The Bleach trailer came out, and I would estimate at least two-thirds of its fanbase wept in joy (maybe more), having not seen anything new from the show for so long. The big question though is which streaming service it’s going to. The odds on favorite, much to the fans’ anger, is Disney+. I know it’s not what they want, but I think that we have to see it from the industry’s POV here. Crunchyroll/Sony, just like any other anime streaming service, have only X amount of money to spend on licensing shows, and I’m guessing that acquiring Chainsaw Man for next season wasn’t cheap. Neither was Spy x Family. So I think either Crunchyroll/Sony either decided to make a tactical choice to not bid for it and focus more on its other shows, or that Disney just made a bigger offer.
The Fall season is getting closer and closer, and my shows are almost over now.
When Will Ayumu Make His Move? Episode 10
This week’s Ayumu went in a slightly different direction. Through circumstance, Tanaka gets to meet the parents, and things get just a little awkward…but in a good way. Because not only do we get to see how stubborn main protagonist’s fathers and how nosy their mothers can be, but we get to see how much Tanaka really sucks at shogi, if he’s able to lose so quickly with a gigantic handicap.
What’s worth noting is that the dad is voiced by Fumihiko Tachiki, Gendo Ikari’s VA. The role definitely suits him: an incredibly stubborn guy stuck in his ways and convinced his daughter is going to get married and have a baby at age 17. The episode’s mood from super-serious to simple misunderstanding was amusing but felt a little weird at the same time. Almost like it felt forced. His own reasons for not playing shogi anymore are kind of ridiculous too; Urushi as a 3-year-old telling him he’s a bad player put him in a sulk for over a decade.
Meanwhile, we discover that Urushi is to go on her third-year school trip very soon, which means next week’s episode will all be about that. Either that, or it will cut between that and Rin training Tanaka. I had no idea how awful he really is at the game; he knows the moves, so I guess that strategy is his weak point. The best school trip episode of the year is still the one in Komi Can’t Communicate though, so to be honest, I’m expecting a pretty average affair next week.
Call of the Night Episode 10
Over in Call of the Night, there still quite a few episodes to go. Of course even after what we saw last week, there’s still a huge chunk of the story that hasn’t been touched on yet. But not this week. Instead we get a bit of a cute filler episode, of another activity that typically takes place at night: night-time maid cafes. And here is one that Midori Kohakobe, one of the vampires Yamori encountered a few episodes back, works at.
In a totally not-predictable plot point, Nazuna is conscripted into becoming a maid there when another one has to back out. It isn’t long though when something rather bizarre comes along; pictures posted online of someone peeping on Arisa, one of the other maids working there. I didn’t mind this filler episode at all, as it had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments that all of the other episodes have. So it leads me to think whether the writers put an episode like this in to build up for the final arc. As an anime-only viewer, I don’t really know how the story will end, or even if they are building up for a second season, which would actually be cool.
Within all of this episode’s story, I thought that Midori’s point of people being ‘ill’ is something worth thinking about. I suppose that, as a vampire, she can only look at it from that perspective, but by the way it seems (and the manner she says it), it seems more like every person is instead unique. Normality is, to be honest, something that does not exist. Everyone has their own quirks about them that they either treasure or are ashamed of. In this case, we see that Arisa is very addicted to taking selfies…all kinds of selfies. Mostly because she is worried about not being popular anymore.
Like I said, this was a good filler episode, and had a story that was not completely separate from the main story. Will we see more of Midori and the other three vampires in the remaining episodes? I should think so, as they are too good to just stop writing about. The same applies to all of the human secondary characters too. Let’s hope that we’ll see them all again, as unlike some of the other shows I’m covering, there are still 3 more episodes to go.
Yurei Deco Episode 11
But it’s the penultimate episode here. Previously on Yurei Deco, we saw Berry, Hack and Finn evade the authorities and make their way up to the floating island called Mark Twain. I said last week that I wasn’t sure what exactly they would find up there, and that they were on a bit of a fool’s errand. Well they have ascertained that Phantom Zero, who or what it is, is here, and finding them becomes their top priority.
But as we see, it isn’t the only thing they discover there. Every piece of data that is on Tom Sawyer Island is backed up here, and the people down below had no idea. And as Berry and Hack searches through the Hyperverse to find clues to Phantom Zero’s location, Berry finds out how her mother and father altered social media to distract the authorities after finding out that she is in fact not dead as they thought…and got arrested for it.
Now that the show is ending, I think it’s going in a more solid direction. Finding Phantom Zero and Berry, Hack and Finn ultimately finding a way home become the focus now. I did find it interesting how the Phantom Zero object, whatever it is, seems to be targeting Hack in particular. Something else is brought up here that we haven’t seen before; someone (or something) called Injunction Jo, who appears to be responsible for creating Phantom Zero itself. And just as most of the other characters in Yurei Deco, the name comes from the Tom Sawyer books. Injun Joe is in fact the primary antagonist in the first book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and so we can guess who we’re going to see next week. But yeah, as Hack has been extremely silent on their past, could they be connected somehow? This is all pure speculation though.
But am I keenly looking forward to the finale? It’s more like I’m happy to see the show end. Yurei Deco has been a complex show to watch for me, and there have been many times where I’ve struggled to keep up. Could just be me and my dumb mind however, as r/anime still seems to love the show.
Akebi’s Sailor Uniform Episode 11
Hard to think though that my run of Akebi’s Sailor Uniform ends next week as well; I guess time does fly by in shows I really enjoy. This penultimate episode shows that Akebi’s class are nowhere near ready for the volleyball section of the Athletics Festival. So she thinks of an idea of going to her old elementary school gym to get them to practice. But their practice isn’t the main focus of this episode. Instead it is a showcase of how far Akebi has gone from the younger elementary girl who was the only student in class, to someone who has befriended her entire class.
Asking her former teacher’s permission to use the gym is the start of the emotional narrative we go on in this episode. From the looks of it, this is the first time Akebi has returned to her old school, and while she had no bad experiences there, it is still something that means a lot to her. It’s good that the girls who come along with her respect that too and let Akebi savor the day she has here, especially when they find out the school will be demolished when little sister Kao graduates from there. It’s also wonderful to see Akebi’s former teacher begin to weep with joy after discovered the journey her beloved student has made in making the friends she wanted for so long. And everyone in the class ultimately shows up to help practice volleyball…
…everyone except Kizaki. She makes the decision to play a piano piece for Akebi’s drama performance. And not just any one either; a song by Akebi’s musical idol Miki Fukumoto. Not sure if Akebi knows this news or not, but I’m sure she will be overjoyed. I mean at the end of this episode, we get an incredible dream-like sequence of her dancing on the ocean.
Moments like this shows how much Cloverworks really invested in the show. We should also remember that Akebi’s Sailor Uniform came out in the same season as My Dress-Up Darling, another Cloverworks show that looks incredible. Even the tiniest of details stand out here; I thought it was funny how Akebi’s former teacher still uses a computer with a floppy disk drive.
The studio developed a bit of a reputation of overworking its staff though, which of course is not good. That is a story that can take up a whole post though, as it’s so detailed and awkward. Going back to this though, in the journey we’ve seen, it’s not hard to root for Akebi as she does her best to win the Athletics Festival, which the finale will be about. The volleyball team will be awesome (hopefully), and Kizaki and Akebi will nail it in their performance (hopefully).
After what seems like forever, my three shows for the Fall are decided…although I might have already said that there; apologies if I have. What I will be doing for Otaku Theater during the Fall season is taking a brief look at what the big shows offer the viewers. If the new Bleach show (which I understand is to be 4 cours long) goes to Disney+ though. Well perhaps we can look at these from two perspectives: either this will make Disney the villains in anime streaming, or it will encourage more people to sign up for it. They already have Summer Time Rendering and Black Rock Shooter: Dawnfall, and the new Tatami Galaxy project is on the way. It’s a tough one to call; what do you all think?