#parallels really are a kyoani thing

[milkmynk]

Munto, small rant, spoilers

The fandom is probably DEAD-dead (if it ever really existed at all), but I really think Kyoani fumbled the ball on the third arc of this series.

Honestly the whole series works off vibes rather than logic, but at least it made some sense until the third arc. - Like... Ichiko / Suzume, what was your plan really when you climbed the Ferris wheel... Like... Yumemi jumped off the wheel cause Munto was gonna catch her, all that's gonna catch you two is the hard, cold, unfeeling ground. How have y'all survived till 14 yo?? - Also, the worldbuilding is just plain... I mean, it's not ridiculous per se but also yes it pretty much is. Like, ok, there's this race of beings who can use human thoughts / emotions / spirit as magical energy with no seeming cost to the humans themselves. Cool, it's virtually a free, infinite energy glitch. And then, these mighty beings chooses to...... Destroy / trample over the source of their power themselves. =w= Absolute big-brain move, 10/10, braincells are clearly on vacay. - Besides which... I cannot see this ending well. Absolute power corrupts, and Munto / Yumemi aren't going to be around forever. Who's to say that in one or two generations, the Heavenly People won't grow conceited in their power again and just restart the whole damned cycle?

I get that Yumemi is 14 yo and probably not really able to think things through yet, and props to Munto for not hiding the ugly truth of the Heavenly World from Yumemi (I'll give him a tentative pass for only revealing it after Yumemi is already safely in his grasp and doesn't really have anywhere to go other than to commit to the path, he was stressed for time all the while before). But also??????????

It's like taking out a small loan (everyone says Earth would be destroyed at the same time that the Heavenly World falls, but really all we've seen are some earthquakes from "rocks" falling from the sky), without worrying about what it could snowball into (possible enslavement of the entire human race, or full-out war between the humans and the heavenly people). Like... ????????

- Not even getting into the whole "as long as I believe in it, the world will become more beautiful" thing... I mean... it's a shoujo anime so...

Probably a bunch of others but eh.

Also, in the grand scheme of things this is a tiny nitpick but I really did not enjoy Munto's design in the third arc. I know that the series was made over a long span of time and KyoAni's artstyle evolved over that period of time... But, mmm. Munto's design in the third arc wasn't kingly. He was princely. (A bit of a baka-ouji if I'm to be honest...)

VS Munto's design in the first and second arc, besides the painful choice in clothes (I guess they were trying to make him look space-age-y), the wildness of his features contrasted very nicely with the seriousness of his demeanor. Like, first two arcs, he felt like a king. A young, scrawny (malnutrition from lack of Akuto? is that why he shot up in height after a couple years in an Akuto-rich environment, LOL) and somewhat impetuous king, but there was this... heavy weight on his shoulders, which befit his backstory.

They tamed down both his wildness and his seriousness in the third arc, which really... Ok he really was a baka-ouji in the third arc. What was that deal with the sailor uniforms?? MY DUDE, HAVE YOU BEEN STUDYING HUMAN CULTURE BY WATCHING SAILORMOON?? WHY IS THIS FIGHTING ATTIRE IN YOUR BOOK???

I'm not going to lie, I still really love the Munto / Yumemi ship, this was one of my teenaged self's OTPs. Even now, with all the glaring plotholes, lack of worldbuilding, and just overly heavy exposition (they try to make use of a lot of parallel analogies but it comes across as teenage angsty drama... I'm old now I guess), I still really love their contrasting yet overlapping personalities.

Ugh. Rant over.

[shiningjoy]

i feel like through out the series it is rin “abandoning” haru and it certainly has affected haru internally and has given him abandonment issues but that last scene in the final stroke feels more like haru abandoning rin by ending things with him (sounds like a break up lol but it lowkey highkey was...) though rin did say first that he was going to stop swimming free and haru may have felt that rin abandoned him to leave him to face albert and swim free alone. but i think haru cutting rin off (instead of the other way around like rin did when he left to aus and from isc after “the race”) adds onto the role swap that i believe kyoani is going for because it seems like this time rin (and likely ikuya as well which brings another roleswap since ikuyas story was made to parallel rins very closely) will have to chase after haru and remind him that he shouldnt and doesnt have to swim alone in part 2

but another thing, perhaps haru’s abandonment issues (and his desire to swim with rin in general, though it is a bit deluded right now as hes freaking out thinking of the near future specifically regarding albert) are what is motivating him cutting rin in the first place. hear me out, so harus dream right now is to swim with rin on the world stage, but bc of albert, he fears that he is not good enough to achieve that dream. he doesnt think he can reach the world if he doesnt beat him. So that fear, also the fear of running out of time before he becomes a “normal person”, the desire to go to the world, and his competitiveness (since he wants to be the one that feels the water the best) made him hyperfocus on just getting better and thus lose sight of his friends and the motivation they bring him and that theyre really the reason hes there in the first place. and the only way to get better? it is to give something up, and so he does just that. he doesnt realize that that solution and beating albert are really just short term solutions to his problems and the long term effects esp regarding his relationships will be terrible

at the end of the day, both rin and haru just want to be standing next to each other on the world stage, but they are disillusioned from the path they should really take. haru doesnt think he can reach the world stage unless he gets better, and the only way that he can see himself doing that is following his coachs advice. and rin is scared he wont reach it either, so he gives up swimming free in order to focus on his “superior” stroke that’ll more likely bring him there. theyve forgotten how swimming together is what pushes them further in the first place, and that even if they both do reach the world with the methods theyre choosing, they wont really be together. i wonder whether part 2 will solve this by having them swim together through a free race, or through a relay. it depends on whether rin will take up freestyle again or not i guess. (itll be either ‘we can face the world and albert together!!’ or ‘even if we dont swim the same style, we can still race together!!’)

edit: read some of my old posts again, and realized that perhaps besides harus fears and the other things i said, a reason haru is so disillusioned is that rin is not there to guide him. the final stroke character profiles says that haru is guided by rin and rin leads haru, but if rin doesnt swim free anymore, who can he look to for guidance? it doesnt help that haru wont confide to rin about any of this, and how haru sees that rin is disillusioned like him since he gave up freestyle. and this points another flaw in their current path; if they dont swim together, who can they look to for inspiration? both of them really look to each other for guidance, shown by how they both want to swim like the other, so if they dont swim together they wont really be able to move forward. so like i said, their current paths really are only short term solutions and wont work out in the end.

[redxblueihateloveyou]

I doubt that kyoani would choose to deliberately end this franchise that’s become such a big, important thing in a bad/ underwhelming way. In a way that disappoints us all. I mean, they clearly learned from S3, right? Or do you think they’ll choose to end it in a loose/bad end just for shock value? Like genuinely, I want to believe they’ll stick to the friendship/love premise that’s been the core of free! since forever. Do you believe they will solve this in a satisfactory way? What would be the worst outcome? How can they solve this without going bl? Will they solve it half-heartedly??? Will they meet out expectations?? Will they let us down??? I’ve been going crazy for the past days trying to come up with ANSWERS but is there a way to know?🥲

Nah, I don't think it's possible for them to end it in a bad or unsatisfying way. Each rinharu angsty bomb at the end always follows up with even more intense happy ending one like 1x12 and 2x12. It's how they go. And the new angst bomb is a result of combination of all rinharu angst throuhout the whole story since the very beginning, so I can't tell how excited I am about the next movie O_O

I honestly don't ever remember any conflict in free resolving in unsatisfying way ever. We don't like s3 bc Ikuya's storyline was a repetitive soup and bc because of this we just didn't move anywhere plotwise and thus everyone was mad, but it once again didn't harm rinharu in any way. We also weren't used to this kind of plot distribution you see. Apparently Hiyori's words, opening credits with Rin leaving and Haru on the rails, Haru being so upset after Rin jumping in like "yo" and his whole reaction that was all them planting more seeds for the main rinharu boom-boom that this movie ended with and the resolve you'll see in the next one. So they're just using rinharu as a carrot here.

Literally everything what was happening rn, I was expecting in s3, bc of the opening too, when they showed him hurting over Rin leaving and Haru's eyes lit up and he destroyed the pool.

That was when and why I wrote this scene in the first place, bc I thought he would yell at him about leaving and coming back without a word in 3x10, but you see I underrestimated his control xD. It's just so funny bc I remeber how I was grasping on straws after everyone was upset about 3x10, I wrote an analisys of this scene right after the episode, how he's just tired of him leaving and then jumping in like no biggie, thats why he looks so upset and angry in that scene:

and I just trashed them by saying that "if I wrote fanfiction, I would suggest this reason for him being so upset, but thats not gonna happen with writers like this". And turns out they planned the fafiction all along lmaaooooo (I'm real sorry, free creators, I'm sorry)

I then wrote "He just doesn’t want to soften up in case Rin leaves again… shut up, let me dream." and made this vid LOL SCORE.

I suggest to look at it like 3x01, 3x03, 3x09-3x12 is the first five episodes of the season, the first movie is the usual mess thats happening from ep 6 to 9 or smth and the finale is gonna be the second part of the movie. But kudos to them for the fact, that they indeed planned it all along, I just thought that my theory in s3 was too fanfiction-y and that was just my rinharu crazed brain, but then again they always were the best fanfiction, so I don't even know why I'm so surprised. It's just really funny that it was indeed exactly that.

So my point is, if that was really their intention all along, since its the only reason s3 opening along with everything that was happening makes true sense, then I have no doubt it's gonna come together very nicely at the end. I mean, all elements are in place, there's a reason sakura doesn't bloom now and we're there again, the set up is perfect, you can hardly back out from what Haru said now and it's just Rin related, not about friends or swimming really. As for bl or not, I mean, to me it always was their love story even without this label. I don't think they'll make them kiss or anything, but they always write them so good that they give me the amount of feels that most bl won't give me. I'm pretty sure Haru hugging him paralleled to s1 finale and blooming sakura will be included as for the rest, I have my wild scenarios ready, yes. But my point is I don't think they'd disappoint us, no.

I just honestly think they should've either wait and put this all in one season or make Ikuya story separetely, bc the way s3 was was like if s1 ended with ep5 or smth. We're just used to our usual emotional rinharu drama, emotional rinharu resolve during the season that we didn't quite get wtf was s3 haha. I just remember how we didn't get why Hiyori thing wasn't adressed and what is even going on and why Haru is like that during the reunion and what opening has to do with anything if he didn't have any outburst. Here it is. Why they split it like this idk. Worst decision ever. I mean, ppl were sooooooooo mad.

Ah, good job tho, so happy about their box office record, well deserved. That was good promotion with the Road to the World, trailer and everything *wink wink*.

[innovativestruggles]

SouGou theories, thoughts and speculations based on canonical evidence

Alright, I know I am so epically late to the party just like I was with Haikyuu and TsukiYachi but I am here now and I am so sad that a lot of the SouGou shippers have...disappeared...

Regardless, I still want to put forward my own thoughts and speculations on these two because they have given me brainrot over the past few weeks. 

So much like the earlier post I did with TsukiYachi, this one will be similar, except I am basing everything on the anime as I have not read the light novel (tbh light novels aren’t really my thing so...). Just to reiterate, when I make any speculations and theories, they are always based on canonical evidence, and of course my own interpretation. I put forward solid evidence so people can see where I am coming from and what I am yapping on about. People are free to draw their own conclusions of what they see in canon, so just because I have a theory with evidence, it does not invalidate another person’s theory of the same evidence...if that makes sense?

Every time I watch a new anime, I always come in with a very neutral mindset. I have a fascination with relationships (hence my ship heavy blog) so I ship characters based on their level of chemistry and compatibility.

Because I am so fashionably late to the party, a lot of the speculations below have been discussed by other SouGou fans. Essentially when I read some of their posts, they pretty much validated what I saw. So I want to credit all those SouGou stans who did the hard yard first on their speculations of these two. This post may already have what was speculated, but it’s nice to have it all in one big post. I will of course add my own thoughts and interpretations as well. So, happy reading!

WARNING: THIS IS A VERY LONG POST

Gou’s Relationship with Other Characters

Sousuke did not make his debut until Season 2, so for all of Season 1, the focus was on Gou and the other characters. To be honest, nothing stood out to me in terms of shipping potential with Gou in Season 1. I do not go into watching anime with the intention of shipping characters - the shipping just automatically occurs when two characters have good chemistry. So with Gou in Season 1, all I saw was a manager being incredibly supportive, friendly, strong willed and determined to see her friends through the swimming club. You may have read my other post on Free! and toxic masculinity, but I did mention in there that what I loved most about Free! was the friendship and the emotional vulnerability. Because Gou is a side character, we never get to see too much of her and how she would develop as a character outside her obsession with muscles. But as viewers, we get the gist of her sweet personality.

Kyoto Animation

Before I dive into the speculations, I want to point out something with KyoAni. For starters, this studio is known for its amazing adaptational works of manga and light novels. When it comes to anime that does not purely focus on romance, they are so so so good with romantic undertones. As much as I do enjoy romance anime, I enjoy ones with subtle undertones of romance even more. I have watched a large portion of anime from KyoAni and I can definitely come to the above conclusion. Although Free! is not a romance genre, there is very subtle light teasing of potential developments between certain characters. Like I mentioned in my Free! post on toxic masculinity, I will disregard that just because the male characters are hugging, crying and showing vulnerable emotions to each other, it does not necessarily mean that there is a romantic development. The very subtle undertones of romance I could see is mostly between Gou, Sousuke and Momo (I will explain more later). So what I am trying to point out in this paragraph is that Free! does have minute traces of romance, because based on what other anime KyoAni produced, there are similarities in how they portray romantic undertones.

SouGou Initial Meeting

The initial meeting did not particularly stand out to me until I watched more scenes and interactions between SouGou later on in the series. What I noticed was the level of admiration Gou has for Sousuke. Again, this was not apparent when I watched the initial meeting scene on its own. I had to see a culmination of scenes between them to realise.

Oh gosh just look at how happy she is seeing Sousuke. If you go back and watch this scene again, she legit just shoved Momo out the way and ran to Sousuke. Lmao poor Momo!

Also....

Momo still staring at SouGou the whole time...

Momo getting pissy lololol (and super jelly)

Gou just looking so happy staring after Sousuke...ughh my heart....

Middle School

Just something I picked up. When Rin transferred to Iwatobi during middle school, it sounded like Gou did not go with him. So she stayed behind in the same middle school together with Sousuke after Rin left. See below.

Because Gou is one year younger than Sousuke, the scene above just sounded like he stopped talking to her when he left for Tokyo when he was a first year high school student and she a third year middle school student...and then the below scene confirmed when and the reason...

In the above scene, Sousuke explained that he hurt his shoulder in the summer of his first year of high school, and then he heard from Gou that Rin was visiting Japan at the time, so I am guessing SouGou must have stopped talking to each other around that time when Sousuke injured his shoulder. The injury was most likely why he stopped talking to her because he knew the consequences...that if Rin found out through Gou... then yeah... so to him it was better to cut off contact with both siblings...omg my heart...my poor baby Sousuke...

Anyways, point is they were definitely still talking when Rin went to Iwatobi and then later Australia. So I wonder how close they were to each other...? They do sound very close...wonder if they walked to and from school together...omfg my heart hurts again...aaaahhhhhhh

Childhood Friends

This trope is so cute and I really like the whole ‘he is my brother’s best friend’ kind of thing. Because we all know how overprotective Rin is of Gou and if there is anyone who is good enough for her, Rin would definitely think it be Sousuke.

LOOK AT HOW PRECIOUS THEY ARE OMG. Love this official artwork of all three of them. And Sousuke has such a sweet gentle expression when he is looking at Gou...

Best part also is that subtle teasing of these two. Anime is always about camera work and specific panels as well, so it just looked like to me that they really wanted to emphasise this scene between SouGou. The snow, the Christmas tree, the childhood friends - all in one frame.

Indirect Moments

These are the moments that started me on the SouGou ship! 

Gou sees Sousuke at the train station right after he has been brooding about his shoulder injury

Gou sees Sousuke at the hospital

What I really really liked about these scenes is that every single time Sousuke was having a down moment, or a vulnerable moment in relation to his shoulder injury, Gou happened to be there and witness it. It may be coincidental that she always happen to be in a place and time when Sousuke wasn’t feeling great. I was initially wondering why she never approached him in the moment and then you look at Sousuke’s pissy face and that’s probably why lmao. Regardless, Gou probably knew his state of mind, and hence decided to leave him to it. The look she gave him was more out of curiosity rather than concern but because the anime never went into detail about what she was thinking at the time, it’s hard to tell. Most important thing is that Gou was there during his vulnerable moments, before anyone knew of his shoulder injury...

Jelly Momo

Ngl, I absolutely love Momo, not only because he’s a hilarious character but because Sousuke always unintentionally cockblocks him when it comes to Gou. I just find it so funny. The poor thing. And Gou just has absolutely zero interest in him....

The thing is, Momo knows that Sousuke constantly gets in the way...it has happened several times already and I think he is also beginning to realise that Gou is probably quite fond of Sousuke, hence his very vocal comment about paying attention to him. i just love it how the anime framed it like this because you know it’s a running gag going on between all three.

Also, the look on Sousuke’s face in that above scene...you can’t see it but if you go back and watch it, and it’s only a split second when Momo moves his head, it’s absolutely hilarious. He legit has a “wtf” look on his face 😂

Just going to put this above scene here where Momo gets dragged away. Poor thing. I think at this point, Gou is catching on to something with Sousuke...

After Momo bombarded Gou with his hilarious hobbies, these two just ended up alone together ❤️

Season 3′s ending credits depict a lot of parallels between characters as well as some level of competitiveness between them. So maybe it is just a coincidence here but Sousuke and Momo together probably continues to depict the hilarious running gag between them and Gou. LOL!

Gou’s Concern

No really, when Sousuke walked out and decided to swim with his shoulder injury, the concerned look on Gou’s face. This was the first time in the whole entire series (season 3 included) where Gou showed this much concern...my heart. 

When there are problems in the Iwatobi swim club related to a character, a lot of the issues and concerns revolved around the other characters helping each other (Gou would be excluded). She is just a supporting character that does not get a lot screen time. Aside from her managerial duties, we don’t see too much of her during important/significant moments for a main character - unless she is interacting with Rin in some way. So her very minimal “interactions” with Sousuke during his vulnerable moments are considered somewhat significant (even if she just saw him walking by) because they are more symbolic than anything.

Off Screen Interactions

Okay, the amount of times Sousuke talked about Gou...they clearly talk a lot off screen and whether that be through text messages, phone calls or meeting up, I believe they are a combo of all three. I have several reasons to believe that they do hang out together quite a bit. 

1. The amount of times Gou keeps bumping into Sousuke randomly (ngl the times the audience sees is probably only a fraction to what actually goes on behind the scenes) 

2. In the later episodes, they have been seen walking home together. 

3. Some of the things Sousuke said to Rin about Gou would warrant more of a face to face conversation rather than something through text message. I mean unless they talk on the phone (that would be so fucking adorable aaaaahhhhhh) 

4. In the CD drama, they have been shown to hang out just the two of them over mediocre stuff so I am sure that would have met up and talked more about other more deeper things with each other

Gou obviously confided in Sousuke how lonely she felt because her older bro was neglecting her

LOOK AT THE AMOUNT OF TIMES HE TALKED ABOUT HER! That obviously indicated they do interact quite some bit off screen. Judging from the things they talked about, it sounded like she was filling him in with what’s going on in her life..and you know just every day stuff... I love it! They are so casual and so comfy with each other <33333333

Platinum Abs

Not counting the fact that I almost choked on my drink when I saw this for the first time, but I was curious to see what Gou thought of them. So I waited....and waited...and waited...and it never came, despite the fact that she was in his presence multiple times when he was looking like this....

And I came across several older posts that pointed this out and it totally validated what I felt as well. Gou, the muscle obsessive freak has not spoken a word about Sousuke’s nationally ranked swimmer’s perfect body. WILL YOU JUST LOOK AT THEM? HE’S FUCKING MASSIVE!! Like..all over....holy shit just look at those guns...like damn fine man.... anyways... so Gou, why have we not heard a single word from you about them? To her, they are probably the best of all the characters in the series ...

And my guess is... Sousuke is most likely special to her. She does not see him as merely an object of muscles (much like she does with the other characters including her own bro) but something more. And whether that is consciously or unconsciously, the outcome is still the same. Because when someone means a lot to you and if you like someone in that way, you are less likely to see them as an object of some fantasy...

The OVA

Yo not gonna leave this one out and if there is anything that really pushed this ship further, it was definitely the OVA.

Sousuke is so pedantic about what people call him (unless you are Nagisa...which he has almost no words for ...). So the only one who can add “kun” to his name is Gou <333333

I’m not going to delve too deeply into this as

1. It is self explanatory

2. A lot of people have already discussed this topic

But, overprotective Sousuke being a sweet guy and lending Gou his jacket is something out of a shojo manga. Even more shojo is that he;

1. Did it himself and not just giving the jacket to her

2. Got overly pissed off at Ai for drenching Gou

3. COULDN’T LOOK AT GOU WHEN HE GAVE HER THE JACKET....like the whole time....ksfklafkhgdshgjdsh

Sousuke isn’t very good with expressing himself, so this scene, out of his own sheer awkwardness, really played into the intimate nature of this potential ship. I’ll explain more later...

P. S. LOOK AT HOW ENORMOUS THE JACKET LOOKS ON GOU...she so schmol (and Sousuke is just massive...). Legit they look like a couple on a date...

Sunset Meeting

Ngl when I first started watching Season 3, this scene came out so unexpectedly I had to replay it just so it would process in my mind that it happened. But aside from the fact that it was framed in a shojo manga kinda way i.e. Gou running towards Sousuke, then walking together in the sunset and then talking about deep and meaningful stuff...you get the drift...I absolutely loved it how Gou was the very first person Sousuke told about his surgery’s success. Omg..swimming and the success of the surgery just meant so much to him and he was already telling Gou about it...

Everything about the particular scene was so so intimate. The scenery, the conversation, the tone of voice, the colours used......everything! Just look at how happy Gou is....

And damn they walked home together ... my heart cannot take it anymore aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

Running Gag

I did notice this trend going on but it didn’t cross my mind until I read a post that it was like a thing between SouGou. Honestly it is so so cute! Gou has this excited pitched, giggle-ish, admiration-like tone every single time she calls out and runs to him. It’s so sweet. You actually never hear it ever when she talks or calls out to any other characters in the series, so Sousuke is indeed very special to her <3

Also...something about Sousuke walking alone and Gou either noticing him or running to him...

Gou and Momo’s Mistaken Date vs. Gou and Sousuke’s Mistaken Date

In Part 4 of the Free Take Your Marks movie, Rin walks by a burger shop and noticed Momo and Gou sitting together and having lunch. He mistakenly thought they were going out on a date, and before the rest of the Iwatobi team could come to the table after order their food, Rin gets a call from Sousuke telling him that he cannot find his way. So Rin dashes off to save Sousuke still with the misunderstanding. The episode is absolutely hilarious on Rin’s part.

Then in the CD drama, there is a story titled “Sousuke and Gou’s secret date.” Of course it is a case of ‘mistaken identity’ but as I stated earlier, these two would hang out with each other to discuss superficial things, so I am certain that they do hang out with each other on occasions to talk about other more deep and meaningful things as well. Considering the things Sousuke has been telling Rin about Gou, you can make an educated guess that SouGou do have their alone times quite a bit off screen.

Anyways, so this is the part where I believe Free has its subtle romantic undertones. I mentioned in my toxic masculinity post that when the male characters were being vulnerable, hugged or cried, that it does not necessarily mean they are gay, or that there would be any romantic development between the characters. You could say the same with SouGou as well, however, the difference lies in how the anime framed it, and the biggest tip that pushed from just a friendship kind of thing to a teasing of a potential romantic thing is the “secret date” part and the running gag between Gou, Sousuke and Momo. We know Momo clearly has romantic interest in Gou, and the interesting thing is...Sousuke being placed in between Gou and Momo numerous times throughout the anime to signify that there is a potential triangle going on. Does this make sense? It is the nuances as a viewer that you can pick up, and it is even more so if you can understand Japanese. I sometimes switch the subtitles off and really just watch what they say and it’s a completely different view. Hard to explain...but that is the vibe I get.

Extras

I just had to put this scene in. JUST LOOK AT GOU LOOKING AT SOUSUKE OMG. She totally loves him <3 YOU CAN’T TELL ME OTHERWISE!!!

I always love me some official artwork of these two, and disregarding the fact that there are four other guys around and Nagisa just being the little helper he is, SouGou wrestling is something I just need to have in my life <3 I just love the light subtle tease between these two. Thank you KyoAni! And them holding hands... I’m ded...

Sousuke’s Feelings

This is purely interpretation based on what I have seen so far and of course when I am writing a full post like this about SouGou, it does help piece the puzzle together a little more. Tbvh, I strongly believe that Sousuke has repressed feelings for Gou. My reasoning is quite complex. Sousuke is a bit of a difficult character. He is aloof, serious and can be standoffish. He is not good with expressing his emotions and feelings, yet he does questionable things if he thinks it is for the best for those he cares about. Obviously noticeable when he lied to Rin about his shoulder injury, and of course completely stopped talking to Rin and Gou after being injured. But he deeply cares for those around him, and will go out of his way to help, even if it is to the detriment of his own welfare. 

Sosuke hanging out with Gou and talking to her and being around her is already an aspect of his kindness, that he would do this to anyone he cares about. But what I meant about repressed feelings for Gou was more evident in the OVA, and I think that is where the slight nuances come into play. Sousuke is overprotective of Gou and he most likely sees her as a little sister, considering he grew up with her alongside his best friend. But I think when it comes down to more intimate moments i.e. giving Gou his jacket and just not being able to look at her, I think that small nuance does give a small insight into Sousuke’s feelings for Gou. It may be minute but it’s there, and the way the anime framed that scene, it evoked a host of response from the viewers. That in itself is enough for viewers to make a determination as to what Sousuke might be feeling towards Gou at the time ... and it was probably more than a platonic kind of way...

Just to let you know that Sousuke most likely would not act on these feelings because of who he is as a person. And if there is any possibility that things could go awry between him and Rin that concerns Gou, Sousuke would not put their friendship in jeopardy. So if there was ever a way that Sousuke’s repressed feelings for Gou could surface, it would be if Gou initiates.

Gou’s Feelings

If you read through this entire damn thesis so far I think you could see that Gou’s feelings for Sousuke is a lot more overt. She is so incredibly fond of Sousuke and it is just the way she behaves around him, speaks to him and looks at him. It sends a different vibe comparatively to when she interacts with any of the other male characters. Because Gou is a side character, as viewers we don’t get to see much of her, her development or her thoughts and feelings, especially in relation to Sousuke. 

Concluding Thoughts

What an incredibly long post. I didn’t realise how long it was until I scrolled back up. But really, this was so fun to write. I enjoy writing about side characters and the little hints that anime and manga give us as viewers. This is the best thing about storytelling, that is so much more than what you see before you.

The great thing about SouGou is the incredibly compatibility they have with each other. They have a lot of the common tropes found in anime that sets them up for a future pairing. I mean,, Free is not a romance genre so there wouldn’t be any emphasis placed on how one character feels about another in a romantic sense. So the anime has placed some gentle teasing in the background with its frame (usually what you see in shojo manga for example), official artworks, and CD dramas. It’s a very subtle undertone that the viewers would have to dig through and pick up out of the mass of fanservice and the storylines of the main characters. Yet this is the reason why I love KyoAni because of its numerous layers of stories and undertone!

In my opinion, if there was ever any pairing that comes out of Free, it would definitely be SouGou - it’s because the way the anime (and probably the light novel as well) set them up and emphasised on important aspects of their relationship without going into detail about it.

I gotta say, the reason why I love these two so much is because they remind me so much of TsukiYachi pairing from Haikyuu. There are parallels between the characters and I think I just enjoy shipping ones with that level of complexity and compatibility - the whole opposites attract kinda thing (and the height difference).

So what do you think? Are there any SouGou stans out there left? I’m keen to see what the 2021 Free movie will entail for these two and the potential release of Season 4 (most likely in 2022).

Fingers crossed for some excitement!

Also...I had to crop this <3

[makoandharu]

MakoHaru is the best ship and I would be very sad if they don't end up together. Some rumors said that the movies will be too much RinHaru :-(

I want them all to be happy but Makoto deserves his happines so much.

+++ I'm always saying this but I love your blog 🥺 have a nice day/night.

Don't think that's an unpopular opinion p sure at the height of the free fandom mh was the biggest ship on this hellsite 😂😂😂

But i agree somewhat (like yes makoharu is the best ship lmao, in any fandom ever, i think their dynamic is so interesting and soothing they literally make my heart go brrrrrr) BUT for a few reasons I've never been one to get annoyed at rh scenes even tho nothing gives me the ick like rh does.

Firstly bc this is the sports anime, they are the main characters, their rivalry is important, this is the "final battle" if they're going to the Olympics or whatever, it would make no sense for it not be about Rin and Haru.

Secondly, i think we really have so much mh content, that I'm honestly not fussed at all. Like this is the first rh centric movie and it'll probably be also focusing on Ikuya too? We have starting days, timeless medley, tym ep1, all of bloody s3 of them just being married with almost no rh interactions (which ngl is confusing like they're your mc's watchya doing kyoani), so like as much as i dislike the ship myself, let the rhs have this it's cool

Thirdly, as much as i do not like shippy rh, i think Rin and Haru's friendship is so interesting and important and lovely, and i love seeing them interact!! To me they're that sibling definition of "I'd give u my kidney but not my chocolate" They're so ride or die when it comes to big things, but so snappy and irritated about insignificant things; their bickering is so funny and i love how stupidly fond they are of each other but they'll be damned if they admit it bc siblings are just Like That.

Lastly i think every time there's been rh interactions explicitly after anything big mh-y happens, i think it's always shown how different Rin and Makoto are with Haru, and clearly how much more comfortable and understood and loved Haru feels with Makoto. S2Ep12 and the mooks are the main ones that come to mind. The episode has a whole montage of Haru being uncomfortable whilst being out with Rin, bc he doesn't understand Haru's needs; the rh mook is much of the same, with Rin taking Haru (against his will) to see sights he's never see before and Haru being unimpressed and unhappy. So like. Even if there's parallels I'm sure (i pray) they keep with this trend of showing that Rin doesn't ~get~ Haru the way Makoto does

I say this obviously without the knowledge of hindsight bc if KyoAni decide to throw all of this in the bin, disregard the whole "Rin is not Haru's other half, regarding that Makoto comes to mind" and "it's like your hearts are connected" and "Rin and Haru wouldn't even be friends if they both didn't swim" and Haru literally dying for Makoto, and Makoto literally telling Haru he loves him etc etc etc. If they ignore all that for some bs rh nonsense then i want you to disregard everything i just said bc i will absolutely be throwing hands

And thank you!! You're incredibly sweet!

Send me and unpopular opinion!

[x0401x]

Q&A with the Archery Men

Translated compilation of the eleven-part Q&A from the official Twitter. Feel free to message me about any mistakes. Please consider supporting the creator by purchasing the novels here and here. (Raws || Index)

Question 1. What is your family structure?

I live with just my father. My mother passed away in a car accident when I was in sixth grade.

I live with my father and mother. My older brother lives by himself. Of course, Kuma is a precious family member too.

Grandma, Dad, Mom and Nee-chan! Eeeveryone is nice! I’m a grandma’s boy.

Dad, Mom and little sis! If I do say so myself, I think we’re a family of good-looking men and women. ★

Dad, Mom, two big sisters and our cat, Lucy. The height of my shoulders is close to my Dad’s.

Dad, Mom, Aniki. Dad and Aniki travel outside of the prefecture for work-related matters. I also currently live by myself in an apartment complex close to the shrine.

Father, mother, younger sister. There’s a bit of a gap between mine and my sister’s ages, so we have never played together that much...

Question 2. What’s a food (or drink) that you like?

Egg rolls. Not with sugar but salt! It’s gotta be salt!

Stir-fried water spinach. I’ve never come across a stir-fried water spinach that wasn’t delicious.

Cream stew! I kinda feel happy whenever I eat it.

Soy latte. ❤ Soy is good for health and soy latte is fashionable, huh?

Salted plum. It has a bactericidal effect for recovery from fatigue and is also all-purpose! I have it pickled at home.

Coffee. The ones you can drip yourself are good, but I also like canned coffee. Getting to enjoy the scent is kinda adult-like, isn’t it?

kyoani did you really have to romanize his name like that oh my god

Japanese-style food in general. Spending time with my grandfather might have had a big influence on this. I like takoyaki.

Question 3. Any foods (or drinks) that you hate?

Japanese ginger. That smell is just... I wonder if I’ll grow to like it when I become an adult...

Ratatouille. Lots of things I don’t like are mixed in it... What I don’t like is a secret.

Sukiyaki... Everyone likes it, but I once ate too much and ended up feeling sick...

Bitter gourd. I’m a bit bad at dealing with bitterness. Ah, but if it’s a bitter gourd chanpuru made by you, I’ll eat it. ❤

Chocolate. Can’t really eat sweet stuff...

Eggplant. The texture doesn’t go well no matter what...

I make sure not to hate anything.

Question 4. What are your hobbies?

Pottering. I also go play in the river with Seiya a lot during summer. Of course, Kuma comes too!

Watching soccer games. I like collecting data and coming up with tactics. Eh, why don’t I play it myself, you ask? Haha, because I’m more on the analytical side of it!

Bouldering and traditional drums! I like moving my body, and traditional drums have been on display at a festival in my hometown too!

I like gaming and mangas! But what I’m into right now is gathering frog merch. ❤ The girls give me lots of goods.

Gaming and reading. There’s a game I’m into now, and coming up with tactics is really fun. As for reading, anything goes, I guess... What d’you mean by “that’s unexpected”?

Visiting cafés and enjoying the shop’s coffee! I enjoy reading too. I also go hitch-hiking and there was a time I went on a journey.

I don’t have what could be called a hobby, so... let’s go with “meditating”.

Question 5. Any special abilities?

None in particular. Saying, “This is my talent!” is kinda embarrassing...

Creating smartphone apps. I also register my hit counts in my own self-made app. It’s pretty simple to make one, y’know?

Kendou! I was in the kendou club in middle school. But I don’t like hurting my opponents...

Hip-hop dancing! Cool, ain’t it? I’m also in the middle of studying many languages, not just English! Maybe because I sound good, I get compliments on my pronounciation.

Archery! Nothing other than that! Period!

Car driving. Parallel parking is a breeze too! But the roads and parking lots are large here, so I don’t do parallel parking that often...

None in particular. Aah, archery? I don’t want to attribute it to a category as narrow as “special abilities”.

Question 6. Are you a dog person or cat person?

Kuma! He’s the dog kept at Seiya’s place, and he’s cute and a good boy! I wanna cuddle with him!

Dog, I guess. My Kuma is more attached to Minato than to me, though... I can’t get in-between the two of them.

Dog! People tell me I’m like a golden retriever, so my affinity with them just goes up on its own!

I’m a kitty person. ❤ Of course, I’m talking about you!

Cat. Our Lucy is obviously the cutest thing in the world.

Can’t I be an owl person? In the past, after I took care of an owl that got injured, I became an owl person!

Dog. Japanese breeds are cool, aren’t they?

Question 7. Sea person? Mountains person?

Mountains. I used to often go insect hunting when I was a kid, and climbing trees is my specialty! Be it in spring, summer, fall or winter, there’s a lot to enjoy.

Mountains. When I was a child, I often went to play in them with Minato. I also quite like playing in the river.

Both! I can’t choose between either sea or mountains~. Except, the fact that there are bugs in the mountains and jellyfish in the sea is a bit...

Sea, I guess! I wanna walk on sandy dunes with you. ❤

Sea. Hey, don’t go making that “thought so~” face. I’m into hover boating.

Sea. Why, you ask? Because pretty women in swimsuits are there!

Mountains. My parents have a villa, you see. I’d often play there when I was little.

Question 8. If you could move through space and time, would you want to travel to the past or the future?

Future. I’m sometimes like, “I should’ve done this or that”, but rather than thinking about these things, I wanna move forward.

Past. The reason is a secret.

Future! I wanna try riding on flying cars! Also, maybe going to outer space!

To a happy future with you, I guess. ❤

Past. I’d become a warlord in the Warring States era! The warlord I admire is Date Masamune!

I live cherishing the present. That’s the most important.

Either. If I were to say it, I guess it’d be the future. I’m interested in space travel.

Question 9. What if you could use magic?

I could easily buy the stuff I want in limited-time sales. Last time, a 90%-off black wagyu fillet sold out before my eyes...

Controlling people’s minds. Haha, why’re you looking away?

I wanna try flying in the sky! If I do that, maybe I’d get to be friends with birds!

I don’t need magic. Like, it’s meaningless if you don’t make it happen with your own hands.

Not interested. It kinda feels like there’d be a catch, so I can’t trust it. For example, losing something important every time you use magic...

I’d be able to perfectly clean up the shrine’s grounds in an instant! We’re short-handed, so the cleaning takes up time... I wonder if someone couldn’t help out.

I wouldn’t rely on magic. It feels like I’d soon lose anything I get my hands on without effort.

Question 10. What’s something that made you happy lately?

I got to buy a good pork meat in a limited-time sale. But even though I made ginger pork with it, Dad said he was coming back late from work so he didn’t need it...

That I was able to safely enroll into high school. Eh, sounds like a lie, you say? It’s true.

I found a four-leaf clover! I gave it to Onee-chan!

That I met you. ❤ Hey, are you happy that you met me?

I went to the live show of a band I like. The lyrics that the vocalist writes pierce into your heart...

I got “winner” at the vending machine. I have strong luck, if I do say so myself! Guess I’ll try my hand at buying a lottery ticket or something if it goes on like that...

My sister drew a portrait of me. Of course, I keep it soundly in a safe place.

Question 11. What’s something that made you cry recently?

Tears came out when I was cutting the onions for the ginger pork. I was spacing out...

I don’t cry. If I have time to be crying, I make some effort to get strong instead.

I cried after watching a movie about animals! The child-raising struggles of that cheetah mom were so touching... *cries upon remembering it*

Out of happiness for meeting you. ❤ Speaking of which, why have you been giving me this cold look since earlier!?

I don’t cry.

You used to cry like a pipe in the past!

Shaddap! It’s in the past!

I haven’t ever since I became an adult. My tears have dried up... Just kidding!

I didn’t cry even when I was a child. I don’t even know what’s the kind of time that one should shed tears.

[animebw]

Binge-Watching: Munto, Episodes 1-3

And so we begin! In which things fall apart very quickly, an unbalanced script churns out a mess of a story, and KyoAni really needs to do more action shows.

Stuck in Between

I spent a good chunk of my time with the first three episodes of Munto in a state of confusion. The choices it made seemed so baffling and nonsensical that I was really kind of unsure what it was even going for. It was only once we reached the end of episode 3 that I figured out what was going on: I’d misread what kind of show Munto was trying to be. Initially, I pegged it as one of those stories where a normal person is spirited away to a magical world to go on a grand adventure, mostly likely with some super-important destiny making them the center of the universe. Because, I mean, come on, fantasy races at war and a normal girl living a normal life being talked about as the Chosen One who can Bring Balance to the Force or whatever? This setup has old-school isekai written all over it. But it turns out I was wrong: Munto isn’t that kind of show. Yumemi, the girl in question, is a prophecized Chosen One type with the power to save both their worlds, but she doesn’t actually travel to the warring kingdoms of Heaven to solve their energy crisis firsthand. Everything she does, she does from the normal world, stretching through the fabric of space-time to help the magic world from her side of the barrier. And after the show’s initial arc wraps up (mostly likely, there first three episodes cover the first, self-contained OVA), she’s still in her normal world, waiting for the next time she and Munto’s paths will cross. So instead of a story about a normal person traveling to a fantasy world, it’s a story about the normal world and the fantasy world, two parallel narratives going on side by side in completely different settings and occasionally influencing each other.

That’s something I don’t think I’ve ever really seen done before. Unfortunately, foregoing the more conventional setup for this more daring approach ends up crippling Munto’s ambitions right from the starting gate. With the “travel to a fantasy world” narrative, you’re allowed to build up the fantasy world slowly. These kinds of stories often start in the protagonist’s daily life to establish the normal world, then slowly work in fantasy elements that disrupt the ordinary world, and then the protagonist crosses over to the fantasy world proper so we can learn about it as they do. But Munto doesn’t have that luxury, because the protagonist never actually crosses over. It has to establish the rules of the fantasy world and the ordinary world and build them both up as fleshed-out setting at the same time so we can get invested in both of their stories running at once. And it sucks at it. Like, seriously, it just flat-out sucks at it. The script is horribly unbalanced and frontloaded with overwrought exposition that drowns you in Proper Nouns and As You Know conversations before you’ve even got a chance to experience the fantasy world firsthand. Everything’s communicated in past tense; we’re told things that have happened and relationships that have been formed, but very little’s actually happening in the present. A good half of these episodes at least is flashbacks, characters saying exposition, characters talking about past events that we rarely get to see, and the actual plot is crushed by an inability to move forward.

Bizarro World

And this isn’t even just in the fantasy world! Yumemi’s relationships with her friends are also entirely communicated by callbacks to things that have already happened. By the time the show starts, Yumemi’s friends already know about her ability to see the weird floating islands that connect to the fantasy world, and the only thing that changes by the end is that now her friends have also seen the floating islands and know for sure she’s telling the truth. And with all the time spent frontloading exposition in the fantasy world, we get so little time to get comfortable in the ordinary world. So we have no basis for what Status Quo is supposed to look like in this universe, because we just spend five minutes getting the status-quo-shattering elements shoved down our throat before learning more than two things about Yumemi’s life in the real world. And then the ordinary world’s subplot just completely goes off the rails. Once again, we’re introduced to a character who immediately dumps his entire backstory on us so justify the One Thing the story makes him do in the present, but in his case, it’s so he can... marry a thirteen-year-old classmate? Like, what? What am I even supposed to take from that? The show presents it as this meaningful step they’re taking together, and the Sensitive Manic Pixie Dream Girl is leading the Troubled Bad Boy toward redemption after a life of hardship, but all they’re doing is swimming across a river and trying not to drown? And we barely even saw his life of hardship because, again, it was all communicated in flashback and has no effect in the present? So we spend half our time in the real world watching a bunch of dub kids cheer on these dumb lovers getting married before high school and risking drowning because.. it’s symbolic? I think???

Yeah, I have no fucking clue what any of this is supposed to be. It’s just baffling, and that confusion curdled into frustration really quickly for me. This script just has no fucking clue what it wants to focus on and how. It sends ages droning on about things that happened in the past and then does nothing in the present, it jumps haphazardly back and forth between the two worlds with no regard for making their stories work as parts of the same whole, and what passes for a plot makes zero goddamn sense. My best guess is that the whole swimming marriage subplot was supposed to represent the couple embracing their future together, which would inspire Yumemi to stop being scared of her own future and finally Answer the Call(tm) to save the fantasy world, but how does any of that tie into her anxiety about being the only person in the world who can see the floating islands? And they didn’t even change anything, they just swam across a goddamn river. Meanwhile, the politics of the fantasy kingdom are so confusing and poorly defined that I wasn’t even sure who’s side everyone was supposed to be on. It was just a clusterfuck of meaningless noise and action. There was one point where two characters were fighting and trying to rip each other apart, but then the landscape around them starts falling apart and one of them suddenly tells the other to run to safety like she cares about him. Don’t ask me what their relationship is supposed to be, because I have no goddamn idea, and I doubt the show does either.

Fey Fight

Jesus, okay, that was more bitching than I was hoping for. I never like being down on Kyoto Animation; they’re my favorite anime studio, and they’re responsible for no shortage of my all-time favorite anime ever. But they were also responsible for Phantom World and Haruhi, so it’s not like they’re immune to making mistakes. One thing they never screw up, though? The production. And whatever else I can gripe about in regards to Munto, I can’t deny that it looks fucking awesome. The fantasy action is some of the most impressively bombastic, massive superpowered brawling I’ve seen in a long time, with gorgeous dust clouds billowing and gobsmacking character animation that sells every tense blow and ferocious strike. The way the camera swoops and shakes, the huge-scale armies all animated with highly detailed movements, the jaw-dropping vistas of planets colliding and gigantic pillars falling from the sky and tearing a landscape’s worth of rubble away with them... god, it feels genuinely epic. Even as frustrated as I got with the plot, that final sequence of Yumemi forcing her way through the space-time barrier with the winds of reality pushing back against her kicked enough ass to get me hype all on its own. Imagine how much cooler it would be if it had the narrative build-up to justify the crescendo beyond just a cool light show! Between this, Dragon Maid and Beyond the Boundary, KyoAni should do more action fantasy shows, because it surprisingly plays to their strengths just as well as slice-of-life realism. Juuuuust make sure you get better scripts when you do.

Odds and Ends

-This washed-out rain palette is gorgeous. I feel like I’m walking through a milky sky.

-See, you could just show this shit! The visual of Ryuely sacrificing her eyes to open up a vision for Munto is so much more powerful just on its own without the dumb exposition dump earlier!

-When suddenly, Haikyuu.

-Ooh, I do like the red and blue-tinted clouds on either side of this shot.

-Lot of interesting shots held for a while in the normal world. I guess it’s an attempt to build that familiar atmosphere by keeping the camera fixed in place and letting the characters move around within the location it’s focused on. It might’ve even worked with a better script!

-Well, at least the mom has a good head on her shoulders.

And with that, we’re on our way! It’s a shame it doesn’t look like I’ll be enjoying this one, but on the other hand, it’s only nine episodes, so at least it won’t hurt for long. See you next time!

[polandspringz]

The anime adaptation sucked for a number of reasons but the music? Mwah

Oh yeah, I did not like the anime for Kagepro at all, tbh. Right after the show concluded, I made a long post about how I thought the show could have been adapted into a longer, 2 cour season which explored the multiple routes, because I was very disappointed. As a long time Kagepro fan, I was infuriated by how things like Otsukimi Recital (one of my favorite songs) seemed to be crammed into the show at the last minute and to this day I still don’t quite  understand exactly what happened with Momo and Kido combining their powers in that episode, but after talking with a few people in a (now deleted) Kagepro discord server and watching Bread Box on Youtube talk about the series as a whole across multiple video essays, I’ve become more at peace with it.

Read more just for me rambling with no cohesiveness about the series:

Kagerou Project, since the beginning, was a complicated way of story telling. I have never had the patience to sit down and read the light novels completely, but I know what happens in them from people discussing them a lot. But, the songs, as a starter, are honestly the best medium for telling Kagepro’s story, because they cover all the routes. Lost Time Memory? We learn about route 1 and route xx. Outer Science and Summertime Record? Part of what made their plot points some impactful was not only were they the two different endings to the story, the way the MVs were released allowed us to be tricked into thinking Outer Science was the final MV we would get and then only 3-4 days later we got to see all our kids grown up and happy and thriving, and the fandom cried. 

I’ve always been fascinated with series that derive from Vocaloid works, because from a meta narrative standpoint, it’s amazing to see how the creators and the method of storytelling evolved. I’m sort of all over the place right now with my points, but I love Kagepro as a song series because it used its music videos and music to tell a story with crazy things like parallel universe and reseting time and good and bad endings in a way I would normally see in a video game. Jin and Sidu and Wannyanpuu, you can see how not only does the music and the story its telling improve (from the vagueness of Jinzou Enemy with Ene being a Miku rip-off, because we had already gotten several songs from the Vocaloid community about the persona of the artificial voice watching its creator) move on to more diversely animated videos with unique character designs that tell us about how a character sacrifices herself for her family, how two different selves of one person die and survive in different timelines, and how one route has to happen for the good route to exist. 

I agree with you that the anime did well because of the music. But that’s because for those of us who was connected to the music series already, those little easter eggs were the only thing really drawing us in. We were hoping to see our favorite song animated completely, animated and fit into a part of the plot we weren’t exactly sure it aligned with. Right now, I feel like Kagepro the series is a mess with the manga having almost a neutral ending, the novels ending but Jin writing more, the anime being the good end but poorly explained. Like I said, I’d being lying if I found it to not be perhaps the worst and most rushed and chaotic adaption of the series, but like I said, part of Kagepro is the journey, and so for me, just hearing Jin finally leave behind the Vocaloid voice and sing the happy ending for his own project for the first time, of course I’m going to get emotional because I saw my kids happy, it was messy and it was rushed and the studio prioritized another anime project in the studio than MCA, but I still cried because everything at the end was happy. I actually agree with a few people but Shaft is the best studio to do Mekakucity Reload, because Shaft is the best at crazy time stories and does the flat coloring and monochromatic style of Sidu the best. (You wouldn’t want Kagepro to go to A-1 or KyoAni, who gloss up their series with sparkles or in A-1′s case, can have a quality dip later on in the show). I think if Shaft is the studio for Reload, in order to make it successful, they need to be working on only that at the time. They aren’t like Bones who have several studios inside them that are dedicated to a few animes that come out consistently. Shaft needs to completely rethink the pacing of Reload, focus less on the jokes of the show and more on the plot, maybe even rearrange how the story is presented to us (maybe introduce us to the bad end first? Have the terrorist attack happen midway into episode 1 or even then end of it? Show at least one route where Kuroha kills everyone, so Summertime Record is angsty and happy-sad because we understand the timeloops) 

TLDR cause I’m already drained from this: Most anime are made to promote manga sales. Shaft put less care into MCA and was banking on people watching for the songs. We don’t need the songs in the anime. We don’t need music videos. We need the plot, like the manga or the light novels deliver. The song series was a way to convey the plot. Reload needs to convey the plot as an anime, and the studio needs to care and give it a bigger budget. I can live with a crazy broken neck head tilt every five seconds if it means we get all of that in exchange.

[recentanimenews]

10 Western Media That Would Make Great Anime

When we anime fans tire of lamenting for the adaptation of manga after manga, or light novel after light novel, we tend to turn our imaginations away from Japan. After all, anime is no stranger to adapting western media. Many books, shows and movies have been adapted from western media into anime form, including Deltora Quest, Spider Riders, Witchblade, Howl’s Moving Castle, Highlander, and Supernatural just to name a few.

This got me thinking of my own wishlist of western media that would make great anime. Here are 10 shows, books, and movies that would make awesome anime adaptations.

  Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve Book Series - Dream Studio: Production I.G. - Dream Format: TV Anime

If you’ve never heard of Mortal Engines, no sweat. It’ll be your new favorite thing in no time. This YA quartet from British author Philip Reeve follows Tom, an apprentice historian atop the city of London. When he’s thrown out of the city, he sides with Hester Shaw, an assassin with the resistance after the life of his master, Thaddeus Valentine, who she blames for the death of her mother.

Sounds pretty run of the mill YA right? My bad. I forgot to mention all of the cities run on tractor wheels. Oh, and the cities eat other cities for resources. Oh, and there’s this huge conspiracy surrounding the city-eating cities, and this huge plot to destroy them. It’s cool that Peter Jackson’s directing a film adaptation of the series, which is due out this December, but just imagine this as an anime...

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling Book Series - Dream Studio: A-1 Pictures - Dream Format: TV Anime

Does Harry Potter really need an introduction? I feel like we all know about the boy who lived and his battle with he-who-shall-not-be-named. The cliffnotes version of Harry Potter is that an abused orphan turns out to have an incredible magical gift required to stop some of the wizarding world’s most malevolent forces. In addition to his studies, he must juggle fighting the dark forces, and maintaining the friendships he makes at Hogwarts.

  Harry Potter is essentially fantasy shonen in book format. It has the magical boarding school. It has the perfect shonen protagonist and sidekicks. The duels would be incredible to see animated. Hagrid would be moe AF. The mythical creatures would be a sight for sore eyes. But most importantly? QUIDDITCH EPISODES!

Railsea by China Miéville Novel - Dream Studio: Madhouse - Dream Format: Movie

China Mieville’s Railsea is an interesting reimagining of Moby Dick. Except instead of a sea, it’s a giant desert covered in endless, winding train tracks – the titular railsea. And there’s no whales. Only giant moles. The story follows Sham Yes ap Soorap, a young assistant doctor on a train that hunts giant moles for meat (think whaling but with moles). Her journey among the pirates, monsters, and salvagers alike kicks off when she comes across a series of photographs aboard a trainwreck that hint at the impossible existing.

The history behind the now-derelict world of Railsea, coupled with the mixture of gripping drama and havoc reminiscent of kaiju films, would make for a solid animated feature, the visuals of which I’d only trust to Madhouse.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin Book Series - Dream Studio: MAPPA - Dream Format: Movies

Okay, so it’s Game of Thrones, but all the characters are moe idols. That’s it. That’s the show.

More seriously though, A Song of Ice and Fire would make a downright wicked fantasy anime. This large-scale fantasy epic has such an incredible assortment of characters, rich history, and gratuitous violence that would be a treat to see in anime form. It’s tough to really pinpoint the plot, since so much is going on, but A Song of Ice and Fire centers on a number of noble families – such as the Starks or Lannisters – vying to claim the throne of Westeros.

If there’s one studio out there that could handle A Song of Ice and Fire, it would be MAPPA. MAPPA’s history with dark fantasy anime series such as Rage of Bahamut or Garo only strengthens my confidence in their ability to breathe some animated life into the franchise.

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick Novel - Dream Studio: SHAFT - Dream Format: TV Anime

You may know A Scanner Darkly from that weird rotoscoped movie where Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., and Woody Harrelson play a rag-tag group of friendly drug addicts. The movie itself was based on the Philip K. Dick book of the same name. It follows Bob Arctor, who lives parallel lives as both a drug addict and undercover police agent. Undercover agents report to their superiors in scramble suits, which scramble their identities. The kicker here is that Bob Arctor’s undercover gig? Spy on Bob Arctor.

The drug-addled, paranoia-fueled philosophy behind the day-to-day of drug addicts living in a world where the war on drugs was lost makes for an interesting dynamic, especially with the sci-fi enhanced police work behind it. The only studio I’d trust visually with this would be Shaft, if only to see drug-addict head tilts.

  Peep Show British Comedy Series - Dream Studio: Kyoto Animation - Dream Format: TV Anime

I know this sounds like a weird one, but stick with me. Peep Show is a British sitcom that follows mismatched flatmates Mark and Jeremy – Mark being the uptight 9-5er and Jeremy being the easy-going partier. They don’t always see eye to eye, but sometimes friendships need that. Sometimes Mark needs to loosen up a little. Sometimes Jeremy needs to grow up a bit. As long as they have each other, nothing bad can really go wrong, right? Well, as human nature would have it, things tend to go wrong – quite often, rather quickly.

KyoAni’s bread and butter tends to be slow-paced slice-of-life shows, so if any anime studio would revel in adapting a sitcom, it’d be them. The gimmick of Peep Show is that the camera angles don’t tend to be traditional, and often are shot from the direct view of Mark or Jeremy. It would be interesting to see how that worked in anime form.

Kitchen Nightmares Reality TV Series - Dream Studio: David Production - Dream Format: TV Anime

If Kitchen Nightmares were adapted into an anime, I think it’d probably be a lot like Food Wars!, but Gordon Ramsay yells at Soma every 5 minutes. More realistically, it would follow a rather manly Gordon Ramsay on his trek across Japan in search of crestfallen restaurants in desperate need of an upgrade. Now throw in some Jojo-styled manliness – the likes of which only David Production could replicate – and we have ourselves a recipe for the perfect anime.

The translation of Ramsay’s infamous potty mouth would be a peculiar one, but seeing a muscle-clad Gordon Ramsay faffing about a kitchen screaming oi, teme at the sous chefs would be a treat we could all sink our teeth into.

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham Novel - Dream Studio: Wit Studio - Dream Format: Movie

There’s always room for more horror and suspense anime, ones about sentient walking plants doubly so. The book follows Bill Masen, a scientist who specializes in the care, study, and cultivation of triffids – towering venomous carnivores cultivated for their oils. After waking up from temporary blindness following a triffid strike, he finds everyone is now blind from green flashes brought on by comets the night prior. Now Bill must make his way through the streets of London in search of safety.

  While horticulture itself usually isn’t scary, there’s something eerily unsettling about the fact that poisonous man-eating plants walk the streets. Wit Studio would probably be the only studio which could replicate that suspense and terror, having done it perfectly in Attack on Titan and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress.

  Star Wars Sci-Fi Media Franchise - Dream Studio: Ufotable - Dream Format: TV Anime

With Ufotable’s success at adapting large scale media franchises such as Fate, this sci-fi space opera could be in no better hands. Anime is no stranger to the world’s 2nd largest media franchise either. There are loads of references to the movies in various anime and manga, including Daicon IV, Berserk, Gintama, Doraemon, and Princess Jellyfish, just to name a few. Some fans have gone as far as to draw parallels between the Jedi of Star Wars and Newtypes of Gundam (whether that’s intentional or a coincidence being how close the two were to releasing).

  The coming-of-age rebellion story, coupled with the gratuitous tie-fighter dogfights and lightsaber battles, would make for one show you’d be on the edge of your seat for week after week. I think each trilogy could probably be adapted in one cour, but at this point, I’d even take seeing Clone Wars reanimated in its entirety as long as Ufotable got their hands on it.

  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Book Series - Dream Studio: Bones - Dream Format: Movies

From spaceship-stealing presidents to poetry-loving aliens, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a special charm that boys, girls, and little green people across the universe can love. It follows the incredibly British Arthur Dent, who in attempting to stop the demolition of his house, learns from his best friend Ford Prefect that the Earth is about to be demolished. After a few pints at the pub, the two hitch a ride on a ship and proceed on a journey through the stars in search of answers to life, the universe, and everything.

Anime has the unique marketability to sell just about anything. Look at Dr. Pepper sales after the first series of Steins;Gate aired back in 2011 after all. If the Japanese towel industry ever finds itself in a slump, anime studios know just what British science fiction series to adapt.

BONUS: King of the Hill Animated TV Series - Dream Studio: P.A. Works - Dream Format: TV Anime

You got that right: we’re doing a meme entry! King of the Hill has already claimed some notoriety in anime fandom as being one of the greatest anime of all time (if only second to Cory in the House).

King of the Hill follows the Hank Hill, his family, and their dysfunctional band of friends and neighbors as they navigate the challenges of daily life, propane, diminished glutes, lawnmowers, and more. Sometimes Hank’s modest sensibilities are challenged, but as a man of his word and a man of character, he never stands down.

While the closest we’ll probably ever get to a King of the Hill anime was the 1-hour episode where they went to Japan, we can only hope that one day, you’ll get a Crunchyroll notification that says “Release: King of the Hill - Episode 1”.

What about you folks? Got a favorite book, comic, TV series, or movie you want to see in anime form? Sound off in the comments below!

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  Zach Godin writes about the manga he reads and collects over at his website, Rusted Culture. Feel free to say hi on Twitter: @zachjgodin

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[medea10]

My Review of Beyond the Boundary

[mageinabarrel]

Without question, this is the definitive take on the season.

Let’s not bury the headline—I finished exactly three shows from this season. We’ll get into my thoughts on each shortly, but as those of you who have been following me for a while know, this was a fairly big shift in my relationship with seasonal anime. This upcoming spring season will mark the start of my fourth year following simulcasts, and up until last season I had been watching anywhere from 8-15 shows a season. Of course, those numbers had been trending downwards, but still—to go from 8 shows a week to a mere 3 (and not often watching things the day or even the week they came out) was… well, it was different.

I’ve got a post in the works about the changes I’ve been making in the way I watch anime and the reasons for those changes, but we’ll leave that for another day. For now, all you need to know is that while I only finished 3 shows, I did sample a pretty wide variety of things that I’ve got thoughts on. I’m not going to be ranking things or doing awards as I have in seasons past—with only three shows, such ceremony seems rather misplaced.

So enough spinning our wheels, let’s talk about some Winter 2017 anime!

Finished Shows~

I suppose it makes sense to start with my favorite show of the season, director Shingo Natsume’s ACCA. I wish I could remember back to the start of the season and what I thought of ACCA before the first episode aired, but I just don’t remember. Maybe it’s because the show was more of a speculative pick that anything for me to start, but the first episode blew me away with its slow-paced and effortless sense of style.

While the show as a whole didn’t manage to keep up visually with the excellent opener and best-of-the-season OP, it did manage to find some other strengths to lean in to. Liborek’s coverage of the show over on the Sakugablog highlights some of the reasons the show’s visual quality was so inconsistent (heavy storyboarding duties on one staffer, a ton of outsourcing), but it was nice to see that overall the production issues never overtook ACCA‘s core strengths: 1) the compelling relationships between many of its characters, 2) the general human cuteness it put on display, 3) the richness of its world, and 4) the well-handled slow burn of political intrigue.

Perhaps more than any recent show I’ve seen, ACCA was fascinating for its depiction of various relationships. Jean and Lotta had their comfortable dynamic; Jean and Nino’s genuine affection and care for each other stood out; Nino and Lotta were charming to watch together; Jean and Mauve were riveting as a couple (a ship I was both totally okay with not sailing and also crushed over); Mauve and Grossular’s mutual respect was super neat. Et cetera. And that these relationships and love and loyalty of a human, familial kind ran alongside their political parallels in a kind of beautiful synchronicity made the experience all the richer.

In the end, ACCA left me really satisfied. As great as the cute interactions between characters (and their food lol) were on an immediate basis within the show, the way things pulled together emotionally (like in episode 8) and plot-wise (in episode 12) was immensely gratifying to watch. Whether it was the revelation of the backstory that tied all the characters together or the sheer rush of watching Jean and co. turn the tables on Lillium at the last second, ACCA was beautifully crafted as a story. When I finished the final episode, I felt full, like I’d just eaten a satisfying English muffin and finished a cup of tea (a ritual I actually completed with over half of the show’s episodes—it just put me in that mood). That’s a good feeling to walk away from a show with. I’m glad I watched it.

Speaking of things with satisfying endings, how about the finale of Konosuba‘s second season? Kazuma a pile of bones and Aqua lauching a final boss character into the sky with a magic-fueled uppercut? Seriously, what more could I ask for?

That’s more of less to say that Konosuba delivered more or less exactly what I wanted—and expected from it this season. The stuff I didn’t like about the first season (ecchi stuff, Kazuma being gross, Kazuma getting to take most of the heroic planning stuff credit) was still there, and the stuff I liked (Aqua) was still there too. Did anyone else noticed that the quality of the episodes seemed to go up and down proportionately to Aqua’s screentime, or just me? Well, this is notice to all you who didn’t realize this, so now you can go back and watch this season with new eyes. Lucky you, you will be able to experience the full glory of Aqua clapping for fishes.

Incidentally, I found even more things this season to relate to Aqua with. Everything else about the Axis cult aside (yes, I’m cherry picking), it was pretty darn cool to see the way Aqua responded with such benevolence to her followers even though they treated her like crap. I mean, sure, they’re directly linked with her goddess powers, but still… seeing the lengths our beloved selfish goddess would go to for the people who worshipped her (or their image of her lol) still was neat. As I’ve said before, Konosuba‘s appeal for me lives and dies with Aqua—it was good that it went out on a pro-Aqua high.

https://sakugabooru.com/data/5752ba99b0be8e2469f3094f7b5a3f7d.mp4

  And then we have Hand Shakers. Yes, I finished it. I watched every second of every episode (except the OP/ED, which were eminently skippable and not at all necessary to setting a mood for the show). It was bad, as I expected, but I don’t regret watching it. If nothing else, it’s been a while since I actually finished a show I could rate a 3/10; the bell curve of my MAL rankings was starting to get out of whack.

As you may recall, I wrote a piece early in the season “defending” Hand Shakers‘ visual choices. The thoughts I expressed in that post regarding the fascinating prospect of seeing a show place pursuit of a particular aesthetic before all over values—including coherency—still hold true, although I’m sad to report that Hand Shakers largely settled into a kind of complacent expression of that aesthetic as the show wore on. That was a disappointment for me, and I’d have to say that K will probably remain the definitive GoHands-style anime for me going forward.

So what about Hand Shakers‘ story and characters? Well, the story pulled a last-second spin and lots of the characters were either yucky (the incest siblings) or grating (Makihara-sensei) or just plain uninteresting (Kodama Awaza, in a tragic waste of an idol character). But there were still some that I wound up liking, particularly Chizuru and Hayate and their affectionate, almost pseudo-parental friendship with Koyori and Tazuna. The latter pair wasn’t anything exceptional and bogged down by Koyori’s nearly show-long muteness, but even so I felt there was a enough of a kernel of a well-intentioned effort to make their relationship feel genuine and sweet that I found them pleasant to watch.

In summary, I absolutely do not recommend you, your friends, or anyone else watch Hand Shakers. It is not a good anime, and at its worst it is disgusting and offensive. And yet, somehow there are things in it that are good, too. That’s something I don’t think I’ll ever not find fascinating—seeing the unexpected good in something largely bad.

Unfinished Shows~

That covers the stuff I finished, but what about the stuff I didn’t? There were plenty of shows less bad than Hand Shakers that aired this season. Some of them were—Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid, Kemono Friends, BanG Dream!, and Idol Jihen.

I got the farthest into Idol Jihen, which I watched 5 episodes of. It wasn’t a terrible show, as it sometimes indulged in some delightfully wacky contortions of its ridiculous premise, but generally speaking it was a boring waste of time in between the bigger moments. It didn’t help that the characters had no personality or charm (at least part of that due to the horrid character designs). Draggle’s right—watch AKB0048 instead.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is a substantially better show that Idol Jihen, yet I watched less of it. That’s probably not Dragon Maid‘s fault. I liked the three episodes of it that I watched. It’s cute, with KyoAni’s typical fixation of small gestures and warm character interactions, and has some standout things going for it—like Kanna, its (somewhat inferior) rendition of Non Non Biyori‘s Renge. But just being nice wasn’t enough to motivate me to really catch up with it, so it just benignly slid off my watching schedule.

Kemono Friends was somewhat the same, although I will say that I enjoyed watching people talk about Kemono Friends more than I liked watching them talk about Dragon Maid—and possibly more than I liked watching the show itself. I did three episodes of Kemono Friends for a Crunchyroll article I wrote on it myself, but there were a number of other great pieces (Kastel’s, Froggy’s, Bobduh’s) that came out about Kemono Friends. I can’t remember the last time so many different writers all were all hooked on writing about the same show in this way. If meme shows are what it takes to attract a bunch of critics all at once, I guess more meme shows is what we need.

Demi-chan wa Kataritai lost me after three episodes, too, but for worse reasons that the prior two. After a lovely first episode, it started to go more and more for romance and creepy stuff between the high school girls and the teacher, and I really just wasn’t in the mood to navigate that in a show I’d hoped would be more pleasant and less blatantly sexual than Urara-chan, which I never even picked up for that reason.

Oh, yeah, I watched one episode of BanG Dream! and while I found it somewhat quirky, that wasn’t enough to get me back. I also opted not to watch the (obvious AOTS) sequel of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju on a week-by-week basis, meaning that someday in the future I’ll have the glorious chance to marathon it all at once and bawl my eyes out.

And that pretty much sums up my Winter 2017 anime experience! What did you guys watch and enjoy this past season? Feel free to tell me what I missed out on in the comments (although I can’t promise I’ll pick up anything other than Rakugo in the future).

Without question, this is the definitive take on the season. Without question, this is the definitive take on the season.

[pod7]

Winter Anime* 2017 Lightning Review

*just the shows I watched of course

Shows included - ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka, Ai Mai Mi: Surgical Friends, Akiba’s Trip The Animation, All Out!!, BanG Dream!, Chain Chronicle, Chaos;Child, Demi-chan wa Kataritai, ElDLive, Fuuka, Gabriel Dropout, Gintama., Hand Shakers, Kemono Friends, Kobayashi-san chi no Maid Dragon, KonoSuba S2, Kuzu no Honkai, Little Witch Academia, Masamune-kun no Revenge, Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu, Mori no Yousei: Kinoko no Musume, Nobunaga no Shinobi, Nyanko Days, One Room, Onihei, Piace: Watashi no Italian, Pokemon Sun & Moon, Sangatsu no Lion, Seiren, Spiritpact, Urara Meirochou, Youjo Senki

Settle in for some long reviews, and probably the worst reviewed season since I started doing this! Wow!

ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka It’s a MADhouse production, so I went in pretty sure I would like it. I was a bit wrong on my first impression; I thought it would be a man on the run type show, but it was actually a more nuanced, spy-that-doesn’t-know-he’s-a-spy type story. I liked the character design. It reminded me of some of the manga series in the “non-moe art” tag on Dynasty Scans. I was in love at first sight with Director General Mauve, voiced by Atsuko Tanaka (Motoko, Ghost in the Shell), and hoped she would play a bigger role than she actually did. I was completely taken off guard by Jean’s confession of his feelings for Grossular at the end, which Mauve had in common. If it had to be someone, I would have guessed it to be Niino, in the old ‘observer falls for subject’ cliche. Still, a welcome, and very low-key revelation that is certainly welcome. The music is really great in this series, especially the intro and outro themes. I would have like for some of the female cast members to have more to do; there were seemingly more women in the show, but they hardly ever had any relevancy. Also, a bit more action or urgency would have been nice. It felt towards the end like this would be called “the hipster’s anime”. Definitely recommended. 9/10

Ai Mai Mi: Surgical Friends Just as ridiculous as ever, though it had some oddly serious parts in some episodes as well. I am appreciating more and more the bit during the credits of each episode where an alpaca recounts an awkward tale of the life of the mangaka who writes AMM. I think the randomness is wearing thin now though. 7/10

Akiba’s Trip The Animation I had never played the game before so I didn’t really have any idea what this was about besides being located in Akihabara. It had a lot of parallels with Punch Line, which I noted in my first impression, just chock full of references and insider humor that I think ended up being lost on a lot of the Western viewers (including me, obviously.) I enjoy the first eight or so episodes, but right when most probably thought it got interesting, for me it was like I just couldn’t stand to watch it anymore. I ended up skimming through the last episodes, but honestly, unless you are REALLY into Akihabara as a culture or just otaku interests in general, I would pass on this show, sadly. Having to watch the idol performance more than once was torture. 6/10

All Out!! The not-so-subtle pattern that is emerging in my anime viewing habits, is that I will start a sport or game series, as soon as it becomes entirely focused on the sport or game itself, I lose interest almost immediately. The same unfortunately happened here; as soon as they hit training camp, it was like I was watching a completely different show, and just couldn’t stand to even skim through it at the end. They can’t all be winners, and even MADhouse can’t be perfect all the time. Dropped

BanG Dream! My first impression was pretty much right on the nose; this is literally what would happen if the people behind Love Live adapted K-On. The melodrama of Love Live with similar archetypes to K-On. Unfortunately, no super gorgeous teacher steps in to help, and instead of a school they have to save the local girls-only concert venue by playing a pop rock version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I wish I were kidding. Not horrible or offensive, but just felt like a phoned in effort from the waifu buffet factory. 6/10

Chain Chronicle Sadly I just kind of forgot this show was even on, even though it showed signs of promise, I just couldn’t bring myself to care enough to catch up on it. Dropped

Chaos;Child The edgiest of edge. It made me appreciate the GOOD parts of Occultic;Nine that much more. I might have watched more if the adaptation of the prequel (episode zero) wasn’t just about the most boring thing I’ve watched in years. Dropped

Demi-chan wa Kataritai Top 3 of the season. It definitely felt less wacky than the manga, but I was okay with that. Satou-sensei stole the show, but Machi held her own in my opinion. It was funny to see how fast people tried to turn on the show when Hikari made Machi’s body hug Sensei and he was embarrassed because her boobs pressed into him when he wasn’t expecting it. However with a certain maid being INCREDULOUS, that movement died out before the next episode even came out. It was a good adaptation, and I think may just be my “comfy” show of the season, though again, a certain maid gave it a run for it’s money there too. 9/10

ElDLive I stand by my previous Space Patrol Luluco comparison. It was silly for the sake of being silly, but tried to add various chuuni and action tropes in to spice it up. To be quite honest this was a bit of a stinker, and only watched it for Misuzu to see if she grew any over the season (she did, but just the tiniest bit.) 4/10

FUUKA This was basically KimiKiss Pure Rouge but flipped love interests and included music to make more money off of the property with. It doesn’t do anything new or interesting, and it wasn’t satisfying at all. Like even knowing that Fuuka would end up being the girl the protag had feelings for, I still thought that maybe, just maybe she would do SOMETHING endearing in the least, but no, she just kind of was a brat at all points. Everything was really pretty, but zero substance. 3/10

Gabriel Dropout I think I started reading the manga for this before reading Demi-chan or Maid Dragon, so it’s kind of a surprise that of those three, this felt like the weakest effort. Something was lost in translation to animation to take away the magic presented in print. It was still enjoyable, it just didn’t have the punch I was expecting it to have, and I don’t know if it’s the low key music or the voices or what. Calling it a disappointment is going too far for me, but I certainly thought it would be better. 7/10

Gintama. Top 3 of the season. Pretty much just the adaptation of a single story arc, but an important one. Also, a super kick-ass, pulls no punches season. Loved the hell out of this show before, but this took it to a whole new level. I mentioned in my first impression that the period was a bit scary, but I now see that it was more of an affirmative statement, “GINTAMA, period.” 10/10

Hand Shakers This was really bad. Like, it’s a known thing that this show is bad. It was excruciating to give this show three whole episodes, but I managed it somehow. As admirable as it is that they went out on a limb to make their own original series, that doesn’t save it from being an over-designed, poorly thought out mess of a show. Dropped

Kemono Friends I just want the record to show that I was on board with this show from the very beginning, whereas the MAL user score was as low as 4.2 at the start of the season. It’s the innocence of Serval mixed with the goofiness of the friends, rounded out by the mystery of Kaban that give this show it’s oomph. The character design is really great too. Basically what it boils down to is that this show has four or five things that the internet typically hates when it comes to an anime, yet somehow captured the hearts thousands, from 4chan to tumblr and everywhere in between. It’s hard to imagine this not getting a second season of some kind, whether it’s a continuation of this season or an adaptation of the manga. 9/10

Kobayashi-san chi no Maid Dragon Top 3 of the season. A loving relationship between two adult women, albeit each loves the other in a different way (or do they?) A nurturing and caring relationship between an office worker and a young girl she adopts on sight. A family unit of two moms and a daughter that works. A dragon woman with giant boobs teasing a young boy that meant to summon a demon. Well, okay that last one isn’t exactly the squeaky-cleanest thing to happy this season, but the people who demonize this show because of it are missing out on an other wise great and potentially important series. I was surprised to find this was a KyoAni series; they tend to work in a very specific style, so the fact that this turned out looking anything like the manga is a miracle of it’s own, I think. Once I knew it was KyoAni though, I could see their thumbprints everywhere; the suddenly very poignant moment with great lighting and super appropriate music is something they’ve managed to perfect almost to a fault (to where it feels forced), but the couple examples in this show just added to the already cute moment that was happening. I am writing this the week before the finale, which features the dreaded anime killer Big Boobs Loli, but having read what comes after her initial appearance, I think that, should this get a second season, people will understand her character once the story moves forward (though the big boobs thing is kind of ridiculous, admittedly.) A wonderful, lovely, heart-warming supernatural comedy. 10/10 highest recommendation

KonoSuba S2 I may get some flak for this, but I felt there was a noticeable drop in quality between seasons. The writing was still good, and the performances as always were hilarious, but the animation seemed to have worsened quite a lot. I haven’t read any BTS for this series but it seemed like some of the more involved shots were rushed. Darkness continues to steal the show for me, even though I know Megumin is everyone’s waifu. I think it’s because I tend to always gravitate towards the girl in a show like this that has the least chance of ending up with the protagonist (Nisekoi, Toradora, Zero no Tsukaima, etc.) Not bad by any means, but I’m concerned for a season three should it happen. 8.5/10

Kuzu no Honkai Despicable trash. Soap opera level characters with midnight softcore love scenes between teenagers, some of which are borderline rape at best. Not even the legit lesbian love interest could keep me watching this show, that should tell you everything. Five episodes makes about 90ish minutes of my life I’ll never get back. Dropped, avoid 

Little Witch Academia This didn’t quite get the hype I thought it would, but it still seems most people that watch it are enjoying it immensely. However, I feel like it may be losing steam a bit, which is worrisome since it still has 12 episodes left to go through. It’s a bit frustrating to watch sometimes as someone who watched the first two movies/OVA, waiting for things like Ursula to be revealed as Chariot, and for Akko to get to a respectable level of magic use, things like that. I do enjoy the extra development that Lotte and Sucy have gotten, and I hope it extends to Diana, Amanda and some of the more prominent girls too. Continues!

Masamune-kun no Revenge The show had a bit of a twist on the usual formula, but by the fifth or sixth episode it was pretty clear it was the same old contrived tsundere harem romance series. When the guy seems to have some redeeming qualities, I can stomach a show like that for the sake of decent characters and performances, but this just ended up being a chore to watch. Even the debut of a late game older woman/love interest’s retainer wasn’t enough to save the show for me. I can’t see myself tuning in to a second season of this without some kind of huge plot twist like a female rival that the love interest is actually interested in (ha ha HAHAHAH) 5/10

Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu In my first impression of this show, I wondered if it would be as dumbed down as the previous season’s cycling anime whose name I’ve already forgotten. It is. It’s basically the same show but with more characters. Has a good, cute sensei, but also has generic foreign student trope character, which was insufferable because she was basically the same character as the foreigner in Akiba’s Trip. Dropped

Mori no Yousei: Kinoko no Musume The amateurish charm I thought I saw in the first episode of this show quickly dissolved into frustration. If it had been a high school clubs project, then I would have supported them whole heartedly, but this seems like a bad mobile game cash-in, and unfortunately it came out in a season that had a GREAT mobile game cash-in. Dropped

Nobunaga no Shinobi The first season ends, but the second season starts in like two weeks, so I’m tempted to not even include this, because it’s silly that it will be considered separate seasons. It’s a charming, and surprisingly bloody show about feudal Japan and for those that have studied the history of that time period, there are some great gags pertaining to certain figures not shown in the best of lights. 8/10

Nyanko Days Once again, this was just a cute fluff series that hopefully paves the way for Nukoduke. If you need a cuteness shot in the arm between heavy shows, this is a good choice. 8/10

One Room My hopes that they would keep the viewer genderless were dashed pretty quickly with a onsen episode early on, and then the sickening imouto arc in the middle. The final four episodes featuring the childhood friend chasing her dreams was the redeeming factor here, I would recommend just watching those episodes to be honest. 6/10

Onihei One of the better shows of the season. It has a different vibe to anything else on at the moment, probably because the source was originally published fifty years ago. There is very little that is lost in translation, and I think it plays well to the modern audience. There is a bit of a problem with character design, which @fucktsunderes pointed out to me, that because there’s more realism to it, some of the characters end up looking pretty similar. Actually, not just some, but a lot. To the point where I wasn’t sure if a character that died was a character that I liked or not until they showed up in a later episode. Other than that though, a great crime thriller action show. 9/10

Piace: Watashi no Italian After an incredible year of short form series in 2016, it’s an odd feeling to only have Piace as a stand out show this season. It was just the right about of silly and cute, while also being about food and food service. A highlight is the outro being sang by two different cast members each week, with the finale having everyone singing. 9/10

Pokemon Sun & Moon The most fun I’ve had watching pokemon since I was a kid, fantastic show. I am somehow even more in love with Japan’s Musashi than America’s Jesse. I am definitely on the Mao/Lillie ship. Also the only theme song this season that I listened to for every single episode, it is so awesome. Continues!

Sangatsu no Lion As I covered in my review for All Out, when a show has a game or sport in it, if it becomes too focused on that game or sport, I lose interest quicker than a hiccup. It’s a good show, but the shogi was just not the good part of the show for me. I enjoyed Rei’s interactions with his sister and the three Kawamoto girls the most of the whole season. It’s when the show felt the most alive and relatable to me. Not to mention Momo is just too darn cute. Shaft does cute very well, and also does cold depression very well, too. A spinoff with the Kawamotos as the star would be the ideal second season for me, but I will continue to watch just about anything Shaft decides to gift to us. 8/10

Seiren I should have dropped this show, but I didn’t for some reason. The middle arc was definitely the best, the epilogue was really cute too. Not really much to say about this series, it just kind of was there every week. One of those “each path of the romance vn is animated” shows, so your mileage may vary. 6/10

Spiritpact Yaoi bait adapted from a Chinese comic iirc. The main characters were both unbearable, and the way they treated the first significant female character in the show was gross, so I dropped this quicker than a hot rock. Dropped

Urara Meirochou Controversial opinion time: This show would have been better without Nono and Koume. They added nothing to the story that couldn’t have been done by either Kon or Chiya, and honestly the four girls thing is so over-done that I end up comparing it mentally to all the shows I’ve already seen before I even watch the first episode. The teacher and the... morals officer? Whatever Saku was stole the show, with some great late game performances from Kon’s mother. It was a cute show, and I’ll watch another season if it gets one, but I’d like it to be a bit more focused on the divining stuff going forward, or at least more focused on Kon and Chiya. 8/10

Youjo Senki Not really sure about this show. I spent the first half of the season mistakenly thinking it was glorying the third reich, but even after being corrected, I still didn’t really understand who I was meant to support or sympathize with. I end up rooting for Tanya a lot of the time because I understand a lot of the anti-theological sentiment she has, but I’m not sure that’s really the intent... Like in the last episode, we see the young daughter of the man who was killed by Tanya after encountering more than once enlisting in what is the equivalent of the American army. Rather than sympathy and compassion for what is obviously a scared young woman going for revenge, I felt pity, because I know far too many people in real life who FROG it up big time (that being ‘full relying on God’, btw) when any sort of hardship comes their way. I don’t really think I could watch a second season of this, it would have to be more than just ‘Tanya pushes back against Being X, BX recruits someone else, etc’, like, if Tanya went the whole season pushing back but never heard a peep out of BX, and started to wonder how much of it was just in her head, and began to doubt the things she remembered from her past life, that would be intriguing, but I don’t really see it heading that way. Also, not nearly enough Visha screen time for my taste. 7/10

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Which characters are confirmed to have canon romantic feelings by the creators? I googled but it didn't turn up much.

About Rinharu it’s everywhere, literally, in the directors commentary of s1, then in the magazine, where they’re on the festival it said that “Rin calls Haru his rival, but in his heart he has hidden feelings for him”(x), the director of photography called the australia beach scene the “infamous honeymoon”... I at this point don’t even remeber who didn’t adressed them without a romantic connotation.

It’s in the directors notes to the scenes too, like the one I used in this post, like s1 storyboards are hilarious, I don’t know even how Haru was even functioning... it was hella dramatic like “he looked at Rin and suddenly couldn’t breathe, his heart ached so much.. no, he can’t allow himself to go there, he had to swim for his team rn” LMAO I was like “are those scenes directions or a fanfiction?” xD. Tbh like I think many will watch some scenes differently after the notes and novelization, like the mackerel pool scene is still very surprising haha. But they’re mostly like “show, not tell”, so if you didn’t get that Rin talks about Haru with so much love and tenderness, like he’s the most precious in his world, then you’ll discover many new things and explanation to the scenes.

Btw the amount of cast and crew comments about wanting them to get it on already is hilarious tbh, bc like if Utsumi just comments about questionable things like Haru only accepting pleasure from Rin and about the glass shower in Australia, seiyuus are just going openly wild, especially Sousuke and Makoto’s with their dirty comments about rinharu bed scene and RIN’S FREAKING HARD ON, THAT HARU PROBABLY FELT WHILE RIN WAS CARRYING HIM IN HIS ARMS xD. Like Miyano Mamoru and Nobunaga Shimazaki are all romantic like “Rin is Haru’s whole existence” and “they’re destined to be” and “Australia is a perfect place for a date” and “Haru for sure loves Rin”, then everyone else is just already so done with this, they’re like “oh, they’re fucking” lol.

Anyways, just go to the rinharu tag on my page, there are to many stuff, open, hidden (not really tho), I have links to the sources everywhere, but there are just too many. 

But also like... it’s in the anime..? “I can see why you’re so in love with him”, it has an exactly this meaning, same as “romantic, isn’t it?”. It’s in other things too tbh. So I’m just surprised like why ppl even need the commentary to some scenes. Also might wanna check the novels, novelization and dramas, bc there is no subtlty there at all. About the “lover”, dirty dreams, endearments, them being each other’s type, etc.

Also once again the sountracks during Rin’s ‘confession’ and bed scene in Australia are called “Longing For You” and “Wish For You” and they say that yes, “longing" as in “craving, yearning”.

As many mentioned you kinda can see that Kyoani mean them as a canon couple from comparison to some of their other works.

3rd one is Ikuya, but like I also don’t know how you can’t notice this in the anime. They said it during the DF panel, that “Haru was his first love”. His scenes were paralleled to Rinharu, too, like when he’s small and says to Haru that he wants to be like him and Haru says “pls no, pick your own way”, but in SD Rin says the same to him and Haru answers “I want to be like you too”. The whole season and credits tell a lot tbh. It was all based on how Rinharu ruined Ikuya’s life basically lmao.

Idk.. ppl really don’t watch it like this? I mean, they don’t hide it really. I mean in the series.

P.S. but pls just check the tag on my page, there are just sooo much stuff they said, I forget things sometimes. and like everyone gets their cute friendship comments, but never us no xD

[a-bucket-full-of-feels]

Thoughts about Hibike Euphonium Chikai no Finale:

As usual, the animation quality and the story writing was excellent; listening to Liz and the Blue Bird being performed in its entirety was beautiful (a great callback to the Liz movie), and i was moved by all their emotions portrayed.

However, the duration of the movie didn’t do the story justice - they essentially attempted to cram an entire year’s worth of events into 1.5 hours - as compared to the entirety of Kumiko’s first year being spread out over 2 seasons. There were too many story arcs happening at once, with some being more well-fleshed out than the others. The euphonium players story arc was good (being the focal point of the film after all), but some of the other side stories left more to be desired. I really wanted to find out more about Motomu’s backstory, as well as how his relationship with his contrabass senpai Midori developed; it seemed really cute but unfortunately it was just glossed over in favour of time. The Satsuki/Mirei arc also ended much sooner than it should have; there was a lot more potential to develop if let’s say it was given an entire season’s worth of air time.

And I think that’s the main flaw of the movie - it lacked the magic that the Hibike anime had. Because every scene had to be dedicated to moving all its story arcs forward, there were barely any scenes where it was just the characters being themselves, getting ready for practice, engaging in small talk, and hanging out after school - all these little things that added to the atmosphere of the original series. Nonetheless, even though it was jam-packed with multiple story arcs, the stories were still well-told and enjoyable. However, as compared to Liz and the Blue Bird, where they really only focused on one main story between two characters, it didn’t leave such a lasting impression on me as Liz did.

Now onto the elephant in the room - Kumiko and Shuichi’s romantic relationship. By far the movie was the most explicit about their burgeoning romantic attraction for each other, albeit it ended with them deciding not to pursue a relationship (yet), as per the light novel canon. Although I still ship Kumirei till the very end, I have to acknowledge that their relationship was never meant to be romantic in the original canon and would honestly be kinda out of place for their individual narratives, and it honestly felt like Kyoani hyped up the romantic imagery way too much in season 1 (although I must admit their relationship seems a lot more like soulmates rather than just ordinary friends). Nonetheless, I’ve just come to accept the canon as it is, and it’s just nice to enjoy an alternative universe where Kumirei is romantic in the world of fanfiction and fanart.

Not too sure about developments on Kyoani’s side, but they seem to be leaving a rather open ending hinting that they may be continuing with the canon with Kumiko in the third year as the club’s president. Honestly it’s kinda bittersweet - seeing the original third year trio graduate was sad, and now the original second years (owarai combi Yuuko/Natsuki and Nozomizo) would be gone. I wonder how the new first years (now becoming second years) would pull their weight. Kanade seems to be a Reina parallel (exceeding her senpai’s skills, being extremely straightforward, even that final scene as a callback to Reina’s “I’m so frustrated I could die” line), and if the Hibike anime canon does continue, I hope she becomes more than just that.

All in all, while the movie was generally good, I felt that they tried to cram what could be an entire season’s worth of writing into the length of a movie, which could’ve been a lot better. (I still like Liz and the Blue Bird as a movie more.)

[thejpfdude-blog]

The Week in Anime (Week of 8/14/17)

Hello friends and welcome to another edition of TWiA! There’s a lot to get through, but first let’s head on over to...

The News Corner

This week didn’t have too much in terms of shocking news. The one thing I do want to highlight that came out this week is:

Violet Evergarden PV2

Mmm that’s good stuff. Not as amazingly animated as the first CM, but that was more or less done for the light novel so I don’t expect the whole show to be that level of quality. And even then the PV had some dang good animation, complete with some more information about the show. From the translation done here, one might think it has a big focus on romance. And that’s what I thought too, that is until I read another comment in the same thread that mentioned light novel spoilers but had a TL;DR stating it’s a coming-of-age story and not a romance. Good to know, otherwise I probably would’ve had the wrong expectations for it.

I’m not gonna lie though, I’m pretty hyped for this show. I’m trying not to be, but ever since the CM came out (which was the first glimpse of the show), my first question was “when?” (which has since turned into “how many days until January?”). I’m excited for the potential pairing between KyoAni animation and a great story considering the light novel won the Grand Prize award in the same yearly award that other light novel-turned-KyoAni shows like Kyoukai no Kanata and Chuunibyou only got Honorable Mentions in. Well, only four months to go. That’s not that long of a wait honestly.

Now before I get onto the rankings and awards, I want to write some blurbs about some shows I recently finished. Now some of these shows aren’t ones I finished within the last week, but I think it’s a good time to talk about them after having them stew in my head for a little. So let me start by talking about a show I might have an article on in the future...

Love Live Sunshine

With season 2 of this coming soon, I was determined to try and finish this show. And I did. So that’s nice.

On a more serious note, Sunshine was a nice sort of spin-off to the main Love Live anime. I think one of the biggest complaints I heard was that it was too similar to the original anime, and I can see that. The whole school-closing storyline was a bit too convenient, though it actually didn’t get resolved by the end of the season, so that’s something to keep an eye out next season. Another thing was the similarities of the leaders of each group, which I strongly agree with. I mean I wasn’t a huge Honoka (Honkers) fan in general, and Chika to me feels sorta like a ripoff of her (hence the reason I call her Ripoff Honkers).

But some of the other stuff wasn’t as bad to me. Like other than Ripoff Honkers (and Dia to an extent) I feel like each character is unique enough to be their own person, rather than be a clone of a previous μ‘s member. Sure there’s some obvious parallels that can be made. Ruby/Hanayo for shyness (which is even eluded to in the anime), Mari/Nozomi for being the memester, etc. But when I think of, say Hanamaru, I don’t think of anybody from μ‘s in particular, but about her zuras and her eating habits. Same schtick for the rest of them (except Ripoff Honkers). If anything, I like Aqours a bit more than μ‘s so far, if only because my favorite character from the Rabu Raibus is in Aqours (though favorite group is still a toss-up as of now).

Story-wise, I liked Sunshine a lot more than the original, if only because there was a minimum of the “power of friendship” stuff that the original had (like the final scene from the last episode of S1). And before episode 10 when the third-years joined the group, I actually liked how the drama didn’t feel too cheesy. Of course, that changed when the third-years joined, but it still wasn’t as cheesy as the original show, which was nice. Add in the fact that the slice-of-life scenes added some nice snark (making it less /r/wholesomememes cult-like happy), and in the end Sunshine > original (at least anime-wise). 6/10 overall, and actually somewhat excited for the next season in 2 months-ish.

Free!

Funny story. Actually not really funny, or a story: I had this on my list for some time, but it wasn’t until I visited my friend last week that we ended up watching the first 6 episodes of this show. And then from there I finished it a few days later, and now we’re here.

This show’s pretty famous for its manservice (fanservice of the male variety), and I’m not gonna deny that. In fact, I’ll confirm it: there were a lot of shots of those muscular sculpted bodies, toned to perfection.

...

Uh yeah. But other than that this show was actually pretty fun to watch. I don’t know how much of that is the fact that there was at least one main girl character in the show, who ended becoming one of my favorite girls and now has a place in my Favorite Characters list on my MAL profile.

But it’s really because in it’s core it’s a sports anime, and not of the shounen type. Like there’s competition and hype sports moments with none of the shounen tropes like explaining every single ilttle thing. It’s actually... like sports with just plain competing, which as a huge sports nut I’m down for. The races were pretty hype, and the drama between the characters wasn’t too out there (though the whole thing between Rin and Haruka seemed very ship-friendly).

So overall, a surprisingly good show, manservice aside. I’ll definitely be watching the second season of this soon (once I settle in to my new place). 7/10 would recommend for swimming shenanigans.

Teekyuu

In my quest to have Nisemonogatari be my 200th entry on MAL, I watched shorts/specials that wouldn’t take too much time to watch. So why not watch the famed 2-minute short known for having faster pace than the Roadrunner? Generally I don’t like fast-paced shows, but I think that this short does a really good job with itself. Content-wise this show is so freaking ridiculous and doesn’t take itself seriously. But it works for the most part, and it’s pretty hilarious. Though it’s technically about a tennis club, I think they only have tennis in like 3 of the episodes, with the others focusing on some other random subject.

If there’s one negative to this, it’s the pace. Because as well as they use it, it’s still super quick, and sometimes an episode goes by and I go “what just happened?” Still, it’s a stupidly fun show: overall 6/10, and definitely will be watching the next 8 seasons (no I’m not joking, the ninth season is airing right now).

Nisemonogatari

So that was an adventure. This was an interesting case study, considering these were the stories that Nisio Isin (the author of the light novel) never intended to be released. As a result this show ended up being probably the most controversial entry in the Monogatari series. And it showed: this version of Monogatari really ramped up on some questionable scenes. Before I get into the infamous scene this show’s known for, let me get into some other stuff I wasn’t really about. First, the bath scene in episode 4. I don’t doubt it was an important scene: in fact it’s probably one of the most important scenes in the whole of Monogatari. But it’s the whole showing a naked 8-year old girl for the majority of the episode thing that made me pretty uncomfortable. It’s funny looking at the comments of the rewatch thread, and people trying to explain why it wasn’t that bad. The most common thing I saw was that it wasn’t sexualized at all, what with Araragi not being pedo like he is with the others and the fact that there wasn’t any zoom-ins of the naughty bits.

Yet the problem I have with that is that at it’s core it’s still... a naked 8-year old for the majority of an anime episode. And I’m not denying what the people in that thread are saying: actually it makes a hella lot of sense. But it’s still a naked 8-year old. I’m not about that life, even with the deeper meaning and all that.

And now that toothbrush scene. That... was a thing. Yep, a thing. Indeed. A. Thing.

Sigh... that was honestly the most uncomfortable I’ve been while watching anime. I’m glad I live alone or else I would have feared a roommate or something coming into my room and seeing me watch that. 

Now before you start telling me “deeper meaning” and all that jazz, I’ll just say this: my least favorite subject was English. The reason? I always had to be on the lookout for some deeper meaning, some symbolism, etc., instead of just enjoying reading. Now with the Monogatari series full of its more deeper themes, symbolism and looking deeper into events is very necessary. But looking past the deeper meaning this scene is a guy brushing his sister’s teeth while she starts getting sexually aroused, almost leading to a kiss in the end. That’s... also not my thing. Big time.

Well, that rant’s out of the way. Not counting the above scenes (as well as some of the other questionable stuff like imouto boob touch), I actually did enjoy this show. Monogatari’s slowly becoming one of my favorite franchises, making what should like a boring dialogue-heavy show fun and interesting. And now that Nisemonogatari’s out of the way I’m excited for what’s arguably the best version of Monogatari, Monogatari 2nd Season (kinda misnamed don’tcha think?). Overall despite above statements still a 7/10 show, with hope for the future.

Now that that’s done let’s move on to the good ol’...

Rankings:

1 (0). New Game!! (9/10) [5/12]

2 (0). Princess Principal (8.5/10) [6/?]

3 (0). Kakegurui (7/10) [6/12]

4 (0). Tsurezure Children (7/10) [6/?]

5 (0). Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season (7/10) [19/25]

6 (+1). Sakura Quest (5/10) [19/25]

7 (-1). Ballroom e Youkoso (5/10) [6/24]

8 (0). Centaur no Nayami (5/10) [6/12]

9 (0). Isekai Shokudou (4.5/10) [6/?]

10 (0). Nana Maru San Batsu (4/10) [6/12]

Awards

The Tangent Award: Centaur no Nayami

After 6 episodes, I think I have a general idea of why I feel like this show is off. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do like the show. Some of the scenes offer some nice commentary on the small issues that these people face (like the whole toilet thing) that some people may think is pedantic but I think is super interesting. Basically the stuff like the first few episodes of Demi-chan wa Kataritai (with the nice interviews and stuff).

The problem that this show has is that it goes through different scenes that seem jarring in transition. It jumps from one thing to a completely random thing, leaving me wondering how they even got to a certain point in the episode. Though in the end they’re able to show that the disjointed events are somewhat connected, the connection’s as fragile as Troy Tulowitzki (sports fan explanation: a baseball player who’s seemingly always injured, hence he’s called “fragile”). And in the end I continue on, wondering what I just watched for the past 23 or so minutes. I feel like there’s a better way to organize the episode, but I’m not really sure how yet. For now I’ll just continue watching, because despite questionable organization it’s still a mildly entertaining show.

The Not Comfy Award: Kakegurui

Yo but actually what was that episode. Return of masochist queen = return of fear for my life. This show isn’t high on my “comfy show” list, but after this episode it’s sunken even lower.

On a totally unrelated note, I’ve changed my opinion from slightly liking Yumeko to not liking her at all. In fact it’s kinda funny that my opinions of Yumeko and Mary flipped, and now I find Mary to be the better girl (if not best girl of the show). Seeing how she’s not just one of the crazies and actually seems kinda nice is reassuring to say the least (even if the crazy leaks out at times). The return of Suzui was also nice, considering he’s a good dynamic compared to the insane characters in the show. If anything, I’m curious to see how this ends, considering the pace so far and the fact that it’s one cour.

Best Episode of the Week: Princess Principal

After three straight weeks of New Game!!, we finally get a new show for best episode of the week. It was a hard choice, considering this week’s episode of New Game!! was very good. But Princess Principal wins out with a great episode about Dorothy and her life before being a spy.

I won’t go deep into the episode because I want to try to not have too much spoilers in these blurbs. But what I will say is that dang, these girls have good reason for being spies. Also that the end of this episode was pretty sad, especially considering Dorothy’s final line. Princess Principal’s been impressing so far, and I love the disjointed style of storytelling (with case 6 last week and case 18 this week). Next to New Game!!, this show’s been my favorite of the season. I highly recommend it even if you aren’t the biggest fan of CGDCTs or spy stuff.

And that’s all for this week! Thanks for reading! Just a quick announcement/notice: I’ll be busy next week preparing for school and moving into my new place, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t have the time to watch the currently-airing shows. If that does happen I’ll mention which ones I didn’t get to, and if it doesn’t well then it’ll be business as usual. Anyway, thanks again and I’ll see you in the next post!

[x0401x]

What do you think about the princess' story in VE Gaiden?

*bursts door open and walks in holding a cocktail* OKAY, SO.

I should start this by saying that, although I’m not fond of how Akatsuki Kana’s writing is overly simplistic, I have a lot of faith in her portrayals. Specially when it comes to female characters and romance.

Back when I watched episode 5, it felt very close to the feeling of the novels, but something crucial was missing: the clarification of why a relationship that would seem problematic at first isn’t actually problematic. The reason why I trust Akatsuki-sensei so much is because she’s hyper-aware of the issues present in any of the character bonds that she writes about, which is the main difference between she and KyoAni. When I saw KyoAni depicting a 29-year-old hinting that he was falling in love with a 14-year-old through mere letters, I knew that this was where the Gaiden would punch the anime in the face. Of course, I also had a hunch that there would be more than that to it.

As the chapter turned out, Charlotte, Alberta and Damian are way better fleshed-out. Alberta is much kinder and softer on Charlotte, which explains how Charlotte ended up the way she is, moping over every little thing and losing composure extremely easily. The two of them are much more intimate as a mother-daughter duo and their interactions are more heartwarming. Damian is also nicer and had more interaction with Charlotte as a child. Another thing I’d give the novel a lot of praise for is that it straight-up stated and graphically depicted how Charlotte suffered from anxiety. You don’t see that often in light novels, and even less often if the character in question is a teenage girl.

I think it’s important to point out as a bonus that the novel depicts Violet’s knowledge of love letter writing as something crude and inept. She simply immitates what she reads and can be pretentious as hell just so the impact of the text will be more effective on the reader. That’s something natural of any writer. Nobody necessarily has to have experienced certain events or feelings in order to be able to write about them; just reading about those and using one’s imagination is enough to spark the inspiration. KyoAni was adamant in enforcing otherwise, apparently because Ishidate Taichi believed that Violet’s development stemmed partly from becoming able to write about certain topics, which is honestly super shallow.

But, of course, I think the highlight of the whole chapter is Charlotte and Damian’s relationship and how it affected Violet. KyoAni attempted to make Violet relate with Charlotte simply because the two of them were the same age, which was ridiculous at best. As I have stated before, Violet is older in the novel, so she isn’t as old as Charlotte. What  Akatsuki-sensei used as parallels was their circumstances. And the parallels were between not only Violet and Charlotte, but also Damian and Gilbert. The four of them have completely different personalities but were in very similar positions.

When Charlotte and Violet were 10, both were going through a shitty period in their lives. Violet was being abused by Dietfried on top of being ordered to kill people for little reason, and Charlotte was experiencing having her whole life being decided for her, including who she would marry, for the sake of being used as a political asset between her country and the neighboring ones. And while surrounded by the negativeness of their respective situations, they received kindness from men who actually put themselves in their shoes. This is the key point. Gilbert was the first one to treat Violet as her own person. Same for Damian, who saw Charlotte as what she was: not a potential bride, but a mere child. He treats her even more gently than Alberta, who would always be reminding her of her role as princess, and basically leaves his social status completely out of the conversation. More importantly, he acknowledges the hell Charlotte was being forced to go through. This shows that he is fully aware she was not being seen as anything other than a tool by anyone and makes clear that he was treating her as nothing but a fellow human being. It’s just like Gilbert’s attempts at making Violet realize that he never saw her as a weapon and that she should live her life freely.

This is why Charlotte and Violet fell in love. Charlotte had just basically found the one (1) person who wasn’t trying to use her for his own benefit or actively working to make sure she fulfilled her pre-determined duties as an object of political maneuvers. As for Violet, when Charlotte’s story links up with her own memories, it’s pretty obvious that she knew happiness for the first time when she came in contact with Gil. So there you have it: two little girls with their hearts stolen by older men. But there’s an important detail that the anime conventionally left out, which was what caused the whole uproar and disgust towards this episode.

That is, the fact none of this was mutual or intentional.

Neither Gil nor Damian had any sort of feelings for Violet or Charlotte when they were children, nor were they physically attracted to them even after they became teenagers. The anime failed at conveying this. KyoAni acted like Charlotte and Violet’s age was more prominent for Violet to identify with Charlotte than what the two of them were going through. What’s worse, it made Damian seem like he was starting to fall in love with Charlotte just because of letters.

I think what ruined Damian in the anime for good was the reunion scene in the garden. It might seem heartrending at first, but in retrospect, it was really weird. Damian was basically making a formal, traditional proposal, as if he had actually fallen in love with Charlotte already. Not to mention he had basically invaded the royal palace of a country that isn’t his own in the middle of the night like it’s no big deal, lol. In the novel, none of this happens, and Damian is cleary not in love with Charlotte, but his letters made it obvious that he was willing to treat her well and was completely open to the possibility of falling for her in the future. Since Akatsuki-sensei made a point to show that Damian is a humble and respectful person despite being a prince, as well as the complete opposite of the ultra-sexual way that Cattleya portrayed him in her letters, he probably wouldn’t lay a finger on Charlotte even after she became his wife until she actually turned into a woman. And since he affirms he would cherish her, he most likely wouldn’t get himself a lover to use as distraction until Charlotte was of age.

There’s also something I deem important in the parallels between these two relationships. It’s that one character is always being considerate of the other. Damian often showed that he would treat Charlotte well and was honest with her about the fact that he wouldn’t have the heart to act like they were a lovey-dovey couple, because they were not one. Meanwhile, Charlotte affirms that she’d go along with that either way because he was the man she had chosen. The part of Charlotte’s last letter that comments on how she’d tag with him to do whatever he liked and that she’d do a better job than him at it had me hollering because this is exactly the kind of female character that Akatsuki-sensei seems to enjoy writing about the most. It brings me back to how Gilbert inevitably had to take Violet to war despite not wanting to, except she was fully willing to go with him and was better in combat than he could ever hope to be.

The reason for Violet’s wanting to help Charlotte(which I refrained from saying in previous asks because too many spoilers), much more than the fact Charlotte wasn’t satsified with her services, was that, even without realizing, Violet saw herself in her. It makes all sense that she’d want Charlotte to have the happy ending that she herself didn’t get. The anime didn’t make this clear enough either. What I also liked better in the novel was how bi af Cattleya is Charlotte and Alberta’s goodbye scene was much warmer.

Anyway, this is it, I think. Sorry that I took so long to reply. ^^’