Weekly Roundup Spring 2019 Week 5

We have reached the fifth week of the spring season. Nine shows remain, and let me tell you, I struggled to decide what show deserved to be cut this week. When it comes down to a coin flip, that's not a good sign for the quality of this week's offerings. At least Detective Pikachu turned out to be pretty good.

Sounds of Life

Leading off the roundup this week is That Jerk Who Keeps Talking Over the Music. In episode 5, after hearing the story of his grandfather's death, Hozuki tearfully apologizes to Kudo for the many many times she insulted him or questioned his commitment to the club. He doesn't answer her with anything more than a smile and a bag of tissues, but the message of forgiveness still rings clear. Before long, the fated day of the performance arrives, and thanks to some wise words from Hozuki, the boys swallow their stage fright and prepare to play. After shutting down some hecklers, Takezo leads the club in the piece. As Hozuki and Kudo play their solos with a practiced ease, the student body is stunned into silence, and the members of the club reflect on everything they have been through together.

Remember when I said this show could grow into something special if it kept up its momentum? It's not quite there yet, but it got damn close this week. That performance was utterly breathtaking, and I'm just playing Kudo's solo on repeat as I'm writing this right now. The lead up to the performance did a great job of increasing the tension, too, as the vice principal stacks the deck against the club by announcing that the club will disband if the student body isn't sufficiently impressed. It really makes the moment where the club loses the timing have more impact and their subsequent rally is all the more exciting as a result. Even if the rest of this show turns out to be utter garbage and I end up dropping it, this episode will stay with me forever. My only complaint about the episode is the flashbacks constantly interrupting the performance. While the actual scenes being shown were really good at underscoring just how low Kudo had sunk before the series began and how important this performance is to him, the way the dialogue just overpowers the music and makes it hard to hear the koto really hurts the impact of the scene, and I can easily imagine someone who isn't a soft-hearted crybaby like me thinking it's a bit too much. Besides, just imagine, wouldn't it have been so much better if the entire scene played out with no dialogue or flashbacks? Just the power of music and animation, telling a story of redemption without words? That would have pushed me over the edge and led me to call this a classic episode. As it is, it's still REALLY good.

Fairy Gone

Yeah, kinda.

Next up is All Style, No Substance. In episode 5, Veronica and Marlya work together to defeat Jonathan. Marlya asks Veronica to come back home with her, but she refuses, sayingg that the Ver she knew is long gone and that she is only focused on getting her revenge on Duke Ray Dawn, the man who betrayed their homeland during the great war which led to her parents' deaths. Meanwhile, Free defeats Patricia, who leaves the Black Fairy Tome behind when she flees, and he and Marlya  successfully complete their mission and return the Tome to headquarters. Later, the members of Dorothea have a belated welcome party for Marlya at the local tavern. 

The high I was feeling for this show is starting to fade away, even if this episode was better than last week's. And the worst part is that it isn't really its fault either. The animation is still pretty good, the action scenes are still fun to watch, and everything is just as over the top as I wanted it to be. I mean, you can't get more over the top than Jonathan, who is a mix of Deidara and Agent 47, with a dash of insane Harry Osborn from the 90s Spider-man cartoon for spice. I loved everything about him, and the fact that his fight against the girls took up most of the runtime is this episode's biggest strength. But the problem here is the story. It's ridiculous and cheesy, but it almost isn't dumb enough. It keeps trying to sell how nuanced and unique its characters and scenarios are, introducing a bunch of subplots and factions, but the characters are just not well defined at all. I mean, we've been at this for five episodes, and all I can tell you about our main characters is that Free is the experienced one while Marlya is the rookie. Ver and Wolfran are basically interchangeable villains, to the point where I can only tell them apart by looking at their chests. I'm not at the point where I hate this show yet, but it's giving me nothing to work with.

RobiHachi

Wait til you see her ankles.

Next up is All You Need is Mechs. In episode 5, as Yang and his goons are distracted by a marathon being held on a completely different planet, Robby and Hatchi arrive at the Hacccone checkpoint. But they soon learn that without travel passes, they cannot leave the Milky Way and travel to Isekandar, and that they would have to return to Earth if they want to get permits. Frustrated, the group lands on Haccone and explore the hot springs while they try to come up with a plan. While there, Hatchi overhears rumors of an underworld boss who could provide them the permits, but supposedly, none have returned from meeting him completely intact. As Robby chases various alien tourist girls, Hatchi gathers information and eventually the group ends up before the boss himself: a pink wombat who is apparently so adorable that you will always long to cuddle him for the rest of your life. With that misadventure behind them, the group flies off through the warp tunnel and continues their journey to Isekandar.

Remember when this was a mech show for two minutes? Yeah, me neither. I don't really know how I feel about this week's episode. A lot of the humor revolved around Robby trying to get lucky, which is my least favorite running gag in the series. And while I enjoyed seeing Hatchi accidentally stealing Robby's dates by virtue of being nearby and better looking, that was the only moment that I actually laughed out loud this week, which is a new low for this series. I'd blame the lack of Yang, but Robby and Hatchi's banter has been enough to enteratin me before. I'm hoping that this was just a momentary bump in the road in what has been one of my favorite shows of the season so far. Also, am I crazy, or is that totally the same wombat from Cute High Earth Defense Club Love?

Dororo

Master Splinter has seen better days.

In episode 17 of Teenage Puppet Demon Hunter, Hyakkimaru reunites with Jukai and tells him about Daigo's deal with the demons. When he is asked to replace his leg; Jukai turns Hyakkimaru down, arguing that he taught him how to fight so he can survive, not so that he could forfeit his humanity on a quest to retrieve a body he never even knew. Jukai destroys the last prosthetic leg he has, and the two of them are trapped in a cave in. As Hyakkimaru struggles to dig them out, Tahomaru hunts down a rat ghoul that has invaded Daigo's land. Upon returning home from this mission, Daigo tells him that the scouts have located Dororo and Itachi, and dispatches him to head there and kill Hyakkimaru. Finally, Hyakkimaru escapes the cave in, thanks Jukai for taking care of him as a child, and heads off to find Dororo.

This is what I come to Dororo for: super violent battle animation, beautifully melancholic background art, and morally complex characters. Jukai is way too much of a sad sack to realize that he's being unreasonable, and it fits his tragic character perfectly. This is a man who only wants to do the right thing, but he feels that every single thing he does only makes things worse. He wanted to serve his lord and uphold justice, but he is forced to crucify hundreds of people. He tried to make amends by caring for Hyakkimaru, but he is horrified to see the killing machine the boy has become. Of course he wants him to give up his crusade. He feels responsible for the deaths of all the humans that Hyakkimaru killed. It's not until he is acknowledged as a parental figure that he actually has a moment of happiness. It's a great arc and I loved it. 

It's also interesting that Tahomaru is falling into darkness and cruelty, burning someone's house down in order to kill the ghoul. It seems that after having made his peace with the idea of murdering his brother for the greater good, he decided to go full on anti hero and do whatever it takes to kill anyone who threatens his people. And if the implication that the events of this episode happened simultaneously with last week's episode, that means that we may be heading for a four way conflict between Hyakkimaru and Dororo, Itachi and his men, Shark Boy and Jiromaru, and Tahomaru and his men! That sounds freaking rad!

Senryu Girl

Casual Nanako is a cutie.

Up next we have The Best Ad for Spellcheck. In episode 5, Nanako drags Eiji to see a fortune teller named Tao and asks for a reading on their compatibility. She tells them that they are fundamentally incompatible, which Eiji flat out denies, and she realizes that she got an inaccurate reading because she misspelled their names. She originally offers to do another reading, but Nanako says that Eiji's reaction was enough. The next day, Tao gives them a free reading as an apology, and warns that Eiji will be struck by lightning. He laughs it off and the two spend the day at the roller rink. After a fun date, Nanako shocks him by taking off her outer layer to let some sweat out (she still has a T-shirt on underneath), and his surprise at seeing the size of her bust hits him like a lightning bolt.

I don't know anymore. This episode was fine, I guess? There was nothing inherently wrong with it, and the chance to throw some fuel on the fire for the Nanako-Eiji shippers (which should be anybody watching this show, just so we're clear) is always appreciated, but nothing really stands out either. Tao is more like a plot device than a character, as her entire existence revolves around making predictions to add something to this episode's story, but what was the point of this episode? Where was the conflict? Where was the development? Instead of feeling like a crucial piece of the puzzle that is the overarching story, as every individual episode of any given anime should, this feels supplementary at best. I'm worried that we may be hitting a wall that this kind of show tends to hit: where nothing is left to be discussed and episodes just sort of exist so as to drag out the story and make as much money as possible from viewers like us.

Fruits Basket

This show is too real.

Four shows left! Next up is Fruit Salad. In episode 5, the renovations are now complete, and Tohru's biological family are ready to take her back. Reluctantly, she returns to her family's house, leaving a note with her address behind if Yuki or Kyo ever want to visit. At the new house, Tohru's aunt and cousins reveal that they hired a private detective to investigate why she was living with a family of boys, worried that she was acting lewd and ruining the family name, when her grandfather responds by slapping them and telling them to back off. He then turns to Tohru and tells her that it's okay to make a selfish decision and go to where she belongs if she wants to. Tohru refuses to admit it at first because she doesn't want to sound ungrateful, but she then breaks down and admits she wants to go home to the Soma house, at which point Yuki and Kyo (who had been eavesdropping) swoop in and taker her home.

Well, that was resolved rather easily, wasn't it? And don't consider that a negative either, because, quite frankly, I'm thrilled that this didn't take any longer than it needed to. A lesser anime would have dragged this out for at least two episodes for MAXIMUM DRAMA (I can't figure out how to add the trademark symbol on Blogger, but it's on my notes in Google Docs). TMS perfectly paced this, though, doing just enough to explore the impact that this had on the characters and then moving on to the next story beat when it is time to do so. Oh, and Tohru saying she doesn't deserve to say she needs more? You know that shit hit me too close to home and made me cry. Do you know how many times I've said the exact same thing? Way too many times. The lesson that she is learning that it's okay to put your own needs first is a lesson that I have needed to learn the hard way several times. 

Also, learning about the Fruits Basket game from when Tohru was in kindergarten? Eh...At least we know where the title comes from, even if it's near impossible to explain in text. Basically, the Fruits Basket game is about pairing kids off by assigning them a fruit, and because she was bullied, Tohru was frequently labelled as a non-fruit and left alone while everybody else played together. Now that the Somas have accepted her, she has found her own fruits basket. Is that sappy and cliche? Yes. Is it effective? You bet your ass it is.

We Never Learn

In episode 5 of Domestic Classmate (that was terrible), the time has come for Ichinose Academy's mountain study camp, but Rizu is distracted. Fumino had pointed out that she had been staring at Nariyuki a lot lately, and now she is so distracted by how distracted she is that she has become a walking ball of nerves. After snapping at Nariyuki when he was simply checking up on her, she storms out of the building and gets lost in the mountains. When a thunderstorm starts pouring down on her, Nariyuki heads out to find her and bring her back to the lodge. During their trip back, she trips and their lips accidentally make contact. The next day, the two of them have been assigned to clean the baths as punishment for leaving the lodge without permission, but Rizu forgets to hang up the "closed for cleaning" sign, leaving Nariyuki in the uncomfortable position of having to sneak out of a bath filled with his naked female classmates. Thanks to some awkward distractions from Rizu, some competent distractions from Sekijo (who figured out the situation and understood that Nariyuki wasn't there to peep), and a bit of dumb luck, he manages to sneak out with nobody noticing that he is there. Rizu and Nariyuki rationalize that their kiss was accidental and didn't mean anything, so now they can be on speaking terms again without panicking every time they look at each other. Upon returning to school, Kirisu-sensei (the girls' first tutor) confronts Nariyuki for kissing one of his pupils.

This was a MUCH better episode than last week, even if it didn't give us a lot of the girls interacting with each other like I wanted. Instead, this week is focused on Rizu, as the study camp marks a turning point in her starting to acknowledge her feelings for Nariyuki. And as we all know, Rizu is best girl, so I'm not complaining that the show focuses more on her. All kidding aside, the interactions between Nariyuki and Rizu, while cliche in their hyperbolic levels of awkwardness, really do work thanks to the great performance from Rizu's voice actress, who puts in just the right levels of flustered and confused without overselling it. Nariyuki's voice actor is being a little too dramatic for my taste, but it leads to a few funny reads of certain lines, so I'm willing to roll with it either way. Other than that, there isn't much to say about this episode. It had one goal, to sell Rizu's growing feelings for Nariyuki, and it succeeded in that goal. The cliffhanger ending of Kirisu being aware of their kiss somehow is a little much (to the point where I'm getting Domestic Girlfriend flashbacks), but if an episode about the school trying to stop him from being their tutor is absolutely necessary, I suppose it's better that they do it now and get it over with.

Demon Slayer

Up next is I Can't Believe It's Not Goblin Slayer. In episode 5, the Final Selection Exam has come to a close, and out of twenty candidates, only four have survived the entire week. These four graduates are given their uniforms and special messenger crows, and are then given a chance to select an ore for their special swords. After choosing his ore, Tanjiro begins the long journey home, collapsing from exhaustion and untreated wounds in front of Nezuko at Sakonji's house. Fifteen years after that tearful reunion, his sword is delivered, as well as his first orders as an official Demon Slayer: head to the village in the northwest and find out why young girls are disappearing.

I'm not going to say that this episode was bad, because it wasn't, but it was below the very high standards that this show has set for us. The fact that my summary was so short is indicative of just how little of note actually happens this week. Everything felt oddly rushed and we barely got any time to get to know the other graduates, which is especially weird considering that the blonde one is heavily featured in the opening and all the marketing material, so we know he's going to be an important character. The little we did get to see of him and the others were great, as all three of them are oozing with personality, but it doesn't do nearly enough to satisfy my need for details. I'm still having a great time either way, there were some impressive emotional moments like when Sakonji embraces Tanjiro and Nezuko and how Tanjiro legitimately mourned the demons he killed, and the visuals never stop impressing, but I hope that when the actual mission starts in the next episode the story will slow down a little and really let us sink our teeth into things.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu

Me watching this week's episode.

Finally, we have A Migraine. In Episode 5, Aru works very hard to maintain her image as the perfect class vice president, but she is in fact a very ditzy and clumsy girl, to the point where Nako frequently calls her unfortunate. After a particularly airheaded mistake of wearing her old elementary school uniform she is supposed to wear, she tries to pass herself off as her little sister, but everyone not named Bocchi or Sotoka sees through it right away, and Nako bursts out laughing in front of everyone. Fortunately for her, the rest of the school reads Aru's mistake as an elaborate gag with the intention of making the typically stoic Nako laugh, and Aru's reputation is safe. Still, though, Aru is frustrated with Nako, and challenges her to a tennis match in order to get revenge. Nako realizes that Aru has skipped practice so often that her serve is sloppy and stands perfectly still as she misses every serve she attempts. As Aru vows to redouble her efforts and thanks Nako for the tough love, Nako just shrugs and says she wanted to win with as little effort as possible.

I can't take this show anymore. This was painful to watch. I get that exaggeration is a staple of humor, but  you cannot expect me to believe that Aru is dumb enough to A. wear the wrong uniform to school after having been going to middle school for months at a time and B. choose to keep the uniform on just because Bocchi complimented her. Putting on the proper uniform should be second nature at this point, and I just can't believe that anybody would be that stupid. Thank God for Nako though, she sees through the idiocy and calls Aru out every single time. But the fact that she is the only character I can stand in the entire show is a very bad sign.

And that wraps up this week's roundup. What will happen next week? Will the koto club have a boost in popularity? Will Wolfran contribute to the plot? Will Yang catch up to Robby and Hatchi? Will Hyakkimaru reach Dororo in time? Will Eiji make any male friends? Will that random German girl show up at Tohru's cultural festival? Will Nariyuki lose his tutoring position? Will Tanjio meet up with any other Demon Slayers during his mission? Find out next week on this random collection of ramblings disguised as legitimate criticism!

Weekly Roundup Spring 2019 Week 4

EDIT: I DID NOT FINISH THIS ON TIME, AND I AM VERY SORRY ABOUT THAT. I TRIED TO WRITE THIS ALL IN ONE GO THANKS TO PERSONAL PROBLEMS LEAVING ME BEHIND SCHEDULE AND I PASSED OUT HALFWAY THROUGH. AGAIN, I AM VERY SORRY, AND I THANK YOU FOR READING THIS EITHER WAY.

It's crazy how quickly this season is going by. It feels like it was only a week ago that the spring season started and we're already a third of the way through. We've got ten shows to cover and I'm very tired after watching them all in a row, so let's get right into it so I can get some sleep.

Dororo

Even when being held hostage, Dororo just doesn't care.

First up we have Anime Jaws. In episode 16, Itachi kidnaps Dororo and plans to use her to complete the treasure map and live a carefree life after having deserted the army of the samurai with his band of brigands. The band arrives at a village at the end of the cape, and finds themselves unable to cross, as the entire village, including all its boats, have been destroyed by bandits. A one armed boy (who is never named) who survived the bandits' raid offers to ferry them across on his boats, which are towed by two giant sharks named Jiromaru and Saburomaru. Dororo, being the master of pattern recognition that she is, realizes that this is a trap, but Itachi forces her onto the boat anyway, and half of his men are killed, while the other half are left on the boat without any oars and guarded by Saburomaru. After the boy leaves on Jiromaru to do...something..., Dororo dives off the boat and lures Saburomaru into an ambush by Itachi and his men. The group uses the seats on the boat as makeshift oars and tows the shark onto the island where the treasure is buried. After Itachi finds the map on Dororo's back, he ties her to a tree and leaves her behind as he heads off to unearth the treasure, while the boy swears revenge and Jiromaru's eyes change to reveal its true demonic nature. Meanwhile, Hyakkimaru is searching for Dororo, but he isn't making much progress on one leg, and a passing priest recommends that he speaks to Jukai, who happens to be in the area.

Holy shit, Hyakkimaru was barely in this episode. That's awesome! I've been waiting for a chance to see Dororo do something more to contribute to the plot, and seeing an entire episode dedicated to her and her personal nemesis Itachi work together is a good way to do that. Especially since they, and let's be reasonable about this, KILLED A GODDAMN SHARK!! That's freaking hardcore! I haven't been this excited by a show of badassery in anime since Sugimoto punched a bear in the face! It's also really nice to see that Dororo has grown from her travels with Hyakkimaru, being more confident and resourceful after having been so close to so many demon battles that a giant shark barely even fazes her. I'm not sure how I feel about being so close to the treasure already, since there are still 8 more episodes left in the series, but I trust this show to be good all the way to the end at this point.

Sounds of Life

Up next is Why Don't You Just Use a Metronome, You Idiots? In episode 4, thanks to their dedicated practice, Kudo and the others have mastered their individual parts for the upcoming performance. However, when it comes time for the group to practice together, things start to fall apart very quickly. The group has trouble playing in sync with each other, constantly confusing the tempo and failing to blend their sounds. Hozuki gets overwhelmed by her failure to teach such an abstract concept until Takezo breaks up the tension by suggesting a team bonding trip to a monja restaurant. As the boys reassure her that they will still accept her even if she doesn't know everything, the group brainstorm about ways to keep time in a piece with no percussion and what the meaning of the piece may be. The group continues to make incremental progress even as the rest of the school thinks that it's just a bunch of delinquents using Takezo as their errand boy, and Kota tells Hozuki about Kudo's past.

This show may be the new Price of Smiles, starting off a bit iffy and then slowly improving with each episode to become something special. It may be my own nostalgic bias talking, but the struggle of a group of talented musicians learning how to play together is a compelling one for me, and hearing a trio of characters who had originally joined the club just to impress a cute girl inject their own personal meaning and experiences in a piece of classical music hit me hard. That calls back to my days in high school band in a way that not even Sound Euphonium could. I used to get into a lot of fights when I was a kid, and moving to a brand new high school where I didn't know anybody gave me a chance to reevaluate the kind of person I wanted to be. Band and drama gave me a chance to channel my anger and depression into something creative and was a catalyst for making some lifelong friends. I know it's not fair to use personal experience to review an episode, but I maintain that if a piece of art manages to evoke such memories in me that it's a good reflection on the art's quality. Besides, it's my blog, so shut up.

RobiHachi

Next up is Deadliest Catch. In episode 4, as the gang makes their way to Haccone Warp Station, they become concerned when they notice a group of ships tailing them. The ships don't belong to Yang, however, and they decide to make a pit stop at the water planet of Odwarla while they wait for their tail to pass them by. After eating lunch at a local restaurant, Hatchi realizes that the ships are tracking his spending, and thus claims to be broke and works off the debt at the restaurant instead. While there, he learns about a rare fish that fetches a handsome price on the market, and he and Robby team up with a merman named Gyo to catch the fish and pay for Gyo's wedding. Unfortunately, Robby didn't consider the effect that water pressure would have on Hizakuriger, and they barely escape with their lives. But luckily, the rare oarfish ends up trapped in Hizakuriger's cockpit anyway, and the profits they earn pay for both Hizakuriger's repairs and Gyo's wedding, so everything worked out okay in the end.

Okay, so you read the main plot of this episode and it was pretty okay, but none of that matters because we got backstory for Yang's goons! And it's as hysterical as I hoped. Seeing Yang win Aro's loyalty with just a comb and a meal was hilarious enough, but then seeing Aro try to win over Gura with the exact same lines (ignoring her gender) only for it to fall flat because he lacks Yang's sheer charisma and she was too busy listening to her headphones was so damn funny I had to pause the episode for at least two whole minutes from laughing so hard. Even better, though, we get hints that Yang may be romantically interested in Robby and that that is the actual reason he is pursuing him to the ends of the universe. If so, that is an interesting reveal, and not just for the comedic subversion of expectations. Anime doesn't have a lot of out and out queer representation, and the examples it does have tend to be a bit problematic and rape-y. And still, unless the show is explicitly a queer romance, they tend to be shoved in the background as minor comedic characters who exist purely to make the main characters uncomfortable with their flamboyant nature (think Leeron from Gurren Lagann) or as sexual predators designed to provide a tragic backstory (think Donovan from Berserk). But Yang isn't either of those. He's an antagonist, sure, and being a loan shark means he probably isn't the friendliest of characters or a great role model, and he is a bit of a joke with how campy he is, but the fact that he may be attracted to another man and that that is just an incidental part of his character and the core of it is still something else. It's barely commented on, and just serves as another facet of his colorful personality. It might have been better if Yang were a purely heroic character who happened to be gay, but it's still interesting representation that doesn't demonize or trivialize his sexuality. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it, who knows? The point is, the hints are there and I found that interesting.

Fairy Gone

She's the best part of this show because her name is Patricia.

In episode 4 of Wait, That's It?, Bitter Sweet's power is to reflect any damage dealt to her back on her opponent, and she has dealt a severe amount of damage to Marlya. Free starts to hold back in the fighting out of fear of getting himself or Marlya killed, but Marlya steps up and drives her off with  her fairy's overwhelming power, retrieving the Black Fairy Tome in the process. The effort involved knocks her out for over a day, though, and she is unable to summon her fairy afterward. Suspecting a connection to Ver, Marlya asks Damien and Cain where they got their copy of the Tome, but they deny any connection to her. Later, as they are waiting for a train back to headquarters, the Tome is stolen by assassins from Gui Carlin, who lure the duo into an underground network of passages, where they are separated and attacked. As she is unable to summon her fairy, Marlya is overwhelmed by the assassin Jonathan, until Ver barges in and challenges him.

I know this is going to sound negative when I say it, so I'm going to preface my thoughts with the conclusion that I still liked this episode. It had fun action scenes and I enjoyed the chance to see more of Marlya and Veronica as children. But everything just felt kinda off. The same energy that was in the previous three episodes of turning everything up to 11 and going as nuts as possible wasn't really here this week. The payoff for the big cliffhanger of Marlya being injured felt anticlimactic as she still defeated Bitter Sweet fairly easily, and the down time between that scene and the fight against the assassins felt more like pointless fluff than anything else. We already knew that the scholars were connected to Veronica, so what purpose did a scene about them lying to Marlya serve? Once the action gets going everything gets really good, with the claustrophobic underground tunnels and the atmospheric ruined church really building up the tension as the assassins Patricia and Jonathan attack our heroes, but it takes too long to get there and ends on another cliffhanger. Next week had better be a full episode of fighting these assassins because they are awesome personalities and it would be a waste to throw them away so soon.

Fruits Basket

I'll be honest...I wasn't expecting that.

Next up is Awkward Flirting: The Animation. In episode 4, the shy girl is Kagura Soma, and she has been in love with Kyo since they were young children. The sheer passion she feels for her beloved occasionally manifests into violent impulses as she attacks Kyo for leaving the clan without warning for several months. Interestingly, members of the Soma clan don't transform when opposite gendered members of their family hug them. Kagura continues to shower affection upon Kyo, cooking him (and coincidentally everyone else) dinner, but the attention makes him uncomfortable, and when their antics cause the meal to be ruined, she sadly leaves the house. Tohru goes after her and helps her buy groceries to salvage dinner, and the two of them connect after she assures her that she has no romantic interest in Kyo. After the two girls cook dinner and Kagura spends the night, an accidental collision with the paper boy reveals her animal spirit to be the boar. Later, Tohru receives a phone call from her grandfather, and what she hears shocks her to her core.

So, first of all, I was wrong about Kagura's form. I guessed that she was going to be a sheep, but it turns out she's a boar. More importantly, this episode was really good. Kagura is an amazing character, able to make me laugh and cry at the drop of a hat (no I didn't literally cry, but I came close) and she is a great embodiment of the idea of loving someone as a person without ignoring their flaws. I did find it surprising that Tohru said she feels no romantic feelings for Kyo, but I'm inclined to take her at her word. Her primary concern for the past few episodes has been helping Kyo and Yuki get out of their shells and live harmoniously as a family, and I think she just sees them as close friends. 

On top of all the great character development and hilarious antics (seeing Kyo get the stuffing kicked out of him never gets old), we had some interesting new plot developments. I think that the phone call Tohru got from her grandfather was news that the renovations are done and she has to move back in with him and leave the Somas, but I've heard at least one person theorize that the grandfather is actually dead, leaving her well and truly homeless, so who knows? Additionally, what the hell is the deal with Kyo's "true form"? Kagura let those words slip and all the guys freaked out. Does this have something to do with Kyo's banishment from the clan? Is Kyo some kind of demonic beast? That's the theory I'm currently going with.

Senryu Girl

This is my new favorite reaction image.

Up next we have Silence of the Schoolgirls. In episode 4, Eiji cannot shake the feeling that someone is watching him, and it turns tout that he is right. A girl named Kino was attempting to return his dropped student handbook to him, but was unable to approach him due to her own crippling anxiety and his intimidating appearance. Kino is a lot like Nanako, almost completely nonverbal and only able to express herself through her sketch pad, and the two become fast friends. The two invite Kino to the Literature Club, and they spend the day drawing instead of actually doing anything literary.

At first, I was nervous that having another character so similar to Nanako would be a bad decision, but Kino is a good character that adds to the dynamic between our two leads, as their impromptu drawing competition gives them a great flirting opportunity that Nanako takes advantage of in the cutest way possible. Not to mention that she seems to be a lot more outgoing than Nanako, and the actual drawings lend themselves to some good comedic moments that had me laughing every time. I get the feeling that as long as she is used sparingly, she'd be a great addition to the cast. Besides, even if Kino turns out to be a bad fit for this show in the long run, it'd be worth it just for the scene of her and Nanako having an entirely silent conversation through manga art and poetry. If that doesn't endear you to these characters, then I don't know what will.

We Never Learn

Ohhh, deaaarrr....

Four shows left, so let's get right into Sekijo: Harems Die Twice. In episode 4, Fumino is devastated when she realizes that she has gained weight, and she soon determines that it's all the snacks that she shares with others during their study sessions that are to blame. But when she tries to cut the snacks out entirely, her hunger distracts her from her studying, forcing Nariyuki to confront the matter and convince her to just snack in moderation. Then, Rizu's self-proclaimed academic rival Sekijo is furious that she would decide to pursue a degree in one of her weaker subjects, and is convinced that she is only changing majors due to a romantic interest in Nariyuki. Sekijo tries to prove her theory by provoking Rizu through flirting with him, but when Rizu ignores her completely, she backs off and accepts her commitment to her passion. Later, the school sports day has arrived, but Takemoto is off her game because she forgot to wear a bra and doesn't want anyone ot notice.

I'm not sure if I like the whole "let's give each girl her own stand alone story" structure this episode adopts, for three reasons. First, it leaves the episode feeling fractured and confused, with events just sort of happening without any real transition between them or narrative throughline to make them feel relevant to the overarching story. Which would be fine if this were an anthology series like Kaguya-sama or Takagi-san, but it hasn't been presented as one. Second, if each girl needs her own story for the episode, that means that each individual story has less time to develop and engage the viewer. I couldn't care less about Fumino's weight problem or Takemoto forgetting to wear a bra because they just feel like jokes that don't matter, and neither of them were funny enough to justify being a stand alone gag (though Takemoto's voice actress does a really good job selling flustered and embarrassed). Rizu's story is much better, though, and the hint that she actually was a bit bothered by Sekijo's questioning Nariyuki on his philosophy on romance but was more focused on keeping it together so as not to undermine her own commitment to the humanities was a great character moment. 

Finally, while the whole structure is a good way to keep the characters in check and balance screen time, it ignores the fundamental appeal of harem anime in the first place. I mean, yes, obviously the implications that you can project yourself onto the protagonist and imagine all these sexy anime girls tripping over themselves to spend time with you is the main appeal of these shows, but the defining aspect that makes the good harem anime stand out in the crowd is getting to see all the different girls' personalities bounce off each other. A well-written harem is a group of characters second and a collection of living body pillow ads second, and seeing these characters interact provides even more chances for comedy, drama, and character growth. I thought this show understood this, but this episode has so few scenes of the study group hanging out together in favor of one on one scenes between Nariyuki and an individual girl. It makes the whole thing feel disjointed, like three separate anime got bought out by a western licenser and slammed together into its own Frankenstein's monster of a show, a la Beast King Golion and Armored Fleet Dairugger being turned into Voltron. This was a surprising miss from a show that had been firing on all cylinders up until this point, and I hope that We Never Learn can bounce back soon, because these characters are too good for this kind of mediocre storytelling.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu

In episode 4 of Boruto: Bocchi Next Generations, even though two months have passed and her friendship with Nako and Aru has made socializing easier for her, Bocchi's anxiety and aversion to small talk hasn't gone away. If anything, it's only gotten worse, if the way that she tries to avoid her neighbor and the crossing guard on her way to school is anything to go by. But upon being spotted while trying to blend in with a crowd of pedestrians in order to avoid the crossing guard, Bocchi is cornered by the beautiful foreign exchange student Sotoka (though with a name like that, I'm not sure where she's supposed to be from if not Japan) who excitedly asks if she is a ninja. When she tells the truth and says she isn't one, Bocchi is surprised to see her fall into a state of depression. Hoping to cheer her up, she throws a paper shuriken with a friendship letter at her, but Sotoka misunderstands the situation and takes it as a sign that she really is a ninja. With seemingly no other choice if she wants to befriend her, Bocchi agrees to act as Sotoka's sensei, training her in the art of ninjutsu.

What the hell did I just watch? 

No, seriously, this whole ninja thing is so out of left field compared to the down to earth slice of life stories we've had so far that I'm genuinely confused. The whole thing feels so out of place that none of the jokes about Sotoka can even make me smile, and the fact that the ninja running class didn't have the girls Naruto running is baffling. I'm glad that Nako and Aru still have their reliable quips about the situation's absurdity; seeing as the bulk of this episode traded the relatable comedy in exchange for outlandish characterization and how Bocchi enables it by being such a doormat, their believable reactions of confusion and exasperation are the only things that make this episode even slightly tolerable. I was already kinda on the fence with Bocchi before, with every positive feeling I have being balanced out by a negative one, but with Sotoka being so out of place with the tone of the show, I don't know if this will survive much longer.

Demon Slayer

Look at how damn pretty this is!

For our penultimate anime of the week we have Pretty Colors and also occasionally Demon Slaying. In episode 4, with his training complete, Tanjiro heads off to participate in the Demon Slayer Corps Final Selection Exam. At a special mountain covered in wisteria flowers year round, several live demons are sealed away by the flowers' magical properties. In order to pass the exam, the candidates must survive in this open air prison for demons for a total of seven days. Thanks to his training, Tanjiro makes short work of the smaller and weaker demons, but he then stumbles across a demon that was captured by Sakonji 47 years ago and had been taking its revenge by eating his disciples during each Final Selection Exam that happened since, including Sabito and Mokomo. Even though it originally appears that Tanjiro would share in his predecessors' fate, the reminder that he has a sister counting on him helps him keep his focus and defeat the fifty year old monstrosity.

It's funny, but even though this episode is the most action packed yet, I found myself more interested in the aesthetic details than anything else. I mentioned it back during my coverage of episode 1, but it bears repeating: Demon Slayer has some of the best color design I have ever seen in modern anime, contrasting bold colors in the foreground with muted backgrounds to create some striking effects. While this is most obviously seen with the character designs and the water effects trailing off Tanjiro's swords, it's the haunting beauty of the wisteria flowers and the red and white palette used to depict Sabito and Mokomo's deaths that had really had my jaw drop. I feel like, more than anything else, the use of color is what sets Demon Slayer apart.

Also, and I can't believe I've never mentioned this before, the soundtrack is awesome. It has that typical orchestral feel when things get grand and climactic and a clever blend of traditional string instruments and choral chanting when things get tense, and the dynamic way it shifts from one track to another in this episode in particular was really well done. I know that I usually talk about story beats and character development in the roundup, but this was more a straightforward demonstration of how far Tanjiro has come than anything else, so a discussion about visual and sound design has more substance into why the episode is great.

Cinderella Nine

But alas, all good things must come to an end, and since I forgot to continue my gag of using the names of other baseball anime as my fake title last week, allow me to list all the baseball anime I would have used had this show been good enough to make it to the end: Ace of the Diamond, The Big Windup, Mix, Touch, Major, Major 2nd, Little Busters, Star of the Giants, Cross Game, Taisho Baseball Girls, and Gurazeni. Anyway in episode 4 of I'd Rather Watch Gurazeni than This, Tsubasa tells the team about the little league game she played against Shinonome years ago. Though her team was originally very far behind, unable to score a single run, Tsubasa's optimism and support was infectious among the team, and they rallied for a comeback victory over Shinonome's fractured and hyper competitive team. Afterward, however, Tsubasa quit baseball, accepting that there was no future for her in a male-dominated sport. But with Tomochi's prodding, she changes her mind and decides to form her own girls' baseball team. Back in the present, the team surprises Shinonome by cheering her on at her club team tryouts, and though she did not make the cut, she appreciates the gesture and decides to join their team in order to keep active and polish her skills.

The worst part about this show is that it's actually getting better. I know that makes no sense, so allow me to explain. If Cinderella Nine was just a consistently terrible show, I could drop it with no regrets. But since it's actually trying to improve its story over time, adding backstory and character development, I still partially feel like I should keep watching in case it actually gets good. Because, and let me be clear about this, this show is still not good. It's definitely trying its best, but everything about this show is, say it with me, bland. It's boring to look at, the baseball games are frequently cut away from and unengaging, and Tsubasa is the only character who consistently stays interesting and unique. Nothing filled me with more dread this week than seeing Shinonome embrace her failure and, in her own way, sing the praises of friendship and cooperation at the end of the episode. now instead of 7 interchangeable supporting characters we have 8! Hooray! Yeah, consider this dropped. At least Mix is still good...

And that is going to wrap up this week's roundup! What will happen next week? Will Hyakkimaru find Dororo? Will the koto club master their song in time for the performance? Will the mysterious pursuers catch up to Hatchi? Will Veronica defeat Jonathan? Will Tohru be forced to move out of the Soma household? Will Nanako write Eiji an epic love poem? Will the headmaster give Nariyuki another insane ultimatum to keep his scholarship? Will Bocchi teach Sotoka how to use the Rasengan? Will Nezuko wake up from her slumber? Find out the answer to all this or none of it, next week!

I'm Starting to Burn Out (An Update Post)

I don't have an outline for this post, and I don't have a greater point I want to make. I don't have an introductory paragraph where I ramble about some personal memory or broad idea about anime fandom or storytelling in general. I don't have some weak joke or controversial statement or lame attempt at being coy about what I'm talking about. All I have is an apology. I promised weekly essays about anime on a broader scale as well as the weekly roundup, and I simply haven't been delivering that.

For the last few months I've been missing deadlines and failing to make ideas coalesce into something workable. Even though I know that not a lot of people read this stuff, I still want to make this the best possible blog/column/whatever you want to call it that I can, and I don't think I've been living up to it. The fact of the matter is that I'm rather limited in what I can do. When I started working on this blog, I didn't even know how to take screenshots. I relied entirely on Google image searches and screenshots posted on Reddit, which forced a lot of awkward compromises in my choice of image that I'm not proud of. I don't have any knowledge of animation, music composition, direction, cinematography, or any of the other technical disciplines in anime production, leaving me wholly unequipped for any sort of serious analysis. All I do have is a small amount of experience in acting and writing and a limited amount of experience in watching anime in general. And, for better or worse, I've leaned into that quite a bit. I'm not saying that all my posts suck, because I don't think they do, but I know that I'm not a very knowledgeable critic, frequently lapsing into describing how I feel rather than what's actually there because I have little else. I know I can be better, but I don't know how to be better.

It doesn't help that I'm getting into analysis, commentary, and discussion very late in the game. I never intended to become popular or famous when I started this, and I certainly didn't hold any delusions about making a living off of writing about anime. I mean, people don't really read anymore, and as much as I would love to, I don't have the technical knowledge, capital, or stage presence to make a podcast or a YouTube channel, nor do I have the connections to people who do. I started this blog because I needed a creative outlet to help me get out of a depressive rut, and I was getting back into anime in a big way and really wanted to talk about it. It became the only thing that kept me sane as I went through a breakup with someone I thought I was going to marry, changing careers, and being forced by circumstances to move back home and live in my parents' basement. I felt like a prisoner in my own house, trapped without a car in a country where cars are practically mandatory for adult life, forced to rely on rides from my younger siblings to and from work and stuck at home with no human interaction for several hours at a time. Anime became my only escape, and the blog kept me feeling productive while still getting to watch cartoons all day.

But like I said before, a lot of very talented people have been talking about anime in a public forum for several years before I even started this. And while the works of such people have no doubt inspired me, it leaves me in a bit of a dilemma. What else is there to say? So many of my favorite anime I have absolutely refused to touch because I don't just want to say what everyone else is saying about them. Obviously Death Note, Kuroko's Basketball, Fullmetal Alchemist, Yu Yu Hakusho, A Place Further than the Universe, Gurren Lagann, My Hero Academia, Psycho-Pass, Mob Psycho 100, and the rest are all great shows that deserve to get the same level of attention that I've given to One Piece and Code Geass, but it seems like they've all been picked apart by personalities more talented and insightful than me. I've never purposefully plagiarized anyone since that goes against the whole reason I started this, but there are only so many ways to interpret a work. You can't talk about Death Note without talking about the relationship between justice and the law. You can't talk about Kuroko without talking about the nature of talent and teamwork. You can't talk about Fullmetal Alchemist without talking about Equivalent Exchange. Do you see the problem here?

I think this is why most anime personalities focus on currently airing seasonal anime. The shows are fresh in everyone's mind and completely untouched, creating opportunities to leave a unique stamp on the conversation and get all the views. This was one of the reasons I decided to start the roundup, after all, though the main reason was because I thought it would be fun and I was sad that TeamFourStar had cancelled AnimeFMK. And while I love working on the roundup, it leaves me incredibly overwhelmed. Trying to put my emotional reactions to the episodes into words and then explain why I feel the way I do is difficult enough to do once, but to do that 10+ times on a weekly basis constantly leaves me scrambling to finish in time for Sunday. And honestly, that's just plain exhausting. It's gotten to the point where I left working on this week's roundup until the last minute, forcing me to watch 7 episodes all at once today, leaving me with a bit of a migraine.

Let me be clear: I have no plans on stopping this blog anytime soon. The fact of the matter is that I'm still having fun whenever I actually work on this, and I have quite a few ideas that I still want to work on. I just need to get this off my chest and announce a slight change in my format. The weekly roundup is going to be my primary focus, as that is easier for me to do consistently as I edge my way to being a more independent and socially competent adult. The bigger essays aren't going away, but instead of trying to churn out general discussions week after week (especially since I've gone through most of my favorite topics already), I'm going to take my time with a few of them. In addition, I feel like I need to get out of only watching current anime, so I've started chipping away at my backlog and I plan to pepper in some general reactions and "reviews" to these older shows every now and then to break up the roundups.

And just to make up for this wall of emotional text with no pictures, I'm going to announce my plans for those future sub-series. For general discussion, I plan on tackling Black Clover to discuss how Asta has grown from just a Naruto clone to his own unique character. As for my reactions to older shows, I started watching Blood Blockade Battlefront's dub, and will probably have a first impressions post for it in only a week or so. So, you know, look forward to that.

Weekly Roundup Spring 2019 Week 3

We are at episode 3 of the spring 2019 roundup, and 11 shows remain in the arena. As we journey into the horrific nightmare hellscape that is seasonal anime, let us all take a moment to reflect and remember that at least we aren't covering "Why the Hell are You Here, Teacher?".

Seriously, don't watch this. It's trash.

RobiHachi

I swear, this is the stupidest dialogue I have ever seen and I love it.

Leading us off we have Tengen Toppa Hizakuriger. In episode 3, Robby and Hatchi's journey to Isekandar is interrupted yet again, as their ship is forced to land by the chief of Pluto's tourism bureau. He had been taken advantage of by a shady advertising agency who had tricked him into using failed mascot characters from Earth to promote Pluto's quest to once again be recognized as a planet, and was hoping to convince the heroes who save Martian tourism to help him as well. Robby is convinced thanks to the gigantic breasts of the chief's daughter, and they launch a campaign to make Pluto's heart shaped iceberg a romantic getaway. But when the representatives of the advertising agency unveil their latest effort to push the failed mascot on them. Robby and Hatchi have to drive them off with Hizakuriger, and then leave to continue to their journey soon afterward (forgetting to accept their consulting fee). Meanwhile, Yang learns on Mars that Robby plans to head to Isekandar and decides to head straight there to ambush him, and a mysterious group starts tracking Hatchi's location.

I liked this episode quite a bit, but it felt a bit stale since it was so similar to last week's episode. Though considering that Robby and Hatchi immediately pointed out that it was just the same as last week, I'm thinking that that feeling was intentional and part of the joke. Plus it helps that the actual jokes are still making me laugh every single time without fail. Hearing the Plutonians get all defensive when reminded that Pluto isn't a planet reminded me about the absolutely absurd negative reactions when it was reclassified in real life, and that's absolutely hysterical. The mech fight in the ending minutes was so anticlimactic that I actually snorted soda out of my nose. And of course, everything Yang and his henchmen do are comedic gold. Next week we're leaving Earth's solar system, and I cannot wait to see some truly alien creatures!

Sounds of Life

This is a show about traditional Japanese string instruments.

Next up is Hibike! Koto. In episode 3, thanks to Hozuki's manipulations, three of Kudo's former delinquent friends (Mittsu, Sane, and Kota) decide to join the koto club as "warm bodies" who don't need to play, so that the club has enough members to not be disbanded. Upon hearing this, however, the vice principal threatens to disband the club if the delinquents aren't actually able to play anything. Hozuki convinces him to give them a month to prepare a performance in front of the school, and picks an ambitious and difficult piece for the club to show off in front of the entire school and justify their existence. As Kudo and the newcomers struggle to learn the basics of playing the koto under her strict tutelage, she becomes frustrated and blames them for the whole situation. The next day, she apologizes to Takezo for chasing away their new members, but he surprises her by saying he has faith that they won't quit, and sure enough, Kudo gives the others homemade practice kotos so they can practice their parts away from the club room and "make her speechless."

I was kinda down on this show at first, but it's really starting to win me over. The three new boys  that just joined the club are the exact kind of lovable idiots that this group needed to fill out the club and add a bit of color to the group dynamic, even if they are a bit interchangeable at this point, and our main trio is already getting some much needed development as well. Hozuki has some hints at backstory, where her prodigious nature and serious demeanor left her alone and friendless as she shot ahead of her parents' koto school and was resented for it. Seeing that the boys were still willing to stick it out and play with her probably shook her to her core, and it may lead to her opening up in the future. Kudo continues to be the best character in the show, having plenty of softer moments underneath his hot-blooded nature and a hell of a flashback of him defending Sane and the others from a gang that jumped them. Takezo still is the weak link overall, even though he's been presented as the protagonist so far, but he showed a bit of backbone in last week's episode, so it's not like he's a one-dimensional wimp either. Hell, even the animation is getting a bit tighter than last week, and a few of the shots were pretty enough to make me think I was watching a show from a better studio than the relatively new Platinum Vision.

Fairy Gone

I love how they act like this is a new discovery when we've seen fairy possession since episode 1.

In episode 3 of I Cannot Believe this is Real, Dorothea receives word that the famed scholar Cain Distarol has managed to get his hands on a page of the Black Fairy Tome, and Free and Marlya  are sent to retrieve it. However, things are complicated when they find the mafia affiliated businesswoman Bitter Sweet cosying up to Cain to get the page for herself. As the three factions engage in verbal warfare, each trying to get information about the Tome, the page is stolen by a thief from a rival mafia family named Axel, and Bitter and Dorothea take off in pursuit, as Veronica and her colleague Damien look on. After deciding the job isn't worth his life, Axel throws the page on the ground between Free and Bitter and retreats. Bitter seems to take the upper hand, but Marlya intervenes. Frustrated, Bitter summons her Fairy and attacks Marlya, leaving her somehow stunned. Meanwhile, Axel is cornered by Wolfran's employer, Colonel Bevee Liscar.

Much like how last week's episode was an extended fight scene designed to be as ridiculously over the top as possible, this week we have an extended chase scene with the same level of bombastic nonsense throughout, and I loved every second of it! And even though nearly all of the runtime is devoted to mostly mindless action (very pretty and fun action, but mindless nonetheless), we get a few juicy worldbuilding details as well. Learning that there are at least two rival crime families in the fairy mafia is a very believable detail that adds more factions to the conflict (so far we have Dorothea, Veronica and Damien, Wolfran and Colonel Liscar, Bitter Sweet and the Gui Carlin family, and Axel and the Arcame family so far) and I have a weakness for stories with way too many different factions opposing each other. I blame A Song of Ice and Fire. There's also the revelation that Wolfran's wife and child were killed during the war and that Free's country lost the great war in the backstory, meaning that he is now working for the government that invaded his home and killed his comrades. Does this mean that Free and Wolfran's conflict is a more ideological one than we first thought? That would provide a nice contrast to Marlya and Ver's more personal conflict. Finally, we learned that the Black Fairy Tome is only a piece of a larger Fairy Tome, though that doesn't really mean much in the grand scheme of things. I have no idea what happened to Marlya at the end of the episode, but Free seems pretty worried, so I'm guessing nothing good, and I'm sure we find out next week. I'm sure it will be equally ridiculous and awesome.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu

Up next is My Little Bocchi: Friendship is Magic. In episode 3, Bocchi wants to invite Honshou to walk home with her and Nako, but she struggles to approach her when Honshou is constantly talking to someone else. After a bit of prodding from Nako, though, she manages to get it done, and the three friends start a daily routing of walking home together. Bocchi decides to take the next step in her friendship and invite the others to her house, where she is so anxious to get everything right that she writes a script and panics every time something even slightly unexpected or inconvenient happens. Such as when Honshou has to cancel at the last minute for tennis practice or when Nako tries to surprise her by bringing snacks when she already had prepared snacks.  All the stress and excitement leads Bocchi to overwork herself and she ends up missing school the next day due to illness. Terrified of her friends forgetting about her, she bombards them with text messages, but she is pleasantly surprised to see them visit her school to drop off her homework and wish her well.

This is the best episode so far, with some gags that made me pause because I was laughing so hard I would miss the next line of dialogue. Bocchi's anxiety of ruining what she already has by saying or doing something to offend or bore her friends is so real that it occasionally physically hurts to watch, but that's also what makes it so easy to laugh along with. Like, I won't say that I ever wrote a script for when my friends visited, but I have had moments of panic when I thought they weren't having a good time and would end up tripping over myself to offer them snacks or a drink or something. It's also nice to see Nako and Honshou put an effort into getting to know each other just so that Bocchi doesn't have to worry about her friends not having a good time together. And speaking of Nako, what the hell is up with her teacher being afraid of her? She isn't intimidating, she's adorable! Not to mention that she treats the teacher with more respect than anyone else in the class. Do all blonde kids in Japan automatically get labelled as delinquents or something? Not that it doesn't lead to some funny moments, because it does, but I just don't get it.

Demon Slayer

Next up is Training Montage: The Animation. In episode 3, Nezuko has been unconscious for the entirety of Tanjiro's training, and though the doctor says there is nothing wrong with her, he cannot help but worry. But Sakonji gives him no time to fret over her, as every minute of every day is devoted to a harsh training regimen of sword drills, avoiding booby traps to train agility, and mastering special breathing techniques that are similar to but legally distinct from Hamon from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. After a year passes, Sakonji tells Tanjiro that he has nothing left to teach him, and gives him one final test: to cut a boulder in half. No matter how hard Tanjiro tries, however, he cannot manage to even make a scratch. When it seems like he may give in to despair, though, he is attacked by a boy named Sabito. Sabito challenges him every day to measure his progress, and his adopted sister Mokomo gives him more advice about mastering the breathing techniques. Six more months pass, and when he finally defeats Sabito, the two children disappear and Tanjiro stares in awe, as the boulder has been split in half.

So, wait, were they ghosts? That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

This was a decent episode, but it kinda feels like the weakest episode of the bunch. Like, nothing was really wrong with it, and it was easily more engaging than some entire action series, but compared to the last two episodes, I am a bit disappointed. I get that it's just a training episode, but there didn't really seem to be the same amount of character development that a typical training arc would have. It feels like most of the runtime was just jogging in place, and it didn't come alive until Sabito and Mokomo showed up after the halfway point. I know that, objectively speaking, this episode was great, better than most of the episodes that aired this year so far, but Demon Slayer has already spoiled me, and I expect more from this show.

Fruits Basket

Insert Cotton Eyed Joe joke here.

We're at the halfway point, and so far we haven't had any bad episodes. Let's keep that good feeling going with Zodiac Furry. In episode 3, the cultural festival is approaching and the class plans to open a rice ball stand. When Kyo's outlandish suggestion for hosting a battle royale with rice balls as the prize is rejected by the class but Yuki's reasonable suggestion of mystery flavors is instantly approved, he gets jealous and storms out of the classroom. Later, Yuki uncomfortably shoots down a love confession and is called unapproachable, and then stumbles upon Kyo playing cards with Tohru and her friends, prompting feelings of jealousy of Kyo's more natural ability to interact with people when he tries to keep everyone at a distance. Tohru speaks with each of them individually in an attempt to get them to realize their own self worth with the hopes of mending their ongoing feud, though judging by Yuki's violent reaction to Kyo not enjoying her sample rice balls, she still has a long way to go. That same morning,a very shy girl knocks on their door, looking for Kyo...

This episode made me cry. The story itself isn't anything special, but the way it explores the themes of self worth and envy really resonated with me in a deep way. Tohru's analogy about people being like rice balls confused me at first, but as she explained it to Kyo it just made more and more sense. Basically, people have a hard time seeing what is unique about themselves because introspection is difficult and it's easier to look outward at other people and see what is admirable or unique about them. Thus, she posits, people only see themselves as the plain white rice without being able to see the filling that makes them delicious because they can't look inside themselves. It's a clumsy metaphor, but it fits her character perfectly and, as someone who frequently struggles with self-loathing to the point of having contemplated suicide, it's something that I needed to hear. Does that mean I'm overstating the episode's worth? Maybe, but the art direction, dialogue, and voice acting have been top notch since episode 1, so I don't think it's an exaggeration to label this as one of the best episodes of the season just because it happened to explore subject matter that resonates with me and I'm a crybaby. We also saw two new characters: the mystery girl at the end of the episode and the German girl who picked up the flyer for the cultural festival. I'd say it's fairly good odds that each of them are members of the Soma clan, and I'm gonna throw out a prediction that the German girl is the boar and the shy girl is the sheep. Like all my predictions, I have no real evidence to support this and I'm really just going with my gut, so come back next week to see how wrong I am.

Dororo

I swear, he's staring directly into my soul.

Next up we have episode 15 of How Good Narrative can Make up for Poor Animation. As Hyakkimaru tracks Sabame to learn more about his relationship with the demonic moth Maimai-onba, Dororo investigates the village to learn more about the ruined temple. As she wanders into a lone storehouse, the suspicious villagers lock her in a cellar with the demon's spawn "for the village". When the spawn corner her, the baby ghoul appears, ready to repay Dororo for her kindness, revealing itself to be the collective ghosts of the children from the orphanage, who were all innocents sacrificed to Maimai-onba. The ghosts destroy the spawn and lead Dororo to safety. Meanwhile, Hyakkimaru knocks Sabame to the side, declaring him to be the same as Daigo, and kills Maimai-onba. As the village burns and the villagers fight over the little food that remains, Sabame lies dead and Dororo wonders if they did the right thing. Hyakkimaru shrugs it off and unknowingly leaves her behind, and Dororo is kidnapped by Itachi, who is after her half of the map.

This was a solid episode that helped to further the themes of moral grey areas and the horrors of war. Hyakkimaru and Dororo's quest to kill the demons and restore his body may be sympathetic to the audience, but the villagers don't care. Why should they? Why sould they care about some stranger getting his body back when it means that their children have to starve? Dororo dumping the oil so that no more orphanages can be burned may sound like a good idea on paper, but when it leads to an entire village burning to the ground is it even worth it? I don't know what I can even analyze here. I mean, it is worth noting that the animation is at a significantly lower quality than previous episodes, but at the same time, the actual character art looks to be a bit sharper than usual, so I think this was a compromise that was made to save resources in a less action-heavy episode than usual. Generally speaking, the episode is not very special, and just felt kinda like the story was slightly too long for one episode but not quite long enough for two, but the implications of Hyakkimaru and Dororo abandoning their original goals and hunting for treasure instead are...interesting, to say the least.

Senryu Girl

Eiji is me.

Up next is Haiku Brilliant Park. In episode 3, after a game of charades between Eiji and Nanako leads to reminiscing about memories at the amusement park, the Literature Club decides to take a club outing to the amusement park. At the last minute, however, club president Amane backs out at the last minute with a sudden schedule conflict (she just wants to spy on their date with Koto), leaving the two lovebirds by themselves on a pseudo-date. Eiji doesn't really think anything of it, but Nanako reads the situation and takes advantage of his obliviousness to trick him into sharing a special couple's soda. But when the park closes she tries to trick him into spending more time with her, and fails because he has no ability to read social cues.

This is the cutest thing I have seen all season so far. And let's not forget that we have two other romance shows and Hitoribocchi, so that's saying something. The date reminded me a lot of the amusement park scene from Comic Girls, which, lest we forget, was so good that it inspired me to rewrite the entire show as a yuri romance, but with its own unique gags such as Nanako being more comfortable on thrill rides than Eiji and the park mascot being so afraid of Eiji that he licked his shoes. I loved this episode and this was the first great episode this series has had so far!

Cinderella Nine

She feels like she walked in from a completely different show.

Up next is episode 3 of Let's Bring the Happy Feelings to a Crushing Halt. With a club room and a budget, the baseball team's future is looking bright. And as the team continues its practice and recruitment efforts, things look even brighter as two new members --I can't keep anybody's name straight, there's the blonde cheerleader who dresses like a JoJo character and the pink-haired gambler girl-- join the team and a would be journalist for the school's apparently nonexistent newspaper decides to follow them and write a story about them. As the girls head to the batting cages for a training session, they bump into a girl named Shinonome, who had actually lost to Tsubasa in the final round of the national little league tournament. Tsubasa is overjoyed to see another baseball player at her school and offers her a place on the team, but Shinonome refuses, expressing disgust at the idea of "playing around with a bunch of rookies".

This episode is an interesting case study for the show as a whole. On paper, the plot is moving forward and an interesting character dynamic has been introduced between Tsubasa and Shinonome. These are all good things, and I'm happy that we're getting closer to the end of the "forming the team for the first time" story that I dislike in sports anime, but in practice? The only reason I didn't fall asleep while watching this is because I watched it during my lunch break at work and I didn't want to drop my phone. All of these characters are so bland! Suzuki has lost all of the personality she had last week and has been reduced to a cookie-cutter smart girl. Sure, Shinonome is interesting, being an elitist who looks down on a person who is better than her at baseball because she doesn't look at it in the same hyper competitive way she does (almost like a sports anime Vegeta, if you will), but Suzuki was interesting last week. Who's to say Shinonome won't lose all that makes her interesting when her story comes to an end? None of the characters make any sort of lasting impression on me, so why would she? The only reason this isn't being dropped yet is because we still have something worse this week.

We Never Learn

Can we all just agree that Rizu in her restaurant attire is really cute?

But before we get to that, let's have a nice happy review with This Title Lies, They Are Actually Learning. In episode 3, Nariyuki is given yet another ultimatum by his headmaster (for the 3rd episode in a row, by the way): if Fumino and Rizu fail to at least match the class average in the midterm exams, then he will be relieved of his tutoring duties and the scholarship will be revoked. After a special one on one study session at her family restaurant, Rizu, whose test if first, is shocked to see that all the material she covered only makes up half the exam. But spurred on by Nariyuki's faith in her and a little bit of luck, she manages to get an above-average grade. Fumino falls ill on the night before her test, and because of the school's idiotic policy of docking a student's grade by 20% if they take a makeup test, even when they have a legitimate excuse by illness, Nariyuki and Takemoto have to visit her and tend to her at her bedside, leading to many accidental pervert moments. All the teenage awkwardness pays off, though, as Fumino recovers in time for her exam and also gets an above-average score. Later, in support of her crush on Nariyuki, Takemoto's friends force her into a dress and basically trick her into having a pseudo-date with him. The date ends with Takemoto accepting the femininity she had been repressing thanks to her self-consciousness with her muscular body, and she feels more confident to pursue her crush on Nariyuki in the future.

Okay, I'll admit it. I was wrong about Takemoto. She fits into the theme of the other two love interests perfectly. The theme just turns out to be a bit broader than what I originally thought it was. Instead of being about pursuing your passion regardless of what other people may say about how suited you are to it, each of the girls are connected in a similar, but broader way. They are just trying to be themselves and overcome the learned bias that they are not suited to it and have no talent for it. Rizu wants to express herself and understand human connections, but she is just seen as a living computer. Fumino wants to break stuff down and analyze systems, but she is seen as a poet. And Takemoto wants to be seen as a traditionally feminine young woman who just happens to be athletic, and has practically been forced into being a fulltime tomboy because that's what people expect from her. Hearing her call herself a princess was simply wonderful because of this realization, and I loved it. As for the other two girls, while I still love Rizu more than anyone else, they're feeling a bit underdeveloped. Now that they're making progress academically, I hope that character development will soon follow. But I'm not nearly as worried about this anime as I am about some others this season, and I have faith that it'll build on the strong foundations we already have.

After Lost

Me after watching this episode.

Alright I already spoiled that this was gonna get dropped, so let's get this over with. In episode 3 of Why Are Idols Taking Over this Sci-Fi Franchise?, Takuya, Yuki, and Geek stray too close to Lost and end up traveling through a rift in space-time to a concert that was held by the idol group SPR5 three months before Lost. Takuya tries to keep Geek focused on the mission and tries to leave the rift, but the trio is trapped in a time loop as they watch the idols fracture and argue after one of them, named Yua, overhears her producer Seiji say that they are "fated to disappear". While Yua interprets this as a plan to disband the group, Takuya thinks that Seiji knew that Lost was going to happen ahead of time. And so, as Yuki and Geek help the girls make amends in time for the concert, Takuya tries and fails to learn more information about Seiji and Lost. The trio leaves the rift, only to learn that their actions in the past did not change the future, and that they were really trapped in a world created by a Tamashi born of Yua's regrets. Later, the spirit of Yuki's brother Soma attacks Takuya, planning to "rescue" his sister from him.

Studio Madhouse is a very prestigious anime studio with several classics under their belt, including but not limited to: Death Note, the Hunter x Hunter remake, Hellsing Ultimate, High School of the Dead, Black Lagoon, Trigun, Cardcaptor Sakura, A Place Further than the Universe, Monster, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Paprika, Paranoia Agent, Perfect Blue, Hajime no Ippo, and the first season of One Punch Man. They are rightly regarded as one of the best anime studios still in the business. Until now, I have never seen a Madhouse show that I didn't enjoy, and whenever I saw their logo, I knew that I could expect quality.

Until now, apparently. After Lost is a disaster that was only skating by with its over the top attitude, and this episode in particular is nothing less than a slow motion train wreck. I cannot remember the last time I saw running animation this pathetically incompetent, and for some reason the camera occasionally switches to a first person perspective that fails to make me feel tense or excited an d just reminds me of how bad the background art is as the camera awkwardly bobs up and down in the laziest attempt to simulate what running actually looks like. The sound design is complete trash as well. Seriously, in what universe does grabbing someone by the hand sound like being lightly slapped with a wet towel? Why are the footsteps so loud I actually struggle to hear the bad voice acting? Why is the supposedly world famous idol group's breakout song the most boring thing I have ever heard? Why are we three episodes in when every character and story beat is so BLAND? Takuya is just a meathead with no personality, Yuki is a mysterious girl whose neverending complaining  makes me want to bang my head against the wall, and Geek is such a creepy fanboy I want to kick him in the groin. This used to be fun to laugh at, but after an episode this terrible, I'm not laughing anymore. Consider this dropped.

And that wraps up the 3rd week of the roundup! What will happen with the 10 shows remaining? Will Robby and Hatchi get lost in an asteroid field and end up back on Earth? Will the koto club master their piece in time for the performance? Will Marlya survive being attacked by Bitter Sweet? Will Bocchi make another friend? Will Tanjiro be welcomed into the ranks of the Demon Slayers? Will Tohru meet more members of the Soma Clan? Will Hyakkimaru rescue Dororo? Will Eiji realize that he and Nanako are basically already dating? Will Nariyuki be given a break by the headmaster? Will the members of the baseball team actually grow as characters? Will Zoro and Brook manage to stop the execution of the Witching Hour Boy? Will the defenders of Winterfell defeat the army of the dead? Will you manage to see Avengers Endgame without being spoiled? Find out the answers to all, some, or none of these questions next time!