3D Kanojo: Real Girl- 03
Real Girl continues to hum along in its quiet way, not doing anything too flashy. But it still appeals – there’s something quite humanistic and restrained about this series. The themes it takes on are hardly new to anime, but it takes them on with considerably more dignity than most of its contemporaries.
In it’s low-key way, this episode was a very effective look at a shy and socially awkward person like Hikari adjusting to life in a relationship. There’s the guilt in leaving his friend behind (though Iroha is quite good about including Yuuto most of the time). There’s the general sense that he’s losing control of his life – a life he loved and hated at the same time. And of course the lingering sense that something must be wrong with this equation, because someone like him doesn’t deserve to be in a relationship with an actual girl.
The surprise addition this week was Ishino Arisa, who initially treats Hikari like a leper but (perhaps too quickly and easily) makes the jump to sympathetic. Whether she’s here as an ongoing presence or mainly just to show Hikari that even poplar normies struggle with love, Ishino makes a nice impact here. The sad truth of high school is that even most of the happy people are just as scared and miserable as everyone else on the inside, and the message her is a nice one – if people can admit that and take comfort in other people, they can get through the experience anyway.
Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These – Kaikou – 03
I’ll just state again, for the record, that this update of Legend of the Galactic Heroes is quite good. I like it. I’m not so wedded to the franchise as to be one of the serious fans whose knickers might be in a twist over some pacing issues, or Reinhard not being enough of a psychopath, or whatever. I’m just enjoying a nice space opera without too much in terms of histrionics.
That said, I think I’m probably not going to keep covering it for a couple of reasons. First, things are just too busy non anime-wise for me this season. And second, I’m honestly not finding much to write about. That’s a complement, mostly – this show is quite eloquent and leaves very little to interpretation. In addition, a high percentage of the folks watching it already know how the story goes. What purpose does blogging it serve, really? If it were great, life-changing, absolutely – but for me at least, Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu isn’t that – not this version, anyway. The imperative isn’t there so unless I have a religious conversion over it at some point, I’m probably going to be a viewer only.
