We here at oprainfall don’t just love video games: we’re big fans of anime, too. So in celebration of the medium, we’re here to give you our thoughts on what we’ve been watching each week as we watch it. Old, new – anything goes.
Currently Airing:
The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated!
Going back to the public bath from the last episode, we this time see it from the point of Saurva, who returns this week. As she prepares to relax, she instead has her visit unintentionally sabotaged by Jahy. It’s good to see her return, not to mention seeing how the manager helps her turn it around after Jahy seemingly ruins the night for her. From there we see Jahy use some of her hard-earned money at a store buying things that are not as great as she was hoping for, something I think most of us can relate to. We see another bonding moment between Jahy and the landlord from an ineffective plot to counter the feared magical girl. While she wants her rent, the landlord does care for Jahy, which is great to see. Lastly, having Jahy give advice to someone who is setting out to bring her down is something that honestly doesn’t seem that surprising at this point. Seeing our favorite denizen of the Dark Realm come up with less than stellar plans and being foiled by something such as crows is an entertaining sight. – Walter
– You can watch The Great Jahy Will Not Be Defeated! on Crunchyroll.
The Case Study of Vanitas
As I continue catching up on the recently-completed first cour of The Case Study of Vanitas, I’m surprised at just how much I really love the world-building. This series has an intriguing magic system, for lack of a better word: everything in the world is made up of “formulas,” and manipulating these changes their aspect. The world of Vanitas is one in which the basic formulas of the world were rewritten, creating levitating rocks out of coal, self-illuminating flowers, and vampires by rewriting the building blocks of humans. All vampires have a “true name,” the core formula that makes them who they are. Corrupting a vampire’s true name by rewriting these formulas creates “curse-bearers,” or vampires who can no longer contain their bloodlust and kill with abandon. It reminds me of Full Metal Alchemist, in a way. There’s a lot of other world-building that I really love, like how vampires live in a parallel world across a rift, called Altus, complete with its own version of Paris. There’s just a lot of intriguing bits and pieces to pick at here, and that’s not even touching on the main mystery of the series: who – or what – is creating “curse-bearer” vampires? We’ve also seen a different side to both Vanitas and Noé, with the former veering decidedly into uncomfortable boundary pushing, and the latter showing his despair. I continue to love them both, though Vanitas is asking for an ass whooping and I will be disappointed if he doesn’t get what’s coming to him. – Leah
– You can watch The Case Study of Vanitas on Hulu.
Old Shows:
Soul Eater
Since I plan on spending my time on older anime for these articles, rather than discuss more of the same old anime for multiple weeks in a row, I’ll be continuing each one in my own time. And on the side, I’ll watch something different for each of these Week in Anime articles. Perhaps I’ll even eventually find myself some new old anime faves I’ve never seen before, or maybe I’ll get one of you readers interested in one that you’ve never seen. Seeing as it’s now October, I thought something a little more fitting for the spooky season was perfect for this week. Thus, I started over on watching Soul Eater. Soul Eater isn’t an anime I watched when it first came out or have any nostalgia for. It’s actually one I originally watched the first few of episodes of with a couple siblings a few years ago. It also isn’t an anime I know a lot about because of my tendency to mostly re-watch old nostalgic faves. However, those first few episodes I saw (which I revisited today) certainly made it seem like a quality anime I could get into.
My first impressions of Soul Eater, after starting over shortly before writing this, are that it’s one of those wackier anime that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but I really like the style of it. I enjoy the style of 2000’s anime and how a lot of them look more bold than some of the 2010’s titles that came later, yet still look improved (mainly the character designs) from even older, 90’s anime. With all the monster fighting, the black cat character living in a pumpkin, the Grim Reaper, etc, I think Soul Eater could definitely be categorized as a Halloween anime, and as I said earlier, it seems perfect for this month. I look forward to watching more and seeing how the characters and story progress. I especially look forward to seeing how Maka and Soul progress with their goal of turning him into a death scythe and if that happens, what Maka does next. What little I’ve seen of it so far intrigued me enough to buy myself a copy a while ago, which is how I watched it today. It’s another anime DVD set in my very modest collection I’ve slowly been adding to. – Jenae
– You can watch Soul Eater on Hulu or Netflix.
What anime are you watching? Let us know in the comments!
