“QUOTE OF THE WEEK”
– Just one of many zingers being thrown around in Fairy Gone comment sections and forum threads after its rough debut yesterday. I guess this is to be expected when you’re a P.A. Works product with reception already slipping into HaruChika territory.
SEASONAL PRATTLE
Fruits Basket (2019) (1)
Having this work all the way up top here should come at no surprise, especially given the relative quality of Spring’s other first week showings. Smoother flowing than it initially appears on PVs and from personnel listings, Fruits Basket’s start is firmly constructed – hitting on a variety of breathable scenes that open the initial window into this work’s often upbeat tone. TMS Entertainment does an applaudable job allowing Tohru’s personality to shine early on, and an even better one in keeping the material on schedule with a sense of proper pace and weight. On a whole, It’s a bright first episode, one that has handled all the craft intangibles with enough care to make for an optimistic view of future offerings to come . Well done!
Kono Oto Tomare! (1)
Really enjoying how Kono Oto Tomare! unrolled itself here, not being particularly commendable in its visual craft but briskly chugging along on a track of solid storytelling fundamentals that makes our time spent easy to digest. While Takezou and Kudo can come off as limited as a pair – they have a fair bit of meaningful dialogue and snappy interactions to counterbalance the generic lacing that surrounds their dynamic . Narratively, it’s not exactly breaking any doors down. It plays a lot of its beats by the books, however, it’s backed up by a firm understanding of how those beats work mechanically – knowing when a Kudou outburst is too much or exactly where they should reel in Takezou’s lack of confidence. Execution trumps a variety of storytelling elements, so I’m very happy to see that’s a low key strength to kick this off.
Hitoribocchi no ○○ Seikatsu (1)
Hitoribocchi no ○○ Seikatsu has “charming” going for it, with plenty of underlying writing and outright dialogue constantly pushing just how sweet Bocchi and her corresponding narrative is. For that, this opening episode has no problem reaching its tonal goals. It’s actively hard to catch it emotionally out of position; Never really presenting content that takes you even slightly away from its sugary baseline and often converting some of its less positive jokes and beats into immediate adorableness, pushing Bocchi and insulin sales that much higher. Admittedly, a few parts drag here and there and this is very much shaping up as a work that’s appeal is limited to the insides of its established genre. Be that as it may, Hitoribocchi is very wholesome and neatly served for what it wants to be, so I’m here for it.
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Kimetsu no Yaiba (1)
Although Kimetsu no Yaiba’s premiere gets a decent amount right, namely visually if you turn a blind eye to some of its more noticeable CG bits, I can’t help but feel that it’s lacking from a storytelling perspective. For starters, Tanjiro’s family isn’t fleshed out remotely enough to earn the emotional impact that Ufotable was framing with their death – an issue that would carry over later on to Nezuko’s scenes, as Tanjiro’s struggle when dealing with her in the woods falls sort of hallow given their relationship is hardly established at this point. Worse though, Tanjiro’s excessive narration consistently robs this episode’s largest narrative strokes of their potential weight. “Show don’t tell” is a concept plenty of viewers are familiar with, but it seems to be lost here, especially in the second half with our lead seemingly spelling out everything that crosses his mind and verbally regurgitating content the audience was explicitly shown literally seconds ago. Yaiba still has a lot of upside since it’s early, and the buzz around its later material from source readers provides a lot of optimism, but I would also love to see this work tighten up on certain text-based touchpoints moving forward.
Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai (1)
The problems with BokuBen essentially portrays how crucial innovation and execution is to the harem genre, with this first episode doing so little to distinguish itself from its peers that it hurts. It’s simply hard to feel enthusiastic about a show whose premise was hammered on literally last season, and plenty of times well before that, which then does nothing in its telling or craft to try to shake things up a bit or create separation. With that said, we’re ultimately left working with the bare minimum elements to run these type of works – slugging down stock personality girls and following a paper-thin lead through twenty minutes that all feel too familiar. Much like Yaiba above, this work falls into a discourse of “I swear it gets good” from source readers. So perhaps over next few weeks it’ll actually start picking up some texture, no longer appearing so linear and underwhelming as it came across today.
Ao-chan Can’t Study (1)
Ao-chan Can’t Study is apparently a thing this season and it’s gliding along about as gracefully as you would expect for an ecchi / comedy short coming out of Silver Link’s camp. To be fair, this first episode actually has some wrinkles of craft polish to it , with a handful of cuts riding clear embellishments and coming across as more thoughtful in their implementation. A few gags here and there do contain good timing and Silver Link is relatively competent at walking viewers through its twelve minutes with little friction. Still, there are chunks of writing that feel like they’re borrowed from the early 2000’s and scenario flows that come across as even more dated. An easy middling choice with possible potential to be a fun watch through Ao and Kijima.
Fairy Gone (1)
If there’s one thing that Fairy Gone’s premiere can be confident in, it would be its sound design, with good use of audio cues and a backing track that elevates its more propulsive sequences to greater heights. However, beyond that, a bunch of other constructive craft elements are questionable in quality at best. For example, episode one’s scripting is rather narrow – all too reliant on front-loaded flashbacks and flimsy efforts to establish its world or leads. Compounding on this, the gracious use of stills undercuts a lot of would be high octane moments along with quite a few abrasive shots once the CG starts getting thrown around. Fairy Gone may very well have a story worth following, and characters worth embracing, but it’s going to be tough to get there if it continues on like this.
Shoumetsu Toshi (1)
Where do you even begin with Shoumetsu Toshi? There’s just so many awkward, jaggedly assembled components wrapped together and passed off as a first episode that individually addressing them all would have us here for a while. So far the sake of brevity lets at least touch upon what it does do remotely right. It’s a very short list beginning and ending with cultivating a somewhat decent sense of intrigue, as episode one is quirky enough in its narrative to raise an eyebrow on concept alone. Past that, we’re soaking in a dirty bathtub full of all sort of issues – from obese exposition to visual choices that fight more with each other than a married couple on the edge of divorce and everything in between – there’s a lot this series needs to work on as it looks to next week.
Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO (1)
And finally finishing our first Check-In off we have YU-NO. Clunky, awkward storytelling bloated with cheesy dialogue and uninspired direction underlines the tedious twenty minutes that makeup YU-NO’s premiere. This episode often comes across as if it’s actively seeking predictability, wielding a ton of rusty visual novel tropes and riding patches of convenient writing to set up its parallel world hook. Making matters worse, Takuya and the half dozen other characters crammed in here are all portrayed with as much depth as a small, half evaporated puddle I’m not sure if this is going to be YU-NO’s average level of quality moving forward, hopefully not, but it’s looking like it’s going to be an uphill battle to change that.
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