Taisou Zamurai – 01

The two most obvious calling cards with Taisou Zamurai are that it’s probably the first-ever anime about gymnastics, and that virtually the entire staff is carried over from Zombieland Saga.  While I love sports gymnastics has never been a favorite, and if I’m honest I didn’t think Zombieland was anything special.  So for me there’s no free rides with this series – I give every sports anime a look, but Taisou Zamurai will rise or fall on its own merits.

The premiere didn’t do much for me, really.  I thought the Zombieland one was better (it took a couple episodes before it lost me).  Considering this is a first-ever premise of a sort, it was surprising how generic everything felt.  Generic coach, generic moeblob, generic tough grandma.  The “ninja” character was an absurdity from the get-go, and despite having a gold-medal seiyuu in Namikawa Daisuke the titular protagonist didn’t come off as especially likeable or exceptional.  Not much to grab onto here, sadly.

The gist of the story is that Shoutarou (said protagonist) is a past-his-prime gymnast whose coach has been urging him to retire for years.  Not only is he 29 – which is positively geriatric in the teen-dominated world of gymnastics – but he has a bum shoulder.  That probably traces back to the fall he took which seemingly defined his career as someone who cracks under pressure.  Shoutarou has a daughter (the generic moeblob) and a dead wife (because anime), along with that grandma.  He wants to keep competing for Rei and to exorcise his own demons, but seems about to relent to his coach’s wishes.

The wild card factor here is Leonardo, the ridiculous ninja, whose involvement in the story never makes any sense from the moment he makes his entrance.  But he has to be there to inspire Shoutarou to keep competing, so there he is.  I didn’t find myself caring about any of these people, despite the fact that the premise is really not a bad one.  Maybe things will pick up now that introductions are out of the way but I didn’t see much in this premiere to give me a sense of optimism.

Kamisama ni Natta Hi – 01

In truth, the number of Maeda Jun series I’ve genuinely liked is exactly one – Little Busters.  There have been a couple of others that I’ve thought were decent – and finished – but for the most part, his popularity as a scenario (and song) writer is lost on me.  I did used to be a pretty big P.A. Works fan but nothing much outside of Uchouten Kazoku has clicked for me in the last few years.  Maeda and PAW have paired off before, with indifferent results.

I might have been able to tolerate Kamisama ni Nitta Hi if it hadn’t featured a strong candidate for most annoying character of 2020, the one who calls herself Odin (Satou Odin).  All I know is if I have to listen to her, that prediction of 30 days until the world ends is way too long.  This character is everything that’s wrong with Maeda and otaku-centric anime rolled up into one unbelievably insufferable package.  I could weigh the merits of the Maeda sad sack protagonist or the Maeda smart-aleck blonde best friend or the Maeda magical realism premise, but they’re too generic to stand a chance against the towering icon of awfulness who dominates the first episode.

It worked in Little Busters (which breaks with many of his tropes), but Maeda’s schtick is lost on me for the most part.  That said, this is one of the more recycled and irritating iterations of it that I can remember.  Maybe it’s a function of having seen all this done so many times now (Maeda has many imitators, not least himself) but my tolerance for this formula has gotten very low – it just repels me like two like magnetic poles.  I’m sure this will be popular, and I hope Maeda’s fans enjoy it – there’s no reason why my disinterest should impact their engagement.  But I feel like they deserve better than this for the loyalty they’ve shown him.