Hello everyone, and welcome back to the Week in Review. I’ve got a varied assortment of new properties to explore with you today, including a genuine anime classic, along with films ranging from the ludicrously terrible to the actually pretty good. It turns out self-quarantining also gives you a whole lot of time for videogames, so I’ve also got some initial thoughts on Nioh 2, the latest Soulsborne-style release from Team Ninja. I’ve got plenty to say and this article is late enough as it is, so let’s not waste any more time on throat clearing, and dive right into the Week in Review!
Tag Archives: Anime
Why It Works: Who Defines Justice in My Hero Academia?
This week’s Crunchyroll article returns us to My Hero Academia, as I explore the central question presented by Gentle Criminal’s addition to the narrative. Gentle’s actions aren’t legal, but they’re clearly pursuing a specific ideal of justice – so are heroes ultimately just super-powered shock troopers for the police, or genuine, independent heroes of the people? It’s a question that cape comics have explored all throughout comic history, and I’m delighted to see My Hero Academia expanding its moral scope through the defiantly ambiguous Gentle. Here’s the piece!
Who Defines Justice in My Hero Academia?
Pokemon Sun and Moon – Episode 6
Pack it in folks, we’re watching more friggin’ Pokemon. I’m currently stationed at the cold, wintery boundary line of 2019, watching this hell year come to a close with all the composure I can still muster, and I’m eager to watch something bright and joyous. Sun and Moon has turned out to be some incredibly tasty comfort food, bringing to mind many fond memories of my own childhood experiences with the Pokemon show and games, but also succeeding as a very well-executed children’s anime in its own right. Sun and Moon’s narrative pretensions aren’t particularly ambitious, and it’s not rife with diverse life lessons in the style of something like Ojamajo Doremi, but its aesthetic strengths, energetic pacing, alluring worldbuilding, and eminently likable characters all combine to make for a resoundingly pleasant, inviting, and relaxing experience. With my own Galar pokedex pushing towards the three hundred mark, I’m currently basking in Pokemon saturation, and couldn’t be happier about it. Let’s check out another episode of Sun and Moon!
Chihayafuru S3 – Episode 21
What the heck are we even doing now, folks? Following its initial tournament and the Chihaya-Taichi faceoff, basically all the rest of season three has so far been dedicated to the leadup and dramatic battles of the Master and Queen challenger matches – and now, those matches are over. Both Harada and Haruka proved themselves unable to defeat the defending champions, and the gauntlet has already been thrown down for Arata and Chihaya’s next-year challenge. But that challenge is still twelve friggin’ months away, and in the meantime, Chihayafuru’s stars will be navigating their last year of high school, and deciding where their lives go from here. After a long, long segment of purely tournament-focused drama, Chihayafuru is at last raising its head back out of the sand, and acknowledging a wider world once more. So where do its characters go from here?
For Taichi, the next step seems to be “reclaim confidence through seizing more tournament victories.” Taichi’s ideas of self-improvement all generally end up being some kind of self-flagellation, and with his mother now actively aware he’s been disobeying her, it surely won’t be long until he has to directly confront their differing perspectives on his future. For Chihaya, the end of this tournament means the questions she’s been delaying answering return to the foreground: what steps will she be taking to actually become a teacher, and how is she planning to answer Arata? And for Arata himself, well, he’s always been the wildcard – though having now challenged Suo directly, I imagine he’ll soon be consulting with Harada, or perhaps powering through more tournaments of his own. Whatever happens, the narrative gates have been opened wide, and I’m eager to see where this story now goes. Let’s get to it!
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – Episode 7
Hello folks, and welcome back to Why It Works. Today we’ll be continuing 2020’s brightest new anime star, the endlessly inventive Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, as Asakusa and her compatriots work to create their own giant robot anime. Last episode was all about plotting out the larger points regarding scenario and character design for this new project, so I expect the team to be in full production mode this time around, and am eager to see how they manage the increased needs for coordination presented by this ambitious collaboration. But either way, I’ve been putting off watching this episode for five whole days now, which makes me the art critic equivalent of a half-starved animal about to be set upon some artistically riveting domestic sheep. With that confusing image in your heads, let’s dive into the latest episode of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
Why It Works: Prepare Yourselves for a Superb, Sequel-Packed Spring Season!
Along with my own personal list of shows that appeal to my snooty critical sensibilities, this week I also wrote up a more general preview piece for Crunchyroll, highlighting the shows that your average anime fan might actually care about. I couldn’t help myself from devoting a bonus paragraph to Oregairu, but otherwise this is a pretty straightforward rundown of the upcoming season’s likely biggest hits, with an emphasis on the big friggin’ sequels in store. Let’s get to it!
Prepare Yourselves for a Superb, Sequel-Packed Spring Season!
Winter 2020 – Week 9 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome to another Week in Review. The film pickings were particularly generous this week, as I ended up watching two of the better films I’ve seen in months – and hey, one of them was even an anime! I finally checked out In This Corner of the World, and it turned out to be one of the best anime I’ve seen in years, reminding me once again of this art form’s boundless artistic potential, as well as its ability to make me sob like a baby. This post is already behind schedule and I’ve got plenty to talk about, so let’s not waste any more time, as we jump into one more Week in Review!
Spring 2020 Season Preview
Hello all, and welcome to Wrong Every Time! Today I am terrified to announce that it is some-fucking-how time for the spring previews, as the winter season is already drawing to a close. As is tradition, today I’ll be breaking down the most promising prospects of the upcoming season – though in this case, that process is somewhat complicated by the fact that spring is so entirely packed with sequels.
Seriously, just look at this friggin’ list. Re:Zero, Kaguya-sama, SAO, Fruits Basket, Food Wars!, Bookworm… heck, even friggin’ Jashin-chan Dropkick is getting a sequel. This is perhaps the point where my current policy of only continuing shows that genuinely thrill me starts to become a problem – when you combine that with the profound risk aversion built into the anime production system, you end up with over half a dozen “long-awaited sequels” to shows I dropped in their first or second episodes.
Fortunately, even if you set aside the majority of the major sequels, this is still looking to be a fine season – certainly more diverse than winter, at least, which mostly broke down into Eizouken and Everything Else. As usual, I won’t be highlighting every single show here – just the ones that I think have significant potential, either due to their staff, acclaimed source material, or whatever else catches my eye. Without further ado, let’s break down the most promising contenders of the Spring 2020 Anime Season!
Chihayafuru S3 – Episode 20
Folks, it is Chihayafuru time, and we do not have a goddamn minute to lose. After nearly a full goddamn season of building up the Master and Queen challenger matches, I at this point feel like a finely squeezed orange, my emotions entirely drained out of me, nothing remaining but a bruised shell of a human being. Haruka has been built up into one of Chihayafuru’s most distinctive, sympathetic characters so far, and last episode saw her defeated by Shinobu, and step off the professional stage for what is likely the very last time. My only consolation regarding that match is that, now that it’s over, the trials of competition can’t hurt Haruka or Shinobu anymore.
Over on the Masters’ side, Harada and Suo’s grueling faceoff is ending on one more goddamn luck of the draw. I definitely feel these recent matches have abused luck of the draws enough to result in some diminishing returns, but I also can’t deny that they’re one of the most powerful dramatic tools in karuta’s toolbox, and furthermore seem particularly appropriate for a match that may influence karuta’s overall destiny as a sport. Let’s see how this brutal battle ends!
Land of the Lustrous – Episode 3
Land of the Lustrous’ third episode opens with vivid colors in a shimmering visual stew, as Phos is seemingly digested by a great creature’s stomach acids. The scene is simultaneously beautiful and horrifying, capturing the contradiction at the heart of all this show’s many transformations, and demonstrating Land of the Lustrous’ own greatest visual strengths in turn. In conveying the roiling emotions of its gemstone heroes, Land of the Lustrous is often at its best when it leans into abstraction like this – angular shapes and colors spilling over each other, rather than direct, neutral visual representation.