Beatless – 03

Beatless had a little uptick last week with a very decent second episode, but I suspect this is about the end of the road for me in blogging terms.  There are occasionally interesting moments here, but on balance this show is just a little too clumsy and transparently trying to be cool to really click for me.  Plus the imouto character is beyond intolerable, and the new hIE character Kouka may not be much better, based on first impressions.

I think there might just be the gist of something genuine between Lacia and Arato, the germ of an engaging on-screen relationship, but then we have head-scratchers like the analog hack scene in his bedroom – honestly, what good can possibly come from including that?  And the whole premise here is a workable one, tried and tested as it is – but as with the main pairing, the execution just isn’t anything special.  Beatless is what it is, and there’s certainly worse on the schedule – but I’m finding it harder and harder to find compelling reasons to keep watching it.

Darling in the FranXX – 03

FranXX is, I think, a more noteworthy project than Beatless for any number of reasons.  It’s far more popular, there’s obviously more budget and talent behind it, and it’s going to be discussed obsessively like much of Trigger’s material is.  I don’t know if any of that makes it any objectively better, though, and I likewise find myself thinking this week’s episode might be the end of the blogging road for me here.

The level to which this show is derivative is almost beyond belief, really.  To a certain extent all mecha anime are derivative, just as all mahou shoujo are and all epic fantasy owe a debt to Tolkien.  The good ones, though – the RahXephons and Eureka Sevens of the world (the studio behind those is no coincidence) – find some kind of twist on the formula to make them stand out, something essential they bring to the genre that hadn’t been brought before.  I’ve yet to see any indication of what that might be with Darling in the FranXX (which is par for the course with Trigger, if we’re honest) – stripping all the artifice from the female-submissive sexual symbolism doesn’t really rise to that, in my book.

Still, somehow, I don’t dislike this series – and as before I tend to believe that’s because its derivative nature isn’t born no much out of calculated opportunism but genuine affection for the tropes it parrots.  Thank goodness Darling is kind of clumsy and awkward, because if it were slick and polished it would probably be insufferable.  I know that’s damning it with faint praise, but that’s about the best I can come up with at this point.  We’ll watch one more episode for sure based on that, and then we’ll see.

Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens – 03

Heh, to my own mild surprise I’ve kind of come to like Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens.  The first episode was largely a whiff for me, but the last couple have been considerably better – even downright engaging.  Of course the whole premise is is fanciful at least (and abjectly preposterous at most), but it’s actually rather skilfully laid out – which (while I know little of the source material) isn’t actually that surprising given that we have a decent staff and a very solid director in Yasuda Kenji.  It’s easy to follow what’s going on and while this is certainly a plot-driven show, the characters are distinctive enough that one can at least remember who’s who.

The mob boss, the amateur hitman, the snarky private dick, the hapless naif, the psycho rich kid, the world-weary hired gun wrestling with guilt, the righteous quest and the colorful gaggle of satellite characters – all the pieces are pretty much stock from the catelogue, but they’re put together rather artfully.  Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens has a breezy charm to it, and in some sense it even reminds me of 91 Days (not Baccano!, interestingly) in addition to the more obvious Durarara! comparison, because it has a pretty savvy understanding of the American film cliches it’s riffing on in Japanese fashion.

The developments this week were interesting, with Namikawa Daisuke’s avenging barkeep and Hirota Kousei’s conflicted plumber elder statesman being tied in more directly to the central plot.  There’s also the matter of the Niwaka Samurai, who it turns out is the best hitman in town (he put said elder’s eye out), and who Lin’s old boss hires (through his go-between, an old ramen-cart operator) to take out Lin and Banba.  Fortunately for Banba the old soup pusher is a friend and gives him a heads-up – unfortunately, the informant Enokida flips pretty quickly when the Yakuza get to him (though I suspect Banba will have been expecting that).

In short, this is fun, and I’m enjoying it.  I’m curious to see what happens both in terms of the plot and whether the show can keep the magic flowing for another 9 episodes.  Certainly out of this group, Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens is the series I’m most likely to stay with for a while at least.