Hold onto your hats folks, it’s time for the Week in Review! It turns out I’m probably not going to be following that many shows this season, but what I’m lacking in range of properties, I’m more than making up in volume of rambling. All of the shows I’m watching gave me plenty to talk about this week, with JoJo pulling off one of its best episodes in months while all three of my newcomers worked to establish their own identities. I’m also appreciated the stark contrast between this season’s two heavyweights – Carole & Tuesday seems determined to embody the strength of a classic story told well, while Sarazanmai embraces creativity for its own sake, and clearly values the power of novelty and surprise. Both of them are great, and with two sturdy action vehicles aside, I’m basically just a slice of life short of a full hand. Let’s break down all the week’s highlights as we run down another week in anime!
Tag Archives: Carole & Tuesday
Spring 2019 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective
Well folks, the time has come again. With basically every spring premiere on the books, and me having watched them all in some misguided pursuit of cartoon enlightenment, we can at last run down the hits, misses, and egregious humanitarian crimes of the spring anime season. Though to be honest, the international tragedies were actually in pretty short supply this time – this was a premiere season defined by consistency, and low on outliers in either the positive or negative direction. That’s not to say there’s nothing worth watching, though; there’s actually a pretty wide array of respectable premieres in all sorts of genres, along with a couple genuine gems.
As usual, I’ll be breaking down my evaluations into a vague tier list, and keeping my blurbs fairly brief, while also linking to all of my lengthier reviews over at the preview guide. This isn’t meant to be an authoritative ranking of quality or anything – I mean, these are just first episodes, pretty much any of these productions could surprise us (except for AFTERLOST). In light of that, I’ll be returning to the most simultaneously telling and useless of evaluation metrics – silly anime gifs, the only true currency in our apocalyptic age. Starting with the best of shows and happiest of anime gifs, let’s run this whole damn season down!
Why It Works: Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichiro Watanabe is Directing an Anime this Spring!
Today on Why It Works, I used the occasion of Carole & Tuesday’s upcoming release to talk about Watanabe’s work in a more general sense, highlighting the themes and narrative quirks that have remained consistent all through his many years as a director. I get the feeling my insistence his works are all a part of one cohesive statement might not tempt people who are just hoping for Bebop 2, but I gotta try! Regardless, I enjoyed looking and thinking back over Watanabe’s career, and now feel even more excited for his new show. I hope you enjoy the piece!
Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichiro Watanabe is Directing an Anime this Spring!
Spring 2019 Season Preview
As impossible as it seems, the winter season is already starting to wind down. Final battles are being prepped for, title matches are commencing, and adventures are approaching their end. This is normally a somewhat melancholy time, and it’ll be sad to see this excellent winter pass, but it’s simultaneously impossible not to be excited for the coming season. Every season has both obvious and hidden gems, but in the case of Spring 2019, we’ve got a pile of titans clear from the very start. Spring 2019 is going to kick ass anime-wise, and I’m excited to share all my most anticipated titles with you!
As usual, my list won’t cover every single upcoming show, and also won’t really focus on base premises – you can check out anichart for all that stuff, and I don’t tend to find straightforward synopses particularly useful, anyway. Instead, I’ll be highlighting just the shows I personally have some expectations for, as well as the presumably coherent reasons for that enthusiasm, be it staff or source material or something else entirely. It’s not hyperbole, nor even particularly controversial to say Spring 2019 will be offering shows from some of the best anime directors of all time. Starting with a few of those legendary figures, let’s run down the highlights of the coming season!