Kageki Shoujo!!

[MFauli]

I had almost forgotten that idol girl had been sexually abused by her step dad, lol. What a sub plot to ignore after its introduction.

I'm kinda done with this anime, unfortunately, it suffered from uneven pacing and cheap animation.

[Ryllharu]

One badly animated episode toward the end and you write the whole series off?

I noticed a single derp face of the in-betweens this episode. That's pretty good for the third to last episode, especially after the obviousness in the last one.

[MFauli]

Nah, the whole series was less than impressive. Ballroom-syndrome again. I just expected vastly better animations throughout the series, but the issue was: we hardly got to see scenes where better animations could have shone.

Just bland school room scenes, generic outdoor scenes, always static.

[neflight86]

Animation is more than passable, and not an issue to me in a show like this. The 'beauty of motion' isn't a draw here. The story and drama are front and center.

I was wondering if how IGX girl would impromptu act, and her inspiration seemed to wind up being happy memories, from wherever, to fuel a pleasant feeling she can approximate to 'love'. An interesting direction, and her mother's advice seems to have paid off. I almost forgot we didn't see Sarasa show the fruits of her own mind dive, but I'll gladly await that scene. I'm kind of afraid to see the singer girl's almost forgone breakdown during her turn.

Just all around more quality character drama and interactions- the show isn't missing a beat on that.

I like that Kaoru has become the motivational core for their group. She's got the ambition to kick the rest of her friends in the backside to get them up and running to their goals. Sawa is still super overly serious and formal, but Sarasa's corresponding demand for a "coming atcha!" handshake had me rolling.

Agreed. The girls are getting some mileage out of the established characters, and I'm invested in each of them now.

[Ryllharu]

Episode 12
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This is why they hired actresses who can actually sing. Holy shit. Due to the similarity in the lyrics, I got some serious Lilium vibes from Ayako's Romeo solo. Not quite the same haunting power behind it, and she was straining it a little bit at one point (edit: probably intentionally, considering how well she does the ED). Still, that actress crushes the singing, just like her character is supposed to do. I think her part of the ED is also one of my favorites because there's so much depth backing it.

Her backstory continues to be more interesting as well, given her heartbreak and the fact that she actually has a bisexual (or closet lesbian) fan.

But the same goes for Sarasa. Her past continues to get more twisted and fucked up the more we learn about her. Her probable father blackmailed her childhood friend into being her boyfriend so he could keep tabs on her?! And she knew about it and went with it!

It finally explains that cold distance we saw Ai witness on the train platform. Akiya does like Sarasa, but we really have no idea if she actually likes him, or if she's just accepting it. Since Sarasa isn't the POV/narrator character, we really have no idea what's going on in her head about her true feelings.

But now I expect a very conflicted and intense Tybalt from her. Wounded and betrayed, but not full of rage like Sawa's or the copy Sarasa performed previously.

As for Sawa, I suddenly feel like we don't know anything about her. She's a perfectionist and a former prima ballerina candidate, but what exactly was the flashback and the remarks from the teacher meant to convey? Sawa has crazy ability, but why exactly did she give up on ballet? We know she's a Kouka superfan, sure, but it feels like there is so much more depth to her than we've been told! "You'll mess up if you focus on outdoing someone else" cue flashback?! I want to know!

Even more because she later stated that she channeled using Sarasa as a rival to make a focus of her Tybalt's rage (and Sarasa just didn't notice the really obvious essentially duelist glove Sawa threw at her feet, haha). Exactly what she told Ayako not to do?

[neflight86]

I can't speak for the quality of singing, but it was pleasant. Did the others (playing that part) sing also, or was it omitted? The language barrier really does make vetting the 'acting' quality parts more difficult for me, not that I'm an expert otherwise.

I also half expected a 2-in-1 flashback of Sawa's major malfunction.

Does Sarasa actually know about his (father's) meddling? I didn't expect her to intuit that much.

[Ryllharu]

Eps 13 - End
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Little Sarasa reminds me so much of little Chihaya from Chihayafuru. I really appreciate her VA's range as well. All the actresses in this series have some really powerful vocal ranges, whether or not they're displaying it in this season.

I guess we know that Sawa isn't a lesbian! She's so cute when she's honest too. Huge points to Andou-sensei for telling her she's wrong about Genius vs Hard Worker in the performing arts. Everything is work. Like Hijiri said to Ai before, the advantage is a head start, and someone like her (or a genius) just has a head-start so they can stay up front and get to the finish line faster. But to stay there, its' work. Musicians put in a ton of work and endurance to play like they do at their level. Same with singers. Actors that don't put in the work put out shit performances. Another very similar sentiment appears in Glass Mask about it all being teamwork on stage.

Aww, Ai starting caring about what she does again. She's rediscovered her love of performing, lost back when she used to idolize her mother.

Also really liking the consistency from two episodes back (and her summer flashback too) with Kaoru being the coolest girl in their group. Swoon. Aya definitely had the most challengers out of their entire class. Everyone was going for Juliet and she proved why their singing teacher defended her as the 40th out of thousands. She's behind the others, but has enormous potential. She's also the youngest (if I remember right, she's one of the few to come from a middle school instead of high school or even a graduate) with no advantages or prior training. And she got in her first try. Kaoru didn't, and neither did many of their senpai.

Dunno why that girl was guessing her parents were involved. Didn't the teachers say the class' own votes were a big part of the decision? Followed up with Andou telling Sawa that the teachers couldn't even break the tie for Tybalt at first. But the real reason was so fucking funny...their teacher Ohgi is a Kouka fujoshi, just like Sawa.

All in all, this is how you end a season. With a really dense episode. All the developments called back together again in a seamless way. Consistency in development and character, carried forward to future scenes. I can see why the manga gets nominated for best shoujo. Speaking of which...

I immediately started re-reading Glass Mask this week. So...uh...there. I'll say this series has been very successful driving me back to high quality shoujo series. Never getting overly mired in its own drama, and knowing when to break the tension at the right moments. The fact that it has been frequently reminding me of it is a good sign even before they did an overt reference to Glass Mask reactions a few eps ago.

This is definitely one where I'm left wanting a second season.

[MFauli]

Random finale and another anime I wouldn't have started had I known how it'll go.

I guess it's too much to demand a complete story these days.

[Ryllharu]

I guess it's too much to demand a complete story these days.

That's always been the case with anime. You just remember the good series that actually finished. There was also a whole hell of a lot less anime.

An open ending beats a shitty wrap up anime original ending.

[neflight86]

No problems with the ending, and it did an excellent setup for a potential season two. I'd watch it. Most anime are essentially advertisements for their light novels or manga, so if you are unsatisfied and want to see the complete story, the publisher of the volumes invites you to pick them up. Mission accomplished.

Unfortunately, this kind of show will only keep my interest when I'm involved in a conversation about it. I'm learning that makes watching many anime more fun. Meaning, while the manga is likely just as good, I won't be compelled to advance this story until another season airs.

Sawa was cute, in an earnest kind of way, and her pursuit of finding meaning in her loss and struggle (and the conversation with similar-senpai) were spot on. Over the season, it almost seemed that the girls' backgrounds were explored in the order of 'most traumatic' to 'least'. These last few have been fairly standard, and it probably isn't a good look to imply all actresses are subject to mental baggage, so I don't object, but I did notice the trend.