Six weeks into the Fall anime streaming season, I gathered several of our reviewers together for an informal Slack chat to talk about how it’s been going. And where it’s going. It’s an opportunity to gather thoughts on the season in general instead of focusing on just the one or two or three shows, and its reviews, one may be following. Several series are highlighted, but three or four stood out for conversation or just good old argument.
The lineup joining me this time includes Kory Cerjak, Chuck Hodgin, DJ Horn, Karyna Kouruklis, Greg Smith, Kestrel Swift, Brandon Varnell, and Cain Walter. Editor in Chief Chris Beveridge drops in as well to put down Naruto: Shippuden.
(The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.)
Kory Cerjak: So is it just me or is this season stacked with a bunch of interesting stuff? That’s not to say good or bad—there’s a lot of both, truth be told—but interesting. I started watching more shows this season than I had probably in the last two seasons combined.
Greg Smith: I would say that’s a fair assessment. There is good and bad—and a lot of it is interesting. The stuff that is Quality with a Capital Q is pretty damn good. But there’s also good genre stuff and a decent variety of things.
Kory Cerjak: I think in terms of your Quality Anime (note the capital Q and A), this season is about on par with the rest of the seasons. I tend to find something that I really enjoy each season, even if it isn’t an anime of the year. This season does stand out in that is has an anime of the year candidate—a few of them at that, in Poco’s Udon World and, of course, the venerable Yuri!!! on Ice.
Brian Threlkeld: It is an interesting season, yes, but this is where our argument will lie. I think the Quality tag applies much more to this season than really anything this year, and certainly last season. While Poco fell a bit too generic for me, as much as I wanted to dig it—March comes in like a lion, Yuri!! on Ice, Girlish Number, and (at least for art/conceptual design) Flip Flappers get high marks. Second season of Sound! Euphoniom, as well, at least for benefit of being a marquee KyoAni show, though it’s losing me fast, unfortunately. But Drifters and Web.Working round out my normal-run-time shows. Pretty solid shorts season, as well, which deserves it’s own side-topic, given how anemic the category has seemed the past couple seasons.
For the Ultimate Quality Anime Qualifier, my battle is between YOI and March, I admit. Both well written and directed; YOI gets edge in excellent pacing and general enjoyment (hey, I’m enjoying the yaoi, too), but March is the best thing I’ve seen from Shaft in years, and it’s showing very good patience as well.
Kory Cerjak: Shit, I forgot about March comes in like a lion, which will almost certainly receive high marks from me (though I’m biased from loving Honey and Clover).
Also last season had Sweetness and Lighting, Food Wars, Orange, and Thunderbolt Fantasy. Season before that was Flying Witch and My Hero Academia. Always good stuff, man. But I digress.
March comes in like a lion
Chuck Hodgin: In my experience, Spring and Fall tend to be the seasons that anime studios release larger amounts of high profile work. After being fairly disappointed with the Spring, Fall has more than made up for the previous seasons’ underachievement this year. In hearty agreement with Kory that it’s great to see Yamamoto getting the attention she richly deserves. I do hope that the production stays the course; I know they have been having some issues. Still, Yuri is one of the standouts of the year for me. It looks and sounds amazing, and Yamamoto doesn’t seem to be half-assing it when it comes to the gay romance aspects of the show. From the first frame of the OP, Yuri has captivated me and is appointment television each week.
I am a little disheartened that so many people seem so let down by the second season of Sound! Euphonium. Episode five in particular I found to be not only gorgeous but bold. Showing the entire performance without dialogue or cutting away to other stuff was an excellent directorial decision. That scene, showcasing solos and each of the sections, was able to bring all the emotional threads of the show together into one climactic scene.
But, for me the best part of Euphonium is the downtime. The low key scenes of that show are so good at conveying its unique tone, one of an air full of unspoken words. That atmosphere is a huge part of why I come to this show, and it is very present in this season as well.
Greg Smith: I’d say at this point for me as well the Quality battle is between March and Yuri. Different shows with different aims, they both have a consistency of purpose (even if some reviews at other sites are blind to it) and solid execution. I am heartily enjoying Girlish Number.
Karyna Kouruklis: I haven’t been watching a lot of new anime. Sometimes I like to wait until it’s over (I’ve been burned by stuff like Gatchaman Crowds and Kekai Sensen not having a proper ending for months), and sometimes I like to pick up the weird shows nobody is watching. I’m waiting on Yuri (though I love the director and I’m not very upset about the yaoi undertones hehe). So far, I’ve only been watching BBK/BRNK, March, continuing with Days and Twin Star Exorcists. I may pick up something else next week. I like everything, shortcomings and all (last Days episode I watched seemed like they were dancing samba instead of playing futbol).
Chuck Hodgin: Tiger Mask W has been a pleasant surprise for me. It’s a story about the Japanese wrestling industry played completely straight (which is no surprise for fans of Japanese wrestling). I’m only a few episodes in, but it’s pretty nuts. At one point a man, while tied to a tree, suplexes a grizzly bear. Sometimes, that’s what I’m looking for in my anime. I know there is a fair bit of overlap between wrestling fans and anime fans in the English-speaking fandom, so I have hope that this show will do OK here.
Brandon Varnell: I sometimes think I’ve been watching too much anime. I have six anime currently being simulcast from this season, plus several dubbed anime that recently came out, including Overlord. I think my biggest surprise is Flip Flappers. The show is really… out there. I still don’t really know what’s happening half the time, or even why Cocona and Papika have to collect those gems from Pure Illusion, but it’s so odd that I can’t help but watch it. I’m also vaguely reminded of the anime Penguindrum. I’m not really sure why.
Flip Flappers
Chuck Hodgin: Flip Flappers is one for the visually oriented. It’s sparse on dialogue-driven narrative, but it’s animation and overall visual deign are packed to the brim with inventive techniques, unique imagery and emotional hooks. Even if one isn’t invested in the sort of psychedelic journey of Cocona and Papika through the land of Pure Illusion, it’s possible to derive a fair bit of enjoyment from just looking at Flip Flappers once a week.
Brian Threlkeld: Yes, FF is conceptually very entertaining to me. Among all of the visual imagination is also frequent homage to other fantasy anime, novels, comics, games, and, of course fairy tales. (Making as well for the best ED of the season.) That story, though, may slowly be revealing itself, I think. But through this first half of the series it can be appreciated as delightfully beside the point. Fun show, and a very curious surprise.
Greg Smith: Two shows that fell apart a bit already were Izetta, which had an excellent opening episode only to begin a downward spiral into trivialities and the kind of nonsense you expect from a third-rate light novel adaptation; and then there is what is currently happening to Sound! Euphonium. The animation quality from S!E continues to be very high, but the problem at this point is either the source novels entered a fallow period in terms of their ability to hold my attention or else we have adaptation shortfalls on the writing side. I also think that while the animation of the concert scene in Episode 5 was indeed impressive…the episode itself was actually a little boring. It was the same song as they played last time. I think these competitions, they’re supposed to play more than one song? If so…it would have been better to mix it up and show us (and let us hear) a different one. Having the same song, with the same Reina solo and the same beats was just repetitive.
Chuck Hodgin: I am torn on Izetta the Last Witch. It had such an exciting premiere episode, has had some thrilling and well-animated action sequences since then and some interesting world building. But, while I largely enjoy the tone and setting of the show, it is not keeping up the pace it needs to if it wants to complete the story it set up in just six more episodes. And, though I’ve enjoyed some moments, the show hasn’t been as good as it was in episode one and each episode has been slightly worse than the last (maybe excluding episode three). I worry for its second half.
Sound! Euphonium Season 2
Not to get too in the weeds with Eupho, but the idea is for each school to play two songs. One is the same for every school, probably to have a baseline to judge between the schools in terms of certain elements of skill, and the other is a free choice for each school. I believe they have to stick with their free choice throughout the different levels of the current competition cycle. i.e. once you pick one, you go with it until next year. It might have been more aurally interesting to hear a different piece of music, but they stuck to the same one for the sake of being a faithful representation of these competitions and band life and also because it accomplished their narrative purpose. You’d seen them practicing the song all year (this is another reason to stick with the same song; kids need to focus on it and git gud) and now we get to see them play the entire thing, from beginning to end, a perfected version of the song. That particular song is the one people fought over for the solo and others learned to play their instruments on. We get the fulfillment of all the practice and all the human drama by seeing the culmination of all of it in this song. When we see each character excelling, playing their part, we remember their journey to get to this point, a journey that centered around this piece of music, This is what it was all for.
Greg Smith: Which worked in Season 1 as it was the climactic final episode. Here…not doing anything.
Brandon Varnell: I imagine this is just a prelude. This felt a lot like the calm before the storm…or what amounts to the calm in a slice of life series.
Kory Cerjak: Izetta is on a good pace to have every other episode be actually interesting. The other half border—or actually go into—being straight up offensive. Not to mention largely boring. But I really like the episodes that are good!
Chuck Hodgin: It’s great fun when Izetta is throwing tanks around. And the animators succeed in making them look heavy!
Brandon Varnell: I still love Izetta and Sound! Euphonium, but I’m easy to please. I also think there’s a lot of build up in Izetta, which is why it seems as if nothing noteworthy is happening. My only issue is with that Third Reich dude with the glasses, who somehow knows that Izetta has a weakness. While I think that’s fine, his theories on why she must have a weakness are weak and didn’t make sense. That doesn’t do much in the grand scheme of things, but it did bother me a bit. I still love the show, though. Princess Fine has climbed up in my best female heroine list.
Keijo!!!! is hilarious. Stupid beyond all belief, but really funny. I keep thinking of all my favorite shonen anime whenever I watch an episode. That said, it’s still a dumb series. It’s just super funny and entertaining to watch. Solid B-A in my book, but probably a C for anyone not interested in T&A.
Drifters
Kestrel Swift: I’m watching less series than I have since we started getting simulcasts of 20-50 series a season: only 15 series total, only 10 of which are new to this season! As expected, the new seasons of Haikyuu!! and Natsume are the best things airing, but as for brand-new titles, the anime-original Yuri!!! on Ice is by far the champion, and its continual improvement from an already excellent start indicate its potential to become one of the greats by its end. While I enjoyed Yamamoto’s previous works, I was never as big a fan of hers as so many others, but now I’m sold. It’s already an interesting look at figure skating, a unique blend of sports and performance arts that hasn’t gotten coverage in this medium yet, but even a strong execution of that wouldn’t guarantee this level of stunning choreography, character study, and refreshingly realistic and respectful depictions of homosexuality. Bungou Stray Dogs and Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans also receive new seasons that significantly improve upon their predecessors, while the rest of the new series generally haven’t made the biggest splashes.
Drifters had a disappointingly weak first episode, but has settled into Hirano’s perfected formula for making gratuitous violence a fun ride since then, unlikely to live up to the highs of Hellsing Ultimate in any respect but still a fine successor and one that manages to get away with more than you might expect for a TV anime. March comes in like a lion is a series characterized by its ups and downs in tone, and that naturally transfers to entertainment value between its various installments, although the general trend is thankfully in an upward direction, delving more deeply into the intricacies of its colorful but invariably troubled cast. Kiss Him Not Me is predicated on some concepts that rub me the wrong way even with the understanding that it’s all in service of silly gags, but the strength of its comedy begins to forgive it and the occasional hint of sincere heart makes up for most remaining misgivings. Poco’s Udon World is unremarkable for sure, but is consistently cute and explores a man learning to be something of a father while getting in touch with his roots, making it pleasant enough to be worth watching. Izetta is barely hanging on; I don’t know how much more of it I have left in me.
Greg Smith: Yeah, on the guilty pleasure side of the spectrum is Drifters without doubt. It’s just a blood-soaked slaughter fest, but…it’s such a fun ride to be on.
Brian Threlkeld: Drifters has been great campy pulp. A good antidote to anything more sincere on the schedule, as much for the entertainment as for not requiring much analysis to enjoy it. Need that sort of thing more than ever.
Chuck Hodgin: Yup! Along with Tiger Mask W, Drifters is where I go for my dose of ridiculousness. Once the viewer can wrap their arms around what the show is (which isn’t easy at first) and discover that it’s basically a big, dumb historical mashup play set, it’s pretty easy to enjoy.
And we get to answer that age old question we all asked on the playground as kids, “Who’d win in a war? Nobunaga or Jesus?”
Brian Threlkeld: Yeah, I played that one all the time!
Cain Walter: I’m really enjoying Drifters as well, you can even shoehorn in some “education” with the latest episode. Education with Poo! Yay!
Chris Beveridge: This season has already been great for me simply by dropping Naruto: Shippuden.
Mahou Shoujo Nante Mouiidesukara
On the new side, I’ve picked up almost all of the new short-form shows with only Crane Game Girls being passed over since it’s thirteen minutes long and I can’t deal with it at that length. A lot of the short-form shows are pretty mediocre at best this year, though there are moments where some great stuff comes through. Ninja Girl & Samurai Master hits a certain sweet comical spot for me and the second season of Mahou Shoujo Nante Mouiidesukara is proving to be a solid successor of empty but appealing fluffiness.
The show that wins me over from week to week in this format, however, is Shonen Ashibe Go! Go! Goma-chan. It’s a total kids show in a pure way but it has so much fun with itself and just delights in what it does that it’s positively infectious.
Brian Threlkeld: Why, Chris, you didn’t mention Teekyu! (A plug that its crazier cousin, Ai Mai Mi, will be back for a third season soon…) But Ninja Girl and Miss Bernard Said (for lit geeks) have been real highlights of the shorts season. Sengokuchojyugiga (to complete the Oda Nobunaga Trifecta this season) has been a very oddly entertaining couple minutes as well. I enjoyed the farce of the first season of Nante Mouiidesukara, but with reservations; I couldn’t last far this season with more of the same. Ditto with more Anitore…
Chris Beveridge: The less I say about Anitore and my amusement and interest in it the better.
Greg Smith: I think Mouiidesukara has still been quite entertaining. It’s never really been a massively laugh-out loud show, but it has had its moments this season.
Brian Threlkeld: In the longer shorts department, have only stuck with the crude and weird and still amusing To Be Hero, one of the new EMON shows. But coming off a weak Summer in the department it’s been nice to see as wide and as high a quality of sorts, no matter their appeal, this season.
Chris Beveridge: Other than One Piece, I just do short-form stuff now. Course, I also watch 12+ DVD/BD episodes per day…
Chuck Hodgin: Good god, Chris.
Brian Threlkeld: So, any Gi(a)rlish Number viewers? Anyone enjoying a cynical look into how craven and unprofessional the anime industry can in fact be? It may come as less a surprise to Japanese fans, in fact, and it’s little new to me how that machine operates, but I’m curious if foreign fans find it a little audacious. It’s merely following in the recent footsteps of Shirobako and Seiyuu’s Life (both love letters, unlike Girlish Number, but both soft indictments of how the industry works, or doesn’t) but its target is wider: producers, actors, authors, directors, agents, and fans all get their share. Same time, it’s designed, visually, to appeal to generic tastes in anime right now, especially on the characters side, and is directed with the same intention. Which, I don’t know, may have a point to it. But next episode is a “beach episode,” oddly enough.
DJ Horn: I think I touched on all that in my first episodic review of Girlish Number. I’m loving it so far
Chuck Hodgin: It’s fantastic. I loved OreGairu, and this is just more of that author doing their thing. In addition to the good writing, I find the aesthetic of Girlish Number to be super appealing. The way the main character’s eyes are drawn makes watching her enjoyable. Interesting outlining work on the characters as well.
Karyna Kouruklis: Another one I have on my list to watch. I also loved OreGairu and I’m a sucker for “industry” anime, sooooo yeah.
Greg Smith: I like Girlish Number quite a lot, especially for the biting satire. I’m sure that Japanese fans are much more up on the industry as it really is on the inside, but it’s rare for anime to be this caustic about it (love letters, after all, may engage in gentle parody or satire, but are not meant to draw blood. This show draws blood). As for its generic appearance, that’s an interesting point. It could well be a way of softening the blow, providing a comforting and familiar setting in which to unleash nasty little bombs like “This show is crap, but the light novel it’s based on was crap to start with.”
Chuck Hodgin: I wouldn’t say it looked generic. On the contrary, I would describe the overall look of the show as clean and fresh.
Brian Threlkeld: Sure, GN is bright and ably animated for its budget. “Generic” in this case is not really a put down, for me, it’s a curiosity. It’s in reference to character design and direction style that is roughly on par with other shows of this nature–that being character-based, mostly female-cast (and male anime fan-targeted), conceptual shows. It’s about using established norms—as with a “beach episode,” a conceit Oregairu, based off GN creator Wataru Watari’s earlier light novel, also employed. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it means, for me, the show lacks that visual spark that would keep me as engaged as the story does—though again, if may be to some point: if the main characters always wearing the same clothes, like the visual joke in episode 5 of the corporate bosses all being identical “suits,” suggests that the industry encourages too much uniformity and too many automaton voice actors, then it’s quite useful.
I’ve seen Girlish Number characterized as the Wake Up Girls! of shows about making anime. That’s not unfounded.
Kory Cerjak: Can we talk about Yuri!!! on Ice though? After being largely ignored for the brilliant Michiko and Hatchin, and very underappreciated for The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, Yamamoto is finally getting her recognition for the fantastic(ally gay) Yuri!!! on Ice.
Brian Threlkeld: I’m not sure I’ve seen this much story and this many characters handled as well as Yuri on Ice is crushing it right now. Second half Shirobako, maybe, but even that didn’t have as deft a pace to it. It’s really an amazing show to just watch. And its humor is the biggest surprise–not at clownish expense of the yaoi content itself, but squarely instead on the characters. (The absurd melodrama of the Russian skater in episode 6, for instance.)
Cain Walter: I sincerely hope that Yuri on Ice can open the door for not just gay characters but WELL WRITTEN gay characters. I can’t be the only one who was tired of the “oh he is dressing like a woman and wearing makeup, clearly a gay character” trope anime has had going for quite some time.
Kestrel Swift: That’s definitely part of what I’m impressed by in its depiction of gay characters. It’s far too rare to see characters who are gay because that’s a perfectly valid characteristic of a human being, rather than it simply being a gimmick or fetish.
Cain Walter: Agreed, what has me most drawn to the characters is just how being gay is just who they are. There hasn’t been a joke about from a very straight old man or some passionate speech on the virtues of being different due to being gay. They just…are. It feels much more natural to me, and I feel like that’s an incredibly under utilized approach to gay characters.
Brian Threlkeld: It’s because YOI is in part aimed at fujoshi, which have a whole different set of values about “gay” men. And given that, I’ll argue it’s not then yet a direct “open” portrayal of a gay character, with Victor or others. It’s not yet disrespectful, either. But still short of an honestly written one. And while there have been a handful of sincere portrayals over the years of gay or transgendered characters (again, mostly from works appealing to women), this is still the influence of larger Japanese culture. Homosexuality is not nearly as excepted in public as some interpret it to be from anime—especially anime, which with yaoi or yuri more often uses it as a hook, or kink.
A well written gay character, which I have yet to encounter in anime, is one where it is shown in the course of things, un-commented upon, and not at all exploited for drama or humor. YOI, despite its deft touch, is not yet there.
Cain Walter: What would it take for you to have the show get there? A physical display like a kiss or something to that effect?
Brian Threlkeld: That’s the opposite of what I mean. And YOI, for that matter, has already gone there in other displays.
Chuck Hodgin: I’m dubious as to whether Sayo Yamamoto would make something for fujoshi. She doesn’t have a track record of that, but she has directed some pretty progressive sorts of shows. Why do you think YOI is targeting that group?
Brian Threlkeld: You guys have never seen fujoshi-targeted yaoi shows before?
Kory Cerjak: I think there could be a problem with projecting some American values on Japanese culture, Brian—not that that’s a bad thing, just very difficult to overcome. (I say this as I am likely about to do the same, so I acknowledge my own shortcomings.) But Japanese history has been steeped in homosexuality for much longer than American, though I believe you are correct in that current Japanese culture shuns it almost as a plague (or Republican, heyo!). This is true especially in media with historical paintings and such. Also with okama culture (see: Bon Clay).
But I’m no historian and I probably just got a lot wrong, or was misleading, so take that with a grain of salt.
I do think it’s dangerous to say “for a female audience” though because those demographics are so steeped in manga, but they aren’t (to my knowledge) as stringent in anime. Even if they are, it’s not as if those demographics don’t cross over.
There’s also a problem with translation sometimes in Yuri!!! on Ice, where Victor says “koibito” meaning “lover” and it’s translated as “girlfriend.”
Brian Threlkeld: YOI is not a full-on example, of course. But it’s a clear homage in part to the target.
Note, I’m not saying this is a bad thing, targeting fujoshi, or using a “yaoi toolkit.” (And why shouldn’t Yamamoto do that? Has her pedigree in “action” shows lead to a belief she only cared about traditional male audiences?)
There is an inescapable problem of projecting “American values” on the subject (which, in this case, is where American entertainment is with portrayals of LGBTQ characters), yes. And, like most sophisticated cultures, Japan has a long history of portraying, and on the elite (court) level, even entertaining, homosexuality. But very much yes, modern Japan does not, and its entertainment, by and large, deals with such characters in what I’d like to characterize as at least a generation behind Western forms.
Cain Walter: Also, how far does a comedic effect need to go to feel exploited? I’ve laughed at some of the things said like the pork bowl stuff and whenever Victor does naked things, but that’s more due to the absurd nature I felt. Not so much the (potential) sexuality implied.
Brian Threlkeld: And that’s a good point. And one I made earlier in this chat when YOI first came up: what is progressive in Yamamoto’s approach is that the comedy has come on the characters’ backs, not on the fact of the homosexual display—there is a giddy amusement at Victor’s passions and confidence in his naked body, but there aren’t any lame jokes about Yuri literally running away from him in horror, which is more often the history for this type of material for largely male-audiences.
Other note, when I talk about targeted audiences, I’m referring to the ones in Japan, where, by the sales, these things are more stark. Here too, is a risk for projection: just because the audience may be wider in the US, that does not mean it is at home. But clearly, Yamamoto’s pedigree alone will even in Japan surely attract a wider audience than more strictly defined “yaoi.” And that alone is why YOI is probably the best show I’m watching this season.
Western anime fans have long seen yuri and yaoi and believed it showed a sophisticated embrace of homosexuality across the culture; it does not. Not when each of those categories is designed and curated for (heterosexual) men and women, respectively. There are, of course, male fans of yaoi, and there are the gradations of yuri that appeal to women. Art leads the way, and it’s welcome for Japan to have art forms that portray homosexuality brazenly. There are some sly creators of these works that will point out the double-standards.
Kestrel Swift: I completely agree that the standard for yaoi and yuri is not what I want to see for respectful depictions of homosexuality. That’s what I point to as fetishistic while I think we’re in a better place here. Yaoi fans can swoon over interactions between Victor and Yuri the same as they could in any yaoi show, but it feels like it’s treated as a part of these characters’ complexities realistically rather than just existing to service the audience.
Brian Threlkeld: Yes, indeed. YOI, hopefully, is a standard bearer in that direction.
Cain Walter: Also, this is the first show I’ve ever watched that could be classified under anything yaoi in the slightest, so very very new to this particular genre.
Unless we count shows like Prince of Tennis but I feel those are a weird gray zone here due to implications imposed by the fan base more than the creators. I goddamn love me some Prince of Tennis.
Kory Cerjak: Also, where were y’all in calling out the overt sexuality in Fujiko Mine and how that was sexist, which seems like it could go along on the same lines as the yaoi complaint? (Fujiko Mine is not sexist, by the way. It is amazing.) But I digress. That was a spring show. Spring 2012…
Brian Threlkeld: I admit, Fujiko is still in my queue…
Chuck Hodgin: Fujiko Mine is amazing. That is all.
Cain Walter: I own that on BluRay, I agree. The box art is probably my favorite out of all the collections I own.
Brian Threlkeld: If anyone wants to promote, or disparage, any show not mentioned (there are, like, 50 of them, or something), please feel free. Otherwise it’s lightning round topics.
Cain Walter: I wonder if we will see any more Chinese/Japanese collaborations after Bloodivores. It hasn’t necessarily been a homerun in terms of viewership, though deservedly so. I’m not incredibly impressed with any aspect of it. It feels…safe? Like conservatively mediocre.
Karyna Kouruklis: I thought it was going to be so-bad-it’s good but no such luck.
Cain Walter: Agreed. The art is especially bad, maybe I just don’t watch enough shows on the lower budget spectrum but this one feels especially half-assed. Reminds me of early Scooby Doo where shaggy’s shirt color changes between scenes.
DJ Horn: Thought I’d give the studio that made Bloodivores another shot following my three episode drop of Hitori no Shita. Done with this one now too. Safe to say I won’t be checking out anything they do for a while.
Brian Threlkeld: Worth it to note the Emon/Haoliners shows are produced under several animation studios, with several different creators, at the moment. Emon, after all, is the Japanese arm of Shaghai-based Haoliner. While Bloodivores is their most explicit “collaboration,” it was produced at Creators in Pack, a Tokyo-based studio, with a Chinese director and of course source material. (CiP is better known lately for producing some semi-popular shorts, Hacka-doll, and this season’s Miss Bernard Said.) The only two titles to be produced by the Haoliner Shanghai studio at the moment are Hitori no Shita, and one of their 10-minute shorts, To Be Hero (created and directed by Shinichi “Nabeshin” Watanabe; Cheating Craft, the other “short,” is the first main production for Japan-based BLADE).
The suggestion is, while their full-form financed shows at the moment may be playing to a generic mass-(Chinese-)market, they are company, with Japanese partners, interested in producing a variety of projects, from a variety of sources, right now. Like the intricate web of production committees that underscore the entire industry, it’s not so easy, or useful, to write off anything with their name attached–assuming you can find their name attached to begin with.
That being said, Bloodivores and Hitori no Shita did not attract me to begin with, but I have mostly enjoyed the often raw and absurd To Be Hero. Cheating Craft seemed as absurd, but fell out to a too-packed schedule.
Chuck Hodgin: To Be Hero is nicely animated but leaves me cold.
Cain Walter: I have not had a chance to watch it, but I DO love absurdity…
Brian Threlkeld: Anyone have thoughts on where any these shows are going, or may go, in the second half of the season? Anything you’re just ready to drop the next episode if it doesn’t do something?
Kestrel Swift: Izetta for the latter!
Cain Walter: I would’ve dropped Bloodivores but I’m writing the reviews for it haha.
I’m hoping that Drifters brings the two separate factions of Drifters together. I also want to see Nobunaga in a Zero, very badly.
Cain Walter: I need to work a little more on my deep thinking analysis skills. All I got is “DRIFTERS IS AWESOME AND VIOLENT SANS ANNOYING SEXIST BOOB JOKES.”
Chuck Hodgin: It’s a solid take tho.
Brian Threlkeld: *whispers* i dropped sound! euphonium two weeks ago…
Kory Cerjak: Dammit, Brian! You betray the KyoAni consortium of internet trolls!
Greg Smith: Sound! Euphonium is close to being dropped by me because it’s devolving into an overwrought melodramatic soap opera. Sure, it’s a very pretty one, but it’s still becoming a soap opera.
Kory Cerjak: K-ON was a soap opera with tea.
Brian Threlkeld: K-On had better humor…and better music while we’re at it. (Speaking as a [former] high school orchestra (bass) member here.) Also, I like tea.
Greg Smith: Yes, K-On! was a soap opera with tea. Clannad was a soap opera with dango. Beyond the Boundary was a badly-written soap opera with monsters. Tamako Market was a poorly executed soap opera with an annoying talking bird. A pattern emerges here…
But each of them provided significantly different levels of entertainment for me, part of which was owing to better or worse execution of the character drama. S!E is now sliding into the territory of Tamako and BtB, both of which I consider sub-par works from Kyoto Animation. I don’t want to get into show spoilers for those who have not seen S!E 2, but there are elements taking the fore here, now, which are laughable in comparison to the greater restraint of the first season. Just to use one example, when you start throwing in a dramatic slap, there had better be reasons behind it and it should really have an impact on the characters and story (as happens in other shows). It should not be here, where you have a dramatic slap near the beginning of the episode, only for it to be rendered unimportant by the end of the episode. That reduces it to a cheap gimmick, not an important event. As this is an adaptation, responsibility falls to the original author, of course, but the recourse to cheap tricks and cliches for short term effect is not a good sign of quality in the writing going forward.
Chuck Hodgin: Re S!E 2: I think we shouldn’t prejudge the significance of that moment. I felt it was pretty weighty, given that it colored the entire episode and affected almost all the characters in it. But, even if it left you cold, most of the storytelling dealing with that character has been longer term, slower burn kind of stuff. We’ve waited 20 episodes for a peek into her psyche, so I don’t mind giving the moment more than 20 minutes to reveal itself as more important than we even thought at first.
Brian Threlkeld: Lightning round nonsense, to wind this all down… Best OP/EDs this season? Are you going to order a Yuri body pillow for the holidays? Is Oliminu, jokes aside, the best Drifters character, anyway? Final thoughts?
Chuck Hodgin: Yuri OP might be best of the year, let alone this season. Tiger Mask‘s ED has a pretty rad song and also features different character art than the show. Very appealing.
Brian Threlkeld: OP/ED: Flip Flappers hands down for ED, and combo. YOI, probably, for OP. (Though Web.Working, being a Working OP, is close. Has dancing.)
DJ Horn: Gonna give it to March comes in like a lion for both. Girlish Number close second on OP
Cain Walter: Yuri OP has my vote for best art, is beautiful. Didn’t just one guy animate Yuri‘s OP? I read that somewhere…
I want a pork bowl body pillow that entices all the men.
Greg Smith: FlipFlap ED is best, possibly for the year. For the season YOI‘s OP is probably the top.
Kestrel Swift: “History Maker” (YOI) is definitely the most memorable of the season, both in terms of song and visuals, as well as one of the best. Gundam has an opening by SPYAIR, one of my favorite anisong artists, so that might be my actual favorite OP song. Haikyuu!! always has theme songs from the best bands in the business (in fact, one of my favorite SPYAIR songs is an opening to its previous season), and I think the return of NICO Touches the Walls to that series makes for my favorite ED of the season.
Kory Cerjak: I was born to make history…with my katsudon.
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