Tag: 2016 Fall Anime

3-gatsu no Lion – 05 [Agreement – Over the Cuckoo’s Nest]

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

In a typically 3-gatsu no Lion fashion, the first chapter “Agreement” starts in the show’s most comfort zone: flashbacks inside Rei’s head. When you really think about the overall structure of this chapter, you can see that it’s the busiest chapter so far of the show. They begin with Rei’s memory on the father’s best friend (soon to be his adoptive father), continue with the current day detailing Rei picking up Momo, then dig deep into his thoughts again reflecting the day that his adoptive father decided to bring him home. Those three parts are masterful reflected his very journey to eventually end up in the household of Kouda family; with little happiness and a lot of sadness. And that theme is exactly what made this chapter one of the most complex chapter this show ever put on.

The first part of this first chapter is a memory of Rei towards his adoptive father, Kouda, as his father’s best friend and long-time shogi rivalry. Kouda, along with his own father, were in the Association together when they were young. The Japan Shogi Association has a society where all the players under 24 years old trained to become professionals and basically the only way to become to a shogi pro. Those who can’t achieve 4-dan by the time of that age will be automatically discarded. He’s the only one outside of his real family who would treat him with respect, so he was always looking to play shogi with him. There’s a brief but happy moments for Rei, as he enjoys himself playing shogi, something that later in his life becoming more like a “contract”, more like a thorn among the roses.

Later, when he picks up Momo from school and tends the wounds for her, her little helpless arm reminds him a lot of his deceased little sister. That must be one of the sadness, darkness period for Rei when suddenly, all the people that were once important for him were gone forever, and he was too young to fully understand that they will never come back, nor did him know about the situations surrounding him. Then his father’s rival came, asked him if he really loved shogi, and he lied. With Rei, he was never passionate about shogi, he just did it to please his father(s) and moreover he just happened to be very good at this. His accepting to live with Kouda family really reflect the complexity of Rei’s character. He knew that it was a chance for him to not end up in the orphanage, so he took that chance and as far as he is now, he achieved what his adoptive father expected of him. Could anyone blame him for that?

Unfortunately, there were still someone who blamed Rei for what he did, as we witness later on the next chapter, Over the Cuckoo’s nest. Those were the children of Kouda’s family, Kyouko the sister and Ayumu, about his age. In a family with a strong and proud tradition of shogi, the children know that they had to be good a shogi in order to catch their father’s attention. You might think of that as an exaggeration but believe me when I say that in a sports or art’s family, this happen more often than you would think. The family spends their entire time to work on the sports/ arts they loved and they eventually have their standards that they want their children to follow, and sometimes to the child those standards set by their parents become their institutions. Things started to fall apart within the Kouda family when Rei was better at shogi than the two. Kyouko begin to lash out her temper at Rei, while the little brother holed himself up in his room playing video games. Now we know the person that harassed Rei in his memory from last week was Kyouko (but they seem to be older in that flashback). Having a very strict personality himself, the fallout of his own kids doesn’t mean that he had anything against Rei, as he continued to support Rei (the strongest shall survive), but that very attitude made Rei feel guilty towards the two so he decided to move out. When your own success results at an expense of others, how could he be happy with that? The symbols of cuckoo’s life appropriately reflect his situations, and towards his feeling to his adoptive father, he’s still very much respect the man and in his own way care about him.

As I said before, the show is at its strongest when it digs deeper to Rei’s sad past and further reflects his inner emotions as he is now and eventually learn to express and live a happy life through the help of the sisters and his friends. While his past is indeed heavy, this episode never cheapens his emotions by showcase how miserable his life was, but by detailing how he was able to continue to climb up and progress despite things might turn out ugly at times. 3-gatsu no Lion remains a very solid show.

Flip Flappers – 05 [Pure Echo]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flip Flappers

And Flip Flippers is back in business; with a style. But guess what, instead of the girls adventuring in a new Pure Illusion world like last week’s cliffhanger suggested, it appears the show has some time skip. So here in this episode we witness them preparing to go on another Pure Illusion, and then learn that Cocona and Papika at least had 2 more new adventures and all lost to Yayaka’s side. Whether the show will get back to those two or skip it entirely is anyone’s guess. But based on the little screen shots that we saw regarding those adventures (robot and plant worlds? Count me in!), they look fantastic enough so I hope they get back to it. But then again, I’m not really sure why they skip these Illusion worlds? Isn’t the main plot point of Flip Flappers being the girls adventuring those worlds? So they must have an overarching plot? But what overarching plot, then?

It seems more apparent to me that Yayaka really care for the wellbeing of Cocona that made them more like a rival than an enemy. Let put it this way, Papika just meets up Cocona and declares that Cocona’s the one she been looking for and follows her around since, whereas Yayaka knows and understands Cocona back from childhood and has been her only friend ever since. That is to say Yayaka’s genuine care for Cocona is much more grounded for me, compared to Papika’s. There is that conflict between Papika and Yayaka that later become an actual fight and I see the conflict as a running theme for the series. Adding to that, the girls have no idea what they get themselves into. They are easily lost track in their worlds, sometimes being irresponsible for themselves and when being asked what they really want for collecting the fragments, their answers are uncertain. These fragments might hold a powerful, and maybe hideous, power that could change the world and the girls at least need to know what all the deals are instead of being manipulated like that. The other group, on the other hand, goes to such extreme of modifying the physicals and the brains of Yayaka and the twins in order to gather these fragments.

It’s always so fun to speculate about each week’s Pure Illusion world, and I’m not suggesting that there are more hidden, deeper meaning behind those worlds. The show is what it is- a whole mess of many intrigued ideas and symbols put in together- so that it’s best to just take it at face values, but again it’s really compelling to sit back and wonder how they come up with these symbols and motifs for their worlds in a first place. So what do we have in this week’s settings? The creators sure don’t hide their impressions on this world: it’s obviously dark and creepy. From the typically “dark and stormy night” settings (the rain that causes blood!), to students with no faces (once again addresses the theme of identity and personality), distorted voices, creepy dolls, and the endless loop of that hell and the teams literally run into time to break that loop. I also can’t help but laugh at the goofiness our main heroines are this time. Remember previous episode where they were overpowered gung-ho fighters who jump up the sky and smash the earth? This week they constantly got scared and run for their lives by the faceless creatures. Yeah, keep running while your arms raised up, girls! It’s interesting to note that, unlike other Pure Illusion worlds that we encountered so far, this world is based on their real world. The school is there, the clock tower is still there, the dome that reminds me again of Utena, and Yayaka and the twins are already there in those new uniforms before Cocona and Papika arrived (the twin boy looks hilariously cute in his female uniform dress).

I say another main theme for this world’s Pure Illusion is the ability to break out from the vicious cycle, from something that keep luring you out of your initial goals. Like the Hotel California, the self-destruction place where once you’re in, you can’t get out because you lose tracks of why come in for. Lastly, the theme of underlying sexual-awakening is again presented here (“hot and bothered”, as the episode put it). Well, this time, again Papika and Cocona have a chance to take bath and sleep together, and Papika has to suck Cocona’s finger over and over again. All that sexuality, yuri motifs are hinted everywhere in that dark society (tea time, that lily flower, piano-leisure time, book reading) and this world is a steep contrast to the bright desert world in episode 3.  While that in that particular episode the theme is more Papika-wise (dealing with finding your true self) and it’s Cocona who got sucked into that world, I could draw the parallel here as well. In this world, they got sucked into the neat society, the expectant of being a part of the whole group, repetition means stable here, something sounds much more like Cocona and this time it is Papika who is lost into that world. These worlds are really extreme versions of an ‘ideal’ worlds that have their own sets of rules, promote certain types of values and Papika and Cocona need to confront those in order to learn more about themselves and grow up. That is a best kind of coming-of-age story for you right there. This episode further confirms its willingness to go wild and trippy without relies on plot or continuity and personally that attitude is all I could ask for. I have fun following them, writing about them and now I can rest assured that Flip Flappers will never betray itself.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 05 [Miraculous Harmony]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sound! Euphonium 2

What a bravura piece of performance! Usually if a show wants to showcase how good a music performance is, they’d go for cheap tactics like fast cuts, over-the-top sparkling effects, key still frames, and drawing reactions from audiences. Not with KyoAni. They’re confident enough, and of course talented enough, to play out the entire piece and let that speaks for themselves about the quality. This is easily the highlights of this season so far and will be the one that fans will keep coming back to.

But the first half by no mean is no duds either. By following Kumiko and the band go through a day leading up to the Kansai Competition, the show again excels in showing many subtle moments and development that blink and you might miss it entirely. First, Taki announces to the band that his friends’ duty has ended, which for me was quite sudden because I still don’t know what their real roles are in the whole picture. I think the reason they are presented is to support and shed more lights to Taki’s character, but they actually didn’t do much except being either an info-dumper, or an obvious setup for Reina to get fired-up nonsensically. I hope they’ll be back soon as I still don’t see the show used them to their full potential. While on the train, Hazuki (who sadly was under-developed this season) gives a really light but on-point touch on what she is thinking the upcoming tournament. Being one of a few who isn’t qualified enough, it’s understandable that she sometimes feels like she was left behind by her friends. But being Hazuki, obviously she’s sad, but she isn’t the one who’d disheartened by that. Instead, she vows to work hard to get her place for next year, and encouraging her friends to make it to the Nationals so that would inspire her is a really nice characterization by the show. Aiming to the Nationals not only mean a whole lot for the competitive members, but for the rest of the team as well.

When Kumiko got back home that afternoon, she receives a phone call from her middle school friend, Azusa (who briefly appeared in the first season). Her school Rikka High School will compete in the morning, moreover she asked Kumiko to not to speak with her that day. That again is a nice touch from Sound Eupho because the show keeps adding more perspectives from other cast, making more layers to the story. I totally agree with Azusa here, they might be ‘best friends forever’ but on that one day they’re competitors (I love how Kumiko keeps picking up her toes), and like Kumiko later said the amount of time and efforts all of them put in to practice for that one day affects pretty much everyone in the band, so “no one can think straight now” isn’t an overstatement at all.

I have to give it up for Yuuko for again being shine in her brief moments. She basically acts like herself this episode but the moment feels truly earned. Although qualifying to the Nationals is their goals, the team (especially the third-year students) knows that it’s a hard goal to reach. In addition, for the third-year students, this might be their last performance so they sometimes feel like they’re at the end of the road. This sentiment is echoed by Kaori this week as she tells Yuuko to keep looking after then band or Asuka last season when she said that the fun of practicing is about to conclude when the competition ends. But Yuuko points out correctly that their journey isn’t going to be done yet, let’s try and reach the Nationals together. In other notes, while Sound Eupho never really a show that is strong in terms of comedy, this episode has its absurd moments. Upon hearing Yoroizuka saying that the she will play a solo piece for Nozomi (which still doesn’t sound right for me either), Reina asks Kumiko if she can play the solo part for her. I know Reina isn’t the one who is easily affected by other people so this is really more like the show poking fun on the very notion of playing the piece for someone else. In fact, the very last moments of the episode when Yoroizuka expresses that she’s happy with the competition sadly is the weakest part in otherwise flawless episode for me, as I see for much of her struggle, she comes out as too clean a cut, the drama of her last episode pretty much resolved everything that I don’t feel her grow is natural at all.

But this first half’s best moments come directly from the speech of Asuka. As this show has many times addressed this issues, while Asuka isn’t the president of the club, she has a leader traits and clearly everyone sees her as more influential figure than Haruka the president. This time, she speaks up for the whole band and for once, she lets herself loose and being direct in front of everyone. She wants to try to reach to the Nationals. I noticed the brief exchanges between her and Kumiko during the performance and at this moments I’m not really sure what those exchanges supposed to be. The very nature of concert band is teamwork as everyone contribute their parts to form a collective whole, but for those from the same sections sometimes it means they have to fight each other for the roles. This will put our main Kumiko in an interesting position as Asuka and she both playing Euphonium. I reckon Asuka and Kumiko relationship is going to be the main focus for the latter half of this season, which I will totally be on board.

And now to that wonderful second half performance, it’s just simply mesmerizing. KyoAni always has been very consistent when it comes to the production values, but even with their standard the performance is still a standout. I noticed they used some footages from the previous performance last seasons, but overall the whole performance flows magnificently. Some might say it’s not fair to just focus on the band’s performance so we don’t know how good other bands are, but that’s essentially the point here. When the announcement starts, we’re rooting for them not because how incredible their performance was, but because we have witnessed how hard they tried to produce that piece of music so the results are satisfying because we know they deserved it. And you deserved it too, KyoAni.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 05[New Character!]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Magical Girl Raising Project

Being the peacemaker in a death game is one surefire way to paint a target on your back. Sure it’s a good thing there are people to run around yelling to give peace a chance but I admit that I agline more with how Ripple sees Nana’s proposal for peace. Empty ideals may be technically right but without anything backing up those flowery words they essentially become hollow. At most Nana has appealed to the administers of the game through Fav which in itself is rather silly as Fav wouldn’t deliver the message if he was behind all this and it’s likely that the Admins know full well whats going on. Other than that Nana has got good intentions but not much else. Based on what we have seen here with Magicaroid scamming Nana with junk items and how she acts at home, it doesn’t look like Nana has any ill intent. However there is an  interesting little bit of info in Winterprisms eyecatch in the midpoint of this episode. It said in her description that “She accepts Nana fully, despite knowing her intentions.” I am not certain as to what this alludes but perhaps Nana isn’t quite as pure as she seems.

For one I find her reasons for wanting to make Winterprism into a magical girl to be odd as she was stating how she was her knight and rambling on about how she can’t be stronger than her protector. I don’t think she is a skemer but perhaps she isn’t quite mentally well. While talking about this two we might as well bring up that Winterprism and Nana are lesbian lovers outside of magical girl form and I certainly appreciate that the yuri angle isn’t being pushed all two hard. The two act like a regular couple instead of yuri fan bait. I would like to say these two are the first official lesbian magical girl couple but that honor goes to Sailor Uranus and Neptune. Even discounting them I consider Nanoha and Fate to be canonical in a relationship.(They live together, sleep together, blush like red beets at each other and they have a kid who calls them both mom. It isn’t outright stated but these two have got to be together.)

While Koyuki warms up to the idea of making Souta her boyfriend, Swim Swim seems to be having trouble figuring out how to handle the Magical girl team with Ruler gone. She’s decided on stealing more Candies but it appears she doesn’t quite know how to go about it. While she’s figuring this out we get introduced to another chaotic addition to the game, Cranberry.(The villains of this show sure do have the least threatening names.) Our new girl seems to not really care about collecting candies and is more in it to face off against strong opponents. Not exactly a original motivation but she is a much needed fire to set off all the oil laying around. One particular thing I noticed about Cranberry is that the group mention she is the oldest magical girl in the area and that makes me think back to the opening scene of the first episode. And sure enough I am certain the girl standing in a magical girl massacre in front of a monster was wearing the same roses on her head as Cranberry does now.

It even added up to her motivation as the girl in the opening scene smiled when fighting off the monster and Cranberry is seeking out the same thrill of fighting strong opponents. This may be insight into what lies beyond this current death game as there appears to be monsters like those in the phone app. Possibly this whole elimination game is a whittling down of the girls in order to get the best fighters to take on these monsters. Magicaliod and Calamity mary continue to get along seeing as they are both scumbags who are willing to go to any means to win. Lastly we have Alice, the newcomer who looks to be very interested in Snow White. The show is trying to paint her as a potential foe but I think she will end  up an ally instead. There was a brief shot of a girl looking up message boards for snow white and I think she’s a fan who wants to help her. Considering that we are reaching the halfway point I think we really should start knocking out some girls as only two have been eliminated so far out of the eight.

3-gatsu no Lion – 04 [Hina – Buiesu]

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

Seems like overalls it’s not a good week for my anime blogging, as all the shows that I’m covering haven’t fared very well this week. Not that they are disasters but all the shows veer off from their greatest strength to a more mediocre approach. For Sound Eupho they went for big climatic drama instead of their focus on dense little moments. For Flip Flappers they abandoned their wild Pure Illusion world for a more mundane and aimless plot, and for 3-gatsu no Lion they passed on their intimate look on real characters for… well… cartoonish characters. 3-gatsu no Lion is at its strongest when the show concentrates on Rei’s inner emotions and how the characters around him in a way change his very perception to be more open and honest to himself. Sadly this episode has little of those moments and instead relies on exaggerated silly moments which simply isn’t as engaging.

As soon as I knew the next chapter was going to focus on Hina, I was actually looking for this since Hina is my favorite character out of the three sisters. But boy, they decide to fall on the usual pitfall of portraying preteen middle school girl: through romance and first crush. Takahashi is the tall boy, baseball-ace from her school and she makes up her mind to cook a bento for him. Takahashi is almost an object of affection from the outside looking in, literally; as Rei stands from outside the field looking into the boy. Hina wants to make the most perfect bento out there, and the whole plan goes as everyone would expect: failed miserably. It’s fun to see her struggling with making foods, each time goes more and more horribly wrong and completely running out of time. But when it’s time for her to give the bento, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

While so far this chapter stumbles a bit because it ticks all the cliché teen romance plot, at least the chapter ends in a solid note. The ending works because the show still understands its character very well. It explores the insecurity of Hina, something fairly normal for someone her age: about her shyness got the better of her, about feeling vulnerable compared to the “near-perfect” sister. There is a huge age difference between the three sisters, but that makes sense in this context because the three sisters represent different stages of women’s life (I know, I know I might be obsessed with women’s issues but please bear with me this time). This theme becomes apparent here as Hina’s efforts remind Akari of her own, years ago and I believe although they’re different in term of personality, this is a phase that they all had to go through. Furthermore, this chapter ends with the most brilliant execution in this episode, as the voice-over switched gently from Rei to Akari. Up until now, we always follow Rei’s train of thoughts so it’s a nice change to hear other characters say what they’re thinking, and Akari sincere voice really gives of a warm and sweet feeling (unlike the first love) that the chapter wanted to achieve.

On the second half, things got real noisy for Rei as Harunobu came to his house unannounced to practice shogi with him. I certainly like him as a character, since last week the show gives more light to his character, but he also turns me off whenever he’s in that loud and hyperactive mode. Sadly the first half of this chapter was full of this and only when the duo meet the three sisters, things get more interesting. It turns out that he’s getting along well with kids, which actually is unsurprising because he himself still acts like a kid. I like the way the show makes references that obviously inspired by real-life counterparts. Well, others might say Bodoro is a blatant rip-off to Totoro, for me I say that this Bodoro has his own charms. Then it’s Akari who has a weird fetish: she likes everything soft and fluffy and has a affection for Harunobu considering his… ahem… body. Now, that actually becomes an issue. Like I mentioned last week I think the best strength 3-gatsu no Lion has is those characters feel like real people. This episode making their quirks so cartoonish (no, I’ll rephrase: so anime-ish) that they don’t feel like actual people anymore. I know maybe this problem comes from me so if the show still goes with these cartoonish traits then I’ll have to re-evaluate my own judgement.

Overall, besides being the show’s most unremarkable episode yet, I find some of the jokes actually landed well, like all the parts involving “some other people’s kids” or the last scene with Harunobu’s butler Hanaoka and I still think Shaft adapting the show quite effectively so far. There is a lack of Rei’s inner voice this week which actually hurts the show a bit, but we got one brief scene when he’s mentioning ‘love’ and it seems like he was in some kind of abuse with a girl before. This week is just a slightly misstep so I’m not worry too much. 3-gatsu no Lion is still a strong show and I can’t wait to spend more time with them next week.

Flip Flappers – 04 [Pure Equalization]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flip Flappers

Nothing much has happened to Flip Flappers this week, which I can really summarize the plot in one sentence: Cocona and Papika live together for a while and they spend their time getting foods and taking baths and sleeping together. In fact, there’s not much to say in this episode. This is so far Flip Flappers’ most mundane and ordinary episode and frankly compare to the first three episodes it’s a clear step down, but then again you can’t expect a show to hit home runs week after week.

As you probably know me I’m never a big fan of forced plot so forcing the two girls to stay together until they can sync again doesn’t bode well for me. It seems really like a plot excuse to gather them together and worst of all, in this episode all the girls do is just hanging around in search for the plot. Now I never mind the fact that the show keeps us in the dark regarding Flip Flappers world but this is the first time I get the feeling they don’t give us enough info because they have little to say. Usually for an episode that supposed to be a break between two big episodes, they can either fleshing out the world, giving more context to the side characters, or deepening the main characters; unfortunately, this episode achieves none of that. Cocona and Papika’s chemistry just isn’t strong enough to carry the whole episode and as a result the story feel drags at times; there’s no real urgency to the plot and little ‘world-wonder’ like we encountered previous episodes.

In any case, this episode still gives some more insights (albeit very little) to work with. We have an extended dream of Cocona this time that she was in a floating boat with a mysterious woman (a nod to the very well usage of optical illusions) and for now I’m guessing that the mysterious girl is another version of Cocona. To align with her masked persona last week, Cocona might be a girl with many faces, because she doesn’t have any real identity to begin with so she’s easy to be manipulated into other personalities. This series is going to be Cocona’s journey to find her real self. On other notes, I found it rather amusing that Papika seems to un-noticed the art-club unnamed girl again, that made me feel like that art-club girl is some kind of a ghost/ spirit (or mushi if I let myself loose). Cocona gives a bit of context on her lost parents and her wish to meet them again. As of now all I think of is her parents’ death/ disappearance might be a result of one of the Pure Illusion world, so she might actually get to meet them later in the Pure Illusion reality.

At least, the girls were sucked into another Pure Illusion world so I know in next episode we will have a good time. It might sound harsh of me regarding this episode but it is simply because at this point I have a high expectation for Flip Flappers. I get to Flip Flappers expecting to experience something unique and I know the show is capable of delivering that, so spending an episode to see those girls just hanging around and waiting for the plot to kick in is simply not good enough.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 04 [Awakening Oboe]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Sound! Euphonium 2

This week Sound Eupho goes full-blown drama, exploring the struggles from Yoroizuka towards Nozomi. As a result, this episode is the show’s most emotional resonance, but at the same time is the show’s most straight-forwards in terms of plot. What you see is what you get, but the drama is resolved so well that I’m pretty happy with how all this played out.

It’s interesting to note that for how much the show set up this little drama, the conflict reaches its peak from something completely incidental, at first glance. Nozomi, upon hearing about Yoroizuka’s oboe criticism, decides to see her… to say hi, that’s enough to swell Yoroizuka’s emotions up and explode like a torrential rain. This turn of events might seem a bit randomly at first, but take a closer look and you can see their situation has been in a crumble ground that it’s a matter of time for that relationship to collapse on themselves. Before going to Yoroizuka’s point of view, let me raise this: people might think that Nozomi doesn’t really consider Yoroizuka as her friend because after she quit, they cut off their communication, which is something a close friend wouldn’t have done. Yeah, Nozomi might be a bit insensitive but truthfully, she did all that because that’s who she is. Who would blame her for that? She said that she didn’t tell Yoroizuka she quit because she didn’t want to drag her friend into the whole mess, which for me is fair enough.

In fact, it’s Yoroizuka who had a problem and the show highlights her issues quite effectively. Since Nozomi left the band without telling her, she felt left out. Nozomi had always been a precious friend to her, being the one who introduced her to play instrument. Yoroizuka fears that facing Nozomi again, she’d be rejected and that feeling keep boiling up inside her to the point that she gets sick just from listening to Nozomi’s sound. That is indeed scary when one’s too dependent on their relationship to others. For around a year she has been playing music for Nozomi and therefore overlooked Yuuko’s friendship and her enjoyment to the band. The visual alone conveys many feelings by the way they frame the characters, like how the show underlines Yoroizuka’s fragile emotions by displays her shutting herself up, literally, under the desk; or when Yuuko tears fall into her face (sharing the pain) and later when Yuuko literally knocks some sense out of her and raising her up to the bright sunlight. The drama sure is overloaded but the visual language is still as sensitive as ever. I have to give Yuuko an extra praise since this season she’s growing to be a very carefully constructed character (despite being very unlikable in first season) and I’m glad that she and Natsuki returning to tease one another again.

But the last five minutes of the show, right after the drama ended is when Sound Eupho returns to its dense storytelling. Asuka again proved to be a genius in pointing out the worst in people by commenting that Yoroizuka’s obsession to Nozomi is due to the fear of being alone, and afterwards making friend with Yuuko as an insurance, to which Kumiko completely disagrees. Asuka has been the most complex character of the series and the scariest thing about her is even when she’s putting up a front, she always makes sense. I doubt that her decision not to allow Nozomi back to the band is only because of Yoroizuka (well, mostly but hardly the only reasons). What she says might not be what she truly feels and I love to see how the show manages to crack into her true personality. Overall, while I think going for heightened drama is not the strongest suit (that would be the show’s emphasis on little moments) and the conflict was resolved a bit too quickly for my taste, it’s still a very well-executed episode. At least now we can move on to the Kansai competition and it’s time to give more spotlights to other members of the cast. Give me more Reina please!!

Magical Girl Raising Project – 04[Add More Friends!]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Magical Girl Raising Project

Guess I gave Ruler a bit too much credit than she deserved. I still think in her own way she did care about her team but she had a much bigger ego than expected when you see her real self. Ruler has the problematic nature of overestimating her own worth and in doing so pushes away others under the guise that they are not at her level. Problem is that when you push away everyone you have no one who can point out your own faults and thus never improve as a human being. Ruler was a big shot at school but when she entered the working world she started bottom of the rung and was doing pointless odd jobs. Seeing as she had the ego the size of a small continent this naturally didn’t sit well with her and she used her Magical girl identity to flatter her ego. It’s funny when you think about it, she couldn’t rule the world of adults so instead she chose to rule over children. Truly she was petty creature which doesn’t deserve much sympathy as she killed off this episode.

Much like my opinion of 91 Day’s I am not fond of putting someone in the spotlight in the exact episode they are killed off or involved with a twist. To the viewer it then becomes obvious that whoever gets backstory is going to die and thus ruins the surprise of the episode. I knew that with Rulers attitude that it was really only a matter of time before she was killed off and the coup d’etat was really inevitable. However I didn’t expect it to happen this quickly and the way she was killed was rather unexpected. I don’t mean that I didn’t know Swim Swim would betray her as I pretty much pegged that by the last episode. I even was right on the money about Nemurin being the one to inspire the revolt in the second episode. But Swim Swim, despite the very silly name, could be turning out to be a very interesting villain. Despite her magical girl appearance, Swim Swim is very young and is quite intelligent as seen by how she purposefully distributed the stolen candies from Snow White in a manner that would leave Ruler in last place.

But what makes this interesting is that she didn’t kill Ruler because of hate, or because she saw her as a poor leader. In fact she seems to hold great respect for her even after ending her life. Basically it seems that she was following Rulers teachings in that all the members of the team should strive to become her. However in Swim Swims mind this meant that she can’t become Ruler if Ruler is still around. Thus logically Ruler must be eliminated. So in Swim Swim’s mind she sees this as carrying Rulers torch and quite honestly this makes Swim Swim rather scary. She’s young, smart, and can kill without remorse but is also highly impressionable. She is working with an entirely different ruleset and morality. She spent a large amount of time with the worst role model and now could start a bloodbath while seeing nothing wrong with it. I originally pinned Calamity Mary down as the villain for this arc but right now it could be possible Swim Swim is the true villain.

As for other matters the writing continues to not really be on the level of quality it needs to be on. Souta really should have known better to run off after the twin angels when he knew they worked in a team. I also find his power to be a little too on the nose. An expanding sword? Really? We all know exactly what that symbolises and quite frankly the show does as well. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he holds the sword directly in front of his crotch. The action scenes lack real excitement though it could be just this fight that wasn’t particularly exhilarating. Souta has pretty much confirmed that he will be acting as Koyuki’s protector in this fight which makes me fairly certain that he’s going to die. We have another Magical girl targeting Snow White and it looks like everyone is dividing into factions as Top Speed and ninja magical girl meet up with the nun magical girl. This series still does have the potential to deliver on it’s premise and we have enough of a build up to really get started. I hope it can at least live up to the magical girl battle royale it is promising as we have far too many Dark Mahou Shoujo failures.

3-gatsu no Lion – 03 [Harunobu – Beyond the Night Sky]

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

Another week, another touching little stories from Rei and his friends. Still follow the same structure as previous 2 weeks, we have the first half of Rei competing against Harunobu, his lifelong rivalry (or so that guy thought), and the remaining half of Rei visiting the three sisters on the last day of Obon festival. Unlike last week where we had the first segment to illustrate Rei’s ordinary professional shogi life, this week’s first section actually has a bit of context behind it. Actually, we have A LOT of context here. We have a whole flashback on the very first time they played together as a kid, narrated by the older Rei now that feel wholeheartedly personal. While the last episode framed Harunobu as a noisy and a bit annoying kid, this week shed a lot of new lights into his characters. He was, and still is, never a match for Rei’s shogi skills, but his determination to fight till the very end is something that feels resonant to Rei. I like how the show keeps cutting back to the flying balloons, and Shaft keeps focus on liquid-dropping motifs (be it big tears that like in manga, sweating, or bubbles on cold drink). The show successfully parallels that kid’s match with the current match in order to show us that the determination, the pure joy of facing off each other would never change, and will continue to be for the rest of their careers. It then turns out that Harunobu has been ill and in the hospital since he was a kid, that adds depth to this characters now that we realize his enthusiasm is not something that easily gained, considering his sickness.

When Rei meets up with the sisters that night, it’s a last day of the Obon festival. On that day, they bid farewell to the deceased ancestors and hope they will be safe in the afterlife. From the look of it I guess the sister’s grandma and mother had been passed away for 2,3 years. Long enough to not overly depressed by it and can carry on the ritual like usual, but soon enough to still feel sad and melancholy. For Rei, he lost his parents from way too long that he eventually shut his emotion off and forget about them in order to carry on. Now I see the connection between him and the sisters and why the sisters treat him like their family. Losing parental figures sure is tough and they eventually share the same pains of losing someone closed to them. But it becomes a habit that when we’re together, we smile and keep looking ahead, and hold that grief feeling to ourselves. That’s why Hinata walks off to the bridge and then outbursts hold so much emotions. She’s always an emotional honest character and carry the weight that burdened on her shoulder is too much for her. At least she can cry her heart out and that is something Rei needs to learn too.

After each viewing, I eventually check out the manga up to where the show had covered to see how closely the adaptation is, and for that Shaft has been followed quite faithfully to the source material. There are many important scenes that they actually adapted literally frame-by-frame from the manga. I previously said that I enjoy the Shaft’s editing for this series, and this episode again show their strengths towards editing: not that smooth editing but quick, sharp cuts to the motifs of the shows: last few weeks we have water bubbling and this week we have quick cuts to the flying balloons or the sun. In addition, there are some Shaft-ness moments that basically remind us this is Shaft’s products. Yes, we have some head tilts and I love to see some Nozomu-sensei imitations here but ultimately, they do it just about enough, without distracting the story. The sound design also deserves a special mention that feel lively, and that soaring scores really bring out the sadness and sorrow without again never really stand out. Great stuffs. Overall, Shaft have been given this show an excellent treatment.

But if I have to compare the manga and the show right now, I feel the manga fare better for me, which is strange because I consider Shaft adapting the manga quite effectively. So why is that? For me, the manga achieves something really simple but direct and honest, and that’s freaking hard to do. Take a scene where Akari explains about the cucumber and eggplant as the “horses” to bring the ancestors to their former homes and backs; while in the anime it feels like she’s giving information for us to process, in the manga I actually feel the sadness behind the talk. Chica Umino is ultimately a character’s writer, as opposed to say Gen Urobochi who famously known for his theme-ridden story and his world-building, or Mari Okada for her heightened drama (I don’t know why I bring up those two honestly, they aren’t even mangaka. Must be Freudian slip). Well, when a mangaka includes the character’s name into the chapters it means that those characters are her privilege and she really cares about her characters. Those characters were given more depth with such honesty that it never feels forced or calculated. I have gotten to the stage where I don’t pretty much care about great plots, shows with deep meaning or profound theme, all I care is characters that feel like real people that I feel invested to, and to witness how they grow overtime. I can safely say that 3-gatsu no Lion achieves that, and that alone is good enough for me to keep recommending this show.

Flip Flappers – 03 [Pure XLR]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flip Flappers

Flip Flappers again raises the bar of what is expected of them, as this week the show goes even much trippier than the previous two weeks, and much darker too. They break out even their own formula, starting this episode right in the middle of desert wasteland. While this episode certainly reminds you a lot of other shows (to namelist: Mad Max, Fist of the North Stars, a bit of Star Wars, the fights of FLCL, the transformation of Sailor Moons (with fairy wings), the Super Saiyan powered-up, and whole other real life, historical references that I will discuss later), it still maintains its own personalities, runs its own beats, being busy with its own aesthetic and as a result Flip Flappers just gets weirder and more awesome. This is hand down its best episode so far.

In this episode, Flip Flappers decides to go to new direction. Instead of half-Cocona in her daily school, half-Pure Illusion worlds, they jump straight into the middle of Pure Illusions world. I love how things just got escalated very quickly in this episode in terms of plot, and because we have no idea about that world, the show freely twists our expectations of what about to come. We first follow Papika as she was abducted by the rare race with pumpkin-like faces. We see them as a potential threat for Papika until we see how they live an old but civilized, peaceful lives. Then, Mad Max-style gang of bandits attack the village and take their water. Their biggest, bad-assed guy challenged Papika and it all turned out that they’re no match for her. Then revealed their boss who is none other than Cocona, in mask. Then when that fight between two girls are done, we learned that Cocona has been manipulated by the girl in black. Then they nearly lose their lives to beat that monster, just so the other group comes in and kills it in 3 seconds. And the three people in that other group are just some pawns for something much bigger. You get what I mean? Flip Flappers keeps … well… flipping our expectations around that except from knowing Cocona and Papika will be alright, we can’t never tell for sure what going to happen. Everyone is not what they seem (clued in Cocona’s obaa-chan here, her detached response gives me a chill, I wouldn’t be surprised if she turns out to be some sorts of villain), and everything is not what it seems; they are the only rules of Flip Flappers.

Apart from its aesthetic which is already mesmerizing and overwhelming, the amount of symbolisms here in Flap Flappers is just way toooo much. But that’s why I love it. As one of our reader pointed out before, Uexekull is a reference to Jakob von Uexküll, a biologist who actually influenced some areas of philosophy like Phenomenology (study of the structures of experience and consciousness), which is kind of related to Pure Illusion experience. The chanting of Asclepius from the other organization is come from the god of healing Asclepius in Greek mythology, which also appropriate since Cocona was in that place that resembling strongly to the ruined Greek buildings, but I’m still not sure why they use that reference though. The antagonist girl, who I don’t know where the show inspires of, clearly symbolizes something lustful, decay and manipulation. The robot TT392 proves again to be the most human character that we’re all can related to well, as he spiraled out of control when seeing naked girls and basically was volunteered to be the sexiest girl’s servant at all cost. At least I know that what I would do too. And there is one thing you should learn for the next Pure Illusion trip Cocona and Papika: make the hole on the ground, that’d save you a lot of trouble.

I have mentioned last week that I think Cocona and Papika both the represent the dual side of girlhood. Well, I still stand by that because the theme of duality is still going strong here. Cocona was manipulated to fight against Papika because she’s unsure about her shelf, she wants to break out from that shelf (the feeling of wanting to punch Papika). Moreover, sexuality theme again popped up here, last week it was to control your desire, this week lust is hindered everywhere, from that infamous dark scene, to the fact that the fragment is located in Cocona’s thigh; and isn’t it the girl’s transformations represent their ultimate purity? Also, their hair change to other’s counterpart colors after transformation, and their transformation names Pure Blade/ Pure Barrier support that duality theme as well, as do you see any fighter without either blade or shield? Also, it is interesting to note that the FlipFlap organization is designed as some kind of broken down lab sciences, while with the other organization, it looks like a cultish group. Kinda huge leap from the groups that share the same objectives don’t you think?

Here’s one of my theory about the nature of Pure Illusions. It might represent the state of mind, the characteristics of one particular characters. In the first episode it’s Cocona’s version, as a result we have a winter snowy landscape (because she’s coldhearted), no people around (because she’s lonely). In the second episode it’s Uexkull’s, so the girls transform into bunnies, the colors are overloaded (indicates that it isn’t human visions). If we follow that sense then this episode is from the characteristic of Papika, which kind of make sense because of her hotheaded nature (desert), her outgoing traits (this is the first Pure Illusion world that we have other people, other races, and more spectacularly they are not one but 3 races), and the red desert that align with her hair colors is a dead giveaway. But I agree that this is kind of stretching the idea and somehow if they have indeed done it that way then I feel they are limited to themselves. The fun here in Flip Flappers is to sit back and enjoy the imaginary washes over you, and you just keep your eyes peeled and follow their sense of madness logic because you know it gonna be a fun ride.  I have fastened my seatbelt, now take me to wherever you want to go, Flip Flappers!!!