Sorry for being late and a bit rushed, but yesterday was not the best of days. (If you haven’t been following my twitter feed, we had a pet in surgery.) Still, I managed to cover most shows to some degree.
So let’s jump right in and talk about this week’s shows! Be sure and let me know what you think down in the comments!
Just as a reminder, shows that I am watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics.
Ancient Magus Bride, Ep 3
This is what anime can do… Easily one of the best sequences/episodes I’ve ever seen.
Any other comment would be superfluous.
Anime Gataris, Ep 3
The club members raise their spirits by making a pilgrimage to Akihabara – and manage to save the club. Along the way, more hilarious meta-commentary on anime and otaku.
Blend-S, Ep 3
More character driven shenanigans… A funny show and worth watching, but hard to comment in any depth about.
Girls Last Tour, Ep 3
It was interesting to see that Chito and Yuuri aren’t the last survivors of whatever happened… But their reactions to meeting another person seemed oddly subdued somehow.
Idolmaster: SideM, Ep 3
This week was all about the upcoming debut for Dramatic Stars… Pretty much the standard fare for such an episode, only executed to IM@S’s usual high standards of characterizations and character interactions. We finally get Tsubasa’s backstory and why he became an idol… which mostly left me unclear between the connection between being a pilot and being an idol. But his earnestness and seriousness sold it anyhow. We still haven’t had Kaoru’s story yet, and I can’t even begin to imagine why somebody would leave off being a surgeon for being an idol.
Inuyashiki, Ep 2
That was… frankly, f*cking frightening. Like pretty much everyone else, I expected the kid to be a bad guy. What I didn’t expect was an absolute psychopath. (Or maybe sociopath, a little research on the two failed to make clear any useful differences.) They make it pretty plain this wasn’t a consequence of Shishigami’s death and rebirth – he’s been like that for a long time.
The ending fascinated me… First, in that Ichiro hasn’t yet really grasped what he is and what he can do. Unlike Shishigami’s enthusiastic adoption of his inhumanity, Ichiro seems to be grasping his innate humanity. (Which sells very effectively because of the setup in the first ep.) Secondly, because it’s an interesting creative decision to have an irresistible force meet an immovable object so early in the season. Of course, we have the third episode next – the traditional timing for the first big twist.
- E Minor at Moe Sucks posted an interesting take on why the episode was so chilling.
Just Because, Ep 3
Another slow burner… Where very little happens, but there’s a great deal going on. (It’s kinda hard to explain, isn’t it? Yes, yes, it is.)
I’ve got some reflections on Ena, but those are going into my next Photography in Anime post.
Kino’s Journey, Ep 3
Found out something I hadn’t known… the stories for this season were chosen by a fan poll. That doesn’t leave me with good thoughts for the rest of the season, as “fan favorites” aren’t always the best stories. This also limits the ability of the production staff to weave any kind of a coherent arc.
That being said, I definitely enjoyed this week’s ep… Travellers not only are changed by their travels, but change what they travel through. An interesting thought indeed.
Konohana Kitan, Ep 3
Frankly, I’m not sure what they’re going for here anymore. The last two eps have been a bit more serious than I’d expect for a purely CGDCT show, but they haven’t really been connected into any kind of coherent plot either. This week’s ep just reinforces the feeling I mentioned last week, like we’ve just skipped a bunch of setup episodes.
But it’s still cute.
Land of the Lustrous, Ep 3
Oh, man… was this ep good. Dia has been struggling to find her place because she hates being protected because of her fragility… And that leads her to empathizes with and seek to rescue/help Phos who is outcast because she so fragile and useless. She works so hard at this even as the rest of the gems are dismissive of the idea. There’s a bunch of *ssholes amongst the gems, but Dia at least has empathy for others. (Unlike Cinnabar, who is sunk so deep into her own well of self pity and self hate that she is blinded.)
And though there’s still some serious problems with CGI, the sequence of Dia running back to the temple(?) was simply awesome.
And of course the third ep twist… Phos has somehow been changed by her time as part of snail, now she understands the snail’s speech!
Love Live Sunshine, Ep 3
Is it just me, or did it feel like they stuffed two or three episodes worth of content in this episode? Looking back on the season so far, it almost looks like they’re rushing to leave room for something…
But kudos for this ep accomplishing something that mostly escaped them in the first series – both musical numbers felt like they took place in-world. Last season, almost all of them felt like music videos tacked onto the episode.
March Comes in like a Lion, Ep 2
No comment this week.
Recovery of an MMO Junkie, Ep 3
In the virtual world, our lovebirds grow closer… In the real world, they are still separate and agonizing about whether or not they even should grow closer.
Two Car, Ep 3
Yet another warm up race… Just how many do they need? And the camera spends very little time on the main pair, instead wandering over the other racers. In the course of the episode, we get Chiyuki and Misaki’s full backstory… and by the end of the ep, the standard falling out is resolved in a thoroughly standard way. Cue the ED and roll credits.
For a fairly predictable genre piece, Two Car stands out so far mostly for it’s clumsy execution.
A little bit of teasing fanservice setting up the standard summer staple?
No… It turns out that kneeler racers make “fireworks” by strapping bits of metal to the passenger’s body and dragging them along the road at speed. (And do these girls ever wear helmets?) I guess if you’re taking part in a sport with significant risk of death and injury, turning it up from 11 to 12 for a bit of fun doesn’t make that much difference. Plus, being teenages, they’re still at the “I’m immortal” phase of their lives.
And of course the whole sequence is accompanied by tons of yuri ship-teasing between the driver-passenger pairs. (“We’ll make beautiful sparks together” etc…)
Wake Up Girls: New Chapter, Ep 3
The Girls continue their efforts to increase their visibility by working as individuals and sub-units… Things don’t go well to start, but with their usual blend of creativity and ganbatte everything works out in the end. I particularly like Airi’s throwback to WUG’s early days on the “Animal Weather Report”. Noticeable by her absence in all this was Mayu… then, cliffhanger. Mayu has been chosen to appear in a drama, co starring opposite Shiho Iwasaki… The girl who replaced Mayu as I-1’s center. (And who herself has fallen from grace and been exiled to an I-1 subunit out in the sticks.)
So, it seems Mayu will get an episode dedicated just to her… Which I guess is par for the course, her struggles with her past and with the I-1 club are a key part of the narrative.
Shiho’s story is explained in the movies NAICT, which I really need to watch… I have copies, but the subs in the first movie are so awful I keep bouncing off of it.
Another thing in the episode is Tange-donno‘s mysterious connections… That’s a story I’d like to hear someday. How did someone as well connected (and seemingly well regarded) as her end up out in the boonies? Why does she dislike Tokyo?
Ayumi, Otome, and Atsugi’s conversation raised some questions though… They lamented that as latecomers to WUG fandom, they’ve never seen WUG live. If WUG is trying to raise visibility, and doing all this local work, why aren’t they doing local lives anymore? Odd.
Yuki Yuna is a Hero, Ep 3
I must admit to being thoroughly confused here… It’s not as if YuuYuuYuu didn’t have slice-of-life/downtime episodes, or that such things are unusual in magical girl series. It’s just that this one was so weird and contributed so little (nothing really) to character or plot development. An astonishing oversight considering that they must know how few episodes they have left in the Washio Sumi chapter.
(With this new format, full width for the writeups, I need to figure out something to signal the break between the last review and any chatty stuff after…)
Sorry, I tried to get as much of this done in advance as I could but it just didn’t work out. So some shows only got quick entries that deserved longer. Of course, some got quick entries because that’s all they deserved…
For those wondering, Miss Emma is recovering nicely… It’s still early (as I write this, not even 24 hours after she came home) but all the signs are positive.
Anyhow, how did your week in anime go? Drop me a line down in the comments!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
Hope your pet is doing better, I missed that on Twitter (been a bit busy). Enjoyed seeing your thoughts on a few shows though :)
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You don’t do weeklies on your blog, but you’re always welcome to leave your thoughts here!
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Thanks, I didn’t have any this week since I had to skip a week in order to run a Youth event at my church. Looking forward to seeing some stuff tomorrow though.
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I had a pretty busy week of anime, just mostly not with the current season’s stuff.
Last Friday I got together with friends after work. I’ve been showing them Angel Beats, and we continued on with episodes 6-9 of that series. I have the Blu-Ray and this is my third time watching it, but they’ve never seen it before. One of them is a guy who can’t usually watch more than 2 or 3 episodes at a time of any series before he’s ready to switch to another one, but this time he was the one actually suggesting that we continue into a fourth episode, so that’s when I know I’ve got him hooked.
Saturday, I planned to watch some of the seasonal stuff, but first I decided to watch an episode or two of Vivid Strike on Amazon, to get myself going on that series. I ended up watching eight episodes of Vivid Strike, finished off the last four episodes on Sunday, and never did get to any of the other shows over the weekend. I don’t binge-watch entire seasons of anime very often, but that one went down smooth and easy and was really entertaining. It wasn’t the best entry in the Nanoha franchise, but it was a definite improvement on the prior season, and it was tonally, thematically, and content-wise everything a Nanoha series should be. It also had a couple of truly stunning scenes that are going to stick with me for a long, long time.
Monday I went to see A Silent Voice after work. I needed a little time to sort my thoughts once it was over, because it did a lot of great things but also had a few places where it seemed to drag a bit. Now that I’ve had time to reflect, though, I can say with confidence that I really liked it and want to see it again. Hopefully one of these American licensors will pick up the DVD rights eventually, but more immediately it made me want to go back and read the rest of the manga. I only read the first volume, back when it first came out last year. One of the really neat things about the screening I went to, though, is that I’d estimate probably half the people in the audience with me were deaf. I saw lots of talking in sign language before and during the movie. Probably a lot of them were from Gallaudet University, since that’s not too far away from the theater, but it was cool to see. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did.
Tuesday I went back and watched the third episodes of Magus Bride and LL Sunshine. I loved Magus Bride’s, which I found very meditative and thoughtful, and a beautiful story. Sunshine was just Love Live being Love Live again, and nothing’s wrong with that. There were some funny moments like the monorail ride, and I have to admit that Dia has actually been pretty awesome in the last two episodes, even though she’s nowhere near one of my favorite characters – that moment between her and Ruby (who is one of my favorites) was all kinds of awww. Looks like she’s the focus of the next episode, and I’m kind of looking forward to that now.
Still haven’t gotten to the third episodes of Yuki Yuna or Girls Last Tour, and at this point I’ll just wait until tomorrow and watch 3 & 4 together for both of them. Since episodes 3 and 4 of Yuki Yuna were paired together as the second theatrical movie release anyway, maybe seeing them back-to-back will help me get more from ep. 3 than you apparently did.
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I’m glad you enjoyed Vivid Strike overall, I know how much you’re into the the Nanoha franchise.
It’s been very hard to watch everyone go see A Silent Voice. Without driving 100+ miles each way, I don’t get to see it for two weeks. But at least this time, we’re getting an anime movie right here in the county. Driving 60+ miles (each way) on a weeknight, through rush hour traffic… not fun. We did it for Ordinal Scale, but it was a lot of stress. (And my wife had to take a half day on the day of and the day after.)
And it’s going to be a fun week for movies, what with Thor:Ragnarok premiering the week before.
Speaking of DVD’s, I mentioned the (very reasonable) pre-order price for Your Name to my wife this morning… and she tried to change the subject/dissuade me from thinking about it. Since my birthday is the next day, maybe she’s already pre-ordered it.
Oh, I agree LLS!! isn’t straying far from it’s roots, it’s just the pacing so far this season (and especially this episode) has seemed a bit off.
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Hmmm. Can’t say I’ve noticed any pacing problems. If anything, the issue I have is that so far it’s been in virtual lockstep with the format of the original’s second season. The details are obviously different, but the broad story beats are more-or-less the same.
Episode 1: Another Love Live announced, group leader battles doubts and pushes through with support of other members.
Episode 2: Writing new songs for Love Live, members split up into smaller groups and have bonding moments
Episode 3: Trying to figure out the logistics of where and how they’re going to perform, ending with the actual first round preliminary performance
Episode 4: Third year-centric story??
I pre-ordered Your Name and the second half of Hyouka at the same time a few months ago, and I just finally got word on Wednesday that RightStuf is shipping them. I figured they’d send each one as it came in, but instead they waited until Your Name was available to send me both of them.
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Yay for Emma. (I admit to having checked Twitter yesterday.)
This is probably the season where the shows we’re watching diverges the most. Not watching: Idolmaster, Love Live, Inuyashiki, Two Car, Wake Up Girls, Yuuki Yuuna. That has to be a record.
I’ve read the article on Inuyashiki on Moe Sucks. I suggest reading his recent article on Children of the Whales, too. It’s a very interesting contrast. It also contains spoilers for Children of the Whales, obviously.
If you’ve been surprised by episode 2, I take it you haven’t watched Gantz? It’s where I expected the show to go, and it’s why I didn’t bother to watch episode 2. Everything I’ve read about it confirms what I thought it would be.
Considering the time they spent in Animegataris talking about episode 3 twists (in episode 3, none the less), I’m a tad disappointed that there wasn’t one. The show mostly bores me, but then it pulls an excellent scene out of nowhere that makes watching it worthwhile. I thought the end speech scene was brilliant.
@Land of the Lustrous: The scene of Dia running is exactly the sort of scene I can’t watch due to my motion sickness. Had to look away. The fluidity of the motion encourages speed and camera movement I can’t stomach. The limitations of hand-drawn art, here, is my ally. I’ll have to give a shout-out to the show’s excellent music, though. Great, atmospheric tracks!
Oddly enough, this was my least favourite episode of Ancient Magus Bride so far. I still liked it, and the animation and art was great, but the display of Chise’s depression this episode was a tad too erratic for me to relate this time round. I feel, they should have been more subtle about it.
I really should watch the original Kino, shouldn’t I? I’m fine with this season, but I feel it’s not the optimal way to experience the content the first time round.
Also, Juuni Taisen has just varied its formula a little. May just be a slight delay, may be the fold in the carpet that trips everyone. We’ll see.
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I thought people might be stalking Twitter, so I made sure to keep up-to-date. :)
Honestly, I’m avoiding getting sucked down the Children of the Whales rabbit hole. I simply can’t take on any more shows this season… And I should drop some. But the only real candidate so far is Two Car, which I’m actually kinda enjoying despite being generic and clumsy. If something gets dropped at the mid-season gut check, Children is at the top of the list for a midseason replacement.
Anime-gataris does vary in quality… But so far, the peaks more than outweigh the valleys. I actually thought that not having a 3rd ep twist was the twist.
I’ve never seen the original Kino, so I really can’t advise you on that. It does seem to have left a positive impression on a bunch of people though.
I watched Juuni Taisen‘s premier as part of Crunchyroll’s “Passport to Japan” promotion (https://passporttojapan.com/), and it struck me as about as paint-by-numbers as you can get… so it’s good to hear they’re mixing it up some. I also ended up watching (as opposed to half paying attention while I did something else) Food Wars, which just confirmed my opinion that I was right to drop it way back in the first season.
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