Not much to say here right now besides me just genuinely enjoying the season so far. Put together, natural, and otherwise.

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Seasonal Anime

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The God of High School Episode 2

Oh, we are skipping the fight are we? An interesting choice that a lot of anime series do to keep us on our toes. It does skip us to moments to at least give the characters a little more personality and why they are fighting. Miri: to bring her school back to prominence, Mori: the standard shonen thing to get stronger, and Daewi: for money. Plus, a lot of the sword stuff with it ending up in the water which lead to us seeing what happened in the final bits of battle (Miri breaking Mori’s neck before it was repaired to micro machines) and some time for the group to get together. It’s very basic writing stuff, but I wonder what happens to them as they grow.

That all leads to the tournament where we see a lot of rounds where our protagonists and some others who will probably become a threat later. Then there is the conflict between the Go Gamdo and the horrible master of Tae Kwon Do, Mansoek with his arms strapped behind his back. Of course, Mori is here too to help from Mansoek’s locker room horribleness and saving Go when things go wrong by putting Mansoek to a pulp. Of course, he broke some rules to save Go’s life and that’s ok. Except that broke the tournament’s rules. Oh god, this show is tapping some shonen battle tournament stuff in me that have been hidden (or not so hidden) for a long time. I’m so excited, guys. You don’t understand.

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Fruits Basket 2 Episode 15

Fun times with the teacher conferences this week. A lot of uncertainty, students questioning what they want to do, and some very interesting moments between parents. Uotani doesn’t know what she wants to be, but thinks of being a model. Tohru came with Shigure which annoyed Mayu and Mayu questioned Tohru’s push to not go to college. Kyo had his supportive martial art dad there. Saki just wants to pass highschool. It’s all very relatable stuff because I remember doing the same things during my high school parent teacher conferences.

Of course, this episode’s major set piece was about Yuki and him finding his own growth spurt against what his mother sees him as. A tool. There was an uncertainty of Yuki slipping away presented by the not so subtle use of shadows and space. Of course, Aoyame came and broke up the whole matter himself. And Yuki even stood up to his mother and told her what he intended to do. Go to school? Yes. Not the one’s she wanted. Plus, even the student council and his fixed relationship with his brother helped him out. He’s changing and he built a network around him to change. Such an emotional episode. sniff I love it.

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Deca-Dence Episode 2

Ummmmm, what? This episode came out of nowhere. Now we have Kaburagi’s story and the fact that what we are watching is basically the Matrix but with FPS attached to it. Like, Kaburagi is a bot who used to be the number one on a leader board for killing bugs on the planet and screwed up after giving a new leader a hint on how to play better. Now he is forced to repair armor with the humans during the day and investigate the humans for bugs in the night. Natsume is one of those bugs, but he chooses not to kill her and instead help her out. We got the human perspective last week and the bot perspective this week. What happens next time? I do not know what to say here. So unexpected but it makes sense.

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Gundam Build Divers RE:Rise 2 Episode 7

Hiroto’s backstory continues with Build Divers flash back and the death of Eve. The original Build Divers crew has a lot of flash backs in this episode and Hiroto’s life occurs during it. The Build Divers wings of love weaken Eve’s hold on GBN and she begins to take the world apart forcing Hiroto to kill her. Oh that hurt so much. Same with Hiroto suffering PTSD from the incident and almost taking out the Build Diver’s mecha unit in the middle of things. The best part is that Hiroto was telling his own Build Divers crew this and Mae could be his electronic life form daughter in a way? I’m glad everyone supported him in his confession and that things will ramp up next week.

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No Guns Life Episode 2

A much better episode this week. I think it’s because it was focused pretty well on the story with Juzo and Mary’s link to Victor. There were other things, but the emotional bond between Juzo and Mary was very strong in this episode while everything was happening. Victor has gone insane, but we knew that was possible from Mary’s backstory on how he may have murdered their mentor. There was another group that influenced some drama between the crew, but meh. Victor wanted them to appear there for his own reasons so they both can kill them. I guess it’s now going to be a fight between Victor and Juzo for Mary’s sake. I’m very nervous about it. I’m glad this episode was much more focused.

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Non-Seasonal Anime

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Amagi Brilliant Park Episode 9

Ok, I’m pretty happy about this episode after episode 8 felt like a drop in steam. Especially since this episode focused on a long running problem at Amagi Brilliant Park. The Elementarios are four faeries of different personalities who haven’t synced up that well due to their issues. So a dinner meeting at Latifah’s place turned the facility into a lock down with canons and everything. Many attempts were made to break into the castle and stop it, but they’ve all failed in hilarious ways.

The only way for the castle to have it’s defenses turn off is for four people to win challenges. That was the bonding experience the Elemantarios needed to hold each other up and solve their weaknesses. Plus, the challenges were fun from karoake to DDR to typing to choosing who should get hurt or eliminated and they all passed. The show’s character animation and the girl’s newfound support in each other helped them al to achieve a victory for all the challenges. It’s just so heartwarming.

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Dorohedoro Episode 3

This episode was a lot of fun, but also added some extra tension and drama to the experience as well. Nikaido and Gaiman fought against zombies for points towards a meat grinder for Nikaido’s Gyoza. Of course, this is where Noi and Shin appear to fight against Nikaido and Gaiman. The two lost pretty badly, Gaiman lost a head that eventually regrew, and Nikaido revealed that she is a sorcerer and can transport Gaiman and herself away from the strong opponents. Noi was a lot of fun in this episode. Her clumsiness and cuteness in the face of fighting a strong opponent. Some interesting world building alongside the visceral brutality despite the cg. Fun times.

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Princess Principal Episode 9

Another incredibly heart crushing episode. An episode focused on Ange and Charlotte’s relationship while also having Ange help out a little girl pick pocket and eventually move into an orphanage. There was spying like Ange being a painter at a building for an extended amount of time until a certain point where the enemy spy was found, but that wasn’t the main point. The main point was that the relationship with the little girl brought back Ange and Charlotte’s relationship where the two eventually changed places. Ange was originally Princess Charlotte and vise versa. The way the relationship changed with a street urchin becoming a princess and a princess becoming a spy was kind of fascinating. I’m glad that the hard work it took for Ange to become Charlotte was on display. Plus, the two are cute together.

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Love Live! Sunshine!! Episode 3

I think that I am just really enjoying the cheesiness of the show. I do not know what it is, but it just works. Some of the plot was derailed by a certain foreign girl with a lot of money allowing Chika’s club to function if they fulfill an audience requirement, but oh well. Chika, Riko, and You still work hard on their act while also inviting people from the town. The day comes, the girls try to do their act in a small audience, but the electricity cuts out and the girls are crying. Of course, the light goes back on when the town does show up. The school president really had some lame complaints against the girls and all I can say is “so what?” just like Chika. Some pretty obvious symbolically with the electricity but whatever.

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Dai-Guard Episode 3

This episode felt like a much better balance between the absurd and the realistic. Some talk from the bosses at how Dai-Guard was completely unprepared and compromised in fighting a heterodyne, some talk about how things like crushing cars can cause such huge insurance claims against the company, and Aoyama was originally planning on quitting the Dai-Guard crew. Something that is important because it shows that there needs to be a crew of three to run the robot. Not one person can control it by themselves. One passionate and hot blooded pilot can’t run the robot himself so there are some limitations to it all. Limitations to all the hot bloodedness. Aoyame did come back and the robot fights continue. Such a perfect episode.

Two perfect scenes: Akagi walking into the office in the morning after he saved the day on Dai-Guard and each office girl responding in different ways thus explaining their personality. The second one was when the Dai-Guard took off it’s arm and throwing it at the Heterodyne to defeat it after seeing how a car affected it and it’s just so hilarious and over the top. I can see why Mazinger Edition Z echoed it. How could they not?

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Bamboo Blade Episode 3

So many powerful things going on in this episode. Group members forming together and getting their uniforms together, Tamaki feeling happy to be a member of the group, the appearance of Sayako and her manic depressive states, and Miyako’s yandere side making an appearance for those people who want to hurt her boyfriend AND the legality of hurting people with Kendo in a controlled way. A lot to uncover here and while our teacher and Kirino know Sayako and how depressed she is, I don’t think that ignoring her state in this day in age would pass for humor. That’s only a minor complaint though. The episode itself was pretty fun like usual.

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