grimgar of fantasy and ash – I Have a Heroine Problem

Sword Art Online is Kyle

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Kyle is really into respecting women, and he wants everyone to know about it. He likes to say that his greatest role model is his mom, because she worked so hard to raise him and his sister without any handouts. His real role model is Jean Claude van Damme, but he doesn’t tell anyone that. He doesn’t believe in the wage gap – it only seems that way, but if you really look at the data, it’s because women have different priorities in life. Besides, he wouldn’t want his wife to earn more than him because what would they do when she left her job to raise their kids? He talks a lot about his girlfriend back home, but she can’t come visit because she’s really busy. Oh, and she doesn’t use Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. She does use Twitter, mostly to agree with his tweets, and never posts selfies because she’s not vain like that. He is lowkey convinced that all his female friends are actually in love with him, because male-female friendship is always at least a little about attraction. People seem to really like him, but you don’t get it.

Continue reading “Popular Isekai Light Novel Adaptations as Guys Who Lived in Your Freshman Dorm” →

Sekko Boys

Miki Ishimoto hated art school. She hated sketching geometric shapes and sculptures and she hated her teachers for criticizing her for deviating from the models. She’s excited to leave that whole world behind when she gets a job managing the hot new idol group, Sekko Boys. Much to her dismay, she discovers the members of Sekko Boys – St. George, Mars, Hermes, and Medici – are all marble busts. Available streaming on Crunchyroll.

Well, that was silly! The premise of Sekko Boys is utterly surreal, and well-aware of it. The episode opens with the boys performing to a stadium full of glowstick-wielding screaming fangirls. They shout their catchphrases, setting up their personalities: Mars is a warrior but also a passionate lover, Hermes is beautiful and multitalented, St. George is a protector of the weak, and Medici is charming and innocent. Yes, this is a world where marble busts are alive sentient, retain the personalities of the the ones they represent, but also are still heavy statues that must be carried and carted from place to place, injuring their handlers’ backs in the process. Working in a profession where back pain and other stress injuries are a major occupational hazard, I felt for Yanagisawa, their chief manager.

Artists, on the other hand, will doubtless feel for Miki’s backstory. Her frustration at endlessly copying the masters in the name of developing fundamentals, without her teachers ever allowing her to put her spin on things, is a common complaint, as is her resulting burnout. Much of the episode’s humor, other than the sheer absurdity of the premise, stems from her shock and horror at being confronted with the exact subject of her anger at a completely separate job.

The verdict: Sekko Boys’ premise is unlike any other, to be sure. I look forward to seeing how the silliness develops.

Likelihood of weekly coverage: Low. It’s too light to really warrant any heavy discussion.

Continue reading “Winter 2016 First Look: Part 2” →