This was not the greatest week in anime, I am afraid to report. All the shows I’m watching that are apparently capable of weaker episodes ended up producing one, with JoJo in particular offering what was almost certainly the worst Golden Wind episode so far. Fortunately, even if all the stragglers faltered this week, both Mob Psycho 100 and Run with the Wind excelled with their usual grace, offering an encouraging counterpoint to their so-so compatriots. Pretty cool that for this season, even a particularly lousy week of anime still offers some of the best spectacles of the year!
Why It Works: We Are Stronger Together in Run with the Wind!
With last week’s article having covered the overall “here’s what this show does well” pitch, this week’s Why It Works offers a more traditionally Wrong Every Time take on Run with the Wind, as we explore the themes and emotional experience of the show. I really enjoyed writing this piece, and hope you enjoy reading it too!
We Are Stronger Together in Run with the Wind!
Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episode 7
Throughout its early episodes, Neon Genesis Evangelion has taken care to impress upon us the scale of this conflict, and the necessity of an organization like NERV. As I’ve previously discussed, apocalyptic scifi like this can have a tendency to feel pretty myopic in its scale – there are these heroes and these villains, but the concept of a greater world hanging in the balance can feel dramatically distant. Through conceits like the army’s initial failure in episode one, and the collaborative efforts of all Japan in six, Evangelion has consistently reminded us that humanity has truly been pushed to the edge, and that NERV really is our last line of defense. And here in episode seven, we receive the most stark indicator yet that NERV is truly humanity’s final barricade – as they scramble to defend that title, in light of a direct challenge by professional rivals.
Ojamajo Doremi – Episode 51
Well folks, the moment has arrived. After fifty diverse and rewarding episodes of Ojamajo Doremi, and one climactic stab at the final witch exams, we have at last arrived at the end of Doremi’s first season. The things I’ve enjoyed about this season feel too numerous to list, but we’re at the dang finale now, and I think some pomp and circumstance is probably appropriate.
First off, I’ve come to absolutely love this main cast, with all four of our heroines surprising and impressing me over time. As is appropriate, Doremi started as the most helplessly ojamajo of any of them, and yet has probably undergone the most growth as well. Doremi started this series kindhearted and motivated, but very often petty and rash, as well as lacking in a personal passion she could take pride in. She can still be petty and rash, but her developing progress as a witch has forced her to challenge her own feelings, step back from the spotlight when necessary, and ultimately gain both the confidence and skill to apply herself and positively change the world through her mastery of witchcraft. The World’s Unluckiest Pretty Girl has grown into a genuine hero, and it’s been wonderful to witness.
Of course, Ojamajo Doremi has always been an ensemble production, and its illustration of Doremi’s friends and family have offered some of its most poignant, thoughtful, and emotionally instructive tales. Aiko’s process of coming to terms with her parents’ divorce, as she grapples with the distance between her and her father’s feelings, clings to the memory of her old home life, and ultimately learns to assert her needs without retreating into the past. Hadzuki quietly demonstrating she’s actually the weirdest of the three of them, proving herself equally suited to absurd kidnapping capers and somber meditations on death and the limits of our strength. Onpu finding the intimacy her family withheld in the camaraderie of her peers, and the trust of her closest friends. And all their various families and classmates and mentors and friends, who through their stories have collectively rung out that whatever your passion, if you embrace it with a positive spirit, it is worth celebrating.
That, in the end, may be our heroines’ saving grace. All through this season, characters have hidden the passions they love, often using them as a stand-in for the feelings they’re repressing as well. Their ultimate celebration of those passions has often echoed their celebration of those feelings, be it Masaru’s memory of playing trumpet with his father, Mutsumi’s determination to become a pro wrestler, or whatever else they most secretly and earnestly feel. Here in the last episode, the greatest secret of all is on full display – but at this point, Doremi and her friends have become such talented, laudable witches that perhaps that’s not such a big deal. However this season resolves, I feel privileged and delighted to explore one more episode with you all. Let’s watch some Ojamajo Doremi!
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s – Episode 1
Hello all, and welcome back to another episode of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha! What, did you think we were finished? Of course not! Influential as its first season may already be, Nanoha wouldn’t be half the institution it now is if it weren’t such an, er, actual institution. The franchise has been receiving new sequels and spinoffs and manga adaptations ever since 2004, making it a fairly unique property within the late night anime sphere. Most long-running shows fall into either children’s anime or shounen adaptation territory, which are always intended to have lengthy and largely episodic running times. Nanoha bucks this trend, adding seasons and properties piecemeal across scattered seasons, kept alive by its own enduring popularity. So what is Nanoha’s second season about, then?
No clue. Pretty much everything I already knew about Nanoha happened in the first season – the combination of magical girl and scifi influences, the clash between Fate and Nanoha, and the ultimate friendship they develop. All I can really say at the moment is that even the context of the first season makes it no surprise this series got a continuation. Nanoha’s first season certainly possessed its own self-contained narrative, but so much of its running time was dedicated to establishing its evocative techno-fantasy world that it also felt like the prologue to something greater. “We must defeat Testarossa” didn’t feel like a meaningful capstone to the world they’d established; it was just Nanoha’s first assignment, and was treated as such. Having established this rich world, underlined Nanoha’s unique strength within it, and just recently yanked Fate over to the light side, the pieces are all set for a thrilling sequel that takes advantage of the original’s careful expository work. Let’s see what awaits us in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A’s!
Winter 2019 – Week 9 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome to… wait, week nine? Week NINE? When did that happen? THE SEASON’S ALMOST OVER!
I suppose it’s a good sign, actually, that the end of this season has so completely crept up on me. It’s probably just a reflection of how much I’m enjoying all these shows – basically nothing I’m watching has dragged at all, and shows like Mob Psycho and Run with the Wind are stacked with moments that remind me just how great anime can be. I’ll be sad to reach the end of this season, but I’ll be leaving it having gained a bunch of new favorites, and with Mob Psycho having taken a major leap up my all-time rankings. We once again find ourselves near the end of a winter of riches, and it’s time to assess the spoils. Let’s run this week in anime down!
Why It Works: Why You Need to Catch Up on Run with the Wind!
Today on Why It Works, I’ve got a general sales pitch running down the diverse strengths of Run with the Wind. Though I’ve been impressed with this show from the start, I never expected it to be quite this consistent, and certainly not this genuinely moving. The final relay has had me misting up for a few weeks straight now, and As Is My Code, I must do my best to share that blubbering with you all. Here’s the piece!
Why You Need to Catch Up on Run with the Wind!
Spring 2019 Season Preview
As impossible as it seems, the winter season is already starting to wind down. Final battles are being prepped for, title matches are commencing, and adventures are approaching their end. This is normally a somewhat melancholy time, and it’ll be sad to see this excellent winter pass, but it’s simultaneously impossible not to be excited for the coming season. Every season has both obvious and hidden gems, but in the case of Spring 2019, we’ve got a pile of titans clear from the very start. Spring 2019 is going to kick ass anime-wise, and I’m excited to share all my most anticipated titles with you!
As usual, my list won’t cover every single upcoming show, and also won’t really focus on base premises – you can check out anichart for all that stuff, and I don’t tend to find straightforward synopses particularly useful, anyway. Instead, I’ll be highlighting just the shows I personally have some expectations for, as well as the presumably coherent reasons for that enthusiasm, be it staff or source material or something else entirely. It’s not hyperbole, nor even particularly controversial to say Spring 2019 will be offering shows from some of the best anime directors of all time. Starting with a few of those legendary figures, let’s run down the highlights of the coming season!
Ojamajo Doremi – Episode 50
Folks, we are well overdue for another installment of Ojamajo Doremi. Doremi has always been a pretty great show, but it feels like the production has been really swinging for the fences lately in terms of its personal drama and character development, as we’ve run through critical and brilliantly realized episodes focused on both Aiko and Onpu.
Onpu in particular has grown much closer to the main cast over her last several appearances, and last episode even used her magic to ensure she lost in her pursuit of an acting role, once she realized how much the part meant to her strongest competitor. That spirit of empathy seems a far cry from the girl who brainwashed an admirer to avoid actually dealing with him, and when that brainwashing nearly ruined his relationship, flew off with a carefree “not my problem.” Onpu has not just learned to take responsibility for her own actions (as when she resolved that group date catastrophe), but has also seemed to develop a genuine concern for others, and perhaps even a sense of moral obligation to use her powers well.
Given all this recent development, I’m guessing Onpu will be contributing heavily to the season finale. Speaking of which, HOLY SHIT WE’RE AT THE SEASON FINALE! After a rich and rewarding year of Doremi episodes, we’ve finally arrived at the two-parter that ends its first season. I’m told the show actually gets even better in its later seasons (I can’t friggin’ wait to see Mamoru Hosoda’s take on this show), so I’ve got no time for tears – I’m just excited to see what this consistently impressive show whips together for such a major occasion. Let’s dive into another episode of Ojamajo Doremi!
Bloom Into You – Episode 10
You know what folks, we’re watching more Bloom Into You. I have been absolutely loving this show’s thoughtful, incredibly sympathetic drama, and its characters have only gotten more rich and human as the show progresses. That goes doubly so for Touko, who just received an unexpected dash of sympathy from outside the show proper. Though I mentioned in the last two writeups that bad subtitles sabotaged Touko’s characterization, I originally watched through those episodes before I knew that – this writeup right here is the first time I’ve been actively aware that Touko’s confession was more “I’m afraid that if I accept my true self, no one will care for me,” and less “if you ever change, I’ll abandon you.” That puts Touko perfectly in line with both of our other leads, afraid that any expression of their true selves will get them cast aside. Though she still has more power in this relationship than Yuu, she’s nearly as vulnerable, and as Yuu begins to embrace her own feelings, I’m guessing that balance will continue to shift.
Speaking of which, holy crap, Yuu’s in love! Or lust, or infatuation, or something – regardless of their specific substance, Yuu is now clearly feeling physical, romantic feelings towards Touko. Though it would have been very interesting to have a genuinely asexual character as a romantic drama lead, it turns out Yuu’s issue was something also quite common to teenagers – it just took her a little longer to feel these feelings than others, and she assumed that meant there was something wrong with her. With Yuu now both intellectually and emotionally invested in moving beyond her current position, I’m guessing her current relationship will definitely run into some friction. Let’s see where this wonderful drama takes us next!