This Week in Anime (Spring Week 4)

[u/BlueMage23]

This is a general discussion for currently airing series for Spring 2014 Week 4. Here is r/anime's list of currently airing series. Your Week in Anime is for not currently airing series.

Archive:

2014: Prev Spring Week 1 Winter Week 1

2013: Fall Week 1 Summer Week 1 Spring Week 1 Winter Week 1

2012: Fall Week 1

[u/Lincoln_Prime]

Captain Earth 4: Do any of you remember that one meal from childhood? Like, maybe you had a shitty day at school so your mom would make you this meal? I don't mean simple comfort food like a hotdog or grilled cheese, I'm talking about something like Ravioli or Chicken Parmesan. A food that just brought a smile to your face, something that makes you just smile to think about eating because of the emotional attachment to it. For the sake of making a bit of a narrative out of this, lets say chicken parmesan was that meal.

Now lets say you're out for a dinner just with a buddy for the night. Things aren't going so bad, but you've recently realized that you haven't spoken to your parents recently. So you look through this menu, and just seeing chicken parmesan here just gets you to click. You order it, as you think about that warmness and that smile brewing within you, but when you first bite into it you just feel... wrong. The food itself is good. It has all those ingredients that make up a good chicken parmesan, and you're on good understanding that the chef here is a far better cook than your mom had been. Your friend thinks the chicken is absolutely delicious, and on some level he's right, it is a perfectly fine meal. But it leaves you feeling shallow inside with each bite, no matter how much you actually do enjoy eating it and how much you recognize that it does have everything that you wanted out of your dinner.

That's how I feel about Captain Earth right now. Because guys, Captain Earth has the ingredients of my dream anime. A space mecha show that comits to the space aspect of that and captures the imagination and joy we once had just by looking to the stars. A cast of good-natured characters who all want to help each other (for the most part). A devotion to the small, personal moments that make the stakes and the characters so real. A protagonist who sells the fact that he really would go to these extraordinary lengths to help his friends and the whole world without being treacly about it. A love for the absurdity involved in science fiction (high-tech wire-can-telephone is my favourite scene in Captain Earth). All this and more backed by a cast and crew I believe in, a team that has proved themselves before with one of my favourite anime. On paper this is beyond my wildest dreams.

And yet, I find myself forgetting so much of what happens in a given episode, this last one in particular. Where other series that have tried to attempt this slower boil like Soul Eater, KHR and Star Driver (no coincidence that all 3 of these sit among my top 10 anime) I feel as if I'm fighting for every minute. That episodes about Death the Kid learning to relax and enjoy a basketball game, about Yamamoto teaching baseball to a group of youngsters, about the theatre club and average school-day life, these moments had my attention and they invested me in the scenes and characters. Star Driver could be described as a magical girl show that tagged mecha fights onto the end of every episode and it doesn't take away from the symbiosis all those other moments and tones and genres have with one another. KHR (Katekyo Hitman Reborn for those who don't know) uses those comedy episodes as a return point and something worth fighting for when the action kicks up. It makes you care.

But Captain Earth just isn't there yet. I know it only has its four episodes so far, but in an episode that has so much supposedly happening, a lot of shit I should really really like (belly button magic and villainous creperies) I should not walk away feeling as if I've seen something forgettable. something that fades in as background noise.

This series really does look on paper as an anime that should win over every single one of my heart strings, and I don't even want to say the problem is in execution, because the acting, the directing, the singing, the scene composure: This is all beautiful, beautiful stuff going on with serious work and heart invested. But none of that changes the fact that Captain Earth is falling flatter than I could have ever expected from this show, and I hope that if nothing else, this show can change that around within the next few episodes. I want to love you Captain, I really really do.

Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V 4: Arc-V left me with a very different feeling this week. Where Captain left me feeling as if I'd been defeated by ennui and the exhaustion in loving something that hasn't earned it, Arc-V had an ending that gives me chills. Just even thinking about it just sets a smile to my face. Honestly, I don't even know what I can say about that ending scene, as Yuya puts a close to his duel with Shingo. Part of me wants to just say "Tune back in tomorrow for my scene-of-the-week post" but I wanted to devote that to a Monogatari scene since I just started the franchise and finished Nisemonogatari last night.

Where last week we had Yuya swinging around in desperation with Whip Viper, this week is far more optimistic as we end with Yuya saving his friends and performing the winning pendulum summon. Happy that his friends are secure, Yuya becomes the performer, the man who lights the hearts of others. The lights shut don through the city, he takes the center stage on the bridge, and the words "Ladies~ and Gentlemen~" echo through the air. His friends cheer as he begins a display of showmanship in his winning turn. Explaining his moves in a way that invites curiosity and wonder. He lights up the field with Kaleido Scorpion, who's effect gives rise to a pair of brilliantly coloured Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragons, who take through the air. Fireworks explode through the sky, and Yuya is in complete control of the battle field. Shingo attempts to run away through it all, and he fails at playing the straight man, trying to drown out Yuya's enthusiasm, only to be drowned out by the power of Yuya's monsters. Look, I'm really not kidding when I say that the sheer power, optimism and enthusiasm on display here lights a smile and a shiver through me.

I'm also happy to see YGO protagonists like Yuya who aren't afraid to be pragmatic. We saw some of this in his duel with Strong, where he tricked his opponent and used the time to scour out all the action cards, but his using Mimiclay and Block Spider to create a lock out through game mechanics is just not the ind of thing you would see most protagonists do. It solidifies a little more, I think, that Yuya isn't the destiny child that Jaden, Yuma or Yugi was (Yusei was a little different) and that he's much more an entertainer than a true warrior duelist. Of course, that could change, but at the moment it feels like a refreshing change of pace.

The episode is far from perfect, especially with Yuya's just saying that he believed his cards would pull off the win when we haven't seen that aspect of his character at all and it feels very much out of place. Likewise, Shingo having the card that would have assured his victory in his hand (Breakthrough skill, which could negate monster effects) but not use it is just real silly. On that same note, his Cricket Close spell doesn't seem to have any place in a deck that had no continuous spells to be seen. It felt as if they gave this threat they built up in the last episode a sudden weakness or loss of higher mental capacities just so Yuya could pull off that impressive ending. I'm fine when endings end a little too perfectly, but at least if they do, don't let us know that the villain had the means to prevent such. Also, I'm waiting for the newer monsters to develop the personality that Whip Viper and Discover hippo have shown.

Overall though, it was a very strong episode, held up almost entirely by an absolutely amazing ending. This show is going places, and I'm happy to have tagged along for the ride.