This sucks right now. Both my family and my neurologist are convinced I had a seizure last week, and considering how violent they can sometimes get, they’re not so thrilled. I’m already thinking about what shows are potentially coming up in the Winter season, however for the column in that cour, it won’t be up to me. I’m leaving what shows I’m going to watch in the very capable hands of Justin and Kuuki, because I trust their judgement and I complain enough when it comes to picking shows I eventually grow to hate. In the meantime, let’s go through what I’m watching so far…
SSSS Gridman is certainly bringing in a loyal fanbase, and it’s becoming one of those shows that you have to tell your weeb friends about. We’ve reached into filler episode territory, but even despite this fact, we get a lot of memorable moments. This makes me think back to when Little Witch Academia was airing last year (check it out on Netflix, I command you all)…and people say that Trigger haven’t made a good show since Kill La Kill…
This week, Akane comes clean…and introduces Yuta to the real villain of the show, who is behaving like a girlfriend’s dad:
To be fair, I’m not entirely sure which direction this show could go in now; at the moment, we are just getting these filler episodes of Yuta, Akane, Rikka and Utsumi hanging around either at school or at the junk shop. Not much in the way of solid antagonists have come around…well, not since the arrival of Alexis who could be…well…anything. What is apparent though is that this Alexis character is taking advantage of Akane’s mental ill health. Why remains to be seen, and I’m sure this will be something that will come around at the halfway stage of the show, when the first cour ends. Trigger decided to remain extremely tight-lipped about this show, hence all the numerous conspiracy theories that are going around about what could happen next in the story. I consider patience as a virtue, and so I am willing to wait and see what happens.
I am glad that I’m enjoying shows this season, and that it’s nothing like when I was tearing my hair out trying to stay sane for the summer season. I think you can just call those seasons off-seasons for me. While I’m enjoying the heck out of SSSS Gridman, what are my thoughts on anything else?
Well, it seems like the more I watch Release the Spyce now, the less I enjoy it. I mean this week’s episode was Goemon’s episode, because her precious mentor Hatsume was spending way too much time with this undercover Moryo agent and was getting uber jealous. Sounds pretty corny, I know, but alas this is the kind of show that demands happy endings. There’s just something about this show that is constantly getting on my nerves now. I don’t know if I can point the finger at the character designs, or the background design, or maybe I’m just highlighting the poor subtitling that HIDIVE still refuse to fix, but Release the Spyce has turned into a very average show with a lot of meh. A real shame, because this could have been fantastic.
Over in Bloom into You, the Student Council are getting stuck in to the stage play, with Yuu’s classmate Koyomi offering to write the script, although to do so, she needs to know a lot more about the people in the Student Council in order to write good character designs for them. But the focus of this week’s episode is squarely on Sayaka, and her own relationship with Touko.
The writers are certainly pitching Sayaka as the cursed one, as the character who will never win. Here in this week’s episode, we are given a flashback story of when she was confessed to by a senpai at her girl’s school, only for it to be dismissed as just a phase. It’s plain to see that she has a massive crush on Touko, but knows that if she opens her mouth about it, their relationship would be ruined, so just sticking to as they are suits her down to the ground.
This show is just getting better and better, and while we see the yuribait every week, it’s obvious to see that it’s presented in a very tasteful and mature manner…the complete opposite of how the yuribait was presented in Citrus, that other yuri show this year.
Finally on to episode 7 of The Tatami Galaxy, and this was especially weird. It kind of leads on from the last one, where our hero meets Hanuki the dental hygienist. This new girl, Kaori, is one that has cropped up in the show before; she is Jougasaki’s love doll/girlfriend, and our hero is paid by him to be her ‘bodyguard’ while he is out shooting movies. Sadly, despite what goes on in this episode, this has got to be the weakest episode of them all, since it doesn’t really have a point to it.
Our protagonist chooses a plastic doll over a flesh and blood woman. Even over a female pen-pal. I have the impression that we may end up encountering the pen-pal (Keiko) in the next episode (episode 8). I am a little disappointed that this episode got a little too weird, and didn’t really lead anywhere. In fact, I’m kind of stumped on which direction this show is going in the first place. Here’s hoping that future episodes get better, and that we can see a way out of this time-loop for our hero.
Shows have progressed now in the fall season, and so how have your choices been? Have your choices lived up to your expectations? Have any shows surprised you? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below…