Seikaisuru Kado – 06[Tetrok]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Seikaisuru Kado

I was wrong about the recap episode this week. Perhaps it was after this episode or maybe I was just mistaken. Well you don’t hear me complaining about this as I get to see the fallout from the last episode. Or at least what should have been the fallout. I got a little annoyed with the developments this week as while last week had the Japanese reveal the secret to creating Wam to the world, it appears that not everyone has the aptitude for making them. Thus the story brushed aside what would have been very interesting developments in favorite of focusing on the next Kado gift. Seeing as this series is all about this Aliens effect on humanity, I find it distasteful to hand wave off the long term consequences of his gifts. Makes me think that this series will shy away from the darker aspects of the human condition even when it’s relevant. It is refreshing to see a series where humans approach an alien lifeform with reactions that are not KILL or Capture for experimentation then KILL! Likewise for the Alien creature itself. But it is important to remark on the negative aspects of Kado pushing human advancement rather than just throw down revolutionary gifts and say “Well some revolution will happen in the future and it will be fine I guess?”

Well today we rolled a cube and it was oddly rather exciting despite nothing going wrong. It’s time to move Kado to a less bothersome location now that the passengers are freed and zaShunina makes things difficult by putting down conditions on how his cube should move. The solution is to literally roll a giant cube through Japan which goes surprisingly well despite how messy it sounds. Don’t know why everyone found Shindo’s idea of rolling it along it’s edges so impressive seeing as it doesn’t really change much and it is pretty obvious idea.

Once everything is moved zaShunina drops the bombshell for his next gift to humanity. That being to remove humanity’s need to sleep. To that let me say, sign me the hell up. If there are any kids reading this blog(Chances slim to none) that when you are younger having the money to afford things is more important. But when you have steady income job when you are older, time becomes your most valuable commodity. Rule of thumb is when you are young you have all the time in the world but nothing to spend it on. When you are older you have tons of things to spend time on but no time to spent. So if I can trade my sleeping hours for more spare time without consequence but you bet I would. To most of you however this proposal may not sound all that big considering his last change was infinite energy. It sounds that way at first but when you think about it, this is just as devastating.  WIth an extra 8 hours a day you could put it into work and earn double your paycheck. Even taking into account what people could accomplish with that extra time would be incredible. In terms of the economy businesses would need to be open 24/7 for there will be no point when people sleep. In fact what’s the point of having beds anymore? Besides maybe the occasional rest and adult time those things would be unneeded. The changes this would make to society as a whole would be astronomical. You would be able to get ten days work done in seven and most importantly…people would final have time to get through their backlogs.

Of course their is going to be kickback from this. Namely does this process make someone still human? Shindo certainly isn’t too excited by the prospect but I really do wonder how he didn’t realise that he hadn’t slept in a week. zaShunina has clearly crossed a line whether he knows it or not by altering Shindo without his permission. This alteration brings up more concerns as black companies would certainly abuse it to make working conditions even worse and it draws up the question that maybe zaShunina’s final aim is to turn humanity into something like himself. As Shindo’s mother brought up, perhaps he’s alone in the universe and seeking a being close to himself. Whatever the result I just say for zaShunina should to bring this gift to our reality. Cause I sorely need it.

Uchoten Kazoku 2 – 06 [Arima Hell]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Uchoten Kazoku

Hell, this episode of Eccentric Family sure is surreal. While this show has always been your very definition of magical realism series, the latter half of this episode leans far away from the “realism” spectrum with the most ridiculous catch ever: Yasaburou found himself inside the Painting of Hell, being pushed by none other than his uncle Soun. But true to Eccentric Family’s universe, this version of hell is glorious and bright, with Oni who as cool as a cucumber (off track but why the cats so afraid of cucumber by the way?). Really, what an episode! The sequence in Hell totally won me over for its rich background details, stylized world of industrial ruins in hell. And then we have Oni girl commenting on hair fashion. And then we witness Oni demons doing wrestling matches. And then tanuki flies off the sky. My mind’s blowing with such goofiness. This season of The Eccentric Family just getting better and better and now with the main antagonist starts to appear (in this case, reappear), the plot is rolling much faster now.

This first half continues to give more screen time to the recurring characters as Yasaburou visits them along the way. First, Yodogawa-sensei gets kicked out of his teaching because of the influence of the Fellow Fridays (the show makes it like it’s no big deal at all but it’s scary when you think about his situation applied in real life), as a result he has to retreat to the rural forest whose wild boars are all around. But the interesting bit lies in his assistant, Suzuki, whose has the same hair color and the same eyes with Benten (her real name is Satomi Suzuki). Indeed, it wouldn’t be far-fetched if he turns out to be her brother. Heck, I’m quite amazed the way The Eccentric Family just throw new characters in the scene without any proper introduction or exposition, and then by the little information we gather and by the way they behave, we have to work out who they are and how they’re related to the big picture. The best thing of all is that those new characters, even without proper introduction, fit right in with this universe. Prepare for some sibling reunion (and maybe tissue-grabbing moments) later down the road.

Second, let’s talk about our Kaisei. Finally she’s back and I enjoy every conversation between her and Yasaburou, even if the majority of their chat is about she’s being busy lately for some reasons unknown and her jealousy towards Yasaburou’s affection for Benten-sama. Later, that ninja tanuki teleports from one red post to another (not really!) to follow Yasaburou around is so endearing and whimsical to watch. Great chemistry there, although I would prefer she has some more development for herself. Last season she was special for her ability to appear in the right time at the right place (like how she transformed into the stair to help Yasaburou and Yodogawa-sensei last season), it has been sorely lacking this season as all she does for now is hanging around Yasaburou at her own pleasure (I hope you get the signs, Yasaburou) or disappearing into thin air.

But the biggest reveal of this week’s episode is the return of Soun. In truth, he has never been gone. He sneaks around that Arima onsen, and preparing himself to be the next candidate of the Friday Fellows, meaning providing a new tanuki hot stew and will eating it himself. CANNIBALISM. Kind of freak me out how inhumane (in-tanuki-ne) Soun has become, as he refuses himself to be a tanuki anymore – in a way just like Nidaime who refuses to be called tengu. But to tell you the truth, this is the most glaring issues that I have with The Eccentric Family back from the first season: Soun and the twins are just badly-written characters in otherwise a sincere character-heavy show. They’re the characters we love to hate, and Soun proves once again to be evil all the way. When you see it that way he resembles the villains in Disney movies: ruthless and evil.

And then we get to the second part. The Painting in Hell part. I’m not at all exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best sequence I’ve seen this year. Period. The sequence is so great that it’s compatible with another hell episode (Showa Rakugo) in terms of greatness. Prior to this episode, I had expected that the Painting in Hell would come up as a reference only, so seeing Yasaburou actually gets sucked into that world is eye-popping to say the least. Only in mere 10 minutes, that hellish world is well realized, both as nothing we’ve ever seen in this series, yet somehow never out of tone. Instead, it’s one of the brightest and most whimsical version of hell that I’ve witnessed so far. Then the Oni demons come and they turn out to be a very enjoyable bunch. For such a limited screen time, that Oni Girl already appears as adorable and trustworthy – not a small feat to pull off at all. And then the most absurd moment that no one would never have anticipated: Benten wrestling with the Oni demons; in order to collect their horns and exercise some muscles. She’s taken by surprised as well when she sees Yasaburou in this living hell, but her genuinely joyous moments are truly the best moments this show had to offered. Definitely the best episode The Eccentric Family so far, this episode highlights the show in its most magical sense. In fact, watching that Hell part making all the previous episodes somewhat improved in retrospect.

Re:Creators 06 – [You are the one who knows where justice lies]

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

After a slew of exposition-filled episodes, Re:Creators is back to the vibe of the first two weeks where its creations were blowing each others apart with their powers. Out of all creations so far, Makagami is probably the most batshit crazy character in Re:Creators that is more in the vein of Rei Hiroe’s previous work of Black Lagoon. Her carefree demeanor and sadistic methods of murdering people who get into her way of fun reminds me of Nui Harime (Kill la Kill), whose trollish attitude always threw a wrench into balance of the show. Using some sort of occult powers that ties in “a lie about a lie” is just icing on the cake and puts her as an alternate contender for best girl title.

While most of this episode was mostly dialogue, it had that delicious tension that was sorely missing from the previous weeks. At times, it felt like Fate/zero as they slammed their ideological beliefs in a vain attempt to pursue each other before devolving in a brawl. Makagami may be an murderous bitch but she does have a point that Saber Alice’s idea of justice is deeply hypocritical. When it came to the final minutes, Re:Creators delivers on its promise of mishmash of powers being thrown around from your standard magical fantasy mega beam to gravity bombs being detonated. Blitz Talker has some very cool gadgets like his anti-grav device that allows him to fly and suggests that he comes from a sci-fi setting that has already mastered some serious tech. However, the best moment comes from Madoka’s Mamaika’s valiant defense of Meteora as it matches up so well with her character of trying to have everyone get along and owning up to her friends. I can’t for next week for the conclusion to this fight as this show finally finds its legs and starts running.

ID-0 – 05 [OFE with Free Will]

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

Welcome to another instalment of space opera mechas, this time though the episode leans towards to Alien-inspired thriller as the story unfolds mostly inside the spaceship, but for my money this is the best episode Id-0 has pulled off so far. To even my surprise, this show just keeps getting better and this episode gives more insights about Ido and his (possible) connection to that loli tailed girl Alice (codename: Ore). Its success also has something to do with excluding the scenes involving the masked man and focus on the dynamic between the cast and most of all, give Maya a necessary development as a true protagonist.

Prior to this episode, she serves mainly as our perspective, our “lenses” towards getting accustom to the new cast and the new environment she ends up with. This episode, however, shows us how much she cares for Alice and how she stands up for herself to do what she feels necessary. In particular, she acts even before Grayman’s approval in order to save the girl when the communication was lost and her burst out when seeing Alice outside the space is just goddamn effective. There’s no hurt when the show giving us a lead worth caring for so I hope ID-0 continues to flesh her out even more.

Now to the main plot of this episode, the “Alien invasion” in question is the foggy space dust, itself a satellite that Alice summoned last episode, and now its main mission is to bring her back. The satellite can transform into various forms, from foggy form to hard solid and it proves to be a hard case to crack for the gang. At long last, our band succeeds in luring it out of the spaceship, but it grabs Alice outta space as well. But Alice freakily survives, as she’s encasing herself in an energy barrier and swims towards Ido (remember everyone said she’s special. Yes, she’s THAT special). Her presence again gives Ido some flashbacks of his long-forgotten past. He knew this girl all along and calling her “Alice”. Now who’s exactly is Alice? Who is the real Ido then?

Most people have guessed, and I tend to agree with that hypothesis for now that Ido was the masked man. It makes sense narratively that Ido had to face his past demon to really become his true self, you know, the fight with the enemy both from external and internal forces. About the reason the masked man abandoned him then? I think more along the line with cutting one of your personality to fully commit to power. But of course, all of this are just guessing game for now and I’m sure we will have a clearer picture in ID-0’s later episodes.

This episode does set up nicely what direction ID-0 is heading for the rest of the series. Plot-wise, there will be an ongoing conflict between this Pirate gang and the police authority. There are men who seems like to control the Orichalt for themselves. Then we have Maya growing as a valuable member of the team, and the secrets surrounding Ido and loli-girl Alice. They hold quite a trump card here (Alice), the question now is how they will treat her? As a member of a family or as a captive for negotiation?

Tsuki ga Kirei – 06 [Run, Melos!]

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

This week our duo Akane and Kotarou experience their first taste of hardship, also known as the hard truth about their dreams. Both determine to do their best after the pinky promise (which give me chill every time because it reminds me of an episode of xxxHolic about a girl who always breaks promise – an example of how a single quirk from anime can affect your real-life perception), Kotarou had to meet the publisher and Akane for her track competition on the same sunny Sunday. And they both failed, in their own ways. Fortunately enough, their hardships comes from their own struggling to reach their dreams, not from their relationship itself. They spend some quality this week in the corner of the library, when they mostly share their own progress to the other. Those quiet scenes are excellent all around. The duo keeps having a space between them but you can feel the warm atmosphere hanging around. Two sequences of them in the library, the first filled with hope and quietly excitement, the second is saturated by disappointment, both connected by the pinky promise. Such intimate and affecting moments for the two lovebirds. Also, the shorts this week from Tsuki ga Kirei are solid too, now I’m a fan of Miu and Inaba couple because they’re soooo relatable. And cute. While I’m not much a fan of Roman and sensei gags, this one goes reasonably smooth enough. But Sakura’s fantasies short is my favorite short this week.

For Kotarou, the publisher flat out comments that Kotarou isn’t suitable for serious writing, instead he persuades him to try his hands on Light Novel. Looking by his effortless and calm manner when talking these things to Kotarou, he must have done it from time to time: crushing other young aspiring writers’ dreams into pieces. But hear me out, before everyone gets mad at him for being a senseless a**hole, I approve with what he did here. In fact, I’d feel much more angry if the guy keeps selling other’s dreams when he knows they couldn’t make it far. It would be very painful to see a person who isn’t talented enough just keep pushing their head against thick wall. His Mom, as well, clearly disapproves him of becoming a writer. That doesn’t mean he can’t become a writer, it’s just that he has to try harder than before. Likewise, Akane’s situation doesn’t improve at all. I’m glad that she has a courage to tell her best friend that they’re dating, but when Chinatsu confirmed that she knew all along, it confuses Akane to the point of losing her concentration for the competition. Or maybe her sister was right when she said that dating, studying, and running at the same time might be too much for her that she ends up failing every single one of them. Worst of all, she loses the race to Chinatsu, and Takumi is clearly let down by her under-performed records. I love the reactions of Akane’s parents when hearing their sweet daughter is dating (especially Papa – his girls are slowly taken away from him by annoying brats that he knows nothing about. Of course he’s worried), and Akane’s reactions when her sister “exposed” her secrets are really endearing.

Now, Chinatsu. Frankly, it’s hard to read her motivations since we don’t know much what she been thinking, but let’s try to break her actions down a little. Apart from seeing Akane as her best friend, Chinatsu also regards Akane as a worthy rival, both from running track to that love interest. In running, she’s determined to give more efforts and in the guy she likes, she basically declares a “warning note” to Akane (I notice the word “notice” she was using here). As a friend level, her actions could potentially damage the friendship she and Akane have, and I think most of us will say that her pushing for confession to Kotarou to “have a proper closure” is way over the line. You don’t mess romantically with person who already in the relationship, missy. That’s a rule. But saying that, I know Chinatsu is a type of person that when receiving a proper rejection, she’d just smile and move on. On top of that she would never betrays her own feeling, doesn’t matter how others will react to that. In short, Chinatsu confessing her love to Kotarou is just purely Chinatsu being herself, and I certainly don’t blame her for that; I just wish she’d come to understand that she’s being unfair to Akane and most of the time when that happen they become too hard to be friend again. I guess we will have a proper resolution next week. For one thing that Tsuki ga Kirei does absolutely right so far, the conflict never drags out for too long, usually an episode or two in length. Tsuki ga Kirei maintains its beat throughout this episode, fleshing out our characters not by their romance, but by their own struggles with the adult world. And that’s swell because we need to root for them as well-formed individuals before cheering for them as a couple. Keep them going Tsuki ga Kirei.

ID-0 – 02, 03, 04

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

Like I mentioned in my Sakura Quest’s post, I just feel underwhelmed by the recent development of that show, and in truth this little bastard here just keeps growing on me, couple with the fact that ID-0 is hardly covered anywhere else; so I hope that my posts will help the show getting more attention it deserves. I blame Netflix for this unfortunate, as the way I see it, anime shows need to be more accessible instead of exclusively available by certain viewers. The recent development of music industry, for example, has bands release/share their albums for free online in order to gain solid fanbase before aiming to get profits back by live shows or physical CDs. In that same vein, anime shows need to be watched in order to gain worth-of-mouth and increase sells (do you really watch shows that nobody talking about? Like, have even you heard of ID-0 yet?) and I witnessed the restriction hurt the chance of Re:Life last year and now seems to bring Little Witch Academia down that ship and I personally think it’s dumb, dumb idea. But enough about that and let’s talk about ID-0, an original CG show about a bunch of space pirates by Sanzigen, the company responsible for Bubuki/Buranki last year.

Episode 2, 3, 4 focused mainly on the crew members of Escavate Company, a band of misfits that steals Orichalt chunks in space (I don’t even know what they’re worth of, energy, maybe?). Many of its members don’t have their physical form, which mean, their consciousness lies within an I-Machine permanently, most of them due to unfortunate consequences. Ido is a prime example, having lost his physical body, his memory taken away and his ID erased, (his ID is 0 hence the name Ido), he doesn’t know who he was but he’s skilled and ruthless and because he has nothing to lose, he’s determined to go all the way to his death in every mission. The other casts have great, easy interactions to each other, and moreover each of them fit their roles very well. Rick (the red I-Machines) has an outgoing personality but I found at no time he’s annoying. The captain Grayman with his well-built body often in command to protect the crews, but sometimes his childish side still gets through and you always feel the responsibility he has for the safety of his crew.

Maya is our protagonist though, and so far, she’s quite refreshing to watch. Still inexperience outside of her skills, she acts innocently most of the time, but by no mean she’s boring. While in action, she has a quick decision-making that comes more of her nature and never feel too geeky or too forced. I really appreciate that ID-0 never pushes up its fanservice from these girls. Well, they could easily fill up with fanservice scenes but they haven’t gotten around to it, which I’m glad. Episode 4 introduces a new crew member, Amanza. She’s in an interesting position as she’s a policer whose main mission is to catch the Escavate crew, but she got sucked by the Miguel Jump (they jump through dimensions) and thus has to live amongst our crew. Moreover, she fits right in with the rest of cast, making their interactions a joy to watch. I know these fellas aren’t the deepest bunch around but their nuances and their easy chemistry more than made up for that.

About the world building, so far I like the concept of these guys stealing the Orichalt chunks in space and there seems to be an overarching plot of the men in power who aim to steal the Orichalt chunks for whatever reasons, and honestly, for now those scenes revolving the man in mask are a dead weight. They tend to over-analyze the concepts which drag on too much and their intentions are so vague it’s hard to take them seriously. Episode 3 also introduces an abnormality, a loli girl who lives in the Orichalt that seems to have a strange power that affected satellites. Whatever her real power is, getting to know who she really is and what role she has in the big picture will be one of the overarching plot of ID-0. As for the CG part of the show, the action part is mostly done well and I enjoy majority of the animation sequences. Sometimes we can see the stiffness in character’s movements but because they’re robots, it’s rather appropriate, right? The character’s designs are attractive so visually, really I have no complain so far. It might take sometimes to get used to the visual but it’s a treat once you are up to it.

I know most of you readers don’t watch this show (either because of streaming rights or the CG or you just don’t aware about this show), but that is one of the reason why I really want to cover this show: to get more people know about this show. I have a blast time watching it so far, so I hope you guys give this show a chance. It deserves much more attention.

Sakura Quest – 06 [The Rural Masquerade]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sakura Quest

This episode of Sakura Quest… Did I just miss an episode or two in between? Remind me again when exactly did all those movie productions come from? The show just drops its woodcarving storyline to this film production storyline and that switch is jarring. Now Sakura Quest heads into one of direction that I’m quite nervous about: a sitcom anime – a type that don’t need much continuity. On top of that I can’t say I’m fond with this film production scenario. I don’t get the idea of the movie they’re making either: A slice of life story set in Manoyama (see self-reference here) that… have a blue-faced zombie outbreak? How’s that supposed to be a slice of life then? Okay, now to what we have this week, we have our girls run along with the film crew, trying to find good locations, calling up extras and finding old houses to blow up. It’s good to see the functions of small film productions in action, and the old man Kadota and oba-san Chitose provide many good laughs on screen (the comedy in this show remains very good). I love Kadota’s commitment to the role he played, and just by few scenes both Chitose and the tsun café girl Erika’s unpredictable reactions really tell us the person they are (oh, and Ririko’s cute little victory). Lovely character works all around. The director is a bit of a douchebag though, I can see him piss a lot of local people off by the next episode.

Out of all the main girls, it’s Shiori that I’m initially worried the most. For other girls, I can see how they develop their potential conflicts. Yoshino with her adaptation to the rural village, and her quest to gain more tourists for the town will serve as the main driving force for the story. For Sanae, we already had her being insecure about running away, and the potential love-triangle with the wood-carvers. For Maki, it’s her job insecurity and her conflict with papa. Ririko will have to deal with the difficult oba-chan and maybe her love for video-recording. But as for Shiori, there’s not much to develop. She’s a stable character with a stable job and a stable family, and so far, she serves mainly as the supporting voice for Yoshino and the girls. Prior to this episode, the only development angle I could imagine for Shiori is her closeness to Ririko, which whenever Ririko has an issue, she’d be the closest to help out her friend – But that, as well, is a supporting role. Thanks Sakura Quest for given her something to work with this episode without distracting the main storyline. It’s obvious that she feels connected to the abandoned, worn-out house and for now, my guess is that she was close with the person who used to live in that house. Her close friend maybe. Whatever the case, it’s good to see that she takes a main stage once in a while, and I really hope that Sakura Quest gives her something of an arc to develop her further in later events.

But the main beef in this episode is all about developing Maki. Aside from Ririko, Maki is my favorite girl and this episode both flesh out her current situation with her family, as well with her acting career. When she remarks that “Loving (the job) is also exactly what makes it so hard” and “Your twenties are a special time, and I wasted them”; I feel the sensations. Her underclasswomen appeared as a main female lead just puts the salt in that open wound, made she feel frustrated. But Maki, remember that Moe’s getting more acting roles ain’t because of eating cicadas, and besides, cicada isn’t that bad (take my word for it). Sanae seems to knock some sense out of Maki and all eyes now are looking for her to take the acting part. I know she’d be exceptional there. These concerns about adult-insecurities are really relatable and grounded and those character’s moments are what raise this show above the bar of your average anime.

But I finished this episode feeling unsatisfied. While, like I said, the characters’ works and the comedy are the show’s greatest strengths; the main storyline feel abrupted, unbalanced that feel more like a wasted opportunity. This episode, judging as a whole, is a solid episode, but that is precisely why I have a feeling that the series will be just sitcom-y like this from now on. At this moment, my interest in continuing cover this show has dropped dramatically; I will give this show another episode to see if it can redeem itself. Sakura Quest is not bad per se. I just feel underwhelmed by the potential it could’ve had and the actual presentation right now. Otherwise, with 2 other shows that I find myself more invested in, I would just pick one and cover instead.

Little Witch Academia – 18[Sky War Stanship]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Little Witch Academia

Did you know that the animation team that worked on this previously worked on Gurren Lagann? Of course you did but I say anyone clueless would have caught onto it just by this episode alone. So Constanze finally gets her time to shine and she’s just as lovable as I remember. Akko was a little annoying at the beginning of this episode with her constant screwups but that went away when she actually started helping Constanze instead of just pulling a Dexter and Dede routine. Seeing Constanze warm up to her was nice and the Gainax mecha anime references at the end of the episode really made it. We got Evangelion, Gunbuster, Gurren Lagann and even Akko doing the classic Gainax pose. The wild hunt itself seems to be a callout to eSports but I don’t think we got an explanation on why it takes place besides entertainment. There were a number of noticeable still frames this week so I wonder if that was to account for the mecha action scene or are things getting a bit tight at Studio trigger? Just how they can bring the bring guns for the rest of the season. All and all, I got my Constanze episode so I am pretty happy with that.

Still questioning just why Ursula continues to do absolutely nothing about Croix but at least this episode she went to call her out on her wrong doing. From what can be gathered from their talk, it seems her goal in these random experiments is to collect emotion. In this case she stirred up trouble to collect emotion from the crowd. Her endgame isn’t clear but from the sound of it this isn’t going to be good. I admit some of my old frustration with this series has come back as once again the plot looks to be at a standstill. I am having fun, no doubt. But I notice that not much has actually been accomplished these past two episodes besides giving Amanda and Constanze some spotlight. The two certainly deserve their moment to shine however when I notice that this episode could essentially be removed from the series and nothing would be affected, I can’t help but feel a little miffed. Not to mention that it’s more than a little late to start developing these characters, not to mention pointless if they aren’t going to be more than background decoration. This has always been the aspect of saturday morning cartoons that I never quite liked. An adventure happens but the characters in question end up in the same place they were when the episode began, all experiences and lessons learnt sent to the void. Little Witch Academia isn’t quite guilty of that as I think from now one Constanze will be considerably warmer towards Akko though all things considered this is likely the most screentime she’s going to get. Perhaps that machine broom she built for Akko might come into play later though I still think the shooting star that’s soaring around the world is going to come back in some fashion. Likely during the finale.

A thought has occurred to me while watching this season. I originally thought that this will be the one and only season of Little Witch Academia. Triggers Original works after all aren’t known for leaving room for sequels. However Little Witch Academia was their first work and it is possible they may wish to make more than a single season for this series, though that is admittedly unlikely. The one thing about this is that I thought this series would end with a conclusive, decisive ending but if they do plan to continue Akko’s adventures that won’t be the case. Sure the trouble with Croix will be resolved but there may be quite a few loose ends left behind. The thought of this leaves me with mixed feelings as another season would certainly be welcome but I do also prefer a realised end over a “To be continued.” Next week looks to be a Diana episode so we will finally see just what that comment in the last episode was about. Considering that the latest word of Arturus has to do with tradition I think helping Diana will lead to unlocking the word.

Seikaisuru Kado – 05[Nanoka]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Seikaisuru Kado

Looks to be the tread this week for unexpected reveals and rather uneventful episodes. This week’s episode mainly dealt with zaShunina hiring that annoying Scientist girl Shinawa to figure out how his Wam work. Not sure why he couldn’t just tell them how it worked but I guess but his logic he figured humanity wouldn’t accept an answer that didn’t come from a human. Or simply zaShunina is simply playing around with humanity to see if they can come to their own answers. His talk with the prime minister looked to be for two reasons. One was to convince him to go along with his plan and the other seems to be to affirm if he was correct in presenting humans with Wam. It up for debate if zaShunina was right or wrong in this matter as we are still oblivious to his true intent. The prime minister absolved him of guilt by saying that regardless of what is done with Wam, it would be the fault of the user and not the one who gifted it. I counter that be saying if the gifts intent was to cause chaos then the giver does hold responsibility. You can’t give a loaded gun to a child and then say it’s his own fault if he manages to shoot himself. I despair that this annoying creature must remain present in the series but I guess someone had to fill the role of genius Scientist. To be fair her antics are less aggravating besides her attempt to eat zaShunina’s hand for some odd reason. I am willing to put up with her considering that her actions in this episode essentially ended up being one giant “Fuck you” to the UN.

Boy, was that glorious. Sure we will hand over the Wam in our possession but first let’s give the entire world a self help guide on how you can make a infinite energy source with a piece of paper. Certainly makes the government’s plight seem ridiculous in hindsight when it’s not the objects themselves that matter, but their form. Meaning you could make one of these out of cow dung and it would still work. So the government were getting antsy over what are essentially useless glass balls. Still there is the long term effects of just what this revelation could do to the world. Previously I said I was on the side of Saraka but in light of this episode’s development I have shifted my stance. It is true that humanity is not ready for infinite energy but just when would they be? When oil, fossil fuels and other resources run out? Likely not. I have trouble seeing a scenario where Wam are adopted and thing work just as intended as without doubt in the hands of the government there would be an attempt to monopolize the energy.

Honestly i don’t think humanity would ever be ready for Wam. So the approach of just throwing it out to the people and letting it all sort itself out is actually not a bad idea. Humans tend to adapt to anything and regardless if a strict policy was placed on the use of Wam then it was going to end up in the wrong hands regardless. When you think about something like the internet, it’s growth was spontaneous. It wasn’t controlled or planned to be become what it is today. It just morphed into what you see before you. This new revolution could lead to bloodshed and chaos but the benefits of what could come from this are uncountable. Still this could be the first move for zaShunina as he does not appear to be fond of the idea of countries. Much like others suspect, perhaps this is a plan to throw government into chaos and thus rewrite just how humanity governs itself. From what I hear next week’s episode of Kado will be a recap episode. Rather unfortunate considering the reveal it dropped.

Shingeki no Kyojin(Attack on Titan) – 31[Warrior]

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

In light of the revelation this episode allow me to paraphrase a common saying, well shit. I admit due to my knowledge of the manga that I have been dancing around this particular reveal in my posts. I knew it was coming but I wasn’t sure how obvious it was to those that didn’t know. To me it felt very obvious that Reiner was a Titan, though which titan was up in the air. Though regardless if you seen the reveal coming or not, there was no way you could have possibly have predicted just how it was revealed. Well in this episode it was revealed who two of the most iconic titans in the entire series are and done so with such casual banter that it’s hard to believe. “I’m the Armoured Titan and this guys the Colossal Titan” says Reiner in a shot where he’s barely on screen. I remember reading this in the manga and needing to go back a few pages just to verify if I missed something. But no, the reveal is just dropped that suddenly. I can’t honestly fathom just what Reiner was thinking and even Reiner himself seems to be flabbergasted when he thinks over just what he’s doing. Perhaps after getting out of a near death situation he was unhinged enough to drop the ball. But this will likely go down as one of the most shocking moments in the entire series. Almost makes me wish I waited till the second season before reading on in the manga.

Thing is that I must ask, just what else happened in this episode? I know twenty minutes went by but it does seem odd just how little happened in those twenty minutes. Ymir was pulled up on to the wall and Reiner revealed that he was a titan. Quite frankly, that’s all that happened this episode. Sure there was so mindless talk, one thing being for the most part a needless flashback which looks to be the author trying to justify that this was set up in advance. However I feel it opens up a plothole. For that flashback confirmed that the scouting corps had caught on to Reiner and Bertholt being Titans, yet they still left Eren all alone with the two of them. Mikasa was smart enough to keep an eye on the two of them but just what excuse does the rest of the corps have to leaving them so close to humanity’s only hope? Not saying they have to have twelve soldiers surrounding them at all times but they could maybe push Eren somewhere else and let some other guy take care of them. Maybe it was a plan to lure them underground to detain them? Still seems too risky to use Eren in that regard. Besides they don’t quite know if they can detain them.

That really bugged me but all things considered the reveal was fantastically done, leaving one hell of a cliffhanger. Pretty sure that seeing the scouting core have a rematch with these two is a long time desire of fans and now we are looking to get that showdown. Still no answers though, who is Reiner working for and why is he doing this? Are Ymir and Reiner working together?(I am guessing not based on his reaction to her titan form) Where does monkey trouble fit into all this? Is he another completely separate entity? Perhaps next episode we will get some answers. But even if not this is bound to be one hell of a fight.