SPY x FAMILY
Short Synopsis: Super-Spy needs a kid for a mission, so he grabs one from the orphanage. He accidentally grabs a psychic one.
Lenlo: From what I remember of my time reading the manga, the start to Spy X Family was the most off-putting part. From two eccentric lead characters and their relationship to an equally absurd overarching mission, Spy X Family had a lot to establish in the first episode. And for the most part? I think it succeeded. As hamfisted as Twilight’s backstory is, it’s enough justification for this wholesome relationship to keep going. Especially when combined with that deep buried desire for a family. And as for Anya’s uwu voice? It was a tad grating at times, but she both thinks and acts like the 5 year old child she is, so it’s far more fitting than last season’s Frederica. Add on to that some successful gags like hide and seek when he was leaving or Anya’s obsession with spies and this becomes a fun, wholesome series with enough going on that it’s more engaging than the rest of the Slice of Life style shows out there. So I’m definitely going to be watching more.
Potential: 70%
Amun: Man, I was super scared when Lenlo was hyped about Spy x Family – plus we’re even both previewing it. And of course, our writers’ polarity curse has struck again! This episode…was a huge disappointment. What kind of pretentious, implausible lead is this? And Esper girl is really annoying and bratty. I get that it’s supposed to be funny, and I came into this really, really wanting to like it – but this premiere fell flat for me. At least it looks great (although I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that street in Titan). I guess this is what you get when you put Wit and Cloverworks together – cutesy, heart-string tugs with a few fight scenes thrown in (but I really liked the aerosolized flour shots). I think my issue here is the balance of comedy, cuteness,and thriller – this episode doesn’t nail it. Do I think it’ll get better? I sure hope so – I think the addition of the “wife” will probably help. Right now, this is my disappointment of the season so far. I’ll probably watch all of it.
Potential: 50%
Ao Ashi
Short Synopsis: A talented but loud kid gets scouted by a mysterious coach and spends the night together on the beach.
Mario: Soccer anime is not a rarity, but it’s also damn hard to get it right. Part of the issue is that soccer anime, like any sports anime, is more suitable in a long-running format. The current trend of this industry is limited to 1 or 2 cours, and as a result these sport shows get bogged down in the beginning phrase before they can truly take flight. The other issue is that it is difficult to animate soccer right. I have watched a few of them and without a proper budget, they just look terrible. I’m not totally convinced that Ao Ashi can get past these two concerns – its animated soccer match doesn’t look polished. I am glad, however, that it focuses on the core characters first and foremost: giving them proper time for the chemistry to sink in, giving the characters a plausible goal before expanding its cast. The main character’s antics can be loud and annoying at times (and yes, it pokes fun at itself as well. Look at the screencap), but when paired with this coach, they actually strengthen each other so far. I also approve of the way the show sets its sights on the world stage rather than the national level like other shows tend to do. All in all, like Lenlo says below, “This is a standard sports show that does everything competently.”
Potential: 40%
Lenlo: I dunno what else to say but that Ao Ashi is a sports show. Like the quintessential sports show. Yeah, the CGI players in the opening half are jank af, and yeah the soccer isn’t the most exciting part. But… I just kinda like sports shows? Ao Ashi isn’t trying to be anything special. It’s not trying to be a drama like 2.43 was, nor is it trying to one-up Haikyuu. It just wants to be a decent time for people who like action-y sports series. And in that I think it succeeds. There really isn’t much to say about it beyond, “This is a standard sports show that does everything competently.”
Potential: 50%
Love After World Domination
Short Synopsis: Romeo and Juliet with Red Power Ranger Boy and Pants-less Skull Girl.
Amun: (I bet Lenlo HATES this one). And in fairness…the character designs are wildly uneven. It’s so weird! It’s like half of the animators know how to draw the main girl’s face and half don’t….and they work on different scenes. The Power Rangers (I don’t care what their real name is – G5 or something stupid) are well animated…so why aren’t your main leads?! That’s going to really bother me if they don’t figure that out. As I’ve said before, I feel very generous towards this kind of premise (until it invariably gets beaten to death in a few seasons), but “Love After World Domination” is paper thin in pretty much every area but butt animation (and even that’s really uneven!) Like seriously, where are your pants? Right now, the animation is so uneven, I can’t make a determination – but I’ve rarely seen these issues improve over a season. Fix that, and I’m fully onboard.
Potential: 25-50%
Lenlo: I feel personally attacked to have my opinion assumed in this way… But you aren’t totally wrong. Like Amun said LAWD, as I like to call it, is a really inconsistent show. Sometimes it’s a competent Super Sentai action piece, other times it’s a mediocre rom-com. And in both cases I find the leading ladies outfit to be absurd and designed for the soul purpose of ass and tit shots. Stepping back for a moment, it’s a cute enough premise. More clever than most of the jokey junk food that usually fills out the season. So for that I want to give it credit. But… It’s still jokey junk food, the kind of thing that simply isn’t worth my time. I’d rather be catching up on older shows, checking out some western TV, or reading books and planning for my World of Darkness game than rotting my teeth with stuff like this. If it’s the feel good genre you are in for, this might be worth your time? If you want something with a more serious bite to it though, this will be a hard pass.
Potential: 10%
Amun you have no idea how wrong you are about spy x family. OK. It is not bloody pretentious. The cast are charming and wholesome maybe try reading tge fucking msngs or at least watch the next few episodes before you unfairly judge it!
One of the key attributes of my reviews is that I’m not normally a manga reader – I think it allows me to judge anime adaptations without source material bias (take the Promised Neverland – I was able to enjoy the first season without the dread from the manga supposedly falling off a cliff).
It also can be flawed in that first episodes represent the parts of a series where authors find their footing.
I would be absolutely ecstatic to be proven wrong as the season goes on – Spy X Family was the non-sequel I was most looking forward to in the season. But I stand by my judgement of the first episode outside the context of where the series goes.
I’m with Amun on SpyX. Totally not interested. Also go easy on Amun Zemox, he is juddging to the best of his ability, from all the content that is available. Manga is irrelevant here, sry.
I never research stuff I watch, but now actually reading that Wit and Cloverworks are doing SpyX… I literally disregarded all shows I watched made by these studios. So I went through their works on MAL and did a little trash talk, for anyone interested. I wondered whether to trash this or post it, but heck, I’m posting it, for giggles.
Before I go poop on these studios, I do have to say one good thing: Koi wa Ameagari no You ni’ is amazing piece of work and I totally love it. Bloom Into You was good but this is next level. There, see, I’m not biased. Also, I haven’t watched Great Pretender yet.
About perspective. When I was young and stupid, I, like other young and stupid people, used to rate everything 8/10 and claim everything a masterpiece. I didnt know better. After watching >10k episodes and >1k shows, I know what’s up. So no, below, I’m not trying to be an edgelord of superior taste (although yes Legend of Galactic Heroes IS more awesome than ), it just comes with experience. Also, does me saying X is shit mean its 100% bad? Of course not. Unwatchable? No. More like waste of time, unless you skip 80% of the content and only watch the highlights. Sure there gonna be highlights. But is the rest worth the time? Unless you decided to watch everything (like foolish me once), no. Go back in time and watch old classics. None of this modern crap does any good to you at this point. And with time, your ratings will go down and youll be embarrassed by what you have been watching in the past.
Protip: how do you spot a shitty show? Characters rationalize. They keep explaining why their actions are good and what other characters ‘need’ to do (to conform to their morality, the morality of the creator and eventually, you the viewer who is to absorb it). If the show takes itself more seriously than it should – you can turn it off, because it kills brain cells. Of course, production values mean nothing at that point. If the work aint gonna uplift viewer as a better person, it has a negative value. Aristotle knew this, its about time you do too. Work must be both enticing and uplifting, The lack of former is not a problem for a veteran (watch Texhnolyze as a test), but the lack of the latter means you get nothing, so the work is actually stealing from you – time, energy, attention, you name it. If you are fine with that, you are already lost. Aand yes, even pure entertainment must have value. No exceptions. But, value does not mean being deep, so chill.
So, now lets shitpost. Most of Wit | Cloverworks shows are just normie hype crap style over substance. There’s more studios like that but this is about SpyX studios.
Wit:
Shingeki no Kyojin – had some good stuff in S1, but was still flawed. Anything beyond S1 (specifically Eren vs Female Titan), including in manga is cringefest. It’s not even same show. Cowboys, Johnys, Titan walls, regimes… Blahblahblah Eren bad now, mm kay.
Owari no Seraph – started ok and lovely Shinoa and voice actors (Hayami Sayori and Nakamura Yuuichi) carried the show. Soon it predictably felt apart into mediocrity. Still better than SnK S2,3,4, kill me.
Vinland Saga – sorry, didnt even got to 2nd ep. I’m sure it is deep and historically accurate and dramatic and 10/10 feelings whatever. I dont care about try-hard realism style over substance. I may be a bit unfair here, but I’ve seen too much at this point and I srsly doubt theres anything here to surprise me. I hate CGI too.
Koutetsujou no Kabaneri – I already shit talked about this trainwreck show about trainwreck on this site. The only good moment was EP1 when MC saved train and they left him to die. Wait, they did not – ah yes, thats when it turned to shit. So it was good for 2 minutes. Everything after was only blablablah Miyano Mamoru generic villain lvl bad. MM can be really annoying when he tries to be serious. He works best for headstrong MCs with lack of self-awarenes, like L, Okabe Rintarou or Setsuna F.Seiei.
Vivy – pretentious drivel like all modern sci-fi crap. Harmony, Beatless, and billion others. Cute girl morality licence style over substance. Stuff like this is comedy, taking it seriously means buying into the many moral fallacies these works are build upon. Wasn’t there already one shitty show about a robot girl from KyoAni some time ago? Volet Evergarden? These shows employ malicious tricks, like inceptions, false dichotomies, congnitive dissonances and such to hammer you down with one message over and over and cloud it all for you with seeming contradictions so you leave with the ‘correct’ idea and wonder how wonderfully subtle the show was in conveying it. This is not about being emotionally manipulative, its intellectually manipulative. Create a problem, overblown it, provide a solution and use fake logic and emotional support to get the viewer where you need him. Like in Koe no Katachi – you start watching feeling everyone’s IRL is (mostly) normal and end the movie questioning why must normal people be so bad towards deaf people. Victims good, deaf good, normal bad, you shameful. B&W. Um okay KyoAni, thx for creating a fantasy environment where only deaf people get bullied. We should all learn sign language, just in case. Wouldnt that be inclusive… Lets learn all languages. It’s the same devious messaging like ‘silence is violence’. In Vivy its probably robots good, haters gonna hate. 86 is no better, from the little I’ve seen. Oh no, 2 tier society! Aren’t you living in one? Lets move on… since, those that understand dont need to read this and those that dont, will eat it all up anyway.
Mahoutsukai no Yome – The prequel OVA was interesting, series was shit. After couple eps it was clear this is some kind of female fantasy Stockholm fetish thing. The show could be claimed to be demonic. But I’m not going to watch more to confirm.
RollingGirls – this was trying so hard to be some sort of all-female FLCL. After 2 eps changed cast from bad to worse. Progressive vacuous crap. Still better than FLCL Progressive though, now that was something bad, which was already clear from the title. All these silly artists trying to capture FLCL and failing so bad. They do not get that FLCL was not crazy, the crazy was a smoke screen for something serious and very coherent. They dont get it and keep churning out failures. And call it progress. Must lack a lot of awareness to be even trying. So silly. But, watching the FLCL Progressive documentaries show exactly what kind of people are making this crap. Yes, it is cash grab and yes these people are completely incompetent, poop on creative geniuses and believe their silly ideas can run the world. I recommend FLCL Progressive documentaries. Watching the mental gymnastics of explaining why using a director who never directed before to capture the essence of a masterpiece being a brave and useful thing to do instead of lazy and disastrous decision was amusing. It’s also apparent they realized, since Progressive S2 was complete reset, about 10 times worse than abysmall S1. These people… Hhh. I do feel bad for some of the creators, likve VAs and the band. They are enthusiastic and often dont know whats up and end up being entangled into the mess. Tsuramaki can just say NO and leave, but all of the others left behind are staying on a sinking ship. To be fair, if I know its a sinking ship, they should know too, so, its fair I guess.
CloverWorks:
Yakusoku no Neverland – great 1st ep and terrifying start, but the show played all its cards in ep1 and the terrifying atmosphere soon stopped. Then too much kids whining and too little substance of any kind. Asspulls about babies escaping demons. Not good enough as a PrisonBreak, not good enough as Hunter x Hunter. Black maid ruined the little good that remained. If all demons were bad, including all the maids and the kids would keep dropping dead until literally one or two would make it, it could be a good thriller. Shinsekai Yori understood this (not that it was without its flaws). This is milk stuff for kiddies. Had potential, watch PsychoPass instead.
Darling in the FranXX – soulless attempt to capture Gainax spirit for modern audience. Good animation can not help. Gainax was massive success for a reason. Morons trying to appease modern audience will fail to create great work, because modern audience can not be pleased with creative energy that captures anything meaningful, for modern consumer is lost in an abyss of no value. Trigger studio just stop * (see end).
Wonder Egg Priority – Actually didnt get to watch (and drop) this one, but I already know
its cancerous woke propaganda. Also embarrassing clone of KyoAni style is embarrassing.
Sono Bisque – progressive trash riding latest wave of ultra-dominant female leads toying with simps shows (like Ijiranaide Nagatarou). It’s only popular because masses of simps can actually identify with the MCs now, so its like the most realistic fantasy possible. Yes the MC here is a simp. Yes he is a girl toy. Yes the girl is a whore. No, nothing of value is to be found here and copying this in real life will destroy your life. Literally teaches that if you are useful to a slut you will get used by the slut (supposedly virtuous friendly maiden waiting for you to give her love). In reality these girls are groomed by the media and ride a carousel then 15 years later wake up with cats and no husband or kid to cry about it on twitter while hating everyone sane not to touch them, suing CEOs and counting their beta orbiters. The show is literally about a guy who does makeup for his NOT-girlfriend (and is better at it than her), so she can whore up for other people. If this is not feminizing men, nothing is. You think woman want men who will do their makeup? Wake up. When I was her age in class, my female teacher once pulled a girl much like MC here to a sink and forcefully washed all her makeup in front of everyone. We laughed, because we all knew she deserved it. Today everyone would sue.
Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny – soulless rip-off of overrated Monogatari and uncapturable mains from SNAFU and ‘Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e’. Cringe dialogue. Nothing to see here.
Shadows House – started interesting, had potential to dive into the very interesting Jungian psychology, but turned out to be just fluff about playing friends. Show should be more about master-shadow relationships (its strong card), not silly competitions. Should also involve more psychological and bodily horror. Too bad about this one. As always, for kids only.
Saenai Heroine – mildly interesting concept lost in mediocrity and bad idea. Turns out show about boring girlfriend is boring. The tsunderes were fine, but it dragged and didnt go anywhere. Waste of voice acting.
Some of the potentially other good works of these studios I did not try yet, but the ones I mentioned are most of the most popular. You see the pattern. So, no Spy X Somehting, I have 0 expectations and ep1 already killed me inside.
addendum:
Trigger – another unnecessary studio, the only contribution of which was towards TTGL, which we can now confidently say only worked because of the other Gainax creators that carried it. Anyone who watched Hiroyuki Imaishi’s ‘creative’ works like Dead Leaves, Inferno Cop, Panty & Stocking sperm episode (that could only be him…) or his ep from The Japan Animator Project must realize he is obscene sex-obsessed maniac that must be kept in check by other creative pros. Like in times of Gainax. His idea of funny involves pregnant woman shooting the liquid contents of her belly during birth on the street and flying away off-screen. Srsly. If you havent watched his stuff, im happy for you.
A1 Pictures – another studio widely engaging in production of utter rubbish. SAO, BokuDake, AnoHiMita, Aldnoah, Shigatsu are true cancer. This studio has a habit of giving villains red
glowing eyes, even in their most realistic shows. What a joke. Indeed, Qualidea Code was a meme. Grimgar was, ehm isekai something something realism something, kill only goof character, continue snooze fest. 86 already mentioned. Kaguya-sama had potential, but MCs are too much just vehicles for same shit over-N-over, so, yeah, bad again. Id take Yuru Yuri over Kaguya-sama every time. But Grandblue was actually good. Their best works were probably Kuroshitsuji (S1, the rest is meh) and Subete ga F Ni Naru (I dont get the hate for this show). Didnt watch Uchuu Kyoudai yet. Birdy Decode was meh too. Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin was funny so it gets a pass.
My goodness, go ahead and let it all out!
Do you know the worst part? I like probably half of the Cloverworks or Wit projects mentioned here. Not that your points aren’t fair, but I still found enjoyment from them – I think just because a series has some flaws it shouldn’t be entirely discarded. (And hey, I do like quite a few titles by Trigger – although what you’re saying about the strange birthing and flying away seems a bit wild. Must have missed that one).
So for me Spy X Family should be good. And it probably will in a few episodes (manga readers have all come out in force to tell me this). Just have to call it straight, even if some people get cross with me ^_^