Golden Kamuy S3
Short Synopsis: Golden Kamuy resumes as Sugimoto sets out for Sakhalin in search of Asripa. Along the way they will hunt criminals, fight large mammals and make a bunch of dick jokes. So many goddamn dick jokes.
Lenlo’s review:
Alright, I remember very little of Golden Kamuy, its last season airing almost 2 years ago. And yet almost immediately it manages to get me laughing again like it had never left. Don’t get me wrong, Golden Kamuy’s story isn’t bad. Sugimoto’s relationship with Ashripa is great and I really enjoy a lot of the interplay between the characters. But the comedy is where it’s at. Unabashedly making dick jokes, reoccuring pictures of scantily clad muscular men and perpetually escalating actions of petty spite all wrapped up in a single 23 minute episode. I have no idea if the season or story will be any good. But I damn well believe I am gonna laugh my through the next 3 months.
Potential: 70%
Mario’s review:
Golden Kamuy wastes no time as it follows right up where the previous season left off. This time, it’s another distinctive setting where the gang heads off to Sakhalin, an island which borders Russia. While the characters and the humor never take themselves seriously, the same can’t be said for its detailed depiction of unique cultures such as the Ainu and this time the Russian people in Sakhalin. The story might be a bit on the slow side this week, but the queer-baiting humor is as outragous as ever, and I mean that as a good thing. Watching these larger-than-life characters interact with each other in a madcap treasure hunt is a delight, while at the same time Sugimoto and Asirpa’s chemistry is strong enough not to be overshadowed by the side characters. As long as it keeps up with its unique self it will be a wild ride to follow.
Potential: 60%
Ikebukuro West Gate Park
Short Synopsis: A gang of respectable, straight edge gentlemen escort a 12 year old girl around town to get revenge on some spooky drug pushers.
Amun’s review:
Ikebukuro’s first episode is a goose egg. I was unable to find a single positive takeaway. Give me back those twenty minutes of my life. The plot was horrid – a randomly connected fruit merchant takes a little girl around to plant evidence to get rid of a drug merchant. It’s actually worse than that (that summary sounds almost interesting on paper) – the big action scenes are jumping a fence and awkwardly kicking someone in the face. The characters suck – suave suit “King” made me cringe. “Hacker” zero one made me vomit. And “G-Boys”…now it’s farce. This is a caricature of an enjoyable show – you know it represents one but all the important parts have been removed. The writing is amateur, the characters are flatter than a Type A moe, and the animation is Microsoft Paint level. No seriously, there are some stills of the fruits that look done in Paint. There are other atrocious examples of CG assisted …. something. It’s hard to call this animation in good faith. I guess the voice acting was okay! There’s a positive. Anyways, this has my vote as the worst first of the season. I think I’d rather watch the wall humping show than this absolutely putrid insult to anime.
Potential: the Zero from “Zero One”
Wooper’s review:
Turns out giving a pseudo-action crime series to the team behind Yesterday wo Utatte (a dialogue-driven character study) wasn’t the best idea. Starting your episode with one of the least exciting animated car chases in recent years means you’ve got nowhere to go but up, and to its credit, IWGP does manage to improve from that point. Were you to graph that rate of improvement, however, the slope would be close to 0. There’s a preteen kid in this premiere who powers the plot by pouting, which causes the grown-up characters to 1) avenge her mother’s injury, 2) senselessly involve her in dangerous situations, 3) leak information ten seconds after having sworn not to, etc. As a result of both her nagging and the investigation it motivates, the G Boys (there is no better name for a group of wannabe hoodlums) discover an indoor greenhouse where a bad guy is growing a marijuana lookalike (nooooo!). Then we cut away from the investigation and get a few seconds of narration explaining how Weed Man is brought to justice, and the episode comes to an abrupt end. So too shall this review; spend your time on other, better anime.
Potential: 10%
Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear
Short Synopsis: Girl in bear outfit saves the village from a giant viper.
Mario’s review:
This third isekai entrance is sadly the most generic out of the three. The whole premise of this first episode focuses on how overpowered the main girl is despite wearing that ridiculous unbearably cute bear outfit. In other words, it’s wish-fulfillment fantasy to the max. Wait, it has another different factor going for it: instead of reincarnating in another world, the Main Girl simply plays her VRMMO game so we have a chance to see a portion of her real life. The issue with that is that even in her real life, Yuna is ridiculously overpowered as well. She claims she doesn’t need to go to school (which should speak to the otaku community out there), and she makes enough money from her games to pay for her parents’ vacation. Well, many claim that Kuma Bear finally breaks gender norms (instead of OP boys we have this cute OP girl) but it’s so lazily written it backfires. For a cute girl in a bear suit fix I’d rather rewatch Serial Experiments Lain instead.
Potential: 10%
