If you’re reading this now, then two big things will have happened. One is that the UK has left the EU, and we’re either gloating haplessly about it or kicking ourselves over it, and the other is that Kansas City won the Superbowl. I write my Otaku Theater posts over the weekend, so the OASG overlords (spoiler: they’re not really overlords) can pick over it before Tuesday rolls over. Yes, I do end up watching it, despite having no real interest in football.
But, in some anime-related news, some of us are a bit taken aback over Funimation’s sudden decision to drop a seasonal show (Interspecies Reviewers), due it falling ‘outside of company standards’. I had no interest in the show anyway, but it’s still left me a little confused. Why did they even choose it in the first place? There’s more about this in the ANN article below:
I won’t delve further into this, as I don’t want to make it a big thing and make regular Funimation employees feel harassed over a decision that was clearly made by the higher-ups. Right then. Time to move to what is actually airing, and what I’m actually enjoying…
Asteroid in Love Episode 5
As you can tel,l every week, I could fill a whole post about Asteroid in Love, and if it weren’t for the other shows I’m watching this season, I probably would…that’s how much I’m enjoying it.
This week is a mixture of light-heartedness and seriousness; let’s start with the light-hearted part. Here is the beach episode section of the show, and here we learn that Suzuya is beginning to grow jealous of how Ao has gotten so close to Mira in such a short amount of time, but over time, she realizes that she is worrying over nothing, since neither Mira or Ao want to take part in any kind of contest to see who is the better best friend…since they can all get along equally as they all have similar hobbies and interests.
The episode swiftly moves on to a section involving a mineral show that Sakurai is eager to attend, but due to everyone else already having plans, only Mira can come along with her. I noted a while ago how I was concerned that Sakurai and Inose were being relegated to secondary character status, so I’m very glad to see a whole section covering her, how fickle of a person she is, and how she has no real direction in life. Her standoff-ish demeanor seems to come from the fact that, in reality, she envies the others in the club because they all have something to work for in the future. Thanks to this week’s episode, Sakurai has quickly become the character I am most interested about in Asteroid in Love. I’m very curious in how her time in this newly-formed Earth Sciences club will help her find a career path to aim for, and how she builds relationships with the others, despite not having the somewhat obsessive interest in geology that she has.
One would think that, thanks to this geology interest of hers, she would think of something like a paleontologist, or a geology professor, or something along those lines. The final scene in this episode, where the Earth Sciences club mull over what to do for the Cultural Festival, is noteworthy in particular in presenting Sakurai as a unique character in the show. I already mentioned her pre-existing standoff-ish demeanor, well this week we see that she often feels left out in conversations. Here, for example…the others all have outlandish ideas on what to do for the festival, but because she wants to be logical and practical, she is against all of their ideas, and wants to do something totally educational…like the somewhat uninteresting exhibit she did the previous year as a part of the Geology club.
This week’s Asteroid in Love really is worth a watch, even if you’re not following the show that much.
In/Spectre Episode 4
So what about In/Spectre? Ever since the very first episode, I had doubts over whether this occult mystery show would make a mark or not. My answer to this is that…I am just very disappointed with the character design here. A priestess and self-styled ‘Goddess of Wisdom’ like Kotoko would, I imagine, have made a very interesting main protagonist, especially considering her uniqueness and backstory, but her, along with the other main protagonist, Kuro, have just made this show rather dull to watch.
If anything, the one thing that does interest me and sate my curiosity in this show are the mysterious cases they investigate. While the first case involving the body in the lake started the show on a rather lackluster note, this current case involving the vengeful spirit of a deceased idol is getting more and more interesting to watch. The story began with us merely assuming her death was a terrible accident, but now, as more information comes out including how both her father and older sister grew resentful of her success along with the discovery of a shady website highlighting Steel Lady Nanase (as opposed to the idol), I actually don’t know what to think. It is this that is keeping me watching this; Kotoko, Kuro and new character Saki just aren’t characters that are designed well enough for a mystery show like this.
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Episode 5
On the flip side, we have something like Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, and even though our attention is focused mostly on the three main characters of Midori, Sayaka and Tsubame, we end up hooked.
We end up hooked because the character design is so much better, despite the three girls being a little more stereotypical than in In/Spectre. After last week’s successful presentation to the Student Council, Eizouken land themselves a job, working with the school’s Robot club to make a short involving a giant robot fighting a monster. While we notice this week that the two clubs have two different ideas about what the short will actually look like, they end up with some kind of compromise thanks to Sayaka’s ‘negotiating skills’.
I’m hesitant to use the term ‘filler episode’ when it comes to this show, but that’s the most apt term I would use to describe this week’s episode. That’s not to say that it’s a mediocre episode. Each week delivers some pretty eye-opening animation and laugh-out-loud comedy, and this week doesn’t disappoint. Having a plot revolving around a new project with the school’s Robot club (who are rather obsessive about robots and mecha themselves) that isn’t as exciting as past episode plots means nothing.
Flying Witch Episode 5
Staying with the subject of filler episodes, would it be fair to call episode 5 of Flying Witch a filler? This episode revolves around Chito, Makoto’s familiar, and her taking a little tour around the local town, largely to help Makoto, who has trouble finding directions and getting lost.
Having watched the recent BBC/HBO adaptation of the fantasy franchise His Dark Materials, I had just assumed that humans who have familiars (or in that show’s case, daemons) are bound together, but I guess I shouldn’t just make wild assumptions like that. Here in this episode of Flying Witch, we see that Chito has a mind of her own, and is very capable of doing her own thing away from Makoto. Here, she finds a time capsule some young children bury, which also attracts the attention of Chinatsu, who is growing more and more curious about the world that her elder cousin lives in. I do think it’s entertaining to see that we as the viewer see her curiosity through the eyes of a young child behaving like a young child, as opposed to a young child acting like a young adult, which is something that some anime adaptations could have easily done.
I’m also noticing how unique the show’s score is; its minimalness only adds to the day-to-day activities seen in this show, and makes Flying Witch a more compelling watch. This makes me think back to 2018’s SSSS Gridman, where the studio (Trigger) made the decision not to have a background score at all in key scenes…and it was this lack of score that added to the unusual and unique sci-fi plot.
Neither Brexit or the Superbowl have taken over my real life; I only end up watching that game because I don’t really have much else to do. In terms of anime, what do you think? Do you agree with me in that In/Spectre has turned out to be rather disappointing? Do you also agree with me in that Asteroid in Love has turned out to be better than we all expected it to be? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below!