Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman after episode 03 – First Impressions

           So, I finally got around watching Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman. Can’t say this is exactly what I was expecting. There is a living scarecrow, powered suits of near invulnerability, mind-control, outrageous plot armor, and generally, things that just shouldn’t be in that century. Not to mention the almost childish writing and direction, baffling circumstances, and acts of impossibility. It reminds me of one those campy eighties and nineties cartoon shows for kids such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Captain Planet, and Dark Wing Duck. Boy, that sure brings back early childhood memories of wasting away a Saturday morning sitting in front of a TV watching those cartoons. Good times…I think.
           Alas, I’m not a kid anymore (although I wish I can be again), and I feel like I’m not quite its target audience. Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman does balance the rather serious multi-season animes (Psycho-Pass, Shin Sekai Yori, and Hunter X Hunter 2011) that I’m still watching. However, this anime is just a little bit too campy for me, which why I’m digesting it in small doses. In meanwhile, I shall search for a replacement anime of a more light-hearted nature.

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai after episode 04 – Final Thoughts

           Well, at least we got an explanation to the absurdities seen the first episode. A temple that inbreeds to keep the power of god in the bloodline…the blonde girl being an offshoot of the old god…the robotic girl also once was a part, no, a cursed part of the old god…that was raised by an evil man and modified by “magic” in becoming a robot. And while the teacher was elucidating all these enlightening facts, explosions were going on and the army’s involved and yadda yadda yadda. Right. This is a case where the explanations are more absurd than the absurdities themselves.
           Every single episode has felt like the product of a writer getting drunk and while barfing on the toilet he or she brainstorms the “plot”, and I use the word very loosely, for Sasami-San@Ganbaranai. But that’s the problem: anyone can get intoxicated or high and write down their random trains of thought. I compare once more to the more substantial Jinrui wa Suitaishimashita, as eccentric as Jinrui wa Suitaishimashita was, its deliberate avoidance to name the female protagonist, the mature themes it played with, there was clear evidence that it was intently constructed by an intelligent force. Here…not so much.
           So I ask these questions of myself. Is there a point to this anime? Nope. Is this anime funny? Nah. Does it even entertain me? Ehhh…not quite. And so I free myself from Sasami-san@Ganbaranai.