Mario: This surely is one of the sparest seasons in recent memory. Ironically, with the current lockdown in my city, I managed to touch base with all the goods of this season in the last few days and truly attained the life of a shut-in (hey, it’s not that bad). There’s only one show that I consider a standout of the season so far, and even that show is divisive amongst the writers. On the whole, I’d say that this season serves as a perfect opportunity for all of us to slow down and catch up with our backlogs. Read on to find out what we think about the summer season at the halfway mark (and be sure to check out the new release of Fena: Pirate Princess, which is rolling out at the time of this writing).
What show are you enjoying that you’re not reviewing?
Wooper: Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi. Its stylized violence and daring use of color combine to create a one-of-a-kind viewing experience. Even if the story is unlikely to go anywhere interesting, the episodes themselves are never boring, since the show restlessly experiments with its own presentation.
Lenlo: I’m rewatching Hajime no Ippo and that’s been a good time, but that’s about it. Nothing this season is really popping out or inspiring me, and with old favorites like MHA getting screwed over for their movies it’s just not a good time to be me.
Mario: It’s Sonny Boy & Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi vs. the rest for me so far. We will talk more about Sonny Boy below, so allow me to sing Heion Sedai’s praises. For me, it’s a perfect marriage between the old style and the new. The slapstick nature, the simple character designs and even its premise bring you the feel of old Dragon Ball adventures, but the show updates it with vibrant colors and fast-forward tweaks when it comes to info-dumping. All that makes it a fun and memorable watch.
Amun: Mairimashita! Iruma-kun, Hamefura, and Slime Isekai are carrying this season for me.
Unpopular Opinion
Lenlo: Maid Dragon is a poorly conceived, concerning show and that’s before it introduced the short dragon girl with tits the size of the rest of her body. Seriously, am I the only one who sees just how messed up and weird a show about loli dragon girls is, especially given its overt sexualization of all of them?
Amun: I’ve gotten in trouble for this recently….uhhhh, Sonny Boy is a lesser Mob Psycho and in any other season would be middle of the pack at best.
Mario: The two heavyweight sequels – Kobayashi-san no Maid Dragon and Hamefura – are suffering from their overflowing love for their protagonists. The affection Bakarina and Kobayashi-san get from the other members of the cast overwhelms other more interesting dynamics within each show, and they’ve become too repetitive upon reaching their midpoints.
Wooper: Kageki Shoujo’s tonedeaf soundtrack makes it difficult to take the show seriously. Ai’s fear of men is often mismatched with the sort of music that plays as Conan Edogawa solves his weekly whodunits. A scene of her mother’s live-in boyfriend commenting on her panties was accompanied by a mysterious harp track, despite it calling for no music at all (to highlight its unnaturality). And a confrontation between two teachers over a student being called a “fatty” was scored so poorly that it made me angry, with a playful piano/woodwind tune that had no business being anywhere near their sharp dialogue. (At least one of the two teachers revealed himself to be very based later in the episode.)
Midseason Masterpiece, or at least “More than Mediocre?”
Amun: Bah – nothing’s really standing out that much this season. I guess Sonny Boy is the obvious answer, but I really feel it’s a big fish-small pond. Probably Shinigami Bocchan for being better than expected?
Wooper: Sonny Boy is my actual pick – its weekly doses of weirdness always command my full attention – but Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S is a close second. It’s the same warmhearted and thoughtful hangout comedy it was back in 2017, and the work it’s doing with Ilulu’s character is particularly worthy of praise.
Lenlo: Nothing really. Sonny Boy is walking a fine line between interesting and incomprehensible. How I feel about it will probably be decided by the upcoming 6th episode, the so-called “game changer” episode.
Mario: Yeah, Sonny Boy hands down for me.
Best Girl/Guy/Anything Else
Wooper: It had to be somebody from Sonny Boy, given the appealing minimalism of their designs, so I’ll go with Mizuho. I like the mismatch of her exterior beauty and caustic personality, as well as the handful of secrets surrounding her character.
Lenlo: Wooper has nailed it here. Sonny Boy really has some of the most appealing designs of the season. To avoid doubling up however I’m gonna give a shoutout to Fena who debuted today. It’s a pretty standard choice but I’m down for some high level standard cute now and then. Plus those eyes man.
Mario: I fell in love with Rin’s no-nonsense attitude! (Or do I have a thing for grandmas?)
Amun: Iruma-kun.
What show did you drop?
Mario: At the moment, I’m keeping all the shows I’ve been following thus far. While most of them are second (or third?) tier at best, one thing I can appreciate is that these shows – Kuro Maid, Aquatope, Kageki Shoujo, Kobayashi-san and Hamefura – offer different strokes of tones and themes so at the very least I’m not bored or feeling like I’m wasting my time.
Amun: Pretty much all the trash isekai – after a certain point, you just stop caring. The Great Jahy was also a bit disappointing. Strangely, the Detective is Already Dead has survived so far, but no guarantees going forward.
Wooper: Fumetsu no Anata e (and Vanitas no Carte if you’re counting three-episode tests). Sagging visuals, a boring tournament plotline and an irritating companion character conspired to kick the show off my watchlist, at least for now. I’ll pick it back up once all the episodes are out, then burn through them in one disheartening marathon (along with the rest of Back Arrow, 86, and the rest of the year’s casualties).
Lenlo: Fumetsu no Anata e and uh… Tokyo Revengers I suppose, as I just realized I haven’t watched an episode of that in 2 months.
Guilty Pleasure of the Season
Lenlo: My Hero Academia. The way it’s been handled this season is nothing short of insulting but I continue to watch it for the single arc I’ve been hoping to see adapted since it happened in the manga like… 2 years ago.
Amun: Kanojo mo Kanojo – it’s trash. But senpai, it’s our trash. This show just doesn’t take itself seriously and, despite some slideshow tendencies, actually has me interested in what comes next.
Wooper: Re-Main’s amnesiac premise and silly stabs at humor are the hallmarks of a C-tier show, but I enjoy it anyway. The characters are easy to root for, and the difficulty of drawing water polo matches has me cheering on the creative staff, as well.
Mario: Tsukimichi – its few first episodes were dumb fun, but I’ve had trouble getting into it in recent weeks.
Song of the Season
Mario: I’m going with the OP of Heion Sedai no Itaden-tachi. It’s stylish visually – with the vibrant colors and the characters’ skin literally peeling off; its tune is catchy and it’s a great way to kick off this insane wacky show every week. Also, special shoutout to the Kuro-Maid ED. While its looks are standard, I just love the show’s smooth transition from iconic closing scenes – “dancing” under the full moon, Alice and Bocchan’s boat trip – to the ED sequence that heightens their bittersweet emotions and leaves each episode on a satisfying endnote.
Wooper: “Shounen Shoujo” by Ging Nang Boyz leads the pack for me this summer. Sonny Boy’s ED puts me in mind of 90s indie bands, especially the British alt-rock act Ride, which makes it a fitting ending song for such an independently-minded series. Taken individually, the guitar tones are fairly abrasive, but the way they’re layered (and then complemented by the acoustic arpeggios toward the end of the chorus) produces a sweet sound that anime has never pursued before, at least in my experience. I’m glad they finally got around to it.
Amun: Slime Isekai – it’s not really that the song is so great, but the opening as a whole is baller. Just the whole crew walking in, looking dark and sharp? Yessir.
Lenlo: Once again Wooper has already beaten me to the punch – the only seasonal track I really have any interest in is Sonny Boy’s. For the rest I’m either not watching them and thus haven’t heard them or don’t think they are very good.
What was something you watched that wasn’t airing?
Amun: Truth be told, I’m kind of catching up on some shows from last season – I’m almost caught up with Vivy (I know, I know), and Zombieland is next after that. EDIT: Kyousougiga, at Armi’s recommendation, is getting a re-watch. I was so spoiled in 2013 – I just took that show for granted and expected each season to be that level. Sadly, it has not been.
Lenlo: I always have an easy out for this because of Throwback Thursday, but Haibane Renmei is my current oldy. I also have catching up on Slime Isekai on my to-do list along with Hajime no Ippo.
Mario: I recently watched Happy-Go-Lucky Days, an anthology film based on a manga by my personal favorite mangaka Takako Shimura, widely known for her works Aoi Hana and Wandering Son. It received a severe negative reaction for its depiction of taboo topics – chief amongst them sexual abuse from an adult to a minor. Watching this film (and then reading the manga afterward), I feel that the negative response is both justified and kind of misses the point. Some stories in the manga are even more explicit and raw than the ones in the film, but they are not merely for the sake of exploitation. All the stories concern the pain of first crushes, of rejected love, with a keen eye for small, quiet moments that Shimura is an expert at. Also, with the release of the final Evangelion film, I’m planning to do a marathon of watching all the Rebuild films.
Wooper: I’ve just started Touch, so I’m trying not to compare it to the other Adachi adaptations I’ve seen (one of which is among my all-time favorite anime). Beyond that, I’m catching up on last season’s gymnastics anime Bakuten, which has been unremarkable save for multiple animation showcases in its second episode.
Let’s Talk About Sonny Boy.
Amun: A show that looks great and colorful, has supernatural spookiness, the slow-burn power of friendship, with some real-life issues sprinkled in…where have we seen this before? Oh, right, this is Wonder Egg Priority, just without the whole suicide thing. Sonny Boy is probably the best show of the season (still waiting on you, MHA). But that’s not saying much – it’s trying to be Mob Psycho but not cutting it. I’m blaming our bland lead mostly, but also the cast is just too large with too little substance…and honestly, they all look fairly similar. Plus, we have signs pointing to the cast expanding even more, when I really don’t think they’ve done well with what they had. The transfer student’s free spirit is clunky, the baseball player is a visual joke, cat-lady is just a complete mess, and the student council is so unremarkable they had to put a star on the poor guy’s face (there’s some girl too or something). Mob Psycho, the gold standard, isn’t about great fights or super-power escape fantasy – it’s about Mob, the overpowered underdog and how he grows and finds his way in the world. Sonny Boy is artificially trying to replicate that, but it’s not organic. Throwing a school into a crisis should bring out interesting dynamics (as it did the first episode), but lately everyone….seems to be just sitting around, whining about going home. Which is probably realistic, but not that interesting to watch.
Mario: It’s interesting to note that even between us writers, we’re split evenly in regards to Sonny Boy’s quality, and its comparison to Wonder Egg Priority. I saw no resemblance at all to that said show. WEP’s main focus was always about girls’ inner traumas, whereas Sonny Boy is more interested in exploring its “worlds”. While I can certainly see many of Amun’s complaints above, I do appreciate how, at the middle mark no less, I can’t still figure out the “rules” of Sonny Boy itself. No, I’m not commenting on its rules about its worlds (which can be very loose), but more about the way the show builds around its main concept. As such, every single episode passes by and my thoughts still remain as: “This is something I haven’t explored before.” Of course, for being weird and singular as it is, some elements don’t work quite as effectively. Case in point, I was kinda lost with the whole “Monkeys play Baseball” plot in episode 4, and the class members’ dynamic has been underwhelming as of late. But the whole mystery thing is still as poignant for me as ever, and Sonny Boy is still determined to give us a different experience, something fresh with its themes and visuals. That, for me, is what makes Sunny Boy a standout all around – not only by this season’s standard.
Wooper: Anyone who’s keen to draw comparisons from other works to Sonny Boy should hold their horses – this show is like no anime I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen far too much anime). Part of that inscrutability works for its benefit, as it doesn’t yield its treasures easily; part of it works to its detriment, as it’s hard to know whether those treasures exist at all. Long monologues about an invisible Monkey League and low-detail backgrounds meant to represent alternate dimensions are sure to fluster some audiences, and I wouldn’t blame them for it. But to fixate on those strange flourishes is to forget the mystery on which Sonny Boy is constantly elaborating: what caused these kids to start drifting through parallel worlds, and how can they return to their own, if at all? There’s a narrator who has spoken to several of the characters thus far (with two different voice actors in the role), who was recently labeled “God.” Aki-sensei, one of the teachers at this drifting school, claims to be a messenger of God, and speaks with a different voice now than she did in a flashback at the start of the series. Another of the teachers once wore a wedding ring that now adorns a student’s finger – a student who claims to have heard God’s voice, though we don’t yet know which voice it was. Each episode has answered one such mystery and created three more, cutting quickly from scene to scene, never giving the audience a chance to get comfortable. It may be a taxing watch, but to me, the mere act of following Sonny Boy is a reward in itself.
Lenlo: And here I am, the one who gets to blog Sonny Boy stuck right in the middle of these takes. As far as comparisons go I have to agree with Mario and Wooper, I don’t see Wonder Egg Priority or Mob Psycho. These are all very different shows and are only similar on a very shallow level if you ask me. But at the same time I’m not nearly as hopeful as them regarding Sonny Boy’s quality. It’s unique yes, it’s difficult to understand and follow at times yes, but neither of those are necessarily good things. Uniqueness for the sake of being unique, at the expense of the viewer experience and the rest of the show, is the doom of many arthouse style works out there. They try so hard to be something new that they forget to make the actual content good. And that’s where I’m at with Sonny Boy right now. I can’t decide if it’s truly something special, its themes and presentation working together to give us a new and beautiful experience, or if it’s just some arthouse “Look at me I’m special” crap. Hopefully the big episode 6 twist we were told to expect brings it all together for me. Because right now? Amun is right. The cast is bloated, Nagara is bland, the dynamics are uninspired and it feels like we haven’t really gotten anywhere recently.
I often use this site as a 1st lvl filter both to avoid and to watch shows. Sonny Boy escaped my attention, but now I quickly watched the 5 eps that are out. And now I’m back to write my 2 cents on the matter.
I think it is a very good show. I do agree that there seems to be too much inconsequential concepts that do not add up into meaningful whole and I do believe ep1 had special closed-space mystery vibe to it that expanded geometrically (i.e. too fast) with ep2 onward, i.e., the show is rushing. I want (or rather wanted) to see more of the democracy vs meritocracy thing hinted at the beginning, I wanted to see the students creating their own functional mini-society – or rather they did, it is just we were never shown this at all – there are peeks at what some of the character’s roles in this society are, but that’s not nearly enough – look at Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e to see what I mean (I still naively hope for S2 btw).
Still, I think the show is satisfactorily well off the way it is already. I have no issue whatsoever with music, visuals, story, backgrounds, character designs, voice acting, well – I have no issues whatsoever with this show and that is (for me) exceptionally rare! Easy 8/10, despite the lack of coherent storytelling (is it whats going on really?) and refusal to portray various other aspects of the student’s faring. Just keep this up and no BS ‘twists’ or floaty mechanics, pls – merely stay focused on what’s already there, you can revel in the mystery and indulge in some of your better worlds, Sonny Boy, ok? Pretty pls? Buut I think I’ll be disappointed – the introduction of the teacher, an only adult, is a mixed-bag for me and a force quite unfitting for this show’s world. Well, we will see soon enough.
If I may address some of the criticism posted:
– I dont consider cast bloated, because cast where everyone has a role feels more fake and its story lens too focused. I think this show has a good balance, keeping some of the cast as unknowns, little-knowns and not-sure-whats-on-his-mind-knowns. Not everyone is important and that’s not an issue. And I like that those that seemed larger than life (ep1 antagonist and his lackeys) are not necessarily so. I think this show is doing a good job of being a grey-morality type of thing, even at the cost of perspectives changing a bit too fast. Mob mentality is a bit too black and white here but not too much.
– Nippon has a thing for empty-shell protagonists, understandably so (given their society). And this show is a case where it may get irritating, but the side-kicks are doing their job well, diffusing the irritable aspects and the show is definitely not going through the motions, MC (and others) is being confronted by the world and is changing, so I dont see an issue here. Perhaps the fact that the perspectives keep changing for several characters, making the world seem hard to keep up.
– Unable to figure out a show like this is imo a good thing – show should not be a puzzle to complete, rather puzzle to guess and nowadays thats a rare sight. Case in point: in NGE’s 26 eps they barely hinted at what’s inside the robot! Fill in the blanks with the mind, not next episode.
– The monkey ep, well yeah, it had me question my sanity listening to all that and wonder when the punchline is gonna be (there was none!), but I’m sure there’s some analogy angle there that I havent thought of. In the worst case, look, for every hilarious Gintama episode there are 3 totally boring episodes – still doesnt change that Gintama is (probably) the most hilarious show ever made. I dare anyone prove me wrong so I can have a laugh – at him or the new most hilarious show ever.
– Dunno what Wonder Egg Priority is, but anything suicide related made past 2010 is probably too edgy and political(ly-correct) to take seriously.
– Mob Psycho is a shounen, people. The comparison with Sonny Boy makes no sense. Not everything with powers is dick-waiving pissing contest, which is about the best explanation of the shounen tag anyone could make (I am willing to watch every shounen show that is supposedly not a pissing contest that you guys will throw at me, just to prove you wrong and yes Gintama is also a pissing contest with obviously Gintoki having the largest sack in the whole universe). I’m going to become insufferable again and jokingly proclaim that anything with shounen slapped on it is automatically single-brain-hemisphere stuff. Including Whatever no Yaiba, Nope Hero Academia, Lol Psycho and Yo-yo Kaisen. And these all smell the same. At least stuff like Naruto, Bleach, One Piece or HxH have that adventure thing going for it, and are arguably good, but the former do not. Yes Naruto has that freaky Talk-no-Jutsu, Ichigo has become a mutant at this point and Luffy, dunno-whatever, yes the MCs kept screaming and awakening, yes the shows kept churning fillers and the animation was non existent, but still I know it with my heart that going ‘realistic’ has screwed the whole genre. The people making these are the people who grew up watching these shows and are trying to ‘improve’ the formula with their idiotic up-to-date ideas. It’s like when strategy games went 3D – they lost something forever. Lots of things these guys are fixing didnt need fixing. Frankly this New-Wave 0-Filler NextGen-Animation Neo-Shounen crap has become so boring that even Bleach filler seems better option – yes, I would happily listen to Koyasu Takehito as a trolling hollow instead of muh realistic dramatic edgy cartoon. At some point you realize you only watch for the dramatic highlights, because the rest makes no sense. TLDR: Unpopular opinion: Mob Psycho isnt as deep as you think. (I do like S1 btw). Back to Sonny Boy. As I tried to portray, Sonny Boy is simply not in the same ballpark. Granted, it may not be as engaging, which seems to be the most important aspect of anything these days, but that’s an issue of an ever-collapsing attention span of avg human. In case you didnt know, sometime between 2000-2013, avg attention span of a human became worse than that of a goldfish. Do you think goldfish like Mob Psycho more than Sonny Boy?
So I do agree with Amun on his last point, namely striking lack of character dynamism (for lack of better word) after ep1, but disagree with almost all the rest. But don’t take me wrong, this isnt my new best show for the next 3 days or anything, just, as I said, show with no issues (by me) is a good watch, because watching something with brain turned on the whole time (and not idling 2W state) is frankly, stimulating. Also it may be that some people are unnerved by the fact that in Sonny Boy characters speak mostly human, i.e., not screaming their lungs most of the time.
I’ll try one more time: Have you ever noticed that after watching lots of shows you become so genre savvy, that after 1 ep you become able to predict character’s lines and behavior, to the point that ep2-12 can be skipped without losing out on anything? No? Then watch some more. When you watch your way to yes, congratulations, you have awakened to your true golden fish potential. Then you can sit back, relax and watch Sonny Boy to enjoy that there is still something for you to enjoy.
PS: Yes I do like going on rants. In fact I love it. Sue me.
I think you’re selling Mob Psycho a bit short here – but to each their own. My personal take is that Sonny Boy is pretending to be way deeper than it is – and has lost the plot a bit in trying to be edgy and artistic. Come on, it’s a magic, time-space travelling high school? The last episode was one of the best since episode 1, but I’m still not fully sold.
This season is pretty desolate. But, I just caught up with Sony Boy ep 4, and it raised my hopes for the show.
If you look past the nonsensical (and if you can’t cope with it, why are you watching?), Cap’s tale is a deft story-within-a-story. Stylistically it’s similar to Bakemonogatari’s intensive dialogue, but with fewer panty shots interspersed with the visuals (YMMV if that’s a good or a bad thing); or better yet, Makino-sensei’s travelogue in Fuujin Monogatari ep 5. Plus, Mizuho getting into the game cracked me up.
Also, One Punch Man S1 > Mob Psycho 100. Fight me!
OPM S1 is very good – but primarily due to the animation. I think MP100 has better characterization and a better story overall. I think when you start looking at the franchises as a whole, OPM S2 has to be considered….and then most shows start looking better than it.
Oh yeah, season 2 was hot garbage, and don’t get me wrong, Mob Psycho 100 is very well written shounen, but it’s more conventional shounen fare than One Punch Man. To say the fights are the best part of OPM is literally missing the plot. I think it asks more interesting questions than Mob Psycho, some overtly, such as how did Saitama get so strong by doing ordinary exercises, and some not so overtly, such as why do the top heroes of the Hero Association act like villains most of the time, and why did the monster incursions become a crisis just when Saitama perfected his punch?
To say that One Punch Man is just about the fights is like saying Ping-Pong: The Animation is just about ping-pong.
Fortunately, ONE is still cranking out the webcomic.