Tag Archives: Anime

Why It Works: The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter: Exam Arc and Lateral Thinking

Posted on by

I hope you’re ready for a sturdy craft column this week! With all the promotional hullabaloo of the season premieres finally behind us, today I dove into some meaty storytelling nuts and bolts stuff, centered on one of my favorite shows to write about. I could write about Hunter x Hunter’s intelligence of narrative construction for days, and might actually end up doing that, as long as this article does well enough. Either way, I hope you enjoy the piece!

The Brilliance of Hunter x Hunter: Exam Arc and Lateral Thinking

Girls’ Last Tour – Episode 9

Posted on by

Hey everybody, and welcome back to Girls’ Last Tour. This lovely show’s last episode concluded on one of its most beautiful and transcendent moments yet, as the discovery of a long-abandoned beer stash led to Yuu and Chi drunkenly dancing on the edge of the world. It was a terrific sequence that, like the girls’ earlier discovery of music during a rainstorm, seemed to embody Yuu’s philosophical defense against the harshness and unfairness of this world: “if you keep living, something good might happen.” The rational, day-to-day substance of Yuu and Chi’s lives is fundamentally hopeless; there is no better future waiting for them, and the threat of death is a constant companion. But any life, even lives like these, can occasionally erupt into moments of wonder and joy – and in between those moments, they still have each other.

Last episode was a very generous combination of basically all of this show’s strengths, from its beautiful shots of the city to its reflections on impermanence to that final dance. I’m not expecting another episode to match it so soon, but either way, I’m eager to see what’s in store for our girls. Let’s dive into another episode of Girls’ Last Tour!

Continue reading →

Ojamajo Doremi Sharp – Episode 7

Posted on by

It’s a cold and cloudy day today, as the last dregs of summer’s humidity brush up against the chill of New England’s nine month winter. Somebody’s been hammering and yelling outside at about equal volume for maybe three hours now, which served as this morning’s alarm clock. I went to sleep with profound anxiety and have woken up with profound back pain, symptoms which may or may not be related. All in all, it’s been a pretty lukewarm morning.

Fortunately, all those trivial gripes don’t matter much now. It’s time for Ojamajo Doremi, and when it’s time for Ojamajo Doremi, I really can’t complain. Our last episode of Sharp offered the kind of story I’ve been eagerly awaiting all season – a return to vignettes about Doremi’s classmates, focusing on the charming friendship between Marina and Kimura.

Doremi’s strongest episodes often inhabit one of its genre extremes; either they’re full-on magical spectacle, either full of farcical spells or focused on the alluring witch world, or they’re full-on character drama, stories that barely make use of magic at all, and instead illustrate fundamental truths of emotional development. Last episode fell in the second category, and offered a tale of insecurity, misunderstanding, and regret that barely involved our actual stars. As is often the case, the resolution didn’t come about as a result of some massive emotional revelation or shocking twist; Kimura simply needed a friend he could talk to without any sense of insecurity or defensiveness, who could help him acknowledge the truth he already knew. With a full season of ensemble character development behind us, Doremi can now pull off episodes that are almost Doremi-free – we’re well acquainted with several dozen of Doremi’s classmates at this point, and watching them interact and resolve their own problems is an inherent validation of all the time we’ve shared. Whatever this episode brings, I’m excited to return to this lovely show. Let’s get to it!

Continue reading →

Scorching Ping Pong Girls – Episode 11

Posted on by

Hello everybody, and welcome back for another episode of Scorching Ping Pong Girls! This week, we’ll finally be… wait, that was last episode. Koyori and Kururi played out their long-hyped match, Kururi’s unhealthy fixation on “proving herself worthy” was resolved through Koyori’s joyful play, and the two vowed to continue their rivalry at the actual tournament. Our heroes’ battle with Mozuyami ended with a glorious visual spectacle and satisfying emotional resolution, and Scorching Ping Pong Girls concluded the arc that has dominated its entire second half. So, uh, what do we do now?

Well, as it turns out, the process of adapting a continuing manga into a one-off anime season can be a little messy, and so it looks like we’ll be wrapping up the series with two episodes of post-arc downtime and training sessions. While this is certainly a little odd in a structural sense, it’s the kind of compromise you tend to get used to in this medium, and I’m frankly eager to see how the cast play out all the personal growth they’ve recently experienced in a less competitive venue. A great deal of Scorching Ping Pong Girls’ appeal is how much its cast obviously all love each other, and the Mozuyami arc featured reaffirmations of those relationships all across the main team. Let’s see how the dust settles in the next Scorching Ping Pong Girls!

Continue reading →

Fall 2019 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective

Posted on by

Hello folks, and welcome to hell. Having fought my way through nearly every premiere of the fall season, I’ve weathered injustices and disappointments both familiar and entirely new, all to bring you the freshest possible anime delicacies. There were a huge number of new releases this fall season, but with so many of the season’s high-profile shows being sequels, separating the strongest newcomers from the pack seemed even more arduous than usual. I succeeded, though, and I return to you with arms full of alluring new cartoons. Additionally, many of the shows that are either continuing into the fall or commencing new sequels are also really darn good – if you’re not current on them, I’d highly recommend supplementing your viewing schedule with something like Vinland Saga, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, or Chihayafuru.

As usual, I wrote full length reviews for all of the premieres I’ll be summarizing here, which you can check out over at ANN’s preview guide. I’ll also be including links to each individual review below, as I run down the season’s new prospects from best to worst, and separate them into loose tiers of view-worthiness. Returning to help me define those tiers will be an array of representative Chaika gifs, because everybody loves Chaika and it’s easier to describe gifs than to write funny descriptions anyway. Without further ado, let’s break down the fresh premieres of the fall anime season!

Continue reading →

Why It Works: Nick’s Anime Picks for Fall 2019

Posted on by

For this week’s Why It Works article, I ran through my usual process of sorting out Crunchyroll-specific recommendations for the coming anime season. This has felt like a truly unending preview week, likely because it actually stretched across two full weeks, but the end is finally in sight, and I’ll be posting my Virtually Every First Episode post on Wednesday. We’re back in action, folks!

Nick’s Anime Picks for Fall 2019

Fall 2019 – First Impressions, Part Two

Posted on by

Preview week continues to barrel onward, with each new day offering a fresh handful of dubious anime premieres. I’ll be frank: the season is not looking good at the moment, though that’s pretty much what I expected. Aside from Legend of the Galactic Heroes, nothing has premiered that I actually feel compelled to stick with, in spite of an abundance of “pretty okay” premieres. If anything, this appears to be a season mostly focused on comedy, and anime comedy is rarely my scene. Still, there’s been plenty of perfectly watchable shows so far, and my curmudgeonliness shouldn’t spoil your fun. Here’s my second wave of fall 2019 reviews!

Continue reading →

Fall 2019 – First Impressions, Part One

Posted on by

Preview week barrels onward, but with only a couple new premieres today, I figured it was past time to take stock of the season so far. The first wave of show releases actually hasn’t been so bad on the whole, though given the highlights include two isekai-riffing comedies, I’m guessing this group probably won’t be impacting my own watch schedule. Still, if you’re looking for comedy, sports drama, or slice of life, we’ve had a few respectable contenders so far – and if you’re looking for garbage, well, there’s been a fair bit of that too. You can check out the full list of reviews right here, or scroll below for my own rankings and links to individual reviews. Let’s get to it!

Continue reading →

Rilakkuma and Kaoru – Episode 2

Posted on by

You wouldn’t think a bright, stop-motion story about a young woman and her three stuffed animal friends would offer such consistently piercing meditations on aging and purpose, but here we are. Rilakkuma and Kaoru’s first episode offered a direct and familiar punch to the jaw, centered on the difficulty of maintaining contact with friends as you move into adulthood, and the fear of being left behind by the people you love. In the end, Kaoru’s friends didn’t all suddenly reappear in a glorious refutation of those fears; after all, that process of separation is an inescapable fact of adulthood. It’s not all sunshine and roses – in fact, it’s more often about coming to terms with imperfect circumstances, and finding the joy in what you can. Kaoru can’t rekindle her college friendships, but she can sit and watch the stars by the riverbank, and maybe that’s enough.

Continue reading →

Scorching Ping Pong Girls – Episode 10

Posted on by

The preliminary matches have all been concluded, and the record stands at two matches to our brave and gallant heroes, and two matches for our fiendish, nefarious villains. After their enemies ruthlessly cut down Hokuto and Hanabi, Suzumegahara’s heroes rallied back with Mune and Kiruka’s doubles match, followed by Agari’s close win against Mozuyami’s captain Zakuro. Now, with Koyori’s faith in her own play having been restored by Agari’s victory, it’s time for the true battle. You folks ready for battle!? You folks ready for BLOOD?!?!?

I’m pretty excited personally, if you hadn’t guessed. But I don’t think I’m alone here – this series has literally spent two-thirds of its running time hyping up this particular match, with Kururi having been framed as the “true threat” of Mozuyami from the very start. Additionally, Scorching Ping Pong Girls’ core theme is “finding a positive, fulfilling reason to play,” and Kururi represents the most unhealthy negative articulation of that theme. Early on in the season, the show’s central emotional conflict was Agari learning to play for the joy of play itself, instead of the brittle comfort of having her skills validated. The moment that conflict was resolved, the narrative essentially introduced Kururi as a super-Agari, someone even more invested in table tennis as a source of validation, rather than personal joy. Will Koyori’s joyful play and inherent puppy-ness convince Kururi to play for her own sake, and realize that seeking her own happiness is also the best way to make Zakuro happy? I mean, probably, but I still wanna see how we get there. LET’S GET TO IT!

Continue reading →