anime

The Royal Tutor – Episode 6: “At Café Mitter Meyer”

Don’t worry, this java blend comes with plenty of sweetener.

As promised last week, Licht takes center stage–or does he? Thanks to a tattletale noble, our youngest prince’s solo story quickly becomes a duet, and his dad seems more than happy to steal the spotlight with some workplace antics of his own. Employers will be wooed and ladies will be dazzled. But no matter who gets the biggest tip, one thing’s for certain: The sparkling bishounen apple sure didn’t fall far from the sparkling binan tree. (And yes, now you know how to say “pretty man” in addition to “pretty boy.” Y’all’re welcome.)

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Versus: WorldEnd vs Hajime no Ippo

When bad frames happen to good people.

When I learned that this season’s new anime, WorldEnd (or SukaSuka), was based on a light novel about an adult man becoming a caretaker for a group of under-18 girls, I was understandably wary given anime’s less-than-glowing track record when handling age gaps and power dynamics. Fortunately, WorldEnd’s leading man, Willem, is (so far) completely uninterested in romancing the local teens. While 15-year-old Chtholly does have an obvious crush on him, Willem sees her and the rest of the girls as students, patients, or younger family members. He uses his power to help and guide, never to take advantage.

These are all good things, and a large part of why the pensive found-family story at the heart of WorldEnd has been so compelling to me. It’s also a large part of why a particular scene in Episode 2, “late autumn night’s dream,” stands out as so uncomfortable and out-of-place. Willem may not be a creeper, but some of the people creating him sure seem to be.

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The Royal Tutor – Episode 5: “Assailed by the Greatest of Trials”

One torte, two torte, red torte, blue torte.

The King of Glanzreich (a.k.a. Viktor) (a.k.a. The God of War) (a.k.a. Dad) returns to the palace to check up on his boys, but our Proud Papa isn’t all teary eyes and hair ruffles. He’s not just here as a father, but as a king appraising his heirs–and a certain someone’s abysmal test score has put him right in the cross hairs. Now poor Leo has to go from zero to 60 points in three days or lose his right to the throne. Even worse: His dad is going to be Very Disappointed in him.

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The Royal Tutor – Episode 4: “The Princes Go To Town”

To market, to market, to buy a fat book.

Heine organizes a field trip into the city of Wiener (I know, I giggled too) so the princes can see how the common folk live firsthand. With their tutor as their guide, the boys follow their hearts and stomachs to new joys and troubles, learn a few lessons along the way, and even fit in some time for a pair of good deeds. I told you they were good boys.

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Rule of Three Review: Spring 2017 Anime Digest

Feels like only yesterday we were talking about the Spring premieres. They grow up so fast…!

It’s a great season for sequels, a good season for fantasy, and a not-too-shabby season for female protagonists. The watch list hasn’t shrunk much at all since the premiere digest (although a few shows could easily drop off in the coming weeks), so this is more of a check-in than a culling. Maybe that bodes well for Spring’s staying power?

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The Royal Tutor: Episodes 2-3

Please take your seats, class. The weekly posts will now begin.

From a bouquet of impressive sequels and promising new series, I have plucked a silly, warmhearted comedy about teachers, students, and the gap between appearances and reality to cover weekly for Anime Evo this season. Hey, it can’t all be intense, analysis-heavy rakugo performers, magical girls, and gangsters, y’know! Sometimes a gal’s gotta giggle about her precious trash boys, too.

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Glancing Upstream: Winter 2017 Retrospective and Review

March comes in like a dragon and out like a maid (that’s totally how that saying goes, right?).

Just a couple short weeks ago I was ready to come into this post a little tired and bummed about the season, but some strong final arcs have lifted my opinion (or maybe I’m just riding high from yesterday’s heartwarming Dragon Maid finale). We’ve had deeper and stronger seasons, but this one had its share of charm and individuality–and hey, as I said last winter, no season with a standout masterpiece like Rakugo Shinju can ever be truly disappointing.

Sure, we’re almost a week into the spring season, but it’d be bad form to say “hi” to the new gang without first bidding a “see ya later” to the old. Hit the jump for some final thoughts on an up-and-down winter.

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Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Season 2 – Episode 12

Time for our final curtain call.

Since last week saw the end of our central story, this week is by nature a more subdued epilogue, a comedown from the peak we hit before. While it didn’t have quite the emotional punch of recent episodes, it’s still essential to the story Rakugo Shinju wants to tell, which is largely about Bon, yes, but also about history, traditions, and the interconnected nature of individual narratives. Bon is gone but the world is not, and it would be a disservice to that world and the other narratives within it not to see how they’d all grown.

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Love in the Time of ClassicaLoid

Get your ‘ship on.

Welp, they’ve done it again. The creative team who assured us that being a girl was a state of mind rather than a state of body brought that same chipper progressivism to their silly romance episode, and they did not disappoint. ClassicaLoid may be first-and-foremost a wacky comedy about the importance of community and the transformative power of music, but it’s also proven itself adept at quietly challenging cultural norms about gender and sexuality. Guess it’s true you should never judge a book by its cover—or a series by its goofy premise.

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Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Season 2 – Episode 11

Teach ’em how to say goodbye.

So here we are at the end of Yakumo’s–no, at the end of Bon’s story, or at least the end of this volume. I’ve hesitated to talk about religion or philosophy with Rakugo Shinju because I was still on the fence about which direction it would eventually swing, but this episode is infused with Buddhist beliefs and folklore, and especially with that uniquely Japanese concept of mono-no-aware: a keen awareness of impermanence, a gentle sadness for that which we’re destined to lose, and an appreciation of the beauty inherent in our ever-changing world. It may also be Rakugo Shinju’s best episode to date. And for this show, that is saying something.

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