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!
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
Anyone who remembers watching Pom Poko got some giggles out of the fact they have enormous testicles and scrotums, well there's a more in depth reason why Tanukis in Japanese mythology are depicted in that way.
Anyone who is familiar with Kitsune knows that it's a trickster yokai with many tails who can trick people by different transformations; the tanuki share similar abilities only they do so with their enormous testicles, kneading it like dough to form the shape they desire impersonating humans as well as making it into raincoats, using them for drumming and even weaponizing them. They are referred to as pranksters but most comes down to just attempting to buy alcohol, in fact if you've ever seen a chubby tanuki statue it comes with several traits that all have meaning.
A hat to protect against bad weather
Big eyes to perceive the environment and make good decisions
A Sake bottle to represent virtue
A big tail for steadiness and strength
An enormous scrotum for financial luck
A promissory note that represents trust and confidence
A big belly for bold and calm decisiveness
And finally a friendly smile.
All these traits are said to bring fortune.
The real tanuki isn't as well endowed as it's yokai suggests, they actually look kinda cute.
The Japanese even have love for the normal raccoon, they were introduced to Japan in the 70s following the success of Rascal the Raccoon, an anime character who at the time was more popular than Mickey Mouse. It didn't last as raccoons didn't make good pets so they ended up joining Japan's eco system with a major agriculture bill.
So that's a little history on Tanukis, the animals with literally the biggest balls.