Seasonals of the Abyss
* Spring 2025 *
Many moons ago, I wrote the first 'Seasonals of the Abyss' post in a lone Rentry link that still to this day floats in a series of tubes somewhere out in the digital cosmos. At the time I was coming to terms with a dilemma that had long plagued me - I'd been watching anime on a seasonal basis for years and a majority of the shows I'd seen completely slipped in and out of my blood brain barrier with little to no friction before morphing into a tiny footnote on my completed anime list. A younger me with more vigor and hunger for the medium would take on dozens of anime in a
given season, sampling the vaguely different flavors of oatmeal and grits before savoring whatever three course meal of worth was airing that season. A food analogy - naturally - because media is a game of "consumption" in our modern world and we are often quick to increase the number of notches in our belt to prove we are no longer tourists but experts that grant our opinions the heft that would befit a stone you could cast at someone's head when they call your favorite show a word with the attached suffix, "-slop".
All those words wasted on flowery platitudes only to say, simply - I spent a lot of time mindlessly staring at anime without committing much of it to memory. Getting in the cycle of seasonal anime viewing can make a person treat an art form like an event they passively engage with instead of a passion with its own unique appeals and insights. Not to say that all anime has such lofty ambitions, but the importance of how you approach a creative medium didn't really dawn on me until I became a proper adult. You can say certain industry trends helped - stuffing seasons with a few dozen productions and half of them are shit that stinks to the effect of, "Being a Professional AI Prompter in Another World" has an impact on a guy like me - but ultimately my time has grown in value and can no longer be lent carelessly to viewing anime that have no clear point of appeal to my old soul.
Don't get the wrong idea, though - I don't get a big head about this topic. I love television shows about cute anime girls doing nothing with vague theming sprinkled on top. I'm not coy about my personal tastes at all. The beauty in learning to love a highly versatile art form like anime is coming to terms with which aspects appeal to you the most, and to know that is to also be mindful of what doesn't interest you at all. I have a lot more to say about a bad show that gripped me conceptually than even something I could call 'good' despite not having any vested interest in what it trying to accomplish. That's just the nature of having a niche in your soul that begs for nourishment.
And that's how I got here. 'Seasonals of the Abyss' is a series where I yap for a few paragraphs and then talk about the anime I'm watching in the current season. Thanks for reading.
Lazarus
Produced by MAPPA
Shinichiro Watanabe's first solo directorial work since 2014's Zankyou no Terror (Terror in Resonance) has him going back to basics - sort of. This is his most firm return to the episodic ensemble structure since Samurai Champloo and the marketing won't let you forget it. The pop art aesthetic that screams of a non-existent Cowboy Bebop sequel, Kamasi Washington's jazzy score (with assists from Bonobo and Floating Points), a futuristic setting with deliberate anachronisms, plenty of tightly choreographed action scenes and cast banter from beat to beat; you get the point. From the very first preview, this seemed like the kind of show Watanabe had left behind after he returned to adapt Sakamichi no Aporon (Kids on the Slope) back in 2012. Space Dandy sealed the deal just a couple years later by taking on the role of being his 'final' homage to this style of work before lending the rest of it to be an animation team showcase not unlike FLCL but on a larger scale with less ambition involved.
I wanted to give Watanabe the benefit of the doubt despite my grievances with his last major project, 2019's Carole & Tuesday. After all, that was a highly collaborative project between him, animation studio Bones, and Japanese record label FlyingDog. He wasn't even the sole director nor writer on the project. It undoubtedly had his musical DNA infused into every corner of the final product, and most of the social commentary presented was in his distinct voice, but there were far more variables in that production than his usual work. It doesn't help that Bones' recent track record with originals, particularly of the sci-fi bent like the baffling Metallic Rouge, is practically through the floor at this point where the overall quality of the work is concerned.
Lazarus leaves Watanabe no out to take. He created, wrote, and directed this entire project at studio MAPPA with a dedicated animation team and a Hollywood action choreographer - Chad Stahelski of John Wick fame. This is his baby and he slapped his name on the lead billing just to make sure you can't get it twisted. In the middle of a decade that feels like it has only just started - when the hardest questions of our time are still desperately seeking answers - what does Shinichiro Watanabe want to say with a futuristic sci-fi thriller that silently, yet so loudly, proclaims itself as Cowboy Bebop for the new age? Surely it's not to claim of a legacy of being called "Wokesoy Bebop" by angry culture war pundits online, right?
The first observation I had about this new Watanabe joyride is that it doesn't resemble Cowboy Bebop at all. Any comparisons between the two short of Watanabe's direct involvement are surface level at best - Kamasi Washington's jazz instrumentals are distinctly different than the jazz funk accompaniments from Yoko Kanno's band that dotted throughout Bebop's DNA. The action sequences are far more bombastic - if you've seen any John Wick film then you should know exactly what you're getting out of this. The core aesthetic of both works stem from similar sources but have completely different outcomes in regards to tone and narrative voice. Only the opening sequence has obvious aesthetic ties to 'Tank!', but you could make the same argument about Champloo's opening from two decades ago.
But let's get down to brass tacks - is this shit any good? I'd love to give a comparatively simple answer but unfortunately my feelings on this one are mired in conflict. Watanabe has taken the concept of the opioid crisis and transformed it into a classic sci-fi parable about the price of accepting a miracle cure. Then he's using that as a springboard to address modern social issues, which isn't inherently a bad thing, but it lends itself to one of his greatest writing pitfalls - scope creep. He's had this problem in stories that had more than twenty episodes to make their case, but this time he only has a meager thirteen to pull it off. Six of those episodes have now aired and only a single one of them has managed to succeed at being great.
Deniz Skinner is a neuroscientist who essentially has the same ethos as Jigsaw from the SAW films. It's hard to assume anything else because the guy's entire presence in the show so far has been the equivalent of the Gerald Robotnik doomsday speech from Sonic Adventure 2. He gave the world the miracle drug Hapna that cured all illness, sickness, and disease then vanished for three years. Turns out it's a time bomb that will mutate into a deadly poison to eradicate all of humanity unless someone can find him to retrieve the cure. That "someone" is the 'Lazarus' team that consists of our main protagonists and their handler. If they don't find Skinner within thirty days, then everyone is doomed.
I went into this thinking the Lazarus crew would be something of a suicide squad with a group of morally compromised individuals who are getting the chance to use their respective trades for good, so I was surprised to see Watanabe very quickly correct the record in the first episode. Axel is a fearless Brazilian parkour enthusiast who only went to jail for a misdemeanor and increased his sentence after becoming obsessed with successfully executing a prison break. Chris is a Russian gun enthusiast who acts as the hardass 'onee-san' of the group but very little has been revealed of her actual character. Doug is literally Jin from Samurai Champloo if he was black and lived in a time where swords were traded for guns, but I'd argue he has the strongest presence out of the whole cast. Leland likes piloting drones and Eleina is a world-famous female hacker who escaped a cult of AI worshipers, but neither of them have added much to the cast dynamic beyond those traits.
A light justification to pull five different character types together (six if you count their handler, the stoic U.S. intelligence contact Hersch) isn't the end of the world, but disregarding that doesn't eliminate the bigger problem. I barely even know who these characters are. What are their drives and motivations? Each of them had some kind of run-in with the law that stems from hard times - we already know Axel grew up in poverty and Doug experienced systematic racism in university - but the characters themselves have barely provided any insight on the more subtle aspects of their own personalities and viewpoints. I'd like to have faith in this being expanded upon, but the lack of episodic real estate left on this track leaves me skeptical.
Lazarus is strangled by Watanabe's obsession with John Wick. There's no getting around it. The structure of the plot lends itself to the same element of constant motion - there's no time to stop and think when Skinner's doomsday plot is on a short timer. Every episode starts with a new operation that generally serves as a convenient excuse to string together a set of Chad Stahelski choreographed action scenes and then ends with a single clue leading into the next episode. Don't get me wrong, the choreography and the animation of the action scenes is an impressive hybrid and I do think there was something to be gained from this collaboration - but at what cost? It gives me the impression of an action movie trying to wear bigger pants than it has any right to.
The only episode that has proven the worth of this stylistic enhancement goes to episode 4, "Don't Stop the Dance". A cool, stylish mission at a high end club propped up by some great house techno chops from Floating Points? I almost thought it was too good to be true until I saw it. With the different characters paired off into groups, there was far more time dedicated to fleshing out their individual personalities and chemistry as the scenes bounce between each team. So much of this show has been shallowly dramatic, so to see the charm and whimsy that colored Watanabe's more beloved works return for just a brief moment had me believing that this could be the sole thing that saves this entire project from cratering into the earth. It even ended with the most extravagant action sequence of the series so far and it felt earned!
That optimism was short-lived because the following episode, aptly titled "Pretty Vacant", was easily the worst one yet. A total stink bomb of embarrassing proportions where way too much time is spent on recreating the elevator fight sequence from Captain America: The Winter Soldier but with Axel and an understaffed security team for a huge pharmaceutical company. The setup and payoff sucked in equal measure with almost nothing of worth being gained from this episode in any regard whether it be plot-wise, character-wise, or otherwise. Instead we got a new annoying hacker villain character who will almost definitely be returning in a later episode. Just what I needed! Another character I won't give a shit about!
I don't want to drag this anime through the mud too hard, but I can't help but feel frustrated that Watanabe seems to have learned nothing since Carole & Tuesday. He wants to write an action movie but he can't do it without some shallow social commentary twist that will end up on the back burner by the final episode anyways. He's too scattershot about his approach to these topics and everything suffers as a result. What is the unifying message of Lazarus? Will I even know after it's over? He's going after the obvious injustices of our modern world - racism, transphobia, etc. - but where is their place in the thematic framing of this series? It's cool that Axel has a trans friend and he respects her pronouns and all that, but what purpose does that serve toward reinforcing the narrative? And you know the chances of this friend ever showing up again are slim to none. Come on, Skip and Loafer already did this effectively years ago and that character is part of the main cast!
There's too much messaging and not enough focus. The themes of drug abuse and numbing pain instead of addressing its source is obvious but has no further discussion of note through what the show is presenting. There isn't any room for it. If Watanabe wants to make a stylish anime with John Wick style action and momentum, that's fine, but you can't just stick your soapbox in the middle of the shootout and start preaching. You need to earn that right, and this show has tried to take every shortcut in the book with less than stellar results. It's drab when it needs to be colorful, boring when it needs to be exciting, and has nothing to add to the discussion it's trying to take part in.
It's an eye-catching show with a lot of spectacle and a fantastic soundtrack, but it's lacking in substance while trying to present otherwise. You can't make a deep end in a shallow pool by pouring more water into it. Maybe he'll find a way to pull all the disjointed elements together by the end and surprise me, but I'm not holding my breath. In the same way the Lazarus crew are running out of time, Watanabe too is running out of episodes to prove this vision to be greater than a single episode fluke. I've certainly seen much worse, but the disappointment is greater when it's coming from someone whose work I do have respect for. Even Carole & Tuesday managed to have something to say even as it was speeding to the finish line. When will Lazarus gain the courage to speak clearly?
Apocalypse Hotel
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| Produced by CygamesPictures |
Cygames is a studio that is best known for their mobile game output, particularly Uma Musume, but they've been around the block in the anime scene for roughly a decade now. Their name is on quite a handful of productions, and a good few of them have been out-of-left-field original works like MAPPA's Zombieland Saga and Akiba Maid Sensou (Akiba Maid War) at P.A. Works; shows that firmly planted their feet into niche taste zones that I didn't know I wanted until I saw them. They also have their own anime production studio under CygamesPictures where they've produced many adaptations of their own games, but they also pledged to be a force toward producing more original anime works. They've been making good on that promise recently with 2024's Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern (Brave Bang Bravern!) and now with the currently airing Apocalypse Hotel.
The premise of this show comes off to me as a twist on Pixar Animation's WALL-E but with a distinctly Japanese spin on things. Humans are driven off the planet not by their own uncontrollable waste and pollution but by an aerial contagion that is only poisonous to primate based species. This leaves most of the animal kingdom and nature in tact as humanity departs with a promise to return one day. A century later, all the cities deprived of civilization have been consumed by overgrowth barring a single building - the Gingarou Hotel in Ginza. Formerly run by an eccentric businessman, most of the staff is comprised of androids who stayed behind to maintain the facilities as they patiently wait for humanity's return. With only a few left to tend to the hotel's needs after a hundred years of struggle, the responsibility of running the joint has fallen on the plucky and inexperienced Yachiyo.
Original anime productions of this caliber typically demand a certain level of faith from the viewer in their earliest episodes. Apocalypse Hotel plays itself a bit coy at first, toeing the line between having any real plot to speak of and being a sort of demented slice-of-life black comedy. Yachiyo seems reliable and stalwart at first, but despite her robotic frame, she's highly prone to very human-like mood swings and defeatism when things don't go her way. Almost none of the surviving robots other than her speak human language barring the overheated Doorman Robot and the womanizing Environment Checker Robot who was left behind to clear the planet of pollutants so humans could reclaim the earth.
The opening and ending sequences clearly outline an expansion to the cast, which leads firmly into the current hook of the show - just when Yachiyo thinks her long wait has paid off with the arrival of the first hotel patron in over a century, it turns out to be the alternative she wasn't considering: extraterrestrial life. After accepting and serving the first alien in Gingarou's history, its name gets passed across the cosmos and starts attracting all sorts of non-human lifeforms. This leads to the arrival of the Tanukians; aliens who look and act exactly like their name suggests. They're just Japanese tanuki yokai if they were from outer space with the same legendary ability to mimic human appearance and speech. After being whipped into shape by a frustrated Yachiyo, the tanuki-led Procione family become long term residents who support the hotel, particularly the spunky Ponko who serves as Yachiyo's right hand and bridge of communication between the hotel staff and the other aliens.
While I do think the show stumbled a bit in its early moments when the writers were relying too hard on beating their only few gags to death, Apocalypse Hotel quickly found its footing and every new episode manages to hone the core strengths of this series with a new level of sharpness. One minor plot point in an early episode has Yachiyo having an admittedly cute robo-meltdown about a showering hat going missing from one of the rooms, but by episode four we're getting crazier setups like Yachiyo and Ponko taking down a planet killing sandworm with a crane and going on a worldwide expedition to create the ultimate hotel whiskey. This world is now a mad playground for extraterrestrial events where anything can happen - as long as it isn't the actual return of humanity.
This anime is so cheeky about the concept of humanity's fate that I can't discern whether there's a real mystery or not. In a world where fifteen years can be gone in the blink of a single episode, it seems more likely than humans didn't fare so well in space. Even if the remains of humanity do manage to claw their way back, the aliens will probably beat them to colonizing the planet! It would be deeply ironic if the Gingarou Hotel - which was created to serve humans - became the beacon for extraterrestrial life to hijack the globe. There's no telling where this story is going to wind up at the end of the tracks, but a fate like that wouldn't surprise me at this point.
In my experience, many original anime that have a clear mystery to unpack save the heavy hitting plot episodes for the second half of the run. In a one cour stretch, I usually refer to this as the "Episode Seven Effect". The seventh episode is the first one of the second half and it generally ends up being where an original series puts all its cards on the table if it hasn't already done so. Halving a narrative is a fairly straightforward concept when we've had two act plays for centuries, but this second half revelation can really tuck an interesting concept straight into its deathbed. That being said, I don't see Apocalypse Hotel having this problem! I mean, the worst thing it could do is become boring, but I don't get the impression that the minds behind this show want to stop all the fun.
Yachiyo is all the reflection of humanity the show really needs, and the distinctly Frieren-like flashbacks of the lessons and dreams imparted by her long departed master are intended to color her unpredictable present rather than constrain her to the past. Even the aliens in this universe have shades of humanity to them, quickly blurring the distinction between the two. In that sense, the androids of the hotel and the alien visitors are not so different. They're both a shadow of what once populated the abandoned planet, and the show seems to revel in that gleefully. Even if it's not exactly what she wanted, Yachiyo is happier to serve a hotel that has guests rather than none at all.
I won't be complaining if they want to ride this as a quirky slice of life comedy with robots and aliens all the way to the finish line. There's something to be said about most episodes ending with Yachiyo unlocking a new "power" by achieving special goals in the hotel, and there's no telling how the Earth is going to transform as more lifeforms discover the planet, but those elements don't necessarily mean this is building up to anything massive. Despite the "apocalypse" in the name, this series is brimming with color and whimsy and conducts itself in a manner that has me reminiscing fondly of anime with similar qualities like Kyousougiga. I'm content to take the trip it's offering me, and I'll worry about where it's taking me when I get there.
Gundam GQuuuuuuX
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| Produced by Sunrise / Studio Khara |
I should preface this by saying that I know very little of substance about Gundam as a series. I have fragmented images of characters, concepts, gunpla designs, etc. but it wasn't until very recently that I actually watched a full run of a TV series with The Witch from Mercury a few years back. I'd hesitate to even call myself a 'new fan' with how little I've sunk my teeth into the skin of this massive franchise, but here I am watching the newest Gundam joint anyways. This rode in on a hype cycle in the form of Neon Genesis Evangelion flagship Studio Khara with Anno himself assisting on the script, FLCL creator Kazuya Tsurumaki in the director's chair, and character designs from Take who has reached widespread recognition from her recent work on the Pokemon series.
Well, I have seen Evangelion and its associated films enough times to understand what I'm getting on that front. Everything else I've simply gleaned on my own and from the local experts. GQuuuuuuX (pronounced like gee-kwucks) is something of an alternate history take for the series that is both a divergence and a tribute to the original era of Gundam that began right on the cusp of the 1980s. I don't really know Char Aznable, but I do know him in the same vein that you know a guy from seeing his statue in a museum. In the original series he loses the war, but in this timeline he wins - at a price.
Char lives on more in legend than in the flesh, and the space society that persisted in the aftermath of his victory is one that reflects the pain and loss that shaped it, even when some colonies never had to witness the war firsthand. In the relatively peaceful Side 6 colony, our protagonist Machu goes from being an aloof high school student with an unfulfilling life to being flung full force into the events surrounding the mysterious return of Char's Red Gundam and its new pilot - the mysterious Shuji. Crossing paths with a war refugee turned smuggler named Nyaan, the trio becomes embroiled in an underground fighting ring after Machu gets a hold of the titular GQuuuuuuX. This entry taps heavily into the classic Gundam concept of 'Newtypes' and this time around they have the ability to control their mobile suits though sheer cosmic vibes known as 'Kira-Kira'.
Speaking of vibes - it feels like most of the battles in this show are decided entirely on such a concept. They're a little less straightforward than the flashier fights that were often present in Witch from Mercury and they involve a lot more commentary. Machu is also still in the learning phase and generally gets knocked around as Shuji covers her flank until she pulls it together for the win right at the end with the harmonic power of the 'Kira-Kira'. It gives me the impression that the fights are more mental than anything else, but I suppose that's pretty much home turf for the Evangelion studio.
I'm curious what this is all building up to, but there seems to be an obvious struggle incoming between our two female leads and Shuji. He's becoming something of an object of obsession between the two and yet they seem to be neglecting his well-being considering he's always hungry and has been sick for most of the show. There's something symbolic to be gleaned from this oncoming toxicity but it remains to be seen how that's going to shape the two of them. I actually like Machu and Nyaan's weird friendship so I'd be sad if they don't get their shit together and figure it out!
While it's obvious I'm unable to pick up on any of the classic Gundam references, I do think this show does a good job at stirring up enough curiosity that a viewer can enjoy what's going on and then be persuaded into properly getting into the series. I might be that viewer, after all! I think it's funny I accidentally learned that Challia Bull - who is a major character in this alternate timeline - was actually just a one-off character from the original 1979 series. I imagine it was pretty amusing to long time fans to see a guy like that become an important right hand to Char himself. It's amusing to me and I'm not even a real fan yet, so that has to count for something!
I'm running thin on substance to add so I'll keep this short and sweet. The anime is sharply directed, the art style looks great, and I've been enjoying the music and the little classic bits thrown in here and there. It's certainly entertaining and I'm looking forward to more Machu on the big screen. This probably has my favorite ending sequence of the entire season, but it has stiff competition with mono which I'll be talking about further down. I'm sure I'll have something more profound to say about this show in the distant future once I've become a truly initiated Gundam appreciator. When will that happen? It's not for me to say.
Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi
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| Produced by SHAFT |
Did SHAFT, a studio I love and admire, trick me into watching a toxic yuri comedy? Yes, they did. I forgive them. Maybe it was presumptuous of me to assume that this was going to be a different flavor of Kill Me Baby just because it has both ninjas and assassins in it. Before I get ahead of myself and say anything that could be interpreted as controversial, let me just state that I have nothing against yuri or its many flavors. There's just a few of those that aren't quite palatable for my taste buds, and this is entirely a matter of personal preference. For me to elaborate on this would require a level of complexity I feel is too long to be crammed into a footnote of an unrelated post, so you'll just have to trust me on this for now.
Perhaps I'm being a little unfair. Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi (A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof), shortened to Ninkoro, is a little more than just toxic yuri. It's also a zany and fairly unhinged comedy involving an assassin scoreboard straight out of No More Heroes and slaughtering dozens of cute ninja girl designs. Of course I'm talking about killing in the cartoonish gore-free sort of way, but it does hurt me to see such beautiful moe girls get obliterated by the Meganekko From Hell and her gullible ninja sidekick, but that's just the business.
Satoko is an underachieving ninja who bumbled her way into an operation to escape her secret village and now every ninja assassin wants her head. Konoha is a glasses wearing assassin who is good at killing but terrible at cleaning up after herself in both her professional and private lives. A chance meeting between these two is as disastrous as it sounds. Satoko is only good for housekeeping but her one reliable ninja skill is that she can transform anything - even dead people - into leaves. This makes her the perfect solution to Konoha's problem, and Satoko's life is secured at the cost of her own dignity.
Konoha is a special breed of character who's teed up to be universally hated by the average viewer. Being a woman with corrective lenses in the anime world gets you a lot of flack straight out the gate, but we're talking about a deadpan and selfish assassin with secretive goals who treats her only roommate like a useful tool. I don't know if I'd call the comedy in this show mean-spirited, but her usual punchlines tend to involve her suddenly killing a character and abusing Satoko in a variety of ways. She only smiles when she's eating delicious food and every once in a while she treats her ninja partner like an actual human being, but she's also the reason why the majority of the cute character designs in this series only last a few minutes per episode before getting snuffed.
It's easy to think of Satoko as the victim in this scenario, but the lines start to blur as the show delves further into her twisted relationship with Konoha. This ninja is a straight up masochist and I think she kind of loves being treated like an appliance. That makes the punchline of her literally being replaced by a robot version of herself in the one of the most recent episodes kind of funny in hindsight. She's desperate for Konoha's validation and nobody else can satisfy her craving. Even after being 'captured' by the scientist assassin Marin and being treated with respect for once, her gaze does not wander. Satoko is dangerously clueless and her ambitions make her more destructive. The irony is that her and Konoha are really similar deep down. It's easy to forget she came from a clan of ninja assassins!
The show starts having a bit more fun with the aforementioned introduction of characters like Marin and Kuro who led the ninja escape group that Satoko got caught up in. Kuro is addicted to gambling because I guess they didn't play around like that in the secret ninja training camps. She also has a very cute civilian girlfriend and their yuri is distinctively less toxic than the relationship between Satoko and Konoha. The show doesn't let you forget it, either! It's wise to put a little sweetness somewhere in a series like this where lives are disposable and the main characters emotionally abuse each other in the most comedic fashion possible.
This anime is firmly in the realm of "acquired taste", but SHAFT is historically good at picking those. One of my all time favorites from their camp is considered a six out of ten by most people. The goofy nature of this series would fit right in with the more zany comedy work they did during mid-to-late '00s. The current era of the studio is a firm mix between old and new talent, and much of that collaborative mix that I witnessed in the recent Monogatari season is here on display with Ninkoro. Maybe the most comfortable takeaway I'll get from this series is that SHAFT definitely hasn't lost their distinct touch. In fact, they're a lot hungrier now to prove themselves than they were at the start of the decade!
I don't know if I'm in love with this anime but it's entertaining enough. I think a batshit comedy with ninjas and assassins wrapped up in a miasma of yuri pairings that may or may not be absolutely terrible for both people involved is certainly a unique pick and I think it's healthy to have at least one show of that vein in my arsenal if I can manage it. But mostly I'm sticking around to watch SHAFT do their thing - head tilts, 4:3 anime gags, overly dramatic scene arrangements - that's my comfort zone. I've gone low on the totem pole for this studio and seen some real dreck in the process so I've got a solid perspective on the quality scale. Ninkoro is pretty good. It ranks about the same as Sasami-san@Ganbaranai except it's just slightly less stupid. A razor thin margin, really. Now let's see how they do with the new Madoka Magica film, huh?
Hibi wa Sugiredo Meshi Umashi
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| Produced by P.A. Works |
Non Non Biyori is a series that is near and dear to my heart, but it was only a handful of years ago that both the manga and its associated anime series came to an end. Series creator Atto and the team at Silver Link built quite a rapport over the years as they worked together, and it seems that neither side was itching to bring things to an end. On the contrary, this powerful partnership turned their gazes toward something a little bit more ambitious - an original series. Honestly, I'm not sure why Silver Link didn't produce this themselves, but I suppose sentiments like that don't hold much weight in the chaotic waves of modern anime production. Luckily there's a studio in this industry that loves throwing money at a good original anime project - it's none other than our friends at Progressive Animation Works!
Hibi wa Sugiredo Meshi Umashi (Food for the Soul), abbreviated Hibimeshi, is basically the closest we're getting to a Non Non Biyori season four that can't exist. Sure, this takes place at a university located in a town that's far more urban than the rural fields that housed Renge and all her friends, but the energy of the show simply speaks for itself. The humor resonates the same way, and even though the main cast consists of similarly aged characters, there's still a dynamic where certain members come off as 'older' than the others. This, my friends, is the power of a world ruled by moeblobs. Everything about this series simply feels right at home.
I think Atto did a great job writing characters that feel like spiritual reincarnations of members from the Non Non Biyori cast, but they're not so derivative that they don't stand on their own merits. Mako is the de facto main character who resembles a grown up Hotaru in appearance but personality wise is fairly different. Shinon is the knucklehead of the group who inherited all of Natsumi's fiery dumbass energy (and she's just as funny). Tsutsuji is a fluffy haired abstract version of an older Renge who has a similarly profound imagination and loves to play the ukulele. Kurea is more of an anti-Komari since she can actually cook and looks the oldest, but her dynamic with Shinon is very similar to the sisterly antics between Komari and Natsumi. The latest addition to the group, the socially awkward puzzle nerd Nana, is the one who least resembles any of Atto's previous characters.
This barely even looks like a P.A. Works anime. It's just Silver Link away from home. It has all the same core members working on it! It's reflected clearly in the art style and the animation quality, but there is a bit more polish around the edges that I appreciate. Non Non Biyori wasn't the most brilliant looking anime of its time either, but the sheer strength of slice of life iyashikei soul vibrations can pierce through petty, unimportant concerns like that. They know to pump up the visuals for the real heavy hitter gags like Tsutsuji's motivational dancing and any time Shinon does anything especially stupid.
What do these girls do, exactly? They eat food. I think the entire premise of this show is hilarious because it's the most vague reason to just create a college age CGDCT anime. It's so tongue-in-cheek about it that Shinon admits the food research club she's trying to form with her friends is just a bullshit excuse for them to have a free place to screw around. They have a tough as nails advisor who keeps them diligent about doing actual club activities but that doesn't stop them from getting plenty out of the arrangement. Mako loves food so much that they'd be eating no matter what, and you better believe not a single episode of this show will end without them finishing their plates.
Eating food isn't a unique quality in moe slice of life - Hidamari Sketch was basically a food anime! They had a meal eating scene in literally every episode and they didn't even have a club for that. This isn't a criticism though, it's just a funny thought. It's not like Non Non Biyori had a plot or anything. As long as the cute girls are doing cute things, you're getting what you signed up for. I would know since I eat this kind of thing up by the plateful. Girls just want to have fun and all that. They don't have to explain it to me!
If you're like me and the Non Non Biyori humor and cast chemistry put a dumb smile on your face, then I struggle to think of any reason not to watch this. It's really more of the same but with a few elements shuffled around. The college setting seems like more of an excuse than anything for the cast to have a bit more freedom and agency with what they do in the show. Most of the characters work part time jobs, and later on they even get drivers licenses. I think allowing Shinon behind the wheel of a car is maybe one of the most reckless and dangerous things I've ever seen in a show like this. I was nearly convinced they were going to tank a car crash, but thankfully this is a world of miracles when the comfy aura is preserved at all times.
This is a premium show to be watching at the end of my work week, that's for sure. Thank you Atto and the last fledglings of true talent from Silver Link for cobbling this one together. Thanks again to P.A. Works for continuing to be a force of good in the world even when they're producing whiffs (this is not one of them). If you yearn for the golden age of moe anime where five girls with different colored hair can coexist in an extremely convenient club based situation and just do whatever the hell they want on screen to make you laugh and smile, then this is basically a free win. Some old tricks never get stale. I'll be here next week.
mono
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| Produced by Soigne |
Season three of the beloved iyashikei series Yuru Camp was one of the greatest travesties in recent slice of life anime history. With the original production studio C-Station moving on after the 2022 film, the reigns were handed over to one of my greatest enemies in the business - studio 8bit. Yama no Susume fans assured me we were in good hands. I'm afraid they let me down, but I don't hold it against them. I wanted to believe that my grievances were petty ones and that I was resisting a stylistic change to a series I loved simply because it was different. Nobody thought 8bit would treat a moe titan at the level of Yuru Camp with the same amount of neglect that a regretful parent has for the child they adopted during their mid-life crisis. It was so terribly wrong. The character portrayals, the comedic timing, the backgrounds and the scenery; by the time I was rolling through the final episode I could feel how spent I was. Iyashikei is supposed to warm your soul, not drain it!
I couldn't even find it in me to be excited when they announced season four was a sure thing. It's a dreadful place to be with something you're truly fond of, but it's in those moments that the unexpected tends to happen. Yuru Camp creator Afro is a prolific mangaka that has multiple serializations at the hip. One of those is a quaint, under the radar series by the name of mono. It wasn't until the anime was announced that I learned of its existence and the fresh new studio producing it - Soigne. Most of the staff on this don't have a resume that stretches further back than the 2010s. This is the studio's establishing shot - a world of cute girls who travel around Japan with cameras.
And what a wonderful world it is. It's the very same world that Yuru Camp takes place in! Everyone wants a good excuse to go sightseeing. Afro probably does more for the Japanese tourism business than the people running it. In mono, we entertain a similar philosophy of giving a group of girls the means and desire to travel around Japan but with cameras instead of tents. Even Yuru Camp had a huge focus on taking photos - albeit the smartphone camera kind - so this is something of a familiar landscape for anyone who is already well acquainted with Afro's campers.
One of the things I love about mono is its subtle element of being a bit of a metafiction story. On paper, this series is about two friends Satsuki and An who attempt to save their graduated senpai's photography club by joining forces with the similarly dying cinema club ran by the eccentric Sakurako. What this series really is, however, is Afro's take on Stranger Than Fiction. When Satsuki tries to retrieve a camera she won in an auction from the local seller, she and her friends meet the reclusive manga artist Haruno who is tasked with writing a new yonkoma (4-panel) manga about cute girls who travel around Japan with cameras. She decides to sponsor their work under the newly formed Cinephoto Club with the stipulation that she can use their material as inspiration for writing her series.
Haruno is Afro's self-insert if that wasn't obvious already. This setup actually works doubly well in anime form since the mediums are separated, so anime Haruno working on the manga version of mono (which we actually see in the ED sequence) is a cleverly layered gag. It also makes me wonder if the fiery motorcycle riding vlogger Kako is based on someone Afro personally knows since her and Haruno are best friends. This element of blending autobiographical qualities into one's work reminds me a lot of Kakushigoto, but obviously this show isn't nearly as existential as a Kumeta joint. It's just a cute little thing I wasn't expecting.
Another element that fascinates me is how the hair colors of our main cast are notably more muted than the standard slice-of-life color variety pack that Yuru Camp adhered to. Gone are the pinks, blues, yellows, and purples of our campers and instead we have an array of normal looking hair colors - Satsuki's black, An's brown, Sakurako's very light brown, and Haruno drifting toward the light gray zone. Only Kako breaks the mold with her blue hair that isn't quite the shade of the Shimarin clan but it's close enough. Perhaps this is a deliberate choice that further ties into the 'mono' concept that the series is named after. These girls almost live in the margins of Afro's world as spectators; a scene in a recent episode where the main cast loses an eating competition to Nadeshiko and her family brings this point home for me.
In the grand scheme of things, Yuru Camp is more about camping than this anime is about cameras. The group has played around with different camera types, lenses, perspectives, and so on - but Haruno's ironclad role in the girls' adventures means that the main pull is more about sightseeing and specific tourism bents than the photography element. I get the feeling there will be a shift in that regard as we get further into the experience, but I'm not really sweating it personally. I wasn't mad that Do It Yourself!! was less about the DIY elements and more of an excuse for a group of cute weirdos to have a place to belong and hang out. That's one of my all time favorites I'm talking about here. A slice of life anime is nothing without a strong cast; the premise is just the frosting on top.
It's here I feel the need to once again express my thanks to Bocchi the Rock! for opening the door for moe anime to strike our current era like never before. One of my key observations that's remained consistent is how it manged to have a more rough around the edges style while still remaining highly creative and expressive from an animation standpoint. It has one of the most distinct rotoscoped animation sequences in modern anime (yes I'm talking about the Nijika wave) and it had everyone taking notes at the altar of Cloverworks. mono, while not as consistently impressive from the animation front, has very similar energy and playfulness to its animation style. Considering the newer talent and the fresh faced studio behind it, this comes off as one of the most distinctly modern slice-of-life anime I've seen; a project that clearly reaped the benefits of a post-Bocchi world.
There's no denying that Afro's charming characters and the animation team's ability to tap into the key strengths of this series are huge factors of success that stand entirely on their own merits. While they landed much closer on matching the style of the character designs, Soigne's work here feels very in tune with what C-Station was cooking up for Yuru Camp before their unfortunate departure. This fuels within me a desire to cast out my sentiments into the void - to the Japanese producers who will never read this, please give Yuru Camp season four to these guys. Whatever it takes, you need to get it done. Do not hand our girls back to 8bit again to be butchered as they churn out two other hunks of mid in the same season. This industry needs to retain the small amount of dignity it has left!
In a show that is firmly centers itself around the concept of taking pictures with cool cameras, one would expect playing around with perspectives would be a huge focus of the show. In fact, it's one of the greatest strengths on display with this anime. Action cameras, selfie sticks, helmet cams, kite cams - there's a nice assortment of everything and the camera lens effects are rendered beautifully through subtle animation tricks. I do enjoy the show's liberal use of the 360 degree camera view which puts our girls into the proverbial orb that you'll be familiar with if you've seen a similar camera in real life. The action camera segments that involve the selfie stick are my favorite, especially the panoramic views that have the animators and background artists firing off on all cylinders to create authentic looking perspectives. In particular, the scenic lift sequence in episode five floored me even after seeing the gorgeous camera passing scene in the anime's ED sequence for multiple episodes prior.
Although mono shares much of its comedic timing and focus with Yuru Camp, the former is a few shades darker. The campers had a largely fun and bubbly existence with most of the emotional energy channeled toward awe-inducing views and the quieter nature of solo camping. The mono girls certainly have plenty of quirky adventures every episode, but its heftier moments command a greater sense of melancholy and yearning. Even when one can commit something to a photo or a video, it can never truly capture the exact feelings of being in that moment. There's that bittersweet element of capturing a moment forever but only being able to commit the emotions to memory. One of my favorite scenes has Satsuki asking the group to remain on the summit of a mountain a little longer to take in the stunning sunset view. Fleeting moments of beauty are meant to be savored with our hearts; the photo is simply a reminder.
Maybe it's a bit silly to wax poetic so much about a simple moe anime, but I find a lot of personal enrichment from shows like this because they push the little things in life back to the forefront of my mind. The things we take for granted span a long, dragging list and sometimes it's reconnecting with those things that allow us to become better people. Iyashikei is healing for passionate hearts gone cold. Watching season three of Yuru Camp had me feeling like this niche was headed straight for the garbage disposal, as melodramatic as that may seem. With mono, I'm being met with an impenetrable, unbreakable "we are so back" that was desperately needed.
Saturdays with this and Hibimeshi hit so good. That iyashikei double dose from two creators who are still highly in tune with the aspects that made their previous work so enjoyable is enough to make a grown man like me weep in quietude. We reel in the face of industries desperately trying to keep their feet firmly planted on the ground by churning out disposable entertainment, but all is not lost. mono takes the ultimate crown of the season by having my favorite opening, ending (but still a tough tie with GQuuuuuuX), and character of the season with Sakurako who reminds me significantly of Natsu Yutori of Blue Archive fame.
And for what it's worth - this anime significantly increased my desire to buy a neat camera setup. Slice of life anime is the finest resource for anyone desperate for a hobby. Never forget the ones who made you who you are, especially if they were major characters in a CGDCT ensemble cast. I think about the Lucky Star girls every day for this very reason.
Typically I'd end things with the final anime on the list, but I'm feeling a bit quirky with this fresh new blog all to myself, so I'm tossing in a pre-post-mortem for free. I can't exactly call it a post-mortem since the whole point of this is that the season isn't over yet! Seasonals of the Abyss has always served as something of a snapshot of how I was feeling about seasonal anime at the time of their airing. You only get one chance to have a first impression. Sure, by halfway through I generally have a good idea of where I'm going to land in the spectrum of opinions, but that isn't always true. In fact, some of my favorites didn't even grow on me until after I finished watching them.
Special shoutout to Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (The Apothecary Diaries) season two. I didn't talk about it because it started airing during the Winter 2025 season but I've still been enjoying it quite a bit. I also reserve the right to not talk about further seasons of a series if I don't feel like it. If I'm hitting the second or third season on a run, I probably vibe with it enough anyways. Also this show in particular is immensely popular in most circles, it'd be like throwing my hat in the ring on Frieren. Everyone already has something to say, and I'd rather be yapping about the kind of crap I know people aren't talking about in droves.
I'd say this season is definitely a step up from the last, but that's normal in a world where Winter is cursed with middling acts. Momentary Lily was my most hyped anime of the last season and it should tell you a lot when GoHands is the one bringing the most excitement (although I am far more fond of their work than the average person). Next season, on the other hand, is going to be doing all the heavy lifting for the year. Yofukashi no Uta and Dandadan return for their second helpings of peak. KyoAni and Keiichi Arawi are going to shake the decade by adapting CITY which has far more complex gags than the ones familiar to Nichijou fans. Panty & Stocking is back to end fifteen straight years of pain and agony. Turkey, after years in the making, is finally going to make its case for cute girls who have an affinity for bowling. There's something for everybody!
And that's all I've got. Until next time - stay moe, friends.
