State of the Season – Spring 2021

Amun: Of all the authors here, I think I’m watching the most shows this spring (20), so it’s fitting that I lead us off on the State of the Season post. Despite having only one tent-pole (MHA), this season features excellent mid-level sequels (Iruma-kun, Zombieland, Fruits Basket, and SSSS.Dynazenon) plus some surprising originals (Odd Taxi, Vivy). There are a few duds – Mars Red, Jouran, Shaman King – but overall this is a pleasant, quiet season following up the monster of last winter. Just don’t look too far ahead to the barren summer lineup and let’s enjoy some nice taxi rides and robot uprisings.

What show are you enjoying that you’re not reviewing?

Amun: Honestly, I’m enjoying most of the shows I’m watching – I feel this season is solid. Vivy and SSSS.Dynazenon stand out particularly.

Lenlo: That I’m not reviewing? Odd Taxi has to be the pick for me. Aside from Megalo Box it’s one of maybe… 3 shows I’m excited to watch every week. Oh, I also binged the final season of Castlevania and while the story suffers from sequelitis god damn does it look good. So freakin good.

Helghast: Rammed through Invincible which is an original animation from Amazon and it was pretty good for an adult cartoon. I felt it dragged through its teenage drama for far too long but I can’t complain about having more subversive and violent superhero content.

Armitage: Megalo Box has been the clear standout. It’s even better than S1 and that was my favorite anime of 2018! Other than that, Vivy has been fantastic beyond my expectations and Odd Taxi has been the critical darling of the season. I do wish that Burning Kabaddi got more viewers as it’s a really solid sports anime. But yeah, that’s what I am enjoying the most for now. And let’s see, how many of these shows am I not reviewing this season? looks through notes  Oh. 😛

Wooper: It’s not this spring’s best show, but it might be my favorite: Mini Dragon, the series of weekly shorts leading up to next season’s Kobayashi-san S2. It makes me happy to see TV work from Kyoto Animation again, even if it’s just for two minutes at a time.

Mario: Since I blogged none this season, my “non-blogged” favorites are also my overall favorites, and I have two. I will talk about the other show in the section below, so I want to raise attention to SSSS.Dynazenon. I still feel the shifts between its restrained character focus and its extravagant tokusatsu battles are a bit jarring, as well as its shifts from hand-drawn to 3D models – but I feel for the characters’ struggles, and its dream-like weirdness still holds my attention.

 

Unpopular Opinion

Mario: Sad to say this but I ain’t really onboard the To Your Eternity train. I feel like the story hammers too hard on its humanity themes, and for me a quieter approach (like Mushishi) would suit the show much better. There are just too many loud characters contrasting the Immortal’s wordlessness.

Amun: Fruits Basket is a top 5 show for this season.

Wooper: 86’s attempts at generating socially conscious war fiction have been accidental comedy gold. It’s actually one of my favorite airing shows, because it somehow manages to be endearing in its ineptitude.

Armitage: Odd Taxi gets way too much credit and might just be an average show in disguise.

Amun: Armi, I can’t believe you’ve done this.

Lenlo: But I have so many! If I had to pick, I think Dynazenon is overrated. I absolutely hated Gridman, screw that show, and Dynazenon’s connection to leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Add on to that how similar the two shows feel and I don’t even wanna bother with it.

Also Super Cub is boring, there, I said it.

Helghast: Watching Odd Taxi is just the start of a quick ride into becoming a furry.

Midseason Masterpiece, or at least “More than Mediocre?”

Armitage: Megalo Box hands down. It has simply been phenomenal. That aside, I would have to hold my judgement on everything else. To Your Eternity obviously would have been my first choice in this category but Brains Base seems hell-bent on butchering the adaptation (T^T)

Wooper: Odd Taxi is the most intricately-written series to emerge from Japan in quite a while. Its ability to thread an increasing number of stories into a cohesive whole is far beyond what most anime are capable of.

Mario: I just love the natural dialogue of Odd Taxi so much that I don’t mind if it’s losing the main plot at the moment. We have so many plot threads to connect that at times we don’t know what we should focus on. On the other hand, the cast is surprisingly refreshing, and the Capoeira dance from episode 3 takes my heart and my soul away. When every single interaction sparks with that much unique chemistry, I am happy to follow it all the way.

Lenlo: Megalo Box is my current favorite of the season. But as for things I’m not reviewing, Odd Taxi stands out as the most unique thing currently airing.

Amun: Special nods to this season’s originals Vivy and Odd Taxi, but Fruits Basket is splendid at the halfway point.

Best Girl/Guy/Anything Else

Lenlo: Can I pick the narrator from Fumetsu? Because I could listen to Kenjirou Tsuda talk forever. I loved him in Kamuy and I love his voice here. No? What about Holo even though it’s from Throwback Thursday? Has to be this season? Fine. Best MHA girl who only gets like 3 minutes of screentime this season it is. GIMME MIRUKO OR GIVE ME DEATH.

Armitage: Alright, guys. We gotta make sure our break-dancing, possibly devious lady gets that best girl trophy. Alpacas Assemble!!

Wooper: Let’s go with Marla from Megalo Box 2. She’s not the best character from this second season (that’d be Chief), but she’s certainly the best-looking. (Lenlo Approves)

Amun: Grown Momiji Sohma is a national treasure that I think the Pretty Boy Detective Club should recruit and protect.

Mario: The only time where a male character gets my vote. Well done (and rest in peace), Chief!

What show did you drop?

Lenlo: Dynazenon and Jouran, for two very different reasons. Dynazenon I explained above but Jouran I wasn’t able to get into. Maybe it improves after the second episode, but just like the first, it’s as if Jouran didn’t know what it wanted to be.

Helghast: 86 – I should be excited for a mecha show from A-1 Pictures that has Sawano music but after three episodes, the weird spider tanks and the shallow and pedantic attempt at a serious war drama laced with typical anime bullshit is enough for me to drop it. Despite its planned 22 episode length, I’m certain that the anime is nothing more than an advertisement for the light novels. With nine volumes currently released, there is little chance of the anime ever adapting its complete story. Don’t waste your time.

Amun: Fumetsu no Anata e – I hear it gets less intense after the first episode, but it was just more than I was looking for. Oh yeah, and Shaman King – I can’t find where to watch it.

Mario: For now, Sayonara Watashi no Cramer. It splits itself between focusing on the soccer aspect and its big cast and ends up failing at both. Also, I dropped Godzilla S.P, as it tries so hard to be mysterious and smart that it forgets one of the most basic storytelling components: give us characters that we care about.

Armitage: Jouran was the first to go. Shaman King quickly followed suit. But I might pick that back up if it improves substantially. And Tokyo Revengers has also fallen, sadly. Because I find the adaptation very lacklustre.

Wooper: Mashiro no Oto, which didn’t live up to its early promise, and Super Cub, which I might revisit once all the episodes are out and I can watch at my own speed.

Guilty Pleasure of the Season

Amun: Oh man – there are a bunch this season. Pretty Boy Detective Club is way more enjoyable than I expected (I’m a Medaka Box stan though). EDENS ZERO is not quality, but I’m in it all the way. Isekai Maou Omega is delightfully trashy. But Sentouin is probably the one I’d label the guilty pleasure, so let’s go with that.

Mario: Bishounen Tanteidan is vintage Nisioisin-slash-Shaft with its self-indulgent conversations full of pretentious ideas, but that’s exactly why I still enjoy it to the fullest.

Wooper: I haven’t watched beyond the first episode of Nagatoro-san, but I intend to. The mere fact that I want to revisit a show made for humiliation fetishists should qualify for this category, right?

Armitage: Godzilla Singular Point. It’s, uh, I don’t even know what this show is. It’s technically supposed to be a Kaiju blockbuster… thing? It’s been all over the place, honestly. And I can spend my time better than watching this every week. But here we are.

Lenlo: Burning Kabaddi. I don’t know why I’m still watching it. I really shouldn’t be, there’s nothing good about it. But I am. And I feel compelled to every week.

Song of the Season

Mario: Apart from the fantastic acoustic performance of Megalobox ED, the Dynazenon OP reminds me of Gridman’s opening, but at the same time still brings excitement and a unique flair to the show.

Lenlo: This is a tough choice. I want to pick some of the Latin themed tracks of Nomad but those aren’t out and I can’t really find a good video source. Meanwhile I think Odd Taxi’s opening is probably the best of the season, musically and visually. But there’s something I enjoy listening to more and that would have to be Shadow House’s Nai Nai by ReoNa.

Helghast: For the poor animators of Vivy, they have to come up with multiple OPs in order to illustrate the progression of the story. The most recent one, “Galaxy Anthem”, is a banger.

Amun: “On My Own” by Hyde (Mars Red ED).

Wooper: There’s a decent selection of good OP/ED tracks this spring, but the only one with the design sensibilities to match is Odd Taxi’s opening.

Armitage: The Megalo Box S2 ED is in my opinion the best song of the season. But I want to shed light on one of the other contenders: the instrumental version of “Mediator” by Masashi Hamauzu from the To Your Eternity premiere.

 

What was something you watched that wasn’t airing?

Helghast: Started The Great Pretender and it’s probably going to go down as a must-watch dubbed show.

Wooper: I’m juggling a bunch of sci-fi shows at the moment: Figure 17, Ghost Hound, Star Driver, and the 2004 remake of Tetsujin 28-go. Figure 17 is probably my favorite of the lot, being a slow-moving drama with prominent child characters.

Armitage: The Kaguya dub is so good it actually had me give the show another chance. The Maoujou de Oyasumi dub is equally enjoyable. Other than those, Firechick recommended Kobato to me and it’s the perfect wholesome show that we all need in our lives.

Lenlo: A lot! First there’s the obvious with Spice and Wolf for Throwback Thursday. After that I’m also watching the 1988 Aim for the Ace sequel and the first season of Hajime no Ippo! Finally in the rear I’m watching Samurai Champloo for the first time and planning to start Uma Musume just so a friend will stop bothering me about it.

Amun: (I guess I’m still watching…) Attack on Titan. I don’t want to talk about it.

Mario: I plan to watch the Fate/stay night original storylines real soon. That includes the 2006 adaptation, 2014’s Unlimited Blade Works, and the recent Heaven’s Feel trilogy. Wish me luck, I guess?

Let’s Talk About
Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song.

Amun: I don’t like singing anime. I’m an EDM guy – the anime that was probably closest to my musical tastes was that weird DJ one a few seasons back. So when Terminator-Hatsune Miku (I did not come up with that) showed up in the season preview, I wasn’t expecting to get past more than an episode or two. This felt all too similar a premise to Listeners, which was a muddle of musicians saving the world. Vivy might still be a mess, but it’s a glorious mess, with explosions and heart-wrenching AI-human romance and companion cubes. Sure there’s singing and some droning on about some philosophical issues, but there’s more life in these robot characters than most other meat-based shows this season. The animation is crisp and the writing avoids some of the normal pitfalls of timeskips. It’s interesting too, since we’ve seen a lot of micro time-jumping anime (Steins;Gate and Re:Zero), where the point is to save an individual. Vivy has grander ambitions and a larger timeline but so far has avoided tripping on its own feet. As the inevitable “singularity” grows closer (and I’m sure Diva/Vivy’s meddling will be central to that plot point), the question is whether this ambitious anime can bring it home like Deca-Dence or fall apart like Guilty Crown. Too soon to tell, but I’m hopeful.

Wooper: I’m not too concerned whether Vivy will end on a high or low note, as my investment level is minimal. The fact that I’m watching at all is a small miracle, since it was penned by the Re:Zero guy, whose work I don’t generally like. His characters’ artificial verbosity is a good fit for a show about robots, I guess? More than the dialogue, though, it’s Vivy’s concepts and cliffhangers that keep me pushing the ‘next episode’ button. The current plot, about a future where Diva achieves her dream of stardom at the cost of a memory wipe, has fun with the series’ formula by resetting its protagonist’s personality. The second arc was also fairly involving, with its twin machines who followed diverging paths despite their identical programming. Some of the show’s last-minute twists have been pretty dumb, but others, such as the beheading of an robot by an apparent ally, were great. It’s actually the visuals that I’m less than happy with at this stage, as many of Vivy’s ultra-detailed stills feel misplaced as mid-scene inclusions, rather than concluding shots. The combat and chase sequences have fallen from their peak in the first two episodes, as well (though that was to be expected). I’ll gladly keep watching over the next five weeks, but this show is far from bulletproof.

Armitage: Yes, the core plot of Vivy is built upon an age-old time-travel trope and yes, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel or break down genre conventions. But still, it stands out above the other sci-fi shows of its ilk in its execution. Studio Wit have pretty much become the new Madhouse for me in the way that the anime they develop – irrespective of their quality which is also usually top-tier – are always stellar from a production standpoint. And Vivy is no exception. The art is a gorgeous blend of 3D and pretty character designs, the animation while being generally consistent, really comes into its own in the fight scenes (Vivy vs evil twin AI in episode 4) and the soundtrack slaps so hard that it at times gives Hiroyuki Sawano a run for his money. What more can you want?? Well, technically, you would want an engaging plot and characters. And while there isn’t an abundance of riches on the relatable character front, the plot seems to be paced out pretty well. It’s streamlined in the way most good sci-fi stories are without much sidetracking and the occasional existential musings about the nature of human life. It’s just damn good popcorn fare. In a way that I look forward to watching Vivy the most every week after a certain boxing show. And that is truly an elite company to be in.

Lenlo: “Wit is the new Madhouse.” Ignoring that statement and all the baggage that comes with it, I have to side with Wooper here. I’m not terribly invested in Vivy on any front, from narrative to visuals, but it has managed to maintain my investment enough to watch it week to week. Sadly though it’s been on a bit of a downturn for me. The narrative in the third arc felt incredibly stale and I couldn’t bring myself to care about anything in it. A stark contrast to the second arc with the Twin AIs. It’s as if the novelty of Vivy has worn off and the Re:Zero author is starting to fall back on the same old tricks that made me fed up with Re:Zero. My hope is that the third arc was just a one-off failure as the current one with the memory reset, and the twist at the end of the most recent episode in particular, have me actually interested in it again. On the music side I can’t help but give my 2 cents and say the music isn’t that great. Basically all of the vocal tracks with Vivy and the other AI’s singing fall flat for me. The Engrish, the way they flow, everything about them is just… bad. I’ve only enjoyed maybe one and as much as I enjoy the twists this most recent arc isn’t helping with that.

Mario: Our staff so far has been pretty divided on Vivy, some love it and others are indifferent to it with little middle ground. Well, I am the middle ground here as I can see some good qualities of the show, but at the same time I don’t really care about the titular character and her stuffed bear/cube “companion”. Unlike Lenlo, I am keen on the current “Vivy on reset mode” arc. The timeskips function as different stages of robot evolution and we can see how the robots, and especially Vivy, have become more humane and emotionally complex as time passes. As a result, Vivy’s current amnesia state (forgetting her trauma to live peacefully with herself) feels like a good progression. As for the negatives, my main complaint from the double-length premiere still stands; the show successfully explores many aspects of the robot side, but doesn’t give much thought to the human side, making us all question whether it’s worth it for Vivy to save them at all. I’m still unsure how the show will wrap up (pretty sure it’ll be twisted though), but whatever the case I’m willing to follow it till the end.

Helghast: I haven’t written regularly since Psycho-Pass 3 aired all the way back in late 2019 with nothing airing since then that has really caught my eye. Spring 2021 anime looked to continue that personal trend until Vivy came up in one of those Youtube impression videos. It’s one of the more tightly written anime and lacks the things that make me turn away from more typical idol shows. I have had a blast with the first three arcs of the singularity project and I’m loving how the show uses its OP as a narrative device along with the constant looming 5G tower that is the progression bar towards the impending AI apocalypse. I will admit that Vivy isn’t perfect and doesn’t explain the technical basis for its AI society, nor ponders too deeply into the existential questions that the show introduces before blowing it up in an action-fueled spectacle. The fourth singularity point looks to be the most interesting after revealing that Ophelia is something else, either through a hostile takeover or dissonance personality split. It may not have the flashy setup of a falling space station or rogue AI island but the clear parallel narratives between Ophelia and Kakitani is becoming the culmination of all the plot threads. Being an anime original, Vivy has that narrative surprise that comes from watching week to week that I crave.