Sakamoto desu ga
Short Synopsis: Some boys attempt to bully a Student called Sakamoto, who is the perfect superhuman.
In essence, perfection is boring. Saitama from One Punch Man truly showed how unfulfilling it is to achieve perfection. However what if someone’s perfection is to such a ridiculous degree that they can do literally anything? Enter Sakamoto, the man who can sit on air, fly mary poppins style in tornados to save a bird and have a fight with a bee using a compass while working on math problems. Sakamoto is a man who can out Jojo the Jojo and has earned the nickname Swagamoto by the end of the first episode. I do think that this anime has lost some of the impact of the manga though the main reasons for that could be due to the music or that I am seeing these jokes for a second time. Still this can be an immensely entertaining show if it’s the kind of slapstick humor you like. This episode was more or less skits that involved guys trying to bully Sakamoto out of jealousy and getting frustrated as he turned each of their pranks into a way to make him look good. Each skit was separated with this odd interlude with three guys playing with a volleyball with the same repeating animation. It was rather odd addition to the series but somewhat amusing. On that last skit, you may think those kids were being silly overreacting to that bee in the classroom but people that was a Japanese hornet bee. Those things are about the size of your thumb, kill 40 people a year and are absolutely goddamn terrifying. Which makes Sakamoto’s battle with it all the more impressive. Godspeed, you magnificent bastard.
Potential: 80%
Haifuri
Short Synopsis: Cute girls playing battleship.
Well we have had cute girls being soldiers, cute girls in tanks, cute girls being battleships and now we have cute girls on battleships. Now all we need is cute girls in the luftwaffe and we got all the parts for a full military Moe army. I spent the majority of this episode dutifully bored out of my skull as I see two children bring out a trope as old as pokemon and declare themselves to become blue mermaids. Those being this world’s equivalent to the navy. For you see this world takes place when the earth has been flooded by rising seas and this has somehow inexplicably lead to it suddenly becoming every little girl’s dream to sail the seas on a battleship. Meanwhile I assume all the men decided to become doctors and farmers and whatnot offscreen because the Navy is suddenly female only. The moment you question the premise is the moment it falls apart so let’s just as the cheap excuse to ride the tailwinds of Kantai collection and move on. Now I would be writing this off pretty fast and intended to up until the second half where the plot has come into play. And yes, there is a plot. I was surprised too. For you see it seems the instructor of their class didn’t put an idiot as captian because she believed in her but rather so she could lead them out to a secluded area of sea and push them into attacking her boat so she can declare them traitors. So now we have a bunch of cute girls on a battleship called the Hasekaze who need to fight off their own navy and hopefully clear their name. I admit that upon watching this I wasn’t expecting a less gritty rendition of Battleship Potemkin featuring cute girls being cute. I am curious on just how they plan to approach this as I doubt we will be getting death and murder in the counterattack. A nice little underdog story about these girls trumping over a full navy with dwindling supplies and ingenuity would make for an interesting tale. However based on what I seen in the first half I doubt they can make it work.(I concede that the rice cooker joke was pretty funny) It’s got more substance than other cute girl shows airing this season so I suppose this would be the best option if you are looking to see it.
Potential: 40%
Flying Witch
Short Synopsis: A young witch moves to a quiet town to live with her cousins.
This is the kind of show where you make a cup of tea, sit down and just watch as all your worries melt away. Flying witch really benefits from being animated because now it just feels fluffy and warm. It’s very much like the Aria series which was a slice of life coming of age story that was so relaxing that it could put you to sleep if you try to marathon it. Not joke on that, it’s a great show but the atmosphere can have you drifting off if you try watching too many episodes in a row. This has that exact same feel. It’s harmless, light and puts a silly grin on your face. There’s no big plot developments and it’s more or less in tune with the less eventful episodes of Natsume Yuujinchou or Kiki’s delivery service. There are some nice moments of comedy with the mains lack of direction and the characters are so far pretty likeable. Sometimes you just need a show like this which can fill you with that soft serenity that’s slowly whittled away by the daily humdrum. Or you know…you can play a videogame where you blow zombies heads off with a shotgun. Whatever floats your boat.
Potential: 70%
