Mario: Next week, we will publish our seasonally State of the Season post, so remember to check in. Like Amun, real life stuff has eaten me alive but I still managed to keep up with current shows, and watched the Oscars yesterday. PARASITE wins. Honestly I’m still overwhelmed by that historic fact and honestly this is one of the best decisions Oscar has ever made. Parasite wins, and nothing else really matters anymore. But enough about Parasite and let’s dig in for anime time this week:
Somali to Mori no Kamisama – 05
Mario: Well, this easily is the best episode of Somali so far. The trick here is that the show does shake up its usual formula. I will start with the lesser success first. While the background designs of the various towns and locations the show displays have been its big strength, this episode is the first time it delves into the local custom of the town where Golem and Somali visits, thus making the settings feel lived-in. It also helps that later on when the group passes the forest, there are many fantasy animals (sand whales) that are pure feast in the eyes (albeit they are lacking in animation). But the real winner here is how it adds some urgency to the road trip of our main characters. We have a couple who are intriguing in their relationship (although the way the Harp girl keeps bringing up her love for her human companion gets repetitive at the end), and the fact that they are willing to harm Somali for their own gains. At least they have their own reasons to do so and I can see and understand that.
Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumei Shitemita – 06-07
Wooper: Both of these episodes were pretty meh, but I watched them in time for this post, so I might as well throw my thoughts into the digital abyss. The kissing experiment in episode 6 wasn’t a bad plot – I’ve seen that kind of barebones chemistry test pulled off before, but a show’s ability to do so hinges entirely on its cast. So far, RikeKoi has shown itself to be premise-driven, rather than character-driven, so the story didn’t quite fit. There was one brilliant mix of those two modes on display here, though: Yukimura’s promise to give Himuro “a kiss of the highest theoretical value.” Since the series is all about hot nerds trying to quantify love, that kind of declaration is both a strong relationship builder and a clever fulfillment of the show’s goals. As for episode 7, I found its reworking of fairy tales and folk stories to be its saving grace – everything else was pretty bad. When Himuro gets drunk and acts super lovey-dovey towards Yukimura, we don’t learn anything new about her (since it’s already clear that she likes him). But if the show puts a mathematical spin on stories like Cinderella and Kaguya-hime, that’s worth a chuckle or two.
Continue reading “Winter 2020 Summary: Week 6” →
