Category: Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

3-gatsu no Lion – 05 [Agreement – Over the Cuckoo’s Nest]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

In a typically 3-gatsu no Lion fashion, the first chapter “Agreement” starts in the show’s most comfort zone: flashbacks inside Rei’s head. When you really think about the overall structure of this chapter, you can see that it’s the busiest chapter so far of the show. They begin with Rei’s memory on the father’s best friend (soon to be his adoptive father), continue with the current day detailing Rei picking up Momo, then dig deep into his thoughts again reflecting the day that his adoptive father decided to bring him home. Those three parts are masterful reflected his very journey to eventually end up in the household of Kouda family; with little happiness and a lot of sadness. And that theme is exactly what made this chapter one of the most complex chapter this show ever put on.

The first part of this first chapter is a memory of Rei towards his adoptive father, Kouda, as his father’s best friend and long-time shogi rivalry. Kouda, along with his own father, were in the Association together when they were young. The Japan Shogi Association has a society where all the players under 24 years old trained to become professionals and basically the only way to become to a shogi pro. Those who can’t achieve 4-dan by the time of that age will be automatically discarded. He’s the only one outside of his real family who would treat him with respect, so he was always looking to play shogi with him. There’s a brief but happy moments for Rei, as he enjoys himself playing shogi, something that later in his life becoming more like a “contract”, more like a thorn among the roses.

Later, when he picks up Momo from school and tends the wounds for her, her little helpless arm reminds him a lot of his deceased little sister. That must be one of the sadness, darkness period for Rei when suddenly, all the people that were once important for him were gone forever, and he was too young to fully understand that they will never come back, nor did him know about the situations surrounding him. Then his father’s rival came, asked him if he really loved shogi, and he lied. With Rei, he was never passionate about shogi, he just did it to please his father(s) and moreover he just happened to be very good at this. His accepting to live with Kouda family really reflect the complexity of Rei’s character. He knew that it was a chance for him to not end up in the orphanage, so he took that chance and as far as he is now, he achieved what his adoptive father expected of him. Could anyone blame him for that?

Unfortunately, there were still someone who blamed Rei for what he did, as we witness later on the next chapter, Over the Cuckoo’s nest. Those were the children of Kouda’s family, Kyouko the sister and Ayumu, about his age. In a family with a strong and proud tradition of shogi, the children know that they had to be good a shogi in order to catch their father’s attention. You might think of that as an exaggeration but believe me when I say that in a sports or art’s family, this happen more often than you would think. The family spends their entire time to work on the sports/ arts they loved and they eventually have their standards that they want their children to follow, and sometimes to the child those standards set by their parents become their institutions. Things started to fall apart within the Kouda family when Rei was better at shogi than the two. Kyouko begin to lash out her temper at Rei, while the little brother holed himself up in his room playing video games. Now we know the person that harassed Rei in his memory from last week was Kyouko (but they seem to be older in that flashback). Having a very strict personality himself, the fallout of his own kids doesn’t mean that he had anything against Rei, as he continued to support Rei (the strongest shall survive), but that very attitude made Rei feel guilty towards the two so he decided to move out. When your own success results at an expense of others, how could he be happy with that? The symbols of cuckoo’s life appropriately reflect his situations, and towards his feeling to his adoptive father, he’s still very much respect the man and in his own way care about him.

As I said before, the show is at its strongest when it digs deeper to Rei’s sad past and further reflects his inner emotions as he is now and eventually learn to express and live a happy life through the help of the sisters and his friends. While his past is indeed heavy, this episode never cheapens his emotions by showcase how miserable his life was, but by detailing how he was able to continue to climb up and progress despite things might turn out ugly at times. 3-gatsu no Lion remains a very solid show.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 05 [Miraculous Harmony]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sound! Euphonium 2

What a bravura piece of performance! Usually if a show wants to showcase how good a music performance is, they’d go for cheap tactics like fast cuts, over-the-top sparkling effects, key still frames, and drawing reactions from audiences. Not with KyoAni. They’re confident enough, and of course talented enough, to play out the entire piece and let that speaks for themselves about the quality. This is easily the highlights of this season so far and will be the one that fans will keep coming back to.

But the first half by no mean is no duds either. By following Kumiko and the band go through a day leading up to the Kansai Competition, the show again excels in showing many subtle moments and development that blink and you might miss it entirely. First, Taki announces to the band that his friends’ duty has ended, which for me was quite sudden because I still don’t know what their real roles are in the whole picture. I think the reason they are presented is to support and shed more lights to Taki’s character, but they actually didn’t do much except being either an info-dumper, or an obvious setup for Reina to get fired-up nonsensically. I hope they’ll be back soon as I still don’t see the show used them to their full potential. While on the train, Hazuki (who sadly was under-developed this season) gives a really light but on-point touch on what she is thinking the upcoming tournament. Being one of a few who isn’t qualified enough, it’s understandable that she sometimes feels like she was left behind by her friends. But being Hazuki, obviously she’s sad, but she isn’t the one who’d disheartened by that. Instead, she vows to work hard to get her place for next year, and encouraging her friends to make it to the Nationals so that would inspire her is a really nice characterization by the show. Aiming to the Nationals not only mean a whole lot for the competitive members, but for the rest of the team as well.

When Kumiko got back home that afternoon, she receives a phone call from her middle school friend, Azusa (who briefly appeared in the first season). Her school Rikka High School will compete in the morning, moreover she asked Kumiko to not to speak with her that day. That again is a nice touch from Sound Eupho because the show keeps adding more perspectives from other cast, making more layers to the story. I totally agree with Azusa here, they might be ‘best friends forever’ but on that one day they’re competitors (I love how Kumiko keeps picking up her toes), and like Kumiko later said the amount of time and efforts all of them put in to practice for that one day affects pretty much everyone in the band, so “no one can think straight now” isn’t an overstatement at all.

I have to give it up for Yuuko for again being shine in her brief moments. She basically acts like herself this episode but the moment feels truly earned. Although qualifying to the Nationals is their goals, the team (especially the third-year students) knows that it’s a hard goal to reach. In addition, for the third-year students, this might be their last performance so they sometimes feel like they’re at the end of the road. This sentiment is echoed by Kaori this week as she tells Yuuko to keep looking after then band or Asuka last season when she said that the fun of practicing is about to conclude when the competition ends. But Yuuko points out correctly that their journey isn’t going to be done yet, let’s try and reach the Nationals together. In other notes, while Sound Eupho never really a show that is strong in terms of comedy, this episode has its absurd moments. Upon hearing Yoroizuka saying that the she will play a solo piece for Nozomi (which still doesn’t sound right for me either), Reina asks Kumiko if she can play the solo part for her. I know Reina isn’t the one who is easily affected by other people so this is really more like the show poking fun on the very notion of playing the piece for someone else. In fact, the very last moments of the episode when Yoroizuka expresses that she’s happy with the competition sadly is the weakest part in otherwise flawless episode for me, as I see for much of her struggle, she comes out as too clean a cut, the drama of her last episode pretty much resolved everything that I don’t feel her grow is natural at all.

But this first half’s best moments come directly from the speech of Asuka. As this show has many times addressed this issues, while Asuka isn’t the president of the club, she has a leader traits and clearly everyone sees her as more influential figure than Haruka the president. This time, she speaks up for the whole band and for once, she lets herself loose and being direct in front of everyone. She wants to try to reach to the Nationals. I noticed the brief exchanges between her and Kumiko during the performance and at this moments I’m not really sure what those exchanges supposed to be. The very nature of concert band is teamwork as everyone contribute their parts to form a collective whole, but for those from the same sections sometimes it means they have to fight each other for the roles. This will put our main Kumiko in an interesting position as Asuka and she both playing Euphonium. I reckon Asuka and Kumiko relationship is going to be the main focus for the latter half of this season, which I will totally be on board.

And now to that wonderful second half performance, it’s just simply mesmerizing. KyoAni always has been very consistent when it comes to the production values, but even with their standard the performance is still a standout. I noticed they used some footages from the previous performance last seasons, but overall the whole performance flows magnificently. Some might say it’s not fair to just focus on the band’s performance so we don’t know how good other bands are, but that’s essentially the point here. When the announcement starts, we’re rooting for them not because how incredible their performance was, but because we have witnessed how hard they tried to produce that piece of music so the results are satisfying because we know they deserved it. And you deserved it too, KyoAni.

3-gatsu no Lion – 04 [Hina – Buiesu]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

Seems like overalls it’s not a good week for my anime blogging, as all the shows that I’m covering haven’t fared very well this week. Not that they are disasters but all the shows veer off from their greatest strength to a more mediocre approach. For Sound Eupho they went for big climatic drama instead of their focus on dense little moments. For Flip Flappers they abandoned their wild Pure Illusion world for a more mundane and aimless plot, and for 3-gatsu no Lion they passed on their intimate look on real characters for… well… cartoonish characters. 3-gatsu no Lion is at its strongest when the show concentrates on Rei’s inner emotions and how the characters around him in a way change his very perception to be more open and honest to himself. Sadly this episode has little of those moments and instead relies on exaggerated silly moments which simply isn’t as engaging.

As soon as I knew the next chapter was going to focus on Hina, I was actually looking for this since Hina is my favorite character out of the three sisters. But boy, they decide to fall on the usual pitfall of portraying preteen middle school girl: through romance and first crush. Takahashi is the tall boy, baseball-ace from her school and she makes up her mind to cook a bento for him. Takahashi is almost an object of affection from the outside looking in, literally; as Rei stands from outside the field looking into the boy. Hina wants to make the most perfect bento out there, and the whole plan goes as everyone would expect: failed miserably. It’s fun to see her struggling with making foods, each time goes more and more horribly wrong and completely running out of time. But when it’s time for her to give the bento, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

While so far this chapter stumbles a bit because it ticks all the cliché teen romance plot, at least the chapter ends in a solid note. The ending works because the show still understands its character very well. It explores the insecurity of Hina, something fairly normal for someone her age: about her shyness got the better of her, about feeling vulnerable compared to the “near-perfect” sister. There is a huge age difference between the three sisters, but that makes sense in this context because the three sisters represent different stages of women’s life (I know, I know I might be obsessed with women’s issues but please bear with me this time). This theme becomes apparent here as Hina’s efforts remind Akari of her own, years ago and I believe although they’re different in term of personality, this is a phase that they all had to go through. Furthermore, this chapter ends with the most brilliant execution in this episode, as the voice-over switched gently from Rei to Akari. Up until now, we always follow Rei’s train of thoughts so it’s a nice change to hear other characters say what they’re thinking, and Akari sincere voice really gives of a warm and sweet feeling (unlike the first love) that the chapter wanted to achieve.

On the second half, things got real noisy for Rei as Harunobu came to his house unannounced to practice shogi with him. I certainly like him as a character, since last week the show gives more light to his character, but he also turns me off whenever he’s in that loud and hyperactive mode. Sadly the first half of this chapter was full of this and only when the duo meet the three sisters, things get more interesting. It turns out that he’s getting along well with kids, which actually is unsurprising because he himself still acts like a kid. I like the way the show makes references that obviously inspired by real-life counterparts. Well, others might say Bodoro is a blatant rip-off to Totoro, for me I say that this Bodoro has his own charms. Then it’s Akari who has a weird fetish: she likes everything soft and fluffy and has a affection for Harunobu considering his… ahem… body. Now, that actually becomes an issue. Like I mentioned last week I think the best strength 3-gatsu no Lion has is those characters feel like real people. This episode making their quirks so cartoonish (no, I’ll rephrase: so anime-ish) that they don’t feel like actual people anymore. I know maybe this problem comes from me so if the show still goes with these cartoonish traits then I’ll have to re-evaluate my own judgement.

Overall, besides being the show’s most unremarkable episode yet, I find some of the jokes actually landed well, like all the parts involving “some other people’s kids” or the last scene with Harunobu’s butler Hanaoka and I still think Shaft adapting the show quite effectively so far. There is a lack of Rei’s inner voice this week which actually hurts the show a bit, but we got one brief scene when he’s mentioning ‘love’ and it seems like he was in some kind of abuse with a girl before. This week is just a slightly misstep so I’m not worry too much. 3-gatsu no Lion is still a strong show and I can’t wait to spend more time with them next week.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 04 [Awakening Oboe]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sound! Euphonium 2

This week Sound Eupho goes full-blown drama, exploring the struggles from Yoroizuka towards Nozomi. As a result, this episode is the show’s most emotional resonance, but at the same time is the show’s most straight-forwards in terms of plot. What you see is what you get, but the drama is resolved so well that I’m pretty happy with how all this played out.

It’s interesting to note that for how much the show set up this little drama, the conflict reaches its peak from something completely incidental, at first glance. Nozomi, upon hearing about Yoroizuka’s oboe criticism, decides to see her… to say hi, that’s enough to swell Yoroizuka’s emotions up and explode like a torrential rain. This turn of events might seem a bit randomly at first, but take a closer look and you can see their situation has been in a crumble ground that it’s a matter of time for that relationship to collapse on themselves. Before going to Yoroizuka’s point of view, let me raise this: people might think that Nozomi doesn’t really consider Yoroizuka as her friend because after she quit, they cut off their communication, which is something a close friend wouldn’t have done. Yeah, Nozomi might be a bit insensitive but truthfully, she did all that because that’s who she is. Who would blame her for that? She said that she didn’t tell Yoroizuka she quit because she didn’t want to drag her friend into the whole mess, which for me is fair enough.

In fact, it’s Yoroizuka who had a problem and the show highlights her issues quite effectively. Since Nozomi left the band without telling her, she felt left out. Nozomi had always been a precious friend to her, being the one who introduced her to play instrument. Yoroizuka fears that facing Nozomi again, she’d be rejected and that feeling keep boiling up inside her to the point that she gets sick just from listening to Nozomi’s sound. That is indeed scary when one’s too dependent on their relationship to others. For around a year she has been playing music for Nozomi and therefore overlooked Yuuko’s friendship and her enjoyment to the band. The visual alone conveys many feelings by the way they frame the characters, like how the show underlines Yoroizuka’s fragile emotions by displays her shutting herself up, literally, under the desk; or when Yuuko tears fall into her face (sharing the pain) and later when Yuuko literally knocks some sense out of her and raising her up to the bright sunlight. The drama sure is overloaded but the visual language is still as sensitive as ever. I have to give Yuuko an extra praise since this season she’s growing to be a very carefully constructed character (despite being very unlikable in first season) and I’m glad that she and Natsuki returning to tease one another again.

But the last five minutes of the show, right after the drama ended is when Sound Eupho returns to its dense storytelling. Asuka again proved to be a genius in pointing out the worst in people by commenting that Yoroizuka’s obsession to Nozomi is due to the fear of being alone, and afterwards making friend with Yuuko as an insurance, to which Kumiko completely disagrees. Asuka has been the most complex character of the series and the scariest thing about her is even when she’s putting up a front, she always makes sense. I doubt that her decision not to allow Nozomi back to the band is only because of Yoroizuka (well, mostly but hardly the only reasons). What she says might not be what she truly feels and I love to see how the show manages to crack into her true personality. Overall, while I think going for heightened drama is not the strongest suit (that would be the show’s emphasis on little moments) and the conflict was resolved a bit too quickly for my taste, it’s still a very well-executed episode. At least now we can move on to the Kansai competition and it’s time to give more spotlights to other members of the cast. Give me more Reina please!!

3-gatsu no Lion – 03 [Harunobu – Beyond the Night Sky]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

Another week, another touching little stories from Rei and his friends. Still follow the same structure as previous 2 weeks, we have the first half of Rei competing against Harunobu, his lifelong rivalry (or so that guy thought), and the remaining half of Rei visiting the three sisters on the last day of Obon festival. Unlike last week where we had the first segment to illustrate Rei’s ordinary professional shogi life, this week’s first section actually has a bit of context behind it. Actually, we have A LOT of context here. We have a whole flashback on the very first time they played together as a kid, narrated by the older Rei now that feel wholeheartedly personal. While the last episode framed Harunobu as a noisy and a bit annoying kid, this week shed a lot of new lights into his characters. He was, and still is, never a match for Rei’s shogi skills, but his determination to fight till the very end is something that feels resonant to Rei. I like how the show keeps cutting back to the flying balloons, and Shaft keeps focus on liquid-dropping motifs (be it big tears that like in manga, sweating, or bubbles on cold drink). The show successfully parallels that kid’s match with the current match in order to show us that the determination, the pure joy of facing off each other would never change, and will continue to be for the rest of their careers. It then turns out that Harunobu has been ill and in the hospital since he was a kid, that adds depth to this characters now that we realize his enthusiasm is not something that easily gained, considering his sickness.

When Rei meets up with the sisters that night, it’s a last day of the Obon festival. On that day, they bid farewell to the deceased ancestors and hope they will be safe in the afterlife. From the look of it I guess the sister’s grandma and mother had been passed away for 2,3 years. Long enough to not overly depressed by it and can carry on the ritual like usual, but soon enough to still feel sad and melancholy. For Rei, he lost his parents from way too long that he eventually shut his emotion off and forget about them in order to carry on. Now I see the connection between him and the sisters and why the sisters treat him like their family. Losing parental figures sure is tough and they eventually share the same pains of losing someone closed to them. But it becomes a habit that when we’re together, we smile and keep looking ahead, and hold that grief feeling to ourselves. That’s why Hinata walks off to the bridge and then outbursts hold so much emotions. She’s always an emotional honest character and carry the weight that burdened on her shoulder is too much for her. At least she can cry her heart out and that is something Rei needs to learn too.

After each viewing, I eventually check out the manga up to where the show had covered to see how closely the adaptation is, and for that Shaft has been followed quite faithfully to the source material. There are many important scenes that they actually adapted literally frame-by-frame from the manga. I previously said that I enjoy the Shaft’s editing for this series, and this episode again show their strengths towards editing: not that smooth editing but quick, sharp cuts to the motifs of the shows: last few weeks we have water bubbling and this week we have quick cuts to the flying balloons or the sun. In addition, there are some Shaft-ness moments that basically remind us this is Shaft’s products. Yes, we have some head tilts and I love to see some Nozomu-sensei imitations here but ultimately, they do it just about enough, without distracting the story. The sound design also deserves a special mention that feel lively, and that soaring scores really bring out the sadness and sorrow without again never really stand out. Great stuffs. Overall, Shaft have been given this show an excellent treatment.

But if I have to compare the manga and the show right now, I feel the manga fare better for me, which is strange because I consider Shaft adapting the manga quite effectively. So why is that? For me, the manga achieves something really simple but direct and honest, and that’s freaking hard to do. Take a scene where Akari explains about the cucumber and eggplant as the “horses” to bring the ancestors to their former homes and backs; while in the anime it feels like she’s giving information for us to process, in the manga I actually feel the sadness behind the talk. Chica Umino is ultimately a character’s writer, as opposed to say Gen Urobochi who famously known for his theme-ridden story and his world-building, or Mari Okada for her heightened drama (I don’t know why I bring up those two honestly, they aren’t even mangaka. Must be Freudian slip). Well, when a mangaka includes the character’s name into the chapters it means that those characters are her privilege and she really cares about her characters. Those characters were given more depth with such honesty that it never feels forced or calculated. I have gotten to the stage where I don’t pretty much care about great plots, shows with deep meaning or profound theme, all I care is characters that feel like real people that I feel invested to, and to witness how they grow overtime. I can safely say that 3-gatsu no Lion achieves that, and that alone is good enough for me to keep recommending this show.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 03 [Troubled Nocturnes]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sound! Euphonium 2

This week, we follow an almost 24 hours of Kumiko practicing music, Kumiko interacting with other members, Kumiko having a sleepless night in a band camp, and that’s basically it. In a very Sound Eupho’s way of storytelling, there seems to be not much going on, but this episode actually lays a lot of groundworks for the future drama of this season. This is essentially a set-up episode, but boy; does the execution shine through that make me completely hooked.

First, let me talk about Kumiko as a protagonist first. The show tells the story squarely through the point of view of Kumiko. It literally means that she appears in almost every moment of the show. We follow her every step, we see what she sees, we hear what she thinks. It’s actually a huge burden on her character, because if she’s not interesting enough, we will have a hard time getting on with her behaviors and thus could potentially bring the show down. Moreover, unlike most main characters in that situation who usually drive the plot themselves, Kumiko is passive. She was dragged to join the musical band, and then got swept away by the enthusiasm of the band. She’s even insensitive with the feeling from her surrounding, like she flat out rejected Shuichi (her childhood friend who also plays on the band), or never seems to comprehend Reina’s thoughts. Yet I believe she carries her roles very well. She has that cynical side of her, and her flat delivery (kudos to the voice actress here) both reflects really well her personality, and somehow adds charm to her character. She’s not a perfect person and that precisely why she’s believable in a way actual people behave.

Most of the drama this episode heads towards Yoroizuka’s issues (an emotionless girl). Although everyone agrees that her oboe skills are excellent, she can’t express herself very well. That problem echoed her confessions to Kuniko last week: that she doesn’t know why she keep competing, even though she’s clearly not enjoy playing anymore. In addition, when Kumiko confronts the always-scary Asuna, it is then revealed that the main reason Asuna refused Nozomi from coming back was because of Yoroizuka. She gets sick when hearing Nozomi’s sound and she can’t seem to operate when Nozomi is around. I suspect this was because of Nozomi’s very promise (to win a competition in high school) that put Yoroizuka in a trance, but I’m sure we’ll know the answer in next episodes. The message here is clear: Yoroizuka needs to open herself up in front of Nozomi, that coming event will both decide if Nozomi gonna be back to the band, and Yoroizuka’s solo performances issues. Neat tricks, Sound Eupho! Suddenly everything tied up to a neat package.

Upon seeing Niiyama (the female instructor) together with Taki-sensei, Reina, feeling insecure, couldn’t stop herself to ask for their relationship. This is for me the only clumsy part in this episode, as it feels very forced the way Reina stormed through everything to ask Taki about his affairs. Again, Kumiko is the one who get the real info dump: Taki had been married but his wife passed away sometimes ago. Taki almost gave up on music after that, but eventually he decided to teach music in this high school. Remember last week when he mentioned with a smile that he has no family right now so he spends most of his times for works? This competition training is a way for him to get his head out of his trauma. That’s a good character’s development and I’m amused to see how the show develops this little drama to its full extend. But please don’t make Reina confessing her affection to him. I just dislike it if the show goes to that path.

From last season, the question of pushing the band into competitive level has been addressed many times (pushing the band into competitive level means that those who play music just for pleasure will be left out. Hard but true), in this season again those questions become a central theme: Is competition fair at all? Do the players really enjoy competition? Kumiko receives different opinions from her peers, they are after all depend on each player’s perspectives. Yoroizuka explains that competition is to unfair, because all the hard works are being judged by something intangible: gold; silver; bronze; ranking, and playing competition is a pain for her. Later, when she asks Yuko (a girl who adored Kaori) that very same questions, she argues that trying to become better is worth more than doing nothing (like last year’s drama), but the competition assigns superiority (I like how she described it!) means that most of the time the end results justify the mean. Lastly, Reina says that she likes competitions and only winners get to say that judging music using ranking is worthless, because if losers say that they are nothing more than, well, sore losers. Those arguments all make sense and I’m glad that the show goes that far to explore different angles from the girls. This is a very solid Sound Eupho episode because they successfully plant all the drama seeds for this season, now let wait and see for all those seeds to blossom.

Orange Review – 73/100

by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Orange, Reviews by SuperMario

What would you do if you receive letters from your future-self saying that you can change your future? That’s exactly what Naho experienced as she obtains ones from herself 10 years later that urge her to look after her new friend and prevent him from committing suicide. The premise, I agree, is hardly anything groundbreaking, but it functions well as a romantic drama anime. And orange is exactly that: a romantic drama anime. We have tons of romance developing between the leads Naho and Kakeru, and even more time focusing on the depression of Kakeru and the group’s attempt to save him.

The very central theme of orange is the sense of regret. Kakeru always feels regrets over his mother suicides, blaming himself for what happened and the thought of continue to live on proved to be too much for him. Moreover, it’s the adult counterpart that hold that same sense of regrets and griefs towards what they could do in the past for Kakeru. If they were more attentive, they could’ve realized his inner struggles. If they helped him out when he needed the most, chances were, he could’ve survived. Should’ve known better. It’s that regret sense that carry the weight in Naho’s, and eventually Suwa’s and the rest of the group’s actions and make their efforts feel grounded and genuine.

But that’s not to say that their efforts were executed flawlessly. The show’s at its best when the group confronts Kakeru to say out loud his issues, to really share his troubles to his dear friends. Kakeru always puts up a mask in order to cover his troubles, mostly because he believes he could drag the group down, and partly because he fears that he’d be rejected. By making him to be honest to himself, he knows that he can rely on his friends and that’s what save him in this new timeline. But orange feels forced whenever the group tries to recreate a perfect happy time for Kakeru; be it their fireworks night, his birthday, their relay match. Although those moments come from good intention, I can’t help but feel uneasy the way the group manipulates the outcomes so that little Kakeru always feel happy. Is it fair for the guy to receive too much without give anything away? Is that selfless love that you protect your loved ones from being hurt really the best possible outcomes? Hell, NO.

Although Kakeru and Naho share some good romantic moments together, it is Suwa who become the show’s best character. He’s in a complex situation since he decides to support the leads all the way, despite his own feeling for Naho. Sound cliché I know, but what make his character works is that Suwa is an observant, sensitive and highly emotional intelligent than the rest of the group. On the other end of the spectrum, Ueda is really a bad-written character. Orange clearly doesn’t think too highly of her, so the show frames her in a biased and negative light, it’s sad because whenever she appears on screen, she becomes a sore thumb to an otherwise solid cast. The rest of the cast share a natural, lively and effortless chemistry, but they are not the deepest bunch of characters you will ever witness. In fact, in the second half, the amount of time spent on the group trying to help Kakeru overwhelms their own character’s development.

In terms of production values, orange remains a very strange shoujo adaptation. The show has an above-standard quality in terms of direction. The director Hiroshi Hamasaki (who most famous for his Steins;Gate) elevates the show by his sensitive directing, which many scenes convey smartly the emotions the show want to make. The show, on the other hand, was done on a shoestring budget, as a result in a middle part the production values took a huge downfall, the characters are often off-model and those insignificant parts are treated equally messy and off-putting to the point that it brings the whole production down. This is a shame because this is a kind of budget that orange doesn’t deserve to have.

Despite a huge leap in quality, orange at least ends in high note, as the conclusion successfully ties up loose end and gives up a satisfying emotional ride. With the main theme about trying your best in order to have none regrets, it’s more about the ride, how to get there rather than the results, yet I have a feeling that orange focuses too much on the outcomes. To say all that, the ending was executed fairly well that I’ll complain no more. Overall, despite the huge decline in terms of production values in the middle part, and some thematic issues, orange is what it is- a solid entry of shoujo romance drama anime. Anyone who expect more from it will end up being disappointed.

3-gatsu no Lion – 02 [Akari – Beyond the Bridge]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

I’ve read some wonderful articles about Akiyuki Shinbo’s role at Shaft and let me lay this out for you. Anime fans seem to love/hate him for all the wrong reasons. Because his name always pop up in almost Shaft’s shows, together with Shaft’s very distinctive styles (to put it very mildly), anime viewers have often mistaken him as being a sole lead director of Shaft. Well, far from it. If you really take notice, more often than not in Shaft shows there are two directors: Shinbo and someone else. Usually that someone else is the main director, and Shinbo, well, if I can put his role more accurately, he’s more like an artistic supervisor than an actual director. Since he took his role in Shaft back in 2004, his main roles have been tutoring the young staffs to bring their own visual styles, and ensuring that every Shaft’s shows are consistently weird. After all, being distinctively and consistently weird means that they have a brand. Shaft’s brand. All that lead to two things. First, Shinbo has always been a director, but in that sense, he has directed Shaft the studio than really directed any Shaft’s show. Second, he didn’t solely direct any shows because he couldn’t; considering all his commitments. Prior to the airing of 3-gatsu no Lion, I originally thought the show’s going to be his first sole effort in director chair, but then I checked again and apparently Kenjirou Okada is a co-director. So, that means they repeat the circle again. Well, c’est la vie.

Now on to the actual episode itself, it seems like 3-gatsu no Lion formula is one half of Rei and his shogi life, and the other half about him having great time with the sisters. Contrast to last week’s lack-of-dialogue first half when we followed Rei gets on the train to compete with his adoptive father, this first half is loud and sometimes silly with many eccentric shogi players. Those characters might lighten up the screen a bit, but they are far from the show’s best moments. Actually, I think it is intentional to introduce those high-energy shogi players. They are here to contrast with Rei’s loneliness, almost emptied living space and as a result they kind of spark a little life into the guy. Judging from that I think those parts work as a whole but there are still some tonal imbalances between this first half and the rest. We were witnessed to the real shogi match and while I have no idea about shogi, the show did a great job of NOT creating any tension towards this match, but instead show the match as Rei’s professional everyday life. The reason why this guy Issa wanted to win so badly is conveyed very well and that shed a new light into his character. That’s what I love about this show’s writing. Through little moments or little details that we gather, we can understand more about their personalities. Many of those characters already feel like human.

The shogi senpais drag Kei to Misaki bar where Akari works and this is where the two parts connected. From last week we already know that Akari helps her grandpa to set up shop in the morning, now we get to learn her day job. Akari looks just gorgeous here but her natural gestures towards Kei and her friendly attitudes towards the senpais make her really feel like a different person. Through her story we get to know that the first time Akari met Kei, he was drunk and was dumped by the other upperclassmen. Rei’s now living alone all by himself so that makes him an easy target for those guys to play around with him. At least things could’ve been worse I suppose. If there is one thing that I really like about Shaft’s adaptation to this manga, it is their editing. They are not smooth per se but each cut they make, they highlight very well the theme of the show. The motif of water bubbling, ice bubbling, and papers flying up all represent his isolations and the feeling he hide inside that keep boiling over the surface.

In the second part, Rei joins the three sisters preparing for the Obon festival. It is a Japanese 3-days custom to remember the ancestors of one’s family because it is believed that on those 3 days the spirits of them will revisit their former households. This custom of course fit very well with the show. We learned that Rei’s parents passed away, so did the three sisters’ mother ad grandma (I’m not sure about the father though). The Obon festival, without saying, is the one event that they want to forget. Rei did forget about the time right after his parents deceased, and I totally understand that. At those time he felt like he’s floating (which again match up with the motif), saw the world around him in black and white (kudos to Shaft’s visual art style again), and felt lost. Those three sisters are something reminiscent of the family he would’ve have.

For now, just two episodes, the show already establishes a solid fundamental emotional core. 3-gatsu no Lion maintains its very confident pacing. Shaft’s aesthetic visual styles actually strengthen the show right now, reinforce the emotions without become too distracting. The show follows slowly to the manga (2 episodes for 4 chapters? This will be a long ride indeed). I know so far the show’s not perfect, but there’s no denying that just in 2 episodes, 3-gatsu no Lion is already a poignant little beast.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 02 [Hesitation Flute]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sound! Euphonium 2

It certainly is weird to cover the second season of a show that wasn’t originally covered here, but I do it anyway because the last season was among my favorite anime out of 2015 (not in my top 5 though). For anyone who will sigh when you heard the words ”KyoAni” and “musical band” together, no, this isn’t another K-On. While K-On focuses more about the band’s members having fun time together, Sound Euphonium takes musical seriously (too seriously!) and explore the huge band members interacting to each other. Contrary to the usual complains about things happen really slowly in Sound Euphonium, I consider it a very dense show. The show might feel slow in terms of plot, but they are rich in character’s interactions, in little character’s movements and in terms of the whole production values. Everything is gorgeous to look at and there are many things that you could take out of just by seeing those characters conversing. This is KyoAni at their most confident and while I don’t consider this show their best works (the top 2 of course are Haruhi and Clannad), the show certainly comes at their near-best, and this doesn’t come lightly considering my long affection for KyoAni.

The second season picks up right when the first one finished. Having won the qualifying tournament, the band aims to reach the National stage. But the drama between the senior class that happened one year ago that resulted in most of them quit (and which we always heard of but never know what exactly happened) keeps bubbling up the surface. Nozomi is among the most noticeable player to quit. She was the president among the group of Minami Middle School concert band. When she getting to high school however, the upperclassmen basically ignored practices and new members that bring frustration to them and cause a big stir between the members. Now, when the band is getting much better and preparing to compete in National stage, Nozomi wants to come back. It doesn’t go well though as Asuka flat-out declines. Our Kumiko has a chance to talk to Nozomi and she now decides to discuss with Asuka about that.

Last week, we were treated with a double-length first episode and I consider it one of the best episode in Sound Euphonium (along with one of the best first episode this season). The great productions and great cast are all there, but moreover they approach the story with confident pacing, to the point that 45 minutes long feels like 15-minutes episode. The second episode though, we were witnessed the usual pitfall for slice-of-life school settings show: a pool/beach episode. As much as I still love the interactions of the cast, and there were some great conversations between Kumiko and Nozomi, I could’ve prefer much better if the setting were someplace else. As far as I concern the cast goes to pool don’t add much to the plot, except knowing the fact that Reina’s chest is still growing because her swimsuit is tight. This was by far not a very good Sound Euphonium moments.

But thank god, aside from the pool settings, everything else rocks. This is the show that enjoys its little moments more than a bombastic over-the-top climax. There are so much of that little moments that really convey the mood of the scene. Take for example, when Nozomi and Kumiko talking about how she quit last year; her sad, melancholic tone was contrasted by the activities of young kids taking showers: pure, fun and innocent. When Nozomi burst out and cries, her teardrops were symbolized by the waterdrop in her cold-drink can. Or in later scenes when Kumiko meets Yoroizuka at night, her question towards her senpai: “why are you continuing with the band (even when you’re hurting)” was echoed by her senpai’s rhythm games pause-screen that asked her to quit or to continue the game. Those are smart and very sensitive storytelling right there that you don’t need to say out loud to make the audience understand it, instead they feel it. This is the best strength of Sound Euphonium. Next week we will have a fiercely confrontation between Kumiko and Asuka so I know we will have a good time. Sound Euphonium’s so far looking confident and strong.

orange – 13 (end)

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Orange

We come to an end of orange’s ride. After teasing us for a whole season whether or not history repeats itself, they decide to go with a happy ending route. While I’m not entirely happy with orange as a whole, this double-length final episode succeeds on closing the story in high note. At the very least I’m glad these kids turn out to be alright.

But first let me lay out some issues I have with orange. First, orange decides to jump from the new year eve events to the valentine day, and it doesn’t ring well for me. Orange has always been about progression, be it how far Naho and the group would go to save Kakeru, or about Kakeru’s fight for his inner struggles. Making that time jump kind of defeat that purpose. You could argue that it will end up being the same: Naho struggles, Kakeru ignores the rest, the group tries best to help; but I want to see those conflicts. Another problem I see is the double-length, and for that I blame the series composition staff. The story stretches out too thin in the middle part (we spend an entire episode on Naho’s hangover after Kakeru dated Ueda for example; or the sport events that eat up nearly 2 episodes), and now they have to rush things over for the final episode. I feel no time was wasted on this week’s episode, but the first half could easily be in last week, so we’d have more time for the final climax.

Ueda reappears for the last time, but the show still frames her in a very bias, negative light. It’s hard to care for a character when the creators clearly don’t give a damn about her. That is for me orange at its worst. Ueda is a throwaway role, she will always be a pretty stuck-up bitch that everyone in orange hates, and thus the creators persuade us to hate her too. For a show that relies heavily on characters and their interactions, she ultimately becomes a sore thumb in an otherwise endearing cast.

On Valentine day, Naho desperately wants to give him her chocolate, but finds herself to be consistently pushed away by Kakeru. At long last, she finally confronts him and he tells her what he truly feels. It’s good to see Naho finally cracks the wall Kakeru created all by her sincere efforts. But there’s one thing that I don’t take it very well. She thought that it was her own fault for being insensitive in New Year Eve that things become awkward between the two. When she blames herself for something she clearly isn’t responsible for, it makes me really think if this relationship is healthy. Imagine when they really being together; she’d constantly blame herself or struggles to make Kakeru happy. I’m not sure if Kakeru could make her happy, but I know for a fact that if he keeps his attitude like that he’d never make her happy. Setting up romance when he’s clearly not ready for it is not a good move by a long shot.

Which lead us to the final climax, when the group literally try to save Kakeru the day after the Valentine. This time I pretty much appreciate the sequence through Kakeru’s point of view last week, because we already know how his mom’s unsent message could potentially affect him, thus we understand what are at stake here. The main different in action between Kakeru in his previous timeline and Kakeru now is how important those friends are with him now (well, that and the broken bike). That thought “What would they feel if I die” pretty much sums up the change in Kakeru’s character arc. At least now he has something to live for.

Moreover, he receives the letters from their friends’ older self and I personally think this is the most effective payoff orange pull off narratively. This story is all about regrets, and the only people who still having regrets are their adult counterpart. In their world Kakeru had long gone and there is nothing they could do to change that. That is why their letters to the living Kakeru bring out the most emotional honest orange could ever have achieved. All those heartwarming moments of course is conveyed through a sensitive direction and on-par production values. I agree with most of this episode artistic choice (from using random passerby to highlight the distance between Kakeru and Naho in the beginning, or the only windy sounds during the ‘car crash’) and the production actually gives orange the quality it deserves to have. Everything looks just gorgeous here. If only they could deliver every episode like that.

Now to those who don’t know, there was an announcement that orange will have a theatrical film that will come out at the end of this year. It is a retelling of sort from a perspective of Suwa. While I’m not really that excited to check out the film, I think the sequel could potentially be better than the series. Both because Suwa’s role in this whole affair is more complex than others, but also he’s the most mature and the most observant out of the group. Naho and Kakeru always stuck in their own thoughts that they rarely look around and notice those around them. Suwa aware of all that, and that quality makes him a rather interesting protagonist. Well, I will save my thoughts on orange’s overall quality in the final review, but at least we have this last episode: one of the most effective ending we could ever hope for in orange.