All posts by draggle

Onii-chan no Koto… 08

Onii-chan no Koto,

Hooray! It seemed to be increasingly unlikely, but we finally have an episode where Nao and Iroha do something other than stalk Shuusuke! It only took what, five episodes? With Nao able to do something other than slobber over her brother’s patheticness, the humor took a turn for the better.

Speaking of how pathetic Shuusuke is, I didn’t think it was possible, but he managed to outdo even himself at the beginning of this episode. Crying on his knees in front of a girl because of bad grades? If Nao were there she would have died from a nosebleed.

Nao and Iroha also ended their apparent truce this episode, which I still can’t figure out why they started. The dynamics of the entire show are much more interesting when they aren’t getting along. With Kondou in the mix it is even better. Her interests are becoming more and more unusual. It seems like Kondou is leaving, so Nao and Iroha will need to carry the show without her. This might end up being a good thing, as Nao is the most interesting character in my opinion and she’s been pushed to the side ever since Kondou’s appearance.

The jokes this episode were generally pretty good, but not great. None of the jokes really stood out, except for the AGE president’s cameo in Shuusuke’s dream and Kondou’s interest in men’s nipples. And the latter was more disturbing than funny.

 

Star Driver 21

Star Driver,

This episode was all about crazy lesbians, Wako’s wildly raging libido, and Head’s shriveling libido. Decent, but not one of the best episodes. The main reason is I still can’t take these lesbians seriously at all. This episode gave one of them a bit more background, but their introduction up until this point has left them where they don’t seem like a threat at all. It also didn’t help that the additional background consisted of upgrading them from aimlessly crazy lesbians to crazy lesbians who want power for the sake of wanting power. I love crazy characters as much as the next person (and lesbians get bonus points) but couldn’t they at least come up with a decent reason why they’re crazy? For crazy characters to be believable, their actions have to make sense within the confines of their own mind. Star Driver’s resident crazies seem to be choosing actions uniformly at random (it did improve a bit in this episode, but I’m still confused from the previous ones). Fortunately it seems like they’re leaving soon.

We’re in the uncanny valley now.

Also Wako finally begins to unleash her libido and utterly destroy everyone. Why is the Hiraboshi worried about Takuto when Wako could destroy them so easily? Takuto’s libido is nothing compared to hers. I thought for sure that she would kill the driver without any worries, especially after the knife scene earlier, but it was only a downgrade to v. 3.0. This is why upgrades need to be thoroughly tested before deployment.

I’ve been wondering for a while, who is the drama club president (Sarina Endou) and what does she have to do with everything? She knows about the Maidens and zero time, but I haven’t actually noticed her showing up during the fights. Maybe she is somehow central to the mystery – perhaps serving to maintain a final seal on zero time, or part of the thing which is being sealed. Since she is pretty much the only character being overlooked to this extent, it seems like there must be a reason and that she will get her turn in the spotlight…

 

Fractale 06

Fractale,

This was certainly an improvement from the loincloth antics in the last episode… but still… what is the point of all these Clain is a pervert jokes? It wasn’t that funny the first time, it still isn’t funny the fiftieth time. Please come up with something else that’s supposed to be funny. More Nessa would be acceptable.

In this episode the world acquired a lot more depth and variety, as we meet another person like Clain who has a house and likes tinkering. We also saw some of the aftereffects of the Fractale system’s failures as refugees fled the area which lost its’ connection. It seems odd though that the temple wouldn’t have predicted this or reacted after the fact to move these people to a new area. It isn’t like the world is suffering from overpopulation… And everyone seems to have a mobile lifestyle anyway. Can’t they just drive their mobile homes somewhere else?

I was also wondering up to this episode why anyone had actually heard or cared about Lost Millennium since they seemed rather… incompetent. But it turns out there are other branches which are much more ruthless. This was definitely a nice touch and it seems like we’ll be seeing more of them.

 

Hourou Musuko 06

Hourou Musuko,

*** cute overload ***

As if Mako as Juliet and Chiba as Romeo isn’t enough, we get Ana and Maiko in beanies, everyone’s favorite older sister as a maid, male Yuki in a suit, Sasa as a knight, and friar Takatsuki. If there were such a thing as too much cuteness, then this episode would be it. The only one who wasn’t joining in on the fun for a change was, amazingly, Shuuichi.

A friar is fine too.

Aside from the overwhelming cuteness, the haunted house scene was particularly enjoyable. Haunted houses in anime culture festivals are part of the holy trinity along with ( maid/ neko / other) cafes and shows such as plays or bands, but really, why is everyone in anime who goes to a haunted house actually scared? Maybe I’ve just been going to the wrong haunted houses, but all the ones I’ve seen have been more or less exactly as the one from this episode was portrayed. The only people who scream are generally screaming only because they enjoy screaming. I have the same issue with tests of courage, where pairs go to a shrine and back – why are all anime characters afraid of the dark? This haunted house scene was quite refreshing in how it broke this stereotype.

Sir Sasa, commander of the broomstick battalion.

One of the best things about Hourou Musuko is how all of the characters are just so likable. They feel so authentically human. Even the characters which are kind of jerks or kind of annoying, such as Chiba and Momo, are understandable and sympathetic. Chiba’s friend from church has probably been portrayed the most negatively out of everyone so far in his extremely short screen time, but I’m already feeling sorry for him, even though he’s a jerk as well. I loved the brief scene from this episode where he yawned during the beginning of the play that everyone else was so passionate about. Who hasn’t been in those shoes before? The creators did an amazing job building such depth of character in everyone with such a miniscule amount of time.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica 08

Puella Shoujo Madoka Magica,



In which Sayaka turns to the dark side and Homura goes on a shooting spree.

As we head towards the climax the pace is picking up and the pieces of the mystery are beginning to fall into place. It seems that magical girls are indeed the material for witches, if not something worse, as Sayaka seems as if she may have skipped the familiar stage entirely and become much more powerful than your typical witch. Kyuubey is the “Incubator” of witches / magical girls as everyone’s been expecting for a while now.

The “Homura is a time traveller” theory turned out to be correct as well, although it doesn’t seem like Homura is Madoka herself as I had theorized. Madoka would definitely have cared about Sayaka more than herself. She’s probably someone we and Madoka haven’t met yet, since otherwise Madoka would recognize her. Another interesting possibility is that Homura could be Madoka and Sayaka’s mutual friend (Hitomi), although this would need to involve a large change in appearance.

Homura’s development (and Kyoko’s) took an excellent turn this episode in the scene where Homura tried to kill Sayaka. I (and most other people watching, I’m guessing) assumed that although Homura put on a tough act of not caring about magical girls (esp. Sayaka), she actually did care quite deeply. It’s kind of a rule that the quiet ones are generally not what they seem. So it was quite refreshing to see that Homura actually did mean what she said, and really could care less about Sayaka. Which is, unfortunately, why she’s done such a terrible job so far at preventing Madoka from becoming a magical girl.

Kyoko’s reaction in this scene was excellent as well – the roles ended up being completely reversed based on my initial impressions of the characters. I suppose the rule for this show is that the loud ones aren’t what they seem.

But by far the best scene of the episode was when Madoka was just on the verge of becoming a magical girl, only to be interrupted by a bullet storm from Homura. Kyuubey eating his own corpse was just the perfect icing on the cake!