Category: Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Re:Creators – 11 [The Monster Under the Eaves]

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

Not surprising that this was a more subdued episode since the events of last week landed two and a half creations in the hospital. Given their bed-ridden state, Re:Creators takes it time in developing some new deep and profound ideas about creating works and resolves the quagmire that Sōta finds himself in the last few weeks.

Selesia is really moving forth from her light novel template with her “thank you” line and I can really see that father/daughter relationship shine in their quiet moment together. This is what Re:Creators does so well in that it always has something important to say even in its slower episodes and that continues on into the Gigas Machina ride with Kyokua speech about creators being Gods is found in their free will despite not being super powerful beings who can fling out beam attacks or manipulate causality. What is perplexing is that we didn’t see the development of Kyokua change from being a Shinji-lite character to someone who is able to accept his role as a creation in his own stories. It was very much the same problem in episode six when he goes from being a whiny children to being adamantly supportive of fighting for the survival of this world. I’m not asking for a repeat of Evangelion but a few scenes here and there would have been more than enough.

For all of Sota’s moping around in his connection to Setsuna’s death, I find it a stretch to say that he himself “killed” his best friend. I would said It’s more akin to the biblical story of Saul where a mob decided to stone the shit out of a man name Stephan for his beliefs. While Saul never directly partake in the violence, he held the coats of the those who hurled stones and had a faint satisfaction at seeing Stephan being killed. Still, it’s a rather sad story about two lonely weeaboos sharing their passion for anime with each other before fame and jealousy tore that relationship apart.

Hiroe Rei said that this show is about ordinary human creators as much as the super powerful creations that spawn from them and Setsuna’s case is what happened when that artistic vision goes off the deep end in the ruthless and anonymous world of the internet. Just like how Takashi said to Selesia that “For me, writing your story is proof that I lived”, the creation of Altair was the final farewell to a cruel and malicious community. Something that was the complete opposite of her career-defining art of scenical backgrounds and cheery bright tones. Something that was cute, destructive and filled with her painful emotions of her final days. Whereas Setsuna’s last act was the conclusion to the  “I wish I could just disappear” attitude, Altair’s mantra is “I wish the world could just disappear”.

With Souta’s dirty little secret out in the open now and knowing the who and the circumstances leading up to Altair’s creation, there is a firm foundation for a plan to be dreamed up by Meteora to try and stop her from imploding the entire world. On the other hand, Alice still needs to stop going on wild goose chases to avenge her magical friend and realize the one who is going to betray them all in end is standing behind her all this time.

Little Witch Academia – 24[The Road to Arcturus]

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

Hmmm….mixed feelings. There are parts I like about this episode but then there is this underwhelming feeling over how things have turned out. In general I like that the epicly named world reconstruction magic turned out to be just a stick that performs party tricks. Thinking about it it’s likely the decline of magic is due to people just not having much faith in it anymore. So the real means of bringing magic back to the world is just what Chariot was doing, showing the world just how great it is. I like that sentiment, there are no quick fixes in the world. Instead worldwide problems are solved with effort and perseverance. Plus seeing Croix utterly devastated about how she pretty much started a war to get a hold of a stick that blows bubbles is delicious karmic retribution. But what was with that battle at the start of the this episode. I was honestly confused to see Chariot pull out a lightsaber of all things and start doing shadow clone jutsu. I was under the impression that magic in this universe required some kind of activation word.

Honestly, the moment Chariot pulled out a lightsaber, I couldn’t help but think of how deeply intertwined pop culture has made that iconic weapon. I mean, it’s not just Star Wars at this point—lightsabers have become a staple of anime too. Think about it: from Bleach to Naruto, there’s always some hero with a glowing sword cutting through enemies, and it’s hard not to draw parallels to the Star Wars universe. These anime versions often come with a twist—usually more flashy, more over-the-top—because of course, they do. But that doesn’t make the appeal any less potent. And speaking of potent, if you’ve ever wanted a piece of that magic, Theory Sabers has perfected the art of crafting custom lightsabers that feel like they belong in both an anime and Star Wars universe. The attention to detail is like something out of a high-budget animated series.

Now, let’s be real. The true OG lightsabers come from the Star Wars franchise, where their legacy was built over decades of films, comics, and merch. What’s great about Star Wars merch, especially the lightsabers, is that you can find ones that fit your personal Jedi or Sith style. The feeling of holding a high-quality, illuminated hilt gives you the same chills as when you first saw Luke swing his lightsaber in A New Hope. And whether you’re dueling with friends or just displaying them as the crown jewels of your collection, Star Wars lightsabers have become a gateway to owning a piece of cinematic history. From the very first Star Wars to the Clone Wars animated series, the iconic weapon continues to resonate, and that’s why they’re not just toys—they’re part of the legend itself.

However we have spent half a season building up Croix and the grand triskelion for this moment. Thus with one episode the main concerns of the plot that sacrificed the rest of the casts screentime has more or less been resolved in about five minutes. Akko forgives chariot, gains the last word, Croix is defeated and all is sunny in LWA land. Well besides the demonic nuke going somewhere but we will get to that. The conclusion to this whole affair is just to neat and clean. In particular I find Croix’s change of heart to be too little too late for the story has already gone to lengths to convince us that she’s a irredeemable bitch. She had a moment or two of showing compassion for Chariot but it really isn’t enough to cancel out her evil power trip at the beginning of the episode. I mean she’s surprised that the giant evil as all hell robot started going berserk? You even called the thing the Noir rod so it’s just really stupid that you didn’t realise that you might be on the wrong track. Perhaps she was working with the ends justify the means logic and hoping the grand reconstruction magic would erase all her own wrongdoings. But she’s not the only one at fault here, after all Chariot could have tried to stop this at any time. Yet never did. Are we sure she’s not somewhat evil here?

I can’t be the only annoyed that the entire cast of characters made it to the grand Triskelion and did absolutely nothing. I mean they did so much more when getting the scorers stone from Fafner and speaking of which, what happened to that Dragon? I thought he was going to play a big role but he ended up a one episode deal. Come on Trigger, we could have had the gang fend off the dark dragon while Akko charges up an attack! Sure they don’t have magic at the moment but they could just as easily explain that away by having Croix turn on their routers or magic being in the air or something. We got one episode left so I hope they don’t spend it being a peanut gallery. I did like the conversation between Chariot and Akko as it was a good way to get the last word. Felt a little rushed but I am willing to give a pass on that. So we got one more episode to go and a missile to stop which make this the last time Trigger can really go all out with this show. Some are debating that one of the things mentioned in the book Lotte reads(About Belle tossing aside a nuke) is going to turn out prophetic. I would love to see Trigger go over the top but based on previous experience with this show it’s likely not going to get that insane. But I am more than willing to bet that Shooting Star is going to be in the final episode. That Chekhov’s gun has been ready since episode 3.

ID-0 – 10 [Compressed Sin]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Id-0

Oh no, ID-0. Out of all the possibilities you could’ve picked for the climax, you chose the worst possible one. Ido’s past self, Dr. Kane Arisugawa turns out to be an evil scientist, using human as a sacrifice for his own research’s advancement. If this already sounds well-worn, it’s getting worse from there. The first half of the episode is basically an info-dump where the main antagonist literally throws info-dumps screen served as Arisugawa’s memories without shame. Everything makes sense now, in fact it makes too much sense that it leaves out all the ambiguity it had built up to. Adams Forte blah blah blah, our new antagonist, comes from nowhere to become the worst villain, scratch that, the worst character I’ve encountered this year, not a small feat for a character who only appeared in one episode. It’s worrying signs, really, as the climax now seems to be our group tries to regress this Adams dude from his incompetent plan, as the same time saving the humanity just like Maya loved to do. And I don’t care one iota for either one of those. Such a waste since this one had its feet firmly on the ground for two third of the way just to be swept over by this misfired last arc.

The cliffhanger from last week revealed that Ido is Dr. Kane Arisugawa, and this episode goes an extra length detailing us his backstory. Kane, one of the most genius mind of his time, working together with his colleagues Adams and Jennifer. Jennifer had a daughter, Alice, who was disabled so she wanted to Trance Mind Alice to an I-Machine (she would be the first one, if I understand it correctly, to transfer the mind into an I-Machine). Kane had a better idea though, he transferred her mind into the Orichalt and thus she became humanoid Orichalt, an Orillian. The result upset Jennifer and shocked Adams, so in a state of “saving humanity” he eliminated Kane by putting him into the exile ship and wiped out his memory. Now, although I would prefer ID-0 goes different direction than this (well, it’s not bad, I’s just ordinary), the notion that Kane, Ido real self, was ruthless and heartless creates a nice contrast of how much Ido has grown to become his own person. Throughout the course of this episode, even after he regains his full memory, he assured many times that he isn’t Kane but Ido the Excavator, because now he values the friendship of he has with his comrades, Alice and people around him.

This week also reveals that the person behind all this was Adams, one of Kane’s self-proclaimed best friend. Turn out that the very reason he wiped out Kane’s memory, putting him an exile ship and took over his friend’s identity is a mixture of inferior-complex and saving-the-world mentality bullshit. They are superficial at best and most of the time contradicts each other, making his reasons behind every action sound utterly pretentious and inconsistent. For example, his reaction towards meeting Ido is a bit of childish proud that he became someone important now, a bit of wanting recognition from the person he used to look up to, and a bit of self-satisfied that Kane himself deserved the sentence he did to him. All of this still don’t justify why he wanted to kill him NOW, not THEN. He said that he didn’t kill Kane back then because he still regarded him as friend, then why shoot him in the back at the end? He doesn’t have anything of his own personality to begin with, so it’s hard to identify with all his complex. ID-0 tries so hard to paint him as an opposition to Ido that all his actions are unbearable, and plainly annoying over the times. It doesn’t help that he overacts all the time, even in his I-Machine robot version which was supposed to hide your facial expression.

Not all about this episode is going in the wrong direction though. When the show focuses back on the main cast and their chemistry together, they shine through. Karla has a chance to return to her long-lost body, and the moments when she finally tranced back to her body, the fact that she’s overwhelming both because she’s finally back to her body, and because she still isn’t used to the body, is unflinchingly raw and honest. She then decides to shield herself protecting Maya and Alice as a payback for her betrayal – it’s another emotionally satisfied moment. In fact, I hope the show focuses more about them working together in this last arc because if so they can still provide an entertaining and worthy showdown. Otherwise, the longer Adams stays around and affects the plot the closer ID-0 train is going to wreck. I hear a ticking clock now.

Re:Creators – 10 [The Monster Under the Eaves]

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

The laying of the foundation and development of all previous episodes culminates into an explosive episode that lives up to the hype of Re:Creators’ initial premise.

Following Magane long-winded trolling of last week, the amount of action on display this episode more than made up for her antics. Every creation (with the except of Mamika) gets in on the action and I love how the fight progressed like Fate/Zero as characters would switch opponents and abilities littered the battlefield. Even ordinary people like Sota manages not be a bitch and summons his courage long enough for a spirited argument of Alice. Old favorites like Meteroa’s missile attack makes a return to little effect against Alice and new abilities keep the twists coming. It turns out that the only thing that can go toe-to-toe against Rui’s ace in the hole Gigas Machina is another giant robot. That match was a little disappointing as I would have loved to see how a giant robot square off with squishier foes. The implications are now that Altair could very well summon copies of creations and have them fight against each other and that could be very exciting indeed. For many though, the highlight was definitely Selesia finally transforming into her alternate form and doing her best Excalibur impression along Sawano’s insert song. I didn’t really feel the the parent and child analogy between Takashi and Selesia earlier in the series, but his speech about her cliches line and throwing himself into the fight with the power of Twitter was heartwarming to say the least.

On more chaotic side of things, Magane just continues to get stronger and that doesn’t bode well for either side. At some point in the story, she is going to become borderline OP if she continues to gain stands and build up immunity to certain attacks. It would be simpler for everyone to shut their  mouth when confronting Magane and just focus on whacking the shit out of her. and Unfortunately for Yuuya, he finds out the hard way that having any conversation with her is always bound to fall victim to that trollish causality ability of her.In the aftermath of this brawl, Yuuya’s attack power gets halved, nothing really gets settled and there are only more questions like how new information brought into the social conscious affect creations as it looks like it was just a temporary power-up and Selesta is still wounded. The Re:Creators ride is not even halfway done and it’s looking like it going to be one hell of a wild second half.

Note: Re:Creators OST is out so go have a listen to Sawano’s epic soundtrack. Favorites include God of ink; 4GL4yu8RE:E, AL:Lu and Layers.

Little Witch Academia – 23[Yesterday]

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

As we near the end of this show I have come to realise that this story has the habit of building up my expectations only to let me down. There have been several points where it felt like this show was going to great heights, only for it to crash back down. Last episode I praised the twist of the true nature of Chariots shows and how this changed Ursula’s character as a whole. This episode meanwhile goes to great lengths to remove any moral complexity that the previous revelation hinted at. Did Chariot resort to abusing the dreams of her fans in desperation to open the grand triskelion? Is there more to Croix than than being a evil villain? Is Croix merely repeating Chariots previous mistake? The answer is no, nope and nah. What really happened was that Chariot had no idea about the consequences of dream magic and Croix is just a irredeemable bitch. That’s a relief, we almost had some character depth there. Really this just feels like the most dull answer and I really am tired of these heroes who are made out to have commited some great crime only for it to turn out to be something completely out of their control.

But out of the revelations in this episode, the one that really killed it was the explanation behind why Chariot lost her powers and the mark on the moon. Now when you have something like a scar on the moon you often assume that it was created in some epic battle to the death. It’s the moon after all and with how throughout this series Chariot has been presented as some major badass in the know about ancient secrets and I thought that the moon scar would be part of one of her great exploits. I even heard tell of people making theories that Chariot was gathering dream power to fight off Anti-spirals in space. Now as ludicrous(And frankly, amazing) that sounds, it at least is a far more interesting explanation than we got here. As it turns out, Chariot wasn’t a badass but instead a entertainer. The moon scar was the result of her desperately trying to entertain a crowd with impressive magic. So the scar on the moon and the cause of her loss of powers was in fact, a misfired magic trick. Sure that’s unexpected but in the way that you would buy a new game console and find out it’s just a hollow case with nothing inside kind of unexpected. There are dozens of explanations that could have been better than this and by all account this is a really mundane development to come from trigger of all people.

Well it’s not all bad. I rather like how Akko was cheered up though I really think Diana should have had a bit more of a reaction to Ursula explaining that she was the cause of her losing her magic briefly. I also thought that her revealing herself as a Chariot fan would have more impact as well. Actually thinking about it the whole jealousy over Akko being closer to Chariot really didn’t turn out to be much, did it? Still at least they are not going to milk Akko’s depression for a couple of episodes and having her friends come to collect her was quite heartwarming. I thought that was going to be a pretty big deal in the first episodes of the series. I like that the gang is getting all together for the finale and I at least hope that’s going to be an explosive finish.

Seikaisuru Kado – 09[Nanomis-hein]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Seikaisuru Kado

Let us ignore the elephant in the room for a moment and say that up until that point this episode was quite good. The explanation that Za-Shunina put forward essentially admitting that the Anisotropic created humanity was quite excellent and really puts ZaShunina’s alien nature into perspective. I in particular really like his explanation as to why humanity was created in the first place. To put it in the absolute lowest terms, the Anisotropic is like a fully decked out gaming PC that’s only used to play solitaire. They wanted information to process and the universe was found wanting. So they went and created millions of worlds in hopes that one would provide them a fountain of information they crave. The one planet that managed this was earth and now ZaShunina is attempting to advance earth in hopes of providing an endless amount of information for Anisotropic. All things considered that makes sense and shows why ZaShunina going to such efforts to advance humanity for what seemed like no benefit. He even went over the last of his gifts, which is essentially the universal controller for creation. It was a bit of a dick move for him to accidently leave Shindo stuck for three days while he was screwing around with time but it does show just how disconnected he is from human nature. Overall we now know what ZaShunina is after and his end goal. By all account his motivations are actually quite beneficial to humanity and his innovations could result in a brand new frontier for the human race. One of boundless imagination.

So with all due respect…what…in the holy hell…was that?! I mean what?! You have done it haven’t you? You pulled a Samurai Flamenco. (Clarification: Samurai Flamenco was an anime which started as portraying sentai heroes in a realistic setting but went straight to crazy town after a sudden genre shift.) I did express concern that this series might go the route of turning ZaShunina into a villain but this is so jarring a shift that I have whiplash. ZaShunina my man, you were doing so well. By all accounts Shindo didn’t even reject your invitation into the anisotropic, it’s just that after you put someone through three days of being stopped in time and throw this in their face then of course he would need some time to process it! This is not out of character for ZaShunina but just suddenly declaring to make a copy of Shindo and then erase the current one with a super magic beam sword is just…what?! I mean if he wanted to erase Shindo then couldn’t he done it without the light show or was that to make Saraka’s appearance all the more “EPIC”.

Yes, Saraka is now a secret anisotropic being and I am certain that was not foreshadowed in the slightest. Even the ring in this episode didn’t seem to be previously featured and really feels like a last minute rewrite. Oh this feels like a twist that the show will not recover from and it pretty much destroys the goodwill I had for the series. True, this show wasn’t going to be my anime of the year but I at least appreciate what it was going for. An alien popping down to earth to help advance mankind is a much rarer story that what it has now become. It’s us vs them now. The inventions the alien presented to us could greatly benefit humanity but they are not right because they alien and only humanity is right. Humanity hell yeah! You know, if aliens do show up on earth I am certain a large amount of Sci-fi media would be labeled as racist, with this show being one of them. I am more than a little annoyed that Saraka’s nonsense is not only being put forward but also being constituted as “The Right Answer”. That’s not how this works show. You don’t dictate what is the right answer. Free will is part of humanities creed and therefore attempting to shove values on the viewer is indicative of disdain for humanity itself. You can’t berate an alien figure for shoving his values on humanity while doing the same thing. That’s just hypocrisy.

ID-0 – 09 [Seeking the Truth]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Id-0

ID-0 pulled off another excellent episode. With this episode, we’re clear to one of the most central question of ID-0: who exactly is Ido, but the reveal opens up many more fascinating questions, which is totally welcomed. The show still maintains its firm grasp on its main cast’s development, as this episode has a fair share of great moments from many characters, especially Karla and Rick. Even more impressively, those characters’ development tied up very well with the reveal of Ido’s true identity, together they form an overarching theme on existence and comradeship. This show is on its way to become my favorite thing this season now.

Let’s start with Karla, as she receives quite a key development this episode. Last week it is disclosed that the Federation has a hold of her real body, and the first flashback reveals the reason she lost her body and became an Evertrancer. I totally understand the struggle (and a bit of feeling of shame) she has between choosing to take her body back and betraying the trust from her own friends. She has her hesitation, but when the decision is clear, there is no holding her back. She makes the pathway to MT Industries facility clear, almost too clear, for Ido to fall right into the trap. It’s a solid dilemma for Karla. I have no doubt she will come back with the group after this betrayal, but I guess the price she has to pay is given up her own body.

Which come to my next point. The pep talks between Rick and Amanza further inform us about the true nature of Rick’s form, and it’s a knock out. His current “form” turn out to be a copied version of his original consciousness, meaning he has no real body, he has no real soul (something akin to “the second copy of the second will”). Then what makes him now? He’s Rick, yet he is no longer Rick. The answer is relatively simple, he become his own person. Suddenly, the carefree womanizer Rick has given a much deeper characterization. ID-0’s main theme starts to emerge: existence. Are chasing after their long lost memories like Ido, or getting their physical body like Karla, still relevant anymore? Will it change anything? Their current I-Machine versions are who they are now, with the consciousness that run totally independent from their former host.

One of the big bomb has dropped, and to the surprise of no one, Ido is revealed to be Dr. Kane Arisugawa. Now, another concept is brought up: while the Evertrancers are the representative of the consciousness without the physical body, what the real Kane Arisugawa currently doing is creating clones from his body. This reveal of course leads to many more points, what exactly happened with Ido? Who is Alice (I’m still guessing she’s his daughter) and how they going to explore the concept of “too many physical bodies (clones) vs. no physical body” showdown. The next episode is going to be bombastic, I assure you.

Little Witch Academia – 21/22[Wagandea/Chariot and Croix]

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

Might I add that the animation of these two episodes was quite spectacular. The second episode in particular had a level of fluid motion when Akko fought against Croix that it makes me wish technology could move to a point that such movement could be achieved in anime without putting animators on deathwatch. One thing I found in these episodes is that Lotte and Sucy look to be close to fading into the background much like the enchanted Parade crew as they don’t play much of role in Akko’s quest to gather the words. Indeed Akko, Ursula and Croix seem to be in the main spotlight with perhaps Diana playing a small part. Really I believe that Little Witch Academia isn’t making full use of the cast of characters it has built up and there are episodes which could have greatly benefited from other characters taking a more active role.

It is not often that I am blindsided by a twist in a story. That may sound like bragging but in all my years of watching media I have come to get a general idea of how things play out. Of course I cannot predict with 100% accuracy what can come to pass in a show but I have gotten to a point of not being very surprised by it. Even if I don’t pick up on foreshadowing, with my regular trips to check out opinions on reddit often point out things that I miss. So having the real reason behind Chariots magic shows be something of a much sinister nature really was something I never considered. In truth I was hoping that Chariots reveal to Akko would be more…for lack of a better word…epic but this reveal does make the whole story make a lot more sense. Suddenly Urusala’s reluctance to reveal herself, her care for Akko and her drive to awaken the words are given a deeper context within the narrative. One thing that really is effected by this is Chariots show in the very first episode where the intervention of the Croix like creature may have been Croix herself attempting to prevent Chariot from stealing the magic of the audience. I honestly never saw this coming and the only thing I managed to guess was that Chariot really was responsible for the mark on the moon.

We at least know the full details of Croix’s plan now, that being to rile people up into a frenzy in order to gather their emotions to open her own grand triskelion. Essentially in part repeating the mistake that Chariot made in drawing magic out of people. Though in this case to a more negative degree. It’s clear that Croix doesn’t quite know what she’s messing with and i say any magic that glows blood red and is taken from negative emotions is not going to be some world saving solution. She’s clearly fueled by envy over not being chosen as well as her own pride so I am certain her little experiment is going to backfire on her, hard. But there are small signs that despite how antagonist she is being to Chariot that she still does care about her. When she managed to knock Ursula off her broom she actually panicked and tried to save her from falling. Her anger seems directed at Claimh Solas and Woodward rather that Chariot. So I think she might not even up this series final boss after all. Andrew also gets a moment or two here with him encouraging Akko for once and perhaps he might be the one to knock her out of her current funk. Or Diana might be a better option in that regard.

Seikaisuru Kado – 07/08[Sansa/Tainel]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Seikaisuru Kado

This week on Kado, ZaShunina looks to be throwing in another gift before mankind has time to process his last one. This time a device which when observed, allows one to comprehend the anisotropic. This would also tie into Wam as the thing which prevented the explosion of energy devices is people’s inability to understand the anisotropic. I don’t quite like ZaShunina’s approach this time as he really does seem to be going over the heads of the government and using the media to push what is a pretty devastating change on the world. With Wam he at least acknowledged the government and presented his case to them. Here he didn’t even bother to have a talk with the prime minister about it. Though I am concerned over this series only show a small picture of the effect of ZaShunina’s changes as here we get some actually discussion on tv about the consequences of Wam only to have a character shut the TV off and discuss other matters.

Then there’s the conversation with Saraka where she takes a day to show Shindo her way of life in a bid to justify her reasoning for wanting ZaShunina to return to where he came. Basic summary boils down to undermining the achievements humans have made so far by advancing with the help of ZaShunina. Saraka wants humans to move at there own pace and advance without ZaShunina’s help. And I am sorry Saraka, but this reasoning is asinine. Civilization has always advanced through trade and what is ZaShunina but a trader? His gifts are akin to introducing new technologies of native tribes. Pushing him away out of fear of change is really just prideful nonsense as she is making the assumption that humanity can advance on its own. Case in point, the Sakoku period of Japan was a period where for 200 years Japan isolated themselves from the rest of the world. Guess what happened? The world advanced without them and they became hopelessly outclassed by the advancements of other countries. Saraka uses the modern landscape as an example of humanity’s progress but girl that progress is the result of Japan playing catch up with the rest of the world. I agree with the president that ZaShunina is pushing advancement far too fast but it’s just foolhardy to push him away out of some misplaced sentimentality over humanity’s achievements. Girl, humanity came close to killing ourselves off on more than one occasion. The achievements you speak off where built on the blood and struggles of decades of screwing around with no idea and even then our current society is far from a perfect system. ZaShunina offers to bypass thousands of years of meandering and reach the next level of humanity. You want to push that aside so you can keep playing in the mud till you make something meaningful? Good luck.

But this is worrisome as the tone of ZaShunina looks to be gearing towards a villainous angle. I hope that this is merely an uncanny valley effect of ZaShunina becoming more human and therefore his reactions become more suspicious. One of the biggest mistakes this anime could make would be to turn the alien evil and prove Saraka’s philosophy right. The message of the series would take on a rather misguided message and this becomes yet another alien invasion story with a us vs them conclusion. My hope is that it dodges that particular landmine and ZaShunina is someone who may have an agenda but not a evil one. Even having his changes be a matter of good intentions gone horribly awry would do well to characterise ZaShunina’s general nativity over the nature of mankind.

Re:Creators – 09 [The Blooming Maiden Digs a Hole]

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

I starting to sense a pattern of Re:Creators where most of the runtime is dedicated to conversations which is then broken up by a segment of action towards the final few minutes. This week is no exception with Magane taking the spotlight away from Mamaika as she exits away from the stage.

It wouldn’t be a fitting end for Mamika if she simply got vaporized by her own magical splash flare so we get a final farewell scene. It’s a shame to see her die as she had the most compelling and greatest development for any creation in the entire series and I’m betting that Alice is next in line to receive some attention in that department. The thing that bothered me was Mamika’s final words to Alice as she had more than enough time and energy to convey her ultimate wish instead of repeating Alice’s name over and over again. However, she might come back into the story given that her body disappeared into the blue ether and they haven’t explored the mechanics behind bringing creations back from the dead. Someone else that probably didn’t share Mamika’s fate is Altair as the conversation heavily implied that she was able to survive the tactical nuke that was the magical splash flare although her condition is unknown at this point.

I love Magane as a character since she shares a uncanny semblance to Nui Harime (Kill la Kill) in trolling and completely subverting every faction for her own amusement. The way she twists and shades Mamika’s words into weaponizing Alice against our main heroes proves that words are just as deadly as superpower magical spells. Sadly, her second main scene in the episode Re:Creators’ weakness is that it revels in its own fiction a little too hard and rears its ugly head in Magane’s speech to Sota as it drags on for far too long in deconstructing his dirty little secret. The attempt to paint Meteroa as a traitor in league with Altair falls flat as it’s too far fetched and lacks any meaningful payoff when that ruse is immediately broken by Yuuya’s entrance. At least, Sota finally stops being a little bitch and comes clean at the cost of Magane getting a defence buff and dragging creations into another fight. A fight that has Alice’s unyielding rage directed at Meteora and Yuuya.