Spring 2020 Summary: Week 4

Mario: It’s the new week with the same hosts, the slice-of-slice devotee Mario and the isekai junkie Amun report on shows we’re still following, with more shows postponing and next season looks cloudier than ever. This week we see the last showings of Appare-Ranman and Houkago Teibou Nisshi before they hibernate, and some shows show signs of production issues, but it’s also a week where Hamefura proves to be our season’s favorite so far. Who could have predicted this at the start of the season? Well, color me surprise!

Hamefura – 04

Amun: This is possibly my anime of the season (although Kaguya is still this year’s heavyweight so far).  In the tale of the reincarnated benevolent villainess, Hamefura continually S.L.A.Y.S (steals lovers away, yes sir) as one by one, the unsuspecting enemies/interests of our hero/villain are conquered – despite Catarina being completely oblivious.  Any real tension of her actually being killed or banished is by now well dispelled (although I’m sure it’ll come back in the second half to great comedic effect).  Every week, a new excellence – this week was the battle for Maria’s home-cooked muffins.  If there’s one show that I really look forward to every week – it’s Hamefura.

Mario: My thought on Hamefura and our Catarina:

Tamayomi – 04

Mario: It’s hard when you see a TV production falling apart before your eyes. Tamayomi somehow avoids the delayed fate of many other shows, but at this rate it’s just a matter of time before they do. The quality in this episode is amateurish, with many off-model, cutting corners and inconsistencies in animation all over the place. The actual storyboard is fine, it’s just the melted animation that failed to hold things up and thus failed to leave any impact. Hopefully it avoids this pitfall later on, since there will be more baseball matches, and without sufficient production it’s gonna hurt the show a lot.

Fruits Basket 2 – 04

Mario: So far I like the structure of Fruits Basket’s season 2. After the first few episodes focused on the main trio, this week we turn our attention to Haru the Ox, and his relationship towards Rin, another Zodiac member, although exactly which one is still unclear. As in usual Fruits Basket fashion, the drama is much better than its comedy part, so the truth behind Haru’s rampage and how Yuki actively comes to visit him hit its strides more than the “rampage” part. Yuki has grown considerably since the beginning, but he has a habit of self-struggling too much that sometimes he doesn’t see things around him. But with this episode, he proves that he cares for others. I’m also interested in Rin’s character as she’s surrounded by mystery and hopefully next week we will learn more about her.

Ascendance of a Bookworm 2 – 04

Amun: We’re checking back in with our best bookworm girl Main and company.  I mean, literally, a company, as she tries to manage secular business interests and joining the church – not out of any conviction, but as a means to survive.  This season’s definitely gone into that aspect of the world a lot more than season 1 – we’re starting to bump up against noble culture and some fairly powerful enemies.  Also, in this episode specifically, we see Main starting to look out from her books – although she still uses them as an excuse (“I’m just doing this so I can read my books in peace”).  Still, Ascendance of a Bookworm continues to be very well written, albeit with second tier animation.  I think the new characters work within the world’s framework, and I think the plot managed a bit of a pivot quite nicely (although I’ve never quite gotten the Japanese, and anime in particular’s, fascination with the Catholic church).

Nami yo Kiitekure – 04

Mario: This is an episode where Minare does everything… but radio hosting, but for me it’s an essential episode to put her view into the perspective. The plot goes a bit hectic for me: in a span of half episode, a new character pops in and slowly wins the heart of her “boy” and leaves her out of the picture, and that plot regarding her finding a sponsor is pretty much resolved by itself? I understand that it is by design, just like how the cast surrounding Minare are oddballs by design, but that’s precisely why I still can’t relate to any character except for Minare. What’s the deal with her ex-neighbor? No idea. What’s the deal with this new girl Tachibana? No clue. With next week where the radio hosting is back in centre, let’s see how our girl Minare performs.

Listeners – 04

Amun: This show is a mess.  No two ways about it.  It’s as if the authors have decided to read the Wikipedia page on Rock and Roll, then applied their knowledge of high school English, threw in some mechs (and an obvious audiophile on staff), a spooky bathroom here and there – ta-da!  An anime!  Except there’s a bit more to it than that.  So far, Listeners has been a curious grand tour of various genres, from highschool romance to junk-land/steampunk to monster fighting.  Once you recover from the whiplash, there is some sort of story underneath, but I kind of doubt this show will let any character chemistry develop long enough to figure out what it is.

Appare-Ranman! – 03

Mario: In this last episode before the hiatus Appare Ranman finally shows us its car racing sequences and it certainly is the show’s best moments so far. The plot all builds up to the  “Trans-America Wild Race” race, with the duo encountering new rivals and Xialian will also join the race herself (even though I’d love for her to join our team, she might be better off preparing and racing herself. Both Appare and Kosame have traits that I’m not fond of, but when the show focuses on the race their chemistry shines through. Such a shame that when Appare-Ranman finally kicks into gear, it hits the coronavirus wall and we will have to wait for God-know-when to come.

Houkago Teibou Nisshi – 03

Mario: Another show that is cut short but with this one I’m happy to stop after this third episode. This week, the girls are on their quest of fishing flathead fish and we have half-educational, half-normal hijinks of the main girl catching that fish for the first time. When it comes to this type of show, it’s either the characters’ chemistry or the subject matter (this time: fishing) that draw you in and I can say that I’m not totally head over heel in either of these factors. Hopefully though, now that this show is postponed, Doga Kobo studio can spend their full efforts for Yesterday wo Utatte.