Wooper: We’re down to just two writers for this week’s recap, which means we’re down a few shows, as well. Now that we’ve entered the second of this season’s three months, it’s only natural that anime will start to fall through the cracks. The State of the Season post is coming up, though (it may even replace next week’s summary), so it won’t be long until you hear from the whole crew on their midseason picks. Until then, Lenlo and I have got you covered.
Haikyu: To the Top Part 2! – 05
Lenlo: I said last week that as much as I love Nekoma, I want to get back to the Inzarizaki match. I still stand by that, I love Atsumu, but boy is it hard to not get hype about our boy Kenma. The relationship between him, Kuroo and Nekoma as a whole is always a treat. How they tease and respect each other, how Kenma fails or refuses to see his own growth (“guts”) etc. My only real complaint with the episode is that, outside a few of the big scenes, it once again looked kinda… eh? Production has definitely not been a strong suit for Haikyu this season. My only hope is that they are saving something big for the finale, because the narrative core is all there, it’s great. Furudate is a great writer. I just think the show deserves better than this sometimes.
Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken – 05
Wooper: Boy, did this episode look good. The bulk of it was given to a continuous fight against Hadlar, first waged by Avan and then by Dai. It was chock-full of shounen staples, from the sensei who sacrifices his life to the villain undone by overconfidence, but watching such a slick reboot of a classic title makes it hard to find fault with its adherence to genre conventions. I’ll confess to being disappointed that Avan’s life-offering final attack wasn’t enough to end the battle – giving Dai the crushing blow smacks of protagonist worship – but Hadlar is a major antagonist, so killing him off this early wouldn’t fit the template that this series was instrumental in creating. Great animation and a sense of high stakes going forward are two reasons to love this episode, as well as some justification for Dai’s overpowered forehead (which is apparently called a Dragon Crest). Seeing what an effect that glowing mark had on Hadlar was an indirect promise of things to come – I’m hoping we get some adventuring and party building first, though.
Golden Kamuy S3 – 05
Lenlo: Between all of the comedy, I occasionally forget that Golden Kamuy has a serious life and death narrative. It’s not my fault I don’t think, it hides it well between the dick jokes and murder. But every now and then it crops back up in the form of a bullet to the head and a sniper battle on the border. That’s exactly what Golden Kamuy did this week and I loved it. First up, I really like how sprinkled between all of Asirpa’s revelations about her father, we have this dark undertone with how the others are just using her to find the gold. How these sweet moments are undercut by the very reason Kiroranke is telling her about them. I can’t wait for that shoe to drop and for Sugimoto to be there when it does.
After that though, Golden Kamuy gives us an incredibly tense battle between snipers. It can’t do close quarters confrontation well – it doesn’t have production chops to pull that off as we have seen. But it doesn’t need incredible production for this. Just good directing and scene choice, and it has that in spades. I like the slow setup between the two snipers, jumping between the two as they think through their opponents moves. How snipers are “so careful they are cowards” and “don’t care for their comrades screams” etc. So disparaging towards themselves, all the while preparing to kill another man. The fact that Ogata is a side character really helps with the tension as well.
All in all, I once again really enjoyed this episode.
Maou-jou de Oyasumi – 05
Wooper: All that extra sleep must be the reason that Maou-jou comes back so refreshed each week, with new characters and slight tweaks to its presentation that keep things fresh. This episode’s third and final segment is a perfect example – instead of giving Syalis a quest and following her progress as usual, we see things from the villains’ perspective as they get sidetracked by news of her callous materialism. Even the motherly forest demon, who defends her at first, is forced to watch as the princess hacks her older brother (a tree sporting a pompadour and Kamina glasses) to pieces. A new monster named Harpy is similarly burned by her affection for Syalis, manipulated into a one-sided friendship for the sleeping benefits her downy wings provide. It was actually sad to watch such an earnest character experience those repeated disappointments, as Harpy swiftly realized she was only being used. Maou-jou always returns to the status quo via eye catch messages or post-ep text (“And then she apologized to the demons”), but the show doesn’t shy away from approaching her selfishness in fun new ways with each go-round.
Regarding Haikyuu’s progression, they clearly are saving everything for the Battle at the Trash Heap (you probably already know what it’s going to be if you read the manga), which I think will be the last match of this season.
I haven’t read the manga, so I can only guess how much longer the match will take, but as an anime only I doubt we’ll see another match this season. Inarizaki is arguably the best opponent Karasuno has faced so far (given that they were lauded as one of the favorites for overall victory, they should be a step above even Shiratorizawa), so I doubt the match will end easily for them (with a two set victory), especially given the fact that Inarizaki probably hasn’t really gotten serious yet / played their very best (in the first set they were surprised by Karasuno’s unfamiliar strategies, but that can only last so long). So personally (following the standard sports shounen formula), I expect Inarizaki to fight back against Karasuno in the second set, taking it by overwhelming them with their superior strength and experience; and then the third set will probably be fought on roughly equal grounds, with the Karasuno players showing that they can hold their own against top players, and eventually securing a narrow victory by rising above themselves. And I can easily see those developments taking up the remaining seven episodes of the season.
But even supposing my predictions are off and the match will not last that long, it should at the very least take up another two episodes. Add the aftermath and the preparations for the next match to that, and we would have at most 3-4 episodes left for the match against Nekoma, and that seems far too little for a match of that magnitude. And given that fact, using the remaining episodes for the Inarizaki match (plus perhaps some loose ends, and building up the Battle at the Trash Heap) again seems far more logical to me.
Long story short: with the exception of the big moments, I think the inconsistent visuals are probably here to stay, at least for this season. I hope I’m wrong, though.
I fully expect a 2nd match this season with Nekoma. I would like to be surprised, considering I know exactly how many matches are left in the entire series, but I fully expect them to try and fit both into this season.