11.17
Halfway through the new season of anime, I guess it’s about time I started another episodic review. For reference, the other new shows I’m following are PSYCHO-PASS and Robotics;Notes. And with PSYCHO-PASS being too srsbzness, and Robotics;Notes being relatively vanilla so far, Chu2 seemed the most bloggable.
Flickering text on a screen coupled with blurry images of people? Just what kind of animation studio would take such artistic liberties with its introductory scene? Ah, Kyoto Animation. Keeping in mind the intro scene to the Haruhi anime and movie, I shouldn’t be surprised. But wait! The similarities don’t stop there!
Enter main lead Yuuta, who, against his better judgment ends up being the center of attention to Rikka, an oddball that is convinced that her entire world is full of the bizarre and paranormal. Though the rope-climbing scene reminded me more of Clarissa Explains It All than Haruhi. Would this suggest that Rikka will eventually move on to becoming a teenage witch and viewers will assume the new series is a spinoff to her first one?
Enter the Taniguchi character! He doesn’t come off as girl-crazed as Taniguchi does (even considering what he does later in the series) but I’m pretty sure making the supporting cast come off as normal in comparison to Rikka is the point. Though the more I think about it, the more Isshiki reminds me of a fusion between Taniguchi and Kunikida. He’s a one-man “those two guys” trope!
Is the divorce rate in anime disgustingly high? I’ll accept the anime-typical younger sister that’s more responsible than her mom, and even the Yotsuba-ey duo that’s the mom and adorable youngest sister, but for the dad to be nowhere at all is just too trite for me. And sidenote: I really should re-pick up Yotsuba! Anything with a story-telling style that’s been compared to Calvin and Hobbes is an automatic blind buy for me. Now that I think of it, I haven’t bought any manga on a regular basis for some time now. Hm…
Catching a glimpse of Yuuta’s middle-school days as the Dark Flame Master was embarrassingly good. Within the span of a few minutes you’re able to sympathize with what he’s been through. Even if your own personal plight wasn’t as blatant, I think it can be safe to say that everyone’s had that phase of being embarrassed of something you did/were into way back when.
In terms of returning series this season I’m keeping up with, the only show on that list would be Space Brothers. What it lacks in animation quality it makes up for in story. Still, whenever I catch a KyoAni show, it really makes me wish all animation was this disgustingly detailed. I mean just look at this classroom! All other characters besides Yuuta and Rikka didn’t have to move, but each and every one of them had a slight animation to themselves that’s just really… wow.
Another thing I love about this series…
…the slapstick. Even if you’re not a fan of it, Chu2 takes the route of extending the gag and following it up with even more slapstick that you’re just forced to laugh. The top-notch animation is just icing on the cake.
Really loved how following Yuuta’s over-the-top-anime-reaction, the background objects remained knocked over. For some reason, I find the care in keeping some kind of consistency during the scene even more comedic.
Yep, the box-carrying scene was classic Haruhi/Kyon material. Yuuta has absolutely no reason to help out Rikka, and from his mindset I bet he’d think himself better off if he were able to avoid her altogether, but deep down in his Grinchly heart of hearts, he knows he’s doing the right thing. And oddly enough, even though she knows Yutta’s an ex-eighth-grade-syndrome-er himself, she seems to act the most normal whenever they’re alone together. It’s like the ex-addict helping out the current addict with their daily troubles even though they’d rather have nothing to do with that lifestyle ever again. Actually, a reality show about eighth-grade-syndrome people sounds like something that would actually exist, even if having it televised could be potentially scarring for all parties involved.