Hidan no Aria 06 — Shirayuki, Miko Newlywed Childhood Friend

Hidan no Aria,

This episode focused on Shirayuki and trying to see how many annoying cliches  the creators could stuff into a single character. This seems to have become popular lately (the example that comes to mind first is Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka?!, but I know that other examples precede it). The creators seem to say: oh, there are so many mikos lately, that’ll be boring. There are too many childhood friends too, we can’t have one. And everyone has the obsessive wanna-be newlywed. But I have a brilliant idea! Let’s make a character that’s all of these at once! No one’s ever thought of that before!

The only problem is that this only serves to make the character triply annoying. Now Zombie had the same idea at a high level: let’s combine a newlywed and a vampire and a ninja, or a zombie with a magical girl. But that worked because it was funny. A male zombie magical girl is WIN. A miko newlywed childhood friend is a triple fail. That’s not to mention her tragic past, isolated by her parents and bullied by everyone at the temple (yet another cliche…). Or how she’s a damsel in distress needing bodyguards. Or how she has supernatural powers. Still, I should point out that despite all her baggage, Shirayuki still annoys me much less than Aria.

The pacing was pretty terrible in this episode too. Kinji is watching Aria and Shirayuki fight as they rip his apartment to shreds. Then he leans back against the wall and has a flashback of how he knew Shirayuki as a child. Way to dump all the excitement out the window.

This episode was terrible enough that I think I will continue to blog it. It certainly gives me plenty to complain about.

Steins; Gate 07 — Swapping Timelines

Steins; Gate,

Now the mystery and time travel aspects of the story begin to deepen as Kyouma attempts to use the time machine to change the past. Instead of trying to bring world peace, Kyouma tries to win the lottery. Only third place though, since winning first would only serve to draw the Organization’s attention. They fail to win due to writing the number down wrong, but do manage to change both the past and future into a brighter one with more Dr. Pepper.

The strange part is that Kyouma is the only one who remembers the old timeline, the same thing that happened when Christina was killed. Now who changed the timeline to prevent Christina from dying? Was it CERN, and was the intention even to save Christina? It seems that it must be something related to her, since it’s too much of a coincidence for a satellite to fall through the roof of the same building. Crashing a satellite does seem like a rather drastic action to take though.

My other question is what happens to the memories of Kyouma from the new timeline. It seems that they’re just overwritten with the memories from the old timeline.

And Kyouma once again interacts with John Titor. He really needs to just meet up with John Titor. I still have my suspicions that Titor is Moeka, considering that she always talks on her cell phone and wants the IBN 5100. The shot of her while John Titor was speaking seemed suggestive as well.

Now that Kyouma has become the Messiah, hopefully he won’t feel overwhelmed with responsibility or anything. Remember that your first duty is as a mad scientist, not as a savior!

Dog Days 07 — Fetch

Dog Days,

I’m starting to lose hope for Dog Days. It seems set to be a classic case of a show having a great start, only to abandon everything which made it great to focus on things no one cares about, like love and friendship. Where are my explosions and pole fights?!!

The best parts of this episode were literally the princess and Shinku playing catch, and Shinku’s and Gaul’s chocobos making out with each other.

Aside from the hot chocobo action, we also get to see Shinku and the princess go on a date. They ride together on the chocobo, hold hands, frolic in a field of flowers, Shinku pats the princess’ head, they promise to see each other again, and they talk about their wedding rings. I don’t care about their budding romance: where are my explosions?!

The rest of the episode is concerned with nerve-wracking, high stakes politics: the next battle will be truly high risk, as each country puts their sacred weapons on the line for a two month loan. Please just get to the battle next time – it is impossible for me to worry that something bad will happen given this show’s premise, so stop trying to make me worry and just focus on making me laugh, which was completely neglected this episode.

Hanasaku Iroha 07 — Commander Tomoe

Hanasaku Iroha,

This episode focused on developing the personality of Tomoe, the head waitress. Her parents want her to go home for a marriage interview, but she decides to stay at the inn to take care of her cute underlings.

I feared that the survival gamers were going to become a corny gimmick, but it actually turned out well and was pretty funny. Tomoe’s decision to scare away the survival gamers and get fired simultaneously was definitely not the most well thought out plan, but somehow worked out. The survival gamers’ biggest problem was a lack of an opponent, and Tomoe was more than willing to provide.

So we’ve gone through episodes about most of the characters by now, I think the only ones left who haven’t had their full time to shine are the grandmother, beanman, head chef, and the girl from the other inn. The past few episodes have been fun, but I do hope we can get back to the drama of the first few episodes soon. A visit from Ko-chan or some rivalry with the other inn would spice things up right about now…

Also, these survival games actually look like a lot of fun (well, if we ignore the stalking and peeking they actually did and consider what they’re supposed to be doing). I actually shared a campground with some of these people a few years ago, but stayed well away from them and didn’t realize what it was all about.

Puella Shoujo Madoka Magica Review — A-

Reviews, ,

I held off for nearly a month on writing this review because I forgot was thinking deeply about what to say. Madoka by far was the most popular show of the spring season, and with good reason. For me, the best part of the show was all the twists and turns in the plot— it really kept you coming back for more, wanting to know what would happen. Madoka was the show I looked forward to each new episode of the most since Code Geass aired. I won’t spoil any of the plot twists, but will just say that many were shocking and unexpected. Everything is wrapped up in the end, although the ending for Madoka was kind of silly.

Madoka also stands out for its excellent cast of characters. The weakest is the titular Madoka, but her indecisiveness serves as the main driving force behind the show. The villain, Kyuubey, will be remembered for a long time. This is how you make a great villain – not someone who cackles evilly while destroying the world, but someone who considers what they’re doing good. Sayaka, Kyoko and Homura also turned into detailed, sympathetic characters.

Shaft went all out on the production for this, and it shows. The battle scenes especially are spectacular. Shinbo needs to do more shows like Madoka and forget about all the crap sequels and moe shows that SHAFT has been churning out lately.

Anyway, don’t be deceived by the title— Madoka Magica is a show about magical girls, but it isn’t a show for little girls. Expect something dark and violent.

  • Plot / Script – 9 / 10 – Plenty of twists and turns, great mystery development.
  • Characters – 9 / 10 – Excellent, especially for Sayaka, Kyoko and Homura
  • Production – 10 / 10 – Beautiful, especially the fights and witches’ worlds
  • Overall – A-

Recommendations – Noein, Mai-HiME, Narutaru