State of the Season pt 3
Following pts 1 and 2...
Bishounen Tanteidan
I've been struggling with how to go about writing about this, because every single sentence I thought of ended with "...and this is why Ouran Host Club is superior and everyone should watch that instead."
I mean, it's not like the show is trying to avoid comparisons? Or maybe they thought Ouran Host Club was so long ago nobody would notice or care? But I mean come on, starting with the whole premise of "pretty boy club where the 'pretty boy' part is of central importance, and where the members are all eccentrics, especially the leader, takes in a girl disguised as a boy as their new member, that girl likes to snark at the eccentricies of the other members, and also she is voiced by Sakamoto Maaya" - even aside of that, there's also the whole "incredibly opulent school" setting, the "incredibly opulent" visuals in general, and...
Well.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It's really obvious. And frankly, Bishounen Tanteidan is not doing itself any favors by setting itself as being directly comparable to Ouran Host Club, because Ouran Host Club is superior to it in every way. Sure, I'm biased - Ouran Host Club is one of my favorite anime shows ever, it's cute, funny - like really funny not "smirking sometimes" funny - it's extremely relatable to me and my fandom experiences, the voice acting is impeccable (Miyano Mamoru when he still gave a shit!), the direction and the visuals are handled by a sure hand, thoughtfully and with a purpose, and the characters are not simply charming and fun - they're just extremely well-written (most of them, anyway) with depth enough to sail a submarine through. (Also: Ouran Host Club is one of those rare anime adaptations which are so much better than their manga source material that it's almost unfair.)
In comparison Bishounen Tanteidan is basically one of those cheap chocolate Easter bunnies. It looks nice and tasty, but once you take off the shiny wrapper and take a bite you'll find that it's 1. completely empty inside and 2. the "chocolate" is just a cheap compound mix.
Really, I could talk about how the visuals are just opulent without any particular purpose, to the point where you just end up tuning them out because when everything is shiny nothing is really shiny; or how it's full of characters talking and talking and talking and talking and saying stuff that sounds complicated and smart but once you stop to think about it it's all banalities at best and pretentious bullshit at worst; about how the "cases" are just random shit happening until someone stops the story to give a lengthy exposition to explain the whys and wherefores, and it's usually incredibly dumb in a not-fun way... really, there's so much I could talk about, but to me the main issue is the characters.
Like, in Ouran Host Club after two episodes you already have a good idea of who these characters are, what are their main character traits, what are their relationships with one another, etc., and it only gets more detailed later on. In Bishounen Tanteidan we're on episode 7 and... who are these people, other than loose collections of randomly assembled tropes? There's Girl With Super Vision who is sometimes reluctant sometimes not; there's Boy With Legs who has legs; there's Boy With Pretty Voice who might be a lolicon and who mostly functions as Mr Exposition; there's Boy With Red Hair who is kind of gruff and likes cooking I guess; and there's Silent Boy who I'm told is artistic but that doesn't really figure into anything really. It's been 7 episodes and the only one with a clearly defined personality is Manabu and even that personality is "annoying and not in a charming way."
Anyway, I'm watching because I do enjoy the character designs, Boy With Pretty Voice does have a very pretty voice and he looks gorgeous, and overall it's a harmless way to spend 20 minutes a week. But honestly, the most enjoyment it brought to me was inspiring me to rewatch Ouran Host Club. Seriously people, watch Ouran, it's great.
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Shadows House
This one, though! After Godzilla SP, this is another very pleasant surprise. I went into this not knowing what to expect, and got a really fun mystery with cute and likeable characters, some nice designs... just overall it's a very entertaining little show with a pretty interesting story so far. (It's taking me some self-restraint not to just get the manga and read ahead.) This is one that I look forward to each week, and I'll definitely read the manga once it's over.
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Megalobox 2: NOMAD
Aaand there's this. This show is just great. Nothing more or less. Like the first season it's a well-rounded, well-produced, really well-done show that basically does everything well and despite being built on obvious tropes, despite the story being predictable, it's so smooth, so well-done, so raw and passionate, it has so much heart - that it never once feels tired or boring. It's a perfect example of how you don't need to reinvent the wheel to make a show good, that tropes themselves are not bad only when you use them wrong (same case with Ouran Host Club vs Bishounen Tanteidan above, btw). It shows how to take something that might be tired and infuse it with a new life.
I mean... sure, these things are incredibly subjective. But personally, Nomad generated a ton more emotions in me with its recent episodes than To Your Eternity which keeps being hyped as the emotional heavy hitter of the season. The episode of Nomad where the past happenings are revealed was really hard for me to get through, because everything in it was either way too relatable or way too real.
So yeah, so far Nomad is one of the best shows of the past years, much like Megalobox was, and I'm fairly confident that it's going to be able to stick the landing.
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...oh yeah, and there's also Fairy Ranmaru. :D But I'm blabbering about that one separately I guess?
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