Author: AidanAK47

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World – 18

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World

I suppose I will start by saying that according to word of mouth, this episode was a complete 1:1 adaption of the source material. Meaning that every line of dialogue, every action is exactly the same as the source material. For an adaption that is quite a feat but in ways it can be a detriment. There are those who believe that as long as an adaption stays as faithful as possible then it will just be as great as it’s source material and truthfully I thought this as well before. However there are many other factors to take into account with an adaption and if it doesn’t adapt the source material for a another medium then the results can feel lesser. I think a perfect example of this is the Watchmen movie, which if you disregard it’s changed ending, is a very faithful adaption of the comic. However despite this it’s considered a weak movie and a disappointment to its source material. Why? Because reading something and watching something are two entirely different experiences. From the New World is a good anime example of something which is hindered by it’s original format as it’s exposition heavy and to me feels like a journey to find the next thing to spout more exposition. For a book that’s fine, but for an anime it’s painstakingly slow and cuts away one for the greatest assets of a visual medium. The ability to show someone a story instead of telling them one.

You may wonder why I am talking about this but I want to try and explain why this episode gave me a mixed response. From a narrative standpoint I like what was accomplished. Subaru looks to finally be snapped out of his rut and this marks the starting point of his long awaited redemption. I certainly am glad for that as if his issues continued further than his character would become completely unsympathetic. However I feel the journey to his revelation was all too long and while I am hesitant to use this word as I feel it is rather harsh, this felt somewhat…contrived. I admit I am certainly not fond of drama where characters recite perfectly a long seemly previously arranged upon script and shout till some sort of revelation. It at often points just feels like a story beating around the bush till the point where it’s reveal could have the most dramatic gravitas. This is why I lost so much patience with Kiznaiver, as an adult i have come to value my time. Thus I have less patience for a show that is evidently wasting it. I feel that some of this conversation was somewhat redundant, yet at the same time it felt necessary. It’s confusing for me, basically I am trying to say that I think this whole thing could have been handled in a manner that would have made it less…dialogue dependent I suppose.

The bulk of the episode was focused on a single conversation between Rem and Subaru but there was some interesting aspects before that. Subaru died once again by Pucks hand but Puck mentioned quite a number of interesting things. One was that his contract with Emilia details that if she dies then he will end the world. For such a saintly figure like Emilia that’s a rather grievous claus to take up, makes me wonder just why she agreed to it. This means that Subaru didn’t just save Emilia in the first arc, he saved the world. Puck also refers to the white Whale as Gluttony which does fit. Does this mean that cardinals of sin need not be human? Upon facing down Betelgeuse he means that he would need at least half the dark hands of Satella to take him down which does seem to suggest that Puck faced Satella at some point. Finally Puck did what everyone did and pointed out just how Subaru had failed.

So having just been told off by the entire cast what solution does Subaru come to? I honestly thought he was starting to get it when he talked before putting forward his proposal. But then he says he wants to run away with Rem. She of course rejects him on this offer but for those interested there is indeed a If story written detailing just what would happen if she accepted his offer. Thus after a long twenty minutes of talking does she convince Subaru to try to fix things again with her fully supporting him all the way. One thing I am concerned about is whether this “fixed” Subaru for good. I have said before that I don’t think Subaru’s problems are something that can be brushed aside with some pep talk and a forehead kiss. It such be a long process of fixing his issues and considering that there is more arcs to come it’s possible that will be the case. If Subaru is essentially going to toss aside all his mental hangups and become a perfect hero then his downfall these past few episodes will feel very cheap. You need to carry that weight with you Subaru and you yourself have shown to be aware of your failings.

I want this to be a bandaid for Subaru’s problems, not a solution. Much like Emilia’s lap pillow in the previous arc, this should be a temporary fix to get Subaru on the right track. I really did like Subaru acknowledging his screwups in the previous episodes and one thing he said that really struck a chord with me was him saying that before coming to Lugnica, he did nothing. That felt like a real jab at those who self insert characters were created for. His claims about being empty almost felt like a meta moment of him coming to see his existence as some self insert light novel protagonist. I also have quite a bit of respect with him for putting it out that he loves Emilia and flat out rejecting Rem. Again that certainly seems to be a trait of light novel protagonists to lead on other girl’s affections without pointing out that they already have someone they care for.(Isn’t that right, Kirito?) I wasn’t quite happy with this at first but I did read an interesting opinion about Subaru falling for Emilia in the same way that Rem fell for Subaru. In that they were both saved by those they desire. Well before this gets any longer I might as well wrap this up by saying that Subaru it was good that you told her and that you are absolutely goddamn insane to reject such an embodiment of pure perfection that is is Rem! Bloody hell.

~AidanAK47~

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei – 04

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei

Well after a decisive defeat after assaulting the enemy headquarters, Illya and her newly united crew decide to hang around the school. The main bulk of the episode was dedicated to a fight between Chloe and Illya while other parts were mainly the characters clarifying the situation. The main reason behind the fight was Chloe being sick of Illya’s wishy washy attitude and wanting to beat into her the point that the dissonance she is feeling is exactly what Miyu felt at the beginning of the series. Though truthfully I don’t think their anything wrong with Illya wanting to vent her frustration about the situation. For the most part this fight was a motivation beating from Chloe to get Illya to kick herself into gear. Considering the level of effectiveness it might be beneficial for her to pop out of this series and go into another to give a certain someone this season a nice ass kicking so they get their stuff together. I find the reasons for the fight to be a bit flimsy but I rather like the fight itself as it was a great parallel to the main series. The beginning of the fight had Illya install the lancer card and it mirrored the first fight of Fate/stay night were Lancer fought against Archer at the school. The final blow was a nice homage to the fight between Saber and Archer in Hollow Ataraxia as well.

I really disagree with Chloes claim about excalibur being the strongest noble phantasm. My guess is that she mean it more in a metaphor matter but I might as well debunk this as I really hate this whole “Saber is the strongest class” nonsense. Excalibur does have a high level of power but in exchange it requires a huge amount of mana, has a long preparation time and when taken in the context of the holy grail war, is highly unsuited to the battle. In a war which secrecy is a priority, a giant flashy laser beam which lets everyone know who you are is a truly terrible weapon. In terms of power Gate of Babylon, Unlimited Bladeworks and Ionioi Hetairoi beat it easily. Even if we take it as meaning the most powerful sword, It’s nothing compared to Gilgamesh’s Ea. Even Gae Blog is a arguably a more powerful weapon than excalibur seeing as it’s a one shot kill. But well the power levels in the nasuverse are screwed to high heaven. You can debate it to kingdom come and there are many who do.

Of course I can’t avoid talking about what else happened after that can I? This is the reason why I said toned down, as opposed to removed when talking about the fanservice in this season. Fanservice is still there but it’s just not quite a prevalent, yet Sliver Link decided that a three panel shot of Kuro “refiling” mana needed more attention. I guess we can say goodbye to this getting a english dub, not that it had much chance of one seeing as season 2 is still undubbed. Nor is it all that disappointing considering the quality of the first seasons dub which wasn’t that bad but not ideal. Considering the west apprehension towards Lolita fanservice I say a scene with two underage girl heavily making out might make them fear being accused of selling pedofile porn if they decided to publish it. Can’t say I blame them and bloody hell Chloe this is why I don’t like you. There is some value in the theory that she is the personality of the original Illya and the current Illya is a personality that formed after her memories were wiped. But until that story element bears fruit, Chloe is the character who just amps up the Lolita fanservice.

Otherwise this episode had some Other nice little bits. Gilgamesh remains awesome and I like to think that Chloe wearing glasses while explaining things was a reference to Rin, who also sometimes has a tendency of putting on glasses when teaching Shirou magic. That aspect of the original Fate may even be a callback further to Ciel from Tsukihime who had a section of the game where she would teach players about how they went wrong on game choices and what to do to fix it. Really you can find tons of little details like this within the series. Tanaka’s stubbornness with wanting to wear a gym uniform which is the exact thing that Illya wears during the Tiger dojo segments of Fate/Stay Night. Even the fact that Illya’s transformation clothes while installing Saber are that of Saber Lily and Lilys in anime have a common association with…nevermind.(I also mentioned this before in my Fate/Unlimited Bladeworks reviews but Saber Lilys suggested backstory is that she is a saber that was seduced away from Shirou by Caster. So there’s that too.) I have said this before but this is a series mainly for Fate fans, in the same way the Danganronpa animes this season are for Danganronpa fans. Without a certain degree of familiarity with the main franchise they lose a lot in appeal.

~AidanAK47~

Mob Psycho 100 – 02/03

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100

This may be a surprise to some so I better start this with an explanation. As you know I originally planned to cover Berserk this season and have put up reviews of the last two episodes. However due to Berserks rather disappointing quality, my desire to cover it has vanished. I doubt anyone wants to read my constant whining over the series so I decided to drop it. Now I will still put up a post about my feelings on it at the halfway point and give it a review when it finishes. But I have given up on covering it weekly. Instead I thought it would be better to cover Mob Psycho as I really didn’t want this season to go by without someone on the site covering it. So why not me?

My original fears for this adaption were that due to the manga/webcomic’s slow beginning that it would take a while to start catching people’s attention. However it seems that Bones realized this and decided to mix about chapters in order to have a good mix of comedy and action each episode. The result has been great so far and the studio has added scene which help the stories feel cohesive instead of disjointed. However the action and comedy is admittedly hit or miss for me, the reason may be a number of things. Comedy has always been something far too subjective for me to evaluate and it doesn’t help that my sense of humor is not really attuned to japanese comedy. One’s comedy i something I can find amusing at times but while I did laugh at One Punch Man, I admired it more for it’s visual excellence and it’s story beats. Mob Psycho seems far more concentrated on comedy and the villains are more silly looking than threatening. That mixed with the inevitably of Mob just steamrolling them has me less interested in Mob Psycho than One Punch Man. I know that I should be judging this show on it’s own merits instead of comparing it to One Punch Man but the similarities between the two shows make that rather difficult.

I have warmed up to Reigen these last two episodes after finding him rather annoying in the first. The likely reason for this is that he has moved to a supportive role instead of standing in the spotlight with Mob. This tones down his conman antics and makes him a much more likeable characters. For even with all his faults as a human being, Reigen really is a good mentor for Mob. He has shown to really care for the kid and his advice while said with self confidence with no basis, is still solid advice for Mob to follow. Mob himself is also fleshing out as a character with these past two episodes focused on dilemmas he faces. Despite the deadpan demeanor, Mob does have a range of emotions and personal problems. I find it really amusing at how little he values his psychic power and has a greater interest in muscle training his body. His gullible nature is also quite endearing as well as his childish aspects. Accepting a challenge from a cult leader because he loves milk brought a smile to my face. I think from this point on the stories main focus will be Mob’s coming of age as a character and I am interested in that.

Animation is this shows distinctive feature as it takes ONEs rough art style and incorporates it will a high level of movement. The result is a adaption true to the art of the webcomic while being visually interesting. However i must admit that at times the animation can become a bit Chaotic and much like One punch Man, the higher quality your animation is then the more noticeable the animation drops become. There are times the animation becomes somewhat choppy and while some may say it’s a feature of the style of animation, to me it feels like playing an online game where character animation is lagging. The style reminds me a lot of Masaaki Yuasa of Mind Game and Tatami Galaxy fame. A style which generally sacrifices art for a high level of exaggerated moment though Mob is to a much less emphasized degree. At the moment what this show really needs is something to cut it away from it’s ties to One Punch Man and make it’s own identity, though considering the number of hidden Saitama references I worry the Studio may not have that in mind.

~AidanAK47~

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei – 03

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei

Plenty of action this week as we have faceoffs between Beatrice and Illya with Gil and Angelica firing legendary weapons back and forth. I wish there was a bit more fight animation here as while it was the same in the manga, it’s still a shame to have the scene cut away just when the combatants start to fight. True, they shouldn’t blow the budget just yet but the fights in this episode were essentially two people talking and just when they are about to fight the scene cuts over to the other fight where the combatants have just stopped fighting. Still I can’t say there were not great moments in this episode. For one Gilgamesh getting angry at Angelica for using Enkidu, the chain named after his closest friend. I have no idea why but having Gilgamesh say Mongrel just fills my heart with glee. Funny thing is that I think it only became a signature of him when the Fate/Zero dub came out as before it was regularly translated as bastard or lowlife.

I will admit that Illya just so happening to pull out Ruby from a stack of mystical items out of pure chance was a cheap coincidence. But it’s nice that she finally figured out how to install the cards and now we can see Illya cosplay as heroic spirits. Though she says she learned it from Chloe, though how she remembers when she installed archer and how Chloe knew how to do it is still a bit of a mystery. Bah! It’s the nasuverse. Here it follows the logic of who cares as long as it’s cool. If a gym uniform girl can take a direct hit of lightning from the hammer of the gods then who am I to question validity? Speaking of which that seemed odd even to the characters themselves. Tanaka has proven herself to be a strange anomaly as she seems by all accounts to be invincible. She’s clearly not from that world and can’t seem to remember anything besides her mission to destroy the Ainsworths. Considering the world’s current state and it likely being mainly the Ainsworths fault, I say the chances of Tanaka being a counter Guardian sent by the world is high. Despite her being for the most part comic relief, I prefer her to those classmates of Illya as at least she plays a role in the overall plot and isn’t an existence whose only purpose is the pad out the length. Plus she can be genuinely funny at points but maybe that’s because I relate her and illya’s relationship to Taiga and Illya from the Tiger Dojo. Actually in the manga I was certain that Tanaka was a younger version of Taiga due to not seeing her hair colour. If you dye her hair blond she would bare a striking resemblance.

It may be an odd thing to say but I am rather glad that Prisma Illya’s magical girl transformations are much more reserved than that of usual magical girl anime. A particular awkward thing about watching Nanoha is how the transformation sequences go a bit too far with the nudity. I am sure lolicons rejoice but for me it just makes me fear someone walking in and having a huge misunderstanding about my preferences. Illya may be technically eighteen(I assume she is in this spinoff too considering Shirou’s age.) but she certainly doesn’t look it and I have no interest whatsoever. This is why the heavy fanservice aspects of Zwei were particularly awkward for me. It’s a bit like Bayonetta for me, the thing itself is trying to make her as physically appealing as possible but I just am not into that so it just leaves me blank faced and uncomfortable. Well uncomfortable in Prisma’s case; Bayonetta I more just find somewhat amusing. Looks like Bazzett and Chloe are joining in next episode and I hope Chloe is bringing more than just lesbian lolita antics.

~AidanAK47~

91 Days – 03

by AidanAK47, posted in 91 Days, Currently Watching:

Seeing as things didn’t quite go to plan for Avilio last episode, it’s now time for him to prove his innocence to Nero. Avilio is playing his cards right and things would have gone to plan if it wasn’t for the man who lead them to Fango before. He states out of curiosity that he followed Vanno and found both their bodies. Then decided to sell Serpentines body to the police. Personally I doubt it was concern that drove him but rather his own greed as when pressured he did mention that he got too greedy. Chances are he knew what was going down and decided it would be a good chance to make a profit. So todays episode was essentially Avilio tracking down the body in order to show Nero that his story wasn’t made up. Having done that it looks like Nero believes he is in the clear but I think otherwise. Nero may be acting normal on the surface but looking closely he has been showing signs of suspicion about Avilio. I don’t think him taking Avilio with him on his little vacation is because he trusts Avilio but rather him practicing keeping his enemies close.

Fango returns once again to liven things up and I will give him credit in that his character allows him to add a little chaos into the mix. Having him follow Avilio and Nero resulted in a pretty excellent scene with him exchanging hostages. I still think he’s more a loony tunes character than a Mafia underling but that move with him noticing that it was Avilio under the hostage hood and then brushing it off unless he was close enough to pull out a derringer was quite ingenious. His relationship to the Don is interesting as well in that they seem to hold the same opinion on food. However it does feel like Studio Shuka is trying to make him their version of Ladd Russo in places. There is a possibility of him taking over his family and ending up the main antagonist and in regards to that I am not sure on what to think of it. Maybe if he can dial down the crazy he can become a compelling character but otherwise I fear he may steer the show in the wrong direction.

If the title is anything to go by it looks like Avilio’s revenge is going to be a long process and a time skip may be coming soon with this incident escalating into a war between mafia families. Avilio and Nero are leaving before things get too dangerous but it’s possible that when they come back the family will be no more with Nero left to rebuild it. This could create an interesting dynamic between the two as Nero would need Avilio’s intelligence but at the same time Avilio would be taking every opportunity to kill Nero. However chances are that Nero is Avilio’s final target and before him are people Avilio also plans to take out. That look in his eyes as he lights up that cigarette makes me think he’s got some machinations in the works. Though first it looks like the two of them have to deal with a hitman being sent on their trail.

~AidanAK47~

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World – 17

by AidanAK47, posted in Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World

While I did enjoy this episode and think that some interesting things have been brought up, I must admit that even my patience is starting to run out. I blame this mostly on the fact that I am watching this weekly instead of binge watching it all as the progression in these episodes has slowed down. This is part of the problem with adapting something which wasn’t tailored to be shown in portions over weekly periods. While I see value in the characterisation and failing of Subaru, at this point his redemption is long overdue. The level of suffering he’s going through has gotten excessive to the point of reaching torture porn status. I am certainly not above the primal pleasure of tragedy, it is something that I was looking forward to after all, but I am not in favor of it when it halts progression. That’s what is missing here as I watch Subaru fumble around and make mistakes.

At the moment Subaru is like a child with a shape puzzle in that the solution is there but instead of stopping to think, he just shoves random shapes in and gets further frustrated when he doesn’t get a result he was after. Of course I don’t think that Subaru should immediately become a perfect being and start making all the right moves as that would defeat the purpose of his downfall here. Subaru’s problem is not something a happy ending can immediately fix and requires time. What I need is for him to start getting on the track that gets him close to solving this, even if for the wrong reasons. Instead of running around in circles I need him to start taking steps in the right direction, so even if he hits another bad end then at least he has made some progress on resolving the matter. If it takes him the entire second cour to start doing this then I can’t say I would look fondly back on this.

This episode be get a big introduction the the White Whale whose powers are quite terrifying. It seems that those who fight the white whale are removed from everyone’s memories and even have their existence completely wiped from the world. What makes this especially terrifying is that the Whale has erased Rem who was practically main heroine at this point and she now no longer exists. The impact of this detail was somewhat removed for me thanks to some youtube commenter spoiling it in an unrelated video so Mister commenter I say you can sincerely go to hell.(Why do people do that, it’s such an ignorant thing to do.) Now I fear that even if Subaru does die and respawns at the apple stand then Rem could still be erased from the world. I would like to believe that such a development would be far too sadistic to include but considering the writers intense desire to make Subaru suffer as much as possible I think it’s a high possibility. Even if that were the case I at least am confident that she wouldn’t be removed from the story completely as the opening hints at a confrontation with the White Whale. Speaking of which one of the most surprising things about this episode was that it had an opening. I actually forgot that this show had those considering their lack of usage, well it’s a good opening and those singers were paid for a reason so why not.

I don’t blame Otto for kicking Subaru out of the carriage as his words wishing for Subaru to die likely echo the fan base’s sentiment at the moment. His words about how he and Subaru were weak are also things Subaru needs to hear. Though I must say that he mentioned something quite interesting in that a Master Swordsman faced the White Whale and died. In this series there are two characters with the title of swordsman. One is Wilhelm and the other is Reinhart. Considering that Reinhart has been considered away on business for a while I have a firm suspicion that he was the one recently killed by the whale. Part of how Subaru fixes all this could do with him helping Reinhart defeat the whale to get him in debt to Subaru. With that he would have the leverage to ask him to defeat the witches cult. There was also the matter of Subaru trying to make a good move of warning Emilia even at the cost of his own life but the curse killed Emilia instead of him.

It’s possible that the curse actually only affect those he tells and the first part is a warning. Or the Curse was being malicious at this moment to let Subaru know that even if he steels himself for death the curse won’t be bypassed so easily. I like the second option as it suggests that this curse isn’t some kind of automatic function but rather someone who is watching Subaru and threatening him. In his case the obvious suspect would be the jealous witch. Her attachment to Subaru may have grow as well seeing as he can now see Betelgeuse’s power when he couldn’t before. I suppose I shall close this post out by saying that it was nice to see Beatrice again and she certainly had a great moment where she refused to kill Subaru. From her words it seems she has gone through a rough time in her life and at least begrudgingly cares about Subaru. Maybe next week some closure is coming, like Betelgeuse getting impaled on one of Pucks icicles for example.

~AidanAK47~

Berserk(2016) – 03

by AidanAK47, posted in Berserk(2016), Currently Watching:

Forgive me for the delay on this particular post but I must admit that in light of Berserks quality my interest in covering it has somewhat declined. I know that for every episode to come I will have to dance around the elephant in the room but this series isn’t making that easy for me. As when coming close to enjoying the show I am constantly pulled out of it. My experience of watching Berserk is essentially a game of denial as I try to pretend the ugly visuals don’t exist. Perhaps I should find it cathartic as Berserk is a series which by its very nature is ugly. The things that make Berserk stand out as a series is it’s pure unapologetic brutality. Rape, gore, death of children and every uncomfortable theme you can think of is par for the course for Berserk. It is very much a pulp fantasy work and likely one of the finest in manga history. Plenty have tried to imitate but few have matched it’s glory. A true Berserk anime should be quite nightmarish considering the creatures that could have walked out of a Clive Barker novel, however the anime looks to be nightmarish for entirely different reasons.

Todays episode bring in some anime original content and if hearsay is to be believed, this was written by the mangaka of Berserk himself, Kentaro Miura. However when examining the content itself I must question what was the need for it. My original thoughts were that Miura was supplanting the less TV friendly aspects of the series by adding in different content. However the dark aspects are still here so I wonder why the change was needed. In the manga Gut fought a bunch of demon dogs till dawn and Farnese was nearly raped by a possessed horse. In this anime the exact same thing happened but instead we have the addition of a mansion and a encounter with a demon apostle. The encounter doesn’t add much of anything besides confirm that Guts is after revenge. It reminds me of a point in the manga where out of nowhere Miura decided to dedicate two chapters to a flashback with Gut’s meeting a fairy. The story itself was good but it’s reasoning and overall presence in the plot is utterly insignificant. It came at a time when Miura needed to get a move on and push the story to a climax but instead he decided to put in a filler story. This feels much the same, the fight against this dog demon is rather entertaining but when you plan to cover over sixty 30 page chapters in a single cour I think you don’t have time to waste on events that put the main plot on standstill.

However what really bugs me is that they adapted events of the manga and made them lesser. In particular there is a line Guts says about the demons reminding him of how he felt when he started all this. In the anime Gut’s just throws out this line upon meeting the apostle and it doesn’t have the same impact. In the manga Gut’s sees the horse about to rape Farnese and is suddenly reminded of Griffins rape of Caska. Which cause him to be filled with rage and say that line. It was a pretty powerful line and it just confuses me as to why they would keep the horse attempted rape and yet move the line to a different scene. What’s also puzzling is the sound design where they essentially decided that everything Guts hits with his sword will make a clang sound. I understand the idea of emphasising that his sword is more a huge hunk of metal instead of a blade but it really doesn’t make sense to have a sword clang when he’s cutting transparent beings or dogs made of flesh and bone.

It becomes quite distracting once you notice it. There is also the matter of Farnese’s non existence nipples. It’s likely something to be fixed in the blu-ray releases but I find it funny the priorities censorship has. Apparently the depiction of female’s nipples is out of the question yet showing a scene of forced Bestiality is apparently fine? I mean sure you darkened the scene but you still show her getting clearly molested by that horse. What is the point of censorship when it doesn’t censor the most damning aspect? This is the kind of thing that leads to weird fetishes forming. Where the story goes from now is a good question, Farnese has gone through an ordeal which has shaken her faith and put her in a rather compromised position. In particularly her rather kinky possession which lead her to nearly kill Guts while asking him to split her in two with his sword is certainly a story she wouldn’t want circled around the Knights. Her pride could very well lead her to hunt Guts down till her dying breath. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned after all.

~AidanAK47~

91 Days – 02

by AidanAK47, posted in 91 Days

At this point I think it’s clear what kind of show we are getting. It’s not Hitman Reborn which essentially uses its mafia inspiration as window dressing for shounen battles. Nor is it Baccano with a silly yet funny atmosphere combining the prohibition setting and supernatural. No, what we have here is the old school classic Mafia drama. A big tip to that this episode had a number of references to the godfather, even the series logo is reminiscence of it. I am actually rather worried about studio Shuka in this regard as this is an anime more for western audiences as I am sure it won’t sell well in Japan. They are likely safe considering they have Natsume to fall back on. I must say though that anime needs shows like this. Too long have we had the high school self insert harem supernatural battle fantasies and I say that it’s shows like this that display what anime can really do. Two episodes in and I feel like I am getting something from anime that I have been aching for a long time. Of course I hold my scepticism as Joker Game certainly betrayed me into thinking it was something is simply wasn’t. However 91 Days is showing great promise and I would like to believe in it.

This episode had great development for Vanno and I really took a liking to him. He’s a booze runner but he doesn’t drink. He seems to be quite religious as he prays before eating but holds no hesitation in killing someone. He’s hot headed but not stupid. And from the looks of things he has a connection to the girl getting married in this episode. I liked the guy in the first episode but this episode cemented him as my favorite character of the show. So I was truly genuinely shocked to see Avilo/Angelo kill him off. I thought Vanno was someone who was going to make it all the way to the end and I actually lament his loss. He was a truly great character, how could you keep Fango alive and yet kill Vanno?! However while I am disappointed in his loss, I truly respect the decision to kill him off. This show went to the lengths to establish his character, give him depth and make him likeable before putting him in the guillotine. Still, we could have had him around for a couple more episodes couldn’t we? Such a shame. Avilo is also a great character as well and I like that the anime is showing him to be intelligent without spelling it out for the audience. It’s also great that he isn’t being shown to plan things out perfectly and can make mistakes. Avilo is a really clever guy who lacks the precognition ability that so called masterminds seem to have, that to me makes him much more human.

Fango is another story. When this anime is fairly grounded in all other aspect, Fango is like a cartoon caricature standing out like a sore thumb. By some miracle he managed to avoid being burned by the molotov cocktail thrown at him last episode and now this episode we see him getting whipped by a dominatrix. Fango is the guy who seems to know he’s being watched, so he acts as crazy as he can when the camera is on him. In a series like Baccano that character was Ladd Russo but he fit the mold of what the series was trying to be. In a world as crazy as Baccano someone like Ladd Russo is expected. In a series like 91 Days, Fango is just too crazy to be taken seriously. Well at this episode’s end we finally see Avilo’s objective as it looks like his target is the very men he’s signing up to work with. Whether those are actually the men who killed his parents is another thing as he was given the details by an anonymous source. Still it should be rather interesting seeing Avilo play the part of ally while taking out people behind the scenes. The mafia family looks to be in a perilous position at the moment and it is possible that Avilo is being manipulated to stir things up and bring its downfall. His story could very well end here as he has stirred up suspicion when he lead Nero to Vanno’s body. I say he will make it out of this alive but Nero is most likely going to keep an eye on him.

~AidanAK47~

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World – 16

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World

Looks like the new opening and ending won’t be getting much use in this second cour either, not that I am complaining of course. This week I  wouldn’t be surprised if people were getting sick of Subaru as his actions continue to be erratic and destructive. The ending of the last episode gave hope that Subaru would be driven to make the right moves and strike back at Betelgeuse however while Subaru has got the right idea, he doesn’t have the know how to achieve it. I think it’s important for people to keep in mind one thing. Subaru is not you and you certainly wouldn’t handle this situation any better if you had gone through what he has. I actually find this aspect rather interesting as Subaru is at a simplistic level the kind of character you would normally self insert yourself into. However now he’s going against the viewer’s wishes and it forces us to see him from an outside perspective. I sort of see what the author is trying to achieve here but I must admit that his efforts may go to make Subaru too unlikable which would affect how we view his efforts in episodes to come.

What must be taken into account from now is the key to writing great tragedy. For you see what makes tragedy great is the ratio between hope and despair. The very impact of the events themselves depends on the author building a certain set of expectations and hope before ripping it all apart in front of the viewer. A constant tragedy is a dull boring affair that lets the viewer become desensitised to what’s happening on screen, therefore killing any attachment to the characters. I believe this is what caused Attack on Titan to falter in its later episodes and why I believe a second season won’t be quite as well received as the first. When your story is a constant stream of never ending losses then the viewer loses any hope of the characters winning and it just becomes a matter of when all is lost. This is what Re:Zero needs to avoid at this point in time because there is only so long people will put up with Subaru’s act. What we need right now is some small victories, things which give credence to the idea that maybe, just maybe Subaru could beat the witches cult. It is then when you bring out the tragedy again and smash expectations. Then begin the cycle  again by building up hope. My friends, Tragedy is like Dark Souls, a series of failures building hope towards a dream of magnificent victory.

This episode could be seen as each member of the King’s selection candidates telling off Subaru for being so arrogant. To some they may even seem mean spirited in how they lecture Subaru but it is important to take into account their perspective. A boy who previously talked big in front of everyone is now making claims that the witches cult will attack a village and that he needs their help. All things considered it’s actually rather kind that they gave him the time of day to listen to him ramble on like a madman. Each of the Candidates saw past Subaru and realised his true intentions so simply picking the right moves isn’t going to get Subaru through this. However within each telling off Subaru got was some wise words of advice which if Subaru heeds could lead him to victory. Crush is trying to get Subaru to realise that he is working out of his own selfish intentions and not for the sake of others. Priscilla is showing him that begging will get him nothing and that he needs to prove his worth.(Through that may have been unconsciously as I believe she thought that if she made him beg it would be more entertaining, but only found it disgusting.) Anastasia told him the keys to negotiation and that in order to get what he wants he needs to have something to trade.

In these words are the lessons Subaru needs to learn and it’s really a matter of when he decides to heed their advice. Still despite all of Subaru’s missteps this episode I admit that the idea of evacuating the village before the witches cult attack was a rather clever idea. Pity he forgot about the creature Rem previously warned him about in a previous episode, the white whale. I have some idea’s as to what makes this creature so dangerous as evidenced by the final minutes of the episode but I think I will wait to see if my thought is true. Start thinking Subaru, the wait till sunday is too long just to see you fail yet again.

~AidanAK47~

Some Quick First Impressions: The Disastrous Life of Saiki K, DANGANRONPA 3 -The End of Kibougamine Gakuen, Mob Psycho 100 and Battery

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K

Short Synopsis: A boy with incredible psychic powers runs into troublesome people.

It’s a pretty good watch. Sort of like Handa-kun it relies a lot of misunderstandings but the execution seems better in this regard. I say the main weakness is in that it has no real continuous narrative and instead is a series of shorts detailing Saiki running into a troublesome person and reluctantly using his powers to help them. Out of the skits shown I liked the one about his parents the best as it had the best punchlines. However Saiki as a character is rather dull considering that he has only one default state and that’s pure apathy. Sort of akin to Saitama’s bored demeanor without any of his goofy charm. I think for it to really get good Saiki needs a foil who is on the same level as him but so far it’s a rather decent comedy.

Potential: 60%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

This show based on the gags manga series, so instead of showing it as a 20-minute episode per week, they screen the show everyday as a 4-minute chapter and combine all of them for a full episode on Sunday, so in a way I could see this more as a short series one. I’m not kidding when I say this is the sharpest comedy show of this season, as it could go absurd, occasionally slapstick, most of the time over-the-top humor, but ultimately never lose its charms. Saiki is an over-power, but very self-aware kid, and his running through daily live without being stand out (because obviously he’s stand out) is a joy to watch every day. It becomes a new routine that I would start my anime-watching day with 4 minutes of Saiki K., and never once did I feel the show runs out of its joke. A must-watch for me.

Potential: 75%

 

DANGANRONPA 3 -The End of Kibougamine Gakuen- Future Arc

Short Synopsis: A terrorist group captures the leaders of the future foundation and forces them to play a death game against one another.

This is very much an anime for fans of the video games so if you haven’t played them I highly recommend that you do before seeing this show. Though regardless if you plan to watch this or not you should check the two games on steam anyway as they are quite excellent games. Jumping in from a anime only perspective would likely leave people confused as to what exactly is going on as this takes place directly after the events of Danganronpa 2. So far the writing has managed to avoid the pitfalls of the anime adaption of Danganronpa which is a relief though I need to see how they handle the mystery aspect before saying that this has better writing. It certainly doesn’t seem to have pacing issues and the new cast looks interesting.

Potential: 60%

 

Mario’s thoughts: I will not review this as I’m unfamiliar with Danganronpa’s universe

 

DANGANRONPA 3 -The End of Kibougamine Gakuen- Despair Arc

Short Synopsis: A new teacher gathers up her eccentric students to attend class.

Much like it’s counterpart, this is a series for fans of the games and if you haven’t played the games what you are going to get out of this episode is going to be little. However as someone who has played DanganRonpa 2, this episode was like being introduced to old friends. It’s interesting that Lerche is putting out both a prequel and a sequel to this series out in the same season but so far both have had solid starts. This series sounds like it’s going to be the more lighthearted of the two but there are hints of a darker tragedy ahead. With the original writer on board I think these animes could be quite worthwhile. Ultimately I say if you are a fan of the games then these two animes are a must watch.

Potential: 70%

 

Mario’s thoughts: I will not review this as I’m unfamiliar with Danganronpa’s universe

 

Mob Psycho 100

Short Synopsis: A fake Psychic cons a powerful esper boy into exorcising ghosts for him.

I have a particular fear that Bones is attempting to turn this into a repeat of One Punch man when Mob Psycho from what I recall from the manga is a different kind of story. Though considering that One Punch Man was a product of numerous talented people coming together there is a good chance that animators from One punch Man are working on this series as well. It has a particularly interesting style which is based heavily on artist ONEs webcomic art. The story of this episode is different from what I remember of the comic as it looks like things are getting moved around to make the show more dynamic. There is a much higher focus on comedy and sadly for me this doesn’t really work. For one the conman’s thing of pretending to be a powerful exorcist gets tiresome. He’s basically a version of Hercule from Dragonball Z. Mob in turn lacks the things that made Saitama so enjoyable and comes across as a more emotionally demore Saitama. Not helped by his design with has huge similarities.  This story does get interesting as it continues but I doubt it will reach the heights of OPM. Those hoping for a second coming likely should temper their expectations down to a lower level. Still the animation here is quite interesting and for that alone the series is worth checking out.

Potential: 60%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

Wow. I could watch the opening theme all day. The visual looks cool, the story is fun mainly because the show never takes itself seriously, the comedy is sharp and witty, what’s more could you ask for? I can see the running joke of Reigan as a con artist and his totally dependence on Mob to exorcise ghosts can wear off quickly, but I have faith on its writing as One Punch Man has a solid writing as well. My main concern is Mob himself, as for now he’s just plain- blank, to be exact. Yeah I guess we have to wait until he reaches 100 to see exactly what will happen. One of the most awesome thing was that creative visual is not there just for showcase but it fits very well with the theme (ghosts, supernatural) and the tone (a bit wacky, colorful) of the show. Overall, I think this is a style-over-substance show, but could be a very entertainment one at that.

Potential: 80%

 

Battery

Short Synopsis: A baseball pitcher finds a friend whom can catch his pitches.

I admit that after a long run of first episodes that I may be quite burned out at this point to enjoy battery. What make this harder for me to enjoy is that Battery is fairly slow paced and character driven which I simply have no patience for anymore. I am tired of school setting, tired of slice of life and tired of easygoing atmosphere. Let me get down to the main point. Is Battery a bad show? The answer is no. It’s a fairly solid slice of life so far but I think in this season it’s going to need a lot more than this to stand out. We already have two alternatives to watch this season besides this show and I have no interest whatsoever in baseball. I can sort of see where this story is heading and I have very little interest in continuing. Put simply I think you should check this one out yourself if you have a slice of life itch that needs scratching and decide if it’s something for you. Otherwise when it comes to this first impressions, I am done.

Potential: 50%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

And with this final show had its first screening, I’m happy to say that we don’t end our impressions on a sour note. Battery has fairly strong writing to start with. Unlike Days (the other sport series this season) where our main character was clueless about anything related to football, here in Days the main character is an already established teen baseball pitcher. And he’s not a likeable kid, but he’s well-grounded. He’s first appeared to be an overachiever, but at the end of episode we learn many about him, many of those through just small exchanges: his affection to baseball, to the point of playing it with his new friend – something a loner like him tends not to do; his strain relationship with his father, his ambiguous to be the best but ends up taking baseball too seriously, his mocking about “rich kid” when he gets hurt. It helps that the cast around him, most notably his brother and his new friend Go, bounds off very natural together and the more they interact, the more we understand about their personalities. This is a solid first episode and I can’t wait to see them batter for more.

Potential: 70%