Chihayafuru 19, Another 6, I’m Your Father 6, Aquarion 7

Chihayafuru 19 is all battle with a little twist. The characters are battling each other.

Chihaya (who lost in the first round) watches Desktomu and Kana finish up their match, even though the bigger fight is over on the B-side, so to speak. They give the Class D match more attention than I thought, especially when we were following it last week. I’m glad they did. Though I know nothing about Karuta I could somewhat follow Desktomu’s strategy of sticking is remaining cards in one area so as to easily guard them, playing the odds. It works for a while, but everyone knows that sooner or later one of Kana’s cards will be chosen, and then the other. Her lead was simply too big. And we have the usual mental narration, first with Desktomu coming up with strategy, and then with Kana, though frankly I don’t remember anything she said. Still, it was a well-done competition scene which ends with a touching moment between the two players.

Intensity-wise they're just getting started.

But it had nothing on the other one. The Taichi/Nishida match was the best match scene of the series so far, and it had no hated rival to root against. Maybe that’s why I could sit back and enjoy it without a knot in my stomach. We only get the tail end. Each player has one card left, and they’re guarding their own. There are six other “dead” cards that could be read. It’s come down to the luck of the draw. Taichi will have none of it. He attacks. The music breaks out of its usual themes by groaning its cellos and scittering its violins (it did the same with the earlier match too–the music this episode was especially effective), and then something magnificent happens. A card is read, Taichi lunges, stops, Nishida blocks … dead card. Without a narrative or any sort of break, the players regroup, wait, the next card is read … dead card. No need to tell us anything. No need to slow things down or even change the camera angle. The show let the match speak for itself. And a tense scene had become even more tense.

It’s almost an anticlimax after that. Nishida helps Taichi get his head back on straight, there’s some comedy at Chihaya’s expense, and almost as an afterthought we learn that Nishida, Kana and Desktomu have all moved up a rank! It’s like it didn’t matter to them. They were too busy playing. So congrats to to the movers-up, and meanwhile, we get another scene with Arata. He hasn’t been around for so long I don’t know if he’s necessary any more.

No one dies in Another 6. We get a brandished knife at the very end, but don’t know who its intended for. Instead this episode is mostly two kinds of talk.

Good talk.

First there’s the good talk. Kouichi and Mei spend a lot of time talking to each other. They don’t have anything else to do. They’re both officially ostracized from the Class 3, while the others get together for lunch, they sit around and talk. When it’s PE they stand around and talk. They seem to like it. You begin to wonder how it was for Mei before Kouichi showed up to share her exile, and it’s fascinating to watch her now. She still speaks in a monotone, but she opens up more. She even smiles. She clearly likes having someone to talk to about this. She’s no longer mystery/eyepatch/death girl, she’s a lonely thing who likes to hang out. How Kouichi feels about this, besides the obvious, and the fact that he liked Mei from the start, might be revealed by that dancing daydream he indulges in. Nothing much plot-wise happens in these talks apart from the growing friendship, and it’s lovely to watch. Also lovely was Mei’s visit to the art club after school, where they welcome her as an old friend. It makes you wonder why she doesn’t spend more time there.

Unfortunately we get a lot of another form of talk: exposition. Kouichi and Mei are still getting to the bottom of this and that means talking to the librarian. The description of names vanishing from the school roster and reappearing again after it’s all over was confusing enough, but the show turns the discussion almost into an interrogation. I’ve seen this before. The protagonist asks questions about something that’s been bothering him/her (actually, us), and the other person gives flat-out answers with almost no hesitation, like they were expecting this question to come up right then and there. Scenes like this never explain the exposition clearly enough for the viewer and the characters have to babble on sounding foolish. It would have been a lot worse if the librarian’s voice actor hadn’t done such a good job replying. He sounded world-weary and resigned, and you could imagine the memories that these questions were giving him. The show does a better job at answering questions, like that odd phone call between Kouichi and his dad which opened up a new set of possibilities. And at the end, maybe to make up for all the talk, the knife appears. The show broke its death streak this week. They need to start a new one.

Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! 6 is usual bland cuteness with occasional bits that border on the unsavory. It brings up one question. If their old house is standing there empty and the kids’ remaining belongings are there, why the hell don’t the adults let Yuuta and the girls stay there? In spite of the sweet but unconvincing final bit, where they now find they can’t sleep unless they’re close together in a cramped room, it would make their lives easier. They even make a point to show that Miu and Sora’s social lives exist in that neighborhood. It makes absolutely no sense. These in-laws are worse than the ones in Usagi Drop, and THOSE people eventually mellowed. Apart from that question rolling around in my brain, and a moment where Sora thinks over taking a family portrait with her, while Yuuta sadly watches, nothing much else to say. Next week apparently Raiko will meet the kids. Maybe that will liven the show up.

Aquarion Evol 7 … First of all, that music guy didn’t die last week. I’m glad to hear it even though it means we’re going to hear too many more speeches about his soul being torn apart by the perfect melody of Aquarion. Other than that the episode was pure silliness. There’s a ghost legend about a doll, the doll exists, turns out it’s just a shy little thing who can turn invisible, just the sort of vector pilot they need when they’re pinned down by random laser fire! Oh, and another moment where Mikono spots Amata apparently doing something naughty with someone else. They clear it up, but I hope that’s not going to be a weekly thing.

Natsume 5, Aquarion 6, Kill Me Baby 5

There are a few set pieces in fiction which I dislike. One of them is where a character cannot be somewhere so someone else, through magic or just disguise, takes their place, interacts with the person’s friends and family, and generally makes an ass of himself. That’s exactly what happens in Natsume Yuujinchou Shi 5 when Natsume gets stuck in a small jar and Nyanko transforms into Natsume so no one will suspect. It makes most of the mistakes these sort of episodes do. Nyanko ought to know better than to behave that way in front of Natsume’s adoptive parents, or say those things to poor Sanada, or even make those poses. You’d expect Nyanko to have a little fun with this, and he’s not the most sensitive creature around, but you’d think he’d show some consideration (when he’s not playing Natsume, he’s his usual entertaining self. “I’ll roll you! Roll, roll, roll …”). And, of course, we get lot of shots of Natsume reacting in his jar. Fortunately, Tanuma eventually figures things out, but by the time he does it’s the end of the episode and we’ve got a two-parter. At least we’ll avoid the impersonation scenes.

He just got here ...

Sometimes I have trouble figuring out if a show is being innovative or simply inept. That’s the problem I’m having with Aquarion – EVOL. On one hand the show is capable of playing out a scene, or multiple scenes in a big scene, with a certain elegance. The intruder warning, Kagura’s search for Mikono, and the vectors scrambling to intercept is a good example. On the other hand, they introduce a perfectly good character last week just to kill him off this week. The reasons why Shrade had to fight are never made clear, apart from Shrade declaring that Kagura “means business.” They always mean business! They’re bad guys! Okay, Kagura’s a tool, but still, that’s no excuse. Maybe if they had played up his urgent overwhelming desire to pilot Aquarion I would have been more convinced. But that idea’s only toyed with. A waste of a character, here.

Kill Me Baby 6 is a slight letdown from last week. When a sketch works it’s as clever as anything else out there right now, but usually the sketches, well it’s not that they don’t work but that they’re near misses. Agiri’s fake substitution jutusu was clever, so it made the rest of the scene worthwhile (also the fact that she put a speaking transmitter on a bird that already talks like her. Sometimes Agiri is inspired). Some of the scenes can be rescued by Yasuna’s antics, such as the festival scene. Sometimes it’s up to Sonya to rescue a scene, like with the puppets. Which covers just about every sketch except the dog scene, and that had a little of everything. Okay, so the show just manages to slip by without being inspiring. I still like it. I don’t understand why so many others don’t. Really. It’s not that bad.

Episode Dump: Amagami 4, Papa no Iukoto 4, Aquarion 5, Kill Me Baby 4

Amagami SS+ 4 has almost nothing to it. Even that so-called cliffhanger last episode is resolved the way you’d expect. Makabe just shrugs and walks away. Junichi is quick to decide he’s in love with Rihoko–all it took was that overheard conversation and a flip through a scrapbook. Now all someone has to do is confess. Naturally this takes forever. First one of them has to get up the courage, then the conversation’s always interrupted, usually by Miya (after a drought of Nishishishis up to now, this episode almost overdoes them). I was torn by this. Those nervous pauses and the blushing and stammering get old pretty fast, best if they got the words out. On the other hand, Miya prevents the episode from getting completely dull. To everyone’s relief, Junichi says the words. Congrats, Rihoko, you bagged the boy. Now we can move on. It’s Ai’s turn next. I wonder if they’ll keep the hot metaphor going?

Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! 4 isn’t showing any improvement. They lay off the emotionally manipulative bits for the most part, but that leaves an episode where Yuuta goes to work and the girls make a mess of things without meaning to. Oh, and going to the laundrimat and not wanting to clean onii-chan’s clothes, or something like that. I thought about skipping ahead after the umpteeth time a girl tried to do something only to trip on something and spill something. Since taking the girls with them was hastily thought out, I’ll forgive the fact that they hadn’t yet thought out the details about buying food, doing laundry, and how to save money. But only for a while. Meanwhile, that club Yuuta joined shows up to complicate his life. They’re not much, but at least it’s something different to spice up the series a bit. I really think Raika should meet the girls. That would liven things up.

And let's not forget the donut metaphors.

I just don’t know what to do with Aquarion EVOL. I’ve been tempted to drop it before, then an episode like #5 comes up which almost makes sense and uses it’s love/sex as flying robot power so extravagently that I can’t help but smile, and then dumps a bit of senselessness at the end. For maximum Aquairion power the students must be on the border of love but not in love (or the robot goes beserk), or is it not love but libido they’re talking about? Not to mention Amata’s tendency to float in the air when excited, and the little torture devices they wear when they’re close to the edge, so to speak. Sigh, I can’t drop this show right now. It’s too silly.

Kill Me Baby 4 is all hot weather clichés for the first half, Yasuna wanting to win a free popsicle, trying to smash a watermelon, that sort of thing. It gets better when assassins for some reason decide to go after Sonya. The first one is amusing enough, the second is better. Two different assassins, unbeknownst to each other, decide to disguise themselves as Yasuna. They have Yasuna’s blinding intellect, too. Of course, the real Yasuna has to come along and join the assassins, because, of that blinding intellect I mentioned. Some good gags come out of it. Never mind Yasuna, why does Sonya put up with other assassins in that world she lives in? Maybe that’s why she goes to school: to get training for a better job.

Silly SF episode twos: Symphogear, Aquarion, Lagrange

It’s not much of a show, but Senki Zeshou Symphogear is so over the top that I don’t care too much.

... I ... I ... I have to ... SING!

When we left Hibiki, she was surrounded by Noise creatures, trying to protect a your typical little girl, and she’s just sprouted weird armor that only covers part of her. what does she do? She starts to sing! And all sort of magical/technological stuff starts to happen! Well, she jumps too far, smashes into things, all while singing. At one point she’s hiding around the corner from them, while singing! It was glorious, goofy moment–even for an anime show. What’s more, Hibiki not only sang, she sang poorly–not out of tune, but the way any of us would sing if we were running around while scared to death. When Tsubasa enters the fight, her singing is controlled, like she was actually mouthing something she had already sung in the studio. Ahem, well …

One of Tsubasa's many funks.

Some less weird but still weird moments follow the Noise’s defeat. Hibiki is arrested, presumably because she’s a powerful weapon now, but at HQ a party awaits her. Introductions. Meanwhile, Tsubasa seethes with angst in the background the whole time. She does that a lot this episode. We know exactly why: here’s a silly little thing who seems to have the same powers of her beloved, late friend and mentor (and who knows what else), and after a sweet little scene between Hibiki and her roommate Miku, we learn the details: during the big fight some of Kanade’s sacred relic found its way into Hibiki’s chest. What makes it even more galling for Tsubasa, they can’t be removed. Is that why Tsubasa’s telling Hibiki they have to fight at the end? Does she want to cut her open and get the fragments, or is she just pissed off because Hibiki blundered into her battle? Is this a metaphor for a solo act who’s forced to work with a partner? Is this the girl’s Tiger and Bunny? Well, no. But Tsubasa has the same problem that Bunny had. Her obsession with the past prevents her from becoming an interesting character. For that reason, ditzy but brave Hibiki is much more interesting right now. But we’ll see what happens. Meanwhile, more goofy singing while fighting, please. And make it sound bad!

Aquarion EVOL is just as nutty as Symphogear, and it has better visual effects to boot. It doesn’t have an angst-ridden Valkyre, but it does have lots of horny boys and girls who are kept separate from each other. this Holy Angel Academy, where they train elements is strictly segregated, but no one has given us a decent reason why, unless this whole Aquaria/Aquarion business merged with Roman Catholocism along the way. That would explain some of the school/church trappings, though not the barbed wire on the wall (known as the Berlin. Heh). The episode is to get us and Amata comfortable in new surroundings. The guided tour by Cayenne, who hates him, Mikoto’s the making of friends, etc. The friends bit gets ridiculous. Walking about and mooning about Mikoto, Amata meets Andy, who’s earth-displacing power makes him a great digger. So they go under the wall, accidentally see too much of Mikono, yet don’t get caught, even though they’ve left behind a big hole … On the other hand, you get another idea of the difference between Amata and Mikono. Amata’s always considered himself a freak because of his powers, but here he meets others just as freaky. He’s happy. Mikono, powerless (as far as we know), doesn’t even belong in the school and looks forward to the time she can leave. Other than that, the show gets even more inane when they do a mock battle and Amata is made the Head. When? Why? And as for the battle itself, all I know is I never thought I’d see ORZ as a battle strategy. Ridiculous. If it didn’t look so good and have the earlier series resonating in it, I’d consider dropping it now.

Still more ridiculousness in Rinne no Lagrange 2. The jist of the episode, apart from some exposition that explain why the bad guys are around, what Kyouko is doing skulking around, etc, is that Madoka was so successful on her first sortie was that she was just winging it, or, as the smiling alien Moid and she both say, letting the wind take you. Sounds good. Except this is a very serious organization we’re dealing with and they don’t like trusting their lives to something as capricious as weird. So, Madoka, there’s another attack. Madoka, get on this augmented sky-scooter thing, and remember, the fate of the world is in your hands.

One thing I like about Madoka is that she wears her emotions on her sleeve. Needless to say, she doesn’t do so well, and soon she’s underwater after taking maybe two hit, and having second thoughts, which, btw, is when the craft stopped listening to her. Her demeanor is bizarre. Someone has just tried to kill her, she’s underwater, and she’s just sitting there, moping. And suddenly, her cellphone gets a signal (she got lost in the complex looking for bars but in the ocean she gets them) and the next thing you know her aunt is chewing he out.

We don’t get to the conclusion of the fight, only learn that there are now two bad guys, one deciding he better help bail out the other. The bad guys in this show are pretty haphazard about it all. The first one got captured, we expect (judging from the preview voice-over), the other went out without permission, and the third one is trying to clear up the mess. The good guys aren’t much better. Youko’s been trying to sneak into the base ever since they “confiscated” her research. Now, the base is on a man-made island and surely they have the jurisdiction to kick her off it if they want. But their reaction when the phone call starts (it’s piped into HQ) is of mild annoyance. And I won’t even start with the Muginami, the ditz pilot who wandered into one scene and out again. Why isn’t she in action? Oh, well, it’s not the strangest event of the show, of of the day’s viewing. You can’t beat anime for silly science fiction.

Post 500: Three new shows beginning with A!

We have a sequel to Aquarion, called Aquarion EVOL. I don’t know if we really need this. The original series gave us plenty of action, romance and silliness, and had a satisfactory ending. It’s been, what, seven years since it aired. But in EVOL, twelve thousand have passed. Okay, I guess that’s long enough.

Like Fate/Zero, the first episode is two-in-one, I guess in order to fully establish the epicness of the story. But Fate/Zero’s two-parter spent a lot of time setting its dour mood along with the story. Aquarion’s feels like your average first episode, extended for extra fighting. And so we watch a lot of scenes meant to introduce characters and their relationships and status. First, our heroes, Amata and Mikono, both self-proclaimed “nothings” who meet at the movie theatre where Amata works, and where he apparently watches an “Aquaria” movie over and over. And forebodings, such as the weird vision Amata has of what has to be Sylvie, and the fact that he wears weights in his boots and tends to glow from time to time. Then we meet Zessica, who wears very little beneath her choir robes and who we learn has bonded with “Aquaria” four times already. Then it’s over to the boys side to see military training and meet Andy (comic relief) and Cayenne (think Sirius without the breeding). We learn that boys and girls doing the Aquaria training are strictly divided. For them to come together would be impure, making this future world more depressing than it was 12,000 years ago, but we’re just getting started.

Everyone in their pretty little town with gigantic Aquaria cathedral are worried about the “Abductors” raiding other towns and snatching people. Sure enough, we get an attack. We meet some of the bad guys, especially Kakura, a red-haired pilot who moves like an animal and talks about the smell of things, just like Apollo used to do in the old series. The ramifications to that are very interesting. There are probably more of these references, but it’s been 12,000, sorry 4 years since I netflixed the original. Kakura’s in a new type of robot that the good guys can’t handle, and the situation is so dire that they decide to let the boy and girl pilots fight in the same battlefield (amusing “Ride of the Valkyres” style music when the girls join in). Alas, with their seperate training and inability to touch, their teamwork is something to be desired. And they touch anway. You remember what the original Aquarion connection scenes were like? Then you get the idea.

Zessica can only grimace.

All we have to do now is get Amata and Mikono into the battle. Threatened by Kakura (who smells something) and crushed beneath a angel statue’s fallen wing which would have killed damn near anyone, he manages to fly with Mikono away and right into a Vector-Z craft. The subsequent battle takes too long. Zessica and Cayenne have to join in so they can both help and bicker at Amata, while Mikono whimpers on his lap, while Amata, after all, doesn’t even know how to pilot the damn thing. But soon they’re hurtling through space (whee!) and the bad guys are drawn back to their world, a postindustrial ruin that makes you pine for that tree of life the first series had. Okay, they’ve set up plenty for the future. Amata has found some inner strength, but Mikono so far is as “useless” as she claims. Cayenne hates Amata because Mikono likes Amata. Just like old times. The battle scenes look fine, and the music works for the most part. Fans of the old show will find plenty to discuss, or giggle about. I wasn’t a big fan, so this first episode didn’t have the same emotional oomph that it might for others, but there’s certainly nothing wrong with it so far.

P.A. Works’ latest offering, Another, sets a mood from the start and never quite lets go. We have Kouichi Sakakibara, a boy transferring from Tokyo to a middle school in the country, but we also have a voice-over talking about a girl named Misaki who died in 9th grade class 3 26 years ago. And before Kouichi can even enter school he’s hospitalized with a collapsed lung. Reps from his future class are kind enough to visit him.

Meet Kouichi's new classmates ... from 9th grade class 3.

Yep, they’re a cheery lot. And when Sakakibara recovers enough to enter school his classmates seem to have no life at all. We learn later that they associate his name with death, and an atmosphere of sickness and decay permeates the entire school, hell, the entire show. Apart from Sakakibara, we meet Takabayashi, who has a heart condition, and even class rep Sakuragi has a sprained ankle, though that’s probably more of a plot device to get her and Sakakibara together on the sidelines during PE. And then there’s this girl:

What it all means to Sakakibara remains to be seen. The entire class knows something and they’re not telling him, or us. But there’s no shocking moment (Even when Misaki says her name we have already guessed it), no crisis at the end. The show seems content with setting its mood for now and not actually showing us anything, apart from the creepy dolls they flash to in the middle of scenes. They do a good job. At one point they have your typical “students surround transfer student during a break and ask him friendly questions” scene, but the words don’t match who’s talking, and it suggests that this is all a superficial layer over what is REALLY going on. The entire episode does clever things like this. The sequence of scenes, the cuts, the inspired use of noises in the hospital basement scene, makes it all creepy enough that they don’t need any more–for now. Good first episode.

So we’ve a grand far-future space opera, a moody suspense piece, and now we have Ano Natsu de Matteru, which is … damned if I know. We start with Kai, high school wuss with funny hair, testing some movie film when a big something crashes down, knocks him over the bridge and nearly kills him if not for that soft hand that grabs him. Then he wakes up. Reality or series metaphor? we ask. Meanwhile the show meanders along. Beautiful red-haired transfer student (and another “interview the new kid” scene), Kai’s friends, planning a movie … Kai is so dull that the show loses interest in him and we follow Ichika, the redhead, for awhile. There’s something weird about her, but her new classmate Remon is equally weird, so we don’t think too much about it. When we get back to Kai he’s having adolescent fantasies while his friends try to figure out what that mark is doing on his neck …

… oh, and now a whole bunch of people are helping with his home movie, and he also somehow invites homeless Ichika to stay with him. But what will his older sister think? Oh boy, another hide-the-girl-from-the-relatives scene. What’s worse, Kai’s hicky attacks him! What can Ichika do?

Why, get caught by his sister kissing him while wearing nothing but a towel in an energy field, that's all.

What on earth IS this thing? We got high school romance, sci-fi, and some strange spiritual vibes as well. What’s up for episode two? A girl with an eyepatch? Well, okay, in the world of anime none of this is new (sadly), just the show’s handling of it. Or mishandling. On the other hand, I’m interested in what Ichika is and why she’s there, and the rest of the side characters have good points. Kai might be the weak link. He’s just not that interesting. We’ll see.