Tag: episode 8

Scum’s Wish – 08 [Sweet Refrain]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Scum's Wish

Leave it up to Scum’s Wish to break some more taboos about love. I’m not gonna beat around the bush here, this episode was magnificent, the way it grabs you in closely and never lets go. I felt emotionally wasted after the episode ended, but for good reasons. We finally have some major developments in the main plot- the premise that was promised in the beginning by our main characters, not tangled by any supporting, third love this time. Mugi confessed to Akane, and Hanabi confessed to Narumi – pretty straightforward. But things won’t end here, mind you, it’s spinning out of control just as messy as everything came before it. Scum’s Wish understands that making characters miserable all the time don’t produce massive impact. After all, if we’re keep going down to the bottom, the only way when we reach there is up. Instead, they give us some moments of genuine feelings between Hanabi and Mugi, before crushing our hope down to pieces. Dang it, Mugi has to f*ck it all up! The fireworks finally appear (for those of you who don’t aware, her name Hanabi literally means fireworks) to signal the storm about to come so I know we’re about to have a thunderous final act of the show.

Let’s start with the newest taboo this show tries to tackle on, relative member’s crush. Now mind you, it’s debatable when it comes to perception on cousin love relationship, even today around the world people still arguing if cousin marriage is legally acceptable or not. I know in Japan this is not uncommon for cousin to love each other, though it’s becoming less and less prevalent now. From where I come from, in contrast, that same topic is strictly perceived as a taboo for example. But let’s move on now since I know that topic isn’t what you come here for. Well, introducing Atsuya- Ecchan’s cousin, that late in a game doesn’t really bode well with me, because I think the show is offering Ecchan a safe way out and a bit unnecessary conflicts on his yet-another unrequired one-side crush. We’re all know that Ecchan tried everything she can to take all she can take from Hanabi physically and emotionally; so that guy is a voice of reason, the guy who would step back and say to Ecchan “You’re trying too hard”. That’s good, mind you, it’s mean some more character development for Ecchan, and I truly think Atsuya inclusion here helps Ecchan to realize the stopping point on her own relationship to Hanabi. From the preview next week we have Hanabi and Ecchan in some random country house so (smirk) prepare for some yuri show time next week. Oh and that Ecchan’s hat!

It’s Mugi and Hanabi who actually share some intimate moments together, and for the first time since they started forming contracts, they acknowledge that they see  each other as themselves, not as a substitute for other lover. It’s a major development if you ask me. Before, their relationship was strictly business, consoled each other by way too much touching in other to hide away the pain; but now, they start to have feeling for each other, Hanabi starts to feel and enjoy the warm when they hug. Those are one of the warmest, most hopeful moments in Scum’s Wish and really, hoping for them can get through all the batshit in order to become a normal couple might be our greatest rewards. But I’m telling ya, don’t get your hope up, not because of the mess Mugi had done (I’ll get to that later), but as I keep saying for awhile now, I don’t think they can become a healthy normal couple. What they lack is sharing, especially in regards to their problems. I get that each of them have to face all these personal issues for themselves for their own maturity; but they are unable to share their problems to each other and just kinda let it pass. No. That will never work as a couple.

And Hanabi is the only unfortunate soul to get a short straw here. Both being rejected by her crush, and her partner-in-crime falling into pitfall created by Akame. Hanabi confession is as conventional as it gets, but it’s touching because she can finally let it all out, resulted in her outburst. And that four-eye teacher handles the situation surprisingly well, always stays calm and respects her every words. Kudos the show for handling the sequence with great framing and near-perfect pacing. The other confession though, is as unconventional and (again) taboo-breaking as it could get. Although Mugi is the one who ask her out and confess his love, it’s very clear that Akame is the commander in charge here. Mugi claimed that he knows everything bad about her, determines to change her but he couldn’t help but fall for those sweet words anyways. We actually did see some genuine facial expressions from Akame (or was it not? She’s the liar-master after all), but it’s bad. It’s bad because he has her way too easy, thus he will eventually become one of her prey, never get out of her spider-web. He can never have her by himself, and our Hanabi will always be alone. Forever alone. And our hearts again will be crushed along with her.

p/s: after watching this episode, I had to put on the ED of Flowers of Evil to calm my mind and arrange my feelings. Does that make me a broken deviant who like being tortured and manipulated? So be it.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. – 08 [The Princess Who Spread Her Wings and the Friend Who Had a Duty]

by SuperMario, posted in ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., Currently Watching:

Damn this show making me feel sad and melancholic all over again. When Nino told Jean last week that this is going to be a long story, I wouldn’t dare to think that he really means it. This week, the show takes us back 33 years ago and tells the story from royal observer’s point of view, resulted in the show’s most emotional resonate episode so far. This episode is just bittersweet and beautiful. Now, there are two things about ACCA writing that set it apart from other anime. The first aspect is its attention to details and confident storytelling, which I mentioned last week and psgels pretty much nailed it in his monthly review. The second aspect is… well, remember at first we initially thought ACCA might be similar to Ghost in the Shell in nature? Turned out we were completely off the mark because ACCA never at once goes heavy-handed. There’s a lot of backstaged planning, behind-the-scenes scheming but there’s no real dark intention in that world. Everyone’s actions so far have been for the benefit of the kingdom, even the coming coup arisen from the fear of the incompetence of the expected king. No selfish reasons whatsoever, at least not yet, just conflicted ideas on protecting the kingdom’s order I guess. The “accident” 33 years ago happened in that same vein. It was the scheme organized by Qualms (the head of Council Privy), the King, his daughter and her guard in order to protect the harmony of the royal and the kingdom and give Schnee the freedom she always desired. Everyone got out of it with what they think was necessary, even if it resulted in the second princess removed her name from the Dowa family register- become a commoner. That would be a fairly same-old same-old, cliche story if not by the fact that her life was chronologized secretly by the person who give up his own life to report her life, so in a sense, her family’s life has become the man’s; and his son’s, lives, and that hold lots of weight.

Nino, in particular, has been given a lot of weight-lifting this week but he shines through. When his father decided to follow his master’s quest, meaning that he had to give up his current life and his child for an unforeseeable future; he wanted to go with him no matter what. And Schnee and then the Otus family suddenly become their lives, but the father and Nino took pride and passion to their jobs. Every picture they took, every news regarding the princess they gathered, every bread the princess took interest to; they treasured them all. For Nino’s father, at least he had his own life before taking this job, but for Nino, it’s sad to realize that the life revolving the Otus family is the only life he knows. Makes me wonder what his purpose gonna be if Jean and Lotta were all gone. He took up the job pretty nicely too, attended college (despite huge age-gap) in order to stay closer to Jean. But then that train-wreck incident happened that not only took Jean’s parents lives, but his father’s as well. He then realized that he has been set up all along to be the next royal observant reporter in line. The best moment of his character development has to be after he received the news on TV, sadden by the the death of his father, bitter by the cold decision of the master, taken up the job he knows had no exit, he was still sensitive enough to offer a shoulder for Jean to rely on. This guy totally deserved a gold medal guys, he might become my favorite character of the show now.

So the main question the episode trying to raise is whether Abend is in fact Grossular. Looking at appearances, Grossular does share a lot of similarities with Abend, most notably his long hair and the fact that he isn’t Jean and Lotte’s father who died during the train wreck. Speaking of which, there is a minor twist that Schnee and Abend weren’t lover, which actually raise a compelling relationship between those two. It’s a duty for Abend to keep track with Schnee, but is there other feeling involved from Abend to the princess? For now though, I think Grossular is a red herring; yes all the details pointed towards him being Abend, but it makes no sense for me that Nino would report to him twice with different manners of speaking, and the show actually mentioned that everyone in that Rokkosu district having the same look regardless. In fact, I suspect that the real Abend is closer to Jean and Lotta than you might think, in fact I’m thinking of a certain character that the show keeps mentioning despite not appearing that much in the series, and he does eat a lot of desserts together with Lotta lately (Yes. You know who! Oh, and the child Lotta might be the sweetest thing ever). In any case, I strongly suspect that guy Abend to be the one who set Jean up for the upcoming coup d’etat (in other words, he’s important!), so the fun remains to see who this guy is and what exactly he plans to use Jean for the coup.

Lastly, allow me to give extra recognition to the impressive color palette in this episode, as it conveys effectively the mood of each sequence. In the sequence between the King and the young princess for example, the scene is bathed with light blue of sadness and longing. The sequences involved Abend, in contrast, was all in red/brown background of calculated plan and the strong sense of duty. Move over to the scenes involving young Nino and his father and we have a slightly washed-out color of memories that feel like an old picture. And lastly, when Nino received the devastated news on TV, it was dark blue with bold strokes and dark shading. The music, likewise, is totally impressive. Head ups for the sequence of Nino meeting Jean for the first time when an actual song kicked in. Even more stunningly, all the framing, the color and the music never distract the mood of the story or stand out too much, but fit the stories very, very well. This week, as a result, is the most impressive ACCA episode both in terms of technical quality, and emotional strengths. While the main storyline might focuses on the upcoming coup, the show’s main catch has always been establishing the ambiguous relationships between the cast. This backstory episode might not progress the plot very much, but it builds a solid foundation that exploring many intriguing relationships with confident executions. I said last week I was sure the show going to get better, right? Well, it does get better, but for reasons that completely against my expectation and for that I am really grateful. And boy how the show know how to pull an emotional punch, that piece of apple pie at the end (the apple pie that marked the sharp turn in Nino’s life) seriously melt my brain and make my head spinning around in circle. Damn this show making me feel sad and melancholic all over again.

Occultic;Nine – 07-08[Happiness is a Warm Gun]

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

By episode sevens end it did confirm that indeed, the majority of the cast is dead which brings up a whole host of problems. For you see while this twist may seem like a interesting left turn, it only really works if you consider the time a character is shown on screen the only time in existence that they have. This show demands that you completely disregard the other free time you would assume living beings have in life. For if you take that into account then these people should have figured out something was wrong much much sooner. After all, if they eat then they might wonder why the store attendant is ignoring them while confused at how products were carried to the till by themselves. If they don’t eat then anyone would notice if they went several days without eating. There’s also problems with general rules of how they are perceived. The show already establishes that they have a physical presence and can bump into people. But if they pick something up and put it into their pocket then does that item turn invisible? Or is there a floating tooth key walking around when mister blogger goes out for a stroll? The more you think about it, the less sense it makes. This twist also brings the problem that with our main characters dead that means that they are in no danger. That means no tension. On top of all that when you confirm that death is not permanent than that renders death meaningless which is generally why the “dead” twist is often pulled at the end of a story.

Considering the inconsistency of the sped up dialogue I think we can safely say that it isn’t a stylistic choice. More likely the script hasn’t been planned to the time constraints of each episode and the dialogue is sped up to compensate. A very unwise method of trying to squash it in as it kills the pacing and whatever immersion the viewer had when all the characters start speedrunning their dialogue. I actually wondered if the video was literally sped up as people start vomiting exposition at a rapid rate. Also boy, that exposition. I said before that I doubted this show would have satisfactory answers for any of the questions it poses without resorting to something dumb. Thus I hereby say I called it because good god this is dumb. So the Kotoribako which was given so much attention previously now seems to have no real purpose. Instead this seven gods cult thing has somehow cultivated both a mind control drug and a chemical which can allow you to retain yourself after death. There’s some info dumping nonsense about them doing this by following some notes by Nikola Tesla and perfecting it by analysing a thesis written by the professor who was murdered.

So this is treading the old ground of Chaos;Head in which a scribble written by the protagonist on the back of a homework essay somehow lead to the creation of reality wrapping machines. Not sure why they did this seeing as a second time round this explanation is just as dumb as the first time we went through it. Maybe even more so. But we ain’t done yet as it turns out that the mysterious evil organization was created by Mr Not-neets dad. How this happened was that the dad was a radio show host who used to take questions from viewers and give advice(You know typical radio show stuff) but he was apparently so good at it that he started giving live seminars and then it became a cult. Feel free to read over that sentence and let it sink in that someone wrote this down and didn’t see anything wrong with it. Sure not-neet says it’s far fetched but it’s not even that, it’s downright impossible. It wasn’t even a big radio station, just some small town one and yet it somehow gained such a following that it spawned an evil organisation with plans for world domination?

This writer continues to utterly baffle me with how he fails to see the utter ridiculousness of his own ideas. If this anime was satire or comedy that might be something. But it’s clear that we are supposed to take this 100% seriously.  Personally I find that difficult when the main villain has a plan as ridiculous as a old bond villain. All they really need now is a volcano lair and they got the whole set. Seriously how are these evil organizations even formed? How do you gather a huge group of like minded people to sit in a room all day discussing how they are going to rule the world by injecting mind control drugs into world leaders? Guys, are you sure you planned this out? I mean you think no one is going to notice all the world leaders acting weird? Who decides what, how does it even get done? After all even if you take over the world leader there is still a government that’s not going to approve your slave collar law. What are you even going to do with the world?

Because nobody really thinks about that, considering that running one country’s affairs is a giant pain in itself. Of course maybe they don’t really care about running the world well but then what’s the bloody point? Rule the world just for bragging rights? As for other events Ryo-tas remains a waste of screen time besides being a mannequin with basketballs glued to her chest. The rest spend most of their time discussing if they are dead or not, or being depressed about it. The other antagonists on the other hand seem happy enough to talk enigmatic despite the fact that the audience has long since stopped giving a damn. Admittedly I am skimming over character interactions and just commenting on the mystery of the show but that truly is the only thing carrying it. Which makes it all the more noticeable when you can poke holes in it till it all just falls apart. By now, in this story sense is a sandwich so sure, why not just throw in an inexplicable moai statue contraption whose sole purpose seems to be poor security for a usb stick.

Flip Flappers – 08 [Pure Breaker]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flip Flappers

Yay, I’ve reached 100th post here at this site, and if you can probably tell from my still-clumsy writing this is also my first 100 blogging ever. This isn’t much to be completely frank but it’s a milestone for me nonetheless, as there had been a fair amount of commitment for the last 8 months back from my first post. I’d like to give my special gratitude to Aidan who figuratively pick me up from the street and let me run loose here. I’ve enjoyed writing these so far and don’t plan to give it up anytime soon (meaning ya’all still stuck with me for a long, long time) so here’s hoping the curses of RL commitment and anime burn out won’t get to me soon. Thanks for having me here guys.

Alright, sentimental time is over (after all, sentimentality is only for farewell), and let get to what you actually come here for: Flip Flappers. This week, our girls were sucked from a swimming PE class (I think it’s an excuse for the girls to wear swimsuits the entire episode) to the metropolis Pure Illusion world which again is striking and impressive on its own settings. Again, what do we have in this Pure Illusion world this week? A metropolis city, was built entirely by one man (Totalitarianism?), no citizen actually living there except for those birds that shoot laser. The man himself is half the size of normal human (haha, totally randomness) but these buildings are in their actual sizes. Then those birds and the giant robots come literally from the sky to cause havoc to the city (they are created by the fragments by the way. What really are those fragments anyway?); and of course; mecha-robots. The metropolis setting allows the extensive use of neon light, pink colors that I never get tired of (while at it, check out the cartoon Moonbeam City which have that exact aesthetic neon retro style, but unfortunately bugged down by their dumb story). Well, the setting alone is on par with the show’s most imaginative worlds for that alone this episode is already worth checking out.

Damn, Flip Flappers. In the very beginning we billed you as a magical girl show with some sort of fairy tale-inspired, and what did you give us this week? A metropolis city with some random mecha robots fighting? I am giving up to even guess what you would do next. Not only the show had fun to spend extra details to those battles: the fighting looks gorgeous and carries a lot of energy; they also have extra fun when it comes to designing and naming those level-up robots: PapinaKing, Yapico Boy, Great Pacoya. Stay true to the term “adventure”, the show freely hops from one genre to another each episode. So far, we’ve encountered them experiencing with dark children fantasy, action, horror, psychological and now mecha genre. That free style allows this show to bend the rules and bring a lot of refreshing ideas and creativity to the table, and while I consider this episode an outsider from the rest of Flip Flappers episodes in terms of theme (there’s no identity theme this week, but the coming-of-age theme is still going strong), this episode still fits into the show’s canon of exploring those self-contained worlds while tackling multiple genres the show come across.

Yayaka obviously become the true star in this episode and her motive becomes more and more in favors for the wellbeing of Cocona (I’m hesitant to put Papika here, as she and Papika get along so well just like water and oil). For all of her coldness tsundere appearance, she deeply cares for the girls and this episode forced her to be honest with her feeling. I don’t mind she joining up with the two girls at all (Man. That Great Pacoya is ridiculously awesome) and next episode it seems like we will have a little bit of flashback between Cocona and Yayaka which I can’t wait for it. Not only Yayaka, but Cocona also grows a lot this episode. She’s always afraid that her actions could bring consequences to the real world. But by reflecting through the old man’s frustration that he would lose himself if he loses what is precious to him, Cocona’s now willing to take actions to protect her precious things as well.

Under the effect of fragment, Papika again mutters the name “Mimi”. I was overlooked last week, but it seems more likely now that name is a connection to “Shard of Mimi” AKA the fragments. So we might after all have the long lost search for love from Dr Salt, and that Mimi is somehow shattered into amorphous fragments so Dr Salt had to collect them again? Speculation aside, I am more sure now that Mimi and Cocona’s dream have some connections to each other. But no, I’m not going to put more thoughts on that because a) I know the show will mind-screwing all my expectation somehow and b) I enjoy the show simply because it brings me something different each week, so as long as the show pleases me on that front I’d die a happy man.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 08[Sudden Event In Session!]

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

Blessed be the peacemaker, for she ups the body count. I don’t think it’s a surprise that Winterprison ended up dying while protecting Nana. But it is surprising that she managed to take down one of the twin angels before getting taken out. All the more surprising considering that the angels didn’t get a flashback so hurray for unpredictability! Though considering that I don’t really care much about them for it to hold any emotional weight it was more just nice to have one of the annoying characters get taken out of the show. Swim Swim is someone I care about and it was fascinating how she went about this. Ultimately she was following Rulers advice in that the leader does the absolute minimum and leaves the majority of the work to a subordinate. It’s no doubt that Ruler was an incompetent leader with a superiority complex but it is fascinating in how Swim Swim holds her in such reverence and uses her image to become a better yet crueler leader than Ruler ever was. Really what is wrong with this girl, after all she wasn’t sad that one of the twin angels died, instead she was disappointed in herself because she thought that Ruler would have done it better.

It was a good plan but they didn’t quite count on Weiss not getting taken out immediately. There is the question of why the peaky angel didn’t transform to escape Weiss’s grasp, especially when Weiss was specifically telling her that if she transformed into Nana again she wouldn’t be able to hurt her even if she knew she was fake. But I think they can’t transform as long as someone is touching them. Evidence of this being how when the angels stabbed Weiss and she pulled out the knife and threw it into the air before she transformed back. Fear as well could be a factor. But if I was to question anyones actions here I would question Weiss’s. Taking into account her ability I think she could have killed all the team by using her wall ability to crush them against the ceiling.

Koyuki seems to see that Hardgore Alice isn’t her enemy though she doesn’t quite like her all the same. Calamity Mary on the other hand has gone full psycho. With both Weiss and the angel out that means we only have two more eliminations to end the battle royale. Judging by current circumstances I doubt Mary is going to come out of this alive. We have seen that Mary was an abusive housewife looking to bully the weak and Fav jumped to give her power straight away the demonic little monster that he is. I do quite like when he drops the cutesy act and his tone goes more malevolent. Mary’s background is pretty typical but it does make her reaction to Alice a little more interesting. Mary likes to bully those weaker than her and while she can overpower Alice, she cannot kill her. So this pretty much makes Alice unbullyable and something Mary cannot stand. This would give their next confrontation some real emotional weight that has been missing from all the fights up to now.

Watching this really makes me appreciate just how well Fate/Zero set up it’s own Battle Royale as it truly was a well structured plotline. With fight scenes in a story you generally have a few ways to go about it. One way is to go with spectacle and make a fight visually dynamic say like Drifters did with it’s action scenes this week. However Raising project just doesn’t have the kind of animation and artstyle to really deliver on a spectacle. Another method is to give a fight an emotional weight. In Fate/Zero the first episode was the worst but it did the groundwork of clearing up all the masters motivations and how they contrasted the other players. The very first fight of the series setup dynamics between the servant. Like Gilgamesh wanting to take down berserker, Berserker wanting to fight Saber, Saber needing to fight Lancer…each character had a counterpoint that made the fights compelling, be it through principles or personality. Raising project doesn’t have that. For the most part all the battles are random skirmishes between opponents who don’t actually know each other. Dues to our lack of information on their characters these fight just feel rather empty and ineffectual.

However we do have counterpoints forming within the cast. Nana has reason to fight Swim Swim, the peaky angel will likely want to attack Nana in revenge for her sister, Mary wants to get back at Alice, Koyuki will want to fight Cranberry after finding out she’s responsible for Souta’s death…these could make the battles more interesting but even then I think this shows big mistake was having such a massive cast of characters. The best battle royales make it a point to get you to care for the characters before killing them off. I am far too apathetic about the plight of these girls to get invested in the conflict. Of course this doesn’t mean we need more flashbacks as they are the lazy tool for character development. Instead having more meaningful character interaction and grown would be a better option. Ripple and Top Speeds relationship is a good example. Speaking of which, I really worry for top speed. We have got the full extent of her backstory which means that she is a prime target to be killed off.

Thunderbolt Fantasy – 08

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Thunderbolt Fantasy

This is yet another typical Thunderbolt Fantasy episode, in which our MC Shang Bu Shuan just had enough with these guys and headed to the evil tower alone, but somehow still find himself tricked by Gui Niao and then gets captured near the end of the episode. Maybe the main reason Gui Niao needs him to stay so desperately is just for the sake of bullying the poor guy. There’s one interesting bit about Shang Bu Shuan that other members of the group figure out and that is while he’s a skilled swordsman, he’s not really confident with his skills; in a way he’s more natural with defensive skills than attacking. Still, leaving our main character literally to fight those monsters alone just to test him out is way too hilariously cruel; and I can see his frustration towards the group that he just heads off by himself. But as fate would have it, Dan Fei and Gui Niao just won’t leave him alone, and the three immediate find a shortcut to get through the tower without passing the magical labyrinth, just to find themselves heading directly to a trap.

Gui Niao’s true identity has finally been revealed to be a master thief. It’s about a goddamn time if you ask me. Master thief is also a common character’s trope in wuxia, but as far as I see he’s no Saito Kid or Robin Hood. Gui Niao is sneaky as hell and he’s also a master of manipulation. In order to advance his plan, he tricked the emotional outburst Dan Fei into having a fight with Shang Bu Shuan (by using hallucination smoke or whatever it’s called) and thus single-handed assist the enemy to put them in cage. At first, I find myself hard to believe that Mie Tian Hai would be stupid enough to trust this guy, but upon a closer look, it’s apparent that Gui Niao already gets a hold of the legendary sword’s handle and it’s a matter of time for him to negotiate with Mie Tian Hai. But there is a plot hole regarding all this ‘masterplan’ though as I find it hard to believe Mie Tian Hai actually forgets about the other members and keeps his guard down like that.

For next week, we will have two main developments: on the one hand there will be a negotiation between Gui Niao and the big boss and until then we can find Gui Niao’s true motive and whatever relation between those two guys. The 200-year history is a good starting point to keep delving into and I believe the main development for its last arc will be around the sacred sword, the War of the Fading Dust, and that cursed wasteland that split the two countries. It will be no surprise for me if Shang Bu Shuan might be ‘the one’ who can control the legendary sword. On the other hand, our main character and the rest of the group will keep heading to the main tower to catch up with whatever results that caused by Gui Niao. It still remains a big question regarding Gui Niao’s true intention: Is he friend or foe? Or is he just a league of his own? Time will tell, my friends.