Random Curiosity

It seems like all I’ve been talking about in the past while is sphere and its members, so I’ll refer you to the Asobi ni Iku yo OP and Takagaki Ayahi PV posts for a quick rundown on what these four lovely ladies have been up to. I will add that this seiyuu group is an easy sell for me since it’s comprised of four female seiyuu whom I’d be happy to see starring in any series. As music artists, it doesn’t hurt that they’re all pretty attractive and can sing fairly well, which Music Ray’n‘s decision to have them all as solo artists as well seems to reaffirm. Their latest single as a group is titled “Now loading…SKY!!” and is currently featured as the opening theme of the sci-fi romantic comedy Asobi ni Iku yo — a series where all four girls have prominent roles in. While I’m not actively covering the show here, I am following it on a weekly basis and it’s proving to be a nice guilty pleasure of mine. (e.g. I love how the characters keep changing outfits, particularly Kinjou Manami.)

Released a few days ago on July 28th, the limited edition included the full version of the promotional video that’s been featured on their official site for some time now. It isn’t a bad one either, as it features some simple dance choreography and segments with a panorama camera where the girls take turns popping in front to sing their portions of the song. It’s a bit cool to watch since it’s timed to their singing, and if nothing else, gives the girls time to look cute and have some fun. Smiling big seems to be a prominent theme in this music video and the girls look like they’re trying too hard at times, but it does suit the bubbly catchy song itself. Of course, the other thought is that four and a half minutes of these girls looking pretty easily makes it a good PV. At least, that’s what me looping it for the past while seems to indicate.

「お尻、大変でしょ？／欲求不満なだけだ！／私もパンをくわえて登校しなきゃ！」
(Oshiri, Taihen Desho? / Yokkyuu Fuman na Dake da! / Watashi mo Pan wo Kuwaete Toukou Shinakya)
“Your Butt, Hurts Right? / I’m Just Frustrated! / I Have to Eat Bread On The Way To School Too!”

You just know Tsuda’s got it bad with the Ousai student council when his nightmares involve Shino and Aria being unusually normal and not spouting out a dirty joke every minute or so. It wasn’t too long ago that he was trying really hard to get used to their habits, but now it’s gotten to the point that it feels wrong without them. I guess this goes to show how one can get accustomed to anyone, whether they’re absolutely crazy or sex-starved virgins with the most perverted minds ever. I’ll be the first to admit that having a girl like Shino or Aria around would make every day a lot more interesting though, so it’s a bit of a shame that any attractive girl who behaves as such in real life would probably be considered a slut of sorts. Now before I draw too many wary eyes by suggesting that having a hot perverted girl around would be a bucket load of fun (at least for the first while), the catch is that she would have to have a quirky personality with an air of innocence, no matter how slight. It would be a serious problem if nothing fazed her, which we know isn’t the case with Shino. I still find that she’s a lot of talk a lot of the time, but that’s exactly the air of innocence that saves her from going down the perverted path of no return.

After the way things left off last time, my favorite part of this episode is how it followed up on two of the skits, with the first being Tsuda catching a cold after giving his umbrella to the birthday girl. Shino’s subsequent visit to his house didn’t drift off into any romantic territory despite the potential, but I did like how they revisited the idea. The second follow-up was Hata seriously expecting a gravure photo shoot from Shino after getting her to unknowingly agree to one. It was funny how that came up again, as Shino’s unwillingness and attempt to get out of it by flipping her Teru teru bouzu upside-down like Hirasawa Yui went to show how she still has some shame. The disparity in her character between situations like that and the one before where she’s perfectly fine giving Tsuda a porn magazine as a get-well gift is one aspect of this series I always find amusing. Shino evidently has a double-standard when it comes to perverse humor, so it’s always awesome to see her get a taste of her own medicine at the hands of Hata. As a side to that, Kotomi (Shimoda Asami) bringing her brother an erotic manga and assuming he had no interest in 3-D girls was somewhat unsettling, since it looks like she’s on the path to becoming another Shino. With the way that perverted possibilities come to mind first, it’s probably safe to say she’d feel right at home at Ousai Academy if she enrolls like she was planning to.

As for the rest of the episode, highlights had to be Naruko trying to give Tsuda a wet dream after seeing him dozing off in class, Mutsumi trying to test Suzu’s intelligence and ending up as the fool, Shino claiming she “lost the fight” against the razor last night, and Shino checking out Aria’s breasts only to learn that she has a bigger butt. For the slightly lewder stuff, there was the skit where Shino figured Tsuda had to excuse himself because of an erection, before the transition scene gave us the statistical average that Japanese men are 13cm long. There was also the student council website that they were trying to put together, which Aria quickly turned into a porn site. Suzu on the other hand is showing she’s still one of the best avenues for comic relief, with Hata passing on taking any swimsuit photos of her since social criticism’s gotten a lot harsher lately. My interest was piqued to learn that Shino’s ears are an erogenous zone of hers, making Tsuda’s alternative way of whispering into her ear pretty funny to see.

Anyway, I’m curious as to see what the next episode will entail since there’s mention of Triple Booking making an appearance. Triple Booking is actually a fictional idol group from Ujiie Touzen‘s other gag manga, “Idol no Akahon”, but the opening theme they’re credited with here is actually performed by Hikasa Youko, Satou Satomi, and Yahagi Sayuri (i.e. Shino, Aria, and Suzu). For whatever reason, that fact is kept a bit obscured to serve as a gag in itself, which the preview poked fun at as well. My guess is that we’ll see a Shino, Aria, Suzu idol group next time as a tribute to Idol no Akahon.

Preview

「ブラ！ブラ！ブタ！」 (Bura! Bura! Buta!)
“Bra! Bra! Pig!”

A third sphere member joins the cast this week as a girl with thick eyebrows, but surprisingly it’s not Kotobuki Minako, whose role as Mugi in K-ON helped give rise to that look. Instead, it’s Toyosaki Aki again, as she continues to take the seiyuu world by storm. I imagine it’s all secretly part of her (anime) world domination that’s been happening for the past few seasons. The only thing I can really knock her on is that it hasn’t been an absolute parade of starring roles despite how diverse they’ve been. I gather it’s only a matter of time for her though, much like fellow sphere member Tomatsu Haruka (i.e. Hitoha). Here, Aki’s role as Yoshioka Yuki has only been shown to be a relatively minor one as a member of “Team Sugisaki”, lead by Sugisaki Miku (Saitou Chiwa). As such, Chiwa takes more of the spotlight even without any Senjougahara Hitagi type of performance. Miku is just another sixth grader, who happens to take enjoyment in showing off her brand name clothes. It’s hard to imagine she has a following, but all I really cared about is the hilarity that resulted from her rivalry with Mitsuba.

As the episode title suggests, it all started off with a bra and quickly became about bust sizes before long. Sixth graders fussing over breast sizes seems rather fruitless if you ask me, as even the breast master Futaba, whose eyeball measurements accurate to two decimal places of precision, couldn’t fathom the possibility that they were asking her to compare their flat chests. All that went on to show is that the best part of the Mitsuba/Miku rivalry is everything that goes on around — none of which helped Mitsuba one bit. This includes Futaba exploding out of a pile of underwear and running down Mitsuba swimming laps nonstop. The pile of underwear in the store was absolute money with the way they slow-motioned the hell out of it and added jet plane sound effects. Futaba looked like she was having the time of her life being buried in panties, whereas Mitsuba looked like she was going to have a heart attack, making for one epic moment.

However, the absolute highlight of this episode had to be Chikubi falling for the hamster design on Mitsuba’s underwear and the latter using it to revel in Hitoha’s angst. Cue in a psychotic suicidal girl with scissors and a lot of melodrama with the music to go with it, and we had the perfect setup to Mitsuba’s fat ass disillusioning Chikubi. I can’t emphasize enough how the music made that scene play out as well as it did. That was hands-down the funniest scene in terms of execution, but Soujirou accidentally shaving off an eyebrow in one fell swoop thanks to Futaba’s self-powered water cannon had me laughing helplessly for the slapstick factor. His Security Police-like appearance for Parents’ Day at school was pretty funny too, but the mix-up of Mitsuba and Futaba’s written pieces was even better. Futaba’s love for her father pretty much explained why she was spared from the shed treatment back in episode three, when Hitoha wasn’t even given the benefit of the doubt.

What really caught my attention in that last skit though was Bridge’s short display of 3-D work as Soujirou ran off in tears and barreled down a flight of stairs. That, and the fact that the music they played was strikingly similar to Metal Gear Solid’s alert music. Anyway, the next episode looks like it’s going to be fun with a cavalry fight (kibasen) that I was hoping to see in K-ON at some point, plus there’s more occult stuff going on at Satoshi’s expense, so it should be fun like always. Mitsudomoe!!

* P.S. On the topic of Bakemonogatari, an anime adaption of the prequel novel Kizumonogatari was recently announced.

Preview

「メイド様でもフットマン」 (Maid-sama demo Futtoman)
“A Footman Even as A Maid”

I thought I was watching a show about a student council president who’s secretly a maid, but got a footman instead this week. It wasn’t exactly what I was hoping to see after Miko Day at Maid Latte, but turned out to be a multi-episode arc involving the return of Miyabigaoka’s Tora. His arrival didn’t come as any surprise thanks to the preview last time, but his new way of hazing Misaki through his vice-president Maki Kanade (Maeno Tomoaki) was to a degree. However, if there’s one thing that I hate more than rich arrogant guys pushing their fat wallets around to ridicule commoners, it’s them doing the same thing under the guise of civility. I’d much rather them be a jerk the entire time than go for a roundabout method to achieve the same result just for their personal entertainment. This episode was a prime example of the latter when Kanade waltzed into Maid Latte and expressed interest in buying the cafe since the owner refused to sell the building to him. Kudos to the old man for backing up his tenants and telling Kanade and the big name “Maki Dining” corporation that his father runs that he isn’t selling to them, but I did enjoy seeing Satsuki in a daze from the thought of her business being pulled out from underneath her feet. I have a whole new-found respect for Toyosaki Aki after finally getting around to finishing the last few episodes of the fan-service-filled Seikon no Qwaser and seeing her MC the K-ON Live Event that took place at the end of last year, so her voice work in any role is always a pleasure to watch, even when she’s not saying a whole lot because Satsuki’s in shock.

On that note, it’s probably not a very convincing proposition, but if you ever wanted to hear Fujimura Ayumi in tsundere role where she gets manhandled, she delivers just that in Seikon no Qwaser alongside Aki. For the more innocent variety, Misa-chan proves she’s just as good though when she makes Usui touch her breast to fool all the other participants at the “Footman Audition” into believing she’s a guy. Now it could just be me, but I find there’s something really alluring about her determination to save Maid Latte and refusal to let things play out like Tora and Kanade want when she’s willing to use her own body to that end. It’s not quite the same as letting some Russian boy rip through her clothes and drink her “Soma” as he pleases, but for a clean series it’s right up there in terms of providing some subliminal form of stimulation. What I found equally surprising from that turn of events was how Usui seamlessly followed up by saying she’s as “flat as a board” and not reacting any way whatsoever. Well, not externally anyway, as he didn’t give any indication of the thoughts that were probably racing through his mind from the cheap feel that was initiated by Misaki herself. He was cool as ice, even when he was touching the breast of the one and only Misa-chan.

Incidentally, Misaki’s decision to take part in this footman test was to try and save Maid Latte from being torn down and rebuilt as some high-class British-themed butler cafe, which led to some good laughs when Naoya and Ryuunosuke suddenly popped up to show their support by taking part as well. The Kanou and Yukimura pairing on the other hand was a bit unsettling, because my visions of a potential Soutarou x Sakura pairing were quickly shattered by a yaoi one I could have done without. In terms of other unexpected participants, it didn’t come as any surprise that the two masked one were Usui and Aoi. There was no way that Usui was going to remain on the sidelines when Misaki’s going out on a limb against a tyrant like Tora. As such, I couldn’t help but feel how it would have been an absolute breeze if Misaki asked Usui for help to begin with, upon learning that this butler competition required the participants to enter as pairs. It’s just too bad that asking Usui for help is probably the last thing Misaki will ever do, especially when she feels heavily indebted to him already. What’s more, confiding in him would be exactly what Usui wants, which goes against Misaki’s internal struggle of falling head over heels in love with him. In lieu, it was nice to see Subaru step up to the task and use bandages (i.e. sarashi) to help conceal her breasts, but in reality I still wanted to see Misaki pair up with Usui and completely dominate the competition.

Lo and behold, Aoi getting disqualified for being underage and Subaru for being a woman led to just that, thanks to Tora’s suggestion that they let Misaki and Usui pair up if they meet the age and gender requirements. It goes without saying that Tora is well aware that “Misaki-kun” is Misaki since he invited her to take part to show how serious she is about working in the service industry, so the determination she showed to win his stupid test somehow felt like it only added to his personal entertainment. At the same time, his surprise in seeing Misaki make Usui touch her chest looked like it made him even more infatuated with her. As mentioned above, it worked wonders on me since it reiterated Misaki’s fiery spunky personality, plus set things up nicely for a follow-up next time. I have no idea what we’re in store for, but will say that the preview shot has me really looking forward to what develops from Misaki pairing up with Usui.

Preview

As hinted in last week’s chapter, Gin finally turned against Aizen after killing Matsumoto. Aizen, as the Great Foreseer, had of course already known Gin would turn, which isn’t surprising given his snake/fox-like personality. He is way too curious really, first wanting to see how strong Ichigo can get, and now wanting to see how Ichimaru would try to kill him. Naturally Gin knows the Hougyoku pretty much heals injuries almost instantly so he follows up by dissolving Aizen’s cells from the inside, then blowing a hole through his chest. That immediately raised him by several rankings in my list of favorite characters, but I still have a hard believing time Aizen is actually dead, especially considering we haven’t even seen his bankai yet and Ichigo also hasn’t shown up. Even though he looks extremely shocked right now, for hundreds of chapters he has lived through everything, so I can’t help but see another card up his sleeve. The Hougyoku can pretty much repair anything; poison and holes don’t seem out of scope (doesn’t look like the blast destroyed the stone). If I’m right, then Gin is going to be dead very soon, unless he had planned it out further and has another move to make- he is a genius after all. Matsumoto might not be dead, but Gin at face value seems to be on his own team only. However, seeing him having a change of heart at some point (a bit like Ulquiorra perhaps) would be nice; some character development is always interesting. I’ve always found him a fascinating character, hopefully he won’t just die like Tousen did. Perhaps at least, he’ll let Ichigo know the secret of avoiding total hypnosis.

One thing I know though- if Kubo smashes all my predictions and actually kills off Aizen, Bleach would be so awesome.

「棚町薫編 第一章 アクユウ」 (Tanamachi Kaoru-hen Dai Isshou – Akuyuu)
“Tanamachi Kaoru Chapter 1 – Bad Company”

The story may have reset and started off very similarly for Tanamachi Kaoru’s route, but it’s like a whole new ball game with the spunky attitude she brings along. She isn’t nicknamed “Kibitou’s Nuke” for no reason, and goes on to show how much fun her outgoing personality is. Voiced by Satou Rina, Kaoru has that older sisterly feel to her presence, but is so easygoing to the point that she’s like one of the guys. On top of her wavy hair that sets her apart from the other girls, she also happens to know Junichi from back in middle school, which leads to her husband/wife teasing and melodramatic sarcasm — both of which I absolutely fell in love with here. She’s not quite the same kind of tease that Haruka was, as her misleading acts of fawning over Junichi more or less stems from the fact that she’s very playful and doesn’t feel that he sees her in any romantic sort of way. She’s more or less the close female friend that most guys have, whom they’ll hang out with but don’t see as anything more than a friend.

As this is an anime, it’s pretty hard to gauge exactly who’s considered really attractive since all the girls are designed to look pretty. Haruka was a given since she was the touted high school idol, so all the signs she gave Junichi during her arc came off as a huge tease. In Kaoru’s case, she looks equally as attractive to us and would easily have any guy considering her as a girlfriend with the way she nibbles on Junichi’s ears just to tease him, but his lack of initial interest in her suggests she’s not quite at Haruka’s level story-wise. I find that’s the shallow truth as to why real life isn’t more like all these high school anime, so assuming Kaoru is of only so-so looking, Junichi’s disinterest in her doesn’t seem all that unbelievable. She is known as a troublemaker of sorts after all, even though she means well, and is a tsundere to boot with the way she’s quick to lash out.

Now call me crazy, but the idea of a clingy tsundere just totally blows my mind away. It’s not something I see every day that’s for sure, so it totally crept up on me and caught me off guard. After seeing her try to cast off knocking out Junichi and sending him to the nurse’s office as his own fault for tripping and falling, only to wind up apologizing afterward when it was clearly a lie, I became an instant fan of her character. The delusions that Junichi had about her calling him out to the flower garden after school for a confession served to up her appeal more, and left me wondering if my feelings are actually that fleeting towards anime characters. I mean, Haruka did make a brief sleepy appearance in this episode, but I was entirely in “Kaoru Mode” and didn’t even care. It looks like I’m going with the “flavor of the month” at the four-episode pacing set forth for each of these girls’ arcs.

Anyway, the best part of Kaoru’s character is how quickly she was turned into a love-struck girl when Junichi nonchalantly mentioned that he thought she was going to confess to him. It’s almost as if Kaoru had already secretly liked him on some level yet had no expectations from it — which would explain her overly friendly behavior around him — and this opened the door to the idea that he actually sees her as a potential girlfriend. It was a pretty nice follow-up to his disappointment over being asked to serve as a representative for all the male students, where he actually gave some good advice to Tanaka Keiko (Kadowaki Mai about a month old confession she gave a guy but has yet to receive a proper response from. It looked like Junichi took Kaoru a bit by surprise on how dependable he can be, which snowballed into a very flustered waitress when Junichi decided to go to the family restaurant she works at to return the teasing favor.

While Haruka had the back of the knee as her charm point for Junichi, Kaoru appears to be countering very quickly with “Absolute Territory”, a.k.a. zettai ryouiki. I’m completely sold on it already, plus Kaoru’s character ending theme song for her arc. Originally, I was thinking this series would have worked better if it remained one continuous story, but have to say that the omnibus format does allow each of the girls to get much more focus. At the end of this series, I imagine I’ll be hard-pressed deciding which route and girl I enjoyed the most, as it looks like all of them are going to turn out pretty well. Needless to say, Amagami SS is definitely turning out to be the romance drama I’ve been looking for for the past while. I can’t wait to see more of Kaoru and then the other four girls remaining!

* Trivia: Amagami SS takes place at Kibitou High School 「輝日東高校」, which is intended to mirror KimiKiss’ Kibina High School 「輝日南高校」. i.e. East rather than South.

ED2 Sequence

ED2: 「きっと明日は…」 (Kitto Ashita wa…) by 佐藤利奈 (Satou Rina)
Watch the 2nd ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

It’s good to know that I wasn’t the only one discontent with Minato’s sudden decision, as Kushina was pretty much on the same page as me. She more or less brought up every point that was bugging me last chapter, so it was like music to my ears hearing (reading) about her disapproval. In the back of my mind, I was all, “Oh hell yeah, you tell him Kushina!” Even though the outcome didn’t change with Minato taking half of the Nine-Tails’ chakra with him in death and sealing the remaining half in Naruto, I’m happy that the story didn’t gloss over the rational train of thought that I and many others had. I still feel there could have been a better way about it, and I really wish Kushina didn’t let Minato win this argument of all things, but her questions on how he can place a huge burden on their son to maintain the balance of the tailed beasts and how he can sacrifice himself for her sake were relieving in a way. She took the words right out of my mouth, as they were the exact same questions that I wanted answers from Minato from. I probably wouldn’t have been so critical about his quick decision last time if they came up before he used the Demon Seal technique.

Even now, I’m not too fond of how he sugarcoated his argument by saying he can’t substitute for Kushina as Naruto’s mother, suggesting that a few minutes with her is better than a lifetime with him. Call me crazy, but I strongly feel a single father is better than no parents at all. Hands down, no contest. Naruto would have absolutely loved Minato too, since he’d be the “coolest dad in the world” to him growing up and probably would have taught him a lot of amazing things — both about life and ninjutsu. In any case, I’m much more okay with the tragic outcome after knowing that there was some protesting from Kushina, and even got a bit teary-eyed in the scenes where she tried to give him as much motherly advice as possible in her and Minato’s final moments. The emotions there only really hit me when she tearfully added that she wanted to stay with Naruto and expressed the desire to live. With the way that all the characters have remained cool to the end with their valiant sacrifices, it’s good to see someone speak up about not wanting to die for a change.

While Naruto is still a very emotion-driven guy, he’s been through so much now that he’s a lot stronger mentality than he gives off. As such, it was very much like him to thank Kushina for giving him this life, before adding some sappy words about how her and Minato filled him with love before making him a Jinchuuriki. It’s hard to believe that saying only came up six chapters ago, but has already come back to make the impact that it did when Naruto said it to his mother. Evidently, Naruto’s good at bringing out emotions in other people as well, and this was probably the most profound one in the series thus far. Now that Naruto has learned the truth behind his past and fully accepted everything that’s happened thus far, his mental fortitude looks like it’s gone up just as much as his powers have with the Nine-Tails’ demonic chakra under his control. I dare even say he’s the “complete ninja” that Minato was banking on him becoming. Time to Hokage him up as the “Rokudaime”!

「Parting」

I got more than I bargained for this episode after asking to see more of Meg for the past while. This episode only served as a setup towards her reintroduction next time, but proved to be a pretty pivotal moment in the series as a whole with the notable direction change. More specifically, this marked the sudden end of Mario’s relationship with Setsuko, which I was expecting to take off following his release last episode. I was a bit wary of the “Parting” title seen in the preview for this episode, but it still came as a shock that it was in reference to those two. Part of me didn’t want to believe what I was actually seeing midway through the episode, especially after Mario grabbed Setsuko and kissed her without saying a word. Looking back, I realize now that the stormy sky in that scene was ominous as hell, but Mario’s manly confession had a very good ring to it that had me thinking otherwise at the time. They did spend the night together in the nude after all, which speaks for itself about what likely took place off screen. Considering the post World War II Showa period this story takes place in (i.e. 1955 onwards), I’m not upset about Setsuko’s decision to go through with the arranged marriage and help save her father’s company though. She did mention that the guy treats her well and is likely going to be a good provider, so the fact they weren’t brought together by mutual feelings of love really isn’t that bad in that era.

Nowadays, the idea of marrying someone you don’t even love probably sounds outrageous, but back then most women would consider themselves fortunate to marry a man with a respectable job who will treat them well. This is particularly true in Asian families, where being picky about partners over the well-being of your family wasn’t a luxury most people had. As such, it was good to see Mario recognize that and respect Setsuko’s decision, even though I do feel it’s rather unfortunate they didn’t end up together. Given Setsuko’s tearful reaction to seeing Mario show up at her wedding and how she could only leave him the picture they took with Sakuragi and words of thanks and goodbye to them both, it clearly wasn’t an easy decision for her to make. In light of Joe’s insistence to not let things simply end this way, Mario deserves a lot of credit for taking the high road and not making things even harder for Setsuko than it already was. For that reason, this first half of the episode actually turned out to be the easier portion to swallow. It helped that the story changed up the mood a bit with Baremoto losing his virginity to a good-looking prostitute after Suppon set him up with an old hag first. There was also his premature ejaculation too, being the inexperienced youngster that he was.

Compared to all that, the second half with Joe finally catching a break and substituting in for a band as their vocalist was deceptively darker. Just when I thought he had finally caught his big break, the actual band that he works as an errand boy for and puts up with all the crap they gave him turned out to be a bunch of pricks jealous of his talent. The beating he got from them was a big enough shock as-is, so I was suspicious about their vocalist Mickey remaining behind to help Joe wipe the blood off his face. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt after seeing him show some remorse and understanding of Joe’s position — which had me going for a while — but somehow I couldn’t see him as a goodhearted person if he did step in earlier to stop the thrashing that Joe got. Seeing Mickey threaten to permanently destroy Joe’s vocal chords with the mercury in a thermometer soon after had me reaching for my throat and wincing at sight of it. It wasn’t so much the actual health-related issues that had me reacting as such, but the idea that Joe’s dream of being a singer was going to be cruelly snatched away from him right after he got his big break and made good on it.

Rather than witnessing Joe suffer such an ill fate, I was relieved to see him give in by saying he’ll never sing again, before running into some agency manager named Yamauchi Naoko (Koyama Mami) promising to make him a real star in three months. At that point, I was thinking, “Yes! Something going right for a change!”, but that too ended up being too good to be true as Naoko intended to get sexual favors out of Joe at the same time. The only saving grace is that she isn’t a completely perverted hag like the one back at the orphanage, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s in a sickeningly similar situation. Surprisingly, Joe decided to go through hell and back to reach his goal if need be after being reminded of how Meg did the same to survive, which I’m only okay with since it looks like it’s going to lead to their reunion next time when she attends one of his performances. I still hate seeing Joe go through this crap all over again after all he’s already endured.

On a separate note, I didn’t mention this back in the Spring 2010 Preview, but the RAINBOW manga actually concluded in February of this year prior to the start of this adaptation. In its eight year run, it amassed 22 volumes and 235 chapters, with the complete story spanning a thirteen-year time frame over four major arcs. The anime is currently in the second one taking place from Showa Year 32-33 (1957-1958) and will likely conclude in it if the series ends this season. I still haven’t seen confirmation on how long this anime will run for, but I was under the assumption that it’s going to be 26 episodes. I’m all for it being longer of course, should that be what MADHOUSE has planned.

Preview

「おおかみさん桃ちゃん先輩と鬼退治に行く」 (Ookami-san Momo-chan-senpai to Oni Taiji ni Iku)
“The Wolf Goes Demon Hunting with Momo-chan-senpai”

The introduction of the public morals committee member Kibitsu Momoko (Kaida Yuuko) and her Momotaro-inspired demon hunt at Onigashima High School was only the tip of the iceberg, as the story delved into much deeper aspects this episode. Before getting there, “Momo-chan-senpai” as she’s affectionately called by her peers, did turn out to be a voluptuous bisexual hedonist of epic proportions, who’s taken an interest in Ryouko from their middle school days and scares the hell out of her. Momo only really sees Ryouko as a kitten that she wants to make hers, but that evidently opens the doors to some potential lesbian role-play the latter doesn’t want any part of. For those reasons and how she’s only in the public morals committee so she can do whatever she wants and dress scantily like she does, Momo is already a thumbs up addition to the cast. As per the Momotaro legend, she also has the three animal friends accompanying her as her henchmen — Inuzuka (dog), Saruwatari (monkey), and Kijino (pheasant) — who absolutely worship her two huge breasts and like to call them the “Kibi Dango” (a play on her last name and part of the actual folktale). The interesting part about that affectionate name is that she’s totally cool with it, and even has Tarou as a faithful underling for that same reason. That is, until Otohime would like to have a word with him in private to set him straight. In short, there was no shortage of lighthearted entertainment from Momo and her revealing outfit, which was only overshadowed by Ryouko’s cat-theme body armor developed by Majo. Props out to Ringo for coming up with the design and making sure it was all about style over functionality with the cat ears and all.

The somewhat deeper side of the story partly followed the formal introduction of the school founder and director, Aragami Ranpu (Ono Atsushi). Modeled after the “Lamp” Genie in the Aladdin folktale, Ranpu is nothing more than a perverted old man on the surface, who Liszt weasels free stuff out of using the girls of Otogi Bank. It’s a misleading personality to say the least, since he’s actually the representative of the almighty conglomerate that runs the entire city, Aragami Group. Everything at the school is under his watchful eye and he gets regular reports from Liszt as well. Ranpu himself isn’t all that menacing, but the revelation that Liszt makes about how the students Otogi Academy are treated as branded “products” that spread positive word to the world upon graduation to attract the most talented people to the city had a somewhat dark spin on it. It was mostly because he went on to explain to everyone that they’re given a false sense of freedom in this “miniature garden” of sorts and how they’re actually playing into the adults hands without even knowing it. Of course, the feeling that one is doing exactly what someone else outlined for them isn’t all that bad, considering it’s something we call “society” nowadays. As such, I like Liszt’s idea of not relying on adults while they’re here and using that false freedom to run things how they want.

In terms of story, this was more or less to explain the existence of Onigashima and the delinquents’ desire to serve as a blemish on the city out of spite towards the Aragami Group. It’s not a great reason, but it does provide our “last boss” of sorts for the series, Hitsujikai Shirou (Suwabe Junichi), who’s been pulling the strings as Onigashima’s new student council president. Most of the episode involved Momo and Otogi Bank raiding their school to find out his identity, only to end up leaving when he said he’ll talk things over with his students. Shirou’s gentleman-like facade and claim he only recently became president helped hide his true colors, but the deep aspect I mentioned above pertains to how he tried to rape Ryouko in the past. Clearly it’s no laughing matter at that point, especially after seeing how traumatized Ryouko was and still is by the fact that none of the other female students would even side with her. The one good thing that came out of this is Ryouko finally confiding in Ryoushi, so it’ll be interesting to see where their relationship goes from here. Ryoushi was pretty cool this episode on several accounts, which included taking on the leader of the delinquents yet again, so it was nice to see that Ryouko was appreciative of it. Shirou’s girl, Mikuni Reiko (Nakahara Mai), was briefly introduced here, but I gather she’s probably a bitch if she’s with him. In any case, we have an antagonist of sorts! *insert dramatic music*

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「かたい、はやい、ものすご～い」 (Katai, Hayai, Monosugo~i)
“Hard, Fast, Earth-Shattering~”

With a title along the lines of season one’s episode five, Shirley’s thirst for speed is back this week, but against Gertrud equipped with Karlsland’s prototype “Jet Striker”. In reality, it was more akin to an energy-sapping device that takes all the strength from a girl’s legs and leaves her shaky in the knees for the next while. Funny how that is, because I can think of something that doesn’t involve rocket science and can achieve the same results. >_> Mankind’s been all over it since the dawn of time in fact, and it gives you bags under your eyes all the same by keeping you up all night. <_< Some may even say it even gives you “wings” just like the Jet Striker does. Where the “Me 262 V1″ seems to excel though is that it gets the job done quickly, and with the desired outcome. (Can’t… stop… poking fun…) So um, we had a race here (yeah a RACE!) to test the capabilities of this new unit, which Lucchini deemed dangerous business and caused Shirley to give up on being the one to test it out. Gertrud subsequently hops on the opportunity like she originally wanted, leading to a Karlsland versus Liberion showdown against Shirley in her usual Striker Unit with its Merlin engine. It’s Germany versus USA!

Up against the Jet Striker’s theoretical top speed of 950 km/h, Shirley seemed to have no chance of winning whatsoever; however, some of you may recall back in season one that she actually reached Mach 1 speeds and caused her clothes to disintegrate, which is roughly 1225 km/h in the Earth’s atmosphere (dependent on temperature). Here, she couldn’t compete with Gertrud climbing altitudes though, since she doesn’t have the propulsion found in jet engines that help achieve escape velocity. The test to see who could carry the most load at such speeds was somewhat foolish as well, since the Jet Striker looked more than capable of outputting enough power to offset the difference in mass. As such, it wasn’t the least bit surprising that the end result was the same. What was impressive was how Gertrud managed to carry a massive 50mm cannon on her back and 30mm ones in each hand. The shells for that huge cannon must have weighed a ton too, yet carrying extra rounds didn’t faze her one bit. She’s definitely the Strike Witch that packs all the heavy artillery, and this only went on to reiterate how much she kicks ass doing so.

Before it was all said and done, the two of them did have a normal race, except that acceleration is generally the deciding factor more so than top speed. I guess Shirley really didn’t stand a chance after all, but at least she has no problems getting out of bed in the morning! Physics aside, the drum can bath scene was funny to see, since Lucchini is a bucket of groping fun when tossed into the same pot as Yoshika. I think the real fan-service came from Gertrud working out in her white tank top however, as those one-armed pull-ups were quite the spectacle whether viewed from the front, side, or behind. Behind undoubtedly gets my vote, but only because of the ridiculous amount of screen time her butt crack had to mesmerize me by going up and down. Up… and down. Up… and down. Anyway, the appearance of an actual Neuroi at the end came on cue as part of the “Neuroi of the week” progression this series tends to follow, but did give us a taste of the Jet Striker in action before it got wrecked. It also gave Shirley a moment to shine after losing to Gertrud the entire episode, as she kicked her Striker Unit into overdrive and broke the sound barrier again to catch Gertrud’s out of control one after the latter passed out. Unfortunately, nothing was shown of Mio kicking some ass samurai style just prior, but I must say that Seto Saori has filled in wonderfully for Chiba Saeko in that role. If I didn’t know any better, I would probably mistake her for Saeko at times.

Overall, this was a fun episode that gave us a taste of some new Witch technology, plus introduced us to Erica’s younger twin sister Ursula (also voiced by Nogawa Sakura). Now I can understand the reason for using young girls in combat with the whole magic power deteriorating as they get older bit, but I fail to see the justification behind a 16-year-old researcher. It’s probably the cheap cop-out explanation of child genius, but Erica is one of my favorite characters, so it’s a bonus that she comes in two flavors now. Erica sleeps in a dump and has her half of the room with Gertrud clearly sectioned off, while Ursula actually has her act together as a meganekko. In any case, with a new rivalry between the Liberion and Karlsland captains, it wouldn’t be right without an “Over Sky” version by the two of them. The seiyuu groupings for the various versions of the ending theme are generally dependent on what happens each episode, so it wasn’t too hard to see this one coming. For this particular version, Koshimizu Ami is CODE GEASS Kallen Stadfeld win, and Sonozaki Mie is Final Fantasy XII Ashe B’nargin Dalmasca win, so ’nuff said about that.

* I think Amakusa Shino‘s perverted jokes in Seitokai Yakuindomo are rubbing off on me, but it’s not like this episode didn’t ask for it with the “Hard, Fast, Earth-Shattering” title. Seriously, am I not supposed to think **beep beep beeeeeep beep beep**!?

ED3 Sequence

ED3: 「Over Sky」 by 園崎未恵＆小清水亜美 (Sonozaki Mie & Koshimizu Ami)
Watch the 3rd ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

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Summary:
Soifon fires Jakuho Raikoben at Barragan inside the barrier Hachigen set up, but he survives again. Barragan counterattacks viciously, stating he is king of Hueco Mundo and his opponents are worthless. Respira starts to erode Hachi’s hand, but he teleports his arm inside Barragan and dissolves most of his body. Before he dies, he cries out against Aizen and throws his axe at him, but it shatters before it can touch him.

In a flashback, it is revealed that Barragan was indeed ruler over the hollows. He was however bored due to the lack of an enemy to fight. Aizen, Tosen and Gin show up, offering him greater power by blurring the distinction between hollow and shinigami if he would obey them. Barragan refuses and attacks them, but Aizen uses Kyoka Suigetsu to create illusions and destroy Barragan’s army. Even though he joins Aizen’s ranks as an Espada, he still harbors hate against him and swears to exact revenge someday.

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Impressions:

I think the characters of Bleach could do well to learn that nobody dies unless you see them disintegrate. However, Soifon’s nuke did manage to take out part of Barragan’s face, but it didn’t hinder his abilities at all (if anything, his Respira got even faster). In the end though, Hachi just sacrificed an arm and turned his hacks powers on himself. As smart of a move as that was, I couldn’t help but scream the whole time he was explaining his rationale for his strategy; just kill him and don’t risk him doing a last minute save. He should have pulled his funky hollow mask earlier as well, but in this case it didn’t really do anything besides act as a one time shield. Most of the vizard’s masks don’t seem to increase their strength by as much as Ichigo’s does, but it’s possible this is just because the current enemies are so strong.

It turns out all of Barragan’s shit-talking was just his way of dealing with the bitterness of being dethroned as king of Hueco Mundo. For all his evil villain laughing and boastful talk he ended up getting crushed by the ants he looked down upon. Pride goes before a fall… it’s cliched but still true. He’s just a cookie cutter villain whom nobody cares about when he dies, character or audience- a fact Starrk noted. On another note, seeing how Aizen completely crushed him and his army with almost no effort but he still ended up as the second espada, I really wonder why Aizen needs so much small fry as his subordinates, especially considering Kyoka Suigetsu’s “complete hypnosis” would make his goals quick and easy to attain. What he’s doing now is just a waste of time and energy. Try to have too much fun and you won’t be successful in your main mission. Also, I found Barragan’s voice acting to be lacking- it came off as a hollow, flat voice with too much reverb added.

「Running in the DEAD」

Would you imagine the look on my face when recaps started playing when I first watched the episode? Well, it wasn’t that amazing because I had read about it beforehand, but nonetheless, I did not expect the entire first half to be about 60% recap. There’s really only a handful of explanations for this, and they’re quite sensible. The first reason would be that the chapter is relatively short when animated (usually because the chapter mainly consists of actions scenes), so they had to buff up the episode a bit and elongate scenes (such as the grope, but I’ll talk about that later). The other reason is that Madhouse has probably decided on an ending already, since it’s only one cour, and they decided on doing one chapter per episode, no matter what it takes. Maybe they just really like quality cliffhangers.

Whatever the case, this episode was not completely worthless, as it pretty much served as a “morals” episode, asking the question of where “humanity” goes when the world turns to the apocalypse. The first half pretty much just enforced the setting, while the second half strikes the question. Takashi finds himself enjoying the freedom of the current world, and the bully loses all sense of care as he lost everything he had. In the end, while the bully doesn’t “deserve” being killed, he was an obstacle in a dog eat dog world.

While there weren’t any censors this episode, instead they just chose to not animate the bully being eaten alive by the zombies. The groping scene was something that was just a bit too long and a bit too awkward than it should have been. I can already see the animated gifs popping up around the internet soon, if they haven’t already. Was it lengthened to pierce the rage of the viewer? To make the impact stronger? Maybe, maybe not.

Although I didn’t catch the “Shaun of the Dead” reference last time, this ep made it pretty clear with a gas station named “Shaun”. Why they make a reference with a gas station is beyond me, but hey, it’s amusing at least. While it seems that the show may have dipped to a slowing point, the next one seems to be more exciting (then again, I do know what happens).

ED4 Sequence

ED4: 「cold bullet blues」 by 黒崎真音 (Kurosaki Maon)
Watch the 4th ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

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「部室がない！」 (Bushitsu ga Nai!)
“No Clubroom!”

No clubroom evidently means an informal school tour for us, as the K-ON club tries to find another place to practice. On some level, it was more like they were looking for a new place to have a tea party while repairs were being made to a leaky water pipe. However, with only a month left before the school festival, the girls were actually trying to practice for a change. I gather it’s pretty hard to slack off when they tried sharing space in their own classroom and the gymnasium though. The latter location did have me thinking about the prospect of Mio playing volleyball after seeing her entranced by the practice happening in front of her, which makes three different shows in the past week featuring something volleyball related. The marathon provided a good taste of an athletic-themed episode, but I’d be all for a sports festival one with lots of events, such as the tried and true cavalry fight (kibasen). Given how this series tends to avoid a lot of the overused themes seen in high school anime (e.g. a hot spring episode) and sticks to its own slice-of-life style for the most part, I wouldn’t be opposed to it delving into them every now and then. They sure seem to play the field trip card a hell of a lot and aren’t too far off with the bath scenes in them, so it doesn’t seem like it would be too much to ask for.

For this particular episode, the search for a room to use and resorting to the use of club funds to rent a studio was the focus, but was more of a happenstance to the real entertainment — trying to write lyrics for their new song. I did get a chuckle out of Sawa-chan exhausting all options in search of a room for them to use, but seeing Mio’s animal-themed lyrics get shot down by Ritsu was the start of the real fun. I was expecting the worst from Yui when Ritsu suggested that everyone take a stab at writing some lyrics, and she sure delivered with her “Rice as a Side Dish” song. To be fair, I found it much more amusing than Mio’s metaphor-filled ones and would’ve been all for another rice song. Of course, it was a lot funnier to see her lyrics shot down as well, especially when she thought she had something really good going. Mugi’s novel-like lyrics were just strange in comparison, while Azusa’s was clearly the best until everyone found out it was about Ton-chan. I figured revising what she had written so far would’ve easily made it an awesome love song like it was believed to be, but unfortunately that proposition never got off the ground. As for Ritsu, I love how she had nothing more than titles with quirky puns, but the best moment had to be when Yui having the audacity to think that Mio’s in a slump with all her animal songs. I guess her rice song would’ve been a good lighthearted one when they have “Curry Nochi Rice” already, but to think that of Mio when she’s written all the lyrics for their cutesy songs thus far was too funny.

Unsurprisingly, Ui writes three amazing songs in one night when she gives it a try and leaves everyone suspicious that Yui helped at all. As a result, she gets sick instead of Yui this time, who’s been eating oranges like crazy as some preventative measure, leading to the hilarious moment when Ui still tried to be hospitable. I don’t recall if they every explained why Yui and Ui’s parents aren’t around, but I can’t imagine Yui being able to live on her own if she freaks out this much when Ui gets sick. However, the way she made some congee with a sunny side up egg on top for Ui was really cute, which was only overshadowed by the touching lyrics she wrote for the song titled, “U & I” (an indirect play on Ui’s name). Mio may be disappointed that Ritsu decided to go with Yui’s lyrics for their new song, but I’m really looking forward to hearing it after getting an idea of what the lyrics are like. It looks like it has the makings of being HTT’s most heartfelt song ever. Your guess is as good as mine on when we’ll actually get to hear it though, since the next episode is about Mio being an actress it seems. That should be interesting to say the least, given how shy she is on stage already.

* Note: There was a cute eyecatch following the opening sequence this week.

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「闇の鼠は貓を食らう」
“The Rat of Darkness Devours the Cat”

This episode, deviating from the format used previously, continued the scene from last time showing Yura and Kana getting attacked by several youkai. Even though Yura is able to defeat several with her shikigami, the youkai successfully force her to stand down by threatening Kana. With the intentions of the youkai though, it was probably better if she had kept her shikigami then went to save Kana after (better than both of them dying). It’s very frustrating to see weaker characters dragging down the stronger ones. Since I don’t really feel any connection towards Kana, I just feel annoyed towards her, similar to my feelings towards Inoue Orihime from Bleach. However, no doubt most people would feel terrible knowing they are slowing down someone else, so some pity is warranted.

Kyuuso, the bishounen head of the rat clan, is pretty much a standard clichéd villain— no problem with using dirty tactics, treats subordinates cruelly and doesn’t keep promises. After kidnapping Yura and Kana, he lures Rikuo using a cute little mouse to trick him into coming alone to the clan hideout. It was pretty dead obvious the whole thing was a trap, but Rikuo is still too naive to judge. Kyuuso uses the girls as leverage to make him resign as Third Heir; thinking back now, it’s actually pretty convenient, since Rikuo wanted to break relations with the youkai anyway. However I wish he didn’t acquiesce to their demands so quickly (why do characters think they can trust the bad guys), since he would just end up losing it all. Even if he doesn’t have powers himself, he does have a host of youkai at his command. Rikuo really needs to think things through and get some confidence; just look at Ryota-neko, who was ready to go out alone to avenge his clan (even though it was practically pointless). The whole situation is rather pathetic, especially given Nurarihyon’s comment that the Kyuuso were small fry that got expelled.

Luckily, after seeing the youkai’s feelings, Rikuo transforms into his awesome night form immediately mobilizing his Night Parade of a Hundred Demons to go kick butt and save his friends. Once he transforms, his mindset is pretty much completely changed, as he rips up the resignation letter and declares that he will be master of the youkai. If he really does become clan leader, I could see some problems with his alternating weak and strong spells. But man, when he’s strong, he’s really strong. Immediately there was an all-out battle between the Nurarihyon and Kyuuso, and he himself burned off the small fry big boss in one attack. I’m surprised Kana and Yura haven’t found out Night Rikuo’s identity yet though, considering how the youkai referred to him, but the two versions are quite different. Of course, the existence of youkai themselves is probably solid in their minds now.

In conclusion, this series still looks like standard shounen so far, though it does have its good parts. Of course, the direction of the arc isn’t clear yet (for non-manga readers) so it’s too early to judge. The animation and art this episode looked very nice; the various effects used were cool, and I liked the animated ink drawings, though some of them were a little random. Yuki-onna with red eyes is awesome as well.

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「文明の崩壊」 (Bunmei no Houkai)
“The collapse of BUNMEI”

With how hilarious this series is turning out amidst all the supernatural stuff, it’s easily become my favorite show of the season. I just can’t get enough of Fumiaki acting cool in front of Mikaze, and he gets the most befitting treatment this time around for lying about his past — sitting his ass down in a huge pile of shit. Seriously, this show kills me with laughter… and then some. It’s right up there with Mitsudomoe this season for the funniest show and will likely end up as a good candidate for my favorite of the year. For instance, I realize I’m supposed to be suspicious of Chihiro since she clearly knows more about the school than she’s letting on, but when she revealed that she had earnestly fallen for “Abe Minoru” to obsessive diary levels, I was honestly too busy laughing at the disparity between what she sees and reality to even care. I have faith that Anime no Chikara will pull this series together towards some semi-meaningful conclusion, but for now I’m enjoying the lighthearted laughs like there’s no tomorrow.

Mikaze and her Porsche hasn’t gotten the least bit old yet, especially when I see Fumiaki’s reaction to going on a drive with her and him getting his face plastered to the side window when she corners like a mad woman. Like some people have already suggested, I agree that Mikaze is a bit too ideal of a girl to not be wary about when she’s seen with Chihiro in the opening sequence, but I’m hard-pressed imagining she’s aware that Fumiaki’s from the future. Chihiro clearly doesn’t know, plus Fumiaki confessed to Maya that he’s no hotshot time agent like he originally made himself out to be, but actually a homeless bum who can’t bend spoons anymore and got his ass thrown into the past against his will. I don’t know whether or not he exaggerated his own misfortune so that Maya might take pity on him, but the stark contrast between his original version and this most recent one was pretty damn hilarious. I just love how his attire with the Hawaiian shirt and all remained constant in both versions of the story, yet he was such a loser in the latter one. Maya not even giving him the time of day to tell him how pathetic he is added to the hilarity, and I was amused to no end when she kept telling him to stay at least three meters away from her because he was covered in moth shit, even when they were running for their lives. Given the speeds that Fumiaki can book his ass when he’s scared shitless, I’m inclined to believe he is the loser he admitted to be and very deserving of the punch Maya gave him without any warning using her bracelet.

Story-wise, the whole World Tree bit of mythology they slipped in was pretty cool to see, due to its ties to Norse mythology’s Yggdrasil and how it gave off a surreal feel resting underneath Minakami-yama. As such, I was a bit disappointed that nothing more came from it when it was quickly determined it wasn’t Nostradamus’ Key. In lieu, there was a nice and eery feel from the Tengu/Mothman nest littered with human bones they stumbled upon, where Maya was evidently okay being three meters within Fumiaki if it meant using him as a human stool. Incidentally, my hunch about Kozue getting abducted proved to be true, making the real surprise Smile and JK kicking ass. We’ve already gotten a taste of what Smile’s capable of when he was slogging away on a possessed Kozue in episode one, so it was JK’s 360 degree attack that wowed me here. Seeing him bust the keytar out of his backpack and defy physical constraints like he was Link with his magical pouch was quirky, but pretty cool too since he knew moths are sensitive to certain sound frequencies. In contrast, I can’t even explain how much I laughed at the scene where Fumiaki had his cowardly ass bumped off the cliff shortly after, while the entire cave was detonated by Chihiro’s black suit subordinate to seal the moths inside. In light of what happened, I’m a bit shocked that Fumiaki went on to take credit for the rescue in front of Mikaze — especially after Maya gave him a really disappointed look and called him a coward for running and leaving her behind — so I’m hoping she starts abusing him even more so than before.

As for a random stab on who or what the Nostradamus Key is, I think one of the most interesting possibilities is Fumiaki himself, since it would create a time paradox. In other words, him going back to time to prevent the arrival of the aliens is the very thing that allowed them to arrive. The other possibility of course is that it’s Maya. The photo she took of herself using Fumiaki’s phone in episode two showed her dead thirteen years in the future, but I gather she wasn’t thinking about killing herself when she took it. As explained then, the camera gives visual indication of how something will end up depending on what you’re thinking about doing with it now. Every time Fumiaki uses it to check for Nostradamus’ Key, he’s always thinking about destroying what’s in front of him and hoping to see a rosy future, suggesting that Maya herself hasn’t been completely ruled out just yet. In any case, those are just some random ideas I have for now, and I just love how no one knows since this is an original series. :)

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