Author: SuperMario

3-gatsu no Lion – 17 [Silver Thread – Water’s Surface – Base of the Blue Night]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

Wow, this episode! This is one of the strongest 3-gatsu episode that we’ve encountered so far, both rich in effective little moments, strong characters interactions and smart visual executions. Speeding up to three chapters per episode might be this episode’s most successful trick, because 1) these 3 chapters are interconnected by the same narrative themes and 2) it allows strong moments to sink in faster, and much sharper and 3) the amount of solid characters moments is definitely much higher than normal 3-gatsu episode and this is one of the rare times in 3-gatsu experience that I do feel like I’ve been sink at the bottom of the sea with too much of a good things, for good reasons. The episode produces one of the most breathtaking visual that directly convey the mood and themes of the story. The water motif have been applied effectively throughout the series’ run, but here it adds another layer: both Rei and Kyouko are lost deep within the sea of life, suffocated by the pressure of everything around. The dim lights of her phone to create that light waves of sea is one of the show’s most sensitive visual-storytelling for me. Or the moment the rain just stop after Rei noticed Souya is equally impressive. Shaft carries this show with style, and this episode especially they brings out the best from its source, even the lighter scenes are brimming with finely-tuned touch.

Harunobu, as long last, has catched up with Rei, not only in their professional ranking sense, but also about their maturity. As Rei struggled with his forms and several depressions, Harunobu makes one steady step forward at a time, while fixedly aim at his goal ahead. Harunobu has gained a lot of strong material here and as of now I don’t mind to have his accompany at all. On the other spectrum, the sudden appearance of Souya gives the show the almost dreamlike quality. Souya here is portrayed as someone out of this world, the one who can stop the time, who is unchanged in his appearance after 10 odd years, an angel that so pure and powerful that it brings the force of destruction instead. When people compare him to demon, guess what really remind me of? The old shogi player Matsunaga commented about Rei himself as a “beautiful reaper”. Guess there’s not much difference between Souya and Rei then.

Kyouko also makes the most out of her screen time this week and this might be the first time we have a full picture of Kyouko and her relationship with Rei. In this episode, she’s in her usual spiteful mood at one time, become spirited and playful at other and then deeply vulnerable the next. Her bashing out on the sisters is heavy and malicious, yes, but it comes from her own pain and belief that Rei was the one wrecking her family. What she said isn’t entirely wrong though, As Rei found himself very much at home at the sisters’ house, but still hearing those intentions from a dark and mean perspective certainly is hard. Afterwards, after staying over Rei’s house though, Kyouko amps up her playfulness and really that light tone between them isn’t something we see very often, if at all. The comedy mostly works here and they give off a great chemistry with each other. Kyouko then breaks down, she’s unsure about how to deal with her life. At heart, both of them are pretty insecure individuals, sharing almost the same pain of trying to figure out the way through life. Their relationship, moreover, become much complex and Rei remarks so true in the end “we also haven’t been able to become siblings nor remain strangers”. This was a beautiful chapter.

But the greatest moments for me was when the sisters appearing while Rei and Kyouko having an arguments. At long last, the two forces of nature: the warm, light side from the sisters and the dark, destructive side from Kyouko finally collided and the result is a weird mixed of raw, dark feeling with surprisingly warm-hearted touch. Momo again steals her scene, Hina again is the voice of “follow your heart” sentiments and watching Hina fighting Kyouko might be the greatest pleasure ever (also: Momo calling her “witch”). Those contrasted forces produce such unique sparks that in my book this is one of the show’s brightest and most effective moments. 3-gatsu no Lion is going stronger than ever, and this solid episode comes totally expected because it draws from the current strengths the show has been well established throughout its run. The only downside with it is that now I won’t expect less from it. I know I have been spoiled with too much Kyouko’s and three sister’s moments but give me more doses of excellent characters writing please. Otherwise I would get really pissed-off, just like Hina-chan.

Scum’s Wish – 05 [Destruction Baby]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Scum's Wish

Boy, they actually did it; they actually went that far. And here I thought after introducing the cast and their dark love, they’d tone down on the “physical” aspect and focus more on the “emotional” part. Guess I’m already underestimated Scum’s Wish because they go all the way to this explicit sexual desires without hitting the brake. In this show, emotional pain IS physical pain, for rarely I see in other shows character cries when they’re having sex. All the characters keep holding their emotions inside that they need other for physical release. Sex here is more akin to pain than pleasure since those characters keep using it as a mean to escape their desolation.

“Did you know we’re never done it when you’ve wanted to before?

I’m glad that Mugi isn’t a clueless sad sack (unlike certain someone) who actually knows the true nature of Akame, but despite knowing all this he falls into her trap anyways. This revelation does add new layer to his crush with Akame, as deep down he knows -like Hanabi’s crush on sensei- that it would never work out as normal, healthy relationship. So in order to escape his hormonal needs he turns into his senpai Mei instead (and there I said last week we won’t see her again, ouch). It only makse sense that after Hanabi having an affair last week, now it’s Mugi’s turn to show us how much of a dickhead he is. For a really limited screen time, Mei is surprisingly vivid and sensitive. She understands his deal, and her comment above really signals us what kind of relationship they had before, and where Mugi stands right now. Remember Mugi reflected on her last week that she was incredibly lonely? Now he’s pretty much on that same boat. The affair here isn’t out of love, or even out of desires to be honest, but it was out of running away from current pain. Mei knows that full well so she fullfils what he needs, even when herself hurt so much she sheds her tears. Seriously she becomes my favourite characters out of this series (partly due to her limited appearance since it makes her pain more bearable compared to the rest of the cast).This section does Mugi’s current situation justice, both sheds new light to his hopeless crush on Akane, and further underlines his loneliness by jumping to physical means to escape his frustration.

“The number one thing I desire. Something that will break the mundane routine of everyday life. Freedom”

Akane is becoming a character that everyone love to hate. I actually feel for her character, I really do. Not by her fake charm of course but by her absolute boredom with the strictness of her surrounding. For her, time is a restraint, the way it dictates human to follow through their everyday life. Last week we learn that her bitchy act is the form of her enjoyment from attracting sexual attention from men and causing miserable for women, in this week we also learn that it comes from her thrust for breaking free out of her “boring” life. That’s actually something that I can relate to. And I’m pretty much on the same page with her regarding Narumi. He’s boring, and he currently drags the show down. I guess it’s all set-up for now so his arc begins now as all the sexual desires begin playing a part in their relationship and how he deals with the situation once he realizes Akame’s true color. But for now he’s terribly plain, he’s terribly uninspiring. It’s a bit whimsical to think that the whole situation changes by the mere slip of the tongue, but that also shows us how he truly cares for Hanabi as a true brother. And all Akame’s effort of enduring the guy just so that she can whisper that thunderous message to Hanabi’s ears.

“I hate pain, but it feels so good”

Here comes the strongest section of this episode. As much as Mugi and Hanabi all gone through the same problems, they can’t be able to express their mindset to each other, instead they use physical contacts as a mean to share their feelings. The excitement they have were a mixture of the pain when they know they being cheated by the other, the shame that they’re cheating and even the arousal feeling of being cheated. They’re all negative feelings, but they are strong and irresistible. That emotional pain, however, soon progresses into physical pain in the form of virginal Hanabi. They can’t go all the way because they don’t love each other,. They could if they forced themselves to, but then what is the point of forcing oneself to love someone? I had originally hoped that they could have a genuine relationship later on, but this kind of relationship won’t have a happy ending, ever. I’m digging the smart visual choice of this section as well. Not sure how the manga portrait the dark thoughts of Mugi towards Hanabi but the show really highlights that gritty thoughts by the use of split screens of Hanabi’s face.
The visual execution in the first sequence, on the other hand, is my least favorite part as “he brings the color to my world” is as obvious as the nose on your face. For the episode as heavy and explicit as this one, I understand if some viewers thinking it was too much. In that sense this week is a good barometer for viewers to see if they should continue to watch this show or not. I’m positive that the whole love affairs will get much darker, more explicit and much more disturbing later on. If you still decide to stick with it I hope you have a stomach to handle what come next.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. – 05 [Overlapping Footprints in the Distance]

by SuperMario, posted in ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., Currently Watching:

Okay, this episode… just ends. Look, I normally don’t mind slow-burned story hinting multiple threads and this episode is clearly a set-up episode for upcoming major events, but at least the episode itself has to be completed. Leaving viewers hanging for incompleteness is just as cruel as terrible cliffhanger. Nevermind though, as long as set-up episode goes this week has a large amount of characters interacting with each other. Let first talk about the bureaucrats, as I still can’t put my finger on whether or not they’re a comic relief for the show, or the fact that they’re crazy about toast will be relevant in future events. While at it, the whole bread culture is running strong this week, as many characters express their blind love for breads. Cheers for Magi for being completely out of character, since he abandoned his spying job for the bread-tasting and making a friend in a process. Rail and Magi make up the most unlikely pair but really hooray the show for being so off the track. Well, I do enjoy the humor for this silliness so even if this side story doesn’t add up much, we will always have this companionship formed by the mutual interest of Lotta and toast. Lotta, likewise, do nothing this week except eating cakes, eating breads and having dinners, but weirdly she fits the story very well so I guess the actual coup d’etat might have something to do with bread and toast??? Cake fight? Then I’m definitely on it.

Kidding aside, the main development in this episode has to be that Jean finally exposes Nino’s spy cover. Lilium’s hint was really obvious here, as if his main objective is to decrease the influence of Grossular rather than assisting Jean. But I’m sure people will agree with me that the best part in this episode was the way both Jean and Nino handle the situation. They considered each other as friends at heart so despite blowing the cover up, they remain as close friend. After all, Nino ensures Jean that his main objective of tailing Jean wasn’t for ACCA anyways, so my guess is that his other boss directly tied to the coming coup d’etat. Jean doesn’t mind that he had been following all this time by Nino though, because he knows for sure that Nino will protect him whenever he’s in trouble, just like last week’s uprising. Nor did he give a damn about the reason why Nino rat out on him in a first place. I’m happy to see that their trust and understanding of each other have been very well fleshed out this episode.

This week alone, Jean has to go through two audits and I am a bit sadden that the show decides to rush through it. After all, the 13 districts in this Dowa kingdom are one of the most interesting settings we have in a while, and I would love to learn more about each district’s distinct traits. The two districts that we visited this week in particular have their own strokes of unique features here and there, Birra district is a self-efficient district, and despite its harsh weather with produce no wheat, beer or cigarette, they have oil as their main industry. Understandably Birra district doesn’t want to stay behind in danger should one of the 13 districts becomes dominant, so they’d use oil as their main weapon: control the oil, so that others can’t overtake them. Rokkusu district, on the other hand, is more mountainous and remind us a bit of the old West, as of now there’s not much details about the district. Seriously, even see the different settings, different customs and bread types is enough to get me satisfied, so I really hope the show spend more time to provide us just that.

In term of the big picture though, what do we have so far? We’re pretty much in dark about the details that Jean got out from Suitsu (damn, they’re keeping their cards too close to their chest), so as much as I want to root for Jean, he’s an unreliable narrator at the moment. He did receive one more cigarette, that “from whom they sent those” and “why” are still unclear. This is clearly a calm before the storm moments, but the problem is that with no clear indication on what’s about to come, it’s hard for us to know how big the storm gonna be, so there is no real threat here. Maybe in that sense it’s not so bad as the harder we figure out the real plot, the more interesting we find ourselves into the story, as with me I found myself liking ACCA more and more. At last, Jean is going to meet Grossular so we…

(to the spirit of the ending of this episode, my post ends here)

3-gatsu no Lion – 16 [Running Through the Night – Middle of the Slope]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

3-gatsu had another solid episode this week, which for now was exactly what you would expect from this show. Rei’s getting more social life, and this episode demonstrates the importance of the tutors’ roles, as both Hayashida-sensei and Shimada continues to guide him to improve himself, both in his personal life as well as his professional shogi life. But “solid” and “expected” also means that I don’t really have a lot to delve into, so instead of doing an usual format, I will try something different this time, running the episode down by key moments and giving you my thoughts on those. Notes that this is just one-off, mostly for the sake of trying something different.  

If you really think about it, this “arson club” is the kind of club that Rei would never be a part of. They are as different from Rei as chalk and chesse. The club is noisy, active and silly, Rei isn’t. They try to make soap to attract girls, the kind of thing that Rei would never dare to try. Yet, they’re getting along well, because the club is determined to help Rei out. This section gets as silly and light-heart that it could get, but this is the light-heartedness that I wanted to see. Like Hiyashida-sensei, just watching Rei enjoying himself with other people is rewarding enough.

But here, we have one of the most satisfied life lesson that one could learn from his sensei for a long while. Heck, this life lesson still resonates well even to me, more than 10 years older than Rei right now. You need to rely on others sometimes in things that otherwise difficult when you do it alone, because then people can rely back to you. Rei is the kind of person who doesn’t want to trouble his friends for his personal problems, which is fair enough, but by doing that he creates a border that others can’t cross, and in turns they keep their distance with him. I haven’t really talked about him in details before but Hiyashida-sensei proves to be one of the most reliable tutor Rei could’ve had for guiding him to be more open in his social life. Rei needs more friends, that’s a given, and seeing him slowly realize the significance of opening up to someone else is really satisfying.

Continue reading “3-gatsu no Lion – 16 [Running Through the Night – Middle of the Slope]” →

Scum’s Wish – 04 [Bad Apple!!]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Scum's Wish

This was a sublime episode from start to finish. By showing these tales of love through fragments from many characters’ point of view, it adds more layers, as well as more perspectives to this webs of broken desires. Normally this approach of focusing of fragments mean that the story can become disjoined; but not here. Every small stories in this episode matter and it keeps sinking us to its muddy swamp. And yes, the music in this show is incredible; if you listen closely there’s a distinctive theme for its stories and it really helps to elevate the mood for each segment; like how you could feel a seedy sense in Akane-sensei story, or a false mood of sweet, dream-like quality in Narumi-sensei part. Again I’ll discuss each of the theme in last week’s format, as I see it as the most appropriate format to squeeze out most of what this show tries to convey.

“Being desired by men. There’s no greater feeling than that”

Turn out that our sweet Akane-sensei isn’t sweet at all, but a manipulative bitch. That might sound negative but in truth this is a kind of character that works really well in this story. She isn’t your typical bitch after all, as she’s the most observant one out of all characters in this story. She is the only one who sees through many intertwined love nets and really the only one who can sees through Hanabi. Using her attractiveness as a weapon isn’t something utterly terrible, but what is remarkable about her character is how she’s playing up her attractiveness mainly for wrecking other girls, for them to feel the pain of seeing the one they love taken away by her. She said she doesn’t aim for superiority but all I can see is superiority plays a significant role here, since all she wants is attention from men and the hurtfulness from girls. I love the way she recognizes that Hanabi is pretty much on the same side as her, by neglecting the one sided love of other (Moca). The true Akane is anything but pretty, but now at least she’s real. What impressed me the most is the way the show underlines her sexiness and her thrust of physical consumption; not through big boobs, sexy clothes or suggestive behaviors, but merely by her sweating. Hooray for solid characters writing here.

“I decided to believe it was fate”

The next segment was told from the point of view of Narumi-sensei, on how he was attracted to Akane and thus become her unfortunate prey to play with. This story is slight and the least impactful compared to other segments, but I still found it interesting because out of anything, the first impression he had towards Akane was directly tied to his memories of his long-lost mother. It furthers detailing his long searching for a feminine figure all his life, and really that was a false picture that he incidentally subjects Akane to be and that was the reason why he’s blind be this affection. In the end, things that too good to be true are more likely deceptive in nature so I really hope he’s sensitive enough to figure out the true Akame on his own (would be really disappointed if he can’t).

“I want you to be filled with me”

Last but not least we have a development to Ecchan and Hanabi relationship as they sunk deeper to love confusion. There’s always a distinctive border between friend and lover and now they crossed that line, each for their own selfish reasons. Hanabi both needs Ecchan as a way to escape her own heartbroken from Narumi (which I can totally feel for her), and because she still needs and loves Ecchan as a friend. Ecchan likewise knows all this, but she’s determined to use every opportunity to have Hanabi all by herself. What they both know but too afraid to acknowledge is that once they crossed that line, they can never be back to “just friends” again. That image of little Hanabi disgusted with her current self sums that sense up pretty nicely and for me the best moments out of this already excellent episode. Scum’s Wish stands on a very firm ground here, as the story keeps maintaining its confidence take on the line between physical desires and emotional desires, on how the characters keep using the former as the substitute for the latter (the first and the last segment directly tied to this), but end up being more lonely and suffering. I know a lot of viewers have been turned off by its depressing nature but all I can say is guys, you might miss out one of the more thought-provoking look on relationship here.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. – 04 [Smoldering Embers in an Isolated Nation]

by SuperMario, posted in ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., Currently Watching:

We are no stranger with this kind of world in anime: an isolated, conservative world that cut-off from outside communication and ultimately stay behind its times, slowing back 10, 20 even hundred years. Everything there is monitored and controlled by the rules and authority. As ACCA keeps suggesting the chaos within this peaceful façade, the most appropriate way to question this very world is to put its ideas to an extreme spectrum, as a result we have this isolated district of Suitsu. The Dowa kingdom promotes autonomy in its 13 districts, with each of the district bring their own uniqueness to better suit the place; but what happen when the authority started to abuse their power in a negative way? Citizens in Suitsu are prohibited to use phone, even to communicate with outsider in the pretense of “preserving tradition”; they in turns are displeased with how things going and form an angry mob. What sadden me the most is we’re living in this exact same world, where North Korea still cut-off from the rest of the world just like this. Suitsu district, when you look at it, is more like one of those weird countries straight out of Kino’s Journey, but it still manages to add ambiguity to the flaws of the Dowa Kingdom’s systems so in that regards, this episode still has its merits.

But when it comes to the actual plot of this episode, then this week ACCA made one mistake that they managed to avoid so brilliantly before: its delicate pacing. ACCA is slow-burn, at the same time there are many plots and themes going on both underneath and beneath the surface but as far as I concerned they hold everything together extremely well. This week though, we follow Jean as he auditing the district, witness him being kidnapped, then learn about the coup d’état, follow the angry mob, the uprising and their ultimate downfall, both in a runtime of merely 20 minutes. The pacing therefore is much quicker this time, as a result those big events don’t have time to settle down or give much impact. We just know Wabler or Biscuit at the beginning of this week so it’s hard to relate to them or the events around them. I get the message: frustration out of unfairness and strictness is relatable, but I hardly feel any of this. It comes quick and goes quick and leave not much impact.

When you judge this episode through its stance in the big picture, then this show offers too little to the main narrative as well. At the end, those uprising will be hidden and forgotten, only Jean gets away with the knowledge of the actual coup d’état and that’s freaking little development for a complex show like ACCA. Although we do learn that Nino apparently is working as a triple agent and we have a glimpse on another member of the ACCA’s five Pastis and the Suitsu representative Beurre, this still leave a lot to be desired. No, this episode, while certainly is a competent episode in its own ways, serves as my least favorite episode so far of ACCA (the curse of episode 4) both because it runs too quick for its own good, and it adds too little to the main narrative. And where is the glorious cake and tasty bread this time? All we have was a loaf of bread when Jean was all tied up so… um, no, thank you.

3-gatsu no Lion – 15 [Moonlight – Lump of Ego]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

Let me get off track for a bit, but the truth is that I’ve always been fascinated by moonlight. Moonlight gives me a warm presence, moonlight (especially in full-moon) gives me the bright feeling that there’s no more worry in the world. Sit there and watch the moonlight is one of those rare moments where I truly “enjoy my moments of nothingness”. Coincidently, many media involving moonlight have a special connection to me: “Moonlight Shadow”, “Dancing in the Moonlight”, even last year’s indie gem “Moonlight” gave me a certain feeling that resonate strongly to me. This week in 3-gatsu we start with the chapter named “Moonlight” and again this proves to be a special episode to me, one of my favorite chapter out of 3-gatsu in fact. The ambiguous relationship between Kyouko and Rei has been one of the show’s strongest material, and this episode manages to take that relationship up a notch.

I will forever remember the image of that young Kyouko; there she stands, beyond the moonlight by the window, demanding Rei’s and our attention. If there were moments that best captured the relationship between Rei and Kyouko, that would be the moment she sneaks into his bed, whispering those words “Don’t touch me. But don’t move away from me”. Kyouko, just liked the way Rei described her, is a strong-willed but deeply insecure girl. The girl who has everything that she doesn’t need, and ‘fails’ the only thing that profoundly mattered to her. To her eyes, she’s always the inferior one compared to Rei, both in shogi and in their father’s attention. Rei isn’t any better when it comes to self-doubting though, as a result we encounter one of the most heartbreaking moments when the only way those two know how to comfort the other is by ways of showing that insecurity, but even then Kyouko still gets hurt really bad. That is Kyouko, love and hate someone with the same intensity.

And when it comes to her loving someone with full force, we also see her and Gotou together for the very first time, and this relationship is still pretty much blurred at this time, but fascinating nonetheless. Gotou is oblivious to Kyouko’s feeling, even calling her “stalker”, but of course Kyouko doesn’t back down just because of that. We saw them together twice this episode, and while the first time he allowed her to walk side by side with him, the second time he ditched her like a bastard. Except when you think about it, this is the best kind of actions when dealing with someone as bombastic as Kyouko. He’s a married man anyways. People seems to agree that Gotou has been using her but from what I see it might not be the case; it’s Kyouko who clearly steps out the line right now. I have a feeling he still cares very much about his sick wife but I know we will see more about his relationship soon enough so let’s wait and see.

The rest of the episode also follows the best-of-three matches to determine title-challenger between Gotou and Shimada. They are basically equal in terms of skills level so the matches are long and worn-out ones and resulted in one slightly beaten out than the other, which the first match goes to Gotou and the second goes to Shimada. I’m glad to see that Rei really invests in those matches. Yes, to learn from the people who are higher than you and get inspiration from those matches are the right way to get out of his own depression now. Speaking of that, Hina has an adorable moment of sitting in the chair and worrying for Rei, just so that the grandfather gives her his wise advices of basically come down to “let him deal with his issues himself”. At the same time, Harunobu offers his insight on how Rei changed his attitude towards shogi and the very reason he cares deeply for his “best friend”, this is a sweet little material for Harunobu, but I can’t help but feel that we already know that Harunobu felt that way even before he tells it, so the result gives us very little impact; which is a shame. As now a tradition with 3-gatsu no Lion, if I have to recommend the series, I’d just recommend certain chapters out of the show because when the show hits, it hits real hard, like this week’s Moonlight chapter. Other chapters though aren’t as strong or memorable and I guess with the intention of adapting faithfully to every chapters of the manga by Shaft, we will have to bear with it for the long, long term.

Scum’s Wish – 03 [Show Me Love (Not A Dream)]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Scum's Wish

This episode offers more perspectives to these whole messy affairs and gives an unflinching look to teenager’s insecure-ness, echoed perfectly by the reflections from the leads from each of these sections. It ends up stronger than last week’s, continuing peeling their skins and making them as naked as possible. While I still have issues with some of its narrative, the story gets to a much stronger and more relatable grounds. Let’s just run each of its theme down by the narrations from both Hanabi and Mugi.

“I had no idea that being the object of someone’s desires was so heavy”

This was what Hanabi learnt from the affection of Ecchan, as the girl now confesses her love to Hanabi. The show certainly isn’t subtle at all by showing how Hanabi saved her from sexual abuse on a train and that’s the only obvious flaw I would give in that development (although I must admit that we need more awareness on the sexual harassment in public transportation). The crush from Ecchan towards Hanabi comes from a very understandable perspective, and she intends to hide her love until she senses something wrong about the relationship between Hanabi and Mugi so she pushes forward. Hanabi begins to realize she has been a center of Ecchan’s affection and now she understands the real weigh behind this. When someone give everything for their love it’s suffocate and heavy; you can’t carry the load with them because you obviously don’t feel the same way as them, but if you outright reject them it’s mean all their desire/affection is nothing more than… a wishful dream.  Moreover, this one-sided affection serves as a mirror towards her own crush with Kanai-sensei for a) he might reject Hanabi the same exact way she rejects Ecchan and b) keeps hanging on the love with someone who doesn’t love you back and you end up hurting the most, you end up all alone. Hanabi understands that and she understands that well.

“Secret can save you, so I pretended that it was just casual, but actually, it was much more serious”

So Mugi had a physical relationship with an older girl before and it still gives him a hard time now (in more ways than one). Guess he’ll never learn on his own mistake as now he’s doing the exact same thing with Hanabi. That aside, this flashback offers the more realistic look on what actual teenagers might experience in real life. It was told with a sad look, lonely feeling like when you looked back to the memories that you don’t want to. It’s obvious from the flashback that Mugi had a deeper feeling for this senpai and that feeling of lost and love still scarred him even now. Senpai sees their relationship for just physical though, but the show succeeded in showing that senpai herself was a lonely and vulnerable figure like most of teens out there. I don’t think she will reappear ever again but for the little screentime that she had she speaks right through the anxiety of most teens have to gone through. Which bring us up to the next point; how exactly does he consider his relationship with Hanabi? As a substitute for Akane-sensei or as a mean to put all his emotional frustration out in form of physical contact? Well, for now it would be the latter but Hanabi did the same too as after she was confused and depressed by the confession of Ecchan; she came to him for solace. But instead of sharing their pains by talking they do it much more physically.

“Love will make you blind”

Because when you idolize them so much you start to unnoticed their flaws. Akane-sensei has been the most generic character out of the cast but it’s time (that is, next week) that we will get under her skin to see what she really thinks. I’m not sure myself but wearing the same outfits as yesterday isn’t the good sign at all. Curiously though, Akane-sensei is a love rivals in more than one ways for Hanabi, and Hanabi forms a hatred feeling towards the female teacher. Which make me thinking, how much she love Mugi right now? This hatred comes from jealousy (and not trusting that woman) after all.

Although Moca’s annoying antics still suck big time, the show so far handles the melodrama quite well so point for them on that. Scum’s Wish is a show that excels on portraying ugly aspects of romance relationship; of the love so pure and strong it begins to be eaten over by desired; hatred and obsessions. So here’s basically where I stand on this show right now: handjob is good (as always), crying isn’t, kissing is questionable, and jealous/hatred feeling please-give-me-more.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. – 03 [The Swirling Smoke of Rumors in the Castle]

by SuperMario, posted in ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., Currently Watching:

The plot’s getting rather interesting, now that Jean finds himself in the middle of everyone’s watching eyes without having a clue what’s going on. The crowd thinks about him as an important factor for the upcoming coup d’état, his friend Nino certainly frames him as ‘the one and only’ when feeding info to Grossular, at the same time he was mysteriously received two cigarettes in the sealed envelopes and he was asked to be an ally for two higher authorities of ACCA. So despite the gorgeous ball, the tasty cakes and the night smokes might convince you otherwise, this is a very busy episode that set up a lot of frameworks for the future. Let all get down to it.

The big event here on the surface have to be all of important people in the story were invited to the ball of the Prince’s Coming of Age ceremony. Yes, it’s as absurd as it sounds and the imperial figures are framed as incompetent, arrogant and right out stupid. For now, my guess last week on why the uprising occur was way off the mark, as the reason is very silly: prince Schwan is going to take the throne and no one is happy with it. Just from the few scenes this week, he already makes his case on how annoying he could be. The show understands his stupidity so they accompany his speech and gestures with over-the-topness and so far it works well. The king isn’t much better either, as the only thing he stands out right now is his passion for cakes (quite cleverly underlined in the show). In fact, the true man in power has to be the president of Privy council. He is a puppetmaster who manipulate all the strings right now so it’s understandable that he’s afraid of Jean because Jean might threaten his position. That said, with all the powerful person gathered in one place, I expect next week’s event will trigger the uprising to come and make it all real.

Jean has a busy day in this episode as he had to attend to some dinner meetings twice and gets the hot from everyone else. I’m glad to see him embarrassed in front of the beautiful Mauve to be honest, because at least I can see his real emotions. As Jean becoming a trigger of all the events to come, the next moves everyone want to make of course would be making him their ally. Mauve wants him to provide information on his audits to her so she can “protect order” of this nation, curiously that’s the very same reason Lilium offered to Jean, but we all know they come from a very different motive. Nino, on the other hand, pushes really hard to convince Grossular that Jean were the one; whether he knows something deeper or what his real motives are remain pretty much unclear. I still stand by the opinion that Nino hasn’t betrayed Jean (not yet), but more that he uses Jean as a scarecrow to diverse everyone attention from his true goals.

With the gathering of all key characters, we also have a privilege to witness the chemistry of several minor characters, and boy do each of the pair have some unique chemistry together. I enjoyed the most the encounter of Mauve and Nino, since Mauve has no idea they were close friend so she can look right through to the issues. In addition, I found that Nino and Lotta are even closer than the sibling themselves. See how each of those pairs Jean – Lotta, Jean – Nino, Nino – Lotta have their own harmony and thus give much more dimensional to each of those characters? This is for me one of the best strength the show succeeds so far. I also find myself enjoying moments like Lotta being impressed by Mauve, Lotta was offered the favorite cake by the King, the arrogant prince had the crush on Lott… Actually, when put it that way I come to believe Lotta will play a vital role in the events to come, since she’s actually the one who pretty much encountered everyone (including the lovesick guy last week), while simultaneously enjoyed all types of cakes, breads and wines. This show is sooo rich with cake, bread and food that really made this show a rather tasty watch (but seriously, the amount of good foods here are insane). Things certainly are about to explore and everyone pretty much expected it, but what exactly “that things” are and to what extend remain a total mystery. And for that the show still remains intriguing.

3-gatsu no Lion – 14 [Blinding Darkness – Just a Little Water]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

This week in 3-gatsu no Lion, we again witness another one of Rei’s depression, which is fine I guess because this is what the show does best anyways; but seriously it didn’t leave much of an impact on me, both because those depression thoughts start to wear out on me, and this section drags out for too long. Here lies the issues: the way Shaft decided to adapt every double chapters per episode mean that sometimes we suffer the disconnect in tones between two chapters like last week’s, or we have to go through their lesser materials like this one. In manga medium, this is totally acceptable because one volume has multiple chapters, so it doesn’t distract the flow of the story as severe as in adaptation form. This episode is where its deliberated pacing doesn’t benefit the story at all and if they speed up a bit to the next chapter the story would flow so much smoother.

I have to note that this is the first time ever that we witness him lost right in front of our eyes. Kudos for the sharp writing that building up the big match to come between Rei and Gotou before crushing that anticipation from Rei and us apart. We’re pretty much in the same mind as Rei expecting an easy win for him. Except it isn’t. Rei loses and he loses hard. The loss strips Rei down pretty hard that he loses faith in his own ability and even looks for job hunting. It’s pretty understandable for someone his age; young and talented but inexperienced; misjudged the capability of his opponent. This isn’t come from his own arrogant though, but more like he hasn’t give much thoughts about his opponent and he certainly paid his price. The very solid depressing visuals (as expected from Shaft) were conveyed through water bubbles again, and through his own dehydration. If there is one thing we certainly learn after this episode, it’s Rei is even bad of being depressed.

It’s tough to carry all these self-doubting thoughts on his own, so what does he decide to do next? Go to school and keep carry on of course. But kiddo, if you don’t feel okay from the inside, carry on with life like normal won’t do you anything good. He feels like he doesn’t belong at school, so he’s even more depressed and cries out of solitude. Thankfully, there are lights of hope at the end of the road, in the name of Hayashida-sensei who give him a much-needed advice and the workshop by Shimada which will help him improve his game. In a way, Rei needs to take 2 steps back before moving few steps forward, and this loss is something that someone his age need to realize the sooner the better; thus I get the narrative. But the episode lacks the final punch, moreover the male casts can’t handle the atmosphere or carry the emotions as good as the female counterparts (call me sexist. I’ll take it.), as a result this episode is a big meh. Give me more Kyouko, give me more of the 3 sisters please. In the end, characters-wise, the show still rocks (how it gives much personalities to Shimada despite a very unremarkable introduction for example) but I really hope the show doesn’t waste its time for some minor chapters like this and end up not having enough time to cover the main thread.