Author: SuperMario

Sakura Quest – 10 [The Dragon’s Sore Spot]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sakura Quest

New week, new arc. Let’s see all the ingredients we have for this arc: Ririko (finally!), matchmaking tour (really? haha), Manoyama’s dance and the dragon’s furious. Quite a crazy combination if you ask me but I’m totally fine with the food they cooked up from these ingredients. Unlike Shiori, I mean, totally opposite issues from Shiori, Ririko spends most of her childhood thinking she stand out in a bad way. She’s just different, which admittedly excites no one but me. We never actually heard her parents mentioned and judging that she’s living with her grandma now my guess is that they left town when she was young. Now all that doesn’t mean she’s a great character, at least not yet. Her archetype has been done to death before and her detachment voice isn’t what I called the best representation of a quiet, shy girl. In this episode, she has a bit of a crisis when watching the other girls doing the traditional Manoyama dance, something she could’ve involved. It’s perfectly fine that she doesn’t wish to dance, but watching her best friends doing that make her feel even more isolated, like something is wrong with her because she doesn’t enjoy dancing like the rest (it isn’t). As it happens, when the other girls aren’t around, Ririko feels cut off, lurking into background, doesn’t engage in any conversation; might as well questioning her whole involvement with the project.

Now, the crazy project Sakura Quest come up with is a matchmaking tour. Despite there are only 3 girls travelling to Manoyama for in a quest of love (and they’re all close friends to boost), the lonely single guys in the town all getting heat up for this opportunity. Many cheesy lines and flirting are ensured but Sakura Quest gets away with it because they know full well how ridiculously those flirting are. Our girls, in preparation for showing tourist girls the town, come up with far too many over the top plans; but I have to say the initial plan is well thought-out. A sake brewery and fireflies, a night at old-style house and BBQ and watching Manoyama dance – I would totally go with that initiery. New characters, most notably the three matchmaking girls and the policeman are provided just about enough chemistry. Manoyama’s local dance, likewise, adds a lot of charms to the settings and the sequence where the girls dance around is easily the highlight of this episode

But I’m a bit worried for next week’s episode based from the last few minutes of this episode, when the plot suddenly goes for goofy faux-horror about the awaken of DRAGON. Actually it kinds of makes sense when they merging this legendary town story with Ririko’s own fascination for occult, but including this subplot also means that they can overwhelm Ririko’s own development, which I do not recommend.  My experience with Sakura Quest’s mini arcs have always been “1 good episode plus 1 bad episode” package so I really hope the next episode gonna break that pattern.

Uchoten Kazoku 2 – 09 [The Various Nidaime]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Uchoten Kazoku

This episode sets up nicely the main conflict for what seem to be the final arc of Eccentric Family: the coming Nise-emon to choose the prime minister of this Kyoto tanuki clans, but bigger and more serious affair is the rival between Benten and Nidaime, now that Yasaburou single-handled creates the situation where the two of them have to face off each other. Their rival has been built up since the beginning of this season, and with both Nidaime and Benten are amongst the most kick-ass characters in this universe, there’s a lot to look forward to. I’ve mentioned many times about their chemistry in previous write-ups – Benten has some sort of identity crisis, follow both human and tengu’s rituals (Friday Fellows and the successor of great Tengu line); Nidaime, whom his whole life has been avoided following his father’s Tengu path – and this episode is all about Yasaburou set them up to their confrontation. As such, this episode loses the richness of previous episodes, but I won’t complain if it builds up to a satisfying conclusion to our cast.

Now, Yajirou is officially leaving Kyoto, and the brothers come to see him off. I completely understand the reason Tousen didn’t come to see him. Saying goodbye is hard, but seeing someone off is ten times harder as god knows how long you will see them again. The remaining of the episode though, focuses mainly on the next Nise-emon election, but for once I see no contest in that election at all. Mainly because we spent nearly 2 seasons following Yaichirou, and for now his competitor, Kureichirou’s only defining traits are his calm demeanour and his positive attitude towards the Shimogamo. Even in previous season when Yaichirou had to go against Soun, he had a real shot of becoming a Nise-emon, so I don’t think Kureichirou poses any real threat there (he doesn’t seem to care for the position at all). But one problem arises, Akadama-sensei refuses to be the observer, instead asking Benten for the position. That doesn’t bode well for the tanuki, of course, since Benten ate their greatest Nise-emon of all time in a delicious hot pot stew before.

That’s where our Yasaburou comes in, after failing to change Akadama-sensei’s mind, on a whim he decides to ask Nidaime as an observer instead, knowing full well the outcome. Knowing Nidaime hates to own tanuki any favour, Yasaburou frames his request as a form of payback all the favours, thus he’s able to convince Nidaime. Benten certainly doesn’t like that idea, so she’s basically bullying the poor tanukis on their meeting. Remember Nidaime:2 – Benten:0 for now, how will it goes from there? Ah we also have Benten‘s brother lurking somewhere in the forest, so how he, the Thursday Club, the Friday Club come together again in this epic final arc? Looks like it’s going to be exactly like what Yasaburou sings out of his boredom:

“I’m always causing trouble,

A whole lotta trouble,

I’m always gonna disturb the peace,

Always gonna disturb the peace.”

Tsuki ga Kirei – 08 [Vita Sexualis]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Tsuki ga Kirei

Boy, the production has a nosedive in quality this week. It doesn’t hurt the show much though: the confident pacing and rock-solid chemistry between Akane and Kotarou are still there, but this episode shows how the time-rush and low-budget have finally caught up with the quality of Tsuki ga Kirei: many off-model characters, jerky animation where the characters move like in Flash, most notably (and painfully) in the sequence that featured Kotarou, his sensei and the old man in the hayashi music practice. I might be in the minority here but I would have much preferred even if the show takes more weeks off for polishing the final product. I don’t mind waiting, but I do mind the rushed, poor quality that could have benefited much better if they have more time and resources.

In term of this week’s content though, we have another winner episode in our hands. The young birds, after last week’s declaration of love, now have to deal with the pressure that the whole school know and talk about their relationship. The couple keeps it low-key of course, never talk to each other in class, but sharing bento together in the library and walk home together. When being confronted by her group of friends the things she likes about Kotarou, she can’t describe it clearly, she just does. Later down in the end of the episode, she can be able to express it much better. On Kotarou’s side, Roman and Daichi rightfully suggest him to wait for Akane in the form of “club activity”, something that our Kotarou never thought of. Friends’ supports are important as this stage of their relationship and I’m glad that their friends are fairly positive about them dating: to be able to share their feeling about the relationship, listen to others’ experience, and receive some neat advices from your friends.

But this episode is all about the two of them sharing some quality times together: both as a part of the other’s life, and as a date when there are just the two of them. It’s the way they express their love for each other in their own ways making this love so relatable. It’s cute to see Akane comes with Kotarou for his hayashi practice (thank God he didn’t mess up), oh and how Kotarou blushed just by saying her name out loud in the library, and her wearing some perfume before meeting him. When she realizes that she had missed his birthday, she determines to find him a birthday present. The present turns out to be another identical plushie that she has, but the way Akane manages to find her courage to give him a present making all the efforts worthwhile. And he band-aided her injured foot (you should’ve realized it sooner, Kotarou) is one of my favorite moment in this lovely episode.

The two of them have a wind-chimes festival together, where Akane wearing an adorable dress, shopping together, eating together, sharing a (real) kiss, and writing their romance wishes in a wind chimes. Hmm, it might look cute (and it is) that the two of them writing the exact same thing in wind chimes (a great touch of visual telling there), but when you two going together and write their wishes down together, what they want to say is rather obvious. But there’s no denying that their relationship is in a more intimate stage than ever before.

The shorts this week are in overall solid this week. I don’t pretty much like sensei and Roman’s segments, but the rest is hilarious and charming. My favorite two are Sakura segment (man, she’s becoming one of my favorite now) – detailing quite on point the insecure-ness of the a teenage girl: wanted attractions from the boys, yet still sensible enough to know that her fantasy is way off-mark. So cute – and Kotarou’s parents one – how the two of them seem to serious about NOT to read his writings, but of course they DO read them (parents, right?) and have very opposing opinions about his writings (and the way men and women differ in their way of thinking too), haha. We’re talking about the male’s gaze, and that segment speaks some truths on that too. I mean, even in real life, most male directors and writers don’t really understand the way woman thinking either. David Lynch, Akira Kurosawa, two of the greatest directors of all time, treat their women’s characters quite insensitively. Dazai – Kotarou’s idol, on the other hand, was quite adept of writing female’s psyche (his work Schoolgirl is a great example), so there’s hope that our Kotarou can learn from his inspiration.

Id-0 – 08 [Cracking the Flair]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Id-0

ID-0 has another solid episode this week. Seriously, this show just keeps exceeding my (humble) expectation each passing week. This week our team tastes the first win towards the Federation, but in fact it feels more like they take one step forward but three steps back. After making such a huge splash last week, the group decides to do what sensible group oughta do: staying real low, cutting all the outside communication for 2 months, all the while trying slowly to reach the internet Miguel Net. When they finally get connected to the Net again, there isn’t any report regarding their encounter with the wandering planet, or the destroyed Observer, indicate that the federation indeed controls the public information flows.

ID-0 actually answered one of myquestion last week, as the wandering planet indeed followed Alice first because she still has some Orichalt glowing, but as soon as the Observer prepared for a Miguel Jump (which required huge chunk of Orichalt), it crushed down the Observer’s ship instead. Thus in order to get their hands on the classified information, they need to get it from a data relay satellite. Using Amanza as bait, the team manages to storm a Satellite and Karla has a chance to use her expertly info hacking skills. The only problem is it was almost too easy. She successfully hacks into the main system, but don’t find much useful info except for the name Kane Arisugawa, the developer of Mind Trance system, who isn’t the person they were looking for. Trying to access through the backdoor also mean that they can be traced back by the federation, at the same time Karla has seen face to face with another I-Machine whom informed her about her real body. That’s an offer that hard to refuse of course, but would she take that offer?

Karla has a chance for some development this week, as basically hacking information is/was her specialty. She gives us some more insights about her past as she mentions she was “deceived”, and choosing between her real body and the team would prove to be an solid development for Karla. I also love the briefing sequence in the “old-fashion” classroom where the team discusses to each other to draw out the most effective plan. Each of them has their own perceptions and you can tell that each of them adds up to the balance of the team. Such a dynamic cast I must say. Although this might come as no real surprise to anyone, Amanza using her police reputation to help the team pirating the Satellite (meaning now that she will become wanted just like the rest of the group) still give a warm sensation in my heart. Maya this week either going full-blown optimistic about the idea of saving the world, or the show gives us a bit of hints of her current insecureness. Note that when Amanza mentions if any member of the group has any relative, Maya, the person who most likely have one, remains silent. Lastly, poor Alice getting confined in a room that she has no idea the reason why for freaking 2 months. She just wants to play some balls, guys.

But the biggest reveal this week, beside perhaps the wandering planet starts to destroy habitant colony (that damn planet “eats” the whole moon), is that Kane Arisukawa’s appearance looks exactly like Sam Tailor from the Observer, or the Masked Man last week. One possible theory is that they are the copy version of the original Masked Man one, that explains why the Masked Man remains too young for someone his position, and Sam is explained as a “half-baked” experience. Well, the possibility of Ido and Masked Man as one person still remains high, and I will lean to that assumption until proven otherwise. I like how everything seems to be safe and sound for the team after this Satellite hacking, but it actually feels they’re one step closer to the enemy’s trap right now. If anything this mean that the next few episodes the team will experience something far worse than they’re initially expected. I’m thrilling for some more.

Sakura Quest – 09 [The Lady’s Scales]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sakura Quest

So our cooking mini-arc has concluded and I was pretty much… indifferent to it by the end. It started strong last week but seems to run out of steam quickly this episode. For many developments the show squeezes in this week, only the somen contest festival part works out well. The romance part turns out to be quite…dumb, and Yoshino going overboard feel more awkward than funny. To make it even worse, many Sakura Quest’s stronger elements: the solid chemistry between the core cast and the adult wisdom are all absent this week, making this episode a mere passable one, but nothing special to write home about.

After the event last week, Shiori comes up with a plan to make amend with the Merchant Board: a somen contest to choose the signature somen dish for Manoyama. It’s a pretty neat idea for me, albeit the sequence in the restaurant where every local gone nuts about somen feel oversold and incredibly forced. Obaba has a great characterization this week. Yes, she’s harsh and blunt on what she says, but she’s reasonable. As long as your plan makes sense she will be happy to go along with it. It might be the first time in years that the two Boards work on something together and thankfully the festival receives enough enthusiasm from the town’s supports. Shiori has some solid time this week as she tries to come up with a new dish that featured both somen and kombu, two of the town’s favorite material. In the end, her dish isn’t chosen for the best prize, but the warm reception from the villagers towards her dish “Happy Somen” and the acknowledgement from everyone towards her contribution are good enough. But “Minister of Mediation”? haha, I really have no response for that off the wall title, but seeing how she bring the two Boards, as well as the two unlikely lovebirds together, I believe the title has its merit.

Yoshino, during the preparation of the festival, goes completely other way. She and Kadota meet Doku (the local mechanic), to do something ”bold” for the festival, hence the idea of flowing VR somen (that actually run manually by Deku) coming up. It’s silly, and although I feel it has a bit of its charm, seeing Yoshino trying just too hard without any result doesn’t impact to the whole story much. Actually, here’s my one question: Who’s in the committee that decide which somen food’s a winner? Obviously the girls aren’t in there, nor does the Tourist Board or Merchant Board. Then who? On what criteria they choose the food exactly? This WAS what they need to develop, instead of spending some time for this Yoshino’s silly plot line.

But it’s the romance between Kumano and Shiori’s sister that suffer the hardest. That’s coming from me who actually enjoy the running gags of everyone surprised that Kumano has an interest for Sayuri instead of Shiori, but boy, this whole plotline is just bad. First, Kumano and Sayuri share no chemistry whatsoever. When they meet again and talk to each other, it sounds even less intimate than two normal friends. They all mention that they were too shy to talk to each other back in college, but from their little flashback it wasn’t the case at all: sharing the love for French Toast and waited for each other until night alone in train station? It doesn’t add up at all. And then the reason that they couldn’t meet each other? Because Sayuri took the wrong date from previous year’s calendar? Forgive me if I’m being so blunt, but how is that even possible? They had a firm idea to meet each other on the Sunday after graduation on that station; so after graduation, they just have to show up on THE SUNDAY, the wrong date got nothing to do with it. If it meant to be cute, it doesn’t, it’s just dumb. This arc unfortunately isn’t Sakura Quest’s best hours. Well, at least now this cooking arc is over and I’m looking forward to what the hell they come up with for the Tourism Board next time, and by the pattern it might be the time for my favorite girl Ririko to shine. Bring it on, girls.

Uchoten Kazoku 2 – 08 [Ebisugawa Kaisei’s Secret]

by SuperMario, posted in Uchoten Kazoku

Woah, there’s a lot of things going on in this episode. This week, The Eccentric Family returns to themes that it is most comfortable with: family and life’s purpose which have been put mostly on the sidelines this season. The episode, in hindsight, is a string of many effective scenes combining, making this week one of the most diverse cast we have this season, yet all these sequences point towards the family’s responsibility, the red fur of fate and individual’s goal and deliver many resonate bittersweet moments. Eccentric Family might just release its best episode to date here. First, the ongoing feud between Shimogamo’s and Ebisugawa’s families have finally come to an end as the young head of Ebisugawa: Kureichirou brings down the annoying twins to the Shimogamo to amend for their father’s evil actions. Like Tousen said earlier, it’s idiotic blood of the tanuki that make them fight against each other (but aren’t we human the same?). Yaichirou of course doesn’t want any more conflict so they agree to lay off that dispute and shake hands. Well, since we were witnessing along them how the feud come into its biggest confrontation in the first season, seeing that war was resolved completely feel like a triumph for me. Just imagine how Kureichirou could bring the stupid twins to kneel down and offer to be pulled out fur from their butts (which I could imagine a very humiliated tanuki way) make me realize how influential the guy to his brothers. This sequence links well to the theme of family, now with the former powerful heads of each family gone, the young heads have to settle down and have to choose their own ways; there’s no point in continuing the feud, must like there is no point to punish the Ebisugawa’s sons for what their father had done.

We also have all the members of Shimogamo (plus one future member) meeting together. This episode smartly showcases the development of each brother in the family. Yajirou can be able to transform again, although he still can’t stay in his shape for too long. Yashirou, with the help of Kureichirou, has a whole lab for himself to experiment whatever he likes. In term of personal conflicts, there is a lot to chew on as well. Yaichirou feels his responsibility to look after his brothers, to guide them to their own paths, and to become like what their father did. Of course, the first two are genuine but Yasaburou points out the last point that he doesn’t need to shoulder the responsibility of a dad. Because he can never fulfil that role, nor he need to be (he was sitting the exact same spot that his father had dinner before he disappeared). Asking Yasaburou to marry Kaisei in order to have something for Yasaburou to protect is an interesting valid point, but doesn’t Yasaburou’s everyday chores are to take care of his sensei and protect the people around him? Yassburou might be too carefree to never consider what is his real goal in life except slacking around, and Kaisei’s comments in the end all point out to his lack of responsibility, but remember he was always the first to run to his mother whenever thunder came, or helps out his sensei whenever possible.

Benten also makes an appearance in this episode; and she’s having a date with… Nidanme no less. Their conversations are still pretty vague right now, but I do hope Nidanme isn’t into Benten like almost every male creatures in this Eccentric Family’s universe. (She’s bad egg, don’t cha see that?) One thing for sure is that he comes back to this town because of their previous encounter in London and they remain awkward, but surprisingly no ill-resentment to each other. Then it’s Yajirou who have a juicy role this week, as he decides to leave Kyoto to find his own path, much to the dismay of Yasaburou. For Yasaburou, whatever happens, the family stays together, but Yajirou will forever be a frog if he still stays under the well (the image of all his belongings fit right into a hankerchief is serious sad – and there is greeting from Kaisei here). The brotherly talk brings so much warm to the scene, and the tender score really hits its spot. This is a sudden but believable development from Yajirou. Yasaburou doesn’t cry (he proclaimed himself that he never cry, and doesn’t have any weakness – both of which were prove untrue in this episode), but he ends up running to the mountain to sulk for A WEEK, which of course is far more immature.

And finally, it’s Kaisei’s secret. In truth, the only disappointment I had for this marvelous episode is that I expected a lot more Kaisei’s moments this week. In reality, she only appears in the last 5 minutes though, but boy she sure delivered. Her secret, turn out to be such sweet twist that tie up the red fur of fate nicely. The sight of her makes Yasaburou’s transformation come undone. Plain and simple. Just like how the presence of Benten did the same thing to Yasaburou’s father. That explains how she can transformed the hypnotized-Yasaburou-bear back to tanuki few episodes back (great foreshadowing). Apart from the fact this is one of the sweetest thing I’ve seen this entire year bar none (the exchanges, especially when she cracks up, are extraordinary), the revelation 1) just shows us how thoughtful and attentive Kaisei has always been to the people around her, especially to Yasaburou. While Yasaburou’s reason for rejecting this proposal idea is mainly about himself and his freedom, Kaisei’s reason has always been for his sake. It’s obviously hard for her to hang around Yasaburou, especially he’s the one she cares dearly for (common, this’s pretty obvious now) 2) more importantly, Kaisei represents the cage that block Yasaburou’s freedom of transformation. Remember they mentioned that tanuki can’t transform inside a cage, because they lost the freedom so to speak. So to choose Kaisei mean that Yasaburou agrees to give up his transformation altogether, which you know he would never do. Such fate that can never bring the two furballs together – the red fur of fate. We have for ourselves a true star crossed anime here.

Tsuki ga Kirei – 07 [Hold Back Nothing When Taking Love]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Tsuki ga Kirei

With this episode Tsuki ga Kirei marches on its impressive run. If there is one thing that I’m still impressed about Tsuki ga Kirei, it’s that despite its slow-pacing, the story never stands still. Each episode is a steady step-forward, clearly mark-out stage from its main couple’s relationship. I wasn’t at all expecting that much tension from this week, just to show how I am personally invested in its characters and their situation. Again, I totally feel for the total defeat of Chinatsu in this episode, but lest we forget that she was the one who planned to disrupt this couple with all her might. Originally, she staged for only 4 free passes to the amusement park with the intention of using Takumi to hook up with Akane and she has some free time with our main. Kotarou and Akane’s classmates though, are all in for an opportunity to go out for a date so the trip ends up with 9 people, leaving Roman an odd one out. You could argue Chinatsu crossed many lines of actively hurting Akane’s feeling and using Takumi for her own gain, which I totally can’t defend her, but I still read her action as purely self-centric behavior. She just doesn’t think her actions would cause those consequences that far ahead and while it’s dangerous, you can’t really blame her for things she doesn’t aware either. Okay, now I’m defending her, but I believe when Kotarou roars like a lion in front of Takumi declaring what is rightfully his, it blows much harder to Chinatsu than he outright rejects her.

And what a natural progression of this first love has come to be. After last few episodes about how to behave when you’re actually in a relationship, the next step is to acknowledge your relationship to others. And this episode is all about opening your relationship’s status to your friends without feeling reserved about it. Like Chinatsu few episodes back, Roman is the guy who can read between the lines so he caught on with Kotarou – Akane relationship. Special shout out to Roman as the buddy who got his friend’s back and do whatever necessary to support his friend. Unlike Roman, others don’t have a clue about this relationship and for once, Takumi also finds this trip a good opportunity to spend some time with Akane. When Kotarou catches up with the two of them walking together, for a moment I thought he would be silent and walk away without calling them back – and indeed, most of other shows will fall for that route, but we’re talking about Tsuki ga Kirei for Peter’s sake, so Kotarou instead steps up and declares in front of Takumi that they’re in relationship. Yes, what important is to acknowledge your love. Boy, what a truly great moment. Takumi, surprised, but take that news really well too. The subtle body languages in those scenes certainly enhance the character’s emotions, as you can read the reactions of both the four main casts. Tsuki ga Kirei’s visual storytelling is truly magnificent.

The rest of the time afterward, Kotarou and Akane have their first real date, alone together, in this amusement park. There are some truly intimate and sweet moments out there, certainly helped by contrasting them with Chinatsu and Takumi’s sadness. They eat together for a first time, playing together and kissing each other in a firework backdrop. Well, they aren’t technically kissing though but it feels much more intimate than any other actual kissing out there. At least, Chinatsu apologizes to Takumi and even texts Akane about not being able to confess her love. There’s nothing you need to say sorry about, Akane, because when it comes to deciding between your and Chinatsu’s own feeling, it’s a clear answer. The couple goes a long way since they’re first dated, and I’m not even hard-pressed to say this, considered that this is a story about first love from some middle-school kids, but this is a real depiction of how two individuals falling in love, along with what a true growing up would be like, and those alone make Tsuki ga Kirei stands above the rest of your average anime offerings.

On last note, those shorts this week are still pretty on par, although they run a bit longer than I would’ve preferred (because, geez, it means the actual story is cutting short). Those shorts are pretty much a part of Tsuki ga Kirei’s identity right now, and so far they’re all gorgeous. And I couldn’t say this last week because of the recap, but the new OP is solid as well, make me wonder if the overall production (especially the CG extras) could have been improved if they have some more extra time for correction?

Sakura Quest – 08 [The Fairy’s Recipe]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sakura Quest

This was a solid episode from Sakura Quest. This week is the first of the two-parter (probably) about the Queen and her team making a special dish for Manoyama town that could attract tourists. Now I see the formula the show’s currently employing: the first three episodes focus on Yoshino and her coming to term with the rural village, and gathering the main cast. Episode 4 and 5 concentrate on woodcarving industry and fleshing out Sanae, the last two episodes they shift the focus to assisting movie crew and give a necessarily development to Maki. This new episode will be all about cooking, taste testing and developing the core member that I’m most worried about: Shiori. Turn out both the food-making part and the Shiori part were all excellent. At the end of this episode, Sakura Quest merges those two storylines together as Shiori takes charge as the leader of that food project, with some clearly identified obstacles to overcome. So why do I have to namelist all the previous episodes, you ask? Well, knowing its patterns help me to suspense my disbelief so I can enjoy the ride better. As of now, this format doesn’t bother me too much anymore. While it’s sitcom-y, meaning after the arc is done we gonna reset back to status quo for another new story, which kind of defeat the development of previous arc; giving the show different scenarios to work with make that world feels rich, like every corner of the town Manoyama has lives on its own. For example, the lake the girls fishing (by bare hands) or the farm at the beginning of this episode feel entirely vivid and lifelike, which of course add to the charms of this little town.

So the Board of Tourism comes up with new strategy to attract more tourists: making a home-made signature dish. I know this plan hits my own sweet spot more than anything but the idea of making local food is a sound idea for me. One of the issue of this plan though, is that none of the main casts, save Shiori, have any idea about cooking. I love the way they come up with their own “creations”, which reflect so well with their respective personalities: Sanae with her love for fast-food ramen- chicken wings hybrid, Maki’s quantity-over-quality Mega Tempura Sandwich, Yoshino with all mixed ingredients that already sound like a bad idea, and Ririko with her green “witch” soup (the bug she brought earlier squeezed out green cream as well. Could it be…). I also love her grandma super calm reaction after tasting that soup (a big disaster) and her even calmer suggestion to eat takeaway food. It also helps that when the girls being themselves without any development, they still bounce off each other very well. Ririko’s snarky comments hit a lot of target here, so does Maki and Sanae teasing (and then team up) to each other. Their absurd outfits at the beginning is a feat to watch as well, especially Maki and her Bruce Lee’s uniform with David Carradine’s famous hat.

Back to the main plot, only Shiori has any idea of making “eatable” food, but also like her personality, her foods taste great, yet so plain that fail to impress anyone. In addition, only Shiori who came to know and appreciate the local ingredients, which makes sense when you want to promote a local food. The rest of the group want to appoint her as the head of the cooking campaign, but she hesitates with that idea since it comes so much of a burden to her. Sakura Quest pretty much answers my concerns regarding developing Shiori character, as this episode challenges her supporting, never-want-to-be-in-spotlight personality and makes it her ultimate catalyst to overcome. Then Sakura Quest raises the stake even further by providing the conflict between the Tourism Board and the Merchant Board. Yoshino forgets to inform the Merchant Board about their food day, which happens to overlap with the Merchant’s Summer Festival. Later, when all members from Tourism Board come over to apologize, Grandma Oribe also points out, quite rightly, that Kadota has been selling out. While she hated his Chupakabura manju, she can deal with it because he still used the local products, but the “deluxe version” is created from some other company, thus defeat its very purpose of promoting local foods. Kadota clearly cares about gaining more tourists for the town, but he ultimately uses more aggressive methods, which caused a stir with the local people. This conflict is well thought-out so I’m interested to see what Shiori will come up with next week.

The episode also spends a huge amount of its time for Shiori’s own family and introduces two new characters, Shiori’s older sister Sayuri and the bear chef Kumano and the two have some romantic tension with each other. The parents and grandparents of her are all adorable people and have a very warm chemistry together. The way the grandparents introduces non-subtlety their single granddaughters to any young man they like as “We have two here. You can pick one” is sooo my grandparent way of obvious hook-up lines that it’s endearing and scary at the same time. Later on, when Shiori’s dad take her for a little walk, his wisdom “Everyone’s life changes eventually” again hit hard here. Shiori is the type of person who doesn’t want anything to change, because she’s happy with everything right now. But things won’t stay the same as time progresses, so the lesson here she needs to learn is that changes aren’t that scary and they eventually come as she moves on to the next stage of her life. Even without the progress of the tourism plan and the core cast’s developments (in which this episode happens to excel in both departments), random wisdom like this, heart-warming and meaningful that cut right through my heart, is a healthy dose of insight that I clearly need right now.

ID-0 – 07 [Overstepping]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Id-0

This week found the three main characters: Ido, Maya and Alice all got “eaten” by that huge annoying rock. Thankfully, being a rock – they themselves call it a wandering planet, or Rajeev retrieved, it can only swallow them whole – not chew – but it effectively cuts down all the communication and oxygen from the outside; as a result Maya, and to greater extend Alice, have to find a way out before running out of oxygen. While in there, they found out about the lost ship who experienced the same fate and managed to restore some data from that ship. Outside, Rick and Amanza are responsible to find a way in by Rick distracting the defense mechanism of the satellite and Amanza attacks on its weak spot (love the chemistry between those two). At long last, it’s Grayman and the rest of the cast had to charge the precious Orichalt (the amount equal to half of their year’s earning) to get through the rock, and later spend the other half to destroy it (of course, giving away all their income is a taboo in this pirate’s job.

Also with this episode, we learn something more about the space “conspiracy” of that world. Ido and Maya conclude that the Police and the Observer from last week know about the dangerous of those wandering planets, but keep their existence in the dark from human because the prospect of going to space is too huge to ignore. Those wandering planets are attracted by the Orichalt (not Alice, huh, a bit confusing here) so they could pose a potentially huge damage if someone possess a huge chunk of Orichalt. At last, we get to see the real face of the masked man and this guy’s surprising young, reinforce the theory that he is the real version of Ido. We do have a bit of a clue with the spilling of someone named Dr Arisugawa, with for me he/she will have vital information regarding Ido’s identity and what is going on.

Again, the main cast’s chemistries become a highlight of this episode. Maya, in particular, shines when she reflected about where she really belongs on the edge of her death. I know this is nothing deep but they hit all the right notes with her development so far. We get to know more about the mateship between Rick and Ido. On the outside, Ido is the “everyone for himself” kind of guy, but he treasures his friends more than that, as more than once he saved Rick’s ass despite the high risk of rescuing him. This is pure speculation at this momonet but I like to think that this trait of Ido might be what make the current version of Ido differs than his previous self. Also the back and forth interactions between Rick and Amanza are a welcoming one, them being the most unlikely duo based on Rick’s relaxed personality and Amanza’s total seriousness, but they give off a nicely chemistry all around. Though I’m not in for their romance, as I don’t think developing a romance at this point is necessary.

ID-0 continues its winning streak this week. Usually for shows this calibre, at this stage after introducing the cast and the settings they tend to go big with facing down the evil corporation. Not so with ID-0, which I am kind of glad. They understand that the dynamic between their cast is one of their greatest strength, so they spend this whole episode revolving around them instead: Trapping the main characters inside the satellite, with the rest of the cast tries rescuing them. At the same time, the show gives us some new info about what is going on and the pacing, in particular, never drags out, something that their previous effort BBK/BRK was struggled with throughout its run. I’m quite happy with the development of ID-0 right now. This little gem is one confident show.

Uchoten Kazoku 2 – 07 [The Friday Fellows Club, Again]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Uchoten Kazoku

For a show that has a knack for little moments, this episode is one of the rare times that Eccentric Family goes for big dramatic emotional route, and manages to knock it out of the park. Soun, in the end, serves no more purpose than a pawn in a chess. Wicked all the way, but died abruptly and meaninglessly. Everyone might just brush off and say that he deserves it, but for once I can see his real struggles there. Running away from tanuki society, he aims to join the Friday Club to hunt down all the tanukis that “betrayed” him, but all his efforts and careful schemes are all taken away by spurring moments by Yasaburou, who obviously doesn’t even try, nor care at all, but getting everyone’s approval instead. Irony is there. The natural order is there, too. At the end of the day, doesn’t matter if they’re a hero (like Soichirou) or villian (like Soun), ultimately they are just a weakling tanuki who died helplessly at the hand of the human. Soun doesn’t end up in hot pot tanuki stew, but his death is equally vulnerable. In fact, building him up as evil and ruthless make his defeat even more tragic.

But before that resting moment happened, we have quite an eventful day out of Yasaburou; the more amazing when you notice that last week and this week occur in a span of one single day – where he enjoyed a public bath, went through hell, watching Oni wrestling… and back, enjoyed mixed onsen (boy, that IS truly heaven), having crazy dinner party afterward. Just like what I gathered from the new movie “Life is Short, Walk on Girl”, also written by Morimi. The whole movie happens in a span of a single night, but the events feel much longer than that. This is on purpose, of course, since what is a better way to highlight the enjoyment of busy carefree life by crazy events one after another? It is the magical realism not only by its settings that consists of many mythical figures; but also by warping a sense of time that feel much longer than it supposed to be.

And that wrapping sense isn’t only limited in time, but in space as well. The Eccentric Family has various impossible physical interior places that looks much grander than it supposed to be. Last few weeks we have Nidaime’s cozy apartment that situated in a roof of a small, washout building; we have a hole in a shogi board that actually has a secret room inside it; we also have a painting that have a whole world inside its own; this week they might have its greatest addition: a three-stories train by Jyurojin whom its first story is his office, second story is a dining room and the third one has an open-air onsen with bamboo pathway to boost. The interiors clearly don’t fit with the exterior outside, but that is again intentional to highlight this magical world.

Jyurojin emerges himself as the real threat this episode, especially now when Tenmaya joins him again as a faithful servant. You dare to defy the Friday Club purpose? You get a gun pointed right at you by him. You want your dragon stone back because you couldn’t get in the club? No way in hell. When he mentioned he’s scared of the Painting of Hell because it reminds him of his own inside he seriously gives me a chill. The banquet night, likewise, isn’t your normal banquet. Things quickly go out of hand when Yodogawa sensei declares his love for tanuki (“Love is something you have to force on others”, haha), and protests tanuki stew hot pot tradition. Jyurojin quickly ties him up and “force on his love” to sensei by shooting him in the face, and he means business. Yasaburou then saves his friend by expelled himself from the Thursday club in order to change sensei mind, but Bentei gets the clue and asks him to join the Friday Club instead, meaning he will eventually get to eat a delicious tanuki hot stew. Benten has been very playful this week (guess she’s really in a good mood). That decision also means the total exclusion of Soun, and our Yasaburou is the stone that cries in this episode.

I’m glad that Kaisei has an excellent moment this week, and it appears she will get more spotlight now, as next week will be her episode: “Ebisugawa Kaisei’s Secret”. I have a feeling her secret will be dark (maybe she’s adopted by Soun?), and I hope whatever the secret is, it doesn’t involve with the death of Soun. After all, she takes her father’s death surprisingly calm, doesn’t it?