YuruYuri (Season 3) Episode 8.
Ooh, I do enjoy a good dialogue free/"silent movie" segment and the one in this episode was no exception. It was interesting to see and not hear the characters, I think they did a pretty good job of portraying the characters through their movements. Ayano's silent Tsundere was a particular highlight. The music also seemed to fit quite well, it does make me think it must be a lot of work to get the music and animation to match up (I think there was something about that in Shirobako, I need to watch that again soon).
The segment with Sakurako and Himawari was also enjoyable. It's interesting that Himawari seems to be a bit "further along" than Sakurako, she may be at least somewhat aware of how she feels and she does seem more willing to acknowledge it. I guess I wouldn't mind more actual progress (which is maybe optimistic) but I'll gladly take this sort of thing in the mean time.
It was also nice to get a bit more time with Chizuru, teaming her up with Kaede worked pretty well. I do like the side characters in this show, although there are maybe too many characters as it is to really make the most of everyone. While Chizuru did get a bit more development, I couldn't help feeling that it might be "wasted" since Chizuru is unlikely to become a main character (though I guess I didn't expect Sakurako and Himawari to get as much time as they have). I do also feel that it could be another case of the show wanting to try and stay light, which is fair enough really but I do think that it could benefit from letting itself do more.
The final segment was another one that felt oddly out of place, it had it's moments but it also felt a bit more aimless than the rest of the episode. Maybe that was deliberate or maybe it's building up to something else for the next episode (similar to what happened the last time they did this).
Overall, it was a very good episode even if the end was a little weaker. I guess that maybe means it doesn't quite top the last episode but I did like that dialogue free bit and there was still some good stuff here.
Is The Order A Rabbit??/Gochumon Wa Usagi Desu Ka?? (Season 2) Episode 7.
It feels kind of odd that this isn't the first Curtain Washing story I've seen, I guess that's what happens when you watch a lot of these kinds of shows. I'm not complaining, it was a fun episode.
The Mark II uniform that Cocoa developed was nice, it's a shame they didn't stick with it (at least for a little while). I think Rize's reaction was the best part though (I guess that's often the case).
I do like all the sisterhood stuff in this show but I sometimes feel that it's a shame they don't have a bit more variety. This episode kind of makes a joke out of the sisterhood aspect (contrasting the slightly more heartfelt goings on from the last couple of episodes) and it's still fun but I think I'd like to see a bit more effort put into other aspects. To be fair, they do have some decent friendship moments and such but I do wonder if maybe the show could benefit from being a bit less "light" at times (in the sense of "light and fluffy", I'm not asking for an episode where Syaro accidentally murders Anko and has to hide the body... although maybe that'd be interesting).
Mr. Osomatsu/Osomatsu-san Episode 8.
I'm sort of middling about this episode, I'm starting to feel that way about the show in general really. I think it's probably a very good comedy and well executed but too much of it just doesn't seem to work so well for me.
The decision to mix up the roles of the characters felt a bit odd, Choromatsu works well as the "straight man" and having others take that role in the stories for this episode seemed to make things a bit weaker than they could have been. It feels like the show isn't really concerned with staying true to it's characters when it can just make a joke instead. There's nothing inherently wrong with that but given my tendency to prefer character driven shows it's probably a significant element in why I tend to have mixed feelings about Osomatsu-san.
It didn't really feel necessary either, the previous Totoko segment partly worked by the fact that the characters were still the same but all have a blind-spot for Totoko. This time they were almost interchangeable, with only a few moments of Karamatsu and Jyushimatsu . Having the brothers all act much the same also meant they needed an outsider to be the straight man and Iyami didn't seem like the best choice (perhaps Chibita might have been a better option, though I don't know how he feels about Totoko). It was nice to get a bit more of Totoko as a character but essentially it was covering the same as what was implied last time rather than really adding much.
Both segments had some decent jokes but without that character connection it just didn't feel as enjoyable as it could have been. Still, I wouldn't discourage people from trying the show if they think they might be interested since I think a lot of my issues are entirely down to my own preferences.
