What the hell it’s more Nichijou. The show has established as much of a rhythm as something this ridiculous can, but there’s still plenty of fun craft to poke at and uncover. Though comedy being highly personal is a general truism, I personally find the craft of comedy one of the most rewarding things to talk about. Comedy is like music, or language – there’s a clear rhythm to it, and internal narratives of tension and release that give it a real sense of cohesion and beauty. So let’s ponder the beauty of comedy as we watch a show about a talking cat and a girl with a key in her back.
Tag Archives: Anime
Summer 2016 – Week 9 in Review
Alright, now we’re actually three quarters of the way through the season. That generally tends to align with shows’ second-to-last dramatic peaks, and this season was no exception – both Mob Psycho and Love Live had huge episodes this week, and the JoJo/Thunderbolt Fantasy pairing had pretty key turning points as well. Orange is starting to look a little long in the tooth at this point, but other than that, I’d say the season’s crop are holding together quite well. I’m perfectly happy to have two seasons in a row conclude with dignity intact!
Mob Psycho 100 – Episode 8
HOLY CRAP THIS EPISODE OF MOB PSYCHO WHAT THE HELL. This week’s fight felt even MORE impressive than the Hanazawa fight, somehow, amazingly, holy shit. It wasn’t as directly tied to cathartic emotional moments as that one, but given it came right after a wonderful reunion between Mob and Ritsu, I couldn’t feel that mad. I was actually kinda worried going into this episode that Ritsu was going to become a villain, in fitting with ONE’s general downer attitude. That fortunately didn’t happen – Ritsu has made bad decisions, but he’s still the same person he always does. It’s actually pretty satisfying to see one of the “heroes” make such ugly decisions, and then so quickly realize what he’s actually done.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
Fall 2016 Season Preview
With just over three weeks left to go in the summer season, it’s time to once again look forward to next season’s potential bounty. In spite of my initial pessimism, the summer season turned out to be very solid all around – not only did expected favorites like Love Live Sunshine and Sweetness & Lightning perform, but Mob Psycho 100 turned out to be far, far more compelling than I’d anticipated, and Thunderbolt Fantasy essentially doubled the season’s JoJo-style theatrics. We’ve had two strong seasons in a row now, full of compelling shows in a variety of genres. The only thing the year’s really been missing so far is a full complement of truly Great anime – anime I feel no hesitation about putting on my end of the year list, and at least some temptation to add to my all-timers. We’ve had Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju and Concrete Revolutio, and Mob Psycho will certainly make the top shows of 2016 cut, but I could use a couple more clear standouts. Fortunately, fall looks pretty stacked as well, so I’m eager to get to it.
As usual, my list won’t be covering every single new show. If you want the full list with synopses, you can easily check out anichart or a similar site – I’m just going to be covering what I think is interesting (in rough order of interest), along with the specific reasons I’m looking forward to it. Good staff, good source material, good studios – those are the things I can rely on, beyond the unreliable allure of any kind of cool premise. So let’s start right at the top and run this upcoming season down!
Orange – Episode 9
Orange is still meandering its way towards a conclusion. There were good moments in this episode, but that’s all I’m really expecting from the show at this point – even beyond its slowly drowning production, there’s just not enough substance to Naho’s feelings to really support an entire TV anime. A story can feel true to life without being good storytelling, and that’s basically what we’ve arrived at here – yes, Naho’s the kind of person who would let her feelings run in circles forever, but unless the show can articulate new truths in those feelings over time, that’s not really meaningful from an audience perspective.
Anyway! You can check out my full review over at ANN.
Why It Works: Tsumugi’s Great Adventure
Today I got to write a piece on Sweetness & Lightning for the first time, which was nice. The show honestly doesn’t offer that much to dissect a lot of weeks, but the Tsumugi-focused episode was a clear standout, so I had plenty to talk about. Hope you enjoy the piece!
Why It Works: Tsumugi’s Great Adventure
Nichijou – Episode 3
The Nichijou train continues, as I fire off a series of staid, thoughtful reactions to three girls dunking on each other and a robot with a giant key in its back. This episode was framed from the perspective of Nano and the professor’s cat, and cats are good, so this was a good episode. I also spend some time rambling about the various dramatic roles played by the three high school characters. There’s lots of jokes to laboriously critique today, so let’s get right to it!
Charlotte, Part One – Review
So yeah, it seems I’ve found myself reviewing Jun Maeda’s latest production. And so far, Charlotte has proven to be… well, Jun Maeda’s latest production. The same broad character roles, the same hysterical dramatic peaks, the same fundamental lack of narrative foundation. Charlotte is far from the worst show, but it certainly isn’t a good one, and Maeda really does seem to be one of the least talented superstar writers out there. That said, Charlotte actually seemed to be getting more entertaining as it fell off the rails, so here’s hoping the second half is a beautiful disaster.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below!
Mob Psycho 100 – Episode 7
Mob Psycho finally had a weaker episode this time, after a fairly consistent streak of excellence. The way this episode was weaker makes me think the show is trying to hit some later arc in the manga, but either way, it resulted in a somewhat unsatisfying middle phase of Ritsu’s current arc. ONE isn’t the most insightful of social scientists, and speeding up his stories only emphasizes that – Ritsu and Shinji were both shortchanged by this episode’s pacing, and the conclusion suffered for it. Hopefully we’ll be back on track next week!
You can check out my full review over at ANN.
Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 8
Episode eight starts with a crack of thunder, as Ringo drags her creepy self up from beneath the floorboards. Framed in jolts of lightning and hideous shadows, Ringo’s attempted consummation is anything but romantic – and of course, that’s the only way it could work. By framing Ringo’s actions as a horror movie, Penguindrum both clearly demonstrates that it doesn’t agree with her actions, and also somewhat stylizes and thus softens the dramatic impact of Ringo actually trying to rape someone.