イナズマイレブン 最強軍団オーガ襲来 / Inazuma 11 Saikyou Gundan Ouga Shuurai/Inazuma 11: Strongest Ogre Army Attacks!

The Inazuma 11 theatrical theatre animation is in many ways lazy, yet feels less so than many similar releases. Most of the film retells the series very quickly, albeit with the nice little addition of the year during which the football team was just Endou, Someoka and Handa, until it diverges at the end. A recap film is certainly a disappointment, but as there’s quite a large gulf between OLM’s cheap weakly animation and the slick but still charming work in films like Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, it was quite a joy to see old scenes redone.

Plus threaded through all this was a very, very silly time travel story. As silliness is what Inazuma 11 does best, I had no objections. The framing device for all the recaps is that Endou is being watched from the future by a shadowy organization. At their head, Hibiki – apparently a descendent of the coach but far more sinister. In their time, football has apparently become regarded as amoral or socially undesirable. Welp...okay, fine. Either way, there’s an evil organization out to stop Endou through a time portal. To do this, they change history in the Football Frontier we saw in the first season of the anime, and which was the centre of the first game. After Zeus destroy Teikoku, instead of clashing with our heroes Raimon, Zeus are then themselves crushed by Ogre, sent back from the future and somehow entered into an interschool tournament.

Ogre are absurdly powerful and of course Raimon at this stage cannot compete. But throughout the film, a sweet little boy who looks a little like Toramaru but has a headband rather like Endou’s has been watching proceedings. He, of course, is also from the future, and shows up at a crucial moment – revealing himself to be Kanon, Endou’s great-grandson (and, I have to say, a character design I rather prefer to Endou’s). Kanon not only has formidable skills, but also brings Fubuki, Toramaru, Tobitaka, Hiroto and even Fidio to help. No Tachimukai, sadly – Endou is the only goalie needed, after all.

Ogre don’t object to these reinforcements, and everyone takes the utterly bizarre time-travel story in their strides. With a newly empowered team, the ability to chain shoots and Endou spontaneously acquiring his future skills, including the not-yet-seen-in-the-series Omega the Hand, Raimon pull through and history does not change. Endou of course can give his silly pep-talks in his Naruto voice and the bad guys see the errors of their ways.

This is strictly for the fans, incredibly silly and with its recap elements, decidedly lazy. But Inazuma 11 remains a guilty pleasure, and this was still a part of that. Including the ‘pleasure’ part.  

イナズマイレブン / Inazuma Eleven: seasons IV & V

I’ve come to realize that whoever labelled these ‘seasons’ of Inazuma 11 was going purely by the different opening sequences, labelling a new season each time the song and animation changed. That isn’t what makes a new anime season, but never mind – I’ve started this way, so I might as well finish. On the other hand, it didn’t seem worth doing just ‘season IV’ when the next one was very much a continuation of the same arc, so I’ve combined four and five. The sixth and final ‘season’ is still the same arc, but as we finally saw the back of Kabeyama here, it seems a good breaking-off point.

After defeating the meteor-powered kids masquerading as aliens, and the new adorably-unitarded dark team made up of former Raimon Eleven members, only one challenge awaits the team: to be the best in the world.

Luckily, the ‘Football Frontier International’ tournament is in place for them to compete for just that title. This is the first of its kind, with the best youth footballers of the world competing to stand on the highest possible level (bar real aliens appearing). First, our beloved characters must compete for a place on the team, which is by no means assured. A mysterious new coach selects the team not just from Raimon members, but from their old rivals too, making for some tensions within the ranks – all of which are resolved with lots of delicious melodrama. There are some new characters too, most notably one yankii kid with a hilarious pompadour who can’t play football at all (but has a mysterious nullifying power) and the adorable Toramaru. Toramaru is a lot like Gon from HunterxHunter in looks and personality, with great skills and an adorable boy-crush on Goenji – and hasn’t been seen before simply because he’s an elementary school student!

Once the team is finalized, they have to qualify in the regional tournament. Here come some small surprises, most notably that Aphrodi, of ‘God Knows’ fame, is not Japanese, nor Greek...but Korean. Well, why not?

The real fun begins after qualification. Hilariously, this football competition is such a big deal that an entire island has been converted so that each team and its supporters can stay in an area that looks like their home country. So riding the bus around the island, one goes from areas reminiscent of Japan to Italy to Argentina to England.

The first rounds of the competition are dramatic. England are particularly amusing, their team ‘Knights of Queen’ having some amusing techniques involving Excalibur and suchlike. On the other hand, perhaps fittingly given our usual World Cup performance, they are the first losers of the tournament. Inazuma Eleven lose to Argentina because of Kageyama’s machinations, but scrape through qualification thanks to the points system and securing a draw with Italy – who the audience sympathizes with because they were manipulated by Kabeyama, yet also manage to finally bring out his humanity. Just in time for him to be arrested and face justice.

There’s lots of nice personal drama too. The new coach, just like the last one, makes mysterious decisions that the team only understand when they gain a deeper understanding. The new female manager has amnesia thanks to a tragic past that Endou’s strong heart can save her from. Adorable Tachimukai must overcome being imitative and make his own techniques, which Endou himself also has to think about since his techniques come from his grandfather’s notes. Italy have their own issues, not just with Kageyama but with their absent captain, though cute and highly skilled second-in-command Fideo can bring the team together. Then there’s the American team, where of course prior teammates Ichinose and Domon are good enough to have made the team and can clash with their old nakama. Kabeyama finally upgrades THE WALL to THE MOUNTAIIIIN. Then there are the former female Raimon members: it isn’t actually mentioned at any point, but only male team members can participate, so the girls come as...yup, supporters to cheer from the sidelines. Oh well. In fairness this kind of tournament would have been gender-segregated.

The other plot strands that will be going into the final ‘season’ are the fact that Endou’s famous grandfather is still alive, and already met Endou when he was driving around with tire in his truck (though Endou of course didn’t realize who he was talking to), and that the organizers of the tournament are clearly shady types who have an evil ulterior motive. And then sadly that will be it for this particular team.

But the Inazuma Eleven saga doesn’t end there. We’ll have a little timeskip and continue with Inazuma Eleven Go! and a whole new main cast. Will I keep watching? Damn straight I will. I love the brainless enjoyment of this daft little show. When I’m done with it I’ll probably have to go on to Youkai Watch for the same kind of enjoyment. 

イナズマイレブン/ Inazuma Eleven: season 3

Well, the short third season of Inazuma Eleven is more a transition than anything else, but it gives some fun surprises.

Firstly, and not exactly surprisingly given Level-5’s usual silly twists, the aliens from the last season are revealed to not have been aliens at all – only determined regular children who have been affected by strange materials from a meteor. Because in Japanese Manga-world, the ones who work hard always trump the ones who dope, and the meteor is effectively a kid-friendly metaphor for doping in sports. So of course, strong feelings eventually get through to the kids and they see the error of their ways, once they get past the manipulative adult controlling them, of course. And the true feelings of the nice adult who ought to be protecting them comes through.

Since this clears things up pretty neatly, and our heroes reach a truly absurd level of power, the question of what’s happened to all the old teammates left behind comes up. They haven’t shared in all the experiences that powered up this season’s main team – but they also haven’t been left alone. 

They’ve had another evil adult controlling them, and have gained enough power to challenge their former teammates and the new members. It’s a good way of having old issues come to the fore and the question of what will happen once the team is way bigger than eleven kids...or even fourteen with a few extras.

Of course, with Aliea dealt with, of course, some of the kids who were picked up on the tour around the whole country no longer really have a reason to be part of the team, their friends and families being far away – so there’re some fond farewells at the end.

This is of course another fun continuation of a fun, stupid season. I enjoy having Inazuma Eleven in my life. The cast is either adorable, absurd or both, the plotlines are downright stupid, and the special attacks are hilarious. The series gets homoerotic undertones just right – possibly because the boys are a bit young for romance, as opposed to the ones from, say, Free!, where the fact that it seems to go over all of their heads just isn’t believable.

In technical terms, I don’t think anything’s likely to change with the series from the beginning to the end. It’s a cheap kids’ production and it runs continuously, so there aren’t gonna be many differences between the series. OLM keep things nice and bright and smooth and simple, and that’s what woks best.

I have to say, though, the problem with having this kind of likeable but huge cast is that I know I’m likely not to see a fair few of them again. They can’t keep having half the team hospitalized, and I know they’re going to go on a tour of the world to fight kids from around the world (which I’m looking forward to!). This means that they’re gonna get rid of quite a few of the team...and I don’t want that!  

イナズマイレブン / Inazuma Eleven: season 2

As season 2 of Inazuma Eleven kicks off, they fully embrace that charming incredibly-stupid-and-over-the-top-idea-done-very-sincerely style of storytelling that nothing at the moment does as well as anime and its related media - like the Inazuma Eleven games. 

If the first series' story of a ragtag group of football-playing boys with pure hearts and lots of shounen-tastic FEELINGS going undefeated from incomplete and unpracticed school team to national champions who can beat others with powers that are literally godly sounded daft, just wait for this. Is the next level competing with adult teams? Foreign children from nations like Brazil? Oh no. No, what happens in season 2 is that aliens show up and begin destroying cities with their cannonball-like footballs. Who is assembled to fight them off with football? World cup teams? The Japanese national players? No no - the schoolchildren of Raimon Junior High. Of course! 

Not without some roster changes, however. When Aliea Academy first appear, they injure many of the team and render them out of commission for the entire season - including my favourite Handa and his close friend Max, as well as the funny little dot-eyed kid. 

Other players depart on journeys of self-discovery, including star striker Hitsugaya...wait, sorry, Gouenji. Speedy girly-boy Kazemaru and funny little buck-toothed midfielder Kurimatsu last a while but eventually feel they have to leave the team, though may well return. 

To fill these gaps, a whole lot of colourful characters are needed. Strange, quiet boy with an uncanny knack for befriending the ladies Fubuki becomes a star player for a while, but has issues up the whazoo and essentially serves as a benchmark for the others to catch up to. Two girls join the team - the prime minister's tomboyish daughter after Aliea Academy go so far as to kidnap him, and an outspoken gyaru-type. Then there is the little prankster Kogure-kun and brash surfing savant Tsunami. 

Most uselessly, but most adorably, is the Endou fanboy Tachimukai, who they put on the team despite the fact he's really a goalkeeper, and soon becomes the weak link, which is strangely adorable because he tries so hard. The series ends with the dramatic appearance of an old ally and an old foe, who work together to defeat one of Aliea Academy's three top teams. Then comes a curious cliffhanger ahead of the short third season. 

The scale has become even more ridiculous than ever before - and characters in the previous series were stopping time and summoning vast stone walls. Here there are wormholes and great demons - but there's a sort of dispensation for madness when it comes to sports special moves, and it's more of a surprise that you get aliens and explosions and huge submarine training facilities (for school football teams) and presidential kidnappings. It's that silly a series. 

And yet at the heart of it is the relationships between the various young boys, their fiery rivalries and strong bonds. That's really the point of this anime, probably of all sports and indeed school anime - and it does it far too well to ignore. I didn't know when I set out that I'd want to finish this story, that I would end up starting to associate Takeuchi Junko's voice with Endou more than with Naruto, and be very happy to enjoy more and more series. 

イナズマイレブン / Inazuma Eleven: season 1

I have to confess that I love anime like Inazuma Eleven. They are perfectly aware of how completely, utterly stupid they are, but they show no sign of that at all. There's no hip, ironic self-referencing, and no clever-clever signals that the writers are secretly above all this, but doing it anyway - the Joss Whedon disease. 

Yet, with complete sincerity, charming honesty and buckets of enthusiasm, Inazuma Eleven is incredibly, brilliantly stupid. In the tradition of many manly, manly sports series, from Slam Dunk to Rookies, it focuses on the competitive spirits of sportspeople as their rivalries and hardships push them to greater and greater feats. But, probably in part because it's based on a video game (by Level 5), Inazuma Eleven is about as silly and boyish as it gets, though coming just over a month after the release of the game, it's pretty clear the anime was developed in tandem with it rather than a later, derivative property. 

Inazuma Eleven shows us a world where football (soccer to those who don't want to listen to the people from the sport's birthplace) is not only played to an incredibly high level but full of ridiculous special moves. At first, we just have effects that could seem like they're symbolic, an expression of characters' inner feelings and powerful moves like the shoots that envelop the striker's foot in flames or have them surrounded by a dragon - but then later we end up with characters generating tsunami and solid walls from thin air, stopping time and launching penguins at one another. Yes, really. These kids have abilities that could solve the economic problems of the entire world, put an end to crime and end most military conflicts, but all they do with their superpowers is play football. In school leagues, no less. 

What's more, despite the supernatural adversaries they face, our heroes never, ever lose a match that matters. Not a single one! They go from no-hopers without even a full team to national champions against unprecedented opposition with absurd magical powers without once losing. If they concede goals, someone's strong feelings will come through in the end and win them the match in a montage of goal-scoring. For something based on sports, these anime really don't show the glorious ups and downs of close competition, but instead teach the Japanese youth that if you want it hard enough, and put yourself through enough stupid yet painful training, the sincerity of your emotions will overcome lack of talent or years' preparation - or, indeed, such dishonest measures as imitating others, over-analysing their skills rather than being intuitive and of course doping, because that's how sports really ought to be. Reality is sobering afterwards, but of course, reality doesn't have giant flaming pegasi rampaging across the sky because the goalkeeper and two close friends have rushed out past midfield. 

And it's the sheer absurdity that is so fun. Matching it is a cast of truly outlandish characters. The main team has its misfits - the giant lummox of a boy, the tiny little one with pin-eyes, the creepy one nobody notices and more than its share of very pretty ones - this is, I should probably mention, one of the great favourites of fujoshi at the moment who gleefully ship the young boys together - and their opposition match their silliness. The schools they face tend to be themed in the great tradition of enemies of the weak in most Japanese shows, with schools where all the kids are ninja, schools where they are all otaku and, ultimately, one where they are themed like Greco-Roman gods. 

On the way, generally the boys will come up against some personal hurdle, then have a match where they get crushed only for inspiration to strike and the hurdle to be overcome to win the match. It’d be irritating presented many other ways, but the conviction and lack of gall has a winsome charm and the appeal of the cute designs and bright colours are hard to resist. 

These 26 episodes, covering the 'football frontier' are but the opening chapters of an extremely long anime. From the looks of it, there will be a lot of turnover in the main team - already there are so many new members, from childhood friends to former rivals, that many of the characters are stuck on the subs bench (including clearly the best pretty-boy, young Handa), and I've seen plenty of advertising media with entirely different line-ups. It's something of a marvel to me that Takeuchi Junko not only has enough time to do all the work she has for Naruto, but as well as taking on the dubbing for Gumball, has the lead role here as Endou, too. I suppose with the end of Reborn! she had a little more time, but c'mon...Naruto alone ought to fill most schedules. She's prolific on a whole new level. 

Inazuma Eleven is easy, brainless watching, but that's a big part of its appeal. I enjoy its simplicity and straightforward silliness, and I like the designs and vague homoeroticism around the whole thing. I shall stick with it, and add it to the long list of incredibly long-running shows I watch...though very possibly it will stall just like all the others and I'll crawl through it over years and years!

Plus…it’s slightly strange, but I genuinely was wondering until I watched this what OLM were up to these days. 

魔界戦記ディスガイア / Makai Senki Disgaea

Disgaea is one of those peculiar anime adapted from a strategy-based video game. In this case, though, it’s done very well, perhaps because the game in question placed great emphasis on its story.

A short series at 12 episodes, it tells the story of Laharl, the young heir to the throne of the realm of demons. He has been asleep for several years, in which time, his father the Maou (demon king) has passed away. For Laharl, taking the throne for himself is not so simple, however, as several other demons have attempted to seize the position in his absence. Along with his loyal servant Etna, a trainee angel called Flonne who wants to teach the demons about kindness and love, and their loyal army of Prinnies – which are, naturally, servant penguins! On their travels, they encounter threats from not only demons and human beings, but even from the forces of Heaven.

It’s all a bit silly, with the usual light-anime mix of silly slapstick comedy, impressive but totally overblown fighting and occasional sentimental episodes to pluck at the heartstrings. It’s interesting in light of a blog I read that reminded me that your average Japanese elementary schoolchild likely doesn’t know who Jesus is (though he does get referenced in anime and manga occasionally), yet they’ll certainly understand the Christian images of demons and angels. Where a lot of Disgaea’s charm lies, however, is undoubtedly its extremely cute art style. Especially big-eyed, baby-faced Flonne-chan and adorably moody Laharl are high up on the cutesy scale. The story jumps about from plotline to plotline like a hyperactive four-year-old and demons, angels and humans certainly don’t stay in their expected roles, even outside the ‘demons can love too’ subplot, but it really doesn’t matter – this is a silly, cute comedy show, and as such what really matters is its exuberance and sense of fun. In this, it excels. I could’ve done without the lame Flash Gordon parody, though.

Great Seiyuu cast, too – including Hanba Tomoe (Tomo-chan from Azumanga Daioh) as Etna and Mizuhashi Kaori playing totally against type (she normally plays calm, spacey characters like Pepper in Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar and Zephiris in Scrapped Princess) as Laharl. The real star was Sasamoto Yuko as Flonne, though. I’ll have to watch out for her in future.

I read the first chapter of the manga version but didn’t really like it. A lot of the jokes seemed really badly timed and unfunny. It seems the game is being ported to PSP, though – might try to get a copy if it gets an English Language port.

(originally written 2.10.06)

レイトン教授と永遠の歌姫/ Reiton-kyouju to Eien-no Utahime / Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva

Let’s face it, I was always going to enjoy this film. I love playing the highly successful games and find the characters really engaging: civilized ‘Eikoku Shinshi’ (English gentleman) Professor Layton and his adorable square-headed ‘apprentice’ Luke go off investigating mysteries and uncovering secrets, all the time stopping to answer puzzle after puzzle, be it offered by the people they meet, all of whom seem to have a puzzler or two, or simply challenging one another, inspired by things like trees or fonts. It’s all very sedate and charming and wholesome.

So a feature-length animation had a lot of appeal to me, even if unfortunately some things in the film rely on knowledge of games not yet released on these shores – although it’s nothing too puzzling. Only a few picarats’ worth.

Professor Layton and Luke are called upon to investigate mysterious rumours of reincarnation and eternal life in an opera house. Going to see the performance, they get wrapped up in an intriguing game, eternal life promised to the winner who solves the puzzles that will eliminate all others.

It’s a sprightly, likeable anime, character designs consistent with the quirky, Hergé-influenced designs of the game, animations from Pokémon’s studio OLM Inc. fluid and vibrant and locales from England lovingly recreated – not only the usual sights like Tower Bridge and Big Ben, but Regent Street, Covent Garden and later, The White Cliffs of Dover, all of which gave me a small thrill. Layton is an engaging Holmes figure, quietly charismatic and at once gentle and formidable. Luke is utterly adorable, especially trying to assert his identity and relationship to the Professor, and the rest of the cast, even the ones with selfish motives, are amusing and hard to dislike.

As with the games, though – and far more so than them – the film is slightly disappointing. Not because it is bad, but because it could have been rather better. Just as the games tend to give the impression some clever twist that shows why the impossible science-fiction world is possible in reality, only to finally fall back on fantasy inventions, I feel the film would have been more of a success had it left aside karate kicks, chase scenes with wolves and, yes, giant mecha, and instead aimed for a Holmes-derived mood of battles of the wit rather than the fist. For a film that had so many puzzles it could have fallen back on, the few that get thrown in here are rather unimpressive and obvious, and it’s a real shame that the overall mystery just gets tossed away when it’s time for the climax to come, essentially boiling down to ‘This whole thing could have just been a simple kidnap of one person and worked far better, the main mystery is just a tempting lie, and our machines do magical things.’

But as an anime for charming visuals, extremely lovable characters and a real sense of fun, you can’t go wrong. Not to mention that Layton is one of very, very few places where I hold the dub (UK, not US) just as dear as the original, both of which I believe are equally good – as a result, I look forward to hearing the localised version!