Category: Currently Watching:

Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These – 4[The Unbeatable Magician]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These

With the previous episode we got the backstory of Reinhard and with episode and the next we are getting the backstory of Yang. I know it’s likely a rather typical response to the “Who is my favorite character from LOGH?” but I really do love Yang. This episode actually did a better job of introducing him than the previous series did as before his past was relegated to a prequel series made afterwards. The pacing was a bit fast but otherwise this does a great job of setting up Yangs character. Yang is a man who wants to study history but finds himself more often than not forced to make it. Almost a polar opposite of Reinhard, he isn’t an overachiever and is lazy to a fault while only harboring the ambition to use the military as a means to obtain a paycheck so he can study history. Yet because he’s such a history buff he has a gift for tactical strategy which unfortunately pushes him up the ranks and some serious bad luck. For example she was positioned in the military at El Facil in this episode and found himself in lead command after the army abandoned the people. Though his wit he managed to use the escaping army as a decoy and evacuated the population. Now this event was still a big loss for the Free Planets Alliance but to divert attention away from that they focused public attention on Yangs evacuation and thus he was propelled to the status of the Hero of El Facil.

Honestly I love his demeanor of calm easy going mood even during the most dire of situations while still being rather socially awkward. This episode mainly set up his love for history and his friendship with Jessaia and Jean. I particularly liked how Yang tended to support Jean in pursuing Jessica romantically while signifying that he too may harbor romantic feelings for her. If there was certainly something I adored from the OVA series it was Yangs speeches on history and in this episode his opinion(Or rather his dad’s opinion) on Rudolf is oddly chilling. “People supported him…because they wanted their lives to be easy”, “Rather than solving their problems on their own, they were waiting for some superhero or saint to show up and take it all on single handedly. Rudolf took advantage of that”…my friends do these words seem oddly relevant? For these are lines taken word from word from a novel written in the 1980’s. Thus much like Yangs opinion on strategy, If one knows the past then it makes you better at predicting the future.

Now I have heard complaints that the strategy in this series is somewhat dependent on rather obvious tactics made brilliant by the incompetence of the opponent and I do see where that is coming from. It was rather odd that the best student in the school had the basic strategy of fighting Yang head on without considering to defend his supply lines. However while I admit the tactics of this show are a bit basic, I have two points which I feel negates that somewhat. One is that this series isn’t really about the space battles themselves but rather the politics around them so high level strategy isn’t so much needed when it’s the outcome of the battle on the political landscape which matters to the overall plot. The second point is that there is some claim that the author based these battles on real historical battles which I too suspected so. As I stated previously, stupid people in high positions is quite the common theme within history, you would be rather shocked how often it comes up. So I find the idea of Yang and Reinhard facing incompetent commanders to be at least fairly feasible. As a final note, the last episode showed us that the Galactic Empire has is dark sides to it’s society and this episode does give a glimpse that the Free Planets Alliance has its fair share of darkness too. While less constrictive that the Empire and closer to our current society, there is mention of a war orphans provision which basically amounts to soldiers being able to raise orphans and have a loan lent out by the Government. Then when the kid turns 15 they can veto the payback of the loan by joining the military. Essentially grooming war orphans into future soldiers. A democracy the Free Planets Alliance may be, but it is one that makes becoming a soldier the most attractive and in some cases, only option.

Golden Kamuy – 03 [Kamuy Moshir]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Golden Kamuy

We have a sparser episode compared to the one last week, but believe me it’s still a dense episode with many seeds being planted and this week is essentially your Ainu 101 episode. The mangaka does a thoroughly research over Ainu culture, and he’s more than happy to show off here. But apart from the Ainu cooking porn in which I still feel out of place, Golden Kamuy uses the Ainu traditions and their culture to inform us about who Asirpa is and where her perspective comes from. Take the matter of rising a cub for example, Anui’s belief is to raise them and send them back to their kamuy (Anui’s god) life through sacrifice. It’s a fascinating view to how they approach life and death and I do really respect their belief. Asirpa belief grows beyond that view, the way she approaches it more realistically and she says it best herself “Our beliefs contain our way of life”. It could apply to any culture, to any individual belief out there. She really is mature and wise beyond her age.

Plot-wise, the duo gets chased down by more members of 7th Hokkaido unit, this time they all meet their miserable end, but not without a good fight. There of the soldiers are in hot pursuit for Sugimoto, and he escapes them just by a hair only because of Asirpa’s wisdom (although I like his quick resolve I have to say the “Bears won’t attack people who enter their hole” setup was hastily set up here). And the three still manage to take down the bear before dying themselves, just to show us the fighting spirits of those men (one of the men even had his face ripped off. Badass). Another soldier pursuits Asirpa and nearly kills her when he realized that she’s involved, but soon taken by the white wolf, Retar. If there is one central moral of this Golden Kamuy story, it is you need to kill your opponent properly because otherwise they’ll come back to haunt you. Asirpa leaves that poor soldier Tanigaki alive, and he vows to kill the wolf at all cost. I’m not keen on this development at all. It means trouble.

Speaking of Sugimoto and Asirpa’s real troubles, I’m worried for Asirpa’s kotan right now as the two seems to forget that they are being followed by a bunch of ruthless and skilful teams. The enemies’ character designs have now gotten to Rurouni Kenshin’s level of ridiculousness, which personally I’m not fond of, but well I can’t disagree that both teams following our duo are badass and will prove to be real threats. On the one hand, we have the army unit, lead by a “missing-the-front-of-his skull” Tsurumi, so you know he’s mad as hell, and on the other we have Hijikata himself, who figures out the way to take the tattoo NOT by skinning them off, so naturally he just kills for the fun of it (that’s half-true though). The next step should be for those two hot pursuers to kill off each other, right?

Hisone to Masotan – 02 [I’ll Name the Dragon Masotan]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hisone to Masotan

It’s already 2 episodes in and I still have absolute no idea what HisoMaso’s overarching theme is going to be, which might no be a bad thing given I enjoy the show for what it is so far. HisoMaso’s main concept is quite silly when you think about it. A dragon camouflages as a military aircraft in which the person pilots it inside its organs. Yuck. And you see how he throws Hisone up? The show could easily fall apart if they take that concept seriously, yet so far they manage to get away with it. Even heaps of scenes in this episode could be viewed as workplace sexual harassment with all the touching, sexual innuendo (not to the level of FranXX but still,) and fetish-fuel suits, yet somehow they still work? Why then? I have no clue, but if I have to guess, it’s because of the show’s subtle parodical tone. Main characters, for example, have betrayed their common archetype tropes: Hisone is first seen as a character who have no qualms to be pushed around, turns out she’s the blabbermouth who says all negative things without thinking. Likewise, with Nao appears as your typical grumpy but kind-hearted partner, but this episode goes a long way to establish that she’s mean to Hisone through and through. Or even with the yoghurt lady who supposed to be a source of wisdom, turns out she just gives Hisone some random food (or is it not) and it’s Hisone who tries to make the meaning out of it.

Then again, I figure our best approach to HisoMaso should be don’t delve too deep into it and just enjoy the simple yet absolutely outstanding visual wash over you with some mild emotional core and some tweaks at the common tropes. And on that front HisoMaso more than shine through. This episode is all about Nao the delinquent who unsuccessfully bullying our main girl, but successfully steals a scooter and gets herself swallowed by the dragon (yay!). Her arc involves how Nao feels insecure with her position after Hisone becomes a main pilot. Ignored by her idol and had her rival standing up for her for all the wrong reasons, it comes to the breaking point where she need to revenge. Vengeance is the best cold dish there is. But why Nao, why do you have to go all the way to cook a meal for your rival? But further down the line and you realize that what Nao afraid the most is not living up to her mother. Kakiyasu the Captain does a crappy job to remind that her every single goddamn time. There’s a subtle hint that Kakiyasu used to be Nao’s mother junior, hence she understands what Nao is going through right now. But what she doesn’t understand is Nao the person, as the girl lashes out and runaways. Okay, Nao is pretty much a meanie but her character ticks with me through her little adorable details: her sketchbook with all the drawings are kawaii (with a commentary to boost), reading Princess Tutu / Black Swan manga, the way when she’s hurt she calls out for her Mama (big girl always calls out for Mama)

Judging from the OP and ED, there going to be three more additions that it makes me wonder if there is going to be another dragon appear. As I said earlier I absolutely have no clue whether HisoMaso will be more serious later on. I hope it’s not as for the moment I enjoy the chemistry between the titular characters, the bright and impressive visuals and I have a fondness for these quirky characters with no nose. The same can be said for its catchy French ED (I love French Pop, their sounds always remind me of bright summertime. German always sounds to angry for me – fitting for Metal music). One thing for sure is that whichever direction HisoMaso going to head, I am gonna be happily on board.

Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory – 02[Damage Control]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory

A long awaited return of an old favorite is quite enough to make me smile but this episode makes it clear that this will not be the same happy go lucky FMP of the past. The light hearted shenanigans of the old series are pretty much gone now with Kaname coming to grips with several things that she has been ignoring to this point. That her status as whispered puts everyone around her in danger, that her normal life has officially ended and that the boy that she smacked on the head with a paper fan is in fact a killer. This new direction could be a turn off for some but I personally welcome it, even though it wasn’t clearly planned to be as such, it’s like FMP matured with the audience that watched it so long ago thus it decided to push for a more mature tone. Seeing Kaname get freaked out over Sousuke ignoring injured pedestrians and even smiling over enemy soldiers getting mowed down with gunfire felt like something a long time coming. Because Sousuke’s military nature was always played for laughs and she got desensitized to it but now that she’s right in the thick of it she truly understands that for all his eccentricity, Sousuke truly has killed a lot of people, some of which being innocent people.

Naturally I will have to bring up that rather awkward chase scene. Xebec so far has been doing a pretty good job, not KyoAni level but they do at least seem to be aiming for that level of quality. Naturally compromises have to be made like the CGI mecha but I personally don’t mind that as the mecha have looked pretty good for the most part. I understand that this series is likely a demanding one as far as action goes and this will be action heavy season yet. But that chase scene was just…terrible looking. Like on the level of PS2 gameplay. The cars felt floaty and the background was full CGI that didn’t feel convincing in the slightest. It’s my hope they fix this for the Blu-Ray release because the scene itself was fine, great even. But it just didn’t look right as all, nearly on the level of the CGI Bears of Golden Kamuy.

Tessa also has her moments here as the series goes to lengths to show us that she is the leader of Mythril for a reason. I will say the means of doing so was rather contrived, namely through a random soldier suddenly proposing mutiny against her and Tessa conventently showing up to put him in his place. Indeed it was a forced circumstance but nonetheless it achieved the goal of making Tessa look good. Basically with her declaring that she would kill any traitor without hesitation personally and reminding them that this isn’t some Tessa fan club but a military organisation. You can argue her methods are extreme and the threat was an empty one at best but it still is a badass moment for Tessa. She even reenacted the “Say my name” scene from Breaking Bad…about eight years before Breaking Bad did it. Huh…wonder if this is were they got the idea…likely not. So shit has hit the fan for Mythril and now it looks like even Sousukes classmates may come to know the truth about him. With the fun and games behind us, where will FMP go?

Darling in the Franxx – 15[Jian]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Darling in the Franxx

Alright Franxx, you are forgiven for episode 14 and thank god this whole mess was sorted out relatively fast. I was truly prepared for this to drag on for several episodes but looks like they had the sense to cut it short and give the audience what it wants. So we get an animation extravaganza with a grand battle against what looks to be Klax headquarters. So it’s actually understandable why the previous episode felt a bit forced, they needed to split these two so that they could get the real fireworks ready for a full reunion and confession. Honestly I don’t think that aspect was handled well as the breakup just made everyone look bad with how sudden it was. The resolution does make for a bombastic spectacle but the means to get to it was clunky.

Goro wins the best character of the episode award for seeing Ichigo once again be ready to block HIro from getting to Zero Two and making the best call for the situation. So much so that I wonder just why Ichigo is squad leader when Goro is clearly more qualified for the position. When this episode was about to go down a long and annoying road Goro stepped in and decided to put a stop to it. And thanks to Hiro riding with Ichigo she was able to see that she pretty much didn’t have a hope in hell with him, finally allowing her to get over her crush and make the right call. Albeit with a little bit of a sore loser attitude. Thus does Hiro and Zero Two do what any couple should do regarding a misunderstanding like this and talk. Cue emotional confessions, crying, kissing and a metaphoral representation of what sounded like really good sex.

So as we can see the major character conflicts have been resolved, Ichigo has given up on Hiro(Or at least I hope she has by this point), the team have worked out their differences and Hiro and Zero Two are together again fully embracing their love for one another. By all accounts you would think this is where the series would end and yet we still got nine more episodes to go. So here’s my take, throughout the series Franxx has been teasing a dark turn of storytelling, several hints have been dropped to that effect for in this episode alone we have the higher ups suicide bombing both pilots and adults for their own agenda and the human like cocoon that dropped out of a Klax core.(Klax being humans is a rather predictable turn of events but hey it could lead to some good story development.) If there was any point where Darling in the Franxx would shift to a darker toned story then this would undoubtedly be it.

We got confirmation of a new threat but with Strelizia’s new upgrade in power I see this going either the way of Gurren Lagann whether the threat gets massively overpowered and needs the power of love to upgrade everyone to defeat it or we are going to go the road of Evangelion where in the challenges become more mental and the organisations cruelty and hidden agendas comes to light. As far as the adults are concerned, I previously stated that I don’t care and I still don’t. The thing that carries this show and keeps me coming back is the characters so my primary focus is just how much this change of tone is going to affect them. Considering episode 14 I fear they may botch it but making developments purposefully infruitating. Still I am interesting in just where this is going, sadly though we won’t get to see this next Saturday as likely to recover from the animation explosion that was this episode, no Franxx episode will air. Instead we got to wait an extra week for the next episode. I don’t mind leaving it at this for now but truly were is this going to go once things start up again?

Hinamatsuri – 03 [Hobo Life 101]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hinamatsuri

Hinamatsuri week 3 plays like an extension to Anzu and Hitomi’s stories last week. It’s like two sides of a same coin where you can see these girls grow in a direction you don’t expect (NO innuendo here), albeit at the cost of the central chemistry between Nitta and Hina. Here’s the trick to why Hinamatsuri has such refreshing cast: establish a typical stock character, put them into situations that completely out of their comfort zone, and their real characteristic emerges. Hinmatsuri is interested in the way those characters behave and act in such situations, and the source of humor come from how they define their own characteristics. Take Anzu in this first half, the self-centred Anzu learns a long way about the value of work and the value of money by joining in the homeless community. It’s a neat idea the show explores here, since usually the way the normal Anzu type just couldn’t care less about all this, yet our homeless girl not only starts from the very bottom and adapts well, but finds true meaning behind it. Kudos to Yassan who provide a fatherly figure to our Anzu and shows her the way of how the homeless makes their own money. We see how she works to get the cash: collecting cans, looking for loose coins and walking for hours to receive just a few hundred yen. It doesn’t worth it, as it shouldn’t be, but this hard labour makes her realize how hard it is to make her own money, and how “wrong” she was for stealing foods.

She receives a cold shoulder from the homeless guys at first, who aren’t keen on taking young girl to their clan, but they all change their mind after her singing, which remind them of their grandkid. I especially like the song she sings, of course it makes sense for a person without food to sing a song about the hungry wolf goes munch, munch, munch right? And especially they are literally the lowest of the foodchain here (they’re the little pigs in the song). Her singing is just like mine, which to say horrible (thumbs up for the VA who nailed it on singing with wrong beats here). Being accepted to the homeless group also means she becomes one of them, and at that moment she grows attachment to them to the point that she would swallow her childish pride to accept the money for Nitta, since she knows that money can support the tribe greatly. All of her efforts come to naught, however, when Usako and the district people caught her and made her pay for the amount she stole. My favorite bit amongst this chase is when Usako won’t call it quit and spits when hearing the police; somehow all this fits her character (and somehow it rhymes). Ohh and Usako has a history with cops. I’m waiting for that episode right now. Getting caught is actually NOT a bad thing, since now Anzu pays off her debt and can have a fresh start as a homeless girl. This is a surprisingly touching tale about a girl who learns love and the value of effort in the damnedest place. Hinamatsuri continues to surprise me.

On the other side of coin, the second half is narrated by my girl Hitomi, who moonlight as a bartender at night. Despite her efforts not to work in the bar with hilarious mind games with Usako (damn, this girl learns fast), through many unforeseeable circumstances (including being blackmailed twice by Usako), she ends up working as a bartender, and needless to say, the customers, even Usako are fond of her bartending. The way her good-girl trait plays very well in contrast with everyone around her. The troubles come when her homeroom teacher comes to the bar, so the gags involve around the teacher’s suspicion of Hitomi, as well as challenge Hitomi to hit him with her best shots. Hit him with her best shots she did marvellously. There’s many play on words here: with Mishima- Million Dollar, Baka na? “Impossible” – Bartender. There’s also a wordplay in manga source only that has the vice president says Bartender – Tender bras. My favorite part is the elegant way Hitomi shaking her milkshake cocktail in a glorious animation by feel Studio. It’s certainly satisfying to see how Hitomi has changed since we meet her, but this section lacks the nuance the first half had done so well.

The last part focuses back to our main duo Nitta and Hina, although for me it’s the weakest part of the show so far. We have seen all this before, Hina tries to be a good girl (but I enjoyed her little nightmare here), ends up wrecking every single thing in the house. The most genius part for me is the way the show leaves Nitta’s reaction open-ended, because normal anime loves to show’s characters exaggerated reactions even stupidest jokes. Not here. We won’t know exactly but we have a pretty good idea on how Nitta will react. And sometimes by doing less, it matters so much more given now we have to fill the gap ourselves about what might happen to Hina afterwards.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii – 02[Are We Now Dating?]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii

After a strong first episode I come back to this show and find a rather middling second episode. There is some good content here, namely the Evangelion references, one of which was butchered by the crunchyroll translators.(Narumi and Hanako were arguing over who was best girl in Evangelion with notes over their head about whose team they were on. The order being Narumi on team Rei, Hanako on Team Asuka, Taro on team Mari and Hirotaka picking Unit 01 as best girl) But the anime original scenes which were a boon to the first episode have become rather problematic. Case in point, this episode starts with three minutes of Hirotaka waking up, going to the kitchen to play games, attempt to make coffee, realize he’s out of coffee and travels to work sleep deprived.

That scene was too long and while I can certainly relate to going to work sleep deprived due to late night gaming, nothing happens here. It’s more or less filler and I don’t understand why they are dragging out the runtime like this. It could be due to the short number of chapters that they are attempting to pad out the runtime which could be quite problematic. Seeing scenes of characters talking their preferences in manga and whatnot is fine as I enjoy the interaction but it more the other scenes that feel supplementary that bug me. The actual scenes from the manga where pretty good, I got a chuckle out of Hirotaka saying to Narumi that he shouldn’t have told her that he liked her only to realize that he didn’t actually tell her that when asking her out.

I do still quite enjoy the banter though at times it was trying a little too hard for comedy. The animation seems to have gotten rather bare as well and while a show like this doesn’t necessarily need godly animation, it is good for the subtle motion which give these characters life. What this episode basically established is that the other two coworkers also happen to be going out and are big otaku’s as well. Rather coincidental for them all to meet at the same workplace while happening to work in the same room but hey I will bite. Again the general scenes were fine but it felt there were too many moments of nothing happening on screen. I enjoy the characters enough for this episode to be fine instead of boring but going forward we need more content in here. At least so I have something to actually talk about on these episode reviews.

Golden Kamuy – 02 [Nopperabo]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Golden Kamuy

Leave it to Japanese cartoon that done the Western genre better than the Westerners, at least from what we have seen so far (note: despite my pun, Western the genre doesn’t refer to the Western culture, but to the American Old West). Granted, Japanese cinema and literature has a strong tradition of samurai genre, which in some ways share many similarities in characteristics with Western genre. For me though, I still consider Golden Kamuy a Western one, and (so far) a good one at that. Treasure hunt is one of the most popular premise within the genre for one thing, and then we have its focus on the wilderness. The vast isolated landscape becomes a character on its own and Golden Kamuy certainly shares this. It has snowy mountain backdrop that sets in Hokkaido and the manga (remains a question mark for the anime) pays extremely careful details to Hokkaido places and the atmosphere. Social order and moral ambiguity also play important roles, so far Golden Kamuy carries many of those traits within Sugimoto character. Ex-solider, now becomes sort of nobody who looks for huge amount of money, and in the episode 2 we see his stance for his moral code: he isn’t a murderer, but if there is anyone going to kill him, he’ll kill them first without hesitation. Lastly, Western genre is famous for depicting minorities community, for better or for worse, and Golden Kamuy follows that tradition with a well-research presentation on the Anui people. On those fronts, Golden Kamuy is rather exceptional.

What I’m worried about this show, though, comes from its production. I watched Kokkoku last season and I feel the production of that show was only functionable, not exceptional or anything. It remains doubtful whether the new Geno Studio can do justice for this popular source. CGI bears aside*, the animation isn’t that consistent to be honest. There are many still frames that was a shot-by-shot with its manga source, so while it looks alright in stills, the lack of movement remains a concern. The characters look slightly off model in some scenes, and this is just second episode. I have my real worry that the production could fall apart as the series go one.

Get into the event of this second episode, this episode is jam-packed with actions and details and splits into three parts: 1) the pair gets into Otaru, the biggest city of Hokkaido and finds another tattooed prisoner there, 2) dinner, Ainu style (do they really eat the brain raw? Eew) and 3) another life and death situation – but hilariously so – with the third tattooed prisoner, an Escape Master. This episode also marks the end of the first volume of the manga, which for me the anime runs at a reasonable pace. We learn about a lot more enemies to our duo beside the bears. On one hand we have the whole 7th Hokkaido division, one of the strongest army unit involved to this gold hunting. The guy Sugimoto faces this time, Oogata is a threatening opponent. I like the way how, after he shoots the first prisoner death, he leaves the corpse there to pursuits the duo instead. Just show you how professional, and experienced this guy is. Kill all the hazards first, then skin the corpse. He manages to escape Sugimoto the Immortal and manages to survive himself, which means that now the army division will be actively involved in tracking Sugimoto and Aspira.

Still, even in this harsh, “the strong alive the weak die” world, there’s always time for more food porn. I get the intent that Golden Kamuy wants to delve deeper to Anui culture – and indeed, so far the show has shown its appreciation and respect to the Anui people – but the tone whiplash here is too severe. When these two characters have that chibi style and fluffy reactions (especially during Sugimoto exclaims(!!!) “This is so good”, I have a feeling someone padding me in my back and telling me I’m a good boy – the amount of self-indulgence is unBEARable. Other than that, the attitude towards Anui culture is overall positively portrayed in the show. Take a scene where the Escape King mocking Sugimoto about Aspira in which she sets aside and said “I’m used to it”, it just speaks volume here. The way Sugimoto feels about the insult isn’t subtle but it’s the right kind of attitude towards those kind race discrimination.

The last segment turns this capturing and chasing game into some odd whimsical enemy-turn-comrade situation, but for the show as grim and dark as this, a little light tone is more than welcome (just don’t go for food). Again, the setting of winter Hokkaido becomes its own character, it’s a force of nature for our characters to overcome. We learn more about the Leader of this prisoner gangs, who was a Samurai before and a scary figure that our duo need to be mindful of. I like this Escape King character and I figure we will see him back again soon. Overall, we have s busy episode where we got introduced to many major characters. The gold is nowhere in sight, the myth keeps getting more mysterious and heads certainly will roll and skins certainly will get ripped off. It’s a marvellous ride, now let’s all see if the production can keep up with it.

* I think the world has complained more than enough about those bears in the first episode that it isn’t worth beating that dead CGI bear dead horse at this point – although I can offer the reason why the director Nanba Hitoshi thinks it was a good idea. In one of the interview, he remarked that “[] bear have a special status for the Ainu, so I think the way to show them is different from other animals.” TAKE THAT.

Hinamatsuri – 02 [This Is How You Have a ESP Battle!]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hinamatsuri

Welcome to THE comedy gold of the season. Before I get into anything specific, let’s me discuss about what make this little show about a psychic girl and a yakuza hilarious in the first place. The main source of humor in Hinamatsuri largely comes from situation-based weirdness. Putting these characters out of their comfort zones and see how they react. It helps that Hinamatsuri always gets straight to business – there’s no beating around the bush here. Like in the first episode, it doesn’t take long before Hina appears out of the blues inside that metal egg and gives Nitta one heck of a time. The comedic timing is largely sharp and when it’s time for a more heartfelt scene, Hinamatsuri nails it without succumb into soapiness. The show also has a rich cast in which they all have great presence and bound off each other very well. So far, our lead duo Nitta and Hina more than carry the show with their odd-buddy but surprisingly grounded chemistry.

Coming to this second episode, I’m more than happy to report that this second one is even better than the first, both expand that world with more awesome characters, and still put the central development between Hina and Nitta into forefront. In the first half, there’s this little girl with crazy power appears and wreaks havoc – Anzu, a more eccentric counterpart of our Hina. What makes her character stand out is how well contrast her appearance and personality compared to the oblivious Hina, yet in the end the two kids are still… little brats who need love, attention and FOOD (on that notes, thank GOD that Hinamatsuri never sexualizes those girls when they’re nude). The comedy gold hits right off the bat within the first few seconds, with Anzu miraculously gets herself out of that metallic egg. I have the same sentiments with her regarding the egg’s structural design flaw. What the use of any of it if the person inside can’t get themselves out? To raise the bar of hilariously ridiculousness even higher, Anzu then wipes off the entire gang in one whoop and steals the boss’ uniform in a process. The comedy is really on point again when all her victims say nothing but “Ouch”, in turns.

The man of the moment in this segment, however, is Nitta. Realize the same vibe this new kid has, he follows her in the most obvious way possible: camouflage himself as a tree in a middle of the freaking city. Yeah, genius. There are couple of good gags before he decides to bring Hina along for the “ultimate battle” – psychic style, chief among them involve the homeless man who thought that Nitta gang will do bad things with the girl (boy, dark humor here), and how Nitta reflects that he might save the world without knowing it (on that, imagine what kind of misadventures Nitta will experience – and what kind of series we will have – if Anzu were the one dropping into his house instead of Hina). So, the girls have to fight since this was Anzu’s goal all along. In order to protect the lives of possibly entire Japanese population, Nitta alters the rules, while continuously manipulating Hina-side with ikura (red caviar), since manipulation is obviously how yakuza works. The fight, I must say, remains one of the most refreshing and downright hilarious fight I have seen in a while, and the animation and deadpan “facial reactions” – if I can call them that – are dead-on. I won’t go into details about this duel since I believe it’s something you need to watch for yourself. Needless to say, the emotional core hits me again when Hina offers Anzu to spend the evening together – just hanging out and playing like normal harmless kids, because as crazy overpowered as they are, they still remain kids.

The latter half, while focuses on the main dynamic between our duo, Hina’s classmate Hitomi becomes my install favorite character out of this rich cast. Imagine this, a good girl Hitomi was tagging along with Hina to tail Nitta (for the reason as obscure as “because the TV says it’s better with two”), left behind by her friend in the adult bar, encountered the drunkard old man who demands her to make an alcoholic drink and already excelled at bartending when we meet her again. She had me at “Daiquiri-desu”, my friends. Meanwhile, the more heartfelt conversation between Hina and the real bartender Utako carries the show distinctive quirks as Hina literally floats on while listening to Umeko ‘s adivce. That moment is so Hinamatsuri-esque that I am in awe of a show that understands so well about its own personality. The later moment when Hina finally speaks her mind, and Nitta agrees to hang out with her, and the rest of the gang, including Hitomi is a nice resolve to their little conflict. I could say more but I’m at risk of just recapping the whole episode with my squeaky over-excited voice, so let’s just enjoy this episode with a glass of champagne and kanpai for the Super Illusion.

Darling in the Franxx – 14[Punishment and Confession]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Darling in the Franxx

Last time Darling and the Franxx had it’s best episode yet which raised my opinion of the series and gave me hopes for greater things moving forward. So it’s sad that they follow this up with the worst episode of the series to date. This episode was pure frustration to watch because you knew exactly what was happening and just how easily it could have been avoided. If either Hiro o Zero Two tried to explain the situation and what happened in the past then things wouldn’t have got this bad. If both Hiro and Zero Two hadn’t gone to see each other at the exact same time. But most importantly, if somebody could have stopped Ichigo from going too far. Oh boy if there is a serious casualty in this whole mess, it’s Ichigo. I haven’t seen a fanbase turn on a character so fast but hey Zorome wasn’t cared for that much in the beginning either and now he’s actually rather endearing. So could Ichigo turn this around? In a way she is a victim of the writing as they needed someone to put a rift between Zero Two and Hiro so Ichigo turned out to be the tool to make that possible. Looking at the situation from her perspective it’s actually understandable why she took measures to separate Zero Two and Hiro.

It’s just that under the present circumstances, that was the worst thing she could have done. For she was reenacting exactly what happened in their past to tear them apart and wound up Zero Two to the point that Hiro would see her at her lowest moment. Made all the worst by Ichigo forcefully stopping Hiro from running after Zero Two with her forced confession. Which really was in bad taste as it spits on Goro’s confession to her. Yes, she is under no obligation to love Goro just because he confessed to her but I just find it heartless to disregard his feelings entirely and chase after a doomed crush. You can tell she started things out of concern for Hiro but then her own emotions started pushing things too far that even the team was uncomfortable with how she was handling the situation. You cannot say there wasn’t any spite in how she ostracised Zero Two, particularly in trying to force her out of the next operation. This episode has Ichigo be selfish and ignorant which earned the venomous reception of the internet. For she is the single thing preventing the scene viewers wish to see between Hiro and Zero Two with the action being made all the more hateable by it being born of good intentions amplified with selfish desire.

The thing that makes this episode problematic is that while the characters actions make sense, the situation is just so utterly contrived. It’s clear the writer wanted drama and to tease out the reunion between Hiro and Zero Two. This series of unfortunate events just to create a conflict to force Zero Two away from the team is frustrating to behold and makes all the characters look bad for it. Which makes it more painful when you consider that it will take more than one episode to resolve this stupid misunderstanding between the characters. If they are smart about it, this development could be fixed fast as I am sure not many are a fan of it. But I fear we are in for episodes of Zero Two brooding over Hiro, Hiro brooding over Zero Two and Ichigo trying to sandwich herself in Hiro’s broken heart while Goro looks over it with depressed resignation. And boy, that certainly doesn’t sound fun. Oh and as a final note it is rather humorous for Mitsuru completely brush off Hiro remembering his promise despite him obsessing over it in a previous episode. Not sure if he was just playing it cool or if Kokoro helped him get over it.