I’ve been dealing with some close personal tragedy this week, but hey, I’m still here. I thought about maybe taking this week off from the Week in Review, and really couldn’t have imagined watching and enjoying seasonal anime a few days ago, but returning to cartoon normalcy has actually been a big emotional help. And it’s nice that this season’s anime are themselves so emotionally generous, from the rich tonal sympathy of Given to the tangled dramatic knots of O Maidens. I’m still feeling pretty hollow and distant at the moment, but I appreciate the company of all of you, and the comfort of returning to the things I love. Let’s talk about some cartoons.
Author Archives: Bobduh
Ojamajo Doremi Sharp – Episode 3
Dear lord am I ever happy to return to Ojamajo Doremi. I don’t yet know when you’ll be reading this, but as of today, I just finished writing my way through a hellish weekish and a half that included around twenty preview guide premieres, a Crunchyroll column on top of that, and two sprawling, confessional essays on Neon Genesis Evangelion and End of Evangelion. It was almost certainly the most writing I’ve ever done in a single week, and I’m frankly still not through – I can’t really justify pausing the Current Projects for another weekend, so as of Thursday morning, I need to write three Current Projects articles and my next Why It Works column by some time on Sunday.
But as of right now, it is absolutely time for Ojamajo Doremi.
Watching this episode will technically fulfill one of my Current Projects obligations, but more than that, I need something I genuinely love and that always tends to bring me peace, and that is absolutely Doremi. This show is so charming, so visually engaging, so fundamentally thoughtful and kind. Last episode saw our heroes learning just a few of the many complex responsibilities of parenting, as they worked to take care of a baby with more magical energy than all of them put together. Hana-chan’s powers thus served as a clean metaphor for the emotional experience of parenting – you run yourself ragged, while your baby always seems to have more energy, demands, and tantrums ready. Doremi and the girls did the best jobs they could, handling their new responsibilities with diligence and pride.
It was an excellent episode on the whole, but after two episodes of establishing the season two premise, I’m kinda hoping we get to check in with Doremi’s classmates again. Either way, I’m sure we’ve got an endearing and thoughtful journey ahead of us, because goddamnit, this is friggin’ Doremi. Let’s see what episode three has in store!
Summer 2019 – Week 5 in Review
I have at last reduced the summer season’s bounty down to a refined and largely sustainable top shelf, and goddamn is it glorious. After being kind of spoiled by Vinland Saga’s first three-episode premiere, I’ve decided that’s the preferable way to experience viking shenanigans, and held off on watching this week’s episode to build up more of a buffer. Fortunately, even without Vinland Saga, every other show I’m watching was strong enough to give me more than enough highlights to ramble about. Okada’s strong catalog meant I was pretty sure O Maidens would be a hit, but I think this is actually one of the very best stories she’s ever worked on. Meanwhile, Given is serving as an unexpected and highly compelling character drama, while Granbelm is turning out to be the secret action highlight of the season. Let’s break it all down in one more Week in Review!
Why It Works: Celebrating the Quiet Beauty of Kyoto Animation
Today on Crunchyroll I’ve got something a little different, as I reflect back on my own relationship with the incredible works of Kyoto Animation. This studio’s shows have genuinely, deeply impacted the course of my life, and given me so much hope and joy over the years. I wish Kyoto Animation’s brilliant family all the best in overcoming this tragedy, and can only say again how grateful I am for all the treasures and feelings they’ve shared with me.
Celebrating the Quiet Beauty of Kyoto Animation
Scorching Ping Pong Girls – Episode 8
You folks ready for some Scorching Ping Pong Girls? Alright, that’s what I like to hear. Our last episode saw the long-awaited commencement of the team’s brutal, no-holds-barred (practice) match against Kururi and her teammates, opening with Hanabi getting thoroughly thrashed by the scorpion-striking Sasorida. Along with that, we were dazzled by such scintillating dramatic highlights as “Koyori got stuck and she can’t get down,” making for an altogether thrilling, might I even say scorching dramatic tableau.
That episode also featured more hints as to where this battle will be going thematically, which isn’t really much of a mystery at this point. Though it has many goofy embellishments that give it a whole lot of personality and charm, Scorching Ping Pong Girls is fundamentally pretty straightforward in its embracing of sports and shonen narrative conventions, and its big thematic points are basically “friendship is good” and “play for the things that bring you joy, not because you feel obligated to win.” Koyori’s relationship with Agari reflects their true, unconditional feelings, and the ways they play off each other make each of them stronger. In contrast, Kururi seems to believe that Zakuro’s friendship is reliant on her continuously offering “friendship fees,” a belief that also plays out through her insecure physical possessiveness of her friend. It’s an obvious conflict, but Scorching Ping Pong Girls isn’t really about themey-wemey stuff – it’s about having a great goddamn time, and its themes are a natural reflection of the joyous, loving relationships at its heart. I’ve been greatly enjoying this thrilling, creative, and very silly sports show, and I’m eager to get into the heart of this (practice) tournament. Let’s get to it!
Girls’ Last Tour – Episode 6
Everyone feeling ready for some poignant, atmospheric adventures in a beautiful decaying world? I certainly hope so, because it is absolutely time for more Girls’ Last Tour. After two episodes that explored such heavy topics as our search for meaning in life and our fear of being forgotten in death, Girls’ Last Tour’s most recent episode shifted its focus, instead exploring such resonant, universal questions as “what if Chi was huge” and “what if Chi was huge and also a fish.”
That was fine with me, to be honest. Girls’ Last Tour was already very satisfying as a warm, quirky travelogue even before it started dabbling in the Big Questions, and this kind of story demands a balance of philosophical inquiry and intimate, relatable character vignettes. The personal stuff is what lends the thematic stuff the weight of emotional investment, and beyond that, Girls’ Last Tour’s little vignettes are just really charming and satisfying in their own right. Watching Chi and Yuu find joy in this strange world, and in each other, expresses Girls’ Last Tour’s empathy and faith in humanity more clearly than any purpose-of-living monologue ever could. Let’s see what mischief they get up to in episode six!
Rilakkuma and Kaoru – Episode 1
I don’t think anyone really warned me how stressful and tiring adult life would be. Perhaps some of that might come from having unwisely turned so many of my hobbies into sources of income, but on the whole, I think most of us are unprepared for the compromises, disappointments, and general fatigue of adult living. At a certain point some time in your twenties, the natural energy with which you used to greet the day seems to dry up, with responsible living somehow no longer feeling like enough to keep you moving, and extravagances like excessive drinking leaving you flat-out exhausted. Days start to feel shorter and shorter, filled up with mundane tasks that are so reliable and unending that there’s no real sense of accomplishment in completing them. Your relationships with others begin to shift, forced to accommodate increasingly demanding personal schedules, and often maintained in spite of your actual desire to simply get more sleep. And beyond that, the future doesn’t necessarily offer any call for optimism – our planet and economy have been crumbling for all of my adult life, and it seems naive to imagine things might ever improve.
Summer 2019 – Week 4 in Review
I’ve hit my limit, folks. With Vinland Saga actually returning this week, I have officially passed my sustainable viewing schedule capacity, and thus will be performing some harsh cuts between this and next week. Fortunately for all of you, I arrived at that realization only after watching way too many goddamn shows, and so you get to enjoy at least one mega-sized Week in Review, by way of apology for last week’s relatively brief article. The season continues to be goddamn fantastic, with O Maidens, Given, and Granbelm impressing me every week, and Vinland Saga maintaining its usual excellence after its time away. We’ve got a whole bunch of shows to get through, so let’s not waste any more time dawdling. It’s time to break down some cartoons in the Week in Review!
Why It Works: Conflicts of Color in the Granbelm Anime
Today on Why It Works, I dug into the smart use of color both in character theming and background design for this season’s excellent Granbelm. Granbelm was an entirely speculative pick for me coming into this season, but it’s turned into one of my top favorites, quickly surpassing the uneven strengths of this season’s more obvious action contenders. Here’s my piece!
Conflicts of Color in the Granbelm Anime
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s – Episode 10
The end times are coming, folks. With Hayate’s guardians having been either banished or absorbed, and Hayate herself transformed into some kind of human avatar for the Book of Darkness itself, we’ve officially entered the endgame of Nanoha A’s. The show hasn’t overtly revealed the identity of the masked man, but given we’re run out of time to introduce any new characters, there’s simply no one else it could be aside from the admiral. The rules of narrative congruity are pretty insistent on figures like this eventually proving themselves to be known characters; otherwise there would have been no reason to hide his identity in the first place, and the reveal of that identity would carry no dramatic weight at all.
Meanwhile, Fate and Nanoha are trapped in some kind of cramped magical kennel, while our masked man takes their forms in order to turn Hayate against them. This season has basically been about fundamentally decent people talking past each other ever since the beginning, but by deceiving Hayate specifically, A’s seems to have set up the finale to hinge on Hayate’s ability to believe in her friends, and understand that she’s being tricked. Though I’m not normally a fan of devices like this one, since they tend to feel like artificial drama, Hayate’s generosity of spirit has been the fulcrum of A’s drama since the start, so it seems right to conclude by testing that spirit once more. That said, we’re only on episode ten, so there’s clearly a few more bumps in the road before us. Let’s see how this dramatic confrontation ends!