Hanebado! – 07 [The Badminton I Want to Play]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hanebado!

Welcome to Hanebado AKA the sport anime where young players get repeatedly abused by the adults. Last few weeks we have the most terrible Mom ever and this week, a loud mouth coach. I mean, what’s up with all these melodrama here? It has gotten to the point where it becomes unbearable to fully embrace. It’s just that Hanebado wanted to be a serious sport show but the character writing doesn’t have the chop to pull off effective drama.The character inconsistency is all over the episode. Take evil-Ayano, the way she talks and sits (look at the screenshot) don’t fit with what we knew about her characters. What happened with the old-Ayano who wanted to be a part of the team? That leap of personality is just way too clumsy. Then we have the shouting boss which has a punchable attitude, but worse he does a 180 degree at the end where suddenly he becomes some sort of amenable person. No. It isn’t how you develop a character, Hanebado.

This episode focuses on the central match between Nagisa and Nozomi, ex-friends in middle school. It’s just that Nozomi always has an inferiority complex towards Nagisa. She knows that Nagisa is better than her, and she makes up for that by training her best. For a girl who has been listening to her coach to the point she wonders what she even plays for, it’s good to see her standing up for herself and playing the match the way she wanted. Although Hanebado’s tendency for injecting stupid drama is still there. Like, where the heck does Nagisa’s knee injury come from? Do we aware of it before? Does it feel like cheating? A bit, yes.

The match, likewise, has some unusual focus as Hanebado would underline some important points at the first set then skip straight to the end. Hmmm? Why don’t you let us see how Nozomi fight back? We have no sense that it was a close match until the umpire announces the score. We aren’t sure anymore about Nagisa’s knee either since it never brought up later. So apparently, this is just the regional tournament so that both Nagisa and Ayano will participate to the National stage. But first, they’ll need to settle for this final match. Normally I wouldn’t care less since I’m not particular fond with either character, but now that Connie and maybe Evil Mama might be at the attendance, how much more crazy will Ayano become? Maybe a Disney-villain level of cruelness?

Satsuriku no Tenshi – 05-07[Don’t let me kill you just yet./Zack is the only one who can kill me./Who are you?]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Satsuriku no Tenshi

These two episodes felt like Zacks time to get a little development as we get a bit of a look at his childhood. I will admit that this series has a particular problem with showing it’s villains as any villain shown so far has been quite one dimensional. Now I hear that later episodes will address this with the floor masters at least but Zack’s guardians in is flashback were equally cartoonishly evil. The idea is solid however in that Zack his averation towards being treated like a tool do to his caretakers making him bury the dead bodies of other children at the home. Zack did seem unaware of what it was he was buring and upon discovering a skull in the ground he copped on to just what his caretakers were making him do. I don’t like that he got the idea to kill them from a slasher flick playing on tv as well, it seems to be reinforcing that notion of violet media creating serial killers. Still it does explain to a degree why Zack acts like a slasher villain and you can say that it was far from the only factor in his decision. So Rachels gave of making Zack relive his childhood and having Rachel unwittingly torment him by telling him what to do was a delightful bit of psychological torture.

The death of Cathy was certainly satisfying. Not because she was any kind of interesting character or anything like that but more due to not having to listen to her annoying laugh or voice anymore. She certainly was hateable so I suppose it worked to a degree. She certainly knew how to press Zacks buttons with how she pushed him to take a drug to push him berserk enough to kill Rachel. Only to have him attack himself to stop himself, pissing off Rachel as she wanted to be the one to punish him. Her end was certainly cathartic in getting wounded by criminals and then shot death by her own judgment miniguns. So with Zack mortally wounded it looks like he’s out of the story for a while with a priest like character taking his place. To save Zack Rachel must descend the floors again and revisit each one. Which in turn does look to be a descend into a darker mindset as she is not allowing anything to get in the way of saving Zack.

The third episode is the most emotion we have gotten out of Rachel since episode one. I particularly like that the more we delve into Rachel, the more messed up she becomes. The hallucinations she experienced during the episode really painting her quite differently from her initial appearance. In particular it’s worth nothing that Rachel broke when she heard her parents were dead and originally it was through that was a driving factor towards her deathwish. However in this episode she has a hallucination of her parents which painted them in less favorable light and she got out of it by cutting open the painting they came out of. Heavily suggesting that the one who killed her parents was Rachel herself. In fact there have been several hints towards Rachel being quite unhinged, seeing as she keeps a gun in her purse and the look she gave the “Zombies” when she activated the miniguns to mow them down. Not to mention that to ascend a floor she had to take their nameplates and place one in the shute, throwing away the sinner. Rachel threw away her name plate without telling Zack, labeling herself as the sinner. Which you really have to consider, what did Rachel do that she considers herself worse than a serial killer?

Planet With – 07[Sirius]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

With that conclusive finale last episode, many of us were left wondering just where things go from here. As it turns out, our main protagonist Souya thought the same. The answer as it turns out is that with the palidains taken down, the sealing faction has risen up to become the new antagonist of the series. The former secretary of the paladins and member of the sealing faction has infiltrated Souya’s school as a student, which many joke that she is far too old to be pretending to be a student, and is brainwashing people into thinking she just transferred in. He little brainwashing power works on Souya but in a strange turn of events Nozomi isn’t affected by the power which either suggests that there is more to her than one would think or else her glasses managed to block out the power. It’s also nice to see that the two palidains that didn’t fight in the previous arc have joined the sealing faction and now Souya will be fighting them once again. On top of all this we have the introduction of a brand new mysterious figure who claims to be the oldest race in the universe. Seems he can only be seen by Souya and takes on the form of Souya’s brother with chances being higher that they were the ones to cause the dragon to go berserk in the first place.

We have gotten background on what happened to Sirius as well as who the odd maid girl(Ginko) who takes care of Souya is. Turns out that Ginko is a space princess(No matter how I say that it will always sound silly but hey we got mascot costume aliens so…) and at the time of the dragon attack Sirius was invading her planet. Looks like Sirius gains psychic power and started invading other planets to conquer. Which caused the dragon to deem them beyond salvation and thus wiped them out. Nya Sensei for once talks by himself in this episode and tried to prevent all this from happening but was ultimately too late, only managing to save Souya. It’s a bit sad that nya sensei wasn’t able to truly affect the outcome but I don’t truly see his actions as pointless. For one i actually believe that what he said to the dragon truly made a difference as if Tesuza was the reincarnation of the dragon it could mean that Nya Sensei’s words changed his opinion. So he sought to rule over earth rather than destroy it after seeing them close to taking the same path as Sirius.

In fact that is the entire reason that the sealing faction is the new antagonist as earth is close to awakening psychic powers and the sealing faction fully believes that once they do then they will repeat the mistakes of Sirius and start trying to conquer other star systems. Souya also looks to have awakened psychic power which has me wondering as to what role that will play. Seems there is some theory going around that Nozomi is going to take over the protagonist role now that Souya has decided this all has nothing to do with him.

Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight – 06 [Their Path of Triumph]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight

With this episode, it becomes clear that Revue Starlight is less about Karen and more about the development of the entire cast. This week we get into the insights of Kaoruko and Futaba through the former perspective. Although spoiled, bratty and not-at-all serious about the Revue audition, I very much welcome her as a person who offers a different perspective to Revue Starlight. Previous characters have showed us time and again how much effort they work on to be the chosen ones, especially the girl with glasses Junna who compensates her lack for talent with tremendous amount of practice. That leaves Kaoruko as the one left behind since she’s clearly too laid back to put all her effort into improving herself. And like how a spoiled kid acts she behaves selfishly, making decisions just for the sake of making certain people (Futaba) feel bad, and in the end one could argue that she doesn’t really earn it – her character arc and her Starlight audition. While these claims are not incorrectly, for me it’s more about Kaoruko learns to change and be more serious in the process.

Needless to say, Kaoruko and Futaba’s dynamic isn’t Revue Starlight greatest moments. We have seen these kind of friendship breakdown and reconcile before in Revue Starlight, with better success (Karen & Hikari, Karen & Mahiru), add to the fact that 1) they’re side characters with predictable development and 2) this relationship is unbalanced somehow. As for 1), the moments Kaoruko announces she’s going back to Kyoto, we all know for sure that Futaba will run after her and that she’d never leave. It taps on all the similar beats and makes me think why don’t shake thing up a little? For 2), I can totally see that Futaba can be better off without Kaoruko. Futaba has been following the girl’s step in every decision, and this episode is meant to be a trial for Kaoruko to realize and appreciate how much Futaba has done for her. At the end, while she does acknowledge that, things pretty get back to status quo.

In fact, I’m more interested with the other angle Revue Starlight focus on: the parallel between Karaoku and Tendou Maya. This show has been consistently bring up the point between natural talent vs hard work. Take Tendou and Claudine for example, for all the efforts Claudine make, she’s still one step behind Tendou because Tendou has the talent plus the heavy effort. Karaoku is one of the natural talent. She’s the prized kid where her parent is an expert at Japanese dance. But without the will to be on top she starts to fallen behind to Futaba, who practices day in, day out. Because of that Tendou somehow seen through Karaoku. There’s a line that Tendou said to her (it’s pretty vague by the way) that reminds her that she needs to try harder for those who support her and “the feeling that you have a duty to be the best you can be”. The duel, unfortunately, isn’t that exciting compared to previous duels. For the show that consistently surprises us with its smart visual storytelling, this episode is also unremarkable in that regard. Karen is sidelined into a loud, one-dimensional character and I didn’t appreciate that much. Not really Revue’ Starlight’s high point, but it’s still solid enough to make it a damn good time.

Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro – 07 [Convenience Store Chio-chan – Chio-chan and the Duel – Remnants of That Day]

by SuperMario, posted in Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro, Currently Watching:

This episode of Chio-chan sure brings back my memory. I was one of those stupid boys who played that zapping butt game (among other stupid games, like stick a pen where my friends would sit) and let me tell ya, it hurts like hell. To the point whenever I listen to this song I would remember that dreadful game. That is to say that I understand completely the life-or-death stake these girls find themselves to. In a more serious note, I feel like the last couple weeks Chio-chan loses its steam as keeping things amusing. I don’t mind the mundane nature of Chio’s misadventures (although I watched the PV of Chio-chan back the other day, it did advertise for a more wide ride. #falseadvertising), but if they want to keep the segment long (as in 10 minutes), Chio’s issue needs to escalate to something completely out-there. That juggling butt out from the public bathroom did the job, this first segment doesn’t.

It’s sad because it starts out strong: Chio goes to her usual store looking for her game’s magazine, instead she’s hooked to the BL magazine and decides to buy it out. OMG that BL segment was so hilarious, I like both the ridiculous lines those characters say, and Chio’s reaction to it (#yaoifortherun). Encountering Aidou-san as a store clerk is a solid gag, but Chio-chan doesn’t properly build up from that and unfortunate drags out towards the end. To be fair, I find the gags where she tries to hide the “suggestive image” and accidently makes it even more erotic funny, but the resolve leaves a lot to be desire. First, playing Aidou as a straight man deflates the comedic tone it was building up – because if he acts normal like everyone else then what’s the fun behind catching Chio busted? I imagine it would be much more hilarious if Chio just runs for her life and cause Aidou to leave the store unguarded. The resolve is just… uneventful.

I could say the same for the second segment as I also feel the gag drags out for too long. That blonde girl (I don’t believe we know her name) who despite coming from a rich school still use that butt-zapping game as A DUEL? Poor Manana who gets zapped twice instead of Chio. This whole duel plays like a juvenile segments out of shows like Squid Girl or Mitsubishi Colors than it does in a Chio-chan episode, but the appearance of Madoka again ruins the show. If I have to point out a single character that could ruin the whole show it would be her, since she leaves bad taste to the mouth all the time. Whatever the reason why the blonde girl has such a grudge for Chio and Manana, we will eventually learn afterward. The last segment for me stands out for what these previous two lack, it’s short, sweet and to the point. It lets the big gag unfolds and finishes before things get pale. It’s one of the few moments where Chio and Manana share some empathy to other character (with a romantic, touching subplot to boost), and the old woman turns out to be an old cranky woman who is both addicted to game, foul-mouth and tech-savvy enough to pour cold shower on our naive Chio and Manana. Life is not what you expect indeed.

Banana Fish – 7 [The Rich Boy]

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

This is it, this is what I needed this week. Banana Fish has become my weekly dose of great drama. This week we meet up with Max’s family, Shorter learns just how terrible gangs are, and we meet a new villain. Lets jump in!

Starting off with the general stuff, what blew me away the most this week were the VA’s. Naturally, as some punk who can’t speak Japanese, I can’t appreciate the finer details. But there were so many scenes this week where, even if my basic appreciation for the language, I noticed it. Makoto Furukawa for instance as Shorter did a phenomenal job. His breakdown near the end was simply a treat. Then there were Ash and Eiji’s conversation, or Shorter meeting with his friend as he slowly fell apart. Even Yut’s sudden tone switch after being found out. Banana Fish did a great job selecting its VA’s, because I am hard pressed to find I don’t actually like. At least among the main cast. And their English ability? Max yelling his son’s name so well surprised me. Just, all around, Banana Fish deserves some recognition on this front.
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Steins;Gate 0 – 18 [Altair of Translational Symmetry -Translational Symmetry-]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense, Steins;Gate 0

This must be what a disappointed father feels like. You want to believe the best, but they just keep letting you down. This week, Steins;Gate 0 has let me down. Hard. Lets jump in.

So, where to begin. First off, once again, Steins;Gate 0 proves its not an action series. So many still shots and poor choreography. So much of what happened was ludicrous and out of place for a series focused on character drama. I think the most egregious example of ridiculous action however is, of course, Kagari’s fault. The shot of her just… cutting a mans head off, a trained soldier, with her bare hands like a karate chop. I hate this shot so much. Steins;Gate is not a gory, super violent action series. This has no place, it doesn’t fit in what the series is. Speaking of Kagari, she is involved in/a direct consequence of everything bad about Steins;Gate 0. So you know what? Strap in, cause I am about to go on a rant.

Continue reading “Steins;Gate 0 – 18 [Altair of Translational Symmetry -Translational Symmetry-]” →

Planet With – 05/06[Paladin Break 1/Paladin Break 2]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Planet With

Well that’s the end of Planet With and what a satisfying ending it was. I mean that final fight was something that would do Gurren Lagann proud and while there are some loose ends the majority of things were tied up quite nice…what do you mean this is only episode six? Hold on, there are six episodes left?! Um…alright, that are a rather conclusive way to hit the midpoint of the series and I truly have no idea of just where it will go from here. But I must say that if this was the ending of the series I would actually be alright with that. Yes Planet With hasn’t quite reached the heights of Satoshi’s other work but it has proved to be a fun series and that last episode was truly marvelous. After watching Fate/Extra’s lackluster conclusion this episode managed to pull off what it couldn’t with a incredibly satisfying final fight against the big bad. It is no joke that this was the absolute best episode of the series so far and has me very interested to see where this could go.

There is a some casualty to this midway conclusion as two of the paladins just straight up give up their powers without a fight. One rejected the leaders ideals and tossed aside her power at the end of episode four and the other just handed over his after the old man fell, stating that he was only staying to help take care of him. It is a little on the disappointing side but when thinking about it this series was making it a bit of a formula with the defeat of the paladins. It could have gotten a bit tiresome to run through the same motions with two other paladins. The old man’s fight against Souya was build up quite a bit in episode five but ended in a single strike in the first minutes of episode six but the fight against Takashi more than made up for that. Takashi’s father, Takezo, had me worried that like Nezuya that he would be a joke character as his alien flashback was just him hanging out with women and eating great food. But he brushed off that pretty easy and showed that there was more to him than he let on. Another nice surprise was that when Nozomi figured out Souya’s connection to the aliens and Souya even telling her who he was. Something like that is normally left for the final episodes which again makes this midpoint ending feel all the more final despite it not even being the real ending. But again it’s refreshing to she Satoshi set up what could be a tired cliche and end up turning it into a true moment of character growth.

But man that final fight. I am serious when I say that I haven’t felt this satisfied after a good punch up since Gurren Lagann. You can argue that it followed predictable beats but I felt it subverted enough to keep things interesting and the fight remained pretty high octane. The best part being the final strike where Souya from nowhere brings back the joke about the clogs and uses one as a makeshift brass knuckle to land the final punch. That was simultaneously hilarious and pretty badass that I was caught between hype, laughter and surprise. Having Souya completely mess up the message Takezo gave him to pass on to his son was also great but even the humor managed to lead to a good moment where Souya at least conveys the intent causing Takshi to admit that his father might have been right. After that he dies, yes, our protagonist accidently killed the guy. Well it’s likely his death was more the result of him overusing the dragons power but it does seem like this is going to weight pretty heavy on Souya. If there was a flaw in this episode it would be that rather hasty exposition dump about the nature of the dragon and how the sealing faction “absolutely destroyed” it. Sure they did, certainly that dragon ain’t coming back in any shape or form right? Well even the General even seems to doubt that point and convincing himself of it. To me this episode shows the true potential of a Satoshi’s writing could have for anime and how good he is at planning out concise and focused stories. The director is stating that things are going to get real crazy after this and you know what? I can’t wait.

Hanebado! – 07 [I’ll Mop the Floor With Her]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hanebado!

I was wrong. I don’t enjoy this dead-eye expression of Ayano at all. It feels as though we’re watching a completely different Ayano characters compared to the first few episodes. That just means in no way I’m identified with this anti-hero version of Ayano. Again, I understand the intention. Ayano has that unhealthy obsession of winning since she believes beating the opponents is the way to get her Mom attention back. But isn’t showing her expressioness face a tad bit too obvious the presentation? I could’ve understood if she meets the Mom and that causes her brutal emotional state, but Hanebado frames that all this was just heartless Ayano being heartless Ayano.

One of the issues this episode have is to flesh out the perspective of Kaoruko by introducing her teammates who we don’t know or care an inch for. Heck, I don’t pretty care for Kaoruku to begin with, but it’s nice we know more about her vulnerable side. As for her teammates, we have all the usual archetypes: the jealous teammates, the losing senpai and the supportive underclassman. It’s a good touch of Hanebado that we get into her perspective during the match, but again this match is never meant to be thrilling. I say that because I can’t see other reason to explain why Hanebado skipped the entire second set and showed the match point instead. For a player who was hyped up as Ayano’s rival, we don’t see any sense of rivalry at all. Just the resentments from each other.

As for the big picture, I’m slightly disappointed that Hanebado focuses too much on Ayano and not enough on the other members. At least show me some of other members’ matches. Nagisa is again delegated into background characters (oh she’ll play against Frederica Girls’ captain next week? Would be a good match), as does the coach Tachibana as he leaves next to no impact to his students so far. As it stands, Hanebado has many potentially compelling drama and some good characters, but it struggles to put any of its assets to full potential, resulting in a show that can be brilliant at one point but jumping around with no purpose at the next.

Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight – 05 [Is Sparkle Even Possible]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Shoujo☆Kageki Revue Starlight

Revue Starlight is back to business this week with its bizarrely entertaining duel. In a way, this duel is a long way coming as this is one of the development I expected to happen sooner or later. What I didn’t expect, however, is the overall light-hearted tone with cartoonish paper cut-out design and Mahiru -Karen fight literally stage-crashing other duels at the same time. I guess it’s because Mahiru is a kind-hearted person so we see her point of view in a rose-tinted glass with almost too naive outlook. Overall, while I have some nitpicks over the episode, it’s a delightful one from start to finish. My only beef with this week is that, for an episode that is about jealousy, we get little to no exposition of that theme. We see Mahiru feeling left out by the appearance of Hikari, but it plays out mostly for laugh (good one at that though). Moreover, Revue Starlight frames her conflict more as her own insecure with the rest of the cast, with all the country pumpkin imply and “sparkle” stuffs. Which again, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s just that “jealousy” isn’t really much there to begin with.

But what this episode of Revue Starlight does extremely well, it’s how they manage the comedic beat. There are recurring gags about whenever Mahiru doing something “perverted”, Hikari appears with that deadpan expression and walks away. The visual cues sum up very well Mahiru’s situation than many words can tell (it’s show, don’t tell). We have Mahiru’s affection to Karen and we also sense how she feels Hikari invading Karen and her own space. Another notch for great visual gags come later in the duel, where other various auditioning girls get distracted by the duo’s crashing their stage. As for Mahiru, working with all the greatest faces also make she feels unconfident about herself, that she can’t shine like others. It’s her frustration triggers the audition so that she’d have to fight Karen (why not Hikari?) at the revue stage.

The revue duel this week is a total delight with catchy song, humorous, original (even to this show’s standard) and again brimming with many symbolisms that might or might not have a meaning. I mean, I can’t still get my head around the significance of baseball and she hits Karen off. Or even the fact that Revue Starlight animal-codes her as a white kitty cat. As for the duel, well… it’s purposely different from the rest of the duel we’ve encountered so far and I enjoyed every minute of it. With this duel done, however, I hope Mahiru still stay relevant. She’s the odd one out of the 9 members cast and it would be a let down if she remains the least developed character out of this mix. As the final note, two things I can takeaway from this duel: 1) there are simultaneously other auditions happening around at the same time in some extra-dimensional space and 2) I have the most single bizzare image of the week, not from the weird duel, but from our giraffe gets his head down to drink water in the lake with silver coins, while talking no less. Thumbs up for originality!