Tag: animation

Occultic:Nine – 11[We Want the Airwaves]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Occultic:Nine

My mind is made of mush when watching this episode. I think there should be some rule forbidding such excessive exposition in one episode because I started zoning out five minutes in. Had to pause the episode four times just to let the information sink in. The good news is that watching this didn’t make me want to throw up. The bad news is that the more this plot tries to wrap itself up, the more utterly moronic it becomes. If you are a poor unfortunate soul like myself still watching this show then allow me to break down this jibber jabber into something meant to be understood. The first three minutes essentially are just Gamotan explaining to the others about information Ryo-tas/Aveline told him. A smart show would just skip over the explanation and show only the characters reactions. For the viewers already know all this and going over it again is just useless padding. Something this show definitely does not need seeing how you have to fast forward the exposition so much. What follows is a giant explanation over the nature of ghosts and the spirit realm. Now to the normal watcher they would just take the explanation as is and not think too much about it.

The show certainly wants you to do that because while the explanations are overtly complex, the conclusions are simple and really stupid. You see what this whole thing is, is that this shows logic makes a giant leap and to obscure that it hides it under a large amount of gobbledygook. It’s like this for example: physics have yet to explain how a bee flies, therefore humans can fly without propulsion. Disregarding that the bee thing is a complete myth, the writing puts immense effort into explaining the former so that you don’t take the time to question the latter. I am working with bare minimum science education here so don’t take my word on matters of that but this show is essentially stating that the human world and the spirit world are like separate radio frequencies. Basically while alive you are attuned to the living frequency and when you die it is adjusted to the dead frequency. Now I originally thought this was just a metaphor but it seems the story of Occultic;Nine takes this quite literally as apparently radio towers were used to adjust the individuals dead’s frequency to the living frequency. So essentially it’s saying that human souls are basically sound waves which can be attuned to both living and dead worlds.

That is quite dumb as sound is essentially vibrations in the air and I believe radio waves are essentially electromagnetic radiation. Claiming that human souls are somehow contained in this is like claiming that air is sentient or that water can feel. It’s ridiculous. After this we have the manager enter and reveal that he was the weird masked man going around disappearing spirits. Also he’s the leader of the cult and the murderer of both Gamotans father and the professor. We have foreshadowing for only one of those things Occultic;Nine, not the other two. Hell that foreshadowing was only last episode so in the span of one paragraph of exposition this man turned from being a small background character to one of the main antagonists. He works for the villains, he killed Gamotans father and he killed and scalped the professor…and delivered the scalp to the curse girl. Wait, why did you do that last part again? Actually why did you open up a store that was closed for two years and get Gamotan to come to it and did nothing but feed him crap drinks and why is he the sole person in charge of getting rid of ghosts when he’s in charge of a whole cult and….(BANG!)…Sorry I was overcome with the urge to hit my head off the desk. What was I on about again?

So manager now turned into antagonist is defeated by Gamotan because he has some special power of some sort which boosts his synchronistic with the human world allowing him to been seen and touch…wait can’t all the ghosts interact with the human world?! They have been doing it the entire series and not just Gamotan, the reporter girl opened the moai statue, they pulled out books so why is it being put down that Gamotan can only interact with the world after being shot with the raygun? Also based on the next line of exposition are you really telling me that Gamotan just so happened to coincidentally have this special absorption of electromagnetic energy and coincidentally Nikola Telsa’s descendant was giving the task of monitoring him who coincidentally is taken over by the ghost of Telsa’s daughter who planned for him to coincidentally come across the professor’s murder and take the key to the gun and then using a combination of her raygun and a special power Gamotan can use because his father coincidentally modified his transistor radio with a tesla coil and…(BANG! BANG!)…sorry got that urge again. This show isn’t good for my head.

Lets just wrap this up before a split my skull open. So I mentioned that the direction wasn’t bad as last episode but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still bad. For one, there was a part of this episode where Ryo-tas/Aveline was explaining how it was totally logical that Tesla went to Japan and had a half Japanese daughter that was never mentioned in history. At the point when she mentions Japan it just flashes up the Japanese flag for a second. You know just in case you didn’t know what Japan was while watching a Japanese animation, with a story set in a Japanese city which is currently broadcast in the nation of Japan. We have a conclusion to the curse girl and her demon fellows arc as it turned out he’s not her brother but inherited his memories from a transplant…it’s was pretty stupid when Grisaia did that thing and yep, it’s still stupid. But we have verified that both these characters have no worth to the plot whatsoever making them completely pointless and all their screen time for naught. Must…resist…urge…well I supposed brother demon dearest did give the detective and writer the get out of jail free card by stating that time in out of body experiences moves faster than real time. Meaning that this story is likely going to end with the characters awakening before drowning in the lake and hereby negating the entire plot. Which is just going to be…real super. So we got a villain headquarters and our bunch of misfits are going to assault it despite none of them having any real combat experience. Have fun storming the castle!

Flip Flappers – 11 [Pure Storage]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flip Flappers

What a gripping episode! With this we almost clear about Mimi, Papikana and Salt’s past and the show sets things up nicely for a final showdown. For a show that have always been light on plot progression, this episode took me by surprise how neat every single variable develops, from what happened in the past that lead up to the characters as they are now, the twists and turns of this Mimi/Papika villain and the ultimate approach on the identity and individuality theme again. In a nutshell, Flip Flappers is a show about adolescent and self-doubting when growing up, and it’s only fitting now that Cocona’s identity is again swapped by her mother Mimi, even Mimi herself seems to be possessed by her darker side. Even the show goes all-out with the theme, as at one time Mimi makes it clearly: “People have several faces, and they’re all true” and that optical illusions we see in the screenshot there.

This episode sure is a stunner. The visual again is wild and crazy and stand out but at the same time it actually elevates the theme and the development of our characters. I mean, how impressive is that to witness Mimi killed off the guards by planting flowers all over their body; and that flowers were the ones we seen on the first time Papika recalled Mimi? Flip Flappers always has that dreamy side of them, and even in the episode that doesn’t feature any Pure Illusion world like this one, that quality still sticks out a mile. This episode jumps freely between the present and the past, between what happen in real “life” to inside the consciousness and then mix them all up together, but we never feel any sense of lost because the themes are progress gradually and the emotions are all there. This episode is also an emotionally charged one as we here to see every single one of them proceed to losing their minds. Cocona losing herself is nothing anew, but even Mimi’s losing it and Papika is starting to (Well, technically, she did lose her mind before but this is another kind of screwing her mind).

But I’m also happy that heaps of things have been clarified after this episode. Now we know that Papika is indeed reverted back to her kid form with her memories “sealed” away (I prefer her kid version much better than her adult counterpart). In one of the Pure Illusion world, they “accidentally” modified something inside Dr.Salt’s father subconsciousness, as a result he became even more overly obsessed to the possibilities of Pure Illusion. The show doesn’t confirm though on how Cocona was born, so at least for now I ain’t buying it that Salt were her father. I love that the cult organization turn out to be completely useless and easily disposable (a true red herring) because I always feel their roles in the story to be very vague and weak, so it’s better not to give them any significant role in the climax at all. Most importantly it is now confirmed that the Pure Illusion is linked to each individual’s consciousness (We all guessed it but it’s always nice to get a confirmation), but that also means the last Pure Illusion world they gathered (episode 9) was Yayaka’s? Hard to tell but consider she got a major development that week, it’s safe to assume it was hers.

But what really wow me over is how this episode a natural progression of everything that come before. Many of those elements had been hinted well in previous episodes and now they take a massive payback. We saw Cocona as a villain way before in episode 3, brainwashed by the insecurity of herself (also, did everyone see the masks the scientists put on the girls a resemblance of Cocona’s evil mask?). We see that thing wrapped up Papika’s ankle before but now we know what its main purpose is. We witness how Cocona and Papika could change a person’s mind through their trip to the Pure Illusion, so the reveal that Mimi and Papika did the same to Salt’s dad feel like an appropriate step. We see the garden of Mimi and the gang hang out and enjoyed their times before, so when Mimi uses that lethal floral as her weapon, it’s again a nice development. We get a sense that the first Pure Illusion world was the representation of Cocona, so it feels only right that she feels at home with that world. We also know that only Yayaka and Papika see Cocona as who she truly is, so it makes a lot of sense that they are the one who will bring the real Cocona out. Flip Flappers is the show that knows how to use its creative visuals right, as those motifs not only hinder the characteristics of our characters, but also a way to signal the character’s progression as well.

Frankly this episode exceeded my already impossibly high expectation as it consistently topped itself week after week. I heard this show isn’t sell well at all, which is a real crying shame because sometimes anime need shows like this: creative, inventive and willing to let itself loose to bring something fresh instead of sticking to the well-worn formula but also never forgets to be fun. Count me in as one of its fan now.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 11 [First Love Trumpet]

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

At long last we have a whole episode focusing on Reina after being sidelined for the whole season. I had my fears going to this episode as developing her crush on Taki-sensei isn’t the direction I want the show to focus on. As it turns out, the episode’s execution is quite good as expected from KyoAni, and they did what they could to close this little Reina arc down nicely before the National competition, but I can’t help but think that this is their worst effort of this second season, especially in a narrative sense as it adds very little to the show’s main narrative.

So the main reason Reina was so cold last week is because she knows that Kumiko’s hiding about Taki-sensei’s wife. Poor Kumiko who got betrayed by none other than Hashimoto-sensei (remember he was the one who spilled the bean to Kumiko as well. Girls, if you want to find out any secret, ask this guy!). The sequence where they are up there in the mountain is played out slowly and steady and I love the direction of this sequence, remind us of course to that terrific episode 8 of last season. Reina is the kind of person who knows what she wants, but when the thing she wants isn’t what she thinks it is, she feels weak and vulnerable. It’s pretty understandable for a girl her age to feel insecure about that. But she also walks a thin line from being completely rude by asking her sensei about his late wife, in an expense of Kumiko no less. That’s Reina for you. Always head on to do things, regardless of how everyone else feels.

By giving Reina a flashback on her first-time meeting Taki-sensei, it actually justifies her actions a whole lot better. So apparently, Reina had an issue of getting along with other people ever since she was a kid because she was… eh… rich. She met Taki at that time and it’s him who encourage Reina to play better. In Reina’s eyes, Taki was like a prince riding horse out of some fairytale and she did attend this school because of him (she mentioned that before but now we know for sure). I guess the time that Taki gave her a music piece was the time that his wife just passed away. Hearing him talking about her with such sad and sweetness is quite touching, and seeing him now try to accomplish her dream is sad in its own way. The problem with that is after he achieving all this, what’s left for him? Hmm, I don’t really see the point of visiting grave from the person you don’t know, but that scene is still a nice closure for Reina to really accept it and mature a bit after this.

With that we get to an end of all those character arcs and with two episodes remaining we will now focus wholeheartedly to the National Competition. I haven’t really noticed but the last half of this season we didn’t get to much band practicing, even at all. In a way, this show is a nice contrast to Yuri on Ice in terms of their approach: while both shows concentrating on the competition aspect, Yuri on Ice spends its time entirely on the performances and the character’s personality and growth are showcased completely during the performances (which actually very fitting to figure skating sport), whereas Sound Eupho focuses strongly on the band’s music practices and personal dramas within the members of the band.

This little Reina act is the total opposite with Yoroizuka act, as in Yoroizuka act we have a heightened drama; where the character changed sharply after it ends; on a secondary character we don’t pretty much care about, this act is about our core character with very little resolve to work with. For those reasons, I would say Asuka act is a definitive act of this season. Then again, relying too much on character’s development acts might be this show’s weakest approach; as for me my favorite moments in this episode are when the show explores little moments between various characters: Yuuko with Reina (Yuuko is actually the best thing this season had developed right now) and Akusa with Natsuki. It’s those moments that remind me that every character in the show have their own lives and issues. They’re not some stage characters who just sit there and don’t do anything when they’re off the stage light.

As a very unrelated note, I got bored and searched for the Daikichi Mountain the girls went up to this episode and it was real.  In fact, that school Kitauji High School is real (down to the uniform), so are every other schools (the marching band school) and settings. That fact seriously blows my mind! With all the RPG fantasy anime, harem anime and limitless amounts of high school anime, I take it for granted that everything there is a work of fiction, of someone’s mindless wet-dream so I don’t prepare for the show that based everything on its real settings. I always know that this show is realistic but now it’s the whole other level of realness, don’t you think?

2017 Winter Anime Season Preview

by AidanAK47, posted in Seasonal Previews

It’s that time of the year again. With snow on the ground and Christmas lights about but that’s not what we are here for. Anime be my bread and my wine, and my presents if luck be true. I am lamenting over not being able to get the Spice and Wolf Collector’s edition book. Living in Europe can be quite troublesome sometimes but hey at least I got a Fullmetal Alchemist Collector’s edition that has a replica of the gate which just looks beautiful. Who knows, maybe I might even get around to watching that stockpile of Blu-ray anime i have sitting in my room. After the steam backlog is done i will have time…hopefully. Moving on to what really matters, a new anime season is coming up and forgive me if this sounds uncharacteristic of me but this season is looking very promising. We got second seasons of great shows along with Trigger saving anime again and even some pretty interesting shows in the lineup. I got my eye of a few here and while we got the usual lineup of straight to trashcan anime, there’s quite a lot of good to make up for potential bad tidings to come. 2016 certainly ended on a ominous note.

Same rules apply as before. The poll below will be used to gauge what you readers want us writers to cover this season. Vote for as many shows as you like. In regards to opinions on most sequels, if you liked the previous season then by all means continue. As usual I have checked out every source I can find, read manga, light novels, played video games…If I can get my hands on it then I will look at it to get a better idea of what the anime can offer.

This poll is no longer accepting votes

What will you be watching this spring?
VoteResults

Once again thanks to Mario for gathering the images. With that let’s get this show on the road.

 

The sequels/prequels I don’t care about

Gintama(2017)

Reikenzan: Eichi e no Shikaku

Rewrite / 2nd Season Moon-Hen/Terra-Hen

SUPER LOVERS 2

Yowamushi Pedal: NEW GENERATION

Tales of Zestiria the X 2

 

Series I don’t look forward to

 

AKIBA’ S TRIP: THE ANIMATION

Studio: Gonzo

Director: Hiroshi Ikehata

Script/Series composer: Kazuho Hyodo

Akihabara, a broad-minded neighborhood where everyone from beginners to masters are welcomed. Even when you’re alone, if you go to Akiba, you’ll find someone who understands you. It’s a neighborhood where anything is possible, where anyone can do seemingly anything; a place where you can lay bare your body and soul. In this neighborhood of Akiba, which has everything including anime, games, maids, idols, secondhand parts, and cheap food, battles are fought against the “Bagurimono,” and a steadfast “boy meets girl” story begins!

Let it never be said that I am not through and to get an idea for what we are in for I bought Akibas’trip Undead and undressed on steam and played through it. Admittedly the story of this anime isn’t related to the story of this game as it’s the second game of the series and I see none of the characters in the promo art. But it does give me an idea of what we are in for. I was really surprised by how much the story of the game took itself seriously. The characters treat the whole idea of stripping vampires to expose them to the sun with a surprising amount of righteousness. However unlike Keijo which shines in not recognising the utter ridiculousness of it’s concept, Akibas’trip just becomes another supernatural battle story when it disregards the whole stripping aspect. It also feels like a tourism ad for Akihabara at times. In fact that description up there is more endorsement of Akihabara than saying anything meaningful about the show. I truly don’t expect much for this and having Gonzo at the helm doesn’t make me think this is going to change my expectations. Director is a newbie and the series composer worked on Relife and that’s about it.
Continue reading “2017 Winter Anime Season Preview” →

Occultic;Nine – 10[Another Girl, Another Planet]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Occultic:Nine

“As to her purpose, I am going to make a random guess that she’s the descendant of Nikola Tesla or something.”

I wrote this about Ryo-tas in the comments of the 04-06 review and now I say I goddamn called it. So now Ryo-tas has a point, in fact she is now the centerpoint of the entire story. For that all the writer needed to do was transplant another character on top of her and make it that her toy ray gun is…it’s the entire key to the…oh god it’s the entire key to the evil organisation guys plot. Oh for f*cks sake! My brain hurts from the complete stupidity of this show. I mean you go to so much trouble inventing some puzzle that the professor left behind which needed to be solved using Baudot code and whatever bloody stuff you googled for five minutes on the internet, yet when it comes to your main plot it’s just this utter wreck of nonsense. I know it’s likely obvious by now but allow me to be blunt with you. I hate this show. I hate everything about it. I have long stopped caring about anything that happens in it and at this point it has become truly painful to watch.

The plot twists just make me want to shake me head and this show may have the worst direction I have ever seen. Other shows could be faulted for having direction which was dull and uninteresting but the direction of this show makes watching it a arduous task. This entire episode was filled with dutch angles which are normally supposed to instil discomfort on the viewer for a particular scene. But this episode was filled with them regardless of what was even on screen. There are shots where the screen is flipped 90 degrees for no reason. This episode went even further with the utterly outrageous shots were all spatial awareness is thrown out the window and they just put the two characters in the same shot regardless of their positioning in the scene. If I showed this to a film student I am certain he would start hitting his head off a wall at the seer incomprehensible incompetence on display. It’s one thing for a show to be bad but for a show to quite literally make the viewer physically ill from disorientation while watching it is a new low.

So what happened? Well Ryo-tas is now possessed by the spirit of Nikola Tesla’s daughter which he never really was supposed to have. How? We get a big old infodump which essentially says that ghosts can do this because shut up and deal with it. This is found out because the professor’s son happened to open a book that spelled out that Ryo-tas was a descendant of Tesla. That’s good but why is the psychometric girl also landing on the same conclusion despite her having no real reason to look into it? Then we have the curse girl and her “demon” which may actually be her brother now I think. There’s a guy in a creepy mask going around erasing the ghosts made by the mass drowning and it’s being suspected that he is the manager of the restaurant everyone goes to. He also kills two people somehow…moving on.  Apparently professor guy not only listed the names  of the people that drowned but also the medical data from the hospital they went to for various different ailments. This seems to be the reason they were picked out to drown because the hospital was testing if they were compatibility with magic ghost maker pixie dust. Also Doujin girl somehow faked her death and I surely look forward to how the writer is going to crowbar her into this whole mess too.

This show may be well on it’s way to being my worst anime of 2016 but it surprises me that it seems to be still getting a positive reception from some people. I normally would at least take others views on a show into account but if anyone tries to tell me this show is well written I would accuse them of being blind. The plot has long since stopped making any logical sense and the characters either infodump about a ludicrous mystery or throw some token angst. Mister blogger kids reaction to the ghost of Christmas Tesla could very well sum up my reaction to the series as a whole but regardless I still don’t get why he is even involved with all this. In fact why are any of these people involved with this? By my estimate over half the cast has nothing to do with the core mystery but perhaps they are there to remind us that even though no character bonding happened on screen that it did happen off screen. By now I just want this show to end, please just end. The time to stop has come and i don’t care if it means not airing the last episode. Just stop…before I strangle the director.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 11[Server Down for Maintenance]

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

I will give Mahou keikaku credit in that I knew that after getting a flashback of Cranberry’s past that she was up on the chopping block. But how she died still took me by surprise. It was a pleasant surprise though as there is just something so satisfying about the smug ever so confident Cranberry being one hit killed by Tama. Essentially someone who was considered weak and incompetent moments before by Cranberry. So it is that Cranberry joined this battle to fight strong magical girls and is promptly killed by someone she considered weak. I have a certain love for such poetic justice and it isn’t the only example in this episode. It is also rather funny how both Cranberry and Fav set up this Battle Royale to get strong magical girls and yet Snow White is on the verge of coming out the victor. Despite being not only the weakest but also the only one who didn’t fight or participate. All things considered, Snow Whites beliefs managed to keep her alive the longest albit with some sacrifices on her behalf. While thematically it does have value, it doesn’t really fix that she is still a rather bland character that did pretty much nothing the entire series. It’s clear that this is supposed to be the beginning of her character arc, but I doubt we will be around long enough to see her develop into someone more interesting.

So at this point Swim Swim is the only character left that I actually care about and she killed the last character I started caring about. I still think Swim is a great antagonist and as the final enemy of the battle royale she’s a better option than the rather one dimensional Cranberry. I am a little annoyed that right after Tama’s big moment she killed her over an arbitrary rule. However it does fall in line with her mindset as she follows a rulebook she doesn’t quite understand. Not to mention Ruler likely changed that rulebook based on her emotional state though speaking of Ruler this episode went and showed that she did care on some level about her underlings. Going so far to write a rulebook and then teach Tama when she admitted she didn’t know some of the kanji she used showed that while she was stuck up about herself, she at least cared about them. Other than that though, showing Tama’s backstory after she had been decapitated by Swim only served to develop a character you just killed off. I also happen to notice that this show relies a bit too heavily on flashbacks to develop its characters. All things considered Tama’s flashback didn’t really give much insight into her character that we didn’t already know. Unlike the attack against Cranberry which showed that if Tama had been more merciless than she could have been one of the strongest magical girls in the running. After all her digging holes ability is essentially a one hit kill move and with some training she could be one hell of a powerhouse. Hardgore might have even had trouble with her but well now she’s gone and I am rather annoyed about that.

So that leaves Swim, Ripple and Snow White. Ripple is out for revenge against Swim so Fav has essentially let the game continue so she can get it. But it’s clear that Fav has another agenda as now that Swim is his master he finds her rather uncooperative. I would like to think that Swim actually recognises Fav as completely evil and that’s the reason she refuses to work with him. There are also moments where she regrets killing Tama. One detail is that the kanji she is practicing stands for “Friend”. So seeing as Swim isn’t playing along he has pushed her into accepting meeting RIpple and thrown some hints to Ripple on how to defeat her. It’s a pity but I don’t think that Swim Swim is going to make it out of this arc and it’s possible that these two will kill each other leaving Snow White as the victor. A strange detail is that on going to fight Swim Swim after renouncing her identity as a magical girl, RIpple gets a transformation sequence. This could be the shows way of saying that Ripple is the magical girl this show needs and the kind that Snow White needs to grow into.  Next episode is the finale of the series so I wonder just how this whole thing will wrap up. I can’t say it’s the most memorable show but it did try at least to do something different.

Drifters – 10[Baba Yetu]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Drifters

The black king is hinting it hard that he is Jesus that it would now be surprising if he wasn’t. All his powers seem to stem from miracles Jesus performed. The other ends remark that he is a tacticians nightmare in how he can provide an endless supply of food and heal soldiers quickly, thus allowing them to join the battle again. However based on how salt is dropping from him as he walked here, it seems his powers are not without price. He even said that unlike god he is not immortal so he couldn’t provide food forever. That said his powers are still nasty as he beats a dragon by giving it super cancer.

One thing that might not be clear is that after getting the dragon to join them, the Black King has his armour melting down his scales for weapons and armour. Based on how the scene was shown it took me a moment to truly recognise what was going on. Otherwise the Dwarfs have joined the Drifters army and the three transvestite Drifters are proving that they won’t be winning any fanclubs from anyone watching the series. All things considered the main count looks to have a good head on his shoulders but his group exemplifies the worst aspect of this show and are pretty down to death stereotypes which lack the charm of Puri Puri Prisoners overblown example of this character archetype.

As we have reached episode 10 and the end of this series draws near I have found that overlooking the series as a whole this was mainly a story about building up a conflict that we will most likely never see. If this is the only anime season we get of the series then the story will be rather underwhelming. As an example, a common complaint of Re:Zero was that it’s run was mainly a buildup for confrontations later down the line. However while it is true that the main plot of Re:Zero was unresolved, it did provide conclusion to it’s individual arcs. While loose ends were left, the conflicts introduced in the series were resolved before series end. Drifters on the other hand has been mainly focused on the Drifters and the Ends building their forces.

They have had a skirmish but it is highly unlikely that they plan to finish each other off by the end of this season. From the looks of things the Orte will be the series finale and the ends will be left for another undetermined season. Maybe even then a second season would just build a battle destined for a third season. As an anime fan I have long since gotten accustomed to shows not having definitive endings. Though in that case I at least would wish the series provided enough highs that a second season wouldn’t be a necessity. With this show however what we have is mostly just the Drifters steamrolling the Orte which while not boring, is rather empty.

3-gatsu no Lion – 09 [Distant Thunder part 2 – part 3]

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

“The calm mind is the way”

It becomes true to both Rei and our old man Matsunaga this week, since their minds are totally tangled with so many unnecessary thoughts and feelings. In more than one way, Mr. Matsunaga is a stark contrast to Rei. While Rei is a young shogi prodigy who become a professional a bit too early, he’s the old man who still hanging on that shogi rope for a bit too long. Rei respects him for spending 40 years dedicated to shogi, whereas the man envies him for being too bright. A rising star vs. a faded star.

And they both have their issues before the match as well: Rei is occupied by the poisonous words from Kyouko: “strangle the old dog”. That first long, uncomfortable sequence of Rei standing on the train, together with frantic close up cuts are really spot on, that what Shaft does best of course but this is one of the rare times that their own style fit perfectly to the material of 3-gatsu. Mr. Matsunaga feels exactly the same way, and of course doesn’t feel really good about that. Well, I came to this episode expecting a tense and emotional match between those two, as a result I didn’t prepare myself for the silly, upbeat beat the old man behaves throughout this episode.

The older you get, the more childish you behave. This is true with Mr. Matsunaga here, as the show frames his behaviors as nothing more than those of a child. All his actions: his silly praying, his clumsy behaviors, his random shogi strategies, his bad manner when losing, his often-contradicted statements; all show his immature (or should I say: over-mature) side of him. The randomness of his shogi surely gives Rei a hard time, for how can you beat a person who you can’t figure out their motives? That gives the match a much more lousy and silly tones than you would normally have expected from any professional shogi match. (Thank goodness there were no jokes about the old man’s bad back, that joke is just… painful and insensitive. But we have him falling down instead. Ouch!)

But consider this, I used to play in competitive level sport before so I know this well: when is the time that you know your time in the sport has come? It is when you don’t have a drive to win anymore. Mr. Matsunaga knows this well, and he’s prepared himself for that moments to come. I love the moment he describes Rei as a “beautiful death god”, it’s just amazing how impressions often work in accordance with our own inner psyche. Except that just like facing with death itself, the closer that moment approaches, the more desperate you want to keep hanging on. His feelings are totally legitimate here, that makes him still feel like an actual human despite his often over-childish behaviors. So comes to my next point, is it really a good option for Rei to encourage Mr. Matsunaga to continue on shogi? As I said earlier I don’t think so, especially the old man even admits one of the reasons he doesn’t want to quit is because of the housework at home. This guy needs a good spanking in a butt.

Kyouko remains a force to be reckon with, as she knows exactly how to hurt Rei. Her calling to Rei to “comfort” his feeling is nothing but abuse his mind but this time only her plan backfires. It’s more about understanding other people, Rei is now more willing to trust and shares feelings with others and this is one step up from the former-Rei. I agree this episode is a minor episode for 3-gatsu, it doesn’t add much in the big picture and especially a let down from last week’s standout episode but it still does its job. Still the show remains incredibly sensitive when it comes to character’s drama so even with a lesser episode like this one, the characters still shines bright.

Flip Flappers – 10 [Pure Jitter]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flip Flappers

So her whole life is a lie, huh?

Now that she realizes Yayaka’s friendship as a fake, Cocona’s partnership as a substitute, Flip Flapp organization downright used her for their gains, obaa-chan even betrayed her; Cocona is on a verge of complete breakdown, but who would’ve thought she transforms into the-other-dark-magical-girl-show level of insanity? Struck down your own house by summoning “meteors” falling from the sky? Floating from the ground so she doesn’t have to step on fallen pieces of the robots and her obaa-chan? Totally mean but serve you right, obaa-chan. But girls, here a lesson for you: if you want to confess your sins or tell your dear friend a secret, DO IT RIGHT AWAY; don’t wait until the robots attacking you and then they will somehow ruin the mood by spoiling what you’re about to say with such meaner spirit.

Kidding aside, everything starts to make sense now that we know the true nature of who Coconami…uh… I mean Mimi is. That’s Cocona with long hair and red collar. She seems to be the first one who can enter Pure Illusion world, who partnered up with Papika(na) and young Salt in the process. It leaves another clue to Papika as somehow she hasn’t aged since that time and started to regain her memory once the fragments were completely collected. Which still doesn’t explain how she screws up on answering that simple question from Cocona’s (and ours for a full three weeks): “Who’s Mimi” that leads Cocona to completely distrusts everyone around her. I wonder, instead of that 5-minutes flashback (I counted it), Papika could have just answered: “She’s your Mom” and all the misunderstanding will be resolved in a flash. You can argue that she lost her memories but the fact remains that Cocona is an exact replica of Mimi so it’s not hard for her to reach a conclusion, ya’ know.

Okay, I’ll be serious now. I swear I have heaps of fun talking about this episode. The sad news is, with the fragments collecting comes to an end, it means there could be no more Pure Illusion world for us to enjoy. I already missed those adventures where under the surface might or might not have a deeper meaning, but it sure is fun to talk about those worlds. Admittedly, I think we will encounter the ultimate Pure Illusion world, which I guess the clue of that world is the big painting from Iroha-sensei that Cocona was quite interested in. Now, the Cult going full force in order to capture Cocona so that they can complete the mission and step up to rule the world, and that new amorphous girl is yet to reach her full potential so I expect the match between her and Cocona in coming episodes.

Looks like we will learn a bit more about the backstory of Papika, Mimi and Dr. Salt in next episode, but judging from the brief flashback couple episodes ago, Dr. Salt was already mature at the time of the “incident” so it would be 4,5 years after this week’s flashback; and the baby that Mimi hold is none other than Cocona. It’s pure speculation but I guess something happened in the Pure Illusion world and Mimi was shattered into fragments, one of which implanted inside Coconas thigh. That might be the reason why Cocona is rather famous in that world: is totally controlled by fake life, fake friend who was assigned to be near her to keep an eye on the fragment and that might be the reason why she was chosen by Papika in the first place. This episode surely is a life-changer in terms of plot, connecting all the connective tissues and making it a collective whole. For one thing Flip Flappers might be one of the rare shows that you won’t see what come next, it could go west or east or up the sky depending on its moods and I’m totally fine with that. Let’s hope this wacky little show ends on a high and conclusive note.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 10 [After-School Obbligato]

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

This season surely gives us too much of Kumiko-cuteness versions. After the fluffy little Kumiko last few weeks, the bedridden sore throat Kumiko, the surprisingly “always listening – always understanding” (such a pretentious slogan) Kumiko last week, what shades pf Kumiko is in store for us this week? Of course it’s an emo teary-eyes Kumiko. As much as a blank emotion when we first met her, this episode in particular shows us that she can express her own emotions, and on top of it actively resolves conflicts because she really wants to. That’s quite a development for our girl Kumiko to be that emotionally honest and I’m sure she deserved all the praise she got this week.

As contrasted to the Kumiko – Asuka showdown later on, Kumiko and Mamiko’s conflict was pretty quiet, soft but full of honest moments. The sisters don’t really make conversations to each other for so long, and the last times they talked there were a huge influx of misunderstanding from both sides, but to resolve the matters like this show how much maturity they both have become. It’s like the first time that Mamiko treats her sister like a companion, frankly tells her sister her issues in exactly the way she feels. That scene is layered by Mamiko literally cleaning up her mess (way too subtle KyoAni!), while Kumiko just stands there, cooking and listening. This is the most appropriate way to end their conflict like this, because ultimately Mamiko doesn’t need her sister’s help, she just needs her to understand. Like Asuka’s last week insecurity about being Eupho-girl, Mamiko was a bit jealous of Kumiko because she could do what she wants; while we know that Kumiko was thinking the opposite. The play of perspective is there to show us how they’re struggling with their own images. Speaking of perspective, my favorite moments out of this little drama has to be just after Mamiko said she was about to move out and said she’d be a little sad (don’t know about you guys but I personally find it real hard to talk about emotions to my siblings, just like Mamiko and Kumiko here), she looks at this little corner and knows that the place where she spend her childhood as home will be no longer her home. That feeling rings so hollowly true here.

But the most brilliance thing is how her sister’s drama helps supporting Kumiko in her “Operation Bring Back Asuka-senpai”. The event last week, powerful as it was, isn’t enough to bring Asuka back to the band. After all, Asuka’s main intention to invite Kumiko last week was because she needed someone to hear her out, not to resolve her conflicts. In her minds, the best solution has always been cutting herself off from the band, that’s where out Kumiko steps in. Yes, Asuka isn’t wrong about all that, but sometimes, just follow what you’re most passionate about regardless of any other things might be the best course of action. It’s no points to continue what you ain’t love doing. Be honest to yourself. Be a KID!! The showdown is atmospheric, tense and I love how Asuka lays bare what she thoughts about Kumiko. On that showdown, we have many shots from multiple perspectives: most of the time from Kumiko’s point of view, sometimes they pull out from different angles, sometimes they don’t even show the girls’ faces at all. Those shots aim to show us how much Asuka was still in control of the situation until Kumiko’s breakout. Kumiko’s body expressions after that talk is priceless. I can see so much efforts were put to make her gestures as expressive as we see here.

To align with the tone of this second season, this episode also leaves Reina absent for most of the time to do god-know-what from He-must-not-be-named (AKA spying from her teacher) and it looks like the next episode will focus on her crush issues with Taki-sensei. To be honest that arc might be the one I least interested in, because we already know the outcomes of this crush. Despite that, it also means we will have more Reina’s time so I remain optimistic about that arc might turn out worthwhile. Maybe.