This Spring season has just gotten rougher and rougher for all of us, and I’m just astonished that the shows I’m watching haven’t been delayed or postponed yet. Like I said last week, I’m mulling through ideas on what to do if that ever happens, but this column will still remain through May and June and the rest of whatever Spring season is left.
Tamayomi Episode 5
Admittedly, I was starting to get concerned that Tamayomi was going to go in a direction I didn’t like so much. It was largely down to the fact that the animation wasn’t so good in last week’s episode, and it still hadn’t really advertised itself as the yuribait baseball show we were all hoping it to be. Well, it’s almost like the show has done a complete 180; animation direction is considerably better this week, and we get to see our first glimpses of possible pairings within the baseball team. I’ll get onto those a little later, though.
I like the fact that the team isn’t taking last week’s loss against a top-tier school team to heart; they know that they still need a lot of experience and practice matches in order to become the team they are hoping to be. This week is the summer camp episode, with the whole team being worked to the bone by, of all people, the club advisor, who we learn this week is school alumni, and a real bad-ass at baseball at that. Seems like she was just hiding that nice girl demeanor then. While this is happening, some small sub-plots are beginning to emerge. One is that Ibuki is beginning to doubt her role in the team; her twin sister is the manager and data analyst, while she feels like she’s just another nameless person on the team who doesn’t really contribute that much, while the others lead me to what I was saying about potential yuri pairings.
The second-years in the team, Rei and Risa, both have a lot of history in being a part of baseball teams, and while they were both initially very reluctant to be a part of this new school team, it seems like they both want this to succeed…if you know what I mean. The other pairing seems to revolve around Nozomi, one character in the show that I’ve found quite interesting to follow. She loves the game, but doesn’t have the opportunity to practice it due to her home being so small. Also, by her behavior this week, it seems in past school teams she has been a part of, she feels solely responsible for every loss they get, and so it falls to manager Yoshino to perk her up.
Maybe some more pairings will come, aside from the three that already seem to have emerged here. As life is returning to normal for all of us, let’s hope that Tamayomi won’t fall victim to any delays; I for one am still enjoying what I see, despite all the trash talk I said last week.
Wave, Listen to Me! Episode 5
Over on Wave, Listen to Me!, the plot had kind of stuck around Minare being kicked out of her apartment and temporarily getting her old curry restaurant job back. Now, we seem to be finally getting to what the show was really about: Minare’s short late-night ad-lib radio slot. This week, we get to see and hear her first broadcast; not the whole thing, sadly, but enough for us to certainly get an impression of what kind of ad-lib show she (and in turn Mato) have in mind. There had admittedly been a few minor things I was worrying about in this show, and now I see why I had that worry; it was purely because we hadn’t heard this show of hers yet. Now that we have, we get to see what future episodes will be like, and how Minare as a person will change, from an angry woman on a low-wage restaurant job, to someone who can perform on radio and get some fans.
Also very amusing this week was how they referenced the “War of the Worlds” radio drama that Orson Welles made way back in 1938. There’s more on that here, but I’ll say here that it has since made radio history. Because of how dramatic and how realistic-sounding the hour-long show was, some listeners got really panicked and actually believed that martians had come and invaded Earth, even despite the fact that the drama was entirely based on the book by H.G. Wells. Here in Minare’s first show, she adlibs a fictional story about a crazy woman about to murder a guy she met previously. Mato mentions that he didn’t really want Minare to go on that same level that Orson Welles did, but he was nonetheless impressed by what she did way back in episode 1…which has all led to this.
Outside of Minare, Mato and Mizuho, we haven’t really had that much coverage on any of the other characters working at the radio station. I get the impression, though, that we might in future episodes to come, and with Minare seemingly enjoying her slot, I hope we do…even if said secondary characters end up becoming dull to watch.
Kaguya-sama: Love is War Season 2 Episode 4
This week, over in season 2 of Kaguya-sama: Love is War, some more secondary characters arrive; secondary characters that might in fact make a mark on the entire show.
Previously on the show, we see the Student Council step down and the elections begin. Without telling the others, Miyuki announces that he’s throwing his hat in once more to be president, and has asked Kaguya to be vice-president again. This of course would give Kaguya more of a chance to actually end up confessing to him. But you know, from what I’ve seen so far in this second season, this contest of theirs has become less and less important. While we still get the epic narrator every now and then (that partly makes this franchise what it is), it feels like Miyuki and Kaguya aren’t as committed to fight an actual battle any more.
Well more episodes are to come, and since this season has a more linear story feel to it, these episodes will mostly concern the Student Council elections, and this week, Miyuki’s biggest rival is introduced, in the form of first-year Miko Iino.
This week we learn that Miko has a background of her own; her father is a high court judge, which explains her attitude and behavior when it comes to discipline and devotion…and according to Ishigami (who knows her very well as a first-year), she is an extremely devoted person. There’s that old saying of ‘if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything’, well with these elections coming up, Miko is devoting all of her time to become someone who can be at Miyuki’s level. I would think that next week, or in a couple of weeks, the four will find out how much Miko has done in order to become popular in the school, and actually start to panic.
Animation-wise, this season has peaked, and continues to peak, especially in this week’s episode. It was only recently that I learned that some of the animation staff here for this season of Kaguya-sama: Love is War used to work for SHAFT; knowing that now, it just makes perfect sense. From all the techniques used in this episode, I hope this is something that they’ll continue to do. Even in the mini-stories this week (Ai gets annoyed with Kaguya’s slow pace in confessing and shows her how it’s done, and Miyuki asking Kaguya to write his campaign speeches), we see some top-tier animation that comes straight out of SHAFT’s playbook. Keep it coming, please.
Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku Episode 5
For a good while, I’ve been saying a lot of…not-so-great things about Wotakoi: Love Is Hard For Otaku. I’m still feeling this je ne sais quoi about the show; I really just cannot put a finger on why I’m not enjoying the show as much as I should. Narumi and Hirotaka’s relationship still feels wooden, and while I’m liking Hanako and Kabakura’s relationship more, it’s not like I consider it a great highlight in the show. Even the introduction of Hirotaka’s younger brother Naoya does that much to make the show better in my eyes.
I do like the idea of having a character in the show who isn’t an otaku, and yet a part of me still feels a little conflicted in him being here. It isn’t like he isn’t a bad character; quite the opposite, in fact. Perhaps it’s just that I’m not liking the four main characters as much as I should, that I end up turning to one of the secondary characters more, and like them the most. I’m about halfway through the show now (Wotakoi has 11 episodes), and very little progress has been made outside of us finding out that Hanako and Kabakura were dating for a long time, and now in this episode with the introduction of a younger brother. If you watched this show when it was originally on (Amazon Video has exclusivity for this), please help me out; what exactly am I missing here?
I’m glad to see Tamayomi get much better, but I’m still extremely apprehensive of Wotakoi, the out-of-season show that was picked. Meanwhile, life is getting back to normal slowly but surely; we just all need to be very patient, I suppose. I’ve even started trying to cut my own hair since the hairdressers are all shut, and finding some other shows to watch.
But enough about me, how have you been adapting to this life we have had to live temporarily? With shows getting delayed/postponed, what are your future anime plans? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below! And remember to stay home and keep good hygiene!