First time in quite a while I'll be keeping up with what anime is currently airing, so I figure I should keep track of my thoughts and motivations for what I've elected to keep up with and what I've dropped like it's hot.
Not aiming to write plot summaries, so I won't be spoiling much if any at all.
Happy Sugar Life
Tenrou: Sirius the Jaeger
Hanebado!
Asobi Asobase
High Score Girl
Sunoharasou no Kanrinrin-san
Iya na Kao sare nagara Opantsu Misete Moraitai
I Want You To Make a Disgusted Face and Show Me Your Underwear is obviously single-handedly saving anime. Not much to say here, but the cut to black after dropping the following line was pretty brilliant:
Joshiochi!: 2-kai kara Onnanoko ga... Futtekita!?
Island
Not aiming to write plot summaries, so I won't be spoiling much if any at all.
The Hopeful "Let's all try to enjoy these!"
Happy Sugar Life
ハッピーシュガーライフ
This show is bizarre. Not in the sense that I'm having difficulty making sense of the plot, but the elements the show brings together on top of the presentation of it all is so curious. The main intrigue of the premise is sat quite well just outside the center of focus of the two episodes I've seen so far, so it will be very interesting to see when our protagonist Matsuzaka Satou actually puts it into perspective for us herself, if at all. Love the opening sequence, more studios really need to play with more mixed media beyond the usual CG. SHAFT successfully made it a hallmark of much of their work, so there's no excuse. It let them get away with animating less while still being impressionable.
Tenrou: Sirius the Jaeger
天狼 Sirius the Jaeger
What appears to be the most proper and accessible production this season would most certainly be the most popular right now if Netflix didn't have the license and condemn it to their less-than-favorable release schedules as far as anime is concerned (shout out to fansubs in 2018). While individual characters haven't gotten much screen time yet, there's a good spread of them with an age dynamic existing outside of the moe and fetish spaces. Action is fluid with proper fight choreography, and the sound and music works great with it. Looking forward to see where this goes, and it's likely to be a crowd-pleaser at the very least. The setting is also good reminder for me to go back and watch Princess Principal.
Hanebado!
はねバド!
While I just stated that Tenrou is the most proper production of this season, Hanebado! is certainly the most impressive. The animation and camera movement really makes the badminton matches pop, and the sound design is top-notch. Hell, they even flex with some full 24 fps animation during the opening credits. Four episodes in, it does feel like things are slowing down for the sake of the animation team. Which is fine, but this middle portion of episodes could be what really makes or breaks it. When we aren't being treated to an exciting match, we're left with melodrama and character designs that practically clash with the whole direction. The resolutions of certain conflicts in episode 3 felt like maybe we would escape the doom and gloom for at least a few episodes, but it wasn't meant to be. Either way, I'll be strapping myself in to see this one through. Fingers crossed the narrative aspects don't turn to shit, seeing as they're on thin ice already as it is.
Asobi Asobase
あそびあそばせ
Episode 1 wasn't great. The majority of the episode feels like it's trying to emulate Nichijou and its contemporaries in the field of 4-koma adaptations. However, if the last skit of that episode got some laughs out of you, be sure to continue. The pace is immediately corrected in the following episodes, and the comedy finds it step. I do think you have to be a bit more in tune to Japanese comedy to get the most mileage out of this though, as it has more of a niche cultural aspect than the pure absurdity of Nichijou. When an arrangement of the Gymnopédies started playing in the last skit of episode 1, my faith was restored. And then after the fun ED sequence, they hit you with this:
I absolutely adore this omake, and it further cements Asobi Asobase with a unique identity to warrant attention. I haven't checked out the other comedies this season yet, but I don't think anything will beat the charm of these puppets.
High Score Girl
ハイスコアガール
About this time last year, Gamers! went on air. While it showed some deference to the hobby, "gaming" was more or less window-dressing for an otherwise unremarkable show. Enter High Score Girl. First of all, just look at the number of licensed copyrights signed onto this project. To quote the recent Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reveal:
"Everyone is here!"
If you have an interest in Japan's arcade culture or gaming in the 90s, look no further. Sporting CG animation, the crisp look to everything works well enough, and the games themselves are rendered quite nicely. Unlike Gamers!, few concessions are being made when alluding to real things that really exist, and the characters are actually used to explore the stigmas surrounding gaming. The OP and ED sequences are both excellent, and the relationship between Haruo and Akira is likely to be the comfiest of the season.
The Hormonal "A part of me enjoys these..."
Sunoharasou no Kanrinrin-san
すのはら荘の管理人さん
Dormitory harem show except MC is younger than everyone! Truthfully, it seems rare for a harem show to feature this particular age dynamic, but you're still treated to a pretty typical cast, all with their own quirky behavior in lieu of actually building more reasonable characters. Granted, it's not as much of a sin here since the premise is built upon the effeminate Shiina Aki's desire to conform to masculine norms. It's only natural to surround him with an ensemble cast/harem that will challenge that resolve, but any fruitful exploration of the subject would require more nuanced characters. Will he become a "manly" man? Or will he accept the fetishization he's subjected to? Either way, no earth-shattering conclusions to be found here. True jukujo/MILF harems in anime are probably still relegated to H-OVA smut, but at least the Prez is cute, and I enjoy the carefree indulgence enough to keep watching.
Iya na Kao sare nagara Opantsu Misete Moraitai
嫌な顔されながらおパンツ見せてもらいたい
Okay, real talk. Not really that gratuitous, actually. This is legitimately for people into verbal abuse. No close-up crotch shot during either of the 2 episodes I've seen so far. Honestly wouldn't be surprised if the show doesn't even do it for the people who particularly enjoy this fetish. Animation is fairly conservative, although the characters are rendered in close detail to the source material to make up for it. Haven't checked out the source, but I can recommend mebae's Batou Shoujo if you want something along the same line that I found to actually be an interesting form of storytelling, unlike this so far.
Joshiochi!: 2-kai kara Onnanoko ga... Futtekita!?
じょしおちっ！～2階から女の子が…降ってきた！？～
So, something that sort of happened when I wasn't really keeping up these past few years was the appearance of these seasonal H anime...and that's rad. Okay, it's not particularly rad at all, but it's pretty hilarious seeing the PV bait unsuspecting viewers into watching it, seeing as it's only marked as ecchi on MyAnimeList.
Absurdly fantastical, the animation quality is actually decent as far as animated hentai is concerned. Watch the meme subs if you can and enjoy yourself.
The Horrible "I apologize if you enjoy this."
Island
ISLAND
Visual novels usually don't adapt too well. They are also usually built upon contrived premises that are consistently an obstacle when it comes to recommending them as a whole. And that's a big issue here. Episode 1 is just a romp through so many tropes I had eventually grown tired of several years back when I couldn't even make it through the first episode of the Little Busters! anime. Probably the first TV anime I dropped in the middle of an episode. However, as I'm getting back into anime, I figured I'd give this kind of adaptation another go. The company behind the source material is Front Wing, and I did really enjoy what I played of their Grisaia no Kajitsu visual novel, so I'll have some faith to stick this one out. While I'm behind at the time of writing this, episode 2 was a more substantial proposition than the first, and if they can do something interesting with the island's folklore and the mystery, it might turn out alright. The sequence revealing the mythos of the island was quite nice.
Either way, I can't recommend this AIR-lite adaptation on any of its own merits so far.
Alright, I think that covers just about everything I've gotten to so far. I'll likely be making a followup post as I explore some more shows, and give some updated thoughts on what I've covered here.
Still experimenting with the formatting, so it's all subject to change, but seeing as I'm not intending to drop anything here just yet, I probably should change it before these get too long.
And if you made it this far, thanks for reading! I'll be doing my best to keep updating this blog, so look forward to it.
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Feel free to stop by and say hi!
nice one brosef
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