Chito was the star of this week’s Flying Witch, as both Chinatsu and Makoto let him take the lead on a pair of walks around the neighborhood. It takes a special kind of show to make “follow a cat around for a while and then take a nap” a compelling episode premise, but Flying Witch’s excellent cat animation and cat behavior won the day. I agree, Flying Witch. Cats are pretty funny.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
Kiznaiver wholly embraced its training camp setup this week, whipping out hoary old cliches like the test of courage to put its characters through yet another emotional wringer. The relationship between Chidori and Katsuhira is frankly one of the least interesting to me here – Katsuhira’s personality has always struck me as somewhat contrived, and the ways Chidori interacted with Tenga and Yuta this episode offered far more interesting emotional contrasts. It was also nice to see that Nico isn’t going to be entirely left behind by this whole love polygon scenario – it’s looking like she might have some thoughts on the Chidori-Tenga relationship herself. Passions continue to bubble between these kooky kids.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
The Lost Village got as weird as it’s ever been this week, introducing giant boobs and evil trains and all manner of horrible subconscious monsters. But through all the chaos and madness, Lovepon stayed strong. Her childhood may have been rough and her future may look bleak, but Lovepon will hold on to her love of executions through it all. Executions have never steered her wrong before now, and even through this trial, executions brought her safely through. Hold close to what you believe in, Lovepon. All of us believe in you.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
Kyubey has learned the truth of Homura now, and as this episode opens, he reveals one more awful secret. Apparently, it was precisely Homura’s efforts to save her that have made Madoka such a perfect target for Kyubey’s mission. By converging so many worldlines into one Madoka-focused reality, Homura has given her friend an inescapably huge karmic destiny. Just like Sayaka came to believe, it seems that everything balances out – for every breath Homura expended in attempting to save her friend, an equal amount of power was added to her tally, giving Kyubey that much more reason to pursue her. “Excellent work, Homura,” Kyubey tells her. “You’ve raised Madoka up to be the most powerful witch we’ve ever seen.”
A weaker episode of Kiznaiver this week, as it leaned on lousy comedy and archetypal beats and basically the kind of stuff you’d expect from a mediocre character-focused show. There was still good material too, though – the relationship between Yuta and Hanako is great, for example, and the show’s visual design is still top notch. There are still plenty of question marks hanging around this one, since it’s aiming for emotional profundity that it hasn’t yet earned, but the occasional sharp conversation does give me some hope it’ll at least approach a solid ending. Kiznaiver is a creaky show, but I have a lot of difficulty blaming shows for ambition.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!
We had a fresh new crop of anime roll in this week, and I’m here to sort out the top tier cartoons from the rest of the cargo. It won’t be easy this time – there were plenty of great episodes this week across the board, with a wide variety of genres and favorites pulling off excellent performances. The Lost Village’s fourth episode more or less cemented it as a ridiculous semi-classic, while Concrete Revolutio had another stunning vignette, and Flying Witch maintained its clean streak of strong episodes. This is the best season I’ve personally had in about a year, and I’m enjoying it to the fullest. Let’s dive right into this pile of nonsense and RUN ‘EM DOWN!
I’m a big fan of stories about people who are in a bad place. Characters who distrust the world around them, or who have been hurt in some way that makes it impossible for them to see good in others. Stories about characters put against the wall, who struggle against difficult but understandable odds. Many of my favorite shows fall in this range, from fantastical stuff like Madoka and Evangelion to the more mundane struggles of Oregairu or Monogatari. The characters in these shows have been hurt by the world, and so they can’t trust that the world will ever extend a hand back.
The Lost Village convinced me it was an intentional comedy this week, because quite frankly, I couldn’t really imagine the show being this funny if it wasn’t trying to. The show is just too well-constructed as a comedy – there are too many intentionally funny non-sequiturs and deliberate punchlines, too many clever setups and clear running jokes. It’s legitimately one of the most consistently effective anime comedies I’ve seen; basically everything it does lands for me. I wasn’t expecting The Lost Village to be this particular show, but I’m very happy to have it.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my episode notes below.
“I / I am a time bomb, and I / I only live in that one moment in which you die.”
– The Dismemberment Plan
Episode ten opens with the arrival of a new student – Homura Akemi, a shy girl with braided hair who’s been isolated in the hospital due to a heart condition. She doesn’t say much, but it’s clear through her defensive body language that she’s uncomfortable, and not used to interacting with lots of people. Fortunately, she’s saved from the questions of her curious classmates by Madoka, a smiling girl who leads her to the nurse’s office. Though Homura is so insecure she turns everything into an insult towards herself, Madoka is kind to her, and attempts to draw her out of her shell. The contrast between the confident and outgoing Madoka and the nervous, lonely Homura is striking.
I’ve actually been looking forward to getting to this episode for a while now. Nana is one of those rare unicorns of anime – an adaptation of a josei manga, the manga designation that in my mind might as well just mean “good manga.” Shounen manga are aimed at boys, shoujo manga are aimed at girls, and seinen manga are… well, generally aimed at adult boys. The seinen label rarely conveys actual maturity – it’s more the adolescent veneer of maturity, stories with lots of blood and guts but often even less to say about people or the world than their shounen counterparts.