Tag: review

Occultic:Nine – 12[We’re Gonna Have a Real Good Time Together]

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

Well, it’s over. It’s finally over. You know, when I finish an anime series it can make me feel a variety of things. Sometimes I feel a gaping hole in my heart after tuning in and looking forward to a episode every week only to know that won’t happen anymore. Sometimes I feel satisfied with how it tied everything up and I want to start from the beginning to experience it all again. Sometimes I feel ambivalent as I thought a series was serviceable and at least wasn’t a waste of time. Sometimes I lament what a anime could have been had they just made different choices. Occultic;Nine made me feel none of these things as the credits rolled one last time. No, as Ryo-tas confirmed with her last words that I had indeed wasted four or five hours on this series I only had one word on my mind. Why?

Why was this anime made? To advertise a game, but even if you give this a full HBO series you couldn’t salvage this trainwreck of a plot. Why did underpaid animators have to work on this? Why is it that someone looked at this script and thought it acceptable? Why does this get an anime adaption when much greater works like Utsuro no hako to Zero no Maria, Lucifer and biscuit hammer, Sharin no Kuni, Rakuin no Monshou and the remainder of the Spice and Wolf novels remain unanimated? Why did the director want to make people throw up with his presentation and think that fast forwarding exposition was appropriate? Why was someone paid to write this? Why does Ryo-Tas have basketballs for a chest? Why? Why? Just why? I guess the only emotion I could call this is despair. Despair that I had indeed finished watching the worst anime I have ever seen.

I would not be surprised if you dismiss that above statement as hyperbolic but I assure you that it is not. There are certainly anime which are objectively worse than Occultic;Nine. Worse animated, presentation, acted and even written. But even something bad can be enjoyed and made fun of. This show can’t, it’s primarily exposition and while the plot is absurd it leaves little room to get any real enjoyment out of it. For me, I genuinely dreaded watching this excuse that dared call itself anime. Any time I finished it I felt drained or annoyed or sick or hateful or all of the above. You name any bad anime you can think of and I would gladly watch that over watching Occultic;Nine again. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word ‘hate’ was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for this show at this micro-instant. For it. Hate. Hate.

So what happened this episode? Well we had five Deus ex machina’s, that’s what. Maybe even six. Besides the mountain of sped up exposition we have a moment where Aveline says she’s going to sacrifice herself to make the key by God knows how and everyone’s getting all choked up about it because they knew her for like a day. But this is made into a complete waste of time as Gamotans just goddamn teleports the bloody key into his hand straight out of nowhere. Oh and the evil organisation detected the key teleportation because when you build a giant lightning pole designed for ghosts you make sure it can detect teleportation as well. Just right on the standard procedure specifications just right below the Santa Claus tracker. Then we have everyone saying another heartfelt goodbye as Gamotan is the one to sacrifice himself now. Oh how they claim that Gamotan changed their life when I say, what did he even do? All this stuff is just handed to him because he’s the “chosen one”. He has literally done nothing. In fact what did any of you do? Both glasses characters character arcs are a straight goddamn line. You have no arc to conclude! All you guys did was figure out the mystery that Aveline was going to tell you anyway! Glasses here even figured out that they can travel back in time but again the detective kid was coming to tell them that anyway. And yes, they actually went with it, they negated the deaths of most of the cast. Still left the other 251 people to die though. Our heroes everyone.

We soon find out that doujin girl sees the future by out of body experiences and she suddenly disappears proving that Occultic;Nine has yet another completely pointless character. Wow, nine main cast members and only two are actually goddamn relevant. Isn’t that swell. Oh I don’t care, not as if the show cares, so why should I care…Why should..You know what. Sure. Oh evil organisation only sends their leader to go deal with a problem? Sure, why not. Oh Gamotan got revived after a fatal blow because Ryo-Tas kissed him? Sure, why not. Oh he grows angel wings out of goddamn nowhere? Sure, why not. Oh Gamotans dead dad comes back to fix Gamotan arriving too late? Sure, why not. Guess he didn’t give a crap about his mother. And now Gamotan is a ghost blogger and everyone cheers that he blew up Odd Eye by screaming at it. Oh what a happy ending this must be for our heroes right before I assume the evil organisation comes to slaughter them all for ruining their plans. So do they actually still think people are going to buy the blu-rays of this?

Zaregoto Series OVA – 02 [Day 3 (2) Assembly and Arithmetic]

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

The bomb has finally dropped as the murder everyone waiting for eventually come, but we still aren’t clear who the victim is. If there is one cliché about murders involving beheading, it’s that you can never be sure about the identity of the headless victim. The one you think is dead will return to the story near the end somehow, not only with his head intact, but with his evil grin as well. It appears for now that the body is Kanami’s, a genius painter, since the body is in her room and worn the exact outfit; in addition, based on the info I read somewhere her name is a wordplay that if you read her name in reverse it means: no head now. But it could be one of the maids. As of this moment we don’t get to know any of the maid so the main focus is still squarely on those geniuses.

One of the most important clue that we gained right now is how the table set up like a clock, with the host is at 12.00 o’clock and Tomoe is right opposite her at 6.00. We simply don’t have any clue to work with at this moment but I figure that in the future development this clue is going to be relevant. Another strange occurrent that happen on the night of the murder is the earthquake which resulted in the messy room we see at the end, or was it not? How the earthquake relevant to the murder is unclear, but for now I suspect that because the earthquake happened so randomly that the true culprit didn’t plan on this and thus left some evidences behind. Lastly, there were a mystery on this island that occurred before that caught Tomoe’s curiosity but for now we know nothing about it.

We got introduced to the last genius in this island: Yayoi the genius chief. Although she claimed that she has no natural talent, she can actually smell and sense a huge lot different tastes. Apart from having that absolute taste and absolute pitch, she appears to be the most normal out of all geniuses. Just really wonder why there is no one who commend about the foods that they eat, after all it’s Yayoi who cook all of them, right? Oh we also get to see the host Akagami, but apart from being a fulltime event manager and bragging about the new character to come, she’s just plain like a rice cake.

Not much actually happen beside all the chitchatting of course, but this episode sheds a new angle about Il chan relationship towards Tomoe. Maki (A genius fortune teller who know the past, the future, people and the world) really likes to scrub Il-chan the wrong way, but she seems to see through this guy. And because she understands his character she despites the way he’s doing things. She also digs a little too deep about his and Tomoe’s strange “friendship”. She’s something that he wishes he could’ve been and seeing her- despite all that- unhappy make him feel good. Those scenes in which he’s inside a TV-like box that Maki can see through him perfectly elevate the sense of discomfort of Il-chan towards Maki’s words. There’s still much more oil that needed to pump from their relationship of course, like what she thinks about MC and why she needs him to come to this isolated island in the first place.

Even with this once-a-month format Shaft still manages to stays behind schedule and and pushes back the next episode until January next year. As of now, things are moving so slowly and there is simply not much material to work with, but starting the next episode the plot might get a little more entertaining with the investigation now that the murder kicked in. In the mean time I might try to eat by using two pairs of chopsticks Tomoe-style, by the time the next episode begins I might have mastered that skill already.

3-gatsu no Lion – 11 [The Old Year – The New Year]

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

Christmas and New Year are on its way so it is very appropriate that we have a warm, sweet episode from 3-gatsu no Lion. After missing in action for the last few weeks, the Kawamoto sisters are back and they truly are a breath of fresh air from the heaviness of last week. While last week was about negative feelings Rei had to embrace and let it all out, this week was about positive feelings that Rei has to realize and share with those he loved. Being bed-ridden for few days without any food, medicine and cut off from the outside world, Rei absorbs on his own sickness that he doesn’t realize that there are still people around who care about his wellbeing. Akari brushes him off on “living on my own” feel so true that it makes him understand about his own thoughtlessness. As much as he always sees the line that separate him and his adoptive father, the father treats him like his own child and genuinely cares about him. The same goes with the Kawamoto sisters and that last scene of the new year eve is so heartfelt and emotional that I can’t help but feel truly sad for those characters. Trying to cope with your pain and loneliness takes a lifetime, so sharing those happy little moments together with the ones you care for is a step forward that both the sisters and Rei ultimately need to embrace. There’s sadness linger in every corner of this show.

This is the first time that the Kawamoto’s father is mentioned, albeit very briefly. Exactly what happened to him is rather vague right now, but judging from the way the sisters avoided to talk about him, I’d assume he runaways from home. Elope with another woman maybe. Also in this episode Rei has 2 dreams which are actually relevant to his mind state right now. The first dream of him going up in long escalator without a way back signifies the shogi path, and in larger extend, the life he’s taking right now. As of now he’s considering shogi as his life (the only life he has actually), and as the dream further reveals, it’s a long, lonely way up top and when he gets to the top, there is no turning back. The second dream is about his memory way back from his youth, as his sister and him got scolded by their Mom for putting up stickers on her table. As he soon realizes, he feels this Kawamoto sister’s house like his home, even though he just knew them for a short period of time. Finding the place where you belong is never easy, finding a place where you could call home is much harder. It’s still a progression from Rei as he recognizes the warm feeling he has and bit by bit he can consider the sisters as his family.

This episode also addresses quite sensitively about Akira’s own life. What is better  for her? Taking care of the house, doing house works all day; day by day the same process until she’s worn out? Is this occasionally dressing up to work on a bar to assist her aunt’s pub good for herself? As the fella who really care about woman’s life and issues, this surely piqued my interest. Akira has always been a responsible type so it’s no question that she will commit herself to fulfill mother’s role, at least at this stage. Personally I’d argue that this is not the best for her life, sometimes you should be a little selfish and do what you want to do, but leaving those kids and an old man behind is ruthless as well. She’s in a situation where she has no other choice but to commit to it, but the way she gives it her full without even have time to consider her own feeling or her own dream made me want to hug her so bad. This is again a very subtle character’s writing from Umino Chica. This work feels like a heart and soul of her. Halfway marks and I would say two of the show’s best strengths are the sharp and sensitive in its character’s writing, and the creative, thoughtful visual that really dig deep inside Rei’s depression by Shaft that we witnessed last week. That’s a great combination if you ask me and I personally don’t mind to follow Rei’s depressing mindscape for another season. Merry Christmas everyone!

Flip Flappers – 12 [Pure Howling]

by SuperMario, posted in Currently Watching:, Flip Flappers

We have a recap episode of sort this week as our new pair Papika and Yayaka had to travel pass the previous Pure Illusion worlds we seen throughout the season. It sucks for the Cocona-rescue team of course since the closer they get to Cocona, the more Mama Mimi made them detour around those worlds and of course fight more monsters. That means the awesome seductress villain from episode 3 is back, the giant mecha robot reappears, and those snow creatures return. Well, all the usual suspects. But Yayaka is even more kick ass than Cocona will ever be, so instead of spending the whole episode to destroy those monsters, the new team just takes mere minutes. Her fight between the seductress is pretty amazing as well, easily the highlight of this episode. But even someone as badass as this one still suffers from the usual’s villain pitfall: Talking way tooo much; so that Yayaka has a chance to blow her up… and then Yayaka transforms. With Cocona being Pure Blade (Red), Papika being Pure Barrier (Blue), of course Yayaka is becoming Pure Kick, and green is the color of the day (another basic color). I never would have expected to see another new transformation this late in the game, but wayyyy to go Flip Flappers because this transformation is a nice conclusion to Yayaka’s character growth throughout the series, and she freaking earned it.

But the crazy parts don’t stop there. Mama Mimi’s getting more and more extreme by the minutes to the point of manipulating her only friend into submission. But the evil Mimi couldn’t control herself (to be more exact: her good self) to appear in front of Cocona, then Papika when it counts most. This turn of events isn’t unlike Deux Ex Machina in execution (good Mama Mimi: “hah! I just wait until all the fuss is over and then jump in and save the day!”), but anything that force Cocona out of that stone face is good on my book. You want something crazier? How about MUSCLE? Out of nowhere, Hidaka presses the button (he must carry it all the time since this is a new lab, right?), and Bu-chan got a whole new ridiculously muscled body, attached by- what I assumed- brains, just so the very next moment got swept away by the snow caterpillars. This moment was so Flip Flappers-y that I can’t help but cheers along the way. Just let the sequence writes itself and logic out of the window. Finally, what’s that in the end after their hands touch each other? Another new transformation, Cinderella-style with wings? OH MY GOODNESS. I would totally understand Mimi’s frustration here: Why so lame??? Why not something cool like a dress on fire? I come to believe that the main theme of this episode is about transformation; as our main characters are all “level-up” based on what they grow emotionally, by being able to address their own feelings.

The plot at this point pretty much reach its full potential that not much left really for us to say, but there’s still some interesting plot points going on. Namely, what Salt is up to with the ELPIS? In order to show Mimi something? (Also, that totally random bike is cool). For the first time though the show mentioned about Cocona’s father, so let see in the next episode whether or not Salt is her actual father. The twins also for the first time show some sort of personal feelings, which is always welcome and that third girl is still having a lot of fun screwing around at the moment. But her role is not purely a red herring though. Given the fact that they are the Amorphous child, it’s mean that they are somehow a part of Mimi so those Amorphous children are the key in order to destroy the Mama-knows-best Mimi for good. Only one episode left so whatever going to happen in that last 20 minutes, I know there’s going to be good times.

Yuri!!! on Ice (Fall 2016) Review – 83/100

by SuperMario, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by SuperMario

“Can you hear my heartbeat? Tired of feeling never enough.

I close my eyes and tell myself that my dreams will come true”

That’s exactly what Yuri on Ice offers, a heart-pumping ride to the sport of figure skating. Yuri on Ice’s current success and mainstream breakout is something that no one could have guessed before it aired; but here we are. As the show progressed, it picked up fans along its way, enthusiasm comments episode after episode, even the professional skaters are quite fond with the anime. So really then, how good is Yuri on Ice exactly? Well, let me put it this way, this show is vastly different than your regular anime out there, down from its sheer ambition alone (this is a passion project from one of the most promising anime director), the well-detailed struggling productions (which for me that doesn’t hurt the show, quite the opposite really as I find it adds to the show’s charms) and most famously the very positive portray of gay male romance and of characters from different backgrounds.

Yuri On Ice follows a season-long of Japanese figure skater Yuri after Victor- the current world champion skate figure- decided to take a year break in order to coach Yuri to win the world gold. He then trained and competed with other world class competitors from around the globe, especially with his rival: teen prodigy Yurio from Russia. I have briefly mentioned this before, but sports like figure skating or gymnastics or some performing martial arts are more akin to performing arts (think of dancing, acting or opera singing or ahem… band concerting) than the competitive nature of other sports. While other sports emphasis mainly on winning, those kinds of sports also aim for aesthetic and beauty. Beauty rules. Beauty rocks. Beauty is king. That’s why to do figure skating justice is a tricky job, as you have to both show artistic expressions of each individuals, as the same time still make the sport competitive. On that front, the show’s rather unusual approach of focusing entirely on the routines of each players elevate those parts I mentioned rather nicely, but writing-wise, it leaves a lot to be desired.

The show, at its core, is one huge theme about expressions, as expression is the very nature of figure skating, and through the performances the characters have a space to express their personalities, as well as their own struggles. Even our main character, Yuri, scrambles throughout the series to express his “love” for himself, for the sport and for his coach Victor. Many of the routines are of course over the top and hilariously silly (like the Italian’s sibling complex or the sex appeal ending routine of the Swiss guy, Christophe); but through those performances each player has his own little arc to dwell into and it’s certainly entertainment to watch both their smooth movements and their stream of thoughts from those guys. Every player, as a result, has certain unique traits and each of them add their own colors to this colorful world. I certainly enjoy the company of most of them.

But the hot of Yuri on Ice lies on the “bromance” relationship between our two men: Yuri and Victor. Week in, week out, the exclamations of many passionate fans: “Did they or didn’t they…?” would float up and soon become a massive storm of all kinds of responses. While this sucks that the show as brave as this one wouldn’t go all the way to announce their romantic relationship, it’s all clear in the context. I would say that this series greatest’s strength is the show’s positive depiction of same-sex relationship between two men. Positive but not realistic. I will get to the unrealistic part later but for once, this romance feels exactly how the two persons attracting to each other, the way they cling to one another and try their best to surprise the other partner. I’m glad the show see them as real characters, and describe their relationship not for the shake of shocking the anime world (although it did). More importantly, this homosexual relationship is a positive and necessary statement to both the sports community and the countries where those characters are from; as sports have history of homophobia from way back and the real life gay figure skater Johnny Weir, struggled to this very issue throughout his whole career. In addition, Russia specially also has a history with homophobic and Japan themselves is still debating on legalize gay marriage in their country (well, Australia is still debating as well. What’s wrong with you people? If someone want to marriage, give them the rights to!), so in episode 10, when Yuri and Victor giving rings (even in the name of good luck charms), it is a clear message for gay rights and I honestly wouldn’t wish it other way. If only other shows willing take such risks like that.

As for the unrealistic part, I’m going to be brief but the premise alone about Victor “suddenly” visits his hometown and declared to be his coach is really a wish-fulfilment plot device. We did learn in the end that Victor was swayed by the drunken Yuri but really this is something that only works in fiction. Even setting aside the mechanism, Victor willingness to see Yuri as his partner at all cost, while fun to watch, isn’t seem real at all. Furthermore, their relationship is depicted mostly in positive light, but when you think about it, putting two people with different backgrounds will of course result in culture shock. Even a small gesture from one side can be interpreted different by the other, but the show brushes any of that off and even more conveniently they made those characters communicate well to each other like they are all come from the big Japan. They do argue with each other but after a while they are overwhelmed by other’s feeling, as I take it as they are still on the early stage of relationship. If they truly can stay together, they will need to see the dark, vulnerable side of each other and as of now I don’t see any of that being shown in the series. Call me cynical guy but yeah while I still enjoy their relationship, it’s just not the real presentation of what true relationship is.

Another strong point that I am personally digging it from the show is how they handled the characters from different backgrounds with stereotype-free for the most part. Like how when you think about an anime American character, you’d think of the blonde, ruthless money-obsessed guy, but the American we got from this anime is the Mexican-background Leo de la Iglesia. Or for the country that is hot and wet all year and don’t even have snow in winter like Thailand, skate figure is the very unnatural sport, but to present a Thai character who is proud of being the first Thai to reach the final stage? That is a phenomenal touch and that approach strangely makes those characters feel so rich and universal.

But because of the show’s choice to concentrate on the performances, many problems arise. First, in order to be more focus, they can only emphasis on the Yuri’s growth and his relationship to Victor, and most of other parts are either undercooked or being neglected all together, especially for those non-professional characters. Remember Yuko? Or Minako? Of course not because basically after the first few episodes their roles are basically over, and the show reduces them to crazy bitch fans. How about their dogs? What happened with Victor’s dog afterward? Also, that part where Victor had to rush home for his dog is poorly constructed so that it feels very forced. Yurio gets some more screentime than the rest, and I particularly enjoy his moments with his grandpa, and with Otabek, but I feel his rival with Yuri is underdeveloped, especially towards the end when the person Yurio often pissed off weren’t Yuri but Victor. Also, I find the ending is so rushed that I would love for some more time to see the aftermath of those main characters.

The repetitive nature of those routines is also their drawbacks. Although of course they are slightly different, with the jump sequences are changed each time and we can see the character’s progression after each routine, it still can’t hide the fact the we listen to the same music, see the same performances for a good number of time. I have lost counts on how many times I’ve seen Yuri perform his pieces (by my count right now, 5 times for each program), as a result it makes the story as a whole rather predictable. There are also some sequences that I can see the huge graded down in terms of quality, but as I said earlier for those parts that did work, the choreography of the performances is something to behold, the animation is one of the fluidest I’ve seen this season and those shaky productions still managed to maintain my attention throughout the show. The music is all around great and creative, and further assist to make all the characters so distinguishable with each of them have their own unique theme song that speak a lot to their characters. I would definitely buy their soundtracks if it ever releases as a physical CD.

As a final impression, I am glad that we have this show. Yuri on Ice stands out in more than one way and if anything, its unexpected mainstream appeal means that Sayo Yamamoto will have more artistic control over her next project, which is a huge bless for everyone. As for the show, they’re not quite there to make history yet, but there’s no denying that Yuri on Ice is a special show.

Sound! Euphonium 2 – 12 [The Last Competition]

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

This could very well be Sound Eupho confessional episode. We get all the confessions of sort, for better or for worse. This is an episode that gives satisfied conclusions to many ongoing plots. While it also means that the show pushes forward Reina’s feeling for Taki-sensei for literally everyone to hear- which as of now we can pretty much take it or leave it. I will leave it at that- other pay-offs, particular Kumiko’s and Asuka’s, are intimate and heartfelt. Kumiko’s longing for her sister on the performance day is easily one of my favorite Sound Eupho moments. Sometimes you just need to say what hold you back out loud to the one you love. The fact that her sister played music, and to this extend, came all the way to see her play matters to her. The whole sequence was animated quite brilliantly as well, followed Kumiko as she rushing to catch up with her sister. I haven’t really sold on Kumiko’s sudden development for the last few episodes, but this moment comes just so natural and ties very well with her growth that it rings so true to me; not because it reminds me of my own story but because this is what I truly know Kumiko would behave. This is the kind of character moments that I’ve been looking for in the show.

The national performance is decidedly low-key. Very low-key indeed. We have been spoiled too much on Sound Eupho that we would expect another full-blown performance from the band, but this anti-climax approach is actually very fitting with the second half of this season: as the show progressed, they shift the focus on the musical performance to character’s arcs drama, that of course brings a fair share of both good and bad points. On the positive notes, this approach makes the show feel fresh with their attention is squarely on other issues. Do we really need to watch another 10-minutes performance again? Why don’t the show, instead of repeating the same approach, focus to something else entirely? And that’s precisely what happened: instead of that big performance that everyone been waiting for, their very next cuts show the members of the band sitting and interacting with each other after the performance (I love Reina’s just sitting quietly and reflecting here- “Sometimes I sit and think. Sometimes I just sit”-type of situation). I know I’m in minority but I actually enjoy all those small moments here, every member that we all know and care for all have their moments to shine through (but, where are Yuuko and Natsuki??).

This choice, on the other hand, makes the stake of national competition surprisingly low, even much lower than the local competition. I’d rather prefer of instead of that Reina episode last week, they could focus more on the third years feeling towards their very last performance. As the result; even though the band only achieved bronze, we don’t really feel they’ve earned it. Furthermore, that Reina confession sure feels awkward, as she repeatedly banging her head against thick wall. Taki-sensei actually did his best to deal with her confession. He could just easily laugh it off, or right out scold her; but he acknowledges that he appreciates the thoughts but he won’t advance the matter anymore. Now if only that love story is the central theme of the show’s next season.

Shuichi finally has a real moment with Kumiko we’ve been waiting for. This poor guy was shut down from Kumiko just because she didn’t care too much about him. Forget about him being a romantic interest to Kumiko, Shuichi is actually one of those few people who really understands Kumiko, especially about her and her sister’s relationship. Many readers think of him as one of the most underdeveloped character out of the show, especially when it comes to his fruitless childhood crush towards Kumiko. While I partly agree with this, just keep in mind that in actuality many of our characters just hang in there because they don’t have enough material to grow. Reina had been in Kumiko’s shadow for a good number of episodes before reaching her arc, and most notably Sapphire and Hazuki appear so far and few between for main characters. Actually, I don’t even know why they’re still labeled as mains in the ED. I just read through one Ayano Takeda’s interview, the writer of the books that this show adapted (a really informative interview I would add), and in there she said that the main purpose of Sapphire was to elevate the material until Taki-sensei arrived, because otherwise people just lose their interest prior to the band deciding to practice for National competition. That explains a lot on how their roles are minimal this season.

In the end, this episode actually addresses many character arcs quite nicely, but at the same time I wouldn’t blame people who think this episode is a disappointment. I would just say that your feeling towards this episode entirely depends on how you feel about the second half of this season. Seems like we ending the third book by this episode and the next one will be the anime-original episode so who knows what will going to happen, but it’s the more reason that the final episode is a must-watch for every fan.

And let the final piece begin…

Drifters -11[The Adventure of the Pistol Daimyo ~Bullet Counting Song~]

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Drifters

I really must have given the Orte far more credit than they were due as their end truly is more pathetic than I could have imagined. I at least thought they would put up somewhat of a fight and make it that the Drifters would have to earn their domain. But what quite literally happened here was that they just walked in and declared Orte finished. In my last post I complained at how the  Orte never truly posed much of a threat against the the Drifters and I suppose it is rather appropriate that they get pushed to the sidelines quickly to let the real antagonists jump in. So with this the stage is set for the last battle of the series and admittedly it is a much more interesting one than the Orte could have been. However I fear that the Ends may be falling into the same trap the Ortc fell into, namely that they simply aren’t all that much of a threat to the Drifters. Gils did give the Drifters trouble but it looks like their forces and even Rasputin are being undermined.

I think a good conflict such have both sides on even footing and not show one side as too overpowered for too long. I did get a kick out of how Rasputin was doing the usual criminal mastermind play before having Toyohisa destroy his plan and outright ignore him. But I don’t really get what the original plan was. Clearly the Orte would never surrender to the Black King because the Black King has made it clear that he intends to kill all humanity. So how exactly would Rasputin convince them to surrender, even if he had troops within the city? Well knowing the Orte they might have been dumb enough to actually take his spiel about begging the Black King for mercy and letting them be his vanguard. I do enjoy seeing Rasputin get a good kick to his pride but the problem with this show is that the Drifters don’t have good enough opposition. If the Ends are just going to take the place of the Orte as the Drifters personal punching bags then that just defeats the purpose of getting rid of the Orte in the first place.

I admit I don’t have much to comment about this week. I think nearing the shows end I find that having things to say about a show that is essentially style over substance is getting a bit sparse. I don’t think Drifters can escape the curse that befalls most anime adaptions in that they wait for a sequel to conclude what they start in one season. A sequel often never to come.Though in Drifters case I am not really sure I would be all that sad if it never got a sequel. As an anime it was a serviceable show and enjoyable, but lacked something to make it really great. Perhaps the problem is in that it tried to emulate Hellsing on a grander scale but style can only carry the show so far. The comedy is certainly it’s weakest element and the characters have interesting points but really it’s their historical backgrounds that give them character. Otherwise they come off as the same type of character, that being the stone cold badass. And if everyone is the badass, no one is. So for last minute impressions  before the finale, Drifters was a good watch but I doubt I will ever want to check it out again. Well maybe to watch it dubbed but that’s more to see if it has a different feel in English. After all Hellisng Ultimate dubbed is just marvelous.

3-gatsu no Lion – 10 [Something Given part 1 – part 2]

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

The lion is roaring loud this week, both figuratively as the show comes back strong after an unremarkable episode last week, and narratively as this is the first time we see Rei breaks down and screams out loud. I have always enjoyed Shaft’s deliberate pacing for this show, not only because the material is slow-burn in nature, but this pacing really demands us not to look away from the Rei’s raw emotions. Whenever he’s alone, he is in deep, dark and depressing thoughts that if the show rushes over those inner feelings, those emotions can become lousy. Even when Shaft decides to take extra time focus on “nothing happened” sequences like Rei riding train or the match of him and Mr. Yasui; which you can easily tell that part wasn’t in the manga (beautiful score by the way); they nail the mood so right that we can feel the feeling Rei has going to the match. While the way Shaft sometimes focus on quick cuts of extreme close-up shots is somewhat questionable, the pacing is one of those parts that Shaft actually improves on its source material. I’m quite satisfied knowing that the show is in good hands.

Man, that looks from those kids really kill me. For those kids at that time shogi means acceptance from their father so it’s very understandable that those kids were hurt. You can blame the father for being so insensitive but I can understand his point of view. Usually the parent only wishes for one of their child to follow their footstep, and out of the three children obviously Rei fits the bill the most. That’s also the reason he wanted Kyouko to quit shogi. After all, there are many other things outside of shogi they can try out and be good at, right? He certainly undermined the feeling of his own children but I wouldn’t blame him for that. Speaking of Kyouko, she backs again too soon this week to gives Rei another hell. Her own ambiguous relationship towards Rei is one of the show’s rawest and most complicated one. I take that there are two things from Rei that she despites him the most: the fact the he became a member of her family (“you took someone else’s father”. Man, that’s harsh) and his shogi, so when it comes to those two things, she’s as dangerous as a snake and willing to hurt Rei because his very presence hurt her. The hatred becomes too deep that she abused him when they were living together. But I also sense as she growing up now she grows to care for Rei, although just a little bit. After all, many of her little actions suggests that: she fixes the scarf for Rei and came to his apartment to check on his well-being. It seems like her real intention for her venomous talk is not for Rei to lose (she knows Rei’s talent too well), but for Rei to feel guilty if he wins. Every step he walks forward to the path of shogi, she makes sure that Rei FEELS the bones and fleshes of those sacrifices that paved up the path.

The story this week is about Mr. Yasui, who normally a modest guy but when he loses he goes berserk. Unlike the happy ending last week, this time Rei could not improve the situation: it’s his last Christmas with his daughter, but if he loses it mean he’d be in bad mood and really Rei had nothing to do about it. It’s interesting to see Mr. Yasui’s personality through the shogi play, as at first he was composed because he didn’t want to lose, but with one mistake he basically gave up the game. Things never work out the way we want and I’m glad that there is no happy ending for this episode. Actually, when I think back of last episode, the outcome of Mr. Maysunaga makes the result of this week even more impactful. Rei can’t make people happy all the time, and playing great shogi certainly isn’t his crimes. I hope we know about the conclusion of Yasui’s daughter but really even want to know that mean the story already affects me emotionally.

Again, Rei suffers through a hell lot this week. That twisted relationship between him and Ryouko isn’t one-sided after all. He’s all too aware that those words would pierce through his heart but he can’t help but wanting to listen to these. He tries to do something different but those words come back to haunt him, moreover when the consequence plays out exactly like he fears, he feels like he’s a beast who eat up everything in its way. He looks at that hand, the hand of a death god who take away happiness from others, until he can’t take it anymore and explodes. The final sequence is one of the highlight moments not only for this episode, but for the whole season so far. What he screaming might not as relevant to his nature, but the fact alone that he expresses his emotions out loud is something we don’t see very often. He might feel down now and collapse out of sorrow, but one of the best quality that human have is the ability to stand up and walk again after falling down. That I can look forward to.

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.