Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I could be negative again about this episode of Dantalian no Shoka. Like the past few, this episode had (surprise!) another uninteresting and meaningless plot, likely the worst yet in the series. And each episode continues to reiterate the embarrassing absence of a central plot, too, like it wants to be remembered solely for this weakness. But instead, I want to focus on the positives of this series and revisit what makes this anime enjoyable and watchable. It’s time to see what’s right in Dantalian no Shoka, rather than being like the series and continuing on what’s wrong (oops, think positive).
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Almost instantly, what comes to mind when viewing Dantalain no Shoka through rose-colored glasses is the artwork and animation. Every episode has had a stunningly beautiful exhibition of colors and lighting, bringing the characters and world to life. The character designs display another level of quality, with exhaustive details in their clothing and appealing faces with a reasonable range of emotions, both appropriate for the style of the anime. And the kinetics, or how they move around when they do, are satisfactory to great, depending on the action or excitement present. And while those aspects keep my eyes smiling throughout each episode, the backdrops in this anime are noteworthy on their own merit, deserving of a paragraph all for themselves.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.There are never any simple backgrounds in Dantalain no Shoka. Every scene has a thorough and charming backdrop to it, which greatly assist in establishing the setting and creating the atmosphere. That watercolor/paintbrush effect, especially with the architecture of this era, is aesthetically pleasing, and it provides a different texture than the foreground with the characters and props. The meticulous level of details, specifically noticeable in the busy bookcases and disorganized libraries, aid in making the world feel realistic, that these are places where people live rather than a room created for a scene to be staged in. It’s truly one of my favorite aspects of Dantalian no Shoka. Virtually every background in this anime has been gorgeous and meaningful.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Dalian, while far from perfect, is another positive of this series. Sure, she’s selfish, childish, and demanding, which are all characteristics I dislike in a heroine but her mature and knowledgeable side is the point of focus here. The ‘adult’ Dalian is a likeable character: she is selfless, mature, and calm, and always there to lend a hand to someone who’s possessed or cursed by those demonic novels. Sometimes the abuser must pay for their crimes but Dalian always sees each event become resolved and always in a serious manner. You can’t really hate the ‘adult’ Dalian, unless you hate people for being too nice or slightly boring (and then you have other problems on your hands than disliking a character in an anime). And honestly, this is what I feel the real Dalian is like or what her character should’ve been. That juvenile persona she often displays serves only one purpose and that’s to make her seem moe or cute. The fact that when the story becomes serious is when she changes her attitude leads me to believe she acts like a child so that people who have a weakness for that type of character love her for her antics and adorable behavior. And while I dislike that aspect of her, I don’t dislike Dalian as a character. She could be better but at least she’s enjoyable when things get real.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I could go further with other positives from the series (the setting, the music, the Phantom Books, Flam and Hal, etc) but this post will only focus on the three topics I wanted to talk about. With the story drawing most of the attention of the series exclusively in a negative light, I felt it was time to redirect the attention elsewhere. The elegant artwork and tremendous backgrounds are the first things that popped into my mind. That and I wanted to go back and talk about Dalian more as a character. I’ve heard some complaints and comments on her personality, but I haven’t had a problem with her except maybe a few times when she was ultra-tsundere, so I thought I’d explore that, too. Do others feel the same way about the positives in this anime? Are there others that I missed and are those why you keep watching Dantalian no Shoka? I’d be interested to hear what people think.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Alright, positive thinking off, onto my last, random, and final thought on this episode: Dolls again in Dantalian no Shoka? Seriously? This is the third time we’ve seen dolls play an essential role in an episode, with the other two being the Melgar and Viola story and the Flam and Hal special (and if you count the golem, 4 episodes). What’s so special about dolls in relation to Phantom Books or their connection to Huey and Dalian? They’ve been interesting and fit the role in each episode, so that’s good, but we’ve had to resort back to dolls three/four times now? It seems kinda silly to continue to revisit this theme this frequently, especially after the Flam and Hal episode, which I assumed would be the last time we saw them. It gets boring and monotonous to reuse this device in a story, especially there’s a friendship between a doll and a human. It’s one of the reasons why I felt like this episode was the weakest of the series, story-wise, thus far. And unless there’s a huge plot twist at the end where Dalian or Huey are dolls themselves or something, I’m praying we don’t see this theme reexamined again in this anime.
Unless it’s another Flam and Hal episode because those two were kick-ass and awesome. I’d be willing to ignore my resentment for dolls just to see those two appear again.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.This week: a fantastic and supplementary use to the overlays in Sengoku Collection, examining fragmentation of the Classics Club in Hyouka, and that annoying convenience in Tari Tari.
These weekly reviews will be somewhat thinner over the Summer anime season, not due to the lack of anime being produced this season or even in the number watched. In fact, it’s rather the opposite in that I am keeping all the shows that were undecided after the first week (Binbougami ga!, Uta Koi, Sword Art Online, and Kokoro Connect), so that means I’ll be following ~15 shows this season. However, not every show has made it to these weekly reviews because I don’t think I’ll have enough interesting items to say about each series. Additionally, I plan on switching shows in and out given their episodes, so that means different shows will be appearing every week from now on with some shows destined to be here more than others based on my interesting in the series and if I can extract something meaningful from each episode. So with that said, here’s the first weekly anime review of the Summer 2011 season!
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Hyouka (Episode 13) – These recent episodes have been innovative for Hyouka given what we saw for the first half of the anime. Though we had a few moments where the characters remained fragmented and apart before the resurgence of the Classics Club, the anime has never really shown the characters alone like this as these Cultural Festival episodes have shown us. Rather than following the singular group as a whole entity, these episodes have bounced around from character to character and presented new perspectives and layers of their characters that further increase their complexity. Perhaps the most notable is how Houtarou reverts back to his previous self, the lethargic and uninterested being who enjoys his solitude while everyone else around him enjoys the excitement of goofing around at school. Similar parallels can be drawn of the other characters, too, primarily with Chitanda being a victim of her curiosity (no one is able to correct her path and she often seems lost). And while Satoshi, Chitanda, and Houtarou have enjoyed their times alone, Mayaka has not with her confrontation in the Manga Club’s room and subsequent failure to locate the manga that supported her argument. Not saying that being a whole or being a part would mitigate or dismiss this problem, but it is meaningful to see how each character works when they’re alone and not relying on others to fix whatever needs fixing. With the story arc nearly over, we can only wonder how much more time we’ll see the characters apart before they rejoin as a collective whole and begin solving mysteries again. Hopefully we have enough time in the next episode to appreciate this change of perspective and can see it at least one other time before the anime concludes.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Natsuyuki Rendezvous (Episode 2) – How different would Natsuyuki Rendezvous be if Rokka knew of her ghostly husband’s constant presence around her? Should Ryuusuke let this crucial secret slip and Rokka learns of Atsushi’s watchful eyes, how would she react? Even if she chose to not believe Ryuusuke’s story of her husband’s lingering spirit and opted to live her life normally, she’d still change, wouldn’t she? Whenever she learns of Atsushi’s constant presence, Rokka will need to respond and change. Based on what limited time we’ve spent with her and learned about her relationship with her late husband, it’s impossible to say, but it’s safe to bet that she’ll change knowing that Atsushi still remains close by her. Even more concerning is how she cannot communicate with him or even visualize his spirit. A troubling discovery should Rokka even know, regardless of whether she believes it or not. Given the structure and story of the series thus far, I believe there will be a time when Rokka learns of Atsushi’s ghost. That is the point of the story I am looking forward to the most since this climax will ultimately determine everything in the series, from the story, to the characters, to the romance, to anything else. That being said, I can’t wait until the series reaches this junction and uncover for ourselves what Natsuyuki Rendezvous is all about.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Rinne no Lagrange (Episode 14) – The first season of Rinne no Lagrange appeared to be relatively light on the overarching story and heavy on the mecha action. So far, in just the first two episodes, the anime appears to have mirrored itself and performed greatly with its story while having minimal, if any, mecha fighting. This shift in style bodes well for the anime as it has begun to address some of the weaknesses in the first season without sacrificing too much from the other aspects that it performed exceptionally well in from the first season. Returning to and strengthening the story in Lagrange was what I needed to see from the anime to be convinced it was heading on the right track to start the season and it has done exactly that, if not surpassed my expectations for it. Bravo Lagrange for being able to start the anime again, after a season off, with quite an appropriate and delightful first few episodes.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Sengoku Collection (Episode 15) – An artistic motif that has bedazzled me throughout Sengoku Collection is the use of symbolic overlays as an aesthetic touch to enhance both the simplistic backgrounds and colorful palette of this charming anime. Though most of these overlays are basic symbols that loosely tie themselves to the characters onscreen or the current situation of the anime, they failed to provide an influential addition and remained somewhat unnoticed or underappreciated. With this haunted house episode needing some assistance in its atmosphere, these visual overlays slowly transformed into horrifying images of skulls, eyes, and ghosts. Almost subconsciously, the anime transitioned itself from its usual, lighthearted and delightful self into a spooky and unnerving anime. Though you did not necessarily focus on the images themselves, these overlays added to the mood of the anime. It was a powerful use of art in Sengoku Collection which is often acclaimed for its use of vivid colors and moe characters. I always appreciate it when an anime does something subtle like this with its details, so it’s no wonder why I felt like this change in style had such a significant impact on me. Hopefully others noticed it, too.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Space Brothers (Episode 16) – Despite living within a tiny, secluded, and fully sealed box and under constant surveillance by your potential bosses, I am surprised at the behavior of so many candidates for JAXA. It seems only one person, Nitta, seems to be concerned about the fact that JAXA is examining them at all times during this test; everyone else seems highly emotional and easily manipulated by the tension of their current situations. And some are incredibly petty and disgusting in how they behave, especially Yamato who has some personal vendetta against Kenji in the B pod. Doesn’t he realize that JAXA is watching him try to undermine his team for his own personal benefit? Surely he realizes there’s more to JAXA than just their ineffective point system. Regardless, it is interesting to see how characters have changed from before this test to now. Should be fun to see what happens moments before the ending when every group is at their climax.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Tari Tari (Episode 3) – Tari Tari seems convenient. Almost too convenient, if you know what I mean. We’re only three episodes in and the Choir and Badminton clubs both were terminated because they needed 5 people. Well the Choir club had 3 and the Badminton club had 2. Perfect! What about their upcoming activities? Why, there’s a music festival that’s just starting up and it’s almost time for a tournament, too! Brilliant! And that problem last episode where the problem suddenly appeared to be they couldn’t get to the concert in time but resolved itself about 2 minutes later and everything was fine? Yeah, that too. Tari Tari suffers from a simple and uncomplicated script. If something needs to happen, the opportunity will suddenly appear and allow the event to pass. And if a problem randomly appears for no reason at all besides adding DRAMA, then it will be solved almost entirely as fast and everything will be alright. It’s this basic pattern of storytelling that leaves much to be desired in Tari Tari, especially considering the growth of its characters.
What’s that you ask? What would I do differently? Well, let’s consider the whole ‘late-for-the-concert-scenario’ which I felt was a great chance for character growth and improved story content. Rather than have the principal suddenly become hospitalized only for someone else to drive the bus, I’d rather have seen Miyamoto overcome with anxiety before boarding the bus regarding the nightmares of her previous embarrassing mistake. With Sawa there to convince her to take this opportunity or regret it for the rest of her life, and done in a compassionate and supportive way, does enough to get Miyamoto on the bus to make it to the hall before their concert. Though at the hall, I’d still like to see Miyamoto anxious and uneasy, especially right before her song starts, but calm down and wow the crowd with her voice. With the successful concert completed, Miyamoto would find Sawa and thank her dearly for her support and getting her to realize her dream while fighting off her demons. Not only would that show more character growth and provide more content to the story but it’d also deepen the friendship between Miyamoto and Sawa. That and I believe it’d be more heartwarming than the concert we saw. Regardless of whether it’s better or not (ultimately up to opinion, right Hyouka?), I’m looking for some improvement in the script and story in Tari Tari.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Last week: tributes or significant references to movies, literature, and music in Psycho-Pass, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!, brilliant visual cues in Shin Sekai Yori, issues with the in-game populations in Sword Art Online, and some positives about the fanservice in Little Busters!
Best episode of the week: Psycho-Pass
Anime trending up this week: Girls und Panzer
Anime trending down this week: Sword Art Online
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Sword Art Online (Episode 23) – A major noticeable difference between SAO and ALO is how much more populated and charismatic the characters felt in SAO compared to ALO. Whereas SAO had a number of named and recurring characters, ALO has been a bargain on characters with every episode consisting of Kitiro, Lyfa, sometimes Yui, and if we’re really lucky, one or two of the other underdeveloped and underappreciated characters. It’s really a barren world from the story’s perspective and a significant reason why this story arc has been less compelling or intriguing as the original SAO story. With well over a dozen characters interacting, adventuring and conflicting with each other in SAO, not to mention how they interacted with their environment and the game itself to create various societies and rules regarding PKs, ALO feels empty by comparison on how strict it is to follow only Kirito and Lyfa around. As a result, the game of ALO has been left untouched and unexplored, virtually in the same condition as when Kirito started the game as it is now with the story arc almost over. It’s a huge opportunity missed with ALO. Even if it was not a part of the primary storyline, there is no excuse for the severe and damaging lack of characters and development of the setting. And this certainly plays a considerable role in why ALO has been a disappointment compared to SAO.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Shin Sekai Yori (Episode 11) – Unlike previous after prior brainwashing sessions, there’s a new indicator present that certainly holds some visual appeal in how to notify the audience when the characters are struggling to recover memories locked away. That is to say the eye twitching the characters show when thinking about their past is definitely a positive change in the series in how it signals what lines of dialogue are truthful and what are memories implanted in their mind to protect themselves and others from discovering the shocking truth of their society. But the ways the eyes twitch, almost inconspicuous and unremarkable, is a fascinating addition to visually cue the audience of key lines in their dialogue. Of course, the series could do without and leave it up to the attentive members of the audience to figure things out, but the eye twitching is a lovely addition. Not only that, but I wonder if the characters see the eyes twitch themselves in the series and if they are curious about it at all and wonder about its significance. Perhaps this may lead to some development down the line with respect to why the eyes twitch when trying to search repressed memories or false histories. Either way, I find this addition to the series to be intriguing and expressive, and I am happy to see it be placed in the series with a potential for it to be used at any point for the characters to help understand their brainwashed situations.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Psycho-Pass (Episode 9) – I couldn’t help but notice a few similarities between Saiga Jouji’s quick and impressive dissection of Akane’s character by use of criminal profiling and clinical psychology and the opening scene of Blade Runner where Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) interviews a young lady named Rachel (Sean Young) and is able to discern whether she’s a replicant or not. With a number of references to Blade Runner already established through the setting and criminal justice system, I found this one to particularly strong and perhaps a bit of foreshadowing. Although the scene from Psycho-Pass was not a direct copy or imitation of Blade Runner, it had a enough of a similarity by felling and purpose that it immediately popped into my mind moments into the scene. As for foreshadowing, along with various hints and suggestions provided throughout the rest of the episode, it might be another piece that points toward Akane becoming a latent criminal before the end of the series, something that would eventually pit Kougami against Akane in the final episodes. Still, regardless of its implications for future story events and characterization, the scene was a pleasant tribute to Blade Runner which I feel has had an immeasurable impact on Pyscho-Pass.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Medaka Box Abnormal (S2) (Episode 9) – The timing of the opening joke in this episode perfectly synced up with Little Busters! for me. Having just finished the episode previously, Medaka opens up the ninth episode of Medaka Box Abnormal by asking what the baseball club does. Although the Little Busters! aren’t the baseball club, I began wondering that myself seeing as they are a baseball team that does everything but play baseball. Just really good timing I guess between watching the two anime.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Little Busters! (Episode 10) – One positive aspect about Little Busters! is how it manages to avoid those typical fanservice clichés while still having some level of fanservice present. What I mean by this is that there was that Riki needed to go to the classroom where the girls were changing into their gym uniforms since that’s where he forgot his tracksuit. Rather than having him walk in on Mio or some other girl still in their underwear, he walked in without incident. And when he knocked Mio over when searching for the baseball, she didn’t fall in such a way her skirt fell up and present her panties for the whole audience to see. Rather, Little Busters! has avoided most of its fanservice besides a few pantyshots early on and most of those were immediately used for character jokes rather than trying to exploit the characters sexually for fans to excite themselves over. In fact, considering the level of fanservice in other anime present this season, even in shows like Shin Sekai Yori (girls/guys kissing each other), Girls und Panzer (multiple bathing scenes), and Psycho-Pass (debatable), Little Busters! is among the least fanservicey in terms of perverseness and ecchi material. And among the most positives about this is that it doesn’t really use any clichés in presenting the fanservice like walking into a room when a girl is changing or girls falling over for timely pantyshots. In this respect, Little Busters! is doing quite well for itself.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Kamisama Kiss (Episode 10) – Although background characters, often given minimal appearances and even less in the way of dialogue, I find their characters to be fascinating. Of note is Umibe who was used as just for gags as a stalker previously but is now shown to be friends with Kei who invited her to her mixer. At the beginning of the series, Umibe was attached at the hip with Tobita and Hitami as a trio who obsessed over Tomoe and Kurama and were used for some quick laughs. The three seemed to be inseparable, traveling together in a group of friends who shared the same interest in boys and… well, that’s about all we got to see from them. Now we see her with an entirely new set of friends, taking part in the mixer with Nanami, Ami, and Kei. Rather than be with her friends from before, here she is with an entirely new group of girls who have somewhat different (read: developed) personalities which, in turn, seems to reveal more about her character than just a simple background character used to show how hot and sexy Tomoe and Kurama are. It’s nothing really important, especially since she never had any lines, but how Kamisama Kiss uses its background characters is nothing short of curious or fascinating. Perhaps the most noticeable is that jerkface Isobe has vanished from the anime after being used primarily throughout the beginning. He hasn’t appeared since making fun of Ami’s panties a few episodes ago. Now, seemingly replacing him is the rather calm but passionate Kei who appeared suddenly just a few episodes ago and was instantly best friends with Nanami and Ami. Likewise, Tobita and Hitami have faded despite being some of the first girls seen at the school. Will there be anyone to replace them, too, or is the anime transitioning away from the school as has been hinted in previous episodes? Either way, I’ll be interested to see how these characters are used throughout the remainder of the anime.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.K (Episode 10) – The history between SCEPTER4 and Homra seems to be quite intertwined given the intimate relationships the higher-ups in each organization share. As we’ve seen over the course of this anime, each of the top three in SCEPTER4 and Homra have a bond with each other, specifically that Reisi and Mikoto know each other, Seri frequents Izumo’s bar (enough for him to know her drink), and Saruhiko and Misaki hate each other given how the two broke-up before the series began. Given these various and diverse bonds, it’s no surprise that the two organizations are constantly struggling with each other. It may also hint at why SCEPTER4 is so absorbed in the murder of Totsuka, too, since there might be some history with him to the members of SCEPTER4 than just being an outlaw in Homra. Guess that’ll be revealed sometime later when the anime moves back to his character rather than the two sides chasing after the murderer.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (Episode 10) – English print in anime and manga is always fascinating since it is often used from various literary sources that may or may not hold some significance with the series. In the tenth episode of JJBA, the newspaper that Joseph was reading happened to be entire passages from the novel, The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with this novel, but it appears to tell the story of a lads rise from poverty to the upper class. While this mirrors the development of Dio Brando, it does not necessarily mean anything with his character now gone from the story. Rather, the fact that this is a story about an uncanny and talented painter seems more in line with Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo than JJBA. Then again, the book may have been selected as the default English text for another reason than to hint at some character development or anything subtle like that. Or the text could be entirely random and meaningless, just selected since the director or producer liked the novel or something. Who knows? Still, it’s always fun to see what literary works are used for English texts whenever they appear in anime.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Girls und Panzer (Episode 8) – With the sudden revelation that the girls need to win these battles to save their school from going bankrupt, one has to question how the school is funded in the first place, why they’re atop large battleships and that these ships sale all over the world regardless of the school’s discretion but entirely for participation in these fun, little war games. Like, if the school is running out of money, why sail across the globe to Siberia for one game of tanks? Unless the prize money is somewhere in the millions for schoolgirls firing explosives at each other on a frozen tundra, wouldn’t the school’s backing of this club be costing it even more money? I fail to understand the financial background of this anime besides it being used as a device for sudden drama to make these next few battles more meaningful and dramatic than just fun and entertainment. Although I am still enjoying the series for its depiction of warfare, its lighthearted themes and emphasis on friendship, this development about saving the school feels out of place, like it doesn’t really belong with any of the other positive, friendly aspects of the series. And while the anime has made about zero sense before, often feeling illogical but in a fun type of way so that you don’t care about it, this just seemed abrupt and unpleasant. Meh, hopefully it’ll clear itself away quickly or something so the anime can get back to better things like watching tanks drive around and blow each other up.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! (Episode 10) – Almost immediately did I recognize the melody of Rikka’s song at the end of the episode being Miagete goran yoru no hoshi wo. It wasn’t until a little later did I recall hearing before as the ending theme to the anime Twin Spica which is where I was first introduced to the song. The song was originally written in 1960 for a musical of the same name and was performed by Kyu Sakmoto in 1963. It was likely either of these performances where Rikka’s father heard and fell in love with the song. The song is rather lovely, too, and I’ve begun listening to it again since this episode of Chuunibyou. Whether the song has some significance to the characters beyond just being a beautiful song, I have yet to discover, but the heartwarming and positive nature of the song is certainly appropriate given Rikka’s development at the end of the episode. Really a wonderful ending to this episode.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.This week: an analogy between the war and the Crusades in Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, the unpopulated, empty world of Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, the damage and durability of the karuta cards in Chihayafuru 2, and thoughts on the criminalization of artists in Psycho-Pass.
As I’ve been readjusting the format of my Seasonal Reviews, I’ve figured to carry that over to my Weekly Anime Reviews, too. Although I don’t believe there was any trouble regarding the positioning of the pictures and the title of the anime, I hope that this new format will help separate shows better and give it a more open and clearer appearance. If anyone has feedback on the style and formatting, please let me know, otherwise, I think I’ll keep this style for now.
Chihayafuru 2 (Episode 1)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.When Chihaya commented on the increased budget for the karuta club and the subsequent purchasing of new cards, it ignited a spark in my mind. I’ve always been curious about how damaged or bent these cards become after being used for practice over the years. You always see the characters slapping and tapping and being incredibly swift and forceful with these cards, so some wear and tear is expected after using the same cards every day for months at a time. However, every time we see these cards, they look pristine and intact, almost like they’re still new. I’m not certain if that is because these cards are made with to last through these matches through some special or thicker material but that’s how it seems. I’ve always wondered if we’ll ever see a card damaged or disfigured through the course of this second season, such as an event occurring during an intense match or something. I’m sure these cards have different lifetimes depending on who is slapping and pressing them, so it shouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that to happen sometime, especially with the more skillful and faster players appearing in these tournaments. It’s been on my mind since that scene in this episode, so hopefully there is some answer or resolution to this question somewhere further on in Chihayafuru.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure knows how to instill drama, excitement or emotion into every scene, if not every moment. Perhaps the most beloved and popular feature is the number of ridiculous poses and awkward postures that every character seems to do before and during each and every fight. For me, I find the brilliant use and incorporation of colors and textures to be the most appealing aspect. Not only do they immediately contrast the colors with this jarring and dramatic effect, helping denote a significant event or scene in the anime, but also in that the colors and textures are never the same but always changing. For example, look at the variety of colors that are used for Joseph’s hair since his introduction to the anime. There are multiple occurances of this color/texture effect and each one seemingly uses different colors and textures for this dramatic effect. There is no real purpose to the colors utilized besides creating a jolt where everything is cast through a new perspective. Instead, it’s always something different, something new compared to the previous examples which is something I’ve grown to appreciate in JJBA.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Anyone else curious on why it took so long for Haruka to meet someone who’s optimistic, cheerful and who wants to make friends with a social outcast? Considering that every moe anime is populated with numerous characters who are happy-go-lucky, dumb and always smiling and friendly, you figured it’d be only a matter of days before Haruka meet some beaming moe girl to cheer her up and rescue her from her depressing childhood? Maybe she was in the wrong anime considering that everyone was an asshole to her and refused to look at things objectively and evaluate what they’re doing wrong rather than shifting the blame onto the honest and transparent Haruka. Hell, I find it hard to believe that no one even talked to her and said that everything would be alright if she just kept her mouth shut like most girls with mysterious, psychic powers. Maybe they all wanted their lives destroyed by her? Or maybe Haruka’s problem isn’t just being a psychic but a psychic with a compulsive speech disorder that forces her to blurt out everything she learns from reading everyone’s mind. I don’t really know, but fortunately, Haruka has befriended Yoshihisa since it appears that super-friendly, super-happy and super-dumb moe girls don’t exist in this new type of terrifying hell world.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Great, I’m glad that everything with Mio was resolved and life is back to normal, but… what about all that magic going on? Isn’t Riki going to question how Mio made Midori and they switched places or anything like that? I mean… she did something extraordinary and phenomenal here and he’s just going to drop it and move on? Like… how did she do it? I mean, it’s possible that this isn’t the end of Midori or that something similar won’t happen again to Mio, like after she graduates from high school. The problem hasn’t been fully resolved with Mio, so why does it stop here? I don’t know, I just thought maybe they’d go a bit more into what exactly happened with Midori reappearing again and usurping her life.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Although the setting for Maoyuu is ultimately high fantasy, it does borrow a collection of historical elements for the purpose of explaining and exploring its world. Among the details that we’ve discovered through character dialogue or through observation of the physical setting, we’ve understood there are similarities in concepts, theories, social structure, architecture, clothes and so on and so forth between this world and the High Middle Ages of Europe. Perhaps the most descriptive and distinctive, however, is how the current war parallels the Crusades. With both military campaigns, the many nations of the north send their armies to the distant south based on fear and misunderstanding. These armies found success early by taking strategic landmarks and strongholds but the opposing army retaliated and pushed back. The perspectives on both sides are similar too, with the northern armies believing that their actions and that the war was justified while the southern army fought for their land and their survival. Furthermore, it seems as though there are many nations and soldiers banding together from the north whereas the military of the south appears much more unified. Of course, there are other parallels that can be drawn between the two wars, but it appears to me that the war taking place in Maoyuu is mirroring the events of the Crusades some thousand years ago, at least from this perspective. As the story goes and the war is explained further, it might be quite different, but for now, it appears as though these two are analogous. Also, I want to stop before I make the comparison that Maoyuu is actually some strange romantic story between Richard the Lion-Hearted and Saladin. [whoops, too late.]
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Judgment from the almighty Sibyl System is based on psychoanalysis of an individual and grades their output in the form of a gradient of colors and numbers which is ultimately the difference between being innocent and being guilty. It appears, though, that artists have been persecuted more in Psycho-Pass than any other profession or lifestyle. Given the premise of this episode with the unauthorized musicians and Yayoi’s past and combine it with previous ones, such as with the painter/sculptor (Rikako Ouryou), public speaker/activist (Spooky Boogie or Shouko Sugawara), the crazy guy at the correctional facility that drew all over himself and Makishima who attempted to show liberation through his mutilations. Perhaps it is the stimulation and emotion derived from art and expression that causes these characters and these people to have disturbances psychologically which can be recognized and registered by Sibyl to be criminal, but I believe that this is an underlying theme in Psycho-Pass, especially after this episode. This focus on art and expression in the world of Psycho-Pass is being closely regulated and often times censored due to its emotional response in people. Although not everyone associated with art becomes evil and is deemed a criminal, there appears to be some ideas that art is dangerous in this society. Because of that perception and how the Sibyl System works, it seems as being an artist is the gateway to becoming a criminal.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Of times in anime and manga, a trauma or phobia that developed in a character as a child is often idiotic, irrational or completely non-relatable to the audience. In the case of Junna, her fear of robots is perfectly understandable and this episode did a fantastic job of showing it to us and showing how she came over her fear. When Junna was just a kid, she was probably fond of the friendly, talking robot named Yoshiro. However, Yoshiro’s voice is eerily similar to Kyubey’s from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Imagine that, being alone with a robot that sounds like Kyubey and how it’s telling you that it’s a friend to humans. And then it falls on her, probably as some sort of terrifying attack on poor Junna. Yeah, no wonder why that thing scared the hell out of her. However, it was through her mastering the controls of Yoshiro did she manage to conquer her fear of robots, showing that she is effectively controlling this Kyubey-sounding robot and preventing it from ruining the lives of all the children around her. Or… at least that’s what I am pretending is what happened since the episode was pretty dumb. I’m glad that Junna is over her fear of robots and will again be an active participant but her backstory turned out to be pretty lame.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.While it may seem as though Sorata is the only ‘normal’ one at Sakurasou, his emotional outbursts and lack of self-control around Mashiro seem to indicate that he’s just as crazy as everyone else (but not in a good way). Sorata seems to take out his frustration on Mashiro and often at times when she wants to comfort him or at least be together with him. This isn’t the only episode where it happened as different variations and severities of these encounters have dotted throughout the series. It really is irritating to watch these scenes knowing that Shiina has done nothing wrong but gets yelled at because of Sorata’s issues and his lack of understanding others. If only he were calm like Shiina and the two took a moment to talk things out, then there wouldn’t be so much conflict and forced drama between the two. Then again, if everyone did that for every problem, Sakurasou wouldn’t last for one more episode since every issue would be resolved almost immediately and there would be no anime left. Still, it pisses me off to see this time and time again in Sakurasou, especially since no one has bitchslapped some sense into Sorata yet.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Although the world of Sasami-san is rather distinct from other anime with its surrealism and imagination, it is like many other SHAFT anime in one specific and characteristic regard: the world is barren and uninhabited. Like Bakemonogatari/Nisemonogatari, ef – a tale of memories, Arakawa Under the Bridge and many others before, the worlds of these anime are unpopulated, vacant. There are no people in the background. There are no signs of life, like moving cars, trains or busses running. It’s empty. It’s emptiness. But this is typical of SHAFT and how their settings are visually constructed and how their worlds are portrayed. Despite being located in an expansive cityscape with skyscrapers and neighborhoods, it’s populated with just five characters right now. This aspect of SHAFT has always fascinated and intrigued me, so it, again, captivated me while watching the first episode of Sasami-san. I certainly hope that this trend continues since these curiously empty worlds always seem to fascinate me, especially considering how peculiar and enigmatic the setting is.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.It is rather remarkable how immature and unprofessional the student ninjas of the Hanzou Academy are compared to what we perceive and understand ninjas to be. Rather than being silent, sneaky assassins who used for espionage and other dangerous missions, the five girls are boisterous and disorderly or are nonchalant and playful with each other. And though this is used to generate some fun and fanservice for the series, it also shows how amateur they are as ninjas and why they need to continue their training at the Hanzou Academy under their instructor, Kiriya. And yes, this even includes Ikaruga who, despite being the most mature and serious of the Hanzou girls, shows lapses in her judgment and awareness. Even how she pulled Asuka aside, away from Yomi, looked like how a child would pull their sibling away after a stranger began talking to them (and the whole “don’t talk to strangers” segment afterward confirms that). It is doubtful that we will see the girls develop and mature into the stereotypical ninja archetype with them being sneaky and shadowy assassins but the series should show the girls improve their skills as ninjas before the anime is over. Sure, there’ll still be scenes of them fondling each other’s boobs and relaxing in kiddie pools in the secret hideout, but the five girls should be better ninjas at the end than what they are now.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.It has only been two short years since we last saw Squealer and his colony of queerrats. What was then a disorganized and diminished society living in a series of caverns is now a bustling, flourishing civilization that has seen countless advances in technology, lifestyle, social policy and government. A few of these notable changes are that the queerrats have banded together despite being segregated and warring colonies before, that they have begun adopting a democratic structure as their new form of government, that they are now building permanent buildings through use of concrete, that they have fashioned armor for themselves and were able to perform some type of brain surgery to disable the tyrannical Queen. In these two short years, the queerrats have seen unfathomable advances in their society to the point where they are harnessing technologies and practices that the humans had dismissed long ago. It would seem likely that the queerrats were able to obtain some of this forgotten knowledge for themselves considering how many years it took to develop these technologies and techniques, so it will be interesting to learn what else Squealer, or rather Yakomaru, knows beyond what we’ve already seen. It will be especially interesting should some of this knowledge be used against the humans, starting with Saki and Satoru…
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Even though Dera Mochimazzi is what made Tamako Market a marvelous fantasy experience, I almost wish we had an episode without him to see how the Usagiyama Market functioned before his arrival. Sure, the whole opening scene up to his introduction served as that segment and I suppose the relationships Tamako has with the other vendors and shops haven’t changed, but it would still be something interesting and slightly amusing to see. It seemed as though the episode took a focus on Dera Mochimazzi rather than on Tamako or the market in this first episode, so our baseline for what’s normal is rather minimal and has been slightly diminished given that we were more interested in the talking bird than what Tamako’s life was before this unlucky encounter. Maybe we’ll see these details sprinkled throughout the series but it doesn’t appear that we’ll be receiving it upfront, if at all.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.This week: Shiori’s social anxiety in Tamako Market, the non-existent character development in Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, how the Sibyl System has changed perception in Psycho-Pass, and questioning Hibito’s actions in Space Brothers.
Best episode of the week: Chihayafuru 2
Anime trending up this week: Space Brothers
Anime trending down this week: Maoyuu Maou Yuusha
Chihayafuru 2 (Episode 3)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Although neither Sumire nor Tsukuba have fully adjusted to karuta yet, it felt incredibly rewarding and reassuring to watch them participate in the team matches for the high school tournament. Both players were figured to be handicaps for Mizusawa, especially with Sumire still memorizing all the poems and Tsukuba transitioning from ‘second verse karuta’ to ‘first verse karuta’. However, thanks to some ingenuity and thoughtfulness from Tsutomu, both of the new members were able to play in their first matches despite still being novices to the game. Although neither character played any meaningful role in the matches, you could see how much each character learned and understood through playing against a real opponent in a competitive match. Not only that but their appreciation for the game, as well as the other club members, grew exponentially as well. You could literally see these characters mature through the two games. The whole experience was meaningful, encouraging and above all, made the episode a satisfying one to watch.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Seeing as Caesar acknowledges Lisa Lisa as his teacher/mentor, it seems surprising that he seems so unfamiliar and unaware while under her training again. Even if he mastered the basics of the Ripple under her tutelage, you’d figure he’d know more about her training methods or even her top assistants, Loggins and Messina. It’s not like he’s unfamiliar with the Hell Pillar Climb either, yet he seemed genuinely surprised at everything occurring around him. He really shouldn’t be reacting this dramatically if he’s already completed some training under her, knows about her methods and is familiar with the local training grounds. It makes you wonder just how much training he has had under Lisa Lisa and how much further he can go to master his Ripple. On top of that, just what exactly was he training for when he left her academy with only the basics? I’m really curious about the previous training experience and what exactly Caesar hoped to accomplish with such a limited mastery of the Ripple.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.While Kotoura-san has numerous positives and deserving merits, I have found one simple, recurring element that is hands-down the single best aspect of this delightful anime. Shown time and time again in every episode, Haruka’s various faces and eccentric facial expressions continue to win me over without any hint of fatigue or failure. Not only are all her faces incredibly cute, which fit the theme and appropriateness of this anime, but these reactions play an essential role in expressing her character. And when she isn’t being adorable or humorous with these faces, she’s using them to express her feelings visually, reinforcing her characters as one overcoming a distressing childhood of anxiety, depression and loneliness and transitioning to one teeming with happiness, vigor and optimism. There is some real meaning behind these faces, more than just being appealing or funny. It this duality in her facial expression, the simultaneous cuteness and characterization, that I find exceptionally charming about Haruka in Kotoura-san and it has quickly become my favorite feature of this anime.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I would say that the character development in Maoyuu Maou Yuusha has come to an immediate halt but that would imply that development was occurring prior. The fact is, no one in Maoyuu has grown or matured since their introductions with the exception of Maou who has seen minimal character progression across these fundamental episodes. At this point, Yuusha is still indecisive, unproductive and regrettably confused and frightened by boobs, Maid Chou is still insightful while remaining remarkably cold and distant, the older sister Maid has received an education but has achieved nothing with it, and the remaining cast members have been given an insufficient duration of screentime to note any discernible growth or maturity. For Maou, her development has been largely on her dysthymia and perseverance but both trace their origins to her unrequited romance with Yuusha which continues to frustrate and disappoint. And though there has been progress on her part, her body insecurity continues to be perplexing, especially since it has no role in the story of her character besides BOOBS again and again. I pray something jarring happens quickly, something to shake the foundation of this series and show the characters what an amazing influence they are having on the world. Additionally, something needs to happen to correct the “romance” since it’s been stagnant and abysmal to date, much like the character development for Yuusha. Maybe he’ll finally realize and appreciate all that Maou has done for him and mankind and treat her as she deserves. But then I might be happy with Maoyuu, and we know that this won’t be happening unless some significant changes occur.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.It’s rather fascinating how myopic and blind the society has become in Psycho-Pass. Rather than looking at people for who they are and what they are, scanners swiftly analyze whatever brain material is accessible through their detectors and assign some values based on a scale of pretty colors and arbitrary numbers. Through acceptance and acquaintance of the Sibyl System, people have begun to rely on these readings and expect the Public Safety Bureau to facilitate peace and foster security in this sheltered society rather than to look, think and feel for themselves. It leads me to wonder if others around the world are like this too, or if such a system exists in Japan only. Not only that but does such a system exist in rural environments, too? Do other systems have similar but slightly different Psycho-Pass systems with differing data points, formulas, sensors to better tailor their local population’s psychological activity, the regional laws and the capacity of which their police force operates? If so, how do these various populations and societies function with their civil justice systems and are they as intolerant as the citizens under constant observation of Sibyl? I’d love to see how outsiders would respond to this system, these crimes and life in general under these conditions.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Another episode of Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, another comment on the mesmerizing and dazzling aesthetics and animation. The focus this time is on its vividly detailed environments, particularly the forest that Sasami and Tsurugi visited on their way to the Tsukuyomi Shrine. The way nature is illustrated in this anime is absolutely breathtaking with an assortment of colors, lighting and details to portray a genuine world that’s rich in vibrancy as it is in vegetation. It’s that intensity and enthusiasm and clarity in its composition that gives it such an astounding, gratifying feeling when watching the characters wander through it. These backgrounds translate to us an atmosphere or a mood and the theme employed in the forest was one of tranquility and reassurance. And while it’s well below the extraordinary level of Makoto Shinkai, it’s well above the median for scenery and environments shown in TV anime. The only other show that comes even remotely close to this masterpiece is Shin Sekai Yori which has utilizes its own unique style for its horde of ecosystems. Hopefully the anime shifts its developments to the world outside Sasami’s bedroom because I’m beginning to favor it more than the serene and fuzzy watercolors that saturate her comfort-zone.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Whether by design or simply by execution, the villains of Senran Kagura are easily the superior characters of this anime. It isn’t an issue of some character designs being better than others or anything like that but that their personalities and motivations seem stronger, more consistent and generally more entertaining. The five ninjas of the Hanzou Academy all have something that’s limiting their character or preventing them from being as enjoyable as they should be. For example, Ikaruga never fails to nag on the other girls when they’re trying to have fun, Asuka and Hibari seems to be hesitant and lacks the resolve and determination to improve as a ninja, and Yagyuu could use some screentime away from Hibari to give herself some necessary freedom to improve upon her individuality as a character. The five ninjas of the Serpent Academy for Girls don’t have this issue, at least not now judging by their appearances in their limited screentime; instead, these girls are fun, confident and independent as characters and have yielded some of the most stimulating and pleasing scenes of the anime thus far. Judging from the preview of the next episode, it seems that these girls will be given more of a commanding role in the episode and be given the chance to have a real battle rather than these minute skirmishes which, although have been exciting, have been way too short. As long as these villains continue to appear and wage their war on the Hanzou Academy, then Senran Kagura is certain to improve.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.While Saki has always been a mature individual, whether she was 12, 14 or 26, Satoru has grown from a rather juvenile troublemaker into a knowledgeable and understanding adult. It is true that both have grown over the course of the series as it has transgressed through 14 years, but the development of Satoru has been much steeper, much more noticeable and somewhat more meaningful. Saki has always been an accountable and stable as a person than Satoru but she’s learned to control her emotions as the years have gone by. Satoru, in addition to controlling his emotions like Saki, is much more responsible and dependable now, especially when contrasting himself against the 12-year old Satoru that we witnessed at the beginning of the series. The two kids are adults now and, though they’ve spent time apart, they seem to have a similar emotional level now and an understanding that never existed before. It’s as if Satoru finally caught up to Saki as a character which is something that should be exciting to watch as the anime continues forward in this era.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Watching Hibito wander away from Damien and Gibson, to be alone by himself during his final moments on the Moon, has and will continue to bother me. The primary concern over this action is that he’s leaving Damien unsupervised after doing everything he could to save his partner. Hibito labored so hard to protect and ensure Damien’s survive yet, after returning to the surface and stabilizing his body temperature, Hibito decides to up and leave. Damien might still need some assistance, especially if some of Hibito’s actions were miscalculated or incorrect, meaning that everything he did could be in vain if Damien suffers a complication while waiting for help to arrive. Another issue with Hibito’s abandonment is that he doesn’t try to drive Gibson to where rescue help is heading. Though it is true that Hibito is unaware of the situation due to his busted communicator, he should figure that they are on their way to either his current location or the spot where they descended off the cliff. If he makes both locations the same by returning to the spot where the rover crashed, then he’d be increasing his chances of survival by making the rendezvous point the same for both situations. Not only that but Gibson could be detected too, since it emerged from the crevasse, meaning that it could be remote controlled to drive them to the arriving rescue team. With only 10 minutes of oxygen remaining in his suit, Hibito could increase his chances for survival since he’d be returning in the direction of help, too. Instead, Hibito decides to spend his final minutes back in the crevasse, looking up at the stars in a turn-of-events that seems contradictory to has been the established character and personality of Hibito.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Most anime utilized shyness and nervousness in a character to make them more appealing, charming or, in some way, more desirable to the audience, helping to reinforce and solidify their specific character archetype as a cute, quiet, shy girl. Unlike most anime, Tamako Market employs Shiori’s shyness as an actual issue with her character and creates a story about her shyness problem. In fact, it is structured as more of a mild case of social anxiety disorder, a condition in which she experiences some form of distress and fear from social stimuli that inhibit certain aspects of her daily life. It doesn’t manifest in the form of panic attacks, sweating or any physical symptoms, but it’s clear she has some psychological blocks that prevent her from interacting in the way she wants and without feeling this nervousness. The story of this episode focused intently on how Dera, Tamako and the Usagiyama Market were able to have a positive impact on her anxiety through their encouraging exchanges and delightful encounters. The outcome of this approach is that Shiori was able to overcome her barrier and step above her anxiety. Prior to this episode, could never muster more than a glance or stare in the direction of Tamako and her friends. Instead, after the inspiring conversations with the various characters of this enchanting community, Shiori was able to thank Tamako for her generosity and that she had a wonderful time with her. She was able to make some progress in overcoming her social phobia and it is attributed to how Dera, Tamako and the shopkeepers responded to her. So while a majority of anime use shyness solely for making a character cuter or more moe or for something amusing, Tamako Market crafts an endearing story around this personality trait and shows how it is a problem for Shiori and how she overcomes this frightening psychological obstacle. Of course, one conversation over coffee and music won’t be enough to cure her completely of her nervousness, so hopefully we continue to see her character grow and mature as the anime continues and Shiori becomes integrated into the market community.
Also, anyone else notice during Shiori’s meeting with Dera that she caught the birdie with her badminton racquet? I know, it’s stupid, but I still laughed. I hope you did, too.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.This week: why I don’t consider Senran Kagura an ecchi anime anymore, wondering about the comedy in Zetsuen no Tempest, the diversity of karuta opponents in Chihayafuru 2 and remembering the forgotten Reiko in Shin Sekai Yori.
Best episode of the week: Space Brothers
Anime trending up this week: Senran Kagura
Anime trending down this week: Sasami-san@Ganbaranai
Chihayafuru 2 (Episode 4)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Although karuta may seem like a simple game, seeing whoever can slap the correct card away the fastest, Chihayafuru does a remarkable job in making every opponent a distinctive, challenging, and above all, interesting character to watch. Dating back to the first season, the various competitors show a vast diversity in personalities, appearances, backgrounds, and perhaps most importantly, playing-styles to give each match a fresh, new feeling rather than an exhausting, repetitive one. As we saw in this episode, Taichi’s opponent offered a unique perspective with her playing style and how it matched up well against Taichi’s weakness. Showing Taichi overcome this flaw and eventually win helped make the match be more interesting and meaningful to watch, and that can be traced back to the distinguishing opponent that Taichi played against.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Considering how fundamental the Ripple is to the story and the fighting in JJBA, I’ve always been curious about its physical, material form. Often depicted visually by electricity or represented through other physical phenomena, the Ripple is never presented in its purest form, so its exact physical composition is still an enigma. Given the information compiled over the series to date, we do know that it utilizes energy from the sun and is conducted well through various liquids (water) and organic material (vegetable oil, wool fibers, or proteins, like Straight’s beetle hip scarf). Users who are able to manipulate the Ripple for their own purposes must meet a certain criteria first before being able to train in its discipline and must amplify it through proper breathing techniques. And… that’s about it. Although we’ve seen various fighters and teachers, the Ripple, unfortunately, is not fully understood as a physical component of our world. It seems that people are able to understand how to control it and utilize it for various purposes, but that’s it (then again, that’s all they really need to know). It seems as though its physical composition is still unknown and will be a mystery to us, unless the series decides to be generous and explain this awesome power to us in detail.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.It is rather amusing to see how inexperienced and naïve Haruka is at inferring information or understanding the thoughts and feelings of the minds she reads. As we saw in this episode, Haruka can be easily influenced by others when using their thoughts in intelligent or innovative ways. Haruka is still rather immature when it comes to social relationships and how people interact, so she was easily mislead and manipulated by people’s thoughts with them knowing that she would read them and respond to them. It’s like an unspoken form of communication that Haruka cannot help but receive due to her powers. And since people are aware of this, they are using it as a way to control Haruka or to bias her in some way to their advantage. Although the tactics may be mischievous or even cruel, it seems to have ultimately positive effects on the characters. If not, it’s always there for some laughs considering Haruka’s exaggerated reactions in these situations.
Also, I feel bad for the crab at the beginning. It got buried alive by Haruka and then, after escaping from her tomb of sand, was immediately swept out to sea by a violent wave. Poor thing.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.So… the family tradition is to have the daughters of the family take two husbands and to start a family like that? I fail to see how the family could sustain such success over the course of… however long it’s been around, seeing as that this situation is ripe for conflict, stress, and how it would be emotionally taxing on the members involved. I’d wager that the situation with Haruka and Kanata is just the latest in a string of marital and familial problems that plagues the family as long as this tradition has lasted. Not only that, but I fail to understand how the family could retain its prestige throughout this time considering how frequent these internal feuds and fights would be. Really, it’s probably best not to think about how and why this tradition works. It’s best to just sit back and accept the fact that this is incredibly stupid and there are much better ways of developing a story about twins than what the current story is.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.While I am fond of the mosaic, watercolor-esque background employed throughout Maoyuu, my appreciation for it immediately disappears whenever it is used in the foreground or anytime it is the focus of a shot. The aesthetic appeal of this visual style is at its best when used as backgrounds, helping provide a distinguishing feel to the anime with its rather crude style and help establish some of the setting and atmosphere with its colors and blocky textures. However, when it is the subject of the shot and what our eyes are drawn to, it doesn’t look nearly as complimentary and is sometimes even quite disappointing. What this art style does is capture an attitude and translate it into the physical setting but without any distinguishable details. But when that’s all we see, it comes across as messy and incoherent, such as when we saw the zoomed-in cityscape or the various buildings. Those shots were admittedly an eyesore seeing as that’s what our eyes were able to focus on and analyze. When the art style is used in other backgrounds, such as for the sky or trees or the interior walls of a building, it comes across as a remarkable and distinctive art style that benefits the series visually. Hopefully the series will limits its use of establishing shots like the two dismal examples earlier since those were rather unpleasant experiences.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.There’s just something so unsatisfying about the way Kougami brings up his theories. Like, there really isn’t any build-up or development that really assists in these segues, more like “hey, look at this, I think we should do this” and that’s it. What makes it even worse is that he’s always correct in these situations, too. It’s like he’s grabbing the script from Gen Urobuchi, reading ahead for a few pages, and then tells everyone what they should be doing. I would go as far as to say he’s cheating the story; it just doesn’t feel right. What’d make me happy would be for him in the briefing sessions to be wondering about the purpose of these riots, to get a map beforehand to see the geography of the present situation, to mull over his thoughts during the car ride over and then to bring it up as a suggestion for others to confirm and then buy into it. I don’t know, maybe I’m never happy with stuff like this, but I would appreciate it had there been more time showing Kougami think about these plans rather than going off on some short exposition and cracking Makishima’s plan in the matter of a minute. It probably is just me but it’s something I’ve come to dislike in Psycho-Pass.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.What is the point of Yuuko’s character besides being annoying and completely pointless? Like, everything about her character is meaningless in the story and she really doesn’t affect any of the other characters besides making Sorata more annoyed than usual and creating some tension and conflict with Mashiro and Nanami. Removing her from the anime would change nothing besides probably making it better. Maybe there’s something else that’s going to happen like she donates her kidney to save the life of one of the characters or something, but even then, I fail to see what purpose she’s had besides making Sakurasou worse as an anime.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.That doujin/otaku store, Uzume-no-Ana (a parody of Toranoana), that Sasami-san featured in this episode brought back a flood of positive memories from my trip to Japan from this last year. Although I probably only entered 2-3 of these anime/manga/otaku themed stores total (and only really remember my trip to Animate), I found those retailers to be a glorious haven of merchandise that caters specifically to the fanatics in us all. It’s just the density and atmosphere of these stores and energy inside that resonates with our own, it just feels so wonderful. There’s just so much in there, that you could spend your whole day (and your whole bank account) in just that one shop. I can’t wait to go back and walk through those stores and those aisles again. And for those of you who are wondering, no, I didn’t go into those shops to buy any cast-off figures or hentai or anything (although I did buy Needless which sometimes is close enough).
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.You know, for being an ecchi anime, Senran Kagura really isn’t that ecchi of an anime. Rather, the show seems to assign its fanservice to specific times and particular events rather than incorporating it throughout. For example, you never really see any upskirts or shredded clothing or ridiculous fanservice when the girls are in their normal school uniforms. Even when given a golden opportunity, like Katsuragi having from the ceiling upside-down in her miniskirt… there’s no pantyshot. In fact, the skirt defies physics to cover her striped bikini bottoms in order to prevent any fanservice in that scene whatsoever. That’s not something a normal ecchi anime would do. Oh, and that’s another thing, no one wears panties in this anime. Every upskirt and shot of ripped clothes shows a swimsuit underneath rather than underwear. I suppose that’s a step up in terms of sensibility (the smallest of steps, really), but swimsuits are less ecchi than panties. And even in then, you only really see them when the girls are in their battle uniforms fighting each other or during their brief transformation sequences. The only time you’d ever seen fanservice outside these battles are when the boobs would randomly jiggle but even that has stopped in recent episodes (maybe the specialty-ordered super bras they ordered finally arrived?). In fact, it’s rather surprising at the lack of fanservice in these episodes considering that the fanservice was supposed to be a selling-point for the series. Well, the fanservice is still there and there’s still quite a bit, but this anime is rather mild compared to the other panty-fighters of the past. In fact, I don’t even really think of this as an ecchi anime anymore considering that the baseline level of fanservice in Senran Kagura is now considered normal these days for late-night anime. Yeah, I mean, maybe my standards are just atypical (I admit, they are) because it still is an ecchi anime, but it feels like it should have more fanservice than it currently does and that it’s holding itself back.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.You’ve got to feel bad for Reiko. If you’re like Saki, Satoru or pretty much the general audience of this anime, then you’ve already forgotten who Reiko is. Well, poor Reiko was ‘removed’ from the village in the first episode after showing signs of weaknesses and inability in controlling her Cantus back when Saki first joined the group. Anyway, the point being is that whenever Saki or Satoru or anyone brings up their group, they always leave Reiko out. Always. Okay, besides one instance back in episode 11 when they tried to recall the sixth member of their group, no one ever seems to think about or remember her. Instead, it’s always and only Saki, Shun, Satoru, Maria and Mamoru. Shun didn’t live for too much longer nor did Maria and Mamoru stay in the village long after that. Really, the group spent only a few years together and the main five only stayed together for 2 short years. You’d figure Saki might not recall too much about Reiko since she only knew her for about a week or so, but she was together with the other characters for a couple years before that. In fact, by the time Shun, Maria and Mamoru left, they had all spent more time with Reiko than with Saki. And yes, I do know that they all had their memory wiped from that event, but it’s still somewhat distressing to see Saki and Satoru struggle over the faceless boy whereas they have no recollection of Reiko at all. In fact, that’s something I find more disturbing and horrifying than trying to remember Shun seeing as that the memories of Reiko are completely gone from everyone in this anime. Hopefully after this, it won’t be everyone watching this anime, too…
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Given the time, speed, distances and positions used throughout these past few episodes, I fail to understand the geography of the Moon and the relation in which all these places and events occurred. I’ve gone back and tried to compile some of the data provided from the anime in trying to make sense of it all but there are just some things that don’t add up. Understanding the geography of the Moon would help but trying to make a map out of everything and making sense of this whole situation isn’t quite that easy. I suppose it really isn’t too big of an issue considering that the main purpose of these past few episodes was to instill some remarkable drama and character development in the series, but it still bothers me that I can’t properly visualize the region in question and play out the events as they occurred in order to better understand and appreciate what just happened in Space Brothers.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.You know about that urban legend where if you feed rice to birds, they explode? Well, maybe it can be modified to be feeding mochi to birds since Dera has been expanding wider and wider every episode. Tamako Market has already offered us a surplus of fat jokes for Dera’s pudgy character, so I wonder if they’ll ever take it to the next level where he eats one bite too much of mochi and explodes. “Tamako, that wasn’t mochi you feed Dera, that was plastic explosives!” Okay, I’m not being serious here, but it is what comes to mind whenever I see Dera now. That and I kinda wanna see him explode, too, get him outta this anime.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.So what’s with all this humor in the second half of Tempest? Considering that the first half dealt with the constant themes of revenge, death, deception, isolation and mystery, it seems very strange that the current episodes of Tempest show their characters to be somewhat wacky when placed in a calmer, more relaxed environment. Remember those people turning to iron and dying whenever those giant eyes arose from the sea? Remember those battles with the supersonic speed and blue defensive barriers? Yeah, they’re gone now. It’s like the two halves of Tempest are two completely different anime with one being serious and somber while the other is zany and amusing. Sure, certain elements have been retained but the silly humor is somewhat of a jarring impression for Tempest that gives these current episodes a completely different and unrelated feel compared to the first half of the series.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.This week: questions about who the real big bad in Psycho-Pass could be, some thoughts on why I continue to watch Little Busters!, social cliques in character pairings in Senran Kagura, and some earth-shattering omissions in Maoyuu Maou Yuusha.
As I do at the midpoint in every season, I reverse the order of anime in this list, so that’s being done in this post.
Best episode of the week: Chihayafuru 2
Anime trending up this week: Sasami-san@Ganbaranai
Anime trending down this week: Kotoura-san
Zetsuen no Tempest (Episode 18)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.So, who do you root for in this anime? Given the progression and recent developments in Zetsuen no Tempest, the various factions have seemingly merged and the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ has faded into varying shades of grey depending on your perspective. What was once a story with two clear sides going against each other, Tempest now features a rather complex network of partnerships that barely reflects the relationships from the first half of this anime. Furthermore, the stances and motivations for these characters have changed, too. If you were rooting for a specific character or a certain side during the first half, you may not necessarily be choosing the same now given how different they are and how the situations have changed. The difference and disparity between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in Tempest has blurred to the point where they’re almost indistinguishable now and, provided the variety of perspectives and opinions of the audience, it’s become rather abstruse to choose a definite side or character to root for in this anime. Actually, I really appreciate that in an anime like this and find that the way the story is evolving to be beneficial to how Tempest wants to narrate its story.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.There are a number of distinct and individual personalities in Tamako Market. You have characters like Tamako, Anko, Kanna, Shiori, and Dera all having strong, developed and definable personalities. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the shopkeepers and vendors of Tamako Market. Instead, the various merchants and store owners of Tamako Market share a collective group personality which happened to be the focus of this episode. Although each character within this specific group has their own appearance and separate personality, these characters share a surprising number of similar qualities and characteristics to form this ‘shopkeeper group mentality’. Not only did they all share the same worries about the haunted house and share in the same gags throughout this episode, but this entire season has shown these characters share the same enthusiasm for the common marketplace, all be friendly and welcoming to Tamako and her friends and partake in certain defined roles in conversations or jokes (usually being straight-man or an onlooker with a funny reaction). In fact, it seems as though the shopkeepers are a specific personality in this anime that just rotates between a number of replacement characters depending on what shop the girls happen to be in front of. It’s as if the anime sees these various characters for one specific role like we see for Tamako or Dera or Kanna. Because of that and because of the sixth episode of Tamako Market, we can consider all the shopkeepers in Tamako Market as one personality comprised of a bunch of similar characters.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Receiving the uniform is always a huge deal. Although Mutta successfully passed a rigorous series of tests and exams through JAXA, enough to be hired on as an astronaut, no one would realize it or recognize him just through his appearance alone. However, by putting on the special blue jumpsuit provided by JAXA, anyone who looks at him and his uniform will immediately recognize his new occupation and his recent accomplishments. That’s why obtaining the uniform is so rewarding and so cherished; it’s how other people see you and how they recognize you. And now for Mutta, people will finally recognize him as an astronaut almost immediately (or so we hope).
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.During the scene where Saki was blown up into the sky and falling to the Earth below, I found it odd that the entire valley was covered with farmlands that were all plots of green with some grasslands and forests out in the distance before the small mountains. In fact, the only thing that wasn’t green besides the river and the irrigation canals were the lone field of sunflowers in a secluded corner of the valley. And though the fields were divided by simple dirt roads, there was not real clear organization to the crops being grown or even clear indications to what crops were being grown. Although I imagine their cantus is enough to plow and plant and irrigate, I’m now increasingly curious about their agriculture practices, what crops they’re growing and what foods the characters eat. And only now did I realize how little we’ve seen the characters eat, especially compared to other anime where you see character snacking or eating meals or going to restaurants and whatnot. It’s rather surprising how little we’ve seen in the way of food in this anime but, after gazing at these green landscapes and simplified farmlands, it’s pretty clear that this anime doesn’t seem too concerned with food or its physical setting considering how lazy these landscapes were.
And for what it’s worth, I’m imagining all those fields were growing mint. So they have several tons of mint every year for no reason. Well, mint and sunflower seeds. Yup, that’s their nutrition in Shin Sekai Yori.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Although the main protagonist cast of Senran Kagura is only five girls, they seem to have developed into specific cliques. What this means is that we often see the girls in specific pairings or groups. Two of the most obvious are Ikaruga and Katsuragi and of course, Yagyuu and Hibari. There are some variations between them and with the other characters but the anime does not seem to concern itself with making the characters interact with everyone and making the group feel as one. Although Asuka does converse and talk to all the characters, you never see Katsuragi talk to Hibari nor do you see Ikaruga start a conversation with Yagyuu or vice versa. And given that there are only five characters, it seems incredibly strange and unlikely that the characters would be paired off and seemingly segregated from each other but that’s an unfortunate reality with Senran Kagura. I almost wish that we saw the character groupings switched in this episode with the Ikaruga/Katsuragi pairing and Yagyuu/Hibari pairing broken and flipped so that way we’d see genuinely new character bonding and development in this anime. In fact, you see that with the cast of villainous characters who seem to function more as a group of five rather than a group of two, two and Asuka. But on the flip side, the pairings as they are currently are logical and appropriate, and they probably are better than just randomly mixing characters together just to see what they’re like. Still, I’d love to see the character pairings mismatched for some time just to see how they interact with each other, especially since I want to see how the other girls would respond to Hibari’s constant dependency and timid nature.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Wanna know why this was the best episode of Sasami-san@Ganbaranai? Yup, it’s because there was no brother character. By removing the incestuous, aggravating and worthless brother character, Sasami-san immensely improved as an anime. Hopefully the anime learns from its success and effectively reduces his role to… well, in a perfect world, to nothing. Too bad we know that won’t happen but, yeah, might as well enjoy Sasami-san when it’s at its best right now.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.With the revelation that the Sibyl System is a mass collection of various brains functioning in sync to immediately observe, judge and control the population, you have to wonder if that’s a system in control of these brains that overruns everything. What we’ve seen of the Sibyl System in a throng of brains in their own individual containers being moved and connected to various computers to interface with the world and run the Sibyl System as form of a legal justice system. But what runs the computer? Who decides which brains to use for which purposes? Or maybe, who designed the machine so that it would function the way it does? I really wonder about the collection of brains being the ultimate top in Psycho-Pass given how the system is employed and that the machine ultimately dictates which brains go where and which ones do what. I’d love for it to turn out that someone is controlling the machine for their own purposes or that the machine has a mind of its own and runs the Sibyl System according to its own sense of justice but it doesn’t seem that Psycho-Pass is heading down that path. Oh, wouldn’t it be grand for there to be another bad guy above this level like a super computer or another villain of some sort? Better yet, have the guy running the Sibyl System computer system be someone viewed as ‘good’ or ‘ethical’ to be the ultimate antagonist of the series. Now that would be an appetizing and satisfying twist for the end.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The earthquake scene in the seventh episode of Maoyuu Maou Yuusha was absolutely unanticipated and inconceivable. No, not because of what it was but because of what it wasn’t. How could Maoyuu have an earthquake and not dedicate one full scene or even a single shot to Maou’s boobs bouncing all over the place? I mean this is a golden opportunity for her breasts to jiggle again and you didn’t show it off during the earthquake scene? This is a mistake of seismic proportions. You have to wonder whose fault this is. My world has been shaken by this one motion on Maoyuu’s part; you couldn’t even predict this from happening, and just when I was getting some good vibrations from this anime, too! Well, maybe it’s for the best that this anime didn’t dedicate a scene (or knowing Maoyuu, scenes) to some unnecessary shaking, but man… giant earthquake… massive boobs… I wonder if they realize the magnitude of this oversight. And sorry for all the puns, they made this episode review kind of a disaster.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Although I complain and complain and continue to complain about Little Busters!, I continue to watch and enjoy the anime for one simple reason: the girls. Well, that and there are a few other things, but I keep finding myself enjoying the episodes of Little Busters! thanks to its cast of amiable and amusing characters, their comedy and when they get together to have fun and play baseball. You know, if the anime weren’t so concerned with its shoddy, half-hearted drama, the anime would be pretty fun as a pure comedy and a pretty decent anime overall. In fact, due to the time and budget constraints on this adaptation, the comedy has been the best aspect of this series since it has been uncompromised throughout. The girls are shown to be much better and much more enjoyable through the comedy scenes than through their drama scenes. And because of that, I continue to watch Little Busters! and enjoy it as best I can.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.You know, since Haruka has no control over her mind-reading, psychic powers, shouldn’t she be constantly bombarded with thoughts at any public place? Like, shouldn’t she be hearing the unceasing voices of hundreds of students when she goes to school every weekday? And on the weekends, whenever she goes to a store or crowded public space, shouldn’t there be a constant noise in her head from all the voices going on and on and on about whatever is on their minds? Unless Haruka has developed the ability to tune everyone else out, I have trouble imagining how or why she’s only able to read the minds of her friends and only at select times, too. Not only that but is there a range or any specifics on how to read other people’s minds? I think we’ve already established that she doesn’t need to look at them but she always needs to be near them but at what distance? And since proximity seems to be factor in reading minds, you really have to wonder about how she managers herself in crowded areas with tons of people broadcasting their minds to her brain. Well, maybe there’ll be an explanation later but I kinda wonder if she’s like Yukuhashi from Medaka Box Abnormal or a similar character.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.So falling for 5 seconds equates to 3 minutes of fighting, thoughts and dialogue in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure? Well, I suppose that this is necessary considering all the development and action that occurred during that situation, but it just seems hilarious considering that it is given a time limit and then goes over it by about four thousand percent. Then again, it’s not like JoJo’s is the only offender when it comes to this rule considering that just about every action or fighting anime does the same, especially since it’s just bending the rules of physics to perform its primary function: to tell a story. I mean, the whole purpose of JoJo’s or any anime or any show for that matter is to tell a story, so when placed in situations like these, it’s perfectly alright for time to be distorted for the situation to be fully and, most importantly, properly explained. Still, it is hilarious that so much time occurred in the anime when in reality, only five seconds of time was supposed to pass.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The comments that appear above the characters, just those quick little messages that pop up near the sides of their heads, is a lovely touch in Chihayafuru that helps explain or reinforce a character’s reaction in a subtle but humorous way. The choice of message can be diverse from something simple, like showing a character mildly irritated with some accompanying silent words or complex enough to explain a character’s motivations which remain mysterious to the other character or counterintuitive given the recent dialogue or the character’s personality. Either way, the comments that appear with these characters is a wonderful inclusion to the anime because it has a purpose and is also entertaining.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.During sometime, whenever Week 4 happened to be: the brilliant aesthetics and visuals of Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou, the magnificent and expressive use of creativity and imagination in Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu, the appropriate use of mild comedy in Tamayura ~more aggressive~ and Karen being the only stupid character in Monogatari Series Second Season.
Best episode of the week: Uchouten Kazoku
Anime trending up this week: Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou
Anime trending down this week: Hyperdimension Neptunia
Danganronpa the Animation (Episode 4)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I think the fun and entertainment of watching Danganronpa (and the whole point of playing Danganronpa) is to put yourself in Makoto’s situation and think about what you’d do to escape Hope’s Peak Academy. I’ve come to the conclusion already that if I were to commit one of the murders in order to get out, the best time to do it would be to commit one during the investigative periods when everyone else is focusing all their time and energy on another murder. That or just kill everyone all at the same time so then you automatically go but it’d be pretty hard when they’re spread throughout the school. Either way, I’m kinda thinking we might see a murder like that sometime soon.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Hajime is already a personal favorite given her genki, positive and jovial personality that always brightens and energizes every scene of Gatchaman Crowds that she’s in. And though we’ve seen her surprised and pout and wearing her grumpy-pants, we never really see Hajime stray her from constant emotion of smiles. I do wonder if or when we’ll ever see her hit other famous emotions, like sad or mad or confused or anxiety, but I do hope we see her character challenged somewhat in Gatchaman Crowds. I’d especially like it if something like this happened soon, although that depends entirely on the story and how her character reacts to whatever events occur.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The more I watch of Gen’ei wo Kakeru Taiyou, the more the series grows on me and the more I enjoy watching this entertaining anime. And as the series continues on, I realize more and more that the aesthetics to this anime, that is the combination of artistic details (Tarot Seira’s eyes), color, style, presentation and theme, are what I am enjoying the most. With this episode featuring multiple Madoka-isms (to put it simply and politely), I found myself paying close attention to the use of artistic motifs and textures and colors to express the contrast the Tarot/Daemonia world has from the real world and how this gives it a personality and feeling that’s both expressive and substantial. Combine that with the costumes and clothes, the very same ones I obsessed about in the last post, the use of colors and symbolism (especially with each girl’s Tarot card) and the cutesy, charming nature of the character designs and the anime comes together as something special, even beyond its visuals and adorable art style. And as the series moves on with its story and characters, perhaps down a road that I might not enjoy or want, the one reassuring aspect is that the aesthetics will continue to dazzle and impress. So even if the anime begins to tumble downhill or take a nosedive, something which I’ve always feared from the beginning with this anime, I’ll know for sure that I will enjoy the aesthetics of Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou throughout.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Is Karen the only ‘stupid’ character in Monogatari? Considering that every character say something clever or meaningful or significant at some point in the series, it always seems as though Karen is the one who doesn’t think long enough or hard enough and let’s her personality or aggression get the best of her. Like, back during the Karen Bee arc, it was her foolishness and naïve nature that lead to her burning fever. In the previous episode, Senjougahara tricked her, and rather quite effortlessly, to take Tsubasa into her home. And just in this episode, when questioning about ‘fire’, Karen gave her opinion on it (meaning justice) only to retract her position when Tsukihi countered with ‘love’. You could even count Karen’s aggressiveness, like forcing Tsubasa to play cards with her and her little sister, as part of this problem. Hell, throw in her meager attempt to stack cards as part of this problem too, especially in light of Tsukihi and Tsubasa’s majestic and stable castles. Either way, it always seems as though Karen’s character is a little bit slower than the rest or her mind doesn’t move as fast as her mouth (or her legs for that matter). It might just be that her character is never in the right place or the right time for some meaningful or deep or profound monologue or statement of self-reflection or one life, but it just seems to me that Karen is the stupidest of the characters in Monogatari. Then again, it might not be that she’s stupid but that she’s a bit too energetic, a bit too hyper, or a bit too aggressive with her personality, that she acts before she thinks. And if that’s the case, then it’s nice that she’s smart, although you’d hardly know it with the way she talks and acts. Either way, it’s always fun to see what’s going on with her, whether she’s stupid or not.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Watching Yugo’s transition and transformation, from starting out as an urban kid who’s developing and maturing into a rural expert, is rather quite remarkable considering the stark contrast he’s facing from where he was to where he is now. The thought of that made me question how often these teachers see kids from outside the rural catchment area that the school draws from and how these teachers handle these kids. Furthermore, how do the teachers handle kids who are experts in certain subjects based on their prior experience and what their family farm specializes in. If I had to guess, I’d wager that the school doesn’t see too many kids from urban settings or ones who have no prior experience or interest in agriculture or farming, and that students who venture out there are motivated by something, such as veterinary sciences, food processing or civil engineering. And as for students who specialize in certain areas, you’d figure they might just take the class as an easy ‘A’, though you never know what they already know and that some aspects of the class might be beneficial, especially if there are other techniques or technologies to farming that the kid has had no prior experience with. Either way, I suppose everything works out just fine for all the students of the various backgrounds, especially since the teachers thus far have had an exceptional interest in helping the students with their struggles and adversities so far.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Yura’s imagination, often somewhere on the border of dreams and delusions of grandeur, really took a giant leap in this episode, and really captured my attention right as the series was beginning to stagnate and level off in mediocrity. But the wild and expressive dreamscape she had, combined with stylized art and beautiful imagery, really differentiated this episode to me from the rest and shifted the course of the anime in a whole new, positive direction. Just the story, the symbolism and the use of her delusions finally came to fruition and meaning for her character. Not only that but seeing that imagery and that significance add some missing creativity and purpose to the series that moved beyond Yura wanting friends or the C3 Club wanting to win more survival games. I hope the anime can continue to build off these dreams that Yura constantly has since it provide some spice and variety to the series. If the anime continues to do that and find meaning or demonstration in these dreams, then I’ll have to reevaluate how much I enjoy C3-bu and how well the anime is performing, beyond the airsoft battles and girls chit-chatting over tea.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The comedy of Tamayura is very quite appropriate for a healing anime. Considering that the humor is tailored to shorter, quicker jokes, often accompanied by chibi characters or cute expressions, the reaction from the audience is often smiles or chuckles rather than bouts of laughter or needing to spit out your drink all over the screen. If Tamayura were like that, it really would distract from the healing, feel-good type atmosphere and theme the anime has going for it. The brief jokes with simple smiles are all this anime needs. And those smiles go a long way to help with the healing aspects of the anime, too. So while I always enjoy comedies for making me laugh and enjoy myself, I do enjoy the comedy in Tamayura ~more aggressive~ for being applicable to what the anime needs and how it fits in with everything else in the anime.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.If there’s one thing this arc achieved in Railgun S, it is that Misaka Imouto has reinforced her position as my favorite character in Railgun/Index’s universe. More importantly, it’s that Misaka Imouto’s sense of humor and personality were put on further display and meaning than what we’ve seen before and that her character is one of the most humorous and adorable in this extensive anime/light novel franchise. I can only hope that we continue to see these clones wandering around Academy City in the remainder of Railgun’s second season, especially since my favorite episodes were the ones where Misaka Imouto was featured prominently and had ample time to make jokes at her older sister.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Without a doubt, the best thing in Uchouten Kazoku is the internal dynamic of the Shimogamo family. Watching the family partake in the Obon festivities in Kyoto has been the highlight thus far of Uchouten Kazoku and it was in large part due to the dysfunctional family finally spending time together as a unit rather than as individuals occasionally meeting up with one another at various points along Yasaburou’s story. But with the Mother’s flamboyant behavior and charming personality, Yaichirou’s stubborn yet anxious nature, Yashirou’s timid and dependent character, and Yasaburou’s determined (but only sometimes) style, the family fits pleasantly together as a unit and really brought the episode to life, from start to finish. I can only hope to see more of the family together as the anime moves forward, especially if they can put in situations like this again where they’re all together for something both spectacular and crazy.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.A couple weeks ago: wondering which side to root for in KILL la KILL, examining the biggest problem in Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta, curious decisions made about Kumin in Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren, and enjoying Hoozuki no Reitetsu for its aesthetics.
Best episode of the week: KILL la KILL
Anime trending up this week: Nagi no Asukara
Anime trending down this week: Wizard Barristers – Benmashi Cecil
Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren (Episode 5)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Even though this episode focused on Kumin and her theme, there was relatively little to no character development for Kumin since it focused on the silly napping club instead of giving her character the opportunity to mature. Most of the time character episodes resolve a problem or reveal a new trait for which the character can evolve, but this episode did nothing for Kumin. Although it was cute and fun, it’s somewhat of a missed opportunity, especially since Kumin is the least developed of the main characters in Chuunibyou.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Is it bad that my favorite episode of this series was a comedy/fanservice(?) one unrelated to the main story except for the end? It probably doesn’t bode well for an anime that takes itself seriously, like Hamatora, but it is for me since it leaves a positive impression on me and gives me hope that the comedy will resurface again in the series… and hopefully with the same results.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I don’t believe I have ever watched an anime just for its aesthetics (don’t lie, Avv), but the aesthetics and visual appeal seem to be the main reason why I’m continuing to watch Hoozuki. I am less than impressed with the characters, the story, the comedy and the setting, but the style and presentation are so unique and distinctive that I find myself enjoying most of the episodes because of it.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.With the romance between Inari and Kouji being somewhat straightforward and effortless, I find myself turning to the relationships between the Inari and her three best friends, Keiko, Chika and Akemi, to be the most interesting aspect of this anime. Not only is this storyline desirable since it already presents conflict but Inari’s neutral perspective will require her to play peacekeeper between these three girls and I’m curious how she’ll go about to preserve these friendships and help resolve the resentment that emanates from Chika (and anything else that arises as a result).
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.With Satsuki revealing her intentions to overthrow the Life Fibers, we now have two factions against the big, bad evil organization at the heart of KILL la KILL. But which side is better? Or rather, are we projected to begin to root for Satsuki and her ideals now that we know she’s fighting against evil or are we supposed to side only with Ryuuko and Nudist Beach? It’ll be interesting to see how these sides evolve as the finale draws closer, but hopefully Ryuuko and Satsuki never join forces since they are natural born enemies.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.There are two ways that each side could’ve won the war for Magnostadt. Reim should have turned the war into one of attrition and stalled Magnostadt’s armies until it began to drain its resources, specifically its magoi and then go from there (yes, I know, easier said than done). For Magnostadt, they should’ve used their barriers in creative ways and used it to pinch the army between two barriers and focused on the real fighters thereafter. Sure, it takes a while to generate a barrier, but they could’ve used a series of weaker barriers until they could produce another impenetrable barrier on the opposite side of the army to trap them.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I always love to see a familiar setting change, whether it be through growth, destruction or something simple like a change in seasons with ice and snow covering the sleepy hillside village of Shioshishio. Of course, I have a favorite among the diversity of changes and winter/snow/silence is always one of my favorites, especially since Shioshisho is already unique and unusual in that it’s an underwater town.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Nobunagun really needed someone like Galileo. She has quickly become the best part of this anime thanks to her contagious personality, her energetic comedy and her cute and compelling emotions and expressions. With everyone else in the anime, save for Shio, one level of boring or another, it’s refreshing to see someone like Galileo pop up, bring some vitality and make the anime fun again.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Even though it’s the same joke over and over, I will never get tired of Hiyori’s soul leaving her body in Noragami. Not only are these scenes some of the most amusing in Noragami, due to Hiyori’s reactions, but that they also signify a change in the series when Hiyori goes from the normal, boring world into one that can interact with the supernatural. These moments possess a duality, with one being comedy and the other signifying that the series will soon have some action or development of sorts.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.You realize that the only thing left for Samurai Flamenco is to go into space now. And to be honest, I’m actually kinda looking forward to seeing what this anime will be like in space once we get there. (Note: this was written before seeing the preview for episode 18.)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Even though Kana Hanazawa is one of my favorite voice actresses, I was actually disappointed to hear her voicing the little, lost alien in this episode of Space Dandy. Maybe it’s a bit of oversaturation or that I associate that voice with too many other characters already, but it just didn’t feel all that special to me. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy her work in this episode, just that I think I would’ve enjoyed it better had this role been played by a new or upcoming voice actress than one who is at the top of the industry.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The one major flaw with Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta is its artwork and prime example would be the overly simplified swim trunks for all the guys. While the girls’ swimsuits were decent at best (you figure animators would draw the girls better than the guys), the swim trunks were all flat, monotone, and artificial. At times, it even resembled the feeble efforts of Cartoon Network to censor the nudity in shows like Dragon Ball Z or Outlaw Star by drawing shorts and things over the naked character’s bodies. I never thought I’d see the quality of artwork drop that low in an anime before but it certainly has with Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.If wizards like Koromo can perform divinations, then why don’t they utilize this phenomena in their investigations, trials and even preventing crimes from occurring? I suppose if that were the case, then everything about the magic court would be broken, but it does beg the question of why to include it for one scene when it would be useful in every case that comes to the Butterfly Law Offices.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.This week: finally warming up to Space Dandy, questioning the selection of weaponry and warfare technology in Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta, thoughts on the lack of problems facing one character in Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha, and issues of QUALITY in Wizard Barristers – Benmashi Cecil.
Best episode of the week: KILL la KILL
Anime trending up this week: Space Dandy
Anime trending down this week: Wizard Barristers – Benmashi Cecil
Wizard Barristers – Benmashi Cecil (Episode 6)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Back before the season began, I anticipated that Wizard Barristers would be one of the best anime this season in terms of its art and animation. I based this expectation on the PVs, which featured superb animation, and followed it up with the fact that Yasuomi Umetsu is overseeing the virtually every major aspect of this show, especially the animation. And while Wizard Barristers has been great at times, it’s still not immune to QUALITY art and animation, with this episode being the worst offender… by far. While at times there were shots or scenes that were bad in previous episodes, episode six was bad from start to finish. Sometimes QUALITY is a signal that animators and other artists are working on other scenes for a future episode that are animation-heavy or intense and that this episode suffered as a result. But that’s probably not the case for Wizard Barristers, even though we’ve seen some outstanding animation during some of the prior battle scenes. The reason? The studio: ARMS.
Yeah, somehow I missed that earlier, but now I understand the reason for the QUALITY in Wizard Barristers. After all, ARMS is a studio that’s historically produced terrible ecchi and even more terrible hentai anime and only recently transitioned to make TV anime that aren’t sequels of Ikkitousen or Queen’s Blade. The studio has never really been known for its art or animation since all its previous anime are full of mindless fanservice or terrible porn, but lately, it’s attempting to make a transition and produce more respectable or halfway-decent anime. And considering its history, I must say I’m actually somewhat impressed with what Wizard Barristers has done. It’s definitely not the best anime I’ve watched, especially after all the QUALITY in this episode, but this might be the best ARMS anime I’ve ever watched… which, you know, is like being the big fish in a small pond.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The use of weaponry in Pilot’s Love Song is somewhat… baffling to me. Based on what we’ve seen thus far of the setting of Pilot’s Love Song, it seems the trainees are equipped with WWI-era rifles or some similar technology. And while that’s fine for infantry or land warfare, it seems horribly inefficient for aviation combat. For instance, not only does one have to take into account the difference between the speed and trajectory of the two planes, but, should the bullet arrive at the hull of the enemy plane, I’m not sure the bullet would pierce the steel or damage the plane in any significant way. And considering that almost all the other planes have some form of machine gun, you wonder why the trainees can’t have the same technology, too. It seems like sending pilots up in the sky with only a simple rifle and going against these advanced (WWII-era) fighters is suicide. Then again, maybe that’s a part of the story, for the pilots to go into battle unprepared and undertrained, much like in the movie Gallipoli.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I think I’ve finally warmed up to Space Dandy. Prior to this episode, I always found myself conflicted with the anime based on its success and failures. The anime has been a series of hits and misses in terms of its stories, with the range starting at meh (the hungry alien episode) and going up to phenomenal (the zombie episode). However, I’ve found myself becoming less invested with the ‘episode-of-the-week’ stories and begun to focus on the intelligent comedy, the unique space setting and the charming cast of characters. And I think switching that transition from the weak stories over to the better aspects of the anime has really changed my appreciation of Space Dandy. So while this episode’s story is most-definitely a ‘miss’ to me, I mainly paid attention to the comedy and the characters, and found myself enjoying the episode more than I originally expected. And I think that’d be true for any episode if I went back and rewatched it. I think the key to watching Space Dandy and enjoying Space Dandy is to really pay no attention to the scenarios or the stories and just focus on the comedy and characters. I think if I continue to watch the anime like this going forward, I’ll enjoy it more than I have been.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Bishamonten, the vengeful and resentful god of war, possesses quite an army of regalia, with 8 known shinki in total (and at least 9 if you count the one that was murdered previously). The fact that she possesses so many is an interesting point by itself, especially when you compare her army to those of the other gods, but thinking about the histories and backstories that each shinki has, especially considering their diversity in appearances and their different transformations (form a lion to a whip to a dagger to even Bishamon’s bra), is nothing short of remarkable. Although I’m certain we won’t see these backstories explored in the anime, I find it interesting to compare Yukine to these 8 shinki and imagine that the story behind their lives and deaths is as difficult for them as it is for him. I’d love to see the anime explore the cast in detail and for us to learn about each of the shinki we’ve seen, especially those who belong to Tenjin and Kofuku’s Daikoku. Then again, the anime is already too short with only 12 episodes, so maybe I should be happy with what we’re getting and just consider picking up the manga after the anime is over.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I always enjoy seeing villains or antagonists transition from the ‘bad side’ to the ‘good side’, minus a few exceptions. However, the Four Devas are a perfect example of one of my favorite forms of character development in anime. Whereas the Four Devas are now considered ‘good guys’, they’re still the same people that they were at the beginning of the series. Each character is still loyal to Satsuki and display their strength and pride in their actions, never accepting defeat as an answer. And the reason for their transition feels genuine and sensible, nothing forced or irrational. They’re essentially the same people as we’ve always seen but the perspective of the situation has changed, and that shift in perspective shines the light on their characters from a better angle. We’re able to see more of these characters and learn more about them based on this change and their development holds new meaning. Seeing the Four Devas make this transition is nothing short of exceptional and yet another line in the growing list of why KILL la KILL is likely to be my favorite anime of the year (again).
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Is it just me or does everyone in Inari Konkon have a problem except Keiko? I suppose not every member of the cast needs to have a problem, especially since Inari, Chika and Akemi (among others) all have their own issues to deal with. Still, you wonder what makes Keiko so different than her three friends and everyone else. Perhaps it’s reasonable to have a strong, reliable character for Inari to fall back on when she needs help, but that shouldn’t make her immune to having her own difficulties. Or maybe she’s just good at hiding what’s troubling her and is keeping it from her friends… at least for now. Still, it’s somewhat remarkable to see Keiko be without any major issues when virtually everyone else in the cast has one or two problems to deal with. Maybe we’ll see Keiko develop a problem as a result of someone else solving theirs, which would be a story development I wouldn’t mind seeing.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The addition of Satone’s character to Chuunibyou Ren has been as successful as combining water and oil. In other words, they’ve failed. The integration of Satone’s character to the regular cast of Chuunibyou has been unsuccessful for a few reasons, but it’s primarily due to her role a ‘love rival’ to Rikka and not as a friend looking to have fun and play around with Yuuta, Rikka and the others. By adding Satone as a ‘love rival’, her few and infrequent appearances are used to add conflict or difficulty to Yuuta’s and Rikka’s struggling romantic relationship. As a result, we’ve barely scratched the surface of Satone’s character. Furthermore, Satone’s choice appearances have had a minimal impact on the other cast members, save for some information she has on Nibutani. It feels as though Satone was only intended to interact with Yuuta and Rikka, much like the original novels, but it’s still a failure for the anime not to integrate her in with the other members of the cast since Nibutani, Dekomori and Kumin are all primary characters in the anime. I can’t help but feel that the potential of Satone’s character has been wasted thus far and is a major reason why she’s subpar compared to the others in Chuunibyou Ren.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Back during the Winter 2014 anime season: what about the setting of Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta makes it one of my favorite anime of the season, thoughts on how people grew to tolerate or accept the excessive fanservice in KILL la KILL, how changing color schemes impacted the atmosphere in Noragami, and the ideal way to end Silver Spoon S2.
Best episode of the week: KILL la KILL
Anime trending up this week: Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta
Anime trending down this week: Sekai Seifuku – Bouryaku no Zvezda
Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta (Episode 12)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Although the overall story was somewhat weak and the artwork somewhere between awful and brutal, Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta ended as my favorite new anime of the season thanks primarily to its imaginative, descriptive and influential setting. As I’ve mentioned many times before on previous anime, the setting of an anime is a big predictor of success, not only on the physical environments, technologies and civilizations but how well the setting impacts the characters, the story and how everything builds up from this very essential foundation. And in regards to Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta, it accomplished both. The setting of this anime was vibrant and detailed, with unique technologies for the planes and an unparalleled world that was finally explored and explained in these final episodes. Furthermore, the setting was very significant on the characters and the story, centered around the history of Carl La Hire, Nina Viento, and the Wind Revolution. These details on their histories painted a fated hatred-turned-romance between the two that provided a backdrop to their adventure to the End of the Sky and war with the Sky Clan. But, again, the setting is just one component of how I evaluate anime and there were deficiencies and negatives in other areas that keep the anime from a perfect score. Nevertheless, it just goes to show how much I enjoy engrossing and original settings, and I can only hope that future anime will put as much effort into their settings as this anime.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.How many other alien hunters are there in the universe? Throughout the series, we’ve hardly seen anyone else interested in hunting these aliens despite the fact that the Registration Center is always full whenever Dandy shows up. Perhaps that’s because, as Scarlett explained in this episode, that new aliens don’t fetch much cash for the capturer, but there’s still quite a few individuals there and even more space ships in the space port. And it’s not to say that there aren’t so big cash rewards like we saw in the third episode. So why haven’t we seen Dandy and other alien hunters fight over a new creature or something along those lines? I think the only thing that comes close was in the fourth episode with Adelie, but you’d figure there’d be more competition in the series beyond that episode. Then again, maybe everyone else is more intelligent than Dandy and have moved on to other careers that are more dependable. Then again, we haven’t seen much of other jobs than besides those at Boobies and a few other choice locations.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.With the final episode of the second season of Silver Spoon, we finally, finally had some progress with the Hachiken family coming together. Thanks to a surprise visit from his mother (following a surprise present from Yugo), the silent and distant family started to take steps toward each other in a means of finding a middle ground. To see the mother go out of her way to visit Ooezo is probably the first step in repairing the shattered and fragmented family. It’s a shame that the anime isn’t continuing since now I feel we’ll be making progress toward the central story in the anime, but it’s refreshing to see that progress was made before the end and that we have an idea what to expect should we receive a third season or pick up the manga. Either way, this is probably the best way the anime could have ended in terms of providing an uplifting finale and attracting readers to follow the manga.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The main reason why I watched Samurai Flamenco from Guillotine Gorilla onward was to see what the whole point of the anime was. I wanted to understand why the anime bounced around so much from style to style and story to story and completely out-perform itself with each passing episode. But in the end, there was no lengthy monologue explaining everything and putting a reason to every episode. Instead, the gaping holes in the series were left untouched, like the unresolved murders of his parents, the whole idea of superheroes existing all over the world, and becoming President of the World. Without any resolution, my idea that these were all caused by psychosis or severe hallucinations is unfounded. Without any resolution, you can’t say that any of this was done with a purpose. Without any resolution, it’s empty. So really, with this ending, what was the point of all this?
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.One of the charming aspects of Noragami were its clean, bright and colorful backgrounds, depicting a modern, urban Japan that blended itself heavily with various gods, spirits and phantoms prone to explode in various kanji after dying. So the choice for this final fight to be in a completely grey and dreary visual style, on that completely contrasts the rest of the series, highlights how desperate and intense the episode was meant to be. The choice to change the art and color schemes for this episode did well in helping it differentiate it from the rest, especially in terms of how serious and severe it was intended to be. It isn’t the most beautiful color scheme and would be second to the colorful one in my opinion, but it did served its purpose in establishing a mood and atmosphere for this episode that showcased a battle to the death and an attempt to retrieve the memories and personalities of the series heroine. I love it when anime do something simple like this to showcase a powerful effect, even if it isn’t immediately obvious.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.So, wow, there are lots of different people from lots of different countries. I mean, just look at everyone, from their differing appearances to unique fighting powers to their hierarchy between each other. Just how vast and inspirational is the world of Magi? It makes me wish we did not spend so much time in these previous cities, such as Balbadd and Magnostadt, and instead, explored the world to see these diverse cultures, kingdoms and characters. Imagine if, instead of the characters going off to these places immediately during the World Exploration arc (the last time we saw Morgiana before this episode), that the characters would’ve traveled through various kingdoms before arriving at their destinations. It wouldn’t have needed to be too long or too complex, but an episode for each character between their own would have been magnificent for developing the world and laying the foundation for future developments for the anime/manga. It’s a shame that the exploration was limited to a trio of episodes, but I should be thankful we had that much. Still, I can’t help but wonder what the rest of the world is like beyond the handful of areas we’ve seen.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.One aspect that continues to amaze and delight me about KILL la KILL is that the series had excessive and over-the-top fanservice, yet was received well by many fans who dislike the filth. By incorporating the fanservice into the story and the humor, and by featuring so much of it that we essentially were numbed to the sights of semi-naked Ryuuko and Satsuki, I think many people forgave or discounted the ecchi elements in KILL la KILL. Unlike other anime which feature pantyshots, bouncing boobs and sexual tension for no other reason than to have them, KILL la KILL had an idea for most of the fanservice used throughout the series. It doesn’t mean that it was completely necessary for the characters and stories, but it was used primarily with a purpose or some design and for more than the sake of trying to be sexy by featuring naked girls in every episode. But as for why Senketsu’s transformation was so skimpy on Ryuuko or why she was in her shimapan for a third of the series… that’s probably just gratuitous fanservice or fun for the sake of fun. Still, it goes to show that anime fans that would almost never enjoy ecchi anime can enjoy it if there’s some intelligence or meaning behind the fanservice. And it goes to show if you can make an anime well enough, people will be willing to try things they normally wouldn’t.
Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren (Episode 12 [Finale])
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Since the anime is quite a bit different than the light novels, why not go for something completely off-the-wall for a finale for this series instead of paralleling the novel and ending with a story of a romance. Imagine instead that all these anime original character were actually apart of Yuuta’s chuunibyou and that it was only him, Rikka and the other characters from the novel the whole time. For example, that scene where Nibutani, Dekomori and Kazari were talking to Yuuta that, in reality, it was just Nibutani and Kazari talking to Yuuta but that Yuuta imagined Dekomori there talking to him. Imagine for a moment that the whole thing is so brilliantly orchestrated or that the series cheats a little at times and Yuuta imagines people talk to the other characters when in reality they’re talking to him and that the final reveal is that Rikka is pretending to have chuunibyou in order to get close to Yuuta to save him. Wouldn’t that be something? I think I’d fall in love with the series if it could pull off a stunt like that. But, of course, for that to work, that would mean Touka doesn’t exist, and that would be the worst thing to ever happen to Chuunibyou. Also, I’m sure there are other holes in this theory, but the Touka one is the most important to me.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Back whenever these episodes of anime aired: how detailing the background characters in Isshuukan Friends represents Kaori’s growth as a character, wondering if Adashino-sensei is Ginko’s only friend in Mushishi Zoku Shou, being frustrated with the expositions in No Game No Life, and why I’m going to miss Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin when it’s over.
Best episode of the week: Mushishi Zoku Shou
Anime trending up this week: Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii
Anime trending down this week: No Game No Life
Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii (Episode 9)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The anime may be named The World is Still Beautiful, but the anime has hardly focused on the world or anything beautiful in recent episodes. Remember back to when Nike first met Livi, that she claimed she couldn’t love him without him realizing the beauty of the world around him. Well, so much for that. The anime has apparently forgotten about that major detail and seen the turbulent and disorderly relationship of Nike and Livi develop without that essential prerequisite. Instead, we’ve been treated to empty conflicts from beautiful uncles and pushy princesses instead of learning about the world that Nike wants Livius to appreciate. And to make things worse, we’ve been forced to stay inside the Sun Kingdom’s gigantic castle without escape or a breath of fresh air. So with this most recent episode taking us to the Principality of Rain, we’re able to go back to that fundamental point of the series and see the land that Princess Nike so dearly loves. And the results have been phenomenal. Not only has this been the best episode of the series since its premiere episode but the anime was able to return to its roots in fleshing out Nike’s character and exposing her beautiful world to Livius. Furthermore, the episode was actually fun with Nike’s family providing genuine humor and showing the quirky, laid-back nature of her family and her country in contrast to the formal and steadfast style of Livi’s. The two nations do an outstanding job of revealing the stark differences between Nike and Livius and helped reinforce why Nike wants Livi to appreciate the world around him. I can only hope the result of this story arc is that Livius begins to understand and appreciate the world around him and why it means so much to Nike. Hopefully Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii can salvage this message before it’s too late.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Although Nanana’s Buried Treasure is in the lower half of anime for me this season, it’s a show I don’t necessarily want to see end this month. Even though I have had issues with the flimsy and often forgotten story and the lack of significant character development, the series has been surprisingly charming and entertaining. The anime has the right combination ingredients, from its setting, its adventures and especially its characters, for it to be fun, stupid and silly and all in a good way. And because of that, I’m sad to see it ending despite it being mediocre overall. Furthermore, we know the series still has plenty of content that will remain untold since the award-winning light novels is at 7 volumes and still ongoing. Even though I might be a little harsh on my grading for this series in the end, it’s one that I hope returns to television sometime soon since it is an anime that I enjoy. I don’t often say that about anime that I rank lowly, but I’ll be keeping my eye out for more Nanana in the future.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I don’t have much to say on the flashbacks in Ping Pong, but I am very happy with how they were used to support character development and thrilled with their impact on the story. The flashbacks were some of my favorite scenes in the anime, especially as the series progressed and we began to piece these scenes together and understand the complex friendship between Smile and Peco. The flashbacks were an essential aspect of the series and integral to the character development and the progression of the story. Each time a flashback happened, it helped connect a point from the present with a point in the past and helped link the whole anime together. In terms of storytelling, the flashbacks were utilized flawlessly.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.If there’s one major knock on No Game No Life, it’s that the expositions have been poorly adapted. The No Game No Life anime is an adaption of a light novel series, so the original story is in an all-text medium that’s broken up by the occasional pages with cute girls on them. In literature, expositions like the ones we’ve seen in No Game No Life are fine, if not expected, since the ideal way to explain something in a novel is through a sensible monologue or discussion that provides clarification. Anime, however, is a visual-medium which depends heavily on pictures and voices to communicate its story. Because of these extra dimensions, anime can be more creative and inspired when presenting expositions. For example, Hyouka does an exceptional job when explaining its mysteries by utilizing dramatizations and illustrations to enhance the exposition and deliver a product that’s exciting to watch. With No Game No Life, many of the expositions are presented as characters talking without much else. Yes, there are accompanying visuals that help reinforce the exposition that’s occurring concurrently, but the scenes are largely lackluster with the adaption being a bit too strict and rigid. In literature, there really is no other way to present these expositions than to just lay it out in blocks of text. But that doesn’t mean that anime, a medium that is multi-dimensional, should adapt it in the exact same way, unless it wants to make these scenes boring and monotonous. Since anime are able to present graphics and illustrations, not to mention voices and music, why not try to add some innovation or inspiration to these expositions to make them more interesting like the comedy and action of the series? The anime has done remarkable work in regards to these other elements, so why not provide the same treatment for the expositions? Instead, it seems as though No Game No Life is fine with focusing on the monologues and adapting these scenes as just monologues. However, the series could do much, much more with these scenes, especially with how frequently these monologues occur. But really, if that’s the biggest complaint I have about this series, then the anime must be doing quite a bit else correctly. Still, these expositions are by far my least favorite aspect of the anime, so it’s not surprising that I’d be so harsh on something like this.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Is Adashino-sensei really Ginko’s only friend? With Ginko’s nomadic lifestyle and with so few recurring characters in Mushishi, the seaside village doctor makes a considerable impression despite the fact that he’s appeared in only a handful of episodes between the two seasons. Tanyuu, the scribe that’s been featured in the two seasons, is the only other notable recurring character in this anime, and her relationship with Ginko is a bit more formal and complex than that between Ginko and Adashino. The doctor’s fascination with the paranormal and occult allows him to have a different type of relationship with Ginko than everyone else. We see a different side of Ginko every time we see him paired with Adashino. So in that sense, Ginko is friends with Adashino or, at the very least, Ginko is more personal with him than anyone else. But is there no one else out there who has a similar relationship with Ginko? We’ve seen him communicate with other mushishi or partake in festivities, but his personality is always the same, distant and relaxed while still being kindhearted and compassionate. Really, the only time we see Ginko’s personality change for the positive – that is when he’s not getting angry at the foolish people he’s helping – it’s with Adashino-sensei. So based on what we’ve observed so far with Ginko, it seems as though Adashino is his only friend. Then again, for someone like Ginko whose purpose is to wander the round Earth and help those who need help, maybe it’s not so bad he only has one friend. After all, given his occupation and lifestyle, it must be difficult to maintain relationships like that seeing as he’s never in one area for too long.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Stands in JJBA are the embodiment and visual personification of a person’s control over ripple (hamon). Essentially, they are powerful representations spiritual energy and ability that are dependent on the people who can summon them. So considering the relationship between person and stand, you’d figure each would be similar to their master. However, a majority of the stands are different from their masters and many stands are not organic in appearance with many featuring metallic components or being chimeras. Just a few examples thus far: Hanged Man has a metallic shell over its brain; Magician’s Red has the head of a bird of prey; Hierophant Green is certainly interesting, considering it looks more machine than man; let’s not forget about Strength, the stand controlled by the orangutan Forever… it was a giant freighter. For these to be extensions of their users is simply remarkable considering how often these stands are non-human or non-organic. Just what about these people and their control over ripple causes their stands to take such forms? I’d love to find out but I’m not sure anyone knows how or why these Stands take these forms. At least not yet, anyway.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The background characters in One Week Friends were never really well defined. The reason for this could be two-fold. For one reason, it could be an artistic representation of how Kaori is isolated due to her repeatedly losing memories of her friends and the fact that she can’t reach out to others as a means of forming new friendships. Another reason could be that the series wanted to separate Yuuki and Kaori from everyone else and to solely focus on those two together. For whatever reason, it was interesting to see the classroom very featureless and vague. However, I noticed that the background characters are more defined and distinctive now. These characters that were simply ambiguous before now have discriminating features. And if there’s meaning behind it, it could relate to the points before. By having these background characters appear more human could be a visual illustration of how Kaori’s social skills are improving and that everyone around her seems more approachable or sociable. It could also mean that, as Kaori gains more friends, that the world is opening up around her and that it’s not just Yuuki and Kaori anymore. Whatever the reason, the fact that the background characters are more noticeable and recognizable is certainly significant as the series has progressed. It might not really amount to anything significant or noteworthy in the end, but there’s an interesting correlation there between the two. I’d like to think that having more distinguished background characters is a sign that Kaori is opening up and that she’s able to interact with people better, so I’ll imagine that this was intended for that very reason and that it is exactly as I described it.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.How interesting. After debating with myself earlier this season on whether the failed assassins live or die in Akuma no Riddle my theory was confirmed in this episode with Otoya making a surprise appearance. Even more surprising was to see where she was at the start of this episode and considering her objective. What was most interesting about her appearance was that she was in prison, possibly for having been caught after an assassination. She was able to escape and returned to the academy to murder Haru, despite having failed her mission and being expelled from the Black Class. So what does this mean for all the other girls who have exited the classroom? It appears as those Nio and the others organizing this game aren’t keeping a watchful eye on them and that they’re free to do whatever they want. Does that mean that the other girls will make an appearance before the finale? I can only hope that we see the entire cast again, one last time, when the whole plot of this anime is revealed and we learn what was truly going on between Haru and the others.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.For Week 5: analyzing the role of the ‘colorless’ background characters in Durarara!!x2 Shou, a tribute to the border security girls running the checkpoints in The Rolling Girls, issues with how the fights end in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders – Egypt Arc, and wondering about a future business opportunity for Shinku and the others in Dog Days’’.
Best episode of the week: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders – Egypt Arc (S2)
Anime trending up this week: Yuri Kuma Arashi
Anime trending down this week: Yoru no Yatterman
Aldnoah.Zero (S2) (Episode 17)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Was Aldnoah.Zero originally supposed to only be a 12-episode anime? Given the lack of substantial content since the ‘dramatic’ non-end to the first season, the woeful reset to start the second season, and the insertion of several new character (most of who were never even mentioned in S1), I’m beginning to endorse the idea that the original concept for Aldnoah.Zero was 12 episodes. This entire second season has done nothing to advance the story and has done little to show character development outside of Slaine’s inconsistent representation. It’s just fluff now, making us wait through weeks of non-story to get to the end where we’ll probably find ourselves facing another disappointing conclusion to another season of Aldnoah.Zero. Fun, isn’t it?
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I’m actually rather happy the series told us, unprovoked too, that Onna is a dead human. To me, it means that this isn’t the big reveal at the end of the anime. To me, it means that there’s more to the series than telling us that Onna died on Earth and is not of the same mystic origin as Decim and Nona and Ginta and the others. It means that the anime has a narrative that doesn’t culminate in a shocking twist. It’s a signal that this bit of information is merely another puzzle piece to the viewers, and that the anime has a narrative of greater substance and significance than one character’s roots.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Since the governments of Flonyard have seemingly perfected the dimensional portal technology that allows Shinku, Nanami and Becky safe passage between Earth and their magical realm, why not consider the possibility of starting a tourism business on Earth where humans pay outrageous prices to go to a world where everyone is a cute girl with animal ears and an animal tail? I mean, imagine the demand; imagine the money they’d make. Shinku, Nanami and Becky would become millionaires overnight and never have to worry about going to school again. And imagine all the new foods, technologies, industries and whatnot that’d benefit the citizens of Flonyard, too. I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time before one of those kids enters business school and puts two and two together.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The monotone background characters in Durarara!! help create a division in the anime between the meaningful characters and the mass of others who populate the streets of Ikebukuro. Without these background characters filling the streets, the restaurants and the other public areas, the hustle and bustle of the dynamic Ikebukuro would feel empty and lifeless. There needs to be a constant presence of others to make the crowds we always see, to showcase and highlight the spectacle that the special characters of Durarara!! always seem to create. They’re a bunch of nobodies in the world of Durarara!!, but at the same time, they’re somebodies given the role they have in creating a living, breathing city. However, the choice to color them a monotone grey is also appropriate given some of the content of the series.
True, if the throng of grey, monotone background characters were colored normally, it would take away from the visual draw that the main characters have. The use of a constant grey takes away from their presence and gives a stronger emphasis to the acting characters in Durarara!!. But there’s more to it than that. In Durarara!!, the gangs all have specific colors… except, of course, for the Dollars, which are frequently cited as the colorless gang. If you remember back to the first season, to episode 11 of Durarara!!, it was that mass of colorless people who revealed themselves to all be members of Dollars. At that moment, they were wiped of their “colorlessness”, and they each revealed their true colors. Turns out, that each person in this crowd had their own unique colors, their own unique appearance, but were all one part of a greater cause. Now it doesn’t mean that everyone, everywhere in Ikebukuro is a member of Dollars, but it does give a bit more significance and meaning to the grey background characters that reside in this borough of Tokyo. Combine all these elements together and what seems to be a simple aesthetic decision for a single palette for background characters suddenly means so much more when looking at everyone, everywhere in Durarara!!.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.As Stardust Crusaders has progressed, the stands have become more creative and more intimidating. As a result, the battles against them have become more intense and noteworthy, with Anubis being one of the best battles yet in Part III. However, the comedy at the end, as has been the case recently, really undermines the greatness and sensation of the fights. Although this style of humor is a staple of JJBA, the endings to fights like these disagrees with me, by giving me a sudden change in flavor when I’m still enjoying the achievement of defeating a powerful, and above all, serious enemy. It works perfectly fine for comical battles, like those between Khnum and Tohth, or most recently with Bastet, but I would’ve preferred a more thoughtful tone to Anubis’ demise than what we saw.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.So Admiral is reshuffling his (or her???) fleet, and is again matching each ship into cohorts of 6. Again, six; no more, no less. But since this isn’t exactly the browser game of Kantai Collection and there are no specified spots to order the girls, I wonder what would happen if Admiral tried to put 7 ships together. It’s not like there’s anything stopping Admiral from wanting 7 ships together. Or 8. Or really, any number other than 6. Or, what’d happen if another ship tagged along with some friends on an expedition? Does the universe implode if there are more than 6 ships together at a time? Has it ever occurred to Admiral that there’s enough water in the blue, blue oceans for more than 6 ships at a time? I’m really beginning to question the merits of this Admiral when most of the anime are about these ships struggling with school, eating sweets, and going on wacky adventures.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.One of the loveliest aspects about this second half of Shirobako is the new personality Musani Animation has thanks to its new employees. Andou, Satou, Kunogi and even Hiraoka add to change the dynamic of Musani Animation’s office, helping bring new energy and individuality while also impacting the roles and responsibilities of the returning characters. For example, Aoi’s personality has shifted as a result of her new job, especially in regards to how she interacts with Andou, Satou and Hiraoka. Ema, who is still a new keyframe artist, has taken Kunogi under her wing and is providing support and help whenever she needs it… which seems to be all the time. It also helps that some of the established characters are missing too, such as Honda, Yano and even Ochiai. What this does is it gives this second season of Shirobako a fresh, new flavor in addition to all the other changes with switching over from Exodus! to The Third Aerial Girls Squad. It’s just another impressive detail that has a profound effect on the anime as a whole, helping us see another side of the industry that can only be observed through contrasting the first and second halves with each other.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The checkpoint girls in The Rolling Girls might be my favorite characters in this anime. Thus far, we’ve seen three very similar, yet slightly different, girls managing three different checkpoints. Given how significant the independent nations are in The Rolling Girls, these border girls are an essential aspect to the setting, and it’s no coincidence that we’ve met with three already. Although their names aren’t mentioned in the anime, they’re all named Banko (ばん子). And although each one has a similar appearance, wears the same uniform, and speaks with an unusual accent (since they’re from other countries within this fragmented Japan), there are slight differences between each girl. The one managing the boarder in northern Tokyo (episode 3) has orange bows with white polka dots in her hair and a Band-aid over her nose. The girl at the western Tokyo border (episode 4) wears green bows and has a small bandage over her left cheek. This episode’s Banko, as you can see above, owns yellow bows and has a large bandage on her right cheek. Otherwise, if it weren’t for the bows and the bandages, we wouldn’t be able to differentiate between the Bankos. And though these girls are mainly played as a joke, especially with their accents, they provide some refreshing humor and useful information about the areas that set the foundation for each episode. The Banko girls won’t play a significant role in The Rolling Girls, but they’re a delightful running gag in this anime if nothing else. And even though their roles are small and infrequent (although Banko narrates the episode previews for The Rolling Girls online), I hope we continue to see these girls appear in the series… and maybe even see a couple of them get together.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.This week: why Hibike! Euphonium, a school club anime, feels more ‘school club’ than ‘anime’, the background art as an indicator of quality and personality in Fate/stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, how the scarcity of direct fights negatively affects JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders – Egypt Arc, and inherent positives with 3D animation in Sidonia no Kishi: Daikyuu Wakusei Seneki.
Best episode of the week: Fate/stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (TV)
Anime trending up this week: Hibike! Euphonium
Anime trending down this week: Nagato Yuki-chan no Soushitsu
Fate/stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (TV) (Episode 16)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The background art is an essential component of every shot in every anime, and it can be used as an indicator for the quality and personality of an anime. Not only does the style and amount of detail matter, but so does the content of the background (scenery, skies, built environment) and how these shots are used within a scene. For Fate/stay Night, the backgrounds are frequently highly detailed with clean designs and exquisite detail. There is diversity in the content of its shots, too, helping to not only establish the locale of the scenes, but using the sky and lighting to denote the time of day while also helping establish the mood. Fate/stay Night also does an excellent job of using utilizing detailed backgrounds during scenes, too, especially scenes heavy in dialogue. Here, the backgrounds are particularly useful because, while the actual writing of the anime is characters standing around and talking, the shots can be diversified to show a variety of angles with few repeats. It’s a sign of excellent directing to avoid repeats in scenes like this since it is constantly providing new perspectives for which to view the scene. The example I’m thinking of is when Lancer approached Shirou and Rin at the abandoned church. Watch that scene again to get a better idea of what I’m talking about and why I believe the backgrounds to be a reliable marker of quality and personality in an anime.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.While most ‘school club anime’ feel like an anime first and a school club second, Hibike! Euphonium is a school club anime that feels like a school club first and an anime second. To me, there is a considerable difference in Euphonium’s conduct and elegance that differentiates it from the rest of its school club anime brethren. For one, the structure of the club and the roles of the characters feels right. Perhaps most importantly, the president of the club, Haruka, actually feels like a reliable leader who would be elected the head of a club, especially from the way she presents herself among her peers and how she feels pressure and shame for the band’s sorry performance. In fact, when Noboru, the new music teacher, responded to Haruka, you could feel her character respond to the magnitude of the situation and feel the tension in the air. Oh, that’s another one too, there’s actually a faculty member present in the club. Noboru’s presence, although infrequent, helps in keeping the club aspect realistic, in how he doesn’t brush off the bullshit going on and tries to hold the club accountable for their actions. Not only is his presence here a plus, but his personality plays a significant role in keeping this more school club than anime. One last point about why Hibike! Euphonium is unlike the others in this genre is that it is developing its story around the school club and not solely dependent on comedy or nonsense. Having a story with substance related to the club goes a long way in supporting the school club feel of the anime. Overall, Hibike! Euphonium has the same sensation as some of my favorite school club anime, like Chihayafuru or Hyouka. If it can keep up this approach and quality throughout, who knows, maybe Hibike! Euphonium will join those two as one of my favorite school club anime of all-time.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.One area of criticism for Part III has been the lack of direct fights between Stands and Stand Users. While Parts I and II were dependent on the characters fighting each other to the death, Part III seems too comfortable with all these indirect fights. And while some battles have turned out great with indirect fighting, namely D’Arby the Gambler, most have not. And while variety is appreciated, I feel that the value of having more direct fights would dominate the value provided by the diversity in all these different styles of indirect fights. Now, that isn’t to say that I am not enjoying this battle fought on a video game console (because I am actually really enjoying it), but it doesn’t have that same lasting impression or emotion as would a direct fight would. Then again, many of these Stands are not designs or capable of surviving a direct fight between Jotaro and the others, but it’s something I miss from Parts I and II and why I feel that those areas of JoJo’s trump Stardust Crusaders.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The more I watch of Plastic Memories, the more I understand that these writers have no clue how a business works or even how most of the real world works. There are just so many inherent errors and inefficiencies with this office that I spend most of the episode thinking of how, if I were manager of this department, I would completely gut the office and rework all its policies. Nothing about this business makes any sense and the fact that all of these errors are correctable makes it even more irritating. I do hope the anime begins steering away from its office setting and back towards Isla dying from Robot Alzheimer’s, but that also has some major issues, too.
Sidonia no Kishi: Daikyuu Wakusei Seneki (S2) (Episode 3)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Since it took me forever to catch up on Sidonia, I never had the opportunity to talk about it as it aired last Spring. However, with its sequel airing this season, I now have the time and platform to write about it. What I appreciate the most about Sidonia’s 3D animation is that it always consistent and that the appearance and animation with the characters is dependably good. Although I still prefer 2D animation over 3D, I do appreciate that there are no variations or dips in the quality of art and animation with the characters. If you know how one characters looks once, you know how they’ll look throughout. Additionally, with the 3D animation, the camera is able to do more and the anime can incorporate more cinematography than most anime. With the increased budget of this sequel, Sidonia has done just that, with more shots incorporating cameras rotating, cameras following behind characters, and performing other difficult maneuvers that would otherwise be nearly impossible with traditional 2D animation. Of course, 3D animation will never surpass 2D animation for me, but I do enjoy the inherent advantages of 3D animation with Sidonia, and I feel that for an anime of this style and caliber, that 3D animation works well for its story, its characters, and its setting.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.This week: why I detest the style of narration and extended “flashback” in Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, captivation with the advancement in fighting in Hai to Gensou no Grimgar, powerful, simple, and weird shots in Dimension W, and why I consider Koukaku no Pandora to be a slice-of-life anime.
Best episode of the week: Boku Dake ga Inai Machi
Anime trending up this week: Hai to Gensou no Grimgar
Anime trending down this week: Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu
Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu (Episode 8)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Although there are a number of faults that I can overlook with Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, I cannot forgive the series for this inexcusable “flashback”. There is a rationale and purpose for flashbacks in storytelling, and it doesn’t work when the entire series is devoted to this style or narration. Remember way back in the first episode when we we were introduced to Yotarou and Konatsu, characters who we began to identify with and understand their conflicts? That’s… that’s what this story is about, right? If not, and instead have this story be about Yakumo and Sukeroku, why even have that first episode? Why not start it off when Yakumo and Sukeroku meeting as children and then ending the series with Yakumo saying “I have a long story to tell…”, thus cycling the series back to the beginning with this “flashback”?
To me, a flashback serves a specific purpose when it relates to the immediate story by providing new information or a new perspective that is aided by visual accounts. A flashback is best when it’s short and concise and has an impact on the present. This, however, does not accomplish that. Rather, this flashback has dragged on for 7 episodes now and is clearly a majority of the series. And while I have enjoyed bits and pieces of this “flashback”, I can’t believe that it’s the only story in this anime so far. If it were up to me, I would have restructured the story to provide for specific flashbacks to questions that Yotarou and Konatsu raise to Yakumo, and used that to break-up this flashback into tolerable chunks. “Say, when did you first meet my father?” asks Konatsu. “Well, that’s a funny story…” replies Yakumo. “Have you always loved rakugo, sensei?” queries Yotarou. “No, in fact, I couldn’t stand rakugo at first,” answers Yakumo. “Walking down this street takes me back…” states Yakumo, reminiscing about his past and revealing wounds of his time with Sukeroku and Miyokichi. To me, that would be a more effective style of storytelling for Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu and a way to blend the past with the present for all the characters in the anime. Right now, I’m really confused at why we even had that first episode. Why even introduce Yotarou and Kontasu if we’re never going to see them again? It really doesn’t make any sense. And as this “flashback” continues each week, with no account for the present, so too does my depreciation for this anime.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Is Koukaku no Pandora a slice-of-life anime? Given the episodic nature of the anime and given the topics of recent episodes – going to the mall, going to the hospital, being kidnapped by cartoonish villains – it feels like a slice-of-life anime with slightly more action, fanservice, and robots than other anime in this genre. Then again, the focus of Pandora is on the action, fanservice, and robots, so one could argue the opposite and that the slife nature of this anime is a result of the virtually nonexistent central story. But given how bland and boring the story has been, not to mention the fact that the anime seems to enjoy ignoring it, I think the episodic quality is a positive for Pandora. Consider the opposite where every episode is related to BUER and Cenacle Island versus what we have now. Honestly, I don’t think I’d be watching Pandora if it were more structured and centralized around a story. I personally am enjoying the anime because it’s like a slice-of-life anime, only more silly, ecchi, and full of cute robots fighting non-cute robots.
Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! (Episode 7)
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I am always delighted to see changes or variations in the setting of an anime and found the snowy, wintery weather to be encouraging for Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! And while such a change was necessary for the events of the episode, I adore diversity and differences in the setting of an anime, even for subtle changes like the seasons or weather. I mean, before, Subarashii Sekai had generic, unremarkable sunny weather, the kind you see in every anime. For this episode, there was snow on the ground, the sky was dark and cloudy, and everyone wore winter clothes. I know it isn’t much, but it’s a huge plus for me to see a show change or adapt its setting for a story.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The battles are easily the best aspect of Hai to Gensou no Grimgar, and the evolution and development of their skills, tactics, knowledge and experience has been fascinating and gratifying to watch. And given how this episode was devoted entirely to savagely murdering the goblins to avenge Manato’s death, I couldn’t be more happy with how this anime has grown and how the characters and their battles have developed. However, what worries me going forward is how much the anime will continue to deal with these battles and whether the party will ever move on from these goblins or these ruins. Given that the rest of the anime is touchy-feely with Mary and the others and how they resolved arguably the biggest story of the series, I wonder how much more fighting we’ll see. To me, Grimgar will rise or fall depending on its battles and this episode has taken it to the top. Hopefully it can stay here depending on how the story and the party progresses from here.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Dimension W is a weird anime, and one of the weird things I want to highlight with this week’s episode is the frequent shots of characters with solid color backgrounds. These types of shots have been used in every episode and are used to highlight the character or a specific moment. By removing the background, these shots put all our focus on the character with only a basic, solid color and a shadow behind. These simple, yet powerful shots are unusual in anime and help add to the unusual nature and style of Dimension W. Honestly, I’ve always loved distinctive cinematography techniques like these in anime, and I hope to see it used in more anime in the future.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.My hope for the ending of Boku Dake ga Inai Machi is that, in the final episode, after everything is resolved in the past – no children are murdered, the killer is arrested and sent to prison, and there are no murders or arsons in the present – that Satoru is still being arrested. Satoru would ask why he is being arrested in the present when he’s not involved with any murders or anything. The police would reply they’re arresting him because he’s a 29-year old guy who traveled back in time to date a 10-year old girl. And Satoru would reply, “…oh, right,” as he heads off to jail.
I could be negative again about this episode of Dantalian no Shoka. Like the past few, this episode had (surprise!) another uninteresting and meaningless plot, likely the worst yet in the series. And each episode continues to reiterate the embarrassing absence of a central plot, too, like it wants to be remembered solely for this weakness. But instead, I want to focus on the positives of this series and revisit what makes this anime enjoyable and watchable. It’s time to see what’s right in Dantalian no Shoka, rather than being like the series and continuing on what’s wrong (oops, think positive).
Almost instantly, what comes to mind when viewing Dantalain no Shoka through rose-colored glasses is the artwork and animation. Every episode has had a stunningly beautiful exhibition of colors and lighting, bringing the characters and world to life. The character designs display another level of quality, with exhaustive details in their clothing and appealing faces with a reasonable range of emotions, both appropriate for the style of the anime. And the kinetics, or how they move around when they do, are satisfactory to great, depending on the action or excitement present. And while those aspects keep my eyes smiling throughout each episode, the backdrops in this anime are noteworthy on their own merit, deserving of a paragraph all for themselves.
There are never any simple backgrounds in Dantalain no Shoka. Every scene has a thorough and charming backdrop to it, which greatly assist in establishing the setting and creating the atmosphere. That watercolor/paintbrush effect, especially with the architecture of this era, is aesthetically pleasing, and it provides a different texture than the foreground with the characters and props. The meticulous level of details, specifically noticeable in the busy bookcases and disorganized libraries, aid in making the world feel realistic, that these are places where people live rather than a room created for a scene to be staged in. It’s truly one of my favorite aspects of Dantalian no Shoka. Virtually every background in this anime has been gorgeous and meaningful.
Dalian, while far from perfect, is another positive of this series. Sure, she’s selfish, childish, and demanding, which are all characteristics I dislike in a heroine but her mature and knowledgeable side is the point of focus here. The ‘adult’ Dalian is a likeable character: she is selfless, mature, and calm, and always there to lend a hand to someone who’s possessed or cursed by those demonic novels. Sometimes the abuser must pay for their crimes but Dalian always sees each event become resolved and always in a serious manner. You can’t really hate the ‘adult’ Dalian, unless you hate people for being too nice or slightly boring (and then you have other problems on your hands than disliking a character in an anime). And honestly, this is what I feel the real Dalian is like or what her character should’ve been. That juvenile persona she often displays serves only one purpose and that’s to make her seem moe or cute. The fact that when the story becomes serious is when she changes her attitude leads me to believe she acts like a child so that people who have a weakness for that type of character love her for her antics and adorable behavior. And while I dislike that aspect of her, I don’t dislike Dalian as a character. She could be better but at least she’s enjoyable when things get real.
I could go further with other positives from the series (the setting, the music, the Phantom Books, Flam and Hal, etc) but this post will only focus on the three topics I wanted to talk about. With the story drawing most of the attention of the series exclusively in a negative light, I felt it was time to redirect the attention elsewhere. The elegant artwork and tremendous backgrounds are the first things that popped into my mind. That and I wanted to go back and talk about Dalian more as a character. I’ve heard some complaints and comments on her personality, but I haven’t had a problem with her except maybe a few times when she was ultra-tsundere, so I thought I’d explore that, too. Do others feel the same way about the positives in this anime? Are there others that I missed and are those why you keep watching Dantalian no Shoka? I’d be interested to hear what people think.
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Alright, positive thinking off, onto my last, random, and final thought on this episode: Dolls again in Dantalian no Shoka? Seriously? This is the third time we’ve seen dolls play an essential role in an episode, with the other two being the Melgar and Viola story and the Flam and Hal special (and if you count the golem, 4 episodes). What’s so special about dolls in relation to Phantom Books or their connection to Huey and Dalian? They’ve been interesting and fit the role in each episode, so that’s good, but we’ve had to resort back to dolls three/four times now? It seems kinda silly to continue to revisit this theme this frequently, especially after the Flam and Hal episode, which I assumed would be the last time we saw them. It gets boring and monotonous to reuse this device in a story, especially there’s a friendship between a doll and a human. It’s one of the reasons why I felt like this episode was the weakest of the series, story-wise, thus far. And unless there’s a huge plot twist at the end where Dalian or Huey are dolls themselves or something, I’m praying we don’t see this theme reexamined again in this anime.
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