Gakusen Toshi Asterisk - The Asterisk War: The Academy City on the Water

[Ryllharu]

Description: Invertia was a meteor storm that caused an unprecedented disaster during the 20th century. Because of this disaster, numerous cities around the world were destroyed. However, within the meteor, an unknown element called mana was discovered. It allowed human technology to make rapid strides giving rise to a new species of super-powered humans, the Star Pulse Generation (Genestella). The Festas (Star Warrior Festivals) host battles between Genestella at a city of six academies called “Rikka,” also commonly known as “Asterisk.” Scholarship student Ayato Amagiri transferred into Seidōkan Academy in order to fulfill his own wish, swearing he too will fight in this city.
Shamelessly copied from ANN

AniDB | ANN

HorribleSubs: 01


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What does this series have going for it? This is about as shamelessly generic a Sci-Fi Fantasy Light Novel style anime can get. And the worst part? That's actually exactly what it has going for it.

The premise is generic. The characters are one cliché after another. The plot is pulled right from the How to Write a Generic LN handbook. And somehow it actually works.

If you've watched a series that even remotely sounds like this, you've already seen every second of what this first episode has to offer someplace else.

I felt like I was watching the Even Lighter Novel version of Chrome Shelled Regios (though less dismal). You have a bunch of city-states-as-schools with powerful fighters in an apocalyptic world. Schools that fight for political and economic power. You have the recent transfer student, who pisses off the powerful female lead, and he shows her up in battle. You have the scheming Class President character (though this one is a girl and kinda teasing/slutty). You have the rumor of a mythical weapon (Ogre Lux instead of Dites).

Of course this has a lot more checklist ecchi moments. The meet-cute between the male lead and the female lead is her in her underwear, he lands on her boobs in a fight, they end up sitting right next to each other in class, she's the isolated brusque "princess" (literal and figuratively) who he manages to open up to. His first friend is inexplicably his roommate.

Point for point for point for point this series is a generic checklist of generic light novel clichés. And it appears to be intentional.

The animation is good, the fights are engaging, the magic powers are fun to watch, the main character isn't a completely worthless but coincidentally miraculously amazing person, nor is he a Gary Stu. The cast is pretty good and the OP is also good.

Give it a shot. For every single mark against it, it somehow manages to just work. I tried it because there hasn't been much else to watch so far. I expected to hate it, and I didn't. I actually rather enjoyed it.

[David75]

If you like tonkotsu, you like it everytime you eat it at the same place, eventhough it's same same thing (to epsilon variations) all the time.
I guess the same is true for generic anime.

[Ryllharu]

No, I actually hate series that sound like this one's premise. I'd grown quite sick of them.

Counterintuitively, this series is successful because it appears to go out of its way to be cliché and generic and do it well.

Blatantly ex-delinquent teacher with a nailbat? This has to be on purpose. It doesn't his some of the scifi/fantasy LN clichés, it seems to deliberately hit every one of them. It even seems to go out of its way to avoid giving itself a unique variation.

[David75]

I think I get what you mean.
We'll see later if it was on purpose... Or just a variation on your average generic anime

[Kraco]

The authors are also developing. Think of all the humorous, weird names in Gate, and now the early gorilla villain (which in itself is of course a 100% pure distilled cliche) is called Lester MacPhail (and we learn he keeps failing). Clearly a healthy sign of being able to laugh at their own work and its shortcomings, or perhaps the fact the market demands stuff like this endlessly and thus they have no choice but to keep providing.

If the MC had been weak, I would have dropped this like a piano from a fifth floor balcony, but he shows some promise, so I'll keep watching for now. He really ought to know better than to just barge into an unknown apartment through an open window. Unless he grew up in a ninja village, there's no excuse for such gross lack of manners.

[Munsu]

Not sure what to think of it yet, it was all info dumping and senseless battles so far... but I was entertained. I kinda liked the princess' drastic change in emotions, they were fun even if it'll get a bit old and annoying.

Not a fan of the fanservice, but I'll have to make do.

For now, I'll be keeping up with this one.

ANIDB also has page already up for an assumed sequel, so at the very least this should have more than 13 episodes.

[KrayZ33]

The battle looked really good and while over the top, kinda awesome.
The explosions really looked like explosions, that was cool.

The rest was Yadayada ketchup blood and ecchi hiya crap but meh, girls are kinda hot so its fine by me so far.

I hope MC is actually aware of his "awesomeness" later on... he didn't really try to dodge the fight *that* much and actually went for it, so that's a good sign at least.
What I don't want is a constantly whining yet extremely strong male lead.

It'll probably turn into this Mahou-show from last year(?) at some point though, yet - when that killer-jesus siscon walked the field and kept killing and owning everyone, that was an "okay watch" for me too. The music and animation was decent enough after all, especially that part against the "crimson prince" or whatever he was called.


tl;dr

flashy animation n' girls
most likely "meh" story wise.

[Buffalobiian]

I'm reading through these posts, and my brain is exploding.

reads descrption: don't watch this
But Ryll reckons it's fun
But it's stupid and a complete joke. You're watching this to find tropes and cliches
Still looks okay though right?
No, just don't

I don't know...

[shinta|hikari]

If you don't like LN shounen battle stories, skip this. Otherwise, go ahead and check it out.

[Munsu]

If you don't like LN shounen battle stories, skip this. Otherwise, go ahead and check it out.

Not sure why guys are being so picky all of the sudden, based on description, considering the high amount of shit we watch through the year/s anyways.

[MasterOfMoogles]

I watched this right after Rakudai no Kishi.
I thought maybe I accidentally started the same show over again, lol.

[Buffalobiian]

I watched this right after Rakudai no Kishi.
I thought maybe I accidentally started the same show over again, lol.

Which one is better? This one looks visually better from the trailers.

[MasterOfMoogles]

So, they're both about a main character who meets a red haired princess girl who is super amazing. And he meets her by seeing her in her underwear.
Then she gets mad at him and they have a duel where the MC either wins or pretty much wins.
Oh, and they're roommates.

In fact, there's probably more similarities than differences at this point.

I was really, really, hoping the girl in this show was going to break the trope of getting seen in her underwear and then getting mad about it, but she just had to fall into it.

To answer your question... if I could only pick one of these two shows to continue, it would probably be Asterisk at this point because of the subplot about the MC's sister.
I actually don't really remember anything interesting about Rakudai's MC.

[Kraco]

So, they're both about a main character who meets a red haired princess girl who is super amazing. And he meets her by seeing her in her underwear.
Then she gets mad at him and they have a duel where the MC either wins or pretty much wins.

They should have made it so that the girl stumbles on the dude in his underwear, and consequently the dude challenges the girl to a duel to settle the score. That woud have been a bit more fresh.

[MasterOfMoogles]

That would have been funny. Anything but the same tired trope would have been great.

[Buffalobiian]

They should have made it so that the girl stumbles on the dude in his underwear, and consequently the dude challenges the girl to a duel to settle the score. That woud have been a bit more fresh.

But would the guy win or lose?

[Kraco]

But would the guy win or lose?

That would need to depend on the plot and what it tries to achieve. In this show, Asterisk, there wasn't a clear winner as the match was interrupted by the crafty council president. We did get a feeling the dude was better suited against the opponent in that particular duel. We certainly do have shows with both outcomes, whichever serves the story.

[Ryllharu]

I suppose the dude had won, but he didn't grab her badge, he went for her boobs instead. On accident. Of course.

@Buff
I wouldn't say the appeal of this show is that viewers should be looking for clichés and tropes. I said that it appears to go out of its way to be cliché and generic and do it well. It's the execution that makes this worth watching over the over variants this season.

It's not that they didn't subvert the underwear meet-cute. It's that they did it well. She didn't slap or attack him right away. She calmly got what she wanted back, and then blew his ass out the window. It's a return to the more classic tsundere instead of the more recent trend of blush and insta-rage (popularized almost entirely by cookie-cutter Kugimiya characters).

edit:
Though we did see that exact reaction minutes later on the boob-grab, also well acted (her little squeak). But the fun part there is that he goes for the squeeze after they both realize it, not before in the typical, "Durr...I wonder what this soft thing is." And the whole scene has a nice shift in background music to properly set the tone.

It's the execution here that matters.

edit 2:
I noticed after I made mention of the music that it is produced by FlyingDog (Macross F, ARIA s3, Kamisama Dolls, Amagi Brilliant Park, etc.) and the music director for this one is, Rasmus Faber, a Swede! Who has happened to do an awful lot of work with Yoko Kanno. Very good sign.

[Kraco]

but he didn't grab her badge, he went for her boobs instead.

The fact he has his priorities right is one thing allowing me to watch the show.

[shinta|hikari]

I actually like the source material for Rakudai better, but this was adapted far better than that. I also love the way Julis speaks. The masculine tone clashes with her pink hair, unlike the super classic tsundere version of the twintailed redhead in Rakudai.

Moving forward, Rakudai will probably be a bit more unique because of one critical aspect, but other than that, the similarities have only begun. Hold onto your seats.