The Walking Dead- I’ve made my like-hate relationship with The Walking Dead well known in the past. Long stretches of quality episodes always find a way to be completely undermined by one or two really bad ones. The first half of season four made this abundantly clear. A new executive producer subtracted some of the B-movie zombie flick and added more of character-driven narrative, akin to the Telltale game. Even the Governor manages to draw interest, but that soon dies within the final two episodes.
The second half does no favors early. Contradicting “lore” when Michonne uses her dismembered walkers as cover and inane contrivances which see the return of one particular character out of the blue. In typical TWD fashion, it manages to turn-around before too long.
I’ve always said Darryl has the potential to be the best character. He’s the one person who’s actually been made better by the outbreak. Rick and the crew are always trying to keep their humanity while Darryl tires to gain his. Having Beth bring him back from the brink, being around the real morally abhorrent; it displays a side of him the previous three and half seasons gloss over. It’s not just Darryl either, the entire cast is made better by a much more reserved approach. Divided, and facing more personal issues rather than “oh no, bad guys are going to attack our home,” the true weight of an apocalypse sets in.
But guess what. The finale, forgot to be a finale. You could argue the main plot is the group getting back together, but regrouping in a cannibal settlement isn’t exactly a resolution. People are going to die, that’s a given but what we’re left with is a tease. The plot has yet to hit its climax, which is why the finale would have made for a great penultimate for the season.There’s a whole lot of build-up to an obvious twist, and a fade to black.
Somehow, someway every time I say I’ve almost given up on the show it jumps right back. While never great it manages to keep being incredibly accessible with streaks of “this is almost as good as the game.”
Kill la Kill- I often advocate anime to those unfamiliar with the form. I would love to see a day where my social media is obliterated by anime talk, just like it so often is by Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead. Kill la Kill is the last place someone with reservations about the medium should dive in. I wasn’t sure of it myself when I started. The level of nudity and lewdness is hefty enough to make the biggest of otaku feel uncomfortable. Give it a few episode and you’ll realize this is far from the truth. Kill la Kill is unabashedly parodies and satires so much about otaku entertainment but in a fun, non-combative way. The plot is centered around the use of school uniforms to empower student-soldiers in a dystopian Japan, ruled by academies. The resistance force; these guys. Best of all, the lack of clothing isn’t specifically focused on one sex. Kill la Kill goes both ways, and does a good job in making sure it’s not just pandering to a male audience.
Despite the sexulization, Ryuko proves to be a better female character than a sizable portion of her counterparts across all entertainment. Which makes me both happy and disappointed. On one hand I love that even with what many claim to be fanservice, Kill la Kill has many likable faces. On the other hand, Trigger didn’t have some profound artistic vision set to revolutionize storytelling. It’s an excessive animation with half-naked people kicking the shit out of each other because reasons.
From the masochistic gorilla sized Gamagori to the ironically nasal-voiced bandleader Nonon are likable in their own outrageous way. I love Ryuko for her loudmouth rebel, “I’m gonna smash your teeth out your ass” attitude but how she interacts with the others is just as important. It’s like watching a classic cartoon or video games characters with single-minded but highly stylized natures obliterate the living hell out of anything and everything. It’s simple and by no means intellectual prodding, but the target is hit.
With such buffoonery comes issues. The early pacing struggles due to some pointless episodes, and until the plot take a turn around episode 12, this continues. The other key weakness is how bipolar it can be. One minute Ryuko is nearly brought to tears and the next the zany Mako is being her usual loon-bag self. I personally found it charming, but certainly understand why others have criticized.
Kill la Kill isn’t the best anime of the past year, and it isn’t even the best of the more nonsensical stuff. It is however a testament to how diverse the medium can be when it wants to. Something sorely lacking in the west.
Plus, Hiroyuki Sawano- the composer for Attack on Titan- puts in some incredible work once again alongside some other talented artist. Case and point one of the best songs I’ve ever heard from an anime.
Space Dandy- I’ve said it on numerous occasions before, but if Shinichiro Watanabe is involved with an anime in anyway, I’m going to watch it. Besides sharing the director spotlight, Space Dandy is easily the outlier in his body of more serious-natured work. A parody of classic sci-fi along with a menagerie of all other sorts of goofiness, Dandy may be significantly more comedic, but the Watanabe touch is clear. The animation is gorgeous, the soundtrack catchy, and it takes influence from a number of sources but remains unique.
Admittedly it took some time to get comfortable. The first few episodes don’t make the purpose of plot abundantly clear. Sure enough, the humor really hits it stride and hints of an actual story are dropped. It’s utter nonsense, but of the good sort. Dandy frequents an outer space Hooters-esque restaurant known as “Boobies.” It’s not high-brow humor by any means, but it doesn’t have to be when you’ve got a pompadour-touting protagonist who kicks it with a space cat and an awkward robot.
In the mere 13 episodes that is the first season, no big twists to the formula are revealed, but it seems a likely route for the second season coming this summer. While not Watanabe’s best work, there are no glaring flaws to speak of and I’ll be tuning in this summer for sure.
Golden Time- For all intents and purposes, Golden Time should have fallen flat on its unimaginative face. Set at a Tokyo college, a boy is starting to get a new handle on life after an amnesia causing event. There he meets some prototypical anime characters who just barely have an edge of individuality about them. It’s a rom-com which moves away from the high-school setting in appearance, but not in spirit. Yet still I rather enjoy it because Golden Time embraces its nature while managing to avoid too many predictable plots or missteps.
The theme which courses through the veins is self-identity. What truly makes a person? Is it the moments which has led up to their current self, or where they’re attempting to reach? Banri, our protagonist, consistently struggles with this idea as his memories of his past self slowly seep forward, much to the detriment of his current life. As someone currently in college, I perfectly understand the sentiment. I want to move forward, but to do so I have to deal with the effects of my past and continue to grow.
Of course I don’t have an apparition holding me back. Yeah, not the most graceful introduction, but old Banri’s ghost acts more as a visible conscious to no one but the audience. This does however change to some degree later on, but that verges on spoiler territory. It’s forced and the creators should have dropped the idea but were probably encouraged to remain faithful to the light novels. Which is a shame because it’s the one glaring flaw which becomes blindingly stupid at times.
There’s a fair few tropes, such as 2D-Kun and a childhood friend who just so happens to be a cute girl, but for the most part, the singular complexity holds it all together well enough to warrant a viewing.
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