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.
Note: There is now a Full Series Review available!
Note: This article was later published in the Crunchyroll Newsletter.
I know I already have a general First Impressions post up, but Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is good enough to merit a first impressions post of its own—if you aren’t already watching this show, you should be. It’s the best Dogakobo show since Summer 2013’s Love Lab, and that’s high praise. We’re three weeks in, and Nozaki-kun has shown itself to be a top-shelf comedy anime—one based around endearing, colorful, and funny characters with the production quality to back it all up.
Well, Zankyou no Terror leaned a bit more on dialogue this week than it did last week, and it showed, because episode 2 was neither as intense or as interesting as the premiere. That being said, this is still an chilling piece of work and Watanabe and company are doing an excellent job of laying out their foundation. Even if parts of it feel a little unoriginal, Zankyou no Terror is still the best currently airing show right now (EXECTUTION, PEOPLE), and I don’t see that changing soon.
In which I commit a great sacrilege on this fine show. You know what they say, “If there’s no fanservice for you, make your own.”
An apt summary of my feelings for Free!
When does the week start and when does the week end? I’m flummoxed. This is week two for most shows, but then we’ve got the rebellious Zankyou no Terror and Tokyo ESP that just started up this week. Whatever. I guess two shows can be behind or something. It just IRKS me that I can’t have all my shows at 2/whatever on Hummingbird at the same time. I mean, I could if I waited a week for some shows, but HA! like that’s going to happen. Anyways, let’s talk about some anime.
Free!, I may not be in your main target audience, but keep this up and we’ll get along just fine.
NOTE: This is the second part of my review on Chihayafuru. If you have not already, please read Part 1 first.
The spring has passed
And the summer come again
For the silk-white robes
So they say, are spread to dry
On the Mount of Heaven’s perfume
~attributed to Empress Jitō
So, Zankyou no Terror didn’t make it into my First Impressions post due to a late start, but that’s okay because that was a premiere deserving of a full write-up. This is my first outing with Shinichiro Watanabe and I was, to be frank, hugely impressed with the episode from start to finish. I don’t have any experience with him regarding his style of direction, but if his other work is like this, I’m now much more interested.
Early Verdict: Premiere of the season, and it looks like Noitamina might be following up Ping Pong with another Anime of the Season candidate. Great aesthetics, great direction, great tension building, great everything. A must-watch in my book.
What can I even say about this shot? Just…man.
“You, princess?”
“That’s right, I’m a princess. What about you, are you a princess?”
“Me, princess. On quest.”
“What quest is that?”
“Best girl. I want crown.”
“Oho, you want to be queen, eh?”
“Not want to be queen. Just best girl.”
“You think you have the stuff to be crowned best girl, queen of all the girls?”
“Me, princess. Princesses best.”
“You’ll have to do more than that to impress me! I’m one-half of the one of the best romantic couples in anime. Do you have a lover?”
“No! Definite no!”
Mage in a Barrel 