Management: As you may have noticed, I’m rolling these “first impressions” into my standard Week in Review posts. Hope nobody finds that unforgivable.
And with this week, we have our full set of premiers. And what a set it is!
Well, not really. Pretty mediocre set, to be frank. Having checked out the first episodes of close to everything that sounded interesting, I’m beginning to think this will actually be a great season to dig into the ol’ backlog.
Not to say there’s nothing I’m enjoying. Running it down…
Nagi no Asukara 14: Yep, beginning the second half of my first impressions with Nagi no Asukara. What can I say? It’s easily the best show I’m watching (well, with an asterisk I’ll get to at the end) – the last few episodes of the first half were heartfelt and dramatic and compelling, and this season seems to be continuing the trend. We’ve finally hit the time skip I was hoping for early in the first half, and it’s been used far more sneakily than I’d ever have guessed, with Hikari and Kaname being held in hibernation-stasis until their ages conveniently aligned with Miuna and Sayu. That extreme focus on Miuna during the first half’s middle stretch is making much more sense in this context – at this point, she might even be considered the most central character. But titles like that are kind of meaningless in the context of this show – this is a true ensemble piece, and every character is treated with sensitivity and insight by the script. Along with Miuna, both Tsumugu and Chisaki were given a chance to shine this week, with Tsumugu’s quiet strength and own feelings continuing to gain prominence, and Chisaki showing her own strength of character in how she struggled through being the one left behind. Nagi no Asukara is about as different from White Album 2 as a show can get – while that was all about selfish people hurting themselves, this is all about fundamentally good people doing their best in trying times. The fact that the show never overdramatizes this, and always couches their struggles in the small daily necessities and happinesses of their lives, makes it that much more powerful. Nagi no Asukara is a very, very good show.
Chuunibyou S2 1: Veering sharply away from grounded, sober drama, holy balls it’s time for Chuunibyou. This first episode was a solid, predictable return – reintroducing the characters, establishing their various dynamics and the ways they’ve grown, and settling the audience back in to their world. Chuunibyou is comfort food at this point – I loved the first season, and it certainly didn’t need a sequel, but I’m fine with a weekly dose of characters I like enjoying their time together. If this actually ends up justifying itself through some new message or engaging story I’ll be overjoyed, but I’m ready to settle for just being entertained.
Space Dandy 2: Second verse, largely comparable to the first. Well, that’s not actually fair – though the humor was largely the same, I can’t exactly yawningly dismiss animation as fun and kinetic as this. From Dandy and Meow’s slapstick bickering to Scarlett’s dizzying brawl with the Evil Empire, this week’s Dandy had some fantastic visual sequences, and seemed stylistically quite distinct from the first episode. Narrative-wise, this was very much an episode in the lineage of Bebop/Champloo – starting out unfocused before zooming in to explore a very small story in its very large universe. The ramen shop owner’s tale didn’t really do anything for me, frankly – it was too rushed and unserious to be affecting, and coming on the tail end of fifteen minutes of unrelated banter and slapstick didn’t help either. Cowboy Bebop’s world wasn’t exactly grim, and Samurai Champloo’s world was even less serious, but this world is far more farcical than either – if it wants to sell legitimately affecting drama, it’s gonna have to work a little harder than this. Still, I enjoyed the episode as spectacle, and expect to continue enjoying the show – seeing talented creators riffing like this is always a joy to watch.
Nisekoi 1: A few uncharitable viewers on twitter referred to this one as “Shaft’s Love Hina,” and… well, that’s just completely correct. Dynamic direction, great aesthetics, a bunch of neat little style tricks, wonderful color work… all in service of the most bland narrative humanly possible. Forgotten childhood promise, bickering relationship between the two protagonists, the meek girl who loves MC from afar, wacky circumstances demanding the two MCs get together, the violent girl occasionally revealing a secret sensitivity, the standoffish MC occasionally revealing his own charitable nature, a lot of WHAAAAAA moments…
I mean, cliches can be fine – I always say “screw originality, it’s all about execution.” But the thing is, the execution here is just non-existent – yeah, the visuals are great, but all the characters and lines of dialogue are the most basic, flavorless executions of themselves they possibly could be. Not even the wonderful visual design on display here can really conceal what a turd they’re adapting.
…that said, I might actually watch another episode just for that lovely design. God damn you, Shaft.
Noragami 2: Figure I’d group this one with Nisekoi because it’s got the same exact problem – wonderful visual design, generic and flavorless script. I liked the setup of the first episode, but this one just began to lose my interest – the direction is still great, the animation is still crisp, and the color work is still excellent, but I’ve seen these exact characters go through these exact motions, and these articulations of them (and the narrative itself) did not contain enough personality to wow me. That said, the writing still wasn’t as dire as Nisekoi’s, and I’ve heard people say this show’s source material actually does end up subverting some expectations, so I’m probably on board for at least a little longer.
Sakura Trick 1: Finally, something I can drop without reservations. I’m a big romance fan, but this first episode didn’t grab me in the slightest – in fact, it felt much less like romance than like the standard cute-girls-doing-cute-things routine, except also with kissing. Kissing is great and all, but it doesn’t actually add intrigue or character depth or anything all by itself. Solid dropped.
The Pilot’s Love Song 2: Not much to report here – this was another respectable episode that helped fill out the characters, world, and conflicts. It’s still not dazzling or anything, it’s just a reasonable articulation of the kind of show it is. Which is a fine thing to be – I like nicely articulated fantasy worlds and I like character dramas. Still too early to tell whether this ends up surpassing its genre shell.
Hoozuki no Reitetsu 1: You might recall I had dark horse candidate hopes for this one back in my preview – well, consider this horse thoroughly glued. Hoozuki turned out to be a slice of life/comedy deeply steeped in Japanese folklore, which in theory is something I could really get behind. In fact, for the first half I was pretty much behind it – all the dry jokes about middle management in the afterlife were pretty great, the story of Momotaro (which I had to look up, but still found funny – I don’t think the inherent ridiculousness of the situation required a long-term association with the specifics of the story) was great fodder for the show’s humor, and the visual style fit the show perfectly.
But that second half. Oh god that second half. Pretty much no jokes at all – just the MC and his boss discussing pet preferences and thoughts on vacation time at lunch. This show’s second half was essentially like listening to an acquaintance you don’t know well discuss his mundane office politics for an hour – absolutely, mind-numbingly, excruciatingly dull. It was basically Lucky Star in hell, which for me is… well, actually pretty close to my own personal hell. Dropped.
Sekai Seifuku 1: Is that… could it… in the distance, galloping this way… IT IS! An actual dark horse candidate, rearing and ready to either triumph heroically or disappoint completely. Yeah, this first episode was pretty great. I really liked the visual design (backgrounds and lighting, mainly – the costumes were about as ridiculous as I expected, but thankfully the cinematography wasn’t skeevy at all), and it seems like it could actually be about something, but mainly it was just really goddamn funny. Kate sold it entirely – her ridiculous tone, her overwrought dialogue, her grumpy faces. “I will share the world and my snacks with you.” “Lincoln had potential, but his weakness is he was couldn’t handle bullets.” That shit’s brilliant. That shit’s writing, something anime could certainly use a little more of. Whether it ends up silly and endearing or witty and incisive, I am on board with wherever Sekai Seifuku wants to go.
Samurai Flamenco 12: Like Episode 8, this episode was pretty much dedicated to “normalizing” our new reality – we’re sentai heroes now, but what we’d really like is to be on tv and maybe get a book deal or something. Which is kinda funny, and pretty deliriously meta – at this point, this is now a television show about a guy who was inspired to become a hero by television heroes, ended up becoming a hero and defeating a villain also inspired by television, suddenly learned he actually lives in a world like the ones he’d seen on television, and is now having his cliche television-reality life be filmed for a reality show to play for people living in his original version of reality. But… I mean, what is this show even about? Is it just a love letter to sentai heroes and… ridiculousness? It was originally maybe about the false idol of television heroism, and then possibly about our entertainment culture and ability to normalize tragedy, but now? This second round of one-upping just hasn’t really come to any meaningful end yet. That doesn’t mean it won’t, of course – but this show is really, really yanking on the audience’s chain. I really can’t say what kind of long-game payoff could justify the lunacy this show has become.
That said, I’m still very much enjoying the show. It just feels like an enjoyable mess.
Kill la Kill 13: An interesting episode to return with. Back in December, I expressed dissatisfaction with how 12 failed to really change up the base dynamic of Kill la Kill – well, this week certainly rectified that to some extent, what with Senketsu possibly “dying” (not likely), Ragyu’s Master Plan coming somewhat into focus, and Satsuki beginning her conquest of the schools. In spite of all that, in retrospect, this episode left me… kinda meh.
I dunno. I guess I’m just kind of coming to terms with the fact that now that we’re over halfway through, I can’t keep thinking of this show as fun entertainment that has the potential to be a lot more – at this point, it’s shifting into entertainment that had the potential to be a lot more. Maybe it’s also a result of SohumB’s fantastic analysis laying out precisely how rambling and questionable this show’s to-date philosophy has been, as well. Maybe it’s even a result of the responses to that analysis, many of which have directly stated “at first I had problems with Kill la Kill’s ideas on sexuality, but then it directly talked about them a bit, and so I stopped thinking about it.” That’s… I mean, whatever Kill la Kill’s intentions are, it has not laid out a meaningful philosophy of representation and identity. And if the show has, in its rambling attempts to at least poke at those issues, actually convinced people these aren’t issues worth caring about, and that people who question its choices are “missing the point,” then… then wow, it’s actually made the world a worse place. And I know you could point that same finger at any unsuccessfully satirical art – Evangelion may have intended to demonstrate how characters like Rei Ayanami are limiting, destructive fantasies, but it pretty much heralded the new golden age of the otaku culture it was railing against. But at least that show had a coherent message, and stuck to its guns – Kill la Kill’s inconsistent articulation of its messages and adherence to fanservice in spite of them deny it that defense.
So yeah. Not only is it taking too much time gaining momentum, but its half-hearted interest in being a “message show” may actually be doing more damage than if it had said nothing at all. It’s a very strange place to be.
Log Horizon 15: Man, all these sad, conflicted feelings about last season’s all-stars, and here’s Log Horizon just chugging along without a care in the world. This was another very respectable episode, and even managed to get me interested in what until now had been my least favorite thread – the kids learning how to play a goddamn MMO. How’d it do it? Well, by doing what I assume everyone initially thought both Sword Art Online and this would do – illustrate what makes MMOs actually exciting, and respect the legitimate fun and drama of cooperative gaming. It took the time to carefully articulate party dynamics, and built off the character-building of the last few episodes to demonstrate how games naturally lead towards people assuming roles and expressing very specific, unique versions of themselves. I’m not much of a gamer at present, but I’ve certainly done my time in WoW (seriously – pretty sure I was approaching three months of in-game time) and many other games, and I really appreciate this dedication to demonstrating the very real joy of these digital experiences.
Not that this was intended just to legitimize the memories of gamers, or anything – this episode worked because this stuff actually does work as drama, and because the formalized rules of game systems naturally lend themselves to making for tense, understandable action and “sports” sequences. This show was dragging its heels for a while, but now that it’s on, it’s something I look forward to every week.
Hunter x Hunter 112: And here’s that asterisk I started with. Nagi no Asukara is great, but currently there is just nothing that even comes close to Hunter x Hunter. I don’t even want to discuss this episode, because I know some people read through the shows they’re not watching, and this episode deserves to be experienced pure. I will say it was incredible – it pulled all the narrative threads they’d established and all the tension they’d built up into one beautiful, heart-wrenching, masterfully directed sequence that worked both as a personal turn and as an elaboration of the ever-present “what does it mean to be human?” theme that has underlined the entirety of this breathtaking Chimera Ant arc. Any show would be goddamn lucky to feature even one episode this good, and the fact that it’s arriving as just one more impressive step in a show that’s now been running for 112 episodes is just unbelievable. I generally refer to Hunter x Hunter as “far and away the best shounen,” but at this point that title just doesn’t do its accomplishments justice – this show is one of the best I’ve seen in any genre, and is certainly one of my personal favorites. It’s a gift.
I think I’ll skip on SHAFT this season. They were great with Monogatari Second Season but I hate the Nisekoi manga with passion.
Their adaptation of Mekaku City Actors next season could be something really amazing if done right, they’re pretty much the perfect studio for it.
Yeah, I’ll probably give this week’s episode a look, but I’m expecting to drop it shortly. The one from next season’s the original based on that group of songs or whatnot, right? That actually does sound interesting, and anime-originals are always worth at least a look.
Not sure if I would call it original, as there was an official manga and novel that came before the anime. The thing is, the manga has a different continuum to the anime, and so does the novel I believe. My guess is that the anime will as well. And everything, including the anime, is written by the composer of the original songs. He also composed the main ending theme for Monogatari Second Season if I recall correctly.
Sadly, the only way you can explain what Kagerou Project/Mekaku City Actors is about is by making it sound generic as possible or spoiling everything. But there’s definitely a very interesting story there.
That’s quite the origin story. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see, then!
I’m wondering about your thoughts on a couple of shows that you haven’t mentioned here. There’s the candy-coloured, hyper-kinetic action of Wizard Barristers, but seeing Umetsu’s track record, that show could go south into a series of budget-starved non-sequiturs real fast. Then there’s Witch Craft Works. I’m enjoying it far more than I thought I would. Kagari is totally deadpan, while she’s surrounded by a parade of throwaway visual gags that the show, thankfully, doesn’t linger on.
So far I am liking WCW. God damn that fire…
I haven’t seen either – neither of them really seemed like my kind of thing (lightweight action/comedy in pretty standard anime settings), and the early reactions I’ve seen haven’t been the greatest. I’m basically trying to keep my current watch list as manageable as possible, but I may pick up either if there’s good buzz down the line.
Lol man you actually linked a redit feminist article… Thoses guys don’t even know what KLK is about.
‘’So this says two things. Firstly, to the degree that the performance is the show, the episode 3 embarrassment/acceptance thing is a sham. People will still leer at you, Ryuuko, they’ll just be less obvious about it.’’
This guy is missing the point so much it hurts. Yes people will still lear at you. Why would they stop? That’s why the show is about accepting youself to get past the gaze.
And yea the sensei owns it. That’s what the show wants from people. Didn’t stopped me to gaze at his glowing nipples and my sister to find him hot.
Funnily enough the rest of the article is just more random rambling on this point.
Ironically I would call all those redits writer the sexists one. Because Ryuuko is a female they assume the show cares about feminism when it’s just about society perceptions and going past those.
Heres a MAL user quote:
”Tumblr are basically populist wannabe-feminists that read their ‘geek progressiveness’ into everything they like that might be otherwise considered offensive and misogynistic. It’s embarrassing.
There’s a clear thematic meaning to the clothing and near-nudity: the Kamui make the wearer look practically naked and look ‘ridiculous’ to the average person because they are designed for those who can go beyond society’s standards and not care; i.e. those who can be truly ‘stronger’ than the rest. So what if people think Ryuuko looks ‘ridiculous’ when fused with Senketsu? Actions define outward appearances.
The idea of using practical nudity as a power against clothing is pretty damn clever.
The concept of “clothing” in the show is clearly linked to ‘society’s shackles’ and clothing is used to mirror real-world hierarchies and societal status. It’s not about populist geek-feminism or objectification or male gaze or any of that other babble.”
Read more at http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=706823&show=60#sBBbAX4K3dDBtwh8.99
On Flamenco I actually like to think that it is the world itself that is adapting to the main characters. That there is some sinister plan at work.
Your response is pretty much exactly what worries me. The writer of that article is well aware of the show’s argument as presented – he’s saying it presents a useless moral that essentially demands the characters accept the representation the show wants to provide them. And my own followup concern is that in its questionable attempts to define its philosophy of representation, the show is basically misleading people as to the fundamental nature of these arguments in the first place (as demonstrated in the diagram you’ve linked, which I’ve seen before, is a very simplistic read of the series, and basically ignores the issues of authorial intent and the larger context of the show that SohumB’s essay is concerned with). The show itself saying “now I’m empowered by my nudity!” is not a meaningful statement – the show needs to back that up by actually having the characters make meaningful choices, and by having the show’s OWN choices support the message it’s allegedly portraying. In the absence of that, the message is meaningless.
Not sure what to say about your “they’re actually the sexist ones” and “the show doesn’t care about feminism” points. They don’t really make any sense, and as a show directly concerned with representation and identity, the show can’t really be meaningfully critiqued outside of a broader cultural framework. The fact that the show may try to define “clothing” as just a device relevant to its internal power structure does not erase the show’s either conscious or unintentional messages regarding identity – those things are baked in to the show’s choices about character design, direction, and dialogue regardless of what the show itself claims to be about.
That got a little wordy, but I’d say the TLDR would be: the writer of that piece very much understands what KLK is saying. He just strongly disagrees with large parts of its message, and feels the show’s direction and way of articulating its message undercut any positive ideas that could be drawn from it.
Incidentally, I’m not sure where all this “us versus them” stuff and anti-feminism (or some specific version of feminism?) rhetoric is coming from. It’s really just about equality and positive representation, and it seems pretty hard to argue against that stuff. This “lol feminism” stuff I’ve seen on the internet is both ignorant (it certainly doesn’t understand what feminism actually is) and seems designed just to stifle actual conversations.
Sorry didnt mean to link that diagram just the thread for the post I quoted. I find it stupid in fact.
I just dont think the show should be viewed in such a light. I mean the outfits and dynamic angles are mostly for style. I guess I did a bit of projection because I draw a lot sometimes serious works other times just stylish stuff and I always get angry feminists when the latter involves woman. I just believe that sexuality in KLK isnt necessary linked to its themes at all times. Its not a very serious show to begin with. I still believe it does a good job delivering its messages so far despite what the dynamic pauses and ridiculous outfits haters think. Even more so with the latest episode. Plus you and the author talk (extensively in his case) about characters choosing the way people perceive them. Which isnt something you really choose in life most of the time. Your restricted by events, others and yourself. (Seriously I dont know how you want this to work out)
Anyways sorry for sounding inconsiderate previously. This new post keeps the exact same meaning I tried to give in the previous one but in a gentler manner.
The thing is, there’s really no way to “turn off” actual analysis of a show – a show being silly doesn’t make its choices less intentional or meaningful. To pick an extreme example, let’s say I’m hugely racist and write a comedy that’s mainly about how silly llamas are, but there are some side characters who are crazy racist caricatures. The work not “trying” to be about that doesn’t matter – it’s still a racist work that promotes a racist worldview, even if I only wanted to make a silly show about llamas. I don’t think Kill la Kill is “trying” to be sexist – I think it’s trying to be irreverent and actually empowering. But these are tricky issues, and good intentions aren’t enough to make the results unimpeachable.
As far as “choosing your representation” goes, if the show wanted to make that particularly dark point, I think it’s somewhat gotten lost in the shuffle. The issue with episode three is it paints Ryuuko being forced to wear Senketsu as a good thing – “accept this form of representation because you don’t have a choice, don’t worry, you’ll come to like it.” That does indeed reflect a lot of shitty stuff in the actual world, but the author’s argument is that painting that as an “empowering” choice is a lie – she still has no actual power or control over her life there, she’s just submitting to what the writers/story forced her to do. Which may be true to life, but certainly isn’t a positive message.
But there are still many episodes to go, and this all may actually be resolved by the end of this arc – Ryuuko’s going to get Senketsu repaired herself, so she may actually get to choose her own representation in how he’s put back together.
On Space Dandy 2: I don’t think the ramen shop story was supposed to be affecting directly, because it was played too much as a cliche and (as you mentioned) too fast. My reading is that we were supposed to react to it as a conscious and over the top execution of the cliche, finding it more funny than tear-jerking. In fact, right up until the end I expected the punchline to be that the shop’s ramen was actually bad and it was the trip through the wormhole that made it good.
(In the end the show went with another joke, one that circled back to the start of the episode. I’m okay with that; Dandy has to get a break every so often.)
I hope you’re right on that, though that is one very long deadpan joke if true! Either way, I’ve heard the show has just as much a rotating cast of writers as it does directors, so I doubt any one episode will set the tone.
My thinking on the ramen shop story is that it’s really two stories or jokes: the search for the mysterious ramen source and then the story of the ramen shop itself (well, the shopkeeper). The search was always clearly played as a comedy and the ramen shopkeeper’s story is only a moderate part of the episode (I think about four or five minutes for the whole segment), which always limits how much of a genuine impact it could have.
(And I don’t think we had any hints about the shopkeeper during the search for the ramen source.)
I’m probably thinking too much about Space Dandy. On the other hand, I really did enjoy this episode (unlike the first one).
I’d actually prefer it if this were true, if only because if the show’s going to be a dedicated comedy, I’d like it to at least expand the styles of jokes it’s telling. So hopefully you’re right and this is the way it was meant to be taken!
Well, it’s partly thanks to your weeks reviews, that I decided to finally marathon through Hiunter X Hunter. And really, I don’t regret this choice.
I aso started watching Chu 2 byo after reading this blog.
Excellent choices! I hope you keep enjoying both of them.
“…that said, I might actually watch another episode just for that lovely design. God damn you, Shaft.”
I don’t think that is Shaft’s work. That’s pretty much what Nisekoi is. Nisekoi is a drug, I swear it. I don’t know why I read the manga. I have no expectations of the manga. Those expectations generally are not surpassed. You know, because I have none. Nonetheless, it is addicting. Why? I try to write reviews of the episodes, blowing all sorts of smoke about how the series has very good voice actors (and it does), how Shaft excels at comedy (and it does – with some exceptions) and basically about how I am tired of the ultra-edgy Monogatari series and I am glad to see Shaft apply their talents on something more down-to-earth, but none of that really explains why I will watch every episode of this show, and probably give them all high reviews. It is a bit like Railgun and Index, in my view. I mean, the Raildex anime are filled with countless flaws, and the arcs tend to be stupendously repetitive (some random mysterious girl appears with some people after her, and Tōma/Misaka have to save her), but I swear I’ll watch and probably rewatch anything JC Staff pumps out labelled “Toaru whatever and whatnot”. Except that Endymion film. That, no one should rewatch, except for like two action scenes which were really cool.
I don’t know, maybe I am just a sucker for romcoms. I mean, Nisekoi is about as predictable as you claim it to be. We aren’t talking about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms or anything. And whilst some series can pull of a predictable plot with surprising depth (like Toradora), I don’t think Nisekoi will. Nonetheless, I’ll stick with it to the end.
I admire your dedication, but I doubt this one will keep my attention. Love Hina tricked me ten years ago, I’m not getting tricked again!
Ah, I have not seen Love Hina, though I have heard similar things from those that have. I guess since I am fairly new to anime, things seem less repetitive and generic to me.
If you don’t completely distrust my taste by this point, I would perhaps recommend that you check out out the second episode of Hoozuki no Reitetsu. It was much better than the first.
I’ll have to pick up Nagi no Asukara again. I sort of lost interest after around 5 or so episodes, but everyone who has stuck with it seems to be enjoying it.
Personally I also felt Nagi no Asukara had a very slow patch in the middle of the first season, but it’s pulled itself together phenomenally well. I’d definitely recommend giving it another try.
I may give Hoozuki another try, but frankly, strict comedies of its style are rarely my kind of thing. I much prefer stuff that’s character-focused and kind of incidentally funny at the same time.