SEASONAL PRATTLE

Oresuki remains to be a pretty solid piece for its genre after six weeks, consistently meeting its own dramatic goals with more finesse than expected all while still finding ways to subvert cliches. I love how sneakily thoughtful episode six is in particular. Asunaro ultimately being behind everything was predictable, but the unraveling and baiting of that conclusion was nicely done with Cosmos stringing together some choice lines along the way – really glistening when she discusses effort’s role in a loving relationship. Building off of that, all the little structural facets concerning comedic timing, narrative flow and delivery still prove to be in healthy shape, inevitably closing out this episode with little friction. All in all yet another good showing.

Ascendance of a Bookworm (6)

Still very comfy, Ascendance of a Bookworm rolls out another finely-made episode, proceeding in its demonstration of firm story mechanics that have been sharp in their pursuit of smoothly pushing the audience along. For some time now, this series has done a good job of making Lutz and Maine’s small triumphs feel like major wins and that sentiment certainly scales up this week. With that said, It’s very rewarding to see the big step forward career-wise today for our leading pair, and even better when it’s accompanied with an adorable set of exchanges from a highly supportive Maine to get there. Ascendance of a Bookworm is very much aware of what makes it tick and time and time again effortlessly plays to that strength.

Beastars (5)

The way Beastars navigates its narrative is yet again very applaudable this week, offering another strong marriage of smart visual arrangements and considerate writing all the way down to the credit roll. For that, there are quite a few individual touchstones that could be rightfully celebrated from episode five – but I believe its uncanny ability to consistently portray Legoshi’s headspace from a variety of platforms deserves the most love. From his anxiety to his frustration and everything in-between, Beastars is just far too good in this department, tangibly observing Legoshi well with very responsive body language and spacing but also not taking a step back when the perspective is purely cognitive. There’s a number of interesting composites that serve to elevate his inner monologues that are executed to great effect – making for a very welcomed embellishment to an already solid episode. Nicely done.

Assassins Pride (5)

There’s no dancing around it, Assassins Pride submitted a fully loaded dumpster this week – so thickly inept in design that I’m surprised someone didn’t get fired. Our showing is thoroughly tainted from the start as it awkwardly frames whole, relevant days as quick flashbacks and works to an undercooked Elise and Melida struggle that’s resolution is nothing short of a complete joke. However, as if not to be outdone, the lingering narrative thread of Kufa versus Madia proves to be some of Fall’s, and even arguably the year’s, worst sequencing yet. If you literally blink the fight between them is over and Kufa somehow ends up losing her clothes and landing in a forest all in one rough jumpcut. This series has had its pacing issues for a while now but this level of handling is just abysmal and a gross disservice to the source material.

 

Hoshiai no Sora (5)

Lastly, if there was still doubts that Hoshiai no Sora is an incompetent work, especially in a dramatic sense, then please look no further than episode five. Seemingly every other notable plot beat is questionable this week to the point that you can just call out a time stamp past either theme song and drop yourself in the middle of a glaring issue if you were to go to it. With that, it’s actively hard to pick what five’s biggest problem is: Is it the overwrought drama concerning Maki’s scumbag dad, visually imagined in a fashion that’s not only completely heavy-handed, but inevitably revealing itself to be laughably scripted with all of the “I’ll kill you” talk and Touma actually giving out his name on request?

Or perhaps it’s Kaori’s out of nowhere story that manages the feat of both being randomly placed and miss-timed tonally given the events that it follows? Maybe it’s the brash reminder how middling this show’s writing is when a generic sports baddie shows up post ending theme and starts rolling out deeply unimaginative dialogue about hating weak players? It could certainly be the pointless void that Mitsue’s character has become, continually reinforcing with each scene she appears in that Hoshiai no Sora actually has no idea what they want to do with her.

You know, let’s just go with “all of the above” and try to forget this clear step backward existed – after all it’s less mind-numbing that way. Easily the worst episode so far.