[Manga Musings on Mondays] A Distant Neighborhood – Review

by Armitage, posted in Manga, Manga Musings on Mondays, Reviews by Armitage

    Created by: Jiro Taniguchi

    Chapters: 15

     

    Hello and welcome to Manga Musings’ Week 2! This time around, I look back at another series which is a favorite of mine but is not as popular among modern manga fans, Jiro Taniguchi’s opus, Haruka na Machi e or A Distant Neighborhood. Let’s dive in:

     

    THE PREMISE:

    48-year-old Hiroshi Nakahara is mysteriously transported to his 14-year-old-self back when he was in high-school, with the memories of the life he’s lived still intact. He slowly comes to terms with being out-of-time and out-of-place and even starts enjoying being given an opportunity to relive his life once again, only to realize that his actions have consequences on the future in ways beyond his control.

     

         

     
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Kaguya-sama S2 – 02

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai

Kaguya-sama’s second season is off to a good start after two episodes, but of all the positive signs we’ve gotten thus far, my favorite is that Masayuki Suzuki returned to sing the OP. The man’s voice has a magical quality to it, to the point that even a brassy opening theme like “Daddy! Daddy! Do!” sounds as smooth as silk when he’s on the track. Suzuki is known as the King of Love Songs in Japan, so when each episode of Kaguya-sama opens with his voice, it’s a reminder that underneath all its exaggerated antics, the show has a romantic heart. That’s a reminder I sorely needed this week, since a lot of this episode’s caricaturish behavior rustled my jimmies (I’ll try to dedicate no more than a paragraph to explaining why). On the whole, though, I’m very glad that the show is back, and looking as fresh as ever – hopefully it survives the current wave of TV anime delays and finishes in June as scheduled.

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Arte – 03 [First Job]

by Armitage, posted in Arte, Currently Watching:

 

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the third installment in the story of our favorite noble-turned-apprentice. This week, Arte learns about the warm joys and strange sorrows of first love, gets her first opportunity to draw professionally and throws her hat in for the seasonal Best Boy race! Let’s jump in.

Leo-san asks Arte to come along with him to the carnival but only after she has changed into an adorable Peter Pan cosplay costume. There they meet up with a courtesan – a high-class prostitute – who is somehow able to make the normally ogre-like and demonic Leo-san smile and laugh like he was having the time of his life. Seeing her looking pretty as a picture and smelling all nice, Arte can’t help but fight the feeling which takes over her heart; a feeling of envious approbation.

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Kakushigoto – 03 [Makeshift Circus/ The True State of Manga and Muscles]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Kakushigoto

The third episode of Kakushigoto leaves me a bit indifferent. This week, Kakushigoto presses hard on its “gags” nature and while that works well in his previous anime adaptations, I feel these skits are a bit random in Kakushigoto. Structure-wise, the show bookends bits of the present day (with more context each time) to its “flashback” that really is our true timeline. So what do we learn in this flashforward this week? That the house the 18-yo Hime visits is their old house before they moved to Nakameguro and that Gotou layouted their new house exactly like this old house. The fact that the house in Nakameguro is on sale now, and with Gotou’s still absent in the flashforward could mean something sad is waiting around the corner. 

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Fugou Keiji: Balance: UNLIMITED – 2 [Love can do a lot, money can do everything]

by Lenlo, posted in Fugou Keiji: Balance: UNLIMITED

Hello ladies and gentlemen to the first, and last, post of Fugou Keiji! It breaks my heart to say it this early, but we have news that this series is being indefinitely postponed. Due to the Coronavirus, after this week it’s going to be awhile until we get more snarky millionaire detectives. Until then though, we just have to make the best of it. So let’s jump in!

Right off the bat I have to say… I was a bit disappointed. This second episode wasn’t nearly as good as the first, for obvious reasons. It would seem that Fugou Keiji wants to be an actual, legitimate crime thriller, with a dusting of absurdity. From the start, this episode played it straight. Introducing us to a crime, scoping it and working it out, then busting it at the end. Meanwhile the first episode was 2 kids robbing a chocolate shop they thought was a jewelry store. All the while Kambe reroutes traffic and drives through the middle of a street without a care in the world. The energy between these two episode couldn’t have been more different. I still enjoyed some of the absurdity we got of course, Kambe is still fun. But it’s like Fugou Keiji was more subdued this week and that’s just a bit dull.

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Princess Tutu – 7/8 – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Princess Tutu, Throwback Thursday

Every week I go in to Princess Tutu expecting it to fall off, to finally disappoint me. And every week Princess Tutu manages to shut me up with another pair of good episodes. This week, we focus in on Fakir and Rue, Mytho stands up for himself and Drosselmeyer intervenes. Let’s dive in!

Right off the bat, I want to talk about how Princess Tutu is constantly surprising me. Specifically here I want to point out the pacing, and how quickly we are actually moving. Princess Tutu has managed to tell more story in 8 episodes than most shows do in a full 12. Even taking ones that I started off thinking were filler and turning them into full blown major plot reveals. And yet even with the amount covered, I don’t have any fear about the plot in the 2nd half. There is still plenty of content that could be covered, from Fakir or Rue centric episodes to Mytho’s past to confronting Drosselmeyer himself. It really is impressive how much compelling content Princess Tutu manages to stuff into straight-forward Magical Girl plot. So that said, let’s get into the episodes proper.

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Tower of God – 3 [The Correct Door]

by Lenlo, posted in Tower of God

Another week, another episode of Tower of God. This week we learn a bit more about Khun, take 2 more tests, and Rachel makes her return! I don’t have any clever one liners or puns for this opening bit, so how about we just jump right into it.

First up, let’s talk adaptation and production, because Tower of God was a mixed bag this week. As far as adaptation goes, I think it’s doing a good job. Cutting small things, reinventing scenes to work better animated vs Webtoon, etc. You can see this most clearly in the pacing, as we burn through the 3rd test. In what was originally almost 2 and a half chapters of dialogue, we instead get a much quicker 12 minute character focus on Khun. The original intent of the test is still there, just streamlined. Meanwhile animation wise Tower of God is much more spotty. While Mr.Neonbag (yes that is his name) had some nice physical animation, Anaak’s fight felt pretty weightless and stunted in places. I still enjoyed it, little was lost. But it wasn’t the opening spectacle I hoped for. Regardless, it was a good time visually, I love the artstyle.

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Yesterday wo Utatte – 02 [A Blind Alley]

by SuperWooper, posted in Finished Series: Romance, Yesterday wo Utatte

Ah, this episode hit the spot. Lots of good character animation, a strong introduction for the fourth member of the love rectangle, a tragic flashback, and plenty of interplay between past and present events. What I appreciated most about this one was the focal shift from Rikuo to Shinako – both episodes have had an ensemble feeling to them, but Rikuo was clearly The Protagonist of the premiere. A second, slightly tweaked version of “convenience store worker waffles between two women” would have felt terribly self-indulgent, but pivoting to Shinako’s point of view made that a non-issue. There’s so much to process regarding her character, from the death of her teenage love, to her regret over Haru’s suspension, to her real feelings for Rikuo. Most crucially of all, though, we must ask ourselves: what’s the deep meaning behind her new haircut?

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Spring 2020 Summary: Week 2

by SuperMario, posted in Weekly Summary

Mario: Welcome to the first edition of Spring 2020 Weekly Summary where we throw our opinions on leftover shows that don’t receive a full coverage (the orphans so to speak). There are still more shows that I will check out when their second episode’s out (like Fruit Baskets 2, Appare-Ranman and Kisutsuki and that Cute Girls Fishing show). I also have this self-imposed rule where I’ll drop a bunch of them after 3 episodes. So expect a big clean up after next week (Beware! Listeners and Tower of God and Gleinpir). Thanks Amun for contributing to this column, and readers, if you want us to give more chance to any other show airing this season, shout out in the comment section below.

Hamefura – 02

Mario: The second episode of this Otome Isekai might not be as fresh as the first one, but it’s still adorable as heck. This week our main (villain) girl Catarina conquers two more “underlings”, not necessarily with any ulterior motive. It has considerably less self-awareness than the premiere, although in this case I prefer the meta aspect. It says right there in the title, but for me the show works best when Catarina uses her game knowledge and has her little freakouts when all roads she paves indeed leading to doom. Another winning aspect in which Hamefura succeeds so far is that she gains other characters’ trust through her efforts and goddamnit she’s earned it. HameFura is a total delight so far.

Listeners – 02

Amun: If anyone can understand a single thing that went on in this episode, then hat’s off to them.  There’s a weird trio that’s apparently never been approached by a fan, a spooky bathroom, and Mu who is definitely DTHH (Down to Hand Hold) despite our protag’s best efforts.  Throw in the creepy amusement park and a random crucifixion (I think?) and this episode was Evangelion levels of confusion. That being said, it’s not like I didn’t enjoy it – I’m just a bit confused.  Looked good while doing it though, and say what you want, but this show has some characters (MC notwithstanding).

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