Hinamatsuri – 10 [Like a River Stream]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hinamatsuri

Our favorite girls Hitomi and Anzu drive central plots this week, even at the cost of Hina and Mao (well, the latter doesn’t matter much, but why does she have such limited appearance?). I don’t have much of a complaint though, since stories involving Hitomi or Anzu are usually Hinamatsuri’s strongest. The humor of this first half, for example, is an extended gag of Hitomi is just too nice she can say no to others requests, and manages to be really good at all of them. It’s also a bit of social commentaries about people who hole themselves up with endless cycle of works that at the end of the day, they lose the drive that keep them going. I’m sure it’s an issue that not only relevant to Japan, but to the Western culture too. The moments where she just literally falls into sleep just after getting home with work uniform and the takeaway dinner sounds strangely relevant. In addition, the two skits this week also make fun of irresponsible adults who keep pushing the child into the dangerous path. Utako is especially (hilariously) wicked this week, forcing her underaged worker to sign a brand new apartment contract (with discounted price, but still). It’s hilarious to see the most sensible adults so far is Nitta, who feels taken a bit aback by Utako’s action. And Nitta being the nicest adult around is a pretty sad fact. I enjoy the numerous random jobs she’s taking, chief among them a mascot who gets punched by the Hero of Justice; and work in an office work and gets bullied by the senpai and all that. Poor girl. Consider that she doesn’t even work for money or even aim for anything higher. What is the point of all that?

One of the missed opportunity in that segment, however, is the questionable loli character design of Hitomi’s Mom, whom at first I thought was Hitomi’s sister. I suspect her childish appearance will become a central gag at some points, but the serious gap between her age and appearance just put me completely off. There’s a fight between her and Hitomi which started all this ruckus, and I like the way that she agrees to go along with all that, just to show you how adults’ mind can work in a mysterious way.

Anzu has a more heartwarming part. I’ll be upfront on this, Anzu’s material has always been stronger than any of those character-centric segment, because Hinamatsuri mixes the right balance between sad, grounded emotion with absurdist part (and cute little face). This last part, she learns a hard way of don’t relying on the gambling money, the money in which she doesn’t work to earn it. Having earned her allowance, it’s surprisingly sweet to see that she desires nothing for herself (wait, where’s the game?). She eventually decides to buy the neck massage machine for her foster parents, and Hitomi (wait, does she have some free time to spare now?) fills up the gap. It could’ve been a nice plan, until another irresponsible adult appears, Sabu, whom you might remember for ratting Nitta out last episode (can you read my tone here?). It could’ve been fine, too, if after winning the first bet, she’d just stop. That’s how the gambling work in general, make you win the first few times, let you sip the taste of greed before taken every penny away from you. Anzu learns that necessary lesson, and like Hitomi points out in the end, it’s her heart that matters the most as a gift. And while those coupons would cost almost nothing, I’m sure her foster parents will treasure it more than things that money can buy.

Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory – 08[One-Man Force]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory

Well…shit. Sadly having read the Full Metal Panic novels quite a while back I was prepared for this particular development and thus wasn’t quite as effected by it as I would have been. bUt I am certain to anyone who is watching this unspoiled that the way this episode started would have caught them completely off guard. But yes indeed, the girl who helped out our protag for the past few episodes and acted as surrogate female lead has been gunned down and is dead. I find myself in two minds over this particular twist as it has its positives and negatives. For one Nami’s death was unexpected as hell and this may be the very first time I seen someone get taken hostage and actually followed through on killing them. Think back to any other time you see this situation and without doubt you would imagine the girl getting out alive with absolute certainty. Yet nope, the countdown happens and just right before it ends at which you think something is going to save her, the villain decides to throw her forward and shoot her in the back. Shouting that the same fate awaits Chidori once he returns to headquarters.

It helps establish our villain in this arc and give Sousuke cause to throw away his recent no killing policy and just go full Rambo. But on the other hand, it is a very “women in refrigerator” twist. RIght from the start Nami was raised to be a sacrificial lamb, simply because killing off the actual main cast would have been far too cold. Her entire purpose is to give Sousuke motivation, development and drive with her death. That’s rather…hmmm. In the previous episode where Kyouko go hit by shrapnel that at least served a purpose in destroying the safe haven of the school and showing the danger that Sousuke and Kaname present by remaining. Nami on the other hand, she was literally tossed in there to die. I normally don’t tend to take matters of gender roles in fiction jinto account as it is fairly murky waters that depends on the opinion of the observer but if I was challenged on this plot point being somewhat sexist I fear I might not have a rebuttal.

But that aside, the previous episodes may have been lacking with the downtime from the main plot but this episode was an action extravaganza. I mean truly the choreography of these fights was exceptional with the pure calculated moves of Sousuke just tearing through every opponent he faced. I have been praising the hell out of the mecha animators and they truly went all out for this. The action was fast and furious, never slowing do a moment to have the protagonist monologue in his head, as a matter of fact that may be the best aspect of this episode. The final confrontation between Sousuke and Kurama was sublime, barely a word of dialogue yet plans unfolding on screen through pure animation. Sousuke shooting the ground to raise smoke to cover himself while he moved position, Kurama dropping a grenade on the stairs as he ran, Sousuke quite literally casually kicking aside the grenade and even the mind games with the door and Sousuke’s bloodtrail. I loved it, may be the best action sequence i seen in quite a while. I even like this villain even though he’s mid boss level at best. While a bit of a gimmick I like the detail that he quit smoking and has taken to chewing carrot sticks to get over his addiction. I also like his high degree of professionalism with his job and knowing that the police chief would be worthless.

But I really like that he fully admits that he hated killing Nami but it was just an effective means to ensure that Sousuke would hunt him to the ends of the earth first and give him time to plan an ambush. Any other villain I can see getting practical orgasmic over killing defenseless women but this guy was at least decent enough to hate having to resort to it. Even at the end when Sousuke won and he was going to die without giving him a thing, he tell Sousuke what he knows after Sousuke reveals that he did it all out of love for Chidori. Which he finds stupid but is moved enough to let him know where to look. Oddly enough I can’t seem to hate this guy. Anyway with another volume covered we won’t be getting a episode next friday as the animation team takes a well deserved break. I get the feeling this series is pushing Xebec to it’s limits and they truly are bringing their full A game to this. My hope is they can make it to covering the last of the FMP novels as to leave FMP unfinished again after all these years would be a serious shame. Though I am worried that this series may not be doing as well as it should due to a lot not watching it thanks to the need to watch all previous seasons, not to mention the really strong lineup this season of competitors with lower bars of entry. I hope in Japan this series is getting the attention it deserves and i know I sure as hell will be buying the blu-ray.

Megalo Box – 10 [The Die Is Cast]

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

Hello and welcome to another week of Megalo Box, with perhaps the best pre-finale hype episode ever. This week we have amazing music, fantastic language skills and lots of converging plot threads. Lets jump in!

First, numero uno, Megalo Box has the best soundtrack of this season. It’s simply fantastic. Pepe Iglesias’ theme was on for maybe 30 seconds and I already fell in love with it. It just oozes style and reminds me of Cowboy Bebop with the rhythm and what I believe is a trumpet. It also fits his character perfectly, with it providing a majority of Pepe’s characterisation this episode. It’s a shame he was taken out so quickly but we will get to that in just a moment. We also had Yuri’s theme this episode which was barely a piece of music, frankly. Hopefully Megalo Box has more in store for Yuri because so far its music has been on point. I mean, c’mon, just listen to this and this. Are they not the hypest tracks you’ve ever heard?

Continue reading “Megalo Box – 10 [The Die Is Cast]” →

Steins;Gate 0 – 9 [Pandora of Eternal Return -Pandora’s Box-]

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

Welcome, another week another dose of Steins;Gate 0. This week is a very relaxed, calm episode for the most part so we can wind down from last weeks tragic drama. Lets jump in!

This week was, compared to last, a slow one and that’s a good thing. The main plot with Amadeus is laid out and Okabe now has his motivation, so letting everything stew for a while should help us reconnect with all the characters. This episode really seemed like a general role call sort of thing. Here are the ones that matter, here’s all of our plot threads like Suzuha’s desperation and Kagari’s amnesia or Maho’s secrecy. It was a good change of pace after the packed drama of last week. Steins;Gate 0 also took the opportunity, the quiet moments, to explore Okabe’s mental condition and the general state of the world. Because of this not much actually happened, but it was a good check-in sort of episode before things no doubt really get going.

Continue reading “Steins;Gate 0 – 9 [Pandora of Eternal Return -Pandora’s Box-]” →

Darling in the Franxx – 18/19[When the Sakura Blooms/Inhumanity]

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

It’s hard not to get a foreboding feeling when the squad decides to hold a wedding for Kokoro and Mitsuri, especially when you consider the previous time this studio animated a wedding scene. Yep, it was fairly obvious that things would go south and south they did go as the two lovebirds were torn apart and had their memories erased. Not sure what APE is really trying to accomplish with this and it does feel like a bit of a forced development for the sake of drama. I originally thought this would be the catalysts for Hiro and the others to turn against Father and begin some sort of rebellion and the end of this episode certainly hinted towards that outcome. Though in the end it turned out that Hiro and crew just went to father, asked for an explanation and got told nothing. Thus his rebellion is to ask Father to kindly let them go after they complete their last mission. For as we all know Father has proven to be very trustworthy and most likely will adhere to this promise with no strings attached whatsoever. Sigh…admittedly these guys are basically just ignorant kids but I find it most silly that they can’t seem to comprehend the idea of Father betraying them.

Without a doubt their last mission will be some sort of suicide mission or Fathers version of “Letting them go free” basically means killing them. As much special treatment the squad has got, I doubt they would be willing to let them out into the world, especially considering that they declare two of them getting married to be “Dangerous” Ikuno’s little Yuri infatuation with ichigo got rather suddenly resolved but it was nice to see Ichigo compare her own unrequited feelings for Hiro and understand what Ikuno was going through. Thus allowing her to let her down gently instead of the predictable response of pushing them away or the fan wish fulfillment route of Ichigo suddenly turning gay.

With the second episode we get a exposition dump on the history of the world from the perspective of Dr Franxx and for a show that was so tight knit about revealing the setting it takes place in, I find this sudden exposition dump to be rather underwhelming. For one the planets history turned out to be far more simple and straightforward than I previously thought which effectively killed the interest it drummed up in me before. So the mysterious APE organisation just showed up out of nowhere, taught humanity to make use of Magma energy and then used that to push humanity to hand control of everything to them. Mining the planets Magma ended up slowly killing it and the Klax seem to be some sort of Antibody to stop Humanity from screwing up the planet beyond repair. It’s all very unsurprising, and rather uninteresting.

The one point of some interest is that Dr Franxx seems to have a obsession with the Klax queen and looks to have creating Hiro’s quad using part of her hair. At least that’s what I assume as others seem to be suggesting that Franxx created Zero Two but with the previous flashback it showed that he clearly found Zero Two and was surprised by her existence. Plus the klax queen is blue and Hiro appears to be growing blue horns. Ultimately this episode killed a lot of the previous interest drummed up by the mystery of this world. Now the only things left are revealing who the APE leaders are and what exactly are Klax. Though I am betting the APE leaders are some Alien beings. As a last note, props to Futoshi for not taking advantage of Kokoro’s erased memories to get her back as his partner and Zorome seems to have truly lost any faith in his revered father.

Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory – 05/06/07[Welcome To The Jungle/Rotten Repose/Giant Killing]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Full Metal Panic Invisible Victory

Forgive my lack up posts recently as work has gotten rather burdensome which has left me little time to blog. But it seems the past two episodes of Full Metal Panic have bee rather subdued when compared to the first four episodes. WIth Mythril on the run and Amalgam having taken Chidori Sousuke is left without any of the military resources he has had up till this point. So we find him in the middle east fighting in a robot tournament with a new heroine and a odd change of focus. I understand to a degree why this arc exists, after all it wouldn’t really make sense for Sousuke to burst into Amalgam headquarters straight away but this is admittedly a rather lackluster arc that could easily be mistaken for filler. In particular I am not fond of this new girl and if there is one thing I truly hate in a series it’s when they introduce a new girl to fall for the main protagonist when the main romance has been decided.

If this arc is good for anything though it’s showing how Sousuke has changed, for one he seems to have adopted a no killing policy for the moment but he’s still pretty brutal seeing as he stabbed a knife into a guys neck and used that as a threat. It’s nice to see his reactions upon being probed about the past. But Sousuke is the one carrying the show at the moment as the newly introduced characters just feel throwaway and second tier. Things will pick up and signs of doing so are here with Sousuke revealing his agenda to get into the illegal fights of the robot tournament. I also must admit there was some smart advertisement sponsorship going on as the robots now have brands pasted on them making a clever way to integrate product placement without it being intrusive. If it means more funds for this anime then I approve as it does feel like real effort and passion is being put into this anime. The mecha CGI animation remains fairly impressive and the fights are quite good.

As lacking as this arc is, at least we got a good fight out of it as Sousuke takes on a M9 in a illegal fight. It makes for an good twist of fate for Sousuke to fight the machine he used to make use of. Almost a reversal of his previous position where in the enemy would have the less advance tech while Sousuke was riding with the state of the art. The fight itself was good and even outside of it were getting rather dark as Sousukes teammates were almost shot and made into pig feed. Though Lemon jumps into with the utterly unsurprising reveal that he is not a photographer but instead some sort of French intelligence agent. We also learn that our new girl here is also whispered which has the weird aspect that all the girls who fell for Sousuke happened to be whispered and a rather foreboding image of Sousuke looking at her through his robots camera and seeing her as bloodied corpse. Possibly a reminder of his failed attempt to rescue a whispered in the first episode all those years ago or just him acknowledging that the girl will be hunted till the end of her days if her abilities ever got out. New episode looks to be a rather tough situation for SOusuke, one that could have him determine just how much this new girl means to him.

Golden Kamuy – 09 [Gleaming]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Golden Kamuy

At this point, I regard Golden Kamuy as a show with interesting ideas, many memorable characters and well-researched settings, but awkward pacing that tries to cram too many stories and lackluster production. It sure knows how to make one hell of an intriguing twist, though. This episode 9 suggests a plot thread no one saw coming, and maybe that isn’t entirely true either. The revelation that Asirpa might have a blood connection to the Nopperabo guy – the guy who stole all the gold and the only one who knows the exact location. So the next questions should be is this theory feasible and what does that mean in the big picture. For the first question, it could be possible, regarding Asirpa and the Ainu community never receive the full bodies of the victims. Maybe that contribute to his urban legend that the guy bears a faceless feature that could be unrecognizable even by Asirpa. The eyes, however, are the only parts in the face that can’t be changed (theoretically speaking), so the fact that Hijikata sees the resemblance in color in their eye could mean that this is the real thing. Then, if it’s true, will this revelation change the game? I’ll say, pretty much. We know next to nothing about this Nopperabo guy except urban legends, so having him as Asirpa’s father could create necessary internal conflicts and raise the tension to the final showdown. I mean, “I am your Father” is a good shocker for any story.

As we suspected, this new side-villain Henmi is pretty much an one-off show. He’s brilliant at parts, just like Nihei in previous game level, but I don’t like the lame comedic innuendo tone and a breakneck pacing at all. The main reason is that while he’s undoubtedly capable of killing maniacally, he was never a threat to Sugimoto and Asirpa. Golden Kamuy clearly frames his attraction to Sugimoto’s immortal ability with overly BL bait which clearly divides viewers and I’m happened to be on the naysayer’s side. In addition, the story goes through crazy events after another that they don’t have time to sink in. Let’s see, Lt Tsurumi happens to play piano at that same house at the time. There’s Maxim gun machine and then there’s a freaking orca appeared out of the blue sea. And then the humor goes batshit insane with Asirpa torn between saving Sugimoto’s life and the need to use a bathroom, or Sugimoto gets naked in front of her to save the serial killer who’s supposed climax with the way he dies (Asirpa DOESN’T bat her eyelash). If there’s one word to describe both the pacing and the tone of this arc it would be “wacky”. At the very least, it closes this current arc before quickly getting into the next stage…

… which is the reappearance of several 7th unit members, now with a totally new mission. I’m not sure if this face-off will escalate to our main duo’s treasure hunt, but so far I enjoy what I see. This little plot adds new dimension to those soldiers, especially Tanigaki and Oogata (sorry mr Twin, you’re still a walking robot). On the one hand, we have deserted Tanigaki who develops a closer relationship to the Ainu community (he’s changed). On the other hand, we have a quite literally back-from-the-death Oogata whom we later learn doesn’t align with Lt Missing Brain’s goal. Which basically mean they know about the gold and they have different plan on how to use it. Now the shooter and the other twin even have their other goal in mind: kill Sugimoto. The shoot-off pans out nicely, although… isn’t it way simpler to just ask Taginaki out and then shoot him? This makes so little sense. He also does an (unnecessary) explanation about his precise snipe, but didn’t he just recovered from a near-death? I guess this will be Oonata’s grave mistake, as Tanigaki now obtains a gun – Nihei’s bear-hunting gun, with only one bullet. It speaks very well to the theme of Golden Kamuy, where at the end of the day, human is nothing but a wild animal like bears. Whether that single silver bullet gonna kill the (two) werewolves, we’ll have to wait and see, but I won’t be surprised if all three are dead in the next episode.

Megalo Box – 8/9 [Deadline of the Dream/A Dead Flower Shall Never Bloom]

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

Hello again everyone and welcome to another (2) week(s) of Megalo Box! First off, apologies for missing last week. Was a bit hectic. Still, means we can cover the rest of the Mikio arc in a single post! Smaller victories! Lets jump in.

To start off, Megalo Box continues to stand out. The rough lineart, the style in every scene and the narrative are lovely. Mikio’s build up, backstory and motivations all made me enjoy him as a character. He was a complete toss-pot of a person, terrible dude, but as a villain I enjoyed him. I am a little annoyed that they are playing up his “pride”, a good loser, at the end with his respect towards Joe however. It just doesn’t fit his character to me. This man was willing to blackmail his opponent, run with AI Gear and inject himself with what can only be drugs all to steal the family company from his sister. These are not the actions of a “good man” and I hope Megalo Box doesn’t attempt to redeem him. Not all characters need to be “likeable”, and we already have Aragaki for this role.

Continue reading “Megalo Box – 8/9 [Deadline of the Dream/A Dead Flower Shall Never Bloom]” →

Hisone to Masotan – 08 [Limited time offer! Spicy granny flavor]

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

Readers who read my previous coverages on HisoMaso would know that I wasn’t very happy with the direction this show took. There’s a mean-spirited tone, and just downright nonsensical with the plot to make our girls fallen in love and then crush their hearts to pieces. But with this episode, I’m happy to say that HisoMaso finds a much stronger shape and it justifies most of the events happened before. So, the main plot going forward gonna focus about the ritual, which actually to move the giant big legendary sleeping dragon to its new bed, and that process can take up to 3 whole days without stop. The real challenge with this is the girls have to fight not to sleep for the whole 72 hours, otherwise that gigantic dragon would go off track. That actually sounds refreshing, for once the overarching plot isn’t going to be “saving the world and destroy bad guys” like I afraid, and there’s still some actual stake in there. Moreover, this ritual speaks well to this strange yet whimsical world.

We also know the true identity of the yogurt old lady (it’s about goddamn time). Turns out she was a OTF pilot back in the last time they carried the mission, and she proves to be a good addition to this cast. Her wise advice regarding how they fight with the lack of sleep, for example, is to sleep, on the ground that they have to be in sync with the dragons in order to ride them normally even when they’re asleep. After a brief argument with Hisone (in which I find her reason a bunch of rubbish. Man, her reasons never make sense to me), the old wise woman proceeds to do just that: let them relax and just listen to the sound of their dragons. This goes well in the end and for me, the episode brings me back to the show after a somewhat disappointing middle part.

So we’ll have a celebration (in which HisoMaso phrases it as “Ritual” huh? Will there be any sacrifice here?), we have the torii gate, the dragons and their pilots as the main players, and naturally we need to have shire maidens too. Which comes to the aspect I’m not confident about HisoMaso: the romances. While I personally enjoy the growing chemistry of Hisone and Okonogi, I can’t say the same with Hosino and the captain whatever-his-name-is. It feels hamfisted at best that they need to show us that these girls have some romantic feeling beside piloting dragon. Furthermore, the reveal in the end, the Okonogi is an important figure of “Divinity department” and his apparent love-interest put Okonomi-Hisone relationship into another light and I’m not sure if I’m on boat with this twist. Now that relationship becomes a three-way love which… is how anime plot tends to do, which is too say it’s repetitive and tiresome. I’m growing fond with Okonogi, however, and I especially like the part where Hisone tells him about the “original shitty horror movie which just released in Bluray” part, so yeah at least for now it’s not a deal-breaker. This episode does a pretty admiring job of pulling this show back from their weak and misfired last couple of episodes, at least for now I’m looking forward to see how HisoMaso going to wrap itself up.

Hinamatsuri – 09 [Life is about Survival]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Hinamatsuri

It’s a bit late in the game now that Hinamatsuri introduces another set of new characters, and unlike these new additions we’ve seen the last few weeks, Mao looks to be a prominent character, at least on the same level with Anzu and Hitomi. Part of me afraid that she won’t have time to reach her full potential, consider the fact that we only have roughly 3 episodes left. The bigger remaining part of me welcomes her with all my heart, since Hinamatsuri is always at its best when they play around with the new characters. Nao is another excellent addition to this ensemble cast. She’s more composed and mature than both Anzu and Hina, and they way she can mimic their voices perfectly speaks well to her sensitive and her big heart. We’re heading to more tragicomedy territory here, one that isn’t in Anzu’s level, but Hinamatsuri again succeeds in making this segment hilarious and achingly sad at the same times. There’s obviously a reference to Cast Away (although I haven’t seen that movie so I can’t speak for how much relevant), and it’s whimsical in the way she asserts Hina and Anzu’s voices (especially Hina, where she only has one line, appropriately – “feed me”). But her vulnerability alone makes it a sad undertone. No human enjoy being lonely, and I’m quite surprised that she keeps her sane for that long before she snaps out of it. She’s on the quest to get into land now (which according to the map she’ll probably get to Thailand or China), and I guess it’s the time when we get back to the flashforward bit in the first episode.

The second segment focuses on the yakuza part and introduces another character, but this time this new Nitta’s yakuza brother is weak, compare to all the new players we’ve seen so far. In fact, he’s my least favorite character in this universe, and it doesn’t help that I don’t care much about Nitta and this whole new yakuza boss affair. I can, however, point out two of my favorite moments on that segment. The first being Hina’s insensitive comment that leads the old man into (brief) coma. And the second is the striking image of Nitta waking up and finding himself holed up in a concrete box, which reminds me a great deal of Baccano. But the main plot doesn’t carry much weight or have anything specific to say except that Nitta is 100% behind uniting the yakuza group (which in itself doesn’t really mean much). For my take, I believe this story can be more hilarious if Hina involved in rescuing Nitta, or if Nitta just has it enough and make the scene. But nope, it went the most conventional way which also means it falls flat for me.

In the last segment, we shift back the focus on Hina and Nitta as Hina plans to make a “surprise party” for Nitta. Being Hina, the surprise party also means there is no “surprise”, nor “party” at all. While I enjoy most of what happened, this feels like a repeated version of Hina messing up we’ve experienced before. The funniest moments are undoubtedly when Nitta sees the whole “celebration”, which looks more like a mogue; and Hina rising up from the “coffin”, with her lame t-shirt and equally lame greeting. It doesn’t surprise Nitta that much though (more like nothing surprises him anymore), and his stoned-face reaction captures well the awkwardness of this surprise party.