This Week in Anime

Yutapon Cubes

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 23

Episode 9

Episode 35

Episode 9

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

We're gearing up for season finales/midpoints so there's plenty of tears to go around. Though I probably cried the most happy tears with this week's MHA.

TODOROKI MY SON!

Godddddd I've been waiting for this since the anime was announced.

It's so beautiful ;_;

So yeah, a few weeks ago I was like "huh I wonder if there was physical abuse going on in the Todoroki fam" and WOOP

Geez, that flashback hurt a lot to watch. Toxic family dynamics all around :'D

It's impressive how quickly it paints a portrait of Todoroki's life. The editing especially was powerful to me.

Yeah, the part where Momma Todoroki scalds him is real effective. We don't need to see the act, but the image of the kettle on the stove and the sound effects tell all.

That cut was chilling. I swear no pun intended.

That shot of mum's eyes is esp. significant since that's (iirc) the first time we get to see her eyes. In previous scenes we're only shown the bottom half of her face. So the one time we get to see the most emotive part of her face, it's pure terror. Like geez, she's tryin' her best to be a good mom but when it comes right down to it she's a scared, traumatized lady and only human.

The entire episode was just...perfect. I've loved this adaptation for the most part from the get-go, but this felt like they pulled out all the stops and nailed everything that was great about the source material.

Yeah, from the editing to the animation this episode was pitch-perfect.

Having Umakoshi handling the entire episode didn't hurt either. His touch is over every inch of this one.

It's pretty obviously good material to begin with, but the visual panache really added a LOT. There were some Yutaka Nakamura cuts towards the end, right?

What makes you say that

IMPACT FRAMES GALORE

With a good dose of Yutapon cubes to go with them!

That cut was an absolute show stopper, and the whole fight leading up to it was just so good. The show's struggled sometimes to capture the physical damage Deku's powers inflict on him, but every hit and finger flick felt visceral.

I think Shoto's backstory is a hella good example of toxic masculinity in action. Endeavor's all about proving dominance in the most physical way possible; he's the embodiment of machismo: big ol' muscles, GOTTA BE #1 HERO, that sort of thing. It absolutely extends to how he treats his family. No feelings, no playtime; there's only being STRONG and MANLY. Which makes it real interesting to contrast with Deku/All Might: it's not like All Might's NOT stereotypically superhero buff (when he's feeing up to it), but what motivates the two of them is totally different.

So when Todoroki's mum says it's okay to be a hero as long as he believes in a future, that hits real hard. It's not about machismo for machismo's sake; it's all gotta have purpose or else it's bullshit.

I just love the message from Todoroki's breakthrough there.

SMILING BBY TODOROKI IS PRECIOUS

His power is his own! It's not something thrust upon him by his father, and his actions aren't Endeavor's. He's his own person and can forge his own future to be the person /he/ wants to be. And that it comes from Deku, who's been struggling this whole time with making One For All his own too, it's just so good.

Ya got that right!

Now we'll just have to see how he handles that going forward. There's still 2 rounds of the tournament to go after all.

Lookin' forward to that!

Spoilers: Deku's broken his arms permanently and can't be a hero anymore. The show's all about Todoroki now.

Nick no, I need all my good boys to survive this show.

But if MHA became the Bakugo and Todoroki Show I don't think I'd mind terribly much either.

opens mouth

closes mouth

You're a terrible person with these manga non-spoilers, you know that?

I'm pacing myself. Depending on how they pace the show from here I may need to save up my Bakugo shouting.

But this concludes the Happy part of This Week In Anime...

DON'T REMIND ME, NICK. I'M STILL SOBBING

I'm sad too. Always a tragedy when you run outta pads outside the home.

..............................................

I'm going to hell for that one aren't I

Nick, go face the corner and think about what you've done.

I need to add a little levity okay. This entire episode of Re:Creators was everyone being traumatized and grieving.

Well, except for

Oh, Magane with the ol' "it's technically not a lie" shit. And my favorite, the "if I say I'm a liar, am I lying" not-really-paradox.

Nick, your wife is a terrible person!

That's what makes her so fun! She's throwing wrenches in everyone's plans and lives basically for shits and giggles!

She's Murder Schoolgirl Drosselmeyer, that's who she is.

She really is the life of the show though, in multiple ways - if you want to look at Re:Creators as a treatise on storytelling, she's its tale-spinning, bullshit-spewing id. What are stories but a series of plausible lies strung together, etc. etc.

She's a supervillain without the hero designed to stop her, so she reigns chaos on everyone and everything around her, to the point where I'm pretty certain she's going to have to die soon just to keep the story going.

The sad thing is that Alicetaria's totally bought into it!

It's pretty cruel irony that the most honest people are the ones most susceptible to Magane's tricks.

The honest ones can't comprehend why someone would lie through their teeth for no reason. Mamika, ya really should've thought harder about whom to entrust your last words to.

TBF she didn't have a wide range of choices.

I feel like the corndog she dripped her blood over would've been more trustworthy though

ok so when Magane ate that even I was little put off

Well that, and also her 10-minute Let's Retread Sota's Trauma For The Lulz speech, that was pretty rough to watch at points.

The kid's got hella survivor's guilt, geez

And he even starts taking on the blame for Mamika's death once he realizes what happened to her.

Meteora continues to be the most emotionally mature of them all by reassuring him that even if he thinks it's his fault, he can't wallow in the guilt forever. Gotta step up and see what you CAN do in spite of your past mistakes. I'm a real sucker for that theme, ngl.

Same, though if I may put on my tinfoil hat for a moment, I'm getting pretty dang suspicious of Meteora. Specifically when Magane tells Sota to say Meteora and Altair are rigging the whole game. Obviously that's supposed to be a lie to mess with the Good Guys' side, but then again what is a story but a series of lies, et al

I'd take anything that comes out of Magane's mouth with a grain of salt but that's an interesting thought nonetheless.

A lie about a lie and all that though

man where's the cat from Saga when you need it

Guess we'll find out sooner or later. If Meteora's got beans to spill it's gonna happen at some point.

Unless Alice kills her next episode ="D

Girl looks ready to murder everything that breathes right now

Alice-chan, everything's gonna be daijoubu, don't go blindly avenging your girlfriend without getting the facts straight first.

I like these characters a lot, if you couldn't tell.

Same. I also have a new respect for Yuya and his trash talk.

Turns out even the laid-back jackass has some scruples. More than Magane, at least.

who needs morals when you look this good

Re:C wasn't the only show about lies this week though!

Did you mean: the other anime with really good girlfriends this season

I'd say they're not GFs quite yet, but Ymir did eat Christa this week
so I guess--

NICK

But yeah, I was surprised we got more Ymir this week, and from what I've seen this was a surprise to manga readers too?

Apparently her backstory was lifted from much later in the manga - like, I don't think I read that far before I put the thing on hold. This was a damn good place to put it though! Got me lying on the floor screaming about Ymir for a good half hour after watching the episode.

I think it's safe to say she's my fav Titan character now. A lot of her backstory flew over my head since it's answering one question by asking about thirty others, but I was at least able to grock what it all meant to Ymir and how it made her who she is. And I have a weakness for characters making bad decisions for the sake of being true to themselves.

I get the feeling her backstory draws on information doled out later in the source material, but yeah, even if the details were fuzzy, the emotional thrust 100% worked for me.

Like, there are some things I was able to pick up, even if I'm going entirely off of split-second cues and imagery from the ED sequence.

So we know she was initiated into some Wall Church cult until they were arrested and... turned into Titans? That's the glow of Titan shifting we see when they're thrown off the wall.

Like, I'm guessing the injections the police(?) gave to Ymir and her followers is related to the injection Eren's dad gave him way at the start of season one. So are Titans man-made? Is that what happened in Connie's village, since we're clearly supposed to believe that titan is his mother?

Thus far the answer seems to be yes. Conny's village clearly was all changed into Titans at some point - the question is how?

I'm guessing the Beast Titan was responsible for that, but then who the hell is he and why did he do it? Are Reiner and Bert also people banished as titans who regained their human form after decades? The casual remark about Ymir being asleep for 60 years suggests they're familiar with the process.

As a side note, the wall that the Wall cultists were tossed off wasn't Wall Maria. The eyecatch says Ymir's hometown is outside the walls.

how are there only 2 episodes left

You know where the answer to all this is? THE BASEMENT.

It all returns to The Fucking Basement.

This better be the start of a god damn Titan Roadtrip to the basement or I swear to god

Don't hold yer breath, it's not happenin'.

I will fly to Japan and personally kick Hajime Isayama in the junk if I don't get at least one clear answer this season.

I will forgive Attack on Titan for its sins if Ymir and Christa kiss, which they won't do but A GIRL CAN DREAM.

TBH I could blather on about my Titan Lore questions for another hour, but I think editorial would get angry with us.

So we should talk about WorldEnd: Four Monologues and a Wedding

Is there a more eloquent way of phrasing [prolonged fart noise]

I kid; this episode was... fine, I guess?

I don't wanna go on pooping on this show since I did kind of enjoy this episode. I can only reiterate so many times that the delivery is stilted, but the material with Ithea this week was genuinely compelling in a way that surprised me.

When you realize her entire persona's an act, the lolicon jokes seem slightly less bad, I'll give you that.

It does recontextualize a lot of how she acted. She's been pushing Ctholly to act on her feelings since ep 2, but now we know it's because she doesn't want her to miss out on a life like the "Real" Ithea did.

Ithea's been going about this whole time suppressing her real identity so as not to worry anyone - I suppose in some ways she's living Ithea's life for her, but it's more to fill the social space/function Real Ithea would've filled. It's real heavy shit, man.

A lot of the interactions with the girls in the series have felt pretty shallow, but this does give her and Ctholly a much stronger connection than before...so of course she doesn't appear to be involved in the upcoming arc at all ="D

After that scene, the episode is mostly there to remind us of stuff we already understand. I appreciate trying to put us in Ctholly's head as she's processing and coping with her situation but...did we need repetitious monologues to do it?

Something tells me this worked better in prose. Just a hunch, y'know?

As much as I like how some of her monologues were phrased (footsteps disappearing is a good-ass analogy) it did get a touch tedious to hear this sentiment reiterated like 42348 times. I can only take so much carpe diem.

The scarves thing was legit pretty cute though. And a little sad when you realize it was Ctholly's way of memorizing all the kids' names.

WorldEnd has all these neat one-off ideas that don't quite come together and I wish they did. The scarves for one, but also another bit with the cold talisman. Willem takes a piece of Seniorious to treat Collon's cold; Chtholly and Nygglatho are understandably scandalized. But Willem points out the dug weapons' talismans are all made for their own purposes - there's no sense in idolizing something because tradition demands it when it can serve other uses.

There is something I'm happy about going into this last arc - these last couple eps have made this feel way more like Ctholly's story than Willem's. She's always had the more interesting role in the narrative and kept being shortchanged with screentime.

Nick, can I make a confession real quick

sure

I think Willem's face looks like a block of wood and it's about as emotive. I'm not gonna say the character design is what's making Willem's character so bland to me but it's sure not helping.

So yes, more Chtholly is much appreciated.

At this point I dunno that Suka Suka can redeem itself for me, but it's at least managed to hook me more than I expected after the Furry Racism episode.

I commend it for somehow making Ithea tolerable. Good job, Sukasuka.

So hey, let's bring on the endgame and kill off some anime women I guess.

I guess yeah, we better buckle in for sad anime girls dying. That's for sure a thing that's happening.

Bets are on: Will Ctholly and Willem bang before she dies or not?

If nothing else, we can look back in a few years and reminisce about the time the lizard man wore a Hawaiian shirt and cowboy hat. Sukasuka's worldbuilding details are at least charming.

Bonus Discussion

Anything else interesting this week, Nick?

TBH if I had my 'druthers I'd just talk up Grimoire of Zero instead of Suka Suka every week. For one thing, it's a show about Furry Racism that actually understands the mechanics of systemic oppression outside of "there are some jerk people".

"Furry Racism" and "systemic oppression" aren't phrases I generally expect to be used in conjunction, but okay!

I wouldn't either, but it seems to really get how prejudice and distrust can effect individuals and communities in ways that self-perpetuate. Like there are the Beastfallen, who are shunned by society because they're seen as "cursed" but are exploited for their physical strength as mercenaries and Witch hunters. Meanwhile, Witches are seen as heathens and are hunted by the state and used as scapegoats for misfortune. There's a legend that Beastfallens' heads are valuable magical tools (which later turns out to be a lie set up by humans) so that many Witches will hunt them too.

Jus' pittin every minority against each other, are we?

Yep. They're victims of the same system, but are urged or even forced to harm each other. And this all plays out on a micro scale between the main characters as they struggle to fully trust one another.

The storytelling and animation are kinda dumpy and there's some humor that I don't really like, but the show overall has some really smart theming going on with its characters that I don't see often.

That sounds super fascinating! I kind of regret passing up Grimoire of Zero on account of it being Just Another Fantasy Light Novel Adaptation.

Apparently the LNs are written by a woman, which might account for why it's a little more aware of what it's talking about.

Even if the author has some really bad tastes in memes

I was just gonna say I thought this was the show that referenced Skyrim's "arrow to the knee" shit in the Year of Our Lord 2017.

What's worse is the novels were published in 2014 so this was old even when it first came out.

>: (

So how about you? Anything interesting lately?

Please don't say Frame Arms Girl

Kabukibu's been truckin' along!

(oh thank god)

It's been fine? Kabukibu continues to be kinda shruggo production-wise and really goddamn ugly to look at, but it's mostly kept up the good character writing. An ongoing struggle of the kabuki club has been how to make the art form more accessible to younger audiences. Their solution: stage the same play twice, once translated for modern audiences and once as written.

sort of a No Fear Shakespeare production then

Yeah, sorta like No Fear Shakespeare, though they're better about keeping the original aesthetic intact. So like, they offer explanation for historical context, replace some of the older language with modern slang, add lines where the story gets confusing - but they say their lines in that stylized kabuki cadence. That last part is important - they're really earnest about keeping the style of the art form intact even when they take liberties with other aspects of the production.

I applaud Kabukibu for trying so damn hard to make kabuki look fun without betraying the spirit of the art. It doesn't always succeed (see: the extremely dumpy color palette), but its heart is in the right place.

I do confess, I kinda wrote off the show entirely because I don't care about kabuki. But I'm glad to hear the show really does care about its subject matter enough to go to bat for it like that.

It's also got a hella good sense of humor - kinda wry and understated. If you've seen Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE, it's that kind of banter. I guess in some ways Kabukibu is my Grimoire of Zero, haha

Maybe some day we'll get an anime about obscure American punk bands and I can nerd out about that every chance I get.

Anonymous Noise not punk enough for you?

Too few mohawks TBH

But really, Anonymous Noise is only tangentially about music. Mostly it's about a band of teenagers trying to get an album recorded while their guitarist and lead singer are in the middle of a fucking Bermuda Love Triangle. Like, I need visual aides to explain the relationships in this show.

That... clears up absolutely nothing. How does "friends but didn't realize who the other was at first" even WORK.

Okay so Glasses Love Interest left before the other dude showed up, so they never actually knew what the other dude looked like. Then in high school they meet by accident and start hanging out, and it's not until episode 8 that they figure out they've been hanging out with their rival in love this whole time. And then everything goes to hell.

What even is this show.

What's funny is, outside of the love triangle, the other kids are like...well adjusted and healthy? The girl who gets replaced in the band by the MC eventually becomes her friend and even gives her singing tips, then joins their rival's band to make her own music, and everyone's just cool with it and there's no hard feelings. The blond guy's initially skeptical of the MC joining them, but after seeing how much emotion she puts into her performance he comes around and they just become chill buds.

Meanwhile the two love interests are literally fighting and making bets over who will the MC will "belong to"

"shoujo_manga.jpg"

and I didn't even get to that guy who kisses the MC to make her stop screaming, then lies to her about it afterwards

What.

okay it's not AS bad as it sounds but yeah

Nick, why are you watching this show.

Because it is a god damn ride every week.

No joke it's my favorite non-sequel this season. It's the most Extra thing I've seen in ages and I kind of love it.

Great, now you've got that Evanescence song stuck in my he[WAKE ME UP INSIDE]

Actually that's a good way to describe Anonymous Noise's appeal - it's like a 12-episode Amy Lee AMV

Especially the album cover

Oh my god. I'm judging.