Yeah it’s been awhile, my job once again has attempted to crush all of my life as usual, so I was late on last week’s rankings and didn’t get a chance to do a news post. This week I’m going to crunch slightly as I didn’t get to start this until late. So much to do, so little time. Let’s get started:
Dantalian no Shoka is pretty much what I previewed it for, GOSICK on the go with almost Rozen Maiden-like quality to it. Dalian combines a personality not unlike Victorique or Shinku either, very pointed and quick-tongued to our average yet humble hero Hugh Anthony Disward. Still, she lets her sweet side slip in from time to time, and they don’t let it steal the scene for very long, which makes it all the much nicer to watch. Essentially the plot is a bit like Index, Dalian holds the lock with which a seal and key from Huey unlocks a library of prohibited books of the demons. Together they combat creatures brought forth from “Phantom Books”, books which intend to grant their owners vast power, but if used incorrectly, often harm or kill the owner and run amuck. If it isn’t on your watch list, it should be. For great justice.
TLDR Watch This: You enjoy books, GOSICK-like plot and characters, cute girl reading books
TLDR Don’t Watch This: had a bad experience with pop-up books, scared of ghosts, one too many run-ins with the “keymaster”
Sub Group: Commie
First Rating: 7
Well no shit, it turns out in Hanasaku Iroha 16 that Minko is capable of smiling and having fun, something experts at the “TLDR Animu Institute of Quantum Mechanics and Watching Animu” are baffled in discovery. It would seem a movie is being made at the inn and Ohana and Co. are all invited to be cast members. Surprisingly the old hag agrees to it, despite everyone thinking she would reject it. Even porn-writer Jiro was given a chance to write a script for the movie and maybe even pay his rent if he was successful. Lord only knows the next episode will be full of movie-type hijinks.
In another stellar episode of Ikoku Meiro no Croise 3 Yune once again spends the entire episode being fucking cute as Claude goes out to buy her good paper to send home a letter with. We also see the first glimpse of who is sure to be the arch-rival of the series, Alice Blanche, whose family owns much of the successful business empire in Paris that is killing the small shops. It turns out they purchased the kimono of Yune’s mother from the first episode and at the end of the episode she learns where Yune is. Seems she is interested in meeting her.
Memo-Chou 3 wraps up the Meo arc in the best way possible, Narumi mans up and takes a few for the team, along with becoming bros with Soichirou and his gang. I was pretty impressed at his bank plan and in the end everything worked out for him even at great risk. Not much Alice intervention in this episode, though we did get to see her leave her cave this time. Not sure if Meo will be sticking around in future episodes or not. We also got to see some more insight into Minli’s past, as she tells Narumi how she inherited the shop and came to run it.
Mayo Chiki 3 goes to the waterpark as that cunning Suzutsuki plans a double-date with Kin and herself, and Subaru (as a guy) with Kin’s sister Kureha. Acting as his girlfriend she proceeds to smash her tits against him whenever she can and milk the poor boy out of blood dry until while him and Subaru are buying drinks, they disappear and are kidnapped in the same manner as Suzutsuki and Subaru years ago. Apparently this week is MALE PROTAG MAN UP week as Narumi FALCON PUNCHS her out and tries to solo the mission. He ends up getting a pretty good beating before she shows up to save the day, only it was her dad all along. Tricky shit yo. This series is too much fun.
Once upon a time, Chuck Norris tried to watch Nichijou 16. The sheer power of his will transformed him into one of the characters. Amazed at his ability to enter a fictional world he proceeded to walk around the neighborhood until he came across three unconscious bodies and a goat. He did not know what to make of it but a girl with blue hair and wooden blocks holding them in two pigtails stood before him. Suddenly a piece of paper fell from the sky and into his hands. He grabbed it and looked, and saw some two boys with their [CENSORED] in each other’s [CENSORED] on top of [CENSORED] with [CENSORED] [CENSORED] covered in [CENSORED] along with [CENSORED] and his huge [CENSORED] all over the other boy’s [CENSORED] alongside his [CENSORED] and a donkey. Then she turned around and in the blink of an eye, sped forth, jumped, and landed both feet straight into his stomach. Stunned but not out, he proceeded to round-house kick out of self-defense, but she disappeared from in front of him and suddenly he felt a powerful blow straight to the back of his head. Stunned again, but not down, he attempted to crotch and regain his position, but felt an incredible force slam into his backside with power not seen since his epic battle with Mr. T that began the universe. His vision blurring, he attempted to turn around when another massive strike to his front-side caused the entire area around them to ripple and implode outward. He found himself next back in the real world, unsure of what had happened.
So the girls win the match in Ro-Kyu-Bu! 4 and you’d think the show might be over now, but clearly his coaching has not. Lolicon indeed, he is persuaded to continue coaching the girls after Moeka sinks 50 baskets in a row on a challenge condition to bring him back. He calls her “Shiny Gift” as he feels she helped re-ignite his drive for playing basketball again. He also apologizes to Airi for tricking her with the “Small Forward” position in the game, but quickly tries to rebuild her ego with positive feedback on her play. Another cute internet-chat scene as well, in togas!
Sacred Seven 3 doesn’t do much beyond showing us another possessed boy who is much like Alma. I admit when I first heard of this show I was thinking giant robots, but so far I feel this is like watching Viewtful Joe: The Anime with Blossom cameoing as Ruri. Still, it is somewhat amusing to watch, such as gg’s IT’S MORPHIN TIME quote for the pink chick there. They’re going to need to pick up the pace though if it’s gonna keep me interested, cause I’m not completely sold.
Usagi Drop 3 details Daikichi’s continued struggle to maintain his work schedule and care for Rin. In talking with a female co-worker who had a kid and self-demoted herself so she didn’t have to work overtime, he found that it’s a sacrifice, but it had to be made in order to care for the child. He takes Rin to his parents where she plays with his parents and Reina, who came over with Haruko. Afterwards she expresses the desire to return and his parents start to see how important she is to Daikichi. Ultimately he puts in for a request to eliminate his overtime at work and confronts Rin about her bed-wetting problem. This guy is such a bro it hurts, this entire series is too stupidly cute for words, and I’ll tell you what, it makes me look forward to the day I have kids. I guess older guys like me think about these things. Shit, I’m not even 30 yet for another two years.
Steins;Gate 16 broke out some more BAWWW FACTOR 9 as it turns out, through deduction of Mayuushi, that Suzuha is in fact the daughter of Daru in the future, and her original mission was to go back to 1975 to change the world line to eliminate the future where SERN rules the world and plunges it into chaos. Daru manages to fix the time machine to run again, but when she disappears, moments later Mr. Braun delivers Okabe a note where in it she states how she failed in her mission, ending up in 2000 instead. It turns out in the one moment Okabe held her up on the night of the rain, it damaged the machine’s circuitry causing a malfunction. Ultimately she dies before reaching the present, but not before meeting and influencing Mr. Braun’s life. Unsure of what to do now, Okabe tries to weigh if the changes were significant enough to prevent Mayushii’s death also.
No Baka Test on this report, I just pulled it down during this writing so maybe a short update on it later in the week. Also don’t forget Saimoe 2011 coverage is starting on TLDR Saimoe as the main rounds start in less than a couple weeks. Prepare to get your game face on, and maybe your troll face too.