All posts by draggle

Steins; Gate 24 — The Choice of Steins Gate

Steins; Gate,

“I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience.  And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.”
— Theodore Parker

A Happy Ending

It was kind of a cop-out, it shat all over the sci-fi world that had been built up, and it made all the effort to save Mayushii seem like a waste of time by comparison. It was way too easy with help from the future, and Okabe didn’t even need to bleed himself to death. Poor planning, that artificial blood, by the way. I’m glad the universe was left in such capable hands.

But hey, at least it made me feel good. That kind of thing’s nice once in a while too.

Revisiting all the lab members to hand out their badges again was particularly satisfying. Even Moeka gets a happy ending, replacing Suzuha at Mr. Braun’s store. Suzuha’s badge is waiting in the closet. And Okabe has foretold her birth. The perks of being a time traveler just keep looking better and better.

The scene where Okabe and Christina reunited in the new timeline was very well produced. They had all the faces of the crowd going by, which the viewer is scanning for Christina. Then you see her, and time itself freezes. Other shows have done similar things before, such as the reincarnation reunion at the crossroads in Kannazuki no Miko (and does anyone remember some show where the reincarnations meet again on a train platform? I can’t remember what it was…).  But Steins; Gate surpassed them both in terms of timing and emotional impact.

I Am Hououin Kyouma!

But seriously, the highlights of the episode were Okabe’s cool poses. And him outsmarting his future self.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Steins; Gate turned out great. It makes me wonder how Chaos; Head could have turned out with better direction. I loved watching the banter between Okabe and Christina. The show made for some great speculation regarding the mystery as well. But like all mysteries, it was most interesting before it was solved.

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Hanasaku Iroha 24 — The Final Boss

Hanasaku Iroha,

What a meanie!

Ohana and Ko

The scene with Ohana and Ko’s reunion was very nicely done. The first thing we notice is their reactions upon seeing each other: Ko runs across the bridge towards Ohana, and Ohana starts to run away, but freezes. We’re reminded that Ohana’s still feels guilty.

Then there’s the playground scene. Remember the first episode? Ohana and Ko seem to have a thing for playgrounds. This time Ohana has become more self-confident and aggressive. Before Ko can finish saying how he feels, Ohana spins the jungle gym around, pins Ko against the wall and covers his mouth. It looks like she’s going to confess— but no, she invites Ko to the Bonbori festival instead. We can’t end things here after all, there are still two episodes left!

Some of the lines are a bit corny (“the scenery is dull without you”, etc.) but it works.

Minko’s Culinary Ambitions

It turns out Minko and Tohru both wanted to be a chef because of a manga they read. But wait, I thought there was something about her sitting at a restaurant counter watching the chef cook? Apparently not.

They seem to have been trying to make Minko’s culinary ambitions come across as serious business. Making her main source of inspiration a comic book may not be the best way to achieve this. It seems downright childish. Reminds me of when kids I knew wanted to be pro skateboarders.

But then again, perhaps this is the intention. It isn’t entirely clear how devoted Minko is to becoming a chef: our main source of knowledge regarding her ambitions is Minko herself, along with Ohana’s impressions of her. Is being a chef really the most important thing to her? When the inn is closing, she doesn’t cry from learning she won’t be able to cook there. She cries because she’ll be separated from Tohru. Ohana seems to take Minko’s goals so seriously, but she’s still just a high school girl.

The biggest revelation here, though,  is that the novelist actually wrote something. Tohru seemed to have read it when he was younger, too. Just how old is this guy?

Efficient Bathing

Bath scenes are typically fanservice fodder, but this one actually worked. It established how upset everyone was over the inn’s closure, as even Nako is angry. It also made the grandmother feel a bit more human (since she actually bathes) while also remaining unapproachable. Plus, it was funny.

Grandmother and Granddaughter

My favorite part of the episode, though, was Ohana and the manager’s visit to the grave. Ohana yells at her grandmother for her decision to close the inn. But then they actually talk and come to an understanding of sorts (well, they still disagree, but at least understand each other better). Plus, the grandmother actually has a good reason for wanting to close the inn: it has nothing to do with money, but is because she wants to free her children to fulfill their own dreams instead of hers. This is not what I would have predicted, and I love being surprised.

Later, Ohana even sides with her grandmother and listens to her over the rest of the inn staff. Ohana even gets a smile out of the manager, by calling her old, of all things!

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Towa no Quon 1 Review — D-

Reviews,

No, not THAT Quon. Instead we get some punk kid.

The movie starts out with a decent Sacred Seven style fight scene. Then it self-destructed.

The first words out of this brat’s mouth are “I want to save everyone!” This is pretty much a secret keyphrase for people who watch enough anime, which indicates that the show is going to suck. This and “You’re you, ____!” are the defaults for creators who can’t be assed to come up with an interesting conflict.

Right after this exciting revelation, we learn that our protagonists are an organization of kids whose secret base is in an amusement park. They’re the Attractors, and they can change feelings into power. Good lord. They’re trying to save their own from a secret organization that’s trying to kill them because… well, because they create disorder.

Next some girl walks up to Quon, pulls her shirt down to show him her breasts, and shoves her butt in his face. He runs away, and the girl screams at some random passerby, “Stop staring at me, you pervert!” At least Fractale centered the pervert jokes around a character who was at the scene of the crime and had a name.

This all took place in the first five minutes after the initial fight scene. I’m not going to bother boring you by discussing the rest of the movie. It doesn’t get much better.

  • Plot / Script – 5 / 10 – I guess the battles were ok? As in, a bad version of Sacred Seven’s.
  • Characters – 4 / 10 – The most interesting was Quon, whose defining characteristic is that he wanted to save everyone.
  • Production – 6 / 10 – I guess the animation was decent? It is Bones after all. The music was awful though.
  • Overall – D-

Recommendations – Go watch Rahxephon? I’m not going to recommend anything like this movie.

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Dantalian no Shoka 09 — Story within a Story

Dantalian no Shoka,

Er, wait. Dantalian doesn’t really have a story to put another story inside. I guess it’s just the usual episodic story.

Why Should I Care?

One risk for a show with an episodic structure such as Dantalian’s is that the viewer will probably not be interested in all of the stories. This is compounded by the fact that Dantalian has no consistently strong characters: Huey and Dalian are impotent for most of the show. So much of Dantalian’s ability to maintain viewer interest depends on the characters in each of the short stories.

This week’s characters were decidedly lacking. We have the girl who will grow up to be a sage, the wise woman, some random soldiers, and the boyfriend. They do little to distinguish themselves beyond their basic descriptions. But it doesn’t matter, anyway: none of them have any influence on the plot. Does this mean we get an episode where Huey and Dalian do something? Of course not! (unless you count getting lost in a forest and reading a book as doing something)

Things just happen in Dantalian without rhyme or reason. Dalian and Huey wander around just because, and Ira gets dragged around by events and other people. The only “characters” we can claim are in control of the narrative are the book bugs. The story is not character driven, and the characters come across as mostly an afterthought. Is it plot driven? I don’t think so. We do get good characters and stories from time to time, but it almost seems like a coincidence. I would say that Dantalian simply isn’t driven at all.

The creators love anti-climaxes, and these have resulted in some interesting endings. But if the viewers don’t particularly care about the story in the first place (and if every other story has an anticlimactic ending too), an anti-climax will only make the story fail even harder than a traditional climax would have.

Allusions

  • Dalian mentions at the beginning of the episode that they are approaching the Michaux fortress. This is probably referring to Henri Michaux, a Belgian / French writer and artist. In case you thought Dantalian’s artwork became a masterpiece in this episode, it didn’t: all the pictures in this post are pieces by Michaux. I didn’t want to deface this site with screenshots from the episode: I can see what they were going for, but it sure was ugly. Also, note the bug-like objects in Michaux’s art.
  • The book Huey read mentions Abdul Alhazad, who is probably Abdul Alhazred, the Mad Arab, author of the Necronomicon in the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • Continuing the Arabic theme, we have Suleiman, the Arabic name of King Solomon, who hosts a court of…
  • Djinn. In particular we have three types: Marid, associated with the sea, Ifrit, particularly strong Djinn, and the Shaitan, unbelieving and hideous Djinn similar to the devil. It also mentions the Cabicaj, but I couldn’t find anything about them.

I figured I should include a poem by Michaux as well, since we seem to be on a theme. This one reminded me of Dalian.

Waiting

A mad being,
a beacon being,
a being erased a thousand times,
a being exiled from the far end of the horizon
a being sulking at the far end of the horizon
a being crying from the far end of the horizon
a thin being
an honest being
a proud being
a being who wanted to be
a being in the churning of two epochs which collide
a being in the deleterious gas of consciousness which succumbs,
a being like the first day
a being…

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Mawaru Penguindrum 09 — Mystical Library of Penguins

Mawaru Penguindrum,

They’re just trolling us with Shouma’s car accident now. But seriously, this episode was great. They’ve opened things up into an entirely new dimension.

End of the World Fate

If the Utena vibes weren’t obvious enough before, they’re screaming in our faces now with the library scene. The long elevator ride, the endless rows of books, the cages and ladders, and then that librarian…

We even have the Utena kiss pose.

IMAAAAAGINE!

Himari’s aspirations to become an idol began long before her first survival strategy. Which raises the question: how much of the penguin hat personality (if any) is a being from another world, and how much is Himari herself? When Himari put her hands on her lips and said no, that seemed more like the penguin hat personality than Himari.

And I never imagined that those two girls on the train would actually be characters in the story. The extent to which this show manages to tie everything together is amazing.

Nothing is a Coincidence

This episode forces us to reconsider the original narrative of Himari’s death. Himari picked out the penguin hat at random from the store shelf, and then died outside from independent causes. The penguin hat just happened to be able to revive her from the dead. But nothing is a coincidence in Mawaru Penguindrum. It is the hand of fate. And indeed, it seems that both the purchase of the penguin hat and Himari’s death have the same root cause.

Musings on Symbolism

It’s going to take a while for me to collect all my thoughts on this. But I’ll share a few immediate ones. Many others have already drawn the connection between the apple and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I’m a bit hesitant to make the connection though, except in the superficial sense of simply being associated with knowledge.

In this episode, it’s revealed that the apple is the “fruit of fate”, and Himari receives it as a parting gift from the library. After which she proceeds to die. So perhaps the connection isn’t quite so tenuous after all… Library ==> Knowledge, Fruit of the Tree ==> Death. Himari also shares the fruit with her “soulmate”, as Eve did in the garden.

Then we have Ringo ==> Apple ==> Knowledge of Good and Evil and Momoko ==> Peach ==> Longevity ==> Tree of Life. Momoko is dead, and Ringo seems to utterly lack any knowledge of good and evil. So perhaps the sisters are named after what they lack.

Another major revelation is that the penguin hat is the “wedding veil of the bride of fate.” What does a wedding veil do? It obscures the bride’s face. Which brings us back to the idea that the penguin form / idol act serve as a veil between Himari and her brothers.

Himari is the bride of the destination of fate. What is the destination of fate? To interpret this in a literal fashion, death. And Himari does appear to be the bride of death.

There’s much more to say, but I’ll stop rambling for now. Expect a longer post once more has been revealed and I’ve had time to collect my thoughts. I’d be delighted to hear any of your thoughts on this!

Further Ramblings

  • The flashbacks were all good, but it is a bit much. The mirror falling in particular was  over the top. At least Himari’s friends had a reasonable reaction.

  • But then they ditched her. Did she just transfer schools, or…?
  • Himari’s searching for Super Frog Saves Tokyo. We’ve already seen one frog…
  • We have Himari about to bludgeon a Koi to death with a baseball bat to give some fresh blood to her mother. They aren’t stopping with the frog scene. The seventh social sin is worship without sacrifice. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

  • How many animals have we seen so far? Penguins, frogs, snakes, koi, birds, cats, skunks… Something to think about as well.
  • The penguin in the library packed a book into the box with him. I wonder what he took…?

My apologies for being less coherent than usual, I’m about to pass out and this episode did not help with maintaining my mental faculties. Again, I’m very interested in hearing everyone’s speculations on the symbolism!

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