This Week in Anime

It Came From DeviantArt

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.

Episode 8

Episode 8

Episode 34

Episode 22

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.

A lotta characters this week could really use a warm hug.

I'll say!

Mamika probably needs a blood transfusion before a hug but yeah

Re:CREATORS sure turned into Madoka Magica (with a smattering of Utena for good measure) this week huh

Stuff came to a head this week for sure. After weeks of building up the cast and characters we've gotten our first big turning point and uh

is it gauche to call it "explosive"?

So how 'bout that grimdark Hatsune Miku OC we've got for a villain?

I love it. The villain of the story is vengeful fanfiction.

"It Came From DeviantArt"

I really enjoyed how the rules of the Re:CREATORS universe differentiate between canon-compliant (to use a fanfic term) interpretations of a character and total reinvention.

It's an interesting way to take things though, and it makes Altair's relationship with Setsuna make a lot more sense.

Setsuna Shimazaki and her OC Altair Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way

Fan works are almost always super personal, individual efforts from the person who makes them, so it follows that Altair would have more attachment than the other creations.

And of course Altair's an expression of Setsuna's built-up adolescent rage and despair, so it's extra potent. Teenage emotions are hella messy, lemme tell ya.

Her speech at the end of the episode was really neat. Pure emotional nihilism. If the world rejected Setsuna, why shouldn't Altair reject it back, right?

I wonder how much of that is her character as Setsuna wrote her and how much is anger she's gained since entering the real world. Like, how much of her attitude is inherent from her conception as a teenager's emotional outlet - how much of her is really Setsuna, in other words?

It's an interesting question, I'm wondering how much her journey so far mirrors Mamika. Was there a point where she questioned her purpose before reaffirming?

That'd be cool to know! Thus far she's been fairly inscrutable.

As an aside, I really enjoyed when Meteora started referring to Setsuna as "she" before correcting herself, since for all they know Setsuna could be a dude. After all, this is the internet.

Re:CREATORS has been pretty clever with its character parallels so far, so I think there's something interesting at play beyond the (frankly obvious) mystery of her origin. And it'd be a pretty cool move to have her in some way reflect Mamika's journey to self-actualization.

Chuuni edgelord bullshit vs. Precure pink sparkles, who will prevail?

Nick, I'm really sad about Mamika

Oh I'm sure she's fine. What's a few swords through the abdomen.
Or an explosion or two

Brb, gonna write a strongly-worded letter in my hodgepodge Japanese to Ei Aoki and Rei Hiroe demanding that Mamika and Alicetaria kiss, dammit.

"This is the world where I got to meet you" ;_;

MAMIKAAAA

Please enable my Madoka/Saber fanfiction, Re:CREATORS.

Really, Mamika's big moment pretty much sealed her as my favorite character. Soooo many "dark" "subversive" takes on Magical Girl stuff just wants to prove it's smarter than the genre it's potshotting, but here it's kind of a reaffirmation of the basic tenets.

Mamika's been confronted with the reality that she can't solve all her problems by wishing really hard, but god damn she's gonna try her best. The world's a mess but also kind of wonderful and somehow worth protecting. Gosh the girl needs a hug.

Sota should take some notes.

Boy does he have some survivor's guilt.

Meteora continues to be the MVP in a show that's already pretty nuanced re: complicated emotional issues. Jealousy and envy ARE normal; nobody can help feeling icky about some things. People aren't perfect, but we just gotta keep tryin our best.

It was so gd refreshing to see a show say that ignoring negative or petty emotions isn't the answer.

If I do have one complaint about Sota's character though, it's that he's a mother. fucking. ingrate.

God gives you an opportunity, you take it man

OF COURSE. I was just about to ask if you were salty about his lack of appreciation for your waifu!

I admit Magane's an acquired taste, but dude. Come on.

For real though, I'm excited to see Sota get pressed to the edge now.

His hyperventilation and anxiety attack were #relatable

the whole scene was intense, and not just for uh, my reasons.

Seriously though, it's those details pointing to possible anxiety issues that make me sympathize with Sota a bit more than I would otherwise. Wide-eyed horror is all over the place in anime; recognizable signs of an anxiety attack are less common. It's a little thing but it does help contextualize why he hasn't said anything until now. He's not just a potato-kun but an anxious one.

It's a great indication that he's dredging up genuine trauma. To even approach the subject, he has to separate himself from it and hesitates to even bring it up, so having it thrown in his face is staggering. Suicide plot lines aren't exactly rare in anime either, so it's nice to see the subject treated with more thoughtfulness than I'm used to.

I'm glad Re:CREATORS has the writing chops to treat those issues with delicacy. Guilt is a bitch, man.

On the topic of Guilt, one show sure does need to be feeling it.

Ssssssssukasuka please stop. You can't see, but I'm currently craning my neck around so my head's basically the upside down smiley emoji.

Worst part is I'd more or less made peace with this plot point before this episode. The show's not been subtle about Willem and Ctholly being the intended romantic pairing, and the last couple episodes did a decent job giving them some rapport to actually make me enjoy them being around each other.

But then they gotta keep hammering in the father/child vs. romantic couple dynamic, whyyyyyy

Don't bring the other girls into this please! I would've been fine with it if the other girls hadn't taken it upon themselves to act as Willem's emotional support. What am I supposed to feel about this, SukaSuka?

So was it me or did the show almost seem like, apologetic about even doing it? Like it was aware it was making a snafu with this mentor-cum-lover shtick and was trying to justify it to itself? Ithea straight up says "y'know if you think about it this is fucked up huh? But let's not."

[prolonged sigh]

and Willem frames him falling for Ctholly as like, she wore him down as an act of nature via being a cute girl and him being a man.

Exactly!! That's what bugs me most. No guy can resist a cute girl who pays attention to him my ass.

I'm pretty sure that's the same justification Usagi Drop made at the end of its whole thing actually.

Nick, we do not talk about the second half of that manga. That's like, the first rule of fight club.

And it's a shame because there are bits of this episode I liked? Ctholly feels like a more realized character now than she has before, and her issue with memory loss was a really great way to emphasize that. And I didn't even mind their quasi-date at the start because at least they had a back-and-forth in conversation as equals.

The scene where Chtholly dives to save the kid despite knowing the risks was pretty ouch. Followed by the gut punch of "wait, who are you again?"

On the topic of her memory loss though, that cold open where she forgot which shaker was the pepper was bizarre. I get what they were going for (forgetting benign things first before losing the important memories) but considering how often I forget where things are in the kitchen, it took me a bit to figure out that was the point of the scene.

It was definitely some weird editing on the show's part. We don't see a shot of Ctholly's face or any indication of what she's feeling when she realizes what's going on. Just a smash cut to the OP.

This fuckin' show, man, constantly undermined by weird choices in direction and editing.

Okay, I've been harsh on this episode, but aside from those few snafus I've basically accepted the show's general trajectory, even if I personally don't like it a whole lot. Chtholly and Willem are going to end up together, fine. Something TRAGIC is going to happen, fine.

Yeah, my issue is mostly with the mealy-mouthed way it tries to hand wave the questionable dynamic shift. Like, if you're gonna do it, go for it. Own it. You don't see Eromanga-sensei equivocating and making excuses for itself.

Sidenote: was I alone in thinking Nyyglatho's "confession" was offputting?

Yeah, Nyggalatho talking about it in terms of childbearing ability was... ick. Yes, that is probably a real concern for the dude, sole survivor of the human race and all, but do ya really have to bring it up NOW? This isn't Gilead, Nygglatho, you're more than a walking uterus!

It def reeked of Dude Writing Women

The character writing in SukaSuka's always been a bit Dude Writing Women but this was probably the most irritating it's been since Chtholly's whole crush was introduced.

I dunno, at this point I just want Suka Suka to get to its big shebang.

Yeah, tell me about "humanity's sin" already. Enough of Squid Girl fairy mumbling cryptically about lore, can we get to the point soon?

We know WHO Willem would do at the end of the world, let's see WHAT he'll do instead.

Nick, that was bad and you should be ashamed of yourself.

Never.

Then again, being too ashamed of yourself might not be a good thing. Poor Reiner Braun ;_;

Yeeeeeep. Reiner's got some serious issues going on huh. He had so much to deal with he needed to split the difference.

nICK.

What's interesting to me is that every other sentence that comes out of his mouth now is basically a contradiction. Like first he apologizes for forgetting Eren's arms, and then a minute later he's like "good thing I ripped off your limbs so you can't escape, huh?" Bertholdt, I feel ya. How the hell have you managed to follow this guy's train of thought this long?

It's fascinating to think this all stems from the trauma of /empathizing/ with the other cadets of all things. Reiner couldn't deal with the guilt after seeing humans as like, people with their own dreams and fears, so he had to compartmentalize his own culpability. At least, that's how I read it. Truth be told I felt like a lot of this episode kinda flew over my head in the moment.

Nah, that's basically right. Piecing together what happened to Reiner psychologically is a little tricky given his total incoherence but that's pretty much what happened. Watching loved ones die really did a number on the dude, so he created a whole different persona to keep the guilt from crushing him.

It's an intriguing way to tie into the question of who the "enemy" is. Reiner and Bertholdt seem to have a pretty deep-seeded reason to hate humanity, and Eren's speechifying mostly just pisses them off with how he clearly doesn't know jack about what's really going on in the world. Only problem being /I/ don't know what's going on either so I was grasping at vagaries for a lot of the episode.

Eren's constantly looking for an external enemy to beat up, but the dumb kid's gotta realize there's a lot more than one big ol' Titan to reckon with here.

Oh shoot, I just realized there are only what, three episodes left in this season? Yeah, you're not gonna get a whole lotta answers.

Just like...something to explain who the Titans are or why they're doing what they do. That's all I want.

Attack on Titan: answers, who needs answers?

I would take Answer, singular, by now.

By the way, do you remember the "is Reiner gay?" discourse from a few weeks back?

Vaguely and with dread, yes

This is what I meant by "possibly." Soldier Reiner is straight as an arrow, but Warrior Reiner is questionable.

Soldier Reiner has no Gaydar, that's for sure

"I think Christa has a thing for me, you guys"

If that's true then I suppose you could read it as him adopting heteronormativity to fit the straightlaced "soldier" persona, but I'm not a huge fan of that reading. In any case Attack on Titan isn't all that concerned with sexuality in general so that'll probs remain fan speculation.

In general I'm skeptical of fictionalized takes on dissociative disorders. Like I get the emotion behind Reiner, but I'm not particularly comfortable trying to extrapolate on it.

I'm with ya there. I found it a bit of a stretch too. That said, I'm willing to look past it if that's what the story needs to hold itself together.

Yeah, it's not a monumentally offensive approach to the concept, so I can look past it.

I'm willing to put up with a lot for the Good GFs tbh

Other than that, this was mostly setup to build tension for the rematch between the Titans and Survey corps, so my main takeaway is that I want it to be Saturday already.

Are you sure you're not just looking forward to seeing your Re:CREATORS waifu? Or are you anticipating the good heroboiz?

Okay yeah, part of it is I'm also hyped for more MHA. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm watching Saturday morning super hero cartoons in my 20's.

Look, speaking as a watcher of Sunday morning children's shows (see: Kamen Rider, Heybot!) you're doing better than I am. Besides, how can you /not/ be hyped after the big Uraraka vs. Bakugo fight? Like YEAH MY GURL

My strong, determined daughter~ Lemme tell ya, this fight was rough to read in the manga but the anime made Bakugo's explosions VICIOUS

They looked like they hurt. A Lot.

Me the whole time while watching this episode

It was a tough sit for a minute, but it was so satisfying to see the "frail lead girl" thing kicked to the curb with Uraraka.

Yeah, the dude who assumed Bakugo was just going easy on her got schooled real hard. Uraraka is strong and smart and god damn I really want the best for her so she can keep being the sweetest, most well-meaning kid to her mom and dad.

Rando: "Hey, stop picking on her, she's just a girl!"
Aizawa: "She took 3 dozen flashbangs to the face. Sit down, bitch."

I'm a sucker for that whole "give your opponent respect by going all out" thing in shonen stories, and it was neat to get some texture to Bakugo in the process. Bakugo's an asshole, but he's learned to take people as serious opponents after his loss to Deku.

He might've blasted away her entire arsenal at once but she put up a damn good fight. Even that lil asshole has to admit she's wild.

She pushed him, which is the first time anybody's done that this whole festival. And he even remembered her name by the end of it!

He almost seems disappointed when the fight ends, tbh.

Sidenote: did you know this fight is why there are, for some reason, Urarakugo shippers.

W H A T

I know right? I don't get people sometimes.

I'm just gonna bleach my eyeballs and forget I ever read that.

But yeah, I loved seeing this fight animated. It was one of my fav parts of the manga early on and was what originally made me like Bakugo as a character.

It's a hella solid fight, yeah! I think the real payoff is afterwards though, when Uraraka refuses to cry in front of Deku. Deku doesn't let shit get him down and neither will she, god damnit.

NGL, I teared up when she was talking to her parents.

They do their best to reassure her that a year's no big deal, that she'll have another chance, but she's a kid, and at 15 or so a year feels like FOREVER. Girl, I feel ya so hard on that; shit feels like the end of the world when you're a teen trying your best and fucking up anyway.

It's also just so nice to see supportive, loving parents in an anime.

Buncha great parents in MHA! And then there's Endeavor.

Endeavor "get verbally shut down by a 15-year-old" Todoroki

Get Rekt Endeavor! That was immensely satisfying though, having Deku tell him to his face that making his kid a proxy for his own ambitions is hella fucked up.

It's a really cool line to start this fight on. Deku's usually the timid apologist but he confronts the #2 hero in the world and calls him out without blinking.

Gotta say, it's got me hyped as hell for Deku vs. Todoroki. Why can't it be Saturday yet? I wanna see the good boys punch each other out!

Oh trust me there are some good punches. The episode's being handled by Yoshihiko Umakoshi himself, so it's basically guaranteed to look fantastic.

holy bananas, hell fuckin yeah

Bonus Discussion

Speaking of bananas, you been keeping up with the horny dragon girl show?

Hell yeah I have!

When did Rage of Bahamut get this emotionally draining, Nick?

I think around the time Azazel found somebody who was both more evil than him and way more competent at it.

Look, I signed up for horny dragon girls and swashbuckling heroes, not this wanton demon slaughter. Azazel's plan of assassinating Genocide Slaver King ran into a few speedbumps, it seems.

The one time he really needs Nina to get frisky and she's fallen in love with a hot despot.

Mostly I feel bad for Rita - she leaves for 5 minutes and suddenly everybody's arrested or being kidnapped.

Rita better bust their asses out of prison pronto

I'm really interested in where we go from here though - Nina's now seen up close and personal what Charioce's ruthlessness results in. Even if she doesn't have a personal stake in this whole thing, can she still ignore it?

She can't afford to be complacent now, not when her hot (sorta) ex is being flogged. I just hope Mugaro makes it out okay, the kid deserves better. Plus the last time Rage of Bahamut had a "find mom again" plot it ended badly for pretty much everyone involved.

This show's foremost an adventure so next week's the Prison Break!

Our fav trickster hero is back! FAVAROOOOOOO

If the next episode doesn't open with Kaisar shouting FAVAROOOOOOOOOOO for 2 minutes I'm dropping the show

I'm sure we'll get in plenty of Favaro being a shithead, worry not.

I do find it interesting that Bacchus calls out the gods for what happened to Jean in S1. TBH one of my biggest problems with Genesis was how Jean only really existed as a plot contrivance instead of her own character. So it's cool to see Virgin Soul addressing how screwed over she was.

Even if she has been in prison this whole season. Geez, the gods are real assholes, aren't they? Baiting Mugaro (El?) with promises of seeing Mama Jeanne when they just want to use the kid to strike fear into humankind again. Bacchus plays the blase fool but he can't bear to sit around while shit happens.

It's pretty dang impressive how Virgin Soul has expanded on all the old cast. Can't wait to see what they do with Favaro next!

He's still got that dopey smile, I love it

maybe lose the beard tho

It's admittedly not a flattering look on him.

Favaro doesn't look right without a doofy babyface.

Doofy babyface, you say?

I prefer this face but same difference

Can I just say I'm shocked how much I'm enjoying The Royal Tutor?

It's gotten real good the last few weeks, yeah! Shit's hittin the fan...

I'd mostly been watching for the gags, since it mostly felt like a less absurdist version of Assassination Classroom, but the material with Kai the last 2 weeks has been Good Shit.

Kai: a Good Boy

Part of it's just that I can really relate to being a kinda offputting looking dude who's shit at communicating face-to-face, but there's a lot of thought and consideration put into Kai's conflicts that I appreciate. Heine's assurance that there will be people who won't always understand you, but that it's worth working for anyway was downright heartwarming.

I felt more for Bruno's "genius or not?" identity crisis, but yeah, Kai's stuff has been solid as heck. Being sociable can be hard but the kid's tryin. He's surprisingly patient even when ex-classmates slander him in the press, now that's a saint right there.

Part of it's definitely guilt - even if it was justified he feels crummy for hurting somebody like that.

Plus, he's pretty aware that he comes from a place of privilege - the princes didn't get to see how instructors at school treated the other students, so Kai's trying to be understanding of whatever may have motivated the guys who picked on Bruno.

Granted that's a liiiitle undercut by the guy immediately trying to take them hostage, but it's neat to see the cast being self-aware like that.

It's such a good cast full of very relatable boys! We do look to be getting into Heine's past with this last episode; the lil runt unleashed some mad skills and kicked some real ass.

Boy did he ever. For a hot second I actually thought he shot that guy.

I wouldn't be surprised if he did some not-so-savory things in his youth (while defending Viktor, possibly?)

He's prepared to leave the palace forever if his past is revealed, so I could see it being pretty dirty.

I wanna knowwwww, stop teasing me.

I do hope the show gets into his character; up till now he's been more an observer than a player. He can't have been born a levelheaded voice of reason. Here's hoping we'll see how he got that way.

I'm definitely glad to be watching it. Not only because it's good, but there's finally a duo we can cosplay together at a con.

NICK.

Don't worry, we'll get you some platform shoes so you'll be Heine's height.

aaaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaahhhh