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. Expect some degree of spoilers for the covered shows.

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Hey folks! I’ve been under the weather and generally low-energy this week so this writeup comes to you a day late. Hope y’all are doing well out there. Let’s jump right into things.

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The Detective is Already Dead – Every time I try to talk about this series my breath is stolen from my mouth. Not because it’s Just That Bad and 𝕔𝕖𝕣𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕝𝕪 not because it’s Just That Good. I don’t know what I’d say about it if I could. Props for having the balls to go the obvious route? For daring to be so completely ridiculous in such a headstrong-stupid way? Here’s a question for you; how many anime feature heart transplants as a motif? I can only think of this one. The detective may be dead, but my faith in anime as a medium remains. God help us all.

Magia Record – As usual, you can read my thoughts over here. Short version? I really love this show. As a side note, it does bother me that so many people still seem to think that Madoka Magica‘s great contribution to its genre is realistic violence. Violence in art is a tool. In PMMM it is used to tell you that the systems the girls are trapped in are fucked up and horrible. The intent here, in this week’s MagiReco, is much the same.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S – I’ve somehow managed to go the whole season without so much as even acknowledging that I’m watching Dragon Maid. But now that it’s nearing its conclusion I’m confident in saying at least this much; it’s a lot of fun. Kyoto Animation remain an absolute powerhouse here, even in light of the tragic arson attack on their studio two years ago. The production, as such, is untouchable, and visually speaking it’s arguably the best anime airing right now. Its fun, adventurous animation is capable of flipping from hijinks to truly impressive battle sequences to more adventurous and bizarre comedic stylings at the drop of a hat. It’s damn great, and the series deserves high marks for that alone. Its writing remains a bit patchy, if only because it’s trying to be so many things at once.

It’s at its best when it locks into a single swathe of the emotional spectrum, as with this past week’s episode, which sees Kanna on a journey to New York and back again as she makes a friend in the Big Apple. And of course, rescues her from Bad Guys ™. Her flight over the US is wonderful, being positively Ghibli-esque.

Beyond that, and despite its supernatural setting, Dragon Maid shines brightest in scenes that articulate the small joys of everyday life. A cut illustrating something as simple as pouring cold tea into a glass is given an opulence that magnifies its emotional impact. In these key moments, Dragon Maid is a magic spell. More real than our own world.

Sonny Boy – Is Sonny Boy losing people? I wouldn’t be too surprised if it was. I’m still definitely on-board with the series as purely a machine that pumps out bizarre, vaguely parable-esque vignettes. The background plot involving the fake teacher Ms. Aki and her schoolbus of cultists may or may not eventually resolve in interesting fashion. In the meantime, this week’s episode spotlights Mizuho’s cats and hands us a curious story of a boy and his clone that ends in as much a punchline as it does a moral lesson. Where does Sonny Boy go from here? I have no idea, and that’s exactly why I like it so much.

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Manga

Puella Magi Homura Tamura – This past week I’ve been taking another read (it’s my second time through) of this obscure little corner of the Madoka Magica expanded universe. I think people have forgotten that said EU is, in fact, surprisingly large. Many have been mostly left behind by the passing of the initial Madoka hype wave, but there were actually quite a few interquels, spinoffs, and otherwise divergent-from-the-norm Madoka Stories. Most were fairly serious affairs, and perhaps predictably given the large number of hands involved, they varied pretty widely in quality. Homura Tamura is quite distinct from all that, though. It’s decidedly on the humorous side, though its offbeat sense of humor is more likely to remind readers of other entries in the comedy yonkoma genre than it is to provide any insight into what the girls of Madoka Magica act like “off-camera”.

Still, it’s a solid and fun read. It got licensed by Yen Press years ago so I’m sure you can find hard copies somewhere if you care to snoop around. There’s a lot of great genre parodies in here, and some truly out-there takes on some of Madoka’s core premises. Have you ever wanted to read a manga in which Homura travels through time so much that she eventually ends up at a café staffed and visited entirely by versions of herself from alternate timelines? Then friend, I’ve got a manga for you. Fun fact: This is illustrated by AFRO, who would soon become known as the artist behind YuruCamp. Second fun fact: if you google the name of this manga, the little Google Book Preview thing will claim it was illustrated by Italian painter Afro Basaldella. Close but no cigar, Google!

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