Spring 2017 Anime | Midseason Musings

We’re halfway into the spring season, folks! How are things shaping up for the simulcast shows that are covered by The Lily Garden? 

tl;dr – pretty poorly!

I decided to stop doing episodic reviews for Frame Arms Girl, Hinako Note, and Twin Angel Break. This means I’ve essentially “dropped” three-quarters of the shows I was reviewing on a weekly basis! I technically also reviewed Sin – Nanatsu no Taizai but that sort of show is catering to a viewership of which I am not a part.

Don’t worry, I’m still watching the aforementioned series every week. I just won’t be spending time reviewing those shows. But I will be doing a series review for all four shows by the end of the season so look forward to that!

So what does this mean for The Lily Garden? Well, with only one obligated episode review per week, this means I have a lot more time to catch up on visual novels and older anime series. I’m going to try to post one anime series review, one visual novel review, and at least one post that’s not related to those two topics per week? We’ll see if I can keep that sort of pacing up.

Now for the Spring 2017 shows I reviewed for the past 6 weeks!

Sakura Quest

Many comparisons are being made between this show and other, older P.A. Works’ works (namely Shirobako, Hanasaku Iroha, and even Tari Tari). While Sakura Quest is not quite on the same level as Shirobako thus far, the series is making steady progress and has been consistent all season thus far. The comedy is mostly amusing (outside of the running gag where Sanae screams at a bug or living critter), as well.

A potential problem may arise due to how the show was initially framed. One of the strengths for Shirobako was how the five female protagonists, despite sharing an overarching goal due to a promise they made in high school, had their own stories. Sometimes their individual journies had them cross paths with each other, but they were often doing their own thing. The audience also really got to learn about each character as they handled and struggled through their situations and troubles in life.

That isn’t the case for Sakura Quest. The five girls in this show came together as a group (officially) by episode 4 (the girls in Shirobako never got to truly work together until the final arc due to various circumstances). After that turning point, Sakura Quest began to throw mini-arcs where a character’s backstory and internal conflicts come to light. The storytelling, pacing, and impactful messages are handled well, but the setup gives me a faint impression of a checklist being checked off. Still, this is the only Spring 2017 show that I’m still reviewing on a weekly basis and I’m having fun watching Yoshino and her helpers scramble to bring life to Manoyama.

Hinako Note

Boring characters. They are unengaging as a whole. Occassionally one of them reveals a hidden skill (Mayu is a killer dancer, as it turns out), but the characters are still progressing as anyone who has ever watched a slice-of-life show would know. The shy main character will gradually become less of a wallflower and happens to have a knack for the activity that she’s passionate about. The rival who acts mean to our protagonist yet isn’t a bad person at heart. No new ground is being covered here, folks.

Lazy animation. All of the characters on the screen (besides the ones who are talking) frequently stand, with their arms slack , as if they’re waiting in line to withdraw money from the ATM. What happened to funny background events?

Slow progression. It’s barely acceptable for a slice-of-life show. I guess I can’t complain too much considering how Long Riders and  Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu were also “easygoing,” but this certainly isn’t helping things.

Excessive fanservice. Episode 5 really tells you the whole story. I’m not really looking for that. Also there’s the fact that one of the girls getting the attention is a physically developed 9 year-old…At least it isn’t too bad in other episodes, but what’s done is done.

There’s so many other Cute Girls Doing Cute Things shows that do it better. Don’t settle for mediocre content.

Twin Angel Break

Unoriginal series and rather distasteful. Why is an adult sneaking into a middle school in order to prey on young girls? That’s definitely not okay. It feels like this show is basically a throw-back to older anime (which makes sense considering how it’s a spin-off from a show that aired in 2011). This only makes the show seem even more out-of-touch, however.

The franchise, in my opinion, should have stopped after the first anime series. I have trouble imaginging the show’s target audience, to be honest.

Frame Arms Girl

I mean…this is a show about model kit girls fighting each other and learning about the human world. I guess you can’t expect too much plot to happen. But I ended up getting bored by episode 6 since every episode, which is split into two parts followed the same format. A new Frame Arms Girl would introduced almost every week, which takes up half of an episode. And the little model girls would be goofing off in the other half.

I understand that this is due to pacing (it would be a very bad idea to introduce multiple Frame Arms Girls within a single episode) but still. It doesn’t change the fact that the viewing experience is dull.

At least the series is attempting to incoporate CGI with hand-drawn visuals and doesn’t look too bad while doing so?