The basic synopsis I would give if I had to put this via a sales pitch might read something along the lines of “A prestigious magical academy where the finest mages of the empire are trained hires a new teacher who is a completely useless, but what starts off as innocent high school fun quickly turns into military-esque seriousness and creeps in that direction before pulling back to the quiet life Glenn Sensei aspires to.” Give or take. The early installments of Bakemonogatari is the only other anime that really jumps to mind in this respect, and for that positive comparison to be drawn is huge, because I regard the Gatari series as one of the greatest anime of all time by far. Again, I can sing praises for days for animes that feel very organic and surprising at just the right moment. The comedy is so on-point too I personally find it rare to see an anime with a character who is nothing.īut it doesn’t end there! Rokudenashi had some awesome scenes and I mean just the first syllable scenes that inspired awe and not just that, but stylization that wasn’t overused where it felt washed out. Rokudenashi contrasts between hilarious and serious so often and so well, from stuff that you would never show a child to some incredibly funny moments like first meetings. Rumia is our blonde character with the softest expressions to say the least. Personally, it was simply sublime and makes Shingeki No Kyojin S2 kind of pale in comparison a bit in terms of the scope of our characters. I’m not even going to say what these expressions mean to me, but I implore you to look at these few expressions and tell me earnestly that something doesn’t jump to you. Nothing is so specific that it’s like “Oh! I know exactly what’s going on” but just the expressions alone allow us to flesh it out so much in our mind without words. It shows that these characters have true investment in being left alone and are trying to leave their pasts behind to one extent or another, or simply just don’t want to let people in. Through the expressions from Rokudenashi, the gravity of situations is revealed to us and I cannot stress how much I love that. It is so adorable at times I could die, but she isn’t so overwhelming that as a story mechanic she drowns our main character out and breaks the pacing of the story. Rokudenashi has a few things like Tsunderes but unlike FullMetal Panic!, it uses it as an asset rather than feeling forced, almost like the creator genuinely chose this role for our character Sistine who is the text-book, surprised, “pretend to not be interested but begs for some sort of praise” archetype. I can’t recall off hand right now, but this is an anime that has tropes and formulas but doesn’t get dragged down by them, like for example, FullMetal Panic!, which I personally thought was terrible due to the character Chidori who was a forced Tsundere/overbearing character included to try and contrast the lead, but it broke the pace and character so many times that I’d rather cut a toe off than re-watch that. However, I feel like with words alone, I could not paint the picture your mind needs to witness to appreciate Rokudenashi. Images will be included in this review but fear not, they are spoiler free. This is going to be spoiler free because I believe, for the most part, that the journey is the best aspect along with the conclusions you can’t have one without the other. Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records, which we’ll call Rokudenashi just because it’s so much easier to say it was beautiful in so many ways the subtlety, the violence, the hurt, the contrast of serious to funny - I’m going to say at this point that the anime is the season favourite with huge potential.
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