It’s not exactly uncommon in an anime for the main character to be the most interesting one, but it is more of a rarity to have one who’s as chronically underconfident as Arata is in an action show. It surprises me that I’m actually enjoying the resulting contrast.
Though the premise of each episode thus far has been fairly similar, I’d never accuse this show of being on cruise control. It’s simply too well-handled. Muromi-san a roller coaster ride that has as much fun making fun of its own ideas as it does playing them straight up.
So Photo Kano ended up being a study as to why scriptwriters are necessary even for skilled directors. The visual sense in that show is excellent, and fits the main character’s story very well, but the script is a bunch of torrid rust. I’m willing to bet Akitoshi Yokoyama had full control over the situation to the extent that nobody with veto power could come up to him and told him some of his story ideas were really, really bad. Even Masaki Yuasa’s name in a cutaway bit can’t save that script. I would watch another thing of his, provided his next producer keeps him 10 kilometers away from the script.
Moving on to shows that actually have me interested, I really like where Devil Survivor 2 is going. After a mediocre first episode, it’s been picking up the pace by laying down a layer of intrigue, setting up fast-moving, area-conscious fight scenes, and pumping up on drama. Thus, I’m making my hop right back on the ol’ rock-steady Kishi Seiji bandwagon.
I like the characters of Arata Kangatari a lot more than I probably should. If I had to say why, it’s how believable they are. Arata, especially, but Kotoha’s had her moments. Too, the cast is adding members in this prison arc, hinting at their futures (or lack thereof) in all the right ways.
This week’s Muromi-san episode felt a lot like a deliberate homage, taking themes from a number of older, well-established comedies and building them into a fun episode about irrational specism.
Arata Kangatari didn’t really fix its terminology problems this week, but the dull monologues this episode explaining what in the whoozits a Hayagami is were plentifully offset by the key scene establishing the Shinshou as – so far – the best villains of the Spring 2013 season.
Choosing the new show to blog for Saturdays was tough. It’s too good of a slate to take nothing from it. But I’ll still be blogging Space Brothers once the new-timeslot recaps finish up, and I don’t even want to think about what a 3-show weekend would do to the progress of stats and miscellaneous articles I’m writing up. So I’m left with a choice between Attack on Titan and Muromi-san. Titan has the plot and presumably some upcoming great action scenes, while Muromi-san has the higher energy level and small-things cleverness. While both are probably within my favorite 5 of the season at this point, I ultimately settled on Muromi-san because I simply liked it better from what I’ve seen so far.
I’m not sure every Monday this Spring will be a clinic for how to make a good Battle-genre series, but this one certainly was.
This piece’s subject is 3 shows whose only connection is that they are animated and contain mythical creatures. Oh, and that they’re all at least somewhat entertaining.
I didn’t explain it that well in my first post, so let me say it here. Most modern anime, having lots of competition in whatever season they air, face a real need to prove themselves from day 1. This column is a breakdown of what I saw in various intro episodes that I think will prove indicative of the show’s quality in upcoming weeks, and hence what I plan to be watching. I generally don’t go over plot in much detail, as that’s something anyone can just go to any of a dozen encyclopedia sites for.
Animetics 