Winter 2023 Impressions: Kyokou Suiri S2, High Card, Mou! Ippon

Kyokou Suiri 2

Short Synopsis: Two youkai specialists talk and exorcize an evil spirit.

Mario: It’s fun to check back on Kotoko and Kuro and just listen to whatever nonsense Kotoko spouts. This first episode of the second season (or episode 13 of the whole franchise) is a self-contained story that perfectly captures all the good and bad qualities of Kyokou Suiri. The good: Kotoko still demands your attention. The bad: The show seemingly drags out with too much talking. Most of the time, Kotoko’s charms and the story’s twists make the whole journey worth it, but I always have this feeling that a good chunk of dialogues can be easily cut out without any significant loss. As a whole, the episode works out well. It does a great job of reintroducing our main characters and their powers. The enemy is well thought out and the way they execute it is up to my valley. But at the same time, Kuro is still not that interesting and the episode feels like 20 minutes longer than it actually is.There is a nice surprise though: I wouldn’t expect Wooper to make a literal appearance in anime (bravo!). It only proves that, with enough will, you can find your own place in the anime world!
Potential: 40%

Amun: I forgot how much talking there is in this show. My goodness gracious, did no one tell them this was ANIMATED? Show, NOT tell! The fanciful stories and duplicitous explanations are a blessing and a curse, as Mario says. It’s the heart of Kyokou Suiri, but you would think for an invincible guy who can change the future, there would be more action. However, it is a yokai tale, and a pretty good one at that, so I’m still here for it. With DanMachi also airing this season, I don’t think I’ll be covering it (there are many other better candidates this season anyways), but I’ll probably watch it for a bit. Just a little more effort into the visuals please.
Potential: 50%

HIGH CARD

Short Synopsis: Super powered playing cards give people incredible abilities and they must battle to collect them all

Lenlo: High Card is… not what I was expecting, nor hoping it would be. With a name like this I was looking for some kind of high stakes gambling show, something around luck and a lead with a heart of gold. Instead what I got is a gambling themed super power combat show. That isn’t too bad, the powers seem flashy so far and since it’s based on a full deck that means there are 52 of them out there. High Card also has a bit of style to it, though I think it’s a bit too ambitious for its own good. Even in this first episode a lot of its higher concept scenes felt rough, and that tends to only get worse as a season progresses. Still, it did enough to get me to watch another episode or two. See how it pans out and evolves the concept, or if it stays as a pretty standard weekly power show.
Potential: 40%

Mario: For me, the most fun aspect High Card offers me so far is how it goes full wild mode with the supernatural cards. And for now, it’s too random the power the cards generate that it’s actually quite fun to see. Is 2 of Spades more powerful than… say 10 of Hearts? I don’t know. I don’t care. The way the show sets up thus far is far less original. Our main lead has a clear motivation for gambling and stealing money, but other than that there’s nothing much going for him. The same can be said for the rest of the cast. I suppose you will get the most out of High Card if you don’t think about it too deeply and just enjoy whatever insane superpower they cook up. Personally I think they missed their chance of making the original cards (why stick with this French-suited cards?) but that’s just me.
Potential: 40%

Ippon! again

Short Synopsis: Cute Girls do Judo

Lenlo: Ippon was a lot better than I expected. I was prepared for this to be another surface level Cute Girls Doing Cute Things sports show where they really don’t care about the sport on any meaningful level. But it turns out that Ippon is really more of a traditional sports show with a primarily female cast than it is a CGDCT show. And while I’m not huge on the character designs, the show has got some really respectable animation behind it. Some great Judo techniques, camera movements, etc etc. All in all, I expected absolutely nothing here and what I got was another show I’m actually going to watch. Good deal if you ask me.
Potential: 70%

Mario: It’s funny. At first glance Ippon Again doesn’t have much appeal to me personally, I know very little about judo, and the character designs don’t really interest me, but it’s such a joy to watch. Like Lenlo mentions above, the show is much more about traditional sports than a CGDCT fare. While they do follow some formula’s staples (a club needs 3 members blah blah), it’s about the judo, the girls and the joy of doing judo. First, Ippon Again’s Judo matches are clear standouts in terms of animation and framing. It looks like the staff pour their souls to animate these sequences. Second, the girls act so naturally with each other and the dialogues are actually believable. And finally, yes the joy of doing the sports, of what motivated you to play those sports for the first time. It certainly reminds me of why I love my sport (tennis) in the first place.
Potential: 50%