Weekly Roundup Spring 2019 Week 2

We're at the second week of the spring 2019 season, and all bets are officially off. After the fall of Yu-No last week, all 12 of the remaining shows are now officially fighting for their lives, like if gladiators were waifus. Wait, why aren't there any gladiator waifus? Get on that Japan!

It occurs to me that Rebecca already exists.

Fruits Basket

Bitchslaps have never been this hot.

First up we have Furry Dating Simulator. In episode 2, Shigure explains to Tohru that everyone in the Soma Clan is possessed by the spirit of one of the animals of the Chinese zodiac (including the cat, an unofficial 13th member that was tricked into losing its status as a member of the zodiac), which causes them to transform into their respective animals for a short time whenever hugged by a member of the opposite sex. Tohru agrees to keep their secret, but Shigure still has to report the situation to the family head Akito. Yuki fears that Akito will order Tohru's memories erased like his previous female friends had, but she assures him that she would willingly accept such a fate if that would protect his family and just asks if they can still be friends if that does happen. But, much to everyone's surprise, Akito agrees to allow her to live with the Soma Clan as long as she keeps her mouth shut. Later, Kyo is having trouble interacting with Tohru, frequently becoming overwhelmed and shouting at her when she hasn't done anything wrong. Things come to a head when he transfers to her and Yuki's school and ends up frightening her when she tries to keep the two boys from fighting. He surprises her on her way home from work later that night in order to apologize, and the two of them reach an uneasy (for Kyo anyway) truce.

This was the perfect follow up episode. If last week was all about Tohru, then this week was all about Yuki and Kyo. We learned that Yuki resents being under the watchful eye of Akito and the rest of the family, and wants to live independently from them, which is why he moved out of the main house and into a new home with Shigure. The fact that his childhood friends' memories were erased and that he was subsequently told that nobody outside the family would accept the real him is probably what incited this rebellious attitude, and Tohru's happy insistence that she would allow her memories to be erased for his safety and that she would still want to be his friend probably shook him to his core, explaining his protective nature of him whenever Kyo frightens or upsets him. And speaking of Kyo, it seems like the story of the cat rings true for him as well. He claims that the family ostracized him, and his grudge against Yuki may be based on the belief that if he could defeat him that he would be accepted back into the family. Between his family abandoning him and his need to keep his true nature secret, Kyo is antisocial, incredibly awkward, and full of anger issues, thus constantly lashing out at others when his feelings overwhelm him and then feeling guilty and unsure about how to apologize. The scene where he confesses to Shigure that he fears that he will never be able to live with other people really got to me, and I'm instantly sold on these characters as much as I was on Tohru last week. I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Senryu Girl

Me while writing notes on this episode.

After a long winded character analysis like that, we need a nice, short palette cleanser. With that in mind, let's talk about Body Conscious Waifus. In episode 2, Eiji's childhood friend and big sister figure Koto frequently embarrasses him in front of everyone by publicly doting on him, even though the rest of the school seems to fear him. As the Literature Club struggles to find a way to improve his image, Nanako shyly asks him if he has a girlfriend. When Eiji innocently points out her large appetite during an unofficial lunch date, Nanako panics and starts dieting and exercising under Koto's tutelage. One week later, she eagerly tries to show him the fruits of her labor, and Koto tells the club president (I don't think they said her name yet) that she's happy to put aside her romantic feelings for Eiji since he would be happier with Nanako.

This wasn't quite as good as last week. There still wasn't anything necessarily wrong with it, but it didn't really feel like a complete story. Instead, it feels like 3 different stories (Koto's introduction, Eiji's image problem, and Nanako's diet) all tripping over each other, trying desperately to fit in the 10 minute runtime, without any of them actually going anywhere. Stuff just kinda happens, and I'm not sure if the show plans to follow up on any of these plot points in future episodes of if this is supposed to be an episodic series. I still think that this is the right format for this kind of anime, as longer episodes would probably drag and lose my interest, but I feel like they could have saved the whole "Eiji has trouble getting past his intimidating appearance" thing for another time at least. My go to examples for properly done short form anime are Space Battleship Tiramisu and the Disastrous Life of Saiki K. Both of those have complete stand alone stories for each episode that work together to tell a bigger story when told in succession. Senryu Girl is on the right track with its ambitions to tell an overarching story about Nanako and Eiji's blooming relationship through short vignettes about their time together in the Literature Club, but those individual vignettes need a little more fleshing out so they can feel more like actual stories and less like a highlight reel for YouTube. Either way, I'm still enjoying these characters and chuckling at a few of the better jokes, so it's safe for one more week.

Demon Slayer

This scene made me cheer.

Up next is Basket Waifu. We are one step closer to having waifu Pokemon. In episode 2, Tanjiro and Nezuko travel to Mt Sagiri to search for the demon slayer trainer Sakonji Urokodaki. During their travels, they stumble upon a temple, and smelling blood, decide to investigate. The temple had been attacked by a demon, and all the priests and other residents' corpses are being eaten. The two siblings fight the demon, but it doesn't die even when its head is separated from its body. After pinning the head to a tree with his hatchet and knocking the body off a cliff, Tanjiro is faced with a dilemma: he needs to crush the demon's skull in order to keep it from hurting anyone else, but he doesn't want to force the demon to suffer. As an old man wearing a goblin mask chastises Tanjiro for his inability to make hard decisions, the sun rises and the demon turns to ash. The old man introduces himself as Sakonji and says that Tomioka had told him that Tanjiro would come and seek training. He gives Tanjiro a test: make it to the end of a mountain path filled with traps before daybreak. Our hero struggles at first, but soon, thanks to his superior sense of smell, he learns how to detect the traps and passes the test, earning Sakonji's respect and a place as his pupil.

I liked this one a lot. Seeing Tanjiro and Nezuko work together to win a fight was really exciting, and the camera work and choreography during that fight scene was top notch. Not a single shot throughout the entire episode was static or boring, with either enough motion or a dynamic angle or color palette to stimulate the viewer without distracting from the story. Even if every one of these visual choices are lifted wholesale from the original manga, the animators still deserve a lot of credit for bringing something so beautiful to life. Not a lot happened story wise, but we do get to learn more about Nezuko's personality after being transformed into a demon. She's nonverbal, panics at the thought of sunlight, pouts childishly when things don't go her way, still struggles with the concept of not eating people, and ultimately values her brother above everything else. Seeing her staring at the corpses the demon left behind, drooling uncontrollably, until Tanjiro's screaming breaks her out of her trance was nothing short of chilling. Sakonji seems like a typical anime mentor for now, but I'm betting he'll get more development when we see him train Tanjiro next week.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu

I want to make a pun about hanging out, but I can't think of anything good.

Up next is Why Doesn't This Have a Translated Title? In episode 2, Bocchi is panicking. Nako is upset with her and she doesn't quite understand why. When the class vice president Honshou offers to help her work through the problem, she ends up telling her about the entire day she spent with Nako leading up to this issue. After regaling her with the tale of her and Nako wandering around the school, Bocchi eventually gets to the heart of the issue: she let slip that she only approached Nako because of her promise to Kai to befriend everyone. Nako is clearly feeling used as a result, and Bocchi awkwardly apologizes to her at Honshou's urging. After making up, Nako agrees to help her make more friends, and the two of them approach Honshou. Suspecting Honshou of being a fake person who manipulates others with a smile, Nako embarrasses her at first, but Bocchi convinces her to give Honshou a chance, and the three of them become friends.

When this episode is good, it's really cute and I'm having a good time. But it's only good for about half the episode. There was a lot of filler plot here, what with a one-off gag about a haunted bathroom that wasn't even funny, a random as hell moment where a pair of chickens start talking during a scene transition, and an admittedly funny gag about Bocchi not knowing how to pass notes, and the story seems to end about 3 times before the credits actually roll. Honshou is an okay new character, hiding her bad luck and awkward nature behind a cheerful exterior, but she pales in comparison to Bocchi and Nako's adorable dynamic. Overall, this episode was very inconsistent and mediocre at best, but I haven't gotten sick of our girls' antics yet, so it lives.

Cinderella Nine

Megumi, is that you?

We're about a third of the way through, so let's keep this weeb train rolling. In episode 2 of One Outs (I want to see if I can reference a different baseball anime every week for the show's entire run), the team is unable to practice on campus for a very simple reason: with all the other athletic clubs at the school, there is no facility available for them to practice. When the girls go shopping for new gloves together, they meet Suzuki, a former little league teammate of Tsubasa's who gave up the sport due to a lack of athletic ability and a talent for coaching and tactics, shopping with her older brother, who plays college baseball. When her brother suggests that Suzuki joins the club anyway, she decides to tag along as the team restores an overgrown baseball field that their faculty adviser found for them. Suzuki still refuses to join the team at first, but after a pep talk from her brother and a game of catch with Tsubasa and Ukita, she changes her mind and becomes their fifth member.

This was better than last week. It still isn't gripping me as much as I would like, and the focus still seems to be more on cute antics than anything else, but I appreciated the fact that the topic of the story is still baseball all the way through. Suzuki is a decent character, too (finally), and the struggle of deciding whether or not to continue following a passion when you have no exceptional talent for it is a story that sports anime are uniquely suited to tackle. Still, though, other than her and Tsubasa, none of the characters are doing anything new or interesting, and even though I will always argue that originality is overrated when it comes to storytelling, the execution of these incredibly basic character tropes are somewhat lacking. This is a step in the right direction though, and I would love for this to keep surprising me and become the next Price of Smiles, so I'm willing to give it at least one more episode to impress me, but so far I'm still kinda bored overall.

After Lost

In episode 2 of The Lost and the Furious (God, that was terrible), Yumiko takes aim at Takuya, but instead shoots her fellow agent at the last second. She and her partner Kouta were members of a detective agency with Takuya before they went their separate ways, and they had infiltrated the Agency for their own purposes. Yumiko and Kouta take Takuya and Yuki to a safe house, where they send a message to Geek (that's probably not his name but that's all anyone calls him) to retrieve Takuya's bike and make repairs. The four of them try to sneak past the Agency's soldiers through a subway tunnel, but are ambushed by Suzuna, who had anticipated this strategy. Yumiko and Kouta each stay behind and sacrifice their lives to ensure Takuya and Yuki's escape, and the two of them return to the surface and meet up with Geek while being chased by another psychic ghost (called a Tamashi). Takuya jumps on his bike in order to lure the Tamashi away, but Yuki, unwilling to let anyone else die on her behalf, follows after him and summons the spirit of Akira to defeat the Tamashi. The two of them then head off with Geek and continue their journey to Lost.

This show is a bit of a mess. The characters have no time to develop a personality before they are killed off in the cheapest way, but they're all so over the top and silly that I can't help but like them. The show basically alternates between chase scenes and awkward talking scenes, and the animation is all over the place in terms of quality, ranging from pretty good to awful all in the same episode. I'm not sure if this weird inconsistent quality is due to the team not being suited for such an action heavy series or if it's because it's based on a mobile game and thus doesn't have a lot to work with, but either way, it's hardly ideal. I really cannot decide if this show is good because it revels in its absurdity or if it's just so bad it's good, but at the very least, I'm more entertained watching this than I am watching something like Dimension High School, and that's enough to keep this going for at least one more week. Still, I'm not sure I can justify keeping this in the roundup if there isn't anything interesting to say about it on an episode by episode basis.

Fairy Gone

In episode 2 of Marlya and Free: Iwatobi Combat Club, Marlya's first mission as a member of Dorothea has begun. She has been deployed with Free and the long range Fairy soldiers Serge and Klara to stop the sale of artificially created Fairy soldiers by the mafia. The sale is guarded by Wolfran, a former comrade of Free's during the war, who notices that the deal is being watched and lures Free and Marlya into an ambush. As the team battles against Wolfran and the artificial soldiers, Serge's sniping skills turn the tide, and Wolfran is forced to flee, killing all of his comrades to ensure that nobody reveals anything to the government under interrogation.

There is literally nothing to this episode. It's practically a 30 minute fight scene. But it's a well-animated fight scene with characters I like and a soundtrack so cheesy it loops right back around to being awesome, so there isn't much to complain about. It's nice to see that Marlya still isn't used to fighting alongside her Fairy, frequently putting it in danger and causing it to lose energy and take damage faster than the other, more experienced combatants. Meanwhile, Free and Wolfran are both clearly experienced in working alongside their Fairies, frequently summoning and dismissing them as needed in order to gain a tactical advantage, distract their opponents, or evade enemy attacks. It's a clever, if a bit basic, way to weave character details into the fight choreography. Also, isn't it kinda funny how both main characters now have an enemy/rival character who is blonde and has a history with them? Granted, Free's relationship with Wolfran seems to have been much more detached and professional than Marlya's relationship with Veronica, but still. Pretty funny.

Sounds of Life

Up next is The Devil Went Down to High School. In episode 2, the day has come for all the clubs at the school to present themselves to the first years. If the koto club club fails to attract at least three more members, then they will be disbanded. To that end, Takezo has chosen to perform a piece onstage. Though his playing is fine, the instrument fails to capture the attention of the first years, who talk through his entire performance until Kudo loses his temper and screams at all of them, which doesn't do them any favors. Even still, one girl decides to join the club. Satowa Hozuki is the daughter of a koto grand master, seen as a child prodigy who is destined to go pro. Though she starts out with a friendly demeanor, claiming that she just wants to have a genuine club experience, once she hears that the female upperclassmen have already graduated, she drops the act and reveals her true goal: to take a high school koto team to the national championship in order to earn a lot of attention before her debut as a professional koto player. Her callous attitude angers Kudo, but when she says that he doesn't have what it takes to play the koto because he had indirectly caused the club instruments to be damaged, he takes those words to heart. As Takezo awkwardly tries to make peace between the two of them, Kudo disappears from the school completely. After pestering Kudo's friend Takaoka (finally remembered his name), Takezo learns that Kudo had been secretly working with a music shop to repair the club's instruments, and, thanks to this information, convinces Kudo and Hozuki to apologize to each other.

This was much better than last week. Hozuki's character really adds some dynamism to the cast and helps to keep everything engaging. Nothing against Takezo, he's an okay character on his own, but Kudo needed a strong personality like her to bounce off of and humanize him. Now, instead of feeling like a cardboard cutout of a trope, he feels like someone who is genuinely trying his best while grappling with guilt and self-loathing born from his previous decisions. And Takezo improves from her presence as well, as his reaction to her brazen declaration that she will carry the team to a victory in nationals was one of outrage, which wasn't what I expected from him at first. I thought that he would just panic and say he isn't good enough, which he does, but the fact that he gets offended because Hozuki's blase attitude is an insult to his upperclassmen who had tried and failed to even qualify for the national competition actually makes him slightly interesting for a little bit. There's potential for even more improvement as the show goes on, and we actually got to hear both Takezo and Hozuki play the koto! Huzzah!

We Never Learn

I guess it's not technically a harem if we don't have at least 3 love interests...

Okay, what's next? Invasion of the Jocks? Ugh...Okay, let's get this over with. In episode 2, Uruka Takemoto has known Nariyuki since they were in middle school together, and she has always had a bad habit of borrowing his notebook in order to copy his homework, feeling that she should devote all her time to her swimming, which is improving at a rate that suggests a potential future in the Olympics. While she is hoping for a sports scholarship, her grades still need to improve a little more in order to be accepted into college. To that end, the headmaster assigns Nariyuki to tutor her as well as Rizu and Fumino in order to keep his scholarship. Rizu visits Nariyuki at his home for last minute extra help with an essay, and, upon hearing this, Takemoto (who has a huge crush on Nariyuki) rushes over to join them. When the power goes out during their little study session, he improvises a candle and the two girls snuggle up close to him out of a fear of the dark and a desire to get closer to him, respectively. Rizu's essay is accepted, and she barely squeaks by with a passing grade in a humanities course for the first time in her career as a student. Later, Takemoto needs help learning English vocabulary, and after traditional studying fails, Nariyuki improvises a lesson plan that incorporates English lessons and swimming, having her dive for marked balls with the correct answer, which leads to noticeable improvement. She tries to give him a new pencil case as thanks, but she accidentally gives him a bag with her used swimsuit inside.

I didn't think this would be as good as it was going in, and even then I don't think it's any better than mediocre. Something about Takemoto's design rubs me the wrong way. There's nothing wrong with it per se, but upon seeing her teased in the stinger last week, I just knew that she was going to be someone who is all about athletics and not about studying at all, which doesn't really gel with the theme of the other girls being geniuses in a specific academic field and useless outside of it, if you ask me. I mean, I guess you can say her athletic ability is her hyper specialization, just like the other two specialize in math and literature, but she doesn't really seem to gel with the others in my opinion. Her goal isn't outside of her specialty for one thing, and it bugs me that she doesn't even want to be there. That's not to say that she is a bad character, because she isn't. Her interactions with Nariyuki in particular are quite fun, but whenever she's talking with the other girls, it comes off a bit forced, and I enjoy her presence the least as a result. I'm hoping that this feeling of disconnect is intentional and that she'll grow with the rest of the cast. That aside, I'm still having a good time overall, and the final joke about Takemoto giving Nariyuki her used swimsuit is so good it makes up for any complaints I have about her character, so this anime gets a pass for now.

RobiHachi

Somebody got paid to write that line.

Up next is Super Dimension Fortress Isekandar. In episode 2, even though they weren't able to destroy Yang's ship, Robby and Hatchi manage to escape their tractor beam with the help of the giant robot Hizakuriger. Yang correctly guesses that they plan to head to the planet Haccone, where the exit of the Milky Way rests, on their way to Isekandar, and warps over there to ambush them. What he didn't anticipate was Robby's ship running out of gas, forcing the gang to make a pit stop on Mars. As they wait for the ship to be refueled and serviced, Robby and Hatchi explore Mars, which is inhabited by octopus-people, and take in the sights. But when Hatchi learns that the Martians are actually normal humanoids in octopus suits, putting on an act for the sake of tourism, he is imprisoned and forced to star in a live promotional broadcast. Robby and a performer he bonded with rescue Hatchi and reveal the truth of the Martians on live television. Upon seeing this news, Yang reverses course and heads back to Mars to capture them, but the duo have already left Mars behind to continue their journey to Isekandar. Later, Hatchi finds a promotion for an old tv anime about Hizakuriger...

This episode was somehow just as funny as last week's. From Robby and Hatchi's arguing about who is in charge of piloting Hizakuriger to wondering if octopus-people selling takoyaki is cannibalism to seeing Yang and his henchmen dance to the ending theme, there wasn't a single moment in this episode that didn't put a big dumb smile on my face. This week's story feels like a cross between The Twilight Zone, The Truman Show, and Futurama, and I have literally no complaints about it. There isn't really anything deeper or more interesting going on here, but the comedy is rock solid, I love the art style, and the promise of something akin to Samurai Champloo or Golden Kamuy, loosely collecting episodic misadventures into a bigger epic, is just what I needed this season.

Dororo

I am so proud of you for having pattern recognition skills.

Two shows left! Next up is Deja Vu: The Animation. In episode 14, Dororo's father had hidden a large sum of memory from his campaigns as a thief with plans to use it to fund a peasant revolution against the samurai. After his plans were derailed by Itachi's betrayal, he engraved a map to his treasure on the backs of his wife and daughter before his death. Dororo had forgotten about this in her struggle for day to day survival, but upon hearing Biwamaru suggest that she could change the world with that money, she now finds herself wondering what she should do next. Soon afterward, she and Hyakkimaru wander to a new village and encounter a pair of deformed ghosts outside of a burned down temple. After the local lord Sabame arrives on the scene, the ghosts disappear and he takes the two travelers in for the night. Sabame tells the pair that the temple was the home of a corrupt nun who would take in orphans, work them to the bone, and then sell them into slavery, until the temple was struck by lightning and she died in the fire with her charges. Dororo and Hyakkimaru privately doubt this story, having found evidence of arson at the temple ruins, and their suspicions are further deepened when a moth demon attacks them at night with her caterpillar spawn in tow. Hyakkimaru chases the demons off, and the moth demon returns to Sabame's side, panicking upon realizing that Hyakkimaru is the child whose body she stole with the other demons.

Another week, another good episode of Dororo. It's almost boring how consistently good it is. The background art was stunning as always, though it did sort of clash with the characters a bit more than usual. But the story this week more than makes up for it. I fully expected the map to remain a mystery that our heroes choose to follow blindly only to learn an ironic lesson about hope and for it to be more trouble than it was worth. The fact that it is just a straightforward treasure map AND that Dororo already knew about it in the broad strokes and just sort of forgot about it because she was more concerned with finding food to eat is a bit refreshing. It's a reminder that this is a story from a simpler period in anime history, with a loose call to adventure used to justify the setup for a few neat story ideas and monster encounters. Also, isn't it great that we've been through this whole shady villages hiding demonic secrets so many times that Dororo and Hyakkimaru just immediately suspect that Sabame is lying to them? I'm so glad that they have gained a semblance of pattern recognition. Either way, I'm pleasantly surprised that this story is going to be more than one episode, since it didn't say part 1 like previous multi-episode stories did, and I can't wait to see what happens next.

Midnight Occult Civil Servants

This cat-dog thing is the only part of the episode I enjoyed. 

Lastly, it's time to talk about Paranormal Private Eyes. Yeah, I know that fake title sucks, but I don't care because I'm so disappointed. In episode 2, Miyako's grandfather always said that their family descended from the legendary Abe no Seimei, but nobody ever took his claims seriously. Now, though, the claim seems to ring true after all, as Miyako is able to understand the language of Anothers. After the arrival of a kishi (a Chinese bird spirit that heralds misfortune), the Community Relations Office has to deal with a string of thefts from supernatural creatures one after another, all of whom claim to have been robbed by an androgynous dark-haired creature. While investigating one of the crime scenes, Miyako and Sakaki are sucked into a seal and trapped underground, where the dark-haired thief confronts them, cheerfully recognizing Miyako as "Seimei" and unleashing a horde of zombies on them.

So at first I didn't know what to think about this episode. The pacing felt a bit wonky and it changed scenes so many times I was having trouble following what was supposed to be going on. Then I watched it a second time and paid closer attention and actually processed that all these separate incidents that Miyako and his team are investigating were supposed to be related, as the as of yet nameless antagonist had been stealing materials for some sort of spell to create the zombies. That's a pretty cool plot thread for this setting. So why am I not enjoying it? I'm not entirely sure what it is, but I'm having trouble getting into this like I did last week. This is going to sound weird, but I actually think it's because of the visuals. I know I said I like the art style last week, and I still kinda like it, but the actual art that's being conveyed through the style is pretty bland. The colors aren't nearly as dynamic as they were last week (or in the OP) and there were a lot of static shots of characters talking with uninteresting backgrounds and not a lot of movement going on. I know that sort of thing is to be expected with a slower paced investigative show and that I said visuals don't matter as much as narrative to me, but none of the characters have strong personalities or charismatic voice performances to latch onto so I don't really have much more beyond the visuals to keep me engaged. Besides, Psycho-Pass still manages to look good when it's a slow paced investigative series with deep philosophical discussions, so there really is no excuse. I know this is a complete 180 from where I was last week, but I'm already not having fun anymore. And if I'm not having fun, then I'm not going to keep watching. Consider this dropped.

And that wraps up week 2 of the roundup! Ten shows remain, but what will happen next week? Will Kyo and Yuki make amends? Will Nanako confess her feelings to Eiji? Will Tanjiro become a demon slayer? Will Bocchi make another friend? Will Tsubasa recruit a full team? Will Veronica and Wolfran join forces? Will Kudo earn Hozuki's respect? Will Fumino understand algebra? Will Robby and Hatchi find an obscure Hizakuriger fan club? Will Dororo choose to hunt for her father's treasure? Will After Lost stop being such a slow motion train wreck? Will the internet forgive the drop in animation quality for One Punch Man after the studio change? Will Mix, a distant sequel to an old baseball anime about a new generation of players by Studio OLM, become the next Major 2nd? Will Isekai Quartet figure out what the hell a plot is? Will I get sick of waiting for Netflix and just pirate Carole and Tuesday because it looks so incredible? Will I ever shut up? Find out next week on...this.