State of the Season – Winter 2020

Wooper: Give yourselves a round of applause for making it to mid-February, everyone! Your reward is our third ever State of the Season post, where our regular contributors talk about which seasonal anime they’re enjoying (and which ones they aren’t). This won’t be quite the hot take bonanza it’s been in seasons past, since Amun’s real life has demanded real attention in 2020 thus far. Mario, Lenlo and I are here to talk about our winter favorites, though – read on to see which writer has the best viewing habits and opinions.

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

Mario: Dorohedoro. It says a lot that after halfway point it still manages to surprise. While it can feel random at times, I’m more eager than ever to see what kind of madness and trippiness and bloodiness Dorohedoro is gonna throw at me next. And I’d take them all with pleasure. Also, Kyokou Suiri with its lengthy dialogues but ultimately enjoyable chemistry between its cast.

Lenlo: Dorohedoro. I almost regret not trying to take it up from Wooper, because this thing is madness. Every week we go a bit further down the rabbit hole, down Dorohedoro’s special brand of insanity, and I love it. I have very little idea what’s going on, but I honestly don’t think that’s very necessary to enjoy the show at a base level. It’s there if you want some silly fun and it’s there if you want something with little bits of info hidden around every interaction.

Wooper: Eizouken, for sure. I love both anime and metacommentary, so a series that deals with the creative process, the intersection of finance and art, and the medium of animation is right up my alley. It doesn’t hurt that the characters have great designs and dialogue, either. No matter what the motion picture club gets up to each week, it’s sure to be informative and entertaining.

Unpopular Opinion

Mario: My first experience with fan-modified 60fps anime was surprisingly smooth. Part of the reason is because Kuutei Dragons is a CG-show with dragons and flying ships. Its jerky nature is caused by the CG’s subpar frame rate, so when it’s enhanced I can really enjoy the “quirkiness” of the show’s movement.

Lenlo: The first half of this My Hero Academia season was a disappointment. From the pacing to the animation, I was just kinda “meh” about the whole thing. I have high hopes for this second half of course. Gentle is one of my top 3 favorite arcs of the series, the movie team is back for production and they seem to have a handle on it. But the first 12 eps were… rough.

Wooper: Dorohedoro’s use of CG isn’t terrible. I don’t know if this qualifies as an unpopular opinion, actually, since I’ve seen a lot of accepting attitudes towards its stiff animation. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the style that 99% of fans would have preferred, but the show’s stellar background design and likable characters keep me present in every scene (even when Caiman’s 3D lizard head pops into view).

Midseason Masterpiece

Mario: Eizouken. It’s a blast to watch these girls just living their dreams and managing to be on schedule. Now that their production has expanded, it makes sense that other clubs are beginning to get involved as well. Yuusa pretty much did it again.

Lenlo: Have you been reading my writeups? How can I say anything other than Eizouken? It’s bloody phenomenal and manages to push all the right buttons for me.

Wooper: This whole post is going to be the Eizouken/Dorohedoro show, isn’t it? They’re the two best shows of the season in my opinion, but Eizouken has the edge because it finds time to smell the roses, rather than plucking them nonstop. Its love for animation comes through a bit more clearly than Dorohedoro’s love of seventeen different things (most of which are admittedly very cool).

Best Girl/Guy/Anything Else

Mario: Maybe not the best girlfriend material, but that girl sure knows how to make an entrance.

Lenlo: It’s a tough choice, but since Noi (#FitMoe Lifestyle, dear god) already has some representation from Wooper, I have to go with Kanamori.

Wooper: I’m only picking Noi so she doesn’t travel to our dimension and brutally murder me.

What show did you drop?

Mario: Runway de Waratte, but for a specific reason. The breakneck pacing in anime frustrates me to the point that I read a good chunk of manga material in one sitting. Runway is still a show with goddamn high emotions, but sometimes the drama is cranked up to an extreme level. There isn’t a subtle bone in its body.

Lenlo: Somali. I ultimately found it dull and I didn’t believe any of the threats they were under. It’s just a cutesy travel show in a fantasy setting, rather than a sneaking Made in Abyss or an atmospheric Mushishi. Just… dull.

Wooper: I dropped a lot of shows after one episode, but so far I’m current with everything that got at least two. Magia Record would be gone by now if it weren’t loosely tied to Madoka, though. The experimental art and distinctive character designs are great, but the story is a scattered mess.

Guilty Pleasure of the Season

Mario: Kuutei Dragons. The cast has such a natural and tongue in cheek chemistry that it’s such a blast to watch them episode after episode. The fact that the show doesn’t take it world seriously helps as well. It’s fun for instance, just to watch our team hunt down and make a BBQ out of the expensive pet dragon, with detailed instruction on how to cook it. Delicious, right?

Lenlo: Nothing at the moment. Between being swamped with work, the posts and a con, it’s been all I can do to keep up with a few side pleasures like Hero Aca and Dorohedoro, and still get the posts up. I suppose RWBY counts, since its 7th Season ended a few weeks ago. Good stuff.

Wooper: Oshi ga Budokan. The sweet friendship (and maybe something more) between two female background characters is the only reason why I’m still invested. I don’t feel particularly guilty about it, but when the rest of a show is so much worse than the one part you actually like, you start to reevaluate how you spend your time.

Song of the Season

Mario: Eizouken’s OP for sure.

Lenlo: Well since RWBY isn’t an anime, and its OST isn’t out yet, I have to go with Dorohedoro’s 2nd ED “Night Surfing” by KNoW_NAME. God damn if this isn’t just a bop. I don’t know how Dorohedoro does this but every song they have put out has been fire in some way or another. They just get those trance-like beats down perfectly, making it impossible to put down.

Wooper: Mine has to be Dorohedoro’s OP (“Welcome to Chaos” by KNoW_NAME). I already raved about it during an episodic post, so to keep it short, both the visuals and the music have this grungy, upbeat quality to them that really suits the show’s brand of lunacy. As a bonus, the show is on ED #3 right now, with more likely to arrive before the season’s end.

What was something you watched that wasn’t airing?

Mario: Just finished Welcome to the NHK. Gotta be fair, if I wasn’t aware of its enduring success I would’ve dropped it after 4 episodes. The animation of episode 4 drops tragically with melted faces, lots of still frames and overall amateurish level of presentation. The main dude is a whiny overacting shut-in who makes up lies to hide his insecurities, and the plot involves a manic pixie dream girl miraculously saving his life… until later on the show addresses these two latter points with insights. I like how the show eventually deals with many social issues and anxieties that can otherwise be heavy-handed in other media, but I’m not too fond of the show’s brand of humor.

Lenlo: Gotta love the copout that is Throwback Thursday, because I have been watching Neon Genesis Evangelion. Beyond that I watched Perfect Blue and Millennium Actress for the first time over the weekend. Boy was that a trip.

Wooper: I finished Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san, a gross-out comedy about a private eye with the ability to summon demons. The series is legitimately perverted, but it’s quite well-animated and the episodes are only half-length, so give the first one a try if the premise appeals to you. (Fun fact: it’s the source of this gif, which you may have seen in your travels around the internet.)

 

Let’s Talk About Dorohedoro.

Wooper: It’s only fitting that one of Dorohedoro’s major characters uses mushroom-based magic, because Q Hayashida must have been on psychedelics when she created this series. Talking turkeys, smoke-blowing sorcerers, a dude with a lizard head which transports its bite victims to another dimension… this series has it all. And MAPPA’s adaptation is nothing to sneeze at – the art direction by Shinji Kimura is awesome on all fronts, from putrid cityscapes to detailed depictions of steampunk-esque microscopes. Most of the characters are murderous scum, but the show makes them so hard to root against due to great writing, good casting, and even decent 3DCG models. Listening to them shoot the shit over a convenience store lunch can be just as thrilling as watching them extract a mark’s still-beating heart from his chest. The show’s bloody reputation and potpourri design philosophy are cool and all, but it’s the recognizability of the show’s masked weirdos that has me coming back each week.

Mario: Agreed. It’s like Dorohedoro casts a (psychedelic) spell on us all. It’s such a wide ride so far, with weird trips that are interesting enough to be a centre plot of any movie, but here, Dorohedoro just keeps twisting its knife further and further and basically goes with its silly brand of logic. Most of all though, while crazy in its truest sense, the plot and the characters hold up so far. The central mystery of who Caiman is still sparks lots of intriguing ideas, and the characters’ over the top personalities are just a blast to watch. If I have one concern with it so far, it’s that I am now scared of mushrooms for life.

Lenlo: Pretty much what you two said. As someone who had never read Dorohedoro prior to this and only heard of it by reputation, I was concerned going in. I didn’t think its insanity would translate well to the screen with CGI models, not without the artstyle I saw from a few panels. I thought that without that, the story just wouldn’t work. Yet here I am every week returning for more on-brand madness, and every week Dorohedoro just doubles down gets weirder. So much so that even if you aren’t interested in the central mystery, you can still just sit back and enjoy the insanity. Honestly, every week that goes by I love it a bit more.