SuperMario, Author at Star Crossed Anime

Flying witch – 07

May 24, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flying Witch

One of the thing that Flying witch always does it right is how it establish the chemistry between any characters, while at the same time maintain the consistency in their personalities. It feels like if you give them any random characters in any random situation, pretty much the show can hit it off. Last week we had Chinatsu and Akame and the witch’s apprentice scenario, this week we have a newly formed relationship: Chito the cat and Nao. My little concern last week about the lack of supporting characters was fulfilled in this episode. Not only the cat and Nao form a very distinctive relationship by amusing setup (Nao teased Chito-san for gaining weight so the cat just jumped on her and stayed there (oh girlssss), but also the way they behave is very in-character, and more amazingly the shows just shows that by their small moments. In fact, the cast staying in characters are really consistent throughout this episode and further demonstrate the strengths of Flying witch. Like the way Chinatsu gets excited every time she encounters something new (“so cute”), or Kei being afraid of ghost or Chinatsu doesn’t like eating herb because “children can’t eat herb”, or Makoto being really self-aware of her bad direction sense. We already learned all of that before so it really feels like we know them, we understand the way they behave this time. This week first half we follow the cast as they go to the countryside to do herb picking. Again Flying witch shows us that while this show is not big on laugh, it has a really strong timing and always provides solid punch. Like the way Kei seems so serious announcing the 4 rules of herb-picking, only to mention the bear and that he forgot the bell at home. The bear joke is really solid as well. So apparently there is indeed a bear, but Nao’s shout from her scare of frog keeping the bear away, haha.

The next part involving the cast cook the herbs they picked, and truthfully this is the only weak part of this episode, simply because we had this kind of scenario before. I will always say that repetitive is this show’s worst aspect so I hope the show tries not to rely on that. But thankfully this part goes quickly and we have the most adorable moments of the show for a while. The café part is the magical realism part of the show (the other part by the way was witch learn everyday rural life) to gives us a sense of wonder and it uses most of its strengths here. The secret coffee shop itself makes a strong impression, with its distinguishing art design that somehow feel both warm and welcoming. But then this was topped by the reveal that the waitress was indeed a ghost, all that with her invisible movements and her stick notes. For once Makoto’s spell/charm was put into effective use here, and the charm reveals the waitress’s true appearance makes it as one of the best moments of the show. The waitress’s shyness, then clumsiness when she realized that the cast can see her are GOLD. The whole sequence really highlights what Flying witch does best, I really hope the show keeps going into that direction.

~SuperMario~

Mayoiga – 08

May 23, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Mayoiga

Again this week Mayoiga succeed at bringing a big screw-you to us audience. The cliffhanger last week is quickly revealed, and we come to learn that Masaki is not a ghost, nor is she a witch, but simply that… she had visited the Lost Village before. Big surprise! It really is a ridiculous anti-climax, but this time I mean it in a slightly positive way. Indeed, Mayoiga is a series of anti-climax scenarios put altogether. Like remember before Mitsumune and the gang saw a floating body in a river (presumably Yotsun), he got into a dramatic fight with Lovepon, and what did we get next? A see-through wet clothes of Lovepon. Or when Lovepon, Mikage, Nyanta, Jigoku tried to run away from their own monsters, they started to lose their mind, had nowhere else to run, and what did we get next? They all make their ways back to the village, unharmed, AT THE SAME TIME. The extensive use of anti-climax might seem uneven, absurd and even laughable at first, but actually these are all intentional so that the show can screw you out of any conventional sense. Speaking of body counts, it seems to me that at this point either there will be no one die (even those that disappeared), or they will all die at the end. Apparently Mr. Judgement what-his-name has returned safely and even more equipped than the rest of the cast. Well glad to see him back, I suppose.

Masaki, once again with her poor choice of words and kind-but-clueless attitude, failed to convince the cast and was nearly execut… No I mean exorcised by the gang, before the bus driver, Hollywood style, kidnapped her and somehow Mitsumune and Hayato tagged along. The craziness doesn’t stop there. It turns out the driver abducted her so that he can beg her to see his daughter again (talking again about anti-climax). The relationship between Hayato and Mitsumune seems weird as well. He really cares about the well-being of Mitsumune, like a lover really, to an extend to follow him to Nanami village and nearly stab the “witch” girl to save his friend. Mitsumune, on the other hand, seems numb about the “big secret” of Masaki, but reacts like a maniac when someone mentions that the uncle guy might be her boyfriend. And guess what, someone actually admires him for his hormonal impulses because “he stands up for Nanami”. Taking about common sense. Love conquers all huh?

All this sarcasm aside, we learn two new things from this episode, that there might be more lost villages like Nanami village, which could be an intrigue idea. The lost village really is a metaphor of a place where people wish to get there to escape their real world, so it makes more sense if places like this can exist anywhere, any place. Second, the end of tunnel seems to be a borderline between this world and the real world, or it could be between this world and hell, because as Masaki puts it bluntly, there is something dangerous in that place. So they could either face the hellish, nightmarish world, or they could see themselves in the real world, all dead.

~SuperMario~

Chinese Animation Guide – Part 3: Haoliners inputs

May 21, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by SuperMario, World Animation

This part we explore one Chinese animation studio’s works. I choose Haoliners partly because they are independent studio, and their works are not hard to find. Just established in 2013, Haoliners is an indie studio but gathered more reputation in the last few years in their homeland. My experience with them through those titles below have been hit or miss, but even me can say that their production is quite great and they are a creative bunch. Their shows, while mostly anime style-wise, cover many genres: from comedy, romantic to thriller. Their climax action scenes are quite impressive as well. Here are the 6 shows in no particular order:

Yaoguai Mingdan – Monster List (妖怪名单)

The story started on the campus of a university. The poor university student Feng Xi can occasionally see demons, but he didn’t trust his marvelous senses. An unexpected snooping allowed him to find out that the school beauty was a demon fox? What should he do during the date with a demon fox? The beautiful demon fox gave him a small present, and then he realized his university was full of monsters. This is by far their most popular show but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Here we have the most ecchi show of the whole bunch, which is quite fitting seems those monsters are girls seducing their prey (horny young boys). I had to say the final fighting scene is very entertaining, but this is not my type of show.

More after the jump Continue reading “Chinese Animation Guide – Part 3: Haoliners inputs” →

Bungou Stray Dogs – 07

May 21, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Bungou Stray Dogs, Currently Watching:

This week the plot revolving the Azure King was resolved and it raises the conflict of sense of justice between Dazai and Kunikida. Like what I suspected last week, all the new characters are in play in this episode and now I get the hang of Bungou Stray Dogs storytelling now. The new characters will get introduced, have a little bit of introduction, serve to move the plot or supporting the cast, and then get discarded very quickly and I doubt that we would hear from them again. Case in point, in this episode, Rokuzou the hacker and Sasaki the victim appear in the climax, when both of them manage to shoot each other and die, and “it was the only possible outcome”. How ridiculous is that? There are many ways where they can resolve the problem without any single one dying, or maybe I’m not that deep to understand that bit. These new characters, sadly function like a plot device to move the story forward than a real person. I will put that aside for now, because after all, their very existence is just to advance the plot and put more depth into our main characters.

But judging on advancing the plot, the action moves very fast to the point we don’t have time to process all the plot development. There will be few hints but either it’s too obvious (like when Sasaki mentions her soulmate), or too inconsistent (remember that Sasaki is the mastermind behind planting the bomb, so when the agency found out about the location of the bomb in front of her, common sense would be her tries to prevent or slow down the process, right?). Moreover, some elements just appear so randomly, like the usb that luckily contains all the necessary information, or Rokuzou shows up to the scene, or the fishing tackle store (how on earth would WE figure that out?). No this plot development moves so hurriedly that it becomes, quite frankly, a mess.

In the character’s development area, it is interesting to raise the difference of how Dazai and Kunikia view of justice. They are both have very different personalities and I believe Dazai does all that out of worry that Kunikida’s ideal and sense of justice, and a bit of guilt over the Azure King case would one day consume him. But that in itself is not the right way to treat Kunikida. For all thing, Kunikida has to learn it by himself. He has a lot more to prove and I expect to see more of this angle in the next episodes. Next week look to be more interesting as it is now Yosano’s turn, along with a new girl in red. Sounds like a promising episode to me.

~SuperMario~

Flying witch – 06

May 18, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flying Witch

It’s no secret that I prefer shows that emphasis on little moments rather than the plot-driven shows, and Flying witch still delivers that strength, albeit this is their weaker effort. This episode as usual splits into two parts. The first part concerning Chinatsu as she wants to be a witch apprentice. This development comes as no surprise though, since it was apparent in many episodes before that Chinatsu is curious with the life of witch, but I believe (and I think the show knows it) that she’s not cut out to become one. Chinatsu is one of my favorite characters of the show so it’s fun to see her taking a spotlight this first part. I like the way she gets all worked up and motivated to become a witch (because she thinks it’s fun). This is really like the way kids see celebrities, sports stars and they want to become one, but in reality there are more to it. For the 12 years old girl this is just understandable. I’m also quite surprise of how laid back and easy her parents are, which actually feel slightly uncanny at times. They are just cool on everything, it makes me wonder if they really care for it.

In the second part we have Akane teaches Makoto and Chinatsu her simple spell. This is one of the Flying witch’s comfort zone. The part meant to shows the touch of magic in the everyday life settings, make it feel a bit like a magical realism, but in that front this part just barely succeed. Making spells that make people laugh with whatever they see and another one that make them cry is a whimsical touch, but it drags a bit towards the end. The punchline, which having the father both cries and laughs uncontrollably at the same time, feels rather weak. Another thing is I enjoy so much the side characters (Inukai and Nao in particular) that it’s a bit of a let-down when this part just concentrates on the family members. This week of Flying witch is barely passable, but that not to say there is a drop in quality or anything. Flying witch is as consistent as ever (sometimes to a fault). I still have a quality time watching Flying witch this week and hopefully they will include more characters for next week.

~SuperMario~

Mayoiga – 07

May 15, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Mayoiga

This going to be a ridiculous post review rambling about the ridiculousness of Mayoiga. This week the silliness has gotten to the whole new level. I’m not going to complain though because this is just Mayoiga being Mayoiga. Ridiculous had always been its main element since the first episode. It’s not bizarre, it’s not absurd, it’s just plain silliness and I have become really appreciate that silliness. This week there are so many madness happened and it’s always fun to talk about that. Firstly, it’s amazing that just from a little news article people read last week, they really convince that Masaki was a ghost to the point of tying her and stabbing her just to test her out. Even when the poor girl is bleeding they would think that this is her ghost’s power. What an amazing train of thought this gang has. Consider that this is not one of the series where they would explore the dark side of human by blame someone as a sacrifice thingy, in this show they really believe that Masaki is a ghost. Lovepon remains everyone’s best friend with all her suggestions keep feeding people what to do. Secondly, the backstories this week are just as nuts and ridiculous as last week. From Mitsumune’s story of his twin brother passed away because of his Mom shouting, his mother keeps treating him as his twin dead brother, to the father who actually suggest him to play the twin role, to his sincere apology for things not going according to plan. The most amazing bit is that we also learn that the father was a teacher and he was in the process of promoting, which is NOT AT ALL related to the how Mitsumune turns out the way he is. Other backstory is from Maimai, the girl who saw giant Mitsumune few weeks back. Turns out that her ex was similar looking to our main character, and by dating him, everyone (including the guy) turns their back on her. This must have hurt her a lot, and she must really miss the guy, since what she saw back there was not him, but the giant Mitsumune. And I did remember not only her see the giant monster, but others like Nyanta and Toshi Boy was scared and run away as well. Are they really see the same thing? I guess not but the show seems to forget about that bit as well. The third ridiculous thing happens when our main guy, who always wants to stay on the same side with Masaki and would do anything just to be with her, was defeated and back down from his love when he faced the monster. “Masaki, I’m sorry” he said. Other silliness stuffs include the gang decided to deceive our main protagonist, which make the whole conversation the most human-like moments of the show; and the way Valkana keeps judging Koharun for going with the flow and try to calm Hayato down from stabbing Masaki, but he ends up to be the one who hold Mitsumune down so that the other guys can proceed what they are doing.

Seriously, it would take me all day to talk about all these ridiculousness, and it’s precisely what so interesting about Mayoiga. Don’t let the other stuffs like backstories and theme fool you, Mayoiga has no deep meaning and had no attempt to do so. It’s just loud and madness, but at the same time it really feels like you talking to your drunk old friend, where you know all his talks are nonsense but you can’t help but enjoy them anyways.

~SuperMario~

Chinese Animation Guide – Part 2: Chinese Anime shows

May 13, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by SuperMario, World Animation

As much as I hated the term Chinese Anime (Anime stands for Japanese animation, strictly speaking), this is the exact term for those shows. Their influence from the Anime was so heavy that apart from the voice cast and some scene settings, you can’t tell those apart from the original anime. With that said, judge from anime standard, some of the shows here are solid or at least entertainment. Here are the 6 shows in no particular order:

Spirit Blade Mountain – Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage – 从前有座灵剑山

In the anime’s story, a comet falling will bring about a great calamity, and in order to choose a child fated by the falling comet, the family of the “Reiken” clan with a long storied history is once again resuming its entrance examination process to find disciples. The protagonist, who possesses a special soul that is only available once in a thousand years, decides to take the exam, and he starts down the path toward becoming an exceptional sage. This is an anime adaptation of the popular manga “Spirit Blade Mountain“ by Studio DEEN and just released in Winter 2016. This first episode benefits both from the double length (20 minutes compared to other series’ 10 minutes) and a huge likeable cast on their way to the Reiken trial. Each of them have their own designs and personalities so this is fun to watch them working together. This is the most anime-quese of all the shows I watch, but considering an anime studio adapting it, it would make sense. The story is good and fun so far but I’m not quite convinced to watch more of it.

Chu Feng BEE (雛蜂-BEE-)

In 2017, a group of genius scientists achieve a remarkable breakthrough in bioengineering. However, all the new technologies are put into military use, beginning a new round of arms race. Vanguards, as the most significant achievement of the modern bioengineering and the most advanced weapon, are widely utilized in the race. The heroine Liuli has also consumed too much of her lifespan after executing missions for a long time. With only 380 days left in her life, Liuli receives a new mission, to rescue a hostage being held in a civilian facility. During the mission, Liuli surprisingly finds that the man who holds the hostage was once a vanguard. The art is gorgeous and the production is very solid here: from the background design, the sound, the music, everything just in high standard here, but the story, even in its 1st episode, is so heavy-handed. I don’t really like all the political elements of the show, but it seems like they going for that direction. This is one of the most popular Chinese titles out there as well. I will give it couple more episodes to see how everything unfolds.

Nüwa’s Growth Diary (女娲成长日记)

A girl finds out by her creepy father that she is in fact Nuwa, the goddess who creating mankind and repairing the pillar of heaven. Now she has to come to term with it. The first episode focuses on the father who keep convincing her daughter that she’s a goddess, but she understandably thinks that he’s a nut. I think this is one of the most solid comedy show in this list. My favorite part would be when the father and daughter stop arguing for a moment, turn back and ask the director if their “acting” is good enough. I don’t think this shows will break any rules but it is an enjoyable work.

The Devil Ring (戒魔人)

What a great hook. The story about a freshman guy, forced to wear unknown origin ancient ring, soon after a terrible evil literally leaps out from his mouth, and attacks people, these strange monsters may hide the mystery of the origin of human. I’d say I’m impressed with the hook, but from this first episode I can’t really say where the show decides to head into? Is it a thriller Ajin-style, where everyone would hunt him and the monster down, is it a psychological one where he has to learn how to control the monster, or is it just simply a mindless action show? The art is not really my type but I don’t mind to explore more of this work.

Eros Chocolate (爱神巧克力)

A guy, unknowingly eats a “love” pie and shares the pie to 4 girls, as a result those four girls, with so different personalities, chase him down like crazy. This is your typically harem show, and as far as I can tell not a good one. All the girls are archetypes: a Queen bee, a Sporty one, a Bookworm one, and a Weird Weilding Sword one. Haizz, this show makes me sad that even the harem stuff still have its fan overseas.

NANOCORE (纳米核心)

Nanocore is a science fiction Chinese TV cartoon in 3D. The stage of the story is established on a fictional planet Birthigin. In this young planet, human will never stop longing for a bright future despite reason and fear. In revolutions and evolutions, human keeps challenging the Creator, and which eventually induces contractions intensified. People choose to wake up and struggle for their own ideals. Seems like an intrigue idea, but what’s up with this show’s character designs? A pink hair girl with pink eyes and pink outfit, who has a brother that has red hair and red eyes; plus, they are in 3D computer animated and we have a completely ridiculous art designs. The story features a brother and sister who were looking for food, then suddenly a huge aircraft fell right behind them. Other elements are all right though, I have to say the sci-fi setting is rather well though, but not too stand out from the rest.

~SuperMario~

Bungou Stray Dogs – 06

May 13, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Bungou Stray Dogs, Currently Watching:

This week Bungou Stray Dogs spends its time to focus on another side character, this time it is Kunikida that has a chance to shine. Out of all of our supporting characters, Kunikida is the one that has the most screen time. He appears in every single episode so far, but sadly, he was also one of the most one-note character. Before this week all we know from him was he’s a very uptight, self-serious person. He obsessed with his book “ordeal” because he believes his future, his plan… are all written down there. He was also very fond of Dazai, despite they having a completely opposing personalities. All these straits are fine on its owns, but they were mostly played for laugh. This week, however, we learn an interesting backstory that shed a new light into his character. He believed he was responsible for the death of five detectives in a bombing known as the Azure Flag Terrorist Incident, so he still takes his time to look over for Taguchi, a hacker genius type and one the detective’s son. This is a nice development for Kunikida and I really hope the show keeps digging into that direction. On side note I actually think the joke on Dazai worked this time, maybe because he is not rambling about any of suicide method, but just gets so high and talks nonsense. But what a whimsical nonsense.

The actual case for this week is uneven at best. The case was set up until the stakes got so high, and then things were resolved rather quickly and quite unconvincing. I still think the set up part is impressive though. We got introduced to the missing case, and then found our way up to the abandoned hospital. The setting itself has a creepy and tense atmosphere, which is a nice touch from the show. We then witness a girl who nearly drowned in a fish tank, and then a bunch of other victims were gassed right in front of them. This was a nice set up with so much tension, unfortunately the other half was very inconsistent. In process of investigating the case, there are only two characters that have a role in the case: one is the female victim Sasaki, and the other is the taxi driver. And guess what, turns out the taxi driver is the kidnapper. This conclusion is jumpy, there are very little clues to actually figuring out the true culprit here. And worse the case turned out to be just a setup for next episode, and the kidnapper turns out to be controlled by the Port Mafia, which all are ridiculous. But at least we then have an amazing fight so I’ll complain no more. Now when I think about that maybe miss Sasaki will have a role in the next episode as well, because why not?

So in the end, in terms of plot development, this episode is a mess. The pacing is never a strong suit of Bungou Stray Dogs and it again shows in this episode. The character development, on the other hand, was on point and I really much hope for the show to follow that direction. Next week we get to the actual bombing case and we might learn who the Azure King is.

~SuperMario~

Chinese Animation Guide – Part 1: Computer Animated Wuxia shows

May 11, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by SuperMario, World Animation

If anyone have been followed animation closely for the last few years, they will notice a recent rise of Chinese animation (call it a wave if you like), both in feature and in series. While it does not have much of an impact in any English speaking world like anime has been, they are really popular in their mainland and some parts of Asian countries. With the success of Kung Fu Panda (half-produced by China) and its power on movies industry (China IS the main market for feature films now), it is worth it to take a look on this current trend and see how they are different from anime.

While my fellow bloggers are the ones who more specialize in Games and Manga, I will be the one who cover World Animation (by that I mean anything animated other than anime and American big studio animation – they got way too much coverage already). Like majority of you guys I am not from China, my Chinese is as good as my Japanese (which is to say NONE), so this is actually goddamn difficult to look for titles, and the information I could find are sacred here on top of that find a suitable sub for it, most of them does not even have an English name, thus the title and the synopsis that I give you here are just a rough translation. So behold. This is our very first attempt to cover the animation of china.

Part 1: Computer Animated Wuxia shows

This is a staple genre in Chinese animation, the combination of modern revisit of traditional wuxia genre, together with the rise computer animation and the boom of RPG online game in China make this a very distinctive animation genre, and the fighting scenes are somewhat a trademark for Chinese animation shows. Here are the 6 shows in no particular order:

The Legend of Qin (秦时明月)

Let begin with a blast, The Legend of Qin, or Qin’s Moon, is the most popular show right now, both in their mainland and in international appeal. As of this writing the season 5 have been aired and the live action series are underway, and that happens for a reason. The first episode introduces a young boy (Jing Tiaming) and his master (Ge Nie) are ambushed in the desert. After fending the enemy troops off, Ge Nie is injured and is found, along with Tianming, by the Royal Tribe of Chu. Set in the rich time of Qin dynasty, Qin’s Moon already had a strong backstory. I like both the two main characters, and the story while dense at times, so far is easy to follow. If you want to check out the Chinese animation, make this one your first.

Swords of Half of a Man-ho (三剑豪之半面人)

The story seems to be about a young man who eventually become a master swordsman, but we didn’t learn that in this first episode. There’s already a fighting scene in the very beginning of the show, which we don’t even know who the main characters are so why do we care? There is a lot of action but the choreography is clumsy at best and stupid at worst. I mean there is an assassin and she easily took down our main character, but then for no reason she would turn her back on him so he could punch her in the back, all that so the assassin would lose it and tried to kill our main character, but ends up that his lover’s got knifed. WHAT? The second half of this busy episode we have a chance to see a mysterious girl, a talkative boy and again a fight at the end. None of them act like normal people. Even the main protagonist just come off as bland. The only point I can give is the above average character design.

Shalen (侠岚)

The story is about a young boy called ZhanChi, who fated to become “one of the heroes who hold the fortune of the world” (by a weird mark in his left hand). When he was 5, his sister got kidnapped by a monster, people called them ling. He promises he will recuse his sister back someday. When he was 15, his second mother finally lets him go. This first episode plays like a prelude, telling us a story of Zhanchi before he began his adventure. While this may feel like your typical plot: he wants to get out of the house to join the heroes gang, his second mother puts him off every time by any means necessary, even to trick him. What makes it a success is its focus on the mother/ child relationship, yes she is not his own mother, but she loves him all the same and she just scare if there something will happen to him out there. I love how the show places the emotions here. His mini adventure is enjoyable as well. This is a winner for me.

Spirit of the Main Rivers and Lakes – Hua Jianghu Zhi Ling Zhu (画江湖之灵主)

There are two types of people, one for the living things, and the other for the dead to do bad. Through a series of events and learned of the existence of psychic and spiritual master of believers, and to eliminate their exposure to the responsibility of the mysterious organization ” Yu Ling group.” With a pile of mystery cracks, they get closer to the truth. The story is a classic wuxia, but the animation was so great and the production design was excellent that I can’t help but enjoy it anyway. The fighting scenes technically is among the best of its genres, every fight is so breathtaking and awe-inspiring, like some of the more intense action scenes, the screen would turn to black and white. There were fast forward and slow motion as well. In other word the actions are as in your face as you would get, but because they do it right, it still an impressive work. The story itself is a bit busy, with already many side stories and a huge casts of characters, but in all this could be a fun adventure and I’m eager to check out more of this.

Magical Legend (太乙仙魔录)

Here comes the worst show I see out of this guide, not simply because it’s bad (it is), it’s just uninspiring and will likely to be forgotten anytime soon. The episode follows a young female warrior, who pretty much unsure about herself and what she is good at. Her master, decided to go back to her past lives for whatever purposes it might be. They tried to cute-out the two main characters (by having the main girl standing in a branch of big tree and having cute music for the majority of runtime). The fighting between them are stupid and I don’t even care about why they want to learn her past’s life. And this training ends with the master hold the girl gently in his arms. What the heck? NO NO NO

Zetianji (择天记 第)

A boy orphan Chen Changsheng, left the master and brothers, with a marriage promises to an unknown girl. During this stunning journey, he met a handsome bearded wealthy son, received a mysterious lovely girl as an apprentice, and they were forced to fight with the dragon and all the mysterious force. This is the only hand-drawn wuxia from this list, but the art style is so familiar that I have to include it here anyway. This is a slightly above the middle line of quality here. The two young boys make up for the main casts are different in terms of personality and their gestures are fun to watch. One of them is arranged to marriage an unknown girl, and it seems like the girl will be the main cast as well. I like what I see so far so I could give this a second look.

~SuperMario~

Flying witch – 05

May 8, 2016 by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flying Witch

Flying witch pulled another consistent episode this week, albeit not as stand out as the one last week. I have to say, for a slice-of-life show, Flying witch has a very neat timeline, everything happened in sequence. Last week we had Akame coming over for the Cherry Blossom festival, and she staying till this week, although all she does was lying down all day. This week we follow our Chito-san (the black cat) twice, first through Chinatsu spying on her, and second time when the cat leads the way for Makoto. The repetition between the two parts comes off as a low point from the always-consistent-show here. You see, for a show that relies heavily on small moments, atmosphere and slow building, the repetition is its worst crime. It feels drag out but thankfully, those were just small parts in the episode. For the first part, Chinatsu senses that Chito the cat is up to something, so she decides to follow her. Meanwhile, Makoto goes through all the old boxes she left when she stayed long time ago. Chito obviously is the star of the show. I like the way Chinatsu keeps sneaking and speculating Chito’s actions, but mostly what the cat does is just what normal cats do. From teasing the dog, climbing the trees, investigating the hole where the kids buried the box, or catching the butterflies. All of these are your typical cat’s activities and the show pretty much portrays these actions fittingly.

The best parts of this episode are the scene revolves around the old woman. She appears in each part and each time we learn more about her. This is the kind of observation that Flying witch is always excels at. Her interactions are charming and her manner and gestures speak a lot to her personality. On the first part when she met Chinatsu for example, she inspires Chinatsu for the lucky cherry blossom pedal, in the second part though, we learn that she had a close friend who was a witch, and that she tried too many magic luck charms to know which one was effective (maybe all of them are). There is a parallel between that old woman and Nao in that aspect, both of them are normal people having witch as a friend. The old woman was so fond with her witch friend, so does Nao. This is a lazy Sunday afternoon watch (indeed some of the cast does this week are sleeping) and I think Flying witch and Kabenari would be a perfect combo to watch back to back.

~SuperMario~