SEASONAL PRATTLE
If you’re like a lot of seasonal anime watchers, week three of the season is the start of a crucial process. A process filled with both continuation and dismissal as airing shows finally begin to reach the threshold to qualify for the infamous “drop rule” – now having enough content available to go under deeper scrutiny. And while our team at Seasonal Prattle will also be joining in on the drop rule ritual, we currently still have a job to do today and a recently finished week to discuss. So let’s dive in and get down to business!
Leading off our Check-In is Dorohedoro, a work that may not have had the best performance of the week, but is still headlining here due to it sadly slipping through a decent amount of watchlist cracks despite a promising start. What Dorohedoro offers physically, bringing a distinctive palette and strong sense of identity to its gory world is immediately rewarding – inevitably working itself into one of the brightest takeaways in an opening episode that had its fair share. The use of incidental detailing is applaudable: Our content wastes little time showing it has the visual IQ to make its culture visceral and its characters engaging. Storywise, by no means are we working with crystal clear information, but there’s plenty of tidbits and useful lines of plotting along the way that lends viewers enough guidance and intrigue to follow through. A worthy show to check out if you haven’t yet, and if you already did, one that should be further explored with confidence moving forward.
Bofuri (2)
“Plenty of structural dexterity and aptitude”
Bofuri’s second affair is a good one, built with better care than expected and delivered with a fine sense for its genre’s more critical touchstones. The concoction of Maple’s ruthless playstyle, her level of adorableness, and the show’s light comedy sells episode two’s early material with little friction – slipping viewers easily into a second-half positioned for impact. Once there, Sally and a sneakily good craft effort take over in style. Rich blues and whipped greens immerse the screen throughout our closing cave exploration, working towards an understated insert track, and inevitably capped off with a boss battle that showed plenty of structural dexterity and aptitude. The little flourishes that lend beauty and form to this world is a treat!
Pet (2)
“Appreciable amount of moral ambiguity”
Second time around and Pet is still entertaining, now matching its inherent intrigue with a brand of storytelling that’s a lot more understandable than its debut. Oomori once again displayed substantial command sifting through this work’s more eccentric sequences; It’s not exactly a cakewalk portraying all the mental leaps intuitively so it’s good to see this pulled off without a hitch. Building off of that, episode two further stretches its positive resume by showing some competency when it comes to close character reading. Katsuragi and Hiroki’s strained relationship is interesting, and the subtle shuffling of character positioning gives an appreciable amount of moral ambiguity between the leads. Another job well done when the dust settles.
Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka☆Magica Gaiden (3)
“Voluminous, layered display, filled with labored and varied directorial ticks”
Great execution from this latest Magia Record, tethering Kaede and Rena’s confessional pulp into a lavish episode swelling with articulate visual vocabulary – to the extent that their relationship progression is appreciable not only as reflective statements on their respective characters but as full-fledged craft pieces in the grander scope of three. Transforming an episode whose primary narrative conceits are straight-forward on paper into a more voluminous, layered display, filled with labored and varied directorial ticks in this fashion is certainly worthy of higher praise – and higher praise it will receive. Really good turnout.
Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun (2)
“Quick-hitting gags and patter dictate a narrative flow that feels seamless”
Round two and Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun is gorgeous as always, reaping good results from its fluffy, charming nature that harmonizes well with its distinguishing style. I love how episode two gets by on firm writing: Bits of finely interspersed exposition timed with quick-hitting gags and patter dictate a narrative flow that feels seamless, and there’s a healthy amount of scripted moments geared toward leveraging Hanako and Yashiro’s biggest strength – their chemistry in private corners. The cute twist and handling of the Mokke, along with the change of pace Minamoto’s appearance provides tops off another applaudable showing. Nicely done Lerche.
Somali to Mori no Kamisama (2)
“Unimaginative activities and flows”
While Somali to Mori no Kamisama’s composition is rewarding, filled with evocative setpieces that do a fantastic job of highlighting its world, the list of aspects that overachieve pretty much ends there. Throughout two weeks, Somali to Mori has been rigidly mediocre in just about every textual perspective. The specific father-daughter dynamic the show aims to implement has enough saturation from similar works in recent seasons to the point that casually walking through the hallmarks isn’t enough – which is essentially what we’ve been receiving. Arguably worse, this series has yet to truly involve its heavy fantasy roots in a compelling way. It’s a complete shame that episode two ultimately settles for a set of unimaginative activities and flows for the bulk of its run despite the show’s fundamental mystique and resources available. Fine at the end of the day, but could be so much more.
Kyokou Suiri (2)
“Paddling through a thick wad of straight-laced dialogue”
It’s easy to pin this follow up episode as a clear step back in every phase that was already suspicious in quality to begin with. After a debut that got good mileage out of its banter between Kotoko and Kurou, two manages to keep that momentum rolling but unfortunately with the associated cost of paddling through a thick wad of straight-laced dialogue. Kyokou Suiri does little to make its swamp side conversation more flavorful from a construction standpoint – both visually and textually – which ends up hurting way more than it should given that the vast majority of the content is occupied with it. Wrapping up on a cliffhanger, and thus, denying the audience any concrete resolution after the large conversational drag only serves as the icing on top of this poor cake. Hopefully, next week bounces back.
Plunderer (2)
“No longer wading through a bunch of undercooked patches of exposition”
Better showing this week, but that’s not exactly saying much given the dirt level bar of quality that was established in Plunderer’s premiere. The biggest contribution in this positive step forward easily comes from episode two’s narrower direction; We’re no longer wading through a bunch of undercooked patches of exposition or sequences that seem solely constructed to play up to the show’s ecchi sensibilities, but rather, we’re strictly closing out the narrative thread at hand. Dedicating a good chunk of screen time to having Licht finish his fight and swiftly handling the fallout, thus creating little room for spare dialogue and character exchanges afterward in the process, worked well here. The fewer opportunities this show has to step on its own feet with poor dynamics the better – at least until it can prove to be reasonable in that department.
Darwin’s Game (3)
“Little to be excited about in make or delivery”
The third endeavor of Darwin’s Game has come and gone, continuing the trend of struggling to be anything more than a borderline popcorn watch. With that said, three’s components offer little to be excited about in make or delivery – the episode purely cruises by on base intrigue be it from the treasure hunt event itself or the plant infested predicaments Kaname quickly finds himself in. Small cuts of the watch party and the hard introduction of Rein make this particular slab of the narrative a bit more valuable, but in the end, it’s not enough to sell this turnout as anything more than “passable”.
22/7 (2)
“Plotting that’s hastily going through the motions”
I love 22/7’s bravery this week, having the poise and unrattled mindset to deliver a hearty serving of loosely cared for idol cliches to pair with the soggy McDonald’s on a piece of paper that it calls a premise. Episode two’s cast interactions and narrative flows are exactly what you would expect from an underachieving idol show: Shallow incircle drama, character acting that’s severely limited to archetypes, plotting that’s hastily going through the motions of establishing a group, and a firm level of predictability to top it all off. 22/7 pushes forward in being bad.
