Next week’s episode of Aquarion Evol: that will be the time for you to show yourself, Mikono. That will be the time where you need to show that you’re more than a damsel in distress. You have been guided, you have been trained, but so far… you haven’t really done anything. You are very close to stepping in the pit of the generic Kawamori female love interests, and that will be your time to either jump over it or go into a completely different direction. Zessica is about to do it, so you can do that too.
For the rest of this episode: this really was action-packed. Nice action, amazing soundtrack, it all was very entertaining, with the spotlights reserved for Shrade. The tension around this guy is actually much more interesting: he and Amata both have huge powers, but the difference between them is that he actually uses it well. Amata doesn’t know how to use his.
Rating: *+ (Great)
AKB and pandering. Of course you can have a cast with females. When it becomes a problem is when the creators start using moe and fanservice as an excuse for not trying, which unfortunately still happens way too often. AKB0048 doesn’t have that… or didn’t at least. I really began to fear that right the first episode after I decided to blog this show, the characters suddenly got a day off, we got a bath scene, a bunch of very stupid antics and this disturbing focus on pheromones.
So yeah, weakest episode of AKB0048 so far. But as it went on, I did notice something: the sheer amount of characters that the creators managed to stuff into just this episode. Heck, I believe that they actually succeeded in fleshing out the entire cast of named characters, giving everyone a bit of a moment or scene to show more about herself. That’s actually pretty impressive to balance well.
Also, this show doesn’t actively criticize, but some of the ideas in this show nearly seem like they were put in to subtly provoke this. I’m mostly referring to the pheromones talk, but especially that bizarre family that breeds idols to look like each other…
Rating: * (Good)
My guess about Mikono is that her ‘power or connecting’ or whatever it is will be used to recombine Amata and Kagura into one person. It’s the only reason I can see for fer to have that power. The question will be however, what personality will dominate in the new person.
As to AKB0048 .. did anyone find this week was very creepy with the succession?
Yeaaaaaaaaah. I usually tend to shy away from all female cast shows like AKB0048, or rather, I avoid it like the plague, but so far AKB0048 has actually managed to draw me in, since it kept away from the usual moe clichés. This episode… not so much. It was a chore to sit through, with the only highlight being that dance teacher. I am hoping for a better episode next week. I guess I’m – when it comes down to it – just one of those fujoshi gals who needs either a well balanced cast (gender wise) or an all male (or mostly male) cast to be able to enjoy anime. *shallow omg*
OR. That the series I watch is josei. I mean. I LOVE NANA. And Chihayafuru. Etc. Josei most definitely is my favorite genre.
It’s not that Amata doesn’t know how to use is power, it’s just that Kagura’s power is so off the scale it’s ridiculous. Being able to reverse whatever he wants is already a pretty “unfair” power as it was demonstrated in the graveyard fight (reversing a punch? the car’s gear? what?? ^^;; and he once threatened Amata with reversing his blood flow, now seriously, come on!), and one has to wonder why it never occurred to them to use Kagura to reverse the women-turned-men back to women. But in this episode he is also able to do stuff that is completely unrelated to reversing. Like, blasting Amata into a wall. I can’t see what was reversed there, unless we’re supposed to believe that he reversed Amata not crashing into a wall. Meanwhile, Amata… can fly. ^^;;
Don’t worry it’s not like Kagura needs his powers to destroy Amata.
Hey look at that guy, he is fighting with himself!
…
Let’s pretend we didn’t see anything.
It’s not surprising Shrade is a more interesting character than Amata; after all, he’s WHOLE, not half of a whole like Amata. We’re thinking Mikono’s “connecting” power may play a role in reconstituting Amata and Kagura into a whole. It would certainly solve her problem of who to choose. Of course, that’s if exposure to Altair doesn’t make turn her into a boy. 😉
AKB0048 05: Suddenly, death-flags, dozens of them!
Aquarion is finally filling up some “obvious” holes, from Amata and Kagura existence to Zessica’s fate from crushing debris. Also, how many times can Shrade avoid all the death flags set on him? This guy must have some Chuck Norris blood in him.