Still a little behind after the rush and madness of the Faire last weekend… But I managed to watch and write up the majority of the shows.
Hit the jump and let’s dive in!
Just as a reminder, shows that I am watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics.
Anonymous Noise
Three episodes behind, and I’m not sure I’m motivated to catch up… Teetering on the edge of dropping it.
Alice & Zoroku – Eps 8-9
Still trying to wrap my head around it… Pondering on how Hatori’s descent into being a ‘evil witch’ mirrors Sana’s attempts to become human. But the mirror flips at the end of the ep with Hatori choosing to isolate herself and Sana getting ready to bring the pain to Ayumu for her part in messing with Zoroku. She is not hesitating one bit to become a monster in service of (in her eyes) protecting her family.
Those of you who dropped or stalled because of the SOL elements might want to get caught up…
Atom: The Beginning – Ep 7
Honestly, this tweet from Scott at Mechanical Anime Reviews sums it all up…
Atom: The Beginning is never going to be as good as is opening, is it? *Sigh*
— My Scott Academia (@MechAnimeReview) June 5, 2017
For reference… the OP in question:
Honestly, it’s the best OP this season, and the only one this season that I watch every week. And it’s increasingly the best part of the show… Witness this week which, despite giving some character development time to Ran, was essentially filler. Less than two minutes was developed to furthering the actual plot (setting aside Six’s actions, which were a repetition of What Has Gone Before anyhow). Even that, reminding us that a character from four episodes before was still around, was clumsily handled. I’m rapidly getting to the point where I’m not sure why I’m still watching.
Re:Creators – Ep 9
Mamika’s death hit me pretty hard… Partly because of the loss of her idealism and her newfound conviction and strength. Partly because it took what was becoming the most interesting character in the show off the table.
Magane I understand, I just don’t care for her much. (Though her glee at being unfettered by the confines of her story and antagonist was certainly a sight to see.) Sitting here watching her natter and chatter on for the bulk of the episode was actually pretty painful as it didn’t really bring anything thematically and was repetitive as hell. On the other hand, Sota’s role in the whole affair is now coming out in the open…
Sakura Quest – Ep 9
Sakura dropped a bit in my estimation this week as basically everyone’s problems were so neatly and simply resolved. It felt more like a sitcom than a drama. (And once again their hit or miss comedy, missed.) Despite its vast improvement over the earlier episodes, Sakura is still struggling to find its groove.
Tsuki ga Kirei – Ep 8
The best episode this week, and the best episode of Tsuki to date. It opens with Kotarou and Akane dealing with the fallout of their revelation… And I loved how she dealt with her classmate’s questions so forthrightly – love isn’t always complicated. Sometimes it just is. Realizing this is the beginning of wisdom.
I was particularly taken with the middle sequence… Having a casual conversation together (without blushing and awkward silences) show how their relationship has grown. Kotarou’s willingness to wait for her (even though he had to be prompted), and her interest in his activities emphasize their growing closeness.
The festival sequence… the festival sequence… What can I say but wow! Their easy conversation. Her desire to celebrate his birthday. His assisting in bandaging her foot… practically pitch perfect.
And finally, our young couple find themselves alone and a moment of quiet…
Despite the CGI horror of the background characters, Tsuki has been a tour-de-force of framing and composition… And in this scene, they once again flat out nail it. I love the intimate feeling created here.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – you should be watching Tsuki ga Kirei.
We’re not caught up on Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, or Saekano. But things are calming down a bit now that June Faire is over, and we should be all caught up in time for next week’s entry.
Also, just hit the ‘buy’ button on the first volume (in English) of Sound Euphonium, due out in just two weeks…
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
@Alice & Zouroku:
Except for those reality-bending powers, she’s behaving pretty much exactly as a child her age. Not that children can’t be monsters…
I’m loving the current arc a lot.
@Tsuki ga Kirei: After sending them to the shrine, the priest gives Kotarou a 1000 Yen bill. One relationship charm is 500 Yen. I chuckled.
And, yes, this show has excellent scene composition. If it wasn’t for Uchouten Kazoku 2, this would easily be my show of the season.
Little Witch Academia gave you the scene you were expecting for a while now, but with a reveal on top that was really hard to take for Akko (considering her motivation). LWA isn’t really among my favourite shows; it’s decently entertaining, but that’s about it. The writing in what’s leading up to the finale, though? Couldn’t be much better.
@Re:Creators: Magane is the character in the show whose world view comes closest to mine, actually (the main difference being that I’m no psychopath), so she sort of helps open up the show for me. It’s a point-of-view thing.
Mamika, on the other hand, was a likable character, but I didn’t find her particularly interesting. I’m not sure what you mean by “loss of idealism”; she was just adapting to new circumstance. It’s more like going through a period of doubt but then re-affirming. There never was any loss I can see.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying Magane is a more interesting character – just that she’s closer to my world-view and thus an easier in than most of the other characters. What makes this show for me is not depth of character: it’s how they take stock characters and juggle them without sacrificing their type.
The most interesting character, in terms of characterisation, is probably Meteora, and that’s probably forced since her character type usually doesn’t get many scenes (and in those you get a few encouraging words). Since they make her a main character here, they sort of have to give her a motivation of her own. All the other characters are either protagonists, antagonists or foils.
Sakura Quest and Atom the Beginning are both shows I had modest expectations for, and so far they give me pretty much what I expected. I find them entertaining enough, but if they were suddenly canceled, I wouldn’t miss either of the shows.
Attack on Titan was better than last week, and I think we now know, in general, why Titans eat humans (I might mis-interpret). My Hero Academia was nice, and Saekano had probably its best episode yet.
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That’s the thing… Even though she’s learning to be human, she’s not a child of that age. At the end of the day, her humanity is a gloss over whatever-it-is she actually is. As such, her monstrosity neither limited to temper tantrums nor bound by human norms. That’s why I think her appearance as the Red Queen is significant – her emotions are running amuck (which has caused problems before), and I suspect the gloves are off.
Mamika… it’s hard to put my finger on it or express it in words. I guess the closest I could say is that while the other characters are all fighting for various reasons, Mamika is the only one to work out from first principles. From her principles.
Saekano was certainly a delight, and not just because it was classic Megumi… MHA, frankly the best ep of the series so far.
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@Alice & Zouroku: Good point, there. I tend to forget that she’s quite literally… something else. It’d doubly confusing considering her vision of what I assume is her future self. And we now know that regular kids can awaken to that power, too. And what’s with that oddly regular (crystalline?) shape of that flower? Is “Sana” the source? Her mind seems to be mathematically oriented and only slowly growing into emotion (maybe because of the body she created for herself?).
@Re:Creators: I think I see what you mean, and if I’m right we didn’t really have much of a different take on Mamika, just using the term “idealism” differently. (Working from principles is idealistic as far as I’m concerned. But that’s probably just a difference in how we use words.) Thanks for explaining. [Maybe I still misunderstand, though?]
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@Alice & Zouroku: Which flower? Sana’s Mirror (which manifests when she uses her powers)? All of the Alices have one.
I think we’re in what often termed “violent agreement” over Mamika. The English language can be so slippery.
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Forgot to add… Sana definitely has emotion, they’ve gone to great lengths to show us that, and to show us she doesn’t always handle them well. (They whole “frazzled” thing.)
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Yes, the mirror. I’m aware that everyone has one. Before a random kid (maybe not all that random?) awakened to the power, I thought the shape was part of the project. If you have powers that are basically shaped by imagination (and apparently stem from your circumstance), then it’s sort of odd that the “user interface” should be standardised. There might be a reason for it (though it might be a meta-reason, as in: that’s just how the creators visualise it).
***Heh. Violent agreement. Great term; I don’t think I heard that before.****
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Only kinda standardized… While they share a common design heritage, they’re all different. (And Sana’s has changed markedly in the last few eps.) Maybe they’re all similar because all of the Alices are pulling power from the same source? Maybe Sana is closely related to said source?
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I have to say, what Sana/The Red Queen and the Dreams of Alice really are is shaping up to be the big mystery of the show. I’m more and more wanting to pick up as much of the manga as I can.
The question I have is why do the mirrors of Hatori and Sana cancel each other out? This is not something that happens with anyone else’s mirrors. Is Hatori perhaps a “White Queen” in the same way that Sana is the Red Queen? Has she/it put herself/itself into the lives of two childless people, making herself/itself into their “child” by manipulating their memories? This, of course, is just wild speculation, and I can see cracks in the reasoning already (like, why then does she have to keep manipulating their emotions). Still, clearly Hatori is not just a regular Dream of Alice.
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@Faoladh
That’s… a damn good question. If had to make a WAG, it’s say the cancellation has something to do with Sana’s power being ‘on the fritz’ as they showed us a couple of weeks back. We’ve seen enough Alices duke it out to assume that it’s not just because it’s two Alices facing off.
Hatori has said her magic wears off. That’s why she’s isolated herself, and dedicated herself to keeping her parents ‘not fighting’. (I’m reluctant to call it ‘happy’.) Thus if she is a White Queen – it seems she’d have awakened much earlier doesn’t it? Sana was clearly a sophont (if inhuman) from Day One when she appeared beneath Wonderland (the lab).
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Exactly. It’s obviously important, or at least very strange. And like I said, the reasoning about Hatori being some sort of White Queen or whatever breaks down very fast, but she seemingly isn’t just your run-of-the-mill Dream of Alice either.
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Is Re:creators worth picking up then? It is definitely intriguing me. Ive heard good things about Tsuki ga kirei aswell! Too many anime to watch! lol
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Re:Creators: is definitely worth taking a look at, but so is Tsuki… Which sounds wishy-washy, but they’re both very good in different ways. Of the two, my preference is for Tsuki even though it takes a couple of episodes to gain traction.
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I see I see. Thanks for the advice Derek!
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Need to watch Tsuki ga Kirei! I’m def. behind on my spring anime’s – i didn’t pick many this season…or i mean..i did, but never really followed up on any of them. I’ll hopefully get around to some of them before the year ends. Otherwise my end of year post is going to be really sparse!
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Well, there’s six months left in the year… Plenty of time! :) :)
I’ve found that I need to really stay on top of seasonals, or just face reality and drop them. I rarely if ever get to anything in my backlog queue. I probably should work harder at doing so though, there’s some good stuff (or at least critically acclaimed) in there.
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