Category Archives: Episode Writeup

The Woman Called Fujiko Mine – Episode 3

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Alright folks, it’s time at last to return to The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. The show’s first two episodes were each highly entertaining in their own ways, though I still find myself a little emotionally removed from its proceedings. Everything feels very ornate and beautiful and stylish, but it also strikes me as a little impersonal; the second episode’s narrative in particular, while theoretically centering on an intimate lovers’ betrayal, proceeded with all the majesty and emotional distance of a melodramatic stage production. It was an effective and very pretty story, but not an intimate one, and it’s not easy for me to immediately assign that to either Sayo Yamamoto’s general style, Fujiko Mine’s storybook affectation more specifically, or that episode’s even more specific tributes to Cowboy Bebop’s Ballad of Fallen Angels.

Of course, while Fujiko Mine might not yet be a star in an emotional sense, it’s still succeeding brilliantly as a series of ultra-stylish heist capers. The show’s visual direction is superb, its layouts are consistently brilliant, and Fujiko herself embodies the lusty, desperate tone of the entire production. Fujiko Mine possesses an instantly iconic and utterly story-appropriate style that feels like little else in anime, and since we’re still in episodic vignettes, the lack of an emotional punch isn’t really all that damaging. Let’s see what adventures await our master thief!

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Ojamajo Doremi – Episode 35

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Settle in folks, it is absolutely past time for another dash of Doremi. I’m currently sitting near the end of a long and stressful workday, but my spirits have legitimately been kept high all day by knowing I’ve got a new Doremi episode waiting at the end. This show’s world is so inviting, cast so charming, and stories so suffused with empathy that it’s hard not to smile while watching. Doremi is a genuinely thoughtful and often dramatically creative children’s show, but it’s also just the most inviting comfort food of all time, and I’m always happy to return.

The show wasn’t really in comfort food mode last week, though – in fact, Aiko’s failed reunion with her mother was another of Doremi’s signature tearjerkers, and its nuanced, dramatically somber finale felt like one of the most painfully real moments of the show so far. After having her trust betrayed by her father and finding herself incapable of greeting her mother, Aiko ended up simply reflecting on her childhood memories, her friends by her side. Life can be frustrating like that; we’re often burdened with feelings that demand some sort of cathartic, coherent resolution, but the real world rarely offers neat conclusions for our personal stories. We’re often forced to find solace much in the way Aiko did; by accepting that the past is the past, our stories are still being written, and we can always rely on the support of our friends.

Anyway! Last episode was a truly great one, but given we just passed a big dramatic highlight, I’m guessing we’re in for some also-welcome farcical nonsense this time. Let’s get right to it!

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Princess Tutu – Episode 16

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After a half-dozen episodes of escalating tension and epic climaxes and dramatic board-flipping, I’m almost relieved to announce that Princess Tutu’s sixteenth episode is a very normal episode of Princess Tutu. The aftermath of Ahiru and Fakir’s battle with Kraehe has been largely settled, and the show has established a new episodic mode centered on Kraehe’s efforts to find a sacrifice for her father. This episode embraces that focus while returning to the sturdy, predictable narrative arcs of the show’s first half, arriving at a subtly menacing tone that evokes something like Revolutionary Girl Utena’s black rose arc. “We won, but the substance of our world only continues to fray” is an evocative concept, and Princess Tutu’s second half is happy to embrace that tonal energy.

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Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 6

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Alright folks, let’s settle in for another episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. The show has stuck relatively true to a conventional magical girl template so far, though it’s certainly offered its own interesting embellishments. Nanoha’s plentiful worldbuilding, for one; instead of offering a vaguely defined set of magical powers or binary conflict between eternal enemies (like in Precure, where it seems like the “sides” have existed for all of time), Nanoha seems determined to sketch out an entire magical/science fiction universe, with Fate’s antagonism coming from a place of individual grievance, not destined conflict. That meshes a little weirdly with the numbered items they’re gathering, which seem more like the kind of plot device you’d see in a world where everything actually does revolve around our protagonists. In Card Captor Sakura, Sakura gathers all the cards herself because this is a show about Sakura – in Nanoha, our heroine and her enemy seem less destined than accidental, and so there’s an interesting style tension there.

Beyond the unique interplay of Nanoha’s magical girl and scifi action roots, the show is also just, well, weird. The storytelling is an odd mix of material seemingly aimed at both older and younger audiences, the story labors over incidental conversations that don’t really explain themselves, and the visual execution ranges from genuinely inspired to either baffling or totally flat. That makes for a very imperfect show, but it’s great news for me – I love investigating messy stuff, and Nanoha is certainly messy. Let’s check out what’s in store for our heroes in episode six!

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Ojamajo Doremi – Episode 34

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Terrific news, everyone. Another month has come and gone, and so it’s time at last for some more Ojamajo Doremi. With Chihayafuru’s second season in the past and third season waiting in 2019, Ojamajo Doremi has once again assumed the mantle of my chief comfort food anime, and it serves that role with absolute distinction. On a plain aesthetic level, Doremi is simply a very good show – excellent characterization, simultaneously beautiful and charming art design, carefully crafted stories, etcetera etcetera. But beyond that, Doremi’s faith in the decency of people, and its gentle sympathy for its heroines’ struggles, is an oasis in a turbulent world, a sunny reading nook that I’m always happy to escape to.

Media that simply comforts you, whose principle goal is to make you feel safe and content and loved, gets a pretty bad rap in many critical circles. Obviously Ojamajo Doremi is intended to offer more than straight comfort food, but I personally feel the general disdain for “pleasant” or “unchallenging” media is fundamentally misguided. This is a very painful and complex world, and after dealing with all our daily challenges, sometimes we don’t want the shows we watch to actively squabble with us, to make us feel pain or attack our worldviews. Sometimes it’s been a long day and we just need a friend who’s there and happy to spend time with us, no expectations, no anxiety, just the natural contentment of being in a place you feel you belong. People deserve media that acknowledges that need, and media which makes us feel loved doesn’t have to be any less insightful, artistically compelling, or emotionally resonant. There is space for joy in the world and space for joy in art, and I’m happy to return to a show that is so willing to share its joy with us. I’m happy you’re all here, and I hope things are going okay. Let’s settle in for an episode of Ojamajo Doremi.

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episode 4

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A great part of it is the rain, or rather, the felt sensation of perpetual rain. It pours down at all times, holding us up in bus stations or entryways or lonely stairwells, forcing us to relive old failures again and again. It’s cold and damp, and it makes us feel cold and damp in turn, unclean, ashamed of our clammy skin. It steals color from our surroundings, painting everything in a somber gray, draining the vitality of the landscape just as it drains our passion for the things we love. Others seem not to notice the rain, but simply emulating their behavior doesn’t make it go away. Whether you ignore it or acknowledge it, the rain doesn’t care – in the malaise of depression, it will remain your only true companion.

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Simoun – Episode 16

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Let’s settle in for another episode of Simoun! The show’s last several episodes have done tremendous damage to the underlying fabric of this team, all while further elaborating on the individual motives of all our sybilla, and even reflecting Simoun’s overarching preoccupation with the natural conflict between faith and military pragmatism. They’ve frankly been one of the best stretch of episodes this show has seen yet, and have clearly demonstrated that the show’s consistent weaknesses in terms of pacing and narrative structure haven’t done anything to undercut its fascinating ideas or gripping character work. “Gripping ideas or characters, wibbly-wobbly narrative foundation” is pretty much how I’d characterize both Sho Aikawa and Mari Okada’s work more generally, but now that we’ve gotten out of the early episodes and their sometimes frustrating aimlessness, the show’s strengths are coming entirely into focus. We’re currently juggling close to a dozen individual character conflicts, and all of them are resulting in natural flare-ups of drama all through Chor Tempest, as personal motivation and public duty clash again and again. With most of the team gone and Neviril close to despair, is it Dominura’s turn to save the day? Let’s find out in Simoun #16!

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Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha – Episode 5

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Today we’re continuing our journey through Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha! I’ll admit, I still haven’t made much sense of the “lyrical” part of that title, but we’ve certainly had plenty of magical girl. In fact, last episode introduced our second magical girl, a mysterious stranger from Yuuna’s home planet who introduced herself by electrocuting a kitten half to death. She also knocked Nanoha the fuck out, and generally made an intimidating spectacle of herself in the course of nabbing a Jewel Seed. Rough day for the home team all around.

Beyond its actual narrative beats, last episode also did some work in solidifying Nanoha’s tone, themes, and visual storytelling. Not only did the introduction of this new girl give the show’s family focus more context, but the emphasis on her black and yellow aesthetic also returned us to the evocative art embellishments of the first episode. Episode four wasn’t terrific on the whole, and the show’s slice of life elements in particular could really use some tuning, but it was a solid step up for the series, and seemed to indicate we’re finally getting to this show’s core conflict. Let’s see what shenanigans these girls get up to in number five!

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Precure Hugtto – Episode 4

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Alright folks, let’s get back to Precure Hugtto! The show’s most recent episode was interesting and a little unexpected – instead of either directly advancing the central narrative or introducing us to another Cure, it focused more on fleshing out the context of Hana and her friends’ lives. There was some exposition related to Harry’s past and the nature of their enemies, but the bulk of the episode was simply dedicated to exploring Hana’s home town, meeting new people, and adding texture to her relationship with her friends and family.

I really appreciate that focus, personally. One of the things I like about shows like Ojamajo Doremi, and children’s anime more generally, is that they tend to embrace a communal approach to storytelling that emphasizes how we all live in a larger society, and are all connected to each other in a variety of ways. Anime aimed at teens often tends to adopt the worldview of teens – their perspectives are often narrow, families are barely present or absent entirely, adults are either fools or villains, and the immediate substance of a protagonist’s personal interests reign over all. That’s a fine and appropriate choice for many narratives (and given my love for Monogatari, I’m certainly capable of appreciating the emotional myopia of friggin’ teens), but it’s refreshing to counterbalance that with shows aimed at parents and their children, which in their general positivity and willingness to embrace overt moral lessons tend to actually come off as more mature in their view of society. And authenticity of the perspective aside, it’s simply nice to watch a show that loves its cast, loves its setting, and wants us to love them too.

Given that episode concluded by closing us back in on Homare, I’m guessing this next episode will guide us through her formal introduction to the team. If the hair scheming holds up, Homare will be a yellow cure, which I believe generally slants towards the spunky/sporty member of the team? I know blue cures tend to echo the Sailor Moon “blue is the nerd” approach, but I’m not really all that clear on the general trends beyond that. Regardless, with all this gentle setup behind us, I’m eager to explore more of Hana’s world. Let’s jump right back into Precure Hugtto!

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episode 3

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After barreling out of the gate with what was essentially a two-part opening episode, Evangelion’s third episode sees us slowing down for a moment, and adopting what you could theoretically call the show’s “neutral mode.” Evangelion’s narrative builds over time, but its episodic angel attacks echo many of its giant robot predecessors, with Shinji as the not-so-gallant hero defending Tokyo-3 from an inventive range of new horrors. Episode three does indeed ramp up to a new angel attack, but this episode isn’t really about that fight, or rather, the fight is just one final illustration of the points it makes all throughout. This episode is about Shinji’s own personal alienation, and its illustration of Shinji’s headspace is as tense and immediate as any terrible monster could be.

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