More ones: Nisemonogatari, Symphogear, Bodacious Space Pirates, Poyopoyo
Shinbo is back. And just as important, so is Senjougahara.
She says to her boyfriend, after she's chained him up.
I admit that I got a little thrill the first time in Nisemonogatari she said “Araragi-kun” in that calm voice of hers. Never mind that she’s chained Araragi in a basement and teasing him with promises of food. Kidnapping Araragi is a little out of the normal for her, but given what we know of her from the previous series Bakemonogatari it’s something that fits in her general mindset, somewhere. The question is why. That’s what Araragi tries to figure out in their first conversation of the series. For those of you that missed Bakemonogatari, the conversations, almost always at high speed, veering off into pointless asides, loaded with jokes and puns and tests to see if the other was listening, was one of the things that made the series memorable. This first conversation doesn’t disappoint. As usual, it’s Senjougahara doing the thrusting and Araragi the parrying, and as usual we’re seeing it from his POV and wondering along with him what his crazy but honestly loving girlfriend is on about now. The fact that he’s chained down and in desperate need of food, water, not to mention a toilet, gives the conversation an added emphasis. He comes up with the answer: she’s protecting him. Now we wonder, from what?
Not from Hachikuji, obviously.
We don’t get an answer this episode. The creators must have felt like reintroducing everyone first. All of the afflicted girls are at least name-checked. We get another odd conversation, this one with one of Araragi’s two younger sisters (didn’t catch her name), who as I remember did little in the first series but shout out strange preview announcements. This one had something to do with getting into trouble, or not getting into trouble. I thought this series was going to center on these sisters, but this is the only time we see even one of them. Then Araragi’s off to visit the formerly snaky Sengoku, but runs into the forever-lost Hachikuji on the way, and it’s time for another weird conversation, this one involving the use of the word “courage” to add nobility to the lowest of endeavors. A couple of things go through my mind when I watch these: Does this conversation have anything to do with the story (possibly no), and I wish that I knew Japanese better because it’s wearying to keep looking at the subtitles while Shinbo’s at play with quick cuts to images and back again, odd angles, back and forth and around. The conversations are difficult enough, tossing in all these visuals makes it almost unfair. In the end, Araragi doesn’t get to Sengoku’s house and he hasn’t been kidnapped yet. And I don’t care. For all my complaining about conversations and visuals, these are the things that make this franchise so entertaining–and different from most of the other shows out there. Welcome back, Araragi!
Senki Zesshou Symphogear is a more straightforward show. Earth is threatened by colorful blobby, shift-changing things called “Noise,” and we fight back by deploying singing babes with armored clothing to fight back. But they can’t resist a few oddball tricks of their own. For one thing, the first thing we get is a girl weeping over the grave of a girl named Hibiki. At the end of the episode, supposedly in the present day, in spite of several attempts by Noise to kill her, she’s still alive.
If you call that living.
We have a flashback showing Hibiki going to her first live concert, and backstage the two performers (known as Zwei Wing) are getting mentally ready while some important guy named Genjuru announces that this show will decide the future of mankind. A lot of pressure, but the show starts well. It has production values the iDOLM@STER girls can only dream of. But too much energy or karma or whatever is built up, and the Noise attacks. Zwei Wing transform into battle babes, and off we go. I’m thinking “This is where Hibiki dies, right?” but something’s wrong. They spent way too much time with her alone to just kill her off like that. Instead, the flame-haired Zwei Wing girl dies–while protecting Hibiki.
Tsubasa's solo act is pretty effective.
Flash forward to the present, Hibiki’s a goofball student at a music school. The other Zwei Wing girl, Tsubasa, is also a student there(?) and naturally the Noise attacks again, actually twice, the first time to establish Tsubasa’s ability as a solo warrior, the second to put Hibiki in danger again, much to the surprise of Tsubasa and Genjuru, she transforms for no reason. So, a few elements to keep you off-balance, but overall it’s pretty straightforward. I’ll keep watching for now because the show exhibited skill in putting us into this world with as little exposition as possible, and because I’m a sucker for the Macross concept of music saving the world. I’m just not expecting much.
Bodacious Space Pirates has the best title the new series, and it tells you exactly what to expect … well, maybe not. It’s the future, and a girl named Marika is going to high school and participating in yacht club (space yacht club) activities, which are secretly being monitored by two undangerous-looking people. She goes home where her mother awaits. The undangerous-looking people, Kane and, er, a girl, arrive wearing pirate gear, and Marika learns SHE’S NOW THE CAPTAIN OF A PIRATE SHIP!! Turns out her father was the captain, and it’s handed down to the oldest. Her mother acts noncommital, but that gleam in her eye tells us otherwise.
Well, what would YOU say if someone told you you were a pirate captain?
It gets a bit silly here, relatively. Marika wasn’t even aware that there were still space pirates out there working as privateers to fend off the Stellar Alliance, and that because of their Letter of Marque, it’s all legal. Yet it comes up easily enough, along with a picture of her mother in bodacious space pirate gear, when she googles (or whatever it is they do in the future) it. It’s more understandable that she doesn’t know the sudden prestige that’s been foisted upon her, not even when Kane suddenly appears in her class to substitute teach. And then there’s this other new character, your typical transfer student, Kurihara.
Marika says she's 'cute.' Go figure.
Not even Kane and that other girl knows what’s up with her. By this point the show is hovering near the disappointing mark. Some exposition and character introduction and that’s all. But when Marika goes back to work (A BODACIOUS SPACE PIRATE WHO WORKS IN A MAID CAFE! THAT’S ALMOST AS GOOD AS A COMBAT WAITRESS FROM THE FUTURE!) the cafe is filled with big men in sunglasses. And Kurihara. Soon all hell breaks loose … end of episode. Disappointing. There wasn’t much bodacious about this first episode. Based on the title this is the one show of the season I expected fanservice, yet there was absolutely none. The plot is almost tame. It’s not bad for what it is, and I’ll keep watching it to see how the story sets up, but they should have left the “bodacious” out of it.
And finally, Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki. It starts out looking like a kid’s show, hell, maybe it is, but when the first scene has Moe, the young woman, walking around stinking drunk, you have to wonder. It gives an edge to every scene after it, no matter how cute. Nothing much else to it, but it’s only three minutes long, so why not?
