Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru – 01

With this, the main trifecta of Yamamoto Shinichirou manga all have anime adaptations.  While Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san is king of that hill for a reason, I’d still rank Soredemo Ayumu wa Yosetekuru as a considerable step up from the loli ninja series (which is not a high bar, admittedly).  I don’t think any of his series are as personal for Yamamoto-sensei as Karakai Jouzu, and thus the others don’t seem to have the same feeling behind them.  But on the whole, Soredemo Ayumu does have some of the signature Yamamoto charm.

This time we’re aged up to high school, but unlike with the ninjas there’s not much ecchi here.  This is the story of a two-person shogi club, consisting of the diminutive “president” Yaotome Urushi and her stone-faced kouhai Tanaka Ayumu,  It’s not much of a club – in fact with only two members it isn’t technically a club at all.  But Ayumu likes it that way, because he’s in love with sempai and doesn’t try too hard to disguise it.  But he’s vowed not to confess until he beats her at shogi, which on skill alone he’s many lifetimes away from being able to do.

It’s tempting to dismiss this show as a genderflipped Takagi-san, but the dynamic is quite different.  Yes Ayumu embarrasses the hell out of Yaotome pretty much non-stop, but he’s not doing it on purpose.  He simply doesn’t have boundaries – he’s as direct with his words as he is with his shogi pieces.  “You could use a little more deception” indeed.  As for Yaotome she tries to play the tsundere card but it’s wholly unconvincing.  Every strategy she throws at Ayumu on the board works – every one she throws at him verbally crashes and burns.  In these respective realms, each has the other’s number.

I find these two cute and likeable enough, but they don’t quite have the same “pop” as Nishikata and Takagi.  Takagi’s teasing gives that series an edge this one lacks, for starters.  And their middle school antics are somewhat more amusing to me that the more conventional high school dance steps here.  That said, Soredemo Ayumu has a directness and a lack of pretension that I find quite pleasing, and no one can do an aiaigasa scene quite like Yamamoto.  I’ll be watching this one for sure – whether there’s enough here to cover it weekly remains to be scene (and may depend to an extent on the competition).

Shadows House 2nd Season – 01

It’s always puzzled me a bit that Shadow House got a second season, but I can only assume it was pre-decided – a split cour in all but name.  The manga was never more than modestly popular and didn’t get a huge boost from the anime, and there wasn’t a lot of buzz or disc sales with the latter.  I suspect the production committee was expecting more than they got, but in the end it was cheaper for them to plow ahead than pull the plug (which means production on this cour was already at a pretty advanced stage).

Right from the start I really wanted to like this series more than I did, because it’s built around a pretty interesting premise.  But the execution was never up to the same standard.  The first cour did get a little better as the season progressed, but we saw a lot of the same flaws here (like incessant exposition by explanation).  The writing is clumsy, but once the story expanded enough that it was more than simply cute girls doing cute things, Shadows House got mildly interesting.

And so it remains as the second cour kicks off.  Kate retains her place as more or less the central figure, which is certainly an improvement on Emilico.  She’s still fomenting rebellion against Grandfather and his regime, and still feeling out what sort of opposition she’s facing.  Kate and Shaun are the two most interesting cast members, though the latter doesn’t have a lot to do in this episode (his airhead master certainly does).

I suspect I’m not going to wind up covering this season but I did finish watching the first, so I’m likely to do so again.  If things level up significantly I’m open to more.