Quarantine Control #151: The Critical and Eccentric Blade

DC Staff | February 23, 2023 | Animation, Features, Movies, Television | No Comments

The COVID-19 pandemic is almost entirely out of view despite it very much still being around (and likely mutating), with the third anniversary of the first cases in western countries quickly approaching. But it’s out of view for good reason as far as the media is concerned. In addition to the perpetually-ensuing war in Ukraine waged by Russia that’s celebrating its first anniversary, there’s also a serious train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio that’s finally getting the coverage it deserved when it first happened. It will be a damning indictment of everything wrong in this country if it’s spotlighted because a certain former president (to say the last) just visited there.

Geoffrey Barnes

Marvel Anime: Blade (2012)
Source: YouTube
Episodes: 12

The Marvel Anime initiative was interesting conceptually, but didn’t live up to its full potential in terms of the content provided. The X-Men series was good, though undercooked thanks to not every character having the opportunity to receive character development within 12 episodes (and the follow-up story teased at the end never happened). But Iron Man and Wolverine were seriously undercooked, despite them being unable to succumb to the same issues that X-Men uniquely did. This left Blade as the ultimate and final opportunity for the team at Madhouse to display their potential at weaving together a good-if-brief superhero series. This was the series in which the team fully adjusted to the types of franchises they were adapting.

One key element that distinguishes the Marvel Anime from other adaptations, in addition to merely being anime iterations of Marvel Comics works, is a focus on Japanese settings and characters. Blade does this while maintaining the feel of the comics (and live-action movies starring Wesley Snipes to a lesser extent), which features the human and vampire hybrid formerly known as Eric Brooks hunting the vampire who killed his mother, Deacon Frost. This series also includes the Marvel anime prerequisite of an original Japanese female character, this one being brass knuckles-using vampire hunter Makoto, who was a bit too reminiscent of Lady from the Devil May Cry series. She’s initially too eager about killing vampires despite her inexperience compared to Blade, but she not a hindrance for him.

Blade fortunately breaks the previously-established Marvel Anime mold by largely not occurring in Japan. There’s a brief excursion in the country at the series’ start, where it’s noted that Blade sticks out for reasons I hope are clear (even if he’s a bit more light-skinned than I’d like to see in this series). But subsequent episodes involve a quest around several Asian countries, including the Philippines, Malaysia, and unique Marvel location Madripoor. The last one there is a mainstay for one particular character who appears more for the fanservice rather than the overall story. But a little fanservice is nowhere near enough to detract from a series with an entertaining story that’s well-written enough to maintain interest throughout, avoiding the character writing (and sometimes acting) stumbles from previous Marvel Anime shows.

The series’ 12-episode count didn’t seem like it would be enough before I started watching it, but ample planning for the story and character development ensured that it didn’t feel too long or short. Blade himself gets the chance to be a fully-developed character worth being concerned about, while Makoto ends up being one of the more worthwhile original-character editions to these Marvel series by the end. The anti-villains, vampires, and demons, most of whom have a connection to Frost, receive enough development to ensure that Blade and Makoto face serious stakes on their quest that don’t always feel winnable.

There’s a lot of action, to no surprise considering this is a Marvel series adaptation, but I wish it was all animated better. The action and animation admittedly flow and work in harmony better than other Marvel Anime works (Iron Man especially, the CG use in which couldn’t stick out any harder), but the overall animation is merely ok even for the time it released. This deal predated Disney’s purchase of Marvel, and access to their considerably larger financial treasure chest would have helped. But I’m well aware that throwing a bunch of money at workers is not enough to fix structural issues.

Blade is where Madhouse nailed the formula for how to approach Marvel anime adaptation works, which results in this being the best series of the four they tackled. This one, of course, had to be the last in the overall Marvel Anime initiative, though Blade itself breaks from X-Men in ending conclusively. Madhouse worked on more Marvel anime following this, though in the form two movies and a show clearly aimed at younger audiences (the Disk Wars series was animated by Toei, if you’re wondering). Marvel Studios, as they currently stand, could use a larger animation output. In addition to those primarily being developed by their internal studios, it would be nice if they pursued more anime adaptations. That is, of course, if they’ll pay the animators better than what they usually receive for work considering the Marvel name. But that’s a big “if” considering what’s happening with their VFX contractors.

Angela Moseley

The Legend of Vox Machina, Season 2 (2023)
Source: Amazon Prime
Episodes: 12

Season 1 of The Legend of Vox Machina ends on one hell of a cliffhanger. The group has just vanquished the Briarwoods and liberated the city of Whitestone. Percival has declined to rule the city and has insisted his sister, Cassandra (Esme Creed-Miles) rule the city. Vox Machina returns to Tal’Dorei and Sovereign Uriel wishes to congratulate them, in addition to announcing his retirement as Soverign. He never gets to finish his speech as a group of dragons is spotted on the horizon.

The wait for season 2 was nearly a year, as the first season wrapped up its run in February 2022. Fortunately for me, I didn’t start this series until January of this year. The wait was relatively short. Better yet, I thought I’d have to wait a few weeks to see how season 2 ended, as I had caught up to episode 9 when I wrote about season 1 last week. Amazon Prime dropped the last three episodes on February 10 and I watched them that night. (The joy of being on vacation at the time.)

Just as Vox Machina thought they could relax, trouble is literally approaching. The group of dragons calling themselves the Chroma Conclave have come to take Tal’Dorei for themselves. The defeat of Brimscythe was the original catalyst for their arrival. The four dragons use their terrifying power to completely annihilate the majority of Tal’Dorei, including the Sovereign and much of the royal court. Vox Machina barely escape to Whitestone. From Whitestone they travel to Vasselheim in search of allies and information on how to defeat the dragons. It’s here the group learn of the Vestiges of Divergence, or artifacts that can give Vox Machina the edge to overcome the Chroma Conclave. Unfortunately, the artifacts are scattered across the lands, and at least one of the dragons knows what the mercenaries are up to, and sets out to stop them.

While the first season of Vox Machina centered heavily on the group as a whole, then focused heavily on Percy’s backstory, season 2 lets us peer deeper into the lives of more members. As the group searches for the powerful relics, we get to learn about four members’ pasts. We learn that Vex and Vax have a terrible relationship with their full-elf father, and had to fend for themselves at a young age. Keyleth is trying to follow in her mother’s footsteps by becoming a powerful druid. Yet, fire is one of the few elements she has trouble controlling. Grog is from a powerful clan of warriors who think nothing of raiding and killing their victims. One day he has a change of heart and becomes an outcast because of an act of mercy.

The real draw for the second season is learning more about Vox Machina’s past and how each Vestige of Divergence has a powerful impact on their future. (After all, obtaining powerful items are bound to have some drawbacks.) On the side of personal themes, their past reckless actions are coming back to haunt at least some of the group. Again they’re realizing they can no longer run from their past, nor present danger as the stakes are just too high. At the same time, it’s been fun to watch the group explore more of the realm. When it comes time to face down Umbrasyl (Matthew Mercer), the one dragon who’s been pursuing them for most of the season, it’s easy to see why the Chroma Conclave are so fearsome.

Like the first season, the second season ends on a hell of a cliffhanger, as the stakes are even higher. I suspect Chroma Conclave’s leader, Thordak (Lance Reddick), is ramping up for something related to what was left under Whitestone after the Brairwood’s defeat. Either way, I’m looking forward to how the end of season 2 and the start of season 3 tie into the events of season 1. Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll have to wait a little under a year to see how The Legend of Vox Machina concludes.

Joseph Daniels

The Eccentric Family (2013)
Source: Crunchyroll
Episodes: 13

I’ve been thinking about Star Trek: Picard lately. I’ve yet to see the second season, since the first season didn’t exactly leave a good impression on me. The more I think about it, the more I feel like there was executive meddling keeping the show from being as good as it should’ve been, but what I’d like to talk about is the pacing of the story. I wonder if they could’ve told a better story if they’d tried to do it in half the time. If the first two or three episodes were cut down into one, for example, it wouldn’t have felt like it took too long to justify the plot and assemble the main cast together and actually make the story go somewhere.

Likewise, the third season of Enterprise was a disaster. Otherwise good episodes felt like a waste of time when you realized that they didn’t move the arc forward and it felt like they were just trying to keep you watching. There were interviews which suggested that they might end the arc before the end of the season, but ultimately it continued until the season finale, which ended on a cliffhanger, meaning the arc didn’t even end when season three did. If not for the way Star Trek: Deep Space Nine handled the Dominion War, I’d just assume that they have no clue how to tell long form stories and should stick to episodic fare.

I think part of it, though, is audience expectation. I know when Picard was announced, the thought was that it would basically continue from Star Trek: The Next Generation and nothing would change. Instead, we basically had to catch up with several decades of changes in Jean-Luc’s life, meaning that we needed to come to terms with the fact that some of his “old friends” were new characters to us, and that he even seemed to have a history with Seven of Nine that we never actually saw on screen. Absolutely none of his old friends from his days on the Enterprise came back except for Data, but to be fair, I don’t think any of his old Stargazer friends came back when he was captain of the Enterprise. We also had to watch one single story unfold over the course of ten episodes. The biggest reason why people watched the franchise in the 1990s was because it was good television, and it was good television because each episode told a self-contained story. Even during the Dominion War, there were lots of little stories that could be told.

Not every episode of the third season of Enterprise was a disaster. It’s just that it felt like they wasted an entire season on narrowing the focus of the series down to one thing and one region of space. The Dominion War didn’t narrow the focus of Deep Space Nine down at all. It helped that the setting had always been the space station and its surrounding space. Out of all the shows where a long form war story could’ve been told, Deep Space Nine was the best suited for it.

What does this have to do with an anime about a tanuki family mourning the death of their father? Well, here’s the thing: I went into it with not a lot of expectation. Part of the disappointment of Picard for me was that it was not structured like the Star Trek shows I grew up with, and perhaps that’s because it’s part of a franchise and there’s certain expectations that come with that. The Eccentric Family is a standard-sized thirteen episode anime series and evokes the feel of a Studio Ghibli style fantasy world modeled closely after our own to tell a story about a family of tanuki. There are ongoing plot threads, but the first several episodes are told in a slice of life vein, meaning it’s easy to get yourself lost in the gentle vibes the series exudes and not feel impatient that the story is moving too slowly. There is an overall plot to the series, but it only really kicks in about halfway through, after you’ve been thoroughly introduced to the setting and its characters.

In a way, it’s kind of like Campfire Cooking. There are plot threads that the series is following, gradually building up the characters and the setting, but it’s taking the time to allow us to understand the characters and the world before throwing us into the deep end. I’m expecting to be thrown into the deep end soon, but honestly, I don’t think I’d mind if the series just continued to be the camping lifestyle of Mukohda, his Fenrir wolf and his baby slime. This is another reason why I feel like Star Trek: The Next Generation succeeded and Star Trek: Picard‘s first season didn’t. The former took the time to show you why you should care about the characters, but the latter didn’t give itself enough time to develop any of its characters beyond those which directly served the story. I wouldn’t be surprised if the second season was guilty of the same because most of the core cast is being jettisoned in favour of bringing back the Enterprise crew in season three.

What Picard probably should’ve done was film a full 23 to 26 episode season and take the time to help us bond with the new characters. It reminds me of the writers of The Next Generation complaining about how bad of a character Wesley Crusher was when I hear that most of the new characters on Picard weren’t brought back for the third season. Don’t blame the characters or the actors when audiences don’t bond with them. Unless the actor is monumentally bad, most of the fault usually lies with the production staff. Don’t complain about The Wesley Problem when you’re the one who caused the problem!

I realize I talked more about Star Trek than I did about this anime, and that’s because I’m only half finished. It turns out that there’s a sequel series, and for some reason, Crunchyroll lists it separately rather than calling it season two. I figure I’ll talk about both of them next week. Meanwhile…

Mahjong Soul Pon☆ (2022)
Source: Crunchyroll, YouTube
Episodes: 12?
Rabbits?: Kaguya, mainly

This is a short comedy anime loosely about mah jong and based on a mobile game. There really isn’t a lot here, it’s nonsense but it has a rabbit character in it. Also, the episode count is debatable, considering the first episode is listed as “episode 0” and is considered an April Fools Day prank, but still conforms to the style and substance of the rest of the series. The only reason I’m even mentioning this series here is because of the Year of the Rabbit. That’s all I really have to say about it.

This Week’s Short Film:
Brush: A Fox Tale (2018)

There remains a chance that COVID-19 could resurface with a vengeance in the spring, alongside the flu. If anyone reading this thought we may not have a fitting anniversary commemoration, fear not; the signs suggest we will. It will never stop being a good time to take all those COVID protocols seriously despite several others stopping months ago.

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