Mairimashita! Iruma-kun – 02

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun falls under the same category as Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy so far – a fun, earnest screwball comedy that’s easy to enjoy and doesn’t demand too much from the audience.  Those are often among the most difficult shows to blog of course, because they neither require much analysis or elicit much discussion.  It’s too early to say that’s where we’re headed with Mairimashita, but the tea leaves are starting to suggest it.

If there’s a trend we’re seeing starting to recur in this show, it’s Iruma-kun flying blind into a bear trap and coming out of it with his legend growing even more.  This time around it’s the summoning of familiars, which is overseen by the scary teacher Kalego-sensei.  Ono Daisuke has a lot of fun with this one, which is exactly the tone the material calls for.  Kalego is already disposed to try and knock Iruma down a few pegs (he can’t stand his “grandfather”), and figures the familiar summoning is the ticket.  But because Iruma is a human and Kalego has the students using paper with his name on it, Iruma ends up summing Kalego-sensei as his familiar.  Ouch.

This is actually sort of a clever conceit, in that it flips the usual pattern of this sort of series on its head.  Instead of constantly getting beaten up and beaten down, the protagonist stumbles into ever-growing glory every time.  That makes the whole exercise more enjoyable, especially given how crappy a hand Iruma-kun has already been dealt by life.  We’ll see how everything holds up once the inevitable harem elements start factoring in (the demon Clara and Iruma’s blond admirer are the advance forces there, it seems) – for now the chemistry with Iruma-kun and Azz is working well.  I’m enjoying Mairimiashita! Iruma-kun more than enough to keep watching, and while the rest is still up in the air that’s certainly a good start.

Mugen no Juunin: Immortal – 02

By contrast, there’s really quite a lot to say about Mugen no Juunin: Immortal – it’s just that at the moment I don’t have a lot of time to say it.  If this show continues to operate at this level, this is probably going to be the last time I’m going to write about it in a digest post.

I could wax eloquent for ages about all the pleasures of this second episode.  To hear the likes of Suzuki Tatsuhisa and Seki Tomokazu is certainly among them – Seki-san especially is superb as the artist Soori, old friend of Rin’s father.  His introduction dominates the A-part of the episode, with the B-part mostly given to Suzuki’s Magatsu Taitou.  Magatsu has an instant magnetism the moment he walks into the swordsmith shop where Rin has taken the blades of the dozen Itto-ryu Manji has slain at Soori’s house.  Rin may see him as an enemy but he’s clearly a complicated man, and his battle with Manji is hugely entertaining.

Mostly, though, what stands out in these first two episodes is Hamasaki Hiroshi’s direction.  Obviously Hamasaki is a known quantity so this isn’t shocking, but Blade of the Immortal strikes me as easily the most stylish series of the season thus far.  His work here is beautiful, plain and simple.  The juxtaposition of movement and stillness, the sound design, the expressive faces and the way he sometimes holds a shot seemingly forever – stunning.  He’s making all the right choices so far and nothing in the direction is conventional – it’s constantly surprising you and engaging your mind.

The only complaint I could make against Immortal is in fact the OP, which is frankly awful and contains some of the cringeiest Engrish I’ve ever heard (and that’s a high bar).  Apart from that this is the biggest overperformer of the season so far for me expectations-wise, and with the zone Hamasaki-sensei seems to be in there’s no reason to think it can’t continue to excel.