god she is trying so hard to save this series but the direction's giving her nothing to work with

AND THE WORST PART IS WE FINALLY GOD THAT BADASS ROCKER IDOL MUSIC I WAS DREAMING OF

AND I CAN'T EVEN ENJOY IT

Okay, three episodes into Nijigasaki, I've pinned down what's going wrong. This is very clearly trying to be a break from what Love Live has been up until now; I guess they figured after two series that were very similar tonally, it was time for a shake-up, with someone other than Juuki Hanada in the writer's chair, even. And since School Idol Project and Sunshine were both bombastic farcical melodramas, they decided to go in the complete opposite direction and see what happens if you make Love Live... subdued? Realistic? Grounded? What if instead of going over the top, we instead went, I dunno, under the bottom, I guess?

Which, honestly? Not a bad idea in concept. Any series as long-running as this should be able to re-invent itself to keep from going stale, and as much as I enjoyed Sunshine, there was a definite feeling of Not Measuring Up to its very similar parent series. If Love Live just kept being that over and over again, it would very quickly lose its charm and become a hollow shell of past glories. So I support this effort to see what happens when you take things in a more naturalistic direction. We know what Love Live looks like when it's going big and operating, with huge emotions spilling across the pavement, but if Nijigasaki could push this franchise's emotional range into something a bit more contemplative and closer to reality, it would forever expand what this series is capable of for years to come.

The problem is, just shaking up your established formula isn't enough if you don't also execute the new formula well.

And hoo boy, is that not the case here.

See, it doesn't feel like the new writer carefully crafted a new kind of naturalism for Love Live to inhabit with Nijigasaki. It feels like he just took away all the bombast and melodrama that used to define it and then... didn't replace it with anything. He stripped this series down to its skeleton and walked off without building new muscles and skin upon the bones he laid bare, and the result is a fucking void of a show. It is painfully, agonizingly basic, in presentation, in dialogue, in pacing, in theming. Everything that used to make this show great is gone, and all that's left is boring conversations that overexplain every emotional beat and go on way too long, limp platitudes preached with all the conviction of a kid forced to go to Sunday school by their strict parents, and the most lifeless direction this franchise has ever had. Like, Jesus, I complained about Sunshine's direction, but that still had life and energy, you know? Not this completely flat pasteboard of boring shots edited together with no thought or passion (genuinely why the fuck did we skip the scene of the old idol club girls meeting Ayumu and Yu) and barely any actual animation outside the performances.

Like... naturalism is not a template, people! It's not the blank slate of writing upon which all other tones and genres are built! It's a complex, fully realized method of storytelling all on its own, and it requires just as much thought and effort as the more outlandish mode that Love Live usually operates in. You can't just take away what's made this series great and think what's left can stand on its own without putting in the effort to build something new on top of it! Especially since the few times it does try to carry over the series' madcap farcical energy, like with Kasumi, the direction is so incapable of living up to that energy that it just devolves into an embarrassing slog of painfully slow body movements set to cringe-inducing "wacky" music that only highlights how little wackiness can be found here. Doesn't help that it also carries on Sunshine's awkward music direction with BGM tracks ill-suited to the scene they're backing, further confusing any sense of tone... Christ.

I don't like not liking Love Live, guys.

Nijigasaki: "Heard you were talking shit, will a serving of Gremlin be enough to win you over?"

Me: "...perhaps."

Hm.

I did not like the first episode of Love Live Nijigasaki.

At all.

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...son of a BITCH, of course Maria the Virgin Witch was directed by the same guy who directed Code Geass. Absurd mishmash of campy/horny anime bullshit with deliriously ambitious sociopolitical storytelling? That's the Goro Taniguchi special!

So.

Maria the Virgin With is a lot.

Like, I knew going in with a title like that, this show was going to go some out-there places. But good fucking lord, I was not ready for just how far it was willing to commit. What could have just been a simple stupid horny anime premise instead says "Okay, but what if all this horny anime bullshit could be retrofitted into an exploration of Medieval Christian sexual politics?" And then it uses that as a springboard into an actual goddamn political war narrative that examines the cycles of violence that drive us into conflict in the first place, the hypocrisies and sins of organized religion, how faith and militarism are so often intertwined, the weaponization of female purity as a tool of political control and punishment, and specifically a rebuke of the Christian demand to deny yourself earthly pleasure and happiness and set all your sights on the next life while leaving the one you're currently living to wither and waste away. And all of it's wrapped in an unabashedly perverted package that ping-pongs from wretched rape jokes to actual explorations of sexuality, from fetishizing purity to sincere enjoyment of a sexual lifestyle, to one of the most genuinely horrifying scenes of sexual assault I've ever seen in fiction.

It's kind of amazing?

Like I said, it is a lot. It throws anything and everything it can at you, and if the sexual commentary rubs you the wrong way, I can't blame you. But it's just so audacious and committed to its course of action that I found myself getting utterly swept up in the journey. If you think you can stomach its rougher moments, then I can't recommend it enough. 7/10, what an exhilarating ride that was.

And now... I think it's time to dive back into idol hell.

See you soon, Nijisaki...

"I swear to god if one more person accuses me of supporting the straight agenda I am going to LOSE it" -Kumiko probably

So, uh, I think the director and writer of Love Live Sunshine saw this post and decided I had a point.

Watch Girls Band Cry, y'all.

Just once, I'd like to see an idol show where the protagonists are the ones singing aggressive rock-rap barn-burners instead of their main rivals. It's too good a genre to keep consigned to the antagonist bin.

Preparations for battle are under way in episode 6.5 of Beyond the Sable Shore!

Pruning week

Fun times in the jungle, coming soon!

(Editor's note: the times may be significantly less than fun)

So after watching the second episode of the Seiyuu Radio anime, I went back to check the manga, and yeah, they are just absolutely gutting the source material. We've already sped through seven chapters, cutting out most of the deeper character work and interesting factoids about the entertainment industry that made the story work in the first place in favor of pure plot functionality. Just read the manga if it's got your interest at all, it's so much better on every conceivable level.

The once and future queen <3

kagura is me

Reblogging for those who missed it!

I've mentioned a couple times before on this blog that I like making music, right? Well, gird your loins, because it's finally time for me to release my first ever album! Gonna release a single on May 10, then the full album comes out sometime in June. Get hyped!

Oh fuck the new Spice and Wolf dub brought back Holo and Lawrence's VAs from the original

My nostalgiaaaaaa