Anime update 1025
CITY
heck yeah. Shocking expression anime doesn’t hit me as hard as before, but the excellent animation and great adaptation are making this a solid show. Was exactly what I needed. This is the Kyoani.
Creamy Mami
Got to a few interesting episodes. A mysterious phenomenon episode that felt better executed than Emi’s similar stuff. A Godzilla parody episode. More entertaining than expected but I’m going to be perfectly honest. Finishing original Minky Momo before some of these other shows kinda hurt the energy. Creamy Mami IS one of the better ones, but I can tell you that the appeal is just me wanting to see what the overarching plot is like, the bits of world-building, and to get a feel for my own projects (watching shows with a lot of the same staff!). the 40ish eps I’ve seen, I can only recommend this show to people who like silly gremlin/brat main characters. While not near Emi, this is “Kid Show (derogatory)” at times. Can’t tell if it’s my mood or not but it feels like there’s more interesting episodes now? Used to snappier, faster kids shows than this but it’s fine.
Now that I’ve finished it, it’s not my most favorite magical girl show but it’s up there. Instead of setting up the landing right at the end, the last half or third of the show is really solid. Every character is executed well. The conflict of Yuu’s school kid life and her magical teen idol life as Creamy Mami is woven well. Previous characters are brought in smartly. Yuu’s writing as a kid is so much better here. Key animation, character design staff are shared with some later anime based on Rumiko Takahashi’s works and you can see the eyes and character design choices that would end up in something like Ranma. For the longest time my weird pet peeve were people doing “80’s” or “90’s” style anime art, but from a weird surface aesthetic view rather than looking at the contemporary artists who developed their own style or did actually follow trends. I’ve grown up and those people have improved artistically so this suuuper rarely bothers me now. (if 80’s and 90’s are mixed in a certain weird way it’ll bother me, but it’s hard to explain.) I think if this show had been available earlier, it would’ve affected more people than weird kids like me looking up obscure magical girl shows and reading about them on people’s personal sites and blogs. Also would’ve helped shut up people who called madoka a deconstruction compared to an oversimplification of magical girl shows that doesn’t truly exist. A show that’s hard to recommend on length, but if you have interest in the genre or the staff that worked on it try to watch it.
Ninkoro
It feels like a long time since I’ve seen a SHAFT flavored adaptation and this was a fun one. The humor was darker than expected at times, but I love these characters. These girls hold this show together well. They do a good job softening some moments, clarifying others, and mixing up stuff from the manga. however, I think this might’ve been a shaft adaptation as a 1 season advert for the manga due to some of those changes. Who knows, people have done wilder changes and then gotten a S2. I think it’s worth going in kinda blind, but know that it is a high quality adaptation with all the wonderful flourishes you expect from a shaft show.
Wasteful days
Didn’t have high expectations but went better than average. Better than your usual “standard comedy manga adaptation for 1 season to sell the manga.” That said compared to Hidamari Sketch where I like the manga roughly as much as the anime or shows that inspire me to read the comic for more, this one makes me want to read the comic because I think more jokes land better in the comic. There’s some real solid comedic timing at times and some solid jokes. Also, the voice acting really really helps sell the jokes. Baka, wota, robo all get good performances. I won’t say the anime is bad, the comic just seems to handle jokes better a little. Maybe it just feels worse when we have had several recent shows* that are good or interesting reworks of the early parts of a comic. This one has those nice heartwarming parts that came from short jokes but makes them less a punchline. At that level of TV Anime production, it just felt like time extension for dialogue to breathe, but i’m not sure it works for this one. I read scans of the early chapters and it sometimes felt like some early episodes could’ve had more jokes instead. That whole nickname thing is a one page in the comic and goes right to more jokes. Coulda had more funny Yamai. Or more Majo. Or more Robo so those later eps feel more impactful. Maybe Lily could’ve been punched up a little more funny since we did kinda get a heartwarming Lily? I dunno. Even in the comic it’s kinda uhhhh not good? At-least in the comic the worst parts of Lily are done quicker but in the anime you have to sit through it. Another “Your Milage May Vary” show. Anyway, it was a fun watch and looked forward to seeing some of the characters. It might be archetypes jumble but it’s pretty funny when it works. Another show that makes me wish we got some coverage in english that treated adaptations as adaptations and didn’t ignore the source media. Not a show I’ll go recommend to anyone, but I think if you know what you like from anime comedy you’ll probably quickly figure out if you want to watch it.
*ONIMAI went more drama than gag and it worked. (Personally, I like the comic slightly more I think? maybe cuz some funny stuff i like is after the parts of the adaptation.) This one kinda did that for a few eps. Bocchi the Rock polished up characterizations and rearranged things so that the anime was more solid.
Yuru Yuri S1
I watched this before. I didn’t remember basically anything, tho getting through it I’m now like “yeah I did watch this before.” This show is “okay” I think I’m just not feeling this pacing for the first… half? more than half? By the end though, I did enjoy it! There are moments I like! These characters are silly in a way I like sometimes. I’m going to watch S2. Boy they really used muted colors back then. And still kinda do, but going from Ninkoro to this to Bad Girl, sandwiching with shows from this year, was kinda whiplash.