Studios have already put out their promo material for their summer shows. But what would I pick for the summer? Well in any other circumstance, I’d have picked what to watch weeks ago. Now, I honestly don’t know. Will I even stick with my routine of seasonal anime watching given I’ve done it for so long, or will I finally get off my butt and catch-up on the millions of shows I say I’ll watch but never do? Maybe ask me again in a month’s time and I’ll have an answer. In the meantime, while studios are busy hyping up new shows, how are they planning to wrap up their current ones?
Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You Season 2 Episode 10
There’s been something I’ve been very hesitant to say about this second season of Tonikawa as a whole. This little camping trip is clearly something that will mark the end of the season, but I’m talking about what I already thought about this season when it began back in April. Sure it was awesome to see all of these dorks again, but has this franchise become a victim of second-season syndrome? The gap between seasons is something like 3 years, but in-show it’s like there was never any gap to begin with. I remember feeling this way when I covered season 2 of The Demon Girl Next Door last year; because there had been such a long gap, I felt a little disconnected from the characters I had initially enjoyed watching so much. Both of those are comedy shows that don’t really have one long narrative guiding them, focus in them is far more on the character designs themselves. And so I have spent the better part of 3 weeks trying to figure out what makes season 2 of Tonikawa stand out from season 1.
Well given that we know that much more about Tsukasa, these final episodes at this campground might give us some kind of cliffhanger: something that might feel a little out-of-place given how relaxed this show has been. The very first episode had Nasa and Tsukasa meet for the first time, and that’s something that we get flashbacks of this week. This is really the first time that Nasa has thought about that time. Why did she say she would go out with him on the condition they get married? And why did he instantly agree despite bleeding to death? These are questions that are resolved this week somewhat, but to tell Nasa that Tsukasa is actually this immortal Princess Kaguya-type character just feels a little weird and out-of-place. Or would it be something that he would just laugh off, and then call her cute for the umpteenth time? Hard to call, but I am still interested in how it would play out…if it plays out, that is.
Skip and Loafer Episode 10
Despite the two of them not having as much contact as past episodes, this week’s outing of Skip and Loafer told us considerably more about who Mitsumi and Shima are. It shows us that they are polar opposites because she is busy and attentive while he is laidback and chilled…as well as country girl versus city boy. But the planning of the school festival reveals that there is much more than that that makes them polar opposites.
Mitsumi’s naivety really comes out this week, as she rolls up her sleeves and does her part in the student council, along with helping her class put together a musical that sounds very similar to The Sound of Music. She has seen this occasion to look helpful and needed and took it, but ends up melting down when someone criticizes her tardiness in tasks. And as Shima monologues on whether he thinks she is cut out to be in the high pressure world of Tokyo and politics, we begin to understand a little more on what he initially thought of her when they first met.
As time as passed, I began to see that Shima had more of a condescending view on Mitsumi the country girl out of her element, and that he had some kind of obligation to protect her feelings and such. He doesn’t want her to make the same mistakes he did…or rather, he believes he did. It’s long been established that he only really kept up the child acting gig because it made his mother happy. He is initially very reluctant to take on the male lead in the school play, and ends up being pressured by the class to do it, as he is the nice guy who doesn’t want to act like a jerk to the people who look up to him. We barely see much of Chris, one of Shima’s oldest friends, but when they hang out after school, Chris makes an excellent point in that Shima seems to be more concerned with ‘breaking character’ than thinking about his own feelings, and there will come a time when they’ll turn on him for not being honest with them.
He could have turned down the role and made up some excuse, which is what he really wanted to do, but didn’t because he was too concerned with playing the laidback nice guy to the class, and to Mitsumi. Sure enough he doesn’t want her to do anything naïve and stupid (like he believes he did), but Mitsumi isn’t some lost soul for him to save, and it finally dawns on him this week. She cries and mopes and gets depressed, but is able to pick herself up and get back to work – something that Shima hasn’t done. He has run away from the emotional trauma and damage from his child actor days, so now seeing that someone close to him can pick themselves back up, surely he can too.
This was the kind of episode I was looking for to find some background material on Shima; something the show had been really lacking. This school play may be the thing we needed to see when it comes to what kind of character he really is behind that façade of chilled-out nice guy. And especially now that his mother has found out he is taking part…
Oshi no Ko Episode 8
Last week had a ‘special episode’ which was essentially a recap, but also had the staff go on a lot at how great their show was. Sure it is a great show, but it still felt a little cringe to watch. Anyway back to now, and Akane is back on set, but all Aqua can see now is Ai. Kind of remarkable how Aqua has spent the better part of a decade trying to figure out as much as he can about his oshi/mother, but Akane is able to do a better job and imitate her after a short amount of online research and some practice. This is the first time where Aqua actually begins to question what he is doing, and I won’t lie when I say it is so satisfying to watch him squirm for once. Akane even asks him if he’s seen a ghost, which was especially funny.
The dating reality show is wrapping up now, and it’s the point where couples begin to form. And to the fans’ surprise, their favorite pairings never actually happened; the only one that was successful was Aqua and Akane. But the two of them have some kind of agreement that the relationship is only work-related, and that a ‘breakup’ will be arranged at a future date. I like what Kana said about the show this week though, and is pretty spot on with how I personally feel about them. Watching other people’s love lives on national TV is incredibly invasive and in poor taste, even if it is all meant to be some kind of act. The biggest dating reality TV show we have here in the UK is Love Island, which now has its own versions around the world. It has its own share of controversy as past contestants have had to battle severe mental health issues after seasons end. And yet even despite all that, the show format continues, and people still tune in to watch couples form and break up and get mad at each other. It’s actually the perfect thing to talk about in a story like Oshi no Ko that is written as a criticism of the entertainment industry.
We should stop and remember that while a cynical doctor lives inside Aqua’s body, there is an adolescent boy in there as well. Seeing the ghost of Ai inside Akane has shaken him a little, but he remains committed to finding out what the producer knows about his murdered mother. He even says that he is only agreeing to this work relationship with Akane as it is part of his grand scheme…somehow. At the after-party, the director tells the cast that they shouldn’t get too caught up and trapped in showbiz nastiness, and to live their own lives. And so Aqua suggesting that co-star and Youtuber MEM-cho join Strawberry Productions has left me scratching my head.
Why would Aqua suggest something like that? He pulled off an act to get Kana to join, but why MEM-cho? She already has a large following and a popular Youtube channel, so why take advantage of her old dream to be an idol? What would he get out of that? After everything we’ve seen him say and do in these last episodes, I really don’t picture him suddenly having a heart. Especially when he’s able to shoot down poor Kana in the way he does. She gives off a prickly attitude, but she is completely smitten with him, and it’s too obvious now. But the fact that he has been able to be more open with her than anyone else (even his own sister) is something. Well the new B-Komachi is pretty much complete now, with Ruby, Kana and now MEM-cho. What kind of impact will this new unit have, I wonder.
Lycoris Recoil Episode 10
After the far more subdued episode 9, episode 10 is more like the beginning of the climax.
The previous episode showed us that Chisato was just fine with having little time to live, so having her artificial heart damaged beyond repair is something she has simply accepted. Now that Takina has her place back at DA (for the large-scale operation to take out Majima), there is little point in keeping the cafe open. Mizuki and Kurumi go off on their separate ways; Mizuki to Canada to find a guy she met online, and Kurumi to Germany as she is still a wanted person in Japan. But it is in a heart-to-heart that Chisato and Mika have where he finally confesses the truth: that he originally only agreed to take care of her so he could profit as a commander.
Meanwhile, Takina has her place back at DA, something she has wanted since arriving at the cafe, but it’s a hollow victory for her. She has her orders to kill Majima on sight, but she doesn’t care about that. She knows Yoshimatsu was responsible for damaging Chisato’s heart, so he is more her priority than Majima is. But it all comes a little too late. While the Lycoris agents are scrambling across Tokyo to find him, the opening ceremony for the new tower is taking place. And while everyone (us viewers included) thought that Majima’s grand scheme was to destroy the tower, it turns out to be far more twisted, as he reveals while crashing the ceremony party.
Something the very first episode was keen to say was that the Japan in this show was somewhere where crime and terrorism was very carefully hidden from the public, by DA and the Lycoris agents. And while everyone thought that the weapons deal was for some plan to destroy the tower, Majima had other plans – to leave those guns laying around randomly for naïve citizens to just pick up. He will just sit back and let the public do what they want with these free guns and watch chaos unfold. Oh, and he has held Yoshimatsu hostage too…
A lot of truths come out in this single episode, which makes it more impactful. We’ve had plenty of episodes where Chisato and Takina are together as one, but they each have their own separate missions now. So while Takina and the other Lycoris agents have to find Majima and protect the public, Chisato has to go find Yoshimatsu. She wants to hear the truth from him. Was she really created to be a killing machine for the Alan Institute, like Mika says?
These shows I’ve picked out have all turned out to be good ones, even my out-of-season one. I like how Lycoris Recoil isn’t trying to glorify political violence as much as I thought it would, and has made solid character designs we grew to adore. And as my seasonal shows begin to wrap up, I want to know how they end so so badly now. Not because I’m in a hurry for them to end though; it’s because I’ve gotten that invested in all of the shows. And that’s something that hasn’t really happened here on Otaku Theater for a long time. Ironic then that it happens in my final one then…