Alright, back from vacation and catching up on work as fast as I can. First up: damnit I totally forgot to link this week’s Crunchyroll article. As usual, I followed up the wave of premieres with a recommendation post highlighting my own favorites of the Crunchy catalog, which in this season’s case turned out to still be a pretty overwhelming number of shows. Here’s the piece!
Let’s get back to Ojamajo Doremi! Doremi’s last episode was frankly amazing – not only did it feature the long-awaited return of Loyal Dog Doremi, it even doubled down with Heroic Horse Doremi, turning a random treasure hunt into one of Doremi’s most entertaining episodes yet. Doremi can knock it out of the park when it comes to the emotional stuff, but it’s also capable of farcical episodes so inventive and energetic that they rival pretty much any comedy out there.
That episode also made great use of Ojamajo Doremi’s continuously expanding cast, finding smart ways to use a variety of Doremi’s classmates, all of her immediate friends, and even both the teacher and nurse. Doremi’s always been something of an ensemble production, but it feels like we’re now reaching a point where the show has established enough characters that it can pull off far more sprawling stories than before. “Doremi chases down her missing magic item” doesn’t sound like the most ambitious narrative, but structurally, we bounced between over a dozen major characters in twenty minutes, something only possible because the show’s dedicated prior time to building up all those characters. With that in mind, I’m not worried by the fact that I can’t imagine this episode topping that one – the show is clearly making the most of its new dramatic tools, and I’m excited to see where it leads us next. It’s time to cast some spells with our ridiculous Ojamajos!
Well folks, the premieres have mostly crash-landed at this point, and it’s finally time to start sifting through the wreckage. My work on the ANN preview guide means I’ve personally watched basically every non-sequel premiere, and thus have a moral responsibility to share my knowledge, lest anyone else suffer this terrible burden. Every new season comes with somewhere around thirty relevant new productions, and it is absolutely not worth anyone’s (unpaid) time to watch all those shows, so today I’ll be breaking down this season’s premieres into vague tiers for your perusal. As always, I should clarify that this isn’t meant to be a hard, “objective” list or anything – I personally think I’m pretty okay at critiquing narrative/aesthetic craft and whatnot, but we all bring unique and valid perspectives to art, and so my list can’t really amount to much more than “I thought this was pretty cool.” Ultimately, if you’re a fan of some show’s given genre, most anime are at least watchable – but hey, you’re here and reading this, so you might as well check out my thoughts.
You can check out the full list of shows/reviews over at ANN, or just keep reading as we run through the season’s offerings. I should also mention that not everything actually has had its premiere yet, and thus last-minute challengers could still shake up the season (looking at you, Revue Starlight). And finally, this season I’ll be delegating the job of tier designation to Chitanda Eru, who I’m certain will do a phenomenal job. Let’s start with the season’s all stars and run through some premieres!
Today I conclude my journey through the first four arcs of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and presumably get everyone prepped for the coming fifth season. I know I’m very lucky to be living in the era of an actual, committed JoJo adaptation, and at this point, it almost doesn’t feel like a proper anime season if I don’t have a JoJo to rely on. It’s been a long wait for arc five, and I’m beyond thrilled to get to it. I hope you enjoy the piece!
The Thrilling Tales of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Part Two
Alright, looks like I’ve got at least half an hour or so before the next flood of shows arrives, so let’s take stock with another first impressions post! I am currently utterly overwhelmed by the volume of new releases, but fortunately, it already seems like this season is shaping up to be an unexpected solid one. Pretty much all the shows I was hoping would be good pulled off strong first episodes, but even unexpected contenders like Chio’s School Road and Asobi Asobase have turned out to have plenty to recommend them. As usual, you can click through here to check out the full ANN list, or look below for all of my new scores and links to individual reviews. Let’s get right to it!
The team battles continue in Chihayafuru! There’s no time for messing around anymore – with the Fujisaki team fully introduced and the reader already reaching for the first card, it’s looking like this episode will be the first act of the team finals from start to finish. We’ve also got a wide variety of subconflicts set up for this tumultuous climax, so let’s quickly break down where we’re at on that front!
First off, Chihaya actually doesn’t seem like she’ll be the focus of this match, at least in an emotional sense. She just went through a focus match against Megumu, and beyond that, Chihaya’s attachment to this match is fully an extension of her desire to succeed with her team. There will certainly be plenty of Chihaya material, but my read so far is that her segments will focus on a combination of figuring out her mysterious opponent and general “we’re doing it together” team emphasis.
Taichi seems like a more reasonable focus character, and it seems like he himself is framing beating this Arata-resembling opponent as him mentally overcoming his Arata-related insecurities. With Arata actually in the building, it seems very likely that Taichi’s big turn and Arata’s long-awaited appearance will end up overlapping.
Tsukuba is our third potential focus character, and his regret over not noticing Kana’s injury last time leaves me suspecting this may be the point where his selfishness as a competitor is directly addressed. Tsukuba has always played for himself at the expense of the team, but here in the team finals, his attitude and the overall spirit of the event may come to blows at last.
Beyond those three, I somewhat doubt Tsutomu will be prioritized, and get the feeling Nishida will just be a sturdy role player like usual. Of course, if you extend our scope beyond Chihaya’s team, we’ve got ongoing character arcs focused on Arata, Shinobu, Retro-kun, Hanano, half the members of the Fujisaki team, and plenty of other people I’m sure I’m forgetting. The dominoes are stacked up and ready to fall here in the long-awaited team finals. Let’s get right to it!
The summer season has finally arrived! Normally the advent of a new season is a little bittersweet, since it means saying goodbye to a bunch of other beloved shows, but no-o-o-ooot this time. Not only did this year’s spring season kinda suck generally, but its two best shows, My Hero Academia and Legend of the Galactic Heroes, are continuing on regardless. That means I’ve got basically no regrets coming into this new season, and am fully prepared to be dazzled by whatever comes. So far, “whatever comes” has mostly been HANEBADO and a bunch of easy skips, but hey, that’s how it goes when you’re checking out absolutely everything. As usual, you can check out ANN’s full list of reviews right here, or hit the jump for my individual rankings and links to those specific reviews. Let’s get to it!
The spring season was basically over this week, and preview week has already started its unholy charge, so this is gonna be a light and breezy week in anime. We’ve basically just got My Hero Academia and Megalo Box to cover, and that’s such a limited “group” that I can’t even waste a paragraph rambling about the overall tenor of my weekly viewing experience. My Hero Academia was bad, Megalo Box was good, and they are the only shows I have to talk about. Let’s see if we can stretch that summation into a little more substance, and start with the bad news as we RUN THIS WEEK DOWN!
At long last, we’re returning to the high-flying Simoun! It’s been a little while on my end since we checked in on Chor Tempus, and I’m very eager to return to this strange, uneven, and endlessly compelling series. The show’s last episode was a roiling sea of emotional turns, upsetting the relationship between Neviril and Aaeru while also offering more dark hints at the true nature of Dominura. “Aaeru and Neviril can’t get along” has been one of Simoun’s most enduring conflicts, but the nature of the relationship is definitely different now – it’s no longer Neviril retreating into her shell that seems like the problem, it’s Aaeru trampling over Neviril’s feelings with her own fanatical desire to fly.
The end result of this miscommunication was Neviril’s unhappy realization that she’s actually afraid of Aaeru, which doesn’t surprise me at all. Most of these priestesses fly because they’ve always assumed this is what they’re supposed to do, because they genuinely believe in the sanctity of their mission, or because they’re not ready to visit the spring. Aaeru has stated she’s not ready to visit the spring, but her love of fighting goes beyond that, and seems to be something Neviril finds fundamentally disturbing. I imagine their disagreements will be approaching a head in this episode, if only for narrative spacing reasons; we’re over halfway through this series, and if anything regarding this society’s fundamental nature is going to actually be resolved, we kinda need to get the band back together soon. Either way, Simoun always finds a new way to surprise, so let’s see what episode fourteen brings!
It’s time to continue our journey through Chihayafuru! Having just defeated Megumu and her unexpectedly talented teammates, Chihaya’s team is basically against the ropes at the moment. Chihaya herself lost, Nishida also failed, Tsutomu only won because of a fifty-fifty guess, and Kana is so wiped out she’s asked Tsukuba to take her spot in the finals. In terms of in-universe stamina, the team is likely exhausted, and facing down opponents who themselves beat our school’s closest rivals in an effortless, 4-1 victory.
In more metanarrative terms, this feels like a fight that could theoretically go anywhere, but will most likely end up being a dedicated celebration of team karuta. My reasoning for that is pretty simple – this is the very last match that our crew will compete in as a team for a full year, and the joy of playing karuta as a group has always been one of Chihayafuru’s most enduring threads, so this is basically the last, best chance to center a conflict on that particular theme for a long time to come. Additionally, the board pieces have been deliberately set up to allow a dramatic team match to further several character arcs. Tsukuba, whose fatal flaw has been his selfishness and unwillingness to trust in the team, needs to learn to care about his teammates’ fortunes, and contribute to an effort that’s greater than himself. Arata, who’s spent full seasons pining for his friends, is now primed for a dramatic appearance that revives their spirits and rekindles their friendship at their lowest point. And even Shinobu has now been characterized as a person defined by loneliness and contemptuous of team karuta – I frankly think her turn might have to wait for the third year, but it’s still very relevant here.
Maybe none of these variables will be used in the ways I expect, but regardless, I’m very excited for the finals. Our heroes have come a long way and earned many victories, and they’re currently all fitted with resonant personal arcs primed to add a human component to all this tactical drama. Chihayafuru is an extremely confident narrative, and we’re arriving at what almost has to be a dramatic peak. Let’s get to the fireworks!