Author: SuperWooper

Hoshiai no Sora – 12 (End)

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

Let’s start with the elephant in the room, shall we?

Not long after Hoshiai no Sora’s final episode aired, director Kazuki Akane took to Twitter and broke the news that the show had been planned for 24 episodes. That order was reduced to 12 this spring, two years into the show’s production, and rather than restructure the story to fit the new one cour length, Akane decided to keep the story intact and air only its first half. If you’ve seen the final episode, you know that the show ends without a proper resolution for its dozen-plus plot threads, so this decision undoubtedly did some damage on the narrative side of things. With the production having advanced to the animation stage before learning of the slashed episode count, though, it might have been the only option available.

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Chihayafuru S3 – 12 [So the Flower Petals…]

by SuperWooper, posted in Chihayafuru, Finished Series: Sports

I thought about delaying this post until next week, as there won’t be a new episode on New Year’s Eve, but my 2019 anime backlog is reaching avalanche-like proportions already, so it can’t be delayed any longer. Neither can the Meijin and Queen qualifiers, which are finally underway after last week’s very good table-setting episode. “So the Flower Petals” wasn’t as memorable as that earlier installment, in my opinion, but it does restore one element that the show has been missing for a while: intensity in its karuta matches. Chihayafuru has been keeping the spotlight off Harada-sensei recently, but he’s finally barreled onto center stage, giving us a clearer look at his tenacious playstyle – and I’m quite happy about it.

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Fall 2019 Summary – Week 12

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: I’m all on my lonesome, it seems. We’ve got just two blurbs for this week’s post, both written by yours truly. The holidays are a busy time, after all, and – wait, does this mean my life is the emptiest of all the Star Crossed writers? On that uplifting note, here are a few thoughts on some anime I watched over the past week.

Mugen no Juunin: Immortal 12

This episode felt like a greatest hits compilation to me. How much time was supposed to have passed between the beginning, when Rin encountered Kagehisa, and the end, when they parted ways? It’s very difficult to tell, because each phase of the story was represented by a single scene. Their conversation in the cave near the beginning passed too quickly to quell her vengeful intentions, so the mere fact that they traveled together afterwards felt wrong. If the show had given their partnership another two or three scenes to establish itself, I’d have been okay with it.

Midway through the episode, Rin helped him fend off a band of assassins, and later pleaded with Manji to kill another group of Kagehisa’s pursuers. The overall direction that this takes her character is consistent with what we’ve seen in the past; despite Rin’s anger at the death of her family and her hatred of the man who orchestrated it, the vein of compassion running through her is similarly deep. The issue isn’t the road taken by this episode, then, but the speed at which it traveled. Kagehisa’s illness came on far too quickly, and the appearance of Manji, Magatsu and Makie during the lakeside battle was so sudden that it felt nearly surreal. Of all Immortal’s jam-packed installments thus far, this was the hardest for me to swallow.

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun 12

Looks like we’re on to the next phase of the story: choosing an after-school club. They’re called “Battlers” in the netherworld, and many of them have their eyes on Iruma after his recent dodgeball exploits. Since he’s courted by a handful of club presidents, and countless others are handing out flyers and doing recruitment drives, we get a good look at what sort of extracurricular activities there are to choose from in this version of hell. That’s a fine way to elaborate on your setting, but I feel as though the series missed an opportunity here. At this point, we know that choosing your club has a big impact on your ability to rank up, but we don’t get a sense of what Battler life looks like on a day-to-day basis. The latter is probably more important to Iruma than the former, given the value he places on friendship (as well as his cautious nature). I wish the episode had spent half of its time popping its head into various clubs, then settled on one to really explore during the second portion. It’s a minor quibble, but it did gnaw at me during and after the show this week.

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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