70 weeks is a lot. Sheesh.
Anime discussed: Baka to Test to Shokanjuu, Dance in the Vampire Bund, Hanamaru Kindergarten, Hataraki Man, Kemonozume, Shugo Chara! Party, Sora no Woto
UNMEI KAIHEN: Durarara!!, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Kimi ni Todoke, Nodame Cantabile Finale, Ookamikakushi
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu ep12
You know, I'm actually liking the battles in BakaTest; there's at least a modicum of strategy involved with them, and F Class comes out on top because they think of inventive plans instead of bowling over other classes with brute strength (or brute intelligence, in this case, I guess). Weirdly enough, the battles have been much more enjoyable for me lately than the humor aspect of the series -- this show has been stagnant, humor-wise, for a good while now, relying almost solely on the stock jokes that every school-based series uses. Episodes like this, where the battle-to-humor ratio leans strongly in favor of the battling, are where BakaTest shines. Too bad there haven't been nearly enough of these types of episodes.
Dance in the Vampire Bund eps 9-10
Well, this arc took a quick turn. Hysterica is kind of a stepping stone villain for the three Lords to swoop in and try to steal some power from Mina. The, uh, purity inspection machine at the end of ep10 is a bizarre plot point -- to go along with the whole "lol make our vampire babies" bit -- but whatever. I guess Mina is going to have to lay the smack down on chauvinism in this arc. This show is so weird sometimes. How Meiren fits into this whole thing might be interesting as well. She's clearly trying to pull Akira away from Mina, and she also may be a pawn of the Lords, although I guess it is kind of fuzzy right now whether they are working together.
Ep9 had a pretty nice ending (although maybe also weird as well, haha) with Nanami and Yuzuru being reunited as vampires. (lol vampire romance) If there's one thing this series really does, it is push the inherent eroticism of vampire stories to the hilt ...
Durarara!! ep11
Responses to the Dollars reveal seem to be mixed online, although I would probably say more people approve of it than do not. I don't think it's perfect, and it's certainly not a super badass group (right now at least), but I do think it is interesting in the context of the series and how much of it is about the hidden connections everyone has. Plus, the whole gray to colored thing is pretty boss.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ep49
You know which part of the story I am itching to see most? Where Wrath gets back into the game and a bunch of epic fights just start exploding everywhere. That I cannot wait to see animated. Ye gods.
Hanamaru Kindergarten ep11
Man, Tsuchida fell into a funk pretty quickly. I gather this has been a problem for him most of his life. Then again, it is probably best that he doesn't keep stalling in the hopes that something will move with Yamamoto, because she'll never move on her own. (She also admits that she isn't really ready to move on her own quite yet, because she wants to put her energies into teaching for now. Perfectly valid decision.) I think Tsuchida needs some time with the kindergarten guys. They always seem to cheer him up.
Hataraki Man eps 1-11
This series is about Hiroko Matsukata, a 28-year-old woman who struggles to maintain a balance between work and her personal life -- with work often winning out due to her ambition to climb to the top of the magazine for which she writes. Obviously this comes with repercussions; she rarely sees her boyfriend, who works just as much as Hiroko does, and their love life isn't exactly sparkling because of this. The main thrust of Hataraki Man is how Hiroko simultaneously deals with the pressure of work and the dissatisfaction of her life outside of her job. Many other characters are also focused on throughout the series. While Hataraki Man does progress Hiroko's life, the episodes themselves are all a series of one-shots, except for the final two episodes, which connect even though they tell different stories.
What is really good about Hataraki Man is that it pulls no punches in depicting the life of a strong woman who nonetheless often reaches her breaking point in a demanding -- and sometimes completely empty -- working system. Hiroko vacillates between taking pride in her work (when her articles expose corruption in local government, for instance) and wondering why the hell she even bothers sometimes (when she gets stuck writing fluff pieces for the magazine that seem to exist solely to take up space). One complaint I read from a few people about the series is how often Hiroko seems to break down and briefly give in to the pressure of the wider world. However, even the strongest of women -- and men, for that matter -- can't hold up a certain level of strength all the time. There are moments where we break down, where we want nothing more than someone to be there with us to help make things better. When she is in her weaker moments, Hiroko doesn't come off to me like a fretful woman who just needs a man to make everything right; she comes off like a human being who cracks for a few moments due to the immense pressure bearing down on her. It happens.
This series isn't shy about showing the pressure of a hypercapitalist society. I'm as much of a capitalist as anyone, but there are problems with a system that makes it seem somehow shameful to not dedicate one's life to work at the expense of everything else (and this is obviously not a Japan-specific issue). Hiroko often has to take on an insane amount of work, with few co-workers who are willing to help her out, and she is often stretched to the bone trying to get things in before deadline. What makes it worse is that people often do not get the opportunity to work on personal projects; oftentimes, Hiroko doesn't get the opportunity to work on articles she proposes because she is busy writing other articles. One of Hiroko's co-workers, Mayu, spends an enormous amount of time courting her favorite author to write fiction for their magazine, only to be replaced as editor for that project due to her inexperience as a reporter. The workers have to get used to a system that not only provides an enormous amount of work and pressure but is also fairly cold and unaccommodating about the type of work they get to do.
(Side note: After learning more about the Japanese animation industry over the years, I bet the animators empathized quite well with Hiroko as they worked on this series. Animators work such ridiculous hours for such shitty pay. It's absurd.)
If there is one real complaint I have about the series, it's that the storytelling is repetitive. It's pretty much "worker-of-the-week" type of storytelling, where the stories focus on Hiroko and another worker, and the workers are presented one way at first but are then revealed to be different sorts of people as the episodes go on. Hataraki Man does work these stories quite well, but the repetitive structure does make them predictable after a while. Still, they're pretty damn good. Ep6, for instance, has one of the better depictions of the "workplace floozy" stereotype I've seen anywhere -- it takes a character that is rather stock and cliche and turns her into someone whose behavior is a rather cutting critique of workplace society, especially the more hypermasculine elements of it.
There's a ton more I could write about this series -- its surprising frankness regarding sex, how it doesn't compromise even at the end and somehow remains hopeful regardless (even if it is a sort of ironic hopefulness), and so on -- but this is fairly long already. Just give Hataraki Man a shot if you're looking for a mature slice-of-life type show.
Kemonozume eps 1-6
Kemonozume is a good deal more serious than I thought at first from this clip SomeGuy showed me a while ago. Not that this is a bad thing; it's just different, is all. Anyway, the series is about a man, Toshihiko Momota, who is the next in line to lead a clan of swordsman who dedicate their lives to hunting "Flesh Eaters", monstrous creatures who largely subsist on, of course, eating humans. Most Flesh Eaters look like hideous monsters, but somewhere along the way Flesh Eaters started cropping up who look and speak like normal humans. They can blend in fine with society -- that is, until their craving for human flesh reaches a breaking point, and they can no longer control their hunger.
Enter Yuka, a Flesh Eater who lives as a human. Toshihiko and Yuka meet and fall in love, without Toshihiko knowing the truth about Yuka for a good while. Shit happens and Toshihiko and Yuka end up on the run from Toshihiko's clan, now led by Toshihiko's brother, Kazuma, who has always been jealous of the fact that Toshihiko is the heir to the clan. Basically the set-up is "Romeo and Juliet" with flesh-eating monsters rather than feuding families in Verona.
Kemonozume is directed by Masaaki Yuasa -- who also directed Kaiba, Mind Game and the upcoming spring series Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei -- so if you're familiar with the man, you know this series has an offbeat visual style. It isn't great looking in a conventional sense, but the show is often interesting to look at, except during the rare times where the proportions make the characters look completely retarded. Other than that, the series is fairly straightforward so far. There are bits and pieces of humor (there is a rather bizarre sequence in ep6 where Toshihiko learns fighting moves from a monkey who has been with him and Yuka since the beginning of the series), but for the most part the show is pretty serious. Not too much is going on yet, although ep4, which reveals a good portion of the background with Toshihiko's family, is pretty good, and I get the feeling it lays the groundwork for some interesting twists to come later on.
Kimi ni Todoke ep24
I'm still on the fence as to whether Sawako and Kazehaya will actually get together in the next episode, or if the series will end with one of those bullshit "life goes on" endings that romance series love so dearly. There's enough material after this for another two-cour season if Production I.G waits long enough, certainly, although I am not certain how popular Kimi ni Todoke is across the Pacific. However, getting Sawako and Kazehaya together in the next episode certainly wouldn't be a stretch. Hm.
Nodame Cantabile Finale ep10
AGH NEED FINAL EPISODE NOW
Ookamikakushi ep11
This show sucks so hard.
Shugo Chara! Party ep24
Des says he has heard rumors that Party is ending in the next couple of episodes; after this episode, it is clear that the series is ending soon. Look at all that happens -- the storyline with the X Eggs in Rikka's room is wrapped up, Rikka gains the ability to Character Transform with her Guardian Character (which is kind of bullshit considering how long it took everyone else aside from Amu to learn that, but whatever lol) and Ikuto is back. There aren't many storylines left to explore, unless new characters are pulled out for yet another season some time down the road. We've got Ikuto's travels around the world, Hikaru's egg and Nagihiko revealing his identity to Amu. That's pretty much every major story left, yeah? Show's definitely coming to a close soon.
Sora no Woto ep12
I have mixed feelings about the ending. There is a lot of emotion involved with it, and it did touch me, but I still cannot help but think everything wraps up a bit too easily and conveniently for the type of story being told. I don't think I expected a huge, bloody war, because clearly that would not happen (and, actually, I think that would feel just as out of place with Sora no Woto's story), but the redemptive ending is stretched a bit too much for my taste. It's tough to win with war stories though -- everyone's done WAR IS HELL, but happy endings run the risk of being viewed as naive. Ah well. I actually think this is more hopeful than naive, so I won't rail against it too much. Just wish that it could have been a bit more interesting, is all.
I did dig Rio's getup though. It seems to me that the creators are going for an ancient type of look to match Rio's role at that moment -- a sort of deus ex machina figure who ends the war with the orders from the leaders of Rome and Helvetia. Probably intentional, but maybe I'm reading into it a bit too much. Anyway, one last thing: I do wish the series could have delved a bit more into the world and not leave so many things open-ended (the true origin of the angel, Princess Iliya's relationship with the characters, etc.), but the show is more about the girls than the world, so hey. At least the world is interesting enough for me to still care about it even after the conclusion of the series.
