My Hero Academia, Volume 10 – Review

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I’ve got another My Hero Academia manga review today, this time covering the fallout of the villains’ attack on Deku’s summer training. This volume’s density of exposition and table-arranging meant it didn’t really stand a chance of being as compelling as the last volume, but it certainly succeeded at expanding the scope and raising the stakes of Deku’s world. Now we just need stabby knife girl to actually get a major scene, and not just a footnote like at training camp. Seriously, they’ve been baiting her battle debut for like four volumes now. On with the stabbing!

You can check out my full review over at ANN.

Fall 2017 – Week 7 in Review

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The anime was, uh, brief this week. Just Because!’s production woes finally flowered into an entire week off, while my persistent issues with neo-Kino’s Journey led to me finally dropping it. Outside of those missing contenders, things didn’t actually get that much better – I had issues with this week’s MMO Junkie, Love Live, and Juni Taisen, leaving it to just March and Lustrous to carry the banner. Fortunately, those two performed admirably, with Land of the Lustrous in particular continuing a pretty much unbroken streak of excellent episodes. With Kino out of the picture, it’s likely time to actually pick up Girls’ Last Tour, but that unfortunately has to come after actual work-related shows. Hopefully that’ll make it in by next week, and in the meantime, let’s run down this week’s unfortunately lackluster offerings!

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Simoun – Episode 3

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Today we’re returning to Simoun! The first two episodes of this show were very good and very different from each other, and I’m eager to see where it goes next. The premiere itself was a pretty stunning affair all around, demonstrating a terrific balance of worldbuilding and narrative movement while introducing us to a very unique world. The second episode further illustrated some of the specific tenets of that world, putting concepts like the inevitability of visiting the Spring in stark personal terms. This world feels like both a fully realized fantasy and a clear parallel of many of our own world’s charged topics, and I’m excited to see where this story goes next. Let’s get right to it!

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March comes in like a lion – Episode 28

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March comes in like a lion continued its phenomenal Hina-focused arc this week, offering plenty more compelling visual tricks, along with our closest look yet into Hina’s headspace. Rei is a great character, but it’s becoming clear that March’s ability to lean into the personal dramas of characters like Hina and Shimada is secretly one of the story’s greatest strengths. I’m guessing we’ll be nearing the end of this arc soon, but I’m enjoying it while it lasts!

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

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Why It Works: Suffering Alone in March comes in like a lion

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Today on Crunchyroll, I’ve got a piece focused on how well March articulates the difficulty of actually reaching out for help when you find yourself in a bad place. The topic is just a small element of March’s much larger dramatic aspirations, but it’s a tough issue that I deeply relate to, and I was happy to celebrate how March handles it. The show has been low-key excellent for forever, and it’s always nice to find another reason to promote it for a wider audience.

Suffering Alone in March comes in like a lion

Kuuchuu Buranko – Episode 1

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Alright, let’s start on an entirely new project! Today we’ll be exploring the first episode of Kuuchuu Buranko, also known as Trapeze. I’ve never watched any of Trapeze before, but I do know it’s an original project by Kenji Nakamura, he of Gatchaman Crowds/Mononoke/Tsuritama fame. I also know it’s focused on some sort of clinic where people go to get their life sorted out, that the central doctor is a little girl in a ridiculous bear costume, and that it’s possibly Nakamura’s most visually experimental work, incorporating live action footage and dramatic style digressions and all manner of other weird tricks. My own experience with Nakamura has been limited to Gatchaman Crowds, which was certainly visually compelling, but more noteworthy for its piercing exploration of modern society. That show’s political laser focus makes me assume this show will be using its episodic cases to poke at society in different ways, but I won’t know until I watch. Let’s get right to it!

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Flip Flappers – Episode 6

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Flip Flappers’ sixth episode is about Iroha Irodori, Cocona’s painting-inclined classmate. It’s also likely the most emotionally searing interrogation of any of Flip Flappers’ mindscapes, and also one of my favorite episodes of all time. I can’t watch this episode without crying, consistently, at every new revelation and emotional blow. It’s about childhood neglect and the contradictions of self-expression, about the fragile necessity of loving and being loved, about the forms we contort ourselves into to survive, and the lingering scars those contortions leave behind. It’s for anyone who finds their heart in the things they create, and learns to love the damage that made them who they are.

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Fall 2017 – First Half in Review

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Well, we’ve arrived at the halfway point again. 2017 feels likely to be remembered as a key year in humanity’s overall decline, but at least this fall season’s Japanese cartoons were pretty good. As usual, I’ll be doing my pointless mid-season rankings today, and jotting down some overall thoughts on the shows I’m watching so far. These rankings are always meaningless, but given there are a fair number of admittedly great shows I’m already not watching purely because of time constraints, you can rest assured that I’m solidly enjoying everything that actually makes this list. Side M, Girls’ Last Tour, Ancient Magus’ Bride… I’d be happy to keep up with any of those shows in a lighter season, and will hopefully find the time to swing back and pick them up later. As for now, I’ll try to be at least a little ruthless in breaking down where I think my active contenders stumble and soar. Let’s get right to the list!

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Hyouka Part Two – Review

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Today I’ve got my review of Hyouka’s second half, which unsurprisingly turned out to be just as strong on this viewing as any of the others. Hyouka is just a ridiculously good show in every single capacity, maintaining a level of richness and beauty throughout that is simply staggering. It is remarkable that this show exists at all.

You can check out my full review over at ANN.

Flip Flappers – Episode 5

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Flip Flappers’ third episode introduced us to the barren world of Cocona’s psychology, an inhospitable place defined by the dichotomy of fierce self-denial and total hedonism. Cocona escaped that place, with the help of Papika, and seemed by the end of that episode to at least be able to acknowledge Papika’s friendship. In its fourth episode, we turned from Cocona’s world to Papika’s, where our two leads learned to trust each other far more completely than ever before. By the end of that episode, it seemed like Cocona was ready to accept Papika’s love, and perhaps even reciprocate.

Here in episode five, Pure Illusion offers a vision of what society has to say about all of that.

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