Threes: Symphogear, Amagami +, Lagrange
(Note) I am going on vacation after today. I expect to blog as I go, but it will be more sporadic until mid February.
I think I like Hibiki this way.
Senki Zessho Symphogear 3 isn’t much. Some clumsy development livened up only by Hibiki’s goofiness, but it throws a curve or two at us. The first time Hibiki transformed, at the end of episode 1, she had a black, grinning head that not only did not fit, but was a little frightening in this otherwise straightforward world. I thought it was just my eyes, but now she returns to it. She’d been shown all episode going into battle and mainly running for her life, but this time she was genuinely angry. She had really wanted to see the shooting stars with her friend, and instead she had to break the date with no explanation. Not only does her fact turn into that ghoulish mask, but her voice is overcome with rage. Naturally, she slices through the attacking Noise like they were just colorful blobs of jello. Very interesting. The rest of the show isn’t up to this moment. It’s all exposition (why do the Americans want Durandal turned over to them?), more anger from Tsubasa, and cute school scenes. And after Hibiki’s transformation, the evil grin goes away the moment Tsubasa arrives, and it’s all declarations of intent until some unexpected newcomer shows up. Who the hell is she? This show has the potential to be interesting if it could clean up its approach a little.
Amagami SS Plus 3 turns to Rihoko, the silliest girl of the lot, and the only one who didn’t succeed in nabbing Junichi first time around. So this isn’t really an afterstory of a love but the first story continued for another two episodes.
Junichi saves this level of tact for good friends.
One reason for her failure is that she is so endearingly (or, if you prefer, maddingly) hapless. When Junichi, letting his hormones interfere as he tends to do, suggests that they measure each other’s height and chest and add them up, she accepts it as the most normal request in the world. As for Junichi, this interest in her boobs doesn’t suggest anything more than those hormones; he still has given no indication that he’s interested in her. If there’s going to be any movement here, Rihoko is going to be the one to do it, which hasn’t worked before. Even the agreement to cook for Junichi, to help cure his “heat fatigue” (actually caused by staying up late watching porn) won’t get her very far, especially if Nishishishi’s there, too.
The tea, er tennis club girls are plotting something again.
This being a Rihoko episode, it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t see the tea tennis club girls again. They livened up every scene they had in the original series, and they don’t disappoint here. They mess with Rihoko’s mind a little, give her an eel to feed him (the best cure for heat fatigue), and play with her mind some more. What’s more, they want Rihoko and Junichi to get together. But apart form the eel, there’s not much they can do for her. Instead, to bring the episode to a crisis which I’m trying to figure out, a classmate named Makabe puts a move on her. Junichi sees this. It’s hardly a crisis. Junichi has shown no interest, so why should he be jealous? Rihoko tells Makabe no (but it’s drowned out by a train), so it’s not like she’s wavering. And we already knew Makabe was planning on hitting on girls every chance he got this summer. So what’s the big deal? Well, the big crises, such as they are, are not the reason why I watch this show anyway.
It looks as though they're planning an acrobatic move.
That prophecy the guy at the end of Rinne no Lagrange 3 is muttering about the green, blue, and orange ones waking up and releasing demons sounds pretty dire, especially since Madoka and Lan are the blue and green, and the ditz will certainly take up that last color soon, but as it’s followed by such a trippy ED sequence it I think he’s got his legends wrong. It was hard to take any of the battle seriously when Madoka acts so silly in her Ox Thing, renamed Midori. She spends more time taking care to get knocked into empty lots so as not to hurt anyone and singing her Jersey club song to mount any sort of offense. Not that she knows how to fly the thing, anyway. This almost bamboozles her opponent into thinking she has a secret technique. Yeah, the bad guys in this show aren’t the brightest lot, either. We also get Lan the alien, unable to mind-meld with her own ovid because of her fears of what she will become (maybe Hibiki in the first show ought to worry about that), until she sees Madoka, singing and fighting bravely, out of ignorance. That bit was predictable, but it moved the plot along, sort of. All they do is scare the bad guys away. Three episodes in and I’m not sure where this is heading.
