I’m just now realizing that—once again—I’ve found my way underneath 10 airing shows that I’m keeping up with (the count, as you’ll see, is 9). As I’m still only keeping up with the things I really want to keep up with, I’m feeling pretty good. I also think about these reduced schedules (as opposed to earlier in the season when I was up around 13 shows) in terms of “having more time to do more writing,” but maybe it’s better simply to think of them as reducing some of the pressure. As always, thanks for reading and commenting—I’d probably have given up somewhere along the way if not for you guys!
K: Return of Kings, Episode 7: A lot of talking for an episode I expected to be an action highlight, and the action we did get wasn’t particularly well-animated. You’d think that would mean this episode of K was a letdown—and I guess you could see it as such—but I continue thoroughly enjoy the way the show experiments and tries to do different things. Mixing 2D animation and digital effects (like you’ll see in the clip of Anna activating her King powers) is nothing new to anime, but K is so particular about the way it controls the color of these things that it still strikes me as somewhat fresh. The soundtrack, as always with K, was also kind of fascinating this week—quite different in tone and nature than last week’s selection. Whatever you want to call it, I think K continues to be a multi-sensory experience like no other—I keep pulling out these individual clips because I find the way the visuals and the sounds blend together to be fascinating. And that’s enough to tide me through episodes with comparatively little character work, like this one. Gray king next up!
https://twitter.com/iblessall/status/665376812256485376
Mecha Sunday
Comet Lucifer, Episode 7: Another pretty solid on-the-road episode from Comet Lucifer. Sans last week’s reflections on love and what love is, this episode felt a bit emptier, but with Orange continuing to deliver on the mecha fights (although I really wish they hadn’t been set at night) Comet Lucifer continues to be really engaging to watch. In essence, what the show is now is what I’d hoped it would be from the start—except now we’ve also got Do Mon and Gus’ shared backstory coming into focus as well. And it’s just in time, because with Felia’s power suddenly going into overdrive, it seems we’re approaching the plot’s final stages. We don’t really have much of an idea about what the ultimate villain’s plan actually is, but that doesn’t matter as much as Comet Lucifer just delivering an enjoyable experience: which is exactly what it’s doing.
Gundam Tekketsu, Episode 7: Now this…this was exactly the kind of episode I’ve been expecting from Tekketsu since we went into space. As a self-contained episode covering one single incident from start to finish, it fit nicely within the context of the overall plot while still offering set-up, stakes, and drama all in one 25 minute span. On an extremely superficial level, I’m quite glad to see a few more female characters around—especially as ace mecha pilots. Now that Tekkaden’s proved themselves enough to actually negotiate with Turbines, I’d love to see a solid partnership arise between them and pull a few of the girls (Lafter, the twin-tailed pilot who looks like she could be a Planetary Gear from Captain Earth tops the list for me) into their ranks. I don’t really expect this to happen long-term, but maybe we’ll get lucky. In any case, Tekketsu easily beats out Comet Lucifer this week, both in terms of the overall episode and in terms of mecha battles.
Concrete Revolutio, Episode 7: This week, we get Earth-chan, Earth’s preprogrammed dispatcher of justice. Except… does justice even really exist? And is it always right? Enter Judas—a new, provocatively named superhero teen with electric powers. A former criminal, now reformed, Judas stands as a representation of humanity’s struggle to do good (no subtlety in this naming scheme!) in the face of its tendencies to do otherwise. In particular, the sparks that fly between the robot with the fantastic character design and the once-wayward kid converge around the idea of lying (something with which the Superhuman Bureau is well-acquainted). We all have lies we tell ourselves and those around us—they’re convenient and oftentimes important to surviving. But Earth-chan is a robot. How can she understand this? The answer this time is magic, an illusion… the taste of a lie. But if lies in some form are essential to survival, where do we draw the line?
Starmyu, Episode 7: Starmyu continues to prove that it has some of the most solid fundamental of any show this season, knocking its token comedy episode out of the park this week. There was a really nice balance between character humor, situational jokes, and your normal anime tropes, which—paired with the general silliness of Starmyu‘s base character personalities, it made for a lot of fun watching (and some actual, out-loud laughs). The intensity of the last few episode was eased up a little bit, but with more and more of Hiragi and Otori’s backstories slowly being revealed, the inevitable tension is on its way fast. A lot of their relationship was expanded upon quite gracefully this episode, which moments like Hiragi volunteering to apologize for the vase and Otori stopping Hiragi from calling the police bears both demonstrating that there’s a lot more to this relationship than simple disagreement of artistic approaches.
Short Takes~
- Miss Monochrome, Episode 7: In a lot of ways I find continuing to write about Miss Monochrome—even in short blurbs like this—to be a somewhat silly endeavor. But, then again, Neven Neilburg.
- Norgami Aragoto, Episode 7: Yay, Hiyori didn’t get held back! This arc looks to be adding some complexity to the whole idea of the “inherent righteousness of the gods” idea, but I’ll wait until it plays out a little bit more before I really start pulling interpretations out. But, how about Yukine this weeK?
- Haikyuu!! S2, Episode 7: When they finally put this team together, it’s going to be the most awesome episode ever. But, before that, we have to see Tsukki’s arc play out—and I’m really excited to see it happen.
- One Punch Man, Episode 7: Hey, touching character moments between Genos and Saitama! Hey, touching a bit on the themes or heroism and incentivized good deeds! Hey, meteor smashing! Hey, this was a pretty good episode of One Punch Man!
Mage in a Barrel 
There was a lo of movement including a tie at 1st 37 shows
SPECIAL MENTION / Funimation Fall Broadcast Dubs
So far all the FUNI dubs have been excellent / they matched up the VA’s quite well and the episodes have great feeling with the cast !
Attack on Titan: Junior High
Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign
Noragami Aragoto
Shomin Sample
Heavy Object
EPISODE(S) of the WEEK POSTED BELOW / EOW on RANKINGS
WEEK 6 / 7
TIER 1 TOP FAVORITES [/blue] MORE CHANGES
A TIE For First
1 Haikyuu!! Second Season [red]CR[/red] A good EP / But Norgami is just so good !
1 Noragami Supernatural 2 / Noragami Aragato [blue]Funi SUB / DUB [/blue] EOW
3 Seraph of the End 2 Vampire Reign EOW
4 One Punch Man EOW
5 RWBY Vol. 3 EOW
6 Concrete Revoltio / Choujin Gensou EOW Earth Chan Best Super hero MOVED UP from 9th
7 K 2nd Season / K Return of Kings EOW need more action
8 Heavy Object EOW
9 World Trigger / (Fugitives From Another World)
10 GARO CRIMSON MOON / Garo -Guren no Tsuki EOW
11 The Perfect Insider / Subete ga F ni Naru WK 6
12 Beautiful Bones Sakurako’s Investigation WK 6
13 Comet Lucifer EOW
14 Shomin Sample EOW
15 Hidan no Aria AA
16 Kagewani series EOW
17 MISS Monochrome 3 EOW
18 Hacka Doll the Animation EOW
19 Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note EOW
20 Young Black Jack
21 Lance N’ Masques
22 TEEKYUU 6
EPISODE(S) of the WEEK 6 / 7
SPECIAL MENTION / Funimation Fall Broadcast Dubs
So far all the FUNI dubs have been excellent / they matched up the VA’s quite well and the episodes have great feeling with the cast !
Attack on Titan: Junior High
Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign
Noragami Aragoto
Shomin Sample
Heavy Object
Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note EP 6 / “The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows, Part 2”
Kazuomi is sick from eating something and the only allegry he has is pork ! They trace the Hanburg steak to Sunahara Foods / the same student in Aya ‘s claas who she likes despite TTKZJN saying he is bad ! She has a fight with TTKZJN and even throws her note book out but picks it up again ! This a surprise anime good slice of life / life lessons and on topic with food allegries!
Shomin Sample EP 6 / “Step Outside”
School Seikain goes on a trip to “Shomin Land ” What was cool about this it reminded me of Jurassic Park / there was even heavy footsteps / also the ride to the park ! ! The horror was watching the girls react to a strret by a subway srarion including A MD fast food and arcade!
Also even though Kimito had prepped Aika to order she shyed away and Reiko tried to order with humorous reactions like we have to carry our food and it’s ready in a minute I was quite amuse4d ! Oh Kimito / Ronald teaming up !
They go the arcade and Aika just leaves and the girls learn from Kiimito how to play ! But at the dance machine Kimito does fair ! Some girls try but cant match the moves Aika comes along to teach them ( it is her moves in the OP ) and imprreses them . All the girls want to learn much to Aikas surprise and to Reiko’ s realization she has a bigger rival now ! This was a great life lesoon and nice to see Aika opening up and being accepted .
On a side note the animation in the OP / ED songs are quite nice !
First My thoughts and sympathies go out to the victims of the Paris attacks !
I watch anime to get away from the often unjust / insane world at times but realitly always wins !
Kagewani series EP 7 / Slashing Strike
That was the scariest yet ! A worker taking care of animals at a school has to save herself and two kids that visit now and then from a underground monster that reacts to movement ! Her and and one kid make onto a steel platform but one is stuck ans she tries to rescue them by using the gym equipment to reach but the monster senses the slighest movement and it breaks the jungle gym but the other kid knocks over the cart with the balls and it goes after them instead ! It was later revealed that while drawing an image from his grandfaters book he saw summonmed the monster ! Way underrated
Hacka Doll the Animation EP 7 / KUROBAKO
Shirobarko homage was so right on but funny ! HD # 1 gets sent to help an anime studio in trouble since she is a big fan and become a Producttion Assisitant like Shirobarko that mirrors the original but with a lighter side ! Running errands / calls etc even to the donuts ! But when she is asked to help with EP 8 she escapes !
GARO Crimison Moon EP 6 / Lurking Demon
This just keeps stepping up . It has settled into the same area. They really show social inustices!
Noragami Aragato EP 7 / “How to Worship a God”
It would be hard to keep up the high episode value after Bishamon but it does ! Yato is confronted by several requests ! One being he cuts his ties with Hiyori with Tenjin’s deal with Hiyori objecting to it ! Next Ebisu after listening to Bishamon ‘s report to the Seven Gods Ebisu wants to buy Yukine ( since he is Blessed Regalia ) from Yato who is hestiant to even sharing him! They are both torn about what to do as Yato wants his own Shrine ( apparently when young he lived in a dog house ) but instead uses the money to destroy a “greed phantom” Hiyori hearing about the “shrine’ since Yato is withdrawn builds a minature but it moves Yato to tears as he is so happy! Meanwhile it seems Ebisu has the Phantom Masks which ae causing the problems.
Heavy Object EP 7 / “The War of the Ant and the Grasshopper / The Invasion of the Oceanian Military State II”
First it was nice to see they cut down on the fanservice ( more verbal than anything ) but the timing of this with Firday’s events is a grim reminder of endless human conflict! It’s too bad there arent Objects fighting even though a maasacare took place in the village !
Even with Objects human casulties still happen ! The village is under attack by Oceania troops so Qwenthur / Havia uses their explosives to drive them away but A journalist ( Seawax) is sniping at the retreat messing up the result who is captured by the Coalition force and is interrogated by Froleytia. Afterwards a thermal image is picked up at a location but Qwenthur / Havia seems to think it was the the test reactor for the Gen 5 Object and think it’s trap with a nuclear blast in mind ! They see recent growth around another spot and thinks Gen 5 is there and take Seawax with them as he is a good sniper ! They tell the forces whats going on even not afraid of beiing Court-Martialed !
EP 1 / English DUB was excellent / like it better than the sub!
K Return of Kings EP 7 / “Kickdown”
The Battle continues wth the Green Clan trying to get to the Slates but it is a fake as Nagare is easily defeated as he is actually a Corpse who lives on residual ower ! But the Green Clan laid the path for their Iwa who is actaully the 6th (Grey King)
Seraph of the End 2 Vampire Reign EP 18 / Sword of Justice
A more somber episode especially for The Moon Demon Squads ! They have taken heavy losses especiallt the squad that was sent to City Hall where Crowley / Vamps killed at least half and taken the rest Hostage! Crowley talks about A high ranking vamp working with the humans or a human is more powerful than they thought ! Shinoa / Narumi squads await the others Then what is left of a 15 member squad that Aiko Aihara led shows up then Guren’s squad shows up and decicdes to leave Aika and her squad there while the rest take off to City Hall and to leave shortly if the other squads dont to the airport for EVAC But a Vamp squad Lacus / Renee / Mika others attack Aika fights valiantly but is taken down b Mika . The Vamps are trying to get Intel but Aika says code 284 which means bite on the pill to kill themselves but Mika takes the pill out of Aika’s mouth and asks about Yu . She complys then fakes taking Yu hostage ans he pretends to kill her , But Aika is afraid they might listen to fakse Intel and gets Mika to kill her after she fires at him.
Comet Lucifer EP 7 / “Place of Warmth”
A big improvement for this anime ! Yes it stiil has some ? ? moments like with mushrooms which really was filler IMO. We did some good backstories / reveals but they dont go far enough ! Especially with the characters> Excuse me if I dont understand the flashback with both Gus / Do Mon Is that Do on protecting Gus because I got confused about DoMon told Honeybee about a solider ( female ) that made good coffee who appears to be the female in the observatory ? That leads to more ?? whose side is Do Mon on ?
But back to Sogo / Felia / Mo / Kaon/ Roman . They arev looking for Abyss Falls which Felia needs to go to. Meanwhile Honeybee must be calling Gus to tell them where they went . BTW who is feeding her the infro Suspicion falls on somebody in tht group . would say Romans right hand man. Also some of Gus’s CMDRS are starting to think Gus is overdoing it and his invovlement with the group at the observtory
The Romanmobile breaks down and they have to camp overnite. Next day Sogo fixes it and Felia go for a walk to a beautiful place where they run into Gus / Cohorts etc > Mo is taking a beating and the Duo also get help from Roman but fall into a river but Mo rescues them and seems to die > Felia picks uo Mo but there is a transformation to an onmious glowing Ring and Do Mon sees it !
Concrete Revoltio / Choujin Gensou EP 7 / “Go Beyond the Sky and Stars”
When thia anime wants to shine ir does quite well. I dont get the complaints that it time jumps but it like a retospective !
Now to one of my new all time favorites anime super hero Earth-Chan. This may be an one cour series but this so cool. BTW Ayana Taketatsu similiar role as Karama / battle Droid ( Invaders of the Rokujyōma!?)
Kikko wants to recruit Judas ( Superhuman ) who went to jail for awhile but was released and defeated his old gang ! But Earth Chan ( magical girl – robot ?) wants to stop Judas because he lied about using his powers for good ! Earth Chan punishes Judas but leaves after Kikko defends him! He Joins the SHB . Meanwhile Earth-Chan ponds to humans / animals in need . The SHB wants to be able to contact her / with an ols style which Kikko brings into space with an extension cord which is hilarious ! But Kikko befriends her and gives her konpeito which she likes ! But then Earth Chan learns that Judas is invovled in a protest against the gov’t and doent want him arrested > She goes to a cafe to voice her objections which is a neutral site for heroes and villians ! She is told that Kikko is a witch > At the protest things ger out of hand and a the crowd is pinned against a bus. and Judas usees his powers to move it. But Earth Chan thinks he is doing evil but saving a person who was under the bus ! Earth Chan feels bad and takes the wounded person to the hospital. She also wants to make amends with Kikko because the candy she threw out made her relaxed and dream of having a family > Kikko gives her more and sees her family?
But the ED Earth Chan is not responsive and in a clear box? ( reasons unknown ) and Judas wants to save . A very touching episode!
VA Ayana Taketatsu / EARTH CHAN
K-ON! – Azusa Nakano
Oreimo-Kirino
Sword Art Online – Leafa/Suguha Kirigaya
Leviathan The Last Defense-Jörmungandr
Date A Live- Kotori Itsuka
The Pilot’s Love Song-Ariel Albus
Momo Kyun Sword-Momoko
Kantai Collection -Yamato
Daghasi 2016 hotaru
One Punch Man EP 7 / The Supreme Disciple
Based on CHP 21 / VOL 4 Giant Meteor and CHP 22 VOL 4 Voices
Besides the great dark humor / action there are leesons to be learned from this ! There are true heroes and others who are more posers or just like the nedia attention!
Saitama and Genos are having a lively chat about the latest rankings when Genos is called to the Heroes Assoc only he and Bang ( S Class Rank 3 ) are there to stop the meteor ! The other Superoes dont show for various reasons ( even a suggestion the Heroes cant stop the disaster coming) Dragon Level / threat endangering multiple cities.So when Genos finds out he wants to save Saitama / City Z -others from destruction . Bang tells Genos to evacuate but noting the Citizens only get a 30 min warning as which is not enough time ! Bang goes to City Z and Genos goes there to protect Saitama with his new incineration cannons but is interrupted by a Robot controlled by Boyfoy and asks for help but is a prototype and is just testing out missles which dont work. Genos tries vainly to destroy the meteor but fails . At this time Bang who is already there consloing Genos when One Punch shows up and tells Bang to take of Genos and One Punch destroys the meteor but there is a lot of collateral damage which cant be helped!
After the meteor Genos went from Class-S rank 17 to rank 16. While One Punch goes from Class-C rank 342 to 5 / instead of a Class A or S becuase there was damage ! One Pnch goes for a walk and is sad the supermarket got destroyed but not the Apt he got kicked out of ! Tanktop Tiger is jealous of One Punch New Ranking and doent believe he did it. His brother
Tanktop Black Hole uses the damage done to rile the citizens ( BTW none were killed ! ) Bang is watching this and tells One Punch he could resign if the public dont care! The two Bros then accuse of One- Punch of wanting to attack the citizens ( not true ) and take him on . Tiger Top is promptly dispatched and Black Hole is stopped and then said he was lying about One Punch who then says it’s the truth teeling the public to tell him in person ans says he does it not for publiclly but likes doing it and walks away !
Disaster Levels / from Mysterious Being
The attacks by Mysterious Beings have a scale on how destructive the attack is, which goes from Wolf level to God level. Note that the disaster levels are used for all threats to society, not just Mysterious Beings (such as the Giant Meteor).
Disaster Levels and Descriptions Disaster Level
God A threat endangering the survival of humanity in general
Dragon A threat endangering multiple cities
Demon A threat endangering a whole city or it’s facilities
Tiger A threat endangering the lives of a great number of people
Wolf Appearance of a being or a group, that might pose a threat
RWBY VOL.3 EP 3 / It’s A Brawl in The Family
A Thank – You To Rooster Teeth / Staff for keeping Monty’s RWBY going and actually doing an excellent job! Yes there is the ‘gag humor” but the action and story revaels were top notch !
Qrow / An interesting person! Adds a lot of pice to the show. Winter is unique too!
Weiss and Ruby Rose are off to meet Weiss Sister “Winter” who is not there really to see Weiis but has matters with Gen Ironwood and Ozpin. But even though she cares about Weiss she is hiighly critical of her . She does have time to see Weiss room before the meeting . But Ruby’s uncle Qrow sees Winter takes out some of her Robot Guards ! Qrow then accuses Ironwood / Atlas for beinf decetful. Winter drwas her sword and even with Qrow being somewhat drunk dodges all her attacks in a lively dual. Qrow is going to unleash his scythe but stops because behind Winter is Irronwood / Ozpin / Glynda who are furious as to what happened. Later the meeting is intense as Qrow / Winter are still verbally sparring and Ironwood has Winter leave! Qrow is angry because he was deep undercover and no one contacted him . Also he says the academy has been compromised already.Ironwood counters saying the comms have been hacked . Also Ozpin wants to appoint a “Guardian ” over Vale ibstead of Ironwoods Fleet as to not to panic the populace which attrach the Grimm. And who or what is Autumn /
Cinder gets news of the meeting but continues her plan as nobody knows about her team yet! She is controlling the matches too for whatever reason.
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Glad to hear Funi’s doing a good job on their dubs. I did watch Noragami half-dubbed (half-subbed) when I rewatched it recently, and they did a nice job with the casting there. I’m sure they’ll keep up the good work—although I am glad and think it’s a good idea that they reduced the number of simuldubs they’re trying to do to avoid burning out their voice talent.
Speaking of English voice work, RWBY was really good this episode! It was far more controlled and competent than I usually expect of the show—maybe good things are coming??
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Been catching up with shows from recent past seasons. I don’t quite love BBB, but I also don’t really agree with recent criticism/backlash I’ve been reading on it since the finale. Haikyuu’s loads of fun and a quintessential vanilla sports series. Yona’s far better than I expected with some of the finest character work I’ve seen this year. Yuri Kuma…not really feeling it, but at least it’s consistently interesting and got better once it got past the early obfuscation phase.
I’m curious to know what your top 10 of the year looks like as it stands now.
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Oh, wow, you’re hitting some really interesting stuff as you catch up! And I’m curious about that, too! I suppose I should start thinking about it… usually my seasonal rankings aren’t necessarily the best prediction of my annual top 10 shows.
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I LOVE Earth-Chan’s design! And this was a stellar episode of Concrete Revolutio. A little lesson about the pitfalls of moral absolutes.
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She is super cute! And yeah, the episode was awesome—show’s really putting the idea of morality through its paces.
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Need. To. Catch. Up. With. Anime.
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You can do it! But don’t feel too pressured—watch the stuff you want to watch first!
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What I did last week:
Watched more of Hyouka and Non Non Biyori
Borrowed Shugo Chara manga volumes 5 and 6 from the library
Watched and reviewed Magical Witch Punie-chan for my Short Anime Spotlight, which unexpectedly ended up being one of my favorite things that I’ve reviewed for it so far. In fact I’m probably going to just go ahead and buy it, since I already want to watch it again and the sub-only DVD is just $5 right now at RightStuf (gotta love their holiday sale!).
Played a ton of School Idol Festival (I finally got a smart phone last week and have my own personal account now – good timing too, because the work account is set up almost exactly how I want for the upcoming club contest, it just needs one more LP on the bar to get that up to where I want it)
What I did not do last week:
Watch any of the seasonal anime besides Beautiful Bones. So as much as I’d love to talk more about IBO and OPM, I can’t yet. Hopefully I can catch back up again before next week’s post (and before the MedFes event starts!).
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Hey, it sounds like you had a pretty good week! Hyouka and NNB are both great choices.
And oohhhhhh LLSIF… I know that hole very well indeed. Good luck catching up with shows while trying to play it! 😛 But oh crap! MedFes is coming soon??? Arghhhh
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If EN follows the Japanese schedule then MedFes 1 w/Maki is supposed to be the next event. But we can’t play MedFes until they update us to the next version, and that’s apparently not ready yet (I assume that was the update we were supposed to get a few days ago that they ended up postponing). Since the current 10+1 promotion says it’s running through 11/24, the next event was probably supposed to start on the 25th. So if the update still isn’t ready by then they’ll either have to shuffle the event order or push everything back.
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Blessssssssssss, where’s your take on Heavy Object?? I need your weekly shittweets.
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I’m sorry! I was…not all that happy watching it, so Link stopped paying me to do so. Hatewatching things just isn’t a good gig for me, it seems. It started feeling like a chore real quick.
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Ohhh, alright then. No need to push yourself.
Hatewatching has never been your kind of thing anyway.
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Yeah, it’s kind of opposed to my hashtag brand heheh.
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