It already feels like the end of the year. I suppose I had better think about what to watch for the winter 2019 season…although, truth be told, I already have a plan ahead for that season, but I’m keeping quiet about that for the meantime.

Let’s begin with what I’m watching for this season, and at least I think there won’t be any shows I’ll drop because I end up getting too frustrated with them.

 

Yet, SSSS Gridman has sort of gone in all sorts of directions, and while I am certainly enjoying everything that’s going on, it could be fair to say that its attempts to be half a dozen things all at the same time is throwing some people off. There’s at least someone on my Twitter feed who is in two minds:

On one hand you can see Yuta, Utsumi and Rikka behave like highly emotional schoolchildren thrown in a very bizarre situation, while on the other hand you can see these three go all-in like either some kids mecha show or a tokusatsu show even. Akane, meanwhile, seems to be behaving like some incredibly camp antagonist-who-will-probably-turn-good-in-the-end kind of person; so far, she just has the behavior and the attitude of someone like Rita Repulsa or a lieutenant of Queen Beryl (I think I mentioned that in a previous week’s post actually…), and so I hope she will change soon enough. Our new characters (Max, Borr and Vit) are like the side characters who not only add action but dry humor to the show…just like Ira, Nonon, Uzu and Houka from that other well-known Trigger show. Just Trigger doing Trigger things, which is what we viewers tune in for to begin with.

This week’s episode is a bit of a filler episode, as we see Rikka, Akane, Namiko and Hass go out on a group date with some college boys with a Youtube channel, and Yuta develops some hormones and gets jealous. This week SSSS Gridman becomes part-slice of life, part-tokusatsu, part-emo drama…perhaps the show’s future filler episodes will end up being like this week and attempt to develop a big story, but I think that it is this confusion that could polarize the audience. Personally, I am enjoying this mixture of genres in this show, but I know many other fans, as well as Trigger fans, won’t be sold…at least not just yet.

Oh yeah, and the English dub got Borr’s gender wrong totally; he is actually a boy, not the girl the dub makes him out to be.

https://twitter.com/soymilkpudding/status/1053813312968970240

Onto Bloom into You now, and it’s this stage of the show where I haven’t a clue what actually goes on, so this should be quite fun to watch from this point onward. Just as Nanami wants to get closer to Yuu in the way of convincing her to approve of bringing back the school play, a spanner is thrown in the works, in the form of Maki.

The studio behind Bloom into You (Troyca) have taken a leap here by bringing Maki in; introducing and developing a male character in a yuri show who isn’t an antagonist or a comedy act is a very rare thing indeed, like some unicorn or wooly mammoth, but I’m not 100% sold on him to be honest. He tells Yuu that he won’t tell anyone what he saw in that student council room, but his reasons why he won’t come off as a little creepy. Not pervy, just…very odd, especially when he goes on to tell Yuu that he enjoys watching romances from a distance, like some spectator of a show. But then again, the guy does look trustworthy, so Yuu doesn’t really have anything to worry about. Her father has already hinted that he would not really approve of his daughter having a girlfriend, and I’m sure there would be plenty of others at her school who would look down on same-sex relationships as well. It is, however, interesting how Maki notices Yuu is more concerned about Nanami’s reputation than her own; he sees this as a sign that Yuu is beginning to develop some feelings for her, and that she has become someone special to her now.

Like I said, he’s a nice guy, even if he comes across as a little odd. Some schoolgirls would kill to have male friends like this guy…

Onto Mission Impossible: Yuribait Protocol, and I think the people who regularly tune in to watch the show are just parodying all the spy jokes that crop up here, there and everywhere…although the main plot is starting to get a little uncomfortable. As you watch these Tsukikage girls do spy stuff, you begin to wonder if these girls are just too moe for all the gritty badness that they end up facing. So far, the main plot seems to revolve around our antagonists, Moryo, be creepy drug smugglers and be handlers to prostitutes. This week is a bit of a weaker episode though, as we see Fu desperate to impress her mentor and others at Tsukikage by acting independently. In this episode, we see that she is indeed a very hard worker and someone you just can’t not like.

Release the Spyce is a fun little show, there’s no denying that. It’s silly, ridiculous and highly unbelievable, and so if you only look at it like that (and not take it seriously at all), then it’ll cheer you up for sure.

While I’ve begun to notice weak points in SSSS Gridman, Bloom into You and Release the Spyce, I’ve begun to notice some weak points in my classic/out-of-season show too. Episode 4 of The Tatami Galaxy is a bit of a weak one as well. While this is one episode where he doesn’t join a college circle, it still seems that our nameless hero ends up getting involved in Ozu and Higuchi (the guy with the big chin) regardless. The threads that tie our hero and Ozu’s fates together are intertwined and seem almost unbreakable, as if no matter what he does, Ozu will worm his way into his activities. Surely he should have figured out by now what his problems are, and how to get out of this unlucky timeloop; this cycle will not end until he decides to move forward from his past mistakes, and returns that Mochiguman to Akashi.

I’m hoping that he’ll be able to see this problem, but by the looks of it, it still seems like he’s stuck, oblivious to this timeloop he’s in.

We’re starting to get into filler episodes in our shows now, so how have your watches been? Have the shows you’ve watched gotten any better or worse in your opinion? Feel free to hit that like button and air your views in the comments below…