22 thoughts on “Spring 2015 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective”

1. I’ll give Attack on Vampires… ehhh… I mean Seraph of the End a couple more episodes to see if it can atleast be Titan action fun level in a season this rich with slice of life/non action heavy shows. But then again there is Fate and BBB…

   • Yeah, I was thinking about how barren this season is for action fans – if there weren’t BBB, you’d basically be on UBW/JoJo life support. Seraph of the End didn’t grab me personally, but the first episode was all prologue, so it might now at least establish a reasonable action template.

2. They wouldn’t have made those endless utterly terrible Ikkitousen figures that kept my “Five Not” weekly figure section if some people didn’t like their sexiness as fake as one can get. Some people do indeed like these things. You know the adage, “The more, the better”? A-yup.

   “Shrill” is an interesting term for Mikagura, being that that is the word I’d use to describe most vocaloids 😛

   I hope Euphonium keeps being good, so I could pick it up after it ends. But those small understated moments, that’s KyoAni’s specialty. They can do those half-asleep. You know, it’s interesting, Kyoukai no Kanata is also absolutely filled with such moments, and it’s more when it tried to actually deal with a plot that things fell down. Is it going to be that KyoAni is just going to give us small and intimate moments, and nothing more? True “slice of life”? Heck, might be worthwhile, but could get, well, dull.

   So, I can see 8 shows you’re likely to keep on watching here, at least? Top 5, Punchline (till we see where it falls), Fate, because Fate, Nagato Yuki, and maybe sorta Arslan? Arslan’s premier was dull, but I am looking forward to when it actually “starts”. Boilerplate fantasy epics aren’t nearly as common as I’d like >.>

   • I think Hyouka proves that KyoAni can build something greater almost entirely out of those small moments, and Euphonium’s opening seemed to have some real substance behind it, so I’m certainly hopeful. And yeah, those are the ones I’m planning to follow (along with JoJo). That’s more than I wanted to, so I’m probably going to hold off on Arslan and just see what people are saying in a few episodes.

3. So you actually tried nearly everything … Christ. I feel sorry for you.

   But on the other hand, you did get me interested in Plastic Memories. I’ll keep up with your weekly posts to see how it turns out by episode 3-4. And Punchline … Well it definitely had great visuals and that entertaining action-vibe, now we’ll just have to see if its idea of comedy based on panty jokes won’t drag it down too far.

   • Yeah, I’m frankly happy I’m not covering Punchline for ANN. There’s way too high a risk of that thing just imploding on the starting block.

4. Just watched Shougeki no Soma ep. 2 and if it was me I’d kick it up to the “Genre staples” section – with understanding that the genre in question is of course shounen battle/sports anime. The second episode had basically a slightly longer (and more erotic) re-enactement of HunterXHunter’s cooking exam, but I must say, there are some excellent comedic beats and the over the top food reactions are rather hilarious (this episode had a Buddhist monk stripping naked in a New York restaurant giving up his fasting to try another bite of Soma’s dad cooking, to mention one).

   On another note, I really have small hopes for both Plastic Memories and Punchline!. Neither of them started too bad, but they harbor the seeds of their own destruction and too many times I have seen those seeds bloom and bear their horrible fruit to still believe they may just not do so. I am an anime veteran whose hope has withered and dried up :'(.

5. As a fan of the manga, Food Wars seems to be doing everything in its power to emphasize the bad parts of the manga and sabotage the good.

6. “Etotama is such a default anime that its very existence seems like an open question.”
   I don’t think I’ve laughed this hard in a while.

7. I question the sanity of whoever came up with OreGairu’s official English title. Obviously OreGairu wouldn’t really work that well either, but SNAFU just sounds like it came out of the left field, especially if you’re someone who never heard of the term before watching the show.

   • Yeah, it’s a terrible title. It’s a shame, but at least it’s not a translation choice that affects the show itself.

8. Ore Monogatari and Shokugeki no Souma are the two best shows of the season. I think you’re missing the point in the latter, try another few episodes.

   • Care to share what that point is, in your opinion, or are you just going to leave the rest of us guessing?

     • Heh. Belabouring the point degrades it. But whats so wrong with showing people orgasming over food? If you have a weakness for good food you must sometime have felt something close to carnal pleasure on eating something sinfully good. And even if you didnt, its just another step down a road anime often treads.. exaggerated responses to incredibly moving experiences. A nosebleed when one happens to see a delicious glimpse of skin. Ripples in a dark pond when Chiaki plays Rachmaninoff in Nodame Cantabile. Besides its really funny to see food making peoples buttons pop, clothes fall away and them wriggling and squirming wanting more!
       And if that isn’t entertaining enough, the show even gets into what maeks the food so good with nearly a full fledged recipe each episode! Why didn’t we think of chopping up mushroom, potato and onion and wrapping it in bacon and slow roasting it!

       • Do some people feel the way you describe? Perhaps. On the other hand, I am not one of those people. I find it in bad taste, but that is my own preference; I have no desire to see people writhing the sexual ecstasy as they eat food. It simply is not funny to me. Nor am I interested in deciphering cooking lessons.

         This does not make your points less valid for a proportion of the audience. Just that some people do not meet the criteria you assume for them. I happen to fall in that category; I believe our author does as well.

9. I’m still pretty certain ETOTAMA was not a real show, and everyone who watched Show By Rock!! just had weird, blander hallucinations afterwards.

   Like someone said above, the Food Wars! anime does seem to be emphasizing every bad aspect of the early material as possible. I doubt you’d enjoy the manga much either (unless Sports Shounen But With Cooking Tournaments is somehow your secret kryptonite) but the material was at least presented in a less obnoxious manner.

   Plastic Memories, Blood Blockade, and My Love Story!! are my top titles for the season so far, and while all of them have to potential to implode or stagnate, they seem confident in where they’re going.

   But yeah, a pretty weak season so far, and nothing seems like itt might evolve. Maybe now you should finally get around to watching fairy tail onepiece naruto bleach and dbz the best anime there is

10. I posted this comment elsewhere about Oregairu, but I wanted to post it again:

    Overall, I found this episode to have flown far beyond any of the high expectations I had already set for the season beforehand. The final scene, at night, impressed me the most. Before 20:52, Hikkigaya trails behind Yukino closely, when she pauses at the crosswalk. She then looks right, looks left, appearing to be unsure of her direction.

    Hikkigaya then says “You go right here,” as if to confirm this.

    I found this to be an obvious callback to when Hikkigaya was ran over by Yukino’s car. She looks around to check for cars, not because she’s unsure of where to continue, but Hikkigaya lets it stand as the latter. Yukino still feels uncomfortable about that incident, as her way of walking in front of him and checking the road is a wonderful way of depicting that. Meanwhile, Hikkigaya crosses the road quickly, as if reassuring her that he doesn’t mind (whether that is true or not, we do not know). There is a debate to be made about whether she really was lost or not, but I will address that later.

    After this, Yukino trails behind Hikkigaya. The distance between them has elongated compared to when they were fairly close before, and Hikkigaya calls her out on it. It’s a small matter, but his conversation shows that he cares, as a friend. Yukino then goes to claim, that she does not want to be seen with him at the dead of night, lest someone get the wrong idea.

    It would be easy to treat this as a ‘tsun’ in tsundere moment. Indeed, the line delivered here is the most natural and expected for that archetype. But for Yukino, she introduces this as an excuse, and the beauty of the scene is how it relies on the dynamic between hero and heroine prior established. As mentioned, at the beginning of the episode, Yukino pours tea and tells Hikkigaya that it will grow cold, to which he gives thanks by claiming that he dislikes hot drinks. It speaks to their relationship as a whole, which is filled with caustic comments where the undertone is the opposite. Here, Yukino would naturally make an excuse, and not speak her mind, and she would lace it with an insult to Hikkigaya to preserve her pride, a known character flaw.

    And this time, normally, Hikkigaya would reply with a retort of his own, but her delivery ends up hurting him instead. They feel like friends emotionally, but her words bring him callbacks to what damages him the most (his “I hate nice girls” speech and the such help build this trait of his). So instead, he just hastily agrees and leaves it at that.

    And finally, at the hotel, Yukino feels the need to thank him for walking her back to the hotel. In that particular situation, she acknowledges that as the polite thing to do, that it is warranted; she uses it as a mode for apologizing for what she said before, and turns away quickly. Hikkigaya just says nothing, thinks nothing; then thinks of Totsuka. It is easy to think of that as another joke as well, but the effectiveness of that line is in how he decides to forget about this situation in general. Yukino’s apology ended up rubbing salt in the wound instead; by lacing it with the idea of ‘appropriate for the situation’, it no longer feels authentic and embitters him instead.

    Throughout the entirety of the scene, the framing of the camera was excellent, as well as the music and delivery of the script. The music is slow, unintruding and melancholy for the night. It has a romantic undertone, as if this is a moment a touch more intimate. The camera frames the small distance between them, and their shoes; their pace is matching, which is hinting that this is chance for them to grow closer. The next shot frames Hachiman, and part of Yukino, but not her eyes. It puts the scene more in Hachiman’s perspective, and puts Yukino’s feelings at a mystery.

    Cut back, behind Hachiman, scene change accompanied by a beat in the score. We see Yukino from Hachiman’s perspective, and while her head turns seem like she is lost, the depth of the road reaches far into the background. Hachiman makes a subtle posture change, like a sigh or a scoff.

    Shift to Yukino. We get our first view of her eyes. She appears lost, but the movement of her mouth and ever so slight widening of her eyes, as Hikkigaya delivers his line, suggests a form of surprise unusual to the circumstances. Her expression makes it look like she is playing it straight, but there is a subtle difference in eye height compared to mouth movements that makes it look forced.

    The view then displays Hachiman casually crossing the road, with Yukino hesitant. She clearly is recalling something here.

    From here, we continue following Yukino, closely, and the distance between them grows, to represent an awkward atmosphere she feels. When Hikkigaya delivers his line, its the usual accusing tone, while Yukino’s first line is an attempt at justification to avoid further pressing. Hachiman denies it to illustrate he doesn’t care, about the undertone she’s struggling with. Her next line: she delivers it quickly, at the onset. “Maybe not for you, but it wouldn’t be good for me.” It’s the preface to her default excuse, As soon as it comes out of her mouth, she regrets it. Her tries to turn towards Hachiman, but it already came out, and she decides to follow through with it. She delivers the line hesitantly, and the framing shows: she can’t look him in the eye. It’s an obvious excuse to hide her feelings, but her pride won’t let her not follow through with it. Her hand clutch is a motion that suggests it’s a big deal for her, but in a different light it’s a sign she’s regretting what’s coming out of her mouth.

    The next frame simply shoots Hikkigaya’s hurt expression. His tone rises at the start; and then he tries to calm down. He turns away, and we frame back to Yukino. Her expression shows that she realized, he took it to heart. Her voiced breath depicts apprehension. In the next shot, the distance expands, to represent the tears in their relationship.

    The final frames are innoculous shots, of Yukino and Hikkigaya. The atmosphere has grown subdued, by the nature of their personalities, and Yukino pulls her arms close to her chest. The posture is very defensive. She says thanks, a bit hastily, and then immediately turns away. Listening and watching closely, the pace of her steps has subtly increased.

    Finally, body shot of Hikigaya. He expression is dull, to mimic his thoughts, a virtually flawless execution.

    It is for this reason that I drop the pretense of sounding intelligent and say, “OMFG ship Hikki and Yukino argasdfgsadgjjgghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”

    • Nice writeup. Keep it up, some people appreciate it (even if they dont say anything).

      Have you read the novels? I havent and to say that i didnt notice a lot of the stuff you said would be an understatement. Maybe you are over-analyzing or maybe you know the context much better or maybe im simply blind.

      In any case, i enjoyed that scene immensely too. I suppose i ship them as well? Despite MBTI’s compatibility models favoring ‘opposites complementing each other’ over ‘two of the same, which only strengthen their weakness’, i immediately favor Yukinoshita over Yuigahama. The latter is a healing complement to Hikki’s self-deranging personality, while the primer is a strengthening affirmation to his spirit. One can provide to him on an emotional level, while the other provides understanding. Which gives me idea that Yigahama and Yukinoshita together are exactly what Hikki needs.

      I would be interested to hear more from you, for example on 2nd ep, which was even more confusing than the 1st…

      • Incidentally, I have not read the novels. I paid close attention to this scene, because I felt the framing narrative was calling for it.

        The second episode is an intriguing case, and I would make the case that there exist several valid analyses of its themes. In this particular case, I will focus on hypocrisy.

        Hikkigaya strays from human relationships, externally. He refuses to actively seek them or pursue any opportunity which he is presented. His internal monologues on his pessimistic philosophy acknowledges valid negative aspects of interaction without any of the positives; in this manner, he is running away before he can be hurt directly. Attaining friends opens himself up to that pain.

        He is similar, but fundamentally different from Yukinoshita in this regard. Yukinoshita seeks to preserve her dignity by refusing to concede and accept that she is ever in the wrong. Her attitude comes off as arrogant (which it is) and oftentimes hurts the people who try to get close to her. In the first season, episode 2 @ 7:15, she criticizes Yui for being late in a needlessly blunt and accusing tone, as if she is superior. It is not hard to see why the number of people who could be considered her friend would be sparse.

        Hikkigaya escapes from the beginning. He is unlike Yukino, in that he neither has the apathy nor the talent required to exhume superiority. He is at heart an emotional man (as in, emotional as any other) who feigns indifference to pass on through life. Though he commits social suicide to preserve the friendships of others, what does that bring him, and how does that fit into his supposed philosophy?

        In episode 2, we explore much of his hypocritical nature. At 3:35, he lends his hand out to Yui. When she does not take it immediately, he begins to panic, at having put himself in an awkward position.

        At 8:45, the crosswalk scene illustrates our hero’s and heroines’ friendship. For all the criticism Hikkigaya gives Hayama about his bonds being superficial, we are given this scene to depict the treasures friendship can bring- most importantly, from Hikkigaya’s perspective. It is of no use to characterize Hayama’s clique if it is not something Hachiman can relate to. As Hikkigaya mentions, it is of no direct use to consult Hikkigaya’s opinion of them as he is of a different position. This does not mean, however, that he cannot empathize with Hayama, or that he cannot see himself in Hayama’s position. Hayama and Ebina are both relying on him, and his character causes him to ultimately associate their concerns with himself. His decision to interfere is reflective of his desire for friendship, by saving someone else’s.

        His execution was no doubt awkward. Given a little thought, it would seem more appropriate him to act earlier, but not doing so leads to the situation developing further. The confession scene is difficult to interpret as it is focused emotionally rather than rationally. It is unbound by standards of ‘optimal’ or ‘natural’, and focused more on Hikkigaya’s emotional viewpoint. He understands that for its major players, coming out of this situation unscathed is nigh impossible, lest someone else take the fall instead. However, there is no other willing to do so, as from a spectator’s perspective, this is of Tobe’s concern alone. Regardless of the result, it is irrelevant to them.

        Hikkigaya, by his philosophy, should subscribe to that concept as well. He has tempered himself as a pessimistic, unsociable man precisely to avoid being put on the spot and choosing his words. Delivering a false confession, regardless of its authenticity, is placing himself in the very position he has actively attempted to avoid, the reason he did not act earlier. It sounds stupid, it feels stupid, and looks stupid. The cornerstone of this scene is how awkward and superfluous everything seems.

        When all is done, Hikkigaya feels sluggish and humiliated, likely from how unfair it all seems, as his impatient tone with Hayama implies. As he walks back to his Yui and Yukino, the latter immediately criticizes him. It is a major character flaw of hers; she cannot see why Hikkigaya would put himself in a self-destructive situation, and derives no enjoyment out of it. It is clearly not his business to be involved in it, and this irritates her. She cannot see it from his perspective, that he is doing what he must to preserve someone else’s relations, because she holds little regard for them. Hikkigaya is different however, and his decision to hurt himself prevents Yukino from finding anyone to blame except Hikkigaya himself. For all her excellence, emotionally, she always needs to find something external to blame, and it ends up being Hikkigaya himself because she refuses to understand the way he feels. It’s extremely selfish; she just wants to satisfy herself by saying that, and getting the last word by walking away.

        Yui feels nervous as well, for a similar reason Yukino does. She also is more attuned with her romantic feelings, and as such, even if there were a 1% chance he was serious, she wanted to confirm that his confession was a facade. She tends to be more understanding, and tries to tell him gently not to do that again. Hikkigaya tries to justify himself, to save face. Like Yukino, it results in him voicing an excuse he doesn’t adhere to, only using it in his convenience. Yui can’t object to that argument; she finds it upstanding to want to help others, but like Yukino, she can’t see why he has to suffer in their place. Why he should. It doesn’t matter if he’s the one person willing to do it, it’s unfair nonetheless, and its this scathing unfairness that builds and uncomfortable weight over their hearts. As Yukino refuses to understand him, Yui cannot understand him, and they both end up blaming him even though they know he has no reason to be blamed. Yui has to walk off as a result, or else her words will go to waste.

        And Hikkigaya himself is also embittered. But more than anything, he despises himself, for falling into a trap he saw a mile away, and then being criticized by the two people he considered his closest friends. The entirety of the event that night justifies his perspective, one that he wishes dearly to move away from, but cannot because his own bonds feel shallow.

        His final words reveal that he subconsciously understands that he lies to himself.

        That is how I interpreted episode 2.

11. From the ones I’ve seen, you missed Re-Kan and Nanoha Vivid.

12. Blood Blockade Battlefront was the most pleasant surprise for me. I was slightly worried that Bones would screw up but so far, the show’s off to a great start. It’s perfectly balanced–looks great. sounds great and with characters that make us want to stick around to see what hijinks they get up to.

    Seraph of the End, despite lackluster expectations was still a letdown. Maybe I’m just starting to outgrow my taste in hard-core shonen but I did find the blatant lack of subtlety more grating than usual…other people have been commenting that Plastic Memories is emotionally manipulative…I’d say Owari’s similar, only manipulative to shonen fans, if that makes any sense.

13. Of all the anime last season, Food Wars probably was the one I found most engaging.

    No regrets, I need to have some mass appeal shounen in me.

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