Girlish Number continued with its excellent parent-focused material this week, using time away from Chitose to let Kazuha and Momoka have some of the show’s most emotionally effective material yet. I’ve been enjoying these vacations from our lead terror, but I’m hoping the show will able to grant her some of the sensitivity it’s offered her friends in the final act. Chitose may be a gremlin, but she’s our gremlin.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
This week in anime felt a little lonely, courtesy of March taking a sick day, but the rest of our contenders did their best to liven things. Flip Flappers and Euphonium had unexpectedly ordinary episodes (at least for those shows’ definitions of ordinary), but Girlish Number continued to focus on strong character writing over industry commentary, which is definitely where the show shines. Kira found himself with yet another ridiculously specific serial killing-enabling power, and Yuri on Ice decided it was time to introduce a tragic incest narrative and make Yurio a catboy. All in all it was a pretty standard week down on the anime farm, but I still found a thing or two worth talking about. Let’s run ‘em down!
Girlish Number succeeded by almost jettisoning Chitose entirely this week, instead focusing on the frankly more sympathetic Kazuha and Momoka. Both of those two have legitimately understandable anxieties about their career, and they were smartly contrasted all through this episode. The close focus on characters that I’d hoped to see from this show is pretty much immediately coming to pass, so I don’t really have many complaints today!
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.
It was very clear this week that many of this season’s shows took careful notes based on my first half in review post, and adjusted their content accordingly. Normally it takes at least a few weeks for shows to shift gears based on my exact preferences, so I was happy to see the response time so accelerated here. Shows like Girlish Number and Sound! Euphonium clearly took my complaints to heart, and as we all know, being able to accept constructive criticism is an admirable quality. I’m glad we can all agree anime turns out better when it listens to me specifically.
Alright, impossibility of my writing affecting anime production in any way whatsoever aside, this week really did see many shows directly tackling some of my existing complaints. Girlish Number dug in to its cast, Euphonium emphasized the variables that had worked in the first season, Yuri on Ice offered its most well-earned and best-composed personal material yet, and Flip Flappers was just fantastic in all regards. The fall season continues to impress in new ways, so let’s start with those flip flaps and RUN ‘EM DOWN!
On this week’s Why It Works, I finally found an angle for digging in to Girlish Number, one that basically highlights the show’s favorite things – insults and character writing. Girlish Number isn’t a fantastic show, but it certainly has strengths worth talking about! Hopefully next season offers some reasonable critical fodder – I’m already wondering exactly how I’m gonna fill my column without JoJo to always lean back on. Oh wait, Rakugo is coming back, nevermind. There’s always something to cover!
ANYWAY. This article’s about Girlish Number. I hope you enjoy it. Here’s the piece!
Why It Works: Girlish Number’s Insult Crossfire
Girlish Number got dark in the best way possible this week, by taking a break from Chitose’s narcissism to revel in the sadness of all the other characters. Koto, Kazuha, and Momoka all got solid material this time, with Koto in particular offering some personal reflections that echoed the general poison of the anime industry. That’s pretty much what I was hoping for from this show – not pointed economic satire, but reflections on how the problems in the industry have a specific human cost. Hopefully this is a good sign for the episodes to come!
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my barely-existent notes below.
The season’s halfway point has arrived! Normally this is the part where I’d comment on how quickly time seems to be passing, and probably make some offhand gesture towards our inescapable mortality, but given we just concluded one of the most horrific and dispiriting political contests in my country’s history, it really doesn’t seem like time’s been passing all that fast lately. But if you wanted fatigued political commentary, you’d check my twitter feed – in spite of all else, the world keeps turning, and that means talking about cartoons!
This season has been offering us a terrific bounty so far, presenting close to half the shows that will likely star in my year-end list. The better shows get, the more small-minded and useless it seems to rank them in any kind of reductive list, but what’s the point of a tradition if it’s not celebrated far past the point of reason? So let’s once more do that thing I always do, starting at the top and running down my favorites of the season so far!
Today I’ve got a new ANN editorial for all you lovely folks! This time I’m diving deep into questions of tone and authorial voice, discussing the difference between cynical characters and cynical productions, and offering my own very predictable take on this whole mess of concepts. I had a lot of fun with this one – authorial voice is an inherently thorny and fascinating concept, and character writing is something I’ll never get tired of talking about. I hope you enjoy the piece!
Don’t Get Jaded: Cynicism in Anime
This was a perfectly respectable week in anime! In fact, it was more than respectable – Yuri on Ice managed to grab my interest in a way it never had before, Flip Flappers pulled off a stunning vignette that raised the bar for the show altogether, and Euphonium had possibly the best musical performance I’ve seen in anime. This season is just ridiculous, you guys – normally something like Yuri on Ice, Euphonium, or March comes in like a lion would be the bright spot in a largely weaker lineup, but this season’s crop basically starts at JoJo/Girlish Number and only goes up from there. Given I’m writing this prior to the election results, the world may literally be on fire by the time this gets posted (UPDATE: the world is literally on fire), but at least we’re going out with some pretty cool cartoons. Let’s RUN ‘EM DOWN!
Girlish Number’s going down a pretty interesting route at the moment. The central anime production is already crashing and burning, but it seems like the show isn’t particularly worried about that – instead, it’s going to follow this cast as they emerge from the ashes, leading their media mix enterprise regardless. Kuzu-P still feels like a monstrous caricature, but I’m finding it interesting how well his ideas are actually working out here. I’m not exactly sure where Girlish Number is going with all this, but we’ll find out soon enough!
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.