God Eater Resurrection Video Game Review – 60/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Game Reviews, Reviews by AidanAK47

 

A good while back I bought a little game for the Wii called Monster Hunter Tri. After playing it for a bit I got tired of collecting bits of twig and not doing the monster hunting the title promised and left it on the wayside. Then one week I decided to put in my all and finished Monster Hunter Tri and came to find what made the series so appealing. Though I stopped keeping up with the game because every time I bought one there would be a Monster Hunter slightly better edition released and the games are so much of a time sink that I can never get around to playing them. Now you may be wondering just why am I talking about Monster Hunter when this is a God Eater review? Well that’s simple, God Eater wears its inspiration inspiration on it’s sleeve. To the degree that I was ready to label it babies first Monster Hunter within its first third of missions. For reference the copy I am reviewing is God Eater Resurrection steam version which comes free when you buy God Eater 2 on steam.

Thanks to my experience with the God Eater anime I walked into this game expecting absolutely nothing from the story. That was most certainly a good call. This story is just as bland and forgettable as the anime portrayed it so in that regard I guess it was a faithful adaption. Which isn’t really helped when you have a silent self insert protagonist. There was only one point I became somewhat invested in the story and that had to do with a girl who pretty much had the personality of Asuka Langley Soryu but was hit with a serious case of PTSD. Helping her work through it was a rather good part of the story for me but I may be projecting as she has the upward character arc that Asuka so desperately needed. Other than that I found it hard to really feel the levity of this world on the brink of destruction by aragami when everyone in it dresses like they came out of a cosplay convention. Forgive me but it’s a little hard to take the situation seriously when the woman giving me missions is wearing no top besides a jacket zipped down with no bra and pants that show off the sides of her thighs. I feel a serious disconnect as what she is wearing doesn’t seem to reflect her no nonsense personality at all. Everyone else is a bunch of standard stereotypes as well with Souma(Actually had to look up his name because I forgot it) being the worst offender as he is standard emo all the way. The presentation isn’t much to look at either seeing as this is a remastered PSP game and no matter how prettied up it is you can see the signs of it’s portable origin. The first part of the game is essentially about teaching a human aragami to love and stopping the plans of the evil director who you can pretty much guess is evil by the time he opens his mouth. After that it becomes a hunt to find a former mentor who goes missing and lastly just some powerful Aragami shows up and you have to kill it. The story tries to tug at you but I found myself purely apathetic which is funny because the way I designed my avatar it looks like he gave about as much of a damn as I did. I will say that the weird sense of style does give you a lot of customisation when it comes to your avatar. So naturally I fulfilled my dream of hunting monsters dressed like a pimp with a tiny top hat and a scythe.
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January Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

I know I missed Onihei, but it’s just impossible to find much about it. Perhaps in February I’ll give it some more coverage. Aside from that, this was a good month. I’d say that overall the winter season is more varied than the past autumn season, but at the same time the good series are not AS good. All of course according to my own impressions. Like always spoilers beware, and this list is on order of my own preferences, worst first best last, only about the episodes that aired in January, minus the first episodes that I already talked about. The number after each title signifies the relevant episodes.

#15: Granblue Fantasy The Animation (01)

This one aired a bit later than the other shows this season. It’s also a fantasy series, probably another kind of game adaptation like Chain Chronicle, but I liked that one a lot better though. That I’m not watching Chain Chronicle anymore should say enough for Granblue, but the gist of it that while Chain Chronicle was simply generic, with Granblue I got the feeling of gradually losing brain cells while watching. Granted, a bit reason for that is that incredibly annoying dragon that keeps floating everywhere, but what also ticks me off is that we’re given very little reason to care about any of the characters. The main character doesn’t really have a reason to go along on this life-threatening quest, he just happens to be at the place where a cute girl falls from the sky… and starts following his boner, I guess… Why am I supposed to root for these people? Do the bad guys have any other reason to attack besides being evil? I don’t expect answers to those questions in episode 01, but at least hints or some other kind of nuance. You just can’t think you can get away with this simplistic mess just because you’re a game adaptation, right?

#14: Spiritpact (02)

In the end… I just can’t. Snappy dialogue is one thing, but if everything else is just amateurish i’m not really sure what I’m gaining by watching this and I’ve got many better things to see and do. I can see where they’re coming from, but episode 2 didn’t really convince me to just keep watching. For one it wasn’t as fun as the first episode, but the first episode also just felt worse in hindsight. They introduced this new character who is the fiance of the white haired guy, and obviously she has her issues, but they all seemed to be trying so hard, and nothing really came out of it.

The animation is partly to blame for that. I watch anime because I also care for the “animation”-part of the whole deal. I want to see people bringing characters to life. If you have to use short-cuts then so be it: be clever with the jump-cuts, pull some visual tricks, use your music. It’s not an exact science at all and it’s an art form, however this series doesn’t seem to try any of this, with awkward jerky motions and no attempts to hide it. Japanese anime has the experience in these cheap tricks, but Korean animators still need to find their own way. Mind you, I am not suggesting them to follow anime’s example. Let them go their own way, as long as that way works of course.

#13: BanG Dream! (01-02)

This is another series that came out a bit late this season, about a bunch of middle school girls starting a band. I gave it two episodes because there is one thing it seems to understand: build-up: it’s not like “Wheee band!”, but instead it is carefully building up the different girls, why they’re going for it and how they end up meeting each other. Really, one of the most difficult things about being in a band is actually starting the band and finding the right people. By taking its time, the series makes also sure that the characters are well fleshed out in the process.

Still, I’m not going to continue with it. The teenaged girls are just too annoying, and I think a lot can be contributed to bad acting and voice acting: characters hamming it up a little too much. There is one shy girl and nearly all she does is breathe very loudly. That’s not how shyness works! The main character also feels a bit weird: they really tried to make her this enthusiastic girl whose energy pulls the entire band together, but in the end it just feels fake, like they try too hard. She too has this habit of just breathing very loudly, which after a while just gets distracting. These random squeaks and moans instead of just actual dialogue. This obviously isn’t the only show that does this but that doesn’t make it okay!

#12: elDLIVE (02-03)

elDLIVE could have had potential if they kept the momentum of the first episode going. A fun light-hearted show about alien hunting with quirky characters, but in the end it lost this quite quickly. Episode 02 and 03 pretty much repeated what episode 01 did, only less interesting, and quite witless to be honest. These episodes had a bit of high school hi-jinks, dull aliens, and nothing really interesting. It wasn’t fun, and at times they also got way too dramatic for their own good. You don’t want to be dramatic for a series that involves a bunch of kids busting aliens, that just serves to highlight how stupid the show is, unless you invest really heavily in suspense of disbelief. But ultimately this show lacks any sort of ambition or desire to be special. This one is dropped.

#11: Demi-chan wa Kataritai (02-04)

This one turned out to be not as good as what I hoped. On one hand, it managed to portray this world in which a small percentage of people is “demi”, or half human, half mythical creature like a vampire, dullahan, etc. It’s an interesting look at minorities, being slightly different and a bit of bullying here and there. Its characters are very vocal about their issues and that makes this a very honest series.

On the other hand I really don’t like how this show pulled a Sword Art Online and made every single one of these “demi-girls” fall for the main character. Granted, the verdict is still out on the snow girl, but it’s getting there, trust me! I find that cheap, and it’s also just pointless. This is supposed to be a series about teenaged issues, and the romance just feels shoehorned in. There is no reason why these girls can’t have boyfriends, or at the very least guys interested in them if they also want to handle things like sexualities. This is also in the main character’s favour because now we just end up with him getting demi-boners half of the time, which just turns him into this slime-ball rather than a scientist. It’s a real shame because I feel that there are two groups among the creators: one that really wants this to be a character study, and one that want this to be a romantic comedy. The result gets very awkward in a bad way.

#10: Piace – Watashi no Italian (02-03)

Piace is clever: it knew that if you want to be interesting, you need some kind of material to work with. Slice of life has been done to death and there is no way to make something out of it, and you have to be really funny for a pure plain comedy to succeed. However by basing its setting on an Italian restaurant it can interchange the jokes with Italian cooking. And it’s not like you really learn something about this, but the creators make a point of showing that the characters are making good food. When you combine this with the banter between the different characters, this becomes pretty decent for 4 minutes per episode, because let’s face it: the only jokes in this show are based on the characters’ banter; do not expect any food puns. The characters are also grounded and fun to watch: the voice acting here is good. The slightly-faster-than-usual pacing along with portraying the characters variedly, yet fairly wasn’t something I expected from a series like this.

#9: ChaoS;Child (02-03)

ChaoS;Child is chugging along nicely, along with its own issues. The thing with this series is that it’s all about its mystery. You can see that the story behind this series, the string of weird murders and the strange connection between them is the strongest point of this series. While no Higurashi by any means, I admit that after three episodes I’m curious to learn what is behind everything. Apart from that though… the gore is laughable, the animation is jerky, but my most important issue with it lies with the characters.

When telling a story with a clear main character, the audience needs a way to relate with him or her. A key part of that is the reason for his/her involvement in the story. And this doesn’t need to be complicated, as long as it’s something strong that can take the audience along for the ride. The lead character here is this sulky high school kid who keeps poking his nose in ridiculously dangerous murder cases. He knows this and still goes after them. Even after his loved ones get hurt he still tries to get more and more involved, even though there is no guarantee for the safety of his other friends, he gets told this plenty of times, and he realizes that he’s being incredibly reckless. How the heck are we supposed to relate to that?! I mean the lead of Chaos Head was a loser, but the creators used his panic very well to engage the audience. With him, it’s all so weak that I kept thinking “stop getting involved! Let the cops take care of it! You’re a high school kid, you can’t do anything!”

#8: Masamune-kun no Revenge (02-04)

Four episodes in, and Masamune has still retained its wit that we saw in its first episode. I didn’t think I’d be praising a romance between two high school kids, but it’s enjoyable enough to see just what an incredible dork the male lead can be. For once he’s actually balanced well: he’s flawed, but not a complete idiot, diligent but not perfect, his attempts of hitting on the lead girl are a refreshing combination between desperate and surprisingly effective. The tropes that have been done in other romances, it really tries to subvert them. It’s like a cat and mouse game between the two of them.

However, I’m very afraid that we just saw the best of this series. Episode 04 ended with something really questionable that has ruined many series that came before it. Up to that point, every twist, even though unexpected, sort-of made sense. You could see things happening that way if you put yourself in the characters’ shoes. Then completely randomly there’s this girl that offers herself to the lead’s feet as they’re about to have this serious moment. The episode ended right afterwards, but the creators are going to have to come up with something amazing to try and explain that one, because it also just does not fit the storyline at all, and I really doubt what this show can benefit from her. This was the “will they won’t they”-love-triangle I was afraid of when I first saw the OP and ED of this one, and there’s gonna be another girl! For now I enjoyed this show plenty, but unless episode 05 makes a very good case for itself I’m going to drop it then and there.

#7: Youjo Senki (02-04)

Okay. I did not expect that kind of back-story for the main character. It’s far-fetched, but.. fair enough it works. In fact, episodes 02 to 04 have all pain-stakingly spent time dealing with the issues I had with the first episode, setting everything up and actually doing a very good job at it. At this point I don’t see this as a dumb war-series anymore, but definitely something with its own qualities. Something totally different from what Shuumatsu no Izetta tried to be.

It’s ironic: Shuumatsu no Izetta made sure to portray soldiers as actual people, but in the end it was about the survival of the actual kingdom. Youjo Senki throws heaps of unnamed soldiers under the bus, but in the end its central theme is survival of the individual. Everyone in this series is thinking either about themselves, or their close families. The people next to them. The patriotism feels more like a formality here. In face, what I like is how it takes many serious issues of other war-series, and turns them into formalities. The whole goal of the main character isn’t to win, it’s to live a comfortable life and winning just happens to be very convenient for that goal. It’s a different look at war politics than usual. And the fact that she’s a child… fair enough. It works and they use it well.

#6: Hand Shakers (02-04)

There\s something really interesting going on with the music here. During the fights, notice how the soundtrack is completely different from what you’d usually suspect? It’s all dreamy, instead of the hard, dramatic and edgy sound that series usually go for. It’s very much on the foreground, rather than mostly lingering in the background. That is awesome! Back in the days lots of series had these incredibly complicated soundtracks with creative tunes, to scenes that totally didn’t match your expectations, even blasting over the dialogue and it was glorious! At a certain point this trend stopped though, only resurfacing very rarely. This needs to be brought back! Obviously not in every series, but let’s revive the spirit of Bee-Train! Hand Shakers is obviously no El Cazador, but obviously a step in the right direction.

Aside from that, this show has me pretty baffled. On all accounts, on paper I should hate this show. A boy meets a girl and they use powers to fight others. And yet this show is just so incredibly genuine. I find the lead couple so adorable for some really weird reason. The rest of the cast: I just like them. Everything here is just enjoyable to watch. Like I said, there’s something inherently cute about a show that’s about hand holding, something most romance shows don’t even seem to realize exists.

I am not a fan though of how passive the female lead has been so far: the male lead pretty much did all of the work here. You could replace her with a pet dog and pretty much the only thing that will change is the sexual tension. Don’t think too much behind that comparison…

#5: Little Witch Academia (02-04)

What makes this series special is that the creators really seem to have made this with an international audience in mind. This show is a weird amalgamation between east and west, but some parts really feel like Trigger putting a global audience first, rather than what most shows do: just produce your series for Japan and afterwards just release it internationally because hey, why not? Or make your show so generic that it doesn’t matter what country it’s from. I mean, otherwise no sane writer would include a reference to Hanna Barbara so randomly there. Episode four was also was about fandom, and it felt uch more like we were watching western fandom than Eastern.

Also in this world, everything is exaggerated. Everything. That makes the plot pretty random and stupid, but the energy. Good lord, the energy of this show! This show always manages to conjure up something creative for the magical hi-jinks that the characters find themselves into and especially the main trio just bubbles with personality, and yet they’re grounded and varied. This is what makes characters who usually would have been really annoying, it makes them actually fun to watch. I mean we all know about the blond girl who is good at everything and incredibly posh, but in this show she works. Her henchmen are annoying at first, but we see them do different stuff besides fangirl about how amazing their sempai is.

And beyond that this does just about all of the basic stuff right. These four episodes were random hi-jinks, but they were perfect in fleshing out the characters and making the audience familiar with them. This light-hearted note is something I missed from Kill la Kill for example. Trigger still hasn’t forgotten to do action either, so bring on the rest of this series!

#4: ACCA – 13-ku Karusatsu-ka (02-04)

Okay ACCA, let’s talk for a minute about immersion. Consider the Twelve Kingdoms, a series that also focuses on a world with about a dozen different countries inside it. One thing it did a lot, especially in the beginning, is show a map of the world, including a pointer where the story was about to focus at. This happened a lot, and while tedious at the time, because of this you always knew where the story was in relation to the rest of the setting. It made you feel part of the world. ACCA has a map, but we only see it very occasionally, and only brief, so we as a viewer are constantly having to guess where the heck we are, especially since every episode deals with a different country. What if the beginning of each episode could show for a small bit where on the map we are? You could incorporate it in the OP if time is the issue. It’s a very simple detail, but I feel like it would add a lot to this series.

Now, ACCA is an incredibly ambitious series, and it’s obvious that it can’t fit everything it wants into episodes of 20 minutes, so it has to compromise. The option it went for is to try and get as much information as possible into just one episode. The big difficulty with this approach is keeping thins personal, and I have to say that when taking this into consideration, it’s a very good attempt. Obviously the huge focus on consumables helps. Characters have this “tell, rather than show”-approach to their characters, but this is fixed by the creators using subtle non-verbal clues to flesh out their characters.

The big sacrifice though is continuity. This series both doesn’t have the time to deal with the aftermaths of everything that it does (lots of minor issues are just explicitly assumed to just get resolved), plus the way it leads one thing into the other… just happens. Coincidences pile up and there is no quiet time. It’s impossible to add those and still get everything within 20 minutes. Because what it is doing is powerful stuff. Makes you think, it’s interesting. Not to mention here that the potential for this show is virtually unlimited.

#3: Kuzu no Honkai (02-03)

Okay, so they’re not brother and sister. They just grew up together, with different parents so he always was the person she looked up to. Fair enough, that takes away my big complaint of episode one, but this series is not entirely in the clear. After all the “they’re not really siblings”-schtick was very often used back in the day to give the illusion of incest, while allowing for a back door for the creators to say “what do you mean? It’s not incest! They’re not related!” – we all knew what they were alluding to and it was disgusting. If this show ends up bringing back that trend I will punch it.

So, now that that’s out of the way: this show has been pretty incredible here; it does so many things right here. Episode 02 and 03 showed that it’s really trying to balance like six characters together, all intertwined in a web of crushes and all having their own issues, and we keep hopping back and forth between different perspectives, although the lead girl does seem to be the main character here. The lesbian girl was particularly surprising: for once they took a honest look at what it means to be attracted to the same gender. It doesn’t have the squee-material of the likes of Yuri on Ice, and while there is nudity, it doesn’t feel like fanservice like most other series of the past five years. This is how it should be done: treating them as actual people.

This series really isn’t glorifying anything, and that’s what makes it so great because it’s a side we very rarely get to see because of how wishy-washy romance is in anime. Fune wo Amu showed how you should do romance from the light side, this one flips things around and shows how to do romance correctly from the dark side. This show is ugly, even though it looks so pretty, but the amount of detail they managed to put in here. Mugi’s wet dream: they actually had the guts to do that. Or how the teacher wore the same outfit twice. They don’t explicitly say it, but it’s obvious, and when it hits it’s glorious!

Also can I get a thumbs up for the soundtrack here? It doesn’t just sound dreamy and sad, but it’s also used really well here. Every single note here fits, and there are a lot of tracks here! Someone really put some thoughts into how to place the music, otherwise it wouldn’t fit this well!

#2: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju Season 2 (01-04)

I managed to marathon the first season during the past month (though for the sake of this ranking I only consider the first four episode, otherwise it’s impossible to compare). And oh yeah, this is the real deal! I can’t believe they actually made an anime about Rakugo, a performance art where so much is dependent on acting, tonal changes and gestures, and they pretty much got away with it. I still consider Fune wo Amu my favourite series of 2016, but that was because that series managed to breathe life into its characters in a way that I had very rarely seen before. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shunjuu has its own list of things it does incredibly well.

The best being the character-development. Like seriously, there are very few series that can boast the level of detail that this series can put in it. Usually series have one flashback, or a number here and there for each character if they’re lucky, but most of the story takes place in one time frame. This series is the examination of the life of one guy, and every single episode it jumps forth a few years. And we don’t just see him change, a huge emphasis is also put on the side characters: they too change realistically and believably. The voice acting here is also wonderful in changing along with the cast. Top notch! Characters rise and fall, we get to see both their heights and lows right through each other. Every episode manages to change something.

What also makes this series really rare is that it managed to teach me something. And I don’t just praise this because I had no knowledge of Rakugo prior to starting this series, it not only gave an overview of how it evolved, it was an in-depth look at it, through the characters it analyzes, praises and criticizes the format. And it also encouraged me to look up the parts that they assumed the audience already knew. I like that: assume that your audience knows the meaning of Google. You don’t need to hold people by their hand. Inspire; and dare to go deep!

One thing I did not like, or rather one thing I found annoying is a better way to put it, is the romance. I know why things happened the way they did, the creators definitely make a good case for themselves and all, and they really try to make it complex and interesting, and yet I found that the most boring parts of the series. Perhaps it’s because episode 1 already told what was going to happen in the end, you could see them building up to it and the actual moment of the “big death” felt rather… forced. It probably worked well in manga-form but in the anime it just looked silly. And building up the romance… it took some patience to sit through even before it happened.

However the new season the romance is thankfully refreshingly down to earth, if you can call it romance anyway. It’s almost politics, and it knows its place much better. The characters in return are a bit less interesting, but they’re really starting to grow now, which was probably the intentions of the creators: how the heck are these newbies going to fill the shadows of the old masters? Yes, a lot of thought was put into this. More series like this please!

#1: Classicaloid (13-16)

Yeah, yeah. I know that the above series have more substance than this one. I know the characters are complete idiots. I know that the past four episodes of Classicaloid have been completely stupid and have established absolutely nothing. And yet… and yet… I can’t. I can’t label my favourite show of the month as anything other than Classicaloid. It just had me completely in stitches, all four episodes even though they all were completely different. This show just makes me happy whenever I watch it that no other show this season manages to do.

So let’s get things clear: in these four episodes we have people turn into fishes, become idols, make horrible music, and hunt for a merleopon. All of them focused on a different character and were mostly used to flesh them out. All of them were hilarious, but my favourite was the fish episode. There was something magical of following a mute fish around for 20 minutes and looking into the despair that ensued. It also becomes more and more apparent that this show has the second director of Gintama. This is a compliment by the way.

This series takes me back to the good old days. Back when series still understood how to properly fill in a 26-episode series. The first half being a build-up, and the second then using it as a board to jump off of. In this case the first half has made sure that these characters are so much fun, that I just smile whenever they’re on stage. This is what I consider terrific characters. The ones that just make you happy, no matter what they’re doing. When manga and light novel adaptations got more and more the norm, and more and more series only turned to 13 episodes max, this was a format that I unfortunately missed deeply. I don’t want to be that guy who goes “gahw things were so much better in my days, you kids with your stupid trends and stuff” – I used to get very annoyed by these people – but in some areas I really have to give in: we are not living in the glory days of anime anymore. I do have hope though, I want to see anime evolve again. Try to see what it will turn into next. For that we need a constant flow of new talent, because at this point the old guys have mostly all left, while the ones who remain are the only ones still bringing in interesting and fresh stuff. The new talents need to get the confidence and the connections in order to be able to do their own things. They need to step up and realize that the future of anime lies in pushing the medium forward. They have the misfortune that the focus today lies much more on consistency: having clean frames, and a higher resolution makes anime more expensive, and it makes it harder to have experimental series, and therefore it makes it harder for the real geniuses to get noticed. The likes of Satoshi Kon, Mamoru Oshii, Masaaki Yuasa, they would have had much more difficulties breaking through in today’s atmosphere. Classicaloid is our hope: the director is relatively new, and I remember when he first took over Gintama I disliked the changes he brought forth. Over the past ten years though, Classicaloid showed that he did learn a lot. He’s using his influence clearly, while at the same time keeping the viewer’s attention. Entire episodes are devoted to one really weird idea, yet he knows how to make it tick now. I’m in no way saying that he is among the greats, but what I am saying is that he’s on the right path there, though unfortunately it’s not entirely there yet. Classicaloid is amazing, yet the great series of 9-15 years ago and the volume with which they came really was special.

I really believe that anime is due to improve. We just need to wait for the people who grew up in the golden age of anime go work themselves up to the top. I do not know how many years this will take. 10 years? 20 years? No clue. However I am interested in sticking along as long as fun series like Classicaloid keep getting made, and I also honestly believe that the worst is already behind us.

I know the above two paragraphs are really weird ramblings, poorly formulated and not that connected, but these are thoughts that I’ve been having a long time. I hope that I’ll be able to put more structure to them in the near future…

Little Witch Academia – 04[Night Fall]

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

No legendary items or Shiny rod antics this time as we have an episode focusing on Lotte and her particular fascination with a book series called Night Fall. A series spanning 365 volumes(Oh my god, this thing must be as worn out and tired as The Simpsons.) which seems to be a Twilight like story that somehow evolved into Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure levels of ridiculousness. Just hearing fans talk about it makes the story sound completely insane, so much so that I actually would be interested in reading it. After all there’s a chapter where the main heroine catches a nuke with her bare hands and after hearing that all I can say is where do I start reading? Out of the episodes so far I would call this the weakest but still a fairly enjoyable episode. For one I noticed that Diana’s two cronies are called Hanna and Barbera which is clearly a reference to the Hanna Barbera cartoons. Pretty amusing how one of them was a closet Night Fall fan getting the other girl to check out the event to “see how stupid it is”. Yet at the first Night Fall question her hand to shot up right away. I think it’s the little touches like that which makes this series so charming.

Lotte’s admiration for her idol did bring an interesting contrast to Ako’s admiration for Shiny Chariot. In Ako’s case she really wants to be Chariot and perform great feats of magic in front of an audience. Lotte on the other hand doesn’t want to write Night Fall like Annabel and instead wants to enjoy the books she writes while cheering her on. It reminds me of a time when I was trying to get a career in the Video Game industry as I love video games and couldn’t think of anywhere else I wanted to be. However after getting a taste of what making games is actually like from college I realised that I didn’t really want to make games, I just wanted to play them. If video games were my job then could I really enjoy them as a hobby? Lotte hit the same conclusion when given the opportunity to become the new writer of Night Fall. I find it funny that she spent so much time encouraging Annabel when later it’s revealed that her main reason for doing that was that if she wrote Night Fall then she would know what happened and thus couldn’t enjoy reading it anymore. I feel a bit for Annabels dilemma in that she was tired of being bashed by the internet. As they say, Haters will broadcast your failures, but whisper your success. Or to put it another way, people only have a reason to speak up when you stop doing your job right. Lotte brings up a good point that the most vocal on the internet don’t really represent the opinions of the majority and that’s pretty well evidenced here as Night Fall has fans from new to old who are still passionate about it at the unveiling of Volume 265.

Otherwise this entire episode is likely what happens when ordinary people listen to anime fans. We know absolutely nothing about Night Fall and yet what little bits we hear of it just sounds outright insane or nonsensical. Really goes to show how fans can have their own internal logic which can only be understood by other fans. After all if I talked to anyone who did not watch anime about tsunderes, yanderes and likewise then chances are they wouldn’t have any idea what I was talking about. Regardless neither Ako nor Sucy attempt to badmouth Lottes hobby despite finding it impenetrable and just respect her passion for the series. Lotte did good here as well by not attempting to force the series on Sucy or Ako like your more stereotypical fan would. Ursula can’t seem to catch a break and it’s a little sad that Lotte recognised her idol immediately when Ako has no idea when Chariot is standing right in front of her. Considering this episode it’s possible we will be getting character centered episodes from now on so Sucy is likely next up followed by the girls from Enchanted Parade like Amanda. Or we shall be returning to Ako and her antics with Shiny Rod. Finally the only thing they eat at Witch Academia is potatoes? Guess there’s no house elves in this dimension.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 17

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

Another time skip? That caught me off guard but it does seem like Yotaro has not quite gotten over the problem of not being able to find his own Rakugo but has gotten popular enough to be featured on TV and expand his fandom. As a fan put it, it’s not so much that Yotaro being consistently good but having moments of brilliance. So in that regard, I am glad Yotaro didn’t solve his problems offscreen. Konastu’s son, Shin, has grown up a bit and knows how to use his cuteness to his advantage. He gains a love of Rakugo just like his parents and even Yakumo can’t help but fawn over the kid. This was more or less Konatsu’s episode, and the biggest smile came across my face upon seeing her reaction to Shin performing Rakugo. Yotaro still hasn’t pushed their relationship further from what I can tell but the two have gotten more lax around each other. They understand each other so well and despite not really lusting after each other I would honestly vote them as couple of the year.

Konatsu’s Rakugo for the children really warmed my heart in just how much she enjoyed it. This seems to suggest that Kontasu would be entering the profession of Rakugo and Yotaro wholeheartedly wants her to do it. I somewhat agree with Konatsu’s assessment that she would be rattling the cage so to speak. Rakugo is something mired in tradition and any change, be it for better or worse, will be met with hostility and I even think that Yotaru creating new Rakugo is bound to stir up some anger. Throwing Konatsu on a stage just seems like a bad idea no matter how you see it and could be devastating for her as a performer.  If she really wants to become a Rakugo performer then it would be better to start with smaller gigs and then slowly gain a fanbase. Of course, before any of this can happen, she would need Yakumo to remove the ban on female performers so that she can become accredited and considering the character of Yakumo, it would be a monumental task indeed. He’s already getting crabby about people having fun in the green room so getting him to agree to this will take some far more convincing. Assuming that Konatsu wishes to go through with it. Which I honestly think she should, she would really light up the stage when performing Rakugo.

It’s nice to see that Yakumo isn’t cold to Shin but he’s certainly cold to the writer and his attempts to write new Rakugo. These two seem in direct opposition as the writer sees Yakumo his enemy in regards to keeping Rakugo alive. It’s possible that he holds a grudge over him rejecting him as an apprentice in the past. Or how he considers Yakumo one the of the main reasons for the decline of the art. Personally I see it as Yakumo keeping to his promise to Sukeroku. As Sukeroku said in the previous seasonj, it would be Yakumo’s job to keep old traditional Rakugo from dying out and Sukuroku’s job to reinvent Rakugo for the new age. This I believe is Yakumo’s main reason for tearing up the writers Rakugo stories. Yakumo is not the one to ask when it comes to developing Rakugo for the modern era. That job should be left to the man who inherited Sukeroku’s title. I admit however that this really could just be Yakumo being difficult and stubborn. However I find it hard to see Yakumo being purposefully spiteful as it’s more likely just his awkwardness with interacting with people. Which is something he never truly got rid off throughout his life.

3-gatsu no Lion – 15 [Moonlight – Lump of Ego]

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

Let me get off track for a bit, but the truth is that I’ve always been fascinated by moonlight. Moonlight gives me a warm presence, moonlight (especially in full-moon) gives me the bright feeling that there’s no more worry in the world. Sit there and watch the moonlight is one of those rare moments where I truly “enjoy my moments of nothingness”. Coincidently, many media involving moonlight have a special connection to me: “Moonlight Shadow”, “Dancing in the Moonlight”, even last year’s indie gem “Moonlight” gave me a certain feeling that resonate strongly to me. This week in 3-gatsu we start with the chapter named “Moonlight” and again this proves to be a special episode to me, one of my favorite chapter out of 3-gatsu in fact. The ambiguous relationship between Kyouko and Rei has been one of the show’s strongest material, and this episode manages to take that relationship up a notch.

I will forever remember the image of that young Kyouko; there she stands, beyond the moonlight by the window, demanding Rei’s and our attention. If there were moments that best captured the relationship between Rei and Kyouko, that would be the moment she sneaks into his bed, whispering those words “Don’t touch me. But don’t move away from me”. Kyouko, just liked the way Rei described her, is a strong-willed but deeply insecure girl. The girl who has everything that she doesn’t need, and ‘fails’ the only thing that profoundly mattered to her. To her eyes, she’s always the inferior one compared to Rei, both in shogi and in their father’s attention. Rei isn’t any better when it comes to self-doubting though, as a result we encounter one of the most heartbreaking moments when the only way those two know how to comfort the other is by ways of showing that insecurity, but even then Kyouko still gets hurt really bad. That is Kyouko, love and hate someone with the same intensity.

And when it comes to her loving someone with full force, we also see her and Gotou together for the very first time, and this relationship is still pretty much blurred at this time, but fascinating nonetheless. Gotou is oblivious to Kyouko’s feeling, even calling her “stalker”, but of course Kyouko doesn’t back down just because of that. We saw them together twice this episode, and while the first time he allowed her to walk side by side with him, the second time he ditched her like a bastard. Except when you think about it, this is the best kind of actions when dealing with someone as bombastic as Kyouko. He’s a married man anyways. People seems to agree that Gotou has been using her but from what I see it might not be the case; it’s Kyouko who clearly steps out the line right now. I have a feeling he still cares very much about his sick wife but I know we will see more about his relationship soon enough so let’s wait and see.

The rest of the episode also follows the best-of-three matches to determine title-challenger between Gotou and Shimada. They are basically equal in terms of skills level so the matches are long and worn-out ones and resulted in one slightly beaten out than the other, which the first match goes to Gotou and the second goes to Shimada. I’m glad to see that Rei really invests in those matches. Yes, to learn from the people who are higher than you and get inspiration from those matches are the right way to get out of his own depression now. Speaking of that, Hina has an adorable moment of sitting in the chair and worrying for Rei, just so that the grandfather gives her his wise advices of basically come down to “let him deal with his issues himself”. At the same time, Harunobu offers his insight on how Rei changed his attitude towards shogi and the very reason he cares deeply for his “best friend”, this is a sweet little material for Harunobu, but I can’t help but feel that we already know that Harunobu felt that way even before he tells it, so the result gives us very little impact; which is a shame. As now a tradition with 3-gatsu no Lion, if I have to recommend the series, I’d just recommend certain chapters out of the show because when the show hits, it hits real hard, like this week’s Moonlight chapter. Other chapters though aren’t as strong or memorable and I guess with the intention of adapting faithfully to every chapters of the manga by Shaft, we will have to bear with it for the long, long term.

Saga of Tanya the Evil – 04 [Campus Life]

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

What happened in this episode was essentially a joke with the majority of the time dedicated to   the setup and final few scenes being the punchline. It doesn’t necessarily mean that this was a bad episode as this show is still burning strong. However, in terms of plot progression, this was a rather slow paced episode but all things considered, it is nice to take a break from the battlefield and have Tanya playing mind games to enhance her position. That makes the beautifully cathartic moment all the more satisfying when these mind games ends up working against her. She manages to make use of her knowledge of World War I to predict how the war would develop and due to her efforts to impress her superior, she accidently suggests the formation of a mage battalion whom could turn the tide of the war. Essentially, she unknowingly recommended herself to be at the forefront of the entire world war and handle the most dangerous missions. The brilliant thing about this is that God may have set things up a little by having Zeller see her resume but, in the end, it was Tanya herself, that ultimately dug her own grave. I actually think that if Tanya appealed to take the safer positions offered to her, then Zeller would allow her to refuse as he does seem hesitant to send her out. Unfortunately, Tanya’s mind works against her and ultimately assumes that she has no choice in the matter.

It’s great that the war college isn’t used as an excuse to pad out the story or introduce a classroom full of wacky new characters. Instead it resemble more like an actual college, which I certainly appreciate.  There aren’t any silly sports festivals here and instead, we have Tanya convincing a man to abandon his position in the military in order to be there for his newly born daughter. That was quite a good scene as it really did seem like Tanya was being genuinely heartfelt, only to have that psycho smile flare up as it was just a ploy to convince the man to give up his post so she would steal it for herself. Giving someone a good heart to contrast evil actions can lead to nice moral dichotomy but in the case of our salaryman here, I think she’s at her best at being a bastard. Yet, despite the audience knowing her real thoughts, she may be giving the impression of being a good person to those around her. The only one cautious of her true nature is the Vice Director of Strategy and Operation although he doesn’t know her full backstory. Otherwise, he would know that all he needs to do to keep her from taking over is to give her a safe cushy job in the rear.

Now that I think of it, I haven’t commented on the opening and ending credits of this show yet. The opening is something I appreciate for being different, but I find the song to be too robotic with its vocals. The visuals are far too obscured and the majority of the opening just throws too many scenes, which makes it too cluttered. I do like the part with Tanya shooting the Nutcracker as a way of showing her conflict with god. Actually, that Nutcracker is a rather amusing choice for the representative of God. After all, God is the one that threw him into this grim reality and generally comes in to give him a kick in the nuts now and again. One has to wonder if it’s an intentional joke. While the opening doesn’t catch me, I found myself loving the ending. The song has a certain militaristic theme which I have a certain fondness for and the chorus just sounds great to me. In terms of visuals, I can’t decide if it was resourceful or lazy to make it a slideshow of the art featured in the light novels. The amount of effort required to make this ending is minimal, and if any other light novel adaption tried to do this then it would make for a weak ending for each episode.

However, the artwork of the novels is quite frankly, outstanding. It has a level of detail and beauty that will likely make people lament the downgrade that Tanya got in character design in the anime. If there is a negative to this ending, it is that ignorance is bliss so that by pointing out how good Tanya looks in the novel, people might be resenting her animated character design. I don’t quite dislike her design as when it comes to animation and character art as I prefer my characters feeling alive over being highly decorative cardboard stills. Her design may be a downgrade but it does allow for the animation to give her a wider berth of emotional  response. It’s sort of like how the anime version of Pokemon Sun and Moon handled their character redesign, which made a lot of people angry. Ultimately, it was done for better animation and in all honestly, it is a reasonable tradeoff. That said, Tanya’s female subordinate still looks bad, and if she’s going to be in this show a lot more then they need to do something with that off putting design.

 

Scum’s Wish – 03 [Show Me Love (Not A Dream)]

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

This episode offers more perspectives to these whole messy affairs and gives an unflinching look to teenager’s insecure-ness, echoed perfectly by the reflections from the leads from each of these sections. It ends up stronger than last week’s, continuing peeling their skins and making them as naked as possible. While I still have issues with some of its narrative, the story gets to a much stronger and more relatable grounds. Let’s just run each of its theme down by the narrations from both Hanabi and Mugi.

“I had no idea that being the object of someone’s desires was so heavy”

This was what Hanabi learnt from the affection of Ecchan, as the girl now confesses her love to Hanabi. The show certainly isn’t subtle at all by showing how Hanabi saved her from sexual abuse on a train and that’s the only obvious flaw I would give in that development (although I must admit that we need more awareness on the sexual harassment in public transportation). The crush from Ecchan towards Hanabi comes from a very understandable perspective, and she intends to hide her love until she senses something wrong about the relationship between Hanabi and Mugi so she pushes forward. Hanabi begins to realize she has been a center of Ecchan’s affection and now she understands the real weigh behind this. When someone give everything for their love it’s suffocate and heavy; you can’t carry the load with them because you obviously don’t feel the same way as them, but if you outright reject them it’s mean all their desire/affection is nothing more than… a wishful dream.  Moreover, this one-sided affection serves as a mirror towards her own crush with Kanai-sensei for a) he might reject Hanabi the same exact way she rejects Ecchan and b) keeps hanging on the love with someone who doesn’t love you back and you end up hurting the most, you end up all alone. Hanabi understands that and she understands that well.

“Secret can save you, so I pretended that it was just casual, but actually, it was much more serious”

So Mugi had a physical relationship with an older girl before and it still gives him a hard time now (in more ways than one). Guess he’ll never learn on his own mistake as now he’s doing the exact same thing with Hanabi. That aside, this flashback offers the more realistic look on what actual teenagers might experience in real life. It was told with a sad look, lonely feeling like when you looked back to the memories that you don’t want to. It’s obvious from the flashback that Mugi had a deeper feeling for this senpai and that feeling of lost and love still scarred him even now. Senpai sees their relationship for just physical though, but the show succeeded in showing that senpai herself was a lonely and vulnerable figure like most of teens out there. I don’t think she will reappear ever again but for the little screentime that she had she speaks right through the anxiety of most teens have to gone through. Which bring us up to the next point; how exactly does he consider his relationship with Hanabi? As a substitute for Akane-sensei or as a mean to put all his emotional frustration out in form of physical contact? Well, for now it would be the latter but Hanabi did the same too as after she was confused and depressed by the confession of Ecchan; she came to him for solace. But instead of sharing their pains by talking they do it much more physically.

“Love will make you blind”

Because when you idolize them so much you start to unnoticed their flaws. Akane-sensei has been the most generic character out of the cast but it’s time (that is, next week) that we will get under her skin to see what she really thinks. I’m not sure myself but wearing the same outfits as yesterday isn’t the good sign at all. Curiously though, Akane-sensei is a love rivals in more than one ways for Hanabi, and Hanabi forms a hatred feeling towards the female teacher. Which make me thinking, how much she love Mugi right now? This hatred comes from jealousy (and not trusting that woman) after all.

Although Moca’s annoying antics still suck big time, the show so far handles the melodrama quite well so point for them on that. Scum’s Wish is a show that excels on portraying ugly aspects of romance relationship; of the love so pure and strong it begins to be eaten over by desired; hatred and obsessions. So here’s basically where I stand on this show right now: handjob is good (as always), crying isn’t, kissing is questionable, and jealous/hatred feeling please-give-me-more.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. – 03 [The Swirling Smoke of Rumors in the Castle]

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

The plot’s getting rather interesting, now that Jean finds himself in the middle of everyone’s watching eyes without having a clue what’s going on. The crowd thinks about him as an important factor for the upcoming coup d’état, his friend Nino certainly frames him as ‘the one and only’ when feeding info to Grossular, at the same time he was mysteriously received two cigarettes in the sealed envelopes and he was asked to be an ally for two higher authorities of ACCA. So despite the gorgeous ball, the tasty cakes and the night smokes might convince you otherwise, this is a very busy episode that set up a lot of frameworks for the future. Let all get down to it.

The big event here on the surface have to be all of important people in the story were invited to the ball of the Prince’s Coming of Age ceremony. Yes, it’s as absurd as it sounds and the imperial figures are framed as incompetent, arrogant and right out stupid. For now, my guess last week on why the uprising occur was way off the mark, as the reason is very silly: prince Schwan is going to take the throne and no one is happy with it. Just from the few scenes this week, he already makes his case on how annoying he could be. The show understands his stupidity so they accompany his speech and gestures with over-the-topness and so far it works well. The king isn’t much better either, as the only thing he stands out right now is his passion for cakes (quite cleverly underlined in the show). In fact, the true man in power has to be the president of Privy council. He is a puppetmaster who manipulate all the strings right now so it’s understandable that he’s afraid of Jean because Jean might threaten his position. That said, with all the powerful person gathered in one place, I expect next week’s event will trigger the uprising to come and make it all real.

Jean has a busy day in this episode as he had to attend to some dinner meetings twice and gets the hot from everyone else. I’m glad to see him embarrassed in front of the beautiful Mauve to be honest, because at least I can see his real emotions. As Jean becoming a trigger of all the events to come, the next moves everyone want to make of course would be making him their ally. Mauve wants him to provide information on his audits to her so she can “protect order” of this nation, curiously that’s the very same reason Lilium offered to Jean, but we all know they come from a very different motive. Nino, on the other hand, pushes really hard to convince Grossular that Jean were the one; whether he knows something deeper or what his real motives are remain pretty much unclear. I still stand by the opinion that Nino hasn’t betrayed Jean (not yet), but more that he uses Jean as a scarecrow to diverse everyone attention from his true goals.

With the gathering of all key characters, we also have a privilege to witness the chemistry of several minor characters, and boy do each of the pair have some unique chemistry together. I enjoyed the most the encounter of Mauve and Nino, since Mauve has no idea they were close friend so she can look right through to the issues. In addition, I found that Nino and Lotta are even closer than the sibling themselves. See how each of those pairs Jean – Lotta, Jean – Nino, Nino – Lotta have their own harmony and thus give much more dimensional to each of those characters? This is for me one of the best strength the show succeeds so far. I also find myself enjoying moments like Lotta being impressed by Mauve, Lotta was offered the favorite cake by the King, the arrogant prince had the crush on Lott… Actually, when put it that way I come to believe Lotta will play a vital role in the events to come, since she’s actually the one who pretty much encountered everyone (including the lovesick guy last week), while simultaneously enjoyed all types of cakes, breads and wines. This show is sooo rich with cake, bread and food that really made this show a rather tasty watch (but seriously, the amount of good foods here are insane). Things certainly are about to explore and everyone pretty much expected it, but what exactly “that things” are and to what extend remain a total mystery. And for that the show still remains intriguing.

Little Witch Academia – 03[Don’t Stop Me Now]

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

What’s a witch without a broomstick? Today’s episode deals with Akko’s troubles with flying and considering how terrible she is at nearly all facets of magic I am really beginning to wonder just how she got into this school in the first place. For the most part it’s not her fault as other witches at the school have clearly been trained in magic from a young age. Meanwhile Akko is just being introduced to it. I appreciate that this episode didn’t feature the shiny rod solving Akko’s problems and was instead about her troubles getting to grips with flying and trying to win a broom relay race. They almost did win the race through the magic of cheating so in this regard I am rather glad Akko didn’t get an unjust victory. Instead we have a excellent episode about a legendary broom and Akko’s hilarious training to fly a broom. I laughed pretty hard when she tried to intimidate her broom by snapping a twig in front of it.

It wouldn’t feel right for Akko to win after Sucy was sabotaging the other racers. Not even accounting that Akko wasn’t so much as flying a broom but instead trying to wrestle the legendary Shooting Star broom into submission. With that broom I now count three legendary artifacts at the school. The shooting star broom, the shiny rod and the philosopher’s stone which powers the Academy’s magic. This is merely an inkling at the moment but I think these items will play a part in the finale of Little Witch Academia. I certainly believe that we haven’t seen the last of the Shooting Star broom. Animation continues to be perfectly executed with flair and fun. So far the story has a episodic structure with events being brought up and resolved in the same episode. There doesn’t seem to be an overarcing plot so far and personally I am fine with that. As long as the series continues to be a barrel of fun there’s no real need to force in an overarcing plot. Otherwise it could make the same mistake as Death Parade and forget just what makes it’s concept work so well.

We have an introduction to many of the characters from the second OVA. Also are a number of cameo’s in this episode with a urn referencing Nonons hat from Kill la Kill, Inferno cop on the television of the room Akko flew past and even a very strange cameo of a man referred to as Chumlee from an American reality tv show called Pawn Stars. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to point out that Ursula is probably Shiny Chariot as the series has given several hints to that effect. It’s clear that something happened which pushed her to adopt her current persona and she seems jaded when Akko repeats her catchphrase back to her. She obviously lost her power, perhaps because the rod requires the childlike wonder that Akko has. Over time Ursula and Diana look to have gotten disillusioned by the technical workings of magic but both seem to yearn for the view of magic they had in their younger days. If this is true then it really is a matter of time before Akko can no longer use the shiny rod which may be the main conflict of this series. Though the opening does show some sort of antagonist who could act as a triggering factor for Akko to mature and potentially lose Shiny Rods power. Purely from a personal standpoint I think the best person to play antagonist for this series would be Shiny Chariot herself. Who better to crush Akko’s faith in magic and dreams? So on to episode four and I hope it isn’t effected by an old trigger curse, that being that episode four is where there is a huge animation quality drop.

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 16

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

 

After the last episode, I expected that this would be the episode where Yotaro digs his own grave. I thought he would have an outburst or just mope over his problems but surprisingly, Yotaro doesn’t do any of that. Instead he takes a course of action that is nearly suicidal and yet, a great step forward. The beginning of this episode touched on what exactly is the problem with Yotaro’s Rakugo with his conversation with his future Rakugo writer. Yotaro revealed that he doesn’t truly think about the meaning of the stories. That he tells and merely copies the mannerisms and tone when telling them. In that regard, he is like a parrot repeating only what he has been told with little thought beyond that. It is understandable as to why his Rakugo feels empty, because he can’t really empathize with the characters in the story.

The father of Konatsu’s baby is revealed to be the boss of the Yakuza which does explain as to why Konatsu wasn’t too eager to share that information. I was a little concerned that perhaps he forced himself on her but it looks like Konatsu may have some of her mother in her after all. For what I can tell from the exchange, Konatsu was in love with the man but it was clear he was never going to leave his wife for her. Thus like her mother she harbored feelings for someone who never returned them. Though I like how the Yakuza boss got angry at Yotaro for dragging Konatsu in and trying to push her into confronting him as it does show that he at least cares for her on some level. The main conflict of this episode was Yotaro essentially telling a Yakuza boss off for getting Konastu pregnant and telling him to not come back for the kid because he was going to raise him as his own. All the while being as polite as possible to avoid getting killed for angering him. Ultimately Yotaro uses Rakugo to vent his frustrations at the boss and I believe that’s the first time his Rakugo feels genuine as he is in a situation similar to the character within the story.

Overall it was a great episode and if I didn’t already like Yotaro before I certainly do now. He’s a happy go lucky idiot but the kind that has the right agenda at heart. He showed that his rant to the boss wasn’t for his own sake but instead for Konatsu. As he stated that he didn’t hold a grudge at the boss for being forced to spend jail time for someone else. In that regard I think he’s absolutely perfect fit for Konatsu and their relationship just warms my heart. Konatsu is a woman who keeps her feelings closed in while Yotaro shouts them from the heavens. To see Yotaro break down Konatsu’s standoffish nature and actually get her to begin to genuinely fall in love with him is the kind of love story I like to see. The kind with real chemistry and two characters who play off each others personalities instead of the usual bland male lead triggers anime character trope number 573. Yakumo looks to be pushing Yotaro towards understanding of the stories by giving him one of Sokuroku’s works and i think Konatsu is going to be a vital factor for Yotaro to discover his own Rakugo.