Weekly Seasonal Watches: Summer 2019 Week 11

This week was full of episodes that either banged loudly and were full of incredibly meaningful expositions and made everything explode to great effect or just set up episodes for events to come. O Maidens had the most meaningful episode this week with every bit of character development taking full force in this episode. I may not talk about it on here, but I am planning on writing a full post on it instead because honestly, the show deserves that and so much more. Not that I am going to go on an ego trip and say I am the best blogger and me writing a blog about the show is the best it deserves. No no. Instead, it deserves to be more popular. If a post helps that, then yay!

Astra Lost in Space Episode 11

With Charce discovered as the person who tried to kill all of this group, we go deeper into his backstory and it’s pretty horrible. Charce is the clone of the king of Vixia. The sad thing is that he knew he was a clone and was completely dehumanized because of that. With Seira, his “sister” as his the only humanizing element for him. She has a forced clone who she sent away with one of her surrogate mothers. That clone’s name? Aries. Our Aries. After Seira was assassinated, Charce was locked away in a room for a year until he was called to kill off the other clones. Poor guy is in the worst scenario here.

With those things out of the way, every group member takes what they’ve learned from this trip in an effort to calm him down. It’s a very powerful moment full of character richness, but none of it worked as well as it could have. Charce tries to kill himself anyway with the portal and what happens with Kanta jumping over the portal and then losing his right arm finally gets to Charce to make himself feel better or push himself in a different direction. A great way to set us up for a future episode with B-5’s return.

One thing I do need to talk more about is how I love all the flash back material. Especially with how the different animation makes it feel story book like which is great. Whatever it is, such a wonderful episode all around. Can’t wait to see how this finishes.

Fruits Basket (2019) Episode 24

All I can really say with this episode is…..damn. This is episode is the unofficial part 2 to last episode and where last episode felt kind of rushed and uncomplete in a lot of ways, this finishes Kyo’s backstory where he still has a ways to grow. Kyo’s teacher saw how Kyo acted towards Tohru and thought that Kyo’s place is at Shigure’s house while Kyo wants to stay again with his sensei. Then there was a plot a foot. There was also plenty of flash backs to Kyo’s mom not understanding what love meant and pushing Kyo away from until she committed suicide. Such is the trauma between cat spirited Kyo and how sensei undestands Kyo because of his grandfather being the same way. It’s a great sort of emotional set up for what we get in the second half.

With Kyo’s Sensei pulling off a plan of revealing Kyo’s true form to everybody including Tohru, Kyo runs off into the woods himself because he thinks he wouldn’t be accepted. Fortunately, Tohru does chase after him. Their encounter in the water fall was wonderful and emotional, even if Kyo threw her into the water. She got back up and just stated all the true feelings in her her about how she was scared, but wanted to understand everything that was happening to Kyo anyway. It’s one of those heart warming and genuine scenes that you can’t get in a lot of anime. Damn it, I almost did a cry. So yes, absolutely stunning episode in every department.

Fire Force Episode 10

After the many emotional punches of last episode with bad Tamaki fanservice completely ruining those moments, episode 10 was a marked improvement. Especially since Tamaki wasn’t any sort of focus character besides her just being there. There was a major company meeting for all parts of the fire force that at least fleshed out the world a little more even if it went by a little too fast to understand everyone. At least we got to know about Company 7, the laid back company that doesn’t care about the rules too much and how Company 3 wanted to use Shinra as a test subject for his pure flames. Other then all the companies working together for this mission and Hibana having a short meeting with Joker, not much came out of everything.

The last half of the episode was pretty good, despite the fact that Tamaki just randomly appeared in the classic naked apron for some reason that just breaks all physics. (Sigh, when is she going to actually be more then just the go to fanservice character that gets her clothes taken off all the time?) We get to see Company 8 work together, Shinra sharing what joker said about his brother being alive, and then the heart warming moment of Company 8 making plans encase Shinra is actually alive. So all in all, very solid episode despite one character that just continues to exist for some reason. Next episode, I guess we dig further into the conspiracy stuff. Plus, a lot of thoughtful still frames in this episode. It’s definitely in Shaft’s style and I’m slowly getting used to the particulars of how the show works.

Granbelm Episode 11

Before the final battle occurs, it’s time to examine Mangetsu’s very existence and the fading memories of people in regards to her. As was explained last episode, Mangetsu isn’t a real person and is a doll formed from Shingetu’s wishes. This episode tells us about everything about how Mangetsu is dealing with his existence problem and surprisingly, it’s very well. After talking to Kuon’s sister, she understands that while memories are gone, that still doesn’t mean their effects are gone. She notices that when Kuon’s sister says “Kuon is a good name”, she was crying. And there was some other attributes too, but it means that at least Mangetsu won’t ever completely disappear. It’s the best she could do considering that she isn’t a person, but that’s more then enough to make anyone cry. Especially Shingetsu who still misses Anna and doesn’t want Mangetsu to disappear.

The last part of the episode was happy yet had tons and tons of melancholy behind it. Our favorite witch girls who are good and Mangetsu’s former sister went on a picnic with each other. It was Mangetu’s gambit of getting all of these people a chance to at least remember her in some way. Nene even comes up with an idea to get Mangetsu to stay around, but Mangetsu just isn’t interested in it because it involves Shingetu’s last wish. In a moment that Mangetsu said goodbye with fire works, Shingetsu chases after her and they have a heart to heart. With that, the final happens next episode. Man, when this show is good, it’s real good.

Demon Slayer Episode 24

Besides Zenitsu’s annoying and creepy appearance on screen again and lack of Nezuko presence, this episode was rather wonderful. In general, the best material did happen during the second half while Zenitsu was given too much time to be….Zenitsu. With Inosuke, Zenitsu, and Tanjiro still in the hospital from everything that happened last arc, we now go into rehabilitation training so each person can gain their sense of stamina again. This involves certain things like stretches, reflex testing involving splashing tea, and tag against different opponents. Since all of this was with girls of different ages, Zenitsu really gets creepy here with how he approaches everything. Gah, he just returned to being the worse. The person that none of our boys was ever able to get any hands on was Kanae who stayed quite the entire time. Kind of suspicious, but it all makes sense.

We learn why Kanae was quiet later in this second half. She’s mastered continuous breathing and was obviously doing that through out all the exercises to increase all sense of her stamina. That’s is also something that Tanjiro sucks at because he can only do it in short spurts without it hurting him. So that’s what happened through most of it, it’s training like the shonen days. The most powerful moment regardless of all this was Tanjiro and Shinobu talking on the roof. It’s the first time that Shinobu felt vulnerable considering that she has always gone from strong position to strong position and it’s nice to see that she finds something she is missing in Tanjiro. The will to like demons is just something that Shinobu doesn’t have and she knows it, but can’t change that fact. Such good character writing right there. Anyway, looks like some trouble is happening deep in the woods close by. Guess we get to see Tanjiro in action soon?

Lord El Melloi 2 Case Files Episode 11

While all of Lord El Melloi’s episodes are consistently great, I still feel like the mystery part of the whole thing is always severely lacking. Why? Because it’s very Japanese mystery with the “ahaha, I know everything” compared to more Western Sherlock Holmes still mystery where we could possibly figure out everything in advance. So here we have Waver fighting back against Adashino from a character mystery perspective and a character perspective. How? Because Waver suddenly knows things all of a sudden. Especially regarding who hephaestion is and what she actually is (not a servant) and things like that.

During the actual Rail Zeplin auction thing, which went up to $500 million dollars (he was betting against Adashino and Lvette) Waver reveals his knowledge of the case. He reveals a clue that we haven’t seen before, a magical device that allowed Ms. Adashino to do whatever she wanted in that moment. Plus, another trick to be revealed soon via cliff hanger. I should also talk about Shishigou driving around with some kids in an American sports car and an unnecessary bath phone call with Luvi during that drive? We saw nothing, considering that suds completely covered her backside when she climbed out of it. I suppose I can’t wait for this mystery to be solved. I just wish it was more Western styled instead of Japanese styled mystery. If that wasn’t the case, this would be perfect. Still looking forward to seeing all this come together next episode. I mean, this one was case file episode 5/6 after all.

Vinland Saga Episode 10

Not much action in Vinland Saga this week. Those attributes were either given to us on a cinematic glance or quick cuts and that’s it. Instead, we get plot set up and more Thorfinn character introspection plus even more world building. Askeladd and his vikings are now raiding small towns in Britiana for their last bit of money gathering before the winter hits and they have to go home. Thorfinn has a dream where he lived in a perfect place instead of Iceland as a kid and was a message to Thorfinn from his father about how his family is still waiting. Plus, there was some talk between Thorfinn and Askeladd about how age comes for us all. All comes into context with the Roman ruins all around them. A great civilization that came down to nothing.

Meanwhile, Prince Canute is outside of London Bridge with Thorkell waiting to attack. What happens? Thorkell was able to capture the Prince with his four hundred men. What does that mean? Askeladd and others are going for Thorkell with no plan. I think him and Thorfinn’s talk about age and falling empires really got to him. Of course, the gold involved with this situation is enough to get Askeladd’s money happy, but he’s just searching for a good death. Lots of things to come in the future I see. Probably plenty of great visual punches too because that’s what was lacking here for good reason. Man, I wonder what that crazy Viking battle is going to look like. Can’t help but be excited about it right now.

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