One Week Friends – Episode 3

Management: I know, right? Another accidental writeup here, this time in my usual style. I only realized I’d become trapped in a writeup about halfway through the episode, so it’s a little sparse, but hopefully still enjoyable!

So yeah, One Week Friends is pretty great. It’s got a wonderful atmosphere, its characters are absolutely charming, its direction does great work in driving home the emotional states of the characters, and it actually digs at some really poignant stuff. As I said in my week in review, One Week Friends kind of covers the same territory as Evangelion – a fear of human connection underlines all the actions of this series. But One Week Friends is a much more upbeat show than Evangelion, so it doesn’t just wallow in that fear – by design, it exists in the fraught space between isolation and comfortable connection, meaning it is pretty much always about the importance, difficulty, and power of trust. Due to Fujimiya’s memory, its characters are continuously reaching out, continuously being forced to extend a hand they’re not sure will be reciprocated. And through both the narrative and the cinematography, One Week Friends demonstrates again and again how extending that trust can open up your world.

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Spring 2014 Season Preview

Well, we’re into the back half of winter, meaning it’s high time to stop suffering through whatever we’re currently watching and starting figuring out if next season will melt our jaded hearts. I’m pretty sure it will, in this case – even if this winter weren’t already awful, next season looks fantastic. I’m sure you’re all excited too, which is why I’m here to demonstrate the Correct shows to be excited about, with no exceptions, additions, or substitutions. And by that I mean the opposite of that – this list is basically just what I already know I have reasons to be excited about, and every season has its own surprises. It’s not like I expected to be looking forward to friggin’ Witch Craft Works. Anyway, let’s run down next season’s extremely impressive list.

Well, actually, before that, I should probably explain what this list is even about. I’m pretty much not going to list shows based on premise – personally, I think premise is almost entirely disconnected from quality, and will only bring it up if it seems unusual enough to warrant mention. Instead, my list is largely based on things I think actually do correlate with quality – talented creators, strong source material, and studios I’ve come to trust. Will I miss some shows? Obviously, but listing premises and hypothesizing on how they might not turn out poorly doesn’t sound like a particularly useful exercise. As always, the full list up upcoming shows is available at anichart.net. Anyway!

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