Mawaru Penguindrum 06 — Making Out on the Couch

August 19, 2011Mawaru Penguindrumanime, mawaru penguindrumdraggle

Ok, this episode helped to satisfy my Shouma and Ringo shipping. 🙂 We got some lover’s quarrels, helping the girlfriend carry luggage, a heart to heart talk with Ringo’s mother and even a make out session on the couch. I’m wondering if as a Ringo and Shouma fanboy it’s time to update my blog banner.

Now that that’s out of the way, it turns out that there’s much more to Ringo than it seemed. The reason she’s stalking Tabuki isn’t because she’s in love with him. It’s because she wants to become her sister who was in love with him, to fulfill her “destiny” and bring her family together in an effort she christens “Project M”.

This makes Ringo seem even crazier than before, but I love it. Not just because it frees her up for Shouma (although that is an excellent side effect), but because it transforms her from your garden variety stalker into a more interesting shade of crazy. I also appreciated how the creators explained so many things through this one twist— Ringo’s parents’ divorce, her relationship with Tabuki, and what turn out to be the tragic origins of Curry Day. It now makes a lot of sense why Tabuki also celebrates Curry Day. Originally, I simply assumed he stole the idea from Ringo. It also casts Ringo’s relationship with her parents in a new light. Based on the fact that Ringo now lives with her mother and isn’t all that close to her father, I would never have guessed that her mother was the one who used to neglect Ringo in favor of her dead sister.

One last thing about Ringo. At first I thought her sister died when she was young, but her sister must have been quite old when she died to have done the… erm… *activities* in the diary. You can tell that the mother didn’t pay enough attention to Ringo from the fact that Ringo’s reading material was definitely not age appropriate.

For risk of sounding like a broken record, I’d like to once again point out that the creators are putting a vast amount of detail and creativity into the animation. For example, just look at all the stuff in the fridge, the crazy antics of the penguins, and Ringo’s delusions. Did everyone notice the Death Note on Ringo’s desk? Penguindrum has so much going on at once that it never gets boring.

This week had some non-Ringo developments as well, centering around Kanba. I know, I know, they’re much less exciting, but deserve mention nevertheless.

The two remaining members of the league of Kanba’s evil ex-girlfriends get hit with the memory erasing slingshot, but this time Kanba is there to witness it. I have to say that Kanba appears to know much more about what’s going on than the audience does. He appears to recognize the husk of the sling ammunition in the hospital room, and warns the girls that they are getting in deeper than they should. What does he know?

The biggest question now is how everything is related. Kanba is paid money with a penguin seal, the slingshot girl shoots penguin bullets and has her own penguin, and both Ringo and the slingshot girl are executing a “Project M”. What ties each of these things together? And did Kanba become involved with the penguins before or after Himari’s possession?

Usagi Drop 07 — Sleepover

August 18, 2011Usagi Dropanime, usagi dropdraggle

Usagi Drop is one of the shows I look forward to most each week, and this episode didn’t disappoint. For a “slice of life” show about parenting, Usagi Drop sure knows how to keep things exciting. The pacing is perfect, and there’s always something interesting going on. It’s making an excellent use of its short length, unlike some other shows this season *cough cough* No. 6 *cough cough*.

This episode centered around Haruko and Reina running away from home, but this timely event was actually used to explore Daikichi’s life just as much as Haruko’s. It served as an excuse to look at Daikichi’s love life, as well as his relationship with Yukari (Kouki’s mother) through the eyes of an outsider.

It’s pretty amazing how fleshed out the relationship between Daikichi and Yukari has become— and even more so when you consider the fact that Yukari has barely shown up on screen. Her only screen time this week was the brief meeting at the grocery store, and playing dress up with Rin. The creators bring their relationship to life just through a conversation between Daikichi and Haruko, and indirectly through Daikichi’s relationship with Kouki. Hanging out with your dad while your mother buys clothes must be a memory shared by all boys with two parents, so this scene cemented Daikichi’s fatherly role for Kouki to me.

I enjoyed the discussion about marriage too, especially the part where Rin and Reina interrupted, and contrasted marriage and divorce to come to the conclusion that everyone wanted what they didn’t have. Kouki’s rather oblivious questioning of Daikichi’s marriage prospects was a nice touch as well. And Haruko’s words may make Daikichi put some more thought into Yukari’s marital status.

What I like most about Usagi Drop is how understated it is, and how it communicates so much seemingly with so little effort. My favorite scene from this episode was quite simple and short: it’s dark outside, and Rin is rushing home to see Reina, tugging Daikichi along behind her. They turn in front of the house, see it’s lit inside, pause, smile at each other, and head inside. This scene lasted the entirety of fifteen seconds, yet it said more than many shows do in fifteen minutes.

No. 6 07 — A Goodnight Kiss

August 18, 2011No. 6anime, no_6draggle

No. 6 is on the verge of picking up as, well, the characters head back to No. 6. Six episodes about nothing but Shion and Nezumi’s love nest in an eleven episode noitaminA series? Enough is enough. This series is doing worse than Fractale with respect to using its time wisely.

I mentioned last week that Dogkeeper was one of the more tolerable characters in this series, but the creators are on the verge of forcing me to revise even this modest piece of praise after this week’s episode. First of all, that opening segment. Shion says “Thank you for the compliment!” while smiling and bathing a dog. Dogkeeper blushes, then scoffs, and shouts “That wasn’t a compliment! Don’t get full of yourself!” while turning away and crossing her arms angrily. Pick any harem show, this scene could have been copy-pasted right out of it.

The other thing which bothered me is the scene where Nezumi blackmailed Dogkeeper to help him. Nezumi used his superior analytic powers to make a stunning psychological revelation that shook Dogkeeper’s very soul— that she fears death. He tells her that if she’s dying slowly, miserably and painfully he won’t help her or sing for her if she doesn’t do what he asks. I guess this is supposed to be a comment on how even basic human decency is something that must be purchased in the ghetto outside No. 6. But really, if you have to bargain over this sort of thing, why would you trust anyone enough to keep their promises in the first place? The fact that Nezumi even proposed this is ridiculous, considering he could have just mentioned Shion’s name and Dogkeeper probably would have helped. But what really bothered me is that Dogkeeper was so affected by this threat. She should have just kicked Nezumi out and sicced her dogs on him.

The root problem that bothers me in both of these scenes is the same. Dogkeeper was initially presented as a loner who learned to be tough to survive, and whose family was a pack of dogs. She tried to kill Nezumi after he gave a slight insult to her mother. And now she’s getting all teary eyed from someone saying thank you, and cowed by the threat of someone she tried to kill the other day not sitting by her death bed? I get that they’re trying to show she is kind and does rely on other people, but with such a dramatic difference in actions, I have to ask, is this the same person?

On to my next complaint… which is, once again, how over dramatic everything is. I’ll point out two major instances of this. The first is from when Shion went clothes shopping and found Safu’s coat and started screaming at the shopkeeper. This guy has anger management problems (not to mention this is a rather far-fetched coincidence). The second instance is the goodnight kiss scene, where Shion says “I’m glad to have known you” and then kisses Nezumi “goodnight”. Nezumi’s accusal of bad acting doesn’t even begin to describe this.

With all that said, I felt that the scene at the end, along with the brief interludes into No. 6 with Shion’s mother, were on the right track. There are some hints of progress in the overarching story. In the scene where Shion tried to make his escape, watching Shion’s counterpunch to Nezumi hit was quite satisfying. Nezumi’s flashback was also nice in explaining why he’s taking care of Shion, since it provided a rare glimpse under his skin and past the front he is acting out.

But seriously, I wish they had condensed the last six episodes into two or three, and focused on the bee plague, social injustice and No. 6’s dystopia instead of Shion and Nezumi’s love nest.

Steins; Gate 20 — Brawny Mr. Braun

August 16, 2011Steins; Gateanime, steins gatedraggle

I’d always assumed his first name was Wernher. Major spoilers ahead.

So FB is revealed, and it’s none other than Okabe’s landlord. I can’t say I expected it, but I can’t say I’m all that surprised either. There weren’t all that many choices among the characters we’ve met so far who aren’t in Okabe’s harem. Mr. Braun, Feyris’ dad, Mr. Braun’s daughter, the guy who sold Daru the charm… so yeah. Pickings are slim.

So Mr. Braun was poor, lived in the sewers, CERN helped him get out but he became a puppet, yada yada. Not a terribly interesting backstory. I think the creators of the anime realized this as well and skimmed over it. But two things do make him interesting: first, his daughter, and second, his relationship with Suzu. His relationship with his daughter drives him to commit suicide in a manner that was unexpected. I did not see this one coming. He also gets angry when Okabe mentions Suzu. I have to wonder what her role in all this is.

CERN has a pretty impressive organization, for a system composed of social rejects such as Moeka. I kind of assumed they were just a bunch of European megalomaniacs with a small leadership and a hit squad or two, but they seem to actually have a vast network of associates even in the present day. Their organization would be the envy of spy and terrorist cells the world over- everyone only seems to know a couple of people. The handing off of the IBN5100 was quite impressive (but not too effective against someone who can send messages to his past self). And their members are completely dedicated to the cause to the point of death, even if only out of fear.

We learned one thing from Mr. Braun which none of the characters seemed to think much of, but that seems critically important to me: that Okabe will be killed as well once he has finished his task. This seems to go together with another suspicious circumstance: the fact that CERN always allows Okabe to travel back in time with the time machine, even when they are shooting at him or invading his house.

So why is Okabe useful to CERN? It could be because he’s the one they’re relying on to build the time machine, but I doubt it. It was mostly luck. Or was it? Mr. Braun’s television serves as a critical component of the time machine. I’m going to hypothesize that CERN has been five steps of Okabe the entire time: that in fact, CERN wants Okabe to “oppose” them and prevent Mayushii’s death. Why? I’m not entirely sure, but perhaps their true goal is something more ambitious than ruling the world. Okabe’s ability would be useful to an organization such as theirs.

Lastly, Okabe finally realizes that Christina dies in the timeline he’s planning to return to. Took him a while to realize that. I wonder if he’ll choose to go back there or try something different. Christina has been guiding him in his return to the original timeline, and without her he’s going to be even more lost than he is without Mayuri.

Hellsing 08 — I’m no Mere Bishop… I’m an Archbishop!

August 16, 2011OVAanime, ovadraggle

It’s been what… a year or two since the last episode was released?

To those who read this blog regularly, you may have realized that bloody action shows are not exactly my thing. So this may come as a bit of a surprise, but well, I think that Hellsing Ultimate is bloody (hahaha) awesome. Here’s why:

Insanity. There isn’t a single character in this show who isn’t completely insane and who doesn’t laugh in delight at the sight of blood and carnage. Well, at least not anyone who lives longer than ten seconds. And most of those guys are insane too.
Sheer Ridiculousness. We have a battle between the Inquisition, Anglicans, and undead Nazis. And Father Anderson and Alucard make for two more armies.
Audacious Badassery. Each of the main characters could easily defeat an army single-handedly. These guys make the heroes of Tenga Toppa Gurrenn Laggan look like a girl scout troop.
Evil Laughter. Bwah ha ha ha ha!
Great Dialogue. The style is reminiscent of Shin Mazinger Z. The characters pose in the middle of battle and just scream epic lines at each other.
Fountains of Blood. The creators of Hellsing Ultimate have taken blood and gore so far past the point where it becomes disgusting that it has reached a second plateau where it is simply a matter of course. They are not afraid to take anything too far. There are more limbs ripped off per episode than there are limbs.
Father Anderson. Amen.

If I had to describe Hellsing in one word, it would be epic. The creators aren’t afraid to take anything too far. And it works. Character development? I suppose they throw a bit in here or there. A sensible plot? Nah. Humor? Unless you find the amount of gore funny (I’ll be honest: occasionally I do). But who needs these things. We’ll just show monsters killing things, shouting at each other and generally being badasses. If the bad guys are going to invade London, let them massacre the entire populace! And then we can have the rescue force finish off the survivors! If you’re going to have an action show, this is how you should do it! Don’t hold anything back, and go all out! I’m glad all anime aren’t like this, but for once in a while it’s quite entertaining.

As for episode eight, in particular: it’s a continuation of the London invasion, and Alucard makes his return. (why couldn’t England have sent a faster boat to pick him up again…?) Both the inquisition and the Nazis stop their battle to kill Alucard. Of course, they get destroyed. Father Anderson begins the ultimate showdown, and turns into a monster like Alucard.

A few other minor reasons why I like the show: