Random Curiosity

「受験！」 (Juken!)
“Entrance Exams!”

K-ON episode titles seem to purposely hint at only half the story and this week was no different as it was as much about Valentine’s Day as it was entrance exams. More specifically, Azusa decided to give her seniors chocolate this year, after her plans to do so last year were sidetracked by the ones Mugi received from the Belgium royal family. For an all-girls school, I guess giving chocolates out of admiration or gratitude is the best we can expect on this commemorative day, though I’m willing to bet that at least some of the ones that Mio received have intimate feelings attached to them. In the case of the ones Azusa wanted to give, not so much, as it’s pretty clear she just wanted to do something nice for Yui and others with their high school graduation coming up. It was pretty thoughtful of her to go to the trouble of making them a lavish chocolate cake instead of the usual remolded chocolate, so I kind of felt bad for her when she was unable to give it to them out of embarrassment.

In a way, it was cute since she had the support of Ui and Jun the entire time, but somewhat depressing when she was reminded of how the light music club as she knows it will be gone next year. Azusa’s future without her seniors is definitely one aspect that’s been overshadowed as of late; however, it looks like it sort of wrapped up here with her praying that they all get into their first choice university and being happy for them. She took a page out of Ui’s book in that regard, albeit dropped a thousand yen at once instead of a hundred increments of ten yen. Leading up to that, it sure felt like they could have gone in the opposite direction with a Azusa visually disheartened by though. Once all the girls finished their exams one way another — whether it was leaving it up to chance or relying on last minute cramming — the scene where Azusa was looking out the window with everyone was a perfect opportunity for her to break down in tears. This was after they had found out she prepared a Valentine’s cake for them and played up an act where Mugi forgot to bring snacks, making it easy for her to finally give it to them.

I thought for sure it was the little things such as that that would get through to Azusa emotionally, but she managed to stay composed through it all. I still wish that someone would say something along the lines of how much they’ll miss Azusa once they graduate just to show that the feeling is mutual, but not even Yui and her love for Azu-nyan extended that far. While I realize everyone’s been busy preparing for exams and just relieved that they’re over, it still seems a bit cold that Azusa was neglected in the process. I get the feeling that Azusa would actually start tearing up if someone said she’s going to miss her too, so I’m all for it happening just so Azusa can let them know how she feels. On the plus side, it was revealed that Yui and Ritsu got into their third choice schools early on, whereas Mio and Mugi got accepted into their second choice ones as well. All of that gave some reassurance that these girls are at least headed somewhere, with all their acceptances into their first choice paving way for a sequel if need be. From the looks of it, Azusa will be right behind them too. I may be jumping the gun, but I’d say K-ON university years is definitely a possibility now.

* P.S. It was cute how Azusa and Jun couldn’t decide who would take which pair of slippers and they ended up wearing one of each.

Preview

「The Sword and the DEAD」

Before I get started on this embarrassing episode, I’d like to point out that the events occurred in this episode is canon, and it is taken from a later chapter. The choice to put it in now must be to give Saeko a little more “depth” before ending the season. In perspective, there’s really no difference in having this escapade arc of theirs now or later, but purists might have some complaints I suppose. Regardless, who’s going to agree that this episode wins the awkward award of the year? Don’t? Allow me to explain in excruciating detail.

Saeko and Takashi have now split from the group and are on their way to Takagi’s mansion. They try to avoid the zombies until needed, and soon find a shop that contains an all terrain vehicle. Driving around, they attempt to avoid the zombies in the river. On a little island, the two make small talk and Takashi suddenly questions Saeko whether or not there was anyone she liked. A rather random question, Saeko blushes and looks off into the distance and says, “Yes, there was one I liked.” Awkward moment #1.

The zombies disappear, and they make their move to a plaza of some sorts. Takashi lands the vehicle into the fountain and lets it run in circles to attract the zombies. Saeko proceeds to jump off and obliterate the zombies, but soon runs into children. Frozen, Takashi comes behind and blasts their face off (not shown of course, but it was in the manga). As night approaches, they happen upon a shrine to camp in until the next day. At this point, Saeko is pretty freaked out, and apparently feels the need to explain to Takashi her “true” self. Yadda, yadda, she basically just listed the symptoms of being a psychotic sadist. She recoils with tenderness at her wound now in the open, but Takashi, being the MAN he is, quickly makes his move and enters the land of Valhalla. Awkward moment #2.

Now, I’m sure this will be discussed till the end of time, but Madhouse apparently decided to imply that Saeko and Takashi proceeded to do the baby making. With the fading to black, then the adjusting of her underwear in the morning (which just so happens to be conveniently covered by his “gun”), how is it not possible he tapped that bushido ass? However, apparently the sexing didn’t satisfy her, as she was still hesitant on continuing to fight. Takashi, knowing damn well what the woman needs, gets behind her (quick as hell, mind you) and places his arm over her chest to grab her left breast. With a clenching hand, hard enough so that the breast leaks from the gaps in his fingers, Saeko lets out squeals from being empowered by a man. Takashi proclaims his admiration, and Madhouse thought it was a good idea to zoom up to his hand, just to show how serious he was. The more serious he got, the harder he squeezed, and boy, was he serious! Awkward moment #3.

Lo and behold, the manliness completely won her over in true sexist fashion. With new found acceptance and finally embracing her inner psychotic without guilt, Saeko shamelessly enjoys her fetish with the zombies. Suddenly, she informs us that she is now “wet”, with the Japanese for “wet” plastered over the screen. This is where I pretty much lost it. Looking away from the screen, almost “wet” myself, I asked my monitor, “LOL DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN RIGHT NOW?”(I didn’t get a response btw) Awkward moment #4.

As the fight subsides, Saeko asks him to “take responsibility”. Wow, where have I heard that line a million times before? Seriously Japan, I swear you have a list of “commonly said sentences to be used in a certain genre” posted on the walls of your studio offices. Besides that fact, the irony in all of this is that Takashi then narrates that he basically just accepted her for his own survival. What a manipulative dog! He must have planned this from the beginning, noticing that this was his chance to trap himself with Saeko. He cornered the girl, got laid, then completely empowered her to be on his side (sounds like he “broke” the girl for those familiar with the term).

Anyway, they finally reach Takagi’s house. I think I finally know the true intention of this apocalypse. It’s all just as planned of course. Takashi’s using it to get into the pants of all the girls. The man is a genius. One down, four to go (yes, I counted Alice because loljapan). The next couple episodes will deal with lolpolitics and lolrightwingactivists, and more “forced” morale problems. I started getting annoyed of HOTD during this arc, as the weakness of the author’s writing becomes as blindingly obvious as Takagi’s lust for Takashi’s babies.

Oh, and don’t forget, if you want to win a girl’s heart, the LEFT breast is the key! Just form a death grip on that thing and don’t let go. Squeeze harder for maximum damage!

ED9 Sequence

ED9: 「宝石のスパイ」 (Houseki no Spy) by 黒崎真音 (Kurosaki Maon)
Watch the 9th ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

「雪のあかり」 (Yuki no Akari)
“AKARI of snow”

Seeing as this is a supernatural series and all, I’ve been sort of wondering when a ghost would show up. Well it looks like I don’t have to wonder any longer, as the little girl in the red coat we saw in the preview last time turns out to be just that. Much like the title suggests, she’s named Okamoto Akari and voiced by a new seiyuu named Minase Inori. The Japanese anime community is already trying to figure out exactly who Inori is, but we do know that her debut role here will span two episodes. The actual story involving her character who froze to death waiting outside her apartment for her father Kengo (Ueda Yuuji) is surprisingly not that creepy though. After the summoning that Chihiro performed called out Akari instead of Maya’s late father, the main cast was far too relaxed in the presence of a ghost for me to start feeling any anxiety over it. No one seemed to care that JK was the only person that couldn’t see Akari either, even though he was able to sense where she is. What’s more, no one seemed to mind that she could physically interact with everyone, and were simply focused on bringing her home to try and put her spirit to rest. All just another day’s work at Waldstein Academy it would seem.

Things did take a more serious turn when they found her home and Akari showed signs that she was traumatized by the exact spot that she died, especially when the washing machine went flying and a snowstorm enveloped her. However, I was still more keen on learning about the circumstances leading to her death at that point, more so than fearing that she’s going to start killing people. Akari has shown that she’s a friendly spirit that means no harm to others, and developed attachments to Smile and Maya in particular, so there’s really nothing eery about her character at this point. Instead, it looks like the story will come down to resolving things between her spirit and her father, who feels responsible for her death and is extremely upset about it. Looking back, I don’t see much more to this two-part arc nor much relevance to the main plot, but still enjoyed this episode a fair bit due to Akari’s cute character and wanting to see them help her spirit.

Amidst those developments, Fumiaki’s relationship with Mikaze looks like it’s continuing to get on Maya’s nerves, albeit it still feels like she’s annoyed about him having a girl who fawns over him rather than being jealous of Mikaze. Of course, one could always argue that’s the sign of a girl who’s unknowingly interested in a guy like Fumiaki, so it’ll be interesting to see which one it ends up being later on. There was also mention of Maya selling her father’s house and the new owners tearing it down and getting rid of everything inside, which left me wondering if she’s overlooking something that may have been left behind there. There hasn’t been much mention of the old research notebook she discovered back in episode two and how it detailed his research into the Nostradamus Prophecies, but if he left something like that behind for her, it doesn’t seem all that unreasonable that there might be more. For now, I’m curious about Chihiro seen talking to Mikaze in the preview. As mentioned before, the two of them are seen together in the opening sequence, so all the suspicion as to whether or not Mikaze’s in league with her and keeping tabs on Fumiaki may come to light next time.

* P.S. JK is hilarious as always.

Preview

「数多ノ絆」 (Amata no Kizuna)
“Multitude of Bonds”

Now that Minaka’s new two-week rule is in effect, battles between the lesser known Sekirei and Ashikabi have become a nightly occurrence. What this translates to is new Sekirei being defeated just as quickly as they are introduced, just to advance the overall plot. While that probably comes off as a bit of disappointment in the predictability of the story, I honestly can’t say it’s a bad direction since it finally gives off a sense that there’s a twisted free-for-all battle royal involving 108 Sekirei going on. After all the talk about the Sekirei Project entering the next phase, it’s about time the battles became more of a regular thing. This of course includes Yukari and Shiina, who have spent god knows how many episodes wandering the streets in search of Kusano with nothing ever happening except a lot of groin stomping on Yukari’s part. I still remember eagerly waiting for the moment that Minato and Yukari will finally learn that they’re both Ashikabi back in season one, so throwing Yukari and Shiina in the mix is definitely a welcomed turn of events if it means there’s a chance they’ll be picked up by Matsu’s radar.

Incidentally, this marks the first time we’ve seen Shiina’s Death Garden ability in action on another Sekirei, which quite frankly seem overpowered since it’s more like a death touch that destroys living and nonliving matter alike. The victim of his demonstration was the giant hammer wielding No.84 Yashima (Hikasa Youko), who I’m actually relieved to see parted from her abusive Ashikabi, Tanigawa Junichi (Miyasaka Shunzou). Yashima may have been a masochist that enjoyed the mistreatment she was getting, but I for one didn’t enjoy watching her take it. Their relationship was definitely verging on spousal abuse levels, which Youko’s role in Seikon no Qwaser undoubtedly made her an easy candidate to play Yashima. Admittedly, I failed to recognize her voice during it all, suggesting that she’s still got some range she hasn’t used in any major roles just yet. It was noticeably different from the Akiyama Mio, Amakusa Shino, and Kumashiro Maya voices that she’s using in her other starring roles this season.

In any case, we also saw No.73 Namiji (Fujimura Ayumi) and her Ashikabi, Takano Kouji (Abe Atsushi), the first of which was another example of my ears not picking up a voice I normally would. After learning that it’s actually Ayumi, part of me couldn’t help but think that both her and Youko are pushing the innocent, soft-spoken voices to help contrast their often defiled ones in Seikon no Qwaser. For those watching Kaichou no Maid-sama, you can also think of Namiji and Kouji as Misaki and Hinata hitting it off, even though it’s unlikely that they’ll see too much more screen time. It’s been a long time coming, but Uzume’s subplot is finally being brought to the forefront in this sequel, overshadowing anything that may come from the lesser Sekirei. With Higa forcing her hand and her willing to try and take out Musubi and Tsukiumi for Chiho’s sake, Uzume looks almost sickeningly deranged at this point. I can’t really say there’s a lot of suspense regarding their upcoming battle next time, but I am curious to see what happens once Kazehana shows up as the one intent on stopping Uzume. Higa also contacted Seo for some reason, so there’s that aspect to look forward to as well.

On a character-related note, it was nice to see Tsukiumi relieved about Minato being her Ashikabi, after seeing the strange relationships between Junichi/Yashima and Yukari/Shiina. It probably gave her the motivation to win the mud wresting game for Minato’s affection like she did. Plot-wise, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a Norito used (kiss that powers up a Sekirei), so I’m left wondering what Minato can do if he locks lips with all six of his Sekirei one after another. At this point, he has twice the number of Sekirei as Natsuo’s Disciplinary Force, making him the undisputed powerhouse of Shintou Teito as far as I’m concerned.

Note: I will be covering the uncensored fan-service-filled episode zero that was included with the recently released first BD/DVD volume. Screen caps have already been taken, but I didn’t get around to writing a post for it last weekend.

Preview

「変人はサンタクロース」 (Henjin wa Santa Kuroosu)
“The Oddball is Santa Claus”

Gachi Ranger misunderstandings will never grow old at this rate, as Chiba falls victim to Hitoha’s inability to share her love for them with anyone. With their conversation getting hilariously out of hand due to Chiba’s belief that they’re talking about a porn magazine and not his love for Gachi Pink‘s breasts, the demonstration of his secret, circle-strafing, underwear take down technique in tears turned out to be pretty epic. He definitely deserves credit for not only making it incredibly difficult to stop, but for also perfecting it for instances where girls are wearing a belt. It’s just too bad he got completely burned by revealing his mastery of the technique on Yabecchi, causing him to run off in dismay over pulling a guy’s pants down. Too bad for him, but unbelievably hilarious for me of course. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, misunderstandings of this nature are comedic gold.

In addition to the usual four skits per episode format this series has been using, a new “Yabecchi’s Room” was added this time around. Nothing came from his interview with Mitsuba since she kept snacking on his junk food, but I get the feeling this will become a regular omake-type of thing in future episodes. Futaba or Hitoha will likely make things more interesting, especially if Gachi Rangers become the topic of discussion. There was also a skit that was completely devoid of lines as well, which provided the silent type of comedy that transcends language barriers by using actions and facial expressions that speak louder than words. The British television comedy Mr. Bean starring Rowan Atkinson came to mind when I was watching Futaba try to create her own outdoor bath and wheel a drum barrel home with Mitsuba, as the silly end result was right along the same lines. I don’t ever recall an anime trying this approach, but the slapstick humor where Mitsuba gets inadvertently abused by Futaba worked well here.

As for my personal highlights, the skit with Hitoha taking up the task of being Santa Claus and dropping off a present to Futaba was definitely one of them. It was pretty funny seeing Futaba’s internal breast sensor go off to the “oppai pillow” that Soujirou decided to get his daughter, followed by Hitoha bumping into everything and becoming a bloody mess in an attempt to preserve the former’s belief in Santa Claus; however, I couldn’t get over how cute Hitoha was in the Santa Claus outfit that was clearly too big for her. Futaba thinking that Santa Claus has to hid his face because it’s ugly wasn’t too shabby either, due to Hitoha’s reaction to the sound of that. Poor Hitoha. She does a good deed only to wind up with blood all over her face and told she’s ugly. That’s on top of people failing to understand her love for Gachi Rangers too.

It’s a bit of a shame that this week quickly wrapped up both Christmas and New Year’s with only a short skit on each. The New Year’s one didn’t entail much more than Mitsuba completing her animal underwear collection and inadvertently donating the latest addition to a shrine, but still had its moments when Satou and Chiba were brought into the mix. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of Mitsuba getting burned for getting on other people’s case to hide her own embarrassment, so seeing Chiba throw her childish underwear away was a pretty good stuff. It didn’t quite top the ice bowling with Futaba at the very end though, which was so outrageous that it warranted its own ending sequence featuring Johann Strauss II’s famous piece, The Blue Danube. Similar to seeing Mitsuba reap what she sows, watching Shinya get coerced into coming off like more of a pervert is something that hasn’t gotten old. Ace striker soccer kick for the win!

ED2 Sequence

ED2: 「The Blue Danube」 by Johann Strauss II
Watch the 2nd ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

「#22」

With ETU down two goals after half time and only instructed by Tatsumi to stick to the original plan and enjoy the game, a miraculous comeback now is bordering on fairy tale-like levels. I would have preferred it if Tatsumi gave the team some sort of encouragement instead, even if it was just a simple, “things aren’t going exactly as we expected, but we’ll pull through if we stick to our game plan.” However, what I can appreciate about his excitement about being down by two is that it’s very Tatsumi-like. Part of the appeal of his character is that he’s really difficult to read, yet produces results that no one — especially not ETU’s players — can ignore. Much like Kuroda, everyone’s often left puzzled or frustrated about their coach’s seemingly unwarranted confidence, but then there are guys like Gino who will try to comprehend his so-called “method to the madness”. As such, I’m able to accept the fact that is the trend of the series, rather than just some wishful depiction of an underdog story that rests upon cliches.

Admittedly, it sure did feel like the latter case in the locker room scene though. Tensions were flaring and the team was in disarray with Kuroda calling out Sugie for not doing his job of shutting down Kubota. Somehow, we were expected to believe that was all calmed down by Tatsumi coming in with a ball boy’s opinion that this game would be really interesting if ETU came back to win it, which wasn’t happening in my eyes. My view changed when the second half actually got underway with Sugie stepping up his game and catching Kubota by surprise, and Kuroda showing confidence that he can get under Hauer’s skin, as I could sort of buy what Tatsumi had in mind in light of those visible improvements. His explanation of how ETU’s players had to change their mindset to one that believes they can win due to their play in the first half helped greatly in that regard too. What’s more, Gino taking the game much more seriously and coming back to support the defense gave glimpses of how he’ll be a pivotal part of this match like he should be. All that’s left now is for Natsuki to make good on the passes that are finally clicking and not upset Gino by wasting his efforts.

Given how this episode concluded, the change of focus to ETU’s forwards will hopefully translate to a momentum swing in their favor next time (i.e. goals). The individual games within a game as far as the players are concerned is what’s making this match interesting from my perspective, so I’m hoping we’ll see more of Akasaki, Sera, and Tsubaki’s mindsets. Interestingly enough, there’s been quite a stir-up in crowd between old school fans and the current United Skulls led by Hata as well. I honestly don’t care too much about that aspect of the story, but do feel it provides some depth. For now, my eyes are fixated on what’s happening on the field though, with anything happening outside just being background developments.

Preview

「すべてを焼き尽くす!! 大将赤犬の能力!」 (Subete o Yakitsukusu!! Taishō Akainu no Chikara!)
“An All-Consuming Inferno!! Admiral Akainu’s Power!”

So I was rewatching and skimming the episodes near the end of Thriller Bark, and this was after skimming around some Clannad + AS episodes, but somehow I felt more openly emotional than usual. It’s like I’ve been watching anime with a cold heart for the past year, because I couldn’t believe how much sadder Clannad got the second time around. Anyway, because of this random stint, I probably got more used to the pacing. I just wanted to mention that in case anyone else thought this episode’s pacing was horrendous. By the way, the deaths of the Rumbar pirates was practically poetic, with them each dropping dead one by one as the song ended. It really made me think how much I’ve been under-appreciating the anime recently, but I guess recent events aren’t so emotional to feel the same.

With that said, yes, compared to the previous episodes, the pacing in this one seemed okay. Fights were quick, rapid talking, your typical expected OP battle. I guess it’s a little boring so far since Luffy has yet to appear, but the flashy attacks of the admirals and commanders had me tided over pretty well. While Kizaru’s “Yasakani no Magatama” attack didn’t look that brilliant, Marco’s phoenix transformation counterattack made up for it. His mahou shoujo style transformation scene was a little weird, but it wasn’t long enough to be awkward. Diamond Juzo, commander of the third division, apparently can transform his body into well, diamonds. LOOK AWAY. LOOK AGAIN. HIS BODY IS NOW DIAMONDS. His ice throw was also a lot bigger than I remember from the manga. Akainu’s magma fist looked pretty damn good animated, but still doesn’t really possess that level of animation to impress. On a more trivial note, I noticed that out of all the giants, the one and only girl they got actually looks like a normal girl except blown up. Also, this guy made me laugh pretty hard with his completely random ass power of pulling out a hammer from a pocket on his chin.

Near the end of the ep, Little Oars Jr. comes out from the shadows (where the hell was this guy hiding?), and by the looks of the preview, shall begin his “reign of terror”. Looks like both side’s are pulling out all the stops now.

Preview

「いくらで買います？／なるほど！関係ないな俺たち！／ベネズエラ」 (Ikura de Kaimasu? / Naruhodo! Kankeinai na Ore-tachi! / Venezuela)
“How Much Will You Pay? / I See! It Doesn’t Concern Us! / Venezuela”

More so than swimsuit and beach episodes, I always enjoy watching sports festival ones. They’ll never measure up in terms of fan-service, but do provide a complete change of scenery with the same characters. In the case of a series involving a perverted student council, it’s even better because it provides them with a new avenue to approach their jokes. A lot of them were the usual witty wordplay ones, such as Shino’s rehearsal of the proclamation of upholding sportsmanship that was twisted into a skinship and sexual intercourse one, while others were of the slapstick variety that always works wonders on me. I know it was only for cheap laughs, but the scene with Tsuda taking a wild soccer ball to the head almost floored me laughing after hearing Suzu complain about her height just before and still refuse to acknowledge that her shortness was actually a good thing for a change. It definitely helped the humor hearing Tsuda scream out in pain and seeing him fall over like a log. That was great material no matter how many times I see him wincing in pain.

If we’re talking about not so subtle humor that left absolutely nothing to the imagination, Aria’s sudden question as to whether or not Tsuda has a girlfriend took the honors this week. When he admittedly that he didn’t have anyone like that, the talk about how his right-hand or possibly his left one is his lover proved to be only the setup for Shino’s punchline. I vividly remember my “holy shit” reaction to hearing her suggestion that it’s his mouth and emphatically questioning exactly how flexible Tsuda is, because it was followed by a disbelief that stuff like this was allowed to make it to the air waves. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved the delivery of that one, but for goodness sake make sure there aren’t any children in the room to catch wind of it! They already grow up too fast these days thanks to the double-edged invention we like to call the Internet, so there’s no need to corrupt them even more. Shame on you Shino! Ranko too for selling photoshopped pictures that look absolutely criminal with Suzu in them. I swear I heard police sirens from that area in the back of my head called my conscience when I saw that one.

In any case, I’m willing to bet that there are a lot of girls out there who wish they’d just go bald down there; however, actually hearing someone say she’d gladly welcome it is a different story. A hilarious story, but definitely a different story. Unless I’m mistaken, it’s not part of Japanese culture for girls to keep themselves exceptionally prim and proper down below due to connotations about how “loose” they are if they do, so hearing Shino say she’d gladly welcome losing all her hair down there spoke volumes to me in more ways than one. (Shino saikou da!) Anyway, I rather enjoyed how Tsuda became renowned for making women cry after he wrote an article for the student council’s new newspaper, as it established him as the heartbreak player of the female dominated Ousai Academy. He’s naturally not too fond of the idea (understatement of the year), but when has this series ever been about what Tsuda wants? He’s just here to deliver the straight remarks and be a victim of Shino and Aria’s perverted ones, much like when the president had her awesome misunderstanding about him “setting up tent” in his pants frequently. I’ve already gone on about how misunderstandings are comedic gold to me in Mitsudomoe, so Shino’s reactions and rampantly wild thoughts were A+ material here.

Oddly enough, it was the preparation for the sports festival that had some of the funniest moments. I seriously can’t help but wonder what Shino’s parents had to say about the huge bondage teddy bear that Aria gave her for her birthday. It wasn’t even the focus of her sleepless night in anticipation of the festival, but it’s really all I could think of when I saw her lying in bed next to it. Then there was Aria herself getting herself scandalously wrapped up in rope, which Shino loved and Naruko seriously criticized for being too loose. She sure made up for that in the end though with the string of country flags. Those snugly tied knots didn’t look amateurish at all! As for the sports festival itself, the student council team strutted their stuff in the relay event with Suzu pulling through as the anchor. That more or less made up the cool part of the episode, which was ever so nicely contrasted by Ranko’s dismay over focusing her shutter chances on Tsuda instead of Shino’s blazing speed or Aria’s mesmerizing chest movement. Kaede’s fear of men on the other hand continues to provide the more innocent type of humor, which is somewhat refreshing even though it gets quickly overshadowed by Kotomi’s nonchalant talk about how she and Takatoshi are still virgins. Compared to that, even Shino’s concerns over her bust size are tame, though I do appreciate the official side-by-side shot to see how she stacks up to Aria.

The extra movie parody slipped in at the end made it no secret it was there to pad time, though it did pull in the sailor named George from Aria’s interpretation of Tsuda’s newspaper article. Out of everything that happened this episode, the one thing that I’m left really curious about is exactly what was written on the note Shino picked up for the event where they have to bring something or someone with them to the goal. Given her flustered reaction, I’d like to believe it was something along the lines of “person you like”, but that’s one tidbit we’re not getting for now. For all I know, she may have slipped in some perverted choices such as “first-time partner”, which wouldn’t be too bad either since it serves as the same “flag” in a potential Takatoshi x Shino pairing.

Preview

It felt like a milestone of sorts, so I just want to stop and take a moment to thank all our readers for checking back regularly and making this site what it is today. Founded by Omni back in November 2004, Random Curiosity has grown tremendously over the years and now has over 4,140 posts, 173,000 comments, 60 million visits, and 120 million page views since its inception. Timely posts, regular updates, and fairly objective views make up the direction that took site to where it is now, but none of that would have mattered if you the readers didn’t keep coming back to hear what we have to say about the latest anime.

It wasn’t too long ago that Omni announced his retirement from blogging and I decided to pick things up where he left off under the new domain, randomc.net; however, our readership has grown significantly since then (~25%) so I’d like to thank all the new people who have either stumbled across the site or heard about it from a friend and made it one of their regular stops on the Internet. It might be a bit intimidating at first, but I encourage you all to join in on the discussions and share your own thoughts and impressions on anything and everything anime related. I promise I’ll do whatever is in my power to keep the trolls at bay. :) It’s my hope that this will become a more inviting place for anime fans old and new, where anyone can easily relate to the impressions written here. If you have friends who are into anime but haven’t heard of the site, please do tell them, because just like you and all our other readers, we’re fans of anime first and foremost and just want to talk about it with people who have similar interests.

Once again, thank you all for reading and getting accustomed to things under my wing. Hopefully the changeover from dedicated summaries to more in-depth impressions wasn’t too alienating at first. I’ve enjoyed blogging a lot more ever since I started focusing on talking about anime and their plot lines rather than simply summing it up, so that’s a change in writing style that I’d like to continue improving on in an attempt to make episodic blogging a more interesting and worthwhile read. I’ll still have lots of high definition screen captures of course, for those who just can’t get enough of them. I probably won’t have another milestone post until 70 million visitors, but we may just see that before the end of the year at this rate — just in time for the site’s sixth anniversary.

* Yuri and Otonashi are snacking on some Pizza Hut pizza for those wondering. The full-size image can be seen here.

「林間学校オニごっこ」 (Rinkan Gakkou Oni Gokko)
“Outdoor School Game of Tag”

The bitter tradition of lying about how glamorous the five-day, four-night, Seika outdoor school trip may have crushed many of the guys’ expectations, but its true purpose seemed to be starving them and taking away their manhood in order to create law-abiding and docile citizens. All in accordance to the Japanese education system? At one end of the spectrum, we get the desired result of individuals fit to work a mundane and repetitive salaryman jobs, and on the other we get deranged psychopaths who commit heinous crimes because they feel suppressed by society. There was even indication of how the male students’ view of women was completely twisted in the latter case. Naturally I say all of that jokingly, but it’s kind of scary how there’s an element of truth behind parts of it. And here I thought I was watching an episode of Maid-sama, not the secret inner workings of the Japanese government and how they brainwash their citizens. It’s a conspiracy!

Regardless of how much one reads into any of the above, it more or less sums up what this episode involved. I could probably go on about how monks and religion were used to that end; however, the real matter at hand with Usui feeling jealous towards Hinata’s childhood relationship with Misaki makes for much better and relevant discussion. To put things bluntly, I can’t see Hinata in any serious contention for Misaki’s highly sought after heart unless the series plans to completely oust Usui as the male lead. Still, I enjoy his addition to the story since he adds an air of silliness and helps stir things up between those two love birds. The sad truth is that his aspirations of getting together with his childhood sweetheart are unlikely to come to fruition, and he’s probably going to become nothing more than a stepping stone to bring Takumi and Misaki closer together.

It’s a sub-character pattern that’s been used time and time again, but at least least I won’t feel too bad for Hinata when that time comes due to his eccentric personality. Incidentally, he’s already acknowledged how cool Usui is by saying he’d probably fall for him if he were a girl, and even asked him directly if he likes Misaki and is going out with her, without giving any indication that he’d try to take her from him if that were the case. In addition, the brief amount of time he spent locked in the storehouse with Misaki made it pretty clear that he’s well aware that she probably doesn’t like him, suggesting that Hinata wouldn’t interfere if Misaki picked Usui over him. As such, he’s even more suited to fill that sacrificial catalyst-type role and go on to reiterate that “nice guys finish last.”

Be that as it may, he’s currently the only one that can match Usui’s superhuman abilities to a certain degree, so I’m hoping he won’t fulfill his role too quickly. After Misaki, Hinata, and Usui scared off the pack of rabid wolves formerly known as the male students of Seika, I’m left wondering if that might already be the case though. Upon hearing Misaki say that she’s worried about him more than Hinata since he’s more troublesome, Usui looked like he had completely written off Hinata as a cause for concern. That was the face of one ridiculously relieved high school stud no matter how you look at it, which would suggest that Hinata’s days as an effective catalyst are numbered. Admittedly, I’ll be somewhat disappointed if that proves to be true, since Takumi and Misaki’s relationship didn’t really progress from his involvement. The next episode looks like it’s going to involve Hinata and Maid Latte with no hint of Usui being on edge around him, but hopefully he’ll still be able to mix things up in some way.

Preview

「中多紗江編 第一章 コウハイ」 (Nakata Sae-hen Dai Isshou – Kouhai)
“Nakata Sae Chapter 1 – Junior”

Well this was unexpected. Our romantic drama suddenly became a romantic comedy with the introduction of our sarcastic narrator (Nakata Jouji). It’s verging on Hayate no Gotoku and Ookami-san levels too, with the way Junichi will break the fourth wall to save himself some face. I gather it doesn’t hurt to experiment when there’s a guaranteed reset every four episodes, so I’m all for the change of pace seen at the start of this arc. In fact, I’m intrigued at the prospect of seeing how different the same show and characters can come off due to it. It’s also kind of refreshing, since Nakata Sae is timid to the point that any developments relationship-wise are unlikely to come from her. She’s pretty much a token shy, reserved, and (apparently) rich girl, who contrasts heavily in light of the senior and middle school friend that came before her. It’s almost as if the writers wanted to remind us of that as well, with Junichi’s run-in with Haruka that didn’t result in her fawning all over him, and his decision to stop at the family restaurant that Kaoru works at. One thing that doesn’t get reset every arc is our understanding of the other girls’ personalities and their various nuances, so both of those scenes played out in my head as paths in the romantic simulation game that weren’t taken this time around in favor of the quiet girl who picked up Junichi’s tarako-shaped wallet.

Judging from this first chapter, I can’t say I’m too fond of the way that Junichi developing though. My initial impression is that he’s just as kinky and perverted as he was in Haruka’s arc, but now overconfident as well simply because he’s dealing with a younger girl. Examples of this are him acting all dependable in front of Sae when he helped her pass by a house with a puppy she’s scared of, and getting ahead of her about applying for a part-time job at Kaoru’s family restaurant just because she thought the uniforms were cute. In the latter case, things got even worse when he decided to take up the instructor role to help Sae overcome her soft-spoken voice and inability to interact with strangers. With the way he placed his hand on Sae’s stomach and convinced her that it’s all part of her “special training”, my hentai radar was going off the charts. The saving grace is that Miya’s around to keep her perverted brother in check this time around (and hopefully for the remainder of the arc), because Sae is pretty helpless in the face of him if she’s not accidentally spilling hot drinks on his crotch. Junichi needs a woman who can keep him in check like Haruka and Kaoru did, or at the very least a leash so he doesn’t get carried away with their piggyback rock-paper-scissors game.

Sae herself is still a bit of a marvel to me, so I’m going to remain fairly open-minded about her for now. I never know what to make of the quiet type, since a lot of their charm only becomes apparent after getting to know them. In Sae’s case, they gave her an amazing body to go with that somewhat submissive personality of hers, which undoubtedly helps her immediate appeal. On paper, I still don’t think that’s a combination that Junichi should be allowed to approach, as I can only foresee this relationship progressing due to impure thoughts. Here’s to hoping I’ll be terribly wrong though and Junichi winds up more like he did at the end of Kaoru’s arc. On a separate note, I’m still amazed at how soft-spoken Konno Hiromi plays Sae and sings her ending theme, “I Only See You”, because this is the exact same girl who voiced the wild and somewhat psychotic Kogami Akira of Lucky Channel fame. After seeing her in the live-action version at the end of the Lucky Star OVA, I must say I have a bit of difficulty picturing Sae’s voice coming out of her mouth. At least we know that Hiromi has this role covered with ease if Sae ever turns out to be a yandere.

ED3 Sequence

ED3: 「あなたしか見えない」 (Anata Shika Mienai) by 今野宏美 (Konno Hiromi)
Watch the 3rd ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

「おおかみさんと毒りんごが効かない白雪姫」 (Ookami-san to Doku Ringo ga Kikanai Shirayuki Hime)
“The Wolf and Snow White whom The Poison Apple Doesn’t Work On”

It’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in the form of the Miss Otogi Gakuin champion Shirayuki Himeno (Fukui Yukari) and her seven younger siblings. The fairy tale crossover this time around entailed Ringo’s childhood relationship with Himeno, and how the latter was driven out of her home along with her mother following a divorce prompted by the former’s mother (Ono Ryouko). In the literal sense of her name (i.e. red apple), Ringo is the poison apple of sorts that forced Snow White to leave her home and later meet the seven dwarfs. Beyond that, there wasn’t a whole lot else in reference to the original fairy tale though. More specifically, there was no jealous queen nor prince to wake up Snow White after she succumbed to the effects of the poison apple. Instead, we have an original tale about a very young and innocent Ringo who loves her stepsister, but grew up feeling responsible for breaking up Himeno’s family and has been unable to face her all this time. That’s not necessarily a bad thing since the characters themselves are intended to be modeled after certain fairy tales and not the overall story itself, but noteworthy since Himeno’s subplot felt much more detached from her reference material than the other characters we’ve come across thus far.

Interestingly enough, the lack of resemblance actually made for a pretty heartwarming story. For one, Ringo was absolutely adorable when she was a kid and first started ending all her sentences with the “no” gobi. In addition, her innocent relationship with Himeno provided a really good setup for a touching conclusion. While things were working towards Ringo finally overcoming the guilt she feels towards Himeno, we had Otogi Bank babysitting the seven siblings to drive the lighthearted side of things, plus some inadvertent development in the Ryoushi x Ryouko department during their group outing at the pool. Seeing all the girls in a bathing suits certainly didn’t hurt, nor did Alice’s flustered expression when she was teased a bit about her relationship with Liszt. However, all of that was merely a pleasant distraction from the story at hand, where Himeno’s kindhearted self held no resentment towards Ringo and even apologized for not being around as her big sister. It was unbelievably sweet yet cruel at the same time, because it was pretty obvious that Ringo wanted to apologize first. As such, I even got a bit choked up at the sight of our not-so-poisonous apple in tears of relief that her stepsister doesn’t hate her. Poor Ringo. :(

Looking back, I can’t say there was a lot of depth to Himeno’s character outside of being very pure and bighearted, but that was all that was really needed for her to make an impact here. She put the kids before herself and Ringo got an early wish out of Ranpu (being the genie from Aladdin that he is) to make sure Himeno gets a chance to attend university, making this really feel like a fairy tale ending even though it wasn’t closely based on one. In lieu, we were treated to some Snow White and her Prince in the end, thanks to the dream that stemmed from Ryouko’s innermost feelings towards Ryoushi. We all know she wants him despite how much she tries to fight that feeling, but having it come as a dream shows just how hard she’s fallen.

Preview

「翼をください」 (Tsubasa wo Kudasai)
“Please Give Me Wings”

We’re only at episode eight and AIC Spirits has already opted to cut out the opening in favor of a more movie-like introduction to the long-awaited new Striker Unit. Yoshika’s magical abilities have outgrown her A6M Zero, forcing her to upgrade to the J7W1 Shinden, a.k.a. “Magnificent Lightning”. For the most part, the movie-like feel stemmed from her struggles to fly using her current unit, as no one was aware that it was a problem with the engine’s internal magic limiter and not Yoshika’s abilities. At times, it was a bit cheesy since stuff just happened inexplicably — such as Yoshika hearing her father’s voice and the Shinden magically appearing before for — but I’ll admit that I got caught up in the touching mood they were developing with her desire to protect people. The only part that I found a bit irksome was the opening scene where Mio was trying to learn the Shin Reppuzan. (It’s always got to be “shin” 「真」 when it comes to the “real” deal in Japanese techniques). I don’t know what Yoshika was on when she asked Mio to teach her the technique, seeing as she doesn’t even have a magically-imbued katana to begin with, nor the skills to wield one properly. If anything, she should specialize in the one area that she excels in and that Mio has no power whatsoever in anymore — shields. I could understand Yoshika’s earnest desire to do whatever is in her power to protect people, but I thought it was pretty dumb of her to get ahead of herself and think she can just hop onto any promising idea that she comes across.

The rest of the episode involving Yoshika’s struggles and her coming to terms that she may never fly again was really well played out, and also brought some emotion-filled scenes I wasn’t expecting from this series. None of the screenplay was overly melodramatic nor terribly forced, which the music helped a lot with. This isn’t the first time that I’ve mentioned how well the music sets the mood in this sequel and likely won’t be the last, as the soundtrack deserves a lot of praise for bringing out all sorts of emotions in the various scenes. This includes the peaceful track played when Yoshika and Lynne were frantically saving all the injured personnel on board the Yamato and the more urgent one with the sudden appearance of the Neuroi out to sink the Yamato flagship that was on route from Fuso. I’m a sucker for acts of chivalry too, so I was pretty caught up in Yoshika’s feelings of helplessness when Lynne went out on her own to try and protect the fleet, thanks to the music that went along with it. I also felt the emotional flood gate on the verge of opening at the sight of Yoshika’s tears and the sound of her apology to her father for not being able to protect anyone, which made her launch on the Shinden all the more epic. Yoshika going all out and unleashing the largest magic circle I ever recall seeing only added to that impression, and I love how she actually got pissed off for a change when it was Lynne’s life on the line. This new Yoshika means business!

It’s interesting to note that while the progression of this episode wasn’t any different from ones prior, the emotional aspect sure was kicked up a notch. The script was still fairly lighthearted, but had an element of depth that helped reiterate that there’s more to this series than pantless mecha-girls. Unfortunately, those who were quick to judge would have never gotten this far to realize that, so this was more of a treat to those who were already aware of that fact. For now, I’m curious as to what we’ll have in store in later episodes and if anything will live up to what we saw here. I’d definitely like to see more desperate battles where there are casualties, since it gives a much better impression that there’s an actual alien invasion going on. It was a nice touch bringing in the Yamato to add some urgency to their latest encounter with the Neuroi, and I couldn’t help but seem some resemblance to the “Fat Man” atomic bomb in its design (whether intentional or not). In any case, I’m enjoying this sequel a lot more than I’ve probably been letting off and am looking forward to seeing what else Yoshika can do with the Shinden. Hopefully this is the start of upgrades for all the other witches as well.

ED7 Sequence

ED7: 「Over Sky」 by 福圓美里＆名塚佳織 (Fukuen Misato & Nazuka Kaori)
Watch the 7th ED!: Download, Streaming ▼

Preview

This post has been sitting in my drafts for some time now, so I figured it’s about time to get it out. Not to mention, the PV for May’n’s latest single has been out for almost two months now on Victor Entertainment’s flying DOG YouTube channel, prior to the actual premiere of Ookami-san. In addition, the single itself came out on July 28th, so everyone who’s wanted to hear the full version of “Ready Go” probably has by now. What hasn’t been so readily available though is her live performance of the song on Music Japan’s anime song special back on August 1st. I say live performance, but in reality this looks like a prerecorded lip-synced one where May’n gets part of the lyrics and dance messed up at the 2:24 mark and recovers with the help of a quick camera change. Regardless, I love watching live performances of songs prerecorded or otherwise, so this Music Japan special was pretty cool to see. There were several other artists performing as well, some of which I may post performances of later on. For now, enjoy the latest from May’n if you haven’t seen it already. The PV in particular looks like it could be used for an iPod advertisement.

…Science wins! Or at least that’s how I plan to interpret Guy’s Hirutora technique, which doesn’t use chakra but some ridiculous amount of built-up pressure he creates with his fists. Modern day martial artists put out candles with their quick hands, but Guy’s parting oceans and creating tsunamis with his. We’re probably going to have to overlook how his technique takes the form of an impeccable looking tiger in the process though, unless chakra is somehow involved in shaping its appearance. In the grand scheme of things, Guy’s taijutsu is still pretty ridiculous even if its destructive power is explained through physics. However, the concept of air pressure generated from swift punches isn’t nearly as foreign and intangible to me as chakra, which can do anything and everything. Because of that, I was all smiles ear-to-ear when Kisame was overconfident about his chakra absorbing technique and wound up on the losing end of his exchange with Guy. Part of me felt Guy should be exclaiming the Japanese equivalent of, “This ain’t chakra bitch, it’s youth!”, but that’s evidently not too appropriate for the target audience. Well warranted, but not appropriate (…unfortunately).

The rest of the chapter that went into a flashback on Kisame’s days in Kirigakure (i.e. The Village of Mist) reeked of a death flag, but surprisingly developed into something more when it was shown how Madara recruited him into Akatsuki. For the most part, the talk about his personal aspirations of a world without lies and deceit still has me thinking this was intended to give his character some depth before he kicks the bucket though. My only real interest from probing his brain for information was Madara’s face, which presumably isn’t like the one we’ve seen during his confrontations with the First Hokage and the Senju back in the day. There’s still a lot of mystery surrounding exactly who Kabuto/Orochimaru had in the last casket he showed Madara, with the latter’s original body being a possibility given his reaction, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if Madara used some forbidden technique like Orochimaru’s to switch bodies and extend his life.

From a broader perspective, exactly what Madara looks like now or whether or not he took over someone’s body doesn’t really matter all that much. He’s more or less made his objective clear on reviving the ten-tailed beast and casting a genjutsu of lunar proportions on the world, so putting a stop to his plan is a given regardless of what or who he is. Still, I thought it was pretty sly of them to cut off the “big reveal” by having Kisame bite out his own tongue, because Madara’s appearance may have provided some clues as to how he’s still alive and maybe even how to counter his space-time techniques. Given how suicidal Kisame seems to be at the moment to prevent any further information from being leaked, and how he’s surrounded by Naruto, Bee, Guy, and Yamato, it’s looking like that death flag will be made good on the very next chapter. Between that and him somehow escaping, I’d much rather see him die here since him living to fight another day would take away from that flashback of his we just saw.