The comedy, the simplicity, the straightforwardness, and the lack of any particularly pretentious elements make this show feel so genuine. There’s Gurren Lagann in the dialogue, bits of s.CRY.ed in the action, tons of Gun x Sword weaved throughout the entire presentation, and even an energy similar to Goro’s episodes of G Gundam all wrapped up in one creative package, and the result will certainly be a rare treat to any other boomers like me longing for the good old days where anime was more about reckless creativity than it was about chasing trends and optimizing algorithms. It’s not trying to be their newest, greatest masterpiece, and if anything it seems instead to want to refine its predecessors down to their most essential elements and walk away with a simpler, more laid-back, innocent experience. Back Arrow holds in its heart all the influences which its old and storied creators carry, but it’s not trying to outdo any of them.
ARROW SEASON 1 EPISODE 20 HOW TO
And if that didn’t at least make you smile, then you don’t know how to have fun.īack Arrow feels like it stepped out of a time capsule from the early 2000s, certainly not made with today’s audiences in mind, and it so boldly, delightfully embodies all that makes writer Kazuki Nakashima and director Taniguchi Goro stand out, it’s hard to even tell where one of them ends and the other begins.īut this isn’t even criticism. A naked idiot who doesn’t even remember his own name falls out of the sky, gets called a dumb bastard (a “baka yarou”), mishears the insult, and decides, yup, that’s my name: Back Arrow.