It’s time for more Ojamajo Doremi! Last episode saw Doremi learning a fair amount about responsibility through the perils of fairy ownership, which once demonstrated both her goofy general personality and her admirable willingness to admit fault. Doremi’s ability to acknowledge when she’s wrong is likely her greatest quality, a terrific “power” in the context of dealing with this show’s true challenges – growing up and coming to understand the lives and feelings of others. Let’s see how she screws up and how she eventually fixes it this time!
Category Archives: Episode Writeup
Tsuki ga Kirei – Episode 4
Welp, this was an episode. Tsuki ga Kirei’s fourth installment was nearly as laudable for its storytelling as it was deplorable for its visual execution. Seriously guys, those CG character models just aren’t cutting it. At least try to hide the damn things in the background, don’t have them walk right in front of the camera!
Anyway, I get into all of that over on ANN. You can check out my review right here!
Chihayafuru – Episode 1
Alright, let’s get started on Chihayafuru. I’ve had the show recommended to me a number of times, and even briefly started it a couple years back, but never really got into the meat of the drama. As far as I understand, it’s a combination of thrilling sports drama and shoujo-inflected love triangle shenanigans. I don’t actually have all that much experience with sports dramas, but the ones I’ve enjoyed (Girls und Panzer, Cross Game), I’ve really enjoyed. Setting up a kind of “fair,” parsable contest and then letting your characters clash in it is a natural recipe for impactful drama, something that smart shounen properties like Hunter x Hunter also understand. I’m also perfectly on board for romance, so pretty much the whole package here seems good to me. Let’s dive right in to the first episode!
Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 16
Mawaru Penguindrun’s sixteenth episode is goofy as hell.
That’s not really unusual for an Ikuhara show. Just like how his dramas juxtapose grounded, universal themes like gender identity and social ostracization with ornate, melodramatic framing, so too does he often mix his serious material and his absurd comedy. Ikuhara does not believe tone must match dramatic intent in the way, say, a director like Hiroshi Nagahama (Mushishi, The Flowers of Evil) might. The real world often splices comedy and tragedy, so why shouldn’t our fabrications do the same? It’s a style that takes some getting used to, but ultimately it’s quite possible to see the comedy as compatible with the drama, or even a way of underlying the fundamental absurdity of the world.
Casshern Sins – Episode 13
And we’re back for more Casshern Sins! The last episode was an absolutely terrific one, as Casshern’s brief friendship with a painter offered a clear portrait of how far our hero has come. Casshern’s journey out of purposelessness has felt almost like a classic escape from depression – from cursing his nature and not seeing any point in his own survival, he’s come to find great value and even joy in the world around him. The world is sculpting Casshern, and even in a place this destitute, it’s giving him reasons to live. Let’s see what he runs into this time!
Natsume’s Book of Friends – Episode 7
Natsume is not the main character of his show’s seventh episode. As the episode opens, we see a white summer hat abandoned in the forest, accompanied by a voice that seems excited to see it. Treating the hat as a strange kind of friend, the voice wonders “is no one going to come pick you up? You’re so pretty.” The view opens up, and we see the bearer of this voice is a young fox in human form. “I’ll show you to Mom,” he says, and then we learn his mother has passed away. This fox’s only friend is the discarded treasure of a human. Like Natsume’s faded shrines and disused railway stations, even the things we abandon can become precious to someone.
Tsuki ga Kirei – Episodes 1-3
Man, this show is going to be a lot of fun to write about. It’s pretty much brimming with all the small, well-observed details of human interaction that make Kyoto Animation shows so special, and it’s also got a lovely sense of humor that occasionally dunks on its cast without ever feeling judgmental. It’s really just charming and well-constructed all around. If you’re not watching it, check it out!
You can read my full review of the first three episodes over at ANN, or my episode three notes below.
The Eccentric Family 2 – Episodes 1-2
Aw hell yeah, it’s time to write up some Eccentric Family. Season two’s first couple episodes have mostly just established our two big additions to the cast, but that’s pretty alright by me – it’s been wonderful to meet all these great characters again, and already interesting to see how their society has shifted since last time. The show’s own throat-clearing allowed for a pretty comfortably structured article too, so I guess that’s nice.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode two notes below!
Ojamajo Doremi – Episode 9
It’s time for more Ojamajo Doremi! Last episode saw Doremi finally passing the level nine witch exam, in spite of making every terrible choice possible on the way there. There were no extenuating circumstances like when she had to help Pop this time – Doremi is just pretty bad at doing things, and so most of her time in the witch world was spent sampling cakes and getting lost. Still, she at least did demonstrate that she’s pretty good at riddles, which is certainly a talent of sorts. Let’s see what nonsense she gets up to this time!
Candy Boy – Episodes 1-2
So, Candy Boy. This is a bit of a strange one, both in structure and in content. As far as production intrigue goes, it seems Candy Boy was initially just one eight minute original net animation, released along with the artist Meilin’s Candy Boy music single. I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason this is called “Candy Boy” at all, as the actual content here doesn’t feature any boys at all (so far). Then the show received a seven episode additional series, along with two bonus episodes packed in with those episode’s DVDs. So it’s basically a strange, media mix jumble from top to bottom.