Wooper: There are still a few final episodes left to air this season, but this is our final recap post of 2020. With the new season preview finished, our attention will soon turn to winter first impressions and the Anime of the Year post due in mid-January. Before that, however, Amun has a bone to pick with a handful of second stringers he’s been watching, and Lenlo and I give our final verdicts on the usual summary post suspects. (There’s no Blurb on Titan this time around – make your voice heard if you want Armitage to keep writing about it, even in this column’s absence.) Thanks for reading, and happy holidays!
Fire Force – Since I stopped blogging about it
Amun: I stopped my weekly review of Fire Force around episode 11, but I’m back with an update on how the rest of the season went. In two words: the same. There were instances of absolutely ridiculous animation quality (see the last couple of episodes)….and a whole lot of weird service and head scratching plot directions. At no point in the season did I feel that Fire Force found its groove or even understood the kind of show it wanted to be – comedy? action? horror? ecchi? Strange to say about an anime, but Fire Force never took itself quite seriously enough, which is a shame. The random edginess was unenjoyable – not sure about Uncle-Shinigami-who-was-really-into-little-boys. The Maki storyline was fine I guess, and Tamaki sort of got a redemption episode? Just overall, I can’t help but be disappointed in the unfulfilled potential – looks like instead of the meh ending (like Soul Eater – by the way, what was up with that moon?), we got it here in the middle. Rumour has it the next season is the last, so hopefully it finishes strong – but I would be surprised.
Taiso Samurai – 11
Wooper: Barring a couple of Big Bird’s loony appearances, this finale was wholly unenjoyable and unsatisfying. The Jotaro/Leo connection was unimportant in the end, as Leo’s last-minute spectatorship of his friend’s routine created a brief feel good moment and nothing else. Jotaro’s successful quadruple flip and ensuing victory over Tetsuo were a surprise to no one, I’m sure, and the last-ditch effort to make Tetsuo a human being was too little, too late. The whole sequence with Rei running through the airport to stop Leo from leaving made me wonder why their previous conversation in episode 10 was necessary. If he was going to be convinced by an extended reference to his favorite ninja movie, couldn’t the show have pulled off the same thing without the prelude from the previous week? I like the concept of Rei quoting her mom’s signature film both to motivate her friend and reaffirm her interest in acting, but the moment came across as pretty limp given Leo’s recent irrelevance. We only got to see two seconds of his ballet performance before cutting to a truncated credits roll, for crying out loud. But hey, at least it’s over – the greatest gift I’ll receive this holiday season is never having to write about Taiso Samurai again.
Golden Kamuy S3 – 12
Lenlo: As far as dark horses of the season go, Golden Kamuy really caught me by surprise. I figured we would get some action, some dick jokes, and that would be that. Same as what we got in the first two seasons. So I wasn’t prepared for a genuinely touching reunion nor for one of the tensest episodes of the entire year. The way it built up over the season was great, slowly shifting the tone of every episode, getting more and more serious as it went. I do wish some side characters had gotten involved more, or taken out entirely, since they only really take up episode space. But overall Golden Kamuy finished strong and has left me wanting more. This season has done what the prior 2 seasons couldn’t: Get me invested in the actual characters/story beyond their comedy or explosions.
Kamisama ni Natta Hi – 11
Amun: Bah, you remember that warning Majo No Tabitabi got? This episode should have had it for feels. I guess it’s my own fault for being surprised but this show switched genres pretty hard – way harder than Charlotte. I guess that’s the point – make that emotional juxtaposition slap you in the face, but come on now. This show’s rating will be determined entirely by the final episode, but as it stands right now – this has just been too much of a roller coaster for me to recommend. Although, I am loving the trend of subtly changing OPs as the season progresses. I wonder what the first show to do that was?
Maou-jou de Oyasumi – 12
Wooper: I’m the sort of writer (and more broadly, anime watcher) who judges even his favorite shows on an episode by episode basis. My final thoughts about a series are often colored by its particularly good or bad weeks, and the better the show, the more those bad weeks stand out. That’s why Sleepy Princess has been such a pleasant surprise for me – its consistency has been unmatched during this fall season. It may not have made any meaningful commentary or pushed any boundaries, but sometimes simplicity and familiarity are what a comedy needs to succeed, as was the case here. We did get a look into Syalis’s character in this final episode, though, so the finale wasn’t 100% fluff. Her childhood and sense of duty as a member of the royal family were touched on in humorous fashion; Queen Goodereste turned out to be an airhead of the highest order, which provides valuable context for her daughter’s off-kilter personality. I did like Mom’s approval of her daughter’s free spirit, which lent a warm feeling to Syalis’s reunion with the demons in the episode’s last minutes. Good stuff all around – though the Demon Lord’s seiyuu gave a grating performance that threatened to derail the whole conclusion.
Haikyuu To The Top S2 – 12
Lenlo: And so ends another season of Haikyu. This was a really weird season. It was easily the most weakly produced of the entire series, yet with one of the strongest narratives yet. Production wise it was an absolute mess, lacking a lot of the tension and dynamism found in both the manga and previous season of the anime. But it also faithfully adapted the story and it was clear that those working on it understood the work. I talked a lot about it last week, how Inarizaki contrasts Karasuno, Atsumu contrasting Hinata/Kageyama, and how it sets up for the upcoming Nekoma match. As far as the narrative goes, I am satisfied. I just wish that they were able to give it the production it truly deserved more often than it got. Even still, one of the highlights of my season. Mamoru Miyano is great.
Cute Girls Fly Vintage Airplanes (Senyoku no Sigrdrifa) – 11
Amun: Checking back in on Japan’s cute air force! I must say, this show, despite its absurdly silly premise, is pretty engaging. The comedy and action strike a good balance – I love the twinge of sadness that subtly oozes throughout. The main character, despite being blonde and foreign, is certainly not the happy go-lucky anime stereotype – and that really sets the tone nicely. For the finale, the main battle lines are drawn and no major characters have died yet, so I’m sure it will be an explosive Ragnarok. Can’t say I’m expecting a happy ending, but it’s been a surprisingly enjoyable flight.
Gal and Dino – 12
Wooper: Given some of the weirder ideas Gal and Dino put on display this year, I was predicting a much less typical conclusion than the one we got. Still, I was happy with a simple hangout episode, filled with coffee dates and seaside apologies. The series has leaned increasingly on themes of friendship and acceptance as it’s progressed, so carrying them through to the conclusion was a good call. It’s not as though the finale was entirely devoid of strangeness, though. The older gentleman who played the role of “Kaede” back in April recurred here as an altogether different character, yet his reunion with Dino brought tears to his eyes, suggesting some of the multi-dimensional trickery that the early episodes engaged in. And what was the deal with that baby stegosaurus hatching in a jungle someplace, then traveling to Japan as a tourist? The moment when it crossed paths with Dino made me think it would be a last-minute cast addition, but the whole thing was a big fakeout, which was sort of awesome. I might have to pick up the manga to see whether this new dinosaur becomes a recurring character after all. Here’s hoping it’s just as fun as the anime!
HypMic update: I should’ve figured that I can’t get my hopes up for a glorified idol show. Suddenly it wants something to say after the show went through its rap battles, and they turned to NGOs and foreign aid?!
So those three journalists that kept hogging the show throughout the first 2/3 of the series were (surprise) working for the oppressive government after all for the intent of bringing down the rappers once and for all because they’re afraid of their potential as terrorists that threaten their authoritarian government so they must be brought down and put under their control for the “greater good”, because they’re part of some freedom-fighting NGO called the Secret Aliens, complete with a cliche metaphor said in Engrish, and yet they still want a fair fight despite their dirty trick. Their plan makes absolutely no sense! And ofc they try to make us sympathize with them since they’re actually victims because they were blackmailed by the government to work for them or else they’ll cut foreign aid to some country affected by WW3, so they’re only going along with them. I’m not making this shit up.
We also have a stupid deus ex machina where the prime minister’s secretary has a noise canceller that blocks the rap groups’ mics from working, so they’re all defenseless against the Secret Aliens’ song, and there’ll probably be another one to counter the government’s actions next episode complete with another cliched Love Live-esque finale. At this point, it’s gone from being “dumb” fun, to just plain “taking itself too seriously” dumb. Yeah, this is garbage, but the existing fans are going to eat it up anyways, so we’re doomed to more rapping idolshit.
At least Moriarty ended its first cour well, where we saw how William and Sherlock approach solving the case on the train differently and how their dynamics bounced off each other. Plus, there was a lot of foreshadowing for the second cour next April, which is evidently looking at adapting “A Scandal in the British Empire”, though I seriously hope they cover the chapters with MI6 and Moran (that they skipped this cour much to the chagrin of manga readers crying foul over this decision) before that. You need that backstory in order to better understand the longer arc coming up next. Although I would be surprised if they actually did skip it over concerns that they’ll get sued by MGM/EON and the Fleming estate due to the overt 007 references present in those arcs.
Wait, are there actually two shows airing this season with Odin in them? That explains some of my confusion.