“QUOTE OF THE WEEK”
– This week’s Shield Hero caused the series’ biggest spike in listed drops since its premiere. Ouch.
SEASONAL PRATTLE
The Promised Neverland (7)
In a seasonal week that had its fair share of strong showings on a whole, The Promised Neverland managed to shine the brightest and deservingly so. I’ve touched upon this before in previous editions of Seasonal Prattle, but to quickly reiterate, for nearly six weeks this work has more than loudly gotten charred by various members of the community for how it stacks up to the source – mainly while downplaying the level of elevation its been given in its new medium. Thankfully, episode seven has such firm craft roots that it’s really hard to overlook the trampoline the anime is providing the material and even harder to downplay. From the opening minutes to the credit roll, our narrative strokes are carefully managed and smoothly portrayed; Loaded with applaudable aspects from the uncharacteristically reserved audio effort that bolstered incidental noise, to the array of engaging perspectives birthed from strong shot framing that does wonders for the eerie atmosphere. However, this week’s depiction of Krone, her mannerisms, and how that combines with the graceful feeding of crucial information that the viewer receives is the true highlight here. What a fantastic effort all around.
Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai (7)
Episodes as well rounded as this latest one not only further cements Kaguya-sama’s status as one of the top shelf works this Winter, but also sculpts a reasonable case for its name to get more consideration in AOTS discussions by the community. Lots of attention to detail is paid in both the timing of this week’s jokes and their corresponding reactions which really make our time spent here pop, especially in the second and third skits. Even better, our cast continues to show no signs of becoming stale with their shticks, and actually, in a lot of beats raise the bar with most notably Ishigami having some of his funniest scenes yet. I know Dororo and Mob Psycho constantly lead serious talks of Winter’s best, but if Kaguya-sama continues down this path it should get some honest mentions in there.
Kakegurui xx (7)
Great showing from Kakegurui, synchronizing its underrated composition and directorial ticks with its best written effort to date. The “Greater Good” game introduced here inherently does episode seven a lot of favors, ranging from its rule set that grants the most cerebral depth in a gamble we’ve seen so far to its grouping of election front runners that bring their own interesting dynamics to the playing field. More notably though, the course of this episode ultimately portrayed Yumeko in a few peculiar positions: The callout on if she ever feels remorse for those she defeats and ultimately dooms was a very welcomed stab into her character, and the Greater Good’s participants suspecting her early on as a traitor has her fighting with her back against the ropes right away. Kakegurui’s weakness has traditionally been its level of predictability and how that has such an inverse effect on its ability to thrill and engage, be that as it may, that isn’t even a minor hurdle here with the way this episode unfolds. Well done.
Mob Psycho s2 (7)
Fortunately, Mob Psycho is blessed with a degree of articulation and talent that makes nailing textured, character-driven episodes like this a breeze. So needless to say, there’s a lot to appreciate in Bone’s approach when framing both Reigen’s social struggle and following resolve – namely in the clean depiction of the fragility and earnest nature of his relationship with Mob. There’s a variety of stylistic touches and multi-layered compositions that gift wrap those particular aspects, all having their set of intricacies to make this episode really special and further push its strong emotional finish.
Kemurikusa (7)
Much of Kemurikusa’s appeal has purely extended from how consciously unraveled its post-apocalyptic world has been, so it’s nice to see this latest episode continuing to ride that strength with ease. Tatsuki is once again competent at properly drip feeding viewers information, not selling Island seven’s key mysteries too quick and having what we do learn framed like an organic discovery that’s genuinely intriguing rather than a force just to push this narrative forward. It’s a bit of shame that this series’ aesthetic choices drove potential viewers off early as it’s really proving to be one of the better, fundamentally told stories this season.
Dororo (7)
While a lighter approach and happy ending can be very appreciable, especially given what we’ve been recently served, this latest outing still comes across as glaringly weak in Dororo’d the bigger picture. It’s no secret that Dororo is highly dependable when it comes to the fundamentals of storytelling, unfortunately, fundamentals alone fail to make Ohagi’s steady investment in humanity compelling, and that’s basically all this episode had to ride on. A little production polish could have really helped this week out, but as it stands, this is a bit of a misstep form what’s otherwise been a very strong series all Winter long.
The Rising of the Shield Hero (7)
Finally, we come to Shield Hero and a seventh showing that was easily the series’ weakest yet. For the past two weeks Shield Hero has thoroughly drifted into the stale realm that is generic Isekai storytelling – never even coming close to matching the passion and weight it was throwing around in episode four or even any of the momentum in the previous three before that. This time around would essentially be an extension of that poor streak: Twenty minutes composed of a bland plant-centric conflict to lead that never actually presents Naofumi any real challenge followed by a batch of harem-esque writing centered around all the freshness that a hot spring brings. By the time the credits roll it’s crystal clear that this series is now painfully mediocre at best.
If you enjoy this blog and would like to see more of them then please consider following Seasonal Prattle or using the sharing tools below to spread the word. Thank you!