Wooper: I’m hitting publish on this check-in post at the eleventh hour, as today is the final day of the spring season. Today may also mark my final time doing one of these columns, as I’m in the process of weaning myself off seasonal anime. Summer premieres begin tomorrow, though, and I’ll still be wading through them along with the rest of the gang for the next couple weeks – thoughts and prayers appreciated.
Spriggan 1
First, a disclaimer: I haven’t read the Spriggan manga or seen the anime film by Studio 4°C, so my perspective may be useful only to those of you who are similarly ignorant of the series’ history. The only Spriggan-related material I’ve got under my belt is episode one of the new streaming series, all six episodes of which are around 40 minutes in length. The good news is that the first episode didn’t drag at all; the bad news is that it’s wall-to-wall action with little in the way of character writing. The CG characters (mostly protagonist Yuu and a couple dozen military dudes) integrate pretty well with the 2D ones, which greatly benefits the half dozen fight scenes in the premiere. Spriggan is a cut above TV anime like Dorohedoro on that front, but the same can’t be said for its script, which has been mangled by unimportant jargon. Characters spend precious minutes describing the functions of their biomechanical suits, the specific hardness levels of their swords, and the origins of relics belonging to ancient civilizations – meanwhile, we know next to nothing about Yuu or his professor friend, apart from the fact that they met as children. What sort of life does Yuu lead outside of being a Spriggan warrior? What sort of person is he, apart from being determined (as nearly all action heroes are) and talkative? The show hasn’t answered these questions so far. It’s possible that the premiere’s tidy resolution will give way to a slower, more personal second episode, but I won’t be sticking around to find out.
Kaguya-sama S3 10-13
With these episodes, Shirogane’s (and perhaps Kaguya’s) final culture festival comes to a close. I’ve got to say, following the early reveal of Shirogane’s application to Stanford with the late stage reveal that he’d be skipping a grade in the process was a great move, accelerating the show’s timetable to make this season’s conclusion twice as dramatic. These episodes were all about time limits, be it Kaguya’s race to find the President during the bonfire or Ishigami unwittingly giving Tsubame a three month window to respond to his confession. Even under these constraints, I felt the show passed its third year exams with flying colors; Ishigami’s belated recognition of his blunder was timed perfectly, Tsubame came across as endearing in her struggle to respond to Ishigami’s feelings, and the show’s teasing of an Iino/Ishigami connection held a lot of promise. Shirogane’s grand gesture in the finale was even more impressive, and the dive into his reason for letting Kaguya take the lead in their relationship shone a light on his lingering insecurities – if the series is smart, they’ll come to the surface again once we get closer to his departure for America. The highlight of these episodes was, in my opinion, the Kaguya/Hayasaka scene in episode 12, which doubled as a commentary on romcom confessions and a confirmation of Hayasaka’s love for her mistress – the way she dashed forward to hug Kaguya wasn’t exactly well-animated, but the emotion of the scene was very real. I’ve got my gripes with the finale’s multiple postscripts, but they pale in comparison to the success of the show’s (temporary) conclusion.
Pokemon: Hisuian Snow 2-3
What a treat this miniseries ended up being. It was pretty short at just three episodes, but there was plenty of heart packed into its brief run. The bond between main character Akio and the Zorua who saved his life was about what I expected, but that was only the start of the anime’s emotional potency. Episode 3’s jump to the present day revealed Akio’s determination to become a Pokemon doctor, which stemmed directly from the medicinal herbs that Zorua had brought him during their time together – proof of their encounter’s transforming effect on Akio’s life. That career goal, along with his general Pokemon fixation, drove a wedge between Akio and his father, who couldn’t relate to his son’s love for such dangerous creatures. There’s a direct parallel between this father-son pair and thousands of real world fathers and sons who share nothing in common, so I imagine this story element hit home for a lot of viewers. You can even go one level deeper than that and observe the Pokemon-adjacent masks that Akio’s father made for a living, and infer that he has his own love for Pokemon, which has been buried by years of hostility between their species. Decorating all of these ideas are more of the beautiful colors and lighting we saw during the first episode, plus a monstrous Garchomp fight that ought to satisfy the more action-hungry fans of the franchise. Great stuff all around – the [second] and [third] installments can be streamed here, so give them a look if you haven’t already!
Summertime Render 9-11
This will likely be my last time writing about Summertime Render, so it feels pretty bad to report that these three episodes halted much of my enthusiasm for the series. It’s still offering up twists left and right: Ushio befriending her shadow in advance of her death, Haine invading Ushio’s memory of the day she died, the reveal of the first human character allied with the shadows. But it’s hard for me to get excited for any of these revelations when the anime itself has been less exciting lately, mostly because of a downgrade on a storyboarding front. The most recent episode is where the problem manifests itself most clearly – the show can’t go 60 seconds without falling back on obnoxious white speedlines to convey the urgency of what’s happening underground. Scenes of duplicate characters inhabiting the same space are suboptimally laid out, especially in Ushio’s memories from episode 9, and the shift to depicting shadows as fat blobs rather than unsettling human/shadow hybrids hasn’t done the series any favors. It also feels like the show is making up rules as it goes – of course it’s always done this, being a work of fiction, but conveniences like Ushio transforming a lock of her hair into an object she’s seen with her X-ray vision aren’t exactly convincing. It feels like we’re in need of a reset via another Shinpei death, so hopefully we get one after the upcoming info dump on Hiruko.
