That song is by hip-hop duo Creepy Nuts who also did the OP and ED for Call of the Night. The reason for this is because their song Yofukashi no Uta directly inspired the writer of the original manga which is also originally called “Yofukashi no Uta”, and was used as the ED for the series. The OP Daten is also very good, and the guys from Creepy Nuts had a cameo in the show. Call of the Night just had a second season announced, btw.
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I’ve now started The Apothecary Diaries.
If you’re anything like me and started watching period-esque C dramas during the 2020 lockdowns, this is definitely an anime for you.
I recommend these shows if you’re into it:
Oh My General
Story of Yanxi Palace
The Untamed
Legend of Fuyao
Love and Destiny
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The first episode of the classic, Uzumaki is out and it’s giving me hope that this may be the first good anime adaptation of a Junji Ito graphic novel. It has that look, as if they just animated the manga pages, and I’m okay with that here. The fact that it’s in black and white already elivates it above the more recent adaptations. And I enjoyed the Netflix and Cruchyroll adaptations but more in an ironic, isn’t this silly ghost story funny, kind of way. The first episode of Uzumaki sets a more serious tone, closer to what I thjnk Ito was going for i the novel.
So far so good.
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I think everyone has had their eye on this. I’m waiting for all the episodes to be out before I watch it. I think it’s only 4 episodes.
I’ve seen the live action movie of Uzumaki, and it’s not the best.
I’ve finally finished season 3 of Hibike! Euphonium. I am very well aware that I am literally 3 months late to it. I had originally planned to watch it when it came out, but then decided to wait for it because the first two seasons made this my favorite show of all time and I really wanted to sit with it. And then I procrastinated for it for basically the same reason, wanting to not just watch it but comprehend it.
This show is just perfection for my taste despite not being particularly musically talented or knowledgeable. The characterization is just top notch and KyoAni is really cutting no corners to convey them. I also love the plot developments and how they play into and challenge established dynamics.
Shows about high school team competitions, provided that they span multiple years, necessarily have a turnover of characters as students graduated and new ones enter the school. This season also brings in a transfer student that directly reflects and competes with our main character and her role in the band. This also directly compares with previous plot points in earlier seasons. The anime is specifically about challenging norms of the traditional japanese senpai-kohai dynamic and clubs also being about popularity, and their shortcomings in contrast to a meritocracy. This is easy to preach when you’re the one who is benefiting from it, but are you also going to stick with it when its to your detriment? That is pretty much the central question this final season asks.
This show is just fantastic and I am currently made painfully aware of my lack of vocabulary for it. If you have never seen it, I beg you to watch it. It’s a modest requirement at three season and two movies at least, but I guarantee you will not regret it.
Another show I finished, this time as the final episode aired, is season 2 of Oshi no Ko. If you are unaware, this is a murder mystery with supernatural elements that at the same time skewers the japanese entertainment industry. It is based on a manga by the same author as Kaguya-sama Love is War.
The show is in my opinion great. The adaptation features high quality animation and voice acting, and some style flourishes that make the experience very enjoyable. The movie-length first episode which functions as the prologue and setup was already incredible and it has continued since in a really good manner, mixing mystery, romance and criticism in good measure. I won’t talk in specifics though to avoid spoilers.
For this season, the first half of the story was mostly occupied with one of our main characters being cast in a high production stage play adapting a popular shonen battle manga, which explores how the adaptation process functions, what problems can arise from that, as well as the struggles of various actors in how they approach their roles and their craft in general. Unfortunately this has not been popular with wider audiences who believe that these sections take away from the mystery aspect of the show. I on the other hand believe that both the mystery and the exploration of the japanese entertainment industry are pillars of the work itself, and quite liked this arc.
We can however definitely also smell the author grinding a bit of an axe in this segment as well, since some of the above retreads an issue already touched on in season 1. Maybe a bit self-indulgently they also explore the struggles of writing serialized manga with the author of the original work showing up during the adaptation process.
The mystery fans do get what they crave for in the final four episodes of the show though, with major plot developments for the central narrative as our secondary main character becomes the focus of the show.
The show has been great so far and I highly recommend it. They also already announced a third season. Unfortunately from what I hear from the readers of the manga, there is a decline in the quality of the narrative in the near future.
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Just in time for the 2nd season of the anime adaptation, I finished the first season of The Apothecary Diaries (薬屋のひとりごと - Kusuriya no Hitorigoto). This is a show I heard high praise of but I allowed to pass me by, but this winter holiday I wanted to watch something good and this was on the back of my mind.
The story is set in a country similar to Imperial China around 900-1000 CE or so. A peasant girl named Maomao is learning how to make medicine from her adoptive father, primarily at a brothel where she grew up. One day she is abducted by slavers and sold to the imperial palace. Initially she attempts to lie low while working as a servant for the concubines of the Emperor, but her knowledge and cleverness is discovered when she realizes that the babies of the concubines are accidentally poisoned by the makeup of their mothers and she covertly tries to warn them. This leads to her becoming a lady-in-waiting for one of the concubines and tester for poisons, as Maomao has been experimenting on herself with poison for years now. From there she encounters various mysteries, often asked about them by the head eunuch Jinshi.
This series was excellent and well produced with fun mysteries both for the episode-to-episode content as well as the overarching plot of the show that deals with Maomao’s upbringing and heritage and Jinshi’s strange place in the imperial court that hints at him being more than he appears. The machinations and politics of the imperial court that Maomao has to be careful to navigate also provide for an interesting backdrop, which also allows the show to fall far short of pitfalls other mystery shows get bogged down in, namely having to conjure up a murder every week, which wouldn’t befit such a seemingly tranquil environment. However, I do wish that sometimes it would allow to marinate the mysteries that are present a bit longer.
Star of the show is of course Maomao herself who has some delightful mannerisms without it feeling tropey, and is often a bit frumpy looking but has a fun and sometimes mischievous personality.
Maybe it is me pulling a “I’ve only seen Boss Baby, so every other movie reminds me of Boss Baby” thing here, but considering this is definitely a work primarily targeted at women, I was reminded of other shows that fall into that category. Particularly the series that I was constantly thinking of was Ascendance of a Bookworm as both series have a female protagonist with greater scientific knowledge than they appear. I would say I liked Apothecary Diaries better though, perhaps because it isn’t hampered by a having to rely on crutch that is the isekai and fantasy world setup. Another show I was reminded of is Ouran High School Host Club due to Maomao cleaning up rather nicely which the show regularly indulges in, but I guess “wallflower is a secret beauty through the power of makeup” is quite a common trope in these sorts of shows.
The only negatives I can say is that due to half the setting being a red-light district, the courtesans are dressed rather provocatively which I guess helps marketing but also seems a bit gratuitous at times, but the show is far from the territory of ecchi. There are also untoward things occurring in the show such as poisoning, sexual diseases, and death of infants. And of course there is the matter of women being treated as disposable tools for men, both as baby makers in the court and as courtesans in the brothel. These topics are handled delicately enough but I was slightly taken by surprise (though not offended) with the subject matter.
Nevertheless I would highly recommend the show. It currently sits within the top 25 at MyAnimeList and it rather deserves it. Hopefully the second season will continue with the high quality the first season left off.
Also: Dear Anime Industry, if this is what Joshi light novels are generally like, give me more of that rather that “Edgy Isekai power fantasy #5726”.
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Started watching this show with my partner last week, but for fun we decided to watch it in tandom with Raven of the Inner Palace (後宮の烏, Kōkyū no Karasu) becasue the setup for both shows was so simmilar.
I’m a little surprised to hear that the Apothecary Diaries setting moves to the red light district in future episodeds. Was just commenting that it seemed like Raven of the Inner Palace sexualizes it’s charachters a bit more while that stuff is pushed further into the background and almosst cassually dismissed by the main charachter in Apothecary.
Really enjoying both shows.
I caught a nasty cold and was sick at home this past week, so I decided to finally give Re:Zero a try. I knew some basics about the show going in through sheer osmosis, i.e. that it was a fairly typical Isekai with a cheat skill by the main character being Groundhog-Day-d when they die. I also knew that it is one of the most popular shows out there, but that doesn’t always vouch for quality, particularly in Isekai. Thankfully the show turned out to be a whole lot better than I anticipated.
But first the very basics. The story is about Natsuki Subaru, a japanese NEET teenager who one night after stepping out of a convenience store is inexplicably transported to a fantasy world of medieval knights and demi-humans. His genre-savvy delusions of being suddenly powerful or able to use magic are quickly dispelled. By chance he runs into Emilia, a girl who is trying to retrieve a stolen item and he decides to repay her kindness after helping him avoid a group of street thugs by helping her with this. Eventually they wind up at a black market dealer, where they are ambushed by an unknown assailant. Subaru dies after being disemboweled only to regain consciousness standing in front of the same fruit vendor he was talking to before meeting Emilia.
Eventually Subaru realizes the situation he is in and manages to overcome the scenario present after multiple lethal failures and finds that Emilia, whom he has fallen for, is a candidate to become the next ruler of the country he is in. Despite his lack of skills or strength, he attempts to help her in that quest, which eventually moves his “save point” forward only to encounter another difficult and dangerous situation.
So far the initial setup, but what nobody told me is that the show is also a horror anime. Much has been written about how the Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day is actually a horror film, with a character being forced to relive the same scenario over and over again without any reprieve. Re:Zero makes this more explicit as Subaru does not only have to experience his own gruesome and painful deaths, but also witness those of characters he comes to know and love across the story, coupled with his inability to explain his circumstances without suffering consequences for it, and thus being trapped in a situation where nobody truly understands him. Subaru experiences psychological trauma the likes are hard to compare which also leaves marks upon his character and changing his relationship with those around him.
These deaths being unpleasant, coupled with the uncertainty how Subaru’s ability functions and how often it could be used, also saves the show from becoming “gamey”, as brute-forcing a situation until a desirable outcome is reached is simply not an option. Subaru has to engage each iteration as is, and attempt a different approach than the one that failed before. Other trappings of an isekai world being actually a game, either explicitly or implicitly, by showing for example a stats screen are also avoided, making the show more immersive. There narrative also has been well structured so far, providing for some intrigue as Subaru has to navigate a scenario while discovering important information and acquiring skills bit-by-bit, which also keeps the viewer engaged by having to guess along about the hows, whats and whys. This also prevents the story from becoming another senseless power fantasy.
The series also deserves a lot of praise for the technical aspects. The animation quality, particularly in action scenes, is very good while the emotional moments are also well rendered allowing the characters full expression. The voice cast is also fantastic and giving stunning performances, particularly Kobayashi Yuusuke as Subaru, Takahashi Rie as Emilia and Minase Inori as Rem (as servant girl introduced later in the story).
The only negative I can really say is that two of the three major arcs covered in the first season seemed like they added an unnecessary story beat after resolving crux of the scenario. However, both make sense and one of them turned out to be a rather important cornerstone on the relationship between two characters. I couldn’t help but feel that they were superfluous in the moment though. There are also some other tropey things that I am personally not a fan of, but those hardly dent the quality of the show.
I have so far only made it through the first season of the show, but I am very excited to start with the next one. A third season as well as some movies are also available, with the second part of the third season slated to air later this year.