Fractale 10

Fractale,

Luke, fire the proton torpedos!

Fractale has begun to pick up the pace and seems on track to deliver an excellent finale. It had a deep dip in quality in the middle, but seems to have recovered once they came back to focus on the heart of the story.

In this episode, we witnessed the assault on the main temple, and Phryne’s failed attempts at negotiation. Clain even makes his own attack with Sunda and uses a gun, although he misses everyone, but they’re slaughtered a few seconds later by Dias anyway. I was impressed that the creators refrained from even a single “Clain is a pervert” joke! What a refreshing change.

It's a trap! It's a trap!

Probably the biggest surprise for me this episode was that Dias doesn’t seem headed for final boss status. It seemed like the creators were setting him up to betray Lost Millennium and rule over the Fractale system for himself. I mean, he wanted to make the assault on the temple, eagerly followed Phryne and Nessa’s movements, seemed intent on reuniting them (the key) within the temple, and still had his terminal in spite of removing the refugees’. It seemed reasonable that he planned to reunite them to reboot Fractale and seize control for himself. But he actually just wants to find Nessa so that he can kill Phryne. It speaks to how cliched the betrayal and rise of the new final boss is that the uneasy, evil ally Dias acting  and believing exactly how he claims comes across as unexpected.

Phryne sure had it tough this episode. A near suicide attempt, being strangled, biting people, being licked, dodging bullets blocked by old ladies. Not to mention the two attempted rapes in the previous episodes. I think Nessa may go on a rampage after seeing Phryne being licked…

Hourou Musuko 10-11

Hourou Musuko,

This was Maho’s episode of awesomeness. In spite of staying in bed and telling Nittori she’s not going to school because she’s too embarrassed of him, she is actually really worried about him and even tells Anna to go cheer him up. Her ambush hug of Seya (whose support of Nittori is equally admirable) was great too. It’s rare that we get a show with so many characters of such depth. The only other show I can think of which has so many well-developed characters is Simoun – but there they had over twice as much time to do it in, and tended to focus on only a few characters at a time. In Hourou Musuko each episode is divided more evenly between all of the characters, so it needs to pace things tightly. It never wastes time – every moment is well spent in showing something new about the characters.

Chi was also awesome in this episode. I would have expected Takatsuki or Sasa to come cheer up Nittori, but having Chi go together with Momo was an excellent choice. Her optimism and Momo’s embarrassment at being seen as a “freak” make for an interesting combination. Chi’s response to Momo that she already was a freak was nicely done as well, especially with Makoto’s comment.

And Shuu is beginning to stand up for himself, even telling Doi that he hates him. Still, I don’t think Doi was really trying to be mean – he is just insensitive.

Obligatory Chiba shot.

Apparently this episode was a combination of episode 10 and 11, which will be separated and longer on the blue ray release (not clear as to why). It was patched together quite well and I could hardly tell that anything was missing. I assume they will spend some more time on Shuu’s breakup in the full episode though, since this was only seen as a flashback. The setup of multiple short segments does lend itself well to adding and removing bits and pieces.

Onii-chan no Koto… 11

Onii-chan no Koto,

In this episode, the creators decided to let Nao and Iroha do something besides stalk Shuusuke from the background, and (surprise, suprise!) it was drastically improved. I would say that this was the most entertaining episode since episode one. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but whatever.

The characters in this show (Nao and Shuusuke especially) aren’t really that bad, but the creators have no idea how to use them. Nao and Iroha have done nothing but stalk Shuusuke from a distance, and Shuusuke does nothing but ogle girls. They’ve wasted so much retelling the same jokes that weren’t funny the first time that they haven’t gotten a chance to do anything else.  I think that part of the problem is that the main characters are completely passive and just get dragged along by whatever happens. Shuusuke goes to pathetic extents to get girls, Nao drools over how disgusting he is, Iroha gets jealous watching him through her night-vision binoculars, and Kondou doesn’t notice because she’s looking at his nipples. That’s a fairly comprehensive summary of the past eight or so episodes.

And in spite of how much she’s obsessed with him, I don’t think that Nao has even spoken to Shuusuke much for the past six or so episodes. She is by far the most interesting character, and her actually doing things was what made this episode work. The entire sequence with Nao escaping from Clone, her awkward meeting with Shuusuke at home and her betrayal of Iroha were the highlights of this episode.

There’s one more episode left, so this probably won’t come to any sort of conclusion. Not that there was much of a story to begin with.

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? 10

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka,

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka has been losing it’s pace and humor the past few episodes, but in this episode it seemed like it’s headed back on track for a decent finale. For  the first time, there was a good balance of the comedy and plot – in the past they had half an episode of srs bsns followed by half an episode of whale hunting, but here it was actually interleaved so it became neither too heavy nor too ridiculous (if there even is such a thing). For example, Haruna and Yuki’s reversed gluing job after Ayumu was attacked, and Ayumu chasing Eu into the sky after she left.

Tomonori managed to become much less annoying in this episode, probably because her interactions were largely with Haruna and Sera instead of playing newlyweds with Ayumu. Haruna and Tomonori do make a great pair with their complete idiocy. There’s still been no explanation whatsoever about what was supposed to have happened to Tomonori last episode with her golem transformation. But if the creators want to pretend that never happened I’ll play along.

I’m wondering if Sera has become either a vampire ninja zombie or a vampire ninja necromancer now that Eu gave her blood. I’ve been waiting nine episodes now for Ayumu to become a magical girl zombie vampire ninja but at this point it just doesn’t seem like it was meant to be.

Hourou Musuko 09

Hourou Musuko,

This series doesn’t like to leave any character undeveloped – in this episode, we get a deeper look at Doi, Nittori’s one-time bully. We also see both Takatsuki and later Nittori work up the courage to crossdress to school.

The best thing about this show is still how complex all the relationships of the characters are, and how they all react differently. Takatsuki and Yuki both dislike Doi and think he’s bullying Shuusuke, even though Shuusuke is willing to give him a chance. I think they’re being a bit unfair though, Doi isn’t really being a bully. Doi’s reaction to learning Yuki was a man wasn’t all that surprising – you would think that Yuki would get that all the time and would have learned to tolerate it a bit. Doi’s suggestion that Nittori go to school in female clothes probably won’t turn out well, but I don’t think Doi did it for that reason. I think he genuinely thought that Nittori was cute.

Unfortunately, barely any Chiba and Anna appearances this week. We did get a nice scene where Chiba adjusts Takatsuki’s collar though, like a wife before her husband goes off to work.