Active Raid – Episode 4

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Very little to report for this episode of Active Raid, unfortunately. The show itself is in a holding pattern of sorts (aw yeah, dunking on the episode by making use of its title, classic critic trick), slowly elaborating obvious relationship beats and generally just idling until its main narrative can actually start. Active Raid’s episodic stories are just not interesting, and that becomes a real problem when any given episode fails to entertain in other ways. Hopefully the characters actually learn to work together soon, because their bickering is not particularly engaging, but they’d probably work pretty well as friends. Or failing that, just give Asami and Rin the spotlight again – they’re way more interesting than this episode’s leads.

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

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Genshiken Second Season, Volume 7 – Review

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Yep, Genshiken has somehow shifted into full harem mode. I don’t know how we got here, I don’t know why this happened, but this is where we are and I guess I gotta make the most of it. Genshiken is still very acute in its small character moments, but the overall movements of this plot have basically shifted the series into a fundamentally different genre/world space than it previously occupied. We’re in anime-land now – there are things characters do because they’ve learned all their social cues from anime, and there are things characters do because they are anime characters, and Genshiken has floated majestically from the first category into the second one. I can’t say I’m happy about it, but it is what it is.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my chapter notes below!

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ERASED – Episode 4

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ERASED remained relatively consistent this week, offering way too many cute moments with Hinazuki just in time to drop the hammer. I knew it was coming, but man, that birthday party was just a step too far. He gave her fuzzy mittens, ERASED. HE GAVE HER FUZZY MITTENS.

The rest of this episode was more dedicated to articulating the weaknesses of Satoru’s position, which I certainly appreciated. Though the show can get over-the-top in its overt dramatic peaks, the ways it’s reflecting on Satoru’s issues are actually quite subtle, and come through more in the overall context of the story than any overt lines. It’s a good place to be.

You can check out my full writeup over at ANN, or my notes below!

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Hyouka – Episode 13

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The festival is in full swing now, and each member of the Classics Club have their own giants to slay. With Chitanda on site procurement, Satoshi on promotion, Oreki on sales, and Mayaka dealing with her own manga club troubles, episode thirteen bounces back and forth across characters, portraying the individual dramas of each member across the course of the festival’s entire first day. But that doesn’t mean I have to bounce around. The episode’s structure is intelligent; by shifting continuously between characters, it keeps tension high, builds meta-narratives across multiple individual conflicts, and even results in cute scene transitions like Satoshi’s thoughts about Oreki leading to Oreki being up to no good. But I’m going to disregard all of that effort and take this character by character, starting right where the episode does, at Satoshi’s much-anticipated quiz competition.

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The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Volume 3 – Review

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And we’re back to ye olde fairy tales. This volume of Ancient Magus’ Bride was actually fairly light on the magical vignettes, because it was instead focusing on what has always been the most difficult element of the story – the uneven relationship between Chise and Elias. I’ve pretty much been continuously worrying about how the story would eventually handle this, and this volume went a great distance to assuage my fears. It’s clear in how Chise is framed and how those around her talk to her that the story understands this is a messed-up situation born of an unhealthy psychology on Chise’s part. She’s a broken person, and that’s a big part of the story. I’m happy the manga was willing to directly engage with this, and impressed with how well it used Chise’s story to reflect Elias’ own narrative in contrast. Ancient Magus’ Bride continues to be a very engaging story all around.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my chapter notes below!

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Winter 2016 – Week 3 in Review

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The season’s shows are still jostling at this point, jockeying for position and demonstrating which of their early strengths they can maintain and as-of-yet not quite imploding. Rakugo Shinju and ERASED are the easy top contenders, but beyond that, it’s a mixed field of shows that are either imbalanced, lacking in ambition, or somewhat inconsistent, but all still more or less worth watching. It’s probably not the generally strongest member of this pack, but Grimgar is actually the one I have the highest hopes for. The show’s weaknesses are loud and frustrating and obvious, but its strengths are very unique, and that appeals to me more than something like Dimension W’s straightforward but somewhat flavorless polish. But the overall crop still makes this easily the best season since last spring, so I’d say this is a good place to be. Let’s RUN ‘EM DOWN!

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One Piece – Volume 1

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So here I am, embarking on a journey through the first volume of one of the longest and most storied shounen manga out there. I have to assume this is some kind of ploy – funding just the first volume of a monolith like One Piece only makes sense if you’re assuming it’s a strong enough hook to do the rest of the work by itself. I’ll read the first volume and then get dragged along by my own momentum, trapped in the story that has become almost synonymous with manga itself. I’ll start One Piece and that will be the end of me.

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Dagashi Kashi – Episode 3

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Dagashi Kashi’s third episode came and went with little fanfare or incident. This episode is very watchable, but that’s about it – the jokes aren’t generally that funny, and the structure’s a little samey. That said, I was very happy to see this episode’s second half actually start to make Hotaru feel like a real person. Shows about wacky comic instigators I could take or leave, but shows about awkward kids who inherently lead to funny situations through their weird passions? Yeah, that I can deal with. Hopefully this wasn’t just a one-off thing.

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

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Hyouka – Episode 12

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Well, it’s finally arrived. Hyouka’s first arc was in truth about Chitanda’s uncle, but its impetus was the creation of a club magazine for the cultural festival. The second movie arc took place over summer vacation, and concerned getting a different club’s project ready for the festival. And now, at the beginning of Hyouka’s second half, the stage is finally set for the show’s third and most ambitious arc, the festival itself.

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ERASED – Episode 3

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Man, this show sure does know what it’s about. Nearly every moment here works hard to facilitate drama, atmosphere, and beauty, creating just the strongest possible sense of a specific time and place. Anime is eternally hung up over nostalgic youth, but ERASED’s setting feels real, feels like the actual uncomfortable, seemingly endless procession of days that are childhood. Anime is also normally a compromise between adaptive vision and original work mediocrity, and that doesn’t seem to be a problem here either – this is a nearly flawless adaptation of a legitimately good story. I really hope ERASED stays this strong to the end.

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

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