== Checking in on the Fall 2017 anime season 'midway' through

It's time once again for a much of the way through update on [[my
earlier impressions of this season Fall2017Brief]]. By now the shows
have all shown their cards and my views and expectations have been
solidified. In the process one show is turning itself into something
amazing.

Excellent:

* *Land of the Lustrous*: This has just gotten more and more stunning
  as it goes along. The show has steadily ratcheted up the tension and
  the stakes, all the while with excellent execution in so many ways.
  The latest episode (episode 9) is a stunning peak of atmosphere and
  all of the crows coming home to roost at once, and nothing bad even
  happened in it.

  (*LotL* was good from the start but the early episodes weren't as
  excellent as the later ones have been. Not because they were bad, but
  simply because the show had to patiently build up the background and the
  overall situation before it could start all the rocks rolling downhill.)

* *Girls' Last Tour*: This continues to be beautiful and touching,
  among other things; it's been quietly and subtly exploring various
  bits of philosophy amidst the ruins of humanity's time on Earth.
  Each episode always pulls me in so well that I blink and it's over.

  (Recent episodes increasingly make it feel like the show as a whole
  is going somewhere, in a way that's slowly increasing an unseen
  tension. Parly this is because the show's increasingly making it
  clear that this setting is basically the end of the road.)

  One thing worth mentioning is that *Girls' Last Tour* has really
  amazingly good sound direction and design. The show's sound work is
  an important part of the overall atmosphere and mood it achieves, and
  the show make it sound effortless; the music and atmospheric sounds
  simply work so well.

* *March comes in like a Lion*: [[The recent arc around Kawamoto Hina
  MarchKawamotoCats]] has been generally stunning and wrenching in a
  good way, and in the process has pulled *March* back from brink of
  semi-boredom. Hina's story is so oppressive that I'm glad *March*
  has moved the focus mostly off it for the past few episodes.

*Land of the Lustrous* is more my kind of thing than *Girls' Last Tour*
is, but otherwise I wouldn't want to rate them against each other. *Land
of the Lustrous* is more straightforward and so comes across as more
powerful to me; *Girls' Last Tour* is a lot more quiet and indirect,
and it seems very likely that we'll get less answers from it (partly
because answers aren't the point).

Very enjoyable to me:

* *The Ancient Magus' Bride*: This has continued to be a solid anime
  of a manga that I love. I don't think it's stunning and there have
  been some bits that were awfully anime in a conventional way, but the
  whole thing remains very enjoyable to watch; I really like seeing these
  stories animated and enjoying my foreknowledge of what's coming. To
  its credit, the superdeformed comedy bits have gotten better and better
  integrated over time.

They're okay and I'm getting what I expected:

* *Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond*: I've recently realized that this
  is basically an anime version of an American superhero team comic book.
  We have the same team of powerful people who have reasonably spectacular
  episodic fights and adventures, and the same fact that there is no
  overall plot or story movement. As an anime this is far more hard-edged
  than an American superhero comic would be, but it's basically the same
  experience.

  I'd probably be more enthused about *BBB & Beyond* if I cared about the
  characters, but I don't. Not even Leo, not any more.

* *Kino's Journey (2017)*: I've realized that a major problem with the
  show is that it's simply shallow. It wants to address big philosophical
  issues, but its approach is bluntly obvious and feels like we're being
  beaten over the head. This would be okay if the show was otherwise
  beautiful or interesting, but it's not; it's generally flat otherwise.

  [[I've said on Twitter
  https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/936834347725832192]] that *Girls'
  Last Tour* is what *Kino's Journey* should be and I stand by that.
  *GLT* is graceful and beautiful where *KJ* is straightforward and
  plain.

  (I don't remember what I saw of the original *Kino's Journey* being
  like this, so I should definitely go watch it at some point. Probably
  not this season, though.)

Neither of these shows are exactly good, but they're okay and at the
moment I'm willing to keep watching them at a popcorn show level. To be
honest, part of that is due to the name and history behind each of them.
If I hadn't seen the first season of *BBB*, I might not be watching this
one.

I'm [[getting tempted
https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/936715877642326016]] to check out
*Just Because!*, so I may have something to say about it soon. I've
officially dropped *Recovery of an MMO Junkie* after pausing it [[early
on Fall2017Brief]]; the romance story may be charming, but I'm apparently
not in the mood for that particular take on it.