A couple drops this week (Tokyo ESP, Rail Wars!) mean my schedule is starting to free up for those inevitable midseason pick-ups. Barakamon is probably first on that list right now.
Trending Up: Nozaki-kun, Zankyou no Terror, Glasslip
Trending Down: Free! Eternal Summer, Sailor Moon Crystal
Someone at Rooster Teeth has been watching SHAFT anime.
If our society’s sense of humor and willingness to be entertained has come to a point where shows like Nichijou [Kyoto Animation, 2011] can no longer be appreciated, I would say we need to reassess how seriously we take ourselves. Like J.C. Staff’s Kill Me Baby, Nichijou, based on the manga by Keiichi Arawi (teach me how you got you name in both OPs, senpai!) brings an off-kilter, random brand of wacky humor to the table. It’s occasionally hilarious, often quite dumb, and but mostly just entertaining. And then, there’s the animation, which alone forces my hand in pushing Nichijou to a ranking of 6/10 (Ranking).
Of course, Hocchan’s narration was the best 15 seconds of the entire show.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead for the Visual Novel Katawa Shoujo.
As some of you (if you follow me on Twitter) might know, I’ve been playing a Visual Novel called Katawa Shoujo for the past week or so. And, after that long playing, I’ve come to realize that I’m not sure I’m the type of person who can play a game like this.
https://twitter.com/iblessall/status/494667258489102337
Before I get into the details of why I’m not sure I can continue playing this visual novel, let me give you all a brief history of my experience with the game to this point. Katawa Shoujo is the first VN I’ve ever played—sure I’ve heard about then, seen people play them in anime, seen anime based on them, but I’ve never actually played one myself.
I threatened to do an full episode post on Argevollen last week, but didn’t get to it. I’m remedying my laziness today! And, fortunately, this was another excellent episode from the best of Xebec’s two offerings this season. I think I pretty much figured out why Argevollen clicks so well with me—it cares about the details. Characters, events, moments, looks. Argevollen understands that life is made up of a lot of small things that happen in between the big events that define us, and it takes the time to let us experience them.
What did I say last week? “Give me more of the teens,” I said. “They make the show better,” I said. Well, you know what? Zankyou no Terror did exactly what I wanted it to, and turned in the best episode since the premiere because of it. The final minutes of this episode (omigosh that freaking soundtrack) were an amazing ride—yup, I just did that. This is the kind of stuff I wanted from this show from the start, and when I got it…well, you could say I was a bit misty-eyed.
That’s going to look amazing on the BD’s.
My week in anime this week was yet another confirmation in my belief that the 3-episode rule is complete bunk and that 4 episodes is a much better standard if you want to box yourself in by arbitrary numbers. Argevollen, Glasslip, and Aldnoah.Zero all engaged me at a much deeper level in their fourth episodes this week, moving each of them solidly into “keeper” territory. By the way, 4 episodes is actually not an arbitrary choice. In traditional three-act structure terms, the fourth episode is the start of the second act. I’m not saying its unreasonable to drop a show because you didn’t like the three episodes of set-up, but waiting to see how the show is executed at the beginning of the real substance seems to be a smarter thing to do, at least if you aren’t just looking for reasons to drop shows.
Rinka and I share the same opinion about her show.
Notice me.
Acknowledge me.
Hear me, know me, see me.
So cries out Haruhi Suzumiya, through all her rampaging across the world and through all her brash confidence.
The fault lines in Zankyou no Terror are very, very evident when the focus away from its strengths. One thing I’ve learned from writing fiction is that it’s much easier to write well when writing good characters. Solid characters with depth and emotions of their own naturally support good writing and good storytelling. I said last week that I like the main trio more than I like any of the police officers, and I stand by that this week.
Honestly, Free! Eternal Gou-chan is a staple of my anime week. I don’t know what I’d do without—twenty-five okay, more like twelve and a half minutes—of the best swim manager this side of the Pacific ocean every Wednesday. This has been a good season of anime for redheads.
You can’t teach this kind of glamour.
This season feels like it’s going by really slowly. There’s only one show (Nozaki-kun) that I really love so far, but there are a few I’m definitely keeping an eye on. We’ll see. It might end up being a really backlog heavy season for me after all.
Mage in a Barrel 