cry, yes you do nothing but bawl your eyes out until you run dry.
Well this practice is common and is referred to as Rui-Katsu; coined by a divorce counsellor, groups of people will gather to deliberately watch sad emotional short films to induce crying, the custom is said to relieve stress and create happiness, he first tried it out in his divorce counselling, not only did it work, it stopped a few divorces as well.
In regards to anime only one comes to mind that relates to this.
Yes, Air, the visual novel series by Key infamous for being one of the saddest anime of all time. You only have to look at this character to know what happens. Now I'm not a fan of Key as pretty much 90% of their work involves tears at some point and crying is not my first choice for entertainment but I do give Air credit for being a rui-katsu film, it's always going to make you cry and that's okay.
There's no shame in letting it all out, it may even save someone, after all we lose less people to mental health problems if we released our emotions more.
*Groan*
I really didn't want to write this but I feel I can draw a line under this franchise when I clear this hurdle, so lets be done with it.
Honoka is my main problem with the show as she shares her carefree persona with about 90% of shojo protagonists and brings nothing new to the role, she's the main reason why I hate this anime so much.
Eli's shtick of being the overly strict student council president has also been done to death, her character gives in way too easily to the idol group.
Kotori is the trademark rich girl with a hidden double life who goes along with everything, it's been done.
Umi is the straight girl of the group keeping the antics of Honoka in check whether she wants to or not, I'm surprised K-On didn't sue them for plagiarism.
Rin is the girly tomboy which I normally like but there's not much personality for it to work.
Maki is surprisingly well written which among this lot is surprising but like Eli she seems to surrender to easy.
Nozomi is basically Akeno Himejima from Highschool DxD before she became a devil, all that's missing is ara ara, at least she's interesting.
Hanayo is the shy, timid one, she literally has nothing else.
Then there is Nico, thank you, a character type that hasn't been done to death, in fact she's only one brave enough to call out the group on their performances and was actually useful.
Honoka Kosaka - 0.5/10
Eli Ayase - 2.4/10
Kotori Minami - 3.8/10
Umi Sonoda - 2.2/10
Rin Hoshizora - 2.9/10
Maki Nishikino - 7.9/10
Nozomi Tojo - 7.0/10
Hanayo Koizumi - 2.1/10
Nico Yazawa - 7.2/10
