Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Simoun – Episode 10

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Let’s check back in on Simoun! Episodes eight and nine represented the show’s first major turning point, as an attack on the ship prompted Neviril to finally redon her leadership mantel, and even choose Aaeru as her pair. Aaeru’s uncertainty seemed to be what ultimately tipped her hand, leaving Neviril resolved to embrace her own uncertainty about the world and society they inhabit.

Having finally returned to the skies, Neviril then brought that heretical uncertainty before the holy council, and was ultimately rewarded for her honesty by the shrine guardian Onashia. Chor Tempest live, but the resolution of episode nine also prompted a variety of new questions about how this society functions. Onashia seems to exist outside of the law – while those beneath her are traditional priests and politicians, Onashia appears to be an actual living embodiment of their religion. It’s clear that Simulacrum is hiding a variety of secrets from its own people, and if Onashia is who she appears to be, discovering her nature and motivation will be crucial to uncovering the truth of this world. That said, I’m not even sure right now if the “scale” of this show will involve challenging Simulacrum society – after all, we’re almost halfway through, and we’ve pretty much just spent this time dealing with Chor Tempest’s immediate personal problems. But with Neviril back in the saddle, I’m excited to see the whole team working together. Let’s see what’s next in Simoun!

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Chihayafuru S2 – Episode 4

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I’m gonna watch more Chihayafuru and you can’t stop me! Having devoted the entirety of this morning to writing over three thousand friggin’ words for a different Current Projects article, this afternoon I’m cooling off with Chihayafuru, my designated comfort watch. So far, the show’s second season has mostly been dedicated to integrating Hanano and Tsukuba into the natural rhythm of the karuta club. It’s been a somewhat bumpy ride to get there; the second episode had to rely on some pretty contrived conceits to solidify Hanano’s membership, and Tsukuba’s personality has only really come into focus in the most recent episode. But that episode also effectively acted as the hard sell of their merger into the group, and at this point, they’re integrated well enough that the natural interactions of them and the other members going forward should finish the job.

With Hanano and Tsukuba-related club integration drama consuming the first day of the team tournament, I’m guessing we’ll now be returning to the original five players, and focusing on the actual tactical back-and-forth of them versus their day two opponents. I’m very excited for this; the previous year’s team tournament was utterly overshadowed by integrating Tsutomu into the group, and so this could be the first time we see our five leads compete together in a purely tactics-driven match, uninhibited by some character’s specific arc-related needs. Chihayafuru’s tactically focused matches often tend to be its biggest highlights, so I’m very ready for what today might bring. Let’s get right to it!

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Chihayafuru S2 – Episode 3

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Alright, let’s jump right into some more Chihayafuru! The show’s last episode saddled itself with an almost insurmountable challenge: integrate Hanano into the overall team in a way that didn’t feel completely out of character for her. Hanano is clearly not the kind of person who’d naturally gravitate towards the karuta team; making her entrance a dramatic hurdle doesn’t require any contrived circumstances, because it’s only under contrived circumstances that she’d even want to join in the first place. Instead, the true challenge of her entrance was basically just justifying its end point. Hanano’s personality would greatly help the team’s overall dynamic, but what series of events could possibly bring her to the point where her presence on the team is already an assumed fact?

Chihayafuru settled on “she’s willing to sacrifice in order to pursue Taichi, and she bonds with Kana.” Those choices don’t really result in clean or entirely believable drama, but that’s basically a tradeoff the show is forced to make in order to justify introducing a character who will clearly improve the overall team dynamic, but has no believable reason to be on a karuta team. One episode of slightly unbelievable drama is a fine price to pay for a character like Hanano, and I’m excited to see how she integrates into the group now that she’s truly joined. Let’s get started on the third episode of Chihayafuru 2!

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The Woman Called Fujiko Mine – Episode 1

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Today we’re starting off on a new show, as we check out the first episode of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine! This one’s a pretty interesting property in all respects – it’s ostensibly an entry in the Lupin III master thief franchise, but its acclaimed director Sayo Yamamoto decided instead to focus on Fujiko Mine, the femme fatale who generally plays more of a supporting role in Lupin’s stories. My experience with Lupin III is very limited – I’ve essentially just seen a couple scattered episodes and Miyazaki’s Castle of Cagliostro, which I’ve been lead to believe isn’t really representative of the mainline series’ less family-friendly style.

My experience with Yamamoto is a bit less limited, but still pretty far from exhaustive. I watched her breakout hit Yuri on Ice!!!, but didn’t really find it that compelling. I felt the story essentially lost its focus after the excellent first few episodes, that lots of irrelevant skating performances killed its pacing, and that the combination of so-so character writing, a total lack of interest in conveying skating as any sort of tactical competition, and consistent animation issues prevented its big setpieces from really landing with much impact. The show’s success makes sense to me, but as an art object, I wasn’t really that moved.

Outside of that, my experience with Yamamoto is limited to a few of her terrific opening/ending segments, as well as her reasonably solid Space Dandy episode and her other collaborations with Shinichiro Watanabe. As for Fujiko Mine’s writer, Mari Okada is one of the great wildcards of anime, equally capable of stirring character-focused melodrama and godawful character-focused melodrama. She undoubtedly possesses one of the clearest voices in anime writing, but unlike the reliable craft solidity of someone like Gen Urobuchi, her stories’ narrative fundamentals can range from bulletproof to wibbly-wobbly nonsense.

Where these two voices and this particularly property intersect, I don’t really know. Fujiko Mine has a cult reputation, but my experience with Yuri on Ice has left me wondering if Yamamoto is simply not my style of creator, and so I’m interested in checking my own reaction here. Let’s start with the first episode and get to the capers!

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Toradora – Episode 2

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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.

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Ojamajo Doremi – Episode 26

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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!

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Princess Tutu – Episode 2

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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.

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March comes in like a lion – Episode 40

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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.

Simoun – Episode 9

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The moment has arrived at last! In the midst of an attack by the fierce savages to the north, Neviril has finally been forced to make her choice. Of course, “forced” is the wrong choice of word there – one of the key recurring points of the show so far is the importance of being able to make your own choices, and make them in your own time. Nevertheless, the violence of the highlanders’ actions seems to have shaken Neviril awake, and driven her to recapture the confidence and air of authority that once made her such a natural leader. And Aaeru’s corresponding admission of uncertainty, her fear in the face of this horror, ended up being exactly what Neviril needed to hear. The two are different in every way, from their outlook and attitude to their upbringing and reputations, but both of them are driven by a fundamental uncertainty. That uncertainty may eventually lead them to question the assumptions of their rigid society, but for now, I’m content to let it inspire them to kick some serious highlander ass. With the dream team finally assembled, let’s see Chor Tempest take flight!

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March comes in like a lion – Episode 39

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March comes in like a lion made its long-awaited return this week, offering more of the oppressively intimate and often fatiguing character drama we’ve come to know and love. Up this week was Yanagihara, a regular member of the local shogi association who’d never really gotten much focus before. Yanagihara’s deal is “lion in winter, oldest class A competitor, and bearer of all his absent friends’ shogi dreams,” and this episode did an excellent job of making that deal a lived experience. March is back folks, and still really damn good.

You can check out my full review over at ANN.