Level E - Episode 13 (Completed)

With bodyguard Colin outed as an accomplice to Baka's brother and bride to be, and with the prince's (or rather, Yukitaka's) home bugged, for once the boot is well and truly on the other foot as Level E's closing episode begins.

Of course, with Baka's level of rather frightening genius on offer, there's still an opportunity to turn things around, and between some research of documents left for Baka by his sort-of fiancée and a throw-away comment by Yukitaka and Miho, it seems as though he's figured it out - his real brother and potential bride have been kidnapped by occupants of Dogura's moon Magura, in the hope of having the prince marry an imposter and thus creating a perfect opportunity to give the latter moon a fairer stake in universal affairs against their "big brother".

Of course, this being Level E things aren't quite that simple, and while Baka's plans to out these imposters seem to have succeeded to make for the expected ending with the real fiancée and brother safe from harm, everything turns on its head when Baka decides to marry the supposed imposter instead.  Only she isn't the imposter at all, but rather the prince's actual, originally assigned bride, as even Baka finds himself fooled for once.


Thus, just like its opening story arc, Level E goes out on a much needed (and really quite wonderful) bang that defies all expectations while somehow continuing to make perfect sense with each of its machinations, twists and turns.  This makes for a fantastic ending to a series that has delivered some great story arcs early on, before losing its way rather and only "finding itself" once again within this final episode.  It's a bit of a shame that this show ended up sagging in the middle as it did, as it puts a bit of a dampener on what felt like one of the winter's freshest shows, but ignoring some of those weaker story arcs Level E managed to give us some great moments to remember when we talk about 2011's anime highlights further down the line, so for that if nothing else we should be thankful - I doubt any other series will leave us feeling stupid with our minds twisted quite like this series in its pomp.

Level E - Episode 12

We come full circle as Level Ereaches its final story arc - a story which sees Prince Baka looking for a place to hide as he tries to avoid the pursuit of some fellow Dogurians, a search which leads him to the apartment of one Yukitaka Tsutsui of course.

This time around, those in pursuit of Baka are no less than his brother and the Prince's bride to be, as it's revealed that not only has Baka been trying to avoid getting married to this girl who is doe-eyed over him, he's even changed the laws of his own planet in the hope of avoiding being tied down to what he views as an overly conservative woman and his even more irritating (to Baka at least) younger brother.

With that law stating that he has to step aside in the ascendancy to the thrown if he isn't married by the time he "comes of age" (which is one month away), even Craft and company are more than happy to jump on the bandwagon and help him out on this occasion - something which proves to be increasingly difficult as Mohan, the brother in question, always seems to be one step ahead whether it's creating a barrier around the Earth, inviting huge swathes of spacecraft to orbit the planet or performing surveillance of Baka's movements.  Indeed, it almost seems like someone is helping Mohan out from within Baka's unit of bodyguards...

As Level Ehas lost its way somewhat over recent weeks, I'm sure I'm not the only one looking fondly back to those earlier episodes and hoping for more of the same - in some ways, this final story arc is the answer to our prayers as it properly reunites Baka and Yukitaka to make their most of their dynamic while also throwing them into the midst of a reasonably interesting plot for any such character dynamics to work with.  However, even despite all that this isn't quite the Level E we loved earlier this season, as it struggles to really extract much humour from its scenario (managing only the odd smile and very few laughs) - perhaps its major characters simply don't stand up to a sustained period in the spotlight over thirteen episodes?  It would be too harsh to just these final episodes before this story as finished (we've learned all about the twists this show loves to hold in reserve by now), but I get the feeling this might be an okay but unspectacular end to a show that promised so much more early on.

Level E - Episode 11

The Koshien stadium.... the one place where every up and coming baseball star wants to end up.  Then again, there are probably better ways to get there than seemingly finding yourself abducted by aliens and dumped into an eerie, silent replica of the stadium.

However, it's exactly this dilemma that the Kisaragi High School baseball team find themselves thrust into - a team which includes our friend Yukitaka from Level E's first story arc of course.  While it initially seems that the team have actually been transported, bus and all, from the middle of the highway to this famous stadium, it soon transpires that the Koshien they're standing in isn't the real deal, and it quickly becomes apparent that this location is little more than the figment of someone's imagination.

So, the team have been sucked subconsciously into someone else's dream, like a sports fanatics version of Inception - but how do they get out in time for the big game?  Luckily (and I use that word loosely) for them, our much-loved alien Prince has come along for the ride by smuggling himself into the back of the bus... although his suggestions as to how to escape prove to be useless as we learn the true extent of what has happened to the team and why courtesy of Craft and company on the outside.

While part of me gets the feeling that this instalment was just an excuse to squeeze a baseball episode in the series, the bigger problem on this occasion was that this particular story (much like last week's instalment) simply wasn't that gripping in terms of either concept or execution, and it certainly had none of the twists or turns that delighted us during earlier story arcs.  On the positive side of things, there were a fistful of full-on laugh out loud moments, so I can't fault the episode's entertainment value too much, and in terms of visual execution everything was nailed on pretty much perfectly as per usual.  In short, I quite enjoyed this episode, but at the same time I can't help but feel a tiny bit disappointed that Level E appears to have lost some of the zest it showed early on in recent weeks, suggesting perhaps that it was a bit of a one-trick pony after all even if it did leverage that trick to great effect on several occasions.

Level E - Episode 10

After a disappointing end to its previous outing, it's new story arc time for Level E via another one-shot episode - this time, introducing us to a rather charming mermaid-esque alien with a penchant for skewering anyone who lies to her instinctively with her tongue (an ability which makes her my new number one candidate to appear on any future series of Big Brother, incidentally).

Anyhow, despite this rather fearsome trait our lovely lady mermaid appears to be at the mercy of three criminal types, who use her rarity to sell her at great cost and then wait for the buyer to lie to their new purchase before picking her up again, rinsing and repeating.  However, something clearly seems to have changed as, after this introduction, the next we see of said alien is her slumped and blood-stained against a tree.  This sight is discovered by none other than Shimizu, one of the Colour Rangers from a couple of story arcs ago who is coming to terms with the sudden news that his family is moving to America.

While Shimizu goes to find his friends so that they can help, our mermaid decides to go for a wander despite her injured state, so when the entire gang returns they have to hunt for her, eventually tracking her down just as she's about to be finished off by her malicious "owners".  While the Colour Rangers crew can quite clearly see this trio is lying when their leader tells mermaid-alien-girl that they're now ready to take her back to her home planet and that they only shot her by accident, she seems oblivious to this fact and is all set to believe them until the Rangers intervene, battling and defeating this alien threat with (unknown to them) a little help from their teacher.  To cut a long story short, the episode ends with our mermaid taking to the seas of the Earth to find a new life, while anyone who could be considered bad winds up dead.

Rather unusually for this series, there isn't a huge amount of comedy on show here, with this one-shot episode largely played straight - if you ignore the blatant absurdity of the Colour Rangers themselves, of course.  In that sense, this episode felt a little like episode four, which traversed a similar path, and while this instalment too had some very nice visual panache it didn't really match the overall quality of its earlier counterpart, while it also didn't have any particularly shocking twists to offer up either (which really is a first for this series).  Thus, at the end of it all I'm left feeling a little empty about this episode - it did nothing wrong and it certainly wasn't bad, and as a quick lump of entertainment I suppose it did its job, but it certainly wasn't up to the stellar standards of earlier episodes by a long, long way, which can only lead to disappointment from me overall.  I just hope this isn't a sign that Level E is on a downward slide - that would truly be a shame after offering up so many episodes of brilliance earlier in the season.

Level E - Episode 9

As is par for the course with this series, last week's episode of Level E managed to throw in a shocking revelation... a twist in the tale that I was assuming to be some kind of fabrication, but apparently not.

Thus, it turns out that Kyouko Mikihisa actually really is a girl after all, which I suppose explains the reactions of the girl she was going away on vacation with.  Needless to say, this serves as something of a shock to Princess Saki as well, and it appears as though any danger to the human race from the visiting Macbac royal is over as she returns home, devastated....

...except of course this is Level E we're talking about, and Saki has done anything but given up on her prey - in fact, she was bugging her Doguran escorts the entire time, and upon finding out that Craft and company were doing everything in their power to stop her relationship with Mikihisa she returns to Earth to pursue her love once again.  There's still the small matter of Mikihisa's gender to consider naturally, but it appears this isn't such a big deal after all; after a quick abduction, she's allowed back "into the wild" until her body matures to Saki's liking.  Witness panic and desperation from the Dogurans as they try to find a way to prevent the eventual obliteration of the human race before Saki and Mikihisa meet again and mate.

If there's one thing to be said for Level E, it's that it never fails to make the most of the twists and turns which make up each story arc - once again, this episode thoroughly enjoys playing with the viewer by setting off down one path only to turn and shift in another direction; even though you know it's coming by this juncture it's hard to predict, and the knowledge that you're expecting a big surprise at any moment even works in this episode's favour on at least one occasion as it sets you up with a twist before shrugging its shoulder and saying "nah, just kidding".

Luckily, all of this does at least somewhat make up for a story arc which is probably the show's weakest so far - this episode in particular seemed to run out of steam once its big reveal about the Macbac returning for Mikihisa was over, and the ending simply felt like the product of a story that couldn't actually think of a clever or smart climax that would work effectively and so went with some generic science fiction bullshit instead.  It's a bit of a shock to see Level E stumble after being so imperious in its humour up to this point, but given the fact that it still proved itself to be full of snappy one-liners and clever moments I suppose I can begrudge it a relatively small slip-up this time.

Level E - Episode 8

Level E being what it is, I had no idea what direction it might choose to head in next after the end of its Power Rangers wannabe arc... and what do you know, it duly brings us a love story of sorts - the anti-Kimi ni Todoke if you'd rather.

The main focus of our tale is one Princess Saki, a member of the all-female Macbac.  Saki is visiting the Earth because it's time for her to find a mate, a person who she will only mate with once, bear a child with, and then live with forever more until that person passes away.  Sounds lovely, doesn't it?  It probably would be, except that every race who has ever had a member of the Macbac species mate with it has died out within a few generations.  Of course, it's up to our Dogurian "Earth Defence Force" (minus the Prince, who has been sent away for obvious reasons) to both act as Princess Saki's guide, while trying their darndest to ensure she doesn't mate with a human.

Kraft and company's chances of preventing disaster for the human race seem pretty good, given that Saki can't speak Japanese, plus it's Christmas Eve and everyone around already seems to have hooked up with somebody.  However, Kraft bets without the looming disaster of love at first sight, which hooks in a lad named Mikihisa whose seemingly disastrous Christmas has just taken a turn for the better as he locks eyes with Saki, leading to her instantly asking to marry him.  While Kraft tries to defuse the situation by making full use of the language barrier between them, we inevitable end-up with a full on chase for the future of humanity as Mikihisa and Saki look to escape together.

Although this feels like a slightly clichéd concept in some ways, it doesn't really matter when it's delivered with such a tight and frequently funny script, carried almost entirely by Kraft and his subordinates Sade and (hilariously) Colin.  Yes, the premise is daft, and as per the last story arc I worry (probably needlessly at this juncture) about them running with said premise for two long, but as an opening gambit to this story episode eight works and it works well, and knowing this series we're in for at least a couple of twists and turns yet, particularly given the potentially amusing cliff-hanger to this episode.  In short, Level E looks all ready to continue to deliver its comedy goods this time around.

Level E - Episode 7

Stuck on a planet that doubles as a giant, life-sized RPG, it's probably a good job that our forced Colour Rangers are actually kind of enjoying their role as they have to grind their way up to a sufficient level to complete the main quest which might just provoke the Prince to take them back to Earth.

However, once they actually feel adequately confident in their abilities to begin said quest, they soon come across a couple of problems.  Firstly, the Prince has elected himself to be the game's Princess who needs saving (which is of course disturbing in all sorts of ways), and secondly the bad guy who needs defeating has an assigned level of around 1,300 which is significantly higher than any of our Colour Rangers.  If this isn't bad enough, it seems that the AI which controls the Demon Lord in charge of the game is acting up, making things even more difficult and leaving the Prince to have to resign to being snatched away by the game's evil General to live and fight another day.

Of course, this being Level E there are a fair number of twists to be thrown into its comedy blend throughout this episode, all of which work surprisingly well at both defying expectations and being laugh out loud funny, while the rest of the episode also has enough clever or just downright good gags to be entertaining right the way through to the end of this story arc.

In fact, kudos should really go to the series for managing to make its Super Sentai parody last for three full episodes without ever running out of steam - I got worried when it ran into a second instalment and expected to be thoroughly fed up of it by the time it morphed into a third episode, yet the entire arc had more than enough comedy and smart presentation of those comical scenarios to ease itself through without a problem.  That sense of exceeding expectations pretty much sums up Level E in a nutshell thus far - from an interesting premise it's so far hardly missed a beat in delivering its irreverent sci-fi comedy, and the next story arc looks like it holds lots of potential for hilarity as well, leaving this series to luxuriate in the midst of some of my favourite shows for this season.  It's certainly head and shoulders above some of winter 2011's more predictable comedy fare like Mitsudomoe - even though I also kind of enjoy that show despite not 'blogging about it here, for what it's worth.

Level E - Episode 6

Level E continues its Super Sentai send-up for episode six, with our quintet of apathetic kids all set for a mission to retrieve the key that should let them return to their normal lives and escape from the Prince's boredom relieving sense of humour.

After making the long trip required for their next adventure, it doesn't take long for these wannabe (or rather, don't wannabe) Colour Rangers to find their target, Craft; despite his stern looks and strong build however, he clearly couldn't give two monkeys about their quest or playing up to the Prince's requests and so hands over the key with no fuss.  After a little trouble figuring out how to use it, three of the five "Rangers" manage to remove their wrist-bands, even if they have to publicly name the girl (or girls) they like in the process.

Although the majority of the lads are now free, of course the Prince doesn't let them go that easily, and before they know it all five boys are whisked away to a far-off planet - a planet set aside solely as some kind of life-sized RPG.  With enemies roaming around and NPCs of limited vocabulary everywhere, it seems that our Colour Rangers have no choice but to play along, don their costumes once again and grind their way through to reach the required level to win the day.  This seems like a massive chore... until they get into said RPG and end up enjoying every minute of it, as such games are want to do with you.  Come the end of the episode, all five boys seem to have more than enough power to take on their quest and win; but what is the Prince going to throw at them next?

While I am a bit concerned that this whole Colour Rangers story arc might go on too long, and one episode seemed like it should be enough, there were still a few decent laughs to be had from this week's episode.  The elements of the instalment which poked fun at RPGs require no explanation, but this time around we also had some other nice touches of humour as well as references to previous episodes and story arcs which were nice touches in terms of melding the whole series together.  Come the end of it all, this was another pretty entertaining outing that did more than enough to keep me smiling throughout.  Whether it can manage to do so for a third episode along the same lines remains to be seen, but thus far it's still so far so good for Level E.

Level E - Episode 5

After toying with the viewer for the entirety of episode four, Level E and its Dogurian prince need some new subjects to toy with for this latest story arc... enter a bunch of normal, everyday school kids.

Before they know it, these youngsters are kidnapped and whisked aboard Baka's spacecraft, where these five boys are equipped as bringers of justice to the universe, complete with embarrassing costumes which can be deployed with consummate ease.  Baka calls them the "Colour Rangers"; however, the enthusiasm of his young charges couldn't be much more different from those of your average Power Rangers-esque hero show, as they'd much rather be out on dates or generally messing about, while all but the class representative and red ranger are more than a little ambivalent to the idea of fighting for justice.

If having all of this junk dumped on them by a bored alien isn't bad enough, the Colour Ranger gang soon learn that there's an alien in their midst at school - in fact, it's their teacher to be precise, a cold-blooded assassin who now appears to have turned her attention to this ragtag collection of kids.  Still, come the end of it all it appears that she isn't quite the threat she first appeared to be, leaving the Colour Rangers with a new mission - to get rid of those ridiculous costumes and the annoying Prince's telepathic voice from their heads.  To do this is going to require a significant amount of levelling up and a journey to claim a key from a powerful rival... an adventure which Baka will no doubt enjoy watching from afar.

Although this episode didn't hold any of the surprise value of either of the past couple of instalments, it still managed to work pretty well with the vein of comedy which it decided to plumb - hero show parodies of Power Rangers and its ilk aren't exactly uncommon in anime (hell, Mitsudomoe managed a hilarious one just a few weeks ago), but Level E's take on the matter still had a good number of laughs, largely provided by the jaded, apathetic modern kids that are the very opposite of the squeaky clean and eager heroes of the shows having fun poked at them here.  Ostensibly that's all there is to it - a story arc designed to parody and just have a lot of fun with its premise, and that it does in this week's episode.  My only real worry is that this arc could wear a little thin if it's spread over too many episodes, but that's a concern for another day, and for now Level E has left me with a grin on my face once again.

Level E - Episode 4

Having finished its first story arc in fantastic fashion last week, I have to confess I was a little worried about exactly where Level E would go next.  The answer is in a rather different direction... well, sort of anyway.

After observing that it's always the naughty kids that see and find stuff they aren't supposed to, we find ourselves joining an illicit card game in a barn being enjoyed by a bunch of students.  Enjoyed, that is, until a girl bursts into the barn, collapses, and then has her insides sucked out before being eaten wholesale by a fellow student.  The ending to this particular card game certainly isn't something you'll see in Rio - Rainbow Gate that's for sure...

Of course, this situation leaves our four delinquents with a quandary - as the girl they saw murdered and devoured is reported as missing, do they go to the police despite how nonsensical their story sounds?  Besides, what of her assailant, and what if he were to target them?  Despite whittling down the possible culprit to a handful of students, their sense of terror only increases when one of their number goes missing.  Finally, desperation and a recommendation from a friend leads them to a strange building containing an even stranger "doctor" of sorts, who claims to know what they're up against and offers to investigate the case... for a price.

This being Level E, nothing is quite as it seems however, and as per the end of the last episode this instalment once again pulls a complete one-eighty on us at its close to exhibit its continuing sense of irreverent fun.  That shouldn't really detract from the rest of this episode as a story in its own right however, which proved to be an entertaining one - strikingly animated in a way which added to the tone and "pulp fiction" feel of the whole endeavour with just the right balance of extraterrestrial craziness and oddball characters with a topping of social commentary; there were some pretty obvious religious and socio-political references to be found within its tale, that's for sure.

Overall though, Level E continues to delight simply on account of being so hard to pin down - it's clearly revelling in its misdirection and playful nature, and that in itself would be enough to keep it interesting even before the fact it can remain fascinating and very different from typical anime fare at the same time come into play.

Level E - Episode 3

We all have bad days from time to time, but even our concept of a rough afternoon rarely involves a dead alien stuffed in a trash can in your living room.  Welcome to Yukitaka's world come the end of Level E's previous episode...

As if that doesn't sound bad enough, it soon becomes clear that this Disckonian being isn't actually dead at all, but rather playing dead, and once he lets that particular cat out of the bag it's no time at all before the entire Disckonian race are threatening all out war unless they are offered up the head of the person responsible on a proverbial platter.  Of course, our blonde-haired Prince's Dogurian babysitters (for want of a better word) aren't going to give away this important member of their planet's royal family just like that, particularly with such an important universal peace conference about to begin, and so they set about looking for an alternative plan.

Eventually though, time runs out and Yukitaka's apartment is soon over-run with disgruntled Disckonians - but have the Dogurian's had enough time to find out their new-found enemy's weakness?  Well, kind of, if by "weakness" you mean that the whole thing was a set up by the Prince from the very start in an effort to test his subject's loyalty... and of course have a good laugh along the way.  So, any prospects of intergalactic war is prevented, replaced instead by a rush to have Yukitaka sign his autograph for the baseball-mad Disckonians, and three months later peace has returned to his life.  Let's just hope he made the most of those three months, as it ain't gonna last...

Although the first half of this episode wasn't particularly sharp in terms of its humour, this was more than made up for by the second half, which turned the whole scenario of the series so far on his head in hilarious fashion - I can't help but appreciate the way this instalment just grins, shrugs its shoulders and then throws away three entire episodes of anime for the sake of one gag, and to be honest it was well worth it because it was a slither of utter genius.  Of course, this isn't a trick which Level E can really repeat again, but who cares?  Come the end of this first story arc I'm well and truly sold on this anime equivalent of Men in Black - I just hope the next story arc can keep things fresh and cobble together some more bizarre adventures to keep the show running on the high note it managed to hit at the tail end of this week's outing.

Level E - Episode 2

With its extra-terrestrial credentials well and truly established, Level E's opener ended with a glimpse of the true form of the alien being around which it centres.  Or perhaps not, as the case may be.

In fact, this hideous alien is little more than the pet of our blonde-haired friend, who still frankly doesn't have a clue about who or what he is.  What we do know however is that it isn't just humans searching for him any more, with some of his own race reaching the planet's surface to join the hunt for what is increasingly looking like a rather important person... or non-person, I suppose I should say.

The next thing we know, the ever-astute next door neighbour Miho Edogawa joins Yukitaka in helping to shelter our crash-landed extra-terrestrial - not a bad individual to have "on your team" given her father's position and her reliable if rather oddball nature when it comes to all things alien.  Then again, even her knowledge proves to be little help when said alien decides to sneak out and go for a shopping spree in town on his own - a decision that does far more than simply rack up a big credit card bill.  By the time this prince's handlers (because yes, he is royalty after all) catch up on him it appears that we have a major galactic incident on our hands, and one which only looks likely to get worse by the time we reach next week's episode.

All I can really say about Level E at this point in time is that it's having a riot with its premise - as per the first episode, the dynamic between the major characters works wonderfully, even more so now that Miho is added to that roster, while the way this episode playfully and casually throws in a number of alien races disguised as humans asks an easy frisson to proceedings with nary an apologetic shrug of its shoulders that none of it really makes any sense.  Put simply, this is practically an anime equivalent of Men in Black - a comparison that really isn't a bad thing at all given the fun factor available to such a concept.  It's the word "fun" that really sums up this outing - it won't astound you or break new ground, yet its really quite enjoyable to just kick back and watch.

Level E - Episode 1

The Earth is packed full of aliens - good and bad, common and endangered, all roaming around the planet and largely minding their own business... not that humans seem to have noticed this yet however.

To be honest though, aliens are the last things on the mind of Yukitaka Tsutsui - he's finally managed to move away and get a place of his own courtesy of a scholarship as an ace baseball player for Kisaragi High School, and there's even a cute girl living next door to him in his new apartment complex.  What could possibly be better?  Not walking into his new home for the first time only to find that some strange, blonde-haired guy has already made himself at home and pinched some of this clothes, I would imagine.

Of course, this striking individual claims to be an alien who has crash-landed and lost his memory - a likely story it seems, until he produces what seems to be a piece of alien technology to bolster his argument; a piece of technology that Tsutsui inadvertently uses to blow up his new friends escape pod-cum-spaceship.  After much to-ing and fro-ing, Yukitaka eventually agrees to allow his bizarre house guest to stay for one night at least, but before he knows it he's pulled into all sorts of trouble that certainly proves that this individual is an alien, but also leaves him harbouring a possible alien murderer.

As opening episodes go, this was actually a pretty entertaining affair - think Occult Academy meets Men in Black.  While the verbal sparring between Tsutsui and his unwanted guest are highly improbable coming from the mouth of an amnesiac, crash-landed alien, that doesn't stop them being pretty snappy and funny, allowing the first half of the episode to breeze along on its comedy alone.  As the episode progresses we get into more serious territory as our alien friend's true form and the lengths he's willing to go to in order to protect himself seem to be emerging - this leaves the future direction of the series and exactly where it plans to head in the balance, but it's a case of so far so good for this show that nobody seems to be talking about right now.  Could it be a little hidden gem of the winter season?  Only time will tell.