As I was writing out the title to this post, I had a horrible sensation that I’d accidentally typed “Winter 2015” for last week’s post—but I didn’t.
After a long day of anime watching last Friday and Saturday and some level of dedication to maintaining a solid work ethic through the days since them, I’m now completely caught up on the season’s show. I’m not really sure this is a trend that’ll continue—I kind of like just watching things when I feel like it. But what I did feel like watching Rakugo Shinju over the weekend and I’m sure glad I did. My suspicions that Rakugo Shinju is a show that you can basically watch in any mood or at any time and still be swept away by seems to be completely true, but I think I’ll continue to try and keep it set aside for when I’m really feeling. It’s just too good to waste—and the slow sense of building tragedy, conveyed primarily through the increasing sense that Kikuhiko is moving towards some kind of sad ending, or at least a sad event.
Of course (and this outside of the frenetic fujoshi tremors), the elephant in the room with Rakugo Shinju is Kikuhiko and Sukeroku’s relationship, and how Miyokichi’s appearance will affect that. A love rivalry? Kikuhiko’s been lonely for a long time before Sukeroku reappears from after the war, and even now that they’re reunited there’s still tension between them. Placing this kind of tension within the context of the tension of simply staying alive in adult life is clever—relationships straining alongside survival strains—and I’m a sucker for the feeling of the inevitable tragedy. It’s coming, but when?
I can’t wait to find out.
On the opposite side of this dynamic is ERASED, which fooled us (ha! I wasn’t actually fooled) into thinking Satoru had saved Kayo, only to reveal that, nope, things have gone back to being the same as they were before. It feels more like a lapse in concentration by Satoru by anything—if you’re trying to save a 1o year-old girl from being kidnapped and murdered, you don’t just quit after passing one success point!—and also winds up being an inevitable simply because ERASED needed something else to add tension back into the story. Unlike Rakugo Shinju‘s slow burn towards tragedy, ERASED‘s tragedy is constantly being held over our heads—because it’s already happened.
I wasn’t particularly enthralled with this week’s ERASED aside from cute Kayo faces, but it’s interesting to contrast these two excellent shows’ use of tragedy. We know what the ultimate tragedy is for both of them (ERASED: Kayo and, later, Satoru’s mother’s deaths; Rakugo Shinju: Sukeroku’s death), but the difference in awareness of the tragedy by the characters involved with it (although Rakugo Shinju‘s story has an meta element to it as well, being a story told by Yakumo…hmm…). Certainly, they’re two different ways of handling the same thing and both are using the dread to pin the audience in, but ERASED is almost about the tension, whereas in Rakugo Shinju it’s just one piece (albeit a critical one) of the overall puzzle.
Sorry I keep comparing these two shows—I think Rakugo Shinju is the better by far—but it’s fascinating to find ways the season’s two best new offerings continue to intersect in unexpected ways.
Speaking of impending drama, let’s switch over to Akagami no Shirayuki-hime, which appears to be setting course for some serious drama, the likes of which we haven’t really seen the show engage with before. I’m extremely curious to see how Masahiro Ando decides to handle this deviation from Shirayuki-hime‘s normal formula—pirate ladies dribbling wine down their faces while chugging their alcohol isn’t quite what I’d excepted of this season of Shirayuki-hime (and the direction in the scene almost felt overblown to me). Ando certainly can do big drama (see: Blast of Tempest), but I guess I’m just a tad bit worried that Shirayuki-hime‘s cast will adapt well to a more action-oriented mode.
And while I’m busy being a bit worried about a show I like, I might as well mention that this week’s Konosuba really didn’t do much for me—at least on my first watch. Darkness is simply not that funny (and the masochist bit is…ugh…not what I was hoping it would be), but I’m reminding myself that this was her intro episode. Unfortunately, Darkness really didn’t have anything to do with the extended panty robber joke, which was just as unfunny (although I’ll grudgingly admit the execution was pretty solid). On the happier side, Aqua and Megumin still seem capable of carrying the show even in small doses, so I’m expecting Konosuba to swing back towards being derpy and fun in episode four in better proportions than it was in episode three.
Also, I wrote a thing on Konosuba yesterday!
As for everything else, Dimension W was a step down from last week’s pleasantness—Mira was less of a personality and more of a fanservice/moe element, sadly—but still managed to be well-directed and have beautiful backgrounds. And despite Mira getting meta-shafted by the show, I’m maintaining my opinion that the show generally does a good job of striking a balance between having her be a cute, naive, pleasant actual character and just a blob. There are still parts and pieces (like the whole Kyouma wife thing, what) that don’t fit with her overall characterization, but in general I kind of like what they’re doing with Mira. Alongside the strong visual work, that’s enough to keep with on with Dimension W for now.
Haikyuu!! S2 may not have the same sort of fate, as I’m getting pretty wearied by its inability to recapture the magic of season one. If the upcoming episode can’t do it, I’m frankly going to despair of Haikyuu!! S2 ever returning to the heights of its predecessor and drop it. It’s a bummer, and I don’t have an explanation for why this is happening—all the staff is the same, but the show’s just not working the way it should. Whether that’s a fault in the source material (sort of where I’m leaning) or in the adaptation, I’m not sure, but it’s match point for Haikyuu!! right now.
Meanwhile, Durarara!! has stitched together a stunning two good episodes in a row. The direction’s great, the character focus and dialogue has been great, and even though this is distinctively not the same as the show’s very good original installment, it’s still pretty darn good—and that’s exciting. Kida and Anri are now more in the spotlight than they’ve been in long, long episodes, things around them are starting to move, and the show overall seems a bit like a bear finally shaking off its hibernation sleepiness.
Durarara!!-related story time from real life! The guy who sits in the cube next to mine at work has a pretty solid collection of nendoroids and other anime-type figures (Mako from Kill la Kill and Yotsuba are two I recognize—he’s a bit more old-school than I am, I think), and he recently added Celty to his collection after a recent trip to Japan. Earlier this week, our HR manager came by his cube and was asking him some questions about Celty—a tough roll since Celty’s a bit…complicated—and I ended up chiming in with a good-natured joke that showed I knew a bit about the show. After the HR manager headed off, my co-worker said he was glad someone else in the office was around to help him explain Durarara!! and I asked him if he’d been keeping up with the new series. He said he had, and together we lamented that it’s not been as good as the original. So, yeah! You can talk about anime at work and survive!
GATE is being dumb again. Here’s a tweet chain from me on the most infuriating part of the episode.
The only thing (I think) left on my schedule that I haven’t mentioned yet is Grimgar, which someone specifically asked me about last week. Here’s what I think about Grimgar, then. Its fanservice is crappy and bad, Ranta is terrible, but it’s doing interesting things elsewhere. Besides Yume being cute as heck, I mean. And with the most recent episode’s Event, I’m really curious to see where Grimgar goes from here. For me, the event itself is more about how it’s going to push the remaining party members (lol there’s the spoiler) in future episodes, and that’s not something I really want to look away from. In short, I don’t think Grimgar‘s a great show, but it is really interesting and I want to continue to watch where it goes.
Still just watching Phantom World for Guppy screenshots. This was a feature episode for her, but it wasn’t really that great—despite being the show’s best episode yet. Every time two characters have a conversation it just gets…dull…
But have a cute Kayo to finish off the post on a high note!
Mage in a Barrel 
Well, here we are again, time for another Wall O’ Text… Still behind on a couple of shows, but we’ve finally finished Heroes Reborn so maybe we can get can get caught up and stay caught up before Agents of Shield starts back up in March. We’re starting to see drops, so that will help too.
Warning – may contain spoilers for those an ep or so behind.
My Shows
Divine Gate; Still paused
Luck and Logic ep3; The first of the inevitable Character Roulette episodes, only to have the character act uncharacteristically. (That is, she hadn’t shown what should have been very obvious traits that were featured in her focus episode.) That’s was the final straw on a show that’s been on the brink the whole time. Dropped.
Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou Ii Desu kara; On pause
Prince of Stride: Alternative ep4; I thought the show was going to be about Nina… But she really hasn’t even been a POV character, leaving her mostly for cameos. This week too was Character Roulette and all it really accomplished was to show how shallow Prince really is. And why invent a whole new sport, and then make it boring? Dropped
Schwarzesmarken; Sitting in the queue, just haven’t gotten to it yet.
Sekkou Boys ep 4; Giorgio (“Georgy”) tells lame jokes, and those and his permanent scowl cause him to lose popularity – until the jokes and the scowl earn him a role in a CM for pills to relieve, er…, “gastric distress”. His popularity is restored and the other boys are jealous. It’s much funnier than this makes it sound.
Our Shows
Akagami no Shirayukihime eps 4; Shirayuki continues to play a more passive role, and Obi’s growing feelings over Shirayuki cause him distress. The portion of the episode devoted to this was mostly lame, lame, lame. The real win comes towards the end when Zen declares his feelings and intentions towards Shirayuki to his brother. Four episodes in and finally one of the main characters does something. This season get wider latitude because of it’s track record, but it is starting to wear thin.
AOKANA eps 4; We get the inevitable Character Roulette here too… but unlike Prince and Luck, it flows naturally from What Has Gone Before. Overall AOKANA still falls into the category of Mostly Harmless, but I like to highlight when things are done well.
BBK/BRNK on pause; Possible drop. Just too many not so well done and tropish bits to make up for the eye-bleeding the animation causes.
Dagashi Kashi ep 4; Two mini-eps-in-an-ep this week. The first centered (inadvertently?) around ero-eating. The second took a tropish scenario and wrapped it with a hilarious parody of a different set of tropes. As with last week, just when you think they’ll give up and stick with the show’s one party trick, they pull a rabbit out of their hat.
Dimension W eps 4; We know now the secret power of the Numbers – it makes shows jump genres! OK, I stole that line from the ANN review, but it does highlight the problems with this episode. Basically they took everything established so far, wadded it up in a ball, and tossed it into the trash. Maybe they can salvage the metal from this train wreck and recycle it into something different… But as it stands, they went from a pleasant enough show with well done characterization to leaning out over the brink over the course of a single episode. Particularly galling was the treatment of Mira – from character to object in one episode. Kyoma treating her as just a tool is par for the course and part of his character, that’s not the objection. It’s the blatant descent into fanservice and otaku fantasy fuel. It’s always been a background bit, but here they shove it our faces.
ERASED ep4; WOW To quote a commenter from one of the anime forums, “after this episode they’re going to find my feels when the snows melt in the spring”.
X-day has finally arrived, and we follow events from Satoru’s point of view as he sprints toward his goal of changing the terrible future. A nearly pitch perfect episode that kept me on the edge of my seat and forgetting to breathe right up to the closing cliffhanger.
I emphasize Satoru‘s point of view here for an important reason – he’s a 29 year old manchild in the body of a 10 year old child. His field of view, perceptions, and ability to alter events are narrowed, colored, and bounded by these things. I do think he’s changed the future, but not in the way he expected, especially since they went out of their way to drop hints in the cameo scenes during that final evening. Satoru and Kayo are not the only actors in this play, and they very subtly but firmly remind us the viewer that there’s a bigger world out there beyond his ken. He’s the focus of this side story, but he’s a bit player or a walk on role in others.
Gate ep4; Itami’s mission retroactively (and unbeknownst to him) obtains Official Sanction, and the whole of the Dragon Arc portion of this week’s ep turns into something of an infodump informing us of the dragon’s capabilities. (Our Heroes cannot win, except of course we know they will.) The other part of this show, with the bunny girl, was less satisfying as the resolution revolved around the citizens of the new lands being unaware of modern forensics and medicine. OK, we get it, again, the old world can easily beat the new. Unless it’s a dragon.
Girls beyond the Wasteland ; On hold due to finishing Heroes Reborn.
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash eps 4; Another WOW episode.
We see more of Our Heroes making progress in their struggle against the world… And that progress leads to confidence, then overconfidence, and then comes pride. And pride goes before the fall. And the Fall is terrible, inescapable, and irreversible. And not nearly as hard to watch as the main characters struggling to deal with this reality and then pulling themselves together and doing so.
Another outstanding episode and more of very well handled characterization that is fast becoming Grimgar‘s hallmark. I especially want to give a shout out to the director’s willingness to give us extended sequences without shoving dialog in our faces. As with the first ep, this ep’s “music video” sequence shows and tells us more about the characters, their reactions, and feelings than any dialog heavy sequence ever could.
Gundam Tekketsu ep 16; Talk, talk, talk, then guns, guns, guns. Other than the reveal and the twist near the end, this week the focus was mainly off the main characters but invaluable in setting the stage for what comes next.
KonaSuba ep3; Oh!, my cabbages! As you say Bless, Darkness isn’t that interesting and the panty bit unnecessary… but the back half of the episode did have it’s moments.
Lovely Muuuuuuuco! ep16; Poor Ushikou-San. All he wants is to be Muco’s friend, but somehow every well meant attempt at being so backfires in a hilariously humorous way. (Well, hilarious for the audience anyhow.)
Norn9; Dropped because it was slow and painful.
Ojisan and Marshmallow ep 4; Zigged off in a different direction this week. It’s nice in some ways to get away from the one trick that characterizes this short, but it really wasn’t a good ep.
And there we have it… We’ve gotten behind because of one thing or another, but we’re catching up. The inevitable drops are also starting to crop up.
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After Dawnstorm’s comment below, watched Girls Beyond the Wasteland ep 4 and unsurprisingly the show improved when it’s focus swung beyond Kuroda. It’s still draggy and dreary, but better than the last two eps.
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I think the key difference between death in Rakugo and in Erased is that – when it comes to plot – it’s external in the former and internal in the latter. In Rakugo the deaths are driving the plot by driving social interaction: there’s tension between the surviving Rakugo master and the late one’s daughter, and the ex-convict reminds both of the missing person. In Erased death is, on the surface, something to be prevented – a suspense play, which would also make it external, but I think what we actually have is a psychological story of one man’s denial (there will be an external aspect, too, but I think that’s where the focus is). I’ve always thought something doesn’t pan out: for example, one of the victims is a member of his group of friends, but the victim he obsesses over for years and years is a girl he supposedly never talked to? He’s seen her once and sort of convinced himself that he could have saved her by talking to her, when one of the later victims is someone he did talk to, and not just once? Maybe… I think one key scene was the race, where 29 year-old Satoru let’s the other one win and only then remembers that he did just that as a 10 year old. So I think the key problems are more internal than external: it’s less about saving Kayo and his Mom, and more about Satoru facing himself. I’m still not sure what the title is about exactly, but for me last episode was 20+ minutes of painful dramatic irony. I never once thought he would save Kayo in this episode, though I certainly hoped I was wrong.
Rakugo is still the season’s masterpiece, but it’s harder to talk about, because it’s good points aren’t as obvious – it’s a much more subtle and spread out affair. For starters, there’s little to speculate about; it’s just not that sort of show. But it’s emotionally powerful and very, very good with body language.
Grimgar, for me, is a mixed bag. It’s not the fanservice. I sometimes notice it, but my anime auto-filter is quite active, and it’s not nearly as intrusive as it could be (e.g. when the boys were peeping, we didn’t see the girls at all – is this a first in anime?). The show has a certain pathos which, to me, comes across as forced gravity. I don’t buy it, and keep finding myself rooting for the goblins. But the concept is great, and, boy, is this show pretty. I love, love, love the art. The prettiest shows this season? Rakugo –> Grimgar –> Shirayuki.
I didn’t click with the first season of Shirayuki, and I don’t find the second season an improvement. Shirayuki and Zen are a model couple, flat and boring, for me. This is a case of “the sum is less than its parts”. I like either of them on their own, and if they love each other I wish them well; I just don’t feel compelled to watch. (Unlike Derek, I didn’t care much for Zen going into action either, nor for Prince Izana’s dramatic gasp.) But it’s still an exceptionally pretty show.
Konosuba: I can’t say I’m a big fan of Darkness either, but I found her more funny than I thought I would (which is still not very funny).
My personal pet show of the season is the unpopular Pandora show. Turns out that fanservice reduction was wishful thinking, but I don’t care much. So far the show’s been handling tone very well; it’s slapstick-silly and good-natured, but there’s a sense of tragedy in the background (our main character is basically a cheerful orphan with a full-body prothesis). And somehow even the introduction of plot-elements doesn’t take the wind out of the show’s sails, as I feared it would. It can still mess up badly, but so far it’s toed a very narrow line with only minor slips. Also, last episode shows that superpowers aren’t only for fighting, but also for cooking.
I dropped Bubuki Buranki and Divine Gate; both shows have aspects I like, but the aspects I don’t like are just too irritating.
Ao no Kanata Four Rhythm is slowly creeping up my hit list. The more I watch these characters, the more I like them, and that’s good, because the plot is standard fare with no surprises. It’s a likable, fun show, and I didn’t expect that after the first episode. At that point, I’m enjoying it more than Haikyuu (which is sort of sad when you look at Haikyuu, but not so sad when you look at AoKana).
And [i]Gate[/i] is setting out to antagonise my morals: so your elf’s in denial that her father’s dead? Go take her kill a fire dragon because “some people can only move on after revenge”. What? WHAT? This such a tangle that I don’t even know where I should start to unravel it. I better not try. I’m not necessarily a pacifist (though I have leanings in that direction); howevermilitarists aren’t going to create a world want to live in. Not even the nice ones.
Also, I’m really clicking with [i]Girls beyond the Wasteland[/i]. The way this show treated writing this episode was beyond priceless; also the way our artist overworked herself because she was on a roll and anxious to let the others down (even though she’s clearly good) was infinitely relatable. It’s perhaps the most underappreciated show of the season: nobody seems to like it much; nobody seems to hate it much. Most people seem to just find it boring and leave it be. I like it, though.
There’s other stuff I’m watching, and other stuff I’ve dropped, but there’s really not much to say about any of those.
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It’s not that I cared for Zen taking action, I was just glad that Something Finally Happened. So far this season Shirayukihime has been very passive and lacked the activity and interaction that made the first season so compelling.
It’s good to hear about Girls Beyond the Wasteland because it’s been teetering on the edge of a motivation drop… I’ll check the new ep out.
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I can see the drop in Shirayuki-activity, but I don’t find it much significant, because I’ve always watched this as a show about being in love with a prince rather than about being a herbalist. The things she’s doing now with that other prince are vintage Shirayuki; not all that different really. She has character traits, but she has little background. She’s not, for example, visiting old friends, or doesn’t even think about it. She’s standing on a balcony talking about nostalgia while looking at the city scape that’s supposed to inspire said feeling. Shirayuki, as a character, is incomplete. Her background is sketchy. I never expected her to be fully fleged character; more of a role model. And she’s doing that now, too.
Zen taking action goes in the same direction: romance drone. If people find that sort of thing compelling that’s fine. I have my own tropes that get me nearly no matter what (the outsider coming out of his/her shell is among that). If you don’t, then that’s not going to be the draw. But if you’re feeling cynical about this plot structure? Yeah, I wanted to send flying piranhas after Zen; to make things interesting. (I wouldn’t because I actually like him dispite it all, but he’s got such an irritating streak.) Izana’s gasp was the nail in the coffin, though. He’s surprised?
Because I don’t click with the core show, Zen’s activity felt like a prelude to what promises to be the show’s most tedious aspects. If I clicked with the romance, I’d be so on bord with this. I’m not criticising the show for what it’s doing; I’m just reacting to it.
It’s good to hear about Girls Beyond the Wasteland because it’s been teetering on the edge of a motivation drop… I’ll check the new ep out.
By all means do. I hope you like it. But don’t get your hopes up too much. It’s still the same old show. I’ve been liking it a lot from the beginning. This episode isn’t special qualitywise; it’s special because it hits home more for me, which is entirely subjective.
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As if am not behind in my anime / manga enough. Between a blizzard / internet outage per storm I will post my thoughts missed a couple of posts but 4 EPS in it’s worthwhile
42 SHOWS / 31 Full / 11 SHORTS
I will do brief comments on your shows and give you my top two tiers to where the shows stand
plus EOW I also puit in OVAS ETC / Left OP / EDS as I need to asdd more
I dropped Rakugo Shinju after the 1st EP I know everybody raving about it but it put me to sleep .
I actually got into Erased a lot more this week . The failure was sad but what you want a 4 part OVA / just kidding
Snow White with the Red Hair is performing well and the story goes bolder which I knew about nuy nice to see its here . BYW the dub is sooooo good!
Konosuba was;last but had done a big jump for me.
Dimension W is just warming up / you can see what can happren. You might be too young for Alfred Hitchcock / Twilight Zone but felt like the story could be from those shows. Anf Mira with her deep procceses reminded me of the Tech from Blade Runner.
BTW people like talking about thi show.
I felt Haikyuu!! S2 had one of the best episodes yet with CAPT Dachi hurt. The backstory and secondary cast was very cool I thought. The show is getting more serious as the Teams get stronger . Stiil high on my list.
Durarara!! is looking to have a big showdown / conclusion.
The problem with Gate is they are rushing I think. / The dragon showdown will be good !
Grimgar / I wont disagree but the Still Shots / art got me. BTW the ashes to the wind addes so much to this EP
NOT watching Assassination Classroom 2? / this might even be better as the students are more capable and getting a lot of show time.
No RWBY? Since this has taken the Dark Turn I have been waiting for you get why they have Beacon Academy to train. Cinder is quite the Villian. Her methods might match LeRouch.
Early Surprises
Dagashi Kashi I know you dont like fanservice but Hotaru is one of the more zany females I have seen. Then Saya is so laid back. This is more like Non-Non Biyori except grown -up!
Ajin / despite the CGI ( Sidonia was much better ) this has gottem my attention.
A lot of shorts are cool too.
[blue]TIER 1 TOP FAVORITES [/blue] EPISODE of THE WEEK Below EOW
1 Dimension W EOW
2 Assassination Classroom 2 / Ansatsu Kyoushitsu 2
3 Erased (Boku Machi) (The Town Where Only I Am Missing) EOW
4 Haikyuu!! Second Season EOW
5 Durarara!!×2 Ketsu
6 RWBY VOL 3 [red]CR[/red] EOW E
7 Snow White with the Red Hair 2 / Akagami no Shirayuki-hime
8 Heavy Object EOW
9 GATE 2 EOW
10 Dagashi Kashi EOW
11 Mobile Suit Gundam/ Iron-Blooded Orphans
12 Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash EOW
13 Ajin – Demi-Human
14 HaruChika EOW EP 4
15 World Trigger
16 Bubuki Buranki Original TV Anime
17 Divine Gate
18 Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note ]SHORT
19 Lovely Muuuuuuuco! ]SHORT
20 TEEKYU 7 SHORT
[blue]TIER 2 Good / Enjoy watching ! Shows[/blue]
21 Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku (Give Blessings to This Wonderful World)
22 The File of Young Kindaichi Returns
23 Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm: Beyond the Sky, Into the Firmament
24 Myriad Colors Phantom World / Musaigen no Phantom World
25 Maho Shojo Nante Mo Ii Desu Kara / (I’ve Had Enough of Being a Magical Girl) SHORT
26 Prince of Stride
27 Norn9 Norun + Nonetto
28 Oshiete! Galko-chan (Please tell me! GALKO-chan) SHORT
29 Active Raid WINTER / SUMMER SPLIT COUR
30 GARO CRIMSON MOON / Garo -Guren no Tsuki
OVA / ONA / Special / MOVIES
Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt ONA EP 1
Aria the Avvenire Winter 2016 / Spring 2016 / SUMMER 2016 ? 3 Part Series
Marcross Delta Special Or EP 1 [red]( Will be Spring Anime ) [/red]
Nisekoi OVA # 4 / Newlyweds / More Magical Girls 9/ 10 / 11 / Final or Not Very Funny
Aoharu x Kikanjuu Special
Big Order OVA
Kamisama Hajimemashita: Kako-hen OVA 2
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime OVA
To Love-Ru: Trouble – Darkness OVA
Garakowa -Restore the World- – Movie / Glass no Hana to Kowasu Sekai
Okusama ga Seitokaichou! OVA
Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX: Believe in Justice and Hold a Determination to Fist. Special
EPISODE of the WEEK 4 EOW
Haruchika / Haruta & Chika EP 4 / Vernacular Modernism
This anime is underated. slice of life meets mystery
This week the band has to practice on the roof in winter at Chridstmas. But itb is soon found out after Haruta;s okdest sister who is arcithect jnows he is homelees and wants to femd him a place to live.They find somethiing that has 3 different blueprints . They go and visit but the new owner is the nephew of his uncle who owned it prevuously and the tenants have moved out thinking it was a ghost with a priest’s staff. It is Christmas Eve and the nephew gives Haruta a meal. But later on Haruta wants to jnow about the secret 6th room key and the renovations that were done and any event. It was found that the 500 Yen coin came out and soon thereafter the Bldg was changed He has sister drop a coin down a wall slot and figures out the secret The 5th room was an extended wall holding thousands of 500 yen coin / The uncle cared for his nephew. He gets to keep the Bldsg and Haruta has a place to stay.
Erased (Boku Machi) (The Town Where Only I Am Missing) EP 4 / Accomplishment
Satoru is trying his bext to save inviting her to go to the science center and then celebraste his B-Day before x-day. .His mother even stops Hinazuki ‘s mom from hitting him and saying they are friends. Her beatings stop and all goes well even the B-Day. Satoru is tired the next day and is late to pick up Hinazuki. He is almost late to roll call but then discovers Hinazuki is missing.
Assassination Classroom 2 EP 26 / Spinning Time
This was a good fun episode letting the boys shine then the rest of the class.
Koro sensei completes class and takes off for some faraway food Itona is building A RC Steath tank to kill Kore. But the bots see as second useful purpose . To peek at the girls. They help with parts paint even getting Ritsu ( unaware ) to let the lens see more! The tank goes through it’s tests but runs into a gopher / groundhog which attacks the tank.
The girls get wind of the use of the tank and the boys gey quite the scolding. The 2nd half is about training and everybody gets code names which was really funny!
Next the Asano father / son
GATE EP 16 / The Fire Dragon, Once More
They packed a lot into one EP / yet it felt OK,.Itami / Tuka / Lelei /Rory /Yao are trying to find the Fire Dragon Also some JSDF fighters arte looking to mostly b to scout the Dragon’s abilties.
Meanwhilre Deliah gets fake orders to kill Noriko but is confronted by Yanagida and both are badly hurt. The people who knew Deliah asre questioned by the MP’s but are surprised they aent thrown out of Alnus the MP’s saying Deliah is thev suspect . A JSDF spy Hitoshi gets wind that Zorral’s slave Tyuule is actually causing trouble and is able to get closer because Zorral likes his cooking.
THe Dragon Force gets to Yao’s village and are confronted by Dark Elves fter she leaves thinking they are the enemy. Howe ever The dragon attacks and all attention is diverted to the real danger. The convential weapons dont work. Lelei / Rory try hard. but it is finally Itami making Tuka finally know her father was killed by this dragon and fires an Rocket at it.
Heavy Object EP 16 / The Graveyard of Junk is a Mountain of Rare Metals -Interception at the Site of the Alaska Battle II
For myself this was an over the top episode ! Qwenthur gets into Oh Ho ho cockpit onlt to discover she is a young girl piloting the Gatling 033. Qwenthur gets Milinda,mad by saying if he dies an engagement ring must go back to Angelique which sets the Princees off . Also seeing him lay down in the fake image of G-cups gets Milandia to fire upon. The Gatling. Also Oh ho is teasing the hell out of Princess. But Qwenthur gets a set back when he discovers TYhe Gatling has an AI program named Juliette . Angelique was also the code name for an program to point out the flaws of an object’s A. I system.However the Informatio Alliance found by using a pilot tp over eroors it could work. B ut it was all code to get Havia to use the Water Strider wrwckasge to tsarget the Datling and confuse the AI system. Then he fakes a fail’ safe so Oh ho has to eject thus capturing an AI sytem.
BTW Oh ho singing again reminded me of an USO celeb.
The Object’s Battle was nicely done.
I really like the animation JC Staff has ben ariynd a while now!
HAIKYU!! 2 EP 17 /The Battle Without Will Power
After Daichi is injured Ennoshita must take is place as Capt. I wont go into too much but this was one of the best episodes so far . He quit once came back and has big shoes to fill. The fight goes on with Wakunan but the second game is in ?
RWBY Vol 3 EP 10 / Battle of Beacon
That was exciting / but a disater for Beacon.
Those who are upset that it took a Dark Turn or were not expecting this it was set up from the start with the trailers / songs RWBY episodes.
I could talk a lot but will do highlights!
1 Blake / Weis on on their own manage to to Yang who cant get a in touch with Ruby before she is cut-off the Duo call up their weapons from their rocket lockers,They fight Grim quite nicely.
2 Amity Dome Pyrrha is in shock and so is Ruby Juanne tries to get Pyrha to escape but not before A Griim is attacking but stopped by Ruby with Pyrrha ‘s swords The Grimm os going to attack again but bvrought down by Team’s JNPR / SSSn / CFVY / ABRN / FNKI and kill the Grim More are coming but PROF’s Port , Oobleck tell them to leave.
3 Ironwood has to take out a Grimm after his armed escorts are killed . First time in action and is OP. His action backs uo his tough words . Much respect . Team Beacon shows up and asks the situation and Ironwood says they could fight or leave in which their homor would not suffer .He goes after Roman who has control of the sky
Roman gerts rid of the Atlas sokiders on his ship /then using a scrool to turn the Army Robots against Beacon . Weiss / Blake – QROW / Glynda ave to defen against that.In Ironwoods sHip the soliders attack and the ship goes down > The Team Beacon is leaving to fight but goes after Roman’s ship where Roman sends out Neo.
5 After surviving Weiss / Blake split up tp go to the docks but Nlake encounters Adam.
Cinder w Emerald / Mercuty weatch the carnage.Ozpin id just dismayed but grams his weapon.
7 Team Beacon is fighting but big quakes are felt and the biggest Grimm comes out laying eggs ? at a rapid pace that produce more Grimm the heads for Ozpins tower,Cinders eyes are glowing.
Dimension W EP 4 / The Mystery Hidden in Lake Yasogami
Alfred Hitchcock / The Twilight Zone / Blade Runner all nicely mixed together for this EP
An incident 21 years ago with a numbers coil / a dam -flood / mystery writer creates a danger of Dimension W.
Al hires Mary / more specifically Kyoma to look into a wierd murder of a mydstery writer.
After Kyoma / Mira get to Lake Yasogami he runs into Al and punches him, Al wants to talk over a drink . Al tells Kyoma he vknows he is looking for the Numbers Coils. And Tells him one was invovled in the incident 21 years ago. The thing is Al likes Kyoma as a freind or whatever happened with Grendel. The murder is a mystery because the writer drowned in his room.But the Robot has video drop outs ans is revealed through Mart’s tech wiz the images were ghosts? ( Kinda like Blade runner)
Of cours Mira runs away onlt to transported to another dimension ( like Twilight Zone ) ans is captured by the ghosts.
Oh I forgot the 3 bad guys looking for the number coil too causing trouble. Just a cool episode.
Mira is about the coolest Robot ever who just cant get Kyoma;s respect.
Then Kyoma orders Mira to read all the stories and she is scared and takes a shower where shes sees another ghost ( a homage to the Movie Psycho ?)
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash EP 4 / Sky Dancing with Ash
First the animation / stiil art work is on another level Add to that a beatiful insert song for the sad occassion.
Those who dissed or dropped this show very bad idea, This wa quite a shocking episode. It starts out like eveything is OK. But the group gets over confident and take on thre Goblins who just outsmart them and take injuries and Manato the Group leader / healer takes a fatal arrow. To make things worst one of the Higher up Guild members says he needs a Funeral by tha Cremation to keep him from becoming a demon. The music still art was just overflowing . But I get tbhe Title as they teleased his ashes into the wind.
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The season continues to be solid all-around for me. Well, mostly, anyway. I’m still enjoying all of the shows in my core group, and like Dawnstorm, I’m finding Aokana more enjoyable as it goes along. Jury’s still out on which is the better anime, but If you asked me for which of the two visual novel adaptations I’d be more interested in downloading the original game (Shoujo-tachi or Aokana), right now it would be the latter.
I’ve put Phantom World on hold. I’m going to wait for feedback on whether it gets any better than this before I decide whether to finish it or just drop it. With that set aside and Tabi Machi Late Show now over, that brings me down to a manageable 7 shows for the rest of the season, assuming no further drops.
To Dawnstorm’s comments on Shoujo-tachi, I could totally sympathize with Buntaro in this episode when he gave the club his first draft script. As a writer, the one thing I hate more than anything are tepid emotional replies to my writing with no specific feedback. Just telling me “It’s good” or “It’s ok” with no specifics about what parts are good or bad is about the most frustrating and least helpful answer of all.
On Konosuba, I agree that the whole masochism thing doesn’t do very much for me (actually, some of her shtick reminded me of the character Paladin from last year’s Bikini Warriors, which is not a show that I ever want to find myself comparing Konosuba to), but I still got a good amount of laughs from the episode overall, especially the flying cabbages. Even so, more Aqua and Megumin and less Darkness next week, please.
Catalog stuff: I’m just about finished with Chunibyo season 1, only a couple of episodes left. It’s not grade A+ KyoAni, but flaws aside it’s a very pleasant and welcoming series, and thematically it’s exactly the sort of show that I really appreciate. Assuming the ending doesn’t fall totally flat, It’ll probably go just a small notch above Amagi on my KyoAni list, which is well below the Haruhi/Hyouka tier but still about six notches above Phantom World.
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OK, that explains better what I felt more positively about this weeks GBTW. As a photographer and an occasional poet, I’ve gotten those same damm tepid responses.
OTOH, I’ve backed away from giving real critique to writers because most of them (at best) will simple explain or handwave away your critique, and at worst will treat such as blasphemy to their work. Since there’s no way to tell in advance, even if they ask for critique… it’s easier just to stay away from that potential minefield. Photographers and haiku poets on the other hand are much more inclined to accept questions and critique.
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It does help to know who you’re dealing with. I’m one of those people that really wants feedback because I’m serious about my writing and want to make my work better, and to me when someone says, “It’s good,” what I hear is, “It’s not good enough, yet.” But I know there are also people who are just looking for praise and emotional validation and don’t really care about an honest critique – though I’ve been active in writing circles and fanfic communities for years, so I can usually spot those types pretty quick. I’d disagree with the comment that “most” writers are resistant to criticism, but it is true that many writers are emotionally attached their work like it’s their kids, so you have to be judicious in how to approach it. There are certain types of critiques and suggestions are normally acceptable, and other types that are usually off-limits.
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It may be the emotional attachment I’m seeing and misinterpreting as resistance.
I wonder if it’s a difference in culture? Photographers (as opposed to people who take pictures, not that there’s anything wrong with that) tend to think of their work as being more “external” (Hey, I happened to be there and catch this cool image!) than “internal” (this is me, my child.), which can change how you view these things. There’s also a trend to feel that if there’s something wrong with the image, the image is presumed to be innocent. The photographer is presumed to be guilty of making the wrong choice of setting, composition, or processing.
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