This Winter season has gone by quicker than I thought. I guess some bigger things have taken priority for most of us, plus there’s the fact that I only had the 3 shows to watch…and there was the waiting for Azur Lane and Kandagawa Jet Girls from the previous season to have their final episodes. I will praise Kandagawa Jet Girls even now and to this day; if you’re finding the current pandemic news incredibly depressing, just switch that show on, and marvel at its sheer ridiculousness.
We’ll be starting off with the shows that are ending this week, before we move on to everything else.
Asteroid in Love Episode 12
I said I’ll be missing Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, well this is another show that I’ll miss watching too. Asteroid in Love ended up turning into a rather unique moeblob show, and I’m very glad I picked it. This final episode is a followup from last week, where both Mira and Ao were still in Okinawa, preparing a presentation as a part of an astronomy event that Mira qualified for. They, along with their colleagues from other schools, chose to have their presentation cover the process of photographing stars at night…and of course both of them were using this chance to find a new star in the sky for Ao.
This ending that Mira and Ao ended up getting was a lot more realistic than some might have thought, which was good. There’s no such thing as miracles and happy endings when it comes to science after all; there is just logic and facts. This final episode was everything I was expecting it to be, although I couldn’t help but think whether Dogakobo were a little rushed in production here; either that, or this current pandemic meant work at the animation studio had to slow down. Watch the episode, and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Makes one think whether we’ll see more of this kind of thing in the coming months to come…
In/Spectre Episode 12
Did this arc really need to last this long? Would In/Spectre have made a bigger impression had it decided to introduce an entirely new story to it? I mean this final episode is a fine enough closer to not just the arc but the entire show. It also makes us wonder whether the studio would ever decide to make another season of this. I’ll tell you this: if they ever do, I don’t think I’ll be returning to it.
The Steel Lady Nanase spectre is finally defeated, and everyone can carry on to whatever it was they were doing before all of this, but this show makes it very clear that Rikka isn’t finished, and that some day, she’ll think of something else.
I take one look at social media, and I see a good amount of people interested in a second season. Having not read the manga, I don’t really know about any other future stories/arcs that could potentially be brought in. What I know for certain is that the relationship between Kuro and Kotoko has grown to be something far more solid. From what started as Kuro getting extremely annoyed by Kotoko’s clingy behavior, turned into him accepting that the two of them can easily work together to keep order in the world of yokai and spirits, and look like a legitimate couple while doing it.
Season Review
If you weren’t following the big franchises, most of your eyes would probably have been cast on to Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! which is definitely a contender for Best Anime of 2020 right now. Science SARU certainly did a great job when it came to adapting this, and it makes you wonder how any other studio would have adapted the manga.
The team at Science SARU really delivered here, and were able to make a high quality and very memorable show. Our attention was mostly focused on Midori, Sayaka and Tsubame putting all of their time and energy into Eizouken, a school club that technically wasn’t even supposed to exist, and so they had to put all their focus in animation itself, instead of anime. It worked, as we see Midori’s imagination run wild, literally, we see Sayaka become the bad-ass and intimidating producer, negotiator and fixer she is, and we see Tsubame’s fascination with motion and movement. Not to say that there were a lot of other tiny little things that did it for the fans too; for me, it was all the crazy other school clubs that existed in the school:
Akihabara Culture Group & Fermented Foods Advocacy Club / Drone Photography Club / Messenger Pigeon Club / Carbohydrates Revolution Club / Lure Appreciation Club / Neue Deutsche Härte Club / Saw Table Tennis / Man-Faced Fish Investigation Club / Exterior Club / Accessibility Research Club / Electromagnetic Amoeba Club / Pi Research Club / Shortwave Radio Research Club / Shaved Ice Club / Shingeki Theater Club / Security Club / Boiled Tofu Club / Hula Dance Club / Choju-giga Art Restoration Club / Sepak Takraw Club
…and these were only the ones spotted in the show; what other sorts of school clubs could exist in this crazy school of theirs?
In/Spectre was a big disappointment for me, though. I did not understand why the Steel Lady Nanase arc had to be padded out for 9 whole episodes. They could either have made the arc considerably shorter, or make the entire show about it. That’s not to say that the rest of the show was all-round weak; character design really stepped up, and both Kotoko and Kuro were protagonists we could follow and be interested in. Now it has been given a shoehorn for a second season, which the fans seem to want. I, for one, would not be surprised if another season came fairly soon. I won’t be returning to it though, and I’ll say that it was this extra-long Nanase arc that swung it for me. Makes one think whether any future arcs for In/Spectre would be just as long too…
When it came to Asteroid in Love, I think Dogakobo did extremely well. To tell the truth, I was initially not expecting that much from it. I knew the moeblob was going to be overflowing, but what has made this particular moeblob show stand out is both the character design and the accurate science. We get frequent sections on stars, planets and constellations, as well as rocks in the earth, and even how they can be extracted. I certainly would not mind a second season of Asteroid in Love, but at the same time, I’m worried that it won’t do as well as this first one. I’ve mentioned how the second season of New Game! didn’t live up to season 1 at all, and considering how much I’ve enjoyed this show, I fear that the same thing might happen in that.
Does every show need to have sequel seasons? After watching the final episode this week, Asteroid in Love would still do fine on its own.
Now that I look back at this Winter season, I see a couple of shows that I wish I had picked up. There had been a lot of controversy surrounding Interspecies Reviewers, and eventually it was dropped by streaming services and networks left, right and center…but I will find a way to watch it, since I’m very curious to see what the fuss was all about. Also I missed out on the short Heya Camp, which was a semi-sequel show to the truly excellent Yuru Camp. A second season of that is coming soon, and I will definitely be catching that. And at least I can be happy that I was able to avoid Magia Record; the less said about my past Madoka Magica obsession, the better.
As this Winter season ends, some big news related to this column as well. I grew a little tired of an alias that I only really use here on OASG; nearly everything else online for me is another alias. I’ll still be here on OASG, only I have decided to operate under the different name of Nonon. So for the upcoming Spring season and for future seasons, this column will be Nonon’s Otaku Theater instead.
I have my new shows already picked for Nonon’s Otaku Theater, and the Spring preview post will be coming soon. How about you? Have you already decided what to watch in the Spring? There are the big franchises, of course, but have any other shows caught your eye? Feel free to hit that like button, and air your opinions in the comments below! Oh, and don’t forget to wash those hands of yours!