Wooper: Another week, another roundup of what we’re watching that isn’t getting dedicated posts. This time we’ve got two demon-themed shounen series, two anime that take periodic trips to the great outdoors, and two shows where vehicles are the main attractions. Can you spot which is which?
The Promised Neverland S2 – 04
Lenlo: So I will, as a manga reader, admit to being a little bit biased when I write this but: What the hell Neverland? What is this? Not only are you skipping the only good arcs/characters left in your story to fast track to the bad stuff, but you are undermining what good you had from the first season with Isabella. I can’t think of another series that has managed to kill my interest faster than this. I’ll keep watching just to see if the author can manage to not screw it up a second time in a row, but I have no faith that this is going to end up good.
Pui Pui Molcar – 01
Wooper: I just learned of this show’s existence and had to spread the good news. Pui Pui Molcar is a stop motion series of two minute episodes about guinea pigs that are cars. I repeat: this anime is about guinea pigs that are cars. Whether you find that adorable or stupid depends on how much of a joyless Scrooge you are, but even if you fall on the “adorable” side, this show is more charming than you can imagine. The colors are bright, the soundtrack is jammin’ (the melodica track in the first episode is a bonafide ode to optimism), and the squeaks of the cars are provided by actual guinea pigs. There’s not much more to Molcar than cuteness, though it does win some points for telling its stories without any dialogue (despite the guinea pigs’ human drivers). Here’s a link to the premiere on YouTube (the first of five available episodes), so you can see for yourself why it’s become a minor sensation in Japan.
Kemono Jihen – 04
Wooper: This was a discardable shounen outing through and through. Gags in the first half, backstory and new abilities in the second. Now that Kemono Jihen is in the “supernatural detective” phase of its story, more episodes like this are probably in the cards, but they can (and should) be better than this. Setting up the entire second half of your episode to trigger Akira’s germophobia as often as possible, for example, was one-note script work. A smarter balance between the memories of his brother and his aversion to slimy stuff would have improved this episode, as his brother’s past encouragement of Akira’s placidity would then feed into his present phobia. What we got instead felt as though it hadn’t spent enough time in the oven, structurally speaking, but most teen action shows are front-loaded with this sort of material. I’ll just cross my fingers for a better follow-up, I guess.
Heaven’s Design Team – 04
Lenlo: Design Team really branched out this week, in both good and bad ways. For the good, there’s continuity! And it explored what it’s like for a designer more than the edutainment! Both of those are pretty good, and I especially liked how it showed us how difficult clients can be with vague requests and forcing things to work to their schedule. On the iffy side though is everything with Ueda. I don’t know how to feel about the introduction of Hell, or people being sent there. Are we going to get a plot? Or is this just opening up other avenues and characters to spice up the “design” story? Only time will tell but I am… cautiously interested.
Yuru Camp S2 – 04
Wooper: I said last time that Yuru Camp wouldn’t appear in this column every week, but any anime episode that makes a Chihayafuru reference (see above) deserves a shoutout. More than that, any episode that uses its ED to spread such a kind message deserves a shoutout. The time lapse shot of the Kagamihara home during the ending theme was a nice mood-setter, though the moment when Nadeshiko walked to her sister’s car in the middle of the night seemed to intrude on the stillness. That was before we got the payoff of said sister discovering the present that Nadeshiko had left behind: a reusable hand warmer to solve the chills she’d been dealing with. This was just one of the gifts given in this week’s Yuru Camp, from New Year’s souvenirs to shrimp tempura lunches, so closing the episode on one of its bigger themes was both appropriate and heartwarming. It’s nice to see anime sisters looking out for each other, rather than doing something stupid like competing over the same boy or seeing who’s the better idol.
Back Arrow – 04
Wooper: I really should drop Back Arrow after an episode like this. The blaring JRPG music, the Bionicle tier villains, the halfhearted twist of Shu Bi’s defection, and the dialogue – my god, the dialogue. “Hope you’re not weak or we’ll get paid less!” sounds like something an underleveled Team Rocket grunt would say before his swift demise. Of course, the Bionicle dude who made that lofty statement ended up getting destroyed by one of Back Arrow’s heretofore undiscovered abilities: self-cloning. He does it for the first time in the midst of heated combat, obviously, reversing the tide of battle in a turn of events that even the blind could see coming. It’s almost admirable that the show holds no pretenses when it comes to combat, but lines like, “Everything about me is beginner’s luck!” send it careening in the other direction. The episode’s only bright spot was the opening pact between Shu and Kai, which had roots in their oppressed childhoods, but Shu’s whimsical betrayal in the present day soured even that point of interest. One more week of this shit and I’m out.
You could make the case that Nakashima is just trolling with this dumb dialogue and that the stupidity is the point (why else would Back Arrow be named after a mishearing of the Japanese word for “idiot” and that every episode name is a dumb question?), but so far, that feels like total extrapolation. Something has to be up if this is supposed to last for 24 episodes. I’m betting on Taniguchi and Nakashima pulling the rug from under us having punk’d their audience by the halfway point, though I don’t know if they’re that clever enough to do that.
Taniguchi Gorou has not worked on anything good in over a decade, and yes, I am including Code Geass R2 as being one of his garbage works, so I doubt that Back Arrow will surprise the audience in a way that will redeem the show.
I often wonder what is the point of anine adaptation. They exist to promote a manga or light novel and sometimes are adapted sloppily. Most people are better off reading manga and ignoring adaptations. Especially poorly animated ones or ones with only 12 episodes
Heres a video for your education:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KkMD3pEaio
I mean, based on what I hear most people say, people think Goldy Pond Arc was where Promised neverland started to go downhill rather than last good arc(new characters of no significance being introduced, more focus on kids with guns, etc)