When phrased like that it sounds pretty abusive, and you can certainly choose to view it in that way like I assume JBear does. But I contend that's a misrepresentation as it's more a situation of "run away from your problems, or choose to confront and actively solve them" in the abstract, that happens to involve getting beaten up on occasion because he's not particularly good at fighting and is wading into a dangerous scenario. But his tenacity and spirit manages to solve his problems in other ways, particularly in either diffusing situations or inspiring the aide of others that he otherwise would have been too timid to reach out for help previously. The relationships he has with his friends are all relatively healthy, they are the people he is sticking up for, and the people abusing him are outside antagonistic forces. "Choosing to be physically assaulted" is in context, about putting himself into harms way to help protect the people he cares about. And running away from those situations means leaving those people he cares about to face terrible fates alone where they end up in jail or dead or both through no real fault of their own. If that still sounds distasteful to you, I get that. Everyone has their likes and dislikes, and not everyone wants conflict in their cartoons, but I contend there's nothing inherently problematic about the scenario.
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Iaboo, Youaboo, Weallaboo for Anime!
- Thread starter Johnny Unusual
- Start date
Perhaps it's just the way it was phrased in your description then. What I read sounded to me like a character choosing between two bad options because they couldn't see another way out. It would take a lot to make me want to watch that kind of drama.
I am ok with conflict in any story-based media (it's usually a challenge to write a good story without it), and I'm also ok with on-screen violence. I'm usually turned off by watching a character suffer as a result of an unnecessary toxic imperative. To me, a main character who has to choose between getting beaten up or "living an empty and rudderless life devoid of interpersonal relationships" sounds pretty toxic.
I am ok with conflict in any story-based media (it's usually a challenge to write a good story without it), and I'm also ok with on-screen violence. I'm usually turned off by watching a character suffer as a result of an unnecessary toxic imperative. To me, a main character who has to choose between getting beaten up or "living an empty and rudderless life devoid of interpersonal relationships" sounds pretty toxic.
It's not like that's his only choices. His first go-through in life, he made the choice to run away and never really looked back or reflected on his life decisions. And it's only when being sent back through time to re-live his life a second time did he realize how miserable he was and how he squandered his life after seeing and remembering everything and everyone he loved and left behind. He could have, when he first ran away, put down new roots in another community, made new friends, got a new girlfriend, etc. But he didn't because his mindset was stuck in Run Away, Avoid Pain Mode and he just drifted through life. When given an opportunity to change history, he resolves to not run away from his problems and actively solve them rather than just being a wimp and giving up. He takes a few beatings in the process, but he generally makes progress when he chooses to stand up for himself and his life and the lives of himself and his friends markedly improves as a result. It also just so happens that the people he cared about in his past, also die in the future, so that's added incentives for him to maintain his resolve and stick with the hard task of changing history for all these people he used to care about a lot in his life. He could just run away again and fuck off and try to live his life over from square one by himself but better this time, but to him that's still running away and he'd probably not be able to handle the guilt of knowing that he could have tried to do something to save the lives of people he cares about but instead did nothing. Which, I dunno about you, but I don't know if I could live with myself if I did that.
Crunchyroll dropped 205 episodes of Sgt Frog on Friday. I've never seen the show before, but had heard good things about it, so I gave the first couple of episodes a watch. The second episode had a fart joke. For some, this would be a deal breaker. I on the other hand am a 13 year old boy in a man's body, so laughed like crazy. So I'm in.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
The season is winding to a close so I feel the need to look back on how some of the series I have been watching have ended.
Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood
When the show started, it seemed to have potential. Interesting setting. Some of the mythos (all the monster stuff) felt more like an attempt to add fantastical flavour but doesn't really add up to anything necessary. It looked like we were in for some political machinations and how it effects this person. Lots of big moves in the penultimate episode of the first arc (like, a ton of reveals all at once and I didn't get the significance of all of them). Then... the show becomes a big let down. The rest of the series looks like it wants to answer the question "what is life after revenge" and that's an interesting question. But the series wants us to see the main character as queen badass but she's constantly being bested. I was a little checked out but the final episode is the ultimate insult because it basically means the arc of the main character is as follows
the main character learns she's been manipulated to be an assassin most of her life, but instead of killing the man responsible, he historically takes her revenge away from her, and with it her agency, just as she's about to finally take some initiative after a lot of episodes of brooding. Then she gets murdered.
This could be an attempt to mirror the source material and even though I don't trust that creative team to treat their female characters super great, they clearly like competent planner characters with clever schemes so I suspect that was excised in favour of... this. What a complete letdown.
Those Snow White Notes
At least this is better and completely competent but disappointing in its own way. At first, it looked like it was going for something different than Kono Oto Tomare, a show I got hard addicted to, in favour of something quieter but it didn't take long to become a little more generic with a shamisen competition arc that felt VERY similar in tone. But despite being completely competent, there's something it doesn't do as well, which is making me really invested in the characters and their journey. And its not like I actively dislike them, even the main character who is presented as acting aloof but whose rudeness really comes from accidentally thoughtlessness, social awkwardness and having a hard time communicating himself. On paper it might have a thematic edge on Kono but in the end one of the shows I cared about and the other was... fine.
Vivy: Flourite Eye's Song
This is another one with a lot of promise and it ended completely fine but never quite became the emotional series I was hoping. I appreciate the ambition of an adventure series taking place over 100 years but in the end, it doesn't feel that ambitious in terms of story telling. There are some good ideas and the show is a fun watch but my excitement cooled on it. That said, the episode that leads into the last arc had a cliffhanger that was mostly obvious but had a wonderfully unsettling touch added to it. As a whole, it is fine. I have no big complaints. Its good. But don't feel like you need to go out of your way for it unless you are out of things to watch from this year. Then its a decent enough choice.
Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood
When the show started, it seemed to have potential. Interesting setting. Some of the mythos (all the monster stuff) felt more like an attempt to add fantastical flavour but doesn't really add up to anything necessary. It looked like we were in for some political machinations and how it effects this person. Lots of big moves in the penultimate episode of the first arc (like, a ton of reveals all at once and I didn't get the significance of all of them). Then... the show becomes a big let down. The rest of the series looks like it wants to answer the question "what is life after revenge" and that's an interesting question. But the series wants us to see the main character as queen badass but she's constantly being bested. I was a little checked out but the final episode is the ultimate insult because it basically means the arc of the main character is as follows
the main character learns she's been manipulated to be an assassin most of her life, but instead of killing the man responsible, he historically takes her revenge away from her, and with it her agency, just as she's about to finally take some initiative after a lot of episodes of brooding. Then she gets murdered.
This could be an attempt to mirror the source material and even though I don't trust that creative team to treat their female characters super great, they clearly like competent planner characters with clever schemes so I suspect that was excised in favour of... this. What a complete letdown.
Those Snow White Notes
At least this is better and completely competent but disappointing in its own way. At first, it looked like it was going for something different than Kono Oto Tomare, a show I got hard addicted to, in favour of something quieter but it didn't take long to become a little more generic with a shamisen competition arc that felt VERY similar in tone. But despite being completely competent, there's something it doesn't do as well, which is making me really invested in the characters and their journey. And its not like I actively dislike them, even the main character who is presented as acting aloof but whose rudeness really comes from accidentally thoughtlessness, social awkwardness and having a hard time communicating himself. On paper it might have a thematic edge on Kono but in the end one of the shows I cared about and the other was... fine.
Vivy: Flourite Eye's Song
This is another one with a lot of promise and it ended completely fine but never quite became the emotional series I was hoping. I appreciate the ambition of an adventure series taking place over 100 years but in the end, it doesn't feel that ambitious in terms of story telling. There are some good ideas and the show is a fun watch but my excitement cooled on it. That said, the episode that leads into the last arc had a cliffhanger that was mostly obvious but had a wonderfully unsettling touch added to it. As a whole, it is fine. I have no big complaints. Its good. But don't feel like you need to go out of your way for it unless you are out of things to watch from this year. Then its a decent enough choice.
Egarwaen
(He/Him)
Mass production means mass quantities!
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Other shows ended
Let's Make a Mug, Too!
Another cute girls doing cute things show and as you might imagine, its pretty light and fluffy. Inessential, but enjoyable and pleasant. It helps that it mostly looks pretty good, especially with the ceramics designs and ideas, which puts it above Asteroids in Love, which never sold me on making geology or astronomy interesting as much as I'd like. The weirdest decision is the main character's mother's creation, a big thing in the woods that looks bizarre and is always accompanied by haunting ambient noise. I don't think the show wanted us to be scared of it but...
Anyhoo, it was OK. And occasionally funny. After the first episode, though, I didn't bother watching the extra-feature with the actresses.
The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent
Well, the Saint's magic power is x1.5. That's still not bad. Its an quasi-otome isekai show set in a magic world and its pretty run of the mill. It makes the mistake of focusing on what I feel are the least interesting things: the main character's romantic relationship with an incredibly boring dude and in the latter half, a few magic power fights. The strength of the show is when it is sort of slice of life with this magic lady finding joy in making potions. Also, I'd argue potentially the most interesting aspect, a character who is sent to another world and unlike most other characters in the genre, actually feels a thing about it beyond "well, time to start over." I would much rather see a show about the lead's relationship with each other, as they are the only people in each other's lives with connections to their own life. Instead, she's put on the backburner for most of it and the episode about her is really about her crappy caretaker who feels really bad about some things but handles it in a needlessly circuitous way. Another show that's not bad but its pretty much lacking in substance, despite tantalizingly teasing it.
Let's Make a Mug, Too!
Another cute girls doing cute things show and as you might imagine, its pretty light and fluffy. Inessential, but enjoyable and pleasant. It helps that it mostly looks pretty good, especially with the ceramics designs and ideas, which puts it above Asteroids in Love, which never sold me on making geology or astronomy interesting as much as I'd like. The weirdest decision is the main character's mother's creation, a big thing in the woods that looks bizarre and is always accompanied by haunting ambient noise. I don't think the show wanted us to be scared of it but...
Anyhoo, it was OK. And occasionally funny. After the first episode, though, I didn't bother watching the extra-feature with the actresses.
The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent
Well, the Saint's magic power is x1.5. That's still not bad. Its an quasi-otome isekai show set in a magic world and its pretty run of the mill. It makes the mistake of focusing on what I feel are the least interesting things: the main character's romantic relationship with an incredibly boring dude and in the latter half, a few magic power fights. The strength of the show is when it is sort of slice of life with this magic lady finding joy in making potions. Also, I'd argue potentially the most interesting aspect, a character who is sent to another world and unlike most other characters in the genre, actually feels a thing about it beyond "well, time to start over." I would much rather see a show about the lead's relationship with each other, as they are the only people in each other's lives with connections to their own life. Instead, she's put on the backburner for most of it and the episode about her is really about her crappy caretaker who feels really bad about some things but handles it in a needlessly circuitous way. Another show that's not bad but its pretty much lacking in substance, despite tantalizingly teasing it.
John
(he/him)
I finally completed Serial Experiments Lain after a 20+ year hiatus. I first rented and made copies of the VHS tapes from a comic store in high school, but their copy of the 4th tape was always rented out (i.e. stolen) so I never could finish the series, and I never grabbed it on DVD. I quite liked the series, though it wasn't as deep as memory told me, but that's how life goes. It was still adventurous, and gave me some things to mull over, as not everything was explicitly on the screen. It's just a better series for a younger mind.
On to the Web conversion of the PSX game for more weirdness, and potentially ruining the experience with infodumps (I have no idea, never played it, but I do know that most times, less is more).
On to the Web conversion of the PSX game for more weirdness, and potentially ruining the experience with infodumps (I have no idea, never played it, but I do know that most times, less is more).
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Vinland Saga Manga Gets 'Important Announcement' on July 26
The August issue of Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine revealed on Thursday that Makoto Yukimura's Vinland Saga manga will have an "important announcement"...
This feels like code for "new season." I hope I'm right.
Zombieland Saga REVENGE came to a close last night. I'm not going to lie, I got a little misty eyed there a few times. Seeing the girls finally make it after two seasons of struggling was very nice. SLSR was not a deep and thought provoking, but it was good comfort food level anime.
It was nice to get a little history on Yugiri, which confirmed fan theories that she was beheaded. But that ending. SHIT, THAT ENDING. Kotaro is coughing up blood and a spacecraft attacks. I'm certain the spaceship is a misdirect of some kind, but the blood thing makes me think back to the beginning of the season where Kotaro mentions they don't have much time left. At the time I thought it referred to the girls and they even do a great misdirect in episode 11 with Sakura being unsteady. But yeah, they haven't touched on the cost that Kotaro may have had to pay to revive Franchouchou.
I'm also surprised about Lily or, well, how they treat her.. Look, media from Japan is usually not kind to non-cisgendered people. At best they are just a joke and it gets worst from there. But Lily has one episode revealing her deadname and the reason for her death. And that's it. The other characters know who she was and then they treat as like they always do. When I saw that they had given Lily another episode, I was worried it was going to be gross and spoil the series for me. Instead we get a cute episode where Lily shows off her scatting skills. It's nice to be able to watch a show and not feel grossed out. Or start swearing at it.
Unless it's the new season of Arifureta, cuz I hate watch that shit.
I'm also surprised about Lily or, well, how they treat her.. Look, media from Japan is usually not kind to non-cisgendered people. At best they are just a joke and it gets worst from there. But Lily has one episode revealing her deadname and the reason for her death. And that's it. The other characters know who she was and then they treat as like they always do. When I saw that they had given Lily another episode, I was worried it was going to be gross and spoil the series for me. Instead we get a cute episode where Lily shows off her scatting skills. It's nice to be able to watch a show and not feel grossed out. Or start swearing at it.
Unless it's the new season of Arifureta, cuz I hate watch that shit.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Other shows I finished for the season
Zombieland Saga Revenge - I'm still not as over the moon for this series as much as most of Talking Time but I still like it and in terms of animation and humour (most of the time) and trying stuff, it is a good show. Definitely the best idol show I've ever seen. And it even did a surprisingly sedate (by ZLS standards) two-parter set in the past. But I feel like the ending was such a logical conclusions there were no surprises. Not a bad thing, per se, especially if you want our heroes to have a nice victory lap after a season of working their way back to the top. But most of the last act is singing. And I'm into it when it is poppy and energetic and less when it is a ballad. But it was a solid season with a couple of real stand-out episodes and at times GREAT character designs for the more over the top characters (my favourite being the man with the flaccid pompadour who nonetheless is still brimming with confidence and rightfully so.)
Super Cub - I still like Super Cub but but it definitely serves into self-parody with the messianic healing power of the Super Cub, in stores now. It get fucking ridiculous at moments. I know its basically a series length commercial but a lot of commercials know the beauty of the soft sell and it gets REAL hard in the last two episodes. But apart from that, when the show is less about the hard sell and more about girls riding down the road, enjoying the freedom their bikes provide, its a relaxing, chill show about girls and their bikes.
Zombieland Saga Revenge - I'm still not as over the moon for this series as much as most of Talking Time but I still like it and in terms of animation and humour (most of the time) and trying stuff, it is a good show. Definitely the best idol show I've ever seen. And it even did a surprisingly sedate (by ZLS standards) two-parter set in the past. But I feel like the ending was such a logical conclusions there were no surprises. Not a bad thing, per se, especially if you want our heroes to have a nice victory lap after a season of working their way back to the top. But most of the last act is singing. And I'm into it when it is poppy and energetic and less when it is a ballad. But it was a solid season with a couple of real stand-out episodes and at times GREAT character designs for the more over the top characters (my favourite being the man with the flaccid pompadour who nonetheless is still brimming with confidence and rightfully so.)
Super Cub - I still like Super Cub but but it definitely serves into self-parody with the messianic healing power of the Super Cub, in stores now. It get fucking ridiculous at moments. I know its basically a series length commercial but a lot of commercials know the beauty of the soft sell and it gets REAL hard in the last two episodes. But apart from that, when the show is less about the hard sell and more about girls riding down the road, enjoying the freedom their bikes provide, its a relaxing, chill show about girls and their bikes.
Erilex
hourglass figure
Seriously, there are a couple of Super Cub episodes that really need some sort of "DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES" advisory. If you find your friend in a ditch, suffering from hypothermia and with potentially broken bones and/or a concussion, please, please, take them to the hospital. And maybe call an ambulance first
Also, when the protag repeats her depressing soliloquy from the first episode at the end, I almost screamed NO, I'M PRETTY SURE YOU HAVE FRIENDS NOW, YOU MOTORCYCLE OBSESSED WEIRDO, but then I remembered that she considers her connection with fellow cub riders as something that trascends friendship, so it's alright I guess.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Hard yep. I love the show but there is a lot to mock, particularly in the last few episodes. It's amazing that the show doesn't recommend calling a damned ambulance. Plus, she also clearly has money. At least enough to spend on a lot of necessarily Super Cub accessories. We are told she is poor but she is constantly buying new stuff.
Wonder Egg Priority's final, final we really mean it this time episode is out... and I sadly feel obligated to retract every good thing I ever said about the show, because it's terrible. Not so much on the audiovisual side (though it's definitely several steps down from where the show started) but on the writing side for being just awful. If you must watch it, just go until the first recap episode and then stop and imagine your own ending. Literally anything would be better than "the overbearing male teacher is actually a good guy, it's the teenage girl who killed herself who was the actual sexual predator!"
Haha yiiikes
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
I haven't seen it but it's a show I liked that constantly teetered on a knife edge to going very wrong. Not surprised, but disheartened.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Meanwhile, I watched the end of a lot of seasons and series last night and most of them were pretty good. But let's start off with the weakest one (of last night, not the season. Those have thankfully ended).
Farewell, My Dear Cramer - I was excited about this one at first but this has been a disappointing show. Not bad but pedestrian in a way that is a bit on the dull side. I saw an ANN reviewer saying something similar but from a point of view of the fan of the manga, implying that it was a lifeless production of a pretty decent manga. Its from the "Your Lie in April" series, which was prime teen melodrama. And as the series goes on, there are a few good character designs (including a great girl who looks more like a One Piece or Eyeshield 21 character than the more sedate looking characters for most of this series). Its also one of those sports shows that being based on a long manga, it has the pacing disadvantage of ending without our heroes getting an actual substantial win. This isn't uncommon in sports anime. Ahiru no Sora left with our heroes in the same place after 50 episodes (transitive spoilers for that). I get having our characters have a long road but without the characters sinking their teeth into me in a notable way, it left me feeling even more disappointed. I feel like there are other adaptation issues. There's a prequel movie that sounds more interesting than this series that got COVID delayed about the title character having to prove herself on the boys' team. Apparently a match in the middle got cut out (but considering how dull these matches are visually its no big loss). That one Otome girl on the team is just... so irritating. I wish this turned out better.
Still no clue what this title refers to.
Mars Red - This is series that falls into similar territory as Joran... the first collection of episodes made me think there was more going on than there was. The difference is that Joran turned out to be completely empty inside. Mars Red let me down by taking its most interesting character off the board for much of it and then giving us a rather uninteresting threat that never pays off. Even its destruction was anti-climactic. Most of the villains are disappointing (though the penultimate episode intentionally undercuts one of them to reveal that despite his master manipulator goals, he's much more ineffectual than he thinks he is) and the series of the last half is just far less interesting. But it never gets bad, just never as good as its heights early on. I do feel the last couple eps had some significant course correction and I appreciate a lot of what it was trying to do. But the series could have been much stronger with a tighter back half. Still, I appreciate that when it was on, it was great.
Fruits Basket - Or "Oops, All Epilogues". Keep in mind, I liked this show throughout, despite some problematic elements (most notably, pretty significant age differences between romantically linked characters. One in the double digits with one half being in high school.) But Fruits Basket, while not perfect, is decent romantic melodrama. Its funny how the more Ranma-inspired nature of the series (martial arts, changing into animals) feels inessential and more like the creator getting her foot in the door with editorial to tell a tale of sad pretty people. And its a solid tale. I don't think it necessarily hurt the show but it was definitely a decision to have what feels like FIVE EPISODES of falling action, with all of the major conflicts and dilemma's dealt with and more some cleaning up and "now what". It definitely gets a bit ridiculous but it remained throughout a decent series. That apparently is getting a prequel about Torhu's mom and dad meeting. Did we want that?
Megalobox 2: Nomad - I had high hopes for this one and it met them. The show takes a much more different tact in the best way. The first show was about a hungry fighter raging against opponents that mirrored a rage against the societal obstacles in his life. Nomad is much more sedate and meditative. Its matured. The first had a deep well of ambition and this a well of sadness. I love that it made the choice to do something that was the opposite of the iconic last fight in Ashita no Joe. And like the first Megalobox, the final match ironically happens after both contenders have gone through all the major hardship of the series. The stakes aren't all or nothing. Instead, the fight, once again is a celebration, except while in the first one both characters were willing to go to insane length for their pride, this is a series about two masters who have moved beyond it. Both work great dramatically in different ways. Nomad really justified its existence. I can't imagine a third unless Joe is moved into a trainer role for a new lead character. I loved all its decisions and while it didn't have the impact of the first, it did not squander its potential.
Oddtaxi - God. This one is so good. Probably my favourite show of the year. If there was a flaw, its that some of the characters feel like archetypes of the social media age (lying Tinder-user, desperate influencer) but even then it approaches even its broader characters with a certain level of humanity. And I think a lot of that is thanks to its lead. Odakawa is sardonic and smart mouthed but he's also open-minded. He's a listener and he knows how to get people to keep talking. He's smarter than he looks but not too smart to stretch believability. And while Odakawa is the definite lead, it really is an ensemble piece of various stories with the shared theme of people who have tragic psychological weaknesses that lead them into some bad life decisions. The show doesn't hate its characters for it. Its a noir story but one set largely in the day light hours. Its colorful and sunny but also sad and deceptively dark. Its a show that is so confident, it has a chill aura while turning out to have to have surprising tension and works through its many working parts well. All of the stories are satisfying, even if one of them is in a way that also might frustrate you. Though the tone is sometimes sad and dark (including the tragic reveal of our hero's backstory), it feels like a show that is overtly positive about humanity. Which makes the (vague spoiler) gut punch at the end even more of a shock, but one that I kind of love. Seriously, Oddtaxi is the show I wish people were talking more about.
Farewell, My Dear Cramer - I was excited about this one at first but this has been a disappointing show. Not bad but pedestrian in a way that is a bit on the dull side. I saw an ANN reviewer saying something similar but from a point of view of the fan of the manga, implying that it was a lifeless production of a pretty decent manga. Its from the "Your Lie in April" series, which was prime teen melodrama. And as the series goes on, there are a few good character designs (including a great girl who looks more like a One Piece or Eyeshield 21 character than the more sedate looking characters for most of this series). Its also one of those sports shows that being based on a long manga, it has the pacing disadvantage of ending without our heroes getting an actual substantial win. This isn't uncommon in sports anime. Ahiru no Sora left with our heroes in the same place after 50 episodes (transitive spoilers for that). I get having our characters have a long road but without the characters sinking their teeth into me in a notable way, it left me feeling even more disappointed. I feel like there are other adaptation issues. There's a prequel movie that sounds more interesting than this series that got COVID delayed about the title character having to prove herself on the boys' team. Apparently a match in the middle got cut out (but considering how dull these matches are visually its no big loss). That one Otome girl on the team is just... so irritating. I wish this turned out better.
Still no clue what this title refers to.
Mars Red - This is series that falls into similar territory as Joran... the first collection of episodes made me think there was more going on than there was. The difference is that Joran turned out to be completely empty inside. Mars Red let me down by taking its most interesting character off the board for much of it and then giving us a rather uninteresting threat that never pays off. Even its destruction was anti-climactic. Most of the villains are disappointing (though the penultimate episode intentionally undercuts one of them to reveal that despite his master manipulator goals, he's much more ineffectual than he thinks he is) and the series of the last half is just far less interesting. But it never gets bad, just never as good as its heights early on. I do feel the last couple eps had some significant course correction and I appreciate a lot of what it was trying to do. But the series could have been much stronger with a tighter back half. Still, I appreciate that when it was on, it was great.
Fruits Basket - Or "Oops, All Epilogues". Keep in mind, I liked this show throughout, despite some problematic elements (most notably, pretty significant age differences between romantically linked characters. One in the double digits with one half being in high school.) But Fruits Basket, while not perfect, is decent romantic melodrama. Its funny how the more Ranma-inspired nature of the series (martial arts, changing into animals) feels inessential and more like the creator getting her foot in the door with editorial to tell a tale of sad pretty people. And its a solid tale. I don't think it necessarily hurt the show but it was definitely a decision to have what feels like FIVE EPISODES of falling action, with all of the major conflicts and dilemma's dealt with and more some cleaning up and "now what". It definitely gets a bit ridiculous but it remained throughout a decent series. That apparently is getting a prequel about Torhu's mom and dad meeting. Did we want that?
Megalobox 2: Nomad - I had high hopes for this one and it met them. The show takes a much more different tact in the best way. The first show was about a hungry fighter raging against opponents that mirrored a rage against the societal obstacles in his life. Nomad is much more sedate and meditative. Its matured. The first had a deep well of ambition and this a well of sadness. I love that it made the choice to do something that was the opposite of the iconic last fight in Ashita no Joe. And like the first Megalobox, the final match ironically happens after both contenders have gone through all the major hardship of the series. The stakes aren't all or nothing. Instead, the fight, once again is a celebration, except while in the first one both characters were willing to go to insane length for their pride, this is a series about two masters who have moved beyond it. Both work great dramatically in different ways. Nomad really justified its existence. I can't imagine a third unless Joe is moved into a trainer role for a new lead character. I loved all its decisions and while it didn't have the impact of the first, it did not squander its potential.
Oddtaxi - God. This one is so good. Probably my favourite show of the year. If there was a flaw, its that some of the characters feel like archetypes of the social media age (lying Tinder-user, desperate influencer) but even then it approaches even its broader characters with a certain level of humanity. And I think a lot of that is thanks to its lead. Odakawa is sardonic and smart mouthed but he's also open-minded. He's a listener and he knows how to get people to keep talking. He's smarter than he looks but not too smart to stretch believability. And while Odakawa is the definite lead, it really is an ensemble piece of various stories with the shared theme of people who have tragic psychological weaknesses that lead them into some bad life decisions. The show doesn't hate its characters for it. Its a noir story but one set largely in the day light hours. Its colorful and sunny but also sad and deceptively dark. Its a show that is so confident, it has a chill aura while turning out to have to have surprising tension and works through its many working parts well. All of the stories are satisfying, even if one of them is in a way that also might frustrate you. Though the tone is sometimes sad and dark (including the tragic reveal of our hero's backstory), it feels like a show that is overtly positive about humanity. Which makes the (vague spoiler) gut punch at the end even more of a shock, but one that I kind of love. Seriously, Oddtaxi is the show I wish people were talking more about.
Takaya's other manga that I've read is also about sad pretty people (including the one that's nominally a fantasy, Liselotte and Witch's Forest), so this isn't a bad take at all.
Tohru's parents' meeting is in the manga and is completely inessential, imo. That's partially a me thing in that the Furuba manga was drifting into the "too many characters to care about all of their problems" zone at the time it showed up. In any case, Tohru's dad is basically an amalgam of Tohru and Shigure, and there's yet another age gap romance there, and... meh.
Seconded. Endings in media are so often disappointing, but this one really just knocked it out of the park. Elevated the entire series and unseated To Your Eternity (which also continues to be very good) as my favourite of the season. I highly recommend both.
Erilex
hourglass figure
Egg show started rubbing me the wrong way around episode 4 (the one with the infamous line about how women kill themselves because they are EMOTIONAL while men kill themselves for RATIONAL, goal oriented reasons) and my discomfort with it grew steadily until I dropped it when it turned out that Ai was in fact in love with her teacher (who had until that point been portrayed extremely creepyly for some reason -I guess the show was going for some sort of SHAME ON YOU FOR MISJUDGING THIS INNOCENT MAN gotcha?-). The entire thing just reeked of the writer trying to make deep commentary on topics he knew absolutely nothing about. The heavy seasoning of patronizing misoginy didn't help, exactly. I'm glad I didn't keep watching, because that bit you marked as a spoiler would have finished me off. Sliced me cleanly in half like one of those anime sword techniques. Seriously, what the hell.
conchobhar
What's Shenmue?
ODDTAXI was a hell of a ride: a neo-noir mystery with an unconventional premise, a unique look (animals aside, this is also a very bright and colourful show), a droll sense of humour and perhaps the tightest plotting I've seen in the medium. So it pains me to say that I didn't quite love it. I think the finale was too satisfying, in a way: every villain is punished, every misfit has their life turn around, friends reunite… everything is "how it should be". It's too neat; I prefer some open questions. Of course, the stinger with newly-revealed-murderer Yuki getting into Odokawa's cab qualifies, and that was my favourite part of the finale… but I wish it wasn't just that. Still an excellent show and I'd highly, highly recommend it. It's a rare anime that feels like it's actually aimed at an older audience.
NOMAD: Megalobox 2 was nothing at all like I thought it would be— in a good way. Where the first season was a conventional (uncommonly well-told and stylish, but conventional nonetheless) sports story, repete with a tourney structure and gimmick fighters, this second season is anything but. This is really a drama that explores what comes after— after victory, after defeat, after loss, after trauma, after abandonment. It's less a boxing story than a character study disguised as one, and it's brilliant for how bold and unpredictable it is (there is no tournament to give shape here). Better yet, I think it lives up to that world-weary, funereal tone that the first season— for all its high-octane action— had. And it does that while still having beautiful animation of people punching each other in the face. Win-win.
Wonder Egg Priority … what a fucking disaster. q 3 already mentioned that the series-long mystery of "why did Koito kill herself" was finally resolved with "because she couldn't manipulate her good & kind teacher", which is bad enough, but it's worse because it's explicitly a retcon: the series had previously been implying that Mr. Sawaki was a not as he appeared, and then went as far as to make him the instigator of Ai's suicide in a parallel timeline; so to just walk this back as "nah, he was innocent, actually" isn't just offensive on the face of it, but as close to gaslighting as you can get with fiction. Nothing else in it is as offensively bad, but there's still plenty that's offensively stupid: underplaying its final twists, completely ignoring the Acca/Ura-acca/Frill story and thus offering zero resolution there, ending on a note that doesn't make any thematic sense. I actually liked the TV series; sure, it bit off more than it could chew (tackling every issue a young girl might face), and didn't always do so elegantly, and its metaphors were often muddled… but I appreciate a series that goes big, that has ambition in spades and wants to Say Something even if it stumbles along the way. But this ruins it. We're left without any coherent story or message to take from this (or at least no positive one). I think you'd be hard-pressed to name another series that had such a dramatic drop in quality from premiere to finale.
NOMAD: Megalobox 2 was nothing at all like I thought it would be— in a good way. Where the first season was a conventional (uncommonly well-told and stylish, but conventional nonetheless) sports story, repete with a tourney structure and gimmick fighters, this second season is anything but. This is really a drama that explores what comes after— after victory, after defeat, after loss, after trauma, after abandonment. It's less a boxing story than a character study disguised as one, and it's brilliant for how bold and unpredictable it is (there is no tournament to give shape here). Better yet, I think it lives up to that world-weary, funereal tone that the first season— for all its high-octane action— had. And it does that while still having beautiful animation of people punching each other in the face. Win-win.
Wonder Egg Priority … what a fucking disaster. q 3 already mentioned that the series-long mystery of "why did Koito kill herself" was finally resolved with "because she couldn't manipulate her good & kind teacher", which is bad enough, but it's worse because it's explicitly a retcon: the series had previously been implying that Mr. Sawaki was a not as he appeared, and then went as far as to make him the instigator of Ai's suicide in a parallel timeline; so to just walk this back as "nah, he was innocent, actually" isn't just offensive on the face of it, but as close to gaslighting as you can get with fiction. Nothing else in it is as offensively bad, but there's still plenty that's offensively stupid: underplaying its final twists, completely ignoring the Acca/Ura-acca/Frill story and thus offering zero resolution there, ending on a note that doesn't make any thematic sense. I actually liked the TV series; sure, it bit off more than it could chew (tackling every issue a young girl might face), and didn't always do so elegantly, and its metaphors were often muddled… but I appreciate a series that goes big, that has ambition in spades and wants to Say Something even if it stumbles along the way. But this ruins it. We're left without any coherent story or message to take from this (or at least no positive one). I think you'd be hard-pressed to name another series that had such a dramatic drop in quality from premiere to finale.
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Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
The neatness of Oddtaxi's ending didn't bother me so much. While this show had a lot to sink one's teeth into with a lot of moving parts, the show is largely very optimistic and a weird mix of complex and simple. But even within the simplicity of the characters is a richness and nuance. And I think the show, despite the gut punch final reveal, wants to be an ultimately hopeful and uplifting show about people. A show where characters can be driven to some dark places by their weaknesses (which are amplified by certain aspects of modern society) but, if you want to, you can get out. And even the lone gunman gets a chance.
Odakawa might be headed for a tragic, undeserved end from someone with no moral compass but I don't mind everything else being a happy ending as it feels very much in line with the tone and messaging of the series.
My favourite reveal in the last episode is why Dobu miscounted the bullets. Little Daimon is a little shit.
And I definitely agree that it is so refreshing to see a show with characters of a mature age as leads.
conchobhar
What's Shenmue?
I should clarify that I'm not counting it as a mark against the show. It's not a bad ending at all, it's tonally-apt for the show and all the details make sense— I'm not trying to say it's unearned or contrived or anything like that. It's just a personal preference, and I fully acknowledge that I'm offside the common opinion here. To give you an idea of my mindset, I felt similarly about Breaking Bad, another ending that ties up all loose ends and is often regarded as one of the best TV finales of all time.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
Really? I feel there was actually quite a bit of backlash against Breaking Bad's ending for similar reasons. Maybe we just run in different circles. (Personally, I think Felina's good but its hard to top Ozymandias).
I was actually a little disappointed by one Oddtaxi villain who did get away with everything - the mob boss, who is allowed to retire in peace with a huge stack of cash and Odokawa's blessing. Despite the fact that most of the bad things in the series (other than the murder) are ultimately his responsibility. "My one rule is don't kill" is just another way of saying "I have no problem whatsoever with kidnapping, robbery, blackmail, etc., as long as it brings in money." The show going out of its way to call him blameless was a sour note, though I did like most of the rest.
R.R. Bigman
Coolest Guy
I started watching Oddtaxi after reading this last page. It’s not what I thought it was going to be. The weirdest thing is not that the main character is a walrus, it’s that he’s in his forties! T
On the topic of funny animals, Zootopia sure seemed to have had a impact on the anime crowd. This, BeastStars, Brand New Animal and that other new Trigger show later this year.
On the topic of funny animals, Zootopia sure seemed to have had a impact on the anime crowd. This, BeastStars, Brand New Animal and that other new Trigger show later this year.
tfw the lifespan of a walrus is 40 years
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
I would say Oddtaxi feels the least inspired by Zootopia, in that the other shows are about societies altered for the animals and not so much Oddtaxi. That said, the choice is definitely more than cosmetic. I hope you enjoy it.
Shadows House
Last show to end from the last season and... overall the show is good but the arc they leave us with is a little disappointing. I understand it might have been made for the show rather than a manga adaptation and by the end it does leave us where we started at following the very fun Debut arc. I am hoping for more, the series met my expectations and while its not exactly The Promised Neverland, it became appropriately sinister in a way I like.
Shadows House
Last show to end from the last season and... overall the show is good but the arc they leave us with is a little disappointing. I understand it might have been made for the show rather than a manga adaptation and by the end it does leave us where we started at following the very fun Debut arc. I am hoping for more, the series met my expectations and while its not exactly The Promised Neverland, it became appropriately sinister in a way I like.
Johnny Unusual
(He/Him)
New season. New shows. But this season is actually looking a little… anemic? At least for my tastes. I will say, so far, I’ve watched five shows and how many of them did I want to stick with? Two. And how many was I PSYCHED to see more of?... None. One come close but its more I’m happy to see more of it. Anyway, let’s get to that.
The Case Study of Vanitas
Premise (from memory)
Vampires fought humans and the humans won. YAY… maybe. Set in an alternate reality Paris with weird tech (not steampunk, I don’t think but retro-futuristic), vampires still live on the down low, with humanity thinking of them as mere urban legends. One man on his way to Paris where he hope to find a legendary grimoire. While there he makes the acquaintance of a young woman… who turns out to be a vampire. The vampire is targeted by a mysterious and skilled oddball and the young man, who also turns out to be a vampire defends her. But then the young vampire girl turns dangerously out-of-control. Turns out the man hunting her, Vanitas, wasn’t planning to kill her. He’s actually a doctor who specializes in vampires. Vampires can be corrupted if magic weirdness corrupts their names. And he uses his own magic grimoire to kill her. Vanitas asks for his brave vampire’s help who would be willing to help a woman he doesn’t know… but his would-be assistant says “Nah.”
It Gud?
Its quite promising. The animation is pretty darn good. The pacing and world building shows potential. And its got a very good cat.
I guess I can give it full marks technically. It does nothing *wrong*. But the characters aren’t clicking with me. At least not yet. I guess I’m finding the title character’s energy a little much, a performative self-aggrandizing loudmouth who has skills. I’m more into his counterpoint, a friendly low-key dude who seems sweet but a little dull-witted. I don’t know enough about either of their motivations (or at least not their DEEPER emotional motivations beyond “do good”) to get invested and they aren’t completely clicking comedically. But I hold out promise because while I’m not seeing an exciting character dynamic in the show itself… the one in the intro is VERY promising to me.
It’s a very good intro but more than that it establishes character more instantly strongly to me, making the tall vampire “assistant” a take the bull by the horns carpe diem type while his friend joins him and is desperately trying to get him to do something else. I could also see this relationship as being romantic, which would be fun. But over all, this intro’s presentation of character is more compelling to me. Still, even without it, there is a lot of promise here and I’m interested to see if it lives up to it. JBear pointed out to me that the grimoire might work as more of a deus ex machina, just fixing a problem/villain of the week but I am hoping it is something a bit more.
Remake Our Lives
Premise
A 28 year old guy feels like he’s wasted his life. He wanted to be in the nerd industry but never committed himself. However, things looks up when he starts working for a game company, only to find his project and job scuttled in favor of a mobile game the company is working on. He ends up moping at home and remember when he had the options between studying something practical or taking a visual arts degree and giving up his dreams. When he wakes up the next day, he realizes he’s travelled in time to the day where he made his decision. This time going to arts university, he finds himself studying towards the goal of working in the visual arts with his dormmates.
It Gud?
The more I think about the modern day isekai genre, the more I get concerned. A lot of these shows are about people who feel they are at the end of their ropes. And for many, the solution is magical intervention rather than something they could actually do in the here and now. As if there’s no escape. Even worse, some people’s lives can only be improved by violent death. That… might not be a good message for real people who might literally be in a hard place in their lives.
Remake Our Lives isn’t “isekai” but it follows the same rules. Someone is sent somewhere else when they are in a hard time in their lives and won’t have to worry about missing their own life. It allows them to re-invigorate their sense of taking charge of their life that had once alluded them. Also, sexy girls. But I will say, it does things a lot don’t. We spend a SHOCKING amount of time with the main character before the time travel kicks in. And I was pretty OK with that. It presents the situation not as a “bottom” but being stuck in a cycle. I still don’t think the show ever really justifies time travel when it could have been “kid goes to college” but I appreciate it being something a little more patient in that respect.
And for the most part, the show isn’t BAD. For the most part. Then about 20 minutes into its 50 minute running time, it gets, like, grossly fanservice horny for a segment where the guy wakes up next to a girl who is just there, then she drinks some yogurt, which drips onto her boobs. It is… a turn. Like, visually, it was a show that looked like it could go there but the tone of the rest of the show, before and after, doesn’t really jives with these horny levels. Its pretty wild and a bit of a flag.
The rest, though, is a bit of a watchable but kind of superficial slice of life series as the character will his roommates are his gaming idols. I will say, one isekai trope intentionally taken out was knowledge of the future does not prepare him for an entirely new area in his learning. I mean, if I were him, I’d be duty bound to try to prevent the Trump administration at all costs but that’s just me. So while I won’t be watching this one, as long as it stops spilling its yogurt over everything, it’s not awful.
Peach Boy Riverside
Premise
A girl travels from village to village in a fantasy world of humans, demihumans and oni. The girl befriends a demihuman, an anthropomorphic rabbit named Frau, who is able to easily defeat an oni. However, the girl releases there is a prejudice against demihumans, which she does not care for. The duo end up arrested for dumb reasons so one of the knights responsible lets them go with an “our bad” and befriends the two. When the city is attacks by oni, including a big-ass walrus, but the rabbit girl is incapable of defeating. That’s when the girl suddenly finds herself compelled to fight, slipping into another personality.
It Gud?
Peach Boy Riverside isn’t awful but its very run of the mill. I tend to be pretty forgiving of shounen junk if I feel it can get somewhere good down the line but there’s a bit that is allowing me to give this one less of a chance than let’s say… Shaman King, which I’m sticking with even though it is neither rising above or below par (save for one character’s hair having a GREAT arc). One is that Shaman King is a known quantity. There’s some low key nostalgia here, even though I remember finding it one of the lesser longer running shounen (though certainly not as big as a mess as Bleach). But also, this first episode feels busy in its world building. I feel like the first episode should have been stop one at the village. Instead it starts in another story and introduces more characters so it feels more like a story and a half. That’s not inherently a bad thing but the world building isn’t intriguing enough to get me on the show’s side. Then its also holding back on the main characters “awesome” super power even though it is constantly and overtly hinting at it. We never even get to it by the episode’s end.
The deciding factor for me was two overt and unpleasant moments of horniness. One is the lead, apropos of nothing, having a waking nightmare of being tentacle molested after seeing an octopus in a shop (god, I hope that isn’t a flashback). Then some kids walk by and feel compelled to comment on her big boobs. And, like, I noticed those were some big boobs and sometimes the camera reminded us, but it wasn’t until this point when it specifically said “BTW, I’m real horny, OK, back to this nonsense.”
I will say, it got surprisingly gory in the last act. And I’ve definitely seen shonen shows as gory. But this looks less like famously gory ones like Fist of the North Star or Jojo or even Jujutsu Kaisen and more light something fluffy light like Fairy Tail, where there is blood but no one is bisected. So it was a weird moment when the goofy looking walrus started laying waste. I mean, its not much different than the relatively friendly looking Hunter X Hunter having some violence but I felt when it happened it was never an abrupt turn. Anyway, I like the rabbit Frau, a carrot loving schoolgirl bunny who doesn’t really get objectified (yet) and I kind of wish was the lead.
The current one is a non-entity and even though she seems to have a second personality, that looks to be a generic one, too. More rabbit please.
Re-Main
Premise
A young man awakens from a coma after almost two thirds of a year. It seems he was in a car accident and after awakening, he lost three years of memory, including his entire junior high days. Which included him becoming the greatest player in a nationals winning water polo team. The kid studies hard and does rehab until he finally gets into high school. When there, he suddenly finds people wanting to vet him for water polo. He no longer has any attachment to the sport and is refusing so that he can focus on something else but soon finds himself meeting a romance from his youth… whom he also has little memory of.
It Gud?
Yes. Its so far the best show of the season. Going in, I was expecting a maybe OK show with a cute boyz cast who don’t need to wear that much clothes *wink*. Instead, I got a show that puts the sports on the backburner, for all the right reasons. The first episode is dealing with the fact that memory loss did more than simply derail a sports career. It put a powerful and harsh impact on the life of a family and even as they are happy to be together again, the hurt is still there. When the main character says he has chosen not to return to water polo, there’s a feeling of tension in the room. His parents accept, understanding. I feel like even if he said he wanted to do the sport, the reaction might be the same, that something of emotional import is being dredged up and it needs to be handled. I love that it chose to spend a lot of time giving weight to this.
On the other hand, I love the humour. There are only a couple laugh out loud moments but they are well earned, including a fantastic insta-bros moment that occurs during a chase scene that makes me smile just to think about (I can’t wait to see these characters bounce off of each other. Both of them clicked for me the moment this happened and I hope they retain this energy). I love that the show makes the amnesia not just a high concept but something that will have a real emotional pull through the show, presumably as he goes against old teammates who will likely have weird feelings facing off against their closest friend. And hey, maybe a girlfriend you forgot existed. I’m hoping they handle this part well. Could be easy to screw up. But if the rest of the first episode is any indication, I have faith in the show to do it. I don’t even think this is an AMAZING show (yet) but it is a very confident first episode that I feel will balance its tones well. Plus, animated by MAPPA so this is lookin’ good.
Scarlet Nexus
Premise
In an alternate present or future or some shit, psychics are recruited to fight monsters that look like fashion mannequins covered in flowers. They are the Other Suppression Force. Not a good look, show.
It Gud?
OK, so “Other Suppression Force” sounds bad, doesn’t it? America has that and it’s called any policing body. COMMENTARY! I have no idea if THIS show is planning commentary but I don’t trust it to be good. Best case scenario its non-existence or vague and facile. Worse, this is about immigrants or something. But based on the first episode, I’ll just assume the former. The show is based on a game, which is usually not a good sign. As these things go… its not bad, by any stretch. But its also not that interesting. The OP’s animation looks pretty but under the hood, its merely serviceable (though still stronger than Peach Boy Riverside). And so is everything else. It exists to never be bad enough to offend but with little to actually offer.
It only hints at maybe a conspiracy angle at the end and its mostly one of the upper tier good guys staring into the sunset saying “I shall burn this corrupt society to the ground.” That’s not terrible compelling. I also think the monsters have kind of neat designs but I also feel like whatever meaning it has in their weird shape is either a forced cheesy metaphor or just some stuff the artist thought would be cool stuck together. I’m hoping the latter. I kind of respect that more. Otherwise it will feel like the way to full of itself for its ability “Caligula”. But as it is, this is easy to skip. If you are desperate for content this season (and this season, you might be), it is at least non-offensive.
The Case Study of Vanitas
Premise (from memory)
Vampires fought humans and the humans won. YAY… maybe. Set in an alternate reality Paris with weird tech (not steampunk, I don’t think but retro-futuristic), vampires still live on the down low, with humanity thinking of them as mere urban legends. One man on his way to Paris where he hope to find a legendary grimoire. While there he makes the acquaintance of a young woman… who turns out to be a vampire. The vampire is targeted by a mysterious and skilled oddball and the young man, who also turns out to be a vampire defends her. But then the young vampire girl turns dangerously out-of-control. Turns out the man hunting her, Vanitas, wasn’t planning to kill her. He’s actually a doctor who specializes in vampires. Vampires can be corrupted if magic weirdness corrupts their names. And he uses his own magic grimoire to kill her. Vanitas asks for his brave vampire’s help who would be willing to help a woman he doesn’t know… but his would-be assistant says “Nah.”
It Gud?
Its quite promising. The animation is pretty darn good. The pacing and world building shows potential. And its got a very good cat.
I guess I can give it full marks technically. It does nothing *wrong*. But the characters aren’t clicking with me. At least not yet. I guess I’m finding the title character’s energy a little much, a performative self-aggrandizing loudmouth who has skills. I’m more into his counterpoint, a friendly low-key dude who seems sweet but a little dull-witted. I don’t know enough about either of their motivations (or at least not their DEEPER emotional motivations beyond “do good”) to get invested and they aren’t completely clicking comedically. But I hold out promise because while I’m not seeing an exciting character dynamic in the show itself… the one in the intro is VERY promising to me.
It’s a very good intro but more than that it establishes character more instantly strongly to me, making the tall vampire “assistant” a take the bull by the horns carpe diem type while his friend joins him and is desperately trying to get him to do something else. I could also see this relationship as being romantic, which would be fun. But over all, this intro’s presentation of character is more compelling to me. Still, even without it, there is a lot of promise here and I’m interested to see if it lives up to it. JBear pointed out to me that the grimoire might work as more of a deus ex machina, just fixing a problem/villain of the week but I am hoping it is something a bit more.
Remake Our Lives
Premise
A 28 year old guy feels like he’s wasted his life. He wanted to be in the nerd industry but never committed himself. However, things looks up when he starts working for a game company, only to find his project and job scuttled in favor of a mobile game the company is working on. He ends up moping at home and remember when he had the options between studying something practical or taking a visual arts degree and giving up his dreams. When he wakes up the next day, he realizes he’s travelled in time to the day where he made his decision. This time going to arts university, he finds himself studying towards the goal of working in the visual arts with his dormmates.
It Gud?
The more I think about the modern day isekai genre, the more I get concerned. A lot of these shows are about people who feel they are at the end of their ropes. And for many, the solution is magical intervention rather than something they could actually do in the here and now. As if there’s no escape. Even worse, some people’s lives can only be improved by violent death. That… might not be a good message for real people who might literally be in a hard place in their lives.
Remake Our Lives isn’t “isekai” but it follows the same rules. Someone is sent somewhere else when they are in a hard time in their lives and won’t have to worry about missing their own life. It allows them to re-invigorate their sense of taking charge of their life that had once alluded them. Also, sexy girls. But I will say, it does things a lot don’t. We spend a SHOCKING amount of time with the main character before the time travel kicks in. And I was pretty OK with that. It presents the situation not as a “bottom” but being stuck in a cycle. I still don’t think the show ever really justifies time travel when it could have been “kid goes to college” but I appreciate it being something a little more patient in that respect.
And for the most part, the show isn’t BAD. For the most part. Then about 20 minutes into its 50 minute running time, it gets, like, grossly fanservice horny for a segment where the guy wakes up next to a girl who is just there, then she drinks some yogurt, which drips onto her boobs. It is… a turn. Like, visually, it was a show that looked like it could go there but the tone of the rest of the show, before and after, doesn’t really jives with these horny levels. Its pretty wild and a bit of a flag.
The rest, though, is a bit of a watchable but kind of superficial slice of life series as the character will his roommates are his gaming idols. I will say, one isekai trope intentionally taken out was knowledge of the future does not prepare him for an entirely new area in his learning. I mean, if I were him, I’d be duty bound to try to prevent the Trump administration at all costs but that’s just me. So while I won’t be watching this one, as long as it stops spilling its yogurt over everything, it’s not awful.
Peach Boy Riverside
Premise
A girl travels from village to village in a fantasy world of humans, demihumans and oni. The girl befriends a demihuman, an anthropomorphic rabbit named Frau, who is able to easily defeat an oni. However, the girl releases there is a prejudice against demihumans, which she does not care for. The duo end up arrested for dumb reasons so one of the knights responsible lets them go with an “our bad” and befriends the two. When the city is attacks by oni, including a big-ass walrus, but the rabbit girl is incapable of defeating. That’s when the girl suddenly finds herself compelled to fight, slipping into another personality.
It Gud?
Peach Boy Riverside isn’t awful but its very run of the mill. I tend to be pretty forgiving of shounen junk if I feel it can get somewhere good down the line but there’s a bit that is allowing me to give this one less of a chance than let’s say… Shaman King, which I’m sticking with even though it is neither rising above or below par (save for one character’s hair having a GREAT arc). One is that Shaman King is a known quantity. There’s some low key nostalgia here, even though I remember finding it one of the lesser longer running shounen (though certainly not as big as a mess as Bleach). But also, this first episode feels busy in its world building. I feel like the first episode should have been stop one at the village. Instead it starts in another story and introduces more characters so it feels more like a story and a half. That’s not inherently a bad thing but the world building isn’t intriguing enough to get me on the show’s side. Then its also holding back on the main characters “awesome” super power even though it is constantly and overtly hinting at it. We never even get to it by the episode’s end.
The deciding factor for me was two overt and unpleasant moments of horniness. One is the lead, apropos of nothing, having a waking nightmare of being tentacle molested after seeing an octopus in a shop (god, I hope that isn’t a flashback). Then some kids walk by and feel compelled to comment on her big boobs. And, like, I noticed those were some big boobs and sometimes the camera reminded us, but it wasn’t until this point when it specifically said “BTW, I’m real horny, OK, back to this nonsense.”
I will say, it got surprisingly gory in the last act. And I’ve definitely seen shonen shows as gory. But this looks less like famously gory ones like Fist of the North Star or Jojo or even Jujutsu Kaisen and more light something fluffy light like Fairy Tail, where there is blood but no one is bisected. So it was a weird moment when the goofy looking walrus started laying waste. I mean, its not much different than the relatively friendly looking Hunter X Hunter having some violence but I felt when it happened it was never an abrupt turn. Anyway, I like the rabbit Frau, a carrot loving schoolgirl bunny who doesn’t really get objectified (yet) and I kind of wish was the lead.
The current one is a non-entity and even though she seems to have a second personality, that looks to be a generic one, too. More rabbit please.
Re-Main
Premise
A young man awakens from a coma after almost two thirds of a year. It seems he was in a car accident and after awakening, he lost three years of memory, including his entire junior high days. Which included him becoming the greatest player in a nationals winning water polo team. The kid studies hard and does rehab until he finally gets into high school. When there, he suddenly finds people wanting to vet him for water polo. He no longer has any attachment to the sport and is refusing so that he can focus on something else but soon finds himself meeting a romance from his youth… whom he also has little memory of.
It Gud?
Yes. Its so far the best show of the season. Going in, I was expecting a maybe OK show with a cute boyz cast who don’t need to wear that much clothes *wink*. Instead, I got a show that puts the sports on the backburner, for all the right reasons. The first episode is dealing with the fact that memory loss did more than simply derail a sports career. It put a powerful and harsh impact on the life of a family and even as they are happy to be together again, the hurt is still there. When the main character says he has chosen not to return to water polo, there’s a feeling of tension in the room. His parents accept, understanding. I feel like even if he said he wanted to do the sport, the reaction might be the same, that something of emotional import is being dredged up and it needs to be handled. I love that it chose to spend a lot of time giving weight to this.
On the other hand, I love the humour. There are only a couple laugh out loud moments but they are well earned, including a fantastic insta-bros moment that occurs during a chase scene that makes me smile just to think about (I can’t wait to see these characters bounce off of each other. Both of them clicked for me the moment this happened and I hope they retain this energy). I love that the show makes the amnesia not just a high concept but something that will have a real emotional pull through the show, presumably as he goes against old teammates who will likely have weird feelings facing off against their closest friend. And hey, maybe a girlfriend you forgot existed. I’m hoping they handle this part well. Could be easy to screw up. But if the rest of the first episode is any indication, I have faith in the show to do it. I don’t even think this is an AMAZING show (yet) but it is a very confident first episode that I feel will balance its tones well. Plus, animated by MAPPA so this is lookin’ good.
Scarlet Nexus
Premise
In an alternate present or future or some shit, psychics are recruited to fight monsters that look like fashion mannequins covered in flowers. They are the Other Suppression Force. Not a good look, show.
It Gud?
OK, so “Other Suppression Force” sounds bad, doesn’t it? America has that and it’s called any policing body. COMMENTARY! I have no idea if THIS show is planning commentary but I don’t trust it to be good. Best case scenario its non-existence or vague and facile. Worse, this is about immigrants or something. But based on the first episode, I’ll just assume the former. The show is based on a game, which is usually not a good sign. As these things go… its not bad, by any stretch. But its also not that interesting. The OP’s animation looks pretty but under the hood, its merely serviceable (though still stronger than Peach Boy Riverside). And so is everything else. It exists to never be bad enough to offend but with little to actually offer.
It only hints at maybe a conspiracy angle at the end and its mostly one of the upper tier good guys staring into the sunset saying “I shall burn this corrupt society to the ground.” That’s not terrible compelling. I also think the monsters have kind of neat designs but I also feel like whatever meaning it has in their weird shape is either a forced cheesy metaphor or just some stuff the artist thought would be cool stuck together. I’m hoping the latter. I kind of respect that more. Otherwise it will feel like the way to full of itself for its ability “Caligula”. But as it is, this is easy to skip. If you are desperate for content this season (and this season, you might be), it is at least non-offensive.