I’ve spent the better part of this whole week watching everyone tear apart one of my favorite video game franchises in the last 5 years, but between the time I’ve been defending the new Overwatch outing, I’ve noticed a lot of unusual reaction to the latest Gundam show: The Witch from Mercury. I have never watched Gundam, and wouldn’t even know where to start considering how massive the universes have become (there are more than one apparently). I won’t lie when I say I’m suddenly curious about this one though. Will there be any characters or storylines I need to know about, or prerequisite seasons I need to have watched beforehand? Maybe I should just dive in now and try to enjoy it without thinking too hard about the rest of the universe. I’ll stick to what I’ve picked though; my other two picks had their opening episodes this week.
Raven of the Inner Palace Episode 2
Previously on Raven of the Inner Palace, we meet Shouxue the Raven Consort for the first time. A curious main character to watch, but I felt that she was hiding a lot. As for the young new emperor Gaojin, he is on a revenge mission to hold his mother’s killers accountable, in an ethical manner instead of mass executions (because that would make him no better than her killers). The cliffhanger we got at the end was us discovering that Shouxue is a part of the Luan Dynasty who were outcast, despised and executed for their natural silver hair. So to avoid detection, Shouxue has to dye her hair black.
I felt a little conflicted with this week’s episode. Aspects of the story that I originally thought were going to be the crux of the show ended up getting wrapped up straightaway, and at lightning fast speed too. In the space of two episodes, we find out who owned that earring, who had the other one, and the emperor getting all the evidence he needed to execute the Empress Dowager. While I can complain about the fast pacing, I like how they have portrayed Gaojin as ’empty’, now the one thing he is wanted since he became emperor is done. Vengeance for his mother’s poisoning has been the one thing on his mind, and while it hasn’t entirely consumed him and made him into a twisted person, he is unable to think for his own future. How can he become a better emperor? A son that a mother would be proud of?
This ending of the Jade Earring story was a good one though, despite my complaints. It offered a decent introduction to main characters along with people that I’m sure we’ll see again in the future. As someone pretty unfamiliar with how Chinese drama (especially those set in the palaces) works, this acts as a fairly decent introduction to uninitiated folk like me. The big question though is whether it’ll be enough to keep viewers interested for 10 more weeks.
Raven of the Inner Palace is a compelling watch so far, but my biggest issue with it is not the complex palace drama, but instead its pacing. This story of the jade earrings could have been stretched out into something a lot more people could have followed. I am still happy that we will get stories within the main plot, but I still felt this opening jade earring section was too short – not long enough to engage more people into carrying on watching. The main conflict that brought Shouxue and Gaojin is done now, and so the story will have to move into another direction, or maybe develop these two characters more. Maybe we will learn more about Shouxue’s past in the Luan Dynasty, or Gaojin will find his new reign threatened and will have to turn to her once more to defend it. Just thinking aloud there. Both of those suggestions are ones I’d welcome, if they went at a much slower pace, that is.
I do want to add that they sure are using the heck out of that magic flower animation scene so far. I’m half-expecting to see it many more times.
Bocchi the Rock! Episode 1
I thought it was rather weird how little info I could find about Bocchi the Rock!, and so I just carried on thinking that this would be a simple ‘cute girls doing cute things’ show. Its theme has a lot of parallels with K-on! naturally; I’ll get to those later though, but let’s begin with Bocchi herself.
Hitori Goto has already become someone the internet is very eager to protect. I love shows with main characters that have social anxiety syndrome, and tackle the topic in a very careful and considerate manner. I didn’t enjoy Watamote because it treated Tomoki’s condition like a joke and painted her as a vile and horrible person, but enjoyed Hitoribocchi because it mixed school comedy with a lot more serious issues like sufferers having hypersensitive emotions, and old friends distancing themselves. I even grew to enjoy Komi Can’t Communicate as it gave Komi a goal of finding 100 friends that was both bumpy but worthwhile.
Here in Bocchi the Rock!‘s first episode, Hitori is not framed in the foreground a lot of the time; there are many scenes in fact where her face isn’t even shown that well. This is deliberate though, to show her introverted-ness and how comfortable she has become of it. In the three years she learned to play guitar in the attempt to get people at school to talk to her, she has remained in that closet of hers running a popular Youtube channel where she strums to recent pop songs, and does it very well too. This is also something worth noting too: while she shines at playing guitar solo, she is unable to sync with other players.
It’s obvious to see that this borrows a lot from K-on!; hard to think that that show is 13 years old now. We have a main protagonist who is a fish out of water in the music scene and is desperate to find people to talk to at school. We have other band members with individual and unique characteristics. We have cutesy and non-offensive school humor. We even have a good amount of leg and feet shots. I haven’t read the manga but I doubt that it’ll copy K-on!‘s story, and will go in another ‘cute girls…’ direction. I don’t picture these girls eating tea and cake for most of each episode, and there is no kohai for the main character to fawn over…yet.
I’m definitely going to stick with this, as this was a strong opening episode. It introduces us to most of the main characters, with more on the way. The story is going in an interesting direction so far. And I’m already attached to Hitori. Oh, and through research of this show, I found out that each character here is named after a member of Asian Kung-Fu Generation.
The Eminence in Shadow Episode 1
Given what I had originally read about The Eminence in Shadow is about, I was half-tempted to just add Batman references each week, but now having watched this very creative and original opening episode, I don’t know what to think. You see, we are lulled into a false sense of security with this debut episode’s main protagonist being a teen actress who has had to overcome a major scandal, only to be kidnapped and saved by the outcast boy in her class, who wears a balaclava and smashes her kidnappers’ kneecaps with crowbars…just like any masked vigilante might do. I still wonder who is the real protagonist of the show. And just as Truck-kun arrives and kills him, we are cut straight to show credits with Moonlight Sonata playing, the focus on the teen actress is gone completely, and we are sent to the isekai shadow realm. Not sure whether this is meant to be some satire or parody of the isekai genre or not, but it was hilarious nonetheless.
I usually don’t turn to isekai shows, so picking The Eminence in Shadow for Otaku Theater is a real anomaly for me. I know that in nearly every isekai show though, the Potato-kun character is killed off in less than 5 minutes usually, meaning our focus is squarely on who they are now – in this case, Minoru Kageno become Cid Kagenou, the leader of Shadow Garden. And so the fact that they chose not to do this here is curious. I think that perhaps we were teased with this story of a damsel in distress taking place in the ‘real’ world to give us some character introduction. Not so much that Minoru (or Cid as he is now) is some Batman wannabe, but instead his wish-fulfillment story. That’s what a lot of isekai stories are about after all; Potato-kun loses their life, have their dying wish granted, and becomes somebody in another world. The sudden sea change from dark crime and kidnapping to over-the-top edgelord comedy feels a little weird, I will admit, and might be something that could throw off viewers who were lulled into that sense of security and expecting the poor damsel in distress to come back and play a bigger role, when there’s a chance that we will never see her again.
We are only teased with a few minutes of this new world he is in now, but Cid now has his own harem of pretty girls who are all a part of his Shadow Garden group. Apparently the source light novel tells its story from several other characters’ perspectives, meaning that while Cid is the lead protagonist, he is not the whole universe and everything, like some isekai MCs are. I’m glad to hear this, as so far I’m not sold on the idea of Cid leading the show yet. We have not been shown enough of him for us to form a solid opinion yet. So it’ll take these following episodes for The Eminence in Shadow to show us how edgy Cid really is.
I have also discovered only recently that this show will get a total of 20 episodes! Half of me is glad that they are not cramming plot points in each episode or cutting them out entirely, but the other half is thinking about how much I am willing to take this seriously. I should just treat it as an isekai parody show, and nothing more. This was a very unique opening episode that I didn’t expect coming. I don’t think it’ll win over all the isekai doubters, but it’ll definitely win over the isekai lovers.
Odd Taxi Episode 2
I think one thing I do like about the protagonist of Odd Taxi so far is that he does not come across as morally just, and that it is difficult for us to fully trust him. There’s still so little we don’t know about him yet, and there’s a chance that we won’t ever get a detailed history either. Episode 2 gives us a better look at Shirakawa, the alpaca nurse. She’s young and bright, but quick to fire back at Odokawa’s sarcasm. And we learn that she is the one responsible for the medicine in the doctor’s clinic going missing; she takes part in drug smuggling so she can pay off her student loans.
But the bigger part I think was the character introduction of Rui Nikaido, one-third of the up-and-coming (and not very successful) idol group Mystery Kiss. As they are debuting their first album, they still rely on the tiny amount of loyal fans that follow them wherever they go, which still don’t make them enough money to keep going, meaning the three of them have to do second jobs elsewhere. Not really sure how she (along with the others in Mystery Kiss) will factor in this murder mystery story, but with their manager making an unusual phone call about a dashcam at their event…
…there’s so much to look for in this story, and I’m sure that in episodes to come, there will be even more for me to see. Here in episode 2, we get quick looks at the internet celebrity wannabe again, who still lives with his mother, and Kakibana is still desperate not to be a bachelor any more, but starts to panic when an 18-year-old messages him on a dating site he lied on. Odd Taxi feels like a fascinating and detailed soap opera kind of show at the moment. I’m itching to know about all of the characters I’ve seen, and I don’t even have one that I dislike either. No character is portrayed as boring or two-dimensional, and each one of them have tiny little details I’m fascinated with, or want to know more about.
Here was me at the start of the season saying that I would not pay any attention to the other shows, and yet here I am curious about the new Gundam show. The Eminence in Shadow will be 20 episodes long, and Raven of the Inner Palace has an interesting story that runs at an extremely quick pace. Meanwhile, by the time this post is published, everyone and their grandmother will be pouring praise on Chainsaw Man’s debut, which I will not be watching. Oh, and then there’s the new Bleach show too, that had its first episode leaked by accident by Disney+ in some countries. But the fans will be relieved at least to hear that it’s being released on an episodic basis. If you want me talking about the new Gundam yuri show, then maybe I’ll be talking about episodes I’ve seen. That’s apparently going to be an extended show too.