Starting off this post, I want to at least comment on the first 23-minute preview of movie Gundam Narrative we were given on Friday. We were given a well-paced explanation of the political situations since Unicorn happened, introduced to a loveable cast of characters, and witnessed great action scenes that go beyond whatever Unicorn did. More please.
With that said, my week itself was pretty alright. I’ve been very busy rushing from doing one thing to another for most of it, so believe me when I say had a burn out on Friday and just turned in my homework and did nothing for the rest of the day besides blogging stuff and anime watching. I got a decent test score which makes me pretty happy as well, so everything seems to be looking alright as things hit the end of term.
And with this post, older mecha shows make their return for their use in Mecha March
-Episodic Watches-
Space Battleship Tiramisu S2 Episode 8
This episode’s fun was centered around the introduction of a new character, Ensign Hummer. Before a warp jump, he unknowingly beats Subaru’s arcade score which leads to Subaru playing the game until he loses all sense of sanity and worships Ensign Hummer as a god. I should have expected that he would push it that far. The second episode is just ghost adventures in the middle of the battlefield with Subaru and Hummer. Hummer sees ghosts and ends up blasting Subaru’s Durandal into decommission. It’s crazy fun stuff that we don’t get very often and somewhat linear with its delivery. I am pretty happy with this show right now.
Thunderbolt Fantasy S2 Episode 8
Here we are with another exciting episode of this insane show. The least important part is when Lin/Enigmatic Gale shows glasses cop one of his treasure dumps of stolen objects leading the two to possibly broker a deal of trading and selling all of the stolen objects. On the other end, the Princess of Cruelty resists her swords insanity after it sucks some of her blood up, is defeated and let go by Shang while trying to escape her sword, then is killed by the monk who became the sword’s true wielder and becomes the show’s main antagonist almost instantly. Holy crap, I thought the stakes were already huge, but man did they just explode again. Such a good episode that I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. It can’t possibly get worse, right? Yeah, it probably can but that’s ok. That’s why I am here to watch it.
Golden Kamuy S2 Episode 7
Well it’s Golden Kamuy, so it’s one-part insanity and one-part drama. The fun and possibly the part that will launch a thousand fanfictions comes from our four guys eating otter meat which has pheromones in it. The result is what you would expect and/or sumo wrestling. Yes. ”Sumo wrestling”. It also leads Inkarmat and Tanigaki sleeping with each other. On the more dramatic end, Asirpa possibly learns the truth about her father from Inkarmat and how Kiroranke might have killed him. Of course, a big confrontation happens and guns are pointed in different directions, but they decide to go to continue on their journey anyway. I guess we are visiting the prison next week and I can’t wait to see how this show could get more insane.
Run With the Wind Episode 9
What a thoughtful episode this was. After Kakeru’s outbursts against Prince last week, everybody slowly learns about it from the twins. You know, the dumb twins that don’t listen to Haiji’s instructions not to tell anyone anything about how Kakeru spoke to prince. The odd thing? Nobody was really shocked or angered by it. Also, there is a funny scene with Haiji bringing Nico is meal. Also, seeing Kakeru learning about what teamwork is actually like and seeing him cheer the chosen five people to run at this track meet with the four others was a lot of fun. It certainly gave him something to think about, that’s for sure and his talk with Haiji was truly meaningful. Still, I am extremely worried for Haiji. I wonder what is wrong with him. So much going on in this episode.
Karakuri Circus Episode 8
That was a crazy fun episode! Had lots of action and heart as well. I just happen to feel like there is a chunk of story missing from this show though. The narrative flow of the show is still good and feels natural like, but I still like there are story jumps that feel like I am missing some context here and there.
Oh, I should mention some story stuff. Shirogane and Masaru with the new Velma character are about to start their circus show while Narumi, the Shirogane named Guy, and the older Shirogane Lucile fight horrifying circus puppets while traveling to shanghai on an airplane. Awesome action scenes and heart all around! You guys remember when I asked about how these two story lines would meet up last week or something? I WAS NOT EXPECTING ONE TO LITERALLY CRASH INTO ANOTHER. You know the plane that I talked about? Yeah, it crashed into the circus as it was about to start. That’s not a complaint, just me exclaiming at whatever the hell that was.
Bloom Into You Episode 9
Oh hey, we have the school sports festival episode! And that isn’t a sarcastic response, it was pretty entertaining because we see more of the behind the scenes stuff which also means a lot of hidden romantic scenes because our two “lovers” haven’t seen each other in a while. Yeah, I am easily comparing this episode to another similar one from Kare Kano. That’s not a bad thing here, because I think that Bloom Into You holds up to that classic on a lot of levels.
While relay races with Yuu and the student council losing against their basketball opponents are the things that occurred in the front, physical intimacy between Yuu and Touko was the most important thing to talk about here and it comes down to Yuu physically can’t initiate physical content with Minami, so Yuu is just the receiver. Touko does check with Yuu on whether or not Yuu was ok with it. Also, it’s pretty clear that Yuu is falling for Touko even if she is trying very hard to keep herself on the path of not knowing what love means. Oh, the direction was better in this episode. The last relay race had some more spectacle to it, though not as good as Run with the Wind, and Yuu filtering out Touko from everything else that was happening which was kind of fun. So yes, good episode. It gives me a lot of things to think about and write about.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5 Episode 9
A lot of crazy things happened in this episode like usual, which is normal for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Can we just call this one a standard episode of JoJo? I mean, there were a lot of things that happened like the fact that the mafia’s gold was hidden in a urinal, Bruno was promoted to Capo and now he’s going to protect the bosses daughter for at least a week, Narancia going shopping and then being attacked by another stand member from the gang, and then Narancia slowly getting smaller without him realizing it because that stand user is now is in his pocket.
I realize that I didn’t add any context to this part but adding context to JoJo only sort of helps. Anyway, on a visual level, this episode was minimal and had a lot of alright looking cg because it fit the show’s aesthetic. Still, the fight was in a very fixed location centered around a cat seat that was incredibly boring because it was a little airplane shooting at a guy in a car. So yeah, it was ok. A lot of fun stuff happened that propelled the plot forward which is good. Can’t wait to see where this goes.
SSSS.Gridman Episode 9
This was possibly the best episode of Gridman so far. That may be because it’s my favorite types of episodes though. It’s the dream sequence episode where Utsumi, Rikka, and Yuuta were put in a complete fantasy universe where everything was perfect. The characters caught in this dream sequence can only break out of their perfect world when they know it’s wrong and escape through their own will power.
There is a bonus here where it’s Akane creating this world like it’s a call for help. This episode was framed as Akane’s last call of help to these three friends and each of them in turn completely rejected or refused her call. A completely unhinged person is hard to deal with and I feel like that is what is waiting for us at the end of this door. Next week’s episode is going to be frightening. Oh, maybe I should talk about the action as well. It’s just solid as usual. Possibly even more so. Also, the direction was special as well.
Tsurune Episode 7
This was the most tension filled episode that we’ve had of Tsurune for its entire run and it’s because of the other team our group is butting heads with. I mean, it’s a tournament episode so all of that makes sense. What doesn’t add any character at all are the twins who like dissing people because they can and Shuu, some of our protagonist’s childhood friend, being a passive aggressive dick. The two things that I got out of this episode, besides our school’s failure in the individual portions of it, are that Kacchan cares a lot about his team because only he can make fun of people on his team, and Narumiya is extremely happy about people carrying for him. Such subtle character moments. I guess we can only see how our team does next week and hope they win.
-Binge? Watches-
Fullmetal Alchemist Episode 2003 Episodes 39-44
Well dang, a lot of stuff went down in these episodes and it was all sorts of heavy and complex emotional baggage. I feel like just commenting on what happened here in a paragraph wouldn’t do any of it justice, but just know that it involved a lot of powerful human moments that even the a crazy homunculus had one too. A lot of military people died and some people that were missing since the beginning of the series for one reason or another came back, and it all seems to be leading somewhere. Also, two kids that have been searching for something over the course of the series may have obtained it and don’t know what to do with it. Everything works on a very emotional level which is good, but I still question a lot of things on a technical level and it has been taking a lot of the enjoyment of the show for me. I am only two sets of episodes away from being done, so I will comment more on this when I write about it on a larger level.
Tiger and Bunny Episodes 1-5
Oh wow, I forgot how much that I loved Tiger and Bunny. I watched back when I was working on my undergraduate degree at anime club and it was a big hit for us. Rewatching Tiger and Bunny has brought back a lot of these feelings. These five episodes were a great introduction this anime’s world and its characters. Tiger and Bunny are the main character of course, but there are some episodes where they are merely on the sidelines and that is alright, because the other hero characters are great as well. Still, the old washed hero by the name of Tiger partnered with this new up and coming hero by the name of Barnaby (bunny) is the center of the show and it’s a very fun relationship to explore on multiple levels. I also appreciate how most of the characters are adults and can casual drink with each other at a bar and just hang out. It’s nice to have adult characters is what I am saying. The visuals have aged a lot bit since 2011, but everything still looks pretty alright.
Giant Gorg Episodes 12 and 13
A week without this show is crazy, because watching these two episodes reminded me why I liked it so much. The characters are simple and so charming along with the production values that are great for a 1980’s mech show. These two episodes focused on our group founding another resting place in another swamp and Lady Lynx comes back into the fray. She captures Yuu and Doris while they are away from the protagonist’s vehicle being adorable and fishing. Also, she has interesting interactions with G.A.I.L.’s Austral island boss Balboa because they used to be partners. Lady Lynx tries to use Yuu and his connection with Gorg to negotiate Balboa to her side, but Balboa completely rejects all of this and imprisons her because he is gaining so much from this position. More then he ever got being a partner in Lady Lynx’s gang and thus we know more about these two just with his interaction.
Genesis Climber Mospeada Episodes 12 and 13
I know it’s only been a week since I’ve watched this show, but I forgot how strange Mospeada can be sometimes. The first episode in this set was normal stuff that involve Ray and Mint skiing down a mountain to the inside of an Inbit base in order to destroy the radar and get past that base’s patrols. Ray and Mint, who are a lot of fun with each other, discover what the Inbit look like outside of their robot suits and discover they have a hive mind guiding them. The operation goes well, the base gets destroyed, and they discover Aisha, the girl they rescued, can pick up Inbit radio signals because she is telepathic. The second episode is Ray having a fever dream where he and the rest of this protagonist group are medieval knights with mechs fighting together to defeat a dragon. All he was supposed to do was get cactus water for the group during a sand storm. It was crazy hilarious. Looking forward to more of this in the future.
There was no episode of Double at the time I was editing this post and putting it together, so if it airs later then when I was putting this post together, expect a double episode segment of all of this next week. As for right now this was fun.
I am also playing around with the new editor on this post and I found some ways around the problems I was having. I hope it stays like this.
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