Iaboo, Youaboo, Weallaboo for Anime!

[MarcAlan]

One thing I was surprised with regarding Rock is a Lady's Modesty is how well the motion capture is for the performances. Because let's be honest, they could have simply done something and most people would have been fine with it. Instead they got members of Band-Maid to play and have done a decent job getting that animated. I mean, you can still tell it's CG but it's pretty good CG.

 

[WisteriaHysteria]

Witch Watch

The Premise

A young teen descended from ogres is tasked with acting as the body guard of a clumsy witch.

It Gud?

So far… so-so. Really hit or miss. The misses aren’t painful but they are a bit bland. I’m told that it eventually becomes a parody of battle shonen as well as being an actual sincere battle shonen. The animation is good though not as eye-poppingly gorgeous as the incredible opening credits sequence. But as it is, it’s more a traditional rom com with a bit of extra goofiness.

I do think the way it presents the magic shenenaigans that it also structurally is sort of similar to Doraemon, replacing future gadgets with magic spells and the elementary school dipshit with a cool dude and his magic cat with a silly witch. OK, maybe my comparison went to far afield but it's like "magic = antics" and that's sort of similar to Doraemon, I guess. And Bewitched. And it works OK in that format. But as a comedy, it was only sporadically funny and the rest in the realm of fine.

But I will give this one a chance. I could see it getting weaker but I could also see it getting a lot of fun when it actually gets to a plot. I already have scene a wild selection of characters coming up. My hope is this is one of those series that overcomes my initial hesitation and wins me over. But as it stands, I like it OK.

EDIT: I actually like the next two episodes better, even though it really leans into "hey, we just made an anime/manga reference". (And some are deeper cuts for young and non-Japanese fans).

I've been reading along with the manga since almost day one. And while avoiding spoilers, I will say that so far your impressions are both impeccable, and completely off from what the show will turn into. The author of Witch Watch is the same guy who got his start as an assistant on Gintama, and went on to make SKET Dance and Astra: Lost in Space. If you're familiar with SKET Dance, or Gintama, then you might have a better idea of what's to come. As the show's structure is more or less like those two. Episodic adventures with an overwhelming comedic bent than anything else, with some well written drama and suspense sprinkled in between as welcome pace breakers.

There will be romantic storylines, but that's not all this show is going to be. Much like those other shows, it's going to be an intersection of different genres and varying tones. Kenta Shinohara's sense of humor isn't as crass as his mentor's Hideaki Sorachi's. But the irreverence, and foundation in traditional Japanese comedy (specifically the Manzai Duo act), and the usage of pop culture are all the same. A good number of jokes will fly completely over the viewer's heads, and the localizers here are not doing the audience any favors (a show like this demands translation notes) but most of the Japanese-culture-specific jokes you ought to be able to infer enough to understand what's happening in the abstract, and a lot of the humor is going to break through translation barriers anyways as fairly universal themes, versus simply being pop-culture references.

The romance in Witch Watch is much more of the puppy love variety, and after a certain point in the show will just be almost completely written out for a while for plot reasons. You're much more likely to have platonic, friendly bonding than anything else. And it honestly gives the show a pretty comfortable, wholesome vibe as a result.