I have a bigger excuse to catch up on old shows now that I’ve been stricken off work for that much longer. Whether I’ll actually do it or not is another question though. This would be the time for me in an anime season to begin thinking about what shows to watch for the next, and so it feels odd that I won’t be doing that anymore for Otaku Theater. Will I even catch anything new in the Summer season? Outside of the Love Live! Sunshine!! spin-off show and maybe the silly isekai show about the MC waking up as a vending machine, there is nothing there that interests me right now. There are a heck of a lot of shows that I want to watch but have just been too lazy to do so. Fortunately, I’m still not lazy enough to slack on my shows for this column.
Oshi no Ko Episode 3
To be totally truthful, I wasn’t really sure what kind of story Oshi no Ko would have, and what the end-story would really be. Aqua is so hellbent on his revenge mission that he has already begun to shut out anything unnecessary. He even says in narration in this week’s episode that he doesn’t care about fulfilling his mother’s dying wish of becoming an actor. As I will probably say every week no doubt, even if he gets this so-called revenge, what happens next? Well that road starts this week when he discovers a producer on that secret phone contact list is working with Kana on a web series she is the lead girl on. Kana is happy to see him again, even if he tells her he believes he is better off behind the scenes than being on-screen.
But how the episode have described this web series, “I’ll Go With Sweet Today“, is pretty fascinating to watch. Kana is semi-frustrated at the fact that, out of all the main cast, she is the only one with real acting experience. The boys that appear in the show are all models, and the show has been pretty much made to promote them and nothing else. None of them can act, but it doesn’t matter. And despite how much effort the crew pour into making the show, the producers don’t seem to care either. It’s equally heartbreaking to see the original author of the manga show up on set to see her life’s work turn into an absolute mess, but sadly it’s not uncommon for a lot of adaptations. There are been countless shows (anime and live-action) that were adaptations of manga or light novels where the author put their heart and soul into their passion project, and it becomes depressing to see that adaptation turn more into a vehicle for promoting models or idols or a brand than what the author wanted.
A side note though: the Sweet Today manga actually appears in Akasaka’s other famous work, Kaguya-sama: Love is War, as something that Miyuki’s sister is a fan of reading. The Akasaka Cinematic Universe is real, everyone…
As I said, Kana is happy to see Aqua again, and is eager to catch up on what he’s been up to, regardless of whether he stayed in acting or not. She is acting like the yang to Aqua’s yin, and I like how she will be playing a bigger role in the show, as an legitimate main character. Aqua’s revenge mission is trying to be the main part of the story, but right now it doesn’t appear to be like that. Kana has absolutely no idea of what he is up to, but remains committed to making him a decent person – something he is, right now, not willing to do. The fact that he spent four whole years to decrypt the password on Ai’s secret phone just goes to show how far he is prepared to go to find whoever was responsible for Ai’s murder.
We all know she was stabbed by some stalker, but he truly believes there is more to it than that. He really is acting like a dog on a bone here, with next to nothing concrete. Most of these names on the list will be casual contacts that Ai’s talent agency passed on to her anyway, but that doesn’t seem to stop him from wanting to ruin their lives. He is intent on chasing after these people on Ai’s old secret phone like some stalker himself. He will become the very thing that took away his mother; he just doesn’t know it yet.
Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You Season 2 Episode 4
Going back to author heartbreak over bad adaptations, I know I’ve seen my fair share of those whilst doing this column. Thankfully that hasn’t been the case for me this season as, right now, all of these adaptations (Lycoris Recoil is an original work though) have been solid watches, and I’ve had no major complaints. And I know that I’ve said that Tonikawa is the newlywed family sitcom that it was meant to be, and yet somehow I wanted it to be more than that? What on earth was I thinking? This show is great as it is, and I am just overanalyzing this all.
Aya returns for this new episode, and seeing her this week reminds me a lot of myself when I was in college. She is the kind of student who always leaves their homework until the last minute. I did this myself for a lot of my term papers; my reasoning for it was that the sudden deadline would motivate me more into actually doing it. It was a “if-I-can-do-it-tomorrow-I-won’t-do-it-today” attitude. And you know what happened? I had to redo the third year…
Anyway, it seems rather funny that Aya has to turn to Nasa to help her with high school homework, considering how he is only a middle school graduate and didn’t even make it to high school. He relies only on his ‘boy genius’ genes to get him by in life…which has worked amazingly, I might add.
But this was also an episode about how both Nasa and Tsukasa are concerned on how intimate they should be with each other at this stage in marriage. Not entirely sure why it ought to be Kaname be the one to give them hints and tips on how to shower your significant other with kisses; she is just one big horny girl, I swear.
But being serious, I really do like how this adaptation has made the kissing moments that Nasa and Tsukasa have feel so wholesome; as if they really were meant for each other. It’s weird to see how much more intimate these kissing scenes are than in some other show that is just full-to-the-brim with fan service. The pacing, the hesitancy, the silence afterward – it feels real and honest. Romance shows can be good at showing relationship progression, sure, but when it becomes more physical, a lot of those shows tend to stumble, and so I like how the studio have handled these scenes in Tonikawa very well.
We also get a quick glimpse of Yanagi-sensei once again, and that date she had with the other teacher seemed to have worked, as they have become boyfriend and girlfriend now, and are kissing openly in public. They clearly wasted no time then.
Skip and Loafer Episode 4
Now it’s passed its 3-episode-mark, Skip and Loafer continues to be a wholesome little show. This week’s episode was split into two halves, but they were both linked by one topic: our characters having focus and finding a purpose in life. Shima’s one is brought up in the show first, but I’d like to start with Mitsumi’s.
Having found out from Kanechika that Shima really was a child actor, Mitsumi begins to lose focus in her studies as she worries about how to bring this up in any conversations they have. She can guess straight away that it is something he doesn’t want to be a part of anymore, and so panics whether bringing it up will distance them. The overachiever in her tells her that she should stop these slacking and time-wasting activities, and ends up turning to Takamine from the Student Council for help with keeping discipline. But as it turns out, they both have something to learn about each other.
Takamine is well-known in the school for keeping a very strict and detailed schedule for every day, right down to the very minute. She gets easily frustrated over time-wasting, and even has literal nightmares about missing buses. She can ascertain that Mitsumi is someone who wants to work on their discipline, but ultimately finds out that the two levels of anxiety they have are on different levels. But what is most important is that they both work for each other. What Mitsumi is able to take away is that over-panicking will only make her snap, and what Takamine is able to take away is that over-stressing will make her miserable.
This was an episode where I could really feel for Mitsumi. It’s like she has two voices in her head. While one voice is the self that is lecturing her about being the child prodigy that she became in her hometown and telling her to ace every exam, the other is Fumi. She may be many prefectures away, but Fumi remains the one solid voice that keeps her going as she makes a new life in Tokyo. She acts as a moral and social compass to Mitsumi, and will carry on cheering for her regardless of whether she is able to land that civil servant job she wants or not. She is still incredibly naïve in the big city; her new friends still see her as pretty square.
I really like how these flashbacks and scene switches are played out in the show; they work as a guide for Mitsumi to keep her going, and not over-panic and over-stress. The flashback scene where Fumi makes Mitsumi go out and get gyoza while she is panicking over a vocab exam is easily my favorite moment of the episode. Fumi doesn’t care if her best friend passes or fails, because the journey to getting that hot-shot career is what matters the most. In her eyes, getting the job and remaining miserable is so much worse than not getting it and staying happy and content.
Meanwhile, over to Shima. I think it’s good that more has been officially established about him, and that he is comfortable with sharing something he doesn’t like talking about with Mitsumi. What I did find interesting though is that despite how good of a child actor he was back then, he says he didn’t really do it for himself, and only did it to keep his mother happy. Is this to say that he has been some kind of selfless wonder boy since he was little? Or perhaps he has become so accustomed to helping others that he can’t really find a direction he himself wants to go in? He says this much to Mitsumi; since acting was all he knew when he was little, what is he meant to know now he is in high school?
Going on a little tangent, this makes me think of esports players. They begin their careers at an early age, and the games they play professionally become their whole lives. And so when they retire or grow sick of the game they are paid to play, what are they meant to do next? Work experience and life skills is something they have missed out on because of their careers. Mitsumi and Shima contrast greatly, and yet are able to gel together so well. The focus in Skip and Loafer is largely on Mitsumi and we already know what her focus is, so what is Shima’s? Will being at high school help him find one? And will he actually find a reason to be selfish for once?
Lycoris Recoil Episode 4
Episode 4 of Lycoris Recoil holds firm for a lot of reasons, largely because a lot more in the main story appears to be revealed. Chisato’s distress at how Takina prefers to wear boxers instead of panties is pretty funny to watch, but this is set alongside the real explanation of why she chooses not to kill. It isn’t some philanthropic decision or to atone for some past mistake; she doesn’t like to see people’s lives taken away from them over what could be the smallest of things. This is something that contrasts greatly with what Lycoris agents are meant to be; elite and organized assassins.
But what equally interests me is something from her past. She is on a mission to find someone who made a big impact on her life and to thank them, and it turns out that that person has been the somewhat-suspicious guy, Shinji, that occasionally drops by the cafe. He and Mika have their own history too, but what is clear is that he is a part of the Alan Institute, which seems to be a secretive philanthropic organization themselves. And from what I can surmise so far, there are some people who are ‘Alan kids’, and perhaps the Institute has helped them in some way. It’s evident that Chisato is one herself, but is choosing not to give too much away to Takina, despite how open she is willing to be with her now.
Episode 4 is also where we get our first real look at a big antagonist of the show. I may have not gotten this far in the show in my initial watch, but I know that Majima becomes a real threat to DA and Lycoris agents throughout the show. His random terrorist attack in a subway station seemed to act more like sending a message than anything else. We know that he was there at the weapons deal, seemingly as the buyer. He also gets some kind of kick of watching the world burn too, and seems not to be interested as much in money or power. So I wonder what will happen when Chisato and Takina meet him for the first time?
These have been some really good episodes this week. Any small worries I had about Oshi no Ko losing its way and disappointing all the people who were so hyped for it are completely gone, as I know now that Dogakobo are more than capable of doing a good job at adapting it. I’m really glad I picked shows of genres I knew I would like for this last season here, and not go wild with covering a franchise like Demon Slayer that I know absolutely nothing about.