Today we’re catching up on UQ Holder a bit, running through the manga’s recent training arc. There’s really not much to say about this one that I didn’t already say in my review, and I’ve got thirty million things to get to today, so HAVE AT IT!
You can check out my full review over on ANN.
Somehow I am still alive. This preview “week” was one of the most punishing I’ve experienced, spreading out an absurd number of shows across an untenable number of days. The silver lining on this whole affair is that this season actually seems to have a whole ton of worthy contenders. I’ve spent the last week and a half or so sifting through this absurd haul, dragging treasures to the surface and weathering the rest as gracefully as I can. My trials have been numerous, but suffering this fate has granted me a new perspective – at last, I am blessed with moderately informed opinions on basically everything coming out this spring.
Starting with the brightest lights and slowly descending into the depths, I will now share my vast wisdom and narrow opinions with all of you. As usual, you can check out the full list of reviews over at ANN, or click on any of the titles here to go to my full thoughts. If you’re frustrated that your new favorite was only afforded a toilet emoji here, just click through that name and check for Nick Creamer to see me try and justify that takeaway. In the end, I’m just one guy with my own specific tastes, after all. So without further ado, let’s get this boulder rolling!
And we’re back with more ef! Last episode accomplished something absolutely crucial for this story – it made me actually care about Chihiro and her strange condition. Chihiro seemed designed as that classic mix of frail, demure, and doomed that’s pretty much death to my investment, but by immediately acknowledging and exploring the lived experience of her condition, the show was able to make her feel not just pitiable, but actually relatable. Fantastical situations inherently dampen an audience’s ability to relate to drama, but if those situations are framed in terms of understandable human feelings, that bridge becomes easy to cross. Let’s see what episode four brings!
Today on Why It Works, I plot out the groundwork for how season two will start to mess with the first season’s general thoughts on heroism. I’m kinda cheating, since I’ve actually read through the next couple arcs, but it was still nice to see how the first episode established so many of the conflicts that will play into this arc’s major themes. I hope you enjoy the piece!
Why It Works: Shadows Over My Hero Academia
Natsume and his human friends begin this episode by visiting a massive dam constructed over a former village. The mere fact of Natsume’s presence on this trip implies things have changed for him – from largely being known as that weird, quiet kid who seems to see things, he’s now got stable friends who invite him on stuff like fishing trips. Natsume is growing up, both through his experiences with youkai and his experiences with all the humans around him.
Hey all, and welcome back to Casshern Sins. Casshern has finally arrived at something resembling a clear goal now – discover the true fate of Luna, and through doing so perhaps save his world. Meanwhile, Casshern’s vague “antagonist” Dio and his confidante are building forces for their own attempt at saving this world, one which would likely necessitate destroying Casshern. Given the last episode focused solely on Dio, I’m expecting us to return to a Casshern-side vignette here, which I’m perfectly happy about. The show’s vignettes have in general been stronger than its overarching narrative, so let’s see what we’ve got!
At last, we arrive at the most acclaimed episode of Monogatari’s first season. Bakemonogatari #12 is a remarkable episode, and I enjoyed it even more upon revisit. This episode basically condenses more chemistry, flirting, and romantic truth into one episode than most dedicated romances manage in a full series, a pretty solid feat for a show that isn’t even really a romance in general. Nice going, Monogatari.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.
The season just keeps on rambling! I’m frankly pretty overwhelmed at the moment – not only is this one of the larger seasons we’ve had, well, ever, but I’m also juggling maybe half a dozen other articles per week, along with a variety of other boring responsibilities. So I hope you guys appreciate me cataloging all this crap! I’m guessing the rest of the shows will just be folded into the overall Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective, but until then, you can check out the full list over at ANN or click through to my individual scores and reviews below. LET’S GET TO IT!
The season’s in full swing now, so it’s time once again to take stock of where we’re at so far. With six shows released as of today, things are playing out pretty much by the script – My Hero Academia has the same issues the first season did, Alice & Zoroku is the most promising new property, and nothing else is really worth mentioning. Titan is still Titan, but I’m not really at a point where I feel obligated to watch the crossover hits anymore, so I’ll probably be skipping that one.
As usual, you can see a list of my scores so far below, and click on any of the titles to link to their full review pages, or just go to the overall review page here. Have at it!
IT’S TIME FOR MORE NICHIJOU TALK. Unsatisfied with simply rambling about every episode right here, today I’ve got a review of Kyoto Animation’s comic revelation over on ANN. It was actually really tough to talk about Nichijou’s strengths on a macro level – explaining the jokes doesn’t really do them justice, and much of the show’s strength comes in its precisely combined details of execution. Still, hopefully I conveyed the gist.
You can check out my full review over at ANN.
