Love Live

I finished season 1 of Love Live! School Idol Project. Although it had a strong start, it sort of started losing my interest in the second half. I’m still glad I watched it, but with such a large cast, it really could’ve done well of having at least another cour to flesh out the characters and get me invested in them, and then the ending could’ve been a bit different, too — it’s like they already resolved the main plot, and just threw on an extra mini-plot at the end that didn’t really need to be there. So I guess in a sense Love Live season 1 was both too short and too long — it reached its natural conclusion too quickly and had to tack on something at the end.

Also, I wish Love Live had less booby shit. Like I’d put less booby shit in Love Live. If I directed it. Just sayin’.

Magical girls!

Now that I’m done with Love Live, at least for the time being, my main anime to watch alone have now become Magical DoReMi and Tokyo Mew Mew. In fact I’m watching episodes of these shows generally one after the other, which isn’t something I’ve done basically since I first got into anime back in 2019.

Magical DoReMi and Tokyo Mew Mew are both magical girl shows, but they’re actually quite different from each other. I was expecting Magical DoReMi to have villains of the week, but at least by six episodes in, there are still no real villains to be seen — rather the characters use their magic to solve more pedestrian issues, often with some sort of positive message. It’s a silly show, it’s clearly made for kids but still very enjoyable. It’s also pretty toyetic, with its Pollons and Taps and costumes.

Tokyo Mew Mew on the other hand stands out for being based on a manga by Reiko Yoshida, who did series composition and other “high-level” work on some of my favorite anime, most of which are adapted from manga. So I associate her name with quality, and by watching TMM I’m in a sense now seeing what it’s like when Reiko Yoshida is the adapted rather than the adaptor.

And lo, TMM is all over the place (positive intent). So the Mews are both high school girls and maid café waitresses and, y’know, magical girls fighting the forces of evil; and the Mews each have an endangered animal theme that gives their designs some neat little animal features, and they also have a food theme from which they get their names and theme colors; and, evidently, they each even have a specific musical instrument associated with them. So, y’know, I don’t know what finless porpoises, lettuce, and castanets have to do with each other, but… Yeah, sure, why not! Most magical girl shows would stick to just one theme, but TMM evidently doesn’t care.

…And yes, the character I was describing there is LITERALLY named Lettuce (or in the subs, Retasu, but that’s just the kana for “Lettuce” anyways). And the bad guy’s named Quiche, and he’s this like green-haired elf guy who’s always got his midriff showing. So that’s neat!

I should mention, the main character per se is named Ichigo, which you probably already know means Strawberry.

Edit

They just introduced a new character in episode 7 called Bu-Ling, or Mew Pudding — you might be able to guess that “Bu-Ling” is just the kana for “pudding” rendered as a Chinese name. Mew Pudding is, gasp, an elementary school girl rather than a high school girl, and her animal is golden lion tamarin (a type of monkey), and her instrument is a tambourine, and I have a feeling she’s gonna become my favorite Mew very quickly.

Also, Mew Mint’s weapon is called MinTone Arrow, which is based on a lyre as well as a bow and arrow. I was going to say that Mew Mint was an exception to the instruments theme rule, but no, it’s just that the resemblance of her weapon to the theme instrument is a bit harder to see.

Also also, I say “what does lettuce and castanets have to do with each other”, but to be fair… What does the planet Mercury and a bubble blower have to do with each other, y’know?

All this being said, yeah, I’ve been enjoying TMM a lot. It’s silly but it’s got heart to it, and it satisfies my expectation of a magical girl show to actually have bad guys and episodic fighting in it. Aesthetically it actually reminds me a bit of the ever-goated Cardcaptor Sakura, which makes sense since the music was actually made by the same guy who did CCS’s music, and the main character’s crush in TMM shares a voice with the main character’s crush in CCS… And also, well, TMM and CCS both came out within half a decade of each other, in the same genre, so there’s that.

I don’t want to overstate the similarities, though, because TMM also has some elements I see as more distinctly early 2000s.

Into the Haruhiverse

I started watching The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan on Hextube, but eventually switched to watching that with my mom instead. We haven’t gotten super far, but it’s still nice to see these characters again, even if it is an alternate universe. It’s making me think that the theme for this year’s anime watching should maybe be continuing old series that mom and I started but never finished, like Yuru Camp, Squid Girl, Is The Order a Rabbit, the likes.

Speaking of Hextube, I’ve been continuing the rewatch of The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya there, between episodes of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, which I frankly don’t pay super close attention to.

Tamako Love Story

I finally got around to watching the Tamako Love Story movie with my mom. It was nice seeing the Tamako Market characters again, and as a whole it was a pretty good movie. There wasn’t a lot of Dera in it, but it was still a stellar love story with a lot of fun moments otherwise, and it was pretty much the perfect length for me (though we still had to split it into two sittings). Mom and I both appreciated the sudden “Sukiyaki” bit in the movie, too, and there was some nice buildup to that bit in the sort of side-plot.

If there’s really anything I’d note, it’s that the movie ends a bit abruptly. Like the Eagle lands but you aren’t really given any time to feel that high, it just sort of cuts right after the climactic moment. But I guess breaking from the sort of conventional structure of such a movie is an artistic choice and that’s just how it is.

In conclusion, this movie should’ve been called You Used To Call Me On The Cup Phone.

Otherwise…

With my mom or the family we’ve been continuing

• Cells at Work: Code Black
• Minami-ke: Okawari
• Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water
• Ranma 1/2 reboot
• Samurai Champloo
• Lupin III Part 2
• The Boondocks

I also rewatched the first episode of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Phantom Blood with my mom, and she thought it was interesting — not particularly like she expected, but still not something she’s super interested in continuing, due to the fighting. But she’s still glad to at least be familiar with what JoJo’s is actually like, rather than just going off her impression of what it’s like, right?

There isn’t much I have to say about these other things that I haven’t already said in previous threads, but what I will say is that I’m really enjoying the Ranma 1/2 reboot more and more as we continue it; and also, by Jove, we have at long last reached the part of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water where the Secret of Blue Water is revealed. The reveal came a bit suddenly so it took us by surprise.

So yes, we’ve got the titular secret revealed, but we still have to try in mind for another eight episodes yet.

…The great reveal of the titular secret was a bit of an awkward episode, though, on the part of all the nudité artistique. Add that one to the long list of parallels between Nadia and Neon Genesis Evangelion!

—Speaking of those parallels, though, my mom’s enjoyment of Nadia makes me want to sit her down to watch at least the first episode of Evangelion as well. Because she already saw the Evangelion 1.0 movie and didn’t care for it, but I don’t think that’s necessarily directly comparable to the original 1995 series, right?

In any case, as good as all these shows we’re watching together are, I am kind of looking forward to finishing them, y’know? Like we’ve literally been watching Nadia for over a year by this point, and there’s a lot of things I’d like for us to try.

—Incidentally, CITY the ANIMATION is coming out in July! Looking forward to it!