Anime

Episode six of Ave Mujica was filled with heavy scene after heavy scene, but this particular one stood out to me:

Umiri was introduced way back in MyGo as Taki’s classmate, maybe friend and bass player for sixty bands. She’s always been shown as a professional, never emotionally involved with any of the bands she played for. Her role in Ave Mujica was the same, always the one who kept reminding the other members of their engagements and such. This must be the first time that somebody has told her that this isn’t enough to be in a band. If all she can see is just the band and not the actual people in it, how can she claim to be a part of it?

Five episodes of depression cleared away by a two second jingle. Sasuga Anon.

Tomori and Anon see Sakiko driving away from school in a stereotypical ojo-sama car, which prompts Anon to exclaim that Sakiko really is a rich girl. When Tomori looks puzzled, she explains that at her debut as Oblivionis, it turned out she was part of the Togawa Group. Tomori still being puzzled leads to her doing that jingle. A very Anon way of knowing things: shallow yes, but also incredible nerdy at the same time. Who takes the time to memorise a jingle just because an actress or influencer they like did it one time? That’s our Anon indeed. Selfish, but providing a moment of relief amid the depression.

Anon can be this light hearted about encountering Sakiko because she lacks the history Tomori has with her, of having been in Crychic together and then the band breaking up. No surprise that she keeps brooding on this chance meeting that evening. And, the next day, as she and Anon once again see Sakiko getting into her car, she sprints after her only to fall down. Which is when Anon takes over for her, telling her she was the anchor for the relay race all three years of middle school. A very Anon boast; seemingly selfish but done as much to assure Tomori as it is to brag. Anon does this a lot, giving her hope and courage this way. Fake it until your friend makes it. I’d noticed that before, but this episode crystallised it for me. Anon’s self confidence, unearned or not, gives Tomori courage. It’s Tomori who reaches out to people, like she does to Sakiko here, but it’s Anon who gives her that first push and who helps her do the things she cannot do on her own.

And of course Anon has to redo the jingle for her other girlfriend, Soyo. Which, pay attention, shows some actual character development for Soyorin, as she doesn’t just ignore Anon, but actually asks whether the hand movements she does at the end is supposed to be a bird or a butterfly.

Finally, an anime protagonist who struggles with the same problems I do:

Akuyaku Reijou Tensei Ojisan is yet another villainess series, but this time the protagonist reincarnating into the teenage villainess is a fiftytwo year old white collar worker and father Tondabayashi Kenzaburou , whose daughter Hinako was the one playing the game he reincarnated in. He himself has only a vague idea of how the plot is supposed to go or what role Grace Auvergne is actually supposed to play in the harassment of the game’s heroine. His idea of a villainess is much more classic:

Fun fact: Inoue Kazuhiko, Kenzaburou’s voice actor, actually played the male lead in Candy Candy. Which is also one of the first anime I remember watching, long before I knew it was anime, as a child in the eighties when you watched everything that was animated even if it was *shudder* intended for girls. Kenzaburou is very much of my generation then and also a bit of an otaku like his daughter (and wife). With little knowledge of otome games and reincarnated into a very aristocratic young lady, how will Kenzaburou cope in his new role? Luckily he has a cheat power, which transforms his thoroughly salaryman behaviour into the correct aristocratic etiquette for Grace to have.

I like the manga of this and I’m glad to see some care has been taken with its anime adaptation. It all looks a cut above the usual villainess/isekai production with some genuine impressive animation, character design and backgrounds. If there’s one thing that could be improved it would’ve been for Grace to sound even more oujo-sama-ish than she already does.

The problem with almost every isekai story is that the first episode wants to bore you with all the unnecessary details of how their protag-kun managed to be reborn/transported/trucked into his new world. Around 40 Otoko no Isekai Tsuuhan understands that all you need to do is turn up the Strauss, do a almost dialogueless montage and let your audience figure it out for yourself:

The rest of A middle Aged Shopper in Another World is less impressive, reverting to the main isaki anime first episode, with the protagonist establishing himself in his new world. What sets him apart from other isekai series is that his cheat power is being able to use his favourite web shop in this new world, rather than being able to summon dragons or whatever. Which means that after he reaches civilisation, we follow him getting started as a merchant. In the process, because he gave her candy and drew her portrait, he also got to shag the cute maid from his local inn, which is the other thing that sets him apart from the usual sexless isekai protagonists.

This is the sort of series I like to watch weekly: nothing special but entertaining enough. The animation and designs are good enough not to be annoyed by it and this will make for a decent palate cleanser between more demanding series.

What’s the matter Mutsumi? Are you in despair about the state of Bang Dream: Ave Mujica‘ subtitles too?

I was honestly, no lie, so frustrated by the subtitles on the first episode that it has taken me until the second episode came out today to be interested in writing about it. I loved Bang Dream: MyGo, as you may have noticed and was looking forward to the sequel, but the way Crunchyroll once again handled the translation and subtitles almost destroyed any pleasure I had watching the first episode.

It is bad enough that the episode starts with a musical performance from Ave Mujica, completely untranslated so it looks impressive but I had no clue what they were singing. This is something that drives me up the wall with Crunchyroll, that they cannot be bothered to pay for the licensing rights to subtitle songs; the same has happened with the last couple of IdolM@ster shows too. I’ve given up hope for any streamers to put up the money to subtitle their shows’ openings and endings, but at least for a music/idol show, do translate the insert songs? They’re kind of important!

But things get worse. Because this first episode retells the story of how Crychic broke up from Sakiko’s point of view. What we saw in MyGo was her receiving a mysterious text, after which she disappeared from the band’s rehearsal sessions for weeks only to say she was quitting the band once she finally came back. Now here, finally, we get to see what triggered Sakiko — had Crunchyroll actually bothered to translate and subtitle them! Even if it wasn’t quite necessary to get the gist of it, it still vexes me that Crunchyroll just couldn’t be bothered. And currently there are no fansubs available either. At least episode two was less reliant on text messages to move the plot along, irritating me less.

Not that there was time to be irritated by Crunchyroll’s incompetence when the second episode was just non-stop blows hammering down on poor old Mutsumi. In MyGo she was the least defined member of Crychic, basically reduced to being a go-between for Soyo to contact Sakiko. Even then I felt sorry for her and the way she was treated by both: Soyo blaming her for the band breaking up, Sakiko for forcing her to be in her new project while seemingly taking her for granted. But I didn’t know how much I really felt sorry for her until these first two episodes of Ave Mujica. Episode one showed her role in the breakup and why she said what she said all the way in MyGo‘s first episode, while episode two has her dealing with the fallout from the previous episode. Spoiler: it doesn’t go well.

Mutsumi is the anti-Tomori. Both have difficulty communicating with others and are clearly on the spectrum in some way, both have to mask their true selfs to a certain extent, but where in Tomori’s case this draws people to her — Saki, Soyom, Taki, Anon, Raana — with Mutsuki it repulses them. Tomori has been hurt by people not understanding her, has internalised the idea that this is always her own fault, but she also has the resilience to keep trying to reach out while staying true to herself. When it’s important Tomori has been able to make herself hear and has been rewarded for it.

The same cannot be said for Mutsumi. Like Tomori she withdraws in her obsessions, guitar playing, growing cucumbers, but when she tries to use them to reach out to people, like Tomori with her bandaids did to Anon, she fails, as when she brings her cucumbers to MyGo to congratulate them in MyGo episode 12. Several times in Ave Mujica episode two she tries to talk, but she never succeeds, even as she gets cornered to the point of a breakdown. Nobody understands her or even tries to, not even her own band mates. They all impose their own vision of her on her and Mutsumi just does not have the strength to object to it. She has always been passive when we’ve seen her before, seemingly eager for somebody like Sakiko to tell her what she should do. But she has never been important enough for anybody to help her discover what it is she herself wants. Not like Tomori has had Taki and Anon and even Raana and Soyo.

Being Mutsumi is suffering.