Vanitas no Carte
Short Synopsis: Vampire Hunter V: Bookworm.
Lenlo: I have to admit, Vanitas surprised me. I wasn’t expecting much from another vampire show, especially not after Mars Red. But the unique blend of Studio BONES visuals and the Monogatari Director Tomoyuki Itamura’s flashy, over the top style blend together in interesting ways. It’s dramatic but doesn’t seem to take itself too seriously, often utilizing the same chibi visuals we saw in Sk8 earlier this year. Though one might argue it uses them too much. The fights themselves also aren’t terribly impressive but they also aren’t uh… terrible. The only part that I’m up in the air on is the story. So far it’s pretty rote, happy ending type stuff. Good guy saves the girl, etc etc. The only part that has me interested is how Vanitas tells us, right from the get go, how it’s going to end. That’s always a ballsy move in my book and if it can pull it off, I’ll count myself as satisfied. All in all I would say this is a decidedly average showing from BONES. But in a season as dry as this it’s at least worth watching for a bit.
Potential: 50%
Armitage: Unlike Lenlo, I had rather lofty expectations from Vanitas no Carte and it met those satisfactorily for the most part. This was more of an introductory episode getting us acquainted with our lead duo and the lovely catto, Murr. It looks like this is going to be a vampire hunting show which is what almost all vampire anime ever seem to be. So not much in the name of a unique premise. Still, I have always adored the Victorian Steampunk aesthetic and the nice backgrounds do tend to render the setting well. The real highlight of the premiere for me was the score composed by personal favorite Yuki Kajiura. It amplified the atmosphere and picked up any slack in the animation department to make the premiere feel interesting throughout. The narrative itself has just about started to unfold but the hook delivered at the end makes me really excited for what’s to come. So, in parallel with Jun Mochizuki’s Pandora Hearts, Vanitas has also been slow to start off, but I expect it to make for a highly enjoyable experience once it hits its stride.
Potential: 70%
Kanojo mo Kanojo
Short Synopsis: A high school boy enters a throuple with two cute girls by begging and shouting a lot.
Wooper: Kanojo mo Kanojo depicts the realization of every teenage guy’s dream: dating two girls at the same time, both of whom are cool with the arrangement. How does it approach such an unrealistic scenario? As unrealistically as possible, of course. That’s the secret to the show’s appeal – every line is delivered as theatrically as possible, and developments like the three kids moving in together are basically achieved by magic. The male lead’s noisy demeanor isn’t winning, exactly, but he’s so persistent that he warps the rules of courtship to his will – a top five superpower for sure. The visuals are just as loud, with plenty of closeups on the characters’ shocked faces and scrolling rainbow effects in the background. Even the soundtrack was manic, but I guess it would have to be, as the episode would crash and burn otherwise. All in all, I got a few laughs out of this premiere, most of which stemmed from its stupidity, but I can’t deny its commitment to the bit. Just don’t go in expecting Tsuki ga Kirei or anything on that level.
Potential: 20%
Mario: Frankly, the show already lost me after its first 10 seconds. Here we witness a boy’s wish fulfillment wet dream cranked up to 11. There’s a line in the show that perfectly reflects my sentiments: “What is it about him that you fell in love with?” One thing I can say is that he doesn’t bullshit about two-timing, but does the show expect him to get away with his plan just because he’s honest? The girls, then, are created solely to please both their boyfriend and the males in the audience, and guess what, based on the ED even more girls will join the cast. OF COURSE THERE WILL BE MORE GIRLS. The only point I can give Kanojo mo Kanojo is its sheer commitment to its message, aligned with the boy’s unflinching devotion to NOT let anyone go. For me it’s just painful to see girls written and acted this way.
Potential: 0%
Re-Main
Short Synopsis: A boy wakes up from a coma with missing memories, but can’t say no to the power of water polo and muscular dudes.
Mario: It’s tricky to write about a protagonist who has amnesia going on with their life. It works best in the mystery genre because of the way it utilizes the unreliable narrator – for comedy, though, it’s tough to get it right. Re-Main reminds me a fair bit of the 2010 film Colorful, and it suffers the same problem as that film. First, throughout the 20 minute episode it wasn’t clear how much time had passed since the accident. I reckon the writing is to blame for this, as it tends to replace a lot of events that would show him navigating his new life with “a few months have passed.” Second, the way the lead boy behaves is not at all believable. It’s a three year time span that he lost, but apparently he can still enter high school after just eight months of self-study? I don’t buy that at all. Re-Main glosses over so many details which would have been compelling in their own right and focuses on the water polo part, but it doesn’t actually show us a match, leaving me disinterested in both aspects of the show. Just like the amnesiac protagonist, it’s better to erase this water polo series from our memories.
Potential: 10%
Lenlo: I… what? What are these scribbles? Is this how badly MAPPA is running out of animators? I know that staff/animators are leaving en masse, op-eds about hellish working conditions are being published, and people are literally going to the hospital there but come on! What’s that Wooper? Get off my soapbox? Fine, back to Re-Main. My general impression is one of utter boredom. Visually, narratively and tonally there is absolutely nothing that engages me about this show. Maybe it can get a story out of the family working through the effects of the MC’s coma but that’s about it. But all of that aside, you wanna know what the real crime is? That MAPPA couldn’t even give us some quality butts. Seriously, you’re going to give every guy in a show about speedos and swimming some cardboard asses? Are they all Ken dolls?! I’m very disappointed.
Potential: 0%
The synopsis is criminal because Minato doesn’t even want to take up water polo even though the muscular dudes wanted him to. In fact, it’ll probably be the person who is apparently his girlfriend, Chinu, who convinces him to take up water polo again when she casually asks him to when he’ll play again next episode.
I also disagree with Lenlo that there is narratively nothing engaging about this show. Don’t you think the family being stuck in time because of how the daughter has nightmares about the accident and how Minato doesn’t do what he used to love because of the accident can lead to there being some catharsis at the end of the story when he rediscovers why he loved about the sport, allowing the family to live on as if something had become normal again after the horrible crash? I think you’re dismissing the show to a point that you’re even refusing to see what it laid out narratively this episode with how the family has “remained” stuck in time, which was actually made explicit when Minato directly thought about that.
This is not to say that Re-Main will be a good show, but you guys making it seem like it’ll be Peach Boy Riverside levels of bad is disingenuous.
I feel that you guys are missing out by not watching Kageki Shoujo!!, so I’m just going to throw that out there as it (judging by the first episode) and Sonny Boy will probably be two of the better shows this season.
It’s coming up. We sample nearly every show every season – it’s kind of our thing.