Category: Currently Watching:

Tsuki ga Kirei – 03 [Howling at the Moon]

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

Tsuki ga Kirei sure understands about the life of 14-year-old kids would be like. I’m sure we all have different experience about that pre-teen stage of our life, but the life portrayed here is so vivid and true to life that it brings out our fond memories as well. Personally, while not much really happen between each episode, this show is weirdly the show that I’m eagerly anticipating the most each passing week. So far, the simple visual style and its focus on characters’ little exchanges make it an unusually appropriate and grounded production values. But in terms of plot where progression is the key, the show still manages to surprise me with its confession right at the end of this third episode. I guess the bookworm Kotarou has balls after all.

This episode follows Kotarou as he’s hoping for his first writing piece to get published, the anticipation occupied his mind that he couldn’t concentrate on his exams. I’m still a fan on the way this show focuses more on the anxiety of Kotarou than the outcomes. The same approach can be said with Akane and her track competition. We follow her as she engages in the competition (the bit where Chinatsu chanting her name is great), not the result of whether or not she suprasses her track record. We also have a fairly mundane dinner scene of Akane’s family and I’m quite amused that we have a dinner scene as it is, where parents have a presence (unlike other anime where they disappear in the background) in her life. Tsuki ga Kirei still excels of its show-don’t-tell approach, even later when Kitarou unfortunately falls into the usual trap of saying out loud what he thinks, I still give it a pass since he’s anxious about whether or not he should text the girl, and we can’t fault the lovestruck Romeo for being too excited. Many tidy details that the show doesn’t outright state but it’s golden once we pick up those details: we can see Kotarou is fond of boxing, not only box around his light chord in excitement, but the poster of Mohamed Ali is up there in his room. Or in Akane case we pick up that the sisters live in a same room, whereas more oftern than not the kids in other anime will have their own rooms doesn’t matter the finalcial situation of the parents. Or how we aren’t sure what his Sunday practice might be, but looking at it (the group and him practising various instruments in a local shrine), we have a good idea about the details.

I actually misses the shorts that came out last week (boy do I wish it regular features), but we do have a brief callback to one of those shorts, this time in Kotarou’s awkward point of views. LINE is the biggest winner here (I use it in real life too), being the communication platform for our two leads where they’re too shy and cautious to talk to each other in real life. The romance so far is understated but again so true to life and Akane returns his encouragement last week with another heartwarming response “You’re perfectly fine the way you are”. The two other casts don’t have much attention this time, Chinatsu being busy with her track competition but I love how effortless whenever she’s around Kotarou. Takumi, on the other hand, has a slight chance to confess his love for Akane, but decides to back down. I don’t really think Akane has a romantic feeling for him (more of respectation) but I would like to see him making a move to Akane. I also adore the way Kotarou really wanted to ask Akane how she been doing, but won’t be able to. The way his thoughts and his focus are entirely to the phone rather than the practice is something I’m sure we all been through; and for once dead phone actually gives a positive outcomes since Akane decides to go to the shrine to see him. As they’re sitting there and looking at the moon. She remarks the moon is beautiful, Kotarou takes this as a clue to ask her out (remember I said last week that “The moon is beautiful” is a poetic way to say “I love you” in Japan). Part of me want Akane to reject it, as first love is only pure and shine the brightest when we never reach it in full, unlike the moon itself.

Sakura Quest – 03 [The Cry of the Mandrake]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sakura Quest

“The one who can change the town is the young fool outsider”
Which kind of makes sense, since the outsider’s perspective will give a fresh take to improve the town. That makes our Queen Yoshino the perfect candidate, but as the interview goes on, she learns the truth: she hardly knows anything about the town, except from perhaps its scenery and expired manjus. So her first step as Manoyama’s Queen is to find what the locals like (to no result) and what makes the town unique. Here Yoshino learns the main conflict between Tourism board and the Merchants Group, the UMA boom resulted in Kadota-sensei switched from homemade carrot Kabura-kun to the silly Kabura-chupa mascots. As we knew last week, the Kabura-chupa has nothing to do with the Mexican mythical creatures and does seem to cause more mixed response from the local and neither attracting much tourist attention. After the hilarious runs from both our girls and the Tourism board to achieve the mascots’ heads, the final parade where Yoshino decides to ditch both the town’s previous mascots (making Kadota-sensei appear in a mix of Chupa with Carrot head, but that mainly for practical reason) and her promotion speech is a touching, if not a bit too honest for her own good (now I have an idea why she failed 32 interviews). She decides to spend her time as a Queen to pick a mascots that could stand the test of time. And now our real Quest finally begins.

One thing of note that I find particularly true to life is the way the villagers are indifferent about what they want to make the town better. They’re just a bunch of locals who born and live within the town to the point they don’t really question about the town’s condition anymore. Usually in other series that take place in a small rural area, they tend to feature many local custom (like welcoming the sunshine in Love Live Sunshine), and the local’s unabashed love for their town. Not here. The old people in the town don’t want anything to change; while the young ones pretty think it’s a dead town anyways, why bother trying. Manoyama feels really like some random small town we might come across. It’s not like they don’t love their town, but more of they are born here, taking a job that passed through generations and taking the town for granted. Whatever going to happen, they’d still live there, so why bother on the change at all? I’m kinda curious to see how the girls can fire up those people in coming events.

Finally, I’m glad that Sakura Quest is a more adult-oriented show that don’t feature high school settings with juvenile humor, because the humor in this show is deadpan and much more attuned to my own taste. Lines like “just the cold indifference of time’s unending march” both sound true, but with a more sarcasm tone. Also I really enjoy the various costumes that the main cast’s wearing. There is a great attention that focus on these costumes here as oppose to say, high school uniforms. As it announced, the show will be 26 episode long and so far Sakura Quest more than earned its spot in my watching list.

Little Witch Academia – 15[Chariot of Fire]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Little Witch Academia

Shiny Chariot rides once again and I think that’s where most of the animation went besides the showcase at the end of the episode. Wise choice though as it shows that Ursula hasn’t dulled much in her later years. She still seems intent on keeping her identity secret from Akko though this may be because finding Chariot is her main driving force at the moment. We at least are getting some idea of Chariots past as it seems she and Akko are a lot more similar than first thought. Akko and Diana seem to mirror the relationship of Ursula and Croix in their youth. However it would be a strange twist of fate if Akko ended up under Croix’s wing while Diana and Ursula teamed up. Diana has started to look into Ursula so she could very well figure out her true identity.

I feel that Akko’s nativity is getting to be a bit much as her trust of Croix is so much that even when walking up to her lair she doesn’t seem to register how ominous it is. Though Ursula is at fault as well seeing as she doesn’t seem to be making an effort to warn Akko of Croix’s intentions. I don’t really understand why she covered for her when Akko woke up as letting Akko know of the danger Croix possesses would be a very good idea. Though what is Croix after exactly? Others besides Ursula to harbor doubts over her changes to magic and with good reason. Amanda makes a point that with her innovations magic has essentially been supplanted with Science, making it indistinguishable. It does feel like with the technological upgrades it’s getting that something more personal has been lost. However another reason to be concerned is that this direction for magic is heavily dependant on Croix. In fact she pretty much holds full control of magic power distribution with this system and she seems like just the kind of person to take full advantage of that. Those routers may allow magic to be used off grounds but who’s to say she didn’t place a backdoor in them to allow her to shut them down whenever it’s convenient for her. It’s getting to the point that when she makes her move, nobody would be able to do anything about it. For everyone would depend on her inventions at that point and she would have them by the balls.

Kudo’s to the commenter on the last post who correctly guessed the involvement of Yggdrasil as Ursula points out the tree as being the source of magic power. I originally wrote it off as I thought it was strange to involve Norse mythology when so far it’s been mostly Celtic(Though we did have a dragon named Fafnir so it’s not the first time it’s popped up.) but if Wikipedia is trustworthy then mentions of a world tree are in Celtic folklore as well though that tree was unnamed. The final bit of exposition that Ursula gave at the end of the episode was impressive animation wise but admittedly only really served to inform us of what we already know. It clued in Akko to what she needs to do and the main new information to be gleaned from it is that the seven words unlock some sort of reality warping magic and the bit about Yggdrasil. In that regard I feel like unsealing the words can only really lead to trouble as Croix could swoop in to take the magic once Akko has done her job.

Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan)- 28[Southwestward]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan)

It’s more than a little frustrating when you have a character present who has answers to very important questions, yet refuses to speak up for rather contrived reasons. Though we don’t quite know why the priest doesn’t speak up I can’t really think of anything that would possibly be preventing him from doing so. This world isn’t advanced enough to have listening bugs or specialised bombs. And with him admitting that he will speak only to Trista of the scouting legion that suggests it’s not a matter of him being overheard either. I just can’t really see it as anything but a contrived reason to keep the audience in the dark. So I think this is the episode where this anime’s production values can’t keep it interesting for me. Though it seems like those are slipping as I notice more still frames in play. Perhaps my lack of interest stems from the fact that I read the manga and thus all this baiting for answers isn’t grabbing me because I know the answers. Though I also remember this was a round the point that I started to lose interest with the manga. Still what have we learned with this episode?

For one we learned that the material of the wall is made out of the same crystal material as the titan’s hardening which means that they could block the hole in wall maria by Eren making use of the technique. I am not certain if Eren made use of it before in the first season but Levi pretty much says for him to shut up and do it with hopefully will mean that Eren won’t be angsting up a storm about it. We learn that Connie’s village was apparently attacked by titans but oddly there isn’t any blood or signs of villagers escaping. Considering the rather bloodchilling “Welcome Home” Connie got from the immobile titan I think it’s a safe assumption that the Titans within the wall are the villagers of Connie’s town. What further proves this is that the wall has not been breached which pretty much means these titans somehow climbed over the wall or magically appeared within it.

I did really like the moment where during the check on the wall one of the soldiers was getting ripped up by the anticipation of an enviable titan attack. Being out in complete darkness and knowing that at any moment giants can come out and rip you to pieces is nerve wracking enough but agonising over when it could happen is sure to drive anyone mad. This show does lack subtle when it comes to character interactions so it’s pretty clear that Ymir lied to Crista over being with her because she wanted to be and clearly has a second agenda. Reiner was acting weird as well with just how hard he was trying to get Connie to ignore what the titan said but I admit I have difficulty determining if this was him covering up the truth or just acting really over the top for dramatic effect. Now that are stuck in a castle with Titans at the doorstep. But for good news this week, Sasha got a potato. Honestly that did make me smile.

Uchoten Kazoku 2 – 02 [The Conjurer Tenmaya]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Uchoten Kazoku

The Eccentric Family becomes increasingly eccentric this week, with all the business about bear running wild and a strong reference to hell (who would’ve thought that?). But first, I’m delighted with two new returns this week. The first “return” is the OP that were sorely missing last week, in which we have the opening song that would sit comfortably next to the wonderful OP of first season. This new OP carries the same spirits and energy sing by the same artist that almost bring tears to my eyes; although I’m not quite sure the implication of Yasaburou taking camera and the settings went back and white. All part of memories? It’s weird choice consider that colorful and rich settings are one of the show’s selling points. The second return is from my favorite character of the show, Kaisei, and again today she proves to be more helpful than most of the cast (man, she’s reliable). It’s very Kaisei to let Yashirou go home early, then hides inside his bag (or is she the bag?) to hang around Yasaburou. I enjoyed their chemistry and a touch of jealousy from Kaisei towards Yasaburou’s affection of Bentei. But when Yashirou stated the obvious that why don’t they get marriage, I have a feeling the show doesn’t get the timing right. They could’ve make the scene much wittier with a beat, instead they play it quite safe, thus generic, this time.

This episode also introduces us to a new character and boy, he really knows how to stand out. We still can’t say for sure whether this new character Tenmaya is a human or any other kind, but it’s heavily implied that he’s a human. Not your regular Ningen, he’s a human who went through hell. As much as I love the character’s writing in Eccentric Family, one of the show’s weakness is that the bad, negative characters are bad and negative. The twins will always be annoying, stupid little brats and the bad guy is bad all the way. It often feels like out of all the characters, the writer doesn’t care about them the most. So here in Tenmaya we have something completely different, he’s not a good person at all. He’s sly and tricky, but he’s multidimensional. He appreciates the old painter and it shows clearly. He loves to play prank, but there’s no ill intention yet. He’s even outwitted the tanuki (who love to play pranks) and the whimsical sequence where the bear runs loose is exactly why I love this show. And how about Yasaburou gets back at him by transform into a devil? How about Tenmaya got all serious he pulled a certain missing air-gun from certain someone. The Eccentric Family is pure gold in small details and whimsical moments that I can’t help but sucked in.

We also meet Professor Akadama (the tanuki-otaku) again, this time not with the Friday Fellow, but in the equally strange and misfit group of Thursday Fellow protest group. The old painter Ayameike is a wise man who basically sees through everything. Tenmaya really respect the old man because he was the one who draw the Buddha into the Hell picture, thus Tenmaya can escape through the spider’s thread. As of now I will take it literally as it appears Tenmaya has some illusion tricks that ain’t either from tengu or tanuki. And what is the connection between him and Jurojin? I remember that guy Jurojin back from last season, already possessed some supernatural ability (using his goatee to catch the tanuki anyone?) and so far the show seems to set him up to be the main villain this time. I’m still not sure how they going to develop the “hell” direction but it’s sure interesting as we never really see the show addresses this concept before, so for now I will give it a benefit of doubt.

Oh and Nidaime did acknowledged his father after they fight off but they’re both too pride to accept each other. Understated maybe but I strongly believe the reason Nidaime comes back this time isn’t to fight his father again. As this episode makes a strong case, sometimes all tanuki cares is to spend huge efforts to trick other people and all tengu cares is to settle some stupid scores; you could say they’re directionless but I’m totally fine with it; call it a reflection of their (and our) idiot blood.

Re:Creators – 02 […… that wasn’t funny]

by HelghastKillzone, posted in Currently Watching:, Re:Creators

Resuming from the convenience store shopping and onwards on to the sightseeing trip into Tokyo, Re:Creators does a massive info dump and theory, courtesy of the gluttonous caster-type Meteora Österreich. I wasn’t all too invested in how these heroes came into Souta’s world but information splitting off and colliding with each other between all the various realities provides a reasonable explanation on the mechanics behind Gunpuku no Himegimi’s plans. The first meeting between the creator and creation was far more enticing than the first half as the ogling and awkward revelation devolves in an another explosive fight.

I really like Magical Slayer Mamaika style as she completely shift the modern color tone into a ultra cheery mode whenever she does her magical girl thing. Of course, the stereotypical mahou shoujo tropes of Mamaika doesn’t survive first contact with the real world as the petty and colorful attacks actually does harmful damage to everyone and everything. I sense a touch of Madoka Magica’s conflicting darkness as her idealistic world comes crashing down and she struggles to comes to terms with the dissonance between her fictional and creator’s world in front of Selestia. Mamaika can’t accept someone who refuses her ideals and the only way she know how solve such a problem is to blast them with the power of love, which cleanly resolves any issues in her world but ends up being destructive attack in the Souta’s world. I suspect the other new character ,Yuuya Mirokuji, who looks and acts like something out of Kekkai Sensen (Blood Battlefront Blockade), doesn’t have the same inner conflict as he seems like the kind of guy who enjoys a good fight.

Especially when it comes to putting stuck up magical girls in their pace.

Speaking about the spat between Selestia and Mamaika, the amount of collateral damage probably comes close to tens of millions of dollars done to the building and streets. Between epic highway chases and Meteora’s missile strikes, tons of people have seen these fights go down and the government could not just ignore this. If I don’t see them intervening, I’ll just chalk it up to anime being anime .

The opening credits are ok with its sliding panels of characters in their own original world and then alongside with their promotion material with each a short clip  showing off their power. It could have used more battle scenes with characters fighting against each other and I found it to be a bit dull overall. The ED is something you wouldn’t find out of place in the PIXIV website with its fun fanart-like slides of everyone having a good time shopping, forlicking on the beach and ironically posing with their cosplays imitations. Overall, Re:Creators continues with its strong performance with its ambitious setting despite its main character falling neatly into self-insert category. With nine other crazy characters to contend with, all descended from the imaginative minds of the Japanese entertainment industry, I’m perfectly fine with this as long as the conflicts between creators and creations keep rolling in.             

Sakura Quest – 02 [The Gathering of the Five Champions]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sakura Quest

I’ll be honest, I’m digging this tale about the attempted runaway queen that ends up selling sweets in a self-made stand. Sakura Quest is a third of a loose trilogy from PA Works about characters and their specific jobs, after Hanasaku Iroha (about hot spring inn) and the heavyweight Shirobako (about anime industry) which are more adult-oriented than our typical anime field. This week runs more like the first trial for our Queen Yoshino as she has to sell 1000 boxes “Chupakabura manju” sweets, which ultimately failed. But of course, she’s having fun in a process and all of our primary cast is gathered to make the selling project altogether. It’s great fun to see those girls pour the hearts and passions for the work. Sakura Quest maintains its nice pace and firm gasp on small moments with great eyes for details and absurd humor.

After finding out about one year contract, meaning, she has to stuck in rural town Manoyama town for an entire year; Yoshino understandably freaks out and wants to escape the place as quickly as possible. But the old man Kadota gives her a first mission: to sell of those sweet boxes that he placed a wrong order (haha, this guy). So comes her first quest of gathering all the necessary people, meeting up the locals and running a website to promote the sweets. Only in 2 episodes this little town already has a warm and live-in atmosphere, and those locals already feel like my actual neighbors. There’s a diner store which do fortune-telling on a side. There’s the bus driver, the cranky old woman who hates tourism board, the cowboy blonde guy who plays harmonica (he actually doesn’t fit with the rest of the cast). This little town is not unlike any other small town, but it breathes so much refreshing air.

In order to sell that huge amount of sweets, the girls figure out the way of promoting it: making a fancyccult website. 0 products sold. Then the Queen will shake hands with the commoner. 3 sold by Shiori’s family members. Then putting an advertising video. 1 more sold. That’s it, they have no merchant skill at all. I have a good laugh with the absurdity of the video, but it’s well made, I totally sold to buy it. At the end of the week, all the girls just sit there and enjoy the expired sweets, while reflecting that the last week was indeed FUN.

The five champions, as the show put it, have their own personalities and while they’re not that flesh out yet, their interactions to each other are gold. Apart from Yoshino the running Queen who is energetic, we have the local members of Shiori (soft-spoken sweetheart) and Ririko (the typical dandere quiet, monotone shy girl. Still, her shifting glance is awesomely animated) and the girls from big city Sanae (who becoming anti-social when moving to this rural life; she’s sadly my least favorite character so far) and Maki (my favorite character, a no-nonsense local celebrity who appears in a popular series- as an unknown side character). All of them have different jobs and different characteristics, but that exactly why they can bring such great chemistry together.

The more serious theme for this episode, however, lies in the allure of big city versus quiet rural town. Yashino loves to live in big city Tokyo because it provides more job opportunities and it basically has everything. But nothing in particular. I guess this is the attitude from most of young people out there: going to the big city, getting the fine job and settling down there. But as Yashino finds out, putting a foot into that world isn’t easy with countless interviews without single job offer, but here in Manoyama she is given an opportunity. Sakura Quest presents an alternative mindset regarding that: “Doesn’t matter where you go, with the right attitude you can find a place for yourself anywhere”. That is a solid advice if you ask me. Sakura Quest is an energetic dose of anime that I’m gladly welcomed to my life right now. Long live the Queen!

Tsuki ga Kirei – 02 [A Handful of Sand]

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

Tsuki ga Kirei, or “as the moon, so beautiful.” as English title (a famous Japanese way to say “I Love You”), is your very definition of a slice-of-life romance show. Tsuki ga Kirei pays exclusive attention to the atmosphere, the small moments and characters’ reactions, while main plot and dramatic tension taken a back seat. It’s adorable, yes, not in the way cute girls doing cute things behave, but in its realistic approach to that innocent, awkward stage of our life – when, you know, it still matters a whole lot when you receive a text from the person you like, or getting nervous before the match in a sports festival. This week, the show spends an entire episode detailing a day of our characters participating in a said sports festival. We get to know more about the supporting casts and we also follow Kotaro in his house before and after the festival, and we have more cute moments for our duo Kotaro and Akane. This is a solid Tsuki ga Kirei episode so far.

As typically a bookish type person, Kotaro also loves to write. He’s a bit shy and defensive though, never let anyone to read his works, or in his everyday life, doesn’t let his mom to come for the festival. It would be embarrassed to fail, after all. This whole sports event where both our duo would get really clumsy and embarrassing, one fell hard while running, the other dropped the baton that lead to the loss of the team. But the show does a great job to not overplay those embarrassing moments and present them like normal situations. Because they are. Other shows tend to make a big deal out of character’s issues, to the point those moments can really affect the mood of the festival. Not here. The main emphasis, after all, is entirely fixated on characters’ passing feeling than any conflict, like how the show concentrates on Akane’s insecureness towards losing her potato plushy (is that really a POTATO?), instead of how she’s messing up because of that. I also like how sometimes the show would focus on Kotaro looking at body parts (either by accident or by his friends’ suggestion) of the girls without any sexual tension, in an awkward innocent not pervertly way.

This episode introduces us to the other two members of the cast, Chinatsu and Takumi. Although I enjoy the easy-going antics of Chinatsu and her moment with Korato in a medical room, especially her lousy treatment to Kotaro really speaks to that carefree side of her, the guy Takumi just tries so hard to impress Akane. From the look of it, those two are set up to be romantic rivalries to our main couple and if that’s the case then I ain’t particularly fond with it. I like to see them as real people, not the obstacles the leads have to pass to be with each other so I hope the show understands that. Tone down the romance, play up the slice-of-life aspect. I also enjoy Roman and his straightforward crush for sensei, kudos the show for make it subtly by showing it rather than screaming it aloud for the world to hear like other shows. Speaking of Roman’s crush, the shorts about various romance after the credit were a nice touch, both fleshing out a bit of our side characters, and taking more edgy side to this so far bright, pure-white world. But it’s real as well, at this stage of their life many starts to behave more grown-up, while others still act like a kid, this show really understands that.

And in the end, it’s so warm seeing the two helping each other out, texting to each other and Korato grows up a bit in the process (he’s still embarrassed to show his writing to others, but decided to show it because he’s passionate about writing). This show is adorable, but the “adorable” part is what I’m worrying about. So far, its adorableness comes from the show’s realistic portrayal of first love, and the sweet, light moments of preteen life. If they play up the cuteness, the show will become nothing more than another “cute characters show” and it will lose its sparks immediately. Two episodes in, Tsuki ga Kirei proves to be one of the most true-to-life representation of what 14-years-old kid life is about. This show is standing strong.

Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan)- 27[I’m Home]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan)

Potato girl Sasha gets her time to shine as we have an episode dedicated to her. So fun fact regarding this episode. You may have noticed that Sasha had a death flag all over her during this scene and there’s a good reason for that. It seems that Sasha was in fact, supposed to die during this part in the manga. But when the author showed this to his editor, his editor got quite upset as Sasha was one of his favorite characters. The editor even claims that after reading the storyboard that he went to the bathroom and cried but this may be a joke on his part. Anyway this editor managed to convince the author to spare Sasha which is why she manages to slip away just in time. Personally this scene might have meant a whole lot more if she did die as the whole scene was essentially a big heroic death moment with no heroic death. There are other merits to this part of the story such as adding a bit to Sasha who up till this point has been more of a comic relief character. I also love how it showcases that even a giant that’s only slightly bigger than a human can be just as much of a threat. The scene was beautifully demented with the little girl sitting watching her mother slowly get devoured. All things considered the mother was pretty calm for someone getting eaten alive. I will likely be giving this show a lot of flack in these reviews but I do think it can do an excellent job on portraying the absolute horror of the world these characters inhabit.

Presentation still carries the story and manages to keep the show entertaining. I was thinking that seeing as Sawano was working on two series this season that he might do a lesser job on one of the series soundtracks. Though so far Re:Creators and Titans OST’s sound pretty baller. Still I find that the story developments are still just presenting more questions than answers. Animation has definitely gotten an upgrade as while the previous season wasn’t lacking in good animation, it did have a problem with consistent quality. One episode would feature a fantastically animated bout between titans and another would have still images with voiceovers. This doesn’t look to be the case here if the first two episodes are evidence to the rest of the seasons quality.

Our episode ends with the group finding a titan in a house and being shocked over how it’s legs and arms are too small to support itself, mention there is no way this titan could have got here by itself. Obviously this is insinuation to the scouting troop that titans may in fact be transformed humans. There’s a particular problem with this revelation and that’s the fact that everyone watching has pretty much figured that out by episode 6. In fact with the discovery of Eren’s powers to transform into a titan this revelation should have come up long before this. So the audience must wait for the character to get up to speed on the situation when isn’t the best way to go about things. It would be different if this answer was something the audience could see and the characters could not and one could reason that seeing as they are from a more middle aged era that this question wouldn’t even occur to them. Still if nobody, not even the titan obsessed scientist thought of this then these characters are pretty dumb.

Little Witch Academia – 14[New Age Magic]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Little Witch Academia

Well here she is, miss antagonist and now another of the visions Akko had when unlocking the second word has come to pass. In a way this is still continuing the episodic structure of the previous episodes but again there’s enough plot in the background to make it feel substantial. We also have a new opening which looks to be hinting at a conflict between Diana and Akko which mirrors that of Ursula and the new professor Croix. I don’t think the new opening is better than the old one, feels a little too standard and like Kill La Kill’s second opening. I rather like the thematic  conflict with the main characters. With Akko and Diana being aspiration against realism while Ursula and Croix look to be traditionalism against modernization. Croix, much like Constanze, is mixing magic and technology in an effort to fight against the magic energy crisis. You could argue she has best intentions but her demeanor screams villain to such a degree that I expected rainbow spotlights to appear with a German theme song.

Akko seems well enamored with her but I think this was a missed opportunity to have Constanze play off her. As I said previously, Amanda and her crew have had little screentime so far in the series and I would certainly like to see them featured more than just being background characters. Though I suppose the purpose of this is that Croix is winning over Akko to the side of magical modernisation and leading to a conflict between Akko siding with her idol or her newly respected mentor. I think this was a really strong episode and a good introduction for Professor Croix. The witch academy did seem to be won over by technology a little too fast though even with one teacher still is not convinced. Tradition was one of the things holding back the academy, the Samhain festival is certainly proof of that. However to remove it entirely does seem to risk losing connection with the power of magic. I have a feeling that Croix is deeply involved with the decline of magic and it’s clear she has an underlying motive behind this Academy modernisation after setting  up the events that triggered the strike in the first place.

It was quite humorous to have Akko go to try and convince the spirits to stop the strike, only to join them instead. But the real golden moment is that Akko managed to get Diana flustered. Her method was a bit underhanded but nonetheless she did have a point in that Diana didn’t try to understand the situation the spirits were in. She condemned them for demanding more when they were clearly getting a raw deal here. A mere ten percent of the magic energy with witches taking up the rest. Considering that they need it to live that’s akin to cutting off their food supply. Akko may be unreasonable but her cause is justified and it is rather satisfying that after 13 episodes of Diana being a pure perfect witch that Akko managed to shut her up. A one sided rivalry looks to be becoming a true rivalry as Diana acknowledges Akkos worth. It also seems she is catching on to Akko being chosen to revive the grand triskelion which is sure to shake her up even more.