Banana Fish – 18 [Islands in the Stream]

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

Ah Banana Fish, back in form this week. Ash and Eiji act like a married couple, Blanca show’s everyone whose boss and Yut continues to have no idea what’s going on. Lets jump in!

On a general note Banana Fish is really picking back up. The Gang War/Hospital were easily the weakest part of the series, excluding Arthur’s final fight at least. It just felt like a minor B plot compared to everything else that was going on. And as much as I enjoyed Arthur, an antagonist already setup as weaker than our lead is not compelling. Banana Fish seems to have realized this, because it has replaced Arthur with Blanca. A much more threatening, and charismatic lets be honest here, antagonist. It’s a fantastic move really and I can’t wait to talk about him. Before I jump in to that though, I have one question I want you to think about as you read through this. How many times has Ash been captured now? Because for such a Gary Stu, can do it all, every other arc is a rescue arc. Crazy!

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Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai – 05-06[All the lies I have for you/This world you chose]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai

Thus we hit the end of another arc and admit it wasn’t a particularly interesting one due to not much being at stake. The characters helped keep it from getting boring but the main conflict was obvious from the start and the solution even more so. So to get things in perspective, Koga and Sakato got stuck in a time loop due to Koga not being able to let go of her feelings after their fake relationship came to an end. Thus she pretended that she had no knowledge of the loop in order to delay the inevitable in a vain hope that maybe Sakuto might change his mind and not dump her ass for the main heroine. Sakuto was being unusually dense at the beginning of this arc but once things started looping he caught on fast as to what was really happening. This arc in particular falls flat in that when compared to the previous arc, it just comes across as low concern. Last arc had the danger of Mai literally fading from existence while this arc has the danger of…Koga falling out with her crappy superficial friends? Indeed the trigger to all this is Koga not wanting to lose friends who would drop her faster than a hot potato if she failed to answer a text message.(That makes the second girl who could get ostracised just for not answering a text message. Jesus life is stressful enough without having to micromanage your friends.)

I suppose we also have the predictable conclusion of her falling for Sakuto after playing pretend girlfriend so long which is a kind of consequence but it’s hard to truly feel sorry for her when she set herself up for failure in the first place. So this arcs ends with all of it getting rewound so it never happened and Koga learning to get over Sakuto while dropping her superficial friends for real ones. I can’t be the only one here who feels like this girl did nothing but waste everyone’s time, well at least the viewers time. Besides her addition to the cast I don’t think this arc added much of anything and we could have started from this episode two episodes ago without much having been lost. It really is thanks to Sakuto that this arc didn’t bore me as his interactions with the other members of the cast is still gold. Really I actually like this cast quite a bit so it made a less interesting arc still engaging because I genuinely cared about the characters on screen.

I have heard people argue about the superficiality of the supernatural elements with Science girl trying to explain them with scientific theory but I feel that the supernatural element was never meant to be that much of a focus but rather a narrative tool. I mean it’s literally a joke that the whole reason Sakuto could see that time was looping was due to him and her kicking each others butts in the first arc. Honestly as I mentioned in my Erased posts, you have two ways to go about this narrative. Either you go full Primer and spend a large amount of time fleshing out the mechanics of it(Though at the end of primer I still have no goddamn idea how the hell the time travel worked.) or you just hand wave it off. Though this series puts forth theory in an attempt to explain that mainly seems to be just a method of contextualizing the phenomena other than actually explain it. After all Laplace’s Demon isn’t really what’s going on here as Koga isn’t predicting the future, but rather rewinding it. The only real problem I see here is that they seemed to suggest that Koga has a degree of control over the power at the end despite them openly saying that she does so subconsciously. The way in which Koga rewinded time back to the first day doesn’t seem like a subconscious decision but rather a purposeful one. And does she still have this power? I don’t think it was ever made clear whether puberty syndrome stops when said girls problem is fixed as his sister still does seem to be under the effects of it. Wouldn’t this mean that Koga has the power to rewind time whenever she wishes? For that could really mess up the stakes for future arcs. Anyway it seems we are not down with time travel foolery just yet as Sakuto seems to have encountered the girl who helped his sister and him while also being his first love. Yet she appears to be younger than him and doesn’t recall him at all. Some Haruhi vibes are afoot here.

Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru – 6 [The Emperor’s New Clothes]

by Lenlo, posted in Currently Watching:, Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

Hello and welcome to another, if slower than normal, week of Kaze Fui! This time we have friendship, training and Haiji continues to get off scott-free! Lets jump in!

Now Kaze Fui this week was, in my opinion, a bit of a non-starter. I don’t think it really addressed or dealt with many of the issues introduced last week. I enjoyed aspects of the content though. Once again, Kaze Fui is focusing on all of its characters instead of just our two leads Haiji and Kurahara. Really, I can’t call them our leads anymore because they got less screen time this week than everyone else in the dorm. The wide range and spread around attention of Kaze Fui continues to be my favorite part of the series. None of the character’s are wasted, or feel superficial. The closest ones to that are the Twins. And even for them, I have hopes for an arc focusing on their differences and wanting to be treated like their own people. Kaze Fui just has a lot of promise.

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Planetes – 7 & 8 [Extraterrestrial Girl/A Place to Cling To] – Throwback Thursday

by Lenlo, posted in Planetes, Throwback Thursday

Welcome one and all to another week of Planetes, continuing Throwback Thursday! This week we have a beautiful contrast of Life and Death in space followed by a lighthearted affirming of the group dynamic. Lets jump in!

Before I get into actual plot elements, I want to once again praise Planetes for its use of technology. Every week it finds a new avenue of science to explore, trying its best to be correct. Weaving in political elements and commentary throughout. Take for instance the damage caused by Radiation Poisoning in Episode 7. Or the difficulties of capturing a liquid debris in space. That these are questions at all in a Science Fiction anime is amazing. I recently learned that JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, actually served as a technical consultant on the series. And that on the US DVD’s, interviews with two NASA Scientists were included. Combine all of this with the care Planetes takes to connect these elements to an actual, deep personable story? It makes me want to find and buy these DVD’s just to get more Planetes content.

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Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-San – 5 [It’s a Book Signing!! Everyone Gather Up / A Fascinating Erotic Story]

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

Another week, another 10 minutes well spent with Honda-San. This time we have Golden Kamuy references, a Brazilian and lots, ridiculous amounts really, of gay Erotica. Lets jump in!

To be honest, Honda-San started off worrying me this week. It wasn’t until maybe the 3 minute mark that it seemed to pick up. I think it is a clear example of Honda-San’s strengths being the customers and situations, instead of the business side. But it pulled it back fast. Honda-San was great once it got started. Not only does it have a much larger cultural representation than I was expecting, but none of them are offensive stereotypes. To me, at least. We have had French, American, Brazilian and multiple examples of each, up to this point. Not to mention his “Lets Bullshit English Time!”, which was just fantastic. Honda-San is just so… upfront with its actions and jokes. A great example of grounded absurdist comedy. Now I just need to avoid being that Brazilian guy when I go to Japan in February.

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Goblin Slayer – 04-05[The Strong/Adventures and Daily Life]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Goblin Slayer

Episode four is one of those episodes which has me at a loss about what to even say about it. I mean in this episode Goblin Slayer went and slayed some goblins and in other news the Pope is still catholic. I mean sure there was a unexpected interruption of a Orge leading them which much to Goblin Slayers disappointment, wasn’t a goblin. There is a certain catharious in that the Orge is extremely egotistical and finds Goblin Slayers dismissal of him to be a great insult. Indeed the thing that makes his remarks on Goblins being more troublesome than one Orge is the fact that GS means it wholeheartedly. To be fair he also has a point as while Goblins are low level they are far harder to get rid of than one orge, regardless of how powerful that orge may be.Points for creativity with GS using a teleport scroll to connect it to the bottom of the ocean, herby making the water pressure push so hard through the opening that it effectively becomes a makeshift water jet cutter. I am a little curious as to how a simple farm boy could understand enough to know what effect he would get if he attempted such a thing but knowing GS, he likely was only planning to use it to drown goblins and didn’t quite know about the force the water would gush out at.

Other than that, High elf took much distaste in the adventure with did seem like a dirty extermination job rather than a true adventure to high Elf adventures are like those of D&D campaigns with a bunch of friends having fun saving the world. Whereas with Goblin Slayer it’s literally nothing more than a job with nothing fun at all. Episode 5 on the other hand was more light hearted, being about some daily grind of two rookie adventures and Goblin Slayer running into people around town. These downtime episodes make for a good change of pace and it’s nice to have people fighting things other than goblins. It’s nice as well to just see Goblin slayer out of his element in ordinary conversations with people. His complete utter disregard of anything that isn’t goblins once again proves to be a good source of comedy and his bluntness with the other characters is rather endearing.

This does mark a turning point in the series where the darkness of the first episode eventually just becomes something more standard at least as far as I have read in the Light novels. This show could lose a lot of people for that and I admit myself that both the manga and light novel lost me when the first story arc ended. Animated it’s at least proving more entertaining as action does work better in a animated format but I admit that the story itself doesn’t really have much of an end goal. Basically is just Goblin Slayer and friends going to kill Goblins. However from the looks of things the anime is going to skip the last part of the first volume and instead jump straight into the second volume. This is a change that I heartily approve as I am certain they are planning to use the finale of the first volume to close out the series and in that regard it would make for an excellent conclusion to the story.

SSSS.GRIDMAN – 05 [Provocation]

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

I feel like it’s inevitable that we eventually get to this episode. It’s an episode where the cast will wear some sort of bikini and swimsuit and show as much skin and flesh as possible. We’re also talking about Trigger for Christ sake, one of the leading studio when it comes to fan-service. Right at the opening scene we would see Akane is sexy swimsuit with suggestive pose. While normally I’d say “yuck” in disgust in the same way kids behave when eating pepper, the fanservice here in GRIDMAN does so in conjunction with its theme. There’s always a disparity on what happens on the surface and what it’s actually about in GRIDMAN. All these fan-service tendencies, from Akane in bikini in the first few minutes, to Yuuta finding the swim suit, to the girls having fun with Shou’s chubby belly to that suncream sequence, all create an artificial surface that soon to be broken down by Akane’s true motive. Again, GRIDMAN turns what could be a disaster into something relevant to its detached world. All the more impressive that this seemingly field trip of rafting-exercise is soon to be a battlefield that come neatly together at the end. The settings this week rightfully become another character in this episode.

More than any other anime, GRIDMAN is a show that has many striking shots that are so condensed with details, and so integrate with its narrative that these shots alone inform you so much about the cast’s dynamic. I will address 3 such shots here (with the exclusion of the suncream scene between Akane and Rikka as I already talked about them last week). The first one is the sequence where Akane interrogates Yuuta to find out whether or not he’s involved with Gridman. The way GRIDMAN frames the shot, however, of them sitting in a symmetry manner suggests you how the show suggests them as a different side of the coin. Villainous as she is, Akane regards that as her duty, just like how Yuuta feels. As a result they share some special dynamic that go beyond from interrogation or bad guy vs good guy relationship.

The second shot happens later on, between Anti and Akane. It’s the moment when without any word, Anti just lowers his body to carry Akane around the burning bush. It delivers some raw emotions here, the way it’s Anti way of caring for Akane, but he’s also determined to carry his own mission, which is kill Gridman by himself. I found that he ends up helping Gridman’s team more often than not, but he remains the elements of surprise for the ongoing battle between Gridman vs kaiju monsters. Later on, the scarf the he gave to Akane, was pushed aside coldly by Akane. The show doesn’t put any sentimentalism on that but the way that scarf keeps lingering on the screen displays some powerful emotion. Last but not least, the sequences concerning the cast riding the train. Apart from an iconic shot of kaiju monsters in the background (and how little it affect the main cast as they’re pretty much used to it), it again has some GRIDMAN’s signature touch: the train ride is otherworldly, it’s empty and the quirks where there’s a strange mist that put everyone to sleep are a welcome one.

These past few episodes I haven’t mentioned much about the CG battles, not because it’s unremarkable but more like it’s the aspect I pay the least attention to. Now, I just want to give a moment to say that the CG battles between Gridman and kaiju monsters have always been consistently awesome. Usually CG fights stand out in a bad way (like in Planet With where you can tell right away the awkward moves. Here these scenes were handled skillfully, it’s the timing that is always consistent that sometimes it doesn’t feel like watching a CGI battles. Gridman continues to be its own thing, and I’m glad to say that so far I enjoy every moments of it, even more so with its understated moments. There’s only one mystery that I hope the show can address in the future: How the hell did Rikka’s mom (voiced by the VA actress of Haruko Haruhara in FLCL) work out that exact number for the Junk’s price? It might be a bit too expensive for an old junk that barely work, but it’s never too pricey to save the entire world.

Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara – 05 [A Modest Recipe]

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

If I have one word that could describe Irozuku so far, it’s “slow-burn”. Indeed we have something burned this week (Hitomi’s failed attempts of making star sand), and “slow” is definitely on the table here. Even to my taste where I much prefer deliberate pacing than bombastic climax in every episode or cheap cliffhanging that anime today is guilty of, usually after finishing an episode of Izoruku I have a hard time recapping what happened in the episode. There are two main themes this week 5 of Irozuku develops, one of them regarding the tangled love interest of several players in the cast, and the other is about the cast’s struggling with their own creative sides. I’ll address both themes later, but first let’s talk about Hitomi. Hitomi has been a mixed bag as far as central protagonist concerns. She has clear struggles, but she remains unclear towards her goals to the point the supporting cast has to take charge, and in most cases, it’s her (young) granny Kohaku. It’s good, then, to see her become more active this week as she’s trying to fit in with this current world: practicing magic again, spend more times with her clubmates and be useful when helping out with her relative’s shop. When it comes to Aio’s pictures she’s no subtle about it, as in many cases she says to him his drawings mean a lot to her. Their scenes together are amongst Hirozuku’s best. It’s intimate, it’s understated but it’s also grounded and magical at the same time. The moments she gives him her star sand this week, it comes so natural and beautiful that it remains a highlight of the episode.

Which bring me to the second point that I’m not quite as enthusiastic, which is the romantic conflicts between the cast, chief among them between Shou, Hitomi and Asagi. It starts with Kohaku’s fortune teller, which (predictably) students line-up to ask about their romances. She tells Asagi that she has bad luck when it comes to romance. Shou has been close to Hitomi to help her out as she’s the new member of the Photography club. I’m not so sure whether he has a feeling for Hitomi (the majority says it’s obvious but part of me thinks he’s just too dense to realize all that. Another cliche trait), but it’s clear that Hitomi doesn’t aware of it and Asagi doesn’t take it very well. She’s angry about him being too considerate as to display all the foods in single brown color (but in truth that effort makes no sense since Hitomi can only see every food in black and white). I must say the part where she confesses to Hitomi that they’re childhood friend and he means a lot to her disappoints me a little, given it’s a very predictable backstory. At the end, she works her courage to ask him to help her on the rabbit postcard, but I suppose we will see more of this plot thread in next few episodes.

The second theme of Irozuku this week fares so much better to me. It’s the cast’s struggle at their arts, be it Aoi who can’t draw the drawings he’s satisfied, to Asagi who is too shy to show her works, to Hitomi tries and fails multiple time making magic star sand. These struggles, just like their teenage struggles of growing up, speak well to Irozuku’s little drama. And it’s a process of hardwork (in Hitomi’s case), and having more confident (in all cases) that they can overcome their own slump. To be fair, for a show with such tender approach, Irozuku doesn’t have its chop for developing special connection between its cast. Apart from Aoi – Hitomi pair and Hitomi – Kohaku pair, they function more as group’s chemistry. If you, for example, pair Kohaku to Aoi or to Shou, you’ll see that they don’t have any chemistry whatsoever. It’s frankly quite a bit of a shame, because I feel the cast doesn’t reach the full potential it could have, and worse some of the developments like this triangle love feels forced. I might ask for a little too much, but it’s only because Irozuku promises quite a lot.

Banana Fish – 17 [The Killers]

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

Ah, finally Banana Fish is back in form. This week we have murder, intrigue and a new terrifying character. Lets jump in!

With the hospital arc done, Banana Fish seems to have found its footing again this week. The hospital, while it had its moments, was largely dull compared to what came before. This new arc of cat and mouse however is much more interesting. With Ash being this unstoppable genius, having him on the back foot provides a much better story. Banana Fish can do a lot with it, especially considering it’s a much more personal one than the last. Add on to that Yut’s current story, and Eiji’s confusion as to where he stands, it gives Banana Fish a lot to work with. All it really needs is to make good use of Sing and all the characters will be moving in a good direction.

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Thunderbolt Fantasy 2 – 05 [Hellfire Valley]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Thunderbolt Fantasy

Now, things escalate pretty quickly. In a Thunderbolt Fantasy fashion, the moment Lang Wu Xiao gets a hand of the dragon’s horn and the formula, he double-crosses Gui Niao. But I can’t hate this guy, given his motive is purely because he cares for his partner Shang Bu Huan. The allied from the other side of the war is also bound to be broken very soon, as it’s clearly the Catching Fox is manipulating the Princess of Cruelty now. It’s one of the rare moments where we see Shang Bu Huan is vulnerable. It’s also one of the rare moments where we see the Princess of Cruelty having a conscience. The Monk’s words last episode clearly affects her and I would love to see her go through some sort of character arc. Now all that is just the beginning now that Shang Bu Huan has an antidote and is now “a hundred times more alive”.

But the absolute peak of this episode (and the whole season so far) is the battle of wits between our Gui Niao, Lang Wu Xiao and the one-wing dragon. It has everything that I want from Thunderbolt DNA, and then some: it has absurd dragon’s design, it has the sheer ridiculousness of the whole situation, it has campy quality, it has the grand visual spectacular and most of all, it has one of Gui Niao’s wittiest lines. Just imagine the ridiculousness of a giant fire-breathing dragon raises from below the ground (how on earth does he hide underground in the first place? To sleep? I think not), or that he’s powerful enough to speak human language (consider how there’s no human in the Wasteland of Spirits). This quality proves to be his fall from grace, as Gui Niao is an expert of deceiving everything by his words. It’s certainly charming as heck to see him politely asks the dragon for his horn (more than mocking based on his tone of speech), before runs like a maniac in a very quirky manner that only puppetry can produce, and finishes with a line: “doesn’t matter how nice you ask, anyone would be angry for that request”. Damn you, Gui Niao

Also only in a puppetry show that you can see a dragon throwing up flames that absurd. It mixes nicely between Thunderbolt’s trolly tone with how it takes itself seriously enough. If that isn’t eye-popping and ridiculous enough, we have the climax where Lang Wu Xiao has to sing (the fact the he admits his singing beyond hopeless make it way funnier, too) to attract the Dragon’s attention so that Gui Niao can set his favorite illusion trap. How the show transform for the usual two swordsmen fighting the monster into singing and talking while dodging wall of flame is nothing short of a stroke of genius. And don’t forget how Gui Niao isn’t in the least surprised when Lang Wu Xiao double-crosses him. Ridicule everyone has been his lifelong passion, so it’s only natural that he just gets used to people turning against him. I don’t care how Thunderbolt will go from here, as long as it maintains its quirky, campy nature like this dragon battle I’m more than happy to follow it everywhere.