OK, not a lot of shows actually watched this season… And not all survived the cut. But, still a couple that could turn out interesting.
So, lets 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.
Acro Trip
I.. kinda get where they were going. Problem is, it wasn’t a very fun trip.
Mostly the first episode was just tedious, taking far too long to get anywhere and get anything done. It was also weirdly overacted in spots. Chewing the scenery isn’t necessarily bad, but unless you’re Brian Blessed or William Shatner, ya gotta earn it.
Acro Trip didn’t earn it. It didn’t even try. Though there were two episodes available, I noped out after the first.
Status: Dropped after a single episode.
Score: 2.0 (on a ten point scale)
365 Days to the Wedding
Well, that was quick. I mean I was as confused as MC-kun at how that came out of left field. But once it comitted, it went all in and never once wavered.
Overall, cute as heck… And definitely buoyed up by Saori Hayami. But then, as readers here probably already know, I’m something of a fanboy.
Only a few concerns over how this is going to play out.
- MC-kun needs to step up his game.
- There’s this weird lack of chemistry between our mains… Directorial flaw or directorial genius? As with the previous comment, characters do need room to grow, right?
- Can they sustain it? Will it flop, or will we see a slow metamorphosis of the show as their relationship grows? Crossing fingers it’s the latter, because so far I’m rooting for our couple and I really want to like this show.
Status: Keeper.
Blue Box
While Blue Box isn’t *quite* paint-by-numbers… It certainly seems to have kept a list of romance and sports tropes close to hand and to have studied it carefully. (Particularly the last scene, which was telegraphed so far ahead…)
The picture isn’t actually the last scene… But it does neatly capture the messy nature of what it’s trying to do. And the animation is equally messy. While it’s not as creepy as Netflix’s usual style, it does veer back and forth between almost shoujo sparkles and more realistic sports/action styling.
I do not hold out much hope here.
Status: Meh, keeper under the 3 episode rule.
Positive Negative Angler
Honestly, as the episode progressed, that’s exactly the question I was asking myself.
The episode started off dark, then went… dull. Deadly dull interspersed with even deadlier and duller infodumps. One day, one shining blessed day, writers and directors will get their heads out of their asses and realize they can spread that manure out… Or that they can show rather than tell. Until then, we suffer for their failures.
Either way, I couldn’t even make it through the entire episode.
Status: Dropped.
Score: 1.0 (on a ten point scale)
Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II
YES! YES I’M SO FREAKIN’ READY FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN!
But… Nothing actually happened because this episode was long, dull, intro to all the teams participating the Squad Jam 3. All but two of which (our MC’s and LLENN’s nemeses) I forgot within ten seconds of the end credits rolling.
Status: Undecided. Will update when something ACTUALLY HAPPENS.
=========
Yes, the yelling in ALL CAPS was deliberate and intentional. Partly because I’m annoyed at the series. Partly because I’m really annoyed at WordPress’s amazingly dysfunctional text editor.
=========
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.
That’s our MC-chan about to do her Heroic Deed for the episode… Which, weirdly, was her elephantine memory reminding her of something and then Very Bravely reconfiguring the software that drives her companion’s weapons.
If you get the idea this episode, this series, is kind of strange… you’re spot on. It’s all about very modern, very corporate, technological based Magical Girls who are more pest exterminators than anything else. But you have to admire a series that takes its central conceit and rides it hell for leather.
And how does a corporate magical girl initiate her henshin sequence? She brandishes her ID badge holder and logs into the corporate system!
How can I resist a show so gloriously self aware of it’s own absurdity? I have my doubts about it’s ability to sustain itself, but for the moment…
Status: Keeper.
Kinokoinu Mushroom Pup
So far, this is… not a very happy show. It start off dark, and goes some very dark places. I am not at all sure what to make of it.
And of course… the million dollar question is, where is going? Can it sustain itself? I dunno.
Status: Keeper under the 3 episode rule.
Ranma1/2 (2024)
Disclaimer: I have never seen so much as a minute of the original series and have no dog in that particular fight. These comments are solely based on the current production.
OK, that out of the way. What the hell did I just watch? I mean it seems gloriously committed to being a 90’s anime, but without much in the way of charm… And some very strange choices in animation styles (and censorship or the lack of need for the same). I’m honestly confused over what they’re doing or where they’re going.
And it doesn’t help that shonen battlers aren’t really my jam. The closest is My Hero Academia, and that’s not very close at all (IMO).
Status: Keeper, for the moment. G’night Ranma, I’ll probably kill drop you in the morning.
Love Live! Superstar!! Season 3
WE ARE SO BACK BABY!
OK, so if I turn off fanboy mode for a moment and be honest… Yeah, this episode was a bit clunky. But that’s kind of the fault of whoever wrote the final episode of S2, leaving them with some difficult to resolve cliffhangers. They really didn’t think this through.
But, resolve them they did. And I loved how once Kanon figured out what had to be done for for both Margarete and Liella!, she simply went and did it. By the end of the episode we were in solidly comfortable Love Live territory. I dunno how they’re going to resolve this or that, but I’m looking forward to finding out.
Status: Ga-lax-y! How is this even a question?
=========
Only nine shows? I have not kept my spreadsheet up-to-date… But that does seem to be on the low side. (I really do need to update that and repost early next year.) I should note I didn’t write anything about the raftload where I checked the early returns and decided they weren’t for me. This is only the ones I actually sat down and watched.
=========
OK, looking ahead… Flying home for my brother’s wedding next week, and will be in NC while most of the 2nd and 3rd eps air. Will catch up as soon as reasonably possible and post shortly thereafter. But I’m not actually going to promise anything because probably we’ll be well into the 4th/5th by the time we get caught up with life and anime.
If I just can’t squeeze everything in, I’ll drop a note (at least on Twitter or Bluesky if not here).
=========
Aight, that’s it for me then… Over to you! Drop a comment and let’s chat about the new shows or whatever else is on your mind!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
Love the Flash Gordon clip! I still listen to that soundtrack from time to time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Couldn’t resist… That movie has been something of a meme among my high school friends for decades. :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Let me see, looks like we share two, and a half-ish? Pun very definitely intended.
Acro Trip – I get it, but I’ve bought in. Looks like my kinda jam. And the second episode did pick up, though Our Hero is still trying to avoid the inevitable which is not a great writing choice. We know she’s gonna do it, putting it off like this is only slowing the show down in ways it needs to be moving.
Magilumiere Co. Ltd. (that’s a better translation of the Japanese than the Prime official translation of the title, plus it’s shorter) – I do love me some magical girl parody as much as I love magical girls, and I am even more in for this one than Acro Trip.
Ranma ½ – I haven’t watched any episodes of the new adaptation yet, so I can’t speak to it. Your confusion sounds like you are right on top of things, though. That’s more or less what you should be feeling if this is anything like the original adaptation.
Other shows I’ve got:
Wonderful Pretty Cure! – They got me good. I am sold on this one and think it’s among the best of the franchise, up there with Witchy PreCure!, Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure, and (I’m told) Kira Kira Pretty Cure a la Mode. The idea that these Pretty Cures generally win over the monster of the week by aggressively making friends instead of fighting (except defensively) is a genius move for the franchise. Kinda wish that this one could have been the 20th anniversary series, though the boy Pretty Cure in that one was also a good move.
After-school Hanako-kun – These are just short stories (about 5 minutes each), 2 to an episode, while we are waiting for the second season of Toilet-bound Hanako-kun coming up in January. They’re fun.
Uzumaki – I’m a little concerned at the quality of animation in the second episode, especially since we’ve been waiting several years for them to address that very issue. Whatever, the story is going hard, just like it should, and following the manga very closely. They are going to have to abbreviate some of it if we’re going to get to the end in just two more episodes, or so it seems to me. I’ll trust them, though it’s not like I have a choice.
DAN DA DAN – It’s a shōnen supernatural investigation show with accidental romance. There’s a bit of fanservice (she is stripped down to her skivvies and bound splayed out at one point, for example), but nothing ridiculous. Girl lead, angry because she’s just been broken up with by her first boyfriend because she wouldn’t either put out or give him money, interferes in bullying of boy lead on a whim. He believes in aliens, she believes in ghosts, both think the other is wrong. After arguing, they bet: she’ll go to a UAP (“Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon”) hot spot, he’ll go to a haunted tunnel, whoever is wrong becomes the other’s servant. Of course, neither one is wrong. Gets to some emotional content pretty quickly, as each explains to the other why they believe the way they do over mobile phones while investigating the respective sites.
Nina the Starry Bride and The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor – I haven’t yet watched the first episode of either of these. Should get to them Saturday.
LikeLiked by 2 people
re: Acro I am not surprised. Shows with awful writing and direction in the 1st ep rarely improve markedly. :)
re: Magilumiere I was kinda wary from the previews, but still curious. Reminds me of Ben-To, which takes the same “play absurd premise straight” approach.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Okay, I’ve watched at least one episode of everything but Ranma (which I should just admit that I’m not going to get around to watching).
Nina the Starry Bride – Orphan with stunningly blue eyes is brought in to replace a candidate priestess who died in a tragic accident. She will have to learn enough to get through a number of events leading up to her marrying a prince. Meanwhile palace intrigues swirl around her and threaten to upset her already tenuous position in the court, with her life as the stakes.
There’s a lot of promise here, but I’m not completely sold yet. I’ll give it at least a couple of episodes to settle in.
The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor – Killed while trying to escape her fiancé who has had her sentenced to death on trumped-up charges, her final thoughts of how she wished she had never accepted his proposal in the first place, Jill Cerval opens her eyes to find herself six years younger and at the party in which he proposed. After convincing herself that this is real, and avoiding Gerard, the prospective fiancé and prince of Kratos Kingdom, she desperately claims that she has fallen in love with the person sitting in a chair behind her. This turns out to be Hadis, the Emperor of a neighboring kingdom, who accepts her offer. In her original timeline, he was a tyrant, committing atrocities against her people in a war in which she fought against him, but now she learns that he is something of a romantically inept, kind of sweet goofball in person. She has to decide whether to make good on her hasty declaration.
I find myself fairly well taken with the premise. It’s different enough from Tearmoon Empire, which as I’ve said I liked quite a bit, that it present a promising story. However, I’m still not 100% in on this one either, so I’ll give it the three-episode trial period.
LikeLike
Heh, I actually liked both Acro Trip and the Angler show, though none of it is a slam dunk.
For Acro Trip, I just kinda flow with it. So far, actually the first episode was my favourite (of the three I’ve seen so far). I have one minor quibble: an evil society called Fossa Magna shouldn’t have bears; they should have… fossas. (They may not be the most well known animals in the world, and perhaps not the scariest, either, but that’s exactly why.) Unlike the two of you, I feel the show knows where it’s going (there seems to be a true villain in the opening, though that might easily be a fake-out). In any case, the main character’s dithering isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. It’s all kindergardeners playing heroes and villains. Or that’s just how I see it.
Similarly, I quite liked the Angler show. Not sure I liked it enough to go all the way through, but the fishing crew had a good sense of variety. One problem is that I have a mild distaste for fishing, so any fishing show will have to overcome that. More seriously damaging, though, is that I seriously dislike our protagonist, to the extent that I actually rooted for the loan sharks. But all the other characters a fun and have good chemistry. I’m provisionally on board.
I seriously liked the Mushroom Pup. I’ve lost pets more than once, and it’s not… easy. Especially, if they die while you’re not there. I find they integrated the weird mascot type character pretty well, though not perfectly (there are some minor moments I can’t quite buy into). But it helps that they don’t display him consistently as cute: the shot of him looking down at our sleeping protagonist was downright sinister framing. I’m on board without a doubt. This is much better than I thought it would be.
I’m feeling pretty much the same about the Wedding show, so there’s little to say. I probably view it less like a romance, though it obviously is one, and more as a show about two dorks learning to socialise. Haven’t seen the second episode yet.
Blue Lock I haven’t got to yet. Work’s been crazy lately, so I haven’t been getting to shows, not out of lack of time, but just because I haven’t felt like clicking on another show. This is the first time this has happened since I follow ongoing shows; might be a sign of me cutting back in the future? Maybe, we’ll see.
Megalumiere was fun. I really hope our redhead protagonist is going to slot into the support role. Anime has this habit of pushing support characters into fighting roles, mostly because that’s where you’d expect your main characters to end up. (One of my main quibbles with My Hero Academia.)
As for Ranma, I haven’t watched this iteration, because I didn’t like the first adaption much, and I didn’t get into Urusei Yatsura (the remake) either. Takahashi slapstick is just not my humour, and if one thing dominates Ranma it’s slapstick humour. (Obviously not sure if that’s still true about this iteration.) I was a little surprised to see you call this a shounen battler until I remembered that, yeah, they’re all martial artists. I remember this as a slapstick harem show whose gender bender aspect was supposed to make me laugh but made me roll my eyes. It’s one of the shows I watched on TV when I had the time (it aired in the afternoon when I wasn’t always home), mostly because I’d watch any anime I could get my hands on. (It was the days before streaming. Actually, before I had internat at all – not even dial up.)
There are still a lot of shows I haven’t watched, but you should have the most important shows covered. There’s the gradeschooler wife show which isn’t creepy, but seems to be going down a drama route (with parental abuse, for example), so I’ll reserve my judgement. It’s fine so far, but not sure I currently want that sort of show. And then there’s the third magical girl show (that’s not precure), which is a by-the-book underdog magical academy show, but I adore the colouring in this show, and the characters are likable enough.
I’m actually surprisingly fine with this season. The new shows are mostly entertaining, though the heavy hitters are all sequels or continuations (Natsume’s Book of Friends, Sengoku Youko, and so on). Since there are a lot of shows, it’s likely that I’ll drop a few I wouldn’t have dropped in a less busy season. We’ll see. I’m not quite caught up yet, so for me the season hasn’t properly begun quite yet.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Which magical girl show did I miss?
LikeLike
Mahoutsukai ni Narenakatta Onnanoko no Hanashi.
It’s a magical academy type of show; has a lot in common with Little Witch Academia in terms of set up. Probably not a core magical girl show; I doubt there’ll be transformation sequences, for example (though who knows).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, okay. I’m not counting that as a magical girl show, just a show with girls who can use magic, though I am open to arguments otherwise. There is a difference, though it may be entirely subjective just where the line lies. I still struggle with some (which one is Slayers? Or, importantly, Mahōtsukai no Yome?), but there is definitely a difference.
LikeLike
Yeah, the moment you asked, I thought you probably don’t count this. They do over at animefeminist, and I just sort of went along with it. I actually can’t see it as *not* a magical girls show now, but I don’t know why, given that it’s very similiar in terms of plot to Little Witch Academia, and I don’t really see *that* show as a magical girl show. Is it the aesthetics I wonder?
I’ll say that though: this is miles closer to a magical girl show than either Slayers or Mahoutsukai no Yome. I think the pertinent comparison would be Mahoutsukai Precure (which I haven’t seen much of so I actually can’t, but it’s rather similar from what I remember).
In any case, it’s certainly a magical academy show first.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just so I can follow along, what do the two of you consider to constitute a “magical girl show”?
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Dawnstorm: Hahaha! I was going to choose Little Witch Academia as another example of ones that could be or might not be, but figured that two was more than enough. Anyway, I’ll have to give The Stories of Girls Who Couldn’t be Magicians a closer look at some point.
@DerekL: So, yeah, it’s a really subjective thing. There are some things that push it into the “obviously it is” category, like transformation sequences, and especially transformations into different personas—that begins with Himitsu no Akko-chan and Mahōtsukai Sally and continues through Cutie Honey, Magical Princess Minky Momo, and even Sailor Moon gets in on the action before Naoko Takeuchi seems to realize that it isn’t necessary for the story she’s telling. But there are more subjective elements, too, like an attitude of optimism (even if that gets crushed by a dark, uncaring world) underlying even the most cynical of characters. Like, Madoka always believes that a better world is possible, even when she’s being smothered by her fate. Or Utena, who continues to participate in the duels even as it becomes obvious that the whole structure is stacked against her, or any participant, by its very design. Again, the persistent belief that a better world is possible by effort, and this is an active ideal. And if you’ve watched the Minky Momo OVA that I linked recently, you know that Momo has ideals she’d follow all the way to the end.
On the other hand, there are examples that don’t follow this so easily, but those are very frequently the very stories that are questionable anyway. Lina Inverse is venal and not much given to deep introspection, so her deal is just one of playing the game and being better at it, or at least better at Dragon Slave, than anybody else rather than making the world better. And that looks, on the surface, not entirely unlike Ryūko Matoi, but both Matoi and Satsuki Kiryūin have a philosophical goal to pursue, though it’s sometimes buried under all of the over-the-top action. To a degree, that same venality seen in Lina Inverse can be seen in most of the Meister Otomes at Garderobe Academy in My-Otome, but Arika still mostly maintains her naive idealism in the midst of the cutthroat politics going on around her.
Buuuut… then there are other shows where things don’t get nearly so idealistic, positively or negatively. Mai Kazuki/Magical Emi just wants to be a successful magician. And then there’s whatever the hell Honey Kisaragi is on about, even in her most shōjo incarnations like Cutie Honey Flash. And that’s especially true of the magical idol shows. In Waccha PriMagi!, for example, all Matsuri is really working to do is win the PriMagi, though perhaps there are still hints toward some sort of undirected idealism, maybe? Or maybe not.
In the end, like I said, it can get very subjective, though there are some broad guidelines.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Dawnstorm: Oh, hey, as I looked at my very bare watchlist this season, I realized that I can easily fit Stories of Girls in, and even catch up with no problems. So, you talked me into it.
LikeLike
Derek: “Just so I can follow along, what do the two of you consider to constitute a “magical girl show”?”
I don’t really know. I go entirely by intuition. Above I said that this season’s show is very similar in set-up to Little Witch Academia, but LWA doesn’t feel like a magical girl show to me, while this season’s show does. I have no idea why.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Re: Acro Trip Just went back and rewatched the OP, and yeah, I think see what you’re seeing. There’s some hints the story may go in a different direction. But there’s still the awful pacing to deal with.
Re: Mushroom Pup Having guinea pigs, yeah, we’re used to losing pets… How hard it hits depends on the pig though. But that aside, yes, the show nails it. I’m just not sure how onboard I am with the pup itself, he seems *too* self aware. (If that makes sense.)
Re: Wedding Yeah, it’s very much in the same vein as MMO Junkie in that respect. But overall, I think I’m liking it because it’s about adult characters rather than high schoolers. That I like it because it’s two dorks I think is a given.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve now watched Blue Box (three episodes), and I like it. It’s nothing special either in terms of sports or romance, but I do like the characters. All of them actually. And the animation is really good, too. Every character has their own body language. Good mid-tier show.
LikeLike
So far for me the most enjoyable series this season so far are all returning shows. Dan Machi, Love Live Superstar, SAO Gun Gale. I must admit the change in direction in LL Superstar created some turmoil for me. Leilla! was losing their precious centre. But after I got over the initial shock I guess I have to be okay with it – Though I’m thinking it will lead to a downgrading of the previously excellent Leilla! songs now that Kanon has gone. I’m also wary this will lead to a downgrading of Leilla! screen time over all (Hmm maybe Im not over it after all). I’m pretty certain the plot will follow the usual formula of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis to achieve the desired outcome I’m sure most Love Live Superstar fans wish to see.
One other thing: Maybe if I was Kanon I would be telling those manipulative Austrians where they can get off dictating her future like they have. But then Love Live has never been a series to question social relationships beyond the immediately personal (Unless your school is under threat). Oh well…
SAO Gun Gale II got off to a slowish start but I think most fans of the show will be well satisfied with episode 2, which I thought was a gem. A-1 Pictures have put a lot more into SAO Gun Gale this season and the animation mostly shines as a result.
I like Blue Box too. Its not ground breaking or the best contemporary Rom-Dra but it is entertaining enough. The “suprise twist” in episode one you could see coming half-way through the episode but that’s okay. I don’t think we are going to get a lot of actual sports action in this show, I think it will be remain in the background, providing context and connection for the protagonists (though the surprise twist makes that somewhat redundant even). It is certainly a show I will keep watching.
I liked 365 Days to The Wedding also. How the pair negotiate their situation looks like it could be fun (though Im assuming the ending will be predictable. Its on my keep list.
Acro-Trip I should have dropped by now since the first two episodes were pretty forgetable. If it lasts a third episode I will be surprised I think.
With Dandadan I found myself admiring the animation but not really liking the show. Once you strip the animation’s bells and whistles away, its a pretty standard supernatural horror – and the usual Achilles heel of pretty dumb looking monsters means it fall short of Dark Gathering for impact. I have a feeling I will tire of the animation style, so I doubt it will see out the season for me.
Another one unlikely to last long is NegaPosi Angler. It just seems like it’s not going to go anywhere and the MC is not a very likeable character which doesnt help either.
Another one teetering on the edge is Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. Im not a fan of the animation style, and I dislike shouty characters so the main (blonde) magical girl does little for me also. I did think the premise had promise but so far the execution of that has kept me disengaged. It gets three episodes to turn that impression around however.
There are a bunch of B grade isekais and fantasy shows but its a pretty lame bunch which is already killing my motivation to follow any of them. I will stick with Seirei Gensouki 2, since the first season had some decent story telling but whether this series lives up to my expectation remains to be seen…
I checked out Starry Eyed Nina but do-over isekais dont do it for me, so I’ve already dropped it lol. “The Stories of Girls Who Couldn’t Be Magicians” was more my cup of tea but it seems a pretty standard magical academy joint so far. I will persevere with it though.
I wont be watching Ranma 1/2 either. I do wonder if this rise of nostalgic remakes is a sign of a dearth of creativity in the industry, or just the usual audience chasing we see so much of in the anime industry. Time will tell I guess.
I’m happy to see Shangri-la Frontier back as I enjoyed season one for its animation and story telling so I will watch that again also. Arifureta is back for season three – after a good first series, it lapsed badly for season 2 so needs something special to stage a revival. I will at least give it three episodes too.
All in all, this isn’t a great season for me. A lot of it I have seen so far is little better than mediocre (Like I mean the poor student who moved into the temple has only three girls to choose from to marry – not even five!) _ I think for me this is a season where I stick to what I know and like, because outside of that, the choices are pretty ordinary…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nina the Starry Bride isn’t a do-over isekai, though? That’s The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor. Nina is an orphan brought in as a desperation measure to replace a lost priestess-candidate because she has the requisite blue eyes and gets caught up in palace intrigues.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes you are right. I thought from the opening scene it was a do-over type show. I should read the Anilist blurbs first I guess. Given that I might have to give it another look perhaps.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Re: LLSup! Though Kanon is going to have to work much harder than usual, bringing the reluctant would be School Idol fully onboard is practically a defining plot mechanism, both for LLSup! and the franchise as a whole. It’s not exactly unheard of across the entire genre. As I said, the idea is sound even if the execution was clunky. And despite the ugly ass outfits, the ever reliable OP tells is how this is going to end up.
Re: GGO II and Blue Box The second episodes of both showed much more promise than the first. But GGO II would be better if backed off the Kirito level nonsense just a hair. It’s just on the verge of becoming a parody of itself and I don’t care for that. I mean, wiping out half/two thirds of the opposition in the span of half an episode was a little much.
LikeLike
In relation to LLS I expect that to occur also so they can go on to win that record second Love Live. I guess I enjoyed Leilla! as it was and didn’t care much for Margarette over all. And it worries me that engaging characters like Keke and Sumire are going to get less screen time as a result of that twist – after all, the dynamics of the Leilla! characters were a big reason for Superstar’s success.
GG II – I actually enjoyed that outcome. I loved Pitohui asking everyone how they are doing. That was funny I thought. I didn’t think they were that overpowered – advancing on a well defended stronghold across open ground, they were always going to incur heavy losses – and they were up against the top team in their strongest position.
I’ve also changed my mind on Ranma 1/2 after catching episode one on Netflix. So on to my viewing list it goes. :)
LikeLiked by 1 person
ChrisVermeers: “There are some things that push it into the “obviously it is” category, like transformation sequences, and especially transformations into different personas”
Just coming here to say that one show that had a standardised transformation sequence every episode is…
Puniru is a Kawaii Slime.
LikeLike
Yeah, I’d been hearing that show was pulling some tropes and concepts from magical girl shows. Based on my current understanding, it probably does count as one. I doubt I’ll be diving deeper right away, but I will put it on my “to get to someday” list.
LikeLike
I found this reply intriguing. I don’t see Puniru as a magical girl show at all. It just has a transformation sequence (the end of the transformation is never all that different from standard Puniru, is not any more magical than Puniru is by default, and it’s never the same persona, either.) Puniru, as a character, feels more like Pikachu… Or maybe a tsukumogami made from a slime toy that’s an embarrassing reminder for a pubescent boy of his childhood interests, while Puniru’s girl form is dependent on our main character’s new “cute”.
I also started thinking more about transformation seuqences. I mean Sentai shows have them, too. And to some extent you could count get-into-the-mech elements of mecha shows (which get magical-girlified in, say, Star Driver). Or differently put: Puniru may have transformation sequences, but to what extent are they magical-girl transformation sequence, as opposed to generic or sentai transformation sequences?
And it gets even more complicated, as Sailor Moon, a genre staple, has imported Sentai elements into the mahou shoujo genre…
Usually, magical gril transformations lead to a magical girl persona, for example, but I’m unwilling to call that a must. Take for example Pandora in the Crimson Shell. Our main character is a girl who’s stuck in a full-body cyberprothesis after an accident, and then gets a software upgrade from a mad scientist (and an android-girl sidekick), complete with transformation seuqence for unlocking skills (a tad risque, since it’s clearly a seinen show with fanservice) that end in a skill-related costume (nurse, cook…). The show itself doesn’t feel like a magical girl show to me, but the transformation sequences feel like a magical girl element more than a sentai one (maybe because the main girl’s personality is the typical optimism-spreading bundle?).
And then there’s the question about the gender part. I remember thinking, when Cutie High Earth Defense Club aired, that it was one of the purest thematic magical girl shows out there (when the genre was still drifting in the wake of Madoka), yet they were all boys (in magical girl outfits to be sure). So, in the present case, what does it mean that Puniru’s (pre-transformation sequence) girl form is based on the pubescent male gaze?
I’m rambling a little because my thoughts don’t follow a clear path. To me, Puniru is a Kawaii Slime isn’t a magical girl show, even if it has tell tale elements. But that isn’t obvious.
LikeLiked by 1 person
As I said, I haven’t watched it, but I have been hearing this and that. I don’t know if Puniru specifically is or isn’t a magical girl show, but it could very well be. A lot will depend on if the title character is simple-minded—as you say, a pokemon, which implies that she needs direction from her equivalent of a “trainer”—or if she’s a full-fledged, autonomous character.
I really would object to any criterion that transformations have to be into a special magical girl persona, as that is a very late development in the genre. All of the early magical girls transform, but they mostly transform into disguised versions of themselves, often with the requisite abilities to sustain the disguise. Sally the Witch, Akko-chan, even Honey Kisaragi all are defined by their ability to magically disguise themselves, especially as adult versions of themselves. That leads into the characters who only have one transformation, such as the Studio Pierrot magical girls, but until Sailor Moon that is very much the exception rather than the rule. And then there are still further exceptions, like Sakura Kinomoto, whose “transformation” is really just taking her necklace and transforming it into a full magical rod that she can use to call on or capture Clow Cards (or later on, to create, capture, or call on Sakura Cards), or Vanilla Mieux and Chocolat Meilleure, who don’t really transform at all, mostly. Don’t get me started on Utena. And then there are the Mahō Tsukai PreCure girls, who transform, but it seems to just be an indication of a powering-up? Really, it’s just done because Pretty Cures transform into Pretty Cures and that’s that. I guess it lets them kick things, which is more or less all they do differently after transforming (I am exaggerating, but only a little; the gems do give them other powers).
As I’ve said, it’s really subjective. We all know that Sugar Sugar Rune, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Revolutionary Girl Utena are all magical girl shows, just like we know that My-HiME, Kill la Kill, and Yūki Yūna are. But why that is that way is a lot more difficult to explain. And WTF is going on with Prétear or Magical Girl Ore?
LikeLike
Actually, I didn’t figure out by myself that Utena and Kill la Kill are magical girl shows; I had to be told. And I still accept that sort of reluctantly. Heh.
I honestly don’t think about genre much, but when I do I find it fascinating.
LikeLiked by 1 person