Kemono Michi: Rise Up

The golden age of isekai anime continues and there doesn’t seem to be any signs of it slowing down. Anime fans in 2019 should just accept that we’re going to get even more of these in the future from now on. And joining the expansive lineup, Kemono Michi marks its terrority with an animal lover and professional wrestler named Genzo Shibata. Before actually watching this show, one should take notice the author of the series. Natsume Akatsuki, known for their work with the Konosuba franchise, created this anime and to no one’s surprise, his stylish humor also gets a similar treatment. Does that mean the animeitself is entirely made of parody? The answer is yes and no. Kemono Michi plays on its isekai tropes by introducing some of its standard running gags but also leans more into selling its humor with everything else when it has the chance to. Taking place in a fantasy world, Genzo enters the anime as a professional wrestler. As a fan of professional wrestling myself, I was rather ecstatic to see some classic wrestling moves being used such as the German Suplex and Sharpshooter. While the anime itself doesn’t sell itself as a WWE drama story, it does put Genzo into a peculiar position. After he gets transported into this fantasy world, he gets tasked with defeating demonic beasts by a princess named Altena Elgard Ratis. The catch is that Genzo loves animals. In fact, the first few episodes easily gives away his love for animals that some may even describe him of having an animal fetish. Furthermore, Genzo has an ambition to open his own pet shop one day and being in a fantasy world opens up such a possibility. Looking at the show this way, the audience should probably not expect a serious tone of storytelling. Watching Kemono Michi does feel like a parody at times. Genzo’s role as after meeting the wolf-girl Shigure transforms him into a dedicated beastmaster. The anime makes it clear that he wants to make friends with the monsters rather than killing them, no matter how difficult the challenge may be. His determined attitude and chivalrous personality earns him many friends throughout the story including the dragon girl Hanako, vampire maid Carmilla Vanstein, and among others. But sometimes, he has to resort to force in order to make his point. When fighting, Genzo uses a mix of his wrestling skills and brawler tactics while taking aggressive risks. The anime often oversell his fights by making them as over exaggerated as possible. The early episodes makes some evident examples such as when he puts down Altena with a German suplex. However, the audience may wonder if there’s any sort of character development for Genzo at all. The truth is, the show doesn’t dedicate on developing him as a person but rather how he builds relationships with others. The most prominent example is with Shigure. In the early parts of the show, she mostly helps him in his goal to further her own ambitions; that is trying to become wealthy. She handles his finance problems while Genzo does the dirty work. Later on in the show, she seems to genuinely care about his well-being. Other characters he meets also begins to understand him more such as Hanako and Carmilla. The one character that seems to despise Genzo is Altena, especially after being embarrassed and not helping with her goals. However, this becomes more of a running gag than a moody revenge sub-plot. She even becomes a source of butt monkey jokes. In fact, several characters in the show carries a degree of comedy gags thanks to the brainchild of Konosuba, Natsume Akatsuki. If you’re familiar with the Konosuba franchise, you may be able to draw similarities with Genzo to Kazuma, Hanako to Megumi, Carmilla to Darkness, and in some ways, Shigure to Aqua. Someday, it would be entertaining to see the two anime get a crossover. Combined with the sarcastic humor and running gags, it’s easy to label Kemono Michi at times as an isekai parody. Some characters such as Genzo are portrayed as powerful humans while ironically, supernatural beings such as Carmilla becomes a jobber in hilarious ways. Character personalities is amplified with some of their habits such as Hanako’s big appetite. And of course, some fans will call this an “isekai furry” anime. After all, some of the more prominent characters display animalistic instincts such as Shigure. And while not being an actual animal, Hanako’s dragon transformation shows her true instincts when she’s angered in one particular episode. In many ways, the anime loves to play itself and that can either be something fans will enjoy or mock for it absurd humor. With such a peculiar premise, Kemono Michi’s artwork isn’t actually strange and actually less visually noticeable compared to Konosuba. Studio ENGi was established in 2018 and this is their first take on an anime project. However, the anime itself delivers an adequate portrayal of the manga. The character designs are also made with fantasy elements and in some cases, animalistic traits. Being a professional wrestler, Genzo is portrayed as a muscular man with masculine features. Even his voice delivers a commanding tone at times when dealing with monsters he encounters. The show itself contains fan service although most of it is portrayed as cheeky humor similar to the Konosuba series. And while I can’t say the battles may suit everyone’s tastes, it definitely look catchy to the eye. You’re probably going to look back and remember some of the hilarious moments in Kemono Michi. With the author of Konosuba helming the show, it won’t be hard to notice the similar style of its humor. I can watch Kemono Michi and say the anime is an enjoyable at best when you embrace its humor. If you looking deeper into the show, there’s not much more you’ll find within.

Terrible fanfiction based on a great source material. This is the kind of adaptation that I never expected to experience again - because it’s not the early 00s anymore and Studio Gonzo (of that era) is, thankfully, dead. If you’ve had the misfortune of watching Hellsing TV, Rosario + Vampire or FMA 2003 I can just go ahead and say this show is one of those. If not - well, this is a manga “adaptation” that starts by following the manga plot, switches to the completely original material halfway, and the twist is that the anime-original parts are garbage. Here’s a bunch of ways in whichthis anime fails: 1) Trying to fit square pegs in round holes. So, the manga is written by Akatsuki Natsume of Konosuba fame, and it basically is a Konosuba re-skin. Meaning, a gut-busting situational comedy in an isekai setting about a bunch of dysfunctional losers who somehow found a family in each other and are now busy grinding through monsters-of-the-week of their particular isekai (Demon King’s generals in case of Konosuba, demonic beasts in case of Kemono Michi). Seriously, go read it, it’s 10/10. And what do you think the anime does with these building blocks? First, it tries to do a plot-focused “serious” arc, which of course fails because the very premise of the world absolutely excludes any possibility of having serious stakes or grand narratives. And second, it does entire episodes without a single joke, supposedly dedicated to developing the characters - except “the characters” were envisioned as the plot-devices for sitcom humor and there is nothing to develop. It’s like the production team completely failed to understand the whole appeal of the source material and had no clue what they were doing. Which brings me to the next point. 2) The production team completely failed to understand the whole appeal of the source material and had no clue what they were doing. Couple of times they run into a situation where they have square pegs and square holes. Do you think they manage to fit them in? Nope. Here’s an example: The beginning of both the manga and the anime has the MC deciding to run a pet shop. In the source he actually runs a pet shop. In the anime this premise is abandoned, which is bad, but not terrible. But then they make an anime original episode where literally the best solution for the conflict would by selling a pet to a person - and that still doesn’t happen. Despite the very same episode confirming that yes, they have the actual pets to sell. Another baffling example: A manga chapter dedicated to a single gag. 17 pages of the setup, 3 pages of the punchline - the most basic structure of a joke. The anime adapts the 17 pages of the setup… and stops. The scene ends without a punchline and the character literally turns to the camera and says “well, what I just did turned out to be a waste of time.” What. The. Fuck. 3) The devil is in the details. One of the strongest points of the manga is its amazing attention to detail. The female deuteragonist wears what is essentially a pair of assless chaps - because she’s a kemonomimi girl with a huge tail - it’s an article of clothing that makes sense for her. The chairs in the main cast’s home are also designed in a way that accommodates having a tail. Mind, those things are never highlighted, it just something you notice accidentally, have a lightbulb moment, and then feel good that the artist actually put some thought into his work. Which is why it’s such an eyesore when the anime-original scenes have the tails just phase through clothing or straight-up disappear. A different detail: one of the characters is a vampire, meaning the sunlight harms her. In the manga every time she goes outside during the daytime she carries a parasol (it’s a farcical sitcom, after all). Apparently, not a single person on the anime production team had a clue about what they were doing because in the original scenes the parasol is missing. I mean, it would’ve been perfectly fine to just retcon the thing away if it was too inconvenient, but that would require having a single clue about what they were doing. So the parasol is present in the scenes copypasted from the manga and absent in the original ones, because what is consistency. 4) The humor. The jokes from the source material are funny. The anime original jokes are not. All of them. No exceptions. Without ever reading the manga, you can tell which scenes come from where by whether you laughed or not. They also manage to ruin some of the manga jokes by either repeating them ad nauseum or by pushing things way past their limit. Akatsuki Natsume’s trademark humor involves a lot of comedic bullying, and the screenwriters try to imitate it - but somehow come up with the scenes of the actual abuse that can make you feel either uncomfortable or sad, but definitely not entertained. I’m baffled how anyone, never mind the professional writers, could fail at humor so hard. It’s on the level of not understanding the line between cats being scared by a cucumber and cats getting physically hurt. 5) It. Just. Sucks. Forget the source material. You can look at this anime completely on its own merits, and it’s just objectively bad on the artistic level. Garbage dialogues: “Hey, ojousan. Your servant is shit, let’s make her duel my, apriori stronger servant, and if she loses, then I, random nobody with no relation to you, will appoint you a different servant (secretly my spy, *Dr. Evil’s laugh*), and also this whole sentence isn’t retarded on five different levels.” Garbage writing: A wrestling tournament is under way, there is an ominous hooded figure watching it from the shadows, he steps into the ring a second before the hero is pronounced the champion. Is it the main antagonist (also a wrestler) who was teased for the last 4 episodes? No, it’s a local Team Rocket guy who has no reason to be there (actually has a reason to avoid the place at any cost) and just gets pointlessly humiliated in ten seconds (see the abuse point above), because that’s how you do a culmination of a tournament. Garbage directing: An episode-long flashback that ends on a cliff-hanger, the antagonist plans to go for the main hero. Guess what the next episode is about? Another episode-long flashback, completely unrelated to anything. Comparing this shitty fanfiction to the manga (which I only ever picked up after liking the first and only two good episodes of the adaptation) reminded me of another thing I’d rather forget - Psycho Pass Season 2 - in a “so that’s how talent versus no talent looks like” way. 2/10 for “that’s not how ‘go read the manga’ works, you incompetent hacks.”

Everyone: "Please, for the love of God, are we done with Isekai shows?" Japan: "What's that you say? You need MORE Isekai shows? Here you go..." *pulls another one* Everyone: OH LOOK! Another Isekai! By the author of one of the best Isekai comedies of recent years (KonoSuba)? Oh boy, this sure looks interesting! Me after 12 episodes: OK...meh it's fine.... Honestly, the wraith of Isekai shows is becoming even a cliche at this point, just look at this season's offerings as a whole and tell me if the ever popular Isekai trope is gonna be away at any point in time. For this show, while the concept was somewhatunique with forging pretty much a "WWE Wrestlemania" environment, hammering such mindset is the world's greatest pro wrestler by the name of Genzo Shibata, it sure looks like a recipe for success. Alas, while in a modern world match, the "another world's" summoners' requiem for a hero (being Genzo) was done as means to justify that both axes of the world can be covered a.k.a Demon Lord vs. Hero stance. Just imagine that once he is summoned, instead of being that conventional hero, he just walks right to the princess which summoned him, and delivers a German Suplex onto her for giving him THAT much trouble, hence, the nickname Princess Buttocks (if you've watched the show). And of course, seemingly rightfully so that being the furry lover that he is, he begins to instil his presence onto the Isekai world with his furry prized possession of a dog Hiroyuki, by fledgling his "Demon Beast Killer" status along with pettying the usual neighbours that he runs into, and building his very own pet shop in another world for both humans and demihumans to co-exist together, but not without his supporters on the side: the seemingly sweet but cunning money-loving wolf-girl Shigure and master-servant "sidekicks" Hanako and Carmilla. Oh, and not to forget, that while the Hero side is assembled, it's nothing until the Demon Lord's side is fulfilled in the same fashion with Genzo's opponent MAO taking him on just to see the postponed "World Champion" wrestling match plot being fulfilled to its potential to close with a bang. Quite honestly, while the hints of KonoSuba stray within this show, I do admit that it has its moments of being funny (for the 1st quarter alone). However, it quickly becomes apparent that like said show, Kemono Michi a.k.a Animal Mask relies heavily on the comedy to compensate for any lack of depth on all fronts, and yes, I do mean in terms of the lesser story and bigger character development, of which I wouldn't say there were none, but it just barely stands out literally like its predecessor by a wide margin. While Genzo's humour relies on him being both the target and the targeted for other people, there is a heck lot of banter within the wide cast of characters that are being encountered to do their bidding. Pretty much everything is a copy-paste action that once done, is repeated endlessly towards the same old jokes and all, making it predictable and less enjoyable. Boring... Art and animation wise, it's Kadokawa taking the reins for this show, the surprise being that I did not expect that they'd have their own in-house outsourced studio to handle this project. A subsidary of the Kadokawa Coporation, ENGI (not that DAL Engi) was tasked from this joint venture as the studio's very first project, and I'd have to say that it stands out in quite a fair bit. Other than the unique character designs which all have quite the look, the art itself isn't too drab, but it supposedly has that "shining" effect placed all around, as if there were torchlights to make the overall aesthetics look brighter to hide the low budget effects of the show. The same is applied to the animation aspects, while it certainly looks fine to the average watcher, the incorporation of the comedy scenes were mundane to say the least, and while there's a decent amount of action for the most part, it overall still feels like nothing. If the art and animation itself were a bogey, the music itself was on par, not great, but not bad either. Most particularly, the sound designs were mostly and clearly inspired from KonoSuba, and while we got that here, it wasn't as appealing the way that it was supposed to be. Same goes to the OST for both the OP and ED, it was also fine. At first, I'd thought the OP was very appealing from the get-go signifying the countdowns of wrestling matches with its full-on rockability, and it still is acceptable (don't get me wrong, it's a good song), but that is where the only good parts lie at. All in all, if you were expecting another outing from KonoSuba author Natsume Akatsuki, this show just isn't as glamourous and being all that stupid for the predecessor that made us be that "laughter is the best medicine" and "comedy is subjective" anthropologies. As if the overall score isn't very generous enough, the manga itself is paced differently, and even a bore to read after just a few chapters. But regardless, manga or anime, this show is another good stress reliever, but other than that, pass it up.

Out of the door Kemono Michi was one hell of a romp to go through on a weekly basis. While it seemed like it had little going for it due to its use of a tiresome isekai gimmick, sub-par production value, and barely anything plot and characters. What it did have however is a great use of comedy that made the show an enjoyable ride due to how easily funny it was. The comedy that Kemono Michi uses isn’t really anything exceptional, in fact I would consider it downright predictable. A sort of predictable-ness where you sort of already know what’s going to be thepunchline halfway through the set-up. Nevertheless the pay-off for the punchline are handled really well by going full throttle with the delivery and timing. After a while however the jokes begin to run a bit dry due to how repetitive they become. The show is aware of this, and does try to make fun of how they do the same jokes and bits over and over. An example would be the wolf girl, Shigure, “finding” special expensive weapons that an adventurer dropped due to being knocked out by the main protagonist. As the show continues on with each episode, Shigure ends up getting tired of the bit as well. It gets to a point where they just end up cutting it out with only a few signifiers implying that she’s still stealing the weapons. But it’s self awareness is only a small band aid as even those get tiring as well due to it’s still incessant repeativness. I still think it’s still an ok show, but it had a small good idea that couldn’t be stretched out into a standard 12 episode format.