So, here are my rankings for the first quarter of Spring 2019. Relatively light season for me. As usual, all standards for artistic merit are completely subjective and arbitrary.
Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu
Aikatsu Friends S2
Carole & Tuesday
Fruits Basket 2019
Sarazanmai
Star Twinkle Precure
Senryuu Shoujo
Kimetsu no Yaiba
Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai
One Punch Man S2
Dropped
Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine (1-2)
Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san (1-2)
Nande Koko ni Sensei ga (1)
Joshikausei (1)
Strike Witches 501 Butai Hasshin Shimasu (1)
Hitoribocchi is a fun celebration of social anxiety, a very well-executed blend of cringe and heart. It handles its themes with a lot of grace and delicacy. This show gets that character development can be made through baby steps, not just with big sweeping realizations. The visual execution is fantastic as well. This show is very good at adding small details to add life to a mundane scenes, and just enough nuance to its characterizations to make them feel well-rounded. A lot of CGDCT shows don’t do these things, favoring gimmicks and “bigger” scenes that people can meme and repost everywhere.
I’m pretty confident that this show gets what a slice-of-life anime should be about.
Aikatsu Friends is going more sci-fi, which I did not expect. I really like the start of Hibki’s character arc. Her genius and drive put her where she is but it also pushed her away from those closest to her. It was also very satisfying to watch Aine and Mio give advice to other girls, even ones who they admire. I’m really excited to see what comes next.
Carole & Tuesday reminds of Bloom Into You, which separated itself from most anime romances by primarily being a story about what love is or can be. CandT is a music anime that starts off as a story of what music (or art) is or can be. It cares ares a lot about music: it drives the narrative, carries its themes, and they have a separate production line for the performances. It has legit musicality in its direction, and that lets them naturally go into its performances, which have been very good. (And they’re not CG, for once.)
I really like its themes about the value of man-made art over polished yet sterile AI creations, but it’s too blunt about it. The villains are so cartoonish it’s cringey, and I really hope they try to humanize them at least a bit. Still, its eponymous characters are very charming and have great chemistry, and the music’s good, so this should be alright.
Fruits Basket is as good as I remember. Kyo and Yuki’s conflict is still good, Kyo very desperately trying to fit in while Yuki trying break free. Good slice-of-life themes about wanting a normal life, and how what a “normal life” is is different for each person, especially when they’ve had a twisted idea of what relationships are like since childhood.
Objectively, I can understand how its major elements would feel dated, as with most progenitors. Also, the direction doesn’t quite hold up. Modern anime tends to be better at making a character’s inner thoughts feel more intimate. But I still love these characters, so it’s still good.
Sarazanmai is like Revue Starlight, except instead of theatrical fight scenes, it has sucking the desires out of a kappa-zombie’s butthole. So really, nothing like Revue Starlight. But it is an ambitious and gorgeous production that feels thematically dense, and it has characters singing while fighting. It also seems relatively unproblematic for BL, which I’m very grateful for. I say “relatively” because the show is, at least partly, about having desires and interests that are not totally social acceptable. But it hasn’t done anything that would really turn me off from it. Not yet, at least.
The show’s aesthetics and directorial style are pretty out there, and I’m not quite willing to give it the benefit of the doubt that it can pull together all its threads together just yet, but it’s fun and it seems like it has something to say. So, I’m on board for now.
(Kazuki > Sara.)
Star Twinkle Precure is fun. Its got great designs, competent storytelling, and it’s a good change of pace from Hugtto.
Senryuu Shoujo is a cute and unassuming slice-of-life romance. I don’t expect anything to happen because the male lead is too dense, but this should be totally watchable.
Kimetsu no Yaiba has an interesting little twist to the usual shounen action template. Its leads are sympathetic enough, and the show’s doing a solid job of managing its tone. Its action is pretty energetic and works well within its CG space. I’m still unsure if I can get behind this show’s ideas of heroism getting figuratively and physically hammered into the main protagonist (honestly, I’m hoping it subverts these initial ideas), but it’s confident in its ideas and competent in its execution, so I’m willing to see where it goes from here.
BokuBen probably works better as a manga because these cliches sort of drag in an anime. It isn’t terribly problematic, and I actually do like the characters (especially the girls’ designs), and I like its theme that challenging oneself is what leads to a fulfilling life, not overwhelming talent. But it doesn’t really tie its story into this theme, spending more of its time doing rote romcom gags. Still, I’ll give it a chance to try something different.
One Punch Man S2 is actually genius because King’s story is a metaphor for the show trying to mask its problems by riding its reputation.
Seriously though, while the production isn’t the worst I’ve seen this season (it actually looks fine in some spots), I find neither the visual nor narrative execution are terribly engaging. Particularly now that they seem to be heading towards a tournament arc. Still haven’t dropped it but I’m not very confident.
Cinderella Nine had nice ideas but the art and animation were too lifeless.
Senko-san is the kind of wish-fulfillment anime where there is story is just a series of justifications for self-indulgence.
Nande Koko ni Sensei ga’s art was pretty legit and the teacher’s voice work was on point, but I feel like the censorship defeats the point. It’s not like the story can stand up on its own.
Joshikausei’s gimmick didn’t really add anything. Probably works better as a manga.
Strike Witches, as it turns out, it isn’t as good if you crush the designs and take out the action, fanservice, and most of the animation frames. Who knew.
