Summer 2017 – Week 8 in Review

With My Hero Academia taking a week off before the final exam arc, there wasn’t all that much anime to actually watch this week. Made in Abyss maintained its usual speedy pacing and Classroom of the Elite was, er, itself, but that’s about all I’ve got to cover. I suppose it’s a good thing this week also had one last episode of Game of Thrones, or I’d be in real trouble filling out a reasonably article-length post for you all. But let’s start at the top with this week’s cartoons, and see where the rambling takes us!

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Classroom of the Elite – Episode 7

This week’s Classroom of the Elite was stupid in ways the show isn’t normally stupid, but not particularly surprising ways nonetheless. This was a goofy pool episode, meaning it was full of fanservice and even some jokes riffing on the show’s own usual absurdity. I’ve basically lost all expectations for this show, so eh. Do your thing, Classroom.

Classroom of the Elite – Episode 7

Summer 2017 – Week 7 in Review

The anime was all very respectable this week, maintaining an even course without really offering any major highlights or disappointments. Made in Abyss arrived at a necessary training arc, though given this show’s generally speedy pacing, that “arc” may just take one more episode. My Hero Academia was in exposition mode, but it still managed to offer some fun moments with the class. And Classroom of the Elite finally got as dramatically indulgent as it’s apparently always wanted to, topping off a series of grim inter-class showdowns with the introduction of some actual mad scientists. I complained about the show’s super hammy musical cues when I reviewed its first episode, but as it turns out, those musical cues turned out to be the only element of that episode that would truly indicate the show’s nature. But let’s start in the fringes of the abyss, and run this week down!

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Classroom of the Elite – Episode 6

Classroom of the Elite seemed to finally settle into its comfort zone this week, offering consistent goofiness and also some legitimately well-articulated drama. Not expecting Ayanokoji to be a traditionally “good character,” and instead enjoying him as some kind of scholastic Kirito stand-in, is letting me have a much more fun time with the show on its own terms. And given we’re already in the second half, I’m expecting the show to consistently ratchet up its melodrama from here out, something that will make it even more fun. We’ll make a good time of this show yet.

You can check out my full review over at ANN.

Summer 2017 – First Half in Review

Hey all, and welcome back to the Week in Review. With the summer halfway over, it’s time once again for one of this blog’s more pointless traditions – ranking my overall feelings on the summer’s offerings at the point where it’s least useful to actually make such a ranking. The meaninglessness of this exercise feels even more pronounced this season, since the number of shows I’m watching can be counted on a single hand. I don’t think that’s actually detrimental here, though – if anything, it actually just plays into the general silliness of the system.

That said, considering how little I actually am watching, I’ll still be supplementing today’s post with thoughts on the latest Game of Thrones and all that. I may be struggling mightily to fill my other columns in a season with nothing to watch, but that doesn’t mean you guys have to suffer. Let’s get to it!

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Summer 2017 – Week 5 in Review

The hits just kept coming this week, a week that answered the desperately unnecessary question “what happens when you’re only watching a couple shows and even those aren’t very good.” This wasn’t exactly a bad week in anime, but when your season is already dangling by a thread, you can’t really afford to have lukewarm performances. The show that overperformed this week was Game of Thrones, so I guess that’ll once again be tying the whole Week in Review room together. We are living through some desperate times here, but I’m gonna fill that goddamn word count somehow.

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Classroom of the Elite – Episode 4

Classroom of the Elite continued its general downward trend this week, firmly shifting from “I guess this could maybe be good I dunno” into “nope, this is just a generally bad anime” territory. The show’s odds were pretty long from the start, given it opened with a fair number of weaknesses and its theoretical strengths would be very tough to realize, but it’s still always disappointing to see a show fall apart. Ah well.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.

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Summer 2017 – Week 4 in Review

Well folks, it’s time for the Week in Review. Once again, my lack of weekly anime watches has me fumbling around for other stuff to write about, but the anime I am watching was pretty strong this week, so I can only slightly complain. My Hero Academia friggin’ nailed the end of the Hero Killer arc, and Made in Abyss is already making the most of its great premise and gorgeous art design. This season may be a show or two short of a full package, but hey, that just means I can work on more Current Projects for everybody. We may be in the midst of a drought, but our backlogs are a vast ocean just waiting to be explored. Anyway, I’ll quit with the doomsaying here, and get work running this week down!

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Classroom of the Elite – Episode 3

Classroom of the Elite got pretty pulpy this week, as I’d always kinda figured it would. There are certainly very interesting ideas at the heart of this series, but its ear for character voice is almost non-existent, and a lot of the mechanics of this story seem mostly designed to facilitate backstabbing and shocking reveals and all that nonsense. That kind of show can be good too, but this one didn’t really handle its pulp all that gracefully. But hope springs eternal!

You can check out my episode review over at ANN, or my notes below.

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Summer 2017 – Week 3 in Review

Hey all, and welcome back to the Week in Review. As I mentioned in last week’s post, this season’s utter dearth of watchable shows has left me without all that much material to riff on, meaning that for now, I’ll be extending the Week in Review to basically anything I’ve been up to media-wise over the last week. Even if airing shows aren’t giving me my fix, I am still a loyal consumer of all that nerd media we use to paper over the holes in our lives, and am happy to share my thoughts with you! But for now, let’s start off with the week’s actual anime hits, and see where the journey takes off.

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