I’m fresh from my long speedrun of the entire Symphogear franchise, and so I’m asking myself two things: one is why I chose 4 new shows once again (instead of 3), and the other is why I chose to come back to We Never Learn, despite dealing so much criticism to season 1. More on that later, but uh…if you were expecting reviews of the huge franchises that have returned this cour, then I’m afraid this is not the place to be.
I chose some lesser-known shows instead.
Houkago Saikoro Club Episode 1
Set in Kyoto, this opening episode focuses on Miki Takekasa, an extremely shy girl who seems content in remaining in the background and unseen, and her new classmate Aya Takayashiki, who revels in random activity. The two are almost complete polar opposites, and yet Aya is able to convince Miki to enjoy some things in life; the scene in this episode where she leads her on a random trip around Kyoto is actually rather cute. The two end up tailing committee president Midori Oono to a specialty games store, where they learn she has a part-time job there. Leading on from this randomness that they have just had, the three of them end up playing a German board game called Marrakech (which I didn’t know actually exists until later), and both Miki and Aya end up taking a fervent interest in what the show calls ‘analog’ games.
I saw the synopsis of this show and took an interest in it straightaway, and I fear that my own experience and background in gaming might end up interfering with my coverage of this show. Both Games Workshop and Magic: The Gathering were games that I followed as a teenager and college student respectively, and right now, I’m trying to get back into both of them. Both of which could be called ‘analog’ games (that’s a term I’ve never heard used before, by the way), but it’s curious to see how viewers will react to a show like this. Will it do what it’s likely to do (treat board games/card games/tabletop games as a gimmick/novelty)? Or will it generate interest into real-life and existing board games, card games and tabletop games? As someone who has been gaming for a long time (and not just video gaming), I hope it’s the latter…although that’s a high hope, because so far, it’s looking like this could all just be a gimmick, and the viewers will end up back on their PS4s and Switches.
Miki is this shy and introverted kind of person that would get into geeky things like ‘analog’ games, which are also perfect to help her with her issues that she seem to have in this opening episode. Aya and Midori, however, are much less interesting, and so I hope that future episodes will build their characters better. This really is the kind of show that I could end up talking about a lot, so I might have to either restrain myself a bit, or end up over-spilling onto my own blog. This opening episode was, I think, not the best, but this has a very interesting theme, that I am more than happy to talk about. A lot.
Strange thing is that despite all of this fun antics, I can’t escape the feeling that Houkago Saikoro Club might end up taking a more serious turn at some point. Perhaps it’s just me thinking about the studio behind this show. Liden Films has made two shows that I’ve done for Otaku Theater that have both gone down very serious routes; Love & Lies ended up becoming a very mature school romantic drama set in an alternate future, while last year’s Hanebado! focused a lot on mental health and mommy issues. Maybe I’m just over-thinking this though; I don’t want to look too deep into the shows I’ve picked for this Fall season. Then again, the shows I have picked aren’t exactly the kind of shows that warrant heavy criticism and deep thinking.
Azur Lane Episode 1
Peoples’ first impressions of Azur Lane might well be just cute moe ship girls doing cute moe things at sea, not unlike what the Kantai Collection anime adaptation was like…and so far, from this opening episode, they might well be right. And just as I wasn’t too impressed with what Kantai Collection had to offer, I am equally unimpressed at what this adaptation of the Azur Lane mobile game has for us.
I knew absolutely nothing about how the Azur Lane game works, so I’m going to be equally lost in this adaptation. The main plot, however, remains pretty similar to the likes of Kantai Collection and Strike Witches though; just as the saying goes, ‘War Never Changes’.
The ‘good guys’ here are shown as an alliance between the Eagle Union and the Royal Navy, while the ‘bad guys’ are an alliance between the Sakura Empire and the Iron Blood. You can make some educated guesses on who each of these armies are meant to be based on. Anyway, all four of them want to see the end of the Sirens, extra-terrestrial beings with advanced technology, except the ‘bad guys’ are interested in using their own technology against them.
I’m concerned that this show will try to be two things at once. On one end, we have moeblob girls doing moeblob things, and on the other end, we have girls in military gear fighting on the seas. It doesn’t really help that none of the characters, either ‘good’ or ‘bad’, are characters we can really warm to. Even the ships that appear to be the most powerful, Enterprise, Akagi and Kaga, are so incredibly bland. And if they can be bland ones, just think what the secondary characters are like.
So far, I am highly unimpressed with this first episode of Azur Lane. It’s a game I had never played in the first place, true enough, meaning I know precious little of what goes on, and who the most interesting characters are meant to be. Will future episodes give us anything that worthwhile? I hope so. I don’t want to have to drop this for a reason so small as this.
We Never Learn s2 Episode 1
One might think that I’d be dropping a show like this one instead. I mean, why did I decide to come back to We Never Learn? Is this a case of me never learning?
As I was watching this new episode, one similar school rom com harem show came to mind that had a mixed reception. Not everyone was thrilled at the idea of studio SHAFT adapting the rom com harem Nichijou, but alas it got a 2-cour run, plus a second season that…sucked. Is this second season of We Never Learn going to suck too? Well, us past viewers of the show know all the characters already, and know that the studios responsible, Studio Silver and Arvo Animation, want to cram in as many sex jokes as humanly possible. We already know that Nariyuki Yuiga is not the horny guy that this show is trying to make him out to be, and we already know that Fumino, Rizu, Uruka, Asumi and Kirisu-sensei all think they are the one for him. Just your average harem show. So why did I come back?
Well, despite slinging mud at season one, I had to admit that, in the end, all of these characters are very likable people. I began by calling Rizu best girl, but that changed pretty quickly to Fumino. We see that, despite test after test, these girls are absolutely hopeless at the subjects/areas of study they want to follow. Fumino is interested in astronomy, so needs to swat up on science and maths. Rizu wants to study psychology and learn more about human nature, so needs to swat up on liberal arts. Uruka is the darling of the school’s swim team, but is terrible at English. Asumi is school alumni who has just decided to hang around, partly because she’s interested in Nariyuki too, but also to wind up the other girls. And Kirisu-sensei is someone who has also decided to hang around, largely for the ultra-tsundere effect.
This first episode of the new season brought everything that I had expected it to; a re-introduction of all the main characters (except Kirisu-sensei), and a re-introduction of how the girls are so desperate to get into bed with this rather asexual boy. I think we’ll get into more plot-point-worthy instances in future episodes, but I’m not complaining here.
I’m not sure if you could call it some ‘magic touch’ that this show has had on me. You see, I wouldn’t normally go for a show like this at all. Heck, when I began watching Nichijou, I only got caught on the SHAFT bug, like your average SHAFT fan would do. But this is Studio Silver/Arvo Animation’s first proper franchise. And yet they really have delivered. Hey, this may even warrant a re-watch of season one for me when this is all over?
Thinking back in Spring, when season one was airing…I didn’t hate it – I was just so overwhelmed by the masses of sex jokes, plus the fact that I hadn’t really touched a harem show in a while. Maybe I shouldn’t look too much into this. Maybe I should just enjoy this second season of We Never Learn like I was supposed to enjoy the first season.
Kandagawa Jet Girls Episode 1
My fourth show, Kandagawa Jet Girls, starts off on…something else.
The main plot of the show is precisely how I expected it to be: idiot girl from the country moves to the big city to become a professional jet skier just like her late mother was. The sport in the show is jet-ski racing down a city river, and teams of two race and shoot each other at the same time. This anime adaptation is the start of one big multimedia project, with a video game in the works, and likely more little things to come, like manga or light novels or mobile games.
I shouldn’t really be expecting too much from this show though. We have ecchi, we have yuri undertones, and we have teams racing each other to see who can be the most fanservicey. Our idiot girl is Rin, and our cool-headed girl is Misa, and the both of them remind me of Uzuki Simamura and Rin Shibuya from The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls. After this first episode, which…a lot of viewers are going to call Misa their favorite, unless they develop a liking to any of the other racers that we see little of this week. Rin, on the other hand, is just not that likable; at least they haven’t written Misa off to be standoffish, and instead made the interactions between the two of them as awkward.
This opening episode gave us our ecchi and our fanservice and our yuri undertones (a lot of it), and what it didn’t give us was a detailed plot. Kandagawa Jet Girls is going to be the kind of show where I pay next to no attention to the plot; this will be my show to totally switch off to…and that’s okay. I think seeing shot after shot of girls in odd poses and positions is going to make me just as awkward as Misa.
In the meantime, let’s move on to my classic/out-of-season pick; a show that I’ve also been really looking forward to immensely.
Girls’ Last Tour Episode 1
Girls’ Last Tour has been a show that has been on my ‘to watch’ list for a long time, and it’s alluded me each time; I usually end up making the excuse of ‘I-have-a-lot-of-other-shows-to-watch’ to avoid watching this, and now you guys have picked this for me, I can’t avoid this now. Not that that’s a bad thing, of course.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the plot…civilization has all but gone after an unknown apocalypse has consumed the planet, and two girls, Chito and Yuuri, trek the remains of the planet on a Kettenkrad motorbike, looking for food, supplies and any survivors. Chito loves reading, and Yuuri loves eating. Chito is the only one who can read, and who can drive the Kettenkrad, while Yuuri is the only one who can use the rifle they carry. The two of them are too young to remember any society that existed before whatever destroyed the world, so anything they find on their journey usually ends up coming as a surprise to them.
The show begins as the two of them travel through a dark and empty building. When they find a way out, they find a junked bomber plane carrying explosives and rations. But how did it get there? How did any of the buildings they find get so ruined? How has so much junk ended up on the surface? What is this ‘war’ thing that destroyed the planet? What is this ‘chocolate’ thing that the rations they find taste of? These are just some of the questions that Chito and Yuuri ask themselves, and it is this minimalism that, I believe, divided some opinions when this show first came out. People were expecting this journey the two girls were on to have some kind of meaning or purpose, and so when we see that all these two are trying to do is make sense of an unfamiliar world, I can understand why some of us viewers are left kinda lost too.
The manga it was originally based upon was just as moody and minimal as this adaptation is, but instead of going down any gothic or science-fiction route, the makers have chosen to be very loyal to what the manga was: an extremely neutral and unbiased take on what war and apocalypse can do to the human race. This world that Chito and Yuuri travel in is cold and desolate and empty, and they are both too young to know what the things you and I take for granted are. It is this je ne sais quoi that attracted me to Girls’ Last Tour to begin with, and it is this moody minimalism that will keep me enjoying this show in the future.
I think I’m really going to enjoy watching Girls’ Last Tour, just as I’m going to really enjoy watching Houkago Saikoro Club. As for Azur Lane and season 2 of We Never Learn? Watch this space when I get to watch more. And as for Kandagawa Jet Girls? Well it seems like we’ll be getting our spiritual successor to Keijo!!!!!!!! here, so as long as I don’t pay that much attention to the plot, I guess I’ll be fine with it. How has this Fall season begun for you though? Are you going to get stuck into the big franchises when they all begin, or are you going to dig into the lesser-known shows, like me? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below!