Golden Kamuy – 07 [Complication]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Golden Kamuy

This week ties up one plot thread that is Nihei and Tanigaki and their quest for hunting down the wise wolf and overall it does a decent job at that. Continuing from where the last episode left of, this final confrontation works for me because everyone has a moment to shine. Sugimoto proves that he does have some strategy beside his strong survival skills by using the Escape Artist to… escape. Tanigaki is wise and underhanded enough to use Asirpa as a hostage, and Asirpa also more than serves her role well when she saves Tanigaki’s live by cutting his poisoned flesh. But the main stars in this arc lie in the final showdown between Nihei and Retar – the man and the force of nature itself – with a welcome twist. Nihei has it under control until he realizes he lets his guard down, that Retar never intents to face the man down upfront, but he only serves as a distraction for his mate to attack him from behind. The wilderness again outwits the man, through the power of family bond, something that all the men in Golden Kamuy seemingly leave behind to pursuit their own goals.

What happen right aftermath this fight furthers highlights many of Golden Kamuy’s stronger moments. Tanigaki, barely walking, comes up to the death Nihei and says his chant. That’s the respect. Asirpa refuses to let anyone die in her ability by bringing Tanigaki and the Ainu dog back to her village. Golden Kamuy might not have the excellent production by their side: all the action scenes are only just functional, and their violence is somewhat extreme, but the violence never serves as glamorized action (unlike Tarantino’s films for example – except for certain skewer sequences), it’s gruesome, and it fits with the world these characters inhibit in: gruesome, bleak, macho. But the ones who survive so far, as we further see after this Retar’s arc, are the ones who have companions and it’s the desire to keep their companion safe that push them farer than those who simple have nothing to lose. Seeing it on that light, it’s a good sign for both Asirpa and Sugimoto.

This episode also gives us Lt. Tsurumi’s emotional motive for pursuing the gold and really, it’s not in the least surprises me. Feeling betrayed by the Government after literally putting their lives on the line, the 7th Hokkaido unit aims to stage a coup to basically regain “what was rightfully theirs”; and give more job opportunities for their family members by opening the weapon factory (!). What’s the catch, then? That the amount of gold is in really far bigger than the assumed amount (about 1,000 times bigger). That is to say those soldier bastards won’t leave the game anytime soon, and Sugimoto and the gang come upon another issue of whether or not to trust Tanigaki at all. With this kind of story, don’t expect anyone a friend even when they’re on your side, and the same could apply for our escape artist.

But if there’s another special skill that our escape artist inhabits, it’s his ability to run into trouble in every corner. He bumps into Ushiyama and they engage in the hilarious chase, in which Ushiyama jjust sweeps off all the barriers with inhuman skills (that involves taking a damn HORSE down Mongo-style takedown). Seems like it’s time for our group to finally meet the prisoners, although with only 1-cour confirmed I am not sure how Golden Kamuy can bring this story to a satisfy conclusion, given that all the events happened so far feel like they just finish its introduction phase and now moving on to the second arc.

Hisone to Masotan – 06 [I’ll Shout Your Name]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hisone to Masotan

At one point during this episode I almost felt that Hoshino was just too overboard. Being stubborn is one thing, but when you’re too stubborn you outright hurt others’ feeling without backing down, it’s irritating to watch. The issue with Hoshino, as we come to learn during the flashback, is that piloting an F2 has been her lifelong dream. And she tries, amongst the male-dominated world, to reach that dream. Then this dragon picks her and she determines to push forward to make her dragon a F2 plane. The dragon understands that so he tries to stay in Foxtrot form all the time. It’s a classic abusive relationship if I’ve ever seen one. The main thing is, for Yoshino it’s her desire to fly, not piloting a F2, that hooked her in the first place and their flight together in the end further reminds her of that.

Meanwhile, the other three manage to survive for few days and initially forgets all about their training objective. No big deal, when the dragons are happy they can just take wings and fly off (And eventually they did). These girls encounter the shrine inside the cave with Masotan and other dragons’ symbol in there, so I reckon that this island is a spiritual place where the dragon pilots – white lovers, shrine maidens, whatever exchange some form of mutual relationship with the dragons. They all have the same dream that night of a lady riding a dragon, which I guess for now is either the yogurt old lady or Nao’s mom. Well, we have all the elements in place now: the maidens, the shrine, the dragons, the last thing left is the ceremony itself so let’s see how HisoMaso eventually get into that part.

While I feel the drama and the overall serious tone are just passable, it’s the comedy that fares much better this time. In particular, the comedy duo Hisone and Nao’s puppet head provides some nice gags, including one of the most tragic faux “death” in recent history (Hisone’s face is priceless). The voice acting also work wonderfully well, especially the licking gags of Hisone – just to show you how weird our main protagonist is. Nao and Iboshi’s current crave for kiwi doesn’t really work for me, but it ties its thread well with the final revelation. As of now, I feel HisoMaso just doesn’t have enough of a central plot to make a proper impact, and it relies instead on the gorgeous visuals and quirky character expressions. It’s a nice show to watch and enjoy, but when it’s all done you realize the story doesn’t progress much, and sometimes it feels like the plot just stands still and doesn’t go anywhere at all.

Megalo Box – 7 [The Road to Death]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Action, Megalo Box

Hello everyone, and welcome to the most surprising episode of Megalo Box yet. This week we have family drama, Joe’s declining health and a shocker of an ending. Lets jump in!

So starting from the top, lets talk about this ending. I never thought Megalo Box would pull something like this, with its limited number of episodes. I assumed there would be a basic, linear progression of fights. With this however we now have 2 strong antagonists, or perhaps 2 protagonists. Its difficult to decide where Yuri fits into this, though Mikio’s place is clear. Regardless I am very impressed through brought Joe’s legal citizenship back into question. Mikio was already an interesting opponent, the rich boy with something to prove, but this blackmail really sells his “Anything to win” attitude. I am slightly disappointed that we didn’t get a fight, and might not get one next week, but based on the quality of previous fights, its not that big a loss. Fewer, higher quality fights with intense narrative weight like the inevitable Mikio fight will beat out Samejima any day.

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Hinamatsuri – 07 [Anzu Is a Greeter Now]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hinamatsuri

At this halfway mark, I want point out that the comedy of Hinamatsuri isn’t as sharp as the first few episodes (except for the segment including Hitomi’s classmates). There’s still absurdist sense of humor, sure, but it doesn’t make me laugh out lout or even make me chuckle. That is to say I come to enjoy the show’s drama much greater. This first short segment about Anzu, for example, hits all the right notes that you just can’t help but want to hug her. Anzu’s first day of work is… full of hearts and wonders, for the lack of better world. Here’s a girl who started from the very bottom of the society, now that her living condition is better (her own room, her own bed), she still appreciates what she had learnt from Yassan and the homeless people. The way she’s still used to her old habits (stunned over the cash till, taking a cold shower, cleaning up the used chopsticks) play mostly for gag, but it hides a sense of sadness under it. One thing for sure is that her first day in the restaurant is a whole lotta fun, and her life is going up from now on.

At least I’m glad that Hina becomes much more active this week. In the second segment, triggered by Nitta’s remark “find a way to make it fun”, she nominates herself to run for student council president, which only two things in mind: improve the lunch meal and more time to nap. Then somehow the lawyer of the big yakuza organization involved and what I find the most “genius” is the way he connects Hina’s two dot-points draft into a sensible and logical argument. Of course after a good meal, everyone would want to sleep, right? Hitomi’s reactions speak volume here, so does Hina’s clueless speech that include stage directions to her speech like they’re the most natural things in the world. This segment is where the static Hina works best for me, her stoned face and mono-tone need to contrast with something as bombastic and out of left field as this. Otherwise, our poster girl can only be suited for mascot.

The dynamic between Nitta and Hina come back in full force in the last section, and I actually quite like the way the direction it went this time. Nitta, for the first time, shares something personal to Hina. Hina and Hitomi take that hint and want to talk Utako into having a date with Nitta. Of course, Hina will have to screw it up in front of Utako since she has absolutely no sense to “taking the hint”, but somehow the date still happens with some unexpected twists. First, Hina breaks her ankle because Nitta’s swinging (Hinamatsuri comes close to screwball comedy here), and second, Utako rejects Nitta out right. It should be a punchline here, but for me this one the punch doesn’t land well, because it drags so much with all the montages of their date with an obvious result. It could work much better if the show includes their conversations instead of this. At least now that Nitta truly regards Hina as his family, so Mother or not, hand puppet or otherwise, it’s all good for now.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These – 7[The Capture of Iserlohn (Part 2)]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These

The majority of this episode was detailing the plan and execution of Yangs takeover of Iserlohn which does seem rather simplistic when you think about it. This is a point where LOGH shows its age a bit and while they tried to bump it up by throwing in a body scanner, there is still the rather grievous oversight of the control room not being monitored at all from the outside. For such a key part of the fortress it sure is light of security but you can forgive this a bit and they still managed to make it somewhat feasible. One thing I miss from the OVA was Yang moving his ships around to put pressure on the captain to let the Rozenlitter through security checks. Mainly because it shows that Yang at least had some part in the plan where as here it seems to all come down to the Rozenlitter getting through security and holding the commander hostage. Sure Yang had some part in leading the other commander away but the plan sure seems simple when you have an overview of it.

The aftermath of Yangs victory was certainly somber though as the other commander returns to launch a suicidal assault against the captured Iserlohn. In another show his warriors pride would be considered admirable but here it really shows the utter arrogance of it. This man was dooming millions to die over his pride and even as Yang fired shots to convince him to flee, he still kept pressing onward. I am reminded of the Kiritsugu way of thought where he talking of dressing up killing and war with glory and chilivery. Indeed Yang took Iserlohn without losing any of his own men. But there were men of those ships Yag shot down with Thor’s hammer. And that was no small number of men. So it’s to see that Yang doesn’t take pride in his victory and to him he did his job and nothing more than that. Walking away regretting he was force to kill in order to do it.

We also see the introduction of a third natural party to the conflict, the planet Fezzan who are definatly going to play a role in future events. So now can Yang retire to a peaceful life of drinking bourbon in a teacup….oh Yang. It is always rather amusing that Yang seems to underestimate his own worth and that is likely the factor that causes him to overlook his inherent value to the FPA. Sorry Yang, you ain’t retiring early anytime soon. So bloody hell Julian let him have his alcohol, he’s earned it.

Steins;Gate 0 – 6 [Eclipse of Orbital Ordering -The Orbital Eclipse-]

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

Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls, Steins;Gate 0 has stomped the throttle and cut the breaks. Lets skip the intro and just get right to it. Early on I thought this episode was going to be slow, we were going to focus on our characters and relax a bit. I thought it would be drama free. Apparently however this was just the calm before the storm. Far earlier than I predicted, I was assuming ~episode 12, the shoe drops and our plot begins in earnest. I am so happy. This means, hopefully, that there are no more additional characters and that no more additional world building is necessary. For this shoe to drop, it means all of our relevant actors are in play. Now onto drama and theorizing!

First off, triggers. In the original Steins;Gate, as seen by the flashback, Mayurii’s watch stopping was the signal that she was about to die. However we know in this timeline that Mayurii lives. So the question becomes, who dies next episode? My money is on Maho. Shes gotten a lot of screen time, everyone loves her, and she clearly likes Okabe. Add to that the fact that Amadeus’ server gets shut off, and I think we have a new death-flag/dead friend combo. Maho also already had the foreshadowed stalkers/Dr.Reyes “mugging” incident, so the signs are already there. The only real hole to this I see is there is no D-Mail, so no easy time travel, at the moment. Killing off anyone here is a big commitment, taking them out of the series for awhile most likely. I legitimately cannot wait to see how this shakes out.

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Golden Kamuy – 06 [Hunter’s Soul]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Golden Kamuy

Well, (animal) shit. Golden Kamuy starts slow this week and ends with a bang. This episode presents many of Golden Kamuy’s ups and downs so it’s best to dissect them one by one. For the negative part, the pacing is still off. This episode spends too much time on Sugimoto and Asirpa hunting that poor deer that there’s no sense of urgency, then it follows up with another food-fest that is out of place and rush up to the white wolf hunting. On the cuisine-of-the-wilderness matter, the manga actually does a better job of infusing the light touch to this heavy thriller, but that’s more because of the chapter format works better that way. Here in an episode it feels like a bumpy ride. In addition, this small-arc revolving Nihei Tetsuzou and Tanigaki feels aimless at first. I feel the same directionlessness when our Asirpa and Sugimoto hunt the deer down. Isn’t this a story about them chasing gold? I asked myself. The Golden Kamuy starts to connect all the dots and I actually find myself engaged and all the themes start to make sense. Well, the development still has some lucky coincidences (like Nihei Tetsuzou “happens” to be an ex-prisoner, Shiraishi just “conveniently” gives the duo the news or where are the 7th Unit Army and these tattooed prisoners this week?), but otherwise it’s a decent showdown we’re getting here.

It’s the episode’s narrative thread that starts to emerge with the gold chase premise. On Sugimoto and Asirpa’s side, the early part of them pursuing the injured deer speaks more about Sugimoto and his own reflection. Here’s the man who never bat an eye when killing enemies, yet he’s hesitant and somewhat shaken to kill this poor deer. The deer’s survival instinct reminds him of himself, when facing death in the eyes he becomes fearless – in one of the episode’s stunning visual metaphor: the deer becomes a vision of him. The notion of death, or rather, the cycle of life, is further elevated by the point of view of Nihei Tetsuzou, who regards to die in the forest, get eaten by the animals and become animal shit as a perfect cycle of life (that view is shared by Asirpa too). Killing and hunting are one main identity of Golden Kamuy, and it makes a fair distinction between those. In Golden Kamuy, human hunt animals, but they pay proper respect and believe the prey’s presence go back to the nature of life. Killing, on the other hand, is merciless and receive no such respect.

In a completely different sense, we can view this episode as the games of several hunters. On one side we have our duo hunting the deer (I swear I stop bringing up that poor deer now), on the other side we have superhunter and deserted soldier hunt for legendary white wolf. Then we have Asirpa and Sugimoto hunt these villains instead and now it’s a matter of which team can outlast the other. And this wonderful standoff in the end furthers bring the main premise back up front, now that the bear-hunter himself carry that skinned map in his body. It’s a single stone that kill two birds huh? Save Rectar and have the map for themselves. One last thing I’ve noticed though is the way Golden Kamuy increasingly hints us at the possible death of Sugimoto (this week it plays out as a joke and the way he sees himself in that poor de– Damn, again), and it’s that the case I think it makes sense as Sugimoto is pretty much the tragic hero suited only for battle, so he’d have no place when the war and this gold chase are over.

Hisone no Masotan – 05 [Do You Really Think That There’s Anybody Who Likes Being Disliked?]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hisone to Masotan

There’s one thing you can count on original shows, you can never know for sure what the plot is going next. Sometimes, it surprises you with its sheer originality and sometimes, it could go to weird places. HisoMaso falls into the latter this week, literally where it’s taking us to an uninhabited island for the survival test. It’s this week that the show goes for more serious tone, and I’m not quite sure if this seriousness works for the show’s benefit. First, I don’t buy any talk from Administrative Vice-Minister Iiboshi at all. He seems to be the one who knows the most about the connection between OTFs and their pilots, but all his “white maiden” metaphors scream all pretentious with no real substance for me. I mean, the show’s pretty obvious with their visual motifs in support for this white-maiden tale: the traditional festive in the beginning, the torii gate and the rice cakes but now all seem vague and contrived to me.

Second, the way Iiboshi (and the show) frames that the main reason the dragons choose the pilots is because of the girls’ self-loathed. Now THAT I have issues with. Hisone puts it better than anyone: Without Masotan, she’ll be just a social awkward girl who talks to herself too much and is unfit for society. The girls themselves admit later on that they regard their dragons as a way to close themselves off to the people around them. Now thinking back, this has always been Hisone’s perspective towards Masotan since they first met. She said to her dragon the same thing before that she was flattered by the dragon’s choice because she feels special; and her speech to Masotan to “take his responsibility” for choosing her. It’s a flawed way of regarding your partner (and definitely not better than Eri who regards the dragon as the tool) but things might change for the better once the girls have more confident in themselves.

The gist of this episode is, however, to show us how dysfunctional those girls are. It feels to me that these girls are the protagonists of their own story, and then awkwardly assemble them altogether. As such they belong to their own story and have absolutely no chemistry put together. It’s a compliment actually since this episode works its way up to improve the girls’ dynamic together (and also, their relationship with the dragons). In terms of set-up, this is as classy as possible: throw the girls into a deserted island with their (somehow useless) dragons, and force them to interact for the same goals. Matters got worse when Hitomi’s dragon eats all the food supply. Everyone has their own way to deal with it, mostly sleeping and wander aimlessly, and working together remains their last option. Disappointed Hisone soon finds out that despite their team work is close to non-existent, each of the girl can still offers something useful, and together they can manage to survive… for few more days.

Their objective for now is to let the dragons have fun until they get hungry, they’ll fly again. But isn’t it better to figure out why the dragons can’t fly there? That brings us to Eri. While the point of this mission might be improving the team work, it also works as a way to improve yourself and understand your dragons better and Eri needs that now. She’s determined to abandon the dragon to accomplish the mission, but as HisoMaso hints us she opened her heart to the dragon once, so now is the good time to revisit the very moment her dragon picks her in the first place. HisoMaso so far gets away with a lot of its stupid ideas because of its incredible ability to not take itself seriously, so I hope when they finally get serious they have to find a way to hold everything up together, because eye-candy visual alone can only go so far.

Side note: I’m not a fan at all of this overlong, LN-inspired title. Remind me in a bad way of the episode titles in Kiznaiv… wait, that anime was written by Mari Okada too? Never mind then.

Darling in the Franxx – 17[Eden]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Darling in the Franxx

Indeed Franxx appears to be doubling down on a darker more serious tone though I still am wondering if it will truly follow through on this or dismiss it fast and go full on happy ending. Personally I always feel cheated when a series foreshadows dark things to come only to turn tail when it’s time to pay the piper. But Franxx at least looks to be delivering so far and if they do negate all dark tidings and go for a full happy ending that would be quite the betrayal. Anyway in todays episode we get a number of revelations, one of which is that the childcare book that Kokoro has been fascinated with since the beach episode has come back full force. Though I misunderstood Kokoro’s interest in this regard as before I thought her interest was in sex but it appears that her actual interest is in having a child. The logic being that they have a means of leaving something behind for future generations besides fighting and which everyone knowing that there lives have a short expectancy she wishes to leave her mark somehow. I was a bit worried about Mitsuri shunned her after her advances and revealing her intentions but hot damn they actually took a route I thought they wouldn’t. Kokoro and Mitsuri had sex, there is no ambiguity in that for it was shown quite clearly. In fact I would be quite annoyed if they backpedaled this in any way as I am curious to where it leads.

I just hope that book went into good detail over just what Kokoro is in for as if she is oblivious then she has a nasty surprise waiting for her. Childbirth will be pretty brutal if she has no doctors on standby to help her out. Will Franxx intervene or would he see this as interesting experimental material? Speaking of which some recent light has been shed on the nature of “Papa” and the others. I may be misinterpreted this but from the looks of things the leaders of APE are not actually human and are possible alien invaders. They seem to be hinting that Klax are in fact true humanity and APE are alien invaders who have been cloning humans to fight humans. This is quite interesting as it suggests that Humanity has taken on some form of biological evolution in order to fight against the invaders, meanwhile the invaders are seemingly aspiring towards human forms. Either that or these are two branches of humanity, one whom took the path of beastal biological evolution that put them closer to beasts while the other took a path of evolution through technology which pushed them closer to a machine like existence. Both of whom seem to consider themselves “True humans” while the closest thing to actual humans are test tube grown cannon fodder for Franxx. In this case with Dr Franxx I always considered him a human who modified himself into a cyborg but what if it was the other way around and he was a machine that modified himself into a human? For the first time this series has got me interested in the actual world of Franxx which I dismissed as a bit too basic. But now there is quite interesting theming going on.

Not liking the Nines much here though. Of course they are not supposed to be liked but they just seem far too stereotypical cocky and antagonistic. I find it somewhat amusing that despite there egotistical posturing their Franxx piloting style is actually reverse so its funny to see someone so excessively prideful over bending over to pilot a Franxx. But thank god for Ikuno jumping in to slap him once he brought up a touchy subject for her. Indeed they seem to be going hard for a lesbian route for Ikuno which could bring interesting tidings provided it’s handled with care. Care which based on Franxx’s previous record, I don’t think it could provide. As a final note it appears that Hiro is growing blue horns hereby putting the blue Oni theory to near confirmed status and it appears adults go through some emotion damping process which can reverse back into a “puberty” state.

Megalo Box – 6 [Until the Last Dog Dies]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Action, Megalo Box

Alright, Megalo Box was a series of highs and lows this week and I don’t want to waste time with a preamble. So this week, lets speed things up and just jump in!

To start off, the big showpiece of this week is the Aragaki vs Joe fight. We will get to its place in the story, its result and all that later. For now the elephant in the room is the quality of the fight and booooy, is that a mixed bag. To start off, the good. The music was, as always, good. It gave each round its own distinct feel. The final 30 seconds was also phenomenal. The rotating camera shot as Aragaki and Joe just hammer each other… Ive rewatched it more times than I can count. The weight, the rhythm, everything from the first two episodes is there in spades. This single shot managed to keep me excited for Megalo Box’s finale. Sadly, this shot was, animation wise, the only thing it had going for it.

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