The Weekly Orbit is a weekly column collecting and refining my more casual anime- and manga-related thoughts from the previous week. Mostly, these are taken from my tumblr blog, and assume familiarity with the works covered. Be wary of spoilers!

Hello, people of Earth! As the season rolls into its third main week, I’ve picked up an additional show, checked out a Netflix series that I think is probably worth diving into, and just all around had a pretty solid time. Hopefully you will, too, as you read on.

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Anime

Mysterious Disappearances – Episode 2

I have been somewhat down on this show’s visual direction but I like the “cut in half” motif at the very start of this episode. Overall, this is an alright episode that forms the first half of the—yuck—Dribblers arc. I maintain that this series doesn’t entirely work in motion, to the extent that it works at all, but I think this is about as well as they could’ve done it? The ecchi scenes continue to stick out like a sore thumb. Also, it must be said that the whole “drooling sickness” bit is significantly more viscerally unpleasant in motion than it was in the manga, and it was already kind of gross, there.

The Grimm Variations – Episode 1

The Grimm Variations is a hell of a thing, and essentially my big ‘discovery’ for this week. (To the extent that getting into an anime that recently released on Netflix counts as any kind of discovery of anything.) I really liked what I’ve seen so far, and not just because this is the first anime with CLAMP character designs in a good long while. I’m going to spoil much of the first episode, which is a self-contained story as this is an anthology, right here. So if you’d prefer to just get a quick yes/no recommendation, I’d say skip this entry and go watch the first episode for yourself to see what you think. Although do be aware that it, and indeed every episode of this show, is double-length. Personally, I would say the first episode is pretty great, though not without some caveats.

Essentially, this is a twist on the Cinderella story, wherein Cinderella is evil. Kind of. It’s nuanced, but she’s definitely at least an antagonistic force. This version of the story is transplanted to Japan in, if I had to guess, roughly the 1800s, and our Cinderella figure is named Kiyoko [Kugimiya Rie]. There’s also a frame story featuring the brothers Grimm themselves and a young girl named Charlotte [Fukuen Misato], but they’re not a major factor here.

The main force of this tale is the stepsisters’ own greed, at least at first, since they move into Kiyoko’s home as their mother marries her father. But there’s more going on here, and it’s difficult to tell where the dividing line quite is between what happens to the stepsisters being the result of their own actions vs. it being a consequence of Kiyoko being actively malicious. The slide from the former to the latter is gradual, and the episode’s final moments make it unclear if perhaps this entire thing wasn’t her plan from the start. The fact that Kiyoko displays no obvious malice until the episode’s halfway mark actually makes her more unsettling. The living doll in her possession is an interesting development, as well, especially since she looks like Charlotte from the frame story and seems to actively dislike how ruthless Kiyoko is being.

In the episode’s last act, Kiyoko, of course, unexpectedly shows up at the ball outshining both her sisters, propelling us to the end of the Cinderella storyline in which it is inevitably her, and not her stepsisters, who is wed to the prince. (Or, in this interpretation, the heir of a noble family. Same difference. As a sidebar, the show’s translation of various Japanese noble titles into words like “Count” and such is a little strange, although given that this is ultimately based on a European story, perhaps it works.)

It’s interesting how open to interpretation the entire story is. When the stepsisters first arrive, the affection Kiyoko gives them seems genuine, but over time, she begins mocking them, and it seems to grow into a twisted thing where she thinks of them as her playthings. (That she feels this way at least by the end of the story is one of relatively few things we know to be true.) Is this some kind of twisted vengeance? Is this the entitlement of the upper class? Maybe a bit of both? A conversation with a friend of mine (hello, Lexi) led me to think it’s interesting how the stepsisters’ fate can be read in a number of different ways if one is so inclined. For example, as the tendency of moneyed society to shut out anyone who tries to rise above their station. You can see this with how Kiyoko relies on the trust of the house servants, despite throwing one of them under the bus in order to frame her sisters, and how she arranges events such that their “impure” tendencies from their upbringing, their poor etiquette and gaudy dress sense, are exposed and mocked.

On another note entirely, the show’s visuals are worth praising. Overall, it mostly looks good, but I do wish it looked just a little more so. In its best moments it really captures the sickly elegance and sumptuousness of a rich household, but it falters just often enough that it only works some of the time instead of all of the time. Notably, the characters look significantly better in profile than they do dead-on, which is mostly to the episode’s benefit but occasionally saps a bit of impact out of closeups and such.

But these shortcomings are more than made up for by specific, highly stylish moments. The shot of Kiyoko in a bloodied kimono, juxtaposed over herself as she stands in the ballroom, is lovely. As is her expression, visible for only a frame or two, of a sadistic grin when she’s (correctly) accused of killing her stepmother.

The final reveal; that the stepsisters are also acting, is quite the twist, but makes sense with what we’re presented beforehand, and leaves the tale on a suitably unsettling and disquieting note. All questions, no answers.

A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics – Episode 3

This is easily the best episode of Salad Bowl so far. It’s also really weird! The two things are connected. In general, the series continues to have a very modern and satirical sense of humor, which is not really something I was expecting when I started watching it. There’s an unstated irony (and perhaps an implied parallel being drawn) between the actual genre of fiction this show occupies and the roped-off world of the Branch Hill cult, who are the main element introduced in this episode. They’re a cloistered, faux-positive, new-age hack religion, of the kind that is very prominent in Japan, and seeing an anime tackle this at all, much less this brazenly, is pretty impressive.

The absolutely incredible parody of a cult recruitment video would be the highlight of the episode were it not for Livia inadvertently turning herself into the cult’s Jesus by healing a stab wound in its final act. I’m sure we’ll see the Branch Hill folks more as the show goes on, and I’m interested to see how they factor in to the series’ overall goals.

Unnamed Memory – Episodes 1 & 2

I watched the first two episodes of this with friends because I heard from some other folks that it was amusing, and also because one of the main characters is a witch and that’s a whole Thing with me. I’m not sure what I think of the series on the whole so far, but it’s definitely at least decent. The first episode is extremely dry and expository, though, so if someone got a bad first impression of it I wouldn’t be that surprised.

So, what is Unnamed Memory on the whole? Well, something with the very broad structure of a fairytale, basically. The crown prince Oscar [Nakajima Yoshiki] needs an heir but has had his, ahem, manhood cursed by a witch. He sets out to find, and conquers, a mystical tower, petitioning the (unrelated) witch of the tower, Tinasha of the Azure Moon [Tanezaki Atsumi], to free him of his curse. When she can’t, he tries to convince her to become his wife instead, since the curse won’t affect her. (It’s complicated.) When she refuses, he instead asks her to live in the capitol for a year, which she agrees to. Implicitly, this is also to give Oscar time to woo her over.

Fundamentally all of this is basically fine, but it’s a little dry. That said, as someone with very strong opinions as to how such characters should be written, Tinasha, to my own surprise, works a lot more than she doesn’t. She’s powerful, mercurial, a little silly, and full of secrets. Still, her ultimate purpose in this story is to eventually marry Oscar, a fact that the show, in its first two episodes, circles around but (perhaps unsurprisingly given how we’re not very far in), doesn’t directly address. Tinasha says herself that witches are objects of fear, but does the narrative fear her? If it doesn’t, it’s hard for us to do so either, which makes it difficult to buy into the series’ central conceits. The additional fact that she occasionally is played as nothing more than a staid tsundere is pretty bad, too. So it’s a mixed bag on that front.

On the other hand, Unnamed Memory is hardly the anime actually responsible for reducing the sorceress archetype to a gag character, and Tinasha is still given more depth here than many are, and when she’s on she’s on. There’s a particular scene in the second episode where she takes out a cadre of evil wizards and a giant wolf imprisoned in a chunk of ice all on her own, and it’s far and away the best thing in the entire show so far.

Basically, the impression I’m getting here is of a story carried by one of its characters having a lot more appeal and charisma than the rest. (Not a unique phenomenon at all. See The Detective is Already Dead, by this same studio, for an example from a few years ago.) Oscar is broadly Fine as a protagonist but he’s hardly worth talking about compared to Tinasha, and I’ll acknowledge my own biases there, but I really just can’t imagine this show working with a less interesting female lead….and it’s entirely possible they’ll fumble that aspect, anyway. So I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with this or not. If I am, it will mostly be for Tinasha herself.

Also, it’s worth addressing the visuals since this is a series, as mentioned, this series comes to us from the infamous jankmeisters at Studio ENGI. All told, it actually looks pretty much fine, at least not any worse than any of its narou-kei anime contemporaries, and there are actually a few scenes where the animation pops in a nice way, so that’s cool. Will it keep that up? Who knows! But I’m interested in finding out, so that’s definitely one thing in the show’s favor.

Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night – Episode 2

Great second episode from this one.

I do not see enough discussion of how unique this show’s soundtrack is. I haven’t heard this many analog (or at least analog-sounding) synthesizers in an anime OST. Not recently, and possibly not ever? Certainly not in something released this decade.

Let’s talk about the new character, Takanashi Kim Anouk Mei [Shimabukuro Miyuri]. She seems to be a little older than the rest of the cast, but more to the point, is a hardcore idol otaku to the point where it’s actively offputting to the other characters. Especially offputting to Kano, whose old idol persona Mei is a diehard stan of.

This is, on the surface, a very strange move for this show to be making, but I think I see what they’re doing here, casting Mei as someone who is clearly working through her own stuff by burying herself deep in idol fandom. And indeed, we soon learn she was bullied, possibly for being biracial and perhaps neurodivergent. The text isn’t technically explicit, but it’s fairly clear that these things are factors. One of the people bullying her literally just outright says that she’s bad at social cues, and her hair, apparently naturally a reddish-orange, sticks out, as does her name, which she’s openly mocked for. When she first met Kano in a flashback, she was adrift and purposeless, but it’s clear that over time the sincere connection they made at that point has curdled into something sour. It takes realigning herself with Kano the person, and finding an internal acceptance of how she’s changed, that lets her open back up. The show playing this whole very idol anime-y “prior meeting of destiny” bit completely straight is a little surprising, although it can’t resist playing with it as Mei makes a bunch of goofy gay disaster faces the entire time, but I think that by the episode’s end it works out pretty well, with Mei accepting Kano as she is now, and allowing herself to move on.

On another note: there’s a whole thing with hair dye (and more generally, changing one’s appearance) as a motif through this series. Kano goes blonde to avoid any association with her past life as an idol, Mei dyes her hair black both to emulate Kano-as-Nono-tan and to hide her unusual hair color, and this even sort of extends to Kiui, who we haven’t really met yet, who doesn’t physically dye her hair but has a VTuber rig with a different hair color. (Kiui’s hair being pink puts a kink in this whole thing, but not a major one.)

Overall, this was a really strong second episode and I’m glad that this show has kept up the momentum so well.

Delicious in Dungeon – Episode 16

Another good episode this week. I don’t have a ton of thoughts, this time around, but I do have a few minor observations.

In general, watching Laios say entirely too much while talking to Shuro is a lot more uncomfortable when it’s animated and voice acted. This is one of the least visually-impressive parts of the anime (which isn’t to say it looks bad. It looks quite good and TRIGGER delivers well on what is there, but there just isn’t a ton to draw), but it’s one of the most effective. Especially when Shuro absolutely freaks out on Laios during the pivotal scene where he finds out just what Laios and company have done to resurrect Falin.

We get a little more acquainted with Shuro’s retainerate (is that the term?) here, as well. I always wished we could spend a little more time with these characters, so I’m savoring every moment they’re on-screen, they’re all super fun. Inutade [Furuya Yoshino] will probably emerge as the fan favorite but I like all of them, personally.

As for that final little reveal at the end, what can I—or anybody?—say? She’s here! I’m very excited for the next few weeks.

Pokémon Horizons – Episode 47

With the delinquent, rude rival trainer involved and the battle itself being preceded by some unrelated challenge, this felt oddly like a season 1 episode of the original Pokémon anime.

Largely that’s not a complaint; I think Liko’s ongoing internal struggles are compelling. If I can criticize something though, the “losing the battle doesn’t necessarily mean failing the test” thing seems like it might do weird things to this series’ structure? I guess we’ll see.

Wonderful Pretty Cure – Episode 12

We get a surprisingly moody and starkly-directed episode of Pretty Cure this week, and I am very much here for it.

Cure Nyammy [Matsuda Satsumi], as teased last week, is real! But she’s also a brooding loner and kind of a hardass, and it seems like the disjunct between her more violent method of dealing with the Garugaru and our original duo’s caring, hug-it-out process is going to be a conflict for at least the next few episodes. It is wild how strongly her violent approach contrasts with Wonderful and Friendy’s, and I am a little surprised the show goes there.

Visually, this is the best episode of Wonderful Precure so far. Lots of really stylish animation, especially with the fight scenes, and in general, a surprisingly eerie vibe throughout much of the episode’s back half. If I can make a potentially controversial claim, I actually think this season has (so far!) had a higher batting average of great to merely decent-looking episodes than Hirogaru Sky. But then, we’re only a quarter of the way through Wonderful, so perhaps the comparison is meaningless as of yet.

Anyway, yes, Nyammy. It’s been a while since they’ve done the Cure Honey approach of having a character become a Precure offscreen and then be introduced to the other characters in a piecemeal sort of fashion. I really like the approach here, given Nyammy’s antiheroic personality and general moodiness. Since we already know her backstory, we can make some educated guesses as to how she ended up this way and what she’s prioritizing. (Hint: it’s protecting Mayu.) Although I do wonder if this might be a little intense for your average kid? That aside, Nyammy might be my favorite Precure overall in a hot minute, to be honest.

Himitsu no AiPri – Episode 2

This show is so wonderfully incoherent that I only barely know what actually happened in this episode. Everything else is just a pure sugar rush of digital imagery, only loosely tied together by this whole plot of Himari and Mitsuki trying and failing to keep a mutual secret from each other. I liked this episode, but gosh was it a lot to absorb.

Girls Band Cry – Episode 2

A very good second episode, although one I could not really wrangle my thoughts into a coherent whole about. Have a bulleted list instead. Also I must say, I could relate to this episode a lot, as someone who also often fails at basic household tasks and ends up crying on the floor.

• I like the sky-patterened bird cutout as a metaphor for bottled-up feelings. I wonder if it’ll recur in later episodes.
• We learn more about Nina’s weird rich girl country family and her bad school experiences.
• The meal becomes an immediate metaphor for both Nina’s own past and her emotional baggage in general. It’s clear that she wants to devote herself to music, despite her own protests, but can’t bring herself to focus on anything but studying.
• NOT THE EMOTIONALLY RESONANT ENGLISH HOMEWORK?
• Momoka bringing her a light fixture literally vs. symbolically “giving her light” is very funny.
• The subtle alienation in the scene where Momoka and her new friend/bandmate Subaru invite Nina for a meal and largely talk with each other without involving her is really sad.
• I really liked the lashing out and making up scenes at the end.

Train to The End of the World – Episode 4

It has been a while since an anime made me think “what the fuck am I watching?” verbatim. Shuumatsu Train really probably should have joined this illustrious club a while ago, but maybe it took four episodes for it to really sink in just how utterly weird this series is. Episode 4 continue the stretch of the show that I’m tentatively referring to as the “Akira just has a generally quite bad time” arc.

I was right last week, she had a mushroom growing on her backside, and she spends most of this week’s episode hiding it from her fellow travelers as they go through an increasingly esoteric series of whacked-out train stops populated by bizarre, sometimes hostile creatures. We don’t get a long look at any of these, which is possibly for the better (sometimes it’s best to let the audience’s imagination fill in the gaps). Angry goat people who compulsively run at and headbutt the train? Screaming plants that cackle insanely as the train rolls past? Floating internal organs? Hails of golf balls? Why the hell not? Reimi openly speculates within the text of the show itself that these might all be former people, which is an even more mortifying thought.

Akira’s dilemma is the real central concern here, though. When the others find out about her mushroom, they yank it out, and in what I believe is a reference to the idea of a shirikodama, seem to take her soul with it, leaving her a babbling, sleepy mess who can barely sit upright on her own. The entire thing is pretty sad, and with this being the show’s first two-parter, we don’t see how or even if Akira will be returned to normal. I’m worried for my girl! Even though her normal personality is basically outright said to be a coping mechanism for the depressing state of the world both before the 7G Incident but also very much after it!

I also have to point out an excellent piece of analysis I saw elsewhere. I generally check /r/anime (as well as a few other places, namely, the relevant tumblr tags, Twitter hashtags, and BlueSky hashtags) for shows I’m keeping up with, because I like to have a general feel for the timbre of conversation about a given series while it airs. Usually, I do not see anyone make any inferences I didn’t make myself, but this post on the former by user 8andahalfby11 postulates an interesting—and sensible!—source for all of the weirdness in the series.

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And that’s all for this week. Putting this column together took several hours, which is a lot more than I thought it would! I need to streamline my process, perhaps.

Here’s this week’s bonus thought: things that seem insignificant to you might mean the world to others, so mind what you say when speaking to people.

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