Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan) – 34 – 35[Opening/Children]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan)

Forgive me for the extremely late posts but I was on holiday in Portugal so didn’t really have the energy or tools to write up posts. If it’s any consolation the holiday was pretty terrible. I am out a grand and all I got in return was a mild tan, a half deaf ear, a cold and severe amounts of boredom. Gah, the pains of showing your family you give a damn. Anyway I watched these episodes back to back with hope that with a double dose of Attack on titan this would medicate my previous issue with the current plot being overly drawn out. Sadly this isn’t the case as I really am struggling to see the reason why these episodes are so ridiculously drawn out. In my adult years I have grown sensitive to when a show is wasting my time and in this case I feel these two episodes could be crunched into one and the pacing would be all the better for it. Part of the reason for this slow pace could be an artifact from it’s source, where events are repeated by the characters to refresh the audience on just what is going on. Now in a monthly series such as Attack on titan this is perfectly logical.

After all it’s hard to expect a reader to remember the events that could have happened a couple of months past. For an example the first episode here starts with Ymir reiterating that they were taken to a forest to wait for nightfall. Thing is that Hange pointed out this very thing in the last episode and having Ymir explain it here only illustrates to the audience why Eren can’t go titan and escape. Even then there is no point in going to such laborious detail. But a real big offender is the scouts checking out Connies village and once again repeating that titans ravaged it, but there’s no bodies and they didn’t take the horses…yes, yes, we went over this already. There’s no point in giving the audience a reminder on something that happened only a few episodes ago. This is sort of the reason as to why you can’t simply adapt word from word from a source and expect it to work as well. One has to take into account that anime has new benefits and lacks the limitations of manga while bringing it’s own limitations.

Animation has truly degraded these past episodes and I am not surprised. They had a pretty good run of demanding animation sequences so it’s no wonder if the team is burned out. But the second episode here has a few seconds of footage with animation so utterly terrible I had to repeat it just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. This is one point when in Reiner and Bertholdt were escaping on 3D dimensional gear and I swear to god the animation was just a still image moving diagonally. A literal animation tween of the most basic form and I am honestly surprised to see no mention of it in discussion threads. Other than that the number of still frames has gone up so either the team is saving themselves for something or are on their last legs. So in other events Riener is claimed to have disassociated cognition where in he has played the solder so long that he has trouble discerning which of his personas is real. I am sorry but, I really don’t buy this. Throughout the series Reiner has been a relatively solid character and showed no real sign of mental instability. They throw in a flashback to try and recon this in but it really does feel like a on the moment decision to justify his offhand confession to Eren. Also his condition is not explained by his comrade but instead perfectly deduced by Ymir at that very moment. It just bothers me that these characters are ridiculously perceptive when it comes to interpersonal relations but still frustratingly oblivious to obvious concepts like Titan’s being transformed humans.

I must reiterate that nothing in these episodes I would consider bad. In fact I found Ymir’s flashback to be the best part of these episodes though that may be anime original content or part of a later development moved to this point. But I do think that if I didn’t have to blog it that I wouldn’t be still watching it. It’s not a matter of disliking it but I just have a complete lack of interest. This could be attributed to the fact that I have read on in the manga and therefore know the revelations that this show is still trying to keep out of reach. But there are animes airing during a season in which I just can’t bring up the motivation to start watching it. Boku no Hero season 2 would be a prime example of this. I had the full intent of watching it and yet it’s over halfway through the season and I can’t be bothered to start episode one. I confess that I haven’t even finished the second season of Gate despite not finding it a bad show. I just…stop. No real feelings behind it besides apathy and my hesitation to continue watching which is greater as the episodes build up each week. In truth I never had much interest in covering this to begin with and still stand by my opinion in the preview that this is where Attack on Titan started to lose me. History repeats itself I suppose.

Uchoten Kazoku 2 – 09 [The Various Nidaime]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Uchoten Kazoku

This episode sets up nicely the main conflict for what seem to be the final arc of Eccentric Family: the coming Nise-emon to choose the prime minister of this Kyoto tanuki clans, but bigger and more serious affair is the rival between Benten and Nidaime, now that Yasaburou single-handled creates the situation where the two of them have to face off each other. Their rival has been built up since the beginning of this season, and with both Nidaime and Benten are amongst the most kick-ass characters in this universe, there’s a lot to look forward to. I’ve mentioned many times about their chemistry in previous write-ups – Benten has some sort of identity crisis, follow both human and tengu’s rituals (Friday Fellows and the successor of great Tengu line); Nidaime, whom his whole life has been avoided following his father’s Tengu path – and this episode is all about Yasaburou set them up to their confrontation. As such, this episode loses the richness of previous episodes, but I won’t complain if it builds up to a satisfying conclusion to our cast.

Now, Yajirou is officially leaving Kyoto, and the brothers come to see him off. I completely understand the reason Tousen didn’t come to see him. Saying goodbye is hard, but seeing someone off is ten times harder as god knows how long you will see them again. The remaining of the episode though, focuses mainly on the next Nise-emon election, but for once I see no contest in that election at all. Mainly because we spent nearly 2 seasons following Yaichirou, and for now his competitor, Kureichirou’s only defining traits are his calm demeanour and his positive attitude towards the Shimogamo. Even in previous season when Yaichirou had to go against Soun, he had a real shot of becoming a Nise-emon, so I don’t think Kureichirou poses any real threat there (he doesn’t seem to care for the position at all). But one problem arises, Akadama-sensei refuses to be the observer, instead asking Benten for the position. That doesn’t bode well for the tanuki, of course, since Benten ate their greatest Nise-emon of all time in a delicious hot pot stew before.

That’s where our Yasaburou comes in, after failing to change Akadama-sensei’s mind, on a whim he decides to ask Nidaime as an observer instead, knowing full well the outcome. Knowing Nidaime hates to own tanuki any favour, Yasaburou frames his request as a form of payback all the favours, thus he’s able to convince Nidaime. Benten certainly doesn’t like that idea, so she’s basically bullying the poor tanukis on their meeting. Remember Nidaime:2 – Benten:0 for now, how will it goes from there? Ah we also have Benten‘s brother lurking somewhere in the forest, so how he, the Thursday Club, the Friday Club come together again in this epic final arc? Looks like it’s going to be exactly like what Yasaburou sings out of his boredom:

“I’m always causing trouble,

A whole lotta trouble,

I’m always gonna disturb the peace,

Always gonna disturb the peace.”

Re:Creators – 09 [The Blooming Maiden Digs a Hole]

by HelghastKillzone, posted in Currently Watching:, Re:Creators

I starting to sense a pattern of Re:Creators where most of the runtime is dedicated to conversations which is then broken up by a segment of action towards the final few minutes. This week is no exception with Magane taking the spotlight away from Mamaika as she exits away from the stage.

It wouldn’t be a fitting end for Mamika if she simply got vaporized by her own magical splash flare so we get a final farewell scene. It’s a shame to see her die as she had the most compelling and greatest development for any creation in the entire series and I’m betting that Alice is next in line to receive some attention in that department. The thing that bothered me was Mamika’s final words to Alice as she had more than enough time and energy to convey her ultimate wish instead of repeating Alice’s name over and over again. However, she might come back into the story given that her body disappeared into the blue ether and they haven’t explored the mechanics behind bringing creations back from the dead. Someone else that probably didn’t share Mamika’s fate is Altair as the conversation heavily implied that she was able to survive the tactical nuke that was the magical splash flare although her condition is unknown at this point.

I love Magane as a character since she shares a uncanny semblance to Nui Harime (Kill la Kill) in trolling and completely subverting every faction for her own amusement. The way she twists and shades Mamika’s words into weaponizing Alice against our main heroes proves that words are just as deadly as superpower magical spells. Sadly, her second main scene in the episode Re:Creators’ weakness is that it revels in its own fiction a little too hard and rears its ugly head in Magane’s speech to Sota as it drags on for far too long in deconstructing his dirty little secret. The attempt to paint Meteroa as a traitor in league with Altair falls flat as it’s too far fetched and lacks any meaningful payoff when that ruse is immediately broken by Yuuya’s entrance. At least, Sota finally stops being a little bitch and comes clean at the cost of Magane getting a defence buff and dragging creations into another fight. A fight that has Alice’s unyielding rage directed at Meteora and Yuuya.

May Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

The month of may was… tough. I was incredibly busy and had very little time to keep up with 12 different series, and in the end I just couldn’t. But ah well, this happens. Back in the days this blog was my top priority after my studies: I’d finish my classes and homework and aside from that, all I did was watch anime and write. At this point my life is totally different, and I cannot do that anymore, so months like these happen. Next month’s going to be even worse because of a 2,5 week holiday to Denmark.

But yeah, the thing with this season was that there are a lot of series with potential. With months like these, it’s not just a matter of dropping the bad and uninteresting ones, but they force you to honestly look: which series are the really special ones? Which ones do more than just tell a story? Which are the series that go the extra miles. Below is the list of the shows that survived.

First some notes on the shows that I ended up dropping: Uchoten Kazoku was definitely well written but it just couldn’t grab me. Sakura Quest almost immediately lost my interest after last writing about it, Alice to Zouroku has a nice message for family values, but in the end it remains a story about a magical girl that has been done in essence many times before, Re-Creators lacks something that puts it above the others to me, and Sagrada Reset suffers from the “first episode is the best”-syndrome. I loved episode one, because it had this really melancholic undertone, but that completely disappeared after the first arc and now it’s just this “Hyouka with gore”. Dropping Warau Salesman hurt like the entire series, but in the end: it does remain a one-trick pony.

#4: Natsume Yuujinchou Roku (04-08)

Okay, I told myself I’d be strict on this series: if it’s going to go on for 6 season I’d better be consistently amazing to be worth it. This month was not. It was pretty much average Natsume: good stories with good morals that fleshed out the characters some more. At this point, I think it’s a good moment to officially label the length as one of the flaws of Natsume Yuujinchou, because it sure as hell isn’t going to stop after this season.

Here’s the thing: being concise is a key part of storytelling. You cannot just let your story go on for ever and ever. A good story has a beginning, middle and end. The beginning is there to sweep you away. The middle is there to develop, keep you on your feet, be a roller coaster ride of some sort. And then the ending is there to take everything to a next level. Natsume Yuujinchou is just a middle part that keeps going on and on and on. There’s no closure. That’s a very big problem with adaptations: they’re often way too faithful because of their length, so that there is no way to create a good ending. The reason why I’m still going back to anime is the ones that were made with an ending in mind. You cannot start your series and make stuff up as you go along, that is not good storytelling, and yet a lot of light novels and mangas are set up like that: they are written by small teams, who hope to go on for as long as possible. Anime have much tighter budgets, so especially the small ones know exactly how much time they have on their hands. A competent writer can use that to exactly plan the course of the series.

This is going to be fun for Jigoku Shoujo next season. Oh, I am going to sound SO hypocritical!

#3: Shingeki no Bahamut – Virgin Soul (05-08)

I did not continue with Zero Kara Hajimaru no Shou. Despite its great themes on racism, it got me thinking: it’s not like it’s breaching new ground or something. It’s just portraying racism pretty well this time, but should we really praise a series for doing something so trivial? Should we praise a seires for being not bad? No, what I’m interested in is the shows that go the extra mile and Zero just didn’t cut it.

Shingeki no Bahamut is more: this uses animation to tell its story, and it’s just as important as the written dialogue. It’s the type of series that can only work as an anime because in manga-form you’d miss out on so many details, movements, gestures, and not to mention the wonderful soundtrack here. But what this show is best at is portraying emotions: it beams across the screen. And that’s why I watch anime: I want to see what animation can elicit from viewers. Not a narrated picture-book, no something only movement can do. The direction, script, and production-values are all geared towards that. I mean logic is good and all, but sometimes you just need a character motivation of “I just felt like it”.

No, screw average or merely good. All series should strive to achieve something special. I don’t care what it is, as long as it stands out and it’s amazing (being especially bad is obviously not the right path). And when I look at my favourites over the years, they are all series that understood that, and did something in their own way. Something that cannot exactly be put to words, and at the very least can never be written down as a guide or something. It’s this feeling you get. And that makes it different for everybody of course, but I can see this show being filled with good intentions, and it’s drawing me in unlike most other shows this season that feel much less ambitious. And this is not just about the budget. Sure, it helps, but there is one particular show this season that demonstrates that you do not need a big budget for that. But first:

#2: Shingeki no Kyojin (31-34)

Okay so this turned out to be completely different from what I expected, but that’s good! This has turned out to be a really excellent sequel. It was so easy for the creators to pull a sell-out here: lots of titan-bashing, lots of Mikasa, much of the same really. And they didn’t: they used the first season as a diving board to go into a new direction. There is so much more mystery and horror here.

Also, the characters: like what did the three main characters do this season anyway? Aside from some flashbacks, all of them basically rode some horses, fought once, failed miserably and apart from that they did nothing and instead the spotlights were on all of the side-characters. This takes balls for such a mainstream series that has so much money depending on it! I love it! Especially since all these characters are much more interesting than our main trio (because let’s face it: they bear a lot of resemblances to Ash, Misty and Brock from Pokemon). This is the type of storyline that really tries to sweep its viewers off their feet the right way: not by having the flashiest budget, but because it messes with your expectations, your mind, while still being very well written.

This show has this annoying trick where right as a character is about to get to a plot twist, they get distracted, something happens, or they outright refuse to tell something that’s obvious to them. It’s like there’s this whole storyline going on that we have no idea about but they keep teasing us with it. That’s good mystery! Great mystery should be messy. It’s driving me crazy to get to know what’s really going on here. Yes, this is better than Yuri on Ice. In terms of really mainstream series it’s been a long time since a show had so many balls here.

#1: Seikaisuru Kado (05-07)

Okay, so why did Seikaisuru Kado win this season? I don’t think I’ve ever placed a series on top with this much intrusive CG: like half the character animations are in 3D, something I previously thought to be impossible to properly bring to life. Well let’s just say that the creators pulled a few tricks, plus what they did bring to the table is more than enough to make this just not matter.

A big theme in anime is evolving humanity: lots of villains’ plans are attempting not to destroy humanity, but to advance it. They can be done both well or terribly, but the fact remains that this is something typical of Japanese animation. You see this much less in the mediums of other countries. Seikaisuru Kado is entirely about this, but it plays with it brilliantly. Instead of having the villain attempt this, we’re at this moment still not sure whether Yahakui Zashunina is a villain or not: what his intentions are, and why he’s doing everything. Instead he has offered a number of advantages to humanity that are much more specific than what you’d otherwise see: this series really is trying to evolve humanity, but it’s also looking at the geopolitical implications of this, also something unheard of!

Out of all series this season, this really feels like it’s taking risks. It’s doing something that goes against the trends, proving that you can tell great stories on a small budget, it’s taking risks and it’s also attempting to evolve the medium itself by asking questions about common tropes. It’s in this way quite like a deconstruction, and a really good one. Because hell, before the season started I expected Shingeki no Kyojin to deliver the best plot twists, but hell no: this show blows everything out of the water. Every single episodes drops some kind of truth bomb that you don’t see coming and give an entirely new swing to the whole storyline.

Take episode 07 for example: when they went to the festival, and put that female character in a kimono, I found myself thinking “oh god, another one for the fanservice”. And then at the end of the episode she delivered a plot twists that pushed the story in a completely different direction from where it was going.

Yeah this is a really big contender for the Anime of 2017.

Tsuki ga Kirei – 08 [Vita Sexualis]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Tsuki ga Kirei

Boy, the production has a nosedive in quality this week. It doesn’t hurt the show much though: the confident pacing and rock-solid chemistry between Akane and Kotarou are still there, but this episode shows how the time-rush and low-budget have finally caught up with the quality of Tsuki ga Kirei: many off-model characters, jerky animation where the characters move like in Flash, most notably (and painfully) in the sequence that featured Kotarou, his sensei and the old man in the hayashi music practice. I might be in the minority here but I would have much preferred even if the show takes more weeks off for polishing the final product. I don’t mind waiting, but I do mind the rushed, poor quality that could have benefited much better if they have more time and resources.

In term of this week’s content though, we have another winner episode in our hands. The young birds, after last week’s declaration of love, now have to deal with the pressure that the whole school know and talk about their relationship. The couple keeps it low-key of course, never talk to each other in class, but sharing bento together in the library and walk home together. When being confronted by her group of friends the things she likes about Kotarou, she can’t describe it clearly, she just does. Later down in the end of the episode, she can be able to express it much better. On Kotarou’s side, Roman and Daichi rightfully suggest him to wait for Akane in the form of “club activity”, something that our Kotarou never thought of. Friends’ supports are important as this stage of their relationship and I’m glad that their friends are fairly positive about them dating: to be able to share their feeling about the relationship, listen to others’ experience, and receive some neat advices from your friends.

But this episode is all about the two of them sharing some quality times together: both as a part of the other’s life, and as a date when there are just the two of them. It’s the way they express their love for each other in their own ways making this love so relatable. It’s cute to see Akane comes with Kotarou for his hayashi practice (thank God he didn’t mess up), oh and how Kotarou blushed just by saying her name out loud in the library, and her wearing some perfume before meeting him. When she realizes that she had missed his birthday, she determines to find him a birthday present. The present turns out to be another identical plushie that she has, but the way Akane manages to find her courage to give him a present making all the efforts worthwhile. And he band-aided her injured foot (you should’ve realized it sooner, Kotarou) is one of my favorite moment in this lovely episode.

The two of them have a wind-chimes festival together, where Akane wearing an adorable dress, shopping together, eating together, sharing a (real) kiss, and writing their romance wishes in a wind chimes. Hmm, it might look cute (and it is) that the two of them writing the exact same thing in wind chimes (a great touch of visual telling there), but when you two going together and write their wishes down together, what they want to say is rather obvious. But there’s no denying that their relationship is in a more intimate stage than ever before.

The shorts this week are in overall solid this week. I don’t pretty much like sensei and Roman’s segments, but the rest is hilarious and charming. My favorite two are Sakura segment (man, she’s becoming one of my favorite now) – detailing quite on point the insecure-ness of the a teenage girl: wanted attractions from the boys, yet still sensible enough to know that her fantasy is way off-mark. So cute – and Kotarou’s parents one – how the two of them seem to serious about NOT to read his writings, but of course they DO read them (parents, right?) and have very opposing opinions about his writings (and the way men and women differ in their way of thinking too), haha. We’re talking about the male’s gaze, and that segment speaks some truths on that too. I mean, even in real life, most male directors and writers don’t really understand the way woman thinking either. David Lynch, Akira Kurosawa, two of the greatest directors of all time, treat their women’s characters quite insensitively. Dazai – Kotarou’s idol, on the other hand, was quite adept of writing female’s psyche (his work Schoolgirl is a great example), so there’s hope that our Kotarou can learn from his inspiration.

Id-0 – 08 [Cracking the Flair]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Id-0

ID-0 has another solid episode this week. Seriously, this show just keeps exceeding my (humble) expectation each passing week. This week our team tastes the first win towards the Federation, but in fact it feels more like they take one step forward but three steps back. After making such a huge splash last week, the group decides to do what sensible group oughta do: staying real low, cutting all the outside communication for 2 months, all the while trying slowly to reach the internet Miguel Net. When they finally get connected to the Net again, there isn’t any report regarding their encounter with the wandering planet, or the destroyed Observer, indicate that the federation indeed controls the public information flows.

ID-0 actually answered one of myquestion last week, as the wandering planet indeed followed Alice first because she still has some Orichalt glowing, but as soon as the Observer prepared for a Miguel Jump (which required huge chunk of Orichalt), it crushed down the Observer’s ship instead. Thus in order to get their hands on the classified information, they need to get it from a data relay satellite. Using Amanza as bait, the team manages to storm a Satellite and Karla has a chance to use her expertly info hacking skills. The only problem is it was almost too easy. She successfully hacks into the main system, but don’t find much useful info except for the name Kane Arisugawa, the developer of Mind Trance system, who isn’t the person they were looking for. Trying to access through the backdoor also mean that they can be traced back by the federation, at the same time Karla has seen face to face with another I-Machine whom informed her about her real body. That’s an offer that hard to refuse of course, but would she take that offer?

Karla has a chance for some development this week, as basically hacking information is/was her specialty. She gives us some more insights about her past as she mentions she was “deceived”, and choosing between her real body and the team would prove to be an solid development for Karla. I also love the briefing sequence in the “old-fashion” classroom where the team discusses to each other to draw out the most effective plan. Each of them has their own perceptions and you can tell that each of them adds up to the balance of the team. Such a dynamic cast I must say. Although this might come as no real surprise to anyone, Amanza using her police reputation to help the team pirating the Satellite (meaning now that she will become wanted just like the rest of the group) still give a warm sensation in my heart. Maya this week either going full-blown optimistic about the idea of saving the world, or the show gives us a bit of hints of her current insecureness. Note that when Amanza mentions if any member of the group has any relative, Maya, the person who most likely have one, remains silent. Lastly, poor Alice getting confined in a room that she has no idea the reason why for freaking 2 months. She just wants to play some balls, guys.

But the biggest reveal this week, beside perhaps the wandering planet starts to destroy habitant colony (that damn planet “eats” the whole moon), is that Kane Arisukawa’s appearance looks exactly like Sam Tailor from the Observer, or the Masked Man last week. One possible theory is that they are the copy version of the original Masked Man one, that explains why the Masked Man remains too young for someone his position, and Sam is explained as a “half-baked” experience. Well, the possibility of Ido and Masked Man as one person still remains high, and I will lean to that assumption until proven otherwise. I like how everything seems to be safe and sound for the team after this Satellite hacking, but it actually feels they’re one step closer to the enemy’s trap right now. If anything this mean that the next few episodes the team will experience something far worse than they’re initially expected. I’m thrilling for some more.

Sakura Quest – 09 [The Lady’s Scales]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sakura Quest

So our cooking mini-arc has concluded and I was pretty much… indifferent to it by the end. It started strong last week but seems to run out of steam quickly this episode. For many developments the show squeezes in this week, only the somen contest festival part works out well. The romance part turns out to be quite…dumb, and Yoshino going overboard feel more awkward than funny. To make it even worse, many Sakura Quest’s stronger elements: the solid chemistry between the core cast and the adult wisdom are all absent this week, making this episode a mere passable one, but nothing special to write home about.

After the event last week, Shiori comes up with a plan to make amend with the Merchant Board: a somen contest to choose the signature somen dish for Manoyama. It’s a pretty neat idea for me, albeit the sequence in the restaurant where every local gone nuts about somen feel oversold and incredibly forced. Obaba has a great characterization this week. Yes, she’s harsh and blunt on what she says, but she’s reasonable. As long as your plan makes sense she will be happy to go along with it. It might be the first time in years that the two Boards work on something together and thankfully the festival receives enough enthusiasm from the town’s supports. Shiori has some solid time this week as she tries to come up with a new dish that featured both somen and kombu, two of the town’s favorite material. In the end, her dish isn’t chosen for the best prize, but the warm reception from the villagers towards her dish “Happy Somen” and the acknowledgement from everyone towards her contribution are good enough. But “Minister of Mediation”? haha, I really have no response for that off the wall title, but seeing how she bring the two Boards, as well as the two unlikely lovebirds together, I believe the title has its merit.

Yoshino, during the preparation of the festival, goes completely other way. She and Kadota meet Doku (the local mechanic), to do something ”bold” for the festival, hence the idea of flowing VR somen (that actually run manually by Deku) coming up. It’s silly, and although I feel it has a bit of its charm, seeing Yoshino trying just too hard without any result doesn’t impact to the whole story much. Actually, here’s my one question: Who’s in the committee that decide which somen food’s a winner? Obviously the girls aren’t in there, nor does the Tourist Board or Merchant Board. Then who? On what criteria they choose the food exactly? This WAS what they need to develop, instead of spending some time for this Yoshino’s silly plot line.

But it’s the romance between Kumano and Shiori’s sister that suffer the hardest. That’s coming from me who actually enjoy the running gags of everyone surprised that Kumano has an interest for Sayuri instead of Shiori, but boy, this whole plotline is just bad. First, Kumano and Sayuri share no chemistry whatsoever. When they meet again and talk to each other, it sounds even less intimate than two normal friends. They all mention that they were too shy to talk to each other back in college, but from their little flashback it wasn’t the case at all: sharing the love for French Toast and waited for each other until night alone in train station? It doesn’t add up at all. And then the reason that they couldn’t meet each other? Because Sayuri took the wrong date from previous year’s calendar? Forgive me if I’m being so blunt, but how is that even possible? They had a firm idea to meet each other on the Sunday after graduation on that station; so after graduation, they just have to show up on THE SUNDAY, the wrong date got nothing to do with it. If it meant to be cute, it doesn’t, it’s just dumb. This arc unfortunately isn’t Sakura Quest’s best hours. Well, at least now this cooking arc is over and I’m looking forward to what the hell they come up with for the Tourism Board next time, and by the pattern it might be the time for my favorite girl Ririko to shine. Bring it on, girls.

Uchoten Kazoku 2 – 08 [Ebisugawa Kaisei’s Secret]

by SuperMario, posted in Uchoten Kazoku

Woah, there’s a lot of things going on in this episode. This week, The Eccentric Family returns to themes that it is most comfortable with: family and life’s purpose which have been put mostly on the sidelines this season. The episode, in hindsight, is a string of many effective scenes combining, making this week one of the most diverse cast we have this season, yet all these sequences point towards the family’s responsibility, the red fur of fate and individual’s goal and deliver many resonate bittersweet moments. Eccentric Family might just release its best episode to date here. First, the ongoing feud between Shimogamo’s and Ebisugawa’s families have finally come to an end as the young head of Ebisugawa: Kureichirou brings down the annoying twins to the Shimogamo to amend for their father’s evil actions. Like Tousen said earlier, it’s idiotic blood of the tanuki that make them fight against each other (but aren’t we human the same?). Yaichirou of course doesn’t want any more conflict so they agree to lay off that dispute and shake hands. Well, since we were witnessing along them how the feud come into its biggest confrontation in the first season, seeing that war was resolved completely feel like a triumph for me. Just imagine how Kureichirou could bring the stupid twins to kneel down and offer to be pulled out fur from their butts (which I could imagine a very humiliated tanuki way) make me realize how influential the guy to his brothers. This sequence links well to the theme of family, now with the former powerful heads of each family gone, the young heads have to settle down and have to choose their own ways; there’s no point in continuing the feud, must like there is no point to punish the Ebisugawa’s sons for what their father had done.

We also have all the members of Shimogamo (plus one future member) meeting together. This episode smartly showcases the development of each brother in the family. Yajirou can be able to transform again, although he still can’t stay in his shape for too long. Yashirou, with the help of Kureichirou, has a whole lab for himself to experiment whatever he likes. In term of personal conflicts, there is a lot to chew on as well. Yaichirou feels his responsibility to look after his brothers, to guide them to their own paths, and to become like what their father did. Of course, the first two are genuine but Yasaburou points out the last point that he doesn’t need to shoulder the responsibility of a dad. Because he can never fulfil that role, nor he need to be (he was sitting the exact same spot that his father had dinner before he disappeared). Asking Yasaburou to marry Kaisei in order to have something for Yasaburou to protect is an interesting valid point, but doesn’t Yasaburou’s everyday chores are to take care of his sensei and protect the people around him? Yassburou might be too carefree to never consider what is his real goal in life except slacking around, and Kaisei’s comments in the end all point out to his lack of responsibility, but remember he was always the first to run to his mother whenever thunder came, or helps out his sensei whenever possible.

Benten also makes an appearance in this episode; and she’s having a date with… Nidanme no less. Their conversations are still pretty vague right now, but I do hope Nidanme isn’t into Benten like almost every male creatures in this Eccentric Family’s universe. (She’s bad egg, don’t cha see that?) One thing for sure is that he comes back to this town because of their previous encounter in London and they remain awkward, but surprisingly no ill-resentment to each other. Then it’s Yajirou who have a juicy role this week, as he decides to leave Kyoto to find his own path, much to the dismay of Yasaburou. For Yasaburou, whatever happens, the family stays together, but Yajirou will forever be a frog if he still stays under the well (the image of all his belongings fit right into a hankerchief is serious sad – and there is greeting from Kaisei here). The brotherly talk brings so much warm to the scene, and the tender score really hits its spot. This is a sudden but believable development from Yajirou. Yasaburou doesn’t cry (he proclaimed himself that he never cry, and doesn’t have any weakness – both of which were prove untrue in this episode), but he ends up running to the mountain to sulk for A WEEK, which of course is far more immature.

And finally, it’s Kaisei’s secret. In truth, the only disappointment I had for this marvelous episode is that I expected a lot more Kaisei’s moments this week. In reality, she only appears in the last 5 minutes though, but boy she sure delivered. Her secret, turn out to be such sweet twist that tie up the red fur of fate nicely. The sight of her makes Yasaburou’s transformation come undone. Plain and simple. Just like how the presence of Benten did the same thing to Yasaburou’s father. That explains how she can transformed the hypnotized-Yasaburou-bear back to tanuki few episodes back (great foreshadowing). Apart from the fact this is one of the sweetest thing I’ve seen this entire year bar none (the exchanges, especially when she cracks up, are extraordinary), the revelation 1) just shows us how thoughtful and attentive Kaisei has always been to the people around her, especially to Yasaburou. While Yasaburou’s reason for rejecting this proposal idea is mainly about himself and his freedom, Kaisei’s reason has always been for his sake. It’s obviously hard for her to hang around Yasaburou, especially he’s the one she cares dearly for (common, this’s pretty obvious now) 2) more importantly, Kaisei represents the cage that block Yasaburou’s freedom of transformation. Remember they mentioned that tanuki can’t transform inside a cage, because they lost the freedom so to speak. So to choose Kaisei mean that Yasaburou agrees to give up his transformation altogether, which you know he would never do. Such fate that can never bring the two furballs together – the red fur of fate. We have for ourselves a true star crossed anime here.

Re:Creators – 08 [I CHOSE this way of life.]

by HelghastKillzone, posted in Currently Watching:, Re:Creators

I predicted that Mamika would soon make her choice. I just didn’t expect a magical girl to turn herself into a tactical nuclear suicide bomber.

Starting from episode two, it was clear that this innocent and sheltered magical girl had the most room to grow and her final(?) actions shown how far she has come. The talk between her and Alice was faintly reminiscent of the yuri aspect between Madoka/Homura of Madoka Magica. It’s strange to think that given their backgrounds of a hardcore medieval fantasy and children magical girl show, it is Alice is the one who is obtuse while Mamika is the one who thinks things through. She probably knew that Altair wouldn’t listen to her heartfelt pleas and an epic fight carried the risk of failure. The fact that she didn’t hesitate to unleash the sheer power of that final magical splash flare was fully representative of Mamika’s conviction. The question now becomes whether or not Mamika survives her own magical splash flare. Given that the explosion engulfed the entire stadium and the surrounding area, there is a very good chance that she didn’t intent to get of that fight alive. Either they pull an asspull of an explanation of how Mamika survived that blast or have her come back using some unrevealed mechanic or Mamika is actually gone for good. In any case, Alice is going to feel even more disconcerted within this new world she finds herself in.

All the other parts of the episode leading up to its explosive ending went on with a comfortable pace with the briefings having some meaning in introducing two more creators and setting the tone between Yuuya and his maker. His beatdown something akin to Alice’s own treatment of her creator, just with less kidnapping and more punching. I don’t know about the Code Babylon female creator, but she looks to be fitting addition, if not peculiar, to the main cast. Also peculiar is the continual game of Souta’s little dirty secret only moves forth a tiny bit with his half-assed confession to Meteora. From their meandering conversation, my theory is that Souta asked Setsuna to create Altair and he did such a good job that he become resentful of her talent. As a result, he pushed her away and set on her on a suicidal path, which then set into motion the events of Re:Creators. Thankfully, it comes down to the crazy occult-powered maid of Makagami to confront him about him being a bitch and the scene had expertly done tension with Souta knowing the other side of the conversation is utterly ruthless and sees this world as nothing more than a toy to be played with just like the brochure that was systematically ripped up and thrown into the air. Unfortunately, for him, the mixing of his reluctance to tell the truth and going on a date with Makagami isn’t going to end well, especially when said creation has already racked up two kills in her body count.

Not an action-oriented episode but the bold progression in the plot makes the show only gets better and better.

Tsuki ga Kirei – 07 [Hold Back Nothing When Taking Love]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Tsuki ga Kirei

With this episode Tsuki ga Kirei marches on its impressive run. If there is one thing that I’m still impressed about Tsuki ga Kirei, it’s that despite its slow-pacing, the story never stands still. Each episode is a steady step-forward, clearly mark-out stage from its main couple’s relationship. I wasn’t at all expecting that much tension from this week, just to show how I am personally invested in its characters and their situation. Again, I totally feel for the total defeat of Chinatsu in this episode, but lest we forget that she was the one who planned to disrupt this couple with all her might. Originally, she staged for only 4 free passes to the amusement park with the intention of using Takumi to hook up with Akane and she has some free time with our main. Kotarou and Akane’s classmates though, are all in for an opportunity to go out for a date so the trip ends up with 9 people, leaving Roman an odd one out. You could argue Chinatsu crossed many lines of actively hurting Akane’s feeling and using Takumi for her own gain, which I totally can’t defend her, but I still read her action as purely self-centric behavior. She just doesn’t think her actions would cause those consequences that far ahead and while it’s dangerous, you can’t really blame her for things she doesn’t aware either. Okay, now I’m defending her, but I believe when Kotarou roars like a lion in front of Takumi declaring what is rightfully his, it blows much harder to Chinatsu than he outright rejects her.

And what a natural progression of this first love has come to be. After last few episodes about how to behave when you’re actually in a relationship, the next step is to acknowledge your relationship to others. And this episode is all about opening your relationship’s status to your friends without feeling reserved about it. Like Chinatsu few episodes back, Roman is the guy who can read between the lines so he caught on with Kotarou – Akane relationship. Special shout out to Roman as the buddy who got his friend’s back and do whatever necessary to support his friend. Unlike Roman, others don’t have a clue about this relationship and for once, Takumi also finds this trip a good opportunity to spend some time with Akane. When Kotarou catches up with the two of them walking together, for a moment I thought he would be silent and walk away without calling them back – and indeed, most of other shows will fall for that route, but we’re talking about Tsuki ga Kirei for Peter’s sake, so Kotarou instead steps up and declares in front of Takumi that they’re in relationship. Yes, what important is to acknowledge your love. Boy, what a truly great moment. Takumi, surprised, but take that news really well too. The subtle body languages in those scenes certainly enhance the character’s emotions, as you can read the reactions of both the four main casts. Tsuki ga Kirei’s visual storytelling is truly magnificent.

The rest of the time afterward, Kotarou and Akane have their first real date, alone together, in this amusement park. There are some truly intimate and sweet moments out there, certainly helped by contrasting them with Chinatsu and Takumi’s sadness. They eat together for a first time, playing together and kissing each other in a firework backdrop. Well, they aren’t technically kissing though but it feels much more intimate than any other actual kissing out there. At least, Chinatsu apologizes to Takumi and even texts Akane about not being able to confess her love. There’s nothing you need to say sorry about, Akane, because when it comes to deciding between your and Chinatsu’s own feeling, it’s a clear answer. The couple goes a long way since they’re first dated, and I’m not even hard-pressed to say this, considered that this is a story about first love from some middle-school kids, but this is a real depiction of how two individuals falling in love, along with what a true growing up would be like, and those alone make Tsuki ga Kirei stands above the rest of your average anime offerings.

On last note, those shorts this week are still pretty on par, although they run a bit longer than I would’ve preferred (because, geez, it means the actual story is cutting short). Those shorts are pretty much a part of Tsuki ga Kirei’s identity right now, and so far they’re all gorgeous. And I couldn’t say this last week because of the recap, but the new OP is solid as well, make me wonder if the overall production (especially the CG extras) could have been improved if they have some more extra time for correction?