Due to a long-standing health condition, things have had to slow down for me a little here on Otaku Theater. Writing this column is something I enjoy doing, and it’s something that definitely keeps me busy. Sadly I was unable to bring my computer into the hospital ward with me when I stayed there for a few days. As we found out last week, NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a episodes have been put on the bench until further notice, due to the outbreak of coronavirus in the animation studio. Let’s all hope that everyone there will be okay, and that they can get back to doing the work they enjoy doing…and that we see if the adaptation really is what it is hyped up to be.
So just two seasonal shows for the foreseeable future, as it’s very likely that NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a will be something that’ll carry on into the Spring season.
In/Spectre Season 2 Episode 4
Directly carrying on from last week and Masayuki and Yuki-Onna meeting Kotoko, we find out who was really behind the murder of the ex-wife, and I have to say that the crime itself is all played out in a very cool Danganronpa fashion. And watching Kotoko destroying the two with facts and logic is pretty amusing to watch too.
This sequel season feels quite different not only in that it has deviated from Kotoko and Kuro’s point-of-view (episode 2 being a prime example), but it also appears to have shorter arcs. In the first season, the Steel Lady Nanase arc took up over half of the show, but I believe it was because it also served as an introduction to In/Spectre‘s main antagonist Rikka. Now here in season two, we know who Rikka is, we know she is still alive, and we know that she will be plotting revenge on Kotoko and her cousin Kuro. Masayuki and Yuki-Onna’s story will have a happy ending I’m sure, but as Kotoko has said to them, it is up to them to make a good future for themselves, and not her. I love how Kotoko and Kuro begin to formulate bizarre scenarios for the two love birds at the end of the episode, like how Masayuki is destined to fall for wicked women, and that Yuki-Onna is more than capable of freezing him to death should he cross her. But as she says, she is only there to reassure them that he genuinely is innocent, and that the real killer is someone he never expected: a former business subordinate who looked up to him.
It’s a very fascinating and elaborate plan that this woman put together, and I won’t spoil any of it. It has been things like this that has made poor saps like me get interested in mystery shows like this. I know that some on Reddit have enjoyed labelling In/Spectre as a Monogatari-lite show. Well the Monogatari series was a very deep and detailed show, containing characters with complicated backstories, and plotlines that were all linked together but could still operate on their own (hence the massive amount of arcs we got to see). So do I think In/Spectre is a Monogatari-lite show? Well to be honest, I have never really made that comparison before.
The fact that this show is able to give us some fascinating supernatural mystery tales like this one with the Yuki-Onna, and at the same time keep our two main characters the primary focus is pretty commendable. In the Monogatari series, many characters had the spotlight; it wasn’t all the Araragi show. In the opening theme, we get a tiny taste of some of the characters we’ll get to see in the future. Having not read the original source, I have no idea who they are, but what I know for sure is that they will appear in arcs that are likely to be as fun as this one was.
Tomo-chan is a Girl! Episode 4
Having watched this week’s episode of Tomo-chan is a Girl!, I’m now really conflicted about a lot of things. Sketches this week include trying to get Misuzu to smile more and Tomo fighting off a third-year being a scumbag to Ogawa. And even though this is meant to be an adaptation of a 4-koma manga, it still feels like all of the sketches feel a little disconnected.
These are characters we like watching on screen and/or want to get to know better, and yes the end goal of this all is getting Jun to see Tomo as an actual love interest, and not just one of the bros. I know that we are still pretty early on in the show, but by now I would have liked to have seen something at least. The fight for Jun’s heart feels more like it’s at the back seat in this week’s episode, and I fear that that will be the case for some future sketches in future episodes to come.
Perhaps this is the show’s way of presenting the secondary characters to us. I mean this week, we learn that Carol and Misaki have a very long and close history that is, so far, a mystery. And it’s a mystery that I’m keenly interesting in learning more about. On the other hand, we have Tomo’s parents who have had almost no screentime so far. The dad is devoted to karate and spends his whole life in his dojo, which makes the mom hugely frustrated, as he won’t even sleep in the house anymore. These are all interesting tangents in the show that I want to know more about, and so I hope that future sketches will enhance on them some more.
On top of this, there is one elephant in the room that I want to address: Misuzu.
Many school comedy shows have at least one character who behaves less ‘enthusiastically’, but it often feels like Misuzu is doing a good job at being unlikeable to the people around her. It’s interesting that she reminds me of Daria, and how the titular character chooses cynicism, sarcasm and black humor to get by in high school and all of its stereotypes. But the more we watch her on screen, the more we see that the cynicism and sarcasm is all she has known, and is in fact holding her back from enjoying teenage life. One line I distinctly remember from that is how she says that while she doesn’t have low self-esteem, she just has low esteem for everyone else. Well that’s where I see Misuzu right now. Being dumped by Jun and ostracized by the other girls in the class has made her a bitter person. And while she tries to be some sort of love doctor to Tomo, it often feels like considering her own experiences interacting with others, she is the last person to turn to when it comes to romancing childhood friends. I can’t even tell whether her behavior in the show is all some kind of façade or not.
But yeah, these secondary characters are beginning to dominate the show more now, and it’s like Tomo is getting nowhere nearer Jun’s heart. Unless there’s a lot that Jun is holding close to his chest, of course. Maybe he just wants to hide it out of some masculine pride or something…
Dorohedoro Episode 4
…and in this next episode of Dorohedoro: even more gore than the previous episode…
No really, it’s like I watch an episode and get blown away at the gore I see on screen, and then the episode afterwards just goes and turns it up some more. Episode 3 gave us a zombie hunt in the hole where we found out that Nikaido is a Sorcerer too. Here in episode 4, we find out that it was in fact the Sorcerers who took the head when Vaux was trying to dissect it. They want to know more about Caiman, and also to find Nikaido and either bring her back or kill her. Taking the head to a Sorcerer who can make living dolls, Shin, Noi, Fujita and Ebisu are led to an abandoned apartment by a living doll of what could well be what Caiman looks as a human. From there, they chase up another Sorcerer who is capable to bringing people back to life, that turns out to be a cat-like creature that En decides to call Kikurage.
Brought this up last week, but the show is doing a very good job at humanizing our antagonists. But are they antagonists really? It’s actually hard to tell, as that good vs. bad line is so extremely thin. A good half of episode 4 focuses around the Sorcerers looking into clues of who Caiman and Nikaido really are, and we get cute little gags all throughout. I have to say that I’ve really fallen for both Shin and Noi, who make an excellent duo. Episode 4 gave us a lot of screentime for the Sorcerers, meaning we get that much more time to get to know them more. Here we know that Shin secretly crushes on Noi, and that En is a big softie when it comes to furry creatures.
But what about Nikaido? While she and Caiman are off looking for Vaux’s partner who shows them an ‘artificial’ Sorcerer’s door made out of vivisected Sorcerers (yes, you heard me right…), she is trying to find the right time to come clean to Caiman. So yeah, it’s hard to say who we ought to be rooting for. Bias is looking at Caiman and Nikaido, but when we see the Sorcerers get along so well, we start to doubt that. Two things that connect them are the humor they both have, as well as the violence each of them are capable of doing. But all of them want to know who is in Caiman’s head, and that is the one thing that keeps all of the characters closely linked together.
We’ve reached fourth episodes of a lot of shows, and maybe it’s time to think about what we want to see in the Spring season. Okay…maybe that is way way too early. Saying that though, I already have in mind what I want to have as my next out-of-season show, and it’s something that I’ve been meaning to watch for a long time but just never got around to doing. So probably no fancy Twitter poll for you guys to do…