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| Seriously, Japan. Why? |
Director: Mukai Masahiro (Debut)
Main Cast: Tanaka Rie as Neptune/Purple Heart, Imai Asami as Noire/Black Heart, Asumi Kana as Blanc/White Heart, Satou Rina as Vert/Green Heart
Writer: Yasukawa Shougo (Zero no Tsukaima F)
I usually don't watch kids shows. This is because I'm less than a year from hitting thirty and am therefore well outside the intended age gap. Of course, there are exceptions, when the kids show has something for adults to enjoy as well. Usually, this is for a group of people called parents, a group that I never wish to join, but I digress. I also don't have a major problem with kids shows, as despite being proto-humans, they deserve to have entertainment made for them and their limited view on the world. That doesn't mean I have to like it, and it's one of the reasons I failed Choujigen Game Neptune the Animation.
The plot of Neptune is straight-up kiddy fare. Four virtual goddesses make peace with each other in the opening scene, ending a long war that has raged in the show's virtual world. The goddesses have two different forms, hence the split names under the Main Cast section above the fold. One is the form that they use to interact with each other with saccharine sweetness and the other is an action form they use to fight. The goddesses also have sisters that they take care of, which is the source of at least one episode of drama. All in all, it's a fusion of magical girls and their peaceful everyday lives. It's a simple plot, one that would be suitable for children.
The other main reason I failed this show is how it treats its largely female cast. Once an episode, while the girls are in distress, the camera will be placed to pose the girls in an obviously provocative manner. This is called fanservice, and in this case, it's rapey fanservice. There's also the ending song, where super-deformed versions of the characters crawl all over a pair of giant breasts. And since there is no obvious viewpoint for this fanservice outside of the audience, it's obvious who it is for. Which means this entire show is an exercise in turning these goddesses into sexual objects, and this sort of objectification of women solely for the audience needs to go away.
At this point, I could end this with my point made, but I do want to talk about the other aspects of the show. There is nothing special in how it any of the technical details, animation or otherwise. I didn't care about any of the characters, even when they were in distress. Which means when episode three ends on a cliff hanger, I could not care what happens next. Is that because I'm too grossed out to care? Probably. But, I do think that telling a peacetime story when a war story of the goddesses battling each other would be more compelling. Though as long as Neptunia is the unsettling combo of a kids show plot crossed with perverted so-called comedy, this show could not work for me.
Writer: Yasukawa Shougo (Zero no Tsukaima F)
I usually don't watch kids shows. This is because I'm less than a year from hitting thirty and am therefore well outside the intended age gap. Of course, there are exceptions, when the kids show has something for adults to enjoy as well. Usually, this is for a group of people called parents, a group that I never wish to join, but I digress. I also don't have a major problem with kids shows, as despite being proto-humans, they deserve to have entertainment made for them and their limited view on the world. That doesn't mean I have to like it, and it's one of the reasons I failed Choujigen Game Neptune the Animation.
The plot of Neptune is straight-up kiddy fare. Four virtual goddesses make peace with each other in the opening scene, ending a long war that has raged in the show's virtual world. The goddesses have two different forms, hence the split names under the Main Cast section above the fold. One is the form that they use to interact with each other with saccharine sweetness and the other is an action form they use to fight. The goddesses also have sisters that they take care of, which is the source of at least one episode of drama. All in all, it's a fusion of magical girls and their peaceful everyday lives. It's a simple plot, one that would be suitable for children.
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| No. Seriously, Japan. WHY |
At this point, I could end this with my point made, but I do want to talk about the other aspects of the show. There is nothing special in how it any of the technical details, animation or otherwise. I didn't care about any of the characters, even when they were in distress. Which means when episode three ends on a cliff hanger, I could not care what happens next. Is that because I'm too grossed out to care? Probably. But, I do think that telling a peacetime story when a war story of the goddesses battling each other would be more compelling. Though as long as Neptunia is the unsettling combo of a kids show plot crossed with perverted so-called comedy, this show could not work for me.
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