It’s been well over 2 months since I last posted for my newsletter so I thought I’d start off with a brief life update to sort of justify me taking a mini hiatus from The Straw Hat Cholo. In mid-April I started a new job, but after a week I became super overwhelmed with every aspect of the job so I quit and went back to my old one. In hindsight, I probably should’ve toughed it out a bit longer to really get an idea of whether I would like what I was going to do, but ultimately, I just felt that I wasn’t ready for the pressures of the job no matter how highly the people that hired me thought of me. Every now and then I question the decision I made. I feel regret, disappointment, and embarrassment, but I guess what’s done is done. For now, I’m back at square one. Back at the job I’ve been at since I graduated college. Back to boring days full of menial tasks. Once again just winging it with no real plans for the future. Still here because of the paid vacation time I’ve accumulated (which I would like to use to go to Japan once it’s safe to do so), but that’s pretty much it. I’ll stop moping and being so pitiful now, but I’ll just say it’s been tough out here, man. Oh well, I’ll eventually find something I want to do.
Now that my life update is over I want to spend the rest of this post just giving a brief update on what I’ve been watching/have watched in the time since my last post. A quick look at the shows I’ve listed it appears that I’ve watched a bunch of anime, but with the exception of 2 shows I keep up with weekly (One Piece and My Hero Academia), it’s been very sporadic watching. I’m super behind on this season’s shows. I’ve been dedicating more of my time to FIFA 21, God of War, and manga/comics when I do have some spare time. Nonetheless, I think this rundown of what I’m watching will put me back in the mood to start watching anime more consistently and continue writing for this newsletter. I still don’t know if I’m any good at this writing thing, but I do know I want to keep at it. So, without further ado, here’s some thoughts on what I’ve been watching over the last two months. I’m going to try to keep these thoughts short and sweet, but some shows will merit a bit more.
Final thoughts on finished shows
Jujutsu Kaisen – I’ve raved about Jujutsu Kaisen for a few of my posts at this point so I won’t take too much space doing so here, but this show is easily one of the best first seasons I’ve watched in a while. It didn’t miss a single time throughout its 24-episode run. The action animation was stellar. The characters were awesome, and I love that the show skyrocketed the sales of the manga. I hope the prequel movie that got announced as well as potential future seasons live up to the quality of this first season.
Attack on Titan – (**Spoiler Alert**) So the “Final Season” of Attack on Titan that ended in March was actually just the first half of the actual conclusion of this series. I should’ve seen this coming considering Hajime Isayama was close to wrapping up the manga around the time this first part finished. Alas, these first 16 episodes were some of the most thrilling and polarizing TV I’ve ever watched. I still can’t get over how much of a savage Eren Yeager became. Or how brainwashed Gabbi is. Or how badass Levi still is. And I’ll certainly never be able to get over Sasha’s death. Sundays hit different knowing AoT was about to do some wild stuff. I’m going to do my best to resist reading the manga for spoilers until the second half of the last season streams later this year or beginning of next year. It’s going to be a tough wait though.
Promised Neverland season 2 – Promised Neverland ended late March, and I’m still so disappointed in what this show became. What started as anticipation for an adaptation of a great story turned into weekly hate-watching, and there are many reasons for this fall from grace. For starters, it tried to shove in way too much story in the span of 11 episodes (technically 10 because 1 episode served as an unnecessary recap episode). Because of that, the pacing was awful, and moments that were pretty impactful in the manga never hit the same in the anime. Second and most important issue in my opinion was the decision to cut out significant arcs (such as the Goldy Pond arc) and characters from the show. The Goldy Pond arc is my favorite arc and probably the second best behind the escape from the Grace Field House arc, and I just don’t understand why it was skipped. The changes that were made were bad as they really never amounted to anything significant. To add to these issues was the fact that CloverWorks experienced production issues throughout the series. What a mess. I don’t know what all went on behind the scenes behind the direction of this season, but it’s a shame a pretty good manga wasn’t able to get at least a decent anime adaptation.
Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train – (**Minor Spoiler Alert**) After months of anticipating when the Demon Slayer movie would come to the States (it premiered in Japan in October), it finally arrived in theaters mid-April. It became one of the most hyped events of the year for weebs as theaters began to open up again, and it was well worth the wait. The movie directly follows the events that occurred in the first season as Tanjiro and friends board a train in order to assist Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku in his mission to hunt for a demon. Everything soon goes to shit when everyone onboard falls into a deep sleep due to Enmu’s (a high-ranking demon) power. Tanjiro and company must snap out of their happy, alternate reality dream worlds before their spiritual cores get destroyed. Mugen Train’s a thrilling movie that delivered some hard-hitting moments and wonderfully animated action. Tanjiro not wanting to leave the alternate world where his family were never killed by demons really hit deep. Same could definitely be said about the conclusion of the Rengoku-Akaza (another high-ranking demon) battle. It’s worth mentioning that this movie saved the Japanese box office during the pandemic by becoming the highest grossing anime and highest grossing Japanese film of all time (beating out Studio Ghibli’s beloved Spirited Away). During a pandemic! Go watch the series and movie, and read the manga if you haven’t yet. Well worth your time.
Yasuke – The new Netflix anime series loosely based on the historical figure of the same name, history’s first black samurai who served under daimyo Oda Nobunaga, was…fine. Good at times, but overall, just fine. I think I speak for a majority of viewers that there was a bit of disappointment that this show didn’t attempt to be more historical. Although there's not much recorded history of Yasuke after a certain point, I felt that the creators could’ve given us a bit more of Yasuke as a warrior for Nobunaga. Instead we get a Yasuke who’s well past his samurai days in a reimagined feudal Japan with magical elements and technological advancements. Yup, there’s mages, mechas, and a werebear in this. I’m still not entirely sure why they’re in this show. Maybe the creators wanted to let us know that this is indeed an anime, and what’s more anime than huge giant robots? Anyway, Yasuke was a decent to good watch. MAPPA studio made it look pretty, and Flying Lotus gave us a dope soundtrack to go with it. If there happens to be a second season, I’ll give it a watch, but maybe this time I’ll pass on Lakeith Stanfield’s not-so-great voice acting and go for the Japanese voice acting.
Thoughts on the Spring shows I’m watching (most of these shows I’ve watched no more than 3 episodes for)
Odd Taxi –Odd Taxi has been my clear favorite spring show so far. Odd Taxi follows Odokawa, a cynical and blunt walrus who drives a taxi for a living (immediate Scorsese’s Taxi Driver vibes). He meets all sorts of unique characters on the job (the funniest one so far to me is the unemployed hippo who is obsessed with going viral on twitter), but his simple way of life is about to do a 180 as a police search for a missing girl leads back to him. I’m only 3 episodes in, but I can’t believe such a smart and witty anime exists. I particularly enjoy how the episodes are driven around the monotone banter between Odokawa and his passengers. I was sold on Odokawa as the main character when he critiqued the shamefulness of trying to become viral on twitter. Could this show have been done with regular people instead of anthropomorphic animals? Probably, but I’m glad it went this route. Where else would you get a capoeira dancing alpaca who has to sell drugs to pay her student loans? I need to get back to watching this asap, and I also need more people talking about this show.
Super Cub – Super Cub has been a pleasant surprise that is easy to overlook considering Spring 2021 is packed with big titles, but I think it’s well worth a watch if you need a low stakes comfort show. A young girl named Koguma, who basically has no one and nothing and lives a lonely existence, suddenly feels invigorated when she buys a used Honda Super Cub motorcycle. Learning how to take care of her Super Cub and the detours she takes slowly, but surely open up her lonely world, and it’s a wonderful thing to see. There’s not much dialogue, but I think the quiet moments really capture how Koguma exists in solitude. So much to love about this sleeper pick of a show.
To Your Eternity – I honestly can’t remember much of this show apart from the amazing debut episode. A mysterious, shape-shifting orb takes on the form of a white wolf who had collapsed and died. The orb-turned-wolf wanders into a camp where most of its residents have died except for a cheerful boy that recognizes the wolf. The two then attempt to travel in the middle of a snowstorm to a village where the boy believes his people are waiting for him. I won’t spoil how the rest of the episode goes, but man, it really hit the feels, and it became the show to watch this season.
Tokyo Revengers – Tokyo Revengers has been a pretty good watch so far. The premise goes a little something like this: loser-at-life, Takemichi Hanagaki, peaked in middle school (absolutely brutal); he had respect, a gang of friends he could count on, and the only girlfriend he ever had. In the present day, he finds out that the middle school girlfriend died at the hands of a dangerous gang, and just before an incoming train is about to end his life, Takemichi flashes back to 12 years prior when his life began to spiral downwards. He soon realizes that he has a chance to fix his mistakes of the past as well as prevent the death of his middle school girlfriend. The early appeal of the show so far is that it’s a show centered on school-aged thugs – a trope not as common as it once was in anime – and how not all thugs are the same. We see this when Takemichi ends up befriending the leader of the Tokyo Manji gang: Manjiro “Mikey” Sano, who has a code of honor and a good sense of what’s right. I’m interested in seeing where this show is going to go because Takemichi is literally and figuratively racing against the clock as he tries to make things right.
SSSS.Dynazenon – This is the sequel season to a show that I really enjoyed, SSSS.Gridman, and I think this show has been a good sequel so far. Four unlikely people meet and have to become copilots for a giant robot named Dynazenon and defeat kaijus attacking the city. That’s the gist of this show. What I’ve watched has provided little as to the origins of these kaijus and the giant robot they have to pilot, but I’ve enjoyed the characters developing relationships with each other.
Megalox Box: Nomad – The second season of the boxing-drama show has hit hard. Right off the bat we see that things really went downhill for Joe following him winning the Megalonia tournament in season 1. He looks like crap. He’s developed an addiction for painkillers and alcohol. His trainer has died, and everyone he considered family has left him. He’s a broken man now. How did he get this way? Well, I’ll have to watch more episodes to find out, but the first few episodes do something that’s not common in anime. On his road to recovery, Joe meets a community of immigrants (could be assumed to be Mexican or at least Central/South American due to them having darker skin, speaking Spanish, and celebrating their version of the Day of the Dead), and they have to find a way to prevent from getting their land sold and being evicted. I’ve been impressed with this show’s careful and thoughtful handling of immigrants and the many challenges they face. Anime doesn't have a good track record of its portrayal of non-Japanese people of color so it's refreshing to see it done so well here.
My Hero Academia season 5 –Maybe it’s because the two hero classes at UA are participating in 4v4 training battles and not something more high stakes, but the newest season of MHA has been very lackluster thus far. I think MHA has that problem most big shonen titles have where they have too many side characters to focus on, and as a result we have to give them some time in the spotlight because otherwise they aren’t essential to the major plot. Maybe my disappointment stems from being up-to-date with the manga and wanting the anime to get to the good stuff already. The big Deku-One-for-All reveal was cool, but I probably wasn’t as excited as anime-only watchers being that I knew about this when it was revealed in the manga. The animation isn’t really wowing me either (with the exception of a few scenes). I sound like a big hater right now so I’ll say some good things about season 5. I’ve enjoyed the strategic battles between the students. My comment about side characters stands, but I do think MHA has some of the most interesting characters with unique powers, and we see that here. I really like the edgelord student who can merge with shadows and pretty much anything black and the eccentric mushroom girl who really could’ve killed Tokoyami by having mushrooms form in his lungs. Overall, MHA has been fine. Maybe a little too slow (please cut out some of these flashbacks!), but just fine.
One Piece – Kozuki Oden’s flashback has wrapped up, and I can’t get over how great of a job Toei Animation (and everyone involved) did with the adaptation of the legendary daimyo’s flashback. Oden’s flashback may not be the most emotional of the plethora of back stories One Piece has to offer, but it carries a lot of weight with the overall story. We get to witness Gol D. Roger find the One Piece, the event that set off this whole series, and Oden’s adventures and eventual execution set up the current Wano arc. As much as I enjoyed the Oden flashback, I’m ready to see Luffy and everyone else in the present day arc because it’s about to be lit. I may not be caught up with all the other shows yet, but I always make sure I don’t miss the new episode of One Piece either Saturday night or Sunday morning. It has been a while since the One Piece anime has made me feel that way! While I have you here, today is a great day to start One Piece if you haven’t!
That’s all I have for this post. As you can see, I have a lot to catch up on as I felt like I gave the bare minimum on some of these shows to talk about, but Straw Hat Cholo is back. The job situation is what it is for right now, but at least there’s anime and manga to put me in better spirits. I got more I want to write about so stay tuned! As always, thanks for reading!