Midway through the summer crop of animated serials, columnist Andrew Osmond looks in on three fan-favorite titles: the Science Saru actioner plus ‘My Dress-Up Darling,’ and ‘The Summer Hikaru Died.’
We’re midway through the summer’s TV anime season, running from July to September.Of course, not all anime serials are shown on TV anymore.Last month’s was dropped by Netflix as a single block of episodes, while the disturbing (covered last week) was serialized online (Crunchyroll in America), so it wasn’t tied to the 12 or 13 episodes that a TV season needs.
This week, though, I’m dropping in on three anime – all covered in this column before -which on Japanese TV, though many Japanese viewers will be watching them online. The new season of , for example, streams in Japan on the legal free sites Abema and Telasa, and on subscription platforms including Netflix and Hulu.The latter two platforms also stream the series Stateside, as does Crunchyroll.I covered ’s first season in a column profiling its studio, Science Saru.
In an audacious bit of marketing, the first three episodes debuted in cinemas internationally last year, distributed by GKIDS in America.Plainly it paid off.The second season was marketed the same way, with first three episodes in cinemas this June (entitled ).
I saw them in cinemas myself, but I rewatched the episodes for this column, wondering if they would feel diminished on a smaller screen.No, they weren’t; they’re still a remarkable piece of anime action, escalating insanely as it goes.I found myself reflecting how the drawn action feels, in sharp contrast to the familiar tedium of CG battles in superhero blockbusters.
So many of ’s shots shine; I’d single out the start of Episode 3 with characters dashing frantically round a subterranean city, dodging lethal zooming balls of hate.The series also hasn’t lost its knack for introducing splendid new characters, such as a clan of jovially grey-skinned murderers (their zipper teeth are the worst).“Evil Eyes” himself is both ludicrously comical – he’s an Adonis with a six-pack torso and tighty-white briefs – and the product of a truly ghastly backstory, animated especially lovingly, involving child sacrifice and generations of suicides.
It’s reminiscent of the mother-daughter tragedy in Season 1, and reminds you that in anime, even a rollicking action comedy can swing into territory close to .If I must be critical, then the escalating battle madness of the first episodes has a slightly disappointing, truncated wrap-up (the movie was right to end on a cliffhanger).Then there’s a bit of downtime, when you can tire of the characters yelling at each other, but soon the charm and creativity are back.
Some of the best sequences are “small,” such as a furious villain stumbling about in the woods, or youngsters going awkwardly to the bathroom at night.Or we can be thrust into a head-banging heavy metal concert, where a young hero comes to a spiritual decision that might reverberate through whole seasons to come.Time-zone factors mean I’ve not been able to see the new episode that dropped this (Thursday) morning.
Maybe it’s suddenly dragged the show down, to mediocrity or worse, but I doubt it.From we jump to the cosplay comedy , which I covered a few weeks ago.Animated by CloverWorks studio, it’s a romcom about Wakana, a supremely introverted schoolboy whose only friends were the dolls he crafts.
That’s till his talents were noticed by Marin, a supremely girl with a passion for cosplay, who begs him to help with her costumes.Their awkward friendship is on the brink of blossoming into more, if only Wakana could beat his shyness.One obvious thing for anyone watching and together is that their lead characters have pretty much the same dynamic: a brash girl and a quavering-but-sweet boy who’s fearfully determined to do his best for said girl.
There are anime precedents, but I’m surprised how few I can think of.The main template would seem to be ’s Shinji and Asuka, but they were more emotionally dysfunctional than their descendants today.If anything, Wakana and Marin’s dynamic remind me more of Disney mice – timid Bernard and chic Bianca in the films.
has always been a cheerful series, and its recent episodes have been emphatically upbeat – a journey of empowerment and affirmation for Wakana, as he realizes astonishedly that people are fine with him after all.This week’s episode (6) feels like the culmination of a hero’s journey for Wakana, as he must face a terror he didn’t know he had – deploying his skill to create beauty as he makes up Marin , who follow his every move.Not that there seems any chance of Wakana getting big-headed about this.
For him, is the hero of this journey, with a standout sequence where she triumphantly struts her stuff in an all-new guise, depicted beautifully through silhouette and shadows.It’s light years from Marin’s first costume, playing a sexpot game goddess, though one episode has her throwing herself back into that passion, embracing a “hug” pillow of her idol while Wakana looks on alarmed.I’m not convinced that’s any more than fanservice… but actually, the show’s fanservice has fallen away drastically since the first season.
It makes thematic sense; this is a maturing relationship, and Wakana can’t stay sexually terrified forever.And yet I sometimes wondered if the series has enough to put in the place of the sex jokes, which were funny beyond their lechery.The problem with an upbeat show is that it can feel bereft of tension, conflict or the hilarity that comes from them.
Still, Episode 6 is triumphantly stirring, while an earlier episode cheekily moved into show altogether – much of it’s a romantic melodrama.with dashing gentlemen and a shy schoolgirl.It’s meant to be an anime that ’s characters are watching, inspiring Marin’s most ambitious costume while mirroring her and Wakana’s relationship with the genders crossed.
Building on that, ’s new season has much ado with “crossplay” – boys dressing up as girls and vice versa, confusing and thrilling their peers.Some fans will say this confirms as an LGBT show; others will argue that’s imposing terms on the series that wouldn’t be recognized by Japanese creators or viewers.Gender non-conformity, though, is certainly glorified, with the introduction of a boy who adores pretty dresses.
(If you’d like to see that kind of character in a lead role, I’d recommend to you the 2010 anime gem , available on Crunchyroll.) When I covered last time, I pointed up how the new season’s first episode had drastically better animation that Season 1’s, but I wondered if it was a temporary bump.The episodes since then have had fewer standout moments, but there are still some, such as Marin’s performance in Episode 6.A meeting scene in an aquarium (Episode 2) is full of marvelous style-switching energy.
Episode 4 has the romantic melodrama mentioned above, the show-in-a-show; this “fake” series is drawn with such elegant that it could be easily extended into a real spinoff.I only hope ’s main story isn’t running out of steam.I don’t have that concern with , produced by Cygames Pictures, though I’m disappointed the latest three episodes of this Netflix series – 4 to 6 - are much less surprising and exciting than their predecessors.
(I covered Episodes 1-3 here.) The story continues capably, but much of it feels like it’s essentially recapping what we’ve been shown already, without the marvelous surprise of the first time.In fairness, that mirrors the lead boys’ physical relationship, as the protagonist Yoshiki is irresistibly drawn to “make out” with the inhuman Hikari again.(“It’s not as bad as before,” Yoshiki remarks – it turns out that he’s speaking too soon.) Like Wakana and Marin in , these teens are trying to get past the initial hormone rush and become a stable couple.
Well, that’s what Yoshiki’s doing.Hikaru (probably) hasn’t got hormones now; his innards are mysterious, and his motives equally so.Innards are a running concern in these episodes.
One outstanding dream-image has Yoshiki being crushed between towering, elongated brain-creatures who talk to him like patronizing grown-ups.There’s no effort to make these slimy (CG?) brains “match” the drawn Yoshiki, which is great.The monsters may not be stop-motion, but they smack of Jan Svankmajer’s gleeful surrealist nightmares from Czechoslovakia.
Otherwise, ’s middle episodes are best when they’re grounded in the waking world, in their well-staged interactions between kids or teenagers, which ring as truly human within the weird story of a human.But I’m willing to go mad again soon.More innards! More nausea! Andrew Osmond is a British author and journalist, specialising in animation and fantasy media.
His email is [email protected].
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