Shakunetsu Kabaddi – 03

It’s 8 episode posts this weekend if you’re keeping score at home (and that’s not counting the BokuYaba video).  It’s way too much, so this is going to be a brief one.  I had originally not planned to cover Burning Kabaddi this week, but the episode was damn good – easily the best of the three so far.  At the very least I wanted to touch base and point that out, but if the next few continue to be at that level it’s going to force me into some very tough decisions.

This episode did a lot right in sports anime terms.  It provided us insight into Yoigoshi’s competitive nature – the elements that made him such an elite soccer player and that led to his eventually crashing out of the sport.  His relationship with Azemichi was interesting to watch play out, especially as the latter started standing up for himself.  And it continued to provide insights into the nature of this very strange sport, to the point where I’m almost able to convince myself I understand it.

So – good sports anime there.  That’s always a tough thing for me to say no to, but life sometimes calls for compromises.  Just know that if I don’t cover this show next week it’s not because I don’t like it (unless it jumps the shark, but it probably won’t do that).

Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- – 04

Wow, was that hokey.  Well – by contrast with Shakunetsu Kabaddi, I’m pretty confident that Vivy isn’t going to make the cut.  There’s some good stuff going on here, but even if it isn’t literally one this series plays like a light novel adaptation.  The emotional manipulation is too much – the soaring soundtrack in every key moment, the melodramatic situations, the reversion to trope.  I just don’t get the appeal of this sort of series to be honest, as I don’t think it respects the audience very much.  On the other hand it is relatively pretty…

When I think of the other stuff Wit could be spending their time on, it grates a little that Vivy is eating into so much of it.  This isn’t MAPPA we’re talking about – Wit is a studio that’s very selective about what they work on, and as a fan of their work that makes every production that doesn’t click a tangible loss.