This is going to be one of the shorter highlights posts I’ve ever done because I wound up dropping one show this week, but compensated by writing episodic posts for three shows. So this is what it’s like when you get to the level of being an ANN reviewer…yikes.
Oh, and on Friday I finally discovered what WIXOSS is really all about.
Your Lie in April, Episode 6: I suspect I might permanently pick up KimiUso for weekly write-ups.
Inou Battle, Episode 7: A write-up for the show’s best episode thus far.
Akatsuki no Yona, Episode 7: I think Yona‘s on the episodic schedule now, too. Entertaining and impressive is the way to go.
Shirobako, Episode 6: Tarou continued to be insufferable throughout this episode—even surpassing his own futile idiocy from last week sometimes. Somehow. Somehow. I liked the way they wrapped up this mini-arc, with some concessions from both sides, and although the Endou and the CG guy exchanging promises to learn from each other felt a tad bit trite to me, it’s an interesting reflection on what the creators of this series think about the role of 3D CG in anime. For my part, I’m just now starting to take interest in sakuga, but I’ve seen enough anime to know what’s really good and what’s just okay—and while I don’t hate CG, I have yet to see it demonstrate as much artistic merit as traditional hand-drawn animation. But that’s just a side note in the overall scheme of Shirobako. I’m wondering if finishing Exodus will bring us to the end of the first cour. I’d be happy to see some changes take place to mix things up in the second half of this show.
Argevollen, Episode 19: Great episode from this underrated show this week. All the comedic bits starting with the engineer girls bemoaning their lack of romantic prospects and going to Tokimune’s face getting smashed into the cake worked for me. After all, I’ve spent a lot of time with these characters and I at least like all of them, so (again) getting to see them behave like real people, not just soldiers, is a nice breath of fresh air amidst all the political intrigue that’s going down elsewhere in the series. Saionji and Suzushiro sleeping together felt pretty out of place in this episode, but that whole scene was pretty depressing—two people trying to live down their guilt and looking for comfort anywhere they can find it. Now that Saionji has turned to the very mechanism that killed Reika, things are about to really get interesting. Which, incidentally, is a line I keep saying in relation to Argevollen.
In a Sentence:
- Amagi Brilliant Park, Episode 7: First part of the episode really dragged for me for some reason, but once the pirates showed up, things got back on track. (My favorite bit of sakuga from the this episode is below.)
- YuYuYu, Episode 6: I like the concept of the girls losing their senses for going Mankai, but I’m not really sure where they’re going with all of this others than “mysterious and unsettling.”
- Twintails, Episode 6: Annnd this was the last straw episode for me. Dropped.
- selector spread WXIOSS, Episode 7: Just a lot of Ulith monologuing like the sociopath she is and all the nice girls crying.
- Garo, Episode 7: Leòn has worst night ever.
- Log Horizon, Episode 7: And after two strong episodes, we went back to typical Log Horizon pacing—lots of fluff while we wait for the cliffhanger ending.
- Rage of Bahamut: Genesis, Episode 7: Recapppppp.
- Hitsugi no Chaika: Avenging Battle, Episode 7: This was a slow episode for a show with only 3 episodes left, and I’m starting to get a bit worried about how they’re going to pull this all together with the time they have left.
Mage in a Barrel 
I’m still catching up with some shows (hopefully this weekend) but from those I’ve seen:
Shirobako: You know, there are plenty villains who do evil villain things in other show this season, but no one infuriates me more than Tarou does. Literally everything thing he says and do makes my blood boil, which I suppose is an accomplishment in itself. I mean, Idepon Miyamori is a fun catchy nickname if it comes from literally anyone else, but from him…
Anyway, I’m not as happy with the conflict resolution like you do. I mean, it’s not bad, and from any other show I’ll be more than satisfieed, but from a show who has been very realistic so far how it’s resolved feels very easy to me. It’s something that they can mine a bit more, I think, though to be fair just because it’s idealistic doesn’t mean it’s impossible to happen. I love Miyamori, but I hope they’ll give more focus for her group of friends a bit more though – if nothing else, there’ll be less Tarou.
Inou Battle: Already put my essay in your post
Log Horizon: Yeah, this one moves some thing along but it does feel a bit decompressed. To be fair though, last season we have 5 volumes to work with and there’s only 4 available books to work with for this season, so it’ll definitely feel more ‘fillerish’ at parts. Seems like the climax will come next episode though, I hope they can deliver.
Amaburi: It’s nothing spectacular, but still fun in a ‘turn your brain off and enjoy’ kind of way. Not because it’s dumb (Twintails got that role) but because there’s no hard hitting stuff that makes you feel or think, so just sit back and enjoy the spectacle. I think they’re doing a good job doing this, and I’m looking forward for each episode every week.
Twintails: Yeah, they’re kinda running out of gas and not as sharply funny as in the beginning (I think they killed the big boss guy a bit too soon) but I’m too far in to drop this, as long as it doesn’t really drop off I’m seeing it to the finish.
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Tarou’s a villain you can find in real life, which makes him that much more irritating.
I’m really hoping they do deliver a good climax next week, both for Akatsuki’s arc and for the murderer plot.
As for Twintails, normally I’d keep a show that I’d watched this far, but it seems to be straying more and more into crass fanservice and has basically lost all the energy that made the first episode engaging and funny. Doesn’t help that it airs on Thursday, either, which has Argevollen, Shirobako, and Your Lie in April (plus YuYuYu).
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Re #yuyuyu: this may be the start of the REAL story.
AKA when the war is over how do you go home again, how do you live with the damage suffered, and (Karin) how do you build a life you never expected to have at all?
This isn’t territory often covered in anime, and I may well be wrong about where Yuyuyu is heading, but I really hope I’m right because it could result In an excellent series by the end.
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It’d be cool to see YuYuYu go that way, but I get the sense that they’re too committed to their big setpieces to totally abandon the supernatural story.
I think I’d also be a bit wary of such a story being told with middle school girls as the main characters. I mean, yes, they’re warriors, but I think something about trying to portray them as grizzled vets of war coping with a new reality would just ring false to me.
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Yeah Garo was weird this week. Also felt like they failed to storyboard it properly. Lots of shot composition that really didn’t make much sense.
On the bright side Chaika is realising that it can only improve by gathering as many Chaikas together as possible.
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Garo felt like they ran out of time? Which, considering what I’ve heard about anime production, usually results in a less-than-quality episode. It’s kind of a bummer because I liked this little side-story, but the impact of it felt blunted due to how wonky it was a lot of the time.
If blue Chaika doesn’t make a reappearance as an avenging angel that saves white and red or something, I’ll be disappointed.
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