Shokugeki no Souma: San no Sara – 13

For the record, I think it’s pretty unlikely I’m going to pick up Shokugeki no Souma again for blogging purposes.  But having covered it for as long as I did, it felt like I should at least check in now that the second cour of “San no Sara” has kicked off.

This was actually a pretty good episode on the whole, but I don’t take a whole lot of encouragement from that because it did nothing to assuage my concerns about the larger problems plaguing the series.  I mean, we’re still immersed in the nightmare of the Azami Arc with no end in sight.  And while the second half of the episode where Souma-kun made a ten-don for Erina was very entertaining (that business with the frozen eggs was pretty cool), there’s no indication that the fundamental undoing of her character has changed – she’s still an arrogant elitist who thinks everyone should follow her whims because of her name and her “God tongue”.  So the more she’s at the center of the plot, the more Shokugeki no Souma suffers for it.

Basically, this is reduced to a cooking show now, because that’s the one part of the series that hasn’t pretty much jumped the shark.  The problem (among many) is, that can’t carry the series on its own – no way.  And since I don’t see the cooking segments getting much help in from anything else that’s happening in the plot for the foreseeable future, I’m not feeling optimistic about San no Sara.  That’s a shame – I really like this series (especially the first season) but this sort of thing has happened to better anime than Shokugeki no Souma.  It’s just an occupational hazard of being a fan.

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Happy Kiss! – 01

For a little afterthought of a gag series, Binan Koukou has shown real staying power.  The first season did reasonably well on disc, and somewhat surprisingly a sequel was announced.  The second didn’t do quite as well, but apparently it was enough because the franchise is back for a third season (there was an OVA as well).

There are some significant changes this time around.  The most obvious is a complete cast turnover – a new group of five in the Earth Defense Club, a new trio of villainous student council bishies, and two new alien furry arch-rivals (brothers this time) using them as tools in their galactic war of ideology.  Less obvious but perhaps just as important is that Yokote Michiko has departed as head writer, leaving Takamatsu Shinji in charge of that role as well (he’s also the sound director here to boot).  Given his prominence as a director, it says something about Takamatsu’s commitment to the franchise that he’s not only stuck with it this long, but seemingly increased his stake.

I enjoy Binan Koukou, though I admit the setup here is pretty much one joke.  The formula in this new version looks pretty much the same, on-screen and off – hire no-names as the club members, get name seiyuu for the villain of the week and furry roles, and thematically riff on the tropes and cliches of anime aimed at female otaku.  This time around we start off with a kid who wants to remain a shota forever and is devastated by his voice changing (the use of two seiyuu in the role exemplifies the point), leaving no doubt about what the underlying gag here is.  It’s quite entertaining in a breezy way – in a vacuum, probably on  a part with the first two seasons.  The question, I suppose, is whether (or how much) Binan Koukou loses effectiveness the third time around without actually innovating or changing much, just doing the same thing about as well.