Seasonal Reviews: Spring 2015 Pt.4
This is it, the final regular review entry for Spring of 2015. It's been a pretty messy season, with some strong shows managing to stick out among a crowd of mediocrity and terribly flawed shows just south of being great. Our writers are preparing to wrap things up in a few weeks, but here's their last check-up before the finale.
Joe couldn't submit any second opinions due to having to take care of his fiance (get well soon!), but the usual crowd should be gathered up there. Jonathan has also taken over reviewing duties for Punch Line.
Dropped Shows
Ameiro Cocoa
Stephanie Getchell
This week we see a different side of the ongoing plot,
of sorts. With Aoi out sick, this leaves Shion to manage the cafe on
his own. While visiting, Ryota talks to Kei, telling him that it's
basically his doing that caused Aoi to miss work. While Kei doesn't
really care, Ryota explains that Aoi doesn't hate him, he's just trying
to understand. Shion, who is seen to be similar to Kei to an extent,
gives his own words of advice which Kei seems to listen to. Meanwhile,
at home, Aoi receives his own words of wisdom thanks to his older
brother. He also advises Aoi to go back to work since he wasn't sick to
begin with.
Blood Blockade Battlefront
Danni Wilmoth
Misdirects all around! This installment's episodes of BBB were
a two-parter called "Z's Longest Day," obviously referring to Zapp.
We're granted a taste of Zapp's daily routines of eating, sleeping,
getting drunk, and having a hangover until a blood beast comes
barrelling into Hellsalem's Lot with Zapp's former master in tow. Here
we get to see some of what Zapp's past and training were like before he
became a part of Libra...that is, until it turns out his master's
current pupil is on his way to Hellsalem's Lot to help finish off the
blood beast. Zapp, his master, and the pupil Zed make quick work of the
blood beast with Libra as support. Zed is left in the care of Libra and
suddenly it's revealed that "Z's Longest Day" is actually about Zed
instead of Zapp, a clever little misdirect for those of us who aren't
familiar with the manga. This is where the episodes takes an extremely
unexpected turn. In both episodes, Zed is only on screen for a few
minutes. In fact, the last time we ever see him in the episode is right
before it's revealed that he is the Z referred to in the title. The rest
of the episode (the end half plus change) focuses entirely on the
relationship between Black, White, and the King of Despair that lives
within Black.
It is at this point I start to feel the relationship between those three is the real meat of BBB whereas everything else has just been fat (entertaining fat). You see, the King of Depravity living in Black is trying to cause a second collapse in Hellsalem's Lot. For whatever reason, he needs Leo's eyes to accomplish this task. He meets with White and hands her a special device given to him by Aligura that will allow her to steal Leo's eyes. We find out he's struck up a deal with White to let Black go in exchange for Leo's eyes. White appears conflicted with herself over whether or not to betray Leo. We're then treated to two separate flashbacks, one that shows us when Black gave himself to the King of Depravity to protect White, and one from their childhood days in the countryside. We see a young White talking to her father about Black, explaining their nicknames. The conversation concludes with White's father asking her to take care of Black.
The conflict White feels over saving her brother from the King of Depravity suddenly becomes a lot more clear after taking into account her conversation with Leo at the movies. Leo's relationship with his sister mirrors White's relationship with her own brother Black well. Leo was Michella's "turtle prince," - he was her defender and protector. However, when confronted with a paranormal being he was dumbstruck and the sister he was supposed to protect sacrificed her own eyesight for his. In the same way, White was tasked by her father to protect Black, but when confronted by the King of Depravity, Black gave up his own body to protect her. Both Leo and White feel guilty for not carrying out their duties as protector, and it is for this reason that White is conflicted. While it certainly wouldn't be easy to betray her friend, most creators would have likely finished the episode with White ultimately deciding to save her brother. BBB does not do this. Instead we're left just as clueless to what White's decision will be as she is. Choosing family over friends isn't a simple choice for her, because she knows she and Leo are in the same place. She values Leo's sister just as much as she values her own brother. It's incredibly noble and heartbreaking, and I absolutely can't wait to see how this concludes.
Strong Recommendation
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan
Joe Straatmann
I could talk about how we've reached the end of a three-episode field
trip arc that includes a hot springs episode and a climactic final part
that begins with a thrilling game of Old Maid (And because it is
possible for anime to make a game of Old Maid thrilling, I just want to
underline I am being very sarcastic if this is the first time you've
heard me talk about this series). Fortunately, we must scratch all the
usual chatter for we have reached the main event. The moment that
reveals The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan's nature to the
world. I have been taking comments and attempts to poke the bear about
how strangely angry I am at this series in stride. I get it. From what
you've seen of this, the natural reaction is somewhere along the lines
of, "Wow, I understand this series isn't all that good, but it's
harmless. How can you be so angry at it?" Because I got to this section
in the manga and read what was afterwards. Without further ado, let's do
this. Keep in mind I will be SPOILING THE HELL OUT OF THE series FROM THIS POINT ONWARD.
The anime is in an obvious forward motion rut at this point. After all, it's nine episodes in and the most romantic thing in this romantic comedy is Yuki and Kyon have held hands for a few seconds. Extreme measures are required to fix everything, and at first glance when I read the source material, it seemed mangaka Puyo was willing to do this. Yuki getting in a devastating car accident is an event that comes out of left field, but it would at least wake up the characters. It's a heavy beat that rumbles across the page as the third volume cliffhanger. As a consumer who was wavering on the product being offered, it was enough to pick up the next volume and see what would happen. If this jolt made everyone realize that life is short and such opportunities of trying to find happiness shouldn't be squandered, maybe it plays some fast catch-up at becoming the series it maybe should've been in the first place.
No such luck, I'm afraid. Turns out it's only a near car accident as even though it's clear in the manga and the anime a car moving at a fairly fast speed and Yuki is dead center, the not particularly athletic Yuki is able to jump out of the way offscreen and only sustains a couple scratches to her hand and head (Anime, maybe the moment after the near accident isn't the best time to burst into your peppy opening theme). I could easily dismiss this and the series outright because it's just so... YOU, Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan. There's more. In the middle of the recovery, her best friend Asakura stops a Yuki who may be very shaken from having a near-death experience that would understandably take the adorable awkward and carefree angles of the character down a few notches and says, "Who... are you?" To the anime's credit, they make it more obvious and make the relationship with Kyon more important than the relationship with Asakura, but still... What?
Okay, I'm going to spoil what's not in the series at this point. The answer is, after much waffling around, she's the Yuki from the alternate dimension of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. That is, the one who Kyon meets in the "normal" world without supernatural trimmings who's extremely introverted and is trying to smash through her painful shyness in order to express the full extent of what Kyon's help in a seemingly small situation meant to her. You know, the character most were expecting when first hearing about the spinoff instead of the somewhat sterilized vision of an average girl with pandering interests to the target audience where her glaring flaws can be covered up by making her look adorable ("She likes video games. JUST LIKE YOU! What games? Who cares?!"). Better late than never, right?
I was still kind of with this. It's a bizarrely sideways approach, but if someone pulled the creator aside and said, "You aren't giving the people what they want and they're starting to shift their attention elsewhere. DO SOMETHING," and this is what was done to get things on track, okay. Cutting out Haruhi from this part of the story is all right even though I'm sure someone dimension swapping themselves would be the most can't-miss thing in the universe to her. The ends justify the means. It even recognizes the oddity of the head of the literature club not really being into books (There never is a backstory on why the Yuki who loves games makes this club). What we're dealing with is a Yuki after an unseen character arc made her confident, smart, and able to fully express herself, including her love for Kyon. Here's the thing: Even after the alternate Yuki expresses her love and meets regular Yuki in a weird dream state and essentially tells her, "I told him. You should tell him, too," you know what changes? Not a damn thing. They try to have awkward "they know they love each other but just can't do it" banter and there's an attempt to reignite Haruhi as a romantic rival, but the former is a different way of doing the same thing and the latter slams on the same bit of writing that forgets what they changed from original canon (It's actually Yuki who Haruhi recruits to write a message to aliens instead of Kyon and changes both their lives here, but it's also Kyon who does this. Huh?). Then they have a swimsuit chapter. And Kyon's sister pops in despite being absent for the entire series and the SOLE reason she's there is so Kyon and Yuki are prevented from having a romantic moment. Yup.
This has layers of awful manipulation. For the longest time, I thought Puyo wasn't able to properly write the voice of Yuki from The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. No. This was a choice and so is every other terrible decision this work makes. All of this leads to one big revelation: This entire spinoff is a gigantic idiot trap (By the way, yes, by me falling for it, that makes me an idiot. I know). It is a lazy, cynical, and mechanical exercise in Pavlovian response that doesn't care one whit about building a new universe in the "real" world for these character, isn't concerned about making a sweet romantic relationship between the two leads, and does not respect one ounce of investment the audience has in the characters. It drags the audience along and gives just enough of the emotional button pushes they want to get them to buy the next part and nothing more.
I wish I could've told you the full story sooner. It's hard to get anyone to believe you about this series unless they fall down the rabbit hole. It's just slice of life. It's such a light and minor work. What's worth getting so upset about? It is an absolute waste of time in one of its most pure forms. The great trick of this series is it takes so long to realize it. I keep saying the anime makers do what they can to make it watchable, but it's like when many of the great screenwriters of Hollywood were called to adapt the novel Hannibal, a work by a great novelist who had fallen off the cliff to become his own terrible fan fiction writer. There's only so much you can do.
I'll give you one last tidbit from the manga before I leave this alone until the final reviews. Eventually Kyon has a female friend from his old school came back into his life and is a new possible romantic interest. A character not having anything to do with this franchise attempting to wreak havoc late in the series. It's almost cute how sad that is. It's like watching someone opening Pandora's Box and trying to grab the plagues of humanity out of thin air. I don't think that's going to work.
No Recommendation
ETOTAMA
Joe Straatmann
Chu-tan is the funniest character in Etotoma. Yes, the
extremely serious, brutal, and nasty villain of the show. Most often,
the best characters in comedies are the ones who don't know they're in a
comedy. Oh, Chu-tan is so extremely not in a comedy as she sits in her
lair like she's waiting for inspiration on the ultimate plan to destroy
Sailor Moon, er, Nya-tan, once and for all. I laugh every time I see one
of the Eto-shins popping in to have a gravely serious chat. If only she
could see the other side of the looking glass. It emphasizes the main
issue with this series: Almost every other character knows they're in a
comedy.
What has happened is it's finally clicked why I don't find this show that funny and why the meta humor gets to me more than usual. Most of the characters are mugging, in-your-face, and fully self-aware comedy street peddlers who will not leave your personal bubble saying "yes yes" at the end of every sentence until you throw a dollar in the hat. The characters I find the funniest are the ones who are trying to be taken seriously. In the episode with Piyo-tan, the rooster zodiac, she's been a running joke the whole time because she loses her memory every time she takes three steps and has had no bearing on the story at large. Why her episode works is that when she's finally forced to be a character, she isn't the sum of her running gag. She is surprisingly an expert shogi player where she can be at peace with logic and the universe, and has a certain disdain for Nya-tan just winging it through the tournament. Her memory problems are not her true nature, but just a funny and at times sad side effect of what she is, like Dory in Finding Nemo. The episode is a mostly silly affair, turning mastering shogi into a series of Rocky montages for Nya-tan, and it's funny enough because at least one character doesn't see it as a joke.
In comparison, the other episode is more what you expect. A cart race where most of the characters crash out in the first few seconds and it's okay because it makes reference that it's doing what anime makers do to keep the budget down. Because saying what you're doing is immediately funny and so is being loud and obnoxious. We've been through discussion and I won't bore you with repeating it. That is unfortunately more of what the series is than the episodes I like, though. Meh.
Weak Recommendation
Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma
Danni Wilmoth
Food Wars continues to remain as strong as ever as the
training camp from hell progresses. As promised, we're treated to Soma's
resourceful response to Takumi's initial dish. Both Soma and Takumi
pass the test, but no clear winner between the two is decided. Takumi
bids Soma a badass "Next time I will defeat you" adieu only to be seated
next to him on the bus back to the hotel five minutes later. After an
embarassing bus ride for Takumi, the students are tasked with preparing
50 meals each within an hour for some bara guests. Soma finishes
quickly, but finds he is not the first to finish the task but the second
as he bumps into Erina on her way out of the public baths. As each
student finishes, they are granted free time for the evening. In these
brief moments we discover that Megumi is slowly building her confidence
as a chef thanks to working with Soma. This confidence is short-lived,
however, as the next morning she is tasked with a solo assignment that
she fails (not for lack of creativity or talent, but for not following
the intructions to a T). Believing her failure and resulting expulsion
to be an injustice, Soma steps up and challenges the teacher to a
shokugeki with Megumi's enrollment on the line.
There really isn't anything I can add about Food Wars that I haven't already said before. It had an admittedly rocky start at the beginning animation-wise, but those problems are long-since gone. The characters are all wonderfully unique and lovable, especially Takumi. Considerng he's Soma's main rival, you'd kind of expect him to be a bit of an insufferable asshole, but he's really just a competitive dork whose interactions with Soma definitely have some infatuation subtext to them. It's funny and kind of cute to watch Soma foil his attempts to be a badass rival. Megumi's failure definitely adds a change of pace, depending on what Soma wagers on the shokugeki. If he wagers his own enrollment, he's pretty much guaranteed to win. If not, the possibility of Megumi losing her spot in the academy on the show becomes real, as does the possibility of the same happening to future characters. While I've grown attached to Megumi and would hate to see her go, Food Wars would definitely lose some of its luster if it keeps raising the stakes but leaving little to no risk of failure for anyone. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming weeks. For now, Food Wars remains one of the best animes airing this season - and certainly the best continuing into summer.
Strong Recommendation
Mikagura School Suite
Joe Straatmann
There is a point where jiggling boobs shaking out the Konami code is
the solution to one of Eruna's problems. Writing sentences like this is
one of the small pleasures of Mikagura School Suite. Some would
say the anime is nothing but small pleasures. It's hard to argue since
the main plotline outside of Eruna trying to create a club and get
members hasn't materialized. Even so, they're enjoyable just the same.
Mecha Bimii, Eruna's search through Seisa's room, and the journalism
club representative's devastating special ability all make for quality
entertainment even when they're leading up to yet another tournament
(They haven't done anything of significant substance since the last
tournament they didn't much care about). It's a series that lives off of
having good times with good people and it rarely fails at that.
With light-and-dark personality Otone as Eruna's latest nut to crack, they pair up in a school-wide scavenger hunt in order to win a mysterious treasure box. Bimii sends them a robotic version of himself to give them an edge, and they spend a most of the being's air time working as hard as they can to make it a worthless pile of junk. Eruna learns what Otone's deal is, and she finally has member of her yet-to-be-named club. Unfortunately, using fake media stories in cooperation with the drama club to get more members draws the ire of the journalism club who just so happen to want the same empty room Eruna literally stumbles into. Most points getting the plot to scoot ahead simply involve Eruna stumbling into them. This would bother me more if the show was less fun.
At the center of everything is still Eruna. What's discovered is how surprisingly good she is as a person. Oh, she's lecherous and has delusions of grandeur writing checks her body can't cash, but if someone has boundaries, Eruna backs off, an attribute you rarely find among teen leads driven by hormones. She's also exceptionally accepting of people, no matter what their faults are. She genuinely loves the folks she surrounds herself with and learns how to treat them with respect even if it sure as hell doesn't seem like she does. She witnesses Otone trying to sabotage attempts at getting new club members using her dark Otone persona and Eruna embraces her because she wouldn't be Otone without everything she is (She thens tries to make more untoward advances and those don't work out too well). Remember back in the tournament where after celebrating her own glory, it's brought to her attention she didn't show up to her friends' tournament games she trained with? She shows up to them afterwards. A few instances like that happen, and it's nice to have someone who does learn naturally without having to have a special lesson episode. It all piles onto one of my favorite characters of the year.
Solid Recommendation
MY love STORY!!
Jonathan Kaharl
For these past two episodes, Takeo has taken part in a judo exhibition tournament and got a job at a bara bar. I don't think I need to say anything else to best describe my current opinion of this show. But it really is amazing just how much this series is getting out of what should be a very bare bones premise. A bunch of good people being really nice to each other doesn't really get much conflict or drama on paper, but the writing is surprisingly clever in that regard. Drama and conflict come from misunderstandings, but not hammed in ones that feel forced and contrived. They also come from horrible situations the characters sometimes find themselves in, as they have their way of things challenged and are forced to grow with that situation. With as many times as Takeo and Yamato have gotten the wrong idea, it's amazing they still manage to have a healthy relationship, and even more amazing that they're still thinking of others close to them.
The judo episode acts as a test for our main couple, as Takeo has to spend some time away from Yamato in order to train for the one-time competition and help out the judo team. I like that Yamato doesn't mind this too much, as Takeo helping others in need is something she loves about him, and I really like the little talk she has with Suna about the situation. Suna is a really nice presence in the show, helping the two from the background simply because he likes both of them and wants to see them happy as a shared friend. The episode also ends on a strong note, with Takeo learning a bit about himself in the judo match and how he's stronger because he has someone to spend his life with.
The following episode finally brings things back around to Suna, who's going through some sort of trouble and avoiding telling Takeo about it, all while Takeo's life is going super well (learning he'll be a big brother soon and celebrating Yamato's birthday in a little over a week). Suna doesn't make it all about him. Rather, he's trying to take his mind off his situation by doing something good for Takeo. When Takeo finally finds out what the situation actually is, his reaction and Suna's reaction speaks volumes about who they are and why they've been such good friends for so long. The series ability to work in the Suna friendship and not have it overshadow the romance is impressive, especially in how Suna isn't jealous at all. People just being happy for each other is a nice thing, and seeing the show create drama from those positive feelings is incredibly impressive.
My Love Story amazes me every time I watch it, because it keeps finding something new or engaging to such a thin premise. I think it tapped into something so many writers have forgotten. Sometimes, people don't want to see horribly flawed characters. Sometimes, we just want to see nice people going about their lives, and being able to make something compelling from what should be something conventionally empty is a mark of true skill of craft. The adorable art and hilarious expressions are just icing on the sweet, flavorful cake. I can't wait to see how this one wraps up.
Strong Recommendation
Ninja Slayer From Animation
David O'Neil
Ninja Slayer The Animation's production quality certainly
fluctuates like a roller coaster. One second I'm watching a cheap but
visually interesting fight, with cool animation and colorful visuals,
the next I'm watching two still images smash into each other. I'd
previously mentioned how I felt Ninja Slayer was headed in the
right direction in terms of its humor and visuals, leaning less towards
anti-humor and more towards over the top homage, leaning less towards
ugly tween animation, and more towards actual key animation.
While the humor of Ninja Slayer has mostly stayed on track, the visuals on the other hand are all over the place, which is causing a problem for the overall tone of the show. Even if I wasn't a fan of the show's early style of humor, it at least allowed the cheap, Inferno Cop-style animation to serve a purpose. It didn't work very effectively, but at least it did something. When the visuals and humor moved in a new direction together, it worked well, but now that the humor remains more geared towards taking itself seriously and the visuals have been receding back towards it's earlier antics, it makes visual style even more jarring than before. That isn't to say I want things to go back the way they were, but Ninja Slayer needs to dedicate itself fully to one style or another. It's current indecisive attitude on what it wants to convey both visually and through its humor is leaving the show feeling muddled and confused.
I get some level of entertainment from Ninja Slayer, it's plenty funny and the end of the seventh episode was actually quite nice, and not even in a dumb kind of way. But the show is at a crossroads, and it seems to be having trouble deciding what exactly it wants to be. I have my preference on where I think it'd be best to go, but either way it needs to decide on it's purpose and focus squarely on that, rather than half heartedly switching between styles the way it currently is.
Weak Recommendation
Plastic Memories
Joe Straatmann
If you've gotten this far because of interest in how it explores a
future where androids with limited lifespans are used as substitutes for
humans, you're probably grumbling with how much this show has gone full
speed ahead into the relationship with Tsukasa and Isla. Obviously,
this was going to be the ultimate focus of the series from the very
first scene, but it's an example of how much doubling its length
could've benefitted Plastic Memories. They're a likable couple if
not particularly original. We have Tsukasa as an underachiever who has
finally found a purpose and Isla as an artificial being struggling to
come to grips with emotions she doesn't have the time to fully
understand. It's fine for what it is, but it's a little light for a main
course. It would work much better sprinkled as the subplot to
individual cases than trying to carry the entire weight of the venture.
Oh, there are other events to fill out the time. Tsukasa and Isla do get sent on a case with Andie, a Giftia from another division who is a repurposed shell of technician Eru's old friend, but all the supporting cast is literally supporting the main relationship. The subplot about Andie is mainly to underline the notion that Giftias absolutely do not have memories after they're retrieved, a vital piece of information for Tsukasa because... SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T WATCHED THE SECOND EPISODE ...he's at the bargaining point with Isla's impending retrieval date and "death" in the coming month. Points of the show's overarching plot patter in here and there so it's not like they're forgetting it, but everyone seems to be focusing on analyzing and providing opinions of the relationship.
Tsukasa and Isla's date at a firework festival is completely standard fare in anime dating, though I dare say they're farther along in their relationship than the one in Yuki-chan, a series that is supposably dead center in the romance genre. At least the end result when Tsukasa confesses his love takes some consideration of what Isla must be really thinking and has an ending that reflects that. Tsukasa's reaction that opens the next episode is absolutely one of the series' best moments, too. I still enjoy the series and am going to likely be with it unless the ending absolutely botches the job. Unfortunately, this series of events hits on many of the weakest elements the show has, most obvious the standard nature of its leads, even if they're smoothed out by the intervention of the other characters. I want to see Plastic Memories take off and become more than pretty good, but it seems just fine staying where it is.
Solid Recommendation
PUNCH LINE
Jonathan Kaharl
I'll be taking over the Punch Line talk from here on, and despite me having to watch a week behind, I am aware of what happened in the most recent episode because I read ahead because I have a problem. I'll keep things down only to the stuff I have watched, though. What I can say is that my addiction to this series is starting to die down, now that it's becoming a tad more predictable. We're working into a comfortable groove now, and things are getting a tad more predictable (even the most recent major twist isn't too shocking). I also have the sneaking suspicion that the series is working towards a "BUY THE VN WHEN IT COMES OUT" ending with the few episodes left and so many dangling plot threads hanging out. It better not.
That said, things are still interesting now that Yuuta is finally back in his body. Well, not really his body, but you know what I mean if you've been following along. He still has his spiritual awareness, meaning that darn cat is still bugging him and has finally revealed that the entire plan is to keep making Yuuta loop through time and eventually reach a "good ending" of sorts where the meteor never hits. However, Yuuta isn't allowed to do certain actions, such as changing certain historical events, and it's making the mission far more challenging to accomplish. Yuuta's relationships with the various tenants is also changing compared to before, as he's actively hanging out with the group instead of disappearing for days at a time. A few differences between the timelines are popping up, and the true motives of the Qmay group are finally known. How Yuuta can actually save the world know is the big question.
Uchikoshi's talents are starting to pop up again. The guy gets how to hook in an audience and keep them guessing, and that's always been true of Punch Line. Even though the twists are dying down significantly, the show is still putting out some great dramatic turns and keeping things lively and exciting. To a point. Uchikoshi's status as a VN writer is shining through in these Yuuta in body scenes, as dialog feels very off and unnatural because he doesn't know how to properly stage conversation between multiple characters through the medium of animation. It feels very much like there's a lot of script reading and a lack of personal touch at times, made apparent with how little Yuuta talks during these sequences.
Punch Line is still well worth the look so far, and it seems to be building to a strong finish (IT BETTER), but its flaws are becoming more apparent, and it's losing that maddening edge it normally has. There's still a few moments that inspire endless guessing a theories, but too many mysteries have also become predictable. But then again, this is the writer behind 999 we're talking about, so hopefully I'll be eating those words once everything is said and done.
Solid Recommendation
Re-Kan!
Jonathan Kaharl
Why did Re-Kan of all things make me feel things and nearly get me to cry? Who did K-ON! with ghosts somehow become one of the best shows I've seen all year? I'm serious, this one just came completely out of nowhere, and it has only managed to wow me more and more as time as gone by. It doesn't have the same strength of so many other shows. BBB and Euphonium outdo it in direction and production. It lacks the sheer entertainment value Etotama and Ninja Slayer have. It even fails to match the sweetness that My LOVE Story!! explodes with. But what it has more than any other show this season, and even this year so far, is heart.
As I've been saying, the whole ghost part of the equation isn't just window dressing, it's the thematic core to all the drama. For example, Amami keeps getting distracted doing things for ghosts, so her friends and her father give her special glasses her mother used to wear that block out her sixth sense. Suppressing her powers only serve to cause her distress, though, and she only keeps them on because she doesn't want to anger Inoue. Inoue's reaction when Amami calls to ask permission to take them off during an emergency to find a lost child, a situation Amami fails to explain, leads to a really perfect moment between the two that shows why they work so well together. We also get to see how the ghosts react to the lack of someone alive to speak with, humanizing them more then they have been so far. It shows the negative side of the afterlife very well. The whole ghost element is used to show how tied spirituality is to Amami's sense of self, and how even a dark subject like death can create a shared connection between people. That episode also ends with Inoue getting accidentally drunk and being super tsundere gay for Amami, which is always a plus.
It's the following episode that pushed the show from just being good to being fantastic. A young girl ghost who barely understands how to speak appears in the classroom, and the gang decide to teach her and figure out just why she's tied to the human world. The actual back story is incredibly sad, but the show tackles it with its usual tact and maturity, and it pays off to even manage to give the idiotic comedic relief character a bit of emotional depth. There's also one truly touching scene involving Amami and the ghost that reveals something about her with only implication, and it is just masterful. It's an episode I really don't want to spoil, the sort of episode that would be a must see highlight in a lesser series, like Super Sonico or Majimoji Rurumo. For Re-Kan, just is just another beautiful bit in a strong showing.
Re-Kan works solidly as a comedy, but it's real strengths come from being a slice of life. It's a genre mostly known in the anime world for being boring and safe, but Re-Kan shows us that there's a power that came be found in the daily life, and that is ridiculously hard to do.
Strong Recommendation
RIN-NE
Stephanie Getchell
Well, we're finally running into demons this week on Rin-Ne!
Bat winged Masato wants revenge against Rokudo for making him unable to
finish his summer homework as kids so he decides to take a living soul,
place a curse on it, and fight against Rokudo in order to achieve his
ultimate revenge. Yes, everyone admits that this is extremely petty.
Eventually, with a little bit of tricking, Rokudo manages to free the
living soul, escape a large amount of debt, and bring happiness to the
world again. Meanwhile, Masato is just stuck sulking over his petty
revenge and Sakura's help during the whole ordeal has Rokudo commenting
that she could be a first rate shinigami is she really wanted to.
Possible foreshadowing? We'll see.
Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign
David O'Neil
Lately Seraph of the End almost push me over the edge with
its hilariously dumb moments. The latest episode for instance, opens
with the invading force of vampires in riding in with helicopters
(because vampires have a bunch of helicopters for some reason), and in
retaliation the human army fights back not with guns or cannons, but
bows and arrows. And somehow, these not visibly special arrows manage to
not only pierce the helicopter's armor, but actually send them
spiraling out of control in flames. Because why not. Or another moment,
when the super powerful high-ranked vampires (who a character later
clarifies could have killed them in less than ten seconds) decides to
let our protagonists live to attend to other things. Why not kill them
first? There is no good answer to this question.
Solid Recommendation
Show by Rock!!
David O'Neil
I feel as if my enthusiasm towards Show By Rock has waned as
of late. Early on it managed to grab my attention with its entertaining
characters, over the top comedy, and energetic animation, but more and
more it's feeling like that isn't enough anymore. When watching the most
recent episode, I found myself legitimately double checking that I
hadn't accidentally opened an older episode I'd already seen because it
just felt like the show was retreading old material. The show's plot
just isn't being handled well enough to hold together the cast and
humor.
I've spent a decent amount of my space writing on this show praising the side character band "Shingan Crimsonz", a group of goofy bishonens who manage to steal the show any time their on screen. With that said, it almost seems as if the writers realized that they were so much more fun and interesting than the main characters, because for two episodes straight (episodes seven and eight) the show focused almost entirely on them, pushing the main cast of girls to the background. Now, in concept I want to like this, those four guys are a lot of fun and it was neat having the focus on them. At the same time I feel as though I'd prefer the show to keep the focus where it should be, on the main characters. After a few strong episodes that managed to pull me in a while back, I've started to feel more and more distanced from the central plot and the conflicts of the main characters. Luckily, if the end of the ninth episode is any sign, the show does seem to be getting back on track and moving in a more engaging direction. That said, most of the ninth episode on the other hand felt like a step backwards, as the main girls repeated the same old "trying to spruce up their style instead of their music" routine, followed by the leader of Shingan Crimsonz giving them nearly the same speech about the power of music all over again, as if they needed to fill in fifteen minutes before the concert scene and couldn't be bothered to come up with anything new.
I'm rarely bored while watching Show By Rock, but as the show goes on its novelty has worn off and lately it hasn't done a good enough job giving me reasons to give it my full attention. It does look as if the show is finally moving it's plot forward, but only after two episodes so loosely connected to the main characters and story it almost felt like a totally different show. Show By Rock has lost its momentum, and it needs to regain it soon to have any hope of keeping its audience's attention.
Weak Recommendation
Sound! Euphonium
Stephanie Getchell
Everything is getting rather complicated this week on Sound!
First, remember last time when I was a bit miffed as to where Aoi fits
into the whole situation? Well, episode seven has us finding out a bit
about that as Aoi's gradual loss of interest in the concert band finally
makes her quit in order to prep further for entrance exams. But she
isn't the only person affected by this as Haruka, the club president,
also feels the sting as she suffers a blow because she feels responsible
for being unable to convince Aoi to stay and she feels the weight of
the prior year weighing down on her. This is something we finally get an
explanation for and the reason why so many second years had left
concert band. After some words of encouragement from Kaori, Haruka
returns to concert band and her position of president. Just in time for
the Agata festival and the first real love triangle of the series. With
Hazuki's feelings for Shuuichi growing more, she debates asking him to
the festival. Meanwhile, Shuuichi decides to ask Kumiko to the festival.
Kumiko manages to get out of going with him, but ends up dragging
Kousaka into the mess and the two go together while Hazuki gets the
courage to ask Shuuichi and the pair go together. While Hazuki receives
unrequited feelings, Kumiko and Kousaka really have their first time
together as friends, climbing the mountain and talking and playing their
instruments. But now that the festival is over, it's go time as the
next hurdle for the concert band are Taki-sensei's auditions.
This week isn't quite as strong as the others since the love triangle is in there now which kinda makes it go into stereotypical high school show. This isn't something that has just happened, mind you, but it's one that kind of takes away from the whole point of the series to begin with and it's a little saddening to me. However, I do have to say that this is still a series set in high school so it should be something I ought to expect at some point and, honestly, it's better to address this now rather than later. Granted, as of now, there's still no confirmation on the total number of episodes this series will end up with, but I'm still suspecting the one cour amount at this point. Something I did enjoy was the Aoi/Haruka episode which kind of balances out the love triangle one. It creates a much more interesting dynamic between the group of third years that we've been getting to know, with a lot more focus on the two I've been rather curious about since very early on. Because we've been hanging out with Asuka quite a lot, it's a welcome change. The story, itself, is also still rather consistent despite my slight dislike for the eighth episode. It's similar to Rin-Ne in that it's remained rather consistent in what it wants to do and how it wants to do it and I really appreciate that. Not to mention the band geek in me goes a little batty over this show.
As we head towards the final report for the spring season in the next several weeks, what I'm the most curious about is how the rest of the series will be handled. Is it just going to be 11 to 13 episodes long or will it have even more episodes to work with? More than likely, since this is Kyoto Ani's latest baby, I'm going to guess the 11 to 13 episodes with a possibility of a second season in the next year. Something similar happened to Free! Iwatobi Swim Club in 2013, and I'm pretty sure this one is doing a lot better in Japan than Amagi Brilliant Park did last fall. All that's left is to see how this season manages to complete itself. If it has 13 episodes total, then Sound! has only five more episodes to go and I can only guess what will end up happening by the end of it. HOWEVER, if that second is confirmed or this does end up as a two cour show, my guess at the series's ending will probably change. There's only one way to find out and that's see where the show ends up in the next several weeks.
Triage X
Danni Wilmoth
One more episode. One more episode of this show and then I am done with it forever. I will finally be free in a few more days...
We pick up right where we left off before with Hitsugi butt naked going berserk in the Black Label HQ. It's here we're given late exposition about Hitsugi's origins and why on earth she's so goddamn strong. As it turns out, Hitsugi was one of the first D99 test subjects. Her father had taken some samples of the serum because Hitsugi, only a little girl, was fatally ill. The serum saved her life, but had significant side effects on her psychology and physiology. Being father of the year, her dad decided to conduct more tests on her that basically turned her into a murderous superhuman who ended up killing her own father and his assistants before being taken out and brought back to life by Black Label (before they were Black Label). She's somehow snapped back into her murderous rampaging state and Arashi is the only one who can snap her out of it (shocking, I know), which he does by hugging her. Hitsugi learns the power of friendship and is cured. As gratitude, she french kisses Arashi leaving an incredibly thick trail of saliva after she pulls away. Leading up to the final climax, Syringe, the yakuza, the police force, and Black Label are all converging on one spot to either capture or save a bodacious young detective who has done nothing but get captured so far during the entire show. The yakuza initially captures her and goes on a LONG monologue about how they're going to turn her into a drugged up rape doll for their boss. Then they show off his massive collection of drugged up rape dolls shot full of Platinum Lily. Arashi manages to rescue her, but inadvertently releases all the already drugged-up women, which would probably be okay if they weren't on Platinum Lily which I guess makes them pretty bad news.
I've talked at length about how awful a show this is already, both in these seasonals and on Twitter. It suffers the same problems it always has, including some plain AWFUL anatomy (see above. I'm no artist but that is NOT how forced perspective works. Just how long is her waist exactly?). I'll address what bothered me the most about the most recent episode, and for that matter almost every episode before. This is not a hilariously bad show. Sure, it is fun to browse through my livetweeting agony cracking jokes about Triage X, but quality aside, it is a gross and awful show. It's the violent sexual fantasy of a repressed middle school boy. Every single episode leaves at least one woman stripped naked and helpless at the hands of men who are either torturing them, threatening to rape them, or doing both. It doesn't just stop at threats of rape either, Triage X is pretty blatant about the fact that girls are getting raped. A previous episode showed the yakuza boss drugging a girl and taking off his clothes, implying he rapes her after the scene ends. The most recent episode showed us his collection of women he keeps drugged for his sexual pleasure. To make matters expectantly worse, the camera ADORES these women's bodies. In fact, I would strongly argue that the moments when Triage X tries its hardest to sexualize its female characters is when the possibility or reality of rape and torture is on the table. It's disgusting. It's reprehensible. It makes me physically ill watching it happen. God I hate this show so much.
No Recommendation
Ultimate Otaku Teacher
Joe Straatmann
My mindset for the past two episodes has been apathy. Not that
they're bad. In fact, the most recent development points the show in a
good direction. It doesn't change that I don't have an emotional
response to much of it anymore. Is the episode about Junichiro tracking
down a truant student who just happens to be the creator of one of the
most popular new manga a good idea? Yeah. Is the new character, Sachiko,
okay? Sure. They even give her some nice interaction and running jokes
with forcing the various characters of the series into awkward
situations so she can draw them them for her manga. Does the episode
really do much more with the concept? Not especially. It brings up the
question of whether you should go to school or not if you're doing
something like making a hugely successful manga and going to school
would get in the way. It thinks a little bit about it, the cursor turns
into an hourglass icon, and then the show unexpectedly crashes out of
that plot.
The lack of interest in the second episode has much more to do with preference. Junichiro and his long-time MMORPG partner Luce have one more quest to complete on the online game Ouroboros, and since it's a raid that requires 35 people, Junichiro recruits his entire class as players to fulfill his selfish desire. It's everything I've come to expect from Junichiro, but nothing squashes my interest more than watching anime characters play MMORPGs when it's not Welcome to the NHK's satire on the subject. .hack buffering buffering buffering, Sword Waifu Online, whatever. There's a sequence of events where Junichiro and Luce battle a boss creature and then walk through a village as all the other players awe at their mad skills. Since gaming battle scenes are a waste of time because they can make up whatever crap to suit their needs, and the, "Wow! You're good at gaming and that means you're amazing!" is lazy pandering, it pretty much sums up why I hate gaming in anime with one tidy sequence. It isn't even particularly good at accurately reflecting the MMORPG element. Teacher! Teacher! Can I use my brain now? The game just senses what class each student should be, the students just know how to use PC controls right off the bat, and the whole goal is to only make all the students work as a team in order for the raid to be successful. I certainly hope this game isn't subscription based, because man, if accomplishment wasn't based on months of stat building, ability earning, and rare equipment hoarding, the makers would be kicking themselves over how much potential money they lost.
All that aside, what the episode is leading to has possibility. The predictable twist is Junichiro's gaming partner Luce is one of his truant students he has to get in line. What Luce's circumstances are is much more unexpected. As much as this series is either out of its depth or insists on the fictional standard of teaching where you don't have to actually teach anything as long as you inspire... something, this is right up its alley. Its goal of using the world of otaku to spotlight the talents and celebrate the uniqueness of others would be perfect for Luce and I actually look forward to the next episode. Ultimate Otaku Teacher is still a middle-of-the-road time filler, but that doesn't mean it isn't capable of having some bright spots.
Weak Recommendation
Wish Upon the Pleiades
Jonathan Kaharl
Weird thing I've been noticing with this show; it's masterfully subtle. Magical Girl shows are not known for subtly. They almost always have some sort of speech about the lesson on display, or the male targeted entries in the genre go for explosive action and overly dark situations. Pleiades doesn't fall under either of these umbrellas. It's almost completely non-violent, as violent battles are replaced with races to the engine piece, and character development is told through visuals and little dialog touches that aren't initially obvious. There's been a lot of moments where I've thought back on a supposedly pointless scene, only to be surprised by just how much it was conveying after gaining new context from a more recent scene.
The stuff with Minato is a great example of this. It's obvious him and the horned boy are the same person from different timelines, but we really don't know much about how he thinks. Despite that, there's a lot of little touches to his character, and a picture is starting to form. This is also making his relationship with Subaru grow some depth, as their budding romance isn't just because he's the guy character and she's the main heroine. Their time in the greenroom resulted in a shared connection, as Subaru managed to grow through Minato's advice, while Minato has become more and more interested in Subaru and has become inspired to see the world and learn more about it. There's very little said outright, but it's all there, and it gets a bit of payoff as Subaru finally confronted Minato out of the room. The relationship she has with Aoi is also being well built, as little reactions between the two spell out just how much the two are trying to change as people and how much more they need to work on communicating. Despite having so much development already, they finally get some major final bits here.
The following episode also shows further subtly by giving some solo time with Nanako, the club president's witch hat wearing translator. Before we get to hear it from her mouth, we get hints in the episode that someone she cares about is far away somewhere, and that she feels isolated, despite living with her father. The little bits in her home add a lot to her personality and character that haven't been even closed to explored by this point, and her strangely poetic way of seeing the world really allows the show to still not say everything outright and put it through Nanako's strange lens. It leads to some beautiful moments, especially once she reunites with the president at episode's end, as we find out why the president looks the way he does. It's such a lovely little touch.
This is a bit bizarre to me. Shouji Saeki has experience, but his directing credits are mostly disappointing or trashy works (outside two episodes of FLCL). His work here with Pleiades is way above what I ever would have expected from him, and it has me excited to see what he makes next. It's amazing just how good this project ended up being, despite its origins as a bloody car commercial.
Strong Recommendation
Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches
Jonathan Kaharl
With the episode count quickly winding down, Yamada isn't wasting anymore time in revealing the other five witches. Two more witches have been revealed as of these past two weeks, a shy girl with telepathy (and a very loud inner voice), and a popular girl who became closed off because of her ability to see the future through the eyes of those she kisses. Both episodes work well enough as comedy set-pieces, especially in how the series is having fun with bringing Odagiri down a peg and Ito becoming the main kissing target of one of the new witches (she was in a lust coma at one point, I swear!), but also set up some good character development for Yamada and Shiraishi.
The series has pretty much been their show so far, with the supernatural studies club being worked in as comedic relief, and the witches more or less being a means to move the story. I don't mind this at all, though, because the two are so likable and have strong chemistry. Shiraishi is quiet but picks up on a lot of small things others don't, and she really helps Yamada out of a lot of jams. At the same time, she has a habit of being self-sacrificing, tied back to her issues with a lack of self-worth, which steams off Yamada. In a cute twist, Yamada yelling at her to never pull a stunt like that again leads to her smiling realizing just how much Yamada cares about her well-being and giving her a bit more self-value by knowing that she's loved by someone. On the other hand, the awkward Yamada finally has something to be passionate about, choosing to help Shiraishi after their initial strange experience because he finally saw someone else's situation and connected with them on some level.
From those emotions, romance is starting to spring, and the two are starting to explore what that love means for them. It's a nice bit of development, making up for the lack of development for the rest of the cast. Even the witches mostly have stuff figured out, they just need Yamada to help with a problem. All the queer subtext mixed in is equally appreciated, and it's made the show a cute romp. Despite some production issues in a few points (though the show has managed a pretty constant animation quality), Yamada remains a fun time every episode.
Solid Recommendation
Second Opinions
Blood Blockade Battlefront
Jonathan: Do I even need to say anything? I think BBB speaks for itself at this point. It does everything so near perfectly so constantly that I'm running out of praise for it. If you're still not watching this one or have no plans to in the future ...the fuck is wrong with you? Strong Recommendation
Stephanie: This week we add one more member to Libra's ranks and learn a lot more about White and Black's current situation. The latter of the two I'm more interested in because the whole circumstance regarding Black was a little weird to me until finally getting the proper explanation. And now that we know what that circumstance is, it makes a lot more sense and is now going to cause some inner struggle for White as well. With only three episodes left in the series, it's going to have to really work it's way to the finale and rather soon. Luckily, these past couple of episodes are a great start towards that. Strong Recommendation
Etotama
Jonathan: I am annoyed that Shaa-tan, the best character, had her episode be a recap. Still, they did the best they could, and at least the race in the following episode was great. Shirogumi Inc and 8-Bit Rocket deserve a shit ton of business after all the amazing work they've done here. A series with 3D animation more exciting that the 2D animation is practically unheard of, but Etotama keeps knocking it out week after week. Strong Recommendation
The Heroic Legend of Arslan
Stephanie: I think I am on such a Fantasy kick lately. With Arslan, Yona, Maria, and even Blood Blockade Battlefront, to an extent, it has been an interesting and amazing 2015 for me thus far. This week, for Arslan, things are going well to me. Now that our resident musician and female character have joined the group, the dynamic has become interesting but not all that clear since Arslan has yet to interact with these two new members much. Also, bringing our mystery boy from episode one back to see Arslan is nice to see. We hadn't seen him interact with our lead since that first episode so I do like the growth this encounter brings. Overall, this week has been good for me! Strong Recommendation
MY love STORY!!
Stephanie: You should really come to expect this by now when I say that this show is diabetes cute. So much cute!! However, I will say I am very glad they decided to give a little bit more to Suna's character this time around. It's a welcome change since he's been the third wheel up until now. Also, because I do think he's kinda cute... Don't judge me! It will be fun for me to see where this series decides to go between now and the half way point, and I am very much looking forward to it! Strong Recommendation
Ninja Slayer From Animation
Jonathan: Hooray, more terrible animation! It's okay everyone, Ninja Slayer is saved from being try hard garbage. The bit with the old man talking about his son was oddly well handled, but the staff seems to have realized that Ninja Slayer is at its best when it's not giving a fuck about being good. The action is just absolutely ridiculous, more so than ever, and they're finding some truly bizarre visuals to throw around. For example, did you know Ninja Slayer's scarf can stay perfectly still for hours at a time, stretch out about a mile, and become a makeshift resting place for birds? Amazing. Strong Recommendation
Sound! Euphonium
Danni: I actually haven't gotten around to watching the latest episode yet, but I absolutely had to write a second opinion for this installment based off of episode eight alone. I can pretend that what I love about it is the excellent dialogue or the GORGEOUS animation (I don't know how they managed to animate the lewdest tame scene ever but they sure as hell did it), but I'm gonna get right to the point: it was gay as hell. I loved it. There's been romantic tension blossoming so far in the series, but it erupted in episode eight. It is Kyoani though, and they are infamous for yuri teasing only to go full hetero. The flags for Euphonium to go down the same are certainly there, but I'm choosing to remain optimistic. Maybe I'll end up disappointed in the end, but I'll always have Hibike! Euphonium episode eight to look upon fondly. Gay joke because Danni forgot to give a rating and it's four in the morning right now
Jonathan: Okay, on one hand, the whole brutal nature of competition that runs the world is well explored in all its crushing disappointments and charging highs as usual. On the other hand, episode eight was one of the gayest things I've ever seen and that too is great. Good job, Kyoani. You've almost made me forgot that you made two shows that nearly destroyed the entire industry's creative output for years. Strong Recommendation
Ultimate Otaku Teacher
Stephanie: Well what do you know? This week is actually a fairly poor one. What happened when the manga author was added in was not really appropriate in the case of stalking Makina. I say this even though episode 1 was bad. This is probably the first time since that episode that it's gone to an extreme to do what it needs to and this time I am not pleased with it. But, for me, it may make itself up to me with the recent arc we're seeing. We shall see how the show goes once final spring report time comes! Weak Recommendation
Joe couldn't submit any second opinions due to having to take care of his fiance (get well soon!), but the usual crowd should be gathered up there. Jonathan has also taken over reviewing duties for Punch Line.
Dropped Shows
- Urawa no Usagi-chan (Jonathan, two episodes)
- Gunslinger Stratos: The Animation (Danni, five episodes)
- The Heroic Legend of Arslan (David, four episodes)
- Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (Stephanie, four episodes)
- PUNCH LINE (David, six episodes, picked up by Jonathan)
Ameiro Cocoa
Stephanie Getchell
As
mentioned before, we have a different side of the story going on this
week. With Aoi out of commission for the majority of the episodes this
week, this left more time on the "opposing side" and seeing his view on
the situation. Even though it isn't much, we do get the slight
admiration Kei has for Shion as well as his inability to read situations
all that well. It makes for a nice change and it helped me know a bit
more about him. Also, I got a little more from Shion as well. We haven't
seen him contribute much outside of small things here and there so
seeing the interaction with Kei made me feel better. As the end of
spring slowly comes to a close and I won't get to talk about this series
until the final report, I do sincerely hope to see more come in for the
story and the relationships between characters. Maybe even some more of
the manager.... Cause we haven't seen much of him at all. And he was
hilarious!
Solid Recommendation
Blood Blockade Battlefront
Danni Wilmoth
It is at this point I start to feel the relationship between those three is the real meat of BBB whereas everything else has just been fat (entertaining fat). You see, the King of Depravity living in Black is trying to cause a second collapse in Hellsalem's Lot. For whatever reason, he needs Leo's eyes to accomplish this task. He meets with White and hands her a special device given to him by Aligura that will allow her to steal Leo's eyes. We find out he's struck up a deal with White to let Black go in exchange for Leo's eyes. White appears conflicted with herself over whether or not to betray Leo. We're then treated to two separate flashbacks, one that shows us when Black gave himself to the King of Depravity to protect White, and one from their childhood days in the countryside. We see a young White talking to her father about Black, explaining their nicknames. The conversation concludes with White's father asking her to take care of Black.
The conflict White feels over saving her brother from the King of Depravity suddenly becomes a lot more clear after taking into account her conversation with Leo at the movies. Leo's relationship with his sister mirrors White's relationship with her own brother Black well. Leo was Michella's "turtle prince," - he was her defender and protector. However, when confronted with a paranormal being he was dumbstruck and the sister he was supposed to protect sacrificed her own eyesight for his. In the same way, White was tasked by her father to protect Black, but when confronted by the King of Depravity, Black gave up his own body to protect her. Both Leo and White feel guilty for not carrying out their duties as protector, and it is for this reason that White is conflicted. While it certainly wouldn't be easy to betray her friend, most creators would have likely finished the episode with White ultimately deciding to save her brother. BBB does not do this. Instead we're left just as clueless to what White's decision will be as she is. Choosing family over friends isn't a simple choice for her, because she knows she and Leo are in the same place. She values Leo's sister just as much as she values her own brother. It's incredibly noble and heartbreaking, and I absolutely can't wait to see how this concludes.
Strong Recommendation
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan
Joe Straatmann
The anime is in an obvious forward motion rut at this point. After all, it's nine episodes in and the most romantic thing in this romantic comedy is Yuki and Kyon have held hands for a few seconds. Extreme measures are required to fix everything, and at first glance when I read the source material, it seemed mangaka Puyo was willing to do this. Yuki getting in a devastating car accident is an event that comes out of left field, but it would at least wake up the characters. It's a heavy beat that rumbles across the page as the third volume cliffhanger. As a consumer who was wavering on the product being offered, it was enough to pick up the next volume and see what would happen. If this jolt made everyone realize that life is short and such opportunities of trying to find happiness shouldn't be squandered, maybe it plays some fast catch-up at becoming the series it maybe should've been in the first place.
No such luck, I'm afraid. Turns out it's only a near car accident as even though it's clear in the manga and the anime a car moving at a fairly fast speed and Yuki is dead center, the not particularly athletic Yuki is able to jump out of the way offscreen and only sustains a couple scratches to her hand and head (Anime, maybe the moment after the near accident isn't the best time to burst into your peppy opening theme). I could easily dismiss this and the series outright because it's just so... YOU, Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan. There's more. In the middle of the recovery, her best friend Asakura stops a Yuki who may be very shaken from having a near-death experience that would understandably take the adorable awkward and carefree angles of the character down a few notches and says, "Who... are you?" To the anime's credit, they make it more obvious and make the relationship with Kyon more important than the relationship with Asakura, but still... What?
Okay, I'm going to spoil what's not in the series at this point. The answer is, after much waffling around, she's the Yuki from the alternate dimension of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. That is, the one who Kyon meets in the "normal" world without supernatural trimmings who's extremely introverted and is trying to smash through her painful shyness in order to express the full extent of what Kyon's help in a seemingly small situation meant to her. You know, the character most were expecting when first hearing about the spinoff instead of the somewhat sterilized vision of an average girl with pandering interests to the target audience where her glaring flaws can be covered up by making her look adorable ("She likes video games. JUST LIKE YOU! What games? Who cares?!"). Better late than never, right?
I was still kind of with this. It's a bizarrely sideways approach, but if someone pulled the creator aside and said, "You aren't giving the people what they want and they're starting to shift their attention elsewhere. DO SOMETHING," and this is what was done to get things on track, okay. Cutting out Haruhi from this part of the story is all right even though I'm sure someone dimension swapping themselves would be the most can't-miss thing in the universe to her. The ends justify the means. It even recognizes the oddity of the head of the literature club not really being into books (There never is a backstory on why the Yuki who loves games makes this club). What we're dealing with is a Yuki after an unseen character arc made her confident, smart, and able to fully express herself, including her love for Kyon. Here's the thing: Even after the alternate Yuki expresses her love and meets regular Yuki in a weird dream state and essentially tells her, "I told him. You should tell him, too," you know what changes? Not a damn thing. They try to have awkward "they know they love each other but just can't do it" banter and there's an attempt to reignite Haruhi as a romantic rival, but the former is a different way of doing the same thing and the latter slams on the same bit of writing that forgets what they changed from original canon (It's actually Yuki who Haruhi recruits to write a message to aliens instead of Kyon and changes both their lives here, but it's also Kyon who does this. Huh?). Then they have a swimsuit chapter. And Kyon's sister pops in despite being absent for the entire series and the SOLE reason she's there is so Kyon and Yuki are prevented from having a romantic moment. Yup.
This has layers of awful manipulation. For the longest time, I thought Puyo wasn't able to properly write the voice of Yuki from The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. No. This was a choice and so is every other terrible decision this work makes. All of this leads to one big revelation: This entire spinoff is a gigantic idiot trap (By the way, yes, by me falling for it, that makes me an idiot. I know). It is a lazy, cynical, and mechanical exercise in Pavlovian response that doesn't care one whit about building a new universe in the "real" world for these character, isn't concerned about making a sweet romantic relationship between the two leads, and does not respect one ounce of investment the audience has in the characters. It drags the audience along and gives just enough of the emotional button pushes they want to get them to buy the next part and nothing more.
I wish I could've told you the full story sooner. It's hard to get anyone to believe you about this series unless they fall down the rabbit hole. It's just slice of life. It's such a light and minor work. What's worth getting so upset about? It is an absolute waste of time in one of its most pure forms. The great trick of this series is it takes so long to realize it. I keep saying the anime makers do what they can to make it watchable, but it's like when many of the great screenwriters of Hollywood were called to adapt the novel Hannibal, a work by a great novelist who had fallen off the cliff to become his own terrible fan fiction writer. There's only so much you can do.
I'll give you one last tidbit from the manga before I leave this alone until the final reviews. Eventually Kyon has a female friend from his old school came back into his life and is a new possible romantic interest. A character not having anything to do with this franchise attempting to wreak havoc late in the series. It's almost cute how sad that is. It's like watching someone opening Pandora's Box and trying to grab the plagues of humanity out of thin air. I don't think that's going to work.
No Recommendation
ETOTAMA
Joe Straatmann
What has happened is it's finally clicked why I don't find this show that funny and why the meta humor gets to me more than usual. Most of the characters are mugging, in-your-face, and fully self-aware comedy street peddlers who will not leave your personal bubble saying "yes yes" at the end of every sentence until you throw a dollar in the hat. The characters I find the funniest are the ones who are trying to be taken seriously. In the episode with Piyo-tan, the rooster zodiac, she's been a running joke the whole time because she loses her memory every time she takes three steps and has had no bearing on the story at large. Why her episode works is that when she's finally forced to be a character, she isn't the sum of her running gag. She is surprisingly an expert shogi player where she can be at peace with logic and the universe, and has a certain disdain for Nya-tan just winging it through the tournament. Her memory problems are not her true nature, but just a funny and at times sad side effect of what she is, like Dory in Finding Nemo. The episode is a mostly silly affair, turning mastering shogi into a series of Rocky montages for Nya-tan, and it's funny enough because at least one character doesn't see it as a joke.
In comparison, the other episode is more what you expect. A cart race where most of the characters crash out in the first few seconds and it's okay because it makes reference that it's doing what anime makers do to keep the budget down. Because saying what you're doing is immediately funny and so is being loud and obnoxious. We've been through discussion and I won't bore you with repeating it. That is unfortunately more of what the series is than the episodes I like, though. Meh.
Weak Recommendation
Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma
Danni Wilmoth
There really isn't anything I can add about Food Wars that I haven't already said before. It had an admittedly rocky start at the beginning animation-wise, but those problems are long-since gone. The characters are all wonderfully unique and lovable, especially Takumi. Considerng he's Soma's main rival, you'd kind of expect him to be a bit of an insufferable asshole, but he's really just a competitive dork whose interactions with Soma definitely have some infatuation subtext to them. It's funny and kind of cute to watch Soma foil his attempts to be a badass rival. Megumi's failure definitely adds a change of pace, depending on what Soma wagers on the shokugeki. If he wagers his own enrollment, he's pretty much guaranteed to win. If not, the possibility of Megumi losing her spot in the academy on the show becomes real, as does the possibility of the same happening to future characters. While I've grown attached to Megumi and would hate to see her go, Food Wars would definitely lose some of its luster if it keeps raising the stakes but leaving little to no risk of failure for anyone. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming weeks. For now, Food Wars remains one of the best animes airing this season - and certainly the best continuing into summer.
Strong Recommendation
Mikagura School Suite
Joe Straatmann
With light-and-dark personality Otone as Eruna's latest nut to crack, they pair up in a school-wide scavenger hunt in order to win a mysterious treasure box. Bimii sends them a robotic version of himself to give them an edge, and they spend a most of the being's air time working as hard as they can to make it a worthless pile of junk. Eruna learns what Otone's deal is, and she finally has member of her yet-to-be-named club. Unfortunately, using fake media stories in cooperation with the drama club to get more members draws the ire of the journalism club who just so happen to want the same empty room Eruna literally stumbles into. Most points getting the plot to scoot ahead simply involve Eruna stumbling into them. This would bother me more if the show was less fun.
At the center of everything is still Eruna. What's discovered is how surprisingly good she is as a person. Oh, she's lecherous and has delusions of grandeur writing checks her body can't cash, but if someone has boundaries, Eruna backs off, an attribute you rarely find among teen leads driven by hormones. She's also exceptionally accepting of people, no matter what their faults are. She genuinely loves the folks she surrounds herself with and learns how to treat them with respect even if it sure as hell doesn't seem like she does. She witnesses Otone trying to sabotage attempts at getting new club members using her dark Otone persona and Eruna embraces her because she wouldn't be Otone without everything she is (She thens tries to make more untoward advances and those don't work out too well). Remember back in the tournament where after celebrating her own glory, it's brought to her attention she didn't show up to her friends' tournament games she trained with? She shows up to them afterwards. A few instances like that happen, and it's nice to have someone who does learn naturally without having to have a special lesson episode. It all piles onto one of my favorite characters of the year.
Solid Recommendation
MY love STORY!!
Jonathan Kaharl
The judo episode acts as a test for our main couple, as Takeo has to spend some time away from Yamato in order to train for the one-time competition and help out the judo team. I like that Yamato doesn't mind this too much, as Takeo helping others in need is something she loves about him, and I really like the little talk she has with Suna about the situation. Suna is a really nice presence in the show, helping the two from the background simply because he likes both of them and wants to see them happy as a shared friend. The episode also ends on a strong note, with Takeo learning a bit about himself in the judo match and how he's stronger because he has someone to spend his life with.
The following episode finally brings things back around to Suna, who's going through some sort of trouble and avoiding telling Takeo about it, all while Takeo's life is going super well (learning he'll be a big brother soon and celebrating Yamato's birthday in a little over a week). Suna doesn't make it all about him. Rather, he's trying to take his mind off his situation by doing something good for Takeo. When Takeo finally finds out what the situation actually is, his reaction and Suna's reaction speaks volumes about who they are and why they've been such good friends for so long. The series ability to work in the Suna friendship and not have it overshadow the romance is impressive, especially in how Suna isn't jealous at all. People just being happy for each other is a nice thing, and seeing the show create drama from those positive feelings is incredibly impressive.
My Love Story amazes me every time I watch it, because it keeps finding something new or engaging to such a thin premise. I think it tapped into something so many writers have forgotten. Sometimes, people don't want to see horribly flawed characters. Sometimes, we just want to see nice people going about their lives, and being able to make something compelling from what should be something conventionally empty is a mark of true skill of craft. The adorable art and hilarious expressions are just icing on the sweet, flavorful cake. I can't wait to see how this one wraps up.
Strong Recommendation
Ninja Slayer From Animation
David O'Neil
While the humor of Ninja Slayer has mostly stayed on track, the visuals on the other hand are all over the place, which is causing a problem for the overall tone of the show. Even if I wasn't a fan of the show's early style of humor, it at least allowed the cheap, Inferno Cop-style animation to serve a purpose. It didn't work very effectively, but at least it did something. When the visuals and humor moved in a new direction together, it worked well, but now that the humor remains more geared towards taking itself seriously and the visuals have been receding back towards it's earlier antics, it makes visual style even more jarring than before. That isn't to say I want things to go back the way they were, but Ninja Slayer needs to dedicate itself fully to one style or another. It's current indecisive attitude on what it wants to convey both visually and through its humor is leaving the show feeling muddled and confused.
I get some level of entertainment from Ninja Slayer, it's plenty funny and the end of the seventh episode was actually quite nice, and not even in a dumb kind of way. But the show is at a crossroads, and it seems to be having trouble deciding what exactly it wants to be. I have my preference on where I think it'd be best to go, but either way it needs to decide on it's purpose and focus squarely on that, rather than half heartedly switching between styles the way it currently is.
Weak Recommendation
Plastic Memories
Joe Straatmann
Oh, there are other events to fill out the time. Tsukasa and Isla do get sent on a case with Andie, a Giftia from another division who is a repurposed shell of technician Eru's old friend, but all the supporting cast is literally supporting the main relationship. The subplot about Andie is mainly to underline the notion that Giftias absolutely do not have memories after they're retrieved, a vital piece of information for Tsukasa because... SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T WATCHED THE SECOND EPISODE ...he's at the bargaining point with Isla's impending retrieval date and "death" in the coming month. Points of the show's overarching plot patter in here and there so it's not like they're forgetting it, but everyone seems to be focusing on analyzing and providing opinions of the relationship.
Tsukasa and Isla's date at a firework festival is completely standard fare in anime dating, though I dare say they're farther along in their relationship than the one in Yuki-chan, a series that is supposably dead center in the romance genre. At least the end result when Tsukasa confesses his love takes some consideration of what Isla must be really thinking and has an ending that reflects that. Tsukasa's reaction that opens the next episode is absolutely one of the series' best moments, too. I still enjoy the series and am going to likely be with it unless the ending absolutely botches the job. Unfortunately, this series of events hits on many of the weakest elements the show has, most obvious the standard nature of its leads, even if they're smoothed out by the intervention of the other characters. I want to see Plastic Memories take off and become more than pretty good, but it seems just fine staying where it is.
Solid Recommendation
PUNCH LINE
Jonathan Kaharl
That said, things are still interesting now that Yuuta is finally back in his body. Well, not really his body, but you know what I mean if you've been following along. He still has his spiritual awareness, meaning that darn cat is still bugging him and has finally revealed that the entire plan is to keep making Yuuta loop through time and eventually reach a "good ending" of sorts where the meteor never hits. However, Yuuta isn't allowed to do certain actions, such as changing certain historical events, and it's making the mission far more challenging to accomplish. Yuuta's relationships with the various tenants is also changing compared to before, as he's actively hanging out with the group instead of disappearing for days at a time. A few differences between the timelines are popping up, and the true motives of the Qmay group are finally known. How Yuuta can actually save the world know is the big question.
Uchikoshi's talents are starting to pop up again. The guy gets how to hook in an audience and keep them guessing, and that's always been true of Punch Line. Even though the twists are dying down significantly, the show is still putting out some great dramatic turns and keeping things lively and exciting. To a point. Uchikoshi's status as a VN writer is shining through in these Yuuta in body scenes, as dialog feels very off and unnatural because he doesn't know how to properly stage conversation between multiple characters through the medium of animation. It feels very much like there's a lot of script reading and a lack of personal touch at times, made apparent with how little Yuuta talks during these sequences.
Punch Line is still well worth the look so far, and it seems to be building to a strong finish (IT BETTER), but its flaws are becoming more apparent, and it's losing that maddening edge it normally has. There's still a few moments that inspire endless guessing a theories, but too many mysteries have also become predictable. But then again, this is the writer behind 999 we're talking about, so hopefully I'll be eating those words once everything is said and done.
Solid Recommendation
Re-Kan!
Jonathan Kaharl
As I've been saying, the whole ghost part of the equation isn't just window dressing, it's the thematic core to all the drama. For example, Amami keeps getting distracted doing things for ghosts, so her friends and her father give her special glasses her mother used to wear that block out her sixth sense. Suppressing her powers only serve to cause her distress, though, and she only keeps them on because she doesn't want to anger Inoue. Inoue's reaction when Amami calls to ask permission to take them off during an emergency to find a lost child, a situation Amami fails to explain, leads to a really perfect moment between the two that shows why they work so well together. We also get to see how the ghosts react to the lack of someone alive to speak with, humanizing them more then they have been so far. It shows the negative side of the afterlife very well. The whole ghost element is used to show how tied spirituality is to Amami's sense of self, and how even a dark subject like death can create a shared connection between people. That episode also ends with Inoue getting accidentally drunk and being super tsundere gay for Amami, which is always a plus.
It's the following episode that pushed the show from just being good to being fantastic. A young girl ghost who barely understands how to speak appears in the classroom, and the gang decide to teach her and figure out just why she's tied to the human world. The actual back story is incredibly sad, but the show tackles it with its usual tact and maturity, and it pays off to even manage to give the idiotic comedic relief character a bit of emotional depth. There's also one truly touching scene involving Amami and the ghost that reveals something about her with only implication, and it is just masterful. It's an episode I really don't want to spoil, the sort of episode that would be a must see highlight in a lesser series, like Super Sonico or Majimoji Rurumo. For Re-Kan, just is just another beautiful bit in a strong showing.
Re-Kan works solidly as a comedy, but it's real strengths come from being a slice of life. It's a genre mostly known in the anime world for being boring and safe, but Re-Kan shows us that there's a power that came be found in the daily life, and that is ridiculously hard to do.
Strong Recommendation
RIN-NE
Stephanie Getchell
This
is another set of episodes that establish some new faces, this time
with Masato. While his character is rather cut and dry, I do still like
the trend of introducing new faces into the series in little waves. It
helps keep the entire story from being overwhelming and it adds things
here and there that can help develop the current cast in place. However,
Sakura is still a bit underdeveloped for my liking. Sure we know how
she can see spirits but this was done ages ago and we haven't seen much
else since. It's rather saddening, if you ask me, however I will still
say that I hope we get more for her character before I get to finish the
first half of the series in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the main plot
hasn't been established because of the time it's taking to establish
recurring characters. This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending
on how everything has been handled thus far and I think it's doing
rather well. I have a strong feeling the main plot has something to do
with Rokudo's father as that is still very much under wraps at this
point in time, meaning we could be seeing something come up by the time
the final spring report is done. Since Rin-Ne is set for a two
cour anime, it can take much more time rather than a one cour because,
let's face it, if this was a one cour and the episodes so far played out
exactly like this then we'd be in for a rather rushed ending. It'll be
interesting to see what the series does before the halfway mark, but I
do have my hopes.
The
consistency this series has been giving me is great! Once again, it
makes me happy to know that it's not over doing it or pacing itself at a
slow crawl which would have made me drop the series ages ago if it had
and I would be here talking about Picking Up Girls in a Dungeon instead...
My overall hopes for this series aren't high and although I am enjoying
it, it still hasn't done anything outstanding to make me say it's the
show of the season or even put it on the higher end of that list (cause
we all know Blood Blockade Battlefront is the best from the spring season). I know nothing will change that, but I sincerely hope Rin-Ne does something more so it has a better fighting chance against the stiff competition that it's up against.
Solid Recommendation
Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign
David O'Neil
But the instances of stupidity aren't the only stand out moments in the last few episodes of Seraph,
as there are also the scenes where the characters open up and interact
in often small, but charming ways. One of the recent episodes had the
main cast jump-starting an abandoned car, and the amount of character
interplay, comedy, and even characterization it managed to get out of
this simple concept is simply impressive. Watching Yu briefly break out
of his emo "I have to kill all the vampires" shell to giggle with glee
over the concept of learning to drive a car, or Yu and Shiho arguing
about who should drive only to then turn that around and tease Shinoa
together when she realizes she's too short to sit in the driver's seat
of the car, or her reacting by beating the crap out of them. It's the
smaller scenes like that, exploring the characters and their
relationships tactfully yet enjoyably that's making the show
entertaining throughout all the plot holes and backwards shonen
reasoning. The characters are far from complex, but they're written well
enough to be both likable and interesting enough to drive the main
plot. Yu still stands as the series' biggest weakness, often leaning too
heavily on one note with his bland fixation on a typical revenge quest,
but even with him it's looking more and more like there's more to him
than it first seemed. Things should especially get more interesting once
Yu and Mika finally reunite, which is looking to be soon the way things
are going.
Another place where Seraph improved the last few episodes is in the action. It's hardly at Attack On Titan levels
of strong execution yet, but they've been getting more creative with
the choreography and animation in fight scenes and it's helping greatly.
This does come at the expense of some of the animation losing polish, a
few scenes in the most recent episodes saw character's faces going way
off model, but I'll take more movement at the expense of less polish
most days (even though I'd prefer to have more of both). To watch Seraph you
have to be able to put up with a lot of dumb. You have to be able to
see singular teenage boy easily being able to cut down a powerful
vampire for seemingly no reason besides him being the protagonist, and
just sort of accept it because that's how this sort of show works. But
if you get past that there's a surprisingly enjoyable show, with well
rounded cast of characters waiting below that rough exterior.
Show by Rock!!
David O'Neil
I've spent a decent amount of my space writing on this show praising the side character band "Shingan Crimsonz", a group of goofy bishonens who manage to steal the show any time their on screen. With that said, it almost seems as if the writers realized that they were so much more fun and interesting than the main characters, because for two episodes straight (episodes seven and eight) the show focused almost entirely on them, pushing the main cast of girls to the background. Now, in concept I want to like this, those four guys are a lot of fun and it was neat having the focus on them. At the same time I feel as though I'd prefer the show to keep the focus where it should be, on the main characters. After a few strong episodes that managed to pull me in a while back, I've started to feel more and more distanced from the central plot and the conflicts of the main characters. Luckily, if the end of the ninth episode is any sign, the show does seem to be getting back on track and moving in a more engaging direction. That said, most of the ninth episode on the other hand felt like a step backwards, as the main girls repeated the same old "trying to spruce up their style instead of their music" routine, followed by the leader of Shingan Crimsonz giving them nearly the same speech about the power of music all over again, as if they needed to fill in fifteen minutes before the concert scene and couldn't be bothered to come up with anything new.
I'm rarely bored while watching Show By Rock, but as the show goes on its novelty has worn off and lately it hasn't done a good enough job giving me reasons to give it my full attention. It does look as if the show is finally moving it's plot forward, but only after two episodes so loosely connected to the main characters and story it almost felt like a totally different show. Show By Rock has lost its momentum, and it needs to regain it soon to have any hope of keeping its audience's attention.
Weak Recommendation
Sound! Euphonium
Stephanie Getchell
This week isn't quite as strong as the others since the love triangle is in there now which kinda makes it go into stereotypical high school show. This isn't something that has just happened, mind you, but it's one that kind of takes away from the whole point of the series to begin with and it's a little saddening to me. However, I do have to say that this is still a series set in high school so it should be something I ought to expect at some point and, honestly, it's better to address this now rather than later. Granted, as of now, there's still no confirmation on the total number of episodes this series will end up with, but I'm still suspecting the one cour amount at this point. Something I did enjoy was the Aoi/Haruka episode which kind of balances out the love triangle one. It creates a much more interesting dynamic between the group of third years that we've been getting to know, with a lot more focus on the two I've been rather curious about since very early on. Because we've been hanging out with Asuka quite a lot, it's a welcome change. The story, itself, is also still rather consistent despite my slight dislike for the eighth episode. It's similar to Rin-Ne in that it's remained rather consistent in what it wants to do and how it wants to do it and I really appreciate that. Not to mention the band geek in me goes a little batty over this show.
As we head towards the final report for the spring season in the next several weeks, what I'm the most curious about is how the rest of the series will be handled. Is it just going to be 11 to 13 episodes long or will it have even more episodes to work with? More than likely, since this is Kyoto Ani's latest baby, I'm going to guess the 11 to 13 episodes with a possibility of a second season in the next year. Something similar happened to Free! Iwatobi Swim Club in 2013, and I'm pretty sure this one is doing a lot better in Japan than Amagi Brilliant Park did last fall. All that's left is to see how this season manages to complete itself. If it has 13 episodes total, then Sound! has only five more episodes to go and I can only guess what will end up happening by the end of it. HOWEVER, if that second is confirmed or this does end up as a two cour show, my guess at the series's ending will probably change. There's only one way to find out and that's see where the show ends up in the next several weeks.
Solid Recommendation
Triage X
Danni Wilmoth
We pick up right where we left off before with Hitsugi butt naked going berserk in the Black Label HQ. It's here we're given late exposition about Hitsugi's origins and why on earth she's so goddamn strong. As it turns out, Hitsugi was one of the first D99 test subjects. Her father had taken some samples of the serum because Hitsugi, only a little girl, was fatally ill. The serum saved her life, but had significant side effects on her psychology and physiology. Being father of the year, her dad decided to conduct more tests on her that basically turned her into a murderous superhuman who ended up killing her own father and his assistants before being taken out and brought back to life by Black Label (before they were Black Label). She's somehow snapped back into her murderous rampaging state and Arashi is the only one who can snap her out of it (shocking, I know), which he does by hugging her. Hitsugi learns the power of friendship and is cured. As gratitude, she french kisses Arashi leaving an incredibly thick trail of saliva after she pulls away. Leading up to the final climax, Syringe, the yakuza, the police force, and Black Label are all converging on one spot to either capture or save a bodacious young detective who has done nothing but get captured so far during the entire show. The yakuza initially captures her and goes on a LONG monologue about how they're going to turn her into a drugged up rape doll for their boss. Then they show off his massive collection of drugged up rape dolls shot full of Platinum Lily. Arashi manages to rescue her, but inadvertently releases all the already drugged-up women, which would probably be okay if they weren't on Platinum Lily which I guess makes them pretty bad news.
I've talked at length about how awful a show this is already, both in these seasonals and on Twitter. It suffers the same problems it always has, including some plain AWFUL anatomy (see above. I'm no artist but that is NOT how forced perspective works. Just how long is her waist exactly?). I'll address what bothered me the most about the most recent episode, and for that matter almost every episode before. This is not a hilariously bad show. Sure, it is fun to browse through my livetweeting agony cracking jokes about Triage X, but quality aside, it is a gross and awful show. It's the violent sexual fantasy of a repressed middle school boy. Every single episode leaves at least one woman stripped naked and helpless at the hands of men who are either torturing them, threatening to rape them, or doing both. It doesn't just stop at threats of rape either, Triage X is pretty blatant about the fact that girls are getting raped. A previous episode showed the yakuza boss drugging a girl and taking off his clothes, implying he rapes her after the scene ends. The most recent episode showed us his collection of women he keeps drugged for his sexual pleasure. To make matters expectantly worse, the camera ADORES these women's bodies. In fact, I would strongly argue that the moments when Triage X tries its hardest to sexualize its female characters is when the possibility or reality of rape and torture is on the table. It's disgusting. It's reprehensible. It makes me physically ill watching it happen. God I hate this show so much.
No Recommendation
Ultimate Otaku Teacher
Joe Straatmann
The lack of interest in the second episode has much more to do with preference. Junichiro and his long-time MMORPG partner Luce have one more quest to complete on the online game Ouroboros, and since it's a raid that requires 35 people, Junichiro recruits his entire class as players to fulfill his selfish desire. It's everything I've come to expect from Junichiro, but nothing squashes my interest more than watching anime characters play MMORPGs when it's not Welcome to the NHK's satire on the subject. .hack buffering buffering buffering, Sword Waifu Online, whatever. There's a sequence of events where Junichiro and Luce battle a boss creature and then walk through a village as all the other players awe at their mad skills. Since gaming battle scenes are a waste of time because they can make up whatever crap to suit their needs, and the, "Wow! You're good at gaming and that means you're amazing!" is lazy pandering, it pretty much sums up why I hate gaming in anime with one tidy sequence. It isn't even particularly good at accurately reflecting the MMORPG element. Teacher! Teacher! Can I use my brain now? The game just senses what class each student should be, the students just know how to use PC controls right off the bat, and the whole goal is to only make all the students work as a team in order for the raid to be successful. I certainly hope this game isn't subscription based, because man, if accomplishment wasn't based on months of stat building, ability earning, and rare equipment hoarding, the makers would be kicking themselves over how much potential money they lost.
All that aside, what the episode is leading to has possibility. The predictable twist is Junichiro's gaming partner Luce is one of his truant students he has to get in line. What Luce's circumstances are is much more unexpected. As much as this series is either out of its depth or insists on the fictional standard of teaching where you don't have to actually teach anything as long as you inspire... something, this is right up its alley. Its goal of using the world of otaku to spotlight the talents and celebrate the uniqueness of others would be perfect for Luce and I actually look forward to the next episode. Ultimate Otaku Teacher is still a middle-of-the-road time filler, but that doesn't mean it isn't capable of having some bright spots.
Weak Recommendation
Wish Upon the Pleiades
Jonathan Kaharl
The stuff with Minato is a great example of this. It's obvious him and the horned boy are the same person from different timelines, but we really don't know much about how he thinks. Despite that, there's a lot of little touches to his character, and a picture is starting to form. This is also making his relationship with Subaru grow some depth, as their budding romance isn't just because he's the guy character and she's the main heroine. Their time in the greenroom resulted in a shared connection, as Subaru managed to grow through Minato's advice, while Minato has become more and more interested in Subaru and has become inspired to see the world and learn more about it. There's very little said outright, but it's all there, and it gets a bit of payoff as Subaru finally confronted Minato out of the room. The relationship she has with Aoi is also being well built, as little reactions between the two spell out just how much the two are trying to change as people and how much more they need to work on communicating. Despite having so much development already, they finally get some major final bits here.
The following episode also shows further subtly by giving some solo time with Nanako, the club president's witch hat wearing translator. Before we get to hear it from her mouth, we get hints in the episode that someone she cares about is far away somewhere, and that she feels isolated, despite living with her father. The little bits in her home add a lot to her personality and character that haven't been even closed to explored by this point, and her strangely poetic way of seeing the world really allows the show to still not say everything outright and put it through Nanako's strange lens. It leads to some beautiful moments, especially once she reunites with the president at episode's end, as we find out why the president looks the way he does. It's such a lovely little touch.
This is a bit bizarre to me. Shouji Saeki has experience, but his directing credits are mostly disappointing or trashy works (outside two episodes of FLCL). His work here with Pleiades is way above what I ever would have expected from him, and it has me excited to see what he makes next. It's amazing just how good this project ended up being, despite its origins as a bloody car commercial.
Strong Recommendation
Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches
Jonathan Kaharl
The series has pretty much been their show so far, with the supernatural studies club being worked in as comedic relief, and the witches more or less being a means to move the story. I don't mind this at all, though, because the two are so likable and have strong chemistry. Shiraishi is quiet but picks up on a lot of small things others don't, and she really helps Yamada out of a lot of jams. At the same time, she has a habit of being self-sacrificing, tied back to her issues with a lack of self-worth, which steams off Yamada. In a cute twist, Yamada yelling at her to never pull a stunt like that again leads to her smiling realizing just how much Yamada cares about her well-being and giving her a bit more self-value by knowing that she's loved by someone. On the other hand, the awkward Yamada finally has something to be passionate about, choosing to help Shiraishi after their initial strange experience because he finally saw someone else's situation and connected with them on some level.
From those emotions, romance is starting to spring, and the two are starting to explore what that love means for them. It's a nice bit of development, making up for the lack of development for the rest of the cast. Even the witches mostly have stuff figured out, they just need Yamada to help with a problem. All the queer subtext mixed in is equally appreciated, and it's made the show a cute romp. Despite some production issues in a few points (though the show has managed a pretty constant animation quality), Yamada remains a fun time every episode.
Solid Recommendation
Second Opinions
Blood Blockade Battlefront
Jonathan: Do I even need to say anything? I think BBB speaks for itself at this point. It does everything so near perfectly so constantly that I'm running out of praise for it. If you're still not watching this one or have no plans to in the future ...the fuck is wrong with you? Strong Recommendation
Stephanie: This week we add one more member to Libra's ranks and learn a lot more about White and Black's current situation. The latter of the two I'm more interested in because the whole circumstance regarding Black was a little weird to me until finally getting the proper explanation. And now that we know what that circumstance is, it makes a lot more sense and is now going to cause some inner struggle for White as well. With only three episodes left in the series, it's going to have to really work it's way to the finale and rather soon. Luckily, these past couple of episodes are a great start towards that. Strong Recommendation
Etotama
Jonathan: I am annoyed that Shaa-tan, the best character, had her episode be a recap. Still, they did the best they could, and at least the race in the following episode was great. Shirogumi Inc and 8-Bit Rocket deserve a shit ton of business after all the amazing work they've done here. A series with 3D animation more exciting that the 2D animation is practically unheard of, but Etotama keeps knocking it out week after week. Strong Recommendation
The Heroic Legend of Arslan
Stephanie: I think I am on such a Fantasy kick lately. With Arslan, Yona, Maria, and even Blood Blockade Battlefront, to an extent, it has been an interesting and amazing 2015 for me thus far. This week, for Arslan, things are going well to me. Now that our resident musician and female character have joined the group, the dynamic has become interesting but not all that clear since Arslan has yet to interact with these two new members much. Also, bringing our mystery boy from episode one back to see Arslan is nice to see. We hadn't seen him interact with our lead since that first episode so I do like the growth this encounter brings. Overall, this week has been good for me! Strong Recommendation
MY love STORY!!
Stephanie: You should really come to expect this by now when I say that this show is diabetes cute. So much cute!! However, I will say I am very glad they decided to give a little bit more to Suna's character this time around. It's a welcome change since he's been the third wheel up until now. Also, because I do think he's kinda cute... Don't judge me! It will be fun for me to see where this series decides to go between now and the half way point, and I am very much looking forward to it! Strong Recommendation
Ninja Slayer From Animation
Jonathan: Hooray, more terrible animation! It's okay everyone, Ninja Slayer is saved from being try hard garbage. The bit with the old man talking about his son was oddly well handled, but the staff seems to have realized that Ninja Slayer is at its best when it's not giving a fuck about being good. The action is just absolutely ridiculous, more so than ever, and they're finding some truly bizarre visuals to throw around. For example, did you know Ninja Slayer's scarf can stay perfectly still for hours at a time, stretch out about a mile, and become a makeshift resting place for birds? Amazing. Strong Recommendation
Sound! Euphonium
Danni: I actually haven't gotten around to watching the latest episode yet, but I absolutely had to write a second opinion for this installment based off of episode eight alone. I can pretend that what I love about it is the excellent dialogue or the GORGEOUS animation (I don't know how they managed to animate the lewdest tame scene ever but they sure as hell did it), but I'm gonna get right to the point: it was gay as hell. I loved it. There's been romantic tension blossoming so far in the series, but it erupted in episode eight. It is Kyoani though, and they are infamous for yuri teasing only to go full hetero. The flags for Euphonium to go down the same are certainly there, but I'm choosing to remain optimistic. Maybe I'll end up disappointed in the end, but I'll always have Hibike! Euphonium episode eight to look upon fondly. Gay joke because Danni forgot to give a rating and it's four in the morning right now
Jonathan: Okay, on one hand, the whole brutal nature of competition that runs the world is well explored in all its crushing disappointments and charging highs as usual. On the other hand, episode eight was one of the gayest things I've ever seen and that too is great. Good job, Kyoani. You've almost made me forgot that you made two shows that nearly destroyed the entire industry's creative output for years. Strong Recommendation
Ultimate Otaku Teacher
Stephanie: Well what do you know? This week is actually a fairly poor one. What happened when the manga author was added in was not really appropriate in the case of stalking Makina. I say this even though episode 1 was bad. This is probably the first time since that episode that it's gone to an extreme to do what it needs to and this time I am not pleased with it. But, for me, it may make itself up to me with the recent arc we're seeing. We shall see how the show goes once final spring report time comes! Weak Recommendation
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