Oh I love the food in Ghibli movies too!

The highlight of this first episode, an extended sequence of cooking and eating a sauced katsudon, where most of the rest of it was setup for the rest of the series. We follow our protagonist Mako, a first year college student who moved from the boonies into the big city as she tries and fails to find a restaurant she’s comfortable eating at. By chance she runs into her long lost childhood friend Shinon at college, who is trying to start a Food Culture Research Club but so far only has three members when she needs four. Mako, being shy, declines her offer to become a member. That night, as she hesitates to enter the restaurant she wanted to try yesterday as well, one of the girls who was with Shinon calls out to her; she turns out to be the daughter of the owner. It’s her who cooks Mako her katsudon. Ultimately this is what gives Mako the push to become a member of Shinon’s club. But while Mako looks forward to all sorts of cooking experiments, Shinon just wants to lazy around in their new club room?

I can so relate to Mako’s struggles here. Working in Utrecht every Thursday, I always plan to eat in some nice little restaurant in town and most times I fail to do so. It’s too busy, it’s too far from the station, not sure if you a reservation etc. It can be hard to walk into a restaurant on your own when everybody else is with friends. Especially if you’re a shy eighteen year old in her first year at college, where there’s nobody you known.

This looks to be a classic slice of moe P. A. Works anime, where Mako no doubt will make friends with the members of her new club and slowly overcomes her shyness. It’s been a while since we’ve had such an earnest series and I look forward to the rest of it.

Witch Watch

Do you like Weekly Shonen Jump action comedies with a bit of manzai flavouring? Where the heroine has to be continually saved from her own ineptness by the protagonist? Then Witch Watch is the series for you. Just in the first ten minutes of episode one Nico the witch managed to crash through the window of Morihito, a descendant of ogres and her new bodyguard, destroy his favourite coffee mug to repair the damage she caused and turn herself into paper only to float away on a breeze coming through an open window. This sort of comedy can be painfully tedious but was handled well here, the quality of animation helping a lot in selling it. With Nico very much fancying Moi-kun as she calls Morihito and he knowing that there’s a very real threat to her life, there’s also enough substance to feed the comedy on. The original manga is by Shinohara Kenta, best known for Sket Dance; I can see some similarities in the sense of humour at work here.

Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi

She’s a ninja better suited for cleaning than murder, she’s an assassin who needs somebody to clean up her murder sites (not to mention her living room). Together they fight cri^w^w start living together in a mutually beneficial relationship. Satoko, the ninja, needed somebody to hide and feed her after she accidentally fled her hidden ninja village. Konoha, the assassin, needs somebody to help her manage the aftermath of her assassinations, if she wants to climb the assassin rank list (currently: #210). After a meet cute in which she kicks the starving Satoko and ruthlessly dispatches two other ninjas aiming to kill Satoko, she takes her in as her live-in housekeeper. The screenshot above shows off their relationship perfectly: cool, sadistic Konoha and butt of the joke, kind, naive Satoko. I was impressed both by the show’s cold opening, aping 1970s action anime in 4:3 format even and by the ruthless efficiency in which it introduces and then immediately has Konoha murder new characters. Based on a manga by “Hundredburger”.

Kowloon Generic Romance

This gave me strong Patlabor vibes; partially because of the character designs, partially because of the dude’s slight ineptness and partially because it seems to be an adult workplace romance set in a zeerusty future. Reiko and Hajime are co-workers at a small real estate agency in Kowloon Walled City, a Hong Kong neighbourhood that was demolished in 1989. Reiko likes Hajime but he’s indifferent and a bit of an arse. Things aren’t quite what they seem as they work on modern computers and there’s a Death Star like space station hanging in the sky. Because of little things like no longer needing glasses one morning Reiko gets the sense something is wrong and Hajime may know more about what’s going on. Kowloon as setting is very much another character here. The manga is by Mayuzuki Jun, who also was the mangaka for Koi wa Ameagari no Yō ni, about a one-sided love a high school girl has for her forty something year old boss at her parttime job. Some fot he smae melancholy sensibilities are on display here.

Zatsu Tabi: That’s Journey

Suzugamori Chika is a rookie mangaka who just won a newcomers prize but is now struggling with inspiration. On advice of her editor to go out more to experience live rather than stay cooped up making manga, she places a poll on her social media where she should travel: up, down, left or right of Tokyo. As “up” wins the poll, she travels to Aizuwakamatsu in Fukushima, north of Tokyo. Here she wanders around town, samples the local specialities and checks into a luxury hotel/onsen for the night before the next day foolishly deciding to climb the stairs to a famous local shrine. this very much another tourist ad thinly disguised as an anime, with lots of pretty scenery but little plot. I like it though because it is all very pretty even if a bit soporific. Hopefully extending the cast in the next few episodes will enliven it all a bit. The manga is by another Kenta, Ishizaka this time.

I know Lilisa is bluffing here, but she’s also right about Maurice Ravel’s Pavane Pour Une Infante Défunte (M. 19, 1910); it is a beautiful piece of classical music (1):

This one shot says everything about how Lilisa wants to be perceived: the perfect young lady, with impeccable manners and impeccable taste and a hair style to match, twin tails so absurd they defy gravity. I don’t understand the people I saw complaining about these in the Anime News Network forums. Of course they’re not realistic nor used for comedic effect; the whole point of them is to give you that over the top impression of an anime ojo-sama. Because that is what Lilisa wants to be.

As her internal monologue immediately afterwards betrays, all of this is pretense. Everybody in the school may be charmed by her persona, but all of it is fake. She’s just a commoner whose mother married into the prestigious Suzunomiya family and it is for her sake that she gave up her love for rock music to devote herself to becoming the ideal Japanese lady, a true Yamato nadeshiko. Because that’s what her mother wants and her new family and school expect of her. Yet as the flashbacks to her pleb past with her father, as well as the not at all subtle intercuts of a caged bird singing show, the pretence is slowly destroying her. In truth, she’d rather eat a beef bowl than the refined French cuisine the school cafeteria serves and rather play guitar than listen to Ravel.

And then she literally runs into the other paragon of ladylike virtue attending her school, her senpai Otoha. Lilisa is immediately smitten with how Otoha seemingly effortlessly embodies the ojo-samaness that takes Lilisa herself so much effort to achieve. As her classmates squeal with delight in the background and roses bloom all around them, she cannot help but look stunned at this apparation. The perfect example of what she’s needs to become if she wants to win the title of Noble Maiden her school grants each year to its most perfect student. But Otoha has a secret, which Lilisa finds out when she finds a guitar pick on the floor near to where they ran into each other.

Because Otoha is a rock drummer who spends her after school time playing in the old school building, absolutely wrecking the drum kit. When Lilisa discovers this and attempts to hand her the guitar pick she found, Otoha goads her into doing a rock duet together. Thinking to put the rich, spoiled girl in her place Lilisa agrees but discovers Otoha is not a pushover, aggressively challenging her into playing louder and harder. Suffice to say that Otoha is far from a perfect young lady once in rock greasy thralls…

The musical performances here are actually done by members of Japanese metal group Band-Maid, who are great and you should listen to. The series is also not afraid to use existing rock music. At one point during Lilisa’s commute there’s a busker murdering the Blue Hearts’ Linda Linda for eample. The performances are CG, which on the whole look decent but do look a bit plastic compared to the rest of the animation, which is decent if not outstanding. The voice acting is great, with Lilisa’s internal monologue offering a neat, raw contrast to her cultivated young lady speech. Otoha too goes from gentle and polite to full aggression and doe4s so perfectly. This is the first series this season that was actually enjoyable not just for the story, but for its presentation.

If you want to judge for yourself, the IMSLP has performances available of both the piano and orchestral version. Do look around the site if your interest for classical and other public domain music is piqued.

I’m watching PriPara.

I’m watching Symphogear.

I’m watching the combined PriPara/Symphogear (with an added dash of Precure)

Do you need to know more?

Princession Orchestra is a blatant remix, but it works. As in PriPara there’s a magical virtual world only girls (and goats?) can enter, where they can do all sort of things, including live performances. That’s what our protagonist Minamo is doing with her best friend Nacchi, when the performance they’re watching is attacked by black robot like things. But fear not, as they’re soon joined by a very Symphogear like magical girl, with a punch equal to Bikki’s and who also sings as she fights. The very next day is Nacchi’s own live, she always wanted to be an idol, while Minamo is happy enough to just support her. Of course the evil magical robots attack her as well, which triggers something in Minamo and she transforms into a magical girl herself….

What’s not to love?

I went into Summer Pockets completely blind with only the vague idea that it would be some sort of slice of moe series. It was when I saw this girl that I knew I was wrong and it was actually a Key visual novel adaptation.

There’s just soemthing so Key about a brooding, mysterious white haired girl that I didn’t even need the magical disappearing butterfly that led the brown haired dull looking protagonist to see her to know. The Key house style is stronk and immediately recognisable. The rest of the episode too was a feast of recognition as it played out exactly how you’d expect a first episode of a new Key adaptation to do. You got the ordinary looking high school or maybe college age boy moving to a small island for the Summer to help his aunt sort through his grandmothers heritage, who clearly has some sort of Tragic Past that makes shlepping to the boonies attractive to him. Once there he meets a variety of girls who will surely become important later as he tours the island. Nothing important happens but some hints being dropped for future follow-up and a lot of banter between him and some of the girls.

It all felt incredibly nostalgic and this screenshot from the ending is a good example that made me immediately think of Little Busters for example. Series like Kanon, , Little Busters and especially Angel Beats were very important to me when I got into anime seriously again about a decade ago. Kanon helped me deal with grief, Angel Beats was the first anime I was really obsessed with. All of this is why I liked this first episode so much, because it hit me dead right in the nostalgia centre, actual quality concerns be damned. The ANN reviewers may not have liked it much, but for me this was perfect.