Jedi Make Exceptions for Romance - Renegade Animation #83
In this episode, Captain Kaye and the Animation Guru review Star Wars Tales of the Jedi, Exception, and Romantic Killer.
What’s going on, everyone? This is your Captain speaking, here with another fun episode of Renegade Animation! Now that Halloween is in our rearview mirror, Cameron and I have taken this opportunity to catch up on a few titles from last month that we weren’t able to cover. Tune into the podcast to hear what he had to say about the Disney+ limited series Star Wars Tales of the Jedi, Netflix’s sci-fi/horror CGI series Exception, and the wacky romantic comedy anime Romantic Killer.
Star Wars Tales of the Jedi
The only real criticism I have about this is that I wanted more. Otherwise, this is probably some of the best animated Star Wars material we’ve seen since Visions, and a HUGE step up from the 2008 Clone Wars movie in terms of its visual presentation. Out of the 6 short stories, my personal favorites were the ones that focused on a young Count Dooku, before his turn to the Dark Side.
Exception
We were originally going to cover this on the Post-Halloween special, but ultimately decided against it because it was leaning more towards science fiction than horror. I’ll let Cameron summarize our collective thoughts, but overall I have to admit that this was one of the biggest surprises of the year.
“Exception is an 8 episode sci-fi horror anime series on Netflix that's animated that uses CGI to adapt the designs that were crafted by the always incredible Yoshitaka Amano that tackles themes of humanity and what it means to be human. It leans more on philosophical sci-fi stuff than horror, but that doesn't make it less interesting. it just means that you need to change your expectations and make no exception for what this show is wanting to be about. The cast is overall pretty solid alongside the CGI which does a better job adapting the intricate designs of Amano's infamously impossible-to-adapt designs to life that may stumble here and there animation and storywise. Still, I rather an anime be interesting to watch and talk about than absolutely forgettable. at the end of the day, it does make the landing, and if you are into more heady sci-fi stories about humanity and life, then you will probably dig this one.“ -The Animation Guru
Romantic Killer
We have another Netflix surprise to discuss in the form of Romantic Killer! This is a romantic comedy with a HEAVY emphasis on the comedy, that essentially riffs on the absurd premise you see in most Otome games. What makes this series work is that no matter how ridiculous the situation gets, you still buy into the romance between our main leads.
“Consider this among the top-tier anime on Netflix, Romantic Killer. What starts out as a dark comedy that takes the wind out of stereotypical anime romcom and Otome dating scenarios with our lead getting forced into a dating sim game-like situation, then unwinds and reveals itself as more of a romance/comedy/drama as we dive into our leads ideals and relationships that come with the definition of romantic opportunities and even has conflicts that include abuse, harassment, and stalking. It can get pretty heavy at the end, but don't let that be the sign that this is a more serious show than it is. A lot of the 12 episodes are all about antics and shenanigans. it's a consistently funny comedy with some of the most expressive characters that you would have seen in shows like Cromartie High and Golden Boy. They go out of their way to make everyone so expressive, and it never gets tiring. It is pretty nice though that everyone grows as characters and while some do get the short end of the stick with how much development they get, everyone is still pretty likable and play the archetypes of typical dating sim leads very well.“ -The Animation Guru
That’s it for this episode! Thank you guys for tuning in, and join us next time for the triumphant return of the Ghibli Journey!
