Summer 2021 Weekly Summary – Week 5

Vanitas – 05

Amun: (Sorry, sorry, I know I’m not Armi). Vanitas this week was worth talking about – and how it’s faring as a vampire show overall. Vampires are a genre I’d love to see a resurgence after quite a few uneven showings in the last few years. The genre’s cornerstone – Hellsing – is unlikely to be replicated as the successors, like inferior offspring, fall into several traps: excessive brain-dead gore (Hellsing Ultimate), failed humour (Blood Lad), a confused zombie show (Shiki), or a monsters ensemble – which is not actually a vampire show at all (Kekkai Sensen, Monogatari series). Proper vampire shows are still around – Mars Red from last season was a decent attempt that tripped on its own feet halfway through. Vanitas so far has a great setup and a superlative twist – vampire and vampire hunter team up to defeat the threat…only it’s not a vampire hunter, it’s actually a vampire doctor. The bloodsuckers, so often the perpetrators, are the victims here – this isn’t human vs vampire, it’s a complicated world of humans helping/hurting vampires who are helping/hurting each other. That’s an excellent premise. How’s the execution? 5 episodes in, my verdict is: good! Noe is a surprisingly interesting viewer vehicle – he clearly has his own demons and is certainly marching to his own beat. Vanitas is what anti-heroes should be: not complete scum without a single redeeming quality, but a flawed person with good intentions and complicated motivations. The villain is sufficiently spooky and the supporting cast fleshes out well enough – I’m really quite pleased so far. I think this episode also had a great use of violence for a purpose instead of just for shock-value – you really feel Noe’s personal involvement with curse-bearers. Vampire shows are going to be a bit rough on the viewer, but that’s the nature of the genre, and I think so far – Vanitas has handled it excellently.

Magia Record S2 – 01

Wooper: This is going to be more of a PSA that Magia Record has returned than a recommendation that you watch it. I wasn’t a fan of the first season barring a couple stray episodes, and this new opener didn’t give me confidence that the show’s expansive cast would suddenly be able to carry its unwieldy story. It did precisely the opposite, in fact, focusing on characters from the original series rather than reexamining its own protagonists’ goals and alliances. Putting Madoka, Homura, Sayaka and Kyubey on screen surely won over the loyalists from the 2011 camp, but they’ve got little to do with Iroha’s mission to save her sister, or the intrigue surrounding the Wings of the Magius. If I’m not mistaken, this premiere actually minimized those plots by implying that the OG cast’s involvement in Kamihama City occurred in just one of Homura’s hundreds of time loops, so now I’m far less interested in the spinoff. The one thing I can give this episode props for is its animation, which was on par with Rebellion in some spots. Sayaka absolutely popped off during her third act fight with the schoolgirl witch, for example. Since this cour of Magia Record is reported to be just eight episodes, we might get these concentrated bursts of sakuga more often than normal; even so, I’ll be content to watch clips online rather than follow a story in which I have very little faith.

The Great Jahy – 01

Amun: As one of summer’s late bloomers, The Great Jahy oversleeps, rushes in – toast in mouth – throws open the classroom door, and…is really quite generic. “Dropkick My Devil” (which I like) meets the “Devil is a Part timer” (which I love) meets “Machikado Mazoku” (if anyone remembers that show) – unfortunately the end product is not greater than the sum of its parts. I actually chalk the problems up to the odd integration of service into this episode – there just isn’t the right balance of skin and humour that a show like this requires – an improper mixture makes the episode feel disjointed. Also I’m not sure that “haha, sucks to be poor” shtick is really enough to carry a comedy anymore – we’ve just seen it done so many times. Summer is pretty bare, so I’ll keep along on this one, but I’ll forgive anyone uninterested in joining me.

Re-Main – 04

Wooper: This show must be getting a second season if the boys’ first practice match is against grade schoolers – grade schoolers who are better at water polo than half their team, mind you. With those hypothetical episodes 13-24 in mind, slow progress works fine for me, since Minato’s regressed mentality still stands in the way of his athletic development (I do wonder how the show will navigate that issue as he improves). With Amihama’s addition to the team, the boys are bonding nicely, but giving up the first goal to a group of preteens has to sting. It’s not just the characters that are under fire, either – the show itself has finally jumped in the pool for a full-on game, rather than just practice, which will be a major test of its direction. In the single minute we’ve seen so far, I’ve already spotted one shot with swimmers in different places than the surrounding scene would suggest, which worries me a little. That could be a misunderstanding on my end, though, as my water polo knowledge is nonexistent, and I haven’t used this summer’s Olympics as an excuse to brush up. Going forward, I’d like to see a bit more of the 3D camera movement that the show debuted here – it should help to maintain the flow of the action, and the broader views of the pool it creates will go a long way in educating my ignorant eyes.

Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi – 03

Wooper: Idaten’s indebtedness to ONE’s works was made even more evident with this episode. It doesn’t just run counter to Mob Psycho 100’s message, as I mentioned last week – its use of the “invincible hero” trope makes it a close cousin of One Punch Man, as well. Having trained to protect Earth for 800 years, Rin is orders of magnitude stronger than every villain in Idaten’s arsenal. Her defeat of Nickel was built on anime staples like tentacular appendages and you’re-already-dead banter, but Nickel was one of the two strongest demons in the enemy camp, which means it falls to Ysley’s unscrupulous scheming to carry the antagonist side of things for now. He’s got the right personality for the job – smart, self-interested, wryly funny – but I don’t know what he could possibly be planning that would let him neutralize Rin if it came down to it. Until we receive that critical piece of info, we’re left to admire Idaten’s production, which was strong once again this week. The animation director must love scenes of people getting whipped around by hopelessly stronger foes, because they’ve been prominent (and sick-looking) in every episode thus far. Nickel’s tentacle manipulation made for some neat transforming cuts, too. All the reds and purples during the Rin/Nickel fight were my least favorite of the show’s many palettes thus far, but we’re practically guaranteed a new color scheme every week, so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next.