The Frontline Report is a weekly column where I briefly summarize the past week of my personal journey through anime, manga, and the related spheres of pop culture.
Hello folks, it’s been another breezy week here at Magic Planet Anime. I hope these three writeups will sate your curiosity for the next seven (ish) days.
Blue Reflection Ray – As it enters its final act, I am half-convinced that myself and a friend (hi Luna!) are the only two people on Earth still watching Blue Reflection Ray. Nonetheless, for anyone else still out there who’s on this strange journey with us, wasn’t this week’s episode just incredible? The reintroduction of Momo, one of the show’s best characters, signals the beginning of the end for BRR’s plot, and the dark, vine-covered city that bringing the Commons into reality has created is the embodiment of the emotional deadening the show stands against. But in spite of that, the episode is all fluff in the best way possible, hatchets are buried and relationships are rekindled. The shot of the Reflectors, now all on the same side sans Uta and Shino herself, is one of my favorite moments of the entire season. We’ve followed these girls a very long way from home, and I cannot wait to see where they finally end up.
Magia Record – As usual, my detailed thoughts are over on GGA. This week’s episode was visually jankier than usual, probably the result of SHAFT’s famous production troubles. It manages to be compelling, anyway. And honestly that shot up there of Iroha and Yachiyo hugging as they reunite would make almost any episode well worth it. As a side note, MagiReco also picks up a “one-liner of the year” award here, for Yachiyo’s just genuinely funny as hell comment here:
Whoever came up with that deserves a medal. All told, despite its issues it’s still a very strong episode from a very strong show.
Sonny Boy – The main problem with Sonny Boy is that it’s so obviously compelling that talking about why can feel routine, or worse, dogmatic. But there really is a soul under all the surreal imagery. This week’s episode, “Laughing Dog”, explored the past of Yamabiko, the boy turned canine. In it, Sonny Boy lays out a million and one different ways people can be trapped; by their relationships, by their past, and by failing to move on from either. The series has a reputation for being opaque, and this episode won’t change that, but it is one of the rare anime episodes where a single line of dialogue seems to leap out the screen and slap us, the audience, across the face.
There’s a bitter tinge of futility here, too. The idea that one can no more truly leave their regrets behind them than a dog can swear a pinkie promise. But maybe that’s just another layer to the metaphor. Worlds hang in the balance, and four weeks remain.
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