Man, I'm sleepy, And yet I bring you all anime to talk about. I am such a nice guy, right?
Anime discussed: Akagi, Baka to Test to Shokanjuu, Cross Game, Hanamaru Kindergarten, Shugo Chara! Party, Sora no Woto
UNMEI KAIHEN: Durarara!!, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Kimi ni Todoke, Nodame Cantabile Finale, Ookamikakushi
Akagi eps 14-20
Damn, Akagi has taken a huge step up in intensity with this -- I assume -- final arc, where Akagi takes on a crazy (and crazy rich) old man who uses mahjong as a way to inflict suffering on stupid young'uns who dare to challenge him. Basically he has accomplished everything he has set out to do in life, which has made him bored, and the only way he can feel excitement is through slow, torturous, psychological murder. This Washizu dude is just as horrible as that old bastard from Kaiji. He and Akagi are playing a variation of mahjong where there's a mix of glass and opaque pieces, which adds another layer of strategy to the whole deal, since you can better guess what types of hands your opponent may possess, but there's also the chance the available information may be misleading. Psychological warfare at its best.
To top it off, Washizu and Akagi are both betting different things: The former is putting his entire fortune on the line; the more points Akagi wins through these games, the more money he receives. Akagi is aiming to bleed Washizu dry and kill him by gaining his entire fortune. On the other hand, Akagi is also putting his life on the line, literally -- whatever the difference is between his score and Washizu's score, Akagi must make up the difference in blood if he is losing to Washizu. This is how Washizu killed all the other people he faced. So, yeah, there is a lot on the line, and a real sense of dread and danger hangs over each game, even though Akagi remains as calm as can be in every game.
Pretty much every game in this arc has cemented Akagi as being incredibly fucking nuts, haha. He pushes himself to the limit partly for that rush only true gambling can give, and he also does it as part of his own psychological warfare against Washizu, as well. It works, too -- Washizu is pretty much half insane, and even he is like, "WTF this guy is crazy!!" Every move has its own implications. Akagi says he turns down returning the lost blood back into his body after he earns a victory so that Washizu will retain some hope, and thus be more liable to make bold movies that might backfire against himself, but I think it is more that the very act of refusing blood will give Washizu pause. What kind of person would do this, knowing that one wrong move would mean his death? It really forces him to consider Akagi's spirit, which in turn will put a strange sort of pressure on himself to keep up with this strength.
Not much else for me to comment on at the moment, since a lot of it is of course mahjong strategy that still flies over my head. I at least know enough about the important terms to tell when someone is doing well and when someone is doing absolutely horrible, but that's the extent of my mahjong knowledge, haha.
eps 21-26
Gah, before I get into the meat of the show, I really have to say how disappointing the ending is -- it builds up into this crazy climax, and as the time wound down in the final episode, I wondered how everything would fit in to those final few minutes. Well, it doesn't fit everything into it. In fact, the show skips over the last part of the final battle by commenting on how the mahjong fight between Washizu and Akagi is the stuff of legends, and then it presents a brief scene 30 years in the future with Akagi walking down the streets in some bizarre leisure suit get-up. Presumably, Akagi survives his battle with Washizu and goes on to become king of the underworld or something. That's fine. But why do such a massive cocktease, and then NOT FOLLOW THROUGH ON IT?? Makes me so damn angry.
Everything before that is damn awesome. Yes, the advancement of the story is predictable -- I don't know shit about mahjong, so I could never predict exactly HOW Akagi would beat Washizu when he needed to, but it's obvious that is what will happen. However, that's not the fun part of this final run of episodes. The real fun part is the way Akagi slowly and calmly breaks Washizu's will and confidence until he picks his way down into the very core of Washizu's being. Just a masterful job of completely tearing Washizu apart. Probably the most impressive is when Akagi pulls off the Head Bump in the second round. Nice way to complete the circle; I think that's one of the moves Akagi learns at the beginning of the series. Washizu was so happy before he realized Akagi called the Head Bump, too. lol @ him
Really, this finally arc makes it clear what Akagi is about -- the dominant personality of its title character and his obsessive need to push the limits of danger as far as they'll go. Akagi loses lord knows how much blood during his match with Washizu, but he refuses to get a transfusion, even when he earns the right to it through the game, because he wants the odds stacked against himself as much as possible, and Washizu as confident as possible so that the victory will mean that much more. I compared Hachimaki from Planetes to Michael Jordan a while back; well, Akagi's behavior is even more Jordanesque than that, particularly in the way he revels in eviscerating the opponent. Completely cold, not betraying any hint of emotion -- and then the Akagi Smirk comes, and everyone knows it's over.
Akagi is a repetitive series, and it's not as good as Kaiji, but it's a worth watch, regardless, if only due to the immense force of its lead character.
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu ep11
So I guess this series really does have a plot again. Who knew? This episode is slightly funnier than some of the more recent episodes even though there isn't much that is different about it. Maybe I just like the characters fighting for themselves. Who knows. It seems as if Class F is going to fight Class A in the next episode, which makes me wonder if that is the "proper" finale, and ep13 will be some sort of weird extra episode, or if the battle will be a two-parter. Then again, it probably does not matter too much.
Cross Game eps 46-48
Seishuu and Ryuuou continue their march to the finals in these episodes; the baseball is pretty much incidental, and what's shown isn't particularly great. The real story is Akane going in for surgery and how everyone around her copes with this news. And it's also about how everyone on the team is finally growing up and transitioning from these fragile teenage years into adulthood. Everyone has changed so much -- Senda is a goof-off, but he shows remarkable sensitivity in his talk with Kitamura; Kitamura has subtly changed in how he juggles his interactions with people; Aoba, I think, is starting to embrace her true feelings more and not be quite so reserved and dishonest with herself; Akaishi is learning to step outside of Wakaba's shadow; and so on and so forth. There isn't even a big deal made about this growth process. Unless you're making a point of paying attention to every little thing these kids do, you wouldn't likely notice. That's what I love about Cross Game.
And in ep48 the actual final starts. It's actually pretty standard so far despite being portrayed as a nailbiter between two dominant pitchers. I did love the moment when the normally placid Akaishi gets a hit and drives Azuma home for the first run of the game, and then celebrates like a madman when he gets to first base. He has so much emotion bubbling beneath the surface -- being in the finals of the Koushien, worrying about Akane's surgery (which he barely learns about before the game), his batting slump and so on and so forth -- and I bet it felt great to just let everything out.
Dance in the Vampire Bund ep8
I was reluctant to return to this series given how disappointing ep7 is, but I figured I would give the new storyline a shot and see where it goes. And, you know, this episode is actually pretty good. An intriguing new villain is introduced, the drama with the former student council president is played off very well -- and quite tragically, given the origin of her condition -- and Mina and Yuki's new friendship is kind of cool and interesting. I'm liking where this is going so far; consider my interest in Vampire Bund kicked up another one or two cautious levels.
Durarara!! ep10
Oh snap. First half of this episode is kind of basic, but with the ending of this episode, I think shit is really going to get real now. You know, more real than the Seiji/Namie stuff, haha. There are some really interesting theories bouncing around the fandom right now that, if true, turn a lot of what we've so far on its head. The rest of the series should be quite interesting ...
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ep48
Pride is such a creeper.
Hanamaru Kindergarten ep10
Holy crap, I LOVED the horror themed ED this week. Best part is Jack Torrance from The Shining breaking through the door and scaring the hell out of Anzu. So damn funny. Anyway, this might be my favorite episode of the series so far -- both skits are strong. Koume's brother is a bit underdeveloped -- the basic doting older brother figure -- but I did enjoy Kusano going all Coach Ota and teaching Koume to harness HARD WORK AND GUTS Gunbuster-style. The ending is fairly sweet, too. And then it immediately transitions to all the kindergarten teachers having a drunk night on the town, ending of course with drunken karaoke and drunken confessions. I didn't know they had it in them! And, as expected, Yamamoto completely misunderstands Tsuchida's confession. What a shocker.
Katanagatari ep3
Each episode of Katanagatari has improved on the previous episode; I'm really looking forward to the next one now! This one has a very sympathetic enemy, Meisai Tsuruga, who leads a convent where she provides shelter and new lives for women who were physically and psychologically tortured by husbands and loved ones. She provides a valuable service to women, and it's not at all a given that the women will be able to go on without her; however, Shichika and Togame go after her, anyway, because that is their mission, and Tsuruga welcomes the battle. There's a definite bittersweet tone to the battle, and to Shichika's eventual victory; it's a reminder that the world is pretty damn gray.
I do like that the sword wielders have become more "good" as the series has gone on: The first is clearly a huge prick, the second is basically neutral and Tsuruga is a reformed good person. I don't think this trend will continue, just because there has to be at least one other person who has succumbed completely to the poison of the swords, maybe it will be like a cycle, since there are of course 12 swords to be gathered.
Kimi ni Todoke ep23
In this episode, cell phones are practically deified. Sawako's life will never be the same again now that she has one.
Nodame Cantabile Finale ep9
I honestly think this is the single best episode in all three seasons of Nodame Cantabile. Definitely has the best musical performance, at the very least.
Ookamikakushi ep10
In all, I think my favorite part of this episode is Hiro nodding intently to Kaname before they go off to stop Sakaki from destroying the dam, as if Hiro could actually affect the plot in any meaningful way aside from being wolf food. Holy shit, I didn't think he actually had the balls to overestimate his own heroism, but wow. I doubt this will happen, but I hope Hiro dies in an ultra-grisly way. Only then will this series truly have been worth it.
Shugo Chara! Party eps 22-23
brb d'awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwing over more rikka x hikaru cuteness. That's ep22, anyway. Ep23 has kind of a depressing ending for a Shugo Chara! episode, with Rikka briefly going mental on all the X Eggs, followed by the X Eggs leaving in a huff -- except one who is left behind and breaks, I assume, due to the overwhelmingly sad feelings running through it at that moment. Aww.
Sora no Woto ep11
Shit is indeed getting for real in Helvetia. Either Rio did not make it to Rome quickly enough (if she was going to, er, quench the Emperor's thirst, so to speak), or it never really mattered in the first place whether she did or not; in any case, Rome is coming to put a hurting on Helvetia, and Helvetia's craziest general has come out of the woodwork to pay Rome back in kind. And he has a past with Noel -- he put her affinity with the old technology to use in the most painful way imaginable, which earned Noel the nickname "The Invisible Reaper". (The name, if you recall, that was brought up a few episodes prior.) Noel is not very fond of her time spent with this guy; I think she'll resist any attempts to put her to work again, even if they threaten her with torture and whatnot. And of course Kanata, Filicia and, eventually, Kureha will stand by her.
More evidence that this is some crazy alternate version of our world: The Roman soldier who is brought into the fortress clearly speaks German. Even I know enough of the language to be able to tell that. Pretty much your classic "enemy soldier gets captured, both sides see how truly human each other are" type of story. (Except with slightly more groping.) Interestingly enough, she wants to see the angel fossil from way back in the first episode -- was there really some apocalyptic disaster brought on by outside forces that caused the world to be the way it is? There are a lot of interesting things hinted at in this episode: The apocalypse thing, religious differences between the countries, how different the countries are from "real" history and so on and so forth. I wonder what the Roman soldier's true mission was, especially since the Roman army is getting ready to invade. She couldn't have been doing simple recon, right?
