My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Too! (Crunchyroll on Saturdays)
GBS: – KEEP – Basically continues exactly where the original series left off. The interplay between Hachiman, Yukino, and Yui is still sharp and sweet. The supporting players also fill their roles well for this anti-romantic comedy.
BCT: – KEEP – It does indeed pick up just where the first season ended, and that, it turns out, is some of the better news of this Spring season. The cynical, meta-aware view of high school life was already at full steam when this first aired, but in the two years since it’s spread like an invasive species. Oregairu was a return from a sort of wilderness; it still has an awkward time developing its characters evenly, but it’s smarter and more sincere than most of its ilk.
Punchline (Crunchyroll on Thursdays)
BM: – KEEP – I suspect this is in the running for most divisive show of the season. It’s a slapstick action adventure whose lead male has an unusual problem: see panties once, he’ll turn into an unstoppable hero. See them again before his carnal urges subside, and it’s the end of the world. But when he (or more accurately, his ghost) is surrounded by a bevy of pantsu-flashing bishoujo, disaster is only moments away. Its style of humour will absolutely not be for everyone – it’s a real Marmite show, you’ll either love it or hate it, and the key is in treating it with the complete lack of respect it deserves. On the level of being the dumbest of dumb fun, it works surprisingly well and made me laugh outright. For which I’m probably going to hell.
BCT: – KEEP – This one’s insulting to my intelligence, lacks any and all shame, panders to the lowest common denominator, and probably perpetuates Japan’s declining birth rate by continuing to infer to otaku that the female form is impossible and very literally world-shattering. So, it’s gold. Great production values, from character animation to set design, smartly-executed (if well worn) jokes, plus a complete allergy to even the tiniest bit of earnestness (more than Food Wars!) just sells this. Bryan Morton’s right: the way to enjoy it is to give it virtually no respect. Just enjoy the artificially flavored, neon-orange soda for what it is.
GBS: – MAYBE/PASS – It’s trying to both be absurdly funny (in almost a FLCL way) while lathering us in fanservice (the title itself is obviously a pun on “panty line”). I have a feeling that it would have been better if it had had a group like Studio Trigger behind it. As it is, the humor is very uneven: on the positive side, the quick cat porn gag was well done; on the negative side, the nosebleed and asteroid recurring jokes were already old the very first times they appeared. If this is going to be repeated every episode, it will accelerate my decision to head for the exit.
Food Wars! (Crunchyroll on Fridays)
BCT: – KEEP – It’s over-the-top and ridiculous. But it’s serious about being a show about food…that is, in fact, about food. For its own sake; not only to make characters think about tentacle-rape, being wrapped in bacon, or having a jukebox fall on one’s head—though all that happens, too. Happily absurd, wryly offensive, lovingly-animated cooking battle/whatever show of the season.
GBS: – KEEP – Reading some of the previews and advanced word out there, I was expecting potential problems. Food meets fanservice meets tasteless jokes. But it’s not a bad show. They have ramped up the level of absurdity to the point where the tastelessness (like the tentacle joke) are not anywhere near as offensive as they could have been. I’m not entirely sure how to qualify this show yet: it is in some respects a shounen battling tournament version of Gourmet Girl Graffiti, but that’s oversimplifying…though this show is very simplistic. While it’s cheating…I did get to episode 2 before we went to press and that one convinced me to move this fully into the KEEP category.
BM: – MAYBE – Take Gourmet Girl Graffiti and turn it into a shounen action show. Add spurting tentacles (seriously). The results: frankly, I’m speechless. This is a rare show that genuinely defies being judged on its first episode, as what’s here is just so bizarre. Its based on a shounen tournament manga, so I figure it’ll settle down into its routine fairly quickly – in which case I doubt I’ll be hanging around. But on the off-chance that it stays as wacky as it’s opening is, the 3-ep-rule applies.
Mikagura School Suite (FUNimation on Mondays)
BM: – KEEP – Eruna’s a yuri-obessed, VN-playing fujoshi who wants nothing more from her high school than a cute uniform, and cute girls wearing them. These requirements lead her to Mikagura Private Academy, whose system is very much like Baka to Test to Shoukanju – except the battles focus on the cultural clubs, and not the classes themselves. Played purely for laughs and with an emphasis on a more manic style of humour, I liked this a lot – Eruna’s yuri obsession isn’t used for titillation, the grounding’s there for what could be a decent action series. It’s not going to be anything great, but for straight enjoyment has a lot going for it.
BCT: – KEEP – Another in a bevy of over-the-top comedies this season, but on the plus side. How much enjoyment you get from it, however, depends almost entirely on how much you enjoy lead girl Eruna’s antics. She’s built some for male otaku pandering, a nutty fujoshi and All Yuri All The Time. But she also has enough of the plucky and earnest female heroine in her, in the down-the-rabbit-hole mold. If it was yet another male character with her personality, it’d be tiresome, and the rest of the show’s design and concept, unlike, say, Punch Line, may not have in that case been enough to keep it as fun. But Eruna’s bonkers. Plenty of other oddball characters around, and more to come, with pretty colorful animation, should help keep this interesting.
GBS: – MAYBE (for now) – I think over time, I’m going to find Eruna to be incredibly annoying. She didn’t reach critical mass just yet, but there may come a point where I will kick this show into orbit. For the moment, there is enough zaniness to entertain on occasion, though there were multiple and I mean MULTIPLE warning signs: the incest-minded cousin; Eruna’s constant over the top yuri-fanaticism, the cliched character types (mean boy who’s nice inside; boy who is clearly 60% estrogen, 20% testosterone, 20% unknown substance); the sullen school chair’s granddaughter.
