Tag: 2016

3-gatsu no Lion – 07 [Important Things. Important Matters – Teach Me How to Play Shogi]

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

Oh, the vitality of youth and first crush! It’s fun to see Hina’s under that crush spell and making a big fuss over Takahashi coming for dinner. As for Takahashi, he climbs up from being “an object of desire” from last few episode to a very straightforward and a bit serious boy now (anyone seen him smile once?) but his cold appearance is a nice contrast to Hina’s nervous sicken state. Well, enjoy it while it lasts girl because you ain’t gonna feel it again when you’re getting older.

It seems the show now covers the source material a bit faster now (2 and a half chapters per episode), but if that’s the case then I’m not totally on board with it. The main reason being each chapter is a self-contained story, even with chapter that begins as mundanely such as this one, being “Takahashi comes over for dinner and the family enjoy the night together”, it still manages to pull off a satisfying punch; that’s why breaking the chapter apart feels a bit disruptive to the flow of the story and could potentially lose its emotional earnest. This episode gets away with this issue this time, because of the continuity of Takahashi appearing in two chapters, but I’m not so sure if they can manage that next time. I would prefer they either stick with 2 chapters or they can speed up with 3 chapters per episode, but since I’m enjoying the deliberate pacing as it is now so I hope they won’t change that much.

As I mentioned above I very much enjoyed the chapter-style of the show so far, as each chapter manages to give a different angle to Rei and the people surrounding him. In contrast with the dark and sad story from last week, this episode shines with light touch and upbeat tone that actually signals the grow of Rei, even just a slightly bit. Firstly, through his honest-but-shabby explain to Takahashi, he’s actually able to reach him. Human interaction and connection is one of the most important fragment in our life, and sadly Rei is always out of touch with it. With just a little affection from Takahashi, it means a world to Rei, but it’s true that everyone would feel this happy when others understand exactly what you mean, especially someone who often self-doubt like Rei. Secondly, he’s now willing to take risks as well. With his old-self, for a shogi move that he feels too dangerous, he’d retreat instead; but now he’s heading over it to see if he can handle it. Although it costs him the match, I’d say it’s important for him to take that risk so that he could learn from his mistake. Finally but most importantly, he’s exploding over Harunobu’s comments, and that step is extremely important because it shows that he cares. As contrary to his fear last week, he actually cares for shogi and he cares for himself so he cannot stand to be talked down like that. At least he still feels something. You’ve grown Rei!

The supporting cast also works like a charm this week. For once, I feel Botoro’s (oh, I mean Harunobu’s) passionate advice from a shogi commentary no less as sincerely and heart-felt instead of annoying and I feel this is one of the strongest moments in this episode. He’s always the opposite to Rei in term of personality, as Rei always keeps his feeling inside himself, he is the one who says out loud what he feels and those advises are what Rei needed to hear (again and again in recorded tape or VCR that is). He really cares for his friend and even him appearing in later part to teach Hina and Momo shogi come off as necessary contrast to Rei’s stiff and machine-like teaching. Takahashi also shows his passionate side for baseball, and he fits like a glove to the rest of cast and his looking-up to Rei as a (sort-of) role model making them a weird (but nice) pair. Lastly, I know it isn’t much but look how shy and stiff Hina was at the beginning of the dinner, and then to her smile as she giving a piece of fruit to Rei and acting so herself in front of Rei, I feel a warm feeling inside me.

This episode might be a bit too light for 3-gatsu no Lion, but it’s by no mean a filler or even a mediocre episode. There’s still so much details to enjoy here and this episode is just so fun to watch. It’s great to see Rei has matured from time to time and seriously, who would say no to a shogi cat-warrior dance? Damn entertaining!

Flip Flappers – 07 [Pure Component]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flip Flappers

And here I thought I know what to expect from this show, yet I would never anticipate a Flip Flappers episode that is a direct continuity to the event of last week. In addition, this episode serves as a nice contrast to last week thematically as well. It only makes sense that after the episode concentrating about two girls performing same role, the next one will be about one girl who carries several roles, right?

Upon noticing that Iro-senpai has been changed in terms of her behaviors since their last Pure Illusion trip, and then later was confirmed by Hidaka that digging deeper into Pure Illusion level can alter the current world, Cocona doesn’t take it too well. It’s understandable in her case, since she’s fine as long as those crazy worlds are all fun and games. But when actions in these universes could potentially bring out consequences, it’s another matter altogether. The Pure Illusion world that Cocona got in this time carries out many characters that directly associated with her characteristics: that world is surprisingly grounded, mundane and completely isolated. That is when Papika multiple roleplaying really makes sense narratively to this episode. She represents the changes. Many roles she performs here aiming to assist Cocona to try something new and at the same time to have fun, demonstrated by many scenes like when the classmate boy who suggests her to skip class, or that emo girl who keeps pressing Cocona to open the drawer (for the meaning of that nail-clipper though, I have no idea but frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn), or trying new clothes. Ultimately, Cocona learns that many things might have been changed by Papika’s and her actions, but changing isn’t always mean bad. In Iro-senpai case, I’d definitely say that she’s happy with herself right now. Isn’t it satisfied enough as long as they bring the happiness to others?

Papika performing various characters also serve as a direct reflection to her own role in Cocona’s life. Take notice that all the roles she plays can be seen as Cocona’s personal and social relationship. She starts as Cocona’s little sister (so cute!), the insecure child who takes care for Cocona and always seeks her attention; then as a classmate boy who genuinely cares for her; then as various social friends who spend time with her, and finally as her sensual lover. All those roles serve as substitutes towards Cocona relationships in order to raise a central message: Where would the real Papika fit in? Is she her family, friend, or lover? Cocona’s for this whole episode trying to sort out her feelings about Papika through having fun times with those variables, and Cocona soon realizes Papika’s none of the above. She holds a special place in Cocona’s heart that raises above all other alternatives.

Moreover, the use of multiple roles also makes a whole lot sense in the context of identity and growing up. Never in any other shows that I’ve seen the constantly jabbed at the role of identity like this one. The first read is of course multiple personalities, and I don’t mean it in a disorder viewpoint. Not unlike the class S, yuri genre where they hold a belief that mutual crush between two girls is a necessary phase for girls to mature into normal, healthy woman; multiple personalities can be interpreted as an adolescent phase, where kids put up many masks of personalities to fully understand who they are, who they are not. The play on gender roles could be seen as a second read, as Papika freely transforms from one gender to another, indicating the break from societal norms towards what are expected for them to perform. Lastly and not really related to the multiple roles, but learning to take responsibility is also another theme that this episode going for, as Cocona learns exactly that from the consequences of her last Pure Illusion trip.

So again, what do we learn this week? Things seem to go badly for Yayaka, as we now know that her place amongst the organization is pretty shaky. And the twins are referred to as the amorphous children, which could mean that they are artificially created by the power of the amorphous. Now it’s an interesting concept if you ask me. It is also confirmed that the deeper level of Pure Illusion world could alter the present world, which could mean the stake is higher next time knowing they have real consequences, but frankly I’d have preferred much better if they don’t try to explain it at all. After all, this is one of those things (the willingness to keep us in the dark that is) that make Flip Flappers so charming and adventurous in a first place. Finally, Papika just mutters “Mimi” out of nowhere to the new sets of character we never heard from before (Mimi’s holding a child if you notice closely, and looks like the guy who is busy with his PC game is the person in Papika’s flashback- or is it Dr. Salt? Hard to tell) and in any ordinary anime that would be a recipe for nightmare kitchen, but it’s Flip Flappers for Christ sake so I know the show will find a way us care about those new characters.

As much as I see many layers toward this episode, as I mentioned before Cocona and Paprika alone can’t carry the episode on their own and this episode was just thisclose from being dragged out, and the lack of interesting visuals certainly won’t help. That doesn’t mean this episode is bad either, and my expectation for the show is still as high as ever, but this episode also isn’t among their best effort.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 07 [Station Concert]

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

After spending the first half of this season for second year drama and the regional Kansai competition, it’s only natural for Sound Eupho to turn their focus on the third-year students now. After all, National competition will be their last performance, so there’s a lot of meat to invest on. Now we know more about Asuka’s issues, her mother is an uptight parent who wants her to concentrate more on the entrance exam and forces her to quit the band. Apparently, her mother thinks the band is just a distraction towards whatever goals she wants Asuka to achieve because she “knows” what is best for Asuka. Well, I don’t need to point out the problem with this attitude, instead I’ll tell you a story that I know in RL. A friend of my friend (so I don’t personally know her) had her parents divorced when she was young and her mother forbid her to meet the father out of her own hatred. In high school, she decided to secretly meet her father by telling her mom she’d walk home that day and planned to meet him in front of school’s entrance. Unfortunately, her mother spied on them so as soon as the two met, she detested by jumping into the running car and of course that event scarred the girl for life (true story!). My point is this, when parents dictate their child into such extreme without considering the child’s own feeling (the same case here with Asuka), things bound to get more disturbing. There’s still something that only hinted very slightly in this episode about Asuka and her mom’s relationship. Her mom tells her that Asuka playing instrument is to get back at her, it might mean that Asuka’s father also played instruments before. We don’t know either what Asuka wanted to talk to Natsuki about, but really the way she acts like nothing wrong happened even though everyone knows how dire her situation has been actually signaled that she’s in deep trouble right now, and I know things will get worse later on.

Haruka and Kaori likewise have a good amount of development this week. Despite being a band president, it’s obvious that Asuka has more of an influence band members than Haruka and even she knows that she isn’t leader material. But that’s not to say that she isn’t a good leader and this episode really articulates well her characters and her personal struggles. First, the absence of Asuka leaves a bad mood to the band, so for once she stands up in front of the band and asks them to trust the senpais and keep moving on. It wasn’t a very good speech (but she’s never a good speaker to begin with), but it was the right timing to encourage the band to focus on their playing. Moreover, she was asked by Taki-sensei to performing solo, which of course made her nervous. She’s always good at staying behind the scene and supporting the band, so to become a center of attention isn’t really her thing. But she has grown too. She has grown to start embracing the leader role, be more comfortable with her own self-esteem, and that solo part really shows how far she has developed as a character throughout the series.

Now, to the time shift “one month has passed since Asuka stopped coming to the band”, it’s nice for Sound Eupho to focus on a specific narrative issue, but for me the show has always shined on making the band club as real and relatable as possible, and that included the messiness in narrative. In real life, issues and events come as random as the weather, some issues we already anticipated beforehand, some we don’t. That is why I really enjoyed the randomness and messiness of last weeks’ many dramas, because it feels like the very world we live in. Now, we just passed a month without any real moments, in expense of showing Asuka’s issues, and that take away the “real life” the show has built up to. I mean what’s about Kumiko’s relationship with her sister at that time? What about any other band member’s interactions? This is not their fault obviously as shows need to have focus drama and I frankly would do the same if I were in their position, but the point being I hope that they don’t push up the drama in the sacrifice of the naturalness of the show.

Everyone who watching this show know that the production values are overall top notch, even comparable to the quality of feature length movies; but here I want to press how attentive to details this show is. I’m not the man who judge the quality of the music played by the band, but by reading analysis from someone who used to play in an actual concert band (I’ll give you the links if you guys ask for it), most of the musical was played correctly, even down to the fingering, the notes they play, the position of the hands and bodies were all executed perfectly, and for me that’s just insane. KyoAni not simply done their research, but it feels like they animating the real concert band performing. The more I read about how correctly each segment played, the more I am blown away. Imagine they made it right for the whole 10-minutes performance by all the instruments played, now imagine they even got it right when the band practiced throughout this one and a half series-length. As it become a norm that the production quality would drop significantly towards the middle part in anime world, KyoAni’s consistency towards the quality, plus their willingness to get ever minor details right that frankly put other productions into shame. They set a high standard on how production quality should be and I don’t think there is many productions out there that could come close to it.

3-gatsu no Lion – 06 [Child of God part 1 – part 2]

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

Okay, I think I need to let this out first: What is that screenshot right at the end of preview chapter? I know some other mangaka draw this (Like Miura did in the first episode), but this image of big boob Akira is totally inappropriate with the show. This is a total disaster if you ask me.

This episode takes an unflinching look into the mind of Rei again, but unlike last week where the events were already happened in his past, this episode concentrates squarely on his inner thoughts: on how he perceives the world. The main strength of 3-gatsu no Lion has always been the way the show dig deep in Rei’s insecure self, and this episode really takes a step deeper and darker. While his past is certainly tragic and compelling, if the show relies too heavily on his past to draw sympathy from us, it won’t go anywhere because Rei doesn’t progress. Instead, this episode focuses on Rei’s attitude towards the past and how it affects him even now. Kyouko abusive voice again lingers in his heart, basically devalued his self-worth, but the sad thing is he’s submitted to it. He’s afraid that he doesn’t belong anywhere, this again reflects on his complicated relationship with shogi. Last week, we learned that he chose to play shogi not because he loved it, but because he wanted to spend more time with his father, and later as a ‘contract’ to get out of his trapped life; this week he sheds another light to it: he’s into shogi as a place where he feels himself belong to. But does he really feel belonging? As he continues to swim over countless waves to reach its destination, he begins to lose sights on the big world around, on his next stop. He reaches the island, he reaches his goals but now too afraid to make any more move. That is one hell of depressing thought.

The introduction of Touji Souya, a current meijin (one of the most prestigious title in shogi) serves as a great reference to Rei. The two of them share many things in similar: they are both become shogi professional shogi player when they were middle schools (the 4th and 5th people who do so), and their playing styles are strikingly similar as well. All those players who became professional in middle schools would all later become masters (including Souya), and that made Rei feel pressure towards those “achievements” that the shogi world expected of him (curiously enough when you realize his adoptive father never really give him that kind of pressure). His recent losing streak certainly brings him down and that again made him afraid whether or not he’s worth it. Well, that kind of pressure is not what he needs to care, but thankfully the teacher Hayashida was there to cheer him up. He, along with the three sisters, are the friends that Rei really need to bring him out of his depressions. I am really amazed that the show goes this far to bring out the dark inside Rei, we get to know him better and better now and he becomes one of the most fully realized characters that I’ve encountered in recent years. Thank you Chica Umino!

Speaking of her, I think I need to address on the comedy of this show. Many people complain that the comedy is the weakest part of the show, but for now I interpreted it differently. When you really think about it, for a quiet, slow coming-of-age story, voicing over the cats (and dogs) don’t really make much sense, but here it’s working. The thing is those light moments aren’t supposed to be humorous, or to get chuckles from us, but they serve as a cute, light-heart moments to balance out the dark, heavy inner Rei. There are some comic relief moments, sure, but their main objectives are to contrast with the lonely world of Rei, not for comedic effect; thus to judge it based on its poor ‘comedy’ doesn’t really ring true for me, because it isn’t strictly a comedy.

Lastly, this episode is a perfect example to dissect how well Shaft adapting this manga. When you really look at it, Shaft is one of the most unlikely studio to adapt this story. Of course Shaft is talented enough to bring the right pace and feel to the story, but being Shaft, sometimes they have to make somethings stand out. And stand out is the worst enemy for this kind of slice-of-slice show. With this episode, their marks are all over the place with varying degrees. When Shaft dwell into the mindscape of Rei, the visual language is easily the most striking 3-gatsu no Lion could ever have achieved. A small figure swimming in a dark red ocean, or the very next scene when Rei arrived in a blue island, are Shaft at their finest and those choices fit the theme perfectly. The close-up shots while in a conversation between characters and the head-tilts, on the other hand, are distracting the flow of the story and standing out too much and that were rather mediocre choice. All these cutesy moments are hit or miss at the moment: sometimes it works; sometimes not but I especially enjoy the sound designs of those sequences (like the part when Hina says something unintelligible “Zumomomo” and then run off). All in all, this episode got to be the darkest episode of 3-gatsu no Lion, as it never afraid to show the dark depressing side of Rei and for that I really appreciate it. Rei is a very flawed kid, but that’s exactly why he feels exactly like a human.

Flip Flappers – 06 [Pure Play]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flip Flappers

This episode was magnificent. I always know that Flip Flappers is capable of being inventive, but I’d never have thought that they can pull an episode that emotional satisfying, while never swing away from its main adolescence theme. Moreover, the execution is both awe-inspiring and ambiguous. Seriously I think this series is like a stairway to dreamland, with each step we reach a new high bar and the ambition is getting higher and higher. What’s await us in the destination then? Hell if I know but I am enjoying in every steps they made so far.

First, I actually think it’s a very good idea of Flip Flappers to use its transformation sequence as a transition between the real world and Pure Illusion worlds. We don’t really follow their every Pure Illusion world either so the creators have more freedom to put on whatever they like. In this Pure Illusion for example, Cocona and Paprika have to fight with the multi-eyes spider-inspired monster with its colorful threads, but the important bit is what come afterwards. For the first time, there is an abnormality in this Pure Illusion world – there is an entrance to someone’s memory (So, what exactly is Pure Illusion anyway? Someone’s streams of consciousness? And the fragment? Their memories?); and the rest of the episode goes to completely different fashions than previous ones, instead of seeking for the fragments, they digging deep into someone’s consciousness.

The theme of identity again is apparent in this episode, as the two girls both play the same person: Iro the kid and the plot involves her trying to get her name remembered again. That kid doesn’t have an ideal family life to say the least. Her parents just plainly neglect her, she’s confined in her room, where she keeps drawing as passing time. They even go too far as commenting her drawing “weird”, discourage Iro to paint. She finds herself happy with another parental figure: Obaa-chan (hmm, I can draw a line between this Obaa-chan and Cocona’s grandmother here), who spends the time with her, cares for her and teaches her happiness. The fear of losing someone dear to you because they forget who you are (the theme of insecurity) is pretty poignant. The symbolism of nail polish is pretty dominant in this episode. Nail technicians need to be familiar with nail salon terms. Nail polish, apart from being closed to oil-painting; is also a part of growing up, when at that stage one start to grow self-esteem and attractiveness. I say this episode’s main message is about kid’s development through family issues and the story about Iro and Obaa-chan alone is solid enough on its own because of its emotional resonance.

But the execution is what make this episode stand out. By making Cocona and Papika keep changing roles (but we mainly followed Cocona’s narrative), this episode both maintains its dreamlike structure, and speak well to the theme as well. There are always two versions of young Iro life: an orange-heavy, happy life with Obaa-chan and the blue, almost empty world in her house. Whenever she feels blue, herself painted in blue, as did the world around her (the world has consumed her). The highpoint of this is when she realizes that Obaa-chan forget about her, she turns into blue while the surrounding is still orange bright, stressing her confusion and sadness. The sequence that show her parents in a really trippy, Masaaki Yuasa-inspired art style with very rough, scratchy designs is another highlight of this episode. God, apart from the show usual experiments with colors, this episode shows their willingness to experience with the art styles as well, and boy how it paid off.

Overall, I had believed that the show could never top last week’s quality but it succeeded. This episode has to be the most heartfelt moments Flip Flappers ever commit itself to. Paprika and Cocona’s journeys proved to be everything I could ask for in an adventure: inventive and ambiguous but never forget to be fun and entertaining and always stay true to itself. Remember I said that I have my title for AOTY? Well, at this rate Flip Flappers has a real shot to challenge that top spot.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 06 [Rainy Conductor]

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

After the performance in the Kansai competition, we get to a breather episode this week, meaning that there is no actual band training this week, instead we have school festival (geez, how many KyoAni’s school festivals have we witnessed already) and a stormy night where many things happened. Apparently, the show moves to the next arc of the season (we have a full color opening now. Love it), so it’s time for the show to focus on more characters’ development, and there are handful of character’s development to be found in this episode.

Now, let’s talk about Asuka first. Since the last few episodes we’re getting closer to the real Asuka, as there were many instances she dropped her mask and even said out loud what she really thinks. She might be one of the most complex characters in this series (the way she hides her real personality deep down inside), but that doesn’t mean she’s the most interesting characters out there. If the show fails to bring us into her perspective, we have nothing but the cheery, annoying fake Asuka. It’s about goddamn time now to get into her character arc. From the look of it, there seems to be a woman (presumably her mother) who might be the key to open Asuka’s inner mind. She has that strict look so I’m guessing without context for now that she doesn’t like Asuka to spend time playing in the band and that lead to Asuka having some responsibility issues, but I’m sure we will get the real answer soon enough. From what we did know about her characters though, she has a cynical outlook to everything and it’s always a question whether she really cares about the band and the performance at all. At the moment, it becomes clearer that she concerns about the performance and wanted to try her best for her last high school competition. Look like next episode will focus on her issues and I really hope the show will take proper time to heighten the drama, not to resolve it too quickly like that Yoroizuka arc. Speaking of which, am I the only one who found Yoroizuka’s affection to Nozomi very unhealthy? And after all that big talk from Yuuko about the problems of leaning too much to Nozomi, and that Yuuko treats her like real close friend (unlike Nozomi), she just basically devoted herself to Nozomi? (oh, and Nozomi seems to be back to the band without any more fuss. Good for her). Talking about creepy!!

Taki-sensei also get a good amount of development this week, as we realize how much he still loved his wife and where his determination come from. It’s good to see that Hashimoto-sensei and Niiyama-sensei back to help the club band as I mentioned before that they can still support Taki and through them we can know more about the past of Taki, but their immediate return made the whole farewell sequence last week feel rather pointless. The teacher himself sure doesn’t feel at all comfortable to talk about his wife or his past, and his conversations with Kumiko later in the car; while awkward, still deepen his narrative. There are only hints throughout this episode but it seems like this is Taki and his wife’s anniversary day, so even with the typhoon on its way, he still puts on his wedding ring and goes out the storm to buy her flowers. Even later when Sapphire conveniently points out the meaning of those flowers, the message is still beautiful. He, more than anyone else, really wants to take the National golds for his late wife and now understand that we can root for him. But still chasing the ghost is kind of problematic itself, right? Talking about problematic, yeah they really go for Reina’s affection to Taki. While admiration is certainly more of the case here, she’s actually capable of pushing things too far and I don’t really like that direction at all. Feel like she’s smashing her head against thick wall in this case.

And finally, this episode gives some more conflicts to our main heroine as well. I’m really glad that Shuichi is back (well, he never actually gone) after a rather muted last arc. The relationship between Kumiko and Shuichi still in its awkward phase, which is fairly normal for kids with opposite sex that age. Kumiko might be insensitive towards Shuichi, but she actually needs some interactions with boys (especially at friends level) once in a while. Focus too much on training and girls will do you no good Kumiko. I love their brief time together so I hope we will get to see more of them. Secondly, her home drama seems to take its turn now as her sister declared that she’s quitting college for reason yet to explain (well she doesn’t need to explain to be honest). As I had been through uni I know that the drop rate is always high and many of my friends eventually dropped out so this gives me no surprise. But it will affect Kumiko as she always looks up to her sister and now with this happen they get themselves into high-tension mode. It’s good to shake things up a bit for our Kumiko so I don’t mind some little drama and romantic plot revolving around her.

Sounds like I have complained a lot in this episode but truthfully I enjoyed the hell out of it. As a breather episode, there is not a lot happening but I love how all the little dramas are set up. Sure, they feel unfocused at times but that is precisely why it feels like the world we live in (now the more I think of it the more I don’t like that Yoroizuka’s arc): randomness but ultimately true to life.

Zaregoto Series OVA – 01 [Day 3 (1) The Savant Gathering]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, OVAs and Movies:, Zaregoto Series

Another NisiOisiN’s light novel series adapted by Shaft?

Count me in as I admit that Monogatari series is one of my beloved shows. Well, certainly one of the shows that I spend the most time with. I always love the writing of NisiOisiN, and I understand that many of his trademarks are not for everyone: his long, rather meaningless chatter banter; his sexual overtones and his rather oblivious main boy protagonist could easily turn readers off; but the things I love the most about his writing is that he cares for his characters, they are flawed people but they’re always growing, and his arcs have a tendency to end strong, indicate that he understands his stories well (something quite frankly I have my doubts on the majority of anime out there). Zaregoto appears to be his first writing efforts back when he was… 21 years of age and we already encounter many of his usual quirks here. Shaft adapting this anime meaning that we have a lot of impressionist backgrounds, scenes that call attention to itself and the visual switches freely depending on the mood of the scenes and most noticeable of all heaps of frantic editing. To say all that I’m not here to compare this one with Monogatari series (even if they have the same overall feeling and that male protagonist is so far another version of Araragi-kun), so I will try my best to shut any of the comparison from now on and just talk about Zaregoto. Now, let’s begin:

Zaregoto presents the many settings in which an unnamed protagonist (I, or li-chan) has to encounter and the mysteries he eventually has to resolve. This OVA will focus on the first book of the LN series, titled The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Bearer which take place in an isolated island, owned by the lady Akagami (who is cursed with a disease that cause people want to kill; as a result she was exiled to that island). If I have to comment on the characters of Zaregoto in this first episode, I’d say that they are completely over the top. After all, they are all geniuses to begin with. And of course, genius people all talk like their heads are in the clouds. The show followed our MC interact with each of them through a one-on-one fashion. Through his eyes, we have encountered 4 of them so far and each of them have their own voices. With this episode’s main focus is to introduce the cast members, they already add something to the overall picture. But like one of the character already addressed, what they appear so far isn’t their true self, or rather, what his current impressions about them are all wrong.

I’m rather curious on the notion of “genius” because firstly the cast members are exceptional in varying fields: one is an engineer, the others range from academic, chief, artist to fortune teller. They don’t really have anything in common except they’re extraordinary in what they do. In relation to others, they don’t really see eyes to eyes in most of things as the academic girl and the artist girl hated each other guts (and I love the irony in naming as of course the 7 chosen people among the chosen have to be named The Seven Fools, right?). Another interesting point around that notion of genius is in many instances, the blue hair girl Tomo is addressed as Blue savant. Now, in contrast to prodigy, savant is actually a developmental disability and most of people who have savant syndrome suffer brain damages. The most distinguished features between those two often are by their IQ. People who have savant syndrome has low IQ overall but they possess exceptional skills in other areas. Also, the first part of our MC talking with some strange woman is about that very theme of being genius: because they are a prodigy, they unintentionally trample others without knowing the consequences of those actions. The theme of genius is set up nicely so far so I’m eager to see how they make use of its theme in later episodes.

Shaft’s styles in this anime have been solid as expected. I actually like the wide ranges of worlds/ territories settings in Zaregoto and this setting of an isolated mansion is overall impressive. In some parts of this episode, Shaft uses panning shots to both keep the conversations as its main focus, but slowly shifts our attention to other characters. For symbolisms though, while I’m pleased to see each female characters have their own coloring (you can see for yourself in those screenshots), I’m not so sure the use of variations of chess in this episode. We know that the academic girl talks about shogi, but in the beginning scene the boy and that strange woman are sitting in a ordinary chessboard. Hmmm. Maybe our MC’s just meant to be a pawn in that chess? His clock was stopped at one time by someone and I think it could be an important detail for later episodes. Anyway, the big event (the murder) is yet to come so this episode mainly introduces the cast to us. In that vein, I’m quite satisfied with the execution of this episode. The only downside would be we have to wait for another month to catch up, but I have my fingers crossed that the wait is worth it.

Thunderbolt Fantasy Review – 84/100

by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by SuperMario, Thunderbolt Fantasy

Sometimes you dread for the current state of anime: high school settings, cute girls, fan-service jokes, idol madness… that you wish for once to see something different, and out of nowhere an oddball like this just pop up: a wuxia puppetry show influenced by Taiwanese glove puppetry written by Gen Urobuchi. The sheer fact that it was greenlit at all was mind-blowing enough, but the most absurd things was the audience it aimed: the anime medium. Because no matter how you look at it: this isn’t an anime at all. Well, not even an animation to begin with. I’m not going to detail about it as I already addressed it in my weekly post. The fact that this is a wuxia puppetry show already makes it a unique show among anime world and all the more reason to watch it. But on top of all that, the show’s writing and execution are really excellent and refreshing. If the show just relies on its gimmick of being a puppetry show, it will fall apart very quickly, but Thunderbolt Fantasy understands that their characters are the real stars of the show, so they spend a huge amount of them talking to each other, explore their philosophy of life and the campy dialogues are entertaining and humorous.

Set in a fictional Eastern Asia settings, the show tells a story of a merry band in the quest to retrieve a legendary sword that was stolen by Mie Tian Hai, a skilled swordsman with a history of black magic. Our MC Shang Bu Huan is a mysterious swordsman who came from another area, that’s why he doesn’t know much about this place and thus got tagged along to the quest by Gui Niao, a cool-head strategist and the bunch of misfits including the naive guardian girl, the One-Eyed archer, the young Spear-wielder, a demon necromancer and the bloodthirsty assassin. The group, each has their own unique appearance and personalities with different set of goals head up to the Seven Sins Tower, and there were double-crossing, triple-crossing, blood-splattering, heads rolling and even demons, undead, skeleton birds join in along the way. Indeed, half of these characters here are easily villains in other story and the fun here is to see their huge ego crashing with each other.

Because this is a puppetry show, there are many elements that you won’t find in other anime. The characters, for example, have very static faces. Especially when they are in close-up, it’s hard to tell apart what they are thinking because of the lack of expression in their faces, but this issue actually works in the show’s favor, for how else would one portrait a group that double-crossing is the norm? Second, the practical effects are truly what set it apart from other anime. There is little amount of action for a true-action show, but when the action kicks in, it’s a feast to the eyes. Bloods squirming all over, bodies blowing up, heads rolling that you can actually feel the weight of the blood dripping are refreshing to say the least. Lastly, I have to highlight the costume designs because they really go all in for the costumes to make the characters as distinctive and stand out as ever.

The characters themselves is easily the show’s best strength. Each character is elegantly designed and all of them have their own unique mannerism, assisted greatly by the use of puppetry, something that ordinary anime usually lack. My favorite characters in that vein is the demon lady Xing Hai, as whenever she talks, it feels like she’s singing and whenever she walks it feels just like she’s dancing. Like Mayoiga, those characters all have interesting traits and utterly over the top but here in this show they can actually get loose and carry the story. Like for example, the show spends half an episode for Sha Wu Sheng the Roaring Killer Phoenix challenging Mie Tian Hai (and then loose despite knowing it all), simply because these characteristics are unmistakably Sha Wu Sheng. In Thunderbolt Fantasy, those characters embrace their roles to the bitter end. As a main character, Shang Bu Huan is like our blank-state who unfamiliar to this world (like ourselves) and he’s being the most sensible person in this whole madness. I particular love his stunning reactions every time something absurd happens. Moreover, he bounces off other characters very well, creating a rather great chemistry between them and the dialogues maintain the campy sense that so entertaining to watch. There are pure gold moments throughout the series like when Shang Bu Huan talks to each member of the group to find their real motives, or simple quick remarks like “the temple smells offensive” or even “it’s already a sitting fight before the sword fight” because of course they’re too awesome to fight it normal way. Like a puppetry show, these characters are just there to perform their larger-than-life roles, but they perform it so well that I have a very good time following them.

But this show is not only about characters having fun, there is a theme for the show if you want to look deeper. The notion of the sword is both mentioned various times throughout the series and the show twists that notion around quite wonderfully. In this world, swords represent power of destruction. Mie Ting Hai seeks out the most famous sword because he believes his technique deserved the best. The demon Yao Tu Li was put to sleep for 200 years because of the sword. The characters kill off hundreds of people through their swords… As long as you are good at swords, you have the ultimate power in this world. But not for our two mains Shang Bu Huan and Gui Niao. In fact, the series showcases two extreme spectrums from Shang Bu Huan that go directly against with the above notion. The “sword’ that Shang Bu Huan always carries around is just a piece of wood painted silver, because he doesn’t want to cause more deadly troubles with the swords, but when in needed, he could pull out 36 legendary swords (that he said he was about to expose them, sly guy!) to send the monster to the black hole (quite literally!), Gui Niao also hates using swords as a mean of killing. The legendary sword that everyone seek in the end was destroyed meaninglessly.

Thunderbolt Fantasy is the most entertaining series you will encounter this year. Plain and simple. Urobuchi writing is excellent in this show, both leaving enough room for the group to act, and maintaining the plot that both is fast and unpredictable, but always makes sense and a lot of fun. It appears that we will have an entirely new cast on the second season, plus our mains Shang Bu Huan and Gui Niao and if that’s the case then I’m totally on board. After all, Shang Bu Huan’s only weakness is his trust towards people and Gui Niao happens to be the master of manipulation; so I’m eager to see how our MC get himself dragged into Gui Niao’s little scheme next time. Like this first season already demonstrated, the world is simply too small for the two of them.

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.