The anime kinda killed it this week, folks. Well, alright, at least one anime specifically killed it, and that anime constitutes a large enough percentage of my weekly quality variance that it alone killing it pretty much lifts the whole ship. To put a finer point on it, this week’s episode of A Place Further than the Universe was absolutely phenomenal, and given all three of my other airing shows tend to maintain roughly the same level of quality every week (barring a climax episode of March), Universe’s success makes for a Week in Review success. Both Universe and After the Rain accomplished the difficult tasks of convincing me they could actually conclude their stories at satisfying points this week – Universe through its graceful return to its initial themes, and After the Rain through its continued detailing of what a glimmer of hope might look like for either of its heroes. In spite of this being a relatively light season in terms of raw show numbers, After the Rain, Universe, and March all fall so squarely into precisely My Jam territory that I can’t really complain. Not one, not two, but THREE melancholy character dramas about quietly unhappy people trying to reach out to each other. My cup runneth over with gentle sadness, and I couldn’t be happier about it. Let’s run this week down!
Author Archives: Bobduh
What’s in Store for My Hero Academia?
Today on Crunchyroll I’m basically just hyping the hell out of My Hero Academia’s third season, which was easy to do, considering I myself am hype as fuck for this one. My Hero Academia’s second anime season was a dramatic step up quality-wise from the first, and with the material this third season’s covering offering an even more significant quality jump, I’m pumped to see whatever Bones can pull together. It’s awesome to have a tentpole shounen like My Hero Academia receive such a strong episode-to-episode adaptation, and can’t wait to see Midoriya punch stuff good one more time.
What’s in Store for My Hero Academia?
Love Live! Sunshine!! – Review
Today on ANN I reviewed the first season of Love Live! Sunshine!!, an altogether compelling followup to the first Love Live that possesses an interesting mix of effectively purposeful and exhaustingly slobbering reverence for its predecessor. It was fun to return to Sunshine and fun to discuss its mix of strengths and weaknesses – shows like Love Live, where their greatest strengths are based in their most practical craft fundamentals, are some of the most rewarding to formally review. I hope you enjoy the piece!
Toradora – Episode 2
Toradora’s second episode is essentially one entirely self-contained love story, though its participants don’t really understand that. I wondered in my last writeup if my memories of Ryuji and Taiga’s rapport were a little rose-tinted, and whether Taiga’s tsundere schtick would get tiresome in the long run. Well, I am happy to report that that’s absolutely not the case – these two are still wonderful together, and through this episode, we see them essentially perform their first dates, first fight, and first reconciliation, ultimately arriving at a comfortable and engaging neutral. I’m always on the lookout for more romances about couples who are already in a relationship, and though Ryuji and Taiga would argue heatedly to the contrary, I’m now realizing that part of this show’s strength is that in many ways, it’s already there.
Ojamajo Doremi – Episode 26
Let’s get right back to Ojamajo Doremi! It’s been a while on my side since I had a chance to write about Doremi, and I’m very excited to be back. Not only is Doremi just a generally charming show, but last episode saw us reaching the end of the Majo Ruka arc, meaning we’ll likely be returning to episodic conflicts starring Doremi’s classmates. Ruka’s arcs had its highs and lows, but the stories focused on Doremi’s classmates tend to demonstrate the show at its best – thoughtful, often very poignant, and generally just solidly written. Even at its most mundane Doremi is a pretty satisfying show, and when it comes to highlights like Hadzuki’s rabbit episode or Ai’s harmonica story, Doremi can match basically any show out there for emotional power. Let’s see what we’ve got this time!
Princess Tutu – Episode 2
Princess Tutu’s second episode begins with an echo of its original prologue, telling the story of the storyteller and his characters, the crafty raven and the tragic prince. But this time, the story continues, as if lines had been secretly appended to its unfinished pages. We learn now that the prince took out his own heart to seal the raven, and that his heart was shattered in the process. Scattering across the town, the shards of his heart turned this town into a place where stories and reality intermix.
Winter 2018 – Week 9 in Review
Alright folks, it’s time once again for the Week in Review! With the season continuing to wind its way down, my own weekly pickings are looking even slimmer than usual. The big news this week is that I simply couldn’t muster any enthusiasm to watch Franxx, and so the butt handles have been dropped until their show gets better at handling its butts. Aside from that, the anime was pretty alright this week, which isn’t a surprise – I’ve honed my seasonal viewing down to just four shows, including a long-running sequel. If I can’t derive any pleasure from that short of a shortlist, I’m probably in real trouble. This has turned out to be a pretty standard off season all around, still housing a few random treasures, but mostly just laying out the carpet for next season’s copious sequels and adaptations and originals. That is, as ever, perfectly fine by me; regardless of what’s currently airing, I’m still buried in Princess Tutu and Chihayafuru and Simoun and plenty of other old gems. Every season is a great anime season if you’re not paralyzed by recency bias – but for now, let’s embrace that recency bias once more, and run down some random thoughts on the industry’s latest wares!
Why It Works: Rin and Her Space
Today on Why It Works, I took some more time to explore all the stuff that makes Laid Back Camp so great. This time, my focus was on how Laid Back Camp accomplishes the rare task of celebrating introversion in a slice of life shell, a genre that naturally trends towards emphasizing time spent with friends as the natural goal of life altogether. Laid Back Camp is very good at not just respecting Rin’s preferences, but also capturing many of the things that make time spent alone so uniquely appealing. Thanks for that, Laid Back Camp!
Why It Works: Rin and Her Space
March comes in like a lion – Episode 40
March hit it out of the goddamn park this week, building off last week’s relatively reserved episode to turn the second half of Yanagihara’s story into one of the show’s best episodes to date. This episode’s skillful match of tactical drama, grounded emotional conflict, and overarching, fanciful metaphor made for a gripping and beautiful watch, once again demonstrating that March can find poignant humanity in pretty much anyone’s story. What a great show.
You can check out my full review over at ANN.
Spring 2018 Season Preview
It’s that time again, folks. With the winter season entering its final act, it’s time to set our eyes forward to the upcoming season, and start pinning our hopes of anime redemption on whatever shows await beyond the horizon. After a relatively reserved winter season, this spring promises some long-awaited revivals, beloved continuations, and high-profile adaptations, along with a variety of more tentatively exciting productions. There’s no single obvious pick, but plenty of reasons to be excited for what’s on the way. As usual, I won’t be running down the names and synopses for every single upcoming show – you can find out show premises on any site like MAL, and check out the full list of shows over at anichart. I’ll just be focusing on my own personal list – the shows I myself am looking out for, along with the presumably tangible reasons I’m excited for them. Plotted out in vague order of my own hype, let’s break down what stars await in the spring season!