Season in Review - Summer 2018
Once again folks, we’re here, the end of a season of anime, which means my always-fun-to-write Season in Review has to be dropped. With the Fall season of anime having already started, this one’s a bit later than usual, but it’s no biggie. Also, I gotta apologise in advance for this one. Pretty much everything other than Cells at Work and Revue Starlight, I watched at the very end of the season when they had finished airing, and the need to marathon all that led to me getting lazy and probably dropping way more things than I otherwise would have. I think for this reason that this Season in Review is probably my weakest one yet, and I really can’t be bothered improving it. I just want to be done with this season – Fall looks way more fun anyway. With that downer out of the way, letsago.
At the start of the season I said I’d watch this and even before the season started this was one of the few shows I knew I did want to watch but ultimately I didn’t because I’m lazy and also because tbh I really don’t care for yanderes at all.
I also said I’d watch this but once again I’m lazy and also I don’t really care for the horror genre most of the time especially when it’s horror as traditional as this looks plus it’s an anime of a video game and usually those aren’t great anyway since the story was crafted with being a video game in mind so converting it to anime loses certain strengths and hey its score on MAL isn’t very high so perhaps I was right not to watch it.
Back Street Girls: Gokudolls
Everyone saw this synopsis around the start of this season and we were all morbidly curious – an anime in which three Yakuza fuck up and so have to get a sex change and become idols as punishment. It’s a comedy, and, after actually managing to watch a surprising 2 episodes, I can conclude that it’s not very funny. At all. It’s not as outright offensive or shitty as I thought it’d be, but definitely not good enough to warrant actually watching all of it. There are enough Yakuza comedy anime out there. Watch those instead.
I made it through the first episode before deciding to drop this.
It looks cheap as hell, with a boring art style, and visuals that are generally ugly. It sounds cheap, with much of the soundtrack sounding identical and lacking in varied instrumentation, and subpar sound design matched with meh to okay voice acting. Despite being a comedy it takes nearly 10 minutes for the first actually funny thing to happen and it’s only a DBZ reference. The rest of the episode was completely devoid of humour.
I’ll concede that, in spite of the comedy not necessarily being funny, I like what they were going for. Most of the comedy is Chio in a fairly normal situation, said situation reminding her of a videogame she likes or something, and then the situation becoming absurd as she imagines herself escaping the normal situation as though it were the videogame. It’s a cool idea and I wish it was executed stronger so to actually be entertaining.
Maybe this show gets better after episode 1 but with how much of a slog that first episode was, there’s no way I wanted to continue.
In which studio C2C (who the fuck are they?) are given something of a budget and use it to be horny on main.
Harukana Receive is a show I dropped after 1 episode because I don’t see it going anywhere and I didn’t really enjoy that first episode. It looks pretty good, though faces and the volleyball look quite weird, the latter especially in motion. Shots are reused and the way things are directed makes it hard to understand exactly what happened in any given few seconds (characters end up in front of or behind one another and are just all over the court at random between any given cut). Again though, visuals are otherwise fine. Soundtrack was fun enough and the voice acting and sound design were fine.
Characters didn’t do anything to hook me in, and neither did the plot – with all the melodramatic details regarding Kanata’s history with beach volleyball completely lacking any punch or making me want to see the conclusion.
Comedy was generic and unfunny, and they do lots of “owo anime reaction” for things that I didn’t even realise were jokes, like the Big Bang Theory does with laughtracks, so that’s a thing.
The bulk of the show it seems is fanservice. And with this sort of show? That doesn’t really bother me. I also didn’t really care for it, but I don’t think it’s a weaker product just because of the fanservice, you know? If you’re into it, I don’t blame you. It does make it hard to believe these characters are 16 but honestly, who cares?
All in all, first episode wasn’t terrible on its own but it really didn’t have a hook. Hence me dropping it. If it gets better, I have no idea.
Yume Oukoku to Nemureru 100 Nin no Ouji-sama
Okay seriously? This is the fastest I’ve ever dropped a show. I watched the pre-OP scene, the OP, and then left. Why? Because everything about the OP told me this was a boring light novel adaptation that probably sucks and I’m definitely not the target audience anyway. The entire OP sans like 2 moments is just still panning shots of nearly identical looking princes with silly costumes and one of them has a tiny Buster Sword. And I really mean it’s just still shots of these guys. From reading the premise as well as just the name of the show, I highly doubt any of these characters have any depth or narrative and really probably suck horribly. The only bit of animation in the OP is the cat companion that probably speaks and says some random onomatopoeia at the end of its sentences jumping up, and that lasts like half a second.
Unfair of me to immediately have a very negative opinion of this show based on so little already? Perhaps, but I honestly don’t care. Am I making a lot of assumptions here? Perhaps, but I honestly don’t care. Is this show actually incredibly good and the OP and MAL score are misleading as heck? Unlikely, and I honestly don’t care.
The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar
This anime was fucking booooooooooooring and uuuuuuuuuuuuuuugly and I watched one episode and I’m never watching it ever again.
So, a trashy isekai game anime with a bunch of OP characters with flat personalities that also has decent production values when it wants to but reduces many scenes to literal slideshows, has an okay if forgettable soundtrack and treats the death of characters we don’t care for as the most emotional thing since Tenshi ni Fureta yo? It’s a bit like Sword Art Online. However, whereas SAO has an interesting first episode that hooks you into the world and establishes a solid horror tone (even if it sucks after that), Shichisei no Subaru covers everything I just mentioned in the first 10 minutes and none of it works. Needless to say, I dropped it without even finishing episode 1.
Props to the party having 3 boys and 3 girls though, rather than just being a bog-standard harem.
Okay so there are 12 girls and 11 of them are already in the group when the anime starts so immediately it’s a bad and confusing start. Love Live shows us the formation of each group and, while every girl is introduced in the first episode, they do it in such a way that it doesn’t feel overblown, and then lets the narrative continue before giving us the proper introduction to whatever girl. Unlike Ongaku Shoujo did in its first episode.
Speaking of Love Live, their insert songs have actual camera motion and full dance sequences, even if the early ones look questionable. The first performance in Ongaku Shoujo starts with a static longshot of our 11 girls and it stays on that shot for quite a while. We get a few seconds of actual dancing but that’s interrupted by characters talking over the song and cuts to said characters’ faces, and then cuts back to the dance but now it’s panning stills. It was very bad.
I was kinda laughing at how bad this anime was and comparing it to Love Live in my head more than I was actually enjoying watching it, so I dropped it without finishing episode 1.
How Not to Summon a Demon Lord
So, this is a weird one. Before I start talking about it, let me tell a story.
At the very start of the season, I told myself I would watch every single isekai that would air that season. And since you’ve read up to this point, you already know I failed that, dropping 3 out of 4 of them without even finishing the first episode most of the time. Anyway, the reason I wanted to watch all the isekai is because I wanted to expose myself to the trashiest of trash anime possible. And none of those first 3 isekai were trashy enough, or even fun enough to continue watching.
With How Not to Summon a Demon Lord however, I have finally found peak trashiness.
Let’s just get this straight right now – this anime is basically softcore porn. There’s all the expected tits bouncing everywhere and all sorts of thighs and asses on screen at all times, but that’s cliché. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord takes it a step further by having what can basically be described as a sex scene every single episode, with our main man Diablo stroking a girl’s nipples that are poking out from her clothing, and such. That’s pretty fuckin’ trashy.
It’s also trashy in that Diablo is the best most overpowered gamer in the entire universe and doesn’t lose to anyone. In fact, he directly comments on how weak the residents of this world are compared to how they were when he played the game. He’s so strong and beats basically everyone with absolutely no difficulty to speak of.
These facts alone make it among the trashiest shows I’ve ever seen, and since that’s exactly what I wanted to see going into all these isekai shows, it’s no wonder I actually found myself enjoying this show at times.
Except I dropped it after 5 episodes.
I don’t really think I can explain why. Perhaps I don’t have the mental fortitude to put up with the trashiness for as long as I thought I’d be able to. Perhaps I was kinda bored. Perhaps I was feeling lazy due to my weird viewing experience with this season I mentioned at the start. I don’t know. But I just couldn’t bring myself to watch any further.
If you’re into these sorts of super trashy shows though, give this one a watch. It knows it’s trashy and embraces that fact which makes for a decently enjoyable experience, and it’s got surprisingly good production values, too. Heck, I probably would’ve finished it were I watching it week by week rather than trying to marathon the whole thing in a day. Not that that’s not a manageable marathon for me or anything by the way, just that I couldn’t be bothered doing it with this show specifically.
So here’s a first for my Season in Reviews, a 2 cour show! What that means of course is that this show actually has yet to finish, and so I’ll only technically be reviewing half of it.
That’s right, half, because for the first time in this post we’ve got a show I didn’t drop! And by the way I’ll definitely give this show a full review of its own when it’s finished airing, but for now, let’s just jump right into it.
The first thing that I should say about Banana Fish is that, silly name aside, this show’s heavy. Rape, pedophilia, extreme drug use, gang violence, it’s all here and accounted for. And it’s not merely “touched upon” either, all of the things I just mentioned are major elements of the show’s plot and have a significant impact on how every character acts and reacts to whatever’s going on. So obviously, I can’t recommend this anime to everyone. Because not only is all of that heavy, but it’s done incredibly realistically. There’s no sugar-coating the brutality involved, but there’s no overdramatization either. It’s painfully realistic and tremendously engaging. This isn’t edgy laughable bullshit like Magical Girl Site. This is just an intense story that features some extreme content. So be warned going into it, if you do decide to watch it.
With that out of the way, this show’s got the most engaging plot I’ve seen in anything this year by far. The stakes are high, and we’re put into a lot of terrifying situations that seem inescapable. And what we leave any situation with isn’t always predictable. You never know if somebody’s gonna die, you never know how the characters will get out of their situation, you never know if they even will get out of the situation. And any time they do escape whatever situation, it always feels like a logical progression in the narrative and events and stuff. No deus ex machinas in here.
The characters are stupidly engaging and well written, with one of the most fascinating lead characters I’ve ever met contrasted so effectively with a comparatively innocent, almost plain secondary lead. That’s not to say the secondary lead isn’t also an extremely fascinating character in his own right though, and the relationship he’s developing with the main character is one you’ll quickly find yourself invested in.
Oh right, did I mention this show’s technically a yaoi? Before you light your torches at me for recommending a yaoi, I would like to say that the original manga for this is from 1985 and doesn’t follow any of the tropes associated with the genre. The main gay relationship is hardly ever even portrayed romantically, and never sexually. Any sort of “power imbalance” in the relationship is intrinsically linked to their roles in the story – to the “worlds they live in”. The contrast between the two is absolutely incredible. Plus, since I’ve already mentioned that both rape and yaoi are in here, some of you might be worried about rape fantasy in yaoi being present. It’s not. There’s no rape in the main relationship and all rape in the plot is framed as completely unjust and evil. Like it should be.
None of the side characters quite compare to either of our leads, but they all have enough of an arc to be memorable and actually feel like developed humans that exist in that world. It’s fantastic. When coupled with the legitimately terrifying antagonists, there’s never a moment in the show where you’re watching one set of characters and getting impatient waiting for another set. It’s constantly engaging.
Speaking of constant engagement, this show! So one thing a lot of plot-heavy shows do (unintentionally obviously) is have moments that just, for whatever reason, aren’t quite as good, and you get bored or impatient watching them. For whatever reason what’s happening in that scene doesn’t interest you in the slightest. Yeah, that doesn’t happen in Banana Fish. At no point when watching this was I anything other than totally engaged. I’ve avoided spoilers so far and will continue to do so, but this plot is gradually rising in stakes and despite the scope of everything having increased quite massively, it feels like a completely natural and believable progression. So a constantly engaging plot that’s flawlessly and naturally raising the stakes constantly. What more could you want?
Technical stuff? Yeah, this show’s got those down brilliantly. So many shows, even others this season, have their animation and stuff peak in the first episode and maybe some other times. Banana Fish is 100% consistently brilliant looking. Be it the smooth animation, incredible art, detailed and immersive backgrounds, and the absolutely marvellous directing, this show aims to aesthetically impress, and succeeds without a hitch. All your sound stuff’s good to, though maybe I don’t know what explosions actually sound like but there are some instances of grenades not making the sound I’d expect them to. Maybe the rest of fiction is wrong though – I honestly wouldn’t be surprised. Stellar voice acting etc. To be honest, this show seems like the type that might actually be better dubbed. By virtue of being set in the USA and having English text, names and such all over the place, it might be a more believable experience dubbed. Plus you’d get the dub advantage of not needing to look at subs. Assuming this show gets a dub, I’ll certainly watch it.
And that’s about all I have to say about Banana Fish at the moment. It’s simply fantastic. It is of course unfinished though, and while I do consider this extremely unlikely, there’s a chance it might suddenly go to shit in the second half. Again, I doubt this, but let it be known that everything here may not be indicative of my final thoughts on this show. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight
Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight is by far one of the single most unique and interesting shows I have ever had the pleasure of watching.
The story follows a group of 9 girls in a school for performing arts and their efforts to become better actresses for a famous and well-loved play known as Starlight, but (quite literally) beneath the surface, auditions are going on in which the girls have to fight and sing and dance against one another for the lead role.
At least, I think that’s why they’re singing and dancing. See, Revue Starlight isn’t really all that good at explaining the many things that happen in the plot, so while most of the elements introduced work reasonably well if you just accept them for what they are, much of it starts to feel contrived and convoluted on further thought. Perhaps this is just a consequence of watching one episode a week because fuck currently airing anime, but there were a lot of times where I was just kinda confused by the plot, and it felt like lots of things that were introduced didn’t add anything other than confusion.
Take for example Banana. In episode 7 it’s revealed that Banana’s been winning auditions and using her wish to turn back time so they can keep doing their performance of Starlight forever and everyone’ll be free of suffering. This is an interesting idea and sets up Banana as some sort of anti-villain. However, in one of her loops, Hikari pops up out of nowhere. These are the events of the anime, and Hikari stops Banana with almost no fanfare to speak of. After that, the timeloop is done and everything just continues like normal. What was the point of even having a timeloop story? With how little any of it is actually explained, its presence feels contrived and superfluous. Surely there was a better way to develop Banana, right?
Speaking of the character development, it’s kinda mixed in quality. The early episodes take a fairly formulaic approach where one character is more prominent in an episode and indeed the episode ends in an audition scene with them, usually against Karen. These episodes are all pretty enjoyable if a bit repetitive, but most of the characters aren’t even that interesting, or those that are don’t get to do much outside of their own episode. Mahiru in particular pissed me off because her entire character is that she’s gay for Karen.
For what it’s worth though, even if they’re not the most interesting characters, they’re all quite likeable, and what they contribute to the usually pretty interesting plot is always appreciated.
Speaking of the plot, other than my earlier complaints about it, it’s actually really interesting. See, we never get to see Starlight for ourselves. However, the plot of the anime is almost an adaptation of Starlight in and of itself, at least, that’s how it’s framed. This anime tells the story of a story within the anime without showing us that story. Confusing, but it works to brilliant effect. And the story of Starlight is super relevant to the show’s themes of shining – that being doing your best and whatnot. I couldn’t help but compare this to Love Live, specifically Sunshine season 2 and its subpar writing quality causing the theme of shining to suffer. Where Love Live has “I want to shine. How do I shine? I’m struggling to shine. This is what it feels like to shine!”, Revue Starlight explores the idea of shining in a bunch of different ways thanks to the several different characters, as well as exploring both the positives and negatives of shining. The way the audition system seems to almost be punishing the girls at times but ultimately changes to reward their brilliance to everyone’s surprise also reminded me of Madoka Magica. It’s great.
Animation is brilliant, especially during fight scenes, but the music is a step above even that. There’s nothing in this soundtrack that isn’t a complete joy to listen to. All of the audition scenes are complemented by absolutely brilliant tracks that are relevant to the events on the screen and are just fucking bops. The voice acting and sound design are also wonderful.
All in all, Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight is certainly a bit of a weird one. In fact, I apologise if this little review of it is weird and confusing, I just don’t quite know how to collate my thoughts on this show. It’s got lots of strong points including all your audio-visual elements and some cool concepts and themes, but the plot beats don’t always hit and it might even be a bit boring for some. At bare minimum, I can say that the first episode is really good and you should definitely give it a watch. If you like what you see, give the rest a go. Maybe you’ll love it.
I gave this show a 7/10 on my MAL but that might be subject to change though, because aside from the aforementioned “my thoughts are uncollated” dealio, this show seems like the type that’ll spark perspective-changing discussion here and there. I dunno. We’ll see. Chances are I’ll rewatch this show at one point anyway.
So, this one’s a bit hard to talk about. Why? Because it’s a pure comedy through and through. And since pretty much every single thing in this show is some sort of joke, there’s not much I can really say.
At minimum though, I can say this – it’s extremely funny. It’s a constant barrage of unpredictable and yet not “Lol RaNdEm XD” humour that plays off of itself in a variety of funny and creative ways. I found myself laughing out loud for most of the runtime. The three characters are all very fun and go extremely well together in enhancing the comedic scenes, and all of the side characters are just as funny. Kinda wish that Aozora-senpai got more screentime but tbh that’s because I’m an Aoi Yuuki stan and Aoi Yuuki voices her.
This show also looks and sounds really good! The visuals are quite… bright? I think? They’re kinda washed out in a sense but in such a way that everything just appears really light. If I knew my terminology better I’d explain it better but eh. The show is happy to play with the art style to drive home a joke and it has a lot of purposely “ugly” moments that don’t hurt to look at. Ugly moments for comedic effect are a ballsy move in anime, and thankfully Asobi Asobase pulls it off without a hitch. Hanako best girl her voice is adorrrrable and she’s the funniest.
Give this a watch if you want a laugh, either all in one sitting like I did, or you can get away with plopping an episode on at the end of the day to make you feel better about your constant suffering or whatever.
I gave it a 7/10 because it’s very funny and all that but doesn’t quite do enough to warrant that 8. Still give it a watch though.
Cells at Work is an interesting little show. As I’m sure everyone’s already aware, Cells at Work is an anime about anthropomorphic human cells and the work they constantly put in to keep you alive every single day. And I loved it!
Cells at Work is not only genuinely educational – I know way more about the body now than I did 3 months ago – but legitimately entertaining when separated from the educational bits. You know, edutainment.
What makes it so entertaining, you may ask? Well, quite a lot of things.
For one thing, the characters are all super charming and endearing. Our main red blood cell is your typical kinda stupid, curious, but passionate lead girl, and even though she’s not the most creative character in the world, she’s super endearing and is one of the better examples of the trope. Plus she’s absolutely adorable and voiced by the renowned-for-a-reason Kana Hanazawa. White blood cell’s sharper and more capable than red blood cell, but looks out for her and the entire body. He’s even implied to have a crush on her maybe??? Red and white blood cell is my favourite straight ship ever probably. There’s a whole cast of kooky characters and it’s hard not to fall in love with all of them.
Another great thing about the show is that it’s pretty great at establishing tension. Despite following something of a monster of the week formula early on, every opponent, be it anything from random germs to cancer cells to haemorrhages, feels like a legitimate threat (the haemorrhage especially good god) and even though I know my body’s not populated with adorable and endearing anthropomorphic cells, this show made me not want to injure myself ever under any circumstance because the idea of forcing them through shit like that sounds scary to me. If I had a haemorrhage, what if my Kana Hanazawa cell was lost? That would be awful!
About that monster of the week formula, the early episodes do this fun thing where an enemy White blood cell can’t quite defeat pops up, and then whatever relevant character who at first appeared somewhat useless manages to take them out. It’s not quite unique and for some it might even be boring, but I really liked it and it helps to develop these characters, even if only a little bit.
The animation by JoJo David Productions is wonderful in playing up the shounen elements of this show, and even though it’s not always the best looking show in the world, the visuals are charming enough and the great looking character and enemy designs make this show a constant joy to watch.
All your soundtrack and voice acting and stuff are great too, what with the aforementioned Kana Hanazawa and even Daisuke Ono if this didn’t feel JoJo-y enough for you. The OP is goofy fun and the ED is a pleasant bop from my girls ClariS, always a plus.
Obviously the show’s not perfect though. As I’ve said before, it can get kinda repetitive and can be boring for some, plus there’s the animation being meh at times and the characters might be too simple for some. None of this stuff really bugged me, hence why I watched to completion obviously, but if you told me you dropped it for whatever reason I’d see where you’re coming from.
Ultimately, I gave Cells at Work a 7/10. I had enough fun with it to warrant that sort of decent score, though it perhaps doesn’t accomplish enough to warrant an 8, especially given the stuff I do give an 8.
Girl of the Season
Red Blood Cell AE3803
She’s just really really cute and she has this really sweet episode where she tries to deliver oxygen all on her own despite her awful sense of direction and while White Blood Cell helps from a distance she otherwise manages on her own and it was so sweet and it nearly made me cry out of sweetness and also Kana Hanazawa
Boy of the Season
Ash Lynx
I already said this, but Ash is one of the most fascinating lead characters I’ve ever seen. Despite being written so consistently well he’s largely unpredictable, you never know exactly what he’ll do in any given scene yet nothing he does is out of character. He’s extremely multifaceted and shockingly realistic. He’s not the most human character I’ve seen in an anime, but he’s pretty far up the list. I’ve already sucked Banana Fish’s dick enough, and – spoiler alert – it doesn’t stop here, so let’s cut this short.
Anime of the Season
Banana Fish
Yeah, no surprise here. Originally this spot would’ve been taken by Cells at Work, probably, maybe Revue Starlight idk. The reason those would’ve been here is because I saved Banana Fish for last. And god damn, was it worth it. I’ve already praised this show enough, so let me just make it clear right now – if Banana Fish maintains this level of quality or even surpasses it, we’ll be seeing anime of the year, maybe. It depends on how good Vento Aureo is. Banana Fish isn’t finished, so I can’t give it a solid rating yet, but what I’m seeing right now is a 9/10 at the very least. And trust me, I’m pretty conservative with those. And again, that’s at the very least. Depending on how this plays out we may see one of my even rarer 10/10s, reserved only for the likes of Madoka Magica. And trust me, that’s a pretty big deal. That’s not to insinuate that I like Banana Fish nearly as much as I like Madoka btw Madoka’s my favourite anime of all time for too many reasons to list do you know.
And that’s us! I had an interesting experience with this season. I waited until the end to watch everything and even though I prefer to marathon things than wait for weekly episodes, doing this season the way I did was honestly a bad idea and I won’t repeat it for Fall. To be honest, this has probably been the weakest season this year for me. Outside of Banana Fish, none of the shows I completed I found particularly splendid, and I dropped way more than I otherwise would have. But that’s kind of a bummer to end this on. Just like how it opened on a bummer, too…
Fuck it, the other 2 of these have terrible conclusions anyway.
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