3-gatsu no Lion – 17 [Silver Thread – Water’s Surface – Base of the Blue Night]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

Wow, this episode! This is one of the strongest 3-gatsu episode that we’ve encountered so far, both rich in effective little moments, strong characters interactions and smart visual executions. Speeding up to three chapters per episode might be this episode’s most successful trick, because 1) these 3 chapters are interconnected by the same narrative themes and 2) it allows strong moments to sink in faster, and much sharper and 3) the amount of solid characters moments is definitely much higher than normal 3-gatsu episode and this is one of the rare times in 3-gatsu experience that I do feel like I’ve been sink at the bottom of the sea with too much of a good things, for good reasons. The episode produces one of the most breathtaking visual that directly convey the mood and themes of the story. The water motif have been applied effectively throughout the series’ run, but here it adds another layer: both Rei and Kyouko are lost deep within the sea of life, suffocated by the pressure of everything around. The dim lights of her phone to create that light waves of sea is one of the show’s most sensitive visual-storytelling for me. Or the moment the rain just stop after Rei noticed Souya is equally impressive. Shaft carries this show with style, and this episode especially they brings out the best from its source, even the lighter scenes are brimming with finely-tuned touch.

Harunobu, as long last, has catched up with Rei, not only in their professional ranking sense, but also about their maturity. As Rei struggled with his forms and several depressions, Harunobu makes one steady step forward at a time, while fixedly aim at his goal ahead. Harunobu has gained a lot of strong material here and as of now I don’t mind to have his accompany at all. On the other spectrum, the sudden appearance of Souya gives the show the almost dreamlike quality. Souya here is portrayed as someone out of this world, the one who can stop the time, who is unchanged in his appearance after 10 odd years, an angel that so pure and powerful that it brings the force of destruction instead. When people compare him to demon, guess what really remind me of? The old shogi player Matsunaga commented about Rei himself as a “beautiful reaper”. Guess there’s not much difference between Souya and Rei then.

Kyouko also makes the most out of her screen time this week and this might be the first time we have a full picture of Kyouko and her relationship with Rei. In this episode, she’s in her usual spiteful mood at one time, become spirited and playful at other and then deeply vulnerable the next. Her bashing out on the sisters is heavy and malicious, yes, but it comes from her own pain and belief that Rei was the one wrecking her family. What she said isn’t entirely wrong though, As Rei found himself very much at home at the sisters’ house, but still hearing those intentions from a dark and mean perspective certainly is hard. Afterwards, after staying over Rei’s house though, Kyouko amps up her playfulness and really that light tone between them isn’t something we see very often, if at all. The comedy mostly works here and they give off a great chemistry with each other. Kyouko then breaks down, she’s unsure about how to deal with her life. At heart, both of them are pretty insecure individuals, sharing almost the same pain of trying to figure out the way through life. Their relationship, moreover, become much complex and Rei remarks so true in the end “we also haven’t been able to become siblings nor remain strangers”. This was a beautiful chapter.

But the greatest moments for me was when the sisters appearing while Rei and Kyouko having an arguments. At long last, the two forces of nature: the warm, light side from the sisters and the dark, destructive side from Kyouko finally collided and the result is a weird mixed of raw, dark feeling with surprisingly warm-hearted touch. Momo again steals her scene, Hina again is the voice of “follow your heart” sentiments and watching Hina fighting Kyouko might be the greatest pleasure ever (also: Momo calling her “witch”). Those contrasted forces produce such unique sparks that in my book this is one of the show’s brightest and most effective moments. 3-gatsu no Lion is going stronger than ever, and this solid episode comes totally expected because it draws from the current strengths the show has been well established throughout its run. The only downside with it is that now I won’t expect less from it. I know I have been spoiled with too much Kyouko’s and three sister’s moments but give me more doses of excellent characters writing please. Otherwise I would get really pissed-off, just like Hina-chan.

Scum’s Wish – 05 [Destruction Baby]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Scum's Wish

Boy, they actually did it; they actually went that far. And here I thought after introducing the cast and their dark love, they’d tone down on the “physical” aspect and focus more on the “emotional” part. Guess I’m already underestimated Scum’s Wish because they go all the way to this explicit sexual desires without hitting the brake. In this show, emotional pain IS physical pain, for rarely I see in other shows character cries when they’re having sex. All the characters keep holding their emotions inside that they need other for physical release. Sex here is more akin to pain than pleasure since those characters keep using it as a mean to escape their desolation.

“Did you know we’re never done it when you’ve wanted to before?

I’m glad that Mugi isn’t a clueless sad sack (unlike certain someone) who actually knows the true nature of Akame, but despite knowing all this he falls into her trap anyways. This revelation does add new layer to his crush with Akame, as deep down he knows -like Hanabi’s crush on sensei- that it would never work out as normal, healthy relationship. So in order to escape his hormonal needs he turns into his senpai Mei instead (and there I said last week we won’t see her again, ouch). It only makse sense that after Hanabi having an affair last week, now it’s Mugi’s turn to show us how much of a dickhead he is. For a really limited screen time, Mei is surprisingly vivid and sensitive. She understands his deal, and her comment above really signals us what kind of relationship they had before, and where Mugi stands right now. Remember Mugi reflected on her last week that she was incredibly lonely? Now he’s pretty much on that same boat. The affair here isn’t out of love, or even out of desires to be honest, but it was out of running away from current pain. Mei knows that full well so she fullfils what he needs, even when herself hurt so much she sheds her tears. Seriously she becomes my favourite characters out of this series (partly due to her limited appearance since it makes her pain more bearable compared to the rest of the cast).This section does Mugi’s current situation justice, both sheds new light to his hopeless crush on Akane, and further underlines his loneliness by jumping to physical means to escape his frustration.

“The number one thing I desire. Something that will break the mundane routine of everyday life. Freedom”

Akane is becoming a character that everyone love to hate. I actually feel for her character, I really do. Not by her fake charm of course but by her absolute boredom with the strictness of her surrounding. For her, time is a restraint, the way it dictates human to follow through their everyday life. Last week we learn that her bitchy act is the form of her enjoyment from attracting sexual attention from men and causing miserable for women, in this week we also learn that it comes from her thrust for breaking free out of her “boring” life. That’s actually something that I can relate to. And I’m pretty much on the same page with her regarding Narumi. He’s boring, and he currently drags the show down. I guess it’s all set-up for now so his arc begins now as all the sexual desires begin playing a part in their relationship and how he deals with the situation once he realizes Akame’s true color. But for now he’s terribly plain, he’s terribly uninspiring. It’s a bit whimsical to think that the whole situation changes by the mere slip of the tongue, but that also shows us how he truly cares for Hanabi as a true brother. And all Akame’s effort of enduring the guy just so that she can whisper that thunderous message to Hanabi’s ears.

“I hate pain, but it feels so good”

Here comes the strongest section of this episode. As much as Mugi and Hanabi all gone through the same problems, they can’t be able to express their mindset to each other, instead they use physical contacts as a mean to share their feelings. The excitement they have were a mixture of the pain when they know they being cheated by the other, the shame that they’re cheating and even the arousal feeling of being cheated. They’re all negative feelings, but they are strong and irresistible. That emotional pain, however, soon progresses into physical pain in the form of virginal Hanabi. They can’t go all the way because they don’t love each other,. They could if they forced themselves to, but then what is the point of forcing oneself to love someone? I had originally hoped that they could have a genuine relationship later on, but this kind of relationship won’t have a happy ending, ever. I’m digging the smart visual choice of this section as well. Not sure how the manga portrait the dark thoughts of Mugi towards Hanabi but the show really highlights that gritty thoughts by the use of split screens of Hanabi’s face.
The visual execution in the first sequence, on the other hand, is my least favorite part as “he brings the color to my world” is as obvious as the nose on your face. For the episode as heavy and explicit as this one, I understand if some viewers thinking it was too much. In that sense this week is a good barometer for viewers to see if they should continue to watch this show or not. I’m positive that the whole love affairs will get much darker, more explicit and much more disturbing later on. If you still decide to stick with it I hope you have a stomach to handle what come next.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. – 05 [Overlapping Footprints in the Distance]

by SuperMario, posted in ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., Currently Watching:

Okay, this episode… just ends. Look, I normally don’t mind slow-burned story hinting multiple threads and this episode is clearly a set-up episode for upcoming major events, but at least the episode itself has to be completed. Leaving viewers hanging for incompleteness is just as cruel as terrible cliffhanger. Nevermind though, as long as set-up episode goes this week has a large amount of characters interacting with each other. Let first talk about the bureaucrats, as I still can’t put my finger on whether or not they’re a comic relief for the show, or the fact that they’re crazy about toast will be relevant in future events. While at it, the whole bread culture is running strong this week, as many characters express their blind love for breads. Cheers for Magi for being completely out of character, since he abandoned his spying job for the bread-tasting and making a friend in a process. Rail and Magi make up the most unlikely pair but really hooray the show for being so off the track. Well, I do enjoy the humor for this silliness so even if this side story doesn’t add up much, we will always have this companionship formed by the mutual interest of Lotta and toast. Lotta, likewise, do nothing this week except eating cakes, eating breads and having dinners, but weirdly she fits the story very well so I guess the actual coup d’etat might have something to do with bread and toast??? Cake fight? Then I’m definitely on it.

Kidding aside, the main development in this episode has to be that Jean finally exposes Nino’s spy cover. Lilium’s hint was really obvious here, as if his main objective is to decrease the influence of Grossular rather than assisting Jean. But I’m sure people will agree with me that the best part in this episode was the way both Jean and Nino handle the situation. They considered each other as friends at heart so despite blowing the cover up, they remain as close friend. After all, Nino ensures Jean that his main objective of tailing Jean wasn’t for ACCA anyways, so my guess is that his other boss directly tied to the coming coup d’etat. Jean doesn’t mind that he had been following all this time by Nino though, because he knows for sure that Nino will protect him whenever he’s in trouble, just like last week’s uprising. Nor did he give a damn about the reason why Nino rat out on him in a first place. I’m happy to see that their trust and understanding of each other have been very well fleshed out this episode.

This week alone, Jean has to go through two audits and I am a bit sadden that the show decides to rush through it. After all, the 13 districts in this Dowa kingdom are one of the most interesting settings we have in a while, and I would love to learn more about each district’s distinct traits. The two districts that we visited this week in particular have their own strokes of unique features here and there, Birra district is a self-efficient district, and despite its harsh weather with produce no wheat, beer or cigarette, they have oil as their main industry. Understandably Birra district doesn’t want to stay behind in danger should one of the 13 districts becomes dominant, so they’d use oil as their main weapon: control the oil, so that others can’t overtake them. Rokkusu district, on the other hand, is more mountainous and remind us a bit of the old West, as of now there’s not much details about the district. Seriously, even see the different settings, different customs and bread types is enough to get me satisfied, so I really hope the show spend more time to provide us just that.

In term of the big picture though, what do we have so far? We’re pretty much in dark about the details that Jean got out from Suitsu (damn, they’re keeping their cards too close to their chest), so as much as I want to root for Jean, he’s an unreliable narrator at the moment. He did receive one more cigarette, that “from whom they sent those” and “why” are still unclear. This is clearly a calm before the storm moments, but the problem is that with no clear indication on what’s about to come, it’s hard for us to know how big the storm gonna be, so there is no real threat here. Maybe in that sense it’s not so bad as the harder we figure out the real plot, the more interesting we find ourselves into the story, as with me I found myself liking ACCA more and more. At last, Jean is going to meet Grossular so we…

(to the spirit of the ending of this episode, my post ends here)

11Eyes: Sin, Damnation, and the Atonement Girl Video Game Review – 45/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Game Reviews, Reviews by AidanAK47

 

When watching anime you are bound to come across a Chuunibyou character. The normal human being who acts like they are the protagonist of some terrible power trip anime. But did you ever wonder just what it was that gave them the idea to act like this? Well wonder no further because these people likely played 11eyes. This visual novel is essentially a distillation of every tired anime trope under the sun so your enjoyment of it will likely depend on how exposed to these tropes you are. Most would know this title from an anime adaption made in 2009 and I remember reading the anime’s synopsis and getting interested. However I heard that the anime adaption was poor and having recently got into visual novels I wanted to experience the story in it’s original format. Lucky for me, there was an ongoing fan translation of 11eyes so I waited patiently for it to be completed. Unfortunately that fan translation went the way of many a fan translation and ended up going silent with work stopping completely. It’s things like this that make me appreciate companies like Mangagamer and Sekai as while a kickstarter may be necessary and it takes time, at least it gets done. Eventually I just gave up on playing the story entirely when suddenly in 2016 an English patch for 11eyes was released. Thus I saw this as an opportune moment to see what I missed all these years. As it turns out, it wasn’t all that much.

Our story involves a Heterochromatic eyepatch wearing boy called Kakaru who along with his childhood friend Yuka find themselves thrown into an alternate version of their town which they refer to as the red night. A world shaded in red with is filled with monsters that seek to kill them that disappears after a certain period of time. Soon they run into a group of monsters calling themselves the black knights who swear to kill Kakaru and Yuka as well as the four other people who were pulled into the red night. So they work to join the other people dragged into the nightmare, work together to beat the black knights and hopefully regain their normal lives. The thing that mainly intrigued me about this concept was that at any moment of their lives they could be pulled into the red night without warning and the idea of a bunch of superpowered teens fighting off a nightmare world on a regular basis is a rather interesting. However this story has serious pacing issues as the beginning really drags due to the characters. A big feature of this visual novel is something called crossvision. For you see the majority of this VN is read from the perspective of Kakaru and crossvision allows you to see a scene from the perspective of another character. In theory this is interesting as it allows you to see what the characters are thinking at particular moments and see things which happen to other people when Kakaru isn’t around. However in practice you find that you can only see certain scenes from a specific person’s perspective rather than the freedom to move between characters at any moment. In essence it’s like watching a movie where every now and again you have to pause and go to the scene selection menu to watch a scene that wasn’t included in the movie. This is a game with bad pacing as is so this certainly kills it. What doesn’t help that some scenes are  exactly the same as a scene from Kakaru’s perspective, just with some extra lines of inner monologue. For the best video games, why not find out more here and buy the best game units.
Continue reading “11Eyes: Sin, Damnation, and the Atonement Girl Video Game Review – 45/100” →

3-gatsu no Lion – 16 [Running Through the Night – Middle of the Slope]

by SuperMario, posted in 3-gatsu no Lion, Currently Watching:

3-gatsu had another solid episode this week, which for now was exactly what you would expect from this show. Rei’s getting more social life, and this episode demonstrates the importance of the tutors’ roles, as both Hayashida-sensei and Shimada continues to guide him to improve himself, both in his personal life as well as his professional shogi life. But “solid” and “expected” also means that I don’t really have a lot to delve into, so instead of doing an usual format, I will try something different this time, running the episode down by key moments and giving you my thoughts on those. Notes that this is just one-off, mostly for the sake of trying something different.  

If you really think about it, this “arson club” is the kind of club that Rei would never be a part of. They are as different from Rei as chalk and chesse. The club is noisy, active and silly, Rei isn’t. They try to make soap to attract girls, the kind of thing that Rei would never dare to try. Yet, they’re getting along well, because the club is determined to help Rei out. This section gets as silly and light-heart that it could get, but this is the light-heartedness that I wanted to see. Like Hiyashida-sensei, just watching Rei enjoying himself with other people is rewarding enough.

But here, we have one of the most satisfied life lesson that one could learn from his sensei for a long while. Heck, this life lesson still resonates well even to me, more than 10 years older than Rei right now. You need to rely on others sometimes in things that otherwise difficult when you do it alone, because then people can rely back to you. Rei is the kind of person who doesn’t want to trouble his friends for his personal problems, which is fair enough, but by doing that he creates a border that others can’t cross, and in turns they keep their distance with him. I haven’t really talked about him in details before but Hiyashida-sensei proves to be one of the most reliable tutor Rei could’ve had for guiding him to be more open in his social life. Rei needs more friends, that’s a given, and seeing him slowly realize the significance of opening up to someone else is really satisfying.

Continue reading “3-gatsu no Lion – 16 [Running Through the Night – Middle of the Slope]” →

Little Witch Academia – 05[Luna Nova and the White Dragon]

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

Well there goes my character focused episodes theory unless the purpose of this episode was to introduce Fafner the dragon. I think only trigger can manage to turn a situation with dragons stealing a magic stone into a tale about the academy trying to pay off a debt owed to to a dragon who works in the stock market. Dragons in particular are known for hoarding treasure with Fafner being a dwarf who turned into a dragon and guards his treasure hoard. So a modern interpretation of this being a dragon who acts as a loan shark while working digitally with the stock market is a stroke of genius. If you’re unfamiliar with the stock market, platforms like IG Review can offer insights into how the stock market works. I certainly wasn’t expecting that after a powerpuff girls reference at the beginning of the episode. The Dinotopia reference with dragonese being essentially footprint alphabet I didn’t catch until reading discussions. Also found out that dinosuar show I watched way back in 2002 was called Dinotopia and was based on books. I will be damned. Other than that this did give the troublemaker trio of Amanda, Constanze and Jasminka some time in the spotlight, especially Constanze who has likely won more fans with this.

In my book any character than can pull out a Spaz shotgun and shoot down dragons is a character worth remembering. The diversity of nationality is pretty unheard of for an anime as well with Akko being Japanese, Lotte being Finnish, Sucy is from southeast Asia, Amanda being American(Considering her second name is O’Neill, she’s most likely part Irish too.), Constanze is German, Jasminka is Russian, Diana is British and even the announcer from the broom race looked Africain. I can’t think of many anime with a cast like this other than maybe Jojo and that anime that represented each country with an anime character(Helalia was it?)  Considering that Little WItch Academia appeals more to a western audience than a japanese one this could be fanservice on Triggers part and boy do I love them for it.

It’s a little early to call this a demerit to the show but if not remedied soon Akko’s attitude could become a problem. Akko’s main gimmick is that she is a girl with incredible passion and daring which will most likely cause a change in the magic world. Right now however when Diana was laying into her about her faults I found that I agreed with her 100%. Akko doesn’t think about how her actions affect others and despite talking up about how she is going to be the best that ever was, she never makes a real effort to try. Ursula is more than willing to give Akko the help she needs but she is getting shunned or ignored fast by Akko. The big factor in this episode is that Akko placed her friends in real danger just by butting into a problem which would have been resolved without her. As I said it’s a little early to call this a flaw as Akko’s development is clearly going to be a big part of the series but she is going to need to at least start changing a little. One thing that constantly had me wondering while watching this is that Akko and her friends went to take on dragons and for some reason Akko did not bring along Shiny Rod. She was lucky in this case as the dragon in question didn’t intend to hurt them but to go up against a dragon without the deus ex machina stick isn’t bravery, but pure foolishness.

Fafner does bring up a point which is likely to play an important role in this series, namely that magic has become outdated for the modern world. The luna nova teacher state that there is a decline in students and it doesn’t help that they have proven themselves fairly incompetent so far in the series. Magic does look to have great benefits like with Diana reforming the potion that broke during Akko’s and Amanda’s fight. However those benefits come with an immense downside as the witch’s can only use great magic within the grounds of the school. In that regard just what does one gain from studying to be a witch? Constanze has proven it well enough that technology can not only do what magic does but it can do the job better. So the big question is what caused of the decline of magic? For Shiny Chariot could once use great magic outside of school so what exactly changed? Could it have anything to do with that star shaped scar on the moon? For that scar doesn’t appear to be on the moon in the very first episode during Chariots show. Perhaps the fall of magic could be related to why Chariot gave up being an entertainer and lost the power to wield Shiny Rod.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 18

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

The opening of this episode starts us off with an ominous note as Sukuroka’s eyes are shown with a deep blood red. Perhaps it is a sign that the reaper has come for Yakumo, but I think it’s too early for that yet. On Yotaro’s side of things, something I previously suspected was brought up as Yotaro still hasn’t found his Rakugo and I think that until the writer gives him some new material, he won’t. One thing he did realize was that s and his and Yakumo’s approach to Rakugo are different. Yakumo tends to push his style as a performer onto all the characters he portrays while Yotaro wishes to become the characters themselves. It’s an important step for Yotaro as it means that he is moving away from simply copying his master to developing his own style. Considering the events at the end of the episode, I hope he doesn’t regress back from this step forward. It was indeed a very unfortunate timing for Yotaro to have this revelation.

The final scene reminds me of a moment during the first season, when Miyokichi claimed that she would haunt Yakumo in episode 9. In a way she has done just that, so perhaps it gives her joy in the afterlife. Is this truly the ghost of Miyokichi come back to torment Yakumo or simply a hallucination due to his failing health? It really is up to the viewer, but it is rather interesting that Yakumo was telling a story about a man meeting his loved one by lighting incense and making the story more dynamic by having Konatsu light the incense. For the ghost of Miyokichi to appear from incense lit by her daughter, who just so happens to still hold a grudge against Yakumo is rather intriguing. As I stated in the title, I don’t think this is the end for Yakumo. Things may look grim but he still hasn’t hit the apex of this character arc yet. He is essentially the main opposition for Yotaro and for the writer to kill him off now would leave a gaping hole in the narrative. I think this near death experience should give him some perspective though. One thing that really caught my eye was in how Yakumo reacted to Yotaro calling Rakugo fun. Once upon a time Yakumo found Rakugo fun, but it seems after Sukoroku died, that event killed Yakumo’s enthusiasm for it. Rakugo is just a job for Yakumo now and I think this marks a turning point for him to regain that love he once had.

One thing that threw me through a loop this episode was before Yakumo collapsed, he looked at Konatsu and repeated “My Beloved, My beloved.” I personally saw the relationship between Yakumo and Miyokichi to be one sided. Unless that flashback was Yakumo playing unreliable narrator I don’t think Yakumo truly loved Miyokichi. He may have cared for her but often his more intimate moments with her felt like he was just indulging her. Of course time is a fickle beast and it’s possible that looking back over his past that Yakumo’s affection for Miyokichi could have grown into love. It was a long time ago and she was clearly the woman who made the greatest impact on his life. But perhaps there is something more to this. Perhaps Yakumo was hiding something that he didn’t tell Yotaro and Konatsu. What that could be is anyone’s guess. As a nice bit of symmetry this episode is the fifth episode of the second season which could potentially be Yakumo’s end as a Rakugo performer. The fifth episode of the first season was where Yakumo crossdressed for a play and discovered his talent with could be considered his beginning in Rakugo. In that regard this could be the beginning of great change.

Saga of Tanya the Evil – 05 [My First Battalion]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Saga of Tanya the Evil

The only one thing I dislike about this episode was that we didn’t get into Tanya’s thoughts very much. I really wish I could have heard what she was thinking while training the troops because it would have been undoubtedly hilarious. It is clear by her reaction that she didn’t expect any of them to continue and was just waiting for them to drop out. From what I hear, we actually got the abridged version of her training as in the LN and manga, as she shot even more artillery shells at them after the original thirty-six hour time limit just to mess with them and then went through the list of the world’s most hellish training regiments. Of course, her efforts backfired as the harsh treatment of the troops gave the impression that she would kill anyone who dared tries to quit. It’s a common theme for Tanya to see things in terms of loss and gain as her previous life as a salaryman made her highly logical but apathetic.

Tanya only sees things from her perspective without taking into account the time or the mindset of others. In truth, Tanya’s mistakes are normal due to her misunderstanding of other people. To truly defeat God, she needs to stop focusing on her own goal and expand her worldview and the utter glorious tragedy of it all, is that Tanya is the kind of person so caught up in her own ideals to ever truly consider it. Despite being a clever individual, Tanya is quite childish and short sighted. After all, the main reason she is in this mess is because she prattled on to God without thinking. Tanya, to me, is how a villain should be written, not some unfazeable egoist mastermind sitting atop a tower saying everything is according to plan. Instead, she’s just a capable individual with a flawed personality and ideology, essentially making her human.

Thus, with the battalion formed, the group receives their first mission fending off an invasion by the kingdom of Diakon. I don’t know who this nation is supposed to represent but they seem to have not updated their war tactics from the 19th century. The lack of air support and rudimentary defense against mages makes Tanya sigh at their incompetence and the ensuing battle couldn’t really be called one but rather, it was a wholesale massacre and devastating defeat for the kingdom of Dakia. It seemed all too easy and I thought that God might throw a wrench into the works, but this battle does truly highlight just how ruthless Tanya really is. Her assistant Viktoriya has been acting somewhat of a moral counterpart, but even she doesn’t chastise Tanya for her level of ruthlessness.

Out of everyone in the world, she seems to is the one that knows Tanya the best as when battalion was given an explanation by their commanding officer about shelling them with artillery, Viktoriya had already begun digging a hole to avoid the bombardment. I certainly wasn’t expecting Tanya to pull out that little girl voice to announce the attack on the capital but that was certainly underhanded and remarkably clever. No doubt, this victory will push her reputation even higher which may have slipped her mind during this mission. After all, Tanya is thinking of war in terms of the modern world, so the massive numbers of Dakia troops doesn’t impress her. However, to the various militaries of this world, the news that she defeated an army with a single battalion, will no doubt have her superiors pushing her into much more dire straits.  Finally, we can see that Tanya is making use of her previous life’s knowledge as the speech she gave her battalion is almost a word for word quote from Full Metal Jacket.

Scum’s Wish – 04 [Bad Apple!!]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Scum's Wish

This was a sublime episode from start to finish. By showing these tales of love through fragments from many characters’ point of view, it adds more layers, as well as more perspectives to this webs of broken desires. Normally this approach of focusing of fragments mean that the story can become disjoined; but not here. Every small stories in this episode matter and it keeps sinking us to its muddy swamp. And yes, the music in this show is incredible; if you listen closely there’s a distinctive theme for its stories and it really helps to elevate the mood for each segment; like how you could feel a seedy sense in Akane-sensei story, or a false mood of sweet, dream-like quality in Narumi-sensei part. Again I’ll discuss each of the theme in last week’s format, as I see it as the most appropriate format to squeeze out most of what this show tries to convey.

“Being desired by men. There’s no greater feeling than that”

Turn out that our sweet Akane-sensei isn’t sweet at all, but a manipulative bitch. That might sound negative but in truth this is a kind of character that works really well in this story. She isn’t your typical bitch after all, as she’s the most observant one out of all characters in this story. She is the only one who sees through many intertwined love nets and really the only one who can sees through Hanabi. Using her attractiveness as a weapon isn’t something utterly terrible, but what is remarkable about her character is how she’s playing up her attractiveness mainly for wrecking other girls, for them to feel the pain of seeing the one they love taken away by her. She said she doesn’t aim for superiority but all I can see is superiority plays a significant role here, since all she wants is attention from men and the hurtfulness from girls. I love the way she recognizes that Hanabi is pretty much on the same side as her, by neglecting the one sided love of other (Moca). The true Akane is anything but pretty, but now at least she’s real. What impressed me the most is the way the show underlines her sexiness and her thrust of physical consumption; not through big boobs, sexy clothes or suggestive behaviors, but merely by her sweating. Hooray for solid characters writing here.

“I decided to believe it was fate”

The next segment was told from the point of view of Narumi-sensei, on how he was attracted to Akane and thus become her unfortunate prey to play with. This story is slight and the least impactful compared to other segments, but I still found it interesting because out of anything, the first impression he had towards Akane was directly tied to his memories of his long-lost mother. It furthers detailing his long searching for a feminine figure all his life, and really that was a false picture that he incidentally subjects Akane to be and that was the reason why he’s blind be this affection. In the end, things that too good to be true are more likely deceptive in nature so I really hope he’s sensitive enough to figure out the true Akame on his own (would be really disappointed if he can’t).

“I want you to be filled with me”

Last but not least we have a development to Ecchan and Hanabi relationship as they sunk deeper to love confusion. There’s always a distinctive border between friend and lover and now they crossed that line, each for their own selfish reasons. Hanabi both needs Ecchan as a way to escape her own heartbroken from Narumi (which I can totally feel for her), and because she still needs and loves Ecchan as a friend. Ecchan likewise knows all this, but she’s determined to use every opportunity to have Hanabi all by herself. What they both know but too afraid to acknowledge is that once they crossed that line, they can never be back to “just friends” again. That image of little Hanabi disgusted with her current self sums that sense up pretty nicely and for me the best moments out of this already excellent episode. Scum’s Wish stands on a very firm ground here, as the story keeps maintaining its confidence take on the line between physical desires and emotional desires, on how the characters keep using the former as the substitute for the latter (the first and the last segment directly tied to this), but end up being more lonely and suffering. I know a lot of viewers have been turned off by its depressing nature but all I can say is guys, you might miss out one of the more thought-provoking look on relationship here.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. – 04 [Smoldering Embers in an Isolated Nation]

by SuperMario, posted in ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., Currently Watching:

We are no stranger with this kind of world in anime: an isolated, conservative world that cut-off from outside communication and ultimately stay behind its times, slowing back 10, 20 even hundred years. Everything there is monitored and controlled by the rules and authority. As ACCA keeps suggesting the chaos within this peaceful façade, the most appropriate way to question this very world is to put its ideas to an extreme spectrum, as a result we have this isolated district of Suitsu. The Dowa kingdom promotes autonomy in its 13 districts, with each of the district bring their own uniqueness to better suit the place; but what happen when the authority started to abuse their power in a negative way? Citizens in Suitsu are prohibited to use phone, even to communicate with outsider in the pretense of “preserving tradition”; they in turns are displeased with how things going and form an angry mob. What sadden me the most is we’re living in this exact same world, where North Korea still cut-off from the rest of the world just like this. Suitsu district, when you look at it, is more like one of those weird countries straight out of Kino’s Journey, but it still manages to add ambiguity to the flaws of the Dowa Kingdom’s systems so in that regards, this episode still has its merits.

But when it comes to the actual plot of this episode, then this week ACCA made one mistake that they managed to avoid so brilliantly before: its delicate pacing. ACCA is slow-burn, at the same time there are many plots and themes going on both underneath and beneath the surface but as far as I concerned they hold everything together extremely well. This week though, we follow Jean as he auditing the district, witness him being kidnapped, then learn about the coup d’état, follow the angry mob, the uprising and their ultimate downfall, both in a runtime of merely 20 minutes. The pacing therefore is much quicker this time, as a result those big events don’t have time to settle down or give much impact. We just know Wabler or Biscuit at the beginning of this week so it’s hard to relate to them or the events around them. I get the message: frustration out of unfairness and strictness is relatable, but I hardly feel any of this. It comes quick and goes quick and leave not much impact.

When you judge this episode through its stance in the big picture, then this show offers too little to the main narrative as well. At the end, those uprising will be hidden and forgotten, only Jean gets away with the knowledge of the actual coup d’état and that’s freaking little development for a complex show like ACCA. Although we do learn that Nino apparently is working as a triple agent and we have a glimpse on another member of the ACCA’s five Pastis and the Suitsu representative Beurre, this still leave a lot to be desired. No, this episode, while certainly is a competent episode in its own ways, serves as my least favorite episode so far of ACCA (the curse of episode 4) both because it runs too quick for its own good, and it adds too little to the main narrative. And where is the glorious cake and tasty bread this time? All we have was a loaf of bread when Jean was all tied up so… um, no, thank you.