Sengoku Warrior Michael Moore?

I was half falling asleep trying to catch up on Sengoku Collection (not the show’s fault, well, mostly) when I stumbled on episode 5 as the latest spacetime-meandering warring state legends find themselves at the end of a camera. But as cute as Bokuden Tsukahara is, it was more amusing to see this large Caucasian dude trying to film a documentary, named Mike Morse. Do they spring their boom ops and camera dudes on unsuspecting Japanese folks in real life when they do these things like how it is in this anime? I can imagine David Gelb popping out a half dozen technicians in on this after walking into that little sushi bar.
But more like, I think this is almost like when that Studio 4C kickstarter promises that for their top-tier backers, they’ll make you into anime characters. And it may be a villain; who wouldn’t want to be a villain in a Studio 4C music video?

But really, taking a step back, is it more ridiculous to see a parody of a famous American filmmaker in an anime about little moe girls as the embodiment of historic generals from Japan’s warring states period; or, as anime girls that embodies said historic generals? I’m not sure. I thought the episode between Kanetsugu and Uesugi was already a bit over the top, but seeing idol Ieyasu ad trucks parading up and down the street put things in perspective. [To put THAT to perspective, I think Las Vegas is the only town in America where you’ll see moe girls on truck ads up and down the street.]

There’s an unstated subtleness to Sengoku Collection that even its mundane plot, which normally would cause clinical sleepiness, makes you want to take notice what it isn’t telling you. The ensemble cast, too. I mean, it is suppose to transpose historic situations with 2012 sensibilities, and I think most of these episodes do that. You get to think about shady documentaries that spins the dangers of ownership of sharp objects in one way, leaving me to think “oh man all my NRA-card-carrying friends would get a laugh out of this.” Except I don’t think any of them would enjoy Sengoku Collection unless they needed sleeping aid.

I suppose the whole point about cameras being weapons can be the message that gets lost in this, but to me that’s the compromise for all the liberal bleeding heart trying to enjoy this week’s historic hysterics.

There are some other random things:

One: If Sengoku Collection is an anime based on the same-named Mobage mobile game for phones, does this qualify it along the lines of:

  1. anime adaptations made from actual games (eg., Disgaea, Halo),
  2. anime adaptations made from galge (eg., Futakoi, Futakoi Alternative), or
  3. anime adaptations made from dumb things (eg., Queen’s Blade, Umi Monogatari)?

I mean an anime based on Angry Birds or Tiny Tower would be the kind of thing that makes you think the source material is dumb, so I’m leaning towards category 3.

Two: This is not even that funny, albeit in a funny way. Worse I don’t even know how many people who reads his site get this.

Three: Can we agree that this is the most underrated anime this season? At least, at 6 episodes in. The show kind of reminds me of Seraphim Call, which is Mochizuki’s strange TV series based on an equally trite 2.5D premise that turned out to be one of my favorite moe-era work (way back in 1999!). I think it’s not an entire coincidence that Keiji Goto is at the helm on this one. That brand of simple and subtle in Sencolle is very much his.

PS. DAT MasaMUNE must be something carried over from Devil Kings or some such.


3 Responses to “Sengoku Warrior Michael Moore?”

  • Fencedude

    I basically agree about SenColle. I actually like it well out of proportion to its actual quality, but episode 5 was certainly something else.

    As for Zac’s “review”, the concept wasn’t bad, but he wasted it on SenColle, he needed to hold that in reserve for something with more…well, substance.

    I never did watch Seraphim Call. I should do that, someday.

    (also, SenColle takes top honors in the costume design category.)

  • DiGiKerot

    Can we agree that this is the most underrated anime this season?

    That seems like a fair enough assessment. I was all ready to crap on it after the first episode myself (which wasn’t exactly incompetent or anything, just seemed a little trite), but it won me over pretty quickly after that.

    I think a lot of that is the genre whiplash – I mean, it’s the one show where I honestly don’t have much idea what I’m getting from one week to the next – the idol thing was unexpected enough, but the whole Morse thing was bizarre – though that does have me worrying about what’s going to happen once they’ve gotten all the character introduction episodes out of the way.

    I do also rather appreciate the amount of effort that the production staff seem to be putting into making the show at least look interesting, even when some of the character designs are a bit derpy-looking. Lots of interesting looking background art in this show.

  • omo

    It is a stylish anime, as you guys pointed out. There are a lot to like visually, costume or some of the art design elements. I really like how they do that 2-color filter on some of their key cuts and eye catches.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.