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GAINAX’s unusual joint anime project with Subaru makes its debut on YouTube, and the only real connection to the Japanese car manufacturer is the Pleiades star cluster that its name and logo are based upon. (Subaru is the Pleiades’ name in Japanese.) Much like the later promo videos suggested, this is actually a magical girl anime at heart, in the more traditional sense than SHAFT’s offering this season.
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「鋼の咆哮」 (Hagane no Houkou)
“Howl of Steel”
It’s been some time since Operation Plantagenet was mentioned, going all the way back to episode eleven, but the joint operation between the Earth Federation Army and Neo DC to retake North America from the Inspectors finally got underway.
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「バニシングエージ」 (Banishingu Eeji)
“Vanishing Age”
Ask and you shall receive, as included this week was a new maiden song by Keito, “Aki-iro no Aria”, to kick off the next arc. With Koshimizu Ami singing, it’ll probably only take another episode for the song to establish itself as the new Zero Time theme too.
As far as I’m concerned, Jiggy is already a Head Bee. He just likes his job at Yuusari Central.
「嘘と真実」 (Uso to Shinjitsu)
“Lies and Truths”
Gauche or Noir? The conclusion of the last episode left me fairly convinced Noir was pretending to be Gauche, but I’m not so sure anymore when he saved Lag without anybody realizing. There were a lot of indications that he put up an act to fool Garrid and Valentine so that he can return to Reverse and allow Lag to escape, such as his insistence not to use a shindanjuu that may have revealed his true intentions.
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「Tempest Turn」
I was anticipating some content to be skipped if this adaptation was going to make any headway with twelve episodes, but I wasn’t expecting five chapters to be sped through in a mere twenty minutes. It was a furious and pace and came at the cost of a lengthy flashback, which is unfortunate because it showed a lot more depth to Ingrid’s character.
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「刻限のロザリオ」 (Kokugen no Rozario)
“Rosary of Appointed Time”
For an episode that went the distance by cutting out both the opening and ending sequences, the conclusion to this arc came off like a season finale of sorts, except when it came to the actual content. Much like this series is known for, the big threat was explained yet never got remotely off the ground, as Touma settled everything with his right hand like he always does.
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「決戦！クラス対抗戦（リーグマッチ）」 (Kessen! Kurasu Taikousen (Riigu Macchi))
“Decisive Battle! The Inter-Class (League) Match”
For a decisive battle, Ichika’s scrimmage with Rin was somewhat unsatisfying since their wager was quickly brushed aside by the latter in the end. However, their short-lived match came with a bit of a twist, in the form of an unknown and unmanned IS that doesn’t use one of the 467 cores out there.
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「グラニッツの村」 (Guranittsu no Mura)
“Granites Village”
Adventure with bloodshed? Now there’s something I wasn’t expecting, as supposed terrorists used machine guns to mow down old priestesses during the Star Festival. As it happened, I wasn’t sure what was more surprising, the fact that the supporters of the Fractale System were made out to be the “bad guys” or the casualties piling up on both sides.
Last year, some of you may recall that I posted live performances by May’n and Nakagawa Shoko from NHK’s Music Japan program. Those were actually a part of the third “New Century Anime Song Special”, and just over a week ago on January 16th, the fourth half-hour special was aired. The filming of the live event at NHK Hall actually took place back on November 22nd and featured more songs than were televised; however, of the ones shown, there was a special collaboration between Mizuki Nana and May’n that I caught wind of just a couple of weeks ago. All it took was mention of a rare duet of Macross Frontier’s “Diamond Crevasse” ending theme to get me eagerly anticipating this special, which also featured a bunch of good anime songs from both past and present. This includes the last live performance by Angel Beats’ Girls Dead Monster, where both marina (Iwasawa) and LiSA (Yui) took to the stage together. If you’re like me and enjoy seeing anime songs that you’ve heard from your favorite series performed live, then be sure to check out the videos after the break.
