Winter 2021 Summary – Weeks 6-7

Wooper: The recap post was on hold last week in favor of a bigger column, but three of us are back with a vengeance. Midseason fatigue is setting in where some of these shows are concerned, so prepare yourself for mockery, indifference, and swings of the executioner’s axe. How many shows will survive the next five weeks? At this rate, not many.

Reincarnated as a Spider – 06

Amun: Major plot updates this time out – no, not that kind of plot, you pervs. Without spelling it out, some major oddities in the OP/ED are now explained – mainly why are there multiple spiders. We also got some interaction with the hero and we found the weird girl from the OP who bites the world! Major developments, indeed. Meanwhile, Ms. Spider (who cares what her human name was) is still fighting and eating…and becoming more and more likely to be a Demon Lord. But more importantly is getting good food. Because that’s what really matters in isekai these days – next, she’s going to open a restaurant, staffed by sob-storied locals while she goes adventuring. Isekai is going great, guys…

Back Arrow – 06/07

Wooper: More like Bad Arrow, am I right? It’s hardly a stretch to say this is a bad show, and my tolerance for bad shows is low to begin with, so why am I still watching? My enjoyment of this anime could definitely be labeled ironic, but Back Arrow’s creators seem to be operating from a place of irony, as well. How else could one explain an episode that takes place at Pretty Boy Farms, a facility where human experiments cause their hot male subjects to sparkle nonstop? How about the hastily-invented plot point of Shu’s bomb collection, the discovery of which allowed Ren to escape suspicion, just as planned? The issue with this kind of writing is that it narrows the line between tongue-in-cheek and idiotic to a hair’s breadth – Arrow’s “betrayal” in the Pretty Boy episode was a nearly unbearable example of the latter. Still, the fact that it’s only week 7 and the Granedger crew have already made it to the wall means that there’s a lot of plot left in the tank, and it would be a shame to deprive myself of whatever chuckle-worthy moments emerge in the future. That’s my current justification, anyway.

The Promised Neverland S2 – 06

Lenlo: Why Mamoru Kanbe, Kaiu Shirai. Why would you do this? Not only is your production melting enough to give us a recap episode but you also skip everything that sets up this arc/revelation yet still go ahead with it anyways. Now we get homicidal Normal with no reason and an early introduction to Emma Christ, she who is free of sin. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t write these weekly little updates because it’s just going to be me ripping into Neverland every single week because this is… a massive disappointment.

Tatoeba Last Dungeon – 06

Amun: Tatoeba Last Dungeon has nosedived from the low elevation the first episode held. The animation has gone downhill, the characters are quantity over quality – putting it politely – and the story is as lost as I’ve ever seen. The only glimmer of hope is the introduction of some equally overpowered characters, but I’m not sure I’ll be around long enough to see their tired tropes played out.

Kemono Jihen – 06

Wooper: Half of Kemono Jihen is enough for me. The only thing I wanted to see in this episode was Kabane’s return to the park to talk with Kon, as their mutual strangeness makes for the most authentic dialogue in the show. We did get this scene eventually, but only after hacking through fifteen minutes of shounen wankery. Shiki overcame his fear of mosquito ladies after getting a pep talk from his Friend, but he and Akira couldn’t touch the Level Boss, who drank her sisters’ brains in the least shocking sororicide anime has ever mustered. Naturally, it was up to the Main Character to beat the Level Boss by accessing his Special Mode. How did he accomplish this? By thinking really, really hard about how much he wanted to win and protect his Friends. That’s not an oversimplification – the gamer vampire on the other end of their Discord call advised him to access his superhuman strength by focusing on his heart’s desires (victory and friendship), and then it happened just as outlined. This series’ presentation is too transparent for me to connect with the characters, so I’m out.

Heaven’s Design Team – 06/07

Lenlo: I don’t know why I continue to watch and enjoy Design Bu, but I do. It hasn’t really evolved the idea much and there’s no overarching narrative to pull me in at all. Yet every week it presents the same idea we have seen before but in a slightly different way. Whether it be a murder mystery or aliens, Design Bu always has something new. Combine that with clever transitions/lead ups into whatever animal we are making that week along with some pretty interesting facts and you have a decent time. Hopefully it doesn’t run out of ideas though because the one week it screws up and loses my interest I probably won’t be back. It’s riding that razor thin line between “Dropped” and “Just interesting enough”.