Tag: Gen Urobuchi

Magical Girl Raising Project Review – 65/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Magical Girl Raising Project, Reviews by AidanAK47

In the success of Madoka there have been plenty who have tried to capitalize on turning the Magical girl genre dark. Few have actually succeeded and while Magical Girl Raising Project doesn’t quite succeed, it is still a much more competent attempt than many others. The story is about a phone app which promises to turn people into magical girls. However when the number of magical girls in a city goes too high, an elimination contest is held to cut their numbers in half. The end result is akin to a magical girl battle royale.

This show does play with some interesting ideas and throws some nice curve balls within it’s run. It can certainly get the viewer brainstorming on what is coming next and has nice little twists to the magical girl concept though not often explored to the degree which it could be. It’s at it’s best when the body count rises and sparks fly between the cast of sixteen magical girls. While not all shine there are a few within the cast which are highly likeable and the story does have an excellent antagonist in the form of the cold calculating Swim Swim as well as some standout moments from unexpected characters. When you can’t see what’s coming this show can grip you and have you wondering just who is going to fall next as well as how.

However the problem with Magical Girl Raising Project is that it’s large cast of characters remain undeveloped until the point where they are about to be killed off. The development is primarily through flashbacks but does shed interesting light on the characters. However as the flashbacks often appear right before the character’s demise it often telegraphs that character’s death. Ultimately killing the unpredictability of a battle royale and making the death of a character not all that shocking. Though the show does have a few surprises, more often than not you will see the death coming. The animation as well seems to never quite convey the intensity of the battles making they feel rather plain. While there is a high diversity of character designs and abilities, the fights in this show rarely feel all that exhilarating which could be attributed to the lacking character development or simply the fight animation just being average.

In summary Magical Girl Raising Project is a show with good concepts not executed well. I do see potential in this writer and if a second season does come to be then whn not restricted to the battle royale format he may have a chance to really shine. However as the series is currently it is a serviceable and enjoyable watch. If you have an interest in a dark take of the magical girl genre and have checked out the notables like Madoka or Princess Tutu then Magical Girl Raising Project isn’t a bad recommendation. Even fans of Danganronpa could get a kick out of it as it does take some inspiration from it. A show that sadly didn’t live up to it’s potential but remains a decent watch regardless.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 12[File Not Found]

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

The day is saved thanks to Ripple and, well just Ripple. Snow White did help near the end by bringing the rabbit’s foot but other than that she pretty much won the battle royale by doing absolutely nothing. The final battle was somewhat anticlimactic and I do think that maybe with a higher animation budget and better fight animation this could have been a real great battle. However as is the battle is serviceable but I do admire Swim Swim’s ingenuity in choosing a battlefield suited to her abilities. She planned well all things considered and was only caught off guard by a sudden thunderstorm and Ripples flash grenades taken from Calamity Mary. Fav wasn’t foolish for thinking that Swim Swim would win, by all accounts she really should have.

Despite the main fan consensus of her being hated because of her tendency of killing off the more likeable characters, I at least will miss Swim Swim. I do think that she was a great villain that sadly didn’t get the development or opportunity to really shine. I have heard that the author makes a character like her later in the story whom might prove to fulfill the potential Swim Swim had. Sadly the show skimmed over what would be the big shock moment where Ripple would find out she killed a little girl by having her vision be obscured during the act and her reaction just briefly flashed on. I really thought that would be a much bigger deal that it turned out being and quite frankly the author missed a good opportunity there to make the final part of the fight a real punch to the gut.

It was somewhat satisfying to see Fav undone by the very things he gave the magical girls in the first place but his ending is rather anticlimactic. I don’t really get his reasoning for bringing Snow White to his side as revealing that the battle royale was essentially his and Cranberry’s idea only serves to get her all the more reason to not be his master. For the most part I think Fav didn’t actually think Cranberry would die and his efforts after were just his attempts at weaseling himself out of a bad situation. Like how he was doing when he realized that Ripple got hold of a weapon that could actually destroy him. Fav like more or less every other character in this series, only really started to get interesting just right before he’s going to get killed off. Seeing Fav panic really showed that he’s not quite as cool and in control as he pretends to be and Snow White could see right through him. In fact Snow and Ripple also only really started to get interesting just right before the show ended. Still there are talks of a Magical Girl Raise Project sequel and while this series isn’t perfect i do think there is potential for the writer to turn it into something great. Even the idea of continuing Snow White’s transformation from stereotypical magical girl to magical girl superhero could make for an interesting second season.

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.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 10[Super-Hot! Back-to-Back Battle Events!]

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

I am really starting to dislike how this show is killing off the characters I grow remotely interested in while leaving only the dullest characters to carry the show. Don’t take that to mean I cared about the remaining twin angel that got killed off because her death was pretty deserved. But this cements the twin angels as characters whose only function was to kill off more interesting characters. No, my grief goes to Hardgore Alice who in typical fashion was given some development only to get offed by Swim Swim. What rubs me the wrong way is in how utterly contrived her death was. First with Snow White getting that Alice doesn’t mean her harm only to throw a hissy fit at her after hearing that the death game was going to continue. Then you have Swim Swim take her out in human form were she is knocked out by an arbitrary rule that no one can see her transform and basically not being able to become a magical girl because she couldn’t focus after being mortally wounded. I call bull on that second one as if you are lying in an alley about to die I think that’s the time you would be most focused on saving your own life. I have heard of a couple of things from the light novel which makes these events more sensible. For one, Snow White is supposed to be much more mentally unsound as this whole magical girl battle thing takes a pretty heavy toll on her.

Other rather depressing detail is that before becoming a magical girl, Hardgore Alice planned to kill herself and was regularly stealing her Uncle’s sleeping pills to use to overdose but changed her mind when Snow White helped her find her key. This makes her ability as a magical girl rather ironic as someone who originally wanted to die is given a body that can never die. The last detail makes her death a little more tragic that was in the manga but not the light novel was that it was her uncle that found her in the alley. Because her uncle was around Alice couldn’t change into a magical girl. As sad as it is, that feels like a much more devastating emotional gut punch. Overall I just don’t like how Alice was sacrificed for the sake of Snow White’s development, especially when she was becoming a much more interesting character than her. I get that Snow is supposed to be the archetype of the stereotypical magical girl but she just isn’t doing anything about the situation or showing anything interesting about her character. I think the more interesting road would be for Snow White to get killed off and for Hardgore Alice to carry her torch.

With this the only characters I actually care about are Swim Swim and Ripple. Cranberry is just a bit too one dimensional at the moment to really interest me and I already pointed out why Snow White isn’t particularly compelling. As for Tama, well she’s a background decoration likely not long for this world. With Cranberry’s talks with Fav we at least have a better grasp on what is going on here. Seems Cranberry is the one in charge of this whole game and Fav is acting as an observer. Thing is that Fav and Cranberry are in cahoots and have decided to turn what is normally a selection process that discourages fatalities into a full battle royale. With this we can at least establish that the organisers of the game aren’t malicious but instead it’s those who are running the game that’s turning it into something twisted. It’s a bit weird that the magical world isn’t keeping tabs on her but I guess that was supposed to be Fav’s job seeing as he’s is sending back false reports. If it comes down to either Swim Swim or Cranberry going down next episode I hope it’s Cranberry but Swim Swim just has much more presence as a villain. If this show keeps killing off everyone I somewhat care about this is just going to end up with a final battle where I won’t really care about the outcome.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 09[Notice of New Rules]

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

Calamity Mary dying was pretty expected and the death that followed was equally something that was bound to happen. Though having a third death was not quite what I expected. Considering the small line in one of the halfway blurbs about Nana having some other intentions I thought she might have more to her than one would think. Sadly it turns out she was as boring as she appears when she commits suicide after Weiss’s death. I admit that I didn’t notice that she used Weiss’s scarf as a noose, that as a nice detail. Word of mouth say that the anime changed how the other two died a bit as Mary wasn’t supposed to get a shuriken to the head. In the light novel it seems that Ripple through a window at her which Mary shot up. However thanks to Ripples ability, the shards of glass kept flying towards Mary, turning her into a human pincushion. I don’t really get just way this was changed as it seems like a far more interesting end to the fight.

I don’t think it had to due with animation constraints as they still ended up using the glass anyway and this series has not been shy with showing gore either. It does make me wonder if the lack of impact these deaths have is related to minor changes on the studio’s part. The second change was Top Speeds death as while she was killed the same way both times, in the light novel she was helping Ripple up when she got attacked. Which certainly makes more sense as I really don’t see h0w Ripple didn’t spot Swim Swim behind Top Speed. I am not certain as to how i feel about this particular death as it is rather tasteless. Top speed was one of the more likable characters in the group and the big twist of her being pregnant being used for shock factor doesn’t sit well with me. It’s like a dead baby joke, morally outrageous and shocking but immature and cheap.

Made all the more cruel when you consider that if Swim Swim knew about Nana’s suicide, she wouldn’t have attacked Top Speed. As Swim is the logical type she would see it would be not worth it. Fav fixes this soon enough by going “tee hee, turns out you lot are using more magic than expected so the number is now four instead of eight”. At this point Fav is not hiding his intentions whatsoever, it’s clear he wants the killing game to continue. With this new rule three more girls have to drop out of the running and I doubt both Cranberry and Swim Swim are making it out of this. Swim seems to be making Cranberry her next target and considering her ability she would make for a formidable foe. One thing I found odd this episode was just how little an effect killing Mary had on Top Speed and Ripple.

Mary was hardly a saint but I would have expected the fact that Ripple killed a person would have a more somber effect than “Woohoo! Good job!” But I do see potential in a battle between Swim Swim and Ripple. After all she’s bound to come after her with a vengeance but what will happen when she kills Swim and finds a little girl lying dead in front of her. I think congratulations would be far from her mind then. Though Snow White taking down Swim would be far more devastating, that is of course if she can fight her. This episode did show that her mind reading power has other uses besides finding people in danger. It did reveal that Tama believes she’s in over her head so she could be a potential ally in the future. Though for now it looks like the remaining angel has found out how to kill Alice.

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.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 07[Up Your Friendship!]

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

Hardgore Alice really lucked out in regards to Magical girl abilities as he pretty much has the perfect ability for making her the most dangerous thing in this battle royale. I do wonder what happens to her phone though when she gets ripped to shreds. Calamity Mary’s whole gauntlet of trying to kill Alice. She quite literally tried everything in regards to killing her from encasing her in concrete to trying to dissolve her in acid. Either way it looks like Calamity Mary’s ability is being able to pull out any weapon she needs. I at least appreciate that Mary liked Magicaroid enough to actually seek revenge for her death and Fav is certainly showing that he’s willing to bend the rules as long as he gets something in return. Mary didn’t specify just what job she would do for Fav for the information on Hardgore Alice but it could be related to her calling out Ripple at episodes end.

We also get a look into a character’s backstory. I originally thought it was Calamity Mary seeing as the entire first half was dedicated to her but it seems that it was instead Ripple, the Ninja magical girl who hangs out with Top Speed. I do like Ripples style as her backstory was gearing up to be a typical abused child story but she’s got moxie. The characters around her are playing the usual fair of being bullies why too obnoxious to be considered believable but the minute they go too far she shows them she ain’t going just let them walk over her. Especially love how she dealt with her mother’s new husband. I was really dreading the direction that was going but the minute the man showed his intent Ripple was like “Oh, hell no!”, kicked his teeth in and announced that she was going to live on her own. I have serious respect for this girl but it’s clear she doesn’t hold her mother in high regard. In some ways she may be seeing Top Speed as a kind of surrogate mother as she does tend to act like one. I doubt Top Speed gave Ripple her real age as she did mention drinking alcohol and Ripple pointing out that she would be underage for it as well.

Of course if you were following the trend of deaths so far then it’s a safe bet to assume that Ripple is the next one to die. After all, anyone who gets a flashback is generally the one to end up dying in this show. I would like for the show to break this pattern and instead have someone else get taken down because unpredictably would be a great asset to this show and that’s sadly getting ruined by how telegraphed the deaths are. It’s also sad that most of the people who die are those with the most development so far. I think characters are starting to get fleshed out a tiny bit in the case of Swim Swim, Alice and Mary. Through not really enough to make me care whether they live or die. Though I must admit that I find Alice’s current relation to Snow white interesting. Snow’s clearly terrified of her but Alice seems to genuinely want to help her. After all she did spend six years of her live to buy that rabbit’s foot only to give it to Snow White. Her nature does make her seem suspicious and pretty dangerous, especially the stiff undead movements. However I am guessing Alice is a Snow White fanboy(Confirmed to be a girl by last week’s mid card which pointed out that she lives with her aunt and loves stuffed bunnies.), and considering her abilities she would certainly make for one fantastic ally for this Battle Royale.

 

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.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 06[Get the Super-Rare Items!]

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

Looks like this show has taken my previous advice and decided to up the kill count. This time we have two casualties.(Yes, two. Not three) The first is Shou, Koyuki’s protector who seems to have underestimated the fight he was in for and Cranberry has killed him. The fight itself I think could have had more flash to it which is something of a problem with all the fights in this series. Either poor direction or lacking animation make these fights less exciting that they should be but even then maybe the reason the fights are not engaging is that the characters just don’t have enough to them to make the fight exciting. In all honestly I seen this kids death coming the moment he swore to protect Koyuki but it really is a shame that he died just when Koyuki was considering him boyfriend material. If it’s one trait that this show needs to get rid off it’s showing flashbacks of characters who will die in the episode. Today’s episode had two flashbacks showing just who was going to die. The end of the episode showed that it would be to this shows benefit if the deaths were more unexpected as shown by hardgore Alice’s decapitation which really did catch me off guard. Still it looks like Alice lives up to her name and can survive having her head chopped off, making her a zombie magical girl. Well…it’s was bound to happen sometime and the sad thing is she isn’t the first one if you take Mahou shoujo of the end into account. But the ability to heal from wounds like that would be a serious boon in this battle and she should make for a good ally for Koyuki if that is her intent.

So Magicaliod was a homeless girl who just so happened to become a magical girl by using a second hand phone. It’s a pity she died this episode as I was just starting to like her but I guess that is a big fault in this show. Whoever gets developed also gets the axe. it’s nice to see Koyuki break out of her no violence policy and move in a more interesting direction. The girl needs to break out of being a dull character and start getting more interesting. Carnberry at least seems to have gotten more development as we learn that this elimination round was due to her and some contract she has with Fav. It’s possible she works at the company that makes the game or the game itself is some sort of magical construct. Either way it does seem like Fav’s intent is to raise strong magical girls and this whole ordeal is some kind of spartan training for something bigger. Overall I find his methods highly questionable as Snow white is at the top of the charts and she certainly isn’t what I would call powerful. Though Fav seems to be more interested in entertainment that his objective. I did like when he stopped adding pon to his sentences and his voice took on a layer of malice. Overall it seems this duo will prove to be the main antagonists for this particular arc but with Swim Swim still around that could change.

Speaking of Swim Swim, their group looks to have nabbed Fav’s latest offerings of special items in exchange for lifespan. These weapons are likely to give her team the edge while giving Koyuki a nice moral dilemma. It is interesting that she did in fact press the button to exchange five years of her life for weapon. If Swim Swim’s group hadn’t grabbed the item first she might have regretted that choice. But damn Swim Swim when for the 25 year one without hesitation. There is something seriously wrong with this girl and even she herself mentioned that it wasn’t that she wasn’t scared of losing what could be a quarter of her lifespan. Again it was her weird sensibility of following Rulers example. This is getting more interesting but this show does lack something to make it truly good. At the moment it is passable but the action scenes do lack impact, the characters don’t have enough development to make the situation compelling and the story so far has been a bit too predictable.

Magical Girl Raising Project – 05[New Character!]

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

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

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

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

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