Hinomaru Sumo
Starting us off this week we have Captain Tsubasa: Sumo Edition. In episode 4, Kirihito demonstrates that he means business as Dachi High's sumo coach by teaching Mitsuashi exactly how to defeat Chihiro, Yuma, and Ozeki with relative ease, exposing their weaknesses and showing where to improve. For Hinomaru, however, Kirihito has to step into the ring himself, where he wins by using an improved variant of Hinomaru's signature finishing move. When the others ask why Kirihito doesn't just compete as a member of the team, he reveals that he has a respiratory disorder that leaves him unable to compete for longer than 20 seconds before risking death. It is later explained that Hinomaru can bypass the physical restrictions for becoming a professional sumo wrestler by winning the high school tournament and the subsequent national amateur sumo wrestling tournament that he would be admitted to as a result. Elsewhere, Kuze declares to his father that he will be participating in the tournament this year, and his father acquiesces surprisingly easily.
This is the best episode of Hinomaru so far. The show actually takes a moment to slow down and explore the personalities and fighting styles of our main characters, and the results speak for themselves. While there is still nothing here that I haven't seen elsewhere in sports anime, everything here was executed so well that it still feels fresh, for the most part. Sometimes it isn't necessary to reinvent the wheel after all. Still, I'm not sold on Mitsuashi as a character yet, simply because his whining is a bit much. I appreciate the intent behind his character -- an underdog using sumo as a way to improve his confidence is a good idea -- but we already have such a sympathetic underdog in Hinomaru that Mitsuashi feels redundant and vestigial next to him. As for Kirihito, I've seen the gimmick of a talented athlete's potential being hindered because of a medical condition done better in shows like Captain Tsubasa and Kuroko's Basketball, but to see it applied to such an analytical personality is somewhat unique, at least as far as my experience goes. Usually the affected character stubbornly keeps competing anyway, sometimes with devastating results. But for Kirihito to logically look at the situation and choose to step back subverted my expectations, at least a little. And while the bout between Hinomaru and Kirihito wasn't as intense as his bout against Kuze last week, the characters' shared history and emotional baggage gives it more impact than any other bout up to this point. I hope that future episodes continue to build on what was established here and take this slightly slower pacing than what we had before.
Goblin Slayer
In Episode 4 of Genocide is Okay when Heroes Do It, the party enters the goblin nest in the old fortress, where they discover a brutalized female elf prisoner. After freeing her, they exterminate the goblins with little effort, only to be ambushed by a fearsome ogre. Goblin Slayer manages to defeat the ogre with the clever application of a teleport scroll, and the party returns to town, hardened by their experiences.
Before I say anything else, I have to admit that I was wrong last week. I erroneously claimed that Dwarf was a fighter, when it turns out that he is, in fact, a mage. I don't know how I got his class so wrong, but there you go. Probably because his spells suck. And you know what else kinda sucks? This whole story. It's not awful, it definitely works if you just want some fun dark fantasy and I'm definitely still enjoying myself while watching it, but there's just not a lot of substance here. How can the characters go from such an amazing campfire scene last week to them being all business and no personality this week? It's more than just adjusting your tone to fit the situation, this is a complete 180 and the characters are left as lifeless ciphers. I know that this is heavily inspired by tabletop RPGs, hence the dice motif in the opening, but if it is revealed that the whole thing is just a game, then these are just about the worst roleplayers I have ever seen. And I've been playing Dungeons and Dragons for about a decade, so I've seen my fair share of bad roleplayers. The only character who has anything going for him is the Goblin Slayer himself, and he just stops being interesting once you learn his lame backstory. He's just medieval Batman, and that may make for a cool character in a game, but it doesn't really work in a narrative medium like anime. The action scenes are still very good and the usage of a teleport scroll to send high pressure seawater out like a blade was inspired, but with the weak story, generic characters, and awkward CG animation, there isn't really much else going for Goblin Slayer. Still, I'm having a good time with the show as a fun dark fantasy action-fest, so I will be back next week.
Double Decker: Doug and Kirill
In episode 5 of Law and Order: Anime Victims Unit, death row inmate and former Anthem dealer in Esperanza Zabel claims to have killed A, the cartel's leader, months before he was arrested, and is now willing to trade information about the case in exchange for his life. Doug and Kirill investigate his claims and allow Zabel to lead them to A's body, but their convoy is interrupted by Bamboo Man of Esperanza, and Zabel takes advantage of the confusion to escape the police. Later, it's revealed that while Zabel did in fact kill A to take over Esperanza, the entire hunt for A's body was a set up designed to allow for his escape, and Zabel murders the prison guard who helped him set up everything for the operation.
This is so much better than last week's episode. Zabel and Bamboo Man are just the shot in the arm that this show needed, and with a multi-episode case and a group of recurring villains to look forward to, things are looking up for Double Decker. Seeing Doug truly obsess over the Esperanza case helped to sympathize him with the viewer, which is great because it's hard for me to care about someone who is canonically "a bit of an asshole." The scene where he held Zabel at gunpoint to try and get as much information about Esperanza as possible while Bamboo Man was attacking the police was an amazingly tense moment, and it even led to a few arrests, though I wonder whether Zabel planned it that way as well so he could get rid of a few loose ends in his organization. I look forward to finding out.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny-Girl Senpai
In episode 4 of Going Back on a Love Confession So We Can Indulge in Some Harem Bullshit, Sakuta has finally convinced Mai to go out with him after following through with his promise to confess his love for her every day for a month. Unfortunately, he is then trapped in a time loop where he has to repeat that day over and over. Eventually, he discovers that this is due to the manifestation of Adolescent Syndrome in his classmate Koga, who is using the time loop to avoid a love confession from an upperclassman that her friend has a crush on. The time loop is broken when he stumbles on Sakuta and Koga in a compromising position, but Mai also sees the misunderstanding, leaving Sakuta's chances with her in doubt. Things only get more complicated when Koga convinces him to fake a relationship with her to keep the upperclassman off her back, and now Mai is angry and wants answers.
I'm about to go on a rant, so let me just get this out of the way: This episode isn't bad. All of the great dialogue, natural voice acting, smooth animation, and strong direction is still here, and this is still one of the best anime I'm currently watching right now (including the sequels that I'm not covering on the roundup). But compared to the last three episodes, this is several steps backward. Did the author of the light novels really think it was a good idea to undo all of Sakuta and Mai's progress following a truly great love confession scene that earned a few tears from me with the most cliche of boring harem cliches? I appreciate what I think is the intent behind the scene --Sakuta facing the consequences for trying to fix Koga's issue as quickly as possible for his own sake instead of actually trying to understand and do what's best for her -- but if that is the case, the fact remains that it was so rushed it doesn't feel like any of it is actually his fault. And while Koga's cute and her desperate desire to hang on to the few friendships she has left is relatable, she just doesn't have the sheer screen presence that Mai does. I'm glad that Sakuta is just as annoyed with the situation as I am because this feels like a major step down from what I'm used to expecting from this show. And in fairness to Mai, when she comes to visit at the end of the episode, she seems to be more annoyed that he isn't chasing her like a traditional romantic and playing along with their usual game of cat and mouse, and she seems to be perfectly ready to listen to his explanation, so that's refreshing. That alone gives me hope that things will pick back up next week.
Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san
In episode 3 of Dracula's Comic Emporium, Honda and the rest of the staff struggle to negotiate with the sales representatives of various publishers. Then Honda and Jack-o-Lantern struggle to find recommendations to fit the specific tastes of their customers.
Not a lot ever happens in Honda-san, which means that the show is carried by the strength of its jokes. And on that front, this episode fairs much better than last weeks. Seeing the different ways the booksellers deal with the publishers was really fun, and the quick pace with which it jumped from one negotiation to the next made that 7 minute segment feel quick and breezy without a single wasted moment. It did feel a bit random to be introduced to an actual publishing rep that deals in distributing French manga when every other publisher was just represented by a generic character with a nametag over their face, but at least I know who to blame for unleashing Radiant on a poor unsuspecting world. The recommendation segment was even better in my opinion, though since that all hinged on the one punchline of someone asking for a cutesy shojo manga only to pick up Berserk instead, your mileage may vary. Still, a good episode here means that I don't have to drop one of my two vaguely horror related anime in October, so we're safe on that front.
Zombie Land Saga
In Episode 4 of Buffy the Crowd Surfer, Franchouchou's budget has run dry one month after their surprise performance, so Kotaro arranges a performance for the girls at a pharmaceutical company's retreat, hoping to arrange a sponsorship deal. But even though the performance goes well, Sakura, Saki, and Junko sneak off into the hot springs and end up revealing their zombie nature to the corporate rep, traumatizing her to the point that the sponsorship deal is forgotten.
Okay, this is seriously getting annoying. How is it that even though the character writing is getting better and better with each new episode the actual amount of fun I'm having is going down? The performance this episode is exactly the same as last week (bad CG and all) and got barely any focus, and all that we got besides that was some typical anime sightseeing and hot spring scenes that I can get anywhere. Admittedly, once the girls got spotted at the hot spring, everything came to life, and the way the directing shifted to be more like an actual horror series was brilliant, but the punch line that the rep forgot everything that had happened the previous day, performance included, is just stupid. Other people from the company were there, you know. Did they forget about it all, too? Did nobody record the performance? Wouldn't it have been so much better if the two metal fans -- No, I'm not going to stop mentioning them, they're the best characters in this show -- were the actual people making the decision and they chose not to sponsor Franchouchou because they strayed from their metal roots and are trying to sell out? That'd be an actual joke. This show is great when it plays with our expectations and pokes fun at idol shows, but recently it's just trying to be a typical idol show and that won't be the right direction. I'm still having fun but I'm worried that the show might be running out of good ideas, and I don't want to regret recommending it in my Halloween post. So don't screw this up, Franchouchou!
Run With the Wind
In episode 4 of Japanese Usain Bolt, the red-haired boy is Sakaki, who ran on the same track team as Kakeru back in high school. Sakaki resents Kakeru for being the favorite of their coach, and expresses surprise at Kakeru's willingness to run with amateurs. When he hears about Haiji's plan to run in the Hakone Ekiden, he finds the idea laughable and insulting to the sport of track, which inspires enough outrage to convince the nay-sayers to commit to running the race just so that they could prove him wrong.
So I know that every sports anime has at least one rival character, but I'm still surprised that this show has one. I mean, Sakaki's taunting is a good enough reason to get the entire group on board with the race I guess, but it didn't really feel necessary. There was already a lot of gradual development among the characters, showing them enjoying the daily runs more and more before ever hearing an insult that hurts their fragile male pride in front of a cute high school girl. Throwing Sakaki in here feels like forcing something that was already going to happen anyway, like trying to eat a vegetable before it's ripe. That's not to say this episode is bad or anything -- Run With the Wind doesn't seem to do bad episodes -- it's just weird. The scenes of Kakeru literally running from his problems while being chased by the ghosts of his past (Haiji, Sakaki, his former coach, etc.) was very interesting to watch, especially since we haven't gotten any internal monologue in this show so far. It did feel a little out of place to have so much visual metaphor in what has been a fairly grounded show up to this point, but it was visually engaging and was probably the best way to convey Kakeru's thoughts without breaking its normal conventions, especially since he doesn't have anyone he's comfortable opening up to yet. And Prince just won my character of the week award with this episode. I too would be more motivated to exercise if I had a trainer quoting sports manga at me. Oh, and his "up yours" speech to Sakaki was pretty cool, too, I guess.
SSSS.Gridman
And finally, we have Mighty Morphing Trigger Characters. In episode 4, Akane tries to get closer to Rikka so as to get information about Yuta and Gridman. The girls go on a group date with their classmates and a quartet of college-age YouTubers. When the boys keep getting in Akane's way as she tries to get info out of Rikka, she gets frustrated and sends a kaiju after them. Because of her modifications to the kaiju muffle their aura, Gridman is unaware of the attacks, and three out of the four targets are killed. But when Rikka figures out what's happening, she is able to get Gridman to save the last one. Anti interrupts the battle with the kaiju and tries to get revenge aginst Gridman, but their battle is again interrupted by their respective time limits. The next day, Rikka entertains the idea that the appearance of kaiju is somehow linked to her presence.
This episode is a bit of a step down from last week, but that's more to do with the sheer amount of quality last week had rather than any lack of quality this week. Gridman is constantly fighting with Bunny Girl and Run with the Wind for the position of best show of the roundup, and it's definitely the most fun to think about. Everything about Akane is fascinating, as she jumps back and forth between diabolical mastermind and spoiled child throwing a tantrum. I still can't tell what her relationship with Alexis and the kaiju are. Is she the boss? Is she being manipulated? Are they equals? Any one of these options is still possible. And as for an even bigger questions: why does she create the kaiju in the first place? The way she impulsively picks her targets suggests that it's all just pure id and that she just kills anybody who annoys her. That would explain why she obsesses over Gridman as well, since he keeps getting in her way. But somehow, I still think there may be more to it, simply because I don't understand why Alexis would just go along with all this. He's clearly intelligent, so what would he gain from going along with the whims of a teenage girl? As for Rikka, I think it's pretty obvious that she doesn't have anything to do with the kaiju spawning. Yeah, it's left ambiguous, what with it being the last line of the episode, but we already know that Akane is creating the kaiju. There's no way that Rikka is involved. A better question is how long have these attacks been happening. With all the sculptures on her shelves, I find it hard to believe that Akane just started at the same time as Yuta and Gridman.
I know I'm not talking about what actually happened this week, but that's because this felt like a typical filler that a monster of the week show would put out at this point in the season and there really isn't anything new to talk about. Everything good I've said before about the animation, voice acting, and character beats still stands here, and with no new information to chew on, I'm just left contemplating the mysteries that were already presented to me. But I still have fun seeing Gridman punch kaiju, so I'll probably be happy even if none of my questions ever get answered.
And that wraps up the weekly roundup! A bit of a slow week this time, but nothing was so awful that I had to drop it. Following the trends that came before, that means that I'm going to be dropping four shows next week. Can't wait! And with that, I leave you with an important medical announcement:
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