This Week in Anime

Romcom Rendez-Vous

Coop
Lucas, I spent a couple of minutes or so going "Is Suzuki wearing Chucks?" and had my suspicions confirmed fairly quickly. The girl knows style, I'll tell you what.

But aside from a few middle-of-the-road premieres, I've been pleasantly surprised by how strong most of this season's offerings are. Polar Opposites was the first of the bunch that made me go, "Wow, we're cooking with gas here." Especially when the opening kicked down my door with copious amounts of mixed media!

No, sir, I will not skip this intro!

You'll be reading variations of this a good bit throughout the roundup, but Polar Opposites exudes a high level of confidence almost immediately. The bopping tunes, refined yet loose visuals, mixed media touches, and characters who've got a pretty solid lock on their motivations... It's all rock-solid. That confidence also bleeds into the localization, because the subtitles go above and beyond—making the viewer almost feel as if they're reading the translated sound effects in the manga itself. And if Crunchyroll ever has a Blu-ray pressed for this, these subtitles should be on there. Might need a tweak or another pass to ensure these effects can make the jump, but this nut has long been cracked.

You've got a point... I guess we've just got to eat our over-boiled vegetables when it comes to Crunchyroll at the moment. But speaking of eating our veggies...

You Can't Be In a Rom-Com with Your Childhood Friends! is as classic anime romcom as you can probably get. This one's got a distinctly mid-to-late aughts energy about it—from the more-dense-than-a-brick-wall protagonist to his quartet of childhood friends who very obviously want to jump his bones.

But I don't know... This doesn't seem to have the juice of your beloved 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You, Lucas.

Apparently not that flaccid...

I might be a little more charitable to it myself, mostly because it wasn't outright terrible and okay enough as far as more middle-of-the-road fare goes. Though I agree on the jokes and writing generally being rote. After the fifth time he says the show's title out loud, I'd expect them to cut to the credits already. And I will give it to the localization team once again for really knocking it out of the park with these subtitles. The shimmering effect on "the heavenly salvation" text in motion is a fun touch.

But more importantly, Lucas... The episode's ending strongly implies he left the room to rub one out in the bathroom after the lap fiasco.

Rom-Com might've worked better as an adult title now that I think about it... The tone could easily swing into a pornier direction with a few tweaks here and there, making for some trashy fun, perhaps. Which reminds me, don't we have an honest-to-god adult title on the list this season?

Android Doinkin' might be under ten minutes so far, but it is quite economical and surprisingly funny with its runtime.

If you thought that was crass, wait till the robot girl turns on her vibrating finger functionality.

I'm imagining how the pitch meeting for this one went down. Among a whiteboard filled with titles such as Buttobi CPU and other robot girl shows, a production assistant writes down Chobits only for the executive producer to cross it off and write "SHOTITS" directly below.

They even let you see her socket... Now that's hardcore.

Speaking of technology bringing people together, Tune In to the Midnight Heart has a smart modern setup. A kid enrolls into an certain high school to find an old internet friend he used to chat with back in middle school. However, they used to chat over a stream, and he's got no idea who she is... In real life, that raises some stranger danger and stalker alarms, but it's how we thrust this oddly cocky dude into a pretty typical romcom situation. Like Rom-Com, this one felt quite old in its execution.

When reintroduced as a high schooler, he kind of comes off as the pompous comic relief character who'd be shut up to set up the protagonist's own introduction. Similar to Mendou from Urusei Yatsura. The whole bit sort of confused me at first.

You when I mention 100 Girlfriends again:

I will say, kudos for crediting the localization team on this one. Sometimes credits are absent for a variety of reasons outside of just sheer omission, so it's nice to see them pop up every once in a while. It's these folks who really make anime happen in our neck of the woods.

Oh, baby, you've just brought up my favorite title of the entire bunch! Tamon’s B-Side hit me on so many levels... It's heartfelt, snappy, and incredibly funny. In fact, I started getting a bit misty-eyed while watching the episode. He might be a little too dependent on Utage at the moment, but Tamon's a deeply relatable character. As someone who's put myself out there publicly a time or two (be it stage acting, writing, podcasting, or running around at a con), it's hard not to end up playing an amped up version of yourself at some point. Afterward, it's easy to feel drained or deal with some impostor syndrome. I'm just some dude who writes about cartoons, but I could relate to Tamon's superstar struggles.

After dealing with that alone for so long, I'd bet it would be nice to finally have someone in your life who's genuinely (and literally in this case) your number one fan.

I believe so much of that comes back to that air of confidence I mentioned earlier. Tamon’s B-Side is totally sure of what it is and what it's trying to convey—never once dragging its feet at it leaves the starting gate. I added this one to my weekly pull list as soon as I finished the first episode, and it's still firing on all cylinders.

Similarly, Tamon and his bandmates are so effortlessly sexy without it ever feeling forced. Mr. Gloomy's a naturally attractive guy, regardless of whether he's in work mode or not.

On the topic of hard shojo, let's check in on season two of Anyway, I'm Falling in Love with You.

We took a look at the first season around this time last year, and I don't have much more to report this time around. If you enjoyed the first season, the series seems to be picking right back up where it left off. Oh, and our quartet of hunks still all sport the same haircut.

I agree, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk has a lot of thoughts on capital-G-gender to ponder. Yoi's clearly frustrated with how everyone has assigned her the role of "Prince," but when her ashen-haired prince shows up, she's taken off guard by someone actually treating her like a girl for once in her life.

I found it interesting too that hunky Hikaru over here doesn't seem too bothered by how Yoi identifies either—he thinks she's beautiful regardless.

They've all been portrayed as cisgender characters so far, but I'd be curious to see how that is commented on or changes over time. I got the vibe that all the girls around campus are dying to make these two their BL OTP, but are failing to realize the boxes they've placed people into by doing so.

Being set in a fantasy world also strengthens this premise. Even in a world of animal people and invisible studs, it's the measure of someone's character that matters. Though I do find the "boss dating his employee" element of this series to be a little discomforting, it has avoided those associated pitfalls so far. Fingers crossed on that one.

Also, the Lynx woman who loves churus is pretty great. All cats hunger for the tube.

In the past month or so, I've noticed that we've been big on that Boys Over Flowers train in these parts. In fact, I've got the DVD set from a decade back starring me right now. I've only watched the first episode so far, but when I get the time... Oh boy, am I ripping through this one. Love Through a Prism is simply gorgeous. Like Polar Opposites, Prism is so refined yet satisfyingly loose with its animation. And honestly, it's nice to see a period drama for the first time in a long while. A Japanese art student in London goes from rivalry to romance with the hunky guy who draws in charcoal? Sign me up! But the catch here is that Netflix dropped all 20 episodes in one go...and we know how that tends to turn out. It would've been nice if Love Through a Prism had that three or four month run to really give it room to breathe and drum up further buzz.

I caught the first episode in Japanese, but you've sold me on starting over with the ye olde proper English dub.

Overall, this seems to be THE SEASON for rock-solid romances. Yes, there are a few clunkers here and there, but the rest is just spectacular. On the note of romcoms specifically, I wanted to take a moment to pour one out for Rob Reiner—someone who, alongside Nora Ephron, crafted the romantic comedy Rosetta Stone.

Aside from making me tear up, this penultimate scene from When Harry Met Sally pushed me to watch the film a few years back with adult eyes. It's the greatest movie to ever do it, and I'd doubt we'd have much of the romantic comedies we love today (including all the animated ones) if it weren't for Reiner and his collaborators. A salute to you, good sir! Rest in Peace.