Whew, this is more like it! I have a bit less time to watch things than I did before (not that I am complaining), so I don't think I'll ever approach some crazy number like I have in the past, but I'd say this is a good week!
And here is a good number of UNMEI KAIHEN posts: Eps 14-16 of Kare Kano, ep2 of Letter Bee, a special post about Kemono no Souja Erin, eps 1-2 of Monster, ep27 of FMA: Brotherhood and ep2 of Kimi ni Todoke
Anime discussed: 11eyes, Axis Powers Hetalia, The Book of Bantorra, Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Genshiken 2, Golgo 13, Kampfer, Kemono no Souja Erin, Kimi ni Todoke, Kobato., Letter Bee, Rose of Versailles, Shion no Ou, Shugo Chara! Dokki Doki, Sora no Manimani, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun. Umineko no Naku Koro ni
11eyes eps 1-2
Hm, there are a decent number of things in this episode that could be interesting, but none of it really seems to gel, at least in this episode. I admit to being somewhat intrigued by the mystery -- or, at least, I want to know what the hell is going on, haha. All the parts that interested me had to do with the main characters, Kakeru and Yuka, getting transported to some strange, alternate world bathed in red, where they must both fight monsters. And there are apparently a bunch of people who are watching the both of them. Who knows who is good and who is bad? Everything else is kind of generic, though. Kakeru and Yuka strike me more as characters paired for the purpose of a story rather than people who are longtime friends. Their friends are also pretty generic, although the school nurse is kinda hot. Damn you for taking advantage of my weaknesses, 11eyes!
Ep2 is a bit better. More action is a good thing, and I am becoming a bit more interested in the story behind the Red Night, the girl in the crystal and Sauron that one dude who wants Kakeru, Yuka and Misuzu the hell out of there. The actual action itself is a bit better than in the first episode, too, although there are some lame parts where the show tries to hide stuff, haha. The comedy bits are still blah, though. Even in tiny portions, the annoying best friend sucks, and Yukiko's perkiness is kind of half-annoying, too. But it's obvious she is one of the people trapped in the Red Night, so there is more to her character.
I'll keep watching until the series gives me a reason not to, but it is not really a blowaway show at the moment.
Axis Powers Hetalia ep38
D'aww, Germany and Italy are friends forever~
The Book of Bantorra ep2
I am interested in how the Meats resonate with the books. Right now, I'm guessing that the Meats really are not supposed to read the books, given their lowly status in the church. But what really has me thinking is the fact that Colio only gets brief flashes of memory when he touches a piece of a book that has been broken from the whole. That makes it more clear to me that these books house the information -- the memories -- of the soul. Colio's reaction to it is kind of strange, though. Unless I am reading it incorrectly, the memories appear to trick him into thinking the person he sees, the ever-laughing witch, is still alive. And it also appears that the show is subtly hinting at a connection between this witch and Meseta, whom Colio is attempting to kill. Speaking of killing, Meseta kills the hell out of all the Meats who were planning to kill her. As shown in the first episode, her ability allows her to telepathically link to whoever is within the range of those silver lines she sends out, and she also has extraordinary physical abilities. And she is kind of an asshole. But, hey, nobody's perfect.
This episode is better than the first, I think -- it is more focused, anyway, and there is less random, confusing crap. The Title Drop in the beginning of the episode also hints at what the villains may be after: A real book of the dead that encompasses the information of a god, rather than a book that has the information of humans.
Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini ep1
Haha, damn, it took BONES just one episode to get me all pumped for Darker than Black again! Best first episode of the season, I say. It does a good job of introducing an intriguing new story while also getting people reacquainted with this world. (I remembered a few of the basics, such as the fake stars and the remuneration and whatnot, but had also forgotten a few things as well, since it has been more than two years since I saw Darker than Black.) Really liked how the episode balanced Suou's "normal" life with her family (well, about as normal as life with a contractor and someone researching that contractor can be) and shit going down in the second half of the episode, with this military group after Suou's contractor twin brother, Shion, and their father's research, and MI6 trying to get at the scraps. Kind of shocking that someone like April, who survived the first season, is dead already, and by Hei's hand, no less, apparently.
I'm interested see what Hei's motivation is in searching for the meteor pieces and acting in such a strong way, especially since at the end of the first season, he realizes he has not lost his humanity despite being a contractor. Not that Hei has ever been shy about killing, but going after April seems a bit extreme, although you never know what MI6 had planned.
Good show, though. Loved the fight between April and the hamburger-eating contractor. Glad to see I can still turn to Darker than Black for a damn good fight! I'm also interested to see that this series apparently has just 12 episodes. I thought there would be more, so I guess BONES has already set a direction for this series from start to finish. Here's hoping that leads to a better ending than the first season received!
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ep27
Mainly a recap episode, although it is not completely half-assed since there are scenes where Hohenheim dreams up a conversation among himself, Father, a young Pinako and Trisha, and it mostly serves to help him through a moment of weakness regarding whatever it is he is doing in the background, while the main characters are all doing crazy things. Not bad at all for a recap episode.
Genshiken 2 eps 6-8
Ogiue. <3 How anyone could not love her immediately is beyond me. Her battles with Ohno are particularly fun. I love how she refuses to give in to Ohno on every point possible, but there will be this little twitch inside her when Ohno says something that really digs under her skin, such as when Ohno name drops some series Ogiue likes that are getting the doujinshi treatment at Comifes. And then poor, mortified Ogiue absolutely has to swallow her pride and grab a piece of some of that sweet, sweet boys lovin'. And then we have Ohno as president while Sasahara goes out for some super early job hunting, and Ohno goes full on cosplay with her plans for the club. I always felt kind of sorry for Kuchiki in ep8, because he actually does do something useful in that episode, but he is a total creeper the whole time, too, so he kind of brings the bad things upon himself.
Golgo 13 ep24
I am pulling my hair out trying to decipher who voices the female sniper in this episode. My initial thought was Kikuko Inoue -- which would be pretty awesome -- but the more I heard the character, the more I was convinced I was on the wrong track. There's nothing on ANN or any other sites I have looked on, either. Argh, I should probably know this, but my brain is just not making the connection, for some reason. Bah. lol thx Dagger <3 Anyway, this is about normal for a Golgo 13 episode: Someone is hired to kill Golgo, she sets up a plan to weaken him, but ultimately Golgo is able to outplan her because is the god of sniping. Also, they do it, and it's HILARIOUS.
There is an interesting idea brought up in the middle of the episode, though. The people who want Golgo dead believe he is dangerous because he is a sniper who takes on jobs without ideology in mind. If Golgo is paid to do a job, he will do it, no matter how "good" or "evil" the kill is. The two men, from Interpol, cannot conceive of someone killing without something deeper driving him or her, whether it's for one's country, ambitions of power, a love of killing or something. Even the money does not seem as though it drives Golgo, because he is so detached from everything. He is simply a man who does his job -- all he asks is for the money and the reason for the job. His customers supply the ideas; Golgo just carries them out.
Kampfer ep2
Sangou has to be the only person who is actually interested in why the Kampfer fight each other. I certainly don't give a shit. This episode offers more of the same that ep1 showed -- some decent fighting; Akane being cute, hilarious and a badass in one package (Senou is thick as a brick if he cannot see Akane throwing herself at him); some lolgenderbending wackiness; some funny references and fourth-wall breaking (executed better than in a certain Seitokai no Ichizon); and the stuffed animals are still amusing. I feel like part of the Lowest Common Denominator by being entertained by this series, but whatever.
Kemono no Souja Erin ep36
It is kind of amazing to think about how much Erin has grown up through this series. I didn't even notice the subtle changes in her character design from when she first started college to now when she has graduated. Jeez. Most of this episode is a celebration of life (appropriate since Lilan is now pregnant) and how it grows every day (the graduation of the students and how most of them move on to new, exciting lives; I really like the simplicity of that montage and how it works well to stir up strong emotions). Of course, there is a sinister undercurrent to all of this: To secure more funds to raise both Eku and the baby, Kiriku volunteers to tell the palace of the upcoming birth ... and among those told, of course, is Damiya, that villainous trickster. And he has a talk with Kiriku to which the viewers are not privy. I wonder how much Kiriku has told Damiya? Esal asked that Erin be kept out of things, but will Kiriku honor that?
Kimi ni Todoke ep2
In a way, I like this more than the first episode. At the very least, it does a better job of portraying Sawako's loneliness as something real she has had to deal with for a long time instead of a more jokey thing that is easily dealt with. It helps that the teasing and rumors Sawako has to endure are a bit less exaggerated, although there is still some silliness with people thinking Sawako is cursed and whatnot (some of it is funny, but I can't help but think that everyone in this school other than the mains is an idiot when that stuff comes up lol). Also, is it just me, or is Sawako cuter with her hair up? I can't be the only person who feels this way. The potential relationship between Kazehaya and Sawako is progressing nicely, too. They are both tentative at the moment; it is pretty easy to tell that both of them have very limited (at best) experience with romantic relationships. I've warmed up to Kazehaya a bit more after this episode because he is such a dork in his approach to Sawako lol. I hope Yano and Yoshida start getting larger roles soon as well. They make me laugh whenever they appear. And I love this Ryuu character already. His single-minded logic of, "I'm sitting in the back of the class, near this window, no matter who is sitting next to me, and that is that" cracks me up.
And it appears as if Sawako will get a love rival soon. :O It is pretty obvious from frame one that this new girl has strong feelings for Kazehaya. We'll see how this goes.
Kobato. ep2
Damn you, Kobato, you temptress; I have fallen for your charms. There is not that much to this episode: Kobato engages in some more amusing banter with her plushie protectorate, Ioryogi; spends a fourth of the episode misunderstanding what it means to help people; agrees to work at a nursery school for free and dances with kids; and helps a kid by telling him what a good mother he has and not forcing any pity upon him. It's simple, sweet stuff, but somehow it does not go completely overboard into dumb, empty saccharine fluff. Then again, I don't know if I could stick around if every episode of the series were like this. Hopefully it gets a bit more interesting soon.
Letter Bee ep2
Another good episode. I'm sad Gauche and Lag's journey together has to end so soon. I liked them together and definitely would have watched a series with just them traveling all around the wastelands, delivering letters. That would have been awesome. But instead, we have the final step in Lag's decision to become a Bee. My one real complaint about this episode is that the CGI bug looks even worse now than it did in the first episode. It is really bad -- almost mid '90s crappy CGI bad. The fight isn't so bad -- and there is an interesting twist with Lag's Amber eye -- but the bug looks so terrible that it just took me out of it. Luckily it does not take up much time.
Rose of Versailles eps 26-30
Is it bad that I am disappointed Andre doesn't get an eyepatch after the Black Knight cuts Andre's eye? The hair over the eye looks kind of badass, but an eyepatch would have been really badass. Plus, it totally would have gone perfectly with Andre's swordfighting. I am now quite angered that Andre did not start wearing an eyepatch. Anyway, I like the Black Knight arc just fine, more so for Andre and Oscar's struggles than for anything having to do with the Black Knight, who is kind of lame, actually. How could you have a name like the Black Knight and still be kind of a dork? Andre would have been a badass Black Knight. Especially with an eyepatch. But I digress.
(After I finished the series, I read through the TV Tropes page, and someone mentions that Andre does get an eyepatch. Am I as blind as Andre, and he really does have one??)
Oscar and Andre's relationship really takes center stage in this run of episodes. Andre is basically blind in his left eye, and his right eye starts to fail under the strain of taking on all the sight. He becomes frightened that he literally will never see Oscar again, especially after Oscar tells Andre that she is joining the French Guard so that she can participate in riskier missions to live more as a man. (Oscar comes to this decision after Fersen confronts her about her feelings; he cannot return those feelings, although he values Oscar as a friend, but Oscar says that they should never see each other again, which pretty much kills any kind of romantic love in Oscar for the time being.) The news temporarily drives Andre mad, and he responds by ... well, he basically nearly rapes Oscar. There is no nicer way to put it. He does not get further than ripping off her shirt before he comes to his senses and realizes what a shitty thing he is doing, but that does not excuse the action at all. My heart just about stopped when that scene began, and I nearly screamed, "WH-WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING, ANDRE??????????" And then he actually confesses to her after that. What the hell is he thinking?? That would drive me away from someone forever.
But now Oscar is concentrating solely on her life as a man. She has run into trouble with her company, which does not want to take orders from a woman, but she has started beating some sense into them. And Andre is also there to protect Oscar, which he damn well had better be doing after physically assaulting her. It pretty much shows how strong Oscar's feelings for Andre are that she can still be on good terms with him after that whole thing. Oscar's dad also tries to set up an engagement with Gerodere, because he feels guilty for raising Oscar as a man all these years, but Oscar just digs her heels in even more and resolves to continue down the path she has started. But I do agree with her father that even though Oscar has decided to keep living as a man, it does not mean that she cannot find love. Keep your heart open, Oscar!
eps 31-35
The situation with the French Revolution is intensifying, as are Oscar's personal feelings. After she and Andre are jumped by a group of peasants, Oscar is saved by Fersen, but she shouts about where "my Andre!!!!" is, which is the first time Oscar has admitted to feeling any sort of romantic love for Andre out loud, and it shocks her. I lol'd at Fersen's reaction, which is pretty much, "Wha? o_O ... k lol" Not entirely sure how I feel about this considering the, you know, attack. I'm starting to warm up to it a bit, though, because 1) Andre was clearly not in his right mind when he did it, and he has shown time and again that he is not the type of person who would harm another person in that way. It does not excuse what he did, mind, but it makes it slightly easier to forgive. 2) I can understand why Oscar would fall for Andre. She is not the type of person who would focus endlessly on something she could not have, which is why she is able to move on from Fersen, who does not truly love her, even though he likes her a lot. Andre, meanwhile, has the kind of fierce loyalty that Oscar treasures. Even after Oscar is all, "gtfo Andre" Andre still follows her to the French Guard. Maybe he's hoping if he protects her enough, she will call discontinuity on all that bad stuff.
Some of the random stuff, like Bernard and Rosalie getting married, is making me laugh. What the hell? I guess she took care of him really well when he needed to heal. Man. Alain and his sister, on the other hand, is not too funny. Poor girl. I guess she really loved the guy, but damn, doesn't it make you glad that society has moved on to the point to where if a girl is spurned, she does not have to react like, "OH MY GOD LIFE OVER MUST KILL SELF." Alain looks so crushed, too. Complete opposite of the happy-go-lucky guy who is also serious enough to challenge Oscar to a duel to defend the honor of the dude he thinks Oscar sold out. That is a hell of a fight btw. I love all the swordfights in this series. If I were directing this, Oscar would be clashing swords everywhere. She'd be doing shit like drinking tea and owning random dudes on the side. And it would be awesome.
But despite all the craziness and danger with the French Revolution (and there is a lot of danger, with that crazy douchebag boner Saint-Just running around making assassination attempts out the ass), what has me most worried is Oscar coughing up blood in ep34. And it is not touched upon once after that. OMG. RED ALERT RED ALERT RED ALERT. If Oscar dies, I fly to France and start my own revolution. This will not stand.
eps 36-40
OSCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Despite my crazed ramblings at the end of the last section, I of course completely expected a tragic ending. (Come on. All the signs are there, and it is the freakin' French Revolution, after all.) But that does not take the sting out of the tragedy. There is such dread during the episode where Andre dies -- if I didn't think before that he would die, then I would have been convinced of it during the scene at the end of ep37, where Gen. Jarjayes tells Andre that he would have allowed Andre to marry Oscar if Andre were a noble. And then ep38 makes it clear from the beginning that Andre is marked for death; it happens in the worst possible way, when Andre is shot through the heart (of course) after Oscar's company is ambushed by the French forces. As much as I disliked his desperate attack on Oscar, I was really sad when the life finally faded from Andre's eyes. Andre and Oscar finally cemented their love for each other -- and they even found some time for loving! -- and then, boom! Dead. Way to destroy a good thing, French Revolution!
But that does not compare to the despair I felt when Oscar dies. :( Her world is rocked so much even before Andre dies, because while she believes participating in the Revolution is the right thing to do, it's tough for her to go against Marie Antoinette. And Andre's death hits her so hard because of her belief that it is a greater sin to not recognize love than it is to betray love. (Man, isn't that a hell of a thing to think about? It seems weird because of how much Oscar values loyalty, but then again, maybe it makes sense because of that, too -- Andre is near her for so long, perhaps the most loyal person she knows, and yet she is not able to recognize and return his love until it is almost too late. Andre isn't really too forward with his love until the end, though, haha.) After Andre dies, I think Oscar realizes that it is her destiny to join him in death, which is why she is so insane and reckless with her life afterward. I mean, she just barrels through those soldiers when she tries to save Andre! Damn! And also when she fights those soldiers when she wanders through the city at night, confused and distraught. Oscaaaaaaaaar. ;_; But she is amazing when she leads the charge against the Bastille and proudly gives her life to inspire the soldiers to victory. She knows she is going to die, so she dies as she believes a soldier should -- leading her men. I'm also absurdly happy that Oscar is at least able to find love AND stay a complete badass. Hell yes.
There are a ton of other devastating moments other than the ones involving Oscar and Andre's love affair and their deaths. Anything involving Marie Antoinette is particularly heartwrenching. The scene at the end of ep36 where Oscar confronts Marie Antoinette and tries to get her to peacefully resolve things with the citizens, only for Marie Antoinette to respond that she cannot because she believes in the sanctity of the throne? Oh my god. Just a powerful scene all around. Oscar admitting she cannot protect Marie Antoinette from the Revolution because she is no longer in the Royal Guards, the tears and then the silent acknowledgement from both that they will never see each other again ... agh. Then there is the famous scene where Marie Antoinette bows to the people from her balcony. And the scene where Marie's children are taken, and the man who takes them tells her about his own children who starved to death while Marie's family lived in luxury in Versailles. And Marie's execution. All so damn sad. And there's also all the terrible post-Revolution stuff that happens. Fersen becomes a cold-hearted ruler who is slaughtered by his people 10 years down the road?? Robespierre and Saint-Just are executed in political struggles?? (Well, I knew about that, but still.) Polignac and her gaggle of a-holes are able to escape, but the Royal Family is all beheaded?? As Bernard or Alain (can't remember which) says, it is probably for the best that Oscar did not live to see things beyond the Revolution. Her Justice Meter would have exploded.
If it is not obvious yet, I absolutely loved Rose of Versailles, and it has immediately scored a place in my all-time top 10. This is the kind of series that makes me really love anime. It is kind of insane to think this was made in 1979. The level of sophistication in this show's visual style and storytelling is so far beyond the average series today that it isn't even funny.
Shion no Ou eps 1-5
I do not know shit about shogi (I suck at chess, too), so I have no clue about the significance of the moves the players make in each game, but all I know is that it is entertaining as hell watching them go to war against each other. The individual personalities of each character really shine when put to the test against another really good player. For instance, there is the match Nikaidou and Ayumi play in the fifth episode. Going into it, Nikaidou is jealous because a man she looks up to, Makoto Hani, praised Ayumi's skills after a match Ayumi played against the show's protagonist, Shion. Also, Nikaidou is a bit nervous that her natural playing style is not up to snuff -- that it is not tough enough to get her far in the world. On the other side, Ayumi is absurdly confident and ready to rip out Nikaidou's throat; Ayumi absolutely needs the money to pay for hospital bills (the ol' mom is sick). But as the match goes on, and the pressure intensifies, both players have completely different reactions to the way the game unfolds. It is just interesting to see each person plumb depths of their personalities they did not know existed, and pull out something unexpected. For example, Nikaidou has a much stronger thirst for victory right now.
But if this series were just all shogi all the time, then it would not be very interesting. Shion no Ou follows Shion Yasuouka, a middle schooler who witnessed the murder of her parents when she was five years old. The trauma of this was so great that she can no longer speak. In the present time, Shion is a shogi player -- she picks up the game due to the murder scene all those years ago -- who is quickly climbing the ranks. And as she plays, Shion slowly remembers bits and pieces of the murder. Perhaps not coincidentally, the police are also finding clues related to those murders and work their hardest to pursue the killer.
There has been a bit more focus on the shogi than the murder mystery so far, although there is a brief story involving someone stalking Shion. But that will probably change once Shion starts remembering more of the crime. The series is also doing a good job of mixing in the other characters. Ayumi desperately needs money but also has this strange teacher who looks quite sinister to me. Nikaidou presents a sweet, candy-coated personality on the outside, but she secretly has both Shion and Ayumi checked out and generally seems as if she is hiding something. I don't think she has done anything especially horrible, herself, but maybe there is something bad in her past similar to Shion. Makoto has already said that his father died when Makoto was young, Shion's parents were murdered in front of her and Ayumi has a sick mother. Theme sensors are on high alert.
Lastly, it has to be said that Shion is absolutely adorable, and it is awesome when she turns into a serious badass on the shogi field. Damn right.
eps 6-10
So, the series seems to be setting up Satoru Hani as the man who murdered Shion's parents, but right now I am not sure whether to go along with it, or to think it is a red herring. Certainly both Satoru and his brother, Makoto, are both acting suspiciously. Makoto wants to bring down the world of shogi, for whatever reason, and the ongoing touranment is somehow a means to that end. Meanwhile, Satoru wants to finish the shogi match his brother left incomplete many years ago when their mother died. What is interesting about Makoto is that he has a connection with Shinji Yasuoka (Shion's adoptive father) via an apprentice of Shinji's who was also a rival of Makoto's. I wonder if he also had a connection with Shion's parents, since this apprentice was going to take on Shion as a shogi student before he got sick and died. Really, we don't know anything about Shion's parents, other than their last name. Who were they? What did they do? Whom did they know? Why were they killed? (I fully expect none of these questions to be answered until the end.)
There seems to be something else suspicious about Makoto, too. I may be way off base, but from what little we see of the person who feeds Suo Honma information about Shion on the Internet, the person has some of Makoto's features. But why would Makoto be feeding this sort of information to one of Shion's opponents? Is he actually the murderer? Or is he helping out his brother? Definitely not sure what to think of those two.
Outside of the mystery, Ayumi is much more likable now. Ayumi has the occasional grumpy moment still, but is on the whole much more sympathetic. Maybe it is because Ayumi is actually making an effort to befriend Shion and encourage their rivalry. Shock! Ayumi's teacher, Kamizono, is still kind of whatever to me. I actually did not like the episode where he fights Nikaidou and loses. The bit of story with Kamizono's dead wife is really underdeveloped, and the frailty of Kamizono's body leading to Nikaidou being able to take advantage and win the match comes off as too much of a hand wave excuse to propel Nikaidou through the tournament for my tastes. It basically suggests that she would have stood no chance against Kamizono were it not for that (which is probably true, but still); luck and physicality are big parts of the game, of course, but it is tough to be too impressed with Nikaidou's talent in that situation.
Hearing about how insular the world of shogi is in this series always makes me laugh. It reminds me a lot of this book I read -- The Kings of New York -- which is about the chess world. It, too, is full of obsessives and idiosyncratic people who have an arrogant view of outsiders. Most of those people have been cut down to size, though, haha. I wonder how much longer this tournament will last, by the way. There are still a ton of match ups to be played. I could see this going on until at least ep15, maybe even longer.
Right now, though, the most important thing is finding out who the creeper is who uses Hisatani's cell phone to call Shion. Creeper, creeper, creeper. You give me the creeps!
eps 11-15
So, I am pretty much convinced that Satoru is the killer; the main thing now is figuring out why he did it, and why he is screwing with Shion now. Without knowing more about Shion's parents, I don't think I can make a good guess, though. For now I will just be happy with being thoroughly repulsed by Satoru. I swear he becomes more of an asshole whenever he appears in a new scene. Maybe it is because he spends almost all of his spare time screwing around with everyone. Satoru messes with his brother (sends a text message to Nikaidou), Nikaidou (sends her to Ayumi's mom), Ayumi (Nikaidou finds out his identity[ because of this), Shion (he tries to break her completely during their match) and the police (with how quickly Satoru's information is delivered to the police by Sachiko, and how quickly they declare it invalid, I can only assume that Satoru did this purposely). The whole thing with Sachiko's brother, Kazuyoshi, turns out to be a red herring -- maybe to waste time? -- but I get the feeling the thing with Kazumi, who was a friend of Shion's mother, will come up again, especially since Satoru has a brief flash of thought about a woman named Kazumi. Maybe Kazumi was his mom, and something happened to make him hate the Yasuokas? And then there is his extreme hatred of shogi ... I dunno. I find it kind of funny that Satoru isn't even attempting to hide the fact that he is a total asshole now. Ayumi is suspicious of him, Makoto is suspicious, Nikaidou will probably be suspicious soon, the police are suspicious and so on. Shion is slowly connecting the dots, too.
Aside from that, I am liking how the series is using shogi in stronger ways to highlight character development. Shion's honesty, Satoru's deception, Makoto's strength and love and Shinji's calmness all show in their shogi. Makoto's approach to the game world as a whole also shows him as someone who values fairness and justice. He doesn't want to just destroy the world of shogi; rather, he wants to tear it down and build it anew, with no bias about who should be strong and who should not be strong. Strength is strength, regardless of who possesses it. Now I'm not so sure it was him who fed Honma the information about Shion. I guess it was actually Satoru all along, and the visuals played a trick with my eyes somehow.
The tournament is progressing in a good way right now. By now, it is obvious the tournament will stretch until the very end of the series, which I have no problem with. It is a good move to have Shion, Ayumi and Nikaidou all lose in their matches against people who are clearly stronger opponents (Satoru, Shinji and Makoto, respectively). I'm glad the series didn't attempt some ass pull with one of the three women finding some dumb way to win. The preliminary round that enables Shion and Ayumi to play their way into the final round is kind of a cop out, but then again, I am not really familiar with shogi tournaments, so for all I know this could be a common occurrence in them.
Shinji faces Shion in the first battle of the finals, and it is a good fight. You can really feel the pride Shinji has for Shion as they go to war on the board, and Shion pulls out everything she can to beat Shinji. This outcome actually strikes me as believable because Shion really has to fight for it, and she goes way out of her element to get a strategy that will frustrate Shinji (making her moves quickly, and forcing Shinji to take up time thinking about them, so he will run out of time and have to make his moves without giving them due consideration). The battle is certainly not what Satoru expects when he rigs it so that the two will go up against each other. He probably thought there would be some heartbreak on the board, but Shion and Shinji love each other enough to truly go all out on the board. lol @ Satoru. He gets frustrated when Shion accepts her loss to him with grace, too. Great moment there.
eps 16-17
lol and of course Satoru as the murderer is a red herring. Well, it is not officially a red herring yet, but his behavior pattern suggests that he has been pushing Shion all along so that she will remember more about the killer, and thus Satoru will be able to catch the person who killed Kazumi, the woman he loved. Doesn't excuse him being an asshole, though. If Satoru isn't the killer, though, then who actually is the killer? If this series does a random ass pull and makes Kazuyoshi the killer, I swear ...
On other fronts, Ayumi's mom dies, and with her, so does everything that holds him back in the world of shogi, which is kind of weird. Now he is throwing himself completely into the shogi world, getting rid of his female identity, cutting his hair and becoming Makoto's apprentice. I wonder how Shion will react when she sees the new Ayumi for the first time.
Speaking of Shion, she is facing Satoru right now, and she has come to a startling realization -- her shogi style was influenced not by Shinji but by the man who killed her parents. That is kind of crazy, and perhaps the reason why she is so limited. I mean, her shogi is based off feelings of murder. You can't get much more destructive than that, which is not Shion at all. Or, perhaps, was her taking on this style of shogi a defense her mind concocted to protect her from the horror of remembering everything about her parents' murder?
Shugo Chara! Dokki Doki eps 1-2
Watched five seconds of the live action portion, laughed at how terrible it is and skipped it (although I also felt kind of filthy for watching even that much of it). Didn't watch much of the bit with Amu's Charas, either. That is, like, half the episode right there. Thankfully, the other half, which is the main part of the show, is at least kind of interesting. It introduces a new character, Rikka Hiiragi, an elementary school student who can speak with X Eggs. Not much happens in this episode, other than Rikka getting into a few scrapes and introducing her power, but I do like that she is sympathetic to the X Eggs, which will make for some cool conflicts down the road. The jokes with Rikka being hyperactive and not listening to the Guardians are also funny. I laughed particularly hard at Rima's reaction to being ignored.
Still, despite the fact that I enjoyed the main portion of this episode, the fact that half of it can be completely skipped kind of sucks.
Ep2's main portion is about as good as the first episode. In an interesting surprise, Hikaru joins the Guardians as an apprentice (because Yaya will be the only Guardian remaining once the others graduate), and Rikka also finangles her way into becoming an apprentice by the end of the episode. It will be pretty funny to see Hikaru's Serious Business personality play off Rikka's insane energy and optimism. Also love the moment in the beginning of the episode when Rikka feels overwhelmed by all the X Eggs in her room, so she tries to copy Amu and use Open Heart on all of them, only for the move to completely fail, because, uh, she does not have that power. Poor girl, haha.
Sora no Manimani ep12
It ends in a similar way to a lot of series of this type (moving on a bit, setting things up for a second season and not really providing any romantic resolution at all), but for some reason, this finale strikes me as pretty charming. Maybe it is just because I am still so charmed by how in love everyone is with astronomy. The 9-year-old in me just leaps for joy when the characters go off on these astronomy lectures. Roma and Oumi's date is really cute, too. If this series does get a second season, then I hope those two come back. I like them. The ending is a lot of fun. Mihoshi as the Astronomy Club president will be interesting, haha. She is the complete opposite of Roma in temperment, haha. xD And more hints of Fumie x Saku~ I don't know which pairing I prefer, but the more chances there are to have Fumie look cute, the better, I say.
There is nothing too original about Sora no Manimani, but it combines a fun sense of earnestness with solid execution to produce a fun series. I'd definitely watch a second season.
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun ep2
Well, this episode slows the pace just a bit after the action of the opening episode. It is pretty funny, though, so I don't mind that much. I love the various ways Kuroko tries to get closer to Mikoto. Didn't really connect with her story so much, since she is so goofy that it is kind of difficult to take her seriously, but I did enjoy the twist on the "Everything is all better now!" ending because I called that Kuroko would drink out of the thermos she brought that had the aphrodisiac mixed into the drink. :P The misunderstanding at the end is amusing, too. I know the girls said they would pretend they just did not see anything, but I would laugh if some bad rumors spread around the school because of that, haha. Also, I LOL'd hard at the random ass Casablanca reference, with Kuroko casting herself as Ingrid Bergman and Mikoto as Humphrey Bogart.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni ep15
What I am most interested after this episode is how Beatrice will continue the game. She has pissed off Battler more than he can stand, and considering her reaction after he slaps the bejeezus out of her, I assume this is the first time Beatrice has had to deal with someone defying her so directly. Beatrice probably received her "powers" (or whatever the IRL equivalent of them is) at a relatively young age, and because she had all that power at her disposal, she did not really have a need to mature beyond that, which is why she has such a childlike reaction to Battler storming out of the game. (Come to think of it, this is probably why she is so close to Maria, too. Maria is probably the only person on the island to whom Beatrice can relate on an emotional level.) Now Beatrice is trying to be more appeasing by telling Evatrice to cool it a bit and find more "elegant" ways to use her magic and kill everyone (which is pretty lol worthy). Beatrice's lack of maturity and, well, basic morality prevents her from really seeing why Battler is angry, so she is trying to do whatever she can to get him back into the game, since she enjoys playing with him and all.
As for Eva becoming the new Beatrice ... well, all I can say is I am not sure what to think right now, haha. It seems to me that Eva has some sort of mental issue, which I believe would make her more susceptible to being influenced by someone like Beatrice, or, perhaps, going crazy at the sight of all that money. Beatrice and Virgilia are correct when they say Eva and Evatrice are the same person, but that does not necessarily mean that Evatrice always acts as a physical manifestation of Eva (the scene where she hugs the gold could easily be imagined) or that she does things at the same time the "real" Eva is with other people. That said, I am not entirely sure that Eva is the culprit right now. It seems almost too easy to assume something like that.
