Category: Weekly Summary

Bakuten – 5-7

Lenlo: Alright I have a lot to cover and only a paragraph to do it in so lets make this fast! Right off the bat I really liked the horror-style directing of episode 5. It took what was essentially a bottle episode, relationship filler, and did something interesting with its presentation. Of course we will only see if this episode was worth it or not later down the line when these relationships get put to the test. Charging forward we come to episode 6! More than anything else this episode was a show of what Bakuten’s CGI can do and it wasn’t bad. It looked the worst during the performance oddly enough, with the harsh lighting really making them stand out. But the interesting and dynamic camera angles along with the full body movements kept it visually engaging enough that I think I’m going to call that a passing grade for now. Overall though the CGI is definitely wavering. Finally episode 7, backstory! This was nice, it was satisfying to see all the dominoes come together and finally get a complete picture. I can’t say I care for the teacher that much but he’s at least a character now, so points for that. All in all I think these 3 episodes weren’t half bad! Bakuten is silent but solid this season. Not making any great waves but steadily holding course, consistent with its quality. That’s refreshing!

Also the manager is still cute. Shoulda submitted her for the State of the Season, damn.

Back Arrow – 19-20

Wooper: I have nothing nice to say about these episodes or Back Arrow in general. It’s thicker than ever with pseudoscientific dialogue, asphyxiating plotting, and screechy voice acting. Even Zetsu and Rudolph, the show’s two reliably fun characters, have gone from unpredictable forces of chaos to mere mouthpieces for writer Kazuki Nakashima’s half-formed thoughts on God. I won’t be mentioning this show ever again (though I’ll marathon the last four episodes when I’m in a self-flagellating mood).

Continue reading “Spring 2021 Summary – Weeks 7-8” →

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song – 07

Helghast: After the mayhem of the Metal Float, this week honestly felt like a Carole and Tuesday episode with Vivy getting a hard reset back into Diva and getting back to the musical side of things with a special insert OP. I do like her personality change as it’s overall less stiff than her previous version. She feels a lot more human with her confidence and expressions of a veteren songstress looking to make it big beyond the main stage of Nialand. It even extends to her willingness to throw herself off the building in order to get more information when the AI cube of Matsumoto makes his return in an almost reluctant way. While the first half of Vivy had setpieces keep getting bigger and bigger with falling skyscrapers, falling space stations and an AI island gone crazy, the twist of Ophelia’s future sucide doesn’t seem to have that WOW factor but I’m sure the author has several surprises for the viewers to lose their minds over. I can think of why an AI might end their existence due to the fact that they have failed their mission. While this may or may not be the case with Ophelia, Diva has proven that such a thing is possible at the conclusion of the Metal Float mission. Having her come to terms with it when she regains her memories and seeing how that will play into preventing her AI younger sister’s sucide will be moving at say the least.

Continue reading “Spring 2021 Summary – Week 6” →

Mars Red – 04/05

Lenlo: God Mars Red is just so… aggressively mediocre. About once per episode it will have a good, focused moment of vampiric humanity. Of immortals interacting and living in a mortal society. And then the rest of the episode is just mediocre political subplots, vampires we don’t know or care about subplots and downright terrible action sequences. There’s only ever one scene of any value in these episodes. You could watch that one scene on youtube, skip the rest and lose absolutely nothing. And that’s a damn shame.

Back Arrow – 17

Wooper: Last week our heroes declared the Granedger to be its own sovereign nation, but that claim feels silly now that the show is handing out massive warships like Oprah. “You get a dreadnought, you get a dreadnought, everybody gets a dreadnought!” Not only are they being given to antagonists left and right, those antagonists are being defeated just moments after receiving them, making this whole arc feel even hastier than usual (a real feat for a series like Back Arrow). We’re just making all of this up as we go along, it seems, but at least that improvised feel leaves room for plenty of fights – the Rekkan Emperor kicked so much ass this week that he must have broken both ankles. Am I crazy, or did he manifest as both an arrow and the bow that fired it during his battle with Tae’s dreadnought? I had to rewind that scene a couple times to double check what I’d just watched, and I still don’t really understand it. Looked pretty cool, though! All the cult/prophecy nonsense about Arrow destroying the world is just background noise, as far as I’m concerned – give me more fights and less story, please.

Continue reading “Spring 2021 Summary – Week 5” →

Super Cub – 03

Wooper: Is it just me, or did this episode feel like the conclusion to a three-part OVA? Koguma’s closing monologue neatly closed the book on her lonely Cub-less life without creating the need for a sequel. It was nicely-written, especially her reflection on how it felt to receive a classmate’s phone number versus a motorcycle license, but there wasn’t much of a “tsuzuku” vibe to it. And yet we know, thanks to the magic of the Internet, that there’s another main character who’ll be introduced at some point during the next two months. I’m looking forward to it, especially since she might be unfamiliar with motorbikes, giving Koguma a chance to pass on what she’s learned to a novice rider. That would be great for her self-esteem, which has grown bit by bit during Super Cub’s first “arc,” but is still miles behind where it could be. She doesn’t have the guts to claim use of the microwave at lunchtime, and she’s still hesitant to call Reiko a friend, even though they eat together every day at school. That timid personality continues to receive good visualization, since Koguma’s movements are slow and deliberate – I just wish the CG bike scenes would ride into the sunset and never return.

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song – 05

Helghast: Is Vivy going to have a different animated OP every week now? That transition from her concert to the opening just hits in such a smooth and delightful way. What is more pressing is the fact that their successful exploits within this timeline have only accelerated the evolution of AI to the point where the coming conflict of the future may be not too far off. The existence of the Metal Float that draws parallels from the Nation of Zero One in the Animatrix is proof of that. It does a good job in presenting itself as a pretty benign and well-intentioned place in serving humanity as shown by the cute little WALL-E robots. The little time that the show spends on them is enough to make me feel bad for what happens in the final minutes. Seeing M’s dream of tending to children being shattered by Vivy was heartbreaking to say the least. I think that seeing Vivy slowly realizing that she must destroy the dreams of other AIs in order to realize her dream of bringing happiness to everyone through her song is such an interesting theme going forth. Just how will the rest of the world react to the island of AIs actually preemptively wiping out the human attackers and what the hell did that virus do? There are so many ways that this can all end and that’s the fun thing about original shows. I just don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Continue reading “Spring 2021 Summary – Week 4” →

Wooper: With the Spring 2021 season now in full swing, we’re watching quite a few shows that aren’t receiving regular coverage, so here’s a column to run them down. High school club shows, sci-fi originals, Taiwanese puppetry – this post has it all, including a blurb from Helghast. If that sounds like your kind of thing, let the blitz of second (and third) impressions commence!

Bakuten – 02

Lenlo: Bakuten had a solid 2nd episode this week. Not only was the production crisp and clean with some great gymnastics shots but the actual character and narrative work was nice too. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before of course but after last season’s 2.43 I’m willing to accept something solid and uncomplicated. The relationship between the main duo is quite nice so far and I look forward to learning whatever family troubles are keeping him from staying after practice. Meanwhile the group dynamic is fun, I like the shared experiences that keep them all together even if they have only known each other for a few days. Hopefully it can stay solid until the end, I would love for one of these seasonal sports shows to not shit the bed.

Bishounen Tanteidan – 02

Mario: Guess I underestimated NisiOisin’s ability to go wild as a writer. When I heard about this case I was preparing for the solution to be something like “the star is within your eyes” – that would make sense since the show makes no secret of admiring the girl’s “beautiful eyes like the stars.” Never in my wildest dreams did I expect the plot to involve military satellites burning up in the sky and all that jazz. NisiOisin is more than capable of twisting the audience’s expectations, at least, but now I am looking more for human drama. One of the main reasons why shows like Monogatari had such a massive impact on me is because they’re first and foremost about their characters’ growth, and so far I see very little of it here. I guess the true test to see whether this show is worth following will be next week when it wraps up this introduction arc.

Continue reading “Spring 2021 Summary – Weeks 2-3” →

Wooper: March is nearly in the rearview mirror, so it’s time for one last recap post before we flood the blog with our first impressions of the spring season. Allow me to go over a few housekeeping items before we commence with winter’s last rites:

–  Spring 2021 is massive, so we won’t be giving our thoughts on all ~45 premieres, just the 30 or so we’re most interested in. Apologies in advance to fans of SAO clones and ikemen showcases.
–  Armitage will be joining us for those first impressions (and hopefully covering a full series starting in mid-April, but don’t quote me on that second part).
–  For Wonder Egg Priority fans, we’ll finish covering the show one way or another. If Mario doesn’t continue with his writeups, I’ll do a mega-post on episodes 8-12 in the coming weeks.

That’s about it! Let’s get this winter wrap-up on the road.

So I’m a Spider, So What? – 12

Amun: Spider-Hero (yes, I’m going to call her that from now on; no I don’t care that it’s a bad pun) concludes her epic battle with Mr. Earth Dragon Arba. By the way, thank you to the kind reader who pointed out that she killed a bunch of people last episode with some rather flimsy justifications of self defense. I think it’s a little unsettling that she’s more upset about Arba than killing a bunch of humans, but whatever. The animation this episode was….meh. I think CG limitations are painfully obvious during these large fight scenes. I don’t think you can avoid them, but they’re not a selling point by any means. Looks like the next season will take place outside the Labyrinth, which will be nice – I’m expecting more credit’s girl and probably that Spider-chan saves the world or something. I’m still having a good time, and if you’re watching it – I hope you are too!

Continue reading “Winter 2021 Summary – Week 12” →

Wooper: Having just published a beefy Spring Preview, some of us had no words left to dedicate to anime this week. Lenlo and I still had a bit of gas in the tank, though, so we teamed up to create a short and sweet recap post. If you’re still keeping up with winter’s mid-tier shows despite the distraction of a brand new season, this one is for you.

Heaven’s Design Team – 8-10

Lenlo: I know I’ve missed a few weeks of this but I promise it wasn’t due to a lack of interest in the show. If anything, Design Team continues to impress me with just how many ideas it has. Not all of those ideas are good mind you. For instance I wasn’t a fan of the “Honey I shrunk the kids” cross-episode skit. But for every failed reverse-aging storyline we have a tyranny of the mole rats or Whose Penguin Is It Anyway. And even then regardless of the skits’ quality the lessons they teach are always interesting. Whether it be explaining concepts of generational diversity and societal health through aging or the heat-sink purposes of penguin bone structure, Design Team delivers. And for what I considered to be a C-Tier show that I would probably lose interest in after 3 episodes, that’s pretty damn impressive.

Continue reading “Winter 2021 Summary – Week 11” →

Wooper: Spring fever has gripped us prematurely here at Star Crossed. We all blanked on this column last week, and I nearly forgot to post it today – our anticipation for the upcoming spring season is starting to overshadow our attentiveness to this winter’s offerings. We managed to throw a little something together for today’s column, so consider it an appetizer for the final thoughts we’ll offer in a week or two.

Reincarnated As A Spider – 11

Amun: This outing of Reincarnated As A Spider is mostly a flashback…about another spooky spider: the Nightmare of the Labyrinth. Biggest takeaway is that our spider hero-chan (pun intended) isn’t the first spider to use magic and be super strong – this is apparently not that uncommon in the new world. This episode felt a lot like busy work, as it sets up the season for the finale. Still, it handled it adequately, so I have no complaints – I also don’t have any heaping praises either.

Back Arrow – 9-10

Wooper: This show moves so fast that it’s constantly catching up with itself, or else abandoning all hope of doing so. At the start of these episodes, only a handful of people in all of Lutoh are aware of Princess Fine’s split personality; by the end, the entire kingdom has seen her evil alter ego. She phases in and out of it as though someone were flipping a switch, which makes about as much sense as the origin of her duel personas: the transfused blood of a morbidly obese puppetmaster named Rudolph, who selected her to be Lutoh’s ruler. There’s so much explanation required to coordinate these sorts of developments, and since the series is full of them, that means its scripts are bursting with expository dialogue. Back Arrow is so absurd that its attempts at rationalization are usually pretty funny, but I actually prefer when the show breaks its own rules with no explanation at all. Arrow’s Briheight growing wings and turning into a sword at various points throughout episode 10 are prime examples. It doesn’t make sense on a mechanical level, but neither does anything else, so we’ve got no choice but to accept it and move on (or else drop the show, which I suspect most people have done already).

Continue reading “Winter 2021 Summary – Weeks 9-10” →

Wooper: With The Promised Neverland and Kemono Jihen having been ejected from the weekly roundup posts, this column was looking a little thin – good thing Mario is working through his backlog to beef up our selection of shows. Some of these entries may not be about seasonal anime, but hey, winter is old hat – the beginning of March means the Spring 2021 Preview is only weeks away. Hope you’re not thinking of unbuckling your seatbelt, because this ride never stops.

Go-toubun no Hanayome S2 – 06-08

Mario: It’s time for the final arc as the “pretense” tutoring is over and the romance comes in full force as the sisters are on the offense now. I am glad that these episodes focus on Miku (she deserves it) while never forgetting the other girls. Both Nino, Yotsuba, Ichika and Itsuki have their moments in these episodes – and it makes sense that Futaro faces his biggest challenges yet: not tutoring them but telling these girls apart and responding to their love. Nino makes the first leap forward here (true to her character) and that will push the others to do the same. It’s interesting to note that only Itsuki hasn’t fallen for Futaro yet, and that actually makes the whole “race” more refreshing. While I enjoy these characters immensely, the show doesn’t handle the time skips very well this season, given I never have a good sense of how long time has passed between events – and what happened to Futaro’s family in episode 7-8? They all but disappeared on the trip.

Heaven’s Design Team – 08

Lenlo: This might be the best episode of HDT yet. Not only were the animals and how they got to them interesting, but the theme was so clever I still can’t believe they did it. To give us a DBZ battle, rap and a stage production all under the guise of “mating presentations” was absolutely brilliant. I had fun the whole way through and it really revitalized my interest in the show. With this episode HDT has ensured that I will finish it, just on the off chance I get another one of these. Cause god damn was that better than it had any right to be.

Continue reading “Winter 2021 Summary – Week 8” →

Wooper: The recap post was on hold last week in favor of a bigger column, but three of us are back with a vengeance. Midseason fatigue is setting in where some of these shows are concerned, so prepare yourself for mockery, indifference, and swings of the executioner’s axe. How many shows will survive the next five weeks? At this rate, not many.

Reincarnated as a Spider – 06

Amun: Major plot updates this time out – no, not that kind of plot, you pervs. Without spelling it out, some major oddities in the OP/ED are now explained – mainly why are there multiple spiders. We also got some interaction with the hero and we found the weird girl from the OP who bites the world! Major developments, indeed. Meanwhile, Ms. Spider (who cares what her human name was) is still fighting and eating…and becoming more and more likely to be a Demon Lord. But more importantly is getting good food. Because that’s what really matters in isekai these days – next, she’s going to open a restaurant, staffed by sob-storied locals while she goes adventuring. Isekai is going great, guys…

Back Arrow – 06/07

Wooper: More like Bad Arrow, am I right? It’s hardly a stretch to say this is a bad show, and my tolerance for bad shows is low to begin with, so why am I still watching? My enjoyment of this anime could definitely be labeled ironic, but Back Arrow’s creators seem to be operating from a place of irony, as well. How else could one explain an episode that takes place at Pretty Boy Farms, a facility where human experiments cause their hot male subjects to sparkle nonstop? How about the hastily-invented plot point of Shu’s bomb collection, the discovery of which allowed Ren to escape suspicion, just as planned? The issue with this kind of writing is that it narrows the line between tongue-in-cheek and idiotic to a hair’s breadth – Arrow’s “betrayal” in the Pretty Boy episode was a nearly unbearable example of the latter. Still, the fact that it’s only week 7 and the Granedger crew have already made it to the wall means that there’s a lot of plot left in the tank, and it would be a shame to deprive myself of whatever chuckle-worthy moments emerge in the future. That’s my current justification, anyway.

Continue reading “Winter 2021 Summary – Weeks 6-7” →