From looking at the shows that begin this week, I see that the Spring season is already beginning to make some kind of impact. People are already praising Kakushigoto (the one show I decided not to watch), even more people are itching to get stuck into the big franchises that haven’t started yet (Sword Art Online, Fruits Basket, Food Wars), and Crunchyroll won’t seem to stop talking about Tower of God, which is a ‘Crunchyroll Original’ show apparently. Kind of glad I always stick to these lesser-known shows, then…
Kaguya-sama season 2 won’t be starting for another week, so we’ll be getting into the other shows I picked.
Tamayomi Episode 1
My Spring season starts early for me, when the first episode of Tamayomi dropped on the first day of April. This was a show I was looking forward to, and so did the first episode do it for me? Yes…and no.
The opening episode is just like your average one, with the two main characters reuniting after being away from each other for so long. Yomi was/is a pitcher who spent lots of time perfecting her ‘Magic Ball’, which her old team hated; more on that later. Tama, on the other hand, had a coach who was merciless, but that all paid off, as all that training helped her be able to have what it takes to catch Yomi’s ‘Magic Ball’. In between this reunion are twin sisters Yoshino and Ibuki, one who is crazy mad about baseball, while the other is more grounded and down-to-earth.
These four ultimately decide to group together to try and reinvigorate the girls’ baseball team. What I initially thought was going to be some kind of ‘girls-can-do-it-too’ kind of show went out the window, when I discovered this is in fact a girls’ school they attend, and that past students just didn’t bother to start a proper baseball team despite having a decent enough pitch.
It actually took me a second watch to appreciate this opening episode more, as I wasn’t totally satisfied the first time, and I think I needed to look at other things in more detail that might probably be important in future episodes; things like why Yomi’s old team didn’t do so well. It wasn’t that Yomi played terribly, quite the opposite in fact; it was that the rest of the team totally sucked, and didn’t really take baseball as seriously as Yomi did.
Even with this second watch, I thought this week’s opening episode of Tamayomi felt lacking somehow. Maybe it is just because only 4 characters in the very large cast have been introduced, and that we haven’t really been given that much time to get to warm to them. This is a newbie studio after all, and I really should cut them some slack…and besides, we have many more episodes to come, and many more characters to be introduced, so I’m sure my opinion will change. Change for the good, I hope, since I was really quite looking forward to watching this show.
Wave, Listen to Me! Episode 1
I actually ended up picking Wave, Listen to Me! at the last minute, when I decided that I’d had enough of watching Dogakobo-flavored school slice-of-life shows (my original pick was to be Houkago Teibou Nisshi), but I think I made the right decision here, as I’ve found something that I’m really eager to get into, as a relatable adult.
Our heroine in this show is Minare Koda. She has a waitress job she hates, she’s only just broken up with a man, and likes a drink or two. Oh, and she enjoys ranting about all of it, which is something that ends up attracting Mato, the smooth-talking director of a radio station. He knows FM radio is dying, with podcasts seemingly taking over audio entertainment. He notices Minare’s passionate drunken ramblings and decides to use them for a special segment for his broadcast. Perhaps he should have gotten permission to record her first…
Well, heck…
We only got to see a taster here in this opening episode, but I predict that we are going to get a lot more as the weeks go by. While the big franchises will carry on with their devoted fans following them religiously, I will be there defending a lesser-known show like this, which I only just found out was an adaptation of a manga by the same guy who wrote Blade of the Immortal. So to go from dark samurai fantasy to mature slice-of-life comedy is…quite the feat. But I’m liking what I see so far, and that’s a good thing, right?
I mean us adults could do with a mixed-up MC like Minare. This one joke in this week’s episode is one that stands out for me. To sober up after a long night of drinking, Minare makes some cereal while watching a rented movie that she believes is a old romance movie featuring Demi Moore (this movie), not realizing that she got the movie title mixed up with an 80s gore-fest (this movie). My thanks to Reddit for help with this, by the way.
Saying all this though, Wave, Listen to Me! is a show that not everyone is going to get, I think. From watching this opening episode, I see it dividing the anime community. There will be some people (like me) who are loving the heck out of Minare’s ranting about her former love life, how it sucks to have a waitress job she hates, and living alone. There will also be some people who have become so accustomed to the stereotype of slice-of-life anime shows being set in high school, featuring stereotypical high school kids having stereotypical high school problems. I notice that the users on MyAnimeList have already given it a poor rating. Also, I don’t think Funimation was the ideal place for a show like this to go to. It has a lot of references to real-life things in Japan that Funi haven’t translated too well. Also, later on in this week’s episode, as up to three groups of dialogue are being played simultaneously (when Minare storms into the radio studio), subtitles are just placed across the screen, so the viewer ends up having a bit of a rough time reading it all.
I just hope that the rest of Wave, Listen to Me! will deliver just like this first episode did. And that Funimation won’t mess up this translation.
Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku Episode 1
While I have to wait a little more for season 2 of Kaguya-sama to come, I might as well get stuck into this out-of-season pick…and now I’ve seen episode 1, I am so glad you guys picked this for me.
I had originally thought that Narumi and Hirotaka were dating already at the start of the show, but we begin with Narumi starting afresh at a new company. Her main motive for switching jobs was to work in an environment where no one knew she was an otaku, and in particular, a fujoshi who regularly attends Comiket. So by no small miracle, she finds out her old childhood friend works there too, and is himself a gaming otaku. Unlike her, however, he makes no effort in hiding it.
I’m also glad to see this isn’t some kind of quick comedy sketch show, and that it seems to be following a story of sorts. I was also kind of apprehensive about the Amazon Video translation, but it seems solid enough, so nothing to worry about there either. Wotakoi isn’t as long as some other shows at 11 episodes, and so these 11 episodes must all make some kind of impact. When it came out, I understand it was well-received, so I’m looking forward to what comes next.
This season, I’ll be watching shows that feature more adults than high schoolers, which is a refreshing change. I was hoping to watch Trigger’s new show BNA as well, but since that’s going to Netflix, we probably won’t get to legally watch that until later on this year.
We’re still in this self-imposed quarantine, so with a new anime season starting, how are you coping? What shows have you picked? Are you going to take this chance to catch up on some older shows? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below!