Author: SuperMario

Shiroi Suna no Aquatope

Short Synopsis: A failed idol and an overworked highschooler collide in a quiet, mystical…aquarium?

Mario: Ahh P.A. Works, how conflicted my love for you. Watching Aquatope, I have two conflicting trains of thoughts toward it: as the quality of the episode itself, and as an input towards the studio’s canon. As far as the former goes, they deliver an overall excellent episode. There’s an air of melancholy from the way the main character navigates this new world, or to be more exact, runs away from her own that I found believable, and the two main girls’ interaction so far sparkles with great chemistry. On top of that, it’s these side characters (don’t know if they reappear) that the main girl interacts with steal the scene they are in – special shoutout to the cheeky fortune teller. On the flip side, however, Aquatope has the same “feel” as P.A. Works other works, and the fact that most of their works start out strong, then crumble in the last half (last year’s Kamisama, the director’s last effort’s Irozuku just to name a few) doesn’t bring me much confidence in this. I’m afraid this is gonna be another case where there’s little plot to move forward, so the characters retreat to the variations of the same themes. Time will tell on that front, but my point remains that I keep my expectation reasonably medium so that it won’t let me down, hard, like their previous efforts.

Potential: 60%

Amun: I like most P.A. Works projects – well, more accurately, most of each P.A. Works project – and Aquatope is a welcome sight for sore isekai eyes this season.  This episode looked great – wonderful settings, great atmosphere, just a wholly enticing package.  I would be incredibly hopeful….except we just had Kamisama ni Natta Hi start exactly like this.  However, I’m seeing parallels to the more successful projects with the characters here – so far, it’s a pretty tight crew.  That’s good.  There’s also some mystical nonsense taking place – that’s bad.  Director Shinohara worked a good amount on Hanasaku Iroha, and I feel a very similar vibe from this opening, so there’s some real potential here.  Plus I’m enough Japanese to feel spiritually connected to fish and the ocean, so I’m really this show’s to lose here.  Come on Aquatope, you can do it!

Potential: 75%

Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu

Short Synopsis: Highschooler gets reincarnated into another world in Isekai’s latest shallow attempt at humorous meta-commentary on the genre.

Lenlo: Let’s be honest: This is just a crappy Konosuba/Cautious Hero/”Insert Isekai Deconstruction here”. Like these other shows Tsuki wants us to believe it’s different. That it’s aware of the tropes, that we are all in on the joke and that by acknowledging that fact we can all laugh at the meta-humor that is Tsuki’s main shtick. But like the rest of these Isekai Tsuki fails to realize that acknowledging the tropes and the jokes is not the same as deconstructing them. There are still levels, the MC is still powerful, there’s still a harem/waifu’s, etc etc. Tsuki falls into all the same traps on purpose but fails to do anything remotely interesting with them. Instead it approaches all of them with an on the nose and obvious sense of humor. And if you ask me? The humor sucks. There is nothing in Tsuki that you haven’t seen done better before. I don’t even like the other shows I listed here but at least they had the novelty of trying to do it first.

Potential: Watch anything else instead.

Mario: There are two contraction ideas that run through Tsuki isekai’s first episode that kind of negate each other’s power: that the show is meant to be a parody of the genre so it has the main boy character who can predict what will happen to him (mostly off the mark though), but at the same time, it sticks by the rules conveniently (as much as he proclaims otherwise, he’s still OPed as heck). The fact that despite all these it remains funny kind of speaks to its strengths. The satire humor is present there, where our man serves as a straight man that serves as good foil against his mean Goddess, the Dragon and the situation he ends up with. Should he remain helpless and have no clue how the new world works, it would bring something more interesting to the table. The ability he acquired – that he can speak other races’ languages – is interesting but yet to reach full potential. It’s a better isekai (which admittedly a low bar to begin with), and potentially a better show out of this underwhelmed season.

Potential: 30%

Meikyuu Black Company

Short Synopsis: Financial-bro gets reincarnated and has to do manual labor.  

Amun: So this is a strange trend I’ve noticed gaining some traction: anti-heroes.  Not like “shades of grey” – no, these are just terrible human beings who we have to follow around for a story.  Sometimes, it’s funny.  Last season was Sentouin, Hakenshimasu! which had a few bright spots.  No such luck with Meikyuu Black Company – this is a drab 20 minutes.  Animators’ wrists were worn for the creation of this.  Can you believe that?  They could have done another season of Heaven’s Memo Pad (never going to give that up), but nope – we get this instead.

Potential: Please make it stop.

Armitage: Okay, yeah. This is bad. This is Isekai satire done so black that its stains never wash off. Or at least I think it’s a satire? Though I might very well be giving the show too much credit because on face value, this is a story focusing on a downright hateable character. The protagonist, a self-made, high-functioning, multi-billionaire NEET feels like he’s always looking down on everyone including the audience. Instead of trying to make him stand out as much as possible the show goes so over the top with his mannerisms and monologues that it makes you want to quit watching this premiere after 5 minutes of maniacal screaming. But I am a professional who does her job judiciously, so I stuck with it to the bitter end. See, lovely reader? This is the kind of thing we put ourselves through so you don’t have to.

Potential: Advil needed.

Kageki Shoujo!!

Short Synopsis: A tall girl joins an Opera troupe to play Lady OSCARRRRR. 

Armitage: Kageki Shoujo is an anime featuring an all-girls central cast, a light academia aesthetic and focusing on students training to be opera(!) performers. Yeah… um, where do I sign??

Apart from the core elements being practically tailor-made for me, this show’s highlights are by far the elegance with which it treats its theme and characters. Even the comedic moments are all graceful, never leaning into over-the-top slapstick hijinks. And that’s what makes the central dynamic between Watanabe and Ai so interesting. Though they clearly serve different purposes in the narrative. Ai, a former idol, represents the ugly side of the idol industry serving as a reminder of how pervasive celebrity fandom can be while also acting as a critique for mindless cancel culture. Watanabe on the other hand is the polar opposite of what the performing arts industry demands from its poster children – tardy, loud, uncaring about her perception in front of others; graceless. She values her family and the people who are part of her life more than keeping up appearances for strangers. In stark contrast with Ai who can barely even text her mom every once in a while. It’s a fascinating duality and one that’s bound to be the core of the show going forward. As for the production, it’s nothing out of the ordinary, but the character designs, by Takahiro Kishida of *Baccano! fame, and the backgrounds stand out well enough to cover up any shortcomings on the animation front. While the premiere served mostly as an introduction to the setting and characters, I have it on very good authority that the source material is compelling enough to hold its own. A definite keeper for me.    

Potential: 85%

Mario: There’s a sense of familiarity in watching Kageki Shoujo, but in this case I don’t regard it as detrimental. You can see all the shoujo/josei tropes in this first episode, and the overall story – of several girls with different backgrounds and personalities joining the troupe – is something that we have seen before, but the show provides some solid groundwork for the cast. Each character is distinctive and has their own voice, and the real winners here are Sarasa and Ai as their contrasted attitudes play off each other very well. Visually, the show doesn’t stand out much but the direction does very well to complement the story. Its focus on small moments is another highlight. Kageki Shoujo won’t be “the next big thing” by any measure, but it’s definitely my definition of a sleeper hit.

Potential: 50%

Uramichi Oniisan

Short Synopsis: A world-weary ex-gymnast hosts a children’s exercise show.

Wooper: Uramichi Oniisan is one of those adaptations where the manga is slapped straight on screen, which means that unless you’re blind and need voice acting to follow along, you might as well read the comic. There are a bunch of A-list seiyuu attached to the project (four of whom have supplied voices for Levi Ackerman, Light Yagami, and both boys from Haruhi’s SOS Brigade), but not even they could stop this episode from feeling about 15 minutes too long. I like the concept, and some of the gags are cleverly conceived, particularly the mascot actor who refuses to take off his rabbit head in order not to make eye contact with Uramichi. Then there’s the exhausted early-30s protagonist who, despite being in peak physical condition, is Literally Me. Despite finding the show humorous and somewhat relatable, though, it has maybe three jokes, and tells variations of them far too often to give me confidence in its next 11 episodes. If the concept of a cynical children’s entertainer and his costumed friends appeals to you, the manga scanlations are 26 chapters deep, so I’d recommend that route instead.

Potential: 15%

Armitage: In theory, Uramichi Oniisan sounds like the perfect comedy anime aimed at adults and the existential dread a lot of us constantly deal with every so often. It’s the perfect premise for a highly relatable gag comedy that would have been a welcome change of pace from all the high-school comedy shows we usually get. The only issue? It’s not funny. The gags can be seen coming from a mile away, the same template is used for almost all jokes, hell even the reaction faces are predictable. With arguably THE BEST voice acting cast in any anime… ever(?), featuring industry titans in Mamoru Miyano, Hiroshi Kamiya, comedy royalty Sugita Tomokazu, Nana Mizuki, Yuichi Nakamura, Daisuke Ono, the list goes on, really. It is such a damn shame that a dream collaboration like this is wasted on a sub standard series like the one we’ve got here.

Potential: 10%

Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid

Short Synopsis: Everyone realizes the young duke is lethal to be around…except for his busty maid who decides that actively seducing him – which would be fatal – is a great pastime.  

Mario: And here we have another show where the girl character makes “unwanted sexual teases” to our poor boy, but as weird as it might sound I do consider them a success so far. So why, you ask? The show balances out its hormonal hijinks with its sad story beats underneath, considering that our boy is cursed with death touch that forbid him to touch living things. That means, no physical contact whatsoever. That tonal shift is not always smooth, but it’s certainly layered where you can sense the sadness behind their (or lack thereof) interactions. Created by the staff behind Hi Score Girl, I expected its full CG animation would take a bit of time to get used to, so I’m genuinely pleased with what we got in this premiere. The gothic background is simple but pleasing, so does the whole production as it looks decent to me most of the time. The main draw here is certainly the titular characters, so if you don’t put off by the amount of sexual teases in this first episode, you will have a good time with it.

Potential: 60%

Amun: You know what, I like this spin on the anime female tease – if you wanna thot at our MC’s expense, then at least put some stakes on it.  In this case, touch him – you die (I actually think that because Alice already loves him, then she’s immune to the curse.  My reasoning: Duke O’ Death had a flower that she also touched and she was fine).  I think Shinigami Bocchan actually played it straight and explored aspects of the premise in an intelligent manner.  I don’t normally love 3D renders, but Shinigami Bocchan looks pretty good so far.  Despite the silliness, there’s a real story here – and for this season, that’s good enough for me.

Potential: 70%

Zombieland Saga: Revenge

Short Synopsis: A Zombie Idol group bombs a performance and has to get real jobs.

Amun: I went into this episode thinking, “what else could Zombieland possibly have that we didn’t see in the first season?”  Quite a lot, apparently.  I still hate the producer – “shout until it’s funny” – but he makes sense, given the end of season reveal about his Sakura connection.  However, this first episode was not the steady ascent of an idol group that I expected; it’s surprisingly befitting of the title “Revenge.”  I…am actually onboard for this.  If it was just a straight trajectory of variety shows and silly local hijinks, I’m not interested.  But put the idols in a large financial and emotional hole plus imply that these zombies have a real shelf life?  That’s high stakes – sign me up.

Potential: 60%

Mario: Zombieland Saga’s first season for me peaked too soon and fell off a cliff after two episodes, and I have the same sentiment about the franchise’s return here. The intro where the workers sing a propaganda song about squids reminds me of all the qualities that I love about Zombieland Saga – yeah, its biting satire is still there. Sadly, the rest of the episode functions like a typical idol show. They all work part-time jobs in order to do concerts again, they are dismissed by the audience and then saved by their manager Kotaro. Speaking of this dude, boy, I’d forgotten how lousy and annoying he can be. This is supposed to be an episode where we can get into the reasons why he wanted to form Franchouchou in the first place, but we didn’t get a glimpse of that – instead it was just him acting from one extreme to another at maximum volume. Even the girls feel less distinctive this time around. Zombieland Saga works much better as a satirical comedy than an idol show, so as long as it sticks with the former, lightning could strike again. If it sticks to Kotaro, however… (sigh).

Potential: 10%

 

Bakuten!!

Short Synopsis: A former baseball benchwarmer joins his new high school’s rhythm gymnastics team.

Wooper: This show really wants to be Haikyuu, man. The chummy club atmosphere, the bird motif, the Yuuki Hayashi score (which sounds like a discount version of his past work), it’s all here. I do want this show to succeed, though, because while it leaned on shiny 3D models for an extended gymnastics routine near the start, there was a rough sort of expressiveness to the rest of the episode. Both the club members and the student body exuded personality during the recruitment scene, and there were smile-worthy moments throughout, like a character doing a somersault into a hallway to make his presence known. Even if Bakuten starts relying more on CG as the season progresses, that’d be alright, so long as it clears its main obstacle – a boring protagonist. Every other character in this premiere outshone him, which was expected, since he functioned as an empty vessel just waiting for [insert sport] to spice up his life. If the show takes quick steps to help him find his voice, Bakuten will have a shot at being the second-best sports anime of the season, but that’s the most it’ll ever achieve.

Potential: 50%

Lenlo: After 2.43 last season I really wasn’t expecting much from this season’s “Pretty Boys do Pretty Things” show but Bakuten surprised me. There was no faffing about with sad backstories, edgy setups or anything like that. It introduced us to a kid who tried a lot of sports trying to find a passion, something most can relate to, and focused on that. The entire episode was him meeting and hanging out with the team, giving us a good idea of who these people are. They are still only stereotypes so far but already we have seen each of them be open and supportive in their own way. Welcoming new people into the group. It’s not the most inventive of openings but I can appreciate its brevity, how it gets us straight to the meat of the story. Hopefully Bakuten can keep up this depiction of passion and teamwork because so far at least I’m in.

Also the 4 minute long full length gymnastics sequence was a ballsy way to start. Nothing but feet hitting pad, diegetic music and some closeup camera shots. CGI wasn’t half bad either. Good job Bakuten.

Potential: 70%

 

The World Ends With You

Short Synopsis: A moody amnesiac attempts to clear a death game in a parallel Shibuya.

Wooper: I should’ve known better than to expect anything from a video game adaptation. TWEWY’s characters have to be some of spring 2021’s worst thus far – other than their participation in a virtual death game, they’ve got nothing going on. Imagine a scene where a story’s protagonist is mentally controlled and forced to choke his partner, without whom he has no hope of survival in an unfamiliar world. Sounds tense, right? Now imagine being bored out of your skull while it plays out on screen, because you were only introduced to the characters ten minutes ago and you have no clue who they are or how they arrived in this alternate universe. The premiere only created more questions as it progressed, so the show is likely fine with that state of cluelessness, but I’m not. It fell to the visuals to keep me intrigued, but while the 3D models did lend a convincing virtuality to the experience, the framing of the non-combat scenes was pretty boring, and alt-Shibuya wasn’t nearly detailed enough to keep me rooted in TWEWY’s world. Even the music was forgettable, despite how integral the original game’s soundtrack was to its success. Hopefully somebody out there enjoyed this episode enough for two people, because I liked almost nothing about it.

Potential: 5%

Lenlo: I had some hopes for TWEWY. Not much, but they were there. Hopes for its visual style, hopes that it would break the mold a bit since it isn’t front a Light Novel, etc. But it met none of those! While I love the thick black linework on the characters the CGI monsters, and occasionally CGI leads, look atrocious. Maybe if they all used the same style it would be fine but I can’t help but feel let down. Meanwhile the story is exactly as Wooper describes it: Boring. Within 5 minutes I found my eyes wandering to the timestamps. It took 10 for my phone to come out and by 20? Well lets just say I was glad to hear the ED kick in. Wooper already gave you the detailed point by point rundown of why so I’ll just stick to seconding him on this: Don’t watch TWEWY. There are better shows this season.

Potential: 0%