SEASONAL PRATTLE
Hey there! If you’re a repeat reader it’s been a little bit with the skipping and all of Spring’s mostly superfluous thirteenth week, and if you’re new, welcome to Seasonal Prattle!
No matter which category you fall in, Spring is in the rearview mirror and we’ve reached the point now where the opening wave of summer anime premieres have come and gone. It’s not much of course, as the debut of this initial crop primarily occurred closely towards and over this past weekend, but overall for the handful of new titles that did commence – I would say it’s not exactly a compelling season so far.
We’re essentially working with a bunch of middling at best and often poor genre pieces that do little from a design sense to encourage that they’ll be rewarding in future weeks. Be that as it may, there’s still hope for this summer – with a good chunk of its content yet to air which include most of the more promising works. So with that said, keep your fingers crossed that this won’t be the norm quality wise and let’s get into what we do have:
Adding to the mountain of anime focused on an overpowered lead who slowly but surely forms an underserved harem of side pieces, The Misfit of Demon King Academy is first up on our list, beginning with all the ingenuity and wit of a slice of bread. It doesn’t take long to see the storytelling laid out in episode one is no different than the genre’s usual, just this time around it’s blatantly handicapped by a distinct lack of texture and exposition – which ultimately makes its social dynamics, spell jargon and overall direction come off as flat or limited.
Piling on that, it doesn’t help that the ceiling of our cast appears to be notably low. Watching Anos for ten or so minutes is all a viewer would need to pretty much get the extent of his rather straightforward character, and Misha is arguably worse – just basically hanging around and quietly admiring Anos while hardly contributing anything to move the story along. The Misfit of Demon King Academy seems to be very honest and transparent in what it wants to do and be, but that’s not always a good thing especially when those actions and goals are inherently tired like they are here.
Monster Musume no Oishasan (1)
“Formulaic all the way down to the very choice of monsters”
“Monster girl” shows are far from being the most intricate and layered, but even with appropriate expectations in mind, Monster Musume no Oishasan’s premiere is thoroughly lackluster. There’s nothing novel at all about its construction, feeling formulaic all the way down to the very choice of monsters, their behavior, and the ecchi riffs that glue it all together. Its level of production has obvious CGI rough patches and as far as its comedy stands, you wouldn’t even know this series was a comedy unless you read the genre tags ahead of time. It wouldn’t be surprising if the majority of viewers didn’t give it a second episode.
Lapis Re:LiGHTs (1)
“Plenty in the ways of vivid colors and upbeat attitudes but little in facets that actually matter”
Much to the pleasure of those who bury themselves deep in the pits of idol culture, Lapis Re:LiGHTs launches – bringing plenty in the ways of vivid colors and upbeat attitudes but little in facets that actually matter like “plot” or “characterization”. Despite very visibly being an idol show in its promotional material, this start is hardly that: Viewers are instantly pulled through a tour of a magic academy where a bunch of copy and pasted girls with various bright hair colors whistle to themselves and at objects to enchant them.
It’s only deep after the awkward choice of putting the OP halfway through the episode where Re:LiGHTs snaps out of magical girl mode and delivers more idol-like material – inevitably amounting to the only concrete chunk of narrative backbone all episode long that’s basically “our group is one step away from being expelled so we need to get it together”. A fairly underwhelming first entry.
Dokyuu Hentai HxEros (1)
“Scripted generically enough to prop up a handful of forced fanservice and nothing more.”
Lastly, Dokyuu Hentai HxEros arrives, offering just about the same level of written quality one would expect from a show with hentai right in the title. For that, it should come to no surprise that HxEros’ banal, laughable sci-fi premise that essentially boils down to erotic power ranger plays out in poor fashion: Predictable around every turn of Hoshino and Ret’s interactions and scripted generically enough to prop up a handful of forced fanservice and nothing more.
