A summer update… (#1)

Only a brief post today just to fill you guys in on what I’ve been up to over the last ten days or so since my last post…

So until the start of September I’m going to be working on my Masters’ dissertation (that is twenty-thousand words on a very niche bit of Medieval British history), so I hope you’ll forgive me for not posting a lot until then. It doesn’t mean though that I haven’t had any time to watch any anime!

Because my time for watching has come a bit randomly I haven’t watched things as episodically as I would normally, but let me just run through what I have seen…

Re:Creators Episodes 5-11

I started watching Spring’s Re:Creators well after the first cour had finished, and I actually I don’t regret that at all because it’s given me an opportunity to binge (sort of) the middle episodes of the show. The synopsis for the show would have you believe that Re:Creators is going to change the way that sci-fi/fantasy anime is told – that it does not. However, that does not mean it’s a bad show. The first thing to point out is that so far it’s been very dialogue heavy, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. This dialogue heavy approach took a long time to pay dividends, but by the end of episode 10, I’ve come to appreciate just what it’s trying to do.

I can’t say it’s blowing me away, but there are moments that are really great. The concept is undeniably really interesting and you’ve got to admire any show that tries to tackle mental illness and suicide. I’ve also been really impressed with Maaya Sakamoto’s performance as Magane, who is also generally a great character within the context as the show.

I’m looking forward to see how this unfolds going forward, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it, though I’m not entirely sure how ‘good’ it’s going to be when all is said and done.

Fate/Apocrypha Episodes 3-4

Fate/Apocrypha was the one show I was really excited for from the Summer 2017 season, but these last two episodes have stalled a bit from an initially promising start. Ruler’s role in the Holy Grail War still hasn’t been adequately explained and Rider of Black’s motivation for rescuing the homunculus is painfully clichéd.

There are positives (for me at least). This remains a solid Fate franchise anime and because I enjoy the concepts of Fate, Apocrypha can’t do all that much wrong. As for the show itself, I’ve particularly enjoyed how the two teams haven’t become Red = Good and Black = Evil (hence why they’re not Black and White, I suppose). Although the characters themselves don’t have a lot of depth to them at this early stage, the teams have a lot of depth and still a lot of mystery – which of course is no bad thing with twenty episodes left to air.

Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu Episode 2

Katsugeki didn’t really go anywhere for me in episode two. The team of spirit weapons got to know each other a bit better and we got to see the dynamics that are going to develop between them. This hasn’t grabbed me at all, hence why I’m two episodes behind, but no doubt I’ll get back into it and keep this ticking over and maybe, with some more episodes, it’ll improve.

Alice and Zouroko Episode 9

Yes, yes, I know this ended ages ago, but it just fell by the wayside with other things going on. Sana recovered from the trauma of seeing her friends and family frozen in time by another Dream of Alice. Hatori continues to avoid the people that might be able to help her with her powers, making them forget what they had meant to do.

This hasn’t been a particularly bad show, but it has felt disjointed between the first and second half. I get what they were trying to do with separate arcs, but everything feels quite rushed – I’ve got three episodes left and I can’t help but feel as if the ending is going to be nothing more than a bit ‘meh’.

New Game!! Episode 2

The second season of New Game doesn’t need me to say a lot. It’s back, using it’s second episode to fully reintroduce all of the characters and finish setting up the rest of the season with Aoba working on the character designs for the studios next game. I’m not sure if there’s any improvement here, but things do feel a little tighter and there is the threat of genuine plot progression this time around. To be honest though, this show doesn’t need to do anything to keep me interested – it’s low effort fun and I’ll be back every week.

Classroom of the Elite Episode 2

Episode 1 of Classroom of the Elite really bothered me. It came across as if it’s writers had seen some really great shows, then shoe-horned characters and themes from those shows into one with a lot of fan service. It also didn’t explain the system very well and there weren’t that many reasons to come for episode 2. However, it just so happened that when I logged into Crunchyroll one evening, episode 2 had just aired and I had nothing else particularly to watch so here we are.

We learnt a little more about Suzune and her brother issues (although that was fairly clear from last week) and the fan service continued immediately after the news of the class getting no money this month – because swimming makes everything better (!). The system was explained a little better and the prejudice against Class D is starting to become more evident. Otherwise, this episode was much the same as the first episode and with episode three having already aired, I’ve got no reason to rush to see it.

Gamers! Episode 2

If you’re a fairly big fan of anime and school comedy is your thing, then Gamers! will be ticking boxes for you so far. There isn’t an original character here, though I do like Tasuku’s attempt to re-create himself, as shown this week, to escape his geeky past. I like how this pokes fun at itself, while all of the characters keep laughing at each other – apart from Karen who is becoming more a disaster as things go on! Nothing much to say here because Gamers! is a fairly unremarkable anime, but fans of the genre will enjoy this with ease.

Sakura Quest Episode 13

I’m a few episodes behind Sakura Quest, but to tell you the truth, this show has greatly improved from it’s opening six episodes. Now that we’ve finished getting to know the cast (which took far too long), the point of the show has started to come through. The founding festival was a moderate success in the short term, but Yoshino ends up being disappointed that there don’t seem to be any long term benefits of everyone visiting Manoyama. There’s a goal that the girls can aim for now in the next 12 episodes and I’m hopeful that the show will do a good job on that journey.

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So that’s what I’ve been doing anime wise over the past couple of weeks. There’s some light entertainment to go alongside a fair amount of disappointment, but from what I’m watching this summer, I can’t be too disappointed overall.

Hopefully the gap between posts won’t be as long as last time!

Thanks for reading!