Today for this week’s Otaku Theater, I am writing this on the bed of my hotel room in Edinburgh, where I’m enjoying Scotland Loves Anime. A separate post will be coming soon (Editor’s note: was posted yesterday.), which will cover what happened and what went wrong. Haha, maybe I shouldn’t talk too much about what went wrong; I mean, I did fly all the way here to have fun, right?
We’ll begin this week’s post on one thing: the one thing that I can’t quite explain. Why I’m getting so frustrated with a silly show like Azur Lane, and yet at the same time, I’m enjoying Kandagawa Jet Girls so much. Does this make me some kind of hypocrite?
Kandagawa Jet Girls Episode 2
This is a show that’s full to the brim with fan service, ecchi and yuri undertones, with little attention paid to any actual plot. What plot there is involves country girl Rin, who’s a bit of an airhead, who moves to the big city to be a hardcore celebrity jet racer, just like her late mother was. There’s obviously much more than just that, but it sure is hard to dig out.
So far, the best character by far is Rin’s potential jet race partner, Misa, who has much more of a detailed character design than Rin. So far, after 2 episodes, we notice that Misa does have a deep interest in jet racing, and in particular playing the shooter role in the sport. Something (or perhaps someone) is clearly holding her back though, and it’s very likely that it’ll take someone like Rin to get her out of her shell, either with the power of yuri or otherwise.
This week’s episode follows straight from the end of the opening episode, and finishes the 1v1 race against what seems to be the local champions. It later moves on to Rin’s mission to form a Jet Race club at her school despite it being the second semester or something.
This is such a stupid, silly and cute show. Now Azur Lane can be called stupid, silly and cute too, but there is this je ne sais quoi that Kandagawa Jet Girls has that makes me want more, and it definitely isn’t all the fan service (and there is a lot of it). Is it Rin’s gay airheadedness? Is it Misa’s moodiness? Is it all the other secondary characters? Or is it simply a mixture of the three? I know that watching more of this stupid, silly and cute show will help me answer that question, and I know I’ll give you guys a much more substantial answer in weeks to come. What I do know is that there is no way I am dropping this show…
Azur Lane Episode 3
Okay, so what is it that annoys me about Azur Lane? Sure, I know nothing about the franchise or the game, but the same can be said about Kandagawa Jet Girls. Sure, there’s quite a bit of fan service here, but…well, you get the idea.
I think the reason that I dislike one stupid, silly and cute show while enjoying another is that I can’t find a good reason to like any of the characters here in Azur Lane. This franchise has been going on longer than Kandagawa Jet Girls, sure, but that doesn’t mean that these ship girls have likable character designs. Here in this week’s episode, for instance, most of the attention is on Enterprise, and how the other ship girls are suspecting that she is losing her focus. Enterprise sees the ocean only as a battlefield, and her existence only to defeat the Sirens, no matter who stands against her, whether they be Sakura Empire or Iron Blood, or even anyone in Eagle Union or Royal Navy.
The new girl though, Belfast, sees this the most, and decides to take attention by ‘training’ her, when they all answer a distress call and notices that Enterprise’s weapons are still damaged, but goes out to fight nonetheless. And still, after 3 episodes, I still can’t find anything much to like here in this show. I’m choosing not to drop it though. I’m certain that very little will change, so I guess it’s just a matter of me finding things to enjoy in Azur Lane.
We Never Learn s2 Episode 3
And now time for our weekly offering of We Never Learn.
This week is Rizu’s turn, but someone else outside of the main harem is brought in as well. Sawako Sekijou is someone that has appeared in the show in the past, and has been portrayed as a ‘rival’ of sorts to Rizu; the real truth is that she is both very concerned and envious of her. She is a science and math genius as well, but it seems that in the past, she has let other peoples’ negative opinions of her good grades get to her, unlike Rizu.
Sawako holds no feelings for Nariyuki, so there’s no chance of her joining the harem; all her energy is devoted to doing the best for Rizu, someone she looks up to a lot. Will this second season of We Never Learn give us a better look at other characters that make the harem what they are? Interesting to see, as this week’s episode was quite nice to watch, and it didn’t let any of the usual fan service or ecchi take over it.
I think this week also could be a week where I get a better look at how some of these girls see Nariyuki. As a harem show, our first instinct is that all of these girls just want to win his heart, but now that more episodes of this franchise have gone on, I’ve noticed something a little more than just that. Last season, quite a bit of focus was on Uruka, largely because of the history she has with him. This season has the potential of letting Fumino, Rizu, Kirisu and Asumi developing more than just a binary relationship with him. Take Fumino, for instance; I think she could be very happy with a close platonic relationship with Nariyuki, and while Kirisu-sensei is off-limits for obvious reasons, the fact that she is acknowledging him as a ‘teacher’ more is a very good thing.
Houkago Saikoro Club Episode 3
This week’s episode of Houkago Saikoro Club was especially good as well, as it raised one particular topic that us game nerds go through (or have gone through in the past): bullying.
Miki and Midori are invited over to Aya’s house, where they meet her older sister Hana, and her best friend/’something more’ Maki, who has, it is revealed, has a history with Miki. Throughout this episode, we are given snippets of Miki’s past, and why she has decided to remain a solitary person as she starts high school. We learn that Miki was a victim of heavy bullying; the reasons why are unclear, but as someone who was also a victim of heavy bullying, I can see that reasons usually mean nothing to bullies.
This week’s game-to-geek-over is Incan Gold, or Diamant, a push-your-luck board game with an adventure and archaeological theme. Players aim to leave the ‘cave’ with the most gems, but must decide whether to press on or leave the ‘cave’ early, to avoid any hazard cards which come in the form of snakes, spiders, falling rocks, fire traps, etc. This was actually an ideal game to present this bullying topic further; these kind of memories stay with us victims for a long time, and so knowing that you can overcome a game of chicken (which this game essentially is) is a bit of a giant step.
Houkago Saikoro Club has been a bit slow to start, but if it carries on with these kind of topics, then this show could end up being even more enjoyable to watch.
Girls’ Last Tour Episode 3
In the third episode of Girls’ Last Tour, Chi and Yuu come across their first other human, in the form of cartographer Kanazawa. After still wondering where their dead fish came from, more and more signs of civilization come around. Here, the three of them start to question a lot of things about the place they’ve found themselves in, even going as far as whether this wasteland is some kind of afterlife or purgatory for them.
The manga for this is over, and it isn’t really established what this wasteland is, or even whether it even is some kind of afterlife or purgatory. We are only given little glimpses of what happened before in the form of dreams and mini-flashbacks. I’m still very curious on where this adaptation of the manga will end up going; in this episode they find a tower and working streetlights, which means there’s power generating from somewhere.
So this Fall season has become a war between two stupid, silly and cut shows, and for me, Kandagawa Jet Girls is winning very easily. What do you think though? Do you think ship girls are better than gay and voluptuous jet skiing high schoolers? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below! Also, check out my separate post covering the Scotland Loves Anime event that happened this month!