Oh, am I so glad that The Promised Neverland is ending next week. Yeah, yeah, I know the anime season as a whole is pretty much ending next week as well, but for me the sooner that show ends, the happier I’ll be. Its first season really grabbed all of us, but because this second season did so little to keep us on that hype train, I’m not even sure if any third season it’ll get (and no doubt it will) will fare any better, but we’ll be talking about that later, because something pretty worrying happens this week, and it’s not just what goes on with Emma, Norman, Ray and co.
Yuru Camp Season 2 Episode 11
Sensei is back on the booze…to no one’s surprise.
Our next leg of the big camp trip is under way, and the 7 of them find a campsite that suits all of them. Even though we see a teacher who enjoys a drink or several, she’s extremely responsible and considerate. There was no room for Rin to be in the van, and so she’s been travelling on her moped the entire time, and has gotten more worn out than all of them. So finding a campsite right by a hot spring would help get her energy back. Meanwhile, everyone else is making the best of what they can find, with Nadeshiko putting together their dinner of Gampas al Ajillo (Spanish garlic shrimp) and alfonsino.
This week’s episode later goes off in an interesting direction, when Ena and Nadeshiko chat in the middle of the night. These girls have all met via outdoor camping, but let’s not forget that Nadeshiko was the one who moved into their town, and went on to be the one who brought them all together. This second season shows us how much Nadeshiko really has changed from when we first saw her back in the very first episode, as a irresponsible klutz. Everyone else has changed into different people as well, but Nadeshiko’s changes are much more apparent.
Like she has become the ‘Mamashiko’ that the others joke about in this week’s episode.
Otherside Picnic Episode 12
This is the final episode of Otherside Picnic. I’m actually going to miss this show, and considering I had gone into this thinking it would be the weakest of the 3 seasonal shows I picked, I should know better than to just make wild assumptions on shows like these.
To be fair, I wasn’t really sure what kind of ending we’d get for Otherside Picnic. Would they get those marines out of there and back to their base? Would they find Satsuki? Would they finally go out on the date (as in date date) that I thought they would? Well despite closing some plot points, I thought the finale was a little underwhelming. The end of last week’s episode revealed this big monster guarding the gate was in fact a Kankandara, a human-snake hybrid creature from Japanese folklore but they ultimately defeat it, and the marines are able to return to Okinawa, thanking Sorawo and Toriko with some pretty quality Engrish.
What about that date that the two of them were meant to go on? In past episodes, I didn’t really get that much of a yuri vibe between the two, and so it’s interesting to me that it has all come around in this final episode, where the two of them reveal some things about each other. For instance, all the way back in episode 1, we saw a worn-out Sorawo lying in a puddle not caring if she lives or dies. Toriko reveals she was just like that when Satsuki disappeared. Now I don’t know if the relationship between the two of them is fleshed out more in the original source, but I am satisfied with this resolution in the anime.
I’ll talk some more about the show as a whole next week, in my Winter Review post, but I still have two more shows to finish…one of which I am hoping will end as soon as possible.
The Promised Neverland Season 2 Episode 10
The penultimate episode of season 2 of The Promised Neverland, and Phil is back. After so long, we have a reunion that is very adorable to watch.
Not sure if I’d call that the only great thing about this week’s episode, but it’s actually hard pushed to find much else, considering how messy these 25 minutes are. I’m not even exaggerating. So many episodes of The Promised Neverland this season have felt either rushed or full of dull exposition, or both. However there is something alarming that I had only realized just as I was typing this out: episode 10, this week’s episode, has no credited writers. I don’t know about you, but this is a strong indicator that no writer in the team wanted to be publicly associated with what goes on this week.
Directors have been credited though, and Toshiya Ono is still credited with series composition. Even worse, the original manga writer, Kaiu Shirai, is gone from the credits too. Now I’ve said pretty much all of this Winter anime season what I thought of this season 2 compared to how I liked season 1, but I never expected something like this to happen, especially the original manga writer not being credited.
Last week’s bombshell of Vincent being a traitor turns out to be a smokescreen, with him actually being revealed to be a double agent; all of which is Norman’s design. Makes you think whether it was even worth putting that subplot in the show at all, but anyway. So many subplots were added into this episode alone. The main baddie, Peter Ratri, already has had next to no time to develop in the show, but it just becomes laughable at this point. And speaking of laughable…
Isabella plays a much more significant role this week, and switches allegiances almost straightaway, along with fellow mothers. We get the impression that, to her, motherhood is more important than fulfilling the wishes of the farms. Her sudden switch also was not given time to develop, so it felt rather ridiculous and earlier on, we notice that the rebellion suddenly has themselves a fleet of hot-air balloons available. So you ask yourself how they got them, where did they come from, and so on. Once again, no time to develop that. The show has a whole has felt like time has gone by here and there without that much explanation as to why and how.
I know I’ve thrown a lot of shade here, but I really don’t know what else to say. The first season felt raw. Because we were given a deadline, everything in the show felt so tense to watch. We wanted the children to escape by any means necessary precisely because they had such little time to do it. This second season has none of that rawness and intensity, and it almost feels like the writers were more concerned with building the wide open world than showing us how these escapees felt in a world that is completely alien to them and surviving in it. And with staff now being ‘omitted’ from the credits, I think you can see what I mean on how much of a disappointment this second season was.
A Lull In The Sea Episode 11
So…previously in A Lull In The Sea, Kaname finally says what we all saw coming for the entire show, and yet it still felt kind of awkward for all of us to watch. The both of them return to school like it never happened. Not entirely sure why though; I’m sure Kaname already knows that Chisaki has feelings for Hikari, and so he doesn’t want any bad blood to go around the four of them. In the last episode, we saw the residents of Shioshishio have a feast to boost their metabolism, well now they have to fast themselves so their ena can get thicker. Fearing they’ll never see their surface friends again, Hikari and the others break this rule. In the meantime, preparations for The Sending are almost finished, but it dawns on them all that the day of the event is also the day the sea villagers are meant to hibernate.
Also while all of this is happening, Akari and Itaru are making plans for their future marriage. Seeing her brother so torn between having to hibernate and his relationship with his new friends on the surface, Akari makes a major decision in regards to the Sending…and I’m not entirely sure what it’s going to mean. A Lull In The Sea is a fantasy show after all, and given The Sending is a festival meant to appease the Sea God, I really don’t know what’ll happen to Akari.
Another P.A Works show that is more recent, Irozuku: The World in Colors, has caught my eye recently. I missed out on it when it aired in Winter 2018 (largely because it went straight to Amazon Video), but I’ve been told that it shared a lot of things that A Lull In The Sea, like self-discovery and coming-of-age. I’ll put it on my long list of ‘to be watched’; heck, maybe when I’ve finished this, I’ll decide to check it out.
As I say, I’m so glad this season is ending, and am very much looking forward to the Spring. The Winter review post is next week, and the Spring preview post will be coming soon, so have there been any shows next season that have interested you at the moment…aside from the next season of My Hero Academia? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below!