This week’s March comes in like a lion wasn’t an aesthetic marvel on par with last week, but it was just as emotionally harrowing in its own way. Actually getting to see Akari’s perspective was a welcome shift from the show’s usual focus, and the show’s articulation of her assumed parental insecurities as as thoughtful as any of its other beats. I hope we keep getting to see her and Rei support each other from here out!
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.
Let’s keep on chugging with Chihayafuru! Last episode represented the conclusion to another of Chihayafuru’s mini-arcs, as both Chihaya and Taichi found themselves defeated in the team’s first major tournament. That arc also introduced Shinobu, who is awesome, but I’m guessing we won’t be seeing her for a little while. Chihayafuru is fast-paced, but it still generally obeys the tenets of its genre, and concluding a tournament means it’s likely we’ll be cooling down with either training, character development, or some kind of lighthearted segue material. I’m guessing we’ll be shifting gears to focus on Arata’s return to karuta, but without a clear next goal already established, the show could go in a variety of directions from here. Wherever things end up, I’m having a great time with Chihayafuru, and am excited to continue. Let’s get right to it!
Just Because! pulled off a nicely focused episode this week, essentially using Haruto as the central pillar to contrast Mio and Hazuki’s experiences of young love. While Mio is coming to realize a long-held crush might not be the strongest basis for a relationship, Hazuki is starting to believe that not really knowing Haruto isn’t necessarily enough of a reason not to date him. Both of their experiences felt valid and well-articulated here, continuing Just Because!’s sturdy trend of incredibly well-observed adolescent romance.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.
Well here we are again, back in Heaven’s Feel. During my previous excursion into Fate’s third route, I got basically no distance into the story itself, because, well, visual novels. I powered through a long expository conversation with Kotomine and a long expository conversation with Rin, and that was about as far as I got. Given that, I spent most of my article running through all the interesting meta-textual concepts and narrative conceits of Fate, leaving very little room for present Nick to do anything but comment on the current text as experienced. Poor form, past Nick. Poor form.
Let’s get back to Simoun! Simoun’s first episode was an astonishingly rich premiere, packed with compelling worldbuilding and intriguing thematic subtext. The twin pillars of the holy land’s strange, martially-focused theocracy and its gender-related cultural assumptions gave me a whole bunch to dig into, and on top of that, the episode was also just fast-paced and beautiful. We were given enough natural hints to draw up an alluring portrait of life in this world without exposition ever overrunning narrative, and I’m already somewhat invested in several of our apparent lead characters. Fantastic premieres are a lot more common than fantastic shows, but a great premiere is certainly a good way to start. Let’s see what episode two brings!
March really knocked it out of the park this week, offering one of the strongest episodes of the show altogether. I don’t know what mystical alchemy conspired at SHAFT that allowed them to pull together so many talented animators to work on such a great storyboard, but the results certainly spoke for themselves. I’ve reached a point of zen where I accept that no basically no show can actually look like this every single week, but goddamn is it spectacular when it happens. Great work, team.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.
Just Because! offered another excellent episode this week, demonstrating the fact that even if it can’t keep up its absurd character acting for an entire season, its observations about adolescence are still piercing enough to carry the day. This episode’s post-date cooldown focus lent itself perfectly to Just Because!’s atypical dramatic priorities, resulting in a wide array of charmingly awkward moments. This show is the good stuff.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.
After episode twenty-one’s continuous suffering, twenty-two opens with a welcome fragment of levity. Having finally received Himari’s scarfs, Double H decide to come visit her, resulting in some solid comedy and a charming scene between them and Ringo. Himari isn’t home, of course, but Ringo is happy to accept their gift. In the midst of Penguindrum’s heaviest material yet, it’s nice to be reminded that some people in this world can be happy, and that people can still care about each other.
After three straight episodes of wild adventures in Pure Illusion, Flip Flappers’ fourth episode sticks entirely to the real world. As our mad scientist friend details in the first scene, Cocona and Papika’s “impedance is all over the place.” Without a clear emotional bond and mutual understanding, it’s impossible to control their own journeys into Flip Flappers – to be in control in these emotional landscapes, you must first understand and synchronize your own feelings. And so the two of them are tasked with living together for a few days, in hopes of “understanding and accepting one another.” It’s essentially the Evangelion DDR episode, a chance for our two leads to actually bond.
March finally pulled itself together this week, offering an episode that was strong in both comedy (!!!) and drama. The difficult path up out of depression was nicely illustrated through the contrasting halves of this episode, where Rei’s lighthearted shenanigans with the other shogi club members were brought to a shuddering halt by his memories of childhood bullying. Between that and seeing the sisters again, this episode seemed determined to remind me of all the things this show is actually good at. It was a very welcome reminder!
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.