"Nija shut up about ARGONAVIS" yes in a sec but first let me just talk about this

one thing I rly like about the anime is the subtle & down-to-earth pieces of characterisation that may be easy to miss. stuff like

• Wataru & Kenta's very realistic relationship as two siblings who like ... get along, but have grown distant
• Wataru's somewhat pessimistic attitude (surpassing just being the voice of reason imo, he has a tendency to assume the worst)
• Banri's pragmatic nature & honesty, best seen when Yuuto said he'd leave the band and he was just kinda like okay cool we gotta get a new guitarist now (although he does obviously care, there's nothing tsundere about it he just goes with the situation)
• Ren's emotional drive about anything concerning the band contrasting his quiet / shy side outside of that
• Nayuta's immense stage presence and hold on the audience while not being wordy as an MC at all cause he doesn't need that, he's just That Good
• Yuuto's insecurities he masks with his overly can-do attitude that don't just go away after the Ryuuseiu episode, they're still very much a part of him especially when faced with Gyro
• Rio's the only one of the mains that I feel really needs more screentime / more to work with but he's a bit similar to Ren in that Argonavis is the first thing he really cares about since baseball, so he wants to hold on to it

I just. like that a lot. in 12 (fast-paced & more plot- than character-driven) episodes there's always a lot that goes unsaid but they've been very good with establishing the characters without having to rub it in the viewer's faces. the good old rule of Show Don't Tell, but then they also know when to ignore it. when Wataru told Kenta that he kinda had a complex growing up all I could think was "yeah makes sense" considering how he's always acting AND it also adds another layer of showing because yeah, Wataru would be the kinda person to acknowledge that about himself. stuff like that.

for these kinds of franchises the anime tends to serve as an introduction, and it's doing that really well. I can't wait to see what AAside has in store for all of them hh

please appreciate Wataru & Kenta's dynamic I love them so much more than I thought I would