Author: SuperWooper

Great Pretender Anime Review – 78/100

by SuperWooper, posted in Anime Reviews, Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Great Pretender, Reviews by SuperWooper

From an aesthetic point of view, Great Pretender is my favorite TV anime of 2020. I’ve spoken plenty about art director Yuusuke Takeda in previous posts, but since this is the last time I’ll be writing about this show for the blog, allow me to recap: he’s one of the best and most prolific visual designers in the industry today, and Great Pretender is one of his most striking works. His brash juxtaposition of color was a great fit for such a sharp, fast-moving series – as were the angular designs of legendary character artist Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Tasked with creating an entirely adult cast, he opted to give them prominent noses and messy hairdos, incorporating plenty of detail while still allowing the animation team room to breathe. They did their nimblest and most acrobatic work in the show’s first arc, but even as Great Pretender settled in for the long haul, it maintained a sense of liveliness sufficient to absorb you in its story.

So why the caveat that it’s my favorite only in aesthetic terms? What disqualifies it from being the runaway AOTY that I initially hoped it would be? And on the flip side, what does Great Pretender do right that most other series wouldn’t dare to attempt? Read on for one man’s thoughts on one of the year’s most original anime.

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Akudama Drive – 05 [Dead Man Walking]

by SuperWooper, posted in Akudama Drive, Currently Watching:

It’s still too early to say if we’ll ever return to the sustained mayhem of Akudama Drive’s earliest offerings, but breathers like this episode aren’t so bad. Sure, the visuals might not be delivering in every single scene, but in terms of transitioning us into the show’s midgame, it did a fine job. There’s a departure and a new rivalry within the Akudama camp, and the Executioners are strengthening efforts to bring them in, putting the recently suspended Master and Pupil in a tough spot. Was there enough room for the show to say something meaningful about its characters during all this repositioning? I’d say no, but that’s certainly not for a lack of trying.

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Fall 2020 Summary – Week 5

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: We’re down to just two writers for this week’s recap, which means we’re down a few shows, as well. Now that we’ve entered the second of this season’s three months, it’s only natural that anime will start to fall through the cracks. The State of the Season post is coming up, though (it may even replace next week’s summary), so it won’t be long until you hear from the whole crew on their midseason picks. Until then, Lenlo and I have got you covered.

Haikyu: To the Top Part 2! – 05

Lenlo: I said last week that as much as I love Nekoma, I want to get back to the Inzarizaki match. I still stand by that, I love Atsumu, but boy is it hard to not get hype about our boy Kenma. The relationship between him, Kuroo and Nekoma as a whole is always a treat. How they tease and respect each other, how Kenma fails or refuses to see his own growth (“guts”) etc. My only real complaint with the episode is that, outside a few of the big scenes, it once again looked kinda… eh? Production has definitely not been a strong suit for Haikyu this season. My only hope is that they are saving something big for the finale, because the narrative core is all there, it’s great. Furudate is a great writer. I just think the show deserves better than this sometimes.

Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken – 05

Wooper: Boy, did this episode look good. The bulk of it was given to a continuous fight against Hadlar, first waged by Avan and then by Dai. It was chock-full of shounen staples, from the sensei who sacrifices his life to the villain undone by overconfidence, but watching such a slick reboot of a classic title makes it hard to find fault with its adherence to genre conventions. I’ll confess to being disappointed that Avan’s life-offering final attack wasn’t enough to end the battle – giving Dai the crushing blow smacks of protagonist worship – but Hadlar is a major antagonist, so killing him off this early wouldn’t fit the template that this series was instrumental in creating. Great animation and a sense of high stakes going forward are two reasons to love this episode, as well as some justification for Dai’s overpowered forehead (which is apparently called a Dragon Crest). Seeing what an effect that glowing mark had on Hadlar was an indirect promise of things to come – I’m hoping we get some adventuring and party building first, though.

Continue reading “Fall 2020 Summary – Week 5” →

Taiso Samurai – 04 [Samurai Daughter]

by SuperWooper, posted in Currently Watching:, Taiso Samurai

Is Leo the stealth main character of Taiso Samurai? This episode certainly pointed in that direction, taking a prime opportunity for father-daughter bonding and making it a ninja-daughter pairing, instead. Once the Parent’s Day plot began to move toward center stage, I thought for sure that Leo would urge Jotaro to attend his little girl’s school event, but the show threw me for a loop and kept its lens on the freeloader until the end. I’m not displeased with the result, either, though I imagine that plenty of viewers are wondering where the gymnastics part of “gymnastics anime” wandered off to this week.

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Akudama Drive – 04 [Speed]

by SuperWooper, posted in Akudama Drive, Currently Watching:

Here’s a curious case of an episode that’s just as action-packed as the first two, yet fails to bring the thrills of those earlier installments. The whole time I was watching the ‘Courier vs Kouhai’ and ‘Brawler vs Executioner’ fights, I was wondering when the show would do something new. It might have revealed some characters’ hidden abilities, or used its unique setting (aboard the Shinkansen) to give one combatant a surprise advantage over another. That didn’t happen, though, at least not to my satisfaction. I’ve got a couple theories about how that dissatisfied stew came to occupy my brain, but that’ll probably be it for this week. Speculating about the history of the Kanto vs. Kansai conflict would be fruitless, given our limited knowledge on the matter, and the main cast themselves are so static they might as well be Virgil Hawkins. So, let’s talk about what makes some anime fights better than others.

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Fall 2020 Summary – Week 4

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: Ask and ye shall receive; we’ve got mini impressions from not one, but four writers in this edition of our weekly recap. Feels good to have some company for this column! Lenlo, Amun and Armitage pitched in to deliver thoughts on a few of the fall’s bigger shows and sequels, while I’m still banging on about weird anime comedies and a stray shounen property. It’s the new and improved Weekly Summary, y’all – enjoy, and we’ll see you next time.

Kamisama ni Natta Hi – 02/03

Armitage: I was supposed to write entire full-length posts covering this show but turns out that the events of each episode don’t lend themselves to wordy breakdowns. Still, this is one of the major torchbearers of the Fall Anime Parade and I cannot in good conscience let it air without any coverage. Which means that from now on, I shall be using the Weekly Summary section to give my thoughts on it! So far, Kamisama ni Natta Hi has essentially played out as a gag comedy anime and a solid one at that. Episode 2 was especially great with its parodies of Armageddon, Edward Scissorhands and the gut-bustingly funny Rocky skit. I am the kind of person who rarely full-on ‘laughs out loud’ but yeah, this episode got that out of me. Episode 3 too had its nice moments with Youta’s suit and sparkling MSG but it didn’t work quite as well as its predecessor. The characters, while being really entertaining, have not yet come off as people you truly care for and I hope the show remedies that in the coming weeks. Lastly, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Natsuki Hanae, the VA for Yota, as he is the one who solely makes the show such a blast to watch, displaying a voice range on par with Mamoru Miyano from Zombieland Saga. Honestly, this show is worth a watch just to hear him say “IZANAMI-SAAAAAAAN” as anime Rocky.

Golden Kamuy Season 3 – 04

Lenlo: I’m not usually a fan of comedies, anime ones especially. Something about their humor or their aesthetic just falls flat to me. So it’s always a joy when Golden Kamuy gets me chuckling for its entire run time, week after week. Something about the mix of murder and humor lines up perfectly with my love of gallows humor. It helps that every single joke has layers upon layers to it, similar in a way to classic Simpsons, though not of the same level. Take the chase scene early on for instance, Koito’s section alone has at least four jokes in 30 seconds that all build on each other. We go from the Naruto run and leap, to him running in the air, to grabbing a branch which then snaps, to his silly landing, to the branch landing on his head. It’s all small stuff, but no joke exists on its own, always building to the next.

Alternatively Golden Kamuy also establishes these episodic comedic narratives inside its larger dramatic narrative. This episode it’s Genjiro’s saga with dancing girls. His failure to actually dance, being fawned over and encouraged by children only to get a riff on a romance or career drama thrown in for good measure. There’s just something funny about this massive muscular soldier in a tutu getting fawned over by children for dancing a side-bit, and without a doubt the reaction faces help it. Suffice to say I am continuing to enjoy Golden Kamuy. From military circus jokes to “I’m gonna cut it” jokes to just how petty Koito is willing to be over his tricks. I am not caring that much about the larger narrative but god damn if this show isn’t fun.

Continue reading “Fall 2020 Summary – Week 4” →

Taiso Samurai – 03 [Dueling Samurai]

by SuperWooper, posted in Currently Watching:, Taiso Samurai

Here’s a more conventional sports anime episode for you. Leo still refuses to take off his ninja headgear and Big Bird is still squawking up a storm in the Aragaki household, but those oddities were baked into the show from the outset. If you were to tinker with the structure of this week’s Taiso Samurai, you’d be hard-pressed to make it more ordinary. There was a strategy session between Jotaro and his coach, an 80s training montage, an injury surmounted by hard work and dedication, and a showdown with an angry rival (whose constant outbursts were the low point of the episode). If straightforwardness is what you wanted from this very quirky show, congrats on the fulfillment of your wish. Here’s an equally straightforward blog post to match.

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Akudama Drive – 03 [Mission: Impossible]

by SuperWooper, posted in Akudama Drive, Currently Watching:

This episode was a far cry from the spectacle of the first two. There were no dust-ups with the Execution Department, no direct assaults on massive buildings or organizations, and no interpersonal conflicts within the main cast. It consisted mostly of planning a heist, then quietly executing the first half of it (as quietly as a show like Akudama Drive can manage, anyway). Perhaps some viewers needed a breather after two straight weeks of madness, but personally, I was hoping for twelve. Still, a relatively subdued affair like this one gave the production team a chance to relax their weary pencil/mouse hands, and let the characters themselves carry the burden of bringing the show to life. Were they up to the task? Eh, sort of.

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Fall 2020 Summary – Week 3

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: We’ve reached the third week of the new anime season, and you know what that means: it’s time for the hopeful anticipation of viewers everywhere to be ground into the dust of unmet expectations! Or maybe that’s just me. None of these series had showings poor enough to take them off my radar, but a couple of them are inching away from my range of interest. Shows like Jujutsu Kaisen and Kamisama ni Natta Hi are holding down the fort just fine, though, so an early misstep from the B-team isn’t the end of the world. You still get to read my complaints about a couple of recent episodes, though – and they might not be the ones you’d expect.

Maou-jou de Oyasumi 03

Maou-jou continues to be a fun weekly diversion, but there’s not much more to it than fun. Princess Syalis always completes her quests, so the show doesn’t offer much suspense – it’s her unconventional methods that serve as mild surprises each week. And what’s more surprising than stumbling upon a genie trapped inside an ancient grimoire? For most fantasy anime, the answer would be “nothing,” but according to Syalis-hime, even the latest edition of Shonen Sunday would provide more entertainment. If it isn’t contributing to her forty winks, she’s not interested, so Alazif (the spirit within the grimoire) comes and goes within the span of five minutes. The middle segment was based entirely on misunderstandings, so I could take or leave that one, but I did appreciate the detail put into the last one. The princess made use of items acquired in previous episodes for her jailbreak, creating a string of neat callbacks, and the forest she explored had an enchanted feel that paired well with the interior of the Demon King’s castle. This show may be a sleeper, but it gets a lot of mileage from that simple vibe.

Majo no Tabitabi 03

Witch Weekly busted out a two-parter for this episode, but neither story provided me with much food for thought. The first was marred by cheap computerized textures, both for the overhead shots of the meadow from the opener and the curse that afflicted the sentry at the end. A better visual representation of his poisoning would have done a lot for the conclusion, but even if the art had held up its end of the bargain, the story boiled down to “beautiful flowers can be dangerous, too.” Elaina didn’t have a participatory role in the story, and that’s fine – but if she’s going to be little more than a guide, the people she meets have to carry their weight.

The second story had the same failing, despite using more time to develop its scenario. A slave girl’s sadness at being shown a bottle full of happy memories might be touching or profound, if not for the fact that she, her master, and his son (the memory bottler) underwent precisely zero change during the episode. Majo no Tabitabi is so lesson-oriented that it hardly seems to care where it leaves its characters; the wrap-up here involved Elaina summarizing a similar story she’d once read, and criticizing the moral as being heavy-handed. Based on what I saw this week, I’d have to agree.

Continue reading “Fall 2020 Summary – Week 3” →