I wonder how much this will shrink next week?
Anime discussed: Axis Powers Hetalia, Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini, Kampfer, Letter Bee, Now and Then, Here and There, Shugo Chara! Party, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Trapeze, Umineko no Naku Koro ni
UNMEI KAIHEN: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Kimi ni Todoke, Sasameki Koto
Axis Powers Hetalia ep48
LOL England tries to confess on his deathbed that he doesn't think America is actually that bad a guy at all, and America uses the opportunity to needle England for money, and to also trick England into thinking he is glad he is dead so that England will be shocked back to life. America is a good friend.
Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini ep11
I'm slightly wary of the finale, because it feels as if the show is juggling too many storylines at one time that must converge for the final episode of the series. Like, Oreille and the twins have been hanging out in the background for most of the series, and I still don't have a solid grasp of what they are after; it's good to still have a sense of mystery about something, but hopefully the end result of all that mystery is executed well. And then there's the battle between Hei and Hazuki. No doubt it will be awesome, but will it get the time it deserves? The episode will have to switch between the endgame of the plot and the battle between two of the strongest contractors in the show; will it be able to strike a good balance between those two? I'm excited for the finale, but at the same time I am sort of dreading it. I would make predictions and comment on story-related stuff, but I would probably just end up embarrassing myself.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ep37
Winry going gaga for Buccaneer's automail got me thinking ... there has to be at least one Winry x Buccaneer shipper out there, right? This is the Internet; anything is possible. The idea of it weirds me out, and yet I find it hilarious. Also, it took inappropriate shipping to boot Kimblee out of this week's main discussion spot. So that's something.
Kampfer ep12
Reminds me a bit of Excel Saga's final episode, in that the creators probably decided, "You know what? We're probably not getting a second season, and it's not as if this show is some masterpiece, anyway, so let's go as far as we can" and then made all the characters into bigger lesbians than they were before. Not only that, but the girls and the seppuku plushies switch bodies, for some reason. Apparently it's all a part of a story two parents -- who both look disturbingly like Natsuru -- are reading to their kid. Gotta say, that kid is going to be pretty screwed up one day.
Kimi ni Todoke ep12
It has to be said: The drama in this series is bad. REALLY bad. I'm facepalming so much at this Kurumi storyline.
Letter Bee ep12
I'd question why there is Christmas whoops Holy Day lol in this world, but the sight of Lag and Zazie in Santa whoops Holy Messenger lol outfits -- complete with ridiculous fake beards -- almost makes this worth it.
Now and Then, Here and There eps 1-4
I barely noticed last week that this is airing on SyFy (again, I'm pretty dumb when it comes to schedules), and it sounded interesting enough, so I decided to catch up to where SyFy is at right now. For the unfamiliar: This series follows a normal, insanely optimistic boy, Shu, who stumbles upon a (shock) mysterious girl watching the sunset one day. He strikes up a conversation with her, and all of a sudden some soldiers barge in out of nowhere searching for the girl, Lala Ru. Long story short, they take Lala Ru back to their world, but Shu is accidentally transported with them, and he also gains possession of a necklace Lala Ru had around her neck. So far the episodes have mainly concerned hunting for Shu and the necklace. It sounds pretty basic, but where Now and Then, Here and There really grabs the viewers' attention is its willingness to put Shu and his eternally optimistic personality through the very worst kind of hell.
The world in which Shu finds himself is a classic post-apocalyptic desert wasteland. Water is a precious, precious resource, and the pendant and Lala Ru are apparently the keys to securing more. One of this world's insane dictators, Hamdo, does not hesitate to beat Shu and order torture after torture so that Shu will talk. Shu isn't the only one suffering, either; the state of Hamdo's army is in such disarray that one of his main units is a corps of child soldiers. Hamdo's right-hand woman, Abelia, is torn between extreme loyalty to Hamdo and constant fear of disappointment, which might one day drive her as mad as he is. Hamdo himself lives in a state of perpetual paranoia; he is convinced the rulers of other nations are after him 24/7 because of his plan to bring peace to the world. To say this world is brutal would be a pretty big understatement.
I will say that I'm not completely into the series yet. I do really like the contrast between Shu's childlike code of honor when it comes to war, life and battle and the philosophy of Nabuca, the de facto leader of the child troops who has long since accepted that there is no price costly enough for survival. So far the story is set up so that Shu will influence his captors (the grunts, anyway), but my philosophy -- when it comes to life-or-death fighting, anyway -- is more in line with Nabuca. Honor doesn't mean much when one's life is the price for it. Off the battlefield, though, Nabuca is definitely affected by honor: He doesn't want anyone to know Shu saves him during their first battle, because it is dishonorable to be saved by the enemy. (This is where we disagree. I'd be thanking my lucky ass stars to be saved, haha.) Shu doesn't really understand how Nabuca thinks; however, he's starting to get it as he sees more of the chaos in this world. He might never agree with it, but he'll understand it. I'm looking forward to how their relationship develops.
However, like a lot of works that deal with themes of war and violence, Now and Then, Here and There straddles the line between intense violence that also has real meaning behind it, and violence that serves to make the antagonists more sinister but is ultimately empty and needlessly cruel. (Which is a point in and of itself, but there's a level of violence that eventually becomes sensationalist and exploitative.) Hamdo is a mixed bag, for example. There's a moment where he slaps Shu around a few times that I "enjoyed" (such as it is) for how it swiftly reveals the man's cruelty; however, a lot of his antics and temper tantrums are so over the top and come across as if the creators are trying too hard to make Hamdo a memorably crazy villain. He has his moments, but a lot of his behavior comes off like, "I'm acting crazy here so the audience knows I'm crazy! Ha ha ha!" There's a heavily implied rape scene (nothing shown, but the symbolism is obvious even to me) that is incredibly uncomfortable, but not yet pushing the series into exploitation territory. All that really depends on where the series goes from here, since I don't think I can properly judge any of that right now. But at the very least the series has me going over the ol' violence in media argument in my head again, and it's always good to evaluate one's stance regarding that, so the series is doing good things there.
Sasameki Koto ep11
I swear Aoi was going to go yandere for a moment there before she came to her senses and accepted the reality of Ushio x Murasame. She had that crazy look in her eyes for a moment, I tells ya.
Shugo Chara! Party ep12
This might be my favorite episode of the lot so far; it keeps things pretty simple (just Amu trying to take care of Ami one day) and funny. The funniest part is when Su goes to train in the woods when Ami comments that her mom's cooking is better than Su's cooking. Kung fu fighting gives you cooking skillz apparently. Who knew?
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun ep12
Another good episode! Really enjoyed the fight between Mikoto and the weird fetus blob thing. That's the kind of good action I've been missing from this series. Even the technobabble/info dumping is kept to a relative minimum! That makes me a happy fan. Not much else for me to say here; while the build-up may not have been so great, at least the ending pays off well.
Trapeze ep10
A strangely touching episode about a newspaper publisher who resists the call to move on to the next stage of his life (retirement). The twist ending isn't too surprising, especially since there are pretty clear hints about it throughout the episode, but it's still a solid ending. It's kind of light on laughs, though, since once again Irabu's antics are fairly limited, which is a bit disappointing. Ah well. The next episode appears to throw a wrench into things a bit by having the patient's condition be a secret. I'm not sure I want to see the process Irabu goes through when he wants to determine what is wrong with a patient, haha.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni ep25
I'm not really sure what this final arc is pulling, and I mean that in a bad way. It feels as if it is trying to do 5,000 things at once; everything will converge in the finale, but will there be any decent sort of resolution? I know the real story isn't going to end, because the Umineko visual novels are still being released, but what about everything going on in the current game? The blue truth was introduced and quickly discarded. We still don't have any clue about Battler's true relationship with the Ushiromiya family. Also, why is Beatrice so pissy all of a sudden? And what does all the focus on Ange really accomplish? I'll gladly eat my words should something come up in the finale to justify all the attention Ange has received at the expense of the main story, but for now, I'm scratching my head.
