Category: Currently Watching:

Fate/Apocrypha – 14[Prayer of Salvation]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/Apocrypha

An action focused episode and as such I have very little I can say about it. Considering that Avicebron was more about brains than brawn it’s rather odd to see him get taken down like this. In a way I find this to be a big heel turn for him as I originally took him for the more logical type. I don’t think that him using his former master as the core for his golem is out of character as he has shown that all that really matters to him is the completion of his golem. However I thought he was working out of artistic integrity and not making this golem in some bid to save the world. Truthfully I am rather disappointed in that. I rather liked the idea of Avicebrons main goal being to complete his life’s work and that being his only reason for his position in this war. Upon completing it I thought he wouldn’t really care as to what purpose it served and that his only real intent was it’s creation. This however just transforms his motivation into something more petty and stupid. Bringing back the garden of Eden by creating a golem? Why not bypass the golem making process and just use the holy grail?

I feel it would have been better to make this situation more sympathetic. Have him sacrifice his master to create the golem. Upon it’s creation just let it roam wild, only to be destroyed by the servants. Once the golem is defeated, Avicebron is found by the servants where he laments at the realization that he killed a kindred spirit in blind pursuit of his goal. Avicebron then takes his own life as compensation for his mistake. Now that I believe would have really made this work. But sadly at this situation Avicebron is just made into a generic villain who is “saving” the world by destroying it. It’s a pity, as I at least like the situation of having the servants take on a massive golem and team up with Mordred. Even if it feels a bit like a unconditional mid-boss. I do find it funny that Ruler is still operating under the guise of a referee even at this point so that she must come up with cheap justification in order to help. The rules of this holy grail war have already been thrown out of wack so she needs no further reason to join a side.

Another servant has been removed from the game though even with that it seems the red side have a huge advantage. Looks like Atlanta and Achilles couldn’t manage to join the Black side so they are unwillingly on the red team. One thing I am rather disappointed about is that this anime cut out Mordred’s first reaction when she saw Ruler. Much like Gilles did during the fourth holy grail war, she first mistook her for Arthuria and as we know she has some daddy issues. Though I suppose at this point they have sexed up Joan of Arc’s servant design that it’s pretty difficult to see the Arthuria in her. Still it doesn’t solve the problem that she and Sieg are still dull as dishwater and it grows increasingly tedious to see them interact and build what looks to be some sort of romantic tension between them. So we have twelve episodes left for this series and for a halfway point assessment I would say this anime is a decent watch for Fate fans. It’s certainly lacking when compared to Ufotable adaptations but it may be on par with the likes of the 2006 Deen adaption to which I found to be decent as well despite the hate it gets. I feel like this story could have been stronger and A-1 have failed in that regard on adaption. Still with this animated that means Type Moon has one less Fate property to milk and with some hope that might finally get them to work on that Tsukihime remake they promised ten years ago.

Girls’ Last Tour – 02 [Bath – Journal – Laundry]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Girls' Last Tour

Here’s for the most comfort food of this season. One thing you will notice when watching this show: despite its dark, post-apocalyptic settings, Girls’ Last Tour is a slice-of-life moe show at its heart. There will be no deep implication of the dark world, and those girls will not develop much by the end. But then, only two episodes in and I can confidently say that this show will stay as one of the best of its genre. First, it fuses seamlessly between its dark theme and light-hearted tone, making it a well-balanced show about two girls finding small wonders in this grey world. It helps that the source material is strong, depicting two (and only two) characters who have rock-solid chemistry and the ruined world with great eyes of details. The small stories so far vary greatly, and moreover they’re heartfelt.

But its best assets so far lie in the direction. Girls’ Last Tour is the only anime show I’ve watched this year (aside from Scum’s Wish) that makes me feel it would be right at home in live-action movie medium. Apart from the girls’ round (and getting rounder) moe faces – which have its own charm – it feels downright cinematic. Great shot composition everywhere, they nail the right color palettes (whether its dusty world, the warm of fire, or the coldness of snow), make a perfect choice regarding the use of sound (they know when to insert the scores, when to just let the natural sound – like the sound of the tank – take up its noise), and the pacing is just about right. It’s a goddamn perfect production in my eyes.

In order to fit with the slice of life nature of this gem, where they more likely produce the same atmosphere every single story; thus give me a difficult task of repeating myself over again, I will blog it as a written account for its chapters. It’s note-worthy to mention that the three main titles of this week’s chapters are all mundane everyday activities, but of course in Girls’ Last Tour, “mundane everyday activities” are as far-away as normal activities as possible. Hence when those moments happen, it feels like a special occasion.

“Bath”

Our girls Chii-chan and Yuu encounter a big snowstorm and they look for a shelter – a Japanese power plant (in which Chii-chan can’t understand the sign, suggests that our current civilization is long, long gone). The girls are still freezing until they notice a pipe that isn’t frozen – the pipe that contains hot water. Yuu blasts it apart with the help of Chii-chan to steady the gun (man, I love their teamwork) and voila – they make themselves a man-made hot spring. Time for a hot bath, something that those girls don’t have a luxury to do often since they left their “Grandpa” (they only took bath three times before that).

“Journal”

This is the chapter where we can see the difference in the way the two girls approach life: Chii-chan wants to reserve the memories by writing these events down in her journal. Yuu, on the other hand, voices her opinion that memories only get in the way of living. That contrasted philosophy is neither right nor wrong, and it’s precisely the reason why they make such a good team as they balance each other out. But Girls’ Last Tour goes even further by having the careless Yuu literally destroys a book by unintentionally throws it into a fire. Chii-chan saves it just in time but of course she’s mad as hell. Yuu then says sorry with the only way she knows that will make Chii-Chan smile: drawing her sleeping face with a mispronounced written apology: “I’m sokky”

“Laundry”
One of the factor that Girls’ Last Tour chapters have been succeeded so far is how they blend the interior settings (those girls doing something together, like the previous two chapters) and the vast exterior setting. This time they stand above a massive building with a still-functioned drainage system. The lost city used to be a grand industrial city, now only filled with ruined, scrapped metals… and a dead fish. It further suggests that there’s still a life-form left in the post-apocalyptic world beside our two heroines, but those poor girls don’t even see a fish before, let alone know how it taste. Doesn’t matter at all since they grill the fish and eat it anyways. Then, with a full stomach, and a laundry’s job done, those girls lie there in the vast world and take their good nap, leaving behind all the worries to God’s hand.

Juuni Taisen – 02 [Tricks Both Mongrel and Fowl]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Juuni Taisen

A Battle Royale anime is something that have been done numerous times before: Mirai Nikki, Btoom!!, last year’s Magical Girl Raising Project… It’s such a delicious meal that it’s hard not to have fun when players try to outsmart the others or think of a creative way to kill each other. Juuni Taisen so far fulfill that concept successfully. Nothing deep yet but what this show excels is the memorable casts and the unpredictability of plots. Two episodes in, Juuni Taisen manages to catch us off guard twice, last week with the revealing that Rabbit – Usagi (for the sake of consistency I will use the animal name for characters – but will mention their Japanese name when I first introduce the characters) is a necromantist and this week with the Dog – Dotsuku suddenly gets his face smashed, in mere seconds. Now, many of you might think that the deaths have a pattern: a reversed Zodiac order: first the Boar, now the Dog. It certainly helps as well that the title of the next episode “Cutting a Chicken with a Beef Cleaver” might mean that this is the end of our Chicken – Niwatori. Well, knowing Nisio Isin I don’t think that will be the case. If there is anything that makes the writer stand out amongst the rest of LN authors, it’s that he can manage to pull the rug out of our feet with satisfying results (the episode 4 of Katanagatari springs to my mind). In fact, the first warrior who died wasn’t the Boar, it was the Snake  – Ani, so it pretty much breaks the pattern.

Second, I believe the reverse order could be served as a narrative order. That I think explains the focus on those characters and if that is the case, the next episode will be dedicated to our Chicken. Not to say that this episode she hasn’t already left her mark. Come to the first lesson in this Battle Royale: never underestimate your enemy. The Dog had his plan all figured out: the only warrior who already had an antidote to the poisonous gem, making him the safest bet if he can lay low. On top of that, he’s tricky because he let others think that he’s a mad dog, but instead he’s calculated and use his venomous fang as a weapon to kill enemy. Come Chicken, who not only spots him unguarded, but displays a wide array of inexperienceness that let his guard down. Her innocence is just too adorable. When it comes to the crucial point, as Dog using Chicken as a decoy by boosting up her power, she smashed his skull off in a flash. When you think about that, Dog and Chicken make quite a pair, consider that their mottos aren’t all that different (Killing by Biting and Killing by Pecking – you all have to use mouth here). Question is, is it an impulsive act from Chicken because of the non-lethal drug kicked in or does she plan it all along? After all, letting herself bitten by the Dog wasn’t a wise decision at all.

Meanwhile, Rabbit team keeps marching ahead and the other team: the peaceful one, consists of Monkey – Shuryuu and Rat – Nezumi lay real low down the underground. It was Monkey who brought down the floor, but the person needed to be taken seriously is the Rat. He has an eye for details and he leaves all the other players the vague sense of déjà vu. Whoever this guy be? Monkey with her ceasefire approach could be the main development point for this series, so I expect this team won’t be killed anytime soon. Speaking of the one who was killed, the flashback from the Boar – Inounoshishi last week had me puzzled: We didn’t see her sister’s death. Or more on point, we even didn’t see she stabbed herself. My point being there could be something more than meet the eyes here. Maybe she saves her sister at last minute? Thus I believe her act is far from over so there might be some twists that bring her back to the game? Boy, I’m sure excited.

Not that these first two episodes don’t have its hiccup. First, there is a convention that whenever a character displays their strategy, or they have some character’s development, they’d be the one killed. So far, Juuni Taisen embraces that convention neatly (the shock the show provided so far comes from the way they were killed, not from twisting about who would get killed). Second, unless they properly invest the relationship and tension between the twin brothers Snake and Dragon, I feel they wasted a spot for a powerful character here. They could have many interesting ways to create a memorable Dragon warrior, so I hope the older twin is badass enough for me to forget about this. The Dragon doesn’t seem to be emotionally affected by the death of his twin brother. But if the first episode is any indication, siblings killing each other is the norms around here. There certainly isn’t lots of fights consider the Battle-Royale concept, but it’s the kind of battle I’m looking for; and I’m sure glad they don’t shy on the body counts. Bring all you got here Juuni Taisen.

As of now,

Deaths: Snake, Boar, Dog

Favorites to win: Bull, Monkey, Rat, Rabbit, no-one.

Made in Abyss – 13[The Challengers]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Made in Abyss

Normally when I finish a series I take a moment to think back on it and try to imagine just how I would make it better. Maybe better pacing or removing a certain character or story arc that went nowhere or just improving the animation at certain points. But with Made in Abyss I tried to do the same thing and found myself coming up blank. I really cannot see how this series could have been done better and in thinking of this I came to realise this series may have far more value that I initially realised. Potentially the value to be called a future classic of the genre but that may be me getting ahead of myself. Well the finale of this series goes out with a bang as we have a double length episode to close out the series. The majority of this episode detailed about how Nanochi began living in the abyss and how she and Mitty came to be twisted into the forms they are now. Finally ending off with Mitty being mercy killed and Nanochi joining Riko and Regu on their journey to the bottom of the abyss. I was right that with Nanochi added to the group that the group dynamic is far better as a whole. Nanochi adds a playfulness that makes the interactions more fun to watch and I am certain she would be a boon in the future of the story.

There were a lot of emotional moments during this finale and this may just be the best episode of the series. Bondrewd looks to be trying to make up for his lack of presence throughout the series by pumping all his villain credibility into this one episode wherein his actions are so morally disgusting that I was wishing for his death by the halfway point of this episode. The transformation of the two girls was absolutely brutal with Mitty’s horrific dissolving into a tangled genetic mess being the stuff of nightmares. I pray some ignorant parent does not mistake this show for a children’s cartoon or this would be a level of trauma they might not get back from. Provided they made it through the arm breaking scene. Though as disturbing as it may be that didn’t quite affect me due to my resistance built up over the years. However to my absolute shock the death of Mitty hit me harder than I ever thought it would. I didn’t think I would find her death so tragic but i found myself welling with emotion at Nanochi setting up the toys and comforting Mitty in her last moments. The dam broke when Nanochi had a brief moment of regret, calling off Regu and hugging Mitty while apologizing, only to walk back and ask Regu to kill her again. I didn’t cry buckets but tears did roll down my face and being the soulless husk that i am, I consider any show that can wringe that level of emotion out of me something truly special. As a side note i was surprised to see that Riko has a scar after all the treatment.With years of watching anime where in bandages heal all wounds without a single blemish it’s great to see some lasting consequences.

Sadly though I say I have trouble imagining this show being better, if there is one flaw I could truly pick out it would be this. The show ended at the point it wasn’t supposed to end. In the final minutes the main cast has come together, the main villain(At this time) has been made apparent and this truly is the real beginning of this story. Suddenly roll credits. Want more? Read the manga. The chances of a second season are not quite grim and I would like to believe that a show as good as this would get the sales it deserves. However anime continuation has always been tied to the sales of its source and no matter how good it is, if there is no return from that then there is no second season. It’s a sad thing that adapting a source to competition is the exception rather than the norm. I thought about picking up the manga again on this series end but as I saw the small balloon float through the various beautiful levels of the abyss with that evocative melody playing I realised that without the music, sound, colour and gorgeous backgrounds that this series just wouldn’t have the same level of impact. The artwork of the manga is nothing to scoff at but I still doubt it can bring forth the same magical feeling and atmosphere of the anime. So I will hold off on reading this group’s future adventures until I can be certain no second season is coming. Then I will jump in due to necessity. Hopefully that will not be the case. For now despite it’s incomplete nature I am willing to say this will be making it into my best anime of the year list.

Fate/Apocrypha – 13[The Last Master]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/Apocrypha

We have officially entered the second half of Fate/Apocrypha and with that comes a new opening and ending. The ending doesn’t leave much of an impression but I do prefer this opening over the first opening. The first opening just didn’t really suit my tastes while I prefer the melody of this opening more even if the visuals of it are rather generic. As far as Fate anime openings go for the whole franchise I still believe that Fate/UBW has the best ones. For the past few episodes this series has actually been pretty good but it seems that streak has ended with this episode. Part of the reason is that the long action sequence has ended and another part is that Sieg is getting center attention again. I swear this kid is like a fun black hole, where all fun is sucked out of a scene just by his very presence. I don’t like the fact that I keep harping on about this kid but he really is that much of a problem. His design is boring and every line of his dialogue is archetypal and systematic. He’s quest to discover his purpose is gone and with that he has essentially become the most predictable and expected hero character you can write up. I can almost predict his every line of dialogue in any given situation.

Made all the worse by his continued climb up the Gary Sue ladder with him now not only being a servant himself but also a Master. Not exactly a new thing in the Fate universe as Medea from the main series also managed to summon a servant despite being a servant herself. Though that came with it’s own problems, one of which looks to have been severely hand waved here. For now Amakusa Shirou is is sole master for almost the entirety of the red faction. Now it may be a question for some that if a mage can summon a servant during a Holy Grail War then why don’t they try to summon more than one? There are no rules against having more that one servant. However the problem is that it is akin to trying to drive three cars when you only have enough gas for one full tank. Sure you can drive them all if you divide up the gas between the three cars but all three will never drive as far as one can with a full tank. There are even cases such as with Shirou and Saber in the original where Shirou didn’t have enough mana to fuel her and as a result her abilities were handicapped. So the question is, how is Amakusa Shirou managing to fuel six servants(Including the newly defected Caster of Black) without them getting downgraded? Even taking into account that Shirou is a servant himself who also requires mana. He did mention about potentially being incarnated but even a previously incarnated servant needed an external source of mana. I don’t really expect an answer to this as this show has already made it clear the rules don’t really matter all that much.

I don’t like Riders master. No, I don’t mean that in the obvious way as she is a character meant to be disliked. What I mean is that I don’t like how horribly and lazily written she is. With such a large character roster it’s understandable that a couple of characters would get shafted when it comes to characterisation but this really is F grade villain writing. She gets off on torturing others and throwing them into despair and it’s just such childish reasoning. If you want to write a character who has that with better motivations and personality then take notes from DanganRonpa’s antagonist. Here I just realize that the entire purpose of this character is for this one scene, to give the protagonist a free servant and the satisfaction of seeing her head get chopped off by Mordred. Not saying that wasn’t satisfying to witness but come on, Shinji from Fate/Stay Night had better writing than this. I also find myself immensely irritated at what is the worst forced servant retreat in this series to date.

We have only four servants on the enemy side, defected Avicebron, Semiramis, Shirou and Karna. On the good side we have Joan of Arc, Atlanta, Chiron, Achilles and to top it all off Mordred enters the fray. Five against four and two fo the four are low tier servants. So why did Sisigou order a retreat? Karna is a problem, most definitely but he can be kept busy and while Semiramis has a territory boost she still would have trouble with a Saber. With Shirou being the master of all red servants, all the good side needs to do is kill him to win. So why did Sisigou order a retreat? Shirou may have command spells but Joan of Arc is a Ruler Class and thus has two command spells per servant. She can quite literally order all the servants on the opposing side to stand down. Not to mention getting into the hanging Gardens of Babylon again would be a hard task and facing Shirou with such advantageous odds again is even harder. So just why did Sisigou order a retreat? I just can’t understand it no matter how much I think about it.

Classroom of the Elite – 12 [Genius Lives Only One Story Above Madness]

by SuperMario, posted in Classroom of the Elite, Currently Watching:

Youkoso pulls off a neat trick to close this shaky Islands arc in a high note, although I still can’t overlook its sillier details. At first, I was pleasantly surprised that despite making a lot of guessing games in last few weeks, Youkoso still manages to catch me off guard. This finale details the initial plans from Class-A, Class-C perspectives, respectively, each of them believes their plan going to be perfect but as it turns out, Ayanokouji has an upper hand. There are three main big reveals that has previously been kept from the viewers: 1) Class-A’s Katsuragi forms a contract with Ryuuen from Class-C 2) Ryuuen uses Ibuki as a mole to figure out class-D’s leader and 3) Ayanokouji swaps himself for Horikita as Class-D’s leader. Although those developments make up for some nice twists at the end, some of the rules aren’t properly explained or only hint to us during an internal eyecatch, make the end result somewhat cheated and unsatisfied.

The biggest reveal of this last episode is the contract formed between class-A and class-C, Katsuragi transfers his class’s points to Sparkling Nerriot and class-C will drop out and give the top class the leader names of the remaining two classes. I didn’t see that coming and this development runs really well with the underlying theme of Youkoso. With that, Class-A has a huge advantage of being at the top by negating all the bonus points from Class-B and Class-D due to identifying correctly the leaders, in addition that Class-C is already out of the picture. One thing bald man did not expect is that Sparkling Nerriot double-cross him by partnering with the guy in Kayanasagi’s circle and thus, he knows about class-A proxy leader. But then, Youkoso goes stupid again by revealing us that there is an addition clause that each of student from class-A will have to transfer the points to Sparkling Nerriot every month until he graduates. What the hell? Are you sure that bald guy sits in the right class? Who would be stupid enough to sign a deal that has that lasting negative effect like this. My god, my head bursts.

Ibuki, as expected, turns out to be Sparkling Nerriot’s mole and her mission is to identify the leader of class-D. Ayanokouji notices something she buried before – a digital camera – so he’s basically figures out the plan, speeds it up. He destroys the camera and uses Horikita as a pawn in order to get Ibuki into action – stealing the card. Sparking Nerriot actually sold me a bit of his character as he appears more determined than we previously assumed, but like I said above the last bit (the contract) rings so lousy that it took away all my goodwill for him. With this twist, Ibuki, on the opposite end, appears more shallow than previous episode. Ayanokouji then plays his triumph card: uses Horikita’s sickness as an excuse to change class-D’s leader. While it’s a nice surprise to come up with that idea, I feel that the rules are bending too much in favors for this plot twist. When you really think about that, the rules established favors too much on figuring out the class leaders. Other missions like securing spots and using the points sufficiently are never the top priority thus, making a whole thing very unbalanced. Class-B, who favors latter methods never raise to the top, for example. It doesn’t help that they never properly explained that rules, instead they dropped details little by little, which is very frustrating for us viewers because the little details they drop through bulletin board can change the game greatly.

Another issue I have with the ending is how class-D won despite all they did was pointing fingers at each other, and I guess I gave too much credits for Tarzan as it turns out, he truly gave up to admiring the moon. Ayanokouji seems to use this as an opportunity to teach Horikita a lesson that she will need to rely on others in order to succeed. It’s a pretty deep thought, except… coming from the mouth of Ayanokouji it sounds so false and alarming. So no, despite this arc ends on high note I don’t think this is a good arc at all. This has been a very bumpy ride, and from what I gather Lerche adapted the story with some questionable changes that it pisses off even fans from the LN. Full review will come soon but I believe you all know how I am going to rate this.

Re:Creators – 22 [Re:CREATORS] – 75/100

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

There was never going to be a epic fight with every creation squaring off against the overpowered and invincible Altair. That possibility died when the creators threw the copycat of Blank at her only to have that plan backfire horribly. Besides, it wouldn’t have been a satisfying conclusion to Altair’s story to have her be brought down by the remaining supporting characters given that Selecia disappeared in the blue ether beforehand. Predictably, it comes down to Altair convincing herself that the world is worth saving and the conversation between Altair and Setsuna was really well done with both voice actresses going back and forth with their arguments about placing the blame on the world that was so cruel to Setsuna. There is a parallel between those two and how Bltiz choose to switch side when confronted with the opportunity to gain back the very reason for their motivation to end the world. As well, the transformation from the PPSh-41 machine gun to an actual violin is a visual symbolism of her ultimate choice to create and not destroy. As the far as the main plot goes, Re:Creators is finished as its antagonist goes happily off into sunset with her creator into their own world of adventure and fun. It’s not the best twist ending but I’m perfectly satisfied with how the series build itself up to that point and concluded it.

After everything’s said and done, the final episode wraps up with everyone having a celebratory meal, saying their goodbyes and reflecting on past sacrifices. The creations go back to their own fictional world but Meteora, due to the untimely death of her creator, which begs the question of what happened to Magane. Curiously absent from the final episode, I would infer that she would have lost her powers just like Meteora and go on to become a regular trolling schoolgirl. It’s not quite the ending for those who wanted to see justice be served for the murder of the shopkeeper and her own creator but I think it better to see her leave quietly than having a upbeat epilogue scene for her. The ending summarizes the points of the series in that creators will keep on creating even to the point where a creation, like Meteora comes full circle and end off the series with her own work of Re:Creators.

Re:Creators marks the third series that Studio TROYCA have made with Aldnoah.Zero and Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru being the first two. While their original mecha show was a wild ride of disappointment that really needs more time to flesh out its characters and concepts and the episodic nature of its investigative show took away from the overarching narrative, I felt that they succeed in having and executing an interesting premise while having a few flaws. The biggest glaring issue I had was the uneven pacing in regards to the infrequency of actions scene and mid-series lull of dealing with Sota’s underlying guilt and laying of the foundation for the Elimination Chamber Festival. Also, as Rei Ham (Writer of Re:Creators) regretfully mentioned in an interview, Mamika exited far too early in the show as she was probably one of the best characters arc by growing out of her naive magical girl persona. Her replacement of Hikayu wasn’t all that great despite the creators having fun with her backstory and power-ups. Finally, the 3D stilted animation of the mecha hasn’t been improved over their effort of Aldnoah.Zero and just cements the reality that 3D and mechs don’t mix (Knight of Sidonia is an exception). Aside from those quibbles, I enjoyed my time with Re:Creators over the past half year and looked forward to watching it every week. It looked nice, had that sweet sweet Sawano soundtrack and always had something interesting to say about the nature of artistic creation.

7.5/10

Kakegurui – 12[Gambling Woman]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Kakegurui

It’s been awhile since I seen an anime original ending and honestly I was rather dreading it when I started this episode. Anime original endings don’t have a good track record as of course attempting to tack on an abrupt conclusion to an ongoing story is not going to turn out swimmingly. Even if I wasn’t aware this would be anime original, I believe the dialogue at the beginning of the episode would have clued me in. For I always notice a level of artificiality when it comes to anime original endings, like here where the characters are attempting to string together some feeling of conclusion from what is essentially the start of a story. However against all odd this actually worked out for Kakegurui. We have an ending which brings a feeling of closure while leaving open the potential for a second season, a second season which I don’t think this series needs. I will be blunt and say that this series has run it’s course and the only thing that lies ahead is more of the same. There is only so many times you can see the same scenario before it grows tiresome and so it’s better to stop while you are ahead than run yourself ragged. For anyone that wants more there is always the option to start the manga from chapter 27, where the anime leaves off.

So Yumeko bets against the president and in the source it was supposed to be that the president’s secretary challenges her instead. leading to a high stakes bet that involves a giant tower structure that the president built for the sole purpose of a single bet. Here though the president challenges Yumeko to a simple game using Tarot cards. Admittedly anticlimactic considering that if the president was dying to bet against Yumeko then she would set up a much more dramatic gamble but well we got one episode to wrap this show up and when you get down to it the gamble isn’t really the important part. The rules are simple, three people pick up a single tarot card. Each tarot card is worth a certain amount of points and depending on whether it’s upside down or rightside up those points could be plus or minus. The president wins if the points are minus while Yumeko wins if the points are plus. Both pick up one card and the last card is selected by Ryota. The loser of the bet must leave the academy forever and never come back. It is rather funny that out of all the bets Yumeko has been in, this is by far the most fair. In most other games the opponent was cheating but here it really does appear to be a game of luck and nothing more.

Though thanks to luck the president manages to put Yumeko in a position where the only card she can win with is the fool and Ryota must be the one to pick up that card. I really love the mindgame here however as one of the cards was marked by the president’s nail polish during a small demonstration, making it that all that needs to be done to win is to pick up the marked card. Though the question is whether the president truly marked the fool card or some other card in other to throw off her opponent. This leads to what might be quite frankly, my favorite moment in this series, where Ryota more or less confesses to Yumeko and ends up picking a card at random. The way that Yumeko practically transformed into a demonic entity guiding his hand is an image that’s likely to come to mind whenever I think of this series. Thus the game ends in a draw and neither have to leave the campus. Though whether the president marked the Fool card or not is left up to debate, to which I guess that she probably did. Thus we have a confrontation showdown between the two without compromising the possibility of a second season. I may require some rewriting to make it work but it can be done but much like I said before, I think it’s fine to leave this story like this. Kakegurai isn’t likely to get a second season and an ending like this is fine as she managed to challenge all the student council members and not leave too much hanging. Sure there is a bit of a sequel hook but it is my hope that this will be it as this show came, did it’s thing and now can leave the stage graciously.

Made in Abyss – 12[The True Nature of the Curse]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Made in Abyss

Today’s topic is the curse of the abyss alongside much needed revenge against the creature that put Riko in a bad spot. We get a rare glimpse of the topside village where one of the orphan kids we saw previously is deathly sick on his birthday. This caught me off guard as I believe I heard Regu mention that the boys birthday was soon when he left and it hit me that the two really have only spend a few days in the abyss. Over the weeks of watching them the journey certainly felt a lot longer and that really is a great thing for a series to make me feel a disconnect with time that Riko and Regu feel. The child suffering from a fever is taken to a medical ship and just by looking at it is bound to remind people of Ghibli works. The reason for that is simple for the background artist for this series has indeed worked on Ghibli movies. The purpose of this scene is to show that the child’s sickness disappears once he leaves the island which does seem to suggest that the curse of the abyss doesn’t just affect those diving but also the town on the surface.

Nanochi goes into greater detail over how exactly it works by using a thin sheet as a representative of the curse. One her word the curse appears to be some sort of forcefield that is affected by things pushing against it. The important aspect to this is that more dangerous creatures of the abyss can use the curse to anticipate how targets move, making it seem like they can see the future. Nanochi appears to be able to see the curse and she sends out Regu to take down the orb piercer as a test for him to get a feel for it. In the test Regu manages to save a cave raider and even surprises Nanochi with his beam cannon ability. But even so the beast manages to escape before being blown apart. Our episode ends with Nanochi making a request to Regu to have him kill Mitty with his beam cannon. Quite a depressing turn for the end of the episode and really makes you think on an earlier comment by Nanochi. For earlier Nanochi started that Mitty’s blood can neutralize orb piercer poison but the question is, just how did she find that out? By anyones guess she may have attempted to kill her by injecting the poison into her, only for it to backfire. Nanochi seem reluctant to do the job the messy way so it’s likely she tried alternatives to kill Mitty. Of course not because of hate but rather to put the poor thing out of it’s misery.

That may be something RIko objects to as Mitty and her seem to have had some sort of spiritual connection. The dream which RIko had was odd as it seemed to involve some memories of her being carried in the relic when she was a baby and taking comfort in the eye of Mitty staring at her. In regards to Mitty I had a feeling that she was going to have to be gotten rid of as she is the only thing tying down Nanochi to this place and without her she can then join Regu and Riko on their quest to the bottom of the abyss. Though Mitty’s blood would make for a useful thing if it really can neutralize any poison but it certainly would be cruel to drag her down into the abyss. But she also clearly cannot survive on her own, even if her survival depends on Nanochi’s horrible cooking. That’s an aspect I wonder about as I am not certain if the transformation has killed Nanochi’s taste buds or her childhood was so messed up that she didn’t know what good food tastes like. Next week is the last episode of the series and while we are getting an hour long episode i wonder just how this series will close off. The way it’s currently looking is that Nanochi will join the group and the series will end with them journeying to the next layer which would be a rather anticlimactic conclusion.

Princess Principal – 12 [Case 24 Fall of the Wall]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Princess Principal

Is that seriously how they end Princess Principal? Nothing is resolved at all except Ange breaks down the wall around her heart to welcome her team to the Casablanca’s paradise. Everything screams “second season” and with the sales aren’t that impressive from what I gathered, will they ever get one? It comes hard for me as to whether or not give this “clearly more to come” show a final review. We will see when we have more concrete news. No, I don’t like this underwhelmed ending. We have some solid emotional moments between Ange and Princess, but I never really that invested in their tragic turtledove. I care most about the team getting together for some fun action and in that aspect this finale pleases me, although not by much. On a positive side I still pick this safe ending anytime over some cheap climax that resolve everything too neatly with only one episode, something that Masaki Tanichiba has a habit of doing. I have a theory that maybe he did write one explosive trainwreck ending of Princess Principal before the producer just shoved it and changed to this ending instead. Princess Principal better has second cour coming, damnit.

Ange has a solid character arc that see her desperations for the safety of Princess that she took her to run away, which disappointed Princess deeply. Realizing that she needs to save Princess, she jumps off the airship, goes to enemy’s territory, and finds out that her friends have been waiting all along. This trial not only gives Ange the courage not to run away, but to fight head-on for her own and Princess’s sake, but also give her an opportunity to realize that she has real friends waiting for her, to always give her their hands when she needs to. Saving Private Ryan Princess isn’t an option when they’re spies, but as friends they’d do anything, even risking their own lives. Dorothy proves one last time she has a heart of gold but the way she delivers it is so genuine it’s hard not to cheer for her. Likewise, Chise has a good bit when she requests Lord Horikawa to leave her duty to help her friends. As for Beatrice, well… she’s just fine being Beatrice and supports other team members. It might sound obvious but Beatrice and Ange’s personalities and charms never quite catch the richness of the other three.

In a Princess side, it doesn’t take very long before Zelda know the true identity of her. Which is fine by Zelda, since she knows for a fact that the uprising will end up in failure, and Princess will take all the blame. In a greater consequence, the Royal will fall into chaos if they know the Princess is the leader of the failed coup d’état. Her interaction with the leader of the uprising, Major Yngwie signifies how her ideal matches the need of the commoners. Social hierarchy, class issues have been a solid backdrop for Princess Principal, and with this episode the show addresses this issues in forefront. Princess determines to change the system not by breaking it apart, but by slowly change it from within. Her statement sure reaches the Major’s poor heart, at the cost of losing his life, but this is a great buildup for Princess against the Royal side that we might never have a chance to see it pays off.

It’s assuring to see that L is back to the Control team and expels that General whatever from any the Control. That General had done enough damage already in his short stay. Everything pretty much get back to status quo with the same Control takes over our girls, while they’re doing their mission, at the same time sunbathing in Casablanca. Zelda proves to be a worthy opponent of Ange in term of skills and ruthless, and she controls that Cavorite device just like Ange. Although I must admit that adding her too late in the game with no backstory and no development isn’t a wise choice at all. Speaking of that the opponent side against the Control and the Principal team receive limited attention in this show. We don’t see any specific threats except speculating about The Duke of Normandy’s main motive and all he does was to tell his private spy to eliminate everything, especially now when Princess herself admitted that she’s a fake in front of Zelda, it could lead to an interesting direction. I believe Princess Principal still has a plan for second cour because simply things can’t be inconclusive like that. It’s a weak ending doesn’t matter how you look at it and Princess Principal leaves me feeling unsatisfied, like enjoying a delicious entrée without having any main meal at all.