Random Curiosity

「Agamemnon’s Offering」

Well looks like the pieces are slowly but surely coming together for Psycho Pass. We may still be dancing around the edges of this season’s main conflict (not to mention bringing in yet more characters), but between the quiet name drops and links emerging it’s not long before this black box is blown wide open. Or you know set on fire, one of the two.

Considering the religious bent of this episode the surprise for me (in hindsight) is that Psycho Pass has never actually given thought to this aspect before. Religion is the one thing you’d imagine would never be allowed under such a totalitarian system given its faith-based foundation and subservience to a being/force Sibyl can neither see nor judge. After all, if Sibyl is the only allowable judge and jury of the human condition, the existence of competing morals and arguments is anathema to it if the goal is a homogenous societal order. What we have here though is not only the allowance of religions, but their active encouragement. Strange right? Only at first glance. As Arata briefly stated, religion provides (among several other important things) a glue—i.e. moral framework—which can bring together and unite a heterogenous community. By co-opting the religious structure and turning it into the veritable worship and praise of the psychological condition, Sibyl reinforces its position by reaching those who would otherwise be unconvinced by arguments of utopia and “scientifically proven” happiness. Normal Japanese in this brave new world may not need such a system, but for the immigrants arriving en masse it can provide the environment needed to properly adapt (in the Sibyl approved way) to their new home.

Of course theological debates and wholesale deity replacement isn’t all that fun by itself, so Psycho Pass also decided to spice that up with a little murder mystery and some unforeseen links. It’s probably unsurprising for example that Arata’s father knew our Sister, or that one (if not all three) of the religious leaders have some form of link with Bifrost. Maybe not enough to be part of the foxes oh so conveniently discussed here (that would be too easy), but definitely involved with whatever Bifrost’s endgame is. Then there’s the Foreign Affairs Bureau popping back up for a little more curious inter-agency competition just when key players are starting to disappear and bombs are going off. Did I also mention the death flags fluttering high above Kei’s wife? Because surgically implanted bombs and unaccompanied wife under the knife sure don’t breed too many happy thoughts. And that’s even before getting to Arata’s own personal demons which are clearly waiting for their time to shine.

It might be unclear just where and when Psycho Pass this season is going to blow it all up, but it’s time to start placing those bets boys and girls. This ride is ready to start flying down off the summit.

Random Tidbits

Some interesting Latin phrases popped up this week. The pocket watch was engraved with aut viam inveniam aut faciam, roughly translated as “I will find a way or make one”, while our first bomber yelled audi nos, or “listen to us.” Pretty easy to guess what those refer to in this episode’s context.

「あらしふく」 (Arashi fuku)
“As Storms Sweep”

I was honestly disappointed that Chihaya ended up winning. I didn’t expect to react that way. I thought I was rooting for her somewhere deep inside but it seems I was really on Taichi’s team. When I saw how upset he was, I was upset for him. Of course, it makes sense that Chihaya walked away with a victory considered she’d worked so hard and so long to become such a skilled karuta player.

After seeing her well up in front of her mother with all her confused thoughts and feelings, I couldn’t help but cry. If you don’t know just yet, I’m the writer here on RandomC who openly confesses to crying. I just sat there, tears dripping as large as Chihaya‘s right into my bowl of breakfast oats. Yum. Salty oats.

I am, however, confused about her choice to go on the class trip to Tokyo. She mentions wanting to be a high school teacher so she could become a karuta club advisor like Ms. Miyaichi and Ms. Sakurazawa, but this epiphany of hers is new. It does tie to karuta, however, her real dream is to become queen. I guess if I think about it, this is the only time in her life she can experience a school trip with friends, whereas competing for the highest karuta title in the land is something she can achieve at any age.

Spakrs seem to have ignited between the boys. So far, season 1 and 2, aside from their elementary school years, rarely have we seen Arata and Taichi go head to head over Chihaya. For some reason, this last match really ignited a jealous fire in Arata. Is it because his friends are playing without him or is he slowly realizing that Taichi has the upper hand now that he’s become a better player than he once was, maybe even surpassing him altogether? The tension between these two and their passion for Chihaya is creating an emotional storm that’s now making it into the lives of everyone around them. If Yuu continues to love Arata and if Sumire never gets over her interest in Taichi, they’ll forever be caught up in their storm. They’re currently experiencing very painful unrequited loves but will their feelings ever be answered?

I know the show is about the subtlety and it has done so well in building each of the characters’ true feelings, but I can’t help but see everything as intertwined. The stronger their bond with one another (referring to all characters), the more progress they make in their training, their personal lives, etc.

My main concern after this episode is what she’ll do now that she’s found out Taichi will be going to the Eastern Region Master and Queen qualifiers. Will she support Taichi? Will she scold him? What will happen of their relationship? It’s unfortunate, however, that her whole experience of Kyoto is having her head (and heart) wrapped around karuta and Taichi. Talk about not living in the moment Chihaya.

「ケモナーx興行」 (Kemonar x Kougyou)
“Animal x Event”

A city-wide tournament is afoot in this installment of Hataage! Kemono Michi as the guild and the townsfolk discover the true meaning of wrestling with all-comers exhibition matches. But with this episode, it calls too much attention to the fact that the show lives and dies by its supporting cast, and without them, we would be stuck with a protagonist whose jokes aren’t sustainable enough to carry the series alone. The last episode had the major issue of giving Genzou little room to bounce off of other stronger characters or other animals/beasts, causing him to fall back on the same joke of attacking people who call him a “beast killer”.

Introducing more beasts doesn’t exactly solve the issue either as his molestation-themed animal humor creates awkward moments such as the anguish that Misha has in seeing Wolfgang suffer panic attacks as a survivor of multiple assaults or an ending that gives Genzou another opportunity to violate the wolfman. The show never shows tact revolving when to pull back its punches, which has been a larger problem with how it treats Camilla by reveling so much in making her a punching bag that it starts to lose its humor when it takes any inch it can grab to humiliate her.

But with Wolfgang, he exists solely to feed into Genzou’s lust for animals, providing us a glimpse into the anime’s mean-spirited humor that not only gives us a victim to laugh at but also continues to victimize him for our entertainment. Aside from his attempt to kidnap Hiroyuki, any scene we see of Wolfgang exists to mock his victimhood as he keeps reliving the continuous times he’s been violated or assaulted by Genzou.

But because this episode focuses on a large tournament where the supporting cast is able to compete with one another, it gives them both an opportunity to shine on their own and give Genzou proper material to work with. In an example of funnier animal-based jokes with Genzou, the beginning has a hilarious scene where the Kobold husband is ready to fight Genzou for seducing his wife when he had directly wanted to confront him about wrestling. Similarly, the Kobold wife is amusing as she swoons over both her husband and Genzou, and continues to feed into the misunderstanding.

Genzou also bounces off the other characters very well within this episode too. His vitriolic relationship with Camilla gave her one moment to finally shine as she dropkicks her tag-team partner Genzou in the face, unconvincingly acting like she didn’t mean to aim for him. He also revealed a small part of his past to Shigure as her hustle and his efforts to organize the event reminded him of his older days as a grunt, wearing him down in such a way that he hasn’t experienced in years.

It was disappointing to see that the hooded man was Wolfgang and not MAO, but the ending does give us some hope that we’ll get to see more of MAO’s development now that he’s aware of what Genzou has been up to. The lackluster set-up towards the Princess and her kingdom’s involvement with Genzou’s development as “the Hero” looks like it might end up paying off soon as well given that she was made aware of the tournament that Genzou had organized. Whether these end up converging at some point is to be left to the cards, but for now, we will just have to wait and see what the anime has in store for its future episodes.

「ゆりかごの外」 (Yuri kago no soto)
“Out of The Cradle”

Perhaps the much anticipated fight between Thorkell and Thorfinn could have been better. To me, it was serviceable at best regarding both the choreography and animations. But I think Studio Wit got it absolutely right, by thoroughly focusing on what I believe to be one of the most important moments in the series – Canute’s turning point and the dawn of his legend. For this particular scene, they made it a truly amazing experience that surpassed the manga in terms of expressing Yukimura’s vision. And that’s no small feat.

The dialogue about the true nature of love is definitely one of the best anime scenes for me in 2019. From the beautiful OST to discourses about the nature of love to Canute’s courage in calming down Bjorn, everything was on the mark. I don’t necessarily agree that familial, platonic and romantic feelings are forms of discrimination that are mutually exclusive from love. At least if we consider the common definition – why can’t we have both at the same time?

But there’s no denying that there is deserved merit to such a unique dialogue, especially in the context of the Greco-Christian agape and its universality. Just as racists can ‘love’ their own race more or a nationalist ‘love’ their own country more, it is irrefutably discrimination on Ragnar’s behalf as a good Christian, allowing innocents to be slaughtered so that Canute can have a better chance of surviving. That’s a take many people wouldn’t usually consider, including Canute, and the discussion serves to bring about phenomenal character development.

In Yukimura’s manga, it should be noted the fight between Thorfinn and Thorkell is completely separate from the philosophical discussion. They’re both addressed within their self contained chapters. However, in a stroke of storyboarding genius, the production team decided to poignantly mesh these two, which results in a superior outcome. When the priest declares to Canute that ‘Death is what completes a man’, we’re immediately shifted back to Thorfinn recollecting the very moment of his father’s death, due to Thorkell asking him a loaded question – what does it mean to be a true warrior?

Of course, Thors told his son that a true warrior needs no sword. And he ultimately died for that ideal, sacrificing himself to save others – becoming viking Jesus in the process. Ragnar lived and died doing everything he could for Canute, who might go on to do great things. For us, in a person’s death, their lives become complete and we can begin to full judge their legacy in retrospect as to what they achieved. But when Canute looks across the battlefield, at all the corpses, he is suddenly struck by how meaningless their deaths were. It strikes him (and by extension us) how there is so much beauty and love in the natural world around him, yet the hearts of men are completely devoid of it. He realises how wrong it feels, and his heart is consequently stirred into action.

It’s worth noting that Canute’s transformation marks a stark contrast from Thorfinn too. Sure, Thorfinn might be the more thuggish and ‘tough’ of the two. In a world of senseless violence and brutality, the vast majority of people would view him as a more reliable ally. However, his existence is extremely pitiful – obsessively following around his father’s murderer while being manipulated to do his bidding for free. Time has essentially stopped for him and he hasn’t developed as a person since the very moment his father died.

On the other hand, because of his father figure’s death and how deeply it impacts him, Canute finally rejects God by asserting agency over his own life and humanity’s right to self-determination. While he did require Ragnar’s death as a catalyst, the conclusions he arrives at are completely his own and transform him from an unworthy heir to a prince of kingly disposition. With assistance from Willibald and drawing from his own opinion, he arrives to a Hegelian compromise on the essence of love and death that marks the ultimate culmination his personal philosophy – there is no meaning to these fights and pointless deaths so he will take charge ascribing meaning to these conflicts, for the greater good of bringing about a paradise on Earth.

Since I studied English Literature during highschool, a particular comment on Reddit stood out to me – which I will borrow for the basis of my interpretations. The depiction of sin and conceptualising a paradise away from God points towards Paradise Lost as a literary inspiration for the series. After being kicked out of Paradise, Adam states ‘I have a paradise in me, happier far’, which some would interpret as being sour grapes. But I believe it’s more indicative of Adam being happier because he can remain with Eve who he loves more than God. In both contexts, it’s intriguing how the situations are framed as man forsaking God of his own volition, as opposed to God forsaking man.

And it significantly contrasts with Thorfinn, who has the hell of revenge raging inside of him. For now, Canute is relying on his self-made paradise from within to perform a miracle in quelling Bjorn’s rage and resolves to confront Thorkell, while Thorfinn is relying on his self-made hell from within to survive against Thorkell. With both seeking to overcome the same adversary, it will be fascinating to see which approach comes out on top, and I will be excited to see how the rest of the season plays out. Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss without spoiling. As always, thanks for reading this post and I will throw it over to Guardian Enzo for his take on the episode!

There’s nothing like an enforced absence to make the heart grow fonder. And while I certainly appreciate Vinland Saga all the time (it’s going to be among the last shows in the hat when I’m thinking about those final posts of the year, that’s for sure) a two-week break is a reminder of just how good this series is. Unfortunately we’ve already had to endure a couple of those with Vinland, but if my math is right we should be looking at a straight run to the finish line from here. At which point, of course, the fervent (and most likely fruitless) pining for a second season will begin.

In so many ways this series is really out there where the buses don’t run, and this week’s episode was a perfect example. While there are definite parallels between this series and Golden Kamuy – among them the contrast of intense violence and darkness with absurdist Pythonian comedy – I can’t help but feel that Vinland Saga asks a lot more of its audience than Golden Kamuy does. Both are smart, insightful series and both can be appreciated strictly as entertainment, but it seems to me that in not picking up the moral and intellectual gauntlet their mangaka throw down you’re leaving a lot more on the table here. If you’re not engaging Yukimura Makoto on that level, you’re not experiencing the story he’s trying to tell.

Actually I think Vinland’s approach here (I assume the manga handled it in the same way) was pretty audacious. As the ultimate fanservice moment was playing out – Thorkell and Thorfinn engaged in their shounen rematch – the real story of the episode was Canute and the priest (whose name is Willbald, which I don’t remember hearing before). Thorfinn is the protagonist here but someone is always coming along to usurp his role as the central character – first Thors, then Askeladd, and now Canute. Both narratives were compelling, but it’s that talk between Willbald and Canute that I’ll remember (and which I think was the real point of this episode).

It would probably be fair to say that neither Thorfinn or Thorkell are exactly philosophers, but to be fair this is about as thoughtful as we’ve seen the giant. He states that his reason for fighting Thorfinn (in addition to entertainment) is that he might find what he himself is missing – but Thorfinn is missing it too. If Thorkell is looking for the meaning of being a true warrior, he’s asking the wrong person – but the person he should have asked is no longer around. Thorfinn remembers, but has lived his life choosing to try and forget.

The really sad part about all this for me is that Thorfinn could gain a great deal by sitting down and talking with Thorkell, and I’d even go so far as to say the converse it true as well. There’s really no point to this fight. What’s it for – Askeladd’s sake? Fuck that. Thorkell’s addiction to violence? Fuck that. But that’s the point of course – that there is no point. The world these men are living in is insane, roiled by unspeakable violence and cruelty, and none of the various quests for meaning – revenge, Valhalla, Avalon, Heaven – seem to make any difference here on Earth.

One could go pretty deep into the reeds breaking down what happened between Canute and Willbald (and Bjorn). After a dream where Ragnar offers his farewells, Canute is left facing the reality of a berserker Bjorn destroying what’s left of Askeladd’s men and the priest with his head in a barrel. Willbald even denies that what Ragnar felt for Canute was love – he watched 62 innocents die for him, after all – and his tells the lad of his view that only in death can mankind espouse God’s love. Not through salvation, but through becoming one with the Earth and ceasing to exist as a consciousness. To exist is to create evil, in effect.

Willbald may seem pretty much around the bend but the irony of this is that the views he expresses to Canute, while undeniably presented in nihilist terms, are actually rather Buddhist. That’s especially true when he describes all human love as “prejudice” – a parent or a lover or a loyal subject, this so-called “love” just makes humans prioritize the object of their prejudice over other, equally deserving humans. This is very far away from a Platonic ideal (which is in many ways the underpinning of all Western views on love) but quite close to the idea that love for other people is one of the temptations that keep humans bound to the physical world and prevent them from reaching enlightenment.

What matters for the narrative, of course, is how Canute reacts. As Thorkell seemingly decides he’s played with Thorfinn long enough and decisively halts their duel, Canute reaches a sort of enlightenment. One might call it a humanist one (which places him rather ahead of his time) but he basically rejects the ideal of striving for an impossible redemption and embraces the notion of fighting the unfairness of God’s creation and trying to make mortal existence as bearable as possible. In doing so he also embraces his role as a ruler – which will certainly place his prejudices at odds with the ambitions of his father, among others. It also seemingly places Canute at the heart of the narrative, at least for now – another phase in a very big story which sees the nominal hero’s journey relegated to a supporting role.

「騎士たちの戦い」 (Kishitachi no Tatakai)
“Battle of Knights”

Who would have guessed fluctlights can mess with other fluctlights?

General Impression

Ever since that one general who turned into the avatar appeared, it feels like the story has been hamfisting anything related to fluctlights and the power they can exert within the Underworld. Yes, I do remember that one’s ability to imagine and believe in them self can drastically affect their power output, but the recent examples we’ve seen seem kind of bonkers. Using the leader of the giants as an example, I thought his fluctlight was going to breakdown and just self destruct based on how much mental stress it was going through. But instead of the plot following the already established rule, we instead saw the fluctlight forcibly not implode on itself but it went and messed with a fluctlight that wasn’t even near it! Maybe I missed something, but everything that went down this week just felt a little too crazy even for me.

Awkward breaks in the plot aside, I have to hand it to the show runners for making such a thrilling episode. Most of the larger fights in Alicization haven’t really felt all that great which is why I was really happy to see that the final load test has been amped up significantly. Maybe it’s because there are characters dying left and right, or maybe it’s because we’re seeing characters get brutally wrecked, but the action thus far has been absolutely fantastic. My personal favorite being the moment when Dakira leapt straight into the face of danger and protected Dakira from getting completely obliterated. Not only was the scene beautifully animated, but seeing how much damage Dakira took in order to stop the attack was insane.

Man what a start to the war! With all hands on deck it looks like the Integrity Knights and their forces are doing a decent job at preventing the enemy from making it past the crucial choke point. However, it remains to be seen just what the rest of their forces are planning since there’s thousands of enemy troops just waiting for their opportunity to leap into battle. If I’m being frank though, I’m kind of sad that neither Kirito nor Asuna have had an opportunity to leap into the fray. I can get that their presence is probably being saved for later when things are looking bleak, but it’s rough not seeing any mainstay characters (minus Alice) do anything.

In any case, I’ll catch you guys next week where we’ll hopefully find out just what the heck Alice is doing with that giant ball above her. See you then!

Editor’s note: Takaii will be out of town from 11/24-12/2, so coverage of episodes 07 & 08 will be delayed until he returns.

Preview

「動力の時代」 (Douryoku no Jidai)
“Era of Energy”

The one thing that probably keeps me coming back week after week is just how good all the characters are.

General Impressions

Between talking about the current situation the Kingdom of Science is facing and Senku as a human being, I want to talk about the latter first. If you haven’t already noticed, Senku isn’t someone who’s simply focused on results. Sure he may be constantly working toward a goal, but there’s never been a moment where he’d be willing to sacrifice those around him to attain what he needs. There was a glimpse of this when the show deliberately pointed out how Senku left some beloved cola for Gen, but I think this week’s example of the cotton candy he left for Homura really helped settle that point. As Ruri said, there’s no doubt that Senku could attribute what he did to some sort of ulterior motive, but it’s clear as day that he simply wanted to share the happiness of enjoying something from the past. If I were to guess, I’d wager that Senku doesn’t want to kill anyone in this new world — even Tsukasa. That said, it remains to be seen whether or not Senku will be able to overcome the current crisis looming over him, but I doubt his first instinct would be to try and kill anyone.

Looping back to the current predicament that Senku has on his hands, who would have thought that he’d be able to create the (current) world’s first radio tower? Thinking about it from a strategic perspective, it makes perfect sense that one of the easiest ways to defeat another army is to outmaneuver them. And what better way is there to outmaneuver something than with stronger, more efficient communication? God, in hindsight it seems like such a simple idea when you consider the situation. When you lack firepower and manpower, it takes something creative to overcome the odds and in this case the power of communication is just the thing that can exponentially power up the Kingdom of Science. All that said, if I’m being honest, I’m probably most excited for the moment when Chrome and the rest finally experiencing hearing someone else’s voice from afar.

What a brilliant episode! With a mix of emotional moments and fun science experiments, what more could you really have asked for? Toss in fun humor and you had an episode that could entertain just about anyone. In any case, I’ll see you guys next week where we’ll hopefully see some kind of long-rage communication device in action. See you then!

Editor’s note: Takaii will be out of town from 11/24-12/2, so coverage of episodes 21 & 22 will be delayed until he returns.

Preview

「ROUND 19」

I’ve noted in the past that as much as I love Hi Score Girl, I would probably feel even more connected with it if I’d been a more serious gamer when these events were taking place. I was a dilettante at best, but even I can see the symmetry in the game this episode was built around. And that’s exactly why Oono-san chose it. Not only was the Final Fight series the one that she and Haruo first played together, it pretty much sums up what’s about to happen in the story.

If last week’s episode was all about Koharu, this one was all Akira – and HSG tends to flow that way so it isn’t surprising. There’s only one word that springs to mind for that trip home on the Den-en-toshi Line, and that’s “awkward“. How could it be otherwise, with that scene that played out in front of the family restaurant? But in the moment Oono-san seems oddly conciliatory. She never says much (okay, that’s an understatement) but the tradeoff is that her face betrays everything she’s feeling. Here’s it’s clear even before she makes a peace offering of suckers to Haruo and Koharu that her mood is contemplative, not vengeful.

The same can’t be said of Makoto-san and of Haruo’s mom. Though, truth be told, he seems to be right that this is more about busting his chops for fun than any real outrage over his “playboy and delinquent” ways. The irony of course is that if there’s any 16 year-old male to whom those labels don’t apply, it’s Haruo – and deep down they both know this. But they are right about one thing – his lack of clarity is causing a lot of heartache for both the girls that love him. It’s not his fault, because one thing that’s totally clear is that Haruo is in way over his head – he’s just too innocent to have any skill at these sorts of games. But he does know what he wants – he just doesn’t know how to process it.

Eventually Akira does what she has to do and takes matters into her own hands. She takes advantage of a day off for Moemi-sensei and has Haruo kidnapped – a manifestation of her dark sense of humor, Jiiya says. As Makoto discreetly steps out of the picture and spends a (very strange) night at the Yaguchi house, Akira and Haruo spend the night on a historical retrospective of the Final Fight series – starting with the newest and ending on the original. Akira freaks when Haruo tries to play as the blonde girl, and chooses all the girl characters herself (a first for Haruo to see) but apart from that nothing happens. Separate beds, separate bedrooms.

If you sensed disappointment from Makoto and Namie-san at that, you aren’t alone – I did too. But that wasn’t really the point. After Shibuya Akira felt the need to even the score (which is actually 2-2 now, if you consider the class trip missed train and love hotel incidents), and she’s done it. But fighting games don’t end in ties, Final Fight or any others. And that means there’s one more round to come, which lends a rather momentous air to Oono inviting Hidaka out and taking her to the arcade.

It’s always fascinating to watch this polar-opposite pair interact alone together. Anyone alone with Akira is odd because of her perpetual silence, but somehow with Haruo they always seem to be having a conversation even though he’s the only one talking. With Koharu it’s stark tension – Oono is always thinking and Hidaka’s always thinking out loud. The silence unnerves Koharu even as Haruo is comfortable with it, and in a funny sort of way that suggests that he’s more compatible with the one than he is with the other. Or perhaps it’s just that anyone being compatible with Akira is so unlikely that Haruo being so makes their relationship seem like kismet…

「陽動作戦」 (Youdou Sakusen)
“Diversionary Operation”

I sort of kind of wanted to talk about Merlin this week because we sort of kind of had a Merlin episode. By which I mean, he actually does something that looked useful (while stealing Sword of Promised Victory, the Fate/ Excalibur theme, as a musical motif even though that’s not the sword he’s associated with). Plus, he got to monologue about himself for a while and I’m not sure if he will be given the opportunity again. But I think there’s probably a better time for that discussion a bit later in the story so let’s shelve it for another day. Instead, let’s talk about yet another adaptation quirk, which is specifically about Ana.

So the F/GO smartphone game is one of those character collector types, and those employ many different ways to induce you to gamble your hard-earned money for a collection of pretty pixels and audio clips. F/GO‘s main method is relatively (relatively) benign; it makes the character collector actually about collecting characters. The chief of attraction of F/GO over its rivals is its visual novel-esque story, in which characters play memorable roles which will make you want you to adopt them. Like how one might adopt a shelter dog; you look into that old mutt’s eyes and you can tell it has seen things. it at least deserves a comfortable retirement.

It conforms to good marketing sense to sell these characters at the same time a new story chapter is released. But here is where gameplay and narrative come to blows; what if the very identity of the character spoils the story? On the one hand you can’t really market this character without telling players who they are but who they are is important to hide in the context of the story. Plus, they’re game pieces so you can’t hide everything about them anyway since players need to use them. This was the case for Ana. In later story chapters F/GO would invent a way to give all the new characters pseudonyms until you’ve finished their associated story chapter but we didn’t have that for Babylonia. For Ana, it was, ‘Spoil away! The gacha must flow!’.

I didn’t think much of it at the time since I had already resigned myself to spoilers, but in hindsight a lot of Babylonia is, thematically, about identities. Ana isn’t really ‘Ana’, Fake!Enkidu isn’t really Enkidu, the Magical Mystery Mascot isn’t just fluff, Merlin can only maintain his personality by juicing and Show Spoiler ▼

I’d love to find out how this affects one’s experience of the story I don’t really know how to measure it. If you have an anecdote I’ll like to hear it, though.

Speaking of identities, the Big Bad is revealed to be Solomon with no fanfare whatsoever (to be fair, I guess the fanfare would have been three story chapters ago and if weren’t there for that TOO BAD). Our protagonist are apparently not ready to face him yet though but fortunately the last boss is content letting our party grind levels before they tackle the final dungeon. Until then, have an actual Final Fantasy boss. Woo.

「ガッツだレッツラレッドライオット」 (Gattsuda Rettsura Reddo Raiotto)

“Let’s Go, Gutsy Red Riot”

The ultimate tank.

This episode, like so many in HeroAca, is two sides of the same coin with what the villains are doing and what the heroes are doing representing two facets of the same crisis. For the villains, we learn about their goals, and more specifically, their methods: not just power up quirks, a previously known (in universe … this is news to us) drug, but the new sauce in one that can nullify quirks. Given how much heroes depend on their quirks—no surprise there—this is a powerful tool. And a joint partnership … really, that’s the only way for these two organizations to move forward. Which is unfortunate for the citizens in HeroAca’s Japan, who would have been much happier if these villains didn’t join forces. Alas, Shigaraki is too smart for that, and he’s even getting too … mature, really. In a villain kind of way.

As for our friend Red Riot, what an awesome hero debut! I really liked how he leaned into being the ultimate tank, an unbreakable wall who poured everything into his strengths. He could have tried to develop more tricks, or he could try to develop some kind of mid-range ability technology, but instead he put it all into his strengths. Get tough, get SUPER TOUGH. It works, and will work especially well when working with other heroes, where he can be the specialist that facilitates their strengths. Plus it was just a reall cool fight!

As for that fleeting glimpse of someone in Kirishima’s past that looks awfully like Mina… Well. Let’s just say that’s intriguing. I look forward to learning more as the season continues.

My novels are available now (Wage Slave Rebellion, Freelance Heroics). Sign up for my email list for updates, or follow me at stephenwgee.com for miscellaneous blogging.

Preview

「灰色の魔女」 (Haiiro no Majo)
“The Gray Witch”

Well cannot deny Assassins Pride knows how to troll as well as split opinions. Featuring a filler episode while slashing and burning source material is not really the most advisable of strategies, yet here we are with the show’s version of girls gone wild and some choice scenery. A peeve worthy decision? Definitely. A wholly bad decision? I think the jury is out on that one.

The key for any successful filler episode is to combine both humour and development to patch over the lack of immediate story advancement. The episode may exist only to extend a series past its intended end point, but there’s no reason it cannot be fun, entertaining, and enlightening at the same time. In this regard Assassins Pride this week arguably hit as well as it missed. Sure, the setup was simple at best (I don’t imagine many were left wondering who the Grey Witch was upon first appearance) and we never really learned more about our main cast, but things were made up (somewhat) by the choice of humour. Never imagined for example that the show would actually poke fun at the obvious and undeniably intentional washboards gracing damn near every girl, or actually take Elise’s little sister status all the way and have her clock out in the best manner possible. Hell, we even got some tasteful fan service to broaden the flat selection! Nothing new or important really came out of these scenes, but at least it shows Assassins Pride has the willingness and ability to lighten things up when it so decides. Now the show just owes me an answer for why that underground waterway network is so damn clean.

Of course for all the lighthearted fun and games this week, the challenge for Assassins Pride will be leveraging the levity here into movement on its main story. For better or worse only six episodes remain, and so far at least nothing of critical importance outside of Melida’s awakening has really transpired. It’s easy to think we’ll start seeing fireworks now that the magical cat is out the bag, but until we see the results I’m inclined to play it safe. Adaptation choices are permanent after all, and the choice this week only reinforces the point.

Just have to hope the positive mood from these festivities carries over into this season’s second half.

Preview

「忍はシノビの勘がはたらくようです！」 (Nin wa shinobi no kan ga hataraku youdesu!)
“It Seems Shinobu Has a Shinobi’s Intuition!”

The ubiquitous adage of the ages is that if you’re in a hole you should stop digging, yet Choyoyu is apparently throwing caution to the wind when it comes to that idea. After going all out in terms of crazy premise and crazier execution (mayonnaise and million dollar smile say hello), now we’re going for broke in the realm of enemies and their reasons for being, well, enemies. I’d like to think we’ve seen the full breadth of Choyoyu’s imagination, but deep down I know the shenanigans are only just getting started.

Considering how early on we got the attempted rape and assorted fan service scenes it was always a question just what Choyoyu would bring to the table next, but colour me surprised when the next great leap is towards underage drinking and kisses of sobriety. Well, and forced cannibalism too, but hey, this is Japan we’re talking about. While easy to laugh this entire situation off as just another heavy handed and ridiculous way to show how utterly evil our opponents here are, the ironic thing is there’s a kernel of truth to Choyoyu’s recent display. Many landed lords (especially pre-Enlightenment) held some, shall we say, unique concepts of right and proper, and depending on how ingratiated they were with their rulership, the results could be disastrous for the local inhabitants. Not to the same degree as our Duke of course, but enough to really make one happy knowing the likes of John Locke succeeded in their philosophical argument. Choyoyu may be running the idea a little too hard to make it anything more than glorified background noise (after all, it’s up against bloody Patriot missile systems), but at least the show knows how to keep its antagonists undeniably evil.

As for those antagonists, well, no denying that crazy knows no bounds in this series. Duke Fastidious (great name by the way) has done everything up to physical penance for failure to revere his emperor enough—and considering the results of wintertime layover and VA Nakata Jouji waiting for the chance to go wild, I imagine that action is not far off either. Choyoyu may not be winning isekai awards anytime soon, but the sheer audacity to take absurdity and crazy of the highest forms (literally) and throw it at the canvas never fails to leave a smile on face. Plus the fact we’ve got a new girl waiting for further introduction and some needed explanation on the seven heroes front leaves plenty of room to start fleshing out this simplistic story. Well, as much as possible.

Choyoyu may ultimately wind up cutting off just as the going gets good, but it sure isn’t intending on leaving any tricks up its sleeve.

Full-length images: 19.

「俺は意外な一面を知る」 (Ore wa igaina ichi men o shiru)
“I Discover an Unexpected Side”

If my stalker turned out to be a good friend of my mum’s to the point where she’s getting invited around to bust my porn magazine stash, that’s about the moment I’d request a restraining order. But I think most dudes would put that on hold if it meant being in close proximity with a well-endowed and beautiful girl in her swimsuit.

And so we were blessed with the obligatory swimsuit episode. In other words, not much happened. That said, it remained a refreshing break that whisked us away from the usual drama. It also comprehensively established that relationships have now been properly patched up between each relevant party from the first arc. Also, for all his jerkass shortcomings, I really respected how Joro found forgiveness inside of himself to overcome the suffering each individual put him through – especially that red haired gyaru who really had it against him. More importantly, for the viewers who love fanservice, we got to enjoy the scintillating views that each individual girl brought to the screen – especially Cosmos and Pansy for me. Most shows can be quite upfront and brazen with the fanservice to the point where you become fatigued from being bombarded at every opportunity by oppai and oshiri. Yes, that happens even if you’re a devout lover of oppai. However, Oresuki largely focuses on its RomCom antics then teases us every now and then in high quality chunks. Now that’s a kind of trend that I could get behind within the anime industry. Not too much, not too little – somewhere in between like this.

To raise the stakes beyond gratuitous fanservice, all three girls butt heads and refuse to concede Joro to one another – leading to a situation where they decide to give him the best time they can in all kinds of steamy ways. I can’t say I’m usually a fan of this stuff where girls fawn over the protagonist like that, because I’ve seen it play it too many times. However, as usual, OreSuki finds way to subvert expectations. This time, we have Sun-chan to thank. When the water slide goes wrong, where Joro loses his swimming trunks and definitely would have been punched by Himawari, Sun-chan dives in to shield him. When Cosmos becomes lost in her fantasy world, leaving Joro alone on the pink dolphin, Sun-chan dives in yet again to salvage him from being perceived as a loser who got dumped. When Pansy is about to begin exposing Joro’s fetishes, Sun-chan dives in to protect his friend’s dignity. So it comes as absolutely no surprise that ultimately, Joro chooses Sun-chan over all three – a brilliantly executed subversion of the usual cliche.

At the end of the day, thanks to Sun-chan, nothing eventful happened at the pool. But it wouldn’t be OreSuki without drama and excitement. Just as they get back to school, a new transfer student rolls in. She immediately walks up to Joro and takes a knee, proclaiming that she is the perfect girl who will protect him from everything. Right now, I’m sensing nothing but ‘best girl’ vibes due to her chivalric, Saber-esque nature. However, there must be more to it than meets the eye. What fair share of troubles is this new character going to bring? It’s hard to say but coming forwards with such a strong stance, conflict with the other girls surrounding Joro seems inevitable. Anyway, that’s about everything I wanted to discuss. As always, thanks for reading my post and see you next week!

「Political Strife in the Colosseum」

Honestly I don’t know whether it’s good or bad that I have no idea where Psycho Pass’ latest season is heading. Halfway through (and several fights later) and it’s still unclear just what the specific point of contention is going to be or how Sibyl will be challenged yet again. Not as though the ride isn’t immensely satisfying obviously, but with so much unknown and only so much remaining time hard thinking something won’t give.

Considering how deviously Psycho Pass was playing up the mystery surrounding Karina I was suspecting a twist of some variety, but going full AI doppleganger? Now that’s something I never saw coming. For a series embodying the purest strains of cyberpunk—monolithic, totalitarian-esque control, the minimization of individual human life—it’s a good fit however; similar to Deus Ex’s Eliza Cassan, Ma-Karina is the logical outcome of social science and media influence. If people can be prodded into a certain direction by charismatic individuals through certain words, ques, and visual appearances, why even bother with the flesh and blood middleman and not just go straight for automation? It’s the very thing near-future Manchurian candidate and alien imposter nightmares are made of, and given the electorate choice here it’s not hard seeing why. When all it takes are a few pleasant words and a pretty face to gloss over the awkward truth, you can get a good idea for how critically minded human societies can be in practice.

Of course Karina and her AI “assistant” are only the tip of the iceberg as our veiled trio in Bifrost increase in prominence. Thanks to some name dropping we know they’re tightly linked with Akane’s incarceration for example, and that it involved the death of another currently unknown Inspector. Even now it’s unclear just what Bifrost’s objective is, but their deliberate public reveal of Ma-Karina and desire to notify Sibyl of its existence certainly raises some interesting thoughts. Will Sibyl tolerate the existence of an artificial mind capable of doing what it does? Can Sibyl simply let Karina be after that reveal? It’s a tough call, because rejecting Karina’s election would imply Sibyl’s fallibility—i.e. can make uniformed or incorrect decisions—while accepting it shows tacit approval for competing systems. In either case it opens the door for someone to offer a different system, one which may (or may not) improve upon Sibyl’s demonstrated weaknesses. This probably isn’t what Bifrost is exactly after mind you (total control doesn’t seem to be their main interest given shady gambling and choice of meeting location), but considering their movement in this direction and Akane’s involvement, you can bet the truth is not that far out of sight.

We’ll just have to see what our inspector duo and their newfound evidence wind up revealing.

「にしきなりけり」 (Nishiki narikeri)
“Tatsuta River Ablaze”

On the inside, I’m rooting for Taichi to win but even deeper than that, probably somewhere deep in my bloodstream, I want Chihaya to win. But then, even deeper than that, somewhere within the molecules that make up my body, I want Taichi to win because he’s worked so hard for this. And then, if you get into my protons and electrons, I want Chihaya to win. I can keep going but I have no measurements for what’s after that. Quarks?

Sorry for getting so technical but I needed to emphasize the whirlwind of confusion that swept over me as I watched Chihaya and Taichi go up against each other.

It’s clear that Taichi is using every strategy he knows to have the advantage over her, including a tactic that throws her off her game but also makes it harder for him.

I can’t wrap my head around what’s happening. Clearly, Taichi is leaving an impression on everyone in the crowd. He’s proven himself to be a very skilled karuta player with his own methods and techniques developed outside of what he was taught. He learned what worked for him and even learned how to use Chihaya’s weaknesses against her.

However, I feel like all his efforts were in vain (in regards to Chihaya). When he declared he would win against her in an official tournament, that almost seemed to me like he was professing his love for her: “I’ll show you what I’m made of and then I’ll have the courage to express my feelings to you.” But his efforts and skills are compared to a stranger’s. He puts her on edge so much she forgets who she’s facing. Isn’t that strange?

She then dismisses his efforts by reminding herself that he’s ‘just Taichi’ and that she has ‘no reason to be afraid of him.’ I understand that it was her way to calm her nerves, but it also seemed dismissive of his ability, something he’s worked so hard for.

She’s more saddened by the fact that Arata wouldn’t stay to watch them than she is impressed by Taichi’s ability to completely throw her off her game. This is all conjecture because when the results come out next week, maybe it’ll be a little less ambiguous.

On the other hand, Taichi does leave someone else with a strong impression: Arata. Perhaps his promise to win against Chihaya was a promise to himself to show Arata, whether he was there or not, that he was worthy of Chihaya just as much as he is. It seemed to work because Arata just admitted to being envious of the pair. He’d rather be playing against Chihaya.

There’s a lot of tension going on, many unrequited loves, a lot of emotions flying left and right and smacking me right dab in the center of my fragile little heart and it’s all too much.

I actually had to put off watching this episode because I knew how much it would affect me. But here I am laying down all the confusion… but you know what? After writing all this, I want Taichi to win. I cross my quarks and hope to die. Taichi should win.

Prove not only to Chihaya or to Arata that you’re good enough, Taichi. Prove it to yourself. Prove it to Japan. Prove it to the world.

「初弟子xめんどくさい人」 (Hatsu Deshi x Medokusai Hito)
“First Student x Pain in the Butt”

This episode of Kemono Michi takes a retrospective look into Genzou’s legacy as he uses his expertise in wrestling and his love for animals to help train a half-lizardman girl named Celes. But as Celes starts to become a formidable fighter of her own, Genzou is roped back into professional wrestling as his passion for showmanship and athleticism reel him into a new opportunity to take part in a public wrestling match.

Celes made the episode all the more worthwhile because of how her normalcy is juxtaposed with the reckless behavior that Genzou’s party embraces. While they teach her to improve her fighting abilities, they also end up overwhelming her with their own baggage that would make their efforts to teach her how to competently fight to be a fool’s errand for them to take on.

Despite Genzou’s prowess for wrestling, he lacks the patience or self-awareness to be able to do much beyond engraining his moves within her skill set and getting revenge on her adversaries. Hanako uses Celes’ training regimen as a way to chomp down on any (read: all) of the scary bugs she attempts to feed her. The worst advice and the one indicative of Celes’ quick absorption of any lessons handed her way, is when Camilla ends up convincing her that she needs to have a sexy pose to do in the middle of a fight. This results in a misguided attempt to implement the skill in the middle of a fight, giving her opponent the right leeway to swipe her weapons away.

But it is still hilarious to see how much Shigure has to carry the team, and Celes in particular as she offers to be the only normal person who is competent enough to be a decent teacher. Similarly, Genzou’s vengeful tantrums turn out to be far more humorous in this episode when he decides to fight the entire hero’s guild after finding out they were harassing Celes. An even if the Camilla-bulling had been mean-spirited in the last episode, it was funny to see her on equal terms with Genzou while the two were at each other’s throats throughout the episode.

Above all else, it’s interesting to see how Genzou reflects on his wrestling career. Past episodes have had him getting nostalgic feelings from fighting other people with his wrestling techniques, especially during his last fight with Wolfgang. However, this episode has him confronting these feelings far more intimately as the decision to take part in the public wrestling match gave him exhilaration the moment it gave him flashbacks of being in the ring and fighting for all of the animals in the world. And with other guild members mentioning their run-in with a mysterious demon who is definitely supposed to be MAO, it gives us a more concrete means of setting up a confrontation between Genzou and MAO now that they’re both in another world.