Title: Red Data Girl
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Supernatural
Publisher: P.A Works (JP), Funimation (US)
Original Creator: Noriko Ogiwara
Director: Toshiya Shinohara
Series Compostion: Michiko Yokote
Music Composer: Masumi Ito
Original Release Date: June 6, 2014
Red Data Girl is the perfect example of a typical P.A Works anime (aside from The Eccentric Family, which is great): looks beautiful, has character designs that look like you’ve seen them before (Hanasaku Iroha, Tari Tari, True Tears), and, aside from Hanasaku Iroha, manage to be completely lifeless and lack a compelling reason to keep pushing forward. This anime falls into the category where I wish I could like it, but I can’t. It’s simply too boring, has little to care about, no real music presence, and an ending that’s mostly a non-ending. You’d best find something else to watch instead.
Based off Noriko Ogiwara’s light novel published by Kadokawa Shoten, the Red Data Girl anime covers 1-5 of a 6 volume work, and in this 12 episode adaptation we follow Izumiko, a young girl who serves as the vessel for the Himegami, a powerful, ancient goddess. After dealing with an issue in her shrine, she then goes to school and has to learn how to fit in there, alongside others who have spiritual powers. With the powers of the Himegami residing within her, Izumiko is targeted by a number of people in order to gain those powers or for whatever other reasons they want.
My core problem with Red Data Girl is as I kept watching the episodes, the more concerned I became that there wasn’t a single compelling reason to keep going. Ok, so everyone wants to exploit the Himegami inside of Izumiko, but that doesn’t really mean it’s a good thing. In this case, there’s a lot to take in. We have the shrine, we have Izumiko who’s trying to change after growing up in her shrine after being protected by her family, we have Miyuki who’s a jerk, and a lot of other stuff. And yet, after Episode 3, after Izumiko dances in order to please a familiar that she created and she wants to rest, she then is sent to school in the city. And this is interesting because…why? Will she learn who the Himegami is while she’s there? Will she make friends? Will she stop destroying electrical devices there? There really isn’t any good reason for her to go there, and the set up to her going to school from Episode 1 to Episode 3 wasn’t particularly compelling.
Hurting the production is the stories in between finding out what Izumiko’s real purpose at the school is there. The characters, like all three Soudas’, Ichijou, etc, were good, but the actual events that involved them (from Mayuri trying to become a World Heritage candidate to saving Masumi’s spiritual plane) felt inconsequential and poorly expanded on the world Red Data Girl’s set in. That’s disappointing. That’s probably more material based than anything P.A Works’s fault, but I don’t think P.A did a good job bringing the series to life. It feels like they ventured into a world that they didn’t fully understand, forgot that they needed one main explanation in order to let everything else fall into place, and let things go on without stopping to understand what they were trying to do with the material they had.
It is a shame that nothing else worked — not even the music, aside from whenever the Himegami appeared, that was good — because the characters I feel are solid. Izumiko, the shy one who’s trying to not be shy, does change a bit as the series goes on. So does Miyuki, who once was a man who loved to curse out at Izumiko and soon slowly changed for the better. Ichijou was a riot (well, when he was getting slapped in Episode 5 he was), and the Souda family, all three of them, were a delight to see on the screen when they weren’t bogged down by the plot. The only issue is that there wasn’t a real “villain” so to speak in the story, mostly since everyone was trying to get Izumiko and the drama was more personal than anything physical. I feel that was lacking, but otherwise, the characters weren’t the problem. The story was.
The dub was actually not too bad. Bryn Apprill as Izumiko felt authentic, and Micah Solusod as Miyuki was fine. I don’t think it’s better than the Japanese actors, but if there was no choice and you had to play a dub just so people won’t get crazy mad, this will work out well enough. Sadly, there are little extras to speak of, with only a commentary dub track and trailers. While there are some stuff to be gained from commentary tracks, you don’t have to waste your time checking those out. And well, trailers are trailers. Not much else.
Combine all that with the fact that this is a DVD release only, and…well, it’s hard to justify purchasing it. Sure, if you’re into Japanese history you might gain something from this, but it’s mostly a fantasy that has potential but that potential is never realized. It’s not a fun show to watch. You can check out something better and more worth your time.
The following two tabs change content below.
- Bio
- Latest Posts
Justin
Justin is the founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Anime & manga fan that likes to blog about anime and manga, is addicted to sports, and weak to crossovers. You can follow Justin on Twitter @Kami_nomi.
Latest posts by Justin (see all)
- Red Data Girl Review - August 8, 2014
- The Curious Case of Last Pages For US Manga Editions - August 8, 2014
- My Love Story!! Vol 1 Review - August 5, 2014
- Reference Resource Mondays: Let’s Not Drop Out Ok? - August 4, 2014
- Notes of Great Teacher Onizuka 2014 Episode 4 - August 2, 2014
