So what’s going to happen if sensei discovers that her version of the secret life of the librarian was only wrong in that she made her the M instead of the S?
I like what all of this does sort of backhandedly to Renge and Naruto. They were already cutely wholesome, but the more we get to know of the rest of the cast, the more wholesome they get by comparison.
Still liking this, vanilla though it might be.
This episode faltered a bit, with too many people being too kind to her all at once, which seemed unnatural and forced just for plot purposes. But I’m interested to see how the cliffhanger is going to play out.
Yeah - the instant that “You’re an M, right?” came out of his mouth, I started laughing. That was a great callback, and I didn’t see it coming at all.
And it got me to wondering about that particular sort of humor and what it is and how it works, since the most recent time I laughed that hard was the other day, watching the latest episode of Guild Receptionist, and specifically the moment when Alina is watching a giant boulder slowly settle into the remains of her house.
There’s just something about that anticipatory moment right after one character says or does something to another, and though they don’t know it, we the audience do know that the proverbial shit is just about to hit the proverbial fan.
I’m up to episode 6, so still fairly early. I have some ideas about where it might be headed (it’s certainly the case that the world that Pacifica is prophesied to poison probably doesn’t actually deserve to survive anyway), but I’m mostly just reveling in the fact that it keeps surprising me, so that’s good news.
Just got around to this one and I’m actually liking it quite a lot. It’s pretty much just stupid fun, but it’s at least a newish spin on an otherwise mostly unexplored corner of the genre, and it has some great lol moments. And I’m curious to see where it’s headed.
Started the week off with the rest of Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (Humanity Has Declined), which was great - alternately goofy, cozy and surreal.
Then I had the sort of odd experience of “discovering” a director I hadn’t realized I was already a fan of - Makoto Shinkai. I just happened on Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko: Everything Flows and it was wonderful - bittersweet and heartfelt and simply beaufiful, and I liked it so much I looked up the director, and only then discovered that he had also done Suzume and 5 cm per second and Kimi no Na wa, among others. I had completely failed to notice that three of my favorite anime movies were all from the same director.
So then I went on a sort of mini binge, and watched Tenki no Ko, Kotonoha no Niwa and Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo, all of which were good, though not quite as good as his certainly not coincidentally better known ones.
Then I just sort of wandered aimlessly before ending up at Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (Dusk Maiden of Amnesia). I read the manga back in the day and remembered liking it, but didn’t remember much other than bits and pieces of the plot. It was good all in all - an odd but actually plot-relevant mix of school life, ecchi rom-com with a dash of harem and full-on Junji Ito style horror.
Then, as a change of pace, I dipped back into my own past and watched Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. It’s one of the first anime I ever owned (on VHS), and I have no idea how many times I’ve watched it over the years, but I haven’t seen it since I last owned a VCR, which has to have been… at least 15 years ago. And it was just as much fun as I remembered.
And at the moment I’m watching an intriguing oddity called Scrapped Princess. At first glance, it appears to be a sort of cheesy swords and sorcery adventure story, but it’s been revealing surprising depth as it goes along and has really been quite good. Remains to be seen how it plays out…
Great chapter.
I’ve always had a soft spot for Ai-chan, so it’s great to see her being taken into their confidence and handling it well.
And it’s been a while since we’ve see Hiro really flex his skills like he did in that climbing out the window sequence.
“Gobou.”
Somehow this is still managing to be better than it seems like it has any reason to be. I suspect that it’s just particularly well structured and presented - that there’s enough attention to detail and to the way that the story’s unfolding that it’s satisfying in spite of being kind of ordinary. Sort of like surprisingly good vanilla ice cream.
Huh… that was very cliched, but still managed to be pretty good. I’m at least curious to see if it can maintain whatever it is that’s making it better than it seems like it should be.
So first up in my meanderings through past anime last week, since no series grabbed me right off, was a movie - Sakasama no Patema (aka Patema Inverted). It was pretty good all in all. It’s a bit too ham-handedly allegorical, and the pseudoscience that provides the basis for everything doesn’t hold up to any sort of scrutiny, but it still had some interesting twists and turns, and the two main characters were charming.
Then, not really in the mood for anything specific, I happened on a current release that seemed like it could be worth a shot - I’m Getting Married to a Girl I Hate in my Class. And I made it about halfway through the second episode and I was done. The story is painfully contrived and hackneyed, the MMC is a formless collection of tropes and the FMC is some sort of awful mega-tsundere, alternating between being pathetically weak and needy and being a miserable, pointlessly vicious bitch.
So, still not really in the mood for any specific thing, but inspired by something that could’ve at least made that last one a bit more tolerable, I ended up going to a genre that I can count on to generally provide something of interest no matter what else it might lack, and that’s ecchi. Maken-Ki! (2011) to be specific. And the one thing that can be said about it is that it knew its priorities - the ecchi is top-notch and the characters and story are basically just placeholders. It was a pleasant enough diversion all in all, though notably shallow even by ecchi school harem standards.
It also served a purpose though in that it made me crave something of substance, which led to the gem of the week - 86 (2021).
That’s been right near the top of my TBW for a couple of years now, and holy shit was it worth it. The first season was stellar, with great characters and a fascinating and compelling story - and I just devoured it (the first eight episodes in one sitting, interrupted only by the need to sleep, and the rest at the very first opportunity the next day). The only minor criticism I might have is that it could have and arguably should have ended with Lena looking to the horizon, just because that was such a powerful and meaningful moment. Yes, it would’ve been a very open ending, and there were still a lot of unanswered questions, but it would’ve been a good stopping place.
Unfortunately, the biggest problem with not ending it there was illustrated in the second season (or I guess technically it’s considered the second half of a single season). There was room in there for a much larger story, and notably a story that followed both the 86 and Lena, but that would’ve required many more episodes, and presumably they just weren’t given that many. So instead it just focused on one part of it that could be squeezed into 12 episodes. It was okay, and the addition of Frederica to the cast was a good one, but it was all just a bit contrived and sort of oddly tangential to what should’ve been a much larger story.
Ah, but then the last five minutes or so of the last episode made the whole damned season worth it - that was one of the most glorious and satisfying moments I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Remains to be seen if there will be any more - I’d love to see what’s going to happen now, but I suspect that for that, I’ll have to read the LN, and I already have an overwhelming TBR list for LNs…
And finally, a bit drained from the suspense and drama of 86, I cast about for something comfy, and ended up going with one that’s been on my TBW for many years - Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (aka Humanity Has Declined). And it’s every bit as whimsical and charming as I’d hoped. It’s essentially an ongoing manzai routine, with the aptly named Watashi serving as a notably wry and low-key tsukkomi to an entire race of bokes, and it’s wonderful.
I think you’re right.
I had pretty much forgotten until this chapter, but it actually started out with Sumire in particular wanting to be sympathetic to the flies, but then it all went badly sideways, and it’s been this awful fight for survival ever since.
I suspect, especially because the chapter title calls attention to it, that that’s the way it’s going to go - one way or another, she’s not only going to survive but is going to eventually be won over, as pretty much everyone who spends enough time with Sumire is.
And here we go with another layer of mystery heaped on top of all the others.
I want to like this series, but I’m getting really tired of a seemingly endless series of new questions and zero answers.
Decided to give this one a shot, so I watched the first episode, plus about half of this one, and that was all I could take.
It’s all paint-by-numbers - the setup is silly and forced, he’s an empty shell to whom cliches are assigned as needed by whatever tropish scene is currently playing out, and she’s just pointlessly awful.
I’m pleased and not a little relieved.
And yeah - it’s a shame that there almost certainly won’t be more and that we got so little detail.
From the references in episode 2, it seems that they can travel more or less freely between the worlds, and were in the process of returning to Terminal when they got snowbound. I would assume that the original plan was to reveal some more details about Terminal and Albert, and likely some more of their own history, then shift back to our world for more interactions, and so on, and all the while maintaining that episodic structure.
If done well, it could’ve been pretty much the ultimate expression of iyashikei, since the specific thing that happens - the way in which Escha and Chron help people - is simply by seeing the value in them and in what they’re doing, and that’s apparently something that they’re not only especially well-suited for, since that value stands in such sharp contrast to Terminal, but something that actually materially benefits them and Terminal as well.
But oh well…
Lots and lots of them…
Some that come to mind:
Mushishi - it just doesn’t hold my attention, which is actually sort of okay, since it’s episodic, but means that it lingers as TBW. I’m up to episode 5 ATM.
Tatami Galaxy - I generally love Yuasa, but I just keep bouncing off of this one. Mostly it’s that it’s an odd sort of “tell, don’t show” spin on storytelling, and the narration is not only so constant, but so fast, and it’s just sort of exhausting.
Haibane Renmei - It’s strange enough and slow-paced enough that I’m going to have to be in exactly the right mood to appreciate it.
The later seasons of DanMachi - When I first watched the series, there were three seasons out, but by the time I made it through season 2, I was exhausted. The villains are just so villainous and so immensely powerful and Bell is so earnest and slow to grasp the real nature of things that it was both suspenseful and frustrating, and I just couldn’t work up the initiative to dive into season 3. And I still haven’t, and have since fallen even further behind. But someday…
The later seasons of Re:Zero - the first time through, I made it most of the way through season 1, and just hated Subaru so much I had to walk away. Then I learned that that was a not uncommon reaction, and saw lots of claims that you just have to stick with it, so I went back and watched the rest of season 1, and ended up still hating Subaru. It’s not just that he’s so often weak - I can understand that. It’s that the only way he seems to be able to counter that weakness is to jump all the way over to being a self-absorbed asshole who doesn’t listen to anyone. There’s a middle ground there where he’d listen to people and take their advice and make considered decisions and carry through with them, but he skips right past that, so he basically alternates between being a weak and foolish asshole and being a self-absorbed and willful asshole. But I love the concept and most of the rest of the cast (and especially Emilia), and I can’t imagine that Subaru keeps failing to find that middle ground through so many successful seasons, so I keep wanting to give it another chance.
Sort of, but not really.
She’s desperately insecure, inexperienced and naive, and surprisingly sweet, and the whole narcissistic school idol thing is a front that’s going to come crashing down.
First up last week was the rest of season 2 of Non Non Biyori - Non Non Biyori Repeat. It was fine - not quite as good as season 1 IMO, but still fine. And I still like the manga better.
Next I cast about for something loud and frenetic as a complete change of pace, and boy did I find it. Dead Leaves (2004) It’s gloriously cel-shaded non-stop action. I could pull a lifetime’s supply of desktop wallpapers from its 50 minute runtime, and I have no doubt that it provided at least partial inspiration for a number of later works - most notably Kill La Kill and Redline. It has a semblance of a plot, but mostly it’s just an art design orgy.
Still in the mood for something unusual but looking for more plot, I gave a long-time resident of my TBW a shot Sonny Boy (2021). I only made it three episodes before I had to walk away. It’s an interesting premise (though famously already done by Drifting Classroom), but it has a flaw that particularly bothers me - aside from the three main characters and one other notable side character, every single character in it is an asshole of one sort or another. They aren’t even terribly plot-relevant assholes or assholes moving toward a redemption arc - they’re just assholes, for no particular reason other than to provide conflict.
So I went looking for something else and ended up clicking on MF Ghost. I didn’t even know it existed until relatively recently, and I didn’t expect a whole lot from it, but I liked Initial D back in the day and I’m a sucker for racing anime in general, so I had to do it. And I just started with the beginning of season 1 and binged it all the way through to the end of season 2.
It was fine all in all, but sort of odd. The animation is much, much better than Initial D, and the basic setup is different, but it somehow managed to follow pretty much the exact same formula, all the way down to the vague but earnest and unaccountably pretty MMC, his gonk best friend, constant droning commentary going into excruciating detail about cars and racing, lots of teeth-gritting declarations of a racer’s pride and recurring cries of “but my car is a 6.2 liter v10 with 900 horsepower, so he shouldn’t be able to beat me!” as the challengers inevitably get beaten. It was just the mindless entertainment I expected it to be, though at the pace the story is unfolding, it seems like it’s going to take at least a dozen seasons to really get anywhere, which is a bit off-putting.
Then I went back and finished Sonny Boy, which was okay all in all. More than anything else, most of the assholes were moved out of the story and the focus narrowed to the main characters who on their own were actually fairly compelling. The end was sort of vague and handwavey, but it was okay.
Then, to cap off the week, I went in search of something completely different and happened on a gem And @wjs018@ani.social - take note - you should go watch this ASAP. I guarantee you’ll love it. And anyone else with a liking for fluffy post-apocalyptic slice of life should check it out.
It’s listed as an OVA, but I’m near certain that what it actually is is a planned full season anime that was inexplicably cancelled while still in production, so they just released the existing two episodes on their own. It only really hints at the background story, just as if more was set to be revealed in later episodes, but then there were no later episodes. So what we got was two helpings of episodic iyashikei/slice of life, sort of reminiscent of Mushishi, with a dash of a Girls Last Tour sort of background (the difference being that the girls are time travelers and the stories are set in our era, with a few flashbacks to their previous and apparently post-apocalyptic life). And it’s sweet and charming and soothing, and well worth seeing, and it’s a shame there wasn’t more.
And I don’t really know what’s next, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to delve into my TBW.
I’m not sure what it is (likely some psychologist or sociologist has written a paper on it though), but there’s a visceral sense of satisfaction in a spot-on reaction image.
And especially in a case like this, since the moment I saw a request for spoilers, that was exactly the reaction I expected from you. And then there it was. 😁
Yeah - I stumbled across it shortly after Daphie’s picked it up and have been following it ever since. I like it a lot, but it hasn’t (yet) generated much feedback.
It’s sort of scary, since there’s this constant background sense of melancholy and likely tragedy, but there’s an odd sort of hopefulness to it too. So even at this late date, and with all the flags that have gone up, I’m still not sure how it’s going to end. But I expect that however it does, it’s going to manage to be both satisfying in the narrow context of the characters and insightful in the broader context of the human condition.