This Week in Anime

Hot Dads

You can read the first two installments of This Week in Anime here (week 1) and here (week 2). Be sure to share your feedback on this new feature with us in the forums!

Nicholas Dupree got into anime in high school, and manga even earlier. From One Piece to The Promised Neverland, he's the man to talk to if it's Shonen and it Jumps. He counts Den-Noh Coil and Serial Experiments Lain as his all-time favorites.

Michelle Liu got into anime in middle school through Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan and somehow liked it enough to stick around. When she's not loudly proclaiming her love of Sayo Yamamoto, she talks about figure skating and strange children's shows.

Episode 4

Episode 30

Episode 18

Episode 4

I'd like to lodge a complaint about Re:Creators. I signed onto this for wacky adventures about light novel characters blowing up skyscrapers. I did not ask for these feelings!

METEORA ;_;

Can I just mention that scene where she visits Titan Digitalsoft? This show continues to impress me with quietly well-directed moments; no dialogue, just the music and the expression on her face tell all. You know something's wrong before they explicitly tell you.

Yeah, it's surprisingly smart with how it conveys information. We get the important stuff without sitting through a whole conversation, and it centers the drama on Meteora's reaction. Then we learn the details at the same time as the rest of the cast, and that puts us directly into /their/ shoes, wondering how Meteora's reacting to things, or where she is.

Her coping method of playing video games all night is #relatable, let's be real. I mean, on top of the reasons we already had to care about her.

I was honestly kind of iffy on her until this episode. She was mostly there to deliver exposition and while she wasn't bad, I wasn't all that interested in her either. But her way of connecting with her dead creator by experiencing her own game is really intriguing.

It's almost like that good ol' anime trope where a character learns about their estranged/lost father's past through writing, in a kind of parallel to Selesia/Matsubara's estranged father/daughter relationship. I like how the show keeps coming back to the "characters as creators' children" idea.

And here it's also a way of interrogating his intentions for making her world - sussing out how he felt about the people who lived there, if he cared about the struggles they went through, if he just did it for money, etc. It's a clever twist on the theme of stories outliving their makers - Meteora finds comfort knowing that her existence and everything she's ever known has meant something to others, even if it's just amusement.

Yeah, and as long as a single copy of the game exists, she'll continue to be "reborn," as she puts it. As long as her story matters to /somebody./

It was also nice to see everybody comfort her too - I like it when the hero team in a story feel like genuine friends who care about each other.

It's really nice how well the cast plays off each other! Like normally I don't get this emotional over a shot of an anime girl eating ice cream.

The montages do a really nice job selling them by just letting them hang out and develop camaraderie naturally.

Meanwhile, plot wise we learn a few things this episode:

1) Too many fictional characters breaking laws of physics might lead to destruction

2) Military Uniform Princess probably knows this and has legitimate reasons for wanting it

3) There's a character named ALICETARIA FEBRUARY

She's the most transparent Saber clone, I swear

Oh good, I'm not the only one who saw shades of Arturia

In any given fantasy anime there has to be at least one Arturia character. It's anime law at this point.

Though her presence does establish an interesting detail: MUP seems to be intentionally recruiting Creations who tend towards moral absolutism.

Between Literally Saber and Pink Magical Girl, I'd say yeah

Arturia is unflinching JUSTICE through force, Mamika is all about forcing others to her side through overpowering them. It makes sense - who's more likely to see their own makers as the designers of all the evil in their world?

They're also the kind of people who'd forget the long-term consequences in their search for immediate justice. I mean, Alicetaria beats up her own author for failing to effect change on her through revisions

Because that's toooootally gonna help, yeah

It's a potentially explosive situation if the end of the world is what MUP really wants. Will Alicetaria sacrifice an entire other world for the sake of her own?

I'm just continuously impressed by how much thought's been put into everything.

Mamika buying her own branded curry tho

TBF I'd do that too. Put my face on something and I'll buy it and put it on my shelf and show it off to guests.

That was a sweet little moment between her and Alicetaria though!

"I want to eat curry with everyone" is the most goddang Magical Girl thing to say but goshdarn it if it didn't make me smile a little.

God she's gonna suffer so bad isn't she

Not if her tall knight gf can stop it

But that'll come later - next week we get to meet this Majestic Prince looking dude

How dang chuuni is this world gonna get? It just KEEPS GOING

I can't wait for them to try covering up a gotdamn mecha battle in the middle of Akiba

Oh yo I love Akiba's Trip

Jeez you watch so much trash.

THIS IS TRUE

But yeah, it'll be fun to see the show have an excuse to turn into literally every kind of anime in existence. Bring on the mechs, I say!

On the subject of fights though: how about them Titans

HOOOOOOO BOYYYY

This week had me nonstop on the edge of my seat (even though I knew what would happen!)

It's honestly probably my favorite episode of AoT entirely? It was all of my favorite aspects of the series and 100% of the fat trimmed off.

So we've established that Christa has a bit of a martyr complex, which makes a nice bit of hypocrisy when Ymir goes to sacrifice herself too.

It's a realllllly complicated relationship, and the kind of thing Isayama likes to mix in with his cast. Christa and Ymir share similar pasts, but their ways of coping with them are entirely different. Christa turns towards self-loathing and "selfless" acts to ignore her pain, while Ymir rejects everything but herself.

Both of which are pretty destructive

Yep, but through knowing eachother they simultaneously grow out of those and start acting out of compassion rather than rejection.

Christa yelling at her tall GF to tear down the tower is such a good scene

IT'S THE BEST

That's a big breakthrough for both her and Ymir I think - Christa's finally stepping up and taking charge of her life, while Ymir gets shaken out of the Christa-tunnel-vision.

THEY'RE GOOD GIRLFRIENDS NICK

Damn right they are.

Then you've got Titan Ymir tearing bricks out of the tower in a real goddang impressive scene, like really channeling the 3D camera work from early S1.

It's easily the most legible action scene the show's ever had. TBH a lot of S1's spider-manning just kind of confused me, but here I could follow everything and there felt like real weight behind Ymir's movement.

Between that and the rest of the 104th rushing in to save the day this episode was real heavy on the good action imo

Poor Eren though. He finally gets his "first" kill and then gets knocked on his ass.

I LAUGHED SO HARD

Eren gets a bad rap (for good reason) and even though I love him to death I still love it when he gets dunked like that

It is interesting that he doesn't consider any of his kills as a Titan shifter to "count"

Really lets you know what he considers himself, huh. He's still pretty adamant on the human = good, titan = bad thing, for better or worse

Dude's gotta learn to accept himself, including the part of him that's a giant organic death monster. Otherwise he's gonna have some uh, awkward times with Ymir going forward.

Assuming Ymir's still around - I was a little unclear if she was supposed to be alive at the end

She's still alive, I'm pretty sure - seriously injured, but you know how Titans have those nutso regenerative abilities

IMO dying in a cute girl's arms wouldn't be the worst way to go, tbh

I figured. Titan likes to milk its deaths regardless of the character, so I figured I'd know if I was supposed to.

Can't wait til we get to find out who Historia actually is

Can't wait for everyone just avoiding making eye contact with Ymir.

"So uh... you're a titan?"

"Yes."

"Have you...always been a titan?"

"Not until college."

It's gonna be fun~ I wanna see lots more of the good girlfriends going forward.

You know who else is good though? The good MHA kids

And this week the angry child gets a spotlight!

Bakugo might have a one-track mind but he's not dumb, I'll give him that. Slicking the ground for a speed boost is a smart move.

That's part of what endeared me to him early on - Bakugo's a nasty person and got major issues, but he's allowed more facets than a bully character usually gets in SJ stories. He's talented, but a lot of his strength comes from understanding the capabilities of his own quirk and thinking quickly - even if he can't learn people's names ="D

Bakugo's such a lovable little shit

And there's even admirable qualities to him! His ego's so big it drives him to act where others might not. Monoma is happy just keeping 4th place in the Cavalry Battle, but Bakugo's determined to be #1, no asterisks.

And boy, does he try - all those triple takes during the last few seconds until BZZZZT

yup, he eats dirt harder than Eren

IT'S WONDERFUL

The Deku/Todoroki matchup was pretty rad too

RECIPROBURST

Deku's trying his best, Nick, he's really trying his best

He's improving too! He finally learned to control his quirk a tiny bit. Which is good because otherwise Todoroki would be missing an arm right now.

He's also surprisingly ambitious under that cheery exterior - gotta go for the ten million, not settling for measly scrapings.

Obviously he's learned from Bakugo.

On the other side of things I really wanna know what exactly is Todoroki's problem. How can he hate a dad that hot?

Micchy that's a bad joke.

I want you to know that.

I'M SERIOUS THOUGH HE'S A HOT DAD

LOOK AT HIM

I'll hold off on any judgment until next week. But know that I'm
side-eyeing hard.

HARD

I did want to briefly mention I loved the animation for Iida's overclocking his engines.

This whole episode looked dang good, yeah

This whole season has looked nice with the incidental animation, but that kind of speed is reallllly difficult to capture well and it totally sold it. I also just like the concept of Iida's quirk - he's not just a run-of-the-mill speedster character like The Flash, so he has to use it in creative ways to fully utilize it. Similar to Tokoyami's Dark Shadow being stronger in darkness, it's neat little details that give the powers in the show some texture to separate them from other superpower fare.

Speaking of Tokoyami, he's the real MVP. Deku was going to make the top 4 just by virtue of being the protagonist but for a second I was honestly afraid for him. The ol' bait n' switch is old hat for shounen tournament shows but DANG if it didn't have me second guessing for a bit.

Spoilers: Deku loses next round and the rest of the season is about Bakugo's meteoric rise to fame.

I'd watch it.

Look, I know that's what the show would be if you were in charge of writing it

One day everyone will understand why I love him so much.

And one day everyone will admit Eren did nothing wrong, but we don't always get what we want, Nick

On that note maybe one day I'll understand the hubbub
about Suka Suka

Four episodes in it continues to be... fine, I guess?

I feel like I'm on an archeology dig trying to unearth the secret of this show. I'm getting /closer/ but I still have several extraneous dialogue scenes and weird pacing choices to pick through before I'm there.

The pacing is honestly what's getting to me most - I feel like the final scene should have been a lot more impactful than it was.

Willem hears the mission's failed and has a breakdown, and then it's revealed the girls are actually alive within about three minutes. It's really strange.

What's more, it's revealed to the audience like a solid minute before Willem sees them and they're totally fine.

As much as I enjoyed the earlier fluff with Tiat geeking out over movies I can't help but wonder why /that/ was the bulk of the episode?

And then he sees Chtholly, and hugs her, and it's a big emotional moment...and Ilthea and Ren talk over the whole thing like Monday Night Football commentators.

I actually liked that part with Tiat - selling Willem's connection to all the girls instead of just Ctholly is a good move as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, I'm more enthused by Surrogate Dad Willem than anything else in this show. He's a good dad.

He's also established as Anti-monstergirl so he's A-OK in my book.

Hey, monstergirls are good and I will not hear otherwise.

Joking aside, I thought it was a neat worldbuilding detail that all these movies are about lizards. Tiat's excitement over the bench where a lizard lady mourns over her lover's severed tail is A++ in my book.

It's a neat sequence of worldbuilding for sure. So much time's been spent with the humanoid characters that it's been easy to forget the majority of the world is beast people.

If only that amount of attention were paid to what I assume is meant to be the central relationship in the show :/

Yeahhhhhhhh. I gather there's been some disagreement over them not showing the actual battle?

I kinda get what they're going for - the anxiety of the people at home not knowing if their loved ones will get out of the thing alive

While I get that the show wants to center us on Willem's fear over the girls, if Ctholly's our deuteroganist it'd help to see the fights she's dedicated her lives to. We've been told about them, but have yet to even see the world-threatening monsters they're up against.

My main beef with it is that I still... don't care very much about Chtholly and co. Heck, I'm more attached to the little girls since we've seen them hang out, being pals, geeking out over movies.

yeah, Ctholly's defining conflicts are 1) Being a living weapon and
2) sort of a crush on Willem

but she's yet to feel like a person with real interiority otherwise

Being cute is a character trait, duh

Okay, I think I'm being a touch cynical here; I WANT to like these characters, but yeah, the show really has not done much to establish emotional connection.

It's got bits and pieces that work for me - individual moments where I can see what it's going for - but the execution just keeps yanking me out again.

Willem's fear of being left behind and losing everyone he cares about mostly works for me

But otherwise, :/

Just gotta hope for the best I guess.

Bonus Discussion

Speeeeeaaaaaking of hoping for the best, I don't suppose you've been following the new season of Berserk?

No, I never got into Berserk to begin with. All I know about that property is that gotdang boat and something about idolm@ster being a time sink for the mangaka.

Well, the new season's been plugging along much like last year. Writing wise it's basically a direct (if expedited) adaptation of the manga, but the only thing anybody talks much about is how got damn ugly it is.

oh, right, it's mostly CG, isn't it?

What is interesting is that this season is focusing on what's basically anathema to a lot of Berserk readers - it's Guts building a little JRPG party found family and slowly coming to terms with all his past trauma. For most of last season he was a brooding, damaged loner and now he's basically been thrust into the Team Dad role with a bunch of other societal rejects. Complete with a uh, controversial comic relief character or two.

Controversial how?

think Scrappy Doo

but 2 of them

OH DEAR.

That aside, it's actually a really endearing turn for the story. So much of Berserk's reputation is for its ultraviolence and sequences of depravity, but the best moments of the original anime were when Guts was bonding with the rest of the cast. Last season was mainly about his struggle for vengeance, which I gather is what a lot of Berserk readers want - but I'm enjoying the story of him slowly rebuilding some semblance of a life way more.

That sounds pretty neat! I'm always down for good anime dads

Meanwhile Kabukibu's been chugging along. It continues to be unexpectedly positive. The character who liked feminine things explicitly says he's not into guys, which is nice considering how often people conflate gender noncomformity with queer sexuality.

The kabuki club recruits a costume designer who's convinced she's ugly, short, and fat, and promptly gets told not to put herself down so often. It's really important stuff for teenagers to hear and I'm glad Kabukibu exists for that.

I've already got this set on my backlog pile now - it's not really my thing but I'm always up for stories with positive messages WRT those kinds of topics

I'd follow it weekly if I wasn't buried under 80 other shows ="D

It's really unfortunate that it doesn't look so hot :'D

They're hinting at the snooty actor character's dissatisfaction with his progress in the professional kabuki scene, the kind of pressure he's under, which'll be interesting to see. It's a pleasant show! If only it looked good!

I'll take a well-written show over a good looking one tbh

Though I am watching Anonymous Noise so maybe I don't need either

And I'm the one who watches trash?

Tell me how trashy that show is now

Okay so if you remember, our main character has 2 competing love interests. Well it turns out both of them just happen to moonlight as professional musicians.

in high school mind you

What's more, the super popular in-universe band "In NO hurry to shout" has been revealed to be the 2nd guy's high school band, and they all wear disguises to hide their identities. Including the female vocalist who dresses as a guy and wears a mask when she sings.

Because - get this - the love interest guy lost the ability to sing due to some childhood illness, but still wants to be the singer of his band.

This sounds like a train wreck, keep going

so he dresses as a girl on stage and lipsyncs to the vocalist

but then the main character finds out about how he lost his voice (????) and how he really wants HER to be his vocalist and he's been writing all his songs for HER this whole time.

what even is this show

Is it weird to say I actually genuinely like it? It appeals to same part of my personality that still listens to Hybrid Theory-era Linkin Park.

But the most recent episodes HAVE done a few things I find legitimately interesting. Mainly that it's a show about music where the main character canonically is a shitty singer. At first I just thought they were going for a rough kind of J-rock sound but eventually the other vocalist girl confronts her and directly says "you're a crappy singer. Your voice has impact and is LOUD but you can't carry a tune in a bucket."

As interesting as that sounds (the main character in Kabukibu is also a terrible actor) that can't be very nice to listen to though?

I...kinda like it TBH

It's okay, you're allowed to like trash

I've always had a thing for rough vocals and compared to how much polish-shined idol pop there is out there I much prefer the shouting.

And you don't get to talk to me about trash when you've been watching Frame Arms Girl all week.

FRAME ARMS GIRL IS G- no, I can't even say that

Frame Arms Girl is irredeemably trashy. It's like if you took the green army guys in Toy Story and gave them their own show, but like, horny.

That sounds like hell.

Really, REALLY horny. It's absolutely, 100% My Shit. If you're like me and enjoy watching anime girls be low-key catty to each other, that show is utterly addicting. The characters introduced early on are super bland, but once the show fleshes its cast out a little it's definitely more entertaining.

My personal favorites are the Problematic Incest Twins

You would

The latest episode involves an absurd setup where the tiny robot girls race to the supermarket on a roomba and a delivery drone, and along the way they get licked by goats. Why there were goats on the way to the store, I have no idea.

In all seriousness though, the mock battles the FA girls do feel like the sort of thing you'd imagine up as a kid

but hornier

Well uh, you enjoy that, I guess.

There's a LOT of CG butt in this show between the solid-ass action storyboarding and cool camerawork. Also it's making me really want to buy toys, which I guess is the point.

I'll stick with the GOOD plastic toy commercial TYVM

I actually think the closer comparison is Symphogear

Call me when the plamo girls suplex a space shuttle

Is goat-fighting not enough for you?

Like, FA Girls isn't good at all and makes no pretense of being a good show. I kind of appreciate that?

But I'm mostly in it for the robot butt. I'm sorry.

You're not sorry.