DON’T TURN AROUND/OH-OH/DER KOMMISSAR’S IN TOWN/OH-OH
(The sinking realization that referencing a song released in 1981 probably doesn’t work well on an anime blog given the infamously youthful nature of anime’s fandom.)
I wanted to start up doing this again, since, well, why *wouldn’t* I want to freely vomit out my sentiments about the anime I’ve shoveled down my gullet each week? (More plainly, though, I’m trying to get back to blogging regularly since I haven’t in a fairly long while.) Unfortunately, I’ve picked a bit of a bad week to do so, as I spent far more time devouring crappy YA fiction than I did on anime (which is apparently what happens when you’ve been gorging on WWI novels and Joyce Carol Oates – no, I don’t WANT to read about another bombardment/a rotting deer, I want to read about DRESSES AND GLOOMY DYSTOPIAS). Thankfully, though, I’ll ganbatte regardless! Onwards, otaku soldiers!
Go! Princess Precure, ep. 14
Standard magical girl episode. Twilight’s subsided into a not terribly interesting villain; I know some folks were declaring derisively deeming her a Dark Cure rip-off when she first appeared, but, if anything, I wish she was more of a rip-off than she is. Yeah, there’ll probably be some storyline about turning her to the good side (and she is voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro), but it isn’t even as if she’s doing anything truly different from what the Three Musketeers were already doing anyway. And if there is a turn-her-good storyline, well, I’ve mentioned before that the show reminds me of Wedding Peach, and Wedding Peach, too, had a switch in allegiances from bad to good.
If I was watching this as an already-completed show, I think my attention would be fully in wander mode now, but as a week-to-week thing its perfectly decent easy viewing. It helps that I quite like Kirara, and Pafu scratches that itch for a really foully cute mascot character that I get from time to time.
Blood Blockade Battlefront, ep. 6
I felt pretty gutted after watching this episode. With the cheery, heartwarming goofiness of the earlier parts of the episode as Leonardo and Nej befriended one another and ate many hamburgers, I wasn’t anticipating the later brutal beating scenes. The underlying concept of a species of intelligent beings that have a built-in mechanism that induces amnesia in themselves and in others nearby just added to the wrenching sensation I had while watching. I’ve generally enjoyed this show to date, but this was far and away the best episode its offered. It also possessed a depth that hasn’t been much present previously, although I’m skeptical that this is indicative of a deepening of the show as a whole.
Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches, ep. 3
It feels a bit odd to call this a faithful adaptation considering that they’ve already managed to zip through about ten chapters of the manga’s material, but this has been a pretty faithful adaptation so far. Of course, chewing through material this quickly does show how slowly things develop in the manga. Episode three doesn’t diff substantially from this approach, so its a bit difficult to comment much on it. I have forced myself to stop reading the manga for the time being, as I don’t want to totally spoil the anime for myself (although I was probably too late and should’ve stopped myself far before I did, which was chapter forty-eight).
If there is something to point out, its that I really love the vocal work. Having the voice actor follow the character as opposed to having the voice actor stick with the body regardless of who is occupying it is helpful in remembering who is who at any given point, and its funny to hear the various voice actors try to approximate each other’s voices.
By the way, speaking of voice actors – is Saori Hayami who you hire when you want Mamiko Noto’s voice but not her price? Sure seems to be the case this season.
Triage X, ep. 5
Poor Triage X; if it weren’t for BBB’s fantastic sixth episode, Triage X would’ve been my favorite episode this week. Episode five was shocking due to the fact that it was a really good episode, and was largely free of the usual Triage X garbage (although, of course, the peripherals like tittyservice were as firmly ensconced as ever). While I enjoyed the two-episode arc for Mikoto preceding this, the pacing there was completely wretched, but this episode seems to have dispensed with the pacing problem. Whether the follow-on episode six (as we end without the story being resolved) will managed to keep up the good work for pacing remains to be seen, but I am fairly optimistic.
The story of this episode is more inventive than the show has managed so far, and feels closer to what the show seems to aspire to be tonally. A hostage situation itself isn’t wholly novel, but its individual wrinkles are a decent take on it (forcing idols to leap eighteen stories into a crowd of their fans every half hour until demands are met is downright creepy), and its certainly a better set-up than any of the previous crises have had (although, yes, the whole “I have an army of junkies with suicide vests strapped on them!” thing from last week was wonderfully demented). It’s satisfying, too, to watch the previously moe-ified idol/assassin Oriha step up and have to think critically about a situation rather than simply relying on tossing bombs around. I’m really looking forward to the next episode.
Vampire Holmes, ep. 6
I keep thinking this can’t become even worse and it manages to surprise me. The backgrounds have declined from awkward, ugly CG to what I imagine the backgrounds on Rugrats would’ve looked like had they been done in MS Paint (I think its the color scheme that conjures Rugrats). I still can’t fathom this thing’s existence. Maybe it can only be understood as an act of love, but I don’t feel comfortable comitting to that when it seems likelier that the primary showrunner has been locked in a cage and forced to make this show on penalty of death, supplied only with a tablet as the tool with which to get the job done.
Unrelated to the content of the show, I’ve begun watching this on Viewster. Weirdly, the first two episodes I watched kept defaulting to Italian subtitles even though I don’t live in Italy (nor do I, for that matter, speak Italian). I said so on Twitter, and now I know that the Viewster Twitter account is pretty helpful, since they tweeted at me to ask to help troubleshoot. I also now know that if you’re running AdBlock, it can sometimes cause weird glitches with their platorm, so if you, too, keep getting stuck with auto-load of languages you do not understand, turn off AdBlock, and you will probably be as good as new.
GAR GAR Stegosaurus 