Remembering Akira Toriyama

 

Akira Toriyama

5th April 1955 - 1st March 2024

It has been an absolute shock to many, myself included. On 1st March 2024, Akira Toriyama passed away from acute subdural hematoma at the age of 68. The news was announced a week later. A private service was held with his family in attendance, with plans for a commemorative gathering to be held at a later date. There is no doubt that Toriyama had brought joy to people's childhoods over the years and across the globe, especially with the Dragon Ball series, and inspired many people throughout his lifetime.

At a young age, Toriyama drew pictures of vehicles, animals, and during his elementary school years, his own classmates. After graduating from high school, focusing on creative design, he worked for an advertising agency in Nagoya designing posters, before quitting after 3 years, as he got sick of the environment. Following this, Toriyama entered the manga industry, and submitted works for the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, but things didn't go down well at first, as his first submission was rejected as it was a Star Wars parody instead of an original work, and other submissions that did get published, including his first work Wonder Island, was ranked the lowest in readers surveys. Toriyama considered quitting, but chose to carry own, due to his own stubbornness.

It wasn't until he created Dr Slump that a success was on his hands. Dr Slump was serialised in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from 1980 to 1984, and it was awarded the Shogakukan Manga Award for Best Shōnen or Shōjo Manga Series of the Year in 1981. That same year, it spawned an anime adaptation, airing until 1986. Toriyama, encouraged by his editor Kazuhiko Torishima, would make his next manga series more action-based, as the former was fan of martial arts films. Toriyama created the two-part manga series Dragon Boy, released in 1983 to favourable response and would evolve into Toriyama's most successful work to date, Dragon Ball.

Inspired by the Chinese novel Journey to the West, as well as Hong Kong martial arts films, Dragon Ball was serialised in the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from 1984 to 1995, and became one of the best-selling manga series of all time, having sold 159.5 million tankōbon copies in Japan alone, and was partially responsible for the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine's circulation hitting a record high of 6.53 million copies in 1995. Like Dr Slump, Dragon Ball spawned an anime adaptation, airing from 1986 to 1989 under the Dragon Ball name, and from 1989 to 1996 under the Dragon Ball Z name. Both the manga and the anime adaptation became a huge hit not only in Japan, but across the globe.

At the time of his death, Toriyama was still working on the upcoming anime series Dragon Ball DAIMA, which is due to air this autumn, and an ONA series adaptation of one of his works, SAND LAND, which had a animated movie adaptation released last year, is due to premiere later this month, which features new scenes not featured in the film, famous scenes from the original manga, and an all new story written by Toriyama himself, taking place after the film's storyline.

In addition to Dragon Ball, and manga in general, Toriyama was illustrator and character designer for the long-running video game series Dragon Quest since it began in 1986, and was also part of the "Dream Team", a group of three designers for the video game Chrono Trigger, and also contributed to the art for the video game Blue Dragon.

Over the years, Toriyama has left a lasting impact in the anime and manga industries, the fandom and many other people in general. If anything, the vast popularity of the Dragon Ball series played a significant part in anime and manga's growing popularity across the globe as a whole. Toriyama and the Dragon Ball series have both served as an inspiration for many other mangaka, who launched their own successful series, including Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Hiro Mashima (Fairy Tail), Tite Kubo (Bleach) and Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto). Actor Yasuhisa Furuhara, on Twitter, cited Toriyama as an inspiration for the hairstyle of his character, Sōsuke Esumi, in Engine Sentai Go-onger. Outside of Japan, Ian Jones-Quartey, supervising producer of Steven Universe, is a fan of both Dragon Ball and Dr Slump, and uses Toriyama's vehicle designs as a reference for his own, and German comic book artist Hans Steinbach, also known as Hanzo, was strongly influenced by Toriyama. In addition, there were many references to the Dragon Ball series in other western shows and films, including The Amazing World of Gumball, The Owl House, and even the New Zealand comedy film, The Breaker Upperers, to name a few.

Toriyama has also played a part in gaining my interest in anime and manga. As a child, I watched portions of the Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z when it aired on Cartoon Network in the UK, although I have no recollection of watching a full episode, I will admit, but it was thanks to the exposure that got me into checking out the Dragon Ball series years later, and back in 2014, the year after I started properly getting into anime and manga (I actually started getting into the two in late 2013), I bought the first Dragon Ball 3-in-1 manga from my local comic book shop, and in Christmas that year, I got Volume 1 of the Dragon Ball anime on DVD from my parents (watching it in Japanese with English subtitles), and I was hooked instantly. It also sparked my interest further for other series, including other big shōnen series, as well as non-shōnen series. If anything, thanks to the Dragon Ball/Dr Slump crossover episodes of both Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Super, it sparked my interest in checking out Dr Slump (at the time of this writing, the anime adaptation is currently not licensed in the UK, and the paperback manga appears to be out of print and is currently digital only, but I could be wrong about that).

Akira Toriyama has truly left us a legacy that cannot be understated. Inspiring so many people ranging from mangaka, actors, staff from western shows and films, and even people from the general public, and even leaving a mark in general pop culture both within and outside Japan. Toriyama may be gone, but alongside his legacy, he will never be forgotten.

Rest in peace, Toriyama-sensei.

Magical Senshi Takes a Look at Lonely Castle in the Mirror

 

Please note: This post may contain minor spoilers, so read at your own risk.

Before I start this review, I will admit, I've seen this film once before. This film was part of the line-up in last year's Scotland Loves Anime in both Glasgow and Edinburgh, of which I went to the former (the first time I ever been to SLA, I'm not going to lie). I actually liked it when I first saw it, but I've been told about the stuff that has been removed from the book has been based on, so I ended up buying the book sometime later, and have recently given it a read, and I've noticed parts of the story that either didn't make it to the film, or were drastically shortened, so it'll be interesting to see how I view the film in a rewatch. 

Lonely Castle in the Mirror was based on the aforementioned book of the same name by Mizuki Tsujimura. Released in Japan in December 2022, production was handled by animation studio A-1 Pictures, with  Keiichi Hara (Miss Hokusai, Birthday Wonderland) as director, Miho Maruo (Ultra Maniac) providing the screenplay, Keigo Sasaki (Blue Exorcist) as chief animation director, as well as handling the character designs, Ilya Kuvshinov (Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045) providing the visual concept and castle design and Harumi Fuuki (The Deer King) providing the music composition.

Kokoro Anzai, a first-year student at Yukishina No 5 Junior High School, is avoiding going to school due to being bullied. One day, within her mirror in her bedroom, she finds a magic portal, gets dragged into it, and finds herself in a castle. Kokoro is welcomed by a girl in a wolf mask, calling herself the Wolf Queen. Kokoro is joined by six other children, Masamune, Rion, Subaru, Fuka, Aki and Ureshino. The Wolf Queen instructs the children, addressing them as "Little Red Riding Hoods", to find a key hidden in the castle, which would grant the person who finds the key one wish. But there are a few catches. They have to find the key before the deadline on the 30th March the following year, if anyone makes a wish, it will be granted, and the children will lose their memories about the whole thing, and they must leave the castle before 5pm Japan time, or they will be eaten by a wolf.

The main highlight of the film is its portrayal of bullying, and I must say, as someone who faced being bullied at school during my secondary years, they conveyed it rather well, with students refusing to go to school, or leaving home at all, as a result of being bullied, beatings from bullies (although that took place off-screen) as well as nasty comments coming from bullies, and one thing that stood out the most, teachers either playing down the situation, or outright dismissive and doing very little or nothing to help the situation properly. And it's not just bullying at school that has been portrayed. In regards to one of the characters, there has been a case of an abusive stepparent.

Kokoro, being our lead character of the film, naturally gets the most character development out of the seven children. Throughout the film, you see her journey from making a new friend with a transfer student, only to lose that friend to a popular girl who would bully her, the emotional trauma she suffered as a result of the being bullied, as well as making friends with a group with differing personalities to one another, yet are in similar situations. We also have Fuka, who plays piano and initially has a cold personality before warming up to others, Masamune, who is massively into video games, and tends to stretch the truth when bragging, Subaru, who takes interest in Masamune's video games and aspires to become a video game designer, Aki, who had a boyfriend at one point, and was initially unconcerned about losing her memories of the castle, which was likely to mask her personal demons, Rion, who is a football player at a boarding school in Hawai'i and lost his older sister when he was a child, and finally Ureshino, who tends to be unlucky with love. Despite their difference in personalities, many of them have formed different bonds with one another, offering good chemistry with each bond. And of course, we also have the Wolf Queen, whose identity was concealed by a wolf mask, who is often blunt, strong (well, strong enough to tackle Kokoro to the ground and drag her by the leg easily), and has most of the time omitted stuff out in her explanations, so that the others can pick up the pieces. 

In addition to the bullying portrayal, the film's story often has twists and turns, which make things more interesting, such as the children's lives outside their mirrors (I won't go into details, you'll have to either read the book or watch the film to find out), who Ms Kitajima, the counsellor of the alternative school, really is, and the identity of the Wolf Queen (the last two examples were revealed at the end of both the film and the book). The music composition is immersive to the setting of the film, and more often than not, it really sucks you in to what is happening. And visual designs really capture the heart of the film's settings, and is complemented by its animation, and A-1 Pictures' animation isn't usually something to write home about.

The film though is not exactly problem free though. A film adaptation of a book is not without its hurdles, and Lonely Castle in the Mirror is no exception. Due to its runtime (1 hour and 56 minutes, to be exact, including credits), some parts of the story had to be shuffled around a bit, cut down a portion (some of it, a huge portion) or even outright removed, resulting in rushed pacing in a good few scenes. This setback has also resulted in characters getting less fleshed out than in the book, leaving us a few empty gaps in Kokoro's storylines, the other characters' personalities and backstories, amongst other things.

Our main cast consists of Ami Touma providing the voice of Kokoro, Sakura Kiryu (Nagi Amano in Weathering with You) voicing Aki, Takumi Kitamura (Naomi Katagaki in Hello World, Mamoru Suzuhara in Seven Days War) voicing Rion with Akiko Yajima (first voice of Shinnosuke Nohara in Crayon Shin-chan) voicing Rion as a child, Rihito Itagaki (Heure in Kamen Rider Zi-O) voicing Subaru, Naho Yokomizo (Mayuko in Birthday Wonderland) voicing Fuka, Minami Takayama (Dilandau Albatou in The Vision of Escaflowne, Conan Edogawa in Detective Conan) voicing Masamune, Yuki Kaji (Gaon/Zenkai Gaon in Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger, Katsuhira Agata in Kiznaiver) voicing Ureshino, Aoi Miyazaki (Shōko Sano in Colorful) voicing Ms Kitajima, and finally Mana Ashida (Ruka Azumi in Children of the Sea, Yui in The House of the Lost on the Cape) voicing the Wolf Queen.

Overall, Lonely Castle in the Mirror is a good film with interesting plot twists, and well executed social commentary about bullying, only to be marred by issues of trying to adapt a book into a film lasting for just under two hours, resulting in pacing issues, removal of some characterisation and other parts of the story. Personally, I think it would've been better done as a single cour anime series, or an OVA series if there isn't enough material to cover an anime series, if they want to adapt the whole book. Would I recommend the film? It depends. If you can view it on its own merits, then I'd recommend it, but if omissions from the book put you off a bit, then I would probably stick to the book.

The English language version of the original book Lonely Castle in the Mirror is available at all good book retailers.

Magical Senshi's First Impressions: Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger

 

Please note: This post may contain spoilers, so read at your own risk.

In recent years, each Super Sentai series have been experimenting with different things, such main teams consisting primarily of robots, having the first ever male pink, and an entire series where it takes place mainly on an alternate version of Earth to name a few (there are too many examples to list), and now were onto the 48th Super Sentai series, and the fifth series in the Reiwa era. Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger aired its first episode yesterday (or the day before, depending on your time zone). For this series, the head writer is Atsuhiro Tomioka, who has worked on the Pokémon anime series since the beginning, and while this is his first time working on a Super Sentai series, he was head writer in a tokusatsu series before, in particular, K-tai Investigator 7. The main director for the series is Shojiro Nakazawa, who was previously the main director of other Super Sentai series, such as Juken Sentai Gekiranger, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger and, most recently, Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger.

Taiya Hando, a "delivery driver", abducts Mira Shifuto from her wedding after being forced into an arranged marriage, and ends up in a pursuit. They then encounter the Hashiriyan, an alien mafia gang who invades Earth to gather the screams of humans as their energy source known as Gyasoline. During a visit to a clothes shop, after Mira got into a change of clothes, Itasha uses a Hashiriyan Ignition Key to turn Mira's wedding dress in to a monster called Wedding Dress Gurumar. After Taiyo promising to get Mira's wedding dress back, using the Boonboom Changer, he transforms into Boon Red. Taiya's informant, Ishiro Meita, takes Mira to get to the airport to complete their "delivery", but on the way, Mira decides to "take the wheel for herself", and chooses to fight alongside Taiya, who gave her a spare Boonboom Changer. Ishiro and Mira then transforms into Boon Blue and Boon Pink respectively, and the team comes together to defeat Wedding Dress Gurumar. After their battle, Mira breaks up with her actual boyfriend (who ordered the "delivery"), and chooses to stay in Tokyo and become a member of the Boonboomgers, much to Ishiro's disgruntlement, but Taiyo didn't mind, as the job was done, but it was "re-routed" to the Boonboomgers.

Looks like we're off to a strong start with the series. The premiere focuses primarily on Mira, and already, we're seeing a little bit of characterisation coming from her, as at first, people always make the decisions for Mira, but a fed up Mira has had enough of it, eventually deciding to make her own decisions before joining the Boonboomgers. Not only that, we see her try to blend in to the team with two already experienced members, Taiya and Ishiro. Plus, her reactions to the whole situation regarding the Boonboomgers and the Hashiryian was priceless. 

While Taiya and Ishiro don't have as much focus on this episode, I'll be looking forward to how things progress with them in due time. We also get brief appearances of Jou Akuse (Boon Black), a police officer who's one of the victims of Wedding Dress Gurumar, and Genba Bureki (Boon Orange) admiring Taiya's customisation of the latter's car, indicating that Genba already knows Taiya. Interesting to see how it develops. Of course, we can't forget about Boondorio Boonderas, or Boon Boon for short. His first scene shows him making curry at the team base without a care in the world. But often, he's a hyped-up fireball of a machine, and Rica Matsumoto embodies the role perfectly.

We also have a fun group of villains in the Hashiriyan. Consisting of Dekotrade, Itasha and Yaiyai Yarucar, we see them causing mayhem on the roads while pursuing Taiya and Mira, and at the same time, funnily enough, respecting traffic laws when it comes to people crossing the road on a traffic crossing before resuming their pursuit. One other stand out moment from them in this episode is when Dekotrade and Itashi, while initially confused about what's going on, are rooting for Yarucar when they (I don't know the gender of Yarucar) are trying to stop the Boonboomgers from preventing them from making Wedding Dress Gurumar into a giant.

Following the heavy usage of giant screens and green/blue screens (mainly the latter) for locations in Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger, we're finally back to doing outdoor fights on a regular basis, and we're treated to some excellent action choreography in Boon Red's debut fight. For the suits, I really like that they're going for a racer-style bodysuit, with a seatbelt-style belt, complete with the buckle. At first, I wasn't quite keen on the helmet, particularly the wheel and alloy, but once I saw it in action, the helmet designs really grew on me.

As for the mecha action, I like the Highway Space setting, which kind of reminds me of the Rainbow Road on Mario Kart (I don't know if this is an intentional reference). The cockpits for each mecha is a mixture of phsyical elements and CGI/green screen, and at first, the CGI elements have looked so real to me, I thought the whole cockpits were real. Impressive, to say the least. As for Boonboomger Robo itself, it's an okay design, although I did like one particular feature from Boonboom Off-Road. The Bakuage Driver, which acts not only as a sword, but as a screwdriver, to unscrew the bolts from the giant Gurumars.

A few known voice actors for this one, for the voice actor enthuisasts. Boondorio Boonderas (as mentioned earlier), as well as the equipment, was voiced by Rica Matsumoto (Satoshi/Ash Ketchum in the Pokémon series, Arthur G6 in Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman),  Dekotrade was voiced by Junichi Suwabe (Victor Nikiforov in Yuri on Ice, Absolute Tartarus in Ultra Galaxy Fight), Itasha was voiced by Nana Mizuki (Tsubasa Kazanari in Symphogear, Pxycholon in Super Hero Taisen Z), Yaiyai Yarucar was voiced by Sumire Morohoshi (Emma in The Promised Neverland, Kyōka Izumi in Bungo Stray Dogs) and the monster of the week, Wedding Dress Gurumar was voiced by Masaharu Satō (Buffaloman in Kinnikuman, Khan Digifer in Gridman the Hyper Agent).

Overall, the premiere of Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger has been strong throughout, with exciting moments, brilliant action choreography, and a great introduction to some of our characters. Hopefully, they'll keep it up in future episodes. While people have said that the series takes a back to basics approach, I wouldn't be so sure yet, as this is only the beginning of what's to come.

Opinion Piece: As If Things With Crunchyroll Couldn't Possibly Get Any Worse

You folks may remember I did a post about the Crunchyroll monopoly back in November last year, and since then, things with Crunchyroll have gotten worse. A whole lot worse. In a recent interview with technology news website The Verge on its Decoder podcast, Rahul Purini, the president of Crunchyroll, has confirmed the company is testing generative AI for its subtitles and closed captions, to assist users in personalising their experience and discovering titles, and in general for different workflows of the company. This does not sound good. 

AI translations have so many issues. The translations are done with a machine, which basically guesses the translations, and lead to either stilted or just outright inaccurate translations, and takes away the livelihoods of actual translators. In comparison, when humans do the translations, most of the time you can really tell that work has been put into them. Of course, not every translation has been perfect. There have been some questionable translation choices (e.g. certain localisations, certain words being left untranslated, literal translations that don't always make sense, etc.), and while I don't agree with certain translation choices, I would rather a human do the translations than a machine any day. And to be fair, there are certain factors for why certain human made translations were subpar (and for some, that might be putting it lightly), ranging from work conditions, tight scheduling, experience and pay (and Crunchyroll are notorious for underpaying their staff).

Crunchyroll already had complaints for using AI translations. Last October, when The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons came out on Crunchyroll on the day of its release, it had considerable errors in the subtitle translation, resulting in many complaints. Following this, Crunchyroll took the episode down without making a statement about it. Later that day, they restored it with the same subtitles in the United States, but not in other countries or territories. They later told Anime News Network the next day that they were working with the licensor of the series for updated subtitles. The following Wednesday, the episode was re-uploaded with an updated, more improved subtitle translation, so surely they should've known that AI translations were a bad idea since then.

But that's not the end of it. There were many subtitling issues on the Crunchyroll add-on on Prime Video. One example, as seen on this screenshot from the Anime UK News forums below, mentions various subtitling errors on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba - Entertainment District Arc, and within the first minute the character of Kyojuro Rengoku was misspelled as Goku and Rococo amongst other things. It was also mentioned that the subtitles occasionally read like the auto-translated subtitles seen on YouTube, which would mean the subtitles are possibly AI translations. Interestingly, they're not the same subtitle translations as on Crunchyroll itself, so it's unknown if either Crunchyroll or Amazon are at fault with this one. And it seems it's not an isolated incident as people have complained on Twitter about the subtitle translations in recent months as well.

Crunchyroll aren't the only offenders regarding AI subtitle translations. Recently, the official Garo Project YouTube channel has been uploading episodes of the currently-airing series Garo: Heir to Steel Armor, with English subtitles, the same way Tsuburaya has been uploading recent Ultra series as each one airs. The only problem is, however, the subtitles are AI translated. This has understandably caused upset for some tokusatsu fans, although others weren't as fussed about it and still chose to watch it with the AI subtitles anyway. From the bits I've seen (I only watched portions of the episodes to check the translation), the subtitle translation was a bit stilted. It's a real shame that something like this has happened. It should be noted that, as of this writing, only episodes 1, 2, 6 and 7 are available, with episodes 3, 4 and 5 taken down, so if people never got the chance to check out those episodes, or if they would rather not watch it with the AI translation, they might have to resort to fansubs (and yes, there is a fansub group out there, whose name I will not be mentioning on here, translating the series). And by the way things are going, if Crunchyroll makes AI translations a long term thing after testing it, it could lead to more people resorting to fansubs for these titles, and this can't be good for business.

I thought after the debacle with The Yuzuki Family's Four Sons that Crunchyroll have learnt their lesson. How wrong I was. People could lose their jobs because of this, all because a big company wants to save money by cutting corners on translations. Pure capitalism right there. And I don't think this will limit to their streaming service. I reckon home video releases will be affected later down the line too, but I would like to be proven wrong. I just hope the AI tests fail, because if they succeed, then I reckon more people will resort to piracy, and that won't be a good look on them at all.

Magical Senshi Takes a Look at Yuri on Ice

 

This post may contain spoilers, so please read with caution.

I held this off for too long. 8 years too long. Yuri on Ice first went to air in Japan from October to December 2016, was well received in Japan, and was the next most talked about anime series across social media, and gained praise from professional figure skaters, with some skaters even using music from the show for their performances in the 2018 Winter Olympics. It was also praised for its depiction of a same-sex relationship between the two main characters. I never gave myself the opportunity to watch it when it first came out on Crunchyroll, instead prioritising five other anime series (Long Riders, Scorching Ping Pong Girls, Nanbaka, Twin Star Exorcists and Bungo Stray Dogs Season 2), plus three tokusatsu series that were on the air at the time (Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger, Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and Ultraman Orb). After seeing how popular it was, I blind-bought the Blu-ray when it came out in the UK, and I kept meaning to watch it on multiple occasions, but ended up prioritising other shows in my back catalogue instead. But now, I finally gave it a watch to find out if it was as great as people say it is.

The anime series was produced by animation studio MAPPA (Banana Fish, Terror in Resonance), written and directed by Sayo Yamamoto (Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, Michiko & Hatchin), with original scripts written by Mitsurou Kubo under the supervision of chief director Jun Shishido.

After a humiliating loss in the Grand Prix finals, as well as other competition losses, Yuri Katsuki was ready to give up his career in figure skating for good, and returned home to Hasetsu in Kyushu after five years overseas. At his visit to his local ice rink, Ice Castle Hasetsu, he perfectly mimics his idol, five-times Russian figure skating champion Victor Nikiforov, but after a secretly filmed video of Yuri's imitation was uploaded to the internet, grabbing Victor's attention, Victor travelled to Hasetsu and gave Yuri a surprising offer - Victor will become Yuri's coach. 

This news doesn't go down well for Russian prodigy skater, Yuri Plisetsky, who travels to Hasetsu himself to make Victor keep a promise he made to choreograph a programme for his senior debut. Following this, Victor made both Yuris compete against each other to decide who he will coach. Yuri K's performance wins over Yuri P's, with Victor becoming Yuri K's coach. With Yuri P returning to Russia, both Yuris vow to win the Grand Prix championship. As Victor starts coaching Yuri for the Grand Prix series, the two got more and more infatuated with each other, and their relationship takes a different turn.

We have a vast array of characters throughout the series, including those from different nationalities, such as Japan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, South Korea, the United States, Czech Republic and Thailand, giving us a diverse set of characters, without any obvious stereotypes implemented into these characters, instead giving each character their own identity.

Our main characters, Yuri Katsuki, Victor Nikiforov and Yuri Plisetsky (nicknamed Yurio sometime after his arrival in Japan) all have differing personalities, which makes their chemistries with one another more interesting. Yuri K is sensitive and shy, and as a result of his previous failures, lacks self-esteem and often becomes anxious, Victor is more carefree and whimsical, and can sometimes be forgetful, as proven when he had forgotten his promise to Yuri P, while Yuri P is often aggressive and arrogant, but he does have a kind side. They have shown some character growth throughout. Yuri K, through Victor's tutelage, slowly improves his skating skills, despite a few hiccups along the way, and gaining some confidence, although he still had shown signs of anxiety on a few occasions. Yuri P had a grudge against Yuri K at first, amplified when Victor became the latter's coach, but as the series progresses, Yuri P put his grudge behind him when he gave Yuri K as an early birthday present one of the pork cutlet pirozhkis Yuri P's grandfather gave to him earlier, showing an early sign of friendship. And in the Grand Prix Final, when Yuri K intended on retiring from figure skating after the GPF, Yuri P uses his free skate to convey to Yuri K that he desires to continue competing against him.

The biggest highlight of the series is the same-sex relationship between Yuri K and Victor. While other anime prior to this had same-sex relationships before, this one takes a different, more mutual approach. At first, the relationship appears subtle, but becomes more profound as the series went on, and often brought heartwarming moments, such as when Yuri bought matching rings for himself and Victor, who referred to them as "engagement rings" in episode 10, Victor being reduced to tears objecting to the idea of Yuri retiring near the finale, and probably the most notable moment of the series, is when they finally kissed at the end of episode 7 (although some people found this scene ambiguous, due to Victor's arm obscuring his and Yuri's faces). The end of episode 10 did bring us a funny moment in a flashback scene of the post-GPF banquet the previous year, when a drunken Yuri challenged everyone to a dance-off (this included pole dancing), and also revealed how Victor and Yuri first met.

The supporting characters, and there are a lot of them, and while they're not focused on as much, their differing personalities are enough to stand out amongst one another, and make them just as memorable as the main characters. This includes, but not limited to, Jean-Jacques "JJ" Leroy, known for his "JJ Style" pose, in addition as his egoistic personality, Phichit Chulanont, who was previously Yuri's rink mate and college roommate during their time in Detroit, Otabek Altin, a stoic individual who befriended Yuri P after attending the latter's coach Yakov's training camps, Michele "Mickey" Crispino, who has an unhealthy attachment to his twin sister Sara, and Christophe "Chris" Giacometti, who has a healthy rivalry with Victor and is known for his sex appeal. And we can't forget about the Nishigōri triplets, Axel, Lutz and Loop, who provide us with many funny moments throughout the series.

The choreography, and it's not something I normally say about an anime series, was provided by Kenji Miyamoto, a figure skating choreographer, coach and former ice dancer. And I have to say, utilising his choreography into the animation was one impressive feat, with Miyamoto giving each skater their own unique style. As the the performances themselves, you can really sense the emotion put into them by the characters, with each having their own little theme intertwined, including that of Georgi Popovich, whose performance represented the end of his relationship with ice dancer Anya. As for the theme song? Oh my goodness, what a song! The instruments, the lyrics, the vocals by Dean Fujioka, amazing! Definitely fitting for the ice skating theme of the series.

For voice actor enthusiasts, the series has the vocal talents of Toshiyuki Toyonaga (Mikado Ryugamine in Durarara!!, Hideyoshi Nagachika in Tokyo Ghoul) as Yuri K, Junichi Suwabe (Dandy in Space Dandy, Absolute Tartarus in Ultra Galaxy Fight) as Victor, Koki Uchiyama (Raku Ichijou in Nisekoi, Desast in Kamen Rider Saber) as Yuri P, Mamoru Miyano (Setsuna F Seiei in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Ultraman Zero in the Ultra Series) as JJ and Ayumu Murase (Shoyo Hinata in Haikyu!!, Don Murasame in Avataro Sentai Donbrothers) as Kenjiro to name a few. And not only that, retired champion figure skaters Nobunari Oda (Japan) and Stéphane Lambiel (Switzerland) voiced themselves near the end of the series, with Lambiel speaking in his native French.

One thing worth mentioning, in April 2017, a Yuri on Ice film was announced, with the title announced in July 2018 as Yuri on Ice the Movie: Ice Adolescence, with the primary production staff due to return, including Yamamoto and Kubo. The film was due to be released sometime in 2019, but was delayed until a later date. A teaser trailer was released in Japan in January 2019 and the rest of the world in November 2020, but as of this writing, the delayed release date is currently unknown.

Overall, Yuri on Ice has stood the test of time, with characters you can really feel for, and their representation of same-sex relationships in a country where despite public support for it, same-sex marriage is still not legalised in Japan (as of this writing). Plus the stunning choreography and the captivating story really seals the deal. It was well worth the praise and if you haven't already, put it on your watch list, ASAP! And I just hope the movie actually gets a release one day.

Highly recommended!

Opinion Piece: Crunchyroll - A Disastrous Monopoly

 

People in the anime fandom have been familiar with the Crunchyroll brand for so many years. When it all began in 2006, it was a streaming site which hosted pirated content, before becoming a legal streaming site in 2009. Over the following years, Crunchyroll has hosted so many different anime titles, as well as making digital manga legally accessible since 2013. But nowadays, Crunchyroll, under Sony Pictures Entertainment, has not been seen in a positive light with much of the anime fandom, and it's not hard to see why.

In 2021, Sony Pictures Entertainment, who purchased Funimation in 2018, completed the acquisition of Crunchyroll, which included the US only streaming service, VRV. Since then, it was feared that the Funimation brand would wipe out the Crunchyroll brand. However, it was the other way round, with Crunchyroll wiping the Funimation brand, with home video titles from June 2022 onwards released under the Crunchyroll brand. In addition, many Funimation titles are being transferred over to Crunchyroll in blocks. Although as of this writing, the Funimation streaming service is still active.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the other streaming services that Crunchyroll had ownership of. VRV, which launched in the US in November 2016, was shut down in April 2023. VRV previously hosted content from other partners, including Rooster Teeth, Boomerang, Funimation, HIDIVE (which replaced Funimation) and Cartoon Hangover, to name a few. And that's not all. After 14 years, Wakanim, a European streaming service based in France, was shut down in the beginning of November 2023. As for Crunchyroll itself, it has been announced that the Crunchyroll manga service, which allowed people legal access to digital manga, including the latest chapters, for the past 10 years, is to be shut down in December 2023.

In the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, following Crunchyroll's rebranding of Funimation UK and Ireland (previously Manga Entertainment) and Madman Anime Group respectively, staff from these territories were sacked, meaning that any communication between fans and their local branches is no longer existent. Various home video titles released in North America have not seen the light of day in the UK/IE and AU/NZ. The UK and Ireland especially. Lately, in terms of titles that have or will be released in the UK, some that have been given the Limited Edition treatment in NA and in AU/NZ won't be given such treatment in the UK and Ireland (My Dress-Up Darling being a prime example). 

If anything, I think they're trying to deliberately do away with home video releases altogether and encourage everyone to stick to their streaming site, and even then, streaming doesn't last forever as licenses would expire. The benefits of owning a home video release is that if anyone bought a home video release of a title and the license expires and/or it goes out of print for good, people can still watch the series/movie, as they still have a physical copy to watch, providing it's still in good condition. Whereas if the license for streaming expires and there is no home video release at all, you're left with no legal way of watching it, and if you're desperate to watch it, you have to resort to fansubs, and that shouldn't have to be the way to go (unfortunately, tokusatsu fans have it worse, especially outside North America, but that's for another opinion piece).

Speaking of home video releases, in the UK and Ireland, thanks to Crunchyroll's decision to create multi-language releases which include options for French and German speakers, this resulted in prices skyrocketing. And even then, some of the more expensive releases weren't even given the multi-language treatment (such as the part sets of The Devil is a Part-Timer Season 2).

And if that wasn't bad enough, as a result of the Crunchyroll rebrand, many other distributors across the UK, Ireland and North America will no longer be able to license any Crunchyroll title, including those that have other instalments previously released (e.g. KonoSuba), causing inconsistencies amongst releases. Although in the UK and Ireland, there are exceptions. Another UK distributor (either MVM or Anime Limited) can license a Crunchyroll title if either Crunchyroll themselves don't have UK/IE rights or another distributor licenses it before Crunchyroll gets the chance. In Australia and New Zealand, since the rebrand, their releases of titles by US distributors other than Crunchyroll have greatly been reduced, which is problematic, as Crunchyroll is currently their only distributor (seeing as Siren Visual and Hanabee are no more), but all is not lost, as Tim Anderson, co-founder and former CEO of Madman Entertainment, announced a new anime distributor, called Sugoi Co, co-founded with Sylvester "Sly" Ip, with the first license being The First Slam Dunk, which was given a theatrical release across Australia and New Zealand. There aren't any home video releases directly from them yet, but it's early days, so let's hope it becomes successful.

And it's not just streaming services and home video distribution companies that take the brunt of it all. In October 2023, after 36 years, anime retailer Right Stuf shut down and merged into the Crunchyroll store, although their distribution studio, Nozomi Entertainment, will continue on under the Crunchyroll banner. Right Stuf has been an important part of the anime industry for so long, both domestically and internationally, so for them to be shut down after over 3 decades is a real kick in the teeth. To make things worse, the Crunchyroll store does not ship home video releases outside of North America, making it impossible to import Aniplex titles without using a proxy shipping service, and the only way to import Discotek titles now is to buy them from Amazon, and that's not ideal if you want them to arrive without any major damage. And to add insult to injury, Crunchyroll had cut off all communication with Right Stuf's wholesalers, including those based in the UK such as United Publications and Otaku, meaning that they couldn't get any news regarding the future of the companies releasing North American titles, only getting a response along the lines that "somebody in management will be in touch". As a result, North American releases have been removed from the websites.

Crunchyroll and Sony have done more harm than good for the anime fandom in recent years. Phasing out and rebranding long running distributors, increasing prices on various home video releases (especially UK/IE releases), laying off staff in overseas branches, shutting down a long running anime retailer to merge to their own store, doing away with digital manga, decreasing the amount of home video releases, and monopolising the anime industry. Crunchyroll has often boasted about giving us a fan-first experience. Fan-first experience? Don't make me laugh! This monopoly has only gone from bad to worse over the years, even during the last few Funimation years. And it's only going to get worse from here.