Author: SuperMario

Some Quick First Impressions – Back Street Girls, Shichisei no Subaru and Banana Fish

by SuperMario, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Back Street Girls

Short Synopsis: Yakuza boss turns 3 yakuza underlings into popular idol girls

Lenlo’s Review:

I have to say, Microsoft Powerpoint has come a long way since the early 90’s. I was so confused by this series, I legitimately stopped to check if I hadn’t paused it or something at one point. Turns out, no, it just has less frames than a weekly manga chapter. Seeing that though, I decided to try something. I went and read the manga. And you know what? This anime is just fan-colored panels slapped into a powerpoint presentation. Like seriously. This is adapted almost 1 for 1 from the manga. I was so surprised I skipped straight past anger, bargaining and depression and went straight to acceptance. Seriously though, just read the manga. It will be faster. And if you have to have the voices, just treat is as an audio book or something. Slap it on your kindle. You’ll probably have a better experience.

Potential: 0%

Aidan’s review:

Now, I don’t consider myself an expert on animation production but just this once let me offer a piece of advice. If you are going to create an anime of a manga then maybe you should…I don’t know…animate it? I swear to god this was literally a slideshow of the manga on screen, absolutely bare minimum effort required to technically classify this as animation. No, this is as one reddit user put it, moving manga. Well at least I can feel safe in know they series won’t be taking any talent away from JC Staffs other anime this season. So the presentation isn’t doing the show any favors which causes the jokes to fall flatter than they should. I like the general idea of this story but overall it’s just the same joke repeated over and over. I wouldn’t bother with this one.

Potential: 0%

 

Shichisei no Subaru

Short Synopsis: a group of childhood friends come to terms with the loss of one member, in RPG

Aidan’s review:

Wow this game sounds terrible. You really can tell the author hasn’t really much experience with MMOs or just doesn’t really care about fleshing it out to a point of being believable. I mean one of the party has the power to see into the future…how the hell would that work mechanically? Also a boss that literally deletes your character if you happen to die to it? Who in their right mind would design a boss like that, literally no one would risk it unless it had some game breaking reward. Well I guess hackers would just cheat it but I guess hackers don’t exist in this world. But allow me to be blunt and say I hate this anime, I hate it very much. There is bad anime but then there are anime which are like a personal insult to me for seeing something so lazily written with nothing really thought out just makes me furious. This is a story where the author wants to put his drama down without thinking out any of the aspects to make it feasible. The plot points are so agonisingly obvious that I can map out the character love pentagram just from the first episode alone. This story is clearly gunning for a mixture of Anohana and Sword Art Online and does neither to any level of satisfaction. For the RPG aspects are ludicrous and the drama so forced that I want to grab the writer by the neck and scream in his face “Learn how to goddamn write you stupid ass HACK!” So yes, quite unpleasant. I may be as uncouth to say it made me rather hot and bothered. Well, pip pip, tally ho, fuck this show.

Potential: May this show burn in hell and apologise to writers everywhere

Lenlo’s Review:

So… are we entirely sure the UI and town/backgrounds wasn’t lifted wholesale from SAO? Is this made by the same people? Am I being punked? To be serious for a moment though, this series has issues. I really can’t add anything onto what Aidan said except this: The most fun/entertaining part of Subaru was listening to Aidan as he watched it. Really, the thing I look forward to most each season is the possibility of something like this that just drives him up a wall. If you don’t care about things making logical sense, of laying down and following set rules, you might get some fun out of this. I don’t expect the drama to be all that great, its very melodrama-ey and simply not as well crafted as Anohana was. I actually think the ridiculousness of the MMO aspect takes away from what is basically a rehash of Anohana’s mostly grounded (excluding the ghost) story of coming to terms with loss. But the twist at the end was unexpected and kinda makes you wonder where its going to go. Consider my interest peaked enough to hear how it goes, but expecting the worst. Also, someone help me convince Aidan to watch it through the season.

Potential: 15%

Mario’s review:

Well, people are right to suggest that Shichisei is a mixture of Anohana in a Sword Art Online RPG settings, even the characters resemble the cast in Anohana, let alone the twist that brings us to the present day. It does run through many forced developments and strain credulity a bit, like the love interest bit and WHAT THE HELL? THEY ARE PRIMARY SCHOOL’S KIDS. But at the same times I’m not lying when I say this twist does grab me and I want to see how they deal with it in future events. The characters, then, will have to shoulder all the emotional weight, and as far as this first episode goes, NO, they still aren’t fleshed out beyond their established traits yet. It might get frustrated later on, but for now, I’m mildly interested to see what comes next. I’d say that the best way to know if the series works for you is to see how’s your response regarding that plot’s turn. I don’t mind another Anohana-inspired drama if it’s done right.

Potential: 40%

 

Banana Fish

Short Synopsis: A young gang leader becomes embroiled in a drug-related plot and befriends a Japanese reporter.

Mario’s review:

No question about it, Banana Fish is kool and stylish. From the NY settings to this mafia feud to the compelling characters, Banana Fish grabs you in the first moment and never leaves you.The story so far is fast-pace and thrilling, without ever sacrifice the characters’ motivation and they provide just enough information for us to process. For only the first episode, Ash proves to be an interesting lead, confident, sharp but has enough ‘weakness’ to make him believable. I’m not too fond on the other lead, Eiji though. So far he’s dragging the show down and that yaoi tone is so obvious it’s rather distracting. It helps that the production is sublime: many striking shots and the animated sequences at the bar are simply stunning, and the memorable soundtrack with the gritty backdrop make this the best-looking and stylish show we’ve seen so far this season, and that Banana Fish, whatever it is, will prove to be a wild ride for our Ash and Eiji. Sign me in for this wild ride.

Potential: 80%

Wooper’s review

Now this is more like it. Banana Fish feels like it was assembled by a creative team that actually gave a shit about the material they were handed. Check out the graffiti and the sunlit streets that bring its stylized version of New York to life. Listen to the show’s musical palette, which moves seamlessly between genres to feature bass, boom bap, electronic, and even metal (there’s only one dud in the bunch, during Ash and Dino’s first conversation, but it’s quickly forgotten). Most of all, check out the godlike fight scene in the billiards bar near the end of the episode, which lends credibility to the idea that these characters play hard and live harder. There’s no question that MAPPA delivered with this episode, but the manga’s tendency to forego establishing panels bled into the anime’s sense of speed, which hurts its score a little bit. Once the initial conflict between Ash and Arthur/Marvin dies down, hopefully the show will stop and smell the roses for a bit, but with 110 chapters to adapt in just 20-something episodes, we may be stuck on fast forward for the majority of the series. Still, this was a very exciting premiere. Everybody go watch Banana Fish!

Potential: 75%

Some Quick First Impressions – Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa, Yume Oukoku to Nemureru 100 Nin no Ouji-sama and Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu

by SuperMario, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Chuukan Kanriroku Tonegawa

Short Synopsis: The right hand man at a financial consulting firm struggles with mundane tasks while designing a death game for his boss.

Lenlo’s Review:

Ah Kaiji, how I had missed you. For those not in the know, Tonegawa is basically a prequel/side story to the Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor series. The best gambling anime out there. If you like Kakegurui, then Kaiji will knock your socks off. I would also almost make it mandatory, or at least recommended, watching for Tonegawa as it basically covers the entire first 3 minute recap. It’s fantastic. As for Tonegawa, well… it’s alright. Looks like it’s going to be a middle-management wordplay comedy instead of Kaiji’s high stakes gambling. That’s disappointing. There is also the fact that, because of Kaiji, we know that Tonegawa survives his series intact. In addition everything, from the sound effects to the art, seem… off from the original series. I can’t place it, but its stuck in my head. Regardless, Tonegawa will live or die by its ability to adapt. If it sticks with this middle-management comedy routine, it’s going to crash and burn. If it flips to something else, it may just survive. We shall see.

Potential: 30%

Wooper’s review:

This is a Kaiji spinoff, right? Right. So where is Fumihiko Tachiki as my solemn narrator? Where are the sinister “zawa zawa”s that I remember from the first season? I don’t want to say this series betrayed my expectations, because it’s clearly going for something new here, but I certainly didn’t expect such iconic elements of the original production to change. Maybe change is a good thing, though. Tonegawa is a straight-up comedy rather than the pulse-pounding thriller that Kaiji was, so the hammy narration might gel with the middle management hijinks after another episode or two. I’ll be giving it that chance, because I like the original series, and because Tonegawa’s performance as a world-weary death game designer offers plenty of potential for laughs. The suit-related gags in this episode weren’t too strong, but I believe that Madhouse will squeeze whatever black comedy they can from the source material. Plus, Fukumoto’s art style is glorious as always.

Potential: 40%

 

Yume Oukoku to Nemureru 100 Nin no Ouji-sama

Short Synopsis: A woman must embrace her destiny of awakening 100 princes after being transported to another world.

Lenlo’s Review:

Ah the good ol isekai harem series. A staple of every season it seems like. Hope your ready for info-dumps, because your in for one probably every episode most likely. The only thing 100 Sleeping Princes has going for it is the age of its heroine. Instead of being the generic high schooler, we have… presumably a young out of college office worker. That’s really the only thing this series has that separates it from any other standard isekai fair. Aside from that, the designs are standard, the characters are standard, everything about 100 Sleeping Princes screams bog standard to me. Simply not worth your time, your prince is in another castle.

Potential: 0%

Mario’s review:

Think of a generic reverse-harem isekai and you pretty much have a good idea about this show. 100 Sleeping Princes embraces all these tired tropes: main heroine who already has super-power (and amnesia), sleeping boys around wherever she goes, and the mascot who basically info-dumping us all the things we need to know. All those make this episode a predictable and harmless ride. It doesn’t help that the production doesn’t have anything above-average to offer, nor can the characters carry the show. There’s a fair bit of chemistry between the two princes, but it’s obvious that this is an excuse for amping up as many cute boys in distress as it could. Look, if you want make a reverse-harem show, just don’t grant your girl any special ability. Your typical isekai garbage.

Potential: 0%

 

Isekai Maou to Shoukan Shoujo no Dorei Majutsu

Short Synopsis: a shut-in gamer is summoned into his game world, becomes a powerful character with 2 beast girls as his slaves

Aidan’s review:

So I heard that the author of this series wrote another series which was a political war/strategy LN series called Altina the Sword Princess which seems to be fairly well written. You may notice that it was not that series which got an anime adaption. Sigh…alright to be fair I actually somewhat enjoyed watching this. Oh believe me it’s it garbage but it’s the kind of garbage that makes for easy watching. Though it is very shameless with heavy boob bouncing animation and a first episode where the main character molests a catgirl. The one thing that makes it enjoyable is the discrepancy between the characters thoughts and his actions. But my original comments from the season preview very much stand, this is second hand Overlord. So if you want a version of Overlord that doesn’t take itself too seriously and has a boatload of fanservice then this is the show for you. Otherwise I say just back away slowly. Oh, and catgirl, you are not my Rem. Faker.

Potential: 10%

Lenlo’s Review:

Alright, so let me see, going off of just the OP we have a red haired Darkness, our token slightly tanned girl, big boobed elf girl, and two scantily clad jailbait animal girls. All of whom I presume will somehow get enslaved to our lead otaku isekai demon lord and get their own creepy molestation scene. What is this, a budget Overlord? I thought Overlord was a budget Overlord, what even is this? As Aidan said the only remotely interesting thing about this is the “fake it till you make it” attitude of our lead, which reminds me of the 40k Ciaphas Cain novels, if Cain wasn’t a smart-mouthed Imperial Commissar with a wit of gold. Suffice to say if your watching this for the fan-service, cut out the middleman and just go watch hentai. If you want a decent Isekai story, I guess go watch Overlord? Either way, this isn’t worth your time. Oh and as Aidan said, #NotMyRem

Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions – Island, Hanebado! and Senjuushi

by SuperMario, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Island

Short Synopsis: A man stranded on an island full of cute girls claims to be from the future.

Lenlo’s Review:

Well I can see how ISLAND might appeal to some people. After all the first two scenes are A) Erotic wordplay about “breaking” and B) The classic trip and fall into your main love interest, but this time it’s directly into his crotch. Face first. Truly, ISLAND is a bastion of culture. Yeah, there are small hints about some kind of murder storyline. Some kind of detective drama. But let’s be real here, this is a fanservice delivery system. If Studio feel learned how to weaponise the genre, this would be their Tsar bomb. If your into fan-service and B-plots designed to deliver that fan-service, ISLAND may be for you. For everyone else, I give it a 1-in-a-million shot at being anything resembling decent. It’s a shame to, because we have irrefutable proof that Studio feel knows how to make good anime. They just choose not to sometimes.

Potential: 0.00001%

Mario’s review:

Let’s me just recap the story just so we have an idea how half-baked it is. We have a guy who literally a blank page, who both suffers amnesia (!), but “remembers” enough key events to advance the plot at will (!!). He meets various girls (!!!) and the first thing he remember about them is boob and kiss (!!!!). This is obviously a VN type of story where the main guy has no personality whatsoever and the girls are loud and cliche. It doesn’t help that the fanservice is off-putting and the conversations are generic. There’s some hints of a darker storyline which all the mysteries and killing stuff, but so far it’s hard to invest to any of that because the pacing is all over the place. That insert song in the end might pull some viewers in but for me it’s just a generic J-pop song. Uninteresting characters with too much fan-servicey and not enough plot would sum this one up nicely.

Potential: 10%

 

Hanebado!

Short Synopsis: The remaining members of a badminton club struggle to keep their group together.

Mario’s review:

How appropriate that we have a sport anime that kick off the season in a middle of football frenzy and Wimbledon, and it’s a competent one to boost. Conventional plot aside, Hanebado has all the ingredients of a solid sport drama, from adequate character developments to outright impressive badminton choreography. These two main girls have clear motivations and struggles, but what I enjoy the most is the way the show display characters’ feeling through subtle expressions (this reminds me a lot of KyoAni works). Yeah, that main girl can be unbearable sometimes but she comes from a place I can totally understand. As a person who used to practice tennis day and night, I come up with that question a lot: Why do I keep playing the sport. As noted, the animation is impressive. It’s one of the few shows where I can say it resembles the sport in real life, but I’m not sure if they can keep up that impressive visual for the rest of its run. Other concern is that I’m not certain if it can finish the story in one cour, because I just don’t want to invest in a story that just stop when everything just gets interesting.

Potential: 60%

Wooper’s review:

This is one of the anime that most interested me based on promotional footage, because the badminton matches looked great. Now that I’ve seen the first episode, though, I realize that the rest of the production doesn’t have that level of polish. That goes for story, characters, visual direction, and most disappointingly of all, music. Hanebado’s soundtrack sounds like the result of putting every Joe Hisaishi score into a blender, taking two sips, and throwing the rest away. And that’s honestly a shame, because with good visuals for the competitive scenes and a distinctive sound for the rest of the show, we might have had a contender on our hands. Instead, the average character writing (featuring transparent stand-ins for the concepts of “talent” and “hard work”) shines through at every possible opportunity, making their relationships and arguments feel artificial. The idea that two rivals will have to become friends and work to improve their club isn’t wowing me, either. Hanebado still gets a light recommendation from me for the athletic animation and the fun OP, but don’t expect the world from this series.

Potential: 40%

 

Senjuushi

Short Synopsis: Rifles are Boys.

Lenlo’s Review:

Sigh Why do I do this to myself? Why does Japan do this to me? To anyone? Welcome to “Ancient-guns-as-cute-boys-doing-cute-things” the anime. I swear if this becomes a genre, i’m just done. There are so many things wrong here. I would need this entire post to explain my problems with Senjuushi. That’s not going to happen. I already made that mistake with Touken Ranbu. And at least Touken Ranbu had the decency to look as flashy as Fate/Zero or Fate/Unlimited Blade Works. At least from it I got some visual stimulus! From Senjuushi all I get is a dozen of the exact same male face with different hair colors, scaled to different sizes. Nope. I’m out. Bye.

Potential: 0%

Mario’s review:
Just after last year with Touken Ranbu where hot boys are the incarnations of famous swords, Senjuushi basically borrows the idea with them boys as an embodiment of famous matchlock firearms, in a musketeer fashion. The mashup of all the different setting periods is actually the most amusing factor this show provides. Throughout this episode, more than dozen of male characters introduced and I’ll be damned if I remember any of those faces. Make no mistake, this show is an advertisement for those boys and I suppose this show will make several missions as an excuse for those boys teaming up and squeeze out every drop of charisma out of them. Avoid this show at all costs.

Potential: 0%

Hisone to Masotan – 12 [We Are Unstoppable]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hisone to Masotan

And we come to a close of this Dragon Pilot show and I’m still indifferent on how this anime wraps up. It’s not a bad ending per se, it has a good emotional payoff and it does somewhat wrap up the story. The more it gets into the conclusion, however,  the more I see inconsistencies in its world building that just throw me off even more. Hisone, as we suspected last week, after learning about the sacrifice, decides to defy the ritual and save the girl instead. She then, in her Hisone mood, sacrifices herself to put the dragon to sleep. But Masotan saves her at the end. It’s all fine and mighty, although I would be much more appreciate if HisoMaso explains me about the “stabbing” beforehand. It just feels as if they create that step to raise the conflict. Indeed a lot of “conflicts” in HisoMaso is designed that way. I know I’m mainly disappointed by the inconsistencies of its world building but it’s the first and foremost factor to sell me on the story as a whole. Failing that and it pampers my personal investment to the show and it makes me question the credibility of every plot’s progression.

At the end though, it saddens me to say that I don’t learn that much from the cast. Except for Hoshino and Sada who have a bit of development, all the side characters are under-written in general. The dragons are cute but again they are just that, cute. I do like the way they’re all confident that Hisone and Masotan will come back somehow in the end. The visual is still a wonder, which pains me even more that it can’t save the show from going downhill because of the weak writing.

Full review will come later but here’s some dot points of what get on my nerve in this finale:

-Grandma pilot Sada with her back story: if she feels that devastated how the hell she didn’t cause anastomosis to Masotan then?

-How comes all the back-and-forth exchanges between a girl who wants to save another girl is all about some other guy? It’s a under-representation of women role. Even with Bechdel test it fails fails fails miserably.

-Okonogi doesn’t fare any better. His childhood friend is on a verge of death and all he thinks of is Hisone

-At the end, even Natsume is more fleshed out than Kinutsugai and Hitomi, and I hardly regard her character as flesh out.

This show just disappoints me to no end.

Hinamatsuri (2018 Spring) Review – 79/100

by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Hinamatsuri, Reviews by SuperMario

Comedy anime doesn’t always yell out confidence, so imagine our hype when there’s one that been on everyone’s lips since the manga come out, Hinamatsuri. The show starts with simple premise: a girl with supernatural power unexpectedly drops into the house of a yakuza, hilarity ensues. This concept sums up very well the source humors of Hinamatsuri. We have seemingly stock characters at first, put them into some bizarre situations where they are out of their comfort zone, and observe how they react. As such, Hinamatsuri is at its best when it turns these absurd events into unpredictably directions; and when the show uses these absurd elements to flesh out the characters. It’s so succeed in giving hearts to the characters that, for me, it stops being a laugh-out-loud show somewhere in the middle and now in the end, I’m not quite certain if I still consider Hinamatsuri a comedy show.

But stop being an all-out comedy show isn’t a bad thing at all. One of Hinamatsuri’s best assets has always been a strong and memorable cast, especially from the younger ones. Hitomi and Anzu, in particular, make one hell of an impression. They embrace these two qualities I mentioned earlier, not only it’s hilarious to see how these girls behave when they’re thrown out of their elements, but also throughout those bizzare events our girls have matured right before our eyes. We have the always kind-hearted girl Hitomi finds herself making cocktails in an adult bar (and eventually come to love that job); to the bratty Anzu finds the meaning of responsibility and home in homeless group. Some segments just are down right heart-warming that they ring sad and sweet in equal measure. Even a proper drama show can hardly do that right, let’s alone a comedy one like this.

Other characters still manage to make an impact just from the little segments they’re in. The trick is that they all have different voices and add different energy to the show. It’s no coincidence that Hinamatsuri is fond of introducing new characters, even late in the game. Being said that, the central relationship between Nitta and Hina isn’t as well-developed as say, the developments of their side characters. At the end of the journey, when Nitta thinks about their journey so far, it just hits me that we haven’t really invested to them much. If we’re looking for a parental bond we’re set to be disappointed. If we’re seeking for a buddy bond, it was underwhelming too. Their relationship is some kind in the middle, where they can easily ditch each other but there’s still something that bring them back together.

In term of visual execution, feel does a pretty decent job of transferring the essence of the manga to this adaptation. The visual hits its mark whenever it embraces the quirky visual that only Hinamatsuri can do. I’m talking about whenever these girls doing their supernatural power, or when Hina just floating around in the air in the middle of a conversation. That brings me to another complaint. By design, this whole season is about these “gifted” girls accustomed themselves to the new, ordinary world. As a result, there’s simply not enough crazy, wild fights. This lack of truly over-the-top superpower hurts the show’s chance, as Hinamatsuri has a knack of bringing whimsical humor by their visual. Secondly, the lack of these supernatural power means that the show’s more content for traditional slice-of-life shenanigans, which in truth countless number of anime shows doing the same thing.

In term of segments, I noticed that the anime adaptation change the order from the manga, which I think work for the show’s benefit. We have more direct continuation from Anzu and Hitomi, for example, and so far I can see the love from the creators to make this show as memorable as possible. Only one plot thread I feel rather weak and uninteresting in general is the Nitta’s yakuza part, which rank amongst my least favorite segments. Hina has become more active in the second arc, despite my early criticism that she might not hold her own. This series, as entertaining, whimsical and surprisingly heartfelt as it might be, might never seen the day of life for another season. While personally I’m not over-excited about this show, it still remains a solid offering. The show that has its own voice and visual quirks. That alone make it a far better show than your average anime crop.

Golden Kamuy – 12 [Trickster Fox]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Golden Kamuy

Before I start, I just want to bring up the news that indeed, Golden Kamuy will have second cour, airing in this Fall season. For now I can’t say for sure if I’m up to cover the second cour, it’ll have to depend on the crop of Fall season. As a result, this final episode doesn’t even attempt to have any kind of closure. New character again get introduced, and again, this new blood is awesome. Western genre in general doesn’t have a good track when it comes to female character, and so far I wouldn’t say Inkarmat a great character, but hell does she leave an impression. Although everyone save Shiraishi make it pretty clear that they think fortune-telling is rubbish, she knows more than what she lets on here. For now I can’t say for sure if she’s an ally or a foe, but based on my impression she will be the one who chip in at unexpected time to help Asirpa and Sugimoto on their quest.

This week, we also get another unlikely setting that you don’t see often in anime that era: horse-racing; and in turns we have more screen time from Kiroranke. I still don’t trust him that much to be honest, and the events led to him become a temporary jockey isn’t subtle at all, but we still learn a bit about this guy’s own character. He’s the man who has his own justice and doesn’t afraid to do what he likes. Regarding his influence to the gold chase plot, I have a feeling he’s in for the gold for something not for his own gain. He has a special bond to Asirpa’s father so it might be the main reason he’s involved in all this.

Speaking of another ally, Shiraishi proves to be a guy you can’t fully trust. Not because he has any dark motive, but more because he’s prone for trouble and he just isn’t capable of making the best decision out of the situation. This week, we see him offering another way out, another way to get rich without risking his life. And in a way, he’s right. The prospect of gold is tempting, true, but if he can be rich through other means why the hell not? I’m really digging the way he sells out the tattooed skin, he does it to save his skin without harming his comrades. That’s a very Shiraishi thing to do. Sugimoto understands this, but he’s too deeply involved now. The quest isn’t only about him getting rich to pay for his friend’s wife hospital fee anymore, but also about accompany Asirpa and find out more about her father’s mystery. He would say time and time again that he’s immortal because he has nothing to lose, but now he does have something to protect. Asirpa. Whether that remains his strength or his weakness remains to be seen.

The first cour of this acclaimed manga adaptation has come to a close, and we’re nowhere to the finish line. Heck, I don’t even think the second cour gonna cover all of its material. The 3 month break is necessary, however, for Geno studio to improve the production aspect. The visual has been unfortunately quite bare-boned with limited animation and some certain unBEARable CG design. Hopefully the creators take note on these criticism to improve it better. For now, Sugimoto and Asirpa have established a strong chemistry all around, and while I think the plot wanders around too much, I can’t deny that meeting those twisted gruesome side villains have a charm of its own. This show has a huge pacing issue, humors can be a bit on a missed side for me, and I would prefer it much better without all these Ainu-centric cuisine, but I also know it’s part of Golden Kamuy’s identity so I guess I’ll just roll with it.

Hisone to Masotan – 11 [The Sky of Montparnasse and the Trash Girl]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hisone to Masotan

What’s there to say about HisoMaso? I’ll be blunt but I see this whole final arc a missed opportunity. It builds from neat ideas, but the way the show creates and resolves its conflicts are hammy at best. Take the two main struggles this episode: Hisone decided to quit the job altogether and the grandma possible yuri relationship with the old miko. All of these are established and quickly resolved in about 15 minutes, and I can’t say I feel anything about their conflicts. For Hisone, I can ‘barely’ get the reasons for her quitting. She doesn’t want to hurt the people she love. But for me it’s just an easy way out, she’s running away because she can’t deal with it. Now, I realize that this is HisoMaso’s point all along, but consider this: why the show introduces this drama too late of a game? Is it creating conflicts for the sake of conflicts? This new development effectively kills little interest I have left for Hisone character.

And then we have a brand new conflict in the name of Sada and that opens up another can of worms. Sada formed a special “relationship” with the old miko, just so that she witnessed the death of that shrine maiden and still hanging on it. It’s a nice little drama in concept, as it questions the necessity of sacrifice someone. But in practice, we have HER piloting Masotan instead of Nao, which for me makes completely no sense. Isn’t it another case of creating conflicts for the sake of conflicts? And then all this plot is building up for HISONE JUMPING INSIDE MASOTAN. Have you ever heard of the expression “Jumping the shark”? Well, it’s the same here (Jumping the dragon!). And it comes up with some more issues. First, how the hell it’s okay now that there’s two pilots inside the dragon and second, it feels that all these developments feel utterly calculated, and I must say, cheap.

Regarding how this story gonna closes up, I’m guessing that Hisone will find a way to save Natsume and all them come back safely. Remember they are inside the great dragon, right? Couldn’t they pilot or do something the same like what they do with Masotan and other dragons? One more thing that struck me is that the old lady might not die yet. We see her shredded clothes but surprisingly not her body, and regrading it’s HisoMaso we’re talking about, it could go in any direction. I still feel a bit betrayed how Hisone gets off and comes back a bit too quickly and easy, and worse the worldbuilding just isn’t strong enough for me to completely suspend my disbelief. For me it’s just another case of creators don’t think about this world hard enough.

Hinamatsuri – 12 [Snow Festival]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hinamatsuri

And so it ends, but it feels much more like a beginning chapter for the next arc. feel studio opens up for the possibility of next season here, by bookending Mao’s 3-year-later arc. Although I love little Mao with her kungfu storyline, I still feel it’s devoid from the content of Hinamatsuri has established so far. She appears in only 2 segments, and they can easily fill it up with more content from the present day. The biggest reason to include her, I suppose, is because she will become an important figure in later arc, and despite all my “qualms” earlier, I love her presence and her talking to handmade dolls struck a sweet chord for me. With enough screen time she can become one of the favorite character, but is there a good chance of Hinamatsuri getting second season? Well, from what I gathered, the chance doesn’t look promising despite the critical reaction it has. I guess it’s more because Hinamatsuri doesn’t subject itself within one set-demographic, and it’s frankness regarding homeless people and pre-teen kids attending bars might hurt its chance a little. A total shame since Hinamatsuri deserves another season.

The first segment is a continuation of last week, and I originally thought it’d involve more Nitta and Hina. Turn out Hina is stranded in the middle of snowy wilderness with Hitomi and the two boys, and this segment serves as a character development for Hina as she opens up her secrets to her friends. Well, not at first since she never regards “getting lost in the snowy mountain” as a serious issues until she learns that there’s no food. I especially love how she only has one line, and it’s “feed me” (Mao understands this girl well). The other kids take this shocking news surprisingly well, and they prepare a make-believe sushi to recharge Hina’s energy. The whole sequence is warm (despite cold sushi) but I admit it doesn’t reach the impact I hope for. In fact, it’s often the case I have with Hinamatsuri, it’s unpredictable enough to hold my attention the whole way, but isn’t flat-out hilarious or make a strong impact to me.

After getting themselves rescued, Hina wakes up in a hospital to find Nitta there, and they have a quiet time together to further reflect their journey from the beginning. It’s not a subtle way, but it’s a fitting one for the final episode to have montages about their time together, and about other characters at this precise moment. But where’s Mao in the montage? I asked myself until we leap three years forward to see her not only doing well (being the famous pupil in the now-commercialize martial arts dojo. Not because of the skills she learned there I’m sure), but she still keeps a habit of talking to her Hina and Anzu dolls (despite we all know that she isn’t completely delusional). This fact that after all this time she still talks to them in her native language like a lonely kid talking their puppy got me personally. It may play for laugh but there’s a sad feeling buried underneath.

She meets Rocky, himself wanted to learn the “magic” power of Hina. Upon hearing about Hina, she decides to leave, but of course the dojo doesn’t want to lose their golden goose. I like the final test well enough, mostly because of the spinning machine is just way far-out when you think of the dojo martial arts. Mao easily defeats it, while pretends to use her martial art skills to fool others. While my earlier comment might suggest that I feel the whole Mao’s arc as a filler (it is), in truth I understand the reason for it being there. It’s a crime NOT to see her in anime version, considered this might be the only anime version we’re ever going to get. Overall, I enjoyed Hinamatsuri on a weekly dose. While it’s not the show I find myself thinking back a lot, it proves to be an enjoyable little show with its quirky cast, especially the younger ones and surprisingly heartfelt for a comedy show. Full review will come up soon.

Golden Kamuy – 11 [Everybody, Get Together! It’s a Murder Hotel!]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Golden Kamuy

Welcome to Bates hotel!!

Alright, make no mistake, this is the funniest episode of Golden Kamuy we will ever have. Still dark, have very little to do with the main plot, but it’s spooky fun. Even trashy fun with all the dick jokes. This is Golden Kamuy at its loosest shape. Which is not a bad thing at all, although I must admit that the humor remains hit or miss to me. In this episode 11 (!), we have another mad tattooed prison of the week, this time revolves around a former doctor who regains youth (and changes sex somehow) by killing and cutting off parts of the victims. Nutcase she might be but it’s one of the strongest part in Golden Kamuy in general. Not only the side-villains are memorable, they fit the show’s theme like a glove. Ienaga, the hostess who runs a murder hotel, is lust with immortality and youth, both themes in which Golden Kamuy has consistently explored. Her design is decidedly goddess-like which contrast very well with the plain-looking of other characters, especially the soldiers. In Golden Kamuy, the weapons these characters using could tell you whole lot about their characters: Nihei with his one-bullet rifle; Henmi with his sickle, and now this new villain and… syringes. Way too awesome.

Another notch for the design of the hotel itself, in which it’s designed like a maze, and we have this wonderful shot (screenshot above) of the interior of the hotel which for me remains the episode’s best single shot. I’d love more if the episode spends more time with the hotel’s layout. But being Golden Kamuy, it’s pretty busy with other stuffs as well. And that other stuffs are the (coincidently?) arrivals of both our gang and Ushiyama on the same night. Ienaga recognises two of them, but in its twisted turn of event these two have a lust for her (pure lust this time) and chase her around the corridors. It’s when Golden Kamuy becomes some sort of a farce pulpy mystery in the same vein of Cluedo board game that somehow torture room, licking the eyeball, bombing, wall-breaking, bombing (it deserves to be mentioned twice) and dick jokes make their appearance. While I can live without Asirpa participating all these dick jokes and the mild rape jokes to boost, it almost succeeds because it never takes itself too seriously. Speaking of tone, one thing I realize is that the more Golden Kamuy gets into these new adventures, the less serious and more goofy it becomes and I’m still not sure what to make of it.

More significantly, the Immortal Sugimoto finally meets Undefeated Ushiyama and apparently they’re both to awesome that they’re engaging on the fight just by the handshakes. Okay, I still don’t like this Ushiyama dude since he’s all about brute force but even I can’t deny that he’s up to the level of Sugimoto. The star of the hour, however, is Shiraishi; the one who argurably goes through hell (and back) and all his expressions are just so hilarious. On the more serious side, he’s supposed to meet Ushiyama the next day, which for my money to hand these tattooed skins to him. The plan fails, although Ushiyama has another tattoo after this, but by this development I actually think that Shiraishi won’t betray our Sugimoto and Asirpa. Then again, we still need to keep an eye on Kiroranke, who can just sit back and wait for the right opportunity to strike. I don’t see the anime ending anytime soon at this rate, so just hope we’ll have some kind of conclusive ending and pray for the next season to be announced.

Hisone to Masotan – 10 [Melting in Love]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hisone to Masotan

Pretty visual aside, I wonder how much fuel left for this aircraft before it runs out of ideas. HisoMaso has never been a show with detailed world building, or even thick plot to begin with, and as the usual case for me, nothing much happened in this episode. The biggest plot point of this week is that Hisone and Hoshino now have to choose between love and career because somehow fallen in love is like a toxic for your dragons. I guess Okada’s point is that she raises one of the most common issues normal working woman will have to face: family or career, but even putting this story in that light, I can’t help but think HisoMaso is sexist. Guys are free to flirt around, guys at the top twitch the noses of our girls, and our girls take all the fall. Not only Hisone and Hoshino, but now Natsume is officially a Binden – literally a sacrifice (even that poor girl can’t have the man she loves, damnit). So by having Hisone decides to quit the job at the end, it also mean she strays away from the restriction, the repression. Hopefully I read that right because to be frank, part of me still thinks that Okada’s just trolling us around.

We get to know more about this Natsume – Okonagi’s romance and I’m not in a bit surprised here. It goes to the most common trope of unconditional love from Natsume, while Okonagi part-oblivious, part-see her as his sister- bullshit. I don’t really appreciate the way he dodges the kiss, but the blowing air to the nose part itself is quite a lovely bit (guess that mean that Masotan will have a chance to blow her nose in the Ritual). Another detail is about the village dedicated to this Ritual, where they raise young boys and girls to be shrine maidens and… what? Priests? How many priests they need in the ceremony anyways? (the answer is one). And how long in between each ceremony (the answer is 74 years). You get that? The whole generations of shrine maidens and priests were wasted because the dragon won’t wake up. This tells me that they haven’t thought the world-building out well, because the more you think about how it works the more it falls apart.

But we still have some nice moments in this episode. Nao has a chance to shine. Being somewhat written out towards the latter half of this series (the reason is simple: she doesn’t have a dragon), it’s nice to see her piloting Masotan again, an evidence that she has finally came to terms with being who she is, and piloting Masotan also means she helps out Hisone and her dragon as well. She has some nice chemistry with the designer (but wait, doesn’t she have a crush on this guy? Why can she piloting then? Guess the saying remains true: each girl tastes differently, right Masotan? In short, this is a so-so episode in an underwhelming last arc so far.