At last, the finale has arrived! With all the key players assembled and committed to their roles, Princess Tutu’s thirteenth episode is a dazzling celebration of both their humanity and Drosselmeyer’s keen eye for storytelling. Heroes will rise, villains will fall, and the tragic inevitability of The Prince and the Raven shall be overcome at last. Having spent long hours fighting for Mytho’s heart and gaining powerful allies along the way, Ahiru will at last be rewarded for her efforts, and claim her princely prize.
Author Archives: Bobduh
Chihayafuru S2 – Episode 23
Our rampage through Chihayafuru continues today, as we explore the third-to-last episode of the second season! Like season one, it appears that season two will be climaxing with a big tournament final, but not a Chihaya-focused final – instead, it seems extremely likely that the last match of this season will be Arata facing Shinobu for the A rank crown. Arata has so far been presented as “stupidly strong, even for an A rank player,” so I’m excited to see how he fairs against the best of the best – and beyond that, the show’s also been building up this personal reunion for most of a season now, so I imagine sparks will fly even beyond the tatami mat.
Of course, we’re not quite there yet. Chihaya was beaten very quickly in the third round, and her defeat leaves us with Taichi, Tsutomu, and Kana still in the running for Mizusawa. Of the three of them, Taichi easily has the most on the line here, as a victory in any major tournament would cement his transition into A rank. He’s fighting Retro in the third round, but even if he succeeds here, he’s likely got Rion waiting for him somewhere up ahead. The stakes are high for our deeply self-doubting hero, but he certainly has the skill necessary to move up in rank. Let’s see if he can face his anxieties and triumph at last!
Toradora – Episode 3
Toradora’s third episode opens with cherry blossoms blooming in sunlight, their petals shaking free and dancing in the breeze. A bright blue sky and the sounds of birds chirping complement the petals, leading into Taiga yawning as she wipes the sleep from her eyes. Every element of this episode’s first moments convey a firm sense of rebirth and growth, a new beginning. After the torrential drama of the show’s first two episodes, Toradora has at last established its neutral mode, leading Taiga and Ryuji through calamitous confessions to arrive at an honest, genuine friendship. Ryuji and Taiga are no longer “partners in crime” or otherwise forced to share space; they’re just friends, and so they hang out.
Summer 2018 – Week 7 in Review
Well folks, it’s Wednesday again. With the season’s halfway point behind us, my airing schedule has settled into a comfortable neutral at this point, as three very entertaining shows each continue to impress in their own ways. This was a particularly good week for Planet With and a mediocre one for My Hero Academia, but bumps and divots like that are basically expected from all shows, and on the whole my airing schedule is consistent as heck. In fact, with only one season left in the year, we’re actually reaching the point where I could even start to plot out what will end up on my end-of-year top ten list. My Hero Academia’s likely to settle somewhere around the bottom of the list regardless, but both Planet With and Revue Starlight have the potential to fall almost anywhere within that list, depending on how they resolve. It’s anyone’s game at this point, so let’s do some thorough sifting as we RUN THIS WEEK DOWN!
Why It Works: Planet With’s Villains Are Right
Today on Crunchyroll, I finally took my first stab at a Planet With article, which will hopefully be the first of many. There are a million possible angles to tackle this show from, but I went with a pretty central one to start: the moral ambiguity of the various shifting factions in this very unique show. There are no clear villains in this one – even the friggin’ dragon has his own ethos, as horribly violent as it is. I’m excited to see how alliances shift in the second half!
Planet With’s Villains Are Right
One Piece – Volume 17
As always, Eiichiro Oda opens One Piece’s seventeenth volume with a brief personal anecdote, one of the many ways this manga creates a personal relationship between reader and storyteller. Oda mentions how he and his assistants often visit a raucous family restaurant, full of loud children and their parents. However, if you visit on Sunday at 7:30, the restaurant is quiet. All children are turned to the television, all eyes on Oda’s One Piece. Oda understands the responsibility inherent in that – that he has an opportunity to teach and inspire, and that few possess the platform he does for reaching young people. There are few jobs more noble or significant than inspiring the next generation’s dreams, and Oda’s understanding of that responsibility is clear in his every page.
Chihayafuru S2 – Episode 22
Let’s get back to more Chihayafuru! We are now perilously close to the current end of Chihayafuru’s anime adaptation, but given the show’s been such a profoundly joyful addition to both my personal and professional life over the past year or so, I’m trying to avoid thinking about that. Instead, we’ve got the singles tournament to discuss, where Chihaya just finished besting two opponents left-handed only to run into a Shinobu-shaped wall. With the last episode having ended on Chihaya methodically unwrapping her right hand, it’s clear she knows this is her last round in the tournament – or at least, that without going full strength against Shinobu, she has no chance of fighting Arata. But Chihaya beating Shinobu with a broken finger would be totally absurd in a viewer sense, so regardless of whether or not Chihaya thinks she can win this, her journey ends here.
That’s fine, though – just because Chihaya’s not beating Shinobu doesn’t mean this won’t be an exciting fight (pardon the triple negative). Chihaya played well enough to catch Shinobu’s attention a year ago, and injury or no, her fundamental skills and understanding of the game have improved so significantly over this past year that I can’t imagine Shinobu will be waltzing through this one. Chihaya’s second nationals are leading towards their climax, and I’m thrilled to see it. Let’s hope Chihaya doesn’t hurt herself too badly!
Princess Tutu – Episode 12
Princess Tutu’s twelfth opening fable doesn’t require much interpretation to connect it to the show’s narrative: presented as a sort of setting of the stage for the first half finale, it portrays Rue (or Kraehe)’s current actions as bluntly as possible. “Once upon a time, there was a handsome slave. What bound him were not heavy chains, but the princess’s love. Every day, every night, the princess whispers her love to the slave, and the slave responds in kind. Bound body. Bound emotions. The slave or the princess? Which of them is really the one who cannot move?”
Summer 2018 – First Half in Review
Welp, the first half of August basically just disappeared in the space of a sneeze or something, so we’ve somehow already arrived at the season’s halfway point. Like last season, I’m not really watching enough airing shows to make any sort of ranking meaningful, and I mean, it’s not like these rankings have ever been meaningful in the first place. Also like last season, I don’t really have any problems with that – I’m much happier watching the shows I genuinely love on an episodic basis, and just dropping the stuff that doesn’t actually thrill me. I have to keep up with at least some seasonal anime for the sake of my actual work, but on the whole, I highly recommend dropping stuff you hope will become or return to being good, and instead check out some shows that people have been loving for years and years.
If we just looked at the airing shows I’d been watching, this would be a pretty bad year for me – the only shows I’ve really loved are After the Rain, Violet Evergarden, Laid-Back Camp, and likely a couple of this season’s shows. But given all the other projects I’ve been working on, this has actually been one of my most rewarding years since I started watching seasonally, offering shows as diverse and fantastic as Princess Tutu, Ojamajo Doremi, Precure Hugtto, and even some non-magical girl shows. The urge to keep up with the airing conversation can definitely be strong, but there’s a wide anime world out there, and I’m still discovering new favorites all the time.
Anyway! Week in Review. I might not be ranking shows any more, but I actually still like the idea of covering my thoughts as a whole at the halfway point, so we’ll be going with a more gentle style of evaluation. With all three of my seasonal titans excelling in their own ways, I’ve got a pretty satisfying spread of visual splendor, thematic poignancy, and just-plain-excellent entertainment. Let’s start with Satoshi Mizukami’s beautiful baby and run this season down!
Why It Works: My Hero Academia’s Clever Approach to Anime-Original Content
Today on Crunchyroll, I expanded my vague thoughts on the recent Yaoyorozu episode into a general commentary on how the adaptation is approaching anime-original material. My Hero Academia has been very smart about choosing when and how to embellish on the source material, capitalizing on the fact that the original manga was already full of moments that wouldn’t really mind some elaboration. Adaptation is a complex and fascinating thing, and I’m happy to celebrate shows that handle it well!
My Hero Academia’s Clever Approach to Anime-Original Content
