SEASONAL PRATTLE
And just like that Fall’s anime season is done with its second week! If you’re following Seasonal Prattle on Twitter, you may already be aware of what show is going to headline this latest Check-In (and if you don’t, well the image hanging above this passage is a pretty dead give away ). Beastars is a head-turner for those of us who value multiple facets of anime craft, especially on the written side, offering a polished twenty minutes that showed more nuance in its scripting after one episode than most modern anime show in three. Its tangible toolkit is relatively potent, not only having a sneakily good sound design but with Orange’s team bringing a healthy amount of favorable assets in this premiere: Their understanding and application of CG is still in strong shape and lends plenty of personality on a scene by scene basis to keep our content engageable paring well with an understated level of vision. Beyond that, the brand of telling so far is promisingly thick with thematics – full of purposeful plotting and deliberate exchanges that are methodically building to something greater. What Beastars ultimately presents both in its composition and text gives a lot of optimism for this show’s long term quality, and hopefully, it will keep turning out good performances such as this.
Shinchou Yuusha: Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru (2)
The way this follow-up episode of Shinchou Yuusha is composed when the chips are on the table is still rewarding to see, even if it tends to be surrounded by a few gags that are hit and miss and a floor of writing that doesn’t exactly provide much leverage to work with. Episode two is very comfortable on its front end, loaded with malleable expressive routines namely stemming from Rista and even some finely scoped dramatic sequences when Seiya’s battle gets more serious. It’s a bit of a shame that’s where the positives end though because everything else on the back end is quickly losing its luster. How long this premise and gimmick can stay fresh is a legitimate concern after this showing, along with this work’s ability to find comedic payoffs beyond its leading duo. Reasonable entry all in all but hopefully next week will push the needle ahead a bit more.
Hataage! Kemono Michi (2)
Nice level of touch ENGI put on this latest Kemono Michi. I’ve written plenty of times in the past how talented personnel can completely flip the script during crucial plot beats, uplifting otherwise dry slabs of content in less gifted hands into something fluent and dynamic. Genzo and the Orc King’s fight is obviously representative of that, but it’s not alone. There are milder craft moments all throughout here that won’t get their praises sung, but do more than a respectable job of landing the tone they’re trying to convey – like Shigure’s facial shift in our opening half of the episode. Now if only this series’ textual aspects can catch up, we can actually have something wholly embraceable here.
Ore wo Suki nano wa Omae dake ka yo (2)
A much more competent showing from Oresuki this time, overall demonstrating better efficiency of its genre’s hallmarks than its turnout seven days ago. This series’ comedic timing is starting to shape into a pretty applaudable touchstone: Joro’s spread of reactions both physical and verbal to the blatantly repeating scenarios he finds himself in is consistently slick, and the use of the bench has been solid. I had worries that our writers might abuse it; They were trigger happy on the bench gag last week, but in episode two it’s just enough and rather effective when deployed. Pair that with engageable character acting in-between, along with a smoothly built to and executed cliffhanger – and it’s hard not to say Oresuki didn’t earn this one structurally. Good stuff.
Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne! (1)
Predictable, cliche and poorly told – Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne! is yet another Isekai work in this Fall season that is rich in its ability to underperform and disappoint. Structural red flags splatter its premiere early on and only cease to stop for bite-size breaks – as cringy dialogue choices, choppy narrative flow and awkwardly timed/conceived spurts of exposition drag hard on episode one’s quality. Even more egregious though, is Watashi’s tendency to lean heavily on Mile for comedy. Mile may have “charming” going for her but she’s not nearly as funny as the show thinks she is and features her to be – an issue that will hopefully be better navigated next week with smoother cast utilization.
Assassins Pride (1)
Completely content with dragging viewers through heaps of flavorless exposition, Assassins Pride premieres, crisply portraying how poor storytelling can begin sinking a series in one episode. There’s next to zero reason to care about any of the events or characters as presented, and Assassins Pride apparently has no qualms about making that known. Narrative strokes both big and small are painted with minimal context and heart, the world is seldom at best built, character profiles are flimsy, and it’s all heavily spoon-fed. This start does little to motivate rallying behind Melida and Kufa’s cause all while providing a healthy amount of red flags just from their interactions alone to be wary of its quality. A swing and a miss.
Kabukichou Sherlock (1)
Production I.G has a handful of appreciable moments here, however they’re simply not enough to counterbalance Kabukichou Sherlock’s tendency to get in its own way during its premiere. From the ground up, this first episode is purely quirky to a fault – seemingly more concerned in presenting the eccentric qualities of its environment and cast than actually telling a tight and easily digestible story. For that, the narrative often suffers from staggering pacing and undercooked plotting, never truly feeling like we’re given a foothold on what Kabukichou Sherlock is attempting to accomplish outside of the fragile gist of its core premise. This series really needs to be more conventional in its approach and start fleshing things out next week, because the loosely told path it’s on now isn’t going to cut it for very long.
Val X Love (2)
No, the first episode wasn’t a joke or some sort of fever dream, Val X Love’s generously shoddy storytelling is genuine – once again doing zero favors to aid a narrative that desperately needs a more solid slab of ground to stand on. With that, the issues this week are glaringly apparent and not complicated at all: The sheer ineptitude this limply constructed mess presents, be it when you turn an eye to the minimally defined girls that surround our one-note MC or the parched of effort scripting, is just too strong for the few faint whiffs of mediocrity here to overcome. Val X Love is bold in its poor fundamentals and gives little reason to believe that will change anytime soon
