HELLO

It’s been a bit since I wrote one of these! I didn’t have much to report on on Tuesday since, as I mentioned in last week’s roundup, I was taking some time off. Since then though I’ve done quite a few things, so I’ve got plenty to write about here. I hope you’re all doing well!

Twitter “Live Watches”

BOY OH BOY HAS IT BEEN AN INTERESTING TIME IN TWITTERLAND THIS PAST WEEK.

Revolutionary Girl Utena (1, 2) – As you can see, I actually did two Utena livewatches this week. The second because the first one was so good. In the first pair of episodes there’s a funny Nanami episode and what is probably my favorite episode of the series so far, a dramatic ace in the hole where the rules as we know them start to change and Utena as a series begins to tip its hand. The second pair of episodes are another solid dramatic ep…and then The Egg Episode, a truly ludicrous piece of television so utterly surreal that it is infamous to this day. I really don’t know what to say about it! It was definitely something, I kind of liked it a lot but also hated it at the same time.

Sailor Moon (#FightingEvilByGroupwatch) – Fairly standard pair of episodes for Sailor Moom this week. I really liked the one about the musician. I only found out some time after watching that, funnily enough, it’s an Ikuhara-directed episode, thus providing a tangible link to the chronologically later Revolutionary Girl Utena that I’m also livewatching. Isn’t that neat? 🙂

The Geek Girl Authority

Deca-Dence recaps of “Turbo Charger” and “Brake System“ – I still love Deca-Dence a lot but it is revealing itself to have a pretty common issue with single-cour anime, which is that the pacing is kinda out-of-wack. They have a LOT to tie up in the remaining two episodes and I’m not entirely sure if they’ll be able to do it. Here’s hoping?

The God of High School (S1E10) oath/meaning – I think I’ve been fairly frank about the fact that I think of The God of High School mostly as a vehicle for neat fights. This episode is solid in that regard. Oh! And Jin’s mysterious rival is a furry, isn’t that fun?

Onyx Equinox Character Trailer, Cast, & Release Date Announced – Onyx Equinox is an interesting one. It’s not an anime, which makes it an outlier both in my writing for GGA and on here. (I’d argue it doesn’t even much look like one, being a very clear descendant of that mid-2000s Man of Action house style blended with some Avatar: The Last Airbender.) But the trailers have seemed really cool and the story’s premise draws heavily on Aztec myth which is not something that a lot of modern media tries to get inspiration from in the authentic way this is. I’m quite excited to see where this goes once it comes out.

Shenmue Anime & More Announced at Crunchyroll Virtual Expo – Just a quick rundown of Crunchyroll’s Virtual Expo. The big takeaway here for most people is going to be the announcement of a Shenmue series. I’m not familiar with the games personally, but I may check the anime out. It looks neat.

Other Thoughts N Such

I’m not entirely sure about the Monthly Movies thing going forward. I’ve gotten plenty of donations recently but no suggestions, which makes me feel like people aren’t super interested in the idea. I will of course keep my promise to watch the HeartCatch film, but I’m not sure, beyond that, if I’ll be doing more of those. I’ll try to brainstorm more ideas for how Ko-Fi donators and Patreon patrons can get involved. Feel free to hit me up on Twitter if you have any suggestions! It’s possible I’m missing something obvious.

As for other more minor anime musings this week. Goodness; I’m nearing the end of Eureka Seven and absolutely loving every minute of it, but I don’t want to share too many thoughts because I need to save those for the review.

On a more sour note, I watched the first two episodes of Vividred Operation. Which is….sigh. I’m not the sort of person who likes to constantly howl about how I think fanservice is bad. I’m an on-record apologist for Witchblade, Akiba’s Trip, Senran Kagura, and quite a few others. However, it can definitely kneecap a show’s reputation if it’s especially egregious or done in a particularly scuzzy way, and there’s valid reasons for that.

Vividred Operation has a lot going for it: a fun, outrageous tone, a mad scientist who is a weasel, cool power armor designs a la Symphogear (which also suffers from this problem, though not nearly to this extent), and the characters can even fuse, Dragonball-style, a really fun and underused storytelling mechanic. But I feel like I can’t recommend this show to anyone, because it takes about five minutes out every episode to focus the camera’s gaze on a middle schooler’s bum, and that is (completely understandably, mind you) just too high of a hurdle to reasonably ask most people to jump to get into a series. They will be grossed out and go watch something else.

I will probably finish the series and I’ll probably enjoy most of it, but that’s a really un-fun black mark on what’s otherwise an honestly kinda awesome anime. I have thought a lot in the past few days about this sort of thing and how it does seem to be slowly changing. (Compare a battle girl series like this from the earlier 2010s to something like Revue Starlight from the decade’s back half.) But it’s still prevalent enough to be actively damaging to the genre and consequently it bothers me. I wish I could share these anime that I often really quite (and in the case of some, like Kill la Kill and the aforementioned Symphogear, outright love) like with people, and consequently I wish they weren’t how they are in this single, specific way.

Anyway, I do apologize for the rant. You know how these things are and I’m hardly the first person to have this lament.

My Discord server started an impromptu group watch of Puella Magi Madoka Magica last night. I’ve only grown to love the show more since I first watched it last year and I’m thrilled to get a chance to again. My good friend Alice is the one who spurned the groupwatch and may well be reading this, so I’ll not mention any spoilers. It’s quite the great thing, though. One of my favorite anime of the ’10s for sure.

Anyway! That’s about all for this week. Saturday/Sunday, if things go according to plan, will likely be my new days for these roundups. So keep your eyes tuned in and your ears peeled! 🙂

Hopefully I’ll have a fair bit to write about next week….but I’ve also fallen into VTuber hell along with most of my friends, so who knows. Stay tuned!

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