Winter 2021 Summary – Week 5

Wooper: This will be the last recap post for a couple weeks, as we’re currently shifting our focus to the mid-month State of the Season update. Before that project drops, though, you can get a taste of what we’re watching right here: a bunch of mid-tier seasonal offerings, plus a couple mid-2000s anime on Mario’s end. Click through for the full post – it’s a big one this week!

Urasekai Picnic – 04/05

Mario: Urasekai Picnic so far nails the creepy atmosphere of the Otherside and not much else – the production is barebones. Granted, there aren’t many action scenes but you can see the clunky production through the extras walking by. The two worlds, especially the connection between them, are still pretty much ambiguous – in the sense that visits feel more like nightmarish trips than an adventure. There’s way too much we don’t know about the Otherside, as each episode the girls encounter different kinds of urban monsters but for me at least these monsters don’t feel connected to each other. The lack of information about its world-building does help, though, in the sense that we don’t know what will happen next – making it kinda work as a mystery show.

I was Reincarnated as a Spider, so What?! – 05

Amun: Lads, we can all rest easy. Our darling spider has finally gotten something good to eat. As Spider-chan continues to try and survive between a rock and a hard place (or more accurately, the frying pan and the fire), I can see some complaints you could have about this show. Lots of text. So much text (that’s also upside down). I think whoever made this show got really into typefaces. There’s also the human drama that no one cares about – although the parallels with the Spider-chan’s bully who was reincarnated as a land dragon are mildly interesting. But all that’s beside the point – Spider-chan is still doing cute things (training montage was hilarious) and overcoming enemies…albeit in less interesting fights than before. I’m sure the plot is going to converge at some point, but so far it’s some good ole’ arachnid slap-stick, and I’m here for that.

Heaven’s Design Team – 05

Lenlo: I was wondering what Design-Bu was going to do to keep things interesting and it looks like the answer is new clients. Rather than restrict itself to purely real life animals, it seems it’s going to branch out into mythical ones as well but use them as excuses to talk about interesting biological concepts like multiple brains, etc. I think it’s pretty damn clever myself and it clearly works, because I am 5 episodes into an edutainment show about making animals and I still find it charming every single week.

Yuru Camp S2 – 05

Wooper: My favorite part of this episode was the post-ED skit featuring Rin and the talking pinecones, which is sort of an indictment of the other 20 minutes starring Chiaki, Aoi, and Ena. They’re fun to watch, but the show only has one gear when they’re on screen: comedy. There’s none of the empathy that was present in last week’s Nadeshiko story, for example, and no meditative solo camp sequences like the ones Rin brings to the table. That being said, it’s nice to watch Yuru Camp’s secondary characters shop, eat, and bathe their way through Yamanashi Prefecture. Aoi is the group’s biggest goofball, but she’s also the one who planned their trip, which gives her personality a nice shade between whimsy and responsibility. I like that Ena has been integrated into the main cast so naturally, as well. It took a while, as it typically does when a mutual friend is introduced to an existing group of hobbyists, but she’s finally part of the Yuru Camp family (which is good, because Aoi really needs somebody to play along with her dad jokes).

Go-toubun 2 – 04/05

Mario: Gotoubon 2’s episode ends the first act and honestly it could serve as a solid ending for season 1 much better than the actual one did. We have time skips, we have huge emotional payoffs and the girls decide to change their place just to get this guy back. Gotoubon is at its best when it explores one of the girls’ issues, thus episode 5 delivers in the second half where it focuses on Ichika and tanks in the first half where all we got is how these 5 girls fawn over the poor Futaro. This season has been focused on Nino and Itsuki a bit too much and neglects Miku and Yotsuba so I demand more time for those two.

The Promised Neverland S2 – 05

Lenlo: Dear god, they just keep finding ways to screw it up. Not only do they skip two of the best arcs left in the series but then instead of going off on an anime original story they just… pick up. After a timeskip, with no indication that a timeskip happened, losing all the world building necessary to make this feel less bullshit. And then it brings back Norman! In the worst possible way, undercutting one of the biggest selling points of the first season! I can’t stand it anymore. Neverland has gone to shit, and way earlier than I expected it to. Don’t count on me being positive in any more of these because at this point this column is a rant for the next 2 months.

Back Arrow – 05

Wooper: There was an interesting question buried in this week’s episode of Back Arrow: should oppressed populations abandon or reform the states that oppress them? Shu Bi has chosen the former, having betrayed the nation of Rekka to ally himself with the Granedger crew. General Kai, on the other hand, clings to his childhood promise with Shu to “change this country,” maintaining loyalty to the state that enslaved their people so he can revolutionize it from within. The show didn’t explore this topic in detail, but it’s the fulcrum on which the Shu/Kai conflict rests, so it’s bound to rise to the surface eventually. I find that heartening as a viewer, because a lot of Back Arrow has felt like nonsense to me – hell, most of it still does. It’s plotted and paced without regard for digestibility, and the characters feel like actors rather than self-motivated agents. But the show spent the majority of its time this week on a single idea (dissolving Shu and Kai’s partnership), and that focus did it a lot of good. Back Arrow survives the chopping block for another week!

Shounen Onmyouji [classic show] – 10-12

Mario: Starting right where I left off with this underseen show, at episode 12 we end on the first arc – the Kyuki arc – where Mashimaro fights against the foreign demons from China. The overall plot of this arc is fairly straightforward – it’s one of these clear-cut black and white shows where the demons are truly evil. The art remains interesting but what makes the show entertaining to watch is that Mashimaro is a protagonist worth following (at least so far). At first glance, he’s your typical shounen protagonist: overpowered, not overly complex in personality, with a great sense of justice and always putting himself in danger, but as time passes on he’s revealed to be more than that. His actions and decisions feel natural and he bounces off other characters well, namely Touda and Akiko. With the second arc coming I’m curious to see where the show goes from here.

Kemono Jihen – 05

Wooper: Boy, am I uninterested in everything that’s going on in Kemono Jihen right now. All the potentially interesting stuff that it’s introduced recently has been either sidelined or homogenized for a teenage audience. The intrigue surrounding Inari’s manipulation of the police department? Too complicated for the show’s current case-of-the-week format, so we’ll get back to it later. Kon’s abandonment issues? Abandoned, funnily enough, in the middle of the episode. The super powerful vampire living in Inugami’s closet? You guessed it, he’s an epic gamer who participates in the plot via RC car. I’m getting serious BNA vibes right now – both series were founded on the idea of an underworld run by beastmen, and both squandered that premise by telling a bunch of individual stories without a unifying message. I won’t make it through twelve episodes at this rate – either Kemono Jihen tightens up its story, or I tighten up my seasonal watchlist by making it one show smaller.

Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma [classic show] – 01-02

Mario: For this column I decided to start another classic show, and even with just two episodes, there’s a lot to be admired with Emma. It’s an adult romance anime (something we still desperately need even today) with slow pacing, and its investment in the Victorian setting and the characters at large is just stellar. What the show does right is exceedingly simple for a romance show: the characters’ development is the main focus instead of their romance – not to say that they neglect the “romance” part. We have two likeable leads and every time they are together they just spark. Not only that, the supporting characters, especially Elaine, contribute nicely to the story as well. Everything just gels here, and honestly I can’t wait to witness how Emma and William’s relationship blooms.