Tsurune – The Linking Shot –
Short Synopsis: The 2nd season of Tsurune, Kyoto Animation’s premier “Handsome Boys Doing Handsome Things” show.
Lenlo: Jesus Christ it’s just so goddamn pretty. Say what you want about the story, personally I actually quite like Tsurune’s portrayal of the sport and the connections built within it, however I know it isn’t for everyone. But you can’t deny just how good Tsurune looks and sounds. I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up being the most solid production of the season. That said, it’s the 2nd season of a 5 year old show. At this point you probably know if it’s up your alley or not. If you want to watch a character drama about pretty boys shooting arrows, give it a shot. Go try the 1st season. I know I was pleasantly surprised by it and you might be too.
Potential: 50%
ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister!
Short Synopsis: A shut in is turned into a loli, ecchi bullshit ensues.
Lenlo: You know how the anime community has this reputation in conservative circles for being filled with pedophiles and sexual deviants? Onimai, and shows like it, is why. This show is pure ecchi trash, and I can’t find it in me to respect anyone who not only watches this but likes it. I wanted to quit 5 seconds after the OP started, but I kept watching for you. And let me tell you… It’s not good. Just don’t watch it. Please.
Potential: Am I going to prison for watching this? Will you?
Mario: Thank you Lenlo for the passionate vote of disapproval. Let me fill in by dissecting it objectively. Yes, Onimai is a dumpster fire. Its leering at the underaged body, although not explicitly showing anything, is deeply uncomfortable. But even if you bypass that, the fact that the brother was manipulated by his sister without his consent (and at one point we see her hiding a spy camera) is troublesome. The main themes of the show are about 1) the expectation from the roles one’s supposed to perform and 2) what it feels like to be born with a different body. As such, I can feel it resonates on some levels if they can pool these issues effectively – which I highly doubt the show can pull off. Onimai’s mind seem to be occupied by Mahiro’s new found body and having Mahiro actually accepting his fate. No boy, just no.
Potential: “Bottomsley” – as in, the bottom of anime’s hell pit.
TECHNOROID: OVERMIND
Short Synopsis: Androids form a boyband to prevent their power, and thus their lives, from being shut off. Except it’s nowhere near as dark as that kind of existential crisis should be.
Lenlo: So let me get this straight, Overmind is about… hot android boy bands competing to be the top hot android boyband in a tower named after the myth of the Tower of Babel? I’ll be honest, I’m not feeling anything at all from this. As far as idol premises go its one of the more unique ones, but that doesn’t exactly make it good. It’s just an excuse to get 4 generic, color coded male designs on a CGI stage singing music composed by committee. Not a winner I’m afraid.
Potential: 0%
Mario: In all disguises of futurist settings, Babylon’s tower (that gives me a strong Hunter x Hunter’s arena vibe), and androids that occasionally have their heads dropped off when bumping to each other (such flawed designs if you ask me), Technoroid (maybe I should capitalize the name but I haven’t the heart to do it) is an idol show at heart. As such, it has all the trappings of an idol show: awkward CG live performances, hot boys and girls with color-code and zero personality, rival bands that might or might not be an avatar for some real-life bands… to be fair, Technoroid is more ambitious than that. Throughout the first episode, the band tries solving a kid’s grieving issues as well, and in the process learns about emotions and… singing together in live performances. Yeah, you read it right. For all of its ambitious settings and trying to break away from idol’s simple formula, the show sadly hampers itself by its silliness of “why do we need to sing together” or “why we need to pay pills for electricity” bits. It’s clear that they don’t take themselves so seriously, so why do we?
Potential: 0%
My only major complaint about the new season of Tsurune is that the soundtrack seems to have been changed. I really liked the old soundtrack, which had a nice mixture of melodrama and elegance that suited the archery theme of the series very well and really enhanced its atmosphere for me, but the new soundtrack – mainly consisting of quiet piano music – has been rather forgettable so far (though it’s not bad). It’s only the first episode, though, so maybe the old music will make a return later, or the new OST will start to grow on me. And fortunately the visuals are strong as ever, so the atmosphere is still quite excellent.
Huh. I can’t say I noticed that, mostly because I last watched Tsurune in 2018 when the first season came out. I’ll have to keep an ear out for this as it goes.
I downloaded a few tracks of the soundtrack back then, and I’ve listened to them every now and then over the years, so that’s how I noticed.
Anyway, after doing a bit of research, I found out that the soundtrack of the first season was done by Harumi Fuuki, but the soundtrack of the new season is done by the same guy who did the soundtrack for the compilation movie (Masaru Yokoyama). So the two seasons have entirely different composers, which means it isn’t strange that they’re quite different. Hopefully the new soundtrack will grow on me, although the work he’s done for shows I’ve watched over the years doesn’t make me optimistic, because I can’t remember a single piece of music from any of them. But then, I didn’t hate any of them either, so the soundtrack will probably at least be serviceable.
“give [Tsurune] a shot”
I see what you did there.
I’m glad someone did.
Have you watched the post-credit scene in Technoroid?
I did. It probably won’t change anything because I felt it won’t really go into detail about the relationship between human and androids, and is there for the sole purpose of providing a shoddy framing device (the I Robot procedural) before it goes back into the idol competition shenanigans well like most of these shows with different groups.
I thank you guys for doing the write ups on shows like Onimai, so I don’t waste the time or bandwidth to check them out. and my condolences for your sanity