Welp, looks like it’s about time for another Week in Review. The spring season is pretty much just holding steady at the moment, with the action highlights and Galactic Heroes maintaining their usual appeal while Hinamatsuri trudges along the best it can. My schedule is turning out to be as light as I expected, and frankly, if I had some other well-written character drama to replace it, Hinamatsuri would be right out. That said, I’m not truly in any hurry to pick up more shows; this being a weak season also means I was able to find time for stuff like catching up on Violet Evergarden, which I’m very thankful for. Even if the actual airing shows disappoint, any season where I’m personally watching through productions like Princess Tutu and Chihayafuru can’t be that bad. But let’s put aside the paeans to backlog for now, and run down this week’s newest contenders!
Author Archives: Bobduh
Why It Works: The Tactical Titans of Legend of the Galactic Heroes
For this week’s Crunchyroll article, I dove into the very different worldviews of Yang and Reinhard, discussing how their respective upbringings very clearly influence their views of not just their countries, but their own potential, and the way humans and history interact. It’s really fun to see such an ostensibly “great men make history”-aligned narrative freely admit that we’re all products of our environment, but that’s basically the perspective that makes Galactic Heroes so good in general. The show’s a treat, I’m having a great time with it, and I hope you enjoy the piece!
The Tactical Titans of Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Princess Tutu – Episode 7
Princess Tutu’s seventh episode begins with Mytho once again expressing how Ahiru’s actions have made him genuinely afraid of Princess Tutu. A stark profile shot illustrates how Tutu exists within Mytho’s world, an ominous figure with a menacing smile, pressing a heart shard upon him as he fearfully retreats. All stories are artifacts bound by their teller’s perspectives, and from Mytho’s perspective, Tutu is indeed a terrifying presence. Though Ahiru attempts to editorialize, desperate to assert the nobility of Princess Tutu, her words ultimately fade into a helpless quacking. Regardless of her feelings or actions, Ahiru rarely has the power to assert the definitive interpretation of her own narrative.
Chihayafuru S2 – Episode 8
It’s time for Nationals, everyone! After an extremely close loss in the regional tournament against their fiercest rivals, Chihaya and the gang are setting off for the national-level team tournament for the very, er, second time. The last time this tournament came about, Tsutomu and Kana were barely integrated into the team, and Chihaya’s collapse due to injury prevented the group from really getting anywhere. That collapse was a fairly natural narrative twist at the time; after all, Kana and Tsutomu weren’t nearly good enough to compete on a national level then, and their arcs needed a great deal more fleshing out before Chihaya’s crew could compete as a tactically cohesive group of five.
In contrast, Chihaya’s current team is composed of characters who’ve all survived individual arcs, all committed and recommitted to karuta, and all grown closer over time. This tournament is no longer dramatically hamstrung by the imbalanced dynamic of Chihaya’s team, and given this is the biggest team tournament they’ll experience this particular year, it seems very likely that the story will now embrace all the match-by-match theater it skipped over last time. Chihayafuru has essentially set up its dominoes to allow this tournament to be payoff after payoff all the way through, and I’m very excited to see just what’s in store. Let’s settle in for another episode of Chihayafuru!
Simoun – Episode 12
Let’s continue our journey through the strange and fascinating Simoun! Last week offered our first Floe-focused episode of the show so far, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Floe has always been one of my low-key favorite members of the cast, not necessarily because she herself is charming (I mean, it’s obvious she’s kind of a pill), but because she’s willing to be expressive and needy and petty and generally a full-fledged person in a show where so many of her compatriots work hard to maintain their above-it-all priestess persona. The cast of Simoun are teenage girls who’ve been taught to present themselves as flawless religious icons, and Floe refuses to stop being a teenage girl.
Of course, Floe’s actions aren’t some thoroughly intentional choice designed to undercut the sanctity of her position – she simply does what she wants to, and doesn’t really consider the consequences. It was thus the same qualities that make her such a welcome antidote to the usual priestess image that also put her in a terribly vulnerable position last episode, where she was forced to reckon with the immediate consequences of what priestesses do after developing feelings for an ordinary soldier. Floe has been able to maintain a certain distance from the reality of her situation, but having now destroyed her lover’s home town, I’m guessing she’ll have to finally reckon with her unconsidered feelings on the nature of priestesses. Floe is certainly headstrong, but I feel that her act first, think later philosophy could actually help characters like Neviril, who have many of the same disagreements with Simulacrum society, but less willingness to break protocol in order to voice them. And with Kaimu also being shaken by last episode’s violence, it seems likely the whole team will have to question how they feel about their own work. Let’s dive right back into Simoun!
Violet Evergarden – Review
I finally took another stab at Violet Evergarden this week, and boy was I glad I did. With a better understanding of what the show was actually trying to do, even its first episodes felt much stronger this time, and the later highlights were absolutely breathtaking. Ultimately, Evergarden turned out to be a brilliantly realized mixture of intimate character development and larger reflections on self-expression and identity, peppered with individual vignettes capable of staggering beauty and emotional acuity. The Kyoto Animation golden age continues apace.
Spring 2018 – Week 4 in Review
Well well well. Here we are again. Wednesday has arrived, and as you all know, the astral spheres have clearly designated this of all days to be the chosen day of seasonal anime reflection. And on the third day, God watched Naruto, and it was good.
As far as this week in particular goes, the anime is doing pretty all right at the moment. This continues to be a season that’s sorely lacking in my kinds of character dramas or theme pieces, but fortunately, its top contenders in other genres are impressive enough to keep my interest anyway. My Hero Academia absolutely killed it this week, and while Megalo Box wasn’t at its best, it’s still maintaining a polish of execution and sturdiness of storytelling that make it an easy watch. And as long as I have Yang Wen-li mildly commenting on the inherent inhumanity of war, I’ll probably be okay. The cartoons are doing pretty alright, and I’m eager to talk about them. Let’s start with some megalo boxing and run this week down!
Blame! – Review
Aaand here’s my other late review, of another Polygon-Nihei combination. Blame! certainly wasn’t a great film, but it was still an enjoyable experience, and most importantly, it absolutely maintained the appeal of the comic. Certainly worth a watch.
After the Rain – Review
This one’s from last week, but I was rushing so much to do other writing then that I never reposted it here. Anyway! I reviewed After the Rain, the best show of last season (or so I thought until finally catching up on Evergarden). It was very good, for a variety of reasons. Here are those reasons for you:
Why It Works: Hinamatsuri’s Comedic Timing
It unsurprisingly didn’t take long for Hinamatsuri to pop up in my Why It Works columns. The show’s pretty much a comedy marvel in all respects, and also very endearing as a found-family drama besides, making it basically the ideal show for a huge mark like me. The fact that its jokes generally aren’t that surprising only really underlines the strength of their delivery; pacing really can work wonders, and it’s certainly working wonders here. I hope you enjoy the piece!
Hinamatsuri’s Comedic Timing is So Snappy It’ll Break Your Neck
