This Week in Anime

Titan-Sized First Edition

For this new feature on ANN, we're trying something a little different! There's so much anime airing every season now, and so many ways to discuss it, that we wanted to offer a more casual way to stay caught up with the biggest new episodes, along with under-the-radar shows you might have missed. So we reached out to a knowledgeable pair of anime obsessives on Twitter to get their more unfiltered take on the season, straight from their chatlog to your eyeballs. It's a little different from our usual fare, so let us know what you think of This Week in Anime's style in the forums!

Without further ado, your hosts:

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.

Episodes 14-16

Episodes 26-28

Episodes 1-2

Episodes 1-2

so what've you been watching?

I'll give you 3 guesses

you're definitely watching Heybot, right?

Yes, I am definitely watching Heybot. But I did make time to visit all of my children in MHA too

Micchy
They're all such wonderful children

Prior to this season I hadn't seen any MHA and boy am I glad I jumped on the bandwagon. Deku is a good boy and my son.

Nick D
I've been following it for ages and every new episode is the warmest pudding

It absolutely is! Its happiness is infectious

There isn't a single character I don't want to hug.

Even Bakugo

Except maybe Shigaraki, but I'm sure there's someone out there who'd be down for that

Nick D
Shigaraki is certainly....*hand*some

Micchy
I'd imagine he'd be good friends with Yoshikage Kira if given the chance

So I guess they're starting up a tournament (?) arc

Hell yeah, gimme that good shounen tournament arc. Though we haven't just turned into a bracket /quite/ yet

okay so here's the big question: who is the best boy

The easy answer is Deku because LOOK AT HIM. The honest answer is Bakugo

Of course you like that garbage shitstain

(It's okay though, I like Bakugo too)

Every group of positive good hearted people needs at least one asshole. Love Live would be nothing without Nico.

Since you're new, I was wondering what you think of the pace so far - I know most folks are frustrated with it

It's not the worst I've seen? But keep in mind I'm pretty used to DBZ pacing. Honestly, the characters are endearing enough that I don't mind spending more time with them.

Fair. And yeah, if nothing else MHA has a TON of heart to it. I'm loving the care the adaptive team have put into the whole show.

I was kinda surprised as to how emotionally sincere it was. Ochaco's self-consciousness about being in the hero biz for the money was nice.

I don't think shounen manga typically addresses real-world issues that frankly? I dunno, you're the expert here

Depends on the show, but yeah. I can't say too much without spoilers, but MHA definitely takes a more open-minded approach to the topic of wanting to be a hero.

Deku does it for altruism, Ida for familial tradition, Bakugo for his ego

So what's up with Todoroki? or is that spoilers

Well this is a shonen anime, so the smart money's on Daddy Issues

it's always daddy issues

Micchy
He's even got the Zuko scar to go with it wwww

speaking of American properties though the americomi influence on MHA is pretty interesting. so at Sakuracon, Hiroshi Nagahama (Mushishi/DMC guy who's working w/ Stan Lee on an anime called Reflection for this summer) mentioned watching MHA and studying what NOT to do in Reflection to keep it from feeling too Japanese

Nick D
Yeah, weirdly for all Horikoshi's love of comics (dude owns SO MUCH Spider-man merch) MHA is 100% shonen adventure story at its bones.

which is cool! all about that fighting spirit and big emotions

so we're what, three episodes into the new season? Deku's just won the obstacle course and everyone's aiming to take him down

Micchy
this gon be gud

Nick D
I'm really excited to see the cavalry battle in motion. MHA's great at using its secondary cast and this is where the series really starts doing them justice.

I'm pretty psyched! No idea what we're getting into but I'm sure it'll be great

Speaking of having no idea what we're getting into...

Can you believe I've managed to make it 4 years without being spoiled on Attack on Titan?

WOW. That's seriously impressive. I made it about three weeks.

It has not been easy.

To be fair though, I've basically forgotten everything that happens in this part of the story since I read it back in... 2014? ish?

so I've been able to go into S2 without knowing a damn thing and it's pretty great

Micchy
so like I've seen some folks say AoT is too emotionally blunt but I thought the latest reveal w/ Sasha was pretty dang effective

Nick D
Oh definitely. I was legit surprised how much I still liked these characters after 4 years of Discourse and distance.

THEY'RE GOOD KIDS NICK

Just osmosis from the constant fandom discussion had sort of convinced me I hated Eren?

Eren is a good boy you take that back I will defend that garbage child to my dying breath

But 3 eps in he's been a perfectly good character

he's barely been in it

granted he hasn't had much focus, but just stuff like him gently waking Mikasa in the premiere did a lot to remind me why I liked this show

AoT's reputation is YELLING and DEATH and HIROYUKI SAWANO INSERT SONGS but it's got a pretty solid emotional core I think? Even just a few scenes between Sasha and her dad were enough to sell me on that relationship

oh absolutely, I was about to say the same thing. so Sasha's deal has always been a distrust of outsiders. I feel like there's a tricky conversation to be had about how she has to assimilate to survive

but now's probably not the time to get into that LOL

Nah, that'll probably come later. Right now we gotta kill Bigfoot.

Nick D
scary, bedroom eye Bigfoot

Micchy
don't you go thirsting for the hairy monster Nick, you know that's my brand

I'M NOT but those are some creepy I-wanna-bang-you eyes if I've ever seen em.

SURE THEY ARE

I'm used to titans looking like Funko Pops okay

you mean you don't like this lovely face

No, but on the topic of that gd thing.

I half expect it to start asking me if I'd like to learn about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ lol

"Have you heard the good news about existential terror"

Seriously though, that thing creeped me out hardcore when it started mumbling.

O
KA
E
RI

I don't remember S1 being this consistently creepy

They've really doubled down on the horror vibes since the Female Titan fiasco I think. There was this one scene that really stuck out to me. where Sasha comes across the Titan in the house eating the lady.

oh god

there's no background music, just the slimy sounds of nomming

that FREAKED ME OUT

Somehow making the titans SMALLER makes them scarier. Getting swallowed by a monster is scary but being alive and present as this thing chews your leg off is paralyzing.

that poor kid, that's gotta be hella traumatizing

I sure hope some therapists survived behind the walls

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE WE GET THE YMIR/CHRISTA SHIP

THAT SHIP BETTER BE REAL AND HAPPY

c'mon nick this is attack on titan, nothing ends like that in this show because Hajime Isayama is a cruel god to his creations

I will fight him.

Micchy
ANYWAY Re:Creators is a thing this season

Nick D
I'm shocked how much I'm enjoying Re:Creators

same! It's remarkably well directed for what it's worth

well, maybe not that scene shot through Protagonist-kun's glasses

Nick D
Ei Aoki hurt me bad with Aldnoah.Zero, but I feel like I might be able to love again

Micchy
I'm just glad it's not boring to look at

But yeah, that glasses shot is terrible

Glasses don't work like that! The stuff in the lenses should not be blurrier than normal

Also YOU CAN'T SEE THE BRIDGE OF YOUR GLASSES WHEN YOU'RE WEARING THEM

what are you talking about, I absolutely have a third eye right on my nose OTL

Other than that though, the show's super fun and has way more thought put into it than I was expecting from a show about light novel anime characters maybe trying to kill their authors

yeah that scene in episode 2 where they're dumping exposition would be a chore to watch in any other show but it wasn't. we weren't just watching talking heads in a dimly lit room, the characters were faffing about onscreen.

I love that they gave Exposition duties to a video game NPC.

OH YEAH that too

And it's like that for everybody so far. In another show these would all be stereotypes or cheap parodies for an easy laugh but all the "fictional" characters feel like a lot of thought's been put into them

y'know, it's pretty interesting that all the "fictional" characters introduced so far have been female

Except for the No More Heroes looking dude at the end of ep 2

Micchy
That's another thing - I was pleasantly surprised by how devoid of obnoxious titty shots there were

Nick D
Yeah, it's nice that the show doesn't seem to be insinuating that the viewer would naturally want to stare down Selesia's boob window. And neither does the protagonist, for once.

says a lot about anime that that's the bar we gotta clear wwww

I kid though, I friggin' love titty anime too. It's just gotta be respectful tiddy and not gross

I'm not exactly uh, put off by Selesia's design either, but it's nice to not have upskirt shots all the same

plus the story's literally about these characters reclaiming agency from the people who wrote them

It's also not afraid to let its characters get messed up and bloody, which is pretty rare tbh.

much to magical girl Mamika's horror :'D

straight up addressing the internal logic of different genres...it's a clever little love letter to stories in general and I think that's wonderful?

Yeah, and it's neat just how much consideration was put into every character in the context of the "story" they come from. Mamika's a petulant brat who resorts to brute force because that's just kind of the moral absolutism you get in kids shows and magical girl fare. Selesia's a pretty grounded, confident leader in the way you'd expect a (well-written) warrior princess to be

so not an Asun-

We don't speak the devil's name in this house

Nick D
Also can I say I love all these names for fake JRPGs and light novels

what even is a Vogelchevalier

Micchy
it's light novel max. I just love how the mysterious white-haired girl has both a sword and a rifle that she fires by bowing. if that isn't the most fantasy anime bullshit I don't know what is

it's like Deviantart became sentient

I'm also really excited for whoever the hell this is

I'm absolutely down for more villain characters hell yeah

But yeah, Re:Creators is a big surprise so far.

Now something that's....less surprising.

Micchy
obnoxiously long light novel title that i shouldn't remember but somehow do?

Nick D
Maybe I was wrong about how perfect those fake titles are

none of them are paragraphs

WorldEnd: What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? <- off the top of my head

Yeah, that. This show feels like a combination of 2 separately curated trends in anime.

is one of them hot dads

You got your Guy Raises A Surrogate Child in my Guy Is Sad About The Dying Women In His Life. In a way it's genius.

I like the first of those trends quite a bit, less enthused by the second, but it's fine I guess

I feel like I'm almost unnecessarily on guard about it tbh. It starts to suck me in with the cute kids and solid character animation, but a voice in my head just keeps saying "they're all gonna die. don't get attached."

can I just get one thing out of the way

Ithea speculating on Willem's potential taste for young girls is just so much DO NOT WANT

makes me wonder if I'm supposed to want to parent the kiddos or...joke or not it's not that funny

At least Willem himself doesn't seem the least bit interested. But the show sure seems to like insisting that he does.

LIGHT NOVELS i s2g. I could've done without the vaguely erotic framing of the massage too.

whatever do you mean? There's nothing sexual about this at all

What I don't get is why they're trying to hint at Willem and Ctholly when there's a perfectly good maid waiting to devour him whole RIGHT THERE

Nick D
like c'mon dude

get up in there

Micchy
She's a really cute mom too?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ LIGHT NOVELS, MAN

Yeah, everything to do with the orphanage shenanigans is actually pretty endearing?

The kids are really adorable

There's a lot of neat incidental animation for the kids and a story about a detached dude trying to be a good parental figure is a solid setup and then the light novel lore pokes its head in...

[long, long sigh]
[very, very long sigh]

I do at least have hope it could build to something good. The source material seems extremely well-liked, and I feel like something good could come out of this premise

Same. I'll be pretty okay with it so long as it doesn't lean into the light novel-isms too much, i.e. holy shit shut up Ithea

honestly its worst crime is not using Scarborough Fair for the actual OP

booooooooo

Bonus Discussion

Nick D
There's not as much to discuss, but Bahamut's back and is pretty dang great again.

Micchy
I'm about halfway through that first season.... still. OTL

Well lemme tell you Season 2 has the most relatable protagonist of the season.

Horny dragon girl? please tell me she also has horns

or wait, am I thinking of Dragon Maid

Who of us hasn't seen a demon guy so hot we turned into a dragon and torched a city.

Micchy
[nods]

s a m e

Nick D
But for real, it's already looking like a way more ambitious story than S1, and Nina's a super refreshing protagonist. Definitely worth catching up on.

Real shame it's on Amazon though, it really seems like the kind of thing that would benefit from more availability

This is a pretty sequel heavy season isn't it

Absolutely. Hell, even Eccentric Family got a sequel. God bless whomever decided to throw more money at that series

Somebody really loves Tanuki I guess

Understated family stories from award-winning novelists don't sell with anime fans but I'm sure glad somebody loves Tomihiko Morimi's work enough to pay for it!

okay look, the tanuki are really cute

You'll hear no argument from me. Tho I still haven't started S2 - I never totally clicked with S1 and I've got so much else to watch it's turned into a backlog title atm

That's fair - not everyone jives with stories about sons failing to live up to their fathers' legacies.

anyhow this season seems to be less about the idiot tanuki brothers than the son of the old alcoholic tengu, who's a hella dapper gent in a top hat constantly accompanied by a blaring minor chord from a string ensemble

The most melodramatic boy with the most melodramatic music

oh I love Yuri Plisetsky

His whole deal is outdoing his deadbeat dad, which is I guess another angle on the whole father-son/legacy theme from the first season. This being based on a legit novel the pacing is laid-back as hell but if you've got the patience for that sort of thing it's nice to watch on a Sunday afternoon. Not a lot of anime with dialogue as elegant as Eccentric Family (and Tatami Galaxy, if we're looking at Morimi novels)

I'd definitely like to give it another try - just on an aesthetic level that show was fantastic

That's another thing - it makes me REALLY REALLY want to go back to Kyoto.

Micchy
Gorgeous show all around XD

Nick D
Meanwhile what I *am* watching is none of those things

And what's that?

Anonymous Noise
aka Shojo Anime: The Animation

LMAO

It's pure trash but it is MY trash and I want it crushed into a fine powder and rubbed into the inside of my eyelids

That sounds dangerous

We're 2 episodes in and we have a 5-way love polygon and 3 different horribly codependent relationships

Oh dear

So like, the protagonist was bullied for her loud voice when she sings as a kid, but her childhood friend (who's from a broken home ofc) protects her until suddenly he moves away without a trace. She just stops talking in public, wears a face mask and everything, then meets a 2nd boy who's a song writer and wants only her to sing his songs. And they all reunite in high school when the song-writer has started a band with another girl who's in love with him. And just for added flavor the bassist is in love with THAT girl.

dear lord

and it all has the aesthetic of an Evanescence video. It's amazing.

Nick D
I love everything about it.

Micchy
geez that's so chuuni

tryhard chuuni rock band is like my kryptonite alright, we can't all be cultured kids who grew up with refined arts and performance :P

As long as I willingly watch nonsense like Love Rice I'm in no place to judge. Speaking of art though you haven't been watching Kabukibu have you?

I got through the first episode, but it didn't really click with me

It's absolutely not for everyone; it's very much a "cute boys starting a club for [x] niche activity" show. That said it's surprisingly conscious of the gender politics of kabuki, which I was absolutely not expecting at all.

Oh really? I just remember one of the girls in ep 1 didn't want to join because Kabuki's an all-male practice.

Yeah, they bring that up again. Apparently kabuki was started by a woman!

:0

It became an all-male art form but historically its relationship with gender has always been a little weird.

What was really interesting to me though was in episode 2. The excitable protagonist boy Shogo goes to recruit Hanamichi Niwa, a former traditional dancer. For the record, his name is homophonous with "Flowered Path" if not straight up that. Meanwhile this guy's gone full-on macho, with workout gear in his room and everything. Initially he turns down Shogo's request because he thinks men should be strong.

Nick D
somebody's compensating

Micchy
to which Shogo's like "nah if that were true politicians would be huge men." Niwa has a whole existential crisis in about a minute and a half and then declares that he actually does want to dance but can't thanks to puberty. Specifically he wants to play female roles. The quick turnaround isn't the most elegantly written thing but I was pleased to see the show acknowledge the masculinity bullshit a lotta boys hold themselves to.

Yeah, that sounds pretty neat. I always like it when shows, even just casually, prod at those kinds of ideas.

Again, Kabukibu's real rough around the edges, but it's a little more conscious of these issues than most of these sorts of shows. It's the sort of message I'd be down for instilling in teenage boys. Not to be preachy but yeah.

Well I'd definitely be interested in seeing more of it knowing that. If I can find literally any time among this avalanche of cartoons this season.

I'll see if I can catch up on Bahamut in the meantime

Pls stop watching Heybot tho

NEVER