Category: Weekly Summary

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” →

Wooper: This will be the last recap post for a couple weeks, as we’re currently shifting our focus to the mid-month State of the Season update. Before that project drops, though, you can get a taste of what we’re watching right here: a bunch of mid-tier seasonal offerings, plus a couple mid-2000s anime on Mario’s end. Click through for the full post – it’s a big one this week!

Urasekai Picnic – 04/05

Mario: Urasekai Picnic so far nails the creepy atmosphere of the Otherside and not much else – the production is barebones. Granted, there aren’t many action scenes but you can see the clunky production through the extras walking by. The two worlds, especially the connection between them, are still pretty much ambiguous – in the sense that visits feel more like nightmarish trips than an adventure. There’s way too much we don’t know about the Otherside, as each episode the girls encounter different kinds of urban monsters but for me at least these monsters don’t feel connected to each other. The lack of information about its world-building does help, though, in the sense that we don’t know what will happen next – making it kinda work as a mystery show.

I was Reincarnated as a Spider, so What?! – 05

Amun: Lads, we can all rest easy. Our darling spider has finally gotten something good to eat. As Spider-chan continues to try and survive between a rock and a hard place (or more accurately, the frying pan and the fire), I can see some complaints you could have about this show. Lots of text. So much text (that’s also upside down). I think whoever made this show got really into typefaces. There’s also the human drama that no one cares about – although the parallels with the Spider-chan’s bully who was reincarnated as a land dragon are mildly interesting. But all that’s beside the point – Spider-chan is still doing cute things (training montage was hilarious) and overcoming enemies…albeit in less interesting fights than before. I’m sure the plot is going to converge at some point, but so far it’s some good ole’ arachnid slap-stick, and I’m here for that.

Continue reading “Winter 2021 Summary – Week 5” →

Wooper: Another week, another roundup of what we’re watching that isn’t getting dedicated posts. This time we’ve got two demon-themed shounen series, two anime that take periodic trips to the great outdoors, and two shows where vehicles are the main attractions. Can you spot which is which?

The Promised Neverland S2 – 04

Lenlo: So I will, as a manga reader, admit to being a little bit biased when I write this but: What the hell Neverland? What is this? Not only are you skipping the only good arcs/characters left in your story to fast track to the bad stuff, but you are undermining what good you had from the first season with Isabella. I can’t think of another series that has managed to kill my interest faster than this. I’ll keep watching just to see if the author can manage to not screw it up a second time in a row, but I have no faith that this is going to end up good.

Pui Pui Molcar – 01

Wooper: I just learned of this show’s existence and had to spread the good news. Pui Pui Molcar is a stop motion series of two minute episodes about guinea pigs that are cars. I repeat: this anime is about guinea pigs that are cars. Whether you find that adorable or stupid depends on how much of a joyless Scrooge you are, but even if you fall on the “adorable” side, this show is more charming than you can imagine. The colors are bright, the soundtrack is jammin’ (the melodica track in the first episode is a bonafide ode to optimism), and the squeaks of the cars are provided by actual guinea pigs. There’s not much more to Molcar than cuteness, though it does win some points for telling its stories without any dialogue (despite the guinea pigs’ human drivers). Here’s a link to the premiere on YouTube (the first of five available episodes), so you can see for yourself why it’s become a minor sensation in Japan.

Continue reading “Winter 2021 Summary – Week 4” →