spring 2020 review
so while the original line up of shows would have been a bit longer, who had any idea that covid was gonna swoop in and cancel not only a few sequels, but the tokyo olympics. anyway, let's just crack on here.
i also wanna note that the ratings of these are not super objective reflections of the actual quality of the show, but rather my own personal preference in how much i enjoyed watching it -which, the older i get, seems to be just, anything that puts me in a good mood, so like, the ratings are biased af dont @ me
i also wanna note that the ratings of these are not super objective reflections of the actual quality of the show, but rather my own personal preference in how much i enjoyed watching it -which, the older i get, seems to be just, anything that puts me in a good mood, so like, the ratings are biased af dont @ me
completed:
Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai?: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen -
part two of the now, very popular, love is war series.
for me, I enjoyed this on the whole, although i have to say, it is a little different from the first season, which I must admit, i preferred. S1 definitely got me full on laughing, cackling and slapping my thighs, but the most S2 got out of me was a few loud cackles because of the different focus. in fact, it almost feels like a different show, except with the same characters.
The overall arc of the story definitely has more of a development, this really fuses like, a teenager's school life with comedy and slice of life - but the difference with this and S1 is that S1 really gives static and fun characters that play around with predictable tropes, whereas S2 really shows those same characters developing and changing as people. it's nice - but I feel kinda duped into caring about these characters in a way, as i wish that sort of 'caring' element had been established in S1. As a result, I kinda spent most of this season looking for the comedy, but was forced into character development arcs (eg. ishigami and hayasaka's backstories and the entire introduction of iino) when all I really wanted was more along the lines of the balloon game, but perhaps for the whole series.
I think for me, this really comes down to exactly what you want out of this show. S2 marks the emotional development of these characters being thrown into difficult situations that shape the core of who they are and how they change, which of course, a great thing, although I confess, not exactly what I wanted for this show. As a result, I ended up stacking the show and watching it all at once.
For fans of the show, I still think the show keeps the quality of production and has some great comedic moments, but I do think I was a little disappointed this season for my light hearted comedy.
5.5/10. it's a pass, but it's not quite what i expected.
Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta...
OH my god this was the COMEDY I almost skipped and I am so damn glad I went and caught up on this. Basically written off the premise of an isekai - it's a girl who gets transported into an otome game as the 'villaness' of the game who gets killed/exiled, except about like 10? years before the start of the harem game, and so because she's played the game, she makes this elaborate plan to make sure she doesn't get the original doom flags, and to skew the game. Essentially, she does such a good job at being fake but also genuinely nice to everyone, because she's in constant fear of being killed and hated by everyone, she ends up accidentally romancing everyone, including the original heroine. on the most part, this show is really just a light hearted, hilarious comedy, and it has some great moment - although it really struggled with pacing at the end as they try to introduce a Serious Dick and the kind of more, dramatic, high tension moments, which kinda just come out of left field and are sort of hand-wave-ily resolved without too much thought. this all said, i didn't hate it. I like the comedy, i like the light hearted bits, and while i (vague spoilers?) looked ahead and some shit goes down with the dark magic and more high stakes drama and there's also a part 2 of the game, I really enjoyed this first season and I'm keen to see what they do with S2 - since that got confirmed.
Overall, definitely rec this one. It's a great, comedy/isekai that knows its tropey but rocks it and I loved it. 7.5/10
Yesterday wo Utatte - okay, while the first episode is something a little bit out of a soul crushing early 20's, you have no job, tfw no gf, the actual plot is almost. frustrating? I haven't finished it but when I do, I suspect I will have Words.
So I finished it and i HAVE WORDS. so many words.
okay listen, firstly, i've not actually read the manga, so i imagine i'm losing a lot of context and important people that probably made the source material an incredible show, except like, this is about the anime so.
this is a super promising premise, especially for people at the ~20ish age where you've just come out of uni, you have no job or a shit job, and stuff is just happening in your life and you can't get over a crush and you're trying to get your love life sorted or something like that, and like, closing the book on that part of your life. but no, this show is literally a show about digging shit from the past up and literally never making peace with it or getting over it (except for that ONE dude Amamiya who, honestly, was vastly underused).
honestly this fucking anime goes downhill, rapidly, after episode 2. the first ep - rikuo confesses to his long time crush shinako. haru, a slightly younger girl was a student of shinako's, is in love with rikuo. and Ro is a student of Shinako's, but also was her family friend/childhood friend, and the brother of Shinako's dead, sort of boyfriend/crush.
So Haru is in love with Rikuo. Rikuo and Ro are in love with Shinako. Shinako is in love with Ro's dead brother.
the actual plot of the anime is kind of horrific, rikuo and shinako claim that theyre going to be friends after shinako turns him down. then they meet again, and they go, ok maybe we cant be friends. and then shinako gets sick and shes like ok i guess we're friends again huh. then they have this awkward meet where they're always pushed together by their circumstances - old college friends, and where they work, and then they both low key seek each other out but don't admit it. during the whole period of the shinako and rikuo shitshow, haru just pops up every now and again pestering rikuo and telling him that she loves him (btw, her reason for loving him never really goes beyond him doing one kind act for her and her being absolutely obsessed with him). haru declares war on shinako for rikuo's love, which is stupid, because shinako rejected him and never wanted him. enter Ro - who is the younger brother of shinako's childhood crush, who moved to shinako's school so he could be with her, because hes in love with her. as all high schoolers do, he goes in strong, and he's cute with a lil safety pin earring, but all shinako can see is his brother, when all he wants to be is seen as himself. because of how persistent he is, shinako is like, maybe i do have to get over my childhood friend crush and do something with myself, and she says, oh rikou i wish you were more forceful like Ro is, and he's like... oh ok i guess, and so he hugs her and rikuo and shinako end up dating for like, 3 months except its crushed within an episode, and they never kiss or do anything or hang out. during this time, ro had confessed and gotten turned down by shinako, but she shows up at his house just saying, anyway we're jsut friends ok jsut friends hahah ill cook for you and spend christmas with you and i'm your teacher at school but we grew up together but yknow like just friends hahahhahahahahahahhahahaha, because, she's ridiculously selfish and indecisive. ro just kinda gets angry about it, especially when he sees shinako and rikuo together while they were dating. but then, last ep, they're on a bench and shinako says, anyway i guess i don't love you, and rikuo goes, yeah i guess i didn't either, and he catches a bus and goes, hey haru you're cute i love you, and haru goes yeah same.
for some reason, 90% of the convos in the latter half of the show literally occurs outside or inside their houses. they're always walking each other to and from each other's houses for no good fucking reason, so unless they live literally two streets away, it literally makes no sense that haru's always outside rikuo's house, or that rikuo is always going abck to his place, and then walking shinako back to her place again, and then walking back home, even though they're at his place. i do not fucking understand.
the reviews on MAL hammer in what i hated most about this show- this show is a story about teenagers in school, not adults in the real world. as someone who goes through a lot of the external issues - job, no direction in life, it's pitiful to see rikuo never figure out what or who he wants, only to lead haru on, who only seems to be a manic pixie girl only to serve as a ego boost/back up for rikuo. on the other hand, shinako is the epitome of a lazy, pointless character. a woman who's not gotten over her boyfriend, who keeps inadvertently (maybe not) leading on two men who she knows are interested in her, yet she can't get over herself for long enough to tell Ro and cut clear lines between them "oh but ill always be there for you but just as a friend i know im keeping your hopes up by being kind and alone with you but like, you literally have to only cater to me and my feelings". which is basically what happens with Rikuo, who she just freely takes advantage of because, despite knowing that hes madly in love with her, she feels free to only care about him when Haru decides to be interested in him, and then spends the rest of the show being indecisive about wanting to have him because smoeone else wants him, and then after using him for three months, she throws him away because he isnt what she wanted despite her demanding him to be more aggressive, to like her more, to be more persistent, to expect that he will always be in love with her despite the awful, and shit way she treats him. and rikuo, who just goes, yeah ok, back to my backup lol she dumped me for good. it's genuinely infuriating - and those who were like, this is just discount kuzu no honkai, let me at least say, i respect akane for knowing what she wants and deliberately fucking with people, because being self aware is at least the least you can do. and, narumi, who loves akane, knows exactly the type of person she is, and its that unconventional relationship but the awareness and communication which is like, good. they're happy with that. but rikuo and shinako are not happy. nothing's really happened to them either, they're just always moping around, hyper fixating on this shallow, unexplained relationship.
also, there is something i find deeply unsettling about the lack of professional boundaries as a teacher that shinako just gratuitously disregards, especially with ro. why are these 23? year olds just hanging around with a 17?18? year old and treating him like an equal when hes still very much, underage, and in school, and one of them is his fucking teacher??? who LET THIS HAPPEN.
an iconic quote from singleH on MAL, "This is a show about a bunch of permanent adolescents who whine and bitch about stupid shit they shouldn’t be whining and bitching about anymore, and they do so all whilst acting like the petty elements of their lives which they’re whining and bitching about are actually mature in their complexity and worthy of deep contemplation. Ultimately, this show is either one of two things: a very young, amateur author’s idea of what adults’ emotional tribulations look like, or a cynical ploy by a very intelligent author who knows exactly how to pander to impressionable audiences and trick teenagers into watching a show by presenting it as being more high-minded than it actually is."
what a fucking disappointment this show was, and while i confess, i'm not happy about the waste of my life this was, the actual animation quality of the show was too good for this show. the OST (which i would die for), the general soft animation, the voice actors (especially ro and rikuo's), were all far too lovely for the actual plot of the show.
I give this a 3/10, a promising premise that became a slowly decaying merry go round of the same characters walking around to each other's homes while i felt my own eyeballs shrivelling up in irritation, boredom and pointlessness. what a fucking waste of my life that was.
Nami yo Kiitekure-
Alright - so this was pretty much, the 'better' version of the same tropes in Yesterday wo Utatte, which is, people in their post grad but not quite settled down parts of their lives, or, your 20's when you desperately try to figure out what you're going to do with your life.
Meet Minare - a 26 year old, head strong woman who's moved to Sapporo who's just been dumped. While she's getting wildly drunk at the curry house she works at, she ends up being recorded/scouted by Mato, a radio station exec who she spilled her life story while she was completely plastered. Between her unstable part time job at the curry house and her small time radio DJ slot and being ripped off all her money from her shitty ex boyfriend, she's basically fucked in all the way you tend to be as a young adult living by yourself in a big city. it's rough, you have to make ends meet, you've got personal issues with coworkers, friends, exes and life just keeps going.
Unlike the weird, stunted adolescent take on adulthood that Yesterday forces down your throat, this show is kind of a off key but refreshing take on the formulaic takes of 'adulthood' anime (which is rare to begin with), which is not quite centered around the slice of life bumbling of a workplace, or the sad melodrama of lost romances, but just around Minare herself, and to some extent, the wild and crazy people around her. She works at her radio job, and everyone's a little crazy. I have to say, I did find the last episode ridiculously cheesy and a bit cliche, but the journey to get there, was incredibly fun.
This show does straddle the line of fiction and reality a little, especially during the radio segments where you never quite know what's real or what's not, and it's all usually through the breakneck pace of Minare's own internal (and sometimes external) monologues. A shout out to the VA, Sugiyama Riho for absolutely nailing this role and bringing so many emotions to Minare's character.
My favorite character was probably Uchiyama (also known as Tsukishima from Haikyuu and like a bunch of other stuff) as Minare's tired neighbour Oki Shinji, which the whole subplot of his vanishing girlfriend during their attempted sexy tryst in the middle of a dangerous mountain spouting gas, his haunted apartment and his introduction. Genuinely a great subplot.
I also really enjoyed the complicated relationships between Nakahara, Tachibana, Minare and Mitsuo, where Minare and Mitsuo are over, but Nakahara is still in love with Minare, and Tachibana likes Nakahara. I think the way they went about that story actually really hit a chord in me, sometimes you end up with guys that are absolutely garbage, and despite other people liking you, it's just, I guess? Idk, maybe not? he's not my type? and you just have this awkward situation where you all know each other's feelings but you literally just don't talk about it ever because there's no use in doing so. You have a job, and work, and your own life to deal with, you want a partner sometimes but romance is just so far off the radar after jobs/bills/family/trying to find the will to live, that sometimes its nice and indulgent but so often just a disaster. I really appreciated the way they went around dealing with that aspect of relationships and love, especially hot off the heels of Yesterday's shitshow.
For the actual 'plot' of the show, it's not quite got the same consistency, or any obvious narrative/plot thread where things need to happen. comedy isn't really the focus on this either, but it's definitely a little more absurdist, self referential, and even in its bleak moments, has this ability to keep the tension and taut energy within the show. the voice acting is definitely the stand out (duh, radio) but the animation isn't bad either.
while i don't think this show is rave worthy, i do think it's a notable, and one of the more interesting offerings this season (especially since it was stripped bare by.. yknow.. covid). it's one of those quiet. sleeper hits, where i could easily see it getting a cult following, and one that I did end up enjoying, even if i'm not totally in love with it. I give this a 6.5/10, although the OP also gets a 10/10.
Kakushigoto
If this looks familiar to you - it may be because you were previously a fan of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, as this is written by the same mangaka, Koji Kumeta. Honestly, I love the visual style and the aesthetic of their work, although I was only very superficially into the series, as in, i binge read it ages back and got bored. I feel like with Kakushigoto, there's a lot of insider information and jokes about manga artists that were created and put into the manga that come through in the anime, but to be completely honest, I don't quite have enough information to verify any of these stories or claims, but I do have some sort of suspicion that this is one of the creator's most personal works. dont quote me.
so this show is basically a sort of, flashback memory situation, which involves telling the happy stories of the past through interjections of the characters from the future. the father, kakushi goto and the daughter, hime goto are a single parent family and Goto-sensei is basically like, obsessed with his daughter and being a great parent to her, which primarily involves hiding his occupation (manga artist) from her.
more or less the whole 12 episodes of this show is just hit and miss gags about the Goto family shenanigans, including Goto-sensei's manga assistants, his useless editor, and everyone else around Hime, and the serious moments about Hime's mother (who, died at some sort of freak accident at sea?) and occasionally about their family secrets (Goto was the illegitimate son of a kabuki actor and his mistress) (Hime's mother was the daughter of a really famous painter). Some people commented that the whole thread about Hime's mother was a bit of a strange and mysterious thing, because they like, never comment directly on it, only ever alluding, which is a fair point. I do think though, I really enjoyed all the moments about producing and creating manga, the workplace fuck ups especially, and the way they approached parenthood. I also have to agree that this show re: parentalness is way better than Usagi Drop and Amaama to Inazuma due to the comforting lack of weird romantic fixations in this show, although I do prefer Amaama's more laid back, slice of life comfy vibes.
the gag moments are pretty fun when they land, although I watched this mostly with thinly veiled amusement more than I did with genuine laughter - tho I wonder if that's the style of the 'gag manga artist', or if that's sort of just Koji Kumeta's style in general - which is kind of what lead me to never finishing Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei all those years ago, because it has a sort of Monogatari esque flavor, in which a lot of the jokes depend heavily on actually knowing how to decipher context that relies on actually knowing Japanese.
SPOILER - the pay off at the end of the story is that you find out that Goto had a real tragic few years after the stories in the main story - and since he's prone to dramatics in general, it really gets blown out of proportion - he quits creating manga for good and tries to just be a good father, before simmering in self hate and then ending up in a coma due to a workplace job gone bad, but then he wakes up again before the amnesia thread is sort of gracefully (sort of) tied up by him going through the end of his manga and remembering all his memories.
IMO - amnesia is a stupid and cliche plot device, but like at least it wasn't heavily used for melodrama.
for me, i think while people really enjoyed the back and forth between the more melancholy reflection of < the good times TM > and the more funny, light hearted insanity of the main story, for me it felt a little at odds, and I feel like would have just preferred one, or a clear consideration of the more serious elements which i genuinely felt were underused.
overall -the show itself is a sort of 50/50 rate of 'funny' for me, but i really love the characters designs and the overall aesthetic of the show, but everything else is really very run of the mill. this is definitely one of those shows that i think I just expected a little too much from and wanted too much from it.
I give this a 6/10. Definitely a good time, but I probably won't remember it much, or really rec it either, although if you liked the sound of any of this, you may like this!
on-going/on hold:
Fugou Keiji: Balance:Unlimited -
for me, I enjoyed this on the whole, although i have to say, it is a little different from the first season, which I must admit, i preferred. S1 definitely got me full on laughing, cackling and slapping my thighs, but the most S2 got out of me was a few loud cackles because of the different focus. in fact, it almost feels like a different show, except with the same characters.
The overall arc of the story definitely has more of a development, this really fuses like, a teenager's school life with comedy and slice of life - but the difference with this and S1 is that S1 really gives static and fun characters that play around with predictable tropes, whereas S2 really shows those same characters developing and changing as people. it's nice - but I feel kinda duped into caring about these characters in a way, as i wish that sort of 'caring' element had been established in S1. As a result, I kinda spent most of this season looking for the comedy, but was forced into character development arcs (eg. ishigami and hayasaka's backstories and the entire introduction of iino) when all I really wanted was more along the lines of the balloon game, but perhaps for the whole series.
I think for me, this really comes down to exactly what you want out of this show. S2 marks the emotional development of these characters being thrown into difficult situations that shape the core of who they are and how they change, which of course, a great thing, although I confess, not exactly what I wanted for this show. As a result, I ended up stacking the show and watching it all at once.
For fans of the show, I still think the show keeps the quality of production and has some great comedic moments, but I do think I was a little disappointed this season for my light hearted comedy.
5.5/10. it's a pass, but it's not quite what i expected.
Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta...
OH my god this was the COMEDY I almost skipped and I am so damn glad I went and caught up on this. Basically written off the premise of an isekai - it's a girl who gets transported into an otome game as the 'villaness' of the game who gets killed/exiled, except about like 10? years before the start of the harem game, and so because she's played the game, she makes this elaborate plan to make sure she doesn't get the original doom flags, and to skew the game. Essentially, she does such a good job at being fake but also genuinely nice to everyone, because she's in constant fear of being killed and hated by everyone, she ends up accidentally romancing everyone, including the original heroine. on the most part, this show is really just a light hearted, hilarious comedy, and it has some great moment - although it really struggled with pacing at the end as they try to introduce a Serious Dick and the kind of more, dramatic, high tension moments, which kinda just come out of left field and are sort of hand-wave-ily resolved without too much thought. this all said, i didn't hate it. I like the comedy, i like the light hearted bits, and while i (vague spoilers?) looked ahead and some shit goes down with the dark magic and more high stakes drama and there's also a part 2 of the game, I really enjoyed this first season and I'm keen to see what they do with S2 - since that got confirmed.
Overall, definitely rec this one. It's a great, comedy/isekai that knows its tropey but rocks it and I loved it. 7.5/10
Yesterday wo Utatte - okay, while the first episode is something a little bit out of a soul crushing early 20's, you have no job, tfw no gf, the actual plot is almost. frustrating? I haven't finished it but when I do, I suspect I will have Words.
So I finished it and i HAVE WORDS. so many words.
okay listen, firstly, i've not actually read the manga, so i imagine i'm losing a lot of context and important people that probably made the source material an incredible show, except like, this is about the anime so.
this is a super promising premise, especially for people at the ~20ish age where you've just come out of uni, you have no job or a shit job, and stuff is just happening in your life and you can't get over a crush and you're trying to get your love life sorted or something like that, and like, closing the book on that part of your life. but no, this show is literally a show about digging shit from the past up and literally never making peace with it or getting over it (except for that ONE dude Amamiya who, honestly, was vastly underused).
honestly this fucking anime goes downhill, rapidly, after episode 2. the first ep - rikuo confesses to his long time crush shinako. haru, a slightly younger girl was a student of shinako's, is in love with rikuo. and Ro is a student of Shinako's, but also was her family friend/childhood friend, and the brother of Shinako's dead, sort of boyfriend/crush.
So Haru is in love with Rikuo. Rikuo and Ro are in love with Shinako. Shinako is in love with Ro's dead brother.
the actual plot of the anime is kind of horrific, rikuo and shinako claim that theyre going to be friends after shinako turns him down. then they meet again, and they go, ok maybe we cant be friends. and then shinako gets sick and shes like ok i guess we're friends again huh. then they have this awkward meet where they're always pushed together by their circumstances - old college friends, and where they work, and then they both low key seek each other out but don't admit it. during the whole period of the shinako and rikuo shitshow, haru just pops up every now and again pestering rikuo and telling him that she loves him (btw, her reason for loving him never really goes beyond him doing one kind act for her and her being absolutely obsessed with him). haru declares war on shinako for rikuo's love, which is stupid, because shinako rejected him and never wanted him. enter Ro - who is the younger brother of shinako's childhood crush, who moved to shinako's school so he could be with her, because hes in love with her. as all high schoolers do, he goes in strong, and he's cute with a lil safety pin earring, but all shinako can see is his brother, when all he wants to be is seen as himself. because of how persistent he is, shinako is like, maybe i do have to get over my childhood friend crush and do something with myself, and she says, oh rikou i wish you were more forceful like Ro is, and he's like... oh ok i guess, and so he hugs her and rikuo and shinako end up dating for like, 3 months except its crushed within an episode, and they never kiss or do anything or hang out. during this time, ro had confessed and gotten turned down by shinako, but she shows up at his house just saying, anyway we're jsut friends ok jsut friends hahah ill cook for you and spend christmas with you and i'm your teacher at school but we grew up together but yknow like just friends hahahhahahahahahahhahahaha, because, she's ridiculously selfish and indecisive. ro just kinda gets angry about it, especially when he sees shinako and rikuo together while they were dating. but then, last ep, they're on a bench and shinako says, anyway i guess i don't love you, and rikuo goes, yeah i guess i didn't either, and he catches a bus and goes, hey haru you're cute i love you, and haru goes yeah same.
for some reason, 90% of the convos in the latter half of the show literally occurs outside or inside their houses. they're always walking each other to and from each other's houses for no good fucking reason, so unless they live literally two streets away, it literally makes no sense that haru's always outside rikuo's house, or that rikuo is always going abck to his place, and then walking shinako back to her place again, and then walking back home, even though they're at his place. i do not fucking understand.
the reviews on MAL hammer in what i hated most about this show- this show is a story about teenagers in school, not adults in the real world. as someone who goes through a lot of the external issues - job, no direction in life, it's pitiful to see rikuo never figure out what or who he wants, only to lead haru on, who only seems to be a manic pixie girl only to serve as a ego boost/back up for rikuo. on the other hand, shinako is the epitome of a lazy, pointless character. a woman who's not gotten over her boyfriend, who keeps inadvertently (maybe not) leading on two men who she knows are interested in her, yet she can't get over herself for long enough to tell Ro and cut clear lines between them "oh but ill always be there for you but just as a friend i know im keeping your hopes up by being kind and alone with you but like, you literally have to only cater to me and my feelings". which is basically what happens with Rikuo, who she just freely takes advantage of because, despite knowing that hes madly in love with her, she feels free to only care about him when Haru decides to be interested in him, and then spends the rest of the show being indecisive about wanting to have him because smoeone else wants him, and then after using him for three months, she throws him away because he isnt what she wanted despite her demanding him to be more aggressive, to like her more, to be more persistent, to expect that he will always be in love with her despite the awful, and shit way she treats him. and rikuo, who just goes, yeah ok, back to my backup lol she dumped me for good. it's genuinely infuriating - and those who were like, this is just discount kuzu no honkai, let me at least say, i respect akane for knowing what she wants and deliberately fucking with people, because being self aware is at least the least you can do. and, narumi, who loves akane, knows exactly the type of person she is, and its that unconventional relationship but the awareness and communication which is like, good. they're happy with that. but rikuo and shinako are not happy. nothing's really happened to them either, they're just always moping around, hyper fixating on this shallow, unexplained relationship.
also, there is something i find deeply unsettling about the lack of professional boundaries as a teacher that shinako just gratuitously disregards, especially with ro. why are these 23? year olds just hanging around with a 17?18? year old and treating him like an equal when hes still very much, underage, and in school, and one of them is his fucking teacher??? who LET THIS HAPPEN.
an iconic quote from singleH on MAL, "This is a show about a bunch of permanent adolescents who whine and bitch about stupid shit they shouldn’t be whining and bitching about anymore, and they do so all whilst acting like the petty elements of their lives which they’re whining and bitching about are actually mature in their complexity and worthy of deep contemplation. Ultimately, this show is either one of two things: a very young, amateur author’s idea of what adults’ emotional tribulations look like, or a cynical ploy by a very intelligent author who knows exactly how to pander to impressionable audiences and trick teenagers into watching a show by presenting it as being more high-minded than it actually is."
what a fucking disappointment this show was, and while i confess, i'm not happy about the waste of my life this was, the actual animation quality of the show was too good for this show. the OST (which i would die for), the general soft animation, the voice actors (especially ro and rikuo's), were all far too lovely for the actual plot of the show.
I give this a 3/10, a promising premise that became a slowly decaying merry go round of the same characters walking around to each other's homes while i felt my own eyeballs shrivelling up in irritation, boredom and pointlessness. what a fucking waste of my life that was.
Nami yo Kiitekure-
Alright - so this was pretty much, the 'better' version of the same tropes in Yesterday wo Utatte, which is, people in their post grad but not quite settled down parts of their lives, or, your 20's when you desperately try to figure out what you're going to do with your life.
Meet Minare - a 26 year old, head strong woman who's moved to Sapporo who's just been dumped. While she's getting wildly drunk at the curry house she works at, she ends up being recorded/scouted by Mato, a radio station exec who she spilled her life story while she was completely plastered. Between her unstable part time job at the curry house and her small time radio DJ slot and being ripped off all her money from her shitty ex boyfriend, she's basically fucked in all the way you tend to be as a young adult living by yourself in a big city. it's rough, you have to make ends meet, you've got personal issues with coworkers, friends, exes and life just keeps going.
Unlike the weird, stunted adolescent take on adulthood that Yesterday forces down your throat, this show is kind of a off key but refreshing take on the formulaic takes of 'adulthood' anime (which is rare to begin with), which is not quite centered around the slice of life bumbling of a workplace, or the sad melodrama of lost romances, but just around Minare herself, and to some extent, the wild and crazy people around her. She works at her radio job, and everyone's a little crazy. I have to say, I did find the last episode ridiculously cheesy and a bit cliche, but the journey to get there, was incredibly fun.
This show does straddle the line of fiction and reality a little, especially during the radio segments where you never quite know what's real or what's not, and it's all usually through the breakneck pace of Minare's own internal (and sometimes external) monologues. A shout out to the VA, Sugiyama Riho for absolutely nailing this role and bringing so many emotions to Minare's character.
My favorite character was probably Uchiyama (also known as Tsukishima from Haikyuu and like a bunch of other stuff) as Minare's tired neighbour Oki Shinji, which the whole subplot of his vanishing girlfriend during their attempted sexy tryst in the middle of a dangerous mountain spouting gas, his haunted apartment and his introduction. Genuinely a great subplot.
I also really enjoyed the complicated relationships between Nakahara, Tachibana, Minare and Mitsuo, where Minare and Mitsuo are over, but Nakahara is still in love with Minare, and Tachibana likes Nakahara. I think the way they went about that story actually really hit a chord in me, sometimes you end up with guys that are absolutely garbage, and despite other people liking you, it's just, I guess? Idk, maybe not? he's not my type? and you just have this awkward situation where you all know each other's feelings but you literally just don't talk about it ever because there's no use in doing so. You have a job, and work, and your own life to deal with, you want a partner sometimes but romance is just so far off the radar after jobs/bills/family/trying to find the will to live, that sometimes its nice and indulgent but so often just a disaster. I really appreciated the way they went around dealing with that aspect of relationships and love, especially hot off the heels of Yesterday's shitshow.
For the actual 'plot' of the show, it's not quite got the same consistency, or any obvious narrative/plot thread where things need to happen. comedy isn't really the focus on this either, but it's definitely a little more absurdist, self referential, and even in its bleak moments, has this ability to keep the tension and taut energy within the show. the voice acting is definitely the stand out (duh, radio) but the animation isn't bad either.
while i don't think this show is rave worthy, i do think it's a notable, and one of the more interesting offerings this season (especially since it was stripped bare by.. yknow.. covid). it's one of those quiet. sleeper hits, where i could easily see it getting a cult following, and one that I did end up enjoying, even if i'm not totally in love with it. I give this a 6.5/10, although the OP also gets a 10/10.
Kakushigoto
If this looks familiar to you - it may be because you were previously a fan of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, as this is written by the same mangaka, Koji Kumeta. Honestly, I love the visual style and the aesthetic of their work, although I was only very superficially into the series, as in, i binge read it ages back and got bored. I feel like with Kakushigoto, there's a lot of insider information and jokes about manga artists that were created and put into the manga that come through in the anime, but to be completely honest, I don't quite have enough information to verify any of these stories or claims, but I do have some sort of suspicion that this is one of the creator's most personal works. dont quote me.
so this show is basically a sort of, flashback memory situation, which involves telling the happy stories of the past through interjections of the characters from the future. the father, kakushi goto and the daughter, hime goto are a single parent family and Goto-sensei is basically like, obsessed with his daughter and being a great parent to her, which primarily involves hiding his occupation (manga artist) from her.
more or less the whole 12 episodes of this show is just hit and miss gags about the Goto family shenanigans, including Goto-sensei's manga assistants, his useless editor, and everyone else around Hime, and the serious moments about Hime's mother (who, died at some sort of freak accident at sea?) and occasionally about their family secrets (Goto was the illegitimate son of a kabuki actor and his mistress) (Hime's mother was the daughter of a really famous painter). Some people commented that the whole thread about Hime's mother was a bit of a strange and mysterious thing, because they like, never comment directly on it, only ever alluding, which is a fair point. I do think though, I really enjoyed all the moments about producing and creating manga, the workplace fuck ups especially, and the way they approached parenthood. I also have to agree that this show re: parentalness is way better than Usagi Drop and Amaama to Inazuma due to the comforting lack of weird romantic fixations in this show, although I do prefer Amaama's more laid back, slice of life comfy vibes.
the gag moments are pretty fun when they land, although I watched this mostly with thinly veiled amusement more than I did with genuine laughter - tho I wonder if that's the style of the 'gag manga artist', or if that's sort of just Koji Kumeta's style in general - which is kind of what lead me to never finishing Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei all those years ago, because it has a sort of Monogatari esque flavor, in which a lot of the jokes depend heavily on actually knowing how to decipher context that relies on actually knowing Japanese.
SPOILER - the pay off at the end of the story is that you find out that Goto had a real tragic few years after the stories in the main story - and since he's prone to dramatics in general, it really gets blown out of proportion - he quits creating manga for good and tries to just be a good father, before simmering in self hate and then ending up in a coma due to a workplace job gone bad, but then he wakes up again before the amnesia thread is sort of gracefully (sort of) tied up by him going through the end of his manga and remembering all his memories.
IMO - amnesia is a stupid and cliche plot device, but like at least it wasn't heavily used for melodrama.
for me, i think while people really enjoyed the back and forth between the more melancholy reflection of < the good times TM > and the more funny, light hearted insanity of the main story, for me it felt a little at odds, and I feel like would have just preferred one, or a clear consideration of the more serious elements which i genuinely felt were underused.
overall -the show itself is a sort of 50/50 rate of 'funny' for me, but i really love the characters designs and the overall aesthetic of the show, but everything else is really very run of the mill. this is definitely one of those shows that i think I just expected a little too much from and wanted too much from it.
I give this a 6/10. Definitely a good time, but I probably won't remember it much, or really rec it either, although if you liked the sound of any of this, you may like this!
on-going/on hold:
Fugou Keiji: Balance:Unlimited -
a show, literally on hold after 4 episodes because of covid. but oh my god was it a fuckin mess when it came out because twitter BLEW UP and everyone, was hella thirsty for slick sugar daddy daisuke kanbe.
Ahiru no Sora
Ahiru no Sora
A great start to the series!
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