Terminator Zero

Like its namesake cyborg, The Terminator is a franchise that just won’t die. The franchise’s seminal movie was originally envisioned as a standalone, but its unexpected success eventually led to Teminator 2: Judgment Day, which is widely considered to be one of science fiction’s most influential and ground-breaking works. Though that was also not intended to have a sequel, four more movies and a two-season TV series followed, though not all are part of the same timeline. The wisdom behind some of those installments can be heavily debated, but one thing never present in the franchise was, somewhat surprisingly for such a special effects-intensive franchise, an animated version. That changed when writer Mattson Tomlin teamed up with director Masashi Kudo (character designer for the Bleach franchise, director for Hayate the Combat Butler) to produce this eight episode series for Netflix, which – in a neat marketing maneuver – debuted on August 29th, the anniversary of the Judgment Day established in the second movie.

The anime version of this Hollywood franchise follows a similar trajectory to the anime versions of the Marvel titles in the late 2000s/early 2010s: shift the setting to Japan and make Japanese (or at least part-Japanese) characters a core part of the cast. The future in this case is initially in 2022, while the main action happens in Japan in 1997, on and after Judgment Day. The story focuses most prominently on Malcolm Lee, a scientist who has developed the advanced AI Kokoro with the secret intent of opposing the expected rise of Skynet. A Terminator has been sent back in time with the apparent purpose of stopping Malcolm, hence making Malcolm’s children prime targets, and by extension Misaki, a young Japanese woman who’s their effective nanny, as well. (Their mother died a couple of years earlier.) The future human resistance has also sent a warrior back, in this case a young woman named Eiko, spurred on in part by a mysterious old woman called The Prophet. (The series more than vaguely suggests that she’s Sarah Connor, though how Sarah would have gotten to Japan is not even slightly hinted at.) While bloody trouble arises outside, Malcolm desperately tries to convince Kokoro that humanity is worth saving before activating her for that purpose.

The change in setting is a trivial detail, as the original concept was about as culturally-specific as Romeo and Juliet is. The only real impact it has on the story is in the significance of some of the naming conventions and the very Shinto aspect of how Kokoro’s avatars appear. The series is otherwise a very dedicated homage to the early entries in the franchise, down to even using variations of numerous key scenes from both the original and Terminator 2. With a total run time of around 3½ hours, it does progresses the story a bit more slowly, taking (for instance) the entire first episode to get the Terminator and Eiko back to 1997. This has the advantage of allowing certain elements to develop more (especially Malcom’s efforts to convince Kokoro), but it also throws off the taut pacing which has characterized most movie entries in the franchise. This is more of a macro effect, though, as various individual action sequence execute perfectly fine in isolation, creating many impressively tense situations.

Most importantly, the series gets the tone right. This is a dark, heavy tale which take views on humanity and technology that are mostly pessimistic, and the grimness of the situation is emphasized throughout. It can be seen in the animated version of the impact of a nuclear weapon on a person (not quite as harrowing as in Barefoot Gen but not much short of it), in the effective recreations of the hellscape of the dystopian future, and in the extreme violence which humans and machine inflict on each other; all of the franchise films have featured ample graphic violence, but this series intensifies it to a gorier level. The musical score by married couple Michelle Birsky and Kevin Henthorn also deserves a lot of credit here. It doesn’t exactly mimic the work on the second movie by composer Brad Fiedel, but it does provide the pounding, metallic, ominous sound which drives forward action sequences and tense moments.

The animation effort comes primarily from Studio I.G, though the list of other contributing studios is quite long indeed. Particular care was devoted to the integration of 3DCG and regular animation, resulting in an animation effort that is mostly smooth but not movie-grade; weaknesses show most in a car pursuit scene where several police cars are trying to box in a car driven by Eiko. Contrarily, scenes featuring Kokoro and her three incarnations impress greatly. Design elements, especially in character designs, find a good balance between anime-specific aesthetics and Western animation styles, resulting in character designs which look sharp but still grounded; in particular, Malcom’s daughter Reika is, thankfully, not incongruously cute, and all of the children have pleasingly multiracial looks, while Misaki is pointedly Japanese in appearance. Mechanical designs come courtesy of Atsushi Takeuchi and Shinobu Tsuneki, and their experience with the Ghost in the Shell franchise shows quite clearly in the excellent design work on the Terminators, robots, and other cyborgs present in the story. (The robotic cat present in early episodes is a particular delight.) Kudos to them also for replicating and using Terminator designs which originally appeared in Terminator 3, which is one of the rare references to any content beyond the second movie. While the production does have some near-nudity, calling any of it fan service would be a stretch.

This review is based on the English dubbed version of the series. Anime voice work regulars will only be heard here in very minor roles, with many roles being done by complete anime newcomers (including what sounds like genuine children for the children’s roles). Of those relative newcomers, the only one familiar to a wider audience might be Rosario Dawson, who voices Kokoro. Despite the lack of experience, the casting is solid (except maybe for the Terminator) and most roles are performed very well; the only weak point is in the role of Misaki, where Sumalee Montano struggles early to figure out how to voice Misaki in her passive behavior. She improves greatly in the later stages as her character becomes firmer in behavior.

Though the series initially seems very straightforward, it features some big twists starting about halfway through the series. Some of these are fairly predictable (Misaki’s real identity, why Malcolm knows what he does) and/or in line with gimmicks pulled by the movie content, but others may come as more of a surprise. One late, final twist is even utterly confounding, since it seems to violate the time travel theories that the series takes great pains to expound upon in an earlier episode. Still, the series ultimately sticks to the franchise’s prevailing theme of trying to break out of the cycle of fate and delivers a bittersweet ending somewhere between the pure pessimism of the first movie’s ending and the somewhat hopeful outlook of the second.

Does that mean there will be more? We’ll see. Like most entries in the franchise, the ending here is vaguely open-ended, certainly leaving room for more but not requiring further elaboration since the story’s point has, to a degree, been accomplished. Overall, the series is clearly aimed at established franchise fans, and will play best to such audiences, but I can still give it a general recommendation as a solid entry in the field of dark, graphic sci fi action fare.

Overall Rating: B+

Oshi no Ko episode 20

Rating: A-

The first episode of Oshi no Ko is rightfully famous for its numerous big twists, but since then its episode-ending cliffhangers have mostly followed an expected flow of events. (The sole exception to this might be Akane successfully imitating Ai at the end of episode 7, which was rightfully one of the feature scenes of all of 2023.) However, the final scene of this episode is a legitimate bombshell, one which I did not anticipate in the slightest and could see having significant repercussions down the road. It’s big enough that it almost outshines all of the other neat content of this finale for the Tokyo Blade arc.

But not quite, because this episode did a lot of other excellent things, too. Chief among these is the scene that the episode is named for (“Dream”). Just as Aqua drew on the rage from Ai’s death for Toki’s battle against Blade, so, too, did he draw on the long-time dream he’d had that Ai had somehow miraculously survived just as Akane’s character does in the play. Knowing that this was just Aqua’s fanciful yearning doesn’t change one bit how much of an emotional impact seeing Ai back alive again had. It’s a great scene in isolation, but is made even greater by how it signifies that Aqua succeeded in conveying the emotion he wanted in his last scene in the play and why the director recognized that accomplishment.

Another point is the resolution (for now) of the Akane/Kana acting spat. Though they did not admit it to each other, both were ready to acknowledge defeat to the other after being dazzled by the acting performance of the other: Kana respected the subtlety of Akane’s performance, while Akane could not get over how brightly Kana shone. Neither seemed to fully accept how amazing they had been themselves, and in both cases that felt more like self-deprecation than humility. They weren’t the only ones, either, as Kaburagi reaffirms that he was floored by what Kana can really do. As keen as he is on the show business front, he seems to have deeply underestimated her for quite some time and completely missed that it was her conflict with Akane (which he specifically engineered) which drew out her best more so than her idol experience.

We can’t forget some other smaller but still impactful details, such as how slick the action sequence was in the fight between Toki and Blade. There was a sense earlier in the season that the series may have been conserving its animation budget a bit, and damned if it hasn’t shown off what it was saving up for over the last few episodes. The industry angle this time comes from the way Kaburagi philosophizes about where “extremely cute” comes from and the private bar where fringe actresses work to make ends meet. Kana also reminds us that she can be gold on the comedy front, too. Her briefly-flashed expression when she sees Aqua carrying Akane at the end of the play is classic, and the episode certainly went all-in on the gag about how Kana was acting drunk at the dinner party despite her drink being labeled on-screen as ginger ale.

But none of that stacks up to the stunner the episode drops at its end. In pressing Kindaichi for Lala Lai backstories, he and Taiki catch wind of mention about something concerning the workshops the troupe once did being a mistake Kindaichi didn’t care to repeat – a salient revelation, since those workshops were how Ai got involved with the troupe. That this somehow involves Ai seems likely. But there’s a much more interesting piece to the puzzle afoot here, and it unexpectedly involves Taiki: he’s likely Aqua and Ruby’s biological half-brother. In retrospect, the only clue which even faintly hints at that is Kindaichi’s drunken comment only moments before about how Aqua and Taiki have similar acting approaches, but there was zero reason at the time to suspect that was implying that they were related by blood. Given Taiki’s comment about having spent time at a children’s home, I doubt Aqua is going to get anything significant from Taiki about their father, but that’s still one hell of a cliffhanger for the series to drop.

Sadly, it’s going to be two weeks before we see the follow-up, as an announcement about an upcoming stage play about the 2.5D stage play (nope, no irony there!) has clarified that September 4th’s episode will be an arc recap. Because of that, there will only be a review next week if the recap proves worthy of independent commentary.

Spice & Wolf (2024) episode 21

Rating: B+

The previous three arcs have shown that Lawrence and Holo have a supreme talent for stumbling into the midst of complicated situations. Here they actually recognize that they are about to do so once again, and to Lawrence’s credit, he at least initially moves to avoid it. This time, though, Holo’s the one who can’t let it go, and she’s the one who apparently has some scheme in mind. But at least they have learned some lessons from past folly here and are fully talking things over in advance.

Last episode hinted vaguely at a messy conflict, but the mess isn’t exactly what might initially be expected. Yes, this is a village which worships a giant snake – possibly a creature like Holo or Dian – which may or may not have once lived near the village. And yes, a church exists in the village, and the villagers don’t respect the authority of the religion it represents. But they actually have no conflict with the building itself, nor, apparently, with those who run it. The deceased Father Franz deeply ingratiated himself to the village by arranging a very favorable trade agreement with the town of Enberch (a former snake worshiping village which converted generations ago). Elsa was effectively his ward and decided to follow in his footsteps, even though it’s not something a woman can normally do.

What’s not specified here is what kind of leverage Franz used to pull that deal off, which is a significant point since the trade agreement is, in Lawrence’s eye, too favorable to Tereo. It allows the farmers of Tereo to be idle in the off season, which is not normal at all, and doubtless rankles authorities in Enberch, who (presumably) couldn’t do anything about it while Father Franz was still alive. His passing gives them an angle to attempt to void the agreement and an excuse to attempt to strengthen Enberch’s authority over Tereo. The church in the village not having an official custodian would provide an angle for the Church to get involved, which would be bad for everyone in Tereo. I’m extending into supposition here, but Elsa being recognized as Franz’s official successor might help fend that off, so the townspeople aren’t necessarily against her at all; that would explain why Elsa was so tense when she met with Lawrence the previous day, if she was stressing over that. But that also means that someone is using recognizing Elsa as legitimate as a political maneuver, too.

The reason this all becomes potentially dangerous is because of Lawrence’s guess that the church is actually the abbey they seek. That means that Franz was the abbot, which means he was the one collecting pagan lore. Given that, why both the village chief and Elsa were evasive about the abbey is more understandable; that a storehouse of pagan lore would be sitting in the middle of their village is not a detail anyone would want publicized. The Church in Enberch getting wind of that could give Enberch the excuse to act (under the guise of dealing with pagans), and anyone connected to that pagan lore would certainly be in trouble.

It’s a messy situation, to be sure, but what I like about it is both the practicality of it all and the way the clues to the situation are sprinkled throughout the arc’s first two episodes: the unusually idle village folk, the unusually elaborate architecture on the church, the snake motifs everywhere. Even the little detail about how the miller was going to the church because the mill isn’t the most hospitable of places to spend the night in the winter or the way the brewer lady keeps her guests in check. The Lawrence/Holo dynamic is still neat, but the wealth of little details powers this episode just as much.

So what is Holo’s plan to get an in with Elsa? Speaking fully in speculation (it’s been a decade or more since I read the source novel, and I only really remember Elsa debuting here and how the arc ends), I suspect Holo might reveal her true nature to Elsa to convince her that she doesn’t have to worry about Lawrence and Holo having devious ulterior motives. But we’ll see for sure next episode.

Summer ’24 Mid-Season Report, part 2

This part of the report is for series which are hitting their seventh (or, in one case, sixth) episode during the week of 8/18. Plus, I’m adding in one series that I skipped last week but am now caught up on. Since this group is a bit larger, let’s get right to business!

Bye Bye, Earth

Rating: B

I have way more that I want to say about this series and what it’s doing than I can even come close to fitting into the single-paragraph format that I use for this exercise, so I am reserving commentary on this series for a full review at the end of the season. For now, suffice to say that no other fantasy series this season – or even any recent season, for that matter – even faintly resembles this one on the world-building front, for better or worse. (Any by “worse,” I mean that it sometimes tries too hard to be completely different.)

Dungeon People

Rating So Far: B

Stories about building and/or maintaining dungeons are a veritable subgenre in manga, but this is, I believe, the first title of its ilk to make it to anime form. (That’s probably at least partly because the subgenre is heavy with titles that are extremely risqué if not outright hentai.) Because of that, setting a baseline for the series is difficult. This one definitely favors the cute and more light-hearted side, with at least a whiff of yuri baiting, but as the most recent episode shows, it is also capable of veering into intense violence on rare occasions. It isn’t a particularly exciting series, but the central duo is quite likable and the behind-the-scenes details about how the dungeon works range from amusing to intriguing. Would like to see more “why” to go with the “how” here, but it has been reliable low-key entertainment so far.

Failure Frame

Rating: C

During the Preview Guide I accused this title of being a blatant ARIFURETA knock-off, and little that has happened in the six episodes since (the series took a week off between episodes 6 and 7) has dissuaded me from that impression. The loli vampire mage has been replaced by sexy elf paladin, the bunny girl warrior is apparently being replaced by a leopard woman gladiator, and a slime has been tossed in, but the tone and edgelord attitude isn’t fundamentally much different. The series is also still using 3D CG more as a crutch than a feature and offering nothing in terms of fresh plotting or character development. Episode 7 is a marked improvement on all fronts, to the point that the series is now a little compelling, but a few more episodes like that are needed to elevate the series above being the season’s trashiest title. And yet I’m still willingly watching it.

Love is Indivisible by Twins

Rating So Far: C+

The basic premise and first episode strongly suggested that this would be one of the most soap opera-ish shows to come along in some time, and for better or worse, that’s mostly how the first seven episodes have played out. By this point, the boy caught in the middle between the twin sisters shown above (Jun) has now dated and been dumped by both of them, though both of them to some degree are still carrying a torch for him, and now the gyaru-type that Jun has been convinced to tutor is in the mix, too, and is absolutely not flirting with him. (Nope, it means nothing when you go out in front of your teen male house guest in your underwear after making him wait for you to take a shower.) The series is making an effort to broaden its appeal by throwing out a boatload of geeky references, but for all its messy gimmicks, it has yet to find any characters or plot threads that I care much about. I’ll probably finish the series, but of all the titles in the two parts of this exercise, this one is the closest to being dropped.

Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!

Rating So Far: A-

This is unquestionably one of the best-looking and best-animated series of the season (despite having essentially no action scenes), and that’s not all this series has going for it. Much of the first few episodes is a thoroughly meta accounting of common anime/light novel/manga romcom tropes, to the degree that those not well-versed in such fare may not fully appreciate how cleverly the writing is exploiting those tropes. The angle of focusing on the girls who wind up losing in love triangles is a fresh one, providing plenty of meaty character interactions as all of the cast members around Kazuhiko sort out their feelings while he observes, serves as a sounding board, and/or gets caught in the middle of the angsty teen drama. The well-defined cast finds plenty of opportunities for humor, and the regular installments of ridiculous novel names (which, in intentional irony, are hardly outrageous compared to fare that really exists) is a recurring treat. This is shaping up to be one of the best romantic dramedies in recent years.

Mission: Yozakura Family

Rating So Far: B-

The first half of this series mostly consisted of vignettes featuring Taiyo adjusting to his new life as the super-spy husband of Mutsumi, but the second half has progressed to a more plot-driven focus, and the series is better for it. The seven episodes so far this season have explored the secret organization targeting Mutsumi (and especially why they’re doing it) and what connections that organization has to the death of Taiyo’s family, a topic which has long been intimated but only recently been brought to the forefront. I’m a little concerned about the sense of power creep here as Taiyo gets involved in increasingly more hairy situations, but there have been enough interesting revelations to offset that and Kyoichiro’s antics have mercifully been less frequent. Still not a great series, but it remains decently entertaining.

Plus-Sized Elf

Rating So Far: C, or B if this is your thing

I wasn’t actually following this one, but I had some extra time and was morbidly curious to see how it would play out as more supernatural women got added into the cast, so I marathoned it to get caught up. Yep, what you see in the first episode of this one is exactly what you get with the rest of the series. Each half-length episode adds a new non-human, so by episode 8 we have a dark elf, a mermaid, a satyr, an ogre, a cyclops, a dragon, a kobold, and a werewolf in the mix, all of them on the chubby side to some degree and seeking help from Naoe to either lose weight in general or tone certain body parts. Each episode also features some kind of exercise, massage, or meditation technique designed to help lose weight, as well as regular doses of (often nudity-laced) fan service. It all can be a bit funny, but I still can’t recommend this except for those who prefer their women on the meaty side.

Shy

Rating So Far: B

This season of Shy has mostly continued to be what the first season was for me: not a title that I can get overly excited about but still solid entertainment. Through Teruko still well lives up to her code name, seeing her gradually grow in confidence and perseverance has its own appeal, and I’m increasingly starting to like her in action moments, too. She’ll never be the brawler that some of her fellow heroes are, but her strong empathy makes her much more flexible and capable of influencing those around her positively. She’s essentially the antithesis of Stigma and definitely the key to ultimately defeating him. The ninja angle this season has also been a bit interesting (if also very cliche) and the personalities of some of the Amarariku members have started to shine through, too. This is an easy series to underestimate.

The Magical Girl and Evil Lieutenant Used To Be Enemies

Rating So Far: B-

Normally, expanding a cast is an essential part of keeping a series – especially a comedy series – afloat for a whole season. However, the exact point where this series starts getting less funny coincides with the introduction of Byakuya’s former friend Hibana, the second magical girl. She’s an utter contrast to Byakuya: dark hair, wealthy background, and a demeanor that’s anything but reserved. Her shtick about half of her dialog being some variation on “fuck” and suddenly shifting from being cute to animalistic violence isn’t anywhere near as funny as it was meant to be, and it definitely gets in the way of the series’ main appeal: how helpless Mira is before Byakuya’s adorably pathetic state and how determined he is to hide that from his fellows. The expanded look at the nature of magical girl familiars is a little interesting, but it doesn’t help in reestablishing the fine balance the series achieved through the first five episodes. (I probably would have graded this series a B+ after episode 5.) Hopefully the series can regain its footing as it progresses.

The Ossan Newbie Adventurer

Rating: C

In just about every respect, this is the brother series to I Parry Everything, even down to the male lead having a petite teenage girl try to coax him into training her and a somewhat older, strong woman as an additional regular companion. Rick here isn’t quite as dense as Noor is in the other series, but as someone who’s long worked for an Adventurer’s Guild, he has less excuse for not having a sense of scale on his strength, too. The level of technical and artistic merits are about the same between the two series as well, though the balance of them is different. (Characters tend to be more consistently on-model here but the designs are less appealing, for instance.) The only real significant differences right now are that this version of the “30ish guy becomes an adventurer more powerful than he realizes” concept takes itself decidedly less seriously but leans quite a bit more into fan service. I find this one to be watchable but slightly less interesting than the other, hence the slightly lower grade.

VTuber Legend: How I Went Viral after Forgetting to Turn Off My Stream

Rating So Far: A-

I don’t follow the VTuber scene at all, and yet I still find this series to be one of the most raucously funny anime titles I’ve seen in years. It mostly doesn’t bother with a plot, instead just throwing the different VTubers together to bounce off central character Awayuki (and her drunken Shuwa persona) in totally whacked-out, sometimes very dirty exchanges, and it absolutely works. Somewhere in the midst of this it finds some room for genuine character and relationship development, too, and its many odd visual gimmicks (the VTubers always appear like their online avatars even while not online, while everyone else is a featureless, headless humanoid) help give it a very distinctive flare as well, but it’s the antics and copious text commentaries which keep me coming back. It’s also had a different OP each episode, each time featuring a different in-universe VTuber. I could see this one becoming a standard-setter for its emerging genre.

Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World?

Rating So Far: C+

Somewhat surprisingly, this one is being carried more by its premise than its content. Kai hasn’t so much been transported to another world as his world has been overwritten, but who has done that, and why, is the guiding mystery for the series as Kai and the allies who assemble around him confront two of the Heroes of the other races. Sure, there’s also the mystery of what blonde girl Rinne is and why (she seems to be an amalgamation of all five races), but through the first seven episodes that’s a secondary matter. Everything else about the series – characters, design elements, animation, action scenes, story execution – is completely unremarkble, though in each case at least a minor step up from the other Kei Sazane-originating series this season (i.e., Our Last Crusade). It is a somewhat entertaining series, but more a time-killer than a priority view.

Wistoria: Wand and Sword

Rating So Far: B

While I’m not crazy about some aspects of its visual aesthetic (especially Will’s extra-lanky design), this series unquestionably stands with The Elusive Samurai and Makeine as one of the season’s best-animated titles, with some truly astounding action sequences being highlights. Its story – essentially a standard “outcast at magic school” affair – is far less special, hence the reason why I’m not scoring this one higher at this point. That doesn’t mean Will’s goals or the true motive of one of his chief antagonists aren’t compelling, or that there’s a lack of background intrigues, and I do appreciate how the story eschews typical comedy antics and takes itself almost entirely seriously, but I’ll need to see something a bit fresher in the characterizations and plotting to be fully won over. Still, it’s a solid view that I can recommend and its most recent episode was, arguably, its strongest.

That’s it for now. The next special will be a review for Terminator Zero, assuming it gets released as a batch on August 29th. (If it ends up being a weekly release instead then it will be reviewed at the end of its run.)

Oshi no Ko episode 19

Rating: A-

Shonen action series are renowned for being stocked with characters who wear their hearts on their sleeves, and the script for Tokyo Blade emphasizes emotional acting even above and beyond that. That makes it an ideal venue for those who have issues with their acting – Melt, Akane, and Kana among them – to sort out said issues. But for all of the depth of their respective issues, none of them have as deep-seeded and fundamental a problem with their relationship to acting as the one who normally remains most aloof from such things: Aqua. But while he’s been clear from early in the series about his feelings on acting, the exact extent of his dysfunction has only been hinted at before now.

First, though, Kana’s case needs to be finished. Aqua and Akane set in motion their planned ad libbing to bolster Kana, while Taiki institutes some of his own to make sure that Akane doesn’t outshine him. The net result forces Kana to the center, to step beyond her self-proscribed role of being the play’s acting coordinator by providing support and prompting for her to do what she truly does best: dazzle with her acting. The minor problem here is the series has been here before, so this part all feels a bit retread, and so the emotional impact here is not as great. Some of Kana’s ruminations about her mother are new, but otherwise the timing here feels uncharacteristically slow. The part of this that I actually liked the most was Kaburagi’s reaction to Kana fully unleashing herself (although Akane’s fangirl reaction wasn’t bad for a bit of levity, either). No doubt the roles she gets from now on could be a bit different.

What rescues this from being a more mundane episode (by this series’ standards) is that the climax here isn’t Kana’s, but Aqua’s. The way he chose to be emotionless to counter and contrast Taiki’s highly expressive acting was an interesting dynamic, but the episode’s real meat lies in the true nature of Aqua’s panic attacks. It’s not being reminded of Ai’s death that triggers him; it’s the impurity of his motives. His life is all about avenging Ai, and his acting is a means to that end. Such a dark motivation means that having fun while acting feels like a betrayal, so he rejects that on a visceral level. His guilt (however unwarranted) over not being able to protect Ai in the end feeds into this, too, which makes his in-character ad-libbing to Kana all the more ironic and his in-character reaction to Blade’s provocations all the more devastating. The end result is that Aqua has essentially cursed himself; acting can’t be anything but an expression of pain for him. . . which is exactly the state his character is in now. How much of what we’re seeing at the end of the episode is under control and on-script, I wonder?

Setting aside how wonderfully the visuals and music come together to give that scene full impact, the other big moment here is that Taishi has figured out Aqua and Ruby’s ginormous secret, and at some level may have known it for quite some time. Akane’s intuition was just a fantasy which hit all too close to home, but Taishi knows. Granted, he’d be the most likely one to figure it out, but thaat both he and Akane have had some glimpse of the truth means that others out there are likely capable of putting the pieces together, too; I could imagine Kaburagi doing that at some point, for instance, since he knows that Ai was seeing a guy. For now, this is still a minor point, but no doubt this will come up again later on.

In all, this makes for another strong episode, if not quite on the powerhouse level of the previous three.

Spice & Wolf (2024) episode 20

Rating: A-

For long-time franchise fans, this week is the most exciting of times: the debut of an arc completely new to anime form for the first time in 15 years!

With “Church Girl and Miller Boy,” this adaptation finally diverges completely (if possibly only temporarily) from the original adaptation by beginning animation of the fourth novel. The original adaptation skipped over novel 4 in favor of novel 5 because novel 5 is more dramatic and leans heavier into the developing romance between Lawrence and Holo, elements which are more in line with novels 1-3 and thus make a sensible continuation if no additional seasons were expected. (The end of novel 5 also arguably makes a better overall stopping point.) However, if a production is planning to adapt deeper into the franchise, novel 4’s content is absolutely essential. The featured guest star of this arc, the female priest Elsa (shown here in her debut appearance), does show up again in prominent ways both later in the story and in the after-story and some of what Lawrence and Holo learn here guides them towards later events. This scenario also expands more on the lore and world-building regarding the great beasts (like Holo) worshiped as pagan gods.

The first hints of of the latter can be clearly seen in this episode if one is paying attention carefully. The doorknocker on the building where the village’s headman lives is suspiciously snake-shaped (a motif that would definitely not have been used casually in the era of European history which this series’ setting is modeled after), and a well-made stuffed snake is certainly not an ordinary thing to have on display in a house. That suggests that the village of Tereo may be – or at least have traditionally been – snake worshipers, possibly of a being like Holo. And yet there is a church present, too, one which seems a little too prominent and sturdy for such a small village. That would tend to suggest religious conflict, but the former Father Franz was apparently well-liked and respected, so the tension present in the village right now must be from something else.

Whatever is going on, the episode’s two namesake individuals seem to be caught in the middle of it. Elsa is a (very) young woman who seems to have taken over the village church with the passing of Father Franz. Given how suspicious and defensive she acts, this may be a case of the villagers seeing her as representing the greater Church in a conflict with the Church in Enberch. She’s in a doubly awkward predicament, too, because the role she has assumed isn’t something women traditionally did. Evan, the miller, is also in an awkward position, though Lawrence articulates more fully on why: millers were regarded more as necessary evils because of their association with taxation, so Evan may well be socially isolated because of that. He also clearly has some kind of relationship with Elsa. That could just be two outcasts having fallen in with each other, but it feels like more is going on here. The odd look the merchant in Enberch gives Lawrence when the latter inquires about Tereo also suggests that.

So what is going on here? Given the way this series has operated so far, the casual mention about how powerful the bakers are in Enberch probably has something – if not everything – to do with this. But this is only the first episode of the arc, so that will play out with time. Until then, we can enjoy the casual little moments between Lawrence and Holo. With the recent crisis between them now passed, they can focus on more mundane matters, like Lawrence’s wholly-unintentional mistreatment of Holo’s tale or how sloppy a sleeper Holo is. The design features are noteworthy here, too. The series as a whole has made a concerted effort to vary the architectural styles from location to location; the main building in Tereo looks nothing like the ones in Pasloe, for instance, and the curious stone stage is certainly different. Details like this are easy to overlook but reflect the effort poured into this series.

Overall, this was a fun starter episode for the arc, one which properly mixes lighter elements with new character introductions, random economic details, and hints of a bigger picture.

Summer ’24 Mid-Season Report, part 1

The week of 8/11 marked the official halfway point of the Summer 2024 season, so it’s time to take a look at how various series have been faring.

Though I watched at least the second episode of most series this season, I persisted past episode 3 with “only” 23 of them. Somewhat to my surprise, My Deer Friend Nokotan is not one of them. I normally go for these kind of absurdist comedies (I was a huge fan of Excel Saga back in the day, for instance), but I found this one too insufferably stupid to tolerate after just two episodes. I also lost interest in Suicide Squad Isekai after the initial three episodes, found TASUKETSU too shaky on writing merits to tolerate past two, and couldn’t jump on the bandwagon of The Elusive Samurai because the tonal dissonance between its cheery and incredibly dark parts bothered me too much. Of the ones that I did follow further, Spice & Wolf and Oshi no Ko will not be covered here or in part 2 because they’re getting episode reviews.

That still leaves 21 titles, so I am once again breaking this exercise into two parts. This part covers series which have aired at least their seventh regular episode of this season by 8/17/24, as well as special case Our Last Crusade.

2.5 Dimensional Seduction

Rating So Far: B-

I generally enjoy series about characters who are living out the joy of their fandom, and this series is most certainly that. Sure, it leans a bit heavy into the fan service angle at times, but that doesn’t bother me. All the little tidbits about the nature of cosplaying and cosroms are also interesting, even if this series isn’t as thorough about the former as, say, My Dress-Up Darling (the title it’s clearly emulating) was. The weakest part of the series so far is the childhood friend character who’s the wannabe-romantic rival (although she’s the only one at this point acknowledging that romance is involved), but the teacher who’s a former elite cosplayer who becomes the club sponsor is more promising. Not a great series, and it has had its occasional artistic failings (the screen shot comes from one of its weakest points), but it is involving and entertaining enough that I’ll certainly continue with it. It also has one of the season’s better EDs.

Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian

Rating So Far: B

The flak this series has taken for how its titular character isn’t the series’ most interesting or engaging female character is warranted. Alya’s quirky take on the standard tsundere archetype, where she only shows her affection for Masachika by speaking in a language she doesn’t realize he understands, is rather cute, but his sister Yuki is far more vibrant and entertaining with her snarky, playful attitude and indication of a more complicated family situation, and in recent episodes Alya’s sister Masha is starting to outshine Alya, too. Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s even possible for the series to course-correct on this at this point, but it’s not a crippling problem, either. The series still works pretty well as a light dramedy, as long as the incest-leaning elements don’t bother you much. (Yuki clearly has some not-entirely-sisterly feelings for Masachika, but he doesn’t see her that way and it is mostly played off as provocative teasing.)

Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools

Rating: B-

This one has suffered from enough quality control issues that it not taking a week off yet, when several others have, is somewhat surprising. I disagree with those who label it the worst-looking series of the season, but it definitely has its visual flaws, and even my favorite character design of the season (Dahlia, in the get-up she’s wearing in the screenshot above) cannot offset that. This is a series which operates at a very relaxed pace as isekai titles go, with the emphasis entirely on Dahlia overcoming her father’s death, failed marriage plans, and budding relationship with Wolf as she develops new artifices, but I don’t mind that, and a good chemistry is starting to develop between the two leads. If the artist merits would at least stabilize at a medium level then this could be a favorite low-key title.

Days With My Stepsister

Rating So Far: B-, I guess?

Of the series in this group, this one is easily the hardest for me to rate. That’s because I respect what it is doing even while not being convinced that its approach is working. This is definitely a very slow-burn series, one that almost takes too gradual and delicate a pace to showing how Yuta and Saki are trying to establish a proper step-sibling relationship while avoiding (partly in vain) being attracted to one another. It generally looks pretty good, and I especially appreciate how stylish its female characters look when not in school or work uniforms and how the series shows both Yuta and Saki’s viewpoints almost equally. However, while there is a mild sense of tension throughout, it lacks the strong spark and energy necessary to be fully compelling. I can still mildly recommend it, though you should not expect to be blown away by it.

I Parry Everything

Rating: C+

I started out liking this series a lot, and will definitely finish it out, but it has its own share of technical problem (though more erratically so). And man, protagonist Noor is just too unbelievably dense. Him not having a proper sense of scale on how strong he is worked well at first, and I still like how he can take such enormous advantage of skills that would, in an RPG setting, be equivalent to cantrips. Increasingly, though, he is feeling deliberately rather than accidentally obtuse, and that’s not a good look for this concept. Still, of the two series this season about a 30ish guy who doesn’t appreciate his own overwhelming strength, this is the better one.

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World

Rating So Far: C-

Whether because of the Olympics or production issues, there have been a lot of weeks off for anime series this season, but this is the only series (so far) to have completely collapsed. It got four episodes out before its production issues became too much, and that it was struggling was pretty obvious on the visual front. The plot focused almost entirely on intrigue within the Nebulus Sovereignty and Iska’s team’s efforts to get Sisbell back home in the wake of an assassination attempts on the Queen, and it wasn’t doing badly, but it wasn’t anything special, either. The series is on indefinite hiatus, so there’s no telling when the rest of this will air at this point, and its return is not something I will be highly anticipating.

Quality Assurance in Another World

Rating So Far: B

This was one of the biggest surprises of the Preview Guide for me, and it has proven to be a solid (if unspectacular) performer since. The creativity with which it implement various video game flaws into its storytelling is impressive and it raises numerous interesting questions, such as what happens to a bug tester when they’re stuck out of bounds or in a loop and still can’t log out? (Or does that actually kick them out?) And why does Nikola seem to be different among NPCs? Surely it’s just more than one of the game’s major guiding AIs occasionally possessing her, right? It’s far from the greatest at action scenes, but it makes up for that with an engaging core cast. The rabbit character shown in the OP and ED has now joined, so only the elf warrior now awaits.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime s3

Rating: C+

Can I just get away with saying “it is what it is”? This half still has the spate of meetings which dominated the first half, but this times many of the meetings are more audiences and the people of Tempest are in the thick of putting together the city’s grand “coming out” festival. There are still some minor plots buzzing in the background, but honestly, this series is almost more fantasy slice-of-life than fantasy adventure at this point. It still has just enough going for it in the characters, setting-building details, and large-scale structuring to be mildly interesting, but it has fallen far from being a priority view at this point.

The Strongest Magician in the Demon Lord’s Army was a Human

Rating So Far: C

The strongest aspect of this one is its absolutely bangin’ OP (far more on the strength of its song than its visuals), which is easily one of the highlights of the season, if not the year, in that category. The actual episode content impresses far less. The Demon Lord’s character design is a plus (those eyes!), but the CG monster designs and animation aren’t, and action scenes which lean more on massed battles tend to be rather drab by fantasy anime standards. Nothing much interesting is going on in the plot here, either, although the writing does specifically emphasize that problematic types exist in both among the demons and among the humans. I still find this one watchable, but only as a low-priority time-filler.

Come back on 8/24/24 for part 2!

Oshi no Ko episode 18

Rating: A

Last episode delivered a remarkably effective exploration of one of the series’ more minor regular characters, so it’s only fitting that the focus should now shift to the major ones – in particular, Kana and Akane and the rivalry between them. And forget that both of them are romantically interested in the same guy, and thus rivals in that realm, too; that doesn’t play into this at all. No, this is about where both stand, and how both relate to the other, as actresses. And like with last episode, that conflict alone proves fully compelling.

We knew from previous episodes that Akane got into acting because of idolizing Kana, and that their acting styles sharply contrast, but as this episode shows (against the backdrop of their characters meeting for the first time in the stage play), there’s way more to it than that. Akane recognizes that Kana is more than just gifted; she has the ability to dazzle with her acting, to steal the show, to be the sun. We saw flashes of that when she first went head-to-head against major talent Taiki in episode 12, and also when she fully let loose during the B Komachi performance back in episode 11. When she allows it to show, she’s incredible. But that’s not always what people want, or what’s best for the project, so she has learned to be the consummate professional, playing to the level of those around her and what’s best for the overall show. In this case, she’s on the precipice of letting loose before her self-training kicks in, forcing her to be the sun that shines upon Akane’s showmanship rather than the one which blinds with its own brilliance.

And that’s what Akane can’t stand, for a number of reasons. She initially became enamored with that brilliance, got into acting to be like that, but the Kana she finally encountered in her youth was one driven cynical at way too young an age. This isn’t the glorious Kana she initially idolized, and how can she have an all-out acting match with someone who’s decided that making Akane’s character stand out, rather than herself, is what’s best for the play? In some senses it’s the classic shonen action case of a fighter being frustrated that a foe isn’t giving her best in a fight because of some perceived propriety or self-imposed limitation, but adapted into acting form, and kudos to the production teams for so beautifully demonstrating that through the clash between their characters and the way that Akane’s reaction to Kana syncs with the way her character responds to the growing conflict. The other interesting detail here is that wanting to understand Kana – why she changed, how she could have been pressed down by the pressure from the adults around her – is what drove Akane to study psychology and become a fledgling profiler.

How compelling the Kana/Akane part is almost overshadows the progression of the play that is a backdrop to it. Once again, the production shows how dynamic the play format can be; these episodes would be readily watchable just on that content alone.

This series has now delivered three stellar episodes in a row, making it the clear front-runner for the season’s best at this point. If it can continue to perform at this high a caliber then it will be competitive for yearly honors, too.

Spice & Wolf (2024) episode 19

Rating: B+

Original novelist Isuna Hasekura is most commonly lauded for the way he uses medieval (and sometimes modern) economics as foundational plot elements in his story arcs, but another area he excels at is driving tension. Even if you know what’s coming – whether because of reading the novels or seeing the first adaptation – his content always does an impressive job of generating tension when warranted and regardless of what the stakes are. This adaptation succeeds quite well at that, too, as it brings the Amati arc to a climax.

In actuality, not much is going on here plot-wise. The market has opened, prices go back and forth as new sellers and buyers come into the picture – and Lawrence is getting nervous about Diana’s representative not showing up. Curiously, Amati seems to be getting a little concerned, too, when Holo seems to do a disappearing trick after conspicuously showing her hood’s feathers to Lawrence. What’s most interesting about this is where the true dramatic climax actually lies. The break point in the tension is when Holo plunks a bag of pyrite down for sale at the same time Lawrence does, thus triggering the selling frenzy which dooms Amati, but I’d argue that the true climax comes when Lawrence calms down a bit and decides to trust Holo, as for him, everything is downhill from there.

The main takeaway from this is that one should never, ever cross Holo, as she doesn’t need to turn into giant wolf form to savage a person. Amati is barely shown at all after the climax (and never again in the series), so gauging how he responds to all of this is difficult, but he clearly got totally blindsided by Holo, at least partly because of some unspecified offense he made (the source novel is no clearer on this) but also probably partly because Holo was pissed at both him and Lawrence for putting her in the middle of their silly merchant’s duel. Their conversation afterwards also clarifies that she never seriously intended to go with Amati. She was manipulating both of them most of the time to drive home points about trust, commitment, and not treating her as a commodity, and nearly everything she did – from the marriage contract to conspicuously flashing Diana’s feathers – was meant to guide things a certain way.

The aspect of this that I’ve never liked – and this version does no better on – is that Lawrence comes away seeming totally at fault here. While he definitely shares some of the blame, the outcome too easily lets Holo off the hook for what she did to push the mess forward. She may have been caught off guard by Lawrence initially misunderstanding her apology back in episode 16, but she’s also wise enough that she should have understood how easily her actions could be misconstrued under the circumstances and she certainly took no initiative to explain things better – and no, the helpful details about Amati’s finances don’t count here. Lawrence has been shown stumbling over his own arrogance more than once, but here Holo gets tripped up by her own cleverness and tendency to be obtuse.

To a degree, though, Holo’s comeuppance does come, in the way that Diana messed with her over her relationship with Lawrence. Having talked to both of them, Diana was clearly deliberately vague and misleading about Holo being the one she was negotiating with, and she was manipulating the situation a bit for her own amusement; her “good luck” to Lawrence in parting in episode 18 now could be interpreted as having sarcastic intent. The post-climax revelations also clarify something heavily implied by previous visits to Diana: she is an avatar much like Holo, only of a giant bird and apparently capable of hiding her bird characteristics fully in human form. This does also explain the impression given in some previous shots of her being perched in the chair, and Holo being present for Lawrence’s last visit explains the meaningful look towards the staircase cast in episode 18’s visit. In other words, this time around the truths were hinted about in ways that the audience could reasonably figure out.

Once again, this adaptation covers the exact same ground, and makes the exact same points of emphasis, as episode 6 of season 2 of the first adaptation. Even more so than in previous episodes, the differences are almost entirely in trivial visual details. This is the last episode where I’ll be able to say that, though, as with the next one the series moves into new animated territory. That’s definitely something to look forward to!

Oshi no Ko episode 17

Rating: A-

Episode 16 cast its net wide, addressing all the subplots feeding into the debut of Tokyo Blade and even a few peripheral points, too. Episode 17, which actually begins the play, is almost the polar opposite: its second act narrows the focus almost exclusively to one character, for better or worse.

And on paper, I certainly expected the “for worse” option. This season has made some effort to flesh Melt out, but he still remained one of the series’ least compelling recurring characters coming into this episode. However, that starts to change as his backstory fills in more during his featured scene in act 2 of the play. Women, popularity, and attention came effortlessly to Melt, so it never occurred to him that acting might actually require serious effort. Watching Aqua and Kana’s performances in Sweet Today forced him to realize, for the first time, that he was in an arena where he couldn’t just skate by on looks and charisma. Whether in sports or performing arts, you can’t succeed at a pro level if you’re not giving it your all, if you’re not finding a way to bring out your best, and the particular play he’s in now demands that more than most. The acting disparity between him and the others isn’t something that can be bridged with just a few months of lessons, either.

But like any good performer, Melt finds something about his role that he can connect to – the sense of being beaten because of overconfidence, the frustration of just not being good enough – and is able to channel that beautifully for his feature scene. Despite what Aqua claims, some of it is, indeed, Aqua’s tactics (i.e., focus on one mind-blowing scene rather than trying to improve everything), but Melt is the one who makes it happen, and the production team members are the ones who turn it into a glorious phantasmagoria of abstracted imagery and animation. Intense emotions go hand-in-hand with anime, but instances where you can feel it as much as what’s seen here are rare indeed.

We can’t overlook the episode’s first act, either, which provides a condensed version of the play’s first act. Its staging skillfully shows off the wire works which go into such dynamic fight sequences and all of the theatrical effects in a series of remarkably robustly-animated scenes. It left me really, really wanting to see a play like this in reality and eager to see what the rest of the play will look like.