SEASONAL PRATTLE
Hey there! So by now, I’m sure you’ve seen content popping up all around the community anticipating Spring 2020’s anime season. And if you haven’t, well, just take a deeper look around. I’m sure you’ll find a couple of blogs and videos eagerly looking forward to this upcoming batch of fresh anime without too much effort. Anyway, Seasonal Prattle isn’t immune to this anticipatory buzz and the look into Spring’s goodies has begun – which is both good and bad news. The good news being, of course, getting better acclimated with what appears to be a promising season, which should pay off when it comes to Spring’s Check-Ins early on. The bad news: Doing so eats up time and left us with a shorter Check-In for today. So please forgive the slim amount of coverage and let’s get right into what we have:
Yes, this week’s lead is Somali to Mori no Kamisama – but not because it was exceptionally built or really, for any overtly positive reason at all. I’m actually a little surprised at what it had to offer this time around both in terms of structure and outright writing, which this rare somewhat hiccup landed it up here. The look, the tone, the character interactions – all of that remained solid to the extent that one would expect from this series. However, both the fact that there’s only a couple of episodes left, and that we’re coming fresh off an episode that could largely be considered a stepping stone in itself, makes it a bit of a questionable choice to roll out another stone – stacking these “less dramatically propulsive” episodes back to back. Furthermore, it doesn’t exactly help that our conclusion with Rosa was fairly predictable, somewhat robbing what bite this episode had beyond its early half emotional tugs in Golem’s flashback. With the Winter season pretty much on its death bed, it’s imperative that all shows do what they can to close out strong. These final episodes really matter and I hope Somali to Mori no Kamisama gets that memo and takes better advantage of that next week.
Bofuri (10)
“Reliably stringing together battles without sacrificing context”
Good showing this time around from Bofuri, one that’s put together well enough in terms of pacing and efficient character work to stay engaging from start to finish. This latest entry felt very comfortable with letting its action breathe – reliably stringing together battles without sacrificing context or letting one particular fight dominate too much. There’s enough attention paid to movement and weight, whether it be the way a body reacts after being attacked or how close combat is executed, to make the clashes feel dynamic. And this week’s bigger dramatic beats are appropriately timed to keep our chunk of narrative from feeling too linear. Looking forward to what’s next!
Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun (10)
“Harmonious distribution of tiny segments, personality features, and comedic moments”
This week’s Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun is yet another chapter in the thick book of “yes this show is good”, but for those who’ve been following this one diligently, you’re already well aware that’s the case. Episode ten continues to deliver, headlined by this series’ ability to accurately sell inherently competing tones which remains to be a joy to see in addition to a commendable facet. Jibaku’s harmonious distribution of tiny segments, personality features, and comedic moments in the Hell of Mirrors – regardless if it’s stemming from Mitsuba or Yashiro – ultimately would be the gears that safely guides viewers to a positive experience and finish. Hoping next week keeps up the healthy showings.
Darwin’s Game (10)
“Consistently struggling to be standard-fare”
Only one episode now remains, and Darwin’s Game seems ready to tumble into its finale in the same way it kicked this whole fiasco off – brimming with edgy writing, loosely thought out plotting, and just an overall grasp of storytelling that’s consistently struggling to be standard-fare. After sitting through last week’s performance that had highlights ranging from “submachine gunfire still can’t hit anyone of relevance no matter how close they are” to “yet another girl demands to get pregnant by the MC” – our unoriginal protagonist and friends are back riding a sillier slab of script: Getting Shinozuka to join D-Game so he can break free from his predicament with his starting sigil. A stroke of writing that’s not only dumb given that sigil powers are completely chosen at random, but ridiculously convenient too after we found out he gets telekinesis – a sigil that just so happens to not need his hands and is super powerful all in one shot. And here I thought we couldn’t get worse.
