Summer 2018 Schedule

Summer 2018 Schedule

Filed under Season Schedule, Series Introduction by Stilts | 1 Comment

Now that every show has had several episodes to make its case, it’s time to tell you what we’ll be blogging this season. This is Random Curiosity’s Summer 2018 blogging schedule.

As always, this is a tentative overview of our plans for the new season . . . is what we used to say, but with multiple episodes under our belts, we’re pretty confident in our picks. Will some of them flounder down the stretch? It’s happened before. This is what we’re going with for now.

In show news, we’re covering 16 series, including 4 carry-overs. After a bonkers spring season, where your’s truly went totally gonzo on the bloggin’, I for one am happy to have a more manageable schedule, even if a few choice morsels slipped through the cracks. I see you, Grand Blue, I just gotta save some time for the ladies. Also, playing too much Overwatch. But I think we hit most of the highlights, plus a few fan favorites, so this will have to do.

In staff news, no news is good news. It’s a busy summer for many of us, but we’re using some of our (precious little) free time to contemplate new and fun content for the site, which we’ll work on refining and deploying when the star’s align. More details on that later. In the meantime, reminder that we’re leaving writer recruitment open in case anyone wants to get a jump on the next recruitment drive (which may happen soon… I’m not going to be able to blog five shows every season), so check out this previous schedule post for details. Because yes, I’m still too lazy to copy them over here.

That’s all the news for now. Thanks as always for reading and commenting, and feel free to pop on join our Discord channel if you’d like to chat outside of the usual posts. Let’s have a fun season of anime together. Banzai!

Today at 7:22 pm

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Harukana Receive – 04

Harukana Receive – 04

Filed under First Impressions, Harukana Receive by Takaii | 0 Comments

「私達にぴったりだと思わない？」 (Watashitachi ni Pittarida to Omowanai?)
“Isn’t This Perfect for Us?”

Okay before any hate comes in, how can you expect people to play Beach Volleyvall without the appropriate attire?

General Impressions

Seriously though, I thought this week’s episode was actually pretty good. For me there was a nice balance between pushing the story forward and giving us some fun moments to keep things balanced. Starting with the later, never in a million years did I think I would hear a good reason for wearing skimpy tight fitting swimsuits for playing Volleyball in. But lo and behold and in just four episodes Harukana has convinced me that there’s just enough merit to do things the way we see it without diving into anything incredibly fanservicey. That said, I’m glad that we have Kanata here to keep things grounded since were it left up to Haruka, things would probably be slipping left and right.

Changing gears to the more serious part of this week’s episode, boy am I loving how the story is handling Haruka and Kanata’s relationship. As cousins who rarely saw each other, it would be kind of strange to see them in full sync less than a few weeks in. Luckily the story realizes this and is doing it best to make sure that it’s covering for this fact. First covering Kanata’s trauma (which still isn’t a closed case but getting better) and then moving to the dynamic between her and Haruka, I can’t wait to see just how much better the two are once they finally level up their “relationship” with each other.

All that said, I think if there was one thing I was a little disappointed about it would be the lack of volleyball recently. After the first episode where we had a pretty fun exhibition match, I’ve been craving something similar to that and the show just hasn’t delivered. Maybe my expectations are in the wrong spot, but I hope I’m not the only one who’s waiting for some more actual volleyball!

In any case, I’ll catch you guys next week! Sorry about the later than usual post — I’m flying internationally and it’s been tough to keep up with things with spotty internet here and there. That said, let me tell you, it’s real awkward trying to take screencaps of this show in public when there are families just dying to stare at your screen only to be greeted by a screen full of Haruka’s chest. God speed to me next week.

P.S. God Narumi is so cute. If only she could show up more!

Today at 6:19 pm

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Mirai, Pokemon, Bleach Films Each Fall 1 Spot at Japanese Box Office

Mamoru Hosoda and Studio Chizu"s new Mirai no Mirai (Mirai) anime film fell from #2 to #3 in its second weekend. The film sold 215,000 tickets and earned 289,012,900 yen (about US$2.6 million) over the weekend. The film has now sold a cumulative total of 910,000 tickets and earned 1,181,317,500 yen (about US$9.9 million).

The film opened in 456 theaters on July 20 in Japan. It sold 295,000 tickets for 500 million yen (about US$4.5 million) to rank #2 in its opening weekend. The weekend earnings were about 40% less than the opening weekend gross of Hosoda"s previous The Boy and The Beast film, which earned 667,035,100 yen (about US$5.4 million) in its opening weekend.

The film had its world premiere in May at this year"s Directors" Fortnight, an independent section held in parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. International sales banner Charades represented the film at Cannes in 2017, and has sold distribution rights to GKIDS in the United States, MK2 Mile End in Canada, Anime Limited in the United Kingdom, and Madman Entertainment in Australia and New Zealand.

The film stars Moka Kamishiraishi and Haru Kuroki as sibling protagonists Kun-chan and Mirai, respectively. The film"s story centers around a family living in a small house in an obscure corner of a certain city — in particular, the family"s spoiled four-year-old boy Kun-chan. When Kun-chan gets a little sister named Mirai, he feels that his new sister stole his parents" love from him, and is overwhelmed by many experiences he undergoes for the first time in his life. In the midst of it all, he meets an older version of Mirai, who has come from the future.

Pokémon the Movie: The Power of Us (Gekijōban Pocket Monster: Minna no Monogatari), the 21st film in the Pokémon franchise, fell from #3 to #4 in its fourth weekend. The film earned 180,860,400 yen (about US$1.62 million) from Friday to Sunday. The film has now earned a cumulative total of 1,652,206,500 yen (about US$14.88 million).

It opened on July 13 in 364 theaters in Japan, and it ranked #2 in its opening weekend. The film sold 440,000 tickets and earned 500 million yen (about US$4.42 million). The film earned 3.1% less than the opening weekend of last year"s Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! (Gekijōban Pocket Monster: Kimi ni Kimeta!) film.

The story is set during the annual Wind Festival at Frau City, which is blessed with wind from the Legendary Pokémon Lugia. Lugia and a new Mythical Pokémon named Zeraora appear in the film.

Kunihiko Yuyama, who has directed many of the earlier Pokémon films, including last year"s Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!, returns as animation supervisor. Eiji Umehara (Grimoire of Zero, Beelzebub scriptwriter) and Aya Takaha wrote the script.

Wit Studio (Attack on Titan, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress) handled animation production along with the franchise"s mainstay studio Oriental Light and Magic. Tetsuo Yajima, the assistant director of last year"s Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You!, returned to direct the film, and Shizue Kaneko (If Her Flag Breaks, Pan de Peace!) designed the characters.

The live-action film of Tite Kubo"s Bleach manga fell from #4 to #5 and earned 64,199,600 yen (about US$578,500) from Friday to Sunday. The film has now earned a cumulative total of 360,638,300 yen (about US$3.2 million).

The film opened on July 20 on 329 theaters. It sold 99,000 tickets for 135 million yen (about US$1.21 million) to rank #4 in its opening weekend.

The film had its North American premiere with two screenings on July 28 at the Japan Cuts Festival in New York.

The film stars Sōta Fukushi as protagonist Ichigo Kurosaki, and Hana Sugisaki as Rukia Kuchiki.

The film"s story centers on the "Substitute Shinigami Arc," the manga"s first arc that ran from its first to eighth volume.

Kubo launched Bleach in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2001, and ended it in August 2016. Viz Media published the manga in North America digitally in English as Shueisha published new chapters in Japan. Viz Media is also publishing the manga in print.

Soreike! Anpanman Kagayake! Kurun to Inochi no Hoshi (Let"s go! Anpanman: Shine! Kurun and the Star of Life), the Anpanman franchise"s 30th anime film, rose from #9 to #8 in its fifth weekend. The film earned 32,347,600 yen (about US$291,500) from Friday to Sunday, and has now earned a cumulative total of 496,085,300 yen (about US$4.47 million).

The film sold 112,116 tickets to earn 121,080,500 yen (about US$1.09 million) and rank #4 in its opening weekend. The film opened in Japan on June 30 in 207 theaters. The film earned 37.6% more in its opening weekend than the opening weekend of last year"s Soreike! Anpanman Buruburu no Takarasagashi Daibōken! franchise film, which eventually earned 540 million yen (about US$4.86 million).

The film is projected to earn more than 600 million yen (about US$5.40 million).

The film"s story begins in Anpanman World, where everybody is bustling around, getting ready for the annual Star Festival. On that day, an egg emerges from Baikinman"s garbage box, and when it hatches, a mysterious boy named Kurun emerges from within. Though Kurun does not know where he came from, he spends his days having fun with everybody. But one day, black stars begin raining down. Anpanman thinks that something suspicious might be occurring at the Star of Life, and he heads there.

The live-action film of Minami Mizuno"s Rainbow Days (Nijiiro Days) manga dropped from #8 to #9 in its fourth weekend. The film earned 25,379,500 yen (about US$228,600) from Friday to Sunday, and has now earned a cumulative total of 482,986,500 yen (about US$4.35 million).

The film opened in 317 theaters on June 6. It sold 87,000 tickets and earned 110 million yen (about US$991,000) to rank #3 in its opening weekend.

Ken Iizuka (live-action Arakawa Under the Bridge) directed the film and Rika Nezu (Saint Young Men) wrote the screenplay. Filming took place from mid October to November last year.

Rainbow Days centers on a group of four male high school students who are close friends: Natsuki, Tomoya, Keiichi, and Tsuyoshi. The four boys have no club activities, and they hurry through their studies so they can spend their days having fun. Their main topic of interest: love. Natsuki has an unrequited crush on Anna, a girl from another class, and his friends keep meddling in their relationship.

Meitantei Conan Zero no Shikkōnin (Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer), the 22nd film in the Detective Conan series, dropped out of the top 10 to #11 in its 16th weekend.

Sources: Eiga.com, Kōgyō Tsūshin (link 2), comScore via KOFIC

Dorokei Buddy Detective Manga Inspires Live-Action Series

Rookie detective teams with legendary thief to solve cases

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Shū Fukuda"s Dorokei manga is inspiring a live-action television series that will premiere on NTV this October. The show"s title is Dorokei -Keishichō Sōsa Sanka- and it will air on Saturdays at 10:00 p.m.

The buddy cop series focuses on Tsutomu Madarame, a newbie detective, and Haruto, a man in his fifties who is known as the legendary thief "Smoke Crow." The unexpected pair team up to solve cases.

Sexy Zone"s Kento Nakajima (live-action Silver Spoon"s Hachiken) is playing Madarame in the live-action series, and Kenichi Endō (live-action Crows Zero"s Joji Yazaki) is playing Haruto.

The manga launched in Shueisha"s Weekly Young Jump magazine in January. The first compiled volume shipped on May 18 and the second compiled volume will ship on September 19.

Sources: NTV, Comic Natalie

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Ingress The Animation Anime

Ingress The Animation

Sci-fi, Action, Game

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Airing Date:

October 2018

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NETFLIXにて全世界配信が決定！！さらにフジテレビ「+Ultra」のほか、北海道文化放送、東海テレビ、関西テレビ、テレビ西日本、BSフジにて放送予定。10月からの放送開始をお楽しみに！ #IngressAnime pic.twitter.com/XPVYRcyOEO

— TVアニメ『イングレス』 (@IngressAnime) July 8, 2018

2018年10月 フジテレビ「＋Ultra」にて放送予定。TVアニメ『イングレス』公式Twitterオープン。最新情報を発信してゆきます。#IngressAnime #plusultra pic.twitter.com/tw8KNDcOLD

— TVアニメ『イングレス』 (@IngressAnime) April 7, 2018

(Credit Honey’s Anime when you use our description.)

Best Light Novel Ranking [Weekly Sales Chart]

También puedes leer este artículo en:Español

What You Need to Know:

• Welcome to the weekly light novel chart from Honey"s Anime! We are showcasing the hottest light novels selling this week in Japan.


• This week a NieR:Automata novel leaves but two different ones arive. The only survivor was Shin High School DxD and we see more fujoshi-friendly novels debut.


• Some real newcomers this week are Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu, Ero Manga Sensei, Hakuoki Sekkaroku Yoi, and more. Find out who is on top this week below!

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Shin High School DxD 1

To Aru Majutsu no Index 1

NieR:Automata Nagai Hanashi

AMNESIA Hokou Joker

Cute High Earth Defense Club Love! Novel! 3

NieR:Automata Mijikai Hanashi

Ero Manga Sensei 10 Senju Muramasa to Koi no Bunkasai

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. 2

Hakuouki Sekkaroku Yoi

Biblia Koshodo no Jiken Techo 4

Source: CD Japan

Issei would be #1. Hehe

Hmm? Cute High Earth Defense Club? Hello~

Latest Weekly Rankings

ANIME MUSIC

LIGHT NOVEL

Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight – 03

「トップスタァ」 (Toppusutaa)
“Top Star”

I talked a bunch about surrealism last week, and went into a lot of high-brow stuff about symbolism and juxtaposition. The main reason, though, to inject surrealism into your anime is simply that it makes the show look more interesting. Turns out, reality can actually be rather boring. I’ve argued before that the main strength of anime as a medium is that, being a hand-crafted thing, it’s not restrained by reality at all. It can do whatever and look however it wants. The only reason that anime needs any realism at all is because it’s what the audience is familiar with, and even the most abstract work needs some frame of reference. Other than that, anime is free to go nuts. And I think more anime should be going nuts; anime is chiefly a visual medium, and if you want to grab an audience quickly you need visuals that pop. I don’t know about you, but one of the things that drew me to Revue Starlight was its visuals, in particular the stylised combat. No, not the sword-swinging stuff; that’s a dime a dozen. I’m talking about the over-the-top theatrics, with combat deliberately as performance. What we want is something eye-grabbing.

It’s not just about the ‘ooh, pretty’ factor. It’s great when an anime looks good, and there’s no shame in picking up a show just because it does. But since anime is visual medium, storytelling is naturally more engaging when done visually. And I’ll say that, for me personally, Revue Starlight is least engaging when its characters are talking. It’s not that the script is particularly bad (serviceable, if a bit bland), it’s that there are so many better ways it has to communicate than just spoken word. On the one hand, we can have character yak on about competition, ambition, exposition. On the other hand, we can just show it. Revue Starlight is a show of two halves. One is charming enough but not all that outstanding. The other is much more impressive. Does Revue Starlight really need to explicitly hammer home that there can be only one ‘star’ on stage? That it’s highly competitive? That only those who want it from the bottom of their heart need apply? Does it really need to explain the metaphor? It can and should be well understood from the performance. All the revues are one on one duel. Tendou literally fights from the higher ground. Competition is literally cuthroat. When she wins and takes centre stage she makes sure to be larger than life. Heck, even just in the way the two characters sing, even if you can’t understand a word, you can tell that Tendou has a stronger singing voice. That’s characterisation right there. Which is why I get so annoyed when characters talk (or even worse, grunt), over the musical portions. Why are you undercutting your superior storytelling method with your inferior one? The number one rule, when there is a performance on-stage, is to shut up. .

Perhaps Revue Starlight doesn’t trust its audience. Perhaps it’s not confident in the power of its visuals. Most likely, the choreographed song-and-dance segments are very expensive to produce and it can’t have too many of them. Regardless, I feel it’s a missed opportunity. Just to demonstrate how effectie visual storytelling is, have a look at the ED. Here’s a rather dull looking Hikari. She seeks something. In a more colourful world, she finds it. In the end, she stands alone. It’s just largely still images set to an obvious homage to Fly Me to the Moon, but it communicates a lot in just a minute and a half, and without a single word spoken.

All in all though, Revue Starlight is still a rather interesting take on the magical girl formula, and three episodes in I think we can say it’s worth sticking with just for the chance to see the height of its ambitions. I don’t know if I should be blogging it this season, though. As you can no doubt tell, I only really want to talk about half of it (the half that’s on stage) any given episode, and I don’t know if there’s enough interest in the show to sustain the entire season. As usual, chime up in the comments if you any opinions about coverage of Revue Starlight.

Full-length images: ED 04.

ED Sequence

ED: 「Fly Me to the Star」 by 神楽ひかり CV: 三森 すずこ (Mimori Suzuko as Kagura Hikari)

My Hero Academia ‒ Episode 54

The Provisional License Exams continue with class 1-A taking the brunt of the competing schools" onslaught. The stated object of the game is to be within the first one hundred students to eliminate two fellow examinees, but if our kids get too hasty they could be leaving themselves wide open to their opponents, whose abilities we"re only witnessing for the first time now.

Since the stakes are relatively low in these exam arcs (Naruto failed his initial Chuunin exam and he turned out alright), and the mechanics of the game aren"t particularly interesting, the strength of these episodes is going to lie on the new characters, as well as whatever thematic development the story can draw out of these circumstances. Regarding the latter, the thematic focus this week is whether the 1-A kids can keep a level head during the action, since it"s easy for them to think of themselves as the "celebrities" of the battle. Basically, if you assume you"ve got main character plot armor, you"re going to be vulnerable to defeat.

As for the new characters, the stand-out this week is easily Camie from Shiketsu High. She has the ability to change her appearance, but even when she"s not using her Quirk, she"s the type to wander way too far into Midoriya"s personal space and psych him out. MHA has a lot of fun with its boisterous weirdos, and Camie"s sultry comportment is no exception. The primary challenge that she raises for our heroes is the ability to look like fellow 1-A students. She almost tricks Midoriya while pretending to be Uraraka, and even though she fails, the revelation that she knows them enough to simulate their friendship poses an issue. 1-A being so famous continues to be a huge problem.

I also enjoyed our brief glimpse of Inasa Yoarashi, in which he uses his wind powers to steal everybody"s balls and eliminate 120 students right off the bat. That"s pretty overkill compared to the two eliminations required to pass, but he says it while giving a big excited speech about passion, and I can"t not love the enthusiasm. It"s a little strange that our fiercest opponent has already moved on and we don"t have to worry about him anymore, however.

The finale leading into the cliffhanger belongs to Todoroki"s fight with a group of ninja kids. It appears to be pretty standard fare, but it"s always interesting to see Todoroki growing more comfortable with his fire powers, even if he"s still only busting them out for special occasions. We end the episode about where we expect, with a healthy amount of action, but nothing unexpected or out of the ordinary. Seeing a barrage of new powers is always cool (I like the "telescope" girl) and the fact that this is the other schools" time to shine does set this exam apart from the other U.A.-centric ones. I don"t think there"s enough pomp and circumstance to really get the most out of this arc"s low-key framework, but I"m still hanging on.

Rating: B

My Hero Academia is currently streaming on Funimation and Crunchyroll.

Sam Leach records about One Piece for The One Piece Podcast and you can find him on Twitter @LuckyChainsaw

GeGeGe no Kitarō ‒ Episode 18

It"s kind of a scary thought that there are people who have never seen a watermelon growing. You can see it hit Cat Girl this week when Mana comments that she didn"t realize that watermelons don"t grow on trees or how big they are, because her family has only ever bought cut melons in bite-size pieces. This is more than a regional issue, like when I had never seen a pomegranate with a stem or the friend who had a pomegranate tree had never realized how low to the ground blueberry bushes are: the underlying theme this week is that migration to cities and the processing of food have led to a generation of people who have no idea how fruits and vegetables are actually grown. (Or where meat comes from, but we"ll leave that issue for Silver Spoon.)

In typical GeGeGe no Kitarō fashion, this is handled with a good use of subtlety. Apart from the aforementioned scene with Mana and the watermelon, most of the episode is understated – we see the decline of the mountain village where Mana"s family has a summer home in the little things. Cat Girl is helping an old man with his farm while he"s injured, and he comments that the fields across the way didn"t have someone to care for them when the farmer was unable to; subsequent pans of the area reveal that the old man"s fields are pretty much the only working farmland left, with everything else gone to seed. When Mana initially sees Cat Girl working the fields, she"s aghast, because how could Cat Girl possibly still be cool and stylish when she"s in old work clothes grubbing in the dirt? Even the fact that Mana"s family has a seasonal home in the village points to the decline of working rural life – it"s a common story where I"m from: homes are bought up by “rusticators” and farming/fishing families move away or become caretakers for summer homes, changing the nature of the town.

Then of course there"s the yokai angle. This week"s is kawauso, which simply means “river otter” but sounds like it has the word for “lie” in it. Stories of the kawauso tend to mirror those of tanuki and kitsune in that they"re tricksters, but this episode takes advantage of the homophone in the name to make him a liar as well. He"s currently basically harmless, inventing stories of dead or deadbeat parents and starving siblings to get free food, and in the past, when there were more people around, we can see that he was more a “boy who cried wolf” figure. Mostly what he is now is lonely – with the exodus to the city, he"s got fewer people to play with. And he does seem to think of it as playing; Kawauso enjoys interacting with people. He"s not meanspirited in any way – in a flashback we see him helping a scared little girl, and this week in one of the show"s trademark misdirections he"s taken in an old woman who fell from a cliff, not to eat (as is initially implied), but to nurse her back to health.

There"s a definite parallel with the Shiro episode here, since once again the yokai in question ends up going to the GeGeGe Forest with Kitaro and his friends. In fact, Cat Girl swiftly interrupts the old woman"s offer to stay with her in her house to say that Kawauso can come to the forest with her, because even if he moves in with the old couple, they"re, well, old, and in a few years Kawauso will be right back where he started. Humans and yokai can certainly interact and be friends, as we saw in the Sakaiminato episodes, but they have very different lifespans. Cat Girl doesn"t want to see Kawauso be hurt in the way Shiro was, forced to say goodbye to the humans he comes to care for. Perhaps more importantly for the overall theme of the episode, Kawauso and Shiro are both yokai living in rural towns that are in decline. Where they once lived in happy proximity with humans, rural yokai are finding that that is no longer possible. Thus the movement away from nature is also one away from yokai, and like watermelon vines, they"re becoming something that people simply don"t realize exist.

I"m sure there"s a folk song about that somewhere. But maybe anime is the better medium to convey the message today.

Rating: B+

GeGeGe no Kitarō is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Senran Kagura 2nd Season

Senran Kagura 2nd Season

Action, Comedy, Ecchi

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Airing Date:

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はじめまして！
『シノビマスター 閃乱カグラ NEW LINK』公式アカウントを開設しました♪

『閃乱カグラ』シリーズの少女たちがついにスマホに登場！
ツイートで最新情報やキャンペーン情報をお届けしていきますので、よろしくお願いします♪ #シノマス pic.twitter.com/iJEew6TjM4

— 【公式】シノビマスター 閃乱カグラ NEW LINK (@kagura_shinomas) August 1, 2017

(Credit Honey’s Anime when you use our description.)

Fate/Grand Order Zettai Majuu Sensen Babylonia Anime

What You Need to Know:

• At an event for Fate/Grand Order held over the weekend, it was announced that the explosively popular series will be getting both two theatrical movies released as well as a TV anime for 2019 titled "Fate/Grand Order -Zettai Majuu Sensen Babylonia-". The movies are titled "Shinsei Entaku Ryouiki Camelot" and the first is subtitled Wandering;Agateram and the second, Paladin;Agateram


• The TV series will debut in 2019 and be animated by CloverWorks with Toshifumi Akai as the director. Miyuki Kuroki will be the assistant director. Tokoaki Takase will be in charge of character design while the due in charge of music for the Fate/Grand Order -First Order-, Keita Haga and Ryou Kawasaki. There"s also a PV that you can catch below!


• As for the movies, Production I.G. will be in charge of them with Takashi Takeuchi as lead character designer and both Keita Haga and Hideyuki Fukasawa who worked together on Unlimited Blade Works together. More information is coming soon so check out the PV below!

Source: Official Website

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AHHHHHHH!!! I didn"t know this was coming!!! YESSSSS!!!!!!

This is fantastic!

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