So after a week and a half, most shows are returning to the airwaves, save for Madoka because Gen and SHAFT apparently want to troll us hard. This week’s episodes weren’t too flashy though, either just because or on purpose, I feel that real world disasters often cause tone-downs in what we see in visual entertainment, though it could be “just as planned” so don’t read too much into it. Aside from Madoka not airing this week, GOSICK aired a episode 10.5 special, with 11 resuming next week, and Hourou Musuko decided to combine 10 and 11 into 10+11 which aired this week, and I am unsure if this is the end of the series or they plan on airing 11 or 12 next week. I’ve read they are putting the full 10-12 on DVD/BD and skipping airing, due to poor ratings. More on this in the reviews. Let’s get started:
Going in order of this week’s WatchRanking…
Hourou Musuko 10-11 completely validated why this was one of the best non-flashy serious business shows of the season in it’s final combined episode, following up on the last episode’s events where Nitori decides to go forth with showing up to school dressed up as a girl, at the same time Takatsuki and Chi show up as boys. Yet only he is ridiculed and made fun of my students, and taken aside by teachers and made to wait in the nurse’s office until his mother picks him up. I think they highlighted a pretty critical point in society, one I have found prevalent in anime convention culture as well, it is socially acceptable for girls to cross-dress as guys, but it is often frowned upon for guys to want to cross-dress as girls, or want to BE girls. While it isn’t implied in this series that Nitori wants to be a girl, he does meet an adult in the last episode (along with Doi) who was a guy who went through the procedures to become a girl.
One of the main reasons I found this series to be one of the most enjoyable this season is simply the way it chose to deal with real-life issues and concerns without making too big or too little of a deal with it. While I was not interested in “being a girl” when I was younger, I had my fair share of awkward moments in life and also awkward interactions with fellow students in school, and was a “social outcast” much of my time in school. Although the characters in this show deal with their adversities much differently than my examples in real-life, reality can be crueler than entertainment obviously. Still, if there is one series from this season that deserves your watch, you should give this one a shot, it’s funny, it’s awkward, it’s childish, it’s adult, it’s sad, it’s silly, and in the end, you can’t help but cheer for Nitori, Takatsuki, Saori, and everyone else. I’m looking forward to the BD/DVD release to see the whole thing, and hoping they choose to air the last episode next week. In case they don’t, here is my final score:
Title: Hourou Musuko
Sub Group I Watched: Horrible, ReinWeiss
Episodes: 10? (10 = 10+11)
Rating (1-10): 8
Favorite Character: Saori
Least Favorite Character: Doi
Favorite SHIPPING: Nitori + Saori
Boy or Girl? Surprisingly, Nitori makes a better guy than girl, only because of his general disposition, same for Takatsuki
Would I Have Been Satisfied If He Punched Doi? Most certainly, but it wasn’t his style to. The fact he got TOLD however, made that interaction so satisfying, as was Doi’s reaction.
Yumekui Merry 11… sigh, this was such a great episode, because now that you know rice fucker is Mistleteen’s vessel and behind all of the dream killing of the students, you’d think that Yumeji and company would crush the fucking shit out of him, but with Isana hostage, and the fact that he didn’t put two and two together when he found out the teacher was behind it, made for the poorest, lamest ending to an episode in this series. I was literally waiting for sparks to fly and the episode to end on a cliffhanger, and instead they quit out and postponed the final fight. What the fuck? Also, Kawanami waited far too long to step in, and Engi was nowhere to be found. My guess is when this fight does go down, we will find that Merry is going to be the wildcard that Chaser referred to earlier in the series.
Fractale 10 pretty much cements this series as being closer to The Matrix than Madoka is. You have a system that cares for and raises humanity and has to be rehashed every so often to remain viable, only this one directly connects it with religion. How cute. At any rate, Nessa and Phryne seem to be two pieces to the key that reboots the Fractale System, and while they are angsting over their roles in life, Lost Millennium takes the fight to the temple in an effort to end the system’s control over humanity once and for all. Sounds like this happens every time the system needs a reboot. Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Dinner with your enemy is on the menu in Kore wa Zombie 10 as Ayumu and company meet their zombie opponent with Yuu in his control, by her own will. As the vampire ninjas, led by Seras and Tomonori close in, he leaves a nice present on Haruna’s head that changes heads when heads touch. Ayumu assumes control of the bomb and jumps out the window, ending the episode with a bang and leaving us to wonder if zombie pieces can be brought back together T-1000 style?
Infinite Stratos 11 launches the operation to destroy the experiemental US-Israel (sure if political statement there Japan?) IS that is heading towards them. Unfortunately for all it was worth, Houki’s attitude towards illegal fisherman got Ichika knocked out cold, to which she blames herself and almost quits the game, only to be bitch-slapped by Rin as the girls prepare to mount an offensive. Laura’s command-and-control really shines in this episode, because when your part of the Ichika Harem, you can take on the world.
Unfortunately for Dragon Crisis 11, this series is trying to save a sinking ship far too late in its run. I do appreciate how this series does try to look appealing from every angle, but Studio DEEN is better than this, and Kore wa Zombie is their other show this season that plays with it’s premise better. Also when you consider this is the same studio responsible for shows like FATE/Stay Night, Read or Die, and King of Bandits Jing, youkinda expect a little more effort and a little less trying to look like JC STAFF. Still, there were a few characters I enjoyed, like Ai, Maruga, and Bianca. The story just didn’t gel for me, it would have been a little better had they removed the Breaker and Society shit and stuck to magical dragons that could take human form.
I continue to update the airing spreadsheet with any delay information, but at this point everything is on track except Madoka. I am currently putting together info for the Spring season, which was scheduled to start after 4/1, but much of it has been delayed a week, including Moshidora which was supposed to have started the Monday after the quake, and did not because it airs on NHK and they were running 24h news coverage. As soon as I fetch info I’ll update Twitter for that. Final reviews for series ending should start coming in next week and the week after, so stay tuned.
