This has been a season I’ve been looking forward to immensely. Real life issues meant I had to stop Spring coverage part-way through. Now I can go back to covering seasonal shows like I used to do, talking about other shows that interest me, and complaining about the big franchises, like I always seem to do.
Sadly there is some bad news this season. It’s something I didn’t want (a lot of us didn’t want, I’m sure), but an anime studio decided to do it anyway. Our favorite incestuous younger sister is back…
…and no, I will not be watching Miyuki Shiba lusting over her onii-sama in the new Mahouka spin-off show. I like to keep my sanity just fine.
How about we start on the shows that I did want to watch this season, then?
Remake Our Life! Episode 1 & 2
Remake Our Life! was, to be honest, a last minute decision for me. Some anime like Dragon Maid season 2 I had set in stone, and The Aquatope on White Sand was a show that interested me greatly, but I wasn’t 100% sure on what else to cover. This show came up and didn’t appear to have things I completely dislike in it, but I admit that I was initially wary when I discovered that it was to be, essentially, a harem show. The debut episode was an hour long, but what did I think of it?
Kyouya Hashiba’s life sucks. He’s approaching his 30s, and as a game developer, the company he works for is set to go bankrupt, meaning he’ll lose his job, and his dreams of making the games he wants. But overnight, he somehow travels back 10 years in time. The opening hour-long episode goes straight into this poor luck of his, and sets up for the rest of the show; where he has his second shot at life. It’s good to see that Kyouya isn’t portrayed as some random loser here. He has the work ethic and enjoys putting in effort into something he loves; he has just been incredibly unlucky here. This second chance for gives him all sorts of opportunities to put things right – not just as a game developer, but when it comes to personal relationships. Instead of attending university, he’s able to go to the art college he has originally wanted. And it’s there he meets all these people…this harem.
The three girls in this show all have their own stories when it comes to game developing. We meet Eiko first; she is Kyouya’s boss at the company he worked for. Focus isn’t so much on her though, as we meet the residents of the shared dorm he lives in – Aki, Nanako and Tsurayuki. While the opening episode was more of an intro, episode 2 gives the group their first project: creating a short film with time as the theme. I really enjoyed how all sorts of ideas were bounced around, from filming at a train station, to using a standard camera (instead of a video camera). It all reminds me of the short time I spent at art school. I had to leave there for financial reasons, but I still look back at that time and smile. If the rest of the show is like these 2 episodes, then I’m all onboard for this.
I look around on Reddit and see people already comparing the show to The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, a show I didn’t enjoy at all. They share the same theme of guy attending classes for art and game design while living in shared dorms. Remake Our Life! has already been received well on Reddit, and for good reason too. The main protagonist is a likeable and very relatable guy, the harem is strong and has some girls that we can cheer on (after only the first couple of episodes), and we actually want their projects to do well. I’m not sure whether it will be a show that’ll be remembered in 5 years’ time though, but we’ll have to see.
But I saw the plot of the show and asked myself a very odd question: does Remake Our Life! count as isekai? Kyouya escapes his hopeless life and arrives in a new life, where he can turn things around and become a better person. I suppose it does, doesn’t it? Past big-name isekai shows all have the same traits, while the few I do enjoy are a little more quirky. This is going well so far, but I won’t be looking at it through isekai eyes. This is firmly a coming-of-age/comedy/harem show with some sci-fi elements, and that’s just fine with me. Saying that though, this might be something I’ll have to watch again to absorb it all. Unlike The Pet Girl of Sakurasou, Remake Our Life! is a single cour show, and as I’m liking the story so much, I really want to get invested in this, even if it means repeated watches.
The Aquatope on White Sand Episode 1
Just as I started drafting up this post, I discovered this on Twitter:
So, I guess I’ll be watching The Aquatope on White Sand right through until December then. Having seen this opening episode, however, I can completely understand why the writers want to expand the story to 24 episodes. This show did get a bit of hype; I myself was pretty stoked to watch this myself. I loved watching A Lull In The Sea in the Winter and Spring, and even though I can be wary when it comes to P.A Works’ shows, this really did look interesting. But is it? Did its opening episode hook me in?
It begins with the first main character, Fuuka, and this first episode focuses largely on her. She is a retiring idol who gets disappointed when she didn’t make the cut for a top role. Staff in her idol agency talk behind her back saying that the younger members of the group shine much better than she does because she appears too plain. She makes plans to leave Tokyo and return to her hometown, but decides to head over to Okinawa instead. This spur-of-the-moment decision isn’t explained that well here, but if I had to guess one thing? Fuuka is still heartbroken from losing the one chance she had from having her dream job, and decides on Okinawa for somewhere to clear her head, so she think of what to do next in life.
I really like how Okinawa is presented in this show so far. We are not given the hustle and bustle of the big city Naha, but instead the Okinawan countryside. This ‘escape’ to the country reminds me of older P.A Works like Hanasaku Iroha and Sakura Quest – the first being a spoiled brat being sent to work at her grandmother’s hotel, and the second being a city girl finding a job in a country town as a part of the struggling local tourist board. Here in The Aquatope on White Sand, Fuuka feels like she needs a mental reset, and the isolation of Okinawa seems perfect for her. And it is here where she meets our second main character: Kukuru.
She works at the local family aquarium, and is fascinated by all sorts of marine life; so much that it interferes with her school work. She has a dream set in stone, to run the aquarium by herself, and it’s a dream that she’s already working hard to get. We’ll be seeing much more of her next week, I’m sure, since this was mostly a Fuuka episode. In all this, one theme stands out here that will probably be central to the show as a whole: losing dreams and chasing them.
Fuuka has lost her dream of being an idol, and has pretty much given up entirely. Meanwhile, Kukuru is chasing her dream to run the aquarium, and is hoping to be much more when she becomes an adult. It will be these two polar opposites that will bring these two girls together, and will make an interesting watch. This was a very strong debut episode, that lets us see the world the show is set in, an opening look at our 2 main characters, and the mystery of what this aquarium has. A lot more will come up later on, that’s for certain. I mean, Fuuka’s family are already wondering why she left for Okinawa in the first place, and will likely send someone to drag her home.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S Episode 1
We’ve all been waiting for this new season for so long, and here it is at last. We understood, though, that the staff at Kyoto Animation needed time to heal and to get back to work again after the terrible arson attack. I’m sure they know that doing what they love to do best is something that will keep them motivated, and will let the names and legacies of lost ones live on. This season is directed by Kyoani regular Tatsuya Ishihara, with season 1’s director Yasuhiro Takemoto, who sadly lost his life in the attack, being credited posthumously.
Season 1 went on a semi-linear story of Tohru arriving and become Kobayashi’s dragon maid, but put far more focus on short skits, and nothing changes here in season 2. The opening episode begins with Tohru discovering a maid café, and since she has a lot of free time while Kobayashi is at work and Kanna is at school, she decides to work there…only to end up using her dragon magic to be the café’s head chef. It’s not long though when the show’s latest character arrives: Ilulu.
She comes from the Chaos faction, just as Tohru and Kanna do, except she is far more radical in her beliefs, and is far less trusting in other species. She comes into the human world with the intent to hunt down Tohru, and really gives her a hell of a fight. This week doesn’t let Ilulu jump straight into the family like what happened with Kanna, but instead lets Ilulu ponder on why a immortal dragon like Tohru would choose to live among mortals. She has never understood humans, and someone like Kobayashi makes her very curious.
I should also point out that Elma from the Harmony faction tried to hunt down Tohru last season, and look how that turned out…
Even though this was a strong first episode, I can’t help but shake the fear that this show might suffer from the sequel season curse. Hasn’t always been the case when it comes to Kyoani sequels; K-On! season 2 turned out to be even better than the first one, but Chuunibyou‘s second season was weaker, with the new character Satone Shichimiya. Ilulu is a character that looks like she’ll fit in perfectly in Kobayashi’s dragon household, unlike Satone who was just around every now and then. This week’s episode gave us a bit of an open ending, and a bizarre one too; watch it and see for yourself. But regardless, I’m very interested in how Ilulu ends up joining the household; what will she do, what kind of role will she have, and will she and Tohru still be at each others’ throats throughout the show?
Girlish Number Episode 1
I decided on the out-of-season show this time, and Girlish Number is one of my favorite underrated shows, and so I thought I’d give it another look-through. If you’re not familiar with the story, Chitose Karasuma is a voice actor new to the business; a spoiled brat who is desperate for attention and demands constant praise. Being new to the game and being not that talented doesn’t really help her that much. Her big break comes when she’s cast to play the main heroine in a light novel adaptation: Millennium Princess x Kowloon Overlord. Given her lack of talent, will she make it?
Chitose’s colleagues, Momoka Sono and Kazuka Shibasaki usually end up on the center stage and getting the main roles, and we get to see them for the first time here in episode 1. Momoka gives off the air of a rich daddy’s girl, while Kazuha is sick of all the roles she plays, and wants to be a real actress. Episode 1 acts more of an introduction to the main characters than anything else, while we get to see the production of Millennium Princess x Kowloon Overlord in all its gritty detail later on. Girlish Number is different to a show like Shirobako though; while both shows give us a look at anime production and what can go wrong, Girlish Number presents it all with cynicism and black humor.
We as the viewer can already tell that this show they are making will be a complete disaster, but the show’s producer Kuzu and production manager Namba both shrug it off, as they are both too relaxed and chilled out about it all, and not bothering to consider how much anxiety and stress actually making an anime is, to everyone. I’m really looking forward to re-watching this show. While it holds off on strong language & mature themes, it’s a very cutting take on real-life anime production, and we get to see it warts and all. As I mentioned, episode 1 is more of an intro one; the show really starts in episode 2, when things start to go wrong very early on.
Three very strong debut episodes. This never happens to me, especially not in the summer season. Looking good so far, but What’s the season been like for you? How does Okinawa look to you? Would you consider Remake Our Life! as an isekai show? Will you be watching Dragon Maid too, like pretty much everyone? Or will you sticking to your tried and true mainstays? Or are you going to risk your sanity by watching the new Mahouka show? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below!