Thoughts of Something or Other

Akane-Banashi: Rakugo!!! Modern rakugo, with a girl, that isn't set in a high school!!!!!! Idk why I am so compelled by "single-actor story-telling", but I am, and so rakugo series are an easy sell for me. This one is very shonen-coded, with Akane being so hot-blooded and a very easy set up of revenge and rivals. I really like that she's driven by a captivation with her father's performances, and anger that he was treated poorly. Love that she's had her entire teenage years to simmer on it. The directing choices are very stylish, love the like. Slots in door panels as a way of giving us the overview of stories, and the first episode's consistent use of narrow strips of light to evoke Akane's viewpoint from the sidelines is really compelling. Daemons of the Shadow Realm: New Arakawa work finally getting animated! Fuck yeah!!! I thoroughly enjoy that Yuru is just deadpan enough that he could be the sassy kind of hero, but at the same time he's generally respectful. Arakawa continues to serve up really excellent character designs and feeding the bisexuals. Lots of immediate mystery- why did Asa and Yuru's parents only take her, why did the remaining villages feel the best course was to make a fake replacement twin for Yuru, is the organization Asa's with run by their dad or someone else, why is the village secluded anyways, etc. etc. The sound editing is a little rough, I'm having to watch this at a higher volume than for most shows cause the voices seem too quiet. Hana is maybe my favorite character of the whole season. "It has horses in it and goes fast!" makes me laugh way too hard.

Even A Replica Can Fall In Love: Actually dropped it as of episode 3! So the premise here is that a really anxious gal somehow magically called up a copy of herself, and she makes the copy do things she doesn't want to, like go to school when she isn't feeling well or go to apologize to people she's fighting with. Which of course compounds the anxiety problems. But!!! One of the boys in class comes to talk to her on a day when it's the replica, and a romance starts, except they have to come up with coded ways to engage with each other so that the actual girl doesn't have to deal with him, because she really doesn't want to, and replica doesn't want to explain the whole situation. But then episode 3 reveals that the boy's also a replica. Like. What. Way to undermine the compelling nature of the premise? To me, the interesting part is going to be when the whole thing breaks open, right. How does he find out, can she explain it in a way that he understands, is there any way for the replica to exist without being at the whims of the girl, will he accept that she doesn't have a normal existence, all this kinds of stuff. And we just......... bypass all of that??? Combined with the weird white border around the whole thing which felt weird to be watching with, I can't.

Mao: Inuyasha v2! Well not really, but there's enough here that it feels like Takahashi going "I had fun doing that one, let's revisit some of the ideas from it." So far the characters seem slightly bland, but I like it's not immediately "oh this will be a romance". There's tons of room for where Mao and Nanoka's dynamic might go. I mean, it's a Takahashi piece, it's probably romance, but the start of it is slower-burn than I'm used to from her. I'm at least giving this one the whole season, but idk if I'll watch past that. Have to see how much curiosity it builds.

MarriageToxin Was waiting SO long for this one, because it started a little later and then the dub is running 3 eps behind, so I'm a little disappointed by the execution of the first episode? The pacing was SO dull. But I do like a funky romance set-up! Even if it winds up trope-heavy! And "I'm going to look for a fiance so I can become head of the family so my sister doesn't have to break up with her girlfriend to pop out kids, also I have no idea how to act like a normal human being because I'm an assassin" is definitely a funky set-up! I mean, there's like. SO many other ways about this- IVF or surrogacy or anything like that, sister does marry someone for bloodline reasons but she and the husband are free to continue other romantic pursuits, whatever- but sometimes you just gotta put the logic down and roll with it. Gero is such an intense lead character, he's doing research about how to approach girls at a speed dating event and still fucks it up because he cannot be anything other than 100%, and I love that I'll get to watch that. I'm not sure how I want this balanced on the romance to assassin action scale, and it's hard to guess based on the first ep, but I am definitely here to enjoy the ride! Even if it's bumpy (badly paced).

Rooster Fighter: It's dumb! I love it!!!! Just. Rooster fighting giant demons, along with a precocious chick and an ex-girlfriend, who carries a battery-charged sword???? And the whole time it's taking from like, 80s shonen writing styles???? It's so fucking goofy. I will have 0 analysis for this except that it's my popcorn of the season. Though i will give it that the pace for the world-building, with the demon variants and now Morio as a "good" demon is slowly teasing in a bit of intrigue.

Witch Hat Atelier IT'S SO GORGEOUS I LOVE IT I ADORE IT AAAAAHHAHAHAA SEASONS ARE ABSOLUTELY GOING TO BE LIKE 3 YEARS APART AT THIS BUDGET BUT IT'S OKAY I'LL SUFFER THE WAIT. I know the manga's very well-received but I haven't made time to sit down with it. Regardless of it's good adaptationally, I am so ecstatic over this one, each of the first 3 episodes had a moment that took my breath away. The attention to the backgrounds feels very ghibli-esque, and Qifrey is... well, he's definitely a caring mentor, but I have a feeling his arc is going to be about being mindful of that role alongside his passion for finding the masked witch. Like, I can absolutely see him going tearing off on a lead and leaving his students in danger, and having to make a choice about what is more important. I just hope it comes with the good good angst alongside it. What I've learned of the magic system has me so curious already too! Like, can you make a sigil across two edges/along a corner? We saw that the ink can be diluted and still work at the DaDah Range, so can it work in other formats? So could Coco have a dye made instead, and apply that to thread, and have that be how she makes magical artifacts? I'm glad to have a multiregional voice cast but it is also throwing me off, because pronunciations are just different enough that I'm not 100% of most of the Proper Nouns the show's thrown at us haha. Like, okay, I went to look up the girls's names, but I could not be sure if the pink-haired one was Tatia or Tetia based on listening.

Dr Stone: It's deep into it's fourth season, you either like it or you don't. It has been highly consistent in what it is and I appreciate that. For me, I'm here to see how certain tech can be broken into its component parts and worked up to. Really wish we had concurrent cours cause I hate having to regain momentum in this final arc, but that production nitpick aside, each episode is one of the easy joys of my week.

Mission: Yozakura Family Season 2!!!!!!!! Again, another easy watch. It's solid, in what it is- like, I actually buy that all the Yozakuras are in fact family to each other and have grown up with each other. And it's a comedic action romance around that, and that's all it really has to be. It's very sit-com-y, you know? There'll be some weird situation, that might turn into an angsty one, and I get to see whose bullshit skill will handle it this time. No real danger, and sometimes stuff like that is fine.

Reincarnated As A Slime: Much like Dr Stone, we are in season 4. You either like it or you don't and you know if you're intrigued or not by now haha. It is interesting though, most of these "reincarnated so let's build a society with modern knowledge" shows don't grab me, but this one's kept its charm throughout? Something about Rimuru's character is just really adorable. Helps that the voice performance is actually allowed to show a ton of emotion, when I'm used to a lot of these leads either being way too chill or way too over-the-top. I am so glad we have a much better opening in season 3, the first quarter of that just dragged and I almost dropped it. Glad to be here for Rimuru just playing around with his friends in their dungeon!

Akane-Banashi More shonen should really just jump straight into the tournament arc, it's a very good way to set the stakes lol. Joking aside, this is a VERY brisk pace! I like that the senior apprentices are mostly kind of grumpy about her joining, it means we don't have to learn all of them at once and can take our time meeting them, and means that each one has space to have a thing, judging by the context nerd only coming in as a way to ease into the Cup. I like the overviews of the stories, and I really enjoy that even my bad-at-hearing ass can pick out what's going on in each voice performance to kind of understand what each person's gimmick is. I both love and hate that Issho is kind of compelling and charming. Like, heck yeah, maybe villain has some nuance? But also oh nooooooo I kind of just want him to be mustache-twirling. I'm very excited to see how this plays out!

Daemons of the Shadow Realm Arakawa knows what she's doing at this point and Studio Bones can make action sing. I'm very curious about the Seal and Break stuff, and I do like that Yuru being new to the modern world is the constant tension-breaker running gag. It works much better than say, the Edward Elric short jokes. There seems to be three factions running in everything? Four if we count Yuru as his own existence in all this. Especially with the Kagemori seeming to have some kind of splintering, it'll be fun to see how all the moving parts crash together. The immediate trust between Yuru, Left, and Right is absolutely going to give us some grade-A angst later on when things eventually get much more personally fraught. Hana is best girl and I love her and her crush on Jason Statham.

Mao You know, I think the quality of the writing is about the same, but there's something about Takahashi writing non-tsundere romance that just isn't clicking for me. Mao and Nanoka just... don't have much chemistry? Like I'm fairly certain they are gonna end up as a couple, I have seen some basic-ass romances before, but I just find myself less invested than I am to Ranma and Akane or Inuyasha and Kagome, or any of the secondary couples from Inuyasha. Now that we're getting Mao's other apprentices I hope the thrust of this will pick up. As it stands, I know Takahashi can have some slow burn story so I'm much more willing to let this just be kind of boring through the first season, but I definitely need it to start getting better fast at this point.

MarriageToxin (actually only spoilers to ep 5 cause the dub started late) I AM IN LOVE THIS IS SO SINCERE AND CUTE. Definitely picked up after ep 1! Like, Gero's not just typical-narrative-awkward where it's like, just get over yourself, he actually has issues! That means he has a hard time just existing!!!! In ways that make sense!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like, I love that he feels he needs to put his "salary" in his speed-dating intro cause he doesn't think he has any redeeming qualities, but like. My dude, you stress clean!!! Just put that as a hobby and you're a hit!!!!!!!!!!! Or what he thinks is a party trick is way out of line with what anyone else would expect, so it blows up in his face, but he still tried! And again, Bones knows how to work their budget, and the supporting cast is just delightful. Sound Master just making that violin out of nowhere? I had to pause the video I was laughing so hard. And that's contrasted with Shiori trying to find her strength but also being so out of her depth, which gives Gero space to step in and cheer her on. It's very clear how Gero can eventually be a proper romantic lead, but for now he's an action lead, and we'll have to wait and see how Kinosaki can build him up.

Rooster Fighter This arc we're in the middle of, with the Devils and all? Very consistent way to up the stakes. I like that we're getting more lore about Keiji's family, and while I wish the show put a bit more time/angst to it, I do like how Elizabeth and Keiji are consistently having to shift their views on the demons.

Witch Hat Atelier So episode 5 is just. Art, plain and simple. I did a standalone post but I was absolutely crying at how beautiful it is for like half its runtime, and not just in the action sequences! And it got me very curious as to how the adaptation was so I binged through the manga in like a week at that point, oops. I am absolutely invested, the slow burn of whatever's going on with Qifrey is excellent. Like, it's very clear that he will do anything to protect the girls while also having some absolutely buckwild bullshit going on in the background. Olruggio sounds perfectly grumpy in the dub, best boy. And while it takes a while to get interesting stuff about the girls, that's really fine and I appreciate that none of them have a parade of trauma that would make us question the timelines or how so much has happened before they're like (anime ages are fake) 12? Like the anime just gave us a glimpse of Agott's self-esteem issues but it seems tied to one major event and probably a related run-up, or Coco has the starting issue with her mom and the childhood festival but not a series of mysterious events that would make us wonder full her life has been.

Dr Stone: We've definitely hit scope creep! Idk if it's rushed or what but all this stuff with the rocket building just doesn't feel as exciting as them getting stuff together from season 2, and Why-man is such a distant threat that he's not quite pushing the plot like Tsukasa or the island vizier really did as enemies. Still gonna finish it out, still like it when it's in front of me, but I'm not burning to watch it every week.

Mission: Yozakura Family The silver test arc is kind of a slow start but that's fine for how long it's been. Do wish the confrontation with Dandelion leader was more of a 2-ep thing, I feel like we could have gotten more information on how this Thousand Blooming or how the ancestor's semi-immortality situation is working. Still a popcorn show.

Prints of the inner senshi are availble in my Etsy shop, outers coming probably next month, or at least once I get around to Saturn.

I offered some of the high-motivated students in the classes I work with some workbooks they can take over the summer to keep their skills fresh, so they don't have as much of a start-of-year slump. Most of the time I only get a handful that say yes, they'll take them and actually use them. This year though, I offered to 25 students, and twenty of them said yes! This puts me in a bit of a tight spot. To be clear, I can buy stuff myself, but my position can't get reimbursement money from the school and since I'm about to go from 40 hours a week to 10 hours for the next couple of months, I have to be somewhat frugal. I might have to pick some smaller books or ones that don't have as good of answer explanations, having to buy like double what I expected would actually be taken up on.