Nurarihyon no Mago – 30
Talk about a massive improvement here. There are the types of stories that should be slow-paced. Nurarihyon no Mago is not one of them. Another big disadvantage of the first season is how little time it spent on backgrounds, so right now this series is really catching up on that, with half of the second season consisting out of background and all. Junji Nishimura really did not fit this series: he should be busy with original stories. That’s where he really shines at. The snappy direction here is much better, especially in this episode. The art also looks much crisper. This could very well be the only actually good thing of Studio Deen this year.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Steins;Gate – 01
After many people recommended it, I re-watched the first episode of Steins;Gate and holy crap What the hell!? If you haven’t re-watched that episode by now: go and re-watch it. Don’t read the rest of this paragraph of analysis and just watch it. This episode did the opposite of what I expected and actually asked more questions than it answered. The big one is the message that Okarin sent to Daru: how the heck did that happen? How the heck did Okarin send a D-Mail when it hadn’t been invented yet? It’s going to be the key to save Mayuri, though: if Okarin never sent the message back to Daru, Daru would never have been able to warn Okarin, and CERN would never have been able to track them down. And holy crap, this show will also turn into a quest to save Makise Kurisu. I totally forgot that some version of Okarin actually tried to warn Makise Kurisu. Now… has the future Okarin created a freaking time-loop for himself? This plot just got even more amazing than it already has.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Sket Dance – 17
This arc was really strange. I really got the impression that it didn’t know what it wanted to do here: there was this huge build-up with the members of the Sket-Dan joining all different bands and having practicing for an upcoming school concert championship… and here this episode comes and throws in a bunch of illnesses and broken arms causing these bands to disband (no pun intended) immediately. It then turns into some moral life-lesson for a violinist as the three members just do the predictable and form a band themselves. I was really looking forward to see all of the different bands compete with each other, but instead this episode skipped across most of the acts for just a few seconds and the only one that we really got to see was this really cheesy J-Rock song in which Bossun suddenly revealed that he has the singing voice of a J-Pop Idol. This series always did so well in capturing school life, but to me, it felt like it didn’t really do this with the school concert. It all just felt too clean. The song that the Sket Dan performed was just too rehearsed (remember that these guys had very little time to prepare. I don’t care how much you practiced, you’re not going to get THAT good in that little time). It’s a bloody shame, because these school concerts are often very fun to watch. Especially because this one looked to be a REAL concert, unlike those silly unimpressive idol acts.
Rating: (Enjoyable)
Usagi Drop – 04
Do note that I’m not guaranteeing to blog every series every single week in this kaleidoscope. This time I was merely late with checking out Usagi Drop’s episode, but there may be weeks where I just don’t have any inspiration about the latest episode. In any case, I like how the children in this series really sound like young children, rather than voice actresses trying to act really high-pitched. I also like that this episode introduced yet another single parent, with whom Daikichi can relate with. He’s by no means a perfect parent, but the tension between him and Rin is quite interesting to watch.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
This flashback is looking rather interesting. I’m looking forward to finding out how it ties in with the present-day story that’s starting up.
I’m compelled to watch the first episode now xD Just looking at the ED video, it’s obvious how big of an importance Kurisu is.
I’m gonna marathon Steins;gate when it’s done. After which episode should episode 1 be rewatched for the full experience? 17 or earlier?
Ep 3 of Steins;Gate explains how the first D-Mail was sent. Daru just happened to be running a test with his phone connected to the phone-microwave when he received the text, which was promptly sent into the past.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor
just intresting to read =P
Okay, you’ve convinced me to go back and rewatch S;G one, now I’m curious about what I missed….
My personal theory regarding Stein’s Gate is that they were originally on the Beta world line, and the first D-mail to Daru pushed them onto Alpha, with every D-mail since screwing up the future further. Since they’re now reversing the effects of those messages, that would lead naturally into a finale with the time they have left.
I just read that wiki link… Wow, I had no idea the whole John Titor thing was real
I am fascinated by this time travel stuff, so part of me really wants to believe he was indeed a time traveler and “something” just happened that trigger us going into a completely different reality, where WW3 didnt happen etc
If Makise was the main brain behind the time machine, maybe the real world “Makise” (which would be some scientist at CERN) never joined CERN, or just died or whatever in our version of reality… Food for thought huh?
Remember the numbers on the convergence meter each time a D-mail was sent? We’ll probably get it soon when the anime wraps up.
Oh by the way, this is what I call character development! Not some angsty past that you call development. Feyris has been relatively absent but nice to see her get ample screen time. Next, we’ll have Rukako’s. Hope it’ll be another amazing Steins;Gate next week.
And, oh, I re-watched episodes 1-3. I get more questions than answers. Teehee.
Glad you finally went back and watch ep 1….
I still think you missed a couple of things though 1) being the mail he got in the place that was a video full of static, the other was the Yell by a voice that sounded VERY familiar . . .
Watch it a second time lols.
oh, Also look at ep 2 from 8:15 to 8:24 paying special attention to the shot at 8:22
So when Okarin sent the message to Daru, the world line changed into the one where Kurisu wasn’t stabbed. Okarin 2 weeks before that episode may be the same one as the one we know this present. A future him? Hell this is confusing and awesome at the same time.
Here’s the thing. Kurisu was clearly murdered. But the biggest suspect being SERN has no reason to kill Kurisu. In fact killing her is the same of shooting themselves in the foot as she apparently becomes the mother of time travel. So her dying stops Sern from perfecting time travel. So if the plot changes from saving Mayuri from SERN to saving Kurisu from…..OH….now that is interesting!
My theory is that sending the first D-mail to Daru made everyone move from the Beta World Line, in which Makise Kurisu died, to the Alpha World Line, in which Shina Mayuri dies. So there will probably be some moral issue as to who to save, Mayuri or Kurisu.
Yes, it will definitely become a choice between Kurisu and Mayuri, and obviously Okarin will pick Mayuri because shes the “retarded” characters… I hate this, the worst character in the anime lives, the best one dies, just great really -_-
And I thought it was obvious Suzuha was the one who killed Kurisu… Shes always hated Kurisu for the time travel stuff
@Frost. Don’t jump on conclusions. There maybe a way to save all of them. Patience.
I also agree with Aki. This might turn into this sort of Higurashi thing, in which you keep going back in time again and again to gain the miracle in which both can be saved.
＠AKI 。。。Iｓｅｅ ｗｈａｔ ｙｏｕ ｄｉｄ ｔｈｅｒｅ －．－
@frost:
The very first scene in episode 12 makes me think there’s a whole lot more to Mayuri than meets the eye.
It’s still the scene that makes me go “WTF is going on?And what is she talking about?” the most in the anime.
But many people overlook that scene because of what happens later in the episode.
@About Sket Dance, I think it was already foreshadowed right from the beginning that they will be eventually playing together. I really don’t care how the anime portrayed that but I was like ZOMG THE PILLOWS!
You’re not gonna put Usagi Drop here, Psgels?
For the Sket Dance thing, yeah, just take comfort in the fact that the Sket Dance only won for “Best Song”. If they won the whole thing, that would have been pushing it. Although I really wanted to hear Dante’s band.
The children in Usagi Drop sound like young children because they are voiced by young children, last I checked. Rin’s voice actress is around eleven, I think.
one of the better series but something about the art style and how dreamlike, as if under hypnosis some characters reacted gave me huge trouble. If I want to protect somebody, if I want to find answers, if I have a love interest right next to me I wouldn’t lazy around like this bunch of more dead than alive people.
Interestingly the same goes for this one new hit “Boku dake ga Inai Machi”. These people react far from beeing logic,too. For plots sake? Styles sake? I don’t know. After 2 episodes I had to stop or cut my wrists. Art style seems similar to steins gate. Just a coincident?