With this season’s extended preview week finally over, I found myself left with way too many fine shows to watch. Thus, this week was one more return to The Culling, that fun time of year when shows that would be reasonable watches in weaker seasons all get the axe purely for pragmatic reasons. Between full show reviews, Current Projects work, and other various media, I can only really spare the time for a bit more than half a dozen airing shows, and so anything that isn’t truly noteworthy had to be cut. That still didn’t make this easy, of course – this season is good, I want to watch everything I can. But I was able to trim some hedges here and there.
One Piece – Volume 5
I’m pretty stuck on this train at this point. One Piece’s fifth volume concludes the fight with Kuro’s cat-themed pirates, and adds one more member to Luffy’s humble crew. In doing so, it consistently demonstrates the two-pronged atmospheric attack that I assume has made One Piece such an unstoppable institution. The volume opens with Luffy fighting Kuro on the slopes while Usopp’s pirates attempt to stop Django, who react to his new weapons with the wonderfully absurd “he’s not a typical traveling hypnotist after all!” It’s absurdity and action all the way down, a ride that doesn’t let up for the first two-thirds of the volume.
Flying Witch – Episodes 1-2
Flying Witch is charming and solidly constructed and just a very easy time all around. I often had trouble thinking of things to say about last season’s Dagashi Kashi, but I don’t think I’m going to have that problem here – Flying Witch’s craft is strong enough that it’s actually easy and satisfying to talk about, giving me just a hint of that old Hyouka high. I’m also really looking forward to seeing the various ways the show integrates its light magical conceit into the storytelling; understated magical realism is one of my favorite things, so Flying Witch is definitely hitting a specific enjoyable note for me. Easily one of the highlights of the season so far.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode two notes below!
Kiznaiver – Episodes 1-2
And continuing this season’s new contenders, we have Kiznaiver, a show that I really, really want to believe can triumph over my serious misgivings. I hate to make another writeup even partially about Okada specifically, but hey, I’m writing up two of her shows and she has an extremely distinctive style. In Kiznaiver’s case, that leaves me worried, because I feel like this could turn out exactly like A Lull in the Sea – great premise, nice setup, and then a bunch of rambling in emotional circles. Hopefully this story has other places to go, because I certainly like the platform they’ve set up here.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode two notes below!
The Lost Village – Episodes 1-3
And so my spring writeups begin, starting with what is almost certainly the season’s weirdest production. Three episodes in, it’s still pretty tough to tell if The Lost Village is intentionally bad, accidentally bad, or some mix of the two, and even harder to say if the show’s going to end up being a great time or just a total mess. So far my curiosity is greater than my suspicion, but we’ll have to see how it goes when things get intentionally crazy. I feel like the main characters I’m invested in here are more Mizushima and Okada than any of The Lost Village’s internal inhuman caricatures, but hey, that can be fun too.
You can check out my very puzzled review over at ANN, or my episode three notes below!
Puella Magi Madoka Magica – Episode 7
Madoka Magica #7 opens with a furious Sayaka, stomping home after having learned the true nature of magical girls. The opening shots hide her feelings in shadow and low frames before they’re made clear through a pair of cuts, as Sayaka gently turns on her light and then angrily tosses the soul gem aside. Sayaka then she turns that anger on Kyubey, demanding to know why he didn’t tell her the truth. And of course, his answer is classic, ever-smiling Kyubey: “you never asked.”
Aria: The Animation – Episode 1
Aria certainly has a reputation – in fact, I’d say it stands besides K-On! as the most renowned slice of life series in anime. And even within the show’s first few minutes, it’s easy to see the exact kind of peaceful, slowly warming atmosphere this show is going for. We open with unseen characters speaking of the joy of meeting new people, contrasted against gorgeous backgrounds that feel almost like tiny oil paintings. A silly-looking cat-creature opens a window, simply to enjoy the breeze. Then a girl awakes, and groggily wonders at the window, still wiping the sleep from her eyes. It’s a very sleepy opening for a very peaceful show, the kind of show perfectly suited to watching as you crawl into bed.
Spring 2016 – Week 2 in Review
Well hell, Wednesday’s here already. I already covered most of the prior week’s episodes in my retrospective, but that didn’t hit any second episodes, so I guess I’ll make a week in review or something. Fortunately, this week’s second episodes were all definitely worth talking about – in fact, going forward, I’m guessing these posts will be getting pretty mountainous. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is hitting new peaks, My Hero Academia is demonstrating exactly what I find compelling about its premise, and Joker Game is shaping up to be a stylish and legitimately engaging thriller. This season is ridiculous. Let’s get right to it.
Psycho-Pass 2 – Review
Back once more into that dark place. I pretty much already knew this was going to be a painful experience based on my first attempted viewing, but this anime life isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. The show ended up being just as bad as I remembered, and its second half only became even worse, doubling down on its violent unpleasantness and just getting more incoherent as it went along. I found myself consistently wondering what the show’s director and other staff must have thought when they received these scripts. Was it just impossible time-wise to demand rewrites? It is almost difficult to write a story this poorly.
Anyway. You can check out my very thorough review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.
Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju – Review
And here’s my review of the winter season’s clear star, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. Rakugo is clearly a very impressive show, and its direction couldn’t be better, but I still found myself with some misgivings about the overall production. It’s weird, because I’ve seen plenty of people talking about how emotional the show’s final episodes made them, but Rakugo just did almost nothing for me on that level. I tried to sort out my feelings in the review, but it’s still something that leaves me a little stumped.
You can check out my full review over at ANN!
