Before I started this week’s anime watches, I made a promise to myself that I’d find some good things in the shows I’m losing patience with. For instance, I started off really enjoying Sarazanmai, but as each week went on, I just found the character designs were something I couldn’t get used to. Plus I’m facepalming a lot more in We Never Learn, but at the same time there are quite a few scenes where I end up giggling a lot. There’s also Kaguya-sama: Love is War; while it’s a great and hilarious show, I’m getting a little tired. Suppose you could call it a je ne sais quoi there.
I’ll begin with this week’s Sarazanmai. Last week, we saw the end of Kazuki’s self-pity…well, I hope we do. I think that self-pity of his was what was putting me off, and thus made me get sick of the rest of the show. Ever since he started imitating Sara Azuma to please Haruka, he just grew into a bit of a pain, for everyone. Especially poor Enta.
And uh, yeah…this was Enta’s time to shine alright.
As the show has gone on, we have seen Enta to be the one to see reason, to wield justice, to be righteous. It’s only this week when we finally see this obsession with purity (and with Kazuki) is in fact tearing him apart, and he has refused to let anyone see it. We see Kazuki return to his ‘old self’, the Kazuki he was before Haruka’s accident and before he began cross-dressing. Summer break begins, and just as Kazuki contemplates returning to the soccer team, their special place is vandalized…and Toi gets a call saying he might have to leave the city.
From the start, we see this being the episode where everyone returns to normal, but it seems that ending Kazuki’s arc did nothing to bring everyone back to normal, and this could even be the beginning of a short arc devoted to Enta. What happens at the end of this week’s episode shows us that Enta’s woes, worries and sins are far from being resolved.
He is still my favorite of the three though.
It was only this week when I ended up checking out Sarazanmai‘s Wiki page, and after reading it, it reminded me how much I like Ikuhara shows (except Penguindrum…really did not like that show). Fascinating how it compared Sara to the Shadow Players in Revolutionary Girl Utena, and how she can also be compared to a Greek chorus. Reading that made me think how I didn’t realize all of that sooner; I guess I need to work on my ‘look-deep-into-anime-shows’ technique. When the summer cour comes, I might take the opportunity to rewatch Utena – it really is an amazing show, and if you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend it. All four arcs and the movie. Both the sub and the dub are available to watch on Nozomi Entertainment’s Youtube channel…or you can always buy it.
I’ll stop with the philosophy now, and move straight on to my harem pick: We Never Learn.
This is the part of this column where I’m supposed to complain about how this has become just a dime-a-dozen harem show. Well, we’re at episode 8 now, and I think it’s time I admitted a couple of things:
- I picked out a best girl long ago, and that is Rizu. She has been the one I’ve been rooting for in the whole show. I’ve found Fumino to be rather dull, and Uruka has become someone that everyone who is watching this has seemed to pick. I sort of understand why, but despite my love for girls with red hair, glasses girls with red(ish) hair beats that hands down.
- Even though I’ve been cheering on Rizu, their former tutor Kirisu has crept up the chart now. I guess this only came around when we all saw why she’s become so adamant in her belief that Rizu and Fumino should pursue careers in what they’re good at, instead of letting them do what they like.
- Will the end story see Nariyuki having to pick someone? Probably not, since as much as I have little sympathy for the other girls, I don’t want them to be heartbroken.
This week’s antics (and this was a filler episode by the way) included misinterpretations when Nariyuki tries to use his new phone, but instead ends up calling the others while they’re all in the bath, and Nariyuki learning via heard conversation that Uruka does indeed like him. As we approach the end of the show, I wonder what kind of ending this show will even have. So far it hasn’t given us anything to think it’ll get a second season.
Hitoribocchi hasn’t given us anything to think a season 2 will come either, but like its studio predecessor Harukana Receive, it’s the kind of show that knows another season would just ruin the franchise.
I did find this week’s episode interesting though, as it highlights the loneliness people feel from time to time. For Sotoka, it’s something that we learn happens all the time; she lives on her own, with her parents out of the country. Nako subtly brings up her past experiences of being the lonely outcast this week too. As well as all that, this was Kurai’s introductory episode (even though she’s cropped up before). As the class head, she believes in a life of strict discipline, which has alienated her slightly…or rather, due to this discipline belief of hers, she feels like making friends and relying on them would make her a weak person.
I see that Hitoribocchi is becoming more popular with the weebs now, as it should. As someone with past experience in Social Anxiety Disorder, I feel that I can analyze this show without worry of saying the wrong thing, and angering any stans. Learn from past incidents, right?
Now we turn to my out-of-season shows. And episode 8 sees the end of Rio’s arc in Rascal Does Not Dream. This one interested me far more than the previous one, as I had no idea on how it could all be resolved, or whether Rio would even end up becoming a happier person in the end. Well in this episode, it emerges that one Rio Futaba made an Instagram account (if you can call it that in anime) featuring selfies, some of which end up being quite lewd. She end up confiding to Sakuta that the sole reason she did it was to distract from her inferiority complex and her constant fear of being alone. Also, the way the ending of this arc has been written to make it the ‘fireworks episode’ is pretty cool as well. Has this become my favorite arc so far, even beating Mai’s one? We’ll see, as I have the rest of the show to watch.
As I continue to praise Rascal Does Not Dream (and kick myself even more for missing it while it aired), I seem to continue to put Kaguya-sama: Love is War aside…or rather, make it less of a priority. And as I keep saying, it’s not because I think it’s bad – in fact, I’m making a concerted effort to big it up. In episode 8, Kaguya meets Miyuki’s little sister Kei, who happens to be the treasurer for the academy’s middle school Student Council. In the hope of getting close to Miyuki, she decides to form a detailed plan to get close to the sister, with the intention of being accepted as a part of the Shirogane family. Of course this goes wrong spectacularly, and even though we can sort of see the ending a mile away, the show still makes us crack up.
Maybe it’s that aspect of Kaguya-sama that I’ve missed. Maybe I should just take the show at face value, and not try to analyze it so much.
To end this post, I’ll plug something. The summer cour is approaching, and I need your help. While I made the choice to do two out-of-season shows (both of which were ones I’d been meaning to catch up on), I’m going back to the people’s vote. Check out the tweet below, and help me choose which of the four shows listed is to be my classic/out-of-season show to watch in the summer.
You might question my choices there, but I deliberately chose the facepalm anime theme. I may end up regretting going down this road though. Oh well…how was this week for you? Did any shows this week made you want to put palm to face? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below…