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No WatchRanking this week, since only Fractale aired and subbed, still waiting on Hourou Musuko. I’ve since been re-watching all of this season’s series with my girlfriend and finding a few new bits in doing so I’d thought I’d share for this week.
Madoka
Aside from my working theory that the only way Homura has out is to die, It was interesting to go back and re-watch everything knowing what I know now from the tenth episode. It’s amazing how they kept Homura’s emotions perfectly in check as not to even give away the full extent of her time powers until it was time to explain what she has really been doing. The official word is 11 will air this week, having given SHAFT enough time to complete the last two episodes. Rumor is they want to spin a second season that depicts the characters in a more appropriate Magical Girl Slice-of-Life series. I think that would be interesting, but probably unnecessary. Call me hipster, but I’d much rather see this version of Madoka end in it’s own way. If they want to do another series in the same universe, use new characters, and cameo the existing ones if desired.
Also, I now liken Kyubey and the magical girls to a domain controller with workstations. The workstation has to join the domain through the use of an administrator, and eventually after corruption has to be wiped from the network. Now imagine this environment running inside a virtual machine named Homura who also has a machine for herself in the domain. Doesn’t like what happens? Rollback. Doesn’t like what happens? Rollback.
If I had the time and resouces, I’d love to visualize this.
Yumekui Merry
I spent a lot of this re-watch focusing on rice fucker’s face and emotions, knowing he is now the one manipulating those kids’ dreams, and how people didn’t notice his shit early on. They did an excellent job of making him so subtle that you don’t realize it, but in fact, if you pay attention, you can tell he was no good from the start. It’s crazy. Also, I somehow missed the part where Chaser mentioned how a person affiliated with Hercules splits off from him to become some sort of “rogue” element. I assume he was referring to Merry, but I wasn’t sure of the exactly context, as they didn’t elaborate past that.
Kore wa Zombie
A thread on /a/ before the quake was talking about how it possible that the zombie Yuu toasted in the past could now be Ayumu from the future, due to similar hair and face styles. I looked at that especially in that episode and the eyes were different, which doesn’t say much. Personally I am holding out for the GOOD END where despite whatever the fuck happens, Yuu can actually speak without the world blowing up, and for bonus points, carry out one of Ayumu’s “big brother” fantasies without a weekly VA.
Infinite Stratos
I realized one thing as I re-watched this today, the whole damn series is like watching Top Gun, if you swap the pilots’ gender to female, and the hot doctor to male, aka Ichika. It plays out like one big training school where they compete for top honors, only to be pressed into actual combat due to whatever threat. This made for interesting watches as I kept thinking “REQUESTING FLYBY” every time a girl would first appear in the series, among other things. The question is, who gets to be who from Top Gun?
So without anything new to watch this week, I did get some fun out of re-watching the current stuff with my girlfriend, and also starting High School of the Dead from last season. Some people didn’t like the fanservice elements mixed in with their zombie disaster series, and in light of the quake it was probably too soon to have started watching this, but then I first watched Evangelion the evening of 9/11, so I’ve never been one to time my entertainment to the state of the world that well.
As for news from Japan, I have not heard anything noteworthy aside from rescue stories and revised death totals. No news on the nuclear plants either, so I assume rescue and recovery continues.
I continue to update my list of series I watch for delays, cancels, etc. from whatever sources I can. The list is currently about 60% accurate, taking into account some additional info I saw today on ANN which doesn’t mention many specifics. I’ll try to keep this updated if any more delays or cancels come up, hit the twitter for more info.