Euph returns with a banger premiere, plus Jellyfish (WOW!) and much more both good and bad. 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.
Oi! Tonbo
By the end of the first episode we learned that the titular Tonbo is very loud. Very f*cking loud. Oh, and she’s a golf genius middle schooler who is also
VERY LOUD.
All this with half ass animation, a meandering plot, and mediocre voice acting.
Status: In what’s shaping up to be a busy season (especially IRL), you have to do way better than that. Dropped without a shred of regret.
Sound! Euphonium 3
Hibike! Euphonium 3
Oh, baby… we are back. We are so back. Overall, the episode was pretty much what I expected, a well done re-introduction and setup. But the scene at the end, the now traditional vote on the club’s goal… Man, man, that was a thing a beauty.
They didn’t knock this episode out of the park – they knocked it into orbit.
Adding to the fun, on Sunday my Twitter feed was basically all Euph all day. I’m not alone in being ecstatic over the return of Euph.
I did feel a little lost in spots, and it turns out that there’s an OVA series that covers the back half of the 2nd year (after the events of Our Promise – A Brand New Day)… but it hasn’t been picked up for streaming.
Status: C’mon, you know me. You know I’m an absolute fanboy. Are you really going to make me say it?
Fine…
KEEPER
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night
Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai
I have to admit, seeing the expression on Kouzuki’s face as she was going home… my heart was breaking. I knew the twist was coming, but still… Wow
They brought it home beautifully. And I don’t mind saying there was dust in my eyes. Probably stirred up by the onion ninjas.
Anyhow… How to describe Jellyfish? I dunno. Yorimoi meets Bocchi, with maybe a light sprinkling of Chise (Magus Bride) and Deku (My Hero Academia). Which all a bit unfair, because of course it’s very much its own thing. And very much a Derek show. It’s not just the CGDCT, it’s also the looming voyage of discovery and coming of age… And just maybe true friendship. (As is also the case when it comes to KumiRei.)
Status: Solid keeper. Outside of Euph, possibly the strongest premier of the season and if it lives up to the first episode there’s going to be a neck-and-neck race for AOTS.
Oblivion Battery
Boukyaku Battery
And, by the end of the episode, so was my brain. They just could not stop driving every single plot point and personality quirk into the ground. And worse yet, it was all turned up to 14. Frankly, it was on the verge of giving me a headache.
But there’s a lot of promise there, if they just tone it down some. I like the basic idea of the show. The personalities of the main characters are nicely done and feed well into the plot… But the execution is all just too much.
Of course, it doesn’t help that being a baseball anime it’s going to be compared to Mix. And that’s a big pair of shoes to fill.
Status: Provisional keeper, but I’m declaring the infield fly three episode rule to be in play.
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio
Seiyuu Radio no Uraomote
The third show this week that could stand to turn it down some. I mean, the overacting during their radio performances really fit the plot and their personalities… But elsewhere, it made them feel just too intense. And neither strikes me as actually being intense kind of characters.
And having your mains, particularly Yumiko, keep going off model does not bode well. It was often enough and bad enough to be very distracting.
I was *this* close to going ahead and dropping it… until the final scene gave me faint hope it may straighten up and fly right.
Status: Episode by episode keeper, will definitely have to be at least half decent by the 3rd episode.
KonoSuba – God’s blessing on this wonderful world! 3
Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! 3
I… dunno. This whole episode felt a little off to me. Something was just not quite right. I just can’t put my finger on why.
Status: Keeper, crossing my fingers that it returns to form sooner rather than later.
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Some comments on second episodes/other shows:
My Hero Academia: Memories – Looks like we’re getting a four episode OVA series before the new season actually gets underway. Based on the first ep, it appears to be a thematic recap of the past six seasons. Honestly, this is a good thing… given where they left off at the end of season 6, the usual light hearted recap/setup might be in poor taste.
Spice and Wolf: merchant meets the wise wolf – As I half expected, things improved markedly in the second episode. The chemistry between the leads hasn’t quite gelled, but they’re getting there.
Train to the End of the World – It’s been a crazy week, not helped by an injury that’s left me temporarily one handed. (Or by construction across the common area, which has left me with a bit of a headache.) So I haven’t watched the second episode yet, no spoilers please!
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Other than that, we’re caught up on both premieres and 2nd episode through Friday (PST, GMT -7).
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So, your thoughts on this week’s premiers or (except for Train) second episodes? Drop a comment and let’s chat about those or anything else that crosses your mind!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
My watch day is tomorrow and I have a lot to get caught up on since I restarted my HiDive late and there’s also more than a couple shows that started later, but I guess we don’t need to have words over Jellyfish, then?
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Words about sure… Words over? No, I’m a confirmed fan. :)
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Okay, now I’ve watched at least one episode in each of the twelve shows that are in my current watchlist. So, where am I at?
First off, I’ll mostly skip Pretty Cure and Urusei Yatsura, as those are ongoing from last season and haven’t substantially changed. I’ll just note that Wonderful Pretty Cure! is managing to vary things up even though they are still sticking to the formula that these Cures don’t win by fighting. A lot of the monsters seem pretty perfunctory, though, in part as a result of that policy. They also showed this week how they plan to handle wild animals, as our heroes couldn’t just love bomb the Garugaru raccoon with pets and hugs and were warned against doing that by their informational friend. I’ll also skip the ones I covered before except for
BARTENDER: Glass of God – The format for at least these early episodes is revealed. We have a couple of short stories of customers who are being difficult due to their own issues and our bartender figures out how to resolve their requests, all while our headhunters continue to try to convince him to come work at their hotel bar. In the first segment, an old man basically challenges the bartender to serve him a good drink but dismisses every effort by calling it terrible. In the second, a harried businesswoman caught in the rain lashes out at everyone, calling them assholes and deriding bartenders as among the worst. In both cases, our bartender discovers the key to these customers’ hearts and leaves them satisfied and devoted customers.
Skipping over Yurucamp, Spice and Wolf, and Salad Bowl, which all have fine second episodes, that brings us to
Tonari no Yōkai-san – Looks like it comes out on Saturdays, so some weeks I’ll be watching two episodes (as happened this week) and sometimes none. Has a fairly Ghibli vibe, and while I do like it quite a lot it doesn’t hit me perfectly. A family cat, 20 years old, becomes a nekomata, his tail splitting into two. He begins to learn about his new life as a yōkai, how to transform, all of that stuff. The town is very friendly with the local yōkai, and that’s where I run into my issues. There are a lot of them around and about. One subplot involves a young kappa girl who has a crush on one of the other, human, students. Oh, yeah, there are yōkai among the students, around the town, all over the place. Between the yōkai and the humans, it feels very crowded as a result. It’s pretty fun so far, though, it’s just not exactly my taste, only close enough. I’ll probably keep going.
Black Butler -Public School Arc- – Ciel enrolls himself in a prestigious public school to investigate at the Queen’s request. Sebastian somehow becomes house steward for the school house that Ciel lives at. The art is somewhat modernized, but everything else is exactly what you’d expect from a Black Butler season.
Unnamed Memory – Cursed by a witch with the inability to produce an heir, Prince Oscar of Falsas braves the Azure Tower to claim a wish from the Azure Witch. Arriving at the top, he learns that the curse can’t be easily undone, but that if he can find a woman who can withstand the magical forces, she could bear that child. Of course, he immediately makes his wish that she, the Azure Witch, would marry him. She refuses, so he backs up to just asking her to live at his castle for a year, clearly intending to woo her. She does agree to this, and they end the episode with her sealing the Tower and everyone riding for home. The characters are interesting enough, but we’ll see how this goes over the next couple of episodes.
Mysterious Disappearances – Turns out that we’re getting this one after all. Looks like it’s going to be an episodic supernatural mystery show. There are two main characters so far, both of whom work at a bookstore. Sumireko Ogawa is a writer who has lost confidence in her stories after winning awards for her writing when younger but then not being able to sell them as an adult. Her co-worker, Ren Adashino, seems to have some unusual knowledge of supernatural occurrences, and his eyes are drawn funny sometimes so you know he’s got something going on. Also, he has a mildly lecherous intent toward her, while she has bushy eyebrows and a large chest. We’ll see how this one goes. It’s not as off-putting as Occultic;Nine, at least, but doesn’t seem to have the same interest for me as Dark Gathering, which was just excellent once it found its feet. I’ll give it a couple episodes to grow on me.
Jellyfish Don’t Swim in the Night – It’s good.
Whisper Me a Love Song – When Himari hears Yori’s singing in the school rock band at the new student orientation, she falls in love! With the singing. She tells Yori that she has fallen in love at first sight, and Yori misinterprets that as a confession, which is pretty convenient because Yori has fallen in love with Himari at first sight. When she gets that misunderstanding sorted out it is already too late for Yori, she can’t stop thinking about the energetic girl with the beautiful smile. So she decides to win Himari’s heart. This sort of romantic comedy rests on the characters, and so far they seem promising. It could very easily turn run-of-the-mill, though.
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Gah! Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, not “don’t”. Whoops.
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If nothing gets dropped (which is not likely), I’m sitting at eleven…
@Bartender Notice how many cocktails were just dump-and-stir (or shake)? :) :) He’s sticking very close to the upscale classics.
@Whisper I’ll have more to say in the finale part of the First Impressions later this week, but it was certainly unexpectedly good. But yeah, it sits on a knife edge and wouldn’t take much to fall off.
@Jellyfish Yeah, it’s very good.
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@Bartender You got me, mostly, but also notice that in both stories in episode 2 he had to leave to research or get special ingredients, and there was more to the gin than just pouring it. But, all teasing aside, I think it’s a pretty good show so far, and the emphasis is in the right place: on the characters.
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I actually sort of liked Oi! Tonbo! It’s hardly perfect, but it’s entertaining enough. Nothing much to say about it, though. What you see is what you get.
Euphonium 3: So far, diminishing returns is the most obvious for me. The problem I mostly have is that the opening episode was focussing on the determination to win again. It’s… my pet peeve with music anime. Music shouldn’t be about winning; this discourages expression and experimentation over accuracy and the status quo. I’m not against contests, but the way anime tends to push this is unappealing to me. Euphonium made it work by tying it up with Reina’s characterisation mostly. Making it then a group goal is fine, but as a major plot beat its underwhelming, and episode 3 of Euphonium had little else. (Even if the season’ll have nothing else, though, which I doubt, it’s still going to be one of the better shows this season for me.)
@Jellyfish: I found the very opening pretty creepy, but the rest was spot on. One of the best premiers of the season. (Likely, second best after Tonari no Youkai san.)
Oblivion Battery: I don’t like most of it, and blondy is extremely annoying. I’m out.
Voice Actors: Didn’t expect much, but this was actually fine for me. I found our leads have passable chemistry. Good mid-tier show, I’d say.
As for Spice and Wolf, it’s still pretty much the first season looking more modern to me. Which means I enjoy it, but I don’t particularly need it.
The clear, clear winner for me is Tonari no Youkai san. It’s acutally got more narrative than I thought it would have, and the worldbuilding is quite interesting, too. A very old cat turns into a very young nekomata… and has to fill out papers to register as a youkai citezen. Our main girl’s father went missing, likely in a realm between life and death, so he can’t even come back for Obon on the eggplant-horse she made (like her grandfather). Everything comes together in intersting ways. I thought it was just going to be mood, and it certainly nails the mood as the prime draw, but it’s actually surprisingly interesting, too.
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@Voice Actor Voice, like Oblivion would so much better if they just toned it down a skosh. It felt too, maniacal…? If that makes sense.
@Jellyfish Frankly, it’s kind of annoying in a weird way – because it makes me wish so hard I was still blogging weekly… But I just can’t go down that road again. I should remember to do proper Week 3 and mid-season postings though.
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I’m still processing that final list lol. Certainly “Jellyfish Cant Swim In The Night” will be on it for sure. It’s a great looking show but I’m waiting to see the direction it goes in. Is it a full girl band show with emotional atmospherics, or Cute Girls Doing…. Either way I like it a lot, the animation is pretty good, acting, and script is good, and the performance animation, what little we have seen of it so far is serviceable. Doga Kobo who are the studio responsible for Jellyfish are mainly known for lightweight popular shows, so I’m expecting Jellyfish to stay mostly in that lane.
There is also another Girl Band Show this season but for some inexplicable reason neither Crunchyroll or Hi Dive have licensed it even though its a Toei Animation production, so if you want to watch it, you’ll need to go to some dark places. The show is “Girls Band Cry”. Girls Band Cry is a more dramatic iteration and is very much in the very very underrated Bang Dream Its MyGo!!!!! vein, in that the members of the developing band are emotional and physical outsiders who have their own authentic personal motivations for making music. So far it’s been good but it’s still in set up stage. The animation is pretty good as you would expect from Toei, but there hasn’t been any performance animation yet and that’s always something of an acid test in these sort of show. I do think its a great shame this show hasn’t been picked up as its worthy of a much larger audience than it’s going to get. There is a bit of a trend of this lately, with last season’s comfortable Pon No Michi left out in the cold without a stream last season, and (strangely) the much hyped Blue Archive not being being picked up this season too.
I also had a look at Boukyaku Battery and I wasn’t impressed. Major 2nd It isn’t. So far the good looking, over-powered battery of the title just seem like annoying shonen style boys so far. I love baseball anime but this one isn’t floating my boat but I will give it three episodes for it to make first base (no walks).
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@Oblivion Battery You and I have different baseline shows… But we ended up in the same place. It really needs to get it right, fast. Starting the inning with long noisy out right into the center fielder’s glove is not auspicious.
@Girls Band Cry I don’t do the dark side… Not out of any particular sense of morals, I do fly the Jolly Roger now and again. It’s just such a pain, and so many fan translations are awful.
@Jellyfish Among my regular commenters, you make it unanimous. :) That’s actually modestly rare.
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Baseball baseline shows, heh. For me, it’s Cross Game, but… that’s basically Mix. Adachi (the mangaka) basically writes the same story all over again. I sometimes wonder if I’d have liked Mix better than Cross Game, if I’d seen it first?
I’ve never seen Major 2nd, but I’ve only heard good things about it so far.
Boukyaku Battery, IMO, doesn’t even compare to lesser shows like, say, Battery. I find it just annoying. Even if the blond main character weren’t so annoying, it’d not really be my thing. It feels like an unfocussed chimera: some delinquent sports elements with some of the mood from Free!… It’s mixing all the things I don’t click with, and doesn’t make it into something I like either.
As for Jellyfish, I’d say it ranks in the top 3 at the moment for new premiers: Top is Tonair no Youkai san, and then it’s either Jellyfish or Raven doesn’t choose the Master. If we add remakes and sequels, there’s Spice and Wolf and Euphonium. And for Carryovers we have Delicious in Dungeon and Tsuki ga Michibiku…
Nothing tells you the quality of the season like carryovers. Delicious in Dungeon would probably be my second favourite this season. I’m positive it wouldn’t have even made the top five last season. Top ten, probably. That’s how strong a run we’ve had lately. This isn’t a bad season by any means, but in comparison…
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