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: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
Why It Works: JoJo’s Bizarre Survival Guide, Part Two
Yeap, turns out it takes more than four or five handy tips to survive in the JoJo universe. Today I returned to JoJo’s Bizarre Survival Guide, and had an altogether wonderful time pulling together a few more key rules for surviving in Araki’s wild wilderness. Let’s get to it!
JoJo’s Bizarre Survival Guide, Part Two
Spring 2019 – Week 2 in Review
With preview week stretching well into this week’s set of episodes, a great deal of this week’s shows have already been covered elsewhere, and then also again for my retrospective, and possibly even a third time for Why It Works. Not all of them, though – the season’s most punctual contenders are already on their second episode, and JoJo’s momentum has continued unabated all through the premieres. Given all that, we’ve got a relatively small collection of episodes to break down today, but the Week in Review will not be deterred. Starting with one of this season’s most promising new properties, let’s break down one more week in anime!
Why It Works: Surviving this Bizarre World: JoJo’s Bizarre Survival Guide
Today on Why It Works, I return to JoJo with another mostly nonsensical article about bizarre adventure best practices. While it’s true that JoJo is full of incredibly bullshit abilities that will kill you for the most preposterous of reasons, the seasons so far have also established a clear catalog of actions that will pretty much always get you injured, killed, or otherwise punished for your foolishness. Today we break down just a few of those classic mistakes in JoJo’s Bizarre Survival Guide!
Surviving this Bizarre World: JoJo’s Bizarre Survival Guide
Winter 2019 – Week 12 in Review
Aw shit you guys, the season’s over! It was all epic conclusions and goodbyes this week, as everything from Kemurikusa to Run with the Wind turned in their final assignments. The strengths or weaknesses of those final episodes were as diverse as the shows themselves; Kemurikusa attempted to switch gears for a genuine action spectacle, The Magnificent Kotobuki decided to hone in on all the things it does best, and Mob Psycho balanced its absurd animation feats with a lengthy and well-deserved epilogue. It’s been a pretty excellent anime season, and though some shows have had their ups and downs, I’m still astonished that both Mob Psycho and Run with the Wind were as consistently terrific as they turned out to be. Let’s run it all down in one last Winter 2019 Week in Review!
Winter 2019 – Week 11 in Review
Closing time is approaching, friends. With only one real week left in the winter season, all my seasonal contenders were wrapping things up for the endgame this week, offering a mix of climactic battles and shocking reveals and various other animated delights. The Magnificent Kotobuki sent like five hundred goddamn planes into the air to blow each other up, while Kemurikusa finally unveiled the true nature of its world, and Run with the Wind simply maintained its signature excellence. It was a week of winter 2019, in short, and I’m happy to move beyond the general vagueries and get down to the details with you all. Let’s run down one more week in anime!
Winter 2019 – Week 10 in Review
This was not the greatest week in anime, I am afraid to report. All the shows I’m watching that are apparently capable of weaker episodes ended up producing one, with JoJo in particular offering what was almost certainly the worst Golden Wind episode so far. Fortunately, even if all the stragglers faltered this week, both Mob Psycho 100 and Run with the Wind excelled with their usual grace, offering an encouraging counterpoint to their so-so compatriots. Pretty cool that for this season, even a particularly lousy week of anime still offers some of the best spectacles of the year!
Winter 2019 – Week 8 in Review
We’re arriving at the turn, folks! With the season nearly three quarters done, we’ve reached that brief sequence of around two weeks where it feels like every story I’m following is catching fire at once. As reliable as verse-chorus-verse-chorus, stories tend to put their characters through the toughest ringer at around the three-quarters mark, all leading into the triumphant rise towards the final conflict. Whether it’s Run with the Wind’s Hakoden trials, Mob’s Claw attack, or Kemurikusa’s final journey into the fog, our heroes are currently suffering through that ringer, and doing their best to entertain us all the while. Let’s celebrate their journeys as we run down one more week in anime!
Winter 2019 – Week 7 in Review
As we enter the second half of winter, this season’s diverse anime titans only continue to impress me. I actually don’t really know if there’s anything I’m missing – I normally desire a pretty balanced mix of fantasy/action, thematically rich stuff to dig into, and psychologically compelling character drama, and this season is offering all of that in spades. To be honest, even if nothing were airing but Mob Psycho 100, this season would still be filling out all those categories with ease. Basically the only category I care for that it doesn’t shine in is “goofy, warm-hearted palate cleanser,” and as it just so happens, this season also features a Tsutomu Mizushima show. The anime is fun, the anime is great, I’m sure you’re all tired of hearing me stretch for preamble. Let’s dispense with the formalities then, and get right to breaking down another week in anime!
Winter 2019 – First Half in Review
Well folks, we’ve finally arrived at the winter season’s halfway point. Last year’s winter season turned out to be that year’s best by far, and though I don’t think this year is quite measuring up to that standard, it’s still been a terrific season by any metric. The crown jewel of the season is clearly Mob Psycho 100, which has actually improved substantially from its already-terrific first season, but we’ve got great continuing shows, great anime-originals, and a pretty diverse genre distribution on the whole. For better or for worse, the age of CG has arrived, and though shows like Kotobuki and Kemurikusa aren’t necessarily the most visually impressive, they’ve consistently demonstrated that fundamentally strong storytelling always shines through. I’ve personally fallen off The Promised Neverland for the moment, but that’s not really a knock on its quality – its production just seems pretty specifically aimed at new viewers, with its focus on cliffhangers over atmosphere making it a little slow for someone who’s already experienced this story. And with JoJo powering through one of its strongest segments altogether, I’m basically guaranteed that any given week in anime will at the very least not be boring. It’s a bumper crop this year, and I’m happy to take stock of the highlights so far. Let’s get to it!