Spring 2021 Summary – Week 5

Mars Red – 04/05

Lenlo: God Mars Red is just so… aggressively mediocre. About once per episode it will have a good, focused moment of vampiric humanity. Of immortals interacting and living in a mortal society. And then the rest of the episode is just mediocre political subplots, vampires we don’t know or care about subplots and downright terrible action sequences. There’s only ever one scene of any value in these episodes. You could watch that one scene on youtube, skip the rest and lose absolutely nothing. And that’s a damn shame.

Back Arrow – 17

Wooper: Last week our heroes declared the Granedger to be its own sovereign nation, but that claim feels silly now that the show is handing out massive warships like Oprah. “You get a dreadnought, you get a dreadnought, everybody gets a dreadnought!” Not only are they being given to antagonists left and right, those antagonists are being defeated just moments after receiving them, making this whole arc feel even hastier than usual (a real feat for a series like Back Arrow). We’re just making all of this up as we go along, it seems, but at least that improvised feel leaves room for plenty of fights – the Rekkan Emperor kicked so much ass this week that he must have broken both ankles. Am I crazy, or did he manifest as both an arrow and the bow that fired it during his battle with Tae’s dreadnought? I had to rewind that scene a couple times to double check what I’d just watched, and I still don’t really understand it. Looked pretty cool, though! All the cult/prophecy nonsense about Arrow destroying the world is just background noise, as far as I’m concerned – give me more fights and less story, please.

 

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song – 06

Helghast: This week on Terminator Hatsune Miku, it felt like a final episode with an improvised speeder bike blowing through all the other drones as the OP song blares in the background. It’s funny to see how that song developed from just an OP to being Vivy’s theme to having an actual plot relevance in shaping this alternate future. I’m glad that the story does a good enough job of building up Vivy’s eventual acceptance of her dual directives in the first six episodes just for all of it to crumble into an existential crisis. Diva is the one who wants to bring happiness to the world with her singing while Vivy is the AI who will destroy AI to save the world. The fate of her fellow sisters and the researcher’s sucide shows that she only brings pain to others and isn’t able to save anyone in the end (except for that Toak guy). I’m far more invested in experiencing the latter half of the show just to see how the rampancy in the final scene would change her core identity. It could lead to a falling out between her and Matsumoto or even sacrificing herself for the greater good just like her other robotic sisters.

Mashiro no Oto – 05

Wooper: Most high school club series follow the same basic template: one member is exceptionally gifted or knowledgeable, which inspires everybody else to improve. Mashiro no Oto is no exception, even if its wunderkind character’s prickly disposition gives it a slightly different flavor. Despite that adherence to a tried-and-true formula, though, I find it difficult to believe that Setsu’s classmates could possibly reach a nationally competitive standard within half a year. The Matsugoro Cup might not be prestigious, but it’s no mere prefectural tournament, either – novices would just embarrass themselves on stage, even with six months of practice in the lead-up to the event. They did get a front row seat to their leader’s shamisen duel with Seiryuu, which melted Setsu’s frustration at his own inaptitude for teaching, but that’s a short term fix for a problem without an answer. I’m just not buying what the show is selling, so I might have to bow out early and watch the remaining performance scenes in isolation, a la 2020’s Hypnosis Mic. We’ll see.

Bakuten – 04

Lenlo: Bakuten can best be described as consistently competent. I wouldn’t say anything it did or accomplished this week was all that impressive. There were no big animation set pieces and while the revelation about their lack of teamwork was nice, I didn’t actually feel much from it. Though I do appreciate how Bakuten is taking the time to build up these relationships and establish our big rival. Humanizing them through interactions with our main cast and giving them matching interests. Again none of this is ground breaking. But it makes for a fun and competent show about a sport that I otherwise have very little interest in. That’s kinda cool.

Super Cub – 04

Wooper: Ordinarily I’d say this was a pretty ordinary episode, but that would apply to every week of Super Cub thus far. Its simplicity has resulted in me running out of ways to compliment it, actually – Koguma’s first job and first oil change might be major milestones in her life, but they’re depicted with no flair whatsoever. And that’s fine! The show’s tranquil pace and attention to small details are what make it such a pleasant watch. Unless the visit to Reiko’s cabin results in the girls sharing more scenes outside of school, though, I don’t know if I’ll keep writing about it each week. There are a handful of shows I want to give a second chance (Moriarty, Godzilla, Bishounen Tanteidan), and one of them might end up taking Super Cub’s spot here. For now, I’ll leave with a prediction: Koguma will be involved in a traffic accident during the second half of the season, and recover mentally thanks to support from Reiko and Shii (when are they going to introduce her, anyway?).