Category: Currently Watching:

Fire Force – 2 [The Heart of a Fire Soldier]

by Amunchet, posted in Currently Watching:, Fire Force

Welcome to Fire Force! I’m your infernal host for the season (and hopefully many more), Amun.

Fire Force kicks off as the highly anticipated sophomore work of Atsushi Ohkubo (known for Soul Eater). The most pressing concern I’ve heard so far is the show couldn’t possibly maintain the level of quality from the first episodes for all 4 cours that are slated. Episode 2 helps extinguish some of those fears, although I can see areas where good direction decisions reduce the amount of animation required. The director is a veteren of the Monogatari series, and some of the decisive cuts remind me of that – in a good way. The scenes pack more punch and probably take substantially less effort to make – a double win in my book.

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Fruits Basket (2019) – 12 [You Look Like You’re Having Fun]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Fruits Basket (2019)

More than any other episode, this week is where Fruits Basket embraces its two opposing spectrums the clearest: it’s reverse-harem hijinks of highschool life and romance and its dark drama about the Zodiac members. By that light, we can be able to see this adaptation’s quality by this episode alone. For example, this 2019 is at its low point when it comes to comedy. With this kind of over-the-top humor the visual presentation (and editing) have to be snappy enough, Fruits Basket the 2019 instead relies static shots. The 2001 version benefits neatly from Akitaro Daichi’s direction (disclaimer: this writer hasn’t actually watched the original Fruits Basket, but he watched Fruits Basket’s cousin Kamisama Hajimemashita directed by the same director), and this current adaptation just doesn’t have the comedic chops to pull off. The result is that all the hijinks of new Zodiac members joining school, and the Student Council members, fall right flat on the floor.

The drama bit works much better in comparison, though. This week we have a proper introduction of Akito, the head of the Souma family and the antagonist of this show if it ever has one. The most interesting bit isn’t the fact that he meets Tohru face-to-face (in which the show smartly underplays it), but his power towards Yuki that makes Yuki trembling with fear. As we learn from the flashback, he had been mentally abused Yuki to the point of submission, and that he always considers Yuki to be his. There’s some nice conflicts for sure that would be a seed for Fruits Basket overarching act, between the dark, toxic force from Akito and the bright, attentive side from Tohru. In fact, Fruits Basket’s writing strength has always been exploring the gap between what on the surface (mostly the Zodiac’s characters), and their hidden feelings and personality behind that mask.

That is to say I expect a hidden, more vulnerable side of this Akito guy as well. It’s obvious from this week that he brings fears, as well as hatred, to many members of the Zodiac, but he too is suffered greatly. For Tohru, she might be simple and forward, but her determination contrasts nicely to the dark force of Akito. Hence, the best moment of this episode is when Tohru instinctively pushes Akito away from Yuki, because she knows that Akito is hurting Yuki. It’s a nice clash between two extremes, and I can’t wait to see more of this conflict. Just remember Fruits Basket, tone down the over-the-top comedy.

Carole & Tuesday – 11 [With or Without You]

by SuperMario, posted in Carole & Tuesday, Currently Watching:

Even with Carole & Tuesday standard, this episode is a letdown with many forced developments to move this predictable story forward. These include 1) Tuesday injures her hand but still manage to perform and win the bracket 2) just right at the moment Tuesday said no one in the family care for her, she gets “kidnapped” by her Mother 3) all the subplots about finding the letter bomber, like come on, we all know from day 1 it was Cybelle. Add to the disappointment, I was expecting Ertergun commenting on Carole & Tuesday performance, which I initially thought will be a decisive factor for the duo’s win. Turns out we just have a brief glance at his comment, not about the performance itself, but about the professional attitude. Alrightttt. Is it just me who isn’t sold about Catherine’s argument when she decides the winner? The song’s lyrics seems to be about Tuesday’s own situation, but hey it doesn’t really connect to the “nervousness” theme that Catherine was talking about; and if she meant by the nervousness from their performance, then I’d argue that they would just accept all the performers with stage-fright as “perfectly captures the nervousness” themselves.

I might sound harsh on this, but it’s also true that Carole & Tuesday has failed to give a proper resolve to many conflicts it raised. The worst aspect is that this injury seems to be one-off, given Tuesday can be able to perform in the upcoming week. One factor I do enjoy in the episode, is that Angela immediately suspects Mama and her manager as the ones behind the scene. Well, the latter feels a bit half-baked but I was enjoying the bit when she confronts her Mama and it turns out that they were referring to different things. It serves as a vessel for Angela to rethink about the people supporting her, especially about the hapless young manager. At the same time, there’s some neat point of representing Cybelle thread as it’s a waking call for Tuesday that she needs to voice her opinions more, and that relationships in general can take a dark turn at any time. But the manner Carole & Tuesday depicts is somewhat underwhelming. It’s too quickly for one thing that doesn’t seem to leave a lasting impact, and it’s clumsy for the other as the show gives some obvious red-herrings before that.

Finally, we have some moments where Carole & Tuesday alone to reflect these things together. The show would benefit much better if they can cut down all these unnecessary subplots in order for the duo’s tender moments like this. Tuesday gives some sad reflection about the place she called home, but again all these quiet moments are sabotaged by the obvious kidnap that is meant to raise the stakes again. Carole & Tuesday writing has always been generic and too accessible, but with this episode it goes a step lower by forcing the plot instead of properly developing it. As a result, it often feels like the titular characters get swept away by random events and they have no real personality at all.

Sarazanmai – 11 [I Want to Connect, so Sarazanmai]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sarazanmai

I must admit that days after watching this finale I still can’t wrap my head around all the events happened in this episode. Sarazanmai ends in a happy tone, something I didn’t expect from Ikuhara to be honest. On the most surface level, it’s a rescue mission from Kazuki and Enta to bring Toi back. Toi has lost all the hope after the death of his brother, and with the influence of Otter, ha’s about to erase his own existence from this life. This finale saves much of its budget in the first half (hey, I have no complain. It’s an artistic choice) by recycling all the events happened before with Toi’s slowly spirited away. Before this finale, I was thinking Sarazanmai would delve into physical desire vs love conflict, but turns out it’s more about existential crisis, about the desire to live in order to make connection, knowing that it will hurt. That might sound abstract but hey, even the Otter mutters that he is a concept (I have a good laugh here because it could apply to all of Ikuhara’s works). This time we have a musical number playing in full, prince Keppi resolves his own issues by literally embracing his dark self, Reo and Mabu come back like a light, and the trio taking shirikodama out of butt for the last time.

If we split this finale in half, there are some interesting parallels interplay between these two. Just as the first half concerns with flashbacks, the latter half brings us to its flash-forwards about possible futures of the trio. These flashforward images aren’t the happy ending though, as we see either they have to face the harsh truth (Toi is in the youth detention for his actions), the disappointment (Enta still can’t express his love) and the pain as well (Kazuki breaks his leg that caused him not to play football again). Keppi sums it nicely with “Hope and despair are both one with life.” Also metaphorically, the two halves have the motifs of these boys diving down the water. The early half is when they face the circle of connection, and the second half is when Toi jumps off the bridge and meets the others there. Well, I said “metaphorical” because it otherwise makes no literal sense to me why Toi jumps.

As a whole, even with me as a hard Ikuhara fan, Sarazaimai’s events sure are hard to pin down and make sense of it all. I enjoy the ending well enough as I think it does wrap up the story nicely, and for me Sarazanmai is a tad bit better than Ikuhara’s previous YuriKuma. I will give this show a rewatch once the year ends to see if the story holds up by then, and this is a kind of show that requires multiple viewings (and reading, too), but as far as this first watch goes I’d safely say that Sarazanmai once again proves Ikuhara as one of the most original anime directors in our lifetime. Full review will come shortly.

Fruits Basket (2019) – 11 [A Really Wonderful Hot Spring]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Fruits Basket (2019)

Fruits Basket gets a bit better this week, though not by a wide margin. This week is a return of Momiji, the most childish character we’ve seen so far in this show (until we learn that he’ll reach high school next year). The White Valentine approaches, and he wants to bring Tohru to the onsen as a thank-you gift. Fruits Basket so far has been, for me, formulaic. Not in a way that it repeats its structure, but more in a way that it uses established tropes for its main events (or is it the one who invited all these tropes? It’s hard to tell but one thing I can say for sure is that it feels dated nonetheless). So a hot-spring/ beach episode would be right in its money. As a whole, I don’t mind this episode as it still provides some solid moments, but I still have that feeling of Fruits Basket padding its material too thin. At this point the trio’s dynamics are pretty much in the balance now, and unless something significant can throw off the balance, they don’t progress as much as they hope to. Drama, after all, is an essential part of character development.

It’s Momiji’s involvement that gives this episode a change of fresh air. While he isn’t the character that I’m particularly fond of (at this moment we just see the childish side of him), his narration regarding the grim story that his class read, remains the best moments of the episode. As per Fruits Basket tradition, one of its strengths is the way it can draw out the emotional tale based on its flashback or story-within-a-story like this one. The content is certainly grim and dark, but it’s the way Momiji reflects on that story that we have a glimpse of his deeper feeling here. It’s not a totally convincing storytelling though, as it OBVIOUSLY allures Yuki and Kyou to Tohru’s current selfless act, but by its own it’s a perfectly fine story that would fit nicely to any Andersen’s sad fairytale classic.

The other nice moment that we don’t see very often, is when Yuki getting loose and laughs at Tohru’s clumsiness. As he remarks “I have never laughed like this even to my parents”, we could see the way his tight upbringing has a profound effect on him, and how with Tohru he becomes much more relaxing and just being himself. That comes with a cost, though, when you think about it, that he will become more emotional dependant on Tohru, and who knows what would happen to him if Tohru’s going away for good. There’s a romance in the air as well as Yuki making a really romantic gesture (that makes our Tohru blushing) before faking it as a joke. Go all the way, dude!

There’s another newcomer to this cast. The frail innkeeper, in a typical Fruits Basket character stock, is a mixture of two extremes. Frail and vulnerable at one moment, aggressive and violent when it comes to Kyou (many characters in Fruits Basket seem to be overtly aggressive towards Kyou alone, huh?). She’s actually a mother of an original Zodiac member, Ritchan the Monkey. I’d say that we will have a proper introduction of this Ritchan pretty soon, probably in the next episode, and I hope that he will be a worthy addition to this ensemble cast.

 

Sarazanmai – 10 [I Want to Connect, but I Can’t]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sarazanmai

The body count keeps rising up in the final stretch of Sarazanmai. With this episode we get to the end of Reo and Mabu’s pair, and it’s certainly a bittersweet experience. As it turns out, we eventually learn that Mabu sacrifices his “desire” to Reo in order to physically stays behind him. So it’s Reo who upsets by Mabu’s change and ruins their relationship. Their star-crossed love certainly touches on many Sarazanmai’s core themes, those being the desire to connect with the one they love but even to their best interest, they’re still failed to reach it. Well, there’s this evil Otter who asserted himself as “desire” and “take whatever form others desire the most” that always want to mess with others, but Mabu’s final confession to Reo, knowing the outcome, that is emotional powerful and closes their relationship in a bitter end. For Sarazanmai, although the term “connection” is shouted by all the characters, Sarazanmai’s philosophy isn’t simply about the ability to connect (although there are plenty of these – take Haruki and his younger brother, for example), but it’s also about the love vs desire, the feeling of love vs physical temptation – and more than our trio, Mabu & Reo relationship is a perfect illustration of that theme.

With the cops’ relationship, while they fully love each other, evil Otter is the one who exploits their desire from each other. What Otter believe is that love and desire can never be in conjunction with each other, and that the desire is some form of sin (to extract love or desire – if you hit “desire”, you’ll turn into kappa zombie). With that I can understand the condition he gave to Mabu: if Mabu wants to stay with Reo, he has to give up love. Sarazanmai further explores that central theme by having the Evil Otter in the form of Reo going on top of Mabu. It’s all the fitting (and bittersweet) that when Mabu decides to embrace his true feelings with Reo, his heart explodes. Although now in retrospect, I would love to know more about the Cops (who we learn used to be kappa themselves), especially in the first half we barely know about them, the show did wrap their tragic story in an emotional note.

At the same time, we get the reveal where that Dark Kappi in cage is our Kappi split in half. While I don’t mind this flow of information, the manner in which Sarazanmai displays, info-dumping us with details we can’t figure out by ourselves, is a tad bit disappointment. I have never been fully invested by the Kappa vs Otter war, and now I have come to believe the show has the same opinions because they are hardly relevant in this final stretch. Otter turns out to be a manifestation of each character’s desire, but where exactly does he born and how many of them?

In a way, I still think that the 1-cour structure fits Sarazanmai’s story neatly, as the show resolves the Mabu-Reo conflict one episode before the finale, which means that the last episode is when the spotlight again squarely focus on our main trio. And what a series of twists and turns in the final moments when Toi shows up to demand the Golden Dish, when Kazuki in on his verge of reviving Enta. The after-credit scene immediately resolves this conflict, but at a price of Toi being exploited by Evil Otter. Toi is broken at the moment, which serves as a perfect victim for Otter. Only 1 episode left, Sarazanmai is on its way for an ultimate roller-coaster ride.

Carole & Tuesday – 10 [River Deep, Mountain High]

by SuperMario, posted in Carole & Tuesday, Currently Watching:

“Do the gravity bounce?”

Once again it’s GGK’s performance becomes my favorite of this week, and Angela’s style still is too mainstream for my taste. With the pacing of this episode I am more certain that this Brightest Mars competition is gonna take up the first half of the series. Things don’t look good for our duo, though, with a string of mishaps that go against their way period to their semi performance, some of them are good, some are cringe-worthy. On the positive side, Etergun becomes this round’s guest judge is an interesting move that I’m eager to see him facing up Carol & Tuesday again. Although I still find it strange that Ertegun still has no idea about the contestants at this point. On the opposite spectrum, Tuesday’s whatever-reason she’s still hang up on Cybelle is stupid, which makes it worse by the way the show intensifies that as the way the duo is “out of sync” (the bit where they’re just barely missed each other in the elevator is just dumb). Then we also have Carole failed give her birthday gift to Tuesday (why? You had all the time in the world since basically you’re living on the same roof now). Then as if the show doesn’t feel these are enough, they make sure to give Carole and Tuesday hell by having Tuesday injured by this bomb present box or whatever the hell it is. Sorry to be grumpy but all these developments are way too half-baked.

As for the performances themselves, Angela changes her song at last minutes (thanks to Tao’s godsend gut feeling) and shows the judge that she has range. I find the bickering between Gus and Angela’s Mama through Roddy is amusing. They sure get along well. At this moment I have no idea how the show handles Cybelle and Tuesday relationship. I hope I am in the wrong but it’s more likely that the one who sent the bomb gift was Cybelle, since she knows about Tuesday’s personal information. If that is the case, the show’s handling of Cybelle character is indeed very shaky. Well, not much else to say in this layer-thin episode beside that with Benito’s head over heels with Pyotr’s performance, I suppose Catherine will pick Carole & Tuesday and that would make Ertegun the one who holds the decisive gun regarding the duo’s fate. We all know the result but let’s see how the show handles all this.

Fruits Basket (2019) – 10 [It’s Valentine’s Day Afterall]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Fruits Basket (2019)

It’s Valentine’s Day for Fruits Basket, although in this episode the actual Valentine isn’t the main focus. It’s another week of “I wish something major happens” for me. At this point, I have come to believe that follow the manga’s structure stall the pacing for me, as the show pads out its material way too thin at this moment. We need new blood or some compelling drama. This isn’t to say this episode doesn’t provide any dramatic reach. Shigure’s complexity has been planted before in previous episodes, but only this week do we see the extent he’s willing to do to reach his goal. For whatever goal that is we’re pretty much left unknowingly. This episode we only aware of his childhood dream, the dream which still pretty much stay inside his adult self and guides him forward, even if it means that he would hurt the ones beside him, especially Tohru. I suspect the seed that he planted is to allow Tohru to stay over Souma’s house, which in turn change fundamentally both Yuki and Kyou. We also know that he harbors hatred towards Akito, probably for the thing he did regarding Hattori. We don’t know much about Akito’s situation but we can see he’s in pain right now, and Shigure’s hatred can come as far as enjoying Akito’s pain. This is some neat material right there.

Another significant action that Shigure did this week is when he challenges Kyou, and as he knowingly put it later on, he “went too far”. There seems to be an underlying reason that Kyou seems to be in conflict Yuki’s rat status, and that might have to do with Kyou’s violent flashback when he got out of control, somehow. There are still many things left unsaid here, and like what Shigure puts, they are merely a ripple on the water at the moment. Kaguya appears to Kyou for a Valentine double date, but surprisingly we get very little out of that date (which for me is for the better). The only detail that we gathered is an action anime they see in theatre, which ironically have more animation than the actual show.

It’s important to note that all the core cast of Fruits Basket have some sad memories about their childhood that perfectly form their personality and their motivation as they are now, which makes for a meaty drama. And I still consider when it comes to executing the drama, Fruits Basket rank amongst the best of its genre. The problem for me right now is that they need to move on from the status quo, and put our main cast into more conflicts. As of now if they all stay in balance, they have a tendency to become tropey (Tohru is the worst offender), so let’s hope that Fruits Basket will head to some meaty material soon.

Carole & Tuesday – 09 [Dancing Queen]

by SuperMario, posted in Carole & Tuesday, Currently Watching:

Episode 09 of Carole & Tuesday is essentially Brightest Mars part 2, as we spend an entire episode to the bottom half of the bracket. This is where I wish the staff spends that much attention to details to its writing, rather than music writing, because all the songs played in this episode are featured in full performances, and good ones on top of that. Angela’s performance, unfortunately, is amongst my least favorite one. It screams “Top 40” material for me. At many turns, I could see the show set itself up for some surprise payoff: like it could go the opposite way to make Cybelle the winner, for instance; or how Cybelle’s obsession can affect Tuesday in a more significant way, but they’re not the case at all. Instead, the whole thing plays out rather predictably, with Angela proves herself to be more “serious” in her music than the judges initially thought. But the issue with that is that, as we the audiences follow Angela right where she switches career, there’s little development from here to indicate that she’s actually serious about music at all. On a similar note, I was expecting the AI judge to comment about her music (as her music is monitored by the AI freak composer), but turned out he didn’t leave any comment at all. I believe he’ll be more critical later on but for now he works as comedic relief at best.

Otherwise, we have a rather fun episode of the remaining contestants showing their fangs. Hilarious and misguided in similar measure, the Mermaid plays a song consists entirely of swear words. Imagine what would have been to listen to this song with censored version: all we hear will be an uninterrupted beep. They say that this song says who they are, a gender-ambiguous state, but for me it’s more like their attitude towards the rest. But the tune is charming nonetheless. At the risk of taking these characters lightly (I do think the show is guilty of that), there’s still a fine craft to the songwriting there. The same can be said for GGK (I believe she’s based from real life FKA Twigs) and Cybelle’s songs, which have mysterious air, dreamy and exactly my kind of songs. In a perfect world, Cybelle’s performance would beat Angela’s at any time.

There are some hints towards other development Carole & Tuesday might tackle in the future. Earlier when we hear about Carole’s mother press, she mentioned the fact that the Earth has cast a shadow upon Mars (or so my sub implies). I don’t even know what she means but if it were a life-changing event, this thread might be tangled with Carole & Tuesday in the future (remember the “8 miniutes that changed Mars” bit). It’s also worth noting that Tao is noticing our girls’ talents, more as he notices the non-AI sound from our duo, which will add as a fuel for more rivalry between them and Angela. Gut and Angela’s Mama has some nice bounce off as managers from each side, but they again play more for laugh. Lastly, I like the way Cybelle controls over Tuesday, which makes a nice point that Tuesday has to voice up her own opinion, even if that’s a rejection. The factor that left me unsatisfied, however, is that this conflict is resolved way too quickly and slightly that it feels underwritten and awkward.

Sarazanmai – 09 [I Want to Connect, But I Can’t Express It]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sarazanmai

Well, I definitely didn’t see all this coming. Sarazanmai comes back in a big way, at least for me, now that every plot thread starts to go in the same direction. We have Kazuki, Toi and Leo are all losing someone dear to them and trying to get a Dish of Hope so they can revive that person. Before I get into the details, I consider both the prologue and epilogue this week as Sarazanmai’s highlights, as each segment showcases different side of this show that tell you a lot about its identity. The prologue is the most playful (read: bizarre) segment except maybe for “getting the shards out of zombie’s butt” part, where Sara slips the freeze-Kappi out to the street and he literally gets broken in pieces. It’s bizarre and it’s wonderful. The epilogue goes in opposite direction and serves as Sarazanmai’s most tender moments. Not only the sad piano tune does its job, the use of montage the constantly swifts between their memory together and their current situation pretty much brings the emotions forward.

The rest of the episode is no slouch either. While I’m one of those who lament the fact that Ikuhara’s ambition is too great for a 1-cour series, one of the strength of having only 11 episodes is that the plot is much tighter and has more purpose than his longer series. This week, for example, not only one, but three characters, are having someone close slipping away from them, although it’s hard for me to draw more parallel regarding their relationships. While Reo & Mabu and Toi & Chikai relationships go in dark places, the way Kazuki feels about Enta is in totally different light. It would make much more sense if Entai was the one saving Kazuki. By no mean, what I just said meant to be a criticism, more like an observation, given Kazuki is a MAIN main character. With Enta is in his (death)bed, it’s time for him to re-examine how much Enta meant to him and comes to learn Enta’s affection. At the same time, Keppi is revived (or more like, reanimated) and he also revives Enta (in a way) in his kappa form, although the clock is literally ticking here. Kazuki also has a chance to truly talks to his brother for the first time. Those are nice developments, albeit predictable moves to get Kazuki into the centre of conflicts.

Because the other threads aren’t that straight-forward. I must say that even now I don’t really buy the Otter vs Kappa war and I’m glad that it isn’t really the focus of Sarazanmai. In fact, this episode gives some reasons for me to care about Mabu and Reo. Reo has been struggling with the feeling he has for  the new Mabu (love or desire), one who has similar appearances yet behaves like a stranger. But the interesting twist happens when the red-eye otter intimating himself as Reo to suck out the “desire” from Mabu. The fake-Reo inserts that he’s the “desire” inside Reo, more as an implication that Reo’s love for Mabu is all about desire and obsession. The other interesting angle is that Reo keeps rejecting the current-Mabu. What if it wasn’t Mabu but Reo’s own perspective change? In any case this thread weaves tightly the the “connection” theme and to the main overarching narrative. And speaking of that, the fact that both Otter King and Keppi have the same red eyes strike me as odd. Maybe they are more similar than you would think.

Lastly, the title of this week could apply to any character in Sazaranmai, but it fits best to Chikai. The one big lesson we learn this week about him: he’s an bad egg all the way and he’s incapable of loving someone, save maybe for Toi. It’s this dark and tormented relationship between Toi and Chikai is where Sarazanmai shines the brightest. From Chikai’s point of view, he knows that he’s using Toi, but he does it anyway. “You’re a little too good to be my little brother!” pretty much sums up their chemistry. Toi is desperately following him around and even protecting him, while it becomes clearer and clearer that Toi is walking down the dark path. Sarazanmai raises a red flag right there where Chikai shoots his subordinate to cover his track. Would he do the same to Toi, when Toi is not needed anymore? Maybe. While the flashback and his final remark “Connection is just a pain” and his cash might appear that he was intended to get out for good with Toi, his resentful delivery tells me otherwise. For Chikai, only the bad survives and my take is that with Toi’s unshaken devotion to him, it’s only a matter of time before he self-destructs and kills Toi instead. That’s all beside the point now, though. With the final Dish of Hope that served as the new MacGuffin, the last two episodes are going to be thrilling, and I would expect – unpredictable.