Monthly Archives: October 2016

Why It Works: Rough Gems of the Fall Season

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This week on Crunchyroll I gave a wave to a few of the less renowned premieres of the season, before we get into the period where I can only really discuss the shows I’m actually following. There’s just too many dang shows out there for me to watch everything, but I’m sure somebody could use the direction of these recommendations. It can become easy to forget that to most people, there’s really no way of knowing what new shows might actually appeal to you!

Why It Works: Rough Gems of the Fall Season

Kiss Him, Not Me

Planetes – Episode 14

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You know, I was ready to get extremely mad at this episode. Based on the setup of the first half, it looked like the show was going to throw half a dozen new wrenches into Tanabe and Hachi’s relationship, delaying progress purely for the sake of more juicy, artificial drama. But while this episode was a little heavy on the will-they-or-won’t-they stuff, it actually pulled their story together with some real grace. Tanabe and Hachi’s relationship has at times been Planetes’ weakest element, but it turns out you can’t keep a good ship down.

(I’m sorry)

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Nichijou – Episode 11

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As of the time of this writing, I’m currently only funded through eight episodes of Nichijou. This is episode eleven. I do not give a fuck. Nichijou is fantastic, I will watch it whatever the consequences, this is the hill I will die on. If anyone is actually reading this now, that hopefully means the funding has actually reached this point. Don’t ask current me how much Nichijou he has watched since then. You will not like the answer.

Anyway, that’s enough preamble. LET’S GET RIGHT TO THESE NICHIJOUS.

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Girlish Number – Episode 1

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Girlish Number has begun, and it’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from Wataru Watari versus the industry. The characters and dialogue in this one are already terrific, and I was happy to see those strengths matched with some great expression work all throughout. Hopefully this one keeps it together!

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

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Sound! Euphonium 2 – Episodes 1-2

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Sound! Euphonium has returned, and holy shit these reviews are going to kill me. I feel like I’ve actually gotten more thorough in my episodic posts since the first season, and those were already some of the most consistently oversized reviews I did for ANN. KyoAni may be the death of me, but it is a fine death indeed!

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

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Fall 2016 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective

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Holy shit I’m alive. Having dragged myself through one more gauntlet of endless, senseless, pitiless animation, I can finally say I’ve survived another one. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say this was the least psychologically damaging crop of debuts I’ve had to weather since joining the preview guide. Sure, there were bad shows – there are always plenty of bad shows – but the number of true spirit-breakers was mercifully low, and a surprising number of shows were competently executed even if they didn’t appeal to me. Anime’s current production model may be an unsustainable trainwreck of manic overproduction, but the bastards didn’t get me this time!

And so, having sat through all those many, many hours of animation, it’s time to send my battle report back to the folks back home. As usual, I’ll be running down every single show I watched in general order of how impressed I was, grouping things into categories based on how much they hurt me. Also as usual, you can check out the whole list of reviews over at ANN, or click on any of the titles below to go to that show’s specific reviews (I’m Nick Creamer over there). There’s a ton of very reasonable anime this season, so let’s get right to it!

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Sweetness & Lightning – Review

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Today I went back and reviewed last season’s most charming production, the consistently endearing Sweetness & Lightning. Sweetness & Lightning wasn’t exactly a top-tier slice of life, but it was close – it had a strong cast with a great overall dynamic, and the combination of tasty food and respect for Tsumugi’s worldview and problems made it pretty special. It’s probably not a show I’ll end up revisiting, but I’m very happy to have one slice of life be at least this good every season!

You can check out my full review over at ANN.

Sweetness & Lightning

Kokoro Connect – Episode 2

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Kokoro Connect’s second episode has arrived, and with it an “explanation” of sorts for the show’s body-swapping shenanigans. Apparently, their trials have been prompted by a mysterious figure known as Heartseed, who possesses the body of their teacher Goto to explain his reasoning. Or lack of reasoning, as the case may be – Heartseed comes off as aimless and apathetic, and his tormenting of the show’s stars is framed as no more than a whim of boredom. They can’t tell others about their secret, because that would be a bother. They can’t hope to end their struggle, because it’s just going to end when Heartseed tires of it. All they can do is keep on keeping on.

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Why It Works: Izetta’s Great Train Escape

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The new season has begun, meaning Why It Works has a whole new crop of shows to talk about! Today I started with Izetta, breaking down a bunch of the details that come together to make that opening train scene work so well. It’s nice to have such a broad selection of new things to discuss!

Why It Works: Izetta’s Great Train Escape

Izetta: The Last Witch

Nichijou – Episode 10

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WHAT THE FUCK IS UP EVERYBODY IT’S TIME FOR NICHIJOU. We’re finally into the double digits now, and Nichijou shows no signs of slowing down. As before, I’m still holding out for whenever the show’s two main casts actually collide, but it’s not like Nichijou’s been running out of ideas or anything. This is a mad, mad world where basically anything can happen, and then I have to somehow try and turn that madness into formal craft critique. It’s a very stupid system we’ve created, but hey, that’s Nichijou. LET’S GET TO IT.

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