Before I get into the anime, I want to remind everyone involved with the Anime Club to vote for which series you want to see next after Lovely Complex and Kurenai finish next week. There's a good crop of shows on the list, so we have awesome stuff to look forward to no matter what makes it through. Just make you sure you vote!
Anime discussed: Asu no Yoichi!, Axis Powers Hetalia, Clannad ~After Story~, Code Geass R2, Kemono no Souja Erin, Kurenai, Kurokami, Lovely Complex, Macross Frontier, Maria Holic, The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan, Minami-ke Okaeri, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 s2, Munto (TV), Nyoro~n Churuya-san, RahXephon, Rideback, Serial Experiments Lain, Shugo Chara! Doki, To Aru Majutsu no Index, Toradora!, White Album
-- Asu no Yoichi! ep9: YES, MORE WASHIZU x AYAME ACTION. Sort of. I love how over the top Washizu is when he thinks about Ibuki now. Comparing her to the Virgin Mary is so ridiculous lol. The confession misunderstanding from Washizu to Ayame is fairly contrived (to say the least lol), but it does lead to some funny moments during the festival. Torigaya failing on the execution of the plan is amusing. Washizu's extended daydream about how he'd show Ibuki a good time at the festival -- and his subsequent failure when he did those activities -- gave me a good laugh, as did Yoichi totally sucking at the shooting game. Every episode seems to be turning into a game of "What costume can we put Angela in THIS EPISODE?!" which I have no problem with at all.
-- Axis Powers Hetalia ep7: I wish I could pack away burgers as well as America. Italy's brother, Romano, is funny in a mean sort of way. His over the top suspicion of Germany is a good running gag through the middle of the episode. "Macho potato" is also a wonderfully lame insult. Haha. And the mustache ... so silly, but I laughed.
-- Clannad ~After Story~ ep21: Oh my gosh. I swear KyoAni exists solely to break the hearts of every anime fan. When life slipped from Ushio ... I sat on my bed, my jaw wide open and tears streaming down my face, muttering, "No, no, no ..." It hit me so hard. Ushio has been around only a few episodes, yes, but she's such a real child that it was like seeing someone I knew dying onscreen -- as if my own daughter died (well, I wouldn't go that far, but that's the feeling the show is trying to evoke, and it worked with me). Watching Ushio struggle so hard through the snow with Tomoya ... ugh. I can barely even think about anything else that happened during the show. I guess the strongest thing aside from Ushio's death is the further development of the city as a symbol of life -- ever-changing and developing, giving pleasure and pain in equal measure. Again, Tomoya goes back to the question of whether it would have been best if he had never met Nagisa. My answer remains the same: No. He would not have suffered through those horrible lows, but would he have experienced those joyous highs with anyone else? There's a possibility, but the fact is Tomoya affected Nagisa for the better, and she in turn affected him for the better (as did Ushio). The pain Tomoya feels is worse than anything he's ever felt, but if he really loves Nagisa and Ushio, even that pain wouldn't be enough for him to wish away his relationship with Nagisa. However, I do not believe Ushio is really dead -- or, at least, I am hoping this isn't the case, because, in a literary sense, what would Tomoya really get from this type of ending? What would be the message for him, other than "life is miserable and will snatch away any happiness you achieve"? There are sad, meaningful endings, and there are depressing, nihilistic endings. I have confidence that Clannad won't fall into the latter next episode.
-- Code Geass R2 ep15: Oh ho, we finally get some answers about C.C.! She has about as tragic a past as expected -- she was tricked into possessing the Geass because the person who granted C.C. that power wanted to die. Ironically, C.C.'s Geass gave her the power to make anyone love her, but this love is not tantamout to true love, so she has gone all her life without really knowing what love is. Now she wants Lelouch to kill her, so she can finally be at peace, but Lelouch is not going to do that so easily, since it is pretty obvious by now that C.C. loves Lelouch. He'll try to find some way around it, or at least a way to delay the inevitable, which won't be too difficult now that C.C. has seemingly lost her memory. I also loved the scenes with Lelouch and Charles (Norio Wakamoto must have been crazy awesome there; makes me want to watch the original version too). Interesting that Charles killed V.V. so that he could be immortal. I still think V.V. had something to do with the death of Lelouch's mother, but if he's dying now, then he likely did not pull the strings. And now that Schneizel has Nina's big, bad bomb in his control, things are just going to get more intense. Damn.
-- Kemono no Souja Erin ep5: A bit better than the last episode. Poor Erin's naiveté is being broken bit by bit. She mainly looks for the welfare of the animals, whereas her mom has to look out for the animals and people, but she mainly has to think of how the village can best survive side by side with the beasts. If that involves taking advantage of the animals, then so be it ... that is the code the village lives by. From here on out, Erin will have to reconcile her desire to treat animals peacefully with the need for people to survive.
-- Kurenai eps 7-8: The plot is starting to get tangled. I like Tamaki taking Murasaki out for a day at the university, with love lessons on the side. Nice to get a deeper look at Tamaki. Murasaki is sweet trying to cheer up Tamaki after a rough break-up, too. The look into the past, with Souju's suicide and Renjou's reaction to it, is interesting. He obviously hasn't suffered as much as Souju did, because the family traditions treat women like crap, but it ain't easy losing the one you love. I could see why he's such a dick (although that doesn't excuse it, by any means). Then some bad things go down in the next episode ... but not before Shinkurou and the others celebrate Shichi-Go-San with Murasaki. Yamie (in the background) looks particularly lovely in this episode. Kind of like Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, except if she were going to a funeral instead of the racetrack. The bit with Benika -- where she gives permission for Murasaki to go to a shrine, all while holding a gun to a man's head -- is awesome and hilarious. But then two men who had found Murasaki on behalf of Renjou the episode prior finally made a move, although I think it's just to show Shinkurou they mean business. Shit's going down next episode.
-- Lovely Complex eps 19-20: I liked the second episode more than the first. The fallout from Risa and Ootani finally getting together is fun, especially everyone's reaction to it (Haruka in particular is hysterical), but ... the latter part of the episode, I didn't much care for how Ootani treated Risa (or how she reacted to it, either). He is probably just fooling a bit, and lord knows I hate making proclamations like this because I think they are overreactions a lot of the time, but it came off to me as vaguely sexist. I think that's just an aberration, though, because he goes back to normal in the next episode. Mimi, Ootani's neighbor, fighting with Risa for Ootani's love is pretty funny. She's like a yandere without the psychotic murdering lol. The continuation of the bizarre babbling started by Haruka, with Risa and Ootani communicating in some strange alien chatter while they gamed in the arcade, is really funny. More of that, please. And DAMN @ Risa's Kamina punch to Mimi. Ootani had better kiss her after that, haha. Not every day your girlfriend knocks some sense into someone like that. (Or IS IT?)
-- Macross Frontier eps 6-25: Pretty good series overall. LOVED the final two episodes, although it didn't wrap things up perfectly. (The way the love triangle ended is a cop-out.) Who cares about that, though, when you're flooded with epic singing battle scenes. Man. If you'd told me how the final battle would go before I watched Macross Frontier, I would have thought it sounded silly, but it's actually awesome. Ranka and Sheryl teaming up to use the POWER OF SONG~! against Grace is a hell of an ending. Speaking of Grace, omg Kikuko Inoue brings the evil hotness when Grace makes her turn. Damn. Let her play more villains, anime industry!! The cast as a whole is pretty solid across the board, though I think Alto is Yuichi Nakamura's weakest role (then again, it's up against Tomoya Okazaki, Graham Aker and Ikuto Tsukiyomi). He's good, but I didn't like Alto as much as Ranka or Sheryl (Sheryl is probably my favorite of the big three). Tomokazu Sugita is a pretty slick villain, as well, even if the extent of Leon's characterization is "act sinister and evil in every scene." I think the only other villainous Sugita role I've heard is Aureolus Izzard from To Aru Majutsu no Index, so it's nice to hear him play a prick, haha. Still think the overall plot takes a bit too long to really get rolling, but the story is engaging enough once it is set into motion. Plus, again, the amazing singing and fighting scenes are strong enough visually to keep interest high, even when the plot isn't keeping up.
-- Maria Holic ep9: Finally working in more Mariya. Excellent. Now that Kanako has become much bolder about her perversions, it's up to Mariya to mock Kanako endlessly. The part where, in her sweetest voice, she tells Kanako to lick her feet, just to see if she'll actually go that far is hilarious. Mariya recoiling in disgust when Kanako actually goes for it and completely forgets Mariya is a boy is almost as funny. Getting more background on the relationship between Mariya and Ayari is nice, and of course they go back to the status quo when Mariya lets something slip through the cracks. Some of Kanako's blood staining the Virgin Mary statue is probably horribly offensive, but it made me snicker, so what the hell. The bit with the seven mysteries of the school is pretty good, too. I laughed and laughed as Mariya and Matsurika perfectly described how Kanako caused the existence of the mysteries. Kanako's drawn out daydream about all the girls in swimsuits is the funniest part of that.
-- Marimite 4th ep9: Interesting, interesting. I feel kind of dumb, because I started suspecting Touko's plan only when her mother showed up. It took Touko's mom to clue me into the fact that Touko was actually trying to push Yumi instead of piss her off. (Is it even possible to piss Yumi off? I say no.) I think Touko sensed that Yumi's mind would be wandering due to Touko turning her down, so Touko gave Yumi a shock so that she'd focus on the election. Kind of funny that Touko's mom indirectly spurred Yumi on to that, though lol. Now that Touko is done with her business at the school, she still needs to deal with whatever is going on at home. I wonder what it is? Her mom seems nice, at least lol. It's fun to hear about how differently Touko acts at home compared to the mask she wears at school, haha.
-- The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan eps 7-8: lol, poor Taniguchi. He gets saddled with lame tasks during the game Haruhi sets up, and then they leave before he finishes them. And in the next episode Haruhi makes him a demon and he's left all alone while Haruhi and the crew have fun. I feel bad for him. Kyon's pseudo confession to Itsuki, and Haruhi's reaction to it, cracked me up. Funniest thing in either episode, although Yuki unraveling Mini Ryoko's kimono is up there. These just make me want a second season of Haruhi Suzumiya even more though. :(
-- Minami-ke Okaeri ep8: I always forget how good Minami-ke is, for some reason. Kana as an advisor on how to get boys is stupdenously funny. Her big rule book of boy-snatching tactics, along with her speech on how not following the rules is a sin, cracked me up. Kana, you are the last person who should be lecturing people on this topic. Poor Atsuko being put on the spot by Kana as a boy-finding expert. Touma did look kinda cute suddenly sleeping on her though. *shot* The bit at the school is funny -- good job not watching where you are walking at all, Makoto. Jeez. Good to see Hosaka back on the random daydream train. His delusion is such BS, haha. Isn't Haruka actually good at volleyball? "I put too much strength into that serve." LOL, Hosaka, you dork. The transition between the daydream and Hosaka kneeling on the floor mumbling to himself is perfect. Very well done.
-- Mobile Suit Gundam 00 s2 ep22: I'd actually be sort of angry if the ending to this episode were truthful and Regenne killed Ribbons. Not because I like the guy, mind, but because the whole season has built toward Ribbons being the big bad, and it would be weak if Regenne usurped him totally all of a sudden. (Especially since Ribbons probably knew Regenne carried a gun.) However, there's a quick shot of Ribbons in the next episode, so that makes it clear he isn't dead. I never suspected he was dead, though, for two reasons: 1) He just revealed he has a huge ass clone army. He's using it. 2) Celestial Being has the 0 Gundam. That has to be of some significance for the final battle, and part of that will likely involve pissing off Ribbons (remember, he was the original pilot of the 0 Gundam). Definitely happy to see that fat fuck Arthur bite the dust. Eat that, asshole. I welcome the return of my girl, Kati, and her man, Patrick. It amuses me to no end to see him on Celestial Being's side. Enjoyed the battle between Setsuna and Graham, though I wish it were a bit more heated. Oh well. Setsuna humbling Graham and letting him live will probably spur him on to resolving the distortion within himself and joining up with Setsuna to kick epic levels with ass. If the story goes in that predictable direction, then I demand Graham be given an epic entrance and be of more importance than he has been all season. Stop wasting him, Gundam 00! Seriously, he has been an outlier all season, although I appreciated the flashback that added just a bit more weight to Graham's obsession. (Side note: I wonder what Billy's role in the finale will be? It would be disappointing if he were just dropped altogether.) The random teasing of Feldt x Setsuna amused the hell out of me. No way that happens at all.
-- Munto (TV) ep7: Nooooooooooooooooooooo, Gass!! Damn it, I cursed him, didn't I? Damn it all. Anyway, episode is mainly Munto kicking ass in the beginning, Gntarl getting pissed off in the middle and swearing to beat the holy hell out of Munto and Munto explaining the sorry past of his world to Yumemi. Some interesting stuff all around, but the next two episodes are going to bring the awesome ... I hope.
-- Nyoron Churuya-san ep4: Churuya equipping herself with a silent mode for societal interaction is hilarious. She looks so funny when someone pushes the button on top of her head and she buzzes and inches to the side a bit, haha.
-- RahXephon eps 20-26: Before I launch into an important theme of RahXephon that has always interested me, I want to praise the Japanese voice cast. On the whole, the Japanese cast stacks up well against the English dub. It took me a couple of episodes to get used to Aya Hisakawa as Haruka Shitow, if only because Monica Rial's excellent Haruka is permanently etched into my mind, but by the end of the series her voice stirred my emotions almost as well as Rial, so good work by her. I don't know why, but Hiro Shimono always surprises me by being really good. It's weird because in the main roles I've heard him play, his characters (Ayato Kamina, Hiro Hirono from ef - a tale of memories and Jin Mikuriya from Kannagi) start out similarly -- a bit aimless, trying to find somewhere to fit -- but by the end of each series, they're all vastly different, even while ending up in similar situations. Maaya Sakamoto is generally good as Reika Mishima, but the other performance that really stands out for me, surprise, is Jouji Nakata as Jin Kunugi. Nakata's voice just exudes something special every time one of his characters speaks. I could listen to him talk all day.
Anyway, one of RahXephon's themes that stands out to me as being particularly interesting and well done is the element of race, belonging, identity and attitudes toward that identity, whether the identity is real or perceived. The main conflict in the series is between humans and Mulians -- it is made relatively clear later in the series that Mulians are at least part-human. They can be created only when a human is connected to a Dolem. That is the main difference between the two races. Yet because of the war between humans and the Mu over who will tune the world, a fear of the Mulians is stirred within humanity, and that fear gives way to hatred and a questioning of whether there can ever be a "good" Mulian. Ayato is front and center in this conflict. He is raised as a human, and identifies with humanity, but later comes discover he is a Mulian. There is a split in him -- he is not one but two races. In a lot of literature that deals with multiracial identity, the central conflict is often the question of what exactly the multiracial person is -- is he or she one race, or the other race? Or perhaps both? Or neither? Why is this? Does it matter? Can this person be trusted by either race? Should the question of trust even enter the equation? And so on, and so forth.
The question of Ayato's origin and his allegiance is of great concern, even when the characters do not know where Ayato himself stands. For instance, Elvy has a violent reaction when she learns Ayato is a Mulian. She is prejudiced against the Mu, and to compound that further, she lost her fellow pilots on a mission to extract Ayato from Tokyo Jupiter. Ayato has done nothing up to that point to earn her ire, but she is angry nonetheless because he is a Mulian, and she has been conditioned to hate them. The question of identity and belonging eats Ayato from the inside out throughout much of the middle of the series, and it is practically all Asahina thinks about when she escapes Tokyo Jupiter with Ayato later in the show. Is it bad to be a Mulian? Are Ayato and Asahina less than human because of their identity? Does this identity truly shape who they are? The way RahXephon handles these questions as they relate to the self and how the self relates to others and is seen by others is something I can relate to strongly as someone of mixed race who never quite fit in completely with those around him (maybe somewhat ironically as a Hispanic surrounded by Hispanics instead of a Hispanic surrounded by whites, or something like that). The answer Ayato comes to -- that his identity is rooted not in where he comes from or was born into but what he shares with others -- seems obvious, and it is, but it is also easy for that to become clouded when certain elements (hatred, real or perceived difference, etc.) confuse the situation.
-- Rideback eps 8-9: Man, just a slight change in focus and I am suddenly a hell of a lot more interested. Drawing a clear battle among Romanof, Kiefer and Okakura narrows down the conflict quite a bit instead of making it an everyone vs. the government issue, which I probably would not have enjoyed with just four episodes remaining. This has the potential to be pretty good. I'm very interested to see how Rin fits into this whole thing, as well. Kiefer is pretty badass. His challenge to Romanof is going to = awesomeness. Ep9 is a solid set up episode. Romanof is slowly falling apart. That hot chick who is always by his side and whose name I cannot remember for the life of me is pretty intriguing, mostly because she seems to have an agenda of her own. I wonder what her role will be in the final few eps? It's also interesting that Rin is considering abandoning Fuego (although it's doubtful she actually does this). Maybe she senses the danger and enticement Fuego exudes for her.
-- Serial Experiments Lain eps 1-13: lol, it has been at least half a decade since I last watched this series. (Can't remember whether I first saw it during my senior year of high school or after.) I enjoyed Lain more this go around, mainly because I am better equipped to understand the general direction of the story and a better portion of the themes. The aspect of the show that interests me most is how much of it centers on communication -- not just what is communicated, but how it is communicated and how that form of communication potentially changes the nature of what is communicated. The way The Wired evolves throughout the series reminds me a lot of some of the theories I studied in college. (Yes, the basic contribution of my studies to my life is the interpretation of anime.) There is one main theory, the Coordinated Management of Meaning, that sprang immediately to mind when I considered The Wired. While The Wired is not the reality of Lain, it has the potential to grow into a level of social reality (and in fact has made great strides toward this by the beginning of Lain). People are connected by and communicate through The Wired, and they develop their own special worlds with their own rules (physical and social) within The Wired -- you see this in the form of the games the children play, the control of the Knights of the Eastern Calculus, and so on. The Wired begins as a sort of escape from the "real" world and develops into a world all its own centered around how people communicate with each other. The entire reality of The Wired hinges upon people constantly communicating information to each other. That is actually part of what Eiri Masami seeks when he thrusts his consciousness into The Wired: He wants The Wired to evolve into a place where all the world's inhabitants are connected, 24/7, sharing information with each other without halt and constructing an entirely new reality that he considers beyond the limits of humanity's current state. The way people communicate would cause this reality to become the reality, because humanity is communicating in a way that allows it to share a common reality. And that is just a small shard of Lain, haha. I don't want to sit here writing all that, though, so I'll stop there and say I like the show a lot.
-- Shugo Chara! Doki ep21: lol, Lulu's grandmother is awesome. I love how she came in and took over pretty much every second she was in Japan. Funniest part is definitely Lulu's grandma running roughshod all over the Guardian headquarters, haha. Even king!Tadase got pwned easily. Awesome. The Guardians waving good bye like, "Man, glad she's leaving!" while Lulu's grandma drags Amu away made me laugh a lot. Lulu's frustrations about being unsure of her true dream lead to a bizarre, funny ? Chara Change where Lulu forced a girl to transform on the basis of her dream being to eat both yakisoba and takoyaki. I don't know which is more amusing -- the girl's reaction ("Well, I wouldn't really say it's my dream ...") or Nana's (basically "WTF?"). Obviously it wasn't supposed to be a serious fight; it's a representation of how directionless Lulu is right now. Also interesting is the connection between the experiments Easter is running and Ikuto's continued physical exhaustion. Hopefully things will start picking up on that front soon.
-- To Aru Majutsu no Index ep22: Better than the last episode, at least in terms of action and relative lack of info dumping. Some funny bits near the beginning, too, especially with Misaka and Index interacting. The sigh they both give after they realized each is in basically the same type of relationship with Touma is priceless. The revelations about Hyouka are not too surprising; that shot of her with her head cracked open is crazy, though. Jeez. Cromwell means business. The fight between Touma and Cromwell next week should be pretty kickass. Also, I am wondering when the next season of To Aru will start airing. Maybe during the fall again? Or perhaps a bit longer than that. Hmm.
-- Toradora! ep23: Wow, Toradora! is pushing toward the inevitable end in the best possible way. I love how the deliberate pacing through the first 18 minutes or so worked to heighten the intensity of the final couple of minutes when Minorin, Kitamura and Ami sprang an intervention of sorts on Taiga. Minorin especially is just crazy. Wow! Minorin definitely understands that Taiga's feelings for Ryuuji are quite real, and that, deep down, she'll likely regret it the rest of her life if she puts Minorin and Ryuuji together. Taiga is still reluctant to make her feelings known, although once the shock of what Minorin said goes away, it will settle in her mind a bit more. A well done ending all around; I can't wait to see next week's episode now! Something subtle in this episode that I liked is the natural progression of Taiga and Ami's friendship. Who would have ever though that when Taiga and Ami first met, they'd eventually get to an understanding where Taiga could call Ami and Ami would actually show up, no questions asked? Unless I am forgetting something, there haven't been any huge Taiga/Ami bonding moments ... it just sort of happened. I like that. Speaking of Ami, I feel quite sad for her, despite how frustrating she can be at times. She knows she has no real shot with Ryuuji, and she's trying to accept that, but it's not such an easy thing. At least she was able to help out with the Taiga intervention. I'm wondering how the whole career thing will fit in with the final couple of episodes. It highlights the frustrations Taiga has with her life (the "normal" speech) and adds some drama in Ryuuji's life, but there is probably more to it than that. A couple of extra notes: 1) Taiga looks cute in pigtails, and 2) LOL @ Haruta having a girlfriend and Noto spazzing like a dork in front of the chocolate stand. What a strange moment. It's like the complete opposite of perceived reality.
-- White Album ep10: Man, my interest in this show is plummeting so hard, especially with the announcement of another 13 episode season. On the one hand, the rather deliberate pacing makes more sense. On the other hand, it's becoming sooooooooooo difficult to care about any of the characters aside from Rina, Eiji (mainly because he's so weird, but also because Sho Hayami is awesome) and maybe Yayoi (mostly because her motivations are so murky). Touya I just could not give less of a crap about right now -- he's dumb, boring and near useless. Yuki might be interesting if anything were ever done with her character. Haruka hasn't done much aside from be crazy. Misaki is just whatever. I was never into her storyline at all. Mana I like, so maybe I'll stick around to see if she gets a decent storyline. I'm pretty sure I am not bothering with the second season of this show, though, especially if this fall is as packed as fall 2008.
