Shaft made good use of the extra time they had to make the last two episodes, and it really shows. This entire episode was simply gorgeous from start to finish. Homura’s battle was especially great— although it’s unclear who wrought more carnage on the city, Homura or the witch.
Kyuubey further explained the Incubators’ interactions with humans, spanning from prehistory to the present day, without which humans would still be living naked in caves. The humans are like cattle to the incubators, and without them would still be living naked in caves. But the Incubators treat the humans as sentient beings, and get their consent first. They link the Incubator’s interactions with Prometheus, Joan de Arc, and the Creation of man (at least that’s what I caught on my first watch through).
Perhaps the most interesting revelation from this entire conversation is that some Incubators do develop emotions, and are treated as mentally insane. Ironically, Kyuubey seems to say that the Incubators would not have problems with entropy if they themselves had emotions. It reminded me of Raymond Smullyan’s Planet Without Laughter— give it a read if you haven’t already, it’s short. Any explanation I give of the story won’t do it justice.
Homura’s Sysyphean struggle to save Madoka is further developed, as Kyuubey reveals that it is hopeless and self-defeating. But in his explanation to Madoka, he may have revealed a way to escape the fate of magical girls. “Any wish bound by logic can be twisted.” Perhaps there is a way out if Madoka can make a wish not bound by logic.
On an administrative note, I’m back from a trip and will be playing catch-up for the next few days.
Steins; Gate really stands out for its great dialogue. The exchanges between Okarin and Christina, and the computer guy in this episode were especially fantastic. I could just watch an entire show just about them fighting with each other. They can all push each other’s buttons just right.
However, the second half of the episode was rather disappointing. Way too much technobabble. Time travelling microwaves are only going to make less sense the more you try to explain them. Just allow your viewers to suspend their sense of disbelief instead of trying to explain why time travelling microwaves work. The more you try to explain it, the harder it is to ignore.
Next episode it seems that Okarin may meet John Titor, and I’m curious to see who this is. It doesn’t make any sense why people from the future would need an old IBM machine— hopefully they won’t bother trying to explain this too.
Woot, more Crystal Dragon Jesus! I have to say: the priest is awesome. Not quite at the level of Father Anderson, but still,he brings back some good memories. He needs to add some more “Amens” to his prayers though.
I had fairly low expectations for this show, but was pleasantly surprised. It seemed like something that would be a standard shounen fighting show, but the characters are actually pretty interesting. I especially like the main character, his brother and the priest: they have a unique and eccentric family dynamic.
This has a lot of potential if it keeps its focus on the characters and not on endless battling and power leveling. I have high hopes that it will though, since this seems more along the line of Fullmetal Alchemist than your standard fighting show. I’m guessing that next we will further develop the demons and meet new exorcists other than the priest. This show will need villains that are actually interesting, since fighting against demons and the devil is generally rather morally unambiguous. I wonder if this Satan will be more along the lines of Milton’s Lucifer, although I don’t have my hopes up.
This was definitely not what I was expecting. I was hoping that Hanasaku Iroha would maintain its good pace of drama from the past two episodes with Ohana, Minko and Nako continuing to fight, but instead we get a fanservice episode with Ohana tied up in ropes, all three girls making out in the novelist’s book, and Nako going swimming with her clothes on. I don’t really think that this is what this show needed…
It kind of felt that everyone was acting out of character too, especially Ohana. I feel like she should be a bit more… concerned… when someone kidnaps her and ties her up. And perhaps the rest of the inn should take it a bit more seriously. It’s kind of hard to believe that the grandmother planned all that out. Also, I wished that they would have waited a while longer to reveal that the grandmother doesn’t actually hate her granddaughter. It kind of removes a lot of the tension.
We also appear to have the novelist becoming a permanent character. Can’t really say I’m looking forward to seeing him every week. Overall, this episode just didn’t seem to fit in well with what the creators had been building up to so far.