Minna Atsumare! Falcom Gakuen SC

Mishishi. I know this second season came out over a year ago. Since nobody really subbed this anime short and it really wasn’t on my high list to watch, it somewhat became forgotten. Also, I didn’t really remember much about it except it was pretty random and that they used characters from the series but changed their personality 180 degrees. But when somebody recently had the decency to sub it, I guess it brought back the reminder to at least check it out what is in store. Yeah. I’m obliged to do that for most series I have seen and do not despise. So here I am, watching Minna Atsumare! Falcom Gakuen SC. And without a clue what is going on.

Episode 1
It is already the first day of the new semester and Adol is running late. Not bishoujo for him but a rocket blast into the sky! But he makes a ludicrous entrance by punching Dark! Then everyone falls into a pit hole. Already somebody is in trouble in this underground maze. Actually, Ilya Platiere is squeezing boobs from fellow comrade Rixia Mao. When she senses more girls falling down the pit hole, how is she going to grab and fondle all their boobs? She clones herself to catch all of them! We are introduced to a couple of new characters like Alisa Reinford and Rean Schwarzer who gets instantly arrested by the police for sticking his face in a girl’s boobs.

Episode 2
With a handful of new characters falling into this world of Xanadu, Rappy explains that they have to enrol in Falcom Gakuen to learn the Power of Truth so they can return to their own world. So more new characters briefly introduced like Laura S. Arseid, Elliot Craig and fujoshi Emma Millstein. Because Fie Claussel feels lethargic to even bother to do anything, Tio fears that this will bring her down if they don’t do something and forces Dark and Rappy to enrol her NOW!

Episode 3
Dark explains the academy splits students into classes based on their grades. So while Alisa, Elliot and Laura are in the regular class, idiots like Fie and Rean are of course in the below average class. Emma is in the elite class with Machias Regnitz but he doesn’t like to be in the same class with noble Jusis Albarea who seems to cannot turn down help from others because it is a noble’s job to help the less fortunate. Need your homework done? He’s got it covered. Toilet needs unplugging? You got it. Then there is Gaius Worzel painting a princess. She is so flattered of this honour that he will draw a true picture of her but don’t let her see the end painting because it is a washboard! Dark thought he would be more stressed with more students to handle but cannot be touched when the new students bow to him as he enters class.

Episode 4
A new transfer student for the elite class arrives. No, it’s not a beautiful girl, Adol. It’s a starship named Adari. Local police, Randy Orlando and Ellie McDyle lament they haven’t been given a chance to shine since there are no incidents. But they’ll get their chance soon since Lloyd and Rean are about to commit their perverted antics. Even Adari complaints that somebody has been peeping on her! Don’t worry, the suspect is caught! Adol?! Because he put on that strange facial expression which is the same like Randy when he first saw the starship changed. Adol thought he is treated to nice pork cutlet dish but it turns out to be some sort of poison.

Episode 5
Yet another character dropped into Xanadu. This armour dude and the leader of the Empire Liberation Front , C is wondering where the heck this place is when he is interrupted by the legendary hero, Falcom Man who blackmails C into joining his Falcom Justice Squad. As usual, it contains all weirdoes like Phantom Thief Blublanc (Falcom White), Zwei 2 (Falcom Blue), Gas Mask Girl Parin (Falcom Green) and pervert Angelica Rogner (senpai of sex???!!!). Then there is this red haired Adol that appeared from last season to join the ranks but they just tell him to go back to America.

Episode 6
C wants Yin to join the squad and be the legendary assassin of Falcom Silver. However as Yin is trying to conceal her identity, Rappy accidentally reveals more about her, causing a beat down. When a girl seems to be in trouble, Falcom Justice Squad goes into action to beat up the ruffian. But it turns out they were just lost and the ruffian was just taking out his frustration on the wall. Rappy and Tio are talking about the dilemma of revealing some of their identities when they are met with this guy from the police, Alex Dudley.

Episode 7
Rappy is shocked that even Jurio and Chris from the Gagharv Trilogy has come to this world. Rappy is afraid of Chris’ treatment towards him as a pet. The duo are on a pilgrimage by visiting shrines all over the world for their coming-of-age ritual. Rappy is mad at Jurio because he didn’t make bad puns about his missing dagger. Everyone goes to help Jurio find his missing dagger but nobody gives about a damn for Rappy trying to rally them to do so.

Episode 8
The search for the dagger begins. Chris is asked about her relationship with Jurio. She is shy to mention it. You thought it would be something scandalous but she rates him in between and underling and little brother. Goose thought he had found the dagger but this dude (some police guy whose name I don’t know) suspects him as the thief because of his stupid voice! Shala is looking for Goose but stumbles upon naked Olivier and Fan, claiming they are forest fairies. Police guy beats them up. He admits he got the wrong man but then when Goose starts asking what gives, his stupid voice makes him want to beat him up all over again. Jurio finds his dagger and Dark and Rappy make a silly pun that nobody cares about.

Episode 9
Adol is disheartened he can’t enter his Adol Tower because there is a house blocking in front of it. This house belongs to the adventuring family of dragon slayers, Xemm (father and husband), Meyna (wife and mother) and Lyll (elf daughter). Realizing their son Roas is missing, it seems they lament he has turned into a shut-in. Attempts to coax him out to go to school fail. Herald pixelated Dragon Slayer to come persuade him to defeat the Dragon King together. He agrees but feels it has been too much for today so he’ll try next week. Procrastination? Dragon Slayer then uses his power ring to move the entire house to school, which doesn’t solve anything by the way.

Episode 10
Dark probably doesn’t want that weird ‘perfect’ medicine from Joseph Gunther so he seeks advice from Sword Emperor Loewe to introduce him to his master, Arianrhod to become stronger. He is cautioned Arianrhod doesn’t like humans but don’t worry, Dark is a demon! She is summoned but in the midst of losing a game she is playing. Arianrhod imposes strict training on Dark while she occupies herself with her handheld. Dark is now confident he can join in PE activities. However he has second thoughts about swimming but before he can escape, the girls pull him into the water. Thankfully he is rescued but his tummy bloated. And Joseph thinks his medicine can cure him…

Episode 11
Tovar Randonneur thought he could show off in his special arts class but broke his finger. He is taken to see a healer nun at the edge of town but to his dismay she is Ein Selnert. He fears the worst from her but realizes her kind personality which is so much contrasting with her original character. Then he realizes she is wearing the Ring of Judgment that creates illusions if the wearer has guilty conscience. In the struggle, the ring comes off and Ein turns into a violent b*tch. Everybody is beaten up an amnesiac so Ein explains and describes the joyful sounds of agony when she was whipping everybody. Yeah, it calmed her soul… The ring is sold at Mona Shop although the yellow blob is starting to have residual guilt in selling certain items at high prices. Adol touches it and at first he says nothing happened, suddenly he turns into a greedy money faced bastard. How much will you pay for this…

Episode 12
The town is under attack by Lechter Arundel AKA Scarecrow. He is assisted by the Iron Blooded Prime Minister, Giliath Osborn who is now some lame robot. In his bid to push for modernization, he turns Adari into a giant robot piloted by Adol. However some note they’d rather see Adol getting beaten up. This guy is hated so much… Rean thought he could save the day but was easily defeated. When Falcom Justice Squad is about to go into action, they fell through a trapdoor which is hardly anything modern about it.

The More The Merrier Dumber
In the end, I never really got it. I laughed just because it felt like a cue to do so and probably I felt that it was supposed to be funny. I figured this must be the punch line so that means it has got to be funny, right? Putting this aside, the second season is only appreciated who have watched or rather played the video games in the Falcom series. But even so, I question if diehard fans would understand the joke because just like in last season at the end of every episode, there is this big reminder that tells us the personalities of the characters here differ greatly from the original. Therefore it is just like borrowing their looks and name (like an empty shell) but what is inside is a totally different ball game.

The confusion and shock of these beloved game characters may be what this series relies on as its comedy and laugh factor but as I have said, I have not played any of their games so I am quite at a lost even at all the randomness. It is just like watching a random episode of Bugs Bunny or Road Runner without giving too much thought of where the plot or direction of this series is heading despite there are a handful of episodes that broke up into 2 parts. It’s like there is continuity but for a series that only lasts 2 minutes (1.5 if you take away the opening credits animation), it doesn’t really count. I mean, is there really a plot to begin with? Screw that finding the Power of Truth thingy because we don’t actually see them trying to do so and it is just lost. Rather, everybody gets into short random idiocy. If this is the Power of Truth, then God help us all.

If last season had tons of characters, this season introduces even more. So much more that think almost every episode features at least 1 new character! To the point that some characters appear only for that episode and never to be seen or heard from again. While it is great especially to fans to see more characters from the games they played to appear, it only gets confusing to people like me who are just casual viewers who don’t know anything. I’ll be left wondering what their significance would be and they primarily do not leave an impact since their cameo is so short and for that episode only. Sometimes it feels like they just created random characters and insert them into the episode because, why the hell not? After all, who the hell cares, right?

With many new characters this season, I have a feeling although I am not sure that some of the older ones from the first season appeared or not. Because I noticed that some like Dark and Rappy have been given less limelight. Even such characters their running jokes have been greatly minimised or tossed away. Remember how Rappy is often the running joke as the much sought after meat to be cooked and eaten? Remember Joshua and his maid cross-dressing fetish? Remember Dark used to be thrown into prison for suspected charges on assault or abduction? What happened to all that? Replaced with new characters making their cameos and stupid random acts. But some still remain the same like Adol who continues to be the biggest jerk ass. He might have found a competitor or collaborator in Rean. Then there is Olivier and Fan still running around in their birthday suit… God really help us all.

The 30 seconds opening theme remains the most amusing to me since its lyrics only consists of “Go Fight!”. The same opening theme used in the first season. This time, he usual characters seem to be doing ‘cooler’ or rather funnier poses than before. I guess a new season calls for a new fancier posing. Yeah, maybe you feel like wanting to use this battle cry-like fanfare to go rally all the trapped Xanadu characters to go fight and try harder to return to their own world.

Oh, would you know it too. There has been a third season announced! Oh God. Not more short random antics. Well, let’s hope that this time that the gang would get their act together and try their best to really, really, really, really, really, end the series and go home. I’m not saying that this is a bad series, but I don’t want to waste more of my time on very short series that I don’t hate that I am obliged to watch that I don’t understand since I don’t play the games that I will not understand how to appreciate. Me? Wasting my time watching this series? Oh well. I guess we are all birds of the same feather then.

Minna Atsumare! Falcom Gakuen

Mishishi. Nostalgia. Ruined. Don’t get the wrong idea. I have never played the video game series made by Falcom so when I jumped into watching Minna Atsumare! Falcom Gakuen it was because each episode is just 2 minutes long and it was something to do with video games. I thought I could identify a few. At least that’s what I thought. Unfortunately I couldn’t and thus I couldn’t get the deep meaning of the jokes spewed in this short series made to celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary. But what do I mean when I opened this blog by mentioning ruined nostalgia? Because at the end of every episode there will be a ‘reminder’ that the personalities of characters depicted are not of the actual game and differs very significantly. The change is for laughing purposes. So don’t go crying for blood or screaming of someone’s head to roll if you find your favourite nostalgia character has been portrayed so differently and so comically to a point that character is unrecognizable. Of course I didn’t play any of their games so I have no idea what their personalities are.

Episode 1
Adol Christin from Ys series won’t wake up and begin his adventure till he is awakened by a beautiful girl! Good luck and wait till that happens. We are also introduced to other characters from other series like Estelle Bright, Joshua Bright and Olivier Lenheim from Trails In The Sky series (by the way, is Olivier who is such a pretty boy qualify to be a pretty girl to wake Adol up?), Lloyd Bannings and Tio Plato from Trails Of Zero series. Joshua seems to be obsessed in putting maid uniform on others but is knocked out by Rappy. It only gets worse because Joshua wakes up to his true awakening and starts cross-dressing as a maid. Because the technique doesn’t work, Rappy believes re-education is the only way. That’s right. Welcome to Falcom Gakuen, which also means paradise in ancient language. Is he sure about that? And Joshua is still causing a ruckus trying to put maid uniform on everyone, including Renne and Tita Russel (Trails In The Sky series) and Dogi (Ys series). Everybody run! Paradise this is not definitely.

Episode 2
Adol continues to lie waiting for his beautiful girl… Olivier plays his guitar in the nude while Joshua is still obsessed about maids. Estelle cannot take anymore of this and sends them flying into the sky. Literally, you could say they left trails in the sky? As more people are mysteriously appearing in this town, meanwhile the dark lord of the Ys series, Dark Fact is having a nice bath when suddenly he is teleported right into town. Since he is totally naked and it is against the law to be an obscene exhibitionist, he is thrown into prison along with the other weirdoes. Can somebody at least put some clothes on him?

Episode 3
Dark has been acquitted thanks to Rappy. Seems he wants Dark to be a teacher of this school to rehabilitate the distorted minds of these warriors. A bad guy teaching good guys on how to be proper? The irony… Even more ironic that a minion of Dark is now the vice principal and he is going to relish Dark ranks below him… Dark goes around the school and sees all the weird students. When a girl crawls out from underneath his robe as she was playing hide and seek, the police arrests him for kidnapping. Not again.

Episode 4
It is Dark’s first day as a teacher and he is worried. He should be because those crazy students are just going to kill him! Thanks for the warm welcome. And big thanks to Adol who spread crazy rumours that Dark is such an evil person. He really wants to have a piece of him now. First lesson has Dark wanting them to discuss their future dream. Adol wants to be a free adventurer but Dark points out he is already one. But you don’t get to meet pretty chicks, right? The argument escalates into a battle and as Dark is about to activate his magic, some parts of the floor become a trapdoor and the students fall through. Guess what? Back in prison for assaulting a student and destruction of property (trapdoors appearing = property destruction?).

Episode 5
Dark informs he will be throwing a surprise quiz next week. Uhm… Then why the announcement? Duh… Lilia invites Adol to study with her but surprisingly he turns her down because as an adventurer, this quiz thing is just like any other adventure and he can take it on without any preparation. Lilia finds him so cool. Not Estelle. On quiz day, Estelle finds the question of returning a dropped wallet to be of common sense. Piece of cake? Then why does Adol look like he is struggling? Dark mocks him he doesn’t have common sense so Adol takes out a wallet and won’t return it. How the heck did he get Dark’s wallet? Since there is proof this wallet belongs to Dark, for once Adol is thrown into prison while Dark relishes in his victory.

Episode 6
Tio and Dark host a lunch broadcast whereby they answer several questions from viewers. I don’t know why their it’s-too-late answer whether it is about the cure of Joshua’s cross-dressing, Olivier’s nudity, how to kill a certain teacher that is a demon, the certain looping lines in the opening song and that creature that always keep saying Mishishi. I guess it’s too late for everybody and everything.

Episode 7
Dark is telling to a couple of his students about the Darm Tower he lives in. To his horror, it is now called Adol Tower and he is the master of it. So if he wants it back, come get it! Dark can’t stomach to hurt his minions but he won’t be. Because Adol sends his cute little doppelgangers… Dark brings the other heroes and adventurers back to fight Adol. They’re itching to beat the crap out of this dude. Besides, didn’t Adol do something illegal like trespassing? Yeah, he wants to rent this place out as an apartment. Before they could attack, Adol has gathered lots of books that allow him to fly off to live in some temple in the sky. But it was rather inconvenient so it was placed back on the ground. Which means…

Episode 8
It’s been a week since Adol flew away. However the school is now filled with his doppelgangers! They are trying to roast Rappy! It seems that all of them are from different time periods and they are lined up based on age. They all look pretty the same. Except for this one. So manly. So tough. So heroic. Even with a different voice! Rappy warns Dark of pointing it out. There is another Adol that is slightly grown up. This one is more bloodthirsty and wants to kill all demons! He starts chasing Dark around.

Episode 9
Another week has passed since the Adol clones show up. The original Adol is back and since the doppelgangers are looking up to him as their senior, he can’t even take all the attention! Tio wishes to meet her future (busty) self to ask if Lloyd gets stabbed. Rappy plans to send the clones back since they are not distorted and corrupted unlike Joshua and Olivier – That’s why they can’t go back! Better hurry because Adol is trying to corrupt them with his thoughts that all you need in adventuring are beautiful girls, rich generous people and this winning-cum-deceiving smile! Dark has an idea on how to lure them. Roast Rappy over a fire!!!

Episode 10
To solve the problem of warriors not bringing lunch to school and especially save Rappy’s ass from being cooked alive (???!!!), thus Mona Shop is established and run by this cute little yellow blob. No, not Pikachu. Mona. Rappy thinks there is no more reason to be target when suddenly Adol grabs him and is just buying salt and pepper! Estelle isn’t going to save him and in fact tells Adol the right way to deep fry this critter! To get out of this predicament, he transforms into a rare monster. But like they say, out of the fire and into the frying pan because as a rare monster it is a chance for the warriors to kill him to gain more experience points. Yeah. His ass targeted again…

Episode 11
Since the re-education isn’t going too well, the vice principal asserts his fearsome authority that sends Dark begging on all fours! Dark eats with the rest of the teachers (who are depicted from Kiseki series) and they worry about being disposed when they are unwanted. There is this joke that nobody remembers Grant’s name I think only Falcom fans would understand… Not me. So it is decided to hire new teachers, Kevin and Ries from Kiseki series. Adol believes his new adventures will start here and plays dead for Ries to take notice. But she walks by without giving him a hoot. Why is she ignoring him? Because he is not food! So she only picks up food? Speaking of food, she is suddenly staring at Rappy with those eyes. Oh no. Not again. Oh yes it is. He is her type! Drooling… Here we go again. Don’t worry, Tio will stop her before Rappy becomes fully cooked.

Episode 12
Dark walks into class and finds kids running around? Eldeel is the culprit because he made everyone drink it because being the only child is boring. However there are some like Renne and Tita didn’t change. Eldeel explains that it doesn’t affect those who are small. But Aisha is not small and yet she is unaffected. Renne points out it’s because her boobs are already small! Tita tries to assert her authority over Agate because he has turned younger than her. Joshua wants Tio to arrest him because since he has become young again, he believes it is a crime. Huh? Olivier and Prince Fan Freddy think they can run around naked because their kiddie dicks are safe and don’t even need mosaic censoring! Suddenly poof! Everyone returns back to normal. Now they are arrested and thrown into prison for indecent exposure. By the way, Tio notes ‘those’ are still as small as little children…

Episode 13
The tower has disappeared and as Tio investigates, some blocky pixel character called Dragon Slayer admits he is the one. Tio mistakes Dark for confessing that and throws him into prison! I can’t believe he is so easily framed like that. Dragon Slayer leads our heroes to a place where the tower and the rest of the buildings are ‘dumped’. His logic is that it is common knowledge to shove aside things that get in your way. He shows them the ring that allows them to move anything. Suddenly Adol steals it and reorganizes the buildings. He is calling it Adol Town and makes it only beautiful girls can live here. Tio throws him into prison for unauthorized construction. We can’t get some peace and quiet since Adol and Dark start fighting and blaming each other. Tio zaps to shut them up.

Heroes: The Gathering
Well, it was all over before it hit me or I knew it. As said, the jokes are more appreciated by those who are familiar with the Falcom games despite the extremely different character personalities. For a casual person like me without any prior knowledge of anything, the jokes are only funny because on the surface level. Like how Dark is thrown into prison on suspected abduction or assaulting charges. That itself is funny, right? Anything deeper to it I don’t know.

Sometimes it feels like the characters are turned into comical idiots because they act too funny and silly. Extremists may call it an insult because it is like closely designing the character and then throw away their actual serious personality or whatever past they have and input those silly stuff. Tragedy in that case. Everyone here is so comical. The biggest idiot award goes to Adol since he is acting so desperate for some sort of attention (from pretty girls of course).

It feels like roles reversal when Dark is the one trying to be a good teacher but Adol is just being an ass and annoying jerk just because he is the hero. I suppose that is why this school exists because everyone here is just twisted in their own ways and before they go back to their original world, they must re-learn everything again. I think this will take an awfully long time considering how Olivier hasn’t overcome his nudity, Joshua with his maid cross-dressing (personally I think this isn’t that bad – Maids! Who doesn’t love them?!) and Adol’s beautiful girl awakening desire.

I guess Rappy has become a running joke that he is the much sought after meat to be cooked and eaten. Yeah. I’ve always wondered how this furry little creature tastes like. Tastes like chicken maybe? I guess he is the best school principal to have around because how often do you have a principal that has a potential as a food supply? I wonder if that mysterious Mishishi cat mascot would also be a good food source. Oh sh*t!

The opening theme, Go Fight by Falcom Sound Team JDK only consists of, well, “Go Fight!” as its lyrics. Hardly anything. It makes it sound like the opener is some sort of rallying battle cry. Yeah, fight on, weirdoes. The artwork and design seems okay for a short anime series and from my very brief checking over the internet, the characters do look close enough to their original counterparts that you’d be able to tell them apart. At least for some of the main characters that I have briefly Google.

Since I never played a Falcom series game in my life before, I guess if this is also part of the series’ attempt to promote and make one get nostalgic and go play their games, then it had no effect on me. And oh. Can you believe it that this short series is getting another season? Yeah. Too fun to be too short. I am guessing we’ll have more of Dark being thrown into prison, Adol’s idiotic antics and maybe Rappy being roast over a burning fire. That will be fun, right? Yeah. Some paradise this turned out to be. And don’t forget to say “Mishishi”. Why? Oh, just for the heck of it. Mishishi out.