It’s closing time, folks – open all the doors and let you out into the world. I’d be happy to just quote one hit wonders this week, but the season really is ending, so I suppose we should also survey some cartoons. Given I’ve already dropped everything that seemed to be juggling more narrative balls than it could handle (aka Franxx), I wasn’t surprised to see this week’s finales conclude their shows with general grace, with both Laid Back Camp and A Place Further than the Universe offering not necessarily their best episodes, but fine representations of their overall appeal. And among the continuing shows, After the Rain continues to hone in on a genuinely satisfying endpoint for Kondo and Akira, while March comes in like a lion… well, I mean, it’s March, it’s always gonna do its own thing. All these shows have been consistent enough that I have entirely run out of new things to say about them, so while I’m sad to see them go, I’m also looking forward to whatever fresh madness the spring will bring. Let’s send this season’s contenders off right, and run this week down!
We reached the conclusion of Laid Back Camp this week, which finished in appropriate fashion with a quick reminder of all the things this show does so well. The episode’s first half continued to pleasantly revel in the bubbly group camping mode of last week, offering lots of silly gags and further paying off Rin’s integration into this social circle, but it was the following depiction of morning in the shadow of Fuji that most struck me. That sequence stood among Laid Back Camp’s best, offering one of the most tonally convincing articulations of a lived moment in the whole series. The quiet of dawn, the slow shuffling of Rin and Nadeshiko as they shook off the edge of sleep, the shifting of the light and glimmer of dew as the sun crests the horizon. At its best, Laid Back Camp is able to bring the precise moments that make camping great to life – the sunrises you’re glad you woke up for, the post-setup rest you’ve thoroughly earned, all those momentary, personal pleasures scattered through a largely industrious activity. Laid Back Camp nailed that once again this week, offering a fine sendoff to Rin and Kirby and all their friends.
This week’s After the Rain did an excellent job of building us towards an ending that seems like it will actually offer some satisfying finality to this story, in spite of its source material apparently continuing far beyond this point. After the Rain has continuously tightened its focus on these characters, letting our understanding of their initial malaise became more and more clear as we learn about the regrets following in each of their shadows. The confrontations each of the leads had with their friends this week pointed each of them back towards those regrets in turn, offering a way to find, if not happiness, at least a road that seems to lead to happiness. And aesthetically, though we’ve sadly lost the consistent beauty of the show’s first few episodes, this week’s episode intentionally set up a massive number of visual and dramatic parallels with the show’s opening, from the shots of Akira in her classroom to the moment when she has to pursue a retreating customer. Akira held back this week, but the anger she vented at Kondo clearly reflects her continued longing for the life she left. This wasn’t a standout episode, but it was a rigorously purposeful one, and I now have every confidence that After the Rain will end strong.
March comes in like a lion offered another low-stress episode this week, as we continued to celebrate Hina’s escape from the drama of middle school, and make plans for joining Rei’s high school. I’m not sure if we’re approaching the actual end of March’s adaptation, but if so, this does seem like a relatively reasonable stopping point. With the story making the surprising choice to jump six months forward this week, it seems clear that the resolution of Hina’s story, along with Rei’s strange adventure with Souya, represented a sort of act finale within March’s larger frame. And as far as this episode goes, Rei and Hina have established such a fond relationship that March can easily make them being kind to each other carry an episode. I really hope this isn’t the end of the March anime, but I’m glad this second season has offered so many treasures along the way.
And finally, A Place Further than the Universe concluded on a surprisingly low-key episode, one that mostly just detailed the natural parting of Shirase and her friends from their Antarctic compatriots. I have to admit, given that series director Atsuki Ishizuka was personally directing this one, I kinda expected more fireworks – but the previous episode essentially tied on a bow on this show’s narrative journey, so dedicating this episode to warm goodbyes worked well enough. My favorite part of this episode was its conclusion, both because the group monologue about simply striving was so effective at tying this show’s messages together, and also because Megumi sending that “whoops I’m in the Arctic” text was exactly the kind of unusually sharp, unusually petty, unusually realistic detail that helps this show shine. I ultimately only “liked” Universe, but it was an altogether worthy show, and I’m happy to now have such a clear and recommendable demonstration of Ishizuka’s talents. A fine pillar of the winter season!
