Random Curiosity

「儚く強く尊いもの」 (Hakanaku Tsuyoku Tattoi Mono)
“An Ephemeral, Strong, and Precious Thing”

While the cliffhanger last week with the sudden arrival of Reiga was a good one, I couldn’t fathom the possibility that they’d kill off Tsukumo this early in the series if at all, so I wasn’t too surprised to see him saved with the help of Yuki’s God’s Light. Still, what did surprise me was how well Tooko held up emotionally to the idea that her brother wouldn’t make it, even when Luka gave her an opportunity to let it all out. I don’t doubt that she cried a bit there, but Yuki’s tears were the ones we actually got to see after he exhausted himself healing Tsukumo all night. Admittedly, it still jostles me a bit inside to see him weep such emotionally troubled tears upon learning the harsh reality of the ongoing battle with the Duras. I already find overly emotional females a bit of a handful whether it comes to real life or anime, so I can’t say I’m too good at handling the male equivalent of that.

That said, there’s evidently an audience for these moments, so they’re not something I find too distracting when they further Yuki’s character development at the same time. The realization that he’s been pretty naive since joining the Giou family did cause him to take action after all. In turn, his decision to bring Hotsuma along to save Shuusei is slowly changing his opinion about him. The same goes for Takashiro, whom I was a bit surprised to see reluctantly agree to Yuki’s plan to walk right into Ashley’s trap. Albeit a bit cliché, I gather the point they’re trying to stress is how Yuki’s kindness has a way of affecting everyone around him for the better. As that continues to become a recurring theme of sorts in this series, I’m actually more curious about why Reiga continues to approach Yuki as Kanata to try and coax him into coming with him. My original hunch was that Yuki’s powers are too pure to be harnessed against his will, making Reiga resort to trying to deceive him, but that’s not founded on anything that’s been shown thus far.

Whatever the case, his attempts have clearly failed all this time, so I get the feeling that he’s finally sick of using this roundabout approach. For now, it’ll be interesting to see if his patience has truly worn thin in the upcoming episodes, since Takashiro’s pulling out his own book in preparation for a confrontation with him. There’s still Ashley to deal with first though, which judging by the preview is going to be quite a “hairful” for Hotsuma alone. Luckily, Luka’s just around the corner after taking care of all her puppets by getting them drunk with power off his blood, so it looks like we’ll finally get to see a serious Opast-level battle for the very first time. After all the Mid-Villains and other small fry up until now, I’m looking forward to seeing how that plays out.

Preview

「12 BRIDGE」

The metaphoric-like scenes shown prior to the opening sequence tend to depict this series in a more serious and almost surreal light, but this showdown between Kou and his father turned out to be just as good when the latter experiences a repeat of what started Kou’s life under the bridge. While everyone was busy wishing upon on a pair of Riku and Hoshi shooting stars care of Maria’s sadistic efforts, Sonchou proved to be a heavyweight in the world who can get the government to put a stop to the Ichinomiya group’s plans. That of course is when he’s not busy frolicking around in a kappa suit and trying to douse fires with whatever little water is on his head. As a result, Nino’s wish for everyone to stay together came true, even though it wasn’t due to Riku and Hoshi’s sacrifices. In Hoshi’s case, he got what he deserved for boasting about how Nino likes to wish upon a star, but Riku had the unfortunate pleasure of getting dragged into it. As a pair of idiots fighting over Nino’s love though, it was pretty funny seeing them continue talking smack until Maria eventually booted them off the pillar.

Somewhat overshadowed by the usual gags of Maria getting under Sister’s skin and everyone making wishes from Riku and Hoshi’s endless suffering was the small resemblance to a love story upon Seki’s arrival. He was only concerned about trying to figure out what kind of strings Kou pulled to put a stop to his plan and ended up realizing that his son didn’t do anything, but his discussion with Nino was oddly familiar to the one she originally had with Kou. In particular, the way Nino responded to the Ichinomiya family motto regarding debts by saying how she gets enjoyment from feeding Riku and how he’s working for their sake to prevent them from getting evicted. Instead of making Seki indebted to her, Nino’s kindness reminded him of who I imagine to be Kou’s mother, whom he doesn’t seem to be with any longer.

Upon hearing Seki’s cell phone ring from Kou’s call for the first time ever (indicated by the unique ringtone he assigned his number), I was really hoping Seki would answer it just to see how their conversation would go. Unfortunately, he proved to be too proud to the very end and left his pants and phone with Nino, but hearing him encourage Kou to try and do what he wasn’t able to with his mother was almost like he acknowledged his decision to be with Nino. The real love story-like moment came when Nino answered the call and heard Riku trying to tell his father that he wants to be with her forever even if he has to leave his life under the bridge. His indirect love confession was kind of sweet despite how it came off as frantic, desperate, and full of fear of his father.

For a series primarily focused about the gags, it’s nice to see the subtle story elements come together in some way. While the actual things that take place are pretty random and just plain silly, the time Riku spends with everyone under the bridge has been unassumingly advancing things along with Nino. Not a whole lot happens between them each episode, but whenever Nino speaks up about something, she generally surprises both Riku and myself. She’s a bit of a marvel that I can’t help but take notice to and it looks like Riku and his father Seki sort of feel the same way. That said, with the risk of getting evicted out of the way, I hope the series finale next week will give a little more focus to Riku and Nino, amidst the plentiful jokes that will surely come with it.

Preview

「なぜか！？の決戦前夜。種島の恩返し」 (Naze ka!? no Kessen Zenya. Taneshima no Ongaeshi)
“Somehow!? A Decisive Previous Night. Taneshima’s Repayment”

After the tragic loss of the Magic Hand to the “Mahirunator” last time, Souta comes back prepared with not only Magic Hand #2, but #3 as well thanks to a promotion they had going on. Even at 3,980 yen a pop, it’s a small price to pay when he gets the living daylights beaten out of him multiple times a day. I thought Mahiru’s androphobia was improving thanks to her new-found love for Souta, but I’d hardly consider it progress when she still hits him up to five times each work shift. Souta should really start looking for some Magic Shield or some Magic Armor while he’s at it, because there’s absolutely no time to react once Mahiru gets the jump on him. It sure must suck having to check around every corner before rounding it, even when you’re going at a walking pace. Hilariously enough, that proved to be the least of Souta’s worries here.

Out of embarrassment over Kozue’s drunken behavior, Souta silences Aoi from speaking of it to Popura, only for the latter to wind up at his house to return his student ID card and train pass and stumble upon that fact herself. I wasn’t sure what was more amusing leading up to that though — Kazue hugging Popura out of the blue and apologizing or Souta choosing to rush off to buy some cheap soy sauce over walking home with Mahiru. In any case, with the secret out and Popura having Souta’s family of giant sisters to worship now, her subsequent depression and frustration over feeling untrustworthy led to some hilarious results when “information broker” Souma Hiroomi decided to meddle in things for his personal enjoyment. I’m actually surprised Popura chose to ask Souta to go on a date with Mahiru over getting him to cross-dress as Kotori-chan again, but leave it up to Hiroomi to suggest skipping the compromises and putting the two together. Why choose when you can have your cake and eat it too?

Incidentally, Popura somehow figured it’d be a good idea to keep Mahiru’s arms restrained so that a date with non-cross-dressing Souta could happen, leading us to some serious borderline bondage play results. Just prior, I got a pretty good laugh at how Mahiru was stuck dwelling on the word “forever” when Popura asked her if she’d be with “hitting Souta forever”, as well as Jun and Hiroomi still refusing to get too close to her even when she was all tied up shortly afterward. However, things got even funnier when Jun called Popura foolish and told her they’re using cooking chopsticks that are much longer than normal ones before prodding her in the head with one. Aoi feeling left out and demanding the same abusive treatment from Hiroomi wasn’t too bad either, but I was laughing my ass off when Souta bluntly said he already considered tying up Mahiru in the past before.

Mahiru’s reaction to that statement was priceless, as was witnessing first-hand why restraining her hands isn’t a good idea. I couldn’t stop laughing when Souta added how the risk of getting bitten is another reason he decided against tying Mahiru up. Ever since Mahiru’s realized that she likes Souta and started trying not to kill him, the senseless beatings that Souta has to endure have become a lot funnier than before. Of course, Nazuna’s misunderstanding that her brother’s a huge masochist is an ongoing gag that’s all in good fun too. For the series finale next week, it looks like things will focus on Souta and Mahiru’s first date together, which judging from the preview might even have Maya involved as well. Better late than never I guess, but I’m more curious to see how Souta’s going to literally survive this outing. He already thinks he might die, so it should be some good times for me if not him.

Preview

Nico Nico Douga users never fail to impress by creating amazing fan-made videos. There’s been a sort of a craze going on at Japan’s popular video sharing site in recent months over creating seiyuu-based parody videos of Durarara‘s first ending sequence, featuring “Trust Me” by Matsushita Yuuya. It’s likely due to how the sequence itself is fairly straightforward with a vertical scrolling of characters, but when you see it with an interesting assortment that are all played by one seiyuu of the Durarara series, it’s still pretty cool to see.

Some are particularly well done, but I find this “Hanazawawawa” one featuring Sonohara Anri‘s seiyuu — the always moe Hanazawa Kana — to be one of the nicer ones. It’s Hanazawa Kana all the time here and I love how this version lists credits for each of the characters to make it look like an ending sequence as well, all played by Kana of course. Some characters that most people will recognize in addition to Anri are Tenshi from Angel Beats, Nadeko from Bakemonogatari, Suou from Darker than BLACK, Zange-chan from Kannagi, and Kobato from Kobato. For a full-list of the characters in the order they appear, see below. Enjoy!

Show Full Cast List ▼

「#12」

GOAAALLL!!! God damn, I felt the manly tears coming out even though the game was far from being over. After all the struggles and criticism ETU’s endured, it’s about time they proved to everyone that Tatsumi wasn’t all talk when he said he’d make this league interesting again. Take that you non-believers! Anyway, it turns out that Tatsumi was banking on the moment that Nagoya would make an offense push and bring the always dangerous Carlos into the mix, leaving a crack in their midfield defense. The opening was brief and there was really only one chance to capitalize on it, but watching Kiyokawa cut off Carlos’ pass to Pepe and send Gino flying down the other end of the field was utterly awesome as everyone rose to their feet in anticipation. With Akasaki breaking down the side and looking like he was going to put it away, only for Sera to miss the follow-up opportunity as well, the thought of Tsubaki blazing in out of nowhere like he’s been all game filled my mind well before he actually did just that. However, therein lie the beauty of it all as it was an “ask and you shall receive” moment that left everyone speechless before ETU members and fans exploded into an uproar of jubilation. Oh hell yeah!

Even Tatsumi wasn’t expecting Tsubaki to come in for the third chance and shut Fuwa’s arrogant ass up, but this was the best possible outcome and the one I was hoping for from the very beginning of this match. It’ll be interesting to see if ETU can hold onto this one goal lead for the remaining fifteen minutes or so in the second half now that Itagaki is all intent on taking matters in his own hands following Carlos’ decision to pass to Pepe instead of him when he was open. I wouldn’t rule out Tsubaki coming in yet again to steal this game for ETU however, as he’s slowly inheriting the spirit of the team that Tatsumi embodied when wearing the number seven. Overall, this episode absolutely rocked and I still get chills watching Tsubaki’s goal even now. At twenty-six episodes, this series can evidently spare a good three to four episodes for a single match and a lot flashbacks and recycled scenes for emphasis, but I can’t help but feel they could have easily achieved the same effect without so much of the latter. It’s easy to enjoy this while we’re caught in the moment of all, but this also means there will be at least one less episode for things later on when they’ll undoubtedly get even more exciting. For now though, it sure doesn’t hurt to live in the moment! Tsubaki!

Preview

「凄絶なる反撃」 (Seizetsu Naru Hangeki)
“The Violent Counterattack”

It was no holds barred with everyone unleashing everything they had to whittle away Father’s remaining souls and make him reach the breaking point, but they had to first survive a huge blast that took out a huge chunk of Central headquarters. After getting distracted by the emergence of a ton of Xerxes souls, Hohenheim ends up protecting Ed and Izumi with a desperation save, but holy crap Al manages to do the same for May somehow. Like father like son I guess, but I’m still dumbfounded by how Al managed to not get completely obliterated in the process. That must have been some serious last minute armor reinforcement alchemy. Following that, the action came hard and heavy as Mustang finally got back into the fray with Hawkeye as his new eyes. I have no idea how he’s able to judge distances and angles without his vision, but he does just that and saves both Ed and Izumi. It’s a god damn shame that Mustang had to lose his aim of all things, because his extremely destructive ability is ideal for chipping away at homunculus immortality from safe distances. Clearly this desperate way with everyone getting involved is much more suspenseful though, as Greed getting into the mix and Ed going for a surprise attack with his already busted up arm proves to be just enough to crack Father’s shell.

As insanely intense as the combined effort of Briggs’ soldiers and everyone else who could still fight was, I was hanging on Al’s words when he asked May to help him save Ed shortly afterward. I knew exactly what he was thinking too after seeing Ed pinned up against a concrete slab and Father creeping towards him, but actually watching Al use his soul to transmute Ed’s right arm back still had me on the edge of my seat. Despite May’s teary reluctance in setting up the alkahestry circles so that he could do so from a distance, I didn’t feel sad about Al’s sacrifice one bit. Seeing him in front of the Gate and returning to his body with a look of determination made me revel at the sight of Ed’s Truth being forced to return the right arm. The setup with Ed losing his automail and being unable to perform transmutations happened so quickly and seamlessly that Al’s subsequent sacrifice to restore his ability to do so was more awesome than anything else. I say that because it gives new meaning to the fact that Ed gave up an arm to affix Al’s soul to the armor and how anyone who’s seen the Truth can use circle-less clap transmutations. In other words, everything was situated in a way from the very beginning to allow Al to shine in this crucial moment and boy did he ever.

Now that Father’s lost the God within him and getting whatever remaining souls in him eaten up by Ed’s relentless onslaught, it looks like the final battle is over for the most part. The real problem now is whether Ed will be able get Al back in some form and what he’ll have to give up to do so this time around. The easy solution would be to use up some of Hohenheim’s souls, but I get the feeling he’s pretty much spent all of them after using the vast majority to form the nation-wide transmutation circle and the rest in this fight against Father. Greed’s philosopher stone could be an option too, but it looks like Ed’s going to head to the gate himself and handle it personally. I guess it would be rather meaningless if they resorted to using the souls of other human begins after all this time. In any case, two episodes to go!

Preview

Rikkyo University history major Mizuno Saaya makes her major music debut with the opening theme to Kaichou wa Maid-sama, “My Secret”. She actually qualified in a vocal audition held by Smile Company back in 2004 and has appeared in magazines as a “reader model” (a normal reader who gets featured in issues for being exceptionally pretty), but only now is she really taking center stage with a record label from Geneon Universal Entertainment. While simple, the PV for this song pretty much speaks for itself on why 20-year-old Saaya has graced the pages of various magazines. However, I’m just as impressed by her singing ever since I first heard this song as the opening theme of the anime. Admittedly, I had absolutely no idea who she was then, which given how this is her major debut explains why that is. As a member of Smile Company, she’s in the same agency as ELISA, whom is equally dazzling with her angelic-like voice. Having listened to Saaya’s first single for a while now, I find her voice really pleasant on the ears and am quite fond of the second track “Good Day”. Anyway, be sure to check out her official site for a really adorable picture of her. The single “My Secret” was released back on May 26th and like most limited editions, included the PV above with it.

I wouldn’t have known that the ending theme to Kaichou wa Maid-sama was performed by a visual kei rock band had I not seen this PV, so that sort of goes to show how much an artist’s appearance really matters to me. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not into the visual kei look whatsoever despite how the flamboyant fad caught on since the 1980s, but that doesn’t prevent me from enjoying heidi‘s seventh single and major debut release “Yokan” either. When I first heard this song three months ago with the badass Usui Takumi-centered ending sequence, the lead in to the first verse immediately caught my attention. (Well that, and the shirtless Usui that came with it.) I still didn’t think much of the song after that, but it gradually grew on me more and more over the weeks. What I found most impressive was their vocalist Yoshihiko’s range, which you can sort of get a feel for in this song before he starts singing his lungs out. One of the other two songs on this single, “Kodama”, gives off a better impression of his singing ability when he’s not doing that, which to me sounds a lot better in comparison. In any case, this single was released back on May 26th and along with the limited edition is the PV you see above. Enjoy.

With Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou concluded, I figured I’d better post about the PV of its ending theme now if I’m going to do it at all. So without further ado, here’s actress/singer Asou Natsuko‘s latest single, “Everyday sunshine line!”, which was been available ever since May 12th. For this bubbly song that Daimaou viewers are surely familiar with now, the music video with Natsuko riding through the city with a bunch of balloons is befitting, though not all that interesting either. Regardless, Natsuko is a fairly new and young 19-year-old artist whose singing career only really started around this time last year. This is only her fourth single, but she’s sort of made a mark on the anime scene by having her second one, “Programming for non-fiction”, featured as the opening theme to Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou and third one, “Perfect-area complete!”, as the same for Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu. Those familiar with either of those two series should recognize her voice fairly easily, but I was actually surprised to find out that I knew of her well before her major music debut.

“Knew yet forgot” would be the more correct statement actually, as anyone who was crazy enough to follow the Negima! Magister Negi Magi live-action drama that aired almost three years ago would have caught sight of her as Hasegawa Chisame there. I know, it’s pretty unbelievable that I sat through 25-episodes of that live-action drama and even liked a bunch of the theme songs that resulted from it, but the point I’m trying to make is that Natsuko was an actress first and foremost and had a role in that drama. Incidentally, this led to the creation of the Negima idol group “pRythme” (pronounced “Prism”), consisting of her and fellow actresses Kawase Yuri and Mukunoki Eri, who played Sasaki Makie and Murakami Natsumi respectively (for any Negima fans out there). It was an odd grouping going by the characters they played, but the composition was decided upon based on their actual singing ability. During their short stint, pRythme ended up releasing three singles, the last of which included a cover performance of the Negima!? opening theme, “1000% SPARKING!”. Below is their performance of it at the Negima live event in Shibuya at the time. (Natsuko’s the one in green and white.)

Anyone who has a strange and inexplicable fascination with Negima songs and all the crazy concerts where all 32 female seiyuus were involved (like myself) should enjoy that performance to some degree. In any case, it’s interesting to see a bit of Natsuko’s past and the earlier stages of her music career, which I’m particularly surprised about because I didn’t make the connection until now. I guess that’s what happens when I’m looking up information to write a post though, so here’s your little bit of useless anime-related trivia for the day.

「おしまいは完璧？」 (Oshimai wa Kanpeki?)
“The Ending is Complete?”

For a series finale, things sure went out with a bang when Akuto took his fight directly to the Gods and Peterhausen showed just how faithful he is to the very end, but I found myself constantly trying to accept explanations on the law of identity and how the entire system works faster than I could even comprehend them. So with that, I was questioning whether I’m an utter failure at grasping the key points of the story or if Artland and their production staff didn’t do a very good job telling one. Every time Akuto responded to either Hiroshi, Bouichirou, Peterhausen, or the Lilidans protecting the Gods’ system’s with a correctly surmised statement, I was often left puzzled and wondering if I missed something that was said earlier on. At times it was less important stuff, such as Peterhausen telling Akuto to release his mana limiter and the latter knowing that it means risking harm to himself, but at others it was the Lilidans saying that the demon lord is supposed to form a contract with the law of identity and recreate the next world as its “father” — something Akuto had already figured out at some point. Looking back, I found that it’s actually a combination of both that made this series a little more difficult to follow than I gather the producers wanted it to be.

I actually had to watch this episode twice to get a proper grasp on the overall story, plus refer back to the previous ones to see how tangible the progression’s been. With only twelve episodes to work with in a series that’s expected to have a fair amount of fan-service on top an extravagant plot that works in both Gods and Demon Lords in a Matrix-like system, I’ve come to the realization that my personal difficulty in making sense of things stemmed from those two aspects being forced to overlap in the limited time frame. If you just look at the story that’s been covered thus far and ignore the “fluff” that’s encompassed it, the foundation has actually been laid to make it work. I mentioned before how the quick introduction of plot devices such as the Sword of Sohaya felt like a cheap way to advance the story, but in retrospect it only came off that way because the episode couldn’t spare enough time to focus on the Hattori/Teruya side of the struggle leading up to the Junko drawing the legendary sword to deal with Eiko. The screen time in the following episode had to be shared between Akuto, Bouichirou, Fujiko, Lily, and Hiroshi’s perspectives, which made it increasingly difficult to appreciate the underlying story elements that were progressing steadily along.

Leading up to this finale, if you took notice to the school director’s brief mention of how Bouichirou was around in the battle a hundred years ago yet never aged one bit, in conjunction with the flashback scene of his lover and former law of identity Rimu’s contract with the demon lord, it won’t come as too much of a surprise to learn that Bouichirou’s a time traveler intent on stopping the God’s endless cycle of destroying all human life and recreating it elsewhere. Along those lines, this means that everyone is caught in a system designed to collect data from each iteration, revise it, and then destroy the world and create a new one based on the changes. Being the demon lord, Akuto has been aware of this fact for some time now and is why he’s rebelling against the Gods. The huge twist is that the demon lord is proxy of theirs intended to close the chapter of each “story” by wiping out mankind, but it didn’t come off as one due to the brief and easily glossed over foreshadowing in previous episodes where the fan-service-filled subplots involving Junko, Keena, Korone, and Fujiko took center stage.

Whether you actually got all that leading up to this finale and saw past the ecchi surface of this series, the conclusion here where Akuto asks Peterhausen to tap into the God’s system and take it down to prevent their world’s destruction, will be either utterly awesome with a lot of closure or totally nonsensical random chain of events. Admittedly, I fell into the latter category when I first watched this episode, but a second viewing and some flipping through of the previous episodes landed me in the former. When I say “utterly awesome” however, this doesn’t mean the series has suddenly redeemed itself and become a series I’d recommend to anyone in a heartbeat. Instead, it’s been elevated from being rather unsubstantial and run-of-the-mill to actually having a good plot amidst all the fan-service. In addition, it even allowed things to come full circle with the law of identity’s slight modification to their world so that everyone except our main characters forgot about whole demon lord incident, only for Yata Garasu give Akuto the future career assessment of becoming one once again. It looks like there are some viscious cycles that can’t help but be repeated with or without the Gods’ involvement. =P

Epilogue

Final Impressions:

When I skimmed through the first bit of this series’ manga while writing up the Spring 2010 Preview, it came off primarily as a high school comedy with a fair bit of fan-service in a futuristic setting with magic. In spite of that, it was something I felt had potential to be much more given its light novel roots and backstory revolving around Akuto’s past with Keena. Having seen the full adaptation now, I can say that there is a lot more depth than it appears on the surface, albeit it wasn’t anything like I was expecting. Not once did I consider that the story would reach such heights as addressing the existence of Gods and depicting how religion is nothing more than a means for them to guide their human subjects in the system. All I was expecting from the demon lord premise is Akuto being viewed negatively yet possessing the power to do amazing things as he forms his high school harem. Clearly that was a misjudgment on my part, especially considering that this is based on a light novel where fan-service-oriented pictures don’t even exist. The plot has to play a significant role in order to propel things forward there and that’s exactly what we had here. Kind of hard to imagine based on the promo artwork of course, but that just goes to show you should never judge a book by its cover, regardless of how cliché is.

However, this anime adaptation wasn’t without problems as it tried to cover a fair amount of material in a short period of time. I originally felt that this series suffered from pacing issues, but now feel that really wasn’t the case at all. To the writers’ credit, they did what they had to in the limited time frame and compressed the story so that multiple things were happening concurrently. The trade-off is that things got a little hard to follow and were briefer, but all the key story elements were there to string the entire series together. The real problem I found is that it’s hard to take notice of those elements with all the fan-service that this series included. As soon as the viewer saw scenes with a loli getting fingers shoved down her throat or a naked girl being licked against her will, the whole bit about the assailant being a member of the government agency CIMO8 was the furthest thing from their mind. This tendency of overshadowing the underlying story with a lot of fan-service is what ultimately plagued this series from being taken seriously enough for it to come together in a significant way. Normally a series would alternate between story and fan-service rather than being forced to overlap them the entire time.

Be that as it may, it’s kind of impressive how much material was covered in only twelve episodes using this approach though. The first three were introductory ones, the next two focused on Fujiko’s brother and the revival of Peterhausen that was hinted at earlier, the sixth one was an obligatory beach episode, and the remaining six covered the rebellion against the Gods. If you can actually spare the time to watch this series again while trying to focus on the story elements of what’s happening rather than how it’s happening, it almost feels like this could have been a really good series that everyone would’ve been watching. In the end, unless watching a series twice with different focuses in mind is an option for you, it’s kind of hard to recommend Daimaou beyond what you’d get the first time through. I still enjoyed it thanks to characters like Korone and whatnot and see it in a whole new light after looking at things under a finer microscope, so everyone’s mileage will vary with this one.

「Knockin’ on heaven’s door」

Not the new slimmed-down Matsushita, not Guild leader Char, but a mysterious teenager played by Ishida Akira proved to be at the bottom of it all. Even so, he’s nothing more than a creation of the Angel Player software developed by someone who converted himself to a mindless NPC. Quite frankly, I’m really not sure how to take the “final boss” being a nameless individual we’ll never meet and no longer has any sort of emotions or aspirations in this world; however, his story on how he was willing to wait an eternity for his loved one’s return despite the astronomically slim chance of her doing so wasn’t really all that unbelievable given how this series has been. At the same time, it was a lot of story divulged in the latter part of this episode through pure discussion between this nameless drone and Yuri, making it feel like things could have gone any which way.

In accordance to the way it did go, the idea that this programmer was a “bug” in this system because he had devoted his life to another person, arrived without his memories, became unable to bear waiting for the return of his loved one after she moved on, and developed the shadow program to erase his own consciousness all looks good on paper, but I really would’ve liked to see some of that hinted at in earlier episodes. The one thing that this revelation did reiterate from past episodes though is that this world is a place intended for love to be nourished and inevitably allow people to move on. It also tempted Yuri with the prospect of taking over the Angel Player program and using it to remodel the world as she fits, taking on the role of its would-be “God” if one were to exist. Upon seeing her power-hungry laugh, I was seriously thinking that Yuri would become the new “final boss” from that moment on, but she surprised me by declaring that she’s only come this far due to her desire to save everyone before taking down the entire system that’s now trying to rid the world of people who have discovered love yet not moved on.

As mentioned above, I feel the specific details on the explanation behind what’s been happening could have been different, but the end result with Yuri feeling like she’s finally become the big sister that was able to protect everyone was clearly the story’s ultimate goal. After accomplishing her lifelong regret and being told by her younger siblings that she’s done enough, it was nice to see Yuri finally show some emotion even if it meant she was going to move on because of it. Incidentally she didn’t, even after Girls Dead Monster and most of the other SSS members voluntarily did so at the beginning of this episode, saving her for the “graduation” ceremony in the series finale next time. Based on the preview, it’s befitting that Otonashi takes on the valedictorian role for that after leading everyone to the arguably “correct path” in this world, but it’s still going to be very very bitter sweet to see everyone part ways. In fact, just thinking about it now gets me a bit choked up.

With the end in sight, I still wish more of the girls — Shiina, Hisako, Irie, Sekine, Yusa — and some of the other guys got some more focus with their respective subplots, but that’s clearly too much to ask for in a short thirteen episode series. However, despite the series’ inability to cover every character in detail, it did make good on the three main ones to a substantial degree. In Kanade’s case, the focus was more on her time in the afterworld and being perceived as the enemy for the vast majority of the series, but that in itself developed her character just as much as a tragic past would have. I mean, how can you say no to a face like this popping up from behind people now? Anyway, with the shadows gone and practically everyone else as well, I imagine the last episode will be primarily an epilogue type one that’s probably going to get me a bit teary-eyed if not more.

* It’s been four episodes since we’ve seen the ending sequence, which has been updated yet again. Surprisingly, Iwasawa, Yui, and the rest of Girls Dead Monster are in it.
* The preview only shows Otonashi, Yuri, Kanade, Hinata, and Naoi at the graduation ceremony, leaving me wondering what happened to everyone that was battling up top. Given everyone’s laughter, it doesn’t seem like they were consumed by the shadows and turned into NPCs though.

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「千錯万綜」 (Sensaku Bansou)
“All Complicated and Confusing”

After taking several gunshots last time, it turns out Shizuo’s mind over matter bursts of superhuman strength really knows no bounds. To him, he just thought he slipped and fell down in the rain. I was pretty amused by how things he just got up and walked to Shinra’s place for some treatment like it was no big deal, mainly because it was very Shizuo-like. The same goes for when Shinra was trying to remove the bullets from his body, only to end up cowering in fear for calling Shizuo an idiot with the forceps still in his leg. It doesn’t look like Shinra bothered to give Shizuo any sedatives either, as he appears incapable of feeling any sort of pain. That scene, plus the one where Shinra called Celty while he was chasing after Anri, ended up being a couple of hilarious moments before things really got underway.

Quite honestly, I was expecting Celty to take Mikado back to her place to talk things over with Anri after he learned the truth behind her and Masaomi’s situation, but the big garbled mess that resulted when Masaomi took his fight up directly with Horada and the rest of the Blue Square members who had taken over the Yellow Scarves was so much better in hindsight. I attribute that primarily to the foreshadowing seen in Masaomi’s resolve to kill and be killed when he couldn’t get in contact with any of the Yellow Scarves and went to confront Horada for relieving him as their leader and bringing up Mikado’s name as the leader of Dollars (something I gather he learned from Izaya). To that effect, I found Simon’s words to Masaomi on how a kid like him shouldn’t be putting himself in a “kill or be killed” situation followed by his request to Celty to save Masaomi really helped set the stage for the big showdown. All the while, Anri was frantically searching for him after hearing from Shizuo how Masaomi supposedly gave the order to have him killed, while Mikado and Celty were on their way as well.

The thought of the three of them converging on the same place and the truth behind the secrets they’ve been keeping from one another getting exposed was pretty exciting to say the least, especially when Anri and Mikado arrived to find Masaomi a bloody mess. It sure as hell made for an awesome cliffhanger anyway, but this climactic turn of events actually had me rethinking what Izaya’s plan truly is. Given the way he was analyzing the situation and sounding enthralled by how everything’s going to come to light between Dollars, Yellow Scarves, Slashers, and now Blue Squares with Celty in the middle of it all, I’m almost inclined to believe that this is exactly what he wanted to happen. In addition, he made it sound like Namie was intended to play this role of bringing them together six months ago had Mikado not found a way to stop her.

Regardless of what Izaya’s scheming, it’s nice to see Masaomi presented with a second chance to confront the Blue Squares and make up for his shameful past when he was frozen in fear and unable to rescue Saki. Hearing the name of the former Blue Squares leader, Izumii, got him pretty fired up about killing Horada as well, so it was pretty cool watching him take out a bunch of Blue Squares members and cause Horada to tremble in fear even with a gun in hand. Things still weren’t looking favorable in Masaomi’s case however, which is why Anri busting in as her Saika self and Celty following suit with Mikado paved way for some serious Blue Squares ass-kicking. I haven’t counted out Shizuo making a late arrival before this is all said and done either, since he really needs to get payback for Horada’s failed attempt to kill him.

While I would’ve liked the story to get back to Izaya in some way, the finale next week revolving around the conclusion of Masaomi’s subplot the three leaders of the major factions coming together still has me pretty excited. Other than that, I’m still left wondering which member of the Yellow Scarves this Maruyama Ou person Masaomi tried to call is, and who Namie was seen talking on the phone with. (Seiji?) There’s also Saki’s call to Russian Sushi out of the blue to tell them about what “he” is up to. Was she referring to Masaomi or Izaya? I’m leaning towards Izaya though since the very next scene had him in it.

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「汚い野良猫」 (Kitanai Noraneko)
“A Dirty Stray Cat”

The revelation came an episode sooner than I was expecting, but it looks like my hunch about Yaichi being Seinoshin ever since episode three proved to be true. I just love it when it paying attention to the subtleties in a series makes it so much more enjoyable to watch. While the surprise was diminished a bit in my case (and for anyone who’s been reading my weekly impressions), it was still nice to get confirmation on the suspicion and see the story come together. There are still some questions as to why Seinoshin ended up betraying Jin and the rest of the Bakuro gang after he spared his life, but it’s already been hinted that it has to do with Jin’s orders to kill everyone who “gets in the way”. Naturally, that has me wondering if Seinoshin decided to spare someone’s life just like his one was spared and ended up getting Jin and the others caught by the police. It’s sort of looking that way right now with all the dwelling on the past “Yaichi’s” been seen doing as of late. He may have thought Masa was interesting when he picked him up and invited him to the Five Leaves, but he’s probably thinking he got way more than he bargained for now that he’s helping unravel a past he’s tried to forget.

Jin and Bakuro gang are naturally one element of that, but so is Yagi now that he’s figured out Yaichi is actually Seinoshin. Masa’s decision to lie about how there’s no maple leaf-shaped burn mark on Yaichi’s left shoulder was evidently a bad idea in retrospect, as his bad lying turned out to be what gave it away. It’s kind of ironic in a way, mainly because Masa doesn’t even know if Yaichi has that burn mark yet he ended up leading Yagi to believe (correctly) that he does. However, aside from the legal trouble that Seinoshin may get into with Yagi, I don’t really see his secret getting out being that much of a problem. Yagi was close friends with the real Yaichi in the past as well as Seinoshin himself, so I don’t see him out to arrest the person thought to be dead all this time. If anything, Seinoshin’s decision to avoid drawing Yagi’s suspicion was probably to keep his true identity a secret so that it never reaches the Bakuro gang. As such, it’ll be interesting to see if Yagi actually comes to help “Yaichi” in some way in the final two episodes.

On a somewhat unrelated note, it was nice to learn a bit about Otake’s past and how Yaichi saved her from a life working in a brothel, even though it was heavily overshadowed by everything else happening this episode. In contrast, Sachi still managed to catch my attention amidst all this with her comment to Masa about being a sinful woman because she’s taken a liking to Matsu after receiving the metal hair ornament he made. It’s unlikely anything will come from that, but if anyone’s wanted something in the relationship department outside of Yaichi and Otake, Matsu and Sachi appear to be the next best bet. Story-wise, there are still ex-gang leader “Saint” Souji and Tokujirou’s roles in all this, now that the former has asked that Yaichi’s true identity be kept a secret for now. It’ll be interesting to see what Ume decides to do once he hears of it next time given his and Okinu’s noticeable absence this week. In addition, it looks like Jin will cross paths with Seinoshin as well.

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Continuing right along from last time in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, Isshin reveals that they can spend two thousand hours in the Precipice World. Contrary to what some people were hoping, it looks like there will be a training arc, or at least the training will be shown parallel to Aizen’s hour in Karakura Town. Considering Aizen was the one who destroyed the sweeper, I doubt he has a clue what Ichigo is doing. While their method isn’t very original, it is nice to see something new coming up (a berserk Zangetsu maybe). Ichigo is in sore need of a power-up, though I have a feeling this “Final Getsuga” will not be enough and his SSJ3 hollow form will be needed once again.

This chapter was mainly setup, and hopefully the next few will progress more quickly and not drag out the training. The main question now is how Aizen will go about making his Key, and how much he can do in an hour before Ichigo (or someone else) shows up. With Gin’s powers, simply destroying Karakura Town would be pretty simple, but at the moment next to nothing has been revealed about the King’s Key. Now that Tatsuki has shown up in the story, it’s possible she may play a larger part in this war as well, so I’m looking forward to that; anything is possible at this point.

「体育祭でもメイド様」 (Taiikusai demo Meido-sama)
“A Maid Even at The Sports Festival”

Sports festivals are the theme this week, with Seika Academy following suit of Umenomori Academy with their own take on it. I don’t see how placing all the girls on one team is supposed to balance things out between the gender disparity, but it doesn’t seem to hamper Misaki one bit. In fact, it even had the guys complaining about how she’s allowed to enter ever competition and steamroll them for all the prizes. (This was a particularly hot victory pose.) It just wasn’t fair… for all the guys that is. Subsequently, I loved how all their complaints were silenced by Misaki herself saying how she’s putting it all on the line out there. Even if they didn’t like being dominated by a girl who trained for this day carrying super heavy trays at work, no one in their right mind would argue against a demon. You’d have to be suicidal to take Misaki head-on unless you’re someone named Usui Takumi.

To make things interesting, one suicidal maniac named Gouda did emerge and try to win the obstacle course by playing dirty and bumping Misaki into the pool, but lo and behold Takumi actually takes part in a competition after overhearing Gouda’s plans to do whatever it takes to win the fabled kiss from Sakura prize. He saves his princess, steals first place, and even gives up the prize to Misaki for coming in second. However, in Takumi-like fashion, he wasn’t going to let it go without saying that he’s the kind to kiss rather than be kissed, much to everyone’s shock. Of course, we all know that as him having his way with Misaki’s lips whether she cares for it or not. He’s a bit of a take-charge kind of guy, which I’m sure some female viewers can appreciate. You know, the kind that likes to feel like they’re irresistible to their man.

Anyway, the latter half to this episode shifted to a costume race intended for the slower geekier crowd since it’s embarrassing and the prize is only a fancy pencil, but Misaki chose to take part yet again to save Shizuko from “the wolves”. As a result, all signs were pointing towards Misaki getting into another maid outfit that Ryuunosuke created as a gift for Misa-chan yet accidentally misplaced. Usui’s “let’s cosplay” line to urge Misaki on had my hopes up about seeing everyone’s reaction to her dazzling maid appearance, but one bump into Yukimura and a quick mix-up in the pitch-black changing room resulted in a very different result. With the way everything was focused on Misaki, I really wasn’t expecting Yukimura to get a bit of development in the last bit of this episode; however, we got just that as he took his first chance to participate in an event very seriously and was ridiculed by everyone for it.

Interestingly enough, Takumi cast it off as something that couldn’t be helped, but leave it up to Misaki to strip down and make her own costume so that the event looks cool. Usui’s wasn’t too bad either when he finally showed up. In any case, that was an unexpected bit of drama to be slipped in at the very end, and it looks like it’s going to be a recurring theme of sorts about Yukimura’s character in the upcoming episode. That’s slightly disturbing to say the least, especially when it looks like Naoya’s intent on becoming the stupid delinquent hero to save “her”. After all the entertaining sports festival antics we had this episode, we now have trap #2 in the series? More Misaki and less cross-dressing guys please! Actually, make that more Misa cosplaying because she looks good in just about anything.

Finally, judging by syoboi calendar‘s newly updated schedule, it looks like this series will in fact run for two-cours, namely 26 episodes. Pretty sweet that we’ll get to see Misaki x Takumi for another three months, especially with J.C. Staff in charge of the production for this adaptation.

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