Author: SuperWooper

Hoshiai no Sora – 11

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Sports, Hoshiai no Sora

What happened to Hoshiai no Sora? Only a shadow of the remarkable animation it displayed in its first half remains at this point. There are recycled cuts all over this episode, and its general sense of progression reeks of a hurried ending. Half the show’s scripts are saturated with personal and familial drama, while the other half follow the sports anime playbook to the letter. Maki’s dad hasn’t shown his face in six episodes, and its original pay-to-play hook has hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things. At this point, I’m hoping that the cryptic post-credits conversation between Ryouma and his mother will lead to a major development in the finale. The series needs to tie off at least a few of its many unspooled plot threads somehow, and a late-game curveball might be its only chance at a cohesive finish.

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Chihayafuru S3 – 11 [Leaving a Hovering Mist Above the Trees and Grass]

by SuperWooper, posted in Chihayafuru, Finished Series: Sports

So that’s why Harada’s match was omitted last week – Sudo yielded the game before it could even begin. I suppose I ought to be happy that we were given any sort of detail about the East Japan finals, but this “reveal” felt kind of backhanded. Tying Sudo’s concession to his bet with Taichi didn’t affect me the way Chihayafuru desired, because Harada was never the focus of the past few episodes to begin with. If Taichi was indeed instrumental in Harada’s victory, wouldn’t you want to dramatize the moment when he achieved it, even if it proved anticlimactic in the short term?

Ah, forget it. The East/West tournaments are in the past now, and the all-important challenger match is just ahead. This episode was a great stage-setter, in my view, so let’s get into the details.

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Fall 2019 Summary – Week 11

by SuperWooper, posted in Other:, Weekly Summary

Wooper: There are just a couple of these posts left to be published before we proceed to a new decade and a new season. I rebooted this column because Fall 2019’s offerings seemed like a stronger-than-average bunch, but I don’t know if I’ll feel the same about this upcoming winter. I might keep it going, or another writer might take up the mantle, or it might disappear until another bounteous crop of shows surfaces deeper into 2020. That decision is still weeks away, however. For now, here are some thoughts about some presently-airing, rapidly-concluding anime from this fall season.

Assassins Pride 10

Amun: Unexpected show discussion alert! Assassins Pride initially faltered in the low-stakes Hogwarts mini-arc but has picked up steam….and randomly bounced between locations. I think the settings of this show really make it interesting – the characters are okay, but ultimately one dimensional. What I really love is the crater, the candlestick, and now this spooky library. The giant spider fight was underwhelming, but a nice try. The biggest takeaway is how improved future backgrounds will be for anime – freeing up the animators to work on characters, fights, etc. As for this show, I get the feeling there will be a lot of political intrigue, then a rushed finale here in the near future.

Mugen no Juunin: Immortal 11

Wooper: After last week’s ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ approach to conflict between sword schools, episode 11 narrowed the show’s lens to focus on a fight between two men. Neither Magatsu nor Shira can boast Hyakurin’s complexity, but what they lack in charisma and backstory they make up for with stamina. They’ve got sufficient stamina, in fact, to survive the numerous fatal wounds that they inflict on each other, which made the whole battle feel rather implausible. Most people who pass the time by watching a blood-soaked seinen about an immortal swordsman aren’t bothered about realism, though, and neither was I. The episode moves along at a good clip, never spending too long on dialogue-driven pit stops before launching back into the action. The background art was as pretty as ever, especially during Manji’s temporary farewell to Magatsu in the forest near the start. The swordplay looked much nicer than usual, as well – probably the best since Makie’s spotlight near the series’ beginning. I’m sure that manga readers are unhappy with one aspect of this episode or another, but I can find few things to criticize.

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Winter 2020 Season Preview

by SuperWooper, posted in Other:, Seasonal Previews

Lenlo: A new site, a new season, and the first Season Preview on our new domain. Auspicious. Unlike the last season though, which was filled to the brim with sequels, there are surprisingly few this Winter. Though the ones we do have are high profile, such as the 4th season of Haikyuu!! or the third season of Railgun. Not to be outdone, the new adaptations have some up and coming manga such as Runway de Waratte or recently ended classics like Dorohedoro. And none of this is even mentioning the movies such as Made in Abyss’s sequel movie, or the series continuing from last season such as My Hero Academia.

Suffice to say, there’s a lot worth taking a peek at here if you have the time. And if not? Well, that’s why the 5 of us are here. To do our best to give you the scoop on everything anime for Winter 2020. So go ahead, take a look, and if you see anything you like make sure to let us know by voting in the poll below. I can tell you right now, I at least don’t know what I am going to cover yet, so you would help me immensely. Without further ado, in we go.

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What will you be watching from the Winter 2020 season?
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ALREADY AIRED

Plunderer

Studio: GEEKTOYS
Director: Hiroyuki Kanbe
Series composition: Masashi Suzuki
Source: Manga

Amun: Plunderer made the ambitious move of releasing not one, but two episodes early to try and drum up some interest and get ahead of the pack. However…they forgot to make an even halfway decent anime. From the studio that brought you Hensuki, which exceeded the absolute dog-tier (anyone who watched it understands) expectations, comes an absolute travesty of a first episode (I’m not watching the second). The premise is actually decent enough – everyone is counting something of vital importance. When this count hits 0, you go to hell – but the count can also go up, so you try and maximize it to avoid dying. Nice premise, how hard can that be to do right?

Apparently, pretty hard. We have the obvious lecher with a heart of gold (of course) with the naive on-a-quest girl, who also has her number in her inner thigh. Of course. Assisted, invariably, by the H-cup barkeep. Alright. Throw in an obvious small time baddie trying to take advantage of naive girl, when lecher comes and saves the day and is super powered….okay, you know how this goes. The problem isn’t so much we’ve seen it before…it’s that all the wrong lessons were learned from shows like Gintama or…whatever else they were watching (One Piece maybe?). This isn’t self-aware or humorous, it doesn’t even attempt plot foreplay – this episode reminds me of Sacred Beasts from two seasons ago, but at least that had a quarter-way interesting heroine. All this rant to say – this is lukewarm garbage to be avoided.

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Hoshiai no Sora – 09/10

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Sports, Hoshiai no Sora

With these two episodes in the books, Hoshiai no Sora is preparing to enter its final set. There are still half a dozen unresolved plots involving members of the soft tennis club, though, plus the most crucial tennis match of the show thus far is coming up next week. I’ve said this multiple times in the past, but surely *this* must be the point where Sora stops adding abusive parents to the character roster. Director Akane has an axe to grind and that’s fine (except when it isn’t), but at this point it’s going to take a herculean effort to wrangle the events of the last two episodes. The show’s production is in trouble, too, but it’s been fairly well-disguised in my opinion. The staff got away with all the stills in episode 10 by properly setting expectations for the weaker pairs’ performances, plus consistent use of on-screen text to summarize the matches. A much bigger challenge approaches, however, in terms of both animation and scripting.

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Chihayafuru S3 – 10 [Scarlet Kadsuras]

by SuperWooper, posted in Chihayafuru, Finished Series: Sports

Harada-sensei was robbed. I know that he’s not a main character, and I recognize that this tournament has kept Taichi and Arata in view since the beginning. Given that prior focus, it’s only natural that Arata, who made it all the way to the Western qualifier finals, would get the spotlight here. But Harada-sensei is the underdog in all of this! Battling against knee pain and general exhaustion, fighting to prove himself a worthy competitor despite his age, striving for a second shot at the Meijin after losing the title match decades ago – what storyline could possibly be better? Arata is my boy and everything, but the drama of this episode is ultimately the result of his poorly-timed bathroom break.

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Fall 2019 Summary – Week 10

by SuperWooper, posted in Other:, Weekly Summary

Wooper: With the Winter 2020 preview under construction, and piles of anime to cram before AOTY season arrives, it’s sometimes a miracle these blurbs are written at all. Still, fall has been good to us in terms of variety, so it’s only fair that we repay the favor. Here are our weekly thoughts on the shows that didn’t make the blogging rotation.

No Guns Life 9

Amun: NGL had a bit of a quieter week – I’m surprised to see the transition to another arc. I’m assuming this will be the final arc of the cour plus cliffhanger for the eventual second season (I think it’s done pretty well, so I’m hopeful). Necessary new character introductions, bust size joke, and some Juzo trauma for the Beruhumahumahuma executive – all perfectly serviceable as a setup for the big finale.

Kabukichou Sherlock 9

Wooper: I’ve lost my patience with this show. Irene’s abrupt death and Kirisaki Jack’s utterly forgettable appearances aren’t the final straw, but they’re pretty close to it. I know that Irene is very likely alive, and it might not even be Jack under the mask, but the show ought to imbue these sorts of deceptions with more weight. When a Sherlock-themed show ends on a cliffhanger that questions Moriarty’s involvement in Irene Adler’s murder, and it can’t even bring you to care about the answer, that’s when you know the whole thing is a wash. Watson’s whining about his lack of usefulness to Sherlock was pitiful, as well, unless it was some metacommentary on his irrelevance to the plot as as whole. And can somebody explain the purpose of the swoopy-haired detective’s bungling romance subplot? The girl is in it for the money one moment, then making things official the next, and riding him in bed two scenes after that. The only way this show can recover is if she ends up being Kirisaki Jack herself.

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Chihayafuru S3 – 09 [I Recall How My Own Efforts Were in Vain]

by SuperWooper, posted in Chihayafuru, Finished Series: Sports

What’s this? A Chihayafuru post going up the same day that the episode released? Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. I happened to have some spare time today, but more than that, “I Recall” was the rebound that the show needed after recent events, ping-ponging between half a dozen characters in two locations with great results. Years from now, when people look back on the third season, this episode will be seen as a stepping stone on the way to the Meijin and Queen title matches – but it accomplished much more than that. Sure, the matchups for the East and West qualifier finals are now set, but some of the best material here revolved around people who didn’t participate in the tournament. And then there’s Taichi, whose crushing loss in round 3 was given little time to resound, but whose character arc will certainly pivot on this moment.

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Fall 2019 Summary – Week 9

by SuperWooper, posted in Other:, Weekly Summary

Wooper: Even as much of the West plunges into the madness of the holiday season, Japan keeps pumping out the good stuff week after week. Mario and Amun are still high on their favorites of the season, but one of my early frontrunners might not survive as part of this column much longer if it keeps slipping each week. That’s alright, though – our attention will soon shift to season previews, first impressions, and AOTY discussion. For now, though, here are some thoughts on a few seasonal shows we’ve been digging!

Hi Score Girl II 6

Mario: It all comes down to this. After Haruo x Hidaka match, after Oono x Hidaka challenge, it’s fitting that the final showdown between Oono and Haruo is going to end it once and for all. It’s also very fitting that this final match will be a SFII tournament in Osaka, when Haruo won but utterly felt that he didn’t deserve it. It takes witnessing Hidaka hugging Haruo for Oono to strengthen her resolve regarding Haruo, and it takes seeing Oono’s sad expression for Haruo to be honest with his feelings. Despite all the teases, Haruo has a good number of good people who are behind his back, but ultimately it’s between the main players now. The stakes are higher than ever (even without Haruo knowing it, they’re high for him as well). I also really enjoy the way Oono’s sister behaves when she finds out about Oono leaving soon. She’s the most outspoken character of this cast but we can sense a lot of feelings flowing through her at that time: guilt that she dumped all the responsibility on her sister, the sadness on Haruo’s behalf, her own sadness as well. It’s hard not to root for them all (and maybe scream at Oono’s parents for being dickheads. :))

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun 9

Wooper: Ever since Iruma acquired the Ring of Solomon, there’s been a question of how his character could evolve without falling back on its all-powerful magic. This episode answered that question with a training arc dedicated to dodgeball, of all things. Rather than present Iruma with an obstacle that would require a magical solution, it created a clever mythology for “execution cannonball,” a modern version of an archaic contest once held by demons. Even though the game is essentially a human one, Iruma still struggles to master it due to his skill at dodging things. So we watch as he dodges, and dodges, and dodges, then finally catches a ball in his practice sessions – and that’s the majority of the episode. Apart from that fun initial concept, the actual meat of the thing is overcooked and unseasoned. I much prefer this show when it’s in comedy mode, instead of worrying about Iruma’s rank at school, but his conversation with Ameri last week hinted at a shift toward the latter. We’ll see rather the show can achieve a good balance to close out 2019.

Continue reading “Fall 2019 Summary – Week 9” →

Hoshiai no Sora – 08

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Sports, Hoshiai no Sora

The list of unsupportive and abusive parents grows even longer with this episode, as Nao, Mitsue, and Yuta’s mothers join a handful of others in stifling their children’s self-expression. Yuta’s situation is the big one, given both the story and major themes on display this week, but we can start with Nao, as the mystery caller from the previous post-credits scene ends up being his mother. I was expecting the culprit to be either Toma’s mom or Maki’s dad – the former in a misguided attempt to reduce the burden on her son, or the latter as a means of sabotaging Maki’s friendships. Instead, Nao’s mom is a typical achievement chaser, pushing cram school onto her clearly uninterested child and telling him to quit that lousy sports team, already. She’s so locked into her own perspective that she asks her preteen son, “How could a barbecue be any fun when you can’t drink alcohol?”

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