Mario: Well, with all the premieres are out (and couples of them delayed infinitely), it’s time for our usual blogging schedule for the next 3 months and our First Episode Awards. It might be an unpopular opinion but I still eager to follow what this Spring season has to offer. The current pandemic has sadly halted many projects (most of them are sequels, for reasons I am yet to comprehend), and I suspect in the next two seasons, we’re going to hear more sad news regarding the medium. That’s the reason why my current attitude is that I am happy with what we currently have. This Spring season has couples of stylish Detective shows, new trend of isekai a protagonist who came back as someone younger (or I call it New-AGE isekai), and many promising seinen titles. Unlike last season where Eizouken and Dorohedoro dominated our list, this season we have no clear “Best Premiere”, in fact there was a heated discussion between staffs to agree on the winners.

As for this season’s coverage, there are some good news: Armitage is back in full force with Arte and new manga column (I wish her all the best), and hat’s off to Wooper for blogging full time (3 shows) this season. Amun won’t be blogging any show, but he will be regular in Weekly Summary post. Here’s the full coverage for Spring 2020 season:

SPRING 2020 BLOGGING SCHEDULE

Mario: Kakushigoto, Oregairu 3 (If it ever happens)

Lenlo: Tower of God, Fugou Keiji: Balance:UNLIMITED, Princess Tutu (Thursday Throwback)

Wooper: Kaguya-sama 2, BNA, Yesterday wo Utatte

Amun: Weekly summary contributions

Armitage: Arte, Manga Musing on Mondays

FIRST EPISODE AWARDS

Mario: Hey folks, welcome to the brand new decade of anime. Winter season is usually the quiet time for anime, and this edition doesn’t seem to break that pattern. Wish-fulfillment isekai and jerky CG idol shows are still going strong to remind us that the fruits of the last decade aren’t truly gone. And while this season might be lacking in terms of truly elite premieres (I can count only Eizouken and Haikyuu), there are many promising lower-tier shows that could manage to become sleeper hits. Without further ado, I’m pleased to present our coverage for this season:

WINTER 2020 BLOGGING SCHEDULE

Mario: Magia Record – The Case Files of Jeweler Richard/Kyoko Suiri*

Lenlo:  Eizouken ni Wa te wo Dasu na! – Runway de Waratte – Throwback Thursday: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Wooper: Chihayafuru 3 (carry-over) – Dorohedoro

Amun: My Hero Academia 4 (carry-over) – The Case Files of Jeweler Richard/ Kyoko Suiri*

As you can see, this season we writers are trying something a bit different with the blogging. In true “multi-author” spirit, Amun and I will take turns covering Jeweler Richard and Kyoko Suiri each week. Expect an array of different opinions from each of us. In addition, it’s my intention to keep the Weekly Summary running, which means that some shows that aren’t in our blogging list might find their way over there.

FIRST EPISODE AWARDS

Now this is a movie! Most of you probably figured out by now that I’m on a movie spree, but most of the movies tend to be lots of style and not a lot of substance. While these are perfectly fine to watch, I’d rather watch a movie that’s good in every aspect. Unfortunately, these are quite hard to find, though Metropolis definitely belongs in that category. For those of you who don’t know about Osamu Tezuka, this link should give you a fairly good impression of why people call him the “God of Manga”. Without him, anime wouldn’t be what it is today, and even now remakes of his works are still being made, and his stories prove to be very good to age. First Hi no Tori baffled me, and now it’s the turn for Metropolis. Due to the fact that this movie really received a great budget, it has been really detailed, up to the point where it can be seen as on par with Ghibli-movies. The sceneries we see throughout the movie are filled with life and people, who actually react to the things around them. On frequent occasions, you can find different things happening at once. Characters who stand in the background discussing things, for example. When compared to usual anime, where characters don’t move unless they really have to, it felt really refreshing. Not only does this movie spend a great amount of effort on its details, they’re also used really well in combination with its story and characters. Both of them are really given the time to develop throughout the movie, and if you combine this with the details, you get some pretty interesting character-development, which comes together perfectly in the climaxes, later in the movie. Especially the ending must be one of the most brilliant ideas for an ending in a anime-movie ever; you’ll either absolutely love it, or you’ll absolutely hate it. ^_^;; (you’ll understand when you see it). Like Hi no Tori, Metropolis also is quite thought-provoking. Even though the themes introduced are nothing I haven’t seen before (they may have been new when the story was first published, I’m not sure about that one), where the setting is a city, fully controlled by the government, where Robots take over most of the dirtier tasks, the movie uses its characters to ask enough interesting questions about morality. It’s hard to point out any flaws in this one as well. The characters all fit well into the movie, and each of them has a good enough reason to be involved in the events. The main character and especially his father really start out like normal people, and yet it seems perfectly logical why they became the main characters. Each of the important characters is fleshed out well, and the story flows from one event to the other in quite a logical way. I guess the biggest flaw is that this remains a movie. I still like Hi no Tori better than this one, simply because it had 13 episodes. Metropolis used its time well, though there’s only so much you can do in an hour and a half. Because of this, the ending did turn into a collection of clichés, despite the brilliant part.]]>

Short Synopsis: Inside Tanda’s house, Barsa recovers, while the old woman we saw in the OP makes her appearance. Good: As detailed as ever. Bad: Just doesn’t live up to the previous episode, but what did you expect? ^^; Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 After the huge events of the previous episode, this one takes a step back in the pacing, to make sure for Barsa to recover properly, while it also takes its time to introduce a couple of new characters. We finally see the king himself (at least, I think that’s him), and the first prince of the country as well. They weren’t what I expected them to be, and they didn’t really look that evil. If I had to guess, then the major antagonist will be the long-bearded priest. Another new character is Torogaishi (at least, I think that’s her name. Please correct me if I’m wrong). She seems to be some kind of witch or magic user, who somehow ended up on the bad side of Seidoushi, as the warriors who come to kill her at the beginning of the episode demonstrate. She’s quite skilled; notice how she started collecting sand to make some kind of fake body once she noticed their presence. The dialogue was as difficult as usual, but I did pick up that she’s involved herself into finding the egg of the water spirit, and knows quite a lot about it. Chaggumu, meanwhile, finally has the time to relax a bit, and just like Rita, he has to get accustomed to the habits of the common people. I do wonder what’ll be happening next to him. If I had to guess, then the following episodes will try to remove the egg from his body and turn him into a normal boy. Like Rita, he’ll also end up cutting his hair (see the OP and ED).]]>