SEASONAL PRATTLE
It’s another week of Araburu and thus, another round of authorship trying to pass off Sugawara’s pulled out of thin air rationale and baffling decision making as “good drama.” Episode nine wouldn’t be so painful if it wasn’t enormously translucent in how counterfeit its mechanics are in setting up the inevitable heartache. It wouldn’t be so painful if Hongou’s narrative thread didn’t take a hard right turn that managed to make it even more unpalatable than it already is. It wouldn’t be so painful if Momoko was written with an ounce of sense here, rather than blatantly fueling this car crash of a love triangle by suddenly being fake and withholding pertinent information. It wouldn’t be so painful if the pedo Director wasn’t now shallowly pulling strings from afar and getting results for no tangibly tight reason.
But it is, and that’s why this week’s episode is leading our Check-In and getting more words its way than its peers. The disconnect between how it’s playing its hand and aspirations of being a commendable work in its genre space is too strong to ignore.
I’ve talked in the past how well-conducted drama needs a certain level of grace and subtlety. The groundwork required is delicate and takes a careful hand and sharp sense of awareness of all elements involved to truly pull off. Well-conducted drama is like a finely crafted fragrance – opening notes are welcoming and alluring yet slowly peel away methodically till it reaches its more subtly powerful, sultry scents. Araburu at its dramatic core is nothing like this. Its notes are very bold, highly synthetic and even nauseating at times. It announces what it’s trying to do and loudly at that as you can smell it a mile away. Araburu’s clutch on the essence of drama is tenuous at best, and this latest episode is yet another testament of that as we take one more step closer to the obvious landslide.
Vinland Saga (9)
Delivering again, Vinland Saga presents a showing laced with engaging sequencing and backed by a steady pen behind its writing. This week’s aesthetic qualities are quick to absorb attention and fall in line as the easy highlight here – glistening with gorgeous shot framing, keen spacing and arresting motion once Thorkell and Thorfinn faceoff. Hearty, intangible reinforcements for Thorfinn’s character further outlining his grit and resolve through several scenes round things out along with some nice layouts late in the second half on the structural side. Well put together outing all in all.
Dr. Stone (9)
Currently, Dr. Stone just feels like a well-oiled machine with how it keeps stacking these positive performances. This week furthers the trend of new characters having healthy outcomes on the current cast dynamic as Gen debuts – acting as an intriguing cog from a narrative perspective but also surprisingly holding ground well when Stone’s comedic tones start flaring up. Build wise, nine offers a fit twenty minutes, matching easy-going writing with a versatile level of visual craft that’s never out of position to capture the intended mood. Nicely done.
Fire Force (8)
For what’s it worth, this was one of Fire Force’s more complete efforts in awhile even with its obvious defects – which in its own way, says a lot about the average quality of this series. It’s a shame the conclusion to our latest mystery comes off as very rushed. Having the culprit identified, and what appears already beaten, in about twenty minutes of run time after this storyline was introduced definitely hurts, and the usual sprinkles of Arthur’s cringe drenched comedy and contrived spots of scriptwriting don’t help either. However, enough is going on to sell Rekka’s character and to a lesser extent, Tamaki’s emotional struggle despite the hard manipulation involved. Eight is visually structured well enough to land its bigger strokes with impact and make this a reasonable turnout.
Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru? (9)
Outside of the obvious cameos, there’s honestly nothing special about this latest serving of Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru and even less actually going for it when you take a step back and look at the bigger picture. This series’ brand of gags is still very much take it or leave it, with the line between hilarity and “this is just plain dumb” being thin. Even more glaring, the show’s narrative spine and leverage that it offers are practically non-existent this week. We get a shoddily conceptualize storyline to push Machio into competition that’s rocky with stale shonen hallmarks and ends up having next to nothing in terms of pay off – great! It should go without saying at this point, but Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru doesn’t have nearly the nose for comedy or grasp of cast chemistry that it thinks it does to get by on tepid, more loosely crafted scenario writing and it shows in this middling performance.
Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou (7)
Arifureta’s weekly campaign for the worst anime of the Summer rolls on with a performance that’s as equally tedious as it is functional. From a bird’s eye view, plenty of sequences here are downright messy, be it with this series’ usual penchant for grating CG or the breakneck speed the narrative is adapted and churned out. More specifically, however, the fashion Shia’s complements our duo continues to prove to be not only distinctly dry, but also a prominent issue that plagues much of episode eight’s run-length given how center stage she is throughout it. Everything she offers from soft fanservice to comedy is openly stunted and generic – adding nothing to an already failing series, and in some senses, dragging it down more. Another swing and a miss.
