Wooper: We’re bringing back the pre-column author’s notes this week! Not for anything too exciting – just a heads up that there won’t be a recap post on June 21st, since that’s Summer 2021 Preview day. We’ll do a final Spring Summary on the 28th, though, before jumping straight into first impressions mode. Seasonal anime never stops running, and neither do we!
Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song – 12
Helghast: What kind of super AI records in a 4:3 format and has an antique VHS overlay when recounting Vivy’s one hundred year journey? With that kind of tech, maybe it came to the conclusion that humanity has become stagnant and that AI should replace them to continue to evolve much like how children end up replacing their parents in the long term just with killer robots and apocalyptic imagery. Speaking of killer robots, that entire mission could not have gone more poorly for Vivy and her crew trying to take down the Archive. Everyone is dead and humanity got its ass kicked by hundreds of thousands satellites falling from the sky. I’m glad that Toak brought some rifles to the party and there were some awesome sequences, including a fight with the archive that bordered on abstract art.
Unlike Teppei’s other works of Re:Zero, there are no more retries. The autosave overwrote the timeline where Osamu is still alive and placed Vivy at the door of the final boss. At least Vivy finally has an answer to her question of what her heart is. I suspect it has something to do with her own desires and dreams of protecting those close to her and conveying those strong passions through her singing. With next week’s episode title being “Fluorite Eye’s Song,” I certainly hope that it will be a banger to close off a spectacular original show.
Eden – 01
Wooper: Eden is a four-part sci-fi ONA that landed on Netflix a couple weeks ago. Given its simple “human girl in a robot world” premise, I figured it’d be a breezy watch, so I gave the premiere a go and came out pleasantly surprised. The plot is overly familiar and the animation takes some getting used to, but there’s a lot of pretty scenery to be found here, and the clumsy robot “parents” at the heart of the story form a winning combination. The characters integrate nicely with their surroundings – there are some exceptions to that rule, of course, but CGCG Studio did fine work in this first episode (yes, that’s their real name). If you give this thing a shot, look for the moment when Sara sits up in bed at the 19 minute mark; I’ve rarely seen such solidity in the way a 3D person pushes against a surface in a flat background image. As for teenage Sara’s rebellious streak and the evil robots who want to wipe out humanity, their predictability is mildly bothersome, but I am curious about how we’ll reach the point in the cold open where our hero pilots a giant mech. And of course, the reflective city in the middle of Eden holds tremendous visual appeal – hopefully we’ll get there in the next episode.
Fruits Basket S3 – 10
Amun: At the risk of sounding crude, this entire season of Fruits Basket has been a long awaited emotional release from the pent-up tease of the previous seasons. My goodness, it feels good to watch Yuki punch this idiot Kyo through a door. In fact, everyone in this episode put on their big boy and big girl pants (that even includes, shockingly, Akito)…with the one glaring exception of…TOHRU?! You know what, she’s carried these idiot zodiacs long enough, we’re going to give her a pass on that one. This Feels armada is coming into port, and most everyone avoided dying, so we’re going to call this a win. Except Shigure – he can just drown.
Godzilla SP – 8-9
Wooper: I’m still keeping up with Godzilla SP, gobbledygook script be damned. All this talk of Archetypes, catastrophes, and dimensional perception is dull viewing for this right-brained writer – I fell asleep during episode 9, woke up and rewound to see what I’d missed, and felt as though I needn’t have gone back. Thankfully, the show has once again displayed hidden strengths to make up for its illusory, jargon-heavy plot – this week its secret weapon was Jet Jaguar, Goro’s beloved robot. He’s been a rusty beacon of enthusiasm ever since receiving an AI operating system, but now that he’s been equipped with an awesome spear, the animators at Studio Orange have gone to town. All of Jaguar’s jumps and slashes have the heft and timing of great action anime – his scenes are the best that Godzilla SP has looked thus far, especially in the 3DCG department. Even the appearance of Godzilla himself (finally in recognizable form) couldn’t upstage the little mech that could. I’m generally impressed with the consistency of the human cast’s character art, as well. Godzilla isn’t the flashiest show on the block in terms of traditional animation, but it’s held steady for nine episodes now, which is a reason for fans to celebrate.
You know? I’m not going to give Back Arrow it’s big recap until next week and I’ll go all CliffsNotes this week. Rudolph is still alive (surprise surprise), “God” needs its sustenance by literally sucking the life out of Lingalind to survive, Arrow and the others reach the center of the nervous system and meet what appears to be someone who looks just like Arrow.
And with that, Milverton meets his untimely end as a consequence for thinking he can toy around with two geniuses (Sherlock and Moriarty). Pretty decent finale, though greatly abridged from its manga version (but they did fine with fitting it into one episode). Now Sherlock and William are pretty much after each other leading into The Final Problem. That’s the big question, how are they going to fit this lengthy 9-chapter arc in the manga into two episodes without it feeling too rushed?
My feelings on Mars Red this week were complicated. The fight between Defrott and Maeda once again demonstrated why action is easily the show’s weakest aspect, though it did end quickly (which will likely irritate those expecting something longer and more conclusive) once we saw some sliver of humanity left in Maeda, having accidently stabbed Aoi. What was good about it though were the other aspects such as Tenmaya’s backstory, Defrott’s little soliloquy about life and death, finally seeing Rufus be established as the main antagonist (as the one who pushed back after getting pushed by others like Nakajima), and Kurusu’s new flying suit. And to paraphrase what Defrott said at the end, “Act 2 of this play has just begun”, which will only end in tragedy.
Meanwhile, Fairy Ranmaru is finally getting somewhere with all of the breadcrumbs it kept leaving regarding the fairies’ past. And it’s… interesting to say the least, which they’ll fully elaborate next episode. Needless to say, I kinda expected the King of Prism creator to eventually throw in some idol aspect in there, just not in the way that was normally expected with Ranmaru and Chilka’s past. The magical boy segment with the promiscuous, bara fairy protecting a stripper (yes) was also probably one of the best in this series so far.
Oh, you’re watching Eden? Cool! I saw it dubbed and I like it well enough, even though it is rather simplistic in its characters and themes. It gets the job done, and the CGI actually doesn’t look like garbage for once.