Not quite as long as usual because I’ve been procrastinating and had some other stuff going on… But anyhow, hit the break and let’s get right to it.
The shows that I am watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics, strikethrough marks dropped shows and (*) marks shows that are watched but not regularly reviewed.
Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin) Season 3 Part 2 – Episode 3
Too much talk, not enough kicking Titan butt. And why can’t they just kill off Reiner? It’s not like they haven’t killed off plenty of main or primary characters in this show…
Still, even if it has slowed a bit, it’s not all bad. It was interesting to see Annie again, and more interesting see her react in horror to Marco’s death. One more ongoing clue that not all of the Titans are “beasts” or unquestioningly dedicated to their Cause. There’s a lot we don’t know about Titan society, but it’s becoming clear that it’s far from monolithic. It’ll be interesting to see what they do with this.
Midseason Musings: Even though the season is uneven… on the whole, MUCH better than S3P1. Hopefully the battle in Shiganshina is over by the end of the season, because they’ve really been stretching it out.
Status: Keeper.
Cinderella Nine (Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine) Episode 6
The sports and idol anime share a lot of common tropes… and this week Cinderella Nine showcased one of the most common. (Especially in the sports genre.) Tomoe feels that she’s holding the team back – and begins practicing in secret. She even goes so far as to “break up” with Tsubasa, her childhood friend. In the end, they make up because they can’t bear to part.
Meh.
This particular trope lives and dies by how well they’ve built up the relationships of the characters involved. Cinderella has never been the strongest show on that front, and thus the whole thing came off as contrived and saccharine. It’s not a bad series per se, but this was not it’s best outing.
Midseason musings: Though I’ve liked it well enough, Cinderella never has really been anything approaching “must watch”. If the show was more substantial, maybe I wouldn’t turn so sour after a single weak ep. (Even it was an especially weak ep.) I’m gonna keep watching, but…
Status: I’m voting Cinderella the show I’m most likely to regret keeping. I suspect another really weak episode and over the side it goes.
Fruits Basket Episode 6
As one arc ends… a new arc begins. Last episode, Tohru’s grandfather gave his blessing, and this episode her other families gives theirs.
Looking at it broadly, Tohru really has three families. First is her blood family, who has pretty much rejected her. Second are Arisa and Saki, both kind of lost sheep and they’ve chosen Tohru as their shepherd and center. Tohru for her part accepts this, because kindness and nurturing are the twin pillars of her essential nature.
Her third family is of course her family of choice – the Soma’s. And that’s where things get complicated. Her immediate family accepts her uncritically. Her extended family, they aren’t too happy with the whole deal. Their natures have lead them to closed and isolated, and they seek to reject the outsider.
Midseason musings: I started off watching this with some misgivings, mostly due to the hype surrounding it. Though I’m enjoying it on it’s own merits, I’m glad the hype has died down. The din made it hard to concentrate.
Status: Strong keeper.
(*) Joshi Kausei
Midseason musings: Though it has it’s brighter moments, overall I’ve been disappointed with the adaptation. If it wasn’t a short, and if it wasn’t for the better moments, I’d drop it like a hot potato.
Status: Reluctant keeper.
Kono Oto Tomare!: Sounds of Life Episode 6
Am I the only one little confused and disappointed here? After episode 5’s thunderous climax… the whole story seems to have taken a largish step backwards. This week’s episode revolves mostly around Hiro – who seems to have joined the club mostly to start sh_t.
On the other hand… To me, this is relatable as h_ll. We had a girl join our role playing group who was hell bent on breaking up the group for her own amusement. She pretty much succeeded, and it took years for the damage she left in her wake to be mostly repaired.
So, I’m curious to see how they’ll handle this.
Midseason musings: The first half of the series went incredibly well… But now they’ve on an unexpected path and I don’t know quite where they’re going. But given the track record, I’ll be sticking around.
Status: Keeper.
MIX: Meisei Story Episode 6
And so we reach the end of Touma and Souichiou’s middle school years… and the end of the what can best be described as the table setting arc. Humanizing Daisuke was an interesting choice, but I can get why Tou won’t forgive him. His selfishness cost them and the team a great deal.
Midseason musings: One one hand, not much has happened in the last six episodes. Much of what has happened is largely disposable from some points of view… On the other, we’ve gotten a ton of backstory and character moments.
Plus, if what commenter Dawnstorm relayed is correct – it’s not really the midseason yet, as Mix is probably a two cour show. This also explains why they felt comfortable spending so much time setting up the scenario.
Status: Solid keeper.
One Punch Man 2 Episode 6
Not watched this week because I’ve been catching up on Criminal Minds.
But hey, guess who has watched 300 odd eps of Criminal Minds over the last year? And still hasn’t started Hunter X Hunter because it’s “too long”!
Midseason Musings: I’ve made my unhappiness with the new season pretty clear over the last few weeks, so I won’t bore you by repeating myself here.
Status: Goodnight Saitama, I’ll most likely drop you after the next episode.
Senryu Girl (Senryuu Shoujo) Episode 6
Not the best episode… And the less said about the pooping rabbit, the better. Though I can say I relate, our guinea pigs produce prodigious amounts themselves.
As always, watching Nanako sparkle made me smile, and what more can you ask? Ah, taking the screenshot reminded me I forget to mention the whole subplot with her father thinking she was going through a rebellious phase… That was funny as heck. The senryu spouting delinquent of his imagination made me laugh.
Midseason Musings: Pure happiness mind candy.
Status: KEEPER!
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Sorry about the brevity of this week’s entry… Procrastination hit HARD, and there’s been some family stuff going on in the last week that’s been weighing on my mind. (Especially after my hiatus last month.) But I still think it’s worth reading, at least I hope so!
The week 8 entry, two weeks hence, will also probably be light. That comes after the Memorial Day weekend, and traditionally my wife and I spend all three days that weekend geocaching. Since almost all of my shows this season are on Fri/Sat/Sun, I don’t know if I’ll be able to watch them all. We’ve got some longish runs planned – including a visit to only Shinto shrine in North America.
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Anyhow, that’s it for me this week – over to you! Drop a comment with your thoughts and let’s chat!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
@Attack on Titan: I didn’t watch episode 3, though I came close. And I watched so much of it that somehow not watching it feels wrong. Will I stay strong?
@Cinderella Nine: While I thoght this was actually one of the better episodes, I can’t say I’m particularly in love with this show. I’m not likely to drop it at this point, but who knows.
@Fruits Basket: I don’t have much to say about it. Still happy about the adaption.
@Kono Oto Tomare: Honestly, that last episode feels like back to business to me. It’s always been that kind of show, only really appealing when it’s about the koto. But then it’s really good. The drama? Don’t care, never did.
@Mix: Officially, nobody knows yet how many episodes there are (well, the TV station and the producers must know). I’m quite fond of the show. If it’s a two-cour, the question is whether they’ll find a good stopping point. The first high-school season, maybe? I liked the way they humanised the “ace”. He’s still an ass, really.
@OPM2: It exists. It’s OPM2. In a season this bad, it’s quite welcome. I’m enjoying it more than the second half of the first season, but I think it might be a comparative effect. And Hunter X Hunter is pretty good (I like the first arc, I don’t much care for the following training arc, the York New City arc is the best, the Greed Island arc sucks and might have made me drop the show, and the Chimera Ants arc is all over the place, but generally good). It’s definitely a better fighting anime than OPM.
@Senryuu Shoujo: Yeah, I could have done without the bunny feces, too. I really do like the show in general, though. It’s just so cheerful.
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Sorry for the belated reply… Spent Friday tied up in family stuff (second funeral in as many months), and then took the weekend off.
Hard to respond to much of what you’ve written because now the next episodes have aired and we know the answers. :)
@Kono Oto Tomare: Hasn’t it always been about the koto? It seems to me that’s always been the center of things, especially with Chika’s backstory. Or do you mean practice and performances specifically?
My wife loved Hunter x Hunter, but there’s just something different about watching 150+ eps of serial as opposed to 300+ eps of episodic. Maybe it’s just me in that respect. HeroAca is still really the only long running battler that’s kept my attention, and that’s mostly the characters.
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Aww, no, not another funeral. Hope everything will turn out well, and don’t forget to take care of yourself, too.
@Kono Oto Tomare: The character beats are mostly independent of the Koto. For example: Chika’s grandfather is a koto character, but Chika himself doesn’t feel like one. Sure, he’s talented, and he’s tied to the koto by the plot/by his biography, but he’s really only starting out.
It’s not an easy distinction to make. For example, Satowa is definitely a Koto character, but her backstory’s written in a more abstract way: her character development would work in any discipline that has schools and family reputation.
So I don’t quite mean only practice and performance; also… sub-culture? It’s hard to express. You get non-specific plot developments from all shows in that vein, but usually you relate them to the topic at hand in a way that acquaints you to both the topic and the characters. Here they were all just practising, and then they somehow played. Compare this to, say, Chihayafuru, where different people had different strength and motivations, and needed different training methods accordingly.
So far, this is the Chika/Satowa show, with Takezo being the avarage Joe point of view. The characters do tie into the plot, and they’re all emotionally important. But a lot of that has little to do with the Koto. As a result it’s easy to forget the show is about the Koto for a good portion of the show, and it feels like a show of two halves.
Not sure how much sense this makes, since I’m trying to explain intuition, which is never easy.
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@ShingekiNoKyojin: “Too much talk, not enough kicking Titan butt.” Be careful what you wish for. :) “And why can’t they just kill off Reiner?” This is the arc where he earned the nickname, Plot Armored Titan. As far as can be known, it’s not because Iseyama-sensei likes Reiner… rather, he likes to see him suffer.
@Mix: I really hope it’s two-cour with an option to extend… I don’t see them catching up to the manga in that time, but hopefully they can reach a good pausing point and later get the green light to finish. It’s really that good and deserves to be adapted at the manga’s pace.
@Senryuu Shoujo: I learned Nanako’s VA is KanaHana (Shirase from Yorimoi, Red Blood Cell from Hataraku Saibou, among many other roles). No wonder I love hearing her voice so much.
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Sorry for the belated reply… Spent Friday tied up in family stuff, and then took the weekend off.
“Plot Armored Titan” – I must admit to laughing out loud! :)
@KanaHana.., She also voiced Kuroneko, one of my favorite roles of hers.
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