Great episodes from both Barakamon and Shounen Hollywood this week. The two shows actually kind of play off each other, in a weird way – both are tackling questions of making a career out of art and performance, and both cushion those questions with strongly grounded slice of life. They’re a nice pair.
Sword Art Online took a long journey into exposition-land this week, while last week’s Shounen Hollywood pulled off one of the most confident concept episodes I’ve ever seen. There is no justice in this world.
Time again for terror! Lisa’s been captured, Twelve’s made his choice, and Nine stands alone. With three episodes left, it seems unlikely this will all end in smiles and rainbows, but I’d sure like for Lisa and Twelve to get out of this, at least. That may defeat the show’s purpose, though – Nine’s anger is just as understandable as their connection, and no one can really escape the world they’re born into. All you can do is adapt or burn the damn thing down.
Incidentally, vestenet made a great post about Zankyou’s historical context over at Isn’t It Electrifying. I’d definitely check that out to see some of the more specific unrest and political circumstances Zankyou’s building on!
Alright, let’s get to terror.
No complaints about this week in anime – my favorites were great, my second-strings were either solid or great, and I’m barely even watching anything beneath those. Aldnoah continued last week’s “wait, let’s try to be actually good again” streak, Zankyou recovered from its wonky Hollywood interlude, and Hunter x Hunter is just making me too emotional right now. Also, Shounen Hollywood whipped out one of the most absurd, confident concept episodes I’ve seen in… ever? A long time, at least. Let’s run them down!
“Some nights it’s just entertainment, and some other nights it’s real.”
– The Hold Steady“Your favorite anime is SHIT. SHIIIIIIIT.”
– The Internet
“Do you think that, when making an evaluation on a piece of media, you are in part making some statement about those who enjoy that media?”
That was the question that prompted this post, and it really stumped me for a long, long time. The knee-jerk reaction is “no, that’s not true – people all like different things, and they have the right to like whatever they want.” But that’s really just avoiding the question, right? Yes, people have the right to like, say, an incredibly racist fantasy about how Hitler was right. But when I say “agree to disagree” to a fan, aren’t I silently adding “you crazy racist fucker”?
Sort of. Maybe? It’s not that simple.
“It’s not that simple” was my answer at the time. “This deserves a whole essay’s worth of elaboration.” And it’s true! Both of those things are true. Our relationship with media is complex – what we like doesn’t wholly define us, but it also isn’t completely apart from who we are. It says something. It means something. But it doesn’t have to mean that much, and we don’t have to take these criticisms personally. Or maybe we should take them a little personally, and that’s actually kind of important. Maybe we should learn to think a little less of ourselves than we do.
Here’s what I think.
Two of this week’s ANN posts are up, featuring somewhat lesser episodes for both Sword Art Online and Barakamon. Sword Art Online in particular was a real head-shaking disappointment this week – after all my tentative hopes, Sinon’s arc managed to find her collapsing into Kirito’s arms after all. This author just can’t friggin’ help himself…
You guys excited about some new cartoons?! This summer was very nearly the weakest season since I started this blog, so I know I’m sure ready. This fall is looking to be the Season of the Sequel – I’ve already got four sequels I’ll be checking out, along with Sword Art Online continuing on its merry way. The list of originals is looking a bit more sparse, but I’m often surprised by what ends up grabbing me anyway, so I’m not too worried about that. As always, all upcoming shows can be seen at anichart.net. And as usual, I’m only going to be covering the shows I’m actually checking out – if your favorite’s not here, feel free to make a case for it in the comments! Let’s start with my top pick and run it down…
A new Zankyou! And it couldn’t come soon enough – with both Barakamon and Zankyou on break, last week was pretty much a barren anime wasteland. I’ve had to sustain myself by actually paying attention to what’s happening in videogames, which is something I would never recommend to any human being. Anyway! The last episode of Zankyou was Hollywood as all hell, but I doubt the entire show is suddenly going to tumble into meaningless action movie territory. I’m guessing this episode will be more of a cooldown, and Zankyou’s generally at its best when it gives its ideas room to breathe – plus, I’m very interested in seeing how the events of last episode impact both the relationships of our three young terrorists and Shibazaki’s career prospects. Let’s get down to terror!
A very convenient week in anime this time, since two shows didn’t actually air and oh wait that didn’t matter because I wrote three thousand goddamn words for Anime News Network anyway. Actually, that might be its own kind of “reprieve” – normally my writing motivation is “keep writing you goddamn word-monkey you’re wasting hours and drawing closer to death,” but my crazy output the last couple weeks (including writing a big friggin’ editorial that I’ll hopefully finish by this weekend) allowed me to briefly experience the feeling of not feeling guilty for relaxing. That’s actually a pretty rare thing for me, so I guess I got a mental vacation after all.
Incidentally, those ANN posts seem to have gone over very well over there, though I know you guys are understandably sad about the lack of timestamp SAO posts. It seems like ANN is more okay with some snark than I’d initially worried, so I’ll try to hit some kind of balance more of you can be happy with – I’ve only ever written for myself and my own audience before, so I’m still figuring out how to express my voice in a more official context. I hope you all stick with me as I figure this crap out! You’re an awesome, extremely supportive group of readers, and I want to be worthy of that support.
Alright, that’s enough blogging, I’m sure you’ve all got stuff to do. Let’s run down this week’s shows!
And here is the last of my first wave of ANN posts, acting as more or less an overall review of the first two thirds of Barakamon. Look at that, I can put on a weird hat and almost pretend I’m a normal reviewer!
