In this week’s installment…
It seems #HATEWATCH is catching on as Re:Creators was bad enough for Iro to handle separately this week (stay tuned) and I’m quickly losing interest in Atom: The Beginning’s glacial pacing and flat writing. Marlin and I also almost turned on our favorite sleeper hit Tsukigakirei, but fortunately the rest of the Roundup is good enough to keep us motivated.
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Sakura Quest
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Jel: Can we all agree that the real way to get people to come to this town is to back whatever Doku is doing? Get that man some funding. That aside, I think Sakura Quest is doing a great job of presenting the age old dilemma of “future versus tradition” that is very common in Japanese stories. As we’ve seen in the feud between the tourism board and the merchant board, going all in on one direction clearly doesn’t work. As we see this week, as they quite literally attempt to smash the two together, that doesn’t work either. I’m not sure what conclusion they are going to reach, but Sanae’s truth bomb at the end is probably a good indication. She needs to realize what makes her special, as do the rest of the girls, and the town in general. Also, is it time to start shipping her and the wood carver guy? I think so.
Sakura Quest – This is how we do all our planning here at the Glorio Blog
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Tsukigakirei
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Marlin: Man, this one episode was like the entire second season of Kimi ni Todoke bottled into twenty minutes. I was literally, seething in parts because I thought these dorks were going to go too far on the shyness scale and just make everything frustrating. I was perfectly fine with Akane’s delayed response, but they were walking a fine line between coincidence and annoyance throughout this school trip nonsense. I thought Kotaro’s gumption last episode would take a hit being told to wait, but thankfully the show made sure that his increased confidence wasn’t just a temporary thing. Now, this time it’s Akane’s turn to grow a little outside her comfort zone and admit that she really is interested in him. This show has basically become like an anti-shoujo, as while it’s included many of the cliches you’ll find all over those works, it turns the response these characters have on their head. Instead of hemming and hawing, our characters don’t want to let ambiguity rule their relationship. Honestly, Akane had every reason to be a little sour about how things went, but she really showed some maturity for her age in seeing past what one could get caught up in emotionally. I was also surprised spunky short hair girl was so quick on the draw. It still seems pretty obvious she’s interested in Kotaro, but she’s not about to be petty or selfish when it comes to one of her friends. When she realizes he doesn’t look at her the same way as he does Akane, she’s willing to let go. We’ll see how long this amount of good will can last, as no teen romance can live without drama forever.
Jel: I agree with everything Marlin said but I just want to be clear this episode had me on the verge of throwing my computer through a window. Tsukigakirei has done a fantastic job of avoiding dumb fictional romance setups that it was painful to watch them drag one out until the very last second. I’m real thankful that we arrived at the conclusion we did, but I’m a little more worried about the future of this series than I was before. Can we just get back to Curly-kun and Akane awkwardly flirting over LINE? Thanks.
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Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul
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Iro: Considering how much of a pompous prick Azazel was in Season 1, I’m not quite buying him playing the tragic hero card so often these days. Like, I can sort of buy that he’s mellowed out a bit over 10 years, and genuinely cares about the welfare of demon-kind, but as Kaisar said, this guy still killed his father and remains kind of an all-around dick. The much more interesting plot development is Jeanne d’Arc rotting in the castle’s dungeon and apparently being the mother of mysterious half-god child Mugaro. We last saw her as one of Kaisar’s colleagues in the Orleans Knights, so it’s quite the unexpected development. The obvious question is – naturally – who the father is, and the most reasonable explanation is that it’s one of the angels she was sworn to, but… well. I have to wonder if things are quite that simple.
Atom: The Beginning – The only thing more outdated than this show is that moustache
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Atom: The Beginning
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Jel: I want to like this show so much but it’s getting harder to ignore its flaws. I’ve already complained it’s too slow, but I also have to call out the writing for being too flat and repetitive. Probably the worst example this week is having Tenma plainly explain why there are so many of the signals they’re looking for only to re-explain it a few minutes later to the detective. There’s no nuance or personality to it, everything just… happens. I have to wonder if making things so straightforward was a conscious decision to make it feel “old” like the source material, or if it’s just bad writing. Either way it makes me want to pull my hair out, and to make matters worse there was no cool robot fight this week. If we get too many episodes like this and I’m not sure I’m going to survive the entire season.
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The Eccentric Family 2
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Marlin: After last week, I was really wanting to see more Benten. It’s perhaps one of the weaknesses of this being based on a full-fledged novel that it has these two pretty separate storylines running parallel, and thus it seems like we’re never spending enough time with either of them. Once again, we’re back in Yaichiro’s love story and the Tengu are nowhere to be found. It’s hard to tell which part of the two storylines I like more. I am a sucker for cute romances like the one in this episode, but the war of tact displayed last episode between Benten and the Nidaime is too intriguing to let go of. With another crazy airship fireworks battle coming up, at least I know next episode won’t be boring.
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Little Witch Academia TV
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Gee: Nice to get another episode focusing on a supporting character, this time in the form of fan favorite Amanda O’Neil. Amanda was definitely the breakout character of the second LWA OVA and it’s nice to get an episode with just her and Akko’s antics, especially compared to last week’s Lotte episode which didn’t have as much Lotte as I would’ve liked. Despite their similarities, I rather liked how this episode illustrated how Akko and Amanda are also foils to each other. Amanda is a rebel who lives for the moment and doesn’t really care for the long term consequences. Broom racing, acrobatics, cat burglary, magical fencing, whatever it takes to find the next thrill. Conversely, Akko can’t think of anything but her one singular goal. It’s another great episode that gives us a little more insight into the characters that only gets to exist in TV form. On the animation side of things, nothing too amazing and there are a couple spots that frankly don’t look great. That said, sword fight was fun and capping things off with a Thundercats reference is hell of a way to go.
