Helck ep. 1

• Before we begin, my prior history with Helck is that I’ve heard the manga is good…that’s it. Still, most of the stuff HiDive gets on its side tends to be great and the posters of Vermilio grimacing, going “Omae wa nanmono da?” (“What kind of person are you?”) are intriguing enough to pull me in, so I’m positive about this.
• “That’s ridiculous!” – I remember seeing a Twitter thread on the meaning of arienai and indeed, that seems to apply here. (For the uninitiated, arienai usually is translated to “unforgivable”, but that was clearly somewhat off the mark in this case.)
• I think Helck is losing me in that it insists on repeating things we already know.
• …so, uh, Helck is okay. The title character is okay, Vermilio is rather yelly (I think people may drop or keep the anime based on her rapport with Hon, which is also okay) and the opening episode was serviceable. That said, I know some people watched episode 2 already, so it’s probably a matter of waiting for both to make sense in sequence.

Undead Murder Farce ep. 2

• I know the actual name of this anime is Undead Girl Murder Farce, but I don’t know why one of the words disappears sometimes. (Localisation…? *shrugs*) I’m getting used to calling it by the shorter name, so the shorter name it shall be from now on.
• This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the OP, but I think this OP is more Mamoru Hatakeyama’s (and Kaguya-sama‘s) style than Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. That certainly says something about what I think about him.
• Oh…crabapples. CGI! On the lace cover! What is the anime world coming to?! (<- exaggerating somewhat)
• Why are all butlers called Alfred…? Did Batman make a cliche of that…? *raises eyebrow*
• I’ve made a post about this topic before, but occult detectives and other detectives are a world apart because we don’t (usually) know all the rules occult detectives play with, unless they do a whole “everything and the kitchen sink” approach bordering – or perhaps taking advantage of – common knowledge of otherworldly creatures based on stereotypes (e.g. vampires don’t like garlic etc. etc.).
• I think the most distinctive things about this anime, in comparison to other anime like it (anime in its genre, anime by the same director, anime in the same subgenre of “occult detective”), are 1) how snarky Tsugaru is and 2) Aya’s lack of a body to interact with the world around her. It mandates the need for a Holmes-like figure to have rapport with. The fancy Hatakeyama flair is just seasoning which is allowed by the medium to make the anime more psychedelic-looking, while the fact it’s a murder mystery means it can utilise the audiovisual medium to its fullest effect by having voices as well as colour, motion and sound effects.
• “Charl” versus “Lottie”…both make sense, but I can kind of see why the change was made.
• This anime is far and away the best of the season…but I can only say that because I’ve only watched 2 anime of this season, haha… *sweatdrops* I wouldn’t say that Helck “pales in comparison”, but it doesn’t have enough of a compelling reason for me to stick around yet. “Yet” being the operative word.