All posts by draggle

Hanasaku Iroha 11 — ぼんぼりましょう! (Let’s Fest it Up!)

Hanasaku Iroha,

Now that Ohana is settled in and the supporting cast has been fleshed out, we’re going back to the more intensive drama of the earlier episodes. And the drama is just as good as it was before. This episode was jam-packed with new developments: the inn gets a bad review, it turns out Ohana’s mother wrote the review (not to mention she moved back home without even telling her daughter!), and Ohana meets up with Ko and meets her new rival.

All of the buildup from Ohana’s time at Kissuisou is really paying off now. This episode was an inversion of the earlier episodes: before, Ohana felt at home in Tokyo and lonely and unwelcome at Kissuiso. Now, everything about Tokyo makes her miserable, and she goes running to Minchi’s bosom for comfort.

Ohana’s mother has some serious issues. I can definitely see why she and the grandmother don’t get along. If I were the grandmother I would have kicked Ohana’s mother out of the house too. The grandmother’s only mistake was that she should have taken it a step further and gotten custody of her granddaughter 15 years earlier.

As for the love triangle with Ohana and Ko: this other girl was just what was needed to push things along, even if she doesn’t stand a chance (although hopefully she will continue to put up a good fight). She’s already managed to make Ohana jealous, now we just have to wait until she figures out why. Ohana is pretty dense, but hopefully it won’t take the entire remainder of the show for her to figure this out.

Now all that Hanasaku Iroha needs is some more Yuina screen time.

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? 13 (OVA) — Ayumu is Disgusting

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka,

This was the episode that wasn’t going to air on TV, so they stuffed it full of the most perverted parts. The subjects of the fanservice were split between Ayumu and his harem about 50/50. The fanservice was a bit much for me, but the episode still had its moments.

They used a lot of the time in this episode to look at two of the side characters, Orito and Taeko. Orito is the usual perverted sidekick, so his segment didn’t add much, but Taeko’s segment (particularly the end) was quite well done. I’m almost rooting for the Taeko ending now. Especially since Eu’s voice was a letdown this episode, and her notes seemed kind of out of character.

Ayumu’s harem also expands by two this episode, with the addition of both Taeko and Sarasvati. I think that Sarasvati is going to expand his misfortunes even more than Sera has, however. The picture below says it all.

A second season has been announced, so we can all look forward to seeing more of how disgusting Ayumu is. As far as I can figure out, a date hasn’t been set yet for the next season.

Read or Die OVA Review — A-

Reviews,

My first exposure to the Read or Die series was through Read or Die TV. Read or Die TV was decidedly average in every way (except in the quantity of lesbianism), so I had low expectations for the OVA. But I ended up being pleasantly surprised.

First of all, the action sequences are fantastic. There’s a creative variety of powers, and just the way Yomiko uses paper is interesting in and of itself (see the paper airplane above). You wouldn’t expect this from a series about books where the main character, Yomiko, is a clumsy airhead and bookworm. It’s partially her clumsiness which makes the fight scenes so gripping— she has no trouble fighting off giant robots with scraps of paper, but it looks like she’s going to trip and fall over at any moment. For example, in the above scene with the paper airplane, Yomiko made short work of constructing the enormous airplane, but just forgot to attach the tail fin, with nearly fatal results. The creators managed to make a very convincing portrayal of Yomiko as someone who’s both extremely capable and extremely clumsy.

Another strong point of the OVA is its setting, where agents of the British library with special powers fight for books. The agents travel from city to city in search of these books, so parts of the show take place in England, Hong Kong, India, America, and the middle of the ocean. There’s quite the variety here.

If I had to point out a flaw, the villains are much less fleshed out than the protagonists. They’re clones of famous people from history, and most of their motivations aren’t entirely clear. As another nitpick, a running gag is that the president of the US pisses his pants whenever he shows up. I personally just found this kind of dumb and not particularly funny. It’s certainly not on the level of a Legend of Koizumi presidential portrayal.

Still, the good points greatly outweigh the bad, and I highly recommend the Read or Die OVA, especially if you’re looking for some good action.

  • Plot / Script – 9 / 10 – The British library goes to war, we have giant underwater steampunk rockets, and the final boss is Ludwig van Beethoven. What more needs to be said?
  • Characters – 9 / 10 – Examines Yomiko and Nancy in depth. Other characters, particularly the villains, are less well developed since time is limited.
  • Production – 9  / 10 – Fluid animation, especially in fight scenes.
  • Overall – A-

Recommendations – Darker than Black, Book of Bantorra, Read or Die TV (although it isn’t as good as the OVA)

Hidan no Aria 09 — Second Base

Hidan no Aria,

This was the obligatory fanservice episode for the season, so I don’t have too much to say about it. Honestly, it was a pretty decent episode as far as these things go. Usually they don’t go too well though.

Riko’s return helped to make things more interesting, and I don’t mind Shirayuki too much, although Kinji probably should have escaped out the window several minutes earlier. Aria continues to be as annoying as ever. I feel that the show could only vastly improve if they removed her entirely. Perhaps for the next episode I can try fast forwarding through all her scenes. That will probably be about 80% of the episode though…. maybe just the mute button will do…

Ano Hana 09 — Down by the Riverside

Ano Hana,

Now that Menma has revealed herself. the focus shifts away from questioning the authenticity of Jinta’s account to the characters’ relationships with Menma and one another.

My favorite part of this episode was watching Matsuyuki’s feelings towards Jinta, a mix of jealousy, loathing and admiration. Matsuyuki has an interesting interpretation of why Jinta didn’t try to prove Menma’s existence earlier: he wants to keep her all to himself. I personally think it’s more that he wasn’t entirely sure if she existed himself, and was afraid to put her to the test and discover that she was only a figment of his imagination. But it’s details like Matsuyuki’s interpretation which best serve to cement his relationship with Jinta.

The love polygon in this show is turning out quite well too. It’s not over the top or the focus of the show by any means, and is more of an undercurrent. The relationships with Matsuyuki are particularly interesting: asking Anjou out while he still clearly hasn’t gotten over Menma.

I think that for the finish Ano Hana is going to need to bring both Poppo and Mysterious Girl Tsurumi into the spotlight. Tsurumi has mostly stayed in the background behind Matsuyuki up until this point, and we know very little about her or what she actually thinks. It seems that she likes Matsuyuki, but she hasn’t interacted much with anyone else. Poppo has been more talkative, but I feel like there ought to be more to him than there appears (but then again, maybe not).