Five Forgotten Anime Openings

I try not to make a habit out of talking about them here since it's a very subjective topic and is difficult to talk about in general, but one of my favorite things about anime are the anime openings. I always loved theme songs in general and anime theme songs in particular are almost always high quality, especially in this modern era of anime. There's a few reasons for this, but it mostly comes down to music studios being major sources of funding for anime production and thus using the openings -- essentially a 90 second music video -- as advertisement for their artists. Thus, you have talented artists like Lisa, FLOW, Granrodeo, Man with a Mission, Spyair, Unison Square Garden, Asian Kung Fu Generation, Scandal, High and Mighty Color, and so many more debuting new songs written to tie into the themes of the show with an appropriate visual accompaniment that builds hype and/or tells a quick story for the viewer.

So, naturally, openings are very popular among the truly enlightened members of the anime community that don't skip them. And one of my favorite things to do while writing up my posts for this blog is to find a video compilation of somebody's favorites and listen in the background. Now, obviously, not all opening songs are created equal, but sometimes I feel a bit bored by seeing the same entries over and over, and I feel a lot of great songs are being overlooked. I mean, sure, everyone loves Tank, Sakura Kiss, Again, Cruel Angels Thesis, The World, Brave Shine, Crossing Field, Departure, My Soul Your Beats and all the rest of the greatest hits, and it might not seem like much of a complaint when so many openings are celebrated by these lists (Top 100 lists are common), but there is so much overlap I feel like some great songs are still being snubbed here. And yeah, maybe I'm the only one who cares about this sort of thing, but it's my blog and this is a good topic to pull out when real life is getting in the way of bigger discussions, so there. Today, I'm going to share, in no particular order, five anime openings that I feel have been forgotten by the greater anime community and need more love.

So let's get started!

Yugioh GX Opening 4

So, let's get this out of the way. I love Yugioh GX more than any other generation of Yugioh. And I'll be the first to admit that it's dumb, it's silly, and the story doesn't really hold up, which are problems with Yugioh as a whole, but especially here. But, there's something unique about it that comes from its place as the second generation of Yugioh anime. After the overblown dramatic storylines of Duelist Kingdom, Battle City, Waking the Dragon, and Millenium World, Konami and Studio Gallop came to the realization that the show was about a card game and decided to take it easy, turning the show into a sports/slice of life hybrid with a tone that walks the line between laid back and serious in a way that I have yet to see replicated anywhere else. And then in season 3, they took that laid back attitude that they gave protagonist Jaden Yuki and put it through the ringer, reintroducing the supernatural elements of the series and subjecting him to torture and tragedy on a scale that would make Yugi wince in sympathy.

Which brings us to the season 4 opening: Precious Time, Glory Days by Psychic Lover. Jaden has just been through the worst experiences of his life, seeing his friends lose their bodies, being trapped in a dimension full of monsters, and even temporarily turning into an evil tyrant. Even worse, he is left trying to recover even while challenges still exist and enemies remain to be faced. But over the course of the opening, we see him regain his confidence and accept that even though bad things have happened and the road ahead may be difficult, he is far from alone and he can still succeed if he, as the song reminds us, kept holding on.

Samurai Flamenco Opening 1

Samurai Flamenco is a really good show that I need to get around to finishing, and one that I can only talk about in the broadest terms because not even I can talk spoilers this good without feeling guilty. It tells the story of Masayoshi, an aspiring male model and actor who secretly moonlights as a costumed hero, despite not having any special powers or weapons of his own. Basically, imagine Kickass, but instead of big storylines about fighting the mob you have small stories of people being inspired to be better.

So, naturally, Just One Life by Spyair leans into the fantasy and just how powerful that is. After showing a role call of all the people Masayoshi will go on to inspire, we get an incredible look at what drives him. The fight scene between him and the robot is a blast to watch as the chorus crescendos into its amazing title drop, and the follow up that it was all a dream right before he gets a phone call from his manager demanding to know why he is late for his latest gig is the best way to come down from that emotional high. There's not a lot of symbolic depth to this opening compared to some others -- in many ways it's a standard anime opening -- but compared to the more popular opening themes from Spyair like Imagination and Sakura Mitsutsuki, I feel like this is much more deserving of attention.

Panty and Stocking

Hey, did you guys know I like weird things? Here's another weird thing I like. Panty and Stocking isn't exactly unknown as far as anime goes, but it's not usually one that gets a lot of attention nowadays. Known for its raunchy humor, western style, and for being one of the last Gainax shows made before director Hiroyuki Imaishi split off to found Studio Trigger and save anime, this show never really set the world on fire, but it sticks out as a darn good time if you ever just want to take a break from shows with serious stories and laugh. 

And this opening, simply titled "Theme for Panty and Stocking", is brilliant in that it's totally honest about what it is. With only a 30 second runtime, -- one third of what is typical for anime openings -- limited animation, and no deeper meaning to speak of, the opening primes the viewer for an atypical anime experience. The opening is more suited to play before a late night Adult Swim cartoon than a Gainax anime (lest we forget, this is the studio that gave us Evangelion and Gurren Lagann), which is only appropriate for a show that's basically "if Loony Tunes swore and had sex."

Food Wars: The Second Plate

So, Food Wars is pretty popular. I don't think anyone can deny this. Being a Shonen Jump adaptation with a strong cast of likable and sexy characters that manages to be both memeworthy and full of narrative depth will get you a pretty sizable fanbase, even if it's a bit more of a cult hit compared to fellow Jump adaptations like Dragon Ball and One Piece. I mean, hell, the most recent season that aired in 2018 has over 223,000 members of MyAnimeList alone having watched it, including yours truly. So you might be asking, how could any Food Wars opening be forgotten if the show is still so popular? 

Well, would you believe that I struggled to even find a tv sized version of this opening on Youtube to embed on this post that wasn't part of a compilation? I mean, it's not impossible to find, by any stretch of the imagination, and it's not like that was the only reason I planned on including this. I feel like this song, Rough Diamonds by Screen Mode, is the quintessential shonen opening. This song can be repurposed to introduce One Piece, Naruto, Haikyuu, Dragon Ball, the list goes on. It's a song about rising up and becoming the best, for crying out loud! Maybe that makes it generic for some, and there's an argument for that,but I feel like that just makes it iconic, especially since this is associated with the tournament arc that introduces the second season. As far as I'm concerned, this opening is just as good as My Hero Academia's Peace Sign, and it basically does the same thing visually.

Zatch Bell Opening 1

Alright, let's wrap this up with an actual anime that is being forgotten. Zatch Bell was one of my favorite anime when I was in middle school, even if it was mostly just a mix of Pokemon and Stand battles. I don't know, maybe it's the nostalgia talking, but something about the lighthearted tones of Kasabuta by Chiwata Hidenori just makes me happy. This was the song that actually made me want to make this post, which really makes me wish I had more to say about it. But I don't really. I just really like this opening. There's nothing particularly special or interesting about it. I just like the song and the visuals. 

Am I bad at this?

Weekly Roundup Winter 2019 Week 3

We are officially a quarter of the way into the winter 2019 season. Pastel Memories was eliminated last week, leaving us with 12 shows to talk about this week. And just like last week, I found another winter anime that I wish I included in the roundup instead of Pastel Memories! Yeah!

I'm just stunned that there exists a harem comedy that I actually unironically enjoy.

Hinomaru Sumo

First up on the roundup this week is Episode 15 of NEW OPENING HYPE!! The individual tournament at the national inter-high sumo championships has begun, and Hinomaru is matched up against Tennoji, the reigning high school yokozuna, very early on. Hinomaru has admired Tennoji for a long time, as he was also an undersized sumo wrestler when they were younger before having a growth spurt in middle school. Likewise, Tennoji feels genuine respect for Hinomaru for still being a force to be reckoned with despite his stature, and has studied his techniques extensively. Though Hinomaru manages to gain the upper hand in the match occasionally, it seems that Tennoji has a counter planned for every tactic he tries. Eventually, Hinomaru is defeated and loses his chance of winning the individual title and having a shot at the pro leagues. Hinomaru shrugs the loss off, choosing to focus on the team tournament, where a rematch against Tennoji may help give him another chance at making the pro circuit this year. However, the rest of the team refuses to let him participate in the first day's matches due to an injury, and promise to maintain their spot in the tournament until he is cleared to return to competition. 

So, this may take the record for being the shortest tournament in anime history. In only one episode, Hinomaru is out of the running for the individual title. Which, I admit, I did not see coming. Even when he was paired up against Tennoji so early, someone who had "final boss" written on his forehead in an all cap glitter font, I was half expecting Hinomaru to pull off an upset victory and kick off an arc about Tennoji realizing that he may have been underestimating his opponents. Even My Hero Academia and Pokemon, which have previously surprised audiences by having their audiences by having their protagonists lose the tournament fairly early, had taken multiple episodes and showed them getting a few wins before being eliminated. People talk about subverting expectations a lot these days, but I don't think anyone aside from manga readers could have expected this!

But does that make it a good twist? It's tough to say at this point. If this leads into interesting develoipments for Hinomaru and the story moving forward, then I will say yes. But I have a sinking feeling that this may have been a mistake, where the desire to surprise the audience runs the risk of leaving the story with nowhere interesting to go. After all, right after Hinomaru says that he has no choice but to wait until next year's tournament, Ozeki comes out and says that, conveniently, it is possible to have multiple high school yokozunas if they can get matched up against Tennoji in the team tournament. It's almost as if they wanted to have a moment to make you upset, but were worried about losing viewers by making a situation that seemed hopeless and chickened out at the last minute. That's not to say that the episode was bad -- far from it, this was the best bout yet -- but it has the potential to make future episodes worse. And that's...certainly interesting...

Girly Air Force

He's actually just watching Island.

Next up, we have Wait, That's It? In Episode 3, Gripen's test flight is right around the corner, and Yashirodoori has made an important discovery: Gripen's brainwaves are synchronizing with Kei's, providing her with additional mental stability. However, just moments after he learns that the Xi have destroyed his home town, Kei is told the truth: Gripen and the other Anima are made from retrofitted Xi technology. Angry and betrayed, Kei abandons Gripen, though he has a change of heart on the morning of her test flight. When a Xi aircraft attacks during the test flight, Gripen suddenly passes out and seems doomed -- that is, until a second Anima named Eagle comes to her rescue.

The frustrating thing about this show is that it's not bad enough to get cut at this point. The animation and sound design are competent, the actors are doing a passable job, and Gripen still manages to be adorable from time to time. Compared to some of the hot garbage we've had on this season's roundup, that isn't so bad to sit through. Unfortunately, it just leaves me with nothing to really say about this episode other than, well, it certainly exists. The big "twist"  that the Anima are made from Xi parts was something that I was expecting, if for no other reason than the fact that this show has a lot of surface level elements in common with Darling in the FRANXX (pink haired girl who has some sort of defect paired with a precocious boy who wants to pilot a military vehicle, girl kisses boy upon first meeting him in a military setting, mysterious scientist keeping tabs on the children, strange alien enemies, etc etc), which had a similarly predictable twist near the end of its run. The only difference between the two is that FRANXX was never this boring. And the last two episodes may not have been masterpieces either, but at least I wasn't bored watching them. The only time I had an emotional response in this show was Eagle's introduction, and even then, it was mostly nausea upon hearing her call Yashirodoori "Daddy". I mean, he built her, so it's techincally accurate, but still. Ew.

Boogiepop and Others

You know, just because you're a mystery show doesn't mean it's okay for you to say that!

Well, this week is off to a...less than ideal start. Let's break up that disappointment with something good, shall we? On episode 4 of the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Confusing Nonsense, a girl named Suiko prepares to throw herself off the roof of the school when she is confronted by Boogiepop. After they trade, confusing dialogue, Boogiepop reveals Suiko to be possessed by a supernatural being called the Imaginator. The Imaginator throws herself off the roof, but then appears behind Boogiepop and challenges them to find her before she "hits the ground" and vanishes. The Imaginator reappears to visit Asukai, a guidance counselor who can see the hearts of everyone around him, realized as roses that are missing something, be it roots, thorns, or a bud. The Imaginator claims that she can see death, and shows Asukai a version of the future where he kills several people, shaking him to his core. At a chance encounter with a former student who is addicted to drugs and desperate for money, Asukai watches in horror as the Imaginator possesses the girl and slits her throat. As he cradles the girl's dying body, Asukai sees a complete rose for the first time. Fascinated, he decides to experiment with his new powers on some would be rapists, and his personality is suddenly much more sinister. Meanwhile, Boogiepop appears before one of Suiko's friends and talks her out of suicide in a misguided attempt to join her friend, though they also claim to have killed Suiko, calling her an "enemy of this world". 

I have no idea what the hell is going on. And the problem with mystery shows like this is that it's very difficult to determine if that's because it's an effective mystery or if it's just badly written until after everything is said and done. This show is fun to watch since it has good animation, a creepy atmosphere, and good voice acting, but it's so damn hard to talk about story-wise. All that's left to do is speculate. But before I do that, can I just mention that I hate that "snow falls in April" line? They repeat it like six times in this episode and I've got a feeling that it's just nonsense that only sounds profound but doesn't actually mean anything. 

Anyway, I think that after the staged encounter with his former student, the Imaginator has given Asukai the knowledge that he can give people closure and make them emotionally whole -- thus making their roses whole -- but only after they have suffered bodily harm and are at death's door. It's fleeting, but it's beautiful to him, and it makes him feel powerful. The only problem is that that doesn't really line up with his experiments battling the rapists since he claims that he hasn't hurt them. Does his ability to bring this closure and balance require him to drain their life force? That would mean that he doesn't technically physically hurt them, since they don't feel pain, but it would still line up with the vision of him killing everybody. I'm not sure if that is the case exactly, but I think I'm on the right track. Either way, this show is creepy good fun, and it never fails to keep me engaged with its pseudo-philosophy mumbo jumbo.

The Promised Neverland

I had a funny title in mind for this episode, I swear, but I forgot what it was when I looked at that face. Anyway, in Episode 3, Mama has recruited Sister Krone to help her determine who among the children knows the truth about Grace Field House. Or so it appears. Mama actually already knows her targets' identities, and she only needs Krone to keep them at the House until their scheduled shipment date, choosing not to report this so as not to ruin a very important shipment for a high ranking demon that she has a great deal of pressure to meet. Seeing an opportunity for advancement, Krone decides to investigate the leak herself so that she could report Mama's deception and take her job for herself. Meanwhile, as she and Gilda are helping take care of the babies, Emma realizes that the tracking devices were implanted in their earlobes during their physicals and vaccinations. However, Ray decides that training the other children for life outside the House is more important than trying to remove the trackers at this time, and Emma has a suggestion: training without telling them what they're training for by playing tag. Realizing what they are up to, Krone decides to intimidate the children by joining in the game, but Ray and Norman manage to avoid her for the duration of the match, and Emma would have escaped as well if she didn't go back for her siblings. However, as neither Mama nor Krone has made a move in the days since, the trio realize that they have another problem: one of their siblings is reporting to the adults.

This is exactly what I was talking about last week. Emma is the one who comes up with the brilliant idea of using a game of tag to train the children in physical conditioning and strategic thinking simultaneously AND she is the one who figured out where to find the tracking device. Anyone who thinks she doesn't deserve those perfect scores hasn't been paying attention! Anyway, this is the best episode of Promised Neverland yet. Sister Krone is one of the best characters in the series in my opinion, and her actress is going above and beyond my expectations and bringing the calculating yet overdramatic psychopath to life. Not to mention that we got to learn a little bit  more about the world outside of Grace Field House: namely, there are several other production facilities that farm children for the demons, and most of them are falling behind in production. This detail does a good job of adding some worldbuilding to the series while also justifying Mama's decision to wait and just ship out the children like normal; she has a lot of pressure on her to deliver high quality merchandise. Also, I'm sure that if you're paying attention, the traitor seems obvious, but is it a fakeout? I mean, I did read the manga, but I don't even remember a traitor subplot in this first arc (I read it like 3 years ago), so I don't know. But I can't wait to find out!

Dimension High School

God, I wish that was me.

Whoa, there, we can't have too much positivity this early in the season. Time for something bad. In Episode 3 of Sudden Plot: The Animation: determined to rescue Tsuyoshi from the Sphinx Paramesos, Yurio begins a logic puzzle training montage. Spudio tells the 4 chosen heroes that Paramesos is from an alternate Earth (which was presumably also 3D) where Oedipus never defeated the Sphinx, so now humans are extinct. With its normal food source depleted, Paramesos traveled to the 2D world, where he defeated Spudio and ate the rest of its denizens as Spudio fled to the 3D world to find heroes to aid him (the process of which turned him into a rock). When Paramesos arrives to challenge the boys yet again, with the most complex puzzle yet, Yurio stuns them all by giving the correct answer with one second remaining on the clock. Paramesos disintegrates and Tsuyoshi is brought back to life. Yurio tearfully admits to Tsuyoshi that he sabotaged his motorcycle in order to create an incident for them to become friends (by pointing out that something was wrong before Tsuyoshi drove off. He didn't think his plan through.), but Tsuyoshi doesn't give it a thought and is just glad that they're friends again. As the episode ends, the narrator hints that the 3D world is still in danger.

I don't know what I was expecting from Dimension High School, but lore wasn't it. I mean, it wasn't really much of a backstory, but still, it was more than I expected. I honestly thought that the whole talking rock thing was just something that was going to go unexplained. If anything, I half expected the show to double down and reveal that all the inhabitants of the 2D world were talking rocks or Gorons or something. It just seemed weird enough for this show, you know? Anyway, this still isn't very good. It's not like it was magically going to be any better produced, but even the story isn't worth talking about this week. Disappointing lore aside, the big "reveal" that Yurio sabotaged Tsuyoshi's bike wasn't a surprise in the slightest. Hell, Ryusei actually suggested that that was the case last week! Did nobody proofread this script? The whole time I had dismissed the idea because it was too obvious, and I actually convinced myself that Yurio was acting weird because he had a crush on Tsuyoshi and thought he was straight. I mean, don't get me wrong, the two of them still act super gay, but it's all in that disappointingly gay anime way where nobody actually says anything and everyone pretends they're just really close friends and yaoi fans are crazy even though they are the only ones brave enough to admit the truth.

Wait, what was I talking about? I don't know, this show doesn't give me a lot to work with. It only survives thanks to the existence of something worse, it's probably going to die next week, let's just move on.

Run With the Wind

Alright, next up is I'm Not Crying, You're Crying! In Episode 14, with the summer training camp officially over, the Kansei University team sets their sights on the next step of their journey: getting official records for the qualifier for the remaining members of the team that have not done so yet. Nico and King manage to get their needed times relatively quickly, but Prince is still not quite there yet. Track meet after track meet passes by, yet even though his times are improving, he still has not met the minimum required time for the qualifying race. That is, until the very last official meet, where Prince, spurred on by the love and support of his teammates, just barely manages to get the time needed for his team to make it to the Hakone Qualifier.

Do you want to know how important all those seemingly insignificant little moments are that I focus on each week when we talk about this show? Those little moments are the building blocks that endear the audience to your characters and get you invested in their struggles, and if you pull those off well enough on a consistent basis, you get an episode like this one. The moment I saw Prince running in the middle of the pack, I had to pause the video so I could catch my breath and keep from hyperventilating in excitement. My heart was beating out of my chest, and when I saw the clock, I started to cry. And I could go on and on about how good the staging was for this moment, from the music to the camera angles to Prince's internal monologue, but that would be missing the real secret to that moment's success. Huge moments like this cannot work in any story unless the necessary time is taken to set you up to care about those moments.

This is why I love sports anime so much! I don't care about track and field in the slightest. If I watched a random person run a race, I would not lose any sleep over who the victor was. But because the characters care about the outcome of their races and the show has made me care about the characters through all those seemingly unimportant little stories I keep focusing on, the race is now the most important thing in the world to me at that moment. Any really good story can do that to an audience, no matter what the subject matter is, and it's such a shame to me that so many times these shows get dismissed out of hand because potential viewers don't have a personal interest in the subject matter. Stories are about more than the events that happen in them. They are about characters and atmosphere and emotion! If you aren't already watching Run With the Wind, then I urge you to watch it just so that you can experience this moment like I did!

Rising of the Shield Hero

The Wave of Catastrophe kinda looks like a peacock, huh?

Next up we have Episode 3 of Incel Vindication: the Animation. The first Wave of Catastrophe is nigh, and Naofumi and the other Heroes have assembled to face it. Motoyasu taunts Naofumi over his fall from grace, which piques Raphtalia's curiosity, but she refuses to pursue it after Naofumi tells her to drop it. When the Wave actually arrives, the other three Heroes charge to face the boss monster, but Naofumi and Raphtalia notice that a nearby village is being targeted by the minions of the boss, which the other Heroes have ignored in favor of the faster but more risky strategy of just killing the boss and ending the Wave sooner. Naofumi lures the monsters away from the villagers alone as Raphtalia evacuates the civilians, and is soon aided by the male villagers and Raphtalia when they refuse to leave their home without a fight. When the royal knights finally arrive to provide clean up for the Heroes, their indiscriminate magic bombings nearly kill Naofumi and Raphtalia, prompting a confrontation between Raphtalia and the knights' commander. When Naofumi deescalates the situation by pointing out that there are still monsters to defeat, the knights abandon them to go support the other Heroes, save for one small squad that chooses to help Naofumi protect the villagers. As the dust settles after the battle, the other Heroes question why Naofumi didn't show up to help while the villagers thank the Shield Hero for actually thinking about them.

You know, for a cataclysmic event that was being hyped up for the whole series up to this point, the first Wave of Catastrophe was kinda boring. This might have been effective as a light novel where you can imagine everything happening in your mind, but I've never seen an army of deadly monsters stand still for so long and get mowed down so easily since I last played Hyrule Warriors. It doesn't take a lot to keep me interested in a fight scene, but I was honestly pretty bored here. Very disappointing.

That's not to say that the episode was all bad, though. As much as you're supposed to dislike them, I do actually like seeing the other Heroes again. I mean, I'd prefer to have seen them do something other than antagonize Naofumi, but I like their designs, they add an interesting wrinkle to the typical isekai setup, and I want to see more of them (especially the Bow Hero Itsuki). The fact that they're living the typical wish fulfillment isekai life while Naofumi is struggling to survive thanks to being framed for a crime he didn't commit is a cool element of this story, and I think it would be more effective if I could see more of them. So far, only Motoyasu has a defined personality to latch onto, and though he's a bit of a jerk now, I remember him being more likable in episode 1. I wonder if Myne's manipulation and his perception of Naofumi as a rapist changed his attitude? And I suppose that it's gratifying that Naofumi is getting supporters among the common people even when the crown and the other Heroes despise him, but I can't help but shake the feeling that something is off. Even before he was framed, nobody aside from the shopkeeper wanted to help Naofumi, even though he is supposedly just as vital to protecting the world as the other Heroes. And now, the Royal Knights just bomb the area indiscriminately, not even caring that the Shield Hero is in the blast radius and then subtly threatening to kill him if he doesn't stay out of their way? Even if you hate him because you think he's a sexual predator, that doesn't make sense when the king explicitly said he was keeping him alive because they needed him to fight the Waves. Either the author didn't think this plot through, or something else is happening behind the scenes that will be revealed later. Hopefully, it's the latter.

Magical Girl Asuka

Can you please make this real, LIDENFILMS? That would be great.

In Episode 3 of Boobies and Blood, in Tijuana, the magical girl Mia leads a raid on a drug cartel only to find evidence of something more sinister going on. Back in Japan, despite Kurumi and the commander's persistent requests, Asuka continues to refuse the invitation to join the new magical combat squad. Nozomi notices that Sayako is still struggling with her trauma, and suggests that the girls have a day out at the pool to help her take her mind off of things. As the girls play, Nozomi's father learns the name of the organization backing the terrorists: Babel Brigade, a group that seems to be dedicated to eliminating all magical girls. Threatened by the progress of his investigation, Babel Brigade makes their move and kidnaps Nozomi on her way home from the pool, and Asuka is none the wiser...

This was, mostly, a bit of a slower paced episode than the last two, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Seeing Asuka and Kurumi just hanging out at school and being happy like normal kids is just the sort of wholesome thing I love to see (not to mention the ship teases), even though I know that the whole thing is just a scheme to get me invested in the well-being of the characters so as to make the later action scenes that much more impactful and tense. See, when you start looking at stories in an analytical way, sometimes you run the risk of losing the chance to have moments actually mean something to you as you start thinking about how the staff is trying to get its audience to feel a certain way. It's almost like a cynical defense mechanism against feeling manipulated. Luckily, as we've established several times in the past, I'm a total pushover for mushy stuff done well, so I'm all in for more high school shenanigans with Asuka and her friends. Not to mention that the juxtaposition of these light-hearted scenes with the more serious scenes with Mia or Nozomi's father creates a feeling of unease and tension in the back of your mind. You know that things aren't all okay and you become an anxious mess wondering if the girls will be safe when everything goes wrong. And, as this episode delights in reminding us, the answer is no. They are not safe. And I just want it to be next week already so I know that Nozomi is okay!

Dororo

I have no joke here, this is just a nice shot.

We're almost done! Next up we have Episode 3 of Durarara. Jukai was once an executioner for the wicked Lord Shiba, but upon seeing his lord murder an innocent civilian in addition to his political enemies, he became fed up with the whole thing, and threw himself into the sea. However, he was rescued by a foreign ship, and his rescuers taught him the art of medicine and prosthetics. Having returned to Japan to try to do something good for a change, Jukai opens a practice and provides prosthetics to anyone who asks, free of charge. But when his past as a servant of Lord Shiba is revealed, his assistant walks out on him and his patients stop coming. Resigned to dying alone and reflecting on his sins, Jukai is given another chance to do something good when he finds the boat carrying baby Hyakkimaru washed up near his home. Jukai gives Hyakkimaru his prosthetics, raises him, and teaches him to defend himself. After watching Hyakkimaru leave his home to hunt down the demons that stole his body parts, Jukai wanders the land, giving prosthetics to the dead in order to prepare them for the afterlife and wondering if he did the right thing by teaching an innocent boy how to kill.

Does anyone else feel like this should have been episode 2? I understand why it was placed here, as the scene near the end with Dororo implies that he is learning the broad strokes of Hyakkimaru's past with the audience, but it just feels weird to introduce a character with a mysterious past, ignore it for one week, and then suddenly bring it back like it's no big deal. Ultimately it doesn't matter though, since this episode was great. While the animation was a bit on the minimalistic side this episode, the actual artwork was breathtaking, and hearing the pops and clicks of Hyakkimaru's body was incredible. Jukai himself is an excellent tragic character, one who feels true remorse for his actions and wants to repent, yet still is rejected time and again by society, even when we the audience know that he is a changed man and is truly doing good work now. I never really expected to get a full backstory episode for Hyakkimaru since it was already implied that Jukai was the one to rescue him and give him prosthetics back in episode 1, but I'm happy with the story this episode told and I'm ready to see what comes next.

Domestic Girlfriend

I feel like this is how I look when I talk about anime.

In Episode 3 of Cheaters: the Animation, despite Hina's request that he stays out of her affairs, Natsuo can't shake the worry he feels about her relationship with her boyfriend. As he vents to his friend and confidant Fumiya, they end up seeing her on a date, and it turns out that she is dating a married man! Natsuo confronts Hina about it at home, tempers run high, and he ends up kissing her on impulse. Hina pushes him down on her bed and then comments on Natsuo's very natural feelings of panic and nervousness and says that this is proof that he's just a dumb kid who doesn't understand her grown-up problems. Unsurprisingly, these condescending comments and dismissal of someone who was mostly just trying to help her leave Natsuo feeling angry, jealous, and frustrated, so he runs away from home and camps out at Fumiya's apartment. Rui later runs away in solidarity, having found out about the affair earlier -- in fact, Hina gave her the same condescending answer when she confronted her about it, which prompted her to have sex with Natsuo in the first place -- and the two of them later return home with a plan to break up Hina and her boyfriend.

Do you want to know one of the best signs of a good show? It's when every episode builds upon what has come before, providing context for characters' prior actions and showing them responding to previous events in a way that either best fits what we know about their character or that shows us something new about their character that doesn't contradict with what we have already seen. That sort of writing leads to each episode being better than the previous one, especially in the early episodes when things are still being set up. I mean, when I came into this show, I was expecting a wish-fulfillment harem comedy with a milquetoast protagonist who I was going to hate. I wasn't expecting a family drama where I genuinely care about all parties involved and just want everyone to be happy and go on picnics together. I mean, thank God Natsuo is just acting like a scared little boy just trying to figure out the best way to help his sister. Yeah, he kisses her, but I get it. They've only actually been related for like two weeks at this point and he's still adjusting to thinking of her as family and not as a crush. Hopefully, he grows out of that mindset later.

Anyway, the only other thing I need to say is that even though Fumiya was in episode 1, this is our first real introduction to him as a character, and he might be my favorite. Every other line he says is comedy gold, and the scene where he and Natsuo improvise dialogue between Hina and her boyfriend on a date at the cafe where he works (albeit before Natsuo knew they were talking about Hina) had me laughing harder than anything else this week. What a great episode!

The Price of Smiles

Uh, Crunchyroll? Your subtitles are broken again.

Next up is Episode 3 of Moe Code Geass. One month has passed since the battle of Grad. Imperial soldier Stella and the rest of her squad have a new commander: Ensign Gale Owens. Owens and Stella are sent on a reconnaissance mission at a border fortress in Soleil that was seemingly abandoned by the Royal Army. While there, the two of them befriend a group of war orphans, and learn that a group of knights are up to something mysterious in another base. Owens soon discovers that the Royal Army is using the experimental new power source, known as chrars, for their mechs to create an underground greenhouse that will allow their army to outlast the Empire in a war of attrition. When the squad is ordered to steal the chrars and destroy the base, Owens breaks protocol in order to evacuate the orphans. But when one of the older children realizes that he is an Imperial officer, he refuses to go with them and keeps the younger children back. The standoff is ended when Stella forces the children to evacuate with them at gunpoint, and the children curse the names of the soldiers who are saving their lives.

So, let's recap. Episode 1 of Price of Smiles? Not very good. Episode 2? Better, but still only just okay overall. Episode 3? Hot damn, this was actually good! The Imperial soldiers are immediately more likable than the Knights of Soleil (Yuki and Joshua notwithstanding), and the tense on-foot infiltration and systematic murder of all the guards was much more fun to watch than last week's mech battle. And seeing Stella point her gun at the little girl she just had a bonding moment with mere hours ago? A chill went down my spine. I had already found Stella interesting by that point -- declaring that you would murder an innocent child princess for the good of your nation with a smile on your face would do that  -- but she just instantly became my favorite character so far. Especially since the show is not afraid to show us that she isn't proud of what she did in the slightest. She clearly hates killing and war, but she feels like she still has no other choice, so she might as well hide her pain and stay positive. That is why she is the Smiling Soldier.  It's not healthy to think like that, but it's understandable and endears me to her. 

If my love of Code Geass didn't make it clear, some of my favorite stories are war stories with sympathetic and likable characters on both sides, preferably where nobody has the moral high ground. And Price of Smiles is clearly aiming for that tone. The Empire is an invading nation, murdering thousands upon thousands of people, but the dialogue in this episode (and in episode 1, actually) suggests that they do so out of desperation; Soleil is wealthy and prosperous while the Empire is poor and starving. I'm expecting a revelation where Yuki's parents had some horrible foreign policy that led to the Empire's current predicament, thus creating a cycle of violence. Either way, this is very interesting stuff and I'm glad I decided to give this show a chance to improve.

W'Z

Hey, me too!

Last, and certainly least, we have Why Patrick Should Not Be Allowed to Pick the Lineup for the Roundup. In Episode 3, fearful of the unwanted attention he has gained from his little publicity stunt, Yukiya deletes the video he filmed in Ziggurat, but he forgot the cardinal rule of the internet: once something is uploaded, you can never take it back. Sure enough, the video of W'Z has been shared the world over, and Yukiya's adopted father Rei angrily crashes a meeting of his fellow former Handshakers to demand why they manipulated his son into this position. These characters who we have never seen before and probably don't matter since almost none of them are featured in the opening argue back and forth for over half the episode's runtime, without a single scene change or transition to break up the episode. Lots of supposedly important information about Yukiya and the missing Handshakers is discussed, but none of it makes any sense and the constantly swinging camera makes me too nauseous to actually process what's going on beyond the fact that characters from the original Handshakers are dominating an episode in a series that is supposed to be about the next generation.

I'm sure that at this point you're all sick of me complaining about the nonsensical story, the camera that moves around so much I swear it was mounted on a roomba, the poorly used soundtrack, and the overall pretentious tone of the whole dang production. Thankfully, I've found new things to complain about with this episode, and I'm not talking about how boring it was to have almost an entire episode dedicated to a conversation in a coffee shop either. Though, seriously, that is stupid.

This show's art style is disgusting. The photo-realistic backgrounds aren't terrible on their own, but when you add the characters to the mix, it looks like a professional photography exhibit being used as the background for a puppet show, only the puppets are popsicle sticks with googly eyes and pieces of felt meant to simulate clothing glued on haphazardly. No matter what emotion the actor is trying to convey, every single character's eyes are cold and lifeless. And there's this weird shiny effect on their skin when they're out in the sun that makes me want to vomit. Also, and this is a very petty and subjective point, but I don't like this show's fashion sense. The characters seem to be going for this casual punk look, and it's not the worst look in the world, but it makes them stick out from the background even more and they all look like the character designer got his inspiration from Tetsuya Nomura's trash bin. 

Why was Yukiya's hair green instead of white in one shot? Why are these adults so amused when one of their own (albeit one who hasn't physically aged in ten years) starts flirting with a child that they just swore to protect? Why was there a scene where one character's mouth was moving when it wasn't even his line yet? Why do I already have two contenders for worst anime of the year when January isn't even over yet? We may never know the answers to these questions, but we do know this: W'Z is getting dropped from this point on. As if anyone was surprised by that.

He just realized that his show might be next.

And that wraps up another episode of the Weekly Roundup? What will happen next week? Will Asuka save Nozomi? Will the Imaginator be stopped? Will Hyakkimaru get his vocal chords back and actually contribute to the conversation? Will Soleil launch a counterattack against the Empire? Will the Kansei University team succeed in the Qualifier? Will the Dachi High team hold out until Hinomaru recovers from his injury? Will Naofumi and Raphtalia find another party member? Will Gripen ever fly on her own? Will Emma and the others find the traitor in time? Will Hina break up with her boyfriend? Will Ryusei actually live up to his reputation as the smart one and solve a puzzle on his own for once? The world may never know, but you will if you tune in next week! I'm Patrick, and I watch anime in an ineffectual attempt to make up for my lack of a social life!

Broly: The Good, the Bad, and the Super (Spoiler-Filled Review)

On March 6, 1993, Dragon Ball Z: Broly -- The Legendary Super Saiyan was released, forever changing the face of the Dragon Ball fandom. Envisioned as a dark twist on the prophecy of the legendary Super Saiyan, it introduced the non-canon character of Broly, who is easily the most frustrating addition to the Dragon Ball franchise. On the one hand, he is a character who ties deeply into the lore of the series, which I love, and his fight against Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Trunks, and Piccolo simultaneously is still one of the most viscerally satisfying battles in Dragon Ball history. On the other hand, he is a character with no personality, an idiotic motivation (He hates Goku because Goku cried a lot when they were roommates in the same baby nursery. Riveting.), and his continued use as a marketing tool for terrible video games and two really bad sequel movies.

He also looked like this, which is just hideous.

Now, it is worth noting that Broly was never part of the official story of Dragon Ball. He was never a part of Akira Toriyama's original manga, nor was he added in the expansions or official prequels created by the anime staff in the 80s and 90s. Which I can imagine was a heartbreaking revelation for those with memories of swapping rumors about the mysterious Broly who was so powerful that he could challenge "4 Super Saiyan Fours at once" and "can't be killed, only wished away by the Dragon Balls" (both of these are actual things I heard on the playground as a kid) back in the days when the Internet was new and Dragon Ball Z was still young in the US. A time when one of the earliest introductions to the universe for many many people was a video game based on Dragon Ball GT (a sequel series that was wiped from canon from Super) that was released BEFORE the series aired on Toonami. Dragon Ball as a whole, and especially Broly, had a mythical quality to the wide-eyed weea-kids of the 2000s. Bringing him back for a new movie isn't the same as resurrecting Freeza back in 2015. Freeza is a big deal, but he was already canon. He's normal. But bringing back Broly, and fully integrating him and his story into the main canon, in a post Dragon Ball Super world? This is nothing short of monumental; it's the fandom equivalent of a Messianic rebirth! Never in a million years would I have predicted that Toriyama and the team at Toei Animation would want to take another shot at this character. With Broly being so divisive and hyped up in the fanbase, it just seemed like an insane idea that would only make everybody angry.

So, of course, that's exactly what they did. Dragon Ball Super: Broly was released in December 2018 in Japan and is currently making the rounds in a rare theatrical release in the United States right now. Advertised as a grand return of Broly to the Dragon Ball canon and a re-imagining of the Saiyans' tragic history, this movie is making a huge splash among the community and, from what I can tell, is currently on pace to be the highest grossing anime film in the US ever. And I am shocked to say that I liked it...

For the most part.

I've been sitting here for hours trying to think of the best way to accurately explain how I feel about this movie without spoiling the experience for anybody who hasn't seen it for themselves yet, but, as I'm sure anyone who has read any of my previous posts can attest, I don't think I'm capable of giving a satisfying look at a story without talking about it in spoiler-filled depth. So, if you haven't seen the movie yet and just want a quick idea of my thoughts: this is the best animated Dragon Ball film to date, with one of the most incredible fights in franchise history and some great character moments (I actually kinda like Broly now), but there are some issues I have with the story, especially the beginning segments on Planet Vegeta, that hurt my overall enjoyment of the film. The English dub is fantastic, and the character animation just accentuates their personalities even more. Also, if you have a favorite Z fighter who isn't Goku or Vegeta, you might be disappointed. I mean, not even Gohan and Krillin make an appearance here.

So, consider this your spoiler warning. 

Alright, so if you're still here, I'm assuming that you have either already seen the movie or just don't mind spoilers. Just like with Bleachflix, I plan to go through the entire story of the movie, discussing each of the major plot points and my thoughts on them in as much detail as possible. Be warned, I'm about to be a stupid and petty fanboy.

We begin on Planet Vegeta, 41 years before the main events of the story. Dragon Ball's biggest waste of potential King Cold has arrived with a young Freeza and his entourage, including cameos from Zarbon, Dodoria, and the Ginyu Force, in order to announce his retirement as Overlord of Space and to introduce his son and successor to King Vegeta. Which, first of all, begs the question: is Freeza really young or are his major subordinates just older than I thought? It's most likely the former, since it's unlikely that all of those henchmen would look exactly the same on both Vegeta and Namek if they were already major players in King Cold's army before he handed them off to Freeza, but I already have problems with this extended backstory, because around 20 years pass between the destruction of Planet Vegeta and the battle on Namek. So, either the Ginyu Force are actually a bunch of 60 year old men that Vegeta is supposedly terrified of, or Freeza blew up Planet Vegeta when he was like 12 years old. And both of those scenarios are just ludicrous to think about.

Anyway, Freeza has a great moment that establishes how much of a tyrant he is, where he makes a big show of giving the Saiyans a demonstration of his "new" Scouter technology. Upon attaching the Scouter to his eye, Freeza notices Saiyan snipers aimed at him and his father and casually murders the lot of them. It's not a big moment in the grand scheme of things, but it expands the lore and is a chilling character moment for Freeza, who is a major character in this movie. This movie is full of great little moments like this, and it would be dishonest for me to focus only on my negative feelings about the movie as a whole. Wow, two paragraphs for just the opening scene, huh? If I stay this much in depth as I go through this, we'll be here forever. Guess I'd better pick up the pace, huh?

It is a really good scene, though.

So, after having been fully humiliated by the boy king Joffr--I mean Freeza, King Vegeta decides to blow off some steam and visits his son in a nursery reserved for the children of elite Saiyans like himself. But, much to his anger, a mid-tier whelp known as Broly was placed in a pod at this nursery by the doctors because of his incredibly high latent power level, one that rivals and may even exceed the prince Vegeta himself. Terrified by the prospect of a rampaging Great Ape that is impossible to control (and slightly insulted by the idea that a random brat could be more powerful than his son), King Vegeta decides to exile Broly to a desolate planet with no chance of survival and passing it off as a typical mission where infant Saiyans are sent to primitive planets to exterminate all indigenous life and prepare it for sale. Broly's father Paragus tries to formally protest this, but the deed was already done before Paragus even opened his mouth.

Naturally, Paragus isn't thrilled with the idea of his son being all but executed on the grounds of what may happen, so he decides to take action. He takes a pilot named Beets hostage and steals a spaceship, and the two of them blast off after Broly. Beets is already unhappy with King Vegeta's rule, and promises to help Paragus in his rescue efforts and subsequent revenge campaign. The two of them crash land on the hostile world (which is so messed up that it's later implied that there isn't even any fresh water here) and find a young Broly living in a cave, eating the monsters that lived there. But even though Paragus is prepared to grab Broly and get out of there, the ship Broly was shipped out on is too small for more than one passenger, and Paragus's ship was damaged in the landing. When Beets tells Paragus that the ship cannot be repaired, Paragus shoots Beets dead, saying that food needs to be preserved.

And then, weirdly enough, in a story about Broly, we shift focus back to Planet Vegeta, a few years later. Freeza has ordered all available Saiyans to assemble on their homeworld for an important briefing. Bardock of all people becomes our viewpoint character, and he finds the situation suspicious. Freeza and the Saiyans, he reasons, don't get along at all, and it's fairly common knowledge that the only reason that the Saiyans haven't revolted against him already is because Freeza's power is too great for them to handle, either individually or as a group (and working together in battle is antithetical to traditional Saiyan values). But to a tyrant like Freeza, the story of the Legendary Super Saiyan, while commonly dismissed by the Saiyans as a whole, will always be a source of doubt. While it is incredibly likely that this wouldn't be an issue for him, if the impossible does happen and a Super Saiyan were to appear, then the "monkeys" would have a symbol to rally around and his empire could be in peril. Even though his fellow Saiyans reject the idea that Freeza's orders may be a trap, Bardock can't let the idea go and convinces his wife Gine (in her first animated appearance, no less) to secretly blast baby Goku to Earth just in case (Raditz was already off world on a mission with Vegeta and Nappa, and wasn't able to return to Planet Vegeta in time for the new orders anyway).

I'm about to hate on this plot point, so let me just say that I liked this shot quite a bit.

I hate Bardock's story here so much. On the surface, there isn't anything wrong with it as a whole. Bardock's deductions are logically sound, and it makes more sense for him to realize that Freeza is up to something this way than the previous explanation for his suspicions about him. It's also nice to see Gine actually in animated form and not in a crappy manga prequel published decades after the original run of Dragon Ball Z. But Bardock's tragic struggle against Freeza right before the destruction of Planet Vegeta was already captured beautifully way back in the anime-original TV special "Bardock: The Father of Goku", which released back in 1990. And his story and character has been completely changed.

In the special, Bardock is an unrepentant murderer who is accidentally given a psychic vision of Freeza destroying the planet. Worried for his life, Bardock tries to rally the Saiyans against Freeza, but nobody believes his warnings and his squad was already executed by Dodoria earlier. Frustrated and scared, Bardock mounts a desperate last stand against the Freeza Force, only to be the first casualty to Freeza's Death Ball. And his dying moments are the first time he ever gave his son a second thought, and only because he saw a vision of Goku fighting Freeza on Namek, and died with a sense of vindication that at least his race will be avenged one day. Goku only survived the blast because he had just been sent off as a baby to murder all life on Earth.

One of my favorite aspects of Dragon Ball is how Goku's origin is a corrupted version of Superman's story. Like Superman, Goku is the protector of Earth and the last of an alien race from a doomed planet that only survived thanks to being launched off the planet as a baby. The twist, though, is that Goku was sent on a mission to commit genocide, and it was only due to a series of lucky breaks that he became the hero of the planet that he was sent to raze in the first place. And Bardock's original special only strengthened this conceit. The Saiyans might be the protectors of Earth now, but they are, historically, a barbaric race of bloodthirsty space pirates. It's interesting and nuanced and profound and is one of my first counterarguments to the notion that Dragon Ball is nothing but mindless violence.

So, why did you have to go and ruin that, Toriyama? This new Bardock story (yes, I'm aware of Dragon Ball Minus, but this movie is the new standard of canon, so it doesn't matter) just makes him a less interesting and memorable character. Instead of being a unique take on the Superman story cliche, Goku's origin is now just "Superman with monkey-people". I don't want to complain too much about this since there's still an hour of movie to go over, but this is easily my biggest problem with the movie and I wanted to explain why. And since this is essentially just an altered crash course on relevant backstory for the sake of context, the fact that I enjoy the main story for the most part and that this is my biggest complaint should tell you I feel good about it overall.

Also, little Vegeta shows up for like a minute! So, that's neat.

So, after this 30 minute extended prologue, we finally skip ahead to the present, where Goku and Vegeta are having a friendly sparring match over the ocean, while Bulma, Whis, Beerus, and baby Bra (I refuse to call her Bulla cause I get her mixed up with her mother that way) are hanging out at the beach house on Bulma's nearby private island. This sparring match is brief, but it is already animated and choreographed better than the marquis battles of the previous "Super-era" movies Battle of Gods and Ressurection F, and this is only a warmup of things to go. Whenever the story is dropped and the movie is just an extended fight scene, the quality shoots up through the roof. It's clear that even though Toriyama and Toei were planning to make this movie a spectacle first and a story second, and their effort really shows. My only complaint about this setup, and it's not a huge complaint in the grand scheme of things, is that it seems unlikely that Bulma would have a private island for Goku and Vegeta to spar in peace and not invite any of her friends and family to just hang out and watch them go at it. I would have loved to see Chi-Chi sunbathing next to Bulma while baby Pan plays with Bra and Krillin fires up a grill while Beerus hounds him asking how much longer he has to wait for a hamburger. 

Anyway, Bulma gets a call from Trunks back at Capsule Corp (why would Bulma leave a 10 year old home alone at a multi-billion dollar corporation's research and development lab unsupervised, let alone with Goten and the Pilaf gang there?) who tells her that someone has broken into the lab and stole not only the Dragon Radar, but also the 6 Dragon Balls she had already collected. When reviewing the security footage, our heroes deduce that Freeza had sent his weakest soldiers (so as to not be detected by the Z Fighters) to steal the Dragon Balls under Bulma's nose. Fearful that Freeza would wish for immortality (the actual reason Freeza wants the Dragon Balls is to just be taller, since he has outgrown his desire for immortality after the Tournament of Power. that is amazing.) and try to get revenge and destroy the Earth, Goku and Vegeta go to the Arctic to try to intercept the Freeza Force before the Dragon Balls can be gathered, with Bulma and Whis in tow (Beerus is left to babysit Bra in one of the funniest Dragon Ball gags I've ever seen).

Meanwhile, two new characters named Cheelai and Lemo have been sent out to recruit new fighters to replace the fallen members of the Freeza Force after Freeza executed half of them to prove a point. As luck and the script would have it, these two lovable rogues happen upon Planet Vampa, where Paragus and Broly had been living for the last four decades. Paragus is extremely relieved to see the Freeza Force, who he remembers as his allies, and upon witnessing Broly's incredible power, Cheelai and Lemo are excited at the prospect of a huge bounty for recruiting them. During the ride back to Freeza's ship (in orbit over Earth, waiting for news on the Dragon Balls), Broly eats food that isn't dead bug-monster (or Beets, presumably) for the first time in his life (remember, he's like 40) and starts to bond with his rescuers.

Upon arrival at Freeza's ship, Paragus learns about the death of Planet Vegeta, which he shrugs off as no big loss, and announces his intent to get revenge on Vegeta for the crimes of his father the King. Freeza's amused and agrees to help arrange a confrontation, seeing Broly as a potential weapon against Goku, and it is revealed that Paragus keeps Broly under control with a remote control shock collar. Disgusted by such horrific abuse, Cheelai pickpockets the remote for the shock collar and destroys it. Broly then tells her and Lemo the story of how his only friend before all of this was a monster he played with before Paragus shot off the monster's ear and turned it against Broly, and now Broly keeps the severed ear as a waist cloth, to remind him of the only companionship he ever had.

These scenes with Broly and Cheelai (and Lemo, I guess, but he's more of a bit character) are the heart of this story, and they are so good. Broly is a quiet, scared little boy in a man's body, and his visual reaction to even seeing Paragus reach for his pocket is chilling. And when Cheelai calls Paragus out for his abuse, he has a great response: "Don't assume to know what we've been through." Yeah, Paragus's actions were unforgivable by our sensibilities, but they were stranded on a planet where everything wanted to kill them and Broly regularly lost control of his faculties and went berserk, unable to differentiate between friend and foe. If not for the shock collar (which I believe Bardock rigged up from the wreckage from his ship), they both probably would have died at this point. Less forgivable is how Paragus fails to see Broly as anything more than a weapon, consumed by his hatred of King Vegeta, but that hatred was probably the only thing keeping him from falling into despair, and I don't think Broly would have survived 40 years on his own. Broly clearly believes that, judging by his dialogue constantly defending Paragus whenever Cheelai and Lemo badmouth his dad. And this dynamic is the definition of tragedy: detestable, unavoidable due to the circumstances surrounding these characters, and yet still unique to these characters because of their own personalities and actions. For the first time in history, Broly and Paragus are actual characters with motivation and depth, and I really like the direction Toriyama took them in.

As an aside, any time old Paragus was on screen, all I could think of was a Saiyan Santa Claus. Is that weird?

Moving right along, Goku and Vegeta confront Freeza, who sends the Dragon Balls to his ship for safekeeping with Cheelai and Lemo and orders Broly to attack the Saiyans. And then, the setup is complete and what is essentially an hour long fight scene begins.

Like all great fight scenes, this battle is a push and pull between all parties involved, where the advantage shifts at any given moment. Broly attacks Vegeta first, who toys with him in his base form for a while, calling Broly a "warm-up" before the presumed main event: a rematch with Freeza. But, as Broly is still essentially the ultimate Saiyan (he's never name-dropped as the Legendary Super Saiyan, probably because that moniker is no longer impressive in this age of Super Saiyan Gods), Broly learns quickly and adapts to fighting a thinking being other than his father for the first time. As Vegeta is forced to take the fight seriously, he transforms first to Super Saiyan and then to Super Saiyan God, at which point Broly, who was unaware that Super Saiyans existed, is overwhelmed and backed into a corner. 

At this point, Paragus is ready to call the operation a failure, which is weird considering how hellbent he was on revenge but I guess seeing just how powerful Vegeta is triggered his self-preservation instincts, and tries to order Broly to retreat. But Broly instead goes berserk, which I think is partially out of fear of reprisal from his father for failing in what he was told is essentially his life's purpose, and goes into a berserk rage. Thanks to his unique power, Broly is able to incorporate the strength increase of the Great Ape transformation without ever transforming, though this is at the cost of his ability to reason and tell friend from foe. Broly quickly turns the tables on Vegeta and has the Saiyan Prince at his mercy, but then Goku tags in and becomes the focus of Broly's rage.

At the risk of repeating myself, there are so many great shots in this movie.

Goku's fighting style seems to have been altered a bit for this movie. Granted, I haven't finished Dragon Ball Super the TV series yet, I don't remember the last time I saw adult Goku incorporate this much finesse into his fighting style. I'm used to Goku just brute forcing and Kamehameha-ing his way through all his obstacles in a post-King Piccolo era that seeing him adopt actual martial arts stances and use grappling techniques against Broly of all people was a a real treat. Goku holds his own against Broly and manages to trap him in a stunning technique, whereupon he tries to talk Broly down, reasoning that Broly shouldn't be forced to fight if he doesn't want to.

This decision may come as a surprise to some, considering that there is nothing Goku likes more than a good fight. However, I think that this is a brilliant character moment for him. See, Goku may not be the smartest guy around, but he is very good at understanding people, especially if he is fighting somebody. And while Goku likes fighting, he also wants people to be happy, so it makes sense that he would give Broly a chance to do what he wants to do for a change. Unfortunately, Broly's mind is too far gone, and he uses his incredible adaptability to turn Goku's stunning technique against him. Realizing that there is nothing more he could do for Broly, Goku turns Super Saiyan Blue and starts pushing Broly back. And that's when Freeza decides to change everything.

Those that have been paying attention will remember that Broly still hasn't unlocked his Super Saiyan form at this point. Those that haven't been paying attention...well, pay attention, alright? Anyway, Freeza, being the reason that we had the very first Super Saiyan transformation way back on Namek, decides to recreate the same conditions that led Goku to unlocking the form. So, he kills Paragus and then makes a big show of saying that a stray energy blast from the fight is what actually killed him. And just like Goku way back when, Broly gets even angrier and unlocks the Super Saiyan form. 

As one can imagine, this bodes poorly for Goku, so he grabs Vegeta and plans to make a temporary tactical retreat. Luckily, the blind rage that empowered Broly just meant that he needed a new target for his anger. So, Goku and Vegeta lead Broly on a chase right past Freeza right before using Instant Transmission to teleport away to a wasteland where Piccolo is waiting. So, now Broly is beating the stuffing out of Freeza while Goku and Vegeta plan their next move. And though Vegeta resists at first, he is soon convinced of a new plan: the Fusion Dance.

This would have been such an amazing moment if it wasn't spoiled by the trailer. Not only is Broly finally being added to the canon, now we get Gogeta too? I really wish that Toei kept this secret, because not a single person in my theater reacted to it. Regardless though, after two failed attempts (which means that Broly was beating up Freeza for over an hour, which is really funny to think about), Gogeta is finally born. Upon returning to the battlefield, Gogeta finds Broly attacking Whis (who is really only toying with him, since he is Whis and all) and intervenes. 

And now, for the first time in almost in hour, we start cutting away from the action and focus back on Cheelai and Lemo. On Freeza's ship, they decide that Broly should not be forced to fight anymore. So, as Gogeta and Broly fight so hard that dimensions start shattering (which is too weird for me to even consider what the hell that is about), the two bounty hunters take one of Freeza's advisers hostage and order him, at gunpoint, to summon Shenron. Upon doing so, Cheelai makes her wish: for Broly to be sent back to Planet Vampa. After Broly is warped back to safety, Cheelai and Lemo fly off on their ship, and Gogeta prevents Freeza from blasting the ship out of the sky. Freeza, having matured well enough in the last few movies to know when to call it quits, shrugs his shoulders and leaves Earth with his army. And Gogeta shows off his irresponsibility by letting him go, whereupon Freeza just continues to be a tyrant elsewhere in the galaxy.

Seriously, what the hell, man?

A few weeks later, Broly, Cheelai, and Lemo have started settling in back on Planet Vampa, and Broly's new friends are having trouble adjusting to life on the inhospitable hellhole. Suddenly, Goku arrives, having used Instant Transmission to come visit. Though they think he's there for a fight, Goku assures the trio that he is only there for a visit and to drop off some capsules to make life easier. After providing them with a house, a refrigerator full of food, and a few beds, Goku explains that he had so much fun fighting against an opponent as strong as Broly that he wants to make sure that Broly would survive so that they could have a rematch some day. And then the movie ends with Goku actually providing his name to the trio, though he tells Broly: "Call me Kakarot," which is a nice little nod to the original Broly films.

And that's the movie! Overall, I liked it quite a bit, though I would say that it's my least favorite of the modern "Super era" films thus far. The changes to Broly's character and backstory are amazing, and I'm so glad to have a new set of canon characters that I care about that may potentially return in future adventures. While I do wish that there was a little less emphasis on the title fight (along with some cutaways to break up the action and give me a chance to breathe), I can't deny that it is one of the best looking and best choreographed fights of Dragon Ball's illustrious history. And while I'm not a huge fan of some of the changes to the lore or the fact that some key characters like Gohan and Krillin are absent, what we do have is pretty darn good overall, and I highly encourage every Dragon Ball fan (and any anime fan in general) to check this movie out. A plot synopsis does not do the experience justice.

Also, I had nowhere else to put this picture, but I really like their winter outfits.

Weekly Roundup Winter 2019 Week 2

Welcome back to the Winter 2019 Weekly Roundup! We met our 13 contenders last week and got to see their audition for the illustrious honor of being on the list of "Shows Patrick Enjoys!" Now our 13 shows are having the safety net taken away, and from this point forward, the slightest hint of being terrible can prove to be a death sentence for these shows. And I get to curse my poor decision-making because I didn't think to include Kaguya-sama: Love is War in the line-up.

Seriously, it's Takagi-san crossed with Death Note. Go watch this show!

But enough stalling! It's time to begin the Winter 2019 Weekly Roundup Part 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Domestic Girlfriend

But that's all I'm good at!

First up, we have My Little Sister Can't Possibly Be This Awkward. In episode 2, Natsuo is having trouble adjusting to his new home life, and things become even more awkward when Rui transfers to his school. Even though they have a fight thanks to Rui misunderstanding Natsuo's desire to keep their relationship as siblings secret as "don't talk to me at school", when Natsuo notices that Rui is having trouble making friends thanks to her blunt nature, he offers to train her in conversation. Meanwhile, Hina is having her own troubles with her boyfriend, but when Natsuo asks what's going on, she refuses to confide in him, and Rui won't tell him either because she feels that it isn't her place to talk about her sister's issues.

This show is really surprising me with how restrained it is. While there are comedic antics and contrived scenarios to put Natsuo and the girls in compromising positions, everything has a certain level of restraint that shows that the staff sees the girls as characters rather than as fanservice objects. Instead of having the classic "fall on top of a girl and grab her boobs by accident", we have Natsuo catching Hina as she trips in a way that looks like a lover's embrace. And that pose manages to be sweet and wholesome while still suggesting more erotic undertones, and Hina's response of awkward surprise is much more human than the patented scream and slap approach used by more traditional harem anime girls. Another example would be when Natsuo walks in on Rui in the bath. She's surprised, but she isn't embarrassed or angry about it. Nor does she flirt with Natsuo like the more shameless harem girls of other anime would. She doesn't care one way or the other, nor should she. She and Natsuo did have sex before their parents married, so why would it be weird for her? Rui has endeared herself to me even more in this episode thanks to her painfully relatable difficulties with conversation and her relaxed attitude about the situation with Natsuo, and Hina shows potential to be more than just the inappropriately flirty teacher she first seemed to be. All in all, Domestic Girlfriend looks like it plans to be a character drama first and an ecchi harem show second, and that's the direction I was hoping it would take. This might end up surviving to the end after all. 

Dimension High School

My thoughts exactly.

Next up we have episode 2 of We Only Have Two Sets. Tsuyoshi the delinquent and Yurio the Instagram model are an unusual pair, but the two have been close ever since Yurio saved Tsuyoshi's life after his motorcycle crashed. When Yurio starts acting distant, Tsuyoshi asks Shiroyama for help in figuring out what's going on. But before Shiroyama can even attempt to do so, Spudio returns and transports the boys back to the 2D world, which is starting to gain depth after the Sphinx absorbed Momoya-sensei's energy. Yurio answers the Sphinx's first riddle incorrectly and ends up absorbed, but Tsuyoshi and Shiroyama correctly determine the answer to the second riddle and save his life. But when the boys are transported back to the 3D world, Tsuyoshi is missing, and nobody but Yurio even remembers him. As the most precious thing to Yurio, Tsuyoshi was taken away by the Sphinx as penalty for the incorrect answer.

This show's charm is wearing off really fast. Laughing at the bad animation and the terrible acting can only get you so far, and the riddles would be more engaging for me if I could understand Japanese, since they tend to rely on wordplay and the ability to read the language. Even worse, the one time a character threatens to be interesting, they kill him off! Why couldn't it have been that asshole Ryuusei!? I mean, I guess this could prove to be worthwhile if it leads to some good development for Yurio, but I honestly am losing interest really fast. The novelty of just how badly produced this show is is fading fast, and there isn't a lot to fall back on without it. A limited budget is no excuse for bad character writing and bad acting. 

Run With the Wind

You've come to the wrong neighborhood.

Let's move on from bad shows and talk about something good again. In episode 13 of Friendship Speeches: The Animation, before Kakeru is able to follow through on his attempt to punch Sakaki in the face for being such an asshole, Haiji and the rest of the club are able to hold him back. As Sakaki gloats that Kakeru hasn't given up his selfish ways that he had back in high school, Kakeru is horrified by his actions and remembers the incident that caused Sakaki and the rest of his high school team to turn on him the way they did. After silently ignoring the verbal abuse his high school coach heaped onto an injured first year that was only in the school on a track scholarship, Kakeru snapped upon witnessing the coach humiliate the first year in front of the entire club before kicking him off the team. Enraged at the injustice, he attacked his coach, breaking his nose in the process. But even though he was acting on behalf of his fellow students, Kakeru was only thinking about releasing his own pent up anger and resentment, and didn't consider the effect his actions would have on his fellow students. Sure enough, in an effort to keep everything quiet and avoid a scandal, the entire high school team was barred from competition for the rest of the year (Kakeru and Sakaki's final year in high school, by the way). Ravaged by guilt and terrified that he will endanger the Kansei University team's chances to compete in the Hakone Ekiden, Kakeru tells the others his story and offers to resign, only to be rejected as the others tell him that they are in this together and will not run in the Ekiden without him. 

This is, hands down, the best episode of Run With the Wind yet. When we first saw glimpses of Kakeru and Sakaki's history, we only saw things from Sakaki's perspective, where he saw a coach showering Kakeru with favoritism because his amazing records were making him and the school look good. Naturally, that could cause some resentment to build up, so I didn't think anything of it, but after seeing Sakaki just be so antagonistic over the last few weeks, I had started to get the feeling that there might be more to the story. I didn't say anything before because I was convinced that they weren't going to go into the backstory any more than they already did (if anything, I expected another flashback for Haiji), but I'm glad that this niggling doubt in my mind was addressed in the best possible way. I really like the stylistic way this flashback was presented, too. Kakeru is dwelling on the past while ignoring the present throughout this episode, and the show chose to convey that with a grainy filter that resembles old black and white films and an appropriately scratchy audio filter on top of that. It instantly clues you in that this is something that happened long ago (while simultaneously being "ancient history"), and the way all the color and sound snap back to normal at the moment Kakeru punches the coach is such a great way to draw attention to that critical moment and give it a sense of impact and weight. The scene where the club refuses to accept Kakeru's resignation was admittedly a bit corny, but the actual dialogue is still very much in character and the sense of camaraderie that the show has built up up to this point just makes it work for me. What else can I say? This show is great overall, and this episode in particular was truly exceptional.

Girly Air Force

The hentai writes itself.

Up next is Adorable Aircrafts. In episode 2, Kei is assigned to work part time at Komatsu Air Force Base, but his duties only consist of hanging out with Gripen, who has no actual duties of her own outside of combat. When Yashirodoori sends her outside the base for the first time and orders her to "do whatever Kei tells her", Kei takes her around the city to experience what civilian life is like. During their little date, Kei tells Gripen about his mother, who taught him how to fly before the Xi killed her, and Gripen reveals that she is actually a defective unit; every time she flies, she ends up losing control shortly after takeoff. When Gripen suddenly passes out, Yashirodoori reveals that, on average, she can only stay awake for three hours at a time, and the method of waking her up again is currently unknown. However, during her date with Kei, Gripen had managed to stay up for ten hours straight. But as much as Yashirodoori would like to continue studying Kei's effect on Gripen, they only have a week until her final test flight. If she fails to impress the higher-ups, Gripen will be scrapped...

So, I must be out of my mind, because I thought that this episode that was almost entirely dedicated to a cute girl doing cute things was quite good. Everything about Gripen, from her absent-minded nature to the way she holds chopsticks like a four-year-old, is absolutely precious and I highly enjoyed watching her antics and wouldn't mind seeing more. Hell must be freezing over, because for the first time, I'm enjoying moe for its own sake! Then again, to say that nothing substantial happened in this episode would be inaccurate. Learning more about Gripen and how she compares to Anima was vital information, and the hints in the background of how Kei might be blinded by his desire for revenge against the Xi (such as his anger at a news anchor suggesting that peace talks should be considered) show potential for future story beats. Speaking of the Xi, I had previously assumed that they were cybernetic aliens, but at least some people in-universe think that they are just a radical Chinese militant group with advanced technology. Which begs the question: what is up with the Xi?  Hopefully we'll find out soon, because I doubt a whole season of cute antics at an air force base will keep me engaged for much longer.

W'Z

The next episode previews are the only good part of this show.

 Ugh...now let's talk about episode 2 of Migraines: The Animation. After a pointless monologue about the Tower of Babel that has nothing to do with anything happening on screen, Yukiya and Haruka escape from the parallel world of Ziggurat and their pursuers. After losing their quarry, the two enemy pairs retreat to the real world in order to regroup and plan their next moves. Since she is not a Handshaker, Haruka loses her memory of the events in Ziggurat, and Yukiya decides that the best thing to do is to go to his new high school like normal. While there, he meets a teacher named Koyori, who reveals herself to be a former Handshaker and requests that Yukiya returns to Ziggurat to find some friends who are currently trapped there, to which he agrees, even though that would make him and whoever he brings with him a target of the enemy.

If last week was horrendous, then this week was just bad. Is that any better? In a manner of speaking, yes. I mean, there isn't anything that makes me angry or nauseous like last week, but this still isn't good by any stretch of the imagination. This is the sort of production you'd get from someone who thinks they have big ideas and a lot to say but doesn't have the will to actually do any more than what they believe is the bare minimum of work to make those ideas real. Moving the camera around all the time doesn't make animation look interesting, smooth, or dynamic; it just makes everything look disorienting and confused. Psychedelic imagery and random tangents about mythology don't mean anything if it doesn't correlate to anything that's going on. In other words, it's not symbolism if it doesn't mean anything. And I don't care how novel an idea it is to use house music as your soundtrack, you can't just put random tracks in scenes that don't match the tone that the song is trying to convey. I'm convinced that some higher-up at Go Hands (possibly the director) is really passionate about this project, since there is definitely some ambition here, but nobody else on the team seems to really care that much, and any effort that is spent is being focused in the wrong places.

Hinomaru Sumo

I'm so proud of you.

Now we return to Half-Naked Boys Grappling Each Other. God, I love anime. In episode 14, as Dachi High's training in Nagoya with the pros at Shibakiyama Stable come to an end, Ozeki's confidence is starting to fade. Sensing this problem, Chihiro takes him to see Hikage's team in action, and upon hearing his club insulted by their more prestigious rivals, Ozeki gets fired up and proclaims that Dachi High will be national champions. Meanwhile, Mitsuashi convinces Kirihito that he shouldn't restrict himself to being just a trainer for the team; lung condition or no lung condition, Kirihito deserves to be an official member of the team, and thus Mitsuashi convinces him to register himself as a reserve fighter for Dachi High. Meanwhile, the favorite to win the national championship Tennoji announces on live television that nobody can defeat him in sumo, and the national tournament officially begins soon afterward.

I've made no secret of my frustration with Hinomaru Sumo in the past. The pacing is all over the place, the characters aren't as deep or complex as I might have liked, and some major moments have lacked the impact that I think the staff were hoping for. But this episode was beautiful. This is how you hype up a tournament arc! The usually meek Ozeki just gave a declaration of war to one of the best teams in the nation! Kirihito is literally putting his life on the line just to be there for his teammates! Mitsuashi is suddenly ripped! And hearing Tennoji specifically call out Kuze and Hikage in his speech, implying that they were just coasting on having professional sumo wrestlers as family members? That's how you properly introduce a hateable rival and a final boss for your protagonist! This episode isn't perfect, and I still wish that Yuma had a moment to shine in this training arc since he somehow feels like the most underutilized of the main cast despite being introduced in the first episode, but it's damn close. Way to go, Hinomaru! I knew there was a reason I stuck with you!

Boogiepop and Others

That's cause it's a mystery!

In episode 3 of Actually Explaining Things For One, Tanaka is concerned that his girlfriend Naoko has gone missing, so he turns to student council president Niitoki for help. As the two of them debate whether or not she's still alive, Saotome overhears them and suggests that they ask Nagi for help, since she and Naoko are friends. However, Saotome is actually using Tanaka and Niitoki as bait, luring Nagi and Echoes into a trap. Saotome stabs Echoes with a pen dipped in poison and slits Nagi's throat, as Manticore drops in from above and battles Echoes as he tries to bring Nagi to safety. In the end, Echoes is left lying weak with Niitoki by his side, Tanaka is nowhere to be seen, and Saotome and Manticore are gloating. But as Niitoki defiantly states that they are evil and inhuman, Echoes is satisfied that humans have proven themselves to be good and disappears, announcing his intention to "return to the source". Furious that her prey has escaped her yet again, Manticore tries to kill Niitoki, only to be stopped by Boogiepop, who traps Manticore in a web of strings, and Tanaka, who shoots an arrow through her head. With Manticore dead, the school is now safe, proving that Boogiepop wasn't liking when they said that someone else defeated the evil force, and Nagi survives her wound thanks to Echoes giving her his life force, even though it meant that he couldn't defeat Manticore in a direct battle as a result. Nagi and Niitoki then approach Takeda and Touka at the end of the school day, proving that I was right and that episodes 1, 2, and 3 were happening more or less simultaneously.

This was an excellent climax to this introductory arc. While the beginning segments of Tanaka, Niitoki, and Saotome wandering around looking for Nagi were admittedly pretty boring, even though the direction was trying its best to build up dread and dramatic irony with the fact that Saotome is a freaking nutcase, the payoff when Saotome and Manticore attack the others was absolutely intense. Every moment after Saotome makes his move had me on the edge of my seat, and when Boogiepop and Tanaka showed up to save Niitoki, I was pumping my fist and cheering. And while I'm disappointed that Manticore is already dead after we just met her last episode, the fact that Saotome is still supposedly a loose end (I went over this episode twice and have no idea what happens to him after Echoes goes back to the source) leaves me hopeful that future events will be just as interesting as this first arc.

Magical Girl Asuka

The face of evil has never been so adorable.

Next up we have Care Bears: Metal Edition. In episode 2, Sayoko is having difficulty going back to normal life after nearly being killed in a terrorist attack, and thanks to Asuka's perception-bending magic, she doesn't even know that her friend Asuka is the magical girl who saved her, so she feels like she has no one she can truly talk to about this. Nozomi's father is revealed to be a member of the secret counter-terrorism unit of the Japanese police, and he has been torturing the terrorist from last week's episode in order to learn more about the faction that was backing him. When the terrorist's comrades plan their revenge against the magical girls, a mysterious girl offers them a gift: a modified Disas weapon from back in the war. When Asuka learns that her friend Kurumi, a magical girl who specializes in first aid and not combat, goes to fight the weapon on her own, she rushes to her aid and saves her from certain death. Kurumi begs Asuka to return to the field, and then surprises her the next day by transferring to her school!

When I picked this show up, I expected it to be a goofy and fun action show with fanservice elements. I chose it because I thought it would be a good popcorn show to talk about in between the big name titles and the hot messes. And, well, that's what I got, but I didn't expect Asuka to go above and beyond in being the best popcorn show it could be. While it's true that the animation and writing aren't necessarily up to Killing Bites standards in popcorn entertainment (few things are), Asuka shows a good deal of heart and a willingness to go to uncomfortable and challenging places that a lesser show in its genre just wouldn't. I'm constantly blown away that a show with such a warm color palette is so brutally gory, or that a show about magical girls is willing to be about post traumatic stress disorder without any symbolism or other such fluff obscuring the message. And I LOVE the stuffed animal gone wrong look that the Disas have going on. It might not be wholly original, but the corrupted innocence vibe that they capture really leans into the simple magical girl subversion that this show is about. It might not be original, and I certainly don't think that it will ever be remembered as a classic, but Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka is really starting to warm up to me as a show willing to be the best version of itself it can be, and if these first two episodes are anything to go by, I could see it surviving to the end of the roundup.

The Promised Neverland

Next up we have Deductive Reasoning: The Animation. In episode 2, Norman and Emma begin gathering intelligence so as to plan their escape from Grace Field House. They determine how often the children are shipped out, how the selection process works, and that the intelligence tests are used to determine how rich the brains (the most delicious part of humans) are to eat. As they begin investigating the walls around the orphanage in order to plan their route, they learn that Mama had implanted tracking devices in each of the children that she can view with her pocket watch, but also determine that while she knows that SOMEONE witnessed Conny's death, she doesn't know exactly who that was. They realize that the two of them won't be enough to plan the escape, so they invite Ray (who had been waiting for them to tell him what happened at the gate anyway) to join them. Ray wants to leave the others behind in order to maximize their chances of survival in a world run by demons, but Emma and Norman refuse to leave a single sibling behind and Ray knows that he cannot escape on his own, so he reluctantly agrees to help them. Their plans are interrupted, however, by the arrival of two new residents of Grace Field House: the baby Carol and the new assistant matron Sister Krone.

It is so hard to talk about just this episode when I know what happens in the future thanks to the manga. I can't imagine what this must feel like for anime-only watchers. Cloverworks does an excellent job at using unusual camera angles and pans to instill a sense of confusion, paranoia, and claustrophobia in the viewer, and it really works to make me feel as nervous as Emma and Norman do at any given moment. My favorites of these moments are the swinging view of Emma from the perspective of the pendulum on the wall clock and the very tight view of Norman as he walks through the hallway. 

Also, I'm sure that there are some people out there who think that Emma is being unreasonable when she insists on saving everybody, and, well, they aren't entirely wrong. But I want to stress this now: Emma is NOT stupid. The fact that she deduces and plans just as much as Norman does should make that clear. The important thing to realize is that Emma, Norman, and Ray are all different kinds of intelligent. Emma is the visionary; she can look at the world and say with certainty, "This is a problem, here is how it needs to be solved, and I know how to motivate the right people to help me make it happen." Ray is a master of logistics and analysis; he can find potential problems and pitfalls with the visionary's plan and warn her about them. And Norman? He's the strategist; he acknowledges the logistical problems and understands that they need to be addressed, but he also understands the importance of the vision and works around the problems to make it a reality. All three of these kinds of intelligence are present in every human to an extent, but our protagonists are literal personifications of these ideas. Without a single one of them, an undertaking as grand as escaping Grace Field just couldn't happen. And, dammit, that's just some really good character writing!

Dororo

Insert Bandai-Namco joke here.

In episode 2 of Superhuman Samurai Demon-Slaying Squad, Dororo and Hyakkimaru travel to a village that is supposedly suffering thanks to a monster. The village chief, Lady Bandai, was paralyzed thanks to the monster and her vice chief asks Hyakkimaru to slay it for them. However, upon meeting Lady Bandai, Hyakkimaru attacks her, causing the townspeople to turn on him and Dororo and lock them away. A blind priest who was also locked away by the townspeople explains to Dororo that blind people like himself and Hyakkimaru can see the aura of those around them, and that Bandai's aura was one of a demon in disguise. Hyakkimaru leads the others out of their imprisonment and kills Bandai, who is revealed to be a demon that the townspeople had been feeding travelers to in exchange for their lives and the money the travelers carried with them. After killing Bandai, lightning strikes again, and Hyakkimaru starts convulsing in pain after regaining his nervous system.

You know, I got pretty nervous when it sank in that Hyakkimaru just can't talk and that the show is going to rely solely on Dororo for its major speaking roles. But then it turned out that Dororo and Hyakkimaru have such natural chemistry together that it doesn't even make a difference. It really feels like the best scenes of Ash and Pikachu, where even though they cannot verbally communicate with each other, the audience can still get a feel for each of their personalities and follow a genuine conversation that is developing over the course of a scene. It's hard to describe, but even in the first scene where Dororo is explaining how to cook fish and Hyakkimaru just sits there and only responds through the slightest of movements, there's a growing sense of camaraderie and understanding between the two of them. I'm really liking this character dynamic and I can't wait to see it develop even further. As for the rest of the episode, well, it was just okay. It seems like this is going to be a monster of the week formula, and if that's the case, then all the monsters really need to do is be visually and narratively distinct from each other. At this point, it's tough to ask for any more than just that. The fact that the townspeople (or at the very least, the vice chief) were willingly working alongside Lady Bandai was a nice touch, but there wasn't anything too surprising or unique this story. But between the excellent character writing for Dororo and Hyakkimaru and the nice animation, I'm not sure that much more was really needed here. I wouldn't be surprised if the next few episodes were similar one-off conflicts that serve to build up Dororo and Hyakkimaru's bond before a more serious multi-episode arc involving Hyakkimaru and Daigo becomes the focus at around the halfway point.

The Price of Smiles

You and every other anime fan on Reddit.

In episode 2 of Most Improved Anime, Joshua's family had long served as the guards of the royal family, and after the death of his father in an attack by the Empire, he vowed to make his father proud by protecting Yuki no matter what. To that end, he has gone to war at the border city of Grad. After a few skirmishes, a Soleil ambush of the Imperial Army goes awry when the noble in charge of Grad, Margrave Girard, betrays the Knights of Soleil and warns the Empire in the hopes of having his citizens treated mercifully, and the Soleil forces are forced to retreat. Joshua makes a daring rescue and saves the twins who taunted him last episode, but he is wounded and dies a few days later. With the reality of the war impossible to hide any longer, Yuki's tutor and her adviser takes her to the front to tell her the truth and to take her to Joshua's body.

Where was this last week!? This was actually good! I mean, the actual choreography and animation of the mech battles weren't anything to write home about, but the two battles shown were an effecive way to depict war: chaotic, yet easy for the audience to follow. Without having a single character spell it out, it's easy to tell at a glance where each character is and how they're doing, as well as understand the bigger picture and who is winning or losing. And there were some great fake-outs here, too, between Girard actually being captured and his sabotage of the mechs dealt with before the start of the battle, only for Soleil to lose anyway thanks to the Empire being forewarned of their plan and thus able to counter it. And in no way did I expect Joshua, who featured so prominently in these first two episodes and in the opening to actually die this early in the story! That's a gutsy move, and I appreciate that. One good episode doesn't exactly do enough to erase how bad last week's episode was, but The Price of Smiles has proven that it's worth keeping an eye on for a little while longer, especially since the preview for the next episode hints that we'll be seeing the perspective of the Empire's soldiers soon.

Rising of the Shield Hero

Cute, badass, furry, AND the voice of Mai Sakurajima? The internet is going to love her.

Next up we have Rule 34: Furry Slave Edition. In episode 2, Naofumi purchases the demi-human Raphtalia as his slave. Raphtalia had been traumatized by witnessing the death of her parents in the first Wave of Catastrophe and thus had difficulty following Naofumi's orders in combat at first. But with his patience and pragmatic approach to training through treating her like an actual person, Naofumi is able to train Raphtalia to become a competent fighter, and the two of them decide to go further out from town in order to get more rewards. During a mission to retrieve some precious ores, they are attacked by a monster that resembles the one that killed Raphtalia's parents, causing her to shut down in the middle of the fight. But upon hearing Naofumi's decision to sacrifice his life in order to ensure her escape, Raphtalia finds her resolve and kills the monster. The two of them vow to stick together and survive the upcoming Waves of Catastrophe no matter what.

I will admit, I am a bit conflicted about this show. On the one hand, between the false rape accusation last episode and the whole slave magically bound to Naofumi and unable to disobey orders without experiencing intense pain thing this week, I feel very uncomfortable and have the sneaking suspicion that the story elements here could be used by the worst kind of people to justify some very misogynistic attitudes, especially since the show's approach to world building seems to be "everyone is an asshole except Naofumi (who is also a jerk) and those who treat him well (who are his slave who is afraid of him, a slave trader, and a merchant who admittedly did nothing wrong)." 

But, well, there is nuance here that shouldn't be ignored. Naofumi's actions don't feel like they are being portrayed as moral or justified, and they instead feel like the actions of a desperate man trying to survive against impossible odds. The way Naofumi approaches Raphtalia and the long passage of time in between his first use of her seal and the one in the cave -- which was a life or death combat situation, so I kinda get trying to force her to save your life -- shows that he doesn't view Raphtalia as expendable despite the lip service he gives to the slave trader that says otherwise. If anything, he would probably say he's making the best of a bad situation: he needs allies in order to survive against the Catastrophe that he must fight, and if nobody will join him willingly, why not make a slave contract? It's messed up and in no way okay, but this isn't Death March and the show isn't presenting Naofumi as an upstanding moral individual. As for the episode as a whole? It's alright, I guess. None of the combat scenes were that exciting on a technical level, but seeing Raphtalia face her fears and achieve some actual believable growth was nice. I found all the scenes of them level grinding to be a little boring, but I think that's probably because I'm tired of video games influencing fantasy isekai anime so much. I still can't decide if I like Shield Hero as a whole or not, but it's not bad to look at and it's interesting enough to hold my attention.

Pastel Memories

Foreshadowing....

Finally, we have Oh, Dear God, Why!? In episode 2, three of the interchangeable girls are sent into the world of the manga being attacked by the virus, where they have magical girl transformations that you can't even see because it's hidden by a flash of light, thus defeating the purpose of magical girl transformations. The characters of the manga are all being transformed into human-eel hybrids thanks to a terrible Japanese pun, and instead of doing anything about it, the girls just goof off and happen to get lucky enough that the villainous witch-lady (with big boobs, naturally) shows up with a bunch of rejected Yugioh monster designs that just happen to be the virus that's causing all this trouble. The girls fight against the virus and win thanks to the smart one's (you know she's the smart one because she wears glasses) winning strategy of aiming for the glowing circle in the big one's chest. By defeating the virus, the real world regains their memories of the manga, thus allowing the rest of the girls to easily locate the final manga volume off screen and complete the set in time to make a little girl whose face the viewer never sees smile.

I'm sitting here working on this section of the roundup at 1:40 AM. I stare blankly at the screen, wondering what I can possibly say about the quality of this episode that I didn't already say in the episode summary. I don't know if I have the descriptive ability to convey exactly how bad this show is. Nothing I can say can quite compare to the experience of sitting down and watching this garbage. I find myself in a trance -- my eyes glazing over, my mouth hanging open in sheer disbelief, a slight amount of drool dribbling down my chin -- until I suddenly realize that 20 minutes have passed and the ending sequence has started and I have no idea what just happened. Then I realize that I have to watch the episode again because I twice failed to retain the information needed to do my job and cover this show.

None of the characters' proportions are consistent from shot to shot! The fight scene was so lazily animated that at one point the glasses girl swung her spear in a circle (touching none of the monsters, by the way) and everything around her just vanished! And then, this show has the audacity to try to have the villainess blast off into the sky like she's in Team Rocket! You didn't earn that, Plastic Memories!

I picked this show for the roundup because I found the premise of a world without anime intriguing. This could have been a chance for introspection, a chance to ponder the role that stories have in our society and the way they impact those who experience them. Then I remember that Re:Creators already exists and that this is a soulless adaptation created to advertise a mobile game that nobody cares about. Tachibanakan Triangle felt like an insidious plot to con the world into watching it. This feels like a six-year-old who hated the idea of his creative writing homework so much, he just wiped his ass on the worksheet and handed it in. He knows he's getting an F, but at least nobody can say that he did nothing. I'm not sure which I hate more, but I can safely say that I will not be reviewing Pastel Memories next week.

And with that, the first show of Winter 2019 has fallen. But what will happen next week? Will Shield Hero stop being vaguely problematic? How will Yuki respond to learning that everyone around her has been lying to her her entire life? When will Hyakkimaru regain his vocal chords? How will Emma and the others respond to having twice as many adults to deal with now? What happened to Saotome after Manticore's death? Will Asuka return to the battlefield once and for all? Will Gripen be ready for her test flight? What is going on with Hina and her boyfriend? And most importantly of all: will W'Z or Dimension High School ever stop sucking, or will one of them be the next to die? Find out next week on "The Wall of Text Occasionally Broken Up by Anime Screenshots".