This week in anime was dominated by the shows that tend to be the benchwarmers, as both Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Hinamatsuri stepped up while Megalo Box and My Hero Academia each settled for more conventional episodes. That was totally fine by me – to be honest, the kind of things that Galactic Heroes and Hinamatsuri are good at appeal to me far more than the things Megalo Box and MHA generally succeed in, so I was happy to see them offer some new highlights. Hinamatsuri is just such an idiosyncratic thing, defined by a comic sensibility that clearly stands out among anime comedies, and matching that sense of humor with a confidence that lets it pull off eight minute segments dedicated to single extended jokes. Let’s start off with those wacky psychic shenanigans and run this week down!

Hinamatsuri introduced its third psychic girl this week, in a segment that was equal parts incredibly adorable and weirdly devastating. Mai’s island adventures with the coconut versions of Hina and Anzu managed to be both funny and sad all at the same time, presently an inherently absurd situation that nonetheless slotted naturally into Hinamatsuri’s general reflections on family and finding a place to belong. Hinamatsuri is executed so well that it often seems pretty effortless, but basing such a lengthy segment on essentially one joke like this, and trying to simultaneously sell that segment as a genuinely affecting character piece, requires both extreme confidence in your own tone and extreme grace in delivery. The more I watch Hinamatsuri, the more I think I could watch Kei Okawa direct basically anything.

In the episode’s second half, we returned to the fundamentals of what make Hina and Nitta such a good pairing, offering a setup centered around abusing Nitta’s excellence as a straight man and following through with a punchline that capitalized on Hina’s deadpan absurdism. This show is pretty much a master class in balancing character and comedy, and I’m loving the ride.

After a couple weeks of setup, Megalo Box’s run through the Joe-Mikio qualifier fight turned out to be a sturdy enough match, but not really a highlight. The animation and narrative progression of the fight itself was fine – there were some energetic cuts as always, and I particularly liked how this episode’s swooping cameras lent a sense of physical space to the larger stadium. But in comparison with the coherent emotional and tactical stakes of the Aragaki fight, this battle just didn’t feel quite as grounded – there was a clear understanding of its significance regarding Mikio and Yukiko’s relationship, but Mikio’s relationship with “Ace” never quite pulled itself together into a satisfying hook. Given the heavy focus on Ace’s learning capabilities and the relationship between Mikio and Ace’s decisionmaking, I’d figured we’d conclude on either a rally from Joe composed of entirely improvised moves, or some sort of breaking point (or validation point, either way works for me) for Mikio and Ace’s bond. Instead Joe just kinda punched him – a fine enough finish, but this fight probably won’t stick with me.

This week’s My Hero Academia was once again so close to its manga incarnation that I wasn’t really left with much to say beyond “yep, this is still a really fun story.” The base concept of U.A.’s apology press conference being used as a smokescreen while they set up their immediate counter-offensive was an unexpected and really good idea in the manga, and it remained a good idea here, chopping out useless dramatic downtime in a way that actually made this transition into a structural strength. Academia’s general focus on the importance of influences and mentors also paid nice dividends in the offhand Aizawa-Bakugo moment here, where Aizawa’s faith in his student turned into a resounding thematic payoff. But I’d say the sequence that stole the show anime-wise was the depiction of All For One across its final moments. There was just something so inherently menacing about that blurry, suited figure just hovering in the sky, surveying his work. The Academia adaptation often struggles to truly improve on its source material, but if All For One can be consistently imparted with such a clear sense of menace, it’ll have certainly sold me.

After a week off from thrilling space battles and depressing political commentary, Legend of the Galactic Heroes returned with a vengeance this week, offering some of its most pointed conversations so far. This episode’s debates between the various Alliance leaders regarding the “selfishness of citizens” and the need to boost polls through military victories wasn’t really a metaphor at all; this is exactly how political leaders justify continuous war and economic austerity, using lofty rhetoric regarding the spread of freedom and cowardice of peace to rally their bloodthirsty base while acting in ways that in truth only benefit their donors and personal fortunes. This story was written three decades ago, but this episode followed pretty much the exact blueprint my own country’s most heinous politicians have pursued ever since, even down to how Ms. Windsor undercut the critiques of those vying for peace by dismissing their concerns as weak and naive. Legend of the Galactic Heroes is very good at expressing the simultaneous complexity and simplicity of politics – complex in its execution and in the myriad contrasting priorities it must balance, and simple in that a tremendous number of our problems are caused by leaders who really, truly do not have our best interests at heart.

Anyway, this was a good episode that left me very angry. I’m thoroughly enjoying Legend of the Galactic Heroes, but it’s a shame that its democracy-sliding-towards-warmongering-oligarchy narrative is also what’s happening every day in the real world.