Weekly Roundup Winter 2019 Week 9

At this point, we are approximately three-quarters of the way through the Winter 2019 Weekly Roundup! Hooray! At this point, it's pretty unlikely that any show is going to be eliminated since it has earned quite a bit of goodwill with me, but it's still technically possible for something to be eliminated if it disappoints me enough, and Hinomaru Sumo in particular has been walking that tightrope for the last month or so, so we're gonna save that episode for last just so that we can preserve the suspense. And with that in mind, let's get to it!

Run With the Wind

He looks about as good as I feel right now.

First up we have Feels: the Animation. In episode 20, distracted by Jota's proclamation that he thinks Hana has a thing for him, Joji starts to slow down and loses a lot of ground that Jota gained for the team. Thinking quickly, Kakeru tells him that if he likes her, then he needs to run for her. Even though he understands what Kakeru is up to and privately acknowledges that Hana probably has a thing for his brother and not him, Joji is still fired up by Kakeru's encouragement and races ahead. However, he is ridden with guilt when he sees Shindo begin the next leg, so very obviously suffering from a fever. With his family and teammates watching in horror, and Coach Tazaki begging him to drop out for the sake of his health, Shindo forces himself through the entire 20 kilometer run, all uphill, finishing 20th in the pack and proving himself to have "the strongest will in Japan". And so, the first day of the Hakone Ekiden ends, with Yuki, Nico, King, Kakeru, and Haiji left to pick up where the rest of the team left off.

I want you to imagine something. You work nights in a tech support job in a call center, and your lunch break has arrived. Your usual friend who you eat lunch with is nowhere to be seen and you figure they probably still are on a call or maybe have a little while longer until their break starts. Not feeling particularly hungry, you step out into a usually empty side hallway, sit down on a bench, take out your phone, and watch the newest episode of Run With the Wind. And you see Shindo kill himself running the Ekiden, all the while saying "they're waiting for me". That's where I was, silently crying my eyes out and hoping nobody would see me as I was mouthing words of encouragement for a drawing of a college athlete being suicidally inspiring. This episode was SO GOOD! Hearing Shindo's heavy breathing overpower the soundtrack as Tazaki jobs alongside him and tells him about how professional go players are seen as wise when they realize that they are in an unwinnable situation (giving me Hikaru no Go flashbacks, which I obvisouly won't complain about since Hikaru no Go is an underrated gem), watching his family caught between wanting him to stop and not wanting to give up, sobbing and praying the whole time...You have to be made of stone not to feel anything at that. I've seen some people on social media complain that Shindo's illness came out of nowhere and was a bit contrived, but I think that it fits his character to have such a workaholic who has always been shown pushing himself in training and basically acting as a self-appointed club treasurer and secretary while refusing help every step of the way overwork himself and make himself sick. I mean, I've gotten myself sick from overwork before, so it makes sense to me.

Honestly, if anything falls short this week, it's the Hana and Jota pairing that came out of nowhere. I know Musa and Kakeru have mentioned it before, but we don't see any romantic hints until after Musa first starts hinting at it. I mean, it's nice to get confirmation that Hana can tell the two apart in that little flashback, but this is easily the weakest element of the entire series's story. And the episode knows it, too, since the bulk of the episode is focused on Shindo's struggle, which is easily one of the best moments in a series that has a lot of incredible moments. 

Domestic Girlfriend

Yes, yes you are.

Up next we have No, Just...No... In episode 9, despite Natsuo and Rui's protests, Hina continues with her plan to move into her own place. Wandering around town in a lonely haze, Rui bumps into Kiriya and Shu, and decides to discuss her feelings about Hina moving with them. Hina secretly leaves Natsuo a spare key to her new apartment, and the two of them secretly start dating. However, Hina still refuses to respond to Natsuo's sexual advances, not because it's wrong, but instead insisting that they need to take things slowly and get used to being physical with each other, otherwise they would be too obvious and get discovered. Back at school, Rui and Natsuo prepare to turn in their stories for the Literature Club's anthology, and Alex decides to join the club as well. Natsuo asks Hina if she is genuinely interested in him or is just stringing him along, and she reassures him by secretly kissing him in the school hallway, completely forgetting about keeping a low profile and taking it slow.

I knew this was coming, and yet I still hate it. One of the things I liked about Hina as a character was that, despite her struggle, she was refusing to act on her feelings for Natsuo because she knew it was morally wrong for her to seduce Natsuo, who, lest we forget, is a minor, her step-brother, and her student. I thought the whole point of her moving out was getting distance away from Natsuo so that she could sort out her own feelings and be the responsible adult, not to have a secret incestuous pedophilic booty call shrine!

My irrational frustration that an anime about incest would have the characters commit acts of incest aside, I do understand what the writers are going for with Hina's character. She is an insecure and emotionally vulnerable person in general, and that makes her very susceptible to flattery. It's what drew her to Shu, and now it's drawing her to Natsuo. I don't think she actually has romantic feelings for Natsuo, I just think she likes the attention and doesn't know how to process the situation she is in. Do I think it excuses her actions? No, but it's like I said before: Hina is a victim as well as an abuser. There's a reason we got reacquainted with Shu this week, after all. It's to remind you that he made her into such a needy individual that needs a physical relationship in order to feel emotionally secure. Right now, she's using Natsuo the same way Shu used her and, ironically enough, the same way Natsuo has been using Rui, as an outlet for her self-loathing. It's a difficult dynamic to write and make sympathetic, but somehow Domestic Girlfriend still manages to do it. I still cannot bring myself to be angry with Hina and I want her to be happy. I just don't want this to be the way she finds happiness, you know? Cause it's a bit gross.

The Promised Neverland

I couldn't find a better scene to use.

In episode 9 of Things Going Wrong: the Animation, Norman is due to be shipped, Emma's leg is broken, and the children's chances to escape look grim. As Norman is resigned to his fate, ready to do what he can to be the last child shipped out from Grace Field House, Ray refuses to accpet the situation and demands that Norman escape immediately without the others. Norman argues that Ray would just be shipped out in his place, but Emma and Ray insist that they'll find a way around that, to the point where Ray admits that he'd willingly break his own arm. Norman is eventually convinced, and he tries to sneak out the next day. However, the children are shocked to see Norman come back, and he tells them that the wall is built on a cliff, thus rendering climbing over it impossible. The only way to escape is through the gate, and the Headquarters that lies beyond.

This is not a very well paced episode. Honestly, the ending point here is where I expected the halfway point to be. Maybe it's my fault, since I've already read this story in the manga, but I find myself very disappointed this week. And I honestly don't know where things went wrong. The atmosphere, the camera work, the voice acting, the animation...everything was still good. It all comes down to pacing. Like, I really liked seeing Norman walk all the way to the sink to get a glass of water for Emma -- it was atmospheric and creepy and we got to see Norman break down from the pressure of being the one who is always calm -- but we didn't need to see him walk all the way back, did we? It all just felt unnecessarily drawn out. Like, it wasn't bad, but it doesn't measure up to the episodes that preceded it. A rare bump in the road in a really good anime.

The Price of Smiles

Insert She Blinded me with Science joke here.

Next up we have episode 9 of The Lorax: Anime Edition. Against Yuki's wishes, Harold has pursued a more aggressive strategy against the Empire, pushing their forces back and continuing to draw out the stalemate between the two great nations. As the Kingdom of Soleil continues to manufacture new chrars for the sake of their survival in the war against the Empire, Layla analyzes the data that was sent by Izana and discovers the true reason that the adoption of chrars was opposed to by the people of Verde. Long ago, the people of Earth colonized this world, deploying nanomachines in the atmosphere in order to make the planet habitable for human life. But then, a naturally occuring mineral unique to the new planet known as chrarlapsis was discovered, and its supposedly naturally clean energy led to a new industrial revolution, resulting in the creation of the chrars. However, the researchers at Verde discovered that the chrarlapsis was actually draining power from the nanomachines and, if left unchecked, would lead to the planet once again becoming uninhabitable for sustained human life. Thus, after the various noble families of both Soleil and the Empire suppressed this information for the sake of profit, Verde's scientists felt that they had no other choice but to mount an attack on the means of production, and the assassination of the Royal Family and the war between Soleil and the Empire began as a result.  Upon learning this, Yuki immediately proposes that they send this information to the Empire and form a truce in the name of dismantling the chrars, but Harold shoots the idea down, as even if the Empire does believe them to be telling the truth and not trying to lure them into a trap, there's no reason to believe that they would act in good faith. When the Empire launches an attack on the research facility during their conversation, Harold sacrifices his life in order to buy Yuki's transport time to escape.

So, it turns out I was right in my prediction about Verde's research: the production of chrars does have a negative impact on the food supply. And while it was established several episodes ago that the characters we've been following are direct descendants of a colony founded by the people of Earth, the new revelations about the nanomachines and the chrars' effect on them implies that Earth is now completely uninhabitable. If that is the case, it is probably due to the accelerated climate change as a result of humankind's uncontrolled pollution and over-reliance on fossil fuels that is a real world problem today, and the chrars draining the nanomachines that make the planet habitable while still allowing for the sheer amount of technological advancement that the people of Soleil and the Empire have achieved to be possible is a grim parallel. So it would seem that in addition to being a story about the horrors of war and its ultimate futility in the grand scheme of things, Price of Smiles has an environmental message as well. And maybe it's because that message is ultimately something that I agree with, or maybe it's because the show doesn't shy away from having characters offer strong rebuttals to the main thrust of the show's argument, but I respect the show so much more for it.

But on the other hand, this episode was just a long exposition dump without a lot of genuine character moments or narrative progression until the very end. And while Harold's last battle was decent (especially since I think I recognized the mechs from Stella's squad among the soldiers he was fighting against), this ultimately feels like a bit of missed potential. I'm not sure how I would have fixed it, since every scene was important and Harold needed to die in order to give Yuki's character development the last push that it needed (a reverse fridge, if you will), but there you have it: a pretty good episode that could have been much better with a little bit of tweaking.

Dororo

God, this show is so damn pretty!

Up next, we have Sad Backstories: the Animation. In episode 9, Dororo comes down with a fever, and Hyakkimaru takes him to a temple to be nursed back to health by a nun. As he recovers, Dororo tells the nun about how his parents died. Dororo's father Hibukuro led a group of brigands in a vigilante crusade against the samurai who treated commoners like garbage as they waged war on behalf of their lords (including Daigo, who gets multiple shout outs). As Hibukuro's band grew in renown and power, his lieutenant Itachi pushed for them to leverage their position and get a position as a general for a powerful lord. Staying true to his anti-noble convictions, Hibukuro refuses, and so Itachi betrays him and lures him into an ambush, leaving Hibukuro's legs permanently damaged and taking his men with him. Hibukuro wandered the land with his wife and child until he is killed by a group of samurai looking to avenge their fallen comrades. Dororo and his mother wandered the land looking for food for a few more months before the mother (whose name I completely forgot, sorry), collapses in a field of red lilies and dies of starvation, using her last words to urge Dororo to survive no matter what. Back in the present, the nun reveals to Hyakkimaru that Dororo is actually a girl, and Daigo receives a report of Hyakkimaru killing the soldiers who went after Mio.

So, is Dororo best girl now? 

This is exactly the shot in the arm that Dororo needed. After a few one and done episodes that didn't do anything to develop our main characters and were mostly just entertaining fluff, we have an entire episode giving some much needed backstory and depth to the titular character who we really didn't know anything about outside of her personality. I mean, we didn't even know her gender until this episode! The "reveal" that Dororo is actually female doesn't change anything in the grand scheme of things, obviously, but it's really cool that a story aimed at young boys in the 1960s secretly had a female character as the audience surrogate. It's like Metroid before Metroid was even a thing. It also helps that this episode was really good. The extended flashback colored only in black, white, and red was absolutely gorgeous, and the things Dororo's family goes through is absolutely brutal, with the apex of the suffering easily being Dororo's mother holding boiling hot soup in her hands to feed to her daughter because she didn't own a bowl. My hands hurt just looking at that. It seems weird having an episode of Dororo that doesn't focus on Hyakkimaru at all, but this still stands as my favorite episode of the series so far.

Boogiepop and Others

This may be the only line in the entire episode that I understood.

Two shows left! In episode 14 of Headscratchers (I'm probably the only person who thinks that that is funny), the Moon Temple was a massive construction project planned by the eccentric billionaire Teratsuki, though he died before the building was ever completed. Now the day has finally come for the Moon Temple to be opened to the public, and a huge crowd has come to see the unveiling of this new and unique skyscraper. Just as everyone was filing into the building, however, a loud rock song plays over the intercom and the emergency system is triggered, lowering the shutters and trapping hundreds of people inside. Each of the people there is then further trapped into an illusion by the Distortion King, a figure who senses unfinished business and regrets lingering in the hearts of men and wishes to "turn mankind into gold", whatever that means. Niitoki is among those who are trapped in the illusions, and she is confronted by the ghost of Saotome before Boogiepop can pull her out of the illusion.

I'll be real with you guys: I have no idea what the hell I just watched. It took two watches just to get that little plot summary down, but I don't understand anything that is happening. Let's be honest, though, this is just par for the course when it comes to Boogiepop. The first episode or two of a story arc has always been incredibly confusing and difficult to follow, but things start to come together later and everything from those previous episodes become better with hindsight. Like I said previously, Boogiepop really isn't great for weekly viewing, and this is why. I don't even have enough of an idea of what may be happening to speculate this time. But at least we got to see Niitoki and Saotome again! It's really cool to see characters from previous arcs come back!

Hinomaru Sumo

It may be cheesy, but this reveal was so out of nowhere, it made me spit out my drink.

Finally we have Sibling Rivalry. In episode 21, Dachi High is feeling confident about the final round of the national tournament, as their goal of giving Hinomaru a chance to beat Kuze and get recognized and selected for the All Japan Professional Qualifying Tournament has already been reached. After Reina gives them a motivational speech and Eiga High wins their semifinal match without any effort, however, Dachi High gets serious, and Chihiro steps into the ring for the first bout of the final match. Chihiro's opponent is his estranged older brother Hyodo, who is an even more unpredictable idiot savant than Chihiro is. After a close match, Hyodo's taunting gets under Chihiro's skin, throwing him off-balance and giving Eiga the win. With one of their best fighters having lost, Dachi is facing a huge deficit, as Kirihito steps into the ring as a substitute fighter for the injured Mitsuhashi.

If I had to use only one word to describe the quality of Hinomaru Sumo, I would choose "inconsistent". We've had weird cases where the show would be ridiculously awesome and fun to watch, only for pacing and characterization issues render the next stretch of episodes clunky and near unwatchable. Thankfully, this was one of the good ones, and not just because Chihiro got taken down a peg.

Though, seriously, thank God Chihiro got taken down a peg.

It was fun to see a mirror into Chihiro's psyche, as Hyodo is a lot like him but better, being another prodigious athlete who bounced from discipline to discipline before getting bored and moving on. If anything, Hyodo is more passionate about sumo than his little brother, and seeing Chihiro actually experience some doubt and wonder if he took up sumo for the wrong reasons was interesting. I especially liked that Hinomaru, the guy who lives and breathes sumo, told him that his reasons for pursuing the sport are still valid. It's awesome that he doesn't hold the fact that Chihiro is only in sumo for the chance to further his burgeoning MMA career against him. And the fact that the fight itself is an excellent ebb and flow of power that is uniquely informed by the personalities and relationships of the two fighters doesn't hurt either. This is what Hinomaru Sumo can be when it just takes its time with the fights and really works hard to make them interesting instead of trying to force two fights into every episode while cutting away to random scenes outside of the ring that ultimately don't matter, and I get the feeling that, since there are only 3 episodes left in the season, that's what we're going to get for the entirety of the finals.

And that wraps up the 9th installment of the Winter 2019 Weekly Roundup! For the second week in a row, nothing has been terrible and all 7 of our remaining shows are advancing to the next week. Hooray! Will they keep this up all the way to the end? Will Yuki make up for lost time in the next leg of the Ekiden? Will Natsuo and Hina's relationship get discovered? Will Emma and Ray rescue Norman in time? Will the Imperial soldiers learn of the data from Verde? Will Daigo retaliate against Hyakkimaru? Will Boogiepop defeat the Distortion King? Will Kirihito win his bout? Will any of these shows beat Mob Psycho 100 Season 2 for anime of the season? Find out next week on the Weekly Roundup!

Let's be real, the answer to that last question is probably no.