“QUOTE OF THE WEEK”

– HandShakers’ sequel aired this weekend and a small handful of the community was genuinely pumped for more. They’re being questioned accordingly.

 

SEASONAL PRATTLE

Boogiepop wa Warawanai (1 + 2)

A new year, a new season and I’m happy to roll out Boogiepop up at the top here. Boogiepop wa Warawanai’s clear understanding of how storytelling should be attuned to the mystery and horror genre spaces, where the structure of the overarching narrative helps reinforce the show’s fragmented distribution of information and eerie tone, is very satisfying over these first two episodes. Few works manage to pair immediate entertainment value with the methodical unraveling of a big picture mystery, and even less do it with a considerable amount of poise – but Boogiepop wa Warawanai has been up to the challenge thus far and making it look fairly natural in the process for its medium. Looking forward to episode 3.

The Rising of the Shield Hero (1)

Despite the backlash and overall pre-airing contention Shield Hero received, I was actually surprised to see this double-length premiere was so sturdy. Episode one isn’t going to wow you in its craft or base writing, it’s still very much stuck in a variety of Isekai trappings, but it does manage to gain leverage through certain avenues. I would be lying if I said the series doesn’t put forth a fine effort in hitting its tonal goals – characters that are meant to be despised are easy to do so and moments of inner weakness ring home. Complementing this, there’s a handful of presentation quirks to keep things fluid, and Kevin Penkin’s audial efforts make for solid support. All in all, I feel a little tricked; This wasn’t anything spectacular, but also not nearly the dumpster fire that certain voices in the community made it out to be.

Egao no Daika (1)

Loli space princess who thinks rivaling empires can all just hug it out and get along with each other, bland military mech designs, a childhood friend that already has a death flag, and an overall craft effort that feels phoned in. Egao no Daika comes across as uninspired and lackluster in a lot of ways – ultimately rolling out a premiere that simply lacks the wiggle and agility to get its narrative to elevate from the stale threshold of “that was sort of okay at best.” Perhaps next week will be a brighter showing?

Ueno-san wa Bukiyou (1) 

For a rom-com the “rom” part really doesn’t feel too kinetic yet, but Ueno-san wa Bukiyou does a fair job of cleanly landing its gags and overall managing its comedy. It’s a bit concerning that the ceiling appears to be limited here: I can see this show’s overall formula potentially wearing thin for some viewers down the road, so it will be up to Ueno and Tanaka to show some versatility as leads and keep things fresh every now and then. That might be an uphill challenge based on this first episode alone, but nothing too substantial to overcome.

BanG Deam 2 (1)

Reasonable start for BanG Deam 2 despite some CG hiccups here and there. This second season already feels more confident in its approach; The level of expressional work from the cast is a lot more free flowing and the dialogue is way snappier between performances. It also helps that Yuniko Ayana seems completely comfortable with the series composition again. There’s a bunch of narrative choices that feel decisive and directly showcase personality. Not bad BanG Dream, not bad.

W’z (1)

Even if you somehow ignore W’z eye-searing production effort, fit with everything from overly photorealistic backgrounds to mentally fatiguing color schemes – you still have to crawl through the large landfill that this first episode pretends is reasonable writing. There is hardly a floor to stand on here: GoHands virtually presents you with no real reason to want to engage with Yukiya or any of the other handful of characters they showed for that matter, and the narrative thus far is next to non-existent so viewers can’t even reliably lean on that instead. I’m not sure if W’z is trying to get a preemptive start over Dimension High School for worst anime of the season, but if they are, they’re doing a wonderful job.

 

 

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