I began this season feeling under-the-weather, and while after one week I don’t really feel a whole lot better, I’m happy nonetheless that I haven’t had to drop my picked shows so quickly. It was probably the fact that I picked less shows to begin with that has made me feel this way. Depending on how I still feel after a couple more weeks, though, my trip to Minamicon might have to be cancelled. I still haven’t arranged my hotel or my train journey either…and I really should, considering it’s 8 weeks away.
Kandagawa Jet Girls Episode 12
So, while I’ve loved the heck out of this ridiculous ecchi water sports show, I am sort of relieved to see it end finally. Here is the rather dullish final episode where our two heroines race to victory, because what kind of ridiculous ecchi water sports show would this be if our favorite girls didn’t win?
I do call this a dullish finale to this otherwise rather remarkable little show, though, as I was hoping for a lot more. Perhaps I was expecting something around Rin and Misa, or something that would bring Misa and Risa back together, but we got none of those. Instead, it was just a…”oh-thats-how-it-ended”.
But what is this tease halfway through the episode?
Those of us who loved this show to pieces can only hope that these dorks actually kissed. Even more of us are probably wanting Kandagawa Jet Girls to come back in a second season. Well, if you’re that eager for more, then there is the PS4 game that’s coming out – the very same video game that this show was to revolve around to begin with.
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Episode 2
I think that, in the future, I’ll be very careful when I talk about Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, as it has already won over a lot of people. Episode 1 showed us what the folk at Science SARU were capable of. However, I think that the studio just decided to only go all out in this episode, and leave the rest of the show to its own fate. Perhaps that’s not wholly the right way to put it, because this is not a terrible show in any way. Here in the second episode, we get a whole lot more character interaction, and a more concrete-looking plot that can show us what the end goal will end up being.
We can definitely see this show being a homage of sorts to traditional analog animation, and we can also see in this show that the studio really really love anime. I apologize in advance if I have angered some hardcore Science SARU stans already. Like I said, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is not a bad show at all…on the contrary, in fact. I just think that the hype that surrounds it could be what leads this show on a bit of a treacherous path. Not everything made by Science SARU is a masterpiece, just as not everything by, say, SHAFT or Kyoto Animation or Trigger is perfect. There is a real je ne sais quoi that I’m sensing from this show. It’s strange, because I’m enjoying it I’m laughing at the jokes and I’m enjoying the artwork, but for this to be the perfect show that some other critics and journalists are already calling it, there needs to be more. I’m pretty sure that we’ll see it come along in future episodes. As I already said, we can see here that the folks at this studio really feel passionate about anime, and so to see it all go to waste is just something I do not see happening.
Asteroid in Love Episode 2
I’ve talked enough about Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, and so now it’s time for my input on Asteroid in Love. And maybe when you’ve heard what I have to say about this, you might call me a bit of a hypocrite. I know that not every show made by Dogakobo is a good one either; in fact, I can name a couple of pretty mediocre ones right now (their Dumbbell anime from last year being a good example), but Asteroid in Love has surprised me already, and has become better than I ever thought it to be.
This week sees more character interaction too, with the Earth Sciences Club out doing their first activities. Their day-long event is a BBQ by the water, so the Geology side of the club can look at the rocks by the water, and the Astronomy side of the club can look at the stars and planets at night with their ‘telescope-that-is-totally-not-an-advertisement-for-a-real-product’.
It is this character interaction that has made me enjoy this anime so much; I like all of these characters, and want to know more about all of them. I want to see Mira and Ao interact closely, I want to see Suzuya become the yuri protector of the show, I want to know more about Mira’s older sister, I want to know more about Sakurai and Inose and see what kind of relationship the two of them have and I want to see what kind of newsletter this ‘Sparkle’ thing will end up becoming. There’s still so much more in the show that I find fascinating and want to know more about. Last season saw me watching Houkago Saikoro Club, which was about a group of Kyoto girls getting into ‘analog’ gaming, something that I take an interest in. While neither astronomy or geology are things that I don’t take a total interest in like with board and card games, I’m not going to find any of it boring.
I know that I’m going to enjoy future episodes of this, just as I’m going to enjoy future episodes of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! The only thing is: I’ll enjoy both shows for two different reasons. Now, onto my third seasonal show, which begins this week.
In/Spectre Episode 1
I see a lot of potential in In/Spectre, but it has started off rather slowly. The character design in this also needs some work, as I feel both Kotoko and Kuro need to be characters we can like and want to cheer for before anything else. This opening episode introduces the 17-year-old Kotoko who was kidnapped by spirits as a child, and the 22-year-old Kuro, who’s a bit of a nobody that Kotoko ended up crushing on when she met him whilst living in hospital.
She introduces herself as a ‘Goddess of Wisdom’ in a Monogatari-kind of speech, and tells him that she has an unrequited love for him. Why she’d want someone like him is a great question, as this opening episode doesn’t exactly give us a great impression of this guy…or too much of a great impression on her end either. Kuro has a secret of his own that Kotoko finds shocking, but that’s something I won’t spoil in this post.
This hasn’t exactly been the greatest opening for an occult-themed action mystery show like this. Ideally, main characters would be talked about in great detail, with a good and equal amount of animation and story line blended together to give us something we can look forward to each week for approximately 12 weeks. We don’t really get all of that in this opening episode.
I said at the start of this post that this was the first season in a while that didn’t bring me to the brink of dropping shows left, right and center. True enough, I’m getting a lot of good vibes from Asteroid in Love, and I have good hopes for Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! and In/Spectre. So yes, this is actually an anime season that I am genuinely enjoying from its core. Shows I chose not to watch (like Magia Record, Somali and the Forest Spirit, Haikyuu!!, and so on) would have likely been the kind of shows that would tilt me…especially Magia Record. I guess it also helps that I’m loving the heck out of the out-of-season show that you guys picked for me as well.
Flying Witch Episode 2
The first episode of Flying Witch is a good introductory one, that showcases all of the main characters in a good manner, and uses sound well to set a good mood. Here in episode 2, we meet the Harbinger of Spring as he turns up unannounced at the door. In Flying Witch, Chinatsu really is portrayed as a child, and not as ‘one of the grownups’; this is a very refreshing change to how some other young children are portrayed in slice-of-life shows. She grows very curious about Makoto’s lifestyle and the type of things she gets up to. She watches her favorite shows on television. She likes eating caramel puddings, and hates bitter vegetables…like the bulbs that Kei and Makoto pick from the road in this episode, to make tempura (more on those here). The show is not about Chinatsu, and she doesn’t quite steal the show either, but she is very firmly in the spotlight.
Okay, so these shows that I’ve picked have done enough to keep me interested, but will they do enough to get me not to drop any of them in, say, 3-4 weeks time? Of course I hope they will do, but I guess all I can do is wait. In the meantime, has this Winter season done wonders for you? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below!