In this week’s installment…
This was a solid week for anime, but with a significant typhoon and earthquake hitting Japan in the past few days it’s a bit hard to take writing about cartoons seriously. Many events and even some anime have been postponed, but none of that is important compared to the impact on the lives of those affected by these disasters. Please take care. That said, most of the Roundup anime did air and so the show goes on. (I didn’t have an appropriate header image for this topic so enjoy this wholesome image of Andou and George).
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Banana Fish
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Artemis: This was a pretty good episode – tightly focused, not too rushed (or at least, not by Banana Fish’s usual breakneck pace standards), and thankfully not encumbered by any weirdly inappropriate comedic moments. It also reinforced my earlier opinion about Yut-Lung being Best Character, despite inhabiting a pretty moral grey area (though compared to the likes of Golzine, Arthur, or any of their cronies, he’s positively a saint). Ash is basically the only main Good Guy left at this point as far as the gangs are concerned, but he also wears his heart on his sleeve, which makes him sympathetic but not particularly smart. Yut-Lung, meanwhile, is a survivalist through and through, and is constantly thinking not only of the short-term but also long-term possibilities. He’s not inherently cruel or a sadist, but he is out for number one – and would probably be long dead by now if that wasn’t the case. His purposeful manipulation of the relationship between Ash and the newly arrived Sing is frustrating because you know they’d likely be strong allies otherwise, but you have to hand it to Yut-Lung, the move is a clever one that’s going to have some major and lasting implications, and potentially shape the landscape to his advantage.
Banana Fish – Do NOT threaten Ash’s boyfriend
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Chio’s School Road
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Jel: The segment with Momo and the bit with Andou and George at the end were surprisingly wholesome for this show. While I would never pull it from the “Horrible people doing horrible things” comedy genre, we have seem glimpses of this before. Even Chio and Manana seem to really care about each other deep down… inside… somewhere… moving on, as for Andou being the love interest I guess I was wrong and he is actually meant to be somewhere in his early twenties. Assuming Chio is sixteen that’s uhhhh borderline I suppose (the unofficial “too young” rule is divide the older age in half and add seven, do the math) and I still claim he looks like he’s in his mid to late thirties. I guess I’ll let it slide, but I’m going to have trouble really rooting for them like the show seems to want us to.
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My Hero Academia
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Marlin: Alright, color me surprised. After all my bellyaching about the OP duo seeming to get redeemed the last episode, they still fail. I suppose I should have realized the moment there was a demerit system that there wouldn’t be the same last-minute point change like the UA entrance exam had. Thus, the blowhards get their well deserved comeuppance, and Deku gets another well-deserved crying session. Now that we’re at the end of the season, I was really confused as to how we were going to close things out dynamically. I thought something big was going to happen during the test, but this fight theoretically gives us everything we’ve been waiting for. My only problem is how counter it goes to everything All Might has been trying to instill into Deku. What more pointless and dangerous thing could he be doing than skirmishing against someone he knows isn’t going to hold back while wearing none of his protective gear? Are they really going to be able to do this and not suffer serious repercussions after all the violations they’ve committed already? It’s baffling.
Asobi Asobase – NOOO now there’s 0% chance of getting a second season
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Asobi Asobase – workshop of fun –
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Jel: Once again Asobi Asobase walks through the minefield that is Aozora’s character and I think mostly comes out unscathed. Your mileage may vary. Probably the most flagrant violation was Hanako and Olivia thinking Kasumi kissing a girl couldn’t POSSIBLY mean anything more than friendship. Considering they are both huge idiots and everything else happening in this episode speaks to the contrary, I think that was passable. Aozora herself seemed much more kind and less predatory this week, but I do fear that is just setting us up for something bad to happen later. That all said, this show is still hilarious and living up to the “R-rated Love Lab” description Aqua has given it. I mean, there was an entire segment titled “Secret of the Dong” this week and it was exactly what you think it is, so needless to say Asobi Asobase is still pretty great.
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Planet With
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Jel: Sometimes Planet WIth’s insane pacing works in its favor and sometimes it doesn’t. I think this week it did. I was disappointed at the end of the cold opening when they said they would meet again to fight in a week, thinking the rest of the episode would be a slow, contemplative, “calm before the storm” scenario as the crew steeled themselves for their presumed final battle. Instead, we get a “one week later” after the OP and leap right back in. I loved it. Even better, I am a sucker for time skips and the fact that they are having the audacity to go for one with only two episodes left is impressive. Most of all though, I’m impressed that I actually care. Once again, praise goes to Mizukami for doing so much with so little, writing characters that give you just enough to let your mind fill in the blanks. Now just get me to next Sunday already!
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Hanebado
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Jel: Liden Films was directly affected by the Hokkaido earthquake and decided to postpone this week’s episode of Hanebado. Based on what we know so far, it sounds like it will be more than a one week delay. Hopefully the staff is physically OK and takes how ever much time they need to recover and regroup.
The Glorio Blog 