Probably doesn't look like it from the amount of writing in the post, but this is actually a somewhat slow week for me, at least in terms of the number of episodes I watched. I felt more like taking it easy this time around, so I barely watched anything the past couple of days (or else I would be much further along in Kaleido Star). Think of this as the break episode after weeks of exciting, action-packed adventures. :P
EDIT: UM FUCK MY STUPID LAME SHITTY CONNECTION FOR CRAPPING OUT ON ME 5000 TIMES PER DAY BTW
EDIT2: INCLUDING THE FIRST TIME I TRIED MODIFYING THIS POST FUCK YOU IRONY
Anime discussed: Axis Powers Hetalia, Baccano! OVA, Basquash!, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Golgo 13, Higashi no Eden, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei, Ichigo Mashimaro OVA, Kaleido Star + OVA, Kanon (2006), K-On!, Natsu no Arashi, Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~, Sengoku Basara, Shangri-La, Shugo Chara! Doki, Valkyria Chronicles
-- Axis Powers Hetalia ep16: An OK episode. China taking Japan under his wing is kind of funny, but it's not as good as the usual antics. I did laugh at the show delaying the "America rummages through his closet" story again (but with much less Engrish this time around).
-- Baccano! OVA eps 1-3: Not a bad continuation of the series at all. The main story sticks with Jacuzzi and Nice harboring Chane in one group; they are opposed by Graham Spector (voiced by a hilariously frantic and psychotic Tomokazu Sugita), who kidnaps Chane, whom he believes is Eve Genoard, as an act of revenge against those he thinks beat the hell out of Ladd Russo, whom Graham admires as a brother after an intense fight with him. (That sentence is slightly less complex than Baccano's story.) Claire Stanfield also enters the picture because he wants an answer from Chane regarding whether she will marry him. The OVA basically has everything that makes Baccano! fun -- crazy characters, random leaps through time, intense violence and unique dialogue. My favorite parts are the fight between Ladd and Graham (you'd never think an enormous monkey wrench would be so effective against a shotgun, but there you go), and Claire working through his reasoning for loving Chane and wanting to marry her, and then asking Rachel for advice on how to confess to Chane. It's just so weird to see the most vicious killer in the series act like an awkward, lovestruck guy, haha. In true Baccano! style, there is also a randomly amusing subplot involving Isaac, Miria and Firo building a huge set of dominoes to knock over. lolz
-- Basquash! eps 5-6: I agree with Omni that the series seems to be moving a bit too quick and with little flow at the moment. It's as if with every episode there's something new to distract the plot -- last week we had Dan, Iceman and Sela playing a one-on-one-on-one game with each other, and instead of delivering a solid conclusion to that, Haruka stops the match and throws the three together so that they can take on another team in the city. It just feels a bit weird, especially given that Iceman isn't particularly fond of either Dan or Sela, so I don't know why he would be on a team with them after relatively little fuss. Basquash! is floating along via good production values and amusing fanservice, with little else to show for it. This series feels as if it could be more than that, though. Not that I expect it to develop a good, serious story, or anything, but it would be a big improvement if the show were even a bit more engaging. Ah well. Hopefully that is resolved in the upcoming episodes, since the moon might come into play more now.
And, hey, the moon should be coming into play more soon, with the arrival of James Lone. Now the series could be moving in the direction of a somewhat interesting struggle -- Dan's desire to reach the moon and help his sister vs. his resistance against being controlled by outside forces (Lone makes it perfectly clear that he'll use any means necessary to get the best players possible so that his league will be a success). What I hope these next few episodes do is weave together the huge amount of new characters that have been introduced of late in a way that makes sense. For instance, when Lone hits the Earth, Iceman's connection with Dan and Sela is basically dissolved, and now he has Falcon around with whom to, presumably, resume an old rivalry. It still feels as if things are all over the place, but this episode at least shows that the plot is coming together a bit more.
-- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood ep6: Not a bad episode, just letting the audience rest a bit after all the action in the first five episodes. Good to see a decent amount of Armstrong in this one -- I like him a lot. He's hilarious. Winry is fun, too, and I suppose she will enter the picture in a more prominent way since she forgot that one small part (she seems like the type to obsess about something she builds being incomplete, even if a minor, minor part is missing). Speaking of entering the picture in a more prominent way, I wonder when Ed and Al's father will first appear, because he is clearly not dead or anything. Hm. Looks like we're getting back to crap going down with the next episode, so I am looking forward to that!
-- Golgo 13 ep20: Golgo 13 basically stakes out a woman so that he can snipe her husband, who stole American government secrets and sold them to the Russians. Not quite as interesting or exciting as other episodes, but it's kind of strange to see Golgo perfectly analyze an emotional relationship when he is always so detached himself, haha.
-- Higashi no Eden ep5: So, we have two Selecao agents revealed this week instead of just the one I expected -- No. 1 and a crazy chick whose number is not revealed that I can see. The woman seems to lean to the selfish side of things, using the money for her own gain, except she is way more extreme about it than the other agents we have seen. (At the very least, she has been up to some kinky stuff. Oh ho ho.) No. 1 is painted as a very important man. To me, the episode implied that he is either directly responsible for the "Careless Monday" attack, or he at least had a hand in it. This slipped my mind until I read Omni's post about the episode, but No. 1 also appears to be the person who tails Akira in the first episode. No. 1's conversation with Juiz in that episode strongly hints that No. 1 is The Supporter. ("No. 9 is proving to be more unique than imagined. But this is the end for him.") Looking forward to seeing more of No. 1 in the episodes to come.
Aside from that, I lol'd at the Prime Minister being all "lol whatever fuck this" and actually saying "Uncle" on TV, since his career is basically fucked, anyway, because the cat is out of the bag that the PM knew where the missiles came from and about the organization that pulled off the attacks. Also interesting to note that Akira apparently did not kill all those NEETs; instead, he shipped 'em all off to Dubai, where they toiled until at least some of them came back to Japan and became relatively productive members of society. Huh. I feel sorry for what's his face that gets turned down by Saki. He's kind of a dork, but he doesn't seem like a bad guy, and now the crazy chick has stumbled upon him. Sucks to be that guy, I suppose.
-- Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei eps 1-2: Wow, ep1 has to be one of the most perverted anime episodes (without actually showing anything) that I have ever seen. I guess the Higurashi team figured it could go all out since this is an OVA rather than a TV series. It's funny as hell but also really bizarre. Ep2 sets up an interesting scenario -- Rika is (presumably) hit by a truck while riding a bike with her friends but wakes up in a hospital after being hit on the back of the head by a ball Satoko threw. This world she wakes up in is completely different than the one she knows. Keiichi, Miyo, Jirou and Kyosuke are nowhere to be seen, while Satoshi is still in town. Also, Satoko is not particularly close to Rika now, and Rena's family is still together. This is just a set-up to a larger mystery, so I am eager to see where this is going. I don't think the creators would be dumb enough to pull this, but I am deathly afraid that this will end in an, "It was all a dream!!" ending. That would be horrible.
-- Ichigo Mashimaro OVA eps 1-3: This OVA is actually better than I thought it would be. The first episode, with Miu's target head, is just OK, but the other two episodes are excellent and very funny. Miu's continued odyssey to be the cutest girl in Nobue's eyes is wonderful, especially since each costume she drags out gets increasingly ridiculous (bunny ears --> tiger --> vampire). Only Miu would think that people could somehow find a vampire adorable (inb4 Twitards lol). The battle between Miu and Matsuri in the final third of the episode is maybe the funniest thing Matsuri has been involved in. Matsuri's rubber band shot launching Miu across the room and into the wall is completely absurd, but I'll be damned if it isn't funny as hell. Matsuri with the horse head at the end of ep2 is amazing. I laughed so hard when I saw that. Ep3 isn't quite as funny, but it's still good. It features two very rare teams -- Chika and Miu teaming up to get Nobue to take them out to the youth hostel, for one, and later in the episode, Miu and Nobue, of all people, team up to annoy Chika, although they don't really sync their behavior on purpose, haha. Miu's failed attempt to get a scary story circle going is funny. She should have known it would fail when Matsuri was the one to end the story.
-- Kaleido Star eps 1-11: Liking this show quite a bit so far! I think it's just what I needed to watch after all the angst of Gundam Wing and Zeta Gundam. One thing I really love about Kaleido Star is the setting -- the series does a great job of presenting the circus as this magical place, and it really distills the essence of what it's like to go to one of these places when you're a kid and everything is the greatest thing in history. I get so excited whenever there's a stage performance in this show, haha. I'd go to Kaleido Stage in a friggin' heartbeat. Sora and her two best buds, Mia and Anna, are awesome. (Also, example #4546 of how all the androgyny in anime is affecting me: I think Anna is at her cutest when she plays the prince in The Little Mermaid. Why, anime, why.) Watching them work together and climb up the Kaleido Stage ladder is fun, especially since they all work so damn hard. I think the show does a good job of making people like Layla and Kalos tough but not really unlikable, since they're not really being unjust with how they're pushing Sora to do her best and really understand what makes Kaleido Stage work. That leads in to another thing I love about the series: Not everything Sora does works perfectly. A great example of this is in the Little Mermaid production, when she changes from copying Layla's performance to putting her own spin on it. In a different anime, Sora would probably succeed the first time because she's such a perky, likable character, and she's the star of the show. But here, even that performance is a disaster because she fails to recognize how the other performers would react to her suddenly shifting the emphasis of the performance. I appreciate that Kaleido Star takes things like that into account and doesn't make every victory super easy for Sora.
Also, Fool is awesome. Guy cracks me up whenever he is onscreen; Takehito Koyasu almost always delivers the goods when it comes to comedy. And, uh, holy crap, if I didn't know beforehand that Keiji Fujiwara plays Kalos, then I don't think I would have immediately been able to tell just by hearing him, which is a first for me. His Kalos voice is subtly different from the characters he usually plays, but it's enough to make him sound almost unrecognizable. It is very strange to hear him sound so ordinary lol.
-- Kanon (2006) eps 13-14: Damn, this is definitely surpassing the Makoto story for me, mostly because the show is handling Mai's brief emotional breakdowns perfectly. She's so cool and composed so much of the time that it's really intense when she lashes out like she does after Sayuri is attacked by the demon. (Is there any way to tell if that is the same demon that attacked Sayuri at the dance? That might be an interesting detail.) Mai and Yuuichi teaming up to kick some demon ass is pretty cool. Seems as if ep15 will conclude the story, so I am looking forward to how everything closes out with that. Hopefully it will be something emotional on par with Makoto's ending. After that, I am assuming Shiori is next on the queue, considering there has been a bit more focus on her in the past few episodes.
-- K-On! ep7: It is so weird to watch a Christmas episode in the middle of May lol. Yui and Ui's relationship is the main thread of this episode. They are a really cute pair, and I enjoy how Yui's ditziness contrasts with Ui being capable of doing just about everything around the house. I am amazed that she hasn't snapped like Sawako, haha. Speaking of Sawako, man, her parts are The Office levels of awkward comedy now lol. Her rendition of "Jingle Bells" while the gift exchange is going on had me cringing. And then the breakdowns whenever her boyfriend is mentioned ... oh my gosh, haha. Only disappointing part of this episode is the talent show. I hoped a bit more humor would be drawn from it, but I guess KyoAni just ran low on time lol. Ah well. Next episode appears to be shaking things up with some new members in the light music club -- hopefully the newbies are as entertaining as the main crew!
-- Natsu no Arashi! ep6: Eh, this week's episode is supposed to be a bit more emotional, but I just didn't feel it at all. Again, the time travel stuff just does not connect with me in any meaningful way. It just feels as if the show is spinning its wheels when the World War II-era stories are the focus. I should probably drop this series, but against my better judgment, I think I'll give it one more episode to regain some ground.
-- Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ ep5: Not much new information revealed in this episode, but it is intense nonetheless as Zwei becomes more accustomed to killing and working in his blind assassin mode. For now at least, Zwei has crossed the line into doing just about any job asked of him -- he kills the mafioso's wife unhesitatingly, and then he looks into the mirror, gets a deep look into his own eyes and then also kills the child. The episode showed the entire time that he had been struggling with whether to actually go through with the mission or not, but obviously Zwei chooses to continue living as an assassin for Inferno. Also interesting is the implied frosty relationship between Claudia and Ein. That silence when Claudia goes to get Zwei (whom Claudia clearly prefers over Ein) is awkward indeed. I wonder if it's just another aspect of the conflict between Claudia and the Scythe Master, or if there's something deeper between Claudia and Ein.
-- Sengoku Basara ep6: I swear this show is determined to have me declare it the best of the season purely on the basis of introducing a metric fuckton of awesome each episode. Among this week's exploits: Masamune gets shot a shitload of times, doesn't give any sign that he has been injured until he collapses from blood loss later in the episode and still fights Mitsuhide; Mitsuhide is generally a slimy, evil bastard, first totally shitting on Azai's contribution to the battle, and because that isn't horrible enough for one day, he sneers gleefully at Masamune after he forces the retreat of Masamune's men; Oda's wife, Nouhime, launches off a horse, handguns blazing, rips through an army with a friggin' minigun and then blows Honda to kingdom come with a weapon that is just short of a nuke (and she keeps all this equipment hidden in her kimono, btw); and Oda drinks sake out of a human skull, calls Mitsuhide out for drastically altering Oda's plans and then dumps the sake on Mitsuhide's head, whereupon Oda says that it will be blood running down Mitsuhide's head instead of sake if he pulls that shit again. The villains own this episode about as much as they own the heroes in battle. Also, need I mention that KEIJI F'N FUJIWARA has a character introduced at the end of this episode?!?!?! GOD DAMN THIS IS JUST TOO MUCH AWESOME FOR ONE SHOW
-- Shangri-La ep6: Eh. My interest in this show has been dwindling with each episode; only bits and pieces make me pay attention now, so I decided to drop it. There is nothing particularly offensive about this episode, and the series could very well become good later on, but I just do not want to stick with it.
-- Shugo Chara! Doki eps 30-31: Yaya is awesome in this episode. She's an underused character in general, so I'm happy the show gives her a chance to shine this week, even if most of the focus is on Kiseki and Yoru. Yaya dragging everyone to Easter, getting thrown out, dragging everyone to Nikaidou and then nearly giving away that Nikaidou had been employed by Easter is just a hilarious sequence of events. I busted up with laughter just about every time Yaya appeared. Yaya getting upset that the charas went to the amusement park without her is also funny. Whenever Kiseki is paired with Yoru it's guaranteed awesome and funny. The part where the Easter president seemingly sees Yoru, but it's instead revealed that he is looking at a plant that is out of place, is such a dumb fake-out; however, I'll admit to snickering. Kiseki and Yoru going all Metal Gear Solid (complete with music!) after yoinking the tuning fork is cool. Of course, friendship wins in the end when Yoru sacrifices the tuning fork so that Kiseki doesn't fall into Easter's hands. Yoru is totally tsundere for Kiseki. (I would bet anything that fanfic has already been written.)
And, hey, two episodes in one week! Thanks, Des! :D This one is a filler-type episode after developing the main story for the past few weeks. The main girl is a fun, spunky character, though, and any chance to get more Kukai in the show is good. Amu on the baseball field is funny, as is Amu getting dragged along on yet another of Kukai's special training sessions. Rima deadpanning, "Why did we come here again?" to Yaya when Kukai runs off with Amu is the icing on the cake. xD
-- Valkyria Chronicles ep6: Just a comedy episode this week, but it's a fun one, so I don't mind too much. Irene is pretty awesome already; her "battle" with Alicia all episode is funny. Hopefully it isn't too long before she accompanies Squad 7 again. (Even if her profile on Squad 7 is pathetically short. Guess that's why she is going to interview them again! Haha.) Has that gay soldier been hanging around in the background of Squad 7, and I just never noticed before this episode? It seems as if he comes out of nowhere, but he cracked me up. Largo and his vegetable fetish, and Brigitte and her singing career also made me snicker. They are a good team. Also, I think I am becoming a fanboy for the Regiment Captain, Eleanor Varrot, and I suddenly wish she were on the show more. wtf I choose the most random characters to flip for, sometimes.
