Fairy Tail 20, Cross Game 47, Baka to Test 10

After a story arc that took forever, Fairy Tail 20 brings us filler, and that’s all right. It’s mostly a flashback on the birth of Happy, with a side dish of Natsu’s emotional growth, what little of it there is.

It’s routine. Young Natsu, who at that time wanted to do nothing but beat up Erza and Gray (which is pretty much like he does now) finds an egg and decides to hatch it. A girl we haven’t met yet named Lisanna volunteers to help, and on the way, gives Natsu a new role to play: father, with her as the mother. Now, you may ask who the hell is this girl and where did she go? We see her as an adult, but not in the present day, and she seems to be a painful memory for Natsu, which means naturally we’ll get a story arc on it eventually.

So Natsu gets a little family and calms down slightly. We see the guild members when they were smaller, and see what little rivalries they had at the time. Enough for a filler. Hopefully the next story arc begins next week. Let’s hope it’s a little more compact.

Cross Game 47, instead of making Akane’s surgery concurrent, with the team having to play wondering how it would turn out, eases up on the pressure-meter, slightly. The surgery is over before the game begins, and Aoba, who was at the hospital, texts Momiji to tell her to give Kou the V sign, which surely means the operation went well. But what if she’s lying?

There is a lot of lying in this episode, all to spare people worry or pain. Kou is the only one who knows that the surgery is even happening, until he tells Aoba, in a quiet scene at Wakaba’s grave. They mustn’t tell Akaishi, or he might fall into another slump. Other people aren’t to know because they’re lousy liars. But that does nothing to relieve the pressure on Kou and Aoba. It doesn’t matter for the latter, of course, because she’s not playing, but calm, easygoing Kou is obviously feeling it. Whether it’s about Akane or the big game is anyone’s guess.

It doesn’t help that there’s still the love stories that have to get worked out. Azuma tells Aoba again that he’s interested in her. And Aoba actually asks Kou how she compares to Akane. “Can I lie?” is his response, and it’s a good one. Besides, with all the pressure around, asking Kou a question like that the morning of the game isn’t the most sensible thing to do. What’s Aoba thinking?

In fact, the pressure was getting to me, too. I worried about Akane and I worried about the game. The scene would shift to the hospital where Akane’s parents and Aoba waited for the surgery to end, and I worried about Kou’s state of mind. Then it would shift to the stadium and I worried about Akane. There’s little worse than worrying about things you can’t control. It’s unlikely that anything will happen to Akane, especially since they prayed to Wakaba to protect her. Wakaba’s always come through. On the other hand, Wakaba died, didn’t she? Being a pessimist, I can’t rule out a bad ending.

But then Cross Game pulls out another lovely moment. Momiji, in the stands, gives Kou the V sign (before Aoba texts her), the music picks up, and Kou seems to get a burst of energy. As Kou once said, worrying doesn’t solve anything. The game is about to begin! Let’s put the surgery aside and play some baseball!

UPDATE: Rewatching the episode, maybe I misread the situation between Kou and Momiji. It seems like Momiji’s V sign might be a secret signal between Aoba and Kou that the operation was a success, which would explain why Kou was so desperate to find where Momiji was in the stands. On the other hand, Momiji obviously didn’t know about the code or Akane’s surgery when she flashed it, or she wouldn’t have. Which would be wonderful, in a way. Momiji, part of this long story where many things are unexpressed but understood, reassures Kou without knowing the reason.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Kaname, going into surgery, flashes the V sign.

Can I say once again that I love Cross Game?

Baka to Test 10 sort of meanders around for the first third before deciding on a plotline: the kids want to rescue some lost items from the school vault. But first we have a scene with Akira and Akihisa Yoshi (breakfast, lunch and dinner in a can). And Yuko, Hideyoshi’s sister, stop by to insult him for no reason.

Things pick up when Kyouji, who must have been responsible for the chaos last episode, offering to help them break in. He’s there to steal the mock exam questions. Class F, the dumbest class, is dead-set against it—they’re dumb, but they’re honest–but it’s too late now.

It must be in the school handbook that everyone must insult Class-F at least once.

Still, they manage to turn the tables on him in the end in a satisfying fashion. Not much more to say about this episode except, after the first ten minutes, it got a little more coherent than some.

Vampire Bund 7, Fairy Tail 18

Vampire Bund 7 wraps up the story arc pertaining to the school, but it acts for all practical purposes like a final episode. There’s not even a maid cartoon at the end. And much is accomplished.

Akira’s turn against Mina because of her actions, and her seeming indifference to the chaos in the school continues as he gathers up weapons for the schoolkids (who are getting bitten even as he does), that is, until he encounters Alphonse, a vampire loyal to Mina.

What’s more, he has Wolf, Akira’s dad, with them, and we get a lot of “Are you sure you know what you’re getting into?” talk, while what we really care about, the murders in the cathredral, is offscreen. Never mind, when we finally return there it’s what I expected, a lot of unconscious kids, only Yuki and the nun are left.

There’s a lot of talk about how vampires around are cutting loose and showing their powers, and it’s caused by a group called Telomere. But happily, this brings Mina around to the opposing side, and she, along with her servants, and eventually Akira, drive off the bad vampires. I don’t quite get it. Did she just learn that Telomere was involved in the school and that’s why she intervened? She wouldn’t have cared otherwise? I suppose it’s possible. I’m not buying it. Or did she simply not know until she encountered that kid walking in the rain in the first scene? Either way I’m still not convinced she’s on the side of good. Or rather, she uses people to reach her goals. Even if she sometimes regrets it, she still does it.

And the relationship between Akira and Mina gets a little bizarre, too. To work things out they have a big fight, Mina talks a lot about the past, and then the roof they’re standing on collapses and he saves her by sacrificing himself. Impaled by a cross! This comes off like a death scene, but to close it all out we see the good vampires celebrating their new bund, with Akira by Mina’s side. So, he didn’t die? All right, he’s immortal, we know, but a little explanation, please.

I pity poor Yuki, who witnessed all of this and probably understands it less than we do …

Fairy Tail sometimes has an annoying habit of having exciting climaxes in the first half, and overly-long denoument and new arc setup in the second, so that it feels like a letdown. That’s pretty much what happens here.

Destroy the moon? Sure, easy, says Erza. And they do it, or rather, they destroy the aura of evil that had hardened around the island. The curse is lifted, yay. At this point the episode is hardly ten minutes done. Then there’s the long denoument. The islanders were really demons all the time, they just thought they had transformed. I’ll admit this leads to a couple nice scenes. They bring up the question of whether the demons should maybe return to the rest of civilization and not hide their natures, because they’re nice demons, after all. “Angels,” as Natsu said, in a rare insightful moment. And the demon girls hit on Gray. Leftover bad guys show up and are forgiven, after Erza hits them. Then, the moment I’d been awaiting for several episodes:

They get off the friggin' island! Hoorah!

But after that the episode falls apart. We get the beginnings of the new arc (and we learn Ul’s daughter is alive), Natsu, Gray and Lucy still have to be punished, blah blah. Now, some of it works, when the jokes are good and the timing’s right, but it doesn’t hide the fact that Fairy Tail can be one of the most sloppily-written shows currently running.

Ookami 7, Fairy Tail 17, Kimi ni Todoke 19

Ookami Kakushi 7 doesn’t have much in the way of action; they decide to throw us more riddles and a lot of exposition instead. Hiroshi is the riddle-ee, finding out bits and pieces of the mystery but still having no clue what it all means.

But he has two allies, Kaname and the man whom we learn is called Sakaki. Kaname’s motivations in all this are unclear, unless it’s simply that she’s an occult buff and curious. She hasn’t witnessed any of the weirdness that Hiroshi has. She’s simply an innocent bystander. Yet she’s the one who is abducted by a heavy-breathing vigilante and stuck in a cell. Why? Did she ask the wrong questions? The girl in the cell next to hers, the one with a crush on Issei, actually kissed him and became … tainted, I guess, but no one that I know of has kissed Kaname. She’s as confused as we are, but welcome, Kaname, to the action!

With Sakaki, we learn what his motivations are. Four years ago his fiancee was killed like the other wolves and he wants revenge. Hiroshi tells him that Nemeru is the Scythe Girl. The thing is, it wouldn’t have been Nemeru back then, would it? She would have been, what? Ten? Twelve? So why in the next week’s previews do we see him going after her? For that matter, why the hell was Nemeru standing outside Hiroshi’s window in the rain?

We do learn a few things. Kaori cannot leave the town. Isuzu’s in the hospital. And Hiroshi appears on a list of people, implying that he’s special in some way, or targeted. Of course, we don’t know why. As for Hiroshi himself, I’m torn between sympathy for his situation and frustration about how complacent he is about it. Not that I know what he could do, but sooner or later he’s got to get up and do something about it.

Fairy Tail 18. Finally.

First, on my left, in the green corner ...

Deliora is freed! Get ready for a lot of explosions and grunting and fire trucks! … After we get a little more Gray/Leon backstory we don’t need. Oh, and Natsu and that little guy have a fight involving time travel or something. Think of it as a preliminary. Oh, and Natsu stops Gray going from using the living ice trick. And now … Let’s get ready to rumble!!

And in the blue corner, representing Fairy Tail ...

And then …

Wha da hah?

… One punch and Deliora falls to pieces? That’s it? Ul had killed Deliora when he was trapped in her ice? I want my money back! Okay, okay, it wasn’t all that bad a scene, Ul is vindictated, Gray and Leon make their peace, etc, but what an anticlimax! I wanted a fight like they had with the death-flute!

Okay, I’ll stop whining. For the rest of the episode they try to get to the bottom of the villagers’ plight, which we learn had nothing much to do with Deliora. Erza puts two and two together, falls into the pit (an excellent moment—nothing like a bit of well-timed slapstick to break up a quiet scene) and announces they’re going to break the moon—next episode. Sigh. Will they ever get off that island?

I had pretty much guessed what would happen in Kimi ni Todoke 19, especially after Ryou told Yoshida not to visit him the next day or the day after. But, of course, the other characters don’t know, and so when Yoshida’s love, Tooru, shows up a day early with his fiancee, we get a difficult situation.

The tension is killing me.

The scene is well-done. Half of it is nervous introductions, the other half is wondering how Yoshida, who tends to blubber at the slightest things, is going to take the shock. Much to everyone’s surprise, she covers by being friendly and outgoing. Though it’s obvious that’s not how she really feels.

This extends into the later, damage control-oriented sections, where we wait and wait for her to break down and get comforted by the girls, yet she doesn’t. In the end, it’s Sawako (perhaps inevitably) who has to do the crying for her.

It’s altogether one of the nicer introspective scenes in the series. The arrival of the fiancee effects everyone in one way or another. Sawako and Yano regret that they couldn’t reassure Yoshida, not that she ever gave them a chance to. Kazehaya, in a rare scene where we go into his head, is convinced that Ryou loves Yoshida. And finally we enter Yoshida’s head, and find her, yes, depressed, but not blubbery, reevaluating her relationship not only with Tooru, but with that entire family, and feeling like an outsider.

So that clears the way for Ryou and Yoshida. This might be tricky, since Ryou doesn’t reveal his emotions and isn’t prone to internal monologues like most of the other characters. Then again, this might add to the comedy. We’ll see.

Nodame 5, Fairy Tail 16

Nodame Cantabile 5 brings Tanya and Yun to a crisis, and drags Yasunori into it as well. It’s all because of those damn concours.

Now, I’ve participated in some artistic contests in the past, and they never made any sense to me. To perform art under the pressure of competition goes contrary to the art itself, and when a career might depend on winning one, like the ones in Nodame Cantabile, it seems especially unfair to the people who can’t compete well. And now Tanya (who performed well but wore a dress a judge didn’t like) and Yun (who can’t handle the pressure) are thinking about giving up and returning to their homelands. All Nodame and the others can do is offer sympathy and pep-talks, and to cash-strapped Tanya an offer by Yasunori to move in with him.

The reaction.

So we move from disappointment to regret to (in Tanya’s case) anger. Contrast this with Nodame, who attends the concours as a spectator and falls in love with the Ravel piano concerto. While the others are all despair-despair she’s all joy-joy, and determined to enter a concours herself. Has she forgotten that she did just that in Japan and it nearly killed her?

This is what Ravel can do to you.

Never mind. Her joy-joy turns to despair-anger when Auclair, her teacher, refuses to allow it. So now everybody’s in despair, except for Chiaki and Frank, who are support-staff this episode. Hard to see where this is going next. Nodame Cantibile doesn’t do story arcs the way some shows do. They might even abandon this bit of plot until later. But it’s sad to see these folks in such a condition, even Tanya, whom I disliked when she first appeared.

Fairy Tail‘s story arcs don’t nudge ahead like Nodame Cantabile’s, they just plow forward, and I have to say this particular arc has been plowing forward for too long. How many episodes ago did we first saw Deliora frozen in ice? And the arc isn’t even over yet. But at least …

Finally ...

The trouble with this arc is they overdo the Gray/Leon backstory. We’ve pretty much figured out what their motivations are, and of course they have to duke it out one more time, but they spend so much time making speeches that the fight never picks up a head of steam. What’s more, they agree not to use magic, making it less like an epic battle with tons of explosions and more like Gatti/Ward, both of them punching the shit out of each other, except Gatti/Ward’s fights were far more exciting.

We know, we know! Shut up and fight!

None of the other regulars are used very well. Lucy and Erza are fighting robed people in the forest and by the episode’s end they’re still there, though they might get some important information. Natsu stops Gray from sacrificing his life but then runs off chasing that little guy to no real effect. At least Leon’s been defeated, and Deliora’s been released. NOW maybe the story can get a move on, two episodes too late …

Letter Bee 16, Railgun 17, Fairy Tail 15

Letter Bee 16, like many of the others, has a routine story with a couple twists in the end. Joey is a fan of pianist Matilda Rain, and his fan letters are the only ones she reads. One thing leads to another and, through the mail service, he asks her out. Lag and Niche are, as usual along for the ride.

Lag and Niche never quite understand what's going on.

We learn that Matilda’s gruff manager, Belrsh, actually wrote the letters on Joey’s behalf, in other words, we’re doing Cyrano de Bergerac here, and it will all come out in the end, and indeed it does, alas, with the help of Lag’s spirit amber, revealing the truth for Matilda (Letter Bee is really overusing this gimmick). Like last week, there’s nowhere to go for this story after the truth comes out. Belrsh tries to leave town but finds he just can’t, and returns to her. And Joey, of course, is left out of the mix, which is all right because he comes off as an irresponsible playboy anyway. Ah, but in a nice turn, that’s exactly what he wanted.

So the proper couple team up in the end. But the Belrsh/Matilda relationship shifts right back to manager and protegee. Is this the happy ending? I’m not sure, and Lag and Niche, even taking their ages and experience into the matter, don’t seem convinced either. Like last week, the show ends with them trying to figure out what the hell just happened. Maybe Lag ought to take Joey up on his pub invitation; he might learn a few things.

Railgun17 is an interlude episode starring teacher Tessou. Not only is she a full-time teacher she patrols for the Anti-Skills, basically cops. And she’s getting burned out.

The show gives us this information by watching her for a couple days, where she works, patrols (badly), then is forced out to a hot bath and then drinking by her friends. Over and over. Sadly, it doesn’t work so well. It starts to drag, and the second time around it began to feel a little like we were getting into “Endless Eight” territory.

And it’s not like we don’t know what’s going to happen. She loves video games and bonds with a quiet, moody student over an old one. Having a fresh outlet cheers her up. The end. The rest is all adventures while patrolling and putting up with Yomikawa and Konoe. Bring on the next arc, please. Well, there WAS this bit:

Good to see you, Index! Bring Touma along next time, will you?

My old brain can’t quite take in the twists and turns in Fairy Tail 15, at least not the ones in Leon’s head. It starts out predictably, with a prolonged flashback learning about the truth of Ul, Gray and Leon’s former master.

We learn why Gray disrobes all the time.

The young Gray, too impatient to learn the strong magic so he could fight the demon, goes off in a huff to confront Deliora himself. Naturally Ul is forced to come along, and Leon does too. This is all predictable, even if Leon hadn’t been blabbing the same stuff for two episodes now. But the show does a nice job embellishing. Yes, Gray was responsible for roping Ul into this whole mess, but Leon’s motives aren’t pure as the driven snow either. Though the show makes his motives confusing to understand.

Let’s see. He wants to destroy Deliora to show he’s greater than Ul, though the young Leon shows nothing but hero-worship for her, and disbelief when she says there are stronger mages than her out there. What’s more, he’d been impatient for the strong magic too, and had been reading her books. I can’t figure him out. Let’s just call him an idiot.

In the present day we get a nice irony. Ul is actually alive, the ice used to encase Deliora (so if they manage to melt it will she come back to life?). Leon doesn’t know this. Gray does. And when Gray confronts Leon the second time, what does he do? He starts to use the same spell that turned Ul into ice, guaranteeing that he will be suffer the same fate.

Kudos to Fairy Tail. While most of the flashback was what I expected, it was put together into quite a moving episode. Ul’s “demise” was lovely and sad. The final scenes worked well, too. Some of the trademark comedy was gone, but I can live without that for a little while.

Letter Bee 14, Fairy Tail 14, Durarara 3

In Letter Bee 14 we meet Dr. Thunderland Jr., known as the “Corpse Doctor,” a sinister man with one thing on his mind.

He steals Steak and there’s a chase to rescue him. But it all feels wrong. Never mind the lame chase, where each side pauses while the other one prepares their next move, that’s just bad writing and direction. What really feels wrong is that Thunderland is too lacksadaisical and distracted to truly be a menace. When Niche catches up to him, his desire to dissect turns from Steak to her, then to Lag. And his professed desire to “Dissect!” feels less menacing. And it turns out he’s simply a scientist who gets carried away in his work sometimes.

It’s actually quite amusing, since it’s clear early on that he’s not the threat he seems to be. There’s other bits of plot here as well. Gauche is seen in a memory, and Lag’s spirit gun is apparently taking too much of him to wield, forcing Aria to play some healing Bach.

All in all a clumsy episode, but rather a pleasant one. I found Thunderland’s distracted menace charming. Everyone is put to good use, and we get a violin solo as well.

Fairy Tail 14 starts where we left off, with Lucy squaring off with that mage who can control her celestial beings and turn them against her. Lucy figures out how to take care of that, but unfortunately this mage has more powers up her sleeve.

It’s good to see Lucy holding up an action scene on her own, even if most of it is spent running away. A good scene, too, though a little long.

Erza intervenes, intending to round up all the rogue Fairy Tail members and take them home for punishment. This brings up a conflict with Gray, who decides, punishment or not, that he will do the job. It’s not so good a scene, Fairy Tail doesn’t do relatively quiet moments well. Besides, we already know Gray isn’t going to back out; there’s too much at stake. Things get back to speed when we get to Natsu. Adhering to the unwritten code of his guild, he decides to knock the entire temple over so that the moonlight can’t reach Deliora. But that business doesn’t reach a conclusion, either. Really, all of it seems to be so that they can sneak in exposition about Leon and his motives, even though we already know what they are. Oh, there’s the little bombshell that Ul, the teacher, is still alive, but frankly I could care less about Gray’s backstory now. Worse, the next episode is going to be full of it.

Durarara 3 continues in the same fashion that the first two do, meaning it confused the hell out of me, and more than once put a stupid grin on my face. This week’s narrator is Simon, who works for the Russian sushi place. I can’t say much for the narration; it sounded like a cliché film noir thing, but maybe that’s the point. In spite of all the violence and weirdness this show refuses to take itself too seriously.

These mean streets, blah blah blah.

After a school scene Mikado is dragged off by Masaomi to pick up chicks, or fail to. On the way they have a series of adventures while Simon continues to add his deep-voiced commentary. There’s lots of talk about the Dollars gang, and “Suzie” Yasuda is mentioned. They rescue Anri, a classmate, or are about to, until Izaya shows up. He’s the “Nakura” from last episode (great, as if there aren’t enough character names to remember, some of them switch!), and is no less weird than before.

After he beats up a bad guy and they run off, he’s attacked by Shizuo, who throws vending machines and looks like a bartender. The gang comes back and attacks HIM. The kids are stuck in the middle. The music has slipped into a sloppy jazzy feel that again reminds me of Baccano.

In fact, the entire scene does. For other eccentric characters appear, and we really don’t know who’s fighting whom and why, and I could care less. The scene tops itself every time you think it’s over. The animation and directing are excellent. Watch as one guy gets literally knocked out of his clothes! The aforementioned soundtrack seems to be chuckling while still providing mood.

It’s clear Durarara is the strongest show of the new season, and I have been desperate for one such as this. For the past couple weeks I’d been wondering: “Where’s this season’s Eden of the East? Where’s our Trapeze? Where have the smart, eccentric shows gone?” Only Sora no Woto seemed to come close. I finally have a new show that will amuse and challenge me every week, even if I still don’t know what the hell it’s all about.

Sora no Woto 2, Fairy Tail 13

I’m getting the impression that not much is going to happen in Sora no Woto. Oh, things happen, but always amidst digressions and long pauses to imagine things or to watch rarely-used telephones in case they might ring.

This is an introduction episode; Kana meets her new comrades, the brigade that defends this out-of-the-way town from whatever’s out there. While we get a glimpse of each one’s personality, we get the best view of Kureha, the gunner, as she reluctantly takes Kana on a tour of the base, and then gets sent to investigate a ghost in a ruined wing. She is proud of her status, goes by the book, bosses Kana around, and apparently wants to get out of this chicken outfit. You can see her point, in a brigade in some backwater where the captain does needlework and hugs people. But she is more a child who wants to be a grownup. It’s rather charming. Her desperate need for some action is undercut by her youthful actions.

Ghost hunt, with full pack.

So they look for a ghost, which means going through room after room, Kureha complaining about everything and Kana dreamily imagining what the place must have been like when it was a school. And they bond. No ghost, but a lot of rats and an owl who becomes the brigade mascot.

Kana imagines.

No, there’s not going to be much excitement in this show, that’s clear when we get an episode that likes to take its time like this one. That’s all right. It’s slow, but rarely dull, and though we didn’t get so much of the dazzling visuals this time around it is still great to look at.

I’ll leave it to Fairy Tail to bring the excitement, or at least the silly fights and gags. Last time it was all Leon kicking the shit out of Gray, which was a little depressing to watch. Luckily there’s Natsu to liven things up, even if he’s still encased in ice.

A cry of defiance is a heartening thing. Being encased in ice while doing it makes it funny.

Gray’s out of action. Natsu takes care of two mages, but it’s Lucy who’s the most fun this episode. There’s her plan to trick the enemy into falling into a pit, which even the villagers think is a stupid idea (Natsu falls into it, natch). And her subsequent battle strategy.

The last enemy mage standing can turn her celestial servants against her, and we get a scene where she fights to overcome it. It’s an okay moment—Fairy Tail almost always knows when to throw a gag in when things get too serious—but what comes of it is her realization that her powers have grown. And the episode ends with a confident Lucy ready to fight.

This is nice to see; Lucy often stands on the sidelines watching Natsu and Gray do the work, not confident in her abilities. Now she looks like she’s ready to cause mass destruction, just like her friends! Good thing, too. I think next week we might get the monster Deliora.

Durarara 1, Railgun 14, Fairy Tail 12: Intros, Filler eps and Mid-Story Arcs

In ep1 of Durarara we meet, amongst a lot of people, young Mikado, who’s moved to Tokyo to attend school. He’s picked up by old friend Masaomi, who excitedly gives him a tour of one place or another while they meet various friends with their own interesting habits.

Introducing friends Erika, Horo and Walker. Well, not Horo ...

Some of what Masaomi describes is happening out of our vision or a block away, and we’ll find out more later. There’s very little to say about it. Masaomi gives all sorts of advice as to which person or gang to avoid, while Mikado tries to take it all in. If this was all there was to the episode it would have been mildly entertaining with stretches of dullness, but there’s more. The story is undercut with a girl getting abducted by three losers and then rescued by a motorcyclist with a big scythe and no head.

Dude, it's the first episode! They can't explain everything right away!

In addition we get lots of online chat scenes which don’t work well except to give some exposition. It’s all done to an eccentric score that undercuts what menace the episode could have produced, not that I think that’s a mistake. In the end I scratch my head and decide its too soon to make a decision on this one. Let them expand their world some more. On the other hand, I really didn’t get a big thrill out of this episode. Mikado isn’t all that interesting a character yet. We’ll see.

I had thought Railgun 14 would bring us back to some action, but the whole thing concerns Saten having to take a special class, along with a bunch of other level-upperers.

Welcome back Komoe!

We re-meet another student, and some others for the first time. I guess they’re setting the stage for the next pack of episodes. As for this one, I kept waiting for the punchline, or even a punch, but there isn’t one. Saten’s confrontation with another girl comes to nothing. They attend the class, get some marathon training, though I like it that Komoe tells them this isn’t punishment. They were punished when they went into comas, after all, which is exactly what I had been thinking. In the end they are told to fight on, fight on, or something like that.

The previews show that the fighting will come back next episode, and it’s about time.

All right, I want more action. Time for Fairy Tail 12.

And I get some action, mainly Leon beating the crap out of Gray. Let’s see, Leon says that Gray killed their teacher, the lovely Ul, when he went to fight Deloria. But Leon wants to release Deloria to surpass what Ul was unable to do, or something. I don’t think I follow. Leon doesn’t have his head on quite straight, which would be normal for this show, but he’s also no fun at all. That identifies him as the Bad Guy.

All I know is he beats the crap out of Gray while Natsu and Lucy are on their way to defend the villagers. I like a good fight in Fairy Tail, but not when it’s so one-sided. Fortunately the show manages to inject some comedy in to break up the surprisingly serious tone of this episode. The best bit coming from Erza, who’s hijacked a ship in her unique way.

To the accompaniment of tympani and kazoos.

Hoping for some more even battles next week.

Fairy Tail 11, Letter Bee 12

Fairy Tail 11 is all setup for the latest story arc. Natsu, Lucy and Happy set off for the cursed island, along with a reluctant Gray. They meet the cursed villagers …

... and naturally, Natsu doesn't get it.

They wander around, chased by a giant malodorous mouse, and fall into a cavern—the usual for the Fairy Tail guild. But there’s little action, only forward plot and some foreshadowing. It’s not the sort of episode I’d recommend to someone. But Fairy Tail is an unsubtle, straightforward type of show with simple story lines. You have to expect this sort of thing now and then. Let’s all wait patiently until the apocalypse demon Deliora breaks loose … in a future episode.

... Because you know Fairy Tail won't show off a monster without using it.

I should have done Letter Bee 12 before Christmas, but it’s still the holiday season, right? It’s one of those “warm the cockles of your heart with holiday cheer” things, centering on cynical Zazie, who’s teamed up with Lag to deliver presents.

The gift’s recipient is little Sonia, living alone because the townspeople mistrust her, fearing she attracts those monster things. Naturally this strikes a chord in Zazie, who grew up in similar circumstances. And naturally one appears in the village and he and Lag have to take care of it. It’s all predictable. What sets it apart is that while Zazie’s heart-cockles might have been warmed a little, he doesn’t get all mushy. That’s not his style. He just smiles a little. Good thing, too. I’m about to choke on Christmas sentiment. Besides, in Letter Bee Lag cries 365 days a year.

And hopefully that’s the last of the Christmas references this year.

Darker 11, Letter Bee 11, Fairy Tail 10

Darker than Black 11 contains more shocks for Suou and more power moves from the various parties, and I’m still not sure what to make of it. But it has become apparent that all the organizations trying to track down Dr. Pavlichenko, Shion and/or Suou are pretty much background in order to give us fighting and chasing scenes, while the heart of the story is Suou herself, and maybe Hei … No, not Hei. He’s the backbone to the plot, not the heart, the one who is trying to interfere with the Izanami/Inazagi prophecy, or maybe because he just wants to see Yin again, for whatever reason. Taking Suou with him allows her to go on her own voyage of discovery, and that’s the important thing in this show.

This time Suou and her pals go to the aquarium where she meets her father. He fills in the details about who created her. Various groups track them there somehow, and they need to escape.

Heroic father maneuver.

What I like is that Pavlichenko is happy to see her. This cryptic, behind-the-scenes manipulator shows her fatherly love. He even saves her from some Contractor-created death spear but is fatally wounded in the process. Before he dies (from a leg wound??) he provides a moment of reassurance by telling her, as Hei did the previous week, that he thinks of her as Suou, his Suou, a real person. Whether this will give Suou a sense of closure is anyone’s guess. But it’s one less thing she needs to do: she found her father and made peace with him.

The star is a nice touch.

The rest of the episode is a dark comedy of errors, as Section 3 swoops in, followed by the CIA, each chasing their own tails. Kirihara is given nothing useful to do again, except get taken away by the blonde woman. Each group seems to know less about what’s going on than the last.

I thought EVERYONE had figured that out by now.

Hei goes to find Yin only to find her gone, and is about to get skewered by Hazuki when the scene cuts. I mean, apart from Suou I really don’t care too much what happens to any one of these people anymore. It’s simply background noise. I do kind of want to know what’s going on with Yin, but that’s about it. I never thought the DtB sequel would make Hei so inconsequential.

Letter Bee 11 goes back to single-episode story format, as Lag goes off on his new job delivering letters. But the letter, sent by a starving artist to his mother is full of lies about his enormous success. Pure-hearted Lag has some qualms about delivering it.

At this point we can see the end a mile away. Alcott’s mother won’t mind at all because she sees through the lies. The important thing is that he wrote. So if anything is going to make this episode interesting it will be the journey there, to the town called “Breath Mint Gelato.” Heh.

And it’s not bad, with monsters and rickety suspension bridges, but it’s not enough to make up for the banality of the story line, even when Lag has to make a decision about what a Bee’s true purpose is. I hope they go back to larger story arcs soon. The show works better that way.

Fairy Tail 11 starts well, fizzles out later, then sets up the next story arc. They should have kept up with the opening bit: Natsu vs. Erza!

Fight! Fight!

But a guild official stops the fight and hauls Erza away on trumped-up damage charges. And the show comes to a screeching halt. Then when the show has picked up some steam again it’s all made moot when we learn it’s a show trial, and she is released. The rest is all exposition. Turning completely away from the rest of the ep, Natsu goes off on his own plot tangent by stealing one of the superdangerous S-Rank missions. He’s not qualified and will surely get himself killed, so naturally he asks Lucy along.

Really, this episode was a mess. It changed direction every few minutes and lost any momentum it had built in doing so. I’ll chalk it up as an in-between episode and hope it gets back on track next week.