Planetes – 21 & 22 [Tandem Mirror/Exposure] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Hello everyone, to another exceedingly late post on Planetes. New Years and end of season reviews have me stretched a bit thin, but the Throwback Thursday train never stops. Lets dive in!

Once again, Planetes goes for one good episode, one iffy one. The first was great, as the plot finally started to move forward and the end-game arc took shape. The second however felt largely like filler, with very little of value going on, barely expanding on the previous episode, and mostly serving to give Hachimaki time to react. Simply put, I did not enjoy the second episode, because very little of consequence happened. It felt like a setup episode, coming right on the heels of the big reveal in the first episode. That said, the first episode was not without issues either. So without further ado, let’s head into that.

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Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 12 [Merry Christmas, Mr. Bookstore/It’s Time to Close]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Welcome one and all to the final episode of Honda-San! It was a… well it was a rather short road to get here all things considered, so lets skip the preamble and jump right in!

I have to say, that Honda-San managed to drop its Christmas episode basically on Christmas, impresses me. It was impeccably timed and the content made all the better for it. Not only that, but the theme of closing naturally fits perfectly for the end of the season, year and holidays. All around, a good play by Honda-San here. It also managed to get a good number of laughs out of me, with the over the top reactions and good usage of foreigners. Simply put, it is an all around good episode to close on. That Honda-San managed to have its best episodes be its first and last confuses me to no end. But its better to go out with a bang than a whimper I suppose.

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SSSS.GRIDMAN – 12 [Awakening]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, SSSS.GRIDMAN

GRIDMAN closes off its story on a grand spectacular finale and as far as spectacular goes, it does its job nicely. Personally I’m more impressed with this show in its quiet moments so I enjoyed it more in its last 6,7 minutes. I don’t know how much relevant GRIDMAN the anime is in regard to its original live-action. I mean, what’s the deal with the kaiju girl Anoshiras II and what’s the true role of GridKnight, but taken as an individual piece this ending is both straight-forward and confusing in the same manners. The straight-forward part is how the climax goes all out with its action: we have Gridman in full form versus Alexis in full form, and we do have all these cheesy lines that I’m sure serve as a homage to its original “Here comes my special moves – Fixer Beam” “Nanii? How can you have such godsent power?” “The power of MORALITY to destroy the immorality”. It’s fun to hear these campy dialogues out loud, and it’s even more entertaining when they’re boasted by the stellar animation. While I admit that the battle never wowed me, I can sense the love from the staffs to every single details of this battles.

What slightly bugs me, however, is the narrative led up to the final showdown between Gridman and Alexis. First, the way Alexis “uses” Akane is pretty inconsistent and abrupted. Here, in a span of 10 minutes, Akane turns into a kaiju (her scream is awesome, though), gets rescued by Anti, and immediately gets swallowed again by Alexis. In terms of narrative progression, you can easily cut down the “Akane becoming kaiju” part and nothing (except for the kaiju design) is lost. The same goes for Anti where he desperately tries to save Akane (which I thought was wierd to begin with because it’s not Yuuta or Rikka, but the least of all people Anti who saves the princess) just so that moments later he gets stabbed by the villain and was thrown aside for the rest of the battle. Don’t get me wrong, I love Anti. He’s, after all, the only character who grows the most in this show, signified by his blue eye color at the end, but I can’t shake the feeling that his own narrative arc is a bit shaky and not totally well planned-out.

But then, it comes to the “afterneath” section and while most of normal shows would retreat back to the new status quo, GRIDMAN manages to do something interesting here. We have a few-minute but feel like half-an-hour long sequence (hey, I’m not complaining) of only Rikka and Akane in a room together, further showcase how GRIDMAN is at its most comfortable when it strives for minimalism. Here, in a near-empty room, Akane has her redemption and Rikka has one of the best moments of the whole episode, as she gives the card holder gift to Akane, and wish that they could always be together, at the same time tells Akane not to let that wish come true. After all, Akane needs to move on from this cyber world, and the characters created by her will stay behind and have lives of their own. It’s a neat ending, but the decision to only let Rikka says goodbye to Akane sure leaves a lot of ambiguity here, which I will get to it later.

In a surprising move (which for me is a touch of “genius”, until I learn that it’s inspired by EVA’s ending), we have a live-action closure, a girl that looks awfully like Rikka that literally wakes up after the long sleep. The searing score was the one that played softly back from the beginning of the first episode. The ending will leave a lot of speculation of what is real and what not for sure, but ultimately I don’t think it matters that much. The main narrative is clear: Akane has her redemption arc and moves on, while Gridman and the Squads return to their hyper world and Rikka, real Yuuta and Shou stay back and live on.

As a whole, while I was a bit letdown to its final stretch, I’m still impressed with how much love and attention this show has for their world-building (it has a Wes-Anderson level of details here – the kind where it relies on the rich range of surrounding objects to defy the characters) and how it translates its themes by its visual craft – it’s one of the best visual directed show, along with Revue Starlight, that I’ve seen this year. Plot-wise, looking back I’m rather curious on how this show has many faux-protagonists to the point where you can’t really say whose narrative we are supposed to follow (it’s not necessary a bad thing), we start with Yuuta as we see the world through his eyes and his amnesia, but then in the middle Rikka demands us with her emotional tones and manage to sell them successfully as a normal girl trying to go through her life, then in the final arc it’s Akane takes the central stage. Not all of these transitions work, but it never fails to be anything less than intriguing, and that is a big compliment come from me.

P/s: pure speculation: it’s no fun to not give my own take on what happened at the end, right? Here’s my own two cents: the girl who wakes up at the end is Akane (we have her *real life* uniform, the card holder and the broken Iphone, and the name Akane in the picture). But why does she look awfully like Rikka? Is Rikka the part of herself she doesn’t wish to acknowledge? That might be the case but then again, the ED hints to the fact that Rikka might be real after all. Visually, the silhouettes has Akane’s mannerism, but is there anything more than meets the eyes?

Banana Fish Anime Review – 67/100

by Lenlo, posted in Anime Reviews, Banana Fish, Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama, Reviews by Lenlo

Some days, I wonder what it is with America and anime about organized crime. Baccano!, 91 Days, Blood Blockade Battlefront, all set in America, all involving criminal underworlds. Today, I get to add another to that list in the form of Banana Fish. Much more grounded than the others, it’s story dates all the way back to the 80’s. The Vietnam war has recently come to a close, and Organized Crime is being forced to adapt to new times. Banana Fish takes this story and adapts it for the modern age, with smartphones and the Middle East. It attempts to touch on all these weighty subjects and conflicts, but in the end, can only manage a story about two young men, in over their heads.

Welcome to Banana Fish. Lets jump in.

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Banana Fish – 24 [The Catcher in the Rye]

by Lenlo, posted in Banana Fish, Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Hello one and all, and welcome to the Finale of Banana Fish!

Starting off, let me say, I was surprised with the ending. I will keep the spoilers to a minimum above the ‘Read More’ line, but suffice to say Banana Fish successfully tricked me. I loved it. As far as the other 28 minutes of the episode go though… well, its up in the air. First, I want to direct you to this reddit post, which goes very deep into some symbolism and the dichotomy of Banana Fish. I disagree with it in some areas, but still a good read if you care about the series. Second, to get it out of the way now before I start tearing into specifics, I enjoyed this ending. I would say it was a net positive for Banana Fish. With all of its problems in the second half, at the least we got a definitive ending. Something becoming rarer and rarer these days.

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Planetes – 19 & 20 [Endings Are Always…/Tentative Steps] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Hello one and all, welcome to another week of Planetes. This time Planetes continues Hachi’s quest for the Van Braun, Tanabe holds out hope and Pilot Boi lets me down. Let’s dive in!

Net, I really enjoyed this week. Planetes is back in form. The romance was placed on the back burner in favor of another worldly theme, making the viewer ask questions. Maybe it’s just that Tanabe has gotten old, having remained a largely static character, at least when compared to Hachimaki, Claire and Hakim. Each of them have had arcs, have made major changes in their lives or had them thrust upon them. Meanwhile Tanabe is still in the exact same position, an EVA Debris Hauler. She is more of a bouncing board for other, more interesting, characters. So with them off on their own, her role is largely useless. Meanwhile Hachimaki is the most interesting he has ever been. With themes of sacrifice, giving your all and being selfish for the sake of your dreams. To be quite honest, I am loving it.

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Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 10 & 11 [An Outstanding Bookseller/Swapping Section Heads & The Alternate Honda-San/You Can Quit Your Job Whenever You Want]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Comedy, Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San

Hello one and all, perhaps the most confusing production I am covering this season. This time Honda-San teaches us about publishes and dives into a world of demons and fantasy. Let’s dive in!

So to start off, I want to apologize for the lateness and doubling up of this post. Simply put, Honda-San isn’t very interesting to me anime. Not being a comedy sort of man, I was impressed when Honda-San got genuine chuckles out of me in the first few episodes. It was a very fresh, sort of blase comedy. The subject was soe mundane that anyone could relate to the situations. Simply put, Honda-San was unique in the beginning, and I think I was taken in by that. But this late in the season, the enthusiasm just isn’t there anymore. Episode 11 definitely brought some of that back, I quite enjoyed the unique premise. It really broke up the otherwise dull past few episodes. But was it enough to close out the season? I suppose we will have to see next week how it pans out. For now, onto the episodes.

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Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 – 12 [The Hunting Fox]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Thunderbolt Fantasy

Boy, it sure feels great to see the biggest douchebag gets punched repeatedly to the face by his own dirty tricks. It also feels good when the femme fatale Seven Blashphemous Deaths Sword feels threatened towards Monk’s declaration of love. If there’s one thing that I still enjoy in Thunderbolt, it’s that the cast keeps redefining their roles. Who would’ve imagined that collected Monk can be this love obsessive and embrace the “Till death do us part” vow to heart? In term of general plot, I feel that this season is weaker than the first. While in the first season we have a band of misfits with a shared immediate goal, here we have many branches of characters who have different goals that don’t join together towards the climax. Dirty Cop basically just wants to screw around and gets his hands on more swords now. Our team wants to retrieve the Evil Swords, and the Fallen Monk just wants to dedicate his life to his wife Sword. The issue remains that the cast doesn’t really connect to each other in a big narrative sense. It’s until this late in the game that the Monk has some reason to fight against Shang Bu Huan, just because Femme Fatale Sword wants to buy some more time.

Moreover, while it’s still a joy to watch these larger than life characters behave on screen. This is the first time where I see the implausible characters behavior in Thunderbolt. So Dirty Cop fights our Ginger Singer and decides to turn the table by handing his evil sword to him, thus force him to take care of these manipulated soldiers. I could totally understand if Shang Bu Huan hesitates to harm these guys but with Lang Wu Yao? He’s the kind who will save his ass first rather than saving innocent people who get into his way. I still remember him warning Shang Bu Huan for not killing those puppets in early episodes so I just don’t get the change of heart here. Whichever the case, Shang Bu Huan appears right on time (almost too perfect timing if you ask me), and shoe Dirty Cop how he can handle orchestrating the whole puppet soldiers without any sweat. At the end, Enigmatic Gale Joins the gang on his own amusement. The back-and-forth bouncing off between him, our Hero, and the Singer is still campy and pretty hilarious.

On the other side of the battle, Fallen Monk and his wife find themselves in the Wasteland of Spirits. In another reversion of our expectation, it’s revealed that the Monk has never fallen for the magic charm of the Sword in the first place, but love it in his own will. It could’ve been greater if we witness the moment he met and acquired the Sword though. At the moment we just take it as what he told us. Then my MVP character appears, the indestructible dragon who raises up from the ground and gets killed by the Monk just as quick. Poor little dragon who always picks the wrong fight. Now, with the finale of the final showdown between our hero team and the Monk, with Dirty Cop will somehow chime in as well, I just hope for a bombastic and explosive climax.

Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara – 11 [The Waning Moon]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara

And suddenly, after weeks of hovering around, Irozuku has some sort of urgency this week. You see, Hitomi’s spell starts to wear off and she only has 2 days left to say goodbye to this world. NOW the cast has some motivation to actually do necessary stuffs before time running out. That means Kohaku has to bare all the responsibility of bringing her back to her time safely, and Hitomi has to sort all her feeling out before the moment comes. Both the visual and the narrative are purposeful this week (something I can’t say for their previous episodes). In specific, the moment where she… whoops… vanishes into thin air, Irozuku makes it feel as if time has stopped. Or the moment later where Hitomi making those paper planes and communicate with Aoi by switching her light on and off, it works because it’s understated. These small moments like this is what Irozuku unfortunately missed during its middle section.

It still comes a bit out-of-nowhere the way Hitomi suddenly disappears and how Kohaku later informs us that it’s a sign that she has to go back home. I mean, we didn’t learn about this Okabe-situation before, and it doesn’t help that the day they want to cast the magic is on the same day with the School Festival. I’m willing to put all these aside, however, because this is the only rare times where I see the cast actually having some purposes. Chief among them is Kohaku, with all the burden of whether or not she can do it, and do it safely. Then it’s also a matter of gathering up the right material, which in this case is the pure magic sand. The rest of the club has some nice development where at first they’re sad to receive the news, but determine to do their best to help bringing Hitomi back to her timeline safely, even if they aren’t gonna see her ever again.

As for Hitomi, she doesn’t take this news too well. She knows it has to be done, but she doesn’t want to leave the world where she has good friends and where she finds her first crush, Aoi. There’s a saying that “either you have a sense of urgency today, or you have a sense of regret tomorrow”, this time both Aoi, and her wanted to say what they feel towards each other. What happens next is that they reach to each other without a single word. As they both race to each other’s house and meet halfway (boy, I’m glad there’s only one route to their houses), and embrace each other in a near-full moon. Time remaining might be too short for the two now, but finally they can be able to express how they really feel.

SSSS.GRIDMAN – 11 [Decisive Battle]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, SSSS.GRIDMAN

I have a sense that GRIDMAN regresses considerably since its magnificent episode 9. Well, major events are still happening. Last week, Anti transformed into GridKinight and this week, it’s revealed that Yuuta is indeed Gridman, hence the reason the boy doesn’t remember anything before waking up is simply because he has no memory to speak of. But here where I see GRIDMAN falters. It brings up a lot more questions and I’m not so sure if they can address them all in just one final episode. Moreover, the main narrative core, which is about Akane, is stalled for the last two episodes. As a result, we ended up seeing her wandering aimlessly in her own makeshift town, stabbing someone and then wandering aimlessly again. Maybe it’s just me who expected more than this but we still haven’t gotten into Akane’s backstory, if there was one, at all. Nor do we have a good idea of what Alexis wants behind all this or exactly what Anti were in related to Akane. For Akane, we only have a vague sense that she had some trouble in her real life that she escapes to this world and makes it any conceivable way she wants. For Alexis, if his objective was to destroy Gridman, then it makes little sense to summon all those kaiju monsters again. I have to note that the reason for Anti assuming the GridKnight role is because of those kaijus. Without them, he has no reason to fight. Lastly, it’s unclear why Anti was so dependent on Akane. From my point, we (and Anti himself) know that he isn’t the kaiju created by Akane, and I feel that Anti becoming GridKnight is incredibly forced. He can become anything. A kaiju with heart. Anything. So why GridKnight in particular?

We can’t pass this episode without mentioning the big event of this week: the reveal that Yuuta is indeed Gridman. That’s the whole reason why he can’t wake up until the Neon Genesis Squad figures out that they need to fix the old junk. It makes a whole lot sense regarding how Yuuta doesn’t have any prior memory and how they need to fuse in order for Gridman to work, but it also opens up for more questions I’m not sure if the show’s equipped enough to deal with. First, what about Yuuta and Rikka’s previous encounter? GRIDMAN has been hinted bit by bit that the meeting is kinda important for both him and Rikka, but now I don’t know what to make of it. Second, what about Yuuta’s real body now? I guess this doesn’t matter much, he’s a NPC anyway. Finally, what to make of this revealing? Is the fact that Yuuta is indeed Gridman change anything on this chessboard? I have no clue to be honest but I suppose the show will tackle that question in the final episode.

This week’s audio drama we have a mundane but much-needed conversations between Shou and Rikka. The reason I said “much-needed” is because on screen, I’m more strucked on how they can’t communicate their own thoughts to each other. Back in episode 3 we had a brilliant segment (which is still one of my favorite moments of the show) of them sucked into their own personal space. We have a glimpse of that again when these two are in hospital beds, waiting for Yuuta to wake up, as each of them is lost to their own thoughts. Rikka has a lot on her minds, mostly regarding Akane, but I rather enjoy how Shou addressing his own crisis of a best-friend trope: that he doesn’t really contribute to any of the fights. He succeeds on performing a role of a character who has no more role except sitting there helplessly.

Finally, my hope for Akane’s flashback might not turn out to be true, regarding how Alexis, in his ultimate decision, turns Akane into a kaiju too. While there are much more kaiju battles in the last two weeks compared to what we previously got, I don’t really see the weight of these battles. The reason for that is because Akane’s pretty much absent-minded, so even more than before we know how the results are gonna turn out. I must say, I’m a bit disappointed that GRIDMAN didn’t deliver in this final stretch, but there are still plenty of reasons to get excited about the final showdown next week.