91 Days – 06

by AidanAK47, posted in 91 Days, Currently Watching:

I would say this is the strongest episode so far of 91 Days as it essentially revolves around what makes Mafia drama at it’s best. Betrayals, scheming and deceit are what fuels organised crime and what a scheme this was. When looking at the three family leaders I suppose it’s no surprise that Orco is the first to be knocked off. After all the Galassias still hold the reign of the Vanettis and the Vanettis can’t go down until Avilio has his revenge. They used the fact that they have something that Orco wants and I particularly liked how they kept presenting him with risky handouts that turned out to not be genuine. This really caused him to relax his guard and when it came time to drink the real drugged drink he downed it without hesitation. Not to mention Avilio revealing himself to Orco in order to gain his trust. Thus the full plan comes into play.

To lure Orco to the distillery, fool him into thinking Avilio betrayed Nero and drug him with a congratulatory drink. How this was presented is really how any anime should handle a good plan. No inner monologues before or after the act to perfectly spell out what Avilio was thinking and only slight clues alluding to what he intended. One small line about gathering Chickens was enough to figure out where they got the blood to fake Neros death and because we didn’t know the full particulars of the plan we were as in the dark as Orco was. It gave a chance for the audience to be fooled along with him while giving a reward to those who paid close enough attention. Now if only Shounen battle anime could take this to heart and realise that maybe we don’t need someone mentally choreographing an enemy’s moves to understand what’s going on. Maybe in a manga that’s necessary but in a show it’s just a pacing killer.

This may be the first time Fango’s craziness has actually benefited the show as he takes notes from Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and feeds the remains of the Orco Head to the family members. Now I see why previous episodes put such focus on how the Orco leader had a obsession with perfecting Lasagna. This does show just how putting this guy in the top position is a really bad idea though as Fango is far too impulsive to be trusted. The test he gave Nero before accepting his deal is evidence enough that he’s far too unpredictable to keep a stable partnership. He’s playing along for now because it benefits him but the moment it suits him to have Nero killed or even if for a moment he just feels like killing him, he will not hesitate.

Plus as Avilio pointed out, Fangos enemies are now their enemies. Knowing Fango, he’s bound to have made a lot of enemies. As far as I am concerned I think Fango  is a ticking time bomb ready to self destruct so it’s really a matter of whether this is part of Avilios plan or merely a temporary deal to give him time to plan. Maybe he intends to get Nero involved with someone ready to run the family into the ground and abandon him when things get truly dire. A question I ask when I finish the episode is whether the lasagna Avilio and Nero were eating is the same as the one fed to the family members. Knowing Fango, he would be twisted enough to present them with it without them knowing.

orange – 07

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Orange

This episode is a winner. It hits all the right notes on what make orange so appealing. Upon knowing that Kakeru will attempt his first suicide after talking to his Tokyo friends over the weekend, Suwa and Naho confront him and tell him not to go. Kakeru is an insecure kid, he’s deeply troubled by the death of his mom, blames himself for what happened and is unable to talk about his problems to his friends. But as Suwa points out correctly, close friends are supposed to share pain together, and his mistake was not his fault. I once had a real friend who told me that she had thought about attempt suicide and it was nasty. The real ugliness of it is once you had it, the thought of suicide never leaves you away and there’s always an urge that push you to do it whenever you feel depressing. Kakeru can only get better if he can be able to talk about it and let his regrets all out. The last sequence is a very nice moment, and I tip my hat off to the direction of that sequence. When Suwa confronts Kakeru, there’s no music cue between those exchanges and it’s the silence that makes us feel the tension and weight behind each conversations. Talking about these things is never easy but at least all three can be able to speak out what they really want.

Suwa steps up to become a big bro for the group. I mentioned last week that I had my concern about feeling cheated if all Suwa did was just followed what were written in the letters. Well, he did follow the letters but thank god the show never sells him short. The thing is that Suwa is not a selfless kid who pull back his feeling to see Naho and Kakeru happy. He did it for the sake of them, yes, but he also did it for his sake as well. It’s a hard role for him but he can pull it off because he’s the most mature and most emotionally honest of the group. There’s still unclear if the rest of the cast also receives the letters like Suwa and Naho did, but they fulfill their supporting roles very well this week. Scenes when they asking Kakeru what he wants for his birthday, or when they stand up to protect Naho from Ueda (Ueda sadly remains the only sore thumb in this episode) are all genuine that showcase their great care towards the leads. And I love the way the two girls stand behind the door, overhearing the sincere conversations from the leads. That small moment speaks more than thousand words, and suddenly they become much more layered in that single moment than they were for the last 6 episodes. Yes, those friends might not be the ones who could change things significantly, but they will always be there whenever you need them.

You might have notice that in previous posts I didn’t discuss much about the romance between Naho and Kakeru, mostly because I found it the most ordinary aspect of orange. Although they share great chemistry together, there’s no denying that “boy gets girl” part is the most cliché part of them all. But even so, this week’s moments between them are goddamn effective. The reason why Naho and Kakeru in the original timeline couldn’t get together was because they were unable to express their feeling to each other. Kakeru always hides his feeling deep down, and Naho is too nervous to say what she really thinks. In this timeline, however, with the help of Suwa and all these friends, Kakeru has a chance to confess to her and she replies him back. Call me cheesy but I found the flowers scenes are heartfelt. They were used twice but each sequence conveys different feeling. When the adult Naho receives the flowers from Suwa, it feels deeply poignant, but when the young Naho accepts the flowers from Kakeru and his confession to her, it feels sweet and genuine. On other notes, there are many nice visual motifs in this episode: the flowers, butterfly (butterfly effect?) and the fluid-est scene transition that fit to the opening credit (go see it!). Based only from this episode, things are about to get better after Kakeru confesses his deepest regrets, but I’m not sold. The theme and the tone of orange always firmly head towards the melodrama territory, so things going to be sad. I’m for once keen to see how they pull this off but at least this episode is a solid example of what orange can do best.

Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World – 20

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World

“For a rat, Poison. For a White Whale, a harpoon. To our Honorable Dragon we are, Shitbags”

The above was actually the first time the white whale was mentioned in this series, way back in the second part of episode one. This was the password Felt said to gain entry to Roms shack. The first line makes me wonder if there is a rat mabeast giving the kingdom an equal amount of trouble. This was a pretty great episode. So much so that I will even forgive the music at the start of the episode blatantly robbing part of the Melody of the Chrono Trigger Theme. Todays episode focused on the battle against the White Whale and on the past of Wilhelm who was likely channeling the spirit of King Bradley from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Wilhelm when it came to fighting but I certainly wasn’t expecting him to jump on the thing and slice it up in what could be considered completely ridiculous yet strangely awesome at the same time. Goes to show that in this universe everyone is truly ten times more powerful than Subaru.

Even an old man, or more specifically an old man’s wife make Subaru seem like average Villager A. The flashback to Wilhelms younger days honestly would make for an interesting story on it’s own and there is a extra novel detailing how he and his wife meet and fell in love. Still the small scenes give us a decent idea of what exactly happened and I quite regret that Theresia is dead seeing as she is quite likeable. I wonder if it’s going to be a thing from now on for Re:Zero to make every side female character deeper and more interesting than the main Heroine? Emilia, you are going to need some serious development to catch up here.

We have the reveal of not only Wilhelm’s wife but Satella the jealous witch makes a brief but long awaited first appearance. When Subaru tries to tell someone about his power in order to draw the White Whales attention, Sattella appears over his shoulder with only her lips visible. She mouths the words “I love you” before disappearing. Seems she’s quite taken with Subaru but that’s likely not a good thing. It’s been pointed out previously in the series that if the Jealous witch takes an interest in you then it will only lead to bad things. In this case she isn’t just interested in Subaru, she’s outright enamored with him much to Betelgeuse’s dismay. White Fox have taken the costly move of not resorting to CGI to animate the white whale and I certainly thank them for it. CGI is still recognised as such no matter how well it is done and will truly never quite match the level of a 2D animated object.

The animation of this episode was quite brilliant and the fight was exhilarating with a nice exchange of blows between both parties. At first I was worried that the White whale would go down without much of a fight considering how much of a beating the army were giving it. But they managed to show just why this thing is so dangerous once it summoned its fog. It was similar to a raid fight in an MMO as all members of the army jumped into to attack in waves. The more damage they inflicted on this thing, the more dangerous it gets. Summoning the fog to hide, blasting people out of existence, making people go insane with it’s roars and pulling out it’s final and most dangerous card by episodes end. This thing knows how to put up a fight and I certainly would love to give it a fight in Monster Hunter if they ever made a tribute to it.

The beginning of this battle started off with such hope and perhaps I should have seen that this being Re:Zero, things were going far too well. At episode’s end it makes me wonder if this is a dead end for Subaru and he may need to come back to this battle with new reinforcements. Perhaps he needs Priscilla to give him a hand and maybe Felt can manage to get Reinhart to join the faye. Fairly certain he could make short work of this beast but as Wilhelm pointed out, his wife shouldn’t have been killed by this creature if it was only this strong. He’s right in that regard as based on how much Wilhelm was ripping it apart, his wife would have made short work of it. But then the answer comes with the episode’s cliffhanger. That there is not a White Whale but instead White Whales.

Considering that the army threw everything they had and couldn’t even kill one this truly doesn’t bode well for Subaru. Even Wilhelm is out of the running now but something tells me he isn’t dead quite yet. That whale swallowed him whole and I think he would be able to cut his way out. So once again this series leaves me thirsting for more as we get a new ending sequence that likely won’t be put to much use in the last few episodes. In fact we managed to get an opening and ending in an episode for once which is good yet somewhat disappointing. The next episode likely will end the battle with the white whale but one must wonder how much trouble the Witches cult after this will give Subaru seeing as the White Whale most likely wouldn’t leave anyone ready to help take them down.

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei – 06

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei

At the moment I must admit that the Ainsworths are not a particularly interesting antagonists. They are a good addition in that Prisma Illya has an antagonist rather that Zwei which generally had to throw in a makeshift one to take up time. However the Ainsworths as they are now are just evil people being evil for the sake of being evil. THere is likely a better method to their madness but they do come across as rather one dimensional. This episode mainly serves to introduce Darius who has his own meta way of looking at the situation. Claiming the situation to be an act in a play with Illya and co being the stars of the show. He pulls several made up noble phantasms out of nowhere and proceeds to introduce himself to Illya. I will admit that locking himself and Illya in a ice dome with limited air was particularly dark for him. He has pretty much shown the group just how outclassed they are in terms of combat strength so as an obstacle to Miyu’s rescue he works great. However he will need more development on his objective and character to truly stand out as a villain.

The action in this episode was decently animated however I can’t say the action scenes themselves were great. For having the villain just one sidedly beat the heroes doesn’t make a good action sequence. This is the main reason why Bleach’s whole Aizen battle failed so miserably as a climatic showdown. A battle is interesting when both fighters are pushed to their limits and there is an exchange of blows. If one fighter is never injured, never has to try and always has the upper hand then there is no tension. Thus no real interest. Though One Punch Man may be an exception to this rule but even then those battles put Saitama in interesting situations to compensate. Those noble phantasms make Darious a bit overpowered and as Gilgamesh pointed out that the Noble Phantasms he used were not items from his treasury and therefore not real Noble Phantasms. So essentially our villain can pull any power he wants narrative wise and  considering that Noble Phantasms are ridiculously overpowered as it is, this means the heroes are going to have to pull some major weapon out to get on an even playing field.

Sliver Link, was there really a need to make that scene with Miyu even more awkward? My memory of the manga might be a little foggy but I am certain that scene wasn’t quite so…suggestive. Sort of reminds me of that scene in the second Gurren Lagann Movie where they made the anti-spirals treatment of Nia well…suggestive. That really doesn’t make sense. Alright if the point is to get across that Darius is a serious asshole then I am certain the stabbing and draining of Miyu’s blood would have accomplished that. Having him insinuate so much and those camera angles just seems to be fan service for a very select fetish group. Miyu and Erika’s relationship seems a complex one as Erika really can’t seem to see the evil in her family. She’s not a bad girl but she doesn’t quite realise just what kind of horrible things are being done to Miyu and why everyone is trying to save her. She has a kind of childish cruelty. Still despite my gripes with this episode, I appreciate that we are getting more action. The last two episodes were veering towards Zwei territory again and I was starting to get worried.

Neon Genesis Evangelion – 03

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Neon Genesis Evangelion

Let me just start by apologizing for the delay of this post. I guess the only privilege of covering a retrospective show is you can cover it any time you want. I kid, I kid. The truth is I just binge-watched many series so I don’t have time to do this review. While I’m enjoy writing reviews, it’s no secret that it has eaten most of my free time and sometimes I miss a good old time when I still have time to watch everything and not to worry about review. Anyways, my ranting ends now and I hope I will review this piece more frequently. Now, moving on.

This episode shows us another facet of being a hero. It’s not all shine and glory, and Shinji proves to be as atypical a hero as you could imagine. Told through the point of view of new Shinji’s new classmates Toji and Kensuke, Shinji at first appears as a thorn to their eyes. His sudden spotlight for being the one who save the city strikes a wrong note to those guys, and to make it worse Toji’s sister was injured from that fight, something which he blames for the fault of the hero. To add salt to the wound, Shinji himself confesses that he did not choose to protect the city. Seriously if I were Toji, I would not stop with just one punch. Shinji’s submissive seriously gets on my nerve! But when the Angel attacks again, Toji and Kensuke has a real chance to witness what it really means to be a hero and save the world. It’s all messy. Eiji got suffered, both physically and mentally. It’s a life and death matter where you could end up death with just one wrong move. Shinji pushes himself to the limit that it borders on insanity. Kudos Gainax for creating a battle that gripping, on-the-edge and terrified, instead of going over the top like most mecha action sequences tend to do.

The original Japanese title really nails another theme of this episode. “The Phone that Never Rings” best described about Shinji’s character. The more I think about it the more I see him not really fitted for this type of job. He’s a loner, he’s submissive (look at the way he talks to himself “aim in the middle”) and worse he sees no point for himself to fight. Even in his normal school life, he has no friend. As I mentioned above the battle was gripping because we witness Shinji nearly breaks down, but the worst thing of them all is the whole mess is still working. As we learn in consequential theory, if one still produce a desired result then nothing is needed to worry about, right? In this case not in a long shot. If Shinji keeps pushing himself like that, eventually he’ll break. Everyone breaks, it’s biology; as they say in the (in)famous torture scene in Zero Dark Thirty. Seriously I think saving the world is too much a burden for our Shinji. Not that I blame him really since it’s already a very obscure idea to rely on 14-year-old kids to fight the alien. Well, we still have plenty to go but as far as 3 episodes, EVA has already established its strong grasp on the ruined and shattered theme. This time I will try to get the next episode review quicker so stay tune. Until then!

Thunderbolt Fantasy – 06

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Thunderbolt Fantasy

I imagine those of you who expect Thunderbolt Fantasy a full-blown action series, the first half of this week would prove to be a disappointment. There’s too much talking and the plot just floats upon a river, slowly crawls into its destination. But really Thunderbolt Fantasy never intend to be a true-ish action show, the staffs go for it knowing full well it’s a campy B-genre show. They really understand that the band of misfits is a real stars of the show (as oppose to the attention-catching premise which is a puppetry wuxia show written by Gen Urobuchi) and as a result the show spends a considerable amount of time just for the characters interacting with each other. I’m fairly content with it because if the show just relies on its gimmick, it will wear off very quickly. Thankfully again, when the actions indeed kick in, it’s a feast to the eyes. There’s way too much explosions and gores actions (in a puppetry form to boost) that you would never see in anything else, anime-wise.

Our main character Shang Bu Huan, having the same state of mind as myself, has doubt about Gui Niao’s true intention in this whole affair (frankly, offer his head to secure the magic flute shows how desperate he is) and literally spends a good first half talking to everyone in the group. By the end of those talks he never gets the answer he wants to know, but instead learns two most valuable lessons: that his comrades have different sets of personality and they surely don’t look eye-to-eye in almost everything, and that everyone never trust each other, especially against our main character. The only things those people have in common are they’re going to retrieve the sacred sword, and Gui Niao. He’s a tape that stick everyone together and making them perform their roles. Whatever his intention will be, I’m really amazed the way he pulls all the strings behind the scene. Now, I have a theory about the intention of Gui Niao, and that has something to do with the information we gathered this week. It’s about the divided countries of Xi You and Dong Li. From the information we gained there was a sorcery of the demons that formed the Wasteland of Spirits, that split the two countries for almost 200 years. I come to believe that gaining the sacred sword, plus the fact that Shang Bu Huan come from Xi You, there is a fair chance of them to undo the effect of black magic, get rid of that Wasteland, and unite the two nations.

But to give more attention to our group also means that the enemy side gets undeveloped. We hardly see any of them long enough to have any impression, nor do we care much about them. For now, they are just too bland. It’s interesting to note about the character designs of the villains. Besides their black clothes, they don’t look as “evil” as some members of our groups. And I didn’t expect the main boss Mie Tian Hai appears to soon to fight off the group, so his appearance either will limit to talk to our allied group in the next episode (get right to the show’s comfort zone), or he is not the boss at all. From the way the show keeps delving on the nature of all the “archetype” characters (like the demon lady is not quite evil, but actually a bit elegant; or the “sheltered young lady” is the one who sees positive things most characters tend to overlook), I expect a bit of deconstruction on the main boss. Hopefully we will know more about him next week. Overall, Thunderbolt Fantasy’s still going strong. I really enjoy all the gestures and mannerisms each of the possess and hilarious lines like “let’s put aside a cultural difference for now” (when the characters talking about demon and human) are always welcome in any show.

Quick Announcement: Direction, Writers, and Content

by K-Off, posted in Special Articles

I never expected the site would come this far to where I’d feel the need to make an announcement – but here we are, and it’s only right to let you know what’s happening behind the scenes with the site. So as a public service, this is meant to inform all of you who don’t frequently visit our chatbox as to where the site is going, and the gradual changes that you can expect over the coming months.

When the first wave of new writers after psgels (including Aidan, Ninjarealist, and myself) came onboard, we did so fully intending to never deviate too far from the kind of content that Psgels had always maintained since the site’s days on Blogsome in 2005, and for the most part, that still holds true – we’re very consistent with episodic reviews, on top of the usual Seasonal Previews, and anything before them. However, we realize that we can’t limit ourselves to what we consider “playing safe,” and that it really doesn’t hurt to try something new for a change. As a result, the influx of all kinds of original content has reflected that. Besides, whether it was SuperMario’s Versus Show, Aidan’s Manga Spotlight, or my Game Reviews, the positive feedback from you guys, long-timers or not, have continued to encourage us in our efforts to improve the blog in our own ways. So, as far as content goes, you can expect a lot more interesting takes on the site like the Versus Show, on top of the usual seasonal content.

Lastly, you’ve probably noticed that the site has been in a constant state of construction with the chatbox over the past few days, but it’s an extension of our efforts to modernize the site. There’s still some tweaks to be made here and there with the entire site in general (for example, the site eats up A LOT of cpu and the chat needs more work), but I’ll be working with everyone, including Psgels, in order to clean up the site’s coding over the next few months. This really is a site you can fully customize from top to bottom, so if you have a suggestion for a new feature, please don’t hesitate to throw some ideas our way.

 

Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Review – 65/100

by K-Off, posted in Anime Reviews, Game Reviews

The title of this game rather says everything you need to know about my initial reaction, and I’m still all around puzzled at the mixed bag that this turned out to be – it IS just a standard mashup while having a bit of fun with some experimentation, but the game itself is actually a jumble of Persona’s mechanics with some hints of Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy X-2 masked behind a colorful anime-esque fatigue. Originally called “Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem” but changed shortly thereafter to “Tokyo Mirage Sessions,” I decided I’d have an open mind about this before I went into it, without looking for comparisons to the Persona or Fire Emblem aspects of the game, and did actually enjoy the gameplay. But by the end of my second playthrough, it turned out to be a mediocre title that failed to consistently interest me as a standalone title, much less as a fan of both Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei.

The story is entirely original, so it’s not required that you play any of the Shin Megami Tensei or Fire Emblem titles for you to dive into it unless you want to understand certain references. The story begins with our protagonist in some talent agency in Tokyo as he learns how to utilize an energy called Performa and attract beings known as Mirages much like in the Persona series. The rest of the plot is pretty by the books, it has cameos/references to Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei characters to keep you interested in the plot, and in between the unnecessarily text-heavy story are the animated cutscenes by Studio 4C, which are all serviceable except for the poorly integrated CGI during music/dance sequences (which I believe were done by a different studio). Although Japanese pop isn’t really my favorite genre of music, it’s well produced to say the least and the background soundtrack isn’t too generic either, they accompany the combat really well as the fights feel like a performance rather than a traditional RPG battle.
Continue reading “Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Review – 65/100” →

Mob Psycho 100 – 05

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Mob Psycho 100

We had a pretty great episode of Mob Psycho this week as Mob faces off against another esper in the form of Teruki. Animation was in top form throughout the episode as the two demolished the school with a psychic battle. Well calling it a battle is a bit of a stretch as the only one fighting was Teruki. Comedy was alright but what really shone about this episode was the actual drama and meat behind it. Namely Mob putting forward his belief of wanting to develop a talent without relying in his natural psychic powers. This belief directly opposes Teruki, whom believes that his powers elevate him above everyone else. Mob’s very existence calls Teruki’s philosophy of life into question as Mob equates having psychic powers to a natural talent. Funny enough this very idea came from Seigan who once again, despite being a horrible person, proves that he just may be the perfect mentor for Mob.

Though his teaching does hit a flat note when he he attempts to make a metaphor about knives. Even Dimple remarks that it all sounds very impressive until you realise that Seigan is the one saying it. Still there is sound logic in what he says, a esper can lift a boulder with his mind but that doesn’t make him any more useful than an ordinary person if you asked him to help program a mobile application. When you take it truly into consideration, just how useful are superpowers in a modern society? The obvious end result is to become a superhero and stop crime but for those looking for a more average job, superpowers are surprisingly not that useful.

What’s the point of having telekinesis if you work in IT? Or having super strength if you are a cook? Or having the ability to fly if it rains a lot?  It’s true in certain circumstances these things could have a use but in regards to daily life I think it would be surprising just how little a difference it would make. Superpowers are cool but they don’t make you a perfect human being and what’s more important is that relying on something that was given to you at birth makes your actual character hollow. As Mob put it, he wants to earn something by his own effort than rely on a power he was blessed with. Otherwise if his power was taken away from him, all that would be left is a empty being. Teruki doesn’t take this well, in fact Mob practically emotionally breaks him that it makes him determined to prove Mob a hypocritic and force him to rely on his power.

This is a rather interesting concept as Teruki is forced to face that rather than being the center of the universe, he is just an average person. If you are to contrast him to a standard shounen protagonist it make for some food for thought. After all a lot of shounen protagonists are driven by a need to prove themselves and grow stronger. Mob says that the reason for this is because they have crippling low self confidence which makes sense. For a famous example, Naruto was ostracized and belittled at the beginning of the series. As a Ninja he was failure and it’s possible that even as he reached the heights of power, he still holds a inferiority complex that pushes him to be cocky and strive for more power.

At the end we see that Mob has a level of power beyond that of his 100% mode and upon seeing that Teruki finally comes to terms that he is indeed a average person. But perhaps seeing the friends Mob has made in the body improvement club might help him mend his ways. Who knows, maybe even his hair might grow back. Dimple apparently died in the fight but I highly doubt it’s the last we see of him. It was pretty interesting to see Mobs emotional meter not rise a bit despite DImple being exorcised and even the montage showing that Dimple wasn’t exactly a pleasant being was pretty amusing. What looks to be important here is Mob’s brother and his jealousy over Mobs powers which looks to play a role in the next episode. There’s also the matter of how all this affected Mob himself as this was a high test of his character and in his eyes he broke one of his principles.

I think what has become the big drawing points of the series is the character of Mob himself as he continues to prove to be not quite as emotionless as he appears. He originally came across as psychic Saitama but now he may have more to him than Saitama ever did. Still despite this Mob Psycho doesn’t seem to be that popular this season from what I have seen. Perhaps due to a lack of resonance with the art style or simply disappointment for those expecting another One Punch Man. While I doubt Mob Psycho 100 will reach the level of popularity of One Punch Man, I think that if it continues to bring episodes like this then it may outclass it in other areas. Though that all depends on what is to come.

~AidanAK47~

91 Days – 05

by AidanAK47, posted in 91 Days, Currently Watching:

I think by now many of you have noticed that my 91 days reviews take significantly longer than the others and I will admit that part of the reason for that is that this show is hard to write about. Not that any of this has been bad, on the contrary the writing and direction has been very solid. Rather I find myself with surprisingly little to say about each episode. 91 Days is a slow burn and in that way it holds a different kind of interest for me. It doesn’t have me waiting on the edge of my seat like a new Re:Zero episode but still has high value in the season.This series seems to me to be a kind that can only be fully appreciated once it’s story has hit its conclusion. Then instead of seeing bits and pieces of it’s plot we can look at it as a whole and come to appreciate it’s value. Of course what value that may be all comes down to how this all plays out and I hope that it manages to end on a good note. I can hardly say that the animation in this episode was great as Shuka does have rather shaky production values, however a good story can make up for lacking visuals.

After the Orco’s attempted to kill Fango, a truce has been signed between the Orco’s and the Vanettis which means that Avilio’s and Nero’s road trip has come to an end. Unbeknownst to Nero, Frate neglected to inform the family that a term of this truce was the death of Nero. The Galassias are also pushing for Neros death and have stepped in to put Frate into being the leader of the Vanettis family. Likely because Frate happens to be sucking up to the Galassias and they would prefer a easily controlled lapdog in the seat of power. However I happen to notice that Frate has gained some dark circles under his eyes. Is that because he ordered a hit on his own brother or is there something else going on behind the scenes?

Do the Galassias have something to keep Frate in line? I have a small theory over who the last persons is that Avilio wants to get revenge on and I think that it is his friend, Corteo. He did nod to the gangsters in the first episode when they were going to Avilios house and it’s possible he was being used as a scout. I highly doubt he knew what would happen and chances are he regrets it deeply if I happen to be correct. However considering Avilio’s mindset, I doubt he will let him live even if his part in the murder of his parents was small. It’s possible that Corteo knows this too and that’s why he is trying to get Avilio to give up on his revenge.

One of Nero’s men has been shot in the failed assassination attempt which puts him in trouble. Avilio, after being warned otherwise, has gone to an unlikely person for help. That’s right, Fango returns in all his loony toon glory. I will at least say this, it looks like Fango has a fetish for heavy women which is quite rare in anime characters. Either way he’s broken off from Orco and formed his own gang with the intent of overthrowing Orco. Avilio seems to have latched onto this and agreed to help Fango in this endeavor. I am not sure if this is part of his revenge plan by getting Nero to team up with someone likely to kill him or if Avilio is truly trying to save his subordinate in order to curry more favor with him.

Considering that Nero is now being hunted by his own family makes it seem like a wiser choice would be to lead him into a trap and use that to get him close to his final target. Or his second final target. Perhaps Avilio thinks Fango could be useful in carrying out his revenge? Fango does seem to be up for something as long as it’s interesting. However his loose cannon nature is what caused him to split off from the Orco’s in the first place. The show doesn’t give us privy to Avilio’s thoughts so I can only speculate as to what he is thinking with this move. Maybe it’s a plan just to get through the current predicament. Maybe it’s a calculated move to further his revenge. Or maybe he is actually interested in some kinky play with Fango’s lady? Who knows. Guess I just need to wait as see how this all works out.

~AidanAK47~