Anime for the Season: Spring 2018 Week 7

This week has brought us some highs and lows and as always, a lot of anime to watch. While some anime seem destined to plummet, others have brought us smiles and tears this week (okay, no literal tears). Here’s my weekly round up and as always, I’d love to know your thoughts.

What I watched

3D Kanojo: Real Girl (Episode 8)

Nothing like a camping trip to make us realise that there aren’t any interesting characters left in this show. What little they had to distinguish them from the standard high school romance cast has been ironed out and now we have pretty bland teens going through a fairly blandly written script full of tropes we’ve seen delivered better elsewhere.

Caligula (Episode 6)

This one has replaced Spiritpact in the review schedule, though it hasn’t exactly been amazing and seems like a poor substitute really. But I am continuing to watch this one because there is potential in its concept and while that theory has burned me so many times, every now and then an anime will get it right and then it is a really glorious thing indeed. Let’s see what this one does and hope it doesn’t crash and burn.

Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card (Episode 19)

While super cute, this episode of Cardcaptor didn’t accomplish much else except for one minor plot set-up. There’s been a lot of wait and see moments in this reignited series and episode 19 is almost entirely down time. Still, the few points they do drop are significant so unfortunately it isn’t something that can just be skipped entirely.

Cute High Earth Defense Club Happy Kiss (Episode 7)

Seriously underperforming this season, Cute High Earth Defense Club Happy Kiss isn’t really adding anything new to this parody franchise. Basically if you have nothing knew to offer viewers, or even nothing interesting, then why bother.

Darling in the Franxx (Episode 18 – Reviewed for patrons)

I’m getting to the point where I’m not going to ask for logic from this anime. Darling in the Franxx continues to be a fairly frustrating watch because there is so much great about it and yet it just can’t seem to get its story together. Great characters, great concepts, great visuals, not so great story. It still has a few episodes to tie things together but I’m not convinced it will succeed.

Devils’ Line (Episode 7)

After six episodes, Devils’ Line seems like it has finally found itself a plot and a reasonable one at that. Even the characters managed to not be too stupid this week. While this is hardly a must watch by any means, the verdict after episode seven is that this has become kind of decent and has a fair chance at finishing that way. Of course, it could always take another nose dive.

Doreiku The Animation (Episode 6)

Proving once again the a cool concept that has potential does not equal a good story, Doreiku continues to squander what potential it may have had and instead of an interesting character study on human nature we’re subjected to lame scenarios and games played by fairly bland people attempting to be dark. It’s all a bit disappointing.

Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory (Episode 5)

Sousuke’s making new friends and is as always the life of the party. Well, at the very least he’s still a decent enough knight in shining armour provided your goals align with his. I wasn’t entirely sold on the cast this week, but Sousuke was pretty solid and I want to know what his plan is. He does have a plan, right?

GeGeGe No Kitaro (Episode 8)

Another monster of the week and another victory by Kitaro. The fact that it is following a pretty straight forward pattern doesn’t make this anime any less fun to watch as Kitaro delivers light, yokai themed entertainment yet again. Really enjoying this even while acknowledging this is definitely pulp kind of entertainment.

Kakuriyo No Yadomeshi (Episode 8 – Reviewed for Patrons)

This anime hasn’t been improving, but it hasn’t gotten any worse. We’ve still got reasonable characters walking through a reasonable plot. It isn’t great but it isn’t painful. The visuals and the OP are pretty great but the rest is kind of average. Its a shame but it is what it is.

Libra of Nil Admirari (Episode 7)

This continues to have an interesting idea behind it with pretty average to not so great execution. The story is jumping all over the place and there’s way too many characters leading to segments that exist just to remind us who someone is before revealing the next plot point. There’s just too many things running around the outside of what is actually a fairly interesting premise.

Lostorage Conflated WIXOSS (Episode 7)

I’m really enjoying how this season has so far moved the characters from the first two seasons and the characters from season three and is setting the two groups up. What is less enjoyable are the antagonists this time around. Kind of hoping for some work on these sooner rather than later because at the moment they are a weak link in the story.

My Hero Academia Season 3 (Episode 7)

A fairly solid episode creating quite a bit of chaos for the hero society and setting up a fairly decent conflict for the season. My biggest complaint about this third season is how long it has taken to get going but now that it is going, it seems to be full steam ahead, so very little to complain about at this point.

Record of Grancrest War (Episode 19)

Record of Grancrest War is consistent at least in its illogical plot assertions, throwing off one character to show us another we have no clue about, and fights that seem dramatic but usually lack weight and context. Just assume everyone wants to kill everyone because their can only be one survivor. All the talking in between is just noise and amounts to very little.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori (Episode 7)

Ice-cream and curry feature this week in a the food anime that’s just sickly sweet and relaxing. This show can make your mouth water even while it lulls you into a deeply relaxed state.

Space Battleship Tiramisu (Episode 8)

Well, if I learned nothing else, I learned not to scratch a robot by making a poor left turn. This episode is light on answers to questions that felt like they should have been addressed, but it certainly leaves us with more questions and an overall wondering about whether this is truly going somewhere or whether we’re just lurching from sequence to sequence.

Steins;Gate 0 (Episode 7)

Steins;Gate 0 kicks things up a notch this week. It hasn’t yet really engaged me but it certainly got me curious this week about a few things. And with the beginning and end of the episode feeling quite fast paced and only the middle dragging, it was a lot more fun to watch this week.

Tada Doesn’t Fall in Love (Episode 7)

Tada Doesn’t Fall in Love has remained consistently above average. It isn’t great but it gets enough right that the fairly average story feels stronger than it is. This week focused on the younger sister character and for once I didn’t dislike an anime little sister episode as it gave her a real voice and outlet for her unrequited love.

Tokyo Ghoul: Re (Episode 7 – Not Reviewed)

Spiritpact: Bond of the Underworld (Finished)

Episode of the Week