Winter 2017 Week 3 Recap

Once again fallen behind, but that’s part of the experience at this point. I’ve been working on a lot of plans in the background in that time, some related to this blog and some not, but I don’t want to spill the beans on them in fear of never completing them. I do want to get these out on the right day, but I can try to correct that next week I guess.

Rakugo S2 – Episode 3

Yota says that he does rakugo for the art itself and not for his benefit, and he isn’t lying when he says that. But as this episode shows, that doesn’t mean that he needs to be absent from his own rakugo. Until now, Yota has been so focused on imitating Kiku and Sukeroku that he’s been unable to really develop a style that he can call his own. Only when we see his rant against the yakuza boss do we realize that he’s totally capable of creating his own form of rakugo.

This episode allows Yota to really voice his feelings in a way he usually avoids. He’s full of personality, but he doesn’t inject that personality into his rakugo nearly as much as he should, and he suffers for it. As Kiku says, too little ego is just as big of a problem as too much ego, and until now Yota has had far too little. But it seems that he himself has now realized this problem, and is now truly attempting to make a more personal style of rakugo, one that he can truly call his own.

LWA – Episode 3

This was the best episode so far, and that’s including the OVAs. Not only did Diana and Akko’s stellar characterization carry through from the previous episode, but the show presented one of the best animated episodes of anime I’ve ever seen. The use of smears in the motion here was fantastic, and very fitting for the race the episode portrayed. I haven’t seen a ton of talk about it, but this episode felt as if every cut could be posted on sakugabooru. There were basically no visual flaws to be seen. As I said, Akko’s character arc is continuing nicely, and Diana is a much more likeable character here. I’m happy I like this show so much.

MaiDragon – Episode 3

This show continues to be great. Continuing from last week, MaiDragon has thoroughly shifted into a more domestic yuri series, which heavily emphasizes the importance of companionship and trust. Themes like that always resonate strongly with me, and I like the way its done here without losing the uniqueness of the dragons. KyoAni’s work adds a lot here, not just from the stellar character designs and animation, but the cinematography as well. The scene in which Kobayashi is calming Tohru and telling her that she isn’t annoying had some fantastic, actually useful lens flare which added to the calm and happy theme. It was just a really good episode.

3-gatsu – Episode 14

I hate to say it, but this wasn’t my favorite episode. It wasn’t bad, but it felt like it was too much a retread of past material. Rei’s realization that he was overconfident and needs to get down-to-earth and start working his way up is good, and will allow the show to really help him recover as a person in every sphere. But it didn’t feel like it needed the whole episode to do that, leading to a lot of time that felt wasted. I’m excited to see what is done with the groundwork laid by this episode, but I can’t say I was impressed this week.

GabDro – Episode 3

I’ve decided that for this show I’ll just run down each episode’s main gags and say what I think about them. The coffee store gags were great. Much like the previous student council president gag, the inability of humans to understand the angels and devils, and their attempts to rationalize their behavior is hilarious. Raphiel’s scene with Vigne was also good, and it managed to show that Raphiel can be funny with Satania being present. The final gag was the best though, and due to its simplicity it managed to make me laugh the hardest. The godly censoring was a clever trick, and this part had the most yuri content, a huge draw for me. Overall I thought all the jokes this episode were funny, so the show’s continuing its trend of being consistent.

Konosuba S2 – Episode 3

I still like that Darkness was gone. This episode didn’t manage to make me laugh as often, but the big joke was funny enough that I still liked the episode. That said, I wish the sexual harassment jokes would fuck off forever. They aren’t funny and I don’t need them. Aside from that, this was a pretty funny episode.

Urara – Episode 3

This episode wasn’t quite as good as the last, but the series kept its strengths here. This show has a sense of progression that I rarely get from these shows, and it feels like all three episodes so far has actually resulted in me learning more about the characters or world. This episode shined a lot more light on Koume and Chiya, which was especially beneficial in Koume’s case. It can be hard to keep CGDCT shows interesting on a week-to-week basis, but so far Urara is passing with flying colors on that front.

IBO S2 – Episode 15

This was one of the best episodes in a while. Amida and Naze’s deaths were so heavily flagged last episode that I saw no chance of them surviving, but that didn’t make it any less sad when they did. People may find it melodramatic, but I find that this show manages to handle the deaths of important characters quite well, and that remained true here. Amida and Naze went out in badass fashion, and there deaths certainly weren’t pointless, seeing as they managed to save hundreds of Turbines members. I’m ready to see how this is going to effect Orga’s plans, though I suspect it’ll only send him deeper down the rabbit hole.

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