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Here’s another Taiso Samurai outing where the script sidelines Jotaro, who seems to be the main character in name only. Last week it was all about Leo and Rei, and this time we’re focusing on Tetsuo and… the NHK Cup broadcasters? I’d have said “the other competitors,” but they’re so lacking in presence, both in screen time and personality, that they hardly factor into my memory of the episode. Given the upcoming Chinese training camp plot, this new crop of gymnasts are certain to recur – even if they’d been created merely to get steamrolled by Tetsuo, though, they ought to have been given decent designs. Without a reason to remember them, it’ll be tough to generate interest in any Japanese gymnasts apart from Jotaro or Tetsuo going forward.

Continue reading “Taiso Samurai – 05 [Battling 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.

Continue reading “Taiso Samurai – 04 [Samurai Daughter]” →

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.

Continue reading “Taiso Samurai – 03 [Dueling Samurai]” →

I may have jumped the gun on this one, y’all. Taiso Samurai’s first episode was so strange that I couldn’t help but root for it, but the second one’s weirdness was of a less fun variety. Personally, I’d take ‘rooftop chase scene between wannabe ninja and three secret agents’ over ‘transgender acupuncturist chews scenery’ any day of the week. Jotaro’s hastily conceived training menus were kind of funny here, and the introduction of a temporary antagonist in Tetsuo might give the show a little spark next week, but I bought very little of what this episode was selling. (There’s one exception to my disappointment, but we’ll get to that in a bit.) I signed up to blog this on an episodic basis, but unless it can wow me again before we reach, say, mid-November, there’s a better than decent chance it’ll end up dropped.

Continue reading “Taiso Samurai – 02 [Rock-Bottom Samurai]” →