Author: SuperWooper

Winter 2021 Summary – Weeks 9-10

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: Spring fever has gripped us prematurely here at Star Crossed. We all blanked on this column last week, and I nearly forgot to post it today – our anticipation for the upcoming spring season is starting to overshadow our attentiveness to this winter’s offerings. We managed to throw a little something together for today’s column, so consider it an appetizer for the final thoughts we’ll offer in a week or two.

Reincarnated As A Spider – 11

Amun: This outing of Reincarnated As A Spider is mostly a flashback…about another spooky spider: the Nightmare of the Labyrinth. Biggest takeaway is that our spider hero-chan (pun intended) isn’t the first spider to use magic and be super strong – this is apparently not that uncommon in the new world. This episode felt a lot like busy work, as it sets up the season for the finale. Still, it handled it adequately, so I have no complaints – I also don’t have any heaping praises either.

Back Arrow – 9-10

Wooper: This show moves so fast that it’s constantly catching up with itself, or else abandoning all hope of doing so. At the start of these episodes, only a handful of people in all of Lutoh are aware of Princess Fine’s split personality; by the end, the entire kingdom has seen her evil alter ego. She phases in and out of it as though someone were flipping a switch, which makes about as much sense as the origin of her duel personas: the transfused blood of a morbidly obese puppetmaster named Rudolph, who selected her to be Lutoh’s ruler. There’s so much explanation required to coordinate these sorts of developments, and since the series is full of them, that means its scripts are bursting with expository dialogue. Back Arrow is so absurd that its attempts at rationalization are usually pretty funny, but I actually prefer when the show breaks its own rules with no explanation at all. Arrow’s Briheight growing wings and turning into a sword at various points throughout episode 10 are prime examples. It doesn’t make sense on a mechanical level, but neither does anything else, so we’ve got no choice but to accept it and move on (or else drop the show, which I suspect most people have done already).

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SK8 the Infinity – 09 [We Were Special Back Then]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Sports, SK8 the Infinity

When I heard that SK8 would be getting a mid-cour recap episode, I figured I’d just delay my viewing of “We Were Special Back Then” and blog it during the show’s off week. Waiting may have been the wrong decision, though, as my interest in the series has dulled significantly since the last time I tuned in. This episode didn’t do much to change that, even with its array of crazy moves: wall kicks, handstand planks, steel beam surfing, and skateboards used as blunt instruments. To be fair, that last one did leave me grinning in disbelief, but there was a predictable air to the entire ‘Joe vs Snow’ race that sorely disappointed me. Whenever Joe pulled ahead via some feat of physical strength, Langa caught up as a matter of course, meaning that only the final minute of the race maintained any sort of tension. At one point Langa was trailing by a huge margin, having lost interest in the competition, when who should appear on the sidelines but his best friend Reki, screaming his name – and thus the gap was closed yet again. I’d be glad to see a nail in that trope’s coffin, but SK8 won’t be the show to put it there.

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Horimiya – 8-9 [The Truth Deception Reveals/It’s Hard, but Not Impossible]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Romance, Horimiya

It makes sense that Horimiya would follow a heavy episode (like the one we got two weeks ago) with a lighter affair, so I was prepared for “The Truth Deception Reveals” to be a fluffy side character piece. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much I’d enjoy it – we’re talking ‘make the squeaky-voiced twintailed girl likeable’ levels of enjoyability here. The girl in question is Remi, and though she’s had a mostly benign impact on the show thus far, anime girls who sound like they’ve inhaled helium tend not to be my favorites. The flashbacks to her first few conversations with Sengoku, however, were pretty charming. Her interest in him stemmed from both his equal treatment of others and his obsession with reading, two things that an average teen girl might be attracted to. Not every teenager would provide such a gracious window for their crush to confess their feelings, though. “What would you do if the world were ending tomorrow?” practically begs a romantic answer when asked in an intimate setting, so good on Remi for snagging her man with such a foolproof trap.

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Winter 2021 Summary – Week 8

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: With The Promised Neverland and Kemono Jihen having been ejected from the weekly roundup posts, this column was looking a little thin – good thing Mario is working through his backlog to beef up our selection of shows. Some of these entries may not be about seasonal anime, but hey, winter is old hat – the beginning of March means the Spring 2021 Preview is only weeks away. Hope you’re not thinking of unbuckling your seatbelt, because this ride never stops.

Go-toubun no Hanayome S2 – 06-08

Mario: It’s time for the final arc as the “pretense” tutoring is over and the romance comes in full force as the sisters are on the offense now. I am glad that these episodes focus on Miku (she deserves it) while never forgetting the other girls. Both Nino, Yotsuba, Ichika and Itsuki have their moments in these episodes – and it makes sense that Futaro faces his biggest challenges yet: not tutoring them but telling these girls apart and responding to their love. Nino makes the first leap forward here (true to her character) and that will push the others to do the same. It’s interesting to note that only Itsuki hasn’t fallen for Futaro yet, and that actually makes the whole “race” more refreshing. While I enjoy these characters immensely, the show doesn’t handle the time skips very well this season, given I never have a good sense of how long time has passed between events – and what happened to Futaro’s family in episode 7-8? They all but disappeared on the trip.

Heaven’s Design Team – 08

Lenlo: This might be the best episode of HDT yet. Not only were the animals and how they got to them interesting, but the theme was so clever I still can’t believe they did it. To give us a DBZ battle, rap and a stage production all under the guise of “mating presentations” was absolutely brilliant. I had fun the whole way through and it really revitalized my interest in the show. With this episode HDT has ensured that I will finish it, just on the off chance I get another one of these. Cause god damn was that better than it had any right to be.

Continue reading “Winter 2021 Summary – Week 8” →

SK8 the Infinity – 08 [The Fated Tournament!]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Sports, SK8 the Infinity

There’s nothing like a tournament arc to restore an ensemble feel to your sports anime. This episode tried to capture the viewpoints of as many skaters as it could in just twenty minutes, and did a pretty good job of it in my view. The dial on Reki’s angst returned to human levels, allowing SK8 to get out of his head and show us how Langa has been impacted by their separation. Joe and Cherry’s races created a ‘main cast’ feeling that they’d previously lacked, giving them strong roles outside of providing sagely advice and appearing in flashbacks. We got a bit of context for Adam’s present-day insanity, and a closely-related figure who I recently criticized as a “non-character” turned out to be far more important than I’d anticipated. Even Shadow, who’s been relentlessly clowned on since the series’ early days, was taken somewhat seriously! He still got a handful of his own firecrackers kickflipped into his face, but he took those miniature explosions like a champ – that’s a win where I’m from.

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Horimiya – 07 [You’re Here, I’m Here]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Romance, Horimiya

One of the cool things about anime OPs is that they sometimes change as a show progresses. New characters may be added to foreshadow their appearance in the story, and scenes may be swapped in or out to indicate a change in tone. I tend to watch OPs all the way through each week to spot these changes – a habit that paid dividends in this episode, which traded shadowy, isolated shots of Horimiya’s cast for summery group scenes. Images of chalkboards and record players were brightened to match this sunnier outlook, and the penultimate shot of Miyamura walking away from his reflection was edited to depict his acceptance of himself. The overall message is clear: the characters have found friends who love and support them, which has made their world a bit brighter. I like a lot of these changes, but I’m saddened by the loss of this cut, which was my favorite from the original OP. If any manga readers know the context for Miyamura’s mistreatment of those sunflowers, let me know!

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Winter 2021 Summary – Weeks 6-7

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: The recap post was on hold last week in favor of a bigger column, but three of us are back with a vengeance. Midseason fatigue is setting in where some of these shows are concerned, so prepare yourself for mockery, indifference, and swings of the executioner’s axe. How many shows will survive the next five weeks? At this rate, not many.

Reincarnated as a Spider – 06

Amun: Major plot updates this time out – no, not that kind of plot, you pervs. Without spelling it out, some major oddities in the OP/ED are now explained – mainly why are there multiple spiders. We also got some interaction with the hero and we found the weird girl from the OP who bites the world! Major developments, indeed. Meanwhile, Ms. Spider (who cares what her human name was) is still fighting and eating…and becoming more and more likely to be a Demon Lord. But more importantly is getting good food. Because that’s what really matters in isekai these days – next, she’s going to open a restaurant, staffed by sob-storied locals while she goes adventuring. Isekai is going great, guys…

Back Arrow – 06/07

Wooper: More like Bad Arrow, am I right? It’s hardly a stretch to say this is a bad show, and my tolerance for bad shows is low to begin with, so why am I still watching? My enjoyment of this anime could definitely be labeled ironic, but Back Arrow’s creators seem to be operating from a place of irony, as well. How else could one explain an episode that takes place at Pretty Boy Farms, a facility where human experiments cause their hot male subjects to sparkle nonstop? How about the hastily-invented plot point of Shu’s bomb collection, the discovery of which allowed Ren to escape suspicion, just as planned? The issue with this kind of writing is that it narrows the line between tongue-in-cheek and idiotic to a hair’s breadth – Arrow’s “betrayal” in the Pretty Boy episode was a nearly unbearable example of the latter. Still, the fact that it’s only week 7 and the Granedger crew have already made it to the wall means that there’s a lot of plot left in the tank, and it would be a shame to deprive myself of whatever chuckle-worthy moments emerge in the future. That’s my current justification, anyway.

Continue reading “Winter 2021 Summary – Weeks 6-7” →

SK8 the Infinity – 6-7 [Steamy Mystery Skating/We Don’t Balance Out]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Sports, SK8 the Infinity

The screencaps above are a pretty good summation of my thoughts on SK8’s last two weeks. The vacation episode was bright and lively, while the angst episode was, well, angsty. The two weren’t totally divorced from one another, as the seeds of Reki and Langa’s breakup were carried through both installments until they bore fruit at the end of episode 7. That sort of continuity is a good thing, but when the payoff at the end is so emotionally blunt, it makes me wish the show would stick to the fun stuff. In that spirit, let’s start with the positives and talk about “Steamy Mystery Skating” after the jump!

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Horimiya – 06 [This Summer’s Going to Be a Hot One]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Romance, Horimiya

This week gave me just what I wanted from Horimiya: more clownish behavior from an absentee father whose daughter clearly resents him! The episode was bookended by dad scenes, which you’d think would provide the opportunity for at least one honest family conversation, but most of his dialogue led to punchlines instead. Complaining about being a stranger in his own home, failing to recognize Miyamura after his makeover, interrupting his daughter and her boyfriend just as they were about to kiss… These sorts of gags are typical of feel-good romcoms, but Kyousuke is far from a feel-good dad, so they feel out of place to me. This series has already shown us the scars resulting from Hori’s lack of attachment to her mom, so why is her father’s neglect being played for laughs? As a matter of fact, why is he still hanging around the house that he so rarely visits?

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State of the Season – Winter 2021

by SuperWooper, posted in State of the Season

Wooper: If you’ve been keeping your finger on the pulse of the anime fandom this winter, you’ve seen no shortage of proclamations that this is the best seasonal lineup in years. Some of us here expressed similar sentiments back in January, but that was a simpler time – one characterized by loosely-informed optimism, rather than weeks of compounded evaluation. Now that we’ve got a six week picture of the season, where do our writers stand? Totally validated, utterly betrayed, or somewhere in between? Read on to see how the Star Crossed crew is feeling midway through 2021’s first quarter.

What show are you enjoying that you’re not reviewing?

Mario: Sk8 has been a lot of fun. Yes, it’s your typical sports anime with larger-than-life personalities, but it’s gotten many things right so far. Reiki and Langa have that sweet brotherly bond, the races are always exciting to watch, and is it just me, or would ADAM fit in seamlessly with the Utena universe? On the sequel front, Yuru Camp delivers with every single episode and it’s just a blast to watch week to week.

Armitage: In order to give other shows a fair chance, I’ll try my best and not answer “Attack on Titan babyyyy” for all the positive responses in this seasonal check-in. So, yes. Best of the rest for me would probably be Wonder Egg Priority simply because of how ambitious and anomalous it feels while watching. Yes, it borrows from like 10 different places but it still manages to feel wholly original and even in a season absolutely brimming with quality like this one, there’s simply nothing else quite like it.

Amun: Since I’m not technically reviewing any shows this season (tehe), all of them! Special shoutout to Spider Isekai though – it’s been way more enjoyable than I expected. Sure, it’s low budget, but the spider MC really carries – something about the movements and use of the 8 legged expressive palette keeps me coming back every week. Obviously Wonder Egg has been superlative as well.

Lenlo: Quite a few! This is actually one of my most active seasons in a long time. From sequels like Beastars S2 to new originals like Sk8 and Wonder Egg, this season is packed for me.

Wooper: Attack on Titan’s fourth season has been pretty good thus far. It’s got many of the same problems as the Wit seasons, plus the baggage of being a strict visual downgrade, but the story’s leap across the sea has added a welcome layer of complication. So what if the new characters are painted just as broadly as the old ones? Titan is running almost entirely on plot at this point, which is precisely what makes it so addicting.

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