Usagi Drop 04 — My Father is my Grandfather

Usagi Drop,

The initial scene in the nursery school was just too cute. Rin saying that her father was her grandfather, and running away with the boy holding hands— *HNNNG*.

Now Daikichi has a love interest as well, and possibly a love triangle with Rin’s mother? But I can see why he is still single at age 30. Definitely not a ladies man. He’s old enough where he can use his daughter and single father status to pick up women.

The scene where Daikichi and the mother from the nursery walked home together would have been quite awkward if it weren’t for Rin’s presence. Rin makes everything about Usagi Drop shine. We had two events in this episode— the awkward walk home together and the drinking part— which would have been stereotypical and dull in any other show. But Rin’s presence makes these events much more interesting. She interrupts the conversation on the walk home, gets held by Daikichi’s coworkers, convinces the underling of the wisdom of Daikichi’s decision, and inspires Daikichi to resist the desires to get drunk and to lecture the gossips in the bathroom toilet. Most of the humor revolves around Rin as well— the childish things she will do (those pigtails- lol) and Daikichi’s desire to keep secrets from her.

Another thing I was reminded of from this episode is that the animation is superb. In particular, I can’t get enough of the colorful scenes, like the one with Rin playing at the nursery. Animation like in Stein’s; Gate is good too, particularly for that setting, but I just love things that are filled with color the most. Usagi Drop, Miyazaki movies, Hourou Musuko— hell, even Fractale— it’s simply such a pleasure to look at them.

I’d always thought Usagi Drop was great in terms of characters, but this episode has convinced me that it knows where it’s headed plot-wise as well. With Daikichi’s discovery of the will, his meeting at the daycare, and Rin’s pending enrollment in kindergarten, the wheels are starting to turn. I’m looking forward to see where things go— we may even get some good drama and / or romance.

Steins; Gate 17 — Feyris-nyan

Steins; Gate,

On one hand, Feyris has finally become a character who is something more than a nyan-nyan nekomimi girl. But overall I was disappointed by this episode.

They’ve introduced inconsistencies into the plot which I doubt will ever be addressed. Why is Feyris able to remember what happened in both timelines? I thought Okarin was the only one with the reading Steiner ability. Feyris’ ability is even better, actually: Feyris is able to remember both timelines, but Okarin can’t remember his past in the timelines he transfers to. This seems like a huge plot hole, if they don’t come up with some explanation, especially for a series which has been putting a significant amount of thought into its time travel.

Additionally, I didn’t really understand the story about the D-mail Feyris sent (perhaps this is just me, and someone can correct me?). What I got out of it was that Feyris’ father died in an accident. To prevent him from going to the place where he would die in the accident, Feyris sent a D-mail faking her kidnapping, told him to gather $1 million to pay her ransom and head away from the accident scene on the train. He didn’t have enough money, so he sold the IBN 5100 to a suspiciously willing buyer (CERN?). But wouldn’t the father have found out that her kidnapping was fake after he prepared the money? Or was she actually kidnapped, and she just told him to take the train instead of driving?

But regardless of what actually happened here, I’m surprised Okabe didn’t try for a less drastic change in the timeline that would allow both Mayushii and Feyris’ father to live. And it seems to me that Feyris’ D-mail could be a red herring anyway: that buyer knew about the IBN 5100 at such an opportune time. It seems reasonable to believe that this buyer and kidnapper are the same person, and that they may be affiliated with CERN. Which leads us to my speculation regarding the heart of Okabe’s problems: Moeka’s D-mail. I think that after it was after this message that we never saw the IBN 5100 again. And considering that no one except her even knew what the message was, she could have sent anything. My guess is that she told herself where the machine was in the past.

The last thing that bothered me about this episode was how Okabe suddenly became Feyris’ prince. Where did this come from? I thought she just liked to bully him. I hope we don’t have every female character fall in love with Okabe. Next week seems set to be Ruka’s turn, since her D-mail is next in line… I hope she doesn’t become a trap again…

Hanasaku Iroha 17 — We Shall Return!

Hanasaku Iroha,

Yuina is just too much. Hot pants, a spy and a zombie in one episode.

This episode was mainly devoted to Enishi and Takako. Takako began as the most annoying character in Hanasaku Iroha. In all honestly, she still is, but in combination with Enishi I do like her. She’s the type of person who takes charge, and Enishi is the kind of person who gets taken charge of.

In one scene, Enishi was about to hit Takako  for making fun of his sister, but she slapped him instead. And he liked it and begged her to lead them in their comeback. I think that in this way Takako is very similar to Ohana’s mother, and that’s probably why he likes her. Enishi’s unbelievably clumsy (see the pool scene) and a terrible businessman. But in spite of his unassuming appearance and his lazy-looking appearance, he certainly doesn’t lack in enthusiasm or effort. “WE SHALL RETURN!” Totally GAR. I actually thought it kind of made sense the way he said it too.

I’m still not entirely sure what to make of the grandmother’s role in all this. She wants to give him some freedom, sure, but you’d think she would give him freedom with something she didn’t know would turn out disastrously. There’s the possibility she didn’t know, of course, but she didn’t seem too surprised when the director skipped town. The manager also tried to play a motherly role in this episode. And we discovered (or already knew) that Enishi is a momma’s boy. The pool scene was cute too. (not sure what the planes had to do with anything though) Any bets on whether the manager will ever tell Ohana to call her grandma?

Mawaru Penguindrum 03 — Got Milk?

Mawaru Penguindrum,

This cow segment was hilarious. How do they come up with this stuff? I can’t believe that the emperor penguin hat thought that Himari drinking milk would convince the brothers, even if all the crazy space ships and whatnot haven’t. What’s even funnier though is that the two brothers still don’t believe in the penguin hat and thought everything was an illusion created by Himari. They’re rather dense.

This whole penguin hat transformation sequence gives off Utena and Star Driver vibes for me- the ritualistic feel to Himari’s shout of “Survival Strategy!”, the music and the rocket ship, and Himari descending the steps. Then we have one part that isn’t always the same, followed by the opening of the trap door and the return to the normal world. I find rituals like these to be quite powerful.

The penguins continue to be amusing, as does the brothers’ stalking. It looks like they may continue to take things further and further to save Himari. I’m still not sold on Ringo though, but it’s getting there. I’m not entirely sure where everything is headed yet (which is probably a good thing). Ringo becoming friends with Himari will definitely spice things up though. I’m curious to see what the penguin hat will have to say about this development in the next episode.

This is stretching things a lot based on no evidence whatsoever, but I’m kind of wondering if we might see some romantic development between Ringo and Shouma. Largely because he wanted to eat her curry and refused to enter her room. Again, this is a huge stretch though. Another thing: why did Kanba hide the family pictures from Ringo? I wonder if there is some secret about their parents.

Giving the teacher a girlfriend was a nice twist as well. Poor Ringo. I suppose her fate did come true, but it’s remarkable that she can still be pleased with how things turned out and happily put a stamp in her diary. The face full of curry (although well deserved) shouldn’t have helped to brighten her day either.

Dantalian no Shoka 02 — Golem! Use Tackle!

Dantalian no Shoka,

The best mysteries are the ones that don’t turn out the way you expect. For me, this episode fell into that category.

At first, I thought that the cousin seemed to be the most suspicious person. I shared Dalian’s theory that he was having an “immoral relationship” with the woman. But I began to doubt this theory when Dalian suggested the same thing, and it was clear that her biggest reason for suspicion was jealously (more on this later). After the golem appeared, my next theory was that the woman controlled it to kill the people who tried to make her leave. But this was wrong too.

I only figured out the role of the golem after Huey explained it. It’s nice to have a character who is intelligent for a change. Huey even figured out the way to stop the golem before Dalian (although his implementation left much to be desired).

I was also fairly confident that this was what had happened to the servants. Also (thankfully) proven wrong.

I really like how the creators have chosen to develop Dalian and Huey’s relationship: it isn’t completely over the top, but comes across in their banter when you least expect it. There were one or two moments where I only caught Dalian’s implications after the fact because of Huey’s reaction. I’m glad to see a series where the characters understand each other as well as (if not better than) the viewers.

In terms of references, I was disappointed by the golem story. It didn’t really have much to do with the original golem legend, aside from the general idea of a mute lifeless body coming to life. No approaching a feeble imitation of God by breathing life into clay (the golem was made of metal even!), no mention of protecting anything (except secrets which shouldn’t be kept hidden), no betraying its master. Pretty much the only thing they got right aside from the general idea was that the first golem was made by a rabbi. And for a show about books, I was surprised they ignored the part where the golem came to life through written words inscribed on it in favor of something about bells. No idea why the 72-letter name came into this, or how that turned into music either. In the usual story, truth (emet) is written on the golem’s forehead, and a letter is rubbed out to make met (dead). (more info here) It seems like this story about the power of the written word would be more relevant in a show about a library.

But whining aside, I don’t really care. The mystery is great, and the characters are great. I’m just nitpicking about the details now. I do hope though that we get to see some kind of overarching story line in the future. The individual arcs are great, but I’d prefer something with continuity.

Also, I’m still doing Penguindrum, but I won’t get around to it until tomorrow.