Mahoutsukai no Yome – 10 [We Live and Learn]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Mahoutsukai no Yome

Welcome to week 10 of Mahoutsukai! Finally, oh so finally, we have are given some backstory on Elias! Our mysterious male(?) lead gets some explanation. We also get the start of a Chise only arc and finally some more information on Lindel. Lets jump in!

As the main focus of this weeks episode, naturally I have to talk about Elias first. Turns out, Elias has some form of amnesia, so we only get his story since coming to the human world. Told from Lindel’s perspective, is interesting to see how modern Elias differs from his old childlike version. He’s taller and acts more like a child, which both explains Lindel’s relationship with him more and has some genuine humor. Elias drinking the sea-water or shrinking to fit in the door were much better jokes than anything the Chibi are has given us. It also did a decent job of showing Elias a bit more animal than the man he is now. Like the zoom shot on Lindel’s neck as they eat their soup. All in all, not a jam packed backstory, but its more than we had before and I expect more to come soon.

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Dies Irae – 09[A Mother’s Sins]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Dies Irae

DIes Irae isn’t making this easy for the anime only watcher, as we get confused montages of Lisa’s backstory and oddly of a character whose relevance doesn’t come till a much later date. I would say it’s rather spoiler-ish if the info wasn’t presented in such a haphazard way that no one could really decode its contents. I will leave Rens dream for another time and instead let me lay out Lisa’s backstory so that the events of this episode start making some kind of sense. Put simply, Lisa isn’t like the other members of the Obsidian round table who primarily specialize in offense. Instead Lisa’s role in the group was running a special kind of orphanage, one dedicated towards human experimentation. The goal was the creation of a Ubermensch, otherwise known as a superhuman being, so the children in this orphanage were genetically altered to gain psychic powers and trained in them. Thing is that such genetic alteration didn’t come at a cost as the children all died at young ages which Lisa deeply regrets. However she continued her horrific experimentation because at the end goal she could wish all the dead children back to life.

All these experiments where to ensure that when it came time for Lisa to give birth that all the factors would be optimal and she would birth the child that would power Reinhard’s giant gold death castle. She succeeded in birthing that child but managed to have twins, one the genetic abomination that grew fast into adulthood and one completely normal child unaffected by the experimentation. Lisa ultimately decided to hide the existence of the normal child and sent them away while sacrificing the altered child to Reinhard. The normal child grew up in Japan, got married and had Kasumi while Lisa took care of her other granddaughter Rea. Thus due to circumstances both Kasumi and Rea are suitable to be sacrificed to bring Reinhard down to the world. Lisa wants to sacrifice Rea and get her wish so she can bring back all the children she has killed to get to this point while Kristof wants to sacrifice Kasumi in order to save Rea’s life. There is also a number of underlying motivations here like Lisa being terrified of Reinhard which causes her to shun both Johan and Rea due to them reminding her of the man she slept with. Likewise Kristof currently inhabits the body of Reinhard and he in turn wants to prove whether his love for Rea is genuine or some paternal instinct of the body he inhabits.

We also have Kei admitting that she’s doing all this to bring back her loved ones while Rin points out the simple truth that if bringing back someone was that easy then they wouldn’t be truly precious in the first place. Kei is also Shana now can goes all flaming hair red eyes and i must admit that my attention span is slowly drifting away. Kei can basically be considered a protagonist due to her different roles in the Visual Novel and as I mentioned before, the protagonists of this story are not very interesting. Even looking at the above paragraph I wrote goes to show just how complex and nuanced the villain’s motivation is when compared to Kei’s shortsighted and childish desire. Even Marie here just goes and points out the obvious detail that ever since Reinhard stab his big spear into her, shes started feeling feelings she never felt before. Is it bad that she got something good from an evil persons actions?

Afraid I don’t really care all that much because I don’t really understand how getting stabbed gave her emotions in the first place. I admit that this post has more or less been an explanation of the episode itself rather than a review of it but truth be told I don’t particularly have any real thoughts on the episode. Partly out of apathy and partly cause the Dies Irae kickstarter has once again screwed up and left me feeling rather irritated with the company that made it. I can’t say my impression with Light as a company is a positive one considering how rather slapdash this adaptation is and the handling of the Visual novel kickstarter. Well I suppose I got to read this story, even if getting it was harder than it needed to be and this anime did at least get some people to check out the source so it at least accomplished something. Well next episode we get get to see the first of the big three enter the scene with Balalaika impersonator Elenore.

Girls’ Last Tour – 10 [Train – Wavelength – Capture]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Girls' Last Tour

Girls’ Last Tour examines the concept of time and space this week, as the girls riding on a lonely moving train. The train design fits right in with this world: a long metal box that functions all by itself and contains many now-dysfunctional robots – corpses of the machines. Since last week we learnt that they are capable of thinking on their owns and sharing the empathy with human, it’s a sad sight to witness that they are now basically a worthless junk. What even sadder is those that still remain: the train’s still functioning despite no one else need a ride, the clock’s still running despite it loses all its meaning. It’s a neat trick from Girls’ Last Tour to insert the robots’ perspective imaginary to remind us about its past lives, just like the graves the girls saw the other day. Yuu wonders if they actually go faster now that they’re on the moving train, in which Chi-chan snaps back that theoretically they don’t, since they are always on the moving Earth. Time goes pretty much the same way. Technically, they don’t go any faster, but since the concept of hours is long forgotten it doesn’t matter either way.

And then Girls’ Last Tour address something that transcend both time and space: the wavelengths, in the form of radio waves and in the form of light. Yuu picks up a noise in the radio that she took from the filing cabinets. That noise becomes clearer the more they get closer to the surface; and it turns out to be a melancholic tune. It feels like the memory of the old people still linger in there. Moreover, there is a reason why cinematography and photography regard sunset as the golden hour, as it produces a magical and dreamlike effect. Light is technically a wavelength, and for this particular moment, both the music from the radio and the red sunlight create something sad, something that still relevant and can’t be lost through thousands of years. That beautiful, quiet moment is also an acknowledgement to the transience of life – that the moment only last for a short period of time – it’s a true sense of Mono no Aware if I’ve ever seen one.

The last segment, however, ends this episode in a much lighter and opening note, as the girls encounter a strange creature, whose they thought was a cat. This mascot animal looks very similar to the stone statue. Long, thin, white and somehow can repeat the girls’ words through the radio. It’s nice to see the girls take something in for a change, instead of many one-offs they have encountered so far. Girls’ Last Tour still produces a pretty solid, albeit a bit lacking in weight this time. Now, the journey of two and a half girls, continues on.

Kino’s Journey -The Beautiful World- – 10[Kind Country]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Kino’s Journey -The Beautiful World-

Another remake of a story from the old series and while this one is adapted quite well, maybe even arguably better than the old version, it unfortunately lacks the same impact. The main problem comes back to the thing which ultimately holds back this season as a whole, story choice. For you see in the old series the stories were much darker and there were few stories which had countries that welcomed Kino warmly. Most were cold and formal with how they treated Kino and the general tone was more grim. The old series also established the importance of Kino’s three day rule and showed her past. So after going through a season of that and ending with this story about a kind country truly made for a great finale due to the nature of the episodes before it. The new series doesn’t have that same weight to it. it’s already shown Kino violating her three day rule and also failed to show its importance. Kinos past has instead been reserved for next episode and the stories of this season have been much more light hearted than the previous season. What made this episode great before was that it came after a season cour of Kino traveling to flawed country after flawed country. Thus the one time when she finds a truly wholesome and welcoming country it is tragically destroyed before her very eyes. A small piece of beauty in a otherwise cruel world and something that gives meaning to the subtitle of this series.

I don’t really understand the logic of having this story here in the middle of the series and not to mention animating the country of adults right after it. Overall the structure of this seasons stories has not really been very thought out and seems to be just following the notion of animating popular stories without considering their context. Not to mention adapting stories which don’t really require a new adaption. Still regardless this is a good story and the final twist still hit hard. The basic story being Kino traveling to a country widely rumored to be horrible to travelers only to find they welcoming and kind. The whole way through the episode you are waiting for a dark twist, just waiting for the gut punch that turns all their kindness insincere but that doesn’t come. Instead we get the reveal that the country was doomed to be destroyed in a volcanic eruption and the people of the land made there peace with it. The children remained oblivious to their impending death as the tour guide girl lead Kino around happily unknowingly of what awaited in a few days. As Kino was the last visitor to their country they wanted her to leave with good memories of the place. Just when you think that’s the only hard hitting moment there is the second revelation that the tour guide girl knew full well that everyone was going to die and yet despite given the opportunity to leave still chose to stay and die with her family. I didn’t feel much at the first reveal but the second managed to make me feel something.

Admittedly there isn’t all that much to this story other than the emotional factor and the final twist. That kind of what made it a better finale due to its simplicity and sense of finality. The only other thing to be gleaned from it is that the man who gave Kino the woodsman and cleaned her gun also happen to be her Masters former assistant. Bit odd to see Kino only receive the woodsman here as in previous episodes she already had it but Kino doesn’t play out in chronological order. So other than finding out what happened to the masters assistant it’s just a tragic story of Kino finding a kind place. So it doesn’t have the same kind of thought provoking undercurrents as other Kino stories would. Truly this story was more about Kino and how she changed as a result of this place which again makes the placement of this story here weird. Still the next stories placement is even weirder and I don’t really understand why it’s being remade in the first place. With this, one fourth of this cour is remakes of episodes from the old series and sadly not even the best episodes. I am really hoping that another season of Kino is on the way as it would be a real shame to just leave it at this

Houseki no Kuni – 10 [Shiro]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Houseki no Kuni

This week proves to be the most action-packed episode Houseki has been offering so far and unconventionally, it’s Dia who takes the central stage at facing the most ridiculously overpowered Lunarian Titan to date. Well, I said “unconventionally”, but when the narration and the execution (the camera work, in particular) come together in such neat package I have no complain whatsoever. Viewers might point to the second half of this episode as Houseki’s most memorable moments, and they’re indeed correct, but for me the first half is just as equally impressive, despite… well, nothing really happens. Take the first segment for example, where Phos just sits in one place and other characters pop in and out of the picture, in sequence, it feels like we’re in a play. Indeed, that segment is constructed like a theatre play, with Phos sometimes sits in the middle of the “stage”, talks to one cast member at a time and then narrates themselves. Moreover, just by the way Phos interacts with different Gems we can learn immediately about Phos’ current role in this gems’ society: helping out Lexi about Lunarian’s types, taking a patrol job from Jade, still a topic of curiosity from Rutile, partnering up with Bort, and most importantly, we learn that Phos is still haunted by the loss of Antarc. All that and Houseki never betrays its quirky sense of humor. The moment those jellyfishes jump off their pots totally win me over. I didn’t even notice that the Gems use jellyfish as a light source before. That explains the light changes color depending on which Gems taking a spotlight was the jellyfishes deciding to change color, and obviously has nothing to do with Houseki’s artistic liberty.

Dia’s reaction towards receiving the news from Phos has to be Houseki’s most expressive reaction in the whole season, because it fits Dia’s character too well. Shock at first, but Dia quickly accepts that fact and even forces Phos to accept the personality of Bort. I know they’re Gems so they have different concept than us human when it comes to pairing/ partnering, but for me the Gems’ break up is just as hard as ending a relationship. Dia takes those sad feeling all to themselves – of course they’re never worthy enough to be paired with Bort. Of course now that Phos is stronger, it’s only natural for Bort to team up with Phos. The moment Dia just sits there picking flowers in complete loneliness, follow immediately by them looking at their old partner from afar is both sad and heartfelt. Houseki is really spot on at delivering those little character moments. Dia’s arc comes to a satisfying closure at the end of the episode, when Dia gets out of their own insecurity to face the beast head on, and later on when they see Bort again in their own shattered state, Dia fully lets all their burden go. “I’m glad we spilt up” and “From afar, I see just how much you mean to me”. Both are true, spoken from the bottom of their heart (if they ever have one).

Finally, holy cow! The animation, the choreography and the camera work really something else altogether. I would expect that level of excellence in theatrical movie or a top-notch 3D game, not in a “budget” anime show. To put it simply, Houseki is a prime example of an anime that uses the CG right. The two fights are stunning with some of the best cinematography that play almost entirely in one single cut. Just watch the fight sequence of Dia and Shiro in full movements and the long take makes us feel like we were participating in the fight along with Dia. Or the sequence before that when we follow Dia hiding behind the box, we get to see they leaning forward and back in real time, then the camera just zooms out while Dia hides so we can feel in sync with the situation Dia is in. Also I have to note that the way Dia uses their own leg and their own sharpness as a weapon is a smart move, since diamond is weak under impact but extremely lethal when it comes to cutting. At long last, Shiro is cut in half… and split into two smaller Shiros. With only Bort fighting them, how can they pull it off? We have one of the best action-sequence of this whole year and for my money one of the best episode of this season. Houseki goes completely insane this week and ends up outdone themselves. The only issue remains… All these cliffhangers are really bad for my blood-pressure.

Fate/Apocrypha – 22[Reunion and Farewell]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/Apocrypha

Breaking my usual routine today just to give an opinion on this episode but this episode made me feel compelled to get out my opinion. We have another action packed episode with three contestants out of the war and boy did they go out with a bang. Many will notice that the animation for this episode was very different from what we are accustomed to and from my information we have Hakuyu Go(A talented taiwanese webgen animator) with friends to thank for the amount of work that went into this one episode. Indeed out of the episodes of Apocrypha so far this may be the best animated one to date but alas this comes with a bit of a cost. The animation in this episode will certainly be a divisive topic and sadly I find myself on the side that dislikes it. Mainly that this emphasizes movement over art and as a result we have a episode with a large amount of movement but character go off model and look rough far too often. I have never been too fond of this animation style as I find the off model characters to be a major immersion breaker but in this case there is a second much more problematic aspect.

Let me put it this way, today I watched a epic fight between Siegfried and Karna. What happened in that fight? Well…um…Karna unleashed his noble phantasm…something happened…then rider came and unleashed a noble phantasm…explosions…um…huh? Dear reader, what do you remember of this fight? Cause I fully admit that upon watching this that I had to truly struggle just to comprehend just what was even happening. The soundtrack and passion of the scene certainly got through but eventually what happened on screen just became a big ball of chaos and explosions. The Atlanta fights fared better as the fight was on a lower scale than Siegfried vs Karna but I do wonder just where these giant voids of space appeared from in the hanging Gardens of Babylon. Sources claim that Semiramis can change the space instead the gardens which could have resulted in these large rooms but the anime really hasn’t gone into detail on all the capability the gardens give her.

But regardless the fights in this episode remind of something and I think this could be considered the anime version of shaky cam sequences. Indeed the fast cuts and general chaos is very much like a shaky cam fight sequence and I have never truly liked those. I am more a person who enjoys good fight choreography over flashy explosion fests so it is my opinion that I actually enjoyed the Achilles vs Chiron fight in the previous episode much more than the chaotic lightshow that was Siegfried vs Karna. I do admire the effort put into this episode but I fear it will have a hit or miss quality with people. I just hope that those that don’t like it don’t do that idiotic thing of screenshoting inbetween frames and using it as evidence for bad animation. Cause hey morons, that’s not how you critique animation.

A small correction to something I previously stated in my last posts about Achilles and Atalanta. I previously said that Achilles teacher told him stories about Atalanta but it was in fact his father, whom had taken part in Calydonian Boar Hunt and The Argonaut Expedition, both of which Atalanta participated. Thus he heard stories about her and had a childhood crush on her, it’s this piece of information that makes his efforts to stop Atalanta from destroying herself and the final farewell hit so much harder. I really do adore that final scene between the two of them and I also really like how much of Karna’s character came through in his final moments. Loyal to a fault that one and honorable to the end. They say Karna can match Gilgamesh in a fight and yet he is a polar opposite to him in regards to how he treats his masters. We near the finale of the series and it looks like Rulers greatest foe is…Shakespeare? Well I did say I wanted more Shakespeare.

Inuyashiki – 9 [Shihjuku People]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Inuyashiki

Welcome to another week of Inuyashiki! This week we have incredible sequences of terror, fearless Directors and death flags! Lets jump in.

Obviously, the first thing we need to talk about this week is Hiro. A lot has happened in the few hours since Hiro attacked the Station. Interestingly, yet weirdly, Hiro has garnered a fan club. I don’t understand this. Do mass-murderers in real life gain admirers? Regardless, whatever fans he had at the start Hiro has since lost them. The first half of his murder spree is basically a public shooting. An opening salvo, of 100 people, to declare his war. Had they done it any other way I would have no problems with it. As it is, I can’t stand Hiro’s TV gun. Air or Light bullets I can accept, but what is the explanation of shooting through screens? The fantastical nature of it is too much for me. Everything else at least was explainable as Alien technology, but this is modified Earth technology. It makes no sense.

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Fate/Apocrypha – 21[Antares Snipe]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/Apocrypha

When Apocrypha slows down, it’s story shows it’s cracks. But when it’s an action showcase it actually becomes quite entertaining. The characters don’t have the time to be developed but they shine in combat when they clash, sometimes showing parts of themselves the series otherwise doesn’t allow for. Astolfo for one was actually useful for once and I found myself invested in his struggle to disarm the Hanging Gardens beam cannons. Part of the reason is because Astolfo isn’t acting his usual aloof self due to a new moon being out. As the legend goes, Astoflo’s sanity was taken by the moon and when a new moon is out he temporarily regains his sanity along with his noble phantasm.

So instead of the fearless comic relief he has been throughout the series, he’s much more serious and even feels fear. This gives his fight to take out the gardens some rela weight and i was genuine tension in the scene. Well…it was also partly helped by Sieg running off to fight Karna. I don’t know what it is but that kid can suck the emotion and fun out of a scene in a instant. I was convinced that this was Astoflo’s last stand and that he was about to exit the war but he surprised me by surviving. It certainly was amusing to see Seramus also mistake him for a girl before getting dive bombed by Mordred.

They follow this is what is by far the best fight scene Apocrypha has had yet and likely the best fight in the series as Achilles uses his noble Phantasm to stop time around the plane, making it that the only way Chiron and him can fight is through hand to hand combat.(Mortal Kombat if you will) I must say that was one fantastic fight scene seeing Chiron and Achillies beat the hell out of each other in the stopped time. Sure the animation and art could have been better but it still managed to make this one hell of an anime fight. Special mention to Chiron stomping on Achilies scarf to make him into his personal punching bag.

Alas Achilies comes out on top and Chiron exits the war, although Chiron manages to use his noble phantasm to remove Achilies protection by striking his heel. Chiron even manages to get Achilies to promise to hand over one of his noble phantasms to the black team and oddly enough the end credits sequence shows that he’s keeping to it, likely giving his chariot to Astolfo. This series has it’s ups and downs as well as not living up to the potential it truly had, but it’s episodes like this that make me glad I stuck with it. There is a few great moments in this series for a Fate fan and though it likely won’t be as highly regarded as other works, it’s still a worthwhile watch.

Dies Irae – 08[Promise]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Dies Irae

Netflix has funded thirty anime which will air in 2018 and this has brought concerns over whether Anime as a whole could be westernised in order to cater to an overseas demographic. I find the chances of this unlikely and the more likely result is a more diverse lineup of anime for both Japanese and overseas demographics. However if Anime was westernised then that could lead to the removal of excessive unnecessary fanservice in shows as they would not longer need to pander towards Otaku in an effort to gain more Blu-Ray sales. So why is it that I am starting off this post on the latest episode of Dies Irae with this information? Well one because this is another one of those nothing happened episodes(Which I need to think up a term for) wherein the plot barely moved forward and not a whole lot was present in this episode. The other reason however is because to fill up screen time during a long exposition scene, it was decided to show Marie stripling off and trying on different clothes. So I will state that if this mythical westernation of Anime were to happen, this is one aspect of anime I certainly wouldn’t miss. Of course my enemy isn’t so much the idea of fanservice but rather lazy fanservice. When fanservice is part of a series appeal then it is understandable why it’s present but what annoys me is when a series attempts to have its cake and eat it too and throws in fanservice without considering its effect on the story. It’s akin to having a benny hill sequence in Lord of the Rings, immersion breaking.

So let’s round up what happened in this episode. Kasumi was taken by Shirou and Ellie for her own protection, Ren calls them up and gets information on the Swastika’s locations, Ren and Marie visit School to find all the students mind controlled and Shirou and Eilie face off against Rusalka only to get devoured anticlimactically. We had two rather intrusive fanservice scenes in this episode, the first with Marie trying on clothes while Ren was two feet away from her and Rusalka making out with some guys before she goes and murders everyone in the room. I admit the second scene isn’t exactly out of character for Rusalka as she does tend to get around. IN fact at this point she’s pretty much slept with half the guys at Ren’s school. Still I always felt that Rusalka generally didn’t do this while on the job so to speak and i also originally thought that she couldn’t transform between her younger and older self. After all I thought the whole point of her downgrading herself into a lolita was to make her live longer as she is nearing the end of her lifespan. The fight scene wasn’t much to speak off, just Shirou and Ellie firing bullets while Rusalka shrugs them all off. If this was the last we saw of them then this would certainly be a disappointing end to the interesting characters of the protagonist side.

Regarding Marie i find her new personality to be immensely annoying. I wasn’t quite fond of it in the visual novel but in animated form I am forced to see just how incredibly pandering her character really is. This is likely the kind of person that otaku believe to be the perfect girlfriend…in theory. After all, she’s caring, cute and love you? Surely you don’t need her to be anything else. But of course this is in theory as in reality girls like Marie would be very boring and in the worst case scenario, annoying. Sort of like a child who grew out of the phase where everyone found them cute but still tries to act cute for attention, only for it to be very aggravating. Maybe if I could get invested in her love with Ren I might find her more interesting but the fact of the matter is that their relationship is shallow as a puddle. I don’t even understand at what point Marie fell for Ren as she’s only known him for a few days and there wasn’t really any point I could see her growing remotely interesting in him. Does this girl know anything about him at all? Of course I may be jumping the gun here as they haven’t confirmed that she’s in love with him but frankly it’s inevitable. With Shirou and Ellie, i get why these two are together, as they just work on the same wavelength but an easy girlfriend character like Marie, no matter how pretty she may be, just seems so…dull.

Mahoutsukai no Yome – 9 [None so deaf as those who will not hear]

by Lenlo, posted in Finished Series: Adventure/Fantasy/Science Fiction, Mahoutsukai no Yome

Hello and welcome to another week of Mahoutsukai! Lets hop right into it.

First and foremost, let’s talk about Chise. As the main heroine of the show, naturally it’s going to focus on her a lot. This week zooms in on her relationship with Elias and what it actually is. Characters and situations comment on it throughout the whole episode. From Simon the Priest mentioning Elias is rubbing off on her, to Angelica calling out her Stockholm Syndrome. Even the little side story about the Leannan Sidhe, which I will talk about later, is a commentary her relationship. Usually, I would applaud this sort of commentary, making the characters think about their lives. But with Chise, while I like how she has grown, we know based on previous experiences she won’t question anything. Its not that it’s bad writing, that’s far from the case, I just find it uninteresting to watch.
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