Summer 2022 Impressions: When Will Ayumu Make His Move?,Shadows House S2, Black Summoner

When Will Ayumu Make His Move?

Short Synopsis: A boy intends to ask out the girl he likes if he can beat her at shogi.

Lenlo: This one was actually kind of cute. Surprisingly so. Visually there’s nothing special about Ayumu, at all. It’s a dime a dozen in that regard. But narratively I found it sweet, wholesome and straightforward. The way it gets the premise of the romance out in the open right at the start, no beating around the bush on whether or not they like each other, just so they can focus purely on the relationship. Or how it skipped right past the kendo-club drama, heading it off at the pass. Ayumu just feels like a straight forward, no gimmick romance. In a way it’s like Kaguya-sama, where all the information is presented to the viewer from the start and it’s just a matter of the “how”. I have no idea if that will change moving forward as the series struggles to keep its story going without falling into a rut. It’s possible it falls off a cliff and becomes one-note and boring. But my hope is that it will actually end with them in a relationship and continue past that, the hurdle so many romances seem to struggle with. So yeah, I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. Tentatively gonna watch it. I just wish they would stop visually coding these characters as small children.
Potential: 50%

Mario: If you have already watched Takagi-san, then Ayumu runs on exactly the same concept. It’s a series of teases between the main two characters spending time together alone. Unlike that other show, these two characters are on the same footing, which makes the back and forth conversation more two-sided. So far, we only see these two characters, but I suspect they will expand the cast more in later episodes. It’s not a bad episode per se, but if this episode doesn’t convince you about the duo, then I doubt the rest of the episode will.
Potential: 30%

Shadows House S2

Short Synopsis: Young children are brought to the mysterious “Shadows House” to act as faces for creatures that don’t have their own. What manner of plots and evil are taking place here I wonder?

Lenlo: My biggest issue with Shadows House continues to be its depiction of the shadow characters. Not their personalities or depictions, those are fine and I dare say the intrigue surrounding it all is rather interesting. No, I mean the literal, physical character designs. It feels like almost no thought has been put into the color design or framing of any scene, the way the black of their heads or bodies contrast the background or surrounding furniture. I suppose that may be the point, to really emphasize the need for a “face”, but damn if it isn’t aggravating. Beyond my rant on color design though, Shadows House is back just as it was before. The intrigue is interesting, but the introduction of a power system and the focus it seems it will have is a bit souring. Hopefully the series sticks to what sets it apart from the crowd, the house intrigue, and not become just another battle series. The second half of the episode is leaning towards that with the introduction of Suzanne, you just never know when a series will slip up and go down the easy route of storytelling. I’m hopeful at least, even if it’s a bit awkward for now.
Potential: 50%

Black Summoner

Short Synopsis: A teenage boy wakes up in a fantasy world and does JRPG shit.

Wooper: The subtitles you see above are Black Summoner’s (Kuro no Shoukanshi) very first piece of dialogue, and it only got less inventive from there. Instead of wasting my time detailing just how derivative this episode became, though, I’d like to take a moment to reflect on an even less essential question I’ve been pondering recently: is the prevalence of modern isekai anime similar to that of CGDCT anime following their respective peaks? Some of the attitudes I’ve seen toward this new breed of fantasy anime are highly similar to the ire that was once directed against cute girl shows: they have no substance, they pander to the lowest common denominator, or my personal favorite, they’re the Cancer Killing the Industry. Both then and now, this hyperbole is simple backlash against a subgenre that doesn’t entertain a subset of fans – in short, it’s just their opinion, man. But if the overabundance of these niche shows can be called a loose “justification” for that backlash, then whichever one is more ubiquitous (over a period of, let’s say, 10 years) “deserves” it more.

I decided to use AniList to compile my data, since it allows users to filter by tag rate; that is, you can search for shows that a minimum percentage of taggers have marked as belonging to a particular subgenre. To qualify for this exercise, shows had to meet or exceed a 75% tag rate, having consistently received the CGDCT or isekai label. For the former, I used Spring 2009 as my starting point (when K-ON! first aired) and found that 1341 full length TV anime aired over the next 10 years. Of that sample, 7.31% (98 series) qualified as CGDCT. For the latter, I used Summer 2012 as the starting point (when Sword Art Online first aired) and found that 1475 TV anime aired over the next 10 years. Of that sample, a smaller 6.78% (100 series) qualified as isekai. Thus, I have proven that CGDCT was the more pervasive trend in the 10 years following its prime, and isekai detractors are forbidden from complaining about their hated subgenre until 2024 at the earliest.
Potential: Oh yeah, Black Summoner was terrible.