This was a good week for the season. I don’t think there was a single bad episode, from any show, across the board. Some were better than others sure, but I enjoyed every last one of these, and that’s a treat. Really happy with this week.
Shangri-La Frontier – 18 [Putting Feelings Into a Moment, Part 4]
Daaaamn, Shangri-La got hands this week. And by that I mean, for the first time since the premier, Shangri-La actually looks pretty damn good. Director Toshiyuki Kubooka and his team over at C2C went all out this week and it shows. Sunraku’s movements were fluid, the effects on Pencil and Katsu were awesome, and Wethermon and his crumbling armor looked absolutely incredible. And as if that weren’t enough? The actual content underneath those visuals was great too! I loved watchin Sunraku face this “unbeatable” mechanic head on, using all of his resources as he slowly figured it out, eventually timing all of his buffs and shit to maximize his parry chance. Dude basically solo’ed the encounter since the other two were dealing with the mount, Kirin. Is it convenient how all of these systems come together for his specific build? Obviously, yes. But that doesn’t make it any less fun, and Shangri-La executed on it perfectly such that it all worked anyways. Plus Wethermon’s line at the end about their brilliance was pretty great to. An all around fantastic end to Shangri-La’s best arc yet. I love these gamer assholes.
Dungeon Meshi- 7 [Kelpie/Porridge/Broiled with Sauce]
Unsurprisingly, Dungeon Meshi has once again wow’ed me with how much care and attention to detail it puts into its setting. I loved so much about this episode, from Senshi and the Kelpie to Laios warning against trusting monsters to Marcille making soap by hand and Senshi appreciating it because of that fact to Laios singing to drive the sirens away to the ecology of the lake with the Kraken, even the demonstrable difference between experienced adventurers and new ones in having ways to deal with the dungeon. Everything about it was solid. And of course the production was great to. Dungeon Meshi is always expressive, Marcille and Chilchuck have some of the best faces. But this episode especially looked great. The water specifically flowed beautifully. Yeah there’s one or two things that were awkward, Senshi’s whole thing with magic and the beard were generally cute but maybe could have been paced better, and the octopus/parasite cooking wasn’t the best. But those are small potatoes in an otherwise fantastic episode. I was really wary of Dungeon Meshi when it first started, thought it would be like fantasy Gordon Ramsey. But it’s come a long way since then and is consistently in my top 3 of the season. I love Marcille.
Frieren – 23 [Conquering the Labyrinth]
Alright Frieren, I’m on board with this new test. I bitched a fair bit about the first test because I just wasn’t interested in watching a bunch of mages far below Frieren’s level try and compete with her, not when their victory would mean her failure. It wasn’t interesting. This though? Frieren running around a dungeon having the time of her life? Exploring the path less traveled for no other reason than because she enjoys it? An enjoyment she picked up from Himmel, only further reinforcing this sort of tragic one-sided romance from him with Frieren seeming to have figured it out and cherishing it all these years later? I’m fucking here for that! Plus now I’m bought into Denken, I love the guy, he’s my favorite new character introduced. So now seeing him go head to head with a Frieren he’s allowed to beat without our Frieren being cheapened? Well that’s just going to be fun. Because this entire dungeon is built on the idea of self-improvement, on becoming better than you were when you first entered, which is what the replicas are probably based on. That’s a classic! It also helps that Denken has some of the best one-liners. Like yeah dude, I would also have broken my bottle and noped out of there if this wasn’t my last chance to take this exam. So yeah, suffice to say I’m enjoying this test much more than I did the first one and I’m looking forward to both Frieren exploring the dungeon and Denken being a chad. It’s looking like a lot of fun. Plus the more Himmel we get the better, Frieren x Himmel is my OTP.
Bucchigiri – 5 [Frightening! Chili Shrimps Falling Down Like Snowflakes!]
Another solid episode from Bucchigiri. I enjoy watching Matakara try his best over and over and over again to reach out to Arajin, to be that man they always wanted to be growing up, just to get rebuffed again and again. Meanwhile Arajin is fickle, leaping from gang to gang for whatever will give him the most momentary pleasure. Even Shindo is only interested in him for his suspicion around Senshi, and the whole strip club NG Boys “Energy! Enjoy! Ecstasy! Emperor!” that was all fun. It definitely felt primarily like setup for the big conflict next episode, but that’s ok. What we got here was still good, same with Shindo’s backstory of trying to be like Kenichiro only to not really grasp Kenichiro’s philosophy around fighting. All good stuff. In fact I saw a theory that only made me love it more, how Bucchigiri is more than just inspired by Aladin. If we see Arajin start to be cast down and revealed after all of this, mimicking Aladins own fall after the Genie was taken from him, and how he has to reclaim it all and improve as a person without Senshi, that would be the greatest shit. Looking forward to where it goes.
Solo Leveling – 6 [The Real Hunt Begins]
This was a strong week for Solo Leveling. Visually it was great, both the fight against the spider boss as well as Jin-Woo’s slow decline/loss of humanity were done really well. Solo Leveling is doing a good job of of taking this guy who has been stepped on and looked down upon his entire life and giving him this “Never again” mindset. He still has a lot of those insecurities, those hang-ups, but he’s slowly getting over them and proving, not just to himself but others, that he can do this. Additionally, as much as I dislike the videogame mechanics, Solo Leveling integrated them into the story and Jin-Woo’s motivations rather well. So often you see leads “forced” to kill who really could have just knocked them out, or ran, or anything else. They break their morals without really trying to defend them it feels like. But here, Jin-Woo was assured by the system, a system that has already punished him once for failing a question, that if he didn’t kill these people he would die. Full stop. While it doesn’t really make the system a character yet, it definitely makes it a… polarizing force I would say, one that’s both improving and breaking Jin-Woo down into what it wants him to be. So yeah, good shit. Also on re-watch while getting the pictures, the music during his fight against the other party made the scene hit much harder than I expected it too. An all around solid episode. The team is really trying to elevate the series.
A Sign of Affection – 6 [I Thought I Wanted to Keep Watching Her Forever]
Yubisaki is in this weird place where sometimes it’s incredibly cute and I love absolutely everything about it, from the physicality of their relationship due to Yuki being deaf to how reaffirming and forward Itsuomi can be. Other times though… It gets kind of creepy. There are some scenes where Itsuomi’s forwardness comes off as being pushy and possessive instead, where the way he talks and interacts with her appears manipulative and objectifying rather than romantic. Overall I still like it, the designs are beautiful, I love how full their lips are without being comical, the animation work on their sign language is appealing, and Yuki is such an innocent soul that she makes me want to assume the best from Itsuomi. It’s just… I can’t shake this feeling that I’m going to get gotcha’d somewhere down the line and he’s going to be revealed to be an abusive piece of shit. Until that happens though? I’m gonna do my best to ignore those feelings and bask in what is probably the best romance of the season. Just… Please Yubisaki, please if you love me, don’t make Itsuomi an asshole. I really really want to end this season loving you and feeling bad that my own dating life never gets past the 3rd date. Oh also PS Kyouya is awesome, love him calling Itsuomi out and being protective of Yuki, and Oushi continues to be an overprotective asshole please don’t turn this into a love triangle, kthksbye.
The Apothecary Diaries – 18 [Lakan]
Ah Apothecary Diaries. In some ways, you’re fantastic. Mao Mao and Jinshi, every time they talk I can’t get enough. I love learning about her past, what happened to her mother, how the Verdigris house used to operate “in shame” leading to syphilis, how part of why Mao Mao works there is to take care of her mother, that’s a great. I also love Suiren quietly nudging Mao Mao and Jinshi together, telling her not to let class hold her back or she might miss opportunities. Most of all, I enjoyed Mao Mao going absolutely postal for just a second when Jinshi brought up Lakan. I always suspected he was her father, Apothecary Diaries was never very subtle there. But I’m glad to see Mao Mao dislikes him just as much as I do, it gives me hope for how Apothecary Diaries is going to handle their relationship moving forward. With any luck, he won’t be a reoccurring character for much longer! For now though we’re stuck with him, as we learn he’s been trying to get Mao Mao from the old lady for years and thinks Jinshi has stolen her for some reason. Can’t say I care what he thinks, I don’t like him, but at least it seems his arc is coming to a close soon.
The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic – 7 [A Night of Decisions!]
Wrong Way was mostly setup this week, prepping us for the war to come and making sure every character was involved. But man, were those check ins good. I continue to absolutely adore the friendship of our three leads. Wrong Way does a great job of really selling my on Usato, Kazuki and Suzune’s relationship. So often in anime the “popular kids”, even when being “nice” to the longer MC, come off as asshole. But these two are genuinely good people who care about Usato and his opinion of them. Kazuki confiding in him about the upcoming war, about how Suzune is wrapped up in this “Fantasy world”… fantasy really, while all he sees is conflict and battle. He wants to protect the kingdom and it’s people, but that only makes his supposed cowardice all the more painful. It’s something we usually see from the MC, so its nice that for once the MC is the one doing the comforting, being someone elses supporting character, voicing how the expectations of others only makes Kazuki’s pressure worse. It was nice. We also got a great scene of recognition from Rose as she gifted Usato his official uniform, how she all but begged him to survive so she wouldn’t have to bury another person. Again, it was good! Yeah we wasted some time going on about prophecies and walking around, but the meat of the episode was good shit. Also I like that all of the leads have their own romances going on so this won’t be some love triangle jealousy shit, really calms my nerves there.
Undead Unluck – 19 [Undead + Unluck]
The biggest strike against Undead Unluck continues to be the pacing. The recaps, the time spent on random jokes, the repeating bits. All of that is just wasting time. And that’s a shame, because when Undead Unluck gets going, it’s great. The snappy editing during the manga montage, the way the series worked its own manga into itself for the Shueisha meeting, the reveal that the original manuscript is still in Japanese, confirming it was written by an artifact and thus a manuscript of prophecy, was all good. It’s just… This felt like half an episode. We could have gotten so much more done without losing much if Undead Unluck had just paced itself a bit better. It’s a damn shame, because I love this series, and the anime started so strong. And right now it feels like it’s slowly fizzling out.
Ishura – 7 [War Commences]
This is it Ishura, this is what I’ve been sitting through 5 episodes of introductions for: Characters finally meeting and fighting. And you know what? It was fun. Soujirou meeting Mr Skellington, actually being slower than him and being forced to predict his moves to keep up, the whole fight ending with Mandrake killing the soldiers. Not to mention the giant fuck-off laser nuking Mage City and picking a fight there, or creepy schoolgirl Vortical actually being a mech pilot of a giant spider robot. Good, over the top shit! Funny enough, the politics are actually a lot more palatable now too. Rather than everyone just talking about the politics, we get to see them enacted and figure it out on our own. For instance, we can figure out that Taren is probably killing this patrol so that there are no survivors and she can blame the war on them “Illegally crossing the border” or something, thus giving her justification for the fuck-off laser pre-emptive assault. It’s no different than what Ishura has told us before, but now there are actions to back it up, so it’s just… far more interesting. So yeah, good week for Ishura, I hope it keeps it up.
Unwanted Undead Adventurer – 7 [Magical Contract]
Unwanted Undead continues to chug along, just good enough to watch, but not good enough to recommend. What do I mean by that? Well the actual narrative isn’t bad. This week we get to see more of what made Rentt the staple of the guild he was. How he mentors the next generation, just how knowledgeable he is about the dungeon and how to adventure, the way he walks the line between hands-off and hands-on teaching. We’ve heard a lot about who Rentt was before the first episode, but now we get to see it. And it’s good! On top of that, his past keeps coming up as more and more people slowly figure out who he really is and what’s happened to him. That’s good! I’ve long said the most interesting part of Unwanted Undead is this idea of what he lost when he died, of the reactions of those who knew him and having to start a whole new life. So getting to see some of that, see how the guild reacts to an understandable suspicious new person, it’s all good! The main issue is just that Unwanted Undead looks like shit. It’s easily the worst looking show I’m still watching. Even Shangri-La, when it isn’t chugging out bangers like the past two episodes, looks better than this on average. If it could just fix that, could clean its production up a bit maybe speed the pacing up a tad, it could easily be a contender for the season. As it is now though? Well I’m enjoying it enough to keep watching it despite it being in my bottom three almost every week. That should tell you most of what you need to know.
The Witch and the Beast – 6 [The Witch and the Demon Sword, Opening Act]
The biggest problem with this weeks Witch and the Beast is that we’re back to following Ashaf and Guideau. That in itself is fine, I enjoy them. But they simply don’t hold up after Phanora and Johan. Something about those two is just… Far more compelling to me. Still, what we got was alright. Witch and the Beast kicks off a new arc this episode, one where we have to defend a Witch rather than slay them. This is kind of interesting! Phanora already introduced us to the idea of “Good” witches, so it isn’t completely out of nowhere. And watching Guideau figure out what’s going on, rationalize it, and Ashaf deal with the inevitable fallout as she gets pissed about not being allowed to murder a witch should be good. Plus we get to see the Paladin Corps we’ve heard so much about in action. Should be fun, right? And it mostly is. Paladin Corps are cool and dangerous, the Demon Sword is interesting, and I’m curious about what makes this Witch so important. As a whole though? It felt a little slow, pacing could have been faster, crisper, and Witch and the Beast continues to be absolutely terrible at action. Seriously, it doesn’t look good. Still, there’s potential here. Lets hope next week figures it out. I miss Phanora.
‘Tis Time for “Torture”, Princess! – 6
Torture Princess continues to be really wholesome, and really cute, but also really samey. I enjoy it, every week it’s a nice way to destress. Watching the Demon Lord be a legitimately good father is wholesome, and the slight twist on returning gags like the knight here to save her are cute. But it hasn’t brought anything truly new to the table in a while. I’m starting to lose interest, like an addict finding each dose is less and less effective. It’s a shame really. Torture Princess is still really well produced, one of the best of the season. It’s just… falling behind while everything else in the season continues to iterate and improve.
The post Winter 2024 What-I’m-Watching Summary – Week 6 appeared first on Star Crossed Anime.
