Girlish Number seems to be experiencing some growing pains at the moment, as it expands beyond “Chitose is a jerk” to try and add some substance to the world around her. The show’s sometimes farcical tone and very simplified version of the industry can work against its attempts to add weight to its critiques, but I appreciated this episode’s attempts to tonally underline this increasingly disastrous production. It’s a messy show, but still a very interesting one.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.

Continue reading →

Hey everybody! Today I’m embarking on a quick-thoughts journey through KyoAni’s most lauded comedy, Nichijou. Writeups for this one have been requested in the form of notes as opposed to full episodics, so this time you get all the nitty-gritty minithoughts and immediate reactions on everything as it’s going on. It might actually be best to read these alongside the episode itself, if you get the chance. Doing notes writeups would generally mean less content than the full articles (they’re much cheaper after all, meaning I can’t afford to spend many hours on them), but it turns out I had a million things to say about the first episode, so this one’s still a massive pile of writing all by itself. But enough preamble – let’s get right in to the first moments of Nichijou!

Continue reading →

And to the surprise of no one, I return once more to extol the many merits of Shirobako. The show’s second half is even better than the first, mixing its consistent humor, character writing, and fundamental Realness with a whole lot more dramatic gut punches. I normally kinda laugh at demands for more “mature” anime, but I sure wouldn’t mind a whole lot more grounded, devastating career dramas like this one. Subdued dramas like this and Eccentric Family are as my jam as anything can be.

You can check out my full review over at ANN!

The Lost Village was in peak form this week, pulling off an episode that was both consistently hilarious and also legitimately exciting. With the plot kicking into high gear, Mizushima’s strengths as a director were at their most prominent here, as he abandoned the bizarre framing affectation of the earlier debates in order to make Masaki’s near-execution an actually thrilling spectacle. And there were so many wonderful non-sequiturs scattered throughout this episode that it felt almost like this show was intentionally designed to inspire bad tweets. The Lost Village is itself an extremely good bad tweet. I love this show.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

Continue reading →

So I went and reviewed another Project Itoh movie, and this one was basically terrible from start to finish. Absolutely awful prose, super underwritten narrative, not particularly impressive visuals. It basically felt like an actual teenager’s take on neuroscience and the evils of society and whatnot, but not in a way that made its characters feel any more real. Empire of Corpses was fun because it worked as an adventure even if it failed as a thematic exploration, but Harmony was basically all themey-wemey monologues, and so it just kinda flailed around the whole time. It’s a shame!

You can check out my full review over at ANN.

Flying Witch introduced another new character this week – Inukai, the young witch with the supreme misfortune of being Akane’s drinking buddy. Her story was funny and endearing all the way through, making for another fine installment in what may well be this season’s most consistent show. It’s solid source material being adapted with level professionalism in a genre that doesn’t really need to take huge structural risks – it’s enjoyable to watch and enjoyable to write about, a fine time all around.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.

Continue reading →

Aw dang yep I reviewed Konosuba. It was actually kinda tricky to sort out all of my feelings on this show – from its style of comedy to its visual design, the show is a bunch of contradictions all around. It’s very far from a great show, but it’s an interesting one to talk about, and kinda naturally divisive in a variety of ways. You could definitely put forth an argument that someone who finds Kazuma deeply disagreeable is probably too far from this show’s intended audience to give it the “right” kind of review, but at that point you’re already in nonsense true fan discourse land. Reviewing a show means engaging with its politics, and if you disagree with a show’s politics, the correct response as a critic isn’t to pretend that you don’t. Just gotta say your piece and hope that your perspective is at least understandable.

You can check out my full review over at ANN!

My new editorial is up! I took a bit of a different approach this time, as I contrast two shows in order to talk about the craft of comedy and show goals. Konosuba and Dagashi Kashi happen to offer a pretty convenient comparison, and for once I’m actually current on two anime comedies at once, so here we are! Comedy’s a lot of fun to discuss even if I don’t generally think anime comedies are very good – regardless of my feelings on individual jokes, it’s always interesting to interrogate what shows are actually trying to accomplish. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the piece!

Comparing Comedies: Konosuba vs. Dagashi Kashi

Dagashi Kashi continued on its fluffy, relatively harmless way this week, offering another episode largely focused on the endearing relationship between Kokonotsu and Saya. The show is a pretty simple thing, but it’s charming enough, and it’s nice to see a show like this regularly imply character information not through direct exposition, but through the offhand decisions they make. It’s not a paragon of understated storytelling or anything, but it definitely trusts the viewer to make inferences about feelings and motivation, and I really appreciate that trust. It’s kind of the opposite of the problems ERASED can sometimes have, in fact – when that show hammers on its dramatic notes, it feels like the creators think the audience is a bunch of idiots. When this show lets Kokonotsu demonstrate his feelings on the past without actually saying anything, it feels like the creators are trusting the audience enough to know they care.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

Continue reading →