Space Battleship Tiramisu: if at first you don’t succeed, zwei again

 

• Genre: Mecha, adventure, comedy, short
• Episodes: 13 + 4
• Studio: Gonzo

 

Two brothers torn apart by the storms of war are nevertheless tied together by the thread of fate. Destined to meet and save each other at the most crucial times but doomed to live separated by space and cultural chasms. They might be on opposite sides of deep rooted political conflict which has plunged the galaxy into disarray, but they’re still family. As the battles rage on files by ever more powerful weapons from both sides, can this ineffable bond between the young pilots survive or will the day finally come when they have to make the tough decision. Ideology or sentiment? And will ace fighter Ichinose Subaru finally get the top spot back on the Battleship leaderboards? It’s starting to get a little sad…

I enjoyed the first season of Tiramisu. I must admit that the fact it was a short probably helped. Shorts are so much easier to watch. Yet despite all this, I was somewhat surprised to see it getting a second season so quickly. I was also slightly amused by the fact that I was inexplicably happy about it. If nothing else Space Battleship Tiramisu was an easy little distraction and if Zwei could deliver more of the same, I’d be satisfied.

The two seasons came out with little break in between and the production seems to have been entirely unaffected. By this I mean that Zwei looks, sounds and moves pretty much exactly like season one. In other words, the art is pretty with a tendency for bishonen. The voice acting is pleasantly competent across the board. As for the animation, it resorts to still shots a lot and is rather minimal despite the short run time of each episode, but what’s there is well done and consistent.

As far as I’m concerned this is a fairly ambitious production for a short program and the execution is good. Also, we got another delightfully ridiculous design in Beyond’s flight suit that makes this show entirely worth your time.

For those of you that have seen the first season, you may think that my synopsis is deceptively serious sounding on purpose. It is. The show didn’t suddenly become some type of deeply dramatic space opera. But it did, for lack of a better word, mature a bit. The incessant potty humor, suggestive jokes and generous fanservice have been replaced by irreverent absurdist and inappropriately casual treatment of what should be incredibly tense situations.

For the second season, the plot considerably tightened the narrative focus by concentrating on Isuzu and Ichinose’s relationship. It spends some time to contextualize the war between the earth union and the colonies as well. In fact, the core of Space Battleship Tiramisu Zwei could make for a pretty decent war set mecha series if it were given a more coherent treatment.

Some of the sci fi elements were pretty decent too. The second season incorporates much more classic mecha and science fiction tropes than the first which played more with basic anime cliches. In fact, I’m pretty sure I saw a few scenes lifted directly from Neon Genesis Evangelion (have I ever told you guys how angry I am that it’s “neon” and not “neo”? Super angry – grrrr), RahXephon and Patlabor. Parodied of course but without being too obvious. It’s possible that there were more references that I missed. I am by no means a mecha expert.

All in all the second season seems to be trying to grow up just a bit. It’s still pretty silly and occasionally stupid on purpose but it pays attention to its own story and is trying to appeal to a more general audience. However the step away from heavily if innocently sexualized jokes and toilet mishaps might be said to have made Space Battleship Tiramisu Zwei a bit more bland. There was a frantic clumsy charm to the first season. I believe I described it as like it was written by a perverted 7 year old. I meant that as a compliment at the time.

There was something charming about Space Battleship Tiramisu’s childish embrace of its based tendencies. The way it gleefully spouted jokes after jokes that would have killed on a grade school playground brought About this frantic energy that was just plain silly fun! The show was devoid of substance but it also never claimed otherwise.

On the other hand, the more rational and consistent tone of Zwei has evened out the output, with episode being generally equal in quality, but it’s also cancelled out those few little gems. I quite liked this second season for what it’s worth. There were glimpse of a cliched but potentially interesting classic sci Fi outline. The story was much easier to follow and you even got snipers of character building.

But is that really what you want in a show like Tiramisu? The shirt runtime and aggressively comedic templates seems to prevent it from ever making a serious effort at “plot”, so the story always comes off as a background element. I bet more than a few viewers just wanted stupid jokes they could mindlessly laugh at for a few minutes and completely forget as soon as the show is done.

This said, Space Battleship Tiramisu Zwei is a rather minor commitment so if you happen to love mechas or silly harmless humor or those budgie character designs, I say give it a shot. I bet you’ve wasted 6 minutes on worse.

 

Favorite character: Souichirou and Beyond. To bad they never shared a scene…

What this anime taught me: family is a blessing

Still never take advice from me, you’ll just end up drunk

Suggested drink: Tiramisu White Russian

• Every time Subaru loses it – take a sip
• Every time anyone gets betrayed – oh my!
• Every time Subaru eats (or attempts to) – get a snack
  • if he fails  – get some napkins
• Every time Subaru fails to notice something – look around
• Every time Isuzu is cheap – take a sip
• Every time Beyond and Subaru “connect” – take a sip
• Every time the action gets interrupted by a delivery – take a sip
• Every time we see Souichirou  cheer
• Every time Subaru defeats an enemy – cheer
• Every time Isuzu mentions his eye thing – take a sip
• Every time Isuzu’s crew show their love – take a sip and smile