This happens every 3 months or so. I say that I’ll miss an anime season, but at the same time, I say to myself that I’m glad it’s over. Last summer was a real trial for me; while I managed to catch the very amusing and highly entertaining Harukana Receive, I ended up mentally drained by sports drama Hanebado!, and having to drop Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight, a show I just found inexplicably frustrating. I will give that show another try though – now is not the time to remember last year but talk about this one!
I have been busy this summer season though; I haven’t written this many posts for The OASG before…but I bring it on myself. I was the one who decided to do this Symphogear Challenge, meaning I binge-watch the entire Symphogear franchise in the space of 5 or 6 weeks. I was the one who chose to cover other out-of-season shows (like Carole & Tuesday and Endro~!). I have only myself to blame. I still watched current shows and what did I think of them?
Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru?
First of all, I’d like to say that I’m so glad that I won’t be able to post any more screenshots of Machio flexing his muscles. In fact, one could binge-watch this entire show and turn this into a drinking game.
Every time Machio rips his clothes to reveal his mass of muscles, take a shot…hmm, maybe that’s not a good idea. I don’t want to see any readers too drunk.
Anyway, this episode is indeed the final episode, and I’m glad to see the end of this show. I complained in the past that this might as well be my Summer Curse™ show, but truth be told, there have been moments where I have laughed quite a bit.
I mean all of these girls, Hibiki, Akemi, Ayaka, Gina and Tachibana-sensei, are very pretty, and so it bewilders me how they can keep fit and maintain a healthy lifestyle, and yet still complain about not finding boyfriends.
For this, I have to hang my head in shame, and kick myself for thinking I’d enjoy a show like this. I have no doubt that all the little things that made this show other people would find highly enjoyable. Maybe my criticism of this show just shows how much of an anime elitist I can be. Perhaps it’s best that I don’t think about it. Guess all I can say is: if you love shows with nonsensical humor and ecchi, then there’s a good chance that you’ll love Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru?
Lord El-Melloi II’s Case Files
The action here will carry on next week, but my coverage of the show ends here, so this will just be a general review of what I’ve seen so far. Which is probably a good thing; not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because my brain is already fried, and any more damage to it would be a problem. I mean, I’m already epileptic and survived encephalitis, and so having my brain melted by complex theories and explanations from the Fate universe…I don’t want to go back to hospital…
I’m being mean there, but Lord El-Melloi has been a very pretty show to watch. And as I have said time and time again, you really need to be in the know when it comes to Fate lore to enjoy it the most. In this penultimate episode, we find out that El-Melloi and Adashino were working together in secret to lure out the real culprit, who ended up revealing themselves in the auction house. Dr. Heartless certainly sounds like a comic-book villain, but after some research online, I discovered that he is in fact the former head of Modern Magecraft, and has been murdering Mages for quite some time now.
No doubt everything else will be explained in the finale episode, but I think that’s enough for me. Makes me think of a past show I wrote about in this column that fried my brain to equal measure: Occultic;Nine. The show, based on a series of light novels, focused on 9 individuals who followed a blog about urban legends and the occult. In that, narratives and arcs went in all sorts of crazy directions, and the odd art direction didn’t help either. I think that El-Melloi is still a highly enjoyable show; it’s just that one has to really get absorbed by it in order to like it. This is not a casual watch at all.
Now onto the finale episode I’ve been looking forward to the most this season…
Astra Lost in Space
I admit that, back in July, I did jump into this show with a lot of wild expectations. I ended up comparing the main plot of travelling through deep space to something like Star Trek: Voyager, and ended up comparing the main conspiracy theory as to why these kids were selected in the first place to something like Lost. I should have instead just accepted this as its own show.
As you watch this feature-length finale, you understand why they made it this long, just as you understand why they made the opening episode feature-length too: to tell what was needed to be told, a single-length episode just would not have worked. We get the happy ending we all want and expect, though, so if you were hoping for any new crazy plot twists to crop up here, you’ll be sorely disappointed…unless you count the scene where Charce reveals all the bits and pieces of this mission as a plot twist. That’s something that is plot-spoiler-worthy, so there’s little I can say about that aside from that it was all done ‘in the name of peace’.
I think it was my expectation of another crazy plot twist which has influenced my decision here, which is that this was a slightly disappointing end to what was otherwise a pretty darn good show to watch for the summer season. Astra Lost in Space told a story about 9 schoolkids finding themselves, and learning to find good in humanity despite the remarkable circumstances that have put them all together.
A girl like Yunhua can overcome emotional suppression, a girl like Quitterie can learn to love and accept the people who care for her instead of just staying angry with them, and a vengeful boy like Ulgar can learn to redirect his anger towards the people who put them out in deep space in the first place, instead of a relative. Other characters like Aries, Luca and Zack have been able to maintain their emotional positions aboard the ship, and prevent them all from tearing each other apart, and Kanata maintains his own position as leader who is willing to dive into deep danger to save the people he cares about.
Sounds like a vague character sheet for another generic shounen show, perhaps…but Astra Lost in Space really did stand out among the other shows that came out this summer. However, it did not end up becoming my favorite watch. That role instead went to another show…
O Maidens In Your Savage Season
This off-beat romantic comedy-drama really did surprise me, and I don’t think there’ll be many shows in the future that ended up grabbing me like this one did.
With Hittori, Kazusa, Momoko and Niina holding Milo-sensei hostage demanding the school overturn the decision of Rika’s and Amagi’s expulsion, and the new ban on relationships in school, the staff do the only sensible thing they can think of: go home, hoping they will calm down in the morning.
With both Rika and Amagi joining them in an attempt to calm them down, they all end up confessing a lot of things to each other, and all of this pent-up anger and confusion makes them all closer to each other. And here was me thinking that Momoko would end up hating Niina forever after she brushed off her confession so harshly…
Momoko has had the least action out of all the 5 girls, but I found her character interesting nonetheless, now that this show is over. She found herself attracted to Niina, and by attempting to interact with boys she knew in her cram school, she had hoped that these feelings would go away; they ended up doing the opposite, leaving her with a dislike for all men. Niina, on the other hand, was someone I found antagonistic right from the start. This week she admitted that she believed she was better and more knowledgeable than the other four because of what she had experienced in her theater troupe. It had to take Momoko’s confession, and Izumi’s own mixed-up attraction to bring her down to their level, and make her understand that she is no different from them.
I had expected a happy ending between Kazusa and Izumi, and even though it was rather predictable, I’m glad to see the two of them finally admit to each other that these sexual feelings they have all been going through are stupid and finite, and that the relationship the two of them had long before they entered high school is far stronger than how, say, Kazusa feels about buying lacy underwear online, or how Izumi feels about owning a porn Blu-ray. There’s much more to it than that, but I’m still happy with the outcome.
O Maidens In Your Savage Season has been a real pleasure to watch this season. There hasn’t been a single episode that I would call weak, and all of the mini-stories that have featured here, whether they take up the length of the show or only a couple of episodes, have all been very strong, and more importantly (I feel), believable. These are 5 girls (plus a couple of boys) who are all in high school, and are battling with their hormones and pent-up emotions in a school with very strict rules regarding relationships. How a show like this has escaped the radar somewhat is beyond me. Long-running shows like Dr. Stone, Fire Force and the Fruits Basket remake have remained in the spotlight, with the big franchises coming in Fall already grabbing the attention of the community…I suppose I can understand that, but even still…
Anything Else This Summer
Guess this is my chance to plug my Symphogear Challenge, given the fact that I watched the whole of Symphogear XV as well. More on that is covered here in the final part of the challenge, and so what else is there to say about it? More of what we were all expecting: plenty of crazy mecha magical girl action, a soundtrack we have somehow grown to love, plenty of yuri undertones everywhere, and a plot that is questionable at best. It’s a franchise that has grown so many fans now, that daring to criticize it is something I’m a little scared to do.
Instead I’ll criticize this piece of garbage: Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de Ni-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki desu ka?, or Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?
This show has become a bit of a meme show for this summer. With the isekai trend seeing no end in sight, there had to come one that turns out to be so abysmal that words are hard to find to describe anything good about it.
I know I’ll find some people who will disagree with me greatly when it comes to the Isekai Mom show (which is what this show has effectively been called, because people don’t want to have to keep on calling it by its incredibly long name). It’s just that…a show like this proves to us that anime studios are more than happy to cater for any audience. And I mean any audience…
Final Thoughts
This Summer has been a mixed bag for me…once again. It’s given me shows that I really wished I hadn’t picked, and at the same time, given me shows that I will remember for a good long time. Both Astra Lost in Space and O Maidens In Your Savage Season will likely end up in my Top 5 of 2019 list. There have already been some cool shows appearing in 2019 already, so I won’t be calling this year a disaster.
And so we look to the Fall. As another reminder, I will not be covering any of the big franchises that return in October. I’ve already decided on the shows I want to watch, plus Girls’ Last Tour has already been decided as my classic/out-of-season show to watch. In late-October, I will be attending the Scotland Loves Anime event in Edinburgh, where I’ll be meeting some of the staff behind Trigger’s new movie Promare, and will be watching a good handful of movies, some of which will be getting their UK/European premieres. I will also likely be doing review posts sometimes on past shows in the future, so check them out.
In the meantime, feel free to hit that like button and air any opinions you have on this Summer season in the comments below!