Facades

Long time no see, I kinda cheaped out on writing anything for the past couple weeks, that sorta thing happens around here. Was kinda getting into my new job and getting into the swing of things again and also spent most of my past couple weekends out, so I didn’t feel like writing much. Not being winter outside anymore has made my attempts to go outside more frequent as well, so it’s nice to drive around to my EUROBEATS and interact with commonfolk again. But you came here for how I feel about this season’s weekly animus, so strap in, there are a lot.

I’ve pretty much stopped riffing on Valvrave with all of the SEED jokes because they just keep coming, it’s like Sunrise isn’t even trying to hide the fact that it is completely ripping off everything they’ve ever done ever. It’s literally OMNI/ZAFT/ORB all over again, and it will only be a matter of time before they wind up on Earth in the fucking desert trying to get to Alaska or some other place before wining up in Neutral Country again or something. Besides that, there is this whole thing between Kira Haruto and Athrun L-Elf and the vampire shit, and Haruto’s love for Shouko, yadda yadda and such. I suppose I am not completely hating this show, but so far it’s not very inspiring for a Sunrise original. But then, what ever is?

My chief fear watching this iteration of Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is that they will waste a lot of their time in the same manner as they did before, SCIENTIFIC girls doing cute things. I’m not completely opposed to it, but I love the action in the Raildex universe, it was part of my draw into the franchise and of the Index series. The third episode sort of split up between Saten hijinks and Misaka’s investigation into The Sisters Project, which looks to be the prelude into the Sisters appearance in the series. Kuroko’s shame is so hilarious though, I can’t help but laugh at her attempts, directly or indirectly, to get Misaka in the sack. It’s one of those little gems in the show I chuckle.

I have to admit, I like this show. Perhaps it is the characters, perhaps it is the straightforward style it presents, there is something about Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko that actually has me watching it episode-to-episode and enjoying it. My guess is between Tsukiko and Azusa, I can’t even do the whole PICK ONE routine, they’re both too much fun in this show to settle on one or the other. Tricky how that works. The obvious romcom is obvious though, and for that I am trying not to fall into the obvious trap of thinking this will be any different. What I want to know, is how the older Tsutsukakushi girl will play into this tale of facades and stony cats?

Ahh, poor Kirino. She is given the opportunity she craves to have a pseudo-little sister and she realizes just how much of a pain in the ass they can be. After all, unlike Oreimo, brothers and sisters are hardly what Japanese anime makes them out to be, they’re in actuality annoying and often spoiled little shits. Personal experience aside, this season has distinctly lacked the BEST GIRL Kuroneko, and for that I do hope they plan on making up for this in the coming episodes, though a non-otaku Saori or Minami is fine too. Come to think of it, so far, all we’ve really seen is Kirino, which maybe makes up for the lack of her in the extra episodes of the first season, but fuck Kirino man, this show is about EVERYONE ELSE in the show besides her. Or so I’d like to think.

I’m often amused that Sunrise didn’t enlist Hirai Hisashi to do the character design for Valvrave, it would have completed the SEED experience, but instead it seems Dogakobo stole him for Majestic Prince, and what a series it has turned out to be. Having watched a hundred episodes of SEED and SEED Destiny and all of the emo faces, MJP has become vastly different in comparison, in facial expressions and actions. Mayhaps it is because MJP isn’t going down the super serial route of things, it seems to be taking this roundabout way of trotting out the mechs, showing off their capabilities, highlighting the JUPITER ENEMY (Jovians anyone?) and pulling them back to Earth again for TRAINING, presumably. The entire time, we’re shown five kids who are essentially “super soldiers” but have the mentality of Cloud Strife confused about his identity rather than actual soldiers, or the junkies from SEED. In that retrospect, I am enjoying MJP a little more than Valvrave because it’s just that much different, but we’ll see what tropes they can get themselves into soon enough.

The prison island awaits our lost dimensional-traveler in this week’s Arata Kangatari which decides to “eat” two people an hour in what could only be seen as the most efficient prison system in another world to date, one our own world could benefit from adopting. Anyway, no one in there is too happy to see the “Princess Killer”, predictably, even if you are a criminal, you’re loyal to the crown I guess. Despite that, they manage to run into a couple of kids and manage to rescue each other from thugs before they are claimed by the pipes towards the end of the episode. I need to get on the manga and see what this is all about.

If there is any series I am enjoying this season, and what I consider to be top-tier in the season, is Hataraku Maou-sama. Hero Emilia’s past is opened up a bit this episode, showing her ascension to her position as the Hero, at the expense of her father and homeland. She harbors extreme hate towards Maou for this, but could not figure out why he went through such measures to save everyone in the underground accident. Then we get some kid with wings who claims to be Lucifer? Is this Supernatural The REAL Anime? Maybe not, but it’s still pretty entertaining, especially for upset/mad/angry/disgruntled Emi face.

I’m afraid that I really don’t watch Aku no Hana straight through anymore, I pretty much pan the episodes and watch certain parts. It’s not deviating from the original manga, which I’ve read, and the visual style is still pretty horrid to me, so I’m watching it really just to see how they visualize certain parts of the story. I just can’t get over the whole mouths-not-moving thing, especially when they’re starring at each other face-to-face. It’s kind of annoying. I realize the whole rotoscope thing is a tongue-in-cheek jab at us fans for expecting a show based on the manga, but it really is just that, beyond-trainwreck-bad.

There ain’t a whole lot to write about in Nyarlko-san W besides crazy alien hijinks, but Hasta transformation was.. surprisingly normal. I mean, it wasn’t a mecha like Nyaruko or naked fire like Kuuko. Super Saiyan Monkey though was humorous, especially in getting rid of it. Still, I can’t help but hum the OP often, I even find myself whistling it at work. Good thing no one else I work with is into this shit.

I kinda thought the next few episodes of Shingeki no Kyojin would be TRAINING-TRAINING-TRAINING but it looks like we’re nearing the end of at least the first phase and getting on to another Titan invasion. I can’t help but hope that this time, we see some dudes take out some of these mass naked titan events. This is another show I need to read the manga on, but that’s on my impossible stack of things to watch/read/play.

I’m missing a couple shows on here, Machigatteiru, Aiura, Photo Kano, I will amend to this post tomorrow with those as I’m still finishing watching those, but having just watched and currently digesting Eva 3.33, I want to change gears and write a post about that, so check back with this post later.