SEASONAL PRATTLE
This was about as clean of a demonstration as you can get this season of the importance of competent scriptwriting from a high profile work, and for that, Fire Force finds itself leading off this weekly check-in. There’s no doubt our latest showing is visually gifted, which should come to little surprise this deep in. Six showcases one scene after another of beautifully composed shots and frames that communicate both thematic and emotional alignment, consistently appearing well-considered and easily praiseworthy in their raw correlation. Be that as it may, its attractive exterior can’t mask the pungent fragrance of wounded writing – a stench that envelops the senses instantly upon Hibana’s amateurish backstory and only strengths as the lack of creativity and magnetism to Shinra’s captain fight quickly unfolds. The anti-climatic and highly cliche result of our battle acts as a total kiss of death. Fire Force is clearly not competitive as a cumulative product. The show has surface beauty, yes, but the rest of its components lag noticeably behind in virtually any desirable fashion. It’s an absolute shame given the talent that’s on this project.
Granbelm (7)
When an episode has an elite toolkit, storytelling starts with well-founded emotion and an intimate grasp of the concepts it wants to illustrate. This seventh performance is utterly a beautiful example of achieving that – Shingetsu and Anna’s bubbling clash is brought to life with crisp animation, the direction is tonally purposeful, the backgrounds are vibrant and colorful, and the more prominent dramatic strokes resonate with a hearty level of passion. The visceral plot beats engulfed with Anna’s personality are a prize on their own, glistening not only for how deeply convincing they are in portraying her rage but also being commendable in the pure power behind their voicing. The execution on the close is a cherry on top of a very sweet cake of an episode, maintaining intrigue into the credits and gracefully shutting the door on Anna’s current narrative thread. Granbelm made it crystal clear that its appetite for effective vision, desire, and character positioning would not be denied and it definitely wasn’t. Bravo!
Given (6)
It feels like Given was a bit drawn out at times, but still plenty effective in its own way during this recent outing. The sparse choices in the second half where we’re simply following Mafuyu presumably visiting key locations of a life long gone certainly have a subtle beauty to them – methodical in touch, and largely delivered in a manner that captures the isolated struggle that finding the right words can often bring. Eventually following this up with another tangibly hollow sequence – on the stairs with Uenoyama pinning down what he was feeling – reinforced this approach’s success wasn’t a stroke of luck, but rather, a direction our staff has plenty of competency in. Given is great in quiet spaces and I would love to see more of it.
Dr. Stone (7)
From the quicker hitting facial expressions to the larger sorcery skit, Dr. Stone actually felt much more at home working primarily as a comedy product than a lot of its Summer run so far. It’s good to see it shining in that light while still finding plenty of room to spread its wings in terms of narrative possibilities – presenting a village full of revived people and an array of useful resources that amount to a ton of leverage for things to really start getting interesting. Bouncing off of that, the introduction of Chrome fits in snuggly to what this episode is already achieving, holding his own comically and bringing more narrative juice in the process, and Ruri’s late appearance grants this episode a bit of a dramatic spine rounding out a very healthy showing. Well done.
Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo (7)
Araburu is back with its seventh installment, delivering a thoughtful display brimming with well-managed character moments if you turn a blind eye to the awkward pedo centric parts and think Kazusa’s “my boobs are stupid” bit qualifies as good writing. In reality, this is another tepid if charitable performance, spending a generous amount of time crawling through Sugawara and Kazusa’s puddle deep drama along with the thick serving of cringe that’s been coming out of Hongou’s corner of the narrative lately – drowning out the small pockets of good the rest of the cast occasionally generated here. By credit roll, it’s clear that this show’s talent for brightly artificial tension and off-putting scenario writing remains strong.
Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru? (7)
Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru advances to the second half of its TV run, yet still hasn’t found a way to break from its usual habits of mediocre scriptwriting and dunking viewers in hit and miss comedy. This week’s episode is certainly not a glaring misfire, but it is very underwhelming, not even being notable in its natural habitat of fanservice. Our opening meat-centered material is dull at best, and the pulled out of thin air idol angle that takes over the rest of the episode isn’t much better and feels gimmicky. It’s as if the writers didn’t know what to do with this show anymore but still wanted to change things up because the gym bits are stale. Thus, here we are, reaping the lackluster rewards.
Danmachi 2 (6)
I suppose in hindsight, this went about as well as one would expect from an episode called “City of Lust” out of Danmachi’s camp: A rusty melting pot of copious fanservice merged with a degree of writing that will have you questioning if you sadly just started a filler arc. On that note, episode six feels highly padded, loaded with patches of content that come across as thoroughly inconsequential to the show’s greater aspirations as audiences watch Bell sheepishly running from prostitutes all night. Six tires to salvage its relevance mainly with Haruhime’s addition in its back end, but even the emotional levers she’s designed to pull feel stock effort. Haruhime’s backstory into prostitution is obviously sad, but the show’s so transparent and mechanical in delivering it that it doesn’t hit with the oomph that it could. An easy step back all in all.
Isekai Cheat Magician (6)
Getting more depressing with each passing week, Isekai Cheat Magician coughs up an episode that’s as flavorful as a glass of water and equally as filling. There’s not an ounce of value present as episode six chugs along a railroad of old crusty concepts – quickly checking off the twin loli box for Taichi’s ever-expanding harem and throwing some rapey goblins in the mix as well for good measure. Close to episode’s end, the production effort begins to deteriorate and with that, so does any remaining shreds that this can at least be a mediocre entry into its genre space. What an absolute joke.
