Fall 2019 Summary – Week 6

Wooper: I have good news and bad news, everyone. The bad news is that there won’t be a Weekly Summary next Monday. The good news is that our quarterly State of the Season post will be taking its place for one week only, packed with takes of all temperatures on the fall’s anime offerings. We hope you’ll be entertained by our divergent opinions and questionable tastes. In this week’s post: Mario drops a commenter favorite, amun continues to insist on the greatness of NGL, and Wooper assumes Immortal duty.

Hi Score Girl II 1-3

Mario: Hi Score Girl is back and it picks up right away. It’s a neat trick to start the season from Oono’s perspective, for example, since she’s a stoic character who doesn’t mutter a single word (how funny that she also participate in vulgar shiritori with her sister and Haru’s mom), and because the rest of these three episodes focus more on Haru – Hidaka dynamic. Out of the three mains, Hidaka remains the most sympathetic character, mostly because she is true with her emotions and the sad situation she’s in (the cursed third wheel). Her emotional progress towards Haru is believable, and her push towards Haru through physical means just signifies how desperate she is now. At the same time, there’s plenty of arcade games and its cultures throughout these episodes. There’s an original-content bit that I feel is well done as it strengthens the charms of this coming-of-age show. Haru’s taking part of Shibuya crowd is a bit to rush, though, given we see very little of how he spends time with them. All in all, Hi Score Girl is back in full force.

 

Kabukichou Sherlock 5

Wooper: I was waiting for this episode. Ever since we learned that Kabukichou features five detectives apart from Sherlock, I’ve been wondering when we’d get a case where he’s not at the center of things. Turns out it happened relatively early in the show’s run, as Sherlock didn’t make an appearance until the 11 minute mark here. Lucy is the primary investigator instead, and even though the title character solves the case of the swindled sumo wrestler before she does, she’s the one to confront the criminal, who also happens to be her former idol. That’s an important detail, because it makes the episode more personal for her. There’s a flashback to her early childhood (which is marked by tragedy and abandonment), and we also get the story of the future thief who saved her sister upon their arrival in East Shinjuku. It’s the first real showcase for any non-Sherlock character, and given how early it arrived in the series’ two cour run, it’s unlikely to be the last.

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Fall 2019 Summary – Week 5

Wooper: The gang’s all here this week. Mario has returned from Isekai Hell with a couple impressions of shows he’s still watching, and our resident shounen expert Amun has an update on an overlooked sequel from this season, plus some thoughts on NGL. Lenlo and I are up to our usual tricks, as well. We’ll be publishing our second ever State of the Season column in a couple weeks’ time, so this post should provide some big hints as to what we’ll be highlighting in mid-November. Until then, thanks for reading!

Ore wo Suki nano wa Omae dake ka yo 4-5

Mario: I’m still on the fence with this one. Episode 4 was its weakest week so far, mostly because it plays exactly like what we expect. While the show so far still offers some minor tweaks to its genre here and there (as bold as pointing out stuff like: I’m like a protagonist of a romcom), the very fact that it’s there to poke fun makes the characters inconsistent for me. The library girl suffers from this the most as for the last two episodes she doesn’t drive the story at all, instead she’s just there, and our Main-kun switches between being an asshole and still acting genuinely nice to his friends. More additions to the cast are welcomed but when they’re there for the sole purpose of interacting with Main-kun, they better be unpredictable.

 

Radiant S2 5

Amun: Surprise sequel: we’re checking back in on our boy Seth and his search for Radiant. Despite the new city, Radiant still keeps things in check and the plot tidy so far. This latest episode also had one of the best confrontation scenes I’ve seen in a while – if you watched the first season and are on the fence about this one: Seth getting schooled by Mellie is definitely worth these 5 episodes so far. We have really only one new character introduced, and that’s more than fair given the number of ones we’ve left behind. So far, aside from past emotional trauma and abandonment issues, Seth’s interactions with the Magical Knights have kept the show from getting too heavy. We’re getting towards revealing some mysteries, so Radiant has me still hooked.

Continue reading “Fall 2019 Summary – Week 5”

Fall 2019 Summary – Week 4

Wooper: The weekly recap is back, packed with impressions of worthwhile shows that we weren’t able to blog due to a severe case of sequelitis. I say “we,” but it’s just Lenlo and I running things this time around. Mario recently burned himself out by watching Literally Everything, and I stepped in to blab about No Guns Life in amun’s stead this week. They might be back next time, or they might not! Until then, we hope you enjoy these scattered thoughts of some of the season’s better offerings.

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun 4

Wooper: This episode delivered on the feeling of fun that I want from Iruma-kun. Clara (the green-haired genki girl) received a double feature last week, which was okay, but the show halted its exploration of demon society to give her that spotlight. This time, Iruma is assigned to a class full of misfits boasting nearly a dozen named characters, each of whom have a quirk that gives the classroom scenes an absurd sense of possibility. The biggest addition, both literally and figuratively, is Sabnock, a hulking man whose only aspiration is to become the Demon King. Thus the show kills two birds with one stone: we get a fun macho personality added to the cast, and we hear from him about the process of climbing hell’s military ladder. Clara’s character was also put to wonderful comedic use in the background, whether she was measuring Sabnock’s height with a yardstick, getting eaten by carnivorous plants, or checking out a flight course with magically conjured binoculars. Telling a single story per episode is definitely my preferred format for this series, rather than splitting it into two halves like last week – everything feels fresher and funnier without the need to juggle two distinct plots.

 

Mugen no Juunin: Immortal 4

Lenlo: Blade did another weird thing this week. As it took some of Makie’s backstory, which was in the 200 pages of cut content, and put it are the front of this weeks. Choosing to use that instead to build up our Antagonist’s relationship with his grandfather, which itself got sped through. Sure, the pacing of the episode itself was fine enough, but the overall story is just burning through content. Rearranging it to fit each individual episode, without much regard for what it does to the overall story. Surprising no one, adapting 30 Manga Volumes into a 2 cour season is not a good idea. That said, I still enjoyed bits of it. I like Kagehisa and his world view, though I wish Blade was giving us more time and exposure to it instead of this chunks torn from the manga. It’s also nice to see our lead getting called out for effectively abandoning her style. And even though she is getting some training from Manji, it still isn’t enough. My major complaint though, production aside, will continue to be the overarching pacing.

Continue reading “Fall 2019 Summary – Week 4”

Fall 2019 Summary – Weeks 2-3

Wooper: Setting aside the three sequels that have yet to air (two of which we’ll be blogging), the fall season is in full swing. We’re giving regular coverage to a lot of continuations and sequels at the moment, so we’re bringing back the Weekly Summary feature as a way of broadcasting our brief thoughts about everything else. Some of these series will show up here every week; others may appear in some posts and not in others. The unlucky ones may be dropped, never to be mentioned on Star Crossed again. Which series will still be standing come the end of December? Keep checking back to find out!

Mugen no Juunin: Immortal 3

Lenlo: I have to say, Immortal really stepped it up this week. This was really good. From the fights to the direction to the new character, I think it nailed them all. Sure the animation was rather limited at times, but they really did their best with what they had and I think it worked. I loved the progression of 2 plots side by side with Maki. The odd sort of parallels between the two, her growth, and the actual defeat of Manji. The continued use of flower imagery, and our leads budding relationship with Manji. I sort of wish I had blogged it for my full length posts right now, but boy would that be a lot of work. As is, I will have to settle for some surface level praise about how good this week was. That said, still worried about pacing. This one episode was like… 200 pages of manga content. That’s almost an entire volume, in a single episode. There is no way all the episodes will work as well as this and I can’t imagine how much was skipped over.

 

No Guns Life 2

Amun: Alright, so NGL’s second episode wasn’t quite as hype as episode 1. And you know what, that’s 100% okay. What we got instead of the bikini battle was a good guy (girl actually) introduction, bad guy introduction, and a bit of worldbuilding. And apparently these cigarettes are a major plotpoint, can’t forget those. One of the things that I am absolutely respecting the ever living gunsmoke out of, is how they’re making their MC an actual bad, bad…gunhead. Lots of shows try to do a tough guy (I’m even looking at you Trigun) and tend to make a mockery of it. NGL, so far, has actually made a real wiseguy. The other respectable point here is a villian actually acting (semi) intelligently – buying up all the cigarettes was a nice move. NGL enters their third week with the hype train still going strong – unlike the one that ole’ Revolver head just broke.
 
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Winter 2019 Summary – Week 9-10

Another two weeks have passed, and Summer Season is coming in sight. It’s the time where most shows get busy as they reach their final arc. Mob Psycho 100 ventures into its shounen roots,  Run with the Wind does extremely well in its last leg, literally, and Kemurikusa girls part way emotionally. Let’s see how these 4 shows below perform in this last 2 weeks.

Gotoubun no Hanayome (ep09-10)

While this class trip provides many more opportunities for Futaro encounters (and improves) his relationship to the sisters, in a bigger scheme I’d prefer if there’s no overarching arc at all for Gotoubon. The fun here for me is how he tries to get closer and helps them in some ways, not about how he has to choose “the one”. I still enjoy it though how he find himself in the damnedest situation: either dance with Ichiba (and the whole Miku’s mess) or pretends to be a delinquent boy to dance with best girl Nino. The whole Nino and blonde dude situation is admittedly silly, but one that I don’t mind. This show has never shy away from rom-com tropes, and fan-service on top of it, but it’s the case where the creator knows exactly where it’s going. As a result, it’s mostly well-executed and the situations are snappy enough to land before another jokes come in. While I still regard the first half of Gotoubon is better (learning about the girls are so much fun), let’s hope this dance – which by itself will be a focal point of this cour – ends on a high note.

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Winter 2019 Summary – Week 6-8

Again, sorry for my lack of coverage for this column, but doing these weekly summaries make me realize more clearly than ever how quickly time passes. Feel just like yesterday that we just started this season, and now it has come way past midway point. Anime this season offers a wide range of offerings. Mob Psycho 100 had many stunning episodes, Boogiepop keeps up with its unpredictability by releasing a whole batch of 4 episodes. I’m slightly disappointed at Promised Neverland, however, as it somehow becomes less and less thrilling as the story goes on. The 4 other shows that I will feature below, still have their own appeal that keep me come back every week. The next season might be an heavyweight, but I’m perfectly happy with the current wealth this season has been offering.

Endro! (ep06-08)

Endro spends the last three episodes to flesh out the characters outside of their heroes’ group, to a varying degree of success. First, loli Devil Lord is my waifu of the season so it’s a delight to see more of her, cute facial expressions (and there are heaps of it) and whatnot. It’s a good little episode since it shows how much she steers away from her supposed evil role, and learning to accept companionship even if her friends are the ones destined to destroy her. I do have a feeling that the Devil Lord vs the Heroes fight is too repeated at this point, but everything else is a delight. The same could be said for Princess, whose assigned role is to love Yuusha unconditionally and she pushes it to the max. I enjoy how she getting close to other members because those scenes, as repeated and predictable as they tend to be, spark a solid chemistry between her and each member. That is why the latest episode fares as its worst effort. Staggering a rescue mission is nice and all, but her plan becomes a bit too much in my opinion. There’s still some solid gags (like how the faked Demon Lord’s underclassmen are more powerful than the actual one). This is the show where it constantly pokes fun at the “roles” everyone supposed to play, so the segment where they play exactly like their roles doesn’t really speak well to me.

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Winter 2019 Summary – Week 4-5

We are reaching towards midway of this season where shows start to settle down and we have a firm ideas of which shows we wanna follow till the end. As for me, I decided to skip both Asuka and Domestic Girlfriend for now. I’m still mildly curious about then, but in the season where I find other 10 shows have much more to offer, “mildly curious” ain’t gonna make it. For this last two weeks, Mob Psycho 100 delivered one of the best piece of sakuga action in years, Kasuga-sama had its first meh episode, Run with the Win continues to deliver and I’ve heard good things from Dororo (which I still need to catch up). In fact, only my blogged shows remain in a quiet side of the conversation. They have their own appeal but they’re niched, to put it nicely. For the 4 shows remained here, I must say I enjoy them thoroughly. It’s such a nice set of shows that for the first time since several seasons I’d anticipate all them right after its airings. Now without saying too much let’s get run them down:

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari (ep04-05)

Damn it, Shield Hero. It raises many head-scratching issues but it still manages to hold my attention and investment. For every touching moment of Raphtalia standing up for Naofumi we have to endure awful treatments from basically everyone against him. For all plot building of her becoming free from slaves (which is actually good) the next thing we know we have her binding the slave contract again. For all the chemistry between the fast-runner chicken and Naofumi we have the twist of it transforming into a loli naked girl. Why, Shield Hero? WHY? I was perfectly fine with the chicken being just an eccentric chicken. I was perfectly fine with him NOT gathering a harem team. And yet I’m still down to follow it. I know the only reason to explain all that is that I like trashy shows.

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Winter 2019 Summary – Week 3

We get to the third week of this Winter season where I will cut down some slacks and settle in with the ones I pick. In general, this season has been a solid one for me. Mob Psycho 100 in particular hasn’t had any bad episode yet, Kaguya-sama keeps sharpening its claws, and even something nobody care for like Rinshi Edoka-chan still delivers with grace (the only reason I don’t include Edoka-chan here is because it’s only 3-minute short, WHAT CAN YOU SAY OF A 3 MINUTE SHORT EVERY WEEK?). Anyways, read on to see which shows that still make the cut for the rest of the season.

Domestic na Kanojo (ep02-03)


Curiosity got a better of me and I checked out Domestic for my own dose of suffering. Needless to say, I’m still on the fence whether I’m going to watch it or drop it. There’s a clear set of what I enjoy in the show and what it falters. In a positive spectrum, the situation the older sister Hina finds herself in is frighteningly real and weighty. Having an affair with married person is messy, as in the three-way central romance, and what she’s suffering through is grounded and believable. In addition, I found Rui and Natsuo’s chemistry to be solid so far, as both have the same concerns towards their sister’s affair. On the opposite spectrum, the comedy bits are distracting and most often the time they feel awkward. Natsuo’s best mate is the worst offender as at no point I feel he belongs to this story or even feel like real person. Natsuo’s behavior can be grating at times and I know it will get worse as the story gets messier.

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Winter 2019 Summary – Week 2

Welcome to the new weekly section where I will cover current season’s shows that I’m still following that haven’t been blogged by us, the leftovers so to speak. That way readers who watch these shows below can keep tabs on how we feel about them. At the moments aside from the top tiers shows we blogged, there are 7 other shows in which I will drop 2 in the next week depending how they perform. Ideally this post will be at the beginning of the week. Without further ado, let’s jump in

Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue. (ep02)

Doukyonin is a healing show. Well, it’s a different kind of healing show where the two lonely individuals try their best effort to understand each other. It offers you a specific kind of mood and the second episode is a worthy follow-up to its premiere. Structure-wise, it follows the same pattern as the first where we at first follow the writer’s point of view before switching back to the cat. What makes it enjoyable is that the show nails its tone from start to finish. I enjoy the little gags of everyone keeps asking Subaru about his cat’s name and what makes this episode work so well is how the cat thinks totally differently from what we assume (Haru means food, simple as that), yet in the larger picture it just fits. Doukyonin is sweet and pleasant.

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