Star vs the Forces of Evil — Nightmare Slime Lizard Wizards

July 19th, 2017

 

Toffee is a better villain than just about anything Japan's put out in a very long time.

Star vs the Forces of Evil began its third season on Saturday with a four episode 'movie' broadcast, so I figure now's as good a time as any to say a few words about it, especially considering how much of a wasteland Monday through Thursday is in Japanese animation this season. In fact, I may be focusing a bit of mid-week time to some things like Steven Universe, Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, etc this season. I'll get to Castlevania too, I promise. Hell, even maybe Ducktales, mostly for David Tennant and nostalgia though.I'd be lying if I said I had actually put any serious thought into any sort of actual plan.

I will preface this a bit by saying that I'm not a huge fan of the series overall. It has some great moments, particularly the end of season 1, and certain characters tend to steal the scene (Kelly, Janna, and Toffee in particular), but the end of season 2 tried to be all relationship dramatic, coming off just horribly all around, and a lot of episodes are just sugary nonsense. It certainly does attempt to parody the magic girl schtick in a similar vein to Dai Mahou Touge (for you historians), and is at its strongest when it's being just a bit unhinged. Sometimes it's because it's parodying some standard magical girl trope, sometimes it's when it's casually inserting nightmarish things into a twee girl-power bit of silliness. This particular outing does have some issues on that front though. While it was pretty consistent about the Candy Sparkles Rainbow world being whitewashed and oppressing the hell out of monsters by essentially barbarian tyrant magical girl royalty, the 'movie' decided to retcon in that monsters showed up at the front gates to murder the previous queen. Kind of getting mixed messages here, guys.

Anywho, the whole Dark Side of Candyland thing is something Japanese media loves too, but it seems to really struggle with, especially lately. If there's a dark side to whatever in most Japanese media, then it must be The Way Things Are; some indistinct force or societal pressures itself that force suffering upon all. And suffer they must. Drown in angst, as though anguish is what gives a character depth. Well, that and the massively overblown exposition that drags everything to a goddamned halt. This provides the perfect example for foreshadowing between Moon and Eclipsa's contract, not to mention nary a comment about all of Moon's death-marks every time she used the bad juju. This is how I like my world-building and lore. There's boatloads that the audience has been given only a glimpse of. Tantalize, give as much as needed, and keep the damn focus on the damn story and characters. Even if you don't do them well, a story and characters are always preferable to Random Factoid #75-92 about the setting.

I wouldn't say it's a great show, but it does have some great moments, and is carrying on the spirit of Punie even while Japan has seemingly forsaken the ability to understand parody entirely. It doesn't quite have the same deft handling of drama, parody, or consistency as something like Gravity Falls, but it does come pretty close on occasion. If this season is going to focus more on the magical side of things than the Earth side, like the new intro suggests, that would definitely be a move towards the stronger parts of the first seasons and away from the groanworthy angsty crap that marred the end of the second season. Not a full-throated endorsement, I'm aware, but I do think that it has enough going for it that it's worth checking out for animation fans.

Posted in Star vs the FOE | 6 Comments »

6 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Opulent Rag says:

    I gotta give it to this show: It restored my enjoyment of magical girl shows by fucking bounds. More so than any anime ever did since…. christ, I think season 1 of “Symphogear” all those years ago.

    Between all the grim/dark drama and idol fad bullshit nowadays where they put gimmicks and pageantry over story and characters, it’s nice to watch a have the all that cute tweeness and weave it with the tense darkness, rather than just practically face-fuck you with it so you can watch little girls get tortured or butchered.

    BTW, I probably wouldn’t bother with SU right now if I were you. Maybe AT, since they’re wrapping up to their series finale. I mean, I love Steven Universe, but if there is one thing (out of like several at least) that is wrong with it is its pacing and some of its writing. To me, it’s problems are the opposite of what most anime have. But that’s just me.

    • jgoi says:

      SU needs more of the gems fighting random monster gems instead of just being steven’s boring yuri moms.

      • Opulent Rag says:

        I’d say a 70/30% increase on those points and it’d be god-tier for me. I know it’s made for kids, and that’s good, but fuck do I wish the western industry could get off their dicks and make a tv-14 or MA version of shows like this.

        It DEFINITELY wouldn’t hurt it if just went whole hog into it’s own story/themes and his 12 minute format it has ain’t doing any favors for it.

  • algorithm says:

    “I wouldn’t say it’s a great show, but it does have some great moments”

    I’m stuck some 5-6 episodes at the beginning of S2. Which is a fat lot of unfunny nothing, especially after the good stuff from the end of S1.

    “I’ll get to Castlevania too

    Goat fucking, yipee!

  • kenuran says:

    Wow. You kinda blindsided me with this entry coming in on Wednesday when the show came out last Saturday but yea Toffee is decent enough villan. I just wish he didnt get oneshot’ed right after he formally appeared though. Kinda messes up the buildup.

    Anyway, glad you mentioned Rick and Morty cause I was gonna bug you about that too.