Category: Currently Watching:

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress – 05

by HelghastKillzone, posted in Currently Watching:, Koutetsujou no Kabaneri

Sometimes being a badass isn’t enough.

1
On the journey towards the Shogun’s stronghold, the Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress hype train finds itself staring down a massive glowing thing while Memui is fracturing between her newfound companions and her past. Memui’s motivations aren’t all that hard to see given her ability in smashing Kabanes into the ground and following the young master’s orders. An old acquaintance, that looks like Snake from Metal Gear Solid, observes that this is only her redeeming value and it does much to blunt the progress she made in connecting with the people aboard the Hayajiro. There was this picture in my mind that Memui’s master had a super awesome plan to save humanity but the scene where Memui’s friend is executed makes it seem that he isn’t all the benevolent to begin with. References to weapons being stored up for human targets by the Shogun authority will no doubt pay off later down the storyline but more pressing issues are at hand like the Black Smoke and removing the obstacle off the track.
3

The action doesn’t disappoint with Memui’s assault on the boiler room that mirrors her fight in episode two with a few additions like using a cloud of suicide bags as an offencive tool. Even the music is the same but with the lyrics taken out lending itself to being a foreshadow of the limits of her personal fighting power. It’s just too bad that the sheer volume of enemies proves to be too much for Memui’s as cool as that entire action sequence was. I prefer her when she was just cheerfully murdering Kabane with a carefree demeanor as opposed to recklessly fighting out of a sense of pride and desire to be a useful tool.     .

5

What exactly is that massive Titan-Kabane that everyone refers to as the “Black Smoke”? It is simply a bunch of individual Kabanes glued together to form a megazord or is this an entirely new creature that is the physical manifestation of Kabane virus? The close-up view reveals all the Kabanes being mashed together but the eerie sludge-like movement and glowing eyes say otherwise. Those new upgrades to the firepower to the steam rifles and Katanas better come in handy because this “Black Smoke” Kabane doesn’t like a pushover at all.

4

I showed my friends, who have seen Attack on Titan but were not following current airing anime, Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress and were instantly hooked. It then turned in a marathon session where we caught up to the current episodes and they told it was already better than its predecessor because of its pacing, music, characters, setting and the maddening wait for the next episode. I would be inclined to agree as it ends with the Hayajiro standing alone against a zombie-titan while the Kabaneri duo are off doing their own thing.

2

Bungou Stray Dogs – 06

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~

Joker Game – 06

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Joker Game

The problems I have with Joker game continue to be an issue as we have another episodic story about how amazing the D-agency spies are. After a overly long minute and a half showing of a train we are shown the plot of today’s episode. Put simply, a D-agent must obtain a newspaper with information encoded in an article from an informant. However the informant is murdered before he can pass on the information. Through some manipulation of some kids on the train, the spy finds out who murdered him and why. Then he knocks them out and…lets them go? Yes, on top of being super amazing spies, our team have a no killing policy which just makes me wretch. Spies are a moral grey area in their job and by effectively making them good guys, you kill part of what makes spies so interesting. I am reminded of the not ninja’s of Naruto or the Bodacious Space Pirates who were pretty much pirate in name only. Of course you can argue that the space pirates acted more like genuine real life pirates but that is the aspect that people love about them. Remove the aspect that makes the occupation interesting and you remove the very purpose of the occupation. If Joker Games spies are always going to be morally in the right then it’s not just uncharacteristic of spies but boring in general.  But back to the episode and I tried to look at this from another standpoint. At the moment looking for depth is a fool’s errand and whatever suspension of disbelief gets shattered once the show pulls something utterly ridiculous. (Where in the hell was he keeping that carrier pigeon?) So I am attempting to find a mindset with which I can enjoy this series more. Much like say adopting a mindless approach as I do with High school of the dead, where I just switch off my critic processes and enjoy the chaos. I find it difficult to do this here however as their looks to be clear intent for the show to be taken seriously. I try to treat it like a James bond film but it lacks the camp and charisma. I try to treat it as a thriller but I am thrown off by the jumps in logic within the writing. I try to look at it like a action movie but there is far too little action and no real threat. Truly, who is this for?

I do like how in this tale the spy made use of the children while making it out to be a simple game. The way he hid his true intent and gave them an incentive to play along was pretty clever and even how he managed to get them away by getting them to spill a glass to attract the attention of their mother. However once we encounter the murderers plot things get weaker as the spy somehow manages to lay down the entirety of the enemies plan with little to no evidence. Based on what was shown in the episode, there is no possible way he could have come to these conclusions. One of the most important aspects, that the informant was traveling with a woman, was completely omitted from the viewer. Why is it that even when things don’t go as planned, they still go exactly as you planned? The level of assumption in his conclusions is ridiculous and there’s no way he can declare this with so much certainly like he read the script beforehand. If I was to get interested in this story then at least make it feel as though some risk is involved. When our spy finds the informant dead his only reaction is akin “Oh well, guess it’s time for secondary plan 47”. When the character themselves displays no real worry over the situation then how is it that the audience is supposed to instead? It would be far more interesting if the murder caught him off guard and he was nervous while sitting trying think things out. That would show that he’s human. But he’s just sitting there, cool as a cucumber while everything just works out in his favor. That’s just not engaging entertainment and kills any reliability these spies have. Despite my griping I must reiterate that Joker game isn’t bad by any means, nor is it good. It’s passable but frustrating when you consider that the story could be so much more. I am hoping that the after credits sequence is an indicator of this episodic format getting replaced with a more interesting ongoing plot but it looks like it will be a while before that happens.

~AidanAK47~

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World – 06

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

I swear, this show makes me want to jump into the manga and read ahead because I simply can’t handle the week long wait between episodes. Today the culprit behind Subaru’s death is revealed to be none other than Rem. Now I know what you are thinking. Which one is Rem? I don’t blame you on that as I too get mixed up on which is which and this is further confused by the similar nature of R and L in Japanese. Basically you can call them Rem and Ram or Lem and Lam as both are technically correct. For these reviews I will be going with the R version and I have a means to remember it. Simply recall this sentence. “Rem is not red.” So this reveal is pretty surprising as I was hedging my bets on Ram(Pink hair) being the mysterious killer and yet out of the woods comes Rem(Blue hair) swinging a flail like Gogo Yubari in Kill Bill. So it seems that Ram truly is good for nothing as Rem is the cook, cleaner and assassin all rolled into one. Though her level of proficiency makes me think her skill is otherworldly. There is definitely is something off about these sisters. Considering Rams reaction to Subaru telling the tale of the red and blue oni, I believe this story hits a bit too close to home for them. Maybe Roswell is a demon and Rem made a deal with him in order to save Rams life? Either way these two seem related to demons and I am willing to bet they are some kind of demon or variant. One thing I noticed which is odd is something that happens when Subaru declares his reward at the dinner table. The first time he did it, Ram sneezed. The second time, she hiccuped. And the third she yawned. It could simply be a joke on the animators part or it could suggest that Ram remembers the previous time loops. When Subaru attempted to retrace his steps in the last run, Ram was the one who set him off track and made him do different things. There is also the fact that in this run Rem avoided him while Ram got closer to him. She could be a future allie in this regard or maybe this is all just done subconsciously.

Subaru’s killer came after him much faster this time around as he was acting a lot more suspicious in this run. He woke up screaming, scaring the hell out of Rem and Ram. He asked to be a houseguest instead of a worker and spent his time sneaking around the mansion and trying to talk to Rem and Ram. Even Roswell seemed a lot more wary of him and it’s likely that hush money he gave him was simply a means to keep Emilia happy thinking that he was going to let him go away without incident. Once Subaru is away from the mansion we see some cracks in his facade as he tries to remind himself of his conviction. There was an odd scene in the beginning which had Subaru walking with a spinning Beatrix. The thing that was meant to be conveyed here was that Subaru was walking around Beatrix. But Beatrix was spinning far faster than Subaru’s walking speed which gave a weird jarring feeling like Beatrix was just spinning randomly in place. Either way Subaru has taken to visiting Beatrix as a coping mechanism and help get rid of his fear. Beatrix happened to mention something quite interesting to Subaru as well when asked about magic that can kill someone in their sleep. She names out two potential causes, on is a shaman’s curse from the north and another is to drain the mana out of someone. What makes this particularly interesting is that she specifically details that the only ones capable of this feat are her and Puck. Puck killing Subaru for getting close to Emilia is a interesting idea and not too farfetched. Though their is a big hole in this theory and that is that Puck can be only active during the day and Subaru was killed during the night. He seems to be getting closer to Beatrix but it does prove to be a dilemma as while Subaru becomes more familiar with them, they still see it as a first impression which causes them to get put off by him. Some like Emilia take it in stride but it clear that the fact that no one can remember those moments he spent with them is taking it’s toll on Subaru. There is one more thing that I believe is very important in this episode and it came up while Subaru was telling the fairytale to Ram. He mentioned a dragon that made a contract with the royal family but more importantly he mentioned a fairytale about “The Jealous Witch.” This is the second time this witch has been brought up as the first name Emilia gave to Subaru was Satella. When he called her that after a repeat she got angry at him for calling her by the name of the jealous witch. I have a feeling this witch may be very connected to Subaru’s “Return by Death” power.

~AidanAK47~

Kiznaiver – 05

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Kiznaiver

Off to the woods we go and with it we have our characters get along better. Tenga looks to be playing full wingman for Chidori and attempts to get her and Agata closer together but Chidori’s own reservations are getting in her way. Tenga and Chidori seem oblivious to the fact that feelings are blossoming between the two of them and I hope they wise up to it soon as I find Chidori’s situation to be far too predictable. As Yuta put it, he’s too “heavy” and emotionally charged for someone like Agata who is more relaxed. Tenga is a better match because he’s as emotional as she is while being able to interact with her well. Her feelings for Agata are more or less shown to be the remnants of a crush as she did say that she was in love with the person he used to be. Not the person he currently is. Plus this is a love which is by very nature doomed. Chidori, you are his childhood friend, and the childhood friend in anime rarely wins the main characters heart. Even if they happen to be the best girl. When looking at it from that front all these scenes teasing this relationship just feel like empty promises as I would be very surprised if those two ended up together. I would very much like this aspect of the show to disappear as soon as possible as it’s bringing in Okada’s bad habit as seen at the end of the episode. As Chidori offloads her feelings like a death metal vocalist shouting into a microphone I can’t help but see the various examples just like this in her previous work. I remember plenty of shouting matches in the likes of Sakuranbo and Anohana, those of which never fail to sound unnatural and be forced drama. I am going to articulate my feelings perfectly into a impulsive emotional rage! There are quieter way to resolve conflict, ways that don’t require a character to shout a prepared monologue like an idiot.

On a smaller note Niko looks to be living up to her title of being envy as when Tenga lavished attention on Chidori, Niko was looking to be quite jealous. This likely isn’t due to any feelings for Tenga but rather her desire to be the center of attention. Maki on the other hand looks to be up to strange antics as she heavily comes on to Yuta. This is pretty amusing as Yuta previously mentioned that Chidori was too “Heavy” for guys to like yet the girl he is most interested in has much more severe emotional baggage. This is purely speculation on my part but I believe Maki’s sudden advance on Yuta is a product of that phone call. It sounds to me that Maki is being pressured into compensated dating and due to her guilt relating to the person she “Killed”. She seeks to punish herself but is reluctant due to being a virgin. Thus she attempts to seduce Yuta whom she mistakes for someone experienced in such matters. Much to her surprise, Yuta isn’t keen on the idea of simply jumping into bed with her and would prefer something more genuine. As she pushes further she even gets him to reveal that, despite having girls fawning over him, he is still a virgin. Unlike the drama of Agata’s little love triangle, I find this relationship much more engaging as Yuta and Maki’s interactions are much more mature than the rest of the cast.

The interactions between the cast remain fun and we have a usually bout of trigger madness as they are all chased by the strange mascot characters in a odd test of courage. We learn a few things in the process of this. One is that the school counselor and the teacher are both part of the Kiznaiver project. Two that the teachers faction looks to be aiming for a different agenda in the project. And three that the Kiznaivers share more than physical pain as Chidori’s pain of heartbreak and over Agata getting bullied is transferred over to all the others. Considering this upgrade it’s possible that other emotions will get transferred as their bond grows and perhaps the goal of the project is to achieve a level of hive mind between certain individuals. So far Kiznaiver has been a fun show but it is lacking something to push it into great status. I believe some idea of direction is needed in order to get an idea of what this show is going towards. Right now I am clueless on just what is coming next which makes it difficult to get excited for.

~AidanAK47~

Flying witch – 05

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~

Mayoiga – 06

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Mayoiga

Back stories time! This week of Mayoiga dedicated itself for backstories of many characters. Too many characters indeed. This is for me the turning point of Mayoiga, where many facts are revealed and we seem to head to the new phase. The show now becomes much clearer and have a sense of direction. This week, Lovepon, Mikage, Nyanta, Jigoku all have their own stories to tell. Most of them ridiculous as they are (like the silicon part, or the monk, or the 12//20 mix-up, or the bullying girls, basically all of them), but they all serve their purposes. Lovepon, for example, has been a source of complaint for the last few weeks as being one-note and anime-like, but with this week’s reveals, she was also a victim of injustice, violence and her own hatred. The use of heavy symbolisms in these flashback scenes could rivals Kunihiko Ikuhara’s shows anytime, and I mean it in a good way. The devil, the silicon, the bees and the laughing train are representative of their characters’ deepest fears, their CG designs make us feel both uneasiness and alien, and that exactly what the show aims for. Those flashbacks give us a reason to care for those characters and I for once root for them when they running away from that thing. The most effective story is for me, Nyanta. Being bullied is more common than you would think and people tend to do more extreme and painful things to cope with it. In her case, this is to shoot those bullying girls with a BB gun. There is a sadness behind all that and Mayoiga (briefly) nailed that raw emotion.

So it appears that the Lost Village is a place where people have to face their darkest sides, they have to face the negative feeling (like hatred, shame) that they had buried inside themselves, which for me is very fitting. Remember all of them want to go to the Lost Village because they want to run away from their problems to make a new life there. Well they can physically escape from it but they have to face their own issues in order to really get over it. As I suspected, Masaki is the main source to all the mysteries, but I don’t think she’s a ghost yet. From what the paper says she was just disappeared, so I think she was stuck in this lost village ever since. There are two things that baffles me this week: first, how the hell that those 4 people were chasing by god-know-what but they somehow all escape from it, I originally thought they would be killed or at least be vanished. What’s else going to happen after this? Second, I find that Koharun’s habit of stop talking and then singing in the middle of conversations is a bit chilling, it’s like she’s a ghost. Hell! Mayoiga! You might be the only one show that can pull it off.

Mayoiga this week delivered all the ambitious intentions it promised since its premiere. Just for this time, I feel glad that I haven’t given up on this. Whether it going to stay this inspiring or stumble for the rest of the series is everyone guess. At least we’ll always have this episode. We’ll always have Paris.

~SuperMario~

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress – 04

by HelghastKillzone, posted in Currently Watching:, Koutetsujou no Kabaneri

5

Episode four comes out swinging with tons of action, resolves its internal tensions and looks forwards to its second arc with hopeful optimism. There are no brakes on the Hayajiro, especially when the Kabane launches a surprise offensive and interrupts the cliffhanger that was going nowhere fast thanks to Kurusu’s intervention.

4

I was worried that the continuous bickering over the Kabaneri and retarded decision making  would be an annoying barrier but thankfully, those concerns were swiftly dashed away.  Nothing was more satisfying than seeing a sword-wielding Kabane slice his way through the would-be conspirators and then a good chunk of the hapless passengers unlucky enough to be caught in the wrong place. It is worth noting that Memui recognize the Kabane type as a Wazotori only adds to her mysterious origins and that she knows much more than she lets on.

6

Wit Studio knows how to animate fight scenes and they definitely do a good job having some well-executed sword fighting mixed up with ranged combat. All the fighting inside and on top of the train carries the Attack of Titan vibes that catapulted that production studio to the forefront. That being said, there were some animation quality issues that I could see in several scenes such as the still frames and other oddities in the more fluid sequences Hopefully, it won’t be a repeat of what happened in the latter parts of Attack of Titan, where there was a significant drop as the animators scrambled to complete episodes.

1

Ayme continues to turn the corner from being a timid daughter living in the shadow of her father to being a rather daring leader. Pivoting around from being relinquished of the masterkey and picking up a weapon to lead the defense from the Kabane horde, she continues to grow as a character that speaks of courage and badassery especially when it comes to her awesome steampowered bow. While the mechanics of how such a bow can operate are highly questionable, it is no doubt a very unique and cool looking weapon in a setting that is already steeped in steampunk design philosophy. Another great part is the music that is layered on thick and heavy with Sawano’s traditional styles that only ramps up the intensity as the fight progress through the train as well as the two insert songs. I felt that while the first song was pretty good, it went on for far too long with the key change being evident of that fact. However, the extended outro that coming from a different part of the full ED was a nice touch in rounding off the first arc.

3

All the distractors are either dead or send cowering into a corner, everyone gets along and the Hayajiro is chugging along into the sunset. The first four episodes of Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress were highly enjoyable to me and as the numbers from MAL indicates, this is the most popular and highest rated show (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable doesn’t count) airing this season. Buy your tickets and get onboard because the wild ride is only getting started.

2

Bungou Stray Dogs – 05

by SuperMario, posted in Bungou Stray Dogs, Currently Watching:

Bungou Stray Dogs once again goes sidetrack this week, which means that this episode is a filler one and doesn’t advance the plot at all. The main rivalry between the Armed Detective Agency and Port Mafia; which I originally thought to be 4, 5-episodes arc, seems to stretch out until the end of this season, or the fall season for that matter, now that they announced that the second part will premier in this October. But with all that said, this is one of the best episode Bungou Stray Dogs have ever pulled off. Look, I’m a sucker of shows that care about characters. As long as a show can take their time to focus on character’s development and character’s interactions, I will be content with it. Back in previous few weeks, I had my concerns of the supporting characters being flat with some over the top traits, well this episode is an answer to that. In fact, I am fine if the rest of Bungou Stray Dogs go with this direction.

This week is all about Ranpo with his gift Ultra-Deduction, and he makes the best out of it. The murder case is simple enough to not distract the flow of the episode. Although the case itself isn’t really coherent when you think about it (like if the two were really couple, she should have realized sooner that the guy being controlled by Port Mafia), it makes up by its emotion core and further showcase the ability of Ranpo. Atsushi becomes a sidekick this week and this is for the better. In fact, Atsushi and Dagai interactions are not the strong part of the show (mainly because they would go to the usual banters of Atsushi feeling useless and Dagai bragging about suicide), but this week it’s working since they discuss about someone else, and give more lights about that character in the process. All of the usual gags are absent, and even the part about Dagai being stuck in the net and still going on about double suicide seems funnier this week.

Now into the best revelation of this week: Out of all the characters from Armed Detective Agency, Ranpo is the only one who doesn’t possess natural gifted. The word “gifted” in fact always baffled me. Gifted means that the person have an exceptional talent, but isn’t it matter if one who does not have it to begin with turns out to be talented? People with gifted usually take their ability for granted, so they just don’t know or care that other people have to try hard to reach that level. This is demonstrated well in Ranpo. Because he is not a natural gifted, he had to try harder to become what he is now and his skill now is far more powerful than any natural gifted peers. Another thing is that “gifted” alone is not what makes them great, it is really a combination of:

”Ten percent luck, twenty percent skill.

Fifteen percent concentrated power of will.

Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain.

And a hundred percent reason to remember the name”

~SuperMario~

Joker Game – 05

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Joker Game

One of the things I wished for joker game to show me was that the spies of D-agency were not superhuman demi-gods who can handle anything. This episode nearly accomplishes that as one of the spies of D-agency is found out and captured. However it falters in that the spy was purposefully sold out and a ridiculously convoluted escape plan was ready for him. Even the highest most professional people don’t use plans that depend on a massive amount of pure coincidence and luck. Let me get the plan straight, you trained recruits to resist amnesia and truth scrum and decide to purposefully sell out an agent. Then instead of giving him a clear plan of escape, you give him the novel robinson crusoe and hope that he just so happens to make a connection between a single character in the novel and a symbol drawn on a door. A door which he can only find if he makes a mistake and follows the maps he was allowed to see. Thus when the soldiers come to check on him a sleeper agent will falsely report that he didn’t find him. For an agency that laughed off the idea of killing someone to hide your tracks because it’s too risky, why is it that your alternative is even riskier? There are dozens of things that could of went wrong here. What if they didn’t get him to send false info back to Japan? What if they asked him different questions during interrogation? What if he didn’t follow the maps because as he said before, they were likely a trap? What if he didn’t spot the symbol? What if he didn’t know what it meant? What if someone rubbed the symbol off? What if they did a second sweep of the area and the sleeper agent was assigned to a different part of the building? For super amazing spies this plan sure seems like it wasn’t thought out. Thus the biggest problem of the show remains, the D-agency is far too overpowered and all knowing. That truly diminished what effect this episode could have had as I never truly believed that he was abandoned and it just became a matter of how he would escape. So I didn’t have much attachment to the events on screen as I didn’t believe their was any real risk.

The design of the villain of the week was most outrageous this time around as we have a man with a head of Megamind interrogating our spy. Since last episode our villains have been getting more comic book villain styled while our heroes appearances make them difficult to tell apart. In fact personality wise is their any difference between our heroes? All of them seem to be around the same skill level and don’t really have any defining character traits. They for the most part are interchangeable and while that is a useful feature for a spy to have, it makes our protagonists seem unremarkable. The solider from the first episode had more character than all of them combined as at least he had perspective on his job and values. The spies don’t seem to hold any feelings regarding their job or have any personal aspirations. Which again makes for good spies but utterly dull characters. If the goal of this episodic format is to show the differences between the spies and their methods then it’s failing greatly for what one spy can do I can see any of the others do exactly the same. I can’t even remember their names or match the faces so it might as well be the same main character for all these short stories. Normally in a episodic show the first episodes sets up a group of dynamic characters and gives them a vague goal to strive towards. Cowboy bebop, hand in a bounty and get money. Samurai Champloo, find the samurai that smells of sunflowers. Mushishi, investigate mushi incidents. The strength of such a series is the ability to place a character in any situation imaginable, be it realistic or not. However here there are no consistent characters, nor is there a defined goal. Which makes these last episodes feel rather pointless. There’s no interesting characters, the spies goal is only revealed in the final minutes of an episode and whatever situation is easily resolved by episodes end. So I must ask, why should I care? I don’t think Joker Game is a bad show but if this is going to continue then I must be given a reason to care about what’s happening on screen. I need investment and you gave me that in the first two episodes but  since you removed the two characters I do give a damn about I have found my interest slipping. I pray this is all leading up to something, perhaps that story promised in the synopsis, but it’s possible that once Joker game finally does decide to kick into gear that I will have lost all interest in it.

~AidanAK47~