「暁の子守唄」 (Akatsuki no Komori-uta)
“Lullaby at Dawn”

Well the season schedule let the racoon girl out the bag, but that’s right boys and girls, Pancakes is here to give the masses what they love and cover Shield Hero until the end. Not like I’m complaining about scribbling myself in for two seasons mind you (Zaiden is being a bae by helping cap for my lazy overworked ass), because as anyone who’s remotely familiar with this series can say the fun here hasn’t even started yet. Redemption, salvation, happiness? Just wait until the coldest of dishes finally enters the picture.

Given how Naofumi has been treated up until now the events of this episode shouldn’t prove that surprising, but damn did it still ever make an impression. We all know that Malty is the true antagonist of the show for example, but the depth of her invidious machinations and hold over people really made itself felt here, with not only the king (and by extension the nobility) being shown as under her thumb, but Motoyasu too seemingly swayed by her every utterance. And the other heroes? Still unwilling to make a move until it shows themselves in a good light. Naofumi is simply the scapegoat for these various actors, the one poor sod who you can pin the blame for anything and everything on because hey, he’s the Shield Hero and no one is about to come to his aid. He despairs so others can claw their way up through various schemes, but as Raphtalia heartwarmingly showed, those tides are slowly turning. When you reach rock bottom you can only go up, and Naofumi has the best possible (and gosh darn cutest) help around to aid him in that endeavour.

The real mystery right now of course is what those schemes and plans are—i.e. Malty’s whole shtick against Naofumi—although answers continue to remain ever elusive. While easy to assume the girl just hates Naofumi or wants to ingratiate herself with Motoyasu, I doubt that’s all there is to her games. Take Raphtalia, why bother freeing her if the goal is getting with Motoyasu when the guy is trying to sweep Raphtalia off her feet—that would give princess unwatned competition. Why not just leave her a slave and eliminate the need for the hypocrisy surrounding the use of demi-human slaves (and seriously, what rank, ironic hypocrisy it was). Your guess right now is as good as mine. I am confident Motoyasu is not party to those plans though, he has proven himself too damn gullible and single minded to be the end goal in Malty’s scheming. The Spear Hero is just a pawn in an even larger game, and much like Naofumi I expect the guy won’t find out what it is until the brown stuff hits the rotary device.

It may take a while to finally learn the truth considering the second wave is quickly approaching, but you can bet it will prove explosive. After all if Naofumi’s curse unlock is any indication, there’s a hidden side to our heroes’ powers certain to upend everything they thought they already knew.

「通じる女たち」 (Tsuujiru onna-tachi)
“Communicating Women”

You know, at some point in the not too distant future I’ll probably regret choosing to keep blogging Kakegurui (those Netflix subbing shenanigans are going to hurt my Wednesday night free time), but damn it’s just too hard not to say yes to this show. Crazy faces, psychological shenanigans, ever increasingly ridiculous games: Kakegurui simply has it all. Whatever the series lacks in complexity it more than makes up in Elon Musk shirt wearing attitude, and oh darling do we ever have a clash of wits quickly barrelling down the tracks.

As discussed last week Kakegurui’s structure largely remains the same across each of its games. Whatever the circumstances and crazy personalities facing off, the strategy rarely deviates from identifying the trick at work and seeing how long it takes for everyone else to recognize just how screwed they are. Conceptually bland sure—especially when Yumeko is always the one doing the discerning—but never say Kakegurui doesn’t know when to liven things up. Case in point is the “protagonist” of the recent gamble in Meari, who pretty much channelled her inner Yumeko by not only poking Miyo and Miri a new one, but getting Suzui to stick with a situation the angel on his shoulder was almost certainly saying run away from as fast as possible. Ok, maybe a bit harsh on poor Suzui (the kid is slowly coming into his own in more than one way), but it’s no lie saying the strength of this show lies with the ability of its secondary cast to make structurally similar gambles into wickedly fun experiences. Meari and Suzui may have been destined to win this game after all (kind of hard actually killing off your main girl barely four weeks in), but with adorable Runa shenanigans and faces like this does the inevitability even really matter?

Going forward though the real fun will likely not so much be the games as much as the characters involved. The new and improved Meari for example is pretty much destined to come to a second round of blows with Yumeko thanks to her deciding what she finally wants, while Kirari has foreshadowed yet more fun and games with our little gambling queen because hey, no amount of Momobami can top the crazy of this show’s titular main. And that doesn’t even touch on all the other unlikely pairings between student council members and Suzui/Meari/Yumeko likely to happen between now and then as our huge collection of antagonists is slowly whittled down to a reasonable number. Much like last season there’s an undercurrent relating to the purpose of gambling at play here, with the Momobamis and Meari/Kirari facing off using gambling as a means to an end—i.e. to control the student council presidency—while Yumeko continues enjoying the act as end in of itself. Whoever ultimately comes out on top will be the one who can look beyond simple reward and see each game for what it really is, and in this we have the best array of characters possible to watch these paradigms play themselves out.

After all with the stakes this high and attempted murder already done and out of the way, you can bet the bank the future gambles have some seriously crazy stuff in store.

Preview

Now that every show has had a few episodes to make its case, it’s time to tell you what we’ll be blogging this season. This is Random Curiosity’s Winter 2019 blogging schedule.

As always, this is a tentative overview of our plans for the new season . . . is what we used to say, but with multiple episodes under our belts, we’re pretty confident in our picks. Will some of them fall apart in the final mile? It’s happened before. This is what we’re going with for now.

In staff news, obviously we have planned to have one more writer on staff, but that didn’t work out. The good news is that several writers have offered their services, and I’m accepting example posts at stilts(at)randomc(dot)net now! So we may do the unusual step of adding a writer or two mid-season, or we may wait until next season. Unsure. We currently have a few writers blogging more than they had intended, and several are gathering screenshots for posts they’re not writing to facilitate that. (Thank you Enzo, Pancakes, Zaiden, & Choya—even if that dirty 0 by Zai-chan’s name is why we need the help. Bad kouhai, bad!) (I’m just kidding, crush those exams Zai-chan.)

In show news, despite the unexpected setback, we’re still covering 14 series this season, which is below where we want to be but is much higher than it easily could have been if the crew weren’t so determined to not make that so. That doesn’t mean we’re not missing a few good’uns, but we did our best to cover as many as we could. Once again, way to go team! Y’all rock.

That’s everything for this season. As always, thank you for reading and commenting, and feel free to join our Discord channel if you wanna chat outside of the usual posts. Several of us writers lurk there, so feel free to tag us if you want to chat. Cheers!

Updates

• 2/15: Two new writers have appeared! A whole raft of changes: MissSimplice will be covering Doukyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue. and Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Ren’ai Zunousen, while Stars will be blogging Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari and Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai!

「中身 ～悪霊～」 (Nakami ~ Akuryou ~)
“Inside ~Evil Spirit~”

Wowzers, there was sure a lot to unpack in that one. It goes without saying that Mob Psycho 100 is a series with tremendous tonal versatility, and we’ve seen a good chunk of that range in the first four eps of this season. As with so many great series in this oeuvre, like Hunter X Hunter for example, each facet of the jewel is critical for making it a priceless gem. But there is a certain endorphin rush that happens with the shit really hits the fan and the limiters come off, and this episode was the first time this season we’ve seen that for an entire episode.

With Mob Psycho, part of the rush comes in knowing that Tachikawa Yuzuru and the team Bones has assembled are going to be unleashed. And it’s truly one of the most exceptional staffs in TV anime history, animators and artists and designers who clearly love this series and want it to be the centerpiece of their artistic C.V.. ONE’s writing has tremendous depth – his metaphor-driven take on adolescence here will surely go down as one of the finest in anime history – and when you pair that with the basically unparalleled production quality, the result is, well- Mob Psycho 100.

I have so many notes, I hardly know where to begin. I suppose we can start with characters – there’s Jodou (Tanzawa Teruyuki), the head of Shinra’s psychic’s association who’s probably a real psychic, but a bit of a paper tiger. Matsuo from CLAW turns up, trying to make an honest living as a psychic now but terrified of Mob (and Reigen). There’s the one who brings all these psychics and more together, the okanemochi Asagiri Masahi (Hoshino Mitsuaki), desperate to find help for his 14 year-old daughter Minori (M.A.O.) who he believes (quite rightly) is possessed by an evil spirit.

Most important of all, by far, is Mogami Keiji (unmistakably Ishida Akira). Mob has never heard of him, Reigen knows him by reputation, but Ekubo knows him intimately – he was a famous psychic of the late 20th-Century who exorcised Dimple and almost absorbed him fully. He’s a sick and twisted soul, who engineered his own transformation into a vengeful spirit. He now finds himself in the body of Minori, staring through a two-way mirror into a room full of psychics brought in to evict him.

Wow, where to even start. First of all, once again Reigen shows his true colors because when things get serious, he gets serious. There’s obviously money to be made here and he’s incredibly good at Janken, but once he’s in that room with the girl, he immediately sees through Mogami’s BS even as the psychics in the other room are taken in by it. Reigen has obvious character traits that make him a badass – balls of steel and an unshakable moral compass for starters – but there are times when his lack of spiritual power is a major benefit. He’s not taken in by any of the tricks which bamboozle the psychics – he can spew bullshit with the best of them and he knows it when he sees it. His superpower is his common sense.

Sadly, common sense and steel balls are not going to slow down Mogami in the slightest. He’s a freakishly powerful bastard – if not this season’s big bad, then at least this arc’s – and he has no compunction about taking out humans. When Shinra takes his turn to try and stop him Mob steps in to save him – but then is forced to stand down when Mogami starts destroying his host body. Reigen gets in a good kick and his moves remain as solid as ever, but he’s no match for Mogami either (I loved the detail of him protecting his head when she flung him to the floor). There’s only one person in the house who could possible give Mogami any concern, and it’s only a matter of time before he has to step in and do what he can. That’s the burden Mob carries.

Eventually Mob realizes that he’s just not powerful enough to take out Mogami, and that his attacks are only making things worse. He hatches a terrible plan that may be the only one open to him – use an OBE to try and possess Minori himself and kick Mogami out from the inside. This involves letting Ekubo take possession of his own body so it isn’t totally defenseless while Mob is absent, which suitably horrifies Reigen – but Mob doesn’t hesitate. He probably does trust Dimple too much, but the irony is that it’s that very trust which is slowly changing Dimple into someone that can at least to some degree be trusted.

We’re getting pretty hard into the whole FLCL puberty symbolism thing here, but that’s pretty much the central theme of Mob Psycho 100 to begin with. Even inside Minori Mob is no match for Mogami, at least not now. That psychic powers come from emotions is no surprise, nor that negative emotions are far more powerful – but in telling Mob this, Mogami is trying to make Mob question his very nature. What happens next is a shocking development. Rather than destroy Mob’s soul, Mogami mentally sends him back into his own body (or so Mob believes) – but without his powers (or memories of what’s happened). It seems to be an experiment on Mogami’s part, a cruel indulgence of curiosity – but it’s certainly going to be interesting to see where it takes the story. For Mob, who has certainly dreamed of what a life without the burden of his powers would be like, I fear it’s going to prove something of a nightmare.

Preview

「集う者達」 (Tsudou Monotachi)
“The Gathering”

Another episode, another handful of people realizing just how fantastic Rimuru is as both a person and a leader.

General Impressions

I was wondering when the story was going to dive back into the political side of things and there couldn’t have been a better time than now. With the Jura Tempest Federation doing pretty darn well for itself and looking more and more like a bustling city each and every episode, it would make sense that focusing on the logistics behind the scenes would make the most sense. And sure, we got a taste when Dwargon formed a treaty with the federation, but I think we all knew that Gazel had every intention in getting in early when it came to being allies with Rimuru. That said, dwarves are not humans and it’s always felt like Rimuru would have trouble when it came to bridging the monster-human barrier. Luckily it looks like the people in charge of the Kingdoms of Blumund and Falmuth have some good people in-charge — that or maybe it’s just Rimuru’s ability to read others and use all those years he spent slaving away as a salaryman to good use. Honestly, who would have thought that he’d be smooth enough to handle the public’s perception of the Orc Lord’s defeat and establish good will for the entire federation?

Things aren’t all rainbows and sunshine though since it looks like the Orc Lord was the least of our problems. With the threat of the other Demon Lords looming over the federation and some kind of terrible monster about to possibly break free from its seal, it’s tough to not think that one of the two above things will be wreaking havoc soon. If I had one hope for the future though, I’m really praying that the story would be able to continue giving Rimuru unique (and clever) ways of tackling whatever issue he’s facing. Not too big of an ask if you ask me!

Overall, another fun and fantastic episode that managed to hit a lot of high notes throughout the emotional spectrum. Toss in an over abundance of awesome Milim moments and I don’t think we could have asked for a better episode. That and the story seems to be slowly building up to the next big battle which has me super excited for however Rimuru’s going to tackle it. In any case, see you guys next week!

Spoiler Talk

Show Spoiler ▼

Preview

The King is dead – long live the King! Well – wounded anyway. Peeved, at least. Yes, we have our first change at the top – and it’s truly astonishing that Mob Psycho 100 could put up three episodes this great and still cede the top spot. It’s just a testament to how good Dororo has been so far. There’s a shakeup in the rest of the poll too, as the season continues to sort itself out.

This week’s Dark Horse segment sees Cho-Cho step up to the plate with a plug for one of this season’s short series (one which I’m enjoying a lot too). And our “Ask the Writer” segment heads into dank meme territory for the first time.

Without further ado, here are Winter’s premiere results:

• Choya’s Dark Horse Series: Ueno-san wa Bukiyou – Although it’s a short anime, Ueno-san wa Bukiyou stands out for me as this season’s go-to comedy. The desperate struggle that Ueno faces to get even the slightest reaction from Tanaka and have him reciprocate her feelings is hilarious to see unfold. Despite creating ground-breaking inventions like a Waterworld-esque filtering machine that can convert urine to water, a device that creates holographic censors, and a machine that pulls water from the Milky Way, she always misuses them for the sole purpose of getting Tanaka to see her in an amorous light. It is funny to see how far Ueno goes when channeling the deepest, most perverse sections of her mind to grab Tanaka’s attention such as getting excited about the prospect of indirect kisses or having him sniff her pantyhose. Even funnier is Tanaka’s attitude as he goes from being oblivious and slightly annoyed by Ueno’s exploits to taking sadistic delight in making her plans backfire. It’s not the most sophisticated material around and your mileage may vary on the raunchiness of Ueno’s plans, but for those who open themselves up to Ueno-san wa Bukiyou, it’s a riotous refuge in audacity that blends adorable character designs with the bawdy machinations of Ueno’s imagination.

 

Ask The Writers


Enzo’s Note: Damn some of them took this seriously. Also — The McDonald’s Triangle

• Enzo: “We have food at home”. Why? Because if I have kids (I don’t), I damn well do have food at home. Plus, I’m not enough of a bastard to do the black coffee thing (though I’d be tempted) and I would never voluntarily subject myself to McDonald’s except for ¥100 coffee or sofuto kurimu.
• Stilts: “‘One black coffee’, but only because I’ve heard the bit and I’m not above stealing good material to get a laugh (and traumatize some kids). The rest of the time I’d 100% be ‘We have food at home’. They can get a job if they want to eat out.”
• Zaiden: Probably more towards McDonald’s! McDonald’s! McDonald’s!, because I’d hate to disappoint the kids. I can imagine wanting to make them happy as a parent. But I wouldn’t want to spoil them too often, and McDonald’s isn’t the healthiest. So perhaps halfway. A love for Filet O Fish and Hot Apple Pies are encoded into my blood. But KFC is love, KFC is life.
• Passerby: I’d like to think that I’d place somewhere in the middle of this McDonald’s triangle because humans are creatures of infinite complexity and how we respond to any given situation depends largely on whims and moods. What would actually happen, though, is that I would realize I had raised children whose idea of a treat worth clamoring for is Mc-bloody-Donald’s and I’ll drive the car into a lake.
• Choya: I’m a big proponent of not wasting food, so I’d be down for the idea of eating food at the house when we have leftovers to take care of before they go bad. But I also love coffee and it’s a good teaching tool to let the younglings know that fast food isn’t always a good option, so I might slightly push towards that side of the triangle.
• Pancakes: Smack dab halfway between “we have food at home” and “orders a single coffee and leaves” because food is expensive yet the Schadenfreude of snuffing out the hopes and dreams of younglings is just too damn tempting.

This quick announcement is to tell you all that Gleam, the new writer we brought on for this season, is no longer a part of Random Curiosity. We didn’t have a falling out or anything. The honest truth is that he disappeared. It’s embarrassing to admit that a writer went AWOL after three posts, because we put time and effort into giving him the tools to succeed at RandomC and he just … left. No idea why. Honestly we’re worried something bad might have happened, but we have no way of knowing when we reach out but receive no reply.

The reason I made a special post to tell you this, instead of bundling it into the schedule that will appear in the few days, is partially to explain why we’ll be covering fewer shows than expected this season. We tried to cover more, after all. But it’s also to ask anyone who’s interested in writing for Random Curiosity, or anyone who’s passionate about RC, to apply. We’re in the process of revamping the site (yes, that’s still happening) to make it smoother to read and easier to interact with, but without more writers, covering fewer shows is going to become the norm. We have a good stable of writers, but more and more of us have jobs and relationships and other responsibilities, and we can’t devote time to blogging like we used to. The last few recruitment drives have seen fewer responses, but I know there are people excited about anime reading this who would love to contribute. I encourage those people to apply.

Send an email to stilts(at)randomc(dot)net if you’re interested. Thank you.

「妖刀の巻」 (Youtou no Maki)
“The Story of The Cursed Sword”

For Episode 04 of Dororo, Hyakkimaru must fight Dororo! Or rather, he must disarm Dororo as he is taken hostage by the cursed demon sword Nihiru, which had already corrupted a man named Tanosuke. The episode is poignant mainly for how it continues to weave Hyakkimaru and Dororo through the stories of other characters they are surrounded by, and how Tanosuke is locked into his obsession with Nihiru despite his sister Osushi trying to regain the joy they once had with each other.

The brother and sister relationship between Tanosuke and Osushi is the backbone of the episode and it reflects on how the demonic entities of this universe can affect people’s lives for the worse. Tanosuke is afflicted by Nihiru unwittingly as he is ordered to execute men for a war he took part in out of his sense of duty. Using the demon blade’s ability to feed off of the blood of those it cuts, Tanosuke is corrupted by the sword as it drives him to murder all in his path. Hyakkimaru is able to initially separate Tanosuke from his blade, causing him to reunite with his sister Osushi. But instead of Osushi possibly connecting with her brother to help him regain the happiness he once had with her in their hometown, he remains obsessed with the blade. His one-track mindedness regarding Nihiru and its powers drive him to push his sister aside as he anticipates the moment he can grab the sword once more. One thing that stuck out for me was how much Nihiru reminded me of Anubis, the corrupt sword Stand from Stardust Crusaders that had possessed Chaka, Khan, and Polnareff. But rather than completely take over the next host, it seems to goad its user to feed it, and only then can its addictive qualities go to work. While Dororo was able to keep the sword away from him before he killed anyone with it, the story presses that it is far too late for Tanosuke to awaken from the curse the blade trapped him in, leaving him to face only certain doom in the process of having the demon vanquished. It isn’t a happy end for Osushi as she mourns her brother and her inability to save him from his perilous fate from demonic influence. But it does solidify that being targeted or afflicted by demons in the narrative means giving up a part of you that may never be regained to its fullest.

Although Hyakkimaru has been regaining much of the senses and organs that have been robbed from him, he also faces suffering in his challenges as the most recent sensations that have returned have worked against him. Feeling pain before he could hear, speak, or see is a cruel fate, especially now that he has to be careful about how he maneuvers through two fights with a man wielding a demon sword. His lack of other senses had also resulted in his approach to disarming Dororo being outright whipping out his sword on him. But one of the crueler ways that fate conspired to make Hyakkimaru feel guilt from his conquest for his limbs was regaining the ability to hear before Osushi shouted in despair for him to spare her brother. Because of this, the very first sounds that Hyakkimaru hears in his life are the pouring rain and Osushi sobbing over her brother who was slain by his hands. It was impactful for Episode 04 of Dororo to end on such a dour note for the siblings as Tanosuke could only smile from having been freed from the demon sword, but at the cost of his life and in the arms of his beloved sister. Although the end of the episode foreshadows on Daigo putting the pieces together that his first child may be involved with the slain demons, it was the siblings that had helped form the emotional core of Episode 04 to make it stand out so strongly.

「ラハマの長い日」 (Rahama no Nagai Hi)
“Rahama’s Longest Day”

Here’s another thing 2D still does better than 3D: changing costumes. For your basic 3D models the clothes are simply part of the model, so in order to get your character to change clothes you almost have to create an entire new model. So if you want your girls to prance around in their lingerie, go back to 2D! Fanservice: 1, innovation: 0.

Still, if we need to go back to 2D every time the captain guy takes off his hat I wonder if 3D is truly worth it. But no matter.

For the rest of the episode the Kotobuki stayed 3D, though, which means business. Once again we take to the skies and once again we have an episode full of dogfights we all came here for. I’m pleased to see that Kotobuki has managed to sustain this level of action, and if we needed to go 3D for it then regardless of costume shenanigans it was a worthy sacrifice. If we were to compared to three ‘cute-girls-doing-WWII-hardware-things’ anime — Girls und Panzer, Hai-Furi, and Kotobuki — Kotobuki distinguishes itself as having the least fluff. It still has fluff, of course (pancakes, anyone?) and I’m not saying that fluff is inherently bad. Rather, I want to highlight how much they’re packing into each episode of an anime about old aeroplanes shooting at each other. The action I expect, but in this episode we also got a bunch of world building about the communities living on this frontier (and what would the Wild West be without snake-oil salesmen?), some rumination into the nature of leadership and incidental character development for leader girl by contrasting her with the vacillating mayor, some character development for blonde girl (names are hard) by implying a painful past with pirates, and everything else that came with the general plot of the episode. That’s a lot done in an episode where a large portion was just indulgent gun noises. It goes to show what a good screenwriter can do for you; a tight script lets an anime get more done with less.

As an aside, for those of you who have been wondering what happens to pilots who get shot down, you may be pleased to know that they don’t all die after all. This is the first time we’ve seen the deployment of a parachute so we know they’ve got those, and we also saw a Hayabusa manage a crash landing so there’s no reason to think that there aren’t other survivors.

Back to the plot: this will be the first multi-episode arc of Kotobuki and while it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to keep blogging this show (we’ll have to see) I’m still curious as to what comes next and will definitely be watching. Of course, this pirate corporation (as if pirates aren’t reviled enough) are unlikely to be major antagonists — they’re 2D, which means they’re minor — but perhaps the raid to take back the Raiden will lead to something larger. We’ve already had hints that there’s a larger underlying narrative to Kotobuki and even if we don’t leap into that just yet there’s also an entire fantasy world to build. There’s ambition in this show, and I’m eagre to see where that ambition takes us.

Preview

「金木犀の騎士」 (Kinmokusei no Kishi)
“The Osmanthus Knight”

I definitely didn’t see that one coming.

General Impressions

With the story’s pacing taking a nosedive in terms of pacing, it looks like this post will probably be on the shorter side. However, as silly as this week’s ending was, there were a few points that I thought were really interesting. That and I just realized that the opening sequence (actually last week) has been slowly changing — be sure to take a closer look at it if you haven’t watched since it episode fourteen.

Hopping back on what I wanted to talk about — I’m actually really surprised just how much focus the story has put onto Eugeo and his struggle with trying to express empathy for the Integrity Knights he and Kirito have faced thus far. As a simple country boy who’s purpose in life was only recently changed to something more intricate than hacking away at a giant tree, it doesn’t surprise me that his emotional intelligence toward others isn’t all that mature. However, with the story throwing it right into our faces via Kirito trying to explain to him how important it is to consider the feelings of others even if they’re your opponent, it makes for an interesting plot point. Add in the knowledge that we know Eugeo is simply an artificial fluctlight and you can’t help but hope that he’s able to become more than just an AI trying to imitate being a human. Luckily things weren’t all bad for Eugeo if you consider how he was able to empathize with the elevator operator whose calling seems significantly worse than having to chop away at a tree.

All that said, it’ll probably be a while before we get any hard information on Eugueo. Looking back at this week’s episode and what happened, it feels like we’re about to get a soft reset on all of our boys’ progress since it feels like they’re still way too behind in both skill and power. Something that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you consider what next week’s episode title is.

In any case, I’ll catch you guys next week where things will hopefully pick back up. See you then!

Preview

「かぐや様は交換したい／藤原ちゃんは出かけたい／白銀御行は隠したい」 (Kagu ya-sama wa Koukan Shitai/ Fujiwara-chan wa Dekaketai/ Shirogane Onkou wa Kakushitai)
“Miyuki Shirogane Still Hasn’t Done It / Kaguya Wants to Be Figured Out / Kaguya Wants to Walk”

I’ve been down this road before.  When there’s a series I feel like I should like, I have a hard time letting it go.  My experience tells me that I usually wait too long before facing the truth, and end up regretting it.  That’s starting to feel like the case with Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai, not least because Hatakeyama Mamoru is directing it.  But three episodes is a pretty decent window in which to formulate an opinion, and sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.  I’m not done, but I’m starting to feel like it’s time to warm up the car.

I talk about the whole horses for courses concept here sometimes, and I think it applies more to comedies than it does to any other genre.  A shoe can be perfectly well-made, but if it doesn’t fit it’s not going to be very comfortable to walk around in.  This whole Shaft thing that Hatakeyama has going on here, the incessant narration (though that did back off some this week, at least), the self-aware snarkiness – it’s just not my cup of tea.  There’s certainly a market for whom it is, and that’s great – but my growing suspicion is that I’m not a part of it.

That’s not to say there weren’t things I liked this week.  At this point it’s no longer theoretical – my enjoyment level of these chapters is inversely related to the omnipresence of the narrator.  The first chapter was thus a trial for me, as he just never shut up.  OK, I know it’s a gag manga, but the gag wasn’t really that funny and that’s the problem with gag manga anime – if the joke doesn’t make you laugh, the whole segment is a loss.  The next two were better though, if for no other reason than the relative paucity of narration.  Even without it I still have the sense of push-button laugh lines you sometimes get with gag manga (everything but the rimshot, pretty much) but with the narrator effectively telling you “laugh now” it’s definitely worse.

A couple of other nice touches: the speeded-up intro segment (which I take as an acknowledgement of how dumb last week’s full-length groundhog day was) Hatakeyama inserting an actual yeti into the third chapter, and the ED.  The ED was easily the funniest part of the episode for me in fact, which is great – except that if the ED is the funniest part of a comedy, that’s not a great reflection on the rest of the episode.  Also, while it seems not to cause major problems in RL and the chapter itself was pretty standard moe-pandering and ojou-sama tropes, I did feel for the girl walking to school.  Kids make their own way to school – on foot, by bus, by train – at an astonishingly young age here (from first grade) and it never fails to make me nervous when I see them soloing.

Author’s Note: Just for the record, I picked up Kaguya-sama in the genuine hope that I would be able to blog the entire series, but also because it was otherwise unclaimed and I felt that it should get coverage at RC if possible. If indeed I do decide to drop it we’ll do everything we can to continue coverage, but no guarantees at this point.

ED2 Sequence

First things first, Raphtalia transformed from a cute furball into a beautiful lady. Though Raphtalia gains a lot of personality, going from shy to confident, there are a couple of bones I’d like to pick. All these demi-human hating folks suddenly treat her nicely because she’s pretty seems like an odd turn. And I’m not entirely comfortable with the implication where she looks like an adult on the exterior, while remaining a little girl on the inside, because it opens a can of worms. Does that make her free real estate for Naofumi to potentially develop a romantic relationship, just because the moral outrage would be sort of vague? I mean, it’s not problematic enough to ruin my enjoyment whatsoever. But I could understand if people took issue with it. Storywise, it moves things along nicely. I’d fancy a teenager any day over a child fighting against an apocalyptic wave.

The other heroes are shown to treat the invasion like a game, rushing to slay the biggest monsters that appear out of the doomsday portal without a care for the endangered villagers. As a significant contrast, Naofumi’s first reaction is to realise the town of Lute was in danger, immediately rushing over to protect its civilians. Sure, the monsters that appear are small fry. Still, we get an opportunity to see Naofumi’s noble and tactical side come to life. While Raphtalia takes down monsters as his sword and aids with evacuation, Naofumi saves villagers and tries to draw monster aggro to himself. The lack of damage on his part should definitely have been a problem. Yet he climbs up a bell tower, rings it to attract swarms of monster, then burns the tower to take down all the monsters.

Unfortunately for Naofumi, the anti-Shield Hero hate train continues on strong. A platoon of the Kingdom’s Army rains down a powerful spell on the battlefield, knowing full well that Naofumi and Raphtalia were within range. I totally empathised with Raphtalia’s fury as she angrily lashed out. For all Naofumi’s wicked grinning, he was highly benevolent to save that toad’s life. If it were me, I would have left the commander for dead. Being an extreme ingrate even after his life was saved, the commander sought to withdraw all forces to assist the other heroes and leave Naofumi and Raphtalia to continue struggling by themselves. Nevertheless, another soldier requests all men to remain and enter formation, with most staying behind to help. At least some people seem to have integrity in this universe, which makes a nice change from the usual flavour of utter scumbag.

The animation was pretty damn fluid and fantastic. Nothing extraordinary, admittedly, but certainly far beyond average. Worth of note is that Kevin Penkin comes up with something new every episode and impresses without fail, elevating the fights into a higher tier. That man is truly special and his talents are a treasure for the anime industry. Long may he contribute. For future fights that are higher stake, I don’t doubt that Kevin Penkin will remain consistent. But I hope that Kinema Citrus will endeavour to raise the bar as far as their animations are concerned.

The invasion didn’t come without loss. That said, Naofumi and Raphtalia fended off the monsters rather successfully. And it looked like the other heroes were able to wrap up things on their end. But the contrast is extremely obvious. All the other heroes are delighted and smiling at a job well done, completely oblivious to the destruction and suffering elsewhere, while Raphtalia’s first reaction is to break down crying. But most live to see another day. So, all’s well that ends well? I’ll ask for all people in the know, keep your knowledge to yourself so that those unfamiliar with the franchise can fully enjoy what comes next. Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to say. This is also the final post for me and blogging for the next few months. And at the moment, I cannot guarantee that someone else will pick up Shield Hero. Apologies, but I’d say the prospects aren’t looking too bad. As always, thank you for reading my post and let’s hope this adaptation continues going from strength to strength!

「統括理事会」 (Toukatsu riji-kai)
“The Governing Board”

Well if there’s one thing to say about Index it’s that it’s certainly willing to stick to its guns. A large and confusing array of characters and new developments just recently made their appearance with little explanation? Hey, why not double the trouble midway through? Sure it might leave half the crowd in the dust, but at this point I think those of us remaining are simply here to enjoy the ride.

As mentioned last week one of the joys of Index is the time it spends on its secondary cast. It’s not often arguably tertiary characters like Shiage for example get so much attention lavished on them, and even less when it comes to their desires and reasons for living. While annoying (for me at least) the amount of sappy, quixotic speech on light and dark and the travails of having to exist in the underbelly of society—seriously, the cringe doesn’t disappear after hearing it for the third or fourth time—I still get a kick out of watching poor Shiage try and do his best even whilst getting the crap beat out of him. The kid may be weak, he may stand no chance, but just like one Ruiko he’ll do what he can for the sake of his friends. It’s the sort of thing Accelerator continues to learn and display as time goes by, and although everyone’s favourite Level 5 may still be half psychopath with a taste for annihilation, don’t expect that front to hold up too long once he’s reunited with First Order. You know exactly how adorably hilarious that scene is going to be.

Once removed beyond the pleasantries of character actions though, it’s hard denying Index has gone full confusion. We have two plots playing out simultaneously, the first seeing Saiai facing off against one Stephanie Gorgouspalace out of revenge over this guy because, well, reasons—i.e. read the light novel for a better explanation. The second concerns the mystery of DRAGON, what it is, and why exactly everyone and their obsidian-wielding Aztec buddy is apparently after the same thing. Much like Saiai’s battle against the fem-Terminator there’s not much in the way of explanation to go with the political manoeuvring, municipal negotiations, and spontaneous fighting yet, but the one positive is that these events will make some sense in the greater scheme of WW3 things once the answers are forthcoming. Probably not enough to make up for the supersonic delivery up until now mind you—nothing is going to fix that underlying problem—but hey, we got to start somewhere.

After all the climax of Index III is quickly approaching, and if there’s one thing you can bet on it’s the show is going to take its time with that one. The fan base demands it.

ED2 Sequence

ED2: 「終わらない歌」 (Owaranai Uta) by Yuka Iguchi

Preview

「もっとひどい戦争」 (Motto Hidoi Sensou)
“A More Terrible War”

What’s the phrase, “every answer leads to another question”? Yeah, no better way of summing up MSTA at this stage. We may only be three episodes into this growing bit of chaos, but with plot lines emerging and future events all but giving themselves away, it’s not hard predicting where this show is intending on heading. At least that’s what MSTA is showing, because if there’s one thing I’m not willing to bet on it’s giving away the game before the fun has even begun.

Case in point of the coyness MSTA is enjoying at the moment is our new magical girl Kurumi. As entirely expected that cute and bubbly exterior hides one seriously obsessed personality wholly devoted to main girl Asuka. Except she doesn’t really act on it when given the prime opportunity? Even a couple of times? Yeah I’m confused too. It’s certainly weird seeing crazy keep itself under wraps so effectively (barring some conspicuous marking of territory), but it may just be MSTA’s shtick to keep such a wild card in reserve until a later date. Not hard imagining Kurumi wouldn’t hesitate leaving behind new friends #1 and #2 in favour of Asuka should all find themselves in the same rough situation after all, especially if it would help knock off a competitor for that main girl attention. Considering the series appears intent on focusing on the darker side of beating back monsters—i.e. the psychological fallout—it probably won’t be long until Kurumi starts applying the emotional screws to one true love, all in an effort to keep Asuka with her. After all, when it comes to attention, there’s nothing a girl won’t do.

What ensures things get crazier before they get better as well are the slowly emerging details of this season’s enemy. We now have a name in the Babel Brigade for example, and indications of its influence reaching far wider than our Japanese gang probably though possible. Anyone familiar with the biblical Babel likely knows where this story is going just given the name drop, but indications of “illegal” magical girls, manipulating and using Dias for nefarious purposes, and the threats of a new, more terrible war are indication enough: someone/some group plans on adapting the new postwar world to their desired needs, and anyone who gets in their way will pay the ultimate price. Considering our little ball of evil knows who Makino’s father is exactly (even after the remarks about daddy’s job being super secret) and just kidnapped the oppai lover over it, you can bet this murky rabbit hole won’t be reaching the light anytime soon.

There’s a lot left for MSTA to reveal and quite a few girls waiting to make their debut, and while I don’t know yet whether I’ll be covering the adventure all the way through (that’s a decision for next week), this will certainly be one show where the fireworks only grow in intensity. Stay tuned boys and girls, the cutie breaking is just warming up.

Full-length images: 17, 29, 30.

Preview

「偉大なる死(ザ・グレイトフル・デッド) その②」 (Idai Naru Shi (The Grateful Dead): Sono 2)
“The Grateful Dead: Part 2″

Bruno’s quick-thinking in the last episode might have seemed reckless, but following that cliffhanger, we quickly learn that it gave him the upward advantage to send Prosciutto flying. Getting trapped in the train’s machinery may have stalled Prosciutto’s death after he was out-maneuvered off the train, but the lasting effects of his inevitable end reverberated through Pesci as he takes it upon himself to live up to his aniki’s example.

Pesci’s heel-turn from the fearful mammoni to a vengeful thug would go as well as you would imagine as he steps on an already dying man’s neck and pretends to be a superhard gangster. This would fit the trajectory of Pesci’s path accurately as he spends the episode trying to shape himself into being a tougher him by channeling what Proscuitto would do. And yet, his irrationality ends up dictating his actions as he sabotages many of his lucky breaks by letting his nerves get the best of him.

With Bruno, one reoccurring theme in his part of the fight is luck. He can craft clever ideas on the fly, but he’s restricted by the luck that shifts constantly from Pesci to himself. Bruno places himself in enough of a risk to make it so that it would take the pure luck of something like the train shifting the pieces of his body back together after Pesci finally found a way to stop the train to reach Prosciutto. After all of the times that Beach Boy had reached Bruno’s heart, it took several lucky twists of fate to be able to zip his way out of every life-threatening predicament he faced.

Now that the duo is gone, their only current obstacle at the moment is Melone, who is finding that the cards are in place for his own debut. La Squadra is already missing four members, but with a good chunk of Passione needing to recover from their previous fight, Melone has the advantage of facing them while they’re still trying to heal from Grateful Dead and Beach Boy’s combined efforts. On top of this, Trish’s powers are starting to awaken as well, complicating the situation further now that the boss’ daughter happens to have a Stand ability. Next time around, we will be looking into how much of a threat Melone turns out to be as Passione deals with the aftermath of train travel no longer being feasible.