Author: SuperWooper

Mars Red – 04/05

Lenlo: God Mars Red is just so… aggressively mediocre. About once per episode it will have a good, focused moment of vampiric humanity. Of immortals interacting and living in a mortal society. And then the rest of the episode is just mediocre political subplots, vampires we don’t know or care about subplots and downright terrible action sequences. There’s only ever one scene of any value in these episodes. You could watch that one scene on youtube, skip the rest and lose absolutely nothing. And that’s a damn shame.

Back Arrow – 17

Wooper: Last week our heroes declared the Granedger to be its own sovereign nation, but that claim feels silly now that the show is handing out massive warships like Oprah. “You get a dreadnought, you get a dreadnought, everybody gets a dreadnought!” Not only are they being given to antagonists left and right, those antagonists are being defeated just moments after receiving them, making this whole arc feel even hastier than usual (a real feat for a series like Back Arrow). We’re just making all of this up as we go along, it seems, but at least that improvised feel leaves room for plenty of fights – the Rekkan Emperor kicked so much ass this week that he must have broken both ankles. Am I crazy, or did he manifest as both an arrow and the bow that fired it during his battle with Tae’s dreadnought? I had to rewind that scene a couple times to double check what I’d just watched, and I still don’t really understand it. Looked pretty cool, though! All the cult/prophecy nonsense about Arrow destroying the world is just background noise, as far as I’m concerned – give me more fights and less story, please.

Continue reading “Spring 2021 Summary – Week 5” →

Super Cub – 03

Wooper: Is it just me, or did this episode feel like the conclusion to a three-part OVA? Koguma’s closing monologue neatly closed the book on her lonely Cub-less life without creating the need for a sequel. It was nicely-written, especially her reflection on how it felt to receive a classmate’s phone number versus a motorcycle license, but there wasn’t much of a “tsuzuku” vibe to it. And yet we know, thanks to the magic of the Internet, that there’s another main character who’ll be introduced at some point during the next two months. I’m looking forward to it, especially since she might be unfamiliar with motorbikes, giving Koguma a chance to pass on what she’s learned to a novice rider. That would be great for her self-esteem, which has grown bit by bit during Super Cub’s first “arc,” but is still miles behind where it could be. She doesn’t have the guts to claim use of the microwave at lunchtime, and she’s still hesitant to call Reiko a friend, even though they eat together every day at school. That timid personality continues to receive good visualization, since Koguma’s movements are slow and deliberate – I just wish the CG bike scenes would ride into the sunset and never return.

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song – 05

Helghast: Is Vivy going to have a different animated OP every week now? That transition from her concert to the opening just hits in such a smooth and delightful way. What is more pressing is the fact that their successful exploits within this timeline have only accelerated the evolution of AI to the point where the coming conflict of the future may be not too far off. The existence of the Metal Float that draws parallels from the Nation of Zero One in the Animatrix is proof of that. It does a good job in presenting itself as a pretty benign and well-intentioned place in serving humanity as shown by the cute little WALL-E robots. The little time that the show spends on them is enough to make me feel bad for what happens in the final minutes. Seeing M’s dream of tending to children being shattered by Vivy was heartbreaking to say the least. I think that seeing Vivy slowly realizing that she must destroy the dreams of other AIs in order to realize her dream of bringing happiness to everyone through her song is such an interesting theme going forth. Just how will the rest of the world react to the island of AIs actually preemptively wiping out the human attackers and what the hell did that virus do? There are so many ways that this can all end and that’s the fun thing about original shows. I just don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Continue reading “Spring 2021 Summary – Week 4” →

Wooper: With the Spring 2021 season now in full swing, we’re watching quite a few shows that aren’t receiving regular coverage, so here’s a column to run them down. High school club shows, sci-fi originals, Taiwanese puppetry – this post has it all, including a blurb from Helghast. If that sounds like your kind of thing, let the blitz of second (and third) impressions commence!

Bakuten – 02

Lenlo: Bakuten had a solid 2nd episode this week. Not only was the production crisp and clean with some great gymnastics shots but the actual character and narrative work was nice too. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before of course but after last season’s 2.43 I’m willing to accept something solid and uncomplicated. The relationship between the main duo is quite nice so far and I look forward to learning whatever family troubles are keeping him from staying after practice. Meanwhile the group dynamic is fun, I like the shared experiences that keep them all together even if they have only known each other for a few days. Hopefully it can stay solid until the end, I would love for one of these seasonal sports shows to not shit the bed.

Bishounen Tanteidan – 02

Mario: Guess I underestimated NisiOisin’s ability to go wild as a writer. When I heard about this case I was preparing for the solution to be something like “the star is within your eyes” – that would make sense since the show makes no secret of admiring the girl’s “beautiful eyes like the stars.” Never in my wildest dreams did I expect the plot to involve military satellites burning up in the sky and all that jazz. NisiOisin is more than capable of twisting the audience’s expectations, at least, but now I am looking more for human drama. One of the main reasons why shows like Monogatari had such a massive impact on me is because they’re first and foremost about their characters’ growth, and so far I see very little of it here. I guess the true test to see whether this show is worth following will be next week when it wraps up this introduction arc.

Continue reading “Spring 2021 Summary – Weeks 2-3” →