KANSETSU KISS

Devidol!

This is the greatest season so far for the spirit of gdgd! The first of three offerings from its production team, bizarrely adapted from a pachinko machine, featuring three devils at a high school for world conquest, shooting the shit and ad libbing in a gdgd Fairies manner. I’m extremely here for Kana Hanazawa's improv. No subs available yet; the dialogue is far above my power level, but if no-one else will answer the call, I’ll see what I can do...

Himote House

The second gdgd offering, and the most exciting. Look at these character designs! I’m in love. The cast of gdgd Fairies and Tesagure are all back for more goofy goodness, opening the season with a fantastically belaboured underpants joke that has predictably polarised the Crunchyroll comments section. Keep an ear out for Mizuhara Kaoru’s (of shrshr notoriety) wonderfully poor pronunciation and the eventual Ogino Karin appearance.

Jingai-san no Yome

Another bite-sized offering - the first episode spent literally half its 3-minute runtime playing the full OP, so I don’t have much to go on here. I’m just sold on Kanenogi’s character design. So floofy~

Namahousou Anime Chokkan x Algorhythm S2

The third gdgd offering, this time following in the footsteps of Minarai Diva with a livestreamed, motion-captured, virtual idol broadcast. Uwaa!! I stayed up last night to catch the stream on NND - I and 4000 Japanese nerds were baffled when the program was broadcast in Chinese, with the Japanese language following an hour later. Womp womp. I highly doubt this would be worth revisiting after the fact, but if you’re awake for it, the stream was a lot of fun (with surprisingly few technical difficulties!).

Okoshiyasu, Chitose-chan

Three short minutes of pure penguin cuteness. I don’t know if there’s an IRL Chitose mascot that this is based off, and if there is, she really shouldn’t be allowed to just walk around town unaccompanied. Essentially a tourism ad campaign for Kyoto, but an extremely sweet one.

Release the Spyce

Coming off a recent viewing of Princess Principal, I’m both more open to watching high school girls do high-octane spy shit, and more critical of the quality of said spy shit. PP was unexpectedly fantastic; Spyce features an unexpected amount of licking (and a disappointing sympathy for the police force. ACAB, Momochi). Very cute character designs by Namori make this watchable, if ridiculous.

Tonari no Kyuuketski-san

The only pure slice-of-life show on my list this season (there was a quota to fill). Quietly cute, with enough magic injected into the proceedings to keep you alert. I love how casually Sophie tells everyone in her life that she’s a vampire, and how unfazed Akari is by this. Meanwhile, my yuri-baiting alarm is sounding wildly. Let’s not pretend I’m better than that. Speaking of...

Yagate Kimi ni Naru

Ahh! True yuri finally makes its way to our screens! YagaKimi is my favourite manga series, even beating out Kase-san (only just). It’s a beautiful, at times heart-wrenching drama about girls fighting with the expectations put upon them by themselves and others, and is delightfully free of the regular shackles of yuri - sexuality hardly comes into it. The first episode of this adaptation is surprisingly fluffy, adorned as it is with sakura petals and windchimes, but let’s enjoy the romance before we delve into the backstory and everything starts hurting.

Zombie Land Saga

Extremely fuckin’ cheeky. The description and PV had me expecting more or less a better version of Highschool of the Dead, but instead we’ve been given the most absurd idol anime of our time. Can these ordinary zombie girls become top idols and bolster their prefecture’s tourism? Can they do it without causing a zombie apocalypse?? I’m predicting yes and no respectively. Very  funny and very tongue-in-cheek; good to see Miyano Mamoru has found a better home for his Hououin Kyouma voice.

What is gdgd? Literally, it’s a stylised form of ぐだぐだ - gudaguda, meaning (amongst other uses) ‘tedious, repetitive, rambling.’ As for the gd-verse, I’m unable to firmly grasp it myself - no incarnation or responsible party has been successful enough in the English-speaking anime community to warrant, say, a nicely-sourced Wiki page. A cursory study tells me it begins in 2011 with gdgd Fairies, a bizarre comedy starring three fairies having tea in a forest, chatting about anything and everything. shrshr generally introduces an absurd conversational whim, timid pkpk acts as straight-man, and taciturn krkr interjects with dark non-sequiturs and punchlines. It’s cheaply animated in MikuMikuDance, but uses its low quality to its advantage - for instance, frequently relying on terrifying stock models of old men for visual gags, reminiscent of early Garry’s Mod absurdism. In a recurring segment, the three VAs improvise captions to a brief, surreal video clip provided by the animation staff: sometimes referencing characters they’ve played on other shows; sometimes having a reference censored due to licensing restrictions; sometimes birthing running jokes later referred to in the scripted segments, as if they’ve written them into the gdgd lore. Next-episode previews insert the cast into direct parodies of popular shows; season 2 opens with a press conference apologising for this silliness, followed by a smash-cut to a Lucky Star reference. Coarsely put, gdgd Fairies does what the fuck it wants.

These are all the essential qualities of gdgd - cheap MMD animation, whole segments of VA improvisation with audible laughter, pop culture and meta-references, a general freewheeling disregard for structure and convention. Other projects by studios Bouncy and Strawberry Meets (the two sharing credit for gdgd Fairies; their exact relationship is still unclear to me) manifest this spirit of gdgd even when not invoking it by name, and have generally each tackled a particular genre ripe for parody. Chokkyuu Hyoudai Robot Anime follows three robots in the far future attempting to revive and understand the ‘humour’ of ancients - it’s incredibly dry, and deconstructs joke formats to the point that even I have trouble sitting with it. Mahou Shoujo? Naria☆Girls is a vague parody of magical girl tropes, though the ‘plot’ quickly devolves into a ridiculous string of unrelated happenings, and the majority of the show revolves around the VAs improvising off terrible prompts. It’s the worst-looking show of the gd-verse, motion-capturing the VAs into incredibly janky schoolgirl models that clip through each other (which has of course, despite its humour, translated into the lowest MAL score in the gd-verse). Minarai Diva, a copy of which continues to elude me, attempted to form an idol unit and write music on live broadcasts, similarly mo-capped and apparently riddled with technical difficulties. Tesagure! Bukatsumono follows an after-school club attempting to improve generic after-school club scenarios. And this year’s gdMen puts three male VAs in the lead for a change (sexual innuendo is much more abundant here) while riffing off isekai fantasy tropes - maybe especially funny to me, being totally apathetic towards the genre.

I’m urged to apologise for the gd-verse because I constantly see viewers repulsed by its face value, refusing the spirit of gdgd to a vehement degree. I vaguely understand why - when I finished the first episode of Naria Girls, I thought I’d found the worst show I’d ever seen. Thanks to its abysmal rating, I was entering with the assumption that it would be terrible, and the loose dialogue and poor animation are definitely qualities of terrible things. By the second episode, once the shock had worn off, its self-aware lackadaisy that had been disguised as ineptitude became wholly apparent, and I allowed myself to be taken along. I quickly realised I loved it. But I’ve seen comments that hint at viewers latching on to that initial attitude - “what is this?! It’s ugly! It’s so poorly written it almost seems improvised!” - and refuse to budge, even while staring the gdgd in the face. The initial expectation that it will conform to the traditions of anime encounters the non-traditional spirit of gdgd; in this conflict lies the absurd. The typical viewer can either accept the gdgd, or come to despise it - it is so at odds with expectations that it cannot be merely rejected. It must be destroyed.* By which I mean: I can understand initial confusion, but I can’t understand the viewer that sits through a whole season of Naria Girls and at no point realises that it’s all a big joke. People hate things they don’t understand, and it’s easier (and more fun) to hate than to attempt to reconcile yourself with something new - for instance, that animation quality isn’t the only metric of merit; or that not every piece of art is asking you to take it seriously.

Let me tell you: if you’re enjoying a guide to an obscure comedy studio that’s riffing of The Myth of Sisyphus, you’ve got the spirit of gdgd in you. If you seek to explore the gd-verse with me, I recommend starting where it all began with gdgd Fairies. Let me know how you go. And to all who may be wary, I ask you to try, if only a little, to let the spirit of gdgd into your heart. You may absolutely fucking hate it, yes. You may well be changed for life.

なーんちゃって~

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card-hen

I’ll forgo a proper review here (to the extent that anything appearing on this blog can be deemed “proper”), given it's still early days for the two-cour show - and, preserving the style of the original, not all that much has happened anyway. It’s all been very sweet, of course, and the superb animation and soundtrack make watching any amount of filler enjoyable. Also, is it just me, or has Tomoyo gotten even gayer since the OG series? I guess she’s gettin’ to that age.

Violet Evergarden

I dropped this after episode 3, with a view to resume watching once it’s over, if any good reviews come in. Good, justified reviews - there’s already a few similar sceptics, but its unwaveringly high rating on MAL speaks to how well its production-line Feels™ are working on its audience. To be clear, this is a show, ripe with potential, that tackles its potentially deep themes with the emotional understanding of a 5-year-old (or Mari Okada). So many interesting things are set up, and immediately inadequately explored or explained. Writing letters on behalf of the illiterate was historically a real and important role, but since when were scribes expected to “interpret the feelings” of the sender and write the entire letter themselves? Why the hell is this position called an ‘Auto Memory Doll?’ A strange contrivance to highlight Violet’s emotional stuntedness / development, I guess? So far, said development goes along the lines of:

LUCULIA: I just don’t know how to tell my brother I’m happy he’s alive. That’s all I want to say, but I just can’t.

VIOLET: Here, I wrote a letter to him. It says, “I’m happy you’re alive.” That’s it. That is all that it says.

EVERYBODY: Holy shit Violet, you did it!! You looked deep into her heart!! You learned EMOTIONS!!!!!!

Hmmm. Someone please just compile GIFs of the timelapse shots for me. I don’t think I need the rest.

Darling in the FranXX

At episode 2, I dropped this like it was hot - and hot it was!, as most trash fires are. Last year, I watched all of Kiznaiver, to confirm that my housemate would hate it and shouldn’t watch it; this year, we’ve switched roles, him going on ahead to report back what I’m missing out on. I’m betting on “not much” here. It’s really hard to believe the sexuality of the show is in service of its story, rather than vice versa. While initially uncomfortable, Kill La Kill intentionally used sexuality to talk about the male gaze, sexual autonomy, etc. in a confrontational way. I can’t imagine FranXX, with this many panty shots and glistening close-ups of mouths, has anything intelligent enough to say to justify them. In before, fuck, I don’t know, an episode about practicing safe sex features robot pilots putting energy-field condoms over huge sword-bananas.

Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san

It was this time last year that I was falling head over heels for Dragon Maid - a surprisingly adept SOL comedy with an absurdly affectionate lesbian at its centre. Apparently that particular hole in my heart wasn’t properly filled, because here we are again, with a much less adept SOL comedy that I’m still fairly crazy about. Yuu is pretty consistently derided in the Crunchyroll comment section as a “whiny stalker,” and I’d be foolish not to acknowledge how unacceptable her behaviour is - but I’m such a sucker for a pure-hearted gay! She’s just a flustered high school girl, and so, on an emotional/hormonal level, am I. I’m very protective of her, I’m similarly crushing on Koizumi-san, I’m unexpectedly interested in learning about ramen variations. There’s nothing objectively “great” about the show, but I stand ready to defend it as entertaining, and will absolutely be seeing it through to the end. 

gdMen (gdgd men’s party)

Clearly I misspoke last entry when I said I was “keeping up with the season” - not only did I forget to mention the myriad Cute Girl simulcasts that don't interest me, I didn’t even know this show was airing! How lucky we are to be treated to another gdgd instalment - and how thoroughly misunderstood and under-appreciated it already is, yet again, by a fresh wave of Citrus-loving slobs. I’m sorry, that’s harsh, but I wish more people would look up the context of things before commenting. It’s easy to dismiss most of this studio’s work as low-effort trash if that’s all you’re expecting, but they’ve cemented a charmingly niche comedy style, equal parts trope-based humour and improvisation. (Naria Girls, by far the lowest rated of this ilk, is the best (and my favourite) example of exactly this.) Anyways! Though krkr is sadly absent, this instalment’s three male seiyuu’s are just as funny as the fairy trio (not to mention Princess Melody’s show-stealing cutaways), and the OTT hype of the isekai-parodying segments pairs nicely with the quiet absurdity of the improv bits. Whoever in the comment section makes it all the way with me to the finale is gonna earn themselves a friend request. Or a positive comment reply. Or maybe just a thumbs up, I’m really not that sociable.

Sanrio Danshi

Hard confirmed! Once per episode, there’s a viewer POV shot in which “you” interact with the main characters for all of 3 seconds, and the viewer character is definitely a schoolgirl. I’m not angry, just disappointed. Five episodes in, the show has given us absolutely no substantial drama, character development, character establishment - anything, really. It’s wholly banal, in a wryly enjoyable way. That said, I’ll probably be putting it on hold to make room for more Good™ content. (Reflecting on my initial comments, maybe I’ve been too cynical - I’ve noticed a few Crunchyroll comments from people who relate to having to hide their passions for fear of scrutiny. Inspiration and positivity can come from the weirdest places; Sanrio Danshi might not be Good Art, but it might have a net good benefit for the world.)

Yuru Camp∆

It’s surprisingly hard for me to write a full paragraph for this entry, because so little has happened in this show, but in a perfectly acceptable way. It wouldn’t be iyashikei if there was any plot or tonal development, would it? Which is to say, it’s been delivering exactly what it promised: some goofy SOL comedy (featuring many a screencapable reaction face) interspersed with low-key camping sojourns and Shimarin’s soothing internal monologue. I wrote a note down around episode 3 about how Nadeshiko is “clearly a character designed for mass appeal,” but quickly realised that, hang on, they all are, that’s kind of the point of the show, and oh no I’m actually in love with Shimarin anyway so what point would I even be making. I wish I were more resilient to this kind of emotional manipulation, but at this point in my life, I’m just so tender. uwu

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho

Hooray! It took ’til episode 6 before our heroines were on their way to Antartica, much later in the series than anticipated. This has turned out to be an unexpected seasonal highlight for sure. There’s a strangely enjoyable balancing act at play between grounded character drama (episodes 5 and 6 featured some seriously excellent tension) and the comedic, whimsical spirit of adventure. My only remaining apprehension is that Shirase’s find-my-dead-mom quest is going to cast an overly dour, or overly unbelievable, shadow over the final act. Knock on wood. At least we’ll have Hinata’s uniform green konbini food-print shirt collection to lighten the mood.

Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san

Though they’ve since been deleted, the first episode of Koizumi-san encouraged two extremely negative reviews to surface on MAL. Why anyone would submit a formal review after one episode is beyond me (get a tumblr blog, you herbs), but why this of all shows should warrant such backlash also confounds me. Yes, it’s silly - it follows goofy lesbian Oosawa Yuu as she follows her crush, the enigmatic Koizumi, from one ramen eatery to another, while Koizumi rebuffs her flirtations and educates her on various ramen cooking styles. It should be pretty fucking clear from this set-up that we’re not in for a thematically dense thrill-ride - why is this Cute Girls Doing Cute Things show apparently that much worse than others with equally pointless premises? All this said, I’m certainly wondering if the show can expand on its small roster of characters and settings to fill a full cour. Stranger things have happened. I’ll be following along, if only to hear more of Ayaneru’s darling voice acting, dreamy sigh.

Yuru Camp∆

(Don’t forget that delta!) This season’s iyashikei delivers exactly what was promised on the package, resulting in not much to say about it at all. I’m not sure the ambience here is quite luscious enough to warrant this many slow shots (cf. Studio Ghibli, Mushishi), but I was never bored, and it looks like we’ll be heading to more slice-of-life settings soon enough anyways. It’s quiet, thoroughly nice, even somewhat educational. Healing as it may be, it’s also definitely a Cute Girls show, and yes, the girls so far are very good. Fingers crossed we get some yuri with that yuru…

Sanrio Danshi

Ahh, a familiar conflict: a mega-corporation creates / sponsors art that supports progressive politics, but is also using the medium to shamelessly promote their products - cf. Pepsi, Heineken, etc. This time it’s Sanrio fighting restrictive gender stereotypes: why can’t boys be into cute animal mascots too? It’s a sweet message, but the irony of it coming directly from the merchandiser is hefty. Sanrio Boys makes an inoffensive first impression - the titular boys are entirely generic in design and expression, distinguished mostly by their mascot kyara of choice (disappointingly, my lovely Cinnamaroll has been claimed by a boofy-looking doofus). It’s shallow and ironically enjoyable, as most teen-girl-oriented media inevitably is, alas. Here lies another mystifying contradiction: a clearly low-effort show featuring an ensemble cast of five handsome but emotionally vulnerable boys is so clearly aimed at girls, so how is their boys-can-have-feelings-too message even going to land with its supposed target audience? Are the boys themselves just another marketable Sanrio product for girls?? Christ.

Violet Evergarden

Speaking of mega-corporations, Netflix is still on track to subsume all art and artists by 2020 - but hey, they’re putting out some good stuff. Violet Evergarden is a decisive question mark. I’m partial to both its main tropes of “post-war melancholy” and “emotionless person learns to feel again,” but they can intersect respectively with “leaning heavy on the Feels” and “literal objectification of women.” Violet’s emptiness doesn’t make for a compelling main character - it’s strange to see KyoAni’s unparalleled expressivity lavished upon an unexpressive character - and it’s hard to say whether her traumatic past will justify this, or just fall flat. I’m cautiously optimistic for now, and if it all does go south, I’ll always have Sora no Woto to give me the good stuff. (Special shout-out to both all-too-brief timelapse shots. KyoAni, you magnificent bastards.)

Sora yori mo Tooi Basho

I think it’s understandable that I would enter into this with trepidation - it seemed somewhere between a sports anime and a Cute Girls Etc., both of which can stretch to ridiculous settings. But it seems, in a weird way, fairly grounded. Well, I mean, for a show about high school girls travelling to Antarctica. I’m really hoping they’re not just on their way by episode 2 - Shirase’s struggle with the depressive realism of her ludicrous dream is ripe for exploring in itself. Both the main characters are wonderful; Shirase’s design indicated another taciturn raven-haired maiden (cf. Kousaka Reina), but she’s wonderfully expressive, and I’m always happy to hear Kana Hanazawa doing any voice other than Default Kana Hanazawa. Overall, it’s very nicely animated and paced, quietly comic, and almost definitely going to trip over its absurd premise by the time I next check up on it, but I suspect it will still be a fun, if silly, ride.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card

OH MY GOD. I’ve only been living in a post-Sakura world for about 2 years, and this was still a quasi-religious experience; I can’t imagine how this would feel to the fans who grew up on the show. Everything about this is fucking fantastic. I’m losing the ability to criticise. I’m dangerously close to “I can’t even”-ing. The production is perfect, the sakura petals are abundant, there’s a fucking oboe solo stripped-back rendition of Platinum when Syaoran appears, the fucking ED is so beautifully animated. I’m sorry, I’m doki-doki-ing all over the place. This is the by far my favourite of the season so far. Not even Meilin’s absence can sour this for me. (Okay, maybe a little, if I really think about it :c)

Pop Team Epic

Hmmm. This was preceded by its reputation, evenly regarded by my Twitter feed as “a shitpost in anime form” and “excellent lesbian representation.” Given how dense my watchlist already is, I’m pleased to say I absolutely don’t care about this. It conveys the same humour as short-form absurdities like Teekyuu or Plastic Nee-san, but mostly leans on shallow pop-culture references and crudeness. The face that it’s a full-length show - let alone the fact that the first episode is the same half-length episode played twice - is exasperating. As a fan of Wonder Showzen and the Eric Andre Show, I see the appeal of the style, but it definitely falls short of both such marks. (And though I know this is unfair, it’s a little hard to get into something so well-received by 4chan dipshits.)

Darling in the FranXX

There’s a sexual harassment joke roughly 4 minutes into the first episode - nowhere near Bakemonogatari’s record, and not damning in and of itself, but it unfortunately does reflect the overall tone. This feels like a weird teenage rebellion by Studio Trigger, defying their parent by making their own Evangelion, with blackjack!, and hookers!, and absolutely none of the subtlety or character exploration that made Eva great. Zero Two is a deafening klaxon of fanservice masquerading as a sexually autonomous character - I wanted to believe otherwise, but her fucking robot has nice boobs, and even gets its own panty shot. The robot, which is powered by making out, mind you. I’m not one to hold low-brow shows to higher standards - I will call a fanservice-y spade a spade - but I expected more out of Trigger at this point, especially on the heels of extremely wholesome Little Witch Academia series. Even the mediocre Kiznaiver had loftier goals. I’ll keep tabs on this one - if nothing else, Trigger’s animation style and an excellent OST will sweeten a bitter pill. 

Mitchiri Neko