Speaking of sequels, holy crap there are a lot of sequels this season. We\u2019ve got continuations of Psycho-Pass<\/em>, Mushi-shi<\/em>, Yowamushi Pedal<\/em>, Chaika The Coffin Princess<\/em>, and probably a few more that I can\u2019t think of offhand. The new season of Psycho-Pass<\/em> has some new people in key positions on the production staff, so folks are rightly concerned that it might not live up to the original. As for the rest, it looks like we\u2019re in for more of what made earlier seasons good. Works for me!<\/p>\n The anime adaptation of Terraformars<\/em> has been causing some controversy thanks to its graphic violence. More accurately, the general harrumphing has been about a conspicuous lack thereof. The \u201cHumans vs. Space Cockroaches\u201d series has been running with some frequent and severe visual censorship, and black circles and rectangles have been slapped over any instances of blood and gore. I tend to prefer minimalist or psychological horror myself, but censoring the violence in a series like Terraformars<\/em> makes as much sense as obscuring the sight gags in a comedy. The good news is that Crunchyroll is in the process of acquiring an uncensored version for their simulcasts.<\/p>\n The beginning of a new season is always exciting, and just about any series has a chance to turn into something awesome. Well, maybe not Cross Ange<\/em>, but I\u2019m not going anywhere near that landmine.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Instead of covering a current simulcast AND a physical release every week, I\u2019m just going to have a general-purpose weekly spotlight section from now on. To kick things off, I\u2019ll be highlighting the new Chaika<\/em> season.<\/p>\n By-the-book genre fiction doesn\u2019t get as much love amongst fans and critics as original content, but there\u2019s something to be said for telling an old story really well. I would\u2019ve passed Chaika<\/em> over if I weren\u2019t covering this season for another site, and boy was I missing out. It\u2019s a fairly standard case of teenagers with magic powers trying to collect all the important plot devices, but it\u2019s made with plenty of style and intelligence.<\/p>\n The cast delivers satisfying drama, fun humor, and exciting battle scenes in equal measure, and the animation is always competent enough to keep up with the script\u2019s ambitions. Coffin-toting heroine Chaika is a delight. Her character design and quirky speech patterns are enough to charm the jaded otaku crowd, but she\u2019s also complex and self-assured enough to win over the rest of the audience. She fights with a comically oversized magical rifle, which is somehow still effective as a visual gag after all these years.<\/p>\n What surprised me while I was binge-watching the first season was the amount of thought and insight hiding inside the story. The series deals with issues of identity, morality, and loss in a post-war reconstruction setting. More impressively, it does all that without sticking its foot in its mouth. Chaika<\/em> reminds me a bit of \u201cmagical battle road trip\u201d classics like Fullmetal Alchemist<\/em>, and has that same kind of appealing accessibility. If you\u2019re in need of a current simulcast to recommend to an anime newcomer, look no further. Speed your way through the first season before while it\u2019s still a quick catch-up process.<\/p>\n That\u2019s all for this week. Come back next week when I finally get back on a regular schedule and maybe even make a logo for this column.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This Week in Anime\u00a0is hastily cobbled together by Paul Jensen. You can follow his ramblings about anime and manga on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>. Check back every Monday for new articles.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As you may or may not have noticed, our anime coverage has been a bit sparse lately, courtesy of some writing gigs I\u2019ve picked up elsewhere on the Internet. This will hopefully mark the return of regular anime content here on SharkPuppet.com, albeit with a few format changes. This Week in Anime will be following [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1537"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1539,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1537\/revisions\/1539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Weekly Spotlight: Chaika The Coffin Princess: Avenging Battle<\/em><\/h3>\n
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