SEASONAL PRATTLE
It’s been a while since Granbelm has made an appearance in these weekly check-ins, but make no mistake, the show has quietly been shaping up as a worthy watch with this latest offering of sound story structure and character positioning giving it a rather healthy outlook. It’s quickly becoming a pleasure to see Granbelm explore any given headspace. The way episode six directly navigates Anna from the inside out will blatantly soak up a lot of attention and is indeed admirable in its bold portrayal, but the methodical unraveling of Mangetsu low-key steals the week. Her lakeside conversation alone is a testament to that – casual in its delivery, soft in touch, but still lightly eerie enough in context to get you further thinking. It’s the kind of execution that you want to see and adds reassurance that this series has a better grasp on its cast than it commonly gets billed for. Granbelm’s future looks bright if it can keep on stringing entries like this together.
Nakanohito Genome (6)
Nakanohito Genome pulls off yet another positive, character-driven performance as it reaches Summer’s midway mark. For that, and really to no surprise, the player combination chosen for this week’s game yields plenty of rewards for the audience. Himiko and Anya aren’t just sturdy together passively, sharing some nice light-hearted moments and bouncing off each other well when episode six demands a touch of comedy, but their dramatic core also proves to align well. The pair inevitably being revealed to both having a deadly incident with their brother and how that subsequently reflects on their perception and relationship with Iride is not only a nice tye-in, but mechanically, throws yet another log on the fire of this show’s overall mystery. Nakanohito Genome just keeps on getting more interesting while steadily staying fun.
Fire Force (5)
Fire Force continues to churn out half-full showings, floating even with its knack for composition and tangible embellishments but still lacking the strength behind the pen to be anything more than “okay”. To episode five’s credit, it was good to see a more concentrated effort in painting key cast members – granting Iris some welcomed texture through a small, yet nice set of beats early on. It lent a little faith to this show’s textual prowess, but that would be quickly diminished as the minutes ticked by: A showdown with the 5th that escalated extremely abruptly, lots of comedy that’s more cringeworthy than funny, tryhard forced fanservice, weakly scripted fights that lack impact and payoff – the list goes on. Thankfully, Fire Force has the visual acuity that it does or this week would be a near wash.
Okaasan Online (5)
After a week that flashed some complexion beyond this show’s typical skin deep turnouts, Okaasan Online swiftly comes back to Earth – serving up a fresh reminder that it’s still a very limited Isekai work in the bigger picture. Episode five is immensely dry, persistent in its ability to deliver plot beat after plot beat of boring classroom antics that aren’t even close to memorable in any real way. Outside of the introduction of paper-thin Medhi and her equally one-note mother, there’s nothing noteworthy about this showing other than the fact that it shamelessly exists and large chunks of it feel like an undercooked OVA.
Tejina-senpai (6)
Six weeks in and there’s still extremely little going in favor of Tejina-senpai, be it textually or visually – ultimately playing out as just another microcosm of the overall phoned-in quality this series is heavily accustomed to. All elements take the quick route of convention even down to the introduction and characterization of our two new cast members, and the series’ ability to land its comedic marks remains heavily questionable. Stunted narrative flow and next to nonexistent chemistry between leads extend their presence and further weigh down an already poor performance.
Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou (5)
Lastly, there’s no hazmat suit thick enough to protect from the depressing levels of bankrupt writing that radiate from Arifureta’s fifth episode. After wading through the deep CG blemish of a final boss battle last week, viewers are treated to yet another poorly constructed CG bout but this time starring Hajime’s classmates – who are so underdeveloped and forgettable in the story at the moment that it’s hard even pretending to care what’s happening to them. Beyond that, almost all other seemingly pertinent bits that five whips up are just outright undermined by a pure lack of effort – skipping lots of background information and lazily writing off details through timeskips, montages or rawly giving no explanation at all. Arifureta has always been a pretty shallow work behind the pen, but this is easily pushing it. The show is cutting corners in the worst way.
