Spring 2022 Check-In – Weeks 7-9

Wooper: I’ve never felt that the phrase “weekly summary” accurately described this column, and now that I’m a rogue writer who shows up whenever he feels like it, I’m going with “check-in” and damn the consequences. This check-in post is too early to catch Hisuian Snow’s second episode (airing tomorrow) or the start of the Spriggan ONA (June 18th), but they’ll be in the next one, which ought to appear around the time that the Summer Preview gets pinned. See you then!

Pokemon: Hisuian Snow 1

There have been a bunch of worthwhile Pokemon shorts in the past few years, but the best of them is undoubtedly 2020’s Twilight Wings, the art direction of which far outstripped most TV anime from that year. With Hisuian Snow, Wit Studio aims to match that effort from Studio Colorido, and based on this short first episode they might just succeed. It’s set in the mountainous Hisui region, which I know nothing about, but you don’t need to be current with the franchise as a whole to appreciate how pretty this six minute short looks; the combination of the snowy peaks and the setting sun bathes the whole production in warm colors, from gentle yellows to harsh oranges. That contrast emphasizes what looks to be the story’s main idea – that Pokemon are beautiful but dangerous – alongside some “humans and Pokemon can never coexist” dialogue from the main character’s father. That’s not a sentiment you typically get from the franchise, and although it’s obviously set up to be disproven by the bond between a young boy and a wild Zorua, there’s room for Hisuian Snow to tiptoe into frightening territory before its feel-good finish. Still, the main reason to watch is the art, which I’ll stress again is excellent – you can see for yourself by watching the first installment [here].

Summertime Render 6-8

As a time-traveling, lightly metaphysical thriller, Summertime Rendering walks on a knife’s edge with every episode, but it hasn’t fallen off yet. The cliffhangers are still surprising, the reveals are still satisfying, and even the rules for hunting its unsettling shadow monsters are worked nicely into its script. That last point comes from episode 7, where Ryuunosuke’s assault on Shiori’s house is balanced with an explanation of his split personality, and the propulsive animation of Shiori’s escape attempt is accompanied by a lesson on how to pin down the shadows. Summertime is better than average at cutting between action and dialogue, which has served it well so far – although sometimes it doesn’t know what to do with itself during extended dialogue scenes, which is where the weird comic relief comes in. Still, I can overlook that personal quibble in favor of praising Hizuru’s role in these episodes, especially number 6, which shifted to her POV for the first 12 minutes. Gaining her perspective really primed those of us in the audience for her team-up with Shinpei, which yielded immediate results the following week, then led straight into their conflict over Ushio in episode 8. Being both an ally in their fight against the shadows and a shadow herself, Ushio almost certainly holds the key to unlocking the mysteries of the island and defeating Haine. With how much I’m enjoying the show right now, though, I’ll be content if both of those goals go unrealized for a while longer.

Healer Girl 2-7

After watching Healer Girl’s premiere, I predicted that “the further the show progresses, the harder it’ll be to take its story seriously,” and that turned out to be an accurate forecast, at least on a personal level. Maybe I’m just falling victim to a self-fulfilling prophecy here, but I haven’t spotted many glimpses of the series’ initial promise in the episodes that have followed (though it should be noted that I’m not current with the show). Episode 3 was a notable exception, since it contained a couple fun musical sequences at its beginning and end, but all the sing-talking that persisted through the sports festival in the middle was a complete miscalculation. Stories that dove into the medical aspect, like the girls singing to soothe a surgeon’s nerves during an operation, had all the complexity of fairy tales where the wave of a magic wand is enough to achieve a “happily ever after.” And the less said about the recent culture festival, where the girls flawlessly played their instruments while wearing full body animal costumes, the better. The only episode I can recommend without reservation is the fifth, where the characters visited Hibiki’s family in the countryside – tellingly, that was the one with the least focus on the show’s musical premise. Healer Girl’s first half isn’t bad, but neither is it good enough for me to watch its second.

Kaguya-sama S3 7-9

I sometimes feel as though the aspects of Kaguya-sama that I don’t particularly like are the ones that its target audience goes crazy for: Ishigami’s depressive mentality, Chika acting as Shirogane’s teacher, anything to do with the Four Ramen Emperors. Each of these elements could be found somewhere in these three episodes, but I’m just grateful that the first one was mitigated in the leadup to the culture festival. Ishigami’s crush on Tsubame has been fairly important this season, and I think the series made a great choice by tying that secondary romance to Kaguya and Shirogane’s central one. We’ve seen Kaguya act as Ishigami’s motivator in various episodes dating back to season two, so bringing back that dynamic and making it into a mutually encouraging relationship has me more interested in Ishigami’s love life than I would be otherwise. Of course, the show saw fit to smear a blur effect all over the chapter where he asks Tsubame to visit his class’s haunted house, which took me right out of the story (something similar happened during Shirogane’s attempts at making balloon art). Something I loved without reservation, on the other hand, was the chapter with Mass Media club members Erika and Karen (pictured above), which offered a different view of characters like Kaguya, Tsubame and Shirogane. I can’t remember whether we’d met them before their appearance in episode 7, but either way, I hope to see them again soon.