Author: Lenlo

Hello everyone! Apologies for the delay on this, I’ve been playing a lot of Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising. I made it to A4! Woo! Anyways, this is a special week as Aidan is making a return to help cover Sengoku Youko! So if that’s a show your interested in, read to the end and see what he thinks. I’ll admit, I’ve heard a lot of good things about the second episode, so I might pick it back up again if that continues. Anyways, read on!

Dungeon Meshi- 3 [Living Armor]

This was easily the best Dungeon Meshi episode yet, and exactly what I was looking for from the series. The food stuff is still there, it’s relevant and we still get a bunch of unique monster dishes at the end. But the focus is much more on the characters, Laios specifically, their past, and conquering the unique challenges the dungeon presents. Starting the episode with his sword breaking only to wind up in a hall that had challenged him previously in his career, then ending with them not only conquering it but discovering something new about it and gaining a new sword, was great. And the design of the Living Armor? How it’s actually a bunch of mollusks inside mimicking human movement like muscles, and you have to deal with it like a shellfish? That’s an absolutely brilliant idea, inspired even, and so much more “magical” and interesting than just “The armor is enchanted”. This is the first time Dungeon Meshi has impressed me with it’s world building and monster design, it really was great. And of course to top it off, I believe this was the Kai Ikarashi episode we’ve been expecting for a while, the same guy who did Cyberpunk: Edgerunners episode 6. And surprise surprise, it looked stellar. Dungeon Meshi looks decent to good on a normal day, but this episode knocked it out of the park. All around a fantastic week for the show, I’m bought in now.

Continue reading “Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 2” →

BUCCHIGIRI?!

Short Synopsis (Anilist): Arajin Tomoshibi’s reunion with his old pal Matakara Asamine takes an unexpected turn when they stumble into a brawl with the toughest guys in town. And just when you thought things couldn’t get weirder, a colossal genie decides to drop in. Brace yourself for the ultimate showdown. It’s the clash of the cool and the magical!

By all rights, Bucchigiri should not be good. It’s over the top, garishly colored, and absolutely ridiculous. Every character is a caricature. It’s everything we’ve seen multiple times before in series like that delinquent harem show from a few seasons back. And yet… It’s so expressively animated that the over the top nature just works, it fits. Every scene, every reaction, every dialogue, is punctuated with these bold and exaggerated animations that I can’t help but love it. And color wise? Everything from the skin to the hair is saturated such that even bright green hair or yellow shirts don’t feel that out of place with the rest of their outfits or skin tones. I’m honestly shocked at how strong this episode is. Maybe this is just me overreacting to one of the few good premiers in a season of mediocrity, but I can’t help but love what Bucchigiri is doing. Even the MCs main desire, to lose his virginity, is played so straight as a justifiable reason to stand up and push back against abuse, that I can’t help but cheer him on. I sincerely hope Bucchigiri manages to keep this up, that the production doesn’t fall off a cliff, that the story doesn’t become just another weekly battle series with a braindead plot. Because right now? This is some of the most fun I’ve had this season.

Potential: 75%

Snack Basue

Short Synopsis (Anilist): The gag comedy manga centers on a bar in Sapporo’s North 24th neighborhood, five stations away from the Susukino business district. There, the bar’s proprietor, junior proprietor, odd regular customers, and its share of walk-ins recount their strange lives.

Something about Snack Basue just seems… off? Is this vector animated? All of the movement feels so… stilted. You kind of get used to it after a while, but it’s definitely not very appealing. And that sort of applies to the show as a whole. It’s trying to be this conversational, talk-show style of comedy, but it relies so much on the awkwardness of this first meeting, on the experience of going to a snack bar, and the absurdity of some of its cast, that I felt more weirded out than I did amused. Ultimately I leave this episode wondering what it was I just watched, and why it ever got animated to begin with.

Potential: 0%

Meiji Gekken: 1874

Short Synopsis (Anilist): By 1874, seven years have passed since the end of the samurai era. A former samurai, Shizuma Orikasa works as a rickshaw driver in Tokyo while looking for his fiancée, Sumie Kanomata, who went missing during the Boshin War. Shizuma thwarts an assassination attempt and joins the newly established police department, where he’ll fight to stop dark forces from overthrowing the government.

Look I love the Boshin war and the beginning of the Meiji era, it’s a fascinating time in history. Between westernization and industrialization, Japanese society changed so much so rapidly that large swaths of the country were left behind. And Meiji Gekken has some of that in its DNA, what with a former samurai MC trying to make a life in this new era. He’s fine! But where it falls short is in its conflict, its villains, the reaction to this new era. To show what I mean, think back to the recent remake of Ruroni Kenshin. There the villains meant something, even if they were only around for an episode. They represented ideals, past ways of life, specters of past deeds, men and women who couldn’t find a place in this new era and were shunned because of it. Here though… It’s this sort of bland “revolution”, like Meiji Gekken is banking on a classic “return to the old ways” sort of narrative. But it muddies the water by also introducing foreigners like the British to the mix, making it no longer an internal struggle for the identity of the nation? I’m reading a lot into it this early, but what I’m saying is that Meiji Gekken feels like its using this transitional period in Japanese history as an aesthetic for a classic battle-series setup, more than as a meaningful setting for its narrative. And that kind of turns me off, despite the MC otherwise being decent. Go watch the Kenshin remake instead.

Potential: 10%

Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern

Short Synopsis: Modern Military Mecha crossed with Tokusatsu, will it be serious or jokey, who knows!

Bravern is… weird. It’s split between this “Modern military mecha against aliens” and “silly tokusatsu mecha”. On one hand, it’s kind of funny how straight it plays it. Characters have no idea what’s going on or why tokusatsu music is blaring from the speakers on the giant robot. That makes the finale work surprisingly well. On the other hand, the buildup to that point, the setup with aliens coming to Earth and killing a bunch of people, that all felt like it came from a completely different show. I honestly don’t think Bravern can balance these two aspects, I don’t think it can simultaneously be Eighty Six and a silly tokusatsu show. It’s going to have to pick one and stick with it. And if I’m being honest, I hope it sticks with the tokusatsu and only occasionally uses the “drama” to set up some jokes. Because there’s no way they are fitting a sentient giant robot that plays its own theme music on blast for the whole neighborhood into any sort of serious narrative. Anyways, while I expect it to flounder as it goes, for now it was kind of fun.

Potential: 40%

Delusional Monthly Magazine

Short Synopsis: Man joins magazine company, gets sucked into weird secret organization bullshit with magic animal people?

There is legitimately no other way to describe Monthly Magazine other than “Boring with extreme prejudice”. Absolutely nothing about this show works together. From the weird “MoPARs” magic items to one of our leads being the most garish tiger-man I’ve ever seen. It even has that thing where every character has a different hair color so you can easily differentiate them rather than giving them any sort of personality. This is one of the easiest skips of the season for me.

Potential: 0%

Saijaku Tamer wa Gomi Hiroi no Tabi wo Hajimemashita

Short Synopsis: Little girl born in a fantasy world has no special skills and must survive alone. Along the way she meets a little slime, and together they venture forth!

I was actually pleasantly surprised by how decent Saijaku was. It’s still a fantasy world with slimes, skills, healing potions, all that shit. But it’s not an OP MC isekai where the lead is teleported to another world and given a deceptively powerful ability that everyone thinks is weak. So it already has a step up there. In fact I was actually kind of surprised by how cute it was. Ivy talking to the audience, breaking the fourth wall to answer some questions, is obvious but it still feels better than a load of “convenient” exposition. And the whole scene with the weak slime, it being this smiling blob that’s really more of a mascot than a companion, was surprisingly emotional. I don’t know if Saijaku will take this “Weak slime and starless skill” thing and somehow turn it into an OP MC show, I really hope it doesn’t. Because if it can dodge that it might just be a solid and cute fantasy show for the season. For now though, I might stick with it for another episode or two.

Potential: 55%