Re:Creators (Ep. 7)

     Ufotable café, eh? That makes things more interesting, but I expected that such cafés would be not as bleak to look at. Or at least that more people would visit them. Or at least that Mamika and the main guy wouldn’t be so immersed in their conversation and notice that the only customer except them is Maaya Sakamoto. And in the first place what made Mamika think that the main guy knows anything or is connected somehow to the Princess? It’s a nice touch that namely Magical Girl Peace-Keeping Troops try to unite everyone but it just feels like too huge a thought leap. The main guy is weirdly silent considering that the information he knows but somehow refuses to share may have some real impact in order to understand what is happening. Some emotional trauma maybe? It’d better be a good excuse. Exposition again creeps up here and there, as Ei Aoki just loves talking with changing camera angles. Going to the start of the episode, the fight again looked kinda cool but everyone fighting everyone and changing sides every other second wasn’t as impactful as last time. Not to mention that I couldn’t get my mind of judging the chances of someone dueling with a spear against a sword that has far shorter reach and still failing to be effective. But I guess that’s not the point, it’s ensuing drama that matters. But why the hell Alice’s flying horse makes sounds of a chopper?

Little Witch Academia (Ep. 20)

    Getting to know more about Diana and finally seeing her smile definitely were the highlights of the arc, but ultimately it feels pointless. Don’t you think that we just ended up being in the square one? Diana is still in school, and nobody is the head of the family. So if Diana is willing to go back and leave the matters precisely as they were, why all the determination and urgency in the beginning? Last time somehow I got an idea that Diana’s aunt was trying to usurp Diana’s place as the head of the family, but it turns out that she was only trying to hinder Diana’s attempts. Then again, why the position of the head is so important? We aren’t told that and as seemingly nobody tries to become the head apart from Diana, few years here or there don’t feel like making a huge difference. Moreover, even as the heir Diana did nothing to mend the state of the family (like at least draining the water from the old and oh-so-important library), and she rather easily leaves now, so it further undermines the apparent goal of this arc. Getting everything (almost) work through magic only, and tying it to the overarching plot felt pretty cheap, and it marks yet another LWA episode that allows me to be more annoyed at details in place of being blown away by the spectacular adventures of Akko.

Natsume Yuujinchou Roku (Ep. 7)

      Well, the story managed to capture that special something. Reiko, being virtually the reason of everything Natsume has been thrown into, hasn’t received much screen time yet, and every little detail about her past feels essential. It’s very interesting to see both Reiko and Natsume (well, Takashi, but nobody calls him that) in very similar situations and perceive similarities and differences between them. Reiko clearly is a more choleric person who does everything without much thought but when she needs she can turn pretty much any situation to suit her needs. Natsume on the other hand is more cautious and because of lack of rashness is able to form long-lasting relationships more easily. Reiko also strives to overcome her loneliness but for her it’s more difficult not because she lacks charm but rather she doesn’t believe she can be wanted as a friend for long, so she rather doesn’t pursue to get friends at all. So that’s the good part. The presentation on the other hand… The show never boasted about high quality animation but come on Shuka, at least bother to animate mouths of speaking characters. I can’t imagine how the production is doing if they can’t accomplish even the minimum of 2 frames showing a closed and an open mouth interchangeably. Possibly a recap incoming?

Sakura Quest (Ep. 8)

     So the last Shiori mini-arc (that I didn’t quite liked) wasn’t all we are getting about the girl. Seeing more Manoyama residents in more detail is a nice thing, though the exoskeleton guy as well as the musician could show up more. Somehow watching Shiori’s family is heartwarming. I guess it couldn’t be otherwise since everyone looks so good-natured, kind and, well, almost fluffy. Setting up a possible relationship (and a serious one considering Shiori’s personality) and having to deal with everything it causes is quite a compelling route Sakura Quest looks to be taking, but the studio shoul’ve reconsidered giving so over-the-top sumo wrestler body to the chef. Shiori taking an initiative is also a welcome sight, as further developments are likely to be coming. Some small details the show places here and there must be appreciated – Maki and Sanae having grown closer after their experiences or Yoshino not even realizing that after all this time she finds that Manoyama has many wonderful things. By the way, I think Sakura Quest have one of the better OP/ED combos this season.

Tsuki ga Kirei (Ep. 7)

      They *almost* kissed (as is appropriate in anime) but there are much more things to talk about. The new OP looks not bad. I guess that’s an apology for the recap. The first OP was centered on lots (I mean lots) of sakura petals, weird rotoscoping and mostly character close ups that generally introduced them but did nothing more. As we already know what the characters are like, this new OP shows more of them in their natural habitat (Akane running and Curly writing). Also they as well as other characters now aren’t so isolated, smile more and appear in bigger groups. Leaving the OP, it bothers me that earlier during the trip the girls were considerate enough to give Akane some private space even though they knew what she was likely to do. Hira wasn’t on that trip so I find it hard to believe that the same friends would suddenly forget that Akane might have someone else in mind. And that someone else got a really great character moment showing he apparently has balls, something I didn’t really expect. Pretty much everything before that moment was anything but interesting – we have already seen the show trying to force Chinatsu with Curly and Hira with Akane just to create drama. Thankfully it didn’t last long. Still, it’s hard to believe that Chinatsu, knowing full well about the relationship she wasn’t meant to break still tried to steal Curly. Well, maybe that’s just her character, one with pretty short memory and not enough determination to leave things be. …And… I’m sorry, who though that putting such a horrific poster behind a couple peacefully enjoying their time was a good idea? It’s possible that the staff just doesn’t bother anymore, as even after a recap they managed to fail drawing Roman lying on a bed – did no one seriously notice that because of his hear he looks like he has raised his head all the time? Oh well, I probably shouldn’t even be surprised. What’s next – the full-CG final episode made during an all-nighter?

Re:Creators (Ep. 5)

    So it appears we have a Shinji Ikari knock-off guy with even  a worse personality, not to mention him being hypocritical about getting into the damn robot. I wonder if there’s time travel in his story because he doesn’t look the least bit surprised about all this situation. Annoyed, yes, but not more than that. The show’s trying to get as realistic as possible with the premise it has, but the way the government interfered was a bit weird. Not to mention that everybody’s absolutely alright with the fact that there’re damn 2D people come to life, and not some cosplayers or just random madmen. The only exciting thing was the ending with that blue-haired girl, who also did get a few cuts in the first episode. Sadly, apart from that the show can’t get away from its usual style of doing nothing but talking, and talking with little results. I guess this talking is wrestling CG from Tsuki ga Kirei in terms of starting to be annoying. 12 episodes would probably have suited this story better.

Little Witch Academia (Ep. 18)

     It’s all over the place, and not for good. It would be silly to expect serious things to happen in a show about witch-girls but some storytelling consistency within the episode as well as in the whole show would’ve been appreciated. It’s just like Trigger didn’t have any ideas what to do with the episode and when everyone was asked about suggestions, each and every one of them made to the final product. Well, of course there’re some nice sakuga moments, Akko was enjoyably being Akko (including the fact that Megumi Han nails the voice acting) and Constanze finally got some screentime so that she would start resembling a character because up to now even her character design spoke only of an easily disposable third rate schoolmate no. 87. But even now there’s not much more that can be said about Constanze. The concept of the Wild Hunt that on itself has enough potential to cover an arc more than several episodes of length was underused in order to put some random mecha. Yes, mecha fighting a kaiju (and that one having physique not dissimilar to a certain angel from NGE) should be fun, but with little buildup it was just there and nothing more. Inconsistent character designs also weren’t a positive highlight. LWA once again offers a bag full of everything but there’s little thought put into making the motives stick together and form a coherent narrative. It’s alright, but knowing that it could’ve definitely been better feels disappointing.

Natsume Yuujinchou Roku (Ep. 5)

     Not the most exciting episode but the payoff with some emotional moments to the point was good enough. Sometimes (and it was this time also) Natsume manages to capture some fundamentally human feelings and youkai, having more concentrated and straightforward emotions compared to humans can really bring home the message. You don’t even need to try hard to find comparisons with the real life as the masked youkai rages and cries in confusion about not being able to get any answer from a person he cares deeply about while the person just can’t do anything about it. Yet, story-wise the most interesting part of course is Natori’s premonition about the Book of Friends. I doubt it will pose any real threat but stirring things up a bit might be refreshing. Also refreshing should be the following episode about two other Natsume’s buddies besides Tanuma. Actually it’s quite funny that the show runs way past its 60^th episode and out of its not that large cast there are still some recurring characters that we know virtually nothing about.

Sakura Quest (Ep. 6)

     Guess which shot received the budget of the whole episode? Well, the filming thing came out of nowhere. It felt very different from the usual fare – no more explorations, wanderings around the town to get to know the people. It’s almost amazing how such an event managed to push things forward – Riri got her moment, Maki’s past became a little bit clearer, Sanae was able to take off further from her completed mini-arc, and even Shiori was troubled enough to lie. Speaking about the last fact, it definitely feels wrong to burn a part of a town just for the sake of some self-righteous jerk who doesn’t care about anything (well done P.A., making such an unlikable character so quickly is a feat) even if voice of reason points out differently. There’s no doubt that the director will have much trouble achieving his ends in Manoyama, but far more interesting remains the interplay between the girls and all the bits and pieces about their pasts constantly being revealed. Seeing the chief old dude acting like a perfect zombie I began wonder why did they chose to build a kingdom of Chupakabura instead.

Tsuki ga Kirei (Ep. 6)

     Nice one. The slow pace with events unfolding at their own speed really suits the show. This episode weirdly reminded me of many things. The parts that were especially slice of life-y looked like something KyoAni could do (if they were broke and desperate enough to use CG), some of the longer “ehhhhh” moments were straight from Nichijou (I guess KyoAni again). Nonetheless the best part was shared with Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo (actually it’s also the only part I really liked about the latter)  – the portrayal of people who no matter how passionate and dedicated are, still aren’t able to achieve their goals on the first try. There are lots of shounen style stories where a protagonist on the verge of failing summons his full might and defeats everyone fair and square without batting an eye, but to watch someone actually failing and having to deal with that looks far more realistic. Of course the protagonists will end up realizing their wishes one way or another, but such moments of total defeat, especially in a show that’s deeply grounded in reality make everything far more relatable. I just have no idea why on earth would anyone think that the skits in the end are anything but a dead weight.