February 6th – February 19th, 2022 Week(s)-in-Review

Hi, Everyone! I’m back after some days of very little activity. I live in the upper Midwest USA, and we’ve hit that point in the year where it just feels like endless cold with no reprieve, and I’m finding myself emotionally exhausted with very little drive to do anything. Now that I’m in the middle of a three day weekend (the last one for a few months now), I’m feeling a little more like I can devote some mental energy to my hobbies. I spent some time finishing up that knitting project I mentioned in my previous weekly touch-base, so I’m ready to move onto something a little bit more challenging.

With my journey through fiber arts, I’ve found that it’s helpful to maintain my interest if I’m learning something new each time. In this most recent case, it was learning to use very basic short rows (a shaping technique in which the knitter doesn’t knit all the way across a row before turning the other direction). My brain craves novelty and variety, and knitting the same scarves and hats back when I was just learning (more than a decade ago) meant that it was almost a given I was going to get bored. This time around I’m realizing that there’s just so many new things I can learn to make, and it’s helping to keep me interested in the longer term.

I think it’s the same with an anime watching mindset. I see a lot of folks get bored with the fandom when they stick too closely within their genre comfort zone. Back in the early days I tended to feel drawn more to dramas and shoujo-type series, whereas I assumed anything too popular or “shounen” wasn’t for me. Nowadays I’m willing to give almost anything a try (even more fanservice-y stuff… within reason) and find that the novelty trigger in my brain has been kept satisfied much more than it probably would have been if I’d held myself closely to what I felt was comfortable.

Below are the couple of first impressions I wrote last week. I’m kind of debating over the last few shows on my list. The couple of Crunchyroll originals – Freakangels and Shenmue are existing in kind of a weird space in my mind, especially the former; I’m still kind of muddling over the allegations against Warren Ellis, and find that Japanese-animated series adapted directly from Western properties don’t always feel quite right to me. But I suspect I’ll just go for it and see what happens. On the other hand, I have The Orbital Children on my plate as well, and that poses a different challenge – as a devotee of Mitsuo Iso’s Dennou Coil for so many years, I’m almost afraid to watch this new series of his because I’m worried it might be too good (yes, I’m very strange). Ah well, I guess I’ll just have to see how it goes.

• Winter 2022 First Impressions: Requiem of the Rose King – Definitely a departure from a lot of anime I’ve been watching as of late, but I’m intrigued by both the story and the tone that this manga adaptation is cultivating. The animation is… not great, but I think it makes up for this limitation with some really interesting use of framing and other modest visual embellishments. It’s also cool to see an intersex protagonist, though in this case that could be a mixed bag at certain points (using Richard’s intersex status as a sort of looming threat against him, in a world where sex-defined status is much more strict).
• Winter 2022 First Impressions: Salaryman’s Club – This has absolutely been the most promising sports anime I’ve started this season. I’m a big fan of stories about adults in general, and this premiere features older characters (although being 32 does not make someone an “old man,” thank you) while still managing to include a lot of the charm of sports anime as a genre. The characters and their relationships are definitely of a certain type thus far, but I can forgive some early tropey-ness, especially for a 12 episode series that needs to spend its time moving things along rather than dwelling on character stuff that can happen more organically later. Anyway, this was a lot of fun.
• Winter 2022 First Impressions: Delicious Party Pretty Cure – The latest Pretty Cure series seems like it could be a winner – especially since it focuses on a topic near and dear to my heart, which is delicious food. It’s hard not to be charmed by the bright colors and great animation, as well as the general visual theming. I’m not sure if I’ll keep up with the show or not at this point – I have trouble with series that are longer than half a year (unless, like Attack on Titan, they’ve been released in bite-sized chunks – pun not intended). But since it’s simulcast on Crunchyroll, it’ll probably be easier than when I tried to watch Heartcatch Pretty Cure using fansubs.
• Winter 2022 First Impressions: Tales of Luminaria – The Fateful Crossroad – I didn’t realize before I reviewed this episode that it was only two episodes long, so I just went ahead and finished it. It was pretty good, but perhaps not really worth talking about at any greater length than I already had. I did really appreciate the quality of the CG character animation, though; it was more on the level that I’d like to see in more series, although I realize that’s both an experience and resource issue and I don’t necessarily blame anyone for janky CG.
• Winter 2022 First Impressions: Girls’ Frontline – Military tactics, girls-who-are-guns… this is probably not really aimed at me. While I honestly appreciate that these bishoujo weapons of destruction are treated somewhat more seriously than the characters in the weird fanservice romp that is Upotte!!, my views on war are such that I don’t always find these kind of series pleasant to watch. That said, this episode wasn’t bad.

I will refrain from apologizing for my recent absence; I think we all go through those periods where our mental and emotional resources are needed more urgently elsewhere, so that’s just how it goes. But, I hope with my convention preparations now underway I might have more varied things to talk about here beyond just first episode impressions, so stay tuned for that.

What else have you been watching lately? I’ve been catching up on Attack on Titan, which for all its flaws and problematic elements has definitely been an interesting and wild ride. I’m also re-watching The Duke of Death and His Maid with my husband, which is sometimes right on the edge of what I’ll typically tolerate in terms of lewdness, but at about episode 4 really gets into an interesting groove of world building, introducing fun and unique characters, and being a secret musical… yes, it’s true! Definitely an unusual series, but I’m looking forward to the continuation this year.