Wooper: Ask and ye shall receive; we’ve got mini impressions from not one, but four writers in this edition of our weekly recap. Feels good to have some company for this column! Lenlo, Amun and Armitage pitched in to deliver thoughts on a few of the fall’s bigger shows and sequels, while I’m still banging on about weird anime comedies and a stray shounen property. It’s the new and improved Weekly Summary, y’all – enjoy, and we’ll see you next time.
Kamisama ni Natta Hi – 02/03
Armitage: I was supposed to write entire full-length posts covering this show but turns out that the events of each episode don’t lend themselves to wordy breakdowns. Still, this is one of the major torchbearers of the Fall Anime Parade and I cannot in good conscience let it air without any coverage. Which means that from now on, I shall be using the Weekly Summary section to give my thoughts on it! So far, Kamisama ni Natta Hi has essentially played out as a gag comedy anime and a solid one at that. Episode 2 was especially great with its parodies of Armageddon, Edward Scissorhands and the gut-bustingly funny Rocky skit. I am the kind of person who rarely full-on ‘laughs out loud’ but yeah, this episode got that out of me. Episode 3 too had its nice moments with Youta’s suit and sparkling MSG but it didn’t work quite as well as its predecessor. The characters, while being really entertaining, have not yet come off as people you truly care for and I hope the show remedies that in the coming weeks. Lastly, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Natsuki Hanae, the VA for Yota, as he is the one who solely makes the show such a blast to watch, displaying a voice range on par with Mamoru Miyano from Zombieland Saga. Honestly, this show is worth a watch just to hear him say “IZANAMI-SAAAAAAAN” as anime Rocky.
Golden Kamuy Season 3 – 04
Lenlo: I’m not usually a fan of comedies, anime ones especially. Something about their humor or their aesthetic just falls flat to me. So it’s always a joy when Golden Kamuy gets me chuckling for its entire run time, week after week. Something about the mix of murder and humor lines up perfectly with my love of gallows humor. It helps that every single joke has layers upon layers to it, similar in a way to classic Simpsons, though not of the same level. Take the chase scene early on for instance, Koito’s section alone has at least four jokes in 30 seconds that all build on each other. We go from the Naruto run and leap, to him running in the air, to grabbing a branch which then snaps, to his silly landing, to the branch landing on his head. It’s all small stuff, but no joke exists on its own, always building to the next.
Alternatively Golden Kamuy also establishes these episodic comedic narratives inside its larger dramatic narrative. This episode it’s Genjiro’s saga with dancing girls. His failure to actually dance, being fawned over and encouraged by children only to get a riff on a romance or career drama thrown in for good measure. There’s just something funny about this massive muscular soldier in a tutu getting fawned over by children for dancing a side-bit, and without a doubt the reaction faces help it. Suffice to say I am continuing to enjoy Golden Kamuy. From military circus jokes to “I’m gonna cut it” jokes to just how petty Koito is willing to be over his tricks. I am not caring that much about the larger narrative but god damn if this show isn’t fun.
Maou-jou de Oyasumi – 04
Wooper: When I saw “to bathe is to cleanse the soul” appear on screen as this week’s first line of dialogue, I braced myself for a vaguely voyeuristic look at Syalis-hime’s hygiene habits – but that’s not what we got this week. Instead, this was the show’s best episode thus far, introducing impossibly cute one-off characters such as Rocket Turtle and Killer Snowman, and taking the princess’s quest for a good night’s sleep to new levels. I almost mean “levels” in the Mario sense, because much like that franchise, Maou-jou de Oyasumi changes up its environment on a regular basis. We’ve already seen plenty of the Demon King’s castle, plus we’ve visited some magma caverns and a magical forest in previous episodes, so a snow world was next on the list. The princess’s impersonation of the Ice Demons’ leader was challenged at multiple stages by inconsistencies and skepticism, but she managed to overcome all of that via deceit and destruction. That’s the formula for a great Maou-jou minisode, and it was executed beautifully here, though the show was careful to reset all the damage she’d done between segments with a cute conversation between some of the castle demons. Some of the season’s other novelty shows are melting under pressure, but this one is still ice cold.
Majo no Tabitabi – 04
Amun: It never fails – the moment I bash a show, they pull out all the stops and make a great episode. Majo No Tabitabi’s “The Princess Without Subjects” is probably its best episode yet. The animation was crisp enough (despite some cheating on the broom riding scenes), and the self-contained story landed despite the twist being obvious a mile away. Elaina….well she did come off again as a stuck-up, heartless witch, but it was a surprisingly effective foil to the other character’s insanity. I feel like this is where Majo No Tabitabi can shine – use Elaina’s apathy to showcase other characters’ depth (good or bad). I also really liked the episode’s setting: the snow and abandoned industrial city reminded me of Girl’s Last Tour – probably why I’m so sympathetic here. Unfortunately, my prognosis for this show hasn’t changed that much – I just don’t see Elaina turning into an engaging narrator and there really isn’t much else to this show. This has maybe an episode or two left from me.
Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle – 04
Wooper: This week’s Hypnosis Mic was boring as hell. I finished watching it just minutes ago, and the story is already slipping through my fingers. The conflict was between two gangs, one of which BTFO’d their rivals by bringing three mics to a gunfight (a gag that still has legs, despite this being the show’s third variation thereof). What they were fighting over is a mystery to me, though. Drugs and gambling were minor talking points, but I didn’t get the sense that anybody on screen wanted something concrete. If they did, it wasn’t central to the episode. Nothing was, in fact – even the climactic rap battle couldn’t get my head bobbing like the previous ones. The refrain of this week’s song (“Don’t Test Da Master”) was gloriously cheesy, but only one of Mad Trigger Crew’s three members carried their weight during the vocal lead-in to that final line. Honestly, it was the show’s weakest performance segment yet, with the misfortune of accompanying its least entertaining plot yet. If HypMic doesn’t step up its game next week, it’s likely to drop off the charts (where my viewing habits are concerned, anyway).
Haikyuu To the Top Part 2 – 03/04
Lenlo: I’m 50/50 on these episodes. On one hand, Episode 3 with Tanaka was the hypest shit. It’s exactly what I go to Haikyuu, and sports series in general, for. Characters going through relatable things, such as seasonal depression and the realization that they aren’t the MC of the series, yet figuring it out and working their way through it. Taking relatable issues and presenting them in the context of fantastic sports. Love it.
On the other hand, as much as I love Nekoma and they have some incredible stuff coming up, I don’t like the cutaway. The manga did this too, so it isn’t an issue with the adaptation. It’s more that I want to keep up with Inarizaki and Karasuno. I want to stick with the main match and follow it to the end. So while I know this is in service of the larger story, and in the manga it fits perfectly fine, here I think it kinda messes with the pacing a bit. Still, loving Haikyuu, always will.
Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken – 04
Wooper: This was the Dragon Quest episode where I resolved to “stick with it” until reaching a more natural jumping-off point. Prior to this week, I’d been enjoying the series on its own terms, without regard for its prospective length. But now that the Dark Lord himself has shown up on Dai’s monster island, revealed his history with Avan, and taken quick notice of the protagonist’s potential, this early span of episodes has revealed itself too clearly as a quick and dirty prologue. Hadlar’s brand of villainy goes beyond puppy-kicking; he’d probably lecture the dog on demons’ superiority to canines simultaneously. The sooner he kills or incapacitates Avan and settles into an appropriate mid-boss position, the sooner we can get off this island and get to adventuring. Until then, I’m still liking a lot of the show’s visual design – the painterly smears of the island cliffs have a human touch, and this episode’s quieter colors nicely reflected the dull storm clouds that hung overhead. I do wish the layouts were a little more creative, though – how many times will we get opposing profile shots as characters stare each other down, I wonder?
