Why does the anime do this to me. I feel like Run with the Wind, Gridman, and Tsurune could all easily have claimed the top spot in either spring or summer – here in fall, having all three of them at once just seems excessive. I know you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but couldn’t we have parceled out these horses a little more consistently throughout the seasons? My cup runneth over with gift horses.
Anyway, complaints about Too Much Good Anime aside, there sure is a whole lot of good anime this season. Tsurune finally made its debut this week, and stunned from start to finish with its gorgeous color work, efficient characterization, and generally compelling art design. Run with the Wind maintained its cheerful general excellence, while Gridman demonstrated that its “default mode” is still a show well worth celebrating. With the action spectacles also holding steady, this is looking to quite possibly be the best season of the year overall. It feels almost certain that over half of my current watching schedule will end up in my top ten of the year, with only winter’s formidable Evergarden-After the Rain-Universe-Laid Back Camp block offering much competition. I am thrilled to be enjoying this much anime, and eager to share all my enthusiasm with you. Let’s start with our running boys and run this week down!
Run with the Wind’s third episode was just as sturdy as the second, and perhaps even more satisfying, as this one saw the team finally commence group practice. I’d normally describe the wonderful group interactions we’re now experiencing as a “payoff” for all the show’s prior characterization work, but in truth, Run with the Wind is pretty much always continuously paying off and building up its characters at the same time. This group has such a strong sense of chemistry, and are portrayed through such excellent expression work, that most of Run with the Wind’s scenes genuinely feel like hanging out with a group of friends while consistently growing closer to them. From the unspoken jokes like Akane’s quiet “Why?” protest shirt to the actual ongoing arguments between all our leads, Run with the Wind is so stuffed with humor and camaraderie that every episode is a joy. I assume that the return of a figure from Kakeru’s past will lead us into some heavier personal drama, but Run with the Wind doesn’t even really need that to succeed; it resides at the natural intersection of slice of life and sports drama, offering consistently delicious slices of college life.
Gridman.SSSS continued on its merry and highly consistent way this week, offering more of the gorgeous layouts, playful animation, and small, melancholy moments that have made the show such a consistent pleasure. This episode was definitely the most “default Gridman episode” of the three so far, lacking a hook as strong as the initial premise or Akane’s formal introduction, but its close focus on Rikka’s feelings of guilt and loneliness certainly gave it some sense of pathos and identity. Conflicts like this are the points where Yuta’s amnesia definitely hurts the drama – Rikka and Yuta’s relationship hasn’t quite been fleshed out well enough to really sell their bond, and with Yuta having actually forgotten whatever emotional baggage he and Rikka share, I couldn’t really invest fully in her feelings here.
Fortunately, while the episode structurally hinged on a somewhat weak emotional beat, its illustration of sequences like Rikka and Utsumi bickering about what to do next felt real enough to sell its drama regardless. Both the dialogue itself and the characters’ half-mumbled deliveries felt totally true to life, and Rikka’s family store already feels like a familiar and lived-in home base. I’m hoping the show fleshes out the relationships between its leads a bit more thoroughly soon, but Gridman is still executing so well in nearly all regards that I can’t really complain.
Seasonal latecomer Tsurune finally made its debut this week, and boy did it ever make the wait worth it. Tsurune’s premiere was Just Fuckin’ Gorgeous the whole way through, as you’d expect from any Kyoto Animation production, but I was particularly stunned by the wonderful cohesiveness of color work and emotional narrative all throughout this episode. Minato’s feelings were clear at all times purely through the show’s diverse color palette and purposeful shot framing, making it impossible not to be drawn into his physically mundane but emotionally vibrant life. I also appreciated the terrific economy of storytelling throughout this episode; “protagonist swears off sport due to past trauma until he’s drawn back in” is one of the most staple sports narratives out there, but this episode’s understated dialogue and snappy character introductions basically took us through what would take another show two or three episodes to cover, without ever feeling rushed in the slightest. I was almost certain Tsurune was going to be one of the gems of the fall season, and so far it’s making an incredibly strong case.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure’s fifth arc continued to solidify its own identity this week, once again benefiting greatly from Giorno’s singular appeal as a JoJo. Not only is Giorno one of the most thoughtful and sympathetic JoJos so far, his very clear motivation gives his story a sense of purpose and momentum that feels significantly greater than the last two seasons. I assume we’ll get into Stand-user-of-the-week territory eventually, but so far, Golden Wind has been a wonderfully propulsive narrative, while Giorno’s genuine vulnerability and panicked strategizing has made him a much more engaging character than someone like Jotaro Kujo.
As for this episode specifically, it’s always fun when a JoJo episode is centered not on an outright fight, but on a Stand user attempting to overcome some mundane problem with their absurd powers. “Keep this lighter lit for twenty-four hours” was a perfect example of the form, leading to wonderfully surreal moments like Giorno punching a light switch to turn a lamp into a snake so it will eat the bread that contains a lit lighter. I still feel like this arc’s direction can’t match the striking layouts and consistent horror tone of Diamond, but I’m also appreciating how its intricate character designs meld with the show’s color shifting to create dynamic compositions of its own. And either way, if the story stays this good, this is looking to be a top-tier season of JoJo regardless.
Finally, the latest Thunderbolt Fantasy still felt slow relative to the first season’s pacing, but was livened nonetheless by the long-awaited reunion of Shang and Lin. Their rapport was essentially the backbone of the first season, and watching Shang awkwardly explain how he’d kinda sorta killed all of the monsters in the Wasteland of Spirits felt as charming as any of that season’s highlights. Thunderbolt Fantasy lives more in its incidental, absurd asides than its larger dramatic beats, and this episode was full of moments like that, from our guitar friend’s bewildered “does everyone in this country keep demon birds as pets?” to Xiao’s extremely frank “what’s the good of keeping the peace if you’re not getting credit for it?” Season two’s overall pacing has definitely been sluggish, but characters are at last starting to build sturdy enough relationships for us to dive into the deadpan comedy this show does so well. As long as that continues, I can definitely stand some rambling in the plot.
