Snapshots

It’s not tea but it has a loli with a hammer for some reason.

Welcome all, to our very own Random Curiosity Twelve Days of Anime series of posts. As the guy who proposed, organised and hunted down the rest of the team to make sure these posts were finished on time, I have the dubious honour of introducing our very own twelve day lead up to Christmas! As you may or may not be aware, many other anime blogs do this kind of thing on a yearly basis, so we decided that this year would be our turn to join in! However, ours will be a little different – instead of focusing on twelve moments in anime, we instead decided to broaden it to twelve posts with a loose theme (a very loose theme in some cases!). For each of the next twelve days, there will be a new post focusing on a different anime or theme released at midnight GMT (’cause I’m an egotistical bastard). Some of them may be pretty out there, so look forward to that! Just because I like being mysterious for no logical reason, we’re not actually going to mention who’s posting what or in which order – that’s something you’re going to have to find out as the twelve days goes on. I can, however, tell you that it is I – Moomba – who is currently writing this post! Shock! Now I’ve rambled for more than long enough to artificially lengthen this paragraph, so let’s move on.

Why aren’t you watching this right now?

Originally, I was going to write about Code Geass. Unfortunately, someone (you know who you are) forbade me from doing so – apparently I already talk more than enough about Code Geass as it is and everyone with the remotest shreds of sanity has already seen the show so there’s no point in repeatedly plugging it. With this in mind, I instead chose an anime that I find almost equally as close to my cold, unfeeling heart: Sora Kake Girl. Now this might seem an odd choice, mostly because there are certain people out there who loathe it for some inexplicable reason. I choose to label this reason ‘shit taste’ but well, not everyone can be perfect. Spare a moment for those poor souls.

There are many ways to judge an anime, both objectively and subjectively. They range from judging the financial success of an anime through its sales figures to the amount of discussion generated on a weekly basis and its potential going forwards. But one of these methods never really comes up where episodic blogging is concerned: time. Time is an odd one – it can change your taste, your view on certain issues as your experience expands, and generally results in forgetting anime that had too little impact. I, for one, sometimes look at the scores I’ve given to different series on MAL and realise that they’re completely all over the place and have no accuracy whatsoever. This is partially because I rated them immediately after they finished, in some cases while adrenaline from an awesome finale coloured the entire series in an overly positive light. There are exceptions of course, and this is where the test of time comes in. Just how many of the series currently airing will you remember in two or three years’ time? How many will you still care about? And of those you do, why? What makes them special?

True gar comes from the most unexpected places.

This is how I intend to look at Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, a series I finished a little over two years ago. Of course, the very first thing that comes to mind is going to be the most memorable aspect – the true crowning glory of the show. That thing is Leopard. Lelouch is one of my favourite characters of all time, particularly in the exaggeratedly dramatic nature of his Zero persona. Now imagine if you could have one last send-off for this persona, one last glorious finale to Lelouch’s personality. Again, that is Leopard. Fukuyama Jun can essentially carry an entire show by himself, particularly when using his ‘fabulous’ voice. There are few roles that have ever fit it better than Leopard, completely insane, tea-drinking, giant space colony that he is. His dynamic with the other characters, particularly Akiha, is certainly entertaining to watch along with his endless strings of innuendos and outbursts of insanity.

The story is incredibly deep and complex- pffthahaha who am I kidding? If you’re looking for depth and complexity you’ve come to the wrong mentally unstable space colony. Sora Kake Girl runs on rather simple logic: shit happens, this causes more shit to happen, eventually leading to some sort of conclusion which may baffle or amaze or… something else. Logic is cast aside for the purpose of ridiculous antics and absurd progressions of plot. Sora Kake Girl never really tries to take itself seriously and this works heavily in its favour. Even Guilty Crown would’ve been more bearable (note: more bearable, not good) had it not elected to pull every ridiculous ‘twist’ with a perfectly straight face and no irony whatsoever.

How can she do that in those heels?

So let’s talk for a moment about some more of the absurdities Sora Kake Girl pulls over the course of its run – some more of those memorable aspects that have survived the test of time. Perhaps the next most memorable part of the show was one of its individual episodes, an odd one at that. About midway through the series, a baseball episode set in a completely different continuity comes right out of left field. It serves no real purpose in the larger plot, but it’s entertaining enough in its own fashion to work as a standalone episode. Who doesn’t love watching baseball with powers? Pretty much everything in the series is intentionally built on clichés and tropes or subversions of them, from characters switching sides to masked phantoms to magical girl transformations and genius lolis with sentient alien scarves. The most gar in the entire show comes from a Naviman barely larger than a fist and there are even samurai in there somewhere. If you can think of an anime trope, chances are Sunrise stuck it in there somewhere along with the myriad of references to various other anime.

Mostly nonsensical science aside (almost everything tends to be an innuendo of some kind), the sci-fi atmosphere is pretty damn awesome and this is one of the things that sticks with me most, eclipsed only by the brilliance of Leopard and the general chaos present throughout. I love science fiction as a genre; where fantasy gives us the impossible – things that could never be – science fiction gives us what could be – what might just be waiting around the corner one day. Leaving fencing between space colonies aside (that’s more for the absurd side than the sci-fi side), we have some awesome transforming mecha in the QT-ARMS which give us some pretty impressive Sunrise quality battles and, of course, some ridiculous super weapons. But perhaps one of the biggest contributors to this whole atmosphere is the music, a brilliant blend of a wide range of cues brought to us by Itou Masumi (Noein), Sudo Kenichi, and Kikuya Tomoki (Hidamari Sketch). If you have any idea who these people are or what kind of music they usually write, you’d probably note that there’s a huge mesh of styles right there. Sora Kake Girl takes those styles and blends them into a cohesive soundtrack with a solid sci-fi atmosphere. Few series have done it better.

Who would win in a fight – the magical girl or the giant transforming super robot? You know what you need to do to find out right?

45 Comments

  3. I’ve seen that show about a year ago, but I’d never have thought seeing it appear on RandomC, I know very few people who’ve seen it…

    Crazy shit happend, followed by more crazy shit, culminating with a crapload of freaking insane shit. That, and robots, mad space colonies and magical girls. What the hell, I need to watch that again, now!

    FX
    Reply

    1. “Crazy shit happend, followed by more crazy shit, culminating with a crapload of freaking insane shit.”

      Reading that I instantly told myself, hey George Carlin probably would have liked that premise ! For this alone I shall take a look at it.

      Kit-A-Ron-Ron-Kat
      Reply

  4. I have fond memories of this show. It was never amazing, but always a lot of fun. And yeah, most of that is thanks to Leopard.

    Also, finally there’s someone who appreciates the music in this show as much as I do(its the only anime soundtrack I actually have on my iPhone).

    NecoDelero
    Reply

      2. STILTS! I AM SHOUTING AT YOU~~~! Remember, don’t forget about High School DxD ed, okay???? The best ed there ever will be. Oh dat glorious Koneko hip swinging… You have to fight other RC writers to death for us. Remember High school DxD best ep!!

        Purple Jake
        Reply

  8. Will we get Divine to post on the 25th? That would be an awesome christmas gift…along with all of Divine’s manga, anime and figure collections!!! XD

    I hope Santa reads Random Curiosity(who doesn’t?) and reads my christmas wish!

    Almost forgot…I also wish for world peace…and giant mechas!!!

    Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

    Just Passing By
    Reply

  9. I loved everything about this show except for the ending,which was pointless and left almost everything unexplained or at loose ends.

    However I really liked the baseball episode and think you sold it short.It was really the entire plot of the show crammed into one episode.

    Magewolf
    Reply

    1. I admit I don’t really remember the ending all that well – probably because it wasn’t a particularly well executed ending. It’s always a little sad when that happens, but I can’t claim that the story was really the main reason I enjoyed the show so it didn’t detract too much.

      Moomba
      Reply

  13. I remember this show. Largely because the idea of SENTIENT SPACE COLONIES fighting each other was ridiculous and awesome to watch. Add Fukuyuma Jun in his incredibly hammy Lelouch voice and you get some great chewing of the scenery.

    Not to mention the socially inept Itsuki trying to infiltrate a high school to get closer to Akiha by using YURI MANGA as a reference. It was funny how she outright confesses to Akiha with no idea of what it meant. If you have yuri goggles this is a show for you.

    fragb85
    Reply

  14. People didn’t watch this because the people subbing it were extremely slow or stopped subbing it. No one wanted the English release either because it was a Bandai title, so you got 7 episodes on a disc at fuck off prices.

    Mech
    Reply

  15. I remember watching this show, the whole sentient space colony thing was interesting for a little while, but after a few episodes i lost all interest in the show. Just couldnt get into it at all.

    Quikbeam
    Reply

  18. I am not saying I am going to believe in the “end of the world.” but I am a little surprise that everyone is sounding positive. About only 7 days left until “Doomsday” comes. Please don’t put too many dislikes, I am just messing around with what a lot of people believe me. Naruto’s world may end soon though in my opinion.

    L002
    Reply

    1. The Culture series is generally awesome; especially The Player of Games, and Excession.

      Although it had a dip in quality in the newer books that its still recovering from. The Hydrogen Sonata most recently was decent though, and a good sign for the series.

      I always tend to name my ships after Culture ones, with their great names, things like the “Fast Offensive Unit, Murderer Class, Frank Exchange of Views”, and the “MSV Passing By and Thought I’d Drop in”.

      eharper256
      Reply

  24. Sora Kake wasn’t the best… but it wasn’t bad either. To me, hearing Lulu-bot being a whimpy hiki and being owned by girls was a good sight every week, but the story dragged on more than I like, especially with those filler episodes.

    TheMoondoggie
    Reply

  27. Sorry if the question isn’t related to the topics, just want to ask if someone saw the texts in this web goes out of the text area or comment boxes when reading the comments and reviews?

    Related to the topic:
    Leopard’s most memorable quote for me: “What? There’s no impact?”

    ex
    Reply

  28. Ended up watching half of this show.. then dropping when there was a sudden lack of groups subbing it… went in expecting more than just hijinx.. and I was despicably tired of Fukujun’s Ledouche character by this point. =A= Watanuki for life!. (Chu-2 has heartily fulfilled this need ~w~.)

    Was fun, if you were looking for hijinx… otherwise.. OTL;;;.

    kumakaori
    Reply

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