Weekly Seasonal Watches: Summer 2019 Week 7

I don’t share people’s posts as much as usual, but you should really check out Rami’s blog: The Free Spirit Anime. Their art is completely amazing. Just check it out and see!

As for my week, everything seems to getting busier and busier in a way that I like. We’ve adopted a cute new puppy named Nala that needs to be house trained still, but she’s just the sweetest thing possible. She’s been abused because she’s missing some fur on her head and has a missing toe on one of her paws, but Nala is still perfect for us. Oh, I’ve started working part time too but that isn’t as important as the new puppy.

Oh, and O Maidens is still pretty great.

Astra Lost in Space Episode 7

This show just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it? With last episodes ending on Charce, we learn more about in the opening minutes. The first thing we learn is that he’s a transfer student that appeared at that school later then Aries. Why? He’s a member of royalty from the only country on B5’s planet that has royalty yet, Vixa. And what did he do? Become interested in a commoner named Seira. What happens? He gets in trouble for bringing Seira into a royal area and he decides to leave and go to school with the other kids. Well, as far as we know I suppose. Could be false.

And then there is the chaos that happens at the end. The Astra shows up on Icriss, a planet with two extremes. There is a side that will instantly kill you because of it’s heat, a side that will instantly kill because it’s cold, and a small inhabitable zone in between that will just kill. So, the Astra crashes and can’t be used for space travel anymore. The concept of this group having to live on this horrible planet is just bad, but as least there is food and water available. Plus another ship carrying another passenger in cryo. Looks like some other people met a similar fate. In the end, Ulgar, Zach, and Kanata wake the girl up to see what will come next. I’m sure there will be a way for these kids to make it off the planet in due time.

Fruits Basket (2019) Episode 20

It seems like this show is just getting the annoying people out of the way first it seems. And now, I am not going to say that Ritsu was completely annoying because he isn’t and the touching moment between Mitsuru that was good. But Hiro was annoying. Why? Because he’s a realistic smart ass kid. He’s in sixth grade and completely jealous of how Tohru has helped Kisa, so he decides to be an asshole to Tohru because he can be. Hiro stole things from Tohru, forced Tohru to make tea for him, forced Tohru to take him and Kisa somewhere. So what if there was a small heart to heart between the too in the end. It’s not a bad episode to watch because it isn’t, but it was frustrating episode to watch. Then again, kids in sixth grade are usually frustrating anyway aren’t they?

Fire Force Episode 6

With last week’s episodes focusing on the rest of Unit 8 taking on Unit 5, this week’s episode focused on Shinra vs Queen Hibana. We dig deep into Queen Hibana and Iris’ backstory where Hibana was the cool kid on the convent. She had abilities to make fire flowers and Iris look up to her. Of course a fire broke out and killed a lot of the nuns, so Hibana had a crisis of fate. Hibana, the hero of the campus, was no more and she became a captain of Unit 5 because she lost herself.

Enter Shinra to defeat her. Shinra didn’t put up much of a fight against her while she unless her secret technique, a sakura tree to launch sakura blossoms against him ala Captain Kuchiki in Bleach. And in a very shonen way, Shinra defeated her in the last minute. Why? Because Shinra is her hero now and you can tell that she has a crush on him now because of how her eyes changed to hearts. Plus, Unit 5 is going to use this invasion as a cover for a “training” exercise. I’m sad that Obi wasn’t able to interupt with his awesome machine, but what can you do? So yeah, very fun episode. I do think that Hibana could be treated better, but I’m still enjoying it quite a bit.

Granbelm Episode 7

With this episode, the Sangetsu and Anna grudge match comes to a conclusion. It’s definitely a beautifully shot, wonderful, and completely action packed episode, but I do think that it went on with this grudge match way too long. The natural course of action of the gifted mage who was adopted into this family, Sangetsu, and Anna not being as gifted but now resolving herself to using the family crest which put her mother directly into the hospital.

Anna just can’t let go of her wanting to be a mage and honestly, I don’t think she should. I suppose that mages are very particular about who is carrying their family mage line, but this was sort of ridiculous. Don’t tell people what they should and shouldn’t do. It was a beautiful fight and had some strong emotions behind it which drove it forward, but this should have ended at least an episode ago I think. The more interesting fight was in the background between Shishou and Kuon. Why Because Shishou is using her sister for magic in this fight. What the hell?

Demon Slayer Episode 20

See, this episode is the reason why writing these episodic reviews can be hard sometimes. Last week’s epic visual flair but major ass pull powerful was circumvented by Rui’s ass pull where he disconnected his head first. Yeah, ok. But yeah, Tanjiro is on the ground climbing towards Nezuko, Rui is about to kill both of them, and Genya saves both of them so easily. He didn’t even have to block or cut through Rui’s attacks, he just kills him instantly. No questions asked. I guess Tanjiro has some training to do soon.

At the other end of this episode is learning about how Rui forced other demons to become his family by him saving them and Shinobu’s appearance and abilities. I do like that she is different from everyone else by having Wisteria poison on her blade instead of cutting through demon’s necks. Plus, her asking a demon to be her friend was also kind of interesting. I want to know about here. So in the ending transition episode, can we expect a training arc to happen soon?

Lord El Melloi II Case Files Episode 7

This episode was a great set up for the classic train murder mystery ala The Orient Express. It’s a magical train on it’s way to a magical eye auction place. So of course, all the passengers are color characters in one way or another. The super natural train that rides on leylines was established, some cast members were, like Olga Maria Animusphere (from FGO) and her attendant Trisha who has magical eyes of perception. Also, we finally learned that magical rainbow eyes are available for auction and Reines hired Shishigou to see who stole Waver’s

Vinland Saga Episode 7

After Askallad and his friends latest attack and Thorfinn proving himself, there are no more town pillages to be made around the coast of England and no more demands from the Danish king to attack them. With that fact out there, Askallad decides to take another route, France. With France currently at war with itself, Askallad uses Thorfinn to negotiate with one side of the French attack group who are attacking a castle. The deal? Askallad will help with their invasion for an exchange of half of the gold. So yeah, that happens, Thorfinn takes out the captain of the longbowmen allowing the Vikings to do their invasion, and the Vikings get their gold and the French get their castle. Plus, the Vikings make their escape.

I do think this episode was tonally dissonant a little bit with Thorfinn being in edgelord status trying to achieve more and more by killing more and more people all to be able to challenge Askallad again. I suppose this is justified by Askallad making Thorfinn go on more and more dangerous missions to see if he can actually kill him. Why? It’s all a game to Askallad. The rest of the episode was a little more amusing despite the decent sized medieval fort battle that felt realistic. Hot oil made an appearance and that was wonderful. Watching this episode made me missing watching these in movies and television shows. I think the last one I’ve seen came from Arslan Senki and those were mostly cg. This battle was a decent mix of cg and digital animation, so it looked so much better. Maybe this isn’t the best episode of this show, because that was last episode, but I enjoyed this one just fine.

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