Common Name: Release the Spyce
Score: 6/10, 2/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Action, Drama, Comedy, Thriller, Martial Arts, Moe, Yuri, Super Powers
Summary: Daughter to a fallen police officer, Minamoto Momo has always felt she has a duty to protect the peace in her home of Sorasaki but has always lacked the courage to live up to her expectations. Unbeknownst to her, however, there are dark schemes at work within this peaceful town. A massive crime organization known as Moryo has their sights on this town as the base of operations for their next attempt at world conquest. Luckily, there are a group of warriors who work in the shadows to keep Sorasaki safe. Unbeknownst to her, Momo has been under surveillance by this group for some time in the hopes that she might become the next member of the ninja spy unit known as Tsukikage.
Review: According to an old idiom, variety is the spice of life. Yet, true as that idea might be most of the time, it should also go without saying that some spices shouldn't be mixed with certain things. For example, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to add bay leaves to a sugary sponge cake. In all seriousness, though, this is the second time I've seen a show attempt to spice up the saccharine comedy of the moe genre with the more serious and action-packed adventures of the spy genre. While I'll admit that it initially intrigued me and had a lot of interesting things going for it, this is ultimately the second time that I've seen that specific blend of ideas and genres fail to deliver the balanced needed to make it succeed, assuming it ever could. For clarity's sake, the first show that I saw attempt this was Princess Principal. In that case, the show leaned more toward the spy genre aspect of this mix but ultimately failed as tried to meld its serious tone with its cute and quirky characters that just couldn't believably betray one another for the good of their mission or nation. Oddly enough, that's more or less the inverse of what eventually broke Release the Spyce.
Just look at these masters of espionage and the ninja arts at work.
As much as I claim that this show failed to properly express the ideas and themes it was going for, though, I'll reiterate that it does have a lot of good things going for it. Most notably, I won't deny that I found myself getting invested in the show's cast of pastel moe blobs. In fact, some of this show's strongest moments are when it's focused wholly on capturing the heart of Tsukikage's student-teacher pairs. Let's take, for instance, the pair that ultimately the core of this show's story, that of Tsukikage's newest member, Minamoto Momo, and her stern but caring mentor, Hanzoumon Yuki. Through these two, the show realizes the weight and drama that goes into Tsukikage's mentoring process. As its newest member, most of the show is centered around a kind of "coming of age" story for Momo as she slowly and steadily starts to understand her role within Tsukikage's ranks. Under Yuki's guidance, she goes from a weak and meek school girl to a full-fledged spy. What's more, her tutelage ultimately helps her develop the spine she needed to back her dream to protect the peace in Sorasaki like her father did. At the same time, though, while it's a quiet journey that she leaves unsaid for the longest time, Momo's training is just as much a journey for Yuki as it is for her student. Disciplined and stoic to a fault, Momo's shining optimism and determination help Yuki get past the fears and trauma she's been shoving down since the last time Moryo attacked Sorasaki in earnest. While it wouldn't necessarily be accurate to claim that Momo's bright and cheery demeanor "tamed" or "melted" the heart of the show's "ice queen," the manner in which she gets Yuki to open up to not just her student but also herself follows roughly the same lines as that standard romantic plot.
To be fair, though, like most of the other pairs in this show, the dynamic
between these two definitely has a romantic lean to it.
As if the story of these two growing through their student-teacher relationship wasn't enough, pretty much every other pairing in this show exhibits a similar level of quality. The stray cat and pauper princess dynamic between Yachiyo Mei and Sagami Fuu, for instance, is fantastically written and quickly made the two of them more than just the sum of their tropes. While, on their own, they still hold to what you'd expect of their less-than-original personalities and associated gags, the way in which their personalities clash and meld and come to form a fairly believable relationship shows just how much this show can do with so little. What's more, watching the way their dynamic plays out in both their shared domestic life and their student-teacher relationship in Tsukikage makes them an absolute joy to see in action.
Pretty sure these two are a confirmed couple, a rarity in yuri moe titles.
Then, lastly, there's the less compelling but far more concrete dynamic between Tsukikage's master strategist/diplomat, Aoba Hatsume, and their socially inept martial ace, Ishikawa Goe. I say the dynamic of these two is less compelling mainly because it gets fleshed out amid a lot of the show's drama as it started building toward the end. Granted, it also isn't helped by the fact that Goe is a bit of a wallflower who struggles with voicing or acting on her own feelings. Yet, in spite of those issues, Release the Spyce does a fairly good job of laying out their relationship in no unclear terms. At the start of their character drama, it is made abundantly clear that Goe loves her social butterfly of a mentor, Hatsune. So much so, in fact, that she's functionally willing to accept that Hatsune has a skill at making friends with others, even if it means doing so means they get less time together. Yet, as romantic tensions build with the introduction of one of Hatsune's old friends, Goe starts to worry that her feelings aren't mutual. In one of the show's best dramatic moments, though, Hatsune goes so far as to jeopardize Tsukikage's security for the sake of saving Goe. After which, it should be added, they actively confess their feelings to one another and become, without any hand-waving or statements about "deep friendship," an honest-to-god couple. So, while the depth of their dynamic might not be as strong as the others, their actual relationship proves to be the strongest of all.
Granted, the resolution of their dramatic arc was only bolstered by the fact that
it was immediately preceded by one of the show's best fights.
Unfortunately, though, these great character moments are few and far between across the entire show. On the whole, Release the Spyce is predominantly focused on Momo bumbling her way through the various challenges and threats presented by the Moryo Group. Played mainly for its comedy, she and the other members of Tsukikage deal with enemies that are fundamentally meant to be hilarious in nature while also steadily building on the threat Moryo is meant to pose. Yet, challenging as some of the fights seem, they always end on a comedic note up until the show's main big bad starts to move, rapidly accelerating the drama and stakes. In fact, as I've mentioned before, the front half of the series affects a tone akin to a more teen/adult-centric version of PowerPuff Girls. Week-to-week, the show contents itself with a kind of "villain of the day" formula that's meant to seem ridiculous but still holds to some warped intentionality or social commentary. From a tiny, Chinese mercenary girl who is, according to her, the best fighter of her clan and an incredibly buff trans woman to a guy who gets off to the girls beating on him and an Okinawan Viking girl, there are plenty of hilarious characters to get a good laugh at. But, in the end, silly as their caricatures might be, they all ultimately end up offering some commentary on family, drugs, self-acceptance, other such broad but important topics.
I'm not sure how to feel about the Chinese girl becoming one of the animal companions though.
Like, on the one hand, it's cute and pretty funny. On the other, it might be a little racist.
As the show goes on, though, more and more holes start to crop up as things take a more serious tone that directly conflicts with the show's more playful and comedic nature. Release the Spyce might have done a fair job of building on the drama over time as the big bad is steadily revealed and established as a real threat, but no amount of built-up can really fix the inconsistencies that start to crop up when a yuri comedy starts to take itself too seriously. After all, when you've already gone out of your way to build a show around a group cute and quirky characters playing at being spies and their incorruptible relationships, it's impossible to really play with darker concepts like death and betrayal without making it feel forced, edgy, or, even worse, a bold-faced lie. For instance, much like Princess Principal before it, Yuki spends the entirety of Release the Spyce talking about how fickle they're supposed to be as spies and how she would betray Momo during a mission without a second thought. Yet, when Momo is the one to betray Yuki's trust, deliberately putting herself in harm's way for the sake of the mission, she ends up throwing a fit. Of course, that response and general mentality are meant to speak to her deep-seated distrust toward others she developed after her mentor "betrayed" her and died during a mission. Unfortunately, the show doesn't really address that fact afterward, leaving that understanding as something to be inferred as it opts to paint Yuki as this petty and hypocritical child.
Then again...that interpretation of her character might not be far from the truth.
Regardless of my issues with how Yuki is portrayed, the point of the matter is that the longer it goes on the more things start to unravel. As it gradually starts to shift from being a quirky action-comedy to a harsher dramatic action show, fitting more in line with the spy concept, the show starts losing sight of what it was originally going for. Even worse, though, it completely ignores the tonal precedent the first half of the show set, a tone that made it utterly impossible to take the back half seriously whatsoever. So, as the show makes its last, desperate play to ramp up the drama for the very end, all we end up with is a needlessly dramatic and tonally deaf heel turn that could have only been interpreted as a massive, contrived "according to keikaku" on the part of the main cast. At least, that's the only ending that could have worked without wholesale betraying everything Release the Spyce was built on and had been building up to.
Even with that knowledge, though, it's not like everything well necessarily end on a happy note.
Once all is said and done, I have to admit that I still liked this show in spite of its myriad flaws. Its characters were absolutely wonderful and a joy to watch up until and after things took a turn for the worst. I certainly found it to be a more interesting and compelling character story than Princess Principal ever was, though I'll admit to liking that show's setting more. Still, considering how both shows ended up failing because they lean too heavily on either side of the spectrum, I'm starting to think any blend of moe comedy and spy thriller just won't work. I'd love for another show to come around and prove me wrong but these haven't left me feeling optimistic. Apart from that issue, though, Release the Spyce still has a lot going for it. When this show is at its best, it is a hilarious romp propelled by colorful and generally well-thought-out characters. Paired with that, the art and animation are fantastic for a moe title. What's more, the soundtrack's bizarre blend of genres from techno, trance, and rock to chip tunes, orchestra, and acoustic do wonders to hype up the action and set the tone for lighter and more somber moments alike. So, while I certainly won't give this show a universal recommendation, it's sure to be a real trip for anyone who loves seeing how the moe genre can change depending on what alterations and variations can be added to the formula.