Tell Me Lies Tell Me Sweet Little Lies

Final set of reviews for the season. I overloaded myself this season with shows on top of starting a new job on top of Saimoe, so it’s been a stretch for me to keep tabs on everything. I actually blew through the last half of Love Lab this evening. Try as I might, I always end up with too many shows each season, because I don’t want to miss out on the good stuff. Or something.

Get on with it.

 

 

Love Lab
“Love and Marriage, Love and Marriage, Goes Together like a Horse and Carriage…”
Dogakobo strikes again with a show that we end up liking simply on the merits that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, except when it does. I used to read a lot of manga, but I have been slacking considerably in that department for a number of years. Love Lab has been publishing since 2006 and yet I’ve only heard of it now. Like Yuru Yuri, it’s premise is pretty much that of girls doing girl things in girl ways in a girl’s school in student council.

There isn’t much I can really say about it, it did it’s piece, it paced it fairly well, and all of the characters were enjoyable. It is the sort of thing I watch just to enjoy the time. It doesn’t have to do anything fancy or go into any deep tangents, just girls doing things. So really, that’s where this review ends. Ain’t gonna fluff your time trying to paint a deeper picture of this show. But it’s worth your watch if you like these sorts of things.

Title: Love Lab
Sub Group I Watched: Commie
Episodes: 13
Rating (1-10): 7

Watamote
“Those Feels.”
Don’t get me wrong, I like Watamote, I’ve read some of the manga, watched the show, it’s an incredibly close-to-the-belt look at my high school life, so much so that it got kind of awkward to watch often. Of course, I’m not a girl, but many of the same “unpopularisms” have applied. Putting aside the content though, Kitta Izumi was a too perfect Tomoko, especially when the last thing I saw her in was Milky Holmes. I don’t follow the VA scene very closely, but going by her MAL list, she needs to be in more shit. She’s only a year younger than me.

The show’s episodes though were largely the same thing, almost the same mannerisms, same reactions in some cases. It’s something that often I feel happens with manga and especially 4koma manga, it’s highly episodic, and that’s fine, but if you’re in for the next episode expecting Tomoko to suddenly about-face and be pretty-girl-moe-as-fuck, you’re treated with more of the same. Kind of depressing, but kind of the point. You have to hit this show with the knowledge that you’re going to watch Tomoko try, and fail, all over again next week. Poor girl.

But hey, it’s awwwwwwright.

Title: Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!
Sub Group I Watched: FTW
Episodes: 12
Rating (1-10): 8

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S
“You call down the thunder, and Misaka Mikoto will ram it down your goddamn throat.”
JC STAFF clearly heard us when we told them that the first Railgun was just so dull it hurt. Especially when two seasons of Index were just so better paced and out-of-the-gate and it involved Academy City’s B-team when it came to magical and esper powers, TouMAN aside. While the first half of Railgun was more of a re-animated section of the first Index season concerning The Sisters and Accelerator, the way they re-told it from another point-of-view and never let the scenes get too dull made watching the first half fantastic. Touma is one of my favorite characters in Raildex and among my top short-list of “Alpha as FUCK Main Characters” that knows how to rock the house. We got exactly what we bargained for with extended fights between The Sisters and Accelerator, and Misaka and Accelerator. But of course, TouMAN’s crushing blow at the end sealed the deal.

The second half stalled a little in the middle with the introduction of ITEM interspersed with some familiar Misaka and Friends quiet-time, but rather than steal from the plot and rush it through in the end like the previous season, they did a better job keeping pieces of the building plot moving in each episode that led up to the introduction of Febri and set the stage for the fun and fucking fantastic final episode.

So case-in-point, JC STAFF, if your intention was to deliver to us Railgun the way it should have goddamn well been the first time around, the second, you have succeeded. Pat yourselves on the back, and never made that mistake again. Now beat it.

Title: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S
Sub Group I Watched: UTW
Episodes: 24
Rating (1-10): 9

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That is the final review for the season, it’s a wrap. Stick around for previews of what is coming up for next season, and when I bother to get Saimoe updated, stick around for that as it enters the second half of the tournament soon. Until then, go fucking nuts.