Category: Let’s Watch

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Let’s Watch KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR -ULTRA ROMANTIC- Episode 8

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

I’ll level with you, dear readers. (And hopefully do so without belaboring the point.) My life has been very hectic lately and I do not know how consistent my Let’s Watch columns will be in the coming weeks. But! I want to still write them when I have enough time and energy to get them together, especially when they’re about important episodes. And this week’s episode of Love is War! is very important. (Arguably, from this point forward, they all are.) It’s also just pretty damn good, but that’s par for the course with Kaguya-sama.

We’ll be pretty much skipping the first segment this week, which is a funny-sweet little vignette about Shirogane’s terrible fashion sense. It’s cute, but it’s not hugely important to the rest of the episode.

Instead, the latter two segments of the episode form a fairly distinct whole. Throughout, we must keep in mind one central fact.

Yes, the heart. Symbol of romance throughout the world, it plays a key symbolic role in both the in-universe Hoshin Culture Festival and this arc of the series itself. We learn why in the second segment of the episode, where Tsubame happily explains the frankly rather grim legend that the festival draws its iconography from, in which a sick princess is cured by a prospective lover sacrificing his own life in order to give her his heart to make a poultice.

Still, in Kaguya‘s world, as in ours, a story’s meaning can change over time. In-universe, Kaguya speculates that the legend might’ve emerged as a way for a ruler to validate her own rule, to which Tsubame lightheartedly calls her quite the realist. Her tune changes, of course, when Tsubame also explains that giving someone a heart-shaped object at the festival is said to ensure eternal love. She gives the example of her own brother, who recently married someone he first met at the festival. By this, Kaguya is swayed.

Almost immediately, she begins to puzzle out how to slip Shirogane a heart-shaped object, something with a heart pattern on it, anything that would both “count” for the legend but also not give her away. She ponders some truly silly stuff, here.

These are the usual Love is War shenanigans, until, suddenly, they aren’t.

Kaguya reflects here and is able to actually admit to herself for the first time that, yeah, she does actually have a thing for Shirogane. More importantly, she’s able to admit it to Hayasaka, who is shocked at her actually owning up to her own feelings for once. She wonders what exactly she’s afraid of; she knows Shirogane likes her, after all, so really this should be a simple thing. Eventually, she flatly rejects the very premise of the series itself as she mulls over some of Hayasaka’s advice.

But years of being trained to bury one’s feelings are not so easily undone, so she does not make a move here. Not yet, and not now.

She does hear about someone else’s moves, though. Ishigami is planning to ask Tsubame to the festival, even if the much-mythologized “love confession” comes a bit later, the truth of the matter is that Ishigami very much realizes that Tsubame’s graduation marks a deadline for any hope of his telling her how he feels. Kaguya is up against a similar time limit, although she doesn’t yet know that. (Ishigami has also only just learned that Tsubame is even single, which is a whole small subplot in of itself that’s tied up here.)

Average 11th grader realizing they might get to hold a girl’s hand.

The scene here is wonderful, and I maintain that Kaguya and Ishigami’s friendship is actually one of the best parts of Love is War full stop. Even if Ishigami is rejected, he will have gotten his feelings out. No more regrets for our favorite gamer boy.

And perhaps that lights a fire in Kaguya as well. But we’ll have to wait for next week to learn more.

Until then.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Some Very Brief Thoughts on Episode 8 of HEALER GIRL

Spoilers Below

I would love to talk at length about today’s Healer Girl episode, but frankly, I simply don’t have the time or mental energy. I encourage you to watch the episode, it’s great. I mostly just wanted to take a brief moment to reflect on the melancholic nature of the story here, where Reimi has to part with her maid / surrogate older sister / only person who believed in her dream of becoming a healer, Aoi (Yumiri Hanamori), as she leaves Japan to pursue a career as a pianist.

I could talk about the imagery for this week’s song. How Aoi’s piano becomes a cage, a brick road for her to walk on, and film strips replaying happy memories all at once until eventually, the piano prodigy-maid sprouts fucking angel wings.

I could talk about Reimi’s heavy emotional reaction when Aoi finally does leave; how both she and her now-former maid are crying as the episode smashes to its end credits. There’s also the, admittedly, a little contrived, but also genuinely sweet post-credits scene where circumstances make themselves such that Aoi can resume living with Reimi and continue to pursue her piano playing.

But ultimately all of these are variations on a simple core point; the reason people love Healer Girl—or really any anime for that matter—is because they see part of themselves in it. I doubt many people reading this have ever had a maid, but almost everyone has experienced someone leaving their lives for one reason or another, simply because of circumstance. Two paths diverge in a wood. It’s classic stuff. I’m not totally settled how I feel about the ending yet. As I said, I find it a little contrived, but it’s also heartwarming. It’s hard to be too upset when something ends ‘too perfectly’ in this sort of show, I feel. In the end, “dreams” are the theme the show returns to here, and it’s always something I’ve found fascinating about popular art. I never really had “dreams” growing up, or if I did I, do not remember them. Did you? Did you have an Aoi in your life?

In any case, I’ve probably said too much already. I must be going. Until the next revolution of the record we call life, friends.

Song Count: 2.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch SPY X FAMILY Episode 7 – The Target’s Second Son

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

Kids are funny. This is a fundamental truth of comedy, and it’s where Spy x Family gets a decent chunk of its comedic juice from. This episode, which mostly centers on Anya’s first real day at school, is pretty much just 22 solid minutes of “kids are funny.” There’s some other stuff in there, especially toward the end, but that’s what the focus is on.

Frankly, I’m pretty happy with that. Anya’s friend Becky and, we’ll say for now, rival Damian form a sort of secondary trio of lead characters. They take the spotlight when the rest of the Forgers are off-screen, and Anya’s friendship with Becky is already adorable, even this early on.

Anya’s goal throughout this episode, such as it is, is very simple. She just needs to make amends with Damian before the end of the day, before the bad blood from their fist-first first meeting has time to curdle. That makes perfect sense in theory but ask anyone who’s ever been a child; when you’re a kid, apologizing to other kids is hard. Especially if you actually did do something wrong. (Not that I or, I imagine, most of the audience, can really fault Anya for decking Damian, but it is technically against school rules.)

So, to make sure his daughter actually does apologize, Loid spends most of the episode “encouraging” Anya from the shadows. Mostly, this makes it seem like Anya is in a particularly bizarre grade-schooler take on The Prisoner. It’s admittedly pretty funny, although probably not great for her mental health.

Speaking of that; Anya’s outburst has had a few lasting effects. Everyone in her first period class avoids her now, because they think she’s some kind of delinquent. (Becky gets hit with this too but doesn’t seem to mind so much.)

And then there’s what’s become of Damian himself, which, well, he’s pretty obviously developing a crush on Anya. In fact, we see the exact moment his feelings bloom into one. How can you tell? Well, it’s pretty obvious, really.

Sorry son, you like the fiery ones.

He copes with this by fleeing from the cafeteria and shouting that his pride won’t allow this. Which is, admittedly, an accurate summary of how young boys deal with crushes.

Anya’s attempt at apologizing being roundly rejected, she slumps home understandably upset. Loid being not particularly great at helping her with her homework doesn’t improve things, and eventually she gets so frustrated that she storms off to her room, thus marking the first fight the Forger family has had over the course of the show. Loid reflects, musing that it’s the patience to tackle mundane missions like this that make him a true spy, and, along the way, perhaps stumbling into a deeper insight about himself. Yor, also, offers some genuinely good parenting advice.

Albeit, perhaps anachronistically effective given that this is supposed to be, what, the 60s? The 80s? When the hell does Spy x Family take place anyway?

Loid attempts to make it up to Anya, but finds that she’s fallen asleep at her desk and was studying on her own, determined to make her papa proud. It’s a cute end to a cute episode.

Until next time.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR -ULTRA ROMANTIC- Episode 7

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

Today we hit perhaps the densest episode so far of Kaguya-sama: Love is War!‘s third season. -Ultra Romantic- has not been shy about plot thickets before this point, so that’s saying something, but we’re introduced to three new characters and two new plotlines here. That’s a lot to take in all at once; enough so that this episode actually has four segments instead of the usual three. (If you wanted to split hairs, you could say the last two are more like two parts of the same segment.)

We open with a pair of familiar faces, though. Mito Iino and Yuu Ishigami are, once again, the characters we’re riding along with for the opening segment. They’ve been assigned to the planning committee for Shuchiin Academy’s cultural festival, making this the second anime episode I’ve covered in a row about that topic. (Although the one in Healer Girl wasn’t a pre-Winter Break festival like this one is.)

But this is Shuchiin Academy, home of the sons and daughters of Japan’s wealthiest and most important families, must of course have a suitably grandiose cultural festival. The planning involved here must be an absurd undertaking, and one does get that sense even though we only see a little bit of it here.

Both leads for this segment have an ulterior motive; Miko, for reasons we haven’t really had explained in full yet, really wants the festival to cap with a roaring bonfire. Ishigami, meanwhile, is trying to impress Tsubame, who is also on the planning committee. Ishigami has dealt with some of these people before, during the sports festival from last season, but Miko very much hasn’t, so she feels rather out of place.

And arguments break out over what the slogan for the festival should be, starting with several….creative suggestions from Ishigami’s ostensible romantic rivals, other boys on the committee.

This is probably also the worst the series has ever suffered from the official release’s subpar typesetting.

I believe this is also our formal introduction to Rei Onodera (Yuuki Takada), yet another member of the committee and one who initially clashes with Miko.

Miko’s able to stand up for herself though—including getting everyone on board for her bonfire idea—which is a nice way of showcasing some character development on her part. Ishigami offering to help is much the same.

The second segment deals with another pair of new characters, Karen Kino (Madoka Asahina) Erika Kose (Ayaka Asai). Well, they’re not new characters exactly. Karen and Erika, in addition to being the stars of the spinoff manga We Want to Talk about Kaguya!, have actually had several small appearances dating back to the beginning of the show. And I do mean the beginning. Karen was actually the very first character to get a voiced line in the entire series, other than the narrator.

Here they mostly go about and interview various folks about the upcoming festival. This includes Tsubame, who gets a little sequence showing off her gymnastic skills, and also mentions that there’s actually a legend associated with the cultural festival.

And later, when they interview Shirogane, he alludes to another tradition associated with the festival. A “prank” usually played by the student council that involves installing a giant papier-mache orb on the school roof.

They also interview Kaguya herself, who they promptly lose their entire minds over.

As the title of the spinoff focused on them implies, the two are both down absolutely horrible for Kags. It’d be enough to make me feel a little bad for them if they both didn’t also spend time swooning over, respectively, Tsubame and Shirogane. They’re fun, and they get a lot of entertainingly wrong ideas about what Kaguya is like.

(The fact that Kaguya is an absurdly prodigal archer and has been chosen to light the bonfire that the cultural festival committee worked so hard to get approved by firing an arrow at it makes their total misfires about her personality a bit easier to understand. Still, knowing what we do about her, they’re pretty funny.)

They also interview the game club, which is mostly an excuse for Love is War to once again show off how weird Chika and her (mostly offscreen) other group of friends are. One of them goes full chuuni while explaining their grand plans for the festival, which is animated like something out of Kill la Kill for presumably no real reason other than because it’s funny.

(This joke is also a nod to the origins of Love is War! itself. It’s a commonly known bit of fan trivia that the ancestral pitch for what eventually became Kaguya-sama was a death game manga.)

And lastly, what would an episode of Love is War be without Shirogane being comically inept at something? This time it’s balloon tying.

I don’t need to tell you that his inability to make funny balloon animals leads to him wallowing miserably on the floor, which nearly guilts Chika into helping him. (A decent chunk of the scene is also shot like a moody drama for, again, no real reason but amusing stylistic clash.)

It is notable that this time, though, he actually leaves before Chika can do her whole demon trainer / mom shtick on him. Instead he keeps practicing on his own, this time in the student council room. Kaguya, who is also there, has a hard time because of this, given all the balloons popping.

Here, Love is War pulls of a neat trick of flipping this usually comedic template—which it’s used several times at this point, including once before in this very season—into Shirogane genuinely reflecting on what he sees as his own shortcomings.

But, of course, Kaguya doesn’t see it that way. To her, this is Shirogane’s charm; a dedication in the face of challenge regardless of what that challenge is, be it large or, as in this case, small. The warm, full smile she gives him (and us, given that the scene briefly switches to his POV), is probably the most sincere we’ve seen in the whole show so far. This alone would justify the entire segment even if it weren’t already pretty good.

Things swing back to the comedic for the episode’s final few minutes, in its final scene.

Initially, it seems like Shirogane’s apparent incompetence here can be explained away by the fact that he was using old balloons. But then he tries the same method with brand-new ones, and they promptly pop as well.

Hang in there, Fujiwara.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch SPY X FAMILY Episode 6 – The Friendship Scheme

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

“Heh.”

Today, Spy x Family moves into the second phase of its first major arc. Anya’s gotten into Eden Academy, and the first portion of Loid’s mission is complete. We meet his handler Sylvia Sherwood (Yuuko Kaida) for the first time properly here, as she rags on him for blowing a bunch of the agency’s money. (For more on that particular misadventure, you’ll have to see last week’s episode, which I didn’t cover here due to being ill.) The main thing to take away from Sylvia’s speech though is not budgetary concerns, but her explanation of how Eden’s merit and demerit system works.

You see, Loid’s target, Donovan Desmond, only attends certain functions with the families of certain, particularly prestigious students. The students who make up this inner circle are Eden’s Imperial Scholars (an admittedly curious name given that “The East” seems to run under some kind of Communist government, but whatever). One becomes an Imperial Scholar by earning eight Stella stars, awarded to Eden students who get particularly good grades or perform feats that somehow benefit the prestige of the school.

Conversely, there are Tonitrus Bolts, which are “awarded” instead as a disciplinary measure. Eight of those and little Johnny is expelled on the spot, no further questions asked, or opportunities presented. Keep all that in mind, it becomes relevant over the course of this episode.

We begin, though, with the relatively innocuous outing of Anya being measured for her uniform. The tailor promptly scares the hell out of her by casually mentioning to the attending Yor and Loid that kidnapping and ransoms of Eden students have been on the rise lately. Even so, this can’t dull Anya’s enthusiasm for her new uniform for long, and she spends a good few minutes of the episode showing it off. To her credit; it does look very cute on her, although black and gold is ostentatious even for rich kid school uniforms.

Anya actually does get kidnapped, though. Thankfully only very briefly, and she’s saved by Yor before anything can happen to her. (In a scene that is both really cool and genuinely moving. A recurring pattern in the Yor-focused bits of the series. There is something very satisfying about how righteously pissed off she gets when Anya’s kidnappers mistake her for a mere maid.)

Still, the experience rattles her a bit—understandably so—and after heaping praise on her “cool mama”, Anya basically asks her surrogate mother for self-defense lessons. Yor obliges.

The episode then skips ahead to the following day, where Anya properly enrolls in Eden and—as much as any young child does—partakes in the entrance ceremony. There, Loid carefully considers the facts of things; Anya could earn eight Stella stars and become an Imperial Scholar, or she could befriend Donovan Desmond’s young son Damian (Natsumi Fujiwara) and simply be invited over.

Unfortunately, Damian is a little shit, and Anya’s mind-reading makes her immediately privy to that fact. They don’t get on, despite Anya’s valiant (if wildly misguided) attempts to immediately get an invite to his house. Instead, Damian taunts her, calls her an “uggo”, and is generally unpleasant to both Anya and Anya’s actual fast-friend, Becky Blackbell (Emiri Katou). Anya tries to keep her cool, applying Yor’s advice to smile through tough situations. But her attempts come across as….well, just take a look at the header image. (This gag actually works even better in the anime than it did in the manga, that expression just being plastered on her face over the course of a good minute makes the scene hit that much harder.) Eventually, things escalate to the point where Anya can’t take it anymore, and she promptly slugs Damian right in the fucking face.

To the displeasure of her school housemaster, initially. But Anya is able to spin a convincing lie about how she only punched Damian directly in his smug face because he was insulting Becky. Which isn’t really remotely true, but our elegance-obsessed Mr. Herriman humansona here buys it.

You all see it, don’t lie to me.

She manages to get off with just one of the demerit bolts.

All in all, a very entertaining episode, but a rocky start to Anya’s school career. Only one way to find out where it goes from here, anime fans. Until next time.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR -ULTRA ROMANTIC- Episode 6

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

“The countdown to farewell has already begun.”

It has been three years since I started covering Kaguya-sama: Love is War! In that time, I’ve read much of the original manga, so I knew this day was coming eventually. But hindsight has a way of snapping together things that seemed unrelated at first glance. Call it reading too much into pure coincidence, call it serendipity, call it the norns at work.

In its sixth episode, the show’s third season finally rounds the bend and gets serious. These more dramatic parts of Love is War! are what the series’ reputation is truly built on. I think it would still be beloved without them, but they help the story to feel larger than its constituent characters. Even for someone far removed from the rich kids’ club of Shuchiin Academy, it can reach out and touch a point in one’s own personal timeline, creating resonances both close and far. That is what this episode, and eventually, this entire arc, is all about. Which isn’t to say it’s a drag, (most of this episode is just as funny as the ones before it) but if there are any clocks ticking in your own life, expect to hear them ever louder as you watch it.

The catalyst here is fairly simple; a parent-teacher conference. A minor rite of passage / perfect-storm anxiety machine that every high schooler goes through a few times over the course of their education. Kaguya’s dad, notably, doesn’t show up to hers.

This is perhaps to be expected from her total piece of shit of a father. A man who is a walking bundle of rotten wood held together by petty spite and pure greed, a nearly elemental incarnation of the phrase “Rich Old Bastard.” A figure who, in the scant handful of lines he’s gotten in the series so far, manages to ooze a crochety, warped old-money unpleasantness that is sadly probably the single most realistic thing about this series. I really quite strongly dislike Mr. Shinomiya, if that’s not obvious.

In any case, the person who does show up is Hayasaka’s mother, Nao Hayasaka (Toa Yukinari), who pulls double duty by both attending her own daughter’s conference and Kaguya’s. We learn here that Hayasaka is a total mama’s girl, which is pretty cute. (If also a bit sad, since their exchange here implies that they spend very little time together.)

There’s also some great work from Shirogane’s dad (Takehito Koyasu), who makes a drop-in appearance for the first time in the season, back to his usual antics of being a total weirdo but genuinely good dude.

But the real important development here is what we hear from Shirogane himself, during his parent-teacher conference.

Yes, that Stanford.

Immediately, everything else that happens for the rest of the series has this particular Sword of Damocles hanging over it. Shirogane and Kaguya’s time together in actual close proximity is ending. Not just ending but ending fairly soon. The deadline is in sight.

Kaguya-sama is notable in that its central dynamic, the “geniuses’ war of love and brains” that gives it both its tagline and original Japanese title, has faded the farther we’ve gotten from the premiere of season one. It has always felt—I think as much to its own characters as to us—that Miyuki and Kaguya have had all the time in the world to muster up the strength to finally shoot straight with each other. So their occasional throwbacks to that early period have been charming, but not felt urgent. That is no longer the case. This isn’t a slice of life series; the everyday here is not endless, and time is running out.

Give him some credit, our man knows it’s do or die time.

As I’ve gotten older, it’s felt like I should probably be able to relate to these sorts of stories—high school tales of romance and all—less. But the sense of urgency that Love is War! begins to carry from this point forward is universal. I’m 28, many people who read this column are older or younger than I, but who doesn’t feel Father Time breathing down their neck, at least occasionally?

But as we wish Miyuki good fortune and godspeed, we transition into talking about the rest of the episode. Which is, I must note, still very good, but it’s also a lot more conventional for Love is War!, so there’s simply less to discuss. In the second segment, the urgency is alleviated by one of the aforementioned throwbacks to the show’s early days. Kaguya and Shirogane both manage to galaxy brain their way out of inviting the other to a different school’s cultural festival, happening nearby. Even so, you feel for them.

In the third, Shirogane asks for the girls of the student council to help him evaluate himself “objectively.” This is mostly an excuse for wacky misunderstandings, such as here where Miko thinks he’s asking her out.

And also, for Miko and Chika to say mean but admittedly funny things about him.

But Kaguya, who can’t find a single bad word to say, is who ultimately leaves the day’s biggest impact.

Reinvigorated, Shirogane recommits himself to his plan, and it is for us and time to see if it will work out or not. Godspeed, Miyuki, and good luck.

Bonus Hayasaka Screencap: Dare I say, I think this was also how probably at least some of you reacted when Nao Hayasaka made her on-screen appearance, here.

That’s right, readers. I know your bones.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch HEALER GIRL Episode 6 – Become My Servant! Russian Food and Sweet Dreams

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

This week, Healer Girl returns to a marginally more mundane setting. Specifically; Sonia’s clinic. Much of the episode serves as a small spotlight shone upon the hitherto minor character. I’ve never disliked Sonia—her “antagonism” is extremely minor and cartoony—but it’s nice that she gets an episode to shine regardless. Haughtiness is fun, in the right hands, and Sonia’s are well-equipped to handle it.

The episode’s forehalf showcases Ria’s apprentices helping out around Sonia’s grandmother’s clinic. You may recall that Sonia has something of a self-proclaimed rivalry with Ria, but their help is at her grandmother’s insistence. (She’s bedridden dealing with backpain, you see. Which also serves as yet another small reminder that even in this world, there are limits to what medicine can do.)

Sonia is extremely haughty throughout, even as Kana tries to help despite her palpable exasperation with the white-haired healer’s antics and Reimi nerds out over the clinic’s massive archive of vintage sheet music. The entire opening half here is very charming, and caps with Sonia showing off her healer chops by singing away a burn on a young boy’s arm with almost no prep time beforehand. (That second thing being impressive is new information to us, I think, but given that the only other healer we’ve seen do much work is Kana, who is also a prodigy, it makes some sense that we didn’t know before now.)

The second half of the episode sees Sonia rope Kana into all kinds of silly bullshit. First, she drafts her into the “executive committee” of her high school’s culture festival. Then, she abuses the power she has in that position to create a “Russian Cooking Club” out of thin air and fill out the paper work letting them set up a stand at said festival. Why do this? Because she met some random little kids who wanted to eat Borscht and she promised she’d make them some sometime. It’s exceedingly random, but it mostly works as far as goofy school life antics go.

We meet a few of Kana’s classmates here too, although none get much characterization beyond their constituting the Local Kana Fanklub (which she deserves. She’s a good protagonist.)

It also manages to sneak the ancient “people who are incompetent at cooking accidentally create the weird purple muck that Grimace from McDonald’s is made out of” gag in there. It’s old hat by now but this is at least a well-executed take on the joke.

Kana manages to run herself pretty ragged while doing all this, so the episode’s last major scene is also its insert song. Sonia, adorably, soothes Kana as she sleeps. My personal guess is that the right song-medicine can make sleep more restful, turning even short naps into a viable way to recharge your batteries? It’s not spelled out to us here, but the general idea is clear. It’s also illustrative of the fact that just below her somewhat arrogant surface, Sonia is a real sweetheart, too.

At the end of the episode we’re treated to a small post-credits scene. There, a nondescript fellow (one of the very few on-screen boys in Healer Girl at all) rushes into what is presumably the high school’s student council. He declares an emergency; a huge gap in the culture festival’s schedule! And on that fun little cliffhanger, the episode comes to a close. Perhaps hinting at a full-on concert next week? I wouldn’t put it past Healer Girl. The show remains, even in minor moments, as pleasant as lemonade in July.

Song Count: Two, both sung by Sonia. There are a few ditties consisting of a couple bars each throughout, as well, although in general this is one of the least musically-dense Healer Girl episodes.

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All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch KAGUYA-SAMA: LOVE IS WAR -ULTRA ROMANTIC- Episode 5

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

I knew this day would come eventually.

He wants to express his feelings in rap. Miyuki Shirogane, student council president of Shuchiin Academy, wants to express his feelings through song. No, through performance art, in what is probably the absolute worst medium he could’ve chosen to do so short of perhaps mime. Ask anyone who’s ever been subjected to Lil Dicky; rap and comedy do not mix. Rap and anime have a very uneven track record and historically mix even worse.

A conflux of the three should signal a truly epic crash where Kaguya-sama: Love is War! burns out and never recovers. Improbably, it does not, but that may be because this is A-1’s most impressive production on the season yet, a true cartwheeling display of visual panache put in service of a bizarre pseudo-music video. The music is still very much at its worst the closer it is to actual hip-hop, but at least it’s never unwatchable. The combined first two segments of the episode are basically this Tumblr post, I don’t know what else to say.

Anyone familiar with the “Chika teaches Miyuki to do something” skits of prior seasons will understand immediately what’s going on here. The twist this time around is that Chika is also completely clueless about hip-hop and has to teach herself before she can teach Shirogane anything. This is admittedly pretty funny, but it does drift into the notion that rap is just funny as a concept, which definitely isn’t true and is usually the domain of a specific kind of bad American cartoons. Although Shirogane’s profound badness remains hilarious. His first try at “rapping” here sounds more like a walrus dying slowly. It physically propels Chika into the air.

The “actual” rap as it eventually develops here is, I don’t know, fine. It’s not the kind of skin-peeling cringiness that I usually associate with rap music showing up in cartoons, which is a positive. Shirogane’s actual song is notably old school, having something broadly in common with the retro pop rap stylings of chelmico. and similar acts.

What is he rapping about? Well, initially this is just followup on that karaoke episode. He wants to convince Hayasaka to be more honest with herself and others and such. We also get a flashback to the karaoke place, where Hayasaka mentions that her job is to “keep tabs on” Shinomiya. Hmm.

In any case, the “musical” segment that follows this is pretty damn impressive, just from a production standpoint. For my money though it’s actually Kaguya herself who has the best song, despite it being probably the farthest-removed from hip-hop music. It also has the best visuals, including a truly inexplicable nod to Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” (Maybe it’s a pun? “Rap”sody? I don’t know.)

In the largely-unrelated final segment of the episode, we link back up with Maki.

She seems to be doing well.

In what seems to be a recurring pattern, this section of the episode is a lot simpler and less ambitious than what precedes it. It’s mostly Maki venting to the boys again. Ishigami correctly points out that it’s usually best to be quick on the draw in games of love. The fact that all three people in the room have crushes they can’t own up to having, some more involved than others, casts a palpable irony over the whole thing, something the series itself is very much aware of. Maki’s own regret boils hot enough to burn away the tea Ishigami prepares for her, and Yu and Miyuki nearly give themselves a stroke just imagining the other person stealing their crushes.

All in all it’s a pretty simple segment that serves mostly to close out the episode. And it is nice to see Maki making friends, of a sort, it helps all the comedy at her expense feel less mean.

There’s also a new ED this week, presumably a one-off. Once again done in a totally different stlye from the rest of the show, and also featuring a hip-hop soundtrack. (One that I’d go so far to say is a fair bit better than Shirogane’s rap in the actual episode.) It’s cool, but I’ll welcome the return of the usual ED next week.

Until then, Kaguya fans.

Bonus Hayasaka Screencap: Why have one Hayasaka when you could have five?

I should here note that Hayasaka’s song is probably also the one that comes closest to having any real bite to it. It conveys her increasingly fed-up attitude with Kaguya pretty well. She even has something that might actually qualify as a Bar™ if you’re generous, rhyming that she has so many faces that she feels like “a hydra.”

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch HEALER GIRL Episode 5 – Blue Skies, Green Mountains, River Battles and the Galactic Station

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

“The light of drifting stars fills the sky.”

The fact is, it’s actually pretty easy to review something bad. Reviewing something that’s mediocre isn’t that hard either; line up its strengths and weaknesses, weigh them and determine if, at least for you, the former outweigh the latter. The real challenge is writing about something great.

And that is part of why this particular Healer Girl recap comes to you a day (possibly multiple days) late. That and a combination of truly fearsome writer’s block. If this column seems a bit less coherent than usual, I do apologize. It’s not in my general nature to “break the fourth wall” during these columns, but sometimes explanations are in order.

In any case, the actual plot of this episode is so simple that it almost doesn’t bear summarizing. Our main trio visit Hibiki’s family in the countryside. There, we learn a bit about her and her family, and a bit about Kana as well. One of Hibiki’s many younger brothers develops a precocious crush on Reimi, which is cute.

We also get an elaboration on the event that made Kana want to become a healer in the first place. When she was young, she had an asthma attack on a plane, and without an inhaler on hand, was in serious trouble. A mysterious healer, who she has been looking for since then, soothed her, thus setting her on the path to becoming a healer.

We find out almost immediately that this mysterious healer is, in fact, the girls’ teacher, Ria, who has just apparently not heard this story before. There’re a few details that don’t entirely line up about this, and I’m not sure if that’s the show trying to deliberately evoke the faulty memory of young children or if they’ll come back to that later. Either way, the reveal is humorously anticlimactic.

After all that, the episode’s real point makes itself known. It’s always been fascinating to me that so much human art is dedicated to depicting the natural world. By all rights, it’s something almost all of us are at least passingly familiar with; it’s the world out our window, or at most, a drive away. Why is it then that we spend so much time writing about waterfalls, so to speak? Why are we so fascinated with the motion of water and the little skipping and wriggling things that live in it? The girls swim in a small river, and I am reminded of my own times doing the same, visiting my father’s parents in the Pocono Mountains. These were not the happiest times for me, but they were simple, maybe that is why a tug that is something like nostalgia pulls at my heartstrings even so.

After the river scene, the girls trek toward a split-apart stone monument that reaches into the sky like the hand of a lost god. By the time they arrive, singing all the while, day’s become night.

The episode’s visual and emotional crux is a pair of landscape shots; the Milky Way rising into the sky like a plume of neon smoke. Later, the constellations that the fireflies within a cave play out on its ceiling and hovering in its air serve as a reprise. They are sights simultaneously familiar and obscure to me; even in my years living in rural Pennsylvania, there was simply too much light pollution for me to ever see that many stars. The night has always been black for me. Not so for Healer Girl, whose devotion to the natural world ranks up there with among the all-time best of its medium; Ghibli films, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, Kamichu!

But the sky’s vastness and beauty shouldn’t obfuscate something else important. The Night on the Galactic Railroad namecheck, brought up explicitly in conversation, is what gives this episode its title. And it is casual, but not careless. Galactic Railroad, one of the seminal works of modern Japanese literature—which was, in 1985, transmuted into one of the most stunningly beautiful films ever made—is ultimately a story about death. Recall that only a week ago we saw a man nearly die on the operating table. This week Kana relays her own brush with ill health. Are these allusions a gesture toward the flip side of the show’s very premise—those whom medicine, no matter how fantastical, cannot save—or something else? Or “just” a reminder of the circle of being? All that begins ends, and dust begets dust, and the big wheel keeps on turning?

All this from a pseudo-beach episode that is also very much about how pleasant a trip to the countryside can be may seem like a stretch, but Healer Girl can juggle all these thoughts and emotions effortlessly. Healer Girl feels a lot like Kana herself, able to pull others into its own little world with a prodigal effortlessness. (Another thing we learn this episode, but one which is only dwelt on briefly.)

For precisely these reasons, it is one of the best things airing right now. Nothing else right now makes me feel this strongly or feel this much. I am happy that it exists.

Song Count: Just one for this episode, as the girls and Hibiki’s family are hiking up the mountain.

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All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.

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Let’s Watch SPY X FAMILY Episode 4 – The Prestigious School’s Interview

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

Ask any parent, even completely mundane admissions interviews are stressful. School admissions interviews are nowadays mostly the domain of college applicants and the ultrawealthy, but they used to be more common. And as with anything involving both parents and teachers, they are nerve-wracking for all involved. The Forgers, though, aren’t just any parents. We don’t actually explicitly learn if they pass the interview for Anya to get in to the prestigious Eden Academy or not in this episode, but let’s say the forecast is positive. With one…minor exception.

Before the interview itself, the Forgers—along with dozens of other hopeful families—must make a first impression on their way through the academy’s courtyard and to the halls where the interviews are being held. Even this early on, the academy has eyes on them. Recurring character Henry Hendersson (Kazuhiro Yamaji) makes his debut here as one of the school’s housemasters. Hendersson observes the Forgers, along with the other families, from a tower overlooking the courtyard, and we instantly get a pretty good idea of his character. He’s an odd man, obsessed with his personal ideal of “elegance”, but despite what may be easy to assume, he is not the antagonist of this episode. It only gains one of those in its second half.

First, though? Cattle stampede.

Yes, in what I am convinced simply must be a Revolutionary Girl Utena reference, a stampede of random livestock breaks out in the courtyard. Why does Eden Academy have a farmhouse? How did the animals break out of it? Who knows! Stop asking such silly questions. What’s really important that Yor takes out the leader of the herd with, ahem, “yoga techniques.”

Golfing! Wait, wrong series.

Also, the Forger family changes outfits twice over the course of this first half of the episode, once when helping a little boy who’s fallen into an open storm runoff(!) and then again after the cattle attack. Mr. Hendersson is first impressed, and then slightly terrified by all this.

The interview itself is of course the episode’s real focal point. For the most part, it goes well. Hendersson is joined by two other interviewers; the mild-mannered Walter Evans, and this episode’s true antagonist, a vindictive, recently divorced, woman-hating jackass named Murdoch Swan.

The interview mostly goes according to plan. Anya professes to hobbies such as “going to moozeums” and “eating the opera,” and calls her father “a spy-cialist in mental health.” Loid and Yor convincingly recite their canned backstories about meeting at a tailor shop (which is, to both’s benefit, mostly true). Anya even adorably says that she’d give both of her parents “a perfect 100 points,” and that she wants to be with them forever. All seems to be going very well.

And then Swan asks this.

And Anya starts crying. Which makes perfect sense when you remember that she’s a small child being bullied by bitter, snide snake in the grass who takes out his frustrations with his own personal failings on other people. The situation, shall we say, escalates. Loid barely restrains himself from clocking Swan directly in the face—and smashes a nearby mosquito hard enough to crack a hardwood table in two in the process—to say nothing of Yor, who genuinely looks ready to kill the man.

Yor Forger in the process of figuring out, in real time, how to murder a man with a vase and flowers.

About the only thing that stays her hand is Loid taking his “fake” family and simply leaving. His parting remark, something to the effect of not being interested in a school that bullies children as part of its educational system, would be cutting if Swan was the sort to be hurt by such things. But perhaps predictably, he doesn’t really care. (Original mangaka Tatsuya Endou deserves a lot of credit here, Swan is exquisitely hateable.) But this stain on the academy’s honor is enough to piss off Hendersson, who, after the Forgers depart, finally gives Swan what’s coming to him.

Elegantly done.

The episode basically ends here, with a tearful Anya apologizing that she couldn’t do better at the interview. All three Forgers are now worried about the future of their family, and it’s only the knowledge that Hendersson was on their side during this whole mess that prevents this from being an out and out downer of an ending. I called the forecast positive in the opening paragraph because I am quite sure that the Forgers will be fine, but they don’t know that yet. Their concern for each other is sweet. (Frankly, it trumps what I’ve seen from many “real” families in my day, but that’s another conversation altogether.)

We will find out next week, of course, if Anya’s chances of getting into Eden Academy are really as dashed as they all think. Until then, anime fans.

Like what you’re reading? Consider following Magic Planet Anime to get notified when new articles go live. If you’d like to talk to other Magic Planet Anime readers, consider joining my Discord server! Also consider following me on Twitter and supporting me on Ko-Fi or Patreon. If you want to read more of my work, consider heading over to the Directory to browse by category.

All views expressed on Magic Planet Anime are solely my own opinions and conclusions and should not be taken to reflect the opinions of any other persons, groups, or organizations. All text, excepting direct quotations, is owned by Magic Planet Anime. Do not duplicate without permission. All images are owned by their original copyright holders.