Sloow start this season… as you might have guessed from my anticipation post, there’s just not much to choose from. But four shows is enough to get started with, and I don’t want to delay this post too long…
So hit the jump, and let’s run em’ down!
The shows that I’m 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.
Let’s Make a Mug Too 2
Yakunara Mug Cup Mo: Niban Kama (Let’s Make a Mug too: Second Kiln)
Is she searching for inspiration or promoting local tourism? :) :)
Second verse, same as the first… But I don’t think anyone expected much different, as this isn’t exactly an ambitious production. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it, it’s a nice SOL(ish) and everyone knows I love watching girls derp around…
Keeper
SELECTION PROJECT
As far as idol shows go… Pretty bog standard in a lot of ways. You have the MC with a Big Dream. The idol who inspired her. A pretty standard assortment of stock character types she seems destined to be in a unit with…
And a great big red button that must never be pushed, er, sorry… A great big flashing “PLOT TWIST INCOMING” sign in the final few minutes.
So… will the plot actually twist? If it does, I’ll be greatly disappointed. If it doesn’t, I really can’t predict where the show might go.
Provisional keeper.
The aquatope on white sand
Shiroi Suna no Aquatope
This is actually a second cour rather than a second season… But there’s been a considerable timeskip and we have a new setting (of sorts), so I’m treating it as a second season and covering it here.
As I said, we’ve had a timeskip… At least six months, Tingaara Aquarium is (just now) opening and Kukuru has gotten a job there. (I don’t think we’ve gone so far as her graduating college.) But much to her dismay, she’s assigned an office position (though an important one) rather than working with the animals. She’s a fish out of water, a square peg, etc… Her time at Gama Gama hasn’t really prepared her for a “real” (corporate) job.
And just as she reaches her breaking point…
Next week, Fuuka’s focus catchup episode? Most likely. I’m just glad this wasn’t a split cour and we haven’t had to wait.
Keeper!
Yuki Yuna Is a Hero: Great Mankai Chapter
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Dai Mankai no Shou
I am… conflicted on the first episode. Surely, no hero team in the history of ever deserves real lives more than the girls of the Hero Club. And Yuuki Yuuna‘s production staff has a deft touch when it comes to slice-of-life stories which really shines through here. (Never change Sonoko, never change!)
Best Girl Karin appears from the shadows…
But… Yuuki Yuuna also has a history of crisp starts, and this episode was anything but. No backstory, no exposition, nothing that would be useful to newcomers to the franchise either.
There’s also some confusion over when this episode takes place. Some evidence seems to place it between the original series and the Hero Chapter. Other opinions place it between the finale and epilogue of the Hero Chapter. And the final scene and name in the preview come from (canonical) side stories.
All-in-all, not a strong start. Keeper for sure, but it’s not comfortable to have my “WTF’ radar triggered so early.
Keeper.
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I’m still planning on getting to Heike Monogatari / The Heike Story, so no spoilers please!
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There you have it… The first batch of premieres. What are your thoughts? What shows have you watched so far (through Mon, October 4th.)? Drop a comment and let’s chat!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
Mushoku Tensei 2 is the only show that’s started that I’m planning on watching so far. Two more this coming weekend and I’ve added several more to my to-watch list for end of season binge-watching.
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What are the two coming up this weekend?
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The Faraway Paladin and World’s End Harem. A nice random mix.
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Hmm… Neither is currently on my list, but I always pay attention to the buzz, so who knows?
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@Mug: Maybe it’s my imagination, or my memory, but I thought the show got a genki upgrade? It’s something about the art and animation feeling more… energetic? Even the character designs? I’m not sure, since I didn’t re-watch anything from the first season. But I do feel it’s got a little more energy.
I liked Selection Project for what it is, but I have to wonder what they’re going to do with it. There’s a troubling parallel with how our main character is sickly, and that other idol who’s song they were singing met truck kun. Are they going to get her on board in hopes of a marketable tragedy? If so, that’s going to be very hard to pull off. We’ll see.
Aquatope was Aquatope. There’s little else I can add. I’m glad it’s still here, and I find the current direction interesting.
My fave premier so far is Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu, a show about the Us/USSR space race, fictionalised world plus a vampire who conveniently doesn’t have human rights, but is human enough to be marketable.
We’ll see where the rest goes.
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Sorry, meant to reply to the yesterday, but was busy and ended up spending the evening flopped on the couch…
@mug: I think that’s just you… maybe? Is it mostly because the mom is more directed and focused than Himeno? (Or any other characters that have got an equivalent amount of focus – which is basically nobody now that I think about it.)
@Selection Project: That’s exactly my worry. There’s an opportunity to do something unique and different… And there’s a lot of ways to muck it up and I lack confidence in their inventiveness.
@Laika to Nosferatu: I can’t stand vampires… and I’m significantly knowledgeable about the Space Race to be bugged by any changes or anything they get wrong. (I generally avoid space alt.history like the proverbial plague.) I’ll content myself with watching it vicariously through your comments.
The rest of the season looks like slim pickings for us… really only looking forward to Lupin and Senpai ga Urusai.
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@mug: It’s not about the content; that’s the same as always. It’s about the art and scene pacing. It feels like the line art and movements are… more dynamic. An easy example would be the teacher getting a sudden super-deformed moment (I don’t remember stuff like that happening in season one, at least not that obviously). But I hesitate to bring this up, because it’s not exactly what I mean. It’s more that the SD didn’t feel out of place of jarring to me, though it wouldn’t gel with my memory. That is the art prepared me for it. I noticed it pretty immediately at a glance, but I hesitate calling it “noticed”, because I’m not sure it’s not just my memory all wrong. The script feels the same as always.
@Laika: It’s not really alt history; more straight up fantasy with obivous reference. Not that it makes any difference, and I’m not knowledgable enough about the space race to say how many blunders there are, but it feels more accurate than avarage (not that that’s a high bar for anime). It’s a little odd, for example, that the dog’s name Laika is in the title, but the dog goes by a different name in the actual show (dead from the get-go, and used as an obvious parallel to the vampire). Also, it’s not all good; I’m a tad worried about an overly simple authorities-suck set-up, for example. That’s not something I ever appreciate, but it’s something I can tolerate if the show’s dumb fun. Laika‘s not quite as bad as Kyoukai Senki so far, but the direction’s there. Not sure I’ll talk about the show much; it doesn’t seem like something that inspires a lot of words.
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