Special: August Debuts

Date: August 7, 2024

Two late-starting anime series are debuting today, so let’s take a Preview Guide-style look at both of them.

Delico’s Nursery

Streams: Crunchyroll on Wednesdays at 1 p.m.

Rating: 3 (of 5)

This one has the unusual pedigree of being based on a stage play by Kenichi Suemitsu, who also wrote the screenplay for Welcome to the Ballroom and directed one of the Touken Ranbu stage plays. Its origins date back to 2009, so naming a major background character TRUMP (an amalgamation of “True of Vampire”) probably has nothing whatsoever to do with the real-life U.S. presidential candidate. Still, that this is being released in anime form now, just three months before a major election featuring a candidate with that name, is either a truly weird coincidence or else indicates that someone in Japan has a perverse sense of humor.

In any case, this is a Victorian England-styled setting where nearly everyone – including all of the main cast – seems to be a vampire. Exactly why they all need to be vampires is hard to say; that detail seems largely irrelevant to what plays out in this episode, and all of the characters act within the parameters of completely normal humans; they don’t even show fangs or sunlight vulnerability. Regardless, noble Dali Delico is being tasked with leading an investigation into serial murders which may be connected to TRUMP (a mythical entity that is essentially the vampire progenitor), but he’s refusing to do it because he made a promise to his dying wife to give his young children “all his love” and he takes that promise very seriously. The other dashing bishonen who are supposed to be under his command insist that he should be capable of balancing both tasks, so he eventually agrees, but with one catch: all of them have to find a way to balance their duties and child-rearing (which each of them has always been hands-off about), too. Hence the HQ for investigating the serial murders is now both a figurative and literal “nursery,” with the children of all the top officials present.

Honestly, this is a great story concept, one rife with all sorts of potential complications as young men who know nothing about child-rearing now suddenly have to be “hands-on.” Just, again, I’m not sure why vampires need to be part of it. I’m less completely sold on the very stylized character designs and the Victorian architecture and clothing styles, but that’s more of a personal preference, and the setting does have some somewhat intriguing world-building potential. While I’m grading it neutrally for now, I can see this one catching on, especially in the cosplay arena.

True Beauty

Streams: Crunchyroll on Wednesdays at 1 p.m.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

Though this one streams on Crunchyroll and has an anime-like aesthetic, it is actually a Korean production, down to being based on a Korean webtoon, using Korean on-screen text and credits, and being originally dubbed in Korean (I think). Though its visual style falls somewhere in between U.S. animation and anime, its story structure, elements, and approach are similar enough to shoujo anime for there to be a lot of potential carry-over appeal. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good, though.

To be sure, it does look quite pretty in its character designs; in fact, that’s the series’ strong point by far. The story derives somewhat from the classic tale of The Ugly Duckling, where a high school girl derided as being ugly at her former school is able to transform herself into a beauty at her new school by simply learning how to take advantage of make-up. While she appreciates the new friend and vastly improved social standing this earns her, she also feels fake, and isn’t entirely uncomfortable with all this new attention. Things get complicated when she starts having encounters in both normal and made-up forms with a drop-dead-gorgeous boy who’s quite standoffish but also seems to be very much in sync with her true self on reading and musical tastes (she’s into heavy metal).

At just a bit under 20 minutes, this is a little shorter than a typical anime episode, but its problems lie more in execution. The episode pushes the pace too much, parts that are supposed to be funny mostly aren’t, and the male lead has all of the personality of cardboard. The concept is also lacking in originality, and I couldn’t help but feel that this is, to a degree, a poor man’s version of Kare Kano. The messaging seems to be heading towards a “beauty may get you what you want short-term, but not what truly matters” direction, but it’s also still being idealized in its approach. I can maybe see this one flying if it can navigate past this bumpy start, but I’m not holding my breath.

Oshi no Ko episode 16

Rating: A

Oshi no Ko‘s anime adaptation has never found itself shy on content, but this may be the most packed regular-length episode in the series to date. Even though its plotline is relatively simple – we’re watching the final preparations for the debut of the Tokyo Blade play – so many different character points and conflicts are in play that the direction deserves kudos for managing them all with a nearly-flawless flow. That results in some of the season’s funniest moments, but also some of its most disturbing.

One of the latter happens in the scene where Aqua confesses his true motivation to Akane in response to her pestering about what motivates Aqua to be an actor. He doesn’t explain why he has that motivation, but unbeknownst to him, he doesn’t need to; Akane is plenty intuitive enough to figure out that it probably has everything to do with the awful incident in Aqua’s past that was bad enough to give him PTSD. Aqua was clearly trying to push her away by admitting that much, but the dark-pupil stare Akane gives him back is a shocker. That she’s not thrown one bit by this suggests some interesting things about her own personality; perhaps she’s had thought about someone herself. In any case, this is just further evidence that Akane, for all her seeming soft side, isn’t a pushover.

What this and later scenes say about Aqua is also interesting. By the end of the episode the nature of his PTSD attacks have become clear: although Ai’s death is involved, the actual trigger is a need to be intensely emotive. Presumably this is because the one time Ai showed her full, true emotions was as she died, so Aqua has come to associate strong emotions with his worst experiences. That would certainly explain his tendency throughout the series to not get strongly emotional about anything, but it also puts a new stake on the upcoming play debut: can he keep it together enough to deliver a truly emotive performance without having a panic attack?

He’s far from the only one who has something personal at stake, too. Melt isn’t just regretful about his bad acting during Sweet Today; he’s haunted by it. He feels he needs to prove that he can act at least passably well. Unfortunately for him, he got on the bad side of Sakuya by interfering in Sakuya’s efforts to hit on Minami, who didn’t seem interested but was buckling under the pressure tactics. That this a case of a 22-year-old hitting on a minor is a separate issue; what matters most here is that Sakuya has decided to be unrelenting in attacking Melt about his acting in revenge. To a point, Melt knows he deserves it, but Sakuya is making it too personal. This is a new dynamic thrown into the mix, and frankly, it’s the weakest of the lot in terms of impact.

Ruby also gets some scenes for a change, and for perhaps the first time this season, her appearance doesn’t feel like it’s there just for the sake of reminding us that she’s still around. Aqua has had the “star going dark” thing going on at least since episode 2 when he’s having a very negative reaction to something, but Ruby’s reaction to Minami’s insinuations about what Aqua is doing with Akane each night is the first time we’ve seen that Ruby is capable of it herself. (But this is also the first time that anything’s been said to Ruby that hit that close to home.) She can’t seem to turn that darker emotion on and off like Aqua does, so I’d guess that her bathroom visit was actually just an excuse to allow her to calm herself down and get back to her normal cheery self. Kana and MEM-cho looking out for her afterwards as a neat little comedy add-on to lighten the overall mood again.

Speaking of moods, Kana and Akane certainly have a sharp vibe between them, don’t they? We’ve known since the first season that they mutually regard the other as a bitter rival, but Akane should know well enough by now that she isn’t going to win a battle of words with Kana, despite getting in a good jab or two during their dust-up in the dressing room. Kana may be on the mean side, but she’s still a delight in the way she screws with Akane. This leads me to wonder if Kaburagi knew about this and so set up a casting that put two real-life rivals into roles that are rivals. Regardless, they form the other driving tension going into the play and the insight that Kana was the inspiration for Akane getting into acting was an amusing but also loaded revelation, too.

Next episode is the play itself, apparently. How much of it will we get to see play out? It will have to be pretty special to top the quality content we’ve seen these last two episodes.

Spice & Wolf (2024) episode 18

Rating: B

We’re in the fifth episode of the current arc, and as in the last two arcs, Lawrence is stressing out over the current financial crisis. This time the stakes aren’t potentially deadly, but a different kind of death potentially awaits him: the prospect that Holo might leave him. And while Lawrence is the nearest thing to a nervous wreck, he’s not going down without a fight – or letting anything in this episode not be couched in merchant terms.

That last point is both a little cute and a little annoying. As his friend Marc points out, Lawrence is a merchant through to the core, so he apparently can’t even describe relationships without putting it in occupational language. Would Holo be thrilled to learn that she’s being referred to as cargo (even if it’s precious cargo)? I rather doubt it. And while that reference is not objectifying her per se, I certainly couldn’t fault someone who makes that complaint. Still, it does lay bare how he really feels without him having to directly say how much he values Holo, and that is something that Marc, Batos, and Diana all seem to appreciate. Or they could just be entertained by watching this young man (and Lawrence, despite looking older, is only 25) make a fool of himself over a woman.

The bigger question, though, is who the real fool is at this point, and right now, both Lawrence and Amati are strong candidates for that title. Amati clearly thinks he has the upper hand at this point, especially with Lawrence briefly losing his cool when Amati hands him the money for the deal they struck the previous night. (And my, wasn’t converting it to gold coins a pretentious little twist of the dagger!) But how fully is Holo really on his side? That’s still suspect. Equally suspect is how casually dodgy Diana is being in her conversation with Lawrence this episode. Even though she has legitimate reasons for being reticent about the identity of the other person who sought pyrite from her, it feels more like an excuse here than a matter of principle, and Lawrence is making too many assumptions to notice. Her departing “good luck” comment also suggests that something is going on here that Lawrence is missing.

Unlike with some of the twists in previous episodes, though, even anime-only viewers have at least a chance to figure this one out. There are visual clues in this episode that Lawrence isn’t picking up on but sharp-eyed viewers might, and this adaptation is a little more obvious about it than the original was. In case readers want to figure it out on their own, I’ll only give a hint for now: one detail in the market scene is inconsistent with something seen earlier in the arc, and that inconsistency is both intentional and extremely meaningful. Kudos to the production team for being sly about it without making it impossible.

One more episode for this arc and then we can finally get into newly-animated content. For us novel readers, the anticipation is building. . .

Oshi no Ko Episode 15: “Emotional Acting”

Rating: A

In the days leading up to the airing of this episode, I engaged in a discussion on another site about whether or not this story actually needed the reincarnation angle. Could a story which eliminated that and Ai, and was just about ordinarily-gifted twins working their way through various aspects of the entertainment industry beginning when they were very young, still be successful? Honestly, I think so, especially if it still contained all of the insider perspective seen throughout this series. But it wouldn’t be Oshi no Ko. You couldn’t just change the character backgrounds and make a few other small tweaks and still have the same series, and the second part of this episode powerfully shows why.

Ironically, the first part of this episode somewhat deals with making these kinds of changes. A combination of Aqua getting the play ticket for Abiko and pushing Raida to take action, along with an assist from Yoriko in advising Abiko about meeting them halfway, led to the kind of direct communication between creator and script writer which should have happened from the beginning, essentially resolved the writing conflict. In fact, how well Abiko and GAO got in sync once they started hashing out the details, and how much fun they seemed to be having with it, was rather amusing. It certainly makes the script more challenging to perform, but as Kana and others suggest with their reactions to it, what true actor wouldn’t rise to this kind of challenge?

But this also creates an unexpected problem for Aqua. He’s not emotive by nature, so putting on a performance which requires him to project his emotions is going to be difficult for him. One telling scene happens when Aqua, on advice from Kana, tries to recall a time when he was happy. He can easily picture other people around him being happy, but not himself, so when he finally does smile, it still feels like just an imitation. But even that’s enough to set off the PTSD reaction that Kana had unwittingly set in motion moments before.

Kana, of course, had no way of knowing that the advice she relayed to Aqua about how child actors are taught to generate tears on command (i.e., to imagine their mother dying) was the absolute worst thing imaginable that she could have said to Aqua. We knew all along that Aqua had never let himself get over Ai’s death, and that he uses it as a driving force behind his actions even to this day, but the depth to which it still affected him emotionally – and how he unreasonably blames himself for not being able to stop it – was not as clear until now. He didn’t just witness her death and the violence which led to it first-hand; he experienced it in tactile and olfactory senses as well, and the way this episode shows him reliving that is masterfully devastating, both in its visuals and its use of dire, tense music. And maybe the saddest aspect of this is that the one person he could share this with – Ruby – is the person he most adamantly wants to distance from it. He has never felt he had a future in this life, but he still powerfully wants Ruby to have one.

Though Akane is an outsider to this whole scenario, her scenes here are no less important. Back in episodes 7 and 8, she showed an almost scary degree of intuition when it came to puzzling out the true character of a person, and that resurfaces again here. She had already considered the possibility that Ai might have secretly had a child, and now just learning that Aqua was haunted by a terrible childhood experience, combine with Aqua saying Ai’s name in his sleep, was enough for her to connect the dots on the possibility that Aqua (and by extension Ruby) were the secret love children she had once posited. Aqua’s only saving grace here is that Akane finds this scenario too fantastical to be fully credible, but she should know as well as anyone that truth can be stranger than fiction.

Some minor quality control issues in the artistry don’t deter one bit the impact this episode has, or how well the (now-translated) lyrics of the season’s OP fit. The effectiveness with which the series can deliver on its key scenes is one of the main reasons why this series is a top contender for the season’s best.

Spice & Wolf (2024) episode 17

Rating: B

Fundamentally, Spice & Wolf is the rare fantasy series where conversations, much more so than actions, carry the weight of the series. The only other episode in the series to date where that is as evident as it is in this one might be episode 2, but this time around Holo isn’t involved in either of the two major conversations which dominate this episode. In fact, in this version of the “scheming up the economics” phase of the arc, she only appears in one scene outside of a flashback and doesn’t have any lines. No, this episode is 100% about Lawrence trying to scheme his way out of another mess.

That’s not to say that Holo doesn’t factor in here at all. She is still absolutely the motive force behind how and why both Lawrence and Amati act here as the festival goes on around the trio. She is on both men’s minds as Lawrence hunts down Amati and has drinks with him at a bar. (And she would probably delight in that if she knew.) Here Lawrence is essentially upping Amati’s ante by throwing an additional bet onto the challenge Amati proposed last episode, only this time on his terms: a challenge that essentially involves futures trading on pyrite. Though Amati is taking the risk in the arrangement, he also stands to gain more if the market is in his favor – and it only needs to briefly be in his favor for him to guarantee a profit. Lawrence, on the other hand, shoulders little to no apparent risk but won’t gain anything; his only play is to potentially bust Amati’s financial position.

Of course, that’s assuming Lawrence already has the pyrite in question which is part of the arrangement, and the sticking point at the end of the episode is that he doesn’t. A financial loss is very possible for him if he’s stuck trying to buy up the necessary pyrite the next day, and his oversight in this case is that the person he was going to rely on to get it for him can’t do it. The most interesting part is that his friend won’t help because he’s an established town merchant. While being so provides a lot of perks, the trade-off is being less free to speculate (like a traveling merchant can!), since reputation is as important as any other business factor.

Hanging behind all of this is where Holo stands, and that we don’t learn anything from her directly this episode is deliberate; it leaves her more up in the air to the audience as well as the two young men. She seems to help Lawrence by leaving the letter about Amati’s finances, but also leaving the signed marriage contract is almost certainly either a challenge or warning from her to Lawrence. As emotional as Holo can be, she’s still the Wise Wolf and, by nature, takes the long view on things (for better or worse). Once she’s calmed down, she’s unlikely to be swayed to action so easily by statements made in a moment of weakness, so she’s basically telling Lawrence here “these are the consequences if you screw this up.” She probably still has no actual intention of leaving Lawrence but wants him to sweat the relationship side of things this time. How fair this is to Lawrence is debatable, but Holo does seem to place premium value on men who proves themselves. W

With the Lawrence/Amati and Lawrence/Marc conversations taking up most of the episode, there isn’t much noteworthy here about the artwork. The clash of knights and pagan forces in the festival could be looked at as symbolic of the clash between Lawrence and Amati, and the detail work on this sets the mood of the town well, but that’s about it. This episode also corresponds exactly to episode 4 of season 2 of the original adaptation, with the only slight variance being that Lawrence’s mind runs a bit wilder thinking about Amati and Holo getting together.

The solution to Lawrence’s pyrite access problem turns out to be an impressively sensible one. Pyrite would absolutely be a common substance used by medieval alchemists, as it was a prime traditional source for sulfuric acids and can be used to make ferrous sulfate, which had a wide range of medieval applications in inks and dyes (among others), and others not wanting to openly deal with alchemists would, indeed, make them an isolated market. More importantly in a meta sense, it gives Lawrence a convenient excuse to visit Dian again. Last time, this visit led to trouble. What will happen this time?

Oshi no Ko episode 14

Rating: B+

Oshi no Ko has never been a series that pulls its punches when it comes to commentating on the entertainment industry, and boy, this episodes hold nothing back, either, as it delves deeper into matters concerning manga-ka and the process of transferring established work into other media. It’s so pointedly unflattering that much of what we see here has to be personal to the creators of the source manga and at least some of it is probably self-referential, too.

The centerpiece of the episode’s events is the two contrasting manga-ka: Sweet Today‘s Yoriko and Tokyo Blade‘s Abiko. The former is a more laid-back personality by nature, one who has a much-less-demanding monthly schedule and quite a bit more experience behind her. And while she claims she’s an introvert, she doesn’t act like one. The other is an inexperienced, socially awkward, and intensely-focused perfectionist who is on an inhumanly-tight (Yoriko’s words) weekly schedule. She has impressive vision but no ability to work with anyone else on it, hence leaving her to not trust assistants and do a work load herself that would normally require a whole team. And because she’s risen so far so fast, no one but her former boss/mentor Yuriko can get through to her at all when she’s convinced of the righteousness of her cause – no matter that her self-imposed loner work ethic is far from healthy.

Seeing Yoriko have an expanded role here is a pleasant surprise, as I was certain her season 1 appearances were going to be just one-shot deals. And the “two hours of sleep a night” thing when on deadline that Abiko mentions probably isn’t much of an exaggeration; in an essay, Hayao Miyazaki once mentioned an anime editor he knew who would only sleep four hours a night on deadlines, and that was 45 years ago. I also find Abiko’s lament about how all the best assistants get sent to “big shots” to be bitingly ironic; does she not consider herself one, especially since she emphasizes how many copies she has in print? The back-and-forth between the two when Yoriko goes to visit Abiko is easily the highlight of the episode, as both let all their feelings and frustrations hang out there in one impressively snappy exchange. Kudos to voice actresses Shizuka Ito (the voice of Sailor Venus) and Ayane Sakura (MHA’s Ochaco, Attack on Titan‘s Gabi) for how skillfully they escalate that exchange.

The other main point of the episode is something I expected in last episode’s review: that Abiko really has no idea what she has gotten herself into with the script writing. That point is impressed hard on Aqua when Akan taking him to a 2.5D musical (at a theater which actually exists in Tokyo) winds up with him being bowled over by what can be done with the format. How could someone literally raised on film editing not be profoundly impacted by something like that (even if us viewers only get the barest taste of it ourselves)? In his typically-analytical nature, he can instantly see why someone not familiar with the format could never successfully take advantage of the format, and that just further backs up how raw a deal scriptwriter GAO was getting served last episode. Given that, his secret weapon to break the writing impasse being to get Abiko to see the same 2.5D show herself is a completely logical move.

It was also nice to get a reminder that Ruby and MEM-cho still exist in the story, even if their scenes were just to remind us that that part of the story is in a holding pattern until the play part ends. Akane also looks better with her hair longer in these episodes. The little touches of humor there and in Yoriko’s reactions to Melt add in the series’ regular light-hearted touch, too.

Overall, this may not be one of the series’ most impactful episodes, and the rough edges on the artistry show a bit more, but it still does its job well at delivering its core points.

Spice & Wolf (2024) episode 16

Rating: B+

Of all of the story arcs in Spice and Wolf, this arc is maybe my least favorite, and the content covered by this episode is a big part of the reason why. Some would say that it’s because of Amati, who’s one of the least-liked of all of the guest characters in the franchise and one who never appears (or I believe is even mentioned) again in either core content or side stories. He’s not the problem, though. He’s a young man who’s been successful enough early enough that it’s gone a bit to his head, but as this episode makes clear, his success is also self-made. He was clearly lovestruck at first sight with Holo and is too inexperienced with crafty women to avoid being taken in by her BS. Hence, even though his bold merchant’s challenge to Lawrence contributes to the mounting emotional crisis between Lawrence and Holo, and he certainly is seeking to split the two, he’s not doing so with malicious intent and he’s hardly the cause of the protagonists’ mess. No, that blame squarely lies elsewhere.

And you don’t have to look far for the source, either. In the past two arcs, Lawrence getting in over his head on a financial matter was the source of the crisis, but in this case financial considerations aren’t even a factor. No, this one is all about emotions, and Holo deserves most of the blame. We’ve seen before that, for all of her confidence, Holo can also be very emotionally fragile, especially about the possibility of being alone. In this arc, that first showed with her reaction to Lawrence’s question about whether she could get back home from Nyohirra on her own, and while the two had seemed to recover from that incident, this episode shows that Holo hadn’t forgotten it at all. Combine that with how upset she was about learning that Yoitsu had, according to legend, been destroyed and a clever mind kicking into overdrive and Holo coming to the conclusion that Lawrence was maliciously keeping that information from her is understandable. It’s also enormously unfair to Lawrence, as she’s known him long enough at this point to know that he wouldn’t do something that mean and that he has gone well out of his way for her. And she was the one who spun those lies to Amati about her relationship to Lawrence, too, which egged him into making his challenge. She’s also apparently been lying about being able to read, for no better reason than perhaps being lazy.

If Lawrence has any fault in this, it’s that he wasn’t immediately forthcoming to Holo about what he’d heard about Yoitsu. Even so, him withholding saying anything until he could look into the matter more – and be sure that he had heard an offhand story right – is also perfectly reasonable and understandable. He also had enough sense to recognize that taking up Holo on her offer when she was almost literally throwing herself at him was both not the kind of comfort she needed and, in the long run, the worst thing he could possibly do. He did try to physically comfort her in other ways, too, but she wouldn’t let him. Really, I’m not sure what else Lawrence could have done in this situation.

All of this overshadows some neat scenes in the middle showing the festival, including especially the scene of Lawrence and Holo briefly dancing on their room’s balcony as the parade passes. The arc’s main economic issue also get laid out: fad-driven speculation on what is essentially a collectible item (i.e., pyrite stones). Is it a coincidence that an arc where the female lead is driving the crisis also features an economic issue which seems to be driven largely by women, too?

Except for the brief dance on the balcony, this episode covers exactly the same content as episode 3 of season 2 of the original adaptation. Technical merits in this one are decisively better and more stable, though which musical score works better comes down to a matter of personal preference.

Will Holo actually run off to Amati, or will she calm down first? And is there anything Lawrence can do here to smooth things out? We’ll see next episode.

Oshi no Ko episode 13

Rating: A-

Despite the regular cast mostly being relegated to supporting roles, the aptly-named episode “Game of Telephone” is, in its own way, nearly as searing an episode as the first season’s “Egosurfing” was, though for substantially different reasons. It’s about the conflicts that can arise within the multimedia creative process, cast within the framework of a stark contrast to the production of Sweet Today, and it results in a blistering commentary on how screenwriters can get helplessly caught in the middle.

Last season, Sweet Today ended up being a mess in live-action form heavily due to poor acting, something which Melt either had impressed upon him or else came to recognize himself, leading to him being sheepishly apologetic to Kana and Aqua about it here. Despite its problems, its manga-ka (for whom Samejima, the manga-ka of Tokyo Blade, was once an assistant) apparently stayed completely hands-off in the production. Samejima, however, isn’t so passive when a story she clearly feels very passionate about is, in her view, threatened. Akane’s concern last episode about how Princess Kiryu(?)’s character changed in the play version is not specifically brought up here but is clearly part of what Samejima is getting so furious about.

The way this problem came about is the most interesting aspect, though. Samejima has apparently been pushing for revisions all along, but she wasn’t communicating directly with the scriptwriter; in fact, several people were involved in that communication chain, resulting in her exact wishes getting the “telephone game” treatment. Thus the scriptwriter thought he was doing the tweaks she asked for, only to be blind-sided when she castigated him for his efforts. It’s not fair to him at all, especially when we can see that he did care about the source material, but Samejima doesn’t understand enough of the production process to realize that the blame for this should, at the least, be spread out across multiple parties. (She also doesn’t seem to appreciate that she’s not the only stakeholder here, even if she is an important enough one to throw her proverbial weight around.) That also raises big concerns about how she’ll manage to write the script when she’s a novice at this format. I don’t doubt that the story isn’t done with this point.

I would also be very surprised if this isn’t at least partly based on personal experience by one or both of the original manga-ka, or at the very least it happened to someone they personally know. The “insider knowledge” feel here is just too on-the-nose to be pure artifice. I have no doubt that the comment in the episode about manga-ka being a bunch of eccentrics is also based on personal experience; in fact, I would be very surprised if the brief shots of Samejima’s work area aren’t based on someone in particular. And man, you have to feel for the poor original screenwriter, who can’t even salvage his pride by having his name removed from the credits when Samejima is the one who’s content to do the uncredited/unpaid scriptwriting.

One especially attention-catching visual point about this episode (though it really came up first last episode) is the shape of Samejima’s pupils. The series has freely played about with the look of other characters’ eye, usually with great meaning, so it may be significant that her eyes have catlike slits.

The arc’s first big complication has arisen, which should set the stage (figuratively as well as literally!) for future developments. There’s a lot to look forward to here.

Spice & Wolf (2024) episode 15

Rating: B+

Things were a bit strained between Lawrence and Holo at the end of last episode, and clearly that still weighs on Lawrence as this episode starts; why else would he flash back to the last time he thought Holo was leaving him behind? That presumably plays a factor in why Lawrence decides to seek out a chronicler in this episode. He lives in an era where you can’t just jaunt down to the local library to look things up, so finding an expert is necessary for obscure knowledge. And what an expert he finds!

One things that should be clarified up front is that, historically speaking, the Church was not actually anti-alchemy, or at least not to the degree indicated in this setting. The Church did crack down on fraudulent uses of alchemy, and there were points and places in the Middle Ages where alchemy in general had a bad reputation because of the charlatans, but “legitimate” alchemy worked hand-in-hand with the Church, to the point of being complementary. (For instance, there was a belief that figuring out how to purify gold was key to figuring out how to purify the soul.) It had valuable practical applications, so a major town allowing a whole district of alchemists to exists would not be unreasonable.

Though Dian Reubens lives in the heart of the district of alchemists, the layout of her abode strongly suggests that she doesn’t practice it herself. Why she, as a historian, would choose to live in that area despite that is easy enough to surmise: some of the knowledge she traffics in might be considered forbidden. Or could there be another reason? Gi Batos makes a point of mentioning that birds are encouraged to live in the district because of the “canary in a mine” principle, but any of the wider-area shots of Dian’s abode show bird feathers everywhere inside as well. Rather large ones, too, and curiously most heavily concentrated around Dian’s preferred seat. We already know that Holo isn’t the only giant wolf around, so the existence of other types of animal gods is hardly a stretch, and the evidence in this episode at least suggests that Dian is one of them; some kind of bird herself, most likely. It would certainly jive with her interest in pagan tales and deep knowledge of them despite not looking particularly old.

What she says here is also interesting. The Moon-Hunting Bear and its connection to Yoitsu has, I believe, been at least briefly referenced before in this adaptation (it definitely was in the original). If it did destroy Yoitsu then Holo could well be the only survivor of her clan of wolves, avoiding the fate of the others because she happened to be away. Sadly, Lawrence doesn’t press for details on that, instead focusing on finding Yoitsu. That the clue to its location proves to involve Holo, and her journey southward, makes sense; in fact, it would be stranger if there weren’t some old tales scattered about concerning her. That sets a long-term destination goal for Lawrence and Holo, one that will extend beyond the scope of this season, but also don’t forget the name Nyohirra; that will come up again much, much later if the adaptation continues past this season.

That’s not all that’s going on this episode, though. Amati is showing Holo around town while Lawrence is doing this research. (And there are probably going to be consequences later for him not telling her about it!) Given the warnings Lawrence gets about Amati, that’s doubtless a path to future trouble, and Holo’s little lie to him about her relationship to Lawrence probably is going to exacerbate that. The notion that pyrite has somehow acquired enough value for chunks of it to be auctioned off, and how shocked Lawrence is by that, suggests the path to this arc’s economic crisis, though we’ll have to wait for the next couple of episodes to see how that develops.

In terms of comparison to the previous adaptation, this episode corresponds almost exactly to episode 2 of season 2. The only difference is that the scene about receiving the letter (and thus learning that Holo isn’t literate – or is at least pretending not to be), which was in this episode in the original version, was moved to the previous episode in this version. Both versions excel at design detail work about the alchemical district and especially Dian’s abode, though the animation is a little better – and definitely less dependent on flashbacks – in this version.

The episode end on a minor cliffhanger; what could Mark have conveyed to Lawrence that would set him off running with concern like that? We’ll find out next episode.

Oshi no Ko season 2 (episode 12)

Rating: A

Oshi no Ko was, by any reasonable measure, one of the biggest titles of 2023, and one of the hardest-hitting as well for the content it covered. Hence it was, by far, my most-anticipated title for the Summer ’24 season (if not the whole year). I am pleased to say that its first episode back does not disappoint. It positions the series quite well to make a strong run for “best of season” honors.

Much or all of the season is going to involve the source manga’s “Tokyo Blade” arc, which focuses on the bulk of the principle cast (Aqua, Akane, and Kana) getting involved in production and performance for the stage play version of the in-universe supremely popular manga of the same name. This leaves me a little concerned that MEM-cho and especially Ruby could end up short-changed; indeed, after one early scene where Ruby is reflecting at Ai’s grave, she doesn’t appear again, and MEM-cho doesn’t appear outside of the OP and brief flashbacks. Ruby does get one of the best lines of the episode, though, and the focus is meant to be more firmly on Akane here anyway.

That’s fitting, because the first episode takes a very analytical approach to the whole process of putting together one of these 2.5 stage plays, and Akane is, even over Aqua, the series’ most analytical character. The series has strongly implied before that current-prodigy Akane and former-child-prodigy Kana have sharply-contrasting acting styles, and that is both put into words and put on display here. Whereas Akane seems to lean towards method acting, Kana is more reactive; she tends to act up or down to the level of the performances around her, ensuring that’s she not out of line with the baseline either way. Aqua points out here that she has a reason for this approach (she lost roles in the past from being too expressive), so that means she only shines when put up against a truly talented actor. We saw some of that when she was performing as part of B Komachi in episode 11, and when Aqua showed off in Sweet Today, but those were just warm-ups for her finding herself acting against Lala Lai’s top talent, who has the play’s lead role.

The visual presentation of the series sometimes doesn’t get enough credit, but boy, it shows off in that scene! The use of paint-like color splashes and the contrasts against the limited coloring of the characters are fantastic visual gimmicks to emphasize how much the acting intensity steps up, as is the way the scene shifts to fully-colored mode only when comparing to how the scene would look in full stage dress. I will probably rewatch that scene numerous times in upcoming weeks, but it’s not just that. The way Akane is framed in her feature scenes (especially the ones where she is attempting to puzzle out her current character compared to the way she puzzled out Ai), all the detail work in the backgrounds of the practice hall, even the comedy scenes – all of it is very carefully crafted so there’s hardly a dull, simple shot anywhere in the episode. The episode’s prologue, which shows the opener of the finished stage play, also shines; who wouldn’t get enthusiastic about seeing the play after seeing that?

But again, the episode’s analytical side shouldn’t be understated. All of the details about how the 2.5 play is handled are fascinating, from the way the practice schedules work to the decisions that have to be made for such a project to be feasible in two hour stage play form to the motivations behind having a theater troupe serve as the core of the project. One of the most interesting is why Akane’s character had to get changed significantly from the manga version. The decisions behind it make sense, and I have to think the original manga-ka had personal observations or experience in mind when crafting how her character got downplayed in the source material, due to fan reaction, as it progressed. Given the twist about the production at the episode’s end, I am quite curious to see how the manga-ka of Tokyo Blade‘s request gets analyzed, as that is doubtless also based on real-life experience or observations.

Given how successful the original OP and ED were, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring the new ones up here, too. Original ED “Mephisto” was widely-regarded as one of the best of 2023, but new ED “Burning” by hitsujibungaku (OP for The Heike Story, ED2 for Jujitsu Kaisen) is a sharp hard rock number with visuals exclusively featuring Ruby; I could see myself watching that each episode. Comparing to original OP “Idol” is an impossible task, as that was a once-in-a-decade level of hit, but “FATALE” by GEMN stacks up remarkably well on both audio and visual fronts despite taking a starkly different stylistic approach. The real test will be how well the lyrics fit, but this could still wind up being one of the season’s better OPs.

This season-opening episode may not be the emotional powerhouse that the first episode was, but it still delivers absolutely everything I wanted from this season’s first episode and then some. I will be eagerly looking forward to this series every week.