Animation Revelation's Animation Blog

Well, bully on me for not watching those chibi specials a few weeks ago, because those were essential to understanding the terminology in this show… except it feels unnecessary. Instead of regular old mana, the magical energy you use is called Psions. And instead of wands, they’re Casting Assistant Devices because that sounds technical enough to make the magic seem more realistic than it actually is. Last episode, we had to deal with clique names like weeds and blooms. Now, there’s all this about how one CAD is primarily specialized in helmet splitting while Miyuki’s CAD has to be handled by Tatsuya’s in order to set her mind at ease.

And that goes further in dependent Miyuki is throughout this episode. She has to get Tatsuya’s nod of approval in order to talk to the student council, or get the signature head pat to remind things are going to be fine. She makes the girl from Sakurasou seem more self-sufficient. At the least, I’m learning to tolerate her “Onii-sama” verbal tic, since that’s not going to go away anytime soon. But still, she’s a doormat. Even among other characters who were touted to be strong but didn’t deliver like Asuna, Miyuki has made all of her contemporaries feel more self-reliant by comparison. It gets to the point where I’m expecting a scene next episode when Tatsuya feeds Miyuki while she wears a bib.

Maybe I’m getting too ahead of myself, but give Miyuki a scene where she can be cool or show off her own magic without her brother for once. But instead, there’s a moment where she sits in awe over people making their own boxed lunches. She’s such a stock damsel at this point in the story, so I’m wondering what’s in store for her character in the next few arcs. Is something cool going to happen? Or will she continue to rely on her godly Onii-sama to turn their magic school upside down? This show can be surprising when it wants to be, just not in a good way.

But what doesn’t surprise was the advent of Gyobu Hattori, the latest of the classmates-of-the-week for Tatsuya to beat in order to show off his perfection. Tatsuya’s so cool, that futuristic academic like Gyobu cannot properly gauge how cool he is. Gyobu has a meticulous plan in order to show this kid what for, except he didn’t realize Tatsuya would pull out super-speed out of nowhere to trounce his rule-abiding ass. While this kid was a douche, I can’t help but feel bad for him because he gets screwed over by fucking Tatsuya. Also, I love the subtle love triangle going on with how Gyobu really wants Miyuki, but Miyuki and Mayumi really want Tatsuya, while Tatsuya doesn’t want anybody because he’s too stoic to comprehend romance. And that’s not even accounting for all of the blushing schoolgirls who accidentally refer to Tatsuya as “Onii-sama” as he unintentionally makes the moves on them. Not even three episodes in, and this show’s already getting to Ranma levels of nebulous relationships.

Been a while hasn’t it? When last I watched the unspeakable abomination that is Gatchaman Crowds, the show gave me one of the most mindbogglingly inept finales ever, rife with plot holes, characters shunted to the sides, and a final battle that was… not a final battle… at all. At that time, I prayed to the anime gods that such a disaster should never be repeated and I would never have to do Crowds-Sourcing ever again.

…Since then, Tatsunoko has announced Gatchaman Crowds Second will be airing this year and they gave us a new final episode for the blu-ray set  Clearly, there is no god.

Ok so NEW Crowds 12 is actually kinda interesting in that only roughly 2 1/2 minutes of the estimated 24:00 run time has been retained from the original broadcast cut. I assume the rest was edited back into episode 11, which if you recall was a half-assed half-recap episode originally. As I have not yet seen the blu-ray version of Crowds 11, this is based entirely on the fact that the events of this episode are set after the eyecatch of the original version so it makes sense. In which case I refer you to the original write up I did of Crowds 12 last September.

So anyway, Crowds 12! The Crowds Game is finishing eliminating the NeoXHun CROWDS and turning them into small boxes for orderly disposal. Or in this case, being turned into NOTEs so that their victims can get their souls back or something. The Gatchaman team is proclaimed heroes by the Japanese government and considering there’s no more Mess to fight and no more CROWDS to fight, they’re kinda taking it easy. Paiman gets drunk, Sugane enters college and goes boozing for the first time with Jo, Rui gets to enjoy the life of a Japanese school girl for the first time (DON’T ASK), O.D. (who despite getting impaled by Katze previously is still alive somehow) and Utsutsu pray to avant garde cactus sculptures, J.J. Robinson continues to do nothing but make paper airplanes, and Hajime wanders around like an idiot while posing for photos with her fanboys.

BUT WHAT ABOUT BERG-KATZE?!?

Well apparently he left Earth after it stopped being fun for him to be a masochist… or did he? One day, Hajime reopens the Gatchannel to announce she’s going on a date with everybody’s favorite hermaphrodite. The Gatchaman team and a swarm of unlookers rush to the local train station to witness this fiasco only to see Hajime essentially talking to herself for 2 minutes straight. …or is she? You see that crowd of onlookers? That’s actually the various people Katze gave big wet kisses to last summer and Hajime being the all-knowing god of the Nakamuraverse that she is, sees right through his disguise. What follows is arguably the most facepalm inducing, downright bizarre five minutes that Gatchaman Crowds has yet produced for us. So bizarre that I had to watch it not once, but twice to determine if I was halucinating or not.  Basically Hajime uses her scissors of death to Hassan-chop Katze’s beautiful red locks before turning him into a note (by KISSING HIM I might add) and shoving him into her chest, making various somewhat sexual howls in the process. …I got nothin.

Well anyway the rest of the episode is pretty much the original ending. Innocent Note gets a new remix (or maybe its an alternate edit, I don’t know), and there’s no teaser for the rather ominous Crowds Second. Yeah I think I’m done here.

Crowds 12 Redux on one hand is definitely an improvement over the original. It fixes a lot of the problems the first version had which basically was that the show had even less to do with Gatchaman after Nakamura became so damn obsesssed with his GALAX and CROWDS Game bullshit. This version is far more focused on the protagonists which is what it should have been in the first place but sadly that also means the episode is very, VERY Hajime. I can’t tell if its because I have not looked at Crowds not one second since the show ended but Hajime seemed more “special” to me this time around, and that’s saying quite a bit. And then there’s Katze… poor poor Katze. Last time I complained about how there was no damn explanation as to what happened in the time skip and that it felt like Nakamura was just trying to cover his tracks with lazy story telling. Now… I kinda want that mystery back. What I have seen cannot be unseen, regrettably.

So anyway… that was Crowds… AGAIN. See you in a few months for Crowds Second. “Yay!” he said with a posed look. >_< 4/10.

 

 

 

 

 

Baby Steps

The shounen sports genre, which was seemingly near dead in the previous decade, has seen a resurgence in previous years with a plethora of popular titles. Unfortunately, with that resurgence comes a ton of formulaic drivel that doesn’t really do anything to distinguish itself in any meaningful way. And, while it’s probably unfair to judge these sorts of series on just a single episode, being that they are slow-paced by nature, we have to hold them to the same standards as we do everything else in these write-ups. Based on that logic, Baby Steps is as bland and mediocre as a premiere can get.

So, you have this straight-A honors student, “Ei-Chan” (can’t be bothered to remember his full name), who is insanely studious but emotionally sterile, not really considering whether he enjoys studying or not, and not taking the time to pursue a hobby of any kind. OK….so, what else is there? All of that is simply the set-up for a character, but it’s not actually “characterizing” him in any real way. That’s merely just a character achetype, of which there are already numerous examples of in this genre. What distinguishes that guy from someone like Ippo from his respective sports series. It’s literally just the archetype without any indication of what else there is to him to make us give a shit.

He ends up joining a Tennis club just because a free lesson is offered and he wants to find a weekly activity to stay in shape. Then he passes out because the warm-ups are too intense for him. He’s about to quit but then there’s this girl, who I guess is supposed to be his love interest or something, that wants to go pro and keeps him interested in the sport. At this point you can already tell where this series is going. He’s going to learn a lot about Tennis (and thus the audience will be treated to heavy doses of exposition in high frequency), and eventually he’ll learn to grow a passion for the sport, and end up finding one tough opponent after the other and train to beat them. And then the process will rinse and repeat. That’s all fine and good, but I still haven’t been given any reason to care about any of this, which isn’t a good sign for a premiere episode. This is very similar to the Fall 2013 season’s Ace of Diamond. The series clearly understands the set-up for this sort of story, but lacks the drive to actually make you want to stick with it. If you’re a hardcore fan of this genre of manga/anime, it may be worth giving a few episodes to see how it turns out. For me and everyone else, the characters are too stoic and boring, and the fact that I’m not a sports fan to begin with doesn’t help to entice me either, so I’m going to have to give this one a pass. — Ensatsu-ken

Blade & Soul

So somebody at Gonzo apparently watched Queen’s Blade recently and as a result we get this, a bland pseudo-fantasy that’s really just a churlish attempt at making a soft-core hentai…only to fail miserably at both, or in other words… Queen’s Blade! Blade & Soul (we’ll call it BS for short) is apparently based off a video game, probably one of the Tomonobu Itagaki variety and as such is basically just glorified cheesecake. Oh joy he said…

So in a Sengoku period where things like AK-47’s, high heels, and flak jackets exist for some reason, we are introduced to Alka “The Butterfly”, a cold bitch in assless chaps who causes grown men to piss their pants. An evil empire who’s buying up all the territories around wants her dead for some reason but isn’t having much luck at it because… assless chaps > shrapnel I guess. A nearby village hires Alka to serve as its new mercenary, only to get burned to a crisp when Gammagoori from Kill La Kill shows up because that show didn’t get a third cour. In total, nothing happens and our “heroine” leaves for revenge with the chief’s daughter so they can have free yuri or something because… Queen’s Blade.

This show is just the business. There’s no characters, no plot, no point, just fan service, and not even good fan service at that. If I wanted to watch Queen’s Blade (and considering how I quit that show after the first monster they fought was a rabbit girl who killed things by lactating on them…), I’d just watch Highschool of the Dead. To hell with you BS! — Lord Dalek

Second Opinion!

Meet Aruka, she’s a stoic, silver-haired, babe with a peerless pedigree in swordsmanship yet is a lousy self-barber.  Apparently wanted for murder of her master, she is on a vendetta for revenge if she isn’t being a sellsword to the random bucolic villages (filled with men either incontinent for with the very Japanese hairstyle of cornrows).  However trouble always seems to find her, murder is afoot, and blood is shed, and it is up to her I guess to get revenge against the Empire that’s after her…  I would think she doesn’t really look overly concerned about things.

Myeh, based on some Korean MMORPG by NCSoft, this anime is I guess okay.  There’s really nothing too offensive here, and despite the fanservice, compared to Queen’s Blade all the women are dressed up for church.  Animation’s just unspectacular; music I guess is procedural, and well…  Eh.

It probably doesn’t help that Aruka is completely devoid of that special something that makes for compelling protagonists.  If she isn’t murdering people, she’s just lounging around on top of trees, making terse statements about revenge, and being a flesh wall with tits whenever somebody tries to converse with her.  She doesn’t have much snap to her, and as such it is really hard to really get into it.  Add to the fact that while the villagers were overly concerned about being attacked by the aforementioned Empire after Aruka did her murdering thing, she just sat around, then when they attacked she started murdering people, murdered some guy who gets roided up with flower steroids, and then comforts token village daughter chief person by saying to take revenge…

…Yeah, if you can’t tell I’m at the edge of my seat with this anime.  However, I’m only doing so because I’m ready to stand up, so I can go get myself a soda.  I’ll be back, but if I catch you watching Bland and Sour/Blade and Soul?  …Eh. — The Juude

Blue Sky

Adapted from the third installment of an Otome Visual Novel, La Corda d’Oro: Blue Sky follows the story of violinist Kanade Kohinata. After she and her friend, Kyoya, are invited to a concert by fellow violonist and Kyoya’s brother, Ritsu, she decides to transfer to Seisou Academy in hopes of improving her skills. Soon after, Ritsu enrolls her and Kyoya in a countrywide classical music competition between rival schools over the summer.

Unlike a certain other reverse-harem show this season, La Corda d’Oro: Blue Sky seems to have some nuance to it. The premise is simple and effective, and the characters seem a lot more memorable and likable. It also wasn’t “in your face” about the whole harem aspect, leaving the impression that individual character growth and drama will take center stage, as opposed to romantic harem antics (though there are plenty of hints of that too). Art and animation are decent, the bishies look pretty damn bishie, so I guess it’s doing its job. Being centered on classical music, the soundtrack has a very classy and elegant feel to it, easily the best part of the anime for me, and I’m not even big on classical music. Blue Sky looks to be a decent reverse-harem drama anime, so if you’re into either of those, or classical music, it’s worth checking out. — Rynnec

Brynhildr in the Darkness

Man, I seem to be having a case of deja vu. Could have sworn I saw this show on the Anime Network back in the day. Hmmm, probably my imagination…

Years ago, a boy named Ryota (damn, there it is again… I totally swore I’ve seen a show with a kid named Yota or something) had a friend he called Kuroneko (…nah that was Oreimo, different show). They both went looking for space aliens because Kuroneko claimed she saw one once. Then she fell off a dam and died. THE END!

Alas… flash forward 10 years and now high school aged Ryota is haunted by memories of his amour (again… what is with this nagging feeling?). To which end he has become the only member of the school astronomy club and spends his nights looking through a dilapidated telescope. Things get strange when a new transfer named Neko Kuroha baring a strong resemblance to the late Kuroneko appears. Things get stranger when Kuroha turns out to be a precog with super strength and the ability to shatter boulders in half. Why does this seem so familiar?

Anyway Brynhildr is made by the atrocious ARMS and it’s probably the least nauseating premiere I’ve seen from them. Then again… nothing happens outside of a girl getting her leg stuck in a swimming pool vent and a rockslide. You see, Neko is apparently there to prevent people from dying, and she’s kinda bad at her job to boot. Not like I care, I mean the show is just kinda boring and meh so… why bother?

And yet, this nagging feeling I’ve seen this show before… what is it? Hmmm maybe I should check the credits? Lets see here? ARMS, directed by Kitajima, based off a manga by Lynn Okamo-

OH GOD NO! NO! NO! DIE MONSTER YOU DON’T BELONG IN THIS WORLD!!! — Lord Dalek

Captain Earth

Wow!  What a way to make a great first impression.  Captain Earth may be my favourite premiere this Spring season aside from Stardust Crusaders.  It takes a rather unassuming and mundane concept for a mecha show and makes it absolutely polished to a point I was left dumbstruck that it was much better than I’d thought it’d be.

So our everyteen, Daichi, is one without a father, who went off and sacrificed his life to stop some AEO (Approaching-Earth Object) from entering into the atmosphere.  As a result of that, Daichi became shiftless, melancholic, and overall unsure of what to do with his life.  He thankfully isn’t an emo git or a whiny preteen, instead giving us a disposition that’s smoldering with quiet uncertainty, especially with what happened to him in his earlier years.  It’s done in such a way that makes him rather compelling and curious about what would get him out of his rut.

Obviously since this is a mecha anime from Bones and the director of Star Driver, that the malevolent colour-coiffed Planetary Gears, mysterious boys and girls, a secret Earth Defense organization, and a gigantic gem hemorrhoid (or is that “Gemmorhoid”?) behind the Moon will do such, although probably not in that positive, uplifting, go-get-em kindof way.   While all this dump of information, characters, and machinations may seem detrimental to have in the first episode outright, the writing never loses focus on Daichi, and relegates the rest of them to foundation setting, and intrigue building.  It all works exceptionally well that when Daichi finally gets thrust into the pilot seat, it’s all forms of exciting with the gattai, the posing, and then—The episode ends before we can see what would be beautiful action.

And it would be beautiful, because the animation, the character designs, and the music are absolutely gorgeous.  The saddest part in that regard is the sneaking uncertainty that all the visual gorgeousness may go all cheap on us in later episodes.

Still, Captain Earth’s first episode was successful in slipping the girly bonds of its namesake.  Now let’s see if it’ll be successful in punching the face of God.

Also you just CAN’T say no to an anime with an eyecatch that promises us “Everything will be obvious soon.” I mean other anime dance around the issue or blare it out on loudspeakers, but only this would be interesting enough to just tell us by eyecatch to roll with it. — The Juude

Second Opinion!

So rebellious kid who’s only rebellious by Japan’s standards. Mysterious childhood friend. Naked space girl. Robots powered by libido or something. Dead dad. Angst fence.

I feel like I’ve watched scenes from other anime but with these characters models pasted on. I know how much of a blanket statement that is, with how easy it is to say, “this show reminds me of that show, so it sucks”, but this show really just feels like a bunch of other shows I’ve watched. Taking apart the show on its own terms reveals nothing much some story about a kid coming of age to save the world. It’s not even well executed, so there was never any particular zing this show gave for me. I paused this show three times and only continued because it was still an open tab. That says more about my own laziness, but this anime doesn’t have any grab to it. For a supposed rebel, the main character’s a bore that prefers to focus on flashbacks with his childhood friend/potential lover/alien anal probe-to-be instead of showcase an actual personality. This episode was just him going “Eh, my dad died, so I guess I should follow his footsteps or something. I dunno.”

Then there’s the stuff with the villains who look like the Kiraboshi guys from Star Driver, and they look like they just stepped out of an early 90s anime. They could be interesting in the next few episodes, but there’s not enough of a hook to make me want to find out more about these guys. Should I care why they want to attack Earth, because the Earth in this show seems pretty bland from what I can tell. Even when the world is in danger, I don’t feel any stakes rising. It just feels so humdrum, when even Super Sentai puts more suspense in its fights than this. They don’t even try to show off how cool the robot is or what its strengths are, just throwing a robot on the screen and thinking that alone will be enticing. Where Daimidaler was an in-your-face stupid show that had tons of spirit to it, this is just an average episode where the writers and directors overdosed on Valium. — Bloody Marquis

Daimidaler The Sound Robot: Prince Vs. Penguin Empire

ROBOTS!

EXPLOSIONS!

BOOBS!

PENGUINS!

LARGE… PROTRUDING… CROTCH THINGS!

DAIMIDALER!

Oh man is this show horseshit, but its well aware of it and that’s what makes it fun. Daimidaler is essentially a parody/love letter to old Go Nagai/Masami Obari robot schlock with its hot blooded hero and fanservice overkill. Its the kind of show nobody wants to watch but once you do, you just can’t turn away from it because… well… DAIMIDALER!

Our hero is Kouichi Mandanbashi, a horrible pervert who has the magic ability to lift schoolgirls’ skirts simply by snapping his fingers. Mandanbashi has been chosen by the secret organization Prince Beauty Parlor to fight the dreaded (snicker) Penguin Empire who are attacking Tokyo with giant stoves and file cabinets (not kidding)! To do this, Mandanbashi has been given a giant robot called Daimidaler which looks like an unfinished Noble Gundam Gunpla and runs on “Hi-ERO Particles. The problem is… Kouichi only generates said particles when he’s touching boobs… yep its one of THOSE shows.

Daimidaler is…shit, I mean that’s obvious just from looking at the synopsis. What works in its favor though is, unlike last year’s Estetica of a Rogue Hero, it’s actually kinda funny, primarily because of how utterly insane it is, but also because the goofy Penguin goons and their “tails” pretty much steal the show out from under everybody’s noses. Not an anime for the faint of heart… clearly. — Lord Dalek

Dragonar Academy

Funimation sure picked a winner with this one. I mean, okay, it’s not the worst thing ever, but I have to wonder what possessed them to license this. The first episode of Dragonar Academy is young adult fantasy writing at its most mediocre; not truly horrible, but not enticing enough to keep your eyelids from drooping. Indeed, a total train wreck would have been preferable to something of such middling quality. It’s not good enough to be exciting or bad enough to be enjoyable – it just exists. And it’s really, really boring.

Ash Blake (don’t you just love that name?) is a “problem child,” which really just means that he’s a nice guy who flies off the handle when people act like dicks to him. At the beginning of the episode, he gets impregnated against his will by a voluptuous woman. (It’s neither as creepy nor as interesting as it sounds.) From there, he attends classes which deliver hearty exposition in between bouts of talking to his best friend who also delivers hearty exposition. There is no showing in Dragonar Academy, only telling. There seems to be some kind of war going on outside the hallowed walls of our prestigious dragon raising/riding school, but focusing on that over potential harem and ecchi antics would be laaaame! Hooray for tsundere princesses and humongous breasts! Praise be to light novelists everywhere!

The animation is about what you’d expect from a fantasy light novel adaptation taking place at Hogwarts a magic dragon-rider academy. Indeed, this series somehow manages to look even cheaper than all but the most obscure recent anime. I hope you like still frames, looped backgrounds, wonky walk cycles, and off-model facial expressions! I’m struggling to think of anything I liked about this episode. Nothing even amused me on a “so bad it’s good” level. There is a dragon race in this installment, but it fails to match up with the kinetic energy of Inferno Cop‘s race episode. The music was okay, I guess? Though if I never have to listen to that ending theme again, it’ll be too soon. — Foggle

Haikyu!!

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from repeated viewings of Top Gun, it’s that volleyball is an exceedingly manly sport traditionally played only by the most masculine specimens of our species.

…Ahem. Going into Haikyu!! with no knowledge of its manga, I naturally expected it to be fanservicey fujoshi-bait like Free!; thankfully, I was wrong. The first episode of this anime is utterly fantastic and filled with emotion, somehow managing to do what I once thought impossible: make me interested in watching a game of volleyball. I greatly enjoyed the lead character’s determination, even if it’s nothing new for the shounen sports genre, and I found both the flashbacks and present day match to be absolutely exhilarating. For someone who isn’t a fan of the sport (like me), the production values and writing both go a long way toward making this episode not only watchable, but genuinely exciting. The animation is second to none, phenomenal in a way that surprised me even as a product of the typically-excellent Production I.G. The art style is unique and wonderfully expressive, providing a lot of character to everything from the players to the setting. I swear, the atmosphere is so spot on that at one point I could legitimately smell the court (though perhaps that’s just because I haven’t showered in days).

This is a very well-paced installment from a narrative standpoint. The flashbacks interspersed throughout effectively show us how and why Shoyo reached the point he begins the episode at without slowing down the action one bit. Another aspect of Haikyu!! I must praise is the soundtrack, including the opening and ending themes; it’s all very energetic and gets the blood pumping nicely. Overall, this is just a really good opener to what I assume will be a really good series. I don’t typically go for sports anime, but damn this was great. The fantastic art/animation, awesome music, and fun yet heartfelt writing all ensure that I’ll be keeping up with it in the weeks to come. — Foggle

Hero Bank

Based on a game that came out in Japan not even a month ago as of this writing, Hero Bank is set in a world where kids particapte in a popular cybersport where they don virtual cartooney-sets of armour called “Hero Suits” and fight each other in a virtual boxing ring in fron of an audience of millions. Our story follows elementary-student Kaito Gosho and their friends, whom like any self-respecting elementary student, use their money from volunteer school work to rent more Hero Suits for their virtual hobby.

Hero Bank is enjoyable for what it is. The characters are your typical toyetic battle-anime archetypes, and the premise is simple and appealing to the target audience, and the fights are good enough to appeal to older and younger viewers alike. If you want some lighhearted kid-friendly entertainment, then check it out, just don’t expect another Gundam Build Fighters. — Rynnec

The Irregular at Magic High School

(PLAY AT HOME TIME! Nearly the entire cast of Oreimo is in this in different roles! Try to make your own awkward character associatations!)

Thirty years from now, World War III will be fought using magic instead of thermonuclear weaponry …are you following me? SIXTY YEARS LATER, magic has become less of a parlour trick but more of a way of life …STILL following me? In 2095, Japan’s school for magic users is a rather nasty caste system where undesirables are branded “weeds” …which the writer of the original web novel was clearly on.

One such weed is ex-child soldier (I can’t believe I just typed that) Tatsuya Shiba, who, despite sounding an awful lot like everybody’s favorite delinquent Tomoya Okazaki, seems to be a bit more responsible and caring despite his rather unfortunate position in life. Oh yeah he has a sister named Miyuki, who sounds an awful lot like Hayase and uses ice magic, but is mostly there to serve as incest bait (I CAN believe I just typed that). Really nothing happened this week. It’s all meant to establish that A: Blooms are assholes, B: Weeds are people too (I can’t believe I just typed that), and C: Tatsuya’s probably a faker, jury’s still out on that last one.

Mahouka has basically been designated as “THE NEXT SWORD ART!!!OMG!!!” by Aniplex and they’ve really gone all out to sell this show as such by reusing the bulk of that show’s cast (excluding Ayana Taketatsu for some reason) and even bringing in LiSA to record the same damn song she’s been singing since Fate/Zero. And… like its predecessor, its also an immediately forgettable, incredibly uncomfortable, incest show…except this time the imouto is Sachi instead of Kirino, yay for web novel shows! The animation is done by Madhouse instead of A-1, and considering they just made a bland forgettable post-apocalyptic series about kids in a magic school, they seem to have slipped into this show rather seamlessly. Happily Kajiura was not invited to do the music, so instead we have Iwasaki who adds a neat wakkachawakka and not much else.

Basically only for those who want to spend half an hour hearing Saori Hayami say “onisama!” every 45 seconds. — Lord Dalek

Second Opinion!

Anime is running out of ideas.  The Irregular at Magic High School is evident of it. We have the same old archetypical shows every season – last season we had Magical Warfare, which was typical magical anime fare, also animated by Madhouse, and does anyone even remember it? The problem is, even with it’s somewhat unique premise of magic being utilized by technology and created by technology, Irregular’s execution is painfully boring, and its dialogue and pacing is a pure example of this.

The characters are archetypical to the bone. Here, we have our main protagonist, Tatsuya Shiba, whose only major defining characteristic is that, as of Episode 1, he doesn’t have one – he just looks bland, like Kirito from Sword Art Online. His waif- I mean, sister, Miyuki Shiba, is the most insulting moeblob I’ve ever witnessed, and the show itself comments on that. Watch Irregular with some bourbon and take a shot every time Miyuki says ‘Onii-sama’ – you will be dead halfway through this episode, and I do not exaggerate in any way.

The problem with Irregular is that we’ve seen this whole charade before. This is not surprising, considering its source material is a light novel that is serialized in ASCII Media Work’s Dengeki Bunko imprint which also brought us such classics such as Accel World, the Shakugan no Shana series, A Certain Magical Index, Golden Time, Oreimo and as mentioned previously, Sword Art Online and Magical Warfare. Some Dengeki Bunko products are exceptional, such as Durarara!!, Kino’s Journey and Toradora!, because these franchises have character, unique plotlines and memorable characters, where Irregular does not – the only thing I remember from watching this episode was how much Miyuki annoyed me with her moebabble and her obvious incestuous romantic love towards her boring as fuck brother.

All the characters are, again, archetypical. Tatsuya is broody, Miyuki is waifu bait, Mizuki Shibata is the typical glasses girl pandering to the medium, Erika Chiba is the tomboy, Mayumi Saegusa is the mysterious student council president with an obvious past shrouded in mystery and Leonheart might as well be Tatsuya’s perverted best friend who banters and argues with Erika. The show is so mundane and insipid, it’s obvious that Aniplex has its fingerprints all over it –  a LiSA opening that starts off unique but devolves into Fate/zero’s Oath Sign and Sword Art Online’s Crossing Field? Yup. Involves magic? Yup. Incest? Oh yes.

Perhaps the best aspect to come out of this show is Tatsuya and Miyuki’s relationship – it seems the show is aware of the incestuous overtones – and it is so painfully evident that Miyuki dearly loves her brother more than she should. The show labels Miyuki as ‘moe’  – and coming from someone who has watched all of K-ON! and so much more KyoAni shit, Miyuki is not cute in the slightest, and it seems her life revolves around her brother. Wherever she appears on screen, she will run into the arms of Tatsuya and fawn over him relentlessly. Her voice is high-pitched, and she has a perpetual blush plastered on her face, which turns even redder when Tatsuya compliments her. Her entire life revolves around Tatsuya – and when she fights in battle, she is a healer on the sidelines, which says an awful lot about her in the show – she literally does nothing. She is an otaku’s wet dream – obeying to her brother’s every need. She is just there to appease her brother and even get uncomfortably controlling over him at times, asking him ‘if he’s dating anyone’ with a creepy smile etched across her face and getting angry when people ignore him.

The animation, provided by Madhouse, is adequate enough, and the action scenes are animated exceptionally and are well made, even though their choreographing is utterly forgettable. The character designs are also forgettable and are typical fare and typical is a word you are going to hear a lot surrounding Irregular. The music, composed by Taku Iwasaki of Gatchaman Crowds and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure fame, provides the soundtrack which I could barely hear in this episode as the editor obviously preferred the sub-par voice acting and sound effects to enjoyable music. With what I heard of the soundtrack, it might very well be the best thing to come out of this waste of an anime, along with the incest which has yet to fully bloom.

This show will fall flat on its face, and I look forward to when it turns into a beautiful trainwreck, and I can’t wait to see it crash, burn and amalgamate into a Guilty Crown-like extravaganza. — Mahou(ka)

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders

So Jotaro’s kind of a dick but can you blame him? His grandpa was when he was his age. There are evil spirts called Stands that are currently “haunting” the Joestar-clan no thanks to a certain Mr. Brando. Joseph’s an old man now and can predict the future by trashing very expensive Polaroids. Avdol has hair plugs…literally. And… Yeah… you know what… why bother recapping IT’S FUCKING JOJO’S!!!

So yes, it took em a horrible anime about video game consoles as annoying little girls, but David has finally gotten back to doing the Kimyou no Bouken thing they promised this time last year. JoJo’s 3 already feels different oweing to the fact that the studio has money now and legitimate CGI to play with outside of the Ops. The music (by the Psycho-Pass guy) isn’t nearly as fuck awesome amazing as Taku’s Battle Tendency score and actually very little transpires this week since we’re still in exposition mode. But really… who cares… IT’S JOJO’S!!!!

Yeah… just watch it… like right now… seriously Crunchy finally got through the redtape… NO EXCUSES!!!! — Lord Dalek

Second Opinion!

This show was boring and I slept through the part where AvdolAbdulAbsol made his chicken monster appear. Meh.

I know everyone’s been hyping this show to no end, but I just can’t get into it. The animation that’s been amped up from last season really has no sway over the Nisekoi-watching fan that I am. I mean, should I be entertained by characters like Joseph Joestar or Mega Absol? I would rather watch WIXOSS if I want true action, because moe girls tickle my mantitties more than any Pokemon could. And yes, I say Pokemon, because the Stands are clearly Pokemon. *yawn* If I wanted that, I’d go watch Cartoon Network. I really want to be respectful, but this was so boring. There weren’t any underage girls or J-Pop to keep me interested. Instead, there was this old lady named Holly or something. She’s not even a MILF, so why bother? I can’t be bothered to watch these shows when I have classics like Moetan and Demashita Dexter’s Lab Z to watch. Now if you excuse me, I have to google image search some Demi Lovato pictures back when she was on Barney to make my penis happy. — DarkSydePhivaitor

Kamigami no Asobi

Based on a otome visual novel by Nippon Ichi, and animated by Brains Base, Kamigami no Asobi follows Yui Kusanagi (no known relation to Motoko Kusanagi, or Kyo Kusanagi), a swords practicioner and daughter of a Shinto Shrine, as she is transported into a mysterious, fantasy land populated by various mythological gods in the form of bishounen. Eventually, she meets Zeus (who can apparently change into a shota at will) whom tasks her with the responsibility of teaching the bishie gods about humanity and love and other BS like that, because reasons.

Okay, right off the bat this premise raises a few questions. 1) Why did they choose a highschooler who’s only just about to graduate highschool to educate gods that are older than her by millenia? 2) Why only one, Shinto practicing girl? Shouldn’t Zeus have pulled more people from different religions? Which ties into 3)Why only one girl? Having multiple teachers would probably give these gods a fairer assessment of humanity. 4)One of the gods is named “Loki Leviathan”, like, WTF? Those two aren’t even from the same freaking myth! 5) Why am I getting the feeling that I put more thought into this than the writers did?

Naturally the answer to all these questions can be answered with: the writers didn’t give a shit and just wanted an excuse to have reverse-harem bishie god antics. We have all the archetypes here, each one more unremarkable and forgetable than the last. We have a mysterious emo-loner, a pimp-kun, a tsun, a megane, and probably a bunch of others I’m forgetting because wow, these guys did not leave much of an impression at all. I know this is only the first episode and all, but damn where these guys generic and forgettable as fuck. I mean seriously, they could have been striking the most fabulous JoJo poses and everything, and I would still be hard pressed to remember anything about them, and that’s just sad. These are supposed to be Gods for heavens sake (har har), you’d think they’d leave more of an impression, but nope. There was also some actiony prologue, it had all the gods flying around and magical boy transformations, because why the fuck not? It was even less exciting than it sounds. In the end, if reverse harems don’t interest you, don’t even bother checking this out, if you are, then go for it, but you probably won’t even remember seeing it. — Rynnec

Majin Bone

I seriously can’t get over how someone actually decided to name this series Majin Bone. I’m sorry, I know it’s immature, but I simply can’t stop snickering at that. Majin friggin’ Bone. I mean, really?

Anyway, outside of the main character’s unwavering obsession with porno mags, this is just your stereotypical children’s action anime, right down to the elemental icons copy-pasted directly from Pokemon cards on the logo. Jarring CG superhero fights? Check. Brooding, edgy, bishounen antagonists? Also check. Dimwitted best friend? That’s another check. It’s hard to fault children’s entertainment for being stereotypical, but when it’s clear that the voice actors have outright stopped trying to deliver their stilted lines with any sort of gravitas, I find it impossible to care about the paint by numbers characters or dull storytelling. The plot can be best summed up as something something robot suits something something exploding rocks something something chosen one. I guess the dog was kind of cute, though.

Toei tries their best to deliver animation at least on par with whoever makes The Fairly OddParents, and it goes about as well as you’d expect from the studio behind such polished gems as Toriko and Zatch Bell. The CG seems to move at twice the frame rate of the 2D drawings, while the more traditional animation just feels… off. The character designs don’t jive with the backgrounds well, and though everything moves at least somewhat fluidly, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something had gone wrong with the production somewhere. It might just be me, but I found the episode fairly uncomfortable to watch at times due to the way it was animated. That’d be great if this were a second season of Flowers of Evil, but it’s not, and thus Majin Bone just left me feeling confused and violated as it climaxed. — Foggle

Mangaka-san and Assistant-san

This anime is 10 minutes shorter than the average show. It’s like a half-chub that you’ve got to improvise with. Unfortunately, this show knows how to handle a half-chub as much as a Mormon schoolgirl. Yet again, Saori Hayami becomes waifubait to Kirito for something that manages to have less to do with mangakas than Mangirl. It’s stupid, with every joke amounting to “How touchable are breasts?” or “What’s a good panty angle?” It’s Seitokai. You could be watching Seitokai instead of this, even if that show’s arguably worse. If there’s anything good from this, it’s at least the closest we’ll ever get to an animated version of those Sword Art chapters Kawahara is ashamed of. — Bloody Marquis

Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers

That was awesome…

…for the 30 seconds or so of the Animu’d Avengers fighting their villains in a sequence that really puts the entirety of Avengers Assemble to abject shame.  Unfortunately after those 30 seconds are up in the prologue I was treated to perhaps the most banal toyetic product tie-ins.  You’d think with something hot like Marvel being present this’d be pretty good, but in the realm of endearing toyetic card games shows nowadays… but  it’s less a Buddy Fight and more a Buddy Fuck-up.

Hell the Avengers don’t even FIGURE into the show most of the time.  The focus is mostly on your atypical set of DigiDestined knockoffs, with the main guy whisked off to New York because Daddy dearest is helping Tony Stark plan some disk technology.  Then when he gets there, he just stands around, talks, and is essentially a very very very very VERY passive character.  The others don’t really figure in much either, from punk badass, girl, to meek Avengers fanboy.  Hell the Avengers, and even the many heroes (if you can call Dr. Orpheus plus Mop wig and Iron Mullet that to name a few), do absolutely nothing either.  They wasted the entire action budget on that 30 second scene and as a result they just…. Stand around, do nothing, or mingle.  Even that asinine United We Stand cartoon at least in its first episode had SOME semblance of what Avengers usually do (i.e. punch people and blow stuff up).

Also apart from the Marvel villains there’s some incredibly lame bad guys with Carnival masks running around and doing Terroristy stuff…  But again, they don’t do much of either.  Would it have been easy to just use a roster of Marvel Villain grunts like Chemisto, Crimson Dynamo, and the like in their place?  It probably was, but the show didn’t like the idea and dropped it, the bastards.

They don’t care, and neither should you. — The Juude

(EDITOR’S NOTE: At the time of publication, Marvel Disc Wars has actually not yet been subbed by Crunchyroll or any of the fan groups.  Its just THAAAAAAAAAT GOOD! — LD)

Mushishi Zoku Shou

Look who calls. Ginko and his weekly round of folk tales have returned to provide stories of mystery and surreal horror. Personal tragedies become tied to spirits, and give life to what should have stayed inanimate. It feels like the show never left, with that sense of uncertain dread always looming in the corner while Ginko can barely act to negate these eldritch dreams. Even when being an episode about an old guy talking to his sake, there’s that personal touch where the director really focuses on how the characters deal, with Mushi imagery and forlorn narration to make something whimsical and alien.

But in case you never watched the first Mushishi, be warned that this show is slow. It’s like waiting for freshly brewed tea to cool, and expects you to concentrate deeply as you wade through the episodes. For the impatient viewer, twenty minutes can feel like five hours as you wonder when the hell Ginko will show up. This show broods more than most art films, with the most action this week being a guy pouring sake in a cup. I know that none of that sounds particularly appetizing, but the show can be a rewarding experience if you can plow ahead. Whatever you do though, don’t watch the live-action movie with Kuuga. That was lame. — Bloody Marquis

Riddle Story of Devil

Sakura Trick, this is not. While that was cute fluff, this is hard, edgy and dark. In a school with mostly female assassins, Azuma Tokaku enters the scene. She seems to be the cold, silent lone wolf type. Her target is another high school girl but all the other students in class are assassins in training as well. Tokaku’s target being Haru, a nice and kind girl who wouldn’t be out of place in a Slice of life story. Heck, the first thing she does is hand out charm bracelets to everyone in class. Granted, she seems to harbor a dark secret which I am sure will be revealed sooner rather then later.

The episode sets up this plot and establish the characters. They include Inukai Isuke, a twisted ojou-sama; Hashiri Nio, the blonde girl who’s catty; Sagae Haruki aka PockyKyoko-chan; Nanatame Chitaru, the slightly prince-like one; Kirigaya Hitsugi, the loli despite being the same age as the rest. Banba Shinya/Mahiro, the silver haired girl with split personality possibly. Of course, these assassins are quite naughty behaving and are about as subtle as a sledge hammer. Then again, if there were ninjas, I would gripe about more. Of course, they are one step removed from wearing signs reading “hell yeah im an assassin”.

This is an intriguing start. Not much happens outside of plot and character establishment, but that’s ok so long as we get to the action quickly (in more ways then one). The animation is solid but unremarkable, kind of like with Campione. What action is in the first episode is short, quick and effective. It has a lot of fun with different color filters and darker atmospherics, making me think they are aping Studio Shaft. Also, the yuri at this point is rather subtextual but I suspect this will change fairly quickly.

Of course, its got quite a rocking OP and ED, with plenty of what one can expect; sleazy cheesecake and violent battles. Bring it on! — The Eclectic Dude

Second Opinion!

It’s a well known fact that any story can be improved by adding lesbians to it. It’s also a well known fact that assassins make everything cooler. So what happens when you make a story about lesbian assasssins? If it’s not the coolest fucking thing in the goddamn world, then you’re doing something wrong.

Adapted from a manga written by  Yun Koga, and drawn by Minao Sunakata, and directed by Keizo Kusakawa of Lyrical Nanoha fame, Riddle Story of Devil follows the relationship between top assassin Azuma Tokaku, and the seemingly sweet and innocent Ichinose Haru. The first episode of Riddle Story is focused  on setting up the plot and characters, and despite not much happening, it sure does leave an impression. The animation is nice, the show itself looks pretty, the music and art style are good, and characters make over-the-top murderous facial expressions at the drop of a hat, and murderous facial expressions are always a good thing. The characters are already bright with personality, even if they are standard archetypes. You have the stoic, no-nonsense assassin, the nice girl, the sexy assassin, the laidback assassin, the shy-yet-batshit-crazy assassin, and some dude that looks and acts vaguely similar to BlazBlue’s Hazama voiced by Tomokazu “the Bloodedge” Sugita. Could this show be any more legit?  There wasn’t much in the way of action, but the OP does show promise of crazy over-the-top assassin fights, hopefully the show will be able to deliver on that promise.  As for the main relationship, Tokaku and Haru had some very cute scenes together, and I already like their dynamic. Watching their relationship develop will be very interesting, especially with hints already showing the Haru may not be entirely what she seems.

Watching Riddle Story felt like watching an adaptation of an edgy YA-novel, but with lesbians instead of straight, white people, and at least some sense of self-awareness (I think), and that’s enough for me to jump on board.  In a season that is sure to be dominated by JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Riddle Story of Devil shows potential to stand out from an otherwise unremarkable spring season of unfabulous anime, and possibly, along with Stardust Crusaders, help fill the void of fantastic over-the-top action anime left by Kill la Kill. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to squeal like a fangirl. — Rynnec

Rowdy Sumo Wrestler Matsutaro!!

When I first heard about Aberenbou Kishi!! Matsutaro, an anime based on a classic long-running manga written and penned by Ashita no Joe artist, Tetsuya Chiba, I was initially very excited. Then I learned Toei was making the anime. My expectations immediately lowered. I hold a grudge against Toei for their work on Toriko, a neutered adaption of a fun battle-adventure manga, as well as their padding and filler-heavy work on One Piece in recent years, which has turned that series into the epitome of tedium. But I’d say what I dislike the most about them is their cheap, minimal animation, sure to make any exciting scene a bore, and generally not pleasant to look at.

So naturally, I had misgivings about Matsutaro from the onset. Going into a Toei show, one does not expect it to look nice. However, Ashita no Joe is my favorite manga, and while that series was written by the prolific Asao Takamori, Tetsuya Chiba’s artwork plays a huge part in the quality of that series, expertly capturing the emotions of the characters, and featuring some of the most expressive body language I’ve seen in a manga that was not drawn up by the God of manga, Osamu Tezuka, himself. So I figured I owed it to one-half of the pair responsible for my favorite manga to check out this story, and since there is no way to read the manga of Matsutaro in the U.S. at all, I wanted to give the anime a shot. I was confident that Chiba’s storytelling would be as good as his artwork, and I held a faint hope that Toei would treat a classic series with more effort and respect than they do with their modern stuff.

After watching the first episode, though, I find that the things I most take issue with the show are actually not about Toei’s direction. Oh, don’t get me wrong, this is far from well-animated. It is as cheap as modern Toei gets, and worse, overuses stylistic tricks with recycled animation and images, not to mention an overuse of speed lines. The show’d look a lot worse if Chiba’s artwork wasn’t so effortlessly expressive, and Matsutaro’s facial expressions and body language do a great job establishing his character here. Except, that’s exactly the problem. Matsutaro is a wholly, utterly, despicable character.

His actions in the first five minutes of the episode do more than enough to alienate instead of endear. When we first see Matsutaro, he’s sleeping in class during the middle of a test, snoring loudly. He wakes up, proceeds to pick his nose, and then sneezes snot all over the classroom, drops of it landing on other people’s desks. He proceeds to knock the student in front of him out of his seat, steal his test, and proceed to copy the answers from it. Blatantly. Loudly. Why the teacher does not stop him when he should clearly be able to see this, I do not know. Then we learn he’s a young adult (we never get an exact age, but physically he looks like he’s in his late teens at least), and that somehow he’s still in middle school because – he’s dumb, apparently. He goes to the faculty room, makes lecherous comments about a female teacher with a side of fart jokes for good measure. He continues to taunt his teacher, and naturally, gets kicked out of school for the day.

That is our introduction to Matsutaro. Appealing, isn’t he?

But perhaps these first impressions are just misleading, as is with so many a shady shonen protagonist like Eikichi Onizuka or Shogo Chikaishi? Yes, I’m sure that while Matsutaro has the exterior of a delinquent, he’s really a good guy at heart. Right? NOPE. The first thing he does out of school is to kick sand on a sleeping dog. He then proceeds to throw water on some old ladies just because they (rightfully) told him he was irresponsible and that pissed him off, and then he pisses on some random person’s home – even though his own house is literally next door. Okay, so he acts like an asshole, but maybe he really cares about his family and friends and works hard to help them out? NOPE. Apparently he lets his mother exhaust herself at work all day while he loafs around going home from school early, is completely unconcerned about his hungry younger siblings, eating the last bento box himself, and to rub salt in the wound he proceeds to steal a lollipop from his little baby brother. Oh, not only that, but he makes sure to tease the baby by liking the lollipop slowly before taking a big chomp into it, completely remorseless even when the baby starts to bawl.

Wow, what a swell guy, huh? Did I mention he almost runs over this baby with a large truck later on in the episode, and doesn’t even bat an eye? Did I also mention his siblings aren’t pissed off that he almost killed his own brother? They aren’t even at all concerned about the baby, running up and hugging it or crying at the experience or nothing. Their response is literally to shake their fists and yell “Idiot! Learn to drive!” That’s it. Yes, because this was just some wacky driving mishap. Their baby brother totally didn’t just almost get run over and suffer a near-death experience, nope. This was just another one of Matsutaro’s lovable wacky shenanigans! Babies almost being hit by trucks is so hilarious, am I right? Matsutaro is such a funny, lovable character, isn’t he?

If you don’t immediately hate Matsutaro from that one scene alone, don’t worry. Throughout the episode, he bumbles and stumbles about being a dick to everyone and everything he sees, picking his nose and saying rude and awful things. Not once does he do something remotely selfless, and most of time we just see him bulling people into giving him what he wants, whether it be a test, a lollipop, a truck, or some dinner (which he only gets for himself, without once thinking about maybe getting some food for his hungry siblings, who you know, haven’t eaten anything at all the entire day, unlike him). Eventually, he gets drunk, kidnaps the teacher he has a crush on, tries to force himself on her, and finally crashes the truck (which he basically car-jacked) into a bathhouse. Then he gets arrested. The end.

Now – let’s make a comparison here to a Mr. Yabuki Joe from the aforementioned Ashita no Joe. Like Matsutaro, Joe wasn’t exactly the nicest guy in the world in the beginning of his story, but he also didn’t go out of his way to bully people into giving him stuff or was an asshole to everyone he met. Okay, yeah, he beat up a gang of kids – but they attacked him first, and with weapons, and it was in self-defense. Yes, he exploits Danpei’s trust in him initially for food and shelter, without any desire to actually become a boxer, but it was clear he was doing what he did because that was how he knew how to survive. He was alone, a street rat, drifting aimlessly, only thinking of self-preservation. He had a visibly rough life as a young vagabond with no place to call home, so he took what he could get and advantage of what he could. Joe might have done some pretty bad things, but he had perfectly understandable reasons for acting how he did in the beginning of the story, and was hence a fairly sympathetic protagonist.

Matsutaro? He has a family. He has a home. He has access to public education. He has a friend. He has a job. And though it’s clear money is tight since his family is short on food, from his blithe, slothful behavior it’s clear he hasn’t a care in the world and seems to live reasonably well. There is no sign that’s he’s had a hard life or been through any adversity that has conditioned him to act the way he does. On the contrary, all evidence indicates that he is a self-centered, spoiled man-child. He’s lived an easy, effortless life, and seems to be exploiting his natural size and strength in order to cajole others into submitting to his demands and taking things from those weaker than him. Despite the fact his mother is over-worked and his younger siblings struggle to subsist themselves on a day to day basis, he is content to laze about, forever stuck in middle school by choice and just because he has a crush on one of the female teachers, and he hoards money and food away from his family, without feeling any guilt in doing so. There is nothing remotely sympathetic about him, nor is there any admirable aspect to his personality, unless, of course, you enjoy your protagonists to be insufferable malcontents.

The worst part is that there is nothing about Matsutaro that is remotely interesting. Yabuki Joe might’ve been abrasive at times, but he had a charming roughness and wit to him that made him fun to watch. He makes you want to see more of him, and learn more about him. With Matsutaro, we see him jerk around like an idiot, and that’s that. We don’t get a hint that there’s more to this guy, or see any layers to his personality. We only get a single, shallow exterior, without any hint of depth. And because of his actions, we are left disgusted with him, and don’t want anything more to do with him. He is a repulsive character in both his behavior and as a protagonist we are meant to enjoy.

To move away from Matsutaro and on to the plot of the episode, I must say that the pacing here felt awfully slow, making most of what happens feel like a chore to regard, and making Matsutaro’s antics all the more irritating. Aside from being beat over the head with how much of an asshole he is, we don’t really get to know anything about most of the other characters and they fail to strike me as more than typical archetypes. There is also not a lick of wrestling in this episode, even though, you know, that’s what this show is about. While Ashita no Joe also didn’t start out with much boxing early on, there is not even a hint of the idea Matsutaro will become a wrestler in this episode. I mean, yes, we learn he is strong when he pulls up a cart of coal with his bare hands after the winch breaks, and we see him dent a truck with a headbutt, and so on, but there is never a connection made to wrestling or a mention of the sport at all in this episode. If you showed this episode to someone without telling them it’s about a sumo wrestler or showing them the opening, I bet most people would assume the show is just about a meandering, desultory delinquent that hops about picking his nose with a goofy grin, plundering people out of their possessions, and headbutting shit when he gets mad. The episode fails to establish the concept of the show or make it’s titular character endearing, and as a result, leaves little to hook anyone into watching future installments.

I wasn’t expecting a series on the level of Ashita no Joe going into this. I expected that, under Toei, there would be a fair amount of problems with the look and pacing of the show. But, I did expect a good story with engaging characters that would make me interested in keeping up with it. I didn’t get that. Instead, I was greeted with a grotesque, inconsiderate oaf with no redeeming qualities whatsoever, dull story, boring side-characters, and all this alongside the usual Toei cheapness. Perhaps we are actually meant to see Matsutaro as a brick-headed bastard? Perhaps we are supposed to hate him now so that when he finds his calling as a sumo wrestler and makes a heel-turn we’ll applaud his transformation into a decent human being? Who knows. The AnJ fan in me wants to give this series more chances. After all, a manga that ran for 25 years and for 36 volumes has to have had something about it that kept bringing people back. But, I just don’t see it here. There is nothing to enjoy about this first episode; it’s an uncomfortable, tedious, and obnoxious experience start to finish. And as far as sports anime go, this one doesn’t look like it’ll provide much in the way of action anytime soon. Crunchyroll is now streaming the second anime of AnJ under the title Champion Joe 2.  Watch that instead. I love Chiba’s work on AnJ, but this show seems to prove he’s a much better artist than a writer. That, or Toei has just just tainted yet another good series as they so often do. Either way, who’s to blame really doesn’t matter. As it is, Aberenbou Kishi!! Matsutaro simply has nothing going for it, except to see just how awful a human being can possibly be before repercussions belatedly stall his wanton path. — Cartoon X

Second Opinion!

So there first thing I want to point out, just to correct so many false accreditation of this series (including from ANN of all places), is that the mangaka, Chiba Tetsuya, is NOT the creator of AnJ, or at best merely one of its creators. He was merely the artist of that series, which was authored by the late Asao Takamori. The reason I want to make that clear is so that you don’t wrongly judge one series based on how….godawfully disgusting this one is.

Alright, for clarification, I don’t meant disgusting in the obvious sense of the word (it only gets about as disgusting as a guy picking his nose-hairs and urinating in public, anyways….), but rather that Matsutaro is one of the most despicably unlikable characters that I’ve seen in an anime in recent years. He’s a delinquent who cheats, steals from people (including candy from a baby….who is also his own fucking sibling), causes massive property damage while putting people’s lives in danger (once again, including his own baby sibling), and kidnaps a woman while drunk. Alright, well clearly this is following the Joe Yabuki formula of starting out as a total jerk-wad and coming into his own over time….except, what are his redeeming qualities? He has none? What is interesting or insightful about his character? Absolutely zilch. Joe Yabuki was a compelling character from the get-go because he lived in a harsh environment where everyone had to fend for themselves to survive, and even then, his shenanigans weren’t directly meant to hurt innocent people. Furthermore, his character clearly being representative of the struggle of the lower-call from post-WWII Japan gave him some symbolic meaning, and there were even traces of greater depth to his character than what was on the surface, compelling you to watch further and see what became of him. In the case of Matsutaro, the damage is already done without any indication of redemption. Even if Matsutaro does start to get his act together as is probably the predictable path he will take when he pursues sumo wrestling, it doesn’t excuse anything that he’s done up until now.

I’d like to give Chiba Tetsuya the benefit of the doubt since I’ve never read the original manga, and I would like to believe it hadn’t persisted for 36 volumes spanning over a decade of serialization of the entire series was like this tripe. But it certainly doesn’t help that his story is being adapted by the infamous corner-cutting Toei Animation studios. They show absolutely no effort into taking Chiba’s expressive and vibrant art-style and doing it any justice with fitting animation. Instead we just have a glorified slide-show which looks even cheaper than a motion comic. Perhaps this series could find its stride later on, but this first episode really turned me off. I recommend passing this one up for now. It’s just not worth your time. — Ensatsu-ken

Selector Infected WIXOSS

This is a card game anime made by J.C. Staff. I’m sure you can connect the dots and determine its quality from there.

Nope, you’re wrong; it’s actually pretty good! Not so much due to the plot or characters, but more because of the direction, atmosphere, and storytelling. The concept on its own is nothing special – a shy girl starts playing a trading card game where the cards are ~alive~ (oooooEEEEEooooo), and if she becomes the best player, her wish(es) will be granted – but the execution is fairly solid. I particularly liked the background art; it’s simple, yet grungy, with a very raw look to it. This goes a long way toward establishing an effective mood that the episode manages to keep up throughout via well-placed music cues and quality directing by Takuya Satou, who most will know as “the Steins;Gate guy.” Though the characters themselves are mostly bland, the script is pretty tight – a first for what I’ve experienced from this genre. While many card battling shows rely far too much on exposition to get their rules and such across, that doesn’t really happen here. What little expository dialogue there is is rather inoffensive and necessary. It’s not award-winning writing by any means, but far better than what I’d feared.

I had little to no expectations going into WIXOSS, though I heard mention of it being similar to Madoka Magica in no small way. This is, simply put, not true. I mean, I guess that thing from my screen cap looks kind of like Kyubey? And, uh, it’s dark? The main characters are young girls? I dunno, man, I got nothing. It’s not wholly original, but it’s very much its own thing. It doesn’t seem to enter ripoff territory at any point (at least, it doesn’t steal from anything I’ve seen). I feel like people will do anything to discredit a series that’s bland on the surface without ever really giving it a chance. But why even watch anime if you’re just planning on prejudging every show before pressing play? WIXOSS is no masterpiece, but the fact that it’s somehow already gotten such a bad rep is disheartening to me. If nothing else, the direction and background work are above par. Oh, and the opening and ending themes are also quite good.

As a bit of an aside, can someone PLEASE tell Funimation to stop italicizing the honorifics in their streaming subs? I find it very distracting for some reason. Oh, and I’m calling it now: Tama is a psychopath who gets off on blood and violence. — Foggle

Second Opinion!

WIXOSS is a card game that’s sweeping the nation, and is especially popular among teenage girls. Among a select few teenage players, there is a special “Ruling Card” with a sentience of its own. These “Selectors” do battle with each other in a special dimension where the cards become real, whoever is the ultimate victor of these battles becomes the “Eternal Girl”, and has their wishes come true. Such is the premise of Yu-gi-Shaman-Stay/Night-Magica-Rock Shooter-HiMe-Lander-Bell-Oh! Battle Brawlers. Or Selector Infected WIXOSS for short.

If you couldn’t tell, Selector Infected WIXOSS is your standard card-battling anime with a little edge to it to attract fans of Madoka Magica and the Black Rock Shooter anime. You have your everyday newbie-protagonist complete with a cute and adorable little mascot card that barely speaks actual words for maximum cuteness. The eager, Joey Wheeler variety character who befriends the protagonist, and we may even get our own Seto Kaiba-style douchebag rival, give or take a few episodes. There’s even a price to play for losing too many times to raise the stakes (lose 3 times and the ruling card goes bye-bye). Unfortunately the one thing that wasn’t explained that well were the actual rules of the card game itself. There wasn’t even a proper introductary battle, which is dissapointing for those wanting some card battle action.

In the end, there’s not much I can say about WIXOSS, other than it’s a vehicle for selling trading cards, and that’s pretty much it. Maybe that’ll change in a few episodes, but for now, all I can say is that if you like card battle shows, then check it, otherwise just take a wait and see approach. — Rynnec

The World is Still Beautiful

This is certainly more original than most fantasy anime these days. Whether or not that actually makes it better is up for debate, but at least The World is Still Beautiful doesn’t feature any magic academies or incest shipping. The protagonist is fairly likable, the production values are good by Pierrot standards, the comedy isn’t hilarious but adds a nice sense of fun to the episode (outside of the fact that it contains the only fourth wall-breaking rape joke I’ve ever seen), and yet… I just couldn’t bring myself to care. It wasn’t exactly boring, but it barely held my interest. Maybe it was the pacing, or the directing, but it felt a bit bland to me. I don’t mean to say it’s outright dull, just kind of flavorless. The ingredients are all there to make a good anime, but this episode fell short for me in terms of enjoyability. And with the reveal at the end of the episode, I have a hard time believing this will ever become something I’d want to watch on a weekly basis.

Honestly, I’m not sure what else I can say about this show. It’s not bad. You might like it. It just doesn’t do anything for me on a personal level. — Foggle

Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V

I see Yu-Gi-Oh! has somehow managed to become even more insane since the last time I watched it. To recap, this episode kicks off with our new protagonist, Yuya, fighting a pompadoured karate master using dancing hippos before leading into a song about “electric buddies.” From there, he is approached by Hitler the Clown, who invites him to fight a champion duelist because he cried when his dad abandoned a card game three years ago. Yuya then straps on his goggles and broods over his JO crystal until he decides that, yes, he will duel the guy in front of an audience. While dressed as a clown. He speaks some Engrish and then jumps onto the back of his top hat-wearing hippo. It’s revealed that he’s only been pretending to be a moron for the past three years. He wins! But then he doesn’t. What a twist! He gets depressed, but then his crystal activates and he puts all his monsters on the field and… to be continued.

The animation is awful, the artwork is ridiculous in a bad way, and the writing is nonsensical. But it’s Yu-Gi-Oh!, so you already knew that. Chances are, you already know whether or not you’re a fan of this insane series about people taking a children’s card game seriously. What I have to say about it isn’t going to change your mind. — Foggle

First off, what’s the deal with the incest? Is it supposed to be romantic that these kids want to fuck so badly? I’d be less annoyed if this wasn’t the only thing going on between Tatsuya and Miyuki. Every scene where the two are even a few yards away is dominated by Miyuki swooning for her Onii-sama, as if she needs to say that word as often as she blinks. She’s supposed to be a competent magician, right? But all we get from her is that she loves her brother. Probably in love too, but I’ll wait when they hit second base. It’s Onii-sama this and Onii-sama that, like she literally cannot function on her own. Also, I like how in the one scene where she talks to a guy who isn’t her brother, the guy attempts to fondle her because of her “sheer purity”.

It all just feels like the first hour of a dating sim, where all the girls introduce themselves to the main character so nonchalantly that it just spells out how they’re routes for a possible romance. Like hey, here’s the feisty red-haired girl. If that’s not to your taste, here’s the ultra-submissive glasses girl. And if none of those options interest you, then you can always fuck the sister. But then, can I expect wit from the one character that got excited that her name rhymed with the main character’s name? Even the president of the student council wanted to get into Tatsuya’s after only a few minutes of talking, as if he’s the most interesting man in the world despite being the lowly Weed in this magic school.

Oh yeah, there’s the Weed-Bloom conflict going on in the first episode, which is basically school clique crap that only highlights how awesome Tatsuya acts for one-upping his supposedly superior Blooms. It’s like jocks and nerds, except Tatsuya is way too cool to be a nerd, right? Just because he types at a maximum speed and acts diligent in class doesn’t mean he should be lumped in with dorks, because he is so fine that he makes women orgasm from a single compliment. Also, what’s with him being several feet taller than all of the other girls? He’s like a CLAMP character with that disproportionate of a body structure.

So as a first course to what has been constantly paraded as the new Sword Art Online, I got exactly what I expected: Another Sword Art Online. Except by that show’s first episode, there were stakes involving how the main characters would die if they lost the game. But here, the first episode’s just like “Pfft. Magic school. Whatevs.” But what do I know? I clearly don’t understand how martial arts and gunplay constitute as magic, or how Miyuki’s first spell in this series involved wiping the dirt away from her pseudo-maternity gown. Screw being interesting with your magic. Magic is the best when it’s mundane. If Miyuki formulates a new spell that involves generating sandwiches for her beloved Onii-sama to nibble on, color me oh-so surprised.

In  a rather interesting development, Sunrise decided to get a leg up on the season by airing their new series “Keroro” two weeks early.

Keroro

Once upon a time, there was a little show called Sgt. Frog. Everybody said it was going to be the next big thing, that it was going to take America by storm, that you wouldn’t be able to escape seeing that little green bastard no matter how hard you tried…yeah that didn’t happen. ADV tried to license the damn thing only to get hosed by the SINISTER SOJITZ CATALOG!!!!(TM) and trigger (along with their aborted Gurren Lagann release) the Great Crash of 2007. By the time Funi finally started putting DVDs out five years after the show debuted, all that broohaha turned out to be mostly internet noise. The show’s popularity quickly petered out and about 80% of it remains undubbed in this country. Furthermore, the manga (which actually did rather well IIRC) is now oop because Tokyopop.

Meanwhile in Japan, they still love the guy three years after series one ended, so here we have the more simply titled Keroro (originally I was going to call this review “Frog” since that’s a literal translation, but that sounds stupid) and it isn’t just a demotion in rank the Sarge has suffered. It appears Sunrise has decided to make this the test case for their initial experiments with Flash and the results are barely any better than… say… Wooser. Everything looks incredibly flat and undetailed, as if we’re watching a motion comic instead of the more fluid show they gave us ten years ago. They seem to have gone overboard with visual gimmicks in the form of fake grain that made my MKV frequently look like it was artifacting. Not cool.

As for the plot, well there isn’t one. Keroro is simply a four minute gag anime cutdown of the old show and as such doesn’t have room for anything resembling story. Basically dorky kid has a dream that alien frogs are invading Earth, his tsundere girlfriend is like “Fuck dat shit”, then Keroro is revealed to be hiding behind some wallpaper. Finis.

For fans only, and I’m not sure if even they’d care. — Lord Dalek

Second Opinion!

Hey!  You miss watching the Sgt. Frog anime?  You know…  the one that had a healthy run of 358 episodes for seven years in Japan?  Well, aren’t YOU in luck?  Because your friends on the Keroro platoon are back and they’re SO ready to re-introduce themselves to Japanese audiences, that they’re starting RIGHT BACK AT THE BEGINNING, and to make sure they don’t overwhelm you, decreased their episode time from 12 to 20 minutes to merely three!

What do you get with a three minute starting episode!?  NOTHING!  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  You just meet Hinata and Fuyuki and they find Keroro and all that amusing shit that took place in the first television anime is absolutely nowhere to be found!   It’s like enjoying a nice flatiron steak at some dingy dive  in the Ozarks.  You don’t get much but it’s tasty for what it is until they stopped serving the darn thing for whatever reason.  Then for again, whatever reason, they decide to rerelease the dish, only this time, it’s just a warmed possum tail and it’s just called… ‘steak’.

That’s exactly what this is all about, and I’ve never been to the Ozarks. — The Juude

Hey guys, I’m back with my Cartoon Cartoon retrospectives! It’s been a while, but I’m glad to try my hand at these again, and I’ll attempt to at least make it through the first season of each of these shows. To save my sanity, I won’t try to post each article up around Friday, although I would like to make these a weekly series after all.

Next time, I’d like to add some more comments before I go into these look throughs, but for now, I just want to start talking about my plate today.

Dexter’s Laboratory:

“Babysitter Blues”

Dexter and Dee Dee’s parents are going out for the night, which means the kids are having a babysitter take over them.

What’s the catch? Dexter’s got a girlfriend! Dexter’s got a girlfriend! Dexter’s got a gi-

Yes, like Alvy Singer before him, the boy genius skipped over his latency period, and has the hots for his teenaged babysitter. See, even braniacs can fall in love. The episode starts off with Dexter reorganizing the house into a presentable fashion for his babysitter, even going as far as to shoo off the family’s on-again,/off-again pet dog.

Except, it seems as if Lisa the baby sitter has a boyfriend of her own, and apparently it’s Fuzzy Lumpkins, to boot! (okay not really, but isn’t it funny to hear a reference to the character before Powerpuff was bought as a show? Don’t forget, he was in the original What-A-Cartoon pilot).

Dexter can’t bear to see his true love taken away from him, so he uses a voice modulator to confuse both Lisa and her boyfriend, by breaking the couple up for them. A sick twist, but one that works for Dexter. He comes to Lisa’s comfort while she’s still on pain, which is when she says one simple line that turns the short over into gold from there. I won’t spoil it, but to give you an idea, there’s payback, a great usage for Dee Dee, and a typical, albeit necessary, quick gag ending.

The short started out as moderately funny, with a decent gag shared here or there alongside a one-note character and a so-so running joke with Dee Dee, but really turned into a laugh riot at the end.  Peaking too late on is a bit of a problem, yes, but depending on how great the pay off is, the wait is typically worth it, especially if you view the episode as build-up towards a particularly strong gag. The episode is cute, although it’s not up there with the best.

“Valhallen’s Room”

We’re only two segments into the Justice Friends, bur already, it’s proven to be a much stronger companion series than Monkey. Personally, I liken this phenomenon to the fact that Major Glory, Valhallen, and Kronk have stronger, more fleshed-out personalities than Monkey and his agents do, which tended to fall into tiresome clichés. The fact that there are usually solid jokes in the Justice Friends’ cartoons is another advantage.

Take this one, for example. The short starts off with Major Glory making an all-American breakfast for his roommates/compadres (and keep an eye on how the close-up on Glory’s buffet compares to what we see throughout the rest of the scene- Major Over-Exaggeration isn’t as appealing of a super hero name, but it sure seems appropriate here), but the entire breakfast is ruined because Valhallen hasn’t awaken yet. So until the Norse god of rock n’ roll gets his golden locks out of bed, Kronk can’t get a pancake for himself. That’s one thing, but after hearing ominous sounds coming from Valhallen’s room, the two heroes become worrisome.

Hungry for some justice, as well as breakfast, Glory and Kronk make their way into Valhallen’s room, giant as it is (he pays extra, while Kronk’s teddy doesn’t pay at all). After finding a weakened Valhallen on his bed, it is discovered that he lost his magic axe. This Flying V-shaped weapon is Valhallen’s equivalent to Mjonir, meaning that when enough time is removed, his power will decrease drastically. Being the good (hungry) friends that they are, Glory and Kronk attempt to find the rocking revolver of righteousness.

The rest of the episode delves into quick sight gags, as Glory and Kronk attempt to find Valhallen’s weapon. In other words, what you’d basically expect from the show, but not that there’s anything inherently wrong with that, as long as it works. For “Valhallen’s Room”, while this doesn’t turn out to be a masterpiece of the animated form like some later Dexter stories will become, it’s a fine follow-up for this series of shorts.

Already the voice cast has their characters down. Rob Paulson’s bravado for Major Glory is near perfection, as he pulls off an intense delivery for each line with relish, while Tom Kenny was continuing to prove his chops in the field as he tackles two different angles for Valhallen this episode. And let us not forget Frank Welker’s wonderful Hulk impression for Kronk, as he continues to make most every line gold, while keeping a nice, sentimental side in tone for the character. It’s a fantastic balance with tight chemistry that makes the characters pop here. Without the talent behind the recording studio, the Justice Friends wouldn’t have been as entertaining as they are, and while I await getting into some of the best stories for Dexter and Dee Dee, I do wish that we had more time with Major Glory and co in their own shorts as well.

“Dream Machine”

What makes Dexter tick? What are his weaknesses? Is there more to the character than just his resentment over his sister’s dominating personality and his love of science?

We do find out some of these over the course of the show, like in this story. If there’s one thing to take away from fiction, it’s that dreams are windows into the psyche of a character. Usually, they come as weird as you can imagine, if not significantly weirder, but in some instances, all you really need to show is a reminder of how reality functions to crack into the mind of the dreamer.

Although it is questionable that Dee Dee is able to ace her way through a big test given by Albert Einstein himself like it’s nothing, but somehow Dexter thinks 2 + 2 equals Mount Rushmore. But in this opening sequence, it becomes apparent that Dexter’s intellect, usually a high point in his life, isn’t always something he’s secure of. He may be smart enough to build a laboratory all by himself, but what does it mean?

I dunno, but Dexter has been having 3 straight weeks of nightmares like this, and he won’t take that lying down anymore. He grabs a barely-conscious Dee Dee to help him break this streak, and give Dexter a nice dream or two instead.

Using the concept that we control our own dreams to his advantage, Dexter sucks up all of the intellect available in the world to make him a walking super computer of sorts, but in traditional fashion, things aren’t so easy for our boy genius. To completely access his goal, Dexter must find the grandfather of all knowledge, whose being surprises him.

The story takes a twist for the weirder, as it uses the idea that Dexter’s sneaking into all-knowing knowledge is cheating, which shouldn’t be tolerated. This is a successful ending to an otherwise decent enough short. For better and for worse, this episode curved past the traditional beliefs of television that a character’s dream should walk us with and into their mindset, as Dexter becomes in control of how his sleeping patterns occur, only to lose them as he delves into his selfishness. For a show that isn’t afraid to play with its logic like Dexter’s Lab is, it’s a fascinating take, although I’d argue that it isn’t the funniest story that the series is capable of. Still, a good final short for a solid episode to signal my return to this show I so greatly admire.

Johnny Bravo:

“Beach Blanket Bravo”

It seems like another beach day for Johnny, as he sets up his area, appropriates his image for the place, and looks for the right girl to make his move on. He catches a mighty fine senorita, and he tries to get her to do the Monkey with him. Either taking this as an invitation for friendship or kindly passing him off, the lady gets the rest of the beach goers to (poorly) do the Monkey with them.

It does sound like a basic Johnny story, but the short’s intent becomes clear when we delve into the relationship turmoil between young surfer Andy (voiced, inexplicably, by Rick Springfield) and his steady, Franny. Andy is very much a product of the 50’s/early 60’s and believes that a woman should be stuck behind a kitchen, which in today’s society is obvious bs. In her hopes to cheese him off, Franny finds the first decently attractive guy she can find as a date to tonight’s weeny roast. Three guesses as to whom she decides on.

“Beach Blanket Bravo” is a throwback of sorts of American International’s surf movies of the mid sixties, usually starring Frankie Avalon and the recently deceased Annette Funicello. These movies were hokey products of their time, which of course makes them ripe for parody. Funicello’s very own beloved Disney had a smart spoof of the surfer lifestyle in 1965’s That Darn Cat!, made shortly after the apex of the subgenre’s presence, while artists keen on the nostalgic have occasionally brought these back to life since, and if there’s one thing the early Johnny Bravo episodes are good at, it’s bring back to life the remnants of slightly forgotten sects of the pop culture landscape.

This is a clever cartoon, as someone familiar with these movies despite not being a connoisseur, exactly, but it does bring up a problem with such stories like this- Johnny doesn’t really work as a straight man. At least, not always, and here’s an episode where he is meant to be very much modern as opposed to the retro chauvinist hipster that Andy is.

The problem with Johnny as a straight man is that he’s not exactly a likable guy. Johnny’s a dumbass and a bit of a chauvinist himself, so the series works great when the joke is on him, but when he’s opposed to funky side characters like the Avalon-meets-Archie Andy or the talking shark with a mask on (a highlight I wasn’t sure how to introduce here, as he does have some of the best gags in the short), there isn’t much to the character or, as a result, the cartoon.

Thankfully this is saved with some references to dated lingo that I doubt even your parents would use accordingly, as Johnny’s blank replies to Andy and Franny’s suggestions make him sound genuinely confused. It’s also great when Johnny threatens Andy to a serious butt kicking, only to get a gasp from the crowd.

Also entertaining is the surf contest Johnny and Andy go on, combining solid animation for the two characters over footage of actual waves. There’s even a bit of green screen to keep an eye out for. The only way the short could get more authentic to this style of film is to end with a cheesy song number, and…

My criticism rings true in that while the concept is cute and does make for some great jokes. The idea of making Johnny a relatable straight man is questionable. This morphs into a good cartoon at the end o the day, but I think that the use of Johnny’s lack of intellect would make it an even better one, as it would be the case if this was done later in the show’s run.

“The Day the Earth Didn’t Move Around Very Much”

Here we come to a MacFarlane written/Hartman directed tale, in which Johnny is require to recount his restricted day in which the episode title comes to life.

This is a wacky little ditty in which a jet crashes through a telephone wire, cutting out the power in the Bravo household and making a noise. After seeing that the clock on Johnny’s VCR isn’t working (hello, 1997!), Johnny comes to the rational conclusion that time is working for everyone but him. I guess that Twilight Zone marathon got to him, but I’m sure we won’t see any other results from that in later episodes.

In typical Johnny fashion, he sticks around for only a couple of seconds at each instant before he comes to the conclusion that time has stopped, like when the water won’t start in his shower, or if traffic is frozen.

But where the jerk side of Johnny comes from is why he is in court- he takes this newfound concept of frozen time to go and become a common thief in plain view. As each of incidents where time seems frozen for the rest of Aaron City becomes sillier and sillier, Johnny continues going on with his belief and becomes a nuisance. Johnny’s slow day even ends with him passing out to an infamous freeze-frame commercial shot from the Dukes of Hazzard.

There’s a bit of a surprise ending for Johnny, which ends this mostly one-note cartoon in a bit of a twist We’ve previously learned that Johnny is a jackass, so it isn’t too much of a surprise to see him steal his way through the day like it’s nothing. Sadly, when you get the core concept down, there isn’t too much to it, and while the gags do work if you keep your suspension of disbelief, the show has already proven that it can be smarter, so it is disappointing to see it result in a mostly obvious route. Still, I can’t fault this one too much, as it makes me laugh a good deal. Although who the hell plays charades in a restaurant kitchen?

“The Aisle of Mixed-Up Toys”

The previous short had Johnny briefly catch an old Dukes of Hazzard episode, wile this one starts off a little more timely and has him catch a little parody of Speed on the TV, right down to a half-decent Keanu impression. What does this have to do with the rest of the episode? Well, there is a hit at an explosion for Johnny to deal with later on.

Here Johnny is just chilling on the TV, as he often does between hitting on women (for someone as built as he is, does he ever work out?), when a cute little girl that isn’t Little Suzy rings the door and asks for him to donate toys for charity. In this week’s installment, Johnny is too old to play with toys, so he promptly turns her down, until her older sister chastises Johnny for being so cruel. Not being one to turn down a pretty lady, he offers to go to the toy store for the girls’ charity, in ten minutes or less.

With only a buck in his pocket, Johnny needs to scamper and pick a couple of nice choices in the discount center at the local toy store. A year before Small Soldiers though, Johnny finds himself talking to his newfound endeavors. He finds an out-of-fashion Ken doll with a Phil Hartman-esq vocal crack, a (mostly) limbless howling commando, and a sarcastic automatic bomb-meets-Rubik’s cube thingy.

Three nice little toys would make for a nice addition to the charity drive, but if Johnny just walked out with these figures with no conflict, there wouldn’t be much to this story. The army figure won’t leave the store without his arms and leg, which means that Johnny has to face Raggedy Angelo, the freakish Quasimodo-like figure who removed the poor body features.

This results in a toy aisle fight that is a strange mix between the march of the wooden soldiers from Babes in Toyland (well, there goes my Annette Funicello reference allowance for the week) and the opening action sequence from Toy Story 3. Okay, maybe it’s not that epic, but like the rest of the episode, it’s cute.

Cute, yet unremarkable. Not to say that it’s bad, although the toys don’t make much of an impression, nor is the writing at the show’s best. It’s just mostly there, and fits with the show’s tiresome “wacky sidekick adventure” formula, one that will mostly be dropped soon.

Fun fact: in later prints for repeats, Raggedy Angelo’s “what a spazz” line replaces t he “s” word with “turkey” instead. Since when was spazz considered a bad word is beyond me, but the DVD restores the original line as spoken.

The Powerpuff Girls:

“Paste Makes Waste”

This episode starts off with a basic Pokey Oaks roll call, with the lovely Ms. Keane calling out for her kindergarten students one at a time. Standard practice, yes, and be sure to keep an ear out for some of the students’ names. Like Elmer S. Glue, the unfortunately-christened kid whose passion is eating yucky paste.

Of course, Mitch Mitchelson, the class bully, mocks Elmer’s admittedly unsanitary habit, which causes a group taunting of the kid from others who probably shouldn’t be mocking anyone else. Blossom and Bubbles wisely stay out of the commotion, but Buttercup, who has never been afraid to step up, goes as far as to throw paste at poor little Elmer. To make things worse, Buttercup won’t even apologize for being so mean.

Ms. Keane gives Elmer a little speech on even though the kids were unfairly cruel to him, he shouldn’t eat paste to begin with. But like most kids a nice little talk with an authority figure isn’t usually going to stop you from doing bad.

Which of course has its negative effects in Townsville. After a series of freak accidents around the city causes a nuclear waste to make its way into Elmer’s paste, and a quick taste gives the kid the powers of a Stay Puft-esq paste monster, giving Elmer the perfect chance to exact his vengeance on the students. This results in the girls having to take on Elmer before he destroys Townsville.

Imagine how differently this would have turned out if Buttercup apologized to Elmer before he became a paste monster. Obviously he’d still be a monstrosity of sorts, but Elmer’s rampage wouldn’t have been so intense if Buttercup owned up sooner. This is a creative enough idea for a short, but light on jokes, like some of the earlier episodes of the show. That isn’t too much of a bad thing though, since even despite not having a plethora of clever jokes, the show’s appeal for audiences came early thanks to an early strong grasp on the characters and their peculiar adventures fighting crime. The pacing that made the show fresh for kids and adults even early on is present here to make it a good episode to watch.

“Ice Sore”

Now this is a little more like it. Townsville is suffering from a dangerously hot day, and the girls are feeling the burn in their house, eating hot soup for an inexplicable reason.

All is resolved when Blossom decides to breath into her hot soup though, and we discover something new- ice breath! And yes, this is new to the girls, too. And something only she is capable of.

After a suggestion from Bubbles that Blossom tries out her new power so they skate on the kitchen floor a la Tom & Jerry (bonus points if you can name which short this happens in), the girls are having a cool little time on this scorching day, Eventually, the professor steps in and almost slips on the ice when he discovers Blossom’s new power, and tells her to save it for the time being, emergencies aside.

A hot, miserable day at school gives Blossom just the need for emergencies to try out her new ice breath. Even the usually loving Ms. Keane becomes a boiling mess under this massive heat wave, which eventually causes Blossom to make it nice and cool over in the schoolhouse. This makes it nice for the class, but Blossom’s sisters get rightfully jealous when her new power gives her special attention today.

But even barring that, Blossom decides to permanently retie her ice breath after it gets in the way of the girls from saving the day. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Blossom rectifies her decision by the end of the episode for a very particular reason, resulting in an ending that’s both cooler than cool and smoking hot at the same time.

I think the reason that the last episode wasn’t too funny is due to a lack of supporting characters beyond Ms. Keane and some of the students. While the girls and their teacher are fine, earlier episodes relied on some of the other residents of Townsville for their strongest laughs, particularly the Mayor and his doting miss Bellum. He’s here and has a couple of good lines during the climax, but even without him, the episode isn’t lacking from any during the rest of the episode. “Ice Sore” is the stronger of the two segments, but it’s a solid half hour regardless. I’m just glad to be back with the girls.

Ed, Edd n’ Eddy:

“Fool on the Ed”

Oh hey, what an appropriate choice to bring this series back on, the April Fools Day episode! I haven’t seen this one in a while, so let me try to get through it again.

Eddy’s running around with his tongue in the air, as per usual, heading over to Ed’s house. This seemingly normal day become subsided when Ed’s just about to get his prank out to Eddy… except Eddy is five steps ahead of Ed, pulling off a couple on the poor sap.

The buddies then head over to Double D’s house, and the same happens. So you can probably guess that Eddy is the king of pranks, and his goal this day is to skip any scams and instead give everyone hell.

All goes well until a trip to Rolf’s, however, when before Eddy can even lift a finger, the son of a shepherd gets hit by a crazy plot. It turns out that someone has beaten Eddy to the punch, a certain “Prank Master”, and now it’s a battle of wits for the rest of the episode.  Yes, eddy has some form of wit in him.

No amount of wit can do much good for Eddy, though, as the Prank Master scores his vengeance over the rest of the Cul-De-Sac before the Eds can do anything. This makes for a fun montage of seeing the other kids get trapped before we get to the conclusion of who the Prank Master is. And let’s just say that the Eds, Eddy in particular, are not happy.

Cue Eddy’s infamous stink bomb. If this beauty (invented by Eddy’s brother) is brought to life, imagine how many noses would become paralyzed. And it works, with a price. Be careful with what you wish for, though.

Part of me thinks that this would have worked better as a double-length episode, where the Prank Master is built up as a big mystery before the inevitable reveal, but that might have been TOO much. This episode works just fine the way it’s set, though. It’s hard to imagine an episode of the show without some great lines, and it does succeed there. This also excels at expanding on Eddy’s showmanship without relying on a basic scam. Here he’s being outshined at his game, and he’s out for vengeance. Eddy’s a tough cookie to crack, but he’s very much about his pride. While all of this rings true, though, there are better episodes this season, and far more highlights to look forward to.

“A Boy and His Ed”

But if you want to see one of the boy’s scams again, check out this beauty. The Eds dug a hole in the middle of an alley side, and fill it up with water from Ed’s house to make a moat that kids have to pay for to access. Talk about a douche move, but damn if it isn’t legit.

The first kid to make it to the moat is Kevin, who’s willing to give the guys something. Problem is, Eddy won’t hear anything about it, while Kevin won’t pay up and walks off. As a result, Eddy and his buds miss out on free jawbreakers, since Kevin’s dad works for a jawbreaker factory now and gave his son a bunch of freebies, on account of there being a garage FULL of the things. Now it’s clear what the guys have to do.

Taking a cue from Ted Mosby’s lessons to a young Barney Stinson about all there is to Robin*. But as we’ll learn later, Ed and Eddy just aren’t good students, and they don’t end up taking Double D’s lessons on Kevin to heart, whatever they were. Instead, they just screw around for a good minute or two, resulting in some great gags.

Although can we just take a moment to appreciate the creative mind of this show, like when Ed decides to make a spitball out of a chewed-up book, and destroys his straw as a resort. Genius!

From here on in, the Eds try to suck up to Kevin in whatever way they can. Now, if Kevin was a celebrity, some of this material might be considered something called “stalking”, like having the Eds dress up just like Kev, or throwing a cheer outside of his house, but I digress. Hell, they even end up in Kevin’s bathtub by the end!

Still, this does result in a very funny little episode. Kevin’s rightfully annoyed with the Ed boys here, who try too hard to obtain their goal. This makes for one of the first times that the Eds deserve what inevitably comes to them, and that’s one thing that helps to define the show. The Eds are likable people, but they’re also rough characters that often deserve some sort of comeuppance (yes, Ed and Double D too). I really do love these three characters, but part of the fun of the show is seeing what direction the characters go through this week, a point which becomes further explored as the series continues to go along.

*yes, I know that this How I Met Your Mother episode was made about a decade after this Ed, Edd n’ Eddy one, but hey, I’m still grieving, y’no.

Overall:

What a nice week to come back to! Tons of good episodes all around, but if you really want me to choose a favorite, I think I’ll side with “Valhallen’s Room”. Good stuff. As you can tell, I’m done with picking out episode highlights, as I want to just stick to my own pace. But I promise that I’ll try to work on the next one soon, and will hopefully get through these first seasons before the summer starts. Until then, I hope you enjoy!

Above all that must be said, I have to admire the confidence this show exuded throughout the run. It was wacky and in your face, but it could be sincere about it. The show knew how to make a scene where characters have a mass naked hug together, and make it not look stupid. Not once in this series were there any pussyfooting or restraint, hitting plot points and jokes home alike with the subtlety of a missile. This was a very loud series, crying to the heavens that they are going to revolutionize the market in the face of an anime scene swamped with Madoka or Attack on Titan wannabes. It was Trigger’s way of saying that it’s okay to be silly, you don’t have to craft a story that breaks the characters’ souls or builds a labyrinthine plot on a weekly basis. Instead, you just have to be entertaining.

But the finale had to do more than that, which was seal all of this awe and wonder for the past six months into a complete package. One bad ending will spoil the lot, and Imaishi’s not been known for creating wholly satisfying endings in his shows (still reeling over what the deal was with Simon’s end). Even comedies like Panty & Stocking have to have that one plot twist out of nowhere to keep the ending from actually being an ending. But here, the staff at least shows restraint in that one regard. The fight scenes have more breath to them unlike the past two weeks, advancing more than looped animation of Ryuko and Satsuki becoming Beyblades to duel with their mom.

So instead, you have Ryuko summoning up all of her friends’ Life Fibers to pull a Spirit Bomb in order to fight Ragyo. While I’m not impressed with that, I do find it difficult to see what else they could’ve done for that fight. I mean, Kill la Kill has always been about acceleration, so of course it’ll end with two almighty beings duking it out in space. I’m just saying that it could have rocked the boat a bit more. I’m not trying to say that Gamagoori should have died for real, but I expected more of a challenge for the rest of the characters. Instead, it’s just Ryuko’s fight and her fight alone as she battles her mother. Yes, it has been her story from the beginning, but I grew a bit too attached to the side characters to want them to do more than just stand around on Earth while Ryuko does the heavy lifting.

Though that attachment somewhat results in how the show strayed from the previous “girl fights a high school on her own” format. Halfway through, it just shifts into “saving the world from evil clothes aliens” without a second’s warning. But by being so quick with changing plots, it all leaves some questions hanging around like how much of Satsuki’s social Darwinist dogma was just a ruse and how much was coming from her own mouth. I know it was to put up an appearance for her mother, but it just seems so dissonant from the first episodes. It’s difficult to line up the Gamagoori who beat up a kid for stealing a One-Star Uniform with the Gamagoori who saves Mako’s life several times over. You could say character development, but how do you apply that with characters like Nonon who have been rampant bitches in and out of their REVOCS-pleasing persona immediately until the reveal happens?

Then again, Trigger always made it clear that Kill la Kill’s main grace would be the style and animation rather than the storytelling, so I should grant that leeway. What should be heralded is what Trigger had to overcome, like the low budget and having to appeal to overseas audiences in order to garner profit. It accomplished that hindrance through both bravado and hype. Everyone raved and parodied how this was going to save anime, like how a really good album can singlehandedly save music. But beyond that memetic phrase, there lies a simple appeal to Kill la Kill: Nostalgia.

While being different from the rest of the market right now, the series adhere to themes from shows of yore like Ren & Stimpy and Yatterman. This show borrows a lot from past animation to create its own flavor just like how Tarantino movies are basically a hodgepodge of grindhouse flicks. It harkened to cartoons that could be stupid without shame, and brought that to an audience hungry for that aspect of animation. Shows last year tried to do that like Gatchaman Crowds, but they often became bloated by their own ideas, fixating on making a thousand random thoughts at once rather than excelling with the dozen they had. Here, Kill la Kill had a few interesting ideas and rolled with them, zigzagging from point to point with animation guiding the plots rather than the other way around.

And that works amazingly for some scenes like that one where Gamagoori’s face appears on his chest. It’s so stupid, that it becomes endearing in its stupidity. These tiny quirks create a whole on their own, bringing up what was initially cited as a by-the-numbers story by Imaishi himself. He vied to be different by going for different sources of influence to create the series, from manga like Otokojuku and OVAs like Project A-Ko. That series also had a hot-blooded girl and her quirky sidekick fight with a haughty heiress. It’s impossible to see Kill la Kill and A-Ko without recognizing some hint of an influence between the two, while distinguishing themselves enough to avoid any accusations of plagiarism. And maybe I’m rambling about nothing, but that’s what Imaishi and his lineage at Gainax did: Take old works and try to squeeze new ideas from them. And even if that approach meant facing potential bankruptcy, they still held to that belief by using a lack of budget as an incentive to further innovate. Without that, we wouldn’t have Evangelion or FLCL. And we definitely wouldn’t have had Kill la Kill.

So will this series leave a legacy like those shows? That’s been the question rolling around in my head once I finished Kill la Kill. Like, are people going to remember this show for future seasons or forget that it even existed like Haruhi? You could always chalk it up to the serendipity of the anime market, never knowing when one season’s success will become another’s mockery. But the thing is, Haruhi became less popular because too many shows of its kind kept popping out. And they offered nothing new; making it seem like the progenitor was just as bland as the descendants. So for Kill la Kill’s case, I guess its chance for longevity lies in how many dopplegangers will appear in the near future, and how many of them will be good shows in their own right or not. Granted, there’s the chance Kill la Kill will stand out as that one weird idea an anime studio attempted that never caught on (BD sales say otherwise, but still), and maybe that’s for the best to keep it as a standalone project. But barring the cynicism of copycats not being quite as good, it would be fun to see this kind of show happen again.

This week, we get spectacle and joy raining down for the penultimate episode. In all honesty, I’m finding it hard to talk about the series when the episodes are like this. I wish I knew how to discuss anime fights better. Like I can describe the final fight in Fate/Zero as a battle of attrition where both opponents are at their peak. That’s something. But here, I’m perplexed. It’s a fight where both sides pull out everything they have previously used for a showdown, with guys like the Tennis Club President coming back for a brawl. It’s a clash where little is held back, up until Shinra-Kotetsu is unveiled.

I like how Shinra-Kotetsu is a giant wedding gown. Where the Kamuis are outfits that reveal skin and stylize their fabric as spiky and jagged, this outfit looks so elegant. It’s the ultimatum of what Ragyo’s been planning for the entire world, by presenting an outfit that reveals less than a nun outfit. And by looking so heavenly in its design, it gains a few inevitable comparisons to Final Fantasy, especially with Shinra in the name. The dress is akin to how the final bosses in those games like Kefka take angelic forms before striking down the heroes, to make the final fight seem like the main characters are up against the Gods themselves. Like after all these fights, Ryuko’s up against a holy mother who wants to throw her back into the spiritual womb.

And the religious allegory gets laid on thick with “In Heaven’s Stead, I Smite Clothing” and the 999-Mount Emergency Rescue Motion Device (turn the number upside down). This all plays off like a Twilight of the Gods scenario, where a victory from either side will change the fate of the world. But that gets intertwined with the silly scenes, where Mako eats her mom’s croquettes in order to gain energy. While it undermines the bravado from action, it also puts the show in perspective. Even putting the characters in world-threatening circumstances, Trigger wants to remind that it’s still a goofy series. It’s all for fun, in contrast to the fans who keep expecting the entire cast to come to grips with Mako’s death or something tragic like that.

Speaking of people who think the show is something it’s not, Foggle gave me an idea for how Ragyo symbolizes the critics of the series who complain about perceived vulgarity from all the costumes. After all, Ragyo’s plan to cover the world with life fibers sounds a tad similar to viewers wishing for Ryuko to wear a less-revealing outfit. While that’s understandable, it means forcing the characters to wear something against their ideal. I know there could be a balance in making sure Senketsu fully covers Ryuko’s chest, but that’s too subtle to hit home Trigger’s message. Subtlety is the last thing this show comprehends, preferring to slam its ideas through your skull with the force of an H-bomb. Ryuko’s outfit is unsubtle because the show’s direction is unsubtle. Otherwise, you would have a regular action show that goes for mediocrity instead of absurdity.

Off track but still related to the episode, I also appreciated how this episode closed off Sanageyama’s arc in a sense. He’s finally let all inhibitions go, being able to see while also serving as a prime warrior. He even drinks tea with Satsuki like he promised all those months ago, and that was neat how they had time to give him some decent closure before the finale. After a while of being treated like the chew toy of the show, seldom getting a decent hit before being mocked by someone like Harime, Sanageyama finally gets a chance to shine.

I still think so. But in a somewhat different way than I initially believed.

Space Dandy hasn’t really given me what I was looking for or expecting from it since episode 3. But that’s okay – I’ve, personally, loved every minute of the last four episodes. Probably more than most, as only one of them seems to have received any sort of favorable response from the general public. And it’s easy to see why; this isn’t at all the same show built up by the first few installments or sold to us pre-release. Attempts at humor have grown scarce, the fanservice is gone, and the tone of both the writing and art/animation has deviated drastically from the norm. Even more than at its outset, Space Dandy has turned into a wholly inconsistent anthology… yet, in terms of overall quality, I feel like it’s become more consistent than ever.

I must admit, I felt like I had egg on my face when that dire “undies vs. vests” episode aired not two weeks after I posted my previous blog entry about this series. To date, it’s the only installment I’ve actively disliked, even if it did have its moments. It was just too damn stupid, even for my Kill la Kill– and Fumoffu-loving ass. And while I greatly enjoyed the following space race episode, it didn’t do much to alleviate my fears that I had written my dumbest article of all time (an impressive feat, to be sure). I continued to enjoy watching the show every week, but I always felt an underlying sense of apathy… until tonight, when everything finally clicked for me, and I realized that I do, indeed, love what the staff is doing with this series.

I do have one qualifier for what I’m about to write, though: this all hinges on the idea that Space Dandy will be getting a second season sometime later this year. At this point, I certainly believe it will, even if the only source is word of mouth based on a vague tweet and supposed confirmation during a Japanese radio show. The staff simply cannot adequately take this show in the direction I think they’re trying to go if only two episodes remain, which means a full two cour run is necessary for this anime to truly succeed in my eyes. An anthology consisting of only 13 episodes with vague plot points that ultimately go nowhere would be wholly unsatisfying, so it’s going to need at least one more season before I can say for certain whether I consider it to be excellent or merely decent.

At this point, Space Dandy seems to be about messing with audience expectations and presenting viewers with the bizarre. We’ve had two experimental episodes in three weeks’ time with a dramatic character piece sandwiched in between, all preceded by an installment that switched gears from emotional tearjerker to screwball comedy after the commercial break. I think this might be too much for some people to take in, as TV shows are typically supposed to feature things such as tonal consistency and adherence to a general concept. But, for me, it’s Space Dandy‘s ability to lack these things while still being executed at an impressive level of all-around competence that makes it such a strong series. Of course, the whole “weird episodic nonsense” schtick has been done before in shows like Panty & Stocking and Excel Saga, but those are comedies at heart, and while this series started out as one, I don’t really think I’d consider it a gag anime anymore. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in televised animation before.

Indeed, there have been next to no laughs in the past three episodes, but that’s not a criticism of the writing… I’m almost positive that the earlier material was intended as a red herring. Now, sure, it’s still ridiculous and over the top, and it’s not devoid of humor or anything, but the jokes are no longer the show’s focus, and that’s a very good thing. Space Dandy has always been fun to watch, but the comedy was often very hit or miss, and now that there are less jokes per episode, almost all of them actually end up being funny. It’s nice seeing the writers attempt things like drama and surrealism instead of just repeating the same jokes about breasts over and over. This anime now often encompasses a smart mix of different genres and art/animation styles per episode, all to its benefit as a cohesive(?) whole. Nearly every installment makes perfect sense while also making no sense at all. I love that.

I’ve seen a lot of people complain about the tonal inconsistency present in regards to the former and latter halves of episode 8. This installment, which also happens to be Keiko Nobumoto’s first anime writing credit since Wolf’s Rain, presents a depressing story about a dying dog, then shifts to a silly comedy about fleas bouncing around Dandy’s ship. I took no issue with this, as I actually found the jarring disconnect between sadness and humor to be realistic, if in a weird way. Real life is unpredictable, and I’ve more than once found myself crying heavily one minute and laughing heartily the next. Everyone’s lives tread the line between tragedy and comedy at every step, and while it may not be a characteristic of traditional storytelling to also do this, I’d say it is a respectable writing decision. In fact, some of my favorite films feature similar instances of tone whiplash, including Martin McDonagh’s In Bruges and Sion Sono’s Love Exposure, both of which I’d consider damn near flawless. This is not to say that The Lonely Pooch Planet, Baby is as masterful as either of those movies, but I do think it’s a fantastic and very underrated episode all the same.

Moreover, the whole dramatic dying/dead dog thing has been done millions of times before in older comedies, including the conceptually similar Futurama. What makes this installment memorable, and not just another canine tearjerker, is its second half. I actually find it brilliant that the sad bits seem to only exist as a lead-in to some classic-style cartoon comedy near the end of the episode. I love the way it played with my expectations, and was dismayed to see that very few people agreed with me in this regard, instead lambasting it as “poorly written”. Later installments have gone on to alienate viewers even further with how weird they are, and while I appreciate their uniqueness, I can certainly see why some would not. The plant people episode in particular seems to be a very “love it or hate it” affair, with me firmly falling into the former category due to its unflinching strangeness. That’s my bread and butter, right there.

The most recent episode, number 11, features a screenplay credited to one Toh Enjoe. Wikipedia reveals that he is an author of speculative fiction whose works have often been criticized as being “impenetrable” and “indigestible”. This single installment of Space Dandy appears to be the only thing he’s ever written for TV. Why and how he was asked to write for this series is beyond me, but I’m glad he was. This was quite possibly my favorite episode to date, what with its interesting narrative, unique color scheme, and bizarre art style decisions. It also contained a major hint that my previously-mentioned series chronology theory (based on the “space chain” scene and the Japanese airing’s ending animation) might be accurate. Knowing the staff, I feel like there could be some subtle storytelling going on in nearly every episode released to date; storytelling that’s mostly gone unnoticed and may come together further down the line.

While I was a bit unsure for awhile there, I still stand by my opinion that Space Dandy is a far more intelligent show than it’s currently letting on. The way it’s begun near-constantly screwing with viewers’ expectations keeps it interesting while also letting on that there may be more to the universe, story, and characters than meets the eye, while the growing maturity and uniqueness of each episode’s writing is doing a lot to impress me. It’s becoming more and more memorable with each passing week, and I can’t wait to see what will happen to the Aloha Oe crew next.

(As an aside, I’ve been especially enjoying Kimiko Ueno’s work on this show so far. I’d never heard of her before Space Dandy, and I look forward to watching whatever anime she writes for after it ends.)

Well, this had a bit more elbow grease than usual. I must give a hand to Trigger for the fight between Ryuko and Harime. Actions were nail-bitingly intense, with the oncoming Cocoon Planet threat only being at an arm’s length. As always, good fights in this show are as common as a flick of the wrist. I don’t need to point fingers, because everyone in Trigger should be given a hand of applause. They handled it quite well, with the amount of talent in most studios combined not matching the power in Imaishi’s mere pinky. Yes, thumbing through a lot of the show leaves a lengthy amount of cheap animation, with a bit of stiffness in the joints, but they always nail it when the opportunity is ready to grasp.

And just like the above paragraph, this episode also had incomprehensibility as a theme, particularly in how humanity’s virtue lies in how confusing they are. Again, it’s another element to how the plot is a battle between order versus chaos. In the scene where Ryuko can’t punch Satsuki, we get a defense on how chaos can be a good thing. The unexpected and the serendipitous have helped Ryuko and her friends time and time again, like the first encounter with Senketsu. While unpredictability also proves to be a vice like anything Harime pulls, it only shows how Ragyo’s idea for order is wrong even amongst her subordinates. Besides, if your foes are going to be crazy, just act even crazier to outwit them.

Satsuki realizes that, dropping the chessmaster act and realizing what kind of show she’s been in for the last five months. If you find yourself in Wonderland, you may as well become madder than all of the other madmen in order to thrive. Play by their rules, and twist them to make them your own. But this isn’t giving in to insanity, not at all. Rather, it’s just a shift in worldviews. The plan with Honnouji only worked in one aspect: Maturing Ryuko into Satsuki’s trump card. But that was only maneuvered through an unlikely chain of events rather than a concise plan, whereas all of Satsuki’s premeditated actions often fall apart. Because of that, she can’t abide by this flawed order anymore if she wants to excel in her motivations. And when the supposedly sane faction consists of alien suits that eat people, is it really difficult to see incomprehensibility as the preferable route?

Jumping from that point, this episode has many shifts from the perceived norm, the prime example being how Ryuko’s being the catty sister to Satsuki. Even when Satsuki offers a helping hand with rarely a hint of betrayal in mind, Ryuko’s on the aggressive. I guess you could pass it off as Ryuko playing the role of the bratty younger sister, though thankfully nowhere near the Kirino side of the spectrum. It shows Ryuko still has some growing up to do for this show’s remaining episodes, with that hot-blooded spirit either breaking from the pressure or rising like an ever-reincarnating phoenix.

And that maturity applies to the show itself too, as Nudist Beach prepares to face off against the spitting image of Chouginga Gurren Lagann. It represents the final challenge for the series, to deliver a complete product that can outdo its predecessors. While this might be a bit silly, since Kill la Kill’s already done far more than Gurren Lagann at this rate, but it’s still a necessary mark. Gurren Lagann is the show that put Imaishi on the map, establishing his fame across shores and being the first root to Trigger’s foundation. By using that show’s mascot as the looming threat, Kill la Kill creates its final step to climb in terms of Trigger’s ascension.