Yuruyuri 2
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of high school girls.
My biggest beef with the first season of Yuruyuri was its bad lesbian jokes, so my biggest concern for this episode was seeing whether those had improved. Having said that, I was not prepared for what this episode threw at me; at all. Here it came out of nowhere and took the lesbian jokes to the absolute absurd by creating a giant harem in which every single is in love with the lead female. It was so obviously a dream, but it did this with such energy that it was consistently funny and enjoyable. In the second half, this episode dropped that whole bit, and showed the cast going to a hot spring resort. Yeah, it suddenly got a lot less funny. My impression of this series is that it wants to be a slice of life series, but just isn’t good at slice of life. The hot spring resort was full of the usual cliches and not interesting at all, and rather than just going full comedy, the pacing just fell apart and the comedy also became completely random unrelated gags that were… nice I guess, but not exactly funny. I chuckled perhaps once or twice during that part, which is way too little for a comedy.
OP: Nice animation, obnoxious J-pop
ED: Bad animation, obnoxious J-pop
Potential: 40%
Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a teacher.
It’s like I feared: Seiji Kishi is a bit of a mis-cast for the director of this series. For a premise like this, you need subtlety. He doesn’t have that. The comedy in this episode just didn’t work because of that: there only was one very funny scene, apart from that it all tried too hard and missed the mark. Having said that though, Jinrui is still very likely going to be the most creative series of the season. This episode was hock full of neat ideas and interesting concepts that went way further than its initial concept of having fairies roam around the world. The lead female also works well as a narrator, ad she’s well written. I just feel like the delivery of all of the voice actors could have been a bit more restrained. Again, learn some subtlety Seiji Kishi, darnit.
OP: That dance…
ED: Best ED of the season so far; nice song plus neat visuals.
Potential: 80%
Chitose Get You!
Short Synopsis: Our lead character likes her big brother.
Urgh, this was bad. These episodes are only 3 minutes long, but here that was enough for this series to get completely on my nerves. The incest jokes are of course one thing, but on top of that this episode was horribly dull, and the female lead has an incredibly annoying voice actress. This perhaps wasn’t as bad as the crappy flash series (of which there actually are none this season!), but this still was completely obnoxious.
ED: Annoying squeaky j-pop.
Potential: 0%
I kind of liked Recroder…. it was kind of cute.
The guy in Chitose isn’t her brother. It’s common for kids in Japan to call young men ‘Big Brother’ and young women ‘Big Sister’.
Watching Humanity has Declined made me wish even more that we could get an anime adaptation of Cross Channel. Tanaka Romeo is such a great writer that it’s criminal there aren’t more adaptions of his works (read: zero, as far as I know)
That said, the episode had absolutely terrible pacing and felt kind of misshapen story-wise, but there were so many great moments (the bread! intimidation! fairy boxes for controlling reproduction!) that I could almost forgive it. Strikes an interesting balance between cute and funny and very, very dark that I like quite a bit.
According to the crunchy subs The main character in Jinrui is a UN mediator, instead of a teacher.
But I like it. The dialogue is quite fun and interesting.
oh yeah, Onii-chan , not actually related to Chitose, or else there would be no need for a girl meets boy story. Not incest at all. Though it was much worse than Recorder, not even a joke in the episode.
whoops, wrong box
I think she is a mediator, she’s just called teacher by others
Sensei can be used in various situations, not just for teachers.
For example, “isha” is the Japanese word for doctor, but if you are talking to your doctor you would call them “sensei.” Manga-ka are also referred to as “sensei.” “Sensei” is basically used for anyone who can be seen as “teacher” in some way or someone who has some form of talent, since it also has the meaning of “master,” like that of a “master of an art,” or so on and so forth.
Therefore, it would make sense for them to call a UN mediator “sensei” instead of something like “sewanin” or “kuchikiki,” which mean “mediator.”
Yeah, it’s just a pronoun like word that Japanese use, it’s like Oniichan doesnt denote actual blood relationship.
It’s a general word used someone respected or a position you respect
I liked the suicidal bread. I was half asleep while watching the show so that woke me up.
Haha, psgels still thinks that the director and the screenwriter mean shit when discussing anime (exceptions include Yuasa Masaaki, Kenji Nakamura etc; you know, actual directors).
If it wasn’t for Seiji Kishi and your preconceived notions about him (like him being a director or something; clearly all his anime share the shame artistic vision!), your review would be different.
Is the title misspelled? I’ve seen ‘suita’ in “Jinrui wa Suita Shimashita” spelled commonly as ‘suitai’ in other blogs and database websites.
Jinrui is a keeper, Watashi somehow makes me remember Kino, and the monologues are quite interesting.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought of Kino’s Journey while watching this. Both are extremely theme-driven series (at least going by the first ep for Humanity), though admittedly Kino’s Journey is much more subdued.
I do like the vibrant energy of Humanity though, in stark contrast with its post-apocalyptic setting.
Huh, the humor in Humanity Has Declined really did miss the mark. Granted, I was expecting it to be a slice-of-life/healing sort of thing… it didn’t even get one laugh out of me.
The chicken was incredibly creepy, but not nearly as much as that bread. I hope it won’t give me nightmares.
On another note, now that I think about it rustic is the most appropriate setting for something post-apocalyptic, as long as nature still exists. Humanity would just do what it did for a long long time before the industrial revolution. That said, the rest of it makes no sense.
I had the same expectations so huge miss for me too, but I went back to watch that bread scene and the expressions on that bread are priceless.
You are blaming the series for your wrong expectations, really !!?
Erm, expecting it to be something else shouldn’t make the jokes any less funny. And to me they weren’t funny at all – quite the opposite.
Sorry Psgels, but i totally disagree about Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita not being funny, it’s dark humor is very effective so far .. it seems to me you missed the mark on this one or had wrong expectations.
I really love it when one of those wacky animes come my way, Mawaru Penguindrum, Excel Saga and Tsuritama are examples of that type of anime that always surprises and shocks the viewer in the most unexpected hilarious ways.
And it it’s better when seemingly random, unrelated, bizarre and nonsensical events in that type on anime turn out to actually hold a serious meaning later down the road forming pieces of a big puzzle you never imagined possible, Jinuri seems to have that too .. beneath its humor and cheerful presentation there is something sinister going on, i’m sure with every episode bigger pieces of that puzzle will come together for some shocking revelation down the road, but if that road is filled with more random, unrelated, bizarre and nonsensical events i’m sure the journey itself will be worth it.
I also love the water-color story book art style, it makes the elusive sinister things lurking in the shadows (metaphorically speaking) even more sinister in contrast with how lively, cute and colorful everything first seems (one word .. BREAD), that’s of course aside from the beautiful art style being eye candy and a joy to watch in and of itself.
The highlights for me this episode are:-
-Everything about the Chickens, for some reason the ones from the beginning of the episode reminded me of Angry Birds a lot with their funny -seemingly frustrated- sound effects, now someone is going to make an “Angry Chickens” game XD
-The Fairies, something about their small eyes and their constantly wide open mouths feels so sinister, add that to the way they are oblivious to the crisis the humans are facing (not to mention their dialog about starving to death and how it is all a joking matter for them) and i won’t be surprised if a lot of sinister facts turn up regarding those seemingly cute Fairies .. the ending also has some creepy undertones .. the main character goes to her weird sleeping (or dying !!?) position on the floor from the beginning of the ED vid .. only for plants/flowers to grow suddenly around her body with those tiny fairies standing all around .. if that doesn’t have a creepy hidden message i don’t know what does.
-The Main character has a sinister side to her as well, i know that might be an exaggeration .. but during the part where they encountered the rampaging headless skinless chicken and it managed to escape (somehow XD), the way the main character manipulated the three girls was really both funny and creepy (showing us sinister inner dialog in the process, Death Note style), she manipulated information, lied and used intimidation to keep the story of the rampaging headless skinless chicken from spreading, she did fail in the end (again defeated by a rampaging headless skinless chicken) but it really puts a lot of doubt about her seeming cuteness and innocence .. maybe it was just for laughs .. maybe that’s part of her duties as daughter of the village chief or even as a UN mediator .. well .. i can’t tell for sure, and i also can’t wait to see if those sinister inner dialogs will show up again.
-Adorable synthetic carrot juice -suicidal- loaf Bread … nuff said .. nothing can prepare you for that scene .. it has to be seen to be believed .. the “help your selves” at the end of the scene is only the icing on the cake XD
I love dark humor specially if it has a meaning (i.e social commentary on declining humanity and its consumer based culture that led to that decline) and in turn i love Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita .. Bring it on.
And, Carrot Juice Loaf Bread .. R.I.P .. your nightmare inducing death will not be forgotten easily (honestly speaking) XD