Season Two Ep 12 (FINAL) review

S2E12 (Final) for Season 2 (at least Cour 1) is now on air. Sorry to be blunt and dive straight to the point, but my first main message is: for Season 3, CHANGE ŌDANNA-SAMA’S VISUAL BACK TO S1. This middle-schooler visual does not cut a majestic vibe for the Master of Tenjin-ya. I get it that some readers prefer Ōdanna-sama looking younger, and I respect that, but what we get is not someone who looks like in their 20s. Instead, we get a young school boy, who does not exude the vibe of a Daiyokai Hachiyō, certainly not the way Ōdanna-sama should be depicted.

Second, for Season 3, do NOT use New Animate Studio. This animation studio is so NEW that it doesn't have a lot on its portfolio (hence the poor performance). Get Studio Paper Cranes and Koeda Animation (their staffs were the Chief Animation Directors in charge of Ep 6) for Season 3. Get this: Studio Paper Cranes is in charge of Apothecary Diaries S2 Ep 4. Koeda Animation also did Apothecary Diaries S2, for Ep 24. I trust readers generally like Apothecary Diaries visuals, so these two animation studios should be trusted with S3 Kakuriyo. 

Heck, get S1 animation team (Suzuki Hikaru as Chief Animation Director, Nakamura Norifumi as Art Director and Satō Yōko as character designer) to animate Cour 2 (S3), and just ask them to improve on the full-frame shots because they GET it with the close-up shots of Ōdanna-sama and other main characters.  

I do approve the quality of Ōgondōji-sama’s post-credit scene in Ep 12. That quality is strangely at odd with other scenes, thus, if they are from New Animate Studio, they must’ve had different teams doing the animation. And of course, the worse team is the one doing the only Ōdanna-scene we had in Ep 12 (which is also the last scene in this season). 

See, to me, the Ōdanna-sama in Aoi’s dream sequence is NOT the Master I know. It’s like the middle school, non-grown up version of the Master. That is frustrating, because even at his youngest incarnation as the fish pedlar Jinpachi, Ōdanna-sama in S1 was still super gorgeous.

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE! The level of cheapness that they did with the main male character is really marring the finale for me, such that it’s hard for me to focus on other good things in this episode, and such that I am RELIEVED that Ōdanna-sama is NOT in the post-credit scene!

(I do want to hear Konishi Katsuyuki’s voice once again, but even that they didn’t give us. But at least, if it means sparring us from having a half-baked Ōdanna animation, I consider us lucky). 

Now, several fans like myself and A Sprinkle of Anime have given Gonzo Studio this request via their X account, and here I am requesting you to please please please contact them as well (e.g., through this link). I don’t use X these days except for Kakuriyo reasons, but please make an x account just to tell Gonzo the two things:

1) return Ōdanna-sama’s visuals back to S1 (consult with S1 team on that).

2) do NOT use New Animate Studio for Cour 2 or S3. I leave it up to you which studio to suggest, but for the sake of consistency, I suggest either the S1 animation studio, Koeda Animation or Studio Paper Cranes.

To further prove my point, this is the Ōdanna-sama with New Animate Studio in Ep 12:

Like, who is this teenage Master, again???

This is the Ōdanna-sama in Ep 6 as a flashback, where Studio Paper Cranes and Koeda Animation were the Chief Animation Directors:

See the difference between the two animation studios?

Oh, and these are S1 Ōdanna-sama visuals for good measure:

Ōdanna-sama looks like Naofumi in Shield Hero here, but Ōdanna-sama comes first!

So, New Animate Studio (NEW being the true adjective here) as the main animation studio hired by Gonzo (and Makaria) to animate Ōdanna-sama does NOT deliver.  I understand that livelihood is important, but if they’re not ready to deliver, they do not deserve the honour of animating Kakuriyo. Just – don’t give them the second chance to animate S3. Otherwise, to me, there’s little point of having S3 if the animation for the main character is this bad. 

Yeah, it’s that bad that I think my delay in reviewing Ep 12 is not just because of my deadlines (still got one more work thing to send), but also because I struggle to remain positive with this review. However, as with many things in the world, I remembered that this episode also has good things, thus I hope that I can balance this review somewhat. 

It’s not that other characters are animated that bad. During non-Ōdanna scenes, the animations are actually quite good. Oh… except for this shot when Aoi was almost freezing to death…

Or this shot when Ginji was like – who the heck is this?? His teenage-self?

Or this shot of the trio O-Ryō, Aoi and Ginji, when the proportions are so OFF, though not as bad as the full-frame shots of S2E2 of (again) Ōdanna-sama and Aoi in the garden (don't remind me of Ep 1-3 animation...).

I harbour a suspicion that the New Animate Studio actually does NOT like Ōdanna-sama. Or, the director (Yoshizaki Joe) doesn't like him. Otherwise, why allowing such BAD animations for the main character???

Okay, now that rant is over, let me comment on other things, which are generally positive. 

Generally speaking, the story flows well, and the decision to end the episode with the post-credit scene of Ōgondōji-sama looking at Setsu is great. I love it that I don’t have to redact Setsu’s name now. 

(for those who haven’t read Vol 8 Epilogue, Setsu is Ōdanna-sama’s real name.)

The snow fairies are super cute. These fairies are called 雪ん子 or ‘the snow children’ in the light novel, but I feel they are better translated as ‘snow fairies’; cuter that way. Aoi making the cheese doria (a type of gratin) is just fitting; since the Northern Land is modelled after Hokkaido, which is the best dairy production in Japan, gratin is a natural call. The daifuku (which is actually mochi, but bigger, and with fillings) looks great. I want some. 

The scene where Aoi looked at the stars and saw a red star, resembling Ōdanna-sama’s eyes, reminds me of the exact inner monologue she has in Vol 9 Ch 1. I wonder if Vol 8 Ch 8 does have this line, or whether it was taken from Vol 9 Ch 1. 

I love it that they adopted the Middle Earth Ents for the Winter Lord’s appearance, plus throwing in some Christmas tree decors there. I love the sibling bickering between Aoi and Ranmaru; he’s officially Aoi’s adopted big brother now. Still bickering, but Ranmaru will protect Aoi if needed. I do wish that we have the castle fighting scene enacted; I want to see Ranmaru in action. 

I do wish that we get to see the bad guys (Kiyo's uncle and aunt) got caught instead of being shoved behind the scenes. I guess it doesn't make sense to suddenly show them to be caught if they were not featured earlier on. This production is low-budget, after all, unlike - say - The Rise of the Shield Hero which enables RSH to show a lot of political conflicts.

Anyway, the end scenes are very nice, down to O-Ryō pinching Kasuga’s cheek for being so lovey-dovey.

And as per my prediction, the Ōgondōji-sama post credit scene was very good. 

I am not sure if the decision to exclude Ōdanna-sama (including his voice) was because they just want to keep the suspense… or because they’ve been reading our complains and - at the last minute - delete the Ōdanna-sama part because they (dare to hope???) decide to find a better animation studio for Cour 2 (S3) for him. 

Nah, they don't read our complains. Maybe they were just trying to keep the suspense on, but I am glad, because I don't have to cringe watching the Master being animated so poorly. 

But yeah, that’s the extent of my appreciation of Ep 12. 

I still need to rant about the music that has very little Japanese elements there. The last Kasuga-Kiyo scene has more Chinese elements, and that’s fine if it’s Apothecary Diaries or Raven of the Inner Palace (both of which I do love), but this is Kakuriyo, and it’s decidedly a Japanese ayakashi world. Not having the Japanese traditional music elements flowing through Ep 12 barred me from feeling the nostalgic elements that I felt for S1 (whereas the end of S1 gives us the Shinto Kagura dance and all the Japanese traditional music that goes with it). Again, I’m not trying to be racist or political – it’s purely my desire to immerse myself in a Japanese ayakashi world, and I just don’t feel it. 

Watching Shabake – and even Netflix’ Mononoke (which gives me vertigo due to its bright blazing colours) – get me much more feel of watching Kakuriyo S2E12… and I am sad about this feeling. Guess I will just go back watching Season 1 then, when Ōdanna-sama was animated majestically and the Japanese music consistently graces most, if not all, episodes. 

Just… reshuffle the producers and get Japanese producers to be at the helm for Season 3, instead of having non-natives as producers as in Season 2. Natives who are immerse in their native culture are the best ones to steer this type of production. I mean, I’m not a Japanese, I’m an Indonesia, but I’d be annoyed if most producers in an Indonesian production that delves so much into some Indonesian culture – let’s say Balinese, cos Indonesia has a lot of culture – are not natives, or at least not having the native cultural sensibilities. It just does not connect. 

And for that, I unfortunately am not very happy with the way Season 2 ends. It leaves much to be desired. Seriously, I’m willing to wait for 2 years for Gonzo to get Season 3 correct, rather than rushing it with animations and compositions that left much to be desired. 

To sum up: Ep 12 story flows well, and the end scene was chosen well. The snow fairies are super cute, the food great, Aoi-Ranmaru sibling bickering is funny… but the music doesn’t give me the Japanese vibe, and don’t get me started on most of the animations.  It’s because of the bad quality of the animation that I am glad that Ōdanna-sama isn’t in the post-credit scene.

Sorry, I’m trying to be positive, but I am really scraping the bottom of the barrel right now.

And for you readers, what do you think of this season in general? I plan to write a generic comment on Season 2 recap later, posting between Christmas and New Year. 

Afterwards, I’m going to return to translating some chapters next… but I will take about a month break. It’s been a very busy year for me, so I need some rest… However, if I am quite charged during the holiday, it’s possible for me to translate a small chapter from Vol 11, 12 or 13. I don’t think I will return to Vol 7 Ch 7 soon because it has been covered in S2 Ep 8… but I will pick up on it one day.