I’m kind of wondering to myself if this is the new normal for me—will I never feel as to blog and writer as I did before the real world came? I’m hoping it’s just the transition affecting me more than I realize, but it’s a bit upsetting how much of a non-positive effect I feel the move to the real world has had on my blogging. I’m gonna keep at it, though! There are shows that must be championed, even this late in the season!
Ore Monogatari!!, Episode 9: Nothing like complaining and then second-guessing your own complaints for 1000 words!
Sound! Euphonium 9: Well, as expected, this episode wasn’t really anything like last week’s episode. But different doesn’t always mean worse. This week’s Eupho had its own share of moments, although they were certainly quieter than the brash decadence of episode 8. Natsuki and Hazuku not making it through auditions was especially rough, but the generally tense atmosphere of the entire runtime was impressive. Add to this the pressure points of the existing character drama and you’ve got one heck of an episode—everything seems wound up again after the release of the hilltop song and I wouldn’t be surprised to see another solid portion of drama coming our way before all is said and done.
Danmachi, Episode 10: I continue to be impressed by Danmachi‘s ability to turn in episodes that capitalize on everything I love about the show. This week’s combination of camaraderie, uncertain adventuring, and more of that sweet familial touch via Hestia imparted was delightful, and the fact that J.C. Staff is still actually animating fights after episode 8’s blockbuster battle against the minotaur is hugely gratifying. As far as the actual story goes, the biggest thing that caught my attention was how Bell went absolutely berserk on the minotaurs that corner him, Lili, and Welf towards the end of the episode. Easily lost in the wow factor of Bell’s hero skill activating is that, even after having defeated what was the symbol of his humiliation in front of Aiz, Bell continues to be triggered by the sight of these particular monsters—my interpretation is that they have come to represent exactly everything he fears being, and so his only reaction is to strike and fight back against the physical manifestation of his own insecurities. But I think Danmachi seems to be angling towards pointing out that he can’t do it alone, although how Hestia’s rescue pans out will be integral in how that particular theme is articulated.
Nisekoi, Episode 9: Just please bring back the Chitoge episodes; the show is dull without her. Or, actually, maybe don’t. I’m loathe to see SHAFT’s obvious production struggles mar her pretty face…
Blood Blockade Battlefront, Episode 10: This might be the last new episode of BBB I watch for a month, as I’m considering waiting until the finale airs to watch episodes 11 and 12. This episode, though, was an absolute riot—a welcome throwback to the zany, unkempt energy of the early episodes that so endeared the show to me.
Yamada-kun, Episode 9: A nice recovery episode for Yamada-kun, which for all my craze definitely had a sort of stumble last week. The inclusion of humor in the episodes really seems to be an important element that holds Yamada-kun‘s charms solidly in place. When the show strays too far into drama-only territory, it starts to lack energy. On the other hand, it seems nothing can slow down the power of the Yamada x Urara ship, which continues to be hugely impressive in its communicativeness, trust, and (obviously) adorableness. Although I doubt we’ll get the pleasure of actually seeing them get together in the anime, Yamada actually giving us a straightforward confession (even if it was to Miyamura) puts Yamada-kun‘s relationship status far beyond what most anime do ever. How do we start a campaign for more women mangaka to write shounen manga? More of this and we might actually see high schoolers thinking that healthy relationships should be the norm!
Kinmoza, Episode 10: Easily one of my favorite anime beach episodes ever; although, considering how banal and crass most are, that’s not a huge compliment. I don’t mean to damn with faint praise, though—this was a delightful episode from almost all of the characters, which was nice. Karen’s definitely capable of carrying an entire episode by herself, but I like when she doesn’t have to.
Backlog Coverage:
Rose of Versailles, Episodes 17-40 [END]: Yeah, I know. It was a lot of anime over the weekend. A lot of you said you were interested in reading about what I was doing with my backlog, so here it is! I finished Rose of Versailles over the weekend to review it for the Otaku Review. It’s an amazing show; well-deserving of it’s classic status. It also features the most doomed ship I have ever had the misfortune to board. It was agonizing in the best way possible. I’ve already got a few solid paragraph down for a longer reflection on the show. Look for it sometime later this week!
Work affecting your blogging? Maybe these new changes in your environment can transform the blog into something greater. Stay positive!!
Falling more and more behind. But I think the anime I will start to watch to pick up the pace again will be DanMachi, seeing how much praise you give it.
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Haha thanks for the support! Maybe I will suddenly get old and wise thanks to living in the adult world!
And Danmachi is definitely one of my top favorites of the season. It just does its thing so well!
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Not of my business but maybe on your days off you could blog! BTW you are not alone a lot of other blogs are lagging too!
That being said I go under the knife next week pain or not I will watch anime ( Out Patient) If the painkillers dont work there’s always JD ! I will just post my Sweet 16 and some other notes for ya ! Like some of my Dubs / Manga’s and a couple of summer shows !
EPISODE(S) of the WEEK
Baby Steps 2 The Rematch of Araya and and Mauro was intense!
The Heroic Legend of Arslan / Old allies and free slaves didnt go well!
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu / The Class E talents / Karma and Nagidsa were very unique
The Eden of Grisaia This was just good all the action and plans
Koukaku Kidoutai Arise: Alternative Architecture The New EP 9 was just so good!
TIER 1 Top Favorites
3 WAY Tie for First 2 WKS in a row
1 Baby Steps 2 Reading Manga
1 Arslan Senki / The Heroic Legend of Arslan ENG DUB
1 Ansatsu Kyoushitsu (TV) Funimation ALSO ENG DUB Reading Manga
Last episodes will have to settle 4-16!
4 Sidonia no Kishi: Daikyuu Wakusei Seneki Reading Manga
5 Re-Kan!
6 Hello!! Kiniro Mosaic / Kiniro Mosaic Season 2
7 Nisekoi 2 Reading Manga
8 Shokugeki no Souma / Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma Reading Manga
9 Hibike! Euphonium / Sound! Euphonium
10 WORLD TRIGGER
11 Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon?
12 Show By Rock!! FUNIMATION ALSO ENG DUB
13 Ore Monogatari!! / My Love Story CR
14 The Labyrinth of Grisaia CR / The Eden of Grisaia
15 Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo / Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches
16 Triage X
Summer Picks ??
ONGOING
Arslan Senki Funimation
Baby Steps
Ore Monogatari!!
Shokugeki no Souma / Food Wars
World Trigger ?
ONGOING 2015 English DUBS
Assassination Classroom Wed /
Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign Wed
Blood Blockade Battlefront Wed / Funimation
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan Fri
Ultimate Otaku Teacher Sat / Funimation
The Heroic Legend of Arslan Sun
Show by Rock!! Sun /
Mikagura School Suite Tue /
New Shows / Cours Excited about ( Just a few )
Durarara!!×2 Ten
Gakkou Gurashi! / Reading Manga
Gatchaman Crowds insight
Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri / Reading Manga
Non Non Biyori Repeat
Senki Zesshou Symphogear 3 / GX
MANGA LIST
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu / 141 looks like it’s getting near the end ! Along way for the anime! BTW people wiil be surprised!
Nisekoi / 172 Who knows when this will finish but continues to be interesting !
Other Manga / Anime Read list
Baby Steps / Current CHP 245
Coppellion / Kept reading the manga ( Its actually very good ) Current 224 BTW The Final Arc is starting!
Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma / Current
Knights of Sidonia / Current CHP 74
Yona of the Dawn / Current CHP 90
Manga / Upcoming Anime
Baukon!! / Current CHP 16 ( About HS Girl Motortcle Club )
Gakkou Gurashi! / CHP 6 ( World Disater and A Girls Club that lives at school )
Gate – Jietai Kare no Chi nite, Kaku Tatakeri / CHP 41 like Outbreak Company / Arslan
Taboo Tattoo / CHP 12 A martial arts trained middle schooler gets A Tatto ( with Powers ) from an old man he protects. All kinds of factions want get the tatoo but teams up with an American Duo!
Other Manga / No Anime
Shiori Experience – Jimi na Watashi to Hen na Oji-san / Current CHP 5 Very cool The Ghost of Jimi Hendrix befriends a 27 year old female teacher because she the same White Strastocaster that he had ! But there’s a catch ! Very cool , fun . and a nice homage! Think of Mongolian Chop Squad ( Beck ) competing with a snobby band music teacher ( like Sound Sound! Euphonium )
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Woo, I’m excited for when I get to come back to Assassination Classroom! I’m very glad I didn’t drop it!
As for blogging, I don’t think I want to confine it just to my days off! I like it too much! I just wish I had more time to do it!
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No weekly wall o’ this week… Other than Euph ep9 I haven’t watched anything as getting ready for, being at, and recovering from June Faire (http://www.junefaire.com/) has eaten all our time and energy.
Anyhow, on the topic of Euph ep 9, it was indeed a pretty well done ep. Especially learning about Asuka – her people skills aren’t actually all that great (and are probably why she isn’t president.) The audition and announcement sequences were very well handled, and IMO stand out even in a show filled to the brim with standout moments.
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Top 5 of Week 10
1. Euphonium ep 10
2. Danmachi ep 10
3. Food Wars ep 10
4. Ore Monogatari ep 9
5. Yuki Nagato ep 10
Thoughts
Euphonium – Episode 9 was my #1 episode of last week, and I don’t have much to add beyond what you said already. The tension and pressure of auditions and competing with your friends for jobs can bring out both the best and the worst in people, and this episode ran the whole spectrum (black-eyed Asuka was frikkin’ terrifying!). Hazuki especially really grew on me in episodes 8 and 9 – I quite like her now, and she has the right attitude here, even if we all know she isn’t quite as over Shuichi as she claims (her 180 swerve to avoid him at the train station was a nice touch). Episode 10 makes it four weeks in a row that this show’s claimed my top spot, and expertly builds even further on the threads laid down last week. I won’t say anything else until you’ve seen it, though.
Danmachi 10 – The writer and the episode director did a masterful job of slowly and steadily building up the tension here, as Bell’s situation kept getting worse and worse. After every cutaway, we came back to a party more cut up and bruised and exhausted than when we left them. Who knows how many battles they’ve had to fight already just to get to where they are now? Also, props to Hestia for taking decisive action the second she realizes Bell’s in trouble, and not panicking or acting like a helpless moeblob. I knew I had good reasons for liking her.
Food Wars 10 – It occurred to me this week that we haven’t seen a scrap of any actual teaching at this “school” yet. Every class so far has been the “teacher” handing the students an insanely hard cooking challenge and then looking for any excuse to fail them. It makes for some entertaining and tense episodes, and this one was no exception, as Megumi ran afoul of an instructor who deliberately put some bad vegetables in the trays to punish the students who were too slow collecting their ingredients, but I’m not sure how much of a service this school’s doing the culinary world when you might be expelling some genuinely talented young chefs for really stupid/petty reasons.
Yuki Nagato 10 – Just when I’m ready to write off Yuki Nagato as a lost cause, it delivers its best episode of the season, hands down. Which is ironic since its title, “Someday in the Rain,” is a direct callback to probably the dullest non-E8 episode of the original Haruhi. SITR-alpha was an exercise in how to stretch an already wafer-thin filler story to the breaking point. SITR-beta is a tense, claustrophobic drama where the incessant rain is as much an omnipresent character as the main cast, and all the silly romcom hijinks of the last nine weeks are nowhere to be found. Neither are any of the other characters besides Yuki, Kyon, and Asakura, which really keeps it tight and focused. The haunting, gorgeous music blew me away too, especially the string piece at the end of act 1. Bravo, Yuki Nagato, there’s still some hope for you after all.
F/SN: UBW 22 – On the other hand, if there was ever any lingering chance that this series could redeem itself enough to get back on my “buy” list, this episode snuffed that chance once and for all. There was only one scene in this episode that they absolutely had to get right, as it should have been the culmination of 21 episodes worth of buildup for Rin and Shirou’s relationship, and they completely botched it. So welcome to the bottom of my weekly rankings, F/SN. You earned it.
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I’ve always like Hazuki, and felt so bad for her over the last two eps… on the other hand, ep 9 was the first time I really felt anything positive for Midori. I didn’t dislike her mind you, but didn’t find anything in particular to like or make her seem like much more than a third wheel.
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Midori’s definitely gotten the short end of the character development stick relative to the other three main girls. For a (likely) 12 or 13 episode series, though, something has to be sacrificed somewhere, and her story arc so far hasn’t directly impacted Kumiko (as our POV character) nearly as much as Hazuki’s or Reina’s arcs, or even Shuichi’s or Natsuki’s arcs.
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Oh, man, don’t let people hear you say you didn’t like “Someday in the Rain.” That’s a sacred episode for a lot of people (although I personally was baffled by it when I saw it because I was watching in broadcast order).
I have seen Eupho 10 at this point, and wowzers, what an episode! Danmachi is basically just sheer love at this point.
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I don’t dislike Someday in the Rain. In fact, the most fascinating thing about that episode to me is that it shows better than anything else just how indispensable Kyon is to the SOS Brigade. While he’s away, Haruhi has no one to restrain her worst impulses, Yuki has nothing to do but read (since she barely ever says a word to anyone besides Kyon), and Koizumi’s reduced from his usual philosopher and narrative analyst roles to a bland yes-man. That’s all great. I’m just saying that as a piece of entertainment, especially by Haruhi’s usual standards, it was a dull episode. Unless people think an episode mostly built around one gag (Haruhi forcibly stripping Asahina over and over again) and five solid minutes in the middle of nothing but Yuki turning the pages of her book is must-see TV.
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Well, I don’t know if you’ve seen Non Non Biyori, but that’s an argument you could make about it, too. I think “Someday in the Rain” works despite being slow-paced, but then again it’s been a full year since I watched Haruhi at this point.
Freaking Funimation needs to re-release it.
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I’m actually watching Non Non Byori right now… I’m an inconsistent fan for CGD pretty much nothing, but I’m finding it pretty enjoyable. Or it could be I just really need something mindless this week.
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Well, I think Asuka really isn’t president because she thought it would interfere with her own goals. If she’d let them, I’m sure she would have been chosen by the rest of the band.
And yeah, the audition announcement moments were pretty near as devastating as I remember them being from my own experiences. People instantly bursting into tears is definitely not a fictitious construct in this case.
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I don’t think I’ve ever auditioned for something since I tried out to be a Honeycomb Kid back when I was about nine… (And even that was something of a lark.) So, I don’t have an actual point of reference, it just felt right.
Have they ever made Asuka’s goals clear? I can’t remember.
I’ve seen ep10 too, and… next week’s discussion could be interesting.
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Ooh, I’ve written a spoiler-heavy reflection on RoV manga (the version I’m definitely more familiar of, although I did watch the anime with a college roommate back then; there’s no significant differences plot-wise as far as I can recall), so really looking forward to your piece.
” the most doomed ship I have ever had the misfortune to board”
Hoho, right? At a certain point there, I had to wail, “godammit Ikeda, is THAT really necessary!?”
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I’m pretty excited about this RoV piece; looking forward to having the time later in the week to really sit down and polish it up.
And omg the ship was truly painful. Just… :””””(
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Due to a bunch of deadlines and tests I’ve fallen behind on weekly anime, even after catching up I’m still behind on Euphonium and Show by Rock. I’m actually not sure if I’ll continue the latter, and I think I’ll just marathon the former, there’s only a few episodes left before the end anyway.
Anyway, here are the usual wall of text:
Danmachi: The greatest appeal of the show is still Bell and Hestia and their relationship, but Welf is a good addition to the cast. Also, it feels like the last few episodes have been more focused on actual dungeoneering instead of harem antics, which is great to see (we’ll always have harem antics anyway). Apparently LN readers are complaining that a ton of stuff is left out, but while it does feel that the world building is lacking a bit, the stuff they did keep is all pretty entertaining.
Oregairu: Speaking of LN adaptation with a ton of things cut out, this is a great example of how to do it to make things be better. There are some parts that I wish they keep, and the last episode in particular is a bit awkward with how it’s rushed, but overall they’re doing a very very good job with keeping just enough info (you have to really look into details and extrapolate, though) to deliver the message without beating it over and over again (take note, UBW). Seriously, ibless, this is my personal best anime of the season and yo need to marathon this ASAP. It’s worth it.
AssClass: Oh, we got to the Island arc. Even more ridiculous, even more fun.
Kekkai Sensen: Abe Sapien (Zed) is actually a really good addition to the cast, I wish they’d introduce him sooner – he’s especially hilarious with Zapp. I think the problem with the two-parter is how the usual Libra shenanigans kinda conflicts with Black/White story, but the latest episode combines them much better I think. I wonder why they took so much gaps between the last two ep, I think I’d do the same thing you do and wait until it’s all over before marathoning the two episodes.
Arslan: I think Arslan has found its groove and I can appreciate it for what it is now. There are some things that keep it from being really great, and it requires some suspension of disbelief with how OP Daryun and Narsus are, but it brought up some great things from time to time and the characters are pretty fun to watch.
Punchline: The whole part where it’s more focused on plot twists than making us care about the characters is obvious, but they have so few episodes left and still a ton of plot threads, I don’t think they can deliver even that part properly. Oh well, if they at least don’t bumble the whole thing up I don’t mind a few loose threads all that much.
Sidonia: Finally, the non-traditional harem antics is done and we finally get to the subtitle of Planet Nine. Not to say I mind the harem antics all that much, Tsumugi is definitely a unique member and Izana actually got some development (in more ways than one) out of it as well, but it’s great to actually see some important space battles again.
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Hey, hey, good to see you back! Hope things slow down for you soon!
Danmachi seems really well-done; and I’m inherently suspicious of the motives of LN readers who complain about things getting cut out. The show is a gem as-is. I wouldn’t change anything about it. As for Oregairu, looking at marathoning S1 this weekend so I can marathon S2 up to the final episode.
BBB maybe seems like it was better bookending the episodes with the Black/White stuff than when it tries to integrate them. This episode was definitely more entertaining for allowing riotously dumb BBB to come out to play, and then do serious BBB at the end.
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Well, I admit I’m pretty disappointed by the ongoing lack of BBB posts.
At least I finally got my husband to try Yamada-kun and he admitted it’s pretty good. So now I’m putting off watching the latest episode until he catches up with me. I’ve been enjoying Yamada, but I can’t for the life of me comprehend why you think Yamada x Shiraishi is so much better than Takeo x Yamato. Shiraishi may be a more interesting character than Yamato, but Takeo blows Yamada as a character just out of this world. 😛
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I will get back to BBB, I swear! Plus, with recaps and weeks off on the horizon, it’s the perfect time to get caught up. Sorry I’ve been so slow with them, though.
As for Yamada x Shiraishi vs. Takeo x Yamato, I’m not really all that gung-ho about directly comparing them, but I think Yamada x Shiraishi just feels more grounded to me? And that their weaknesses bubbles a little closer to the visible surface. And, I dunno, it’s kind of like the Taiga and Ryuuji effect where their relationship is very, very strong without being explicitly canon romantic (yet), and that’s something I always really appreciate.
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