Winter 2021 Summary – Week 5

by SuperWooper, posted in Weekly Summary

Wooper: This will be the last recap post for a couple weeks, as we’re currently shifting our focus to the mid-month State of the Season update. Before that project drops, though, you can get a taste of what we’re watching right here: a bunch of mid-tier seasonal offerings, plus a couple mid-2000s anime on Mario’s end. Click through for the full post – it’s a big one this week!

Urasekai Picnic – 04/05

Mario: Urasekai Picnic so far nails the creepy atmosphere of the Otherside and not much else – the production is barebones. Granted, there aren’t many action scenes but you can see the clunky production through the extras walking by. The two worlds, especially the connection between them, are still pretty much ambiguous – in the sense that visits feel more like nightmarish trips than an adventure. There’s way too much we don’t know about the Otherside, as each episode the girls encounter different kinds of urban monsters but for me at least these monsters don’t feel connected to each other. The lack of information about its world-building does help, though, in the sense that we don’t know what will happen next – making it kinda work as a mystery show.

I was Reincarnated as a Spider, so What?! – 05

Amun: Lads, we can all rest easy. Our darling spider has finally gotten something good to eat. As Spider-chan continues to try and survive between a rock and a hard place (or more accurately, the frying pan and the fire), I can see some complaints you could have about this show. Lots of text. So much text (that’s also upside down). I think whoever made this show got really into typefaces. There’s also the human drama that no one cares about – although the parallels with the Spider-chan’s bully who was reincarnated as a land dragon are mildly interesting. But all that’s beside the point – Spider-chan is still doing cute things (training montage was hilarious) and overcoming enemies…albeit in less interesting fights than before. I’m sure the plot is going to converge at some point, but so far it’s some good ole’ arachnid slap-stick, and I’m here for that.

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Beastars 2 – 05 [Call it Like it is]

by SuperMario, posted in Beastars, Currently Watching:

Well, this episode certainly caught me off guard. As Legosi decided to enter the Black Market last week, I didn’t expect him to go back to school this soon, although it makes sense in retrospect. The plot threads of Beastars race and Tem’s culprit are still in there, after all. But more than anything presented so far in this second season, for me episode 5 best captures the essence of Beastars’ second season themes: the duality between Legosi and Louis as they are chasing different paths. There’s an interesting parallel between Legosi’s and Louis’s actions for the past several weeks, and this week it becomes predominant. As Louis is forced to eat meat to retain his social status, Legosi trains himself to go full vegan. As Louis determines to clear every ties to advance his ladder (and to prevent them from getting hurt because of him), Legosi tries to live in harmony with the herbivores. The roles have switched between these two, as Louis thinks and acts like a carnivore, and Legosi behaves like a herbivore.

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Wonder Egg Priority – 03/04 [A Bare Knife / Colorful Girls]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Wonder Egg Priority

Billed for many as the most ambitious anime of this Winter season (myself included), Wonder Egg captures difficult, heavy topics with striking imaginaries and raw emotions from its characters, and by the process captures viewers’ hearts as well. I can see why many don’t tune in its heartbeats, as shows like Wonder Egg tend to be for acquired tastes. These two episodes introduce the remaining two lead cast members and Wonder Egg does wonder as presenting them as archetypal types at first, then adds more layers to their personality, making them as compelling and heartbreaking as any victim they are trying to save.

It’s clear from episode 3 and 4 – as we get past the introductory first 2 episodes – that Wonder Egg starts to get less focus on the victims’ cases, and more on the journeys of the main girls themselves. By that I mean the two fangirls that Ai and Rika are trying to save serve most as comedic reliefs – and even to this point I still wonder why they’re needed to be saved to begin with. Unlike other victims they don’t go through any traumatic experiences, making their situations at odds with other characters. I guess it’s supposed to strike a balance with another victim, Miwa, who gets introduced in episode 4. Her case is downright unsettling and heavy, as she is sexually assaulted by the adult. Like I mentioned in my previous post, with subject matter as disturbing as this, it’s the approach that counts – insensitive and too heavy-handed will carry the risks of overly-preachy and emotionally-manipulated. Thankfully, this episode avoids that pitfall by starting it with a  consultant. It gives us time to hear the victim out, listen to their cries and feel it under their shoes.

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Beastars 2 – 03/04 [Changes / Entangled]

by SuperMario, posted in Beastars, Currently Watching:

Things escalate quickly for the last two episodes of Beastars, too quickly in fact that we are now moving from school settings to the Black market. Haru and Legosi’s relationship remains in the back seat so far, because this is Legosi’s own journey through and through.

Legosi’s investigation comes to a standstill where he’s pretty much sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong. First, he questions the carnivore members as he thinks they (including himself) are the main suspects for Tem’s murder. It’s one of the “taboos” that no one likes, and dares, mentioning so it doesn’t surprise me that the group members feel unsettling about it. He then encounters – or to put it more correctly, is ambushed – by the culprit and it confirms 2 things, at least for now: 1) Legosi IS NOT the killer 2) the killer is ridiculously strong, even with Legosi he beats our poor wolf to a pulp. Even then, Legosi manages to bite his neck, that means that whoever has that neck injury could be the main culprit, but I have a feeling that this sets up to be a misdirection.

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Horimiya – 4-5 [Everybody Loves Somebody/I Can’t Say It Out Loud]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Romance, Horimiya

This series wasn’t titled “Horimiya” for nothing, as the people whose names comprise that portmanteau are far and away its most interesting characters. Whenever they’re on screen, I’m engaged; whenever they aren’t, I’m thinking about what’s for dinner rather than attending to the show. Thankfully, this week’s episode kept them in focus for the majority of its runtime, but last week’s was so preoccupied with other characters that it gave me writer’s block (hence this double post). I kind of want to start complaining right off the bat, but in the interest of optimism, let’s avoid chronological coverage and jump straight to the three little words that bridged these two episodes.

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2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-Bu – 5 [Stand By Me]

by Lenlo, posted in 2.43 Seiin Koukou Danshi Volley-bu

I’m skipping the intro today because, to be frank, I’m done with Volley-Bu. Not in that I am going to stop covering it, I’m riding this train to the end. But I’m done playing nice and expecting it to change because this episode pissed me off. Up until now Volley-Bu has just been lazy with its writing. Speeding through content, cutting corners, not properly setting things up, etc. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t actively terrible, just mediocre. But this week Volley-Bu has undercut one of its core emotional plot threads in the stupidest way possible. I said in the initial impressions post that exploring suicide and bullying was a brave, tough choice. And that if it could pull it off then Haijima would have a great story worth watching. Turns out though, the suicide was fake.

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Jujutsu Kaisen – 17 [Kyoto Sister School Exchange 3]

by Lenlo, posted in Jujutsu Kaisen

Welcome to Girl Power, sponsored by Jujutsu Kaisen! This week the production is back in force and the narrative is back on the interesting characters. So without further ado lets dive in!

This is an interesting week for Jujutsu Kaisen, and for Shonen in general, because its almost 100% female lead. Why is this special? Well to put it simply, most Shonen female characters are absolute trash, they are terribly written. Its clear that most Shonen authors either don’t know how, or are not interested in, writing female characters. So to get an episode where they are not only the spotlight, but the sole focus, was rather novel. It’s a bit sad though that they were all still restricted to only fighting each other. The “female empowerment”/Strong Women narrative gets a little smudged when they are locked in their own box, not allowed to fight the male characters. Hopefully that changes as the event progresses though. I would love to see Maki or Nobara actually get a shot against Toudou or perhaps the other Kyoto student.

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Dr.STONE S2 – 4 [Full Assault]

by Lenlo, posted in Dr.STONE

And we are back with more Dr. STONE! This week we Chrome gets captured, Tsukasa reappears and Senku builds a car of all things. So without further ado lets dive in!

This week was a bit of a slow one for Dr. STONE as its a bit of a transitionary episode. No big emotional gutpunches, just setup for future conflict and reintroducing our main villains. It also wasn’t that great production wise as we can see from the CGI mechanics and the return of still, sliding objects. About the only thing Dr. STONE did do this week was further its narrative a bit through the reintroduction of Tsukasa. This marks the first time we have seen him since the start of season one. We’ve heard plenty from Hyoga and the others but he hasn’t had much presence. So the question becomes: Can Tsukasa earn his place as the antagonist of Dr. STONE?

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 3 [Wolf and Business Acumen] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Spice and Wolf, Throwback Thursday

Welcome back to another episode of Spice and Wolf! This week is all about the stonks as Lawrence and Holo talk market volatility, currency theory and the economic value of an apple. Confused? So was I, lets dive in.

Now it’s at this point that I have to admit something to you dear readers: I am not smart enough for this show. I don’t know economics, I didn’t go to business school, I can barely balance my bank account. I have a Computer Science degree for goodness sake, computers do my math for me. So when Lawrence and Holo starting discussing economic policy and warfare via coins I got a little lost. I had to actually rewatch some sections a bit to fully… not understand, but to truly “hear” it. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I can’t predict where this silver coin plot thread is going at all because of it. But it can certainly be a bit of a chore at times to listen to. Luckily the back and forth between Lawrence and Holo is interesting enough, their play by play entertaining enough, to keep me engaged

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Re:Zero Starting Life in Another World 2 – 18 [The Day Betelgeuse Laughed]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World

They still aren’t using the opening, this is honestly quite amazing and we have another 30 minute episode that flies by like wind. Perhaps it’s due to the literal length of the Arc 4 that White Fox was pushed to allot more time to be able to get through it though in that case I wish they allot more to Arc 3 as that needed a bit more time to sort out some plot issues. So today we got a continuation of Emilia’s backstory while splicing in a bit of Beatrix’s and Ryuzu’s which is a bit of awkward placement as we now have two backstories to finish but I guess they thought we might need a small break from Emilia’s. I admit that this episode makes for a difficult thing to talk about as we mainly have a fight between Geuse and the two new arrivals. Regulus is a villain I can’t say much about as his general deal seems to be to act like a triggered social media user to each and every conversation. As a character there just doesn’t seem to be much to him but then again I could have said the same, and likely did say, about Geuse in Arc 3 and now that boy has layers. We even see him obtain an unseen hand from a box containing what I believe was a witch factor and can we just bask in the beautiful irony of a villain named Pandora forcing someone to open a box? Well ok if we are to be pedantic about it, Pandora’s box wasn’t actually a box but was a pithos but whatever.
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