I’ve been watching what really amounts to pathetically little anime recently. It’s little to do with the quality of shows airing, as if I’m honest I’ve not even watched a single episode of most of them, but after having watched practically All The Things last season (well, enough so that I was watching at least couple of episodes of stuff every evening), a certain degree of prioritisation had to happen so that I could actually clear out the ton of work, personal projects, and other obligations that I’ve been sitting on for way too long. Also, video games (and I’ve not even started TitS 3rd yet…)

Still, I’m watching a few things. Not a ton to say about a lot of them, and it’s pretty safe to say that anything I don’t mention I probably haven’t even found the time to watch a single episode of thus far. Should probably at least watch some Worlds End or Alice or Eromanga, I guess. As atrocious a habit as it is to get into, I’m only really posting for the sake of having something to post as opposed to having a specific point to make about something, but whatever.

Rage of Bahamut Virgin Soul: Probably the actual objective best thing I’m watching, maybe airing. There’s a certain amount of unassuming confidence in itself that exudes from the production and how the show handles itself – even aside from Nina’s glorious array of faces, there’s a consistency to the way they animate the characters, their body language, and even the specific way they fight, that not only feels coherent with what you understand about the character, but sometimes tells you more about them than minutes of monologuing would. The sword fight in the most recent episode is particularly spectacular, but in general, it’s not an easy feat to accomplish in anime – I mean, it’s not the kind of sweeping comment about animation I’d normally make in these more-educated times given how anime is normally produced, but it feels at least somewhat justifiable to make here.

What effectively amounts to the shows first act wrapped up this week, so it’ll be curious to see where it goes going forward given the fairly big shake-up to the status quo which occurred.

Also, as a big Wonderboy fan, I can’t help but appreciate that ending credits sequence.

Re:Creators: I was a little wary of a new original Ei Aoki show following where Aldnoah ended up going in the second season, and some parts of the Internet seem to have taken a particularly negative impact from this one, but I’m enjoying it. Admittedly, I like the core concept, dumb as it sounds, of characters from assorted Japanese media spawning into the real world and taking grievance with their creators, so I’m fundamentally inclined to give it so much rope that hanging itself would be difficult. It is kind of wordy in the way that makes one wonder if Aoki has spent a little too much time working with Urobuchi or on Type-Moon productions, with characters that tend to expound their viewpoint a little too loud and forward a little too often.

There’s a lot of specifics I like about the show, though. She’s (somewhat inexplicably in my PoV) a source of a lot of folks annoyance with the show, but I particularly like Meteora as the weird, relatively minor, NPC character in her own reality who is entirely more competent than almost all of the actual protagonists who appear in the show, as if to point out how entirely useless most light novel heroines actually are. Then there’s the stuff that plays particularly well coming off the back of shows like Magical Girl Raising Project that primarily seem to exist to make its own characters suffer. It also does magical girl stuff way better that MGRP (or a lot of other recent magical girl shows, honestly).

I mean, there’s probably something smart to be written about how the show treats characters in comparison to their standing in the work which they come from – the fact that the show just didn’t go for the low-hanging fruit of just hitting up the most stereotypical light-novel heroines is probably something to be admired about it. I’m not the person with the time to write that, though!

Not actually got much idea where the show is going at this point, particularly given it feels is just about on the verge of revealing things which have been obvious to the viewer since the beginning. I’ll just enjoy it for now.

Cinderella Girls Theatre: It’s a thing, with Cinderella Girls. Somehow behind on it despite being a short. There’s a limit to what to say about it, really. Looking forward to AX, in a vaguely-related manner.

My Hero Academia: It’s good. I think the specifics of the set-up of a tournament arc helps, particularly given the ways in which they’ve been able to expand on parts of the material from the manga, but the pacing has felt way more on-point than the first series. Needs more Tsuyu, though.

Dragonball Super: Mostly just started leaving it on as background noise whilst working on some lengthy end-of-year art projects back in December, but still religiously keeping up with it at this point. The movie retread content – particularly Battle of Gods – was rather rough, but most of the original content has been enjoyable. It treads a good line between the original Dragonball and what the show became for much of Z in terms of tone, mostly by not having fights take dozens of episodes in one go.

Anyway, current arc is fun. Looking forward to the fight its building to just to see what all the new weirdos they’ve been introducing can do when brought to fisticuffs, though the build-up has been entertaining in its own right. I mean, it’s pretty much been emphasising the fact that Goku is, actually, kind of a terrible person, and the most respectable of the heroes are the reformed villains – and that’s not to mention the folks they’re going up against. Also, Krillin is still my guy.

BLAME!: The movie that popped up on Netflix recently. The manga has been sitting in my digital backlog since the reissue started a few months ago, being something that I’d previously Heard Good Things about, and being someone who enjoyed the Sidonia manga. Having not already read the manga before seeing the movie may have worked out as a net-positive from my point of view, given at least some of the reactions from those who have suggest the movie may well have missed the tone of what they liked about the original.

I thought it was pretty good, though. At least, it’s probably the least a full-CG anime that isn’t something aimed primarily at children has bugged me on a technical level, even if Sanzigen has traditionally been more of my jam on that front that Polygon necessarily has, and whilst the story isn’t exactly the most original thing in science fiction, moves along at a reasonable enough clip. New angela song is always welcome as well (roll on AX and all that).

Amusing note is that it was London MCM Comic Con over the weekend, and that first print volume of Blame sold out places real fast early on Friday in a fashion it wasn’t previously. Turns out that releasing an anime of something is good publicity for the manga in most parts of the world.

A Silent Voice: just a brief mention since the home release is out. I mean, I saw it last year anyway (and in the theatre three times, including one time with Yamada in attendance). Available on digital stores in the UK if you are so inclined and in the appropriate regions, though I’m not entirely enamoured with the subtitles (they’re largely fine, though).

Anyway, still love the movie, still results in me having horrific anxiety issues following watching it. It’s almost hilariously ironic given the content of the movie, but probably also indicative of its effectiveness? Sakugablog have more information on the movie than most people can likely reasonably consume if you really want to know more about it.

(Could probably have done with cutting back on a few of the photography effects, though. I can understand why you’ve maybe want to do things that deliberately narrow or contract the view or point-of-focus given the content of the work, but there are limits)