Sekai Seifuku – Episode 4

Well, let’s get to it. Last week’s episode was easily the best episode of the season to date, but everything else has really stepped it up this week – Kill la Kill, Samurai Flamenco, and Space Dandy all hit very surprising, very encouraging high notes. Will Sekai Seifuku stay ahead of the pack? Stay tuned.

Alright, that’s a kind of crap introduction. In all seriousness, last week’s episode demonstrated some very specific, very important strengths. What were they?

First, that the show’s sense of humor isn’t limited to sitting on a silly premise and some gags – it actually used the premise for satirical ends far sharper and far funnier than anything we’ve seen yet. It wasn’t content to coast on its premise, it actually explored it in a smart, interesting way.

Second, that the show really, really knows how to use the episodic format well. The episode had a theme and story of all of its own, but it also understood the importance of its place in a larger narrative – it provided a great deal of relevant backstory regarding Yasu, Gorou, and Kate even as it went about illustrating its own standalone fable.

And finally, that this show is actually about things. The first two episodes were enjoyable on their own and demonstrated the potential for interesting ideas – number three saw that potential fully, smartly realized. It was a story about the dangers of extremism and the importance of empathizing with even those you disagree with, and its final verdict was we are not very good at doing that. This show’s got bite, and its ostensibly silly premise is ripe for more such angry statements. I’m eager to see what it says next.

There we go. Alright, let’s get to this.

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Winter 2014 – Week 4 in Review

This week kinda restored my faith in this season. It’s still not great (mainly because its strength is in its comedies, and I’m not a comedy fan), but the three top new shows all had their best episodes yet, so I’m feeling optimistic. Running down the list…

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Sekai Seifuku – Episode 3

I’m actually kind of surprised at how much I’ve been looking forward to this episode. This show is just a lot of fun – it’s witty, colorful, and endearing, and has a great sense of humor that isn’t tied to any single gag. Basically, the world itself is funny – a world where the Great Ruler Kate actually makes sense, a world where those meddling do-gooders can be fooled by flipping the sign on your secret base, a world where you decide to conquer the world just because you want a bigger family. When your world is inherently funny, you don’t have to stretch too far for jokes, which is good – trying too hard is the easiest way to kill almost any joke.

Not that making jokes look natural and effortless is easy, either. They have to emerge naturally while still being witty – the fact that the base world plays with your viewer’s expectations in a way conducive to humor doesn’t mean you get to slack off.

And trying too little is also death – even when you’re going for simple jokes, that just puts that much more weight on every tool you do use. You can’t just have a character make a funny face – first the audience has to buy into that character, then the audience has to buy why that face would be funny relative to that character, then you have to perfect your pacing and direction, and even then the face better friggin’ convey what you’re trying to convey, since so much of the humor in funny faces is based in “wow, that expression makes complete yet ridiculous sense,” not just the face being silly.

Basically, humor sucks. I don’t know why anyone would try to be funny, it’s too much work and no-one appreciates it. As far as art forms go, it may be the one that gets the least credit relative to the work involved.

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Winter 2014 – Week 3 in Review

Welp, I guess we’re well and truly into the season now, which means it’s high time to start getting jaded and pissy about shows not living up to expectations. Hurray for fandom!

This week was almost identical to the last couple quality-wise, which spells good things for the carryovers and less good things for the new pickups. Let’s run them down…

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Sekai Seifuku – Episode 2

Well, here we are. Sekai Seifuku had the easily strongest premier of this admittedly weak-ass season, and though that first episode was mainly very pretty, very silly, and very endearing, this show is possibly the only one that shows the potential to go somewhere. That’s based on a couple very specific strengths, with the central one being the fact that it’s actually got a talented writer. That’s something you can’t fake – the first episode consistently hit a variety of styles of jokes, and even featured a solid speech from the protagonist that pointed to some possible themes while also demonstrating his own personality and bias in a very natural way.

But of course, this is also the show about a little girl in a ridiculous outfit conquering the world. So if it just remains the “I’ll share my snacks and the world with you” variety hour, that’s pretty okay too.

Anyway. Let’s see what we’ve actually got.

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Winter 2014 – First Impressions, Part Two (Chuunibyou S2, Nisekoi, Sakura Trick, Hoozuki no Reitetsu, Sekai Seifuku)

Management: As you may have noticed, I’m rolling these “first impressions” into my standard Week in Review posts. Hope nobody finds that unforgivable.

And with this week, we have our full set of premiers. And what a set it is!

Well, not really. Pretty mediocre set, to be frank. Having checked out the first episodes of close to everything that sounded interesting, I’m beginning to think this will actually be a great season to dig into the ol’ backlog.

Not to say there’s nothing I’m enjoying. Running it down…

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Sekai Seifuku – Episode 1

Alright. It’s all up to you, Sekai Seifuku. Space Dandy is too silly, Chuunibyou’s just Chuunibyou, and Hoozuki turned out to be like Lucky Star except somehow even more dull. If any show is going to end up this season’s dark horse candidate, it’s gonna have to be you. Don’t let me down!

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Winter 2014 Season Preview

Wow! This season looks awful!

…yep, that’s pretty much all there is to it. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been spoiled the last few seasons, or maybe Winter seasons just really are always that bad, but dear lord this season looks weak. Let’s run down the bright spots!

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