I was worried that I might have picked up a bug while I was on my trip to Scotland; I suppose being on a cramped plane can do that. But the Fall season must continue, and here I am talking about stupid, silly and cute shows…starting with the most guilty one of them all!
Kandagawa Jet Girls Episode 3
HIDIVE has now released an uncensored version of this show, for all of those who are genuinely interested in seeing these girls nude. Doesn’t bother me, really, and I’m not one for total ecchi-ness. But it does seem a little weird that I’m writing about this episode when episode 4 is already out just as this post is published, no?
Rin has her precious Jet Race club now, with 5 members (including the Student Council President, who seems to have some vendetta against Kaguya). I tell you, the dynamic between Rin and Misa is really starting to develop more now. We begin with an awkward moment where Misa admits that she never agreed to join the club, yet Rin put her name down anyway. Later on, on a trip to Asakusa (which is very obviously not a date), the two get separated, and we have a little moment where Misa talks to herself and sort of sees how Rin is cracking her cold shell. And it is this week where we meet another pair of Jet Racers: Jennifer Peach and Emily Orange, who are both gaijin and use a mixture of broken Engrish and Japanese, which is both hilarious and awkward.
As Jennifer and Emily kidnap Rin in Asakusa, we see a mad and jealous Misa for the first time. And potentially, the first proper race that Rin and Misa will have (the last one against Kaguya and Kuromaru didn’t really count, as we all knew they were going to win).
Kandagawa Jet Girls has become such a silly show, but I no longer care. It is these awkward moments of broken Japanese, and countless close-up breast shots, and much more, that makes me just not care about the plot or the character design or the script. I think I just needed a show to really switch off to this year, and Kandagawa Jet Girls is it. Azur Lane has just become Kancolle 2.0, and I didn’t really enjoy Kancolle to begin with…which begs the question: why did I pick Azur Lane in the first place? Well, I’ll try to answer that in a bit. I’ll move onto another silly show that I’m enjoying too…
…and in this week’s We Never Learn, we get treated to some god-awful Engrish as well.
We Never Learn S2 Episode 4
I suppose I should expect nothing less, really. None of us should when it comes to introducing English lines in anime, regardless of whether they come from main characters or just random tourists, which is what we got this week when Uruka tried to practice her English speaking skills, and did pretty well considering English is her worst subject.
Aside from that, this week sort of expanded from last week’s Rizu episode, where she tries to change her image for Nariyuki’s sake…or rather, what she thinks is for Nariyuki’s sake, when really, he doesn’t care, and he knows and gets along with Rizu because of who she is right now. She doesn’t need hair extensions, contact lenses and a frilly dress to make him think any different of her.
So…will this second season of We Never Learn just be full-to-the-brim with filler episodes like this? Considering this is a harem show, that would be pretty believable. I mean, this franchise doesn’t especially have any kind of narrative aside from Nariyuki teaching these girls so he can get his scholarship, and the girls get to choose the career paths they want, as opposed to the career paths they have always excelled at. Since the character design in this show is so great, I’m not really complaining.
Houkago Saikoro Club Episode 4
This week’s episode of Houkago Saikoro Club gets a tiny bit more serious when we see a back story of Midori, and how she was part of the Student Council when she was in middle school. When her former partner-in-crime, Rin, comes to her begging to help with the upcoming school festival, they decide on a face-off…with a card game. And this week’s game of choice is another German game: 6 Nimmt!
Rin looks like a very interesting secondary character, not like Shouta back in episode 2, whose only motivation was to confess to Aya. Rin comes across as a very serious person, who likes to get things done, and not bothering with getting along with others. She looks up to Midori because she was just like her in middle school, yet had more courage and was able to handle more pressure than her, despite being her junior. And so when Midori reveals that her dream is to become a game designer/author (kind of like the gaming genius Richard Garfield, who co-created Magic: The Gathering), it comes as a big shock, as she sees board/card games as out-of-date and uninteresting. This is understandable though, as video gaming has taken over the gaming industry almost completely, leaving games like Magic: The Gathering, Games Workshop and Catan in the background only with its devoted fans.
*for the record, I’m deliberately not highlighting the more popular and better known board games like Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly and Clue*
I’ll admit that, when I picked this show back in the summer, I had some reservations. Lidenfilms are known for making some really emotion-filled shows. I have praised the mature romance drama Love & Lies in the past, but last year saw them doing an adaptation of Hanebado!, which I found mentally draining. And as Houkago Saikoro Club has started off on a slow but light-hearted manner, it is still capable of going in any direction, and an episode like this proves that.
Azur Lane Episode 4
Okay, so I’ll try to answer this question of why I picked Azur Lane, when I knew right from the start that it was going to be Kancolle 2.0. And I can’t use the excuse of “I-didn’t-want-to-watch-any-of-the-big-franchise-shows”.
Back when Kancolle was airing, I didn’t warm to any of the ship girls in that. One reason was because there were so many of them, that it was tough to keep track of them all, and I’m getting that same feeling here in Azur Lane. I guess all the people who play the mobile game know these Azur Lane ship girls inside out; I could mention any one of them, and they might well tell me everything they know about them, from what faction they belong in, to what their favorite food is. I should make the point once again that I have never played the Azur Lane mobile game, and have no intention to. I tried Fate/Grand Order a while back, but gacha games just don’t appeal to me anymore.
For what it’s worth, I sort of sided with the Sakura Empire/Iron Blood, as not only do they look kind of cooler, but also, none of the characters in Eagle Union/Royal Navy are even that appealing to me. I’m sure I’m going to get a bit of stick by saying this, when in fact, the Eagle Union/Royal Navy are portrayed as the good guys in this show, plus the Sakura Empire and Iron Blood are sort of representations of the Axis Powers from the Second World War.
Girls’ Last Tour Episode 4
A lot of the focus on episode 4 of Girls’ Last Tour was on the camera that Kanazawa gave them in the previous episode; both Chito and Yuuri get the opportunity to use it here. I imagine it’s a camera with film in it, instead of a digital one, so how they’re going to find a dark room to develop these photos is another thing entirely (do they even know what a dark room is?).
While the previous episode had a level of narrative in it, we’re back to the ‘filler’ episodes this week: the episodes that this show got a lot of criticism over, in that they made the show seem too…boring. I think that it is the setting itself that sets this show apart, since if we would imagine Chito and Yuuri going around your average modern-day Japanese neighborhood exploring buildings, taking pictures and complaining about food, it might be seen as one of the dullest slice-of-life shows around. But because this is meant to be the apocalypse, and because these two haven’t been brought up to know all the things you & I take for granted, it makes Girls’ Last Tour that more interesting…I think.
I think I’ve reached a point where I’m really struggling to find things to enjoy in Azur Lane. If you guys can help me with that, that would be very much appreciated. In the meantime, how has the Fall anime season been treating you? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below!