Cookies and Milk

Week five, and this season has pretty much boiled down to a few favorites. Taking on so many titles, along with the tail-end of Saimoe and everything else has left me skipping some shows I didn’t really get into. I hate dropping shows unless I really think they deserve it, instead I keep collecting the episodes each week and batch them at the end. So you might not see anything for Coppelion or Little Busters in the immediate.

Now, let’s hit a few of this week’s flavors.

 

 

Infinite Stratos
“I’m glad I have no expectations for IS. Otherwise I might actually be upset at it for being so bad.” –@tldranimu
I’m pretty sure I’ve covered this, but in case you forgot, I don’t care much for IS’ plot in the slightest. Its attempts to be “serious” which usually involve putting Ichika in mortal danger so that all the cute girls can rescue him is are so trite it just ends up fodder for the “oh so wacky” episodes that surround it. This show’s close competitor, Highschool DxD, performs better on almost every stage because Issei doesn’t shy away from collecting them all for his own personal harem. He uses his powers specifically to lech at the girls around him and doesn’t give two fucks what anyone else thinks. Ichika on the other hand runs away from every girl who wants to shove their tits in his face and have sex with him. Maybe I’m wrong, but if Ichika knew his role in this show, it would make everything several times more awesome. Maybe.

But I watch IS for the girls, and Cecilia, Char, and Laura never fail to impress. Japan and China can GTFO. Busty student council president can stay though. Oh, and Orimura Madoka shows up at the end with a gun. LOL MADOKA.

LOL.

God.

Freezing: Vibration
“Mark IV: Now With 33% More Nova!”
It’s time for the Elizabeth Mably Power Hour, as she believes it is her civic duty to investigate the Mark IV incident after Gina’s death. It’s about time for Chiffon to take the stage, and if you’ve read the manga, it’s not a stage you want to miss. She is easily one of the best Pandora in the show in every way. But Stella will get her star as well soon enough. A lot of this arc had less to do with her and more to do with the other Pandora.

Charles though, woof. Girl knows how to party. Classically.

Galilei Donna
“Battlestar Galactfish”
It might not sport the prettiest animation, but Galilei Donna has been easily performing as one of the best shows this season. My comparisons to Read or Die TV have been pretty much spot-on for the most part. I sort of have a love and loathing of “steampunk” culture, because it has consumed part of the modern geek culture to the point where it is annoying, like Doctor Who and D&D, but I love shows that apply quasi-science fiction elements to an otherwise normal looking period of time. I suppose the “Let’s all go on an adventure” trope is a little worn, but they’re flying a fucking goldfish with a goldfish AI. I mean, shit, why would I turn this down? It even has grapplers. Outlaw Star, in my whatever-century Europe? Check please.

Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova
“Needs more Sean Connery”
Compared to the manga, the animation is nowhere close to competing. I hate splitting hairs, but what happened to the Hakugei? It was the human-only Japanese ship with 401’s old sonar operator on it that co-oped in the mission to take down Kirishima and Haruna together. Instead, in the anime, they use the dummy launchers Hakugei used in the manga to deploy the Vibration Warhead that destroys both ships. I’m going to guess they’re writing out Hibiki Maruri of the anime as well. No doubt an effort to get as much of the current material possible into a half season, which will likely end with the U-2501 fight. Which should be awesome.

I read that there was talk of a collab between Arpeggio and KanColle. I have several twitterbros who love the shit out of KanColle and part of me wants to give it a whirl, but I hear it can be a bit of a pain, requiring proxies and whatnot. But they say a Vita title will come out for it eventually. I’m holding out for a Arpeggio version of Radar Mission still. SOME DAY.

Kakumaki Valvrave
“You can’t spell Marie without REI”
Well we’ve been making fun of Gundam SEED so far in National Lampoon’s Valvrave Vacation, but today we get to spin some Evangelion into it. As it turns out, Marie was the first person in the project used on Unit 1 before anyone else, and that the reason her memories only go back two years is because the runes “ate” her memories. What separated her from the others is they have “limiters” that keep them from losing their memories, presumably, but Marie does not. She takes control of Unit 1 and proceeds to destroy each and every one of her memories fighting her way out of the chaos, saving everyone, but pretty much becoming a lifeless husk as a result.

Whoops.

I’m not sure if this marks her for final death or not, but moving forward I’m curious to see how this crazy space opera is going to play out. They keep showing timeskip future scenes of several characters talking about the past, not sure what that means. No, I know what it means. It means I have to keep watching this because I just have to know. WHAT HAVE I BECOME?

I don’t have enough words to bother with anything else this week. Yuushibu is always a treat, Kill la Kill continues to burn but not brightly, Kyoukai no Kanata is just silly, and Outbreak Company is also silly but with DOG TITS.

Hopefully by this time next week, my new machine, Hyuga, will be operational. Stay tuned to Twitter, as I might be doing some field testing of components live on Twitch with some gaming and maybe anime.