Weekly Seasonal Watches: Fall 2019 Anime Week 12

It’s so strange having a small amount of episodes to watch, but I kind of like it honestly. More time to watch some older series or just relax. Either way, it’s all good I suppose. A lot of good sort of climatic episodes this week which is kind of interesting. Some went ways I didn’t expect and others that did but I enjoyed them anyway. Good stuff for this Christmas season.

Obsolete Episode 3

Hey, how about that? An episode where the US doesn’t have a forced intervention in a conflict they don’t belong in. Instead, in this episode set between episode 2 and episode 1, we got to an India and Pakistan conflict with the first level of exoskeleton suit armors. Our point of view character says he is from the Japanese Self Defense force to comment on how useful exoskeletons can be in conflicts here. At the end of the episode we don’t know what he is, but that appearance from the skull in the first episode on the enemy Pakistani mecha and how the enemies suit was empty was interesting.

So yeah, I really loved this episode. Not for all the plot stuff that I kind of mentioned and spoiled. Oh no, we get a snow mecha fight. It’s a lot more like a James Bond fight with mecha on skis going down a mountain and making the others fall with a beautifully animated avalanche to go with the well animated cg mecha snow fight. It’s a lot of fun honestly. I wish we got more of these in anime. I suppose they are hard to animated with all the mechanical movement and how snow falls and moves, but oh well. Still liking this little mini series yet.

Chihayafuru Season 3 Episode 11

Read the episodic review from yesterday here.

Blade of the Immortal Episode 12

I’m just going to say that most of this episode was a lot of fun for me. Why? Because it had a fun sort of dynamic that I can’t help but liking. What happens if you put the protagonist of the series who is out for revenge and team them up with the main villain they are trying to kill? In this episode, Rin and her target Ahnotsu travel together and team up quite a bit. Except Ahnotsu isn’t in perfect health and is slowly suffering from Tetanus in episode.

Rin can’t kill him because of her own honor, so she helps him out. I really do like the conversations the too have about Rin’s feelings about her parents and the casual kind of fun tone where Ahnotsu gives her some money to pay for food in a village while he had other things going on. Plus, they schemed together. It’s just kind of perfect and makes both characters feel real. Why? It gives them a reason to go after each other next and provide them some interesting complications like caring for the other’s well being in some ironic and fun ways.

Of course, that wasn’t everything that happened in this episode. Maki made an appearance in that village the two visited and she’s not doing to well. Her ambitions have failed and she has one of her right hands wired closed. Yeah, that’s where Ahnotsu got his tetanus. After the two embrace, it’s awesome seeing her appear to save Ahnotsu and Rin’s life. Along with the appearance of Magatsu and Mr. Manji to save their lives too. I really do like a lot of aspects in this episode here. I wish that more of these types of episodes made an appearance, but it is what it is.

Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE Episode 12

Wow, that was a pretty crazy episode. Just tons of things going on and craziness all around. Just genuinely too much for our protagonist team to handle at any costs at all. With all of that talk of “we are like a team now” and everything, then all of that falls apart being of communication error and way too much one eyes to fight. There is also Seltsam out there fighting our Build Diver team and such. Whatever happened, they were all too late to stop the laser canon from destroying the villager city. Parvis’ laser wasn’t fired at the right time after May’s massive attack, Hiroto’s attacks against Seltsam were ineffective, and Kazami just getting lost didn’t help. No unity, no helping the city from being destroyed.

The episode itself ends on the worst possible note. The Build Divers return from failure to the village where the mission starts in the first place. What’s worse is that the mission didn’t get an ending message, but a network error message everywhere. Everyone on the gundam build network was kicked out and now the fate of the villagers in question is going to be hard to figure out. I don’t think this series is the best, but I would have cried if I was a kid when watching this. Especially since we were given enough time to know about the furry villagers and know that they have real feelings. That wall crashing down between what real life and games are was huge. Plus, everything about this episode was beautiful from an animation stand point. It’s just nuts. Where to go from here?

No Guns Life Episode 11

Once again, a two parter episode with a lot of cg in it. The first half focuses on Pepper and Seven, or as I would call them the evil Ed and Al where Ed is female, and attack Juzo in his office. It does lead to some great destruction and destroying Juzo’s wall and left arm (for not I’m sure). Plus, Pepper leaves with her own sense of ownership around Juzo (licking) after Tetsuro shows up using harmony to take control of Seven. All leading to chaotic scenes of the aftermatch, Tetsuro blaming himself pointless, the EMS and Kronen showing up to give Juzo some news, and such. All leading to a case where Mary and Juzo have to protect a rich kid. Some craziness is going on.

Yeah, I can’t say I was really wowed by this episode’s visual direction at all because there was too much noticeable cg alongside normal animation. Seven’s attack was kind just of bland cg without any interesting visual direction. Hell, even the doors to Juzo’s office were obviously cg. It kind of completely took me out of the experience completely disappointed. Especially since this was a fight that was hinted at happening. Still ok and everything, but I guess I’m not as invested in this series as I was because it’s moving pretty slowly and sloppily developing things.

My Hero Academia S4 Episode 10

Will, that was another in-between and set up episode if I ever saw one. Had things happening all over the place to make it feel a little disorientating because of everything that went on. Let’s see if I am able to do that. Kirishima and Fat’s fight ended last episode and now Kirishima is getting necessary medical attention from the people he helped Fats to beat up. Now the shield guy, but Rappa the former MMA fighter who only joined the Yakuza because Over Haul was the only place he could go. Not a bad backstory, but one that I don’t think I will remember when it comes to everything else.

With that comes a quick seen where Sir Night Eye shows off his strength and dexterity while also showing off some of his future gazing capabilities against Twice. At that same time, two villains from the League of Villains show up. Himiko and Twice are the new part timers for the Shai Hassaikai and play a major part in this episode after the twisting hallways twisted once again all over the place. Himiko is able to defeat Rock Lock and his freezing ability, though Knight Eye and Deku are able to defeat Himiko completely. With Twice and Himiko meeting up with each other, this event is going to get scarier and more interesting isn’t it?

Once again, this episode was all over the place for me. I understand what it’s doing, but I wasn’t able to keep my focus at all. Maybe it’s because I’m under the weather and my mind isn’t working as well as it could be? Oh well. Haha. I am very curious about where everything leads up to do though. Especially with it being Lemillion’s turn to be up at bat next time. Definitely a slower Chimera Ant Arc here.

Fate/Grand Order Episode 11

With our crew making it to the Temple of the Sun to fight Quetzacoatl, we get a very fun fight scene with a lot of different gods fighting Quetzacoatl and eventually Ritsuka showing his resolve by jumping at Quetzacoatl from a high elevation to show his resolve. To Ritsuka’s efforts, it all works. Quetzacoatl happily joins Ritsuka’s side because of his ambition and the group head’s back with the axe in tow. Just one cliff hanger event though. Gilgamesh is in the underworld and dead for some reason? Uh oh. So yes, still a beautiful animated action series and is just a lto of fun. I wonder what chaos will appear later on. In Three Weeks. Gah, that long?

Vinland Saga Episode 23

Is there going to be a time when Vinland Saga isn’t going to be the master of tension? This episode didn’t resolve itself at all by ending in a massive sort of cliff hanger with a lot of emotional appeal behind it. The war between Askeladd and Canute vs King Sweyn is in full swing during a strategy meeting where Askeladd is cornered and he knows it. King Sweyn is sending men into Wales to conqueror it and he now knows that is Askeladd’s weakness. There is nothing Askeladd could plan to get him out of that situation. With Askeladd being called forward during this meal and meating, the episode ended. Holy crap man, Askeladd really does get too smug in the wrong times. Hopefully not saying goodbye yet, but you know…

On the other end of this episode is Thorfinn being tossed into a jail cell after his defeat against Askeladd after he beat up random people on the street. Leif Erickson visited Thorfinn to bring sense back into the kid. A kid that had the ultimate moral crisis behind him from him being used in all sorts of bad ways by Askeladd to being simple minded in a more complex world. The tales of his family didn’t bring him back at all, but Leif Erickson’s talk about Vinland did start to take Thorfinn back from the brink. In a beautiful moment, he saw a dream that he wished to see again. Maybe there is hope for Thorfinn yet. He’s still young after all.

This wasn’t an episode full of movement and great animation, it was full of atmospheric still frames instead. A lot of scenes involved Thorfinn just laying down in his cell face down which must be easier for this production studio to create and draw together. Still, the emotional pull behind this episode was pretty incredible regardless of that. This show is just too good to exist sometimes. I love it.

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