Now all of my summer shows finally have had their opening episodes. Yurei Deco started early, and now that my other two shows begun, I can form a better opinion of them all. Now I can ponder on whether this season will turn out better for me than the previous two have. And whether the Summer Curse™ I have had for so so long will finally be gone for good. But did I pick the good shows? Or rather a better question would be, did I pick the shows that work the best for me? Well I start with When Will Ayumu Make His Move?, and I question my tastes once again.
When Will Ayumu Make His Move? Episode 1
These are the kind of stories that I’ve seen in so many shows; both parties who know they’re into each other, and yet are too dim to admit it. Either that or they have specific (and often ridiculous) reasons for not opening up about it. A show like Kaguya-sama pulls this off excellently almost without effort, and so with that show ending only just a few weeks ago, it feels to me that Ayumu has a gigantic mountain to climb. In something like Kaguya-sama, we actively want Kaguya and Miyuki to hook up; even in a show like Don’t Toy With Me, Nagatoro! that I didn’t like as much, we like the idea of the both of them romancing each other. But here in Ayumu, we don’t really care so much. In fact I don’t care about either of them at all.
Urushi is an otherwise very intelligent and capable girl, and yet is turned into a gibbering emotional wreck in so many interactions with the considerably less-experienced Ayumu. Unlike in something like Kaguya-sama where the love games are played equally on both sides, it often seems like he holds the advantage…as if getting flustered and emotional in a love story makes you weak and vulnerable. And he holds an advantage because she has too many emotions compared to his lack of them. She isn’t even trying to hide them either. And this is where I am not sold on Ayumu Tanaka at all.
(By the way, I’ll be shortening the show to Ayumu from now on, and be referring to him as Tanaka, to save confusion.)
He is dull to watch and monotone to the point of annoyance. Compared to the mangaka’s better-known Teasing Master Takagi-san, the story in the show feels like the reverse of that. If often feels like he is completely oblivious to the mind games that Urushi is trying (and failing) to play. This is why I brought up Kaguya-sama. The show and its main story was extremely fun to watch because they were both smart and scheming. Here in Ayumu, because he isn’t even bothering to play the mind games we are almost expecting him to play, the romance feels too one-sided. Added to this, their ‘game’ seen here moves at an extremely slow pace; this episode actually felt like an hour or two had passed instead of 25 minutes.
I see a lot of positive responses to this opening episode, so why can’t I see any of that here? Maybe these two really are cute to watch, but they are equally as frustrating. Opening episodes are meant to tease us with exciting plot points that want us to feel excited to tune in again the next week, but everything in the show feels so flat and predictable. Maybe the show could bring in some actual shogi segments (how to play the game, shogi moves and strategy, etc.) and that would keep me interested. But if episodes in Ayumu are going to feel like hours have passed instead of 25 minutes, then I don’t know what I’m going to do.
Komi Can’t Communicate Season 2 Episode 11
But moving onto a far more action-packed school rom com…
A new day comes, and Komi and Tadano have to face each other again after the previous episode gave us some Valentine’s Day awkwardness. To be honest, I had expected that there would be more in the way of story when it came to a moment like that. Instead we get a ‘thanks for the chocolate’ line from Tadano, more blushes from Komi and then it feels like we’re moved straightaway to the next segment. I won’t be talking about the ripped tights segment which showed us how Yamai really ought to have as less screen time as possible. Watch that segment and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
If anything, this penultimate episode (yep, this is the next to last ep for this second season) only gave us two more secondary characters to add to Komi’s 100-friend list, who have featured before only fleetingly. Akako Onigashima, who has a school history with Yamai, shows us how short her temper is as she violently snaps over the tiniest of things, like shoelaces loosening and her earbuds getting tangled up. And Amami Satou, the pushover of the class who is the only one willing to do morning class cleaning, and is happy to do the tasks no one else wants to do. I think it’s curious how I can relate to both of these characters. I myself can not only be a bit of a pushover in life (I just say to myself that it’s selflessness), but have had a very short temper at some point (but that’s often as a result of the medication I take). Onigashima and Satou will be characters that we may only see every now and then in any future episodes, but as with so many in the show, I like the way they are presented.
I do like how Katou the aspiring shogi pro makes a return for this episode. I really don’t know what it is about her I like so much; I mean, I’ve never even played shogi before.
Hard to think that this is the penultimate episode of season 2. The last episodes of season 1 gave us an important arc in the manga; the culture festival. Here the gag segments just carry on. Perhaps in the finale either Komi or Tadano will do something that’ll make the other notice and take action for once. Because they deserve it.
Yurei Deco Episode 2
If last week’s episode of Yurei Deco was meant to establish the main characters, I’m not sure if this week’s one is doing a good job in developing the story or not. Berry and Hack are able to escape the Hyperverse labyrinth they landed themselves into, but while Berry returns to her home, Hack remains on the run.
Right now the two of them aren’t really finding much in common…yet. Berry is treating everything she has seen so far as some bizarre ARG (alternate reality game) and hasn’t quite understood how much danger she got herself in. Hack on the other hand is still a real anomaly to me. But it isn’t because the story is told through Berry’s eyes; instead it’s more like there is still next to nothing I know about them. By the way this week’s episode ended, I’m hoping that their character design will unravel some more.
The art style of the show remains very quirky and unique; something that’s a refreshing change to what we regularly see season after season. It suits the story as well, with bright colors being replaced as a way of ‘distracting’ the citizens of the island from somewhere that is otherwise an extremely dull place full of just bricks and mortar. We also learn this week that the Decos that the citizens wear are mandatory, which tells more about the censoring that goes on behind closed doors…and what Berry’s parents are also a part of, as their jobs.
Reading back on what I said about the opening episode of Yurei Deco, I feel like I probably missed a couple of things, especially now that this second episode is out and all of us are beginning to form an opinion of the show. Tom Sawyer Island can dress itself up all it wants, but this is a city of dystopia, with a social credit system set in place and a senior company/government monitoring and censoring posts. On top of this, propaganda is being fed to the citizens about how it is the most liberal place in the world. So if this isn’t a Science SARU take on modern-day civilization and social media, then I don’t know what is. At the same time though, I hope that the show’s message will be more than just ‘social media is bad’.
What I also notice is that so far we have been shown very little in terms of an actual plot outside of Berry wanting to find Phantom Zero and believing Hack is a part of it all. Its opening episode didn’t really show off much and was pretty much just main character introduction. Berry seems to be a solid character so far, but I really worry that Hack is going to be someone that viewers might not warm to at first. The confusing language they speak is off-putting at best, and their actions in last week’s episode didn’t sit well with me at all.
Will Yurei Deco have a major plot twist halfway through? Who knows. I can understand if people are put off by a show like this though. It is capable of both fascinating and confusing the viewer. It becomes a take on the dangers of social media and misinformation, but the fact that it’s told in the manner that it is will put off some.
Call of the Night Episode 1
Now onto the debut of the show I’ve been looking forward to the most. And oh boy is it worth it…kind of…?
For this opening episode, only the two main characters feature: Nazuna and Yamori. From the start we get an idea of what kind of boy Yamori is. Very listless, very bored and very apathetic to the world around him. Maybe it’s just because this is the opening episode, but I really do wish that we got to know a little more about him. Yamori comes across as someone who needs a hobby or a pet project like a dog or tropical fish. Or maybe that’s the idea here; his new adventures with Nazuna (who is about 20-30 years older than him, I will add) are just the beginning. I’m thinking aloud here and am starting to not make sense, I know. I just think that we need to know a little more about Yamori before we make a solid opinion.
As for Nazuna, well I think that her character introduction is pretty good in comparison so far. We would expect vampires to be centuries old, but she is only around 30-40. She enjoys toying with the people around her (including some half-passed out drunks in the street) and loves the hell out of beer, and yet gets embarrassed very quickly. More characters are obviously going to pop up in the show, both humans and vampires, and with this apparent romance coming, her character design will become more of something to watch out for.
The world of Call of the Night is a 3am combination of black, blue and purple, and with barely a soul in sight. But that’s the idea. Yamori is feeling the thrill of what he initially sees as unthinkable: venturing out into the cityscape he knows that is far more of a ghost town. The city’s emptiness means that he becomes the master of his own universe here. The show’s aesthetic is the one big thing that will draw many viewers in. I do predict that this will ultimately turn out to become some kind of male escapist fantasy show. And also viewers will be drawn far more to the more thrilling vampire Nazuna than the more boring human Yamori, naturally. Sounds a bit harsh for me to say, but I actually enjoyed this episode quite a bit, and I’m looking forward to what the rest of the show will bring us. More characters coming in should form an even better opinion of whether this will be a big hit for me or not.
I found a lot of other things to like here too; for me the gorgeous night-time visuals, editing and the electronic ambient soundtrack stand out in particular. This was a very strong opening episode, and it really has left me very curious as to what the story will be like. Even though there’s so much we don’t really know about either Nazuna or Yamori so far, we become keenly interested to find out in future episodes. A strange feeling to have for me considering some other shows are lambasted for not giving us a good picture of their main characters in their first episodes.
Oh and one more thing: both the OP and ED themes are very very good. Both songs by Japanese hip-hop group Creepy Nuts, the OP theme ‘Daten‘ is an unusual yet fitting one, but the ED theme ‘Yofukashi no Uta‘ is even better. And what’s weirder is that they are both preexisting songs, and not quite written specifically for the show.
Akebi’s Sailor Uniform Episode 2
The same lush art and animation returns in episode 2 of Akebi’s Sailor Uniform. After the opening episode’s ‘prologue’, this covers the class’s first day. And it’s here where we see how naïve Komichi really is. It’s adorable that we get some tiny flashbacks to when she was a younger girl and having a much closer relationship with her then-teacher, what with her class being so small. Here at this private school, she has to deal with 15 other girls and any etiquettes that a normal classroom may have. It’s quite remarkable that she’s able to memorize every single classmates’ names on this first day too.
We learn in this second episode that Komichi is an extremely smart girl; while her classmates needed cram school to get into the school, the teacher is shocked to learn that she didn’t. So this added to the fact that she is able to memorize the 15 other names in her class is quite something. I know there’s going to more to come, and having seen this episode, I’m fairly certain there will be nothing in the way of very tragic school circumstances or shock moments.
The show is kept very simple and its down to earth-ness becomes one of its shiny qualities. I think that it’s extremely awesome that the show doesn’t have much in the way of a moeblob aesthetic. 2D and 3D scenes meld together almost effortlessly. Models are drawn far more realistically and in sharp detail. We see wrinkles in their uniforms, details in furniture and floors, and sometimes even stray hairs. Landscapes look so gorgeous that they may as well be paintings in a museum. All of these things make what might seem like a very dull and generic story at first turn into something very intimate and wholesome.
Even after only 2 episodes in, I’m predicting that this Akebi’s Sailor Uniform pick is going to turn out to be something really special. And I thought A Lull in the Sea was a great one. As for my seasonal choices, they have turned into something of a mixed bag. Call of the Night looks great to watch, while I’m praying that Ayumu will give us more than just a mess of teenage hormones and dull script.