SEASONAL PRATTLE
Super Cub saw us off with one last blend of its many gentle and nicely stitched attributes – coming full seasonal circle in a lengthy Spring trip that ended up being an exceptional platform to support its conclusion. This finale is good at making the mundane seem like breathable, anxiety-free spaces for its own sake, which was evident in pinpoint sequences of vast open scenery and tighter, well-managed rest breaks that had just enough of Koguma and friends’ style to offer a level of charm that was appealing on an immediate level. The ending tidbit on having a desire no matter how simple was effective at both tying Koguma’s character and this show’s messages together, and Shii’s new cub was a nice warm footnote to finish on. Given that Super Cub is essentially just one giant commercial, this project turned out to be reasonably good; A convincingly stable slice-of-life that had little issue reaching its tonal goals.
Shadows House (12)
“Smaller dramatic segments like Barbie searching Patrick’s room are better timed and framed than an initial watch suggests”
Shadows House stuck to its guns this week, meaning it was strong in all those lovely little character moments and immediately fluent when it comes to its overall brand of storytelling. Episode twelve on a whole wastes little screen time; Almost all of its plot beats and directorial touches felt clear and purposeful to staging Emilico’s rescue or directly conveying tension – and smaller dramatic segments like Barbie searching Patrick’s room are better timed and framed than an initial watch suggests. The ending stretch of content boils nicely into an effective cliffhanger, one that doesn’t land as blatantly overstated or ill-paced, and the series is now in a good position to launch a finale. Shadows House has carried a fundamental understanding of how it needs to sew its concepts together to be a competent show this season and that trend doesn’t stop here.
Fumetsu no Anata e (11)
“Peppered with plenty of conversational swings and spurts of cute character acting to make the lead up to Rean’s birthday party come off with a healthy balance of adorable and warmth”
Spring is coming to an end but Fumetsu no Anata e is still pushing on, this time offering a modest, yet still solid showing that gets by on a thick affinity for its leads and the charm they generate. Gugu and Rean have been sketched enough to the point where their rapport is nothing less than good, and episode eleven is peppered with plenty of conversational swings and spurts of cute character acting to make the lead up to Rean’s birthday party come off with a healthy balance of adorable and warmth. And while there’s not much time with it, the birthday party itself shaped up to be a nice doorway to some emotional honesty. Fumetsu no Anata e works very well with material like this, where its own tonal intricacies and reflective anecdotes are supported by a calm exterior brought on by its more slice-of-lifeish beats. It allows the show to really hit home on its drama better and overall take advantage of the pain that you know is coming.
Higehiro (12)
“Vocally much better than expected and that acknowledgment on a whole is an underrated component that twelve honestly gets right”
Higehiro returns, surprisingly not continuing its tumble downhill as it did a fair job of building us towards an ending that seems like it will actually offer some sort of satisfying finish to this story, in spite of how flimsy the recent stretch of episodes has been before it. Among the “Hokkaido arc” this has to be the best episode of the bunch and while “best” in this context is still a low bar to clear, credit needs to be given where credit is due.
This episode was vocally much better than expected and that acknowledgment on a whole is an underrated component that twelve honestly gets right; Sayu’s mom easily comes across as every bit of infuriating, awful and self-centered as intended – and the passion in her arguing can be accredited to a good outing from her voice actress. In an episode that’s heavily dedicated to trying to reason with her while she’s acting as a foil, this kind of performance is rather valuable. Compounding on that, we finally had both a dramatically focused and entirely purposeful episode this week, as the drama was highly relevant (unlike episode 10) and not encased in filler-like padding (unlike episode 11), eventually ending up being a nice portrait to showcase that Yoshida is still playing above his pay grade as a protagonist with the level of restraint he demonstrates. Higehiro’s end is now just around the corner, and the show obviously needs to do its best to follow this up and capitalize from here.
Osananajimi ga Zettai ni Makenai Love Comedy (11)
“Osamake is still pretending to have a plot worth investing in – trying to make sure their copy and paste level of creativity isn’t totally obvious”
With this 11th smear on the season, viewers should celebrate as the grimy, marsh-like pool that is Osamake will soon evaporate – clearing up as clean, vibrant blue water from the incoming Summer anime season replaces it, allowing Wednesdays to be favorable again. However, until that blessed day, Osamake is still pretending to have a plot worth investing in – trying to make sure their copy and paste level of creativity isn’t totally obvious. Episode eleven buys heavily in its choice to convert Haru’s documentary into a trampoline to launch one-on-ones with the harmettes: Outside of two minutes of Momo’s screen time at the very end that manages to have passable drama, the decision to do so is largely flat – often suffering from a lot of weaker Shion gags and although eating up a good amount of run time, fairly tame Shiro material that even treads on the edge of being stale. At this rate, Osamake’s final episode will be a tepid heap if one is being optimistic – a finale highly unremarkable in its ability to encourage enthusiasm but sharply skilled in how thoroughly it will waste your time.
