Tag Archives: Anime You Should Be Watching

Anime You Should Be Watching: Farming Life In Another World (Isekai Nonbiri Nouka)

Posted on by Arleigh

The last anime I recommended was the mature and very dark MONSTER. It’s time to lighten and chill things down a bit with my next recommendation. This series is one of my recent favorites that I’ve re-watched several times since the 12-episode season came out January 2024. The series I am talking about is Farming Life In Another World (Isekai Nonbiri Nouka).

The series is quite light-hearted and almost a fantasy version of farming life sims like Stardew Valley. Like many isekai (trans. another world), Farming Life In Another World is about a random person (usually from Japan) who has been transported to another world either through the mistake of some multiversal god/goddess or through the machinations of a certain truck-kun.

What or who is a truck-kun? Well, I’m glad you asked. Truck-kun is literally a truck that has become the go-to implement in sending a poor person from our would and into another by running them over while they are not looking. If there was ever a perfect example of why we should always look both ways before crossing the street it is that truck-kun is always out there lurking, waiting for the right time to pounce and claim another victim. Except, truck-kun wasn’t the culprit this time around but health problems from literally being overworked to death that sends out protagonist reincarnating to another world.

So, back to Farming Life In Another World, our protagonist has been accidentally taken to another world by God and apologizes to our main character for the unfortunate turn his life had taken by sending him to this new world. God’s generosity he asks Hikaru for one wish to make his life easier on this new world and Hikaru, in his past-life as an overworked, middle-aged office worker from Japan, asks for long-life and a chance to live a quiet and arboreal life this second time around. With his new found abilities and the Omnipotent Farming Tool to help fulfill Hikaru’s wish, God sends him off to this new world, dropping him off in the Forest of Death where Farming Life In Another World begins in earnest.

This anime is definitely one of the lighthearted ones with a bit of the fan-service thrown in to add to the comedic aspect of the story being told. Farming Life In Another World was adapted from the light novel of the same name by author Kinosuke Naito. The source material made more use of Hiraku’s endless stamina courtesy of God by having him literally sleep with every female that joins the village he ends up building in the middle of the Forest of Death. The anime lightens up on this aspect of the light novel and turns it into a running joke in that he gets nervous and tries to forget the fact that every female (from vampires, killer angels to all types of elves) want to have sex with him. The anime adaptation is the PG-version of what was a very raunchy light novel.

Yet, despite the apparent change in tone with the anime adaptation compared to the light novel source material, Farming Life In Another World does actually work as a slice-of-life comedy isekai. Fans of the light novel may cry that the changes from the sex comedy that was the light novel was too much of a change for fans who have never read the light novel will not miss anything. What they will get instead is a lighthearted series that eases new fans to anime into a new genre of the medium that has dominated the industry for the past decade or so.

Just like any adaptation of a written source material there will always be those who complain that the adaptation should be slavishly faithful to the original material. Yet, I always say that even if the adaptation has made drastic changes to the source material it doesn’t change the fact that the original still exists to be enjoyed. Sure, the ecchi and heavy fanservice of the light novel has been changed to be more PG-rated but it doesn’t detract from the fun and chill vibes of the anime version.

Farming Life In Another World works, in my opinion, because it does minimize the more raunchier side of the story to concentrate on the day-to-day and slice-of-life tone of the source material. The anime focuses on the world building and comedy side of Hiraku’s journey with his companions as they build what amounts to as an advanced and powerful village in the middle of what his new world considers the most dangerous area in the world. He does this with the help from Rurushi Ru (vampire mage) and Tia (angel aka the Annihilation Angel) who start off as frenemies but turn into close friends and friendly rivals (the show hinted at Hiraku marrying both which is a compromise the show makes to the source material).

Isekai is a genre in anime that has been very prevalent each new season for the past decade or so. Some would say that this genre has been the bane of the anime industry since we see knock-offs after knock-offs every year with most being bad (though some I would consider bad but enjoyable enough to be guilty pleasures). Yet, the genre has produced some of the best series in that same time frame. They’re not the majority, but they’re there enough in number to wash the taste of the awful ones.

Does Farming Life In Another World count as one of the best in genre? I say no, but it doesn’t have to be one of the best. It just had to be the best in what it had to be and that’s a slice-of-life comedy with some clever world building that would make any one who is a fan of sims games giddy. While we don’t get the raunchy and fanservice heavy anime adaptation of the light novel (if one wanted to know what such a version would look like I suggest they watch 1980’s sex comedies like Porky’s or Revenge of the Nerds).

Plus, the anime has a banger of an opening song.

“Flower Ring” by Shino Shimoji and Aya Suzaki

Faming Life In Another World Series Trailer

Anime You Should Be Watching: MONSTER

Posted on by Arleigh

Naoki Urusawa is widely considered one of the great mangaka (comic artist who illustrates and/or writes manga) and some sees him as one of the great storytellers of our time. His work ranges from science fiction (20th Century Boys) to sports (Happy!) and to psychological thriller (MONSTER). It is his foray into the psychological thriller realm that we are here today.

MONSTER was originally published through 18 volumes from December 1998 to December 2001. This is a rarity amongst non-shonen manga which tend to be the type of manga that remains the most popular and non-ending publishing run. Urusawa’s psychological thriller wasn’t initially seen as something that would become popular and well-received when he first approached his editor about the idea for the epic story. Yet, despite his editor’s misgivings, MONSTER gained not just critical-acclaim but a strong following not just from manga readers, but from those who usually do not subscribe to what some would see as just another comic. It is this crossover appeal along all types of readers that would see Urusawa’s dark work sell over 20 million copies sold.

Like all popular manga, MONSTER would get an anime adaptation that ran from early April 2004 and to the series’ finale late September 2005. Just like its manga, the anime series would come to be known as one of the great anime series of the past 25 years. Where some anime adaptations of popular and critically-acclaimed works tend not reach the same level quality, MONSTER avoids the pitfalls of telling such a dense and heavy story by taking on the challenge and letting the series run for as long as it needs to be able to tell a faithful adaptation.

MONSTER the anime I would put up with all the other great live-action thrillers whether film or tv and for the most part would surpass most of them. The sophistication of its execution from the making the complex plot of the story easy to follow without dumbing it down for the general audience and, this is where MONSTER hits the mark, in keeping a steady and pace that neither rushes things or keep scenes last longer than they should before boredom begins to creep in.

Those who are not big on the cutesy and/or the hyper-action of most anime that tend to be popular with the general public, I suggest taking on MONSTER and just see just how mature and sophisticated the medium can be in addition to the rest.

Anime You Should Be Watching: Nichijō

Posted on by Arleigh

nichijou-arawi-keiichi-wallpaper

Anime comes in many varying degrees of flavor, so to speak. On one extreme are some of the more dramatic and serious offerings such as Grave of the Fireflies and original films from Miyazaki and others from Studio Ghibli. On the other side of the equation would be what some would call disposable entertainment which could range from fantasy, horror, mecha to the ever-popular mahou shoujo (aka Magical Girl) anime.

Somewhere in-between these two extremes is where some surprising anime series and films tend to pop out of nowhere to become fan-favorites in the industry. One such series is the underrated “slice-of-life” anime simply called Nichijō. The title has a literal translation of “Regular Life” and the show takes that concept of the regular lives of high school girls and adds a dose of the irreverent and the ridiculous to help highlight some of the life lessons that actually resonate beneath the show’s more over-the-top trappings.

That reason alone should be why this is one anime that people should really be watching.

Yet, the show brings more to the table than just funny and entertaining little stories. The main characters of the show are also well-written and go beyond the usual one-dimensional stereotypes of most anime. We have Aioi Yuko who one would consider as the lead girl of the show. One would think that she would be the so-called “straight man” in a show full of eccentric characters, but she herself brings her own quirks to the proceedings. These character quirks comes out more clearly when she deals with her friend Mio who, at first, comes off as the otaku of the show, but actually seems more like your typical high school girl with a talent for art. Though her obsession at drawing yaoi and trying to keep it secret makes for some of the more hilarious scenes on the show.

Even the more over-the-top characters on the show come off as more fully developed than some of the live-action “high school” shows in the west. There’s Hakase, the 8-year old genius girl who happens to have Nano, a life-life android she herself created, taking care of her and acting more like her mother than as an automaton. This pairing makes for my favorite on the show which also includes their back cat Mr. Sakamoto who also happens to talk due to the red scarf that acts like a translator that Hakase invented.

The series ended after 26-episodes and no more were ordered afterwards due to some very low sales of the subsequent video. It’s a shame since the series has since gained quite the following. Nichijō is a series that’s been able to combine the more serious and well-meaning life-lesson storytelling of your typical high school shows with the manic and ridiculous nature that some anime tend to have to help visualize particular reactions and emotions (in reality this show makes over-the-top seem like a tame description). The show has so many classic scenes that watching it becomes almost an exercise in abstract comedy.

So, if you ever come across an anime called Nichijō I recommend you check it out. You won’t be disappointed. Below is just one such scene where a normal, everyday event turns into the surreal.

Anime You Should Be Watching Horror Edition: Another

Posted on by pantsukudasai56

Being the time of year that it is, I felt I should stay on the horror theme for my rare contribution.  Last year I presented to you all my thoughts on the Higurashi series.  This year I’m focusing on an anime that came out at the beginning of this year by relative newcomer studio P.A. Works called Another.

Horror anime are rather difficult to do well.  That’s because unlike with live action, you are acutely aware that what is happening is not real.  Sure, with live action if you sit back and look at most of the horror shows, you can’t necessarily take them seriously, but at least for me there’s a difference in my mind between watching something with real live people in it, and watching 2D drawings moving.  So, horror anime either try to pretend they’re still live action and hope you can immerse yourself in them despite it obviously not being real, or they just go for the crazy, over the top exaggerated sequences with lots of blood and gore and just hope the mood feels right.  Another takes the second approach.  It’s not a constant bloodbath, but it seems to take much delight in coming up with the craziest, most unrealistic deaths it can think of.  I think of it almost like an animated version of the Final Destination films.  I’ll try and avoid too many spoilers here, but the first death we see should give you an idea of just how crazy and over the top they can get.

So, the basic premise of the show is that many years ago a student in class 3-3 died during the school year.  Some classmates, unable to really deal with his death decided to pretend that he was still alive.  Soon the rest of the class, including the teachers joined in.  This was all well and good, except that when they took their class photos, the student who was supposed to be dead appeared in the photo.  Since that time, class 3-3 has been like a portal to the afterlife, allowing the dead to come back and join the class.  This has resulted in class 3-3 always having one extra person in it, although during the time which it occurs nobody is aware who the extra person is.  They know there is one, but their memories have been altered so that the extra person seems like they’ve always been there.  Also, the person who is dead, or the Another, also is unaware that they are dead.  Fast forward 20 some years and we come to where the story starts, with transfer student Koichi Sakakibara joining class 3-3.  There he meets the girl with the eyepatch, Mei Misaki.  However, the rest of the class seems to not acknowledge her existence.  The reason for this is revealed later on, but since it’s a mildly important plot point, I’ll leave that up to the readers to watch and see for themselves.

The character designs and the attention to detail in this show are fantastic, as is pretty much par for the course with P.A. Works.  The character designs were based on concepts by Noizi Ito, who’s probably best known for her work as the illustrator for the Haruhi Suzumiya novels.  What’s also par for the course for a P.A. Works show is that it meanders a bit and almost gets lost in the middle.  We’ll set aside the ridiculousness of the deaths because this show isn’t trying to be ultra serious.  It’s not going for the camp appeal, but it is using the gore as a sort of fanservice for people who are into that sort of thing.  Don’t get too attached to any secondary characters, because there are a ton of deaths in this show.  I’ll admit, one or two of the deaths did sadden me a bit, mainly because I liked that particular character and had hoped that they’d survive the curse.  This particular class year seems to be extra unlucky, since they showed previous class records and there didn’t seem to be quite as many deaths from the curse as there was in this year.

A complaint that was tossed around when the show finished was that the identity of the Another, which is revealed at the end, was too difficult to figure out.  Much like with The Sixth Sense, all the clues are shown once their identity is revealed, and there are quite a few red herrings thrown in there to keep you off the track, but it’s certainly possible to figure out who it is.  I’ll say that I was wrong in who I thought it was, but at least my guess wasn’t eliminated until the very end.  In fact, I largely suspect that the person whom I thought it was was who the creators wanted us to think was the Another from the get go.  In that aspect, I can only tip my hat to them and say they did a good job in getting me to dance to their tune.

All in all, love it or hate it, P.A. Works deserves a lot of credit for not just sticking with a single genre of anime and trying something different to diversify.  How true they were to the source material, I’m not entirely certain as I have not read the novel, written by Yukito Ayatsuji however I can say that if I see that P.A. Works is doing another horror anime, I’ll certainly be tuning in.  The ride may be a little rocky in the middle, but it’s still a fun ride.