Of course, one of those things was I had completely lost track of things I want to talk about, so I decided I'd just go back to basics and focus on something I've watched in the past.
Let me go on to say that it's been awhile since I've regularly watched anime. Nothing against it, I just stopped watching it for a couple years after leaving college. It happens. This was something I got exposed to while in college anime club and just recently finished watching it, so here we go.
I first got a whiff of Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok from a DVD sampler that ADV use to send out to anime clubs on a monthly basis. I know, I'm using the term "ADV", so you know it's been awhile. Either way, you can imagine what I thought when I saw artwork looking like this on the front of the disc:
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| Can you see where this is going? |
Now, when ADV would give us these samplers, sometimes they'd skip the first episode and toss us into the middle of the story with the second episode. Which... I suppose was okay, but sometimes you have to try to fill in blanks to keep up. Luckily, Detective Loki did an okay job of getting you up to speed with episode two. The Norse god Loki has been exiled by Odin, trapped in a kid's body and dropped in the middle of Tokyo with his faithful servant, Yamino. There he meets a mystery obsessed high school girl, Mayura and hijinks ensue. Throughout the entire second episode, I can't help but shake this feeling that this seems somewhat familiar...
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| Aha! There we go... |
I kept this impression up until I actually watched the series. And up until I had finished it. Sure, it had plot points of its own, but Loki is essentially a male magical girl, and even his attacks featuring his staff seem to be lifted almost directly from the way Sakura swings around hers. Add in the detail he's been begrudgingly tossed into the body of a child and you've pretty much got the premise of Detective Conan.
That's pretty much where the similarities end. The story itself plays on Norse mythology, introducing characters like Narugami, an over ambitious high school boy who's actually the god of thunder; Yamino, Loki's previously mentioned faithful servant who's addicted to shopping services; Fenrir, an adorable black puppy who's got an endless appetite; and more rather lovable and fun characters that fall into Loki's present life that he surrounds himself with.
Mind you, I didn't get to find this out until I started watching it again years later. Even the supposed villains had their own issues and quirks that made them rather difficult to dislike. I even liked Freya, who's eyes for Loki made her somewhat overbearing and clingy. The only true villain I could see was Odin, who remained rather faceless throughout the series and seemed to have no true motive other than to make Loki's life miserable, and has banned him for reasons that are never made quite clear. I suppose that's what one should expect from a story that makes a hero out of a character that is often villainous.
But that was probably my favorite part about the story. Loki is often a bad guy in most Norse-inspired stories (probably because he's often portrayed as a villain in Norse mythology itself, but that's not the point). It was interesting to see him portrayed as a victim of justice, but with all of his flaws intact. In other words, he's a womanizer and it's gotten him into a lot of trouble. After all, he is a god, so why not?
But here's the flaw: I got into this story, I fell in love with the characters, and then it just ends. There's even a cliffhanger promising more, and there's nothing. It's fallen into obscurity, never quite taking off, and so a second season was never made.
Fantastic. Add that to the list of manga I'll probably never get to.
Other reasons to watch this:
- Narugami's many jobs.
- Freyr and his hijinks.
- Fenrir in all his adorable puppy goodness.
