This week a lot of real-life things have happened to me, so I’ve had to squeeze what time I have to watch the shows. We’re starting with something pretty major first, as it’s time for a Minghua appreciation post.
Would one call this week’s episode of Girly Air Force her episode? Well, she has the most screen time in this week’s show than the last few episodes combined. I know we’re meant to feel something for the ‘childhood-friend-with-a-mild-crush’ character in shows (Sayaka in Madoka Magica, Tomoyo in Cardcaptor Sakura, Yayaka in Flip Flappers, etc.), but never have I felt so sorry for the ‘childhood-friend-with-a-mild-crush’ character quite like I have with Minghua. The poor girl needs her own show to redeem herself now.
She’s a Chinese citizen living in a different country, due to the Xi either killing off her family (or made them go missing) and making her become a refugee, living in a stranger’s house mostly alone, because the only other person she has known all her life keeps disappearing off to various air bases across Japan, thereby giving her heaps of fear, anxiety, paranoia and uncertainty for the future. She doesn’t have a job, she doesn’t go to school, she is effectively left to fend for herself in this stranger’s house while Kei disappears off doing goodness-knows-what.
And now this Viper Zero character who happens to look like Minghua (for Kei anyway – insert a long and boring scientific explanation for it here) arrives to make things even better, and let Kei interact with an artificial version of Minghua better than the real one. Will we see more Minghua screentime in the future? That’s possible. Will Kei end up ditching her at the movie theater though? Absolutely!
On to this week’s episode of Domestic Girlfriend now, and even though I love to call this a ‘guilty pleasure’ show, there come times when I wonder if Diomedea (the animation studio) should have taken their time and made this a better adaptation. I mean, the manga readers absolutely hate this show with a passion. They’re angry with how much of the manga has been cut out or rewritten to make this show appear to look better. As an anime-only person here, I can’t really compare the manga to this adaptation very well, but this isn’t the first Diomedea manga adaptation that has ended up receiving a very mixed response. Their Winter 2017 show, Fuuka, had character designs that weren’t very well written, a plot that wasn’t very fluid, and an ending that was completely different to the manga.
Here in Domestic Girlfriend, though, it’s as if we have so many things happening in this one episode, you can’t help but think if everything that happened this week (summer break, the underwear thief, meeting half-American transfer student Alex, Rui initiating a kiss in front of Hina, Hina deciding to move out, the summer festival, and then Natsuo going in for the hug at the end) was all meant for one manga volume.
This is going to be a single cour show, by the way, so we won’t see any more action when March is over…unless they decide to make a second season. Now we’ve passed episode 8 of 12, and we still haven’t really been given any thing solid on how Hina really feels here (even after what happens at the end this week!), meanwhile we can see Rui willing and ready to go in for the kill.
Last week’s The Magnificent Kotobuki saw us getting a filler episode…or rather character episode for Kate, since we hadn’t really been introduced to these 6 girls who are meant to be our main protagonists in this weird and quirky little show, and so were we expecting to see another character episode here (since we have a couple more girls we know next to nothing about)? Sorry, but no…
…instead we’re given an action-filled episode that involves almost everyone in the show. The Hagoromo (the airship) is still doing business with the town of Ikesuka and its outspoken major Isao, who has frustrated just about everyone now. To boost his PR, Isao has bought an expensive fish with the intention of passing it on to the town’s museum, and has convinced Madame to escort it to Ikesuka, only for the Hagoromo to be hijacked by armed air pirates who want Isao to resign and for the Kotobuki Corps to disappear – seems that these Kotobuki Corps are making quite the name for themselves after all.
I sometimes forget that The Magnificent Kotobuki is in fact an original story, by the director of Girls Und Panzer (along with Squid Girl, xxxHOLIC and the notoriously dire Mayoiga), and so I’ll admit it here and now: as each week has progressed, I have become more and more absorbed in this show. I already have a favorite Kotobuki pilot (that would be Reona), I love the world-building here (a sort-of post-apocalyptic world where water is a rare resource, but the survivors have been able to adapt well, instead of scavenging and struggling to stay alive), and I genuinely am enjoying this blend of action, adventure, social science fiction, historical fact, and comedy.
Why this show hasn’t developed more of a presence this season, I have no idea…
I did some research into this next episode of Kemono Friends (episode 8) after finishing it, and I found out that the Friends in this episode were ones that people were waiting a while for.
In episode 7 at the library, Northern White-Faced Owl and Eurasian Eagle Owl gave Kaban and Serval tickets to a show at the Waterfront area, where Japari Park’s ‘idol group’, PPP, were situated. At the Waterfront area, the current generation of PPP members were getting ready for their first show. While this episode doesn’t have much in the way of substantial story, it is still all rather sweet to watch, as we watch Margay the PPP fan girl become their ‘manager’, and Princess the Royal Penguin overcome her stage fright.
I keep expecting Kemono Friends‘ story to get darker as each episode goes past, but I end up watching more and more Friends get along, be happy, and help Kaban on her quest to find out what happened to the humans in Japari Park. We are given subtle little hints every now and then, like who owned the park originally, and what the Cerulean’s purpose in the park actually is. Aside from that, though, a lot is still left in the shadows. There aren’t that many episode left now, so as someone who went into this show blind, and now someone who is not really expecting a dark story to come anymore, I’m extremely curious to what will happen in the remaining 3 episodes, and how Kaban will succeed.
I’m already thinking of the next season (unsurprisingly), and I already mentioned which out-of-season shows I’m doing for the Spring: Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, and this season’s Kaguya-sama: Love is War. I’ve been hyped to watch Carole & Tuesday next season as well, but now I’ve learned two things about this new show by Shinichiro Watanabe: not only is it to be a 2-cour show, but there’s a chance that Netflix may not simulcast it in the West after all. That would be a great shame; they managed to simulcast last year’s Violet Evergarden, and missed out on a fantastic opportunity to simulcast Dragon Pilot: Hisone & Masotan. Netflix obviously have the moolah to create a Carole & Tuesday simuldub (they did for Violet Evergarden after all), so this would be a win-win for everyone, especially considering how much hype is for this show.
Okay, so it’ll be competing with new episodes of Attack on Titan, One Punch Man, Bungou Stray Dogs, Kunihiko Ikuhara’s new show Sarazanmai, the Fruits Basket reboot show, as well as every other new show this season, so here’s hoping Netflix have some sense and listen to the anime community by giving them what they want.
Note that I will only be reviewing Carole & Tuesday for this column if Netflix launch it in April in the West, like they originally said they would. If they end up doing what they did to Violet Evergarden (launch a simuldub worldwide except for the United States and Australia), then I will still be reviewing it – that’s how much I’ve been looking forward to this show.
As we think about when/if Carole & Tuesday will arrive in the West, let us think about the rest of the Spring season. If you’re avoiding the huge franchises (like I am), what are you looking forward to in the upcoming Spring season? Has anything stood out for you yet? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below…
…and don’t forget about poor Minghua. Here’s hoping she gets her own show in the future. Let her become a magical girl so she can do a far better job than the other Anima in that show.